Interpreting Contemporary Vision and Belief

September 1994 9Sp.

In the fiftieth Magonia:

Martin Kottmeyer: The Influencing Machine Fantasy
Peter Rogerson: Recovering the Forgotten records
Peter Brookesmith on a ufological cop-out
Plus: Books Extra, Letters, BackPage
and introducing Desmond O'Connor!
I n terpreting Contemporary VIsion and Belief

MAGONIA 50 MUFOB 99
As an experiment, we hand over this
SEPTEMBER 1994
column to one of our bitterest critics,
EDITOR Desmond O'Connor, who, at nearly
JOHN RIMMER ninety, must be our oldest reader. We
have to point out that he is not Mr Des O'Connor, the popular
EDITORIAL PANEL
John Harney chanteur, as rumoured in a down-market rival UFO magazine.
Roger Sandell Mr O'Connor has had an interesting and varied career, and is
Nigel Watson
surely the only ufologist to have been both a professional guinea­
CORRESPONDING EDITORS
Peter Rogerson
pig breeder and a harmonica player in an Algerian brothel.
J. D. Wetherspoon
P . L. A. Driftwood W HEN the editor of this magazine gave a Balfour was Jack the Ripper.
rendition of his standard � 'UFOs: a load I note with a quiet and condescending
of crap' to the Clerken"Well Metaphysical smile that the ever-so-sceptical Rogerson,
SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS
Magonia is available by ex­ Society, I expostulated violently upon his in his survey of 'abductions • fails to
change with other magazines, obvious ignorance of the subject. He mention the earliest British case, one I had
or by subscription at the fol­ reluctantly invited me to share my views a hand in investigating: that of Blodwyn
lowing rates for four issues: with his few remaining readers. Price, a 14-year-old schoolgirl who was
My own interest in matters paranormal abducted while walking along a Pembroke­
United Kingdom £4.00 dates from the time as an undergraduate at shire beach. There were many physical and
Europe £5.00 one of England's lesser-known seats of psychological after -effects, among which
United States $10.00
learning - St Enoch's University College, was this girl, whose previous main interest
Other countries £5.50
Tumham Green - when as a young striver had been her pony Carlos, developed a
after eternal truths I regularly met Charles passionate commitment to physics, at the
!:? USA subscriptions must
Fort in the Museum Tavern opposite the age of 16 writing a 200 page treatise which
be paid in dollar bills or UK
British Museum. Fort would keep the David Bohm called one of the unheralded
funds. We are unable to
accept cheques drawn on assembled literati (Virginia Woolf, Osbert works of genius in theoretical physics.
American banks. Sitwc14 P. G. Wodehouse, Noel Coward, The case was personally investigated by
Ivor Novella, etc) enthralled with droll Lord Dowding. I heard 'Stuffy• give a three
!:? French subscribers may anecdotes of the bizarre, few of which, with hour lecture on it at a meeting of the
find it easier and cheaper to the restraints of the day, "Were allowed into Tunbridge Wells UFO Society. I seem to
send us a 50-franc banknote his published works. recall a rather scruffy Aircraftman at the
rather than a money-order. One wonders how many seances meeting, rightly in awe at the presence of
We are happy to accept this. Rimmer has attended. I do so clearly his elders and betters- Harvey? Bamey?
remember how Sir Oliver Lodge poured Middleton-Smythe? Whatever.
!:? Cheques and money­ scorn on those sceptics who would not take Dowding also sent a more detailed
orders should be made pay­
the trouble to investigate! Oily was by no report to Lord Mountbatten. 'Batty', as he
able to 'John Rimmer', not
means the stuffy pedant of legend. I recall was known to his theatrical friends, was
'Magonia'.
the twinkle in his eye when he told how he absolutely fascinated by this subject. It is
All correspondence. subscript­ stumbled upon Freddy Myers a trois with not generally known that for many years he
ions and exchange magazines Eusapia Palladino and Eleanor Sidgwick - was one of the chief financial backers of
should be sent to the editor: one wonders how Rimmer would have Flying Saucer Review, along with APEN,
coped with Palladino's appetites! the Trilateral Commission, and the shadowy
John Rimmer
Speaking of the founders of the S.P.R, organisation behind Magonia. Its financial
John Dee Cottage
I often remember how, while eating Mrs affairs under its current Editor are, of
5 James Terrace
Pomfret•s doughnuts (or was it jammy course, of the utmost probity - I have the
Mortlake Churchyard
dodgers?) on Hastings Pier, Aleister honour of auditing the Review's accounts.
London, SW14 8HB
United Kingdom Crowley related the legend current in occult
circles that Gurney, Myers and Podmore In the next Desmond O'Connor
@ Magonfa Magazine 1 9 9 4 had all been murdered by the Freemasons Column: what Fabian of the Yard said
Copyright in signed articles rests with the
because they had discovered that A. J. about Satanism and the Royals.
authors.
MAGONIA 50

In part one of this article,

MARTIN KOTTMEYER
looked at the development of the
belief in "influencing machines"
controlling human behaviour as
expressed in the early literature
of ufology and the

:::::,1: :�o;x :s:

extraterrestrial mythos. Here he

alie na t in g
amine

..

a CI8S
C
ONTROL motifs also emerge as a central into the multi-faceted sombre satellite of the title. It is •49. SERIEL, Jerome,
Sub-Espace, Librairie
concept of J�ques Vallee's writings. Th�y a reality seeking to destroy our reality. Xarius
des Champs Elysees,
; . . .
; have an mterestmg history which has roots m Chimero presses a button and the dark satellite slides !975
. ,;,:; ,,_ his early science fiction. Subspace opens with from sight. The button activated the statues which
a50. SER!EL, Jerome,
strange appearances in the sky involving blue spirogires turned into young girls. Laughing, primitive girls will Le Satellite Sombre.
and black crosses, a 21st century UFO phenomenon, repopulate the galaxy and a sublime new order Denoel, 1962

which impressed images of catastrophe in the minds of transcending the now obliterated scientific utopia has
a51. VALLEE, Jacques,
those contacted by it. It transpires that the spirogires been created. (50) Anatomy of a
hail from the star Spica and involve intelligences who As a ufologist, Vallee makes no use of the Phenomenon, Ace
1966. VALLEE,
are part of subspace. This is a region of pure thought control motif in his first analyses of the UFO Jacques and Janine,
inhabited with the creations and monsters of the f
phenomenon, Anatomy o a Phenomenon (1965) and The UFO Eniyma,
Ballantine, !f/17.
imagination. Some dark thoughts seek to destroy the Challenge to Science (1966). In Passport to Magonia
VALLEE, Jacques,
linear continuum universe. Thanks to thoughts implant­ (1969) he sees disturbing resemblances between the Passport to Magonia,
ed into the unconscious of a protagonist by Erg-Aonians UFO phenomenon and the fairy faith of earlier cent­ Henry Regnery, 1969,
160
who inhabit this larger universe, a weapon is brought uries, implying a shared mythic basis. He entertains
into subspace. It's a cricket. The vibrations shatter the the possibility that superior intelligences are projecting a52. VALLEE, Jacques,

matrix in which the dark thoughts dwell. (49} The Invisible College:
creations into our environment as a pure form of art
What a Group of
The Dark Satellite opens with the invasion of seeking our puzzlement or as a way to teach us some Scientists has
our galaxy by a nonbeing something which encircles it concept. He immediately backs away from the notion Discovered about UFO
Influences on the
and causes all the races within it to become transfixed with an admission it hasn't a scientific leg to stand on Human Race, Dutton,
artists. The story turns to 22nd century Paris which is and offers an apology for showing "how quickly one 1975
the home of a great computer which oversees a utopia could be carried into pure fantasy". (51)
spanning the solar system. It is free of nation states and This �pure fantasy� becomes a major theory in
war. A little cylinder is found one day in the computer's The Invisible College (1975). Valle e compiled a plot of
imagination and threatens its breakdown. The cylinder UFO waves through history and their irregular spac­
causes a strange death of a human and people begin ing suggested to Fred Becjman and Dr Price-Williams
speculating that the cylinder wa-; created by the machine of UCLA a schedule of reinforcement designed to per­
at the promptings of machines from elsewhere with manently instill a behaviour. Vallee developed from
incomprehensible designs upon humanity or the great this observation the theory that UFOs represent a
machine - an influencing machine within an influencing control system of an undetermined nature. It could
machine as it were. To ferret out the mystery, tech­ simply involve social psychology, but it could also be
nicians enter the computer through another plane of the imposition of a supernatural will seeking to
reality. Adjusting its circuits they accidentally set it on confuse us and mould us and our civilisation by target­
fire. Destruction of the computer removes earth's pro­ ing our collective unconscious with a physical and
tection from an unsuspected mind ray. People are psychic technology. The book closes on a chilling
hYPnotised into building space ships which form a mass soliloquy wherein Vallee ponders stepping outside the
exodus into the sun. An iconoclastic mad-scientist type maze of the control system. Would he find some Love­
guy named Xarius Chimera protects one of the craftian horror, some well-meaning social engineers,
technicians from mind control and takes him on a or "the maddening simplicity of unattended clock­
journey to the centre of the universe:, distributing work?'" (52)
artistic sculptures as they go. At the centre, the two see Unfortunately the theory collapses with an
 MAGONIA 50

elementary fact. UFO experiences usually involve neg­ frenzies. Vallee's affirmations and denials about the
ative emotions and would yield aversive behaviour. They reality of UFOs have much the same puzzling flavour a5
would not reinforce learning. No value attaches to Deist affi.rmations and denials about the reality and
irregular stimuli in the converse hYPothesis of an nature of God. (58) Personally I think the similarities
unlearning curve. (53) bespeak shared intellectual predilections and not an
Messengers of Deception (1979) accepts as a given exposure to Deist literature. Frankly, he missed using
that control in the form of a machinery of mass manipu­ some of their better material he did read them. Before
•53. RUCH, Floyd L. lation exists behind the UFO phenomenon. Physical leaving Vallee, I would like to add one small irony.
and ZIMBARDO, Philip
devices are being used to affect human consciousness Vallee won the Jules Verne prize for his 1961 work
G., Psychology and
Life, Scott, Foresman and distort reality. Images and scenes are fabricated to Subspace. This could be viewed by behaviourists as
& Co., 1971
advance belief in an impending intervention from space. powerful reinforcement and could be said to explain his

•54. VALLEE, Jacques, The operators could be either a high-level international repeated return to ideas of mental control in his efforts.
Messengers of military group furthering some political goal or some He madly keeps pressing the lever hoping that big pellet
Deception: UFO
Contacts and Cults,
occult group which stumbled on a psychotronic tech­ will drop down again. He never got out of the maze.
And/Or, 1979 nology in their studies of astral travel or space-time Like Keel and Vallee, D. Scott Rogo's control
distortions. (54) theories extend through several books. This Haunted
•55. VALLEE, J.
Dimensions, Contem- Dimensions (1988) reprints material from the Universe (1977) was his first foray across the boundary
porary, 1988, 165
prior books and would not bear mentioning except for a of psychic research into ufology. His first impulse was
•56. VALLEE, J. silent concession that Vallc�e changed his mind about the to ascribe the psychic components of UFO events to a
Confrontations, external teacher idea being a pure fantasy. Those lines mysterious force within ourselves, but certain experi­
Ballantine, 1990, 131
were excised. (55) Confrontations (1990) contains a brief ences prove to him that evil can exist independently of
•57. ALEXANDER, the mind. The motif suddenly emerges: "UFOs
Brooks, "Machines
demonstrate that our world plays host to a
Made of Shadows",
SCP Journal, 17, �1-2 force that seeks to mystify us." (59) The
(1992), 9 usage here is brief, but significantly the
external influence arises to imply humans
•58. MANUEL, Frank.
E., T he Changing of are blameless for evil and mystification. He
the Gods, Brown
teams up with Jerome Clark for Earths
UniveNity Press, 1983
Secret Inhabitants. (1979) Both were facing
•59. ROGO, D. Scott, the psychological aspects of strange UFO
T his Haunted Universe,
cases and, so, concocted a notion they termed
Signet, 1977, 146
"The Phenomenon". It is a force or intelli­
•60. ROGO, D. Scott
gence somewhere in the universe which provides
and CLARK, Jerome,
Earth's Secret the evidence we seek for whatever it is we want to
Inhabitants, Tempo, believe in deeply. It does this by beaming projections
1979, 200
into our world. They aver it may be an automatic
•61. CLARK, Jerome, natural mechanism that acts "as routinely as a clock".
letter, 14 November
(60) Presumably unattended. Clark fell out of sympathy
1986
with control systems and collective unconscious con­
•62. ROGO, D. Scott, cepts as his thinking matured, but Rogo pressed forward
Tujunga Canyon
Contacts, Prentice­
with elaborations. (61)
Hall, 1980 In Miracles Rogo leaps ahead into the cosmic
s: A Parascientific
Inquiry into Wondrous · �-:�;, identity stage and redefines God. The supermind be­

:0:;�_',;_:.:.::�;: ;;�:-::-:;:=: ;-;;:�.

Phenomena, Dial, 1982 comes a spiritualistic realm which translates all religious,
.� shamanistic, and mythic ideologies egalitarianly into
•65. ROGO, D. Scott,
literal spiritual reality. The Phenomenon might be the
Tujunga Canyon
Contacts, Signet, 1989, suggestion that UFOs are windows into another reality source of the universe's creative energy and endows
315-21
possessing symbolic meaning. Like dreams they can be those properly attuned to it with great psychic powers.

•66. BOWEN, Charles ignored or shape our lives in inscrutable ways. There is This "God", however. would have to satisfy so many
(ed.), Encounter enough ambiguity to regard the notion as either a contradictory requests and opposing theologies that it
Cases from Flying
Saucer Review, Signet,
banality or a marginal idea of reference. (56) Revelations would wind up an incoherent mush. (64)
1977, 216 (1991) argues some UFO cases are covert experiments in Looking back on his theory in 1988, Rogo
the manipulation of belief systems, but here the proces­ considered it misunderstood and viable. Independent
•67. FRIEDMAN,
Stanton, "Flying ses are conventional ones of lies and rhetoric. The creation of a similar theory by Jenny Randles suggested
SauceN and Physics·, control system theory is reaffirmed in Forbidden Science to him he had probably been on the right track. Alter­
HUFON Symposium
(1992) with no further elaborations. natively, they both may have read Vallee and a standard
1914, UFORI, 13
Brooks Alexander has characterised Vallee's con­ text on dreams. (65)
•68. GREENFIELD,
cepts as "equal parts of Carl Jung and Report from Iron Besides our Top Three Control Theorists, there
Alien H., "Tenets of
Alternate Reality Mountain". (57) This is inadvertently scurrilous since the were a significant number of ufologists who offered vari ­
Theory" in Best of latter was a confessed hoax by political satirist Leonard ants on our theme. Some are well-known folks joining
Saucer Scoop, June
Lewin. An equal case could be made for roots in the the bandwagon; some are less known but have a
1975
writings of French or English Deists who had analogous different take. There is a steady stream of these ideas
•69. BECKLEY,
notions about how stimulating the emotions of wonder­ between '74 and '80. We will approach this set chrono­
Timothy Green, "Mind
Manipulation - The ment and advancing religious superstitions could be used logically rather than by status.
New UFO Terror to manipulate the masses. Not having behaviourist meta­ 1974: Charles Bowen, editorialising in Flying
Tactic", UFO Report,
Winter 1975, 31-33,
phors available they spoke of a "psychopathology of Saucer Review, asks if some or all UFO images and
56-65 enthusiasm" evident in individual fanatics and collective entities are projected into the mind by controlling
MAGONIA 5 0

powers and/or UFOs. The meaningless gibberish in mes­ colliding pulsed microwave beams and thus yield UFO
sages imply more than humans being treated as play­ crazes and mass anxiety neurosis. (84)
things; it may be an attempt to influence or remotely 1980: Frank Salisbury guesses UFO sightings
control humans. He cites C. Maxwell Cade as suggesting "are staged to manipulate us in preparation for contact,
170. "Psywar 1", Best
ultrahigh frequency radar beams can induce images in for directing our evolution, or to excite the gullible in
of Saucer Scoop, June
the brain. (66) Stanton Friedman suggests ufonauts could order to turn off those who are not gullible. (85) Colin 1975

broadcast telepathic signals that would make UFOs Wilson is inspired by Keel to theorise that the spirit
171. STEIGER, B.
appear to disappear. A microwave beam could jumble world vampirises energy from humans to achieve Gods of Aquarius, Har­
vision by means of a scotoma (67) temporary material existence. (86) J.N. Williamson court, Brace, 1976

1975: Alien H. Greenfield's Alternative Reality views UFO confrontations as a liberating of the right
172. STEIGER, B.
Theory accepts the premise that UFOs are "manipulat­ hemisphere of the brain. Did you ever notice how the Project Blue Book,

ing human history to its own ends". (68) Timothy Green brain sort of looks like a UFO? (87) Ballantine, 1976, 343

Beckley cites the cases of Paul Clark, Dr Morales, and 1981: Raymomd Fowler suggests ufonauts can 173. LORENZEN, C.
Hans Lauritzen to argue higher powers are systematic­ put people in suspended animation and control their and J. Abducted! Con­
frontations with
ally guiding human destiny and the course of human actions. (88) Beings from Outer
civilisation, if not by physical force, then by direct 1982: Jenny Randles argues that consciousness Space, Berkley
Medallion, 1977.
manipulation of human minds. (69) Joan Whritenour should logically be targeted as the medium of inter­
warns extraterrestrials engage in "mental rape" by the stellar communication. Their consciousness will act as 174. CLARK, Jerome,
"UFO Report Inter­
use of strobe-light-type machines which cause instant a radio telescope to beam messages into the complex
views Or James
hypnosis. (70) electro-chemical computer of the human mind by Harder", UFO Report,

1976: Brad Steiger suggests UFOs act as cosmic December 1977.

tutors using space beams. (71) They also influence the 175. WILSON, Robert
mind telepathically to project three-dimensional images. Anton, Cosmic Trigger,
Pocket, 1977, 25, 86
The purpose is "too staggeringly complex for our des­
perately throbbing brains to deal with at this moment in 176. PERSINGER, M.

time and space". (72) and LaFRENIERE, G.

Space-Time Trans­
1977: The Lorenzens accept that thoughts can be ients and Unusual
taken or absorbed. Abductees may have been program­ Events, Nelson-Hall,
1977
med with false information to mislead us. (73) lames
Harder terms this a multi=level cover-up. Abductees are 177. BOND, Bryce,
"lnterdimensional
made to look like fools by relaying messages filled with
UFOs., UFO Report,
garbage dredged up from their memories and imagin ­ November 1978.

ations at the behest of post-hypnotic suggestions. (74)

178. GATTI, Art, UFO
Robert Anton Wilson warns higher beings may be play­ Encounters of the 4th
ing head games with humans and using "mindfucking" Kind, Zebra, 1978, 190

technology. (75)
179. STEIGER, Brad,
Michael Persinger and Gyslaine LaFreniere set Alien MBtJtings, Ace,

forth a variant of the supermind termed "Geops�he". A 1978, 180

critical mass of believers form a matrix which· is ISO. HAINES, Richard,

energised by intense geophysical forces of nature. Epid­ STANTON FRIEDMAN: Suggested UFOs could broadcast UFO Phenomena and

emics of luminous signs, anomalous beasties of the . telepathic signal� which ma�e them seem to disappear the Behawoural
Scientist, Scarecrow,
nether realm, unusual kinetic displays, and religious 1979, 227

manias forbode earthquakes. A disturbing corollary to selecting ideograms out of . the subject's memory to
181. SPRINKLE, Leo,
this is the irrelevance and expendability of the individual form a holographic playlet. Amnesia results from
·
"What are the
under the sway of activated death instincts and uncon­ consciousness being shunted aside as the message Implications of UFO

scious archetypal forces. (76) program switches the mind to the right frequency. Experiences?·,
Journal of UFO
1978: Gordon Creighton fears UFOs influence Earth mystery sites act as aerials to pull in the Studies, 1, #1, 106

not only individuals, but governments and whole nations. messages thus explaining certain clusterings. (89) Hello
182. FOWLER,
(77) Art Gatti gravitates to the idea UFOs are mind Tralfamadore? Paul Devereux revamps the Geopsyche Raymond, T he
parasites or occult manipulation thought forms. (78) concept with the Earth Mother doing some planetary Andreasson Affair,
Prentice-Hall, 1979,
Brad Steiger suggests aliens may have programmed dreaming and shaping earthlight ectoplasm into UFO
203
humans as automatons ·and judas goats to lead their displays. (90)
fellow humans into servitude. (79) The control motif is harder to find for the next 183. GUERIN, Pierre,
"Thirty Years after
1979: Leo Sprinkle offers the "Cosmic Conscious­ few years. Budd Hopkins flirts with such notions in Kenneth Amold: The
ness Conditioning Hypothesis" which includes the prem­ his books, but we don't really see a clear advocacy Situation regarding
UFOs", Zetetic Scho­
ise that UFO intelligences choose witnesses for until the premier issue of his Intn.ul.ers Foundation
lar, #5 (1979), 46-47
illumination. (80) James E. Frazier suggests they implant bulletin. Hopkins notes that in abduction experiences
knowledge in contactees and monitor them by tensor the victim never seems embarrass ed about nudity. This 184. POSSONY, Stefan
T. "Mind-Control and
beam communication and repeat abductions. (81) Ray­ observation eliminates all blanket psychological explan­ Microwaves", Second
mond Fowler believes Betty Andreasson is primed ations of abductions and provides powerful evidence Look, Nov.-Dec. 1979,
18-20
subconsciously with extraterrestrial knowledge. She feels of an "externally caused trance-like experience" endem­
like a 1oaded bomb". They may be interstellar mission­ ic to the alien abduction process. (91) I remember after 185. SALISBURY,
aries for conditioning in preparation of Overt Contact. reading this I leaned over slightly and slipped my copy Frank, ·Are UFOs from
Outer Space?", in
(82) Pierre Guerin speculates that the repetitious char­ of Freud's Interpretation of Dreams out of the book­ FULLER, Curtis, Pro­
acter of UFOs is meant to create "a pernicious and case and in less than a minute was reading: "Dreams ceedings of the First

stupefying wave of religious credulity". (83) Stefan T. of being naked or insufficiently dressed in the presence International UFO
Congress, Warner,
Possony suggests Russia can create semi-stable UFOs via of strangers sometimes occur with the additional 1980, 117-20
 MAGONIA 60

feature of there being a complete absence as any such E vagrius of Pontus expressed belief in the idea that the
feeling as shame on the dreamer's part." (92) I grant no­ Devil and his demons sometimes send dreams and hal­
body is obliged to be up on Freud any more, but where lucinations to frighten monks. Though they cannot
are those psychologists we are supposed to be so impres­ enter souls, they could, by working on the brain,
sed with helping out? Hopkins' use of an influencing suggest images, fantasies, fears and temptations. (99)
•86. WILSON, Colin, machine fantasy to defend the blameless normality of the Beliefs in spirit possession extend similar ideas into
Mysteries, Perigee, abduction experience and to disown its bizarre dream­ unchronicled antiquity.
1980, 547-64
logic aspects to the aliens is standard behaviour. Hilary Evans has added a few common-sense
•87. WILLIAMSON, J. Randles offers some elaborations on her theory objections to these control theories. Why, with all of
N., "UFOs are
in Abduction and Mind Monsters with Sheldrake's M­ humanity to choose from, have the claims of influence
Changing the Way we
Think", Pursuit, 13, 112, field thrown in to update the semblance of scientific involved low-status individuals? Why not heads of state,
76-78 patter. David Barclay's revamping of Keel uses cyber­ financiers, scientists, educators, movie stars; i.e. people
speak in its patter with Virtual Reality used to make the with true power and influence to get things done and
•BB. FOWLER, Ray­
mood E., Casebook of universe into "God's Little Arcade". Kenneth Ring offers spread one's messages? Why, with such powers at their
a UFO Investigator, disposal, do they deploy them in haphazard, ambiguous
a New Age variant involving Mind-at-Large. (93)
Prentice-Hall, 1981,
163 Martin Cannon's "Controllers" can be viewed as a ways like puzzling UFO visions? If you had an influen­
Nineties variant of Leon Davidson's CIA hoax theory or, cing machine, would you use it for such things as abduc­
•90. RANDLES, Jenny,
more properly, a return of the zombie assassin, a recur­ tion experiences or would you have a millionaire
The Pennine UFO
Mystery, Granada, rent spy fiction plot gimmick. Strieber's talk of ELF shower you with gifts, make your enemies grovel at
1983, chapter 17
waves as an external control or perception implant your feet. and mess with minds of leaders in the sernce
•91. HOPKINS, Budd, modality involving either advanced technology or the of world peace and prosperity? UFO experiences make
"Patterns of UFO earth itself is an evident recall of research he did for his more sense as idiosyncratic psychodramas. {100) If
Abductions, Part 1", IF,
1, 111 (Fall1989), 10-11
own spy novel Black Magic. The third volume of The abductees are normal people, that may be the most
Matrix series purportedly delves into the chemical and · damning fact of all, that there are no powerful aliens
•92. FREUD, Sigmund,
biological manipulation of humans but I was unwilling behind the UFO phenomenon.
The Interpretation of
Dreams, Avon, 1965, to waste $55 to conform it. (94) Ufologists have always asserted that UFO report­
275 Ideas of reference and influencing machine fantas­ ers are sincere and trustworthy observers and therefore
ies are continuing to appear but seem to be decreasing we should believe them. Flying saucers are real - QED.
•93. BARCLAY, David,
UFOs - The Final in prominence and frequency. The decrease probably Take away that syllogism and ufologists are pretty much
Answer, Blandford,
had little to do with any criticism of this style of theor­ out of a job. As the years have passed, ufologists had
1993, 172-190.
KOTTMEYER, Martin, ising, though John Michell feared the basic idea was increasingly found themselves with a dilemma. Some
"The Omega over fanciful and suffered from the flaw that it imputes high-strangeness cases have features which cannot be
Projection", REALL
News, 1, �9 (October
human ambitions for power to a race presumably super­ true, but the claimants are sincere and honest: they
1993), 5-6 ior to, and certainly different from, ourselves. (95) Dom­ can't be crazy. Influencing machines resolve the dilem­
inance behaviour has a genetic logic which should make ma. It's not their fault they are reporting these things;
•94. CANNON, Martin,
"The Controllers: A it a common adaptation all over. But. in that case, why aliens, the CIA, the superspectrum, the Phenomenon,
New Hypothesis of don't they dominate in the usual way? Take over, blow occultists, are to blame. The psychology is simple and
Alien Abductions",
manuscript for
us away, and leave a few to kick around and laugh at. transparent because the logic is easily recognised. It is .
researchers only, Ernst Berger lamented control notions signalled a the logic of madness.
September 1989.
new age of darkness being foisted by UFO spiritists. The Specifically, the logic of paranoia in the project­
STRIEBER, Whitley,
Communion, Avon, fear of external manipulators seemed to him "a projec­ ion stage is what we have here. Nestled between the
1987, 98-99 tion of their own fearful way of thinking into our hy-pochondria of the Sixties and the conspiracies of the

•95. MICHELL, op. cit.

restless reality". (96) Succinct and valid. Kevin McClure's late Eighties and early Nineties, they form a natural
review of control motifs in our Top Three correctly stage in the history of ufology. These control theories
•96. BERGER, Emst,
understood there were ways "to offioad responsibility" to are yet another indictment of ufology's blindness. Man's
"The Dark Side of the
UFO", Pursuit, 14, Ill more deeply explore anomalous phenomena. Such study fancies will never be controlled by science.
(1981), 2-5 he felt would lead us to conclude there was "some recur­ There is a dramatic appeal to these concepts

•97. McCLURE, Kevin,

rent quirk in human nature" beneath belief in UFOs and which makes the UFO literature an intriguing place to
"Semaphore Without anomalous phenomena. Exactly, but who wants to say dwell in and that is a plus I can't gainsay with convic­
Flags: A Critical
their friends and themselves are quirky? Expressing a tion for I doubt I ever read ufology for its scientific
Analysis of the UFO
Control-System distaste for the proliferation of conspiracies and the elev­ value in the first place. I enjoyed it for much the same
Theory", Common ation of paranoia in our top theorists, he proclaims it reasons I loved those old Fifties alien invasion movies:
Ground, 112 (August
1981). 25-31
isn't cricket to evade our responsibilities to be objective the wonder of the new, the thrill of the Other, and a
98. COHEN, Daniel, by blaming external agents for our mistakes, intentions, dark ambience. They were a bit silly, too, when you
Voodoo, Devils and
decisions, and achievements. (9n bothered to think about them, but you accept you are
the New Invisible
World, Dodd, Mead, Daniel Cohen places notions of alien control in a supposed to suspend disbelief and reason to appreciate
1972, 108-36 wider historical context with ancient fears like those that them. I wonder at times if ufology doesn't ask to be

•99. WEST, Robert H.,

fuelled witchcraft belief. The 17th century had Cotton judged by the same standards as these movies. The
Milton and the Angels, Mather's The Wonders of the Invisible World and we canons of science don't really seem to be an appropriate
University of Georgia,
have Keel's invisible world of ultraterrestrials. (98) The gauge since UFO belief is hopelessly wrapped up in
1955, 58. RUSSEL� J.
B., Satan. The Early idea of a historical continuum can be taken much far­ mythological fascinations. Control theories seem benign
Christian Tradition, ther. Angelologists Henry Lawrence and Isaac Ambrose for the most part, letting people indulge in fantasies and
Comell University
Press, 1981, 170-81
in the 17th century believed angels engaged in a type of psychological games without heavy accusations of ab­
secret suggesting which depended on the ability to normality. The cost of autonomy lost or some measure
•100. EVANS, Hilary,
handle the humours and control man's fancies internally of estrangement from reality and humanity is probably
"The Ultimate Myth",
The Wild Places, 111 by tempting, troubling, inspiring, or soothing him. As not felt as tragic. Free will carries responsibilities we
(September 1990), 1-8. early as the 4th century, the theologians Athanasius and may prefer to do without. Better a puppet than a fooL• •
 8:/� �@\1@(?
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�creen •

memor1es

Peter
Brookesmith

· ·� HE alleged sighting of a 'mystery missile' over the beneath whose smiling face and genial banter lies the 01. GOOD ,
· . • I: Kent coast in April 1991 seems to be acquiring blackest of hearts. Timothy, The UFO
Report 1992,
minor mythic status. It was given a fairly detailed Visually Challenged Sldgwlck &
treatment in Timothy Good's UFO Report 1992 [1);
This is what Good's report says in essence: Jaokson, 1 9 9 1 , pp
Good's account was based on reports in the Sunday 1 48-9
At 2100 hrs on 21 April 1991, Captain Achille
Times (5 May 1991), the Independent and The Times
Zaghetti, flying an Alitalia McDonnell-Douglas MD-80
(both 6 May 1991). The 'case' cropped up again in Jenny 02. RANDLES,
at 6700 metres altitude en route from Milan to London Jenny. The
Randles' The Paranormal Year 1993 [2] as a way of shoe­
over Lydd, Kent, saw a missile, light brown in colour Paranormal Year
homing in some more recent near-misses between
and 3 metres long, flying in the opposite direction 300 1993 Edition,
aircraft and UFOs. In passing, Randles remarks that for
metres above the airliner. Simultaneously [sic], a faint Robert Hale,
a time the story was 'hushed up'. But of course, 1 9 93, pp 1 5
radar image was detected 16 kilometres behind the
naturally. With this extra bit of spice the tale could well
aircraft at London Air Traffic Control Centre, West
start making regular appearances in the histories. It
Drayton.
shouldn't.
I'll come back to that tricky work 'simultan­
To begin with it shows what hopeless bullshit­ eously'. But if one infers (as I think it is reasonable)
detectors both Fleet Street hacks and soi-disant ufolog­ that London ATC reported this image simultaneously
ists have. Assuming that Good's references are his only with the pilot ending his report of his sighting, and if
sources, it's clear that neither the hacks nor he too any one assumes the image to be the 'missile', then one can
time to think about what the report really means. And make some not too unreasonable further assumptions to
therefore, it would seem, no one else has either, since calculate the speed of the UFO.
Randles, who usually proffers qualifications to dodgy An airliner crossing the Kent coast for London
claims when she knows about them, retails it apparently at 6700 metres has already begun its descent to its
uncritically. ( This is surprising, and a pity, for one who destination. Its speed is very unlikely to exceed 650
in the same book very neatly puts the kybosh on the km/h; around 550 km/h is more likely. If we assume
'Williamsport Triangle' sighting.) In the second place, this latter was the plane's speed, and reckon it would
thus, it shows how unreliable second- and third-hand take at least 30 seconds for the pilot to react to his
UFO reports can be. Yet this is about the stage at which sighting, get on the horn, and get a reading from
(as in these two books) they reach Joe Public - who London ATC radar, then it's obvious that in that 30
perhaps believes them - and cryptocurmudgeons like me, seconds the plane has travelled nearly 4.6 km and the
 MAGONIA 50

UFO a little over 11.4 km. This gives us the UFO's speed Missile with snowflakes
as 1368 km/h. Likewise it gives a speed of separation, Here are some other bits of chopped logic.
and combined speed of approach of 1918 km/h. For the Good offers us some inconclusive chatter about
sake of the argument I am going to round this down to target drones and whether or not this object was such a
1900 km/h and up to 530 m/sec. one. Good's logic, which devotees of his continuing saga
Capt. Zaghetti estimated that the UFO was 3m. about Dreamland etc will know is not his strongest
long and 300 metres above his plane. If this means what point, leads him to say: ''This would seem to be the
common sense would suggest, the UFO was flying at explanation, since the incident occurred almost directly
7000 metres altitude. Side on, a missile 3 metres long above Lydd Ranges09• The nonsense in that ought to be
and 300 metres away would appear to the pilot the same obvious. And, besides, Lydd (as Good actually admits) is
size as a slim 10-mm strip of paper pasted on his wind­ a small-arms range. If Good had ever had to know the
screen. I will call this the apparent size (not very difference between a puttee and an entrenching tool,
scientific, but I hope it is more understandable that sub­ he'd know how hard it is to get anything larger than a
tended angles, etc.). section support weapon on to such premises, let alone
If two objects, one 3 metres across, are approach­ fire it. Good is also unaware of how bureaucratic the
ing each other at a combined speed of 530 m/sec and military is about firings of any kind. This is largely
are flying parallel courses 300 metres apart (and this is because they are very mean and don't like spending
being kind, as we'll see), then it's simple to calculate that money on ammunition.
when they are 4 seconds flying time apart, the 3-metre Good quote an MoD spokesman saying their
wide object has an apparent width of only 1.4 mm; at 3 drones fly at about 400 mph (i.e. about 600 km/h); and
seconds, 1.85 mm; at 2 seconds Gust over a kilometre Good, albeit surreptitiously as well as in the face of
apart), 2.7 mm, and at I second, 4.92 mm. A second evidence, favours the 'rogue missile' explanation. Unless
later it's whizzed overhead and out of sight. it took Zaghetti an implausibly long time to raise
London ATC, at this speed the radar image they had
could not possibly be of such a drone. At 640 km/h it

If ufologists can make such a would have taken just over 64 seconds to cover 11.4 km.
No one seems to have picked up the startling
fact that any object flashing by at 1368 km/h a mere 300
pig's ear of reporting a metres away would make a bloody loud bang because of
the atmospheric effect of its supersonic speed - loud
enough to be heard inside the aircraft (after all you can
minor case like this, what hear artillery shells going overhead from inside a
moving bus) and probably on the ground as well. No

grounds do we have for

one mentions a sonic boom at all. Perhaps your
ufologists thought that we'd all be sidetracked by
notions of inter-dimensional shape-shifting superior

trusting their accounts when

technology (''This is a UFO report, you fool!") and
forget that they were siding with a mundane, prosaic
missile. More probably, they didn't think very hard

it comes to the real biggies? about what they were saying at all.

Screen Memories
Now, as for the radar. I've already made some assump­
tions about the radar echo, but in reality the
This is a very small object to notice, track, and
information Good gives is virtually useless. What can be
estimate its size and distance- is such a short time. Capt.
said (although our intrepid reporters don't bother to
Zaghetti did even better. he managed to see its colour!
reassure us skeptics on this) is that the L-band radar
However, the apparent length of a missile as opposed to
used by ATC certainly could pick up such a missile
a cube or sphere would actually be considerably smaller
unless it were very slim indeed: the wavelength is about
if it were flying on a parallel track to the plane, because
300 mm, plenty short enough to bounce of an object
of foreshortening, whose effect increases dramatically
ten times as long.
with distance. (Even if I could remember the trigo­
nometry, I don't have my book of tables, but someone The first thing to pick at, like a nit, in Good's
else might like to work out what I'm calling the version is that word 'simultaneously'. It is a prime sign
apparent size at the distances given). of lousy reporting. If Capt. Zaghetti saw the UFO 300
And there are other problems. Zaghetti's field of metres above him literally at the same time as London
view was probably no more that 45 degrees from the ATC picked up a radar echo 16 km behind him, then we
horizontal. This gives him even less time to observe the are dealing with two separate events. And then the case
UFO close up as it would have gone out of sight when it falls and flattens its pointy little head as a radar/visual -
was within about 300 metres of the plane. And what that's plain enough.
reference points did he have in the sky by which to We're not told (did anyone ask?) for how long
judge the size and distance of such a thing? It could London ATC had this image on screen, or what it's
have been much smaller than 3 metres, and much nearer route was. There's no security reason why anyone
(a bird? a toy balloon? a liberated shirt?) or much should not be allo\Ved to see the radar tapes of the
bigger (you name it) and much further away. And then event at West Drayton. there may be bureaucratic panic
suppose the missile was travelling parallel to the horizon, at the thought of letting the plebs in, but even hat can
while the plane was (as it was) descending. That will be overcome with patience and determination. No one
distort estimates of size, altitude and speed even more. seems to have revie\Ved the radar tapes. I apologise if
MAGON I A 50

they have - but if they have why don't Good and 'The Kent missile was tracked briefly by radar
Handles report it, and what they saw? Do the tapes at Heathrow airport but whilst attempts were made
record the UFO approaching the Alitalia flight and (and abandoned) to prove it was a rogue missile
shooting past it? If they don't there not much chance of launch from a military unit the story was hushed up.
telling if it was the same UFO Zaghetti saw. Indeed, news of the story only emerged when the
Even the tapes can't tell us what altitude the crew talked about it back in Italy some weeks later
UFO was at, except in the unlikely event that it was and the Ministry of Defence in London had to cand­
putting out its own IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) signal - idly admit that it was labelled "a UFO". The Civil
which in civil airliners encodes the aircraft's altitude. Aviation Authority have since confirmed that this diag­
3. RAN DL E S , Jenny,
And if London ATC picked it up, why didn't the Alitalia nosis still applies' [3] This summary does not answer
loo. clt. Note this
MD-80 have it on its own screens, close as it supposedly the following questions: author's amusing
was? No one says. Because no one asked. We may have 1. Who was trying to prove the rogue missile way with split
a visual UFO, but until someone does ask the right hYPothesis? i nfi n i tives, misuse
questions and does look at the ATC tapes, we don't have 2. Why were the attempts abandoned (I wonder)? of the word 'only ' ,
even the makings, as reported, of a radar-visual. 3. How do you "hush up" a story that hasn't broken? a n d preciositles
like 'whilst'.
But we do have some pretty incompetent report­ 4. What evidence is there for an attempted 'cover up'?
Almost as much fu n
ers. And, because they are not applying any critical 5. When did ufologists get involved? as Magonia 's
thought to what they read and repeat, they do not only 6. What exactly did the MoD and the CAA call •a whimsically
their readers, but also themselves as promoters of one UFO' - the radar returns, Capt. Zaghetti's alleged patrician house
kind of UFO belief-system or other, a disservice. sighting, or both? style, which
Another way to describe their ineptitude is to say: they 7. What were the weather conditions, visibility, etc at remorsely [s/o, Ed.]
eschews the
don't even know how to protect themselves from the altitude of the aircraft?
lower orders' habit
skeptics. Randles gives the impression here that an investigation, of writing u pper
If ufologists can make such a pig's ear of by persons unknown, was going on before the crew case i nitials after a
reporting a minor case like this , what grounds do we blew the gaffe in Italy. Good gives the impression that full point. this is a
have for trusting their accounts when it comes to the fearless journalists besieged the MoD only after this. sure sign of a
real biggies? Why this divergence in accounts? What really classical education,
readi ng too much
happened?
Don't confuse me with the facts Jullus Caesar
Unarmed with the information these accounts I nstead of Knave by
If skeptics are the idle, feckless, chair-bound characters don't provide, I would hazard a guess that the crew - bicycle lamplight
demonized by the Thirty Nine Articles of the Ufological safe from men in black in Italy (give or take the per­ under the
Church of St Ananias and the Cosmic Martyrs, then I manent fancy dress party at the Vatican) - knew about bedc l othes, etc.
must admit to being one. I was welded into an armchair the radar UFO, knew the return was consistent with a
at the age of nine and I leave my drawing-room only very small object, and decided to put someone on, just
with the greatest reluctance, usually under threat of fer the crack, like.
some exquisite torture, such as having my ·collection of How can I be so bold? Because I have one last
'61 Latour and '59 d'Yquem summarily donated to reason for suspecting that there may not even have
Oxfam. If ufologists did their work properly and wrote been much of a visual sighting, let alone a half-baked
their accounts clearly, one might be persuaded some­ . radar-visual, in this instance. the Sun set at about
times to drag oneself from the Jauteuil and draw the 2000 BST on 2 1 April 1991 (as it does on most 2 1
damascene aside momentarily to glimpse the night sky, Aprils). EveJl a t 6700 metres altitude, that makes for a
despite risking accusations of vulgarity (one would never pretty thick gloaming by 2100. Yet Capt. Zaghetti saw
do it in front of the seiVants). a tiny object iii the near-dark, identified its colour, and Special than ks to
What am I on about? [ Tes, get on with it] Well, estimated ·its size and distance, and. . . Oh, come on Colln Moora for
take Randles' account of the Kent sighting. It is a master­ Captain, fly me to the moon. assistance a nd
piece of opacity, lack of detail and incipient confusion: I know you·ve got it in you! ••• I nformation.

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