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This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Metaphysical Conspiracism: UFOs as Discursive Object Between Popular Millennial and Conspiracist Fields David G. Robertson, MA, MSc Submitted for the Degree of Ph.D. in Religious Studies School of Divinity, College of Humanities and Social Science, University of Edinburgh 2014 Contents i Abstract iv Author’s Declaration vi List of Illustrations vi 1—Introduction: ‘And the Truth Shall Set You Free’ 1 1.1 A Reflexive Preamble 1.2 Introduction 1.3 Previous Research 1.3.1 UFOs and Religion 1.3.2 Conspiracism and Religion 1.4 Locating Metaphysical Conspiracism 1.4.1 Socio-historical Background 1.4.2 Sociodemographic Profile 1.5 Methodology 1.6 Outline of Chapters 2—Discursive Objects and Epistemic Strategies: Theoretical Considerations 31 2.1 Discursive Analysis 2.1.1 Bourdieu: Fields and Capital 2.1.2 Foucault: Discourse and Archaeology 2.1.3 von Stuckrad: Discursive Fields and Transfers 2.2 Definitions 2.2.1 UFO 2.2.2 Conspiracism 2.2.3 “New Age” and Popular Millennialism 2.2.4 Prophecy and Eschatology 2.2.5 Religion and Spirituality 2.3 Epistemic Strategies i | Page 2.3.1 Tradition 2.3.2 Scientific 2.3.3 Experience 2.3.4 Synthetic 2.3.5 Channelling 2.4 Conclusion 3—‘Trust No-One’: An Archaeology of UFOs, Conspiracism and Popular Millennialism during the Cold War, 1947-87 58 3.1 “Wonder Weapons”: UFOs and the Cold War 3.2 Building a New World: UFOs and the “New Age” 3.3 UFOs and Conspiracism in the Cold War 3.3.1 Abductee Narrative 3.3.2 Men in Black 3.3.3 Majestic-12 3.4 UFOs Reconstructed 3.4.1 De-mythologisation 3.4.2 Ancient Aliens 3.5 The Fall of the Iron Curtain and the Crisis of the “New Age” 3.6 Conclusion 4—Occulted Histories: Whitley Strieber and the Abductee Narrative 83 4.1 Satanic Ritual Abuse 4.2 Life and Work of Whitley Strieber 4.2.1 Abduction Narrative 4.2.2 Conspiracism and Alternative Histories 4.2.3 Demythologisation of the UFO narrative 4.3 Dreamland Festival, Nashville 2012 4.4 Conclusion: UFOs as Discursive Object between Popular Millennialism and Conspiracism in Strieber’s Work ii | Page 5—‘Problem-Reaction-Solution’: David Icke and the Reptilian Thesis 116 5.1 Life and Work of David Icke 5.1.1 Early Period—Theosophical 5.1.2 Middle Period—Conspiracism 5.1.3 Late Period—Metaphysical Conspiracism 5.2 Allegations of Anti-Semitism 5.3 “Remember Who You Are”, Wembley Arena 2012 5.4 Conclusion: UFOs as Discursive Object between Popular Millennialism and Conspiracism in Icke’s Work 6—‘The Science of Oneness’: David Wilcock and ‘2012’ Millennialism 160 6.1 21/12/2012 6.2 Life and Work of David Wilcock 6.2.1 Edgar Cayce 6.2.2 Wilcock Again 6.2.3 Financial Tyranny 6.2.4 When “2012” Fails 6.3 Online Convergence 6.4 Conclusion: UFOs as Discursive Object between Popular Millennialism and Conspiracism in Wilcock’s Work 7— Conclusion: The Counter-Elite and a Theodicy of the Dispossessed 189 7.1 ‘Connecting the Dots’ 7.2 Counter-Epistemology and the Counter-Elite 7.4 A Theodicy of the Dispossessed 7.5 Implications of This Study 7.6 Future Directions Bibliography 202 iii | Page Abstract This thesis argues that narratives about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) act as the central point of contact between conspiracist and popular millennial fields. Their confluence has come to form a field here termed ‘metaphysical conspiracism’, combining teleological narratives, the promise of soteriological knowledge and the threat of occluded malevolent agencies. I argue that metaphysical conspiracism offers a unique perspective on the interplay of knowledge, power and the construction of the other in contemporary popular discourse. Narratives about UFOs (and their extra-terrestrial occupants) have their roots in the Cold War period, but from the 1980s were increasingly constructed within a supernatural framework. Discourse analysis of popular literature from this period reveals a process of discursive transfer as the UFO narrative is contested and negotiated between conspiracist discourses concerning powerful, hidden agencies and popular millennial discourses of personal and planetary transformation, including ‘New Age’, 'Ascension' and '2012'. Using historical discourse analysis, supported by small-scale ethnographic sampling, I examine this discursive transfer in the work of three popular writers who together offer a broad overview of the field. Whitley Strieber was a central figure in the 'alien abduction' narrative in the 1980s, but his speculations on its meaning led him increasingly towards millennial and conspiratorial narratives. David Icke's well-known theory that a conspiracy of reptilian extra- terrestrials has secretly seized control of the planet is demonstrated to have developed in the 1990s from a post-Theosophical narrative of benevolent UFOs as harbingers of the 'New Age'. Although less well-known, David Wilcock's work demonstrates that UFOs were also instrumental in the incorporation of conspiracist material into the recent '2012' millennial narrative. I seek to answer two questions with this thesis. Firstly, what is the common mechanism which facilitates the hybridisation I uncover between conspiracy narratives and popular millennialism? Secondly, how do the resulting metaphysical conspiracist narratives serve their subscribers? Despite a number of structural similarities, I argue that the common mechanism is the mobilisation of counter-epistemic strategies; that is, those predicated upon access to non- iv | Page falsifiable sources of knowledge. The UFO narrative is particularly well-suited to suggesting sociological uncertainty about the boundaries between scientific and other strategies for the legitimisation of knowledge, encouraging its adoption by both conspiracist and millennial discourses. Secondly, metaphysical conspiracism reconciles the utopian vision of popular millennial discourse with the apocalyptic critique of modern global society announced by conspiracists. I therefore argue that metaphysical conspiracism supplies an effective popular theodicy with a Gnostic flavour in which these millennial prophecies did not ‘fail’, but were prevented from arriving by hidden malevolent others. v | Page Author’s Declaration This thesis is completely my own original work. It has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. David G. Robertson (2/3/2014) List of Illustrations 1) Cover of Communion (1987). TM, Walker & Collier, Inc. Reproduced with permission. 2) Scarritt-Bennett Centre, Nashville (photo by the author) 3) Closing Panel by Dreamland Speakers (photo by the author) 4) David Icke in The Times, 9th April 1990 and The Guardian, 28th March 1991. Reproduced with permission. 5) Bosquet, J. (1934) “Lizard Peolpe’s (sic.) Catacomb City Hunted”. Los Angeles Times, Jan 29, 1934. 6) Scottish Daily Mail, 13/1/2013. Reprinted with permission. 7) David Wilcock and Edgar Cayce. http://www.edgarwho.com/ (Accessed 24/02/2014) vi | Page 1 Introduction: ‘And the Truth Shall Set You Free’ In those halcyon days I believed that the source of enigma was stupidity. Then... I decided that the most terrible enigmas are those that mask themselves as madness. But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth (Eco [1995] 2001, 95). A Reflexive Preamble This thesis began for me the first time I saw a prophet on the TV. Even at the age of 14, it was obvious to me that people should not have been laughing at David Icke. It seemed to me that there were two possibilities; he had had a religious epiphany, or a mental breakdown. Either way, mockery was inappropriate. I felt then, as I do now, that Terry Wogan and the audience were simply cruel. There was certainly a lesson to be learned, however, about the ease with which the crowd will respond with anger to the strange. Or did it begin when I discovered a mysterious book years later? In my early 20s, while working as a musician and songwriter, I spent part of 1998 in a residential recording studio in Lincolnshire. Separated from all friends and family excepting the other band members, which can obviously become claustrophobic, I worked my way through every book I could find. Mostly they were the kind one might find in a charity shop, with anything collectable or valuable having been stolen long ago. The exception was Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger (1977 [1986]), which was falling to pieces, clearly read many times but never stolen—left deliberately, perhaps, for others to find and have their minds opened. In it, Wilson describes his experiences of what appeared to be channelled messages from the star Sirius, and although the subject matter was apparently bizarre, Wilson was self-reflexive and sceptical, with a natural and humorous writing 1 | Page style, and I became a fan. As a lifelong atheist, it never seemed any odder to me that people speak to aliens than to Jesus, nor to believe in the Illuminati’s hand behind events than God’s.