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

by Keel, John A.

  In 1966, Dr. J. Allen Hynek made an effort to find government support for a $2 million UFO project he had planned. Other scientists have submitted proposals over the years for UFO projects costing from $25,000 to many millions. The government actually did spend several million dollars on UFO research in the early 1950s, but we were never able to pin down the exact figure.

  Some early NASA research was also involved. Again, the results were negative. Top military leaders of the 1950s (e.g., Vandenberg, Doolittle, Twining) actually had a deep interest in psychic phenomena and advanced the conclusion that the UFO manifestations were closely related to psychic manifestations, and were therefore almost impossible to investigate.

  Once it was established that UFOs were intangible (they appeared and disappeared as instantly as ghosts), official interest dissipated. The flap of 1966 aroused Congress, however, and public pressure led the Air Force to shop around for a university willing to conduct an impartial investigation. After several major universities rejected the Air Force’s proposition, the project was given, somewhat reluctantly, to Colorado. The real purpose of the project was to “get all the nuts off the Air Force’s back,” as one Pentagon officer put it.

  It is extremely unlikely that there will ever be an official UFO study project. If another 1966-type flap occurs, the Pentagon will simply dust off the Condon Report.

  There have been (and are) certain small projects concerned with the medical and psychological effects on the witnesses. These are heavily disguised, however, and no results have been – or will be – published in the foreseeable future. Public exposure would result in an outcry from those members of Congress who try to watchdog agency budgets.

  We could not find any evidence of any kind indicating direct CIA involvement on the scale long rumored in UFO circles. Offices of the U.S. Navy (NSA, NRO, ONI, etc.) have been more involved in UFO research than the CIA or Air Force!

  As we have stressed for several years, the UFO situation is less real than the believers can understand. UFO manipulations are primarily diversions meant to conceal the real nature of the phenomenon, and to generate propaganda for the extraterrestrial concept. Or, as Sir Victor Goddard phrased it a few years ago, they “indulge an inveterate and continuing technological urge towards materialistic progress.”

  The effectiveness of the comparatively few ET propagandists and evangelists is obvious. They were responsible for the pressures that led the Air Force to waste $500,000 of the taxpayers’ money on the abortive Colorado project.

  More importantly, they have led a large part of the public to believe that every odd light in the sky is a spaceship from some other planet.

  -John Keel

  (From Anomaly magazine #9, June 1973)

  “The preposterous hypothesis we have come to is that at one time human nature was split in two: an executive part called a god, and a follower part called a man. Neither part was conscious. (This is almost incomprehensible to us, since we are self-conscious.) When some brand new situation would occur, our ‘bicameral’ man would not do what you and I do, that is, quickly and efficiently swivel our consciousness over to the matter, and narratize out what to do. He would have to wait for his bicameral voice – with the stored-up admonitory wisdom of his life – which would tell him, nonconsciously, what to do.

  “But what were such auditory hallucinations like? The voices take any and every relationship to the individual. They converse, threaten, curse, criticize, consult, admonish, console, mock, command, or sometimes simply announce everything that’s happening… The only extensive study was done in the last century in England… Russians had twice as many hallucinations on average. Brazilians had even more… Since the advent of chemotherapy, the incidence of hallucinatory patients is much less than it once was…

  “Hallucinating patients are more friendly, less defensive, more likeable, and have more positive expectancies toward others in the hospital than nonhallucinating patients. And it is possible that even when the effect is apparently negative, hallucinated voices may be helpful to the healing process… Of immense importance here is the fact that the nervous system of a patient makes simple perceptual judgments of which the patient’s ‘self ’ is not aware… Hallucinations must have some innate structure in the nervous system underlying them. We can see this clearly by studying those who have been profoundly deaf since birth. For even they can – somehow – experience auditory hallucinations…

  “One 32-yr. old woman, born deaf, who was full of self-recrimination about a therapeutic abortion, claimed she heard accusations from God. Another, a 50-yr. old congenitally deaf woman, heard supernatural voices that proclaimed her to have occult powers. One of my schizophrenic subjects had been sitting in a car for a long time. A blue car coming along the road suddenly, oddly, turned rusty brown, then grew huge gray wings and slowly flapped over a hedge and disappeared… Visual hallucinations may be fitted into the real environment. Usually when visualizations occur with voices, they appear as a shining light, or cloudy fog.”

  -Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

  “I would like to bring out points that, in my estimation, prove a strong case in favor of the Nazi theory of UFOs. First are the balls of light that our flyers reported throughout Germany during WWII. Later, a few were seen in Japan, but none were reported elsewhere. No balls of light were reported during WWI, nor during the period after WWII.

  “Second, a statement was made by the head of the German admiralty in 1940 that they were building a ‘Shangri-La’ for Hitler, where he would be able to retreat in the event of defeat. As the German submarines were able to remain underwater for two weeks, they could have been well able to transport scientists and equipment to South America. They established their first base there and, later, in the Antarctic.

  “Third, a speech was made by one of Hitler’s top men about three months before the collapse of the German army, as to the fantastic machine they were building in an underground factory, which apparently the Allies believed. They made frantic efforts to break up the German army immediately. The fact that the Allies found nothing that they had not already known would indicate that whatever the Germans were building had already been completed and removed.

  “Then, in 1947, the flying saucers began to appear. All of them seemed to come from the south, along the West Coast. Then, the U.S. became very interested in establishing a base and exploring the Antarctic… If my theories are correct, the Nazis have utilized a new form of power to build tremendous ‘space ships’.”

  -Harry E. Webb, letter to Saucer News, 1969

  “On the same day that the Condon UFO Report had gone to the National Academy of Sciences, one of those apparently crackpot, but nonetheless weirdly compelling reports of saucers-from-Earth came out of Rome, in a book by Renato Vesco. In his book, Interception Without Shooting, he claims that flying saucers are conceived and built by English technicians deep in the woods of Canada.

  “Vesco said that astonishing German scientific experiments immediately before and during WWII produced more than V-1 and V-2 rockets. Had the war lasted another year, they would have given Hitler an enormous quantity of fantastic arms in the aeronautical field. Many were about to be mass-produced when the war ended. The plans fell into the hands of the Allies and enabled their scientists to conclude similar but ‘more backward’ experiments, he says.

  “The Germans were developing the ‘Feuerball’ (fireball), a circular flying machine propelled by the flat jet engine and aimed at interfering with electronic devices on many planes, and the ‘Kugelblitz’ (meaning “round lightning”), a circular intercepting jet fighter. Where are these plans today? Mr. Vesco says they went to Britain and then to Canada.

  “The German experiments were continued from there, and the result was ‘flying saucers.’ He says saucers are much superior to traditional planes. Britain, he adds, has spent enormous sums on undisclosed aeronautical experiments, and various Prime Ministers have approved exp
enditures without giving the slightest hint of what they were for. The U.S. has done its best to get in on the secret but, at present, finds itself in a ‘policy of waiting’.”

  -Gray Barker, Saucer News, 1969

  “The UFO mystery is a complex matter, and has many solutions, each of which represent only a part of the total answer. I believe it will be many years before we have the total answer. I know that there must be something to this ‘Men in Black’ business, because I have photographed one of them myself, and I have been involved in other such cases (or heard about them from people whom I consider absolutely reliable). As to who these men are, where they come from, and why they are here, I cannot answer. But these men do exist, and some of the events are quite real, though others are no doubt made up by people who want to ‘get in on the act’ and achieve free publicity, etc.

  “There is at least one part of the UFO mystery that I solved several years ago, and this must be the part to which you referred to in your last letter. Unfortunately, it is the one thing I could not reveal, even in confidence. I can only tell you that this part of the answer is shocking and frightening (at least to the average person), though it would be well understood by those trained in the appropriate scientific discipline.

  “In other words, it does not involve anything beyond our present state of science and technology. The main reason that I cannot reveal it is that it would not be believable by any researcher. Were I to tell you, you would simply question my data or my motives, and would not accept the information I offered. This is why the matter is something that ‘cannot be told’ (as various researchers have stated), and which must therefore, by the very nature of the thing, be learned by each individual researcher for himself.”

  -Jim Moseley, letter to physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer, 1969

  “The death of Col. Maddox on the Silver Bridge should serve to warn you and the WBAB woman [Jaye Paro]. Do not attempt to interfere with the Kelson family. Their problems are none of your business.

  “We are always watching, Mr. Keel, and your people in Washington cannot help you. Mr. Scott and the boy on Long Island went to the FBI and made up many lies about the men from Saucer News. The man in Clarksburg [Gray Barker] is in serious trouble now, and you will be, too, if you do not watch your step.

  “If you want to stay out of trouble, do not attempt to speak to the Kelsons again, and warn Miss WBAB to do likewise. It would also be wise for you to forget about the Riverhead case. These matters do not concern you.

  “You have no allies. We have many. Col. Maddox found out.”

  -Anonymous note left under Keel’s door, Dec. 30, 1967 (with letterhead of “the International Bankers”)

  MEMO TO ALL UFOLOGISTS – NOT FOR PUBLICATION

  Subject: Increase in “Men in Black” Activity

  Since the first of February, there has been an alarming increase in the activities of the “Men in Black,” and it is now apparent that “they” are deliberately carrying out actions that make them conspicuous and attract attention. This is in direct contrast to their previous methods.

  Since “they” do seem to be coming out from undercover and making a bid for attention, we should be especially suspicious and cautious in our investigations, and in our public statements on these activities. In other words, we should counteract their activities by adopting a position of silence.

  Both the local police and FBI should be immediately informed of any MIB activity in your area. The identity and location of the witnesses involved should be protected, and should be withheld from the local press.

  This is a very serious situation. I have very substantial reasons for believing that the current explosion of MIB activity is directly related to a forthcoming national crisis. The crisis has been developing over a long period of time. The numerous hoaxes, deceptions, and seeming meaningless incidents inherent in the UFO phenomenon have actually served to cover up the real situation.

  It appears as if two groups of MIB are involved. One group is extremely dangerous. They have committed murder and arson on a broad scale, operating under the carefully constructed umbrella of ridicule and nonsense surrounding the UFO phenomenon. The second group is trying to focus our attention on the first group by imitating MIB activity through harmless interviews, presentation of obviously false credentials, etc. We must understand and appreciate the efforts of this second group, and learn to discriminate between the two.

  Should you ever come into direct contact with any MIB, do not attempt to assault them, threaten them, anger them, or detain them. Appear to accept whatever credentials they offer. Do not under any circumstances enter their automobile or go anywhere alone with them. Do not give them any personal articles, photographs, or currency, and do not sign any forms or papers they may display.

  -John A. Keel, March 15, 1968

  “In my early teens, I found that I could sometimes sense what other people were thinking. I assumed that everyone had this ability. Now and then, I encounter someone whose mind is actually vulnerable to my own. I not only sense what they are thinking, but I can project my own thoughts into their mind; they accept these thoughts as their own. In short, I can control that person’s mind on a modest scale.

  “There are people who have this power to a very developed degree. They can control others, even from a great distance. It is probable that some world leaders, especially the evil ones like Hitler, possessed and exercised this ability. One famous Russian psychic could hand a railroad conductor a blank sheet of paper, and the conductor would punch it, thinking it was a ticket…

  “Intercepting the thoughts and feelings of others is a meager accomplishment compared with the next item on the scale: precognition, the ability to see into the future. People with this ability are not just tuning into other human minds; their brains are somehow tuned to the superspectrum itself, and they are tapping the information stored in it. The future already exists in the superspectrum.”

  -John Keel, The Eighth Tower

  CHAPTER 1

  WHAT THE CIA IS NOT TELLING US ABOUT UFOS – MALE MAGAZINE, APRIL 1969

  For nearly a generation, American “flying saucer” enthusiasts have been loudly accusing the Central Intelligence Agency of pilfering their mail, tapping their telephones, and ordering random UFO witnesses to keep their mouths shut. UFO-investigating organizations have tediously collected hundreds of intriguing cases in which reliable, honest American citizens have testified that they have been the victims of unusual harassment and even of physical threats by “agents” claiming to represent the U.S. government.

  The apparent purpose of such tactics is to “suppress” information about “flying saucers.” Behind all the circumstantial evidence and sworn testimony, there are strong suggestions that the blame for these harassments may actually be cleverly focused on the U.S. air force and the CIA by a third party.

  There is mounting evidence that no known government agency takes the UFO “problem” seriously at all, but that another hidden group far behind the scenes is deliberately conducting a carefully planned campaign to spread confusion, suspicion, disbelief, and distrust in governmental institutions.

  Public outcry was so great during the “flap” in 1966, and the organized UFO enthusiasts were so vociferous in their accusations against the air force and CIA, that the CIA actually broke its long silence and issued the following statement to the press on Oct. 11, 1966:

  It is indeed true that in the 1950s, the Central Intelligence Agency was actively studying the matter of Unidentified Flying Objects because at that time, there was no way of knowing whether such objects might be originating from sources overseas.

  All materials concerning UFOs were subsequently declassified and made available to scientists, scholars, and other interested persons. Materials which were not declassified had nothing to do with UFOs, but with the organization and methods of the CIA.

  The matter of UFOs currently is the responsibility of the Air Force, and CIA has no interest either in building up or debunkin
g any information or views concerning UFOs.

  This statement was not widely published at the time, and the UFO enthusiasts regarded it as nothing more than another “government whitewash.” But as experienced investigators such as science writer Lloyd Mallan plunged into the UFO controversy, they uncovered many bewildering aspects that had been overlooked by the hardcore UFO enthusiasts. For one thing, men dressed in military uniforms (usually Air Force uniforms) were turning up at UFO sites and ordering the witnesses to remain silent about what they had seen. Several common factors emerged in these cases. These “Air Force officers” often arrived at the witnesses’ homes hours – or even minutes – after their sightings, before these witnesses had a chance to report their observations to anyone. Invariably, these “officers” arrived in chauffeur-driven Cadillacs.

  Genuine Air Force officers don’t ride around in Cadillacs, but use assembly-line Chevys and Fords from the base motor pool. In several cases, these saucer “officers” carried sidearms and actually threatened the witnesses with them. In a recent instance, one such “officer” flourished a German Luger instead of a general issue, U.S.-made automatic.

  Would any responsible Air Force officer actually threaten an American taxpayer with a firearm just because he or she had seen an unidentified flying object?

  The Pentagon became very concerned over the nationwide activities of these mysterious “Air Force officers” and on March 1, 1967, Lt. General Hewitt T. Wheless, USAF Assistant Vice Chief of Staff, issued a letter to all commands on the subject of “Impersonations of Air Force officers.” It advised all military and civilian personnel “and particularly Information Officers and UFO Investigating Officers who hear of such reports” to notify military intelligence immediately.