'UFOs not only lack real existence, they demonstrate that everything lacks real existence.' — Sarkon
Jacques Vallée on Control:
'When I speak of a control system for planet earth, I do not want my words to be misunderstood: I do not mean that some higher order of beings has locked us inside the constraints of a space-bound jail, closely monitored by psychic entities we might call angels or demons. I do not propose to redefine God. What I do mean is that mythology rules at a level of our social reality over which normal political and intellectual action has no power.'
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Social Technology
For Vallée, the UFO phenomenon - a uniquely 20th century interpretation of an enduring occurrence that unites, not insignificantly, archaic with futuristic imaginaries - consists of three levels: the material, the perceptual, and the social-semiotic.
'First, there is a physical object. That may be a flying saucer or it may be a projection or it may be something entirely different. All we know about it is that it represents a tremendous quantity of electromagnetic energy in a small volume. I say that based upon the evidence gathered from traces, from electromagnetic and radar detection and from perturbations of the electromagnetic fields such as Dr. Claude Poher, the French space scientist, has recorded.
Second, there's the phenomenon the witnesses perceive. What they tell us is that they've seen a flying saucer. Now they may have seen that or they may have seen an image of a flying saucer or they may have hallucinated it under the influence of microwave radiation, or any of a number of things may have happened. The fact is that the witnesses were exposed to an event and as a result they experienced a highly complex alteration of perception which caused them to describe the object or objects that figure in their testimony.
And then there is a third level, the social level, and the impact on our belief systems. At that level - and this is something that's very difficult to convey to the believers in UFOs - that at that level, it really doesn't matter whether UFOs are real or not. If enough people believe that something is real then, it is real, in its effects - in terms of its social reality, in terms of the ways people act according to their beliefs.
That opens a question of - really, at two levels - could the UFO phenomenon be manipulating us? Could it be a teaching system of some sort? Perhaps something that we are creating ourselves - perhaps a series of images that we are projecting. I think Carl Jung came very close to expressing that idea in one of his books. Or could it be manipulated purposefully by people who have the technology to simulate UFO sightings? People say "Of course not! Who would do a thing like that?". Now I would remind you that during the Watergate investigation it was discovered that there was a plan which originated in the Whitehouse to surface a submarine off the coast of Cuba and project the second coming of Christ over the island of Cuba using holograms - which is well within our technological capabilities today. The idea was that since there is a large Catholic population in Cuba they would be so upset by this vision that they would saturate the communication channels - the telephone system - long enough for an invasion to take place. It's a classic in psychological warfare that that kind of manipulation is well understood, and I have personally investigated several apparently genuine UFO cases where the the main conclusion - the conclusion of the scientists working with me - was that there was in fact a manipulation taking place and that it was not a hoax on the part of the witnesses but a hoax on the part of somebody much better organised than them.'
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Clark: 'What do you think of the abduction cases?'
Vallée: 'I'm interested mainly in their symbolic contents. Let me explain what I mean. We live in a society that is oriented toward technology, so when we see something unusual in the sky we think of it in physical terms. How is it manufactured? What makes it tick? What is its propulsion system? We tend to assume that the physical phenomenon is its most important aspect and that everything else is just a side effect and much less important. But perhaps we're facing something which is basically a social technology. Perhaps the most important effects from the UFO technology are the social ones and not the physical ones. In other words the physical reality may serve only as a kind of triggering device to provide images for the witness to report. These perceptions are manipulated to create certain kinds of social effects.
If that's true, then the abduction cases are quite revealing. I am not concerned with how many switches there were on the control panel or whether the percipient felt hot or cold when he was inside the flying saucer. Those questions may be totally irrelevant because maybe that person never actually went inside the object. But the report is extremely important for its symbolic content. It can help us understand what kinds of images are coming through. One might illustrate the difference in this way: An engineer observing a computer would want to look at the back and open up the boxes. He would want to take a probe and examine the different parts of the computer. But there is another way of looking at it; the way of the programmer, who wants to sit in front of the computer and analyze what it does, not how it does it. That's my approach. I want to ask it questions and see what answers I get. I want to interact with it as an information entity.
In the case of the abductions I think we're dealing with the information aspect. I came to that conclusion because abduction cases, in close encounter cases in general, what the witness is saying is absurd.'
Clark: 'What do you mean?'
Vallée: 'I don't mean simply to imply that the account is silly. I mean it has absurdity as a semantic construction. If you're trying to express something which is beyond the comprehension of a subject, you have to do it through statements that appear contradictory or seem absurd. For example, in Zen Buddhism the seeker must deal with such concepts as "the sound of one hand clapping" - an apparently preposterous notion which is designed to break down ordinary ways of thinking. The occurrences of similar "absurd" messages in UFO cases brought me to the idea that maybe we're dealing with a sort of control system that is subtly manipulating human consciousness.'
Feedback
Vallée: 'I've always been unhappy with the argument between those who believe UFOs are nonsense and those who believe they are extraterrestrial visitors. I don't think I belong in either camp. I've tried to place myself between those two extremes because there's no proof that either proposition is correct. I've come up with the control system concept because it is an idea which can be tested. In that sense it's much closer to a scientific hypotheses than the others. It may turn out that there is a control system which is operated by extraterrestrials. But that's only one possibility. There are different kinds of control systems - open ones and closed ones - and there are tests you can apply to them to find out what kind of control system you're inside. That leads to a number of experiments you can do with the UFO phenomenon, whereas the other interpretations don't lead you to anything. If you're convinced that UFOs are extraterrestrial, then about the only thing you can do is to climb to a hilltop with a flashlight and send a message in Morse code. People have tried that, I know, but it doesn't seem to work very will! The control system concept can be tested by a small group of people - you don't need a large organization or a lot of equipment - and you can start thinking about active intervention in the phenomenon.
If you think you're inside a control system, the first thing you have to look for is what is being controlled and try to change it to see what happens. [...] Assuming that there is a feedback mechanism involved in the operations of the control system; if you change the information that's carried back to that system, you might be able to infiltrate it through its own feedback.'
Clark: 'Are you suggesting that the investigator should attempt to experience the phenomenon himself?'
Vallée: 'Yes, I think that's sound scientific practice. There is an element of danger you really can't avoid. There's no way to do that kind of study just by reading books.'
Dates: 'Written in Paris during the general strikes and riots of May 1968, and published in Chicago one year later, Passport to Magonia had the unintended effect of uniting believers in flying saucers and their skeptical, "rationalist" opponents. Both sides agreed for once, joining forces to treat the book with instant suspicion.' (Vallée, foreword to Passport to Magonia, 2014)
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