Friday, December 5, 2008

Reading Notes Vallée’s UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union

I found a lesser known book from Jacques Vallée, UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A cosmic samizdat. (New York: Ballantine, 1992). It was one of his last books before he decided to quit ufology in the mid-1990s (and he does not hide his bitterness towards ETH ufology in the book). It is a relatively short book, 212 pages, written out of a quick visit he made in the then Soviet Union in January 1990, only two years before the coup in Moscow that lead to the end of the Soviet Union. It was, therefore, during the most open period of that regime’s history. During his stay, which was arranged through the Novosti press agency, he met the most prominent scientists in the Soviet Union who studied UFOs. Again, this was possible mainly because it was during the Glasnot years of the Gorbatchov era, and because of Vallée’s reputation as a credible ufologist. Most of the book is about comparing details of observations made in the Soviet Union to ones in the West. Below are the most salient features.

Similarities in findings

The main finding by Vallée is that, indeed, the data emerging from the Soviet Union are similar to the ones in the West. The USSR experienced at least three major UFO waves: in 1966-67, between 1977 and 1979, and 1989. The Soviet government established research committees to study the question after the beginning of the second wave in 1976, and they were not able to explain the phenomenon after 10 years of research. In the end, it was officially stated that all UFO could be explained by mistakes, unusual natural phenomena, or hoaxes. However, the scientists who persevered in studying UFOs (at their own risk) did not jump to the ETH conclusion.

Sightings were varying from bright spheres to what appears to be manufactured crafts. Humanoids, like in the West, were of many different shapes and forms, however, they often tended to be taller that humans (the famous Grays of the West are actually only one type among hundreds reported in the West – has an extensive database of CE3 reports and one can see how much variety there is). Altered states of consciousness were noted in many reports. I am wondering if tall people have a particular symbolic meaning in Russian culture (Vallée did not discussed it).

Another key finding was also matching a finding that Vallée had to repeat to Western ufologists over and over (without being heard) that UFOs tend to be polymorphous. UFOs tend to change shape and form during a same event (this one of Vallée’s main arguments against the ETH). The Soviets found that 75% of sightings involve a shape change, and they identified 149 types of change or shape transition.

Another interesting point they found is about submarine UFOs following Soviet submarines. I do not know how plasma can fare in water, but this is intriguing.

Parapsychology and UFOs

Vallée observed that in the Soviet Union, scientists were more willing to entertain the idea that UFOs were somehow related to topics in parapsychological research. This was a major difference with the United States where the ETH was the only acceptable view in ufology (and still is nowadays). One of the main linkages was the use of “biolocation” or radiesthesia, which involves the “detection of hidden minerals, water, or living entities by paranormal means. Dowsers often use a pendulum, a rod, or a stick for such work” (p. 5). Through the book, Vallée is fascinated by this issue, and tries to get the Soviet scientists to explain to him why they give credence to such a technique, and why it is relevant to UFO research. He never really got his answer, except to say that according to Soviet scientists, when UFOs are landing, they leave a signature where “the bioenergy level is nil” (p. 44). In other words, UFOs appear to “suck-up” vital energy in CE2 and CE3. This is an interesting observation, although as Vallée noted, it is hard to figure out how they can make such evaluation with radiesthesia techniques.

What I found surprising, however, is how Vallée did not connect the dots. He was aware of some of the research done in parapsychology in the Soviet Union, as he mentions the book of Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain (New York: Bantam, 1970), which discusses at length the Soviet research in bioenergy fields, and about Kirlian photography. Furthermore, their book provides a drawing of a dowsing rod identical to the one Vallée provides on p. 88. Twenty additional years of research in bioenergy field (1970 to 1990) might have yield some interesting results, or at very least it is long enough to create a matter-of-factness about it that would explain the attitude of the Soviet scientists. Then, we know now that Vallée was somewhat involved with the military remote-viewing programme at the SRI (and he refers to the remote-viewing project on p. 9). He surely figured out that bioenergy fields research in the Soviet Union was similarly funded by intelligence and military agencies, and that his hosts could not speak more.

In any event, this adds some more material to connect the biological ontological level with other levels of reality. Particularly, could it be that social psi and bioenergy fields influence each other? This could be an entry point for those interested in the Gaia hypothesis.

Other linkages

Vallée mentions on p. 77 that,“During the cold war the Kremlin regarded such observations [UFO reports] as a psychological warfare ploy master-minded by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency. Soviet officials thought that such “hysterical” rumors were deliberately planted to create unhealthy agitation and fear among socialist countries, taking the workers’ attention away from productive pursuits.”

In the light of Greg Bishop’s Project Beta, the Soviet assessment of the situation was quite accurate. Given that the Soviets were spying a lot on the US, their arch-rival, it appears reasonable to think that, indeed, they figured out the American ploy. This adds even more weight to the rejection of the Roswell-Majestic conundrum.

Vallée made another comment that I can only relate to parasociology, and to the study done by Martin Kottmeyer “UFO flaps”, The Anomalist 3: 64-89, where he found a link between difficult social and political contexts and UFO waves. Vallée wrote in discussing the changes occurring in Gorbatchov’s Soviet Union:

“Once again, history had overtaken ideology. An enormous vital change was sweeping half the planet, catching all the bureaucracies by surprise: they could take their briefing and shove it! Was the UFO wave of 1989 in the Soviet Union only a symptom, or was it a deep factor in the change? In either case, I now realized, it could not be separated from the historical events that carried it.” (p. 25).

This is overall an easy read. The book is written mostly at the first person, and it reads like a novel. Although other texts have been written since about Soviet and Russian ufology, it is the only one which was written when the researchers were still working for the Soviet Union. Although they could not be open about certain classified projects (essentially in parapsychology), on the other hand they were not contaminated by the ETH and thus were quite candid about other aspects of their research (like biolocation). It is refreshing to see that, indeed, not all roads lead to the ETH.

Copyright © 2008 Eric Ouellet

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