The story is fantastic. Yet it reminds us <strong>of</strong> the account Barney and Betty Hill gave under hypnosis <strong>of</strong>their alleged abduction in New Hampshire. On their way back from vacationing in Canada inSeptember 1961, they had seen a strange light over the White Mountains. It came close to the road,and they next remember being in their car some sixty miles south, without any memory <strong>of</strong> theintervening travel time. Under hypnosis they remembered a long sequence <strong>of</strong> events involvingabduction by small beings and a "medical" examination. The account included a description <strong>of</strong> analien language, <strong>of</strong> entities whose expressions were almost human, <strong>of</strong> an overwhelming feeling <strong>of</strong>confidence, and <strong>of</strong> not the slightest indication that the incident had a meaningful purpose orfollowed an intelligent pattern. Of considerable interest to the psychologist is the fact that theentities are endowed with the same fugitiveness and behave with the same ignorance <strong>of</strong> logical orphysical laws as the reflection <strong>of</strong> a dream, the monsters <strong>of</strong> our nightmares, the unpredictablewitches <strong>of</strong> our childhood. Yet their craft do leave deep indentations in the ground, according toobservers who were fully awake and absolutely competent at the time <strong>of</strong> sighting. Theseindentations have been photographed and measured in hundreds <strong>of</strong> cases.What does it all mean? How can one reconcile these apparently contradictory facts? Some, in alaudable attempt, question the classical search for patterns: "Is it necessarily true," they ask, "thatwe would detect meaningful patterns – in the same sense <strong>of</strong> our own intelligence level – in thebehavior <strong>of</strong> a superior race? Is it not much more likely that we would find in their actions onlyrandom data and incoherent pictures, much as a dog would if confronted with a mathematicianwriting on a blackboard? If so, it is only after new concepts have emerged in our own consciousnessthat we could 'discover' the meaning <strong>of</strong> their presence in our environment. And, if a superior racedoes in fact generate what we are now observing as the UFO phenomenon, perhaps it is preciselywith the purpose <strong>of</strong> changing the course <strong>of</strong> human destiny by presenting us with evidence <strong>of</strong> ourlimitations in the technical, as well as the mental, realm?"Children <strong>of</strong> the Unknown – if they are not real, should we see these rumors as a sign that somethingin human imagination has changed, bringing into a new light uncharted areas <strong>of</strong> our "collectiveunconscious?" They may be only children <strong>of</strong> our fancy, and our interest toward them akin to ourlove for Batman and Cinderella. But they may be real. Modern science rules over a narrowuniverse, one particular variation on an infinite theme.In any case, it is important to understand what need these images fulfill, why this knowledge is bothso exciting and so distressing to us. Such is the subject <strong>of</strong> this book.2. Winged Disks and Crispy PancakesWe have just established that a close parallel exists between modern claims <strong>of</strong> UFO contact andage-old traditions that involved alien spiritual entities. But how closely are these stories related?Can we be sure that we are really witnessing the continuation <strong>of</strong> the same current, the reemergence<strong>of</strong> the same underground stream?In this chapter we will go below the surface <strong>of</strong> the stories and draw precise parallels between thephysical observations made in earlier times and those that characterize modern "close encounters."These physical manifestations include the shape <strong>of</strong> the flying objects, their representation as"winged disks," the beings associated with them, the beams <strong>of</strong> light they can manipulate, thealteration <strong>of</strong> the sense <strong>of</strong> time they produce, and the peculiar characteristics <strong>of</strong> the interactionbetween human witnesses and entities. Often the dialogue has an absurd quality that conveys not aliteral fact but a higher, symbolic truth. And this absurdity carries over to the objects exchangedwith the occupants and even the physical traces they leave: rings <strong>of</strong> flattened grass, burned ground,areas <strong>of</strong> extreme pressure. Until we have formed a clear understanding <strong>of</strong> these patterns andrecognized that they were already found in the accounts <strong>of</strong> antiquity and medieval times, we cannothope to make sense <strong>of</strong> the UFO phenomenon.
A Universal FactThe problem before us now is this: if the reality behind the UFO phenomenon is both physical andpsychic in nature, and if it manipulates space and time in ways our scientific concepts areinadequate to describe, is there any reason for its effects to be limited to our culture or to ourgeneration? We have already established that no country has had the special privilege <strong>of</strong> thesemanifestations. Yet we must carry the argument further: if the UFO phenomenon is not tied to socialconditions specific to our time, or to specific technological achievements, then it may represent auniversal fact. It may have been with us, in one form or another, as long as the human race hasexisted on this planet.Something happened in classical times that is inadequately explained by historical theories. Thesuggestion that the same thing might be happening again should make us extremely interested inbringing every possible light to bear on this problem. Beginning in the second century B.C. andcontinuing until the fall <strong>of</strong> the Roman Empire, the intellectual elites <strong>of</strong> the Mediterranean world,raised in a spirit <strong>of</strong> scientific rationalism, were confronted and eventually defeated by irrationalelement similar to that contained in modern apparitions <strong>of</strong> unexplained phenomena, an element thatis amplified by their summary rejection by our own science. It accompanied the collapse <strong>of</strong> ancientcivilizations.Commenting on this parallel, French science writer Aime Michel proposes the following scene.Consider one <strong>of</strong> the Alexandrian thinkers, a man like Ptolemaeus, the second-century astronomerthoroughly schooled in the rational methods <strong>of</strong> Archimedes, Euclid, and Aristotle. And imagine himreading the Apocalypse, various writings about Armageddon. How would he react to such anexperience? He would merely shrug, says Aime Michel: "It would never occur to him to place theslightest credence in such a compendium <strong>of</strong> what must regard as insanities. Such a scene must havetaken place thousands <strong>of</strong> times at the end <strong>of</strong> classical antiquity. And we know that every time therewas the same rejection, the same shrugging, because we have no record <strong>of</strong> any critical examination<strong>of</strong> the doctrines, ideas, and claims <strong>of</strong> the counterculture that expressed itself through theApocalypse. This counterculture was too absurd to retain the attention <strong>of</strong> a reader <strong>of</strong> Plato. A shorttime – a very short time – elapsed, the counterculture triumphed, and Plato was forgotten for athousand years. Could it happen again?"Only a thorough examination <strong>of</strong> the ancient records can save us from the effects <strong>of</strong> such culturalmyopia. Among other interesting objects, some <strong>of</strong> the artifacts that have come to us from Phoeniciaprovide insight into the idea <strong>of</strong> contact in antiquity.Phoenician AmuletsHistory books tell us that the Phoenician civilization was established long before the Hebrewmigrations, when several Semitic tribes founded a series <strong>of</strong> cities on the Mediterranean littoral. Themain ones were known as Tyre, Sidon, Tripoli, and Byblos, and each was governed by an oligarchyor by a king. At the height <strong>of</strong> its development, Phoenicia itself extended through that part <strong>of</strong> Syriathat goes from Nahr-al-Kabir (Eleutherus) on the north to Mount Carmel on the south.Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, one <strong>of</strong> this century's most distinguished scholars <strong>of</strong> Egypt andMesopotamia, states that the Phoenicians were not a literary people. Unlike most Semitic peoples,they loved the sea. They used their abundant forests to supply timber for their ships. Their work wasexceptionally refined and their products were sold by their merchants throughout the ancient world,in Europe, Asia, Africa, and India. They had learned from Babylon the art <strong>of</strong> dyeing, from Egypt thecraft <strong>of</strong> glassblowing, and they used accurate systems <strong>of</strong> weights. Little is known <strong>of</strong> their religiousbeliefs, although it is <strong>of</strong>ten pointed out, on linguistic grounds, that the names <strong>of</strong> their gods showeddirect Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek influences.Of their ritual practices we are told that they sacrificed their firstborn children in times <strong>of</strong> trouble;that they killed their prisoners <strong>of</strong> war on the altars <strong>of</strong> their gods; and that their women surrendered
- Page 3 and 4: Foreword by Whitley StrieberThere a
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popular today. But a second - and e
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ecorded about 1825 in the Vale of N
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The ikal of the Tzotzils flies thro
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the door, he turned and recieved a
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If Stewart came back today, he woul
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The devil does not have a body. The
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interested in the social implicatio
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Very well, little son. Come back to
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measure. But the phenomenon does ap
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and physical, to determine whether
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previous year. But the fact remains
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Do Not Report This!Accounts such as
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least one occasion, experienced lev
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deep unconscious level of the symbo
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much as twenty hours a day, and in
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against me as I stood bracing mysel
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another one, but this was very defi
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not natural, was witnessed by perso
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The predicted miracle took place as
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The phenomenon, it seems, could not
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in the final analysis.Many of us wi
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already surrounded....I was told wh
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Since the publication of my earlier
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”A bright flash”Fatima, May 13,
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The Invisible CollegeAfter some thi
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the Air Force met in Dallas and dis
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panel of scientists could rapidly b
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it had been hovering there was now
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like piezo-electricity, or static e
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the group teachings and advice. The
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This is a frightening view, one tha
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John McCoy, who coauthored with Wil
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of reports about "the robots" and "
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eathe our air. They walked normally
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the designation Wolf 424.The myster
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a scar or a mark. The authorities w
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esearches might have a bearing on a
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me undeniable) and as psychic devic
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extraterrestrial theory is not stra
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the universe summarizes the problem
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About the AuthorAn astrophysicist b