Caryn Anscomb's

Trickster Tales

An Exploration of Boundary Merging Between the UFO Culture, Parapsychology, and Intelligence Agencies

The UFO arena fast became a platform for gathering and disseminating information to and from a variety of sources, and wherein the trickster runs riot. Paranoia, suspicion and allegations abound and that’s just between the pro-UFO lobbyists; when Intel and parapsychology are thrown into the mix the heat reaches boiling point. 

UFO Tales Part Three: A Virtual Reality

Rob Irving: Art and Artifice [a]

In parts 1 and 2, I proposed that USAF employees have loomed large in the dissemination of UFO information. Whilst researching for corroborative information to back that assertion, I came across the work of Col. Hector Quintanilla.

In 1975, Lt. Col. Hector Quintanilla USAF wrote a manuscript titled UFOs, An Air Force Dilemma, in which he recounts his experiences during his term as Director of Project Blue Book from 1963 -1967. The work, unedited, describes in the authors own words the methodology employed by USAF in the investigation and cataloguing of UFO data from the birth of Blue Book’s predecessor’s, Project Sign 1947 and Project Grudge 1948, to the conclusion of Project Blue Book in 1967. The manuscript is loaded with historical data for the discerning researcher but for my purposes here I will home in on just a couple of key points.

In 1953 a scientific panel was commissioned to make an authoritive evaluation of the UFO phenomena. The panel was composed of civilian scientists holding positions outside the government and was chaired by Dr. H.P. Robertson. The panel met in Washington D.C. during January, 1953, where they received special briefings and all UFO records were made available. After three days of briefings, reviews, discussion and serious study, the panel completed its report and issued their statement:

"REPORT ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS—17 January 1953

1. The Panel of Scientific Consultants has met to evaluate any possible threat to national security posed by Unidentified Flying Objects ("Flying Saucers"), and to make recommendations thereon. The Panel has received the evidence as presented by cognizant intelligence agencies, primarily the Air Technical Intelligence Center, and has reviewed a selection of the best documented incidents.

2. As a result of its considerations, the Panel concludes: That the evidence presented on Unidentified Flying Objects shows no indication that these phenomena constitute a direct physical threat to national security.

We firmly believe that there is no residuum of cases which indicates phenomena which are attributable to foreign artifacts capable of hostile acts, and that there is no evidence that the phenomena indicate a need for the revision of current scientific concepts.

3. In order most effectively to strengthen the national facilities for the timely recognition and the appropriate handling of true indications of hostile action, and to minimize the concomitant dangers alluded to above, the Panel recommends:

That the national security agencies take immediate steps to strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have been given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired.

We suggest that this aim may be achieved by an integrated program designed to reassure the public of the total lack of evidence of inimical forces behind the phenomena, to train personnel to recognize and reject false indications quickly and effectively, and to strengthen regular channels for the evaluation of and prompt reaction to true indications of hostile measures."

Lt. Col Quintanilla writes:

"The panel had recommended that the national security agencies take immediate steps to strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status which they had been given and to remove the aura of mystery which the project had unfortunately acquired. It was because of this recommendation that a special office was established within the OFFICE OF INFORMATION at the Air Force Secretary’s level. It’s [sic] primary function was to answer questions from the public and periodically, as requested, release UFO information to the Communications Media. Throughout the years, the responsibility for releasing UFO information to the public has remained with the Secretary of the Air Force, Office of Information (SAFOI) [sic]." [1]

This struck me as an interesting comment, so I decided to take a look at the AFOSI website and came across their fact sheet, which states:

Organization:

"In addition to the command's headquarters AFOSI has eight field investigations regions. Seven of the Regions are aligned with Air Force major commands: Region 1 with Air Force Materiel Command, Region 2 with Air Combat Command, Region 3 with Air Mobility Command, Region 4 with Air Education and Training Command, Region 5 with U.S. Air Forces in Europe, Region 6 with Pacific Air Forces, and Region 8 with Air Force Space Command.

While the regions serve the investigative needs of those aligned major commands, all AFOSI units and personnel remain independent of those commands, and their chains of command flow directly to AFOSI headquarters. Such organizational independence ensures unbiased investigations.

The single region not aligned with a major command is Region 7, the mission of which is to provide counterintelligence and security-program management for special-access programs under the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force." [2]

Let’s examine the last paragraph in conjunction with Lt. Col Quintanilla’s statement above:

Quintanilla states: "Throughout the years, the responsibility for releasing UFO information to the public has remained with the Secretary of the Air Force, Office of Information."

The Air Force fact sheet states that Region 7 provides counterintelligence under the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. So, it’s of some interest to note that agents engaged in CI on behalf of AFOSI operate under the auspices of the Office of the Secretary of Air Force – the same body responsible for the dissemination of UFO information.

Lt. Col. Quintanilla goes to some lengths to counter claim USAF complicity in UFO cover-ups and I completely agree with him. The USAF commissioned reports on UFOs were genuine investigation of reports pertaining to Anomalous Aerial Phenomena. Though I can’t help but wonder why, if USAF had such a prolonged migraine with the UFO problem and were hoping to put it to rest, would a CI faction of USAF want to disseminate disinformation which further fuels public interest in the subject? Of course, this greatly depends on whether there is any official sanction for the spreading of UFO propaganda, or whether rogue elements have abused their positions, past and present, to propagate UFO related fables.

However, trying to pin the spread of disinformation and hoaxed documentation on the heads of one or two rogue agents, as some are currently wont to do, is a little naïve perhaps. I have spoken to countless people who report receiving information from a large body of USAF staff of varying rank during the early 80’s, telling tales of aliens. A few of the Star Gate Remote Viewing files also appear to support USAF interest in the UFO phenomenon around this era. See Gary Bekkum’s on site articles.

During a presentation to the MUFON convention in Las Vegas on July 1, 1989, William Moore shocked the audience with a revelation. He confessed to his part in a disinformation program aimed at the UFO community. He stated:

"Disinformation is a strange and bizarre game. Those who play it are completely aware that an operation's success is dependent upon dropping false information upon a target or `mark', in such a way that the person will accept it as truth and will repeat, and even defend it to others as if it were true. One of the key factors in any successful disinformation scheme is that it must contain some elements of truth in order to be credible. Once the information is believed, the work of counterintelligence is complete. They can simply withdraw in the confidence that the dirty work of spreading their poisonous seeds will be done by others." [3]

In 1979, William Moore became the director of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization and through his work he became acquainted with physicist Paul Bennewitz. Bennewitz had become convinced that aliens were using electromagnetic signals to control the minds of abductees and was trying to devise a means for shielding against these signals. He advised Moore that he had detected low frequency signals emitted from UFOs. He had also managed to capture on film some anomalous lights maneuvering around a nuclear weapons storage facility at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.

Bill Moore claims that in early September, 1980, he was approached by AFOSI agent Richard Doty. Moore states that Doty told him that he spoke for a small group of similar individuals who were uncomfortable with the government's continuing cover-up of the truth and indicated that he and his group would like to help Moore with his research. Moore states "I knew I was being recruited, but at that point I had no idea for what."

Moore claims that he soon learnt that he was expected to exchange information on Bennewitz’s activities for a little insider information on UFOs, and decided to go along with it. During this time Moore further claims that he was witness to an intense disinformation campaign aimed at Bennewitz by several government agencies. More states:

The disinformation campaign aimed at Bennewitz had the desired effect. The stories had become so bizarre that people began to question Bennewitz’s sanity. He became increasingly more paranoid, eventually suffering a breakdown and was hospitalized. By this point the seeds had already been implanted within the collective psyche of the UFO community. Tales of abduction, genetic engineering, mind control and alien underground bases are the focal point of Ufology today, but the mythic building blocks had already been in place since at least the early 1940s.

There is a shift in the myth making coming into play, and as a contact recently pointed out, also a shift in investigation.

The small local UFO hobby groups are dwindling, the international UFO symposiums gain momentum. Internet forums are rife and there is something a little more sinister throwing its weight around. I’m referring to the wave of Exopolitical organizations to hit the scene over the last few years. Headed by self-appointed delegates for the planet Earth presenting manifestos, these organizations harbour strong political undertones. Their objectives include setting out procedures for dealing with alien contact, making demands for congressional hearings relative to alleged Governmental cover-ups of ET visitation and making demands for the abandonment of military programs focusing on the weaponising of space.

What I find the most unpalatable aspect of these organization’s assertions lies within their professing to understand the ‘alien’ phenomenon, and the whys and wherefores for its interaction with man. To date, there has been no veridical testimony presented to the general public to support their claims. I have requested documented evidence. I am still waiting.

Someone made an interesting observation on one of the UFO email threads recently, which merits a quote. The author is referring to a few key players within the Exopolitics movements:

"Xxxx (name redacted) has bought into the dark nightmarish vision, which is seriously deluded imo. The field of exopolitics is going to remain a fringe sort of thing because he, and others like xxxx and xxxx (names redacted) have become infected with a "virus" that profoundly distorts ones vision."

During a recent exchange of emails with one of our professional sources in the medical field, he shared an observation which is reflected in the above comment. That is, that there is something akin to a viral epidemic hitting the Internet community, and it’s making folk ill.

Our source writes:

"…Alternate Reality gets transmuted in the Cingulate Cortex and the Para hippocampus ... Where delusions of Terrorism get mixed with delusions of Aliens. We have to medicate some patients every week who have become so scared they no longer can take care of their family, or work. They have been infected, we believe with a viral meme that is every bit as epidemiologically real as E. Coli in spinach.

Absent the growing delusional triggers...these folks would have remained healthy. Most of them actually get sick by reading certain web-pages, and when their defenses of actual reality are overwhelmed by alternate reality, interest which has become addiction, and then concern and worry, and then fear elutes with the solvent of delusion."

Our source further writes:

"The meme has existed since archetypes existed. Jung and Freud, and later Adler and Anna Freud wrote reams about them. The internet may be the interstate highway along which the spinach gets distributed from the places of infestation to the consumer in distant places."

Jung’s view of the psyche is that it rests upon a substratum - the collective unconscious –a primordial suprapersonal nature which is present in every one - which can be broken into components: archetypes. The meme then is analogous to Jung’s archetypal representations, resulting from the transformation of archetypes into conscious formulae. Archetypes, as opposed to their representations, are the factors which predispose particular sets of representations, or memes, to spread within a group of people and enter their conscious awareness.

But is there truly anything of substance beneath all the subterfuge which might merit genuine cause for concern? There’s plenty of conjecture put forth: black-ops military projects, big money deals in advanced technologies, psychotronic weapons, control over free energy, back-engineering of alien technology, governments out of control, aliens in control, political or personal agendas, to name the most prominent. I’m certain a few of these scenarios, in reality, do create some of the smoke.

What of the phenomenon itself? I have yet to speak to a contactee who can offer substantive evidence pertaining to interaction with alien biological entities from planet X-Y-Z. I have spoken to many folk who undoubtedly have encountered some form of exogenous intelligence, often with witnesses to the effect. Man has been expressing encounters with suprahuman intelligence since he first learnt how to scribble on cave walls. The entities may have morphed into space-faring critters in shiny high-tech vehicles, but the personal encounter differs little from paranormal/metaphysical encounters recounted throughout human history, exhibiting both physical exploitation and spiritual enlightenment. One has to wonder if these entities are presenting themselves in guises understood by whatever the current mindset is, or whether the current mindset is itself giving form to something primeval in essence and conceptually ‘shapeless’.

There are conceptual frameworks set in place for dealing with forms of archetypal intelligence of course, to be found within various religious and mystical, pantheistic/philosophical doctrines, perhaps more so within Shamanism, which will be discussed later in the series.

I can’t help but wonder; if world governments have been trying to conceal the reality of Nuts and Bolts Alien technology and visitation for some 50 odd years, why have countries such as Russia, America, China and the UK invested time and money into parapsychological research? Wouldn’t the reality of biological alien entities far exceed, in interest and finance, studies of paranormal spooky goings on?

Someone made the suggestion to me, a while back, that Intel agency backed paranormal research was a smokescreen to cover the money sunk into the unraveling of alien technology - I have to say that I disagree. There exists more evidence to support the premise that a sizable chunk of UFO tales were a smokescreen to cover technology of a more down to earth kind. It fast became a useful medium for the dissemination of an assortment of disinformation, aimed at various bodies, not least the international intelligence communities. This in conjunction with our hoaxers and latter day viral meme epidemic gives us a lovely mix!

There is a boundary merging between the ET phenomenon and ESP interest within the paranormal/quasi-scientific communities. A number of ET contactees report enhanced psychic abilities after a contact experience – echoes of the Shaman - and claim that the alien entities communicate by telepathic means. There is also, on occasion, physically observable effects of anomalous phenomena, noted both within the UFO and paranormal communities and often with multiple witnesses, which is not too easily relegated to the diagnostics of clinical psychologists.

While evidence for alien technology remains elusive, there is experiential and experimental evidence to support claims of Extra Sensory Perception. During the remote viewing programs and AMP (Anomalous Mental Phenomena) studies, conducted essentially within the United States and Russia, a paranormal reality gained recognition through empirical analysis. Its potential applications sparked the interest of the Intelligence community and later the military establishments, specifically its implementation in gaining a superior edge in psychological warfare. The paranormal world, previously ascribed to the mystic, magician, charlatan or the lunatic as some might postulate, became integrated within the special programs labs, funded by Intelligence and Military bodies.

This wasn’t a first of course; Hitler’s interest in the paranormal to gain an edge in warfare is well documented. The fact that the Former Soviet Union followed closely on Nazi Germany’s tail, pre-dating American interest in the subject, is of considerable interest but no surprise when we take the Nazi and Communist atheistic paradigms into consideration, as opposed to a nation founded on Christian ideals, wherein paranormal interests are largely taboo.

America found herself caught with her proverbial pants down in respect to Russia’s AMP research. Word filtered through the Intel grapevine that there just might be something to this research and America went about setting up her own experimental projects.

In a CIA memo titled "INSTITUTES, LABORATORIES, AND CENTERS PERFORMING RESEARCH ON UNCONVENTIONAL BIOPHYSICS, PARAPSYCHOLOGY, AND PSYCHOPHYSICALOGY" released under the Freedom of Information Act, a number of Soviet scientists, physicists and subjects are listed, alongside their respective institutions and keywords, dates and/or research. The earliest date noted is 1920, with the key words ESP, Mental suggestion on dogs. Other Keywords, spanning dates from 1962, up to 1974, include: Telepathy, PK, clairvoyance, biomagnetism, kirlian, dermo-optics, Skin vision and subliminal perception.

In 1952, the Department of Defense was lectured on the possible usefulness of ESP in psychological warfare. Reports gathered through various bodies continued to build momentum. Then in 1961, the reports sparked the interest of the Chief of CIA’s Office of the Technical Service Division. Technical project officers contacted Stephen Abrams, then Director of the Parapsychology Laboratory at Oxford University, England. Abrams wrote a review paper in which he stated that ESP was demonstrated but not understood or controllable. It wasn’t until a decade later that a serious interest was taken, when Dr. Russell Targ and Dr. Harold Puthoff re-awakened CIA interest in parapsychological research.

In April, 1972, Dr. Targ met with CIA personnel from OSI (Office of Scientific Intelligence) and revealed that he had contacts with people who claimed to have witnessed and documented Soviet investigations into psychokinesis. Soviet films were made available to OSI for analysis. In turn, OSI contacted ORD (Office of Research and Development) who eventually sent an ORD Project Officer to visit Targ, who was now at SRI (Stanford Research Institute) to discuss research possibilities. Targ suggested that psychokinetic research could be conducted at SRI in conjunction with Dr. Puthoff.

Lab tests quickly followed. A subject, with reputed psychokinetic abilities, was discovered by Targ and Puthoff and taken to the physics department at SRI, where Dr. Hebbard had a shielded magnetometer set up for high energy particle experiments. The subject effectively disturbed the output signal and several other demonstrations of his mental abilities proved successful. The event was summarized and a report was sent to OSI and discussions were taken up with the OTS (Office of Technical Services).

In a report written for the CIA, titled: Parapsychology in Intelligence. A Personal Review And Conclusions by Dr. Kenneth A. Kress, he writes:

SRI continued working with OSI, albeit informally, on a remote viewing experiment. One of the subjects was Pat Price, later, alongside Uri Geller and Ingo Swann, to become one of the ‘infamous’ names associated with remote viewing. His alleged success during the above experiment eventually led to more CIA interest and sponsorship, after several months of analysis. By this point Mr. Colby was DCI, and the new directors of OTS and ORD were enough impressed by the data to re-approach SRI and request that they propose another program.

In February, 1974, a jointly funded ORD and OTS program was begun and Dr. Kress was once again appointed the Project Officer. Kress wrote, "The project proceeded on the premise that the phenomena existed; the objective was to develop and utilize them."

To be continued:

REFERENCES:

SOURCES:

[b] http://www.techgnosis.com/martians.html

Copyright 2006 (c) Caryn Anscomb. All rights reserved.

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