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After the rather poor quality of the 1978 Proceedings, I was pleased to find that this set marked a considerable improvement, with papers of interest to a wide circle of ufological opinion. They are worth reading, if only for David Stupple's and William McNeece's excellent study of a UFO cult in Michigan.
This cult, called the 'Institute for Cosmic Research, is engaged in building a model flying saucer, and relating from the space people through its charismatic leader, 'Gordon'. The authors suggest that there are three distinct subcultures attached to the cult: the Religious, who "showed little interest in the construction of Bluebird (the model UFO) "but who looked upon Gordon's messages from the space people as sources of religious truth; the Technical who were primarily interested in the build ing of the spaceship and had little interest in Gordon's philosophy; and the Occult, to whom the Institute was just another of the occult and metaphysical groups through which they floated. The authors show how, by simultaneously announcing a new and better machine, and denigrating competing metaphysical systems, the leadership was able to quell an incipient revolt within the group.
The 'Bluebird' group is perhaps an extreme example of a Western Cargo-Cult, with its ideology of the construction of a magical machine as a religious activity. In this it strongly resembles John Murray Spear's 'Living Machine', an episode in nineteenth-century spiritualism. Despite the extremist nature of the 'Institute', the authors tri-partite division is equally applicable to many UFO groups, including a flying saucer discussion group which this reviewer attended between 1968 and 1974.
Another interesting paper is Alvin Lawson's study of six basic entity groups (human, humanoid, animal, robot, exotic, and apparitional) as manifested in UFO records, Greek myth and fable, Christian belief, demonology, folklore, the works of Shakespeare, and a variety of other fictional and cultural sources. He compares these with drawings and sketches provided by his 'imaginary abduction' subjects. While some of the comparisons seem forced, those between SF and comic book heroes, children 's drawings, and imaginary abductees' sketches are impressive. Lawson suggests that these represent basic patterns in the human imagination, although he leaves the question of how these occur in UFO experiences open.
Richard Haines compares selected sightings from aircraft between 1973 and 1978, and concludes that all refer to the same thing(s). Drawings and descriptions are provided where available. Ted Peters surveys the UFO belief system as a religious expression, but as in his in may ways excellent book UFO's, God 's Chariots, he seems unable to decide if he is to act as commentator or preacher, and falls rather uneasily in the middle.
Denis Reagan and William Allen examine alleged UFO sounds from Bragg Creek, Alberta. These seem to be similar to, but not identical with those produced by certain owls. This is an example of a good 'physical effects 'investigation.
Much of the remaining material is very familiar - Bill Spaulding on government cover-ups; James McCampbell on contact with ufonauts - a study which does not seem very careful; Walter Greenwood discusses ufology in newspapers, to no apparent end; while Stanton Freidman and Allen Hynek give their usual spiels. It is an iron law of UFO conferences that at least one speaker should seem a complete looney. In this case the post went to Tom Bearden, a nuclear physicist, who seems to be concerned about deathly 'tulpoids' from the Russians mutilating cattle. One does not have to be psychic to sense the general foot-shuffling and chair scraping this must have created.
- Peter Rogerson, from Magonia 4, Summer 1980.
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