October 14th.

I don't know who of you out there, if any, will be aware of the supposed impending demonstration of the 'alien presence' in the form of a large space craft appearing over the southern hemisphere and remaining there for '3 of your 24 hour periods' due to begin on the 14th of October. This information was apparently channelled psychically to one Blossom Goodchild from a group of beings calling themselves 'The Federation Of Light'. There have been one or two offshoots of this, the internet rumour mills running amok, including claims that a large object was already 'visible' on google earth.

I find all of this fascinating. The UFO subject is plagued with such fantastical claims. As if the subject itself wasn't fantastic enough. Some may well say that is precisely the point, to inject incredulity into a subject already incredible, and to put otherwise interested and inquisitive (thus troublesome) parties off. This kind of thing is nothing new. The supposed chanelling of alien messages has been part of UFO culture for some time. The last comparable example I think would be the absurd Council Of Nine episode in the mid 1990's. This involved channelled messages from a group of 'concerned' and 'wise' alien beings called 'The Council Of Nine' who sent messages of 'love' and 'hope' etc via their earthly conduit, one Phyllis Schlemmer. All very new agey, couched in a mix of paranormal and hippie lingo. They must have lost interest in us boring human types because little has been heard from them for some time.

However they did have an impact. In 1995, at the peak of The Bonnybridge wave of UFO sightings, the local councillor Billy Buchanan called a town meeting to discuss the concerns etc of local people, many of whom had reported strange phenomenon in the skies over Bonnybridge, Scotland. I went to that meeting, along with a couple of friends of mine. Mostly out of curiosity, and for something to do really. What had begun as a serious meeting regarding serious concerns soon descended into the ridiculous with the prescence of Phyllis Schlemmer herself, who proceeded to waffle on about The Council Of Nine and how, basically, they were here to save us from ourselves, and that their coming represented a glorious new age of human consciousness. All of which resulted in most of those present walking out of the meeting in a mix of bemusement and outright disgust.

I think that at the heart of the UFO subject is a core of reality. This core reality is surrounded by a vast, gelatinous membrane of absurdity and nonsense. What that reality represents is what is really interesting. Come the 14th of October there will no doubt be some 'delay', some reason why the 'Federation Of Light' can't make it to the party. Maybe we are not sufficiently evolved to withstand the 'truth' of their presence. Maybe they will come down with a sudden headache...