Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults

by Jacques F. Vallée

Too many cases of "accidental" alien contact...UFO cults praying to the skies...secret "psychotronic" weapons for bending the human mind. The evidence Jacques Vallee reveals, after many years of scientific investigation, adds up to something more menacing than monsters from outer space. Messengers of Deception documents the growing effect of UFO contact claims on our lives and of the belief systems prevalent in our society. It explores the hidden realities of the cults, the contactees, the murky political intrigues and the motivations of the investigators.

"As suspenseful as a Hitchcock Thriller, brilliantly argued . . . a smashing achievement." - Robert Anton Wilson

Genres: Nonfiction, Paranormal, Conspiracy Theories, Aliens, History, Cults, Religion

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Excerpted from wikipedia: Jacques Fabrice Vallée (born September 24, 1939 in Pontoise, Val-d'Oise, France) is a venture capitalist, computer scientist, author, ufologist and former astronomer currently residing in San Francisco, California.
In mainstream science, Vallée is notable for co-developing the first computerized mapping of Mars for NASA and for his work at SRI International in creating ARPANET, a precursor to the modern Internet. Vallée is also an important figure in the study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), first noted for a defense of the scientific legitimacy of the extraterrestrial hypothesis and later for promoting the interdimensional hypothesis.

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

During my recent stint at the Lousiana duck camp and on the plane to Long Beach I had the pleasure of reading the 2008 re-release of Dr. Jacques Vallee's challenging and essential book on the UFO phenomena.

This book blew my mind. It was the first truly scientific approach to the issue, free of pseudoscience and physics vocabulary masquerading as intellect. Originally published in 1979, Messengers of Deception describes the social impacts of the UFO movement and reveals a serious issue with the common belief in UFOs that will have serious implications for global policy.

Vallee became interested in UFOs primarily during 1961 as he witnessed French astronomers destroying tape which included UFO footage because the scientists didn't want their credentials questioned. What true scientist destroys evidence that doesn't fit into the overarching paradigm? (Presumably many) Observing this feat led Dr. Vallee to America in search of the people associated with the strange objects commonly becoming associated with abduction experiences and alien intelligences.

The turning point in Vallee's research was when he met a retired intelligence agent who wanted to be known as "Major Murphy". Murphy stated from his intelligence days that 95% of the information for any story is free but mostly unimportant, what is needed is the "other 5 percent... but will [you:] have to pay a much higher price to get it". Essentially saying that the commonly viewed phenomena are what "it" (people or intelligences) wants you to see. The real way to get to the truth was by examining what didn't fit in. The bizarre pieces. The cults and the "contactees".

So why question that UFOs aren't alien spacecraft in the first place? The first reason to challenge common assumptions is due to the landings themselves. Vallee states that the sheer number of landings are quantitatively impossible. In his files, Dr. Vallee has 2,000 cases of reported landings over 20 years. Since most sightings are between 6pm and 6am, with a peak at 10:30pm, there must many objects that aren't witnessed. The frequency of sightings drastically decrease after midnight because people go to bed. If the rate at which saucers were spotted was extrapolated out to include those additional hours that's 30,000 landings. Most independent studies have said that only 1 out of every 10 cases gets reported, giving us 300,000 landings in 20 years! But once again, most of the landings are in remote areas. If humans were evenly distributed about the planet there could easily be as many 3 million landings over a 20 year period. Absolutely preposterous. Why is this important? Firstly, it would seem that we would begin to notice something that happened 3 million times over 20 years but even less obvious is the fact that the UFOs can not be merely random visitors; they must stage their appearance, they must select their witnesses. This is only one piece of evidence in the case made within Messengers of Deception.

Eventually after Vallee reviews the method by which the cults form, spread and disseminate information it becomes apparent that the US federal government and other covert groups are involved if not responsible. Maybe they are searching for answers as well?

In summary, it becomes clear that someone or some group is manipulating social beliefs in UFOs internationally. The pieces of the UFO experience should be dissected into physical, psychological and social. But most importantly, it is the social beliefs of the UFO contactees which could potentially be tapped to quickly bring about social change in a global economic catastrophe. The human wish to be saved from above has always been prevalent and perhaps even more pertinent now than in 1979! The six consequences of the UFO phenomena determined by Vallee are that it widens the gap between scientists and the public, undermines the belief that humans are masters of their own destiny, promotes political unification of the planet, can easily become a new global religion, extraterrestrial intervention is an attractive faith, UFO cults believe in totalitarian systems.

Essentially sociologists poorly understand how new religions form and this could be the start of a new religion unlike any other... with sinister (or benevolent but mostly sinister) consequences. As stated by Dr. Vallee, the scientific proof for UFOs does not matter once enough people believe in them. Perhaps we have already reached that point.

This book was particularly resonant for me because I just read Dr. Rick Strassman's DMT: The Spirit Molecule which detailed Dr. Strassman's clinical trials where he injected the DMT compound into humans causing participants to undergo UFO abduction like experiences. But oddly enough, DMT is present within all of us and in all of our tissue. Perhaps the physical portion of the UFO triggers this chemical?

Quite interestingly in an aside, one theory Dr. Vallee proposes for the nature of reality is more like a computer. Where events occurr often because they are mentally referenced, like using the keyword for a google search. I've always been plagued by synchronicities and this is the most practical explanation I've ever heard for these occasionalisms. And as a direct example, I read about Dr. Vallee's improbably moment when he arrived at this theory in downtown LA, the very place it happened to him. Even stranger, I started reading Bill McKibben's Deep Economy the next day on the plane back to Charlotte and when I read a paragraph about the unnecessary excess in American society, McKibben referenced SkyMall... at the precise moment when the flight attendant was on the PA! She even said SkyMall at the moment I read the word! Crazy... perhaps like Vallee states, we are just becoming superstitious.

I've witnessed three UFOs myself, all quite convincing and with other people alongside to see the same odd phenomena. UFOs exist but Dr. Vallee provides a compelling case that the commonly accepted public myth of extraterrestrial benefactors may result from a leap of faith encouraged by agents within our own society.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since this was written in 1979, some of what Vallee discusses seems dated. The the cattle mutilation scare and the Satanic cult hysteria would peak in the years after this book, and fizzle out. The notoriety of UFO cults has also waned in the intervening years. Vallee makes prescient observations about the overall direction of society, however. He was already noting the growing distrust and suspicion against scientific rationality and reason, and the nascent stages of a conspiracy theory culture. Ideas that were on the kooky fringes in 1979 are now part of the mainstream cultural and political conversation, and Vallee saw it coming.

[Aengus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jacques Vallee takes as a given that UFOs exist. What he doesn't assume is that UFOs are space aliens.
"Messengers of Deception" is a thoughtful, well reasoned examination of UFO cults and the contatee subculture. While he doesn't claim to know what UFOs are, Vallee makes a strong case that they have a terrestrial origin and are instruments of social control.
He casts a dyspeptic eye on flaky '70's religious sects, like the Raelians , and hey, wait a minute, is that Marshall Applewhite?! His main question is "What do they want?" While he can't really answer this, the strange appearances are probably up to no good. After investigating a tiny cult based in France called the Order of Melchezidek, Vallee has this happen to him.
“One afternoon in Los Angeles in the winter of 1976, the week he began compiling his notes on various branches of the UFO cult “the Order of Melchizedek” for what became Messengers of Deception, Jacques Vallee stood curbside at Sunset Boulveard and hailed a taxi. He looked downstream at the rush hour traffic, raised his hand towards several oncoming cabs, and one swerved into the curb lane and stopped for him. After a short ride, during which Vallee did not discuss his current research, he paid his fare and accepted a receipt. He stuffed it in his wallet and thought nothing more of it, until two days he noticed it was signed Melchizedek:

“I cannot afford to write this story, because I cannot expect anyone to believe it. At the same time I cannot sweep it under the rug. There is only one Melchizedek listed in the LA phone book, and I have the receipt signed by the driver right in front of me. [Reproduced in the book: “2-21-76 Receive $6.25 for taxi fare from Roosevelt Hotel to 3321 S La Cienega, Red & White Cab #98 M. Melchizedek.”] It was this incident that convinced me to put more energy into understanding the nature of such coincidences.” "Messengers of Deception" is an unusual, open minded book about the UFO phenomenon and the assumptions people make about it.

[Yorgos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent cover of the subject by the author. He takes a scientific approach, without having the bias of many scientists. He applies the scientific method to a so-called "non-scientific" subject.
The author does not claim to know the answers, but he offers his hypotheses and at the same time dismisses many delusional and emotional interpretations.
Honest and thought provoking.

[Rinstinkt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disturbing but strong arguments; and remember, he first published the book in 1979.
I won't waste my time reformulating what the author wrote, instead I will share lots of quotes from the book.

When I first became interested in the sightings during the 1954 wave in Europe, the official position was simply to deny the observations. At the time I was a student, had no access to good information, and could only wonder about government attitudes. I became seriously interested in 1961, when I saw French astronomers erase a magnetic tape on which our satellite-tracking team had recorded eleven data points on an unknown flying object which was not an airplane, a balloon, or a known orbiting craft. “People would laugh at us if we reported this!” was the answer I was given at the time. Better forget the whole thing. Let’s not bring ridicule to the observatory. Let’s not confess to the public that there is something we don’t know.

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There are three aspects to the UFO problem.
The first aspect is physical.
The second aspect is psychological.
The third aspect is social.

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I believe there is a machinery of mass manipulation behind the UFO phenomenon. It aims at social and political goals by diverting attention from some human problems and by providing a potential release for tensions caused by others. The contactees are a part of that machinery. They are helping to create a new form of belief: an expectation of actual contact among large parts of the public. In turn this expectation makes millions of people hope for the imminent realization of that age-old dream: salvation from above, surrender to the greater power of some wise navigators of the cosmos.
With the release of popular UFO movies, many people who previously were skeptics have begun to jump on this bandwagon from outer space. I wish them bon voyage. However, if you take the trouble to join me in the analysis of the modern UFO myth, you will see human beings under the control of a strange force i hat is bending them in absurd ways, forcing them to play a role in a bizarre game of deception. This role may be very important if changing social conditions make it desirable to focus the attention of the public on the distant stars while obsolete human institutions are wiped out and rebuilt in new ways. Are the manipulators, in the final analysis, nothing more than a group of humans who have mastered a very advanced form of power?
Let me summarize my conclusions thus far. UFOs are real. They are physical devices used to affect human consciousness. They may not be from outer space. Their purpose may be to achieve social changes on this planet, through a belief system that uses systematic manipulation of witnesses and contactees; covert use of various sects and cults; control of the channels through which the alleged “space messages” can make an impact on the public.

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You can find scholars who will “prove” to you that the supernatural powers of Jesus Christ never existed. You can also find scholars who will “prove” to you that they did exist. Does it matter? O f course not! It only matters to the experts, who have staked their academic reputations on either side of the argument. The effects of the belief in Jesus, the impact of the doctrine based on the story of his life and death, are real enough. Socially, historically, the consequences are beyond question. I claim that the same now applies to flying saucers because enough people believe in them, enough people believe that contact with them is possible, and enough people even believe that they have secretly achieved such contact.

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We already have human technologies that are both physical and “psychic” (in the sense of influencing the consciousness of an observer). An example of such a technology is given, very simply, by your television set. There is no question that it is physical. You can talk about its size, volume, weight, and temperature. But if you turn it on, it will begin to control your awareness in peculiar ways. You will observe scenes that, as far as you can tell, could be either “real” or faked. You may be a witness to an actual crime committed right now, or to something that happened years ago. You may also believe a scene to be absolutely real, when in fact it is actually staged in a studio in Hollywood. Based on what you can observe, you have no way to know the truth, even if you have a Nobel prize in physics. Besides, your television set influences you in other ways. It determines what toothpaste you use, how you shave, who you go to bed with, and how you will vote in the next election.
In some respects I think UFOs are similar to television sets. They are physical objects, the products of a technology, but they are also something else: the tools of a major cultural change. I think UFOs are perpetrating a deception by presenting their so-called “occupants” as being messengers from outer space, and I suspect there are groups of people on Earth exploiting this deception

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Suppose visitors arrived from elsewhere with a completely different religious system. Suppose they had apolitical organization built on principles that challenged both communism and capitalism. Wouldn’t a new form of faith spread among humans? The longer this belief was suppressed, the stronger it would finally burst upon our rigid structures. Now, suppose a group of men simulate the arrival of these alleged visitors as a hoax, a deliberate deception. Would we ever know?

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The absurdity of many UFO stories and of many religious visions is not a superficial logical mistake. It may be the key to their function. According to Major Murphy, the confusion in the UFO mystery may have been put there deliberately to achieve certain results. One of these results has been to keep scientists away. The other is to create the conditions for a new form of social control, a change in Man’s perception of his place in the universe. Are his theories fantastic? Before we decide, let us review a few other facts. We need to examine more closely the political connections.
Paris Flammonde, in his well-documented Age of Flying Saucers, remarked that “a great many of the contactees purvey philosophies which are tinged, if not tainted, with totalitarian overtones.”1
A catalogue of contactee themes, compiled from interviews I have conducted, includes the following.
Intellectual abdication. The widespread belief that human beings are incapable of solving their own problems, and that extraterrestrial intervention is imperative to save us “in spite of ourselves.” The danger in such a philosophy is that it makes its believers dependent on outside forces and discourages personal responsibility: why should we worry about the problems around us, if the Gods from Outer Space are about to solve them?
Racist philosophy. The pernicious suggestion that some of us on the Earth are of extraterrestrial descent and therefore constitute a “higher race.” The dangers inherent in this belief should be obvious to anybody who hasn’t forgotten the genocides of World War II, executed on the premise that some races were somehow “purer” or better than others. (Let us note in passing that Adamski’s Venusian, the Stranger of the Canigou seen by Bordas, and many other alleged extraterrestrials were all tall Aryan types with long blond hair.)
Technical impotence. The statement that the birth of civilization on this planet resulted not from the genius and ability of mankind, but from repeated assistance by higher beings. Archaeologists and anthropologists are constantly aware of the marvelous skill with which the “Ancient Engineers” (to use L. Sprague de Camp’s phrase) developed the tools of civilization on all continents. No appeal to superior powers is necessary to explain the achievements of early culture. The belief expressed by the contactees reveals a tragic lack of trust on their part in human ability.
Social utopia. Fantastic economic theories, including the belief that a “world economy” can be created overnight, and that democracy should be abolished in favor of Utopian systems, usually dictatorial in their outlook.

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The immense success of the books by von Daniken shows that people today are eager to believe that we are receiving help from above. If divine intervention is obsolete for our rational minds, why not have extraterrestrial intervention!

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Madame Blavatsky, the colorful author of Isis Unveiled, was an extraordinary leader of occult organizations in the nineteenth century, many of which still exist. According to Jacques Bergier, one of these organizations is the Helena Petrovna Blavatsky Foundation, of which Richard Nixon is a member of the Board. I have not been able to verify this statement.

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Claude Vorilhon - "Rael" - symbol combining the Swastika and the Star of David
"You must eliminate elections and votes that are completely ill-adapted to the current evolution of mankind. Men are the useful cells of a large body called Humanity. A cell in the foot doesn’t have to say whether or not the hand should pick up an object. The brain decides, and if the object is good, the cell in the foot will profit by it... A world government and a new monetary system must be created. A single language will serve to unify the planet."

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The Manipulators... I have given this name to the hypothetical agents who might cause the UFO contacts and engineer their effects. Everything now centers on their role, their identity, their designs. Who could they be? Alien beings coming from the end of the galaxy? Psychic entities from the “other side”? Automata controlled by some nonhuman consciousness? Holographic nightmares? But perhaps we are looking far away for something which is right under our nose: could they simply be human? Could they be masters of deception so skillful that they plan to counterfeit an invasion from space?
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Beyond the attention o f academic science, below the dignity of official history, there are groups, cults, and sects that serve as “leading indicators” of mass movements.

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The group of people who will first manage to harness the fear of cosmic forces and the emotions surrounding UFO contact to a political purpose will be able to exert incredible spiritual blackmail.
Such weapons are less flexible, but also less detectible, than tanks and aircraft; they represent a more lasting form of control over the lives of men. It takes a long time to bring their effects to complete fruition, because secrecy is essential for them to work. The contactees and the occult believers have been used as puppets. The public in every country now recognizes the existence of UFOs, and associates it with the idea of wise visitors from space. A majority of the American public has become convinced of the existence of such visitors. They have harnessed Hollywood. And they have made sure the whole subject remains a matter of ridicule and disrepute among scientists. There is in the White House a man who has seen a UFO and is impressed by what he saw. There are small groups and sects of contactees all over the world, using a vague and confusing jargon that protects the unspeakable reality, and claiming that salvation from Heaven is just around the corner.
I don’t think we should expect salvation from the sky. I believe there is a very real UFO problem, I have also come to suspect that it is being manipulated for political ends. And the data suggest that the manipulators may be human beings with a plan for social control. Such plans have been made before, and have succeeded. History shows that having a cosmic mythology as part of such a plan is not always necessary. But it certainly helps.

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The steep hillside up to the electrically controlled high entrance gate to the huge tunnel into this worldwide intelligence nerve center is covered with rock and brush. Surprisingly, a few cattle are also grazed here, no doubt to lower any possible fire hazard. So right there, immediately overlooking thousands of military buildings, the protective covering of hundreds of planes and helicopters and 20,000 soldiers, and immediately in front of the electronic brain and senses that survey the entire North American continent so that even a needle couldn’t get in undetected, plus monitoring of all of space from here to the Moon… someone thought this would be a neat place to have a cattle mutilation.
- Frederick W. Smith, Cattle Mutilation
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Most cases [of animal mutilation] have taken place under the same conditions as UFO landings: at night and in silence. Other characteristics have been: no cause of death could be determined; blood was drained from the animals; specific organs were cut away; no traces or tracks of the killer could be found; and no efforts had been made to hide the carcasses. In fact, as Mendocino Sheriffs Investigator Baron Hankes said, after studying seven mutilated cattle in Covelo, California, between November ‘76 and January ‘77, “It was like someone wanted us to find them.”
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The pinkish glow started rising vertically without a sound. [...] [Anton Fitzgerald] was reminded of the Zulu legend of “the Red Sun that rises straight up into the sky after devouring some of the tribe’s cattle.” The Cherokee Indians have a similar legend of the Sun that rises straight up.
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There were two schools of thought: some farmers believed that a sect or secret group within the military was performing rituals using the stolen cattle organs. A larger number believed that the government was conducting massive experiments, testing new drugs on the animals. The ranchers had not forgotten the “nerve gas” deaths of thousands of sheep in Utah, long denied by military authorities, and the research on epidemics, mind control, and the effect of drugs that had been conducted on unsuspecting victims by the government.
[...]
The theory of government intervention was not as far-fetched as it may seem at first glance. Among the ranch families were men who had returned from Vietnam and the Philippines, where they had participated in counter-insurgency operations that used mythology to achieve political change. In the fight against the Huks in the Philippines, for instance, the troops were instructed to fake vampirism to impress the enemy: "The enemy dead were strung upside-down from the limbs of trees, and their jugulars pierced with small incisions. Found days later by their comrades, their bodies drained of blood and with what seemed to be “teeth-marks” on their necks, the dead were presumed to have fallen victim of immortal enemies.1"
In Vietnam, some Special Forces troops exploited the myth of the “evil eye” by gouging out the eyes of enemy soldiers and leaving them on the backs of the corpses.
According to a witness before Senator Frank Church’s Select Committee on Intelligence, there was even a harebrained plan to simulate the Second Coming of Christ, using flares launched from a submarine of the coast of Cuba, in the hope of contributing to the overthrow of the Castro government. In other words, mutilation, the simulation of paraphysical phenomena, and exploitation of local beliefs are indeed familiar tools in the arsenal of some government agencies.

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Everyone is now so anxious to see the government “reveal” this long-awaited information that no one questions the reality of the basic facts and the political motivations that could inspire a manipulation of those facts. Trying to outsmart the CIA and the Pentagon has become such a national pastime that lawsuits against federal agencies under the Freedom of Information Act have begun to accumulate. All that has been shown so far is that these agencies were involved – often covertly – in aspects of the UFO problem. I suspect that they are still involved. But the UFO enthusiasts who are so anxious to “expose” the government have not reflected that they may, once again, be playing into the hands of the manipulators.
And the UFOs may not be spacecraft at all.

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The greatest danger a deception scheme would run would be exposure by qualified scientists who were seriously and critically examining UFO evidence. What if they discovered that some of the phenomena were simulated by human trickery? To prevent such a scientific study from being organized, all that is needed is to maintain a certain threshold of ridicule around the phenomenon. This can be done easily enough by a few influential science writers, under the guise of “humanism” or “rationalism.” UFO research would be equated with “false science” thus creating an atmosphere of guilt by association which would be deadly to any independent scientist. If the believers’ groups are manipulated, the skeptics can also be manipulated in the same way. I propose that the more dedicated investigators take time away from their endless UFO chases and look into the backgrounds, connections, and motivations of the more vocal “skeptics” for clues to such influence.

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According to modern physics, and in particular to Brillouin, Gabor, and Rothstein, information and entropy are closely related. The relationship has been expressed clearly by Brillouin: "Entropy is generally regarded as expressing the state of disorder of a physical system. More precisely, one can say that entropy measures the lack of information about the true structure of the system.8"
No information can be obtained in the course of a physical measurement, then, without changing the amount of entropy in the universe, the state of disorder of the cosmos.

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Six Social Consequences
1. The belief in UFOs widens the gap between the public and scientific institutions.
2. The contactee propaganda undermines the image of human beings as masters of their own destiny.
3. Increased attention given to UFO activity promotes the concept of political unification of this planet.
4. Contactee organizations may become the basis of a new “high-demand” religion.
5. Irrational motivations based on faith are spreading hand in hand with the belief in extraterrestrial intervention.
6. Contactee philosophies often include belief in higher races and in totalitarian systems that would eliminate democracy.

[Steve]

UFOs creep me out. It's like going to bad neighborhood, or playing the Ouija board with Captain Howdy. Generally, I don't really like going "there." That said, if I do want to read something on them, Vallee (a computer scientist) is my guide of choice. When it comes to UFOs, he's idea guy, the one that asks the worthwhile questions. This particular effort is bit dated, though it is updated with a 2008 preface. As long as he sticks with the UFOs, it works, but when Vallee gets into various cults (one of which would turn into Heaven's Gate), you feel like you've fallen down the rabbit hole. I hope to expand on this bit more tomorrow.

[Mark Tallen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Messengers of Deception is another top tier UFO related book from Jacques Vallee. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading this book & if I could give it 4.5 stars, I would. I highly recommend the book, especially to those who are more familiar with the subject matter, this isn't a starting point book for newcomers (in my opinion). What the book has done for me is yet again broaden my own thoughts & opinions on the subject. Vallee, more than any other researcher keeps on doing this for me with everything I read by him. As a side note, his appearances on podcasts & radio shows are always fascinating, his verbal conversations are as interesting and engaging as his writing. Back to this book, the writing is excellent, I confess that in a 'few' (only a few) places he lost me, that isn't a negative criticism, it had nothing to do with the syntax of the writing, it is purely down to my own intellect.The writing style is engaging and flows so well. In a way, the style reminds me of his latest book, 'Trinity', it reads like an adventure that you follow Vallee on. In the book, Vallee demonstrates yet again how he just doesn't sit & theorise about the subject, he goes out into the field, speaks directly to the witnesses & is always looking for patterns in the evidence & the data.

[Bryan Elkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucid and skeptical, just how I like subjects like this to be treated. The investigator Vallee apparently finished this book without deciding to choose an explanation for the patterns of phenomena he tracks. This is, in my opinion, honorable of him, as he writes candidly about a number of models that could explain the events but never hesitates to point out the holes in these explanations.
At least, I think thats what this book is like. I dont really remember too well. All I remember is I was reading it, and then I got this hot-cold feeling all over my body, and I didnt think I had been dreaming but I must have been, because the room was flooded with a strange pinkish light ...

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book might better be categorized under the social sciences as it is a study of beliefs about UFOs and non-human intelligences. Vallée
has long held the position that the idea that UFOs are extraterrestrial is absurd, but that experiences of non-human intelligences and of what are interpreted to be UFOs nowadays do occur with substantial frequency. "What are they doing--what do they mean?" he asks. He asks more questions than he answers. This book has a strain of paranoia to it greater than others by him which I've read.

[Mari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressive read with unconventional theories as to the origin, intention, and overall impact of the UFO phenomenon. Just think what it would mean if UFO's turned out to be intra or interplanetary. The implications are just as interesting especially if it is found that the source of such remarkable technology and capability was on earth or at least within our own dimension all along. Imagine the possibilities for mankind!

[Jarrod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pragmatic and transcendent. The conclusions and questions drawn four decades ago are still riveting.

[Jeffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would give it a higher rating except that it doesn’t really develop a theme other than aliens equal social control.

What I mean is that you don’t get much from reading all 200 pages it could have been much shorter

[M Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vallée's insights elucidate and guide any serious inquiry into the UFO topic.

[Steven H · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARE UFOS A ‘MACHINERY OF MASS MANIPULATION,’ RATHER THAN ALIENS?

Jacques Fabrice Vallée (born 1939) is a French astronomer, computer scientist, ufologist, and author. He also was the person who served as the model for ‘Claude Lacombe’ in the movie, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind.’

He wrote in the Prologue to this 1979 book, “I am beginning to perceive a coherent picture of the ‘flying saucer’ phenomenon for the first time, now that I am pursuing the idea that UFOs may be a control system, and now that I am aware of their link to human consciousness. I still think there is a genuine technology at work her, causing the effects witnesses are describing. But I am not ready to jump to the conclusions that it is the technology of some kind of ‘spacemen.’ There are three aspects to the UFO problem. The first aspect is PHYSICAL. The UFO behaves like a region of space… within which a very large amount of energy is stored… the second aspect is PSYCHOLOGICAL. It is debatable whether anybody has seen the actual technology that supports the phenomenon. What is seen, and reported, is an IMAGE; that is, the perception of a UFO by a human witness… The third aspect is SOCIAL. Belief in the reality of UFOs is spreading rapidly at all levels of society throughout the world… Many of the themes of yesterday’s counter-culture can be traced back to the ‘messages from space’ coming from UFO contactees of the forties and fifties.” (Pg. 8-9)

He continues, “I believe there is a machinery of mass manipulation behind the UFO phenomenon, It aims at social and political goals by diverting attention from some human problems and by providing a potential release for tensions caused by others. The contactees are a part of that machinery. They are helping to create a new form of belief: an expectation of actual contact among large parts of the public. In turn this expectation makes millions of people hope for the imminent realization of that age-old dream: salvation from above, surrender to the greater force of some wise navigators of the cosmos.” (Pg. 20)

He goes on, “Let me summarize my conclusions thus far. UFOs are real. They are an application of psychotronic technology; that it, they are physical devices used to affect human consciousness. They may not be from outer space; they may, in fact, be terrestrial-based manipulating devices. Their purpose may be to achieve social changes on this planet. Their methods are those of deception: systematic manipulation of witnesses and contactees; covert use of various sects and cults; control of the channels through which the alleged ‘space messages’ can make an impact on the public.” (Pg. 21)

He states, “Contactees tell us they have met the denizens of other planets. In some cases the beings turned out to be robots or dwarfs in diving suits, but in most incidents they were humanoid, and they could breathe our air. They walked normally on our planet. In a variety of sightings they were accompanied by human beings. Occasionally, the occupants were completely human and spoke human languages. However, visitors from outer space would not necessarily be human in shape. They would certainly not breathe our air (for fear of viruses). They might have serious problems with the Earth’s gravity.” (Pg. 32)

He suggests, “I want to state that I think Betty and Barney Hill really saw a UFO and that something unknown stopped their car and took control of their minds. They were not lying, and they were not ‘nuts.’ I also think that Betty’s recollection of a star map is a fact, and not simply something she invented. I base this opinion on similar sightings in which objects have been described, often of a very high symbolic value. These objects generally refer to time (like a clock) or to space (like a map or a compass). We are not dealing here with an isolated incident but with a rather typical event.” (Pg. 41)

He recounts an experiment with eight subjects, where a hypnotist put a young woman into a trance, and she recounted something like an ‘abduction’ experience: “This young woman … has never seen a UFO. She demonstrates that the ‘abduction’ experience is a constant that hypnosis can trigger in almost anybody… [The researchers] selected ‘imaginary abductees’ from among unpaid volunteers… Those who seemed informed about UFOs and those who had had sightings were ELIMINATED… The results of the experiments were shattering. Not only did these ‘imaginary abductees’ provide … ‘a coherent, intriguing UFO abduction narrative,’ but their stories were surprisingly similar to the most classic UFO abduction cases, like those of Betty Hill or Charlie Hickson… This study does not demonstrate that UFO abductions are imaginary, or that hypnotic regression of witnesses is always worthless. But it does show that many aspects of the experience may originate in the witness’s mind.” (Pg. 46)

He observes, “Suppose visitors arrived from elsewhere with a completely different religious system. Suppose they had a political organization built on principles that challenged both communism and capitalism. Wouldn’t a new form of faith spread among humans? The longer this belief was suppressed, the stronger it would finally burst upon our rigid structures. Now, suppose the arrival of these alleged visitors was a hoax, a deliberate deception. Would we ever know? Great social changes often come from the least expected area… The instruments of this profound change are the contactees, the believers in celestial interventions of all kinds, the scouts of cosmic armies.” (Pg. 66)

He recounts a meeting with Jim Hurtak, a purported contactee: “Jim said he wanted to share with me … a statement that he had prepared with Puharich, a ‘sensitive’ who was working for the American Navy, and other friends of his in various positions who had access to ‘confidential and secret information’: ‘I believe that the Earth will be contacted within the next 18 months by highly evolved intelligent beings from other worlds. This belief has come about as a result of a study of prophetic literature, claimed UFO contacts, recent forecasts, and countless other materials.’ Jim was following the usual pattern: illumination, belief in contact, mental changes, and finally prophecy. Eighteen months have passed, and nothing has happened. That, too, is typical.” (Pg. 136)

He notes, “The activity of the more vocal skeptics would be explained by such an hypothesis. The greatest danger a deception scheme would run would be exposure by qualified scientists who were seriously and critically examining UFO evidence. What if they discovered that the phenomenon was entirely simulated by human trickery? To prevent such a scientific study from being organized, all that is needed is to maintain a certain threshold o ridicule around the phenomenon This can be done easily enough by a few influential science writers, under the guise of ‘humanism’ or ‘rationalism.’ UFO research would be equated with ‘false science,’ thus creating an atmosphere of guilt by association which would be deadly to any independent scientist…. I propose that the more dedicated investigators … look into the backgrounds, connections, and motivations of the more vocal ‘skeptics’ for clues to such influence.” (Pg. 203)

He concludes, “Receiving a visit from outer space sounds almost as comfortable as having a God. Yet we shouldn’t rejoice too soon. Perhaps we will get the visitors we deserve.” (Pg. 223)

This book will be controversial among those studying UFOs, and related subjects.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book focused on religions and cults based off ufo sightings and charismatic leaders who claimed to have made contact with ET’s. The book does a great job of cataloging what the experiences claimed to have observed and points out similarities in ufo experiences.

The author hypothesizes that although we don’t know the source of the ufo phenomenon, there are forces - human or non-human - using ufo sighting to manipulate humanity through religions and cults. The hypothesis is interesting although the author does put too much trust in a man he met who claims to have worked in counterintelligence who leads the author into his hypothesis.

The most interesting part of the book is at the end where true other speculates that we may live in a universe where consciousness connects data points across space and time, similar to a database in computer science.

[RRex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vallée offers a new and very plausible explanation for the phenomena we are seeing. In fact, I was very surprised by it even after spending 40 years of my life trying to figure out what these things are.

Highly recommended for his brief conversations with Major Murphy.

The UFO phenomena may be related to a cooperative effort between occult practitioners and intelligence circles.

I question this to an extent that this does not explain sightings over the millenia.

Of course, if these groups can manipulate spacetime, that argument is moot.

[Mack Turk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vallee is one of the most intelligent men to have researched the abduction phenomena, and his presentation of the subject is impeccable in his introspection. I believe this book focused on alien worship-cults and the behaviour of people involved in alien experiences, more than the aliens or abductions themselves. Great book, also look for "Passport to Magonia"

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Refreshing to read a book on this subject where instead of pointing the finger where you should believe, the author uses your own finger to prod your own brain. I would recommend to anyone with slight interest. If you were intrigued by Ernest Cline's "Armada," read this next.

[Aaron Kleinheksel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though originally published in 1979, this classic ufology text is still effectively current in 2025. A 2008 author's foreward to this edition emphasizes that, noting that little has changed or needed updating and that predictions made in the original came to pass in the intervening years, particularly in regards to the HIM / Heaven's Gate tragedy.

Between astrophysics, computer science, information theory, etc., Jacques Vallee has an impressive and very serious resume. This book is exactly what Vallee believes this subject needs far more of - careful examination by hard-science types vs. the usual dismissal as fantasy. Indeed, Vallee believes some of the UFO narrative may be designed to keep scientists away purposefully. He is open to the fact that this issue is likely not ONE things, but a variety of things going on. I agree. I wish I had read this book 30 years ago. It dovetails with many of my own opinions regarding the "UFO" or "UAP" phenomena (Vallee is actually more conservative in his opinions than I would be).

MoD focuses mostly on the contactees themselves and the effects of the phenomena and narratives on them. This is interesting, and Vallee finds similar themes running through the many interviews conducted with them, and through the teachings of their organizations and cults. These common themes communicated to them in various ways by these outside entities include (from pg 112):
1) "Intellectual Abdication" - Human beings are incapable of solving our problems and need celestial assistance from advanced or more highly evolved intelligences.
2) "Racist Philosophy" - Some humans have extraterrestrial blood or DNA and are supperior to others. It should be noted here that one type of ET's are called "The Nordics" and are tall, white, blonde-haired, blue-eyed perfected humans. If this seems a strange coincidence in light of Nazi racialism and occultism, as well as UFO narratives that include Nazis, well...
3) "Technical Impotence" - Civilization on this planet only evolved due to the intervention and teaching of non-human higher intelligences. Ancient Aliens, anyone?
4) "Social Utopia" - The world economy must go cashless. Democracy doesn't work, and an enlightened, beneficent totalitarian system must be implemented in order to usher in a human utopia.

There is most definitely a common theme of a reduced view of the nobility and value of humanity as opposed to the Chrisitan position of a race fashioned in the image and likeness of God. In the UFO world, we require the assistance, tutelage, and governance of an advanced race to reach our full potential. You can see how this... philosophy-world view- belief system so easily takes the place of more traditional religions. Indeed it becomes exactly that.

Much of what Vallee documents is from the 60's to the mid-70's. It was amazing to me that so much of the organized UFO activity was already happening in Silicon Valley even then. In recent years there has been reporting on the ubiquity of "contact" between Silicon Valley tech developers and unknown entities, whether they be alien visitors from advanced star-spanning civilizations or from dimensional travelers imparting knowledge to boost technology. Often this contact seems to take place in concert with psychoactive drugs of one type or another (DMT, etc.). I digress.

Just like Sci-Fi/Fantasy tales from the 1980's children's cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian to the world of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, Vallee posits a similar future-past hybrid reality of sorcery directly integrated with high-tech science. I am reminded of the breakneck development of AI and the strange stories coming out of that, and the burgeoning trend of what I call the dark art of "techno-necromancy," where people resurrect digital versions of loved ones to communicate with. Vallee was thinking ahead, and seeing pretty clearly.

I recommend this text, and would read it FIRST before following it with Pasulka's American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology and finishing with Missler's Alien Encounters: The Secret Behind The UFO Phenomenon for a well-rounded and reasoned understanding of this current and very important issue. It has been my opinion for decades that what we are seeing is what historically would be categorized as demons or spiritual / other-dimensional entities of deception, and that the UFO/UAP story is mostly just a massive lie that is being constructed to fool a materialistic, atheist/agnostic, and science-obsessed humanity. It's most definitely real, but not in the way most hope and/or believe. If that makes ME sound crazy, that's fine.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jacques Vallee has studied UFOs for decades. Unlike the skeptics or true believers, Vallee tries to apply the scientific method to the study of the subject. An original thinker, Vallee believes the UFO phenomenon is real. However, he is skeptical of the ET hypothesis. He tends toward the interdimensional hypothesis. He admits this explanation also has problems, but believes it is the most rational explanation. In this book, Vallee discusses UFO cults and shadowy intelligence agencies that may be manipulating both the phenomenon and individuals within the cults. Vallee rightly sees the potential danger in these cults. Vallee discusses Claude Vorilhon (aka Rael), the Order of Melchizedek, Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles (aka Bo and Peep/Do and Ti), etc. The author is dismissive of their supposed contacts with extraterrestrials and the authoritarian nature of the groups. Marshall Applewhite would later lead the Heaven's Gate UFO cult to commit mass suicide. Despite all this, Vallee encourages scientists to study UFOs and keep an open mind on what may be the source or cause of the phenomenon.

[Jonathan Hockey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great overview of a lot of the UFO contactee phenomena at the time of its writing. It also provides interesting theories and explanations to account for the phenomena, its attraction and its potential powerful influence on society, regardless of the physical reality of nuts and bolts UFOs. There is more to it than meets the eye, and various layers and levels of deception and misinformation are explored in how we may be being led towards certain social changes by certain manipulations, though perhaps not from genuinely extraterrestrial beings, but by intelligence agencies and governments trying to push society in a certain direction. The impact on people of these types of beliefs is certainly real, and he describes in parts of this book some specific dangers and warnings of the group that came to be known as Heavens Gate in the end, which made for a fascinating historical look into the development of these types of mindsets regarding UFO's and alien contact, through the 50's, 60's and 70's.

[Levi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1979, Messengers of Deception displays an incredible prescience in regard to society's opinions of science, and science's opinions of society.

Vallee builds a compelling case for the UFO phenomenon's very real effects on our world. Whether or not these phenomena are "real", they are changing the way many people in the world perceive our institutions and our place in an ever-changing social hierarchy. Stories of UFO contact ultimately represent how unhappy many people are with the status quo, emphasizing our long tradition with looking to the heavens for answers to our eternal problems.

Are UFOs interplanetary space visitors? The evidence says probably not. Could a secretive group harness new technologies to deceive the masses & influence public opinion through "contact"? Maybe so. Do UFO contactee groups, cults, and theorists present a grave danger to the sciences when left untouched and misrepresented as a result of dogmatic, predeterministic thinking? Absolutely.

[BlackBoxWhiteBox · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have both the 1979 and 2008 versions of this book. There are important differences, however, I will focus here on the 2008 version.
If you find the "all love and light" interpretation of the UFO topic feels lacking, this book is an excellent primer for alternative theories.
My personal favorite is the insight into hypnotic regression as a tool for uncovering "repressed memories". The basis of how hypnosis works, that being the plasticity of subjective experience, is the very reason why hypnotic regression is not an appropriate tool for "getting to The Truth".
This book is overflowing with common sense, highlighting the importance of observing our processes of observation, thinking about how we think, and the mechanisms (technologies, even?) of "meaning", "belief" and "faith".
A worthy read, to be sure!

[Ostilio Portillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me a good insight vis-á-vis the lies communicated by those who present themselves as visitors of other galactic systems. It's interesting that their messages are always associated with religious stuff (new age) rather than technological in nature. Always depicting Lord Jesus just as another human being who managed to discern hidden truth and refer to him as an ascended master rather than the Son of God.
I think these entities also referred to as aliens are nothing else but demons, Messengers of deception, who are trying to reshape human concepts presenting themselves as our space brothers willing to help us to jump into a higher echelon in the evolutionary scale.
I like Jacques F. Vallée`s work and considered him an authority in the field of the UFO phenomena.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Messengers of Deception is a fairly simple book. Vallee's central argument is that UFO cults are highly dangerous, in part because mainstream science refuses to take UFOs seriously.

In the years since publication, his argument has been partially borne out - several of the cults he profiled in their early stages ended up killing people. On the other hand, his main concern is clearly that these cults could become mainstream and powerful, and that simply didn't happen.

[Croisley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was always my favorite of Vallée's books, but revisiting it after immersing myself in parapolitics has altered my own perception. This is a thought provoking book that seems to ask the right questions, but now I can't help but wonder what Vallée is keeping from the reader. Who is this intelligence agent that sets Vallée on this path, what were his intentions, and how did they really know one another?

[Arthur B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though Vallée's more alarming claims are a bit more tenuously supported, the alarm bells he was ringing about the authoritarian and abusive direction certain UFO cults were drifting in were dead on. (He deserves particular credit for documenting the Heaven's Gate cult decades before they shot to worldwide notoriety.) Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...

[Denny Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though this book was written over 40 years ago, almost everything in it is applicable to what is going on in the UFO/ET Researcher and Disclosure communities right now. It is amazing in its insights and revelations without forcing an opinion.

[Shaun McNamara]

Awaiting perusal in my in tray...

[David Riedel · Rating 5 out of 5]

What!