The men who stare at Christ

"Final Events" is a “conspiracy theory” book written by Nick Redfern, a British investigator of things paranormal and occult. I previously reviewed some of his other books, including one on British Bigfoot observations! This one is arguably even stranger, and should perhaps be read together with John Ronson's “The Men Who Stare at Goats”, Greg Bishop's “Project Beta” or even the old classic “The Stargate Conspiracy” by Picknett-Prince.

Redfern claims to have met several people associated with a secret group known as the Collins Elite. The group is ensconced deep within the U.S. military and intelligence communities, does research on UFOs and is unabashedly Christian. It also enjoys a certain amount of support from the higher echelons of said communities. The Collins Elite believes that UFOs are demonic in nature, and their research is geared towards establishing this fact, while warning other factions within the Deep State of the dangers of trying to contact the “aliens”. According to Redfern's informants, some groups within the military-intelligence community have employed occult means (such as channeling, astral travel and certain rituals) in order to communicate with the UFO occupants and tap their secrets. In this way, they endanger both themselves and all of humanity…

The whole thing supposedly started when notorious British occultist and magician Aleister Crowley successfully opened a portal to another dimension during his famous Amalantrah Working in 1918. The “Enochian entity” that came through was named Lam and eerily resembles the aliens much later seen by abductees. In 1946, Crowley's disciple Jack Parsons (who was also a rocket engineer and suspected Israeli spy) carried out the Babalon Working with none other than future Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard. This, too, opened up demonic portals which led to Kenneth Arnold's famous UFO observation and the Roswell crash.

Some of Redfern's claims are easier to believe than others. As far as I understand, it's well-established that the U.S. military carried out research in parapsychology, and that some people took this perhaps a bit too far (like the First Earth Battalion mentioned by Ronson). It's also well-established that the military *did* have an interest in UFOs, despite official denials, although the reasons are less obvious. One that comes to mind is a concerted attempt to hunt down witnesses to classified military projects (such as stealth planes). Finally, there are obviously military people who believe in “the occult” (such as Michael Aquino, who once graciously commented one of my reviews). On this level, it's not hard to believe that a Christian faction within the Deep State would try to push *their* agenda instead, insisting that all this occult stuff, even when well meaning, is really dangerous. Indeed, Redfern's description of the events doesn't suggest a civil war within the Deep State between brotherhoods of light and darkness respectively, rather one gets the impression of a vast spook bureaucracy within which different groups simply pursue their own agendas more or less independently of each other.

However, the book also makes more startling claims. It seems that both British and U.S. military processed reports about alien abductions, and (perhaps) decided to interrogate the abductees themselves. What the earth for?! There is a disturbing tie-in to MK-Ultra, suggesting that the intelligence agencies *themselves* were behind the abductions. (Interestingly, Collins Elite didn't believe this.) Sensationally, Redfern claims that Collins Elite has gone off the deep end, and wants to set up a Christian theocracy in the United States by detonating a small nuclear device in an American city and then stage-manage a fake apocalypse with huge holographic projections of Jesus Christ on the clouds (or rather that they support the sinister factions which are planning all this). The purpose of this ruse is to make America Christian again, and thereby stop the demonic forces which are still swarming through the portals opened up by Crowley and Parsons…

I admit that I find *that* part of the scenario very hard to believe. In fact, it's probably more likely that Bigfoot lives in Britain. That being said, the book is interesting. Of course, there is no real evidence for any of this, apart from the wild claims of the author's interviewees. Read and judge at your own discretion.