By LOUIS PROUD
Norio Hayakawa, a resident of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, has been engaged in the study of UFOs for more than fifty years. An expert on Nevada’s Area 51 and the alleged underground base near Dulce, New Mexico, he was responsible for organising ‘The Dulce Base: Fact or Fiction?’ conference – the first event of its kind ever held – which took place in the town of Dulce in March 2009. During his many years as a UFO lecturer, activist, and researcher, he’s brushed shoulders with such well-known figures as the late William ‘Bill’ Cooper, Bob Lazar and the late Gabe Valdez.
Much of Hayakawa’s research focuses on the technological-militaristic and socio-political aspects of the UFO phenomenon – an area overlooked by most other UFO researchers. A unique and discerning voice in the field of UFOlogy, he suggests there’s been an effort on the part of the authorities, for reasons both disturbing and far-reaching, to manipulate the public’s beliefs concerning UFOs and aliens. Like Dr. Jacques Vallée and others, he isn’t afraid to point out the shortcomings of the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), while at the same time maintaining an open-mind. Hayakawa kindly agreed to discuss his work with New Dawn magazine.
LOUIS PROUD (LP): Can you please describe your background and how you came to develop an interest in the UFO phenomenon?
NORIO HAYAKAWA (NH): I started getting really involved with UFO research around 1961, when I was a sophomore in high school. However, when I was in elementary school beginning in the early 1950s I had already known about ‘flying saucers’ because I used to listen to my father tell me of his sighting of a strangely manoeuvring green ‘ball’ of fire, which took place when he was fishing one summer night in 1947, in the Bay of Yokohama, Japan. My father was quite familiar with shooting stars and other astronomical phenomena, because he had spent years night fishing and was so used to looking at night skies. But that particular summer night in 1947 was definitely unforgettable to him, he used to tell our family at our dining table as he enthusiastically described his sighting to us.
From 1961, I started getting involved and began to subscribe to newsletters of NICAP [National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena] and APRO [Aerial Phenomena Research Organization] and other groups in the US, even though I was living in Japan. I also began to attend meetings of UFO investigation groups in the Yokohama and Tokyo areas. In 1964, when I was attending college in Tokyo, I became fascinated by a newspaper article about a strange encounter involving a highway patrol officer named Lonnie Zamora who claimed to have witnessed a flying saucer sitting on the desert, just outside of a sleepy little town in New Mexico, US, by the name of Socorro. Of course, that was the famous Socorro incident of 1964. The sighting really convinced me that I have to get to the bottom of this strange phenomenon.
LP: You say the authorities have exploited and benefited from the UFO phenomenon, by using it as a smokescreen for various top secret militaristic projects.
NH: Many defence contractors in the US periodically create ‘cover’ stories in order to detract attention away from covert military projects by some curious segment of the population. These ‘cover’ stories sometimes involve false UFO sighting reports. Such reports are frequently used when contractors come up with new military weapons systems or new military aircraft and so on – for example, new generations of remotely-controlled platforms for various programs. Creating the so-called ‘laughter curtain’ (i.e., bringing up the subject of UFOs or aliens) is one way to curtail serious scrutiny of certain military bases or programs. A very good example is how Area 51, a very important military research, development and testing location, has become associated with rumours of UFOs or aliens. This may well have been concocted by the Air Force itself, for example.
LP: You seem to disagree with the mainstream scientific notion that we have all the answers concerning UFO activity on Earth – or in other words there is no UFO “cover up.” In fact, you’ve stated the authorities are just as baffled by the UFO phenomenon as the general population. Moreover, you suggest the authorities have tried (and are still trying) to promote among the public certain beliefs concerning UFOs – namely, that UFOs are extraterrestrial spacecraft piloted by physical entities – as part of a sinister and elaborate psychological manipulation program.
NH: I am of the opinion that the government, or ‘authorities’, are just as perplexed about the nature of the UFO phenomenon as the public. The only reason they have not disclosed anything conclusive despite many years of research and collection of vital sighting report files is because they are unable to explain it to the public, having long known that the phenomenon cannot be sufficiently explained simply through contemporary, empirical science. The government has never been in the business of explaining anything that is outside of empirical scientific explanations. The UFO phenomenon seems to go beyond just being a physical phenomenon.
LP: What is your perspective on Operation Paperclip?
NH: We cannot underestimate the importance of Operation Paperclip in the aftermath of WWII. Operation Paperclip was a US sanctioned program through which hundreds of former Nazi German scientists and engineers (and even former SS intelligence officers) were brought to the US in order for the US to acquire some of the interesting military technologies that the Germans already had in the late 1930s and early 1940s, such as advanced rocket science and development of prototypes of flying wing aircraft – some of which were even equipped with ramjet engines and attained speeds of up to 500 or 600 miles per hour. New Mexico was one of the primary locations for these scientists because New Mexico already had important laboratories such as Los Alamos, and also important rocket testing ranges such as White Sands. Even today, White Sands Missile Range is the location of the most advanced testing of directed energy weapons systems, with the use of lasers and microwaves.
LP: What is Project Blue Beam and how does it tie into your research and the notion of a coming global crisis?
NH: Project Blue Beam is an alleged secret and futuristic NASA program in which advanced technologies (such as the use of airborne holographic projection devices and manipulation of various frequency waves) could be utilised to create fake visual/audio simulations to convince the public (or the enemy) that they are witnessing a real event – whatever that scenario may be.
The late Canadian investigative journalist Serge Monast (left), with whom I corresponded in 1993 and 1994, was the first to come up with the allegation that NASA will develop this technology in the near future. HAARP, which began to be talked about in the early 1990s, was basically another version of Project Blue Beam, utilising some of the Tesla technologies. According to some researchers, programs such as HAARP and the Blue Beam Project could be utilised in the future to generate panic (such as by creating a fake ‘extraterrestrial invasion’ scenario) so that the frightened and deceived public would clamour for some type of global authority and unity to fend off such ‘threats’.
LP: Could you please elaborate on the notion of a “fake ‘extraterrestrial invasion’ scenario,” using Project Blue Beam and HAARP technologies, as a way to enforce a totalitarian one-world government, or ‘New World Order’?
NH: If there really exists a global cabal whose long-term plan is to enforce a global government, the most logical way to carry out this plan would be to create an absolutely convincing need for such an authority. The ultimate means to achieve such a plan would be to artificially generate worldwide panic by staging a fake ‘extraterrestrial threat’ through the use of such technologies as HAARP and the alleged Project Blue Beam. An unprecedented series of global crises such as natural catastrophes or conflagrations (both of which could also be created) would be the final condition under which such schemes would be realised.
LP: During a recent interview on Truth Connections Radio you made a comment to the effect that there would no UFO history were it not for the US state of New Mexico.
NH: The importance of New Mexico can be seen from the fact that the atomic bomb was first tested in this state. New Mexico is the location of Los Alamos National Laboratory, probably the world’s largest conglomerate military/scientific research community. Los Alamos, by the way, has the world’s most advanced DNA, human genome, and genetics facilities in the world. Albuquerque, New Mexico is the headquarters of Sandia National Laboratories, which, located inside Kirtland Air Force Base, is probably the world’s largest military research, development and testing conglomerate.
New Mexico is such a huge state in size (the fifth largest in the Union), yet is scarcely populated in proportion to its huge area. Even today, the total population of New Mexico is about two million. It has enough space to conduct any kind of covert military research, development and testing programs. By the way, there are more scientists per population in New Mexico than in any other state. Yet the irony is that the level of public education in New Mexico ranks about 48th in the nation.
As I stated earlier, the White Sands Missile Range is today the location of the world’s most advanced directed energy weapons testing programs, involving lasers and microwaves. If aliens really exist, then this, for obvious reasons, would definitely be the primary place of interest to them. In fact, many people seem to believe that an extraterrestrial spacecraft has already crashed in New Mexico (the famous Roswell UFO incident of 1947).
LP: There is said to be a clandestine (and possibly extraterrestrial) underground facility near the town of Dulce, New Mexico – a topic on which you’ve conducted an extensive amount of research. What are some of the discoveries you’ve made concerning Dulce?
NH: Although I have been involved with investigations into the claims of an alleged underground joint US-alien base in Dulce (alleged biological laboratory) for many years, I have yet to see any solid, tangible, physical, irrefutable documentary evidence whatsoever of its existence. Yet, I can also say there seems to be lots of circumstantial evidence that there is ‘something’ there. What that ‘something’ is, I still do not know.
LP: What is your take on the cattle mutilation mystery?
NH: The cattle mutilation mystery, to my knowledge, began to be reported primarily in the mid-1970s in the Dulce, New Mexico and southern Colorado areas. It is my conjecture that it may have had something to do with the government’s monitoring of radiation levels of certain cows in the northern New Mexico region, especially in the aftermath of alleged radiation leaks that began to affect animals and even humans in the Dulce vicinity, after the US exploded an atomic device deep underground, about 22 miles southwest of Dulce in 1967. This experiment, codenamed Project Gasbuggy, was realised by the US Atomic Energy Commission, ostensibly to help ease the flow of natural gas trapped deep beneath hard rocks in the Dulce region. The high rate of cancer in the Dulce area as well as widespread fertility problems among young women in the area is quite noticeable, even today. Plus, there is a possibility the government may have used the Dulce area as a dumping ground for toxic waste materials, besides possibly conducting some form of bio-warfare research involving substances such as anthrax.
The cattle mutilation incidents may also have been a series of staged events by the government to cause local people and the public to believe that Dulce is somehow associated with alien visitation. The late Gabe Valdez, a former New Mexico state patrol officer in charge of the entire Dulce region for many years, also seemed to come to that conclusion. He further concluded that UFO incidents were staged by the government with the use of holographic projections and other mind-control technologies then being developed at places such as Sandia National Laboratories.
LP: Please shed some light on your association with the late Milton William Cooper (otherwise known as William ‘Bill’ Cooper) – the famous conspiracy theorist and author of Behold a Pale Horse – and how his work is of relevance to your own.
NH: When William ‘Bill’ Cooper first came on the scene in 1989 in Los Angeles, I was quite impressed with his speeches. He had brought a new, global conspiracy-type angle to the UFO phenomenon, which sounded very fresh and exciting to lots of us in the so-called UFO community, including myself. I even helped him launch his first public lecture at Hollywood High School in 1989.
As the years went by, Cooper began to disassociate himself from UFOlogy. He went into the ‘militia’ or ‘Patriot’ movement and, unfortunately, met a violent death in 2001 in Arizona. What I admired about Cooper, despite his well-known obnoxious and rather egotistical personality, was the fact that he began to admit that he may have been purposely shown disinformation by the Navy concerning UFOs. He also began to believe that in the future a secret global government could even stage a ‘fake’ extraterrestrial event to create panic in order to establish a forced global governance of some type.
LP: What do you make of the claims of Robert ‘Bob’ Lazar – who says he took part in a top secret government project, based at Area 51 [Nevada, USA], to reverse-engineer recovered extraterrestrial spacecraft – and others who’ve come forward with similar sensational stories?
NH: The claims of Bob Lazar are simply claims and cannot be verified. However, over all these years Lazar has never changed his story. The very fact that Lazar still has a scientific equipment business in Michigan (United Nuclear) and still seems to be doing occasional work indirectly with some defence contractors seems to indicate he is indeed knowledgeable in the scientific applications associated with military technologies. But there is also a theory that Lazar was intentionally manipulated by the government to strengthen the ‘extraterrestrial’ element to the Area 51 story, thus bringing about the ‘laughter curtain’ whenever discussion of this important military base is brought up by the public.
LP: In your opinion, the UFO phenomenon is non-physical in nature, having nothing to do with flesh-and-blood extraterrestrial beings. Alternately, you’ve expressed a strong appreciation of Dr. Jacques Vallée’s extra-dimensional hypothesis, which interprets UFO events in terms of other “dimensions” or “realities” existing alongside our own.
NH: The vast majority of the world’s scientists as well as the public at large seem convinced there has to be advanced extraterrestrial civilisations elsewhere in the universe. However, when it comes to the question of UFOs most of them do not support the theory that we have ever been (or are being) visited by physical extraterrestrial beings in physical spacecraft; physically it is impossible, they say. Even Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s most brilliant minds, while acknowledging the existence of extraterrestrial civilisations are almost certain, says that no aliens have ever come to earth in UFOs.
But the UFO phenomenon seems to be real. I totally agree with Vallée, who continues to support the extra-dimensional origins of UFOs. I also tend to believe that UFOs are not objects nor are they flying. I tend to believe they are temporarily materialising and dematerialising – in other words, intruding into our dimension for reasons unknown and receding back quickly into their dimension. UFO reports have existed from time immemorial. Even today we do not comprehend the true nature of this puzzling phenomenon.
LP: You once worked as a licensed funeral director, while some of your blog posts concern philosophical topics such as death and the afterlife. Do you believe these topics are of relevance to the UFO phenomenon and, if so, how?
NH: The world is filled with mysteries. There are things in this world that cannot be sufficiently explained. Life and death are mysteries unto themselves. So, in this sense, the UFO phenomenon is no different from the mysteries of life and death. The phenomenon, which has existed from time immemorial (i.e. sighting reports), has not been solved yet. This is the reason I am so fascinated with the topic. The world would be dull without such mysteries. In fact, as I’ve stated many times in my public presentations, the UFO phenomenon is perhaps the most important topic of mankind.
LOUIS PROUD, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, is an avid writer and researcher specialising in paranormal and occult phenomena, conspiracism, and fringe science. Described by Colin Wilson as “one of the most acute commentators on the paranormal to appear in recent years,” his work has been published in Fate, Paranormal, Nexus and New Dawn magazines. He has written two books: Dark Intrusions: An Investigation into the Paranormal Nature of Sleep Paralysis Experiences (Anomalist Books, 2009), and Our Haunted Moon (due to be released in late-2013 by Inner Traditions).
The above article appeared in New Dawn Special Issue Vol 6 No 5.