Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact - Above Top Secret

me undeniable) and as psychic devices whose exact properties remain to be defined. As a focus forpsychic phenomena, the UFO evokes a deep emotional reaction in the viewer, but logicaldevelopment of an investigation is prevented – or precluded – by the apparent violations ofcausality that surround it and by the sociological climate that is created. Scientists may be willing tointerview witnesses who have seen a landed craft, but they may not wish to talk with the witnesses.Or a witness may offer as "proof" of his experience a couple of pancakes given to him byextraterrestrials, or a recitation of meaningless messages, or a story of sexual contact with a beingfrom outer space. Pursuit of the rational study of the case is discouraged. The lurid aspects of manysuch stories make their serious examination improbable, and this in turn reinforces the role of therumors as secret folklore, rich in new images.The Next Form of ReligionIn the course of twenty-five years of investigation into paranormal phenomena one hears manystories. In the past, I have only published those stories I could authenticate or that I felt met basiccriteria of reliability. Beyond these cases, however, a certain number of consistent rumors play arole in the unfolding of the total myth. They involve stories of contact between humans and allegedvisitors residing on earth. Some of the descriptions are extremely detailed and have involvedscientists as witnesses. Some of the humans associated with the cases are said to have eventuallydisappeared. A spectrum of experience runs from abduction or contact to the close encounter, to theexposure of humanoids, and, finally, to the reports of aliens among us. I have spent hours with Bettyand Barney Hill and have had a chance to discuss the case of their abduction with Dr. Simon. I havespoken at lenght to other abductees like Travis Walton and Herb Schirmer. I have also becomeacquainted with the stories of people who said they had paranormal faculties and claimed to derivethem from UFO contact.What interests me is not the likelihood of such a contact but the fact that a subculture now exists inevery country, based on the idea that humanity has a higher destiny. You will find people in remotetowns of California who have literally dropped out of city life (where they had held responsiblepositions and enjoyed good salaries) because they had recieved messages from space instructingthem to do so. Many of the people I am referring to are middle-aged, have families, and worksteady jobs. They would be regarded as perfectly ordinary folks if it were not for the fact that theirlives have been changed by what they consider to be genuine extraterrestrial communications. Theywait. And, a curious fact in the current state of the world, they seem perfectly happy. We couldcategorize them among the victims of city pressures who have sought the psychological comfort ofsmall-town life. But we might also wonder whether they are not the forerunners of a new spiritualmovement. Are we slipping, as Aime Michel has warned, toward a new age of the irrational?I know a man who left Los Angeles with his family after a message he believes came from anotherplanet instructed him to find an isolated spot and live in semiretirement, "providing a center ofpeace in the world of intense turmoil that was to come." He now lives with his wife in a smallmountain village, has no television set, reads avidly, and awaits further instructions. He is one of thehappiest old people I have met in the United States, a country where one does not find too manyhappy old people. We are not here dealing with escapism – we are dealing with the next form ofreligion, with a new spiritual movement.Why bring all this into the open? Because flying saucers, real or not as objects, clearly introduce acentral element in an already troubled future landscape. It would be overly optimistic to predict thatthey will decrease its dangers. It is nonetheless interesting to ask what will happen to ourcivilization if the next step in the development of the phenomenon is a massive change of humanattitudes toward paranormal abilities and extraterrestrial life.