Although scorned by the scientific community, rejected by the U.S. government and embarrassed by hoaxers, flying saucer fans haven't lost hope.
In fact, they're looking more and more like a bustling subsidiary of the New Age movement, judging by the starry-eyed chatter at a University of California-Berkeley conference on UFOs (unidentified flying objects).At the Soviet-American UFO/E.T. (extraterrestrial) Symposium last week, hundreds of saucer buffs heard about the religious meaning of "crop circles," the medical uses of UFO landing sites, and the psychiatric importance of coming to grips with saucer "abductions."
Colin Andrews, a perky Englishman, described his religious experience at a "crop circle" - one of numerous circular depressions in fields that saucer buffs blame on UFOs. Andrews recalled praying, "God, if you could only give me a clue what this is about." Then the air briefly filled with a "noise of tremendous power."
Now Andrews travels the globe investigating crop circles, which come in bewildering varieties - "more than 100 patterns" - and seeking guidance from "aboriginal" peoples such as Hopi Indians, who tell him the circles have something to do with ecological woes: "The Earth is crying. The ozone problem is only one problem you're being told about."
He scoffs at two Englishmen's admission, widely reported in September, that they had faked many "circles" by flattening the crops with planks and ropes: "After 10 years of intensive work, to have the media write it off so quickly is quite a blow."
Also at the conference, ex-Soviet test pilot Marina Popovich claimed Soviet scientists had placed a blood sample inside a purported saucer landing site; the blood underwent chemical changes. Perhaps crop circles could be used for medical purposes, she said.
Vendors sold UFO literature, including a magazine that showed a color photo of an alleged dead saucer occupant with a "somewhat Oriental appearance."
The first "flying saucers" were reported 44 years ago, and the fad's evolution has mirrored larger trends in society, politics and culture. In the 1940s and 1950s, psychologists attributed UFO sightings to Cold War jitters. Some feared aliens might be more dangerous than the "Commies," and a few Air Force jets fired at UFOs.
But as the Cold War wanes, environmentalism waxes and the New Age movement invades shopping malls and Yuppiedom, UFOlo-gists haven't ignored which way the wind is blowing.
One could almost hear the crystals tinkling as conference official Rose Cerovski said UFOs somehow symbolize the need for "expanding your humanness - respecting the universe. This means an Earth without violence . . . an Earth whose natural resources are respected."
A flier distributed at the conference claimed "many people report having been abducted and harmed by beings from other places in the universe." Result: they suffer "enormous anxiety, immobilizing depression and disorientation."
But for a mere $150, they can overcome their grim memories by attending a Sunnyvale, Calif., workshop where counselors armed with dowsing rods will help you "view yourself as a person who lives in an infinite universe filled with infinite possibilities."
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service