Men in black

This article is about "men in black" in UFO conspiracies. For the film franchise, see Men in Black (franchise). For other uses, see Men in Black (disambiguation).
A stylized depiction of a Man in Black.

In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are supposed men dressed in black suits who claim to be government agents who harass or threaten UFO witnesses to keep them quiet about what they have seen. It is sometimes implied that they may be aliens themselves. The term is also frequently used to describe mysterious men working for unknown organizations, as well as various branches of government allegedly designed to protect secrets or perform other strange activities. The term is generic, used for any unusual, threatening or strangely behaved individual whose appearance on the scene can be linked in some fashion with a UFO sighting.[1] Several alleged encounters with the men in black have been reported by UFO researchers and enthusiasts.

Folklore

Folklorist Peter Rojcewicz compares accounts of men in black to tales of people encountering Lucifer and speculates that they can be considered a kind of "psychological drama".[2]

Ufologists

Men in black figure prominently in ufology and UFO folklore. In the 50s and 60s, UFOlogists adopted a conspiratorial mindset and began to fear they would be subject to organized intimidation in retaliation for discovering "the truth of the UFOs".[3]

In 1947, Harold Dahl claimed to have been warned not to talk about his alleged UFO sighting on Maury Island by a man in a dark suit. In the mid 1950s, the ufologist Albert K. Bender claimed he was visited by men in dark suits who threatened and warned him not to continue investigating UFOs. Bender believed the men in black were secret government agents tasked with suppressing evidence of UFOs. The ufologist John Keel claimed to have had encounters with men in black and referred to them as "demonic supernaturals" with "dark skin and/or “exotic” facial features". According to the ufologist Jerome Clark, reports of men in black represent "experiences" that "don’t seem to have occurred in the world of consensus reality".[4]

Historian Aaron Gulyas wrote, "during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, UFO conspiracy theorists would incorporate the Men in Black into their increasingly complex and paranoid visions".[3]

In his article, "Gray Barker: My Friend, the Myth-Maker," John C. Sherwood claims that, in the late 1960s, at the age of 18, he cooperated when Gray Barker urged him to develop a hoax – which Barker subsequently published – about what Barker called "blackmen", three mysterious UFO inhabitants who silenced Sherwood's pseudonymous identity, "Dr. Richard H. Pratt".[5]

Notes

  1. Clark, Jerome (1996). The UFO Encyclopedia, volume 3: High Strangeness, UFO’s from 1960 through 1979. Omnigraphis. 317–18.
  2. James R. Lewis (9 March 1995). The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds. SUNY Press. pp. 218–. ISBN 978-0-7914-2330-1.
  3. 1 2 Aaron John Gulyas (25 January 2016). Conspiracy Theories: The Roots, Themes and Propagation of Paranoid Political and Cultural Narratives. McFarland. pp. 86–. ISBN 978-1-4766-2349-8.
  4. Harris, Aisha. "Do UFO Hunters Still Report "Men in Black" Sightings?". Slate. Slate.com. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  5. Sherwood, John C. "Gray Barker: My Friend, the Myth-Maker". Skeptical Inquirer. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
  6. "Hangar 18 (1980): Full Cast and Crew". IMDb.
  7. "SAYLES'S 'BROTHER'". New York Times. 1984. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  8. The Brother from Another Planet at the Internet Movie Database.
  9. "Blue Öyster Cult - E.T.I. Lyrics - SongMeanings". SongMeanings.
  10. "Blue Öyster Cult - Take Me Away Lyrics - SongMeanings". SongMeanings.
  11. "Mage - Guide to the Technocracy". Scribd.
  12. "Steve Jackson Games: Men In Black".
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on April 30, 2014. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
  14. "Scott Rosenberg". Forbes.
  15. "The Silence". BBC. Retrieved 2011-04-27.

References

  • Clark, Jerome (1996). The UFO Encyclopedia, volume 3: High Strangeness, UFO’s from 1960 through 1979. Omnigraphis. ISBN 1-55888-742-3. 
  • Condon, Edward (1968). Daniel S. Gilmor, ed. Final Report of the Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects. New York City: Batnam. ISBN 0-552-04747-3. ISBN. 
  • Wallace, Chevon. "Albert Bender and the M.I.B. Mystery". Bridgeport Public Schools. Retrieved 2006-09-10. 

Further reading

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