Dimensions

1. UFOs are an ancient, profound mystery, not merely modern spacecraft.

At a stroke, he redefines it as a part of the fundamental mythology of human experience and enables us, for the first time, to begin to raise questions about it of sufficient depth and resonance to be meaningful.

Deepest mystery. The UFO phenomenon represents perhaps the most profound mystery humanity has ever faced, consistently denied by science despite its undeniable reality. This denial has left the public vulnerable to misinterpretations, often leading to beliefs with religious implications. The phenomenon challenges our cherished theories about the nature of mind, universe, and humanity's place within the cosmos.

Historical continuity. Vallee argues that modern UFO experiences are merely the latest manifestation of a phenomenon that spans recorded history. Ancient civilizations perceived these visitors as fairies, sylphs, wood-nymphs, or gods, adapting their interpretations to their prevailing cosmology. This historical perspective reveals that whatever the phenomenon is, it changes with our ability to perceive and categorize it.

Folklore in the making. The dedication to Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who first grasped the problem's significance, underscores the need for a scientific yet open-minded approach. Vallee posits that UFOs are real physical objects but not "extraterrestrial in the ordinary sense," instead presenting an exciting challenge to our concept of reality itself. They are "folklore in the making," echoing tales of elves and jinn, and portending significant future changes.

2. The phenomenon consistently manifests with both physical and psychic effects across cultures and eras.

The phenomenon has been with us throughout history – and never, in all of that time, have we been able to deal sensibly with it.

Universal patterns. The UFO phenomenon is a universal fact, not tied to specific social conditions or technological achievements of our time. Ancient records, from Phoenician amulets depicting "winged disks" with emerging beings to biblical accounts of "celestial chariots" and Jomon Dogu statues, show striking parallels to modern sightings of flying objects and their occupants. This suggests a consistent, underlying reality.

Physical manifestations. Across centuries, observations include:

• Object shapes: Winged disks, earthenware vessels, cigar-shaped airships, egg-shaped craft, mushroom-shaped objects.
• Light phenomena: Luminous craft, brilliant searchlights, intense conical beams, glowing red objects, multicolored lights.
• Sounds: Whistling, humming, buzzing, hissing, roaring, "air pump on a locomotive."
• Traces: Flattened vegetation, scorched ground, deep holes, magnetic anomalies, white powdery substances (like the Nocardia fungus in the Delphos case).

Psychic impacts. Beyond physical effects, witnesses consistently report profound psychological and physiological reactions:

• Sensory distortions: Temporary blindness, paralysis, space and time disorientation.
• Mental states: Visions, hallucinations, trance-like states, intense fear or ecstasy, personality changes, excessive sleepiness.
• Communication: Telepathic messages, incomprehensible languages, or "smooth English" with an accent.
  These effects suggest a technology capable of both physical manifestation and deep psychic influence.

3. UFO encounters often feature "metalogical" absurdity and deliberate confusion, challenging our perception of reality.

If you strive to convey a truth that lies beyond the semantic level made possible by your audience's language, you must construct apparent contradictions in terms of ordinary meaning.

Absurd interactions. A recurring feature of UFO encounters is the seemingly absurd or illogical behavior of the entities and their communications. For instance, an occupant asking "What time is it?" and then declaring "You lie – it is 4 o'clock" after being told "2:30" is not merely nonsensical. This "metalogical" dialogue suggests a deeper, symbolic meaning, perhaps conveying that human concepts of time are relative or limited.

Deliberate confusion. This calculated absurdity serves a purpose: to bypass conventional logic and implant profound doubts about our basic philosophical tenets. By presenting information that is both disturbing and reassuring, the phenomenon exploits both the gullibility of believers and the narrow-mindedness of debunkers. This strategy allows it to remain undetectable by military systems and undisturbed by political structures, while still deeply influencing society.

Staged appearances. Many sightings appear to be carefully staged scenes, designed to be recorded by witnesses and transmitted to us. Examples include:

• 1897 airship: Pilots requesting mundane items like oil or bluestone, or claiming to be "from Kansas."
• Libyan (1954) and Italian (1950) landings: Featuring gas masks, instrument panels, and radio sets "complete with wires," as if to reinforce a specific technological narrative.
• Betty Hill's star map: A map "to nowhere," not drawn to scale and useless for navigation, possibly intended to reinforce the belief in space visitors while diverting attention or symbolizing our mistaken understanding of dimensions.
  These elements suggest a sophisticated form of deception, or a communication method beyond our current comprehension.

4. The "extraterrestrial hypothesis" is inadequate, failing to explain the sheer volume and contradictory nature of sightings.

The theory of random visitation does not explain it. Either the UFOs select their witnesses for psychological or sociological reasons, or they are something entirely different from space vehicles.

Overwhelming numbers. The sheer volume of estimated UFO landings—potentially three million in two decades if extrapolated from reported cases—renders the "spacecraft from another planet" theory absurd. Advanced extraterrestrial civilizations would not require such frequent, localized landings for planetary surveys, especially given our planet's abundant radio and television emissions. This suggests that the appearances are staged, rather than random exploratory missions.

Contradictory physics. The reported behavior of UFOs often defies known physical laws, making a conventional spacecraft interpretation problematic.

• Instantaneous disappearance: Objects vanish on the spot or fade away like a "Cheshire cat," sometimes leaving a cloud or explosion sound, rather than moving away at high speed.
• Materialization/dematerialization: They can appear to partially sink into the ground, grow in size, or merge, behaving more like images or holographic projections than solid physical craft.
• Light as primary: Witnesses often report a massive, pulsating, multicolored light as the primary phenomenon, suggesting the object itself might be a projection or a field of energy rather than a solid vehicle.

Absurd occupants. The characteristics and behavior of alleged UFO occupants also challenge the extraterrestrial hypothesis.

• Humanoid forms: Often indistinguishable from humans, or described as dwarfs in diving suits, or even accompanied by ordinary human beings. This contradicts expectations for alien biology and adaptation to Earth's environment (gravity, atmosphere, viruses).
• Crude "experiments": The reported medical examinations, blood collection, or embryo removal seem ludicrously primitive for an advanced civilization, especially when compared to modern molecular biology or in vitro fertilization techniques.
• Misleading information: Occupants frequently provide contradictory or nonsensical information about their origins (e.g., "from Kansas," "from anywhere, but we shall be in Greece tomorrow," "from Uranus," "from Clarion," "from Orion," "from Lanulos," "from Ummo," "from the Pleiades," "from Hoova," "from Titan"). This deliberate confusion undermines any claim of straightforward scientific visitation.

5. UFOs function as a "spiritual control system," subtly influencing human belief and cultural evolution.

I believe that when we speak of UFO sightings as instances of space visitations we are looking at the phenomenon on the wrong level. We are not dealing with successive waves of visitations from space. We are dealing with a control system.

Beyond visitation. Vallee proposes that UFOs are not merely visitors from space but manifestations of a "spiritual control system" for human consciousness. This system operates through paranormal phenomena, influencing our beliefs and shaping our collective destiny. It presents elements that are both rational and absurd, friendly and hostile, indicating that we are interpreting the phenomenon at an incorrect level.

Mythological engineering. The phenomenon appears to be a sophisticated form of "mythological engineering," capable of making large populations believe in supernatural races or flying machines by staging carefully contrived scenes. These scenes are adapted to the cultural symbols of a specific time and place, ensuring deep absorption into the collective unconscious. This process has historically given rise to both the highest and basest forms of religious, poetic, and political activity.

Religious parallels. Major historical "miracles" and religious apparitions share striking similarities with UFO encounters, suggesting a common underlying mechanism.

• Fatima (1917): Luminous spheres, strange colors, heat waves, falling-leaf motion, thunderclaps, buzzing sounds, "angel hair," prophecy, paralysis, amnesia, and miraculous cures. The "Lady" was "from Heaven," not explicitly the Virgin Mary.
• Lourdes (1858): Bernadette's encounter with a "beautiful lady" in a golden cloud, accompanied by storm-like sounds, leading to paralysis, absurd instructions, and the appearance of a healing spring.
• Mormonism (Joseph Smith): Visions of "pillars of light" and "personages" (Angel Moroni) leading to revelations, gold plates, and the founding of a new faith.
  These events, whether real or imagined, create verifiable paranormal effects and profoundly alter the lives and belief systems of witnesses, acting as a spiritual control mechanism.

6. The phenomenon is shielded by a "triple coverup": official denial, contrived explanations, and its own self-negating nature.

The phenomenon negates itself. It issues statements and demonstrates principles where some of the information conveyed is true and some is false.

Official denial. The first layer of coverup involves authorities actively discouraging UFO reports. This ranges from ridicule by local officials to intimidation of military personnel and confiscation of evidence. Governments often project an image of knowing everything, reassuring the public while simultaneously suppressing genuine inquiry. The "Swamp Gas" scandal of 1966, where Dr. Hynek's tentative explanation was seized upon by the press, exemplifies how official clumsiness can fuel public outrage and further obscure the truth.

Contrived explanations. The second coverup involves the release of carefully engineered "explanations" that, while seemingly plausible, fail to account for all the facts. These narratives are designed to discredit witnesses and reassure the public, often by attributing complex phenomena to mundane causes. For example, the Carteret (France, 1973) sighting, involving a "yellow window" object, radar echoes, and a trawler sinking, was "explained" by the discovery of diving equipment on a nearby beach, a completely invalid but effective diversion.

Self-negation. The third, most sophisticated coverup is inherent to the phenomenon itself. Like a magician who reveals a false trick, the UFO phenomenon provides misleading information and contradictory evidence. Patrolman Schirmer's abduction (Ashland, Nebraska, 1967) illustrates this: occupants gave him "interesting but clearly misleading information" about their origins and technology, explicitly stating, "You will not speak wisely about this night. We will return to see you two more times." This deliberate confusion ensures that ultimate detection remains elusive, as the phenomenon actively works to puzzle and confuse.

7. Abduction experiences, while deeply impactful, serve a symbolic rather than a literal extraterrestrial biological or technological purpose.

In my view, the interaction remembered by the witnesses, if it was a real occurrence, should be treated at the symbolic level.

Symbolic trauma. Abduction accounts, such as those of Betty and Barney Hill or the Pascagoula fishermen, are often presented as definitive proof of extraterrestrial visitation and genetic experimentation. However, Vallee argues that these experiences, while genuinely traumatic for witnesses, are better understood at a symbolic level. The "medical examinations," needle insertions, and alleged ovum/sperm collection are too crude and inefficient for an advanced civilization.

Historical parallels to "genetic" motives. The idea of non-human entities seeking to interbreed or improve their race by taking humans is not new.

• Medieval legends: Fairies and elves were believed to abduct humans for procreation, steal babies, and leave "changelings."
• Biblical accounts: Stories of "sons of God" intermarrying with "daughters of Man," resulting in giants, suggest an ancient preoccupation with interspecies genetics.
• Occult traditions: Discussions of incubi and succubi having carnal unions with humans, with theologians debating the physical possibility and the nature of their offspring (e.g., "tall, very strong, very daring, very magnificent and very wicked").
  These parallels suggest a deep-seated human archetype rather than literal alien biology.

Flaws in the "scientific" evidence. The methods used to "prove" abductions, particularly regressive hypnosis, are often poorly performed by untrained practitioners, leading to suggestibility and unreliable data. Furthermore, the "scars" or "marks" on abductees' bodies, often cited as physical evidence, echo medieval witch trials where similar marks were sought as proof of demonic contact. An advanced extraterrestrial race would possess far more sophisticated methods for genetic sampling or memory manipulation, rendering the reported abduction scenarios illogical and grotesque.

8. The intermittent and unpredictable nature of UFO activity mirrors a psychological "schedule of reinforcement," shaping human consciousness.

The best schedule of reinforcement is one that combines periodicity with unpredictability. Learning is then slow but continuous. It leads to the highest level of adaption. And it is irreversible.

Behavioral conditioning. Vallee draws an analogy between the pattern of UFO waves—intense activity followed by quiet periods—and B.F. Skinner's psychological "schedules of reinforcement." This pattern, combining periodicity with unpredictability, is known to be the most effective for inducing slow, continuous, and irreversible learning in organisms, including humans. This suggests the phenomenon might be subtly conditioning human consciousness.

Shaping human mythology. The impact of UFOs extends beyond mere sightings; it profoundly influences our collective imagination and mythologies. The growing fascination with space, new frontiers of consciousness, and the expectation of contact with superior minds are all shifts in our worldview that the phenomenon appears to foster. This process, operating at a mythic and spiritual level, is difficult to detect by conventional scientific methods.

The controlled variable. If UFOs are part of a control system, the crucial question is: what variable is being controlled? Vallee suggests that it is "human belief" itself. By presenting a mystery that defies easy categorization and constantly shifts its apparent nature, the phenomenon ensures that humanity remains engaged in a continuous, albeit often frustrating, quest for understanding. This ongoing search, regardless of its immediate scientific yield, contributes to a long-term, irreversible transformation of human thought and societal development.

Last updated: January 22, 2026