Ufological Fairies

Ok, so bear with me here. Up until now, I feel like my posts have been reasonably based in some semblance of recognisable, lowest-common denominator style reality. I think I flung in some ghosts here and there, but in more of a metaphorical, agnostic kind of way. And I think the leap between discussing elements of horror in art and some murders in a nice house, to what I'm about to hit out with needed a preface.

I'm about to try and explain to you how fairies, the tiny creatures of folklore, could possibly be early interpretations of alien visitations. Buckle the fuck up.

To start off, I'd like to make my opinions on UFOs as clear as I can. I don't think I believe in aliens, specifically humanoid aliens like the Greys, Tall Whites, Nords, or even Reptilians. I think they're too based in our immediate interpretations of the world around us. It's entirely possible (and I know this because I saw a scientist talk about it on TikTok) that we wouldn't even know an alien if we encountered one. Some species of shrimp can see colours we can't even imagine. It wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility that we could have aliens among us but we don't have the capacity, mentally, biologically, spiritually, to recognise them as such. It's one of the things that amazes me most about humans, is that the extent of our vast knowledge and experience is only a fraction of what there is to offer in the world. And therefor, I think it would be just as kooky and "out there" to think that aliens categorically do not exist, in any form or iteration, as it is to think that they absolutely do, even in traditional "grey" form. I'm open, agnostic, willing to be swayed in either direction with whatever evidence can be provided in line with how I feel emotionally that particular day. But I err on the side of existence rather than not.

There's so many fascinating aspects to UFOlogical studies. Alien visitations/abductions, various counters, the Men In Black, the connection to the paranormal and cryptids etc. and it's so exciting, and sometimes terrifying, to read through the multiple opinions and studies, to see the screeds of research on one niche subject spiralling into dedicated forums and countless books. I've picked one particular theory to discuss further here, one that had my mind racing and my heart fluttering, and that is the connection between aliens and fairies.

So, sparked by my sudden interest in aliens (evidently my tastes are changing with age!) I picked up Nick Redfern's book The Real Men In Black. In a section discussing aliens as being linked to Tricksters (think mischievous entities, or Gods like Loki, I suppose even potential poltergeist entities such as Gef, the talking Mongoose) there was a paragraph which really intrigued me.

"Another legendary Trickster is the fairy of ancient Celtic lore. In contrast to the modern-day friendly, welcoming imagery many people associate with fairies-as beautiful, winged entities of small stature-in centuries long gone, these beings were perceived as having the potential to be downright deadly, cause mayhem and disaster in the home, steal newborn babies and replace them with crudely formed wooden effigies (modern-day alien abductions and extraterrestrial/human hybrids, perhaps?), and hold deep, long-lasting grudges." - pg 181, The Real Men In Black by Nick Redfern

Absolutely fascinating, brain-captivating information condensed into a tiny paragraph in a wider work with equally interesting theories and subjects. I think I read over it a couple of times just to really absorb what was being posited here. Because, while I'm aware and interested in the connection to aliens with the paranormal and extensive cryptid sightings, I hadn't really put fairies into this category before. Mostly because I don't believe in fairies (sorry to any that died just then), and also because I'm pretty sure I have undiagnosed ADHD and trying to read is like trying to get 40 children who live in my head to stop vying for my attention as they try to sing, quote TV shows, and generally distract me while I'm processing words one at a time.

There wasn't an awful lot more written about the fairies in The Real Men In Black, but mercifully, my brain was able to stand to attention long enough to develop a little obsession with the notion that for years aliens have been visiting us in different forms that we have interpreted through the lens of the society at the time. Fairies are so obviously aliens, no? Same with angels? Visitors from the heavens who come down in a glow and look so different to anything we have here on Earth? Patrons from the stars who impart knowledge, giving us the advances in technology and spirituality that we needed to progress as a species? They didn't build pyramids though. That was enslaved Jews, end of.

First stop on the "were fairies aliens?" tour of theories is that of the changeling. Redfern mentioned briefly in the above quoted paragraph the notion that fairies will replace newborn babies with effigies, which is in line with the concept of alien abduction for the purposes of breeding and creating a hybrid human/alien species to be kept either on Earth, elsewhere in space, or both. And, following on from his suggestion of the effigies, I was reminded of the changeling.

The changeling, for which you can find a wonderful painting by the delightfully spooky Henry Fuseli on its Wikipedia page, is a creature of European folklore , as well as African folklore, found in multiple different countries who all note similar physical traits and similarities in the creature's modus operandi. As a very basic description, the changeling is someone who was born a fairy, but was left with humans in order to have them raise them in a parasitic fashion. Changeling's can also be adults, but the belief is that someone can be replaced by a fairy and the human counterpart is left to live in the fairy world, to become a slave. Changelings were identified as someone who was not physically or socially in line with others, and could also have been used as an excuse for infanticide to prevent resource strains within families.

But, if we move a little bit away from the realistic concept that the changeling was a folk tale that allowed an excuse to parents struggling to raise large families in abject poverty, we can draw a lot of parallels between this and the hybrid programme that some believe is the reason for all or some alien abductions. The idea that those who come back from abductions and behave strangely have been replaced by aliens, or that women and men are abducted in order for their reproductive value, whether by fertilisation or through extraction of sperm and eggs, is a very high-tech way of interpreting the changeling.

Take also the incident discussed in The Real Men In Black where Redfern recounts someone's encounter with a UFO, where the Men In Black inquired about a change in the taste of the cattle's milk who were in a field close by to the sighting. Redfern connects this prominent trope of the UFO encounter, the abduction and mutilation of cattle, saying,

" within english folklore there is the legend of the Boggart - a malevolent entity that had a particular, unfathomable penchant for souring milk. Scotland has the equally milk-hating bogle. And within Latvian culture we hear of the Lauma, a beautiful woman who steals babies and malisciously taints milk." pg 184, The Real Men In Black by Nick Redfern

That fairies can be once again related to a contemporary aspect of UFO culture and encounters is surely more than a coincidence. Interesting that there can be modern life and our beliefs and perceptions, refined and influenced by our society, and those standing aspects from our earliest civilisations such as animal husbandry can both be related to the paranormal. But where our cattle were once taunted and soured by mischievous humanoids, they are now found often sucked completely dry of all internal organs and fluids, with nary a mark on the exterior of the body. Where our forefathers had to worry about mainly the horror of no food and a failing crop or livestock, we now have horrors of mystery and technology, with an added dash of the absolutely gory to give it a bit of spice.

And Redfern's idea that we have always encountered the same kind of paranormal or ufological experiences especially makes sense if you follow the idea that present society and changes in technology, arts and human behaviour influence our interpretation of the world around us, specifically in our story telling and myth creation. Just as contemporary cinema, or the popular horror sub-genre, can dictate the behaviours and feelings of a society, so can the way we absorb, mutate and spread our mythology. Witch trials have become Q-Anon, Gods become aliens. And I know that seems like a bit of a jump, but there are books written on the subject, acknowledging that our obsessive writing of visitors from the heavens could be primitive interpretations of alien visitations. Specifically, this is sort of touched upon in Chariots of the Gods? by Erik von Daniken, whose theories around ancient aliens and the seemingly impossible technology of our ancestors can be put down to alien encounters. That aliens, similar to heavenly bodies who provide moral and ethical guidance, have been visiting us from the sky and imparting wisdom that has advanced our societies. Again though, because I feel like I want to hammer this home, while ancient aliens might have visited multiple cultures to tell them that stacking rocks from small to large in a conical manner, pyramids were still built by slaves. Not aliens.

It helped immensely when looking into this to just allow myself to follow the trail from one book to the other, expanding on the lore encompassing aliens, technology, our past and our mythology. There is a wealth of information out there dedicated to the concept that there are contemporary connections between all of our collected folk lore, and the more you read, the easier it is to become convinced that this is all interconnected. Ghosts are aliens, Gods are aliens, fairies are aliens. And aliens are...the overarching connection, or are all of the above part of a wider phenomena as old as the earth itself, perhaps older?

Obviously, in reading up on the theory that the paranormal is directly related to the phenomenon of UFOs and aliens, I had to take on The Goblin Universe by Ted Holiday. It is an absolutely fascinating and mind-warping read, based on the concept of a unifying theory of the paranormal to help to explain, as scientifically as possible, why and how paranormal activity, UFOs included, exists/manifests/alters what we perceive to be our reality. I read the preface and introduction while I worked a Saturday shift at the library and honestly, I'm sure that the small number of students who were in could hear me gasping and sighing in revelation and understanding as I read just Colin Wilson's short introductory chapter on the joys that awaited me in the main text. But it did give me an intensely sore head...my brain has the capacity to store and to think, but some questions, specifically those that are too grand and complex for even our brightest thinkers, brings on an existentialism that makes me physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally exhausted, pained and weak. So bear that in mind if you are planning on taking a look at it. It's a step up in difficulty than studying philosophy, and I find philosophy to be an incredibly difficult subject to think and reflect on. I haven't endeavoured to read any further into the Goblin Universe as yet, my brain went into a bit of a meltdown with the copious amounts of UFO based information I was trying to cram into it, like a crumbly little biscuit being jammed into a VCR slot.

So I think the assertion Nick Redfern is trying to make in reference to fairies and the paranormal, or at least what he made me think of, was that the Men In Black are either part of the entity experience as elements of the paranormal, or that they are protectors of the paranormal and this secretive dimension. Either protecting us from them or them from us. Or our brains from even having to think this in the first place.

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Here's some further reading for you on the subject of ufological fairies if you're too lazy to google it, including a PDF version of The Goblin Universe!

• https://discover.hubpages.com/religion-philosophy/Are-Gray-Aliens-and-Fairies-the-Same-Creature

• https://pdfcoffee.com/the-goblin-universe-4-pdf-free.html