Nick Redfern January 26, 2022

When it comes to the matter of UFOs, it’s not a subject that just revolves around aliens, extraterrestrial crafts, alien abduction, and government cover-ups. There are also the connections that roll into such realms as the paranormal, the supernatural, and the occult. I know for sure that many people in Ufology don’t like to tie UFOs with the paranormal. Too bad: there is an undeniable component, and it should not be dismissed or ignored. For example, I made the connections between UFOs, aliens and the paranormal in my 2010 book, Final Events, a book that looked at how and why a small element of the U.S. government believed that the UFO mystery was/is demonic. Flying Saucer Review’s editor, Gordon Creighton, eventually came around to believing that our so-called aliens are really something very different: nothing less than Middle Eastern Djinn in cunning disguise. The very same goes for the late Rosemary Ellen Guiley. A good friend of mine, Rosemary also came to believe that the Djinn were linked to not just UFOs and aliens, but also cryptozoological creatures like Bigfoot and the werewolf-like Dog-Men. Today, however, I’m going to focus on one particular man: Trevor James Constable, a ufologist who was a big figure in the 1950s-era of Ufology.

(Nick Redfern) Nick Redfern and the late Djinn expert, Rosemary Ellen Guiley

First, we get to another character, a man named Gray Barker (the author of such books as They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers and The Silver Bridge (the latter on the 1966-1967 saga of Mothman). Back in 1962, Barker published a follow-up – and a far less known – title to Albert Bender’s Flying Saucers and the Three Men. It went by the moniker of Bender Mystery Confirmed. It was, basically, a 100-page-long collection of letters from readers of Bender’s book and who wanted to offer their thoughts and theories on its contents. One of those people was Trevor James Constable. Constable – the author of They Live in the Sky, and someone who believed that at least some UFOs are living, jellyfish-like creatures – wrote the following letter to Gray Barker, which the latter duly published in Bender Mystery Confirmed. Constable’s words to Barker make it clear just how deep Constable was into the paranormal side of Ufology. Constable wrote…

“Dear Gray, It is difficult indeed for me, as an occultist with some firsthand experience of this field of UFOs, to sort out Bender’s journeys back and forth across the threshold line between the physical and the astral. A biometric examination of Al Bender would probably indicate similar things to what it revealed about certain other researchers – total inability to distinguish between events on two planes of reality. Bender’s honesty I do not for a moment doubt. His discrimination I would deem non-existent. It seems almost incredible that the man could relate the full story of the construction of his chamber of horrors in the attic in the way Bender has. This is what convinces me of his honesty. Nothing could be more logical, in an occult way, than that the invisible entities he invited by the preparation of this locale, should indeed manifest to him, and thereafter proceed to obsess him for a protracted period, using hypnotic techniques that brought the man completely under their control.”

(Nick Redfern) My own take on the “UFOs are paranormal” angle

Constable added to Barker: “As to the nature of the entities involved, it seems that my writings about the ‘imperceptible physical’ as source of many space ships, or so-called space ships, are only too close to the truth. Indeed, if Bender’s experience has any value, I’d like to suggest that it certainly illuminates a re-reading of They Live in the Sky. I don’t believe I know of any case quite like Bender’s, where a man seemingly oblivious to the reality and laws of the occult, brought upon himself the energetic attention of aggressive occult forces [italics mine]. Certainly, the man can thank some kind of Divine intervention for the preservation of his sanity – if everything he writes is true. Assuming that Bender has been truthful and honest, I would say that the lesson of his experiences is this. For the understanding of the UFOs and all the bewildering phenomena connected in this field, a working knowledge of occult science is indispensable. This lesson, driven home in innumerable ways since saucers came to mankind, is given new force with the Bender book. But few there will be who will heed it.”

There was more from Constable in his letter to Barker: “It does not surprise me to learn of the various manifestations you report – in fact, an occultist would be surprised if they did not occur. The psychic lady in Cleveland undoubtedly provides enough prana [‘prana’ being a Sanskrit word meaning ‘life-force’], voluntarily or involuntarily, to permit the near manifestations of low grade entities drawn to her aura by her concentration on the book. The odor of drains and these occurrences in the toilet are old hat to occult students. It might give you pause to wonder just what you are setting on foot for some people, and undoubtedly drawing to yourself. Not for the sake of money did I suggest that you leave this kind of thing behind! The impulse to burn the book is mighty interesting. This impulse springs from the best kind of intuition. When the Fire Gods come, everyone else in the unseen departs. It’s as simple as that, so the lady in question would have been well advised to consume the book in fire, as her intuition so rightly prompted her. The lady who returned the book was also wise, if she felt that way. Send it back to its source – a sound occult system of personal defense, if no higher knowledge is at the individual’s disposal.”

What Constable was talking about here – with regard to one reader burning her copy of Albert Bender’s Flying Saucers and the Three Men and another one who felt so unclean and infected after handling the book that she felt the need to mail it back to Barker – were other people who had written to Barker and whose accounts Barker privately shared with Constable. And also those who felt there was something “dangerous” and “dirty” about the Bender book. In other words, there was a belief on the part of more than a few who suspected the copies of the books themselves were “possessed.” That’s what I mean when I say that Constable was someone whose involvement in 1950s-era Ufology went far beyond just the extraterrestrial theory for what was going on. Constable – regardless of what you think of his views on UFOs – was way beyond just all that.

MU*

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