Contactees: Encyclopedia - Contactees

Contactees

Contactees are persons who claim to be in regular contact with extraterrestrials. Contactees typically reported that they were related messages or wisdom by Aliens, and that they were compelled to share these messages. Randles and Hough write that "The contactee movement is a rich treat for anthroplogists , sticky with sincere and sincerely deluded individuals. Were the contactees in touch with anything other than their own internal fantasies?" (Randles and Hough, 108)

Astronomer J. Allen Hynek described Contactees as asserting "the visitation to the earth of generally benign beings whose ostensible purpose is to communicate (generally to a relavively few selected and favored persons--almost invariably without witnesses) messages of 'cosmic importance'. These chosen recipients generally have repeated contact experiences, involving additional messages. The transmission of such messages to willing and uncritical true believers frequently, in turn, to the formation of a flying saucer cult, with the 'communicator' or 'contactee' the willing and obvious cult leader. Although relatively few in number, such flying saucer advocates have by their irrational acts strongly influenced public opinion." (Hynek, 5)

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. Jacques Vallee notes that "No serious investigator has ever been very worried by the claims of 'contactees.'" (Vallee, 90) Some time after the phenomenon had waned, historian David Michael Jacobs noted a few interesting facts: the accounts of the prominent contactees grew ever more elaborate, and as new claimants gained noteriety, they typically backdated their first encounter, claiming it occured earlier than any one else's. Jacobs speculates that this was an attempt to gain a degree of "authenticity" to trump other contactees.

In support of their claims, contactees often produced photographs of the alleged flying saucers or their occupants. One such photo proferred by George Adamski and indentified by him as a saucer was later demonstrated to be all but identical to a type of commonly available chicken egg incubators.

Though not specifically linked to flying saucers or odd aerial lights, it's perhaps worth noting that there is a long history of claims of contact with non-earthly intelligences. As early as the 1700's, people like Emanuel Swedenborg were claiming to be in contact with inhabitants of other planets; Helena Blavatsky and others would later make similar claims.

As a cultural phenomenon, Contactees perhaps had their greatest notoriety from the late 1940's to the late 1950's, but individuals make similar claims to the present. Some shared their messages with small groups of followers, and many issued newsletters or spoke at UFO conventions. For over two decades, contactee George Van Tassel hosted the annual "Giant Rock Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention" in the Mojave Desert.[1]

By the late 1950’s, many contactees were no longer claiming to have been physically visited by aliens; rather, they were more often in psychic contact with the aliens, who passed their messages on to people in trances. This led into the later "psychic channeling" movement, which found a degree of popularity beginning in the late 1960’s.

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

There has been speculation that some Contactees were Central Intelligence Agency operatives following the Robertson Panel's directives to reduce public interest in UFOs and to survail UFO groups. Randles and Hough write, "Some historical analysts think that the sudden arrival of countless Americans claiming contact with 'space brothers', and the quirky behaviour of some of them, may not be coincidence. Were some of the more extreme cases planeted by the CIA as a way to speed up the Robertson panel's requirements? They definitely tarnished UFO credibility." (Randles and Hough, 104)

Contactees - List of Contactees

• George Adamski
• Orfeo Angelucci
• Truman Bethurum
• Albert Coe
• Daniel Fry
• Gabriel Green
• Dana Howard
• Dino Kraspedon (aka Oswaldo Pedrosa)
• Billy Meier
• Howard Menger
• Buck Nelson
• Reinhold O. Schmidt
• George Van Tassel
• George Hunt Williamson

Contactees - Sources

• J. Allen Hynek; The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry; 1972; Henry Regenery Company
• David Michael Jacobs; The UFO Controversey In America; Indiana University Press, 1975; ISBN 0253190061
• Jenny Randles and Peter Houghe; The Complete Book of UFOs: An Investigation into Alien Contact and Encounters; Sterling Publishing Co, Inc, 1994; ISBN 0806981326
• Jacques Vallee; Anatomy of a Phenomenon: Unidentified Objects in Space, A Scientific Apraisal; Henry Regnery Comapny, 1965

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