Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World
Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World
THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD always that in their wholly forgotten childhood those ancient tongues had been really spoken in their hearing.' In our everyday life, we effortlessly and unconsciously incorporate cultural norms and make them our own. A similar inhaling of motifs is present in schizophrenic 'command hallucinations'. Here people feel they are being told what to do by an imposing or mythic figure. They are ordered to assassinate a political leader or a folk hero, or defeat the British invaders, or harm themselves, because it is the wish of God, or Jesus, or the Devil, or demons, or angels, or - lately - aliens. The schizophrenic is transfixed by a clear and powerful command from a voice that no one else can hear, and that the subject must somehow identify. Who would issue such a command? Who could speak inside our heads? The culture in which we've been raised offers up an answer. Think of the power of repetitive imagery in advertising, especially to suggestible viewers and readers. It can make us believe almost anything - even that smoking cigarettes is cool. In our time, putative aliens are the subject of innumerable science fiction stories, novels, TV dramas and films. UFOs are a regular feature of the weekly tabloids devoted to falsification and mystification. One of the highest-grossing motion pictures of all time is about aliens very like those described by abductees. Alien abduction accounts were comparatively rare until 1975, when a credulous television dramatization of the Hill case was aired; another leap into public prominence occurred after 1987, when Strieber's purported first-hand account with a haunting cover painting of a large-eyed 'alien' became a best-seller. In contrast, we hear very little lately about incubi, elves and fairies. Where have they all gone? Far from being global, such alien abduction stories are disappointingly local. The vast majority emanate from North America. They hardly transcend American culture. In other countries, bird-headed, insect-headed, reptilian, robot, and blond and blue-eyed aliens are reported (the last, predictably, from northern Europe). Each group of aliens is said to behave differently. Clearly cultural factors are playing an important role.
The Demon-Haunted World Long before the terms 'flying saucer' or 'UFOs' were invented, science fiction was replete with 'little green men' and 'bug-eyed monsters'. Somehow small hairless beings with big heads (and eyes) have been our staple aliens for a long time. You could see them routinely in the science fiction pulp magazines of the twenties and thirties (and, for example, in an illustration of a Martian sending radio messages to Earth in the December 1937 issue of the magazine Short Wave and Television). It goes back perhaps to our remote descendants as depicted by the British science fiction pioneer, H.G. Wells. Wells argued that humans evolved from smaller-brained but hairier primates with an athleticism far exceeding that of Victorian academics; extrapolating this trend into the far future, he suggested that our descendants should be nearly hairless, with immense heads, although barely able to walk around on their own. Advanced beings from other worlds might be similarly endowed. The typical modern extraterrestrial reported in America in the eighties and early nineties is small, with disproportionately large head and eyes, undeveloped facial features, no visible eyebrows or genitals, and smooth grey skin. It looks to me eerily like a foetus in roughly the twelfth week of pregnancy, or a starving child. Why so many of us might be obsessing on foetuses or malnourished children, and imagining them attacking and sexually manipulating us, is an interesting question. In recent years in America, aliens different from the short grey motif have been on the rise. One psychotherapist, Richard Boylan of Sacramento, says: You've got three-and-a-half-foot to four-foot types; you've got five- to six-foot types; you've got seven- to eight-foot types; you've got three-, four-, and five-finger types, pads on the ends of fingers or suction cups; you've got webbed or non-webbed fingers; you've got large almond-shape eyes slanted upward, outward, or horizontally; in some cases large ovoid eyes without the almond slant; you've got extraterrestrials with slit pupils; you've got other different body types - the so-called Praying Mantis type, the reptoid types . . . These are the ones that I keep getting recurrently. There are 127
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THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD<br />
always that in their wholly forgotten childhood those ancient<br />
tongues had been really spoken in their hearing.' In our everyday<br />
life, we effortlessly and unconsciously incorporate cultural norms<br />
and make them our own.<br />
A similar inhaling of motifs is present in schizophrenic 'command<br />
hallucinations'. Here people feel they are being told what to<br />
do by an imposing or mythic figure. They are ordered to assassinate<br />
a political leader or a folk hero, or defeat the British<br />
invaders, or harm themselves, because it is the wish of God, or<br />
Jesus, or the Devil, or demons, or angels, or - lately - aliens. The<br />
schizophrenic is transfixed by a clear and powerful command from<br />
a voice that no one else can hear, and that the subject must<br />
somehow identify. Who would issue such a command? Who could<br />
speak inside our heads? The culture in which we've been raised<br />
offers up an answer.<br />
Think of the power of repetitive imagery in advertising,<br />
especially to suggestible viewers and readers. It can make us<br />
believe almost anything - even that smoking cigarettes is cool.<br />
In our time, putative aliens are the subject of innumerable<br />
science fiction stories, novels, TV dramas and films. UFOs are<br />
a regular feature of the weekly tabloids devoted to falsification<br />
and mystification. One of the highest-grossing motion pictures<br />
of all time is about aliens very like those described by abductees.<br />
Alien abduction accounts were comparatively rare until<br />
1975, when a credulous television dramatization of the Hill case<br />
was aired; another leap into public prominence occurred after<br />
1987, when Strieber's purported first-hand account with a<br />
haunting cover painting of a large-eyed 'alien' became a<br />
best-seller. In contrast, we hear very little lately about incubi,<br />
elves and fairies. Where have they all gone?<br />
Far from being global, such alien abduction stories are<br />
disappointingly local. The vast majority emanate from North<br />
America. They hardly transcend American culture. In other<br />
countries, bird-headed, insect-headed, reptilian, robot, and<br />
blond and blue-eyed aliens are reported (the last, predictably,<br />
from northern Europe). Each group of aliens is said to behave<br />
differently. Clearly cultural factors are playing an important<br />
role.
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