Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind: Selected Writings of John A. Keel

by Keel, John A.

  And it was great advice. I did what Keel said, and eventually worked through many of my issues. (Some of these issues had arisen because my father had died somewhat mysteriously – perhaps at the hands of the MIB – when I was twelve years old.) Luckily, in 2012, I completed my 11-year study on Mothman without having gone crazy in the process. Along the way, Keel warned me about several things that might happen if I continued my exploration, and he was right on most counts. The nice thing about this was that his warnings prepared me for certain things that had to happen in order for me to fulfill a key purpose in my life. It wasn’t that I needed to change direction or avoid deep questions; it was that I needed a better idea of what was around the corner as I kept plowing ahead. Keel was, in a way, perhaps channeling the Garuda, who is said to help humans stabilize personal advances along the path of life. As one of my Buddhist mentors used to say, “Illumination is a continuing process, and the Garuda provides support for that process.” In old Appalachian church parlance, the Garuda might be said to “keep you from backsliding.”

  I was able to communicate directly with Keel for two or three years after the 2003 Mothman statue unveiling. It was always a great pleasure to get an email or call from him, since you knew some funny jokes would be coming your way. It was this congenial part of Keel that drew people to him. In the case of our local Mothman hunting team, Keel’s calming influence seemed to solidify us as a group. We all went through some hard times. When you are experiencing poltergeists, missing time, and doppelgangers, things tend to get weird. All kinds of stresses crop up, and these stresses compete with the unusual phenomena already in place. Because of John Keel’s wit and lightheartedness, all of us got through it in one piece, overcoming several emotional upheavals and disagreements. John Keel was, in a sense, a healer (although he would never admit this).

  After a couple of years of discussing theories and ideas with Keel (such as the book you now hold in your hands), he dropped out of the pubic sphere and entered senior-living facilities. It became difficult for anyone to contact him. I put the project on hold rather than bug him about it further. But I always remembered what he had said when I first broached the idea of doing a new Mothman book. Rather than write something new, he suggested we reprint his old magazine articles, many of which touched on what had happened in West Virginia. Keel suggested that there were “technical details” in them that would counter the bogus explanations favored by the media. It almost sounded like he felt his work had been suppressed by third parties – that the scientific parts had been separated from the witness accounts, in order to make it harder to figure out what he had discovered. Once I started paying attention, I realized he was right.

  So, I did as Keel suggested. After his death, I collected as many of his old articles as I could, and added them to the material he had already given me. Most of these articles have not seen the light of day since they were originally written almost 50 years ago. In them, I found many interesting tidbits that shed new light on the UFO “problem,” particularly regarding the deadly MIB. Some passages seem coded, in fact, so that two messages are sent – one to mollify the ufonauts and the MIB, the other to clue us in to the secret truth. Over time, I put together a long text that (hopefully) places the Mothman events into this larger, somewhat conspiratorial perspective. This text was split into two volumes, the first of which is this book, Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind.

  One technical note… Keel sometimes used blanket terminology (like “UFO” or “flying saucer”) when describing slightly different situations. He didn’t always parse out whether he was discussing a natural “diamond light” UFO, or a secret craft built by the government or some defense firm. This kind of generalizing cannot be helped, especially when there are so many possibilities involved. So, in traversing Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind, I urge the reader to keep in mind the fact there seem to be two basic kinds of UFO phenomena: 1) “natural” or Earth-generated phenomena found within nature (i.e. “intelligent lights,” “orbs,” “energy balls,” and attendant psychic phenomena); and 2) “synthetic” phenomena (i.e., manmade craft or effects created purposely by humans).

  This natural/unnatural polarity exists in most “paranormal” phenomena. But it is actually more of a spectrum, or continuous loop (occasionally referred to by Keel as “The Great Phonograph in the Sky”). Sometimes, manmade devices and practices cause “natural” paranormal phenomena to happen, even though a different, synthetic effect was initially sought. And this can work in reverse, too, as it did with Nikola Tesla – who got his technological ideas through paranormal means.

  There is also a third category, which readily crosses over into the other two: the induced UFO experience. This is where the percipient lapses into a trance and imagines an involved experience with a UFO, flying saucer, or entity (either “humanoid” or “creature”) that did not actually happen in everyday reality. This can occur naturally (through stimulation from natural “geomagnetic” factors) or synthetically (through electromagnetic signaling from manmade sources, or through direct “brainwashing”). In certain synthetic “alien” abductions (i.e. “MILABS”), it is not uncommon for the victim’s assault at the hands of human experimenters to be replaced with a memory of abduction by “ETs.” One can also have an induced UFO experience by seeing a manmade saucer that one mistakenly thinks is from outer space.

  There are other permutations, of course, but I will let John Keel explain them. I have great respect and admiration for Keel’s writing ability, and in only just a few cases did I add parenthetical material or make minor changes to clarify the possible confusions mentioned above. Most edits were typographical, and were only necessary because magazine editors had retyped and edited the material prior to publication.

  I hope I have responsibly carried out Keel’s wish to republish these previously suppressed secrets. Perhaps they will now be fully understood. Hopefully the methodologies expounded upon here will help us gain a clearer view of the mysterious and inexplicable universe surrounding us and, at times, emanating from us.

  -Andrew B. Colvin

  FOREWORD: THE GOLDEN BOY BY GRAY BARKER

  Shortly after I arrived in New York for a recent saucer convention, I shook hands with John Keel. We immediately fell into “shop talk” or, more properly, “saucer talk” about the latest events in Pt. Pleasant, where people were still seeing “things,” even after the Silver Bridge collapse.

  I was not only impressed by Keel’s UFO theories, but also genuinely liked the man, especially his sardonic wit. When you could draw it out of him, this changed to a warm, friendly humor. Also, Keel had done me many favors during my investigation of the Point Pleasant “Mothman” cases in 1966-67, giving me much information he had uncovered.

  “This is wild,” he told me, “but I know these people. I have no reason to doubt them.” He related the strange circumstances.

  Recently, three different persons, whom he had contacted in Pt. Pleasant by phone, had complained that their files of clippings about the Mothman sightings and other phenomena had mysteriously disappeared – in one case, from a locked file cabinet.

  “I really have a good one,” I replied. “I doubt if you will ‘buy’ it, as Long John Nebel would say, but I think it fits into some of your (Garuda) theories.”

  It was one of the weirdest Mothman sightings I had run across, even during my earlier and extensive investigation. But the witness, the Fox boy, had vowed it was true. Though I had only heard the account recently, it had happened during January of 1967, a couple of months after the first Mothman sighting.

  Russell Fox, 16, and two other teenagers, Richard Nutter and Mike Cain, went hunting in a wooded area at Leon, WV, near Pt. Pleasant. They had their dogs with them. Russ wore a new hunting jacket. Although he had received nothing for Christmas from his father (estranged from the family and living in Florida), the jacket had arrived for his birthday. It made up for the lack of a Christmas present, though he would much rather see his dad
than get something from him through the mail.

  It must have cost a lot of money, though. Mike and Dickey were greatly impressed by the jacket. They examined all the pockets, and Russ felt like a hero. “Trying out” the jacket was the main reason they had gone out. They stuffed it full of shells, flashlights, and some sandwiches. To show his generosity, Russ let each of the two wear it for a short period.

  They sighted the unusual creature at the old Perkins barn, part of an abandoned farm complex, now overgrown with weeds and saplings.

  Immediately, they thought of “Mothman.” Mothman was a huge bird that walked and waddled in a kind of sideways motion.

  The dogs took off after it. But upon close approach, they halted, bayed for a few moments, and then ran back to the boys, whining. As they tried to “sic” the dogs on the creature again, it ran into the decrepit structure. They debated whether they should follow it inside.

  Russ loaded the shotgun, hoping to kill the thing. They crept up to the building. A sagging door, open only by a crack and resting on rusting hinges, confronted them.

  “We got a feeling of extreme fright. I have never felt anything like that before,” Russ said. Mike backed him up and stood close to the door. But Dickey, the youngest of the three, retreated a few yards.

  Mike held the flashlight, and Russ inserted the barrel of his shotgun into the crack of the door. He slowly drew it back, as the complaining hinges creaked. The nervous beam from Mike’s hand disclosed a peculiar sight.

  Half squatting in the corner, with one large wing folded across the manger, was a huge, grayish, birdlike creature. The light caught the eyes, which were large and glowing. Mike’s hand was so unsteady that it was hard to get a good look at the thing.

  “Hold her steady while I get a bead on it,” Russ whispered. When the flashlight again picked out the creature, Russ got his first clear look at it – over the bead of the barrel.

  It was not a monster. It definitely was a bird, though huge, almost as large as a man. Indeed, its torso reminded him somewhat of a man in circus garb, though he could make out large, beautiful feathers covering the entire body.

  The thing made no move to counterattack. Instead, it crouched there, helpless it seemed, waiting for whatever he was to do to it. He did not want to pull the trigger. Had it been running, or attacking one of the other boys, he would have done so joyfully; but now, he just couldn’t…

  “Then, something came over me, as if this thing hypnotized me,” Russ told me.

  I threw down the shotgun. Mike screamed and dropped the flashlight. The barn was inky darkness, but I found myself walking, inch-by-inch, toward the creature. I took off my new jacket; I don’t know why. I held the jacket out to it, or rather where I presumed it to be crouching.

  Finally, I just dropped the jacket and stood there in the darkness. Suddenly a glow lit up in the barn. Instead of the bird, I saw another boy there, about my age. He was almost naked. He had on a kind of jockstrap or loincloth, like in Tarzan comics. He looked like he was made out of gold!

  The glow around him got brighter. He was still crouching there, in the same place, only now the “bird” was gone. Instead, this golden boy straightened up and looked at me. Then, he looked at his feet where the jacket was. He picked it up and held it up in front of him – not as if he was covering his nakedness, but more like he was cold, or that he was holding it close, in memory of my father (like I had done when I first got it).

  Before he vanished – and that’s what he did – I swear to god, this boy started bawling and crying. I could definitely see the tears running down his face. They looked like gold, just like his body!

  Keel and I moved to the door to avoid the crowd. We stepped outside for some fresh air before he spoke:

  You wouldn’t be in on this, Gray, and I don’t think it was a hoax, because of FCC regulations. You’ll swear I’m making this up, but I am not. I was listening to the first hour of the Long John Nebel Show last night. Remember when Nebel asked you to quickly sum up the case of Al Bender and his visitation by the Men in Black? I swear, as soon as you began answering his question, a “skip signal” came in and interrupted the (powerful) WNBC signal! It was some station in the South. Whoever was talking had a decided Southern accent.

  Later, other listeners to the same program would report the same thing. I looked at Keel. There was a worried expression on his face, and his earlier humor had completely vanished.

  There’s something going on, and it is serious. I think I have some of the answers – enough of them to begin to realize what a terrifying situation we are faced with. Gray, I think the UFO syndrome of the 1950s and 60s has been the “beginning of the end.” I think “they” are ready for their next step. Who knows, maybe they have already taken us over.

  I recalled a statement John had made in Operation Trojan Horse (which sounded almost comforting compared to the political conspiracy he was now implying existed at high levels):

  Our first conclusion is that UFOs originate from beyond our own timeframe or time cycle. Our second conclusion is that the source has total foreknowledge of human events, and even of individual lives. Since time and space are not absolutes (although they seem to be to us), these two conclusions are compatible.

  It was one of many extremely quotable and cogent paragraphs written by Keel, in what may be the most important UFO book in a decade…

  Keel’s “paraphysical hypothesis” is that “many flying saucers seem to be nothing more than a disguise for some hidden phenomenon…”

  Keel points out that, until 1848, a religious frame of reference was constantly employed by the phenomenon. But as man’s technology improved, and many religious beliefs were discarded, the phenomenon was obliged to update its manifestations and establish a new frame of reference. The phantom armies and angels so frequently reported in the past were replaced by transmogrifications that appeared to match man’s own technological achievements.

  Within this framework, Keel shed new light on the incredible “dirigible” flap of the 1890s, witnessed by thousands of reliable people. Occupants of the clumsy craft often landed, conversed with people, and purchased food and supplies from them.

  The pilots told witnesses during these contacts that the ships were terrestrial, and had been built by mysterious inventors. In many ways, the pilots of these craft were similar to the “ufonauts” of today…

  In his various books and magazine articles, Keel has given us new insights into the UFOs, USOs (unidentified submerged objects), Men in Black, and hairy monsters. He even covers the tangled, often-overlooked subject of unidentified airplanes and helicopters, which appear in many areas during or after UFO flaps (without conventional numbers on their wings, tails, or fuselages).

  At night, the cockpits of these unidentified aircraft are brilliantly illuminated (a distinct abnormality, for such would interfere with pilot vision). These mystery planes have been reported to hover, fly without making noise, and navigate close to the ground during severe rain and snowstorms. Frighteningly, they tend to turn up in areas where animals have been found mutilated.

  Like the rest of the mysteries he studies so keenly, Keel believes most of these craft are only temporary constructs (or else have the power to become invisible or “cloaked”).

  They pop into our frame of reference from somewhere we can oversimplify as “another dimension.” They can be completely solid as long as they stay here, and then pop right out again – back into the mysterious realm from whence they came…

  A most intriguing subject… And maybe something “they” don’t want you to know about.

  (From Saucer News, 1970-72)

  INTRODUCTION: FIRST AND LAST WORDS

  I recently worked for a year in Washington, D.C., where I served as a special consultant to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW), which includes the Bureau of Radiological Health and numerous other agencies working in fields allied to our particular (ufological) interests. I worked directly under DHEW Secretary
Eliot Richardson (now Secretary of Defense) and had occasion to meet and interview many top officials, extending all the way to the White House.

  It was interesting to discover how many people working in Washington have had UFO sightings and experiences. Unfortunately, very few were able to give us permission to use their names, for obvious reasons. I was privileged to be able to investigate many of the classic rumors while working inside the government. A number of my friends were in the upper echelons of NASA, the Air Force, the Pentagon, and other organizations that had been connected with the UFO mess during the hectic 1960s period. We were able to review a number of interesting documents that have never been released to the press or the public.

  Overall, we merely confirmed the conclusion already outlined in my books and articles. That is, “Project Bluebook” was only a half-baked public relations effort, without proper funding or serious intent – almost tongue-in-cheek. The responsible officials expected it to produce negative results. Certain employees of the CIA and the Defense Department were peripherally involved in the project, and so it “self-destructed.”

  A fruitful UFO investigation would probably cost in the neighborhood of $25 million, and there would be no way to justify the cost to Congress or the public. Over the years, various small projects have taken place within obscure agencies, under disguised budgets, involving personnel who literally had nothing better to do. The results of these projects were largely negative, mostly because they were just boondoggles. The personnel involved didn’t know what the hell they were doing (not unusual in Washington).