Whenever you are confronted with UFOs, all trails in the Contact Scenario lead inexorably back to military intelligence agencies. Is it therefore they who are responsible for the creation and dissemination of this myth? If so, the question is: why? What possible benefit could there be for "them" in convincing the public of the reality of extraterrestrials?

The role of intelligence agencies in major UFO events is so obvious that many UFO researchers have acknowledged it. However, they have chosen to explain it by three hypotheses.
The first is that it is a misinformation campaign: UFOs are real, but the government is spreading false data in order to throw researchers off the trail, or to discredit them. The problem with this hypothesis is that all the supposed evidence supporting the Contact Scenario originated from within military intelligence circles - there is no other evidence that may have led researchers to this conclusion.
The second hypothesis is that the government is gradually feeding information to the public as part of a 'softening up' exercise to gradually acclimatise it for an official announcement that 'aliens are among us' (an announcement that would otherwise cause mass panic). Unfortunately, this programme seems to take several decades, suggesting this cannot be the correct answer.
The third theory is that the information comes from factions within the military and intelligence communities that are opposed to the official policy of suppression of the 'truth'.

However, the last two hypotheses assume that the evidence emanating from official sources is genuine. Yet, in the final analysis, all of this evidence can be shown to be false - the MJ-12 papers are fakes; the Roswell witnesses have been discredited, and so on. If the US government really is in contact with aliens, it would not have to invent evidence. Neither would whistleblowers.
The logical conclusion is that there is no alien contact - but that, for some reason, certain sections of the political, military and intelligence communities want us to believe that there is. What could the motive for this be? There are two possible scenarios that could answer this question.
Scenario one is the Invasion Hypothesis. As has been pointed out, the 'main business' of the USA - and for that matter most other Western nations - is war. The economy is based on the development and production of the machinery of warfare, and the consequences of world peace breaking out would be economically disastrous. Since the end of the Cold War, the need to use military force for defence has greatly diminished and the Iraq war has thus been seen as a welcome economic boost. In the 1990s, the question had to be posed whether a new threat - not of this Earth - was being manufactured. Was a bogus alien invasion being created? During the height of the hype, in 1997-1999, this possibility did not materialise. Instead, in 2001, 9/11 happened and a more traditional war was concocted.

Still, the 'Invasion' hypothesis is consistent with the data uncovered by various researchers and is also supported by a speech to the United Nations by President Reagan during the declining years of the Cold War, in which he said: "I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And yet, I ask you, is not an alien force already among us?"

Scenario two is that of the Space Gods. Philip Lamy, cultural anthropologist, stated: "I really believe that UFOlogy is going to be the next world religion... The idea that there are superevolved intelligent beings out there is one that appeals to a lot of people." An examination of the subtext of the Contact Scenario reveals another, even more disquieting, aspect. Incongruous as it may seem when dealing with manipulation by military and intelligence agencies, it is undeniable that that the message that ultimately emerges is essentially religious or spiritual in nature.
The Contact Scenario does not depict the Grey aliens as a threat, but emphasises their benevolence. This is reflected in public expectations: a survey in the USA in the late 1990s found that, when asked whether - assuming that they exist - extraterrestrials would be hostile or friendly, 86% of Americans believed that they would be friendly.
All the major elements of the Contact Scenario embody a religious aspect. For example, the explanation that William Moore was given by his AFOSI handler Richard Doty for the government's withholding of information about UFOs was that public revelations about the existence of extraterrestrials would have a profound impact on the world's religions, through a recognition of their influence on the origins and history of the human race.
This was exactly the same message fed to Linda Moulton Howe by Doty: the "secret briefing paper" that Howe was allowed to see stated that the Grey aliens had actually created the human race through genetic manipulation millions of years ago. In other words, in a very literal way, the aliens are our creators. And they have continued to watch over us ever since, guiding the progress of human civilisation - especially the shaping of mankind's religious beliefs. The document also stated that Jesus was an emissary of the aliens. It should suffice as proof that someone was using UFOlogy as parts of a religious framework.

The same message emerged from the alien 'ambassadors' in Area 51. According to the alleged leaks, their communications were more concerned with spiritual matters, such as life after death and the destiny of mankind, than with astrophysics or technology. Perhaps most disturbing of all is the increasingly religious aspect to the abduction phenomenon. Abductees see themselves not as victims, but as people chosen to bring a spiritual message from the extraterrestrials to the world.
The ultimate message of the aliens is that the increase in UFO-related events in the last half of the 20th century is a preparation for the revelation of their existence and the opening of direct contact. Many abductees speak of the 'quickening', a building up to some momentous event that will take place in the next few years, similar to the Apocalypse of Christianity.

This second scenario is not mutually exclusive to the 'Invasion Hypothesis', since the benevolent, Grey aliens are keen to stress that there are other, malevolent, races out there, who seek to control the Earth. It is clear that, in the final analysis, those manipulating the UFO phenomenon are using it to promote what are essentially quasi-religious ideas. The obvious question is: why?
The belief in contact with advanced extraterrestrial beings is an extremely potent one. Moreover, it is perhaps the only belief that has the potential for a radical transformation of society on a global scale. Imagine, for example, what the effect would be if the United States President did make a public announcement confirming the presence of extraterrestrials on Earth. (Even the announcement, in August 1996, of the discovery of 3-billion-year-old fossilised bacteria in a meteorite from Mars caused shock-waves around the world.)
When stripped of its science-fiction trappings, the underlying message of the Contact Scenario is a familiar one. The aliens created us, they have guided us from behind the scenes throughout history, and now, in the hour of our greatest need, they are about to return to save us. Through their advanced science they can give us eternal life. From their cosmic perspective they can give us the answers to all the questions with which the human race has ever wrestled. With their spacecraft they can help us ascend to the stars. They bring the promise of salvation on a personal and global level. All of this can be seen as a restatement - or updating - of the major tenets of the traditional Western religions. Even the idea that there are good and evil alien races engaged in a struggle for Earth parallels the battle between God and his angels and the Devil and his demons - the perennial theme of the war between Light and Dark.

Is a new religion being created for the new millennium - a religion in which the gods have become highly advanced extraterrestrial beings? A religion that will appeal to the more technological and materialist world-view of today's West, but which retains all the promises - and threats - of traditional Western religions? In the final analysis, all organised religions have been a means of social control, and, we fear, the new religion will be no exception.
Such a scenario may seem extreme. However, the evidence that is available to each and all "out there" makes it clear that the public perception of the UFO phenomenon - and in particular of alien contact - has, from the outset, been guided and manipulated by powerful terrestrial forces. Especially in the last three decades, a great deal of time, energy and resources have been expended on implanting the Contact Scenario into the collective consciousness. Whatever the objective of such a conspiracy, it is clear that those behind it are playing for very high stakes.