George Adamski

UFOs, Contactees, Humanoids and a Thorn in the Side of the Air Force

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by Charles Lear

The year 1957 was a very interesting one in UFO history. In that year, UFO occupant reports were accepted as worthy of investigation by serious organizations such as the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization and Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York; Contactees were in the spotlight thanks to the Long John Nebel Show; and Maj. Donald Keyhoe USMC ret. became the director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. The main question in the early days of flying saucers had been  whether or not they came from outer space. The Air Force had assured the public that they were working to find the answers to the mystery, but now the public’s faith in the Air Force was waning and the mystery was more complex. Who to believe and what to believe were now complicated by competing factions and commercial interests. A person could get in there and diligently research and investigate, sit back and enjoy the circus or join the circus and cash in.

The editorial in the May, 1957 CSI News Letter No. 19, “The Price of Being Too Factual,” encapsulates the state of UFOlogy at that time. It begins with the announcement that Leonard Stringfield will no longer be issuing the periodical Orbit. This was the newsletter for his organization, Civilian Research Interplanetary Flying Objects. Stringfield had a reputation for being a no-nonsense investigator and was a trusted source for sightings reports. That he was unable to cover his printing costs while a “tongue-in cheek entertainer,” like John Nebel, and “a purveyor of a gospel,” such as George Adamski, were able to maintain a mass audience is noted as boding “ill for the future of UFO research.” Providing hope is the news that NICAP is under new management and the writer ends by encouraging readers to support the organization and that “it’s time to put up or shut up.”

NICAP was founded in 1956 by T. Townsend Brown, who claimed to have developed an anti-gravity device. Keyhoe had been instrumental in recruiting many prominent people, including Rear Adm. Delmar C. Fahrney USN ret., to sit on NICAP’s board of governors. NICAP had lofty ambitions and having a paid, full-time staff was one of them. An $85,000 a year payroll for that staff, which included Brown, was “suggested” and an argument ensued that resulted in Brown leaving and Keyhoe taking over as director. Read more →

The Weird Entities of The UFO

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by Charles Lear

In the article, “The UFO Contact Movement From the 1950’s to the Present”, written by Christoper  Bader, the author looks at the history of alien and UFO encounters as a social phenomenon. He shows how the focus of researchers changed as they felt increasingly compelled to explain the encounters in physical terms using modern physical science. Particularly interesting is Bader’s summation of the transformations that have occurred in the alien descriptions.

The history of encounters, as Bader presents it, is familiar to most of us.  In the mystery airship reports of the late 1800s, the occupants were, almost always, reported to be human and the airships themselves thought to be a human invention.  It wasn’t until the 1940’s that the ET hypothesis became widely considered as an explanation for strange aerial phenomena and the aliens themselves weren’t widely reported until the 1950s.  After his introduction, Bader focuses on the contactee movement, which is appropriate given the article’s title, devoting several paragraphs to George Adamski.  After taking us through the Betty and Barney Hill case, which he uses to represent the 60’s, he describes 70’s encounters with an assortment of strange web-footed, clawed and winged creatures.  He argues that these forced the UFO community to try and reach a consensus as to what an alien should look like.  This brings us to the 80’s abductee research, from which the “Greys” emerged as the acceptable alien form.

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