Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind: Selected Writings of John A. Keel (42 page)

Headaches, chills, mental confusion and disorientation, and amnesia – all common UFO symptoms – can be induced by these waves and rays.

Laboratory experiments have demonstrated that many of the physical effects and symptoms suffered by UFO percipients can be duplicated by exposing test animals to low-frequency radiowaves. This is a clear indication that powerful low-frequency waves accompany UFO manifestations. In some cases, we have reason to suspect that these low-frequency waves produced a condition that generated hallucinations in the subjects. When we first realized this in 1966-67, we were inclined to attribute these waves to a mechanical or technological source. Further study, as outlined in
Operation Trojan Horse
and
Our Haunted Planet,
has led us to discard this enchanting hypothesis. These same symptoms and effects are also common in various forms of psychic and religious phenomena, indicating that
all
paranormal manifestations may have a common cause. This cause may be
beams of electromagnetic energy on the lower frequencies.
These beams are not necessarily broadcast by some technological instrument, but may be generated by some unknown force in the cosmos. This force may not be physical at all. The source may be diffuse.

SEX AND THE SINGLE SAUCERER

Hans Lauritzen let another cat out of the bag when Ray Palmer published his long letter regarding his emotional and sexual responses to UFO contact. We have been quietly studying sexual effects of UFO contact since 1966, and have a number of detailed, unpublished reports in our files. The best-known case of this sort, Brazil’s Antonio Villas-Boas, is only a minor example. In 1966-67, we uncovered a number of “sexual encounter” incidents in several states, concentrated around
college campuses.
Some cases were referred to local psychiatrists.

Since 1967, we have approached a number of magazines about doing a documented article on these cases. Every editor rejected the suggestion, even the editor of
Male
magazine. And, of course, the ufologists themselves tend to ignore or suppress such reports. APRO received Dr. Fontes’ detailed medical report of the Villas-Boas case in the late 1950s, but did not release it until 1966, after Dr. Buhler accidentally stumbled across Boas and published an inaccurate report.

Essentially, these sexual encounters follow the patterns of the well-known incubus-succubus phenomenon found in religious and psychic lore. The same patterns are prevalent in the fairy lore. We discussed this briefly in our various books. Brad Steiger devoted a chapter of his book,
Haunted Lover,
to other cases he had independently uncovered.

Others, such as Dr. Berthold Schwarz, have studied cases in which the witnesses’ genitalia were somehow affected after a UFO experience. Barney Hill developed a ring of warts around his sex organ. Other percipients have come down with the symptoms of venereal disease. Usually these symptoms persist for a day or two, and then disappear.

A large number of scientific studies have been quietly carried out in recent years, particularly in the Soviet Union, to understand the effects of electromagnetic waves more fully. It is known that radiations in the higher frequencies (100 to 3000 MHz) produce a thermal effect (cause organs to heat), and primarily affect the eyes and
testes.
Below 30 MHz, however, no resonant heating occurs, and the RF (radio frequency) energy completely penetrates the body, exposing all organs.

Obviously sex and the sexual system play a mysterious role in these manifestations. We have been conducting our own studies into this aspect quietly, hoping to develop a rational hypothesis before bringing such a delicate matter into the open. At this point, our studies seem to confirm our general contention that hallucination and confabulation play vital parts in all contactee reports.

SYMPTOMS OF HALLUCINATION

Sudden flashes of light frequently occur at the beginning of UFO contact experiences. These flashes are usually described as resembling a photo flashbulb. In a number of instances, the witness has been led to believe that he has, in fact, been photographed in some manner. John Reeves, the Florida contactee, thought the UFO entity had raised a camera-like box and taken a picture of him. In the Galli case (described in
Operation
Trojan Horse),
the witness claimed he was flash-photographed after stepping into a craft. Innumerable other witnesses, such as police officer Schirmer of Nebraska, have reported seeing brilliant flashes of light at the outset of their contact experiences.

In one case widely publicized by APRO, the witness reported seeing bright lights moving towards him. The next thing he knew, he was sitting on a high tree limb. Under hypnosis, he recalled a group of strange beings surrounding the tree, while a mechanical object floated towards him and gassed him. This was, most likely, a case of confabulation in which a false memory was implanted in the witness’ mind to explain things he noted; sensory impression registered too deeply to be erased.

The case of Betty and Barney Hill began not with a flash of light but with the common (in psychic lore) impression of hypnotic eyes floating bodiless in front of the witnesses. Here, too, the medical explanation would be confabulation. The remembered experience was merely a fiction implanted into the mind to explain the physical evidence of their actual experience. The Hill case was completely mishandled by the attending (Army) psychiatrist, Dr. Simon, who was not versed in UFO lore and who directed the course of the confabulation. It has been proven that patients under hypnosis can produce elaborate, realistic fantasies with total conviction.

When complete details of a contact experience are collected, it is usually found that the witness either observed a flash of light or a bodiless eye at the outset. This is also
extremely
common in religious lore, particularly in those cases in which angels and entities have appeared. The hypnotic, bodiless eye is usually translated into the “eye of god.” These flashes of light occurred at Fatima, and are described in many other accounts of “miracles.”

Psychic “flashes” are so common that they are rarely recorded in modern psychic literature. Light flashes are a universal phenomenon in haunted houses, haunted cemeteries, and the like. Persons with psychic ability frequently see such flashes, usually in the corner of their eye. These flashes sometimes precede some important event or change in their lives.

These flashes can take other, more unusual forms. In several Men in Black reports, the witnesses claimed the MIB took their picture with a flash camera. In a few known cases, these “photography” sessions were elaborately staged. The MIB arrived at the witnesses’ homes in the usual black Cadillacs, set up a tripod on their front lawns, and seemingly photographed the whole house. In other cases reported to us, the MIB fired flashguns from passing automobiles.

The events surrounding these flash experiences were probably hallucinatory, set in a frame of reference understandable to the witness. John Reeves and others fully believed they were being photographed by space entities. The action made sense to them. In actuality, however, the flash of light probably was a response in the brain to the unknown mechanism that produces paranormal events.
There was not an actual flash of light, except in the witness’ mind. The flash was produced by the nervous system. It was not something seen by the eyes and transmitted to the brain; rather, it was a response of the brain to a wave of electromagnetic energy transmitted directly to it.

The affected mind then translates this extraordinary and unfamiliar experience into something more acceptable. An analogy can be drawn between a typical contactee and a person sleeping and dreaming. If you are sleeping, and an insect should bite you on the arm, you are likely to have a dream in which you translate the pain of the insect bite to the context of the dream. You might dream that a hypodermic needle is being driven into you arm. Your mind might even construct a very complicated dream around this sensory experience. You might have a nightmare in which a group of longhaired hippies are attacking you with hypodermic needles.

This same process is evident in much of the fairy and witchcraft lore, as Dr. Vallee noted in his book
Passport of Magonia.
Betty Hill recalled under hypnosis that the alien space people drove a long needle into her abdomen. This puncturing aspect is common in fairy and witchcraft stories. It is likely that these experiences merely produce a pain in certain nerves, and that the mind translates this pain into the “dream” or overall hallucinatory experience, just as the normal sleeper turns an insect bite into a hypodermic injection in his nightmare.

The phantom photographers who abound in UFO lore (we even uncovered one case in the West Virginia “Mothman” fracas) probably fit this category. The witnesses saw a flash of light at the beginning of their experience, and later remembered this falsely as being the product of a flash camera.

It is well known that U.S. astronauts in space have observed bright flashes of light, even when their eyes were closed. Various theories for this phenomenon have been offered, the most popular being that the flashes are caused by cosmic rays passing through the eyeballs. It is improbable that ground-level witnesses would be suffering from this cosmic ray effect, however.

In medicine, there are several ailments and diseases that can produce light flashes. Sudden flashes of light can be the warning sign of a detached retina. These flashes are also a common symptom of epilepsy.

The major theory now evolving among top ufologists is that a large percentage of all UFO contacts and ground-level experiences are entirely hallucinatory – that some unknown, outside force (like a radiowave) is broadcasting directly to the brains of the witnesses. Their minds then translate this force into images and experiences. The remembered images and experiences are therefore invalid. They have no real meaning at all. Amateur ufologists have spent years trying to interpret these unreal experiences, just as amateur theologians have labored to interpret the meaning of religious apparitions.

The thorough investigator concentrates on the witnesses’
physical
experiences and reactions. These physical manifestations can be disguised by the remembered experience, but they apparently cannot be erased. Thus, an olfactory response will be remembered as a gas, or even as the work of a mysterious MIB with a gas gun (as in the case of the Mattoon Gasser in the 1940s). Actually, the sensation of being gassed may be the result of a signal traveling along the olfactory nerves, just as the flashes might result from a signal passing along the optical nerves. Strange smells, particularly the smell of violets or sulfur, are common in psychic experiences. The sulfur smell is frequently noted in UFO cases.

To compound the problem, it must be noted that in at least a few cases, the overpowering sulfur smell appeared to have an outward physical cause. Here, the odor may have been the byproduct of the mysterious process of materialization – a process that seems to play an important role in psychic, monster, and UFO events.

All contactee episodes are now very suspect. While the witnesses are sincere and fully believe their stories, they are actually victims of a complicated mind-tampering process. They have been programmed by some unknown force. There are ways and means for studying this programming process, and qualified scientists in England and the Soviet Union are now working in that direction. The U.S. lags behind in this kind of research.

The light flashes, strange smells, and sharp pains are vital clues to the overall process. The true evidence is medical rather than physical. Hypnosis has questionable use in UFO studies. It has served to confuse the issues by creating confabulations. The real meaning of these experiences is buried at a deep level of the human mind and is related to the so-called “Alpha wave” phenomenon.

CLASSIFICATION OF HALLUCINATION

The mere mention of the word “hallucination” produces a strong emotional response in most ufologists, because they commonly associate hallucinating with insanity. Many ufologists have an inordinate fear of “insanity” after suffering years of ridicule. We have not been using “hallucination” in the colloquial sense, however, but in its strictest medical sense.

A hallucination is an apparent perception for which there is no external cause. A person who repeatedly sees or hears things having no discernible external cause – that are not physically real – is said to be suffering from
hallucinosis.

There are three main types of hallucination: visual, audio, and sensual. Visual hallucinations are eyeball impressions of objects that do not exist in reality, and can include everything from animals and insects (such as those seen by alcoholics suffering
delirium tremens)
to ghosts, monsters, and some categories of unidentified flying objects.

The UFO perception can be divided into two main classes:
subjective
sightings of objects and entities that may not physically exist, and
objective
sightings of objects and beings who leave some sort of evidence indicating they were physically real.

The deeper we investigated these things, the more obvious it became that a large percentage of all reported UFO sightings fall into the subjective category. We conducted field tests that verified the fact that only certain people could see the objects at certain times. Too often newspaper reporters and amateur investigators simply accepted the percipient’s testimony without conducting appropriate medical and psychological tests. We found that such people often proved to have active or latent psychic abilities. Many experienced the classic symptoms of deep trance, which accounted for the time lapses and physical symptoms they suffered. For example, Miss Clem, the girl who was the main witness at the Presque Isle, PA landing in 1966, had a history of psychic experiences that included poltergeistic manifestations.

The second type of hallucination (audio) consists of hearing sounds and voices with no discernible external cause. The two types of audio hallucinations most frequently reported are the sounds of a baby crying and the sound of an unseen car door slamming. The “crying baby” phenomenon is common not only among UFO witnesses, but also among thousands of “ghost” and monster witnesses as well. We found that the “door slamming” phenomenon is universal, but is rarely reported in print, because few investigators bother to collect the necessary background information from the witnesses.