JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

Bormujos These next entries include a clear definition of that troublesome term “ultra-terrestrial.” John also defines “trance” not just as a somnolent state, but a state of being controlled.

Attention, New Yorkers! The Anthology Film Archives in NYC is presenting a series devoted to UFOs, called “Watch the Skies: Ufology on Screen,” programmed by Tyler Maxin and John Dieringer. It runs from November 4 to 15; you can see the schedule here.

George Kuchar’s 2010 video Secrets of the Shadow World will be shown on November 13 and 15. Like many of George’s later works, it’s a rambling video diary celebrating the many people he knows. John is featured prominently, with many interviews, and highlights from a trip they took together to Mt. Shasta in California. Also on the bill is George’s short video about Jacques Vallee, The Tower of the Astro-Cyclops.

John met George and his twin brother Mike back in the ’60s, at the Metropolitan Motion Picture Club, a society for amateur film-makers. John was then making comic and experimental films, often with his friend Ed Lord. The Kuchars were making goofy, zero-budget epics parodying the Hollywood blockbusters they loved. The rest of the members were producing home movies and travelogues, and were not always receptive to the Keel and Kuchar output.

George’s exuberant style is not to everyone’s taste. But here, as a historical footnote, is his 1965 underground classic Corruption of the Damned. John is not credited, but you can see him in the séance scene that starts at 17:10. He’s the one in the suit, sitting next to Mike.

I’ll be at the November 13 screening, to make a few opening remarks about both John and George. My remarks will be brief, since this is one of George’s longer works, clocking in at 135 minutes.

POSTSCRIPT: The talk went well. There was a good crowd, who seemed to enjoy John’s inimitable wit and wisdom. For me, it was the first time since 2020 that I’d gone to NYC, ridden the subway, eaten in a restaurant, talked to a live audience, or seen a film in a theater. What a day!

These next entries all have to do with aspects of time, from time compression to time travel. The last one is somewhat garbled, but you get the idea. He apparently never did redo it.

John’s next five definitions include an intriguing description of teleportation, and the counterparts to his earlier entries “dero” and “operator,” terms used by Richard Shaver and Barbara O’Brien, respectively.

This next group of entries includes an interesting definition of “sulfa”: there’s more about it here. “Tamper” was a word often used among Shaver believers; I don’t know how common it was in UFO circles.

For a brief palate cleanser, before we continue with the dictionary, here’s a “position statement” from John from 1986. It’s a clear summation of his views at the time, and is, I think, a useful supplement to his definitions. It was published in the INFO Journal (#50, October, 1986), the magazine of the International Fortean Organization, following a biographical article by Phyllis Benjamin.

John’s next few entries give us his concise definitions of “world soul” and “space warp,” among other things. I hadn’t heard of a connection between salt and grays before, although Jaye Paro reported that the entities she claimed to know ate great amounts of it. This is one place where the folklore of aliens and fairies diverges: fairies are supposedly repelled by salt.

These next entries include some topics that eventually became part of ufology–ghosts, the Shaver Mystery, and fairy folklore–as well as John’s memorable definition 0f a skeptic. Since Shaver and the sidhe are mentioned, I’ll add an old Amazing Stories cover illustrating a Shaver story about the sidhe: not part of his “Mystery,” just a rousing sword-and-sorcery yarn about Irish warriors and fairy magic. Nevertheless, Shaver did maintain that all the folklore about people living underground was evidence for his own beliefs.

We head into the letter S now, starting with “saint.” “Scruff” is a new one to me. For younger readers, George Adamski was one of the first contactees, and quite a curious character. And for some reason, John wrote two definitions of the word “sensitive,” so take your pick.

The next five definitions give us a couple of provocative versions of reality. One note: Korsakoff’s psychosis is caused by both thiamine deficiency and alcoholism. Confabulation is traditionally considered a major symptom (it’s also known as “confabulatory psychosis”), but is not found in all cases.