by John Lash
February 2006
from
MetaHistory Website
Spanish version
These are categories more than theories;
within each definition a number of theories are possible.
However, as categories, they do present
a comprehensive overview of current ways of viewing the ET/UFO
phenomenon, i.e., an inventory of the operative paradigms. Each
category contains particular authors and researchers who fit with it
(not a complete list, but just some suggestions).
Some authors might fit into more than
one category: for instance,
Sitchin dominates category 3, but he could also go in
4, because of his reliance on Biblical material (especially the life
and activities of the patriarch Abraham), as well as in category 7,
because some elements of his work are close to, if not identical
with, von Daniken.
There are close parallels, and some
important overlaps, between categories 8 and 9.
I exclude Star Trek/Star Wars spin-offs and sci-fi related material
in books and film, which is massive. Also, I do not delve into
reports of diverse and warring aliens, friends and foes. There are
simply too many variations to cover. But in general outlines, these
complex, multi-species scenarios will fall into one or more of the
categories listed. All theories exemplify intervention theory,
defined in the Lexicon.
This inventory is nowhere near complete, but perhaps it will provide
a helpful provisional framework for discussion.
Readers are welcome to send comments and
suggestions to
John Lash.
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The Extraterrestrial Hypothesis
Aliens who belong to a technologically advanced civilization
from somewhere in outer space made contact with the US
government (and others, perhaps) in 1947, or earlier.
The aliens cut a deal, offering
to trade their advanced technology for the right to
experiment with the population (Corso,
The Day After Roswell). Source of innumerable
conspiracy theories and nightmare tales of CIA mind control,
cattle mutilations, underground labs, etc.
Proponents:
Timothy Good,
David Icke, George C.
Andrews (who carefully distinguishes between
extraterrestrial friends and foes), and many others. This
theory assumes that the aliens have an advanced
interbreeding program (David Jacobs,
The Threat), and that their
aims are not at all benign but downright sinister.
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The Benevolent ("Space
Brothers") Hypothesis
Assumes various kinds of
intervention, motivated by kind and helpful intent on the
part of the aliens; or possibly as part of their program for
boosting or initiating humanity to a more advanced level of
consciousness.
Most well-known example, Whitley
Streiber's "visitors," and the
Billy Meier Pleiadian
scenario. After much research and reticence, the late
John Mack (Passport to the
Cosmos) also adopted this view. Includes the earliest
contactees such as
George Adamski, whose tall
blond Venusians came to warn humanity about immanent
self-destruction, pollution of the environment, etc.
Earliest modern prototype for
this theory, the "Lords of the Flame" (also from Venus) in
the theosophical scenario of Madame Blavatsky.
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The Sumerian File
Includes all
theories centrally based on
the Anunnaki scenario found
in Sumerian clay tablets, the oldest written documents on
earth. Main proponent,
Zecharia Sitchin, who
maintains that the Anunnaki descended to earth, founded
civilization, and instituted theocracy.
He also claims that
these aliens come from
Nibiru, the outermost
member of our Solar System, with an orbital period of 3600
years, but this claim has not (to my knowledge) been
astronomically verified.
Spin-offs:
Lawrence Gardner,
Anton Parks, and many
others. (This category is unique in its reliance on ancient
textual evidence. Compare to category 9.)
The Anunnaki are
space masters rather than space brothers. The Sumerian myth
says they created humanity by genetic boosting of an apelike
native population, so that humans could serve as their
slaves.
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Biblical UFOlogy
Includes
hybrid and crossover theories that develop category 2
specifically in the context of the Old and New Testaments.
Draws heavily on Apocryphal
writings, especially the
Book of Enoch with its
famous account of "the
Watchers," believed to be fallen angles. Uses a
straightforward and literal-minded equation between aliens
and angels.
Proposes that angels described
in the Bible - such as those seen in the visions of Ezekiel,
or the one who wrestled with Jacob at the Jabbok ford on the
Jordan River, or the Angel Gabriel who announced the birth
of Jesus to Mary - were ET entities who are assumed
to have a benevolent attitude toward humanity, consistent
with the fulfillment of "God's plan."
Some of the angels may be fallen, but the leading assumption
here is that the angel/ETs are on the side of the Father
God, and the Father God is working for humanity (not
against it, as the Gnostic theory, category 9, asserts).
Epitomized in the Raelian cult with emphasis on the genetic
creation of humanity by god-like ETs.
This category reflects the deep religiosity of ET/UFO
speculation, as well as its naiveté and attraction to the
divine parental image.
In some rare instances, Biblical
UFOlogists approach the views of category 9 and challenge
the identity and motives of the creator God: e.g., Christian
O'Brien, The Genius of the Few, and A.D. Horne,
Humanity's
Extraterrestrial Origins. These are both intelligent,
sobering books.
-
The Mind Control Hypothesis
Largely developed by
Jacques Vallee in a brilliant manner.
He called the ET/UFO phenomenon "a spiritual control
system."
Equally so, John Keel (UFOs:
Operation Trojan Horse) has explored this angle with sober
and startling insight. Includes the influential writings of
C.G. Jung.
Also, Demonic Reality by Patrick Harpur. ETs are
projections of imagination, or the collective unconscious,
intrapsychic phantoms, psychic shapeshifters, etc.
The most intellectually
sophisticated category (apart from 9, which incorporates
it), it assumes that the Phenomenon (as Keel calls it) is
totally real, but not in the sense that it appears to be.
It
operates as a “inboard" control system, rather than a
miraculous event or supernatural intervention.
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New Age or Visionary theories
Found in numerous versions which tend to proliferate wildly.
Materials employed to develop this thesis are largely drawn
from channeled writings.
Examples are
The Prism of Lyra and
The Only Planet of Choice.
New Age theories of alien
contact tend to present a mixed bag of grand, starry-eyed
plans and divine intentions involving a diverse cast of
non-human species, some benevolent and some otherwise.
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Ancient Astronauts, the Von Daniken Hypothesis, which has spawned a wide range of
spin-offs
Take away all the smoke and ladders and this is
simply a "cargo cult" interpretation of alien contact.
Although von Daniken steered clear of these explosive issues
(Swiss neutrality?), the mystique of ancient astronauts
attaches itself readily to the worst fringe element in
modern thinking: i.e., crypto-fascism.
We hear
tales of Hitler escaping
to South America in a saucer donated by his alien allies.
Catastrophic theories of the Ice Ages and
hollow-earth fantasias proliferate in this category. For a good critique,
see Jocelyn Godwin,
Arktos. Bear in mind
that von Daniken's artifactual and archeological evidence
has been largely dismissed as fraudulent and fantastical.
(We tend to assume that an
advanced race would have advanced technology - but would it
be that kind of technology, i.e., headphones and such
gadgets?)
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Shamanic - Indigenous - Otherworld
The most traditional of all nine
categories because it draws upon world-wide folk-lore and
mythology, for instance, the
Aboriginal lore of Australia
and the testimony of Zulu shaman,
Credo Mutwa (who claims
that the alien spirits are malevolent).
Classic work:
-
The Fairy Faith in Celtic
Countries by E.A. Evans-Wentz, which inspired Jacques Vallee, plus
Vallee's own,
Passport to Magonia.
Includes the
intentional production of living phantoms (tulpas)
demonstrated in Tibetan Buddhism (Alexandria David-Neel,
Magic and Mystery in Tibet),
Kachinas in the magical
rites of the American southwest (Frank Waters, The
Book of the Hopi), and many reports from shamanic
cultures, including ayahuascueros of the Amazon and
urban DMT trippers.
Carried to a level of high
sophistication by the "Gnostic astronaut" Terence
McKenna in his speculations on the UFO-mushroom
connection (The Archaic Revival).
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ET/Archon theory, or the Gnostic
theory of alien intrusion
Specific to JLL and the Gnostic
material on Metahistory.
To my knowledge, only
Nigel
Kerner (The Song of the Greys) is the only other author
who equates
modern Grey ETs with
the Archons of Gnostic
writings, but he does not develop this idea in depth,
textually. Through Metahistory I do just that. The ET/Archon
Navigator takes you to the relevant articles.
This theory relies on the most solid and complete textual
evidence from antiquity: the
Dead Sea Scrolls and the
Nag Hammadi Codices. It assumes that Gnostic teachers in the
Pagan Mystery Schools were accomplished shamans who used
paranormal powers such as remote viewing to detect aliens,
as well techniques of psychic self-defense, to resist and
repel them.
About one-fifth of the surviving
Gnostic materials are concerned with the ET/Archons, their
motives, methods, appearances, tactics, etc. Their most
accomplished power is said to be HAL, "simulation,
substitution," i.e., virtual reality.
They are imposters allied with
the false creator God (the Demiurge),
Jehovah, who is working
against humanity.
Kerner assumes that Archons have deeply penetrated our
genetic makeup, but Gnostic writings support the view that
they have only duped us into believing this is so, whereas
they are in reality incapable of reaching or breaching the
genomic intelligence we embody. Their victory lies in
make-believe, getting us to act out what they pretend to be
doing to us.
Their work through insinuation.
Gnostic cosmology is closely related to
the modern
Gaia theory of Lovelock and
Margulis, for which it presents an ancient prototype.
Gnostic writings explain the cosmic
origin of the predatory ETs (both the fetal or embryonic and
reptilian types), which no other theory can do. Our planet Gaia
plays a key role in their presence in our minds and lives.
The Archons are a spin-off of the
intelligence of the divine being, Sophia, who is embodied in our
planet, but they are not compatible with human intelligence, so they
inhabit the solar system at large, apart from the earth - this is
the Mystery teaching. (Gnostics taught that the earth does not
properly belong to the planetary system, but is captured in it.)
Archons introduce a deviant skew into
human evolution. Our responsibility is to detect and correct it. In
this way we align ourselves with Gaia, the planetary intelligence
that initially produced the Archon species.
The Gnostic codices found in Egypt in 1945 warn explicitly that
these predatory alien entities infiltrate our minds through
spiritual belief systems.
These systems, especially the
Judeo-Christian-Islamic program of salvation, are not entirely of
human origin, but arise in our minds due to non-human deviance.
Salvationism is an ideological virus of extraterrestrial origin.
Jehovah is a demented pseudo-deity who pretends to be our
creator.
Gnostics detected the presence of ETs in the same forms reported
today.
The
Nag Hammadi texts contain firsthand
accounts of alien abduction.
But at a more profound level, the
ancient seers who guarded the Mysteries also discerned the
operations of the inhumane Archontic mind in the religious
ideologies that are today tearing humanity apart at the seams.
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