Forbidden Science Dispatches #6
Lt. Col. Thaddeus P. Floryan, an obscure Peruvian contactee, and the “teaching machine"
On October 5th, 1973, Jacques Vallee reported receiving a call from Colonel Thaddeus Floryan “who said he was in contact with an engineer from Peru who had spent 18 days inside a flying saucer.”1 He agreed to meet the pair for lunch but does not record a diary entry for that day. Around a week later, Vallee writes:
I've spent a good part of Thursday with Colonel Floryan's Peruvian friend, Manuel, a consultant in organizational psychology. He claims his experiences began in July 1961 when he heard a voice ordering him to go away from his companions, saw a craft on the ground, went inside and was transported into the jungle. He spent three hours there before a “teaching machine.” Curiously, he doesn't recall any beings. When he returned to civilization(,) 18 days had elapsed. For the first six months afterwards he slept over 12 hours a day, now only needs two hours of sleep. He moved to California because “this is where the great changes of the future will take place.”2
Several things are interesting about this October 13th, 1973 entry. For instance, Vallee refers to Manuel as an organizational psychology consultant instead of an engineer. While the former profession does apply to industrial processes at times, it is not really “engineering” unless one counts behavioral engineering as qualifying for the title of engineer. Additionally, the lack of beings being present during this UFO encounter—which otherwise bears all the hallmarks of an abduction or contact—is also highly unusual, as is the purported “learning machine” that gave the witness the ability to function with very little sleep.
When Vallee later met with Floryan for lunch, in March of the next following year, he “brought (Vallee) fresh news of his friend Manuel the abductee,” but this news is not relayed in the journal entry.3 Instead, the colonel’s background is elaborated upon further, adding additional intrigue to his emergence in the UFO-obsessed computer scientist’s life. “In the opening months of WWII(,) Floryan was in charge of counter-espionage for the east coast shoreline from Long Island to Atlantic City,” Vallee writes.4 While in this role, he recalled how many German U-boats were reported by locals in the area who were certain of what they saw when no Nazi vessels were in the waters. Colonel Floryan expressed: “In intelligence you quickly learn that the social milieu and the respectability of the witness don’t amount to much.”5 In a manner which Vallee likens to his “cheerful (…) old uncle Maurice,” Floryan advises him on how to approach the UFO topic, reminding Vallee how much data may be incorrect. “He has his own language to speak of people who study paranormal phenomena,” Vallee writes. “He says we are ‘in the Work.’”6
Colonel Floryan was indeed a career military man which makes it odd that he would approach Vallee and try to grab his interest with a contactee/abductee of such obscurity. Some of the activities alleged by Vallee are confirmed by newspaper accounts, including that he oversaw counterespionage operation along the east coast. A story from the Asbury Park Press follows Floryan’s attempts to limit lights along the New Jersey shore amid the leadup to WWII, fearful of vulnerability to nighttime attacks from the Germans on shipping vessels. “He said the civilian population ‘does not know what it means to the men who move boats up and down the coast at night,’” the reporter recounts. “’Those lights may cost lives. If we could only make a motion picture or something to show, because we can’t take them all out for a first hand inspection.’”7 Moving to Ft. Bliss later in his time with the military, his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel was reported in a 1962 edition of the El Paso Herald-Post.8 He retired from the Army in 1966.9 An interview conducted by the National Park Service with a veteran of Fort Hancock who worked directly with Floryan illuminates other facets of his military service, including him assisting Army counterintelligence to arrest Nazi sympathizers at the onset of the war.10 The squad mate, Anthony Staniewicz, also recalls later seeing Floryan stationed in Brussels, Belgium—though he strangely calls him a Brigadier General despite Floryan never achieving this rank. Further clarification on Floryan’s career comes from his family, but nothing arises in his history that would make one suspect him of becoming an acolyte of a Peruvian abductee.
Thaddeus Floryan Jr., the colonel’s son, mentioned in archived internet posts from 1992 that he had met Vallee “professionally when he was a staff researcher at the Institute For the Future (IFF), a Menlo Park CA ‘think tank,’” as Floryan Jr. was also a computer scientist.11 In fact, it was his son “who introduced” Col. Floryan to Vallee “because of an apparent mutual interest in UFOs.”12 This son is not mentioned elsewhere Forbidden Science 2 despite being integral to Vallee meeting the colonel and his contactee friend Manuel. Floryan Jr. continued:
Interestingly, Jacques and I participated in one “field trip” arranged by my Dad which attempted to locate a “si(gh)ting” in the Santa Cruz mountains. Nothing was found, discovered, revealed or uncovered during that trip.
I believe the reason Jacques consented to the trip was because of my Dad's background. As (…) noted, my Dad was an ex-Army officer; he was also ex-CIA, and participated in some "interesting" activities during WWII, among which was “Antwerp X” (for which he received the highest commendations from Belgium for zapping the V-1 buzzbombs) and the “liberation” of the Von Braun German rocket team to the USA.13
Credence is added to these purported credentials from Colonel Floryan’s appearance in a declassified CIA document, the minutes of an Intelligence Advisory Committee meeting, presided over by Allen W. Dulles, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time.14 Within this document, Floryan is described as a representative of the Department of the Army, but the existence of this meeting indicates some type of working relationship with the CIA. Additionally, his participation in “Antwerp X” is partially corroborated by his presence in Belgium according to Staniewicz. Further, if he participated in “liberating” Von Braun and other rocket scientists from Germany, this implies that he was part of a highly secret intelligence venture—Operation Paperclip or something similar. Floryan’s son also states his father was involved in the Redstone ballistic missile program, an operation that, like NASA’s Apollo program, utilized former Nazi rocket scientists. His alleged involvement in these programs with Nazi scientists not only puts him in close contact with the Army CIC and CIA, but also makes some of his claims to Vallee appear even stranger.
“Somebody should concentrate on the Gestapo archives,” Floryan tells Vallee at one point in their conversation, continuing:
Those Nazi thugs knew a lot of things. They had electromagnetic devices that affected both the physical and the psychic. Look up Zodiac and Swastika, many names in that book. Talk to your friends in France, don't do the research alone. Find a retired librarian or a military archivist to guide you. The Germans were in the Work a long time before the War.15
The book that Floryan recommends to Vallee, Zodiac and Swastika, is a book by Himmler’s personal astrologer, Wilhelm Wulff. Vouching for this book opens up a whole can of worms, indicating that Floryan was at least a mild believer in the Nazi regime’s success at utilizing occult powers in their quest for world domination. Wulff himself alleged that he was part of a top-secret German Navy project that drew in all manner of paranormal practitioners. “The National Socialist leaders proposed to use these ‘research centers’ to harness, not only natural, but also supernatural, forces,” he writes.16 Peter Levenda notes that while some considered Wulff to have “sound” politics, the astrologer actually put forth what “was essentially the blueprint for a Nazi astrology” when pressed by Himmler to have an astrological system that treated Aryans as superior.17 “We can conclude that Wulff’s politics were—if not sound, then—at least presented in such a way that no reasonable objection from one of the most despised racists in world history would have been possible,” Levenda writes.18 One could see how an astrologer who formatted his system at the behest of Heinrich Himmler may not be the greatest source when trying to prove that the Nazis had supernatural capabilities. I am, of course, skeptical of any claims that the SS was able to utilize mystical forces beyond human comprehension after previous bad experiences with the subject. Floryan’s promotion of these rumors is concerning, especially given his apparent engagement with Nazi rocket scientists, but it’s possible he was misled. Nevertheless, the theosophical overtones of Manuel’s encounter suggest a preoccupation with the mystical side of the phenomenon. After all, Manuel claimed that California “is where the great changes of the future will take place”—recalling the prevalence of Mt. Shasta in the mythology of the I AM movement, a direct descendant of theosophy.19 Combined with his seeming endorsement of Wulff, the lurk of a strange theosophical bent in Floryan’s UFO interest may have been a key motivator in his promotion of Manuel and his story, as well as his willingness to spread the narrative to Jacques Vallee.
Interestingly, the story of Floryan’s abductee friend Manuel is given a longer treatment in Vallee’s 1975 book, The Invisible College. Floryan himself is not mentioned in this retelling. Once again, Manuel’s occupation is slightly changed, this time to “engineering executive,” not quite the same as an engineer or an organizational psychology consultant.20 More elaboration is given on the circumstances of his abduction, notably that it occurred while Manuel was still a student, “with four other men during an archeological field trip” in the Peruvian countryside.21 Vallee says that the young man’s disappearance was taken seriously by “police and military units” primarily because “his father” was “a government official”—always an important factor to note.22 In addition to the alteration of the amount of sleep Manuel needed—only two hours a night after the encounter—The Invsible College also reveals that he gained psychokinetic abilities and a photographic memory. His eyesight, however, “rapidly declined,” an effect Manuel “attribute(d) to a blinding, blinking light that was situated on top of the ‘machine.’”23 The “learning machine” itself is described in more detail, with Vallee saying that Manuel was:
Transported (…) into a desolate area far away (…) and landed near a large machine reminiscent of a computer, about five feet high and twenty feet long, with row after row of “recordings.” During the three hours he spent with the device his impression was that it (was) “feeding their contents directly into his brain.”24
Vallee compares the case to Uri Geller, who also had alleged supernatural abilities develop after being inside of an apparent UFO. Like Manuel, Geller also felt that he had been “invested with a mission, given to him by a mysterious space source.”25 Unlike Geller, however, Manuel is remarkably unknown, “withdrawn and secretive” compared to Geller’s “showman.”26 The secrecy has apparently gone on into the present, as I have not been able to find the Manuel case referenced in other UFO literature unless it is very obliquely mentioned.
Relating the case to Geller is noteworthy—the purported psychic was being studied by a CIA-funded project done by the Stanford Research Institute at the time with parapsychologists Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ leading the charge. This context is important because Manuel’s description of a “teaching machine” matches the verbiage used to describe an apparatus utilized by Targ in an earlier 1971 study. From a presentation given at a Parapsychology Association meeting, a “teaching machine” was employed by Targ that “randomly select(ed) among four targets” and “provide(d) immediate feedback indicating (the) correctness of subject’s determination of the machine chosen target.”27 This device, the paper concludes, was able “to teach and enhance ESP phenomena.”28 I would need to see the experiment in action to reach my own conclusions—Targ seems destined to believe in ESP at any juncture—but the interesting feature is that the “teaching machine” developed by Targ bears slight similarities to those described by Vallee in Manuel’s case. “It generates random targets automatically and rapidly,” Targ and coauthor David Hurt write. “The targets are 35mm color transparencies and the user’s task is to select the one the machine has chosen by means of its random target generator.”29 While not a perfect match to the device Manuel describes, the color transparencies seem very similar to screens, and the rapid sensory input hoping to result in precognition is reminiscent of Manuel’s descriptions “downloading” information from a variety of screens. Regardless of superficial similarities, one must wonder if Vallee’s use of the term “teaching machine” came from Manuel directly, or if it was a concept he was drawing from his association with Targ and Puthoff’s parapsychology studies.
The question at the heart of this dispatch: Why was Colonel Floryan promoting the claims of an obscure Peruvian abductee—a case that seemingly has very little documentation outside of Forbidden Science and The Invisible College—to Jacques Vallee in the early 1970s? Indeed, in both places where Manuel is mentioned, there is no indication of how Floryan came to meet the young engineer/executive/psychologist in the first place. Especially given Manuel’s insistence on a “mission” assigned to him by the UFO encounter, it is odd that this important task was not circulated further throughout the ufology sphere. With his intelligence background in mind, combined with an array of paranormal or mystical interests, one must wonder about Floryan’s motivations. Was he simply a former military man who found himself drawn to the esoteric—one strange experiencer in particular? It is said that one never truly leaves the Agency, and the individual he endorsed to Vallee seems to have resonances with a famously CIA-funded study of the paranormal. Was it a subtle attempt to reaffirm the reality of what SRI was studying? Unfortunately, due to the relative obscurity of the personalities in question and the passing of time, we may never know the full details of Lt. Colonel Thaddeus Floryan and his Peruvian friend, the abductee Manuel.
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Vallee, Jacques. Forbidden Science 2: California Hermetica – The Journals of Jacques Vallee 1970-1979. San Antonio: Anomalist Books, 2008. Page 207.
Ibid., page 209.
Ibid., page 289.
Ibid.
Ibid., page 290.
Ibid.
“Bursts of Light From Shore Towns Still Illuminating Coastal Shipping.” Asbury Park Press. 21 July 1942. https://www.newspapers.com/article/asbury-park-press-floryan-lights-pt-2/151540720/.
“Promoted.” El Paso Herald-Post. 6 August 1962. https://www.newspapers.com/article/el-paso-herald-post-floryan-promotion/151540489/.
Burns, Ruby. “Around El Paso.” El Paso Times. 31 August 1966. https://www.newspapers.com/article/el-paso-times-floryan-legion-of-merit/151540432/.
Rasa, Mary. “An Oral History Telephone Interview with Anthony H. Staniewicz 7th Coast Artillery 1940-42.” Sandy Hook, Gateway NRA, NPS. 19 August 2004. https://www.nps.gov/gate/learn/historyculture/upload/Staniewicz-Anthony.pdf.
“UFO message boards.” Strange Texts. Republished 16 December 2020. https://strangetextsbutcher.blogspot.com/2020/12/ufo-message-boards_16.html. Accessed 19 July 2024.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Intelligence Advisory Committee. “Minutes of Meeting Held in Director’s Conference Room, Administration Building Central Intelligence Agency, on 21 July 1953.” Central Intelligence Agency. 21 July 1953. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP82-00400R000100060022-6.pdf. Accessed 19 July 2024.
Vallee, Jacques. Forbidden Science 2: California Hermetica – The Journals of Jacques Vallee 1970-1979. San Antonio: Anomalist Books, 2008. Page 290.
Wulff, Wilhelm. Zodiac and Swastika: How Astrology Guided Hitler’s Germany. New York: Coward, McGann & Geoghegan, Inc., 1968. Page 75. https://archive.org/details/zodiacswastikaho0000wulf/.
Levenda, Peter. Unholy Alliance: A History of Nazi Involvement with the Occult. New York: Continuum, 1995. Page 163.
Ibid.
Bryan, Gerald B. Psychic Dictatorship in America. Los Angeles: Truth Research Publications, 1940. Page 15. http://www.orgonelab.org/PsychDict.pdf.
Vallee, Jacques. The Invisible College: What a Group of Scientists Has Discovered About UFO Influence on the Human Race. San Antonio: Anomalist Books, 2015. eBook. Page 17.
Ibid.
Ibid., page 18.
Ibid., page 20.
Ibid., page 18.
Ibid., page 19.
Ibid.
Targ, Russell and David B. Hurt. “Learning Clairvoyance and Precognition with an Extra Sensory Perception Teaching Machine.” Presented at the Parapsychology Association Meeting, Durham, North Carolina. September 1971. Page 2. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00787R000100080003-2.pdf.
Ibid., page 7.
Ibid., page 3-5.