We seem to be surrounded by an almost invisible world that can manipulate us in any way. ~ John Keel 

On Sunday, October 30^th, 1938, millions of radio listeners in the USA were shocked to the core by a radio announcement about a Martian attack on Earth. They panicked, some ran out of their homes screaming, others packed up their cars and fled. Even though the ground-shaking news turned out to be nothing more than a portion of Orson Welles' adaptation of the well-known book, War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, many of the listeners believed what they heard on the radio was real. 

In his infamous broadcast, Orson Welles set the scene by saying: "We know now that in the early years of the twentieth century this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own..." 

While Welles' radio stunt was fiction, a careful analysis of the evidence suggests the actual reality surrounding UFOs and all things associated is much stranger than any fiction ever invented by a human mind. 

As a child, and like many other children the world over, I dreamed of space exploration, going where no human had gone before (or at least as far as Mars), making first contact with other species, and being part of an "interstellar federation". It's all started with reading H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. Their works ignited my imagination and helped to shape my understanding that our reality is far stranger than it appears on the surface. 

Much later I also became familiar with the 'UFO phenomenon' and its milieu. Comprising a few "nuts & bolts" people and a large number of "new agers", it was an exciting time in my life, but I soon realised that neither the hard science types nor the love and lighters had all (or any) of the answers to the UFO phenomenon. The "nuts & bolts" people would spend their time fighting with the skeptics, who claimed that it would take an unrealistically large amount of resources and time to embark on an intergalactic journey, and that in itself is enough proof that the UFO phenomenon isn't real. For their part, the new age crowd occupied themselves with navel-gazing and receiving messages from Andromeda or Commander Muckymuck of the "Ashtar Command". 

It seemed to me that the arguments from all three camps lacked two crucial elements that are often seen as mutually incompatible: imagination and common sense. But trying to point out the pros and cons of either of the approaches to the UFO phenomenon is beyond the scope of this article, instead I'll concentrate on marshaling as much of the evidence as possible to make the case that "they have always been here"; that their nature is 'hyperdimensional' rather than extraterrestrial; and that the UFO phenomenon cannot be disassociated from paranormal phenomena. 

The Twilight Zone 

We will begin with the stuff that nightmares are made of. And what are nightmares if not hidden truths residing in the deep unconscious.

An Encyclopedia of Fairies (Briggs, 1976) gives many examples of fairy abductions. The similarities between fairy abductions and UFO abductions are also interesting to note.People who claimed interactions with fairies generally reported marks on their bodies consistent with reports of alien abductions. Fairy abductions and UFO abductions also exhibit striking similarities to activities of incubi and succubi. Almost always a thick drink is given to the abductee. The victim is paralyzed and then levitated away. The fairies traveled in circular globes of light which is also commonly reported in UFO abductions. Another similarity to the UFO abduction scenario is the bigfoot type creature which was called a "bogie" in fairy lore. Many so-called fairies and aliens look and act a lot like what have been described throughout history as demons... 

Another of the most common of all psychic phenomena is that of the poltergeist. An allied phenomenon is that of the invisible attacker. Raised scratch marks appear on the bodies of some poltergeist victims and on one occasion an investigating police officer saw cuts spontaneously appearing on the legs and chest of a screaming poltergeist victim... 

The first thing we notice in deeply studying this phenomenon is that some encounters with entities seem to be accidental and others seem to be clearly directed at the specific person. We wonder whether the seemingly accidental encounters are as accidental as they appear. Does the manifestation occur in response to some hidden need, a psychological state that calls for outside intervention of some kind? In this regard French ufologist Jean-Francois Boeded, in his bookFantastiques rencontres au bout du monde (1982) suggested that we should conceive of sightings as starting long before the actual experience. He points to many cases in which witnesses had premonitions that something was about to happen, or for some reason they went home by a different route, or took an unaccustomed walk. Somehow, it would seem, the witnesses were being prepared for the experience they were about to undergo.

On the face of it, paranormal phenomena are indeed connected to the UFO phenomenon, but this is only the beginning. John Keel is one of the most original and controversial researchers in the ufology field. He is credited with coining the term 'MIB' (Men In Black - sinister and threatening entities who assume human form to confront ufologists and UFO witnesses), and wrote The Mothman Prophecies. 

In his book, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse (1970), Keel suggests that many aspects of modern UFO reports, including humanoid encounters, often parallel ancient folklore and religious visions, and directly links UFOs with elemental phenomena.

"Ufology is just another name for demonology," Keel explained, and claimed that he did not consider himself a "ufologist" but a "demonologist"; as an early admirer of Charles Fort (1874-1932) he actually preferred to be called a Fortean, which covers a wide range of paranormal subjects. [...] 

"I abandoned the extraterrestrial hypothesis in 1967, when my own field investigations disclosed an astonishing overlap between psychic phenomena and UFOs," Keel wrote. "The objects and apparitions do not necessarily originate on another planet and may not even exist as permanent constructions of matter. It is more likely that we see what we want to see and interpret such visions according to our contemporary beliefs."

Keel also said:

The American Indians, you know, believed that they were part of the Earth, that the Earth owned them, and that they didn't own the Earth and I think that's probably true. I think the Indians and a lot of these so-called primitive people had a great understanding of all this and it was unfortunately lost when the white man came over.

In this video John Keel briefly discusses the hallucinatory and paranormal aspects of the UFO phenomenon. 


And here we come to the more sinister tools in the Cosmic Trickster's box.

In The Mothman Prophecies, Keel tells an astonishing tale of how, as a budding UFO researcher in November 1966, he began investigating sightings in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, of an incredible animal form with characteristics of both man and moth. Keel found, as had his friend Ivan Sanderson before him, that the pursuit of a mystery creature - a 'cryptid' - leads very quickly to involvement with the mysteries of a landscape and a community. 

Forster's Marabar caves, Hamlet's castle at Elsinore, and Thomas Hardy's Egdon Heath are all aspects of crypto-geographic personalities; they live and breathe as huge animated forms and penetrate human awareness the way ivy weaves through an old house. These supra-human forms are quite conscious, aware, and active. In West Virginia, Keel found the local 'system-animal' had its own agenda; it 'spoke' through simulacra and weather, atmosphere and geology, coincidence and dream. Before the coming of Christianity and science, such forms as Keel describes were a fully understood part of an integrated world image that linked Mind to sacred sites, landscape, ideas and evolving culture. They were part of the knitting together of matter and idea, body and soul.

The malevolent nature of UFOs: 

Dr. Karla Turner was a researcher of UFO and what she termed 'military abductions', and worked closely with many abductees. She shared her conclusions in her booksTaken and Masquerade of Angels, and they are nothing short of hair-raising. Despite all of the fluff from the new age community, the truth, according to Turner, is somewhat less palatable. Apparently, the big-headed grey aliens aren't so friendly after all! 



Unexplained disappearances of people

Missing-411 is the first comprehensive research about people who have disappeared in the wilds of North America. It's understood that people routinely get lost, some want to disappear, but this story is about the unusual. Nobody has ever studied the archives for similarities, traits and geographical clusters of missing people, until now. 

A tip from a national park ranger led to this 3+ years and 7000-hour investigative effort into understanding the stories behind people who have vanished. The book chronicles children, adults and the elderly who disappeared, sometimes in the presence of friends and relatives. As Search and Rescue personnel exhaust leads and places to search, relatives start to believe kidnappings and abductions have occurred. The belief by the relatives is not an isolated occurrence; it replicates itself time after time, case after case across North America. 

The research depicts 28 clusters of missing people across the continent, something that has never been exposed and was a shocking find to researchers. Topography does play a part into the age of the victims and certain clusters have specific age and sex consistency that is baffling. This is not a phenomenon that has been occurring in just the last few decades, clusters of missing people have been identified as far back as the 1800's.

Playing tricks on the path of the Skinwalker 

Another interesting case where the paranormal appears to be interwoven with the UFO phenomenon concerns a small ranch in northern Utah. This ranch was popularly dubbed the "Skinwalker ranch" due to its ostensible 50-year history of odd events said to have taken place there. According to Kelleher and Knapp, the authors of Hunt for the Skinwalker, they saw or investigated close to 100 incidents that included vanishing and mutilated cattle, sightings of unidentified flying objects or orbs, large animals with piercing yellow eyes that were impervious to high-calibre bullets and invisible objects emitting destructive magnetic radiation.

On the day the Gormans moved their furnishings onto the property, they had their first foreshadowing of the events that would follow. They spotted an extremely large wolf out in the pasture...After a few minutes, the wolf strolled over to the corral and grabbed a calf by its snout, attempting to pull it through the corral bars..Gorman pumped another bullet into the wolf, which then let go of the calf but stood looking at the family as if nothing had happened. Gorman shot it two more times with the powerful handgun. The big animal backed off a bit, but showed no signs of distress, not even any blood... 

As if those visual experiences weren't enough, the family claims its other senses were also challenged by assorted weird events. They often were overwhelmed by strong musk odors. The pastures would unexplainably light up at night like a football stadium. They claim to have seen shafts of light that seemingly emanated from the ground, They (and others) say they heard what sounded like heavy machinery operating under the earth. And they heard voices. Tom, his son and his nephew remember hearing a loud, disembodied conversation in some unintelligible language. The disembodied male voices spoke in what the witnesses say was a mocking tone and sounded like they were emanating from 20 or more feet above their heads, but they saw nothing. The dogs accompanying the three witnesses growled and barked at the voices, then took off in a panic... 

By early 1996, the sightings of blue spheres at the ranch became almost commonplace. These orbs were said to be about the size of a softball, made of glass and filled with bubbling blue liquids that seemed to rotate inside. Mr. and Mrs. Gorman say that in April 1996, they watched one of the blue orbs repeatedly circle the head of one of their horses, The horse was illuminated by an intense blue light, and there was a sound like static electricity in the air, but this wasn't ball lightning. The orb seemed to be intelligently controlled. When Gorman approached the horse with a flashlight, the orb darted off, maneuvering through tree branches with speed and dexterity. 

© Matt Adams
Ice circle photo 
Something carved a perfect circle in the ice at the Gorman ranch. The circle was just under six feet in diameter and seemed oddly reminiscent of the crop formations seen in English wheat fields.

The Gormans say the blue spheres seemed to generate severe psychological effects on the family. Family members felt waves of fear roll over them, far in excess of what might be normal, whenever the blue orbs appeared. It was the appearance of one blue orb in particular that finally convinced the Gormans to sell the ranch... 

The balls of light that were seen so often on the property seemed to take special interest in the cattle and were often seen buzzing around the heads of the animals. Sometimes, the cattle would react violently, the herd splitting suddenly as if some invisible force was plowing through their middle. It soon got worse. 

Although the Gormans kept close watch on their stock, something began exacting a terrible toll. One cow was found dead in a field. A strange, crisp hole had been cut in one of its eyes. There were no tracks or blood, and Gorman wondered what could do such a thing. He noticed a strong musk odor around the carcass, a smell he would come to know all too well... 

Soon, cattle started disappearing altogether. One of the animals vanished from a snow-covered field. Gorman saw the hoofprints lead into the field, but the tracks simply stopped, as if the animal had been plucked from the sky. A 1,200-pound cow leaves tracks in snow, Gorman told himself, so what happened to this one?

But tricks like this apparently are common, especially as part of the abduction scenarios:

...Although there are recurrent events in the abduction phenomenon, there is no single pattern or structure. And until we know what all the events mean, we can't afford to ignore any of them. 

What is one to make, for instance, of an ET-human encounter in which two of the four aliens assisted the abductee in preparing a roast for dinner? Granted, other events occurred in this case, but the dinner was indeed cooked, served, and eaten by the abductee's family less than two hours after the ETs departed. 

Other details of this encounter included the manipulation of the abductee's neck, "for the purpose of instruction," and a discussion of genetically-stored memories and knowledge that can be tapped in humans. But there was no medical exam, no cross-breeding activity, and no warnings of coming catastrophe, all of which are events that have been used to construct abduction theories. I know this to be true because it happened to me. 

Interdimensional Beings 

These "alien intruders" can apparently behave in a variety of ways and take a variety of forms. In one man's experience, a human-looking woman often appeared in his room, although she claimed she was an interdimensional being whose real appearance was not what the abductee saw. At times, she would be 'completely there,' and very three-dimensional, but at other times only her head would be visible, or her head and hands. 

The evidence from several cases also shows that the aliens have an odd interest in our animals, yet this is hardly mentioned in standard abduction research. During a period of intense ET activity in my family's life, our dog was somehow moved one night from a fenced back yard into a locked garage. And the same dog, conversely, woke us up one morning barking in the back yard, when it had been put in a locked garage the night before. 

In both cases, these was no sign that either the gate or the garage door had been opened. The old dog was quite blind, at any rate, and would have had trouble getting anywhere, even if both passageways had been clear. 

Pet Puzzler 

Transporting dogs turned up again in the case of a UFO researcher. Her dog slept outside, yet in the middle of the night she was awakened by his wet tongue on her face. She and the dog were in her bed, but her bedroom door was still locked, as was the outside door, and there were two other doors closed in between them. 

Horses also have been moved, leaving their abductee-owners to track them down in corrals far distant from where the animals had been locked away for the night. It's hard to imagine the purpose of such events, yet they are part of the larger phenomenon and must have some relevance. 

There also seems to be a connection between abductions and the disappearance and appearance of possessions and other objects. One of the more humorous episodes occurred when a researcher was visiting another city and staying as a guest in our home. The day had been spent in work with other abductees, and that evening the group ordered Chinese food. 

As we sat eating the food, the researcher remarked that she preferred eating Chinese food with chopsticks, but we didn't have any. After the meal, the researcher went to her room then returned moments later with a very puzzled expression, "I thought you didn't have any chopsticks," she told my husband. "And I certainly didn't mean for you to go out and buy them! But thank you anyway for being so thoughtful." She held out a pair of chopsticks wrapped in paper and smiled. 

"Where did you get those?" he asked in amazement. 

"They were on my bed," she replied. "Didn't you put them there?" 

"Of course, not! There aren't-weren't-any chopsticks in the house, I promise you. And I haven't gone anywhere!" 

Other objects have appeared out of nowhere, such as metal balls falling from abductees' bodies when they rose from their beds the morning after an encounter. In another instance, a mother saw what looked like a white book floating horizontally in her son's bedroom, but when she went in, there was no book to be seen. In one abductee's home, a fish disappeared from their aquarium, and then it reappeared ten days later, twice as large as it had been. Within 24-hours, it died, as did all the other fish in the tank.