Jenny Randles - Alien Contact - The First Fifty Years

ALIEN CONTACT

Jenny Randles

ALIEN CONTACT The First Fifty Years

BARNES &...NoBLE B N

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This edition published by Barnes & Noble, Inc., by arrangement with Collins & Brown Limited Copyright © 1997 Barnes & Noble Books Text copyright © 1997 jenny Randles The right of jenny Randles to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys­ tem, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN

0-7607-0545-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available M

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Reproduction by Centre Media, London Printed by Midas, Hong Kong

Picture Credits Front cover: Spiral galaxy (courtesy of Spectrum Colour Ubrary). Opposite title page: The 'face on Mars', as found by NASA landing missions, a highly-debated issue of 1993.

17, 27 ©Roy Sandbach; page 33 David A. Hardy/Science Photo Library; 51 ©]. P. Templeton; page 53 NASA/ Science Photo Library page 63 NASA/Science Photo Ubrary; pages 87, 93 BFI Stills, Posters and Designs; page 94 David Parker/Science Photo Library; page 103 © 1982 Starchild; page 123 (right) NASA/Science Photo Library. Pages page

CONTENTS Introduction

1947: The Aliens Arrive 1948: Crash Landing 1949: Secret Invasion

6

1973: Mark of the Aliens

72

1974: Euro Rendezvous

76

1975: Global Encounters

80

10

1976: The Alien Annada

84

12

1977: Investigations

86

1978: We Are Not Alone

88

1979: Angels or Demons?

92

8

1950: Little Green Men

14

1951: Standstill

18

1952: From Another World

20

1980: Back with a Bang

94

1953: The Men in Black

22

1981: Alien Interlude

98

1954: Aliens in Europe

24

1982: The Oz Factor

100

1955: Contact

28

1983: Alien Rejects

102

1956: Aliens v the Earth

30

1984: Star Children

104

1957: Sexperiments

32

1985: Strange Energies

106

1958: Alien Colonists

36

1986: Big Bad Aliens

108

1959: Hello Earth

38

1987: Spacenapped

110

1988: Alien Revelations

114

1989: Tell the World

116

1960: Close Encounters

40

1961: Abduction

42

1962: Under Wraps

46

1990: Extraterrestrial TI7

120

1963: It's Out There

48

1991: New Frontiers

122

1964: Time Bandits

50

1992: Under the Influence

124

1965: Aliens in Orbit

54

1993: The Alien Oscars

126

1966: Star Trekking

56

1994: Not Going Mad

130

1967: Science and Aliens

58

1995: Proof at Last?

132

1968: The Invaders

62

1996: Alien Artefacts

136

1969: Alien End Game

64

1997: Are \Ve Ready?

138

1970: The Aliens Return

66

Further reading

1971: Under the Skin

68

UFO organizations

197 2: Fading Vision

70

Index

139 141 142

6 ALI EN CONTACT

INTRODUCTION Fifty years of UFO reality has just elapsed. Now it is time to assess where this has led us. However, this book focuses not so much on UFOs although, of course, they arc hardly incidental to our story. Rather it examines the whole concept of alien contact. I do this chronologically, so that you can follow the main cases and the debates that have surrounded them. You can see the way in which trends and patterns have appeared and developed to create the legends of today's conspiratorially-minded UFOlogists. just as importantly, I have contrasted these events with other strands that contribute towards the fuller picture. These help us to figure out how these patterns may have come into being. There has always been the world of political intrigue. We must look at the whys and where­ fores of it� involvement with this mystery. How have governments around the world reacted to the prospect of alien visitors? Did they capture solid proof many years ago, as some people allege? Have they invented stories to confuse and deceive us? What is the real motivation for inves­ tigating these phenomena? We also see how science fiction has been 'loving the alien' for a very long time. Do novels, television series and movies imitate reports of L1'0s or stimulate them? In other words, is there a symbolic relationship between the grand mas­ ters of fantasy and those people who claim that they really have encountered aliens on a dark and lonely night? Finally, we see how science has striven to turn this science fiction into reality, pushing outwards towards that frontier in space and seeking some faint sign that we are not alone in the universe. Researcher Paul Devereux perceptively calls it 'the cry of a lonely species' and it is a most

powerful cry, compelling us not only to build rocket ships to reach the stars, but to seek out that tiny voice that might prove once and for all that there are other lifeforms somewhere beyond earth. All these threads weave together to form the complex tapestry that is alien contact - making the story you arc about to read a fascinating one. But unlike a novel by Agatha Christie, this is not so much a whodunnit, as a whatdunnit. Will the answer to the mystery of alien-contact sightings be found within our subconscious, as some psychologists suggest? Is the desire to have intergalactic neighbours so powerful that we are forced to invent them, like a planct-\vidc version of the child's imaginary friend? Is the earth, as some scientists contend, a living dynamo seething with energies that we comprehend only dimly, but whose forces can distort the bio-mechanical computer that we call the brain? Do these energies make us see things that are not really there? Are the aliens that we meet nothing more than the space-age equiva­ lent of demons and dragons? Are other lifeforms living here within our own environment, beyond the grasp of our ordinary senses? Do they rule a planet that our towering human arrogance makes us call our own? Is our consciousness not yet sufficiently advanced for us to see the truth that lies around us? Or are we really being visited by a space-far­ ing race from somewhere, out there, in the seemingly eternal ocean that is the universe? Science far from repudiates that possibility. Indeed, most astronomers believe that life 'out there' is a certainty. The only doubt they enter­ tain is whether it is possible that this life could be coming to earth right now.

I�THODLCTIO\

7

The answer to the riddles posed by this hook

have successfully hoodwinked your opponents.

may lie in one of those areas, or in some

It is even better if you can be sure that some

prospect that we have not yet even dreamed of.

story-hungry jou rnalist or over-eager L'fO buff

That is what makes it so exciting. Everyone h>' \.&%" :;t;Lobc:�>' o4i:l'"" ...... ,_.,... �.. . . i : S C I E \ C E ,\ \ D \ L I E \ S

6I

This was a tragic year in the space race. For the first time,

intelligence - they were a message transmitted to the

humanity learnt the price we would have to pay to conquer

earth. Science was agog with the news for a short while

the solar system. NASA astronauts Chaffee, Grissom and

until the sad tmth dawned - like the quasars before them,

White were killed on the ground practicing for the forth­

these newly named 'pulsars' were also natural hursts of

coming moon landings when a fire trapped them in their

energy that resulted from rapidly rotating stellar sou rces

tiny capsule. Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov also

in deep space.

died, becoming the first victim of an actual flight (rumours

Partly as a result of the embarrassment of this latest

of previous hidden disasters apart) when he died during

false alann, scientists have, since 1967, been much more

the landing of Soyuz 1 .

wary about announcing findings to do \\ith anomalous sig­

Regular pulsating signals were also picked up from

nals from space. There are now protocols in operation

deep space by British astronomers jocelyn Bell and

which require checks and double checks and long delays.

Anthony Hewish. So artificial did they seem that it was

If a real message is picked up, it is unlikely that we \\ill

believed

hear about it on the television news that san1e day.

that

they had

to

come

from

an

al ien

This inauspicious start woul d haunt the Condon

Spri n kle from the University of Wyoming to

1968 it received more funds

carry out the hypnosis. The story linked neatly

Report. In fact, in

whilst firing scientists indirectly responsihle for

with

leaking the so-called 'tri ck memorandum ' . The

Condon was probably unaware.

other alien-co ntact cases, of which

fired scientists went on to complete 'their own

Yet the official report devotes only two pages

study and the end result was two separate

to the Schirmer case. It tells only of his con­

reports - the official one, heavily touted by the

scious memory and of Sprin kle's regression

government and openly dismissive of there

says simply that 'new information was added to

being anything of interest i n the UFO subj ect,

the trooper's account'. �ot a word w�L� said

and one entitled ' UFOs? Yes!' written by the

about the content of that new information.

other half of the project staff. They studied the

Condon concluded, without evidence. that

same cases but reached almost entirely oppo­

there were no grounds to p resume that the

site conclusions!

Ashland encounter w�' real , yet added that

During the I 8 months of the Condon Report

Schirmer had voluntarily requested a lie detec­

only about 60 cases were studied. Of these,

tor test and this had revealed nothing inconsis­

about one-third defied explanation even in the

tent with his clai m .

view of the sceptical report. This 1 000-page

Then there ''''L' Dr Sprinkle ,who added that,

document, whilst concluding that UFOs were

in his judgement, the trooper w�'i telling the

nonsense, stated that in some cases, 'genuine

truth. Sprinkle went on to devote the rest of his

UFOs' were involved, that 'unknown ' objecL�

life to stud)ing further alien encounters. having

were being seen and that phenomena 'so rare

been so intrigued by Schinncr's story.

they had never been reported before or since' were responsible for sightings.

Thankfully, a number of people ignored Condon's conclusions and came to appreciate

One of the few alien-contact cases to figure

that, try 'L' he might to dismiss the phenome­

in the 60 investigations was the Herb Schi rmer

non, Condon had produced the best scientific

abduction. The Condon team conducted psy­

e\idence yet that something vef)' strange was

chological tests on the trooper, using Dr Leo

taking place.

62

A L I E N C O N TA C T

1968: THE INVADE RS To see if we can

T

he 'breeding analysis' programme which

Concerned by her condition , she went to see her

trooper Schirmer was told about took its

doctor who referred her to a gynaecologist.

next step five months later.

Apart from the possibility that the loss of her

At 4am on May 3, 1 968, 19-year-old nurse's

periods was stress related, no physical cause

aide Shane Kurz saw a strange light outside her

was found. The trouble continued for almost five

home in Westmoreland, New York State. The next

years before Shane began to regain her physical

thing she recalled was 'coming to' in her bed

well-being. She was still troubled by nightmares.

\vith her mother by her side. Muddy foot�teps led

Eventually the woman, now 2 5 years old,

to her room from outside. Her mother had

went to sec a psychologist in New York and he

arrived after hearing noises, which appears to

decided to regress her to that night in 1 968. A

have been Shane returning from her 'sleepwalk'

classic alien-abduction memory was revealed.

outside. The young woman had no memory of

The beings were small and hairless with off­

going outdoors but was to suffer an intense peri­

white skins and large probing eyes. They com­

od of physical after-effects. These included

municated by telepathy and, most worryingly,

migraines, traumatic nightmares about being

seemed to be aware of who Shane was.

'captured' and peculiar red rings that surfaced

Under some form of invisible control, she

on her abdomen. She also stopped menstruating.

was taken outside to the landed UFO, but does

0 C S E It r _\ T 0 R Y 0 C S E R r .\ T I 0 \ Astronomers look at the sky every night and contrary to popular sceptical belief they do see UFOs from time to time. In 1 968 scientists at the EI Infurmilla observatory in Chile succeeded in photographing this object detected by their telescopes.

1 96H:

T i l E l r\ VA D E H S

(d

l

The Apollo programme got into full swing in 1 96H and peaked just before Christmas in a carefully planned PR campaign. As the holiday approached, the crew of Apollo 8 flew all the way from the earth to the moon , circled this bar­

providing us with technolob'Y and therefore acting, in a sense, like God.

ren world, but did not land. Their Christmas message look­ ing back across the void at the blue planet earth floating lonely in the blackness of space wa" a moment of almost divine inspiration for millions of people. This vision illustrated the fragility of life on earth. For the first time we saw just how enonnous the universe was and how tiny earth was. In many ways Apollo 8 was the high point of the space programme and had a deeper philo­

Arthur C. Clarke pefectly captured the mood of the da�: With stunning special effects shm\ing spacecraft of the future, the movie featured earth's first encounter \\ith an alien race.

That Christmas, the movie 2001: A Space Odyssej' entranced the world. Stanley Kubrick and sci-fi writer

They had left black monoliths in the solar �;ystem to proYe that they had come here millions of years ago and, as mn Oaniken was suggesting, set us on our way to becoming an intelligent cili ization.

sophical and psychological effect on the population of plan­ et earth than any of the programmes that would follow in the next few years. Possibly capturing tllis mood, Swiss researcher Eric von Oaniken hit the world with a series of best-selling books with the theme 'Was God an a"tronaut?' The 'ancient astronauts' theory had not actually been invented by him; British writer Raymond Drake had already published several books with far more lJmited success. However, timing is of the essence in these matters, and it made von Oaniken a star, especially in Gennan-speaking nations. The theory argued that a number of puzzling anomalies about the ancient world - from the engineering brilliance of the pyramids to a mysterious stone battery an d cave paintings around the world that seem to depict UFOs - point towards alien contact on earth tens of thousands of years ago. Perhaps

Earthrise Earthrise from the moon . This photograph wa-; taken during the Apollo 8 mission of Decem her 2 I -2i, 1 96R.

human civilization was actually developed by such visitors '------

- - ------- -

not have full memory of the process. Shane

Here is another case which seems indepen dent

recalls being i nside a room \\ith a table or bed

of all the others but which fit� in remarkably

and being told to get onto this. She fou n d her­ self u n able to resist. A long tube wa� inserted

into her navel and fluid was drawn out.

with the ongoing theme of