A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

elievers, all carried through the earlier models of contact and dissemination developed in
nineteenth century Spiritualism. What was different was that his mode of contact was no longer
simply spiritual (though strictly speaking, neither was Spiritualism, given its emphasis on
physical manifestations as exhibited via the creation of sound using visible instruments and the
appearance of ectoplasm), but had attained a clear physical component. The other primary
difference of course was that the Others in question were not from heaven but from other planets.
Adamski interacted with embodied extraterrestrials in real time and entered the craft upon which
his contacts had descended from the skies.
Given the level of public interest in UFO phenomena, it was in the interest of Adamski to
place great emphasis on the craft itself—note the aforementioned title of Adamski’s book. But
the flying saucers that hosted him did nothing to fundamentally alter the established narrative
tropes of the alien-human encounter. The Others who presented themselves to George Adamski
were still recognizably “human.” Their Otherness, as in earlier cases of the displaced utopian
imaginary, sprang from their point of origin and their both implicit and explicit perfection. Their
ships were merely further evidence of their mastery over time and space, further material
evidence of the utopian future that waited if only humans would accept their counsel and align
themselves properly with the cosmos.
Adamski drew ridicule and contempt from “mainstream” ufology. His claims and
exploits smacked of a style of religious charlatanism that had long been known within American
culture and appeared to be simply old-fashioned religious faddism dressed up in space-age
clothing. He had no convincing evidence to offer and everything to gain from claiming contact.
His behavior clearly indicated he was willfully profiting from the public attention gained via
their claims. Adamski went so far as to publicly admit that forming a religion was the best way
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