MUFON NYC / Magick Mirror

History

MUFON's New York City chapter formed in mid-1989, started by five members frustrated with years of organisational inactivity in the city. The founding group included Jack Greenfield, Sal Amendola, and Jennifer Pader. An early attempt to operate independently of MUFON's national structure collapsed (the founding director's letter in Vol 1 No 1 references ego clashes and disinformation problems), and the group re-emerged under MUFON's banner with Greenfield as State Section Director for Queens and Acting Director for NYC. Gary Levine served as New York State Director from upstate, while J. Antonio Huneeus held the title of International Coordinator.

The newsletter launched in 1992 from PO Box 1072, Brooklyn, NY 11219, later moving to PO Box 280169, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Greenfield edited the first issues with Amendola handling design, production, and circulation. The UFO hotline ran on 212-978-8898. Early content was recognisably MUFON: case reports, meeting schedules, investigation protocols. But the contributor pool was more literary than most state chapters. Amendola conducted a multi-part interview with Linda Cortile (the Manhattan abduction case). Rosemary Ellen Guiley and Dan Smith contributed a piece on crop circles and the New World Order. Macer-Story wrote "The Independent Inquirer" column from the beginning.

By Vol 2 No 2 (Winter 1993/94), Macer-Story had taken over as editor. The address shifted to 511 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 173, New York, NY 10011. Greenfield and Amendola stayed on as "Research Associates" alongside David "Phil" Lord, who had served as Director. Macer-Story's first editorial announced the new regime: no pre-censoring of information to conform to any single interpretation, no protection of any writer from controversy, and an open call for "all sorts of opinions, claims and documentary evidence." The publication included a "U PROVE IT" column for unverified experiential accounts and a centrefold of photographs from a UFO demonstration at the United Nations.

Macer-Story was a published author (her book "The Dark Frontier" was advertised in the 1998 issue) and an intellectual provocateur who treated ufology as one thread in a larger tapestry of anomalous experience, ceremonial practice, and political critique. Her editorials referenced Franz Kafka, Idries Shah, and tantric sensory systems alongside radar returns and witness testimony. The Magick Mirror issues read more like a one-woman esoteric journal than anything MUFON International would have recognised as a chapter organ.