Sadly, however, it was largely fraudulent, perpetrated by ingenious social climbers who used their tricks for money, fame, and life with the aristocracy. Many were exposed, but it did not deter the public; in fact, it seemed to encourage the public. Perhaps their need to believe outweighed their capacity for critical thinking. In fact, it would appear that it took World War I to finally put Spiritualism to rest. While the belief and practices continued—and still do—the destructiveness of the Great War was so great that it literally caused a spiritual crisis in Europe, which had been the focal point for much of Spiritualism. The United States, however, remained largely unaffected by the devastation of the war and held its spiritual beliefs more intact. But science was successfully working to discredit the movement as a whole.
However, there were the anomalies. There were the mediums that science could not explain and that common sense could not brush off; D. D. Home and Eusapia Palladino were two such examples. Palladino, in particular, was studied at such length that to deny all her miraculous workings would be to deny the work of a large group of people and scientists. While she could never be a study in scientific method, she did show that some mysteries still existed in the world. “Thus, in the perverse manner so common in psychical research, the experiment ended neither in success nor in failure but only in presenting another problem.”24
The need to believe that man is a spiritual being conflicted with the scientific developments of the late nineteenth century, particularly Darwinism. This need caused an accelerated belief in something that offered proof that a human spirit existed. In the end, however, the Great War decimated the human spirit and lay before the eyes of the world mangled corpses that revealed man as nothing more than bone, flesh, and blood. Darwin’s frightening world had become manifest, and a new era had been ushered in: survival of the fittest, the ascension of technology, the rise of evolution. And Spiritualism, with all its hope, trickery, and mystery, was left in the trenches with the dead.
THE FLYING SAUCER INVASION
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic weapon ever used in war on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, it dropped the second on Nagasaki, thus ending the war with Japan. This new weapon unleashed more destruction in one blast than had been seen in the entire history of war. Science had unleashed a new and powerful energy, one that was capable of destroying an entire city and killing hundreds of thousands of people in less than a second. Four years later, the United Soviet Socialist Republic successfully tested an atom bomb. Not only was this new force born of science capable of destroying an entire city, it was a force that was capable of destroying all of humanity. A new era had been born in a flash as bright as the sun—the atomic era. It was a time of fear and anxiety, of scientific revolution and the start of the Cold War with Russia. All eyes were to the sky. It was a time of jet propulsion. It was a time of fast new aircraft capable of great destruction and speed never before attained. The scientific world was jumping forward at incredible rates. Bomb drills were held in classrooms, where children were instructed to hide under their desks to protect themselves from nuclear fallout. It was the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Red Scare, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Sputnik, and, a mere 20 years later, man’s successful landing on the moon. It was also the time of the flying saucer invasion.
And just two years after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, newspapers were running stories about flying saucers in the sky—unknown objects that appeared to be of extraterrestrial origin. Pilot Kenneth Arnold was the first to dub them “flying saucers” when he spotted approximately nine of them flying in formation near Mt. Rainier, Washington. Following his report, citizens everywhere began to see these flying saucers, or as they were later named, Unidentified Flying Objects. The next 30 years, from 1947 to 1977, included some of the most famous and infamous moments of UFO lore and also marked the highest point of public interest. It was during these 30 years that all the great stories, moments, and personalities in the UFO subculture would emerge.
The year 1947 marked the flying saucer crash at Roswell, New Mexico; however, this event garnered very little attention until decades later it was rediscovered by Stanton Friedman and others. The late forties and fifties were marked with repeated sightings in both civilian and military circles, and in the sixties the abduction craze began with the first major reported abduction of Betty and Barney Hill.
There was something else that made this time in history unique; the medium through which the public experienced the world and shared information was changing from newspapers to film and television. And it was through these mediums that the fascination and fear of the newfound atomic science revealed itself in the form of flying saucers. Hollywood immediately seized on the idea of flying saucers, which came to represent everything from violent invaders to peaceniks with messages of hope and change. The visions of things seen in the sky were translated to visions of things seen in film, and they came to represent the fears of a society that was now in possession of a destructive power capable of ending civilization. As the reports of flying saucers grew, the military was creating and testing a new nuclear weapon (the hydrogen bomb), putting the first man in space, and reaching for the moon. The rapid advancement of the sciences in rocket technology and atomic energy made the idea of space travel possible, but it also made possible doomsday, as indicated by the oh-so-subtle Doomsday Clock that was set in motion by a group of concerned scientists.
In his nonfiction work Danse Macabre, Stephen King recalls the summer of 1957 when he sat in a theater in Stratford, Connecticut, watching, ironically, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, when the manager of the theater stopped the film to announce to the audience that the Russians had just successfully launched Sputnik into orbit. “The Russians had beaten us into space … The manager stood there for a moment longer, looking out at us as if he wished he had something else to say but could not think what it might be. Then he walked off and pretty soon the movie started up again.”25 This moment beautifully illustrates the convergence of the flying saucer mania and the social effects of a Cold War spurred by new technology and science seemingly run amok. “Terror—what Hunter Thompson calls ‘fear and loathing’—often arises from a pervasive sense of disestablishment; that things are in the unmaking.”26 It wasn’t just the Russians making it into space before the good ole United States of America, it was something more; it was the sense of disestablishment that caused the sudden and alarming spike in sightings of and belief in flying saucers. Flying saucers were society’s answer to the scientific boom; they were simultaneously cautionary and hopeful, somber and fantastic. New worlds were opening up as our old world balanced on the verge of destruction.
In 1951 the science fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still was released.27 It is a story about a flying saucer that lands in Washington, D.C. The alien aboard, Klaatu (who looks very human), comes to earth offering a gift and a message of peace. He is promptly shot, which probably explains why real aliens do not choose to land on the White House lawn. Klaatu lives, and he wants to deliver a message to all the nations of earth, a message of peace and a warning that if we continue upon our current course of destruction, the alien powers will destroy us. He is promptly shot again.
However, the message of this film encapsulated many of the hopes, fears, and fantasies that thrived in the aftermath of the atomic bombs and were incorporated into the belief in flying saucers. Once again, world-changing scientific development coincided with a spike in public belief, interest in, and sightings of the paranormal. In this case, scientific development grew much, much faster than humanity matured, and thus, the United States was left in the grip of the Cold War fear. It was these scientific developments that forever changed the course of human history and preceded the public fascination with flying saucers. This is not to say that flying saucers were not seen before 1947; in fact, there are reports going back to ancient man. However, there had never been such a surge of interest and belief as occurred in the late forti
es and early fifties. Advances in flight, radar, rocket power, space travel, and atomic energy suddenly had man looking to the sky and beyond, and what he saw defied explanation. The flying saucers offered mankind a hope; a glimpse at something perhaps more stable and peaceful—a civilization that had somehow survived its own technology and sciences. The world had suddenly grown complex on a global scale, and following the assassination of JFK, it seemed that the world was unraveling. This is the environment in which the paranormal thrives.
People who claimed to have been contacted by the space visitors also reflected this message of peace from beyond in many of the UFO cults that arose during these times. Dr. J. Allen Hynek remarked in his book, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry, “The contactee cases are characterized by a ‘favored’ human intermediary, an almost always solitary ‘contact man’ who somehow has the special attribute of being able to see UFOs and to communicate with their crew almost at will (often by mental telepathy) … The messages are usually addressed to all of humanity to ‘be good, stop fighting, live in brotherhood, ban the bomb, stop polluting the atmosphere,’ and other worthy platitudes.”28 Hynek would know, as he had served as an advisor to the Condon Committee, which had been charged with investigating reports of UFOs. Therefore, he had the unenviable job of sifting through the crazies to find the people who may actually have had an unexplainable experience. Hynek laments the fact that the crazy, pseudo-religious fanatic is often what people think of when they think of someone who claims to have seen a UFO, and it’s this image that often dissuades otherwise normal people from making a formal report. The congruity between the technological revolution of nuclear technology and the flying saucer invasion is noticeable in some of the flying saucer cults that popped up during the early 1950s. Most notable is George Adamski’s claim that aliens from the planet Venus were contacting him. He quickly authored a book entitled Flying Saucers Have Landed and set about spreading the message of our “Space Brothers.” The Space Brothers, it seems, were very concerned with the plight of humanity during this tumultuous time and urged peace and brotherhood throughout the world. Many similar “contactees” began to come forward with messages from aliens. Supposedly, after meeting with the contactee, the aliens would continue sending messages to their chosen one via mental telepathy, which the contactee would relate to the rest of the group or the world. Invariably, these messages centered around world peace and the inevitable doom that awaited humanity if it continued on its present path. Many contactees would instruct their followers to wait at a specific time and place to be received by an alien spaceship and taken to a new and wonderful world or dimension (depending on the narrative). Jerome Clark authored a brief biography of Dorothy Martin, a contactee who eventually dubbed herself “Sister Thedra” and who acquired a small band of followers. She claimed that the “Guardians” from the planet Clarion were contacting her telepathically to have her warn of coming disaster and to rescue anyone who was willing to listen. However, when Martin told the group that a spaceship was coming to rescue them at a particular time and place, things took an unfortunate turn. “Late that evening Martin received a psychic message that a spaceship was on its way; anyone who was not ready when it arrived would be left behind. For more than three hours, until about 3:20 in the morning, the small band shivered outside in the frigid air. Finally, a message arrived from the space people praising the believers’ patience and commitment and releasing them from the vigil.”29
Basically, the flying saucer cults and contactees were Spiritualism reconstituted to incorporate a narrative of aliens instead of spirits, and superior technology rather than paranormal manifestations. The contactee acted as the medium and delivered messages. While there were no formal séances held in the dark, the messages from the aliens were remarkably similar to the messages from the spirit world. Thus, as Spiritualism was a reaction to major scientific breakthroughs of the earlier century, the UFO cults acted as a cultural reaction to the newest, dominant technological breakthrough—that of the nuclear bomb. Bryan Sentes and Susan Palmer propose a similar theory in their essay, “Presumed Immanent.”
The appearance of UFOs on our historical horizon as objects inspiring religious behavior “stands in compensatory antithesis [Jung]” to the scientific worldview as such and its practical, social, and spiritual effects since the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, and that this standing “in compensatory antithesis” is ambivalent, being simultaneously an affirmation, critique and transcendence of science and technology and the mortal threats they are seen as presenting (e.g., the environmental crisis and the danger of nuclear war). New religions arising within the context of the contemporary developed world whose sources of revelations are extraterrestrial spontaneously take their space-age deities to be merely natural or immanent rather than supernatural or transcendent, precisely because they exist within the horizon of our postmodern condition (i.e., within the horizon of the death of God).30
The contactee cults became religious in nature. Many of the contactees claimed to speak with Jesus and various other religious figures or claimed that Jesus was, in fact, an alien. The idea of aliens replacing God coalesced in Erich von Däniken’s best-seller Chariots of the Gods, which theorizes that ancient visions of God (or gods) are actually accounts of ancient people’s encounters with extraterrestrial life and superior technology. Thus, the entire history of the world was being rewritten in terms of technology and science, and people were attempting to adapt to the new era. Man had split the atom, the basic building block of all matter in the universe, and had unleashed hell with it. Great “signs and wonders” appeared in the skies, and newly born prophets warned the world of the dangers of this new technology.
However, Sentes and Palmer clearly point out that while it was technology and science that spurred these fears, it was also science and technology that offered an answer to the threats that faced humanity. “Alongside or bound up with this assumption of science as a naturally evolving universal tendency of life is the belief that the way out of the profound problems industrialization has presented is technological ingenuity itself.”31 Hence, while it was technology and science that had gotten the world into trouble, the space beings would be able to save us because of the superior technology and wisdom they had gained. This is similar to Spiritualist mediums who had claimed to speak with great thinkers and scientists who had obtained new levels of understanding and were bequeathing their wisdom to the medium in order to make the world a happier place. Instead of the long-dead scientist, however, we are greeted by messages from Orthon, the Venusian who contacted George Adamski in the desert.
He made me understand—by gesturing with his hands to indicate cloud formations from explosions—that after too many such explosions. Yes! His affirmative nod of the head was very positive and he even spoke the word “Yes” in this instance. The cloud formations were easy to imply with the movement of his hands and arms, but to express the explosions he said, “Boom! Boom!” Then, further to explain himself, he touched me, then to a little weed growing close by, and next pointed to the Earth itself, and with a wide sweep of his hands and other gestures that too many “Booms!” would destroy all of this.32
There was a darker, more threatening side to the flying saucer craze as well. Reflected keenly in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, the film was released in 1957 and was a fine example of Cold War technological paranoia reflected in the flying saucer fascination.33 This film is rife with air sirens, anti-aircraft artillery fire, scientists, and underground bunkers. It even has stock footage from WWII of rockets taking off. In this film the aliens seek to take over the world, starting in Washington, D.C. While they would prefer to make the takeover peaceful, the United States’ efforts to thwart them result in major destruction and havoc being wreaked across the globe. The film reflects some of the Cold War fears of the time—that of Communist technology that exceeded our own. The Soviets were much quicker in building a bomb than the U.S. government thought they would be, and the launch
of Sputnik sent shivers down the American subconscious. In the film, U.S. scientists are brought face-to-face with aliens whose technology is far superior to our own, and this technological superiority means certain death or enslavement by the aliens. Our weapons are useless against them.
However, in the film, the scientists work together to invent a weapon that causes the flying saucers to lose control and crash. During the alien invasion, this ray gun is used to great effect, causing flying saucers to drop left and right. Unfortunately, the saucers crash into nearly every major political landmark in Washington, D.C.—the Washington Monument, the Capitol Building, and the White House are all destroyed when the saucers are downed by our newest weapon. The symbolism is slathered on rather thickly, but the message reflects the cultural fears of the time—invasion from above, technology run amok, and enslavement to an alien race (Communists). As the public looked to the skies, as the nuclear fears solidified in the American consciousness, as the air raid sirens sounded across small-town USA, the flying saucers were watching and inspecting. Stephen King’s experience in the movie theater that day is the height of irony and is probably why he remembers the incident so vividly. As he watched a film that feared a superior alien technology that would be used to take over the United States, the Soviets launched Sputnik, and suddenly the United States was not the technological supremacy in the world, let alone the universe.
Hynek points out the fear that results from the contemplation of beings from another planet when he discusses close encounters of the third kind, UFO experiences in which the witnesses actually see occupants aboard the craft or outside of the craft. “Perhaps as long as it is our own intelligence that contemplates the report of a machine, albeit strange, we still somehow feel superior in contemplation. Encounters with animate beings, possibly with an intelligence of different order from ours, gives a new dimension to our atavistic fear of the unknown. It brings with it the specter of competition for territory, loss of planetary hegemony—fears that have deep roots.”34 The fears generated by flying saucers and the possibility of alien life were oddly similar to some of the fears experienced as a direct result of new technology, the bomb, and the Cold War. A loss of dominance, a threat to American hubris, and subjugation by an alien force were all fears that bubbled to the surface during these tumultuous times.
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