Contactees CH 13

Commentary: This posting is in a series of posts summarizing the book, "Lights In The Sky and Little Green Men" by Hugh Ross, Kenneth Samples, and Mark Clark. Hugh Ross is a scientist in physics and Clark has a PHd in political science. The other authors specialize in social sciences, philosophies, and international relations.  The full series can be reviewed at UFOs an Alternative Look.

Introduction

Kenneth Samples authored this chapter. The claim is that alien life forms have insights for humanity and seek to share those insights through receptive individuals or contactees. There are four distinct differ experiences between abductees and contactees.

1. Abductees have negative experiences while contactees have positive experiences. 
2. Abductees have a single episode, but contactees have long term repeated episodes. 
3. Abductees are research subjects, contactees are messengers of revelations. 
4. Abductees change religious beliefs, while contactees form new religious groups. 

The point of this chapter is to make the connection between the occult and the contactee experience.

The Occult Ancestry of the Contactee Movement

The movement began in the 1950s at the height of the Flying Saucer Age but has roots that originate nearly two hundred years prior. The author attributes the contactee movement to a Swedish scientist, Emanuel Swedenborg, 1688-1772. In his book, Earths in the Solar World, he detailed a journey to several planets and beyond claiming he met extraterrestrials and describing their civilizations. The author claims that the journey was of occultic and psychic means. J Gordon Melton, a religious scholar, claims the contactee experience is in a spiritualist context much like a seance. Many other scholars have other theories but all agree that the episodes involve occultic religion.

There are three points for consideration:

1. Aliens entities are from neighboring planets; namely Mars and Venus. 
2. Alien messages are communicated via psychic experiences using mediums and channeling. 
3. When communicating, aliens use telepathy. 

Most contactees historically never involved flying saucers until the 1950s.

Controversial Contactees of the 1950's

The contactee movement peaked during the 1950s and its popularity died off in the early 1960s. New age and Eastern mystical teachings in the West expanded the contactee movement. But the overall conclusion of the investigations revealed an ephemeral and unsubstantiated belief.

The Typical Contactee Scenario

The typical episode has alien desires to communicate with human kind. The alien selects specific people as the point of contact. The message is then channeled to the human for the human race. The contact is made either psychically or face-to-face. Most of the face-to-face contacts were made during the 1950s. The contactee always presents himself as a faithful deliverer of the messages.

The Alien Dimension

Abductee and contactees describe the aliens in much the same manner with some differences. Contactees say the aliens appear as humanoids, animals, robots, or apparitions. The origin of contactee aliens are typically from Venus or Mars but has changed to match that of abductee aliens as science proves that there is no life on Mars. The aliens are life forms from outer space but has become increasingly from other dimensions. The aliens demonstrate either a benevolent intent or a malevolent intent.

The aliens seek to help humanity avoid catastrophes or help humans to the next evolutionary step. Negative or hostile intents are rare. The contactee experience may be appealing to some people and may lead to involvement in UFO cults.

References:

Ross, H., Samples, K., and Clark, M. (2002). Lights in the sky and little green men: a rational christian look at UFOs and extraterrestrials. Navpress. Colorado.