Page 13 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Vol 24 No 2 - February 24 2015

Crashed Saucers and Contactees

Crashed Saucers and
Contactees: UFOs and the
Secret Origin of the Green

Lantern

Continued From Page 11

I suspect that the creators of the new the planet who knows no fear: test pilot Hal Defined!
Green Lantern were drawing upon this folklore Jordan, a fictionalized Chuck Yeager. Hal is
when they constructed the origin story for their transported from his airbase to the site of the Complete and Finished
hero. In the character’s first adventure, in spaceship crash, in New Mexico perhaps, and
Showcase Presents #22, the story opens upon accepts the commission from Abin Sur to don No dictionary ever has satisfactorily defined the
the wreckage of an alien craft and its dying the uniform, carry the lantern, wear the ring. difference between "complete" and "finished."
pilot, the extraterrestrial Abin Sur. The location
is only identified as “a desolate spot in the And the Green Lantern is born. However, during a recent linguistic
southwest U.S.A.” Later, in the first issue of the Clearly the Silver Age Green Lantern conference, held in London, England, and
hero’s own comic, the story is retold and the was a science fiction hero, rooted in the attended by some of the best linguists in the
location of the craft is described as “in the arid marvelous science fiction pulps and updated for world, Samsundar Balgobin, a Guyanese
southwest.” the atomic age, for the space age. But the pulps linguist, was the presenter when he was asked to
produced more than science fiction, they were make that very distinction.
In the original Green Lantern story, the also the breeding ground for the Shaver Mystery
new hero follows Abin Sur’s orders and and the UFO phenomenon. Science fiction The question put to him by a colleague in
disposes of all the evidence of the crash, so the influenced real world claims and folklore and the erudite audience was this: “Some say there is
military and its scientists have no chance to real world claims and folklore influenced no difference between ‘complete’ and ‘finished.’
examine the spaceship, poke around its control science fiction. Please explain the difference in a way that is
panels, and box it up for shipment to some Green lantern has a lot of science fiction easy to understand.”
secret military base. But the other elements of in his DNA, but he has a lot of flying saucer lore
the story are clearly there: a spaceship crashes as well. Mr. Balgobin’s response: “When you
in the desert of the American southwest; the He is a little bit Superman. A little bit marry the right woman, you are ‘complete.’ If
extraterrestrial pilot is killed in the accident; Lensman. A little bit George Adamski. you marry the wrong woman, you are ‘finished.’
strange and powerful technology falls into the Cosmic cop. Member of the Green But if the right one catches you with the wrong
hands of a human. In the case of Aztec this Lantern Corps and the Justice League. Ring one, you are "Completely finished.”
technology took the form of a device that used Slinger. Man without fear. Science fiction
“magnetic lines of force” to locate underground champion. Superhero. His answer received a five minute
oil deposits; in the comicbook story it was the Coincidence? Will we ever know? standing ovation. []
powerful battery and its companion ring.
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The Green Lantern story also seems to 24 / 7 / 365 AT
share some commonalities with the testimonies
of a group of people that are usually called UFO xzoneradiotv.com
contactees, namely those people who claimed to
be contacted by extraterrestrials, often because
they had been identified as special or unique.
George Adamski was arguably the first, and
probably the most influential, contactee. His
1953 book, Flying Saucers Have Landed told
the tale of Adamski’s encounter with the
Venusian known as Orthon. Orthon, and later
visitors from other planets, introduced Adamski
to a solar system-wide confederacy of planets
bent on doing good. Worried about the
development of atomic power, these visitors
from the planets were beginning to visit the
Earth with more frequency. Adamski’s mission
was to share the good news of the space
brothers with the citizens of his home world.

Adamski’s contact opened the
floodgates. Space brothers, and their contactees,
were suddenly everywhere. If they were all to
be believed, then the Earth was under the
watchful eyes of dozens of galactic federations,
space police and extraterrestrial guardians.
They were all mobilized to save the Earth from
nuclear destruction and often needed the help of
the contactees to be their voices on the planet, to
take their message to the world, to do their work
on the Earth.

It makes sense then to consider Hal
Jordan to be a kind of contactee, coming as he
did in the heyday of the contactee movement.
Abin-Sur, representative of the Galactic
Guardians and a member of an interstellar
police force, crash lands on Earth. Realizing
that he is soon to die, he seeks out the person on