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

by Keel, John A.

  Some persons manage to have combinations of all these experiences. It is unfortunate that so few of their complete stories ever reach print. Police officer Dale Spaur, who was the principal in the sensational Ohio UFO chase of 1966, later became a contactee. His experiences followed the classic patterns. But his full story, like so many others, has never been publicly revealed. Menger, Adamski, Derenberger, and a few others have managed to publish a minute fraction of their total experiences. The sexual aspects of their adventures were laundered out.

  When only selected segments written from a posture of belief appear in print, it is easy to dismiss them as lies and nonsense. Even Interrupted Journey, John Fuller’s book on the Hill case, deliberately left out the most significant details of their experience. And the details of engineer Wheeler’s real experience are now completely lost, because investigators were bent on extracting only those details that supported their personal theories on UFO propulsion. Adequate medical and psychological data is missing from almost all UFO reports.

  The UFO “mystery” is based upon two simplistic factors: the superabundance of sightings all over the world, and the testimony of contactees and low-level witnesses. Neither provides real evidence to support the beliefs of the UFO enthusiasts. The intrusion of classic psychic manifestations and hallucinatory factors demolishes the contactee phenomenon. Aerial sightings of machine-like “hard” objects have always been exceedingly rare. So rare that the few that have appeared are very suspect.

  The real key to the “mystery” will probably be found in qualified medical studies of the percipients themselves. The big question to be answered is what really happens to the percipients’ bodies for hours or days when their minds are taking trips? In other frames of reference, “possession” is offered as the answer. That is, another intelligence takes over their bodies, turning them into robots of a sort, using that body to carry out physical activities that would be impossible for a nonphysical entity.

  One prominent ufologist, a college professor, was led to believe that his body was used to carry out a jewel robbery in 1967. He had no memory of it, of course, but he noted that the speedometer on his car registered several miles he didn’t remember driving, and he did remember hiding something in a local graveyard. After these experiences, he abandoned ufology.

  All of these matters must be explored systematically and objectively, not by believers and enthusiasts, but by medical doctors and psychologists. The UFO field has always attracted people who lack the training and discipline to conduct through investigations into all the aspects. Most have sought to prove the reality of UFOs, the existence of extraterrestrial life, and even the methods of propulsion, basing their “evidence” on such intangibles as dreams and hallucinations experienced in a trance state.

  As we have stated so often, in so many ways, the phenomenon is much more complex than anything envisioned by the believers. We are dealing with forces that can alter reality itself. They can make us see anything, believe anything, and worst of all, do anything.

  Every July, dozens of people (perhaps hundreds we don’t know about) suffer amnesia and vanish. A few come back, baffled and unable to account for their disappearances. Others experience shorter periods of amnesia. And they do know – they think – where they’ve been. They’ve been to Heaven. Or Antarctica. Or the planet Jupiter.

  Each year, thousands of people throughout the world see angels, the devil, assorted monsters, even dinosaurs. Others wander into the past of the future, through some mysterious door in the Twilight Zone. Still others are found in a mindless, catatonic trance, staring into space, abandoned by their consciousness.

  Our little planet is haunted. Are we all biological robots, ruled and controlled by some outside force, as the great religions have taught for thousands of years? Or are all of our cults and fringe beliefs based upon the capriciousness of the human mind itself?

  CHAPTER 24

  SECRET UFO BASES ACROSS THE U.S. – SAGA MAGAZINE, APRIL 1968

  For the past twenty years, amateur “flying saucer” investigators have been joyfully wallowing in pseudo-scientific speculations about the origin of unidentified flying objects, seizing upon fragile straws of observational evidence which – they have concluded – “proves” that the thousands of objects reported over the last few years come from some extraterrestrial source. But these self-styled “experts,” whose ranks include everyone from professional astronomers to obvious cranks living in attics surrounded by books on black magic, have refused to recognize or even consider the simple and surprising solution clearly indicated in all the patterns of UFO activity. Because they have been unable to accept this solution, they have added mystery upon mystery to the phenomenon, and have drifted further and further from the readily apparent truth.

  Since 1948, a long line of patient Air Force officers have been soberly parroting the official “line” droning that “there is no evidence that unidentified flying objects are of extraterrestrial origin.” Despite many efforts, the hardcore UFO buffs have never been able to disprove this statement. At best, the massive observational data indicates merely that seemingly solid aerial machines of radical design and unusual performance characteristics exist, and operate within our atmosphere throughout the world. Out of the approximately 2,500 cases in which witnesses have reported seeing the UFO pilots themselves, roughly 90 percent of these “pilots” have been described as humanoid beings dressed in coveralls or tight-fitting “space suits.” In about 30 percent of the cases, the “pilots” were said to look exactly like us, with only minor differences in facial features (over-large eyes, peculiar mouths, etc.).

  While some have been described as wearing transparent helmets or apparent breathing apparatus, the majority seem to be able to breathe our atmosphere and function easily within our environment. If even a small percentage of these reports are accurate, it would seem that the UFO pilots are very similar to ourselves. Either they come from an environment identical to ours, or they have successfully adapted to the conditions on this planet.

  Over the past twenty years, many substances have been dropped from “flying saucers” in view of innumerable witnesses, and other substances have been found at alleged landing sites. Analysis of such materials has determined that commonplace metals such as aluminum, chromium, tin, magnesium, and silicon are apparently being used in the construction of the UFOs.

  In short, the preponderance of available “hard” evidence clearly indicates that the elusive saucers are manufactured of earthly metals and alloys, and that they are piloted by beings similar to – if not identical to – ourselves.

  Hardcore UFO buffs choose to deliberately overlook all this and continue to champion the extraterrestrial thesis, asserting that the millions of eyewitnesses have clearly described objects that must have originated on some other planet. These objects have frequently been picked up on radar, and have been tracked traveling at speeds in excess of 4,000 miles per hour, making incredible turns at those speeds. Such feats are beyond our current known technology.

  This kind of performance does not actually prove the presence of “advanced technology,” however. It merely proves a different technology. We have concentrated on the development of aircraft based upon aerodynamic principles, while the UFO builders apparently have utilized a non-aerodynamic system involving, perhaps, some distortion of the gravity field. The difference may be as slight as the difference between the outrigger canoes of the South Seas and the kayaks of the far North, or the picture writing of the Orient with the script writing of the West. It may be a cultural difference, rather than a sign of an advanced technology.

  At a press conference in 1948, Gen. Carl Spaatz of the Air Force declared that there was “no truth” to the “rumors” that the UFOs were “piloted by Spaniards or were from Spain.” This was an astonishing pronouncement, because a review of all the UFO reports and clippings from that period failed to turn up any such “rumor.” We can only surmise that the Air Force was then receiving reports from wi
tnesses who claimed that they had observed Spanish-types around grounded UFOs. That is, beings with dark skin, and of slight stature, speaking in a rapid-fire language resembling Spanish. Such reports did begin to circulate in the early 1950s, and continue today on an ever-increasing scale.

  Again, this seems to be a clear indication that the “flying saucers” are occupied by terrestrial-type beings who can be easily mistaken for known racial groups. From General Spaatz’s statement, it looks as if the Air Force had begun to receive such reports in the 1940s. These reports may have been one of the factors leading to the creation of their inflexible policy statement that the UFOs are not of extraterrestrial origin.

  Maybe the Air Force has been telling us the truth all along, but the UFO buffs simply don’t want to believe it!

  Could the “flying saucers” actually be native to the third planet from the sun? The answer is a disturbing “yes!”

  In the past two years, the author has seen many different unidentified flying objects in many sections of the country. The majority of these objects were brilliant lights of a crystal white, with smaller red lights on top or around the perimeter. These lights maneuver with a peculiar bobbing motion, as if they were on a yo-yo string, and they often fly low over highways, or at treetop level. They are completely silent and apparently under intelligent control; very often, several appear at one time, flying in perfect formation. In some areas, such as the Ohio Valley, these lights appeared nightly on a regular schedule for weeks, and were viewed by thousands.

  Early in April, 1967, the author “staked out” a remote hilltop near Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia for several nights, and observed many of these strange lights apparently landing and taking off from inaccessible hilltops about two miles away. Each evening, these lights would suddenly begin to glow on the hilltops at about 10:30 p.m., and slowly bob in the air. At times, they chose to pass directly over our parked car. On one occasion, in the presence of witnesses who later signed affidavits, the author flashed a light at one of the objects. It actually returned the signal by flashing a brilliant light back three times. It was like a flashgun going off. On other occasions, these lights responded by instantly going out and disappearing the moment a flashlight was blinked at them. (Having witnessed the dull and diffused glow of “swamp gas” many times, the author can attest that these lights are not natural, glowing gasses.)

  Reports of this kind of light have been coming in from all parts of the world for many years. In many cases, the lights are said to have deliberately pursued automobiles and railroad trains. In the early 1900s, they chased men on horseback!

  One such light is actually native to an area between Hornet, MO and Quapaw, OK. Known as the “Spook Light of the Ozarks,” it has been regarded as a local phenomenon for as far back as anyone there can remember. The Quapaw Indians have ancient legends about it, claiming that it is the spirit of a young Indian couple who committed suicide there long ago. Extensive published records of this mysterious light go back 80 years. It has been described variously as a greenish-yellow globe four to six feet in diameter, and sometimes as a brilliant white with a reddish glow on top.

  Roy Grainger of Joplin, MO claims that when he was a boy in the early 1900s, he was a member of a group that took rifles to the “spook light” area, and actually fired at it. “As we shot,” he wrote years later, “the light seemed to dance from side to side, as though it was dodging the bullets.” Since then, many others have fired at the thing without scoring.

  In many cases, the light has reportedly played “tag” with automobiles, just as UFOs do all over the world. Back in 1935, one girl told reporters that she fainted after the light flew toward her and “perched on the radiator of her car.” Chester McMinn of Quapaw testified in the 1930s that the light had chased him while he was riding a tractor. (Many farmers around the country reported being “chased” by UFOs while riding tractors in 1966-67.)

  One C. Paul Spidell of Baxter Springs, Kansas visited the area in 1946, and later recounted his experiences to a reporter for the Kansas City Star. “The ‘spook light’ seemed to be about 10 feet up from the ground,” he said. “As it approached, there was a reflection on the hood of my car. Four beams were like pipe-stem arms and legs. About 50 feet away, it stopped and decided to climb a tree to our right, where it perched for awhile, losing its brilliance and turning into a kind of ectoplasmic cloud.”

  That 1946 report is identical to thousands of UFO reports that would turn up later. A group of U.S. Army Engineers visited the “spook light” site in 1946, and could not find an explanation. A long line of scientists, meteorologists, astronomers, and just plain curiosity-seekers have been exploring the area since. Most of them saw the light, and none of them were able to figure out what it was.

  Similar “spook lights” haunt many other parts of the world, and have apparently been around for years. One is supposed to “live” around Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, while another stands guard at Mt. Shasta in California. All of these lights display typical UFO characteristics, appear to be under intelligent control, and defy all efforts to capture them or rationally explain them.

  The Missouri “spook light” gives us a substantial record of sightings going back many years. Everything indicates that, unlike many UFOs, it remains in a single area perpetually. It is therefore safe to assume that this particular unidentified flying object “lives” in Missouri, and does not fly back and forth to Mars or Ganymede.

  The massive amount of available data points to some obvious conclusions deliberately overlooked by the UFO buffs. We find, when analyzing the thousands of sightings reported in the past 20 years, that UFO activity is not sporadic, but is constant and consistent in many specific parts of the country. Newspaper coverage of sightings is erratic and inconsistent, but not the phenomenon itself. Self-styled “ufologists” have been so intrigued with their extraterrestrial theories that they have failed to take note of these consistent factors.

  Sections of Ohio and West Virginia, for example, have had extensive sightings, year after year, in the same relatively isolated and thinly populated areas. The region around Seattle and Tacoma, WA has had continuous activity (although poorly reported and investigated by local UFO buffs) for many years. In North and South Carolina, UFO activity dates back to 1922 and is still going on in those states, although the local newspapers pay very little attention to the reports. Sections of Texas, Arizona, and Oklahoma have a history of sightings going all the way back to 1860. (In fact, a farmer named John Martin was the first to coin the phrase “flying saucer” when he described the object he saw outside Dallas, Texas in 1878.)

  Recorded sightings of mysterious objects in the sky actually go back much further. Ancient Hindu manuscripts written 5,000 years ago describe things almost identical to those being reported today. The average UFO “believer” regards all of these historical records as “proof ” that the Earth has been “visited” throughout its long history. But when you dig deeper, you are forced to realize that the recorded sightings represent only a fraction of the total.

  Although only a handful of sightings received national publicity in 1966-67, UFO activity has been constantly intensive and has extended throughout the world. The wire services and newspapers have neither the incentive nor the personnel to keep tabs on all of the reported sightings and collate them. One newspaper editor recently explained to the author, “When you’ve read one UFO report, you’ve read them all.” Although he was receiving an average of three reports per day, he bothered to print only about one a month.

  If a Frenchman in World War II saw a single Sherman tank rumbling down a country road, he could reasonably deduce that there were undoubtedly many other Sherman tanks in France. He did not need to know that thousands of other Frenchmen were also seeing American tanks in order to confirm his deduction. Applying this same simple logic to the UFO phenomenon, we can assume that if two published UFO sightings survived from the year 1840, there may have been hundreds or even thousands of such sightings th
at year. Indeed, the late Charles Fort did burrow into yellowing newspaper files and old scientific journals, and uncovered many such sightings.

  To belabor this important point: It is obvious that unidentified flying objects have been consistently active in the same areas for many years. Therefore it is quite reasonable to speculate that many of these objects actually originate in some unknown manner from these areas rather than traversing great spatial distances to make brief, random, and apparently pointless “visits.”

  In short, many of the thousands of observed “flying saucers” and “spook lights” are more apt to be a part of the Earth’s environment than extraterrestrial craft flying in from some distant point. We have mistakenly misled ourselves into believing that unidentified aerial vehicles must be extraterrestrial merely because they do not conform to the patterns of behavior of known, manmade flying machines.

  By the same token, UFO buffs now take the numerous “little men” sightings more seriously than the reports of normal-sized, normal-looking UFO occupants in coveralls, because the “little men” seem to substantiate the outer space theories; the normal-type pilots do not. Also, the normal-looking characters have been repeatedly described in many of the controversial “contactee” reports. Until very recently, very few “ufologists” took such reports seriously.

  The unbelievable scope of the UFO phenomenon provides such a broad spectrum of contradictory data that it is possible – even probable – that several different “groups” are involved. The “little men” that have been reported may not be at all related to the nine-foot tall giants that have also allegedly been seen. However, there is abundant historical and archaeological evidence to indicate that both giants and dwarfs once inhabited many parts of the world. Giant coffins containing the bones of nine-foot tall humans were unearthed in Central America in the 19th Century. On the other end of the scale, traces of a civilization of dwarfs have been discovered in South America, Africa, and even in the New England states.