Messengers of Deception

I wish to share with you some conclusions I've reached in the 25 years I've followed the whole UFO phenomenon. I've chosen one of Jacques Vallee's least known books as a title to this topic because it describes very well the situation.
As a first thing: yes there are UFOs in the true term around, meaning flying objects that cannot be explained away invoking "rational" explanations. Most of these "true" objects do not even behave like objects at all: they can be best defined as a region of space where our known set of physics do not apply. Perhaps only some of Sakharov's most audacious theories can be invoked to explain some of the happenings in that region of space. And we are still left to wonder: what are they? Is there an intelligence as we imagine it behind them?
I tend to agree with Vallee, Michel, Hynek and other researchers who were suspicious at least towards the extraterrestrial hypothesis: of course we may or may not have been visited by little green men from Wolf 424 or Zeta Reticuli but the sheer number of sightings and the stunning variation in shape and size of our "cosmic visitors" work strongly against the alien hypothesis. Which are the true aliens? The UMMO giants? Bounias' charming visitors? The interglactic physicians who cured Dr. X of his crippling war wound in a blink of an eye? The bloodthirsty chupas (not to be confounded with the world-famous chupacabra) from Brazil?
Hoaxers and fraudsters surely abound: for example there was a clinic in Argentina which claimed to be able to cure cancer thanks to technology passed onto them by UMMO and Adamski's UFO was clearly a piece from a vending machine hanging from a piece of wire. Many witnesses may have been deluded or mentally unstable individuals. Others may have misidentified known weather phenomena and aircrafts in all good faith.
Yet the sheer number of perfectly reliable witnesses is astonishing and disturbing.
But what's more disturbing are the attempts by parts unknown to use the UFO movement for unknown ends.
To stay in Britain the well known and respected researcher Jenny Randles (here's her bio) was approached by an individual who seemed well furnished with money and who asked her to "leak out information from Government sources". She refused, unless she could verify the information firsthand, and she was never contacted again. The same individual contacted a little later Timothy Good, described by Jacques Vallee as "much less demanding", who rushed into print the horrible Beyond Top Secret without the most basic critical analysis. Again in 1975 and 1976 thirty UFO researchers recieved letters from an organization called APEN (Aerial Phenomena Enquiry Network) tring to pass out more information and trying to implicate some well-known but totally uninvolved researchers. The notes were printed on very high quality APEN stationery and the letters usually came from very remote location. The chairman of this "network" presented himself as James Anderson, a very common name.
Of course a writer desperate for his/her five minutes of fame may invent everything but it's absolutely undeniable that many such shady individuals, often lavishly furnished with money, have implanted an immense body of beliefs in the UFO community.
But wait, there's more.
Everybody's familiar with the so-called Raelians, the UFO cult founded by self-proclaimed UFO contactee Claude Vorilhon. They are often regarded as the classical "nutters" who await the next message from the "cosmic brethrens" while practising meditation or whatever is they do. But where did Vorilhon get the money to start his operations in such a grand style? He had few followers who were anything but affluent. Why the Raelians' claims are always given so much room by the media? There are litterally hundreds of crackpots trying to puch their own theories: why always pick the same ones?
And again: why two elderly men from Kent were given so much room on the world media when they claimed to be ones behind most of Sothern England crop circles, despite the absurdity of their claims?
I won't even mention the most disturbing cases, like the Pontoise kidnapping or the whole UMMO affair, which could only be staged by someone with large financial resources and/or sound political connections.
To be honest with you after 25 years I feel more confused than that one day I rose my eyes and saw that glowing "rugby ball" in the clear Alpine sky.

I think I agree with here Mauro. I certainly believe people have experiences and UFO's are being seen, but as to what they are, who knows.

It was good to Jenny's bio there. I have met her a few times and even attended some of her MUFORA (Manchester based BUFORA group) meetings. I got my first real taste of investigating the paranormal when I teamed up with Peter Hough for a haunting case, who has of course written several books with Jenny. All that was many many years ago, I doubt they will remember me now.

I cannot praise the work of BUFORA higly enough. I think they did absolutely everything a private group without large funding and government backing (ie the French GEPAN/GEPAIN) could do.

Personally I have come to believe that the Messengers of Deception have "moved on" and have either left the UFO movement to fend for itself or confined it to the spare change part of the budget. The UFO movement was probably a useful proving ground but now other "fringe movements" (which I will not name since they are outside the scope of this froums) have taken their place and gaining widespread popular acceptance.
The methods used are the same, so probably the Puppeteers are also the same.

I met Jenny in Birmingham in the late 80's, whilst I read her Northern UFO News - she hasn't really made too much of her UFO experiences but the News did start to mention it. BUFORA is a good organisation but it seems the money making groups are undermining UFO cases as much as they are in ghost 'hunting'... after all the successful companies out there aren't there to really help you, they are there to make money. Media included who will spin a yarn for either a solution (crop circles) or supplant common sense to make more money (horoscopes, psychics etc)

Reading John Keel and Charles Fort shows the one thing lacking to fight the cyncism is a sense of humour at how the mysterious avoids time and again to be pinned down, like a bad movie villain or the sneaky Men in Black.

I read Timothy Good too and it's much less fun, very earnest and three of his books merge into the same factoids with a few updates based on media stories of the time - and so the cycle turns...