We come to the end of the O entries now. “Overshadow” is a particularly disturbing idea, I think.
The term “operator” comes from the 1958 book Operators and Things, by Barbara O’Brien. The name was a pseudonym; I don’t think her identity was ever revealed. The book is subtitled “The Inner Life of a Schizophrenic,” and describes a six-month schizophrenic episode, in which the author battles her threatening inner voices, who call themselves “operators,” and her a “thing.” It’s a compelling first-person account of the disease, although I suspect it could be at least partially fictional. Ace paperbacks reissued it in its line of books on UFOs and the supernatural, with the requisite spooky cover design, touting it as “strange, amazing, unbelievable yet true.” John apparently saw the operators as UFO occupants.
O’Brien includes a glossary of her own in the back. Her definition of “operator” is: “A human being with a type of head formation which permits him to explore and influence the mentality of others.”
The book Operators and Things can be read for free in PDF form Nördlingen here, although not with that awesome cover.
Keel mentions control a couple of times in this list of five words. I recently re-read The Eighth Tower. He really seemed obsessed with control and being controlled. He mentions the word “control”, “controlling” and other variants about sixty times.
Comment by Mestiere — August 11, 2022 @ 11:37 am
Thanks, Mestiere! It’s worth reading. Control by another intelligence is a central theme in occultism and ufology, with all the spirit guides and channeling. It would be hard to avoid!
Comment by Doug — August 11, 2022 @ 6:55 pm
I bought that very edition of O’Brien’s book, thinking it was a typical Ace paranormal potboiler. It’s not. And it’s still in print.
Comment by Paul B Thompson — August 11, 2022 @ 10:51 pm
I’ve read a little of Operators and Things and it really reads like fiction.
Here’s a couple of interesting tidbits I found out:
• The Harvard therapist who wrote the introduction, Michael MacCobby, was 25 years old in 1958. He is still alive at 89. The Silver Birch Press edition of Operators and Things includes a much more recent (September 2010) interview with MacCobby.
• The year after the publication of this book (1959) MacCobby married novelist Sandylee Weille, now Sandylee MacCobby. One of her novels, The Therapist, is about a beautiful patient who marries her charismatic Harvard psychiatrist.
Comment by Mestiere — August 12, 2022 @ 10:57 am
Yes, the book raises some red flags for me, perhaps the reddest being that O’Brien cures herself of schizophrenia. Quite an impressive feat! That is interesting about Maccoby, particularly since the book is very dismissive of psychiatry.
Comment by Doug — August 14, 2022 @ 12:54 pm
Operators and Things I think inspired Keel in the sense that he was aware that whatever the origin of the intrusive thoughts and fantasy visions of contactees, it was not necessarily the person’s own imagination, hoaxing or even schizophrenia, but in some cases was a kind of telepathic manipulation by – who? what? An occult group who have ESP powers? Military hypnotists? Faeries? Jinn?
I think of it as the same as the concepts of Enemy Transmissions and Interference in military communications. A variety of signals can be trapped on a receiving set and if the receiving set converts impulses into activity then we have the basis of the puppeteering by entities unknown.
Add to that the very advanced science and technology of microwave transmission, microwave mind control and similar and the area becomes extremely interesting.
Comment by WHITEFRANK — August 17, 2022 @ 5:56 am