cont...
One possibility is that it relates to her falling into the hands of APRO
which had a special interest in the Pascagoula abduction of 1973. It was a
famous case that had national exposure. There are several popular accounts
such as an article in Rolling Stone magazine and the mass-market paperback
Beyond Earth, but it was only people with APRO who called attention to the
mummy-like appearance of the Pascagoula entity and deemed it a feature that
enhanced the credibility of the case. Larson was said to have had no prior
interest in UFOs and had little knowledge of the subject. This is perhaps
true, despite the involvement of the movie. About the only details that
could be based on the movie involved the final warning not to talk because
she would not be believed.
Much of the case seems different from anything reported before. Only the
Pascagoula case seems reprised, and then in only two particulars. They both
involve tummy exams by mummies. It is no stretch to believe she picked up
these motifs in conversation with UFO buffs or researchers prior to her
hypnosis sessions. Other than this, the two cases are different. The UFOs
are different. The Hickson story is brief while Larson's is rich in detail
and lengthy with multiple operations and a trip to another realm.
The question returns for Pascagoula; if it was reasonable for Andreasson to
favor the Hills' entity, why did Charles Hickson opt for space mummies? The
power of visual imagery drops out of the picture because The UFO Incident
wasn't around yet in 1973. Fame might still favor such a borrowing, but the
verbal description may have seemed vague and forgettable. The drawing in
The Interrupted Journey is crude, sketchy, and rather like a caricature of
an angry guy wearing a cap. It's not convincingly alien. More, the tale of
a woman being given a horrific pregnancy test might be an incongruous
choice for a male abductee. (Admittedly, Sammy Desmond repeated the needle
in the navel despite the contra-indication. People are funny.) Yet another
factor is that Hickson's report comes across more like a vivid nightmare
than an exercise in active imagination and story-telling. Dreams often
possess aspects that are bizarre and seemingly impenetrable to reason. It
might help if we knew the source of Hickson's aliens, but they initially
seem so different from conventional aliens it looks like a hopeless task
tracking it down.
Fortunately, the Lorenzens saved historians a big headache by themselves
covering similarities between the Pascagoula entity and a case out of Peru
involving a man designated C.A.V. The man encountered three mummies with a
generally human profile, but the legs were joined and they slid along the
ground. They were about 5'9" in height. The face was mostly featureless
save for a sort-of nose. The arms seemed normal, but the hand consisted of
a group of four fingers stuck together and a separate thumb creating the
impression of pincers or claws. The match to the Pascagoula entity is
remarkably good, and I have to agree with the Lorenzens that the odds
against happenstance are too remote to be considered. They add that neither
Hickson nor Parker (the other Pascagoula experiment) had prior UFO
interest, and the case appeared "only" in the APRO Bulletin and chapter 8
in their 1968 book UFOs Over the Americas.
"Only" is not exactly how I would describe a Signet paperback which was
mass-marketed across America on wire racks in drug stores and five and
dimes, but perhaps they were being modest. The Lorenzens further wondered
why, if both cases involve fabrication, this particular form was chosen.
"Why not a more acceptable and more frequently reported type?" More
believable occupant encounters were readily available. They temporarily
prefigure Fowler and Hopkins in their style of argument by ignoring the
equally striking disparities between the two cases in these remarks from
Encounters with UFO Occupants. Happily, they rectify this shortcoming in
their next book Abducted! when they grant, "The only real difference
between the two descriptions was that the Peruvian said the skin of the
creatures was sandy-colored and that they had 'bubbles' where the eyes
would be which moved around." This is at least a start. C.A.V.'s UFO is
shaped like a disc. Hickson's UFO is shaped like a fish. C.A.V.'s entities
were lost and asked to see our chief. They carry on an extended
conversation about a variety of things including how we are endangering the
balance of the universe and how they are able to reproduce by fission.
C.A.V. tries to abduct one of the mummies as they try to leave in an effort
to get rich, but they were too slippery. They don't try to abduct him and
conduct a tummy exam. If the entities are the same because they are real,
why are their craft and behaviors so different?
The fish shape of the craft and the tummy exam with the eye are critical
clues to what is going on here. They are not part of the C.A.V. case, but
they are part of UFOs Over the Americas. Chapter 3 is called 'Underwater
UFOs' and features a June 1959 incident from Buenos Aires involving an
object generally shaped like a huge fish. The eye over the tummy is a
compositing of cases on page 206: an 1880 incident involving a luminous
ball suspended in mid-air, leaving the percipient terror-stricken, which is
followed by a brief account of the Hill case and their physical
examination, after which the authors discuss how UFOs could induce hypnotic
effects and shock.
The blending and distortion of the elements of these cases is identical to
the way dreams remix and composite recent memories to come up with a
dramatic experience. The choice of the mummies by Hickson's mind stems from
the title given the chapter relating the C.A.V. case: "The Flesh Crawlers."
It was the scariest-looking alien in the book. It worked. Charlie Hickson's
personal account is reprinted in UFO Contact at Pascagoula and includes
this line: "My flesh crawls when I think about those three things that
appeared through the opening."
With respect to C.A.V., the Lorenzens' objections about acceptability and
frequency collapses with the realization that C.A.V. hailed from Peru.
Peruvian culture is significantly different from the one the Lorenzens were
living in. Mummies were pervasive in Incan religion. Incan leaders were
embalmed with great care and their remains were worshipped like a god. It
would be placed in temples. Sacrifices would be made to it. It was brought
out for festivals. People were assigned to take care of the mummy. One
archaeologist found a Necropolis of 429 mummies which demonstrated the
antiquity of the practice in Nazcan culture. It would take an expert in
Peruvian folklore to track down the immediate cultural precursors to
C.A.V.'s experience, but we don't need a detailed analysis to understand
that a Peruvian might find the idea of space mummies far more believable
and emotionally resonant than would people in the USA.
It is also relevant to add that C.A.V. saw a psychiatrist who felt that he
had probably imagined the experience. He had just learned one of the trucks
used in his business had suffered an accident, and he was overextending
himself with multiple businesses and familial responsibilities. C.A.V.
admits the possibility of hallucination or dream, but doesn't agree.
Richard Greenwell, an ufologist who interviewed C.A.V., has also given his
opinion: "Personally, I consider the experience unreal - but interesting."
(FSR Nov/Dec. 1970) Ufologists may argue the cases reinforce each other,
but it seems likelier they undermine each other. If C.A.V.'s case is
psychologically and culturally explicable, those elements which recur in
later UFO experiences are probably equally unreal.
And equally interesting. C.A.V.'s gliding space mummies are a product of
Peruvian culture that illuminates the processes of cultural transmission
and story formation in abduction experiences. The Lorenzens introduced it
into America where it briefly took root by influencing Hickson. Under their
nurturing it spread to Larson. Andreasson almost included it in her
account, but the entities of The UFO Incident won out. It was close though.
In The UFO Incident the entities walk. In Andreasson's remix the entities
glide. Just like the Lorenzens' space mummies. The mummies put a curse on
any attempt to understand these four experiences as similarly real
experiences that support the Extra-Terrestrial Hypothesis (ETH). The
pattern of similarities and differences only makes sense with the premise
that it is humans, not aliens, that are running the show. The ETH won't
work. At least, not without an awful lot of bandages.
     * "Spock's Brain" was rated officially the worst episode in
     Entertainment Weekly's current Star Trek collector's edition,
     79th of 79.
{This article originally appeared in issue #1 of Promises and
Disappointments, and has been reprinted with the permission of the author.}
[Martin Kottmeyer is a frequent contributor to The REALL News.]
--- msgedsq 2.0.5
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                              ***=New addition
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 _____________________________________________________________________
 Moderator - Jack Sargeant - ufo1@juno.com.                  1:379/12
 Moderator - Roger Nelson                                    1:3828/7
 Science Advisor - George Jiri Opletal                       3:632/562
 E-mail address for Roger Nelson - roger.nelson@f7.n3828.z1.fidonet.org
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