(306) Sun 13 Jul 97 15:54 By: Sheppard Gordon To: All Re: Supernatural silliness St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:8737 22ed7ec0 @MSGID: 1:278/15 00136b38 FOCUS THE SUPERNATURAL: ARE WE GOING MAD? 05/05/96 The Sunday Telegraph London HE IS a little chap, about four feet tall, with a big domed head and slanting, white less eyes. He probably has dank, grey-green skin. He might want to be alone, or he might want to abduct you. Meet Mr Alien. Aliens are all the rage. So are UFOs, psychic sleuths, phantoms and poltergeists. These uneasy bedfellows jostle under the broad canopy of Paranormal Phenomena. Now you see them, now you don't. Britain is suddenly greedy for tales of the unexpected and the inexplicable. Television programmes such as Secrets of the Paranormal and The X-files - in which a fictional FBI unit investigates bizarre mysteries - have transfixed millions of open-mouthed viewers. Last week the Albert Hall in London called in one of Britain's leading specialists in the paranormal to investigate the theory that ghosts are tampering with its security system. In print, the Fortean Times, billed as "the journal of strange phenomena" is the fastest-growing magazine in Britain. It had been trundling on for 23 years, bought by a small core of die-hard phenomena fans. But last year sales shot up by 112 per cent, and it now sells over 60,000 copies an issue. The contents are an arresting mix of every kind of weirdness, from flying saucers to fish with feet. Past articles range from "man-beasts of the Far East" to "alien abduction research". Why do people like it? Paul Sieveking, the co-editor of the magazine and contributor to The Sunday Telegraph's Strange But True page, said: "One factor is the decline of official science. Because of creeping pollution and disasters, their credibility is crumbling - and that boosts interest in the New Age stuff." His aim is to follow on from the Gentleman's Magazine in the 17th century and Notes and Queries in the 18th century, which detailed odd happenings. "We also try to be a paper of record. This sort of thing used to go into scientific journals, but was censored out by a kind of reductive rationalism in the 1860s," he said. The magazine has correspondents in 30 countries, and the editors try to confirm stories from several sources. All stories are attributed to the original source, so that readers can judge the authenticity for themselves. Absolute truth may not be a concept which troubles most readers. The desire is often not for what they know, but for what they don't know. They hanker for the pleasing whiff of explosive mysteries, beyond the plod of rational explanation. But a serious obsession with UFOs often goes hand in hand with the big conspiracy theory, nurtured by best-selling books such as Timothy Good's Beyond Top Secret. It alleges the existence of a "worldwide UFO security threat" accompanied by a "top-level cover-up". Like the sci-fi creation The Blob, which swallowed up whole towns, the conspiracy theory can engulf everything: the CIA, the FBI, UFOs, even the assassination of President Kennedy. The mind-set is either prescient or paranoid, depending on who you believe - but the gist is usually that vital information is being muffled and manipulated by them. And who are they? Big government, of course. It can carry alarming, sinister overtones. "In America, there is a link between UFO theorists and Right-wing militias. There is even constant chat on the Internet saying that the US government planted the Oklahoma bomb in order to discredit militia groups," said Sieveking. "Fortunately there is no such link in Britain." Aliens themselves have suffered something of an image slump since the film ET, the big-eyed extra-terrestrial who winningly pleaded to "call home". They are often seen as wily, menacing creatures, sexually voracious and on the make. A growing band of people claim to have been abducted, or raped and impregnated, by aliens. But where do such tales spring from? Susan Blackmore, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of the West of England, has studied the phenomenon of "alien abduction". She believes it is rooted in the fairly common condition of "sleep paralysis", which occurs when the body remains, after waking, in the paralysed state induced by a deep sleep. About 30 to 40 per cent of people have experienced it, she said. This can be terrifying, and when coupled with sexual arousal in dreams, can make the person feel as though something is "sexually getting at them", she said. The "alien abduction" stories, she believes, are an attempt to make sense of what has happened, and are reinforced by media images of aliens. "There have traditionally been sleep paralysis myths, such as the incubus and the succubus. Alien abduction is the modern equivalent." An American study in the early 1990s, known as the Roper poll, famously claimed that 3.5 million Americans had been abducted by aliens. In reality, said Blackmore, the poll simply asked people questions such as "Have you ever seen strange lights in your room?" or "Have you ever woken up paralysed?" If they answered yes, the experience was put down to claimed alien abduction. In studies with Bristol schoolchildren, Blackmore has found that children who have had the type of experiences spoken of in the poll are no more likely to describe the "classic alien" than other children. Instead, when asked, they draw a wide range of imaginary aliens, from monsters to blobs. Belief in aliens may simply be an updating of the ancient folklore of pixies, goblins and elves - miniature, tricksy green people who are sometimes benign and sometimes malevolent - but coming from space, they are powerful myths for a technological age, particularly where traditional religion is in decline. But the notion of a green alien can itself be traced back to the 12th century and before. William of Newburgh, an English chronicler, described in 1150 how two children, "completely green in their persons, and clad in garments of a strange colour and unknown materials", emerged from caves in East Anglia. They said that they were "inhabitants of the land of Saint Martin", and revealed that "the sun does not rise among our countrymen". Then, legend, myth and superstition naturally held stronger sway. But we may be swaddling ourselves in irrational explanations once more, as we hurtle towards 2000. The effect of the fin de siecle is usually to scupper reason, to turn a jittery population towards mysticism and esoterica. A wave of spiritualism at the end of the 19th century had doughty Victorian matrons shuddering in their stays at vogueish seances. So what will the fin de millenaire do? "People think that the numbers by which we order our lives are significant, and that is heightened by Biblical imagery and prophesies," said Nigel Smith, lecturer in English literature at Keble College, Oxford. "They almost delight in fearing things, especially when their lives are in uncertain states." "Silly science" has been alive throughout history, he said. It is simply that we find different explanations for things. Corn circles which might once have been seen as fairy rings are now read as New Age signs of flying saucers. Some lament the abandonment of scientific reason. Richard Dawkins, professor of public understanding of science at Oxford, said that the slew of television programmes on the paranormal is misleading people. "There is a sense of wonder out there which could be satisfied by real science, but instead is being used by fakes and charlatans," he said. Real science brings with it human power and knowledge - and responsibility when things go wrong. But in a world where we are outwitted by aliens and at the mercy of freak happenings, events move beyond our control. And, secretly, beyond our control could be exactly where we want them. -> Alice4Mac 2.4.4 E QWK Hiya:05Nov94 Origin: ----------> Jack Sargeant, you look fabulist! --- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10 * Origin: MoonDog BBS þ RIME NetHub Brooklyn,NY (1:278/15) SEEN-BY: 112/4 218/701 890 1001 278/15 230 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 @PATH: 278/230 3615/50 218/1001