For those of you who have followed Phil Imbrogno's work - looks like he completely fabricated his MIT degree and professional associations, and there is serious doubt about his other educational credentials. He was caught (by Lance Moody, someone I don't necessarily like, but who did the hard lifting and uncovered the scam), and instantly departed the field, leaving his Djinn book co-author in the lurch, as well as doing untold harm to the field of legitimate paranormal research. Another dishonest "researcher" turns out to be a charlatan, and drives the UFO field even further into the mud.

dB

Yep, just heard about this also last Sunday of TheParacast. Really sucks. Not him, he deserves everything he gets for this BS, but sucks for the people who take this whole filed somewhat seriously. This kind of crap happens everywhere and in every field, but in Ufology the % of people who do this is huge it seems...

At this point, anyone looking to the Paracast as a source of reliable information best look elsewhere.

Indeed, many of Imbrogno's claims have really gone off the edge, and that latest book - the Djinn thing - was just terrible, but this kind of fraud is likely to have an effect on his teaching career, so he's proven himself to be a true moron.

As far as the idea that the ratio of charlatans is high in this sandbox - look no further than the vast majority of the people who show up as "celebrities" in the paranormal world, knowing that it's not likely that anyone will do the work of actual verification and corroboration as to their credentials - and when someone tries to do this - like what I did with Bassett, Horn, Greer, the time traveling dentist dickhead (name evades me, thank goodness), and the truly vile Bill Knell - derision from the "true believers" was usually the result.

Anyone who wants to know why I departed any significant public role in this sandbox can now have a good idea for the motivation behind my actions.

dB

Every paranormal podcast, from the Paracast to Binnall of America, should on good faith dedicate at least one episode a year to addressing the problem of pathological liars, hoaxsters, and flim-flam men who permeate the paranormal field like flies on a hunk of rotten cheese.

The field seems to have no problem talking about the handful of known disinfo agents. We know the government does disinfo, Obama's miserable svengali Cass Sunstein openly called for it. Various ops have been doing it for years. What the field rarely addresses are the chronic liars and charlatans who outnumber legitimate researchers by several orders of magnitude.

It should not take great discernment or intelligence to pick out someone who is telling a Mark Twain style Tall Tale from someone who is advancing a speculative hypothesis based on the fringes of our perception.

Wow...that's weird. I was JUST considering him from a comment made on another thread--trying to figure out if he was a "big" enough name/influence in ufology to make a "top four" worst of list.

I guess lying about your credentials is pretty shifty, but anyone who has read any of his work and can't tell that he started making stuff up somewhere along the way should be somewhat ashamed of themselves no offense.

I say that and I've been leaning towards some form of the Interdimensional Hypothesis for the past 2-3 years. Couldn't stomach Imbrogno's sham research tho.

Something in the air lately: Hopkins, Jacobs, and now Imbrogno. Good thing as I see it.

What an interesting thread!

I don't know anything about Phil Imbrogno's credentials but I was a teacher. To get the job I had to have my college send the school board directly my transcripts. There would have been no way to fake my credentials. Additionally there was a background check and criminal history pulled. Imbrogno was a high school science teacher and I would expect him to go through a similar vetting process before being hired. His credentials might be less impressive than a PhD in Chemistry from MIT but he must have some. Of course if he is lying about them than all of his work is suspect.

Originally posted by davidbiedny
to the field of legitimate paranormal research

does such a thing even exist?

Another dishonest "researcher" turns out to be a charlatan

nothing surprising there, they all are!

and drives the UFO field even further into the mud.

Can it get any lower?

Imbrogno had stated, in his books and interviews, that he was (still is?) a middle-school science teacher. At the very least, he'd have to have a B.A. or B.S. with a teaching certificate.

I'm disappointed by all of this, if it's true. Actually I never noticed his post-graduate claims -- M.I.T. ect. I do know though, that here in the northeast, having a degree of any kind from M.I.T. is the ultimate in intellectual prestige. It far exceeds a degree from Harvard or Yale.

If he lied/embellished his educational credentials, did he lie in his books about his investigations? The late J. Allen Hynek seemed to rely on him a great deal for the Hudson Valley investigations (and later their collaborative book).

Phil Imbrogno has been my second favorite author on the subject of ufos/abductions, next to Ray Fowler (who retired a few years ago). Both appealed to me because they're from New England (like me) and know the seeming jam-packed weirdness [ufos/paranormal] that makes up this relatively small area of America.

I feel a trusted 'friend' lied about something very important, yet I have to remind myself that I don't know this man, only his words in books and in interviews. I hope somehow, it's all a misundertanding.

~ Susan

Originally posted by lancemoody
What an interesting thread!

Hey, Lance! How about telling your story about PI here? The Paracast did steal your thunder, but they were light on details.

I feel like I'm a little late to the party, I haven't listened to the most recent episodes of the Paracast for a month or so now. If I am to understand this correctly we have yet another person in the Ufological 'field' who has been proven to have lied in some capacity or another? Unfortunately it seems to be just about par for the course for this 'field'. David I don't blame you for getting out, although I do sorely miss the old days of the Paracast. I don't like to dwell on the negative but suffice it to say the show has not been the same since you left.

Back to this whole Imbrogno thing, I too would like to hear the full details as this is really the first I have heard of this. It's sad that people feel the need to falsify their credentials and while it certainly doesn't help this 'field' it doesn't really hurt it much either. Ufology does a good enough job on its on destroying its credibility. Because no one can seem to have a reasonable discussion on the topic.

Sad to see someone I had some respect for turn out to be a liar to a degree. But the older I get the more I realize that you can't 100% trust anyone. (Also it's nice to hear from you again, in some capacity David!)