Amherst, NY 14226
U.S.A.
Web site:
www.csicop.org
Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (The MIT Press, 1973) edited by Carl Sagan. In 1971 more than fifty American and Russian scientists and academicians met at a conference to debate the prospects for communicating with other life in the universe. Numerous unconventional theories for the evolution of intelligent life were offered: that life can exist at the level of elementary particles; that life can exist on planetary systems without suns; that comets could be a home for technological civilizations, and so we should be aiming our radio telescopes at both comets and stars.
—RANDALL FITZGERALD
Communion (William Morrow, 1987). Horror fiction novelist Whitley Strieber captapulted himself onto the top of the New York Times bestseller list with this book describing how he used hypnosis to uncover memories of having been abducted by aliens from childhood through adulthood.
According to Strieber abductions are connected to the number three and a triangular shape, because the visitors often appear in threes wearing triangular shapes or devices. He ends the book on a cautionary note: “I cannot say, in all truth, that I am certain the visitors are present as entities entirely independent of their observers.”
—RANDALL FITZGERALD
Communion Foundation The Communion Foundation was founded as a private foundation by Whitley and Anne Strieber in 1988. It remains a private foundation, supported only by contributions from the Striebers.
By 1997, with the surgical removal of unexplained objects from the bodies of close encounter witnesses, innovations in memory research, and advances in video recording technology it has become clear that science now has the tools to make some clear determinations about the nature of both the close encounter experience and UFOs.
The Foundation does not have any bias for or against the notion that contact with a nonhuman intelligence may be under way. Its bias is toward objectivity and its goal is to answer the questions correctly.
However, a powerful prejudice has evolved within the culture of science against any research into this area at all. Without clear direction and a credible source of funding, genuine scientific progress will be impossible. The Foundation intends to work against this prejudice by educating scientists in the fact that there is a serious problem to be solved, there are interesting and useful discoveries to be made, and an obligation to replace public confusion with objective knowledge.
MISSION STATEMENT
It is the mission of the Communion Foundation to provide funding to established scientific institutions and credentialed professionals within the scientific and academic communities to accomplish the following objectives:
1. To engage in research into brain function associated with memory, in order to determine the degree to which specific memories refer to experiences that the subject perceived as a physical event.
2. To carry out sequential studies of close encounter witnesses in order to determine their profile within social and population groups.
3. To study the tens of thousands of witness narratives archived by the foundation in the past ten years in order to construct a clear and correct picture of the close encounter phenomenon. This is expected to be vastly different from current preconceptions.
4. To engage in the removal and examination of unknown objects from the bodies of close encounter witnesses and, if possible, a sample of subjects displaying the presence of such objects but reporting no close encounter memories.
5. To encourage and facilitate research into new propulsion technologies intended to replace heat, chemical reaction and atomic propulsion in order to provide mankind with an efficient means of expanding into the solar system and the farther cosmos on as broad a scale as possible.
Address:
5928 Broadway
San Antonio, TX 78209
U.S.A.
Web site:
www.whitleysworld.com
Condon Study See UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO UFO PROJECT.
Confederation of Planets in Service to the Infinite Creator A term used in classic channeled text, The RA Material (a.k.a. The Law of One series), as well as other channeled sources, beginning with the 1950s contactees. The term denotes an intergalactic collective of benevolently-oriented extraterrestrial races (comparable to the “Ashtar Command”), which aids human evolution on Earth, as the source for all “positively-oriented” ET contacts throughout the ages. It can be assumed this group goes by many different names; but regardless of name, it points to a unified association of ET races in our portion of the galaxy, serving to assist the development of consciousness. Many spiritually oriented teachers also believe that Earth will join this collective in the near future.
—SCOTT MANDELKER
Contactees Shortly after the influx of UFO sightings in the early 1950s came a new phase of saucerism: the emergence of the “contactees.” Suddenly, it seemed, the Space People who piloted the heretofore unidentified craft were now introducing themselves to a select group of individuals, chosen, or self-appointed, to spread the wisdom of the “Space Brothers” to all mankind.
The Space Brothers came from Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, “Clarion,” and even from the Earth in times gone by. The contactee stories were deeply rooted in a strong religious tradition. More accurately, they were mystical “New Agers” who embraced the “mystery” religions of the East (especially Hinduism) as well as the Messianic traditions of the West. They were also utopians.
The Space People were described as idealized humans from idyllic societies whose message was one of love and peace. Obviously inspired by Cold War tensions and the resulting paranoia, the contactees were the “chosen ones” selected by the Space People to warn mankind of its folly.
Among UFOlogists, the contactees were seen as distinct from witnesses merely reporting UFO occupants and UFO “kidnap” victims known as “abductees.” The typical occupant report involved a chance encounter in which the witness would just happen upon a landed craft and entities associated with it. Although this is sometimes the claim made by contactees concerning their initial encounter, once contact is made there is usually a long series of continued encounters that are planned rather than accidental. Furthermore, there are usually specially arranged meetings for instructional purposes. In these meetings, the Space People benevolently impart their secret, cosmic knowledge—and most importantly, “Cosmic Laws”—to the chosen ones. As such they become initiates and assume their mission on Earth, which is to promote cosmic awareness—sometimes by spearheading new religions.
In recent years “abductees” have begun to serve as messengers for the same spiritual beliefs that were formerly associated with the contactees—hence blurring a sharp distinction that once existed.
—RONALD D. STORY
Corrales, Scott (b. 1963). Scott Corrales is a writer and translator of UFO and paranormal subjects dealing with Latin America and Spain. His work has appeared in magazines in the U.S., U.K., Japan, Spain, and Italy. Corrales is also the author of Chupacabras and Other Mysteries (Greenleaf, 1997), Flashpoint: High Strangeness in Puerto Rico (Amarna, 1998) and Forbidden Mexico (1999). He lives in Pennsylvania, where he edits Inexplicata: The Journal of Hispanic Ufology.
Address:
P.O. Box 228,
Derrick City, PA 16727
U.S.A.
E-mail:
[email protected]
Web Site:
www.inexplicata.com
POSITION STATEMENT: The UFO phenomenon is undoubtedly real and represents one of humanity’s greatest concerns, yet one that it has steadily chosen to ignore over the years, largely out of complacency.
In my opinion, the UFO phenomenon is interdimensional in origin, with “interdimensional” being understood as another level or plane of existence coequal to our own that serves as the home base of the UFO phenomenon and perhaps many others.
Whether the UFO and its attendant phenomena manifest in our
own reality by chance or design cannot be ascertained, but the sheer number of sightings and encounters with nonhuman entities leads me to think that their visits have always been deliberate.
Curiously enough, humanity has always been in contact with these entities, which appear under a number of names and identities, but has only recently come to identify them as “UFO occupants,” “aliens,” “ultraterrestrials,” etc.
General awareness of this fact would perhaps serve to heal the breach between the spiritual and the physical that has always existed in Western society, particularly since the rise of Scientism.
—SCOTT CORRALES
Cosmic Consciousness This term was coined by the Canadian psychiatrist Richard Maurice Bucke, in 1899, to denote a higher level of spiritual awareness. “The prime characteristic of Cosmic Consciousness is, as its name implies, a consciousness of the cosmos, that is, of the life and order of the universe,” Bucke wrote. “In the evolution of the human mind simple consciousness was first produced; then self-consciousness; and lastly…Cosmic Consciousness.” (Bucke, 1901)
This theoretical model of human awareness emphasizes those changes in human consciousness that occur as a result of UFO encounters, and the personal and social transformations that develop around the meaning and significance of UFO experiences. This model also contains the minor hypothesis that UFO investigators are themselves UFO contactees.
This model is based on the work of Teilhard de Chardin, Julian Huxley, and the emerging theories of a holigraphic universe. (Ferguson, 1977; Wilbur, 1982)
Ferguson quotes Ilya Prigogine with regard to social and cultural transformations: “Cultures are ‘perhaps the most coherent and strangest of dissipative structures.’ Some innovations succeed, but others are suppressed by the surrounding ‘medium,’ the dominant society. A critical number of advocates of change can create a ‘preferential direction’ like the ordering of a crystal or a magnet organizes the whole.” (Ferguson, 1979)
Prigogine’s theory of cultural transformations may provide theoretical support for empirical evidence which has been obtained for the hypothesis of the “1% Effect”: 1 percent of persons in society, practicing daily meditation, can significantly lower levels of crime, sickness, accident rates, etc.; they can significantly increase the conditions for an ideal society (Zimmerman, 1979); and they can reduce significantly the crime rates in an urban area. (Arons and Arons, 1981)
The UFO experience may be hypothesized as a program to increase the level of awareness and spiritual knowledge through the individual contactee. For example: A French physician, Dr. “X” experienced “healing” as a result of his UFO observation. (Michel, 1979) A 73-year-old Argentine gaucho, Ventura Maceiras, suddenly gained more philosophical and scientific knowledge after his UFO experience. (Romaniuk, 1973) A young woman, Betty Andreasson, with a fundamentalist religious faith, encountered humanoids whose food is “knowledge tried by fire.” (Fowler, 1979)
Each of these UFO-related experiences seemed to be based on the views of reality that were held by the observer/experiencer, but each of these experiences apparently extended their views of reality, as well. In a holographic universe, a sophisticated observer can obtain many views of each hologram, and yet each “spacetime” event contains all of the elements of the larger order of reality.
So, each UFO experience can be hypothesized as a separate “spacetime” display, and yet each UFO display can be viewed as a “lens” that allows the observer to gain a larger display: a glimpse of the universe, or Cosmic Consciousness Conditioning. (Sprinkle, 1976a)
UFO CONTACTEE EXPERIENCES
In the opinion of the writer, the asinine, bizarre, and crazy aspects of UFO/alien activity can be hypothesized as the ABC’s of a Cosmic Consciousness Conditioning (CCC) program: to change humans from Planetary Persons to Cosmic Citizens.
This CCC hypothesis may be wrong; certainly it is difficult to test. However, it is appropriate to explore, because many UFO contactees claim that it is the basis for their experiences and for the direction of their lives. So, we can learn something about the psychology and the sociology of UFO experiences, even if the claims of UFO contactees cannot be substantiated by current traditional scientific investigations.
Since 1980, a group of interested persons in Laramie, Wyoming, have conducted the Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation. The main purpose of the “Contactee Conference,” as it is also called, is to provide a forum for private and/or public presentations by UFO contactees and UFO investigators, so they can become acquainted and share information.
UFO contactees and UFO investigators are often suspicious of one another, in the same way that “mystics” and “skeptics” are often suspicious of one another and drawn together by their mutual need for one another! Some of us who participate in the Contactee Conference view ourselves as both UFO investigators and UFO contactees.
We are willing to discuss our UFO experiences as well as our investigations. The writer views himself as biased in at least two ways: (1) As a “contactee,” who has described his UFO encounters of 1949 and 1956, and his 1980 recollection (or fantasy or impression) of a fifth grade experience on board a space craft, with a tall man who said: “Leo, learn to read and write well; when you grow up, you can help other people learn more about their purpose in life.” (2) As a UFO investigator who has talked with hundreds of UFO witnesses, read thousands of reports, and spent many hours discussing various aspects of UFO experiences with other investigators and contactees, including hypnotic sessions with more than 500 UFO abductees. These biases, or course, influence the writer—positively and negatively—in his UFO investigations. However, these biases do not negate the UFO contactee phenomenon.
As reported in the 1981 Proceedings of the Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation, the writer has worked with many persons who describe in hypnotic sessions their memories or impressions of abductions by UFO occupants or “UFOLKS.”
These persons often express the fear of being crazy, or being ridiculed by relatives, friends, or neighbors. But they usually express relief upon learning that other participants have reported similar events: strange dreams, physiological symptoms such as bodily marks, poltergeist activity, apparitions, electromagnetic anomalies, and “mental messages” from entities who claim to come from outer space.
Of course, many investigators express doubts about the use of hypnotic procedures for the evaluation_of UFO experiences (e.g., Hendry, 1979; Lawson, 1976). However, the exploration of “loss of time” experiences, or amnesic periods during UFO sightings, can be enhanced. Later, perhaps, other evidence can be obtained which can be used to support, or refute, the information obtained in hypnotic sessions.
Since 1976, the writer has been conducting a“Survey of Psychic Impressions of UFO Phenomena.” (Sprinkle, 1976b) Over 600 participants have completed a questionnaire.
The majority of these persons present profiles of “normal” responses to psychological inventories, and yet they are puzzled by their UFO experiences and related changes in their lives. Many of these Persons (e.g., Fisher, (1981); Kannenberg, (1979); and McNames, 1981) have described their claims of verbal messages or mental communications which offer information about the purposes of UFO personalities.
What follows is a summary of these claims about UFO experiences and related conditions:
1. UFO contactees have been chosen; no UFO contact is accidental.
2. Contactees are ordinary people, who exhibit a caring or a loving concern for all humankind.
3. Contactees have an experience which can be viewed as a manifestation of their ideas of reality. 4. UFO experiences include paraphysical, parapsychological, and spiritual manifestations which are designed to influence the “world view” of contactees.
5. Contactees receive information during, and after, their UFO experiences that is related to their life interests (e.g., natural sciences social sciences, music and art, ancient civilizations, psychic phenomena, reincarnation, metaphysical and spir
itual knowledge, etc.).
6. Contactees are gently coerced into studies and activities which blend with the ultimate purpose of UFO entities; they are not forced to be obedient to UFOLKS.
7. Contacts are initiated and maintained within the general framework of the contactees’ views of reality. (Thus, UFO contacts can be viewed as physical, face-to-face encounters with flesh and blood beings, or out-of-body experiences, or mental programming by UFOLKS; or UFO contacts can be viewed as dreams, fantasies, and/or subconscious ideas which are manifested consciously, without external stimulus.)
8. Contactees are programmed for a variety of “future” activities, including awareness of their own contacts and desire to share their messages and knowledge with other contactees.
9. The lives of contactees move in the direction of greater self-awareness, greater concern for the welfare of the planet Earth, and a greater sense of Cosmic Citizenship with other beings in the universe.
10. The personal metamorphosis of UFO contactees is the forerunner of a social transformation in human consciousness, which now is leading to changes in the economic, educational, military, political, and religious institutions of nations of the Earth: the “New Age” of true science and spirituality
EXAMPLE OF A UFO CONTACTEE EXPERIENCE
Ann (Canary) Brooke (a.k.a. “Gloria Archer”) experienced some strange events, which for many long years caused her much distress. She is a bright, attractive, and perceptive person; however, she was raised in a family that valued family unity, nationalism, traditional views of “common sense” reality, and Christian fundamentalist beliefs.
She was unable to talk with her family about her UFO experience, which included: the out-of-the body experience; near-death experience; abduction; bodily and sexual examination; and mental communication with UFO entities.
Results of psychological inventories were in the normal range. Hypnotic suggestions to recall and relive her UFO experiences were helpful to her in recognizing that she had experienced direct contact with alien beings. Ann Brooke described the effects of her UFO experience as follows:
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters Page 26
