( This was first published in Ufologist, Vol. 15, No. 3, September-October 2011)
The demonic hypothesis
In Part One it was evident that many people are looking at UFOs the wrong way. They think of them as physical objects occupied by physical beings. We should be thinking of UFOs more in paraphysical or paranormal terms and recognize the connection between UFOs and other paranormal phenomena. In Part Two I am going to argue that these intelligences behind UFOs are malevolent entities which the Bible calls demons. Christians refer to this as the demonic hypothesis.
This does not mean that demons are flying around in spaceships, since most unexplained UFOs are not metallic spaceships, but strange lights in the sky (1). Rather the unexplained UFOs themselves are demonic manifestations or these entities influence people’s minds so they believe they are having UFO encounters.
Brad Steiger has suggested something similar from a non-Christian perspective,
“What we have thus far been labeling “spaceships” may be, in reality, multidimensional mechanisms or psychic constructs of our paraphysical companions.
I have even come to suspect that, in some instances, what we have been terming “spaceships” may actually be a form of higher intelligence, rather than vehicles transporting occupants.
I feel, too, that these intelligences have the ability to influence the human mind telepathically in order to project what may appear to be three-dimensional images to witnesses of UFO activity. The image seen may depend in large part upon the preconceptions which the witness has about alien life forms.” (2)
Several non-Christian UFO researchers have noted the similarities between UFOs and demons. John keel has written, “The UFO manifestations seem to be, by and largely, merely minor variations of the age-old demonological phenomenon.” (3)
In Grand Illusions Gregory Little has written, “The resemblance between modern UFO reports and ancient accounts of demonic visitations are striking, indeed.” (4)
Likewise, Whitley Strieber said in a 1993 interview, “I’ve come away from this experience convinces of one thing: if there aren’t demons out there, there might as well be. Because these guys are indistinguishable from demons.” (5)
In Angels and Aliens Keith Thompson describes them as “manifestations of an essentially mischievous, deceptive, shape-shifting intelligence.” (6) This could also be a description of demons without any Biblical terminology.
The Kelly Cahill encounter in Victoria in 1993, which was mentioned in Part One, sounds like some kind of demonic attack. She described them as evil and without souls. They said they were going to kill Kelly and the other witnesses (7). She described emotional waves of “pure, unadulterated horror” or “roaring horror energy” flowing out of their eyes (8). They told her, “We mean you no harm,” which Kelly said “was patently untrue, and this being’s voice veritably dripped with sarcasm when he said it.” (9) She added,
“Perhaps his arrogance came from his power, because his power and control over us was undisputed. But I had another impression when listening to him: an impression of something more terrible and demeaning than ordinary arrogance. He exhibited a sort of contempt that seemed to stem from long familiarity – we were unquestionably a known quantity to them.” (10)
They tried to stop her praying until she commanded them to leave in the name of God and the abduction apparently ceased (11).
These beings were evil, arrogant, contemptuous, wanted to kill them, filled them with fear and horror, had no souls, lied to them, had a long familiarity with them, tried to stop her praying, but apparently broke off their attack when she called on the name of God. If they were not demons, what else could they be?
The evil intentions of the UFO entities
Many UFO believers think the UFO entities have good intentions, however their actions suggest otherwise. Hugh Ross writes,
“Perhaps the easiest way to explode the popular misconception that residual UFOs are benign is to point to the many examples of UFO witnesses suffering and psychological harm. Symptoms such as nausea, headaches, hair loss, diminished vision, diarrhea, swelling, paralysis, sleep cycle changes, and weight loss are common in close encounters of the first and second kind. Less common, but still frequent, are burns, wounds, and even death. A guiding principle maintains that the closer the encounter in terms of physical proximity, the greater the physical injury suffered.
People typically heal from physical injuries. The damage from psychological injuries can last a lifetime. Exposure to residual UFOs at close range causes many witnesses to experience visions, hallucinations, apparent transportation to different regions of space or time, personality changes, and personality disorders. The trauma may be so extreme that some witnesses commit suicide.” (12)
There have been cases where people have been killed by UFOs. Jacques Vallee lists eleven UFO murders in his book Confrontations. Most of them were in Brazil. An entire village in Africa was killed by a UFO in 1954 (13). Although some of these cases might be explained as accidents, people getting in the way of UFOs, some are deliberate acts of aggression and violence towards people. Vallee describes a UFO flap between July and September 1977 in Brazil when UFOs attacked and injured about twenty people with beams of light. One woman was killed (14). There is also the Australian case of Frederick Valentich, a pilot who disappeared over Bass Strait in October 1978 after reporting a UFO.
In spite of being abducted, abused, assaulted, raped and traumatized, many abductees come to regard their experiences as positive opportunities and even say they love their abductors. Donna Higbee, director of Contact Encounters Investigation Team, believes that abductees are being brainwashed;
“I noticed a drastic change earlier this year in the attitudes of several of the abductees from one meeting to the next. People who had traumatized all their lives by ongoing abductions and had only anger and mistrust for their non-human abductors suddenly started saying they had been told/shown that everything that has happened to them was for their own good, that their abductors are highly spiritual beings and are helping them (the abductees) to evolve spiritually. By accepting this information, the abductees stopped fighting abduction and instead became passive and controlled. When I checked with other researchers, I found that this was a pattern that was repeating itself over and over again around the country. I became concerned that abductees were accepting these explanations from entities that we know can be deceitful, use screen memories to mask real memories, use virtual reality scenarios to implant images into abductees’ heads, and manipulate and abuse.” (15)
UFO entities lack knowledge of outer space
In Revelation Satan and his demons are described as being cast out of heaven to the earth (Revelation 12:7-12). They appear to be trapped on the earth and cannot roam the universe at will. Likewise, the UFO entities appear to be earth-bound. Although these entities tell contactees that they are extraterrestrials, the content of their message suggests they have no knowledge of outer space beyond our own.
In 1953 George Adamski claimed to have taken by a human-looking Venusian on several flying saucer voyages around the Solar System. Adamski said he had seen images of cities, forests, lakes and snow-covered mountains on the far side of the Moon, had walked on the surfaces of Jupiter and Saturn and met inhabitants of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Other contactees of the 1950s told similar stories about visitors from Mars and Venus.
We know now that Venus cannot support life, there are no cities, lakes and forests on the far side of the Moon, and Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants with no surfaces for Adamski to have walked upon. Either the contactees were lying or they were lied to and deceived by the UFO occupants. Modern UFO researchers tend to give the UFOs the benefit of the doubt and disown the contactees. They believe that Adamski and the other contactees of the 1950s were all liars who made up their stories for the publicity and money. In some cases, they are probably right, but it actually appears that most of the contactees were not the deceivers, but the deceived.
UFO entities are liars
Gloria Lee was a 1950s contactee who used a Ouija board to contact a being called J.W. from Jupiter. The messages she received had much the same New Age themes as other contactees. Then in September 1962, she announced that J.W. had told her to fast until a “light elevator” came and took her to Jupiter. She died in hospital on November 28 (16). If Gloria Lee were simply a fraud, trying to con gullible UFO believers, she would not have starved herself to death. This suggests she was either delusional or she was lied to and indirectly killed by an entity who claimed to be from Jupiter and did not have her welfare at heart.
As recently as the 1970s, Nordic-looking “Space Brothers”, similar to those described by George Adamski, were still telling contactees they came from Venus which the contactees now knew could not support life (17). In 1979 UFO occupants told a Brazilian abductee they came from “a small galaxy near Neptune” even though he knew this was ridiculous (18). If contactees were going to fake their UFO encounters, they would want to believable. They are not going to make themselves look stupid by saying the aliens said something they knew was not true.
Furthermore, John Keel has written,
“Quite frankly, many of the contactees lack the imagination to make up their stories or to construct the complicated hoaxes which develop. They are well-meaning, honest people who have undergone an experience which seemed very real to them. In case after case, such people are able to come up with details which correlate and which have received little or no publicity. This would be absolutely impossible if they were simply making up their stories.
No, the real truth lies in another direction. The contactees from 1897 on have been telling us what they were told by the ufonauts. The ufonauts are the liars, not the contactees. And they are lying deliberately as part of the bewildering smokescreen which they have established to cover their real origin, purpose and motivation.” (19)
In Part One I quoted Brad Steiger saying, “It seems to me that, since our earliest antiquity, the UFO entities have been lying to us about their identity and their true fatherland.” (20)
In the Bible Satan is described as a deceiver (Revelation 12:9, 20:10) and the father of lies (John 8:44). The UFO entities’ lies have also taken the form of numerous prophecies about the end of the world and mass UFO landings which have failed to eventuate. In an article in The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters, Martin Kottmeyer lists 29 cases of doomsday prophecies, which were given to contactees and abductees, but failed to come true (21). In spite of these failed prophecies there are still contactee groups who take their messages seriously.
UFO encounters and demonic possession
Both UFO contactees and abductees have symptoms of demon possession. John Keel has written, “Victims of demonomania (possession) suffer the very same medical and emotional symptoms as the UFO contactees.” (22) In his book Demons in the World Today Merill Unger lists the characteristics of demon possession and oppression including the appearance of a new personality, which replaces the old one, memory loss when the new personality is in control, increased knowledge and strength, mental and emotional instability, the development of ESP, visions and manifestations of strange beings, poltergeist activity, incubi and succubae attacks, hostility to Jesus and Christianity (23). Unger does not draw any connection between demon possession and UFOs, yet many abductees and contactees suffer some, if not all, of these symptoms.
Timothy Green Beckley, editor of UFO Universe, has observed that UFO encounters can lead to mind control and possession;
“Often, while interviewing a participant in a spectacular flying saucer landing or contact, I will find myself face-to-face with an individual who is convinced he is slowly – but surely – losing touch with reality. Having come within a hair’s breadth of the unknown, this person senses that his very existence is being threatened by an alien force bent on gaining total domination of his body and soul.
In the light of all that is rational, some witnesses have persisted in believing that they are being “haunted” day and night by an invisible spectre whose main objective is to remove their free will and make them the “property” of someone – or something – else.
Instances of UFO mind control are, in actuality, relatively common! Yet little has been written on the subject. Investigators of the UFO enigma have remained overly cautious about delving too deeply into this particular avenue of research. Their hesitating, upon close examination, may be warranted. Only a handful of pioneers into the psychic aspects of UFOlogy have ventured to discuss this topic at all, for it is an area heavily laden with supernatural overtones.
An exhaustive study of my own shows that cases of UFO mind control are almost always identical. Frightfully so! The following patterns have emerged, over and over:
After a close confrontation with a flying saucer, the viewer goes through a period of anxiety, during which he is unable to consciously remember certain aspects of what has transpired.
Within months – sometimes weeks or even days – the personality of the observer will change. Eventually, it may alter to the point where he will find it impossible to get along with fellow workers, close friends or even family. Personal tragedy seems to plague many of those who have had ground-level encounters. Page after page could be written (and in some cases has) about individuals whose entire world crumbles to bits around them following such an episode.
In some instances the sighter will discover he has developed certain “gifts” or abilities. Though they may appear to be beneficial at first, the picture has been known to change later on. Among these unusual abilities are superhuman powers of ESP, precognition or psychokinesis. Also, a heightened intelligence quota or an unusual increase in physical strength may be noticed. Such peculiarities will often arrive on the heels of a person a bout to be possessed. Shortly thereafter, he may begin slipping into a “trance”, during which it appears as if an alien intelligence has “taken over’ his body and is utilizing his brain.” (24)
In his 1970 book Operation Trojan Horse John Keel described other cases of contactees being taken over or possessed (25).
New Age channellers and UFO contactees are largely identical to traditional spirit mediums who go into a trance and an entity temporarily possesses and speaks through them. These experiences have parallels with UFO abductions. In many abductions, before the witness experiences memory loss and is presumably abducted, they see a light, a UFO if they are outside or a smaller light in their bedrooms (26). Likewise, mediums will often see “spirit lights” before they go into a trance and the spirit takes over (27). The mediums or channellers usually have no memory of what happens and what they say while they are “possessed” (28), similar to the “missing time” or memory loss experiences by UFO abductees. Some mediums believe that while they are possessed, their spirit goes to another realm. Raphael Gasson, a former medium, writes,
“By this theory, the medium’s own spirit is taken to other realms in the spirit world which he is completely unable to describe on his return to earth apart from a general impression that it is full of brightness.” (29)
This is reminiscent of the amnesia and bright light associated with UFO abductions.
In spite of the superficial differences, contactee channeling and abduction cases appear to be closely related. Contactee cases involve a person being temporarily possessed and an entity speaking through them. UFO abductions do not appear to be physical abductions, but involve a person being temporarily possessed and an abduction experience is implanted into their minds or the entity stimulates the abductees’ minds to create the experience.
In Close Encounters: A Better Explanation, Clifford Wilson and John Weldon wrote;
“The use of hypnosis, the dream-like encounters, the unconscious states, the occurrence during the sleeping state, etc., all indicate the experience did not actually occur but was implanted while the person was in a receptive or altered state of consciousness. There is also the strange noise heard after the UFO is sighted (or the flash of light), which could precipitate a hypnotic state wherein the experience is implanted. This strange noise is very common and seems always to precede the abduction experience or to occur just prior to the person being back outside the craft. The onset of physical symptoms, etc., is also accounted for by hypnosis, as has been demonstrated many times by professional hypnotists.” (30)
Non-Christian UFO researchers John Keel and Jenny Randles have also suggested that abductions are not physically real, but are implanted (31).
Clifford Wilson and John Weldon suggested that UFO experiences could be implanted by demons through the occult phenomenon of “dream feeding” while they are sleeping;
“Some cases of UFO contact appear during the sleeping state. The person is awakened, or at least thinks he is. (This is not unlike the experience of having a dream so vivid that we cannot separate it from reality.) After awakening the contactee has a variety of experiences with the UFO beings. Later, after the experience is over, he finds himself where he was originally wakened. Sometimes he may be teleported to another place.
In many cases like this there is nothing to indicate the experience was real at all real, for it could have been implanted in the mind during the sleeping state. The idea of “dream feeding” is common in occultism, except that a person has experiences with “the spirits” instead of “extraterrestrials”.” (32)
As I argued in Part One, there is a lack of evidence that UFO abductions are physically real and there are cases where people, who believed they had been abducted, were observed not going anywhere. This affirms that the experiences are implanted.
Christians have long been suspicious of hypnosis because they believe an altered state of consciousness can expose people to demonic influence. It is possible that UFO abduction experiences can also be generated while the abductees are under hypnosis to “recall” their experiences. Ron Rhodes suggests in Alien Obsession;
“During hypnotic sessions, the counselee is in a mystical altered state of consciousness in which the rational mind recedes. Christian researchers of occult phenomena have often noted while in any kind of altered state of consciousness, the person may become prey to demonic influences.
It is possible , then, that during this mystical, dreamlike hypnotic state – under the influence of powerful demonic spirits who work “counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9) – the person suddenly “perceives” certain things as real (“aliens”) when in fact they are not real at all?” (33)
Although the UFO entities supposedly are in other solar systems, it appears they are actually present during abductees’ hypnosis sessions and can take them over. In The Andreasson Affair, Raymond Fowler describes a similar incident when Betty Andreasson was hypnotized to recall her abduction experiences and the UFO entities took over her and started speaking through her (34).
In 1967 John Keel likewise hypnotized a contactee and an entity spoke through her. Keel adds, “In comparing notes with psychic investigator-author Brad Steiger, he told me he had similar experiences with hypnosis; that is, the control was taken out of his hands by some other intelligence.” (35)
This suggests that the entities are actually controlling the hypnosis sessions and researchers are only learning what the entities want them to learn.
UFO entities’ hostility to Jesus Christ
The demonic nature of the UFO entities is further evident in their hostility to Jesus Christ. The entities, who speak through UFO contactees, have a problem with the Biblical Jesus. They do not usually attack Buddha or Mohammed, however they consistently attack and misrepresent Jesus Christ, his teachings and purpose. Brad Steiger writes,
“One does not have to spend a great deal of time with the proponents of the Space Age religion before learning that many aspects of the Judeo-Christian tradition have only been updated, not abandoned. Jesus himself, often called “Sanada” by the contactees, has a very important role in the cosmology of the Flying Saucer Movement. But the inclusion of the King of Kings in the Space Beings’ theology does not seem to make the orthodox Christian’s transition to the new teachings any easier. On the contrary, many of the traditionally devout find it difficult to accept their Lord and Savior as a UFOnaut.
Generally speaking, in the Space Brothers’ teachings, Jesus of Nazareth is not God, but is a Christ, an ascended master, who incarnated so that he might demonstrate the Christ-pattern for all humans to achieve in a like manner. Jesus, most extraterrestrials are said to claim, studied with the Essenes during the lifetime which is reported in the Bible. The “lost years” of Jesus are no mystery: Between the ages of twelve and thirty, according to these sources, he was receiving special training aboard a spacecraft or in a remote area of Earth selected by the space entities.” (36)
In Part One I showed that praying in the name of Jesus Christ can stop UFO abductions. Jesus Christ had authority over demons and they had to obey him (e.g. Luke 4:31-41, 11:17-22, John 12:31, 1 John 3:8). He gave this authority over demons, to resist them and cast them out in his name, to his disciples (Matthew 10:1, Mark 16:17). The most plausible explanation for the effect of the name of Jesus on UFO abductions is that the phenomenon is demonic.
Conclusion
Clifford Wilson and John Weldon have written about UFOs, “Only one theory can satisfy all the evidence and that is the demonic theory.” (37) When we take into account all the UFO evidence – the paraphysical or extradimensional nature of the UFO entities, the non-physical nature of UFO abductions, the overlap between UFOs and other paranormal/occult phenomena, their lack of knowledge of outer space, their lies and sinister intentions, cases of possession by UFO entities, their hostility to Jesus Christ and Christianity, and the power of the name of Jesus over the UFO entities – the demonic hypothesis must be a credible explanation.
(1) Jacques Vallee, Dimensions, Contemporary Books, Chicago, 1988, p 259-260
(2) Brad Steiger, The Fellowship, Ivy books, New York, 1988, p 49
(3) Ibid., p 299
(4) Gregory Little, Grand Illusions , White Buffalo Books, Tennessee, 1994, p 55
(5) Sean Casteel, “Whitley Strieber Breaks His Silence”, MUFON UFO Journal, No. 305, September 1993, p 12
(6) Keith Thompson, Angels and Aliens, Fawcett Columbine, New York, 1991, p 89
(7) Kelly Cahill, Encounter, Harper Collins, Sydney, 1996, p 116-118
(8) Ibid., p 117, 121
(9) Ibid., p 124
(10) Ibid., p 125
(11) Ibid., p 128, 135
(12) Hugh Ross, et al, Lights in the Sky and Little Green Men, Navpress, Colorado, 2002, p 121
(13) Jacques Vallee, Confrontations, Ballatine Books, New York, 1990, p 217
(14) Ibid., p 198-203
(15) Donna Higbee, “New Abductee Trend”, http://members.aol.com/Rapunz1/brainwshing.html
(16) Hilary Evans, From Other Worlds, Reader’s Digest, Dubai, 1998, p 186
(17) Brad Steiger, Gods of Aquarius, Granada, London, 1980, p 110, 140, 190
(18) Jenny Randles, Abduction, Guild Publishing, London, 1988, p 141
(19)John Keel, Operation Trojan Horse, Souvenir Press, London, 1970,p 213
(20) Gods of Aquarius, op cit, p 133
(21) Ronald Story (editor),The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters, Robinson, London, 2002, p 89
(22)Operation Trojan Horse, op cit., p 218
(23) Merrill Unger, Demons in the World Today, Tyndale, Illinois, 1995, p 32-40, 140-162
(24) Timothy Green Beckley, Confidential Report, UFOs, Electromagnetism and Mind Control, Inner Light Publications, New Jersey, 1990, p 28-29
(25) Operation Trojan Horse, op cit., p 244
(26) John Mack, Abduction, Simon and Schuster, London, 1994, p 33, John Keel, Visitors from Space, Panther, London, 1976, p 163
(27) Raphael Gasson, The Challenging Counterfeit, Logos International, New Jersey, 1966, p 88
(28) Shirley MacLaine, It’s All in the Playing, Bantam, Toronto, 1987,p 17
(29) The Challenging Counterfeit, op cit., p 86
(30) Clifford Wilson and John Weldon, Close Encounters: A Better Explanation, Master Books, San Diego, 1978, p 124-124
(31) Operation Trojan Horse, op cit., p 271, Jenny Randles, Abduction, op cit., p 221-222
(32) Close Encounters: A Better Explanation, op cit., p 100
(33) Ron Rhodes, Alien Obsession, Harvest House, Oregon, 1998, p 150
(34) Raymond Fowler, The Andreasson Affair, Wild Flower Press, Oregon, 1979, p 136-148
(35) Visitors from Space, op cit., p 191-193
(36) The Fellowship, op cit., p 170-171
(37) Close Encounters: A Better Explanation, op cit., p 29
Malcolm Nicholson 