An important question often asked by skeptics is: “If extraterrestrials exist, why is there no open contact?” One answer to this question is that if the Bible is to be taken literally, then we have had open contact. According to both the Old and New Testaments, extraterrestrial forces representing the classic struggle of good versus evil (gods and demons) have intervened in the creation and development of humankind and may be planning a return visit as indicated in the Book of Revelation.
We know what happened last time, when Jesus tried to convert the masses to follow the “word of God.” According to the prophecies of Revelation, we should clearly expect something different next time. For one thing—no more Mr. Nice Guy!
This writer’s position is that if we are to take the Bible literally, then logically speaking, the concept of technologically superior beings from other worlds in space is at least as reasonable as the traditional supernatural interpretation. In addition, we have the moral and religious teachings kept in tact as well, if we view the Biblical messages as the philosophy of advanced civilizations—representing good and evil factions—each vying for control.
—RONALD D. STORY
astronauts, UFO sightings by The glamour and drama of manned space flights have been transferred to the UFO field via a highly publicized group of “UFO sightings” and photographs allegedly made by American and Russian space pilots. Hardly a UFO book or movie fails to mention that “astronauts have seen UFOs too.”
However, careful examination of each and every one of these stories can produce quite reasonable explanations, in terms of visual phenomena associated with space flights. On a visit to NASA’s Johnson Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston in July 1976, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, of the Center for UFO Studies, concluded that none of the authentic cases (as opposed to the majority of reports, which are fictitious) really had anything to do with the “real UFO phenomenon.”
UFO skeptics, while pleased that Hynek had dismissed all “astronaut UFO reports” as unreliable, have insisted that this body of stories has quite a lot to do with the major problems besetting the UFO community. How, they ask, can a body of stories so patently false and unreliable obtain such seeming authenticity simply by being passed back and forth among researchers without ever being seriously investigated? Is this a characteristic of UFO stories in general, and if so, the skeptics ask, can a study of how the “astronaut UFO” myth began and flourished help us to understand better the UFO phenomenon in general?
Hynek’s disavowal of the stories came after publication of his book, The Edge of Reality (1975), which carried a long list of astronaut-sighting reports. Hynek told colleagues that the inclusion of the list (compiled by UFOlogist George Fawcett) in the book was Jacques Vallée’s idea, not his, but that even so, he just wanted to generate interest and discussion. He insisted that inclusion of the list was not a judgment on his belief in its credibility and that readers had no right to assume that the data had actually been verified just because it was included. Fawcett, on the other hand, claims that he just assembled the list from all available sources and assumed that somebody else would check the accounts before publication. “Maybe one percent of the stories are true UFOs,” Fawcett suggested in 1978.
Here is the complete “Fawcett List” quoted from The Edge of Reality but, this time, including likely explanations (in italics) of the reports:
(1) “February 20, 1962—John Glenn, piloting his Mercury capsule, saw three objects follow him and then overtake him at varying speeds.” Glenn also said that these “snowflakes” were small, and seemed to be coming from the rear end of his capsule. Astronauts on later flights also observed them and were able to create “snowstorms” by banging on the walls of their capsules.
(2) “May 24, 1962—Mercury VII: Scott Carpenter reported photographing fireflylike objects with a hand camera and that he had what looked like a good shot of a saucer.” Carpenter did see “fireflies,” as well as a balloon ejected from his capsule. The claim that he reported photographing a “saucer” is counterfeit. His photo, taking into account the glare of sunlight, smeared window, and gross enlargement of the small image, has been widely published as a “saucer” but is in fact the tracking balloon.
(3) “May 30, 1962—XI5 Pilot Joe Walton photographed five disc-like objects.” This story appears to be a complete fabrication. The real pilot’s name was Joe Walker, who supports no such claim
(4) “July 17, 1962—X15 Pilot Robert White photographed objects about thirty feet away from his craft while about fifty-eight miles up.” Right, and he also reported that the objects were small—“about the size of a piece of paper.” They were probably flakes of ice off the supercold fuel tanks.
(5) “May 16, 1963—Mercury IX: Gordon Cooper reported a greenish UFO with a red tail during his fifteenth orbit. He also reported other mysterious sightings over South America and Australia. The object he sighted over Perth, Australia, was caught on screens by ground tracking stations.” Cooper has recently denounced all stories of UFOs on his space flights as fabrications—this one included The multicolor UFO is probably based on a misquotation of Cooper’s postflight report on a sighting of the Aurora Australis.
(6) “October 3, 1963—Mercury VIII: Walter Schirra reported large glowing masses over the Indian Ocean.” Indeed he did, referring to lightning-lit cloud masses over the nighttime ocean a hundred miles below.
(7) “March 8, 1964—Voskhod 2: Russian cosmonauts reported an unidentified object just as they entered the Earth’s atmosphere.” Several hours before returning to Earth the cosmonauts spotted a cylindershaped object they assumed (probably correctly) was just another manmade satellite. Such sightings were becoming more and more frequent as the number of manned flights and unmanned satellites rose.
(8) “June 3, 1964—Gemini IV: Jim McDivitt reported he photographed several strange objects, including a cylindrical object with arms sticking out and an eggshaped UFO with some sort of exhaust.” This is the most famous “astronaut-UFO” case and it has been embellished and distorted in dozens of publications. McDivitt saw a “beer can-shaped” object, which he took to be another manmade satellite (some observers believe it was his own booster rocket), and tried to take a few photos which did not turn out. A still from the movie camera was mistakenly released without the astronaut’s review, showing what turned out to be a light reflection off his copilot’s window, according to McDivitt. Some UFO buffs became excited about this photo and acclaimed it as one of the best UFO photos ever taken, showing (they claim) a glowing object with a plasma tail. But, McDivitt denies he saw anything like that in space.
(9) “October 12, 1964—Voskhod 1: Three Russian cosmonauts reported they were surrounded by a formation of swiftly moving disc-shaped objects.” This story appears to be a complete fabrication but certain UFO believers cling to it while challenging skeptics to approve it did NOT happen.”
(10) “December 4, 1965—Gemini VIII: Frank Borman and Jim Lovell photographed twin oval-shaped UFOs with glowing undersides.” This famous photograph is a blatant forgery (by sensationalist elements of the media), in which light reflections off the nose of the spacecraft were later made to look like UFOs, by airbrushing away the vehicle structure around them
(11) “July 18, 1966—Gemini X: John Young and Mike Collins saw a large, cylindrical object accompanied by two smaller, bright objects, which Young photographed. NASA failed to pick them up on screens.” The astronauts reported two bright fragments near their spacecraft soon after launch, presumably pieces of the booster or of some other satellite. No photos were taken. They were out of range of NASA radar at this point anyway.
(12) “September 12, 1966—Gemini XI: Richard Gordon and Charles Conrad reported a yellow-orange UFO about six miles from them. It dropped down in front of them and then disappeared when they tried to photograph it.” The astronauts described the close passage of another space satellite, identified by NORAD as the Russian Proton-3 satellite (an identification later disproved by Bruce Maccabee). The men
got three fuzzy photos which, much blown up, have been widely published. But their eyesight accounts describe a solid satellite-looking object on ballistic nonmaneuvering path.
(13) “November 11, 1966—Gemini XIII: Jim Lovell and Edwin Aldrin saw four UFOs linked in a row. Both spacemen said the objects were not stars.” Indeed they were not, since the astronauts were talking about four bags of trash they had thrown overboard an hour earlier!
(14) “December 21, 1968—Apollo VIII: Frank Borman and Jim Lovell reported a “bogie”—an unidentified object—ten miles up.” Actually, Borman referred to a “bogie” on his first space flight three years before, describing some pieces of debris associated with his spacecraft’s separation from the booster rocket. The reference to Apollo VIII is careless, possibly even fictitious.
(15) “July 16, 1969—Apollo XI: This was a mission on which a UFO reportedly chased the spacecraft.” “Reportedly,” indeed, but not very accurate. Actually, several UFO stories have attached themselves barnacle-like to man’s first moon landing. A photo of an insulation fragment taken soon after third-stage separation has been widely published as a “UFO.” The astronauts watched their booster through a telescope on the way to the moon. A series of “UFO photos” allegedly taken by astronaut Aldrin in lunar orbit are actually forgeries by a Japanese UFO magazine. An alleged “astronaut radio conversation” describing a UFO ambush is a hoax.
(16) “November 14, 1969—Apollo XII: Astronauts Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, and Dick Gordon said a UFO accompanied them to within 132,000 miles of the moon, preceding them all the way.” They never said that. They were joking with the ground control about a tumbling piece of their booster rocket which was flashing in the sky. Certain UFO buffs completely misunderstood the meaning of the conversation and conjured up a UFO. On the way back to Earth, the astronauts were puzzled by a light between them and the Earth which turned out to be the reflection of the moon behind them on the nighttime Indian Ocean below.
The “UFO” at the right in this NASA photograph is actually an insulation fragment from the Apollo XI rocket.
Many other “astronaut reports” have been added to this list, including photographs from Skylab (of a passing satellite, distorted by some camera artifact), from Apollo lunar flights (movies showing debris floating around inside the cabin), and from other Mercury and Gemini flights. None, when investigated with an appreciation of the actual spaceflight environment, appears to be “extraordinary” or “unusual,” although many sightings of passing satellites remain technically “unidentified” because the actual satellites have never been named (since nobody has taken the trouble to spend the necessary time searching computer memory banks).
The entire phenomenon of the “astronaut UFO sightings,” however, does explicitly demonstrate the carelessness and lack of verification among certain UFO circles eager to exchange the latest, hottest stories without any regard for authenticity or accuracy. UFO skeptics have claimed that this characteristic is not limited to the “astronaut UFO sightings.” The topic is not one to which some UFO specialists can point with pride in their own behavior and standards of reliability.
Nevertheless it is still commonly claimed that there exists some sort of “coverup” by NASA of secret photographs and/or voice transcripts from space. In fact, every photograph taken by NASA in space is available for publication and can be inspected by accredited news media representatives (there are tens of thousands of photos and no way to arrange public viewing). Volumes and volumes of voice transcripts are readily available at NASA/Houston.
Astronauts are often quoted about UFOs. Sometimes the “quotations” are completely fictitious! Only one astronaut claims to have seen a UFO in space; and that is James McDivitt, who stipulates that his definition of a UFO covers the probability that his object was some other manmade satellite which has not been identified. He does not think it was an alien space vehicle or any such similar “real UFO” manifestation.
—JAMES E. OBERG
atomic bomb and UFOs Imagine a U.S. government project involving many of the world’s top scientists developing a fantastic new technology, requiring the services of thousands of workers in three separate locations, yet a project so secret that not even the Vice President knew about it. “Area 51” perhaps? No, it was the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb.
Of course there was a war on, so the secrecy that surrounded the Manhattan Project was easier to maintain and more acceptable to the public. Still, it was extraordinary. The people who lived around Los Alamos, New Mexico (the scientific center for the project) knew that something was going on at “the Hill” behind all that barbed wire—they just didn’t know what. The government deliberately and successfully spread false rumors about project.
Even the test of the first atomic bomb at the Trinity site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, the largest manmade explosion ever (at the time), was kept secret. The test site was remote, but thousands of unauthorized people saw the explosion. The cover story was that a large ammunition magazine had blown up. Local newspapers were pressured to not add any additional details or speculate about other explanations.
A cub reporter for a Chicago newspaper got a call from a man who had been traveling through the area and told her, in great detail, about the crash of a huge meteorite. She wrote a short article about it. The next day she found herself being grilled by FBI agents and as a result promised to write no more about “the meteorite.”
A few weeks later, after atom bombs had been dropped on Japan, and the war came to an end, information about what had been accomplished, and how, began to come out—though the full story would not be revealed for years.
It was the birth of the Atomic Age in 1945—even more than the birth of the Space Age—more than a dozen years later, that profoundly influenced the development of UFO beliefs.
People realized that the government was capable of covering up even such an enormous development. Then there was the psychological impact of “the Bomb” itself. After the initial “we won the war” euphoria was over, the reality that humanity had developed the power with which to destroy itself set in. When flying saucer reports began in 1947, there was much speculation that it was the atomic explosions themselves that had attracted the attention of the extraterrestrials.
There was also a widespread belief that nuclear war was inevitable, that the human race did not have the ability to save itself, and could only be saved by extraterrestrial intervention. That was the theme of much early UFO science fiction, like the film The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and of many of the early contactee tales of the “Space Brothers.”
This connection—between the atomic bomb and UFOs—was reinforced by the fact that a large number of the most important UFO cases took place in the same desert southwest where the Bomb was developed and tested. There was Roswell, of course, and the variety of other “flying saucer crashes” that were supposed to have taken place in the same general area. There were many UFO reports from the area of the Alamogordo Bombing Range, where the Trinity site was located. Later there was the well publicized Socorro, New Mexico, case; Socorro being one of the population centers closest to Los Alamos.
—DANIEL COHEN
Aveley (England) abduction On a Sunday evening, the Avis family was driving home after a visit with relatives at Harold Hill, when they experienced, first, a UFO sighting, then, a green mist that enveloped their car and a “time loss” (apparent amnesia) of about three hours. Three years following the alleged events, timeregression hypnosis was used to “unlock” memories of an apparent abduction of the Avis family (involving teleportation of their car) by strange creatures on board the UFO.
The story concerns John and Elaine Avis (pseudonyms), a young married couple with three children. They had been visiting some relatives at Harold Hill, Essex (near London), on October 27, 1974, but had been delayed longer than they had expected. (John had wanted to be home by 10:20 P.M. to see a particular television program.) The family left at 9:50 P.M. f
or the normal twenty-minute drive back to the quiet village of Aveley; and no problems were anticipated. Karen and Stuart, the two younger children, were asleep on the back seat, and seven-year-old Kevin was awake, listening to the local radio station.
Kevin was the first to spot a pale blue, oval light traveling alongside the car over the open fields. Elaine and John discussed possibilities, but none seemed to fit properly. They watched for some minutes, as it was intermittently obscured by trees and scattered houses, alongside the road. They came to accept the object as a UFO, but thought no more of it than that. As the car entered some very dark and lonely stretches of road on the outskirts of Aveley, they saw the light pass across the road in front of them and disappear.
The Avises drove on for about a mile, and were quite close to home. The time was about 10:10 P.M. Suddenly, the couple was overcome by a feeling that something was wrong; all sounds in their car seemed to vanish. The radio started to crackle and smoke, and with an instinctive reaction, John ripped out the wiring. Then the headlights went out, but not before they had caught sight of an eerie block of green mist enveloping the road in front of them. The car jerked as it entered the mist. There was silence and a strange coldness. Then, within what seemed like about a second, they left the mist with another jerk, and things apparently returned to normal.
What happened when the car came out of the mist is uncertain. John recalled only the car being a half mile farther along the road, and feeling as if he were alone. The car was functioning normally. Elaine’s memory returned yet another half-mile farther. Kevin was awake, but the other children were still asleep. Within a few minutes, the family had reached home.
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters Page 19
