Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind: Selected Writings of John A. Keel (3 page)

I was not only impressed by Keel’s UFO theories, but also genuinely liked the man, especially his sardonic wit. When you could draw it out of him, this changed to a warm, friendly humor. Also, Keel had done me many favors during my investigation of the Point Pleasant “Mothman” cases in 1966-67, giving me much information he had uncovered.

“This is wild,” he told me, “but I know these people. I have no reason to doubt them.” He related the strange circumstances.

Recently, three different persons, whom he had contacted in Pt. Pleasant by phone, had complained that their files of clippings about the Mothman sightings and other phenomena had mysteriously disappeared – in one case, from a locked file cabinet.

“I really have a good one,” I replied. “I doubt if you will ‘buy’ it, as Long John Nebel would say, but I think it fits into some of your (Garuda) theories.”

It was one of the weirdest Mothman sightings I had run across, even during my earlier and extensive investigation. But the witness, the Fox boy, had vowed it was true. Though I had only heard the account recently, it had happened during January of 1967, a couple of months after the first Mothman sighting.

Russell Fox, 16, and two other teenagers, Richard Nutter and Mike Cain, went hunting in a wooded area at Leon, WV, near Pt. Pleasant. They had their dogs with them. Russ wore a new hunting jacket. Although he had received nothing for Christmas from his father (estranged from the family and living in Florida), the jacket had arrived for his birthday. It made up for the lack of a Christmas present, though he would much rather see his dad than get something from him through the mail.

It must have cost a lot of money, though. Mike and Dickey were greatly impressed by the jacket. They examined all the pockets, and Russ felt like a hero. “Trying out” the jacket was the main reason they had gone out. They stuffed it full of shells, flashlights, and some sandwiches. To show his generosity, Russ let each of the two wear it for a short period.

They sighted the unusual creature at the old Perkins barn, part of an abandoned farm complex, now overgrown with weeds and saplings.

Immediately, they thought of “Mothman.” Mothman was a huge bird that walked and waddled in a kind of sideways motion.

The dogs took off after it. But upon close approach, they halted, bayed for a few moments, and then ran back to the boys, whining. As they tried to “sic” the dogs on the creature again, it ran into the decrepit structure. They debated whether they should follow it inside.

Russ loaded the shotgun, hoping to kill the thing. They crept up to the building. A sagging door, open only by a crack and resting on rusting hinges, confronted them.

“We got a feeling of extreme fright. I have never felt anything like that before,” Russ said. Mike backed him up and stood close to the door. But Dickey, the youngest of the three, retreated a few yards.

Mike held the flashlight, and Russ inserted the barrel of his shotgun into the crack of the door. He slowly drew it back, as the complaining hinges creaked. The nervous beam from Mike’s hand disclosed a peculiar sight.

Half squatting in the corner, with one large wing folded across the manger, was a huge, grayish, birdlike creature. The light caught the eyes, which were large and glowing. Mike’s hand was so unsteady that it was hard to get a good look at the thing.

“Hold her steady while I get a bead on it,” Russ whispered. When the flashlight again picked out the creature, Russ got his first clear look at it – over the bead of the barrel.

It was not a monster. It definitely was a bird, though huge, almost as large as a man. Indeed, its torso reminded him somewhat of a man in circus garb, though he could make out large, beautiful feathers covering the entire body.

The thing made no move to counterattack. Instead, it crouched there, helpless it seemed, waiting for whatever he was to do to it. He did not want to pull the trigger. Had it been running, or attacking one of the other boys, he would have done so joyfully; but now, he just couldn’t…

“Then, something came over me, as if this thing hypnotized me,” Russ told me.

I threw down the shotgun. Mike screamed and dropped the flashlight. The barn was inky darkness, but I found myself walking, inch-by-inch, toward the creature. I took off my new jacket; I don’t know why. I held the jacket out to it, or rather where I presumed it to be crouching.

Finally, I just dropped the jacket and stood there in the darkness. Suddenly a glow lit up in the barn. Instead of the bird, I saw
another boy
there, about
my
age. He was almost naked. He had on a kind of jockstrap or loincloth, like in Tarzan comics. He looked like he was made out of gold!

The glow around him got brighter. He was still crouching there, in the same place, only now the “bird” was gone. Instead, this
golden boy
straightened up and looked at me. Then, he looked at his feet where the jacket was. He picked it up and held it up in front of him – not as if he was covering his nakedness, but more like he was cold, or that he was holding it close, in memory of my father (like I had done when I first got it).

Before he vanished – and that’s what he did – I swear to god, this boy started bawling and crying. I could definitely see the tears running down his face. They looked like gold, just like his body!

Keel and I moved to the door to avoid the crowd. We stepped outside for some fresh air before he spoke:

You wouldn’t be in on this, Gray, and I don’t think it was a hoax, because of FCC regulations. You’ll swear I’m making this up, but I am not. I was listening to the first hour of the
Long John Nebel Show
last night. Remember when Nebel asked you to quickly sum up the case of Al Bender and his visitation by the Men in Black? I swear, as soon as you began answering his question, a “skip signal” came in and interrupted the (powerful) WNBC signal! It was some station in the South. Whoever was talking had a decided Southern accent.

Later, other listeners to the same program would report the same thing. I looked at Keel. There was a worried expression on his face, and his earlier humor had completely vanished.

There’s
something
going on, and it
is
serious. I think I have
some
of the answers – enough of them to begin to realize what a terrifying situation we are faced with. Gray, I think the UFO syndrome of the 1950s and 60s has been the “beginning of the end.” I think “they” are ready for their next step. Who knows, maybe they have
already
taken us over.

I recalled a statement John had made in
Operation Trojan Horse
(which sounded almost comforting compared to the political conspiracy he was now implying existed at high levels):

Our first conclusion is that UFOs originate from beyond our own timeframe or time cycle. Our second conclusion is that the source has total foreknowledge of human events, and even of individual lives. Since time and space are not absolutes (although they seem to be to us), these two conclusions are compatible.

It was one of many extremely quotable and cogent paragraphs written by Keel, in what may be the most important UFO book in a decade…

Keel’s “paraphysical hypothesis” is that “many flying saucers seem to be nothing more than a disguise for some hidden phenomenon…”

Keel points out that, until 1848, a religious frame of reference was constantly employed by the phenomenon. But as man’s technology improved, and many religious beliefs were discarded, the phenomenon was obliged to update its manifestations and establish a new frame of reference. The phantom armies and angels so frequently reported in the past were replaced by transmogrifications that appeared to match man’s own technological achievements.

Within this framework, Keel shed new light on the incredible “dirigible” flap of the 1890s, witnessed by thousands of reliable people. Occupants of the clumsy craft often landed, conversed with people, and purchased food and supplies from them.

The pilots told witnesses during these contacts that the ships were
terrestrial,
and had been built by mysterious inventors. In many ways, the pilots of these craft were similar to the “ufonauts” of today…

In his various books and magazine articles, Keel has given us new insights into the UFOs, USOs (unidentified submerged objects), Men in Black, and hairy monsters. He even covers the tangled, often-overlooked subject of unidentified
airplanes and helicopters,
which appear in many areas during or after UFO flaps (without conventional numbers on their wings, tails, or fuselages).

At night, the cockpits of these unidentified aircraft are brilliantly illuminated (a distinct abnormality, for such would interfere with pilot vision). These mystery planes have been reported to hover, fly without making noise, and navigate close to the ground during severe rain and snowstorms. Frighteningly, they tend to turn up in areas where animals have been found mutilated.

Like the rest of the mysteries he studies so keenly, Keel believes most of these craft are only
temporary
constructs (or else have the power to become invisible or “cloaked”).

They pop into our frame of reference from somewhere we can oversimplify as “another dimension.” They can be completely solid as long as they stay here, and then pop right out again – back into the mysterious realm from whence they came…

A most intriguing subject… And maybe something “they” don’t want you to know about.

(From
Saucer News,
1970-72)

INTRODUCTION: FIRST AND LAST WORDS

I recently worked for a year in Washington, D.C., where I served as a special consultant to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW), which includes the Bureau of Radiological Health and numerous other agencies working in fields allied to our particular (ufological) interests. I worked directly under DHEW Secretary Eliot Richardson (now Secretary of Defense) and had occasion to meet and interview many top officials, extending all the way to the White House.

It was interesting to discover how many people working in Washington have had UFO sightings and experiences. Unfortunately, very few were able to give us permission to use their names, for obvious reasons. I was privileged to be able to investigate many of the classic rumors while working inside the government. A number of my friends were in the upper echelons of NASA, the Air Force, the Pentagon, and other organizations that had been connected with the UFO mess during the hectic 1960s period. We were able to review a number of interesting documents that have never been released to the press or the public.

Overall, we merely confirmed the conclusion already outlined in my books and articles. That is, “Project Bluebook” was only a half-baked public relations effort, without proper funding or serious intent – almost tongue-in-cheek. The responsible officials
expected
it to produce negative results. Certain employees of the CIA and the Defense Department were peripherally involved in the project, and so it “self-destructed.”

A fruitful UFO investigation would probably cost in the neighborhood of $25 million, and there would be no way to justify the cost to Congress or the public. Over the years, various small projects have taken place within obscure agencies, under disguised budgets, involving personnel who literally had nothing better to do. The results of these projects were largely negative, mostly because they were just boondoggles. The personnel involved didn’t know what the hell they were doing (not unusual in Washington).

In 1966, Dr. J. Allen Hynek made an effort to find government support for a $2 million UFO project he had planned. Other scientists have submitted proposals over the years for UFO projects costing from $25,000 to many millions. The government actually
did
spend several million dollars on UFO research in the early 1950s, but we were never able to pin down the exact figure.

Some early NASA research was also involved. Again, the results were negative. Top military leaders of the 1950s (e.g., Vandenberg, Doolittle, Twining) actually had a deep interest in psychic phenomena and advanced the conclusion that the UFO manifestations were closely related to psychic manifestations, and were therefore almost impossible to investigate.

Once it was established that UFOs were intangible (they appeared and disappeared as instantly as ghosts), official interest dissipated. The flap of 1966 aroused Congress, however, and public pressure led the Air Force to shop around for a university willing to conduct an impartial investigation. After several major universities rejected the Air Force’s proposition, the project was given, somewhat reluctantly, to Colorado. The real purpose of the project was to “get all the nuts off the Air Force’s back,” as one Pentagon officer put it.

It is extremely unlikely that there will
ever
be an official UFO study project. If another 1966-type flap occurs, the Pentagon will simply dust off the
Condon Report.

There have been (and are) certain small projects concerned with the medical and psychological effects on the witnesses. These are heavily disguised, however, and no results have been – or will be – published in the foreseeable future. Public exposure would result in an outcry from those members of Congress who try to watchdog agency budgets.

We could not find any evidence of any kind indicating direct CIA involvement on the scale long rumored in UFO circles. Offices of the
U.S. Navy
(NSA, NRO, ONI, etc.) have been more involved in UFO research than the CIA or Air Force!

As we have stressed for several years, the UFO situation is less real than the believers can understand. UFO manipulations are primarily diversions meant to conceal the real nature of the phenomenon, and to generate propaganda for the extraterrestrial concept. Or, as Sir Victor Goddard phrased it a few years ago, they “indulge an inveterate and continuing technological urge towards materialistic progress.”

The effectiveness of the comparatively few ET propagandists and evangelists is obvious. They were responsible for the pressures that led the Air Force to waste $500,000 of the taxpayers’ money on the abortive Colorado project.