Alien Intrusion Read online

  But why did he think so? So far, we have only been discussing whether UFO sightings are potentially of extraterrestrial spacecraft. Surely rational scientists would not decide on a career in UFOlogy just on the basis of a few “Twilight Zone” mysteries?

  It is claimed that on occasion there has been some collateral physical evidence. The most difficult to refute are scorch marks, depressions in the ground, and burnt or damaged plants that sometimes take much longer than expected to recover.

  {See Where there’s smoke there’s no fire… .}

  There have been electromagnetic disturbances associated with sightings, causing outages and interference in electrical systems, car motors, and communication devices. And of course many UFOs have been sighted on radars.

  There are also physical effects on humans and animals. Dogs, cattle, and other types of creatures very commonly give the indication of being “spooked” just prior to and during UFO sightings. Humans have experienced dizziness, headaches, various pains, nausea, and a whole range of differing symptoms during an encounter.

  As mentioned previously, it is often the eyewitness testimony that provides the most intriguing clues as to whether there indeed is something more worth investigating, and they often have very interesting tales to tell. Many of these eyewitnesses have also become contactees. That is, according to Hynek, they have had a “close encounter of the third kind” or CE-3 experience, where the alleged alien occupants have been seen by human beings with or without some interaction having taken place. Interestingly, Hynek and others have noticed that there does seem to be a similar pattern of experiences with contactees from all over the world. Messages from the “aliens” appear to be of a similar thread also, and we shall look at these patterns in more detail in later chapters. Here are some of Hynek’s observations about the UFO phenomenon, from interviews he conducted over the years:

  The conclusion I’ve come to after all these years is that first of all, the subject is much more complex than any of us imagined. It has paranormal aspects but certainly it has very real physical aspects, too. The attitude we’re taking in the Center for UFO Studies [CUFOS] is that since we’re going to have scientists involved, we will push the physical approach as hard and far as we can — instrumentation, physical evidence, photographs, radar records. If we are finally forced by the evidence itself to go into the paranormal, then we will.[5]

  He was reported expressing these views in Lumières dans la Nuit, issue 168, in October 1977:

  Hynek: [The extraterrestrial] theory runs up against a very big difficulty, namely, that we are seeing too many UFOs. The Earth is only a spot of dust in the Universe. Why should it be honored with so many visits?

  interviewer: Then what is your hypothesis?

  Hynek: I am more inclined to think in terms of something metaterrestrial, a sort of parallel reality.

  interviewer: And what then is your personal conviction?

  Hynek: I have the impression that the UFOs are announcing a change that is coming soon in our scientific paradigms. I am very much afraid that UFOs are related to certain psychic phenomena. And if I say ‘I am very much afraid,’ this is because in our Center at Evanston we are trying to study this problem from the angle of the physical sciences… . But it would be absurd to follow up only one path to the exclusion of all others.[6]

  This theory was repeated when Hynek was interviewed by Newsweek (November 21, 1977):

  UFO’s, he says, may be psychic phenomena and the “aliens” may not come from outer space but from a “parallel reality.”[7]

  A former skeptic, Hynek investigated UFOs for nearly 40 years, although he was not a “one-man” show. He surrounded himself with credible and reliable scientists, whom he implored to take a scientific approach to all the data. He was the author of numerous technical papers and textbooks on astrophysics, and also the author of several books on the UFO phenomenon:

  Hynek submitted that perhaps UFOs were part of a parallel reality, slipping in and out of sequence with our own. This was a hypothesis that obviously pained him as an empirical scientist. Yet after 30 years of interviewing witnesses and investigating sighting reports, radar contacts, and physical traces of saucer landings no other hypothesis seemed to make sense to him.[8]

  Not a new phenomenon

  Unknown lights, objects, and shapes have been observed in the skies for thousands of years. Reports have been handed down through the ages from many nations of the world, including India, China, Japan, England, Ireland, France, Italy, the Americas, Scandinavian countries, and Polynesia. Ancient Romans and Greeks had stories of “fiery globes” and “flying shields.” Ancient Egyptians left accounts of “circles of fire” and “flaming chariots” that sailed across the heavens. American Indians have legends of “flying canoes” and “great silvery airships.” Some of these early “vehicles” were also said to contain occupants.

  Note how the descriptions of UFOs (flying shields, for example) seemed to be explained in terms of the technology of the day. Is this because the contactee is unable to adequately describe advanced technology? But one would think that a silvery disk, for example, could be described as such regardless of the age or culture. One cannot discount the possibility that the UFOs may be manifesting themselves in an understandable form of technology for the age.

  The first modern wave of documented UFO sightings occurred in what became known as the “airship waves” of 1886 and 1887 in the United States. Despite the description, the sightings occurred several years before any documented flights of airplanes or powered craft of any kind in the United States. At that time, the term “airship” was probably used to describe any sort of flying vehicle. Most of the sightings were described as strange lights, or objects that were “cigar-shaped,” “egg-shaped,” or “barrel-shaped.” These are very similar to the types of man-made airships (zeppelins or balloons) that were to follow in the years to come. It is intriguing to note that the manifestations came in a shortly-to-be-realized technological format. Toward the end of 1887, hints of “airship” activity were also reported in other countries around the world, although it was known that some European countries had motor-powered balloons by that time.

  Although traveling slowly by the standards of modern reports, these UFOs were perceived as being able to travel quite fast, ascend, and change directions very rapidly. Colored lights were also commonly reported to be following the craft. On several occasions, there were some CE-3 encounters, as occupants of the ships were apparently seen. According to one report, two men told the Stockton, California Evening Mail in 1896 that:

  The strange beings were very tall, with small delicate hands, and large narrow feet. Each creature’s head was bald with small ears and a small mouth, yet the eyes were big and lustrous.[9]

  Remember also that shortly after this time, the public consciousness had been “alerted” to the possibility of extraterrestrial life. This was the era of Percival Lowell’s Martian canals theory. The cigar shape was also a descriptive term that was to remain for many years, although Jacques Vallée noted that in the period from 1914 to 1946, there were relatively few sightings[10] compared to the modern explosion of sightings that occurred after Kenneth Arnold’s flying disks of 1947. This follows a pattern; researchers Ankerberg and Weldon noted that between 1920 and 1947 less than a dozen science fiction movies were made, whereas during the period between 1950 and 1980 over one hundred such films were made.[11]

  The changing shape of UFOs

  We have already commented on the way the sightings seem to pre-empt man-made technologies. Airships are seen a few years before they are manufactured and then Arnold and others see silvery or white craft in a postwar, pre–rocket-savvy culture. This “coincidence” has not been lost on the government conspiracy theorists with their ideas of not-yet-revealed secret government technologies. However, their theory breaks down when applied to sightings by ancient Greeks, Romans, and American Indians.

  Airship wave woodcut in an 1896 newspaper to illustrat
e a reported sighting.

  As has been shown, the shapes of UFOs have followed a pattern of change as well. However, three descriptive characteristics are common over the last few decades. The U.S. Air Force’s Project Grudge report of December 1949 concluded that the most common shapes are:

  1. Disk-like objects (the commonest of all)

  2. Rocket-like or cigar-shaped objects

  3. Luminous objects appearing at night

  In another emerging pattern, triangular, cone-shaped, and boomerang-shaped objects have been common since the 1980s as well. The Wall Street Journal, in October 1990, claimed that in Belgium alone there had been more than 2,600 sightings of triangular UFOs the previous year. There is also photographic evidence of many of these events.[12] A consistent feature of the reports is the description of colored lights. There have been several testimonies of craft changing their shape or “morphing,” and even disappearing. On occasions they appear to “slip” in and out of our reality.

  The myriad of shapes could not be a result of thousands of differing groups or races of aliens visiting the earth in their various types of uniquely shaped craft, by reason of the technological barriers explained in chapter 2. It was reported that the British Flying Saucer Review, which was frequently regarded as the world’s leading UFO publication, has objectively and thoroughly researched UFOs for over 40 years through a network of over 50 experts. An official statement by editor Gordon Creighton reads:

  There seems to be no evidence yet that any of these craft or beings originate from outer space.[13]

  In addition, it has been noted by prominent researcher John Weldon that:

  1. Despite the millions of sightings, there has never been a single radar detection of a UFO entering our atmosphere from outer space.

  2. “Aliens” seem able to live and breathe in Earth conditions without the aid of respiratory devices.

  3. UFOs have been fired upon numerous times by American, Russian, and Canadian pilots, yet not one has ever been brought down.

  4. And startlingly, no UFOs sighted on differing occasions ever appear exactly alike.[14]

  “Now you see us … now you don’t!”

  From the data, we may draw the following conclusions about UFOs.

  • They are already here. Some way and somehow they appear to be emanating from our own planet.

  • They are visible yet do not seem to be real physical entities. In other words, they do not seem to be bound by the same physical laws as the rest of our material/natural world.

  • They and/or their occupants are sometimes willing to be seen, but do not appear to want to make open and friendly contact on a large scale.

  Hynek and Vallée describe some characteristics in their book The Edge of Reality:

  If UFOs are, indeed, somebody else’s “nuts and bolts hardware,” then we must still explain how such tangible hardware can change shape before our eyes, vanish in a Cheshire cat manner (not even leaving a grin), seemingly melt away in front of us, or apparently “materialize” mysteriously before us without apparent detection by persons nearby or in neighboring towns. We must wonder too, where UFOs are “hiding” when not manifesting themselves to human eyes.[15]

  Why would supposedly intelligent and more “evolved” advanced beings play this game of cat and mouse? On one hand, they provide us with enough evidence, such as sightings and burn marks on the ground, to suggest something is out there. Then with seeming stealth, they engage, interact with, and even abduct, humans (see chapter 7) in the dark of night, subjecting their captives to all manner of scientific examinations and strange sexual practices. And then they seem to act very coyly, as if not wanting to be seen at all. For most, the “why” factor remains one of the great mysteries of UFOlogy.

  Many UFO researchers have abandoned the ETH (extraterrestrial hypothesis) for the IDH (interdimensional hypothesis). They, too, have realized that it would be nigh impossible for the millions of sightings to actually be of vast numbers of spaceships that have entered our atmosphere. Notwithstanding this, the same researchers generally still hold to a common belief that there must be millions of other civilizations in this “highly evolved” universe.

  Here to teach us new truths

  Since 1947, the level of the “game” has continued to step up a few notches with ever-increasing regularity. First, there was an increase in sightings. Next, occupants were sighted, and then contacts frequently occurred. With each new revelation, a media frenzy ensued, and consequently, even accounts of people meeting aliens became commonplace (see section about George Adamski later). Now they hardly rate a mention, until some new experience once again shatters our reality. Is it constantly the work of hoaxers seeking their five minutes of fame, or is this progression the result of deliberate actions by real UFOnauts, perhaps trying to change our perceptions of reality?

  When Hynek developed his now-famous “close encounters” classification system, it catered to three levels of experience. But due to the increased levels of interaction with the UFOnauts, two more levels — CE-4 and CE-5 — have been added (where CE-4 experiences relate to kidnappings or abductions of victims, and CE-5 experiences to contact initiated by human beings via methods such as telepathy). Some of these contacts have purportedly resulted in death.

  Nowadays, the terrifying experiences of alien abductions are almost at plague proportions. Where will it go to from here? Perhaps the space brothers will land on the White House lawn and abduct the president in full view of the world’s press?

  Whether these experiences correspond to reality or not, abductees are never the same afterward. They and their perception of the world are forever altered. Many develop a strange interest in the occult and supernatural. Hynek noted in a magazine interview:

  Certainly the phenomenon has psychic aspects. I don’t talk about them very much because to a general audience the words “psychic” and “occult” have bad overtones. They say, “Aw, it’s all crazy.” But the fact is that there are psychic things; for instance, UFOs seem to materialize and dematerialize. There are people who’ve had UFO experiences who’ve claimed to have developed psychic ability. There have been reported cases of hearings in close encounters and there have been reported cases of precognition, where people had foreknowledge or forewarning that they were going to see something. There has been a change of outlook, a change of philosophy of persons’ lives. Now, you see, those are rather tricky things to talk about openly, but it’s there. Many people, like Jacques Vallée and I, to some extent, feel that it might be a conditioning process.[16]

  This “conditioning” process seems to be a step-by-step procedure. Nothing would alter our world more than a mass landing in full view of TV cameras. However, the messages from the ETs themselves suggest that we are “not ready” for such a feat, not until a sufficient amount of contactees have instigated a new belief system. The “unreal” characteristics of UFOs, combined with the messages of the space brothers (discussed later), suggest that these reported “aliens” have something to hide. This is also a view almost universally endorsed by all serious UFOlogists. In noting this common view among other researchers, Ankerberg and Weldon comment:

  These researchers believe that the UFO entities are deliberately programming the human observers with false information in order to hide their true nature and purpose.[17]

  Vallée adds:

  I propose the hypothesis that there is a control system for human consciousness… . I am suggesting that what takes place through close encounters with UFOs is control of human beliefs, control of the relationship between our consciousness and physical reality, that this control has been in force throughout history and that it is of secondary importance that it should now assume the form of sightings of space visitors.[18]

  He also adds that:

  … human belief … is being controlled and conditioned, man’s concepts are being rearranged, and we may be headed toward a massive change of human attitudes toward paranormal abilities and extraterrestrial life.
[19]

  Even famous UFO researcher John Keel (author of numerous UFO books including The Mothman Prophecies 1975 — later made into a Hollywood movie of the same name) notes:

  The UFOs do not seem to exist as tangible, manufactured objects. They do not conform to the natural laws of our environment. They seem to be nothing more than transmogrifications tailoring themselves to our abilities to understand. The thousands of contacts with the entities indicate that they are liars and put-on artists. The UFO manifestations seem to be, by and large, merely minor variations of the age-old demonological phenomenon. Officialdom may feel that if we ignore them long enough, they will go away all together, taking their place with the vampire myths of the Middle Ages.[20]