home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Here is the text of a double review that will appear in the next (July-August) issue of New Realities magazine.----------------------------
- --------------------------------------John White60 Pound Ridge RoadCheshire, CT 06410203-272-2151 About 2500 wordsBOOK REVIEWSBy Joh
- n White Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact, Jacques Vallee. Contemporary Books: Chicago, 1988. ____ pages. $17.95. Hardcover.The
- Fellowship: Spiritual Contact Between Humans and Outer Space Beings, Brad Steiger. Doubleday: New York, 1988. 179 pages. $15.95. Hard
- cover."Although I am among those who believe that UFOs are real physical objects, I do not think they are extraterrestrial in the ordinary s
- ense of the term. In my view they present an exciting challenge to our concept of reality itself," says astrophysicist-parapsychologist-com
- puter scientist Dr. Jacques Vallee, in what is probably the most penetrating and comprehensive assessment of the UFO experience, bar none (e
- xcept possibly for still-classified government and military material). To put it bluntly, Vallee says, the UFO phenomenon does not give evid
- ence of being spacecraft piloted by extraterrestrials at all. Instead "it appears to be inter-dimensional, and to manipulate physical reali
- ties outside of our own space-time continuumÉ" Dimensions is a debunking work, but, unlike those of skeptics such as Philip Klass, Vallee d
- oes not explain away and dismiss UFOs, or intend to do so. And unlike certain fundamentalist preachers, who have a view of UFOs somewhat a
- kin to Vallee's position, Dimensions leads to an even greater appreciation of the phenomenon--as he intends. Vallee examines case after case
- of "alien contact" to show that each one has aspects not explainable in terms of the conventional view. Especially in Chapter 9, "The Case
- Against Extraterrestrials," he calls into fundamental question some of the most famous and well-researched incidents, such as that of Betty
- and Barney Hill. The Hill Star Map, widely thought by ufologists to be evidence of extraterrestrial contact, was, in Vallee's judgment, qu
- ite useless for navigation--a "map to nowhere"--and was shown to Betty Hill for disinformation purposes. Likewise, the abduction cases repo
- rted in Budd Hopkins' Intruders and elsewhere have aspects that make no sense in extraterrestrial terms; the "medical" exams and surgical pr
- ocedures performed on abductees are "ludicrous and grotesque" because much of what occurs is inept, unsophisticated and, while seemingly ill
- ogical, is indicative to Vallee of a "metalogical" purpose. Moreover, ufologists such as Hopkins "fail to point out that these modern stori
- es [of sexual intercourse with aliens who are experimenting with human genetics] are consistent with perplexing accounts that have come to u
- s from earlier times, from the oldest records we have." Equally unexplained is the huge number of UFO landings. Vallee's estimate, which h
- e claims has been repeatedly verified, is three million landings in the last two decades--a figure he calls "totally absurd" for an advanced
- extraterrestrial civilization merely reconnoitering Earth. "This is one of the little-recognized facts of the UFO problem that any theory
- has yet to explainÉ Either the UFOs select their witnesses for psychological or sociological reasons, or they are something entirely differ
- ent from space vehicles."Vallee's research began in the 1960s as research assistant to the recently-deceased dean of UFO research, Dr. J. Al
- len Hynek. He quickly established a reputation as a brilliant investigator and thinker with Anatomy of a Phenomenon and Challenge to Scienc
- e--books in which he himself embraced the extraterrestrial visitation hypothesis. In his pioneering 1969 study of UFOs and folklore, Passpo
- rt to Magonia (which examines "the oldest records we have" in detail), he broke ranks, moving to a position best described by the term Hynek
- coined, "metaterrestrial" (roughly synonymous with "metaphysical" but without the connotation of something beyond examination by science).
- Dimensions sums up both Vallee's work since then and UFO research in general, establishing new standards against which all further ufologic
- al work must be measured.Although a UFO is "both a physical entity with mass, inertia, volume, and physical parameters that we can measure,"
- Vallee says, he believes it is also "a window into another reality" that "stretches the boundaries of the scientific method." Nevertheless
- , he adds, "I am not prepared to abandon the rational approach to knowledge for conclusions based on faith, intuition, or the alleged messag
- es received by 'channels' and contactees. There is too much at stake."Elsewhere Valle states [in the context of examining some UFO cases th
- at may be the result of government agencies experimenting with rumor generation and psychological warfare], "I believe that it is imperative
- for scientists to study UFOs. But we should not do it naively. It has become impossible to study any UFO report without considering the p
- ossibility of a deliberate deception along with all the other classical hypotheses." The deception he sees of greatest significance is not
- governmental but something that originates with nonhuman intelligences from planes of existence beyond the physical. Vallee's thesis is thi
- s: the UFO phenomenon is both physical and psychic (or paraphysical) in nature, it "manipulates space and time in ways our scientific conce
- pts are inadequate to describe," it has been associated with humanity for millennia (as recorded in legend and folklore), and it "represents
- evidence for other dimensions beyond spacetime,"--a "multiverse" populated by life forms noted in age-old traditions as angels, demons, fai
- ries, elves and so forth. Vallee does not facilely conclude that UFOs are in fact such mythic creatures or controlled by them. However, he
- does see a distinct religious/spiritual import to the UFO phenomenon. He also sees a pattern to it which includes all such supernatural cr
- eatures and whose purpose is "not contact but control.""I propose that there is a spiritual control system for human consciousness and that
- paranormal phenomena like UFOs are one of its manifestations. I cannot tell whether this control is natural and spontaneous; whether it is
- explainable in terms of genetics, of social psychology, or of ordinary phenomena--or if it is artificial in nature, under the power of some
- superhuman will. It may be entirely determined by laws that we have not yet discovered." The bottom line for humanity, Vallee says, is thi
- s: the social impact of the UFO experience is "changing our culture in the direction of a new image of man" through subtle psychological me
- ans that are best understood as as Skinnerean operant conditioning. For what purpose is humanity being taught? The answer will probably em
- erge as "the next form of religion" already being seen in various UFO cults and isolated "true believers" whose lifestyle is centered around
- "that ancient dream of our civilization, of every civilization: contact with alien beings."A profile of "the next form of religion" is we
- ll presented by Brad Steiger in The Fellowship. His thesis is that "UFO contactees may be evolving prototypes of a future evangelism. They
- may be heralds of a New Age religion, a blending of technology and traditional religious concepts." However one regards the UFO phenomenon
- , he points out, the undeniable fact remains that thousands of people around the world have made UFOs "a symbol of religious awakening and s
- piritual transformation."The Fellowship describes a large number of people and organizations whose existence is oriented toward "spiritual c
- ontact between humans and outer space beings," although those beings, Steiger points out, may come not from other planets but from other pla
- nes--precisely the situation Vallee suspects. The testimony of these people and the entities they communicate with through the process know
- n as channeling constitute a seedbed from which Vallee's "new image of man" is already sprouting--although Vallee undoubtedly would refuse m
- embership in such a movement until the entities' credentials and purposes are reliably established.Steiger is perhaps the most prolific chro
- nicler of the New Age. As author of more than one hundred books, with worldwide sales of ten million copies, he deals with the fields of co
- nsciousness research, paranormal phenomena, metaphysics and higher human development. Himself a contactee at age five, he has studied the U
- FO phenomenon since the 1950s. One of his most important discoveries (described in his Star People books and summarized in The Fellowship )
- is the unusual physical and psychological characteristics of people who subjectively feel their true home is not Earth, but another planet,
- another star system--somewhere else in the universe. This is a thought-provoking subject, not easily ignored after reading what he has to
- say about it. The Fellowship focuses on communications apparently given by nonhuman sources whose purpose is to nurture the evolutionary dev
- elopment of Man. The nature of the sources themselves has, in Steiger's judgment, not been clearly identified yet (although many contactees
- will adamantly state otherwise). The problem is that in the UFO experience, outer space and inner space lose distinct boundaries and "real
- ity" takes on a subjective aspect indicating mind-matter interaction. Steiger doesn't rule out the simple hypothesis of extraterrestrial co
- ntact, but says he leans toward the theory that "UFOs may be our neighbors right around the corner in another space-time continuum. What we
- have thus far been labeling 'spaceships' may be, in reality, multidimensional mechanisms or psychic constructs of our paraphysical companion
- s." Steiger wonders whether the sources are "nonphysical entities from an invisible realm in our own world, or physical beings who have the
- ability to attain a state of invisibility and to materialize and dematerialize both their bodies and their vehicles." He allows for both p
- ossibilities and sees still another--an intelligence that has a physical structure so unlike the human one that it presents itself "in a var
- iety of guises, and employs invisibility, materialization, and dematerialization at different times in order to accomplish its goal of commu
- nication with our species." But it is the message, rather than the messenger, which most concerns Steiger. "Whoever and whatever the Space
- Beings may be--whether cosmic missionaries or projections of the Higher-Self [collective human consciousness]," he says, "the channeled mat
- erial contained in this book may be the scriptures and theological treatises of the New Age." They constitute what Steiger describes as a "
- testament for a space-age religion" or "the new gospels for an evolving religion that will be structured to serve the spirit of the Oneness
- that will sustain humankind in its space odyssey to the stars."Among the Fellowship contactees we meet are Fred Bell, a Laguna Beach invento
- r; Aleuti Francesca, "Telethought Channeler" for the Solar Light Center in Central Point, Oregon; Yolanda of the Mark-Age Metacenter in Miam
- i, Florida; Robert Short of the Blue Rose Ministry, Cornville, Arizona; George King of the Aetherius Society; and Moi-Ra and Ra-Ja Dove of A
- quarian Perspectives, Lytle Creek, California. Through these channels come communications from Space Beings such as Semjase, a beautiful fe
- male from the planet Erra in the Pleiades (Steiger notes that the Hopi Indians consider themselves to be direct descendents of the inhabitan
- ts of the Pleiades); Ashtar, commandant of station Share in Blaau, the fourth sector of Bela, who reports to the Council of Seven Lights, ru
- lers of the Cosmos; Sananda (Mark-Age's name for Jesus); A-Lan; Master Aetherius of Venus; Sut-ko; Ox-Ho of the Fourth Dimension; Orlon fro
- m the XY7 craft; Xyclon, a "space psychologist;" Ishkomar, an intelligence recorded into a machine aboard a spaceship thousands of years ago
- ; and a host of other heavenly entities.And what do they tell humanity? The communications cover a great variety of topics, but certain the
- mes recur. Steiger summarizes them as "the Outer Space Apocrypha." In briefest form, they declare:¥ Humanity is in a transitional period b
- efore the dawn of a New Age. If we do not raise our consciousness, severe earth changes and major cataclysms will take place. If we do, an
- era of peace, love and understanding will follow and an apocalyptic Doomsday will be avoided.¥ Humanity is not alone in the universe. More
- advanced beings have information they wish to impart to us. They are now inviting us to realize our oneness with the cosmos and to join th
- em in an intergalactic spiritual federation.The central ideas, despite their space age garb, are actually quite ancient. They amount to a c
- all for spiritual living on the basis of value-realization and character development. An entity known as Korton offers this guidance: "Do
- not seek after material goods or power, but seek to gain in spiritual growth and potentialÉ Be fair to all you meet. Live with justice, et
- hics, and morals, which you mete out to yourself, as well as to those with whom you come into contact. Fear not, and walk in the way of tho
- se who always seek the truth of things." Who can argue with that?Steiger comments that these "ageless messages of revelation" have an inter
- nal consistency, indicating that the Mind of God is, in some sense, endlessly broadcasting the same thing to all the world's saints, mystcis
- and other inspired men and women of history. "But if the prophets of 3000 B.C., the apostles of 30 A.D., and the UFO contactees of 1980 ha
- ve all been receiving essentially the same messages, then might we not conclude that the very repetition of a basic program of spiritual and
- physical survival may be evidence of the vital relevancy and the universality of certain cosmic truths?"