Final Events

Final Events: Demonic UFOs, Alien Abductions, the Government, and the Afterlife is a 2010 pseudohistory book by Nick Redfern.^[1] The book tells a story of the "Collins Elite", a high-level group of US policymakers who grow to believe UFOs are demonic rather than extraterrestrial. In the text, the author is explicit that the contents are not demonstrably factual.

Final Events: Demonic UFOs, Alien Abductions, the Government, and the Afterlife

Author	Nick Redfern
Cover artist	Crystal Hollis
Language	English
Published	2010
Publication place	US
Media type	Print
Pages	266
ISBN	1938398114

In 2014, scholar of conspiracy theories Aaron John Gulyas devoted a chapter titled "Space Demons" to Redfern's Final Events.^[2] Despite its origin in a work of hearsay, the term "Collins Elite" would go on to be incorporated into both popular culture and UFO conspiracy folklore.^[3][4]

Background

Final Events draws upon UFO conspiracy theories.

In the 2005 biography Sex and Rockets, author John Carter discusses folkore connecting UFOs to 1940s rocket chemist Jack Parsons, a follower of occult guru Aleister Crowley. Crowleyite Kenneth Grant pointed to Parson's "Babalon Working" occult ritual "just prior to the wave of unexplained aerial phenomena now recalled as the ‘Great Flying Saucer Flap.’" and argued "Parsons opened a door and something flew in."^[5] Occult author Francis X. King opines that Parsons felt flying saucers "would play a part in converting the world to Crowleyanity."^[5] Parson's former partner, Marjorie Cameron, became obsessed with flying saucers which she interpreted as the result of "elemental powers."^[5] Discordian author "Adam GoRightly" similarly connected UFOs to Parson's occult rituals.^[6][7]

Plot

I cannot tell how the truth may be;
I say the tale as ‘twas said to me

— Walter Scott,
as quoted in Final Events (2010)

According to the framing story, in 1991, Anglican Priest and leading UFOlogist Ray Boeche is contacted by two Christians physicists from the Department of Defense who reveal a government program to contact "nonhuman entities". According to their story, the physicists had become convinced the entities were demonic and should not be communicated with. According to the book, author Nick Redfern learns of the collaboration and makes inquiries with the Air Force; he is contacted by a man in his 80s, identifying himself as "Richard Duke", who claims to be a former member of the CIA and "the last surviving member of the original Collins Elite".

Redfern dedicates the rest of the book to conveying Duke's narrative but is careful never to vouch for its historicity; Redfern quotes poet Walter Scott: "I cannot tell how the truth may be; I say the tale as ‘twas said to me".

Narrative

In response to the 1947 flying disc craze, rocket engineer Jack Parsons is questioned by Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Parsons, a disciple of British occultist Aleister Crowley, offers the explanation that occult rituals he conducted in the summer of 1947 had "opened the door" for the flying discs to enter our realm.

In 1950, Parsons is reported to the FBI for having illegally removed classified documents from the Hughes Aircraft Company. Parsons confesses to having removed the documents, returns them, and claims he was going to use the documents to obtain employment in Israel. Parsons is placed under surveillance and Parson's top secret clearance is revoked on January 7, 1952. In response to the loss of his security clearance, Parsons plans to leave the country and relocate to Israel. According to the narrative, the personnel involved in handling the Parsons matter served as the nucleus for a group that would later become the "Collin Elite". Duke recalls: "the thing that connected everyone was we were all on the investigation of Parsons taking the papers from Hughes." On June 17, the day before his departure, Parsons is killed at his home in an explosion that is later ruled accidental.

In the weeks after Parsons is killed, Washington, D.C. experiences a massive wave of UFO sightings and there is "a sudden upsurge in UFO activity across the United States — the likes of which had never, ever been seen before". While mainstream elements in the military assume the UFOs are the result of extraterrestrial visitors, many in the Collins Elite become convinced the wave is the result of Parson's death. According to the text, "no more than about a week after Parsons got killed", about 15 people who had been involved in the Parsons case are invited to fly to attend a meeting at the Pentagon. There, they receive an offer to relocate with families to D.C. in order to conduct a study on whether flying disks "had devil beginnings". The group is kept secret from lawmakers, as Pentagon officials "knew the hammer was going to come down on all this if Congress found out good U.S. dollars were being used to pay for [a study of] demonology and flying saucers." The term "Collins" stems a participant who came from Collins, New York.

Contactees revealed to be occultists

According to the text, in the 1953, contactee George Adamski and writer Desmond Leslie publish Flying Saucers Have Landed which relays that our "space brothers" are concerned about nuclear bomb tests, while 1954, Adamski's asssociate George Hunt Williamson details alleged short-wave radio communications with friendly saucer pilot named "Affa". After it is revealed that Leslie is an occultist and Williamson used an ouija board, the team concludes that the contactee movement is occult, not extraterrestrial, in nature.

According to the text, in 1954, housewife Frances Swan begins receiving messages via automatic writing from "Affa", who was mentioned in Williamson's ouija board session. Instructed by "Affa" to contact the Navy, she reaches out to her next door neighbor, Admiral Herbert Knowles, requesting his assistance in sending a message to the Secretary of Defense. The Collins Elite interpret these events as satanic campaign to attempting to influence US policymakers, concluding that Swan was specifically "chosen by demonic forces who carefully anticipated she would contact [Admiral] Knowles". On July 9, 1959, members of the Collins Elite are furthere disturbed to learn that a member of Naval Intelligence has used Swan's automatic writing techniques to successfully summon a flying saucer.

According to the text, in 1966, the CIA begins "Operation Often", to "explore the world of black magic", and on January 31, 1970, a member the Collins Elite briefs Offer agents on the possible link between UFOs and black magic. In 1972, the Collins Elite learn from Often agents that Crowleyite Sybil Leek spontaneously opined that flying saucers are linked to the occult. Though the Collins Elite are "overwhelmingly appalled by the idea of consulting with a woman to whom Aleister Crowley read his poetry", they participate in future meetings between Often agents and Leek. In one session, Leek 'channels' a demonic entity who relays that "the world was being fooled into believing that aliens were among us, when, in reality, the forces of the Prince of Darkness himself were readying and steadying themselves for the final confrontation with the powers of good." Leek's demon further claims the Earth is "a farm and nothing else", and that "energy derived from the souls of the Human Race and indeed from every living creature on the planet was being harvested as a means to feed the minions of Satan".

'Black Helicopters'

By the summer of 1982, members of the group realize that some abductees are reporting "harassment from low-flying, black unmarked helicopters, interrogation by senior military personnel, and ... kidnappings" where abductees were taken to vast, underground installations and shown "black-eyed, diminutive aliens and human military personnel working together". Shocked to learn that they are not alone in surveilling abductees, members of the Collins Elite begin an investigation to determine why "another group had access to military helicopters, underground installations, and much more, while their project had no access to such near-unlimited resources".

In 1982, Reagan orders a study into the abduction phenomenon, several White House officials are briefed by a member of the Collins Elite on the demonic theory and "warned of the importance of not being seduced by the satanic deception." The Reagan administration agrees to further increase the budget and scope of the Collins Elite. The Collins Elite ultimately conclude that alien abductions have no basis in physical reality. With their expanded powers, the Collins Elite are finally capable of conducting a military-wide investigation to determine identity of the top secret group within the military that seemed to be responsible for the surveillance of countless abductees". When their investigation fails to find evidence of such a group within the military, the group conclude that the soldiers and black helicopters are really "sophisticated imagery generated by demons and fallen-angels".

Collins Elite reaches out

According to the text, in 1991, Anglican Priest and leading UFOlogist Ray Boeche is contacted by two physicists from the Department of Defense. Two men, both Christians, reveal to Boeche that although the Department of Defense has been engaged in an "obsessive effort" to contact "nonhuman entities", the physicists had become convinced the entities were demonic and should not be communicated with.

In 1994, journalist Linda Morton Howe receives a message from the Collins Elite via Ray Boeche. The message warns that "our misguided program directors cling to the false belief that we can control or manipulate the [Non-Human Entities], when in actuality, the reverse is occurring—we are the ones being manipulated and deceived"

According to the tale, in 2009, a former member of the Collins Elite relays that elements in the government have considered "enforcing a planned, strict Christian doctrine on the entire American population", perhaps by projecting images of Jesus across the skies of North America. In the closing pages of the narrative, the former member reassures the author: "I don’t want you to think the satellites are ready and up there ... It was just an idea discussed around a table—notes, presentations, Power-Point, whatever".

Reception and inclusion in popular culture

By 2021, it was reported that elements within UFOlogy believed an "organized cabal in the Pentagon actively suppressed UFO work because it feared UFOs were demons and that researching them might provoke Satan." ^[8]

UFO disclosure advocate Luis Elizondo has claimed that a faction of US government insiders opposed research into UFOs on the grounds that they were demonic. ^[9][10][11]