The Programming of First Contact

People wrote science fiction stories as early as the 1930s. The Army Air Force knew of unusual objects in our skies since the early 1940s. However, it was not until June 24, 1947, when Kenneth Arnold's sighting of nine "flying saucers," combined science fiction with aviation fact, thereby sowing the seeds of the UFO family tree. Over the past 53 years, it is apparent that a long-term strategy to convince us of a scenario involving our inevitable first contact with vastly superior extraterrestrial beings exists. It also appears that the orchestration of this program is by an intelligence that can achieve this objective, by creating both actual events and, just as importantly, hoaxes.

It didn't take long for the tree, once planted, to take root in the popular imagination. One month after Arnold's event, in July 1947, a Roswell, New Mexico newspaper ran a headline that a flying saucer had been found. It was subsequently explained as a weather balloon, but once something is said or done, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to erase that perception.

While a practicing criminal defense trial attorney in New York City for 20 years, I would often object to a witness's unresponsive and damaging remark while undergoing my cross-examination. I would ask a simple question; for example, "How long have you known the defendant?" has been known to elicit the prejudicial response: "He has been selling me drugs for 10 years." My only remedy is to ask the judge for a curative instruction. Although the judge can instruct the jury to disregard the drug reference, for all practical purposes, it's never forgotten-and probably the first thing the jury discusses in the jury room.

So, whether the craft that crashed at Roswell was extraterrestrial is irrelevant. That we were initially told it was a flying saucer is what is important. Subsequent evidence of its falsehood will have no effect on our consensus reality.

In the 1950s, the UFO seedling was nurtured further when Frank Scully informed us, for the first time, in his book BEHIND THE FLYING SAUCERS that the U.S. government recovered alien bodies from crashed UFOs. Subsequent evidence that Scully, himself, was the victim of a hoax will have no effect on our slowly developing belief that UFOs are piloted by extraterrestrial beings. Figuratively speaking, the First-contact.exe program was beginning to be adopted by more users at this time. Books and magazine articles penned by military officers Major Donald Keyhoe and Colonel Edward Ruppelt began to surface; sci-fi movies such as WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, and HANGAR 18 began showing in America's drive-in theaters. HANGAR 18 became the symbol for any crashed UFO the government had in its possession and, just as importantly, government secrecy about UFOs. Whether there actually was a HANGAR 18 or a reasonable facsimile is irrelevant. If you were aware of the term HANGAR 18, you believed in its reality.

In the 1960s, the UFO seed started to sprout. In 1966 we learned about the first "alien abduction" from Betty and Barney Hill. Whether aliens kidnapped the Hills in 1961 is immaterial. The story, memorialized in the best-selling book, Interrupted Journey (and later, network TV movie), has been read and seen by millions. Even if only a small percentage our population believes in the reality of alien abductions, that number appears sufficient to influence our consensus reality.

In the 1970s, the UFO sprout became a sapling. Books about the crash of an alien craft and the discovery of bodies in Roswell validated and reinforced our belief in extraterrestrial beings. To corroborate the crash, alleged government documents, referred to as the Project Aquarius/MJ-12 Papers, were anonymously sent to two UFO researchers. A trend was starting to develop. In almost all subsequent cases involving "hard to believe" scenarios of the alien presence, the messenger was tainted, thereby diminishing the believability of the message. You could no longer tell the difference between actual events and hoaxes, or hoaxes of actual events. Billy Meier is the perfect example. The authenticity of the hundreds of photos and films of beamships from the Pleiades-and at least one member of its crew-taken by a one-armed farmer living in Switzerland in 1975, is still hotly debated 25 years later.

In the 80s and 90s, our tree quickly grew many branches. In relatively rapid succession, we were exposed to a film of an alien autopsy, the "Face on Mars," the controversial Mexico City video, the interview of a live alien in military captivity, the Hale-Bopp companion, the Russian KGB secret UFO files, the EQ Pegasi signal, and in 1998, Jonathan Reed's bizarre story of killing an alien in the forests of the state of Washington. In each instance, a message was, and still is, deluded by the incredulous nature of the messenger, be it person, video, photo, document, or signal. And now we have Project Serpo (Zeta Reticulan Exchange Program) to continue the programming. How convenient!

Did the controversy over these events create the energy needed to alter our consensus reality? Is it possible that a certain number of people need to believe in certain events before the event can actually manifest? Are we being programmed by a combination of actual events and elaborate hoaxes? Are our belief systems being manipulated? If so, for what purpose?

The above examples are only the most obvious events that have been created for us over the past 50 years or more. In my humble opinion, these orchestrated events have been bringing us gradually closer to the first generally accepted meeting of our species with extraterrestrials. But what is the reason for this programming? There seems to be only two possibilities: 1) that we are being prepared for confirmation of what is presently occurring in our reality or 2) that we are being set-up for something, probably a test of some kind.

I tend to believe it is the latter. There has been an overall theme of dishonesty, misinformation, and manipulation associated with the UFO phenomenon. I believe this is inconsistent with a benevolent first contact scenario. What is this test that our species is being prepared for? Well, that involves our right to self-determination or sovereignty – which is the subject matter of another commentary.

Peter A. Gersten

Revised: 12-31-2005