Published on 14 Nov 2014
A witness recorded a triangle UFO over Michigan with night vision equipment. That and other UFO news on this episode of Spacing Out!
Thursday, 20 November 2014
Topic: UFO - John Ventre - An Alternate History of Mankind
Published on 15 Nov 2014
Rick welcomes one of the stars of The History Channel's "Hangar 1" television series, John Ventre... John is also a State Director for MUFON and the author of the new book, An Alternate History of Mankind.
UFO experts say 'we are not alone'
By Michelle Basch
WASHINGTON -- UFOs were the topic of a panel discussion Wednesday night at American University, and one of the speakers used the occasion to reveal evidence he called a "smoking gun."
"We have come into possession of a couple of Kodachrome color slides of an alien being lying in a glass case," author and researcher Thomas Carey told the near-capacity crowd in Abramson Recital Hall.
He's been researching the 1947 Roswell incident since 1991.
"What's interesting is, the film is dated 1947. We took it to the official historian of Kodak up in Rochester, New York, and he did his due diligence on it, and he said yes, this filmstrip, the slides are from 1947. It's 1947 stock. And from the emulsions on the image, it's not something that's been Photoshopped like today. It's original 1947 images, and it shows an alien who's been partially dissected lying in a case."
Carey says the being looked like what he thought an alien from the famous Roswell incident would look like.
"3 and a half to 4 feet tall, the head is almost insect-like. The head has been severed, and there's been a partial autopsy; the innards have been removed, and we believe the cadaver has been embalmed, at least at the time this picture was taken. The owners of the slide -- it's an amazing story. The woman was a high-powered Midland, Texas, lawyer with a pilot's license. We think she was involved in intelligence in World War II, and her husband was a field geologist for an oil company."
Carey says he plans to reveal the images early next year.
Another panelist, Dr. Richard Haines, is a retired NASA scientist and co-founder of NARCAP (National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena), which provides pilots with an anonymous way to report sightings they can't explain.
"We're pretty ignorant yet about what we're dealing with. And that's the birth of a science. That's how most sciences begin," he said.
Haines says NARCAP has collected hundreds and hundreds of UFO cases.
"Our government is not taking the subject seriously. My role, or mission, if you will, is to bring this to the attention of our aviation world, at the union level, at the airline level and at the government level. I'm finding hardly any difficulty doing that in foreign countries. I'm having a great deal of difficulty in America, and I don't know why."
Leslie Kean is an investigative journalist, co-founder of the Coalition for Freedom of Information and author of the New York Times bestseller "UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record."
She wrote her first story about UFOs in 2000.
"My whole life was changed at that point. I was so compelled and so interested and so curious about this UFO phenomenon, because the more I studied it, the more I realized that you couldn't write it off. … It's not like you learn ways of explaining it. You learn more and more about the mystery of it, and the incredible documentation that's out there," she said.
During her presentation, she detailed several interesting UFO cases, and showed some photographs, including one of a shiny, circular object.
"This is an incredible photograph that was taken over Costa Rica in 1971 by a government plane, a mapping plane, that had a camera strapped underneath the aircraft. And every 17 seconds it took a photograph of the ground. The dark area is a lake, and ... the lighter area is the land, and over that lake there's a disc-shaped object."
Kean says Chile and France have full-time government staffers who do nothing but seriously investigate UFO cases, and she thinks the same is needed in the U.S.
"I'm trying to make the point that our scientists need to get more involved. In order for that to happen, we need a government agency here that will open the doors to allowing our scientists to engage with this topic."
The most riveting presentation of the night came from retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Charles Halt, one of the witnesses of a famous series of UFO sightings in England in 1980 known as the Rendlesham Forest incident.
Halt says he went into the forest to check out a report that a UFO had landed there. He saw three indentations in the ground that were spaced evenly, and a Geiger counter showed abnormally high levels of radiation in the area.
Mum catches 'UFO' on camera and proclaims: "It was unbelievable, I've never seen anything like it"
By Rebekah Holliday
Colourful craft flew fast across the sky in Liverpool, sparking speculation among residents about what it was?
This is the intriguing moment a multi-coloured 'UFO' was caught on camera soaring through the night sky above a city in Britain.
First it was bright blue, then red and then amber – causing Giedre Misiunaite to wonder what on Earth was flying overhead.
The 28-year-old mum and her husband were left stunned by the strange phenomenon.
"We were standing there in the backyard having a smoke and my husband said, 'look at that!' the Liverpool Echo reports.
"It was bright blue and then it was staying still – like it was floating – and then it went really, really fast backwards and forwards.
"And then it went amber and then red.
"Then it just stood still and then disappeared but it came back about 10 minutes later.
"I'm sure other people must have seen it because we went for a drive and we saw other people standing outside in their pyjamas."
Giedre, from Old Swan, Liverpool, added: "I'm sure it wasn't a plane, it was 100 miles too fast for a plane ... It was just unbelievable – I've never seen anything like that in my life."
And she wasn't the only resident to spot the mysterious UFO.
Heather Prescott told the Echo via Twitter that she saw something strange overhead but assumed it was a lantern.
"Just an orange light out of (the) living room, botanic park, Littlewoods , Edge Lane direction but again presume lantern," she wrote.
Mrs Misiunaite said she had no idea what the mysterious light was.
See the video below and make up you're own mind – we've slowed down the vision so you can get a better look.
Weird shaped UFO caught on camera over Mexico
Published on 15 Nov 2014
OVNI En Mexico Df Amorfo subido 14-11-2014
UFO Performing intelligent Demonstrations
Published on 19 Nov 2014
El 21 de Septiembre de 2014 en Chandler, Arizona fue vÃdeo grabada una verdadera demostración inteligente de los llamados Objetos Voladores No Identificados estos fueron grabados por un teléfono celular.
Google translate:
On September 21, 2014 in Chandler, Arizona was a real smart video recorded demo called Unidentified Flying Objects they were recorded on a cell phone.
Triggers of Consciousness lecture on Saturday November 22
By Fairlea Polmear
Every six minutes someone in the world sees something strange in the sky which cannot be explained. However the truth is out there and it’s coming to Tingrith Meeting House, Osmington.
Mary Rodwell is an internationally renowned researcher in UFO and contact phenomenon. She will be bringing her special workshops to the South West due to high demand from local residents.
“WE ARE NOT ALONE AND I’LL SHOW YOU EVIDENCE” MS RODWELL SAID.
Her Triggers of Consciousness lecture on Saturday November 22 will involve footage of a real UFO, statements from an astrophysicist, a look into children’s stories of sightings and generally helping people connect the dots with their own experiences.
“We are not alone and I’ll show you evidence” Ms Rodwell said.
Ms Rodwell’s passion for researching extraterrestrial encounters stems from her work as a professional counsellor. A man came to her claiming he, his wife and his children had all been waking with marks on their bodies but no doctor would take him seriously.
Since then, Ms Rodwell has worked with over 3000 individuals who have all experienced unexplained phenomenon including doctors, lawyers, psychologists and military personnel.
People who have experienced contact often describe the aliens as taking the form of angels, spirit guides or bald headed blue creatures.
The experience is said to impact a person’s life greatly, inspiring them to change and approach life in a more holistic fashion.
According to Ms Rodwell the reason why the South West region has more cases of unexplained phenomenon is due to people moving here after having a transformative experience.
People who have been contacted develop psychic abilities and heightened senses that can be overwhelmed in a city environment.
Ms Rodwell will be running an all day workshop on Sunday November 23 for people who believe they have been contacted by extraterrestrial beings.
The workshop will provide a safe environment, free from ridicule for people to describe what they have been through. Ms Rodwell hopes the day will enable long lasting connections to occur between participants creating a community support network when she leaves.
“They are not space cadets”, Ms Rodwell said
Tickets are still available to both events and can be purchased from Lorraine by emailing her at lorraine.j.create@hotmail.com or by phone on 0415 408 086
Brittany Allen has an alien encounter in 'Extraterrestrial' / Interview + Trailer
By Niki Cruz
In the film "Extraterres-trial" actress Brittany Allen plays a fully realized character inside of an epic alien invasion story.
Even though the genre-bending film steers just enough away from typical horror tropes, Allen as April is the film's highlight.
Stuck in a series of crossroads in her life, April is led on a trip by her boyfriend (Freddie Stroma, "Harry Potter") and their group of friends to a cabin she spent her childhood summers in.
While she hopes to reminisce and create new memories, the group of 20-somethings deal with a terrifying encounter not of this world.
Allen spoke with amNewYork about "Extraterrestrial," which open this Friday.
Your character is very strong and complex. Did that material help you ground her?
Yeah, it really did. When I was first introduced to the character of April I instantly connected with her. I thought, this is a real person. This isn't some fantasy idea of who a woman is. She's not being a prop used for her sexuality, which you do find in some horror movies. She has a voice.
How much did you have to react to things that weren't there?
It was all CGI. When we were on set it was just reacting to things that were in our imagination. Pretending a tennis ball was a menacing monster was hard, but for the most part it was things that were just out of sight, or just beyond the door. I love being able to let my imagination run free.
As kids we're encouraged to dream up these worlds. It's interesting to see adult actors go back to that stage.
I think that's been my biggest journey as an actor -- finding my way back to how free and open and uninhibited I was as a child. I'm so lucky within my work that I'm able to have an outlet to explore those hidden parts of myself.
Did this film change your mind about the existence of aliens?
I've always been open to that possibility. There's so little that we know of the universe and what's beyond, to say definitively that there's not other life out there seems naive. I've talked to people who had experiences that they felt or saw something. I'd be curious within my lifetime if that would ever become common knowledge.
Travis Walton UFO Encounter Anniversary Site Visit - Skyfire Summit
Published on 19 Nov 2014
Travis Walton allegedly witnessed a UFO with several of his fellow loggers in the woods near Heber, AZ, on the evening of November 5, 1975. The UFO shot a beam of light at Travis and he was sent flying. His friends thought he was dead and took off. When they returned soon after, Travis was gone. They were accused of killing Travis and hiding his body in the forest. Five days later, after what Travis thought was only a few hours, Travis returned. Now it seems that Travis may have been taken on-board the mysterious craft and encountered extraterrestrial beings.
This year, 2014, Travis held the Skyfire Summit, a conference centered around his experience. To start the events off, Travis along with Ben Hansen of Night Vision Optics, took attendees out to the location of the UFO sighting for a night sky watch exactly 39 years to the day after the event occurred. The next day, the group visited the court house where Travis' co-workers took, and passed, lie detector tests.
We documented the visit to the location of the UFO encounter and the court house, and interviewed Travis about his conference.
Meteor? UFO? Flash Over Russia May Have Earthly Origin
By NBC News
Video of the sky lighting up over Russia's Sverdlovsk region last Friday calls to mind the enormous fireballs that fell over Chelyabinsk in early 2013 and Murmansk in April. But at least one expert seems sure that this particular phenomenon may not be celestial in origin. A meteor-watching blog quotes Marco Langbroek of the Dutch Meteor Society: "I doubt this one is a meteor." He points out that the onlookers already seemed to be aware of a red glow in the sky before the flare-up — and that when the light does appear, it's stationary. "To me, it looks like a fire or series of small explosions and subsequent large explosion or flash fire reflecting on a cloud deck," he concluded.
A local news site suggests there's an old chemical plant outside the nearby town of Rezh, the explosion of which would be consistent with this phenomenon, and one local on the forum of Astronomy.ru wrote there were also reports of the military setting off ammunition.
UFO TV - THE SECRET MARS COLONY
Evidence of a Secret Colony on Mars has sparked the interest of UFO Researchers around the world. Recent whistle-blower revelations from President Eisenhower's great granddaughter and others give renewed credence to the evidence that planet Mars is being prepared as a SURVIVAL COLONY in the face of imminent catastrophic events that may decimate the population of planet Earth. This film presence the best evidence available that there is indeed Life on Mars.
Researcher Robert Hastings' UFOs and Nukes Documentary Film Needs Your Support
By Geeks News Desk
CNN streamed my September 27, 2010 press conference in Washington D.C. at which seven of the veterans discussed their involvement in those or similar events. The full-length video may be viewed at www.ufohastings.com.
My film, UFOs and Nukes: The Secret Link Revealed, is currently in production and nearing completion. However, our funds will be exhausted before all of the work can be finished. Some of the computer-generated animation, post-production audio, and musical scoring is on hold. My colleagues and I estimate that an additional $25,000 will be needed to wrap up the project.
The purpose of this film is public education. The information I have gathered over the past four decades confirms the reality of UFO activity at American and Soviet nuclear weapons sites. The specifics, as reported by the ex-military witnesses and declassified documents, are both stunning and tremendously important.
Significantly, UFO incursions at American ICBM sites have continued to occur long after the end of the Cold War. On October 23, 2010, at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyoming, communications with launch officers operating 50 Minuteman III missiles were temporarily disrupted. According to my then-active duty U.S. Air Force sources, a huge cigar-shaped UFO was observed during the incident.
It's clear that the American government does not plan to reveal these amazing and perhaps ominous developments any time soon. Therefore, a grassroots effort must be made to acquaint people everywhere with a situation that has been successfully kept secret for decades.
While my 2008 book, UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites, has introduced this potentially paradigm-altering information to thousands of readers, a widely-distributed film on the subject will reach millions worldwide.
Rather than launching a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign, which would involve unnecessary expenses, we have decided to implement a simplified public appeal. Those who would like to support this effort, or more information, may go to my Support Our Film webpage.
Knowledge is Power. If you believe that this campaign should continue, please help us Spread the Word by going to my website and making a contribution.
Robert Hastings
www.ufohastings.com
ufohastings@aol.com
http://www.ufohastings.com/documents
http://www.ufohastings.com/support
Party Celebrates UFO Sighting in Carbondale
BY SARAH BUYNOVSKY
CARBONDALE—Inside the Best Western Pioneer Plaza in Carbondale, there was an extra special, extra-terrestrial party and some dressed up for the occasion.
“This was an impulse, this was to keep the lore going and a little humor, ” said Buckie Hosie of Carbondale.
The celebration was for the 40th anniversary of a reported UFO sighting in Carbondale.
In 1974, there was a report of a glowing unidentified object falling into a pond in the area.
Newswatch 16 spoke with one man who said his friend was among those at the scene 40 years ago.
“I never saw anything, but we would sit there for hours looking for UFOs allegedly happening here or sighting there but he took place in this particular extravaganza and I came down here to see if his name was listed anywhere there. He stayed all night down there, I wasn’t with him. I went home, but he stayed,” explained Anthony Catanzaro.
Some at the party were silly about it all.
“How do I like Carbondale? I love the coal, I love the people. I love myself,” joked one man dressed like an alien.
Others said they believe the story.
“Something significant happened in Carbondale. Eighty percent of the population that were over the age of 55 and here in Carbondale at the time, 40 years ago, they’re not buying the official story,” said Ron Hannivig of Fell Township.
Whether they were believers or not, folks we found partying said it was a great community event.
“I think it’s a great event for the town just to bring the community together and enjoy some food and some fun and I think it’s about time Carbondale have a great reputation and I think this party’s gonna do it,” said Rebecca Landmesser of Hallstead.
Was an ALIEN responsible for Reagan's presidency?
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
An alien may have been behind Ronald Reagan's becoming president, according to screen legend Shirley MacLaine.
Reagan had a close encounter of the third kind back in the 1950s when he was still an actor, MacLaine says, and the extra terrestrial being told him to ditch Hollywood for politics.
The 78-year-old, who claims to have seen many UFOs from the front porch of her New Mexico home, says the 40th President of the United States was a fellow believer.
According to MacLaine, Reagan confided in 'I Love Lucy' star Lucille Ball about the eerie encounter, which took place when he was on his way to a party in Los Angeles with wife Nancy.
Ball told her that a UFO landed and the alien emerged telling Reagan to quit acting and take up politics.
But Reagan wasn't the only president who believed in unidentified flying objects, according to MacLaine.
In an interview with the UK's The Daily Mirror, she says that President Eisenhower had three secret meetings with extra terrestrials at a New Mexico air force base in 1954.
Screen legend: Shirley MacLaine, pictured in Downton Abbey, says she has seen plenty of UFOs
The actress claims to have seen numerous UFOs in her time.
'One famous day, a friend of mine was sitting in my hot tub out there, and three UFOs came over and hovered for about 10 minutes,' she says.
'They are definitely there – the only question is 'why?''
MacLaine, who now features in the hit British period drama Downton Abbey, added that she's keen to share her knowledge of UFOs with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
'It's very important she knows who else is out there looking at her,' she says, adding that she is used to people thinking she's crazy for believing in aliens.
UFO: MacLaine says Reagan spotted a UFO and was given career guidance by an alien in the 1950s
'I never had the urge to please anybody,' she said. 'I’m used to people thinking I’m wacky, so I don’t take myself seriously.'
And it seems MacLaine's own brother, Warren Beatty, thinks she's a bit nuts.
She has written books about mysticism, spirituality, aliens and UFOs but if she tries to discuss spaceships with Beatty, she says the conversion doesn't get off the ground.
'Politics – yes. UFOs – no. He changes the subject,' MacLaine says.
Behind The Scenes of Ufology’s “Secret College”, Reviewed
By Micah Hanks
Many individuals in the community of UFO research have, and perhaps have had to acknowledge that change has been afoot for quite some time. My fellow Mysterious Universe blogger Nick Redfern has commented on the fact that, at some point, the majority of modern UFO reports seem to have become, at best, ambiguous lights hovering in the skies; the closer they drift to heavily populated areas, the more apparent, perhaps, that awareness of the presence of drones is becoming in our public mind.
I have expressed very similar themes in my own analysis of media reporting in relation to UFOs, which, arguably, is at times perhaps one of the most interesting cultural aspects associated with UFO studies (certainly more than rehashing continually the “classic” encounters, or dwelling on the vapid nothingness of the aforementioned “mystery lights”). In an article at my website, I broke down reasons why I think, frankly, that UFO research is most often misrepresented entirely by what we see on television shows promoting the subjects of “alien visitation” and the like. Contrary to this looming idea that “the Space Brothers are already here!”, I find that we are faced with nearly as many questions about UFOs–and the subject many suppose it represents–as we were at the outset of public awareness of the issue.
Indeed, not much has changed: we examine reports–spurious though many of them are–of mysterious “things” seen in the skies, and we suddenly presume that, since they are flying through our airspace, and often leave unto it in similar fashion, they must literally be from space… space people. Having oriented this idea around our cultural beliefs in advance of mankind’s own entry into the cosmos, perhaps this was a necessary thought game to play; the problem, today, is that this old idea has lingered, despite the fact that we, now having entered space as civilization, have managed to travel into space, and send robotized probes to other planets–even to passing comets in flight–and use them to stream information about the outer cosmos back to Earth.
The universe is fascinating, but what little of it we’ve explored hasn’t exactly proven to be teeming with life, or anything similar to it. While disappointing to some, this should be viewed carefully alongside the evidence supporting UFOs as extraterrestrial space vehicles… if aliens were in our midst, wouldn’t you think we should have some evidence of the existence of alien life by now?
Which, still, many see UFOs as being representative of being. A comment posted online recently offered a dissenting opinion on my views about this, noting that,
“Unfortunately, Mr. Hanks is still questioning and trying to prove if there are aliens. Most of us are way past that. Where has he been, he just needs to look at the millions of photo’s taken all over the world. I have seen several UFOs. What Mr. Hanks really should be asking is what do the aliens want and why are they here!”
These sentiments are among some of the prevailing attitudes among many UFO advocates today, although for many who are well-versed in historical analysis of the UFO subject (both the open-minded interpretive studies, as well as the more skeptical historical perspectives that merely report on the subject), it is still difficult to understand what the phenomenon really represents, and what some perceive as a possible exotic presence in our midst may represent; questions all the more difficult to consider in midst of a void of hard, physical proof that has persisted since the beginning of the UFO era. Not to say that there has never been any, but simply that there has never been enough to satisfy mainstream academicians enough to begin a new scholarly foray into study of an apparent phenomenon underlying what we call UFOs.
Redfern and I are hardly the first to become troubled with such issues. In fact, around the time that the famous Colorado UFO Project overseen by physicist Edward Condon had been underway, a few researchers were already beginning to take issue with the findings of not only mainstream academia, but also the UFO research community. Chief among these had been Jacques Vallee, whose attention was steadily drifting away from the conventional bends and curves of the “extraterrestrial hypothesis” that most were following. Granted, the Condon Committee’s ultimate findings–that there was nothing of substance here worthy of further scientific study–weren’t satisfactory either (a point we’ll address a bit later, as it relates to Vallee).
Contrary to the directions modern ufology had been taking at the time, Vallee chose to stray away from the conventional attitudes of the day, and went “underground”, so to speak, relying on a network of serious academics who, working somewhat behind the scenes, had continued to pursue the UFO subject from a position some consider to be beyond the conventional attitudes of the time.
This period of study was chronicled in a volume titled The Invisible College, the research of which I had been familiar with, but had not read, as I had done with Vallee’s other later offerings on the UFO subject, namely his Alien Contact Trilogy, which leapt from mythological studies of the phenomenon akin to that which appears in parts of The Invisible College and the similarly influential book Passport to Magonia, but also explored more hard-line scientific study of the UFO equation, as well as a decidedly skeptical breakdown of the claims of many “ET” proponents (as seen in the series’ third book, Revelations).
Anomalist Books has republished The Invisible College, and I was asked whether I might be interested in reviewing this latest edition of the book, which I agreed to do, in part because of my interest in comparing Vallee’s ideas from several decades ago, with my own opinions that have formed over the last few years in relation to the study of UFOs, and what can be learned–if anything–from them.
In the book’s original foreword, Vallee outlined observations of the phenomenon, and the “field” surrounding it, that I found to be strikingly familiar on a personal level. There is an element of dissatisfaction present in the author’s tone, paralleled somewhat strangely by a focus on characters the likes of psychic performer Uri Geller, who has variously managed to capture the attention of various researchers (and celebrities) over the years:
Today the events I’ve been monitoring seemed to have entered a phase that makes our methodology obsolete. The appearance on the scene of a few individuals with apparent abnormal abilities, like Uri Geller, who seeks and receives much publicity, and of others perhaps equally gifted, like my engineer friend, who wants absolutely to remain hidden, gives a new twist to this whole problem. It is not possible to study such data with the techniques of statistics or physics alone. The cooperation of a much larger group is needed, not as a new scientific society but a growing community of people seriously considering and researching the subject. For this reason I have decided to place on record the facts and issues as I have perceived them, hiding nothing of their complexity and stating what I think are their implications. And I propose the elements of a blueprint for continued serious examination of the problem.
Coming back to the Condon Committee’s findings on UFOs, and interesting element Vallee expresses in his analysis of the influence this project had on UFOs and the public mind was its international influence. Specifically, Vallee notes that the findings of Edward Condon had not merely presented a proverbial “death nail” to serious UFO studies in the west, but actually had been viewed with certain caution by the French space agency, as well as Russia:
According to that rumor, the Air Force was completely frustrated with the UFO problem and was looking for an excuse to get rid of it. The only problem was to find a university that was willing to run a negative report after a cursory examination of the facts. This, I repeat, was only a rumor. But this rumor was taken seriously enough in Paris to prevent the creation of an investigation committee similar to the American one. The Russians made some moves for the creation of a committee but cleverly awaited the development in the US before funding it and giving it an official stamp of approval. In Boulder Colorado a group was finally being assembled with much fanfare headed by Dr. Condon, a prestigious physicist close to retirement. The group had received a sizable grant to ponder ufology and it’s report was due in 1969. It would prove to be negative.
While the primary focus of this book has to do with Vallee and his “Invisible College” of associates, there is a large amount of his personal research presented, and in keeping with Vallee’s cross-comparisons between modern ufology and mankind’s mythic traditions and folklore, a heavy dose of the occult found its way into his writing here. Specifically, one occult figure of the past who I have found particularly interesting, John Dee, is discussed. In fact, Vallee was perhaps among the first UFO researchers willing to compare the study of occult practices with certain themes in UFO research, and in doing so, evoking parallels between perceived encounters between magical practitioners of the Middle Ages, and those of modern UFO contactees.
Jacques Vallee
Interestingly, Vallee spends a fair amount of time on what can easily be likened to ancient astronaut theories, particularly in relation to an examination of Phoenician amulets, Greek, Egyptian and Assyrian glyphs, and other sacred writings from ancient cultures:
The interpretation of this collection of artifacts raises several questions, because the classical statement that the flying disc is simply a primitive representation of the sun or the soul leaves much to be desired. In the first place is it common for a winged disc (a frequent symbol in antiquity) to show several beams emerging from its upper part? In what context are such representations encountered? If the disc is interpreted as some mythological symbol connected with the cosmos (as is indicated by the abundance of astronomical symbols and the seals: stars, crescent moons), should we think of the appendages of the disc in terms other than biological? In other words, should we speculate that the representation of the disk with extended claws may in fact seek to preserve the memory of a vision, or observation, of a flying craft capable of landing, of the type so frequently described in more recent history?
I begin to get slightly frantic at the thought of an “ancient alien” component here, though we must recognize that today’s culture is so very familiar with this subject thanks to the “renaissance” it has gone through thanks to History Channel’s more-than-often questionable programming on the subject. Similar to the presence ancient astronaut theories pose in our minds today as a result of such programming and media, it had been having its first heyday around the time of the authorship of The Invisible College, and though in opposition to an overt extraterrestrial hypothesis, Vallee’s writing had, at times, borrowed from popular ideas of the periods during which his books were authored (in a somewhat similar fashion, years later, his book Dimensions would see a foreword by Whitley Strieber, who had arguably been one of the leading names in the field of what would become a focus on research into purported abductions by alien beings).
Coming back to ancient aliens, Vallee does note his familiarity with cultural interpretations of such glyphs and symbols, negating any question over his ignorance of their more widely-accepted interpretations:
“One cannot build a complete theory of the similarity between ancient concepts and modern phenomenal from a single set of symbols because they are subject to a variety of interpretations. Nevertheless, such elements deserve to be patiently pursued, and the winged disc should be tracked down.”
Vallee notes further, “I am well aware, in particular, that the flying disc has often been used to symbolize the winged soul. It is also associated with the serpent and the caduceus (healing symbol).
Arguably, the most interesting components within Vallee’s breakdown of the UFO subject as presented in The Invisible College is a theme which would arise more and more throughout the years in his various writings: that UFOs are representative of some kind of control mechanism, which steers aspects of human consciousness as time carries along… but to what end?
“What interests me is not the likelihood of such a contact (how can we prove it?) but the fact that a subculture now exists in every country, based on the idea that humanity has a higher destiny. You’ll find people in remote towns of California who have literally dropped out of the city life (where they had held responsible positions and enjoyed good salaries) because they had received messages from space instructing them to do so. These people are not hippies, although similar experiences have been frequent also among younger commune members. The people I am referring to are middle-aged, have families and steady jobs. They would be regarded as perfectly square if it were not for the fact that their lives have been changed by what they consider to be genuine extraterrestrial communication. They went. And, a curious fact in the current state of the world, they seem perfectly happy. We can categorize them among the victims of city pressures who have sought the psychological comfort of small-town life. But we might also wonder whether they’re not the forerunners of the new spiritual movement.”
That Vallee ties this into spiritual movements is not without justification, as whether or not one endorses such ideas themselves, it is hard to ignore the way that people who have ascribed to such beliefs in the past have, time and time again, promoted such ideas to cult-like status (note here that Vallee’s writings on the UFO subject over the decades have also included extensive commentary on the potential dangers of UFO cults). Not to say that all spiritual interpretations of UFOs are tantamount to the formations of cults, but that there have, at least, been more than a few New Age religious fanatics that have incorporated the all-too-familiar memes of “friendly Space Brothers” as de-facto saviors into the foundations of their often warped belief systems.
A final poignant quote from Vallee on the direction of ufology, and his place in it:
“For a long time I believed that science would gradually realize the importance of paranormal phenomenon as an opportunity to expand its theories of the world. I thought that here was our only chance to redefine human dignity in the world to come.I now believe differently.It is not simply our freedom that is in danger now. It is a certain concept of humanity. And it is no longer besides that we must turn to understand the nature of the psychic crisis and find its key. Nor will the answer be discovered in some secret file in Washington. The solution lies where it has always been: within ourselves. We can reach it anytime we want.”
It almost, at times, becomes hard to imagine that Vallee did not, or perhaps does not still have his own somewhat spiritual perspectives on the matter of UFOs. To him, the apparent presence of strange phenomenon in our skies became representative of something interacting with us, and perhaps controlling or even teaching us things about ourselves. Strieber had similarly wondered in his Communion whether the experiences he had with… “what?”… might not be evolution as viewed by humanity in midst of the experience. Truely, Vallee’s interpretations of the phenomenon have echoed this sentiment more than a few times, though arguably, one could be of the mind to think that the influence UFOs have had on our culture over time may be apparent, even without the actual existence of physical spacecraft or other aerial phenomenon in any form. Belief is a strange, and at times profound thing, and the cultural significance of the phenomenon we call UFOs is obvious, regardless of where one stands in relation to their existence.
The Invisible College has been reissued courtesy of Anomalist Books, and can be purchased by clicking here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)