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CHAPTER 1
BEFORE THE ABDUCTEES THERE WERE THE CONTACTEES
The idea that agencies of the US government, the military, and the intelligence community are actively and secretly monitoring Americans who have been subjected to the alien abduction experience may sound outlandish to many — perhaps even paranoid. The startling reality, however, is that such a situation is not at all outlandish. Nor is it paranoia driven. In fact, quite the opposite is the case. It's very important to note that there is an amazing precedent to the alien abduction controversy and its connections to government spying. It all revolves around what is known as the contactee phenomenon, which has its origins in the early 1950s.
It was in the summer of 1947 — specifically June 24 — when the UFO phenomenon began. That was the date on which the first report of an encounter with a flying saucer occurred. The witness was a pilot named Kenneth Arnold. He encountered a squadron of such craft near Mt. Rainier, Washington state. In the days and months that followed, more and more sightings of such craft occurred: a phenomenon was born that is still very much with us to this day. But in those early days, the UFOs hardly ever landed. Even when they did, their crews never exited their craft. That all changed in the early 1950s when — after a few years of deliberately staying behind a curtain of secrecy — they slowly but surely showed themselves.
The Differences Between Contactees and Abductees
Long before the first alien abduction incident was reported, elements of the US government were already secretly monitoring certain figures in the United States who claimed close encounters with extraterrestrials. Agencies were carefully collating files, listening in on phone calls, and intercepting the mail of dozens of people. Those same figures became known as the contactees. It's important to have an understanding of the contactee phenomenon, as it serves to demonstrate how and why it led government, military, and intelligence personnel to focus on the claims of ET interaction — and then to do precisely the same when the abduction issue took off.
Most of the secret work in the contactee field was carried out in the 1950s. It was undertaken to learn what was allegedly being done to American citizens by our mysterious visitors. At the time, the bulk of the work fell under the auspices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and at the express order of none other than almost-legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. How do we know this? Simple: thanks to legislation brought about under the Freedom of Information Act, numerous files on the contactees have now been released into the public domain. Real X- Files? You bet. Those files make it abundantly clear that the US government went to extraordinary steps to ensure that the contactees were placed under careful, secret watch — particularly because those contactees were clearly influencing public opinion on matters relative to not just alien visitations but also politics, the economy, and religion.
Before we get to the matter of demonstrating how and why the contactees became such a potential threat to the government, it's important to first demonstrate the differences between the contactees and the abductees. The abduction experience is almost always a traumatic one: people are kidnapped and taken away against their will. They are subjected to horrific and trauma- filled experiments that revolve around matters related to human reproduction, DNA, sex, and even alien–human hybridization. The Greys of modern-day ufology are described as emotionless, cold creatures. They may actually be highly sophisticated, biological robots designed and programmed to perform endless numbers of abductions, and all to fulfill their still not fully understood agenda. Their appearances — wizened, dwarfish things with oily-black eyes — provoke terror in many who have had the misfortune to cross their paths.
Compared to all of that, the contactees got off lightly. Extremely lightly. All of the above is in stark contrast to the goals and the actions of the extraterrestrial beings encountered by the contactees. The Space Brothers — which is the title given to the particular group of aliens that the contactees claimed interaction with — were physically almost identical to us, the human race. That is, aside from a few very minor differences in their physical appearance. As for the agenda of the Space Brothers, it was very different from that of the Greys: hideous experiments were nowhere in sight. No one was ever taken aboard a UFO against their will. And minds were not wiped clean of memories of the alien kind. All that the Space Brothers wanted was for humanity to unite as one, to live without war, and to pledge allegiance to the world, rather than to any specific nation, culture, or belief system. Too good to be true? Maybe. On the other hand, though, maybe not. Let's take a look at the stories of the contactees, their liaisons with the Space Brothers, and the top secret response of the US government and its ever-growing number of secret files on those who claimed contact with aliens.
The Phenomenon Takes Off with a Man Named Adamski
There is no doubt at all that the most well known, visible, and controversial of all the early contactees was George Adamski. Born just a few years before the dawning of the twentieth century, Adamski was a Polish man who immigrated to the United States with his family when he was barely out of the cradle. At an early age, Adamski gravitated to an alternative lifestyle: after a period serving in the US military, Adamski worked a variety of jobs, none of which brought him the satisfaction, or publicity, he sorely craved. That all changed, however, when in the 1930s he headed out to the city of Laguna Beach, California.
It was in Laguna Beach that Adamski created what he termed the Royal Order of Tibet. The Los Angeles Times referred to Adamski's retreat as "Shamanistic" in nature. In turn, Adamski assured readers that "I do not bring to Laguna the weird rites and bestial superstition in which the old Lamaism is steeped, but the scientific portions of the religion." For around six years, the Royal Order of Tibet thrived — after which Adamski and his followers moved to Palomar Mountain, in northern San Diego County. Palomar Gardens was quickly created to ensure a peaceful, relaxing vibe for those who wished to opt out from the rat race — and there were plenty of them. Then, in October 1946, Adamski and several of his followers said they encountered a huge alien spacecraft flying high in the skies over the mountain, which was close to a year before the first acknowledged flying saucer encounter was reported by Kenneth Arnold. It was, however, in late 1952 that Adamski's involvement in the UFO scene really took off.
A Meeting of Minds — One of Them Nonhuman
In the early hours of November 20, 1952, Adamski and his secretary, Lucy McGinnis, headed out of Palomar Mountain and drove to Blythe, California. It was all as a result of a sudden, out-of-the-blue hunch that Adamski had — one which led him to believe that a close encounter was looming on the horizon. As dawn broke, they met with several fellow saucer seekers: Al and Betty Bailey, and George Hunt Williamson, who was a fellow contactee who also caught the secret attention of the FBI, as we shall soon see.
After breakfast, Adamski had an eerie feeling that the group needed to head off to Parker, Arizona, which they quickly did. It wasn't long before one and all were shocked and amazed by the sight of a huge, silver-colored UFO that was "cigar"-like in shape and maneuvering high in the clear skies over Parker. An excited Adamski shouted to the group to follow it, and they raced for their cars and hit the dirt road in pursuit of the craft from another world. According to Adamski and his friends, the craft shot out of the area after being pursued by a squadron of military aircraft. Soon after, though, a much smaller flying saucer–type vehicle landed on a nearby mountain. For Adamski, this was a sign the aliens wanted to converse with him, face-to- face. That, we're told, is exactly what happened. As the rest of the group kept their distance, Adamski tentatively walked toward the alien craft. A door on the vehicle opened, and Adamski, holding his breath, was confronted by a long-haired human-looking figure dressed in a one-piece suit, not unlike the kind of outfit worn by today's military pilots.
Adamski said the long-haired human-looking being claimed his name was Orthon, that he came from the planet Venus, and that he was here to warn the world of the perils of nuclear weapons. Orthon told the excited and shocked Adamski that he, Adamski, was to be a part of a worldwide program designed to push human civilization away from planetwide annihilation and toward a new paradise. With that all said, Orthon returned to his flying saucer, which raced into the heavens and vanished from view.
In mere minutes, Adamski was a new man with a new plan. He claimed further controversial encounters with the Space Brothers and, in 1953, coauthored with Desmond Leslie a book on the entire affair titled Flying Saucers Have Landed. The book proved to be a huge hit, selling more than 100,000 copies in no time at all. Adamski had gone from a figure of relative obscurity to one that countless numbers of people were listening to — and listening to very carefully. Those listeners included none other than some of the finest special agents of the FBI.
One of the Strangest FBI Dossiers of All
It's important to note that the stories of George Adamski — who died in 1965 — have both believers and disbelievers. That Orthon looked extremely human and claimed to be a Venusian has had many a UFO researcher rolling their eyes — and quite understandably. On the other hand, Adamski still has a faithful following to this day which shows no signs of going away anytime soon. For the FBI, though, it wasn't so much whether Adamski's claims were true or not. Rather, it was the influence that Adamski was having on the American public that had them worried. Deeply so, too.
Had Adamski just told his readers, and listeners, tales of exciting encounters with spacemen and spacewomen from other worlds, then, in all probability, the FBI would not have cared. But things didn't end there. According to Adamski, his aliens were communists. He claimed that the Soviet way of life was also the way of the future. That the Russians would be the victors in a looming Third World War, and that the Space Brothers would then usher in a new era in which alien communists would sculpt a new Earth.
Today, much of this might sound farcical and far-fetched, but the thousands upon thousands of people who completely bought into all this had the FBI concerned. As a result, J. Edgar Hoover ordered a file to be opened on Adamski. It ran from 1952 to 1965, amounts to around 130 pages, and is now available under Freedom of Information legislation. The file makes it very clear that the Bureau was far from impressed by anything Adamski had to say about his alleged alien encounters. The issue of how Adamski insisted on spreading the word of communism, though — and doing so via the message and the medium of the Space Brothers — continued to worry and vex the FBI. The bureau even speculated on the possibility that the Russians had staged the UFO encounter in Parker, Arizona — possibly to the point of using a Soviet agent posing as an alien! Even more troubling to the FBI was the fact that in the wake of Adamski's claims, more and more people reported very similar encounters. One of them was George Van Tassel. He, too, would soon become the subject of a government file.
The FBI and Ancient Extraterrestrials
Born in 1910, George Van Tassel had a deep interest in aviation as a child and teenager — and he eventually paved for himself a good career at Hughes Aircraft, where he came to be good friends with none other than aviation legend, and certifiable loon, Howard Hughes. Just like Adamski, Van Tassel felt compelled to make a move to California. In his case, it was to the small town of Landers, which is situated in the Mojave Desert. On one particular night in August 1953, so Van Tassel claimed, he was overwhelmed by a sense that he had to drive out to a nearby area known as Giant Rock. The locale takes its name from a huge mass of rock, which still stands in the area to this day, albeit now somewhat battered and bruised.
Van Tassel knew that something important was going to happen, but exactly what, he wasn't too sure. He soon found out, though. Just like the other George, Van Tassel was confronted by a flying saucer that descended from the heavens and delivered several aliens looking just like us. As with Adamski's initial encounter, Van Tassel was also fed information suggesting that the ETs were communists and wanted our world radically transformed. There are a few indications from what Van Tassel said and wrote that the aliens were somewhat bully-like in nature, too, specifically when it got down to the issue of wanting things to go their way. Then, as mysteriously as they appeared, the aliens were gone, vanished into the dark skies above Giant Rock and the sprawling desert landscape.
Practically overnight, Van Tassel's life changed dramatically. Whereas Adamski chose to write books about his experiences, Van Tassel decided to hold annual UFO conferences out at Giant Rock, which continued until his death in 1977. At the height of their popularity, the Giant Rock gigs had audiences in excess of ten thousand. No wonder the FBI thought Van Tassel, like Adamski, should be watched — and watched closely, too. The aliens, Van Tassel said, had another task for him: they ordered him to build what became known as the Integratron — a large, white, circular, two-level building that would have the ability to slow the aging process — in Landers, California. At least, that's how he told it. Unfortunately, Van Tassel passed away before the Integratron was fully completed.
The FBI's surveillance file on Van Tassel exceeds 300 pages and demonstrates that FBI agents visited Van Tassel on three occasions in the 1950s. While the meetings were quite cordial, the FBI was troubled by how Van Tassel was suggesting in his phenomenally well-attended lectures that certain events described in the pages of the Bible — such as the parting of the Red Sea, the story of Noah and the Ark, and the fall of the walls of Jericho — were all connected to ancient visitations from extraterrestrials and not the work of God. Those same agents noted in their reports to Hoover that the aliens wished to reinvent the US economy. For the bureau, this all very much paralleled what George Adamski was also saying. No wonder, then, that Van Tassel became what, today, is ominously known as "a person of interest."
A Catalog of Contactees
Other contactees who were also watched by the FBI — and specifically because of the political overtones attached to their accounts of alien visitation and interaction — included Truman Bethurum, who, in 1952, maintained he had close encounters with a beautiful alien woman known as Aura Rhanes; Orfeo Angelucci, a man who also spread the word that communism was not a bad thing, after all; George Hunt Williamson, who was a friend of Adamski; and Frank Stranges, who claimed that benign extraterrestrials had infiltrated the heart of the Pentagon and the US government.
It was much the same overseas, too. For example, in the late 1950s, an arm of the British police force called Special Branch — which today largely handles cases of domestic terrorism — began secretly watching the Aetherius Society. It was a contactee-driven group created in 1954 by an Englishman named George King. He too claimed encounters with aliens who, physically, could pass for us.
The United Kingdom's Freedom of Information Act has shown that George King and his Aetherius Society were the subject of a secret Special Branch file which ran to dozens of pages. And as Special Branch saw it, there was a damn good reason for that: according to King, his alien buddies had informed him that we all needed to disarm our nuclear arsenals. If we didn't, there would be nothing but death and disaster for one and all. When members of the Aetherius Society took to the streets of London in 1958 and 1959 to make their views on nuclear weapons known, Special Branch agents were in the crowds, listening to and noting every word.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Top Secret Alien Abduction Files"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Nick Redfern.
Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
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