Supernatural Flying Objects

Thanks to STTF reader Richard Garrard for the tip on this story.

When flying saucers fever hit in the summer of 1947, one of the early notions was that the UFOs were signs of the end times as prophesied in the New Testament of the Bible. Our earlier article Signs: Ezekiel, the Bible and UFOs examined some of the first discussions of the religious connection, and how some people thought the saucers were a warning from the Lord. 

During the 1952 flap the Air Force told us not to worry. According to General John Samford, saucers were not a threat to national security and, “reports of this kind go back to Biblical times.” As time went on without a solid answer, some people thought UFOs might indeed be a sign, but instead have an ungodly origin.

The Laymen’s Home Missionary Movement convention, 1916

The Laymen’s Home Missionary Movement was formed in the early 1900s, an offshoot of the Jehovah's Witnesses. In 1954 they issued a four-page tract, “Flying Saucers,” that suggested UFOs were not secret weapons or extraterrestrial spaceships, but part of the demonic manifestations of the "great signs and wonders" proceeding The Second Coming. 

The first page of it is reproduced below from the Museum of Weird and Demented Religious Tracts.

The edited text of the tract (along with another) ran in The Oregon Statesman, April 22, 1954, on page 5, an advertisement by Gerhard Smith. 

An excerpt follows, then a reproduction of the complete article.

"FLYING SAUCERS"

“DO YOU KNOW: 

That the general conclusion in these unexplained cases is that they are either (1) some sort of secret weapon of some nation on earth, or (2) ‘space ships’ from another planet, or (3) supernatural?  …the thought (1) of their being secret weapons has largely been abandoned? …the idea (2) of their being ‘space ships’ from another planet is untenable?

DO YOU KNOW: That this leaves for our consideration only the third (3) explanation that the so-called ‘flying saucers’ are supernatural?

…[Satan’s league of fallen angels] … these lying, seducing spirits… under ‘the prince of the power of the air’ have played many tricks on mankind, such as palming themselves off as a dead human still alive… appear in seances… obsess and possess humans, driving many insane… they operate through spirit mediums… give visions, work miracles, haunt houses, slam doors etc.?

…evil spirit beings are given greater liberty… here in the end of the Gospel Age… this greater liberty now granted to the fallen angels could easily account for their greater boldness and startling manifestations on a larger scale, such as the reported balls of fire, green monsters, ‘flying saucers,’ etc., recently seen world-wide in the heavens and on earth?”

The Oregon Statesman, April 22, 1954

This Demon-Haunted World

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli, 1781 

In the absence of conclusive evidence, Robert Bigelow and company have expanded the search for UFO answers to other mysterious things including the psychic realm, the paranormal, and life after death. The Laymen’s Home Missionary Movement beat them to it way back in 1954. Ufology has a rich past. It's history should be studied, not recycled. 

. . .

For more on the intersection of UFOs and religion see:

1950s UFO Abductions with Dr. O.L. Jaggers

Enid Brady, Bob Ewing, and the Voices from Space

Arthur C. Clarke and the Magic of UFOs

 

Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917 – 2008) was a scientist who became the world’s most famous science fiction author, best remembered for writing 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clarke’s influence is enormous, but today we’re focusing on one single phrase.

Arthur C. Clarke himself helped associate the phrase with UFO. He had a letter published in Science magazine, Jan. 19, 1968, correcting a reader who had erroneously attributed a quote by him to Isaac Asimov. Clarke offered the comment: “Meanwhile, Clarke's Third Law is even more appropriate to the UFO discussion: ‘​Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’"

 Science magazine, Jan. 19, 1968

Clarke had a long-standing interest in UFOs, and while visiting the USA in 1952, he looked into the flying saucer issue. 

His 1963 essay “Flying Saucers” for the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society explained why he changed his mind. 

“Before going to the United States in the spring of 1952, I believed that flying saucers probably did not exist, but that if they did, they were spaceships. As a result of meeting witnesses whose integrity and scientific standing could not be doubted, and discussing the matter with many people who had given serious thought, I have now reversed my opinion. I have little doubt that Unidentified Aerial Objects do exist – and equally little doubt that they are not spaceships! The evidence against the latter hypothesis is, in my opinion, quite overwhelming...”

Clarke appeared on the Long John Nebel radio show in February 1958 and told of his own many UFO sightings, which all turned out to be identified or explainable. The discussion revealed a depth of his knowledge on the topic, including the books by Keyhoe, Menzel and Ruppelt. Clarke was open to the idea of visits by extraterrestrials, but he thought that reports of flying saucers had nothing to do with it. “Most of the confusion on this subject is caused by mixing up two entirely separate things. One, UFOs. I think UFOs probably exist, and the other, so-called flying saucers, which are vehicles, definite vehicles, which are a totally different thing, and which don’t exist.”

Clarke’s 1959 book, The Challenge of the Spaceship devoted an entire chapter to showing that reports of unidentified flying objects were mostly due to misinterpretation, but he was optimistic about space travel. “If you keep looking at the sky, before much longer you will see a genuine spaceship. But it will be one of ours.”

In the summer of 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey was in theatres. Time magazine, Friday, July 19, 1968, featured the article, “Science Fiction: Latter-Day Jules Verne,” a profile of Arthur C. Clarke. The article quoted the “the three premises of which Clarke bases all his writing, fiction and nonfiction alike,” since known as Clarke’s Laws:

“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."

"The only way to define the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible."

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

One week later, that quote about magic was first used in to promote UFOs. On July 29, 1968, six scientists spoke at the "Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects" held by the United States government’s House Committee on Science and Astronautics. 

Dr. James E. McDonald said during his testimony:

“If we were under surveillance from some advanced technology sufficiently advanced to do what we cannot do in the sense of interstellar travel, then, as Arthur Clarke has put it quite well, quoted in Time magazine the last week, we have an odd situation. Arthur Clarke points out that any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic. How well that applies to UFO sightings.”

The United Press news coverage of the Symposium repeated it for the newspapers:
“McDonald said if the earth was being watched, it was being done by a society so advanced that its technology ‘would be indistinguishable from magic’ to earthmen.”


Indistinguishable from Magical Thinking

Clarke’s Third Law has since been quoted far and wide in everything from science fiction to computer programming discussions. It also became a fixture in UFO discussions.

In the textbook for the U.S. Air Force Academy, at Colorado Springs, Colorado’s third year Physics course, Introductory Space Science, Volume II, chapter 33, “Unidentified Flying Objects.” The Fall Quarter 1970 edition included this passage under the section, “Hypotheses to Explain UFOs.”

“Advanced terrestrial technologies (e.g. test vehicles, satellites, reentry phenomena, secret weapons). The noted space scientist Arthur C. Clarke has observed that any sufficiently advanced technology will appear indistinguishable from magic. Thus advanced terrestrial technologies are certainly the cause of some reports.”

Coral and Jim Lorenzen of APRO cited the phrase in their 1976 book, Encounters with UFO Occupants, saying, “…we may conjecture that we are ‘dealing’ with a very old and incredibly experienced galactic culture which has crisscrossed the vast spatial seas for probably thousands, perhaps millions, of years in starships that, to us, are ‘indistinguishable from magic’ (A.C. Clarke).”

In The UFO Verdict: Examining the Evidence by Robert Sheaffer, 1981, he quoted Clarke, adding, “But from this it does not follow that all reports of magic represent artifacts of some advanced technology.”

Almost from inception, the phrase has been used and abused to the point of cliché. Clarke’s law was intended to open the imagination, not to be cited as justification for superstition, or to serve as dogmatic mantra for anti-science beliefs. Clarke’s second law is a better motto for ufology:

The 1947 ET Hypothesis of John P. Bessor

The saucer project attracted screwballs in droves... there were letters.  They went into a special file with the cryptic notation "C.P." – for crackpot.  We got them by the hundreds.

- Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, in True magazine, May 1954,

“What Our Air Force Found Out About Flying Saucers"

A search for the identity of the author of a particularly interesting letter to Project Blue Book led to the article by Joshua B Buhs at From an Oblique Angle, “John Philip Bessor as a Fortean.”

It’s an excellent biographical piece with insight into Bessor, but there’s even more to his contribution to UFO history that’s worth further exploration. Bessor described himself as “a psychical researcher and student of the mysterious,” but he was also an outspoken prodigious writer, chiefly of letters to newspapers, magazines, Forteans, UFO researchers, and the US Air Force.

John Philip Bessor (1914 - 1989)

Today, Bessor is little more than a footnote in UFO history, and few people realize that he presented the first extraterrestrial hypothesis to Air Force UFO investigators back in July 1947. Richard Toronto interviewed Trevor James Constable in in July 1978, the author of They Live in the Sky, the best-known proponent of the notion that at least some UFOs are biological in nature, "space animals" or "critters." However, Constable was careful to point out he was not the first to do so, and said that honor went to John Philip Bessor, whom Constable described as the "grand daddy of the critter theory." Toronto noted that Bessor emphatically insisted, "I am not the grand daddy of the idea, simply the originator!"

Bessor’s concept could be called the ETAH, for the Extraterrestrial Animal Hypothesis. Further research found revealed that Bessor had written to the Air Force several times, the first to Project Sign in 1947, a letter that became famous. In it, Bessor debuted his controversial hypothesis as to the nature and origin of UFOs, but it was later used by a debunking article in a national magazine to ridicule the public’s interest in flying saucers.

Not much is known about John P. Bessor, and the sole photograph we have of him was located by of him was located by Gregory Gallagher from the Zelienople High School Yearbook, Zelie Ann, 1932. The photo bellow shows the entry and the biographical information which chiefly identifies him as an artist. Bessor signed this copy and added the artistic touches of a monocle and a mustache to his senior portrait.

1947: Bessor’s Letter to the Air Force

John Bessor was interested in paranormal matters at least as early as 1945, as shown by his correspondence with famous UK ghost hunter and psychic researcher Harry Price. He was also a reader of Charles Fort’s books and Round Robin magazine published published by Meade Layne’s mystic Borderland Science Research Associates, both of which discussed concepts of unidentified flying objects and the possibility of life beyond the earth.

When Bessor heard about Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of nine flying saucers, it caught his interest. Studying it along with the other earliest UFO reports, combined with what he’d learned reading Fort, led him to conclude that what people were reporting was unearthly - and alive. He shared his conclusions with the Air Force in a letter in early July of 1947. No copy of the original has been located, but portions of the letter were quoted in the magazine, Saturday Evening Post May 7, 1949, “What You Can Believe About Flying Saucers” (Conclusion) by Sidney Shalett.

Another wide area through which Project Saucer investigators have had to plow is the rich, intangible field of hallucinations, hoaxes and mass hysteria. For example, a man from Zelienople, Pennsylvania — who said he was “strictly scientific” in his thinking — wrote to the Air Force: “I am prepared to state that careful study and research has absolutely CONVINCED me that these 'Objects X' are creations of realms above or beyond our sphere; are, if you please, GHOST objects or craft, propelled by paranormal tele-portion (the telekinesis of the poltergeist manifestation). . . . They are controlled by intelligent, ghostlike, invisible beings or animals bearing, I believe, very little likeness to human beings.”

John P. Bessor was not named, but he proudly took credit for it in a letter printed in the Post’s July 2, 1949 issue.

He Believes in Saucers
I appreciate Sidney Shalett quoting my "disc" theory in What You Can Believe About Flying Saucers, May 7. . . . (Article quote deleted)
The Command has recently assured me that Mr. Shalett's appraisal of it was his own. . . . The only mass hysteria in evidence was manifested by those (since proven in error) who insisted that the "saucers" had no basis in fact. I found, to my satisfaction, by the process of correlation and elimination, that the "discs" are, apparently, extra-terrestrial objects, intelligently controlled by entities more like octopuses, in mentality, than humans. . . .[They] materialize into view more profusely during (cyclic?) recurrences of periods of climatic disturbances, and dovetailing with the meteorological. . . . The 1870s, ‘80s and '90's saw a rash of aerial phenomena. They portend no calamity, and the chatter of the cultists who talk of "masters" and "elder races" can be reasonably dismissed as abstract conjecture. . . . John P. Bessor, Zelienople, Pa.

The magazine replied,

We are glad to give Mr. Bessor his day in court, and we are even able to agree with him on one point: the flying saucers “portend no calamity.” —ED

Bessor then sent a letter to the Air Force’s “Project Saucer” dated July 13, 1949, to tell them about his disappointment and to reiterate his point of view. Interestingly, it contains the only instance of the word “paranormal” we could locate in PBB files.

John Philip Bessor
Zelienople Pa.
13 July 1949

Project Saucer Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio

Gentlemen: – I hope sincerely, you do not think I am boring you with my occasional and small contributions.

I felt very badly about Shallet’s mentioning my little theory regarding the “saucers”. He certainly had not asked my permission, and I really believe it gave the reader the impression that one takes his life and reputation in his hands to dare write you in confidence, lest he be held up in absolute public ridicule. My “reply“ to Shallet in the Saturday Evening Post’s “Letter” section was, due to deletion and butchering, made quite impotent, -- perhaps in keeping with the joking attitude that the Post writer Shallet inaugurated in his fiasco in titled “What You Can Believe About the Flying Saucers”. Paxton made my “dovetail” into “dovetailing” and made it appear that I had forgotten to begin one sentence with “Then--”. Actually, a sticker for accuracy, I had checked and rechecked my letter before I submitted it to the Post.

As things now stand, I am a martyr to my convictions, and only time may vindicate me. Believe you me, I as firmly hold today as I did when I first wrote you in July 11, 1947, that the “saucers” are extra-terrestrial “ghost-objects” propelled by telekinetic energy and caused to remain stationary in mid-air by levitation. Excuse the title of the magazine (I hate the esoteric) but FATE, 139 N, Clark Street, Chicago 2, Illinois, will print my article “The Mystery of Borley Rectory” tentatively scheduled to appear in the November 1949 issue. I have, in that article, summarized Harry Price’s findings to the paranormal influence manifested in the Borley Rectory’s hauntings, and you will see why I believe absolutely in the etheric.

You may keep the enclosed material.

Sincerely, 

John Philip Bessor

(Note: The letter was filed in the case, “Des Moines, Iowa (#317) 7 April 1949,” but no connection is apparent, and the enclosure is separated or missing. The article Bessor mentioned was published in the Jan. 1950 Fate as "The Ghosts of Borley Rectory.")

Bessor’s letter original letter had been used by Shallet in the Saturday Evening Post to provide an example of crackpot saucer theories, but maybe someone in the Air Force was taking Bessor seriously, though. In Project Sign's report from April 27, 1949, it examined various ideas for the origin of the saucers:

"the possible existence of some sort of strange extraterrestrial animals has been remotely considered, as many of the objects described acted more like animals than anything else."

The Project Sign report,

Medicine Hat News (Alberta, Canada) May 2, 1949

When Bessor saw an article discuss saucers as living things, it prompted him to write a letter published in Fate May-June 1951, where he staked his claim as originator of the concept:

Saucer Animals?

Your Flying Saucer theory was interesting but not new. I evolved it in 1946, after studying Fort's books. Presented it to the USAF July 7, 1947. Haberer of their press and radio section wrote me that it was "one of the most intelligent theories we have received." Briefly, the saucers represent a form of supernormal phenomena - are a sort of "poltergeist-animal'' capable of materialization. Possible propellant: teleportation. I believe they normally inhabit the stratosphere and are forced to fly lower due, possibly, to some cosmic disturbance in space. Not human-form; not people. The official release of April, 1949 quoted part of my theory.

J. P. Bessor St. Thomas, Pa.

(Harry Haberer, was civilian head press information for the Air Force at Dayton, Ohio, and responsible for providing Sidney Shallet with information for his 1949 Saturday Evening Post article.)

LIFE April 28, 1952 contained Bessor’s letter responding to their famous UFO article, “Have We Visitors from Space?”

Sirs...For five years I have held the theory that these aerial objects represent a highly attenuated form of intelligent “animal” life of extra-terrestrial origin—possibly stratospheric or ionospheric; propulsion apparently akin to teleportation, possibly flight by sheer will or thought. The frequent undulating motion in flight is analogous to the weaving trajectory of observed poltergeist-projected objects. Strange, luminous creatures inhabit the depths of our seas, why not similar creatures of highly rarefied matter in the heights of our heavens, and as diverse in size and shape as living things on earth?

John Philip Bessor

Fort London, Pa.

Kenneth Arnold, the original flying saucer witness, came to believe saucers were alive about this same time, and we have to wonder if Bessor’s letter in Life played a role in that. In an Aug. 1952, newspaper article, it quoted Arnold as saying he was convinced that they UFOs are a type of "living, thinking creature" that inhabits the stratosphere but they are no "menace." (Further details follow in our companion article, Kenneth Arnold and the ETAH.)

Civilian names are typically redacted in PBB, files, but they missed one reference to Bessor, a listing of the 1950 Philadelphia UFO mentioned in his letter. There’s no case file on the incident, however, just his letter, found in file, “Sandia Base, NM. 29 Sept 50.” True magazine, May 1954 featured, “What Our Air Force Found Out About Flying Saucers,” by Project Blue Book’s former head, Captain Edward J. Ruppelt. It prompted Bessor to write the Air Force with comments, criticism, and a case tip.

According to that excellent commentator, Frank Edwards, you have been withholding some “saucer” facts from the public. I plead with you to withhold nothing. You must admit that the Air Force’s contradictions in the past, it’s acknowledgments and it denials, have done it no credit, and have made the thinking public completely suspicious of it.

John Philip Bessor 

[Redacted], 

Pennsylvania 

May 2nd, 1954

Gentlemen:-

I have just finished reading Ruppelt‘s excellent summation in TRUE magazine. I completely agree with all his statements except that the Air Force has no knowledge of the “landing” of a U.F.O..

I think it most odd that the Air Force spent thousands on tracking down patently fictitious accounts of “little men”, and sublimely ignored the factual accounts of landings of U.F.Os. such as the six foot, purple-glowing sphere which gently alighted onto a Philadelphia field, September 30, 1950 (which, when touched by one of the policemen who saw it fall, dematerialized into a sticky film). It appears to me that such accounts smack too much of a supernormal (preternatural) and are hence conveniently excluded from A.T.I.C. files.

I note with some interest that you maintain a file initialed “C.P.” into which you dump any and all letters written by those interested in the “flying saucers”. I have received some very “odd “letters in reply to my “saucer” pieces in the Saturday Evening Post and Life magazines, and I can well sympathize with you on this point, but I certainly trust you the good sense to discriminate, and not throw out the weed with the chaff, simply because it is in letter form.

Relative to the West Palm Beach fiasco and the Adamski bid for publicity, you should read a 1953 copy (of excuse the stupid title) FATE magazine, you will see where I strongly question the authenticity of both the scoutmaster’s and “Professor” Adamski’s encounters. I can smell a fraud ten miles off. To think that the Air Force spent a fair sum to investigate the West Palm Beach tale. Seems incredible. The West Virginia “monster” appeared to be well worth looking into, but appears to have been shrugged off by Intelligence with a cute remark.

Incidentally, Adamski is booked in London halls for his lecture tour this summer. I understand that a fellow SOUTHERN CALIFORNIAN -- is touring the United States describing his trip in a “saucer”. His name: Orefeo Angelucci, -- a little fellow I’ll swear is trying to compensate for a feeling of gloomy inadequacy and boredom in the plastics division of Lockheed Aircraft.

Sincerely, J. P. Bessor

It’s easy to see why Bessor took an interest in the Philadelphia UFO, since the peculiar nature of the object fit well with his notions of organic and ethereal flying saucers. However, in repeating the story, Bessor bestowed even more unearthly qualities to the object than found in the witness’ report. The news was carried on the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer as  "Flying 'Saucer' Just Dissolves,” on Sept. 27, 1950, then picked up and syndicated nationally by the Associated Press.

Bessor wrote about the dissolving saucer part of his article, “Some Strange Meteors" in Fate magazine July 1954. Bessor somehow got the date wrong and exaggerated the details, changing the object from parachute-like into a globe, and changing “dissolved” into “dematerialize.” As “a sticker for accuracy,” Bessor should have checked and rechecked his article before he submitted it to Fate. He mentioned the story several other times with the correct date given, but kept the globe shape.

John Bessor, the Author

Bessor was a prolific letter writer and corresponded with many Forteans, UFO researchers including: Eric Frank Russell, Vincent H. Gaddis, Harold T. Wilkins, Frank Scully, Leonard Stringfield. It was Bessor who put two of famous friends in touch with one another; Gray Barker wrote to Morris K Jessup in November 1954, “I heard about you from John P. Bessor of Pittsburgh, who said you are writing a book about saucers.” Bessor was also very active in letters of comment to saucer and paranormal publications such as Saucer News, The Saucerian, Flying Saucer Review and Fate magazine.

Harold T. Wilkins, Flying Saucer Uncensored, 1955:

Mr. John (P.) Bessor, of Pittsburgh, has asked me to note that he is the originator of the term aeroform. I have pleasure in doing so, since Mr. Bessor is a pioneer worker who originated the materialization and de-materialization theory in connection with certain types of saucers. Of course, as this book has stated, there are other types of saucers of matter akin to our own.

Bessor briefly had a column in BSRA’s Round Robin, and corresponded with Leonard Stringfield, contributing this cartoon to the Sept. 3, 1954 issue of CRIFO Newsletter (Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects).

Bessor also sent the cartoon to Project Blue Book, and their version includes one of his ghostly UFOs passing overhead. PBB added the notation: 

"Comment: When was the Air Force ever able to muzzle the Press?"

Bessor’s letter to Len Stringfield’s CRIFO Orbit, Aug. 5, 1955, gives us some of the best insight into his views on how the fringe claims of saucer extremists were damaging the credibility of the UFO topic:

I have long been under the impression that the vocal group of the Air Force is perfectly satisfied to see the subject of flying saucers hang itself with the rope of prophesy, carelessly edited periodicals, and science-fiction yarns of "meetings" with etheric guardians, mystical masters, and sultry maids from exotic. planets! This hanging would make it unnecessary for the Air Force to (1) painfully admit the reality of the flying saucers to the public, or to (2) again commit itself foolishly by denying their reality.

John Philip Bessor, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Bessor was a regular contributor to the early issues of Jim Moseley’s Saucer News (Nexus) and he was briefly listed as a contributing editor. "Flying Saucers Fact and Fiction" was published in Nexus #5, Nov. 1954.

The ETAH in Print

John P. Bessor is perhaps best remembered in ufology for his articles in Fate magazine on the Extraterrestrial Animal Hypothesis. The Dec. 1955 issue featured his “Are the Saucers Space Animals?” as the cover story. He wrote:

Whatever they are, I suspect they just come down to look us over. I believe they are harmless or we would have had trouble with them long ago... I contend that the 'flying discs' (as they were first called) are a form of space animal, or creature, of a highly attenuated substance, capable of materialization and dematerialization, whose whose propellant is a form of telekinetic energy...

There is a saying that Nature abhors a vacuum. If the seas of our earth are swarming with varieties of living things, both great and small, is it not logical to assume that the 'sea' of our sky abounds with sundry forms of living things, likewise both great and small, of varied shapes, but adaptable to their celestial environment? Some may be quite invisible, others translucent, others opaque, still others capable of changing, chameleon-like, from one color to another, from one form to another, from visibility to complete invisibility, all in a moment.
Before alien abductions became a popular topic, Bessor speculated that people vanishing could be connected to UFOs.

We read of the weird disappearance of the occupants of sailing ships, of the strange disappearance into thin air... we wonder if they were... abducted by carnivorous species of flying saucer...

Bessor’s most longest relationship was with the magazine whose name he disliked, Fate. There he wrote over eighteen articles and had about half as many letter published over the years, more often than not on ghostly, not UFO matters. Two of his articles appear in book collections of the best of Fate magazine. (See the Bibliography section.)

1957 brought a UFO sighting that Bessor saw as conclusive proof of the phenomena.

The case became a classic, but failed to settle the dispute.

The 1960s and Beyond

The Fortean Society under Tiffany Thayer had a conspiratorial bent, distrusting authority, government, newspapers and the scientific establishment. some of that rubbed off on the UFO community, and a lot seems to have rubbed off on Bessor. In 1962, Bessor was concerned enough about an issue that he wrote to the Detroit Free Press and Fate magazine about how NASA’s space exploration could destroy souls in Heaven.

Bessor letter to Saucer News Sept. 1963 issue summarized his long-held position that UFOs were "psychic" in nature, etheric "poltergeist animals."

1967 was a very good year for Bessor, the 20th anniversary of flying saucers and of his Extraterrestrial Animal Hypothesis, which was being discussed in magazines, books and newspapers.

Mysterious Fires and Lights by Fortean author, Vincent H. Gaddis:

One of the advocates of our animal theory is John P. Bessor, of St. Thomas, Pennsylvania, with whom I once corresponded. He states that he evolved the theory in 1946 and presented it to the Air Force in July, 1947. An officer in the Press and Radio Section, in acknowledging the submission, said it was "one of the most intelligent theories we have received."

Gaddis’ section on Bessor was quoted the paperback book, What We Really Know About Flying Saucers by Otto Binder, 1967, and the ETAH was featured as a “new theory” in The Sydney Morning Herald July 23, 1967.

With the renewed attention Bessor wrote about the ETAH topic again for a feature article in Fate magazine Nov. 1967 “UFOs, Animal or Mineral?” He wrote:

... various species of extraterrestrial, highly attenuated life-forms or craft propelled by telekinetic energy or by sheer will or thought, Possibly originating in the ionosphere, they have been forced to ‘migrate’ to denser atmospheres periodically because of solar or cosmic disturbances. They are capable of changing shape in flight and possess the intelligence of the octopus, porpoise or chimpanzee.

In the foreword to his best-selling book, Flying Saucers, Here and Now, Frank Edwards gave special thanks to several individuals, including “John P. Bessor, of Pittsburgh.”

Bessor was primarily a psychic and ghost investigator, but in 1970, he had his own UFO sighting in Gulfport, Mississippi. He wrote to the police there to report what he’d seen, and to find if there had been other reports of it, or information related to it. Much like had happened in 1947, the authorities released his letter, to the press.

The ETAH was featured in the comic book, UFO Flying Saucers #3, Gold Key, 1972 as the cover story, “Are the UFOs Living Beings?”, but John Bessor was not cited as the originator of the concept.

Bessor's purple "dematerializing" UFO from Philadelphia, 

September 30, 1950 was also included.

Bessor's last known writing related on the UFO topic was a 1981 newspaper letter to the editor.
He didn't mention space animals, but was still fuming about a UFO cover-up by the US government.

The Pittsburgh Press Feb. 11, 1981

The Unique Bessor Point of View

What’s a bit odd with John Bessor’s outlook is that he embraced the idea of the supernatural, and wrote many articles on ghosts, yet he had a negative opinion of the “esoteric” and “of the cultists who talk of "masters... elder races." In later correspondence and articles he seems very skeptical and pragmatic, condemning the Contactees, and crashed saucer stories, but throughout his life held on to the conviction that UFOs were really ghostly space animals. Bessor subscribed to Psychic News, “the spiritual newspaper” from the UK, and contributed at least one article to them. He’d also written for Meade Layne’s Borderland Science Research Associates, but while Bessor embraced the paranormal, but rejected occult notions of Theosophy about extraterrestrials entrusting knowledge to a chosen few. Maybe he thought it smacked of clubhouse and fraternity ethos and elitism.

Bessor was more aligned with the brand of paranormal promoted by Frank Edwards and Harold T. Wilkins, who both wrote about general mysterious happenings and not just UFOs. Bessor was a fan of Frank Edwards’ syndicated radio show, “Stranger than Science, ” and of Edwards books that followed covering the same type of material, ghosts, phenomenon and UFOs. That was more Bessor’s style, that the world was full of strange and unknown things, but we were our own masters.

The ETAH or Extraterrestrial Animal Hypothesis never caught on the way the notions of interplanetary or interdimensional origin for UFOs did. It’s no more outlandish, but perhaps it was a bit too alien a concept, more disturbing than the notion we are being visited by humanoids who are much like us.

Fate Dec. 1955

John Keel in Operation Trojan Horse, 1996, wrote:

There are countless sightings of objects that changed size and shape... Over and over again, witnesses have told me in hushed tones, "You know, I don't think that thing I saw was mechanical at all. I got the distinct impression that it was alive."

Researchers such as John Bessor and Ivan T. Sanderson have openly discussed the possibility that some UFOs may, indeed, be living creatures. It's a mixed bag. You can take your choice. Every belief can supported to some degree, but in the final analysis, when you review all of the evidence, none of them can completely proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

John Bessor’s hypothesis may seem ridiculous to people today, but remember he grew up with a belief in the supernatural, just as many of us now have grown up believing in extraterrestrial spaceships. Bessor was also working with limitations of information and the reach of science at the time. We’re not much better off seventy years later, and there’s still far more that remains unknown than known. In time, our present-day notions of what is behind UFOs may turn out to be no more accurate than the 1947 Extraterrestrial Animal Hypothesis by John P. Bessor.

. . .

The John Bessor story concludes in the next STTF installment, 

Charles Fort, Kenneth Arnold and Space Animal UFOs

which features: 

ETAH: Fiction and Fort got there First

Kenneth Arnold, ETAH Proponent

The John P. Bessor Bibliography 

Bessor’s Controversial Correspondence

. . .

Update: An Early Letter Suggesting the ETH and a connection to Charles Fort

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 3, 1947, p. 6; a letter to the editor:

Sky Saucers

Editor, the Post-Gazette:
I read with interest the account of the "flying saucers" seen in Oregon, Texas and New Mexico. I promptly dusted off that highly interesting work, the books of Charles Fort, and re-read the various accounts compiled from newspaper and magazine articles of odd things seen in the sky.  It will interest the readers of your paper to learn that “flying saucers” were observed by dozens of persons, on dozens of occasions, during the latter part of the last century and the first part of the Twentieth Century.  Several sea captains have observed immense luminous "hub and spoke" constructions slowly revolving, at great depth, beneath their ships in the Mediterranean Sea. As jet propulsion and radio controlled craft were unknown in those days, it is sensible for us to take these things at face value and consider the great probability that these odd sky craft are interplanetary constructions. It is interesting to notice how often these craft are seen during periods of climatic disturbances or appositions of Venus and Mars!

AN OPEN-MINDED READER 
Zelienople, Pa.

The language, attitude and and content sounds very much like J.P. Bessor, who lived in Zelienople.

For Further Reading

“John Philip Bessor as a Fortean: by Joshua B. Buhs.
https://www.joshuablubuhs.com/blog/john-philip-bessor-as-a-fortean

“Who ‘Discovered Space Animals’?” by Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York
CSI News Letter December 15, 1957
http://www.cufos.org/CSI_NY/CSI_NY_%2322.pdf

“On the Track of the Gelatinous Meteor” by Richard Toronto, 2000
https://archive.li/DrW86#selection-335.0-355.18

“1950, September 26: The Purple Mass” by Garth Haslam
http://anomalyinfo.com/Stories/1950-september-26-purple-mass

John Mittl: from Unsolved UFOs to Astral Encounters

by Claude Falkstrom and Curt Collins

The "Unknowns," the cases Project Blue Book labelled "Unidentified," are the ones that interest UFO researchers the most. These are the cases are highly prized, as they provide the strongest evidence that some UFOs could be something unearthly. One such case is the report of John Mittl. While a few may know about his 1952 UFO report, not many know about his Mittl's UFO lectures, research or subsequent sightings.

John Mittl first became known for taking four photographs of a disc-like object July 9, 1952 from his farm in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. He wrote to the Air Force about the sighting, and the story was covered in newspapers and broadcast on radio by the legendary Frank Edwards.

The Morning Call July 31, 1952

Saturday Night Uforia hosts a page collecting the surviving Project Blue Book documents on the case, classified as "Unidentified."

Much More to Mittl

Mittl was only 22 at the time of the sighting, but was a man of many interests and talents, a former prize-winning member of the Future Farmers of America.

The_Morning Call Sept. 29. 1947

He was also a rock hound and gemstone cutter, and this is as good a place as any to mention that he was a vegetarian, and that his favorite dish was fried hot peppers.

The Morning Call Dec. 6, 1956, The Morning Call Jun. 16, 1960

Besides UFOs, photography, agriculture, herpetology and nature conservation, Mittl was interested in the occult. In 1960 he published a paper, "Astral Projection (Modus Operandi) by John Mittl PS.D, MS.D, D.D."

Astral projection is the term from Theosophy for the act of sending one's spiritual self or soul on an out-of-body trip. Mittl described what he provided the reader:

A simple method of instruction whereby the sincere student of the occult may readily learn to project his astral body and learn some of the deep secrets of the spiritual phase of exsistence, as well gain deeper insight into the realms of eternal life, knowing that death of the present physical body is not the end, but the beginning of our absolute ubiquity.

It's not known where Mittl studied to master the discipline, but one institution advertised in Popular Mechanics magazine offering three of the exact degrees he stated:

Within Astral Projection," he discussed the potential benefits of it as a means of exploration. "You may also desire a solution to Life's Mysteries as well as problems in your own personal life. The mystery of flying saucers may be revealed to you while on an Astral Flight."

Paranormal radio pioneer Long John Nebel in his 1961 book, Way Out World, compared Mittl to George Adamski and the Contactees:

Somewhat less dramatic, somewhat less physical, than his West Coast competitors is John Mittl of Pennsylvania. A vegetarian and recluse who petitioned long and hard to be on the all-night session, he told an interesting tale, but hardly soared to the heights of imagination attained by (Howard) Menger and (Orfeo) Angelucci. Mittl described many “contacts” achieved under dreamlike astral conditions. He spoke freely of etheric type saucers and other such things. However, it appeared that he was not really in his proper field because I recently got a brochure from him announcing that he was available for lectures on special theories of diet and nutrition.

Nebel was unaware of what all he was missing, like Mittl's expertise in snakes. There was no talent for that in the other Contactees. Mittl was also a attuned to the world around us, sensitive to animals and nature itself.

Standard Speaker Nov. 23, 1964

Despite his other interests, he still made time for flying saucers.

The Morning Call Nov. 9, 1964

Fourteen Years Later

Many witnesses become famous for a single UFO encounter or photograph, but Mittl's 1952 pictures were lost amidst the big flap of 1952. His time arrived in 1966.

“Our Space Age” was a daily syndicated illustrated feature written by Otto Binder and illustrated by Carl Pfeufer. Its main thrust was covering NASA's space exploration, but also covered Binder's other big interests, science-fiction and UFOs. In January 1966, it presented a six-part story on the otherworldly adventures of John Mittl. 

The Daily Journal Jan. 10-11-12 1966

The Daily Journal Jan. 13-14-15, 1966

The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 10, 1966 featured a lengthy illustrated article detailing Mittl's experiences and outlook.

Mittl was interviewed around the same time for The National Tattler, discussing his psychic experiences with UFOs, and making some predictions, such as the impeachment of President Johnson.

Mittl was still lecturing in 1979. From The Morning Call, Feb. 12, 1979, "Allentonian aims to prove flying saucers are spiritual."

Mittl said everybody can see the saucers when they materialize, but they are "still not physical. No one ever found one that crashed," he said. He explained that many continuous "sightings" by various people over the years was not an indication of "game playing" by UFOs. but simply showed some people were prepared to see them.

After that, Mittl doesn't seem to have gotten much press, at least for his UFO interest, but legendary psychic Harold Sherman mentioned him favorably in his 1986 book, The Dead Are Alive: They Can and Do Communicate With You. Sherman told how he'd recommended Mittl's classes,  and they helped a desperate friend reconnect with his departed wife via astral projection.

Forty Years Later

We're always interested to see what became of the participants in UFO stories through the march of time. John Mittl was interviewed by The Morning Call again in 1992, about his investigations and his thoughts on the physical nature of UFOs.

"I was always looking for one that would crash. I was like everybody else until I began to think about it... I found out after I did astral projection that there is no `physical' ship'."

Mittl made the papers again in 1996, based on one of his more earthly hobbies.

John Mittl briefly had a blog, Peppers & Projection in December 2009, which published some mementos from his UFO days. Sadly, his memories of those incredible experiences were later lost due to the onset of dementia. As of 2014,  he was living in Sandpoint, Idaho at the Valley Vista nursing facilities.

Despite his many other UFO experiences, Project Blue Book has only information about John Mittl's historic photograph case from 1952. As we've seen here, there was a lot more to his story.