Several young students at school near Edgware, England were subjected to a bizarre “exercise” in developing creative story-writing skills yesterday morning. Thanks to cooperation from local law enforcement who appeared at the scene to “investigate”, students were lead by teachers to believe that aliens had invaded.

During the course of the morning, area police officers arrived for a mock press conference aimed at making the event seem more realistic. “Forensic examiners had earlier analyzed an ‘alien claw’ they had ‘found’ on the site,” reported the local Harrow Observer. “After lunch the pupils were informed by the school’s head-teacher Elena Evans that it was all a stunt.”

On a smaller scale, this sort of calls to mind Orson Welles’ famous broadcast of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, which instilled fear in the hearts of middle class folk everywhere who couldn’t differentiate what was being described on the radio from what they thought were real events taking place. Similarly, many of the young students in yesterday’s experiment at Stag Lane School probably had issues distinguishing fact from fantasy. After all, if those in authority over you were to stand around telling you that, indeed, aliens are invading, in addition to the fact that they’re wielding convincing proof like an alien claw to boot, you’d probably buy into it also! And yet ironically, this sort of thing is just what some have suggested lays in our future on a global scale.

For instance, the controversial author and outspoken critic of the US government Milton William Cooper (who often went by Bill Cooper), claimed that the UFO phenomenon was merely a guise for secret operations of the “New World Order”, which used the threat of alien invasion to frighten and control the public. In his 1997 thesis MAJESTYTWELVE, Cooper explained that he, like many, had been led to believe that alien intelligences were behind many conspiracies like the idea of a one-world government which hoped to control all nations the world over:

When I saw Operation Majority while serving in the Navy I believed the alien threat was real just like everyone else. It was not until I had performed many years of research that I was able to fully understand exactly what it was that I had seen. It was extremely difficult for me to believe that my government and the United States Navy had used me, especially since I had dedicated my life to government and military service. Most government and military personnel cannot and will not believe such (an) idea.

Among Cooper’s extreme claims were that popular late-night radio host Art Bell also played a role in the dissemination of Illuminati misinformation to the public. Cooper cited others, like popular author of the Communion series Whitley Strieber, among those also perpetuating the myth that malevolent aliens were visiting Earth with the intention of world domination. However, due to so many of his extreme views Cooper was openly criticized, and few in the UFO community took his claims seriously. By late 2001, Cooper had begun to grow paranoid that he was being surveyed by “secret operatives”, which led to several accusations and at least one warrant for his arrest being issued, having to do with violent threats he had made to individuals he claimed had been stalking him or “loitering” on his property.

On November 5th 2001, officers with the Apache County Sheriff’s Office visited Cooper’s residence at close to 11 PM with the intention of presenting him with the aforementioned warrant, and in an attempt to lure Cooper from his home in order to serve the papers, began playing loud music near his property. Cooper, who was armed at the time, went to investigate the disturbance, and from here it is uncertain exactly how the events unfolded. Some accounts explain that the officers attempted to serve Cooper the warrant, and others suggest that the officers hadn’t clearly revealed to Cooper who they were. Therefore Cooper, who may have still believed that the individuals causing the disturbance were not law enforcement, stated that he planned to return to his home and call area police with hopes of confirming the warrant claims, as well as reporting what he may have felt was still a genuine disturbance. As Cooper attempted to leave, the officers tried to apprehend him, and shots were fired, though it is uncertain which party fired their weapon first. One deputy was injured in the shooting, after which Cooper was then shot and killed. Ironically, Cooper’s death occurred less than two months after the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, which he had apparently predicted would occur as part of a larger government plot both in his written works and on his radio program Hour of the Time three months before the attacks. 

Much like the young British school children were led to believe aliens had invaded through cooperation with authorities, how easily might the general public be led to believe similar things on a grander scale, based on what we are told by authorities like the police, investigative committees, and government officials?  I try not to prescribe to popular conspiracy theories myself, but one can’t rule out the ways that forces outside our day-to-day perception might still influence the human mind. Occasionally, we are given so lucid an example as yesterday’s events at Harrow, England. Now, for the sake of argument, these were indeed children. But the fact remains that what lended credibility to the situation was how authorities went along with the entire mess, and under similar circumstances adults might also be manipulated just as easily, if the right individuals went about doing so carefully (and creatively) enough.

So how susceptible are we to such misdirection? It brings to mind something actor John Travolta says to Hugh Jackman toward the end of the film Swordfish: “Misdirection… the eyes see, the mind believes.” How much of what we see around us each day do we believe by default… and how much of it is completely fabricated?