Let's play "What If." Recently, John Lear provoked widespread discussion and debate in the UFO research community by his hypothesis that aliens (or "Grays") and what is presumed to be a CIA/MJ-12 amalgam have had a long-time joint venture in which hidden underground bases for alien activities play a part. Lear characterizes this as nefarious. I agree with Lear and see aspects to the UFO abduction experience which indicate there may be even more vast and sinister dimensions to it than Lear has des cribed. Here is the "worst case scenario" I project.

The thrust of UFO research is into the metaphysical, where things are not always as they seem. In the case of the Gray abducting aliens, my judgment is this: they are diabolical and completely untrustworthy. I get a strong of sense of conspiracy by them--a vast, subversive plot of long duration and careful coordination which aims at nothing less than the complete enslavement of humanity. I see nothing--absolutely nothing--about their words and deeds which indicates anything but deceit, evasion, misdirection, manipulation, exploitation and total disregard for human values, personal property and our concept of respect for the inviolability of personhood. We humans consider kidnaping and violation of civil rights to be criminal, rape to be loathsome , brainwashing and mind control to be heinous, lying to be despicable, unauthorized surgical invasion of the body to be monstrous, and damage to personal property to be vandalism. The Gray aliens exhibit such behavior. On the other hand, I know of no beh avior by them which is clearly intended to show respect for our personhood, property, civil rights, moral values and concern for truthful speech; they routinely violate all that. As I view the situation, it's a ghastly picture which emerges. It is not me rely alien; it is profoundly evil in precisely the sense given in the Book of Revelation and other sacred scriptures which describe a battle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness for the salvation or damnation of humanity and the planet. So when abducting aliens say, "We're here to serve you," I take it to mean they have have cookbook recipes in mind.

What follows is a summary of my thoughts on the topic. I acknowledge at the outset that it is indistinguishable from scaremongering science fiction novels; I also acknowledge that it has numerous underpinning assumptions which are open to challenge . (To name just two: are the alien abductions literally real or are they psychological projections from the mythic level of the human unconscious, created by overactive, distraught human minds, and are the MJ-12 documents authentic?) Moreover, the data on which I hang this scenario are few, tenuous and far from indisputable. I've deliberately stayed away from discussing this topic in my public statements on the UFO experience because the evidence for my position is difficult to describe to an audience w hich is not psychologically sophisticated nor parapsychologically educated. Most people would take the paragraph above as evidence of bizarre mental disturbance in me bordering on paranoia and religious fantasy, if not full-blown psychosis. However, I cl aim to have enough self-awareness and psychological/psychiatric understanding to say that such is not the case, but rather is the result of thoughtful observation and analysis leading logically to a plausible conclusion by a seasoned investigator of the pa ranormal. So if the issue of my sanity can be put aside, at least temporarily, l offer this statement as an hypothesis for discussion of the most perplexing--and potentially important--aspect of the UFO experience. I am "floating" it first among members of the Paranormal section of CompuServe's ISSUES Forum because you are among the most sophisticated, clear-thinking people I know in this field of wild stories, fuzzy data and wounded psyches. I welcome the most hard-hitting feedback. I don't claim to ha ve the "final" answer to the UFO question. I only claim to offer the following with sincerity, the most rigorous thinking I can bring to it, and a wish to provoke further discussion and investigation along the line I'm developing. Of course, it's possibl e to be sincere but deluded. I am willing--indeed, eager--to be shown that is so in my case. Therefore, in hope of the most hard-hitting feedback, and in the interest of reality-testing, here we go with "What If."

Let's begin with the humans and/or humanoids who have been reported by abductees to be present on UFOs, apparently working with/for the aliens. There are many such reports, most notably that by Travis Walton. If the Gray aliens have been conductin g a genetic experiment or an interspecies breeding program for at least several decades--which Budd Hopkins' work indicates--then there could be humans who've been raised under alien control since infancy and who are thoroughly alien in their loyalties and psychology, although they certainly would be able to pass as "real" people. While seeming to be ordinary citizens, they would nevertheless be at least programmed, if not naturally inclined through psychological bonding, to identify with the alien culture.

Such people could have been raised in an off-world site--say, a base on the moon or Mars or even a gigantic "mother ship" *--and then reintroduced to human society, with sufficient training and ongoing support from aliens to make their way into careers in many fields. Depending on the scope of the aliens' work--which I take to be happening on an enormous scale--the abducting aliens/Grays could have hundreds or even thousands of their people infiltrated into science, industry, finance, politics, educatio n, the military, etc--with some undoubtedly in positions of great power and influence. These people could, in turn, have recruited others to various degrees, creating "cells" in the classic fashion of a resistance movement preparing to overthrow the estab lishment. More likely, though, they would have made their true identity known only to other "aliens among us" and committed true-human collaborators who have been voluntarily working with the aliens.

This infiltration activity would not be limited to the USA. If the Gray aliens are doing it here, they're doing it everywhere. Of course, being scheming and untrustworthy, bent on planetary domination, they would not have told anything about this to MJ-12 or other official government/military groups they might have contacted over the decades. And if they contacted MJ-12 or its successors, we can be fairly certain they've contacted the Soviet Union and other major powers, but wouldn't have let each know about the others. The infiltration would represent a hidden agenda behind their relatively more open agenda with MJ-12. ("Open" is hardly the right word for an "Above Top Secret" operation, as the MJ-12 documents have been classified, but the alien infiltration of civilization would be above even that.)

In parallel with that infiltration movement would be Manchurian Candidate-type programming of the abductees and alien-human/humanoids. In other words, if the Grays' ultimate intention is world control--which is my conclusion--they've got a couple of ways to get there. The last resort would be violent takeover, using naked warfare. That would certainly unite true humans in opposition, and even if the Grays conquered humanity, we would continue to resist by any and all means, even if our condition were reduced to the status of POWs at a Hanoi Hilton. No, the aliens would seek a bloodless takeover by conquering through propaganda and deception. Remember that American POWs in Korea and Vietnam were continually subjected to brainwashing because their bodies were captured but not their minds. The aliens would recognize that and, in order to make their victory complete, try to indoctrinate us, through covert means, to accept them as we walk down a garden path, rather than have to "reeducate" some five billion people in effect held captive as POWs.

So, the more intelligent approach would be to co-opt the human race--subvert it through a cultural conditioning control system such as Jacques Valle suggests in Dimensions. The MJ-12 group and its counterparts in other nations would be the starting point. Here's where the plot thickens. In fact, it ties in with more mundane conspiracy theories in the political sphere which allege that the Rockefellers, Rothschilds, Trilateralists, Bilderbergers, Council on Foreign Relations and other groups are th e hidden powers and the secret establishments directing world affairs through international banking and control of the media, education, science and military/political institutions in order to set up a one-world social order with themselves at the seats of power.

There are some plausible arguments for this made by responsible, credible thinkers and scholars such as Carroll Quigley and Antony Sutton; there are also some absolutely bozo claims made by head-for-the-hills survivalists and fringe Christian fundam entalists. I try to assess them all to see what looks viable, weighing them against my standards of reason, logic and evidence. Now, it's perfectly clear, thanks to Irangate, that international conspiracies can and do happen; the question is to what degr ee and how well coordinated and controlled they are by the alleged secret powers. Until the last few years, I pretty much dismissed the notion of a generations-old international conspiracy to set up a one-world order controlled by international banking in terests such as the Rockefellers and Rothschilds. I reasoned that if there were one conspiracy, there would be others, and the net result would be to negate or at least neutralize each other. No one would gain total control or unassailable ascendancy. T he vagaries of world affairs were just too unpredictable; too many things could go wrong; people wouldn't stay loyal to such a cause all their lives; evidence of it simply couldn't be covered up forever.

Then the Gray aliens came into view, and the situation took on a wholly different complexion.

If the aliens have secretly planted their agents throughout civilization for decades and if they are pursuing contact with the top echelons of power here in the USA via MJ-12 and its successors--as suggested by reports of Project Aquarius, Project S igma, Project Garnet and Project Snowbird in Jerome Clark's four-part review of UFO crash/retrievals in Fate earlier this year--then over the years they could have been playing out a hand that was strategized nowhere but in Hell. Look at the membership of those power groups such as MJ-12. They lead straight into the heart of the most disturbing "conventional" conspiracy theories about international finance and military/political intrigue. For example, consider the Skull and Bones Society at Yale. It is, from the political conspiracy theorists' point of view, the quintessential "evil empire" within the USA. George Bush, McGeorge Bundy, and a large number of the Trilateral Commission members and the Council of Foreign Relations were tapped by this secret s ociety while they were undergraduates at Yale and were bound by an oath of secrecy to loyalty to the "Bones" purpose, which goes far, far beyond simple collegial fraternity and the typical "good ol' boy" network.

The conspiracy theorists say that the aim of all this is to covertly create a new world order in which the secret establishment becomes the hidden power controlling global affairs--its economy, science, industry, religion, education, technology, et c., even while maintaining for the masses a facade of increasing freedom and prosperity for the world. Nationhood would wither away, but political power would not. It would be consolidated behind a screen through the fraternal bonds of men (Skull and Bon es excludes women) whose aims and loyalty are not to any country or group except their own transnational cabal.

Imagine that such a conspiracy has been going on for decades; that would explain US State Department approval of high-technology transfer from American industry to the Soviet Union, even when it ends up used against America in military situations, a nd multimillion dollar bank loans to the Soviet Union with no assurances sought that they won't be used to underwrite anti-American activities. Then imagine that the aliens not only know of the conspiracy and understand its operations, but have also cunningly schemed to infiltrate it and co-opt it by pretending to establish friendly but secret relations with it. What would be the nature of the directing intelligence behind the aliens' scheme? It seems to me that the Gray aliens alone are not smart enough or powerful enough to pull it off, despite their technological edge. I see it like this:

The aliens are glad to let the human conspirators continue their work aimed at world domination because the humans don't realize the danger they've gotten into by making what is in reality a diabolical pact. The human secret establishment thinks it' s simply got an edge by making contact with the aliens because the aliens can provide advanced technology to help the power brokers advance their scheme; all they have to do is let the aliens continue with their "scientific" work of abducting people for "e xamination." But the aliens' intention is to be the power behind the power behind the throne. And the MJ-12 successors played right into their hands.

When John Lear says the MJ-12 team is scared of what they've gotten into, he would be right if the people involved have begun to realize the magnitude of the deadly game they've been suckered into--which seems likely. Just as they see their "final" victory nearing--i.e., global affairs are tending well for the establishment of a one-world order, exactly as they've been working for over decades--the aliens trump them and in effect the secret establishment itself becomes subtly, secretly but inescapab ly enslaved, exactly as they sought to do to others. A delicious irony there--but don't laugh too loud about it because the situation, if I'm correct, is appalling. It's the Book of Revelation coming true: a titanic war in the heavens between the power s of light and the powers of darkness for the liberation or enslavement of all humanity.

Now, return to those alien-raised humans and humanoids. If the aliens are as knowledgeable about human psychology, physiology and anatomy as UFO research indicates--i.e., reports show that they can completely control the human nervous system, effec t instant healings, alter memory, perform precise surgical operations on the brain and visceral organs--then they are wholly competent to "program" human beings to react in certain ways upon signal. Under hypnosis, abductee Betty Andreasson stated repeate dly in The Andreasson Affair--Phase Two that she would reveal something in the future when the time is right as determined by the aliens; quite independently, her future husband, Bob Luca, received exactly the same mental programming from abducting Grays.

Thus, the alien-humans would undoubtedly be programmed to rise up with violence and armed warfare if the aliens felt it necessary to achieve their aims in extremis. Imagine hundreds of thousands of Manchurian Candidates, each programmed to eliminate/assa ssinate designated leaders and officials so that the aliens' hand-picked candidates can come forward. Far out? Not in the shadowy world of subversion, political intrigue and life-or-death struggle for conquest of Planet Earth.

Where do all the alien-humans come from? Many would undoubtedly be bred in vitro from sperm and ova, but many others would have been obtained the easy way--by kidnaping children. An estimated one million children are missing in the USA each year. Where could they all go? If just one percent of them were abducted by aliens, that's a sizable population to work with at off-world basesI

If you will grant the plausibility of this admittedly fantastic scenario so far, it then makes sense to say that the Gray aliens are not the "ultimate" type of beings contacting us in this matter. They are alien, through I'm not convinced they're e xtraterrestrial. However, it appears there is another "race" behind the Gray aliens, covertly directing their activities. This "race" is not merely "alien"--it is evil. It is truly sinister, malevolent and unswervingly committed to the damnation of all humanity--and it is definitely not extraterrestrial. These intelligences have been characterized in ancient scriptures and sacred traditions as native to Earth, demonic, hostile to our very existence as free people and intent upon dominating us totally--p hysically, mentally and spiritually. St. Paul spoke of humanity contending with "powers and principalities." My reason, research and personal experience lead me to conclude that such entities are ontologically real, albeit paraphysical. I see the hand of such intelligences behind much of the UFO phenomenon. I will even name the chief entity, using its Judeo-Christian appellation: Lucifer/Satan. To say more than that in a meaningful manner, however, would take several more kilobytes. I am prepared to g et into the issue of Lucifer/Satan and its nature, purpose and role in the UFO experience, but that will depend on my assessment of the response to this discussion.

In closing, I will say that, in my judgment, we humans are not alone against forces of darkness. I also see benign and even benevolent "alien intelligences" here as well, trying to assist us in this struggle for psychobiological integrity, spiritua l advancement and true planetary unity, as Brad Steiger suggests in The Fellowship. We are surrounded by "angels unawares" who, as agents of godliness, seek in subtle ways to guide and protect us. For example, the beings of light whom people meet during near-death experiences (NDE) are providing tremendous support for humanity in what I see as a struggle between the forces of light and darkness. The light-beings' nature is clearly evident by the effect they have upon human lives. Completely unlike the a bducting Gray aliens, the NDE light-beings produce no traumatic consequences on people whatsoever. Humans who meet them while in the near-death state report later that they sensed only unconditional love and forgiveness for misdeeds radiating wordlessly from these entities. Abducting aliens induce fear and long-lasting anxiety, disturbing dreams and a disturbed personality; NDE light-beings have an aftereffect which brings people a sense of ultimate peace, cosmic goodness, reverence for life, deepened spi rituality, concern for fellow humans and the environment--a general revaluing of a materialistic, egotistic life-style in the name of God and Love. Here in America alone, an estimated 8,000,000 people have undergone an NDE. If America is the leading edge of a millennial demonic invasion, as I'm postulating, it is also the site of an even greater number of transformative, uplifting, inspiring encounters with entities traditionally called angels, saints and enlightened teachers. And such activity must be h appening around the globe. Does this not indicate a colossal support system of metaphysical forces which intend salvation for humanity, building in opposition to what I have posited as a hellish plot aimed at complete enslavement of humanity and Planet Earth?

* In 1972, while visiting the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, I learned from my guide--a JPL employee--that the facility had analyzed many UFO photographs. My guide told me that JPL had explained away all of them except one. That one, he told me, was taken by a man who provided such good information about the time of day, location, camera and film that JPL, after using computer enhancement of the photo, could offer only two explanations. The man who submitted the photo said he s aw a UFO passing in front of the moon. JPL would not confirm it but said there definitely was something real in the photo. The only trouble was that they couldn't tell if it was a small object about two feet in front of the camera or something 1,000 mile s long at a distance of 100,000 miles from Earth. A mother ship?