extraordinary%20encounters

i t a ry in the early 1950s, he wandered the
East and wrote his first book, Ja d o o ( 1 9 5 7 ) ,
on his adve n t u res and observations. He
w rote that while in the Himalayas, he saw
the yeti (“abominable snow m a n”), a beast he
would come to think of as a “d e m o n”
( C h o rv i n s k y, 1990). In the 1960s, he emb
a rked full time on investigations of UFOs ,
men in black, monsters (including Mo t hman,
an eerie winged humanlike cre a t u re
with which Ke e l’s name would fore ver after
be associated), contactees, and more. He
e ven re p o rted having his own encounters
with unearthly entities. Borrowing from California
occult theorist N. Meade Layne, Ke e l
became convinced that there are no visiting
e x t r a t e r restrials, only shape-changing supernatural
beings “composed of energy from the
upper frequencies of the electro - m a g n e t i c
s p e c t rum. So m e h ow they can descend to the
n a r row (ve ry narrow) range of visible light
and can be manipulated into any desirable
f o r m . . . . Once they have completed their
m i s s i o n . . . they . . . re ve rt to an energy state
and disappear from our field of vision—fore
ve r” (Keel, 1969).
Though dismissed by some as a crank, Keel
has been an influential theorist in some ufological
and Fortean circles. His critics have
charged him with careless writing and
credulity, but his admirers prefer to think of
him as a bold, even outrageous, iconoclast.
See Also: Contactees; Men in black; Mothman; Ultraterrestrials
Further Reading
Chorvinsky, Mark, 1990. “Cryptozoo Conversation
with John A. Keel.” Strange Magazine 5: 35–40.
Clark, Jerome, 1997. Spacemen, Demons, and Con -
spiracies: The Evolution of UFO Hypotheses.
Mount Rainier, MD: Fund for UFO Research.
Keel, John A., 1970. UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse.
New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
———, 1971. Our Haunted Planet. Greenwich, CT:
Fawcett Publications.
———, 1975. The Eighth Tower. New York: Saturday
Review Press/E. P. Dutton and Company.
———, 1975. The Mothman Pro p h e c i e s . New Yo rk :
Sa t u rday Re v i ew Press/E. P. Dutton and Company.
———, 1988. Disneyland of the Gods. New York:
Amok Press.
Kihief 143
———, 1969. “The Principle of Transmogrification.”
Flying Saucer Review 15, 4 (July/August):
27–28, 31.
Khauga
Khauga is a “Celestial Being” whom William
Ferguson met in an out-of-body state while
meditating on the evening of January 12,
1947. Traveling at the “speed of consciousness,”
he found himself on Mars within ten
seconds. Khauga met him on his arrival, remarking
that he had something to say about
“the observations that we have made of your
planet.” He also wanted Ferguson to pass on
some messages to his fellow earthlings.
According to Khauga, a great network of
canals covers the planet. Electromagnetic
fields enclose its cities. Martians themselves,
all of whom have red hair, red complexions,
and broad features, float through the air via
levitation. They are a foot shorter than the
typical Earth person. Khauga expressed incredulity
that human beings kill each other in
battles. Martians, he said, are twenty thousand
years ahead of earthlings in spiritual evolution
and scientific development. Concerned
about the state of affairs on our planet, the
Martians had decided to “release positive energy
particles into the earth’s atmosphere . . .
to counteract the negative energy particles
that man himself has released” (Ferguson,
1954). Khauga asked Ferguson to assure the
people of Earth that things would soon be
much better in their world.
See Also: Allingham’s Martian; Aurora Martian;
Brown’s Martians; Dentons’s Martians and Venusians;
Hopkins’s Martians; Martian bees; Mince-
Pie Martians; Muller’s Martians; Shaw’s Martians;
Smead’s Martians; Wilcox’s Martians
Further Reading
Ferguson, William, 1954. My Trip to Mars. Potomac,
MD: Cosmic Study Center.
Kihief
Kihief was the spirit guide to the late Francie
Paschal Steiger, who with her then-husband,
Brad Steiger, spearheaded the Star People