A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
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J. Gordon Melton, a noted commentator on <strong>American</strong> religion, has argued that <strong>the</strong> only<br />
th<strong>in</strong>g that was added to <strong>the</strong> contactee story by <strong>the</strong> arrival <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> saucer was <strong>the</strong> saucer itself.<br />
[T]he saucer rema<strong>in</strong>s <strong>the</strong> only new element <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> contactee story. It tends to replace<br />
astral travel as <strong>the</strong> means <strong>of</strong> gett<strong>in</strong>g around, both by extraterrestrials and by earthl<strong>in</strong>gs<br />
tripp<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to outer space for <strong>the</strong> first time. The saucer is not essential, however, and <strong>in</strong><br />
many accounts <strong>in</strong> which it appears, it is obviously an additional frill. In many contactee<br />
accounts dur<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> fifties, no fly<strong>in</strong>g saucer is <strong>in</strong>cluded at all. 199<br />
While Melton is right to note that <strong>the</strong> emergence <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> saucer did little to alter <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
contactee narrative, it never<strong>the</strong>less does play a role <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> process <strong>of</strong> materialization. While <strong>the</strong><br />
gap between terrestrial contactee and e.t. entity had before been closed by some occult expedient,<br />
astral travel be<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> foremost, with <strong>the</strong> arrival <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> saucer <strong>the</strong> passage <strong>of</strong> communicants was<br />
now through physical space via a material vessel. Communication acquired a new technological<br />
component (<strong>in</strong> addition to <strong>the</strong> spiritual telegraph and <strong>the</strong> Ballards’ light and sound ray). Both<br />
contact and communication became <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>gly embodied.<br />
The ostensible presence <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>terstellar craft <strong>in</strong>vited empirical study and implied a material<br />
explanation. If physical craft were repeatedly visit<strong>in</strong>g earth, <strong>the</strong>n clearly <strong>the</strong>re must have been<br />
some physical evidence left beh<strong>in</strong>d. The saucers <strong>the</strong>mselves, ra<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>n some sentient O<strong>the</strong>r,<br />
became a pr<strong>in</strong>ciple object <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>quiry, <strong>the</strong>ir very name chang<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> time to <strong>the</strong> more cl<strong>in</strong>ical<br />
“unidentified fly<strong>in</strong>g objects.” The emergence <strong>of</strong> ufology <strong>in</strong> response to <strong>the</strong> large number <strong>of</strong><br />
sight<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> years follow<strong>in</strong>g World War II is a story and study <strong>in</strong> its own right (told notably<br />
<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> pages <strong>of</strong> Curtis Peebles’ Watch <strong>the</strong> Skies; A Chronicle <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Fly<strong>in</strong>g Saucer Myth). 200<br />
There was little crossover between <strong>the</strong> story <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> contactees and that <strong>of</strong> ufology. The latter<br />
basically wrote <strong>of</strong>f <strong>the</strong> former as cranks. The careers <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Ballards, Adamski and <strong>the</strong>ir kith<br />
smacked too much <strong>of</strong> an all-too-familiar brand <strong>of</strong> religious hucksterism. The clear personal ga<strong>in</strong><br />
199 J. Gordon Melton, “The Contactees: A Survey” <strong>in</strong> The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from O<strong>the</strong>r Worlds,<br />
ed. James R. Lewis (Albany: State University <strong>of</strong> New York Press, 1995) 7.<br />
200 Wash<strong>in</strong>gton: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.<br />
127