As we approach the Aquarian Age, more and more mysterious phenomena grip the public's attention. Probably none has generated as much controversy as the rash of UFO sightings beginning in the 1940's. In fact, many supposedly New Age phenomena have been associated with or attributed to UFO activity, including crop circles, psychic messages, cattle mutilations, aircraft disappearances, and even extra-terrestrial abductions.

Although most Americans, according to polls, believe in UFO visitors, there is no objective, scientific evidence of an extraterrestrial presence on this planet. The vast majority of alleged "sightings" can be explained by considering appearance, trajectory, and general dynamic and luminescent behavior. Reflections of the sun's rays from airplanes, weather balloons and various meteorological phenomena account for most reports.

But what of the hundreds of global reports by apparently sane people who claim to have UFO abduction experiences? The popular movie "Fire In The Sky" and the book Abduction, by respected Harvard professor John E. Mack, M.D., epitomize the cry to be believed by some people who report anomalous, supernormal experiences.

In a certain percentage of these cases there is undoubtedly a strong psychological factor. A small number of reports are made by individuals prone to fantasize. Dr. Carl Jung attributed most sightings to deep unconscious forces within the witness-unresolved conflicts. He reminded us that just a few centuries ago in Europe many people reported being assaulted or carried away by fairies, and certain Indian cultures have drug-induced hallucinations in their rituals which also feature contact with superior beings. But what about the majority of investigated claims of alien contact? What are the points in common?

Actually, the stories contain strikingly similar details. Abductees report being summoned at night to a window or door where they were escorted by strange creatures. They report feeling powerless to resist, and although they communicate telepathically with their abductors, their questions or pleas are ignored by unfeeling beings who conduct experiments on them. When the individuals awake, they generally recall nothing but suffer from "lost time, depression, and trauma."

And what other factors do these people have in common? Some report they have a heightened level of awareness, of sensitivity; others describe the activation of psychic impressions; and most claim they fear a loss of control as a result of the experience. Many describe it as "dream-like but more than a dream."

You will note that the salient characteristics of the experience are hypnotic or trance-like induction, forced participation in experiments that are often sexual in nature, and a total lack of compassion or understanding. In most cases, where an individual other than the victim was at home and awake during a reported abduction, there was no awareness of the victim being physically absent. It seems to this author that, while we can only hypothesize at this juncture, what we are dealing with here is actually a supernatural or spiritual phenomenon. The typical other-worldly nature of the experience suggests the true location of these quasi events to be on a nonphysical plane, and not on an airship constructed of matter. The invasive manipulation of intelligent, self-determined creatures such as man can never be the work of a beneficent, evolved race of beings.

As more and more people are being born who are sensitive to the changing etheric conditions of this planet, many are, frequently unbeknownst to themselves, living on the threshold to the spiritual dimensions. It behooves us to keep in mind that just as there are many more weeds on earth than flowers, so on the other side there may be more nefarious entities than there are benign ones. Or, at the very least, they may be more intrusive and meddlesome.

The Cosmo informs us that our benefactors are extra-terrestrial in origin, but they do not traverse the vast distances in physical space craft. To find balance in the coming Age we need to focus our attention on our spiritual values: discrimination, felicity, goodwill and always compassion. This is how we become invincible to the sinister forces at work about us. But lest any should fall through weakness, remember that we have an Advocate in Christ Jesus and in His ministers the Invisible Helpers, who never refuse a plea for help.
 — Rick Manoff
 — Rays from the Rose Cross Magazine, March/April, 1996