How the Battle of Los Angeles Became a UFO Story

 

Before the Roswell incident, there was “the Battle of Los Angeles,” and both were big 1940s military-related newspaper stories later resurrected as major UFO cases. Our examination is not about primarily about what was in the California night skies in February 1942. Rather, we ask:

How, when, and why did this incident become associated with UFOs?

The Battle

The basic story is that during the early days of World War II, the “battle,” started with a plane being detected by radar off the coast of California, and the city of Los Angeles being blacked out. There was a very real fear that a second attack from Japan was coming, and it caused a panic. Searchlights roamed the sky while anti-aircraft artillery shells were fired at flying phantoms. The events were covered by the Los Angeles Times, Feb. 26, 1942:

"SEEKING OUT OBJECT - Scores of searchlights built a wigwam of light beams over Los Angeles early yesterday morning during the alarm. This picture was taken during blackout; shows nine beams converging on an object in sky in Culver City area. The blobs of light which show at apex of beam angles were made by anti-aircraft shells.”

Witnesses described seeing many things; blimps, balloons, strange lights, squadrons of planes in formation, while others saw nothing besides the searchlights.

A less dramatic photo appeared in Life magazine March 9, 1942, in the article, “Japanese Carry War to California Coast.”

No Japanese aircraft were found to be involved, so in the aftermath of the battle, there was a controversy due to the uproar and damage caused by firing the artillery shells. People wanted to know: What was the Army shooting at, and if nothing, why? No one seemed to want to take responsibility for the mistake, and in that sense, maybe there was a coverup. In any case, the Martians were not suspected – yet.

 

Spaceships and Saucers

Spaceship in searchlights from Astounding, May 1940.

Ray Palmer was the editor of the science fiction and fantasy magazine, Amazing Stories, where he published the stories of Richard Shaver as nonfiction. Billed as the “Shaver Mystery,” the tales revolved around ancient spacefaring extraterrestrials, the Atlans, Titans, and “the deros,” their degenerate devilish descendants who lived in subterranean caverns beneath the earth.

Amazing Stories Feb. 1946 had a cover illustration reminiscent of the Battle of Los Angeles photo. Editor Ray Palmer, and AS June 1947

Carrying a cover date of June 1947, Palmer put out a special all-Shaver Mystery issue, released weeks ahead of the flying saucer sightings of Kenneth Arnold. In his editorial, Palmer presented the 1942 Los Angeles incident as sightings of spaceships, evidence in support of Shaver’s tales:

“Communication between these underground races (because they have the mechanical means to do so) and peoples who travel space in space ships, and sometimes venture near a sun-planet for raiding purposes (to steal ancient machines and supplies and to procure slaves), is postulated by Mr. Shaver, and borne out by the incredible number of reports we have and have had in the past, of visiting ‘ships’ in the sky (such as the mysterious ‘air raid’ suffered by Los Angeles during the war, and which the army now reveals has never been explained, except that it was no private or military plane of our own, and none of the Japs or any foreign power, but was certainly tracked by radar, and observed by many people to ‘appear to be rocket ships’ from three to five in number).”

The flying saucers sightings began shortly afterwards. Covering the controversy, the Los Angeles Times, July 8, 1947, ran an editorial article, “Have You Reported Your Flying Disk?” It skeptically suggested that UFOs sightings might be caused by disintegrating meteorites or a quirk of reflected light, and “From then on, autosuggestion is sufficient to carry it, as was the case with the 1942 ‘Battle of Los Angeles,’ when anti-aircraft bursts caught in searchlight beams were magnified into 27 twin-engined Japanese bombers, majestically flying in formation.”

Los Angeles Times, July 8, 1947

Into the 1950s

Ray Palmer left Amazing, but he launched a new similar magazine. Other Worlds Science Stories, January 1951 featured cover art by by James Settles for "Courtesy Call" by Roger P. Graham, writing under the house name, A. R. Steber. It was a first contact story, where a signal from space heralded the arrival of an extraterrestrial ship. 

Other Worlds Science Stories, January 1951

A delegation of US authorities gathered on the coastline to meet the visitors, and the narrator said:

“I got out of the car and looked over the water. Here and there broad pillars of light climbed upward into the sky, searchlights seeking for the first glimpse of the space ships. Even as I looked the first beam caught one of them. At once a dozen of them swung over to fix it and follow it in its lazy downward swoop. It seemed cigar shaped, a typical science fiction conception of a space ship with its large stern rockets, until it banked. Then its full proportions were revealed, a gigantic discus that could have perched over the financial district, resting on the spires of skyscrapers.”

Its cover illustration was evocative of the Battle of 1942, but in this instance, there were only spotlights aimed at the skies, not artillery shells.

LIFE magazine May 21, 1951 featured a long article by Winthrop Sargeant that seriously discussed Science Fiction, but also discussed the trashy side, things like Bug-Eyed Monsters and the Shaver Mystery. Describing Ray Palmer’s publication of the Shaver tales, Life said:

“The deros were responsible for much of the evil in the world… [behind] virtually every mysterious or unexplained occurrence reported in the news. They were held responsible for the disappearance of Justice Crater, for the mysterious ‘air raid’ over California just after Pearl Harbor, for the reports of flying saucers.”

The 1942 shelling and the topic of saucers were mentioned together again, in the Los Angeles Times, Aug. 1, 1952, but as an argument against the reality of UFOs. Veteran columnist Bill Henry referred to "the great ‘Battle of Los Angeles’ of 1942 in which something resembling a flying saucer — it was really an errant weather balloon — touched off the gosh-durndest artillery barrage that our community has witnessed before or since."

Los Angeles Times, Aug. 1, 1952

The Air Force files of Project Blue Book contains letters received with reports of flying saucers, both new and old, but none of them mentioned the Los Angeles events. It wasn’t part of UFO history.


The 1960s: The Battle Enters UFO Lore

Ray Palmer had tried to bring spaceships into the story, but it didn’t take. About 25 years later, the Battle was finally adopted by ufology. The 1960s saw a resurgence of public interest in flying saucers and several authors were looking at old wonders in the sky to present as UFO cases. That may have prompted the rebirth of the Los Angeles story.

The first known direct association of the 1942 incident with UFOs comes from M. A. McCartney’s letter to National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) dated Jan. 10, 1966. McCartney had been a 23-year-old air-raid warden, and he reported seeing a brightly glowing, spherical red object over Hawthorne (southwest of L.A.) As quoted in The UFO Encyclopedia Volume 2 by Jerome Clark, 1992: 

“It traveled horizontally a short distance very slowly and then made an abrupt 90-degree [turn] rising abruptly,” he said. “Again it stopped and remained motionless.” 

Summarizing McCartney’s account, Clark wrote, “After a few minutes it flew away and was lost in the distance.” NICAP did not publish the letter at the time, so it didn’t play a public role in popularizing the story. However other people were on the verge of making the connection to UFOs.

Kenneth Larson wrote about the 1942 incident and published “The Los Angeles UFO’s” in the fanzine, Saucer Scoop Dec. 1966, while it didn’t include a photo, but mentioned it:

“The next morning, the Los Angeles Times printed several articles on the matter and even displayed a photograph showing the unidentified flying object in the sky. The article said that the Army’s Western Defense command insisted the blackout was the result of unidentified aircraft sighted over the city."

Only a few buffs read it, but in 1967, a new 5-page article by Kenneth Larson, “First Authentic Flying Saucer Photo” appeared in Flying Saucers Pictorial - The world's largest collection of UFO Photographs!, a magazine format volume edited and published by Max Miller. It was carried in newsstands and reached a general audience. It was the first presentation of the 1942 picture as something anomalous, and Larson concluded that since what was fired at could not be shot down, “It seems obvious that these objects that flew over Los Angeles in 1942 were UFO’s.”

Flying Saucers Pictorial

More exposure came when Brad Steiger and Joan Whritenour picked up on Larson’s story in Saucer Scoop and summarized it in their 1967 book, Flying Saucers are Hostile. (No photo was included.)
John P. Bessor (originator of the 1947 hypotheses that UFOs are celestial animals), had a letter published in Fate magazine April 1967, warning against the cruelty of exorcising of ghosts, since they might be banished into space and bothered by things like satellites and UFOs. He closed with a tangential question:

“Incidentally, has anyone the full story on the torpedo-shaped objects that hovered for more than an hour over Los Angeles one night in January or February, 1942 — drawing considerable anti-aircraft fire? — J. Bessor, Pittsburgh, Pa.”

Gordon Lore and Harold Deneault of NICAP focused on pre-1947 UFO events in their 1968 book, Mysteries of the Skies: UFOs in Perspective. Chapter 6 (pages 74-87) was titled “The Battle of Los Angeles,” and their primary source was “Raymond Angier, an aircraft worker who did double duty as an air raid warden.

Angier provided extensive notes he had compiled after the sighting and told the story behind the story of February 25, 1942.” Their examination was of the reports of the “unidentified lights” and the “flares and blinking lights” described as hovering near defense plants that night. The famous searchlights photo was not discussed or reproduced. The authors concluded, “Although it cannot be proved beyond a doubt that no planes were over Los Angeles on the morning of February 25, the evidence is more in favor of unidentified flying objects.”

“The UFOs of 1942” by Paul T. Collins appeared in Exploring the Unknown, September 1968, and later reprinted in Flying Saucer Digest No. 19 in 1972. Collins included his personal testimony, over 25 years after the events, saying he: “noticed a strange pattern of movement in certain bright red spots of light in the sky over Long Beach. It was a pattern which could not possibly have been made by any man-made object, or by beams of light, either from the ground or from aircraft.”

NICAP issued a UFO calendar in 1972 of historical highlights, and for Feb. 24, it featured the “Battle of Los Angeles.”

Ralph and Judy Blum mentioned the story in their 1974 book, Beyond Earth: Man’s Contact with UFOs, chiefly from the perspective of Ralph’s childhood memories of the shelling incident.

The Rest is History

The Battle of Los Angeles gradually was cited more frequently in books and magazines as an early flying saucer case, and it slowly entered the UFO canon. Above Top Secret by Timothy Good, 1987, featured a section, “The Los Angeles Air Raid, 1942,” and the books’ illustrations included the photo.

Exposure peaked around 2010 due to the exploitation of the 1942 story and photo in the marketing of the 2011 Columbia Pictures science fiction movie, Battle: Los Angeles. The promotion of the film was aided and abetted by several ufologists, cementing the UFO connection in popular culture.

It was also around this time that it was revealed that the flying saucer ufologists were seeing in the convergence of the searchlights in the LA Times photo was man-made. In 2011, Reporter Larry Harnisch located the print used in the Times and said,

“much of what you see in this photo is painted: The beams from the searchlights are airbrushed. The supposed bursts of antiaircraft shells are blobs of paint… [the] darkened skyline, is a combination of black paint outlined with the faintest edge of airbrushing.”

Los Angeles Times file photo

Tim Printy wrote a skeptical examination of the photo and story as UFO evidence in his online magazine see SUNlite vol. 3.no. 1, “The Battle of LA UFO story.” Printy also located The Antiaircraft Journal, Volume 92, Number 3, May-June 1949, which featured “Activities of the Ninth Army AAA” by Col. John G. Murphy, CAC.

“L.A. ‘Attacked,’" was Murphy’s eyewitness testimony and explanation of the events:

“Roughly about half the witnesses were sure they saw planes in the sky. One flier vividly described 10 planes in V formation. The other half saw nothing. … Once the firing started, imagination created all kinds of targets in the sky and everyone joined in. Well after all these years, the true story can be told. One of the AA Regiments (we still had Regiments) sent up a meteorological balloon about 1:00 AM. That was the balloon that started all the shooting! When quiet had settled down on the ‘embattled’ City of the Angels, a different regiment… sent up a balloon, and hell broke loose again. (Note: Both balloons, as I remember, floated away majestically and safely.)”

"Necessity is the Mother of Invention”

Ray Palmer got there first, and he knew something about how to attract readers, and he certainly helped get the UFO business rolling. Since 1947, there has been a public appetite for new UFO cases, one that can’t be satisfied by the pace of genuine sightings. By mining historical events, enterprising ufologists can discover or manufacture “new” UFO cases for their audiences.

(Spurious ufologist illustration)

Particularly rich ore can be found in the ambiguity of events clouded with confusion and contradictory witness testimony. With some selective editing, old stories can be recast into something phenomenal.

. . .

 

For Further Reading 

To go beyond our summary of the incident, see the original news coverage at the Los Angeles Times.

The Battle of Los Angeles at Saturday Night Uforia, is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to examine the events and what followed.

Another good collection of photos and information is The Battle of L.A., 1942 by Scott Harrison at Los Angeles Times.com

Thanks to Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, Isaac Koi, and Tim Printy for research materials and resources used in this article.

Updating UFO History

George M. Eberhart describes himself as a librarian, cryptozoologist, historian, researcher, and Fortean. He recently published something very noteworthy.

After an effort of many years, I have prepared a comprehensive timeline of UFO history that will be useful to UFO researchers and historians. "UFOs and Intelligence” is an up-to-date retrospective of UFO history (from Agobard of Lyons to the newly appointed US investigation agency UAPTF), intertwined with events in US and world history concerning military and civilian intelligence agencies and the cult of secrecy. It is now 679 pages and more than 555,000 words (including a substantial “Sources and Further Reading” appendix). 

Readers will discover or rediscover many events, people, and UFO cases they may not be familiar with. Some will find it useful for current or planned research projects. Military cases, those involving commercial aircraft, close encounters involving physical traces and other evidence, reports involving occupants or entities, and events surrounding military and sensitive nuclear sites are emphasized, but this timeline covers the full spectrum of UFO history, from contactee experiences to misidentifications of mundane phenomena and notorious hoaxes. Links to online sources are given, and links to biographical information are provided when available. 

A timeline like this allows us to view events from a different perspective, letting us make connections we might not otherwise see. It forces us to view the big picture, amid the grand flow of UFO cases, military security decisions, a vast swathe of personalities, and world history. 

Eberhart's timeline is hosted as a 679-page  PDF at the NICAP or CUFOS sites:

UFOs and Intelligence: A Timeline by George M. Eberhart (NICAP)

UFOs and Intelligence: A Timeline by George M. Eberhart (CUFOS)

George Eberhart's timeline is a great  resource, and we're proud to see The Saucers That Time Forgot included among the many sources. We understand that George will be periodically revising the timeline, so this will be worth following for the additions and updates.

Speaking of Updates...

The work of Louis Taylor at Information Dispersal was the subject of our July, 16, 2020 posting, Ufology: Information Dispersal - Documents and Photos. Louis has kindly shared other historical documents and photographs for recent and forthcoming articles. He also provided a few rare items pertaining to some of our previous articles. The following six have been updated with:

An extremely rare flyer from the film distributor to UK theaters on the exhibition of The Flying Saucer Mystery has been added to: The First UFO Documentary: The Flying Saucer Mystery

An original UPI photo of the airframe and artist's conception of the: Princeton University's Flying Saucers for the US Army.

An original UP photo of witnesses John Black and John Van Allen from an early saucer contact case has been added to: Flying Saucer Ambush: Brush Creek, CA, 1953.

A flying saucer model photo from the 1959 National Models Exhibition in London: UFO Exploitation: Targeting Children.

The flying saucer and Martians of the UK's the Royal Air Force Maintenance Command for: UFOs: Real True Hoaxes of Advertising.

An original Buhl Planetarium flyer for the program "The Mystery of the Flying Saucers" has been added to:Astronomer Arthur L. Draper on The UFO Mystery

Thanks again to both George Eberhart and Louis Taylor for their work in preserving and sharing UFO history.

UFO Culture Examined: They Are Already Here by Sarah Scoles

They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers by Sarah Scoles

Reviewed by Curt Collins

Full disclosure: Sarah Scoles interviewed a number of ufologists in researching this book, including me, and I am mentioned in chapter 8. I’ll mostly recuse myself from reviewing that chapter, but the rest is fair game.

It's not very often a new book comes along with saucers in the title, so although our focus here is on weird UFO history, I felt obligated to check it out and review it at STTF. They Are Already Here is pitched as: “An anthropological look at the UFO community, told through first-person experiences with researchers in their element as they pursue what they see as a solvable mystery—both terrestrial and cosmic.”

I first became aware of Sarah Scoles’ work from her Feb. 2017, article in Wired magazine, “What Is Up With Those Pentagon UFO Videos?” one of the few pieces of investigative journalism examining the AATIP story. She approaches the UFO topic from a journalistic background - her usual beat is covering science, and her previous book was about legitimate scientific matters, a biography, Making Contact. Jill Tarter and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The AATIP story drew her in, and from there, this book.

The very first UFO book, Keyhoe’s The Flying Saucers are Real, set the model for most that have followed: The author receives an assignment or goes on an investigation (aka quest) which allows otherwise dull information to be packaged in dramatic scenes as the narrator overcomes obstacles and digs ever closer to the truth. The trope is tired, since it’s also an overused device to cope with the fact that there’s not going to be a satisfying ending. Since there's not much solid information, and even less in the way of clear answers, the UFO author usually has to drum up some drama by talking about the many locked doors they find, but insisting, have my faith my brothers and sisters, we’re almost to the truth

Chapter one begins with... you guessed it. But the author’s quest bit works very well here. Unlike in the hackneyed formula, Sarah actually does go on a journey - several of them, in a real-life journalistic quest to get under the skin of UFO mavens. By that I mean to understand them, but yes, she has gotten under their skin in both the positive and negative connotations!

Instead of a rabbit hole, she calls it a wormhole, but falls into a wonderland just the same. Part of how she was drawn in was driven by what she found to be curious lapses of details in the reporting of the AATIP story, and its uncritical acceptance by many, and the fact it was being merchandised.

Chapter two takes a weird turn, because it looks like the author began her investigation by going to a UFO convention. C’mon, man! That’s like trying to learn about zoology by going to the circus. Probably worse. But I get it, that’s where the UFO people are, from authors to devotees. A newcomer would expect a ufology conference to be a bit like a scientific conference where the latest scientific papers were presented and so on. Well, not so much here. There are some serious presenters and new data, but most of it is lectures from regulars on the UFO circuit, some of which are more performers than researchers. Often, it's no more than a UFO Comic-Con, a place to hang out with people with similar interests, with the option for cosplay and one-nighters.

Luckily, at the 2018 International UFO Congress, she ran into a few rational folks there, including Robbie Graham, who gave the lecture, “Searching for Truth in All the Wrong Places,” which caught her interest since he seemed to have a grounded approach and healthy perspective on a far-out and fringy topic. It was the book Graham edited, UFOs: Reframing the Debate, that led her to Canadian ufologist Chris Rutkowski, author of the chapter, "Our Alien, Who art in Heaven." Chris is a great guy with wealth of knowledge, but most people ignore him because he just makes too much sense.

Yow! Curt Collins is quoted in the chapter 8, which gives this book the distinction of being the possibly the first ever to mention the Roswell Slides, Gray Barker, and AATIP in the same chapter. And speaking of Gray... the playful wit of his good friend Jim Moseley (of Saucer News/Smear) seems to be alive and well in some of Sarah’s quips and chapter titles:

In chapter 4, Scoles begins her discussion of UFO history with the Kenneth Arnold sighting, which is good, because many numbskulls think it all started with a Roswell crash. She talks about how after Arnold’s story went big, the US was swept with saucer fever, and all of a sudden everyone was seeing saucers. There’s a brief mention of “perceptual contagion,”and that’s spot on. In 1947, there may indeed have been a saucer invasion, but people were reporting discs by the hundreds. In all the excitement, a lot of innocent birds, planes and balloons had their citizenship challenged; Martians everywhere. But that’s the point, she’s looking at the cultural impact of UFOs, which is why she fast-forwards to the Robertson Panel, the CIA panel that has been blamed for causing UFOs to be debunked and ridiculed. Those guys weren’t around back during the heyday of sea serpents, but sailors still got ribbed for being drunk on the job.

I had no idea who "The Patron Saint, or Something of Saucers" was going to be about, and seeing it in the index, thought that would have been Kenneth Arnold. Instead, it's an entire chapter on aerospace billionaire Robert Bigelow, sometimes called the Howard Hughes of ufology. His deep involvement of the AATIP story is just beginning to be understood.

Much of the rest of the book is Sarah's travels to meet people involved in the UFO scene, and she puts in a lot of time on the road and in the air to get to them. The writing is excellent, and the conversational tone of the book is works well, and it almost feels like the author is taking you by the hand touring into a UFO museum - or maybe a haunted house. The biggest gripe I have about the book is that an experienced UFOer will read the book, and say, "Why’d you go there, and why did you talk to that clown?” It’s like that old fairy tale, and anyone new to ufology is going to have to kiss a lot of frogs at the start.

There’s a line in chapter six that reflects her both her scientific background and the insight she gained by studying ufology:"

"Scientific methods are civilization’s so-far best attempt at removing biases, but nothing that involves a person (and probably nothing that involves a robot) is ever truly objective.”

In “It was Always You,” there’s an unexpected twist that closes not only the chapter, but the entire book. Scoles turns her examination 180 degrees and briefly examines her own beliefs, in what must have been a painful section to write so honestly about. It’s only a page and a half long, but one of the most powerful parts in the book. Though little is said there of UFOs, much is said about faith, belief, and feelings.

For UFO nerds like myself, who are often more concerned with data than literary merit, this book has a good index that’ll allow you to target any passage about any of the heroes villains or bit players discussed within.

There’s a passage from chapter one that can save you a lot of time, since if it doesn't grab you, They Are Already Here is not for you:

“I undertook this project because I wanted to understand why these people spent so much time on a phenomenon that they weren’t even sure was a phenomenon—at least not one beyond the human brain. What I found, when I got to know them, was that we were actually a lot alike in a lot of ways. They sought out mystery in the known world—and then scratched at its surface till it eroded into understanding. They believed people flying high in the government wanted to keep secrets. They craved evidence. They wanted better data. They wanted the truth. They wouldn’t—couldn’t—stop until they figured it out. That’s a lot like the journalistic process.”

I thought the book was great, and it would be perfect for any UFO buff to share with friends or family who don’t quite get the “UFO thing.”

In the AATIP-Bigelow-Skinwalker Ranch story, there's been a small tempest over a BAASS scientist saying they were using “the novel approach of utilizing the human body as a readout system for dissecting interactions with the UFO phenomenon.” Sarah Scoles volunteered, but it's sort of the same thing. Via this book, her brain can now be examined as a readout system for dissecting a scientific civilian’s exposure to ufology. She survived it, but can ufology survive its examination by her? I think so, and it’ll benefit from hearing her conclusions.

They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers by Sarah Scoles

If you don’t think you’ll like it, buy a copy anyway just to burn. It pairs well with UFOs: Reframing the Debate.

P.S.

By chance, I happened to sit in an interview of Sarah Scoles on the Paracast radio show. During some of it, I’m sure Sarah must have felt like it was more like a cross-examination or inquisition. She handled herself well, and I thought she did a good job of representing the book.

We also talked about how the prejudice of some of the UFO crowd on Twitter who have rejected the book without bothering to read it. Ufology has dreamed of getting science and journalists to take an interest. Sarah’s done that, and taken two years to give ufology a chance. We should listen carefully to what she made of it.

The Paracast: March 22, 2020 — Sarah Scoles with Curt Collins

The Future of Ufology: A Plea and a Warning

We proudly present a timeless editorial about the quest for a scientific study of unidentified aerial phenomena.

Ufology is the study of flying saucers, or Unidentified Flying Objects. This term was first applied to the saucers by the U.S. Air Force and was then quickly abridged to UFO by the customary style of alphabetical soup originating in Washington, D.C. To most of the students of Ufology the subject long remained only a listing of sightings with a minimum of analysis. Then it began to be contaminated by the antics of hoaxers and misguided zealots. Finally it has degenerated, in many instances, into a hodgepodge of subjective opinions, imaginary experiences and religious hallucinations which are not only unverifiable but often ludicrous. 

The general public is totally unaware of the real scope of Ufology. Even the full-time devotees seldom sense that the study of flying saucers, if pursued to any logical level or conclusion, soon turns out to be a study of life. It parallels the study of mankind in past, present and future--in science, religion and philosophy. The subject of Ufology is as broad, as deep and as long (especially in terms of time ) as the study of humanity itself. Also, it is just as little understood, either in substance, concept or application. 

To boil it all down; we know that there are Flying Saucers or UFO's --and that's about all we do know about them with any degree of certainty. To be sure, we know there are many types and that they come and go with bewildering gyrations and a variety of colors, but these defy classification, much less analysis. We also know that they have been here for thousands of years, which makes it difficult for the Russians or our own Air Force to claim parenthood for them. We know that the y are prominent in Biblical history, as instanced by the wheel of Ezekiel. 

We believe that they are intelligently controlled either by pilots, or that they are actually intelligent entities of a nature completely beyond our ken. But-- we don't know. We don't know where they originate. We don't know their purpose, or whether they have any purpose. But, whatever may be the deplorable state of our knowledge of UFO's, we certainly know some thing about the state of ufology--and how!

This embryonic science is as full of cults, feuds and dogmas as a dog is of fleas. There are probably more opinions about the nature and purpose of UFO'e as there are Ufologers. The sky visitors are believed to come from Russia, the U.S. Air Force, open space, the moon, Venus, Mare Jupiter, Saturn, Alpha Centauri, the outer Galaxy, distant galaxies millions of light years away, from the fourth dimension, from etheric space (whatever that may be), from the fifth dimension, from the second, third fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh or other spheres of intelligence and existence, from etheric planets, an invisible planet behind the moon, the spirit world, and perhaps even from a galactic Shangri-La!

The UFO's are believed to be operated by innate intelligences, Russians, U.S. Pilots, Martians, Venusians, Jovians, Saturnians, remote control, automatic control, galactic space patrols, solar system police, and so on. 

They are believed to be powered by rockets, atomic jets, electro-magnetic drives, anti-gravity, levitation, thought control, fourth dimensional vibrations, photo ejection, atomic reactance, magnetic reactance, light pressure, gravity shields and (probably) imagination. 

UFO's are believed to have the purpose of exploring the earth (the job should be nearly complete after at least ten thousand years), mapping the earth, studying humanity, cleaning the atmosphere of atomic radiation, transporting water and/or minerals to distant planets, kidnapping humans for specimens of study, studying our aviation and rockets, gathering to evacuate this planet at the onset of a new cosmic catastrophe, preparing for the second coming of Christ, aiding in our physical and mental evolution, also giving us religious guidance in matters relating to universal love and cosmic brotherhood. 

The UFO's are also supposed to be space animals, discarnate entities, mother ships, scout ships, balls of intelligent fire, pure energy, super-heavy matter, stray vibrations, meteors, comets, temperature inversions, and thought forms of higher entities. 

They are said to be representatives of God, the gods, an elder race, Christ, et alia. We are in communication with UFO s by infra-red light beams, electronically modulated and detected, by radio, flashlight, direct voice, cabalistic footprints, telepathy, spiritual mediumship, revelations of esoteric and occult masters, and by flickering electric lights. 

They are guardians, angels, Brothers, Elders, the Boys Upstairs, guides, gods, and representatives of an indeterminate number of super-circumbient spheres of intelligence. 

They are vicious, kindly, vengeful, benevolent, destructive, protective, god-like, animal-like, humanoid, non-human, pygmies, giants, religious, pagan and what have you. They land, they don't land. They contact a few obscure characters. They don't contact anyone. They have been here thousands of years. They were not here before 1947. 

If you are skeptical about their existence and antics, you are likely to be called a lot of dirty names, the least of which is asinine or anti-social. If you accept the stories of contacts and rides in UFO's you are a crackpot (now termed Psycho-Ceramic). If you are undecided you are a worm or a weak sister. Anyway you put it, you can't win. 

The extremes of beliefs are, on the one hand, that they are man-made, and on the other that they are ships of pure, god-like beautiful men from Venus with all of the combined Divine characteristics of the Deity, the Masters and a host of angels. We are told in this view, that they will soon land for the purpose of saving us from ourselves, or at least they will transport the Biblical 144,000 chosen ones, the elect, to a safer and saner place of abode. Dedicated people dress in white and stand on street corners awaiting the arrival of the brothers! And so it goes. 

The Plea

NOW -- if we are not now to destroy the field of Ufology and let it go down in a welter of ridicule, we have got to work together, work with facts and not rumors, do something drastic about deep-enders and hoaxers, and be as objective as possible. The whole field is on the verge of extinction right now because of irresponsible hoaxing and self-aggrandizement. That is a warning. Every day sees the demise of better and sounder clubs and magazines. The plea is: tolerance for the viewpoints of others until they are proven wrong, and refraining from positive statements until we are proven right. Otherwise--it is goodbye to Ufology in a very short time. 

_______________________________________________

"The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools." 

--Ecclesiastes, 9:17. 

By M. K. Jessup, 1958

M. K. Jessup’s “Ufology: A Plea and a Warning” originally appeared in Miami Saucerlore, Spring 1958, published by the Miami Flying Saucer Club, and was reprinted in Max B. Miller’s SAUCERS, Spring & Summer 1959 issue. 

Joshua B. Buhs wrote an excellent article on Jessup’s life and work, and took a look at his unconventional outlook:

“The Case for the UFOs” is principally a Fortean book... The basic story that Jessup tells in this book is a mixture of Theosophy and Fortean ideas. He argues that flying saucers do not come from deep space, or even other planets—the distances are just too vast; rather, they originate in the area between the moon and the earth...”

See “Morris Ketchum Jessup as a Fortean” for more information.