UFO Influencers [REDUX]

Copyright 2023, InterAmerica, Inc.

I got this book to see if I might con Jesse Michels into being more pro- nounced in his approach to the UFO [UAP] excitement currently in vogue.

 
Unfortunately, he killed that possibility by giving vent to a societal scoundrel, Alex Jones, which my pal Paul Kimball pointed out was an egregious no-no among civilized cognoscenti.
 
But going back to the beginning of the flying saucer intrusion into society by Kenneth Arnold’s 1947 sighting and Frank Scully’s widely popular book – Behind the Flying Saucers – we were pushed into the flying saucer era by what would now be called “influencers.”
 
We’re now all familiar with the established trend of some persons “influencing” various aspects of society – fashion, hair styles, entertainment, music, food preference, politics (sort of), et cetera.
 
But who in the history of the UFO (flying saucer) phenomenon once set the trends, and who’s doing it now?

Of course, we all very likely, accept that Donald Keyhoe started the idea that UFOs were extraterrestrial vehicles, supported along the way by such persons as Stanton Friedman and now, subliminally by Luis Elizondo and a myriad of other lesser lights in the UFO com- munity.

 
Elizondo will become a has-been (and it’s already happening) but Keyhoe and Friedman will continue to stand out as true UFO ET influencers.

The UFO abduction phenomenon slipped into the conversation be- cause of the Hills (Betty and Barney) 1961 episode and has been exacerbated by many since their experience, but their account of a UFO capture is the real starting point, and has been exploited by numbers of UFO wannabes.

The UFO/Nuke connection became a legitimate topic for consider- ation because of the effort(s) by Robert Hastings who has made salient points about that phenomenal aspect.

 
Odd UFO-oriented confrontations has been mostly in the spotlight by the vast literature about such tales by Albert Rosales.
 
The “ancient alien” movement stems from Erich von Däniken and continues to insert itself into the UFO category from his acolytes who unceasingly push the idea of ancient visiting astronauts for money and attention, as if the concept were authentic. It isn’t, of  course.
 
Whitley Strieber’s book Communion pushed the UFO abduction scenario but that work is a fiction morphed into a real tale by mar- keting and maneuverings of a tricky kind by Strieber and those who are gulled by his machinations.
 
Jacques Vallee is the current UFO philosopher, maintaining his hold on that sobriquet by adjusting to the phenomenon’s  varying transformations and elucidating the intrinsic queerness of the phenomenon from the past right up to now, 2023.

Yes, a number of persons have moved each UFO variable noted above into the public mainstream but the people I’ve listed are (or were) the instigators, the “influencers.”

And that’s it.
 
Today, there is no UFO solid influencer of the UFO phenomenon.
 
The UFO reality has been established by news media and spurts of interest arrive by journalistic notice or a one-time effort by some- one able to catch momentary and transient attention.
 
The phenomenon waves aside any “expert” or visionary. Even Avi Loeb has been subdued by the  generalized attention that UAP has created….flying saucers or UFOs have been tamed by a contri- ved, vague epithet and persons without expertise or viable creden- tials hawking the phenomenon as if they were into it for years.
 
(Yes, some have been immersed in the phenomenon for a long time but only as a hobby; they never pushed UFOs as diligently as the original influencers nor as avidly as today’s vultures – Tom DeLonge -- hoping to capitalize on it.)
 
The UFO phenomenon will cascade into something inordinately fascinating once one is brought down in the public arena or some- one from a government’s secret UFO enclave spills the beans.
 
RR