Though polite, the outward courtesy of the beings hides an innate coldness. They show little concern or understanding for human feelings and care only for accomplishing their mission.
A surrealistic atmosphere surrounds abduction, from the vacuum-like cessation of sound and traffic at the beginning to the apparitions and Men in Black that sometimes haunt abductees long after the encounter. The most celebrated effect is time lapse, a loss of memory covering the period from the early stages of capture until the abductee returns to a normal environment.
Another striking effect is the flotation many abductees report. They also experience some sort of mental impairment while in captivity, an inappropriate docility or peacefulness alternating with a sense of terror. The beings usually exert something like a hypnotic influence to restore this unnatural tranquility when it weakens, or accomplish an instant relief of pain with a touch on the forehead.
Proponents of a physical phenomenon sometimes explain abduction as the result of alien visitors satisfying their scientific curiosity. Another solution that accepts alien visitors also takes into account the apparent large number of abductions, the focus on reproduction, and the deceitfulness of the aliens to conclude that they come from a planet in trouble. They face extinction and need us or our planet to forestall their fate. By collecting eggs and sperm the aliens gather the genetic materials necessary to reinvigorate their stock or hybridize with earthlings, while any altruistic pose of preparing the earth for a future catastrophe simply hides the true selfish purpose of abductions.
A more favorable viewpoint, expressed in various ways by Sprinkle, Strieber, Mack, Kenneth Ring, John Keel, and Jacques Vallee, takes into account the baffling, surreal, seemingly paraphysical aspects of the phenomenon and interprets abduction as an effort of aliens or a cosmic mind to alter human consciousness. The effort may proceed with benign intent or with blind indifference, but the end result is a fundamental reordering of human thought, perhaps an acceptance of cosmic citizenship, perhaps a new sense of unity for humans with earth and cosmos, or perhaps merely a change with no clear direction.
Skeptics note that abductions resemble fairy legends and near-death experiences. These similarities suggest a psychological source underlying the story content. Dr. Alvin Lawson experimented with non-abductees who told abduction-like stories when questioned under hypnosis and proposed that abduction content originates in memory of the birth experience. Other doubters blame hypnosis, pointing out that a hypnotized subject is highly suggestible and responds to cues from investigators eager to find an abduction.
Leading UFO debunker, Philip J. Klass, argues that subjects familiar with media portrayals of abduction either fabricate the story or fantasize the narrative in response to leading questions. The possibility that false memory syndrome provokes accusations of child abuse and satanic ritual abuse, as well as abduction claims, has generated an extensive literature of psychological and skeptical commentary during the 1990s.
Comparative study leaves no explanation entirely satisfactory. The skeptics who blame hypnosis must explain the cases retrieved without its help, while the order and details in the reports seem to recur too often for passing familiarity to explain. The tenaciousness of a single order and similar descriptions in report after report defies the usual process of variation characteristic of folk narratives or personal fantasies.
Abduction reports also demonstrate a deep coherency, since the aliens manifest an interest in reproduction at the same time as they explain outright that their planet has lost its fertility. Anyone with a casual knowledge of the abduction story might pick up these clues. Yet the reports also include a preference for youthful captives, rejection of the old or infertile as unsuitable, the devastation of the otherworld, and the unhealthy appearance of the beings themselves.
Pieces of the puzzle interlock into a meaningful picture, although this is not immediately evident. Rather, a meaningful whole appears only after comparing many more cases than most people ever examine. The same themes appear in various guises to reinforce the verisimilitude of the abduction story, and a coherent picture is undeniable.
On the other hand, aliens advanced enough to create hybrids but obliged to steal the raw materials to do so seem implausible. With all the implants, missing fetuses, and aliens on patrol that abduction claims require, lack of creditable physical evidence that can be unequivocally connected to alien beings raises doubts as well.
The mysteries of human memory and suggestibility open other paths to explore before the reality of abduction claims become acceptable. In any balanced evaluation the issue of abductions remains far from resolution.
—THOMAS EDDIE BULLARD
References
Bryan, C. D. B. Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction, UFOs, and the Conference at M.I.T. (Alfred A. Knopf, 1995).
Druffel, Ann, and D. Scott Rogo. The Tujunga Canyon Contacts (Prentice-Hall, 1980).
Fuller, John. The Interrupted Journey (Dial Press, 1966).
Hopkins, Budd. Missing Time (Richard Marek, 1981).
________. Intruders (Random House, 1987).
Jacobs, David M. Secret Life (Simon & Schuster, 1992).
________. The Threat (Simon & Schuster, 1998).
Jordan, Debbie, and Kathy Mitchell. Abducted! The Story of the Intruders Continues…(Carroll & Graf, 1994).
Klass, Philip J. UFOAbductions: A Dangerous Game (Prometheus Books, 1988).
Mack, John E. Abducted (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1994).
Ring, Kenneth. The Omega Project. (William Morrow, 1992).
Story, Ronald D., ed. The Encyclopedia of UFOs. (Doubleday/New English Library, 1980).
Walton, Travis. Fire in the Sky (Marlowe, 1996).
Wilson, Katharina. The Alien Jigsaw (Puzzle Publishing, 1993-1995).
Above Top Secret (Sidgwick and Jackson/William Morrow, 1987). British researcher Timothy Good summarizes or reprints UFO reports and government documents from ten nations in an attempt to prove a massive worldwide coverup of the truth about UFOs. Good also spends a chapter trying to rehabilitate the reputation and credibility of Frank Scully, whose book in 1950 claimed that a spacecraft with alien bodies crashed in New Mexico.
—RANDALL FITZGERALD
Adamski, George (1891-1965). A Polish immigrant, without formal education, who was the first to widely publicize his alleged contacts with people from outer space. His bestselling book, Flying Saucers Have Landed (coauthored with Desmond Leslie), and its sequels, made him the best-known of all the “contactees,” several dozen of which followed his lead.
He is described by his disciples (the present-day George Adamski Foundation, based in Vista, California) as a (former) “author-lecturer on Unidentified Flying Objects, space travel, Cosmic Philosophy and Universal Laws of Life.” As a child, Adamski is said to have had a deep feeling of reverence for nature and to have often pondered great philosophical questions about the interrelationship between the rest of nature and man. He was often referred to in written accounts as “Professor” Adamski, which he said was an honorary title bestowed upon him by his students. However, a significant portion of the general public was misled into believing that he was an accredited scientist.
George Adamski
According to Frank Edwards, writing in Flying Saucers—Here and Now! (1967): “Prior to becoming associated with a hamburger stand on the road to Mount Palomar, George had worked in a hamburger stand as a grill cook. With this scientific background he wrote, in his spare time, a document which he called An Imaginary Trip to the Moon, Venus and Mars. He voluntarily listed it with the Library of Congress for copyright purposes as a work of fiction.” Edwards claims to have read the manuscript, which he said was later offered, in revised form, as a factual account of Adamski’s contact experiences.
Jerome Clark reports a similar story in his book The Unidentified (coauthored with Loren Coleman): “Ray Palmer has maintained for years that back in 1946, when he edited Amazing Stories, he rejected a manuscrip
t Adamski had submitted. The story, which did not pretend to be anything but fantasy, concerned Jesus Christ’s landing on earth in a spaceship. In 1953, when Palmer read Flying Saucers Have Landed, he was amazed to discover that the new story was really the old one updated, with Jesus now a Venusian and the spaceship a flying saucer.” (Clark and Coleman, 1975)
Adamski claimed to have seen his first “spaceship” on October 9, 1946, over his California home in Palomar Gardens. It was a dirigible-shaped “Mother Ship,” he said, which carried the smaller “flying saucers,” or “Scout craft,” inside. Then in August of 1947, 184 saucers allegedly passed over the slopes of Palomar again, as Adamski watched.
It was not until November 20, 1952, that the first face-to-face meeting reportedly occurred between Adamski and his “space friends,” as he sometimes called them. The location of this historic event was said to be near Desert Center, in the California desert. Also present were six witnesses who later signed a sworn affidavit. A detailed account of the incident, in which Adamski meets Orthon, a man from Venus, appears in Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953).
Briefly, the supposed event can be described as follows: Orthon’s saucer descends from a huge “Mother Ship,” hovering high above. After landing on a nearby hill, the Venusian walks over to Adamski, who remains calm and cool throughout the entire episode. Orthon was described as smooth-skinned, beardless, and well dressed. He had shoulder-length blond hair, was about five feet six inches tall, and wore what looked like a ski suit with a broad belt around the waist.
The Venusian began communicating by telepathy, informing Adamski of the Space Peoples’ friendly intentions and concern over “radiations from our nuclear tests.” It was made clear to George that we earthlings had better start living according to the laws of the “Creator of All,” which, of course, had been taught all along by “Professor” Adamski. After about one hour had elapsed, Orthon returned to his ship and buzzed away.
Cover art from Adamski’s first book,
Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953)
Many more contacts were to follow, including rides into space and lengthy dialogues with other spacemen (such as Firkon, a Martian, and Ramu, a Saturnian), which were recounted verbatim—without a tape recorder—in Adamski’s second book Inside the Space Ships (1955).
Back on Earth, Adamski was in great demand for lectures, radio and TV appearances, as well as countless interviews for newspapers and magazines. He toured the world, speaking to millions of people, and was reportedly granted private audiences with Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Pope John XXIII.
In October, 1957, UFO researcher James W. Moseley (now editor of Saucer Smear, formerly Saucer News) published a damaging exposé of Adamski’s claims, based on personal interviews with Adamski and most of his close friends and coworkers. Among other interesting tidbits, Moseley made the following points:
1. Adamski’s first book misquoted a number of people regarding statements they supposedly made in support of his claims.
2. The six “witnesses” at the November 20, 1952, “Desert Contact” all had backgrounds as UFO believers, had no special expertise, and did not see enough detail to vouch for the reality of the incident. Some of them later admitted this.
3. The “Desert Contact” was not accidental as claimed, but was pre-planned from detailed information and instructions that Adamski tape recorded and played for several coworkers, about a week before the incident took place.
4. In a letter to a close friend, which Moseley obtained, Adamski wrote: “Sometimes you have to use the back door to get the Truth across.”
On Adamski’s behalf, it can be said that he was trying to get across certain truths—regardless of whether they were coming from the “space brothers” or ancient philosophers on Earth. As one reads Inside the Space Ships, especially, what is strikingly evident are the obvious metaphors on every page. This may be the point that Desmond Leslie intended in the foreword to the book when he said: “We are in no position to sit and split hairs when the very foundations of this planet are teetering on disaster. Read, then, the following with an open mind and see whether the light of its teaching rings true.” (Adamski, 1955)
To a Jungian, Adamski’s tour of the space ship becomes a treasure trove of technological metaphors coinciding with virtually every principle of mystical truth found in the philosophica perennis—or Perennial Philosophy—and in the Holy Bible: the all-seeing “Eye of God,” warnings about idolatry, the importance of self-knowledge, warnings about egotism and self-seeking, respect for natural law and the need for harmony with nature, respect for the planet and other lifeforms, unity and altruism, the reconciliation of opposites, microcosm and macrocosm, oneness with the universe, death and rebirth, the law of balance, karma and the Golden Rule, and cosmic understanding, in general.
Examples of technological metaphors include: light as enlightenment; a giant lens as the “Eye of God”; the power of the space ship as the power of the mind; space travel as ascension; the secrets of space travel as the secrets of life; interplanetary travel as connecting the “gods” (for which the planets were named), which can be interpreted as integrating the potentialities within us; the speed of light as the speed of truth (or thought); and telepathy as a symbol for total honesty.
As sociologist David Stupple cleverly pointed out, Adamski and most of the other leading contactees of the 1950s were utopians. “George Adamski had a vision of a better world, and that vision apparently became reality for him.” (Stupple, 1980)
After a successful twelve years as a famous celebrity, Adamski died of a heart attack on April 23, 1965, in Washington, D.C.
—RONALD D. STORY
References
Adamski, George and Leslie, Desmond. Flying Saucers Have Landed (The British Book Centre/Werner Laurie, 1953).
________. Inside the Space Ships (Abelard-Schuman, 1955).
Clark, Jerome and Coleman, Loren. The Unidentified (Warner Paperback Library, 1975).
Edwards, Frank. Flying Saucers—Here and Now! (Lyle Stuart, 1967).
Huxley, Aldous. The Perennial Philosophy (Harper & Brothers, 1945).
Moseley, James W. Personal communication, February 14, 2000.
Stupple, David. “The Man Who Talked with Venusians” in Proceedings of the First International UFO Congress, edited by Curtis G. Fuller (Warner Books, 1980).
Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) APRO was founded in January 1952 by a Wisconsin couple, Jim (Leslie James) and Coral E. Lorenzen who later moved to Alamogordo, New Mexico, and finally to Tucson, Arizona, where the organization was based until it was dissolved in 1988.
The organization was based on the premise that the UFO phenomenon is important enough to warrant an objective, scientific investigation. Toward this end APRO became a pacesetter in many ways.
APRO was the first organization of its kind in the world in that it always maintained representatives in most foreign countries who kept headquarters in Tucson informed concerning UFO activity around the globe. About 10 percent of its membership were outside the United States.
In 1956, APRO began to recruit scientific personnel to investigate and evaluate cases, rather than depend on newspaper clippings as source material. A Field Investigators Network, composed of selected APRO members was spread across North America and extending overseas. These members investigated UFO cases and forwarded the results to headquarters. The advice of APRO’s consultants in their various fields of specialization was relied upon to indicate appropriate areas and direction of research.
The general membership would furnish leads to be referred to Field Investigators for follow-up. Current UFO reports, results of various projects, editorial commentaries and other features were carried in the monthly APRO Bulletin. The first issue of the APRO Bulletin was published in June 1952 and ran through most of 1987.
In 1957, APRO began building its international staff as well as its scientific consulting staff. At one time, the organization had forty-two scientists on it
s consulting panels—listed under four general categories: biological, medical, physical, and social sciences—and foreign representatives in forty-seven different countries.
APRO proved to be a pacesetter in other areas as well. The concept of specially selected Field Investigators originated with APRO, and in 1971 it was the first private UFO research organization to sponsor a scientific symposium on UFOs.
In 1968, APRO initiated the Field Investigator Network system, which was later adopted by both MUFON (the Mutual UFO Network) and CUFOS (the Center for UFO Studies).
In 1970, APRO published the first Field Investigator’s manual. The first UFO Conference was held in Peoria, Illinois in 1970, sponsored by APRO and the local Peoria Research Group. MUFON surfaced the same year when its leader, Walt Andrus, decided that he wanted his own group.
APRO enjoyed considerable success during the late 1960s while UFOs were leading law enforcement officers and the general public in a merry chase that resulted in the appointment of the Condon Committee, under contract to the U.S. Air Force.
When the Condon Committee closed its doors and issued its final report in 1968, the Air Force followed suit and announced its disengagement with the UFO problem in December 1969.
The last large UFO research group came upon the scene in 1973, when Dr, J. Allen Hynek founded the Center for UFO Studies. Between 1963 and 1973, Dr. Hynek contacted the top men in the UFO field around the world and to establish the nucleus of CUFOS. Both MUFON and CUFOS are similar to APRO in their organizational structure and methodology.
Perhaps most significantly, APRO was a pacesetter in the overall modern trend in UFOlogy relating to close encounters of the third and fourth kinds (CE-3s and CE-4s): entities and abductions. From the time the first cases were publicized in the 1960s, APRO supported the idea of UFO “occupants” or “entities,” as the Lorenzens called them, while rejecting most “contactee” claims.
—ETEP STAFF
Aetherius Society An international metaphysical, scientific, and religious organization, the Aetherius Society was founded in London, England, in 1956 by Dr. George King, Ph.D. (1919-1997). The American headquarters (in California) was established in 1960, and there are other branches in Detroit, Australia, West Africa, and throughout the British Isles.
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters Page 5
