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Contactees: A History of Alien-Human Interaction

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"I AM DIANE... I COME FROM VENUS."

Thus were the words of "Diane," a eight-foot tall alien being "Standing like a sylph-like goddess" after manifesting before Dana Howard, a woman famous for her communications with what she believed to be alien visitors from Venus in the 1950s. Howard's claims certainly represent a fringe element in the history of Ufology, some spectral aspect that can be attributed to the extraterrestrial mystery. As obscure as her story remains in the present day, there is one collaborative aspect to all this that cannot be ignored: she was not alone.

With his book Contactees: A History of Alien-Human Interaction, Nick Redfern has placed himself at the pinnacle of what may be the strangest aspect of modern Ufology. Indeed, many like Howard-famous and flamboyant individuals throughout history-have claimed to possess knowledge of beings from other worlds; although the greatest concentration of contact with "aliens" maintains an epicenter that comprises the last sixty years. This historic period is the focus of Redfern's book, which the author presents for us in the most well-researched and informative presentation available.

The contactee element is so strange, and in many ways distinguishable from all other aspects of the UFO experience. For instance, many contactees claim to have met and interacted with extraterrestrial intelligences without falling victim to popular (and often sensationalized) abduction reports that have become so common. Take George Adamski, "The Ultimate Contactee" (to whom Redfern devotes an entire chapter in his book). Adamski, if his claims of travel to distant planets like Venus are to be believed, seemed to have been a willing recipient. "Someone take me down the road quick," Redfern writes, quoting the famous contactee. "That ship has come looking for me and I don't want to keep them waiting!"

Or consider the backwoods exploits of Ralph Lael, who upon entering caves in the Black Mountains of Western North Carolina began a strange series of communications with aliens from the planet Peewam (fortune smiled upon Lael in the truest sense, as his alien captors closely resembled scantily clad ladies in bikinis).

In addition to providing brilliant, informative first-hand research, Contactees also highlights the work of a variety of other individuals who have staked claims in the field of Ufology and alien encounters. Greg Bishop, Timothy Green Beckley, Joshua P. Warren, Jim Mosley, Regan Lee, are all interviewed within its pages, providing what may be the most diverse argument pertaining to human-alien interaction throughout the ages that has ever been produced. Perhaps, though sadly, one of the book's brightest points of interest involves the discussion of cryptoterrestrials, a sort of last will and testament given by the late (and sorely missed) researcher Mac Tonnies. The inclusion of Tonnies' futuristic interpretations provide icing on the cake to what otherwise would still be by far the best--albeit the strangest--book on UFO contactees to-date.

Indeed, Contactees outlines a peculiar subculture that remains present in the fringes of Americana, and though well known to some, it has received its best treatment thanks to the efforts of Redfern. With the information provided in this book, one may even begin to interpret the manner and appearances of UFO craft throughout the decades... perhaps the next move of the trans-generational "Space Brothers" lies within its very words.

-Micah A. Hanks is a freelance writer and editor of The Gralien Report.

The contactee movement has been something I have shied away from over the years. I have always thought that the folks involved were simply attention seekers trying to sell the masses on their own political agendas and money making schemes. Though there were some clear examples of this sort, the book provided a lot of insight into the phenomenon itself as well as some very interesting details about some of the better known cases like George Adamski and the Heaven's Gate Cult. The book covered some very intriguing concepts including CIA MK Ultra drug testing on unknowing soldiers to potential anomalous beings interacting with people in crop circles and mountain tops. What was truly amazing for me was the level of government monitoring that has been going on over the past 50 or so years in the UFO field as a whole. Not only were contactees monitored out of fears that they were communists, but regular UFO groups have been infiltrated by agents, tasked with keeping tabs on their agendas. This is truly a must read, especially for someone like myself, who has been involved with the UFO phenomenon for some time but has never really ventured into the contactee territory before.

I rarely write reviews for items I purchase from Amazon, but I need to make an exception here in order to warn potential readers. I went into this book thinking (from the title and product description) that this is a book about the "history of alien-human interaction". What I found was a book by an author who doesn't actually believe that the "contactee phenomenon" represents extraterrestrial encounters.

The book is far from a "history" as well. The author has hand-picked some of the more notoriously ridiculous reports, while glossing-over many more believable, well-documented extraterrestrial encounters. The reason becomes evident towards the end of the book; the thesis of this book is that the "contactee phenomenon" can be attributed to terrestrial energy sources that intelligently (or possibly unintelligently) interact with the human brain.

It's not that the idea of this is particularly unbelievable or offensive to those of us who believe in the extraterrestrial hypothesis, but the book is marketed and presented in a way that leads potential readers to believe that they are purchasing a comprehensive look at "alien-human interaction". That is most definitely NOT what this book is. It's an alternative look at the contactee phenomenon, from an author who doesn't believe in "aliens" by their popular definition.

Be warned; this book is critical to the point of disbelieving (one could argue that it is even ridiculing at times) the extraterrestrial hypothesis, and does not represent a comprehensive history of "alien-human interaction" in any way, shape, or form.

Remember the science fiction movies from the 50's and 60's? A flying saucer lands, a ramp folds down, and alien beings march out to talk to the puzzled and frightened humans ... Our family, in addition to watching "Bonanza" every Sunday and endless episodes of "I love Lucy", took in (often on the edge of our seats) every science fiction movie on television. Once I went off to college, I read a multitude of books by Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and many others who brought an alien world before my eyes and into my mind. So when I heard about Contactees by Nick Redfern, which tells the tales of real people who claim to have had direct contact with visitors to Earth, I dove right in finishing off the book in a couple of days.

Contactees is a collection of eyewitness accounts, a story told by Nick Redfern who has worked to uncover previously classified British government and military files on UFOs dating from WW II. Interestingly, you'll find that UFO's, the FBI, CIA, crops circles, and even LSD are intertwined in this historical tale of the special people who have been brave enough to tell of their encounters with space ships and alien beings. It all began with an American pilot, Kenneth Arnold, who had an airborne encounter with nine peculiar looking aircraft over Mt. Rainier in 1947. The FBI believed him to be a credible source, and as more sightings were claimed by others, the US military began Operation Sign later replaced by Project Grudge which then turned into Project Blue Book. The latter was an Air Force operation which became the most famous UFO study program, which began in 1948 and continued until 1969.

Since the late 1940's, people from all over the world have claimed to have had contact with aliens, usually seen dressed in tight-fitting, one-piece-outfits with lush, long and flowing blond hair. The visitors almost always express concern over our warlike ways, suggesting that we disarm our nuclear arsenals, and live in peace and harmony with each other. These encounters have taken place in deserts, dense forests, and even within isolated diners on long stretches of highway.

In 1989 in Great Britain, a woman walking her dog was approached by a man dressed in a light-brown garment like a "flying suit". He told her he was from another planet and the circles (crop circles, that is) had been caused by others like him who traveled to Earth. Minutes after he disappeared, she heard a loud noise behind her and saw "a large, glowing, orange-white, spherical object rising vertically" from behind a group of trees. Later, in the summer of 1990, another woman in England was approached by a man "dressed in bright white overalls" who had really long yellow hair. He told her crop circles were indeed the work of extraterrestrials, who were trying to make us think about the world and the environment by making patterns containing messages. The man then vanished, and appeared to her the very next day. She saw him on the other side of the road, smiling, and pointing to the sky, before he curtsied like in an old film and disappeared.

These are just a couple of the stories told within this book. If you think as I do ... that with all the other planets and universes out there that there likely is life on other planets somewhere ... you'll want to read this history of alien-human interaction. Some stories you'll find easy to believe, and others you'll find less than credible. Even so, you will be entertained from one story to the next, all told by one of the world's most famous expert on extraterrestrials, UFO's, and other unexplained phenomena.

I picked this book up today, and though I am thoroughly enjoying the variety of some of the most unusual contactee tales I've ever read, I am more than a little concerned at the editing. Typos, font size changes, date continuity errors, and random grammatical trouble are so common in this book that it becomes a distraction, even in the first few chapters.

HOWEVER, please don't pass over this book if you're interested in the topic. Most of the other reviewers delve into the numerous good aspects of this book, so I won't repeat what they've already excellently written. I am not done with this book yet, but am thrilled with it thusfar.

When I was a young pup back in the 1950s, UFOs (then just as commonly called Flying Saucers) were a big deal in popular culture. they got reported on the tv and radio news, and in the newspapers and in various magazines of the day. Newsstands and drugstores sold science fiction magazines (such as Analog, Amazing Stories, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) all telling stories of off-planet adventures with out-there civilizations. Seemed that the "space opera" venue of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and friends had gotten rejuvenated by Kenneth Arnold's little 1947 Mt. Ranier adventure. The comic books were in it, too. They gave us bug-eyed aliens routinely shooting ray blasters at hunky heroes and hottie heroines. And there WAS this one good guy benevolent alien here on earth to help us out by changing the course of mighty rivers and bending steel in his bare hands. Often-times even THAT alien of steel had to defend us from others with less than sterling intentions towards the earth.

The world had entered an "atomic age" in those days, and a "space age" as well.

And, since the summer of 1947-----a "Saucer Age" to boot.

It was all a big mystery then and a source for argument and speculation all around.
Were these things real? Or were they not? And if they weren't real, were they perhaps a manifestation of psychological "war nerves"----or just a good old fashioned "bunch of hooey"?

In the midst of 1951 something happened that added to the intellectual perception of all those interested in "The Saucers". 20th Century Fox Film Corporation released a movie that, on reflection, and with all biases considered, may have been
the single most influential science fiction film of all time (with all due respect to mssrs. Kubrick, Lucas, and Spielberg); Robert Wise's "The Day the Earth Stood Still", based on a story by popular SF writer Harry Bates.

In this film an alien saucer lands in Washington, DC, and disgorges a regal looking being---human, rather than humanoid---and wearing a cool helmet and nifty one-piece jump suit. This is Klaatu, played by Michael Rennie, an emissary from the stars come to earth to tell us all about cosmic brotherhood,cosmic peace, and cosmic responsibilities. He also wants us to know that war sucks, and nuclear war is even suckier----and is frowned upon by all advanced interplantary civilizations---frowned upon so much so that the warning has been sent to "shape up" or face the consequences. Namely, having our world reduced to a "bunrnt out cinder" by the guys from "out there". Bummer.

While on earth Klaatu meets opposition to his "message of peace", and spends a good deal of time on the lam from authorities. He blends in with the natives, though, and makes friends with some of these during his stay. Finally, after being gunned
down by a panicky military he gets resurrected and makes a last farewell appearance before zooming off into the heavens to leave humanity to ponder its life choices.

And a template is set here for the collective mind of a generation---and beyond.

The 1950s began to be filled with Klaatu wannabes. They popped up everywhere like mushrooms and toadstools during the rainy season, and they met essentially in secret with certain "select" human beings. They tended to meet these select contactees in out of the way places like the boonies. The desert was a good place. It could be isolated and private. Much less hullabaloo and interference there than in the middle of DC---or any downtown anywhere. A lot of these meetings took place in---ahem----California, which radio commentator paul harvey used to call "The world's largest outdoor asylum" (not that there's anything WRONG with that!!).
Most of these visitors looked VERY humanlike. There were no "greys" to be seen (these were a later innovation).Most "Space Brothers" were tall, "nordic" types in one-piece jumpsuits like Klaatu's, and they almost always had long hippy hair.(To those who note that this seems a dichotomy to Michael Rennie's short Klaatu hairstyle, they need to note that "TDTESS" was NOT Rennie's primary "shown face" in those days....He was a STALWART REGULAR in numerous 50s Biblical Epics like Demetrius & the Gladiators and The Robe---where long hair was "de rigeur" and peace, love, brotherhood, redemption and forgiveness were the watchwords---with Rennie often playingthe apostle Peter----so that the fusing of Rennie images here is not that much of a stretch).

People like George Adamski supposedly met these glorious beings---as did Orfeo Angellucci, George Van Tassel,Harold Berney, Truman Bethurum and a host of others down through the years. They found them to be very touchy-feely types who generally (but not always) came from Venus. This was likely because Venus represented the constructive feminine side of interstellar humanity, and implied---therefore---an anti-war mentality that stood in enlightened opposition to say, destructive Martian jackboots. And the visitors always wanted the contactees to spread the word !

The space guys also seemed to routinely espouse "egalitarianism", authoritarian world government ("benevolent despotism"),control of the citizenry ("for their own good"),redistribution of wealth (to "level the playing field" universally), and all manner of similarly "Das Kapital" and "Communist Manifesto"-sounding "innovations" to human interaction on all levels. They were therefore silently singing "Imagine" while John Lennon was still a sub-teen schoolboy. "They" were also big on nuclear disarmament and universal understanding. Pre-hippie hippies, pretty much.

At this point in time, certainly in the West, these were not good things to espouse.
Such attitudes followed the propaganda line of the Comintern by the numbers and were enough to make government officials wonder if the aliens actually came from the planet KGB instead of Venus or Clarion.

The FBI then, began to keep a close eye on these "contactee" wierdos, just to be on the safe side----supposedly.

The story of contactees continues on up to the present day. Much of it is humorous, with these people sporting (for the most part) two syllable names like Orthon, Noma, Asket, Artok, Ankar and such (shades of Klaatu!), and some of it tragic---like the Heaven's Gate mass suicide.

Largely, the Contactee issue is something most people don't take time to fool with.
I never have. I always took it as a silly sideshow involving kooks, con men, and
pathetic misfits. I never thought it had any real relationship to the real UFO mystery, but was, rather, just "fringe junk".

(I also confess that I responded as much to "cover your butt" messages such as "Keep watching the skies" in "The Thing", and staying alert for "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers", "Invaders From Mars", or "War Of the Worlds"----just in case these guys wanted more than just hugs and "understanding". The fools in "War of the Worlds" that wanted to hug the Martians got toasted).

Nick Redfern's "Contactees" adds a new wrinkle to this old puzzle. Yes, to read these recountings DOES show you kooks, con men, and sad misfits on parade---but it suggests more than that. It asks you to look at some of these behaviors in hindsight and to ask yourself "might there be something else at work here, too?".

Like what. for example? Like maybe long running government "Manchurian Candidate" style psych-ops being used on some of these people? Like MK-Ultra style mind control being brought into play to throw ridicule on UFO belief and research interest but turning part of the mystery into a hilarious laugh-fest?

One of the best proven weapons against persons or ideas has long been known to be ridicule. Was that brought into play here through psychological manipulation techniques? And was the Men In Black conundrum something of a similar nature.

Redfern feeds you enough info here to make you wonder.

Or was this something else? Was it "ultraterrestrials" or "interdimensionals"
messing with people's minds? This is a Jacques Vallee, John Keel, and Brad Steiger
type consideration.

Was this---IS this----a mind game being played with an ancient intelligence (a "Trickster") that cohabits the earth with us? Does it project illusions and instigate delusions among us? Is contacteeism a scam run by this perverse intelligence?

Is there another race of humans that lives here along side of us and do they "cover their butts" with us through mind games and deceptions? Are we dangerous to these folks with our weaponry and tempers, and do they constantly seek to urge more pacifism on us for their own well being? This is an hypothesis of the late UFO researcher Mac Tonnies and makes for some thought-provoking speculation here.

The book is entertaining enough early on, but becomes even more fascinating when Redfern shifts from just a compendium of nuttiness and moves into these realms of "what if?".

Its a good read. it alternately has you shaking your head and chuckling to yourself----- and then rubbing your chin and going "Hmmmmmmm".

I say give it a shot. You might find you like it.

For UFO novices and amateurs this book would be useful, as perhaps they have not read about well known 50's Contactees, such as George Adamski, Orfeo Angelucci, Howard Menger, etc. For myself I found very few useful information, perhaps is just me but I find a lot of the new UFO books and related subjects as moistly rehashed stories and the same old, same old.

There are some interesting original ideas discussed here, such as the possibility of LSD or DMT explaining some contact experiences; also some newer data from FBI reports. But the book is so fraught with typos, grammatical errors, bizarre uses of apostrophes, indendations, and hyphenated words, tenses that don't agree, confusing switching of timelines and personalities and places, requiring several re-readings to understand where he's heading with a thought; repetition because it's not organized well; over-use of redundant phrases like "close encounter of the Contactee-kind", "close encounter of the sexual kind" or "angelic-like" ad infinitum, well, it's just so frustrating! I'm not sure yet what the author's point is, as he is all over the place - the first stories he concedes were likely people who were faking or hoaxing their experiences, but then later uses them as examples to talk about other topics which we are to take more seriously. I'm confused! He needs an editor, badly. This, especially in a field where this topic is not taken seriously by mainstream thinkers or scientists. (I'm a college professor.) Books on topics like this need to be written that can withstand a higher level of scrutiny, if it is to be taken seriously at all. It doesn't mean this has to be written in dissertation or research style. Basically, I just want to be able to read it! My suggestion to the author is that you've got some good ideas in there somewhere; but get yourself a set of friends and a different editor or two that can help put it into a logical, powerful argument for you.
Oh, there's one thing I do disagree with in one of his basic premises: that the Contactee phenomenon as it existed in the 50s does not exist in that specific form any more. In my journeys I have met many, many people around the world (in Peru, Europe, and the Southwest, especially) who have claimed similar experiences to Adamski and the like. If anything, the phenomena is increasing, a lot (though nobody's claiming to be from Venus these days, it's true; sigh, just a little too hot there)! But I do appreciate his basic sense of open-endedness in asking questions as to what exactly is happening; I enjoy this more than the books which give "the definitive answer" to the alien question.

"Contactees: a History of Alien-Human Interaction," by Nick Redfern

George Adamski, a well-spoken peacenik several decades ahead of his time, claimed to have had a curious encounter with an alien named Orthon in 1952. Orthon told him to warn humankind against waging atomic war and then zoomed away to errands unknown.

This theme of benevolent visitors from outer space coming to warn humanity runs like a titanium thread over the last half century through reports by self-proclaimed contactees. Nick Redfern's latest book in his series of UFO-related topics, "Contactees: a History of Alien-Human Interaction," examines a wide range of alleged incidents that -- despite differences in alien appearances -- all seem to bring the same, rather narrowly focused message, which roughly boils down to: "Quit killing the planet, human idiots!"

Could all of these witnesses be suffering from some sort of delusional mass hysteria fomented over the years by the saucer scares of the late 40s, or is there something real beneath the hype?

Redfern carefully digests and lays out the similarities between seemingly diverse events, mining additional related subjects such as the theory that humanlike aliens have infiltrated world government, or that coded messages lurk in the geometry of crop circles.

The disturbing fact, according to Redfern, is that a common thread tends to lead to the same, surprising conclusion in the bulk of cases. We are not alone, he posits, but the "others" are not necessarily from Venus or the Pleiades. Where they do originate, and what it is that they want, I will leave to Redfern's eloquent explanation. And even those who disagree will still be unsettled by the breadth of human-"alien" interaction revealed here. Something is going on, and it behooves human society to enquire along with Redfern exactly what that may be.

Linda S. Godfrey, author of The Beast of Bray Road: Tailing Wisconsin's Werewolf, Hunting the American Werewolf, Strange Wisconsinand other books

I had thought that this author was a very serious UFO writer. He may, in fact, be, but there seemed to be too much surliness, and tongue-in-cheek stuff IMO in this book. Probably best as an introduction, for someone wanting to learn just about anything on the contactee phenomenon. Those who are well-versed on this issue, probably would not want to spend too much time reading this book... Unless, of course, s/he reads up on virtually everything about this subject.