ccn~..:· '!
.·i~d in
.... ;l !!~~
':lid, i,;
·j is 4~
··:"·,.''~!ng,
:-,,~.[ bv
~ n·~ighbourhood of
Proxima Centauri. Jf tiwt is w rnd it is
simply a question of thought control, then
it comes down apparently to a sort of
cosmic joke being pla)'td by thtse sentient
beings from 4! Jig!"t yeas away on the
unfortunate inha bitanis of this giobe; they
are a sort of hallm:imticJl' in tk1t they
ind·uce us by thcught control to l::clie-·;e in
ther.1. It is a conceiYable tl:_~ory but I do
not think it is a tenable one.
There are, it is true, these who believe
that major landings fr.)m Ol'ter space h:we
taken place in the pirly widespread in
the world, although d course there is no
proof that such father figures ever really
descended from the sky.
The nearest one in ti:ne to our own era
-I 0,ucte this only to dmw Gttention to the
lengths to which this kind of hlicf can go
-is the theory, quite popular l belieYe in
Russia, that Christ wcs a ccsmon?ut, the
star of Bethlehem bcirw a larl!e lJFO from
which, to the amuzencent of the shepherds,
cm:trged '' the Heavenly Host " who left
believe, if you W3i1t, that UFOs conL:in
people from aDother world which is
watching m. c:nd whcsc intentions r:rc
benevolent :md perkps designed to s:1ve
o'Jr distr£,ct;;d phnet frc.m t~1e horrors of
:mother w;:r by sm:1cLcw di~posing of the
wicted and tr'.llS ima:gur:HiJ'g: a new era.
Believe that if ycu lih.
J am afn~id, hmve-•cr, that rJI Sl;ch
imaginings :::re due chiefiy to the dis-
content with the present human condition
and to r.n tmconscic•us de-sire to e~capc
from the horrors or rott>ntiai horrors of
our esrthly life. Vihe:1 we bclic\'ed that
if we were -::ood we would, when we died,
go to Hc8v"en, there was no inclination to
go to some new world ne2r Andmmeda;
and wheiher another wv:ld other than
Heaven itself \Vas v:<:tching us did not
worry us overmuch. Prt:sumr.bly, it W<'.S
the angels.
The more over-populated our planet
becomes, the greater the violence and the
more appalling the '.vars, the n-:.ore,
unconsciously perhaps, we want to lc~ve
it if we can or trust in other worldly inter-
vention; and the more intense thcn.:fore
th~ longing, the greater the tcmpt2.tion
to believe that there actually is somewhere
else to which we can physically go or to
which we C3l1 somehow make ~n appeal.
It was a great disappointrr:ent ''hen the
moon was discovered to be a mass of
grey plasticine, that Iv1ars was even rnorc
unpleasant than the middle of the Sahara
and that Venus was the nearest thing
to Hell.
What is the moral? I agree with the
right reverend Prelate, who said so
eloquently-we arc indebted to him for
his intervention~that perhaps the moral
is that we had better not put our trust
in saucers for salYation but, rather, con-
centrate on how best to conduct our-
selves here below so as to live in charity
with our neighbours and eventually die
in peace. If the UFOs contain sentient
beings, we can only leave it to such being
to get in touch with us when, and if, they
will. Up to now, if they exist, they have
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