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

by Keel, John A.

  “I went to a drugstore,” he said, “and they suggested that I take it to a hospital. By the time I got to the hospital, there was nothing in the bottle but a few slivers in the bottom. But there was an intern there who seemed very interested, and he went through a lot of trouble. He did like you said, used some kind of spectator-graph…”

  “Spectroscope,” I corrected.

  “Yeah, that was it – a spectroscope. Anyway, he said there was nothing in it but some kind of ordinary gas.”

  “What kind of gas?”

  “I think he said ‘fluorine’.”

  I nearly fell of my chair. My research into the puzzle of the fertilizer and chemical plants had already led me to the discovery that the major waste product pouring from their smokestacks was fluoride! Mr. Berger was unable to give me the name of the intern, but he promised to go back and get the man to put his findings in writing for me. The name of the hospital was “County General,” which wasn’t much help, and Mr. Berger didn’t have a phone. He was calling me from a payphone. He gave me a mailing address, and I wrote to him three times. None of my letters came back, but I never heard from him again.

  The problem here is to judge whether or not this was an honest man trying to be of help, or whether it was some outrageous prank. From the sound of quarters being poured into that payphone, the joke (if it was a joke) cost him several dollars and would have been quite pointless. At that time, no one knew of my research into factory smokestacks, and certainly no one knew that I was beginning to find correlations with fluoride. It would have been a very, very far-out coincidence for a hoaxer to have coincidentally come up with the very thing I was already suspecting (i.e., that “angel hair” was serving as a means of sowing fluoride into the atmosphere).

  Fluorine, in its basic form, is a greenish-yellow gas that is both pungent and corrosive. Mix it with hydrogen, and you have hydrofluoric acid, a chemical that attacks silica and is widely used to etch glass. Spray it on an automobile windshield and see what happens... Add it to hydrogen sulfide and you not only have a terrible smell, you also have a gas that can give you fluoride poisoning. It could produce fainting spells, weakness, nausea, and respiratory failure. Excessive exposure to this gas could cause the teeth to mottle and, in the case of a severe dose, cause the teeth to fall out. And apparently that is exactly what happened to those unfortunate farmers in Oklahoma. They were very likely exposed to a potent mixture of hydrogen sulfide and fluoride. Perhaps that Trenton, NJ watchman suffered from the same mixture.

  According to The New York Times of Aug. 20, 1967, citizens in the tiny village of Garrison, Montana, were up in arms over a small phosphate plant that was pouring fluoride gasses into the air. “Fluoride gasses from the plant have brought complaints of damage to vegetation, animals, and human health since the plant was moved to Garrison four years ago.” Federal, state, and county officials ordered the plant to shut down.

  Sodium fluoride is a deadly poison and can produce emotional and mental problems. It contains an almost undetectable substance known as “mechanacide,” which can do horrifying damage to the brain, destroy willpower, and create a feeling of helpless lethargy. These very symptoms were reported in the 1957 Canadian “epidemic.”

  If the UFOs are actually hostile, as many leading ufologists now contend, then a subtle long-range plan to poison our atmosphere with such substances might make sense. On the other hand, if the UFO entities need to breathe fluoride gasses, it would make equal sense for them to introduce it in small amounts over a very long period of time, giving us a chance to adjust to it. Hydrofluoric acid could be added to our atmosphere from the air by mixing it with some form of silicon, which would generally disintegrate (from the natural chemical action) before the resultant “angel hair” hit the ground. Occasionally, as in the 1954 windshield incidents, they might overdo it and release too strong a mixture. Normally, however, the hydrofluoric acid would “melt” high in the air. Being “hygroscopic,” it would absorb, or be absorbed by, the moisture in the clouds. An accidental overdose might produce a stinging rainfall such as fell in Toronto, Canada.

  It would be extremely difficult and very costly to make all the tests necessary to confirm this hypothesis. The problem is compounded by the unhappy fact that we are adding a considerable amount of fluoride to the air ourselves. In 1942, hydrofluoric acid was substituted for sulfuric acid as an alkylating agent in high-test gasolines. So today, automobiles are contributing to the fluoride in the air. In fact, fluorides are the third largest air pollutant in urban areas, following sulfur dioxide and ozone. UFO skeptics could easily point to this as a possible explanation for nearly all of the cases cited in this article. But I have not been able to find sufficient medical or chemical proof to make a purely natural explanation acceptable. The Oklahoma incidents are beyond natural cause. One or two cases of auto windshield damage would make it easy to dismiss the pockmarking as a local aberration, a freak combination of the necessary gasses in a single area. But there were thousands of these cases scattered over the entire North American continent.

  No, we must look deeper and study the situation very carefully and thoughtfully. The “Smellies” seem to be in our midst now, prowling homes near factories spewing out clouds of fluoride. Perhaps as the fluoride content of our air goes up, the visits of these mysterious critters – if they are critters – will increase. UFOs seem to be collecting like flies in areas where the fluoridated air is most intense. They have also been clustering around reservoirs in places where the drinking water is deliberately (though very minutely) fluoridated. Maybe they’re even adding something of their own to our drinking water, as some ufologists have suggested.

  Ufologists are unable to agree on many things in this complicated and contradictory business, but most of them concede that it is probable that more than one or two different “alien” groups are involved. There are many indications that these groups are in direct conflict with each other. This unprovable “fact” raises still another confusing possibility. It may be that one group is using fluoride gasses to combat the presence of another group.

  Our life here on Earth is based upon the carbon atom. Exobiologists at Harvard and elsewhere have speculated that silicon could be used as a substitute for carbon on other planets, and that a silicon-based lifeform might be possible. If some of the ufonauts are composed of silicon instead of carbon, then hydrofluoric acid would be a very effective weapon against them. If one group of ufonauts is especially interested in our planet and has reasons for keeping the silicon-based groups away, it would be reasonable for them to raise the fluoride content of the air. This could lead us to another startling conclusion: that the “puddles” of silicon found at UFO landing sites might actually be the remains of silicon-beings who had literally melted when they became exposed to our atmosphere.

  This much we can say with certainty: Throughout man’s history, we have recorded the frequent presence of gruesome, unspeakable “monsters” that were surrounded by the noxious odors of hydrogen sulfide and fluoride. Generally these “monsters” were regarded as evil and alien. They continue to appear, and the mysterious, inexplicable clouds of foul gas continue to invade homes, farmland, and whole towns. More and more people are suffering ill effects from these gasses. The fluoride count in our heavily polluted atmosphere continues to rise. “Angel hair” continues to fall. The Air Force and the UFO-philes have spent the last twenty years chasing lights in the sky when the real problem – and the ultimate answer – might be much closer, prowling living rooms in West Virginia, California, Florida, and Nebraska. Something very alien – and possibly, very dangerous – may be sitting on the barren plains of western Oklahoma. And more of “them” may be on their way.

  Isn’t it about time we made a real effort to find out?

  CHAPTER 17

  THE SECRET UFO-ASTRONAUT WAR – MEN MAGAZINE, SEPT. 1968

  It was drizzling and cold, and Woodrow Derenberger, a middle-aged sewing machine salesman from Mineral Wells, WV was anxiou
s to get home. He was driving his truck along Interstate 77, just south of Parkersburg, WV. Traffic was light and he was making good time. It was about 7:30 p.m. The date: Wednesday, Nov. 2, 1966. Suddenly, a strange object swooped down out of the rain and landed directly in front of him. Mr. Derenberger slammed on his brakes and watched in amazement as a man got out of the object that was, he said, shaped like an old-fashioned lamp chimney. The man was about five feet, nine inches tall, had pointed features and a dark complexion, and was dressed in a dark coat. As he approached the truck, Derenberger heard a voice that asked him to roll down the window. The man stepped up to the door silently, his arms folded across his chest, and Derenberger heard the voice again, although the man’s face remained fixed in a grin. He claims this voice asked him who he was, where he was going, and what “those lights” were (indicating the city of Parkersburg in the distance). After a few minutes of rather meaningless “telepathic” conversation, the man returned to the object and it flew off. Derenberger stepped on the gas and sped home.

  After he told his wife the incredible story, they decided to call the Parkersburg police. The police not only were not surprised, they admitted that two other people had reported an identical experience to them that day. Woodrow Derenberger found himself in the uneasy company of the growing crowd of controversial “contactees” – people who claim to have met the pilots of UFOs. (The author has talked with the other two witnesses. While they confirm the story, they do not want any publicity. “I just don’t want to get involved,” one of them said.)

  At the request of the Parkersburg Police, Derenberger “starred” in a press conference, together with eight other witnesses who had reported seeing a UFO on the night of his “contact.” Later, he voluntarily submitted to an extensive physical and psychiatric examination in a local hospital. There was an astonishing development when one of his examiners, a leading West Virginia psychiatrist, became a “contactee” himself a few weeks afterwards. The psychiatrist (Dr. Alan Roberts) has talked freely about his own UFO experiences on radio programs, and has endorsed Mr. Derenberger.

  A month later, Derenberger and his family were invited to Cocoa Beach at Cape Kennedy, where NASA’s immense manned-space rocket center is located.

  “I was interviewed every night for a week,” Derenberger said later.

  Those men – some of them were supposed to be big shots at NASA – wanted to know every detail. They grilled me about my whole life history. At the end of the week, they told me that I hadn’t said anything new. They’d heard it all before.

  “We know more about this than you do,” they said. Then they showed me a big star-map and they pointed out a star on it. “This is where that flying saucer came from,” they said. I don’t know anything about astronomy, so I don’t have any idea which star they were pointing at.

  Derenberger came back from Cape Kennedy with Pictures, letters, and other proof that his visit had been real.

  Is it possible that NASA might, indeed, know more about flying saucers than even the U.S. Air Force? It is not only possible, but is highly probable. Unidentified flying objects have frequently appeared over our rocket launching sites, where they have been tracked on radar and charted with theodolites. All of our astronauts have reported unidentifiable objects in outer space, and have taken many pictures of them (although it is difficult to wrest copies of these photos from NASA).

  During the last American flight in Nov. 1966, James Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin saw four peculiar things near their orbit. “We saw 4 objects lined up in a row,” Lovell admitted, “and they weren’t stars I Know.”

  Lovell should be something of an expert on UFOs. He was orbiting with Frank Bormann aboard GT-7 on Dec. 4, 1965, when a gigantic spherical object slowly crossed in front of them.

  “I have a bogey at 10 o’clock high,” Bormann radioed to ground control calmly.

  “Are you sure it isn’t the booster rocket?” the technicians on the ground radioed back.

  “We know where the booster is,” Bormann said flatly. “This is an actual sighting.”

  Neither man would make any further comment on that “actual sighting” once they were back on terra firma. Like the Air force, NASA has adopted a policy of secrecy when it comes to flying saucers. Recently, Mr. Robert Roentgen, the Washington correspondent for a West German television network, prepared a special documentary film on American UFO sightings. He called NASA’s Public Relations office to ask if he could obtain an official statement. He was received with interest, and a public relations officer assured him that the head of NASA, Mr. James W. Webb, would personally film the statement for him. He was asked to call back the next day to set up a definite shooting date. When Mr. Roentgen called back, this same man announced coldly that he could only say: “The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has no interest in unidentified flying objects, nor is it in any way involved in their investigation.” The German correspondent was dumbfounded, and asked for further explanation.

  “I’m sorry,” the PR man muttered. “All I can do is read this statement for you again.”

  Somebody – a very mysterious somebody – beat both the U.S. and Soviet Union into space. Unidentified orbiting objects were first detected in 1952, following an impossible east-to-west course (manmade satellites travel from west to east to take advantage of the earth’s rotation). At various times in the last 16 years, as many as four of these unknown satellites have been tracked by astronomers and radar stations at one time. There are three of them up there at the moment, circling the globe every 164 minutes. Their exact size is “classified.”

  A month after the Russians sent the dog Laika into orbit in Nov. 1957, astronomers in Venezuela photographed not only Sputnik II, but also another unexplained object that was closely following it.

  On several occasions, UFOs have suddenly appeared from nowhere and flown alongside unmanned space capsules and rocket probes. One such object doggedly pursued a Polaris rocket on Jan. 10, 1961, and the radar station at Cape Kennedy mistakenly locked in on it. On April 8, 1964, four unidentified objects zeroed in on an unmanned Gemini capsule, and stayed with it for one complete orbit around the earth.

  America’s first astronaut, Col. John Glenn, has been quoted by columnist Leonard Lyons as saying that he believed “certain reports of flying saucers are legitimate.” Glenn gave all the UFO buffs a thrill when he radioed descriptions of “fireflies in space” as he made his historical flight on Feb. 20, 1962. He said there were thousands of these greenish-yellow things swirling across the sky. He watched them approach his capsule, noting that he was certain they were not emanating from the capsule itself. “As far as I know,” Glenn said, “the true identity of these particles is still a mystery.”

  The startling thing is that this very same phenomenon had been reported a decade earlier by the controversial contactee, George Adamski. Adamski claimed that he had been taken for a ride into space by a flying saucer. In a book published in 1955, he described passing through “a belt of billions of multi-colored fireflies.”

  Astronauts Scott Carpenter and Gordon Cooper also told of seeing these belts of glittering objects. Bormann and Lovell said that the belt appeared in front of them, moving at right angles to their path. NASA’s official explanation for the phenomenon is that the “fireflies” are caused by particles of ice coming from the life-support systems of the space capsules themselves. But if you study the many excellent photos taken of manned capsules in orbit during the rendezvous tests, you will not find any sign of ice of any kind.

  Soviet cosmonauts have reportedly had more than their share of problems with mysterious objects in outer space. A three-man space capsule orbited in Oct. 1963, and was buffeted and tossed around like a ping-pong ball when a group of large circular objects surrounded it. The objects were said to have followed the Russian craft halfway around the world, and nearly caused the flight to end in disaster.

  In March 1965, the Soviet Union proudly announced that cosmonauts Pavel I. Belyayev a
nd Alexei A. Leonov were in orbit for “a prolonged space flight.” But a few hours later, a “satellite” appeared near their capsule, according to the Russian news agency Tass, and after only 18 orbits, they came hurtling out of the sky, engulfed in a ball of flame. They crashed into a snow bank 873 miles north of their planned target area, and nearly froze to death before rescuers found them.

  Col. Vladimir Komarov died of a sudden heart attack while in orbit on April 24, 1967. Monitoring stations all over the world were tuned in to the medical apparatus attached to his body, and heard his heart stop. What could give a healthy and thoroughly examined and tested space pilot a heart attack in the stillness of the outer limits? We’ll never know… The official Soviet explanation for his death was that he was killed when his space vehicle crashed.

  Being a space pioneer is a hazardous business. Nine American astronauts have been killed suddenly in the past three years. Three died in a fire aboard an Apollo capsule, while the others were killed in plane and automobile crashes. Russia’s first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, was also recently killed in a plane tragedy. Both John Glenn and Gagarin “slipped in the bathtub” after their historic flights and suffered damage to the inner ear, which kept them grounded and affected their sense of balance. It is a rather remarkable coincidence that both men should have the same kind of freak accident and sustain identical injuries.

  The late Frank Edwards, a well-known writer and newscaster, claimed that “one of our early astronauts” had such a hair-raising encounter with a UFO in outer space that he went into emotional shock and was never sent up again.

  Astronauts James McDivitt and the late Edward White reported seeing “a mysterious object in space” as they orbited over china. Millions heard them describe it live on radio and TV. It was “a glowing, egg-shaped thing with arms or projections sticking out of it,” they reported. They also saw another UFO over Hawaii on that same flight in June 1965. Later McDivitt asserted, “I don’t know what it was and, so far, no one else does, either.”