What's an "Excluded Middle?"

...and why should I care?

If you look up "Excluded Middle" in Wikipedia, the definition is actually the exact opposite to the idea we had when we started the magazine of the same name. It stems from an Aristotilean premise that an idea must be either true or false--that there is no way that something can be both true and not true at the same time. This is an idea that I strongly disagree with when dealing with UFOs and other assorted anomalies. Somehow, this is a perfect reason to use it--turn a definition on it's head and use it against the inquisition.

In 1991, two friends of mine (Peter Stenshoel and Robert Larson) and I were at a party bemoaning the fact that we couldn't find any up-to-date info on the sort of Ufology/anomalies issues that excited us. We had weaned ourselves on Hynek, APRO, Keyhoe and the like, but then discovered researchers and thinkers like Jacques Vallee, Dennis Stillings, Robert Anton Wilson, Jim Brandon, John Keel, Jim Keith and Keith Thompson. Where were these voices in the contemporary literature, and why weren't the obvious connections between UFOs and the parnormal, "conspiracy theories," the psychedelic experience and western occultism and eastern thought being discussed? Being young and dumb, we thought we could change things, perhaps at least a little, by exposing some unpopular ideas to the world.

I don't know what changes happened to my partners over the course of the next decade, but the experience of producing "The Excluded Middle" as a magazine changed me forever. For the longest time, I didn't know what I was doing, but I find that that this is the method that produces some of the most interesting results in writing, music, and many other creative endeavours. Later, the magazine became a vehicle for discovery, and instead of merely informing others of our findings, the act of writing, editing, and running the zine became a second education. One of my partners later refused to talk to me for almost three years, and I had to find out the hard way that I needed to rethink the way that I interacted with my friends. The other part of my "second education" provided me with not only a platform for pontification, but more importantly an opportunity to speak personally with authors and thinkers who affected me deeply with their ideas.

The name came from an outstanding science fiction radio drama series that Peter wrote, acted in and produced entitled "Little City in Space." Look it up if you get a chance. Peter wrote a fake commercial directed at androids who wanted to become more human. "Discover the secrets of the excluded middle" was the tagline that ended the piece.

Perhaps the best way I can express how I feel about the term is with a quote from an alleged spaceman who showed Nebraska patrolman Herbert Schirmer around his ship in 1967 and left him with this piece of wisdom: "We want you to believe in us, but not too much."