Smith established the world’s first “flying saucer sighting station” at Shirley bay, outside Ottawa, in November 1953. This station consisted of a small wooden DRB building, containing some highly sophisticated instrumentation specially adapted to detect flying saucers. These instruments were: a gamma-ray counter, a magnetometer, a radio receiver, and a recording gravimeter. These four instruments produced traces on a multiple-pen graphical recorder which was checked periodically to note any disturbances.
At 3:01 P.M., August 8, 1954, the station registered a definite disturbance, quite different from disturbances registered by passing aircraft. Smith and his colleagues were alerted by a built-in alarm system. Regrettably, heavy fog prevailed and it was impossible to see anything overhead. The recorded evidence, however, indicated that something strange had flown within feet of the station.
On August 10, 1954, DOT officially folded Project Magnet, but permitted Smith to continue using its facilities on his own time at no expense to the government. Smith continued his work privately until his death in December 1962.
—ARTHUR BRAY
projection/warning theory of UFOs and ETs This could also be called the “they-are-us” theory: not as time travelers back from the future, but rather “us in the here and now” mentally projecting our hopes and fears in a conflicted world. Though I cannot speak for Martin Kottmeyer, in my opinion his theory of UFOs as an evolving system of paranoia (see PARANOIA AND UFOS) is closely related to my version of the projection/warning theory. Kottmeyer demonstrates the extremes the UFO myth can take in the minds of paranoids who accentuate what I consider “normal” concerns of anyone who realizes what is happening to our society—namely, dehumanization and loss of individuality on a massive scale. Ultimately, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and Brave New World Revisited (1958), and George Orwell’s 1984 (1949) may prove to be understatements.
When you consider the content of the UFO-alien myth (or reality), we are faced with two possibilities: either (1) we are being invaded by aliens who are behaving much the same (good and bad) as human beings, or (2) we are metaphorically projecting personal situations and social trends. In other words we are seeing in UFO-alien lore a metaphorical representation of our own evolution in all its aspects.
I personally believe this phenomenon functions as an instinctive warning system orchestrated by the unconscious mind. In this view, the main purpose of projections is to draw attention to our unconscious perceptions and enhance awareness of our natural instincts. As with other features of human evolution, the unconscious warning system has obvious survival value.
The essence of the projection/warning theory was contained in Carl Jung’s 1958 book, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies. Therein Jung offered the suggestion that UFOs and ETs constitute a living mythology that is signaling a coming new age. In this writer’s view, the main purpose of a living myth is to provide a coping mechanism for the human condition. Like dreams (hence the surrealism of UFOabduction accounts), myths are almost pure metaphor: analogies that reflect our life situations, collectively and individually.
Dreams = private myths and myths = public dreams, as Joseph Campbell would say. The images making up these dramas are symbolic and therefore require psychological interpretation in order to be “decoded,” so to speak, into literal terms. To one who understands their language, myths and dreams provide insights into the human condition. And the same holds true for the entire body of UFO-alien lore.
If we interpret the UFO myth symbolically, it tells us everything that is happening in our world as understood by the unconscious mind. And more importantly, when the archetypal themes and events are interpreted as predictions, we can explore what is likely to happen in the future if the present course is maintained. Our modern UFO-alien mythology is a projection in every sense.
Just about everything found in UFO lore is really happening—in one sense or another—but in my view our imagined “aliens” are not from another planet; they are “mutant” forms of what we used to regard as human beings. In the words of the protagonist, Dr. Miles Binnell, in Jack Finney’s 1955 novel, Invasion of the Body Snatchers: “Sometimes I think we’re refining all humanity out of our lives.” Yes—we are being invaded by “nonhuman” (alien) lifeforms who are taking over the Earth: the Grays (emotionless clones), robots (see the book Robopaths by Lewis Yablonsky); reptilians (like the serpent in the Garden of Eden), and alien captors using anal probes (a clear analogy here) who invade our privacy, make us feel paralyzed and powerless—taking away our human dignity and our freedom by taking our thoughts. These are all symbolic representations of how we unconsciously see the nonhumans who are taking over and undermining our human society. That is the reason for the cry to be more “spiritual” vs. material; more caring vs. cut-throat; and having a conscience vs. being a sociopath. Yes, the human population on this planet is in deep trouble, and that’s why so many want to be beamed up!
Combine these archetypes with the motifs found in science fiction—which were also created to depict the same kinds of conditions—and you have the magic formula for the living myth of UFOs and invaders from outer space. As a side note, when I met Gene Roddenberry on a New York TV show, in 1981, he told me that Star Trek was primarily intended as a “social commentary” and not as science fiction per se.
The reason we have a neurotic society is that we’ve been double-crossed. We have a major psychological conflict going on. Our parents, society, organized religion (sold to us as “God”), and our government were all thought to be the unquestioned guardians of our welfare. And now we know—unconsciously and consciously—that they cannot be trusted. We’ve been betrayed, which I think is the major reason for the paranoia that Martin Kottmeyer writes about.
Psychologist Rollo May thought conflict between what we trusted to be the case and mixed messages were the leading cause of anxiety disorders. He gave an example of a case in which parents were openly mean to their child, but at least were consistent, which did not result in an anxiety disorder. But another example that involved mixed messages, or inconsistencies, did. (May, 1977)
When we begin to recognize discrepancies in what we were taught in childhood, a psychological conflict develops. That is why we need new myths to take the place of old-time religion. This became science with all its promises for a wonderful utopian future for all, administered by our supposedly benevolent government leaders.
Now we see science and technology used for all kinds of hidden agendas for the benefit of certain people (especially forthcoming in the field of genetic engineering and pharmaceutical research—as in Brave New World. So now we’ve been double-crossed once again. More conflict; more neuroses. It will be remembered that a number of famous and intelligent optimists (like Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, C.G. Jung, et al.) became pessimistic about the fate of man shortly before they died.
The neurotic response is a cry for myth: a myth we can believe that will reconcile the disparate elements that do not otherwise make sense.
Most of us cannot look into the mirror or out upon the world and see what is truly there. We deny the hypocrisy, because we don’t want to believe it is really happening. So, as Freud and Jung tried to inform us, the projections are launched as defense mechanisms. But, I think projections should also be regarded as warnings (in the form of metaphors or analogies) of possible dangers lurking ahead. The first unconscious model for the “aliens” in modern times was the “Red Threat” (or the “Commies”) of the Cold War era. But today, the aliens are our own people (our leaders and ourselves).
Regarding UFOs: Jung seemed puzzled by the fact that “something is seen, but one doesn’t know what.” That’s where the misidentifications come in. Especially since World War II, we’ve had all kinds of secret technology (mostly aircraft) which accounts for quite a lot. Then, of course, there is a myriad of other things seen that can play tricks on our perceptions, especially since we are always projecting order onto the unknown.
; I would also say there is a high probability that other phenomena exist, presently unknown to science, and that might even include extraterrestrial visitors. So, all the more reason to study every aspect of the UFO phenomenon, but especially the psychosocial aspects, because, with Jung, I think “…we need more psychology. We need more understanding of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger, and we are pitifully unaware of it.” (BBC interview, 1957) But as Bertrand Russell once said: “Men fear truth more than anything else in the world.” That is our predicament.
—RONALD D. STORY
References
Bacon, Francis. “The Four Idols” (first published in 1620). Reprinted in Readings in Philosophy, edited by John Herman Randall, Jr., et al. (Barnes & Noble, 1967).
Fromm, Erich. The Forgotten Language: An Introduction to the Understanding of Dreams, Fairy Tales, and Myths (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1951).
———. The Revolution of Hope: Toward a Humanized Technology (Harper & Row, 1968).
———. On Being Human (Continuum, 1997).
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World (Harper & Row, 1932, 1946).
———. Brave New World Revisited (Harper & Row, 1958).
Jung, C. G. Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies (Routledge & Kegan Paul/Harcourt, Brace & Co. 1959; Signet/NAL, 1969; Princeton University Press, 1978). Original German language edition published in 1958.
C. G. Jung Speaking, edited by William McGuire and R. F. C. Hull (Princeton University Press, 1977).
Lorenz, Conrad. The Waning of Humaneness (Little, Brown & Co., 1983; 1987).
May, Rollo. The Meaning of Anxiety (W. W. Norton, 1977).
———. The Cry for Myth (W. W. Norton, 1991).
Orwell, George. 1984 (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1949; Signet/NAL, 1961).
Sagan, Carl. Foreword to The Space-Gods Revealed by Ronald Story (Harper & Row, 1976).
Story, Ronald D. “UFOs and the Meaning of Life,” (The Quest, Winter 1997).
Yablonsky, Lewis. Robopaths (Penguin Books, 1972).
psychiatric aspects of UFO encounters One intriguing aspect of the UFO/ET problem concerns people who have claimed contact or abduction by UFO-entities.
At times, these experiences involve multiple witnesses and include other corroborative data, such as associated animal reactions. The human biological or psycho-physiological responses to close encounters have included alleged illnesses, injuries, burns, temporary paralysis, relief or healing of a condition or illness, blackouts, seizures, time lapses, change in memory (either increased or blanked out), changes in intelligence (either vast improvement or impairment), and various behavioral effects such as fugues and psychosis.
Also, there are many published cases involving psychic (or psi) phenomena, including instances of (1) purported telepathic and clairvoyant communications; (2) possible precognition or prophecy; (3) alleged forces making the craft and/or entities invisible—possibly akin to supposed materialization, dematerialization, or apportation; (4) accounts of mysterious appearances and disappearances of UFO-associated creatures (sometimes “monsters”), with little or no evidence for their existence beyond that which is witnessed by one person or several persons; (5) claimed telekinesis (“mind over matter”)—objects moving, strange rappings, sounds, or effects on radio, TV, lights, telephones, computers, or other electrical appliances; (6) possible psychic or though-tographic photographs of UFOS; (7) alleged UFO-associated paranormal audiotapes; (8) alleged teleportations of people or objects; (9) levitation and “antigravity effects”; and (10) supposed pre-and post-UFO-sighting paranoia events, such as hauntings, poltergeists, etc.
Much of the UFO “physical” phenomena could be equated with the data of psychotronics and could be explained as an extension of “psi” (or psychic phenomena).
An overlooked feature might be the contactee-abductee interactions with computers. In these instances, two factors that should be considered are: (1) the mechanism(s) by which the presumed effects take place, and (2) the interpretation of such data and how these might be possibly (and often intimately and presently) tie in with the experient’s personal life, precipitating factors, and so forth. Where does the information come from? How do they receive the information? What does the information mean?
As UFO experiences and related phenomena are more carefully and critically studied, these become more understandable and plausible; and paradoxically, more complex, inscrutable, frustrating, and ambiguous. The separation of the experience itself from contributory psychodynamics—and in recent years often gross contamination from the media and popular literature—poses problems.
Another category of data that the psychiatrist might find interesting is that which comprises the aftermath of a UFO experience. These data include such events as strange phone calls and peculiar messages, mail tampering, frightening visitors of unusual appearance—so-called “Men in Black,” who often arrive in black Cadillacs—and instances of extreme bad luck.
Follow-up study of these experiences, as well as interviews in some of the renowned contactee-abductee cases of years ago, might yield significant additional information about what happened to these people long ago, how they fared subsequently with their health, what are the apparent wax-and-wane patterns of various claimed associated psychic phenomena, and what their current views would be in comparison with what they stated at the time of their original UFO contact.
It should be stressed that, in contrast to the scarcity of hardcore “nuts and bolts” UFO data, there is a wealth of biological, psychodynamic, and psychic data which has been widely published in the Flying Saucer Review, MUFON UFO Journal, and elsewhere.
It is unfortunate that the psychic aspects of the problem have received little professional attention compared with the copious material on the astronomical and physical effects. Of the medical specialties, psychiatry is well equipped to study those persons who claim contact or abduction by a UFO. The psychiatrist is proficient in various clinical, laboratory, and experimental techniques, including obtaining detailed histories of the alleged contactees and abductees and their families; data on their past health; physical examinations; and, when indicated, additional studies such as hypnosis and electroencephalography; and when indicated, videographically monitored electroencephalographic activation techniques for possible temporal lobe focal discharges; and utilizing newer discoveries from neuroscience.
The psychiatrist can also collate the various findings of colleagues in other fields: for example, the ophthalmologist’s evaluation of alleged UFO-induced eye injury; the dermatologist’s or radiologist’s findings in purported cases of radiation burns and various skin effects; and arranging consultation with specialists in positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Also, how interesting it would be to have genetic/DNA profiles of different gifted, documented UFO experients (contactees, abductees, paragnosts) and their families.
It is often helpful to make field trips to study these persons and their families in their home environments, and to listen carefully to their stories no matter how strange. With such background knowledge and discreet use of suggestion, clinical experiments can be performed that might engender UFO or UFO-like phenomena, or yield clues to the possible human “here and now” of some, if not much, of the material and thereby provide a possible understanding of the psychic core of much of the UFO-ET contact experience.
It appears that what the contactees and abductees claim often constitutes “subjective” reality, and their ideational content and behavioral reactions do not conform to the usual mental illnesses that a psychiatrist sees in his everyday practice.
The UFO experience, whatever its explanation, is seldom, if ever, solely the product of mental disease; however, the reverse can happen: namely, the closeencounter UFO experience can precipitate various emotional reactions, such as anxiety, depression, dissociation, etc.
The contactee or abductee can
also become emotionally disturbed over the open ridicule or disbelief of family, friends, or society in general. This destructive attitude can be more damaging than an out-and-out credulity.
These people might benefit by seeing the psychiatrist or mental health professional. Also mention should be made of a useful clinical technique, “collaborative research,” as developed and pioneered by the late Adelaide M. Johnson, M.D., Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic. In this prohibitively costly research and psychotherapeutic method, highly skilled teams of psychiatrists studied individual patients and their families with various conditions: e.g., diverse forms of delinquency, sexual deviations, sociopathic behavior and so forth. Then, with the permission of the participants, information was reported and collated in meetings where the data could be pieced together, so that it was often possible to pinpoint precise causes, contributory factors, and expressions of these specific forms of deviant behavior and mental aberrations. Much of the mystery then dissolves.
Possibly an expanded series of psychiatric studies of contactees and abductees would help answer the question of whether their experiences were: (1) solely the product of the UFO; (2) a psychopathologically colored, culturally conditioned reaction to the psychodynamically and psychically projected UFO; or (3) a combination of these.
Furthermore, it would be helpful to know if the clinical impression is correct as to: (1) Are many contactees and abductees great natural psychics who by largely unconscious factors within themselves, and in conjunction with other persons, induce the UFO experience? (2) Does the terror and uniqueness of the UFO-encounter experience split them and leave them open to a great awareness of their otherwise latent psychic abilities? (3) Or, finally, does the force associated with the UFO encounter directly instill the seemingly enhanced psychic faculties that engender the phenomena or permit the contactee to tap another dimension? (4) Could the UFO force be identical with psi? And if not, (5) what is their interface?
Interestingly, most contactees are excellent hypnotic subjects, and this might also be a clue to the causation of the phenomena; i.e., they seem to be exquisitely sensitive to all kinds of subliminal and psychic stimuli. Therefore, could the UFO force or X factor from another dimension take advantage of this hypersuggestible state?
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters Page 80