EXTRATERRESTRIAL COMMUNICATOR

By Joe Nickell


Cassandra Vanzant calls herself an extraterrestrial communicator, among other things. I appeared with her on CBS’s Anderson, hosted by journalist Anderson Cooper. Vanzant claims to be in communication with alien intelligences whose messages she allegedly receives telepathically and then translates. She informed Anderson that he, too, had a star family, the Lamarians, living in the fourth dimension.

New Age Contactee

Vanzant’s claims are legion. At one time or another (sometimes under the pseudonym Cheryl Hill) she has acted as a tarot-card reader and instructor, ghost hunter, spiritualist medium, angel communicant, ordained minister (nondenominational), professional psychic (although she failed to foresee a serious car accident in which she was a passenger), and of course, telepathic Master Alien Communicator.

When an amused Anderson Cooper asked his TV audience how many believed Vanzant’s claimed ability to communicate with aliens, a single person raised her hand. The audience was right to be skeptical. Ms. Vanzant is only the most recent embodiment of the contactee, a person who purports to be in repeated communication with extraterrestrials.

Contactees emerged in the early 1950s, following an influx of flying saucer reports. The Space Brothers were supposedly making themselves known to a select group of chosen persons (who thus function rather like the prophets in religions of yore) to spread their supposedly advanced wisdom to mere Earthlings. The contactees tended to be mystical folk of a type we would today call New Agers, embracing Eastern “mystery” religions, notably Hinduism, as well as Western Messianic traditions. Today, contactees have been largely supplanted by abductees who themselves now also frequently serve as alleged cosmic messengers.

Fantasizing

Revealingly, like many other claimed extraterrestrial communicants (Nickell 2007, 251–58), Ms. Vanzant has several of the traits associated with a fantasy-prone personality. Such a person is sane and normal but with an unusual ability to fantasize, according to a pioneering study by Wilson and Barber (1983).

For example, Vanzant has ostensible imaginary friends (“Artoli” and “Mada­scrat”), claims to receive special messages from higher beings (not only extraterrestrials but also angels and spirit guides), purports to have psychic powers and fortunetelling abilities, reports having had an out-of-body/near-death experience (NDE), and so on, as well as appearing to generally have a rich fantasy life.

Describing her near-death experience Van­zant  recalls floating up to the hospital roof and onward, “toward the stars.” She soon entered a “green tunnel,” then found herself “surrounded by angels, extraterrestrials, and spirit guides,” each of whom gave her a message. The experience, she says, “started my quest.” (The NDE—although only a hallucination produced by an altered brain state—is often life-transforming for the experiencer.)

The ET Tongue

Vanzant (2012a) purportedly “channels” her clients’ star families, first speaking to them in the “ET language” (“Twinkle” 2012). This is basically a form of glossolalia or “speaking in tongues,” like that mentioned in the Bible as “an unknown tongue” and “the tongues of . . . angels” (1 Corinthians 13:1; 14:2–9). It is practiced by Pentecostals and others. Linguistic studies show that glossolalia is typically “psychobabble”—nonsense syllables used as pseudolanguage (Nickell 1993, 103–109). In this respect, Vanzant seems to be following in the footsteps of psychic-medium Helene Smith who, in 1894, claimed to have visited the planet Mars in a trance, describing flora and fauna, houses, cars, and other artifacts of civilization, even supposedly bringing back the Martian language—although it proved syntactically to be like French (Baker and Nickell 1992, 199).

In any event, after speaking in the supposed ET family tongue, Vanzant (2012a) then provides “translations.” Here is one of her purportedly channeled “Star Family Messages”—this one from the Counsel for Arbitrary Enlightenment:

We of the Counsel wish to come to you to speak of the pertinent subjects that are randomly designed to complicate the matters of enlightenment or ascension on this Earth plane. Know that we are here to help you discover and put to rest the speculations of what is this and what is that, and when will this occur and when will that occur. Seek not that which you have heard or read about from others, for everyone on this earthly plane has their [sic] own truths. When you see the illusion of what is being perpetrated against the whole of the human race, then you will see clearer that which is the clearest of all—this truth is you and in you [and so on].

Analysis

I studied Vanzant’s “translations,” finding them to be rife with New Age clichés. In the passage just quoted, examples are “on this earthly plane” and the reference to people having “their own truths.” Further on in the message, we find such additional familiar expressions as “the truth shall set you free” (a biblical quotation!), “your inner-wisdom,” “existed on a different plane,” “a parallel dimension,” “God, in His infinite wisdom,” “a higher realm,” “the Other World,” etc. Not surprisingly, Van­zant herself also talks like this, referring to “the energy we all came from,” “we’re all connected,” “on the right path,” “using me as a channel,” and so on. The ET texts seem indistinguishable from her own New Age speech.

Her meetings with those seeking star-family messages seem like a cross between a prayer session (she asks subjects to close their eyes), a séance (she supposedly channels an invisible, otherworldly entity), and a fortuneteller’s reading (she offers suggestions and expectations for the future). In short, they are just what one would expect from a fantasizer with Vanzant’s background.

Interestingly, given that the star family messages are all in “the same language,” I find it suspicious that opening passages of messages addressed to two different people—both translated as “We come to you . . .”—are composed of entirely different sound sequences.² Of course, this is just what we would expect if Vanzant were indeed only producing psychobabble. (She politely declined my request to provide both a written text and translation of the same “message”.) In light of the evidence, skepticism of Vanzant’s claims is warranted.

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Paranormal hallucinations are due to a variation in a fold at the front of the brain called the paracingulate sulcus (PCS).  This brain variation, which is present in roughly half of the normal population, is one of the last structural folds to develop before birth and for this reason varies greatly in size between individuals in the healthy population.  People with an absence of the PCS are significantly less accurate on memory tasks than people with a prominent PCS. 

Most people believe in the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), the hypothesis that some unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are alien-driven physical spacecrafts visiting Earth.  ETH is clearly an emotional idea. There are two sorts of self-deception here: either accepting the idea of extraterrestrial visitation by space aliens in the face of very meager evidence because we want it to be true; or rejecting such an idea out of hand, in the absence of sufficient evidence, because we don't want it to be true. Each of these extremes is a serious impediment to the study of UFOs.

Some UFO evidence points to ETH. The important implications of ETH are going unconsidered by the scientific community, because this entire problem has been imputed to be little more than a nonsense matter unworthy of serious scientific attention. Despite public interest, NASA considers the study of ETH to be irrelevant to its work, because of the number of false leads that a study would provide, and the limited amount of usable scientific data that it would yield.

Photos of supposed UFOs abound. Most of the time they show dark stains or bright dots in the sky, of varying dimension and quality, which could be due to military aircrafts, weather balloons, birds, meteors, and so it goes. Sometimes the UFO is well focused, but the flying saucer always looks suspiciously similar to a pan lid suspended from a thread or a lamp holder or a wheel cap thrown in the air. And of course today the possibilities for digitally retouching an image are endless.

What are lacking, however, are credible photos of the creatures that should be flying these UFOs, the actual aliens or extraterrestrials. It appears there are no more than fifty such photos shot in the past eighty years, but once you take out those plainly fake and the more suspicious looking ones all you are left with are about ten photos. These are, essentially, mug shots of wanted extraterrestrials.

Sightings of ghosts are mostly the result of optical illusions and hallucinations. Limitations of human perception and ordinary physical explanations can account for ghost sightings, such as air pressure changes in a home causing doors to slam, or lights from a passing car reflected through a window at night.

Pareidolia, an innate tendency to recognize patterns in random perceptions, also causes people to believe that they have seen ghosts. Reports of ghosts seen out of the corner of the eye may be accounted for by the sensitivity of human peripheral vision. Peripheral vision can easily mislead, especially late at night when the brain is tired and more likely to misinterpret sights and sounds.

Changes in geomagnetic fields by tectonic stresses in the Earth's crust or solar activity could stimulate the brain's temporal lobes and produce many of the experiences associated with hauntings. Sound is thought to be another cause of supposed sightings. Infrasound can cause humans to experience bizarre feelings in a room, such as anxiety, extreme sorrow, a feeling of being watched, or even the chills. Carbon monoxide poisoning, which can cause changes in perception of the visual and auditory systems, is also a possible explanation for haunted houses.

There are many stories of paranormal paramours. But no one has ever presented anything other than only anecdotal evidence for paranormal sexual encounters. For example, no woman has ever been impregnated by a ghost. The culprit of the Madonna virgin birth was probably a Roman soldier!  There is no single story and therefore there is no single explanation for claims of paranormal paramour.

Barring pranks, a number of possible natural explanations can be posited. Most of these experiences occur at night when the victim is in bed, suggesting that an erotic dream or hallucination has taken place. Such hallucinations are associated with a phenomenon known as sleep paralysis, otherwise known as a waking nightmare.  

Sleep paralysis is a common experience for many people and is also a symptom of the sleep disorder narcolepsy. Sleep paralysis is an interruption of the REM stage of sleep; the individual awakens prematurely yet remains in a dreaming state. An episode can present a wide range of visual, auditory, and tactile hallucinations. This explains many paranormal encounters, from ghost sightings, vampires, and alien abductions.

Attributing sexual dreams or sexual thoughts to a supernatural force is a guiltless absolution for those with moral objections.  Hallucination may also play a role when people believe they’ve experienced a sexual encounter with a deceased lover. The concept of sex after death provides hope that there is life after death and that the pleasures of life are still obtainable in death. 

Past-life regression therapy, repressed memory therapy, hypnosis, guided visualization, trance writing, dream work, and other related pseudoscientific therapies are dangerous for their tendencies to create false memories. Repressed memory therapy has led to the creation of false memories and confabulations of sexual molestation, satanic ritual abuse, and alien abductions. Past-life regression therapy fails to diagnose and treat real physical and psychological conditions.

There are many different modalities and schools of thought in hypnotherapy. In the end, past-life regression therapy comes down to the individual beliefs of the practitioner. Past-life regression therapists are teaching their own personal beliefs, and their clients are being diagnosed and pseudotreated by their own fantasies.