Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind: Selected Writings of John A. Keel

FLYING

SAUCER

TO THE

CENTER
OF

YOUR MIND

Books by Andy Colvin

The Mothman’s Photographer: The Work of an Artist Touched by the Prophecies of the Infamous Mothman

The Mothman’s Photographer II: Meetings With Remarkable Witnesses Touched by Paranormal Phenomena, UFOs, and the Prophecies of West Virginia’s Infamous Mothman

The Mothman’s Photographer III: Meetings With Remarkable West Coast Witnesses Touched By The Anomalous Activities Of Interdimensional Entities, Archetypal Avatars, And The Eerie Yet Enlightening Phenomenon Known Infamously As “Mothman”

The Mothman Speaks: Candid Conversations Concerning Cosmic Conundrums - Cryptic Creatures, Chimeras, Contactees and the Cleverly Coded Coincidences and Correspondences of the Collective Unconscious

The Mothman Shrieks: Controversial Conversations Concerning Cosmic Conundrums - Cryptic Creatures, Chimeras, Contactees and the Cleverly Coded Coincidences and Correspondences of the Collective Unconscious

Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind: Selected Writings of John Keel

ISBN-13: 978-1492206606

ISBN-10: 1492206601

© 2013 Metadisc Books, All Rights Reserved

PUBLISHED BY:
Metadisc Books and The Seattle Conceptual Art Museum

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON JOHN KEEL:
WWW.JOHNKEEL.COM

FRONT COVER: JOHN KEEL AT THE MOTHMAN STATUE UNVEILING CEREMONY, PT. PLEASANT, WV, SEPT. 2003 (PHOTO BY ANDY COLVIN)

BACK COVER ILLUSTRATION: SELF-PORTRAIT IN PHOTO BOOTH BY JOHN KEEL, NEW YORK CITY, CIRCA 1966

CONTENTS

A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS

I
NTRODUCTION BY
T
ESSA
B. D
ICK

E
DITOR
’
S
N
OTE

F
OREWORD
: T
HE
G
OLDEN
B
OY BY
G
RAY
B
ARKER

I
NTRODUCTION
: F
IRST AND
L
AST
W
ORDS

C
HAPTER I

What the CIA Is Not Telling Us About UFOs –
Male
magazine Project Beta: An Analysis of Reports of Unidentified Aerial Objects

What Are They?

North America 1966: The Great Wave

C
HAPTER 2

Investigating UFOs: Probing a Phenomenon Wrapped in Mystery

C
HAPTER 3

Keel’s Speech to the Congress of Scientific Ufologists – New York City MIB: 1967-68 –
Saucer News,
Spring/Summer 1969

C
HAPTER 4

The UFO Silencers –
SAGA
magazine, May 1975

C
HAPTER 5

“Contactee” Rustling – 1979 Lecture

Type 1: Trance Contactees

Type 2: Post-Hypnotic Contactees

Type 3: Hallucinatory Contactees

Type 3 Subgroup: Distortions of Reality

Type 4: Astral Projection Contactees

Type 5: Cosmic Illumination Contactee

Type 5 Subgroup: False Illumination

Type 6: The “Genuine” Contactee

Cattle Mutilation For Beginners –
Anomaly
#11, April 1974

C
HAPTER 6

The Flying Saucer Evidence Everyone Ignores –
SAGA
magazine, June 1973

C
HAPTER 7

The Mothman Monster –
SAGA
magazine, Oct. 1968

C
HAPTER
8

Never Mind The Saucer! Did You See The Guys Who Were Driving It?

C
HAPTER 9

West Virginia: A Plethora of Paranormal – 1994 Lecture The Infrared Tower – 1990 Lecture

C
HAPTER 10

The UFO Name Game –
Beyond Reality
magazine, Jan. 1976

C
HAPTER 11

The Subject of Saucers –
Anomaly
magazine #1, May 1969

C
HAPTER 12

The Contactee Key –
UFO Report,
Aug. 1977

C
HAPTER 13

Behind the FBI’s Undercover Flying Saucer Investigation

C
HAPTER 14

Mystery of the Invisible Flying Saucers –
SAGA
magazine, Winter 1974

C
HAPTER 15

UFOs and the Mysterious Wave of Worldwide Kidnappings

C
HAPTER 16

Mysterious Gas Attacks –
SAGA
magazine, July 1968

C
HAPTER 17

The Secret UFO-Astronaut War –
Men
magazine, Sept. 1968

C
HAPTER 18

UFOs and Abominable Snowmen: A Noted Authority’s Weirdest Cases

C
HAPTER 19

The Flying Saucer Crime Wave They Can’t Cover Up

C
HAPTER 20

Ocean-Based UFOs Ring the United States –
Male
magazine, Dec. 1970

C
HAPTER 21

Was Philip K. Dick a Flake? –
New Frontiers
magazine, 1987

C
HAPTER 22

The Secret Tape to the Congress of Scientific Ufologists

C
HAPTER 23

Medical Aspects of Non-Events –
Anomaly
magazine, 1969-72

Sex and the Single Saucerer

Symptoms of Hallucination

Classification of Hallucination

C
HAPTER 24

Secret UFO Bases Across the U.S. –
SAGA
magazine, April 1968

“A Question of Responsibility”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to the following researchers who have either shared their personal insights about John Keel with the editor, or have helped promote recent popular interest in Keel’s work – particularly regarding the seeming connections between “Mothman,” UFOs, and the occasional conspiracy. This book would not have been possible without their help:

Special thanks to my team of “Mothy” proofreaders – truly a sacred brain trust. Their enthusiasm, thoughts, and advice during the past two decades of research into Keel has been invaluable:

-John Bonanno

-Ben Camp

-Lisa Neesvig

-E.E. Parker

-Harriet Plumbrook

-Ted Torbich

INTRODUCTION

In his own work, Andy Colvin digs deeper than the headlines when he comes across a story. Inspired by personal experience with the Mothman phenomenon, he delves into realms of mysterious and fascinating events which, according to common sense, ought not happen. From phantom armies of angels (which have been reported as recently as the 6 Day War in Israel) to fantastic creatures that morph into something even more strange, Colvin has taken on the decades-long task of documenting, compiling, and theorizing about the evidence for Mothman, UFOs, and earthly conspiracies.

Along the way, Colvin has archived and re-popularized the “lost” works of John A. Keel. Keel is one of our best sources on the history of Mothman, since he was there, onsite, and interviewed the witnesses at the time of their sightings. Keel also happens to be perhaps the top UFO and Fortean investigator of the late 20
^th
century.

This volume, which explores the writings and thoughts of John Keel , goes deep into the flying saucer mystery and other strange phenomena. It is a fascinating read.

Although much of
Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind
was written decades ago, this book sheds new light on UFOs and other mysterious phenomena. For those who are not already familiar with Keel’s work, it will be a mind-opener. For those who have read Keel , this volume not only provides a useful refresher course, but also includes rare material from now-defunct magazines and other obscure sources that many have never read or even heard of before.

One tale in particular caught my attention: three teenagers who swear they saw a huge bird transform into a golden boy. This tale is reminiscent of El Dorado, the legendary Inca chief who used to bathe in gold dust until he shone like the sun.

It also brings to mind Philip K. Dick’s story, “The Golden Man.” If you saw the movie
Next,
which was purportedly based on that story, you have no idea what Phil really wrote. The story was about the dangers of eugenics programs. (Although within the story, the biological mutations are caused by nuclear contamination.)

Of course, the chapter on Philip K. Dick interests me the most, since I was married to Phil. This chapter accurately describes bits and pieces of my husband’s experience and his attempts to deal with it intellectually.

The most striking experience that Phil and I shared was with what he and I called Firebright. This name occurred to him because of the bright lights that danced around our apartment, and it formed a significant part of the inspiration for his novel
VALIS.
He referred to the experience with Firebright and other entities as VALIS, which is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System. Firebright was a blue electrical arc the size of a tennis ball that flitted around the room as if it were a moth. At one point, it landed on Phil’s forehead. (This was some time after his pink light experience, which also targeted his forehead.)

Firebright seemed to be a friendly creature which possessed some intelligence or instinct, such as that of a bird. Birds are actually very intelligent, but that is another story. (The supernatural “king of birds” in Asia, which is known as the Garuda, is depicted in ancient texts and carvings as a bird-man hybrid. The Garuda was at the top of Keel’s list of possible explanations for Mothman.) Firebright’s physical movements seemed moth-like, too, which might connect it with Mothman (the nickname that the media gave the West Virginia Birdman). My experiences with Phil and Firebright did seem similar to those described by Keel as experienced by UFO and Mothman witnesses in the Ohio Valley.

Firebright appeared in the midst of a period of harassment of an electromagnetic nature. For example, sometimes at night our little bedside radio could not be turned off, not even when it was unplugged. The first time that happened, we asked the guys next door, who shared a common wall with us, if they had left their radio on in the kitchen that night. They said they had not. A short time later, after they moved out, workmen in gray coveralls emerged from a yellow Ford Econoline van and carried large cardboard boxes into the vacant apartment next door. After that, the strange electromagnetic phenomena in our apartment increased in frequency and intensity. When we found the door to that apartment unlocked, we investigated and found electronic equipment in the kitchen, which shared a common wall with our bedroom, as well as in the hall closet. Phil recognized some of the devices as ham radio equipment and tape recorders. When we eventually moved, Phil stated that he was going to miss the little air spirits that visited our apartment because they would not move to the house that we rented.