A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

sensation that her body was “under someone else’s control.” That someone or something else
“had a very large head, no ears, a tiny mouth and enormous eyes. There was a power emanating
from those eyes that seemed to fetter me into myself.” 304
John Mack writes that “(b)y far the
most prominent features are huge, black eyes… The eyes…have a compelling power, and the
abductees will often wish to avoid looking directly into them because of the overwhelming dread
of their own sense of self, or loss of will, that occurs when they do so.” 305
The dissolution of self that seems to be one effect of falling under the gaze of the gray is
also the effect of exposure to the Gaze. It is through the Gaze that the Real manifests itself. The
concept of the Gaze posits that the primordial chaos from which humans have “progressively”
distanced themselves via language, technology and social convention, continues to exist. Not
only does it continue to exist but also it “watches” us intently (just as the ascended masters and
extraterrestrials do). Full exposure to the Gaze poses the threat of annihilation (the results of
falling under the baleful gaze of the gray include paralysis, loss of any clear sense of self, failure
of the will, etc.). Drawing an analogy, one might look to the sun. The analogy of the sun may
seem strained in that the sun is wholly visible while the Real is hidden. However, we know the
sun less by direct visual confirmation—one cannot stare long at the sun without risking blindness
—than we do by its effects. The sun serves as both source of illumination and potential
annihilation. Just as without the floating sphere of ozone, the replenishing rays of the sun turn
into cancerous vectors, the Gaze must be mitigated in some way if it is not to render destruction.
The “screen,” as we shall see, provides said mitigation.
304 Streiber 1997, 108.
305 Mack 1994, 23. Of course the power of the eyes has long been part of the folklore of power and evil: the evil eye,
the baleful glance, the eyes of the mesmerist.
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