The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters

by Story, Ronald

  While NICAP found some support for their position in Congress, nothing happened until the infamous “swamp gas” fiasco caused a loss of credibility in the Air Force’s handling of the UFO problem. On April 5, 1966, Congress held open hearings. This led to the creation of the Condon Committee to undertake a new investigation—in essence, to get a second opinion of the Air Force’s diagnosis. Keyhoe rejoiced, calling it “the most significant development in the history of UFO investigation.”

  Condon confirmed the diagnosis: “We know of no reason to question the finding of the Air Force that the whole class so far considered does not pose a defense problem.” While critics carped on the inability of the committee to solve all the cases they studied, the issue of their agreeing with the absence of a threat went unnoticed. The cases in the report don’t suggest much violence beyond the guy who was purportedly burned from a blast of hot gasses expelled by a saucer as it started spinning up for takeoff (the Michalak case). Even if you accept the story—investigators didn’t—there is no hint that the harm was intentional.

  The writings of the Lorenzens were required reading in the sixties. Flying Saucers: The Startling Evidence of the Invasion from Outer Space (1966) builds on the Keyhoe thesis that UFOs are engaged in reconnaissance. They are painstakingly mapping the geographical features of our country and testing our defense capabilities. The 1952 Washington D.C. incidents are regarded as accidental incursions by aliens mistaking the capitol and White House for military installations. The Lorenzens expect they will be setting up bases since the taking of plants, boulders, and soil samples probably means they are testing what sort of agriculture they should establish. The Ubatuba explosion is regarded as self-destruction to prevent superior technology from getting into our hands and revealing its secrets. There is a bare possibility it was an atomic explosion. “UFOs are powerful radioactive sources.” The dangers they pose extend to the possibility that our next war could involve “all nations fighting as brothers against a com mon foe from outer space.” (Lorenzen, 1966)

  They showcase the ideas of Dr. Olavo Fontes that UFOs possessed weapons like heat rays and a device that inhibited the function of petrol engines. They claim priority, however, that the observations UFOs made of cars and planes in the early years were done in order to devise these antimachine machines to disable propulsion systems.

  A pattern of reconnaissance is seen which suggests to them that aliens plan to release sleeping drugs into strategic reservoirs and water tanks as a means of bringing the world to its knees in a matter of hours. They are concerned there are too many blackouts on our power grids. There are also people disappearing. Is this the procuring of specimens? Add to this the case of a woman with medical problems they interpret as radiation effects. No person of conscience can ignore the UFO problem in the light of all this. The UFO problem has to be taken out of the hands of the military who are lulling us into a false sense of security and given to an international commission who will handle this red-hot political problem.

  “We are in urgent need of the acquisition and objective analysis of basic data.” We are facing potential danger. Maybe they aren’t hostile, but “there is no indication of friendliness either… The existence of a species of superior beings in the universe could cause the civilization of Earth to topple.” This urgency “defies expression.” We must be anxious to relearn the lessons of history: Billy Mitchell, Maginot, Pearl Harbor, and so on.

  Flying Saucer Occupants (1967), the next offering by the Lorenzens, is less suffused with fear. It is primarily a survey of non-contactee UFOnaut reports. As such it is a mixed bag open to a variety of interpretations from “conquerors from space” and “members of a military organization” to “a breeding experiment” to simply “visitors.” While they prefer to simply assert the reality of these aliens, they admit in the final paragraph an alternative theory: “The population of the world is falling victim to a particularly insidious and apparently contagious mental disease which generates hallucinations involving specific types of airships and humanoids. This disease seems to be spreading. Who will be next to contract the malady? You?”

  The choice of metaphor is interesting and was itself infectious. It turns up in the writings of J. Allen Hynek for one. In an article for Playboy he asserts that if an intensive investigation were carried out for a year and yielded nothing, we could shrug off the UFO problem with, “There must have been a virus going around.” In The UFO Experience (1972), he asks, “Are then, all these reporters of UFOs truly sick? If so, what is the sickness? Are these people all affected by some strange ‘virus’ that does not affect ‘sensible’ people? What a strange sickness this must be, attacking people in all walks of life, regardless of training and vocation, and making them, for a very limited of time—only minutes sometimes—behave in a strange way and see things that are belied by the reliable and stable manner and actions they exhibit in the rest of their lives.”

  Gordon Creighton offered the longest exposition of this metaphor in The Humanoids (1966):

  One thing at least is certain. These stories of alleged meeting with denizens of other worlds or realms or levels of existence constitute a fascinating social, psychological—and possibly also a parapsychological enigma. And surely an enigma of some urgency, for if the growing numbers of people all over our planet who claim these experiences are indeed hallucinating, or, as we are confidently told, suffering from the stresses and strains of the Nuclear age, then it is plain as a pikestaff that they are in grave need of psychological study and medical attention. If a brand new psychosis is loose amongst us, then, instead of wasting so much time on why we hate our fathers and love our mothers, our mental experts and psychologists ought to have been there right from the start, studying and combating this new plague since its outbreak nearly twenty years ago! Valuable time has been lost. By now, they might have come to important conclusions, or even licked the malady!

  Even rendered in these facetious terms the imperative quality of the UFO problem is retained in the overwrought choice of words like plague and grave need. Aimé Michel also utilized the disease metaphor in suggesting the alien “dominate us only to the degree that the microbe dominates us when we are ill.”

  UFOs Over the Americas, the Lorenzens’ 1968 title, is more suffused with confusion than fear. They note a new phase of UFO activity involving car chases. A new observation is advanced that UFOs show a proclivity to be sighted near cemeteries. They speculate this is just their way of trying to figure out what funeral processions might be about. They criticize the scientific community for holding the position that UFOs show “no intelligent pattern of behavior; they zip hither and yon but don’t seem to be going anywhere.” Yet elsewhere they observe “the extraterrestrials’ motivations and overall purpose are so well concealed as to suggest a deliberate attempt to confuse.” They call for a UN sponsored agency to look into the matter, yet they also predict UFOs would appear so constantly that “it should be evident before the end of 1968 just what UFOs are.”

  Alas, their 1969 volume UFOs—The Whole Story was unable to proclaim what that evident identity was. The concern over invasion drops away, replaced by assumptions of aloofness. The stoppage of vehicles is downgraded from weapons-testing activity to a means of studying humans at a more leisurely pace. The fears vanish in favor of discussions of UFO politics and UFOnauts being time-travelers.

  The writings of Frank Edwards were the bestselling books of the sixties. Edwards is sometimes dismissed as a journalist and not a UFOlogist, in part because of the embarrassing errors he made. The substance of the books however is heavily indebted to Keyhoe and NICAP. The flyleaf of Flying Saucers—Serious Business (1966) is notable for a flying saucer health warning that epitomizes the fearful spirit of the decade:

  WARNING!

  Near approaches of Unidentified Flying Objects can be harmful to human beings. Do not stand under a UFO that is hovering at low altitude. Do not touch or attempt to touch a UFO that has landed. In either case, the safe t
hing to do is get away from there quickly and let the military take over. There is a possibility of radiation danger, and there are known cases in which persons have been burned by rays emanating from UFOs. Details on these cases are included in this book.

  Edwards’ book affirms the reality of cases involving “eye damage, burns, radioactivity, partial or temporary paralysis, and various types of physiological disturbances.” He talks of heat waves and stun rays; and the relationship between UFOs and blackouts is explored at length. “They have shown the ability, and sometimes the apparent inclination, to interfere with or prevent the functioning of our electrical and electronic systems.” Despite these hints of malevolence, Edwards proclaims at the finale that contact will be the “the greatest experience of the human race.”

  The sequel Flying Saucers—Here and Now (1967) was spawned by the incredible increase in saucer sightings and saucer interest in the middle of the decade. Writings that, in cooler times, would have stimulated half a dozen letters now filled bags at magazine offices. Besides chronicling the rush of unfolding events, the book includes James McDonald’s call for a full-scale Congressional investigation. Edwards maintains UFOs are not hostile, but warns contact will have tremendous impact theologically, psychologically, and sociologically. And that contact is described as imminent.

  George Fawcett surveyed UFO cases for repetitive features in a February 1965 article. (See FAWCETT’S “REPETITIONS”) Among his catalogue of commonalities were the phenomena of pursuit, cases of increased background radiation, cases of electrical shock, burns, dimming of vision, blackouts, temporary paralysis, and hostile acts. In April 1968, he cites dozens of UFO chases, a half-dozen deaths attributed to close encounters, and numerous instances of electromagnetic interference with machinery. He laments that it “may already be too late” for our government to act on the UFO problem. Their crossing of international boundaries could result in “an accidental World War III by mistake.” He adds his voice to chorus of people calling for the verification of UFO reality: “The growing UFO problem worldwide must be solved in 1968 or the explosive situation of UFOs may easily get out of our control and reap a ‘real’ disaster beyond all imagination. A worldwide probe of this problem is long overdue and should be handled through the United Nations.”

  The works of Jacques Vallée are a must in every UFOlogist’s library. His first book Anatomy of a Phenomenon: The Detailed and Unbiased Report on UFOs (1965) remains one of the most dispassionate overviews of the UFO mystery attempted and is virtually beyond reproach. The conclusion of the study is sheer poetry: “The contours of a complex intelligence can be discerned and our dreams have reached across the night. The sky will never be the same.” Keyhoe had said essentially the same thing in his first book, but Vallée had the better sensibility of where it belonged for maximum effect.

  Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma (1966), Vallée’s next book, drifts into the fear mentality of the era. There is a call for verification by means of the creation of an international scientific commission to separate out those elements that are the work of imagination from those that constitute the physical basis of the phenomenon. The challenges they pose are “unwelcome” and “disturbing,” but must be addressed because “our own existence will be dependent upon the sincerity with which we conduct this research.” This flirtation with fear is gone by Passport to Magonia (1969) where entity behavior is dismissed as consistently absurd and misleading. The search for answers may be futile for they may only constitute a dream that never existed in reality.

  Brad Steiger’s books are rich sources of threatening themes. The call for verification appears in Strangers from the Skies (1966) with a recommendation for an “objective and respected panel” to appraise the situation. UFOs create blackouts and that ability makes national defense “a bad joke.” The Lorenzens’ notion that UFOs might beam down hypnotic drugs into our drinking water gets repeated. More creatively, Steiger offers the thought that one incident involves galactic experiments in cremation. It seemed UFOs were ready to invade the U.S. on a full scale. “We must be prepared to establish peaceful communication or be prepared to accept annihilation.” Much more could be cited, but the books basically hash over the same sort of material as Edwards, the Lorenzens, and Fawcett.

  John Fuller’s writings are equally rich sources of malevolence. The familiar themes of blackouts and physiological reactions and mechanical breakdowns recur, as does the call for verification by means of a “scientific investigation on a major scale.” This is “urgently” needed because of the “startling, alarming, and dangerous material” surfacing. There is “mounting seriousness.” He devotes a whole book on the Betty Hill case, which is notably involved in fear of radiation poisoning, a secret abduction, and a nightmarish operation involving a needle thrust in a woman’s navel with no prior anesthesia.

  One the more interesting fears appeared in an article written by J. Allen Hynek shortly after his conversion in the wake of the humiliating swamp gas affair. Hynek expressed worry that the Russians might solve the mystery with results that would “shake America so hard that the launching of Sputnik in 1957 would appear in retrospect as important as a Russian announcement of a particularly large wheat crop.” Hynek felt a Russian colleague slipped when he revealed Russian scientists were not permitted to discuss UFOs. They may have been “studying with dispassionate thoroughness for years.” This suggested that official denials of their reality were a cover.

  Jerome Clark offered one of the more paradoxical reactions to Hynek’s swamp gas statement. He took issue with the comment that a dismal swamp is a most unlikely place for a visit from space. Clark avers, contrarily, it is the most likely place since they could go there without being seen. They go to fantastic lengths to prevent us from knowing what they are doing. This included killing a whole village of people in one incident and the erasing of people’s memories in other cases. He berates the idea that injuries are caused in self-defense as inane. Noting that we have tried to force UFOs down, he remarks that we have been treating them with more respect than they deserve. The change of attitude from the 50s when UFOs possessed savior-faire is nowhere more strikingly illustrated.

  The call for verification turns up again as the subject of a resolution drafted during a 1967 gathering of UFO buffs. They proclaim that UFOs are identified vehicles from outer space and that this is a question of a vital problem concerning the whole world. “All nations must unite in mutual research and scientific cooperation to investigate and solve this for the common cause and mutual advancement of our peaceful relationship in outer space.”

  The theme turns up in several variations during the Roush Congressional hearings on July 29, 1968. James McDonald wanted a pluralistic approach employing NASA, NSA, ONR, and even the Federal Power Commission—the last to take up the subject of blackouts. J. Allen Hynek wanted Congress to establish a UFO Scientific Board of Inquiry. James A. Harder wanted a multifaceted approach, preferably at several institutions simultaneously. Robert M. Baker wanted a well-funded program with the highest possible standards. Donald Menzel, ever the skeptic, thought the time and money would be completely wasted in such studies.

  Towards the end of 1968 the Rand Document recommended a central collection agency with analysis given over to specialists. The last significant expression of this notion appears in 1973, when James McDonald recommends setting up a two-phased research effort: Phase 1, price-tagged at $4 million, would “confirm absolutely the existence of UFOs in scientific terms and identify any advanced technologies.” Phase 2 would define the new technology and was price-tagged in the $75-million to $100-million range. Needless to add, nobody leaped forward to fund this idea. People complained the half-million dollars for the Condon commission was a waste.

  The concern over invasion spawned some spectacular notions in Raymond Palmer’s The Real UFO Invasion (1967). Palmer offered evidence that the U.S. was preparing for war with weapons so titanic they couldn’t have been intended for a mere internationa
l war. That war was not in the future either. Palmer points to nuclear blasts in Project Argus as being against a satellite not made by earthmen.

  Gordon Lore’s Strange Effects from UFOs: A Special NICAP Report (1969), Robert Loftin’s Identified Flying Saucers (1968), and Otto Binder’s What We Really Know About Flying Saucers (1967) deserve brief mention for their brief treatments of physiological effects from saucers: eye injuries, radiation burns, paralyses, cases of shock, and mysterious blows to the body. A particularly odd and problematic case could made for including Vincent Gaddis’ Mysterious Fires and Lights (1967), since it makes an effort to link UFOs to spontaneous human combustion. Unforgettable is Gaddis’ question, “Are We Walking Atom Bombs?”

  Passing references should perhaps be given to John Keel’s expression of alarm over the 1966 wave and Robert Loftin’s speaking of the UFO threat as something we had better get the truth about “before it is too late.” One should perhaps resist recalling some thematically similar material from a weird little magazine that haunted the newsstands in the period called Beyond, but they are delightful flourishes. Otto Binder fretted over the number of deaths that were taking place in the UFO field in one article. Timothy Green Beckley acclaimed “UFOs Use High-tension Lines for Re-Charging.” James Welling offered a doubtful piece, “Does UFO Radiation Cause Phoenix, Arizona, Residents to be Afflicted with Strange Malady—Why Does Press Not Report Epidemic of Electronic Poisoning?” Other articles to find haven in Beyond discussed aliens that probed brains, paralyzed observers, and even made a dog sick with some ghastly condition.