Hallucinatory Effects
UFO believers usually rebel at any suggestion that the UFO phenomenon may be hallucinatory or psychological. However, Keel points out: "In recent years, many psychological factors have been discovered and various groups of psychologists and psychiatrists are now actively engaged in UFO research. Unfortunately, very few UFOlogists are trained or equipped to understand or even to investigate the underlying psychological factors. You should read at least one good book on psychiatry and/or psychology."
As far as the contact stories are concerned, Keel tells us that "at least some of these cases have proven to be hallucinations, because it seems that the effects were produced in the witnesses' minds by an exterior influence. These effects are similar to hypnosis. While the witnesses' bodies undergo one sequence or experience, false memories of another sequence of experiences are planted in their minds.
"Frequently the true (but forgotten) experience surfaces from the witnesses subconscious later on in the form of a dream or nightmare. We cannot outline the whole process here, but it must be considered as a very important factor in many cases."
Important Factors in UFO Sightings
Some of the important factors to look for in UFO sightings, according to Mr. Keel, include:
"Emotional Reactions—In low-level sightings, auto pursuits, etc., the emotional and psychological responses of the witnesses are extremely important. Get them to explain in detail how they felt immediately before, during and after the sighting. Did they suffer fear, nausea, dizziness? Did they have unusual dreams afterward? In some cases, these reactions are more important than the sighting itself.
"Sounds—The sounds accompanying the objects can be of great importance. Many of these sounds have proven to be 'mental' in nature. That is they were not audible movements of air, but were electrical responses in the brains of the observers. Beeping sounds frequently indicate that the witness was subjected to an unconscious experience. Such witnesses may find that they are unable to explain lapses of time or geographical transfers during such sightings. Such witnesses should be examined by a qualified psychiatrist whenever possible.
"Eye Burn—Witnesses who suffer from burned or inflamed eyes after viewing a UFO should be examined immediately by a professional doctor and a full medical report should be obtained. In those cases involving 'eye burn' weeks or months previous to the investigation, the investigator should get the witness to draw up a full statement explaining in full the reactions suffered. Medical documentation is most important.
"Dreams—Many witnesses suffer unusual nightmares weeks before their UFO sighting. Others have strange nightmares for weeks afterward. These dreams are important, and you should obtain full descriptions of them. Some witnesses begin to have prophetic dreams after their UFO experience.
"In landing cases when definite markings are found on the ground they should be photographed and measurements carefully made. For the past 40 years hundreds of landings have been neglected even though the markings are always similar to size and formation. If we had collected and documented photos of all these landings we would now have an impressive body of correlative evidence."
In further investigating important sightings, landings and contact experiences, under no circumstances should any witness be hypnotized by anyone other than a qualified psychiatrist. Amateur hypnotists have ruined several important cases in recent years.
Types of Men in Black
During this same period of which Keel speaks of, there has been a growing number of cases which involve the Men in Black. These strange individuals have been known to warn UFO witnesses not to reveal what they have seen long before the case is ever made public. Keel comments on the activities of these MIB by pointing out that many different investigators in "flap" areas have no had confirmatory experiences with the MIB and only a small percentage of these cases have been published. There are several different types of MIB. One group appears to be more psychic or hallucinatory than real. They appear and disappear suddenly in bedrooms and the witnesses often experience paralysis or a sudden rise in temperature during their presence. We now have dozens of such cases in our files.
Another type now common throughout the U.S. is represented by men who travel in pairs. The same description is always given. One is tall, blond (usually has a crewcut), fair-skinned and seems to be a Scandinavian. His companion is shorter, with angular features and a dark olive complexion. The blond usually does most of the talking while the other remains in the background. There seems to be several identical pairs of these individuals operating simultaneously in several states.
Other types of MIB include men with oriental features, dark complexions, slight stature and a heavy, undefinable accent. These men sometimes pose as salesmen or poll takers. The witnesses usually regard them as "a little strange" but think nothing further about them. Always ask witnesses if they have recently received any "unusual visitors or salesmen" but do not offer any descriptions. See if the witnesses can offer correlative descriptions to the above. Naturally, every stranger is not an MIB.
Going further, and here we are in total agreement with Mr. Keel, researchers should "never alarm witnesses by displaying unusual interest in such visitors." Never discuss "silencing" or MIB cases with witnesses.
Other types of MIB include "dark-skinned, dark-haired females of about 18 years of age." Other MIB types "pose as photographers and offer to take free photos of the witness' entire family."
These MIB use various types of vehicles including the well-known "black Cadillac’s" and other cars including "assembly-line Fords and Volkswagens. White station wagons have now been mentioned in a number of widespread incidents."
In any case involving the MIB, researchers should not attempt to apprehend them alone. "Do not attack them physically. Approach them with great caution. They frequently employ hypnotic techniques. Collect adequate testimonial evidence before reporting them to the local police or FBI. You must prove that these individuals are breaking the law before the authorities can take any action."
In the cases where the MIB dress in military uniforms, researchers should contact local Air Force or military bases and determine the validity of their identification. In several cases the Air Force impersonators have adopted the names of existing officers, but changed the rank. Thus, when you try to check out a "Colonel Robert Withers" you may find that a Lieutenant Robert Withers is actually stationed nearby and knows nothing of the incident.
Concluding Keel points out that "a large proportion of all the available UFO literature is based upon hearsay and speculation, and many of the real and important problems have been suppressed at the source by the witnesses themselves, or have been ignored by superficial investigations which were concentrated on obtaining descriptions of the objects rather than studying all the events and factors surrounding the sightings. A massive body of sighting data has now been published but has gone uncorrelated. The practice of concentrating on the objects alone has produced a very low yield of 'hard' facts. The failure of this method—or lack of method—demands that we develop and utilize a new system for collecting and analyzing the data.
"Many of the aspects which have preoccupied UFOlogists for years have proven to be misleading or have failed to contribute to a better understanding of the whole. The UFOs represent only a small part of a much larger phenomenon which is now occurring on a world-wide scale. By being more thorough and objective in our investigations we can—and will—learn more about the main phenomenon itself.
"Emotional 'causes' frequently blind researchers to important but hidden facts. We must abandon the tiresome tactic of trying to prove any cause. Don't jump to conclusions about the reliability of witnesses or the validity of their stories. Simply collect all of the facts and report them. Thousands of important cases have been slighted in the past because unqualified investigators have made hasty negative judgments."
Carol Wayne Watts of Loco, Texas took a series of close-up pictures of
mysterious cigar- shaped object only to find his life turned into a "living hell" when he was stopped on the road, hit over the head, and his home riddled with machine-gun fire.
The Watts Case
It was a rather dry evening in Loco, Texas, when Carroll Wayne Watts began his journey home from his father's residence, about 10:30 p.m. on March 31, 1967. Half way home he saw a light coming from where an abandoned house stands.
He proceeded to turn off the dirt road he had been traveling on and headed in the direction of the glow. As he approached it seemed to take on a definite shape. When he got within 20 feet of it, he could see that the light was actually a craft some 100 feet long and eight or ten feet high.
"At first I wasn't frightened at all," Watts told an investigator for the now-defunct magazine, Saucer News. "I thought it must be some new aircraft the Air Force had developed and that it must have made an emergency landing or something. I know this sounds odd but that was the first thing that went through my mind. I also thought that there might be injured crewmen aboard, and I wondered how to find out, since there weren't any windows or doors. I scrounged around and found an odd rotting fence post and pulled it out of the mud, and started banging and sounded out the machine by hitting it with the post.
"Suddenly, a door that I had never detected before, slid open, something like an elevator door, and that was when I began getting scared; though somehow I just stood there, looking into this opening. Inside there was no crew or anything, just machinery and all kinds of meters and dials lit up by this strange bluish light.
"Then there was a loud cracking like the beginning of a Victrola record, and then a voice, sounding like it came from a machine or was recorded, began talking to me. It knew my name and everything and it told me that it wanted to give me a physical examination. It said that no harm would come to me whatsoever, and that the examination would be completely painless."
Watts asked why he should take the examination, and they told him that if he passed the physical that they would take him for a brief flight into space.
The voice told Watts that all he had to do was stand before a machine which stood against the opposite wall of the craft. Near this machine was a map about a yard square which the Texan failed to identify, although he felt that it might have been a map of their planet.
Again the mechanical voice requested Watts to stand in front of the machine and take a physical. At this point his nerve broke and he left without taking the examination.
As he drove off, the object lifted from the ground and headed in a southerly direction without a sound. The entire experience lasted only 15 minutes.
What should have been the end of an already eerie event, proved to be only the beginning of what is certainly the most interesting and confusing contact case in the annals of UFO study.
For the next 10 days Watts pondered what he had seen and remembering the many accounts of similar sightings in the area, vowed that if he ever saw the machine again he would hold his nerve and try to find out more about the strange device and the disembodied voice.
On the night of April 11th, all the heavens seemed to break loose. The lightning flashed and the thunder roared, as the first spring storm drenched the area in rain and blew down an old tree on Watts' property. Stepping out on his porch to view the damage, Carroll Watts' attention was diverted, again to the vicinity of the abandoned shack. There was the flickering light again, and this time he promised himself that he would investigate without running away.
Before reaching the spot where he first saw the machine he noted that an ovoid craft, much smaller than the long cylindrical object, had descended and was hovering behind him. He got out to see a door standing open and four men beckoning for him to come inside.
According to Saucer News, again an electronic-type voice spoke, urging him to come inside and take the painless physical examination.
The occupants of the craft were five feet tall, muscular, clad in white coverall-type suits and had what he described as "wrap-around eyes." They had only superficial ears and noses, and slit-like smiling mouths which did not move, as they presumably talked and created the electronic voice.
The drizzle had turned into heavy rain once more, and Watts made an important decision. Quickly, he stepped through the doorway into the small craft. The door slammed shut automatically. Watts said it reminded him of a heavy car door, such as that on a Cadillac, closing.
He was shown to a metal chair on which he sat. Surprisingly, the chair seemed to be flexible and gave slightly to the contours of his body and was most comfortable. He didn't have much time to examine the interior, for the lights suddenly dimmed to almost darkness, and his weight pushed at the flexible chair in a short jolt. He knew they had taken off, but following this there was no sensation of acceleration. In what seemed like a couple of minutes, "though it could have been longer or shorter," as he put it, there were three very light bumps and the craft seemed to vibrate slightly. The lights came up and the door opened; this time not to the outside but to what appeared to be a large room. Later he figured that the small machine had attached itself to the larger craft he had visited during their first meeting.
Then followed a strange physical examination with delicate wires probing gently on his stripped body. The small men stood in another room, huddling over an illuminated circle, apparently studying the results. Wanting some proof of his experience, and seeing a small green cube, "like an oversized ice cube, though with no dots on it," setting on a table, he surreptitiously slipped it into the hip pocket of his jeans which had been left hanging nearby. Later, after he dressed, one of the men simply reached into the pocket to retrieve the object. Watts said he grabbed the man's arm, and was immediately struck unconscious.
That was the last he remembered. When he regained consciousness, he was again sitting in his truck. He felt no ill effects. When he returned to the house his wife was unworried, for he had been gone only a half hour, although to him it seemed like a much longer period of time had passed.
During subsequent contacts, Watts managed to get a series of 11 photographs of the craft he had been taken to, along with one shot which he maintained showed one of the small creatures who had spoken to him in a mechanical voice.
News of the incidents in Loco soon reached top officials in the Air Force. Watts was referred to the Condon Committee. He willingly sent them copies of all his photos and lengthy testimony on what had happened. Copies of the photographs were sent to Dr. Hynek, then still civilian consultant to the Air Force on UFOs. Hynek reported that his preliminary examination of the photos revealed no obvious fraud. "If this is a hoax, it is a very, very clever one," he said. "In fact, it would be such a clever hoax that it would be almost as interesting as what this farmer claims has happened to him." Dr. Hynek quickly suggested that a lie detector test be given to Watts to see if his story would hold out.
When it seemed that at last saucer believers and contactee followers would have final proof that such experiences were true, the entire story blew wide open. Watts flunked the test given by I.R. Wynne, owner of the Amarillo Security Control Company, and a member of the state board which licenses all polygraph operators. Watts broke under the strain and said that his story had been contrived by a local artist who, under hypnosis in four sessions had planted the unworldly events of his contact experience in his mind.
At long last it looked as if the Watts story had made its final imprint on saucer lore and would be set to rest along with other hoaxes that have been made over the years.
In the meanwhile, Dr. Condon had sent the late Captain Robert Loftin, an Early Warning Network Coordinator from the University of Colorado, and a close friend of this writer, to visit Watts and get his confession first hand.
In an hour-and-a-half interview with Loftin, Watts related he deliberately flunked the lie detector test because he had been beaten and his family threatened. The FBI had been called in on the case and had taken four of the photographs of the "spaceship." Watts te
lls this story: "I got ready to drive into Amarillo to take the lie detector test. It's about a 100 mile drive from here. A few miles out of Loco I came upon a car, I'd say a '55 Plymouth, stalled in the right-hand lane, and a woman about 25 with blonde hair and dressed in a light flowered dress under a rather plain looking coat, was trying to get the hood of the car up. I pulled off the road and got out to offer her some assistance.
"At that moment, I was hit on the head from behind, I guess with a billy club. I went down but it didn't knock me quite out. As I recovered from the blow, I looked up and there stood two men in dark business suits. One of them was holding an automatic rifle on me.
" 'If you pass this test, there's going to be a lot of daylight seen through you in more than one place,' he told me.
"'Now Git!' he exclaimed, and I got.'"
After he returned home late that evening and told his wife how he had "flunked" the test, a car drove by the Watts residence and sprayed the house with large caliber ammunition, from a machine gun or some other automatic weapon.
Who was responsible for making Watts change his story and deny his early statements, then go to the extreme of shooting at his home as a further warning to be silent? An organized group exists whose only purpose is to silence individuals who know too much about flying saucers. One thing which is agreed upon is that neither the Air Force, CIA, nor any other government agency, is behind these sinister attempts to hush UFO witnesses and contactees.
Seeing a flying saucer or encountering its occupants is not always a pleasant experience, as the Watts case illustrated. Disaster has stalked many contactees and persons involved in low-level sightings in a senseless pattern of destruction, unfortunate luck and even death.
Men in Black, Strange Cadillacs, Doppelgangers and Laser Beams
Author's Note The late John J. Robinson was a close friend of the writer for many years. He was a tireless and fearless investigator who was never for a moment fazed when the unknown seemed to come right to his front door. In the following account, Robinson tells of odd encounters with possible MIB, witnessed, in part, by his wife, Mary.
Mystery of the Men in Black: The UFO Silencers Page 4
