Jenny Randles – Alien Contact: the First Fifty Years
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ALIEN CONTACT Jenny Randles ALIEN CONTACT The First Fifty Years BARNES &...NoBLE B 0 0 K S NE\\'YORK This edition published by Barnes & Noble, Inc., by arrangement with Collins & Brown Limited Copyright © 1997 Barnes & Noble Books Text copyright © 1997 jenny Randles The right of jenny Randles to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys tem, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. ISBN 0-7607-0545-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available M 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Reproduction by Centre Media, London Printed by Midas, Hong Kong Picture Credits Front cover: Spiral galaxy (courtesy of Spectrum Colour Ubrary). Opposite title page: The 'face on Mars', as found by NASA landing missions, a highly-debated issue of 1993. Pages 17, 27 ©Roy Sandbach; page 33 David A. Hardy/Science Photo Library; page 51 ©]. P. Templeton; page 53 NASA/ Science Photo Library page 63 NASA/Science Photo Ubrary; pages 87, 93 BFI Stills, Posters and Designs; page 94 David Parker/Science Photo Library; page 103 © 1982 Starchild; page 123 (right) NASA/Science Photo Library. CONTENTS Introduction 6 1973: Mark of the Aliens 72 1974: Euro Rendezvous 76 1947: The Aliens Arrive 8 1975: Global Encounters 80 1948: Crash Landing 10 1976: The Alien Annada 84 1949: Secret Invasion 12 1977: Investigations 86 1978: We Are Not Alone 88 1979: Angels or Demons? 92 1950: Little Green Men 14 1951: Standstill 18 1952: From Another World 20 1980: Back with a Bang 94 1953: The Men in Black 22 1981: Alien Interlude 98 1954: Aliens in Europe 24 1982: The Oz Factor 100 1955: Contact 28 1983: Alien Rejects 102 1956: Aliens v the Earth 30 1984: Star Children 104 1957: Sexperiments 32 1985: Strange Energies 106 1958: Alien Colonists 36 1986: Big Bad Aliens 108 1959: Hello Earth 38 1987: Spacenapped 110 1988: Alien Revelations 114 1989: 116 1960: Close Encounters 40 Tell the World 1961: Abduction 42 1962: Under Wraps 46 1990: Extraterrestrial TI7 120 1963: It's Out There 48 1991: New Frontiers 122 1964: Time Bandits 50 1992: Under the Influence 124 1965: Aliens in Orbit 54 1993: The Alien Oscars 126 1966: Star Trekking 56 1994: Not Going Mad 130 1967: Science and Aliens 58 1995: Proof at Last? 132 1968: The Invaders 62 1996: Alien Artefacts 136 1969: Alien End Game 64 1997: Are \Ve Ready? 138 1970: The Aliens Return 66 Further reading 139 1971: Under the Skin 68 UFO organizations 141 197 2: Fading Vision 70 Index 142 6 ALI EN CONTACT INTRODUCTION Fiftyyears of UFOreality has just elapsed. Now it powerful cry, compelling us not only to build is time to assess where this has led us. However, rocket ships to reach the stars, but to seek out this book focuses not so much on UFOs that tiny voice that might prove once and for all although, of course, they arc hardly incidental to that there are other lifeforms somewhere our story. Rather it examines the whole concept beyond earth. of alien contact. I do this chronologically, so that All these threads weave together to form the you can follow the main cases and the debates complex tapestry that is alien contact - making that have surrounded them. You can see the way the storyyou arc about to read a fascinating one. in which trends and patterns have appeared and But unlike a novel by Agatha Christie, this is not developed to create the legends of today's so much a whodunnit, as a whatdunnit. conspiratorially-minded UFOlogists. Will the answer to the mystery of alien-contact just as importantly, I have contrasted these sightings be found within our subconscious, as events with other strands that contribute towards some psychologists suggest? Is the desire to have the fuller picture. These help us to figure out intergalactic neighbours so powerful that we are how these patterns may have come into being. forced to invent them, like a planct-\vidcversion There has always been the world of political of the child's imaginaryfr iend? intrigue. We must look at the whys and where Is the earth, as some scientists contend, a fores of it� involvement with this mystery. How living dynamo seething with energies that we have governments around the world reacted to comprehend only dimly, but whose forces can the prospect of alien visitors? Did they capture distort the bio-mechanical computer that we call solid proof many years ago, as some people the brain? Do these energies make us see things allege? Have they invented stories to confuse and that are not really there? Are the aliens that we deceive us? What is the real motivation for inves meet nothing more than the space-age equiva tigating these phenomena? lent of demons and dragons? We also see how science fiction has been Are other lifeforms living here within our own 'loving the alien' for a very long time. Do novels, environment, beyond the grasp of our ordinary television series and movies imitate reports of senses? Do they rule a planet that our towering L1'0s or stimulate them? In other words, is there human arrogance makes us call our own? Is our a symbolic relationship between the grand mas consciousness not yet sufficiently advanced for ters of fantasy and those people who claim that us to see the truth that lies around us? they really have encountered aliens on a dark Or are we really being visited by a space-far and lonely night? ing race from somewhere, out there, in the Finally, we see how science has striven to turn seemingly eternal ocean that is the universe? this science fiction into reality, pushing outwards Science far from repudiates that possibility. towards that frontier in space and seeking some Indeed, most astronomers believe that life 'out faint sign that we are not alone in the universe. there' is a certainty. The only doubt they enter Researcher Paul Devereux perceptively calls it tain is whether it is possible that this life could 'the cry of a lonely species' and it is a most be coming to earth right now. I�THODLCTIO\ 7 The answer to the riddles posed by this hook have successfully hoodwinked your opponents. may lie in one of those areas, or in some It is even better if you can be sure that some prospect that we have not yet even dreamed of. story-hungry journalist or over-eager L'fO buff That is what makes it so exciting. Everyone h<L'I will blame the unfortunate aftermath of your an opinion - but no one yet knows the truth. mistakes on an alien power. You accidentally Public fascination with the question of alien relca�c radiation into the cmironmcnt: drop a contact h<L'I never been greater. With the birth of hint that a starship from Alpha Ccntaurei wa'l Tbe X Files the idea has grown that secret gov responsible and nobody bats an eyelid. Yo u test ernment departments are hiding proof about a new weapon and it starts f�Jing the brain cells visitors from another world. of an unfortunate pa�scr-by: no problem, just According to such popular cuhurc, which make sure word gets around that ET wa'l seen entrances millions of viewers, the governments ncar by and pretty soon nobody who matters of NATO know the truth. They have landed and \viii be questioning what you are up to. we arc mere playthings in their presence. The The cover-up exists, but not always (if ever) conspiracy of silence is maintained, even with to hide the truth about alien visitors. Often, 1 held from prime ministers and presidents at the fear, those same alien \isitors serve a� extra behest of some top-secret body, so as to prevent terrestrial scapegoats for some very terrestrial our world from descending into a madness of goings-on. panic and instability. Unfortunately, this ha� serious problems for Of course, this idea is not new. Even HG those of us who sense there is some kind of Wells pre-empted the concept of invading aliens truth behind the sensationalism, jokes about lit more than a century ago when he wrote Tbe tle green men and the bluffand counter-bluffof Wa r of tbe lVorltl'l. The 1996 smash-hit mmic the powers that be. 95% of allL'fO sightings can Independence Day updated the imagery. This be explained in tcnns of ordina�J' things. But time it was not a failure to be protected against there arc still 5% that cannot be satisfactorily earthly dise<L�e that spelt doom for the alien explained, and these can be highly intriguing. marauders. They had to contend with the Many cases of alleged alien contact are hard to action-hero US president and a secret govern interpret, a'! they rely upon the isolated testimo ment base known <L'� Area 51 which houses the ny of a hill-farmer or a huckster. But there arc carefully garnered proof of alien contact first plenty of others in which the C\idence builds captured in 194 7. That movie was fiction, but towards an impressive argument. Area 51, also known as Dreamland, really Sorting out the truth about this whole does exist. phenomenon is a bit like wading through a In the murky world of UfOlogy, it can be dif minefield surrounded by treacle.