Jones spoke in general terms about government interests and then segued to UFOs and how the government might handle them. About midway though the paper he cautioned UFO researchers that “if there is an intent to embarrass governments for acts of commission and omission on this subject, we can expect a domestic response equivalent to the international one when a massive loss of face potentially is involved, i.e., war—a readiness to destroy property and take lives.” This was an electrifying statement, but Jones proceeded calmly to describe how Psi Tech had remote viewed the Tunguska event. They reported a crash of an egg-shaped object with consciousness that was monitored by humanoid controllers a long distance away, presumably off the earth. Jones’ paper was a bizarre combination of topics. A clear threat aimed at civilian UFO researchers was coupled with a discussion of government-developed remote-viewing technology.
Word spread fast, and I heard about his talk only a few hours after he made it. Jones’ statements stoked the fires of paranoia in the UFO subculture. In March 1992, about two months previous, a relatively new, aggressive group, Operation Right to Know, had protested the government cover-up in front of the White House, and they were making plans for more demonstrations.56 Further, there were already wild rumors circulating of concentration camps being prepared for dissidents who might object to the government’s handling of the UFO problem or perhaps for those who had contact with the aliens. Also stories flew that the government used Psi Tech to hunt down people so they could be killed. Jones had extensive contacts in the paranormal subculture, and it is unlikely that he was unaware of these rumors.
Jones was not a marginal individual. He had access to the highest levels in government. He associated with some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world. In fact some of them financed his activities. When he spoke, people listened. His clear, but unstated, message was that they should not probe too deeply. With his credentials, and calculated ambiguity, he fed the paranoia and reinforced the belief that the government possessed a crashed saucer.
It is difficult to know what to make of Jones’ activities and statements. He could be seen as a courageous former government employee coming forward with the backing of several wealthy and powerful people who believed that the UFO cover-up should end. That was the most obvious interpretation, and it was consistent with much other data.
Cattle Mutilations
The cattle mutilation phenomenon overlaps with UFO government disinformation programs. As mentioned previously, Richard Doty took Linda Moulton Howe to Kirtland Air Force Base and informed her that some people in Washington were upset with her work on cattle mutilations. But there are other connections with the government, cattle mutilations, and UFOs, particularly in the person of one Karl Pflock.
Pflock worked for the CIA from 1966 to 1972, and he later served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he investigated cattle mutilations, and during part of that period he presented himself as “Kurt Peters.” The purpose for his deception is not clear, but he was unmasked by Ian Summers and Dan Kagan in their book Mute Evidence (1984).57
Between 1989 and 1992 Pflock worked for BDM International, a defense contractor. For what it’s worth, a file obtained from the FBI showed BDM had had an earlier interest in cattle mutilations.58 During Pflock’s time at BDM, Major General Albert N. Stubblebine, III (Chairman of Psi Tech) also worked for the company. With the BDM interest in mutilations along with their employing both Stubblebine and Pflock, coupled with Richard Doty’s ominous warnings to Linda Howe, the paranoia went wild.
In the 1990s Pflock investigated the Roswell case and received support from the Fund for UFO Research. The Fund’s close ties to the CIA via Bruce Maccabee raised more suspicions. Further, Pflock was married to Mary E. Martinek, who was on the staff of New Mexico Congressman Steven Schiff, who had prodded the General Accounting Office to investigate the Roswell case. Some suspected that she was placed in that position so she could intercept evidence sent to Schiff from civilians and direct his attention away from sensitive areas.
With all these coincidences, suspicions of Pflock were reasonable; after all, why would someone with such high-level experience and contacts in the defense industry be so active in the marginal areas of cattle mutilations and ufology? Why did Pflock present himself as someone else? Many suspected that he gathered information from civilian researchers so that his superiors could assess the effectiveness of their cover-up strategy and modify it as needed. Pflock had been employed by the CIA, an agency known for lying, and he had used a false name. All this didn’t enhance his credibility, and suspicions about him were based on real, if not conclusive, evidence.
Of all the personalities discussed here, I suspect that Pflock is what he says he is. He is now generally open about his background, and he has published summaries of his career.59 He is a writer and editor with unusually diverse interests: he has contributed to Fate magazine, served as an editor for Libertarian Review, was a contributing editor to Reason, and science columnist for Eternity Science Fiction. His circuitous career path produced a pile of coincidences and connections, which, while suspicious, are probably innocent. He perhaps adopted a false name to avoid tipping competitors that he was planning to write on cattle mutilations.
What Is the Meaning of All This?
This confusing excursion into personalities and activities describes but a tiny fraction of government-paranormal connections. The above examples were selected because there is substantial documentation on them. All of these cases raise far more questions than answers, but unlike in other sciences, the questions will probably never be resolved. Why do government personnel continue to report ET alien contacts? Why do Dames, Maccabee, Doty, Moore, Alexander, and Pflock have direct links with intelligence agencies? Why are the same people involved in both parapsychological and UFO matters? Why have Maccabee, Moore, Doty and Dames spread rumors that there are ET aliens on earth? If these were not connected, then why did Alexander, in the course of his official duties, complain about the report on Maccabee by the Associated Investigators Group? If the above-mentioned individuals were acting as private citizens rather than as government employees, then why was Linda Moulton Howe brought to Kirtland AFB and shown documents in the offices of AFOSI? Why has Maccabee had such a long association with the CIA? Why did Jones issue such an ominous threat to UFO researchers? Were all these people intentionally deceptive? Or were they pawns in a larger game? A more elaborate scenario suggests that someone recognized them to be ambitious but credulous and incompetent. They may have been assisted in achieving positions of prominence so that their natural blundering would discredit the field.
The implications are disturbing. Some suspect that intelligence agencies purposely create confusion among paranormal researchers, to taint the field and make it unpalatable for mainstream scientists and journalists to investigate. Perhaps the agencies want to protect a breakthrough and harness it for their own purposes. Or have they come into possession of ET alien technology that they are trying to duplicate? Some worry that the aliens have taken control. Possibly government personnel are manipulating public belief in order to establish a new mythology or cult. In any event, the government has spent at least moderate amounts on paranormal research in classified programs. Little was allotted for open research. Why? Do they want to keep some discovery from the public? These are largely speculations, and they can be spun endlessly. More prosaically, perhaps the rumors of crashed saucers were spread in order to confuse the U.S.S.R. and other hostile countries. Maybe some were cover stories used to protect experimental aircraft. Others may have been covers for retrievals of crashed Soviet satellites. However, it is implausible that these mundane suggestions could account for many of the incidents mentioned above. Why was Martin Cannon threatened? Why did Maccabee spread rumors of the government cooperating with the aliens? Why did Jones issue such an ominous warning? Why did Dames claim to have located an alien base? All these happened after the end of the cold w
ar. I know highly capable people of independent means who have spent years investigating these areas on a full-time basis and have not reached solid conclusions. We will probably never know the full truth.
My own guess is that much of the nefarious activity is due to the nature of the paranormal. When the intelligence agencies toyed with the paranormal and with mythologies, they had little idea what they were dabbling with. Engaging supernatural powers can lead to problems in distinguishing fantasy from reality and right from wrong. Dames’ judgement may have been impaired by his heavy involvement in remote viewing. Likewise, Maccabee and Alexander perhaps lost whatever critical faculties they demonstrate in other areas of their lives. Jones may have been in the grip of some paranoid idea accompanied by the grandiose delusion that he could divine the secret government agenda about UFOs.
Historically, many groups that attempted to engage paranormal phenomena became unstable. There is little reason to think that secret government projects would escape that fate. They too are probably prone to paranoia and conspiracy theorizing. Because of the secrecy surrounding their work, and the importance of it, they could be susceptible to delusions of grandeur, a common accompaniment of incipient paranoia. The projects were classified and probably received little critical peer review. The resulting isolation would exacerbate the problems. With the general irrationality and loss of judgement, it is plausible that criminal activity was tolerated (e.g., against Paul Bennewitz). The bureaucratic embarrassment about dabbling in the paranormal would help assure that those cases would not be investigated. The establishment media could be subtly dissuaded from investigating by marginalizing the field and promoting unreliable operatives such as Doty and Moore.
Summary
Government disinformation mixed with the paranormal creates situations of incredible ambiguity. I have tried to sketch a few of the
intricacies, and it is clear that no simple theory will explain them all. In such circumstances the trickster provides the best way to think about the conditions. A quick review of his characteristics may help explain the relevance of all this to the larger perspectives discussed in this book. We have here, with the intelligence agencies, institutionalized deception, which they mix with supernatural and mythological themes. Blurring of boundaries and categories is seen in a variety of contexts. Statuses of government operatives are unclear, and sometimes they deliberately misrepresent themselves. Fact and fiction are commingled.
Most people think that UFOs, remote viewing, and cattle mutilations are entirely separate domains, and when these marginal topics are blended, establishment academics and journalists are repulsed. But the mixture is an ideal exemplar for this book. It displays boundary blurring, marginality, and deception, which are trickster characteristics.
UFO and cattle mutilation research efforts are extremely marginal, and intelligence agencies can easily penetrate and disrupt them with little hindrance or consequence. The few investigators who venture into these areas are particularly vulnerable to manipulation. They cannot pursue their studies in a manner typical of normal science; intelligence agencies muddy their work.
Any legitimate analysis that tries to explain beliefs about UFOs must recognize that the UFO subculture is awash in disinformation spread by government personnel, and that has played an enormous role in shaping the subculture. That influence is far more extensive than I have described above. Virtually all UFO investigators who make regular public presentations are from time to time approached by people who claim to have seen materials or documents while in military service that confirmed that the government has UFO projects. It is impossible to estimate the number of such people, but it must be considerable. Even CSICOP skeptic James Oberg reported that “I have my own list of people who have privately talked to me over the years and who were involved in government activities leading to a number of well-known ‘UFO cases’.” These low-profile informants are a major source of UFO beliefs held by millions of people. Their information circulates quietly throughout the culture and contributes to the distrust of the establishment.
Government disinformation on the paranormal provides superb case material for study, and it is a gold mine for theoretical exploration. For instance, the topic illustrates the limits to knowledge and the limitations to science. Full connections, motivations, etc. cannot be known. Powerful establishments have vested interests in keeping it that way. It is impossible to obtain a full and coherent picture. This is simply a statement of fact, and this fact must be incorporated into any theoretical understanding of the cultural manifestation of the supernatural.
Government groups interact with the civilian organizations; each feeds the other information, much of it on both sides of dubious reliability. The dynamic appears very similar to Umberto Eco’s bestselling novel Foucault’s Pendulum (1988), which describes the paranoia and intrigue surrounding, what turns out to be, a remnant of an ancient laundry list. I only half-jokingly refer to that book as perhaps the best ethnography of U.S. ufology.
Despite their marginality, UFO phenomena draw enormous popular interest. Government and academic establishments have little understanding of this because they view UFOs as beneath serious consideration. Establishment minions don’t recognize that the disinformation sown by personnel from the Air Force and other agencies undermines trust in the government.
Scientific perspectives are not altogether useful in understanding this situation where secrecy and deception are so pervasive. Literature provides a more useful picture than science here, and the next Part of this book will examine that topic.
I will briefly preview some ideas to help orient the reader and explain how ufology can be relevant to other areas. Postmodernist theories suggest that the world can be understood as though one was reading a book or text. This metaphor (i.e., the world is text), allows one to ask new questions that would not be generated by traditional scientific paradigms. Reading requires interpretation, and postmodernist and post-structuralist theories emphasize the variety of interpretations that can be placed on any text. The uncertainties inherent in the UFO phenomena, and exacerbated by government disinformation, provide superb examples for theories that emphasize ambiguity and multiple interpretations. By the way, the study of interpretation is known as hermeneutics, a term derived from Hermes, the trickster of the Greeks.
CHAPTER 19
Hoaxes and the Paranormal
Hoaxes plague the paranormal, but few think deeply about them. They are regarded as nuisances, not fit for scientific consideration in themselves. At best they are viewed as minor contaminants to serious investigation, and most researchers want to ignore them and study “more important” things. This view is pervasive, but nai’ve, because hoaxes hold a key to the paranormal and supernatural.
In hoaxes, trickster motifs appear: e.g., deception, comedy, and a loss of status by victims. There is often a general air of disreputability and unsavoriness surrounding them. Those fooled are seen as gullible, the perpetrators as untrustworthy. Even skeptics who investigate come to bear a bit of the taint, as their colleagues tend to see their efforts spent on rather inconsequential matters.
Hoaxes considered in the abstract give only limited insight, because, as I have noted before, deception is resistant to abstraction. The topic needs to be explored with concrete examples. Furthermore, like many magic tricks, once a hoax is exposed it appears so simple that one wonders how anyone could have been fooled.
I will present a UFO hoax that I helped investigate, but before I do, I want to be clear that I am not suggesting that all UFO reports can be dismissed as intentional fraud or honest mistakes. On the contrary, the evidence is clear that some UFO phenomena have a physical event-level reality. Well-documented cases have not been satisfactorily explained in conventional scientific terms, despite considerable efforts by debunkers. Nevertheless, hoaxes pervade ufology, and they illuminate the nature of UFOs and other paranormal occurrences.
The reader may need some background in ufology, and I will make a
few introductory comments. Hundreds of thousands of sightings have been reported, the vast majority by honest people. However, these are not the cases that capture the attention of the mass media and engage UFO researchers for extended periods. On the contrary, it is typically the dubious cases with outlandish aspects that garner the greatest interest. The most famous is the Roswell incident, which started with a lie by the U.S. Army, as discussed in the last chapter.
The evidence indicates that UFOs are not “nuts and bolts” craft driven by “flesh and blood” humanoid aliens. They are something quite different. The direct sightings are not the only, or even the most important, aspect; social and cultural circumstances surrounding UFO events must be considered as part of the phenomena. One should examine effects of UFOs and observe the conditions around their manifestations. This is an indirect approach, but it provides more insight than studying the sightings themselves.
UFO phenomena are fundamentally liminal, interstitial, betwixt and between, and anti-structural. UFOs inhabit the realm between heaven and earth (a binary opposition), much like spirits and angels, and they share common properties with them. In this domain we also find the blurring of imagination and reality, another binary opposition.
Ufology’s position in relation to other sciences and to the larger culture is important. UFOs generate enormous popular interest, and some of the top grossing movies of all time feature flying saucers. The movie E.T. (1982) grossed $400,000,000 and Independence Day (1996) grossed $316,000,000.2 In the mid and late 1990s, images of aliens and flying saucers were common in magazine and television advertisements. Yet there is no generally recognized institution that speaks as the scientific authority on UFOs, and amazingly little support is available for research. Scientific ufology is impecunious, even compared with parapsychology. The largest UFO organization in the U.S. is the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), and its 1992 tax return listed total expenditures of $172,048 which included the costs of publishing its magazine and conference proceedings. Very few academics have published quality studies, and the best research comes from independent workers. These are all anti-structural characteristics. Nota bene, anti-structure and marginality typify the UFO culture, including its (extremely limited) scientific culture. Hoaxes are a feature of antistructure (a.k.a., liminality) and are both products of and contributors to it.
The Trickster and the Paranormal Page 29
