Eschatology is the branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of mankind. It is a belief concerning death, the end of the world, or the ultimate destiny of mankind. Specifically, it refers to any of the various Christian doctrines concerning the Second Coming, the resurrection of the dead, or the Last Judgment.
As more than a casual observer of contemporary ufology, I have recently become aware of what could be a significant new twist in popular perception about UFOs. For many, UFOs are not the manifestation of extraterrestrial intelligence but instead are a metaphysical phenomenon – a manifestation of spiritual entities. Many abductees/contactees are now characterizing their “unusual personal experiences” in a religious or metaphysical context.
As an unabashed secular humanist, I am skeptical of these claims. But there are several aspects of the metaphysical interpretation of the UFO phenomenon that should be considered before rejecting it out of hand.
Admittedly, a lot of what follows is based on rumor, hearsay, and circumstantial evidence. Much is derived from numerous phone calls from Dan Smith, whose religious beliefs regarding the UFO phenomenon have induced a messianic zeal to “spread the Word.” These calls have provided a flurry of information on what I have previously termed “fringe” beliefs, as well as providing the names and backgrounds of the birds who comprise the Aviary. According to Dan, who undoubtedly is privy to a wealth of accurate, though not widely known UFO information, this data is being released through him due to the grave concern by high government officials about impending metaphysical catastrophe – the eschaton, or the end of the world.
Mr. Smith first came to my attention after the “Aquarium Conspiracy” article (see inset) was disseminated to computer bulletin board systems in the Spring of ’93. In this article, Smith and Rosemary Ellen Guiley, directors of the Center for North American Crop Circle Studies, warned of an “eschatological emergency,” the reaction of various organizations – both inside and outside the government – and their attempt to establish a network of spiritually advanced individuals, the “Aquarium,” to assist the Aviary in dealing with this crisis.
“The Aquarium Conspiracy” by Dan Smith and Rosemary Ellen Guiley: “In the beginning, there was eschatology – the branch of theology dealing with the end times. Dan, having spent many years first studying physics and then metaphysics, came to the conclusion that the scientists have been looking at the world upside down. Mind, not matter, is the foundation for all realities.
Moreover, the materialist paradigm was in danger of imminent collapse, being subverted on the inside by its contradictions and on the outside by the growing body of evidence for the paranormal. Creating and maintaining a reality is no easy game. It requires a lot of magic and a lot of conscious critters like ourselves who are pretty good at collective self-deception. Fortunately – or perhaps unfortunately – our particular reality game has about reached its natural conclusion, and we are waking up to the fact that mind and matter are not separate.”
We are undergoing an exciting but stressful revolution in our collective consciousness. This revolution, or global spiritual emergency, will bring upheavals and overloads in our global consciousness that will impact the material Earth for better or worse and may quickly get out of control. We will also be opening up to other realities that will be impacting us as well. Our present very tidy sense of reality and its boundaries are due to become much more fluid and permeable. Every spiritual tradition takes very seriously its prophecies about the end of the world, but for the first time, we are seeing these prophecies turning into believable predictions of earth and reality changes. That is how Dan fell from physics into eschatology.
After experiencing numerous slammed doors among his former scientific colleagues, he decided that the most logical place to find fellow eschatologists would be in various intelligence agencies and among investigators of the paranormal. Dan next addressed how to communicate about the eschaton. Even a small hint that the government is worried about the end of the world might start a chain reaction of panic, which could possibly serve as a trigger for the eschaton.
On the other hand, people inside the government might be wanting to set up a kind of civil defense network vis-a-vis the eschaton, and so they would be looking for people on the outside who could much more freely network among the general public. An important link in the communication chain is what has become known as the Aviary. This is the final link next to the public network, and so it must be heavily disguised by its own surrealistic smoke screen.
The Aviary functions best by amplifying people’s misconceptions about the paranormal. It does this by helping to overinflate individual pieces of the puzzle so that particular investigators get pushed further into their own blind alleys. People are encouraged to be so distracted by the trees that they fail to see the forest. This cacophony by people looking for truth in all the strangest places provides an excellent cover for the deadly serious business of clearing the decks and battening down the hatches for the eschaton event. It is like a Manhattan Project going on behind the scenes of alien grays and praying mantises having sex with humans.
However, this eschaton conspiracy is being orchestrated by higher powers, and we don’t mean the Committee of 300. Very few of the people even near the center of the orchestration have a clear picture of what is coming down, but they do know that something is coming and that they will have front-row seats. The Manhattan Project relative to the eschaton is a global civilian network of people who will serve as a lightning rod for the cosmic energies coming in during the consciousness revolution.
“They will be looking to channel these energies into expanded realities. Thus, they will provide a degree of protection for those people who can find their places alongside the network. Outside of the network, there will be greater levels of trauma and confusion. The pieces of the network are already in place; the remaining task is to properly activate and link the pieces into a critical mass of awareness. This last step is now underway. This is how an Aviary helps to spawn an Aquarium, and how birds learn to swim.
“The Aquarium is our business, and we are working to reach people who are ready to be activated in the consciousness revolution.”
I was intrigued after reading the “Aquarium Memo” because it implied that the authors had cultivated sources within the intelligence community. The only question was whether this information was accurate or bogus. I drafted a response and uploaded it to Don Allen, the moderator for the FIDO UFO conference, requesting that he forward it to Dan Smith. Several days later, I received the first of many calls from him.
Since Smith had alluded to his close contacts with the Aviary, most of my questions centered around this mysterious group of alleged UFO insiders comprised of scientists, military personnel, and intelligence analysts. Dan’s primary contact with this group is “Pelican,” who reportedly mans the “Weird Desk” (UFOs, etc.) at the CIA. While Pelican’s main job with the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology is to monitor foreign technological developments, Pelican also tracks millennial/eschatological communities, “entering a twilight zone where psychic techniques are being generated by humans and other entities,” says Smith.
According to Smith, UFOs are primarily a psychological/metaphysical phenomenon that are both preparing us and pressuring us to develop our own psi abilities. Not that UFOs are a single type of entity, Smith asserts that there are “powers and principalities” at work — presumably supernatural entities like angels and demons. Furthermore, he said that a radical program of parapsychological research and development is currently underway near Los Alamos, New Mexico.
This group’s development of psychokinesis and psychotronics (a term used to denote psychic warfare techniques) represents a danger of eschatological proportions. “These techniques have been available, but controlled, throughout history. Now, other entities are forcing the issue,” said Smith.
During the course of our first conversation, Smith was unable to provide much proof of his claims. He reported that his governmental sources “hinted at” an eschatological emergency. To prove the evil intent of the entities involved, he referred to reports of human mutilations in the Amazon, which have been officially attributed to drug dealers but according to his sources, were committed by these evil entities. When I asked why the CIA was interested in eschatology, he replied that the ramifications of the eschaton event represented a serious threat to national security and thus fell into the purview of the intelligence agencies.
Smith also revealed that the eschatological issues he raised related directly to the Biblical prophecies of the book of Revelation. I thanked Mr. Smith for the call and invited him to keep me abreast of future developments. With the addition of demons, angels, “black magic,” psychotronic technology, and assorted spooks working at cross purposes, my already strained credulity was pushed a bit further.
Dan proceeded to call me regularly. Each call provided tantalizing snippets of information—some simply incredible at first hearing but with confirmation on some of the data coming in from disparate sources all across the country. Naturally, my curiosity centered around the identities and activities of the Aviary. I suspect that many believe the Bird People to be cogs in a giant conspiracy to manage the public’s perception of UFOs.
Not necessarily so, according to Smith. Far from being a well-funded, omnipotent secret society of the guardians of UFO data, the Aviary is nothing more than an ad hoc group of highly-placed “UFO buffs.” Initially, the factor that seemed most important was that Pelican was being so forthcoming—presumably with the knowledge and consent of his superiors at CIA.
Surprisingly, Army Intelligence RV operations have become married, literally, with some prominent figures in UFO abductions research. Albert Stubblebine is now married to Dr. Rima Laibow, whose scholarly paper on the abduction phenomenon was the first (as far as I know) to address the issue in the mental-health community. John Alexander is now married to the former Victoria Lacas, Dr. Laibow’s close associate.
This list of strange bedfellows gets even stranger when you add the name of CSETI founder and head honcho, Steven Greer, M.D., into the mix. As it turns out, Greer, whose modus operandi incorporates shining blinking lights and laser beams at UFOs in the hopes of establishing communications with the ufonauts, was trained in remote viewing by Ed Dames. In fact, it was Dr. Greer who introduced Stubblebine at the Denver symposium.
So, what we have so far is that several former high-ranking military personnel (Stubblebine, Alexander, and Dames) who were involved in “psychic” research while in Army Intelligence and who are now actively involved in the UFO research community. Further, Dames has staked his company’s professional reputation on the prediction that an overt contact with aliens will occur in the Four Corners area by August of 1993. Naturally, August came and went without incident.
One of ufology’s more cogent analysts, who is convinced of the reality of remote viewing based on his own personal search, told me that Dames’ activities had resulted in the successful discrediting of both UFOs and remote viewing. Was this the plan all along, or is Dames just a charlatan?
“Black” Projects Dan Smith explained that the reason that so much information was being disseminated was due to the eschatological implications of the psychotronic research underway at covert government research facilities.
It would seem unlikely that this type of technology is currently feasible. After all, if the government had access to psychotronic weapons, why didn’t they induce Saddam Hussein to stroll naked through the streets of Baghdad, asking his subjects to admire his new clothes, or simply cause a major blood vessel in his brain to burst? But Smith sincerely believes that such technologies are being developed, specifically under the guise of “non-lethal” weapons research, such as that headed by John Alexander. Smith says, point-blank, that this technology is nothing less than “black magic.” Supposedly, this business is taken so seriously at upper echelons that the Secret Service retrieved all of the bloody bandages discarded after Ronald Reagan was wounded in an assassination attempt, lest the president’s blood be used in a “black magic” ritual that could influence his behavior.
I suppose this story is somewhat more credible after the revelations concerning Reagan’s “court astrologer.” According to Dan Smith, the use of these psychotronic techniques entails a perilous threat to democracy – potentially, a type of instantaneous mass mind control to program a pesky proletariat – and worse.
These claims should be taken into the context of published papers on the ability to induce auditory sensations through microwave bombardment at certain frequencies. In Alexander’s book, “The Warrior’s Edge” (with Morris and Grollier), he states matter of factly that remote viewing and psychokinesis are not only real but have predictable, practical applications. Indeed, the focus of the book is how to utilize mind control techniques to achieve an advantage over one’s adversaries.
There’s absolutely no telling what Cold War ethics, combined with unlimited budgets and zero accountability, could have wrought in terms of Frankensteinian scenarios. To elucidate this point, I present this extract from a paper by Ray Boeche, a Lincoln, Nebraska, theologian, and Fortean researcher: “To all interested researchers: The following is an edited version of material given to me in late 1991-early 1992 by two scientists who claim to be working in weapons research and development for the Department of Defense.
I am not in a position to comment on the truthfulness or accuracy of the information. The two men who have spoken to me do, in fact, exist and for all intents and purposes seem to be who and what they claim. The very nature of the claims makes verification difficult, if not impossible.
Divulging this information was the result of a moral dilemma when these two individuals, both Christians, became alarmed at the course their research efforts into psychotronic weapons were taking under the direction of their (unnamed) superiors. They described an obsessive effort to contact and attempt to control what they referred to as “non-human intelligences” (NHI) and to harness these NHI for military and intelligence uses.
The efforts had progressed well past attempts at practical applications of David Bohm’s theories and had grown to encompass the use of, according to their statements, “satanic rituals/ritual magic along the lines of that espoused by Aleister Crowley, including human sacrifices.” These gentlemen stated their concerns that even when they were apparently able to harness or channel these forces or abilities for “good” uses, the force would “turn,” and ultimately all of those subjects involved suffered varying degrees of negative effects from contact with these forces. They are convinced that what is being tapped into in all instances is evil and that this research should cease.
Contact has continued on a limited basis, with no new information of significance forthcoming. After speculation as to the physics of the paranormal, Boeche sums up the startling details he received: Information given but not allowed to note during the meeting: Discussion of individuals killed during psychotronic weapons experiments.
Male, white, 25-30 years old, allegedly died by remotely induced cardiac arrest. Female, white, 20-25 years old, allegedly died by remotely transmitting and creating head trauma equivalent to crushing of the right anterior portion of the skull. Male, white, 30-40 years old, allegedly died by remotely controlled suffocation.
The setting was in a laboratory environment. Alleged victims were wired for EEG and EKG, seated in a reclining chair, somewhat similar to a dentist’s chair.
In efforts to establish contact with non-human intelligences, every avenue is being explored. Satanic rituals involving human sacrifice have been performed. Much study has been given to the writings of Crowley.
The Bentwaters experiment was the projection of an actual, physical three-dimensional object that could and did interact with its environment but was created and controlled by individuals involved in this research.
No project names were given because the sources were too concerned that a leak would be traced back to them. Mr. Boeche used the term “scripted” (i.e., slow enough to allow for copious note-taking, except when he was asked to cease writing during the descriptions of the psychotronically induced deaths) to describe the presentation delivered by the two putative DoD scientists. In my communications with Mr. Boeche, he was at a loss to explain why the two DoD scientists were still working on projects they found to be morally repugnant, and if they really wanted to blow the whistle on this activity, why did they reveal it to an obscure ufologist and not the New York Times or “Nightline.” I have to agree with Boeche’s assessment that the story is probably disinformation for some unknown purpose.
The only question here is what could the motivation be? The story related by Ray Boeche is supported by Dan Smith’s thesis, i.e., humans are messing with forces that are getting out of control, perhaps with disastrous consequences. According to Smith, these “sorcerer’s apprentices” are going at it hot and heavy at government psychotronics labs in or near Los Alamos, New Mexico.
It has been rumored that there have already been several high-level meetings between those who are concerned about secret psi/UFO programs and representatives of the Clinton administration. According to one rumor, Pelican met with Jack Gibbons, the White House Science Advisor. Gibbons is reported to have responded that “the President shouldn’t touch this topic with a 10-foot pole.” Instead, meetings concerning these “black” psi/UFO projects have been channeled through the Vice-President’s office under the cover story of “alternate energy sources.” There have also been meetings with Senate Intelligence Committee Chief of Staff, Dick DiAmato, who is said to be interested in the ongoing strangeness at Area 51.
Variations on this rumor have John Alexander as the contact with the Clinton administration. This makes a certain amount of sense in that Alexander knows Al Gore from his days as a senator when he taught several congressmen, including Gore, some basic Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques.
Interestingly, the subject of “Presidential Haircuts” may be connected to this affair. It has been independently reported to me that Mr. Clinton had another delay on the tarmac in Los Alamos after his tour of high-tech research facilities in the area. This was just days before the LAX/Christophe incident. The inference from this is that either the President’s hair must grow very fast, or highly secure meetings are occurring on airport runways (presumably Air Force 1 is bug-free).
To give Pelican an opportunity to confirm or deny the eschatological scenario presented by Dan Smith, I gave him a call. Readers who expect dramatic revelations will be disappointed, although Pelican did provide some interesting tidbits.
First, he sounded much younger than I expected. Second, he had a very sharp sense of humor (I had to laugh out loud several times during the course of our conversation). I limited my questions to the subjects of eschatology and the Aviary. His answers seemed forthright — he didn’t seem stressed to avoid any particular topic, and I found him to be quite convincing.
My first question dealt with Dan’s statements concerning dangerous “black” programs that were out of control. Curiously, Pelican responded that “Dan isn’t cleared for that kind of information” — not exactly a repudiation of Dan’s story. Pelican did admit that he talks to Dan frequently — about physics.
When I told him that Dan had been claiming to be a “conduit” for semi-official information from him, Pelican rather ambiguously stated, “He may very well be doing that… I talk to him once in a while, and we share information. I really don’t tell him anything that’s classified or work-related… he certainly isn’t functioning in the role of a conduit for me.” I quoted Dan Smith’s statement to the effect that “the best place to find fellow eschatologists was in the intelligence agencies,” to which Pelican responded “he didn’t find any here” at the CIA.
I inquired about the status of psychotronic weapons research. Pelican was dismissive of the entire subject, calling it “modern-day shamanism.” He also stated that psychotronics is only taken seriously in countries like Russia and China that do not have the rigorous peer-reviewed scientific establishment such as in the U.S.
I raised the subject of Psi Tech and Ed Dames’ risking his company’s reputation on his prediction of an overt alien contact in the Chaco Canyon area by the end of August ’93. “What reputation? It’s a joke…the only paying customer Psi Tech has ever had was Dan Smith himself, who gave Psi Tech $3,000 to remote view a crop circle being made,” Pelican responded. I asked about the high-level personnel on Psi Tech’s board of directors like Stubblebine and Alexander.
Pelican was dismissive of Stubblebine, recounting that Stubblebine’s nickname was “General Spoonbender,” due to his belief in psychic phenomena. Pelican holds Alexander in considerably higher regard, however, stating, “he’s a friend of mine.” Next, I asked about the Aviary. According to Pelican, the Aviary is nothing more than the product of the somewhat-deranged mind of “Falcon,” retired Air Force Captain Robert Collins, who worked in Foreign Technology Assessment in regards to missile technology — not AFOSI as is widely believed.
Pelican stated that Collins had been discharged from the Air Force for breaching the security perimeter at the Manzano nuclear weapons storage facility at Kirtland AFB. When he was taken into custody by base security, Collins told them that he was there “to meet the President.” He was discharged shortly thereafter. Dan suggests that this incident was orchestrated by Bill Moore, with Collins left to twist in the wind.
Soon after his discharge, Collins began mailing letters “…with my real name and address on the outside, and my codename on the inside,” said Pelican. He considered these mailings so amusing that he posted them on his office wall for the entertainment of his CIA colleagues. All in all, it was an interesting conversation, but I was (as the reader undoubtedly is now) more confused than ever.
Of course, nobody is shocked anymore by government denials that turn out to be less than truthful, but as I said before, Pelican was very convincing. He reiterated Dan Smith’s proviso that I keep his name confidential – not to keep him from being deluged by UFO kooks, but rather so he wouldn’t receive unwanted attention from foreign agents – a condition that I’ll honor, even though Pelican’s real name is already well-known to researchers following this story.
Alien Eschatology Against this flurry of phone calls, rumors, denials, and confirmations, HUFON’s own abduction research has uncovered an eschatological angle. It seems even the abductors are getting on the eschatology bandwagon with abductees reportedly meeting (or at least perceiving) God, Jesus, dead relatives, and the like, often with dire warnings concerning “the end of the world.” Senior HUFON abductions investigator Dale Musser does not take these accounts at face value, nor does he reject them outright. Musser had this to say about the “spiritual” aspects of the abduction phenomenon: “This theory is one held by a number of abductees.
Most of these abductees have been told by the abductors that the aliens have the right (implication of a divine nature) to do the things they are doing to the abductees. That they are here to save the earth (exact means of doing this vary from subject to subject) and to help us. Usually, the abductee is told they were “chosen” and are made to feel important because of this selection. Often they are told that at a later date, they will ‘know what to do,’ or they will “understand when the time is right.” The true nature of the beings themselves is never explained but left to the individual to determine. Many believe them to possibly be angels or other entities in service to a deity. There does not seem to be any clearly defined message, nor are the messages consistent from one abductee to another.
There are several problems with this theory from an investigative standpoint. First, there is even less proof for their statements than for the abduction itself. The vagueness of the messages certainly does not relate to trying to convince us of their concern about the issues. Second, the means and methods of relaying the messages have the lowest probability of achieving results. Third, the messages given are usually interpreted after an event has occurred rather than before. Therefore, one never knows for sure if that’s what was truly intended. Most events predicted, or messages conveyed which are to be understood later, almost never happen, and those that do are subject to question. Fourth, the religious significance of the abductors is usually relevant to the belief system of the abductee. It is not universal to all abductees.
It would appear the abductors “access” the belief system of the abductee and play back a scenario that will be acceptable to the abductees and make them more cooperative. If the individual is Judeo-Christian, the aliens and their purposes will appear to fit within that system. If the subject is a Buddhist, the scenario will be within that belief system. However, this is not always true. In one case, an abductee (who was Christian) was presented with a totally pagan and mythical belief scenario. A mistake, or a test? Who knows? What we do know is that there does not appear to be any consistency to information in these events other than making the individual believe the abductors are here on some sort of divine mission. It is interesting to note that atheists seldom have encounters where they are presented with religious scenarios. Often, they are presented with the idea that the aliens are here to help us prevent the same fate which supposedly befell their own world. It is hard to believe there is any truth to these spiritual connections and beliefs when so many differing ones are presented, some in conflict with the other. The conclusion one could draw from the data presented is “whatever works, they will use.” So, the abducting entities can’t seem to keep their stories straight.
One would expect at least consistency from advanced alien beings, heavenly angels, or demons from hell — whatever they may be. Novelist Whitley Strieber, whose abduction experiences are described vividly in his non-fiction books “Communion” and “Transformation,” recounted that when he asked the entities what they were up to, they responded “We recycle souls.” He too was shown “lessons” concerning a catastrophe affecting the earth.
Strieber, who has become “alienated” from organized ufology due to his refusal to categorize the entities he encountered as extraterrestrial aliens, can only characterize the phenomenon as “not a dream, not a hallucination, and not real – something else.” This brings me back to the subject at hand: what is going on? In a word, confusion. There seems to be no correlation between the perceived abduction events and Dan Smith’s eschatological emergency caused by the practice of “black magic.” Smith does seem to be hedging his bets at times. He has told me that the eschaton event could be a “benign eschaton,” consisting of a universal and positive shift in human behavior due to Revealed Truth. I could go for that…
Just as occurred in the waning days of the year 999 when millennialism swept through Europe, causing a virtual societal breakdown, today there is a growing millennialist movement where many of the faithful foresee a period of catastrophic “Earth changes” and Armageddon, the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Fundamentalist Christians eagerly await this disaster because it will usher in a thousand-year kingdom of Jesus on Earth.
New Age channelers are also getting into the act with messages from angels/avatars/aliens warning of imminent “Earth changes” along with warnings against gun control, Zionism, the “New World Order,” and other right-wing paranoid delusions. When considering these claims, one would be remiss not to point out the upsurge in reports of Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) sightings and other paranormal events of religious significance to the experiencers.
As with the many New Age channeled messages, many of the reported Marian locutions warn of “Earth changes” and the “End Times.” Starting in 1981, the most spectacular and long-lasting BVM visitation (with scads of witnesses to the “miracles”) occurred in Medjugorje, on the Adriatic coast of Bosnia Herzegovina, now one of the most horrific hell-holes on the planet. So much for the positive spiritual effects one might expect from such beatific locutions. Maybe things just aren’t what they seem.
Anyone familiar with UFO-abduction accounts is forced to conclude that weird things are happening, or at least being perceived as happening, by large numbers of otherwise sane, functional people. Some of these abduction reports are so bizarre, and with so many similarities to BVM encounters, that many thoughtful researchers have abandoned the extraterrestrial hypothesis in favor of the metaphysical or interdimensional hypothesis.
Dr. Jacques Vallee has even incorporated the high strangeness of these events into his comprehensive catalogue of close encounters under the rubric of “reality transformation.” As author and futurist Arthur C. Clarke is quoted as saying, “Any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic.”
David Mayo took this concept a step further when he stated that if advanced technology appears to be magic, then technology an order of magnitude beyond that could have the appearance of nonsense to our primitive simian brains. But if there really is such a thing as “black magic,” and government scientists are experimenting with it, I suspect that they could be blindly running the same risks in dealing with such unknown forces as the 19th-century scientists who thought nothing of casually handling radium and other radioactive materials.
With the clock inexorably ticking off the seconds until midnight on December 31, 1999 (a date that seems to have some special significance to the millennialists), eschatological fervor will undoubtedly increase. Meanwhile, whoever or whatever is behind the UFO phenomenon is apparently doing everything possible to keep the true nature of this mystery from being understood. But rather than being an indicator of biblical “End Times” or “Earth changes,” the barrage of UFO reports, BVM sightings, abduction accounts, channeled messages, religious hysteria, and inside poop from the CIA are probably nothing more than further attempts to distort the signal with more noise.
