UFOs- Reframing the Debate

by Robbie Graham

  More and more, ufology is the realm of UFO fans who describe their own experiences and encounters with denizens from other worlds or who promulgate extraordinary UFO stories. Few within UFO fandom dare to question claims of alien abductions or other kinds of contact with entities from “elsewhere.”

  We should also recognize the distinction between UFO abductees and contactees because they do seem to be different kinds of people in at least one aspect. Abductees tend not to proselytize the way contactees often do. In fact, most abductees insist on anonymity. For the most part, abductees are baffled by their experiences and that is why they appeal to researchers for help. In short, they don’t appear to know what has happened to them and need some assistance in sorting out their lives, emotions and world view.

  Modern contactees, on the other hand, need no one to tell them what happened to them. They know that they have encountered space aliens and have been selected for some important purpose. They can espouse great knowledge about how the universe “really is,” and approach researchers not to get guidance, but for verification. What’s more, many take it upon themselves to counsel other abductees and are sometimes regarded as experts themselves. Some feel they have been chosen by the aliens to help others of like mind.2

  Fanatical UFO belief is essentially an anti-science movement. It rejects scientific evaluations and rational explanations for UFO sightings, often embracing an elaborate government cover-up of “the Truth” or ascribing near-omnipotent powers to aliens who manipulate reality. In this UFO subculture, patently absurd accounts and claims are considered not only possible, but likely.

  This rejection of science by many in our culture has been noted by many scholars, most well outside of ufology. One recent study found: “Rejection of scientific findings is mostly driven by motivated cognition: People tend to reject findings that threaten their core beliefs or worldview… General education and scientific literacy do not mitigate rejection of science but, rather, increase the polarization of opinions along partisan lines.”3

  In this age where some people see a breakdown of society and where uncertainty dominates politics and economics, it may seem attractive to look for salvation somewhere other than from conventional paths to solutions. The reasoning seems sound enough: if aliens are truly advanced technologically—as they would need to be to have achieved interstellar travel—then they would certainly have solved problems such as environmental pollution, overpopulation, unequal distribution of wealth, world hunger, and war.

  Psychologists have defined a theory of cognitive dissonance whereby people with strongly-held beliefs will protect their views by adjusting them to fit facts or, more usually, reject the facts that would negate their views. Such a process is clearly at work within hardcore UFO fandom, best defined in a classic study by Festinger et al., whose seminal work When Prophecy Fails documented the actions of a so-called “Doomsday Cult” who believed that aliens would save them from a disaster.4 Even when the divinely inspired prediction of doom did not materialize, cult members still clung to their beliefs against all rational thought.5

  It should be noted that not all individuals who are interested in the subject of UFOs are disaffected to this extent. Many are either simply curious about the subject because of pop culture representations of aliens, or are UFO witnesses who are merely trying to understand what they have seen. UFO belief becomes cult-like when adherents become closed to any interpretation of UFOs as conventional phenomena, and become something closer to religious zealots.

  UFO zealots are certain that there is a real UFO cover-up preventing the truth of alien visitation from reaching the public. This can come from direct suppression of proof of alien visitation through the manipulation and control of mainstream media, or from silencing of selected UFO proponents who are “getting too close to the truth.”

  UFO zealots are certain that their own personal UFO experiences are proof of direct contact with aliens, even if they have only actually visually seen a distant light moving in the sky along the horizon. In many cases, they may have engaged in debates with ufologists, investigating their reports which have suggested some reasonable explanations, but have rejected these suggestions because, for example: a) explanations fail in their cases because of some minor differences; b) the investigators are not as enlightened as the UFO zealot witnesses; c) the investigators are part of the cover-up; or d) the witnesses received telepathic contact from the aliens, affirming their beliefs.

  In rejecting explanations for or insisting on the reality of their subjective UFO experiences, zealous UFO believers often alienate themselves from other UFO fans. These latter individuals are interested in a search for “the truth” but do not “know” the truth as overly-fanatical followers claim. Rejection of a UFO zealot’s sighting as having an explanation, or questioning their belief that they are in contact with aliens from, say, the Orion Nebula, will either cause a cessation in discourse or, more likely, an animated and vehement debate.

  It is this kind of fervor that leads to the observation that much of what is called ufology today should be characterized as a religion, or, at the very least, religious in nature. Is there evidence in modern ufology that supports this approach?

  There are two basic forms of fanatical UFO zealots: 1) adherents of overt spiritual/religious UFO cults; and 2) members of obsessive UFO belief groups. Both exhibit cultish behaviour.

  Most UFO fan groups usually have no explicit spiritual relationship with the Space Brothers and simply believe with strong conviction that extraterrestrials are visiting Earth. They reject scientists’ explanations of UFOs, and often insist that there is some sort of grand cover-up of the knowledge that aliens are among us. A good example of this is the Disclosure lobby, which is convinced there is an ongoing cover-up of proof that aliens are not only present on Earth, but that there is an international conspiracy to keep this information from the general public.6

  The Disclosure lobby has a mandate to: 1) hold open, secrecy-free hearings on the UFO/Extraterrestrial presence on and around Earth; and 2) hold open hearings on advanced energy and propulsion systems that, when publicly released, will provide solutions to global environmental challenges. Ideally, what is envisioned is the U.S. President making an unannounced address to the nations on all TV networks, saying: “My fellow Americans, people of the world, we are not alone.”7

  Each year, some proponents of this movement predict that Disclosure is imminent, and each year, nothing substantive occurs to claim victory. Despite this, Disclosure proponents have adjusted their definition of Disclosure to include “soft disclosure,” which is the release of official UFO-related documents by various world governments. Included in soft disclosure are the numerous times that politicians and officials have made public statements regarding aliens and UFOs, thus suggesting to Disclosure advocates that the public is being prepared for full Disclosure at a later time.

  In some contrast to the Disclosure lobby (although not exclusively, since some adherents share views of both kinds of UFO zealots), spiritual UFO cults venerate omnipotent alien beings often called “Space Brothers,” who are closely akin to deities. These entities are always much more advanced than humans, and their levels of advancement are such that these aliens exhibit apparently magical or mystical powers, including ESP and other psychical abilities. They use vehicles such as flying saucers to travel about the Earth (and inside the Earth) or across space and time to visit other planets. They are extraterrestrial in the same sense that God is “not of this world,” and originate from distant planets that can be physical or ethereal.

  Spiritual UFO cults each tend to cite a different planet of origin for their particular Space Brothers (and Sisters), including planets named Clarion, Korendar and Zanthar. In UFO cult mythology, for example, Clarion is said to exist “on the other side of the Sun,” even though such a statement makes no sense whatsoever from an astronomical standpoint. Some groups select planets within our own Solar System as their aliens’ homes, including Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn and Venus.

  An example of the latter is a woman who calls herself Omnec Omec, but was born Sheila Gipson.8 Currently she lectures widely on how she was “born on the astral level of the planet Venus and came to Earth with her own physical body in 1955.” She teaches adherents and followers about “raising consciousness” and achieving inner peace through meditation. Her lectures are a curious mixture of religion and quasi-scientific concepts, attracting UFO zealots who seek enlightenment and knowledge but lack the critical thinking skills that would allow them to realize Gipson’s teachings are without any real meaning.

  We know science can show Venus is uninhabitable by living creatures, but Gipson tells her followers that Venusian society and technology is so advanced they live in “a different dimension” and “vibrational state.” Again, such phrases have no basis in science, but to adherents, they are considered possible.

  Venus was also the origin of aliens according to several other contactees, including George Adamski and Howard Menger, the latter of whom even married a Venusian girlfriend in human form. At contactee gatherings, Menger passed along esoteric knowledge from the Venusians, such as: “Everything one creates must originate as thought, which consists of vibratory reflections under control of the mind or intellect. Whatever man thinks, he can do. People who have the ability to teleport themselves also have the ability to use this potential to the highest degree.”9

  At lectures, both Adamski and Menger displayed photographs of “Venusian Scout Ships” in which they claimed to have traveled in space. The photographs have been largely dismissed as fakes by experts, but that has not dissuaded their followers.

  Some UFO contactee groups receive instructions directly from aliens through a leader’s channelling, telepathic communication or automatic writing (in this way, parallels are drawn between ufology and parapsychology). Once members of a group are sufficiently immersed in the group’s teachings, they can begin their own readings and receive messages from aliens. This sometimes leads to a distortion of original teachings. However, the motivation for individual members’ own direct communication with aliens is that it allows them to experience their own spiritual “high.” They, too, can become “chosen” emissaries of the aliens, much like the original group’s leaders.

  On the topic of the lack of proof of such alien visitation, Menger noted: “Science asks for proof, but how can we prove something which is beyond our sciences? Scientific proof is based on what we perceive with our five senses, not what we know with the use of even more valuable senses.”10

  This dismissal of science is encountered frequently among UFO zealots, who insist that their esoteric knowledge supersedes scientific methodology when it comes to considering the reality or non-reality of UFO stories or claims. The theme of UFO encounters as “beyond science” occurs repeatedly among contactees. They consider it completely unnecessary to prove the reality of their claims and, in fact, dismiss any attempt to quantify details of their experiences. At some contactee meet-ups, there are even strict rules about attendees not questioning experiencers’ claims (reminiscent of ‘Never mind the man behind the curtain!’ mentality). In effect, in zealot contactee circles, anything claimed is considered as possible as any other claim, despite being apparently unlikely.

  This approach is consistent with a view that our society has transitioned from “modernism” to “post-modernism” to “metamodernism.” This new era is summed up succinctly as: “Anything goes.” Anyone’s view is as valid as any other. All opinions are valid and there are no real experts. Anything and everything is possible. From the Metamodernism Manifesto: “All information is grounds for knowledge, whether empirical or aphoristic, no matter its truth-value. We should embrace the scientific-poetic synthesis and informed naivety of a magical realism. Error breeds sense.”11

  The implications for ufology are devastating to those seeking “the truth.” If even the simplest report of a UFO that is ostensibly just a distant light moving in the sky can be claimed to be a “scout ship,” or if a contactee’s claim of being impregnated by an alien abductor on board a flying saucer can be accepted without any attempt to question the storyteller, then any kind of real quest for truth must be abandoned. Not only is science effectively shut out of any such discussion, but it is supplanted by faith and belief, beyond the boundaries of orthodoxy.

  In this realm of UFO zealotry is another claimed facet of the Space Brothers’ characteristics: they are often said to be more “spiritually-attuned” than humans. Furthermore, humans who are in communication with such entities claim they can achieve “higher states of consciousness” and become more advanced as human beings though the influence of aliens.

  What does this mean, exactly? This is clearly not the four levels of consciousness defined by psychologists such as Alain Morin: unconscious, conscious, self-aware, and meta self-aware.12

  It seems to be something taken from Hindu or Buddhist philosophy, which holds that the world we see only becomes real through our observation of it.13 This of course is parallel to some theories of quantum physics, and is best described by popular physics books such as that by Zukov (1979).14

  Probably what is meant by UFO zealots describing consciousness is better defined as awareness. This is one’s ability to perceive the environment through increasingly complex senses, and being aware of one’s thoughts, emotions, ideas and the world.

  One of the best-known examples of a group venerating the Space Brothers is The Society of Unarius, led by founder Ruth Norman (Archangel Uriel) for several decades until her death in the 1990s. The group owns dozens of acres in California and, for many years, awaited predicted mass landings of spaceships, which would save selected spiritually attuned individuals. They repeatedly retracted and refined their predictions, which failed to come to pass. Jesus, Mohammed and Einstein often were channelled by Norman, giving further teachings to the Society’s followers.

  Also a Venus-based group, Unarius, holds that Venusians have “energy bodies” and inhabit a “higher vibratory plane” that is invisible to ordinary, unenlightened humans. But again, what does that mean? In chemistry and physics, it is known that molecular vibration exists because atoms within a molecule can absorb energy and become excited.15

  To say that a person can change the vibrational state of his or her complete body makes no sense whatsoever from a scientific standpoint. But to UFO zealots, this is a very profound dogma. Contactee Clifford Stone described a race of beings from the Arcturus star system thusly: “Arcturian society is governed by the elders, who are revered by the people of Arcturus for their advanced knowledge, wisdom, and extremely high vibrational frequencies. The higher the vibrational frequency, the closer one is to Light, or spirit, or God.”16

  Venusians, then, are apparently more spiritual than humans.

  When challenged on these kinds of claims, UFO zealots will sometimes point to articles and papers in science journals in which terms such as “higher dimensions” and “quantum entanglement” are used, implying that modern science supports mystical concepts. This creates an interesting paradox, in which many UFO zealots reject mainstream science for its largely negative view of UFOs, but embrace quantum physics for its foray into esoteric realms that could be viewed as supporting ESP, interdimensional portals and parallel universes.

  When questioned about frequent references to “consciousness” in discussions about UFOs, on December 4, 2014, one anonymous UFO zealot in a Facebook UFO discussion group noted: “Let me quote Sir James Jeans, ‘The stream of knowledge is heading toward a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter, we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter. Get over it, and accept the inarguable conclusion. The universe is immaterial-mental and spiritual.’”

  The implication was that reality is permeable and that mental processes create reality as we see fit. The quote i
s from Jeans’ seminal book The Mysterious Universe (1930), in which he argues for the existence of an intelligent Creator of the universe. In that same book, he wrote: “… from the intrinsic evidence of the creation, the Great Architect of the Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathematician.”17

  Jeans, a Freemason (although an agnostic), was a mathematician as well as a cosmologist, and argued that the universe seems as if it was not designed by a mechanic but by a musician or a poet because of its beauty. He did not mean that the universe existed only as thought, but that it shows signs of elegant inspiration. Jeans was a pure mathematician, who saw the beauty of the cosmos reflected in elegant equations that described the motion of stars and the evolution of the universe. Taken out of context, Jeans’ words seem to support the mystical nature of reality and suggest that science is incapable of explaining the universe.

  Further, science writer Lisa Zyga in her review of a major work on quantum physics noted: “Does mysticism have a place in quantum mechanics today, or is the idea that the mind plays a role in creating reality best left to philosophical meditations? Harvard historian Juan Miguel Marin argues the former—not because physicists today should account for consciousness in their research, but because knowing the early history of the philosophical ideas in quantum mechanics is essential for understanding the theory on a fundamental level.”18

  To put it bluntly, by invoking mysticism and quantum physics, UFO zealots are misleading their audiences by implying that their views on the “higher consciousness” of alien contact is supported by modern science.

  The determination of UFO zealots to hold onto their beliefs in the face of continued criticism for lack of evidence or proof has led to deep division within the UFO community itself. One outspoken ufologist, Trevor Wozny, noted on his blog: “UFOlogy MUST discourage this religiosity of the UFO subject. It helps no one, confuses most, and irritates to no end people that know better. Faith in anything is a bad thing. It robs a person of the burden of thinking too much and festers lies and deceit.”19