notjustaboutsex

Having just spent many hours at the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN and taking in so many atrocities of social injustice against my gender, I was hesitant to attend The Hundred We Are, a play about women’s issues written by a man. I shouldn’t have worried. Jonas Hassen Khemiri, a Swedish playwright, has no problem understanding the plight of women’s many life decisions and the regrets that both sexes, but women with historically less opportunity, must feel as they age. In this story, three women play different ages of one, and one speaks as the shadow.

I’ve seen many shows at the Cell Theatre and the Origin group are always inventive. For this play though, the use of projected words and the balcony space, didn’t add much to the story. I wasn’t aware of why the one actress  (Kitty Chen) wasn’t speaking, and though it may have had to do with memorization issues, her acting was so good that I appreciated her pantomime, especially as the voices of the other actors were so strong. They were all terrific; Mirirai Sithole, Caitlin Cisco and especially Orlagh Cassidy, whose range of emotions were full and honest.

I’ve not seen his other works, and though I do admire the intention, the devise of three women playing aspects of one required too much thinking for me to fully contemplate their plight. When she leaves her husband to travel the world, I wanted to know more about why she felt the need to return to a husband who among other deficits, had smelly pants.

The question of whether to live one’s life or worry about the lives of others and even do something for them was particularly timely, having just faced the plight of so many around the world. I imagine that it’s a question we may all ask ourselves as we age

The Origin (George C. Heslin, artistic director) always produces daring political shows. Directed by Erwin Maas, the play runs until April 8.

By permission of Phillip Birch, artist
Lyles & King Gallery

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If the Donald thinks he’s got problems with outsiders coming into the U.S, imagine the anxieties of Professor David M. Jacobs. After fifty years of research into the UFO phenomenon, creating the ICAR (International Center for Abduction Research) and writing four books on the subject, Jacobs is confident that aliens are here already and walking among us. And unlike Michael Rennie’s character Klaatu in The Day The Earth Stood Still, they are up to NO GOOD. Even a wall won’t keep them out.

We may be talking about a subject many people still find incredulous, but Dr. Jacobs has solid credits. He received his PhD from University of Wisconsin in intellectual history, but finding the UFO phenomenon fascinating, wrote his dissertation on the controversy of UFOs. He’s only recently retired from Temple University in Philadelphia where his specialization was 20th century American pop culture.

With a billowy cloud of white hair, and intense bespectacled eyes, Jacobs is not exactly what one might expect in an abduction specialist. He has a good sense of humor, but then, he has to. After 900 hypnosis sessions with 140 abductee clients, he’s heard it all. One of the tenets for studying the Kabbalah is that it’s important to have reached one’s fortieth birthday before taking on the study of this mystical part of Judaism. It’s believed that by forty, a little maturity may have formed, even in men. In Jacobs’ case, it is very important that he was married for a long time as well as being more mature. The sexual goings on with the aliens and their abductees is pretty heady stuff — vulnerable subjects may be less prone to share their intimate stories as openly with younger hypnotists.

Jacobs regards hypnosis as very down to earth. He feels it’s only slightly different than normal consciousness and not an altered state. The client is relaxed and better able to remember repressed abduction situations. Jacobs is not bothered by the idea of false memories. His subjects have verifiable proof of absence from locations, time lapse and bodily marks, internally and externally.

There are many therapists dealing with the subject, but according to Jacobs, they are practicing in a New Age style camp and don’t realize what’s at stake. Since UFO super star Bud Hopkins’ death, Jacobs is one of the only people doing this kind of research. He is emphatic about the coming danger from aliens and feels has an urgent responsibility, not only to his subjects, but to the world.

I didn’t ask him for personality bios on his subjects. I’ve read enough to know that people from all walks of life have claimed to have had this experience, including Ronald Reagan and Simon Parkes, a city labor councilor from the UK who went public on British television. Jacobs says that there are abductees on every continent.

I mentioned a friend to him who claims to have seen extraterrestrials outside the entrance to the BMT subway one early morning on his way to a proofreading job. They appeared to Sam to be giant fruit flies with pointed teeth. Jacobs seriously doubted that they were real. According to him, one only sees aliens if they are actually being abducted. My friend might be an abuductee, but what he remembers is flawed. Plus, one is never abducted in a crowd. Good news for Trump rallies.

Now my own doubts started to simmer. Was the spaceship I spotted on my upper West side roof one July 4th actually an abduction and what seemed like only seconds passing was in fact a couple of missing hours? Was I swept away? Is that why I was late for the poker party?

Dr. Jacob’s subjects have memories even I wouldn’t wish on a Republican. Bug eyed aliens sticking instruments into female abductees’ navels, stealing their eggs, getting them pregnant, and then a few weeks later, getting them unpregnant. It’s so hideous that even with the claims of the occasional cosmic orgasm, many abductees are happy to have lost the memories. Still, it’s those nagging feelings and nightmares that drive them to David’s office for help.

Perhaps many of our fables are really covers for abductions. What about that flying carpet? And did Dorothy, too, eventually realize that Oz was nothing more than another galaxy and those weird cramps she had back in Kansas were symptoms of implants? Jacobs’ patients’ stories are filled with villainous activity even more despotic than the bad Witch.

What separates Jacobs’ theories from other researchers and abductees who claim that the alien experience is benevolent, is that he’s positive they are not. Based on the information given while ‘under’, the subjects insist that the harvesting of eggs is not merely an experiment to study the human body, but a dark project of immense proportions. Jacobs says that the aliens have been reproducing with humans for a long time making hybrids; now there’s a human like group called hubrids who will assist their true alien culture into moving here and taking over ours. The purpose of the long term cross-fertilization is so they can do it without ruffling too many feathers.

I asked him what these hubrids looked like and would they stand out in a crowd? “From what I can tell, hubrids have no overt physical differences between them and humans. The only differences are in brain function, e.g. the ability to control humans neurologically.’ He calls this brain scanning, something the aliens are able to do by using their big black eyes to sear right through the human psyche.

My thoughts went to artist Margaret Keane who painted faces with black limpid peepers. Had she been abducted or was she a hubrid? Was she perhaps preparing us for the onslaught?

“They might have other brain differences as well — I am not sure if they go into a sleep-like state at night or if they do not sleep at all. The best I can say is that sleep does not appear to them to be important. Also, they are very quick learners and they appear to have superior memories. If there are these differences, then there very well might be others.”

A lot of my friends have sleep apnea these days. Is there a connection?

Jacobs started receiving instant messaging on his computer from someone he suspected as being the hubrid that had been hanging out with one of his clients. It was as if the alien was spying on him or perhaps trying to scare him off. The hubrid’s questions had an innocent, socially undeveloped point of view that they was almost childlike. Actually, sounds like a lot of my own internet correspondence.

“They are still trying to learn our ways. We don’t know what happens to a hubrid after he or she breaks off from the abductees. My assumption is that they have learned enough to be confident and that they can easily blend into any human society.”

Apparently, there are a few classes of aliens. Who are the soldiers?

“I am not sure what you mean by soldiers. The top guns are insect-like and they haven’t been interested in merging with our DNA. There is no evidence that the insectalins will change form to conform to human standards. They will remain in their own form. These Insectalins have put together others to help carry out their long term plans. They are crucially important cogs in the aliens’ plans. They have created the hubrids (hybrids who are living here) to do those duties.“

Ah, a pure race of insects. So comforting. Mothra, the singing butterly from a Japanese sci fi film comes to mind. I wondered what galaxy these super bugs are from.

“They do not discuss this. In fact would be impossible to explain this to a human because if they have a name for their planet, that name would mean nothing to us. Where they come from is useless knowledge. The only thing that is important is what these aliens are here for and what they will be doing to us. “

Dr. Jacobs speaks in a neutral tone until he talks about the scary future. I’m very good with faces and begged him for more details on their look…couldn’t I pick them out at a movie line?

“Only abductees know them because they have been introduced to them on board a UFO. There might be other ways abductees can recognize them, but that is a longer story. (We never got back to that) However, non-abductees would not be able to know who they are by their physical appearance. They have been bred to look absolutely average in order to not stand out.”

He kept repeating the plan that the abductees reported to him during hypnosis. They say that the aliens refer to it as the Change. Of course, I thought of menopause what with all the sexual business and then there’s the obvious, climate change?

“No, the abduction phenomenon can be dated back to the early part of the 20th century. There wasn’t a climate change problem when the alien program was already fully established. People thought it was the atomic bomb that led the aliens to intervene. There is absolutely no evidence for that whatsoever. What they are doing in unrelated to human actions.”

Was there a time frame for this ‘change’?

“I think time is on their side. We do not know how long insectalins live. If they have been doing this since the early 20th century, time is obviously not of major consequence. My sense of it is that time means very little and they and they will finish when their project is ready to be finished.”

Ok, maybe there’s time to make a survival plan. If the one -percenters haven’t bought up all the tickets to the first voyage to Mars, we could leave the earth. The image of waves of refugees pouring into NASA with ruthless ticket scalpers hawking at the launching pad killed that idea. Clearly, there will be no place to hide what with the insects’ advanced brain scanning tricks.

Dr. Jacobs added softened the story …he said they might not be cruel, but will definitely take away our will. We will no longer be independent, but subject to the rules and philosophy of a sort of cosmic fascism. Where have I heard that before?

What of inter-species marriage? They say you never really know your partner, really. How many are already here? Did we marry them? Do they live next door? Will they rebel from the mother planet once they get a taste of Netflix and chipolte?

Invasion by another country or planet isn’t funny. If the accounts of the aliens’ shameful probings are any indication of their health care policies, I’d rather keep Obama Care. We citizens just don’t know enough to discount this information. The government may know more and aren’t saying. Dr. Jacobs hopes to continue his research and helping abductees. Perhaps one of his patients will eventually remember something…something that a hubrid or a hybrid or even a grey slipped out when they had had too much oxygen…something that we can do to save ourselves and the earth. Maybe time will be on our side, too.

Dr. Jacobs will be speaking at Contact in the Desert, June 3-6, Joshua Tree

In honor of The Commission on the Status of Women and all the missing people, all around the planet.

limbonlimb

THE LADIES OF JUAREZ

The ladies of Juarez

Have given their lives,

Back to the mother,

With deeply sealed eyes.

Why were they taken,

By those with brute force,

When if asked just to dance,

Would have loved to, of course.

The ladies of Juarez

Are broken and torn,

Back to the Mother,

She, alone, will mourn.

Why were they wasted

By thick heavy arms,

When flowers on offer,

Would have lit their hearts warm.

The ladies of Juarez,

Have given their lives,

Back to the mother,

With deeply sealed eyes.