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Guderian was dismissed twice, first on 26 December 1941 and again on 28 March 1945. The last dismissal followed a shouting match with Hitler over the loss of the German forces encircled at Küstrin. The encircled forces were not allowed to break out, and the 9th Army was unable to relieve them. Guderian said he was informed that his "physical health requires that [he] immediately take six weeks convalescent leave".[33] He was replaced by General Hans Krebs. notwithstanding such defiance that no other German general dared, Hitler simply retired him instead of having him imprisoned or executed. Gen (later FM) Model once asked Hitler, "Am I comanding Ninth Army or you?" Which was pretty bold! Hitler was more apt to put up with this from Generals with front line experience. "In conversations generally I admired Hitler's calm manner. I never found him to be an unpleasant person. On the contrary, for me he was an aesthete, and his open mindedness, tolerance, and chivalrous manner were the reasons why all people who came into contact with him found him human and congenial." – Nicolaus von Below, Hitler's Luftwaffe adjutant in his memoir, At Hitler's Side: The Memoirs of Hitler's Luftwaffe Adjutant,
alien abduction
"...despite the fact that we humans are great collectors of souvenirs, not one of these persons [claiming to have been aboard a flying saucer] has brought back so much as an extraterrestrial tool or artifact, which could, once and for all, resolve the UFO mystery."
~Philip Klass
There is a widespread belief that alien beings have traveled to Earth from some other planet and are doing reproductive experiments on a chosen few. Despite the incredible nature of this belief and a lack of credible supportive evidence, a cult has grown up around it. According to a Gallup poll done at the end of the twentieth century, about one-third of Americans believe aliens have visited us, an increase of 5% over the previous decade.
According to the tenets of this cult, aliens crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. The U.S. Government recovered the alien craft and its occupants, and has been secretly meeting with aliens ever since in a place known as Area 51. The rise in UFO sightings is due to the increase in alien activity on Earth. The aliens are abducting people in larger numbers, are leaving other signs of their presence in the form of so-called crop circles, are involved in cattle mutilation, and occasionally provide revelations such as the Urantia Book to selected prophets. The support for these beliefs about aliens and UFOs consists mostly of speculation, fantasy, fraud, and unjustified inferences from questionable evidence and testimony. UFO devotees are also convinced that there is a government and mass media conspiracy to cover up the alien activities, making it difficult for them to prove that the aliens have landed.
It is probable that there is life elsewhere in the universe and that some of that life is intelligent. There is a high mathematical probability that among the trillions of stars in the billions of galaxies there are millions of planets in age and proximity to a star analogous to our Sun. The chances seem very good that on some of those planets life has evolved. It is even highly probable that natural selection governs that evolution. However, it is not inevitable that the results of that evolution would yield intelligence, much less intelligence equal or superior to ours. It is possible that we are unique.
We should not forget, however, that the closest star (besides our Sun) is so far away from Earth that travel between the two would take more than a human lifetime. The fact that it takes our Sun about 200 million years to revolve once around the Milky Way gives one a glimpse of the perspective we have to take of interstellar travel. We are 500 light-seconds from the sun. The next nearest star to Earth's sun (Alpha Centauri) is about 4 light-years away. That might sound close, but it is actually something like 24 trillion miles away. Even traveling at one million miles an hour, it would take more than 2,500 years to get there. To get there in twenty-five years would require traveling at more than 100 million miles an hour for the entire trip. Our fastest spacecraft, Voyager, travels at about 40,000 miles an hour and would take 70,000 years to get to Alpha Centauri.
Despite the probability of life on other planets and the possibility that some of that life may be very intelligent, any signal from any planet in the universe broadcast in any direction is unlikely to be in the path of another inhabited planet. It would be folly to explore space for intelligent life without knowing exactly where to go. Yet, waiting for a signal might require a wait longer than any life on any planet might last. Finally, if we do get a signal, the waves carrying that signal left hundreds or thousands of years earlier and by the time we tracked its source down, the sending planet may no longer be habitable or even exist.
Thus, while it is probable that there is intelligent life in the universe, traveling between solar systems in search of that life poses some serious obstacles. Such travelers would be gone for a very long time. We would need to keep people alive for hundreds or thousands of years. We would need equipment that can last for hundreds or thousands of years and be repaired or replaced in the depths of space. These are not impossible conditions, but they seem to be significant enough barriers to make interstellar and intergalactic space travel highly improbable. The one thing necessary for such travel that would not be difficult to provide would be people willing to make the trip. It would not be difficult to find many people who believe they could be put to sleep for a few hundred or thousand years and be awakened to look for life on some strange planet. They might even believe they could then gather information to bring back to Earth where they would be greeted with a ticker tape parade down the streets of whatever is left of New York City.
Despite the fact of the improbability of interplanetary travel, it is not impossible. Perhaps there are beings that can travel at very fast speeds and have the technology and the raw materials to build vessels that can travel at near the speed of light or greater. Have such beings come here to abduct people, rape and experiment on them? There have been many reports of abduction and sexual violation by creatures who are small and bald or are white, gray, or green; have big craniums, small chins, large slanted eyes, and pointed or no ears. How does one explain the number of such claims and their similarity? The most reasonable explanation for the accounts being so similar is that they are based on the same movies, the same stories, the same television programs, and the same comic strips. .
The alien abduction story that seems to have started the cult beliefs about alien visitation and experimentation is the Betty and Barney Hill story. The Hills claim to have been abducted by aliens on September 19, 1961. Betty first "remembered" her abduction during a series of nightmares, which she told Barney about. Barney claims the aliens took a sample of his sperm. Betty claims they stuck a needle in her belly button. She took people out to an alien landing spot, but only she could see the aliens and their craft. The Hills recalled most of their story under hypnosis a few years after the abduction. Barney Hill reported that the aliens had "wraparound eyes," a rather unusual feature. However, twelve days earlier an episode of The Outer Limits" featured just such an alien being. According to Robert Schaeffer, "we can find all the major elements of contemporary UFO abductions in a 1930 comic adventure, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century."
The Hill�s story has been repeated many times. There is a period of amnesia following the alleged encounter. There is then usually a session of hypnosis, counseling or psychotherapy during which comes the recollection of having been abducted and experimented on. The only variation in the abductees� stories is that some claim to have had implants put in them and many claim to have scars and marks on their bodies put there by aliens. All describe the aliens in much the same way.
Whitley Strieber, who has written several books about his alleged abductions, came to the realization he had been abducted by aliens after psychotherapy and hypnosis. Strieber claims that he saw aliens set his roof on fire. He says he has traveled to distant planets and back during the night. He wants us to believe that he and his family alone can see the aliens and their spacecraft while others see nothing. Strieber comes off as a very disturbed person, but one who really believes he sees and is being harassed by aliens. He describes his feelings precisely enough to warrant believing he was in a very agitated psychological state prior to his visitation by aliens. A person in this heightened state of anxiety will be prone to hysteria and be especially vulnerable to radically changing behavior or belief patterns. When Strieber was having an anxiety attack he consulted his analyst, Robert Klein, and Budd Hopkins, an alien abduction researcher. Then, under hypnosis, Strieber started recalling the horrible aliens and their visitations.
Hopkins demonstrated his sincerity and investigative incompetence on the public television program Nova ("Alien Abductions," first shown on February 27, 1996). The camera followed Hopkins through session after session with a very agitated, highly emotional "patient". Then Nova followed Hopkins to Florida where he cheerfully helped a visibly unstable mother inculcate in her children the belief that they had been abducted by aliens. In between more sessions with more of Hopkins' "patients", the viewer heard him repeatedly give plugs for his books and his reasons for showing no skepticism at all regarding the very bizarre claims he was eliciting from his "patients". Dr. Elizabeth Loftus was asked by Nova to evaluate Hopkins' method of "counseling" the children whose mother was encouraging them to believe they had been abducted by aliens. From the little that Nova showed us of Hopkins at work, it was apparent that Mr. Hopkins encouraged the creation of memories, though Hopkins claims he is uncovering repressed memories. Dr. Loftus noted that Hopkins did much encouraging of his "patients" to remember more details, as well as giving many verbal rewards when new details were brought forth. Dr. Loftus characterized the procedure as "risky" because we do not know what effect this "counseling" will have on the children. It seems we can safely predict one effect: they will grow up thinking they've been abducted by aliens. This belief will be so embedded in their memory that it will be difficult to get them to consider that the "experience" was planted by their mother and cultivated by alien enthusiasts like Hopkins.
John Mack
Another alien enthusiast was the Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John Mack (1929-2004), who wrote books about patients who claim to have been abducted by aliens. Many of Mack�s patients had been referred to him by Hopkins. Dr. Mack claimed that his psychiatric patients were not mentally ill (then why was he treating them?) and that he could think of no better explanation for their stories than that they were true. However, until someone produces physical evidence that abductions have occurred, it seems more reasonable to believe that Dr. Mack and his patients were deluded or frauds. Of course, the good doctor could hide behind academic freedom and the doctor/patient privacy privilege. He could make all the claims he wanted and refuse to back any of them up on the grounds that to do so would be to violate his patients' rights. He could then publish his stories and dare anyone to take away his academic freedom. He was in the position any cheat would envy: he could lie without fear of being caught.
Dr. Mack also appeared on the Nova "Alien Abductions" program. He claimed that his patients were otherwise normal people, which is a debatable point if his patients are anything like Hopkins' patients who appeared on the program. Mack also claimed that his patients have nothing to gain by making up their incredible stories. For some reason it is often thought by intelligent people that only morons are deceived or deluded and that if a person's motives can be trusted then his or her testimony can be trusted, too. While it is true that we are justified in being skeptical of a person's testimony if she has something to gain by the testimony (such as fame or fortune), it is not true that we should trust any testimony given by a person who has nothing to gain by giving the testimony. An incompetent observer, a drunk or drugged observer, a mistaken observer, or a deluded observer should not be trusted, even if he is as pure as the mountain springs once were. The fact that a person is kind and decent and has nothing to gain by lying does not make him or her immune to error in the interpretation of perceptions.
One thing Dr. Mack did not note was that his patients gain a lot of attention by being abductees. Furthermore, no mention was made of what he and Hopkins have to gain in fame and book sales by encouraging their clients to come up with more details of their "abductions". Mack received a $200,000 advance for his first book on alien abductions. Mack also benefited by publicizing and soliciting funds for his Center for Psychology and Social Change and his Program for Extraordinary Experience Research. Dr. Mack, by the way, was very impressed by the fact that his patients� stories were very similar. He also believes in auras and has indicated that he believes that some of his ex-wife�s gynecological problems may have been due to aliens. Harvard kept him on staff in the name of academic freedom.
Robert Bigelow
Another contributor to the mythology of alien abductions is Robert Bigelow, a wealthy Las Vegas businessman who likes to use his money to support paranormal research (see entry on Charles Tart) and who partially financed a Roper survey on alien abductions. The survey did not directly ask its 5,947 respondents if they had been abducted by aliens. Instead it asked them if they had undergone any of the following experiences:
--Waking up paralyzed with a sense of a strange person or presence or something else in the room.
--Experiencing a period of time of an hour or more, in which you were apparently lost, but you could not remember why, or where you had been.
--Seeing unusual lights or balls of light in a room without knowing what was causing them, or where they came from.
--Finding puzzling scars on your body and neither you nor anyone else remembering how you received them or where you got them.
--Feeling that you were actually flying through the air although you didn't know why or how.
Saying yes to 4 of the 5 "symptoms" was taken as evidence of alien abduction. A 62-page report, with an introduction by John Mack, was mailed to some 100,000 psychiatrists, psychologist and other mental health professionals. The implication was that some 4 million Americans or some 100 million Earthlings have been abducted by aliens. As Carl Sagan wryly commented: "It�s surprising more of the neighbors haven�t noticed." The timing of the mailing was impeccable: shortly before the CBS-TV miniseries based on Strieber�s Intruders.
Some of those who claim to have been abducted by aliens are probably frauds, some are very stressed, and some are probably suffering from a severe psychiatric disorder, but most seem to be fairly normal people who are especially fantasy prone. Most do not seem to be money grabbers, using their weird experiences as a chance to get on television or to have movies made of their lives. In other words, the testimony is often, if not mostly, made by reasonably normal people without known ulterior motives. If their claims were not so bizarre, it would be indecent to distrust many of them. Defenders of the reasonableness of belief in alien abductions point to the fact that not all of the stories can be accounted for by confabulation. However, hypnosis and other suggestive means are often used to access memories of abduction. Hypnosis is not only an unreliable method of gaining access to accurate memories, it is a method that can be very easily used to implant memories. Furthermore, it is known that people who believe they have been abducted by aliens are very fantasy prone. Being fantasy-prone is not an abnormality, if abnormality is defined in terms of minority belief or behavior. The vast majority of humans are fantasy prone, otherwise they would not believe in God, angels, spirits, immortality, devils, ESP, Bigfoot, etc. A person can function "normally" in a million and one ways and hold the most irrational beliefs imaginable, as long as the irrational beliefs are culturally accepted delusions. Little effort is put forth to try to find out why people believe the religious stories they believe, for example, but when someone holds a view outside of the culture's accepted range of delusional phenomena, there seems to be a need to "explain" their beliefs.
shared cultural delusions
Those who claim to have been abducted by aliens may be neither crazy nor telling the truth. It might be better to think of them as sharing a cultural delusion. They are similar to the people who have near-death experiences of going down the dark tunnel to the bright light, or who see Jesus beckoning to them. These shared experiences do not prove that the experiences were not fantasies. They are likely due to similar brain states in the near-death experience, and similar life experiences and death expectations. The alternatives are not either that they are totally crazy or that they really did die, go to another world, and return to life. There is a naturalistic explanation in terms of brain states and shared cultural beliefs.
Alien abductees might also be seen as similar to mystics. Both believe they have experienced something denied to the rest of us. The only evidence for their experience is their belief that it happened and the account they give of it. There is no other evidence. The comparison of abductees to mystics is not as farfetched as it might at first seem. The accounts of mystical experiences fall into two basic categories: the ecstatic and the contemplative. Each type of mysticism has its history of anecdotes and testimonials. Like the stories of abductees, the stories of each type of mystic are very similar. Ecstatic mystics tend to describe their indescribable experiences in terms clearly analogous to sexual ecstasy. Going from darkness into the light recalls the birth experience. The contemplative mystics describe their experience of perfect peace and bliss in ways which are reminiscent of a good night's sleep. In the more advanced stages of mysticism, the experience is clearly analogous to death: a state of total unity, i.e., no diversity, no change, no anything. In short, the fact that mystical experiences are described in similar ways by mystics born in different countries and in different centuries is not evidence of the authenticity of their experiences. The similarity speaks more to the uniformity of human experience. Every culture knows of birth, sex and death.
Abductees are very much analogous not only to mystics, but to medieval nuns who believed they'd been seduced by devils, to ancient Greek women who thought they'd had sex with animals, and to women who believed they were witches. The abductees� counselors and therapists are like the priests of old who do not challenge delusional beliefs, but encourage and nurture them. They do everything in their power to establish their stories as orthodox. It will be very hard to find an abductee who has not been heavily influenced in their belief by reading stories of aliens, or books like Strieber�s Communion or Intruders, or by seeing movies featuring aliens. It will be even more difficult to find an abductee who has not been greatly encouraged in their delusion by a counselor like Hopkins or a therapist like Mack. Given a great deal of encouragement by a believing community, and reinforced by the high priests of the alien abduction cult, it is not very difficult to understand why there are so many people today who believe they have been abducted by aliens.
Yet, if there are beings clever enough to travel around the universe today, there probably were some equally intelligent beings who could have done so in ancient or medieval times. The delusions of the ancients and the medievals are not couched in terms of aliens and spacecraft because these are our century's creations. We can laugh at the idea of gods taking on the form of swans to seduce beautiful women, or of devils impregnating nuns, because they do not fit with our cultural prejudices and delusions. The ancients and medievals probably would have laughed at anyone who would have claimed to have been picked up by aliens from another planet for sex or reproductive surgery. The only reason anyone takes the abductees seriously today is that their delusions do not blatantly conflict with our cultural beliefs that intergalactic space travel is a real possibility and that it is highly probable that we are not the only inhabited planet in the universe. In other times, no one would have been able to take these claims seriously.
Of course, we should not rule out wishful thinking as being at work here. Although, it is a bit easier to understand why someone would wish to have a mystical experience than it is to grasp why anyone would want to be abducted by an alien. But the ease with which we accept that a person might want to have a mystical experience is related to our cultural prejudice in favor of belief in God and the desirability of union with God. The desire to transcend this life, to move to a higher plane, to leave this body, to be selected by a higher being for some special task....each of these can be seen in the desire to be abducted by aliens as easily as in the desire to be one with God or to have an out-of-body experience (OBE).
It is possible, too, that abductees may be describing similar hallucinations due to similar brain states, as Michael Persinger argues. Likewise, the ecstatic and contemplative accounts of mystics may be similar due to similar brain states associated with bodily detachment and a sense of transcendence. Using electrodes to stimulate specific parts of the brain, Persinger has duplicated the feelings of the sensed presence and other experiences associated with near-death-experiences (NDEs), OBEs, mystical experience and the alien abduction experience. The language and symbols of birth, sex, and death may be nothing but analogues for brain states. Shared recollections of experiences do not prove that the experiences were not delusions. The experience which abductees think of as an alien abduction experience may be due to certain brain states. These states may be associated with sleep paralysis or other forms of sleep disturbances, including mild brain seizures. Sleep paralysis occurs in the hypnagogic state or the hypnopompic state. The description abductees give of their experience--being unable to move or speak, feeling some sort of presence, feeling fear and an inability to cry out--is a list of the symptoms of sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is thought by some to account for not only many alien abduction delusions, but also other delusions involving paranormal or supernatural experiences.
There are, of course, certain psychiatric disorders which are characterized by delusions. Many people with these disorders are treated with drugs which affect the production or functioning of neurotransmitters. The treatments are very successful in eliminating the delusions. Persinger has treated at least one person with anti-seizure medication which effectively stopped her from having recurring experiences of the type described by alien abductees and those with sleep paralysis. Countless people with schizophrenia or manic-depression (bi-polar disorder), when properly medicated, cease having delusions about God, Satan, the FBI, the CIA, and aliens.
Even though the stories of alien abduction do not seem plausible, if there were physical evidence even the most hardened skeptic would have to take notice. Unfortunately, the only physical evidence that is offered is insubstantial. For example, so-called "ground scars" allegedly made by UFOs have been offered as proof that the aliens have landed. However, when scientists have examined these sites they have found them to be quite ordinary and the "scars" to be little more than fungus and other natural phenomena.
Many abductees point to various scars and "scoop marks" on their bodies as proof of abduction and experimentation. These marks are not extraordinary in any way and could be accounted for by quite ordinary injuries and experiences.
The most dramatic type of physical evidence would be the "implants" which many abductees claim the aliens have put up their noses or in various other parts of their anatomy. Budd Hopkins claims he has examined such an implant and has MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) to prove numerous implant claims. When Nova put out an offer to abductees to have scientists analyze and evaluate any alleged implants, they did not get a single person willing to have their so-called implants tested or verified. So, of all the evidence for abduction, the physical evidence seems to be the weakest.
David Sivier
One of the paradigms now being used by sceptical ufologists to explain the abduction experience is sleep paralysis and the attendant hypnopompic states, during which the experiencer feels paralysed and may confuse elements of their dreams with the reality from which their consciousness has not yet fully retreated into deep sleep. (1) It has been remarked that much Western theorising about the nature of religion, such as the belief propounded by Euhemerus in the Classical world that it has its origins in the deeds of great figures of the past whose feats became gradually confused with time until they became gods, is made manifest in Chinese religion. The numerous deities of the Middle Kingdom contain a number of deified individuals admitted to the company of gods by imperial edict, and the pantheon itself is structured according to the Chinese imperial bureaucracy. (2) It should come as no surprise then, that the connection between sleep paralysis, the Old Hag and otherworld journeys to a fairyland should similarly become overt in oriental mystical tradition. One of the classic Chinese ghost stories concerns a scholar who falls asleep in a monastery, only to journey to a strange fairyland reached through a gap in his pillow. (3) The connection between hypnopompic dreams and supernatural journeys is obvious, and serves to illuminate other Chinese legends more similar to Western tales, such as that of Chun-Yu Fei, who became the governor of an otherworld state entered through a gap in a tree. (4) The parallels between this, medieval Chinese legend, and Western tales locating the fairy realm under hollow hills and the roots of trees, is likewise clear.
The similarities between the Close Encounter and Near Death Experience has also been remarked upon. Betty Andreasson, and Peter, who with his wife was abducted from Beit Bridge in Zimbabwe, (5) were both abducted "out of the body", for example, as was Maureen Puddy. Judy Doraty, who was abducted in May 1973 while driving near her home in Houston, Texas, was told by the Greys aboard the craft that she had spontaneously appeared out of her body in their craft, and that they had not intended to take her. (6) This has obvious parallels with the beings of light commonly reported by those who have had NDEs, who tell them it is not their time yet and who send them back to Earth. In the case of the Oriental version of the NDE, this commonly takes the form of an encounter with an otherworldly being who looks them up in a book and tells the percipient that there has been some mistake before returning them to full life. In the myth of Hanuman, the Monkey of Wu Chang-An, the myth's hero gained his immortality by ripping the page on which his name was written out of Yama's, the king of death's, bo
Then there is the problem of the Greys' eyes, one of their defining traits. It is through their eyes that the Greys establish control, sometimes almost devouring their victims psychically. The "mindscan" leaves them feeling that information has been extracted from them telepathically, while some abductees feel that the eyes promise something deeper, such as John Mack's patient, Peter, who declared that: "It really wants to connect with me. It's almost like it's looking at an infant . . . if you were only a little older and a little wiser and we could have a relationship or something." (7) This occurs as the individual's own willpower is destroyed through eye contact with the alien, such as in Karen Morgan's statement that, "Once you look into those eyes you're gone, you're just gone". (8) Erotic feelings may also play their part, as in Barbara Archer's statements about how, when looking into the eyes of her Grey abductor, "He makes me feel happy. I think that he likes me . . . I feel wonderful. I think that he is wonderful". (9)
Then there is the problem of the Greys' eyes, one of their defining traits. It is through their eyes that the Greys establish control, sometimes almost devouring their victims psychically. The "mindscan" leaves them feeling that information has been extracted from them telepathically, while some abductees feel that the eyes promise something deeper, such as John Mack's patient, Peter, who declared that: "It really wants to connect with me. It's almost like it's looking at an infant . . . if you were only a little older and a little wiser and we could have a relationship or something." (7) This occurs as the individual's own willpower is destroyed through eye contact with the alien, such as in Karen Morgan's statement that, "Once you look into those eyes you're gone, you're just gone". (8) Erotic feelings may also play their part, as in Barbara Archer's statements about how, when looking into the eyes of her Grey abductor, "He makes me feel happy. I think that he likes me . . . I feel wonderful. I think that he is wonderful". (9)
Although Spencer himself points out the importance of eyes to humans, and the numerous sayings emphasising them, such as "bedroom eyes", "the eyes are the portals to the soul", he neglects their intimate connection with spirituality. The painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti considered the yes to be the most spiritual part of the face, and the mouth the most sensual. Peter Brookesmith has also called attention to the accentuated eyes of ancient Middle Eastern figures. The strongest religious parallels to the Greys' eyes are, however, in Islamic Sufism. The ultimate goal in Sufism, as with other forms of mysticism, is union with God. Sufis, however, stress the importance of the Beatific Vision, with God's face in particular the focus of their attention. This comes from a passage in the Qu'ran describing God fading away until only His face is left. This aspect of Islamic mysticism shows more than a passing similarity to Jacob's encounter with the angel at Peniel in the Old Testament. The Hebrew term translated as "presence", when the patriarch at last discovers that he has been in the presence of God, literally means "face". There is also a powerful erotic element in Sufi literature, which attempted to communicate their intoxication with the Divine through the metaphor of wine and earthly, even homosexual, love. Al-Hallaj, one of the earliest Sufis, himself wrote poetry which employed the terminology of secular love. The relationship with God was compared to that between lover and beloved, something which recalled the "St Amour" of the Knights Templars. More than that, God's face could be likened to that of a particular student at the madrasseh, who is possessed of a pleasing countenance with dark, limpid eyes. This mystical speculation desiring spiritual union with God, achieved through contemplation of the Beloved's face and eyes, has obvious parallels with the above quotes about the mystical, erotic power of the Greys' eyes.
Most controversial of all the Greys' features is the similarity some commentators see between them and small children. Professor Jack Cohen, a reproductive biologist at Warwick University and the designer of fictional aliens for SF authors such as Andre Norton, Harry Harrison and Larry Niven, declared in a recent lecture to the British Interplanetary Society that the image of aliens either as dragons or three-year-old children was due to the cultural perceptions of such monsters impressed on Western infants at about that age. Dr Marina Warner discussing her latest book, Bogeymen, at this year's Cheltenham literary festival, pointed out that in their insatiable appetites and complete disregard for social norms and adult behaviour, giants were really overgrown babies.
This equation between the infantile and the monstrous is often made plain in medieval Western folklore, and the religious beliefs of African and native American peoples, but is suppressed in contemporary Western culture. The peculiarly alien nature of children, who behave differently from adults, only finds its expression in modern society in contemporary horror films like Rosemary's Baby and The Omen. In Africa children have a numinous element unknown in the West. The Chamba of the Nigeria/Cameroon border area believe that the inarticulate babbling of babies and the senile is the language of the spirits. Babies haven't quite forgotten it, and the elderly are only just resuming it prior to their joining the spirits in death. This stresses the similarity between the very young and the very old, something often remarked on in the West but never stressed to the same extent, except by television company apparatchiks who recently lumped the fandom of the late comedian Benny Hill - again, the very old and very young - under the collective title of the underwear-soiling ages.
The appearance of the Greys, at once an old, dying race, whose appearance owes much to Victorian ideas of racial senility, (10) but physically resembling small children, is a far more powerful expression of these perceived parallels. Going further than this, there is the final image of Kubrick and Clarke's epic SF film 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is the Star Child, the final apotheosis of the last astronaut, Dave Bowman, after he has made humanity's latest evolutionary leap wrought by the alien builders of the Black Monoliths, who are also immeasurably ancient. This link with he world of the spirit is a matter of some fear to certain African peoples like the Baule of the Ivory Coast. They believe it is dangerous to bring two babies still speaking the language of the spirits close to each other, in case they plot against the living. This belief in the power of a primeval language also formed part of the medieval European mystical tradition, especially in certain forms of Cabbalism and Freemasonry. In the quest to discover it, children could be put in considerable peril by adults. Frederick II, the German emperor widely considered to be the Antichrist during his lifetime, conducted an experiment to learn this language. He ordered a number of small children to be separated from their parents and to be attended only by nurses who would remain perpetually silent. This cruel experiment afforded him no results, however. None of the unfortunates lived long enough to utter a single word.
Early descriptions of ufonautical visitors stressed their foreign features. The phantom airships were crewed by foreign-looking men who were frequently swarthy, and it is possible that the Greys were gradually elaborated from descriptions of such extraterrestrial visitors as short and oriental with slanted eyes. The mystic East has been a strong image of oriental culture since the days of Empire. Garnett quotes Benita Parry's analysis of the fiction of Joseph Conrad, Conrad and Imperialism: Ideological Boundaries and Visionary Frontiers, as part of his thesis that as part of the guilt and fear associated with the idea of Africans and Orientals, "is the conception of colonial peoples as possessed of privileged insights into the transcendental realm and endowed with magic powers". (13) The Greys, as elaborated from stereotypical images of Orientals. possessing infantile features, surely fit the above description exactly. Their forms articulate Western guilt. Like Wells's Martians they conquer through technology. Like Dracula and Marsh's Priest of Isis, they also conquer through arcane mystical power. The link between ufology and westernised forms of oriental mysticism, such as theosophy, is quite strong, and likely to remain so in the current fashion for New Age forms of religious experience. In seeking to change Western consciousness through espousal of an orientalised religious philosophy, the Greys may very well be said to embody the East's mystical revenge, even if this revenge is brought about solely by collective Western feelings of post-imperial guilt.
The parallels between Marsh's tale of terror and the modern abduction myth go beyond a common fear of the Other, however constructed. The Priest of Isis in the story takes the form of a monstrous insect, while the Greys are similarly described as insectoid. This fear is no doubt based on the strong repugnance most people feel towards "creepy-crawlies". Marsh succeeded in linking it to a fear of Orientals through the ancient Egyptians' reverence for the scarab beetle. Coupled with this is also the deep and abiding fear of loss of humanity - such transformations from human to the monstrous, with a concomitant loss of individuality, were the stock-in-trade of some of the more shocking episodes of Dr Who. C.S. Lewis once remarked that the ants encapsulated the two strongest middle-class fears - fears of the feminine and the collective. The strongly collective nature of many Oriental societies, such as the Japanese, is uniquely disturbing to the Western mind, raised on notions of individualism, a fact of which the creators of Star Trek were only too aware when they created the Borg, the ultimate gestalt creature. At the beginning of this century the Bolshevik victory in Russia led many right-wing ideologists to equate Communism specifically with the threat of barbarian Asiatics. Gurdjieff, the great Russian mystic and fashionable charlatan, himself taught that ants were antediluvian Communists, who had suffered the ultimate in divine punishment by being finally reduced to their invertebrate status. Several abductees have similarly reported the lack of individuality in their captors, one specious explanation given for this being that their life force is not as differentiated as ours. In view of the oft-reported comment on Orientals' features that "they all look the same to me", the similarities between the Greys and the Asiatics is too strong to be considered purely coincidental.
The gender of the Priest of Isis is similarly in doubt. In one passage he is described as male, in another as female, much like the highly sexed, but neuter Greys. Part of his tactics of conquest involve the seduction and debasement of Western women, like the tale's heroine, Marjorie Lindon. These seductions have strong homoerotic overtones. When Robert Holt discovers the Priest in an abandoned house, he is first embraced in darkness by a monstrous insect which "gains his loins", (14) before going on to his head and upper body. When in human form, the Priest, now represented as a man, orders him to strip naked before grinning at him with "a satyr's smile". (15)
Lindon's seduction, too, has homosexual, lesbian overtones, as the monstrous insect enters her bed. Again, the parallels with the modern Close Encounters scenario which also has strong homoerotic overtones - buggery with weird alien probes and the like - are strong. The primary targets of the Priest's tactic of seduction are women, undoubtedly due both to Victorian fears of female sexuality and the belief, predating the Victorians, that women's sexuality makes them especially vulnerable to the monstrous overtures of the Other. These fears are of a group with Lanz Von Liebenfels' confused ideas of a primeval humanity deprived of its superhuman powers through repeated coupling with subhuman apelings, the only remedy for which was the subjection of good Aryan women to pure German husbands. In origin it probably stems from the raids by primitive peoples to carry off each others' women as wives or concubines, elaborated from these mundane, human concerns into the supernatural and monstrous. Most abductees are women, another example of women's sexuality making them vulnerable to supernatural possession, a phenomenon which almost certainly comes from the same psychological roots as the vulnerability of Marsh's female characters to the vile overtures of the Beetle. Mixed in with this is racial desire and envy on the part of the Beetle-Priest himself. When gazing on the naked form of Holt, the Priest declares: "What a white skin you have - how white! What would I not give for a skin as white as that - oh yes!" (16)
The Greys are similarly motivated by a desire to gain some element of our racial or genetic heritage for themselves. They need to interbreed with us, to spawn these hybrid offspring, because they themselves are dying. This racial envy projected on to the Other serves both to bolster the collective ego humanity, or at least the Western portion of it, has something innate which this rapacious Other, for all its power, does not have and at the same time exacerbates the racial fears upon which these perceived motives are based. The Other alien or Beetle-Priest - is planning to possess and usurp Western humanity's most intimate defining trait, its very genetic heritage itself.
Marina Warner, in answer to the author's question concerning the infantile nature of the Greys, felt that part of the fear producing the abduction phenomenon lay in Christian notions of self gained from Greek philosophy. The Greeks, according to her, believed that the self was one and indivisible, that each person was uniquely whole. Thus, the worst thing that could happen to a good Christian was possession by an invading entity, with the concomitant fracturing and alteration of their deepest selves. In cultures which did not have this view of the individual soul, possession was not something feared, but sought. The "scooping" of abductees, the removal and replacement of organs and the insertion of implants, although having their immediate roots in fears of modern biotechnology, stem ultimately from Christian fears of possession, or fragmentation of their indivisible self. The fear was that the person was somehow being clandestinely altered, and changed into something not really him- or herself, and that the precise nature of this change was frighteningly unknown.
There is something to this. Many cultures with strong shamanic traditions believe the individual has a multitude of souls unknown in Christian culture. The Inuit, for example, have three- an animating principle in the body, a unique soul conferred with a person's name, and an immortal soul which journeys to the afterlife after death. The Chinese similarly have two souls, one of which resides in the grave after death, and one which journeys on to its eternal reward in the numerous hells and paradises envisioned in Buddhism. Shamanism played an important part in early Chinese religion, and even in the modern, technological world researchers have noted the importance of traditional seances in Chinese domestic religious observances. (17)
This view, stressing a straight dichotomy between a Christianity fearful of possession which believes that a person is indivisible, and pagan cultures stressing heterogeneous spiritual elements in the human constitution and actively seeking communion with possessing entities, ignores the charismatic elements in Christianity. The early church was especially open to the gifts of the spirit since the descent of the Holy Ghost on the apostles at Pentecost, St Paul being particularly inspired in this respect. The Didache, a short document claiming to be the teaching of the twelve apostles, gave explicit instructions intended to guide the congregation when attempting to discern which of the inspired individuals who came amongst them was a true prophet. The charismatic revival beginning in the black Pentecostal churches in the 1920s renewed this mystical tradition, though revivalist sects such as the Catholic Apostolic Church stressed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as far back as the 1890s, and the importance of these spiritual gifts to the Quakers and Shakers in the 17th century is well known. Among charismatic cults like Vaudaun, the possessing entities can be evil, as well as good, so Christianity has by no means a monopoly on considering certain forms of mystical experience evil. The difference between Christian attitudes to charismatic phenomena and those of the various pagan cults which seek possession in some form probably stems from Christianity's monotheism which forbade any contact with the spiritual world beyond the officially sanctioned dimension of the church and which possessed a powerful bureaucracy able to enforce that prescription.
This fed into Enlightenment attitudes to charismaticism which saw them as both examples of ignorant superstition and dangerously socially disruptive. Enthusiasm originally meant something like "spiritually inspired", and quickly acquired a negative connotation in the 18th century when the term "enthusiast" meant something like "religious fanatic". Religious zeal was a dangerous thing that had plunged Europe into a series of bloody wars between Catholic and Protestant, and Enlightenment intellectuals feared its return. The abduction phenomenon is a return of this mystical, shamanic tradition given a darker form due to its repression in the Western psyche, and its perceived links with primitive oriental and African cults. On the other hand, its appearance at the time when many Christian churches have taken on the charismatic renewal suggests that it is part of this common post-secular trend towards mysticism, rather than a separate phenomenon. Of course, to many people Christianity very much has a stifling, stuffy image despite the efforts of the Evangelicals. The darkness of the abduction phenomenon could represent suppressed drives towards charismaticism in those who subscribe to the arguably majority view in Western culture which finds such things in some way evil, or it could also stem from Christian charismaticism taking an oriental and technological guise as Christianity loosens its hold on Western thought. Peter Brookesmith has vehemently argued the latter in the pages of this magazine, while ignoring the universality of some of the features he condemns and the strong oriental intellectual influences on ufology. It's a convoluted issue of which the only clear feature is that it represents a powerful mystical experience of a type discouraged by contemporary society.
Back to the suspicion of children, however. Some cultures believe that suffering children are really malevolent spirits gaining spiteful pleasure from the torment of their human parents. In West Africa there is the belief in "ghost children", evil spirits that are born in pain and suffering, bringing grief and sorrow to their parents through their sickly condition before deliberately dying to inflict the maximum amount of pain. These malicious beings then reincarnate themselves to begin the cycle over again. The grief they inflict on their human parents sustains them, and the tears the shed are valuable items in the land of the dead. The only way to prevent depredation by such spirits is to give them names that refer to their unattractive features and evil, or smear them with repulsive matter that will make them unattractive to the spirits. When such children die, their bodies are liable to mutilation. This belief is of a type with the medieval European conviction that deformed, sickly or retarded children were changelings substituted by the fairies for the beautiful human child. The solution was to make life so uncomfortable for the changeling that it left and the fairy parents brought the original child back. This all too readily took on brutal forms. Changelings could be whipped, put on the fire or burnt in the oven, in order to bring the fairy mother to rescue it.
Martin Luther, on finding a particularly malevolent changeling in one of the German states, told the Elector of Saxony that if he were the country's prince he would kill it and throw the body in the Moldau. When this suggestion was refused, he ordered the local people to pray in church for the creature's death, which happened in its second year. Rather less brutal is the treatment given to deformed children by the Nuer of Sudan. They used to dispose of such deformed dead babies by putting them down by the river by the hippopotami who were perceived as being their real fathers. All these beliefs have the function of explaining the occurrence of deformed children and assuaging the grief felt by their parents when they eventually pass away. After all, if the children were really malicious spirits, and not the couple's own children, then there was no point in grieving over their deaths. On the contrary, if the creatures were evil, their final demise should be a cause of celebration.
Interestingly, the fairies had human agents active in the stealing of children for them. According to Strype's Annals of the 16th century, midwives had to swear an oath not to allow anybody to substitute another child in place of the mother's own, nor to use any sorcery or incantation during childbirth. This has obvious parallels in both the way the Greys spawn children on abductees, only to steal them away again, and the activities of various clandestine government departments in promoting this programme of extraterrestrial miscegenation.
In modern Japan where abortion is common due to the prohibition of contraception, there is a real fear that the spirit of the aborted child will exact vengeance on the mother. Thus, special ceremonies are performed and statues of Jizo, the Japanese god of compassion, put up. Jizo is believed to comfort the souls of dead children in their endless toils on the Sai-no-kwara, the Buddhist Styx. Coupled to this are the kokeshi dolls, papoose-like images made by the Japanese to represent the victims of infanticide, those smothered or crushed to death. Often the killer is their mother. In the West there is an intense debate on the morality of abortion. To many Christians and others in the pro-life camp, abortion is infanticide of a type comparable to the wholesale sacrifice of children to the Phoenician god Moloch. To the pro-abortion side, such concerns are false. The children aborted are not true children at all, and it is a distortion to represent them as such. Furthermore, any ban on abortion is an invasion of women's rights to control their own bodies, and attempts to impose it are part and parcel of a general assault on women's rights by Fascist groups seeking to reinforce the subjugation of women.
It's been claimed that, despite the claims of the pro-life side, few women who have had an abortion actually feel guilty. This may well be so, but the writer of this article has personally encountered women who have been forced into abortions by their husbands, and seen this as nothing less than the murder of their child. Grief, sorrow and guilt over miscarriage and abortion certainly exist. Although many hospitals now arrange to carry out special services for miscarried babies, the victims of abortion or the controversial experiments in human reproduction are far less cared for. An example of the ambiguity accorded to the victims of abortion was the scandal which erupted in America in 1985 over the disposal of 16,433 aborted foetuses found in a steel bin. The US Supreme Court was required to make a ruling whether or not these children should be given over to a religious organisation for burial. The final decision was a compromise. The foetuses were given a secular burial as inert matter, but with a eulogy from Ronald Reagan. Such a debate between religious values and modern, secular notions, both stressing the dignity of human life, has caused intense feeling on both sides and even motivates some to murder. Fundamentalist Christians in America have killed doctors who perform abortions, while the Red Army Faction in Germany, on the other hand, used to kill those doctors who refused to perform them as Fascists. The intense feeling generated by the debate, and the guilt some individuals undoubtedly feel, even if only a minority, may well seek expression in the spiritual sphere. Maternal guilt over the abortion of a child has already been expressed in the literature of science fiction in Ian McDonald's short story "Innocents". This particular tale, set in a future in which the dead are resurrected through nanotechnology, culminates in the suicide of a woman after she comes to believe the lover she has taken is her own aborted son, brought back to life by virtue of the above technology. Although the vengeance exacted is at the hands of the mother herself, and the suspected son remains passive, not even aware of his true identity, the story contains all the significant motifs associated with the abduction myth as interpreted by the Avenging Embryo hypothesis: guilt for the fact, gynaecological examination and operation by clinical, distant and inhuman beings, and sex with a creature who is really a child, despite his adult guise, with the suspicion that the situation has been deliberately contrived by the inhuman protagonists against the human for some dark purpose of their own. In this respect the interpretation of the obstetric experiments of the Greys as "avenging embryos" is quite valid.
As for sex with incubi, succubi and the spirits of the dead, these are by no means confined to Western Christendom. Among the Baule a troubled adolescence, impotence or sterility may indicate that a person has a spouse in the spirit world who is discontented. This will be confirmed if the sufferer has erotic dreams about someone they have never met. The solution is to have statues of this spirit lover made and a type of marriage ceremony performed. The earthly spouse is then obliged to hold feasts and offerings in honour of this spouse, and to reserve Thursday nights for sexual relations with the spirit spouse. More than the succubus elements prominent in the abduction myth, this has strong parallels with Elizabeth Klarer's liaison with a spaceship captain, who returned with their child to his home among the stars. Perhaps it is no accident that, even though she was white, she came from South Africa.
It's clear then, that the abduction myth contains strong oriental and African elements. The links to certain forms of Eastern and African religious experience probably arise from common roots deep in human psychology, the Western flower of which, as evidenced in medieval folklore, was suppressed after the rise of the Enlightenment, only to take a distorted, technological form with the dawn of the Space Age. The prominent orientalism in the construction of the Other's identity likewise arises in archetypal racial fears being ascribed to the Other, fears which, although having their roots in the imperial terrors of the late 19th century, were easily elaborated and ascribed to the extraterrestrials once human enemies as objects of fear had been superseded. Intimately mixed with these fears is guilt, both imperial and sexual. These terrors, the deep Freudian fears of race and sex, are the most profound and powerful in the human psyche. Spawned from such dark origins, it is no wonder the close encounter experience is both compulsive and terrifying. It is also no surprise that the Greys, despite their putative alien origins, always retain some human aspect, for through them humanity stares at a distorted image of itself.
1. See discussions of this in, for example, Brookesmith, P. and Devereux, P., "The Great Brain Robbery", Fortean Times, No. 107, and McNally, J., "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, Fortean Times, No. 108.
2. Guirand, F. (ed.), Encyclopedia of World Mythology, Hamlyn, 1968
3. Lu Hsun, A Brief History of Chinese Fiction, Foreign Language Press, Peking, 1976
4. Op. cit.
5. Spencer, J. and A., True Life Encounters: Alien Contact
6. Baker, A. True Life Encounters: UFO Sightings
7. Spencer
8. Spencer
9. Spencer
10. Kottmeyer, Martin, "Varicose Brains: Entering a Grey Area", Magonia, No. 62
11. Meemi, A, The Coloniser and the Colonised, first published 1957, reprinted 1974, Souvenir Press, London, quoted in Garnett, Rhys, "Dracula and the Beetle: Imperial and Sexual Guilt and Fear in Late Victorian Fantasy, in Garnett, R. and Ellis, R.J., Science Fiction: Roots and Branches, MacMillan, 1990
12. Garnett
13. Parry, B., Conrad and Imperialism: Ideological Boundaries and Visionary Frontiers, MacMillan, London, 1983
14. Garnett
15. Garnett
16. Garnett
17. Ching, J., Chinese Religions, MacMillan, 1993
In his book 'MESSENGERS OF DECEPTION' (Bantom Books, 1980), Jacques Vallee relates some disturbing connections between fascist politics and some of the early 'contactees' who claimed to have had meetings with humans who piloted advanced disc-shaped aerial craft.
Some of these persons included George Adamski, George Hunt Williamson, Howard Menger and others.
Many of the 'space beings' they allegedly encountered claimed to be "from Venus". However, some have suggested that they were actually so-called pure-bred Aryans who utilized advanced aerospace craft and were involved in some massive psychological warfare campaign on the American people. With these excerpts from Vallee's book, we examine the possibility that earth-based societies containing advanced anti-gravitational technologies are using such technology as a psychological weapon to establish a One World Government, if we are to believe other accounts.
According to the information which can be gleaned from Vallee's writings, in the early California 'contactee' era, many occult groups linked with power-tripping organizations were very active. Right after World War II, when a branch of Aleister Crowley's O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis) flourished in Los Angeles, two of the most ardent members were Jack W. Parsons, a propulsion engineer, and L. Ron Hubbard, a science-fiction buff who originally claimed to have infiltrated the O.T.O. for Naval Intelligence, before he apparently sold out and became a full 'convert' to the secret society. Jack Parsons claims to have met a 'Venusian' in the California desert in 1946, and went on to be one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Aerojet Corporation. Another 'contactee', Daniel Fry, was an Aerojet employee when he allegedly saw his first 'saucer' in 1950, while working at the White Sands missile range in southern New Mexico. Ron Hubbard, on the other hand, founded Dianetics and later, the Church of Scientology (from which later sprang such 'mind-science' cults as EST and 'Life- spring'). The higher initiates of Scientology believe in 'psychic contact' with 'extraterrestrials', and they also believe themselves to be 'thetans' or human 'gods' once they complete the Scientology program.
Contactee George Adamski, a Rosicrucian, had pre-war ties with American fascist leader William Dudley Pelley, who was interned during the war for his racist activities. Contactee George Hunt Williamson (whose real name is Michael d'Obrenovic) was associated with Pelly's organization, 'Soulcraft', in the early fifties. Other associates of Williamson during the great era of the 'flying saucers' were such 'contactees' as John McCoy and the two Stanford brothers, Ray and Rex. Pelley's fascist involvement may provide a clue here when we consider that many of the Nazi party members were involved in the Rosicrucian and Theosophical movements, both of which are tied-in with the Masonic-Illuminati network.
Also, there are many sources which claim that the Nazis had secretly developed top-secret 'disc-shaped' aerial craft during the war. It is strange that 'contactees' such as George Adamski, George Van Tassel, Howard Menger, George King and others have described almost identical 'disc-craft' and 'occupants'. Their descriptions of the so-called 'Venusian-craft' are remarkably similar in design to an alleged secret aircraft which the Nazis are said to have developed as part of their secret military operations, as depicted in the video SECRETS OF THE THIRD REICH [Vladimir Terziski and the American Academy of Dissident Scientists]. At least one source, former Air Force employee Thomas Edwin Castello, claimed to have seen confidential government photographs showing an 'Adamski-type' disc with a swastika on it! In his book 'MESSENGERS OF DECEPTION' (Bantom Books, 1980), Jacques Vallee relates some disturbing connections between fascist politics and some of the early 'contactees' who claimed to have had meetings with humans who piloted advanced disc-shaped aerial craft.
Some of these persons included George Adamski, George Hunt Williamson, Howard Menger and others.
Many of the 'space beings' they allegedly encountered claimed to be "from Venus". However, some have suggested that they were actually so-called pure-bred Aryans who utilized advanced aerospace craft and were involved in some massive psychological warfare campaign on the American people. With these excerpts from Vallee's book, we examine the possibility that earth-based societies containing advanced anti-gravitational technologies are using such technology as a psychological weapon to establish a One World Government, if we are to believe other accounts.
According to the information which can be gleaned from Vallee's writings, in the early California 'contactee' era, many occult groups linked with power-tripping organizations were very active. Right after World War II, when a branch of Aleister Crowley's O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis) flourished in Los Angeles, two of the most ardent members were Jack W. Parsons, a propulsion engineer, and L. Ron Hubbard, a science-fiction buff who originally claimed to have infiltrated the O.T.O. for Naval Intelligence, before he apparently sold out and became a full 'convert' to the secret society. Jack Parsons claims to have met a 'Venusian' in the California desert in 1946, and went on to be one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Aerojet Corporation. Another 'contactee', Daniel Fry, was an Aerojet employee when he allegedly saw his first 'saucer' in 1950, while working at the White Sands missile range in southern New Mexico. Ron Hubbard, on the other hand, founded Dianetics and later, the Church of Scientology (from which later sprang such 'mind-science' cults as EST and 'Life- spring'). The higher initiates of Scientology believe in 'psychic contact' with 'extraterrestrials', and they also believe themselves to be 'thetans' or human 'gods' once they complete the Scientology program.
Contactee George Adamski, a Rosicrucian, had pre-war ties with American fascist leader William Dudley Pelley, who was interned during the war for his racist activities. Contactee George Hunt Williamson (whose real name is Michael d'Obrenovic) was associated with Pelly's organization, 'Soulcraft', in the early fifties. Other associates of Williamson during the great era of the 'flying saucers' were such 'contactees' as John McCoy and the two Stanford brothers, Ray and Rex. Pelley's fascist involvement may provide a clue here when we consider that many of the Nazi party members were involved in the Rosicrucian and Theosophical movements, both of which are tied-in with the Masonic-Illuminati network.
Also, there are many sources which claim that the Nazis had secretly developed top-secret 'disc-shaped' aerial craft during the war. It is strange that 'contactees' such as George Adamski, George Van Tassel, Howard Menger, George King and others have described almost identical 'disc-craft' and 'occupants'. Their descriptions of the so-called 'Venusian-craft' are remarkably similar in design to an alleged secret aircraft which the Nazis are said to have developed as part of their secret military operations, as depicted in the video SECRETS OF THE THIRD REICH [Vladimir Terziski and the American Academy of Dissident Scientists]. At least one source, former Air Force employee Thomas Edwin Castello, claimed to have seen confidential government photographs showing an 'Adamski-type' disc with a Swastika on it!
Many believe that a secret operation was put into effect just before Hitler's death or disappearance, which involved the construction of a secret underground base or bases in Antarctica. Many German scientists along with their latest technical discoveries were believed to have set out for Antarctica before or during the ending of WWII. It is said that Viktor Schauberger (1885-1958), a German scientist, developed for the Nazis between 1938 and 1945 a series of disc-shaped aircraft as part of their top-secret weapons and space program. Incidentally, after the war, Schauberger was brought to America, where he was reported to be working on a top-secret wingless aircraft project in Texas for the U.S. Government.
William Dudley Pelley, who died in 1965, was the leader of the 'Silver Shirts', an American Nazi group which began it's activities about 1932. Its membership overlapped strongly with Guy Ballard's 'I AM' movement. After the war, Pelley started an occult group, 'Soulcraft', and published a racist magazine called 'Valor'. He also wrote the book �STAR GUESTS� in 1950, a compilation of 'inspired' writings reminiscent of the SETH MATERIAL. It was about 1950 that G.H. Williamson began working for Pelley at the offices of Soulcraft Publications, in Noblesville, Indiana, before moving to California, where he allegedly witnessed Adamski's desert contact in 1952, with a 'Venusian with long blond hair.' Pelley AND George Adamski had a common interest in the I AM cult, which often met at Mt. Shasta in northern California -- considered by occultists to be a very powerful electromagnetic 'energy vortex' area, for better or worse.
John A. Keel related an incident in his book, 'OPERATION TROJAN HORSE' (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York), concerning 'contactee' Howard Menger, one of the prominent figures in the late '50's - early '60's 'contactee' circles. Menger was one of those who claimed to have had contact with the 'space brothers', and as a result had written a book (with photos, etc. of the alleged spacecraft). Many curiosity seekers flocked around Menger and other cosmic 'prophets', lapping up every word of 'New Age' cosmic wisdom from the 'space brothers' that they could get. Menger was apparently told that he was a reincarnated soul from the planet Saturn, and that his wife was a pre-incarnate inhabitant of Venus.
In the early 1960's, New York radio host Long John Nebel landed a television show and naturally he invited Howard Menger to be one of his first guests, since he had often appeared on his radio show on station W.O.R. in New York City. On the night of the program, which was viewed by millions of people in the Northeast, Menger was unusually quiet and nervous. Parris Flammone, the program producer, later stated: "Vaguely, aimlessly, rather embarrassingly, he avoided and vacillated... Howard Menger, Saturnian husband to a Venusian traveler in space, friend of extraterrestrials, annotator of 'authentic music from another world', master of teleportation, and saucerological sage extraordinaire -- RECAN- TED! DENIED ALMOST EVERYTHING... His saucers may have been psychic, his space people visions, and his and (his wife) Marla's other- planethood, metamorphic." Later, in letters to Gray Barker and 'SAUCER NEWS' editor Jim Moseley, Menger termed his book 'fiction-fact' and implied that THE PENTAGON had given him the films and asked him to participate in an experiment to test the public's reaction to extraterrestrial contact. As John Keel puts it: "He has helped us, therefore, to dismiss his entire story as not only a hoax, but a hoax perpetrated BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT!"
Keel attended a 'Congress of Scientific UFOlogists' sponsored by James Moseley in 1957. Moseley flew Menger in from his home in Florida. Long John Nebel introduced Menger from the stage, who spoke before 1,500 people. Although he had given many lectures and appeared freq- uently on radio and TV, his nerves were visibly raw that afternoon. "Here," Keel thought, "is a very SCARED man." Keel later recalled: "He avoided discussing THE CIA'S ALLEGED EXPERIMENT and his own misgivings about the reality of UFO's. Instead, he talked about the saucer he was trying to build in his basement, presumably from plans given him by you-know-who."
George Hunt Williamson co-authored a book, 'UFO'S CONFIDENTIAL', with a man by the name of John McCoy, who operated the 'Essene Press'. The 'Stanford' brothers were living in the same town at the same time as John McCoy and Williamson (i.e. Corpus Christi, Texas). In the mid-fifties McCoy and Williamson produced a series of 'contact' books, one of which had McCoy as 'co-author'. Ray Stanford states (1954) that he received 'telepathic messages from the space people.' As for George Hunt Williamson, the Stanford brothers later became upset with him when he ripped them off for 'channeled' material and pub lished it under the name 'Brother Philip'. Today (at the time Vallee wrote 'MESSENGERS OF DECEPTION') Rex Stanford is a parapsychologist, and Ray operates a UFO detection station.


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Product Information
What's New in SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Digital Boardroom Release 2018.18
This blog covers some of the latest new features and enhancements in SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Digital Boardroom release 2018.18. Please note that the Analytics Cloud Help documentation is updated at the same time as the upgrade to this release, so the links here may not yet reflect what is described below until after the upgrade is complete.
Upgrade your SAP Analytics Cloud agent to the latest agent version 1.0.121 to take advantage of all the data acquisition types!
If you haven't upgraded yet, here are the data acquisition minimum requirements:
- Version 1.0.109 for SAP Business Warehouse (BW)
- Version 1.0.99 for SAP ERP / SQL databases
- Version 1.0.91 for SAP Universe (UNX)
- Version 1.0.75 for all other data source types
For more information, see System Requirements and Technical Prerequisites.
Highlights of this release:
- Planning: Reassign in progress input tasks
- Planning: Apply pre-defined calculations on single or multiple measures
- Planning: Set read-only status
- Planning: Forward input task to different organization level hierarchies
- Planning: Calendar Gantt improvements
- Planning: Calendar enhancements
- Data Integration: Improvements to SQL data acquisitions
- Data Integration: View data file uploads via the Data Sources Tab
- Data Integration: Support for live connections to BPC embedded configurations
- Mobile: SDK enablement support
- Admin & Infrastructure: Additional infrastructure improvements
- Data Visualization: Configure initial explorer view
- Data Visualization: Bookmark personal explorer views
- Intelligent Enterprise: Choose variable value from a Customer exit or SAP BW backend
Learn with our latest video tutorials
- Create a model from SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics
- Apply filters to a chart in a story
- Apply filters to a geo map in a story
- Full tutorial playlist >
Reassign in-progress input tasks
Don't sweat it if your input tasks need to be reassigned! Even if your input task is in progress you'll still be able to reassign it to someone else.
Apply pre-defined calculations on single or multiple measures
We've designed this feature to simplify your interactions with tables. For tables, you can now select a single measure header or multiple measure headers in the table and then apply a predefined calculation such as Average, Running Total, and so on.
Set read-only status
Now, you don't need to worry about your tables being modified by other users! When you're creating formatting rules, you can now set the read-only status for table cells. With the new drop-down box, if you apply a parent cell to read-only, the status will carry over to its children too.
Forward input task to different organization level hierarchies
Maybe someone sent you an input task that's a better fit for someone else. It's okay! Now, you can now forward the input task to someone else, even if they're at a different level in your organization's hierarchy.
Calendar Gantt improvements
In the Calendar Gantt year view, you can now drag and drop objects to different dates. Also, you can now see the tasks that you own (assigned as Owner) in both calendar and Gantt view.
Calendar enhancements
By setting the Activate option in the calendar, you can now send the tasks or processes out to other users. Also, users can choose whether they want assignees to see other assignees for a task or not.
Data Integration
Improvements to SQL data acquisitions
Increase your productivity! Now that SQL Data is acquired synchronously, you can work while the data is being processed. The SQL data sources can now be queried from within stories, support Incremental load and sharing of connections. These improvements are on par with ODATA, Google Big Query, Google Drive, SAP BW, SAP Universe, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Cloud for Customer and SAP S/4HANA.
View data file uploads via the Data Sources Tab
New uploads after 2018.18 now supports viewing of data file uploads for models on the Data Sources tab.
Support for live connections to BPC embedded configurations
You can now directly connect to BPC embedded model, build a story on BPC live model, lock cells and submit data back to BPC. Functions such as workstatus, disaggregation, formulas, currency translations, etc. in BPC embedded models can be used as well.
With the option of leveraging tables and charts as a client, you can enjoy a high flexible and LOB-tailored user experience. The powerful planning engine in BPC embedded is used to realize an advanced and complex enterprise-wide planning.
Please note that advanced planning, predictive, Data Actions, and VDP are not yet supported.
SDK enablement support
This enablement now supports customers who want to host the SAP Analytics Cloud app in their internal Appstore's, in addition to managing the life cycle of the app. This will be available in SMP for download and requires XCod 9.X, iOS 10 or iOS 11.
Administration & Infrastructure
Additional infrastructure improvements
Say goodbye to the times from when it was necessary to first revert to the default authentication before switching to a different custom IdP. With this new update, system owners who have already configured for custom SAML authentication can now switch directly from one custom IdP to another.
Administrators can now see in System > Monitor if they are licensed for Digital Boardroom.
On systems provisioned on Cloud Foundry/AWS, system owners can now enable custom SAML authentication using custom SAML NameID mappings rather than having to use email as the NameID. In addition, system owners can register OAuth clients for API Access through System > Administration > App Integration.
Smart Assist
Search to Insight enhancements
Get ready, everyone, because we have some great Smart Assist enhancements coming your way! When using the Search to Insight feature, you can now search HANA live models included in your story.
Please note that this is for HANA live models only and requires SAP HANA 1.0 SPS12 rev 122.14 or higher.
Scenario 1: User creates a model from a connection for the first time and hasn't saved the model yet. Search to Insights is under the "General Model Settings" and the Create Index button is disabled.
Scenario 2a: Model is saved and has never been indexed before, therefore it doesn't show the last indexed timestamp. Create Index button is enabled.
Scenario 2b: User starts indexing. At this stage, the confirmation dialog will appear with an estimate of how long indexing will take for this model. Don't close or refresh the brows when it is being processed!
User opens the indexed model preference's dialog. A timestamp will be shown for the last updated index of this model and the "delete index" will be visible as an option.
Data Visualization
Configure initial explorer view
Story designers can now open explorer from a chart or table and configure it to control what viewers see when they launch explorer. Multiple Explore tabs can be configured, where one can be set as default. However, explorer in Digital Boardroom only currently shows the default view. Story designers can use explorer to show more details in a table, for example.
Bookmark personal explorer views
Story viewers can create multiple views in explorer and persist these in a story bookmark. These bookmarks remain private and contain filter, input controls, prompts and explorer views.
Intelligent Enterprise
Choose variable value from a Customer exit or SAP BW backend
When using an SAP BW Bex Query, you can now choose whether a variable value comes from a Customer Exit, either of which is dynamically processed during runtime form backend, (e.g. current day, changes every day), or from a saved value that is a manually input by the user (saved in the story).
For example, a date value like "10.10.2018" only changes when a user is setting another value.
Additional resources:
- Video tutorials
- Guided learning
- Events and recordings
- SAP Analytics Cloud help resources
- Official roadmap contains more info on future plans, subject to change.
Previous feature summary blogs:
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.17
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.16
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.15
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.14
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.13
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.12
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.11
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.10
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.09
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.08
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.07
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.06
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.05
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.04
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.03
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.02
- SAP Analytics Cloud release 2018.01
- More >
**Legal disclaimer
SAP has no obligation to pursue any course of business outlined in this blog or any related presentation, or to develop or release any functionality mentioned therein. This blog, or any related presentation and SAP's possible future developments, products and or platforms directions and functionality are all subject to change and may be changed by SAP at any time for any reason without notice. The information in this blog is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. This blog is provided without a warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. This blog is for informational purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract. SAP assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document, except if such damages were caused by SAP's willful misconduct or gross negligence.
All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.

subset: commoncrawl


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The conservative blogosphere is abuzz over the Bret Baier's contentious interview Wednesday with President Obama. Of course, Baier's repeated interruptions and confrontational tone should come as no surprise. After all, the Fox News hatchet man established his partisan bona fides two years ago in an exclusive interview with President Bush titled, "George W. Bush: Fighting to the Finish." And in that lovefest which Fox News deemed a "historic documentary" (and which is available from Amazon.com for $19.95), Baier compared Bush to Abraham Lincoln.
Mercifully, you don't waste your money or your time listening to a fawning Bret Baier toss George W. Bush softball questions or lay rhetorical rose pedals as his feet during that 2008 hagiography. After his "unflinching, fair and balanced interview with the 43rd president," Baier explained how Bush "was inspired by the writings and deeds of Abraham Lincoln":
"We talked a lot about President Lincoln. And there's going to be a lot of people out there who watch this hour and say, is he trying to equate himself with Lincoln?
I tell you what - he thinks about Lincoln and the tough times that he had during the Civil War. 600,000 dead. The country essentially hated him when he was leaving office.
"And the President reflects on that. This is a President who is really reflecting on his place in history."
That Lincoln didn't "leave office" but was instead assassinated just one month after his second inaugural is one of the more humorous errors produced by Fox News in its ongoing efforts to rewrite history on behalf of President Bush and the Republican Party.
As I documented previously, throughout his second term Dubya sought to equate himself with the Great Emancipator. As ThinkProgress noted in January 2008, "the list of conservatives who have sought to frame Bush as Lincoln is long; it includes Newt Gingrich, John Gibson, David Brooks, and Rudy Giuliani." In February of that year, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during an address at Washington University "repeatedly made references comparing himself and the Bush administration to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, suggesting that Lincoln was highly criticized during his presidency and is now highly revered."
Meanwhile, over at the National Review, Seth Liebsohn was ecstatic, crowing that "Bret Baier just concluded the single best interview of President Obama in a year, by any reporter." And no doubt, it was the best interview of any president since Bret Baier described George W. Bush as the second coming of Abraham Lincoln.
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives.)


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My favourite ethical designer - most certainly of 2010 if not of all time - Ada Zanditon has launched a stunning Christmas window display at the Halelujah Store in Brussels, perfectly demonstrating the versatility of her creative and intellectual design approach. Capping off a hugely successful season, Ada was approached to create a display based on her SS11 Pyramora collection. The stark, moody display includes trees inspired by her epic Nepthea dress, utilising her trademark pyramids and iconic symbols of the Christmas tree to create sculptural surfaces using repeating geometric shapes.
Luca Romanyi, which I'm certain will entice shoppers inside the Halelujah store, located on Rue Antoine Dansaert, Brussels.
How To Make Fluted Wooden Handles
2 days ago


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The 2020 Sphera Safe Operations Summit was all about exploring the methods and trends related to creating a safer workplace for all. The following is a recap of the sessions that took place during the two-day event. All recording are available on demand until February 2021.
Day One
First Session: Reality of Risk: Insights From Sphera's 2020 Process Safety and Operational Risk Management Survey
The first session featured Simon Jones, Sphera's director of the Digital Solutions Group. He went over the key findings from Sphera's fifth-annual State of Process Safety and Operational Risk Management report.
Most survey respondents (88%) said that safety is a part of their corporate value structure, while 78% said they continue to monitor safety performance. But while more than half of respondents (60%) said they strive to reduce operational and Major Accident Hazard exposure, only 51% of respondents said they are aware of Major Accident Hazard risk vulnerability and only 37% said they proactively manage process safety.
To learn more about the survey, check out the on-demand recording.
Second Session: Regulatory Complexities: A Panel Discussion
In the second session, Carrie Decatur, Sphera's senior manager of regulatory data, and Andy Bartlett, Sphera's Operational Risk solutions consultant, discussed how a continually evolving regulatory climate can affect production, facilities, employees and more.
Bartlett got the session kicked off by asking Decatur what some of the recent . Decatur responded that REACH Annex 2 has been updated, there are many potential Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) updates around the world, including Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
The topic du jour in Product Stewardship has been the upcoming European Union Poison Centres Notification rules, which kick in January 2021. "We've been talking about this change for some time, Decatur said, "but we're getting very close to the first deadline. … You would think that this might mean that the regulation might stop changing, but that is not the case."
Shortly after that conversation, the topic turned to the 14 Elements of Process Safety Management and why alignment is key.
With all the changes coming down the pipe, how can companies keep up to date? Watch the on-demand recording to find out what our experts had to say.
Third Session: Move Beyond Compliance to Operate More Safely: An Integrated Technology Approach
In the final session of Day One of Sphera's Safe Operations Summit, James Brown, Accenture's principal director of consulting, was joined by Scott Lehmann, Sphera's vice president of product management, and Mike Zamis, Sphera's chief product officer. The topic: integration.
Brown got things kicked off with the industry trends in Environment, Health & Safety (EHS). "What we're seeing more and more of—and coming from an operating background myself—it's really important that you do things with a human-centered approach, so the tools that you have are actually helping people to do their jobs and to focus on what's a priority for them," Brown said.
Brown also offered six "value opportunities" for organizations, including improving efficiency, reducing incidents and enhancing decision-making.
Watch the on-demand recording to learn more.
Day Two
First Session: Achieve Safe, Compliant and Efficient Management Across the Chemical Life Cycle
Up first on Day Two was Laura Patrick, Sphera's senior manager of product management, and Brennita Barga, who is a Sphera consulting manager. The topic? Chemical compliance throughout the life cycle.
Companies, they explained, need to see what the different business units have in common to make sure needs are met across the entire organization. The goal: standardization and converting paper workflows to digital ones.
So what happens when you don't have that level of standardization throughout the organization? Watch the on-demand recording to learn more.
Second Session: ConocoPhillips Case Study: The Connected Worker and Finding the Right Approach to Change
Fresh off his appearance on the SpheraNOW podcast, Mark Hutcherson, ConocoPhillips' director of operations excellence, joined the Scott Lehmann, Sphera's vice president of product management, to talk about what Operational Excellence means at ConocoPhillips, what the connected worker means to Operational Risk Management among other topics.
"Really, in the last three years," Hutcherson said, "it's been a transformation as it relates to the Digital Age and how that relates to our operations, and we continue to evolve and transform our operations considering all the technology progress that continues to change all of our lives."
Lehmann then talked about how over the past couple of years, when it comes to Operational Risk Management, cloud technology has gone from an option to the option.
The conversation then turned a number of different things, including how to get alignment in an organization as large as ConcoPhillips with so many different languages and cultures.
Watch the on-demand recording to learn more.
Third Session: Gilead Sciences Case Study: Ensuring Employee and Process Safety With the Right Tools
You might have noticed that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved one of Gilead Science's antiviral drug for COVID-19 treatment. Just a week after that news broke, Gilead's Randy Vivian, who is the company's director of corporate sustainability, health and safety, appeared on the Sphera Safe Operational Summit to talk about process safety.
In a conversation with David Klocek, who is Sphera's vice president of Operational Risk, Environmental Performance and Maintenance, Repair & Operations delivery, Vivian explained how the biopharmaceutical company handles safety initiatives—and how important a cloud strategy is to the organization.
So what were some the hesitations Gilead had before making the leap to a cloud-based system?
Watch the on-demand recording to find out.
Fourth Session: BASF Case Study: Consistently Identify, Assess and Control the Impact of Operational Risk
In the final presentation of the summit, Banoo Behboodi, Sphera's vice president of services, interviewed Gosia Myslinska, a process safety expert at BASF, about consistent processes in high-hazard organizations.
After a quick introduction, Behboodi asked Myslinska about how Operational Risk Management technology has helped enable self-operations within BASF. Doing so, Myslinska said, brought a simplified, clearer working processes throughout BASF and for its external partners.
The conversation eventually moved to lessons learned, which includes continuous access to training and keeping it simple. What were the other two lessons? Watch the on-demand recording to find out.


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What is Uninstallco?
Uninstallco is a reliable and truly effective uninstaller tool that provides a safe and easy way to uninstall unnecessary apps from your computer with no leftovers remained. It gives you a clean computer system and a secure and smooth online surfing experience because it uninstalls undesired software without leaving leftovers like invalid registry keys, useless program data files and folders, application shortcuts and icons, etc. Compared to Windows built-in uninstaller, Uninstallco is faster and more effective. It ensures all leftovers to be removed thoroughly from the computer just like they have never existed. With just one click, you can uninstall the most stubborn programs, unwanted toolbars and malicious/ads plugins in a minutes. Uninstallco is now available on Windows and Mac. If you are serious about completely uninstalling a program from your computer, then Uninstallco is worth a try!
Published by Tony Shepherd & last updated on January 26, 2021 3:46 am
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Revealing Thoughts (Victoria Wilde #3)
- $3.99
- $3.99
Publisher Description
Revealing Thoughts is both book three in the Victoria Wilde series and an expanded and steamier version of book two, Friends with More Benefits, in the Friends with Benefits Series.
As Jillian and Brian's destination wedding date nears, Jillian's just released novel's complicated success threatens to destroy their big day. While Rob's new job grows extraordinarily more mysterious Brian's becomes infinitely more unfulfilling and both struggle to find the answers. Victoria finds it more and more difficult to hide her secrets and when they are finally exposed there is no shortage of collateral damage. When thoughts are revealed will the wedding be ruined, will Jillian's career survive and will everyone forgive Victoria? Find out in Revealing Thoughts.
Customer Reviews
This one has all the good stuff and then some.
"How exactly am I supposed to perform oral on a woman with a fishtail bottom?" HAHAHA how can you not love Brian!
The whole gang is back in book 3 of the Victoria Wilde series and it's better than ever! It is full of up's and down's, keeps me guessing, get's me all fired up and I can't get enough. It is fun to read as the story moves between different characters points of view all the while keeping it easy to follow what is happening. I highly recommend this book.


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Our Publix Pharmacy app is here! Mobile apps have become part of our everyday lives, making things more convenient and available right at our fingertips. Check out all the things our new app has to offer.
Sign Up
The Publix Pharmacy app is available for Android and iOS devices. Have control of your prescriptions at the touch of a button via your smartphone by downloading the mobile app today to get started. Don't own a smartphone? No problem. A desktop web-based version is also available so that you can access all the features from your computer.
All you need to get started is:
- A Publix.com account (if you don't have one yet, you can make yours here)
- A prescription number filled within the last 18 months at a Publix Pharmacy
- A phone number or email address on file with the pharmacy
After downloading the app or visiting our Pharmacy site follow the simple steps to get set up and you can begin enjoying all the perks.
App Perks
- Order refills
- Manage medications
- Get refill status
- Set dosage reminders
- Refill Notifications (by text, email, or push notifications in real time)
- Text alerts for pickup
Prescription History
Obtaining prescription history can often be a difficult task. With our app, it's easier than ever. Log in to your account to view your history for the past two years. Your history statement will include:
- Date Filled
- Location Filled
- Quantity
- Amount Paid
- Prescribing Physician
- Prescription Product Name
- Insurance Coverage
Access your prescriptions and refills with ease. Download the Publix Pharmacy app for Android and iOS today!


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Despite most expecting the Los Angeles Lakers to ultimately take Lonzo Ball with the No. 2 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, more and more reports continue to surface that the team may not be as set on the UCLA product as many think.
Before the Lakers worked out Ball Wednesday, a report from Chad Ford of ESPN outlined why some among the team's brass ultimately would rather go with Jackson, with Ford saying he has a 35 percent chance to be selected, compared to the 40 percent chance he gave Ball and 25 percent chance he gave De'Aaron Fox.
"Jackson has always been another favorite in the organization," Ford writes. "While the feeling is that Ball is a good fit with the Lakers offensively, Fox and Jackson are gritty defenders and vocal leaders on the court, something the Lakers feel the team is lacking. Jackson in particular seems to have some strong supporters in the organization who think defense should be the priority."
Defense should almost certainly be a priority for the Lakers, who ranked last in the league in defensive efficiency last season, giving up 110.6 points per 100 possessions. Defense is also something Jackson — the third-ranked prospect in DraftExpress' top-100 — looks as set to provide from day one as any rookie can be.
However, no first-year player is going to fix the Lakers' defense. Yes, locking up a pairing of rangy defenders in Jackson and Brandon Ingram could be a boon for the team down the road if they ultimately move more towards a Golden State Warriors-style switch everything defensive scheme, but would that opportunity outweigh the star potential shown by Ball?
The Lakers front office will have to decide that for itself, and no matter who they choose between Ball, Fox, or Jackson, it will provide a fascinating window into what type of team the Lakers want to be down the road.
Here is an updating list of every player the Lakers have worked out or met with. Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here and listen to our instant reaction to the Lonzo Ball workout below), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.


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Free Shipping on orders over $100
$ 38.00
I call it like I see it.
Small little ovals encompass three sparkling stones. The purdiest dern everyday pair that there ever was.
Just over 1″ in length.
Available in Sterling Silver, 14K Gold Fill and 14K Rose Gold Fill.
***This product is made to order from the artist - please allow 2 weeks production time + shipping***
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