The Men in Black are back! (They never went away)
Al Blenney - 23rd December 2024
If you are like me, you would have thought that Men in Black (MIB) was a delightful fictional creation appearing in Marvel comic books, as well as several television series which have embedded Men in Black characters, e.g. Section 31 (in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Enterprise), and the Silence (in Doctor Who). And we must not forget the two comedic films starring Will Smith as Agent J, with Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K; Protecting the Earth from the Scum of the Universe.
The concept of Men in Black first gained prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, coinciding with the rise of UFO sightings in the United States. The term “Men in Black” was popularised by author Gray Barker in his 1956 book “They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers,” which detailed accounts of individuals who claimed to have been visited by these enigmatic figures. Typically, MIB are described as tall, pale, and expressionless, often exhibiting strange or robotic behavior. Their attire is almost always a black suit, white shirt, black tie, and a black hat. The “real MIBs” are not benevolent protectors of Earth, but agents of terror.
The phenomenon of Men in Black has intrigued and mystified UFO researchers and enthusiasts for decades. These mysterious figures are said to appear following UFO sightings or encounters, ostensibly to silence witnesses and suppress information. While the existence of MIB remains a topic of debate, numerous alleged real-life encounters have been documented, adding layers of intrigue and conspiracy to the UFO narrative.
Alleged Encounters
In 1956, Gray Barker released his book which contained some of the following accounts:
UFO researcher Harold Dahl claimed to have been visited by a group of mysterious men in June 1947 who warned him to cease investigating a strange aerial phenomenon. As the story goes, Harold Dahl was on a conservation mission on the Puget Sound near the eastern shore of Washington’s Maury Island, gathering logs, when he saw six doughnut-shaped objects hovering about a half a mile above his boat. Before long, one of them fell nearly 1,500 feet, followed by raining metallic debris, some of which hit Dahl’s son, Charles, on his arm, as well as hitting the family dog, who was killed. Dahl was able to take some pictures of the craft with his camera, which he later showed to his supervisor, Fred Crisman. A skeptical Crisman went back to the scene to look for himself, and saw a strange aircraft with his own eyes.
The following morning, Dahl was visited by a man in a black suit. They ended up at a local diner, where the man was able to recount in extraordinary detail what Dahl had just experienced. “What I have said is proof to you that I know a great deal more about this experience of yours than you will want to believe,” the man said.
Dahl was told not to speak of the incident. If he did, bad things would happen. This encounter, although largely anecdotal, laid the groundwork for the MIB phenomenon. The supposed events of Maury Island have continued to fuel conspiracy theories to this day, even though a U.S. government investigation deemed it a hoax after Dahl and Crimson later admitted they’d made it up.
One of the most famous alleged encounters with MIB occurred in 1953, involving Albert K. Bender, a prominent UFO researcher and founder of the International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB). Bender, a student of the occult as well as a UFO buff, had in his possession a small scraping of a saucer that had smashed through an outdoor billboard near his home in Connecticut. Bender also possessed what, to his mind, was the secret of the saucers - namely that they came from the North Pole - and he was about to reveal this to the world, via his saucer publication. In fact, he had just sent a postcard outlining the evidence to a friend. The next day, three Men in Black arrived at his home. Somehow, they had that postcard. And somehow they didn’t have a hard time convincing Bender to get out of the UFO field.
In the next issue of his publication ”Space Review”, Bender announced the closing of the IFSB along with this item: he claimed that he had been visited by three men in black suits who warned him to cease his UFO research. Following this encounter, Bender shut down the IFSB and withdrew from public life, giving credence to the authenticity of his claims.
Bender, in his own 1962 book “Flying Saucers and the Three Men”, described the MIB in much more frightening language:
They floated about a foot off the floor… They looked like clergymen, but wore hats similar to Homburg style. The faces were not clearly discernible, for the hats partly hid and shaded them… The eyes of all three figures suddenly lit up like flashlight bulbs… They seemed to burn into my very soul as the pains above my eyes became almost unbearable.
Another notable case is that of Dr. Herbert Hopkins, a psychiatrist and UFO researcher, who reported an encounter with an MIB in 1976. According to Hopkins, the MIB arrived at his home unannounced, displayed knowledge of Hopkins’ research, and instructed him to destroy his UFO-related files. His guest was impeccably dressed in an apparently new suit, pants perfectly creased, black suit coat, tie and shoes and a starched white shirt. He also wore grey leather gloves. On the top of his head was a black hat which the man removed, revealing a perfectly smooth bald head. Hopkins also described the visitor as having an unnaturally smooth face. The encounter left Hopkins deeply shaken, and convinced of the MIB’s intent to suppress UFO information. Not surprisingly, he was so scared that he willingly complied with his visitor’s instructions, which was to have nothing further to do with his UFO investigations.
However, a good story doesn’t have to be real to be appreciated. It is possible that the experience as reported by Dr. Hopkins was a fabrication designed to draw attention to his work and his own odd need for attention. His nephew, Howard Lance Hopkins, personally disavowed the story, in a blog posting in 2008, as a delusion of his uncle’s creation.
Edgar Jarrold, the head of the Australian Flying Saucer Bureau, began to notice his house under surveillance by two men in a black limo who waited all night. Within a few months, Jarrold too had gone silent.
Gray Barker learned of the travails of a friend from Canada who was fortunate enough to obtain a sample of a metallic-looking object that crashed while he was fishing. Smallwood (not his real name) sent it out for analysis, then got two visits from a Man in Black, warning him not to reveal the results of the testing. “Your recent activities are very, very undesirable,” the stranger growled, “and if they are continued, they might be dangerous to you and your family. We would like to advise you to cease all your activities connected with these fragments. Our second advice is to forget that such things as flying saucers exist.” The visits left Smallwood on the brink of a nervous breakdown.
And then there was John Stuart, a UFO investigator from New Zealand. He also had a fragment from a saucer. Then one night a phone call woke him up.
“Are you John Stuart? The John Stuart who is interested in what Earth men call ‘flying saucers’?” The voice was an odd monotone, almost robotic. Stuart identified himself: “I want you to stop interfering in matters that do not concern you! You have been warned.”
But Stuart ignored the warning. It was harder to ignore the doorbell that rang with no one around. And a visit from a strange man. Stuart wrote Barker a goodbye note in 1955:
“I had a visit from a bloke who offered me some advice—after he had left I felt I should listen to what he said. You see, I had a piece of grey-white metal and—well, now I haven’t got it! Our friend ‘thought’ he had more right to it than I. I have learned a lot about UFOs from this lad—oh yes, he told me a lot—too much maybe, for my own personal safety. It is easy to understand, I think, why he told me what he did. It was meant to scare hell out of me—it did! You will be curious as to where I got my piece of ‘metal.’ It fell from a UFO. The next night, before leaving for Auckland, my visitor called on me. I can’t, at the moment, tell you any more for it is too much for me to do. In short, I’m not game to go against my ‘orders.’ And for God’s sake be careful!”
MIB encounters often involve intimidation, threats, and even physical violence. Witnesses report feeling a sense of fear and helplessness in the presence of these figures. There is no need to erase their memories with “flashy, flashy things” - frightening them into silence is sufficient. On the other hand, many witnesses claim to have experienced memory loss or confusion after MIB encounters, suggesting that the MIB may use advanced techniques to erase or alter memories.
Several theories have been proposed to explain the MIB phenomenon:
Government Agents: One common explanation is that the MIB are government agents tasked with suppressing information about UFOs and extraterrestrial life. Are these sinister individuals simply government agents gone rogue, or are they something far more sinister? This theory suggests that the MIB may be part of a secret government program designed to protect national security.
Extraterrestrial Beings: Some believe that the MIB are actually extraterrestrial beings in human disguise, sent to monitor and control human activity. Are the MIB representatives of an extraterrestrial police force, whose job it is to keep the gates to a parallel universe closed tightly behind them? This theory is supported by accounts of MIB exhibiting unusual physical characteristics or displaying advanced knowledge.
Psychological Explanations: Others argue that MIB encounters can be explained by psychological factors such as fear, anxiety, hallucinations, sleep paralysis, or the power of suggestion and misinterpretation of real-world events. They contend that the MIB phenomenon is a product of cultural mythology and the human tendency to create patterns and explanations for unexplained events. This theory suggests that the MIB may be a manifestation of the human mind’s response to the unknown and the uncanny.
This understanding of UFO phenomena and the Men in Black as folklore or cultural mythology was furthered by a 1957 report from famed psychoanalyst Carl Jung, “Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies.” While Jung never argued for or against the existence of UFOs, he noted, “Our time is characterized by fragmentation, confusion, and perplexity… At such times men’s eyes turn to heaven for help, and marvelous signs appear from on high.”
Stories of the real Men in Black don’t circulate as often now as they did in the mid-20th century — perhaps because the mere concept has been turned into something of a joke. Still, in the midst of the UFO cultural zeitgeist, the Men in Black were for a time a key part of the conversation, and claiming to encounter them was tantamount to proving that you really had seen aliens.
The UFOlogist Jerome Clark, in his work, The UFO Book, rather snarkily notes:
First-generation American ufologists’ experiences of men in black - as opposed to the MIB who came along later - were the extremely dubious cases of Maury Island and Al Bender, along with the even more questionable Edgar Jarrold “mystery” and Stuart/Wilkinson affair (in both senses of the word “affair”). In retrospect, the bulk of what Gray Barker wrote in the one men-in-black book of the 1950s (They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, 1956) has been discredited. No wonder sensible ufologists were sensibly suspicious of men-in-black notions.” And in the encyclopedia, UFOs and Popular Culture, folklorist James Lewis wrote of Barker: “Barker considered himself an entertainer and folklorist rather than a factual reporter and was a gifted writer with a gentle, understated sense of humor.
And there is one obvious question that arises from the MIB terror tactics: why weren’t they inflicted on the US Department of Defence (DOD) personnel allegedly performing extensive research, not only on the phenomena of UFO visits themselves, but also involved in alien autopsies and re-engineering crashed UFOs? Unless the MIB were from the DOD, sent to suppress anything that contradicted the US government’s denials of the existence of UFOs. Perhaps the MIB have stopped their attacks because…
The Truth is Out!