Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind: Selected Writings of John A. Keel

by Keel, John A.

  Year after year, the same foolish charade is played out in countries all over the world: a UFO is seen by reliable witnesses. It releases or dumps materials that are eagerly collected by local UFO enthusiasts. They, in turn, give the material to a reputable testing laboratory, often at considerable cost to themselves. The report comes back. The material is nothing but aluminum or tin. Disgustedly, the UFO enthusiasts file away the report and go on with their search for “real evidence.”

  In Jan. 1971, a blinding light appeared at treetop level over Kuusamo, Saapunki in northeastern Finland. Snow at the spot where the object had hovered was found to have melted and refrozen into strange, dark green crystals. An engineer, Ahti J. Karivieri, collected samples of the ice. An expensive chemical analysis revealing nothing aside from the presence of a small amount of aluminum – unusual in snow. Prof. Hulvio B. Aleixo of Belo Horizonte, Brazil has systematically analyzed the substances left at several UFO landing sites. His findings were equally disappointing to the ET believers.

  A crumbling black powder with an acrid, unpleasant smell was found on a football field at Baleia, Brazil, where a UFO allegedly landed on Sept. 14, 1967. The central institute of Geo-Sciences of the Federal University of Minas Gerais performed an analysis that included radiation tests. They found the powder consisted of iron, aluminum, magnesium, and silica. Similar material found at a landing site near Villa Constitucion contained magnesium, iron, carbon, aluminum, nickel, and copper. At Campo Grande, Brazil, Otaviano Souza Bueno said he saw a luminous object land on a stream bank, and three beings climb out and dig up samples of soil. This was back in 1948... A sample of the same soil was taken and analyzed by the Institute of Technological Research at Sao Paulo. Their findings: silica, 61 percent; aluminum, 19 percent; magnesium, 11 percent.

  Thousands of miles away, on Oct. 27, 1954, a formation of glowing objects appeared over a crowded football stadium in Florence, Italy. A shower of shining flakes fell on the crowd from the sky. When these were analyzed by the Chemical Institute of Milan, they were found to be composed of magnesium, iron, silicon, and calcium.

  Silica is ordinary sand. Heat it and then cool it, and you have glass. Silicon can be made into all kinds of plastic objects. An almost endless variety of silicon objects and substances have been found at UFO landing sites during the past 25 years. It most often appears as a purplish liquid that resembles ordinary fuel oil. Indeed, it is sometimes mistaken for oil. When a fertilizer salesman named Reinhold Schmidt reported seeing a UFO land near Kearney, Nebraska in 1957, investigating police officers found a puddle of this fluid at the site and accused Schmidt of putting it there himself.

  Another outstanding case took place on Aug. 19, 1965 on a farm outside Cherry Creek, NY. Harold Butcher, 16, was milking cows at 8:20 p.m. when the portable radio in the barn was suddenly drowned out by static and the tractor running the milking machine abruptly stopped. Outside, a Holstein bull chained to a steel bar by a ring through its nose began to bellow. Young Butcher ran to the window and looked out. He saw a large, egg-shaped object trailing a reddish vapor and emitting a steady beep-beep sound as it touched down in a nearby field. A few moments later it flew away, Butcher said, leaving behind a strange smell and several globs of a shimmering, purplish liquid. The Kawecki Chemical Company later performed a chemical analysis and found the liquid was composed of silicon, aluminum, and iron.

  Another popular UFO dropping is a distinctive silver sand. It has been found in England (1965), and in Iowa (1972). It was also discovered at the site of the famous Socorro, NM landing in April 1964. Of course, Air Force investigators dismissed it as common silica.

  Perhaps the most widespread of all UFO substances is the combination of aluminum and silicon that the people of West Virginia have labeled “space grass.” This comes in the form of tiny strands that resemble finely shredded Christmas tinsel. (Incidentally, Christmas tinsel was made of lead until a 1972 health law outlawed it.)

  When radar first came into use in WWII, bomber pilots learned to befuddle it by dumping boxes of tinfoil out of their gun ports as they flew over enemy territory. In time, this “chaff” became very sophisticated. It was cut to lengths equaling the wavelength of the enemy radar. Today it is fired out of tubes mounted on a plane’s wings. The common practice is to fire the short chaff (less than six inches long) in combination with “rope” (as long as 20 feet). Both materials are made of aluminum and are specially treated so the pieces won’t stick together. They are used occasionally on Air Force training missions over the U.S., and are released at high altitude in the vicinity of radar stations. The places naturally scatter over a very wide area, as they are meant to do.

  Space grass, on the other hand, often drops to Earth in a big lump. “Rope” is never found near it. In fact, there is not a single case in which “Rope” has been recovered by civilians. Furthermore, while space grass closely resembles Air Force chaff, it is chemically different. The chief ingredients of space grass are, of course, aluminum and silicon. Unlike chaff, it has a tendency to stick together. When freshly dropped space grass is handled, it causes a rash that itches.

  Back in 1967, the author asked the Pentagon to furnish samples of chaff for some comparative studies. At first, the request was refused because chaff was supposedly classified. But later, a box of unused chaff (fresh from the manufacturer) was forwarded together with an Air Force map showing all the locations in North America where it is dispersed on training exercises. Interestingly, none of these locations was anywhere near the places where space grass has appeared.

  Analyses performed in 1967 produced another puzzle. While space grass was perfectly ordinary in composition, the Aluminum Association had no idea who made the stuff, or for what purpose. Basically, it is very close to the aluminum foil sold in sheets in supermarkets, but it is much thinner and, like chaff, is cut to precise lengths.

  Time and again, witnesses have seen space grass coming from saucer-shaped objects. It has also been found piled up in fields where UFOs have been seen hovering. In 1966-67, quantities of this material were found repeatedly in West Virginia in the wake of UFO sightings. Other outstanding cases include Sagetown, NY (1956); Chosi City, Japan (where hundreds of people saw a circular flying object discharge the stuff over the city in 1956); Merion, PA (1957); and Puerto Garibaldi, Argentina (1965).

  Even more odd is the fact that space grass sometimes turns up on porches and under trees where it could not possibly have fallen from the sky! It has also been found neatly scattered over underground telephone lines and draped over power lines.

  The controversial Air Force-sponsored UFO study conducted in the 1960s by Colorado University, under the direction of Edward U. Condon, made a superficial study of the “physical evidence” so lovingly collected by UFO enthusiasts, including space grass. Instead of obtaining and studying a recent sample, they examined a 1957 sample found at Manhattan Beach, CA. It had turned up on the property of a witness 24 hours after a sighting. It was nothing but Air Force chaff, but how did it appear where it did, and so soon after a UFO sighting? Who dropped it, or planted it? Where did they obtain it? The Condon committee never addressed itself to such cases. Their conclusion was, “It is certain that this sample of ‘space grass’ had a quite earthly origin, and was not deposited by vehicles of extraterrestrial origin.”

  The most celebrated sample of alleged UFO material – a few slivers of pure magnesium – tore the Condon committee apart. Some anonymous person sent the particles of magnesium to a Brazilian columnist, Ibrahim Sued of Rio de Janeiro, together with a letter describing how he had seen a flying disk explode in midair. The particles were supposed to be the remnants. Sued turned the pieces over to the late Dr. Olavo T. Fontes, then one of the world’s leading UFO authorities. The samples were analyzed by Brazil’s Mineral Production Laboratory. They were found to be unusually pure magnesium. Dr. Fontes sent some of the fragments on to Mr. and Mrs. James Lorenzen at APRO in Tucson, AZ. Further tests verified the original findings. So APRO announ
ced in 1957 this 100 percent pure magnesium could not come from any known manufacturer. Therefore, they hinted, it must have been the product of some superior technology.

  Ten years later, these fragments were turned over to Dr. Condon. After running his own tests, Condon concluded, “Since only a few grams of the magnesium are known to exist, and these could easily have been produced prior to 1957 by common earthly technology, the composition and metallographic characteristics of these sample themselves reveal no information about their origin. The mere existence of these samples cannot serve to support an argument that they are fragments from material of extraterrestrial origin.”

  One of the scientists on Dr. Condon’s committee, Dr. David R. Saunders, later questioned this in his book UFOs? Yes!. Saunders felt that the very high purity of the metal was unique. “I can only say,” Saunders wrote, “that if the Brazilian fishermen did not really collect fragments from a spaceship, then someone perpetrated one of the most sophisticated scientific hoaxes in history.”

  There the matter rests. Logically, the samples prove only one thing: that some anonymous person in Brazil in 1957 somehow had access to a small piece of unusually pure magnesium. Instead of sending it to the government or to a Brazilian scientist with a known interest in UFOs, this person chose to mail it to a gossip columnist who had never even written about UFOs.

  There are Antonio Pardos everywhere…

  Among other famous alleged UFO artifacts is a huge slab of metal found in Canada in the 1950s, probably a chunk of a dismantled bridge, and a number of small metal spheres that have been found all over the world. More of these spheres were found in New Zealand in the summer of 1972. Some are constructed of rare metals, but most are made of plain old aluminum. Dr. Condon came up with an explanation for these, too. He says they are dropped from airplanes to “calibrate radar.” Since even a hollow metal sphere will drop at a speed of about 90 to 120 miles an hour, and since radar sets take several seconds to make one complete 360-degree “sweep,” we can question the usefulness of such objects. Besides, there are laws against dropping such objects over populated areas. An aluminum sphere falling at 90 miles an hour could easily kill someone. And why do they keep falling in areas where there are no radar stations?

  Certain facts are now inescapable. There is conclusive proof that three earthly substances (aluminum, magnesium, and silicon) play some enigmatic but important role in the UFO phenomenon. Either the objects are actually made from these materials, or their source has some way of obtaining them from earthly manufacturers. One could argue, of course, that the same metals and chemicals found on Earth might be found on another planet supporting life. But aluminum is manufactured by an electrical process, from materials that are quite rare on this planet. Cryolite, a vital ore used in the process, is found only in Greenland.

  It may be that UFOs simply collect these things from dumps in some part of the world and then fiendishly drop them in another part, thus amusing themselves and confounding us.

  The most important aspect of all this may be the mysterious men who plague UFO research, harass investigators, and pull off these elaborate and sometimes costly hoaxes.

  Although UFOs have been around for a very long time, comparatively few people take a really deep interest in them. It has been quite easy to manipulate those few into believing almost anything. Whoever or whatever is behind the phenomenon seems to want the UFO enthusiasts to believe in visitors from Ummo and Venus. They engineer all kinds of events and false evidence to reinforce that belief. So long as a handful of star-struck amateur ufologists keep wishfully peering through telescopes looking for evidence of a superior technology on some far-off planet, the earthbound UFOs and their occupants are safe.

  The extraterrestrial belief has another value. It is utterly ridiculous and unacceptable to science, and to a large part of the public. So when UFO enthusiasts appear on radio and television advocating their belief in spacemen, they succeed not only in making fools of themselves, but they also heap more ridicule on a subject already discredited by the Air Force, Dr. Condon, and a large segment of the press. They make it easier to laugh off the whole thing and ignore the empirical evidence. The UFO phenomenon has created the perfect cover by exploiting and misleading the believers.

  Millions of people on every continent have now seen these fantastic flying spheres, discoids, and cigar-shaped things, yet the psychological warfare tactics employed by the phenomenon have been so effective that only a few hardy scientists and a scattering of housewives and teenagers pay any attention. If flying saucers really are invaders from outer space, then we have already lost.

  On the other hand, if something else is involved, then the UFO problem doesn’t belong in the hands of the Air Force, but falls into the shady province of the National Security Agency (NSA). The CIA is merely one branch of our intelligence establishment. The NSA is a monolithic organization with an annual budget nearly three times that of the space program during its peak years. Unlike NASA, the NSA produces no visible hardware or results. Congress has virtually no control over its activities or spending.

  There were Men in Black incidents in 1947 before the CIA or NSA were really functioning. The original Central Intelligence Group (CIG), forerunner of the CIA, was staffed with naval intelligence personnel. But Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg of the Air Force was one of the first directors of the CIG. Later, when he was Air Force Chief of Staff, it was Vandenberg who ordered Air Force intelligence to reverse their position. The Air Technical Intelligence Command (ATIC) had submitted a “Top Secret Estimate of the Situation” to Vandenberg, outlining their reasons for believing UFOs were from outer space. After Vandenberg threw the estimate back at them, they came up with the Project Grudge Report, which explained flying saucers away as meteors and mistakes.

  The National Security Agency is headed by mathematicians, physicists, and radar experts. Yet the officially stated function of the NSA is to create codes, and to break enemy codes! It is just possible that all that money is being spent on something more than code machines.

  Did General Vandenberg know something the men at ATIC did not even suspect? Are we waging a secret worldwide war with the characters who created the planet Ummo and all the other eccentric beliefs of ufology?

  While Dr. Condon’s findings can be seriously questioned on several levels, and have been questioned by men like Dr. James McDonald and Dr. J. Allen Hynek, his conclusion seems impossible to discredit. There is no evidence to support the notion of extraterrestrial visitations. There is, however, a mountain of evidence indicating that the force behind the UFO phenomenon is solidly based on this planet. And it has been conning us for years, in order to keep us from discovering that fact.

  CHAPTER 7

  THE MOTHMAN MONSTER – SAGA MAGAZINE, OCT. 1968

  What is battleship gray, five to seven feet tall, has a pair of red eyes two inches in diameter (which blaze like two laser beams), wings that extend to 10 feet when spread, and loves to chase automobiles? Give up? If it is any consolation, nobody else seems to know what it is, either. But over 100 people in Ohio and West Virginia swear they have seen such a creature since November 1966. Included among the witnesses are schoolteachers, businessmen, pilots, and members of the National Guard. They call it “The Bird,” but newspapers from coast to coast have dubbed it “Mothman.”

  I have visited Mothman country five times since Dec. 1966, and have interviewed many of the witnesses in depth. While I have seen quite a few of the strange lights that bob at treetop level almost nightly throughout the area, Mothman has chosen to elude me. But he, or it, has reportedly turned up twice in my immediate vicinity. And those weird lights seem to have followed me from one end of West Virginia to the other.

  West Virginia is a long-established haven for assorted monsters. In Sept. 1952 (a very good year for UFO stories), six glowing objects hurtled across the secluded hills of West Virginia. One of them reportedly smashed into a hilltop at a little hamlet called Flatwoods, in Braxton County. A group of
residents headed by Mrs. Kathleen May and Eugene Lemon grabbed flashlights and climbed the hill to investigate. On the summit, they came face to face with a strange specter. It was an enormous gray-green figure with no visible arms or legs, but it did have a head (or helmet) shaped like the ace of spades. Two intense, pale blue beams of light represented its eyes, and it was surrounded by a very unpleasant odor. Lemon passed out on the spot, and the others decided not to linger. They grabbed up their fallen comrade and hurried back down the hill. All were violently ill, apparently from the unknown but toxic gas, for several hours. A dog that accompanied the group ran around the apparition, then staggered down the hill, vomited, and died on the spot. This became a “classic” in the annals of ufology, and is known as “The Flatwoods Monster” case.

  The next West Virginian monster was allegedly a giant creature in the shape of a man, covered with black hair. It leaped in front of a bakery truck driven by Charles Stover, 25, on the edge of the Braxton County line in December of 1960. Others also reported seeing this same “Braxton County Monster,” and an armed posse searched the area in vain. It left behind giant, humanlike footprints that led nowhere. Another witness, one Hannibal Harper, said it was over six feet tall, covered with glossy black hair, and walked with a slow, awkward shuffle.

  Hairy monsters have become rather routine in recent years, with sightings being reported annually in California, Michigan, Washington and, most recently, even in Florida and New York State. But giant birds are another matter altogether.

  “A winged human being” was seen and reported to The New York Sun back in September of 1877. They claimed it was cavorting in the skies over Brooklyn, NY.