Dead man's trigger

“Sirius” is a documentary about Steven Greer, his speculations about UFOs and his related activities. Greer has written several books on alien contact, and has spear-headed a campaign to force the U.S. government to disclose the truth about UFOs. He also leads CSETI, a group which claims to have developed a “protocol” for people eager to contact the aliens. Judging by his books, Greer's real perspective is spiritual or religious, being based on a near-death experience he had in his youth.

“Sirius” premiered in LA last year, after a heavy promotion campaign. It's mostly a disappointment and doesn't live up to the hype. The documentary jumps disjointedly from subject to subject. It has a conspiracist undertone. The military-industrial complex is said to suppress knowledge of free energy and murder inventors of free energy devices. 9/11 was an inside job. Greer himself is under threat, but has a “dead man's trigger” that will hurt the conspirators if he ever goes missing…

Other parts of “Sirius” are more new agey, as when the members of CSETI attempt to contact aliens by meditation! The potentially most sensational part of the documentary deals with DNA test conducted on a supposed alien body, otherwise known as “Ata” (it was found in the Atacama in Chile). Even the pro-Greer geneticist doing the testing is forced to admit, in his own roundabout way, that it's (of course) human.

Often, “Sirius” makes illogical claims. In his books, Greer paints the aliens as a race of spiritual supermen. If so, why is there a dead, diseased physical alien in the Atacama? If the powers-that-be have access to advanced technology, why not use it to develop new super-weapons and conquer the world? Why haven't the Russians or the Japanese managed to steal the secrets? They seem to have stolen everything else… Why can't the aliens protect their supporters from the puny little humans threatening them?

Like other conspiracy-themed films, some falsifications are pretty blatant. JFK is supposed to have exposed the secret cabal really running the United States, and getting murdered as a result. In reality, Kennedy's speech was about Communism (that's *foreign* Communism), not about the Illuminati. I took me about one minute to get that confirmed. Well, the web is good for *something*, I suppose.

“Sirius” reminds me of “Thrive”, but a very mangled, garbled, and quite frankly boring version of it. As movies go, “Thrive” is better. “Sirius” never manages to connect the loose ends, and people interested in Greer's message will probably do better simply reading his books. But then, perhaps that was the point of “Sirius” from the start?

However, if this is the only thing Dr Greer has in his “dead man's trigger”, I sure hope the “complex” isn't out in force to get him any time soon…