Article/Document:

Dr. Carl Jung And The UFOs: The Real Story!

Gordon Creighton, Flying Saucer Review, Volume 46/4, Winter 2001, pp. 7-11.

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Summary: 

"[In July of last year I received an E-mail from Mr. Chuck
Schultz of Colorado [...] asking for information regarding the
great Carl Jung's true opinions about UFOs.

This happened to be a very important question on which I had
done a lot of work in the years past, and which, as I knew, had
involved one of the most disgraceful examples of denial and
"cover-up" that I had ever encountered.

I was able to answer Chuck Schultz's questions but it has struck
me forcibly that this entire phase of UFO research history,
involving Dr. Jung, must be totally unknown to our younger
readers of today!

So I publish below an account, as succinct as I can make it,
describing Jung's years of study of "our subject", the
conclusions to which he finally came before he died in 1961, and
the highly successfull "cover story" maintained ever after to
prevent the world from knowing what those conclusions were !.
G.C.]

As we know, when the "Flying Saucer Phenomenon" erupted into
human consciousness in 1947 and the years immediately following,
the powerful folk of our world - politicians, military,
scientists, doctors, priests of religion - all had their own
particular reasons for being deeply worried.

But there was yet another important category who were possibly
even more perplexed and concerned. These were - if one can lump
them together for convenience - the left-wing eggheads and
intellectuals and humanists, (so-called "liberals"), academics
and university circles, and of course quite especially perturbed
were those who called themselves "psychologists",
"psychiatrists", and "anthropologists".

The reason for this concern was that, by and large, the great
majority of these folk were no doubt of a left-wing, marxist,
materialistic, "atheistic" turn of mind, and therefore
inordinately attached to those favourite shibboleths of theirs
which we can term in general as "DARWINISM" + associated ideas.

For it could not require much gumption to perceive that, if ever
one single, solitary human or "humanoid" or man-like creature
were to step out of one of those "flying saucers", it would be a
mighty awkward moment for the theories of Darwin and his
followers.

I myself still recall with much amusement how, one day in the
early 50s - just five or six years or so after Kenneth Arnold's
famous sighting - a cleaning lady who worked regularly in our
house and whom my wife and I would have thought to be "pretty
thick", astonished us by pointing to a pile of my "UFO books"
and remarking: "IT WOULD ALL KNOCK THE BOTTOM OUT OF DARWINISM,
WOULDN'T IT!"

She, whom we had mistakenly thought an ignorant and benighted
soul, had instantly perceived the problem with total clarity.
Neither my wife or I ever forgot the episode.

***** By the 1950s the great era of the Vienna School and of the
pioneers of Psychiatry, Freud, Adler, Ranke, was of course long
past, but there still remained the towering figure of one of
them, and the greatest, the Swiss Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)
who, after having collaborated closely in the early days in
Vienna with Freud, had finally broken away from him and
proceeded to elaborate his own new theory of the "Collective
Unconscious".

Jung was evidently a much bigger guru figure than Freud, and
very speedily indeed he began to perceive that this flying
saucer business might be something highly important. He started
collecting material at once, about 1947, and lost no time in
contacting Donald Keyhoe in the U.S.A. and joining his group,
N.I.C.A.P. (National Investigative Committee on Aerial
Phenomena).

Jung was of course living in his home land, Switzerland, and one
of the earliest UFO study groups in Europe, the Association
Mondialiste Interplanetaire, had just been launched there under
Professor Alfred Nahon.

This group had a journal, Le Courier Interplantetaire, and they
quickly asked Jung to write an article for them. I give below
the full text of Jung's article which, after appearing in French
in their journal, was re-published by our first FSR Editor,
Derek Dempster, in an English translation, in our second issue
of FSR (May/June 1955). (As we can see, Jung was cautious in
his statements, and evidently determined not to reveal exactly
how much he knew or he suspected):-


I. Dr. Carl Jung Himself on Unidentified Flying Objects
[Reprint from FSR Vol.1, No. 2 (May/June 1955)]

In the course of years, I have gathered together a considerable
mass of observations, included in which are reports by two
eyewitnesses known to me personally (I have never seen
anything!). I have also read on the question. However, I can
only say for certain: these things are not a mere rumour:
something has been seen.

A purely psychological explanation is ruled out by the fact that
a large number of observations indicate a natural phenomenon,
even a physical one (explainable in part as reflections or
temperature inversions).

The American Air Force (despite its contradictory statements),
as well as the Canadian, consider the observations to be real
and have set up special Bureaux to compile reports. However,
the "disks" (that is, the objects themselves) do not behave in
accordance with physical laws, but as though without weight, and
they show signs of intelligent guidance, by quasi human pilots,
for their accelerations are such that no normal human could
survive.

What astonishes me most is that the American Air Force, despite
all the information in its possession and its so-called fear of
creating panic, seems to work systematically to do that very
thing (witness the Orson Welles radio play at New Jersey) since
it has never yet published an authentic and certain account of
the facts, only occasionally allowing information to be dragged
out of it by journalists.

This being so, it is impossible for the uninitiated to form an
adequate picture of what is happening. Despite my own eight
years' compilation of all that has come to hand, I must admit
that I am no more advanced than at the beginning: I still do
not know what these Flying Saucers are. Observations read so
strangely that one might be tempted - if one wished to deny the
reality of the facts reported - to compare them to
parapsychological phenomena.

Because of the general uncertainty as to foundations, it would
be useless to speculate. We must await what the future brings.
So-called "scientific" explanations, such as the theory of
reflections by Dr. Menzel, are not possible without abstracting,
'for convenience' sake, any reports which fail to fit in.

If these "bodies" are of extra-terrestrial origin, as is
affirmed, perhaps planetary (from Mars to Venus) one must not
forget observations which speak of "Saucers" springing from
earth or sea. One must also take into consideration numerous
reports of thunderbolts, or of rare, stationary fireballs (not
to be confused with Saint Elmo's fire).

In such isolated cases thunderbolts can attain to considerable
dimensions, moving slowly from one cloud to another in the form
of a sphere of lightning-like brilliance, and of the apparent
thickness of a half-moon, or again making a passage for
themselves through a forest about 13 feet wide and 220 yards
long, splitting all the trees which lie in their path. They are
silent as the Saucers, or may disappear in a clap of thunder.

Perhaps these round thunderbolts, being isolated charges of
electricity (so-called necklace of pearl [;>))] lightning) are
the origin of those formations of Saucers, photographed several
times.

Often electrical phenomena have been reported in conjunction
with Saucer sightings. If, despite this not yet explained
possibility, the extra-terrestrial origin of the phenomena
should be confirmed, this would prove the existence of an
intelligent interplanetary relationship.

What such a fact might mean for humanity cannot be predicted.
But it would put us, without doubt, in the extremely precarious
position of primitive communities today in conflict with the
superior culture of the whites: the rudder would be removed from
our grasp, and we should lose our pleasant dreams.

Naturally, it would be chiefly our science and our technology
which would have to be consigned to the dust-heap. What such a
catastrophe would mean on the moral plane we can in some sort
judge by the ruin of primitive cultures of which we are
witnesses. That the construction of these machines prove a
scientific technology, and one immensely superior to ours,
admits of no two opinions. Just as the Pax Britannica put an
end to the disputes between the tribes of Africa, so our world
could unroll its Iron Curtain and use it as scrap iron, with all
the millions of tons of guns, warships and munitions. This
would not be very serious. But we would have been "discovered"
and colonised - sufficient reason for universal panic!

If we wish to avoid such a catastrophe, the authorities in
possession of important information should not hesitate to
enlighten the public as soon and as completely as possible and
should, above all, stop these ridiculous antics of mysteries and
vague allusions.

So, after all, there is nothing out-of-the-way in the statements
of ancient documents that all sorts of signs and miracles appear
in the skies, or that people look too the skies for a marvellous
intervention coming to the aid of human incapacity.

Our present day observations of Saucers coincide - mutatis
mutandis - with the many reports going back into antiquity,
though not in such astonishing frequency as in these times. But
the possibility of the destruction of a whole continent, which
today is in the hands of politicians, has never existed
previously. -C.G.J.


II. Jung Writes a Book on UFOs.

Jung's next important step was to write a book, which was
published in Zurich, in his own native tongue, German, in 1958.
Its title was : FLYING SAUCERS: A MYTH OF THINGS SEEN IN THE
SKY. It was at once translated into English by R.F.C. Hull, and
appeared in a mass paperback edition in the U.S.A. in 1959
(Signet: New American Library).

Although Jung was actually employing the term "myth" in its more
expressive, and more exotic sense, as of something "in a way
more real than real, i.e., archetypal", you can be sure that the
hordes of our critics and enemies were reassured and overjoyed.
A whole lot of folk no doubt felt immensely relieved!

But soon not everything was to their liking! For there was real
dynamite in an interview that Jung gave to the NEW YORK HERALD-
TRIBUNE - a very important newspaper - and which was published
in its issue for July 30, 1958. It was an A.P. (Associated
Press) report from Alamogordo, New Mexico, dated July 29, and we
will give the [n] text of it at the end of this enquiry.

It must have sent shivers down some important spines, because
our enemies have succeeded wonderfully in getting it completely
buried and forgotten ever since - a situation which enables them
to carry on as before, right up to this day, harping on Jung's
initial belief that it was all a myth.

Never once have I seen this declaration of Jung referred to or
quoted, even by his own supporters or by "UFO Buffs". As
Stanton Friedman never ceases to emphasise, the critics' game is
to refuse to look at the facts and to lie and to lie and to lie
'til the cows come home.

And if they can't win their point by argument, they invariably
descend to the cheapest levels of ridicule, defamation, and
slander. If you can't win your point, get your man!

This is the treatment which we at FSR and all the other
researchers have had to endure for half a century.

III. Dr. Jung Says 'Flying Disks' Suggest Quasi-Human Pilots.
[Re-print from FSR Volume 30, No. 5 (June 1985)

NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, July 30, 1958. Associated Press report
from Alamogordo, N.M., July 29.]

Dr. Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist, says in a report released
yesterday that unidentified flying objects are real, and show
signs of intelligent guidance by quasi-human pilots. "I can only
say for certain that these things are not a mere rumour.
Something has been seen. A purely psychological explanation is
ruled out". Dr. Jung, who had started his research on UFOs in
1944, issued his statement through the UFO-Filter Centre of the
Aerial Phenomena Research Association (A.P.R.O.) here. He said:

"I have gathered a mass of observations of unidentified flying
objects since 1944. The disks do not behave in accordance with
physical laws, but as though without weight."

"If the extraterrestrial origin of these phenomena should be
confirmed, this would prove the existence of an intelligent
interplanetary relationship. What such a fact might mean for
humanity cannot be predicted.

"But it would put us without doubt in the extremely precarious
position of primitive communities in conflict with the superior
culture of the whites.

"That the construction of these machines proves a scientific
technique immensely superior to ours cannot be disputed.

"The United States Air Force has said that investigations of
flying saucer reports over the last ten years have produced no
evidence that such things exist. It said last November that
investigations of 5,700 reported sightings showed that the
mysterious objects were balloons, aircraft, astronomical
phenomena, birds, fireworks, or hoaxes - among other things".

The care with which the foregoing statement by Professor Carl
Jung has been suppressed is highlighted by the extraordinary
fact that even we - at FSR - did not learn of its existence
until 1985 - TWENTY SEVEN YEARS LATER - when it was published by
me on page 22 of FSR 30/5 (June 1985)!

Nevertheless this delay should not be taken as indicating that
FSR had not been "on the ball" as regards Carl Jung. For the
actual fact is that we were for years in direct contact with
him, because one of FSR's best and most experienced European
Consultants was a member of the Jung family! Thus it is that we
knew more about Jung and have more on our files about him than -
assuredly - any other UFO research group!

Our Consultant, Fraulein Louisa Zinsstag (known throughout the
UFO research community as "Lou Zinsstag"), was the daughter of a
woman cousin of Jung. And on top of that comes the interesting
fact that she was already widely reputed to be the top UFO
research expert among civilians in Switzerland! She frequently
came to London for a lunch and a long talk with us at FSR, and
she published a lot of articles, and I understand that her
collection of UFO photos was the best in Europe.

With her articles on UFOs, in the Swiss press, it did not take
long for her to get on the wrong side of the GNOMES OF ZURICH!
The result, as she once told me in great detail, was that she
found herself summoned to appear in the office of the Head of
the Swiss Secret Service. Open on the desk in front of him was a
publication with one of her articles. He told her flatly that he
would see to it that she never had another article on UFOs in
any Swiss publication. And, so far as I could learn, she didn't.

But she remained in close touch with Carl Gustav Jung. And here
is a re-print of the full text of her main report on her talks
with him, which we published in FSR Vol. 9, No. 4 (July/August
1963).

By that date Jung himself had of course already departed from
this world (in 1961). And she, the valiant female warrior for
the truth had gone too (in 1963 or 1964).

[In parenthesis let me here add that the legacy that she left
has probably not been dispersed as almost always happens in UFO
research - but has been preserved intact, for I recall that, two
or three years ago, in a telephone conversation which I had with
Herr Luc Burgin who is apparently today's leader in UFO studies
in Switzerland, he said that Lou Zinsstag's material is
preserved and stored in the archives of one of the Swiss
universities. I do not know which university, but no doubt Luc
Burgin can give details. His address is 28 Mulhauserstrasse,
4056 BASEL, SCHWEIZ. (Telephone: 0041/61322/8156.)


IV. Conversations with Dr. Jung (1958-59). by Lou Zinsstag.
[Reprint from FSR 9/4, (July/August 1953)]

Doctor Carl Gustav Jung was the cousin of my late mother. I had
never met him in my youth but I remember well how my mother and
her sisters talked about experiments in spiritism which he had
carried out as a student at Basle with their younger sister
Helene as his medium. In Jung's last book, a post-mortem
publication, he tells about those experiments without giving
away the name of his medium.

The early death of the pretty and beloved Helene had always been
partly ascribed by my mother to those strenuous experiments.
Considering, however, that Helene had lived another twelve years
after the experiments had been suspended I doubt this. Anyway,
this was the reason why my family lost touch with Carl Gustav, a
fact which I later often regretted.

My own interest in flying saucers arose in 1953. Within a few
years I was in the possession of a remarkable documentary
collection, including UFO photos. A friend of mine, a pupil of
Jung, told him about this and in the summer of 1958 I suddenly
received an invitation to come and have tea with him on a Sunday
afternoon. It was to be one of the best Sunday afternoons I had
ever spent.

Jung's personal charm and human appeal were such that few people
could help falling under his spell. Yet there was nothing of the
magician about him.

Notwithstanding his warm welcoming smile I noticed a sober and
discerning look in his blue eyes when we shook hands. After a
few brief remarks and questions on family matters he promptly
started talking about UFOs. We did not stop any more for the
best part of four hours.

His secretary was with us. She was English, and Jung made the
suggestion that we should use her language in conversation,
because, he said, "the language of air travel is English
everywhere in the world...."

>From the beginning, Jung made it clear that he was still a
sceptic and that my position would be difficult. this was true
up to a certain point but, on the other hand, his wonderful
sense of humour, his witty way of arguing, and above all his
impartiality and matter-of-factness made our conversation the
most delightful one I had ever had.

Jung told me that until recently he had believed that saucers
were made of a soft, fluffy material rather like silk, and not
of metal. However, some time ago he had a visit from a close
friend from the United States, a man of high rank in the army,
and a well-known scientist at a famous university.

This man (he witheld his name) described to him a personal and
most impressive UFO sighting which had lasted for more than
half-an-hour. Jung added that this person's judgement was as
trustworthy to him as his own, and as his friend had strongly
maintained that the object had been metallic, he was now ready
to drop his own belief in the silky material.

His readiness to confess to me, a newcomer, his former and
erroneous belief pleased me. I asked him if he was prepared to
receive a shock in looking at some pictures of such a metallic
ship? "Yes", he said, "I like getting shocks" and he laughed.

I then spread out on the table the seven original photos made by
Monguzzi on a glacier of the Bernina massive in the Alps. He
gasped at them as if out of breath and gave me a long look. The
smile vanished completely from his face. He took his magnifying
glass and scrutinised the pictures carefully for nearly five
minutes.

"It is unbelievable," he said several times slowly. "But you are
probably right, the object looks metallic." "So you would accept
those photos as genuine?" I asked. "There seems hardly to be any
doubt about this," he answered. "I fail to find any fault with
them."

He remarked that the blurred outline of the object showed the
same grain consistence as the rest of the picture and that the
photo with the figure in front of the object looked especially
convincing to him. I had never expected such a straightforward
acknowledgement.

He then asked for Monguzzi's story and for technical details. I
handed him the book by Alberto Perego, _Svelato il mistero dei
dischi volanti_, where he read all the particulars. He also
scrutinised the enlargements in this book. Never before had I
seen a person giving any pictures such a thorough and methodical
examination.

After that it was a pleasure to show him the rest of my
pictures. He doubted some of the night photos but he was
impressed by the unexpected variety in models and also by the
fact that no one seemed to try to make money out of them.

Jung told me that he was unable to accept contact stories as
true, especially those involving human pilots. As I did not want
a controversy to arise before he had seen the best of my photos,
I had kept back those of George Adamski. But Jung's truly
objective and impartial attitude made it easy for me to ask him
after a while if he would care to see them.

After a slight hesitation he agreed and I felt that he did so in
order to please me rather than out of real interest (he had
mentioned several times the devastating, yet false, description
Keyhoe had given in one of his books about Adamski's personality
and background).

So I spread the pictures out in front of him and said nothing.
Again I noticed how the smile vanished from his face; Adamski's
pictures were examined with the same intensity and sincerity as
those by Monguzzi. He again took a very long time. Suddenly,
with true amazement, he looked at the back of one photo and then
of all the others where Adamski puts his stamp with name,
address, and phototechnical details.

"Well" he said, "these stamps look awfully genuine, even
professional...." Then he gave me one of his stares. I still
kept silent but after a while I showed him the photo by Stephen
Darbishire and the comparison of the two photographs in Cramp's
book, _Space, Gravity and the Flying Saucer_.

At that Jung made funny noises with his teeth and tongue; his
secretary and I laughed. Later he remarked: "Adamski's pictures
could be true but his story is an invention."

To my question if he had read his books, Jung answered: "Partly,
but when I came to the beautiful young man with the silken hair
I could not go on reading. This sounds so ridiculous to me, like
a fairy tale...." "Can't you believe that there are creatures
superior in beauty to ourselves? Do you really think we are the
top in beauty?" I asked. He laughed goodheartedly. "You got me
there," he said, "I never thought about it in that way."

It was, however, evident and understandable that Jung, the
professor and scientist, was not ready to disavow the theories
of his colleagues in astronomy and physics. He maintained the
statement that life as we know it is possible on earth only.
This was in 1958, remember. When I took my leave he asked me
urgently to ring him up as soon as I came across new photographs
or other interesting material. I gave him this promise with
pleasure.

A few months later, with the splendid colour photo by Mrs. Agnes
Sanborn in my bag, I went again to Dr. Jung's house. He was
truly amazed when he looked at the picture and noticed at once
the resemblance of the object with the Adamski model, as he
admitted. On this afternoon he spoke to me about his forthcoming
book on the strange "myth" of the twentieth century and remarked
smilingly that I probably would not like it much.

Yet he took the trouble to explain to me how, as a psychiatrist
and a specialist in dream interpretation, he had for years
collected material of dreams about a particular archetype, the
symbol of eternity, which is the sacred Tibetan circle, the
mandala.

It was fascinating to hear him talk in this connection about
alchemy and its symbolism. In conclusion he added that in his
opinion many sighting reports of recent date belonged to the
realm of religious vision as coming from people "who in day- or
night-dreams perceived the symbol of eternity in the sky."

"And what about the cigar-shaped form?" I asked rather
stubbornly. He hesitated before saying in good humour: "To tell
you frankly, they worry me. I admit that only the round objects
fit into my category". Again, I admired him for his honesty.

Later, he explained to me that to write about UFOs as such was
not his business; he would always leave this to the experts in
physics or astronomy, respectively. He himself would not want
them to meddle with his own branch of science. "I took care not
to meddle with theirs and this is why I did not disclose in my
book my private research and interest in the physical nature of
the UFOs," he added.

My third and last visit took place in March, 1959. We came to
talk about myths and legends concerning people who come from
above, bringing sometimes help to the distressed or solutions to
world problems. He knew scores of them.

When I mentioned Lohengrin and the, to me, intriguing aria of
Wagner's opera, "Nie sollst du mich befragen..." he took it
first as a mere joke, but then he suddenly exclaimed: "Wait a
moment, he indeed came on wings from above and he fled as soon
as he was recognised.... he must have brought a false passport
with him..."

This was an allusion to a statement of mine that true spacemen
never give their names away. We laughed at the idea of
Lohengrin's passport.

But when I insisted on the possibility of a factual reality
behind such legends he did not agree fully. "Things are not so
simple as you think they are. Myths are not only based on racial
memories of prehistoric happenings. There is much more to it.
Neither the individual nor the collective subconsciousness is
merely made up of submerged memories. Our subconsciousness is
also the place where our god lives."

>From there on our conversation took quite another turn; UFOs
were not mentioned again. I left him with a feeling that I had
spoken to a true prophet of our time, and also with a hunch that
I had seen him for the last time. This proved to be correct.


COMMENT FROM EDITOR OF FSR.

The care and skill with which this vitally important statement
from Carl Jung has been ignored and suppressed is highlighted by
the fact that, as already mentioned above, even we at FSR did
not learn of its existence until 1985 - TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS LATER
- when Miss Marry Goodall of Beckenham, Kent received a copy of
it from Mr Philip Goodhart, M.P., and sent it on to us!


FURTHER NOTE.

The influence of Jung is still clearly very strong. In a recent
article in _Swirled News_, "Eyewitness Account of Crop Circle
Forming in the Netherlands" - Oct 25, 2001, the well-known crop
circle researcher Nancy Talbott of the BLT Research Team Inc
speculates "as to whether the crop circles may not be evidence
of some external consciousness and/or purpose in energy orms or
life forms currently unknown to us and un-named?

"Was there in them a consciousness directing them, or was it our
own unconscious or subconscious? If not ours, was it possibly
Jung's Collective Unconscious, was it a consciousness inherent
in Nature, or was it from another dimension, galaxy, or perhaps
directly from the Almighty?

"We don't know the answer. What we suspect is that the answer to
these questions, in fact the actual pursuit of these answers,
will greatly affect human awareness.

"What we hope is that 21st century humanity will recognise this
possibility soon, and join in the effort to uncover new aspects
of reality which we may currently only faintly imagine."

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