The July, 1947 flying saucer crash at Roswell, New Mexico,
more than any other event in the annals of UFO history, has defined the
discussion of extraterrestrials, government, and the meaning of contact
for the last fifty years. Most of the themes which would capture our imaginations
in the years to come burst full-blown into American culture that day: flying
saucers as metallic, "nuts and bolts" machines capable of exploding and
leaving debris, diminutive "grey" aliens, and, most of all, US shadow government
and the beginnings of what most observers now acknowledge to be the largest,
most expensive cover-up in the history of the world - complete with back-engineering
of alien technology, the mysterious Area 51, silencing and character assassination
of witnesses, and the nefarious antics of the Men In Black (MIBs), who
may be aliens, or government agents, or aliens working for the government,
or government agents working for the aliens, or even the Devil himself!
But for all the expense, coercion and violation of the
US Constitution involved, the UFO cover-up has never been more than partially
successful. At Roswell, for example, it has been known from day one that
something exploded that night over Mac Brazel's ranch, and that something
was retrieved soon after by the US Army Air Force. Most of the debate has
centered on what, exactly, that something was. Was it a Skyhook weather
balloon, as the USAAF originally claimed? Or maybe a secret (at that time)
Project Mogul balloon designed to detect Russian satellites as the USAF
claimed when restating its position on the incident in 1994? Or was it
a flying saucer, manned by small, humanoid beings whose bodies were recovered
for study? Or something else entirely?
Where little is known for sure, imagination finds fertile
soil for planting its hopes and fears, and much strange fruit has been
borne of the events at Roswell over the years. But what is concretely known
strongly suggests the reality of option #3 above, a genuine extraterrestrial
flying saucer crash. American popular culture seems to have embraced
this hypothesis, working out the details on TV shows like FOX's X-Files
and Dark Skies, not to mention a Hollywood film treatment (or two, or three,
or four...), an "Alien Autopsy" TV special, and innumerable books and magazine
articles presenting the evidence so clearly that any court in America would
have no choice but to conclude that the crash was real, the saucer debris
with its strange, unearthly qualities was real, the alien bodies were real,
and that the sad, long-term costs and consequences of the ubiquitous cover-up
were, and remain, very real indeed.
But why cover up? So much of the discussion over the
years has focused on what happened, who knew about it, who did what, etc.,
that very little attention has been directed toward what I believe is the
most important question of all – why cover up? Determining why such
extreme measures might seem justified to those behind them would go a long
way toward exposing the real meaning behind this core contact event, its
aftermath, and the future of everything from UFO studies to life on Earth.
In 1988, Raymond Boeche surveyed 475 psychologists and
psychiatrists and discovered that 47% of mental health professionals believed
that "mass panic would occur" should the government openly announce the
reality of ET contact. 65% felt "financial chaos would result due to culture
shock." 53% expected religious beliefs to be shattered.
But are we really so fragile a species? An ET announcement
might send America's mental health professionals screaming into the streets,
but most of the people I know would be elated. A number of religious
representatives have been on the radio recently, discussing the finding
of possible life on Mars, and the consensus seems to be that our spiritual
institutions would not only stand firm in the face of contact, they might
even be enriched.
What about "financial chaos?" Now that's another matter
entirely. The national and global economies have at least two things in
common with the great UFO cover-up itself:
They are both vast, monolithic constructs which effect
every one of us to some degree, and
The majority of us have no real under-standing of their complexity or meaning.
So, how do economies work, and how might an ET announcement
effect them?
Economies are based on commodities. Those of us in the
workaday world take the value of things like oil and gold for granted -
they are scarce, limited resources that someone else owns, and we need
(or desire). Those who control these resources, quite naturally, it seems,
hold the reins of power in all nations. Those who have govern those who
need. It's a law we've lived by since time immemorial.
But the value of such limited commodities, and the power
structures based upon their control and distribution, become moot the day
we enter an extraterrestrial economy. Who needs oil when zero point or
anti-matter alien technologies put unlimited energy resources into the
hands of every individual? What value would gold retain when entire asteroids
made from thousands of tons of the stuff could be collected by anyone with
a tractor beam and a free afternoon? What value the almighty dollar in
a city fueled by free solar energy focused through a crystal...?
Even if we are absolutely alone in the universe, sooner
or later we, as a species, will realize that we reside on a dust-mote floating
in an endless sea of available resources. There is no lack. Scar-city and
limitations, and the Earthly economies of power based upon them, are illusions,
falsehoods perpetrated to control and enslave us, and violent blasphemies
against the cosmic cornucopia of Creation. The US government, and all the
nations of the world, have a gigantic stake in keeping our eyes to the
ground and our minds in the dust. If we were ever to really look up - which
has, perhaps, been the primary message of the flying saucer presence from
the beginning - were we ever to become fully aware of the plentiful universe
we inhabit, all such illusory structures would, indeed, crumble. Those
now in power would, I am sure, panic, lose faith, and go broke. The rest
of us will dance in the streets.
I do not believe that we are alone in the universe, this
galaxy, or even this solar system. The crash at Roswell stands as proof.
Fifty years of contactees have brought us a consistent message that, beyond
Earth, a cosmic federation awaits our awakening to their presence with
open arms, if only we can evolve past our present difficulties. As the
reality of what we could become breaks gradually through to the collective
consciousness of Humanity, I hope that we will have the courage as individuals
and as a species to throw off our oppressors and deceivers, look up at
last, and embrace without fear the universal economy.