Often, a UFO case can be explained as being a hoax or a misidentification of natural phenomena or a human-made object. During the early history of American UFO research, these were foremost among the possible prosaic explanations that investigators explored. Then, as the Cold War developed and the American public’s trust in in its governing bodies began to erode in the wake of the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, and the revelation of a secret CIA experimental mind-control program known as MKULTRA, some researchers began to explore another idea. Researchers such as Jacques Vallée and Nick Redfern have offered the suggestion that some UFO reports could be due to a military or intelligence agency conducting psychological warfare experiments, sometimes on it own citizens.
The idea that UFOs could be used for the purpose of psychological warfare or “PSYOPs” goes all the way back to the days of flying saucers. After the December 27, 1949 announcement that Project Grudge, the second incarnation of the Air Force’s UFO investigation after Project Sign, would be ended (the investigation continued in a limited capacity until its revival and eventual renaming as Project Blue Book in 1952) a “final” report was released. Among the conclusions (pages vi and vii) is this: “Planned release of aerial objects coupled with the release of psychological propaganda could case mass hysteria.” There is the recommendation that “the agencies interested in psychological warfare be informed of the results of this study.” Read more
The 1975 book by John Keel, “The Mothman Prophecies,” is a complex book. The book’s through line centers on events in Point Pleasant, West Virginia from Nov. 15, 1966 to Dec. 15, 1967. These involved UFOs, sightings of a winged humanoid with glowing red eyes dubbed “The Mothman” and the collapse of the Silver Bridge, which spanned the Ohio River. But, the book is about so much more than that. It can be read several times and, depending on the reader’s perspective, be a completely different experience each time. It contains contactee stories, abductee stories, MiB encounters, Grinning Man encounters, a nighttime bedroom invader in a checkered jacket, strange metallic voices on the telephone, paranoia, poltergeists and prophecies. The reader can dive in repeatedly and come up with a tale that is interesting enough on its own to warrant further research. The tale involving Jaye P. Paro, Apol and Princess Moon Owl is one of those.
John Keel was a New York City resident and freelance writer who traveled the world looking for stories. During the period covered in “The Mothman Prophecies,” he was dividing his time, investigating strange events in both Point Pleasant and Long Island. The Long Island tale begins in the book with Keel’s investigation of reports of strange visitors by residents living on Mount Misery. Mount Misery is the highest point on Long Island at 400 ft and, put simply, is a big pile of gravel left behind by the last glacier that stopped by around 20,000 years ago. One resident there told of being visited by four men, three of whom looked “like Indians.” They politely told her that her land belonged to their tribe and they meant to reclaim it. She was “frightened” by their feet. They had no car and would have had to walk through mud to get to her house and yet they had none on their shoes. Keel was running into many similar stories of people who didn’t seem to quite fit in. He was becoming convinced that the people being described were extraterrestrials from another planet, or ultraterrestrials from another dimension.