The “Space Brothers” of the 1950s: Why They Shouldn’t Have Been Trusted

When people think of aliens today, the image that comes to mind for most is that of a small, frail, humanoid with a pair of huge black eyes. Back in the 1950s, however, the aliens looked more like 1960s-era hippies. In other words, they looked like us, but wore their hair long, something that was very rare back in the Fifties. And, they became known as the Space Brothers. Bit by bit, more and more people claimed face to face encounters with these human-like beings from...well...from somewhere. All across the United States - and with growing numbers elsewhere, too - those who had encounters with the Space Brothers became famously known as the Contactees. They included George Van Tassel, Margit Mustapa, George Adamski, Dana Howard, Orfeo Angelucci, George Adamski, and Mollie Thompson. The Space Brothers typically approached people in isolated locations - very often in the desert areas of California. And, they wanted the Contactees to spread the word that we should all lay down our atomic bombs (as they were termed back then) and live together in peace and harmony. That all sounded just fine. But, there was something just not quite right about the whole thing. In other words, it just seemed too good. In my view - even though I wasn't born until half way through the 1960s and after the Contactee phenomenon was on its wane -- the Space Brothers didn't resonate in the way they should have.

It must be said that most of the encounters of those Contactees mentioned above were slightly unsettling. If you've seen the 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, you'll know that it seemed like the aliens - or, rather, one alien, Klaatu, and his lumbering robot, Gort - came to help the Human Race to live in peace. OR ELSE. That's right Klaatu was not above warning us that should we not change our ways, Klaatu and his people just might wipe out the Human Race and our planet, too. That's right: the Space Brothers were, to a significant degree, bullying  beings who wanted things done their way. And not our way. There's also the matter of who the Space Brothers really were. Perhaps, they weren't ETs, at all. Maybe, they were actually Russian agents trying to spread communism under an alien banner. Such a thing is not at all impossible. For example, nearly all of the Contactees had lengthy FBI files opened on them. And those same files made it clear that more than a few of the Space Brothers had Communist leanings. Others were full-blown commies. Could it all have been a big ruse? An "alien ruse" to try and spread communism in the early 1950s, and to do so by using the UFO phenomenon? Such a thing is not at all impossible. Indeed, the FBI frowned on just about all of the Space Brothers. All because of communism. Perhaps, then, we should ponder carefully on the incredible scenario that the Space Brothers were not from Venus, Mars or Saturn (and so on), but from the Kremlin.

There is also the matter of what the late Mac Tonnies termed the Cryptoterrestrials. In essence, it goes like this: for Tonnies at least some UFO encounters and incidents – and particularly so alien abductions – were not the work of extraterrestrials. Rather, they were the work of an extremely ancient race of humanoids that developed alongside us - right here on Earth - but who chose to stay away from us, aside from when they needed certain things from us; those "certain things" being our DNA, cells, eggs, sperm and so on – due to the fact that their civilization, today, is degrading and decaying and requires new blood. So, they use us to beef up their race – at least, to the extent that they are able to do so. Tonnies had a few profound thoughts that so many UFO researchers failed to address: "Commentators regularly assume that all the Contactees were lying or else delusional. But if we're experiencing a staged reality, some of the beings encountered by the Contactees might have been real and the common messages of universal brotherhood could have been a sincere attempt to curb our destructive tendencies. The extraterrestrial guise would have served as a prudent disguise, neatly misdirecting our attention and leading us to ask the wrong questions; which we’re still asking with no substantial results."

The words of the Space Brothers: just a bunch of hoaxes and jokes? A Russian plot to seed communism even more into U.S. society? Ancient Cryptoterrestrials who were worried - because they share the Earth with us - that if we destroy us, they will die with us, too? I don't know what the answers are. But, whenever I read the works of the Contactees and the Space Brothers I get a strange feeling that something...just isn't right. The whole thing smacks of charades and carefully plotted ruses.