EYES IN THE SKY ‘THE IWISTBLE COLLEGE By Jacques Vallee E. P. Dutton, 216 pp., $9.95 Reviewed By Robert Anton Wilson Being a Gontactee myself, 1 am always curious about new Flying Saucer books, although most of them relate to serious science about as Closely as 2 Ronald Reagan speech Telates to an essay by Bertrand Russell, which is to say not at all, The whole subject is kitsch: Unin- ventional Low snp. One can bare Iy discuss the matter with a straight fice, and if serious debate is some “Engaged, one expects it will be interrupted’ by the Three Stooges, if not by the egregious Reagan hin- Self and his old co-star, Bozo the Chispanzee Nonetheless, the Cantactee ex- rience 1s one of those dreadful perrenials, like political brawling and head colds in winter. No matter how many skeptics try to brush it under the rug or bury it in ridicule, the experience continues. It must be at least a5 common as flashes of ESP, clairvoyance, haunt Ings, Oneness with God, nenories of past incarnations,” incest, homosexuality or any of the other taboo things that have alsays hap pened in every human society and Sontinund inure even suring he 8 when everybody was trained to Pretend they weren't there ‘The standard UFO book will prob- abty sound as naive. in twenty ears (or in Five...) as Freal's writings on semuality already sound.” Like Freud breathlessly announcing to the smug Victorians, "My Goldy in- fants do have sex drives” and "Ho- 1y Gosh, almost everybody has mas- turbated, maybe even the Pope, the UFO journalist bursts out, oft en in italics and reinforced by ex Clamation marks, "Gee Mhillikers, Sigheings-conflimed-on-radar keep happening” and "oly Com, fellers, Glte’ contacts are bs} going on oe is tempted tO aah, i UFOs, today, are Like donestic espionage by the C.1.A. was in the "60s: everybody knows about it ex: cept the Government and the Estab- Lishment press. Ask the first three people you meet on the street, and two at least will tell you, with great assurance, "Uh, they're alien Space-ships, but the Government and the media are trying to cover it me All this is rather pathetic, be- cause actually nobody knows any’thing about "it" at all, not even the Contactees, who are’ scientific ally as much if the dark as those who've only seen one of Them at such a great distance that it might have been a weather balloon, after all. Jacques Vallee, with a Master's in astrophysics and a Ph.D in cyber- netics, cones on to this scene with a refreshing mixture of scientific skepticism, bold imagination and Gallic irony. THE INVISIBLE OOL- LEGE is unlike any other UFO book ever written. Dr. Vallee questions what everybody else takes for grant- ed, doubts what everybody believes, drenches us with data that doesn't “fit” any of the theories of eith- er the True Believers or the dic~ tap! nop bellevers, and then offers 4 hypothesis of his own -- a hypo- thesis that is both plausible and maddeningly inconclusive. The UFOs, Vallee proposes, are a. control systen, her ‘oni tor fi Systens In a strategic and tactical Hy: t9 fe even mare Dine aboot they “shape” our behavior in precisely the sane way that 3.F Skinner shapes" the behavior of experinental animals in his: labor story ee is quite Literal about this. He even has 2 graph denon- Strating that UPO/human contacts follow 3 cycle similar to that of a "schedule of reinforcement" in Skin- nerian Behavior Mod More inclusively, Dr. Vallee relates UFOs to other forns of hu- man contact with the Unknown -- the appearances of the "Blessed Virgin Mary"" at Guadalupe, Lourdes and Fa- tina (which contained 43 parallels vith modern UFO sightings, careful- ly enumerated for the reader in chart form); the encounter between Joseph Sith and the “angel”, Mo- toni, which resulted in the Mormon Church; the dislogues betwen Dr. John Tee and several different "an- gels"; the Gnostic and Dionysian mystery-cults of ancient tines; the “fairies” or “Little people” of various cultures from Ireland to Tiber; and, by implication, all the territory of what used to be called "oceultisn'' or, in religion, "mira- cles." The entities which have inter- acted with himanity in all these cases, and in modem URDlogy, are uusing’a technology which allows them to manipulate the perceptions of the Insansubject any way they wish. ‘Their strategy reasins constant, Vallee insists: the “revelation” piven the Contactee is always one Step beyond the current Bel fet-sys~ tem in the Contactee’s society and alvays includes an elenent of " Hbetate abeurdity" to guarantee that it will be rejected by the more skeptical and "educated" class- es. And, almost alvays, the Con tactee has sme “evidence” to prove that the experience was not "totally subjective.” The evidence nay vary fron place to place and tine to tine (a gift for prophesy, a power of healing, 9 confirming radar sighting, etc.), but it only con- fims that sonething has 5 not that the highly spocalyptical and deliberately absurd events de- scribed by the belazsTed and mind- blown Contacte happened. In aany cases, Vallee demonstra- tes, the Contacteo vas given sesu~ ane *- senetines repeatedly, es pecially’ in nediunistie contocts ~~ that nore evidence, of an irrefue- able character, willl soon be forth- coring, to, convince the wost bigot cd non’believers. It never happens. Sonetines, asin the Uri Geller ex: travagenss, evidence Js shawn to one Selentist (Dr. Pujarich, in that Case) and then destroyed before’ an- other scientist can confine it. The Contactee is eventually is0- rated from mainstream society, tt In'most eases acquires @ group of believers who quickly take on calt- Tike characteristics, “(Some today are whispering that Geller is the Misclah."-) these cults can grow to considerable sizes; indeeds If tone of Dr. Vailee's deadpan tnder- Statements are taken to their logic: al conclusion, this nay well be the origin, not fist of Mormonism, but Of all’ the wajor religions. Al” tholgh modern Contacts blend in & lot of science-fiction with the Standard ethical messages’ (peace, Sharing, the nity of ail Living Bongos ete), the style of the Message is altays apocalyptical. By means of such Contact exper- 8 | fences -- more in one century, less in another, but alsays escalating when vast Social change is needed human behavior, Inman belief, fuman hopes have been manipulated, conditioned, shaped, all through history. | "They'” are our control systen, the cybemetic that keeps Us within the lines of the grand INA strategy for our planet. { ‘This will seem extravagant to everybody, except those who have already had ittering, ego- blasting, apocalyptical Contact with Higher Intelligence. It is to be expected that those who have had the experience will imediately vide into two groups: those who be- lieved what they were told in these epistemological psycho-dranas, ant who will therefore indignantly re- Ject Dr. Valleo's cool’ and sone= what sinister analysis; and those who have retained Sone normal hinan rationality even after the exper- ence, who will probably agree with Dr. John Lilly's enthusiastic ver- dict on the dust-jacket, "the first Feasonable hypothesis about, these Phenonena that T have read.” To accept, at least provision: ally, that"They" are a control. sys- ‘tem need not imply any infal libil: ty on their part. THe foxes are a control system, regulating goose population in an ecological sense, but the foxes remain primitive max: alian life-forms. Fumaity has un- doubtedly functioned as a control.” system on the rest of Earthian Life + forms -- a donesticated ape bright enough to invent tools and redesign 7 the environment more relentlessly’ than any beaver pack or ant colony == but ecology is little but a hor- ified record of how often the hu- wan interventions in nature have menaced humanity itself. The UR0s, if they are part of the seamless web of an intelligent ocosphere, may still be, on their ow, no more oa- niscient’than the average fox or average hunan. It would be premature, however, to accept any particular UFO absurd- ity as evidence that the control system has necessarily goofed. As Vallee shows with brilliant detail, the most nonsensical aspects of UFO ‘Mruman conmmication are best des- ribed as neta-logic rather than illogic. Vallee"s paradigm is the following dialogue (from a real Close Contact case): UPO “hunanoid'': “What time is it?" Hunan Contactee: "Iwo-thirty. UFO: "You lie. It is four 6 clock. | It was actually two-thirty. Hhy | should the UBD ask the tine if they | imew it?” Why should they Lie about |322i accuse the human of tying? Wy engage in such horse-play at all, when the Inman subject was ca- ‘of discovering the real tine and discovering the pointlessness fof the whole dialogue? This is not iNogic, Vallee a es, but a deliberate nind-fuck, ‘entirely sinilar to the koans of the Jan Masters, the inexplicable jokes ‘of the Sufis, the tine-warps and } tine-scranbles of fairy-lore in the (eltic nagick tradition. Another Contacte was given a version of this basic epistemological hotfoot being taken “aboard” a "ship" bere Re tas manipulated ints Yac- ‘cidentally" seeing a clock with no hands on it. Many Contactees suffer partial Fsmesia. Others stop their story fat one point and say, "They made me pranise not to tell the next part," pani won't tell it. Another group’ Jeention something’ that they then Selves, without orders from the PUD, decided not to tell to other ‘umans, Vallee recognizes meta-logic in ail such blank-outs: what is "con- fed” is that which the current igeality-map will not find tolerable. Hee neglects to note the paral- Hel with persons who have survived longed isolation, all of hon experiences sitilar to tradi- mystic Illumination and to “Contact” Many iso- tes refuse to talk at all, or Ik very Little, during the week ‘two woeks after rescue. Often, The plain fact is that social ponsensus-reality (as Dr. Lilly falls it) is maintained for each }of us entirely by continuous rein- Fforcenent through association with Jother conditioned subjects molded the sane social imprints. A sro-dot of LSD, ten days in a loset, or a few shananic or yogic ‘exercites, and thewhole charade col Hlapses, ai least temporarily: @ }doren, a thousand, alternate "reali- ‘ties’ appear, each as “real” as the Jothers and soae of them indisputa- bly more "real" than the social "re- lity." Nobody but a totally con- [ditioned robot, for instance, would respond lustfully to green pieces [of paper, blessed by the Federal Reserve and called "money", as the "sane, normal” citizen does. If the Reality Gane is imposed bby social conditioning, and if the ‘are part of an ecological con- 1 system monitoring slow-to-ab- ss in that Reality, we t HLL vant to know, Who or What are They? Vallee is singularly unhelpful with this, the ulfimacey question, He approaches his climax with £ur- ther questions, rather than with answers: "I would like to step out Side the conditioning maze and see What makes it tick. I wonder what T would find. “Perhaps a terrible supethuman monstrosity the very contemplation of which would mike a span insane? Perhaps. a solean gsth ering of wise men? Or the madien- ling Simplicity of unattended clock- work?" Porhups wo can do a Little bet- ter than thet. ‘The parties-of-the-second-part in Contactee experiences (i.e. Then) are, at ninimm, versatile, invent- ive’ and highly deceptive. They talk- ed a high grade of philosophy with Dr. John Lily, and an equally high grade of ethics with G. 1. Gurd- jieff. They enable Uri Geller to bend metal, jam geiger counters, and perform sinilar Grade B science”fic- ‘tion stunts. tine, be- stow ‘wild talents" of a psionic na- ture on favored Contactees, and re- main, at each step of human cultur- al evolution, one step in technolo- gy ahead of Us, at least. ‘The fact that their behavior, when analyzed by Dr. Vallee with the assistance of computers, reveals & pattern of cyhomette control ary e interpreted to mean that Dr. Val~ ee, ike Uri Geller, is getting what his mind is prepared to "yet." Vallee, a cybernetics expert, finds a control system. Geller, who hat= e5 to read, gets euctly the kind of moral preachnents and psionic “niracles” featured in Universal Studios kid-oriented sci-f1 films widely distributed throughout the world when Geller was a child ‘Those who are ready for Little Green Men get LOS in their Contact ex- periences. Over a hundred Gontac- tees by now have reported sexual. in- tercourse with beautiful space-von" en. The Catholies get @ now ap- Pearance of the Virgin, when it is necessary to stir them up. The highest mystics, 1f we care to consider thea as ESP’ Contactees, "get" experiences of Cosnic Love, usually, and often of Omiscient Wisdom.” Tt is important to note that other very high mystics have "gotten'” Cosmic Indifference. (Sone- thing for everybody?) ‘The Control System, if we accept Dr. Vallee's metaphor, is also pro- gramed with the persona of an fde~ 41 Parent, when that. is required. Indeed, the Contactees who ‘come back Tanting about an “Almighty Father," 19 are, historically, the single larg- est group -- evidently because the search for an Almighty Father is a deep human compulsion, as Froud not- ed.” Right behind then are the sec- ond largest group, raving about the ideal female, sexy or maternal ot both, as the case may be. Dr. Vallee is well enough read in the occult to note that the "an- gels" of Dr. Dee in the 17th Cents Fy and Aleister Crovley in the ear~ Ty 20th had a 2ot In comwon with each other and with UFO "hananoids."* fio even notes that AFFA, the extra terrestrial from "Uranus" who com mnnicated with two naval intelli= gence officers ina particularly food aediunistic contact (and Kind- 4y provided a "space-ship" sight in akeonvande, for tebjective” yeriei® Cation) bears a nane, which in Dr. Dee's angelic" Tanguage neans "N- thing." One senses adinbrations of the-Cod-uho- # 5"Nothing in Cabala and St. Dionysus, the Void of Tibet- fm and Zen Buddhise. Vallee should have gone further and dug into HEAVENLY BRIDEGROOM by Ida Craddock, which was published, under the thin pen-nane "Ida C."" a- round the turn of this century. Ms. Craddock hed a love affair with an “angel” that lasted over twenty years. Her account of this extra- ordinary erotic experience later fell into the hands of a Dr. Theo- dore Schroder, who re-published it with a long introduction by himself, explaining her "delusion" as a clas” sic case of sexuality sublinating into religious mania. Aleister Crowley, who knew a lot more about “angels” than Dr. Schroder, review- fed the book and pronounced that Dr. S didn’t know anything about angel: ology. As the foremost expert on angelology and denonology of our tine, Crowley declared, in brief, that’Ns. Craddock's heavenly lover was real. A comic father to the celebrat- a Nassrene, a Control Systen to UE. Vtlee, # clom from the cosric cit cus to'Discordlans, a Lictle Green fn to a Mississiopi farser or an Tish peasant of the Oth Century, a Siper-fex:partner to somebody else ne yerare obviously dealing with dammed” good touring magickal the- Stroy to Say the least. “To paraphrase biologist J.B.S. atuaney "the universe Cincluding the UFCS) aay be, tot only stranger than we think, bit’ stranger than we an think." fo paraphrase ayselfy “he tniverse (anclusing the UFOs) nay bey not only more hte igent han wo thingy but more intelf gent than we canthinks* "And to pars: fies sone Ley roroprabing eh Dr. Haldane anda The i=verse (includin gthe UR0s) may be, not only more erotic than we think, but mote erotic than we can think Aven. But the neat of Dr. Vallee's book is not just in opening this very fruitful line of speculation; it is in the detailed examination Of what he calls Contacts of the 7th degree of strangeness. Here, in the raw data of humans \confront- fed by that which transcends their notions of “reality,” is the evi- dence which indicates that theor- ies as bid as Vallee's (and may: be even as bold as my extrapolations from Vallee) are very rough sketch- £3, of iat the ultinate explanation will be. 1 leave you with ay ow favor- ite of Dr. Vallee's 7th degree Con- tacts. Two men were driving in a car. ‘Suddenly, tine warped and they were out Of the car and it was parked; they were, in fact, stand= ing behind it. One of then "remen- bored’ a classic UFO contact during the tine warp, in which he had been taken aboard and experinented upon Nie hada cut on his am, where the UFO "people" had taken a skin. sam- ple, [The other nin "remembered on- {y‘a large bus pulling up behind them, an no UPD. Neither of then “remgabered! atopping the car and getting out. The cut on the am sas quite real when exanined by police, doc~ tors and UFO investigators later, The rest is the standard blend of science-fiction, absurdity and con- tradiction that They are Currently using in Their latest campaign to hodify human belief and behavior. ‘The incident happened in 1971.