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Jose Escamilla and Rods/Skyfish

Started by Agent : Orange, March 09, 2012, 03:51:46 AM

I just listened to an Art Bell show from September 27, 2003. The first hour guest was Jose Escamilla, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much heat Art put on him. The interview began with a review of Escamilla's "discovery" of Rods, which he proposed were strange life forms ("skyfish") that can only be detected on recorded media after the fact.

Art had Escamilla on the show to specifically address the evidence presented on a website that explained away the supposed phenomenon by simply adjusting the camera capture speed, causing all of the insects in the frame to appear elongated since the camera caught several beats of the insects wings in a given frame. Art was taken by this evidence, along with the fact that Escamilla apparently admitted it was "damning" previous to the show in private communication which Art mentioned on the air. Despite Escamilla's squirming, Art did not relent in holding his feet to the fire, and ended the hour mentioning how he had essentially changed his opinion on the legitimacy of Escamilla's claims.

The first hour of the show was deeply satisfying. It showed that Art was willing to challenge a guest's claims, and acknowledge evidence contrary to a guest's position. Escamilla got owned on this show hard, and went through a litany of excuses as to why the Rods are an actual phenomenon. Escamilla argued that this phenomenon could stand up to any apparent criticism, but seemed to be grasping at straws from the beginning. From what I remember, the Rods were featured on at least one episode of Unsolved Mysteries, and may have shown up on other news magazine type of shows that periodically ran stories on paranormal topics.

The rest of the show was kind of a typical show exploring alien abduction that you might expect from a classic Coast show. The highlight was definitely the first hour. For me this show illustrates perfectly the change in tenor of Coast under Noory. There is just no way the current regime would allow anything like this to happen, nor would it occur to Noory to even try rocking the boat like this. I'm not sure if Escamilla showed up on future Coast shows, but I would be very interested to hear any follow up. If Noory had Escamilla back, did both of them just ignore what came before?

I remember this show from the original broadcast, but I'm glad I gave it another listen. I wish there had been more debates like this on the air. Even though Art let a lot slide throughout his career on the show, from time to time he went far outside of what was expected and these incidents stand out the most dramatically for me.

stevesh

I remember that show and I agree, Art did a great job presenting the weaknesses in Escamilla's claims.

Unfortunately, we'll never see Simple George or Jesus B. Wells challenge guests like Ed Dames or James Van Praagh in the same way. I don't think anyone wants C2C to become a debunking forum, but a little intellectual honesty and forthright questioning would be nice.

expat

That Escamilla dude is quite a piece of work. He creates an hour-long video which contains far more lies than truths, ripostes with obscene name-calling when people who know the subject call him on it, and then complains when he loses money on the deal. Big-time.

A discussion of Moon Rising, including a scholarly review by Don Davis, is here.

Quote from: expat on March 09, 2012, 11:16:25 AM
That Escamilla dude is quite a piece of work. He creates an hour-long video which contains far more lies than truths, ripostes with obscene name-calling when people who know the subject call him on it, and then complains when he loses money on the deal. Big-time.

A discussion of Moon Rising, including a scholarly review by Don Davis, is here.


Thanks for the link. I have not heard much about Escamilla's other work except for the reactions of folks over at BAUT. I don't expect much to come from him after the whole Rods debacle.

Quote from: stevesh on March 09, 2012, 07:20:50 AM
I don't think anyone wants C2C to become a debunking forum, but a little intellectual honesty and forthright questioning would be nice.
Yes I agree. It's not necessary for Art to make his personal views on the subject public. But it is nice that he would hold his guest accountable for claims presented on the show. Most guests slipped through the net (old regulars like Ed Dames) that should not have. However I acknowledge that Coast has guests on and there's generally a limited number of paranormal investigators out there, so you can't piss all of them off and hope to keep the same format.

I think it speaks to Escamilla's character as well that he could fight the evidence so fiercely, and all it did was jam his foot down his throat even farther. He seemed to have the opinion that if he had the right attitude about it (ie, standoffish) then it would go away on it's own. I assume that Escamilla was making money off of the Rods somehow and they were critical to maintain legitimacy in some larger community. He did not want to come out and just admit he was wrong about the whole thing.

b_dubb

pretty sure Jose was selling tapes of his rods to idiots

Quote from: b_dubb on March 09, 2012, 07:13:14 PM
pretty sure Jose was selling tapes of his rods to idiots

That's what I thought must be going on. He had to be making a buck off of it to fight for something he was so clearly wrong about.

999

The closest I've thought that Noory came to that (how Art grilled Escamilla) was during the Tom Bascardi fiasco in 2005. I think Bascardi ripped $ off from people if I remember correctly.

henge0stone

Quote from: stevesh on March 09, 2012, 07:20:50 AM
I remember that show and I agree, Art did a great job presenting the weaknesses in Escamilla's claims.

Unfortunately, we'll never see Simple George or Jesus B. Wells challenge guests like Ed Dames or James Van Praagh in the same way. I don't think anyone wants C2C to become a debunking forum, but a little intellectual honesty and forthright questioning would be nice.

I love Art and his ability to ask tough questions but I have to admit its not just George that doesn't challenge Dames and Sean David Morton ect. Art too is guilty of not calling them out on failed predictions. He seemed to leave his skepticism at the door for guests like these and state that they were accurate when they were not.

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