I Hate Budd Hopkins: Behold a Pale Horse pp. 490-End of Book

 In this last appendix I have no idea what is happening. This is appendix G: Kurzweil vs Hopkins. If you remember way back in chapter 12 “The Secret Government” Cooper detailed the arrangement between the US government and the secret aliens overlords…or at least that is what he said he was going to do. Instead it was just meandering tale of anecdotes with little to no factual claims. You might be thinking, “I’ve heard this story prior to this blog, and it seemed weird but coherent.” If you do think that, it’s because you’re remembering Chris Carter’s version of the conspiracy that he pushed on the X-Files when star Gillian Anderson became pregnant and they needed to create the meta-story to explain her character’s disappearance.

On page 230 (231 on the PDF) we get this line, “I have discovered that Whitley Strieber is a CIA asset, as is Budd Hopkins.” Cooper explains that he felt that Strieber was not right because he couldn’t look Cooper in the eye. Strieber had taken the position that the aliens weren’t necessarily bad, that is how Cooper definitely knew he was full of it. And that’s it. Cooper does explain that a lawsuit against Strieber exists and that the affidavit is in this appendix. Well, ding ding, Cooper finally does the thing that an appendix is for. He mentioned an affidavit and then pointed us to where it is. A minor quibble is that he doesn’t really summarize the affidavit, and by the second paragraph he’s moved on to a different claim. But let’s celebrate this moment for a second.

We did this because there isn’t much going on in this appendix. It reads just like Kurzweil is merely complaining about Hopkins. It’s also very poorly xeroxed and scanned into the document making it hard to read. What Kurzweil is alleging is Hopkins’s attempt to discredit the experiences of the UFOlogists, alien abductees, and the MUFON. Kurzweil is not someone we’ve encountered in the book before. He’s apparently an MD who is claiming that Hopkins misdiagnosed him as paranoid because of all the alien stuff. Kurzweil claims that someone illegally tapped his phone, harassed his medical practice, and all of this is because of Budd Hopkins.

That is the affidavit. The next document is the Curriculum Vitae (academic word for resume) of Dr. Stephen J. Kurzweil. It looks light but official, and I’m kind of jealous of the things that Kurzweil doesn’t have to do: like explain conferences and publications that he’s done. The third document is the official complaint against Kurzweil; it alleges that he is practicing medicine while being mentally impaired with conditions diagnosed as “delusional disorder and paranoid type on axis I” and “premorbid schizoid personality disorder on axis II.”

The next document is a letter from a legal office explaining that another document has been sent to him. The next document is a letter from the NY Department of Health which explains that copies of a petition is being sent to the hearing committee and the offices of a judge and a Ms. Kulb. The fourth document is a statement of receipt of the complaint, and recommends that Kurzweil’s license be suspended until he undergoes treatment. The fifth document is another letter explaining that the previous is not a final decision but a proposed decision and that the respondent (Kurzweil) can appeal by 20 November 1990. The sixth is a legal filing with a penalty suggestion by Kurzweil for NYS Health commissioner Axelrod.

The final document in the appendix, and the book; is a petition from Amy Kulb, Kurzweil’s attorney. The petition recommends that Kurzweil be placed under supervision but be allowed to continue his medical practice. The reasoning is two fold: the first is that there has never been an allegation of professional misconduct against Kurzweil and the second is that Budd Hopkins has no professional credentials. The document ends and so does the book. We never learn what happened.

Why is this here? Because, in my opinion, Cooper resents Hopkins because Budd Hopkins became famous for UFOlogy while Cooper and his companions lurked in obscurity. Hopkins was an artist and museum curator who dabbled in UFO research until he wrote a book called “Missing Time” that set the template for the alien abduction story. The aforementioned Whitley Strieber (who is also a CIA asset remember) whose book “Communion” was a best seller details the same story because Hopkins retrieved Strieber’s story through hypnosis. It’s all bullshit, but Hopkins and Strieber became famous for popularizing the image of “the greys” into the UFO folklore. Cooper, who was kicked off the UFO circuit for being an asshole, is jealous and is including this whole affair because it casts Hopkins in a bad light.

That’s my best guess, because otherwise there is no reason to even bring up this dispute. If Kurzweil had figured strongly into the book, or even a little into the book, I would say it makes sense. Cooper was a petty individual and this is consistent for him.

As a final note, if you have been following along in the print book; there is a large image that is a list of the interconnections between the CFR (Council of Foreign Relations) and the Tri-Lateral commission. None I do not have the print version of this book and none of the online versions I have include it. I suppose that this is it for Behold a Pale Horse. We will have one final post on the subject next week.