A New Cosmology for the Church, Part 3
Alien Encounters: A Book Review
Chapter 3 of Alien Encounters: The Secret Behind the UFO Phenomenon by Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman, titled “Interdimensional Visitors,” is a short course in UFO folklore. It reviews the most well-known incidents of UFO sightings. American readers have been exposed to the famous UFO stories of the past 6-7 decades, especially the Roswell, New Mexico incident,[3] which has become the baseline for subsequent UFO accounts, and the subject of Hollywood movies.[4] Missler re-hashes these familiar public stories, but with an obvious bias towards belief in flying saucers.
When I examined the UFO community as a whole, especially following the leading “experts” and “sources” of information that Missler says are reputable, I discovered there are amazing breakdowns in scientific credibility. This is because the UFO folklore community by and large functions as an offshoot of the New Age Movement. It is nearly impossible to separate UFO fact from fantasy, and even some of the leading scientific experts mix the two together. Missler attempts to make a separation by pointing out that “the vast majority (more than 90 percent) of UFO sightings can be explained by natural and man-made phenomena,” but in his book he chooses to focus only on those “which defy any physical or ‘natural’ explanation.”[5] And this ten percent is precisely where most of the mystical UFO culture flourishes.
At this point, still early on in the book, I wish I could say that Missler represents a sane voice amidst all of the UFO hysteria, but sadly he is not. I had sincere hopes that an esteemed evangelical leader of his caliber would step into the fray, become a voice of reason, and point people to the Gospel truth and scientific facts. But Missler becomes part of the problem. He continually references New Age and occult UFO sources as though they are credible experts. He then attempts to integrate New Age UFO lore with both quantum spirituality and quantum physics. Ultimately he will use his integrated thesis to craft a new eschatological paradigm.
Conspiracies and Cover-Ups
In UFO folklore there is one hard-and-fast rule – there is a conspiracy by the government to cover up UFO reports. There are all sorts of conspiracy theories to explain why there is a cover-up. Most believe that our planet is being bombarded with elusive visitors from outer space. Some think that UFOs are deep intelligence secrets and/or secret military weapons. The evidence for cover-up does exist and cannot be denied. What is being covered up? And why? The lack of a substantial answer to this question leads to elaborate theories:
Real cover-ups are common enough, but any event which is not completely clear is likely to give rise to a thicket of conspiracy theories alleging covering up of sometimes the most weird and unlikely conspiracies.[6]
Missler excessively hypes the conspiracy theories about cover-ups.[7] Chapter 3 is an extensive rehashing of all of the main UFO incidents of the past 60-plus years, and each alleged incident is treated as if it is solid evidence for extraterrestrial visitors. And to dissuade readers from exercising their own skepticism, Missler repeatedly makes statements such as: “With what appears to be a hastily contrived cover story, an extensive cover-up seems to have begun. These events at Roswell, and whatever followed, have been veiled in government secrecy ever since.”[8]
In this chapter all of the witnesses are treated as “credible,”[9] and the government is said to have a “predictable prejudice against an extraterrestrial incident.”[10] This cover-up assertion is made on nearly every page as Missler alleges the government wants to “mislead the public” and “preserve secrecy.”[11] We warned about this tactic previously,
Here is a tip: Next time you read about a massive government cover-up from one of these sources, start asking questions about its validity. There are indeed government cover-ups—no one doubts this—just read the current news! But here we are talking about the act of CLAIMING a cover-up, which can also SERVE as a cover-up! Asserting that there is a cover-up can serve as a way to avoid having to deal with real facts, true science and documentable proof. Anyone can state anything based on the “massive government cover-up” assertion. For instance, we could insist that “little pink elves live on Pluto and NASA isn’t telling us” – and how could it be disproven? It can’t! Yet, it also can’t be proven.[12]
Missler works very hard to assert the factual reality of UFOs, borrowing heavily from some of the leading UFO advocates. Why is it so necessary for him to establish the reality of UFOs? Missler’s thesis in Alien Encounters pivots on establishing that UFOs are real – and he carefully defines them the exactly the same way they are described by leading UFO advocates.
UFO Psychic Science
Under the subheading “The Second Wave” Missler asserts, “In the early 1950s a second wave of UFOs began to sweep across the United States.”[13] After discussing the first blurry black and white photos, Missler states, “In the minds of many, the reality of UFOs had finally been established….”[14] It is said that nearly every UFO incident “confirmed” their “existence.”[15] Jacques Vallee is cited as an expert on government cover-ups, and in footnote 78 Missler recommends that the reader “see” three of Jacques Vallee’s books for more “statistics on UFO sightings.”[16] Missler also refers the reader to “see” Vallee’s 1992 Forbidden Science, a compendium of UFO encounters.[17] In other words, Missler is encouraging readers to pursue reading these UFO books written by an author with an obvious occult bias. This becomes problematic. As I wrote previously:
Who is Jacque Vallee and is he a credible source of factual information? He is an astronomist, venture capitalist and computer scientist who is most noted for his study of UFOs as well as his study of Marian apparitions. Vallee’s book Passport to Magonia is one of the leading works in “Paranormal and occult hypotheses about UFOs.” Vallee’s genre of UFO lore is characterized by mediums, mystics, ghosts, Jungian psychology, myths and fables, and occult metaphysics.[18]
J. Allen Hynek, also mentioned previously, is best known for being a consultant to Steven Spielberg’s popular 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He is held up as an example of a UFO investigator who changed his mind and became convinced about UFOs once he “thoroughly examined the evidence.”[19] Hynek held diverse views about UFOs over the years, but his last view is most telling in that he resorted to describing them in psychic and evolutionary terms:
Finally he introduced a third hypothesis. “I hold it entirely possible,” he said, “that a technology exists, which encompasses both the physical and the psychic, the material and the mental. There are stars that are millions of years older than the sun. There may be a civilization that is millions of years more advanced than man’s. We have gone from Kitty Hawk to the moon in some seventy years, but it’s possible that a million-year-old civilization may know something that we don’t … I hypothesize an ‘M&M’ technology encompassing the mental and material realms. The psychic realms, so mysterious to us today, may be an ordinary part of an advanced technology.”[20] [bold added]
Both Hynek and Vallee (pictured above), while credentialed scientists, resorted to explaining UFO encounters in psychic terms. And this is a recurrent problem throughout UFOlogy. Separating the science from the psychic becomes very difficult. They are most often intermingled. And Missler engages both.
The Project Bluebook, a series of systematic studies of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) conducted by the United States Air Force,[21] is discussed by Missler throughout his text. It was a controlled study of UFO phenomena by the government, and its foregone conclusions were disappointing to those who wanted the government to admit the existence of extraterrestrials. It became yet more evidence of a cover-up.[22] The “files of Vallee and Hynek are some of the best-documented cases of UFOS which defy conventional physical explanation,” concludes Missler[23] after recommending (again) the reader “see [Vallee’s] book Forbidden Science” for “an in-depth look.” So I decided to take a deeper look at Vallee.
Psychic Physics
In the remainder of Chapter 3, and continuing through Chapter 4, Missler develops a thesis that attempts to integrate quantum physics with UFOlogy and also Christian spirituality. This integration model is actually not a new thesis. It was first articulated by the Emergent leader, Leonard Sweet, in his 1991 book Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic.[24] Sweet, while not overtly bringing in the additional concept of UFOs, did attempt to synthesize the evolutionary mindset into the Christian faith and physics. Sweet wrote of quantum physics in terms of spiritual “consciousness” which is precisely what many in the UFO world do:
Physics is increasingly becoming the study of matter so small (is it a wave? Is it a particle?) as to become the study of consciousness. In other words, physics is becoming metaphysics.[25]
The coming together of the new biology and the new physics is providing the basic metaphors for this new global civilization that esteems and encourages whole-brain experiences, full-life expectations, personalized, personalized expressions, and a globalized consciousness.[26]
Since most UFOlogy is based on an evolutionary view of the universe, and assumes the end-goal of mankind’s unity will result in a “cosmic consciousness,” there are many similarities and parallels. Many of the UFOlogists also believe in an evolutionary consciousness “out there” – some sort of untapped human/alien potential that will unlock humanity’s future.
Missler had first introduced his thesis in Chapter 2, where he informed the reader that his ideas are based on Jacque Vallee’s hypothesis that all of these visitations from space aliens and UFOs are hyperdimensional:
As an alternative to the extraterrestrial visitation hypothesis, Vallée has suggested a multidimensional visitation hypothesis. This hypothesis represents an extension of the ETH [Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, ed.] where the alleged extraterrestrials could be potentially from anywhere. The entities could be multidimensional beyond space-time, and thus could coexist with humans, yet remain undetected.[27] [bold added]
In Chapter 3, to lay more of a foundation for his interdimensional hypothesis,[28] Missler launches into a discussion of “The Superphysics of UFOs,” stating that UFOs “behave as though they are massless apparitions—in effect, a supernatural phenomenon.” He refers readers to “see” yet another Jacques Vallee’s book, Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults (1979) for a “detailed look at such sightings.”[29]
Missler then delves into more stories to give further evidence of the “hundreds of cases in the files of experienced UFO investigators.”[30] These stories were chosen because they illustrate a particular UFO attribute – the ability to “materialize and dematerialize” and act in other ways that seem to “defy physics.”[31] Missler calls this “superphysics.” Vallee and Hynek are both quoted as referring to UFOs’ reported ability to change shape like a “Cheshire cat”[32] or “dematerialize.”[33] Hynek’s quote comes from yet another New Age UFO magazine, UFO Report, depicted below:
John Keel’s 1973 book Operation Trojan Horse is also cited to bolster the case of “superphysics.” Keel claimed that “flying saucers” are “transmogrifications of energy,” i.e. “concentrations of energy that have the ability to change shape.”[34] Missler writes that “this suggests that UFOS are ‘paraphysical,’” which is UFO lingo for describing paranormal activity.[35] Who is John Keel? He was a journalist and UFOlogist – yet another expert who was steeped in the occult:
John A. Keel (March 25, 1930 – July 3, 2009) was an American journalist and influential UFOlogist best known as the author of “The Mothman Prophecies.” In the 1950s, he spent time in Egypt, India, and the Himalayas investigating snake charming cults, the Indian rope trick, and the legendary Yeti, an adventure that culminated in the publication of his first book, “Jadoo.” In the mid-1960s, he took up investigating UFOs and assorted forteana and published his first knockout UFO book, “UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse,” in 1970. The book shredded the then trendy nuts-and-bolts extraterrestrial hypothesis for UFOs in favor of one that linked UFOs to a variety of paranormal and supernatural phenomena that have taken place throughout history.[36]
His third book, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse published in 1970, linked UFOs to supernatural concepts such as monsters, ghosts and demons. In Our Haunted Planet published in 1971, Keel coined the term “ultraterrestrials” to describe UFO occupants he believed to be shape-changing, non-human entities.[37]
Why cite these men and their theories? It seems important for Missler to initially establish that “UFOs may not travel by conventional means in our space-time domain”[38] for developing his “superphysics” theory. “He also quotes from the “Physicist Jacques Lamatre” (an alias) who used the phrase “Einsteinian Continuum” in an article published in Flying Saucer Review, yet another UFO magazine.[39]
“Humanoid” Pilots?
Up to this point in the chapter the discussion has simply been about flying saucers – UFO craft sightings and reports of their strange maneuvers. But suddenly Missler adds into the mix the element of an extraterrestrial space alien “pilot,” stating that “UFOs and their humanoid ‘pilots’ are not simply physical entities confined to our three dimensions of space-time.”[40] This goes beyond merely talking about strangely behaving unidentified flying objects (UFOs), but leaps to the assumption that there must be “humanoid ‘pilots’.” How does Missler know these machines (if they are indeed machines) have pilots? How does he know that the pilots are humanoid? From whence did he derive this assumption?
Missler further speculates, “As we approach the end of the 20th century, radical new theories about the nature of our universe and the behavior of UFOs have suggested to many researchers that UFOs and their humanoid counterparts emerge from a dimensional reality beyond our space-time domain.”[41] So now “humanoid counterparts” to UFO crafts are thrown into his mix.
It is also at this point, still early in the book, that Missler introduces the extremely controversial ingredient of “bizarre abductions” by space aliens. This phrase comes directly from a quote by Jacques Vallee, who postulates that
the UFOs may not come from ordinary space but from a multiverse which is all around us…. Such a theory is required in order to explain both the modern cases and the chronicles of Magonia—the abductions and the psychic component. I believe that there is a system around us that transcends time and it transcends space. Other researchers have reached the same conclusion.[42][bold added]
Missler concludes Chapter 3 with, “It is this multiverse that we examine next.”[43] (In the next few chapters he examines hyperdimensionality and alien abductions in more detail.)
Mystical Magical Magonia
Curious about Vallee’s reference to “chronicles of Magonia,” I kept researching. This phrase kept coming up.[44] I found that it apparently tracks back to Agobard, the Archibishop of Lyon in approximately 800, who said that “there is a certain region, which is called Magonia, from which ships come in the clouds.”[45] Self-described “UFO investigator” David Halperin explains this name Magonia can mean “land of the magicians” and explains its significance to UFO lore:
Obviously—the skyships were “really” extraterrestrial vehicles, the three men and the woman “really” humanoid beings from other planets. That’s what the UFOlogists of the 1950s and 1960s would have said. It was left for Jacques Vallee, in a groundbreaking book published in 1969, to float the idea that the obvious resemblances between reported UFOnaut behavior, and traditional beliefs about “little men” and “fairy folk,” pointed instead to some transcendent realm which we humans can’t grasp as it really is….
Vallee took his code name for this realm from Agobard’s story. He entitled his book Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers. From there “Magonia” entered UFOlogical discourse, where it remains to this day.[46][bold added]
Fast-forward to our present day. This controversial UFO thesis of a “transcendent realm” has become part and parcel of Missler’s teachings, deeply embedded into his worldview. In a 2009 interview with Sid Roth, Missler stated the influence of J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee on his own thinking regarding explanations for these paranormal phenomena:
Jacque Vallee, the Frenchman and J. Allen Hynek, the American, are probably the two most of the early pioneers, the two most reputable researchers. They both came to the conclusion that these things are hyper-dimensional. They’re not extra-galactical. That’s a very fundamental insight, by the way, because they seem to pose being something that they’re not. But the real point is that we’re dealing here with a phenomenon that bridges the physical reality we understand and a reality that’s outside that. One of the things we’ve discovered just in the last few years is that some of the constants of physics are changing, that we thought were constant. And Scientific American, in June of 2005, ran an article in which they pointed out, if the constants of physics are changing that implies that our physical reality is actually a subset, a shadow of a larger reality. And when you start dealing in the UFO area that’s one of the other demonstrations that there is a hyper-dimensional aspect of this. [47][bold added]
Missler’s statement above, that the “constants of physics are changing” is a classic example of postmodern thought. The idea that science itself is evolving was first articulated by Thomas Kuhn in his landmark 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.[48] Kuhn herein described the concept of a “paradigm shift” that opens up new ways of understanding “truth.” The New Agers heavily rely upon Kuhn’s thesis, because to Kuhn there were no absolutes:
[I]n his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (University of Chicago Press). Kuhn, a scientist in academia, broke ground by applying Hegelian dialectics and existential thought to the field of science. He proposed that science itself is evolving and has no absolutes. Kuhn described science as a series of rocky shifts throughout history, created by a crisis when the old scientific model encounters new information that doesn’t fit. When enough new information is accumulated, a “revolution” would occur and a new scientific paradigm would emerge; e.g. Newtonian science gave way to Einstein’s theories….
New Agers and socio-political transformers took Kuhn’s ideas to heart and applied it to the planned emergence of a new global mystical and political structure. Marilyn Ferguson cited Kuhn’s ideas as significant, for example, in her 1980 book The Aquarian Conspiracy, which launched the New Age movement into the popular culture.[49]
So when Missler states that “our physical reality is actually a subset, a shadow of a larger reality,” he is not just explaining a scientific belief, but also making a theological statement. If reality (truth) itself is changing then there are no absolutes, and the truth is not rational in science, cosmos or history. Integrating spirituality with quantum physics becomes a dialectic process. “What is truth?” becomes variable, indefinite and unknowable.
Similarly, Leonard Sweet’s model of quantum physics merged with spirituality implied that because “truth” is variable it can include other “sacred” traditions:
Just as physicists cannot understand truth by one model alone—that is, either the wave nature of light or the particle nature of light—so one model may not sufficient to understand God completely…. One can be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ without denying the flickers of the sacred in followers of Yahweh, or Kali, or Krishna.[50] [bold added]
The late Dr. Francis Schaeffer, in his classic work The God Who Is There, spoke against this sort of non-reason, reminding us: “God has spoken, in a linguistic propositional form, truth concerning Himself and truth concerning man, history and the universe.”[51] In other words, truth is reality found in God’s Word. There is not an emergent reality with alternative truths.
This research brought me back to Jacques Vallee.[52] Vallee incorporated the psychic, psychological, cultural and physics into his conceptions of UFOs as hyperdimensional entities.[53] Vallee’s integrated thesis began to change the way the UFO advocates looked at science and reality. And it was affecting Missler as well.
VALLEY of the VALLEE
I began by looking into one of the Missler citations for Vallee’s Forbidden Science, which is repeated many times in Chapter 3. I found it on Amazon, a two-volume work, and the subtitle of the second volume is “California Hermetica,”[54] a clear reference to the occult Hermeticism.[55] One of the customer reviews made the curious statement that Vallee’s “insights into the parapsychology research at Stanford in the 1970s are priceless, and his anecdotes of Anton LaVey are original as well.”[56] Another customer review mentioned Vallee’s association Anton LaVey, and also the well-known LSD experimenter Timothy Leary.[57] Who is Anton LaVey?
He was the founder of the Church of Satan as well as the author of The Satanic Bible and the founder of LaVeyan Satanism, a synthesized system of his understanding of human nature and the insights of philosophers who advocated materialism and individualism, for which he claimed no supernatural or theistic inspiration.[58][bold added]
The grainy photo above, said to be of Vallee, LaVey and Aime Michel, appears on many UFO lore Internet sites.[59] Vallee also mentions Anton LaVey in his book The Network Revolution: Confessions of a Computer Scientist.[60]
The reference to “Stanford” in the quote above the photo concerns the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Herescope has published much information about SRI’s Willis Harman in previous posts due to Harman’s influence over evangelical leaders in the late 1970s. Harman lobbied them to change their eschatology of the future. Harman was a “futurist,” working on developing a New Age paradigm for the future.[61] He was president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) from 1975-1997.[62] IONS has been working on developing a New Age view of science that would incorporate psychic phenomena and the paranormal, a psychic science.
This research includes topics such as spontaneous remission, meditation, consciousness, alternative healing practices, consciousness-based healthcare, spirituality, human potential, psychic abilities and survival of consciousness after bodily death.[63]
Dr. Martin Erdmann, in a scholarly article exposing the SRI, its leading role in the human potential movement and its work to facilitate the mystical spiritual evolution of mankind, concluded Harman and the others were working on developing a “cosmic spirituality”:
Since the publication of the academic study Changing Images of Man in 1974 [a SRI report, ed.]… the spiritualization of science, technology, and education has unquestionably made great strides. Its proposed change from a traditional value system based on analytical and rational thinking to a holistic view which imagines all aspects of intellectual pursuit to be in harmony with the mystical underpinnings of monism has led to the emergence of a global community having a heightened sense of cosmic spirituality that supposedly permeates all existence.[64][bold added]
The Changing Images of Man report issued by Willis Harman referenced UFOs and the need for a new science to account for paranormal phenomena:
In advanced societies, most people have sought explanation of natural phenomena in scientific terms, where formerly, explanation was sought from the authority of the major religions. Thus, science has acted as a kind of validating filter through which events in the “real” world had to pass before they could become accepted. However, in performing this function, science has often ended up rejecting as unreal or illusory many aspects of subjective experience of phenomena which cannot be explained by its own paradigms–psychic phenomena, UFOs, religious experiences–as well as some of the taboos listed earlier. In recent years, major institutions of science have begun to recognize that they can no longer refuse attention to aspects of human experience having high currency in society, and that to continually deny existence to widely experienced realities is to eventually destroy their own authority.[65][bold added]
Indeed, SRI was a seedbed for the formation of the New Age movement, and in a key essay Harman explained his psychic science[66] worldview which involved consciousness and the mind:
…The core of the current challenge to the scientific worldview can be taken to be ‘consciousness,’ which has come to be a code word for a wide range of human experience, including conscious awareness or subjectivity, intentionality, selective attention, intuition, creativity, relationship of mind to healing, spiritual sensibility, and a range of anomalous experience and phenomena.[67] [bold added]
In previous articles, Herescope has described Harman’s psychic science concept, which became an integral part of the New Age movement:
This so-called “science” of the mind is a laundry list of New Age mysticism that stormed across America during the 1970s. ESP, Transcendental Meditation, mystical experiences, altered states of consciousness, drug-induced (LSD) hallucinations, psycho-technologies, guided imagery, visualization, and the proliferation of cults and gurus all taught new ways of “seeing” reality that delved deeply into the occult. New Age apologist Marilyn Ferguson described an “open conspiracy among scientists who have discovered… metaphysical realities... a fraternity of paradigm breakers who cross into each other’s territory for new insights.”[68] [bold added]
Harman suggested that “profound inner experiences” would become a new mystical science of the mind, include such things as ESP, remote viewing, psychic phenomena, and precognition. He redefined science to accommodate his paranormal worldview, based on the “whole panoply of noetic experiences [that] defy materialistic explanations.”[69] Harman’s worldview, which he called “M3,” was described by his Dean Radin, also of IONS, as
transcendental or mental monism, which Harman argued is the source of both the perennial wisdom and the emerging worldview of the twenty-first century. In M3, consciousness is primary, and matter and energy are emergent properties of consciousness. M3 accommodates… rogue phenomena like telepathic ETs, observation-shy UFOs, and collective mind-manifested UFOs.[70] [bold added]
Note the idea of “emergent properties of consciousness.” This is a key article of the New Age movement. Radin continues:
If Willis Harman was right and as a species we are evolving toward an M3 worldview, then our future understanding of the UFO enigma will probably be a radical departure from anything we are able to imagine today.[71][bold added]
Indeed, the “emergent consciousness” doctrine of the New Age attempts to account for all paranormal phenomena – especially via its integration with the thesis of a quantum physics/spirituality. As Radin explains,
Space-Age Myth?
The UFO phenomenon is unsettling enough, but that discomfort is significantly heightened when one considers its first cousins: crop circles, orbs, men in black, alien contact and abductions, telepathic communications, and so on. This phenomenological complex bears a resemblance to experiences reported in shamanic, psychedelic, mystical, religious, and psychic states, and to folklore, mythology, and religious lore. Perhaps these apparently disparate phenomena may all be connected in some way.[72]
Missler follows this path in later chapters of Alien Encounters, adding into his thesis all of these paranormal “first cousins” of UFO phenomenon. And Vallee’s compatibility with SRI’s worldview was striking.[73] As I searched through the archives online, I found interviews with Vallee that indicated that he had borrowed from Carl Jung’s thesis that UFOs could be part of the “collective unconscious”:
In 1969, Vallee published another groundbreaking book, Passport to Magonia, in which he collected a body of folkloric “myths” that read remarkably like modern UFO encounters, from Celtic tales of fairyland abductions to Biblical passages and medieval chronicles of “visitors” from beyond. Building on Carl Jung’s thesis that UFOs are a sociological phenomenon, a product of the collective unconscious, Vallee forever left behind the space-bound E.T. theorists. But his folklorist’s approach to the problem would influence a number of later researchers and writers who continue to echo his ideas about other-dimensional forms of consciousness.[74] [bold added]
Interestingly enough, one of the inspirations for Carl Jung’s collective consciousness philosophy was the esoteric and racial teachings of Theosophy founder Helena Blavatsky.[75] Indeed, Carl Jung pursued paranormal phenomena and was deeply involved in psychic research.[76] Jung had a passionate interest in UFOs and even wrote a book Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky before he died.[77] It is not surprising that Jung’s idea about a “collective unconscious” has infiltrated the UFO movement. It serves as a convenient metaphor that harmonizes with psychic physics. Note the reference above to Vallee’s “ideas about other-dimensional forms of consciousness.” This is not a scientific statement about hyperdimensional theories in quantum physics. Vallee, like many other UFOlogists goes far beyond the science of physics and delves into metaphysics. And Missler follows him there.
The “Technology of Deception”[78]
In light of Vallee’s experience with SRI, and knowing SRI’s focus on human psychic psychology, I continued researching. I found a particularly disturbing revelation that Vallee made in an interview: that some of the UFO incidents were “staged for the benefit of witnesses, perhaps so that their psychological reactions could be studied.”[79] He suggested that the “military may be experimenting with psychological warfare techniques” and “that sham UFO reports might be used as cover for tests of new military stealth technology.”[80] He said that “in some of the cases I’ve investigated, the deception hides a mind-control experiment.”[81] Vallee offered an alternative “conspiracy theory” – could elaborate and sophisticated UFO hoaxes be orchestrated for the purpose of studying group hysteria and psychological manipulation?
Vallee poses is that from time to time, the target of UFO hoaxes might be the general public, or a segment thereof.
“In some cases,” he says, “the community of ufologists may simply be used in a sociological experiment because they are a convenient group of people to test, to see how they react to different rumors.”[82]
Government experiments of this nature are entirely possible. But then Vallee leaps to propose an alternative reality scenario based on the idea of a cosmic consciousness that operates like a computer, appearing or disappearing through other dimensions.
Interviewer: So reality is like a computer database in that the right search word or “incantation” might cause a piece of information–a UFO or ghost or other anomaly–to materialize.
Vallee: If you think of [reality] as the software for the universe, all it would take is for someone to change a comma in the program and the chair you are sitting in wouldn’t be a chair at all…. [83]
Vallee claimed that a “graph of ‘waves’ of UFO activity” that he plotted in the 1970s “pointed out that it resembled a schedule of reinforcement typical of a learning or training process: the phenomenon was more akin to a control system than to an exploratory task force of alien travelers.” In other words, there was operant conditioning going on! He then asks the obvious question—was this manmade? Or did it come from another source? He thinks there are “very sophisticated devices now being used in psychological warfare to create holograms, to create visions to influence people” that could “destabilize” them.[84] Some of this he linked back to his experiences with SRI, which makes sense.
By this time in my research on Vallee, my over-active imagination was dwelling on this horrible possibility that there could be an “intelligence” operating behind a freakish behavioral programming operation. If there is a “consciousness” controlling these “alien encounters” it is so obviously demonic! And if that is true, then why are Christians being so gullible and falling for these deceptions?! I recalled that Constance Cumbey used to warn us back in the 1980s about a New Age plan for a sophisticated psycho-techno-spiritual “staging” of a “New Age Messiah”![85]
Vallee reiterated his conspiracy theory, with a warning about UFO cults:
The big problems in the world are the problems of fundamentalism and religion–whether it’s Islamic or in other forms of religion. Those are the great destabilizing forces in the world today. Well, belief in Extraterrestrials coming here to save us can be induced in large masses of people with the technical means that exist today.
The potential for contagion of absurd beliefs is a real one. In the hands of people who might deliberately use the Internet to create an epidemic of irrationalism we might see the emergence of a whole new class of very dangerous, powerful cults with all the trappings of high technology.[86] [bold added]
With some concern, this brought to my mind the strident tone of many of the PPP teachers and advocates, their entrenchment in this worldview, their merchandising, and bizarre mythologies. Especially when Vallee even went so far as to suggest the hypothetical scenario where a global crisis could be engineered:
…the UFO research community is a useful laboratory in which to observe the effects of propaganda and disinformation, since it is driven in large part by an intent to expose “the coverup.” This creates an opportunity for people to masquerade as good guys and “reveal” all sorts of unverifiable rumors. They meet with a receptive audience because the context is one of “independent inquiry of original, bold, nonconformist ideas. Does that mean we should necessarily believe the man who claims he was in NATO intelligence and saw a classified document about the four humanoid races that live on the moon? I don’t think so.[87]
I conclude with a sober story indicative of the spiritual bondage of those captivated by the “alien encounters” UFO lore. After a poignant dream, one fan of Jacques Vallee’s theories then experienced a UFO encounter. He worried that he had actually done something to invoke a UFO contact when he had then built an alien sculpture in the sand on a beach. In his paranormal “synchronicity” worldview, he attributed a mystical meaning to this “multidimensional phenomena” and ascribes a scary “consciousness” to it:
The other possibility is much more intriguing, but raises all sorts of troubling questions. It suggests that UFOs are a multidimensional phenomena (bending time and space), that they interact with human consciousness on an intimate level, and that they can potentially be summoned. Far more frightening is the possibility that whatever it is, it observed, drew upon, or manipulated my consciousness, my dreams, and my perceptions leading up to the sighting.[88] [italics in original]
How sad that for so many people UFOlogy is a sinister path towards the occult, without any hope of salvation, without any knowledge of Jesus Christ who
The Truth:
As I read through Missler’s re-hash of all of the most familiar UFO incidents, it seemed strange that “conspiracy” and “cover-up” were his constant theme.[89] Why does a Christian need to fixate on things that are hidden, secret, and can never be known for sure? The research rabbit trails for each and every example in Alien Encounters take the reader immediately into the New Age UFOlogy realm. Here it becomes very difficult to extricate oneself from the rampant occultism. A weak or fragile believer could easily become entangled in the unholy and unwholesome, not to mention scary, UFO stories. The only reason I even remotely understood the terrible ramifications of what I was researching is due to my own background in the occult!
For reasons that are not entirely clear, Missler in Chapter 3, along with other UFOlogists, seems to believe that it is necessary for the government to validate all of their sightings and experiences. But is this the role of government for the Christian? Shouldn’t we instead be searching the authority of Scriptures for wisdom and truth concerning how WE, as believers, should respond to paranormal experiences? Scripture actually has a lot to say to us on this topic, especially warning us to be not deceived! In the end, for believers it really doesn’t matter what the government does or doesn’t do, or who is covering up. We should eagerly anticipate that Jesus Christ is coming again soon, and trust He sovereignty over all of creation.
So why should we be consumed with panic and paranoia about claims of UFO invasions and the government’s alleged cover-up? Shouldn’t we be more concerned about the eternal destiny of all of those who do not believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior – especially all of these New Age UFO folklorists who are so obviously deeply involved in the occult, and who don’t know the Truth of the Gospel of Salvation message? Where is our focus? They need to hear the Gospel, not a re-hash of their New Age theories re-packaged for an evangelical audience!
Dr. Francis Schaeffer warned of an emerging “New Super-Spirituality.” He described it in terms that seem very relevant to this mystical UFOlogy:
Transcendental Mysticism
The death of drug optimism and the decline of the New Left at the end of the 1960s has given rise to another crucial factor. A transcendental mysticism (which took many forms) came to the fore. Basically, what united the various forms of transcendental mysticism is a down-playing or a denial of reason. It is an attempt to find a different kind of trip, a trip produced by something other than drugs. Some of it is straight Eastern thinking, some an amazing mixture of mysticism and the occult, and some is demonic….[T]his transcendental mysticism gives no answers, and they glory in this as though it were something new, all white and shining.[90]
Many decades ago when I was entranced by the occult, I found myself on never-ending paths that were circuitous, swirling, spiraling –never coming to a conclusion and never satisfying with an answer. This is how the occult mysteries operate. They draw the seeker deeper and deeper into the murky labyrinths. It is the same way with UFOlogy! “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7a).
Thankfully, the Scripture promises believers in Jesus Christ that “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations,” (2 Peter 2:9a) and “the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work” (2 Tim. 4:18a).
Endnotes:
1. Bold added. Dean Radin, Ph.D., an Institute of Noetic Sciences senior research scientist, “The Enduring Enigma of the UFO,” Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness, Winter 2008-9, No. 21, p. 27, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Webpages/Shift-EnduringEnigmaOfUFO.pdf Also See: http://deanradin.blogspot.com/2009/01/enduring-enigma-of-ufo.html?m=1
2. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, p. 133, 296-297, p. 69-70, quoted in Tamara Hartzell’s “Reimagining” God, p. 199 and 124, Original italics and bold removed, and new bold added. Download her book at http://www.inthenameofpurpose.org
3. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident
4. For example, the recent movie Thor, part of The Avengers series, depicts a portal at Roswell. I discussed the embedded occult symbolism in this movie in my presentation at the Quantum Mysticism conference, see: http://home.etcable.net/hestervanboven/MP3%20Format%20CD’s.htm
5. Alien Encounters: The Secret Behind the UFO Phenomenon, by Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman (Koinonia House, 1997), p. 79.
6. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover-up
7. Alien Encounters, for example, Footnote 76 cites the Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood 1984 book Clear Intent: The Government Coverup of the UFO Experience.
8. Alien Encounters, p. 55
9. Ibid, e.g., p. 56.
10. Ibid, e.g., p. 58.
11. Ibid., p. 71.
12. https://herescope.net/2013/06/nephilim-are-from-mars.html
13. Alien Encounters, page 61.
14. Ibid, p. 61-62.
15. Ibid, p. 62.
16. Ibid, footnote 78, p. 347. The footnote only mentions the first word in the title, but Missler is referring readers to the following three books by Vallee: Confrontations – A Scientist’s Search for Alien Contact (1990), Revelations : Alien Contact and Human Deception (1991), and Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact (1988).
17. Ibid, footnotes 80-81, p. 348.
18. https://herescope.net/2013/07/ancient-astronauts-star-children.html referring to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranormal_and_occult_hypotheses_about_UFOs
19. Alien Encounters, footnote 83, citing Hynek’s book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry. Hynek’s book Edge of Reality is quoted at the head of Chapter 3 of Alien Encounters, p. 53.
20. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Allen_Hynek citing Curtis Fuller’s 1980 Proceedings of the First International UFO Congress (New York: Warner Books), p. 157-163.
21. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book
22. Ibid.
23. Alien Encounters, p. 75.
24. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic (Whaleprints, 1991). I am indebted to Warren Smith for these key insights. He has written extensively about Leonard Sweet. See chapters 10 and 11, in Smith’s book A “Wonderful” Deception (Lighthouse Trails, 2009). See also https://herescope.net/2012/06/quantum-cosmic-christ.html and Tamara Hartzell’s website: http://www.inthenameofpurpose.org in which she has published several books, including her latest book “Reimagining” God, which has many chapters examining Sweet’s quantum theology.
25. Warren Smith also called my attention to Sweet’s quote, which can be found on page 181 of his book A “Wonderful Deception (Lighthouse Trails, 2009). The quote comes from Sweet’s Soul Tsunami, p. 109. Bold added.
26. Ibid, Soul Tsunami, p. 121. See chapters 10-13 of Smith’s book for an extended discussion of the newly emerging quantum spirituality. Bold added.
27. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Vallee and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_hypothesis
28. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdimensional_hypothesis
29. Alien Encounters, footnote 85.
30. Ibid, p. 76.
31. Alien Encounters, p. 77. Missler is quoting Brit Elders again in a Connecting Link magazine article, “ UFOs Over Mexico,” Issue 27, 1994, footnote 97. Connecting Link, as explained in Part 1 is a New Age magazine. You can view sample pages from it here: https://herescope.net/2013/06/alien-encounters.html
32. Alien Encounters, footnote 98 citing Vallee’s Dimensions (pp. 252-253), and footnote 99 refers to Hynek’s 1975 book Edge of Reality.
33. Ibid. Hynek is quoted on page 78 and footnote 100 refers to an interview with Hynek in UFO Report magazine, August 1976, cover pictured here: http://rrrgroup.blogspot.com/2011_09_18_archive.html)
34. Alien Encounters, pp. 78-79, quoting John Keel, Operation Trojan Horse, 1973, p. 182 (footnote 101, p. 349).
35. I simply googled “paraphysical” with “UFO” and many sites come up, providing many examples, such as: http://rense.com/general67/ENIG.HTM and http://ufosa.wordpress.com/category/paranormal-paraphysical/
36. Amazon.com book description for Keel’s Operation Trojan Horse: http://www.amazon.com/Operation-Trojan-Horse-Classic-Breakthrough/dp/1938398033/ref=pd_sim_b_5
37. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keel
38. Alien Encounters, p. 79.
39. Ibid, footnote 102, citing Flying Saucer Review, Vol. 15, p. 23. See: http://www.fsr.org.uk/FSRMain.htm. Lematre (or Lemaitre) is apparently a pen name for Dr. Pierre Guerin of France See: http://lists.topica.com/lists/iufo/read/message.html?sort=d&mid=1706692264
40. Ibid, p. 80.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid, p. 80-81, quoting from Vallee’s book Dimensions again, cited at footnote 103 on p. 349.
43. Ibid, p. 81.
44. Postmodern Prophecy Paradigm leader Tom Horn sells Vallee’s Passport to Magonia in his research digital library: http://www.survivormall.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=978-0984825639
45. Italics in original. From Agobard, Against the Multitude’s Absurd Belief Concerning Hail and Thunder, chapter 2; translated by Wendy Lewis http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/Agobard-OnHailandThunder.asp, cited in “The Magonia Problem,” by David Halperin, http://magonia.haaan.com/2011/the-magonia-problem-david-halperin/, 7/16/13.
46. Halperin, Ibid.
47. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54DRUR57Oos (YouTube video: Sid Roth with Chuck Missler, Dec. 2009; Part 1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypffadd7XPo (YouTube video: Sid Roth with Chuck Missler, Dec. 2009; Part 2) http://www.sidroth.org/site/DocServer/IS531Transcript_Missler.pdf?docID=2101 (Pdf transcript of program). On It’s Supernatural: Aliens, UFOs, are they real? A former Branch Chief of the Department of Guided Missiles says yes. Discover the shocking truth behind UFOs, where they come from and what their End Time plan is.
48. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kuhn
49. See “Shifting the Emergent Paradigm,” Herescope, Jan. 25, 2006, https://herescope.net/2006/01/shifting-emergent-paradigm.html
50. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, pp. 130-131, as quoted in Tamara Hartzell’s “Reimagining” God, p. 127, bold and italics removed. http://www.inthenameofpurpose.org
51. Dr. Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There: The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, Vol. 1, “A Christian View of Philosophy and Culture” (Crossway Books, 1982), p. 100. The entire discussion in Schaeffer’s book, and his classic work Escape From Reason, provides a Christian apologetic against such mystical postmodern thought. Yet, there is a whole new generation of believers who have not read these works.
52. See a brief bio: http://obscurantist.com/oma/vallee-jacques/
53. Vallee wrote a paper on how to analyze UFO experiences, that incorporated these components: http://www.skinwalkerranch.org/images/Vallee-Davis-model.pdf
54. Forbidden Science – Volume One [Hardcover] http://www.amazon.com/Forbidden-Science-One-Jacques-Vallee/dp/0615187242/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373590986&sr=1-3&keywords=Forbidden+Science+Jacques+Vallee and Forbidden Science – Volume Two [Hardcover]
http://www.amazon.com/Forbidden-Science-Volume-Jacques-Vallee/dp/0578032317/ref=pd_sim_b_1
55. For an overview of Hermeticism, see our Herescope articles: https://herescope.net/2006/02/brave-new-breed-creatures-in-pursuit.html and https://herescope.net/2007/07/as-in-heaven-so-on-earth.html Warren Smith has aptly noted in his many books and writings that the phrase “as above, so below” comes from Hermeticism. In the UFO context, the “as above” takes on new connotations! See Smith’s website: http://www.mountainstreampress.org for many articles on this topic.
56. Forbidden Science, Vol. 2, Ibid amazon.com. See also Vallee discussing “the early days at SRI”: http://www.stargate-interactive.com/news/jacques-vallee-on-consciousness-research-and-remote-viewing
57. Ibid.
58. I found this research so disturbing that I did not pursue the many rabbit trails. However, here are some basic pieces of information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_LaVey and also http://www.mansonwiki.com/wiki/Anton_LaVey
59. http://www.ufomystic.com/2008/01/24/vallee-ufos-great-news/ Bill Chalker Says:
January 25th, 2008 at 8:07 am: “One of more bizarre titles in my collection is Blanche Barton’s ‘The Secret Life of a Satanist – the authorised biography of Anton LaVey’, wherein Vallee is described as “a close personal friend and associate of LaVey’s” but LeVey was big on name dropping people he meet. The book has a photo of LeVey in between Vallee and Aime Michel. Vallee researched consciousness and some of the fringes of the occult underworld and through it came into contact with people like LeVey. Not a real hard thing to do in California?”
60. Page 190. http://books.google.com/books?id=6f8VqnZaPQwC&pg=PA190&lpg=PA190&dq=jacque+vallee+Anton+LaVey&source=bl&ots=nLauTqLJ1K&sig=U8aR_0zEi0rXWl0RVW2KWvOoenE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hATjUYu2OOfIyQH-tYCQDg&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAzgU
61. See our previous extended discussions about this at: https://herescope.net/2007/07/proposing-new-theology.html and https://herescope.net/2011/03/body-mind-spirit.html
62. Berit Kjos has much material about Willis Harman at her website. See http://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/paradigm-shift/harmon-willis.htm and also see http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Harman and http://books.google.com/books?id=YDQgqe4lpLQC&pg=PT173&lpg=PT173&dq=stanford+research+institute+willis&source=bl&ots=STAlhFYtvX&sig=Em_igmIKepX_QOTbnpGYE6_E29M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XwXiUZiBGdXJ4AOawIC4CA&ved=0CDwQ6AEwCA
63. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Noetic_Sciences
64. I am indebted to Dr. Erdmann’s scholarly assistance, insights and encouragement with this massive research project. Dr. Martin Erdmann, “The Spiritualization of Science, Technology, and Education in a One-World Society,” European Journal of Nanomedicine, Jan. 2009, Vol. 2, p. 31-37, http://www.clinam.org/images/stories/pdf/volume2.1.pdf See also: https://herescope.net/2009/05/spiritualization-of-science.html
65. Willis Harman and O.W. Markley, Changing Images of Man, SRI International (Pergamon Press, 1982), http://ce399.typepad.com/files/changing_images.pdf
66. See: https://herescope.net/2005/09/willis-harman-introduces-psychic.html
67. Dr. Martin Erdmann article, quote on page 34, and taken from Harman’s essay “Bringing About the Transition to Sustainable Peace” (Part One: “A Changing Worldview”).
68. See the Herescope series from September and October 2005 describing Willis Harman’s presentations to evangelical leaders (articles listed on lefthand column). This excerpt is taken from “Willis Harman Introduces Psychic ‘Science’ to Evangelical Leaders,” September 27. 2005, https://herescope.net/2005/09/willis-harman-introduces-psychic.html and the quote from Ferguson is from The Aquarian Conspiracy, 1980, p. 152. See also: https://herescope.net/2005/10/willis-harman-and-marketplace-ministry.html where we observed, “In fact, Harman was so influential at this time, that some historians suggest that he had much to do with the writing and publication of Ferguson’s landmark book ushering in the New Age Movement.”
69. Dean Radin, Ibid.
70. Ibid.
71. Ibid.
72. Ibid.
73. See “Jacques Vallee—The Software of Consciousness,” http://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Stanford%20Research%20Institute%22
74. “Heretic Among Heretics: Jacques Vallee Interview,” Part 1, http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc839.htm
75. In his extensive investigation into what gave rise to the psychic psychology beliefs of Carl Jung, Richard Noll in his book The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung (Random House, 1997), reveals the importance of ancient mythology in creating this collective unconsciousness: “Blavatsky… was convinced that a careful study of the surviving artifacts of pagan antiquity could reveal key elements of the hidden ‘secret doctrine’ of the prehistoric ancestors of us all. Jung shared their views…” (p. 126). It is outside the scope of this review to comment on how much all of this has seemed to influence the Postmodern Prophecy Paradigm teachers.
76. Ibid. See also Noll’s earlier work, The Jung Cult (Princeton, 1994).
77. Published by Signet in 1959. There are various versions of the title and updated versions. http://www.amazon.com/Flying-Saucers-Modern-Myth-Things/dp/B000XN99E2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1373991946&sr=8-2&keywords=Carl+Jung+Flying+saucers “Dr. Carl Jung And The UFOS: The Real Story,” http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc734.htm and “Carl Jung’s Perspective on the UFO Phenomenon: Part 1 of 2,” http://organizedreligion.me/2013/02/10/carl-jungs-perspective-on-the-ufo-phenomenon-part-1-of-2/ and http://www.openminds.tv/carl-jung-ufo-letter-up-for-auction-1025/
78. Ibid.
79. “Heretic Among Heretics: Jacques Vallee Interview,” Part 2, http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc839.htm
80. Ibid.
81. Ibid.
82. Ibid.
83. Ibid.
84. Ibid.
85. Constance Cumbey, A Planned Deception: The Staging of a New Age “Messiah” (Pointe, 1986). Available here: http://www.amazon.com/Planned-Deception-The-Staging-Messiah/dp/0935897003
86. Vallee interview, Part 2, Ibid.
87. Ibid.
88. Professor Pan, “Attempted Manipulation of UFO manifestations,” http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/2005/10oct/UFOmanifestations.html, 10/26/05. Note that this Satanic website includes a grainy photograph of Jacques Vallee with Anton LaVey and Aime Michel.
89. Alien Encounters, for example, Footnote 76 cites the Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood 1984 book Clear Intent: The Government Coverup of the UFO Experience.
90. Dr. Francis Schaeffer, The New Super-Spirituality, The Complete Works of Francis A. A Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, Vol. 3, “A Christian View of Spirituality” (Crossway Books, 1982), p. 387.
The graphic at the top of the page came from http://zionsgate.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ufo-2.jpg. The context was an article reviewing Tom Horn’s Exo-Vaticana book posted at http://zionsgate.wordpress.com/ and retrieved on May 3, 2013. Note that Missler’s Koinonia House advertised Horn’s book in its May 24, 2013 e-mail.
