A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

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Recall for a moment the three phases of close encounter, one of the primary organizing structures of mainstream ufology. The first includes cases in which a craft is viewed from a distance of less than 500 feet—visual verification of the craft’s presence. The second concerns cases in which the craft exerts some physical effect on the witness or the witnesses’ environment—physical verification of the craft’s presence. An interaction of a sort takes place here but one that exists on a purely physical plane. Close encounters of the third kind concern sightings in which the human percipient establishes visual contact with the occupants of a craft. Here we reach the threshold of potential communication between human and extraterrestrial. A witness sees the occupants of a craft and ostensibly the occupant sees the witness as well. Beyond the threshold of this seeing and being seen we might find contact in the sense thus far understood in the iterations of the displaced utopian imaginary discussed in this dissertation—the exchange of meaningful communication. But the rubric of close encounters extends only to this threshold, not beyond it. Beyond the threshold of close encounters of the third kind we find ourselves again in the realms of meaning traversed by the displaced utopian imaginary. At the very point of physical contact between human and extraterrestrial, questions about physical presence give way to much messier questions of meaning. Once contact beyond visual apprehension begins—the purely physical world of the object shades over into the world of the subject, and thus beyond pure action and reaction (moments largely measurable and explicable) into questions of volition and intent. What is the purpose of the craft’s visitation? What are the intentions of its occupants? What is the nature of the relationship between visitor and human? The communication between human and extraterrestrial that played out in the context of earlier iterations of the displaced utopian imaginary was different from that which occured in the 171
abduction scenario in a variety of ways. The fact that the latter mode of communication between human and extraterrestrial is coercive is the most obvious difference. In the cases thus far discussed, the human interlocutors have been willing participants in communication. Increasing levels of paranoia regarding the intentions of the extraterrestrials is another related hallmark of the displaced utopian imaginary in the age of abduction. Clearly, if humans are being taken against their will, the beneficence of their abductors’ intentions is open to question. The displaced utopian imaginary’s dystopian doppelganger emerges in full force in the abduction scenario. All of these shifts will be treated at greater length over the remainder of the chapter. But first, let us return to the case of Betty and Barney Hill—the first widely discussed instance of abduction. In September of 1961, some two months after their otherworldly experience, the Hills met with Robert Hohmann, C.D. Jackson (both employees of an unnamed electronics firm: the former as a technical writer and the latter as a senior engineer and members of the National Investigations Committer on Aerial Phenomena (N.I.C.A.P.)) at the latter’s’ request. The Hill case first appeared on the radar as a close encounter within the realm of mainstream ufology rather than as abduction. It was during this N.I.C.A.P. meeting that Betty and Barney realized that there was a two hour-plus period that was not accounted for in their memories of the trip. Missing time was to become a hallmark of the abduction experience. Barney recalled, 257 Fuller, 45-46. and while they were here they were mentally reconstructing the whole trip. One of them said ‘what took you so long to get home?’ They said ‘look, you went this distance and it took you these hours. Where were you?’ Well, when they said this, I really thought I was going to crack up. I got terrified and I even put my head on the table... I was baffled as to what the reason was for us leaving Colebrook at 10:05 pm and arriving back here at dawn, somewhere around 5 am - nearly seven hours instead of less than four. Even if I allowed more time than I know we took at those roadside stops, there still were at least two hours missing out of that night’s trip.” 257 172
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The Extraterrestrial in US Culture
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The Extraterrestrial in US Culture
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III. Chapter 2: Contact…………
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oth in their rich and bizarre detai
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Fukuyama also describes the histori
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and belonging that are native to th
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modernity, Weber stressed over and
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While positivism would emerge as th
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figure that serves as a medium betw
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sources of Spiritualism, Swedenborg
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The series of moments and discourse
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estful comprehension. It straddles
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The second chapter examines the eme
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Ch.1 The Dead INTRODUCTION Since th
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sense this dream of perfected commu
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political registers as well. This c
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In the late eighteenth century, Mes
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inverted form) along which the unde
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consciousness that is highly mobile
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up the process of thinking”. 38 S
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umor - and irony - would have it, w
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sense that Swedenborg’s researche
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Spiritualist movement, whose medium
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minded, loves to roam in the woods
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etween humans and God as unthinkabl
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esearches was a tailor by the name
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concerns and from the fact that the
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simultaneously in the world of the
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which God has revealed to them and
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assessed the Fox sisters as the “
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each in turn Lockwood elaborated hi
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as miraculous or supernatural? 85 T
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hearts of men to help their brother
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the corrupting influence of the wor
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All manner of proscribed activities
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dawn of a new era, and you must not
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qualities the coarser and heavier t
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full of mischief as any child in th
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keynote in public (and much of the
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masculine traits), the figure of th
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The first was that all world religi
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space brother religion, The Great I
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and the menopauses.” 141 A genera
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Ch.2 Contact INTRODUCTION Contact w
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as spiritual aspirations embodied.
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magazine, the latter edited by icon
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featured female characters who were
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keeping with the recurring integrat
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harmony with the universe (“if yo
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world were still struggling to asce
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hermetic credo as above, so below,
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insistence on the survival of the i
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evolutionary nomenclature of the co
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Pelley exhibited a variety of trait
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Chelas, which in the Hindu traditio
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the Theosophical Society along with
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Ballard was told during his initial
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Masters. Members of the I Am Ascend
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operative in most later “space-br
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promises of evolutionary progress h
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such as St. Germain could make thei
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Ch. 3 The Saucer INTRODUCTION The t
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Page 145 and 146: DOROTHY MARTIN While ufology began
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esultant exposure to the Real. The
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understood moorings, left to drift
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desired utopian state. The Others c
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were, more or less, ascended master
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Reports back from the spirit realm
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generally silent, but when they do
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to narrative structural positionali
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sensibilities, though one that woul
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of full transparency between interl
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Aber, W.W. “A Guide
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_____. “Adamski, George (1891-196
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_____. Discipline and Punish: the B
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_____. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan
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_____. Something about Soulcraft. N
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Streiber, Whitley and Anne, ed. The
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