ESP and UFOs

Andrija Puharich, M.D., in his book Uri: A Journal of the Mystery of Uri Geller (1974) makes the claim that Geller's psychokinetic powers are derived from the teachings of beings who are associated with UFOs. This learning is described in vague terms by Geller who, while under hypnosis, recalled the events of his childhood. In one session, Geller described himself as being in a cave in Cyprus: "‘I come here for learning. I just sit in the dark.... I learn and learn, but I don't know who is doing the teaching.' ‘What are you learning?' ‘It is ... about people who come from space. But I am not to talk about these things yet.'"

Another event referred to in both Puharich's book and in Geller's own autobiography occurred when Geller was a child of three. Geller's early life was characterized by his desire to seek places of solitude. One such place, which has left a strong impression in his memory, was a garden inside the walls of a large, empty mansion in Tel Aviv. A bright silvery mass of light came down from the sky very close to Geller and he lost consciousness. Puharich describes Geller's recollection of the experience under hypnosis as follows: "Suddenly between himself and the bowl in the sky there was the shadow of a huge figure like the shadow of a man with a long cape, because there were no arms or legs to be seen. As he stared at this figure, a blinding ray of light came from its head and struck Uri so forcibly that he fell over backward and into a deep sleep."

Shortly after this experience, Geller reports the earliest occurrences of his now famous and controversial psychokinetic abilities. The scientific case for Geller's psychokinetic abilities remains, at this time, somewhat open-ended. Virtually all of the scientific reports on his PK talents (Puthoff & Targ 1973, Sarfatti 1974, Franklyn 1975, Byrd 1976, Zorka 1976, Cox 1976, Coohill 1976, Owen 1976, Hasted, Bohm and Bastin 1976, Taylor 1976, Ducrocq 1976, and Price 1976) have been criticized as not providing enough scientific controls to establish incontrovertible proof of the phenomena. Geller's ESP abilities (Puthoff and Targ, 1974) have been similarly criticized; however, these criticisms have been satisfactorily answered in letters published in both Nature and New Scientist. Certainly the evidence for fraud on Geller's part as put forth by critics such as Randi (1975, 1978), Marks and Kammann (1977) and Ray Hyman (1976), who claim that Geller produces his effects through stage magic, are even less substantiated than the evidence for the genuineness of the phenomena.

There are other cases, in addition to that of Geller, where the onset of psychic abilities is associated with the agency of UFOs. Jacques Vallee, in The Invisible College: What a Group of Scientists Has Discovered about UFO Influences on the Human Race, reports several such instances which he has either personally investigated or which have been reported in the scientific literature on UFOs. In these cases, Vallee maintains that while he does not accept the story of UFO-related training at face value, he does accept the sincerity of the various witnesses.

One case is that of an engineering executive whose life had been changed "when he had been taken aboard a flying saucer and had been taught ‘certain things."' Unlike Geller, this individual, who also seemed to exhibit psychokinetic abilities, desired no publicity regarding his case. Vallee mentions that although prior to his alleged abduction this man had perfect eyesight in both eyes, it rapidly deteriorated afterward and he now wears thick glasses. The subject attributed this to "a blinding, blinking light that was situated on top of the ‘machine."'

Another case is described by Vallee as "among the most thoroughly investigated accounts of the interaction between human percipients (those who have ‘perceived' the phenomena by whatever means) and the phenomena of UFOs." The witness in this case, a medical doctor who holds an important official position in southern France, is referred to only as "Dr. X." Following his vivid sighting on the evening of November 1, 1968, extensive follow-up investigations have been conducted by a research team including an astrophysicist, a psychiatrist and a physiologist. In addition to the instantaneous healing of several injuries the doctor had previously sustained, the investigators also noted psychokinetic and telepathic phenomena centered around the doctor, and at least one instance of reported levitation.

Several researchers, including myself, have investigated this case in which alleged psychic phenomena are attributed to the agency of UFOs. Mr. Ted Owens avers that he is in telepathic contact with other dimensional beings whom he calls Space Intelligences (SIs) who have trained him since early childhood to create large scale psychokinetic effects. This training has been, as Owens describes it, an integral part of his entire life and not a separate experience. Owens claims that he was not aware, at the time, that he was being trained.

For example, Owens states that he has held over fifty different occupations in his life: jazz drummer, typist, hypnotist, shorthand secretary, bodyguard, judo expert, parapsychology researcher at Duke University, choreographer, stage magician, circus knife thrower, bullwhip artist, construction worker, railroad worker, firearms expert, etc. Owens states that he never understood why he kept going from job to job, until after 1965 when the SIs revealed themselves to him. He claims that the many occupations he learned developed within him a mental flexibility necessary to grasp the complicated symbol system which the SIs used in communicating with him telepathically.

Prior to 1965, Owens had discovered some of his own psychokinetic and telepathic abilities, on a small scale. He believed that he was able to accomplish some minor feats through a sort of telepathic communion with "nature." The SIs eventually made themselves known to Owens by providing him with information regarding UFO sightings which then allegedly took place. Once this had occurred, Owens' training entered a new stage.

Using the symbolic telepathic language he had been taught, Owens was instructed to communicate with the SIs and thus trigger various large scale PK events. These events included UFO sightings, hurricanes and storms, lightning striking preselected targets, controlling various athletic events, mishaps on NASA spaceflights, power blackouts, anomalous radar sightings, and earthquakes. Owens claims that as he progressed he was able to communicate with the SIs more intensely over shorter lengths of time and also to cause PK events involving greater physical mass. Owens claims that his unique contribution to parapsychology is his discovery that PK operates independently of mass, just as ESP is claimed by some to be independent of space and time.

I have personally reviewed about 140 "demonstrations" of Owens' ostensible psi abilities, and has arrived at a preliminary evaluation that perhaps one-third of these cases suggest psi functioning of an unusual sort. Another third of the cases in question are not likely to support Owens' contention. This review does not constitute a controlled scientific study; however, it does provide an inductive argument for continued investigation of Owens' abilities. A preliminary collection of 28 cases from the Owens file has been published as a laboratory monograph from the Washington Research Center in San Francisco. One of the events which I personally documented in this report was a UFO appearance which occurred as Owens had predicted - within a 90 day period, within 100 miles of San Francisco, photographed by reputable witnesses, seen from both the air and ground by over 100 people, described on the front page of a local newspaper, videotaped and shown on local television news. This may be the most well-documented UFO sighting on record.

In his book, How To Contact Space People, Owens (1969) provides further details as to his unusual methods as follows:

"In rain-making, and causing lightning to strike, a certain technique is used. I extend my fingers at the skies, and visualize in my mind's eye lightning reaching from my fingers up into the sky. On the rain itself I superimpose, in my mind's eye, the words, ‘Rain, storm, thunder, lightning.' I sense that the lightning from my fingers will cause storm conditions, and crystallize them for the finished product. In my mind's eye I see silent, motionless trees being bent over almost double by powerful wind, and I again see, superimposed over the sunny landscape, black sheets of rain beating down. After doing this for 10 to 20 minutes, I cease. That's it. I know that within hours, or a few days, the storms will come....

"Now, in 1965, after I discovered it was actually UFOs that I was dealing with, and not Nature, the UFOs gave me a system to use to call upon them, just as if I'd pick up a phone and talk. They showed me, in my mind's eye, a small chamber. Inside the chamber were two grasshoppers, and insect like, but standing on two legs. These creatures looked down into a large, round oval machine. In it they could see me. If I talked, they heard the sound, but the machine quickly turned the sound into symbols, then the symbols into very high frequency sound which they could understand. Thus, I would talk to them in English, which would jump around into odd symbols on the screen, then result in a high whistling sound, which they understood. After talking with them for months in this manner, they suddenly, one day, pointed to a wall, upon which was a screen. They made me know that their "boss," or Higher Intelligence, would appear on this screen, and for very important communications I was to appear on the round screen and ask for ‘Control,' and their Higher Intelligence would appear and listen to me. And this is what happened. It wasn't a face that appeared on the screen on the wall, but a shadow which had the form of a face. The only thing to be seen clearly were two green eyes, shining from the screen. They made me know that their Higher Intelligence is made up of what we call light. No form at all. But it had made a ‘face' out of shadow on the screen to converse with me, because that's what I'm used to talking to - a human face.

"To sum up: No matter where I am or what I am doing, I can reach the SIs instantly by calling up this mental picture of the craft or chamber with the two beings in it, and seeing my face appear on the round machine, then mentally seeing myself telling the SIs what is needed, or what is going on. They have made a signal for me When I request something to happen, they flash a bright light inside the chamber once for ‘yes' and twice for ‘no.' ‘Yes' means that they will bring it about. Two flashes, or "no", means either that they cannot do it, or will not. And as their intelligence is based upon an infinite source, rather than our limited source, I humbly bow to their decisions.

"So, you say, dear readers, ‘Well that's fine ... but how do I go about communicating with flying saucers?' Reading how I have done it, you can imitate the method. That puts you way ahead of the game.

Owens goes on to warn his readers that they may not be able to withstand the intense mental communication with the SIs, and that other human beings who have attempted this have "either cracked up completely or had strokes or cerebral hemorrhages that destroyed them." Owens suggests learning self-hypnosis and also flexing mental muscles by practicing the Roth memory system. Owens states that these are the instructions the SIs have told him to tell his readers.

In January 1986, Dr. Lee Pulos, a psychologist from Vancouver, British Columbia, and I submitted ourselves to an intensive two-day training session with Ted Owens. The training consisted of dozens of hypnotic exercises, as well as Owens' efforts to influence our minds through psychokineses. While we both found the experience pleasant and beneficial, neither of us has had the desire to contact UFOs or to replicate other effects ostensibly produced by Owens. I have, however, interviewed other students of Owens who claim to have developed these abilities following their training by him.

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