One of the people I’ve come into contact with in Portland, Oregon, claims a series of encounters with UFOs and non-human beings. I’ve talked with him at length about these, and some of them also involve his wife. She had a history of UFO experiences prior to their meeting and it was whilst in bed together one night in 1997 or 1998 that things took a decidedly bizarre turn.
On several occasions during the preceding days, James and his wife had been disturbed in the night by odd sounds, and both had the sense that someone or something had been in their bedroom. Growing more and more fearful and frustrated, James had secretly wished that whoever or whatever this was would just show themselves. Earlier that day James had bought a packet of Oreos. He opened the packet, ate a couple, and placed them on the sideboard on the other side of the bedroom in case the late-night munchies should arise. He went to bed but, an hour or so later, was awoken by the sound of the rustling Oreo packet. Out of the very corner of his eye, and lit by the streetlamps outside, James could make out the silhouette of an approximately five-foot-tall, greyish, non-human entity. It was stealing his Oreos! “Why, that bastard!” he thought. With the exception of the tips of his fingers, which he wiggled frantically, he was alarmed to find that he could not move. He tried to scream out to his wife but all he could manage was a whisper. The intruder made off with a sizeable stack of Oreos at incredible speed past the foot of the bed and disappeared through the wall and James suddenly found himself able to move again. In the most abstract of ways imaginable, James had finally gotten some personal proof that these nocturnal visitations were, in some way, real. The missing Oreos were never to be seen again.5
Tony Watkins was a mechanical engineer who recalled coming into contact with several small grey beings in some woods near his home in Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania, in 1958. He was convinced he’d been implanted with something, and began to have different dreams. His black-and-white dreams were normal, but the colored dreams were sometimes prophetic and seemed to contain real information. If he thought about his contact experience he would get severe headaches. In 1990 his stepdaughter asked him where he thought these beings had come from. Something replied to Tony at that exact moment, by telepathy and in a mechanical voice, “the seventeenth state of matter” where “all knowledge is constructed in a pyramid form.” He immediately got another headache.6
Ann Druffel, together with the late D. Scott Rogo, researcher and writer on parapsychology, co-authored an incredible book on early UFO contact, The Tujunga Canyon Contacts. Within a number of these cases, the non-humans encountered gave information relating to an alleged cure for cancer. This became almost like a calling card to the researchers during their investigations, and they began to take it as a sign that the experience, which was being recounted to them, was in some way genuine. After all, how could so many people, unbeknown to each other, report the same piece of information within their contact experiences? The message was kept secret and eventually given to medical professionals as potentially groundbreaking information. The cure for cancer given to the contactees was acetic acid—household vinegar. While there are some New-Agey schools of thought that link apple cider vinegar with killing cancer cells, I think it’s safe to say that acetic acid is not a reliable cure for most cancers—at least within our current scientific understanding.
So, what does all this say of a phenomenon, and perhaps the intelligence(s) behind it, when we have, at least on the surface, seemingly nonsensical experiences or false information being imparted? At best, we can say that the phenomenon appears to have a sense of humor. At worst, it seems to be continually attempting to confuse us or cover itself up. Or is there something else happening entirely? Do some aliens simply like Oreos? Is the intelligence attempting to communicate with us the best it possibly can? Are some of these contact experiences steeped in symbolism or interacting with our subconscious minds? Or is this all a by-product of something else entirely?
Within many UFO and paranormal experiences, there does appear to be some kind of an external intelligence interacting with us in a variety of ways. Yet, for obvious reasons, the nonsense and trickster elements are all too often overlooked. Certainly, building any kind of literal belief system around the UFO contact experience would—to say the very least—appear hugely problematic.
But, for the best part of seventy-five years, this is exactly what we’ve been doing.
ii. UFO Sociology and The UFO Mythological Zone
“They said that I was the center of the universe. My spirit and ethereal body covered the whole of creation and all dimensions in between. I was cosmic mind spread throughout the infinite universe. Creation emanated from my senses and emotional body. I would shapeshift through the elements and disperse light and colors. They said they had never seen anything like it and could barely put into words what they saw.”7
LAURA MAGDALENE EISENHOWER
ON MAY 10, 2016, LAURA BEGAN A GOFUNDME CROWD-FUNDING CAMPAIGN TO RAISE MONEY FOR A NEW CAR.8
“Hello everyone and welcome to this month’s Sirian star language, so just sit back and relax and enjoy the transmission: Myassalantokahanosayantokah Elyayahantokayayantaskoyanasah.”9
SOLRETA ANTARIA
Laura and Solreta are just two of the speakers who attended events in 2016 at the Gilliland Estate (formerly known as ECETI—Enlightened Contact with Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). Here, ranch owner and “visionary”10 James Gilliland holds regular sky watches and “ascension” events at the base of Mount Adams.
The view of the mountain from the Field of Dreams is stunning. Not only have I personally witnessed dozens of unidentified lights in the sky at the ECETI ranch, I’ve also witnessed many more in the Yakima/Mount Adams region outside the ranch.11 These experiences have also included anomalous lights on the mountain, lights appearing to come out of the mountain, green fireballs, orbs, apparent psychic interactions and even a couple of episodes of high strangeness. Most of these were with various other witnesses, too.
To my mind, there can be little doubt that there is a range of genuine phenomena occurring on a regular basis in this area. Other UFO researchers, such as Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallée, have also examined Yakima, and the area has been the subject of several studies over the years.12 The ranch would appear to be the least of it—in fact, there appears to be far more activity on the eastern side of the mountain and in the Yakima Valley itself.
Gilliland calls these UFOs in the sky at ECETI “Ships,” “Pleaideans,” or “Motherships.” But all I have seen, and all anyone has recorded on video at ECETI, are various lights in the sky. There appears to be a huge gap at ECETI between what is actually being seen and what is being reported and interpreted.
Let’s call this the UFO mythological zone. This is just one example of it, but throughout the UFO subculture it’s everywhere.
It’s the gap between:
Fact and belief
What we see and what we want to see
What we experience and how we interpret it
Many people are highly malleable and susceptible to new ideas and beliefs within the UFO mythological zone. Charlatans, fraudsters and hucksters are free to roam and operate at will. Their contribution to the UFO subject should never be underestimated, for the conditions for successful deception are near perfect. Common sense, lateral thinking and balanced questioning are far superseded and outweighed by irrational belief. Contagion of ideas is rife.
Look at many of the UFO stories on the internet or in the media; look at the UFO Disclosure movement and the characters within; look at the FREE study for abduction research; look at MUFON; look at many of your favorite researchers; look at ufology as a whole—the vast majority lies within this mythological zone. And while there is nothing wrong with open discussion, speculation and hypothesizing in a field so vast and mysterious, there is a world of difference between these things and passing off totally unfounded statements as absolutes. Indeed, one of the worst things about the UFO mythological zone is that it often shuts down any
meaningful conversation about what we are possibly dealing with or how it might operate.
It turns this into a cult.
Most of these organizations don’t even question the idea that the UFO issue could be anything other than extraterrestrial visitation. They’ve already made their minds up. Based on what exactly? There’s the UFO mythological zone again. The UFO subculture is no different from any other cult except in two major aspects:
There is no single belief system
There is no single cult leader
People are forming highly personalized variations of the one core belief—the belief in a UFO reality. All else is up for individual interpretation via the UFO mythological zone. In the absence of facts, many people simply choose what they want to believe. Some think they are the center of the divine universe, some channel in an alien tongue, and others take their cues from various individuals—be they UFO researchers, contactees or new-age gurus.
Feeding off this belief-driven, unscientific and highly mythologized subculture is the mainstream media. This is the way the subcultural dysfunction and the UFO mythological zone really start to affect our culture. In the click bait age, the mainstream media uses UFOs and their followers as entertainment like never before. It makes little difference if the stories are obvious hoaxes or real accounts—they all serve the same purpose: to grab attention, entertain, generate revenue and sometimes steer narrative.
Primed for this assault by a steady diet of sci-fi and clichéd National Enquirer-type headlines from our earliest memories, the last few decades have given birth to The X-Files and, more recently, a barrage of poorly produced reality/fake TV shows, including Ancient Aliens, MUFON’s Hangar 1 (complete with paid actors posing as real ufologists),13 Chasing UFOs, Fact or Faked, UFO Files, UFOs: The Untold Stories—the list goes on and on. This barrage of half-truths and fiction has helped turn huge amounts of interest toward the UFO subject; of that there can be little doubt. Indeed, most surveys since the advent of The X-Files have thrown out staggering numbers of the U.S. population who “believe” in UFOs, aliens, or extraterrestrial life.14 But, given that virtually nothing is really as it seems, what do many of these people actually believe?
Firstly, many now associate the UFO term exclusively with the subject of extraterrestrial contact. Thanks to a frivolous media and a potent cultural pairing of expectation and imagination, the UFO acronym has largely changed from meaning Unidentified Flying Object into what we simply wanted and expected UFOs to be.
Secondly, in the mainstream culture—just as with the UFO subculture—there is no one belief system. I state again: people are creating highly personalized variations around the one core belief—that of a UFO (read: extraterrestrial) reality.
Extraterrestrial contact may turn out to explain some UFO reports. But even if this is the case, I would suggest that’s only part of it. Furthermore, by simplifying the UFO issue into one neat explanation, and sidelining the parapsychological aspects of UFOs, are we not likely to miss something of even greater importance? What we are calling genuine UFOs could actually be several different things that emanate from multiple sources, including some here on Earth. They may even be different types of phenomena altogether. So, given this highly confusing backdrop, what would an official announcement about extraterrestrial life mean today? Our failure to deal with UFOs in any responsible way and the creation of this vast mythological zone would indicate even larger cultural problems ahead. Far from real UFO Disclosure being closer than ever, are we not now perfectly positioned for the biggest deception of all?
iii. The Mirage Men
Mirage Men is the title of a book and documentary by Mark Pilkington (author) and John Lundberg (director) that details the organized attempts by various branches of the U.S. intelligence community to mislead researchers within the UFO field. Book and film focus on the tragic case of Paul Bennewitz, a gifted military contractor, who had observed UFOs on various occasions over Kirtland AFB from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was eventually driven to the verge of insanity by apparent joint intelligence campaigns between the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the CIA and the NSA. I would argue these Mirage Men have not only been extremely successful in polluting the UFO field with false information, but that such operations continue to this day and that many UFO researchers are now wildly off course as a result.
Attending today’s UFO conferences can be a confusing affair. On the one hand, luminaries of the UFO research community will stand there and rightly tell you not to trust the big, bad government that has covered all of this up for decades. On the other hand, they will hold up government documents (yes, from that same big, bad government you shouldn’t trust) claiming that they prove a myriad of facts about UFOs. Some of these researchers laughably expect the government suddenly to stop lying and come clean about all of this any day now. Some are even associated with the intelligence community themselves.
These are just some of the many dichotomies one will confront when faced with the collective narrative of modern ufology. It can be schizophrenic, irrational and full of contradictions. The misdirecting of UFO research has been going on long before the days of the highly controversial (and utterly bogus) Majestic Twelve documents. UFO iconoclast James Carrion recently suggested that Mirage-Men-style activities may even go as far back as 1946.15
Newsflash: If the government releases any official documents, through the Freedom of Information Act or any other official channel, then chances are that some of these documents may partially contain exactly what they want you to think and know—disinformation. I am constantly surprised by how many in the UFO research community continue as if disinformation isn’t even a consideration. We need to show far more discernment when considering anything coming from alleged, official sources. In fact, we need to show far more discernment, period.
I would also suggest the same caution when it comes to many UFO research organizations and groups.16 The largest of these, the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), has a decidedly questionable past with many of the best cases going into that great big vault in the sky, never to be seen again (and no, it’s not called Hangar 1).17 In my opinion, MUFON is still, amongst other things, a UFO data collection and funneling scheme. One has only to look at their official mission statement—The scientific study of UFOs for the benefit of mankind—and then look at some of the research they actively promote (e.g. data gleaned from hypnosis,18 psychic channeling dressed as “remote viewing,” etc.19) and some of the highly dubious people they invite to speak at their conferences, to know that, at the very least, they appear to be deeply confused about what the word “scientific” actually means.20
Jack Brewer detailed the pitfalls of using hypnosis in his book, The Grays Have Been Framed, and I would also urge everybody to read Operation Mind Control by Walter Bowart. Hypnosis is virtually useless in retrieving accurate memories without the contamination of imagination and expression from the subconscious mind. Cultural expectations are also an issue, and, perhaps most alarming of all, real memories of events can be altered with relative ease. It isn’t hard to imagine why the Mirage Men would want hypnosis—the ultimate mythology machine—to be placed front and center as an important tool in so-called UFO “research” today.
Did UFO abduction lore really come from just a handful of individuals? Was one of the primary trailblazers a hobbyist hypnotist with no training?21 Was another such trailblazer an MK-Ultra-related, mind control participant and a best-selling fiction writer with a million-dollar book advance?22 Did a huge chunk of our cultural narrative about alien abduction come from the hobbyist’s hypnosis data or the million-dollar book? The answer to all of these questions is a resounding YES. Of course, I’m talking about Budd Hopkins and Whitley Strieber. Strieber’s book, Communion, went on to sell over two million copies and became a Hollywood movie, while Budd Hopkins’s Intruders was made into a primetime TV series.
There is little doubt that Mirage-Men-type psychological operations have been
employed in the mainstream. Could these operations be rolled out further for mass cultural consumption on a scale hitherto unseen? Given the technological advances that have been made over the past few decades, I would suggest that certain factions within the military-industrial complex could instigate seemingly magical, pseudo-paranormal or pseudo-extraterrestrial experiences with ease. Furthermore, I would say that the gap between what is truly paranormal and what is covert human technology has been closed to the point that it has been indistinguishable for some time now. Has the window for getting to the bottom of all of this therefore closed forever? Or will we discover and harness new technologies that might allow us to finally rip off the masks and reveal the intelligences behind the UFOs, the paranormal and the Mirage Men like never before?
UFO Social Engineering 101 — Revision
So how do we attempt to disentangle this giant ball of mythological wool? I would suggest the first step, as in dealing with most problems, is to acknowledge that we actually have a problem. We then need to consider this mess at every turn as we move forward. While undoubtedly there is much to suggest that there is a genuinely anomalous component to the UFO enigma, we must now acknowledge the fact that the UFO subject is as much about social engineering as anything else.
The three components of social engineering in ufology can be summarized as:
DECEPTION: THEM. The subject that covers itself up—the external intelligence(s) or entities behind the UFOs (whoever they may be and wherever they are from) and the mythology created, either by accident or design, by them.
UFOs- Reframing the Debate Page 13