They appear and disappear at will. They often plague families, or areas, through the generations. There is often the smell of sulfur. They appear with particular frequency over old Indian burial sites (and more modern spots of ritual). They were known by Indians as "spirit lights." In medieval times, bishops exorcised them when they appeared. The "inhabitants" can supposedly float and go through walls and bear a strong resemblance to antique voodoo statues.  Those who witness them are often left with nagging fears, and even horror. They report poltergeist activity.

We speak here of so-called and alleged "UFOs." The above facts, along with other aspects, constitute one reason that we refer to them as "the great deception."

For we believe (having studied them since the mid-1960s) that they are actually a spiritual as opposed to an extraterrestrial phenomenon -- when they aren't hoaxes, satellites, weather balloons, the planet Venus, shooting stars, experimental aircraft, and other explicable objects.

Put bluntly: UFOs often appear to be spirits in disguise -- the wrong kind of spirits.

In olden times, perhaps they masqueraded as imps, fairies, and leprechauns (in accordance with the culture). Today, they masquerade as outer spacemen.

That is true, at any rate, in many cases (there remains the chance, always, that life exists elsewhere in the universe, and even in many places). But the connection between occult phenomena and alleged UFOs is consistent through the centuries.

Moreover, we have found a curious book that links the phenomenon of UFOs to another topic we have broached, the spirituality -- the often dark spirituality -- of modern music, seeming to pull it all together.

The book, published by a division of Simon and Schuster, is called Alien Rock (by Michael C. Luckman) and the facts, if accurate, are mesmerizing.

"I had never imagined that so many musical icons had had direct communication with intelligent beings from other worlds," asserts the author, who believes in UFOs. "Another remarkable discovery I made was that UFOs were inextricably drawn to some rock concerts and had been seen hovering above the crowds at the Woodstock, Altamont, and Isle of Wright festivals."

We know the effect Woodstock had. At Altamont, where Mick Jagger sang "Sympathy for the Devil," a fatal riot (involving Hell's Angels) erupted.

There is "a direct link between extraterrestrials and Elvis, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, and Michael Jackson," Luckman asserts.

We can also throw in the Grateful Dead.

But let's begin with the "king" of rock, Elvis Presley -- who, says Luckman, had a lifelong obsession with both the occult and extraterrestrials.

Was there a dark force of influence on this singer who died on the Feast of the Assumption in 1977 and had a Christian side -- as evidenced early in his career when he sang Gospel songs (and even made it to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame)?

Or is this all an exercise in sheer rumor -- sort of like big foot, or Elvis sightings?

When Elvis was born on January 8, 1935, at 3:30 a.m. in Tupelo, Mississippi), recounts the author, "a mysterious blue UFO shone over the house from above at the exact moment that Elvis made his grand entrance into the world." The account is attributed to Elvis's father, Vernon. A twin brother was born stillborn.

As in other cases, blue light seemed to figure in. Later, and perhaps coincidentally, Elvis favored blue shirts, blue jumpsuits, blue capes, blue shoes, and a flashy blue Cadillac, and belted out such songs as Indescribably Blue.

In recorded telephone conversations that spanned fifteen cassette tapes, Elvis told a dedicated fan named Wanda June Hill "that he met two men when he was a child who revealed themselves as 'light forms.' 'One of them touched me,' Elvis allegedly said, 'and I felt light inside me -- floating sort of.' Often Elvis heard voices when he was alone, sometimes when he was in the closet being punished."

They allegedly played music for the soon-to-be superstar and showed him images from the future, including one of "a man under stage lights dressed all in white."

If true, this is bombshell material. But is it? The singer had "direct contact" with what he thought were cosmic beings between the ages of five and ten and encountered "UFOs" (as well as an ability at psychic phenomena) his whole life, says the book. Indeed, Elvis owned one of the largest collections of occult and parapsychological literature.

The singer was apparently convinced that "spacemen" were monitoring earth to "prepare us for transition into the New Age."

One of Elvis's earliest encounters with a "UFO" occurred sometime in the 1950s in the desert, when he reputedly saw a "mother ship."

"We were away from the fire [in the desert] and we saw this light in the sky, moving weird, you know, not like a plane or anything like it.

"And it was different-looking than a plane, it got brighter and it was coming in closer. It was way up there, but we could see it on account of the moon. It was cigar-shaped, oblong, and rounded, and had some window portholes on one end and had lights along the bottom, but the [expletive] thing had no wings, no means of being up there at all that we could see."

Continued the King of Rock, a founder of the rock modern craze: "Our hair began to prickle, it stood up on my arms and on my head, and I got this weird feeling like I was about to float any minute."

Strange skin sensations are also common among those who live in "haunted" settings or attend seances.

Are we thus seeing a visual representation of the spiritual influence many have long suspected -- an influx of tumult that took full wing during the Sixties?

A UFO also was spotted above Elvis's mansion in Bel Air, California, we are informed.

The King also saw one while driving through New Mexico in the late 1960s on Route 66.

"Elvis's UFO sightings, which he considered signs from God, deeply influenced him throughout his entire life," claims the author.

Indeed, the deception was such that Elvis thought at least at various points in his life that he was himself from somewhere else.

The result of drugs? The typical eccentricity of musicians?

Or something else?

Among his books was a darkly occult classic called The Secret Doctrine by Helena Blavatsky.

On Elvis's jumpsuits, notes the author, were ancient American Indian and Mayan symbols. Such symbols are also associated with Greek and Egyptian mythology and have been reported in a famous "UFO" abduction case (in such cases people think they were temporarily taken out of our reality by extraterrestrials -- something that has been reported by hundreds of thousands in recent decades). One song Elvis performed: "I Was Born 10,000 Years Ago."

At his grave, UFO sightings are alleged to occur between two and four in the morning -- giving us cause to pause, ponder what is credible, and what is not, and if nothing else, in looking at our culture, to pray.

05/18/07

[next: UFOs, Demons, and Other Major Rock Stars]

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