Read Online Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind: Selected Writings of John A. Keel by John A. Keel - Free Book Online
Authors: John A. Keel
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series of articles in the 1960s, other independent investigators around the world confirmed it in their own research.
Although many UFO believers choose to assume that most UFO sightings are random chance encounters, the startling truth is that
witnesses are selected
by some mysterious process and that strictly accidental sightings are rare, if not altogether nonexistent.
Perhaps the greatest deficiency in the Air Force questionnaire was its neglect to extract the most basic personal information about the witness. It asked only for the witness’s name, occupation, and address. However, even the birthdates of the witnesses can be important. (In a series of contact cases I investigated in 1967, I discovered that
all
of the witnesses had been born on the same date!) Religion can also play a part. Although we now have a huge body of many thousands of reports covering the past 30 years, we find that Catholic and Jewish witnesses are extremely rare. Protestants and “fallen Catholics” (those who have drifted away from the active practice of their religion) account for the bulk of the reports. People with American Indian or Gypsy blood in their background tend to see more UFOs than other people.
If sightings occurred on a purely accidental basis, certain statistical laws should be followed. There should be more smiths, Browns, and Joneses among the witnesses simply because there are more of them in the population. But this isn’t the case. People with unusual names like Jabkowsky tend to have more sightings than the Smiths. Although left-handed people are a decided minority, there are more left-handed contactees than right-handed ones. The late Ivan Sanderson once pointed out that people with red or blond hair also seemed more prone to have UFO experiences.
The selectivity doesn’t end there. Occupations also are of special importance. Schoolteachers, especially those dealing with “gifted” or, conversely, “developmentally delayed” children, seem to be involved in an unusually high percentage of low-level cases and incidents in which the object pursued a car. This UFO penchant for schoolteachers seems to be a worldwide factor. In my travels, I found another special group not widely mentioned in published reports: police officers and night watchmen. While the UFO observations of on-duty policemen are frequently cited by reporters searching for reliable witnesses, a great many lawmen also have unusual sightings while off-duty, as do night watchmen (who are often retired cops). Finally, and most chilling of all, men and women who are
civilian
employees at military bases (or who work at jobs requiring a security clearance) are targeted. Barbers, farmers, and auto mechanics are decidedly rare among UFO witnesses. In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in sightings among doctors, lawyers, regional politicians, and stubborn, skeptical newspapermen.
Obviously the UFO phenomenon has some system of selectivity, and it is highly probable that most of the people picked undergo something more than a mere visual sighting –
something they cannot remember later.
Are their minds being reprogrammed, as many of the top researchers now suspect?
The only way we will ever learn what is really going on is by thoroughly investigating the witnesses themselves. The UFOs are so widespread (the objects must number in the thousands during flap periods) and so active at ground level that they must be doing something. Whatever it is, it’s obvious they are doing it to people – special people who have been carefully picked from the mainstream of society and chosen for special treatment. Therefore, their descriptions of what they have seen are less important than what they have experienced physically, psychologically, and mentally. The objects are merely the medium for their message, whatever it might be. The Air Force never got anywhere because it was concerned solely with explaining away the descriptions of the objects. The
Although many UFO believers choose to assume that most UFO sightings are random chance encounters, the startling truth is that
witnesses are selected
by some mysterious process and that strictly accidental sightings are rare, if not altogether nonexistent.
Perhaps the greatest deficiency in the Air Force questionnaire was its neglect to extract the most basic personal information about the witness. It asked only for the witness’s name, occupation, and address. However, even the birthdates of the witnesses can be important. (In a series of contact cases I investigated in 1967, I discovered that
all
of the witnesses had been born on the same date!) Religion can also play a part. Although we now have a huge body of many thousands of reports covering the past 30 years, we find that Catholic and Jewish witnesses are extremely rare. Protestants and “fallen Catholics” (those who have drifted away from the active practice of their religion) account for the bulk of the reports. People with American Indian or Gypsy blood in their background tend to see more UFOs than other people.
If sightings occurred on a purely accidental basis, certain statistical laws should be followed. There should be more smiths, Browns, and Joneses among the witnesses simply because there are more of them in the population. But this isn’t the case. People with unusual names like Jabkowsky tend to have more sightings than the Smiths. Although left-handed people are a decided minority, there are more left-handed contactees than right-handed ones. The late Ivan Sanderson once pointed out that people with red or blond hair also seemed more prone to have UFO experiences.
The selectivity doesn’t end there. Occupations also are of special importance. Schoolteachers, especially those dealing with “gifted” or, conversely, “developmentally delayed” children, seem to be involved in an unusually high percentage of low-level cases and incidents in which the object pursued a car. This UFO penchant for schoolteachers seems to be a worldwide factor. In my travels, I found another special group not widely mentioned in published reports: police officers and night watchmen. While the UFO observations of on-duty policemen are frequently cited by reporters searching for reliable witnesses, a great many lawmen also have unusual sightings while off-duty, as do night watchmen (who are often retired cops). Finally, and most chilling of all, men and women who are
civilian
employees at military bases (or who work at jobs requiring a security clearance) are targeted. Barbers, farmers, and auto mechanics are decidedly rare among UFO witnesses. In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in sightings among doctors, lawyers, regional politicians, and stubborn, skeptical newspapermen.
Obviously the UFO phenomenon has some system of selectivity, and it is highly probable that most of the people picked undergo something more than a mere visual sighting –
something they cannot remember later.
Are their minds being reprogrammed, as many of the top researchers now suspect?
The only way we will ever learn what is really going on is by thoroughly investigating the witnesses themselves. The UFOs are so widespread (the objects must number in the thousands during flap periods) and so active at ground level that they must be doing something. Whatever it is, it’s obvious they are doing it to people – special people who have been carefully picked from the mainstream of society and chosen for special treatment. Therefore, their descriptions of what they have seen are less important than what they have experienced physically, psychologically, and mentally. The objects are merely the medium for their message, whatever it might be. The Air Force never got anywhere because it was concerned solely with explaining away the descriptions of the objects. The
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