Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact - Above Top Secret

same time, of course, such a process would have to provide its own explanation to make ultimatedetection impossible. In other words, it would have to project an image just beyond the beliefstructure of the target society. It would have to disturb and reassure at the same time, exploitingboth the gullibility of the zealots and the narrow-mindedness of the debunkers. This is exactly whatthe UFO phenomenon does.Metalogic is the form of consistency found in statements like: "Does a unicorn have a horn in themiddle of her forehead?" - Yes. "Is there such a thing as a unicorn?" - No.I have pointed out that the concept current among most flying-saucer enthusiasts that theunidentified flying objects are simply craft used by visitors from another planet is naive. Theexplanation is too simple-minded to account for the diversity of the reported behavior of theoccupants and their percieved interaction with human beings. Could this concept serve precisely adiversionary role in masking the real, infinitely more complex nature of the technology that givesrise to the sightings?Observations similar to the landing at Pascagoula (where two fishermen claimed to have beenabducted by "clawmen") have been made every year in the United States since 1947. A catalogue ofwell-documented close encounter cases would hold the details of well over two thousand cases ofthat type, from all countries, indicating that a formidable impact is being made on our collectivepsyche. Yet what trace has this produced on scientific efforts? A small one indeed: a few courageousastronomers are beginning to revise the probability estimates for other civilizations in space; muchis made of the possibility of detecting radio signals from other solar systems; and a few physicistsare beginning to voice their doubts concerning Dr. Condon's biases. Against such a background I amafraid that my own speculations may contradict both the ideas of the believers and the assumptionsof the skeptics.Here then, is a brief statement of five new propositions based upon the material we have reviewedso far:1. The things we call unidentified flying objects are neither objects nor flying. They candematerialize, as some reliable photographs seem to show, and they violate the laws ofmotion as we know them.2. UFOs have been seen throughout history and have consistently recieved (or provided) theirown explanation within the framework of each culture. In antiquity their occupants wereregarded as gods; in medieval times, as magicians; in the nineteenth century, as scientificgeniuses; in our own time, as interplanetary travelers. (Statements made by occupants of the1897 airship included such declarations as "We are from Kansas" and even "We are fromanywhere... but we'll be in Greece tomorrow.")3. UFO reports are not necessarily caused by visits from space travelers. The phenomenoncould be a manifestation of a much more complex technology. If time and space are not assimple in structure as physicists have assumed until now, then the question "where do theycome from?" may be meaningless; they could come from a place in time. If consciousnesscan be manifested outside the body, then the range of hypotheses can be even wider.4. The key to an understanding of the phenomenon lies in the psychic effects it produces (orthe psychic awareness it makes possible) in its observers. Their lives are often deeplychanged, and they develop unusual talents with which they may find it difficult to cope. Theproportion of witnesses who do come forward and publish accounts of these experiences isquite low; most of them choose to remain silent.5. Contact between human percipients and the UFO phenomenon always occurs underconditions controlled by the latter. Its characteristic feature is a factor of absurdity that leadsto a rejection of the story by the upper layers of the target society and an absorption at a