Entry #4
June 30, 2011
On to Ecuador
By UraniumC as told to JC
If you have been reading http://jlcollinsnh.wordpress.com/ closely you will have noticed that my wife and I have been planning for over a year to travel to Zanzibar this summer. Those plans have changed. We are going to Ecuador instead. We leave on July 3rd. I will be meeting UraniumC face-to-face for the first time since 1972, 40 years ago. We were both young men back then. As described here, he had already lived a tough life. I never expected him to make it to 30. He’ll be around 66 by now.
Quito, Ecuador
On another forum my pal Rmak posted the following regarding UraniumC:
“I would respectfully ask him what I asked you. How did he verify? If there is no proof then it falls into the belief, memory, dream, faith category, I’m afraid. All less than reliable if you are making a claim. I would think that a reliable witness to these events would want to seek out something to at least prove to him or her self that they’re not going insane.
I know that a lot of these contact stories were “discovered” through regressive “therapy” (sorry for all the quotation marks, but I’m not a believer. I think most of it’s crap) You guys probably remember in the 80’s when these regression therapies made a bunch of children believe their caretakers were raping them in wild ritualistic ceremonies. The children had “forgotten” or “repressed” every detail until it was suggested to them by the unethical therapists. It was really akin to the Salem witch trials. When the stories got more and more bizarre and un-provable the charges and this pseudo scientific method dried up quickly.”
My reply at the time was:
“your question is a good one, but it will be delicate to pose. think I’ll wait a while longer before I press for evidence. I’m more interested in hearing more and don’t want to push him away.”
But after some thought it makes more sense to explore Rmak’s questions of verification sooner rather than later. If this is only a dream or delusion, why bother. If asking the question were to push UC away that itself, it seems to me, would be a good indication the story is no more than a tall tale. So I asked.
UC laughed and assured me he had the most convincing proof I could ask for but that I would have to come visit him to see it. Pictures, he said, would be too fantastic and I would only assume were doctored.
We went back and forth but he refused to tell me more. Come visit, he said, if nothing else you’ll see a beautiful part of the world. He lives now in the high Andes Mountains outside of Quito in Ecuador. It’s a long way from south Alabama.
So, change of plans and we are off to Quito. We return hopefully sometime in August and with luck I’ll have more to share with you all then.
If you are interested I suggest you take a moment to subscribe. It’s free and I don’t sell your name or anything. Next time I post here you’ll get an email alert. Wish me luck.
Looks like Zanzibar will have to wait.
If you care to comment please just click on the circle at the top right corner of this post.
If you would like to suggest a question to ask UraniumC, please enter it by clicking on the “Questions” page at the top of the blog.
UraniumC 
JC —
I am fascinated by the UC story, and have subscribed with hopes of further updates. I’ve embraced early retirement and popular astrophysics over the last 18 months. So you’ve become my favorite blogger (don’t tell MMM). I don’t know what to make of UC’s account, but fact or fiction, I’m amazed.
I can appreciate your reservations about continuing the narrative, and I also appreciate just how much work translating UC’s oral account into a cogent, short blog post must be.
Understanding that, I have two questions I hope you’d be willing to answer:
1. Before you left for Ecuador on that first trip, UC assured you “he had the most convincing proof [you] could ask for but that [you] would have to come visit him to see it.” I don’t think you ever went into details on the proof, and I assume you have your reasons why you did not. But, can you answer whether he did show you proof, and whether you thought it was compelling, or at least provocative?
2. Have you ever elicited or received feedback of UC’s account from a purely astrophysical perspective? He throws around a lot of big numbers about the age and number of things, and as a total subject matter ignoramus I wonder whether those numbers are at least plausible, or whether they completely turn our understanding of the universe on its ear. I know you mentioned the number of galaxies is way greater than we estimate …
Thanks for the time, and for sharing your views on money, life and business!
Welcome Joe…
I’m honored to be your favorite blogger! Mr MM need never know. 🙂
Let me try to answer your questions, as best I can at this point.
1. Yes, I have been shown (rather dramatically) very compelling, first hand proof. And no, I’ve not discussed the details. Indeed, this is one of the reasons my activity on this blog has been frozen. To fully explain this will take a lot of time and effort, and it is sure to spark criticisms and challenges that will take even more time and effort to respond to. Unless and until I’m ready to deal with all that, it is best not to open this door.
2. This is another issue I wrestle with when thinking about how to approach sharing this tale. Do I just present the details as presented to me or do I make the effort to try to verify them? At least to the extent possible, as much is beyond our current understanding.
The number of galaxies is a great example. When he first mentioned this to me, I was stunned as my understanding at the time (which may well have been incomplete) was that our scientific conclusions suggested far fewer. Now, recently I’ve seen articles like this one from last year suggesting that there are 100 to 200 billion galaxies: http://www.space.com/25303-how-many-galaxies-are-in-the-universe.html
Evidently, this estimate is based on findings using the Hubble telescope and it has been growing over the past several years.
As you might be able to tell, the more I think about this the more inadequate to the telling of it I feel.
Boy, this is some tantalizing stuff! Thanks for sharing. If you google “1 trillion galaxies,” there are a ton of hits to indicate that the current estimates fall somewhere between 100 billion and a trillion galaxies. So we’re still in the ballpark.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think you have any obligations to fact-check or verify the claims at all — you’re not presenting any of this as fact. I just wondered whether anyone has piped up with a scientific opinion on some of these numbers. It would be cool to know that these numbers are in fact plausible (or better yet, provide answers to current questions about the universe) …
In any event, I think you’ve been consistent in ascribing the account to a simple man you knew decades ago who is profoundly changed and now has a remarkable spacetime story to tell in alarmingly intricate detail (and with at least some physical proof). Maybe he has been graced/cursed with an otherworldly imagination. Maybe he was graced/cursed to protect the Earth from would-be intergalactic raiders for 500 years. We don’t know (and likely never will), and that’s OK; it’s akin to presenting a theory and letting the reader decide. The credibility of the story is really of no moment. Yet, I understand your reservations of being the one to put this out there for the public to decide (although I very much hope you do, even if you couch it as a fictional story)!
Thanks again for sharing UC’s story — one that hopefully will continue!
So, whether its a true story or not does not really matter. This reads like some pretty great science fiction and think that your on to something JC Collins! SO, I vote you continue the story, present it as a science fiction “blog/continuous story” and keep it going (as time allows, don’t want to get too busy in retirement!). The science fiction title allows you to go in as deep and intricate a detail as you would like without making you sound like a crackpot. The big deal is people second guessing your sanity and your expertise on your other blog based on whether they can figure out if your serious or not. Take the serious away and you’ve got a sweet story that I’m sure lots of people would be interested in. My 2 cents… Hope you continue as your able! Either way I will continue to read your financial blog. (funny thing that I comment on this blog before ever commenting on any of the FI posts!)