Wenesday Woo-Woo ~ Jacques Vallee

Blog buddy, Anthony North of Beyond the Blog suggested I take a look at Jacques Vallee for this Woo series. So......

Jacques Vallee (in a nutshell from UFO Watchdog's UFO Hall of Fame):

Astro Physicist, Author, Investigator, Silicon Valley computer scientist, author of numerous UFO books including Anatomy of a Phenomenon, Passport to Magonia, Challenge to Science, Messenger of Deception, and Dimensions among other historical UFO books. Testified at UN hearings stating that serious study was needed regarding UFOs, was reportedly the model for the government scientist in the move Close Encounter of the Third Kind, worked closely with Dr. Hynek.
Vallee initially supported the extraterrestrial hypothesis on the origin of UFOs, but was one of the first to change his mind. In Passport to Magonia he suggests the UFO Phenomenon has much in common with fairies, angels, ghosts, and other paranormal issues and that the sheer number of UFO sightings argues against their extra-planetary origins. In fact, he seems to believe in an Inter or Multi dimensional aspect to UFOs which would indicate they co-exist with us.

There's much more at Wikipedia. In an even smaller nutshell though, Vallee thinks UFOs could be looked on as windows to other dimensions, manipulated by intelligent, often mischievous, always enigmatic beings - as yet unknown to us, of course. As Vallee puts it himself, "I will be disappointed if UFOs turn out to be nothing more than spaceships."

I've oft surmised that UFOs could be visitors not from outer space, but from another dimension about which we currently know nothing. Vallee's theory is rather more subtle though. He had this to say in his book Passport to Magonia - reported at UFO Evidence

When the underlying archetypes are extracted," he wrote, "the saucer myth is seen to coincide to a remarkable degree with the fairy-faith of Celtic countries … religious miracles… and the widespread belief among all peoples concerning entities whose physical and psychological descriptions place them in the same category as the present-day ufonauts.

When I speak of a control system for planet earth," he says, " I do not want my words to be misunderstood: I do not mean that some higher order of beings has locked us inside the constraints of a space-bound jail, closely monitored by psychic entities we might call angels or demons. I do not propose to redefine God. What I do mean is that mythology rules at a level of our social reality over which normal political and intellectual action has no power….

Yes....well, I'm lost already! A little further investigation turned up the theories of another scientist, Nick Bostrom who suspects that we may be living in some kind of simulation - computer simulation. I'm not surprised that some other UFO researchers, scientists also, became so disoriented as to commit suicide:
From the interview with Vallee at UFO Evidence, linked above:

Vallee:For another thing you don't want to go around chasing every UFO that's reported. If a sighting gets a lot of publicity, you should stay the hell away from it. Instead you should go after cases that you select yourself, ones that have received very little publicity and you've heard about through personal channels...........
Clark: Are you suggesting that the investigator should attempt to experience the phenomenon himself?

Vallee: Yes, I think that's sound scientific practice.

Clark: But isn't that rather dangerous - in the sense that there's a real risk the investigator, even if he is emotionally stable and intellectually sophisticated, might be overwhelmed by the experiences involved?

Vallee: Yes, there are dangers. Witness what happened to Morris Jessup or to Jim McDonald. But I think that now we're more aware of what the dangers are. Once you realize the phenomenon may be deliberately misleading, then you can use certain safeguards. I'm not saying that safeguards are always going to work. There is an element of danger you really can't avoid. There's no way to do that kind of study just by reading books.

It's a little bit like the study of volcanoes. You can learn a lot about them by watching them from a distance but you certainly learn a lot more when you can be right there - even if it's somewhat risky.

I called up Wikipedia's pages on the two names mentioned, Jessup and McDonald and find that both men, serious scientists, interested in UFO research and/or The Philadelphia Experiment committed suicide.

This is getting a little weird, even for my tastes! Let's look at Vallee's natal chart.

Jacques Vallee was born in Pontoise, France on 24 September 1939. A 12 noon chart must suffice as no time of birth is available.



Why am I not surprised to see Neptune so close to Vallee's natal Sun, Mercury and Venus? Granted it's not in Libra as they are, it's in adjacent sign Virgo, but within orb (acceptable limit) of 7 degrees, to be considered conjunct Sun. Sun conjunct Neptune is often found in the charts of creative people - artists and writers especially. Neptune is planet of creativity, illusion, dreams, imagination, fog, delusion. Close to the Sun (essence of the personality) Neptune's characteristics are going to be clearly prominent in that person's nature. In Vallee's case, as in the case of his whole generation Uranus lay in harmonious trine to Neptune, drawing in Uranian traits of the avant garde, everything futuristic, inventive, quirky, whacky, rebellious to the already creative blend of Neptune/Sun.

Whatever time of day Vallee was born Moon would have been in Aquarius.
Add to the above Sun/Neptune/Uranus mix a natal Moon in Aquarius, Fixed sign of Airy intellect rulership of Uranus - and you have potential for exactly what we read about Jacques Vallee.

Remembering that, as well as a UFO theorist, Vallee is well-respected in science, astronomy, physics and computer technology, as well as in venture capitalism, I need to see what Saturn is doing in his chart. Saturn represents all the sciences, mathematics and business matters. Saturn here is in the last degree of Aries, in square (challenging) aspect to both Mars and Pluto, these two planets being in opposition. Astrologers call a configuration such as this a T-square. It's thought to indicate tension, obstacles and challenges as a way of life for the native, but - on the bright side - it also provides abundant drive and energy with which to overcome those challenges. Saturn, being the planet at the apex of this configuration is a particularly potent driving force in the life of Jacques Vallee.

"Skeptics, who flatly deny the existence of any unexplained phenomenon in the name of 'rationalism,' are among the primary contributors to the rejection of science by the public. People are not stupid and they know very well when they have seen something out of the ordinary. When a so-called expert tells them the object must have been the moon or a mirage, he is really teaching the public that science is impotent or unwilling to pursue the study of the unknown." (Vallee, J., Confrontations, New York: Ballantine Books, 1990.)

Jacques Vallee writes occasionally at Boing Boing website. Here's a link to his piece from earlier this year on the topic of crop circles.