The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters

by Story, Ronald

  Six group fantasy crises occurred between 1952 and 1977, the period that de Mause limited himself to. They comprise only 18 percent of this 25-year interval. If all five major national flaps fell into these well-defined bands of crisis, we would have impressive statistical proof of a true relationship. Regrettably, only one wave, 1957, occurs during these crises and this is no better than chance.

  It might be that political crisis is the wrong form of crisis to be looking at. Charles Fair offers a variant restriction of crisis theory that suggests UFO graphs are gauges of collective anxiety corresponding to alignments of power during the Cold War. Thus flaps happen at the times of Dulles’ “brinkmanship,” the opening phases of the space race, and the entanglement in Vietnam. (Fair, 1974) There is one killer problem that stares any potential convert of such crisis theories in the face. The Cuban missile crisis of 1962 was the single most terrifying event in the twentieth century. Fear of nuclear annihilation was palpable and imminent. If ever an impetus for salvationist fantasy and magical escape existed, it to be then. We should have seen the biggest UFO flap imaginable. This not only failed to happen, but UFO numbers actually dropped during the crisis.

  Billig tries to excuse this incongruity in his application by trying to draw a distinction between crises that focus on specific situations and those that pose a vague threat, which leaves the individual without adequate defenses. The distinction sounds phony since every individual without a fallout shelter had no defense against a nuclear exchange. The wish for aliens to come down and rescue us naturally seems a logical supernatural solution obliged by the axioms of crisis theory. Peter Rogerson (1981) alternately proposed the crisis was over so fast that there was not enough time for a salvationist fantasy to develop. The 1957 wave, however, showed a ten-fold increase in the matter of three days. And, to repeat, the numbers actually went down during the crisis. Surely some kind of increase should have been registered. Such excuses just don’t wash to anyone who lived through this collective staredown with death.

  Crisis theory probably does not work here because the salvationist impulse does not form the core of the dominant rumor complex about UFOs. While the impulse is certainly present in the contactee complex of people like George Adamski and George Hunt Williamson, this is distinct from the beliefs of people like Donald Keyhoe and Coral Lorenzen who saw UFOs as spycraft and potential invaders. (Rogerson, 1978/79) It is also distinct from those who felt saucers were secret weapons: the true dominant belief of the fifties and sixties in the general public. Most cases speak not of escaping Earth and all its sorrows (the John Lennon UFO is a well-known but nearly unique exception to the rule), but express fears of many varieties from being spied upon, being captured, being chased, being contaminated, and being run into.

  MASS HYSTERIA

  The suggestion that flaps are a form of collective hysteria seems initially more promising as a way to account for the fears seen in UFO experiences. Mark Rhine in the Condon report and Robert Hall point to certain episodes of mass hysteria or hysterical contagion like the June bug epidemic, the Seattle windshield pitting epidemic, and the Mad Gasser of Mattoon, wondering if they may serve as explanatory models for what is going on with the UFO phenomenon. Neither takes the idea very far and Hall pointed out several difficulties in comparing these phenomena, probably the most notable being the fleeting character of these model epidemics. (Sagan and Taves, 1974) Michael Swords suggests these models are more properly labeled as anxiety attacks and adds the point that the people involved do not display psychotic symptoms: “…they do not add unreal experiences to their beliefs.” He firmly denies hysteria or mass psychogenic illness makes any contribution to the great mass of UFO reports and his detailed argument is strongly recommended as a thorough demolition of this line of inquiry. It further warns us that the etiology of flaps will not analogous to neuroses, but psychoses. (Swords, 1984)

  Allan Hendry’s study of 1158 IFO reports demonstrates conclusively there are important emotional forces connected to the UFO mythos that compromises the objectivity of percipients of UFOs. Commonplace stimuli like stars, balloons, and the like are imaginatively reconstructed with unreal traits like domes and the saucer shape. Witnesses are totally sincere and most are eminently articulate even when offering greatly distorted observations. IFO witnesses are found in skilled trade jobs and with both general and specialized education. Competency and the ability to reason critically are not the issues. Emotions and expectations are subverting the perception process. (Hendry, 1979)

  PARANOIA THEORY

  Many facets of the UFO mythos are identifiably forms of paranoid ideation. The core belief that aliens are making a reconnaissance of our planet, that, to borrow a title from the sixties, Flying Saucers are Watching Us, is a collective variant on the common paranoid delusion of observation, the erroneous impression that one is being watched by persecuting others. Allied to this is a large complex of suspicions.

  The government knows more than it is telling. It is purposefully misleading the public. It secretly gathers up all important evidence like photos and crashed saucers. The saucers may be secret weapons of America, Russia, and even Nazi scientists. Concerns about invasion, poisoning, irradiation, mind-tampering, doppelgangers, night-doctors, and sexnappings are seen. Myriad fantasies of world destruction have been ubiquitous among both UFOlogists and experiencers.

  Norman Cameron guesses the incidence of paranoid reactions in the general population to be quite high. Transient paranoid misinterpretations may happen to virtually anyone in the right set of circumstances. (Cameron, 1959) In certain individuals paranoid ideation becomes fixed and chronic. Even in these instances, there is no loss of mental competency in most other aspects of their lives. Indeed they may often perform at superior levels. (Rosen, Fox, and Gregory, 1972) Paranoia is essentially an intellectual disorder which is strikingly, meticulously logical after the basic emotional axioms are laid in. (Fried and Agassi, 1976) The point is that Hendry’s facts about IFO reports are consistent with either transient or chronic paranoia. This allows one to speculate on the origins of the waves of misinterpretation generated by the UFO mythos, for there is no mystery about the origins of paranoiac reactions.

  Kenneth Mark Colby has critically reviewed the formulations offered by several researchers for the origin of paranoia and convincingly concluded that only shame and humiliation adequately explained the range of known precipitants of paranoia. Injuries to the ego in such forms as personal slights, job failures, false arrests, accidents, deformities, and sexual defeat exemplify the varied events seen at the beginning of paranoid psychoses. (Colby, n.d.) Underscoring the primacy of personal pride over personal danger is fact that paranoia is more often associated with people experiencing thwarted ambitions than with people holding few expectations in a hazardous environment. (Meissner, 1978) If flaps are being governed by the dynamics of paranoia, we should be asking if they are being generated by episodes of collective shame.

  APPLICATION

  In the case of the major UFO flaps in America, such a question yields good answers. The 1947 wave was obviously triggered by the phrase flying saucer entering the language and the presumption that they represented a superweapon closely analogous to the atomic bomb developed in supersecrecy by the Manhattan Project a couple years earlier. This fed into a hysterical anti-communism that was spawned earlier in 1947, specifically March 12th. On that date Truman addressed a joint session of Congress and spoke in sweeping, apocalyptic terms of communism as an insidious world menace. Those who loved freedom would have to struggle with it at all times and all fronts. Truman quickly set up a federal loyalty review program. One aim of this speech was to garner military aid to support a Greek regime in the throes of a civil war by scaring the hell out of the American people. The aid was granted, but it succeeded too well in scaring people. Norman Thomas was making a trip through California that spring and was amazed at how quickly “hysterical anti-communism swept the state.” Historians David Caute and Athan Theoh
aris confirm this pervasive fear of communism quickly gripped the nation. A poll in 1947 showed 66 percent of Americans believed the Soviet Union was “aggressive” compared to 38 percent in 1945. (Boyer, 1994) One of the earliest moves by the government in investigating the flying saucer problem included background checks of those who claimed to have seen saucers to determine if they had communist ties. They didn’t. The erosion of basic trust by loyalty tests of Americans could be a key factor in the escalation of paranoia in this period.

  The 1952 wave begins with the rising furor of an upcoming steel strike planned by laborers in the steel industry. In that era, steel was a major force in the American economy and an integral part of American national identity. The strike deeply divided the nation because the nation was then fighting a war in Korea and such an action was perceived as a traitorous threat to the strength of the nation. President Truman seized the steel industry to keep the mills running. In due course, however, the courts declared the seizure unconstitutional and the strike began in earnest.

  UFO numbers respond to developments in the steel strike in a convincing manner. Numbers grew up to the time of the seizure and then fell for a time. After the courts ruled and the strike proceeded, UFO numbers began upwards and skyrocket to record proportions, culminating in the frenzy of the Washington National sightings. Three days after the first Washington National sighting the strike was settled. Within a week, the numbers begin to collapse, assisted by an announcement that the D.C. cases were caused by a temperature inversion.

  SPUTNIK

  Sputnik was indisputably the central trauma of the fifties generation and a profound blow to American self-esteem. The U.S. prided itself on being the most technologically advanced nation on Earth. Yankee ingenuity was a term of self-endearment. Sputnik called all this into question. The Russians were the first to orbit a satellite around the Earth and we were not. This event gnawed away at the American psyche such that millions were funneled into the space program over the following decade in a race to put a moon on the moon before the Russians and restore self-confidence in our superiority.

  A look at the UFO numbers are puzzling at first glance because the peak happens after the launch of Sputnik II, a month after Sputnik I. Shouldn’t the Levelland flap follow the initial Sputnik more closely? A memoir of the period by NASA clarifies the paradox. The alarm did not materialize immediately. Planetariums and ham radio operators became more active after the first announcement, but Newsweek correspondents first found “massive indifference” and a vague feeling we had entered a new era. After a week, this bewilderment melted away before a mounting and almost universal furore. Between October 9th and 15th a lot of blaming was going on in Washington D.C. and calls went up for improving education. Successful rocket tests between October 17th and October 23rd offered hope we were catching up, but then on November 3rd Russia announced the launch of a second even more spectacular Sputnik with a dog on board named Laika. (Green and Lomask, 1970) Add into this emotional brew news of a UFO incident in which an UFO caused automobiles to fail and the numbers exploded ten-fold.

  Numbers dropped off from the 6th onwards probably because of the whimsical Trasco case, wherein aliens tried to kidnap a guy’s dog, an obvious spin on Laika. The Schmidt contact may also have been a factor for authorities quickly proclaimed the man an ex-con. Numbers remain elevated in the ensuing weeks. There is a temporary sharp decline accompanying the explosion of a Vanguard rocket on December 6th and some see that as point against paranoia theory. Yet while this was clearly a humiliation for workers on the Vanguard project and they were treated like they had committed treason, people in general seemed disappointed and depressed. Paranoia is in part a defense against depression and does not manifest itself in the depths of mourning. (Meissner, 1978) It is more usually associated with frenzy and manic thought. The flap resumed briefly in the days that followed, but by late December it was essentially over. The launch of Explorer I on January 31, 1958 was a relief, but UFO numbers were already so low by that date that no further decline was immediately apparent since there were only one to three reports per day. Even so, the total for February was 41, down from January’s 61, and potentially indicative of restored pride.

  SIXTIES

  The UFO wave of July-August 1965 coincides with two major events that introduced the nation to two extended nightmares: the Vietnam debacle and the race riots. The first U.S. ground combat operation began on June 28, 1965. While the U.S. had been involved in Vietnam with aerial bombing before this date, the ground combat denoted a new level of development. Unfortunately it quickly turned out that the troops were engaged in a “futile assault.” On July 4th, Hanoi repulsed overtures for peace. On July 20th U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara reported the situation in Vietnam was deteriorating. On July 28th a troop build-up was announced and draft calls issued. UFO numbers were virtually flat from January to June, but with July gradual, but erratic increases are unmistakable. A small two-day decline around July 15th coincides with news of Mariner 4 reaching Mars—a brief moment of technological triumph.

  The flap reaches a peak on August 4th as the reality of the Draft sinks in, then drops down quickly for a week when the second blow hits. On August 11th: the Watts riot. From the 11th to the 16th the Watts suburbs go up in flames when racial tensions erupted. UFO numbers seem to go up in response for a secondary peak on the 11th and 12th of August. Beginning on August 18-19 and in mid-September successful Vietnam operations at Chulai, Da Nang, and Ankhe are accompanied by declines of UFO numbers and the flap gradually fizzled out.

  The swamp gas flap is significantly smaller than the other flaps we are considering here, but we can answer Hynek’s question posed earlier. Five days before Dexter-Hillsdale, on March 15, 1966, a new Watts riot came into the headlines. UFO numbers that had running flat for weeks amid stories of truces, peace bids, and talk of the Great society, began to surge in response. Then on March 23rd, two days before Hynek’s press conference, came the first anti-American demonstrations in Hue and DaNang. The flap peaked on March 30th and presumably declined for lack of further race riots or anti-American demonstrations. News of Saigon riots and further anti-U.S. outbursts on April 4th was followed the next day by a secondary peak. An ant-U.S. riot in Hue on May 26th and the flaming suicide of a religious figure on May 29th were also accompanied by brief, lesser increases.

  Over the months that followed, UFO numbers tended to remain at elevated levels, but visibly fluctuated in response to developments in Vietnam. During a period of record casualties in March 1967, UFOs were clearly swarming about. During the Christmas truce and peace proposals of late December 1966, the UFOs vanished. A curious proof of the importance of Vietnam War news in modulating UFO numbers came in June 1967. Between June 5th and 10th, Vietnam was completely knocked off the front page by an Arab-Israeli war. For four days straight Blue Book did not receive a single report! This interesting fact, we can add, calls into question Thomas Bearden’s linking the 1973 flap with mid-East War tensions. (Bearden, 1980)

  OTHER RESOLUTIONS

  Blue Book went out of business at the end of the 1960s and with it ended any conveniently accessible daily tally of UFO numbers. This precluded detailed comparison of the 1973 wave with the events of the Watergate crisis. But we can point out that David Jacobs called mid-October the peak period of the flap and this roughly corresponds with Vice President Agnew’s resignation on October 10th followed ten days later by the Saturday Night Massacre. (Jacobs, 1975) It unleashed a flood of negative public sentiment and calls for impeachment. This was against a leader who less than a year before had been reelected in a landslide of popular support. (Lukas, 1976)

  The ups and downs of national pride also seem to correlate with lesser swings of UFO numbers. News of poverty in Appalachia, charges that Reds had infiltrated the State Department, and some of the desegregation conflicts seem to relate to increases in UFO activity. Conversely when we landed on the moon, when the Reds were retreating during the Korean war, and
when Ike went on his “Peace Tour” UFO reports vanished.

  The drop of UFOs during the Cuban missile crisis, so troubling to crisis theory, is readily understood when one recommends the salient issue is not fear and anxiety, but pride. It was the Soviets who backed down from that face-off, not America. A drop-off in UFO numbers following the Kennedy assassination, another if lesser conundrum to crisis theory, is fully explicable with the observation on how mourning and melancholy decreases paranoid ideation. (Meissner, 1978)

  PROBLEMS AND CONFUSIONS

  It must be said that efforts to extend the theory forward to events after 1973 have been disappointingly ambiguous. National pride was clearly present with such events as November 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, the successful 1989 invasion of Panama, and the victorious Persian Gulf War of February 1992. Each of these events can be linked to periods of zero activity in data collected by the National Sighting Research Center. Stretches of zero activity, however, are so common in this data set that one could fairly dismiss the correlation as due to chance.

  The televangelism sex scandals of the 1980s seemed a rather blatant episode of collective shame and should have prompted paranoiac reactions among the faithful. In fact, there is unequivocal evidence that they did in the form of satanic rumor panics. One swept North and South Carolina on March 14, 1987, five days before Jimmy Baker finally resigned, and another swept the region of the Alexandria and Baton Rouge ministries of Jimmy Swaggert on April 1, 1988, the week before he was defrocked for sins he confessed to the prior February. (Victor, 1990) Inspection of daily UFO tallies does not show a parallel increase of UFO activity either nationally or in the region of the ministries. One might be tempted to shrug this off by saying UFOs would be too secular a way to express paranoia in a religious population, but it gets worse.