dreams’ – real physical events – involving ‘a system of symbolic imagery which suddenly erupts into the three dimensional world’ (ibid.: 220). She also offers the intriguing suggestion that maybe aliens are creating the experiences, not by coming here and abducting people, but by using the minds of the witnesses, using methods to control consciousness over vast distances. Clearly, there is a need for more studies of abduction reports and CE4s. But as in much of Ufology, the presence of hoaxers and fraudsters is a fundamental barrier to any serious study.

Encounters of the fifth kind (CE5) are considered feasible by the scientific community, particularly among SETI workers who attempt communication by means of radio signals, although it should be stressed that no SETI scientist has yet claimed to have established contact. Other claims regarding CE5s have emerged from devotees of the paranormal. In recent years the phenomenon of channelling – a modern equivalent of spirit messages – has been associated with EBEs. Channellers claim contact with The Elohim, a group of spacemen, who are recorded in the Book of Genesis. The Elohim have been allegedly contacting terrestrials since 1973, when they decided that we needed to be taken under control. Apparently they have no problem with communication as they speak all the languages of the world. Generally, the messages received offer various brands of leadership and salvation to a world that is already suffering from a surplus of political tyrants and despots. Another group of channellers receive messages from ‘The Council of Nine’ who, since the early 1970s, have been represented by a messenger called Tom (Schlemmer and Jenkins, 1993). Other channellers receive messages from the Intergalactic Federation and the Ashtar Command. The latter occupy a fleet of spacecraft which have been in orbit for millennia. The messages are notorious for their banality and unoriginality, with appeals to save the world from nuclear war or pollution, appeals to a higher form of spirituality or consciousness, which is usually linked to the requirement that the contactees or terrestrial recipients of the messages are treated as unique individuals. The channellers offer the standard message associated with religious cults: the world is threatened and the chosen few will be airlifted to safety at the  right moment. All of this is wrapped up in platitudes about higher levels of awareness, living at one with the Earth and various other cosmic forces. If these messages are really forms of CE5, then contact with EBEs is disappointing.

Many claims regarding extraterrestrial visitors rely heavily upon techniques of persuasion, some of which ought to be separated from claims appertaining to evidence or theory. There are frequent appeals to pioneers like Galileo, whose rivals refused to look through his telescope and consequently failed to appreciate the momentous discoveries we now attribute to him. Just as Galileo was ahead of his time and unappreciated by his narrow-minded contemporaries, so it is argued, today’s unappreciated Ufologists are tomorrow’s Galileos.

There is, of course, an abundance of historical evidence of the sheer wrong-headedness of experts who remained sceptical of new developments. George Stephenson, the locomotive engineer, was ridiculed by his detractors. In fact, the

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engineer, Thomas Tredgold, wrote in 1835 that the possibility of ‘any general system of conveying passengers … at a velocity exceeding 10 miles an hour, or thereabouts, is extremely improbable’. On these terms, it might be argued, many claims with regard to new theories of transportation which transcend current knowledge should be seriously considered.

This argument misses the reality of the history of science. Most of yesterday’s crackpots remain crackpots. Galileo and those like him succeeded, not because their theories were provocative but because they supplied answers to questions, addressed the issues of the day, and their theories proved increasingly successful and applicable.

Another method of persuasion involves the linking together of known mysteries and resolving them all with one grand solution. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the alleged cover-up after the sudden death of Pope John-Paul I have been linked to theories concerning extraterrestrial visitors (Andrews, 1987).

The appeal to prestigious witnesses and celebrities features largely in UFO literature. It is a fact that most societies place greater value on some categories of witness over others. Ufologists place greater emphasis on observational reports from military and civilian pilots – now estimated to exceed 3,000 – as well as the police. There are good reasons for this, as the members of these professions are frequently highly trained in observational procedures. Independent multiple sightings from such sources should consequently be taken seriously. What does not deserve serious consideration are the numerous reports of observations by celebrities, some of whom may have career interests in the association with topical events. Among the more dubious appeals to celebrity observations is one made by George C. Andrews, author of Extra-Terrestrials Among Us (1987), who cites British newspaper reports that Prince Charles had observed a UFO near Windsor Castle on 9 March 1986. The fact that the Prince did not deny the report after it was published is also seen by Andrews as further confirmation of the sighting, although he does not mention that the Royal Family once had a tradition of not responding to media statements about them. It is worth noting that Windsor Castle is on the flight path to Heathrow airport – one of the world’s busiest air spaces!

During the 1960s and 1970s several books by Erich von Däniken (1969, 1970, 1973, 1974) developed the theory that Earth was visited in early times by astronauts from another solar system. The ancient astronaut theory claimed that many of the deities worshipped by ancient people were in fact ET visitors. The argument usually relied on claims that many impressive buildings, such as the Great Pyramid at Gizeh, stone relics of the Incas and the Mayas, or Stonehenge, were constructed under the influence of ET visitors. In the same vein, ancient writings of biblical prophets and cave drawings were cited as evidence of encounters with extraterrestrials. In the absence of evidence demonstrating that no technological civilization with the capacity for space travel has ever existed in the history of the universe, it cannot be proved that astronauts have not visited

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