Jacques Vallée (n., 1939) is currently one of the most distinguished personalities of ufology. Astrophysicist by training, french naturalized american doctor in computer science, he was employe of NASA for mapping Mars planet and is one of the creators of ARPANET network , the ancestor of the Internet. Published since the sixties fundamental books about UFOs and, among other things, inspired a main character (Claude Lacombe) of the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.
In February 2014 Vallée gave an complex interview to the UFO French site Ovnis-Direct.com led by Nagib Kary, from which the interview came, in English, to the Open Minds website. I reproduce in followings, some of the ideas said on this occasion. The first questions of the interview were asked by young swiss ufologist Fabrice Bonvin , writer, psychologist by education, dealing in particular with appearances impact on witnesses and UFO relationship with ecology.
Regarding ufology future and ufologist activities in the next 15-20 years, Vallée said that we should not be surprised if we see an increase in these events as mankind will move into a new phase of systematic exploration of cosmic space. UFO phenomenon as a whole, by far proved different, versatile and unpredictable. It also showed apparently interested in our technological progress and in our technical prototypes.
A mystery, among many others
Vallée recalled the pioneering contribution in this area by Aimé Michel (1919-1992), a universal thinker who believed the UFOs were a mystery among many others. Unfortunately, according to Vallée, he was ignored, if not despised, by the intellectual elite of France.
In this context, in the material on the French site was included an interview from 1976 given by Aimé Michel, in which Vallée was asked to comment on passages from his book Science Interdite vol. 2. For example, Vallée wrote there: “Public opinion has only two possible positions onUFOs: if you manage to remove from people’s minds the idea that it’s about halucinations, the same mind will simply draw the same conclusion they are dealing with aliens visitors. No one would think that a technology able to produce local deformations of space may not be limited only to make UFOs, but also various other miraculous phenomena “.
At the question what that might be, Vallée referred, as examples, at the poltergeist phenomenon, deforming metal objects through physical action (reported by the Russians, the Stanford Institute, and the French researchers), or to some phenomena of non-location, as they were described by French physicist Yves Rocard in his experiments at the ecole Normale Supérieure.
In the book Interdite Science is quoted Aleister Crowley too (1875-1947), who writes about paranormal researchers: “All their works provide evidence that there are powers that influence people. We have always known: The universe is full of dark and subtle manifestations of energy.
But no one before me has ever managed to prove so well the unearthly intelligence influence on human as my compilations. But it is beyond doubt that there is someone out there, someone who is able to organize events in the same way that Napoleon has designed its battle plans in a measure incredibly strong, which can control the actions of those people that it chose to play a role in the implementation of his objectives”.
A kaleidoscope with three levels
When asked if such ideas, which support the hypothesis of a “control system” influenced him in some way, Vallée responded affirmatively, showing that the followers of esoteric movements, loners researchers or members of small groups such as Aleister Crowley, Facius Cardan, John Dee and others, have asked questions that we ask ourselves today, for example if there is a general equilibrium of the world to give sense to human life and phenomena around us.
Spiritual revolution of the 70s was triggered by a new generation that has become aware of the limits of Western culture and rebelled against religious prohibitions, social, political and artistic world of their parents, which were often manifesting exhausted mentally and culturally impoverished after the Second World War. In this atmosphere it was natural that spiritual exploration actions to move in all directions, being used by some sects too. This phenomenon was prominent in the USA, but there was also in France and England, for example through Solar Temple sect.
Vallée has expressed on several occasions reluctance regarding the use of techniques such as triggered meditation by psychotropic substances. In these circumstances, the question of what he thinks about an ufologist who went to Amazon and then spoke about shamans from there who use ayahuasca, saying that explores other planes of reality, Vallée responded that, in principle, to obtain evidence, all these explorations are useful and valuable.
Since the question was referring to Terence McKenna (1946-2000), Vallée reported that during the conversation he had with him, he understood that his assumptions about a possible “control system” converge with his. But calibration data and investigative tools is not possible when you’re transported through visions produced by drugs as ayahuasca or LSD.
Living in 1969 in California, Vallée said he saw many experiments derived from these methods came from the jungles of South America or simply promoted by drug traffickers. He understood their utility to force certain parts of the brain to reveal their role in the construction of reality, but says he himself hasn’t learned anything new from all this or reliable.
In his book Science Interdite, Vallée wrote: “UFO phenomenon looks like a kaleidoscope, which has three distinct levels: physical level and technological; sociological level and ultimately a personal level, subliminal, which causes subtle nuances of the human psyche.
The first level seems to provide evidence of extraterrestrial origin; the examination of the second would be mythology competency and anthropology; This is the explanation that refined skeptics approve, unlike Menzel and Klass, who deny everything in block.
The third level is the most disconcerting; suggests signs of darker handling originating terrestrial and very material. . ” At the reporter question if in recent years discovered something about this third aspect of the UFO phenomenon, Vallée said that it is not just a bureaucratic cover-up, as was believed, naively, a long time, but a “camouflage using terrestrial elements”. “Everything happens as if the phenomenon would be able to manipulate its environment (including the human environment) to hide its real nature”.
At Fabrice Bonvin’s question on the role of consciousness in UFO manifestations, Vallée responded that, “according to the science fiction of the forties and fifties, for a long time UFOs were seen as clasic spaceshipst. This interpretation still persist, particularly in France, where recent discoveries of parapsychology are not yet well known and where psychological effects witnessed reported are considered either as evidence of mental impairments, whether side effects of electro-magnetic influences.
However, as the documentary basis improves, we find that the physical aspects of the phenomenon are as negotiable as its psychological effects: it is as if he would take control of a particular area, including perceptions of witnesses. It was the aspect that discouraged Aimé Michel “.
At Bonvin’s question, if, according to his experience and opinion, governments (and especially the USA) hide from the public information about UFOs, Jacques Vallée said that there are two levels of response to this question: (1) governments (not USA only) keeps some information that they believe are more sensitive, especially reports from the army. It looks like since 1947 this policy was seen as legitimate in the public interest and in the hope of discovering new technologies. (2) The most difficult problem is to know if they have made progress in this area since then. According to Vallée, the phenomenon resisted probably to all analyzes, secrets or not. Understanding UFO is not a job as simple as removing a MIG or the secret copying of the spaceship plan.
Vallée was also deplored in this interview the small argues and accusations that ufologists bring to eachother, which discourages their collaboration. In these circumstances there will be no real progress. The solution is cooperation, rapid exchange of data and field studies. These activities would be more productive than sterile speculation on the edge of some hypothetical inaccessible secrets, which might be in governments drawers.
