ARCHIVAL UPDATES: UFO TREK

Warren Smith's UFO Trek is now available to read and download at archive dot org. The file contains the Sphere edition, the original Zebra Books artwork and Zebra's retitled reissue artwork as well.

Courtesy Sphere Books, 1977 (original pub. 1976).

ABDUCTED! by Coral and Jim Lorenzen

Influential UFO researchers Coral and Jim Lorenzen give us this summary text of a few wild years when multiple people across America found themselves ABDUCTED! The Lorenzens and their UFO group the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization were among the first to pay serious attention to tales of flying saucer occupants, in a time when other researchers were writing close encounters off as contactee-level drivel. Persistence pays off though, and by the 1970s the UFO field was shifting to an acceptance of close encounters and a new term entered the lexicon: the alien abduction. Much of the foundation for these cases rests on hypnotic regression as practiced by doctors such as Leo Sprinkle, which is to say that things are off to a shaky start at best. But let's see just what the Lorenzens have to say about these astonishing, documented accounts of confrontations with beings from outer space ...

Jim and Coral lookin' fly

The abductees are:

George Wheeler, Wisconsin 1976. Police officer abducted while investigating a strange light he thought may have been a fire. Multiple witnesses testified as to something strange happening that night. Wheeler initially blocked out the memory of his experience, which the Lorenzens note as an emerging theme in alien abductions of the time, also mentioning the Hills and Antonio Villas-Boas.

Pat Roach, Utah 1973. Abducted with her children by medically minded aliens. Anonymized as "Patty Price, from a midwestern state" as Roach did not originally want publicity for her experience. Next year however she would appear on an episode of In Search Of. Longtime UFO researcher Kevin Randle takes some issue with her case, or more properly with her hypnotic regression performed by APRO investigator Dr. James Harder. According to Randle, Dr. Harder discussed details of the Hill's experience with Roach during her session, unduly influencing her recall. Randle was Harder's assistant on the case, but if he had these misgivings at the time the Lorenzens did not include them in their summary! Incidentally, Isaac Koi's website for Ufology has a very useful index for references to this case in the UFO literature.

Carl Higdon, Wyoming 1974. Abducted while hunting elk by Ausso the Alien, and given a tour of Ausso's craft. Ausso acts like a classic contactee Space Brother. He was able to stop one of Carl's bullets in midair before revealing himself. Leo Sprinkle investigated and arranged a polygraph for Higdon.

Higdon with wife Margery ...

She wrote the book on him!

Charles Moody, New Mexico 1975. Airborne Sergeant Charles Moody was abducted from Alamogordo after watching a meteor shower. His case includes classic features such as a car that dies or won't start, missing time and amnesia, and lingering health effects with a "heat rash" on his lower torso that developed afterwards. His case was investigated by the Lorenzens simultaneously with Travis Walton's. Moody's aliens would not use his nickname Chuck and insisted on calling him Charles - proper little fellas!

Moody and his friends

Sandra Larson, North Dakota 1975. Abducted while driving with her daughter and boyfriend. Other contemporary reports played up the bizarre beings, which Larson described as "mummy like" creatures with jointed arms like an erector set. They performed weird medical procedures on her such as rubbing her body with a clear fluid! Larson was hypnotized by Leo Sprinkle and the transcript is included herein.

David Stephens, Maine 1975. Also abducted while driving with a friend. A gigantic UFO shot a beam at their truck and then ... missing time, missing memories. Dr. Herbert Hopkins, who preformed Stephens' hypnotic regression, would later claim a visit from the Men in Black! An emotionally fraught case if there ever was one.

Travis Walton, Arizona 1975. This is the big one, the whole enchilada. Out of all the cases in this book Walton's had the staying power, and if you're not already familiar then I doubt I could do it full justice in this rundown. The Lorenzens are fully convinced of his truthfulness, while skeptics such as Philip J. Klass disagreed. My opinion? However you appraise Walton's character, actual evidence seems rather thin on the ground ... (Edit: see Charlie Wiser's convincing analysis of the case which concludes hoax.)

Two books on the Walton case

APRO was all in on Walton

Louise Smith, Elaine Thomas, and Mona Stafford, Kentucky 1976. A truly strange triple abduction! The ladies were taken while driving at night, and their case caused such a stir that THREE major UFO groups wound up tussling over the investigation: APRO as represented by Leo Sprinkle, Hynek's CUFOS, and MUFON! Eventually Sprinkle was able to hypnotize Mona Stafford and arrange a polygraph for all three ladies.

Louise, Elaine, and Mona

Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, Mississippi 1973. The famous Pascagoula abduction. The Lorenzens saved it for last in order to trace the possible effects its major publicity had on the other cases. The next chapter starts to collate everyone's experiences, with the Lorenzens theorizing a plan of human experimentation by the UFO occupants. The authors are bullish on UFOs being nuts and bolts craft for ET, and poo-poo talk of interdimensional travelers - man has been to space, after all, but not yet to "another dimension," whatever that might even mean! Point taken, Jim and Coral.

We get two beefy appendixes, with a transcript of one of Travis Walton's polygraph tests and an article by Leo Sprinkle on using hypnotic regression for UFO cases. A long list of references follow, and what should catch my eye but a citation for Eric Norman's Gods, Demons, and UFO's? That's not a very reliable source, you guys! It seems we just can't escape the pulp origins of Ufology no matter how high we set our sights. We're dreamers in castles made of sand ...

A Berkley Medallion Book, 1977

 

GODS DEMONS AND UFO'S by Eric Norman

"The Pope is a speed freak!" Wowza! Warren Smith returns as Eric Norman for some far out space nuts and a smorgasbord of Saucerian surprises. His big bombshell story is about the mysterious (and nonexistent) Dropa Stones, a supposed carved record of alien contact in Ancient China which is sadly too good to be true. Smith interviews a Saucer Cult in California, digging into some of the theological nuances of UFO saviors, and gives the usual rundown on OOP Artifacts that should prove extraterrestrial intervention in our history. This includes a standby of misquoted verses from the Bhagavad Gita which "prove" the existence of prehistoric nuclear warfare. As researcher Jason Colavito illustrates, these mangled verses have been passed down through multiple paranormal texts, including Erich von Daniken's, ever since Pauwels and Bergier's seminal The Morning of the Magicians was published in 1960.

In contrast to Frank Edwards' turgid tome Strange World from yesterday, Smith's writing crackles with mad energy that threatens to run off the rails. Everything hangs together even with such editing gaffes as Carl Sagan's name consistently misspelled as "Sagen" and ancient astronauts compared to "powerful lizards" ... that's supposed to be wizards! Smith would later recycle his entire chapter on Nebraska highway patrolman Herbert Schirmer's UFO encounter for his UFO Trek and a bit on the "mysterious" origins of the Eskimo for his The Hidden Secrets of the Hollow Earth, both from 1976.

Sometime in the early 70s Lancer would reissue Smith's book under the title Gods, Demons and Space Chariots, a quickie facelift designed to cash in on the popularity of Chariots of the Gods? by the previously mentioned von Daniken, from whom Smith originally lifted many of the stories for his text. Now there's something else to make your head spin! Available to read and download at archive dot org.

Table of contents:

1.  Angels, Spacemen and UFO's (5)

2.  The New Age Belief (23)

3.  Legends of the Sky People (43)

4.  UFO's and the Puzzle of the Pyramids (63)

5.  Angel's, Demons, and UFO Entities (81)

6.  Mysteries, Oddities and Curiosities (119)

7.  When Giants Walked the Earth (139)

8.  Giants From the Skies (155)

9.  An Incredible UFO Contactee Case (169)

10. Guidelines for the Future (195)

Lancer Books, 1970

COSMIC DEBRIS: Leo Sprinkle's Saucer Dreams

Authors Kagan and Summers run headlong into the shaky foundations holding up hypnotic regression as used by Ufology. From Mute Evidence by Daniel Kagan and Ian Summers, Bantam Books, 1984.

UFO TREK by Warren Smith

Mishmash volume from our man Smith tracks a ragged path through encounter tales, UFO/contactee history, an infamous UFO cult, Ancient Astronauts, and a few other odds and ends. UFO hypnotist Dr. Leo Sprinkle makes an appearance, as does Smith's frequent collaborator Brad Steiger. There's a fantasy chapter where Smith is threatened by the Men in Black and has to give up a precious sample of genuine UFO metal, and a chapter where Smith relates the tale of genuine UFO abductee Herbert Schirmer.

The most interesting subject matter 40 years on concerns the now legendary Heaven's Gate UFO Suicide Cult, at the time going by the name Human Individual Metamorphosis (HIM). Smith seems presciently concerned with Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles' methods, as does another more obscure UFO cultist named Bob Geyer whom Smith interviews.

In 1977 the UK was blessed by this edition with a lovely painted cover, courtesy Sphere Books: 

The penny pinchers at Zebra Books reissued UFO Trek as The Book of Encounters in 1978, with a new foil cover and a back page ad for Warren Smith's other Zebra specials:

As with all of these cheap paperbacks from Zebra, there's no table of contents:

1.  The UFO Trek (5)
2.  The Father of Flying Saucers (25)
3.  The Enigma of the Contactee (48)
4.  Medical Examiners From Other Worlds (70)
5.  You Should Believe in Us Some ... (87)
6.  Astronauts From Beyond the Stars (114)
7.  Bo, Peep, and Their Misguided Sheep (133)
8.  Was Jesus an Astronaut? (153)
9.  UFOs in Ancient Times (179)
10. Ted Owens - Saucerdom's PK Man (196)
11. The CIA is Everywhere (210)
12. UFO Encounters Around the World (229)

Zebra Books, 1976

FLYING SAUCER OCCUPANTS by Coral and Jim Lorenzen

While more conservative UFO groups like NICAP shied away from stories of direct contact with alien entities, the Lorenzens and APRO went all in on compiling witness reports of FLYING SAUCER OCCUPANTS, including the scandalous Villas-Boas incident. Chapter 10 features an early appearance by alien abduction psychologist Leo Sprinkle, whose hypnotic regression techniques would unleash a flood of "repressed" UFO memories in the 1980s built on ideas of alien/human hybridization à la the Villas-Boas text.

Signet Books, 1967