The History of Little Green Men: The Spectrum of Alien Beings

The descriptions of being allegedly seen in the panorama of the UFO Experience is conflicting, confusing, and subject to a lot of ridicule. Early "pulp fiction" and literature - as far back as the 12th century with the English tale of the "green children" to a Washington Irving story of Moon men with green complexions (1809) made for a ready label. The popularity of the Edgar Rice Burrough's Mars novels of the 1890's and early 20th century added to this. Kipling even has a little green figure in one of his books from 1906. IN the 1920's 1940's fantasy and science fiction magazines of the "pulp" variety boasted a variety of other worldly creatures - green and other colors - in a vast diversity of shapes and sizes.  The idea of "men from space" was then leaning to "little green men" or 'bug eyed monsters" and heartless robotic creatures.

When the "Official Flying Saucer Craze" - as many debunkers and skeptics like to call it - in 1947 this was in people's minds. Even the cause of all problems' - Gremlins - were often depicted as green skinned. The witch in the "Wizard of Oz" had green skin and during WW2 - a derogatory name for Japanese soldiers fighting in the Pacific Islands using camouflage was "Little Green Men."

Creating some chaos in the discussion is that from about 1949 until 1963 was what might be called the "Era of the Contactees."  Contactees differ from witnesses and abductees on several points. Contactees share a "chosen" status, they are given a message to convey to the people of Earth, and they are given rides to other planets or dimensions by their new friends or "space brothers." The experience is a mind altering, transcendent, mystic-spiritual, and very positive experience.  A Witness, on the other hand, is just that they observed some action or event with the same level of impact or trauma one might experience in witnessing a bad traffic accident or crime.  The Abductees, however, all seem to share one common and negative sense of fear, vulnerability, pain, and similar emotions. These are further often masked or buried deep in their sub-conscious adding to their dilemma. For others, it is a persistent, and nagging sense that something happened but they are not sure just what it was.

From a very early time there is a common description that includes small stature, large heads, oversized eyes, lack of facial, and "skin" color.

In 1922, near Hubbell, Nebraska, William C. Lamb was following some strange tracks when he heard high pitched sound. He turned to see a circular object large enough that it blanked out the stars in the area of the sky. As he watched, it suddenly became brilliantly bright and descended into a hollow nearby behind a small hill. As he continued to watch a being, estimated to be about 2.4 meters (six foot four) running at the place where he had seen the object go to ground. Lamb attempted to follow but soon lost the trail.

July4, 1947 (approximate), Roswell, NM. Alleged aliens observed in crash vehicle and described as small (3-4 feet, large head, large eyes, 3-4 fingers), gray in color. Since this event was swiftly closed down with the explanation of a weather balloon, it is unclear how wide-spread the story of any aliens might have been, It is interesting that 1948-1950 various crashed saucer stories, containing elements of Roswell, are floated almost as "straw men." Aztec, NM and a Mexico crash site are part of this distractive story that seems to have been floated to help keep something else secret through a program of ridicule.

July 23, 1947, in Baru, Brazil survey workers reported seeing a disc land and three beings were seen. These beings wore shiny clothes, an almost translucent look to the suits, and each had oversized heads smoothly bald, huge round eyes, and no eyelashes or brows. They too stood 2 meters tall.

Aug. 14, 1947 in Raveo, Italy was a story of two beings, approximately 1 meter tall, wearing dark blue coveralls with a red collar and belts. They too had oversized heads, a greenish face, huge dark eyes without any lashes or brows. They wore a crash type helmet. Their hands were greenish with 8 talon like fingers. Note, this appears to be the first "green" being seen. Many European stories have been found for this era and there is a strong possibility some cultural nuance or translation error (intentional or accidental) may have been at work to manage the stories.

Dec. 20, 1958, Hoganas, Sweden, a 5 meter diameter disc sitting on a tripod in the woods. The witnesses were "attacked" by four gray colored creatures described as "fluid."  The witnesses escaped, honked the horn of their vehicle the creatures fled to the craft and it took off to a "paralyzing vibration."

Spring 1960 - Syracruse, New York, An electronics engineer was fishing and saw a round object with rotating light on the top, it landed, and he saw two small figures "dwarfs" with oversized heads with a hose they used to pump water from the river. He noted their bodies glowed in a changing color pattern.

19 Sept. 1961, New Hampshire.  A professional couple driving home, saw an object, lost track of time and were eventually hypnotized separately in uncover repressed memories of the night that had been causing anxiety and stress.  The Betty and Barney Hill case was a cross-over event having elements of both the "contactee" world and the "unidentified flying object" world.  The aliens conducted painful tests (Abduction scenario) but also discussed things with Betty and showed her a map of where they came from (Contactee scenario). Many have considered this an example of the misuse of hypnosis and an example of triggered responses. Some have suggested the event was a break due to the stress the couple "had to be experiencing" as a mixed-race couple in 1961 America. The Hills' were quick to point out they had no stress and in their life both public and private they had many friends of both races and experienced no stress such as suggested. In additions, it is evident from tapes of some of the sessions that Barney was disturbed by something but he was reluctant to face whatever it was - even under hypnosis. 

For one or more of those reasons some have considered this case an example of an "MK-ULTRA" type experiment.  The "mash-up" of elements has always been odd, given the almost standard later anxiety ridden and stressful experiences of other abductees. 

Joe Nickell's timeline of alien types. Nickell is a one-time magician private investigator, and academic specializing in rare documents among other topics, who is also a professional skeptic and debunker.

One still under explored field in this subject area is the role of folklore, religious and philosophical beliefs, and regional customs might play in what is seen, how it is interpreted and how it is valued. French astronomer and folklorist Jacques Vallee did a lot in collecting European and non-English language accounts of strange things seen or experienced. More recently, many Native American and First Nation peoples have also begun to share the ancient stories and their meanings to their cultures over the ages. 

Just as the map of "Monsters in America" shows a diversity it also shows many common aspects and select locations. Where those entities are NOT seen or reported is just as important as where they ARE seen and reported. What influences, traditions, beliefs, and motifs are at work and what can they tell us about ourselves and our world. 

Oddly, the most persistent image of the "Other" related to UFO's appears to be a small being, bald, moving in a fluid or floating manner, with large eyes and no facial hair.  Other forms - anomalies - could represent a) robotic beings, b) suggested beings (via outside influence), c) a cultural trope yet to be understood.

There is still a lot of serious work to be done in examining these tales of contact with the "other."

Various sources have attempted to catalog the aliens described by witnesses. "Faces of the Visitors" by Kevin Randle and Russ Estes (1997) is one such work.