Contactee - Wikipedia [Link]

org/wiki/Contactee

Contactee
Contactees are persons who claim to have experienced contact with
extraterrestrials. Some claimed ongoing encounters, while others claimed to
have had as few as a single encounter. Evidence is anecdotal in all cases.

As a cultural phenomenon, contactees perhaps had their greatest notoriety

from the late 1940s to the late 1950s, but individuals continue to make similar
claims in the present. Some have shared their messages with small groups of
followers, and many have issued newsletters or spoken at UFO conventions.

The contactee movement has seen serious attention from academics and
mainstream scholars. Among the earliest was the classic 1956 study, When
Prophecy Fails by Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter, which
analyzed the phenomenon. There have been at least two university-level
anthologies of scientific papers regarding the contactee movements.

Contactee accounts are generally different from those who allege alien
abduction, in that while contactees usually describe beneficial experiences
involving human-like aliens, abductees rarely describe their experiences
positively.

Contents
Overview
History of contactees
Early contactees
1900s
Contactees in the UFO era
Response to contactee claims
List of contactees
References
External links

Overview
Astronomer J. Allen Hynek described contactees as asserting that:

"the visitation to the earth of generally benign beings whose

ostensible purpose is to communicate (generally to a relatively few

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selected and favored persons) messages of 'cosmic importance'.

These chosen recipients generally have repeated contact experiences,
involving additional messages . . ."[1]

Contactees became a cultural phenomenon in the 1940s and continued

throughout the 1950s and 1960s, often giving lectures and writing books about
their experience. The phenomenon still exists today. Skeptics often hold that
such "contactees" are deluded or dishonest in their claims. Susan Clancy wrote
that such claims are "false memories" concocted out of a "blend of fantasy-
proneness, memory distortion, culturally available scripts, sleep hallucinations,
and scientific illiteracy".[2]

Contactees usually portrayed Space Brothers as more or less identical in

appearance and mannerisms to humans. The Brothers are also almost
invariably reported as disturbed by the violence, crime, and wars that infest the
earth, and by the possession of various earth nations of nuclear and
thermonuclear weapons. Curtis Peebles summarizes the common features of
many contactee claims:[3]

Certain humans have had physical or mental contact with seemingly

benevolent, humanoid space aliens
The contactees have also flown aboard seemingly otherworldly spacecraft
and traveled into space and to other planets
The Space Brothers want to help mankind solve its problems, to stop nuclear
testing and prevent the otherwise inevitable destruction of the human race
This will be accomplished very simply by the brotherhood spreading a
message of love and brotherhood across the world
Other sinister beings, the Men in Black, use threats and force to continue the
cover-up of UFOs, and suppress the message of hope

History of contactees

Early contactees

Though the word contactee was not in common use until the 1950s, the authors
of the anthologies noted in "sources" below use the term to describe persons
whose claims occurred centuries before the UFO era, attempting to depict
them as a part of the same tradition.

Though not linked to flying saucers or odd aerial lights, it is perhaps worth
noting that there is a long history of claims of contact with non-earthly
intelligences. The founding revelations of many of the world's religions involve
contact between the founder and a supernatural source of wisdom, such as a
deity in human form or an angel. In this context, one might expect that most of
the 1950s contactees would form their own religions, with the contactee as sole
spiritual leader, and that is precisely what happened, almost invariably.

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As early as the 18th century, people like Emanuel Swedenborg were claiming to
be in psychic contact with inhabitants of other planets. 1758 saw the
publication of Concerning Earths in the Solar System, in which Swedenborg
detailed his alleged journeys to the inhabited planets. J. Gordon Melton notes
that Swedenborg's planetary tour stops at Saturn, the furthest planet known
during Swedenborg's era—he did not visit Uranus, Neptune or Pluto.[4]

Later, Helena Blavatsky would make claims similar to Swedenborg's.

In 1891, Thomas Blott's book The Man From Mars was published. The author
claimed to have met a Martian in Kentucky. Unusually for an early contactee,
Blott reported that the Martian communicated not via telepathy, but in
English.[5]

Another early contactee book, of sorts, was From India To The Planet Mars
(1900) by Theodore Flournoy. Flournoy detailed the claims of Helene Smith,
who, whilst in a trance, dictated information gleaned from her psychic visits to
the planet Mars—including a Martian alphabet and language she could write
and speak. Flournoy determined that Smith's claims were spurious, based on
fantasy and imagination. Her "Martian" language was simply a garbled version
of French.

1900s

Two of the earliest contactees in the modern sense were William Magoon and
Guy Ballard (the latter a follower of Madame Blavatsky).

Magoon's book William Magoon: Psychic and Healer was published in 1930. He
claimed that, in the early 20th century, he had been unexpectedly and
instantaneously transported to Mars. The planet was essentially earth-like, with
cities and wilderness. The inhabitants had radio and automobiles. Though they
were invisible, Magoon sensed their presences.

Though Magoon was obscure, Ballard would have more impact via the I Am
movement he established. In 1935, Ballard claimed that, several years earlier,
he and over 100 others witnessed the appearance of 12 Venusians in a cavern
beneath Mount Shasta. The Venusians played music for the audience, said
Ballard, then showed the crowd a large mirror-like device that displayed
images of life on Venus. The Venusians then allegedly reported that the earth
would suffer through an era of tension and warfare, followed by worldwide
peace and goodwill.

George Adamski, who later became probably the most prominent contactee of
the UFO era, was one contactee with an earlier interest in the occult. Adamski
founded the Royal Order of Tibet in the 1930s. Writes Michael Barkun, "His
[later] messages from the Venusians sounded suspiciously like his own earlier
occult teachings."[6]

Christopher Partridge notes, importantly, that the pre-1947 contactees "do not

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involve UFOs".[7] Rather, he suggests that an existing tradition of

extraterrestrial contact via seances and psychic means promptly incorporated
the flying-saucer mythos when it arrived.

Contactees in the UFO era

The 1947 report of Kenneth Arnold sparked widespread interest in flying

saucers, and before long, many people were claiming to have been in contact
with flying saucer inhabitants.

There was a nearly-continuous series of contactees, beginning with George

Adamski in 1952. Radio host John Nebel interviewed many contactees on his
program during this era. The stereotypical contactee account in these days
involved not just conversations with friendly, humanoid spacemen, but also
tours inside their flying saucers, and rides to large "Mother Ships" in Earth
orbit, and even jaunts to the Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.

In support of their claims, early 1950s contactees often produced photographs

of the alleged flying saucers or their occupants. A number of photos of a
"Venusian scout ship" by George Adamski and identified by him as a typical
extraterrestrial flying saucer were noted to suspiciously bear a remarkable
resemblance to a type of once commonly available chicken egg incubator,
complete with three light bulbs which Adamski said were "landing gear". [8]

For over two decades, contactee George Van Tassel hosted the annual "Giant
Rock Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention" in the Mojave Desert.[9] Another
1950s contactee, Buck Nelson, held a similar convention in the Ozarks of
Missouri up until 1965.

Response to contactee claims

Even in ufology—itself subject to at best very limited and sporadic mainstream
scientific or academic interest—contactees were generally seen as the lunatic
fringe, and "serious" ufologists subsequently avoided the subject, for fear it
would harm their attempts at "serious" study of the UFO phenomenon. [10][11]
Jacques Vallée notes, "No serious investigator has ever been very worried by
the claims of the 'contactees'."[12]

Carl Sagan has expressed skepticism about contactees and alien contact in
general, remarking that aliens seem very happy to answer vague questions but
when confronted with specific, technical questions they are silent:

Occasionally, by the way, I get a letter from someone who is in

"contact" with an extraterrestrial who invites me to "ask anything".
And so I have a list of questions. The extraterrestrials are very
advanced, remember. So I ask things like, "Please give a short proof
of Fermat's Last Theorem." Or the Goldbach Conjecture. And then I
have to explain what these are, because extraterrestrials will not call

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it Fermat's Last Theorem, so I write out the little equation with the
exponents. I never get an answer. On the other hand, if I ask
something like "Should we humans be good?" I always get an answer.
I think something can be deduced from this differential ability to
answer questions. Anything vague they are extremely happy to
respond to, but anything specific, where there is a chance to find out
if they actually know anything, there is only silence.[13]

Some time after the phenomenon had waned, Temple University historian David
M. Jacobs noted a few interesting facts: the accounts of the prominent
contactees grew ever more elaborate, and as new claimants gained notoriety,
they typically backdated their first encounter, claiming it occurred earlier than
anyone else's. Jacobs speculates that this was an attempt to gain a degree of
"authenticity" to trump other contactees.[14]

List of contactees
Those who claim to be contactees include:

George Adamski[15][16] Riley Martin[30]

Wayne Sulo Aho[17][18][19] Billy Meier[31]
Orfeo Angelucci[17][20] Howard Menger[17]
Truman Bethurum[17][20][21] Buck Nelson[32]
Daniel Fry[22] Ted Owens[33]
Gabriel Green[17] Sixto Paz Wells[34]
Steven M. Greer[23][24] Reinhold O. Schmidt[17]
David Liebe Hart Whitley Strieber[35]
Betty and Barney Hill Sun Ra[36]
Dana Howard[25] George Van Tassel[17]
George King[26] Samuel Eaton Thompson[37]
Elizabeth Klarer Claude Vorilhon[38]
Aladino Félix (aka Dino George Hunt Williamson[17]
Kraspedon)[27] Dwight York[39]
Gloria Lee[28]
Nancy Lieder[29]

References
1. Hynek, J. Allen (1972). The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry, p. 5. Henry
Regnery Company. ISBN 978-0-8092-9130-4.

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2. Clancy, Susan (2005). Abducted, Harvard University Press,

ISBN 0-674-01879-6.
3. Peebles, Curtis (1994). Watch the Skies: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer
Myth, pp. 93–108. Smithsonian Institution, ISBN 1-56098-343-4.
4. Melton, Gordon J., "The Contactees: A Survey". In Levin, ed. (1995) The Gods
Have Landed: New Religions From Other Worlds, pp. 1–13. Albany: University
of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-2330-1.
5. Melton, p. 7.
6. Barkun, Michael (2003). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in
Contemporary America. Los Angeles: University of California Press, Berkeley.
ISBN 0-520-23805-2
7. Partridge, Christopher. "Understanding UFO Religions and Abduction
Spiritualities". In Partridge, Christopher (2003) ed. UFO Religions (2003), p. 8.
London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-26323-9,
8. "Profiles in Pseudoscience: George Adamski!" ([Link]
110927185040/[Link]
[Link]). Archived from the original ([Link]
w/[Link]/[Link]) on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
9. Article ([Link] Times
Magazine Archived ([Link]
[Link]/articles/118_rock.shtml) April 5, 2007, at the Wayback
Machine
10. Sheaffer, Robert (1986). The UFO Verdict: Examining the Evidence, p. 18.
Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-338-2
11. Sheaffer, Robert (1998). UFO Sightings: The Evidence, pp. 34–35. Prometheus
Books. ISBN 1-57392-213-7
12. Vallee, Jacques (1965). Anatomy of a Phenomenon: Unidentified Objects in
Space, A Scientific Appraisal, p.90. Henry Regnery Company.
ISBN 0-8092-9888-0.
13. Carl Sagan, The Burden of Skepticism ([Link]
of_skepticism/)
14. Jacobs, David M. (1975). The UFO Controversy In America. Indiana University
Press. ISBN 0-253-19006-1.
15. Allingham, Cedric (February 14, 1955). "Meeting on the Moor" ([Link]
[Link]/time/magazine/article/0,9171,807064,[Link]). Time. Retrieved
2007-04-27.
16. Scott-Blair, Michael (August 13, 2003). "UFO pioneer inspires site's astronomy
theme" ([Link]
[Link]/news/northcounty/20030813-9999_7m13ufo.html). The San Diego
Union-Tribune. Archived from the original ([Link]
ws/northcounty/20030813-9999_7m13ufo.html) on 2005-12-26. Retrieved
2007-04-27.
17. Lewis, James R. (2000) UFOs and Popular Culture, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-
CLIO, Inc., ISBN 1-57607-265-7
18. Curran, Douglas (1985) In Advance of the Landing, Abbeville Press,
ISBN 0-89659-523-4

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19. Time (magazine) (1979-07-03) "Crash Pad" ([Link]

ine/article/0,9171,945992,[Link]) (2007-05-06)
20. Story, Ronald D. (2001) The Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters, New
American Library, ISBN 0-451-20424-7
21. Bethurum, Truman (1995) Messages from the People of the Planet Clarion,
Inner Light Publications, ISBN 0-938294-55-5
22. Fry, Daniel W. (1954) The White Sands Incident ([Link]
writings/white-sands-incident), New Age Publishing Co, ASIN: B000GS5BJ6
23. Ortega, Tony (March 5, 1998). "The Hack and the Quack" ([Link]
[Link]/1998-03-05/news/the-hack-and-the-quack/). Phoenix New
Times. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
24. Hendrick, Bill (June 29, 1997). "The Mysteries Of Aliens And Area: Atlanta
believers keep the faith in the otherworldly" ([Link]
m/[Link]). The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Archived from the original ([Link]
roduct=AT&p_theme=at&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p
_text_direct-0=0EADA32B2118CAFB&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpa
ge=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM) on 2007-05-12.
Retrieved 2007-05-12.
25. Howard, Dana (1954) My Flight to Venus
26. "Venus Unveiled" ([Link]
l). Nova. October 17, 1995. Retrieved 2007-04-26.
27. My contact with flying saucers, London, N. Spearman [1959], OCLC 285784
28. Why we are here, Los Angeles: DeVorss & Co., 1959, OCLC 8923174
29. Roy Britt, Robert (June 15, 2009). "End of the World in 2012 (Cont.)" ([Link]
[Link]/[Link]). Live Science. Retrieved
2017-02-20.
30. Martin, Riley; Tan. "Chapter One - The Coming of Tan" ([Link]
/web/20071211191246/[Link]
d~from~the~[Link]). The Coming of Tan ([Link]
m/read~from~the~book/read~from~the~[Link]). Historicity Productions.
p. 6. Archived from the original ([Link]
the~book/chapter~[Link]) on 2007-12-11. Retrieved 2007-04-06. "I was
but seven years of age in November of 1953, when I first saw the strange
lights above the river near my home in Northeastern Arkansas."
31. Moosbrugger, Guido (2004). And Still They Fly! (Second Edition). Steelmark,
ISBN 0-9711523-1-4
32. My trip to Mars, the Moon, and Venus, UFOrum, Grand Rapids Flying Saucer
Club, 1956, OCLC 6048493
33. Binder, Otto O. (June 1970). "Ted Owens, Flying Saucer Spokesman, The
incredible truth behind the UFO's mission to Earth". Saga magazine.
pp. 22–25, 90–94.
34. Paz Wells, Sixto (2002). The Invitation. 1st World Publishing.
ISBN 9781887472296.

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35. L. D. Meagher (July 29, 1998). "Strieber's exuberance falls short of proving
there are UFOs" ([Link]
[Link]?eref=sitesearch). CNN. Retrieved 2007-04-25. A review of Strieber,
Whitley. Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens among Us . Saint Martin's
Press.
36. Szwed, John F. Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra , Pantheon,
1997, ISBN 978-0-679-43589-1; pp 28–29
37. "Centralian Tells Strange Tale of Visiting Venus Space Ship in Eastern Lewis
County", Centralia Daily Chronicle, April 1, 1950
38. Rael (2006). Intelligent Design. Nova Distribution. p. 109.
39. York, Malachi Z. Man From Planet Rizq Study Book One: Supreme
Mathematics Class A For The Students Of The Holy Tabernacle p. 23

External links
Another overview of 1950s contactees ([Link]
tm)
Another survey of 1950s contactees and their associated religious cults (htt
p://[Link]ff.com/Religious-Phenomena/[Link])

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