For those who pay attention to the comings and goings of individuals within the UFO community, MUFON has lost another one of its prized members. Primarily to its own inability to do anything right regarding public relations or ethics, Chris Cogswell, its newly appointed Director of Research, has chosen to leave the organization only a few short months after taking the job. Cogswell, being a man of reason and clearly in possession of a moral backbone, has taken issue with MUFON’s inability to cut one of their top brass, John Ventre, loose.
 
For many on the outer rim of the UFO community, they may recognize Mr. Ventre from his multiple appearances on MUFON’s “tell-all” TV show, Hangar 1. For those who dove a little deeper into the subculture’s pool, they may recall an incident which occurred in May of 2017 when Mr. Ventre vented publicly, on Facebook, his disdain for a show called “Dear White People” and his curious, albeit incorrect, belief that “whites” invented everything.  

​Michael Horn, the Authorized American Media Representative for Billy Meir, recently ‘called me out’ during one of his YouTube shows. He suggested that my current book project is a waste of time, and that my work studying the UFO subculture is a foolish enterprise. He criticized me for not believing in Meier’s claims concerning his alleged contact with the Plejaren, and that I had not done ‘true’ research into the case. He claims that the extent of my research concerning the Meier case comes from all the fraud UFO researchers who suggest that Meier’s evidence is hoaxed. You can view those alleged frauds here and here. I do not want to engage with Meier’s claims. I personally do not care.
 
Rather, I’d like to discuss Mr. Horn’s need to compel belief in Meier, and perhaps in turn, himself as his torchbearer.  
 
Horn is the “world’s leading expert on UFOs,” according to George Noory. His About page also lists a long pedigree of being basically everything, from martial arts expert to the inventor of the “first portable neck pillow.” Compared to him, I am but a small player in the UFO world (and the travel pillow industry), and I haven’t really invented anything of consequence. However, I do have a soapbox.

​Horn’s claim revolves around his fundamental belief that the Billy Meier case is the only true case of ET contact, and that all other UFOlogical work is wasted on frauds, fakes, and useless lights in the sky. 

Apart from literally alienating everyone else who has had a UFO sighting or contact experience, Mr. Horn spent a bulk of his criticism concerning my poor research skills, and that of the broader UFO community. 

I do not take issue with Meier’s evidence, and Mr. Horn’s defence of said evidence. They can believe whatever they want. Where things became problematic for Mr. Horn was when I informed him that, regardless of his claims of real evidence, I did not accept Meier as some messianic prophet. My “personal criteria for belief” were not met by Mr. Meier’s photographs, stories, and prophetic visions. That is usually how it goes in situations like this; it always hinges upon belief, and not necessarily what can be proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. Perhaps I am merely the Doubting Thomas to Mr. Horn’s Simon Peter, while Meier is Horn’s Christ-like figure. I demand to ‘place my fingers in the holes in his hands’ before I assume Meier is telling me the truth. 

​Mr. Horn claims that Meier and his ‘belief system’ are not religious. However, when I simply asserted that I had no interest in discussing the Meier case, and that I did not buy into Meier’s claims, Mr. Horn pursued the issue with significant vigour and zeal. I do admit that I did mention to another person in an e-mail, and I’m paraphrasing here, that Meier did seem like a ‘cult leader,’ and maybe that was unfair of me. However, by making a claim that Meier is the ‘only true contactee’ and is the only person receiving true prophetic visions from an alien race sure sounds like religious and cult-like messaging. Adding to this, Mr. Horn’s constant need to defend Meier, and be his messenger, only adds to the feeling that there are theological and religious motifs at play. To be clear, while Meier may not be a cult leader, he sure ‘feels’ like one.
 
I recently read an interesting article by Dr. Massimo Teodorani concerning the UFO community’s ‘need to believe versus know.’ He writes,

“UFO iconography is a drug at all effects, and can be used to switch minds in many ways, also to collect proselytes to make up new fanatic religions, but more generally to give people a sort of psychological medicine with which people can escape from the hard reality of everyday, where the continuous competitions of present society often obscure the human and spiritual dimension: people need to retrieve the very nucleus of their soul. This intimate need is clearly legitimate, but it is also risky: in fact persons who are not well rationally grounded are very easily subject to manipulation: it seems that most persons in the world are just in this condition, especially at our epoch. When critical thinking starts to lack, who leads this society has at his disposal a huge mass of sheep, ready to follow alleged miracles, saviour aliens and related gurus. The less people think in a grounded way the least this people are conscious of what is happening at their shoulders. This is the effect of UFO iconography.”
 
Whether Horn reads this or not, I’d like to be perfectly clear on one thing. I am simply choosing to stay critical. Yes, I am critical of Meier’s ‘evidence.’ I am critical of all ‘UFO evidence.’ As Teodorani points out, the UFO icon, the UFO image, beckons us to believe, as if the flying saucer (or Beam Ship in the Meier case), will lead us to some supposed truth. Meier and Horn simply want me to “retrieve the nucleus of my soul,” and see their beliefs as being the only beliefs.
 
Perhaps the fundamental issue at hand is that Meier is no longer authentic, but merely an icon, an image. As historian and philosopher Daniel Boorstin pointed out,

“We have become so accustomed to our illusions that we mistake them for reality. We demand them…They are the world of our making: the world of the image.”
 
Meier, somewhere in his experience, be it true or false, is no longer himself, but lost adrift in the image he has created of himself, and that others have created for him. As with any saviour, any messiah, he or she must shed themselves, their own reality, to become that illusion which their followers need and want. Much like Plejaren Beam Ships and flying discs, Meier is no longer grounded in the self, but has been removed from it; a ghost, an illusion, both present but also not. 

I struggled with writing this post. I fear diving into the abyss and facing the wrath of Mr. Horn. A person, no matter what they think, can be rational, and appreciate that I simply do not believe. I have doubts, and this being the 21st century, they should be fine with that. However, if Mr. Horn is no longer the man he once was, he is an image, a symbol of some new faith, which must defend itself at all costs, then reason no longer matters; rather, it becomes a battle of ‘them versus us.’
 
I stand, ultimately, at the precipice. I hold my breath. Mr. Horn pushed me here when he publicly recounted the content of private emails between us; the real question is whether he is willing throw himself at me again. Regardless of the struggle on the way down, we both know what is waiting for us. Rock bottom.
 
Unless he uses his expert martial arts to grab onto the cliff’s edge before he topples over with me. Damn it! Look at those moves. This is going to hurt…
 
 
- MJ Banias

Michael Horn attempted to comment on the above post. Unfortunately, the comment box only allows a certain amount of characters before cutting off a comment. I have spoken with Mr. Horn, who was quite understanding and reasonable, and I will post his entire rebuttal below which he sent to me via e-mail. It is only fair that he be able to address my article concerning Meier and himself. 

My intention at this time is not to respond with a point by point counter argument. As I mentioned in my original post, I don't want to hit "rock bottom" by engaging in an argument which will fundamentally hinge upon faith in a prophet's words. 

I appreciate that Mr. Horn is advocating for something (and even someone) he as dedicated a major portion of his life to. I also appreciate that Billy Meier, and Mr. Horn, have been targets of ridicule and attack by the broader UFO community. To Mr. Horn, my article is undoubtedly another shot across the bow to which, understandably, he must shoot back. 

While Mr. Horn wholeheartedly denies my claim that Meier "feels" like a cult leader, I do stand by my words at this time. Should my 'feelings' change, I will be the first to admit it. However, many religions, both Ufological and not, have been founded upon alleged evidence and prophesy. Is Meier a cult leader? I do not know, and I leave that for better researchers than I to sort out. I think that this battle has already been waged however, and a simple Google search of Billy Meier will lead to many websites and books that have gone back and forth on this claim; perhaps most notably the 'UFO Prophet Blog'.

I wish to conclude by saying that Mr. Horn, since the writing of his response below, has extended an olive branch of sorts. He considers Billy Meier's message to be incredibly important, and fights for it with significant vigour because he thinks our very planet depends on it. I hold no ill will towards Mr. Horn regarding of the contents of his rebuttal. As many of my readers know, I take some interest in the UFO phenomenon itself but my true passion and focus is on the UFO community itself, its interactions and ideologies. My interest in the Meier case is more anthropological and cultural, and not truly in the evidence (be it legitimate or not) regarding Meier's contact with extraterrestrial beings. 

We are all seekers of truth, and we all take solace in the truth in different ways. Regardless of where you, the reader, stands concerning the Billy Meier case, I, and undoubtedly Mr. Horn, invite you to do what you see fit to find that truth. We will not all walk the same path, but let us remember to be respectful of every path so long as it is honest and well intentioned. 

​- MJ Banias

***********
Mr. Horn's Response 

MJ,
If only you’d used a fraction of the energy you did in making quacking sounds here to actually research and substantiate your claims, you might not have ended up, self-admittedly, standing on a box of…soap.
I will insert corrections to your silly inaccuracies.
MJ: Michael Horn, the Authorized American Media Representative for Billy Meir, recently ‘called me out’ during one of his YouTube shows. He suggested that my current book project is a waste of time, and that my work studying the UFO subculture is a foolish enterprise. He criticized me for not believing in Meier’s claims concerning his alleged contact with the Plejaren, and that I had not done ‘true’ research into the case. He claims that the extent of my research concerning the Meier case comes from all the fraud UFO researchers who suggest that Meier’s evidence is hoaxed. You can view those alleged frauds here and here. I do not want to engage with Meier’s claims. I personally do not care.
 
MH: I have never criticized anyone for “not believing in Meier’s claims concerning his alleged contact with the Plejaren”, since I have never asked anyone to believe…anything. $200 to your favorite charity for showing the contrary. We are strictly evidence and fact based in our approach, research, claims, etc. You just don’t have what it takes to address that, as we’ll see, repeatedly throughout your article. 
 
MJ: Rather, I’d like to discuss Mr. Horn’s need to compel belief in Meier, and perhaps in turn, himself as his torchbearer.  

MH: Again, young amateur that you are, you talk about “belief”, a non-existent element in all of the evidence, information, analyses, etc.
 
MJ: Horn is the “world’s leading expert on UFOs,” according to George Noory. His About page also lists a long pedigree of being basically everything, from martial arts expert to the inventor of the “first portable neck pillow.” Compared to him, I am but a small player in the UFO world (and the travel pillow industry), and I haven’t really invented anything of consequence. However, I do have a soapbox.
 
Horn’s claim revolves around his fundamental belief that the Billy Meier case is the only true case of ET contact, and that all other UFOlogical work is wasted on frauds, fakes, and useless lights in the sky. 
 
MH: Again - and now it must be called out as a blatant, unsubstantiated, deliberate…lie – I have expressed no “beliefs”, fundamental, or otherwise. Obivously, I have every email I sent you.

MJ: Apart from literally alienating everyone else who has had a UFO sighting or contact experience, Mr. Horn spent a bulk of his criticism concerning my poor research skills, and that of the broader UFO community. 
 
MH: While I make no apologies for “alienating” evidence-less people, lease present actual, credible, testable evidence for “everyone else” who has had a “contact experience”. And why aren’t you rebutting  my criticism with actual…evidence that you or anyone else in this field knows what they’re talking about?

MJ: I do not take issue with Meier’s evidence, and Mr. Horn’s defence of said evidence. They can believe whatever they want. Where things became problematic for Mr. Horn was when I informed him that, regardless of his claims of real evidence, I did not accept Meier as some messianic prophet. My “personal criteria for belief” were not met by Mr. Meier’s photographs, stories, and prophetic visions. That is usually how it goes in situations like this; it always hinges upon belief, and not necessarily what can be proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. Perhaps I am merely the Doubting Thomas to Mr. Horn’s Simon Peter, while Meier is Horn’s Christ-like figure. I demand to ‘place my fingers in the holes in his hands’ before I assume Meier is telling me the truth. 
 
MH: “Believe”…again? “Messianic prophet”? Please substantiate. Your “personal criteria for belief” are irrelevant, ignorantly so, as is “it always hinges upon belief, and not necessarily what can be proven beyond the shadow of a doubt.” Especially since, incompetent attention-seeker that you are, you didn’t read and avail yourself of these:
https://theyflyblog.com/2017/08/18/billy-meier-beyond-reasonable-doubt/
https://theyflyblog.com/2017/09/25/its-1964-all-over-again/
MJ: Mr. Horn claims that Meier and his ‘belief system’ are not religious. However, when I simply asserted that I had no interest in discussing the Meier case, and that I did not buy into Meier’s claims, Mr. Horn pursued the issue with significant vigour and zeal. I do admit that I did mention to another person in an e-mail, and I’m paraphrasing here, that Meier did seem like a ‘cult leader,’ and maybe that was unfair of me. However, by making a claim that Meier is the ‘only true contactee’ and is the only person receiving true prophetic visions from an alien race sure sounds like religious and cult-like messaging. Adding to this, Mr. Horn’s constant need to defend Meier, and be his messenger, only adds to the feeling that there are theological and religious motifs at play. To be clear, while Meier may not be a cult leader, he sure ‘feels’ like one.
 
MH: Mr. Horn, that’s me, indeed pursued the issue…since you had already told someone the case was a fraud, that it was a cult, etc. Need I again point out your dishonest “belief system”? As far as “sounds like religious and cult-like messaging… feeling that there are theological and religious motifs at play”, would have the decency – since you lack the journalistic and professional ethics – to substantiate your precious little…feelings?
 
MJ: I recently read an interesting article by Dr. Massimo Teodorani concerning the UFO community’s ‘need to believe versus know.’ He writes,

“UFO iconography is a drug at all effects, and can be used to switch minds in many ways, also to collect proselytes to make up new fanatic religions, but more generally to give people a sort of psychological medicine with which people can escape from the hard reality of everyday, where the continuous competitions of present society often obscure the human and spiritual dimension: people need to retrieve the very nucleus of their soul. This intimate need is clearly legitimate, but it is also risky: in fact persons who are not well rationally grounded are very easily subject to manipulation: it seems that most persons in the world are just in this condition, especially at our epoch. When critical thinking starts to lack, who leads this society has at his disposal a huge mass of sheep, ready to follow alleged miracles, saviour aliens and related gurus. The less people think in a grounded way the least this people are conscious of what is happening at their shoulders. This is the effect of UFO iconography.”


MH: Why didn’t you spend your time reading the actual evidence in the Meier case, instead of trying to use someone else’s comments, which contain no mention of Meier,  to attack it?
 
MJ: Whether Horn reads this or not, I’d like to be perfectly clear on one thing. I am simply choosing to stay critical. Yes, I am critical of Meier’s ‘evidence.’ I am critical of all ‘UFO evidence.’ As Teodorani points out, the UFO icon, the UFO image, beckons us to believe, as if the flying saucer (or Beam Ship in the Meier case), will lead us to some supposed truth. Meier and Horn simply want me to “retrieve the nucleus of my soul,” and see their beliefs as being the only beliefs.
 
Perhaps the fundamental issue at hand is that Meier is no longer authentic, but merely an icon, an image. As historian and philosopher Daniel Boorstin pointed out,

“We have become so accustomed to our illusions that we mistake them for reality. We demand them…They are the world of our making: the world of the image.”


Meier, somewhere in his experience, be it true or false, is no longer himself, but lost adrift in the image he has created of himself, and that others have created for him. As with any saviour, any messiah, he or she must shed themselves, their own reality, to become that illusion which their followers need and want. Much like Plejaren Beam Ships and flying discs, Meier is no longer grounded in the self, but has been removed from it; a ghost, an illusion, both present but also not. 
 
I struggled with writing this post. I fear diving into the abyss and facing the wrath of Mr. Horn. A person, no matter what they think, can be rational, and appreciate that I simply do not believe. I have doubts, and this being the 21st century, they should be fine with that. However, if Mr. Horn is no longer the man he once was, he is an image, a symbol of some new faith, which must defend itself at all costs, then reason no longer matters; rather, it becomes a battle of ‘them versus us.’
 
I stand, ultimately, at the precipice. I hold my breath. Mr. Horn pushed me here when he publicly recounted the content of private emails between us; the real question is whether he is willing throw himself at me again. Regardless of the struggle on the way down, we both know what is waiting for us. Rock bottom.
 
Unless he uses his expert martial arts to grab onto the cliff’s edge before he topples over with me. Damn it! Look at those moves. This is going to hurt…
 
MH: Honestly, “stay critical” and this poor guy “struggled with writing this post”? My question is, why did he…give up the struggle so easily?
 
I know that my calling out these effete, pretentious and clearly inept poseurs, like MJ, who view the Meier case as another opportunity to present their spineless, wimpy and unsubstantiated tripe, offends the overly-sensitive. Maybe a bucket of cold water over their collective heads would drain the crap out and wake them up to where in hell they really are.
 
Look around, young clowns, that this world that is descending on – and doubtlessly offending – your poor, precious sense of reality is precisely what Meier and his Plejaren friends have been trying to warn us – you - about, in hopes that we/you would truly want to assure our own future survival.
 
Within not too long a time, coming events will so reframe our realities and priorities, that we’ll be left to wonder WHY on earth we ever let this historically significant matter be hijack by timid, boring academics, refugees from some misguided college course on “How to Master the Art of Hack Journalism”.
 
If MJ wants to actually research, learn and/or engage in debate – shockingly traumatic experiences for Snowflakes and Millennials to be sure – let him do so. After all, he’s inheriting the world much warned about and I worry that he’s quite  ill-prepared to live in it.

“We have become so accustomed to our illusions that we mistake them for reality. We demand them. And we demand that there be always more of them, bigger and better and more vivid. They are the world of our making: the world of the image.”
                                                                                                                      -Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America   

I have argued in the past that UFO discourse, debate, and inquiry has been relegated to the taboo fringe due to contemporary hegemonic power systems, such as late Capitalist ideology. To continue exploring the cultural theories that direct Ufological ideology, I wish to explore the alien abduction/contact question, and focus on the broader UFO community’s acceptance of this phenomenon as being an act of defiance against the status quo power systems which hegemonically govern Western ideology and society.
 
I appreciate that there are many people within the UFO community and subculture that do not accept the abduction/contact phenomenon as being objectively real, and therefore, legitimate. The intention of this article is not to explore the reality of abduction and contact. To be honest, the ‘truth’ behind the phenomenon does not matter. What matters, at least from a critical standpoint, is that the phenomenon, in UFO circles, does have a broad acceptance of being authentic, and, for all intents and purposes, is “real.”
 
To avoid further compartmentalizing the UFO subculture into various camps of belief, we can generally appreciate the relativism that surrounds the abduction/contact narrative. Those within the UFO community who have not totally ‘alienated’ experiencers generally approach the phenomenon with a “whatever floats your boat” attitude. In other words, “everyone is entitled to an opinion.” This relativist attitude is quite common within UFO discourse, as the UFO/UAP phenomenon is ideologically tied to the abduction/contact phenomenon.

Furthermore, the attitude generally follows a subjectivist metaphysical line of thinking. The common argument goes something like this:
 
What is the difference between believing in God and believing in aliens? People believe in Allah, Yahweh, Buddha, Samsara and various avatars, messianic prophets of all sorts, reincarnation, and a whole assortment of other deities. Is not the belief in extraterrestrials, interdimensional beings, or some other alien intelligent Other the same? Humans have a variety of religious and spiritual beliefs which are generally respected. In fact, as our species begins to piece together more information about the cosmos, and the discoveries of dozens of exoplanets which could potentially harbour life, doesn’t the science basically justify the possibility of life elsewhere in our galaxy, and that it is well within the realm of reason that it is coming here?
 
The theology, while controversial, is just that, theology. It matters not, especially since we can look at the ebb and flow of UFO/ET religions over the last several decades with crisp hindsight. I do not support a theological belief in aliens, however, the ideological “catch 22” here does have a certain level of truth to it.
 
An interesting cultural phenomenon is that with all the various religions and beliefs out there, assuming that extraterrestrials are visiting Earth, or some other similar ideology, is culturally taboo. Mainstream cultural ideology has no problem with faith in the various, albeit appropriate and allowable, religious deities, but faith in an alien Other, that is considered wholly unacceptable.
 
The abduction/contact narrative is, in simple terms, countercultural. Furthermore, the tacit support for the people who experience these events, and the general acceptance of this phenomenon by the UFO subculture, is an overt act of dissent towards established cultural and social ideologies. This relativistic position challenges the taboo, and the mainstream culture as a whole. It is a saber rattling performance, a haka (to borrow from the Maori of New Zealand), which generates an ideology for the disenfranchised. A sort of, “people are abducted by aliens, and I’m OK with that” mentality.
 
Supporting the abductee/contactee creates the appearance of radicalism, and attempts to subvert the scientific, academic, political and economic power systems designed to maintain the cultural and social status quo. It tries to force the mainstream consensus reality into the proverbial corner, and provide a view into a world consisting of individuality, unique thought, and ‘authenticity.’
 
“Damn the man.” Well, sort of. As I stated above, “it tries.”

​This worldview without judgement, supported by the UFO community and the abductees/contactees, is not what it seems. Similar to the mechanisms of late Capitalism, and the constructs of contemporary power systems, this anti-establishment position generated by the UFO community is an illusion.          
 
To borrow an idea from the French philosopher, Jean Baudrillard, concerning ‘hyperreal’ states, we, as a society, struggle to interpret what is real and what is not. In his famous work, Simulacra and Simulation, Baudrillard writes,
 
“We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning. (79)”
 
It is not that we lack information regarding the phenomenon, as a search of the MUFON database or YouTube will provide a large collection of abduction/contactee stories; rather, it is that we struggle with the ability to distinguish between real and ‘unreal.’ We cannot differentiate the experience from ‘the image.’
 
The abduction/contact narrative is hyperreal, it exists because there is information regarding it; YouTube videos, blog posts, books, TV shows, documentaries, podcasts, and late night radio shows. However, it also does not exist, as it is not a shared or common human experience. When faced with a story of abduction and/or contact, we, individually, must decide its reality, yet the ‘act of decision’ is objectively impossible. The story, the narrative, is not simply the telling of an event, but a vast collection of technological data, interpretation, and a subject with very little judgeable information flooded by opinions of ‘experts’ on both sides of the debate. In other words, the abduction/contact story is not the event itself, but the collection of ideology which surrounds that event. One cannot separate one instance of abduction/contact from the rest; there is no place to stand from which to do that, as no one can shed their ‘knowledge’ concerning the phenomenon. We cannot remove ‘the image’ from the picture.

The act of support by the general UFO community for the abduction/contact narrative is ultimately a simulacrum. It is pretend, not because members of the community do not mean it, but because they want it to have meaning. The UFO community inundates the abduction/contact narrative with other illusions and ideologies, compounding it, influencing it, and only widening the expanse between real and ‘hyperreal.’ Charges of government conspiracy, insidious hybrid baby breeding, Disclosure, secret space programs, and many other scenarios complicate the narrative. The ‘information’ spins and churns and collapses on itself only to spin and churn and collapse again, ad infinitum. Similar to the lights and sounds of the Las Vegas strip, the city becomes lost in the fantasy, and the fantasy becomes the city itself; the two cannot be separated. This relativist support for the abduction/contact narrative is, in totality, tied into the web of information, but essentially meaningless.
 
Where does this leave us?
 
The problem with ideologies is that they cut both ways. While the UFO community may look upon mainstream power systems, such as modern Capital or Government, with disdain and mistrust, the community itself does not have some special access to ‘truth’ or ‘reality.’ While mainstream society and culture may be a hyperreal state of constructed  illusions, the UFO subculture, and the politics it supports, is also illusionary. As the famous X-Files quote suggests, “The truth is out there.” That is to say, it is not in here with us, the UFO community. It is and forever will be “out there.”
 
With all of this, we still see the UFO community, and the abduction/contact narrative relegated to the fringes of general society. Regardless of the illusion, contemporary power systems require their ideological constructs to keep them functioning. The abduction/contact narrative, while ideologically motivated, still challenges the status quo. While it is merely the swapping of one ideology for another, albeit a more democratic ideology perhaps, current social, political and economic interests do not want a trade to occur.
 
The support for abductees/contactees among the general UFO community, that posturing haka, is still dangerous for the status quo. While we may never be free of ideology, perhaps some ideologies are “better” than others. This acceptance of those who interact with an alien Other shows a glimpse into the world of stark individuality, and a world where even the most alienated can find a place and voice within society. Is it perfect? No. Is it less worse? Maybe.
 
Do people get abducted or make contact with an intelligent Other? I personally do not know. Strange things do happen, and I’ll leave it at that. Whether it happens or not, the ideologies behind the abduction/contact event are truly what shape it, more so than the event itself. We cannot have the experience alone, that is impossible, rather we have ‘the image’ first, and the experience comes after.  

-MJ Banias

[Featured image: Alien Abduction (2014 film)]
​

​Keel himself went on to claim that he received many phone calls while investigating the Mothman legend from a person said to be Indrid Cold. This story, this very bizarre story, leads us down an interesting path in UFO discourse. Many other people came to have experiences with a strange man bearing a huge grin, and their tales vary from stark contrast to identical similarity with the Derenberger event.

Before us lies odd situation, one that calls into question the Ufological divide that exists between scientific and the mystical. What is the difference between the two? What series of arguments can one make to suggest one side is right, and the other is wrong?

The sides would both use scientific language, such as “look at the evidence” or “use logic and reason” to establish their cases. They would dive into the realms of psychology, citing deep seeded genetic archetypes established by evolution. They dive into religion, Buddhist and Hindu philosophies, and even provide historical evidence to prove that the UFO phenomenon is spiritual or scientific, or some mix of the two. They would provide big data, UFO sighting information, shapes, sizes, colours, and the rest. Whatever form the debate takes, it will ultimately run into the ever present brick wall; what differentiates the mystical from the scientific? What objective fact present in UFO discourse will shout, “Eureka!” and end the debate?

Nothing. There is no fact. No objective truth. That is the point of Indrid Cold. No member within the UFO community can claim with any objective truth that one Ufological event occurred, and the other did not. There is no fundamental difference between a witness seeing odd lights in the sky defying the laws of physics, and one man on a lonely stretch of highway bumping into a grinning man in a shiny suit. What is the difference between twenty people staring up at a strange disc hovering over Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in 2006 and twenty people having telepathic conversations with a man named Cold over several decades? Even the physical trace evidence can be called into question, is typically inconclusive, and is often fraught with issues concerning provenance and legitimacy. Does our interpretation of truth simply boil down to what sounds less crazy, and what fits more nicely into our consensus reality? It can be argued that both events are equally mind boggling. Yet, what evidence do we have for either case that proves one is true beyond the shadow of a doubt? What evidence exists that, without question, proves there is a UFO phenomenon, and it is caused by X? ​

Jeff Ritzmann’s definition of the archetypal trickster as that which “disobeys the rules and conventional behaviour” is the cornerstone to the UFO question. The debate rages around the extraterrestrial hypothesis, co-creation, mysticism, the psychosocial hypothesis, and many others because the UFO itself is that which “disobeys the rules.”

I do not claim that the Indrid Cold case is legitimate or a hoax. I honestly don’t care. What does matter is the symbolism of Indrid Cold, and that these three events lined up for me to write this post. Cold did not literally visit me in my basement as I watched Breedlove’s film that evening, but in a way, he did “tell” me something as his eerie visage appeared on the screen before me.

He showed me, as Ritzmann says, to explore the idea of being a “boundary crosser.” I do not believe in one UFO reality over another, and the luxury of my work within UFO discourse is that very freedom. Critical theory and philosophy allow me to dwell in many thought worlds, in the various systems of truth, and there are essentially no limits to logic experiments of the mind. This is the beauty of working with, what many have come to call, “exophilosophy.”

Some will argue that these thought experiments are useless, and only add to the “pile of bullshit” that is UFO discourse. Perhaps. To those who make that argument, I would ask them to provide tangible evidence that their scientific or mystical approach has made any headway. The filing cabinets and internet databases of sighting reports, cold case files, rehashed UFO events, charts, tables, declassified documents, hypnotherapy evaluations, psychological reports, and testimonies from ‘credible’ witnesses are all well and good, but they still form one big pile...and I don’t have to tell you what it all smells like to me. The razor cuts both ways.

Whatever is responsible for the UFO phenomenon, much like the trickster, it seems to sow chaos. Much like Derenberger on that night in November, we find ourselves in an unsettling place trying to figure out what is going on. As every second passes, we are left with only more questions, and significantly fewer answers. Praying that some light can be shed on this bizarre moment, we are greeted by a strange grinning man named Cold.

​-MJ Banias
​