The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters

by Story, Ronald

  News articles from the first weeks of the UFO mystery do not paint the picture of a nation gripped by panic. Arnold’s saucers were a source of fascination and mystery, not one of imminent danger. The Air Force said it wasn’t anything of ours. The Russians said it wasn’t anything of theirs. So what were they? Take your pick: transmutations of atomic energy, beer bottle caps shot out of a blast furnace, secret experiments, tricks of the eye, mirages of planes, a State Department propaganda ploy to lure us into war, helium-filled rings to publicize a ring toss game, electrical flying fish from Venus. One reporter, apparently on a lark, contacted authorities to get a statement about the invasion. The official said he had not heard of one and directed him to contact Orson Welles. Witnesses who came forward to corroborate the existence of flying saucers expressed no fear. One lady spoke of a creepy feeling at seeing a disk, but even that mild effect is exceptional.

  In intelligence circles, rumors surfaced in July of 1947 that saucers spewed out radioactive clouds that killed animal life, and one scientist wrote to the FBI claiming saucers might be radio-controlled germ bombs or A-bombs, but these ideas apparently never became part of the public discourse. Some intelligence folks recommended in 1948 that the military might be put on alert status, but cooler heads prevailed. In 1949, a researcher for Project Sign observed that no damage had yet been attributed to UFOs. One doctor proposed there might have been a link between a polio epidemic he was treating and the saucer problem, but authorities quietly discarded the idea. In 1950 a group of scientists calling themselves the Los Alamos Bird Watchers Association looked into the possibility of a correlation between radiation and UFO overflights, but nothing conclusive came of it. (Gross, 1982)

  The Mantell tragedy was a pivotal event in early UFO history in that it began to press the point that something serious was going on. Some rumors appeared in the papers that radioactivity was found at the crash site. They were denied, but the absence of a clear answer to the mysterious circumstances surrounding Mantell’s UFO pursuit and subsequent plane crash was not so easy to dismiss. Interestingly, however, the concern among UFO buffs was over the government’s handling of the case and not about trigger-happy aliens. Keyhoe felt no belligerence was involved. They had merely acted in self-defense. “Even the stoutest believers in the disks do not think any mass invasion from space is possible at this time.” (Keyhoe, 1950)

  Gerald Heard noted that, until Mantell, saucers always succeeded in getting out of the way. “They have behaved with a deportment that shows not merely savoir-faire but real considerateness.” He felt it was puzzling that they threw away the advantage of surprise if they truly posed a future threat. (Heard, 1951) Frank Scully echoed the sentiment that there was no belligerence evident in alien observer actions. His fear was that Earth pilots might attack the saucers and prompt retaliation against not only the aggressors, but our whole planet. (Scully, 1950)

  Contactees offered contradictory confessions. Orfeo Angelucci’s aliens said Mantell’s death was unavoidable because he tried to overtake and capture a “remotely controlled” disk. (Angelucci, 1955) George Adamski’s aliens regretted the power field effects of a large manned vessel that caused the “accident.” (Adamski, 1955)

  In 1951 a Dr. Anthony Mirarchi was widely quoted as suggesting saucers came from a potential enemy of the United States. “If they were launched by a foreign power then they could lead to a worse Pearl Harbor than we have ever experienced.” He recommended that considerable appropriations be allocated to conduct a complete investigation. The historical significance of this plea is open to argument. It may be the first expression of a fear of attack and call for increased investigation to get wide dissemination, but Mirarchi is not heard from again in UFO circles, and the call to action is surely ignored. The reference to Pearl Harbor, however, will recur a decade later in the writings of the Lorenzens.

  Sometime in early 1952 a Rotary Club lecturer took up the subject of flying saucers. He expressed the belief that they heralded a better life. They represented a non-hostile invasion from which we might acquire an advanced science. An informal survey of saucer buffs uniformly got responses that the saucers were not a menace. They: “come here in peace,” “don’t wish to destroy us,” had “outgrown war,” had “curiosity,” were afraid to contact us, or would eventually contact us and give us secrets. (Bender, 1962)

  The most telling fact that this was in fact the general attitude occurred in the wake of the Washington D.C. radar incidents. Al Chop, working at the Pentagon press desk, said people were writing letters and wiring the President urging the military not to shoot at the saucers. He asked news writers to please emphasize to people that pilots in fact were not shooting at the saucers.

  Kenneth Arnold resurfaced around this time with his opinions that UFOs were harmless and probably a living, thinking animal of the stratosphere. The Coming of the Saucers (1952), the book he coauthored with Ray Palmer, avoided any final conclusions about flying saucers. They weren’t American or Russian or Spanish or Argentine, and they saw no substance to claims of crashed saucers bearing little men from other planets. They presently hoped that the truth could in time be sifted from the fanciful. All they knew was that flying saucers may be the “most vitally important fact of our time!”

  In 1953 Desmond Leslie and George Adamski offer their contact tale in Flying Saucers Have Landed. Their message included the sentiment that these people from other worlds are our friends and wish to ensure the safety and balance of the other planets in our system. They could impose powerful action against us, not with weapons, but by manipulating “the natural forces of the universe.”

  Keyhoe’s 1953 book Flying Saucers from Outer Space is a first major step into the fear that saucers were dangerous. Keyhoe argues with some friends about the implications of various saucer reports. One of them is a jet pilot named Jim Riordan who presents a spirited defense of his belief that aliens are hostile. Repeated surveillance of certain strategic sites leads him to believe: “It looks as if they are getting ready for an attack…measuring us for a knockout.” He points to an odd case of a red spray bomb that exploded at Albuquerque, which he suggests had to be a ranging test for a future attack. Keyhoe offers the self-admittedly thin suggestion it is only a back-up plan in case we don’t listen to reason. Keyhoe himself insists there was no proof of hostility: “at least an even chance they mean us no harm.” The long reconnaissance of Earth was “possibly nearing its climax…the final act of the saucer drama.” Instead of an all-out attack, he preferred to believe “the final operation may be entirely peaceful; if so, it could be of benefit to everyone on earth.”

  Herman Oberth, the great German rocket pioneer, offered his opinions about the saucers in a frequently quoted 1954 article. “They obviously have not come as invaders, but I believe their present mission may be one of scientific investigation.” He optimistically suggests the “ultimate result might be disclosure of secrets [that] otherwise we might not lay bare for a hundred thousand years.” (Flammonde, 1971)

  Harold Wilkins of Britain was notably ambivalent about the hazards of saucers in his first book, Flying Saucers on the Attack (1954). On one page he deduces they are “unmistakably hostile” because of evidence of “arson on quite a large and dangerous scale.” Later, he backpedals and thinks it may just be a warning. He speaks of death rays wielded by the airplanes, but allows Earth fliers menacing them could have prompted it. He quotes contactees to the effect that the aliens are not hostile, but notes they do not desire close contact. They perhaps see in us “hooligan children” deserving to be “whipped with a rod of scorpions.” Elsewhere he wonders if they are drawn here to profit from mineral deposits.

  The following year, his sequel Flying Saucers Uncensored (1955) is less ambivalent. He warns it is folly for any sane man to do more than quietly investigate given their ethics are unlikely to be ours. Even so, he speculates on the aggressive tactics a hostile cosmic power might employ and he asserts seeing “a most disturbing pattern has been
slowly built up.” The issue of death rays reasserts itself and he speaks of a “death ceiling,” in essence a blockade, having been instituted to prevent us from future flights to the moon and beyond. Mysterious experiments are performed which causes tears in everybody in an area in Singapore. Horses are sterilized by atomic radiation. Humans are abducted for unknown ends, but in pursuing their overlordship over the Earth, Wilkins suggests they would not need our bodies. It is probably annihilation of our souls they seek. They might create mutations of humans that are devoid of divine creativity and dissatisfaction. “Creative art and pure science, the godlike in man, would die out.” They might be throwing “a cosmic monkey wrench into our terrestrial wheels” to derail our use of atomic weaponry and supersonic aircraft. Activity along the Martian canals, he worries, might indicate they are contemplating an invasion of Earth. Dangerous or not, Wilkins is certain they have conducted a pole-to-pole survey of our world. We can only “watch, wait, collate, and synthesize.”

  In The Flying Saucer Conspiracy (1955), Donald Keyhoe began to accept that the saucers were in fact hostile, as Riordan said they were. He began to collect phenomena that could be interpreted as alien attacks. A Walesville plane crash indicates the use of heat beams. Skyquakes indicate the use of focused sound waves. A hole in a billboard becomes evidence of a missile from outer space. The Seattle windshield pitting epidemic is regarded as retaliation for Earth space activities. The disappearance of Flight 19 becomes evidence that aliens are abducting humans. Keyhoe admits the absence of an all-out takeover is a problem he doesn’t have an answer for. His friend Redell gets the final word and proposes the disappearances are to acquire people who can teach them our language before they make contact.

  Morris Jessup is ambivalent from his study of the phenomenon. He sees them as exploratory missions that sometime engage in experiments and the capture of specimens. Though they catch planes and cause occasional storms and deluges, he still thinks we should not be astonished if it turns out that space dwellers are preparing to prevent fear-stricken human beings from blowing up another planet. (Jessup, 1955)

  Waveney Girvan felt more evidence would exist if saucers truly represented hostile invasion. People feared the saucers because they forced a new dimension in our thinking. They offend the climate of our age, but he felt they brightened it up a little as well. The large proportion of reports proved the visitors were peaceful and friendly and far from hostile. (Girvan, 1955)

  One UFOlogist around this time offered the revelation that the craft were not only friendly, they were helping clear our environment of radiation released in atomic bomb blasts. (Moseley, 1956) It turns out this had been advanced in contactee circles, specifically Mark Probert’s Inner Circle for some time. There is even a news item dating back to the 1947 Wave in which a San Francisco zany claimed astral contact with the Dhyanis, rulers of creation, who were dropping “metaboblons” into our atmosphere to counteract atomic radiation. (Bloecher, 1967) This is likely a garbling of metabolons, a word in brief use around 1910 to label the fragments of atoms in radioactivity before they were better understood as protons, neutrons, and electrons. The Dhyanis had not kept up in their reading.

  Aimé Michel in The Truth about Flying Saucers (1956) advanced contradictory opinions about the nature of the saucer problem. In one place he says it is essential to find out what they are, for if they are real a sword of Damocles hangs over our heads: “the destiny of our planet is assuredly at stake.” Later, he proclaims “their inoffensive nature is a certainty. If we are being visited, it is by beings whose courtesy and tact need no further illustration. We could learn from them, in addition to their knowledge, a lesson in respect for others. With all the power at their disposal, they have never once attempted to interfere in our affairs.” He goes on to suggest that they are fearful of the murderous tendencies evident in all our great enterprises. He felt the American investigations had proved nothing. Further investigation, and a little more human effort, would make the difference. “The mystery would be fathomed very soon, if we really tried.”

  Michel’s sequel, Flying Saucers and the Straight Line Mystery (1958), advanced orthoteny as a mortal blow to the idea that saucers were a collective psychopathology. The threads provided by orthoteny now meant there was no question a Sword of Damocles had been hanging over our heads. Why it had not fallen yet was unexplained, but the blow will be fatal. Their landing would lead to the extinction of mankind because of our inferior ethics.

  How very different is the conclusion of Bryant and Helen Reeves’ contactee study Flying Saucer Pilgrimage (1957). The aliens are regarded as Guardians who will never offer coercion or assistance, but are servants of the Light, masters of energy, and are “balanced” beings. While ill-intentioned beings exist, the Guardians prevent their passage to our world. The overall picture is deemed “very progressive and inspiring.”

  Leonard Stringfield’s Saucer Post—3-0 Blue (1957) is a portrait of uncertainty. In November of 1955 he had offered the case for interplanetary war, but he changed his mind. UFOs seemed to behave menacingly in certain cases, yet a superior culture could clearly be capable of planeticide and mass harm. Acts of UFO violence exist, but hostility seems highly debatable.

  Gray Barker’s They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers (1956) added to the growing sense that malevolence was associated with UFO phenomena. These things may mean to do us harm and may or may not be shooting at us with rays from underground. This doesn’t alarm him too greatly, since he feels we are bound to find some defense against it. What disturbs him is that some agency is trying to prevent us from learning about their existence and might come knocking at the door. An acquaintance with the name T. James was suggesting to him aliens might be “downright evil.”

  Two holdouts against the trend to see aliens as troublesome were Max B. Miller and Gavin Gibbons. Miller was still in the sway of the contactee faction and felt they conveyed “fraternal friendship and understanding.” Their effects were “positive and constructive.” (Miller, 1958) Gibbons was more influenced by the early Keyhoe. “They are not hostile,” he affirms. He fully expected them to land en masse in the near future based on patterns of activity he chronicled. “They will certainly bring benefits,” he predicts. “We must, all of us, welcome these beings who are taking so much trouble to bring the news of a good life to this planet.” (Gibbons, 1958)

  Reviewing the UFO myth in 1958, Carl Jung noted the contradictory strands developing in it. According to some, the visitors held superior wisdom and wanted to save humanity; but other aliens were carrying off people, as in the case of Flight 19, according to others. Some affirm their benevolence, but that harmlessness was “recently doubted.” To Jung, the flights didn’t appear based on any recognizable system. If anything, they were like tourists unsystematically viewing the landscape. (Jung, 1958,1959)

  Robert Dickhoff’s Homecoming of the Martians (1958, 1964) might be dismissed as obscure, little-read and lightly veiled fiction. Yet it is a treasure. According to his conscious mythology, “Germ-invaders” swept down from space in the past and “begat life or a parody thereof” in a variety of forms that included the ape-men mentalities. Aghartan teachers have through the centuries been rendering them a harmless and controlled reality. In the present, a super-brain a.k.a. God-Brain-Head, produced by manipulated biological engineering, exists for which robot-crews and scientists with gangster throwback mentalities travel through space. They “spacenap” earthlings and gather blood for the Brain’s nourishment.

  By the end of the decade, Keyhoe is fully convinced that UFOs are a danger. The creation of NICAP was directed to the end of proving wrong the Air Force’s conclusion that UFOs were no threat. Delmar Fahmey, at NICAP’s creation, stated there was “an urgent need to know the facts.” (Ruppelt, 1956). To that end they would pester the Air Force for release of all their files. They called for Congressional hearings to acknowledge the reality of the saucer problem. Keyhoe wanted an all-out drive to communicate with the aliens—to
convince them we wouldn’t try to invade other worlds. Congress would be obliged to force a crash program for our defense against aliens. (Keyhoe, 1960)

  That the Air Force refused to release their files is a fact. Ruppelt said they planned to ignore NICAP, because they knew their independent review would nitpick every case. If the bird, balloon or plane hadn’t been caught and a signed confession wrung out, they would call it a spaceship. They knew from earlier experiences what to expect: “Many of the inquiries came from saucer screwballs and these people are like a hypochondriac at the doctor’s; nothing will make them believe the diagnosis unless it is what they came to hear. And there are plenty of saucer screwballs. One officer summed it up neatly when he told me, ‘It isn’t the UFOs that give us the trouble, it’s the people’.” (Ruppelt, 1956)

  INVASION AND INFECTION

  The sixties were a manic time for UFO belief. Flying saucers were so real, only the most bigoted skeptic could deny advanced metallic piloted machines were flying around—a potential threat to the security of the world. Everyone felt something had to be done. Most of all, the authorities should openly admit the reality of the problem.

  Book titles convey some of the mood of the period: Flying Saucers: The Startling Evidence of the Invasion from Outer Space; Flying Saucers are Hostile; Flying Saucer Invasion—Target Earth; Flying Saucers—Serious Business; The Real UFO Invasion; The Terror Above Us. The teaser on The Official Guide to UFOs promised “Exclusive! First News of America’s Most Terrifying UFO Invasion!” Wilkins’ books return with arch blurbs asking “Are they Friendly Visitors from Outer Space or Invaders Planning Conquest?” and “Is there a cosmic battle plan aimed at Earth?” The actual content was less dramatic than advertised, but that hardly mattered. The conviction of urgency transcended the material gathered for proof.

  Throughout the first half of the decade, Keyhoe’s NICAP pressed for Congressional hearings on the UFO problem by such tactics as letter-writing campaigns. The Air Force warned congressmen such hearings would only dignify the problem and cause more publicity, thus adding to the problem. NICAP also published a book called The UFO Evidence (edited by Richard Hall) and sent copies to congressmen to put forward their case that UFOs were in fact real and posed a danger to the fabric of society. The danger included an unprepared public being caught up in widespread panic if an external danger was suddenly imposed. A sudden confrontation with extraterrestrials could have disastrous results, they warned. Among them, “catastrophic results to morale.”