"Although many of its readers might view `Saucer Smear' merely as a droll ufology gossip rag, in the larger picture it is rather more accurately a profound `window' opening up onto the sociology of ufology. Therefore its cumulative issues constitute a precious historical archive - made even more so in that this (largely fratricidal) sociology comes into view via the abundantly offered-up and quoted words of the ufologists - themselves inadvertently unzipping their skulls to reveal whatever endowments and jewels are passing amongst them as ratiocination. Of course the elegant, if gloriously sardonic, presentation of this sociology (not itself known for elegance) arises from the finely attuned and penetrating Noel Coward qualities of The Editor - who should be Esteemed:..."
-Psychic researcher INGO SWANN, writing "in appreciation of `Saucer Smear' and its Esteemed Editor"

Saucer Smear
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE SAUCER & UNEXPLAINED CELESTIAL EVENTS RESEARCH SOCIETY
EDITOR AND STILL
SUPREME COMMANDER:
James W. Moseley, J.S.

 NON-SCHEDULED
NEWSLETTER
Volume 42, No. 1
January 5th, 1995

 MAILING ADDRESS:
P. 0. Box 1709
Key West, FL 33041

BOOK REVIEW:

SECRET CIPHER OF THE UFONAUTS, by ALLEN GREENFIELD
(IllumiNet Press, P.O. Box 2808, Dilburn, Georgia 30226; $9.95)

This is a most unusual, interesting, and possibly significant book, in which an attempt is made to connect occultism through the centuries directly with the UFO movement of the past 48 years.

We have known the author, Allen Greenfield, for about 50 years, during which time he has labored in relative obscurity as a highly intelligent scholar in various fields including "magick", politics, and of course ufology. One is reminded of our former friend Yonah ibn A'haron (aka Yonah Fortner) who has followed a similar course, in even greater obscurity. A'haron is mentioned several times in the book, as is your humble "Smear" editor. The references to us are so favorable that we are willing to overlook the terrible fact that "Moseley" is misspelled in the index, though not elsewhere.

The basic premise of Greenfield's present position is that there are various secret ciphers that have been passed down through the ages by various secret societies; and one of these, which he calls "Cipher 6", yields meaningful results when applied to many of the "funny names" (Orthon, Valiant Thor, etc.) which have turned up in UFO contactee literature.

In the chart below, which we have literally ripped out of the book, one sees that numerical values are assigned to each letter of the English alphabet, and it goes on from there. Though the math involved in cipher study is no more complex than simple addition, the concepts are exceedingly complex and, as Greenfield himself would no doubt admit, controversial. Your editor, whose occult knowledge is close to absolute zero, took great joy in just learning to understand the chart itself!


For Greenfield, the ufologists who most deserve study are those whom he presumes to have had occult knowledge - beginning with Meade Layne, the founder, in about 1946, of Borderland Sciences Research Associates (BSRA), which is still in existence in (where else?) California. Then came George Adamski (who met Orthon); George Hunt Williamson & other Adamski disciples; Ray Palmer, who gave birth to Richard Shaver's "Shaver Mystery"; and even Dr. Frank Stranges, who met Valiant Thor. Incidentally, Palmer always claimed that he had a unique FACT that enabled him to solve the UFO mystery. The word FACT, as it turns out has a cipher significance.

In 1974 a solution was found to certain previously unintelligible groups of ciphers, and after this breakthrough, a computer study was made of the various possibilities of meaning that this opened up. Unfortunately, about 20,000 variants have thus been discovered,and many more are possible. As Greenfield himself admits (Page 43):

"Because there are an infinite number of numbers and many combinations of letters, words and phrases, obviously - and this is an old criticism of both simple numerology and Qabala - by stretching until one finds something that correlates to a preconceived notion, one can, if persistent, find just about anything. The difference here is that, by confining myself to the contents of the short book from which the cipher is derived, and limiting my search pattern to one or two attempts to find something significant with no preconceptions whatsoever, where UFOnaut personal and place names are concerned, there are virtually always case-specific correlations on the very first attempt."
What is needed, in our opinion, is to find someone with an open but skeptical mind who is familiar with the history of occultism and with the various subjects (including ufology) covered in Greenfield's book; and who also is an expert on the mathematics of statistics, probability, etc. We are certain that Greenfield is intellectually honest enough to be distressed ed rather than pleased with the fact that it is highly unlikely any such person exists. The idea, of course, would be to find out whether his correlations are significantly beyond what the mathematics of chance would predict. We do not know, but are fascinated by his line of scholarship.

As much as we like Greenfield and his book, and fully realizing that ridicule is not part of the scientific method (though it's so much fun!), we can't close this review without quoting the following gem from a letter written to us by one Dean Zevchek after hearing Greenfield's cipher lecture at last year's National UFO Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. States he: 

  TV's Barney has become a cultural icon and role model for children
  these days. But exactly what is Barney? Well, he's simply a "Cute
  Purple Dinosaur." Let us take that one step further and apply my
  "secret cipher" to Barney...

  CVTE PVRPLE DlNOSAVR  (Remember that the Romans had no letter "U"
                           and used "V" instead)
  C+V+V+L +D+l +V       (Here we extract all Roman Numerals)
  100+5+5+50+500+1+5    (Now we add them together)
  - 666                 (Do you want you children watching a show
                         where the secret cipher equates the star to evil?)

  The color of Allan Greenfield's shirt was the very same color as
  Barney, therefore, according to the cipher, Greenfield could be a
  Barney disciple spreading disinformation!!!

Finally, as a counter-balance to the above, we call your attention cryptically to Greenfield's Chapter Twelve, "An interview with Terry R. Wriste" (presumably not his real name). This has to do with the Shaver Mystery, ciphers, and the UFO contactee syndrome. We won't tell you any more - except that we really did read all of this book, and Chapter Twelve alone is worth the PRICE. (In cipher talk, key words are CAPITALIZED.) Yes, once again folks, that's $9.95!....

MISCELLANEOUS RAVINGS:

TIDBITS OF TRASH:

31st Annual UFO Conference, Cleveland, Ohio
ufologists: Tom Carey, Jim Moseley, Kevin Randle

LETTERS TO YE OLDE EDITOR:

 The following item is lifted bodily from the September 1994 issue of Barry Greenwood's fine zine "JUST CAUSE" (Box 176, Stoneham, Ma 02180):

AIR FORCE REACTS OFFICIALLY TO BOGUS DOCUMENTS

Pictured here is a relatively new procedure by the Air Force. With the influx of hoaxed documents started by the MJ-12 deception, the Air Force has created a rubber stamp to label clearly questionable material. In the past the Air Force, and other agencies failed to quickly rebut suspicious papers, allowing some of these documents to go unchallenged for long periods of time. Officials occassionally vacillated on giving detailed responses, feeling that the time doing so was poorly spent. This was a mistake because it allowed controversies to fester to the point that more time had to be spent dealing with increasingly numerous honest inquiries about the fakes at a later date than in dealing with them at the moment that the fakes first appeared.

Given the rate at which hoaxes are being produced, this stamp will likely be worn out before long.

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