The UFO phenomenon, in its totality, is surprisingly complex. Understandably, this is not recognized by the general public. Although various opinion polls indicate that the majority of the population feel that “UFOs are for real,” only patient study, and—even more important—direct involvement with the witnesses to this greatly perplexing phenomenon can demonstrate the extent of the complexity. The man on the street’s simple opinion that either UFOs are all nonsense or that visitors from outer space do exist is brutally destroyed by close study. But this is not a new insight: In science, it is well recognized that investigations into many subjects spawn more questions than they answer. In the area of UFOs, deeper acquaintance reveals a subject that has not only potentially important scientific aspects but sociological, psychological, and even theological aspects as well.
The Andreasson case involves all these aspects—so much so, and in such bizarre fashion, that in the past I frankly would not have touched an invitation to write the foreword for a book treating “contactees,” abduction, mental telepathy, mystical symbolism, and physical contact and examination by “aliens.” But across the years I have learned to broaden my view of the entire UFO phenomenon, and I now realize that it is a composite of many “inputs.” It does not seem to be just one single thing, but—as has often happened in science—what at first seemed to have just one component has turned out to have several.
This book really started with a letter to me from the principal witness. At that time I had neither the spare hours nor, I confess, the inclination to follow it up, and I let the letter lie for some time. Then one day I reread it. Here was a sincere person asking assistance, not knowing where to turn, and I felt I could not be callous and consign the long-unanswered letter to the “circular file.” It occurred to me that because Ray Fowler and his associates were not too far from the witness, they might do the Center for UFO Studies and me a favor and discharge the obligation that the letter implicitly imposed. I am glad that Mr. Fowler undertook what at first must have seemed an unwelcome task. But he and his associates did, and there has resulted a most interesting book. No, “interesting” is not sufficient; it is a book that will captivate, bother, intrigue, and even frighten as one pursues it and contemplates its implications.
Fowler is to be complimented on his perseverance in the investigation of this case of very high “strangeness.” It leads down many paths that make Alice’s wanderings in Wonderland pale by comparison. And those who still hold that the entire subject of UFOs is nonsense will be sorely challenged if they have the courage to take an honest look at the present book. For whatever the UFO phenomenon is (or are), it is not nonsense. It would take an imagination of the highest order to explain the reported happenings described herein as mere misidentifications of balloons, aircraft, meteors, or planets! Neither is there the slightest evidence of hoax or contrivance.
The present work will also challenge those who consider UFOs solely synonymous with physical craft that transport flesh-and-blood denizens from distant solar systems. A former book by Mr. Fowler, UFOs: Interplanetary Visitors, upholds this more popular concept of UFOs, and many of the cases he describes tend to give strong support to that hypothesis. But here we have “creatures of light” who find walls no obstacle to free passage into rooms and who find no difficulty in exerting uncanny control over the witnesses’ minds. If this represents an advanced technology, then it must incorporate the paranormal just as our own incorporates transistors and computers. Somehow, “they” have mastered the puzzle of mind over matter.
Of course, all this is predicated on the premise that this entire series of adventures is not the result of some complex psychological drama played in concert. If so, it would still be a fine case study in abnormal psychology. But more and more of these high-strangeness cases are surfacing. Like the Andreasson case, they outrage our common sense, and they do constitute a challenge to our present belief systems. Readers who become intrigued by the Andreasson narrative would be well advised to acquaint themselves with accounts of other Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind—not only those in which regressive hypnosis is the chief source of information, as in the present case. One can dismiss the hypnosis reports as unreliable and fanciful, but this is much more difficult to do where the data source is the witnesses’ conscious mind. Such information is available through serious UFO organizations like MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) in Seguin, Texas, of which Mr. Fowler is one of the directors, and CUFOS (Center for UFO Studies) in Evanston, Illinois.
Readers who delve further into the fascinating world of the UFO phenomenon will come to understand for themselves the worldwide scope of the phenomenon, and the problems and challenges that it presents.
J. Allen Hynek
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois
Figure 1: The Andreasson house and property as they appeared in 1967.