I honestly don't know if UFOs are alien spacecraft, but I am convinced that something funny is going on.

Psychologist Carl Jung suggested that some people have a need to believe in flying saucers. Occult writer Robert Anton Wilson (among others) has pointed out that many details saucer sightings of the last 100 years resemble Virgin Mary sightings of the previous century, and suggests that whatever the source of the phenomenon is, people tend to interpret it in terms of their own belief systems, religious or scientific. I myself wonder if details also match those of Elvis sightings.)

Jacques Vallee is one of the few scientists working in the field of UFO investigation. He was the inspiration for the French character, Claude Lacombe (played by filmmaker François Truffaut) in the Steven Spielberg movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) [ASIN: B00003CX9G]. In one of Vallee's books, Messengers of Deception (1980) [ISBN: 0553139061] he argues that UFOS are probably not alien spacecraft because there are too many sightings. Given the remote areas where they tend to occur, and the sheer number of them, UFO reports would imply that aliens are making millions of visit a year to earth. Another interesting trend is that eyewitnesses tend to disagree on details of what happened — did they stay in the car, did the craft land — and yet they all tend to pass lie detector tests. Vallee's suggestion is that these events are the results of some secret technology, perhaps a ray capable of "scrambling" people's minds, used by humans on humans; combined with light shows, they result in the fog-brained sighting reports. As to what motivates these pranksters, Vallee could only guess. One person he interviewed claimed it was Satanists trying to hasten the breakdown of faith in organized religion.

Whatever they are, "dry cleaning bags filled with marsh gas" or "mass insanity," UFOs are popular. In showing a draft of this web site to people, many — especially kids — went straight for the aliens. Cashing in on alien hysteria, the state of Nevada in 1996 designated a stretch of SR-375, the road to Nellis Air Force Base and so-called "Area 51," as the "Extra-Terrestrial Highway," hoping to increase tourism.

The town or Rachel is an "epicenter" of UFO-seeking in Nevada. Proprietor Glenn Campbel owns the store there, and on his web site [www.aliensonearth.com] he actually warns people away from coming to Rachel: he says it's a long way, there's nothing to do there, and you won't see UFOs. (I guess he's had some complaints.)

There is definitely something other-wordly about the Mojave Desert. With all the recent excitement of the Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, currently sending back pictures of the Red Planet, on a hunch I did a "google" search for Mars and Mojave. I found that not only have a number of Mars rovers been tested in this desert, but of the 18 known meteorites on Earth believed to have come from Mars, two were found in the Mojave. (My wife says it's because the lack of vegetation makes it easier to find them.)

While researching this web site, I talked to a number of people at diners, museums, bookstores and motels and asked them all if they knew about the upcoming "driverless vehicles" race through the area coming up Saturday 13 March 2004. It's called the DARPA Grand Challenge Autonomous Vehicle Race [link-1]. Almost none of them had heard of it, but almost all of them told me they rembered when the solar powered vehicles came through racing a few years back, and some remembered several different Mars rover tests.

This "other worldly" quality may have helped to inspire radio talk show host Art Bell to broadcast his nightime "Coast to Coast" show on the paranormal from the Mojave desert town of Pahrump, near the Old Spanish Trail.

In any case, my advice on how to enjoy the "E.T. Desert" is to stop at the Alien Fresh Jerky stand in Baker and get an off-world souvenir [link-8].

Last update 12:24 PM Fri. 27-Feb-2004 by ABS.