Research Note

Mythology researcher T. Peter Park explored the possibility that UFO aliens could be jinn in a discussion in an online discussion group called “Mythfolk” in 1999. It started off with comments on the “Men in Black” urban legend. Park noted that Thomas E. Bullard, a folklorist specializing in UFO-related beliefs, had placed the “Men in Black” in a broader and older tradition of “mysterious visitants.”

            “Almost a sense of familiarity attaches to the Men in Black,” Bullard was quoted as saying. “They step into the shoes vacated by angels and demons to serve as modernized versions of otherworldly messengers, modified to reflect extraterrestrial rather than supernatural employment but clearly functionaries in the same mold…. In classical belief demons populated the earth in great number, as did fairies in Celtic folklore, and like fairies these demons [of Greek and Roman mythology and folklore, e.g., Socrates’ ‘daimon’ – TPP] worked to help or harm mortals.

“In Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian and Islamic beliefs these beings lost some of their choice of action as they divided into two distinct camps, one loyal to God and the other [serving as] henchmen to the devil…. Devils and demonic beings enjoy broader license for mischief as they cause harm by whatever means their evil imaginations can devise.... The primary activity of demons is to tempt humans into sin. For this purpose demons often disguise themselves by transformation and a common motif in folklore leaves an imperfection in the disguise, often the cloven hoofs of the devil going unchanged. Strange feet and an ‘artificial’ or doll-like look are common traits of Men in Black as well.”

Park pointed out that John A. Keel repeatedly mentioned in his writings that UFO aliens, “Bigfoot” type creatures, and entities like the 1966-1967 West Virginia “Mothman” often seem to have no feet, while frequently stressing the “artificial” or “robot-like” look of many Men in Black.

            Park observed that the similarity of modern, UFO-related Men in Black to traditional folkloric demons and fairies, as described by Bullard, was first popularized by John Keel in the mid- and late 1960’s. In the 1950’s and early 1960’s version of the MIB mythos spread by Albert K. Bender and Gray Barker, the Men in Black had been pictured either as U.S. government agents or as man-like “straight” extraterrestrial humanoids, with no ghostly, supernatural, demonic or faerie qualities.

            Keel himself initially suggested an Earthly human origin for both the Men in Black and the UFO aliens themselves in his April 1968 article in Fate magazine on the “The Sinister Men in Black,” where he argued that the Ufonauts and Men in Black might be “a subversive group who, like the Gypsies, are able to live among us unnoticed and isolated from our general society.” By 1970, however, in his books Strange Creatures From Time and Space and UFO's: Operation Trojan Horse, Keel theorized instead that Ufonauts, Men in Black, and other Mystery Creatures were probably trickster-like quasi-demonic “Ultraterrestrials” from another dimension.
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