The Surprisingly Bland Origins of UFO Lore. Part 3: Men in Black came from Exploiting the Mentally Ill.
When opening any serious post-1998 writing on the mysterious figures known as the “Men in Black,” one must swiftly differentiate the “real life” MIBs from those campy, on screen caricatures portrayed by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. No need to do that here though because, as it seems to me, neither is any less fictional than the other.
Sorry guys, but the figure of the threatening, menacing, sometimes alien, sometimes robotic, government agent, whose duty it is to silence UFO witnesses, was concocted by a known huckster who made a living off of making stuff up about aliens. And some of his methods were downright cruel.
The man’s name was Gray Barker, and his influence in the early days of UFO lore was so immense, the US Air Force kept files of his claims. Privately, Barker was a UFO skeptic, admitted that it was all a lucrative lie, and even set up his own hoaxes to fool actual UFO enthusiasts so he could exploit their stories. He also had no problem taking advantage of a troubled young war vet, and student of all things bizarre, named Albert Bender.
Bender was an eccentric gentleman who, in his 30s, still lived in his stepfather’s house, spending most of his time in his “chamber of horrors” where he obsessed over any and all supernatural or paranormal materials he could get ahold of; much of which, he claimed, was obtained through psychic contact with individuals around the world. In other words, Bender was likely an undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenic.
But to Gray Barker, he was a prized UFO Specialist, whose delusions Barker was all too happy to encourage and shape into “true accounts” to be sold in popular publications.
Barker was likely not happy when his main source of material, Albert Bender, suddenly refused to speak or write anymore about his UFO experiences. But when Barker caught wind of this sudden change of heart having been inspired by a visitation from three threatening individuals wearing black suits, he was able to scrape together one last fable from Bender and thus, the Men in Black myth was born.
There is a grain of truth behind the stories of government agents encouraging “contacted” individuals to keep their mouths shut about “flying saucer sightings” and the like. Early on, some in government feared this new flying saucer craze could cause mass hysteria, and officially investigated some groups and individuals involved in the field.
Is it possible Albert Bender was one such individual, and that’s where the Men in Black originated? Probably not, considering that Bender’s account consisted of a “psychic” encounter with the MIB, in which they communicated telepathically, and transported Bender’s consciousness to Antarctica, where he conversed with multiple aliens.
It’s conceivable that Bender’s experience was a delusional retelling of an actual government visit, but in all likelihood, was just the psychosis of a mentally ill man, aided by actual anecdotes of other UFOlogists, dealing with actual federal officials. After all, government paranoia is a classic trait of paranoid schizophrenics.
So, you don’t have to worry about being visited by menacing government robot thugs, if you see something weird in the sky. You may however, have to (if the rumors are true) worry about a 4th entry in the Men In Black film franchise; an even scarier thought.
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4351
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/04/albert-bender-dies-mib-and-ufos/
