The Thing from Inner Space, Part One

BY JASUNHORUSLY

The Everywhere Psyche, the Nowhere Alien, and the UFO In-between
Now whether you believe in a demon o the air or in a actor in the unconscious that !lays diabolical tric"s on you is all one to me# The act that man$s ima%ined unity is menaced by alien !owers remains the same in either case#& '(# )# *un%, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

+, -hat .oes a UFO /oo" /i"e Once -e 0to! 1elievin% In it2

-hen an inner !rocess can not be inte%rated it is o ten !ro3ected outward# 4T5he notion o a materiali6ed !sychism o!ens a bottomless void beneath our eet#& '(# )# *un%, Flying Saucers I don$t even remember when I irst heard about UFOs# -ho does2 Even in the +789s :when I was %rowin% u!;, they were so much a !art o our culture that most o us were !robably e<!osed to the ima%ery, and the ideas, be ore we could even tal", much less have an o!inion about them# One o my earliest memories is o watchin% The Day of the Triffids with my mother, at around si< years old :the ilm is based on *ohn -yndham$s novel about an invasion o alien !lants;# One o my irst memories o the cinema is watchin% Close Encounters of the Third Kind, when I was ten# I remember at about i teen bein% told by an uncle :not blood-related; that UFO0 had started a!!earin% in the s"ies a ter the irst atom bomb was e<!loded, drawn by an interest in our newly destructive technolo%y# I %rew u! acce!tin% these thin%s as !art o reality be ore I could thin" about what they mi%ht be or whether or not to believe in them# 1elie is a unny thin%# It can end lives and brin% down em!ires, but it doesn$t have any real e<istence outside o the

human mind :and the human mind& is itsel a =uestionable reality;# Animals do not have any use or belie # Plants sure don$t :e<ce!t maybe Tri ids;# I am 3ust %uessin%, but hi%hly advanced e<traterrestrials !robably would have evolved beyond it too# Phili! ># .ic" amously =ui!!ed that reality is whatever$s still there once you sto! believin% in it# There$s no doubt that, when it comes to UFOs, alien abductions, and the !aranormal, somethin% is ha!!enin%# 1ut there$s also no way to avoid the act that, a ter over si<ty years o si%htin%s, investi%ations, testimonies, and all the rest, we do not a!!ear to be any closer to understandin% what it is# In act, an ar%ument could be made that we arefurther away rom it, since we not only have a lot more evidence to study, we have an enormous amount o totally unnecessary and lar%ely un ounded belie s to %et !ast# In my o!inion, attem!ts to solve the UFO riddle are not bein% !revented by a lac" o data'or by so-called o icial denial&'but by an excess o data and a covert, but undeniable, orm o o icial endorsement'albeit throu%h rin%e outlets and !o!ular iction, combined with a serious ailure to understand and a!!ly the rudiments o !sycholo%y#4+5 1elie s about the UFO have ormed around the evidence and s!routed rom it, li"e cree!in% ivy around a mansion, ma"in% it all but im!ossible to see the sha!e or eatures o the thin% we are studyin%# As soon as we are dealin% with the un"nown, there$s an almost irresistible ur%e to inter!ret the data in order to relieve the tension o not knowing, to dra% whatever it& is& into the !arameters o the "nown# This results in su!er icially new& models, such as the ET hy!othesis,& which are really 3ust shiny re!ac"a%in% o old belie s# Isn$t that the UFO model in a nutshell, 3ust the same old vine%ar in a new bottle2 Outside o the ictionali6ed accounts :even i inse!arable rom them;, UFO-si%htin%s have been re!orted throu%hout history# ?ost o these re!orts can$t be veri ied, and nor should they be ta"en at ace value# Once a%ain, somethin% is ha!!enin%, bein% !erceived and described, but we have no way o determinin% how accurate the !erce!tions are, how close the

descri!tions match them, and how much the re!orts !assed down to us are aith ul to either# This is true o history in %eneral, but it$s much more so when no one can even a%ree as to the !recise nature o the !henomena bein% re!orted# I would =uestion all UFO accounts or several reasons# First, because we have no idea o the de%ree to which the !henomenon is bein% invented, or at least ramed, by so-called trained observers& wor"in% or hidden %overnment or other a%endas# That mi%ht seem li"e a lea!, and I$m not statin% that such a%endas e<ist, merely that they ay e<ist, that there is evidence they do, and that to assume they don$t is there ore oolish# Nor is the !o!ular idea o a %overnment cover-u!& o UFOs at odds with such a%endas, since one way to strengthen !elief is to appear to !e suppressing facts which support it :!erha!s another essay into itsel ;# 0econdly, an overall view o the !aranormal material available su%%ests that, alon%side UFOs, %hosts, and other seemin% anomalies out there,& there are such thin%s as !sychic mani estations,& namely !ro3ections o the human !syche into a =uasi or semi-!hysical a!!arition, even to the !oint o unmista"able !hysical e ects :!olter%eist !henomena is a well-"nown e<am!le;# As *un% wrote in +7@7, this idea o!ens u! a bottomless void beneath the UFO investi%ator$s eet# Ai%ht away, he or she has to consider that there is no easy way to distin%uish between an observation o a seemin%ly ob3ective& !henomena :the UFO; and somethin% that$s bein% created, or at least co-created, by the observers themselves# Nor can we cite !hysical evidence such as radar traces as inal !roo & o an ob3ective reality# Bow many o our observers, both trained and untrained, would be able to reco%ni6e the elements o their own !syches !ro3ected outward2 I would say this is somethin% very ew !eo!le are ever trained to do'or even consider as a !ossible inter!retation o what they are seein%# 0o the mere act that there are mysterious ob3ects bein% seen in the s"y need not lead us'in act must not lead us'to any !articular conclusion about them# There$s no need to

attribute any sort o nature to such !henomena, unless we assume that they are !art o the "nown# And i we do, it is an entirely unnecessary lea! to say they must be nonhuman :much less e<traterrestrial;, a lea! de!endent on the assum!tion that we already understand everythin% there is to understand about human bein%s'which, =uite !al!ably, we don"t#

4+5 At this !oint, my advice to anyone wishin% to study UFOs would be to start with *un%$s Flying Saucers$ A %odern %yth of Things Seen in the Sky, a ter which, instead o movin% on to the rest o the UFO literature, to stic" with *un% and other leadin% !sycholo%ists such as Freud, Norman O# 1rown, .onald >alsched, and whoever else the trail leads to# The reason I$d su%%est this is that all o us have already been e<!osed to the !rimary elements o the UFO e<!erience via the !o!ular media, and these elements have, by a orm o !sychic osmosis, become amiliar to the !oint o contem!t#