Chris O'Brien and His Suggested Rules of Investigation

Enough of those pesky dowing rod bomb detectors, since I've been divining that this isn't really where this blog was supposed to be going.  After all, fraud, waste and sheer incompetence on the part of governments isn't exactly an anomaly, and I have no doubt about it's existence.

So what's on the bookshelf that I can exert some sort of armchair expertise over? 

Well, one subject that's sure to be brought up is the work that Chris O'Brien did in the San Luis Valley and encapsulated in his trilogy of books on the subject.  I'm slogging through first of these, The Mysterious Valley, and have to admit that I'm really enjoying it!  His experiences have that high strangeness that attracts my Inner Fortean Child, and his experiences investigating some truly odd experiences in the SLV seem to have grounded him in a most admirable fashion.

For instance, he opens the book with his "Suggested Rules of Investigation", which seem to be words to the wise to anyone looking into anomalistic phenomena.  I quote these at length (as well as in italics), and will beg his forgiveness later, acting in the spirit that it is easier to ask for forgivenss than permission.

• Rule #1  Controversial subjects generate polarized responses.
• Rule #2  Record or write down everything as soon as possible, no matter how inconsequential or inconsequential it might seem at the time.
• Rule #3  Always credit your sources and respect requests for anonymity.
• Rule #4  Always be ready for anything, anytime.  Look for coincidences when investigating claims of the unusual.  Often, there may be a synchronistic element at work.
• Rule #5  It is impossible to be too objective when scientifically investigating claims of the unusual.
• Rule #6  Always assume there is a mundane exlanation until proven extraordinary.
• Rule #7  Appearances can be deceiving.  There may be more happening than meets the eye.
• Rule #8  If you publicize claims of the unusual, choose your words wisely, for your "spin" may have tremendous influence.
• Rule #9  Media coverage of the unusual, becasue of its sensational nature, is often inaccurate and cannot be accepted as totally accurate by the investigator.
•  Rule # 10  The human mind, when faced with the unknown, revert to basic primal symbols to rationalize its experience.
•  Rule # 11  When investigating claims of the unusal, one cannot reach conclusions based on intuition alone.
•  Rule #12  There is a possibility that the (sub)culture itself may cocreate manifestations of  unexplained, individually perceived phenomena.  
•  Rule # 13  We must be extremely careful not to perpetrate our own beliefs, suspicions, or actual experiences into the minds of those who desperately want to have a "special" event happen in their lives.

In The Mysterious Valley, O'Brien does an excellent job of not only setting up the story of how he came to the San Luis Valley but how he became a prime investigators of unusual phenomena there, which include unexplained lights in the skies, mystery helicopters, livestock mutilation, unusual sonic phenomena, and weirdest of all, bizarre range wars which may have been attempting to monopolize on all the uneasiness such experiences can have on a rural population.