Reviewed by Douglas Chapman
David L. Davidson, in this self-published book, writes of himself as a paranormal investigator. Little skepticism is involved in his work. This volume is for those who dote on cosmic conspiracies.
Much of the volume is devoted to George Van Tassel, a UFO enthusiast and religious type who in 1958 commenced building—but never quite completed—an interesting building/”device” in the California desert not far from Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley. It was called the Integratron, and was supposedly a domed time/energy machine built upon the theories of Nikola Tesla. Created to recharge and rejuvenate people’s cells, at the behest of an advanced entity for a coming space friend “Lord,” it was not without its risks, according to theory. An overcharge could make a person spontaneously combust—or even explode. There are many photographs included of this unearthly building.
Its creation is not far from the theme of cargo cults, who built full- size models of those things, such as cargo planes, that they magically wished to attract or understand. The Integratron looks rather like a roundish “flying saucer.” (Davidson of course mentions the modeling theme dealt with in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where the character Roy Neary obsessively models Devil’s Tower.)
Whether the Integratron actually worked is immaterial to Davidson: “The building of the machine gave people hope. It raised their spirits. It was a possible way to escape not the bounds of this Earth, but the clutches of fear.” The ‘50s were a nervous time, for those afraid of atomic war and other things beyond peoples’ control.
Fear is unifying theme of this book, which is of the opinion that the alien races afflicting Earth actually feed upon terror. Thus they get individuals when they are far away from familiar scenery, and create traps with human-familiar motifs. Props are important to the game, says Davidson.
The Grays lord it over all others weird entities involved in the endeavor.
During the author’s youth, some mysterious things apparently happened to him, including the sighting of a weird stationary aerial craft, which could have been a test aircraft from a nearby Goodyear plant or a UFO. He also suffered odd infections, and something was removed from him which looked “like a very small bean” and which he wonders if was an implant.
Later Davidson married for a time a woman who fed upon others’ energy, he thought.
Also to his way of thinking about energy eaters, the big-eyed aliens are not something humans will involve into. (Man’s evolution from advanced primate could have been controlled by the aliens, who exterminated other similarly evolving lines.) Grays, to him, are energy creatures, which feed off ours—especially that expended by fear.
Human-alien hybrids are said to be created to operate in two worlds—and carry out the work of the Overlords. He wonders whether the interference has its positive side, though. If we are “generators and containers of an energy force desirable to alien predators,” our “delicate” constitutions need regulating, from perhaps explosive consequences. This the Overlords supposedly do—to their own self interest. If the Overlords did not tend us as a flock, worse predators might afflict us, supposes Davidson, who postulates that the Overlords were the ones who contacted Van Tassel, not the more holy entities Van Tassel himself believed in.
Davidson’s belief system is that governments keep the truths about the present and past from their populations. He believes the Great Pyramid was older than 2525 B.C. and was not designed to hold a body, but carry a message in geometric form past the time of the great flood.
He links its importance with Noah’s Ark, and, of course, Van Tassel’s Integratron.
Clues are also found to the “truths” in science fiction movies, such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, It Came From Outer Space, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Forbidden Planet, and Earth Versus the Flying Saucers. He writes: “Observe the subliminal cues contained in some of the background material such as photos, mirrors and shadows.”
Strange Magazine and Website contributor Bruce Lanier Wright has elsewhere commented that special effects maestro Ray Harryhausen attended one of the Giant Rock Spacecraft Conventions held in the Mojave Desert. These gatherings were hosted by George Van Tassel. Harryhausen was there to get useful material for the latter-named film. If Davidson’s ideas have validity, could the “truth” have been transmitted by Harryhausen using contactees’ concepts?
Some movies reminescent of Davidson’s theories go unremarked by Davidson in this book, including Five Million Years to Earth (Quatermass and the Pit) and Lifeforce, the former of which included the concept of aliens having engineered human evolution, and the latter of which was about energy exchanges between humans and space-alien “vampires.”
Davidson finds the heart attack deaths of Wilhelm Reich and George Van Tassel to be too coincidental to be natural. Since both men were controversial, were involved with UFOs, and were concerned with the energies running through humanity, he thinks them likely to be victims of the conspiracy.
In these times of X-Files mania, and conspiracy theory enthusiasm, Davidson’s book will interest those who want added material to fit into their theories. Others should at least find amusement.