Trevor James Constable (17 September 1925 − 31 March 2016) was an early
UFO
An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...
writer who believed that the UFO phenomenon was best explained by the presence of enormous
amoeba
An amoeba (; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; plural ''am(o)ebas'' or ''am(o)ebae'' ), often called an amoeboid, is a type of Cell (biology), cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and ret ...
-like animals inhabiting earth's
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
.
A native of
Wellington, New Zealand
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...
, he served 31 years at sea, 26 of them as a radio officer in the U.S. merchant marine. He authored several books on the aerial warfare of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, together with co-author Raymond Toliver. These works have been described as uncritical and not grounded in historical realities by several historians.
Authorship on World War II
Constable was an author who produced 10 non-fiction books, many well known to aficionados of famous fighter aces. His co-author on these works was Raymond Toliver, a former U.S. Air Force pilot and official historian of the American Fighter Aces Association. Their work on German fighter ace
Erich Hartmann
Erich Alfred Hartmann (19 April 1922 – 20 September 1993) was a German fighter pilot during World War II and the most successful fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. He flew 1,404 combat missions and participated in aerial com ...
, ''
The Blond Knight of Germany
''The Blond Knight of Germany'' is a book by the American authors Trevor J. Constable and Raymond F. Toliver dedicated to the life and career of the German fighter pilot of World War II, Erich Hartmann. Originally released in the United States in ...
'', was described by historians
Ronald Smelser
Ronald Smelser (born 1942) is an American historian, author, and former professor of history at the University of Utah. He specializes in modern European history, including the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, and has written several ...
and
Edward J. Davies
Edward J. Davies (born 1947) is an American historian, author, and professor of history at the University of Utah. He specialises in modern American history and has written several books on the subject. Davies is the author, together with fellow ...
in their work ''
The Myth of the Eastern Front
''The Myth of the Eastern Front: The Nazi–Soviet War in American Popular Culture'' (2008) by Ronald Smelser and Edward J. Davies, is a historical analysis of the post-war myth of the "Clean Wehrmacht", the negative impact of the ''Wehrmacht'' ...
'' as a "hallmark of romanization", with its "insidious" title suggesting medieval chivalry that "not only fails to characterize the conduct of the Wehrmacht during the Soviet-German war, but, indeed, marks its opposite".
The historian Jens Wehner notes that the 1971 book by Constable and Toliver on Hartmann, published in German as ''Holt Hartmann vom Himmel! Die Geschichte des erfolgreichsten Jagdfliegers der Welt'', was immensely popular in Germany, but contained serious flaws in terms of presentation of historical realities. These included the uncritical borrowing from the Nazi propaganda elements of the ''Fliegerassen'' ("
aces
ACeS (PT Asia Cellular Satellite) was a regional satellite telecommunications company based in Jakarta, Indonesia. It offered GSM-like satellite telephony services to Asian market. The coverage area included Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Phili ...
") and stereotypes about the Soviet Union. According to Wehner, the latter could be traced to the prevailing attitudes during the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
. Further, the political and social consequences of World War II were completely ignored.
UFO hypothesis
After reading about
radionics
Radionics—also called electromagnetic therapy (EMT) and the Abrams Method—is a form of alternative medicine that claims that disease can be diagnosed and treated by applying electromagnetic radiation (EMR), such as radio waves, to the bo ...
and
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author ...
's
orgone
Orgone () is a pseudoscientific concept variously described as an esoteric energy or hypothetical universal life force. Originally proposed in the 1930s by Wilhelm Reich, and developed by Reich's student Charles Kelley after Reich's death in 1 ...
, Constable became convinced that supposed UFOs were in fact living organisms. He set out to prove his theory by taking a camera with him, fitted with an ultra-violet lens and high-speed film. The processed pictured showed signs of discolouration, which Constable insisted were proof of
amoeba
An amoeba (; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; plural ''am(o)ebas'' or ''am(o)ebae'' ), often called an amoeboid, is a type of Cell (biology), cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and ret ...
-like animals inhabiting the sky.
Reviewing his new found 'evidence', Constable was moved to write in two books that the creatures, though not existing outside of the "infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum", had been on this Earth since it was more gaseous than solid. He claimed that the creatures belonged to a new offshoot of evolution, and that the species should be classified under macrobacteria.
According to Constable, the creatures could be the size of a coin or as large as half a mile across.
The biology of the creatures supposedly meant that they were visible to radar, even when not to the naked eye.
To explain supposed
cattle (and occasionally human) mutilations, Constable theorised that the use of radar angered the organisms, who would become predatory when provoked.
At a later date a crypto-zoologist officially classified these supposed creatures as ''Amoebae constablea'', named after their discoverer.
Constable wrote a book entitled ''The Cosmic Pulse of Life'' in 1975 that outlined his ideas.
Work with TJC/Atmos Engineers
In 1991 Constable worked with the local
Malacca
Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...
n government on a project to fill the
Durian Tunggal Dam.
He and the company promoted the idea that they had created a 'rain-making' technology, which employed "metal cylinders placed in cones and modified gadgets", which would then alter the ether or
'chi' of the atmosphere.
The benefits of using such a device were touted as avoiding
electromagnetism
In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of a ...
or
radioactive
Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consid ...
substances being placed into the country's air.
Constable did express concern at having to use the devices for a localised area, saying that "it's like trying to put rain in a small container".
Constable claimed that his technology and methods had already been used to fill the
Gibraltar Dam
Gibraltar Dam is located on the Santa Ynez River, in southeastern Santa Barbara County, California, in the United States. Forming Gibraltar Reservoir, the dam is owned by the city of Santa Barbara. Originally constructed in 1920 and expanded in ...
in
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
In the earlier stages of the operation there were apparently not yet any notable results in filling the reservoir, and some Malacca residents blamed evil spirits, which were fighting against the attempts to align the atmosphere. Constable said he believed "there could be some truth in the rumours", but he was confident that his technology could overcome the obstacle.
The Malaysian government eventually began a probe into TJC/Atmos Engineers to look into whether there was any evidence that the State government had been cheated.
In total the local government had paid them $3.2 million. However, the following was reported on Aug 14, 1991 in the New Straits Times, "TJC Atmos Engineers was hired by the Malacca Government to solve the State's water problems by filling up the 28-metre Durian Tunggal dam which dried up in January. They will be paid $3.2 Million if they succeed and half if the dam is half full by the end of next month. The operation started on July 1. Mr. Constable described the contract to undertake the operation in Malacca as totally contingent - no result, no pay." It would appear then that if the Malacca Government paid out the full amount of $3.2 Million to TJC/Atmos Engineers, that they would have been deemed to have fulfilled the full contractual obligations for receiving that sum of money.
Bibliography
* Raymond F. Toliver and Trevor J. Constable. ''Fighter Aces of the Luftwaffe.'' London: Arthur Barker, 1968. Reissued: Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1996
* Raymond F. Toliver and Trevor J. Constable. ''The Blond Knight of Germany: A biography of Erich Hartmann.'' Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Tab Aero, 1970.
* Trevor James
onstable ''They Live in the Sky!'' Los Angeles: New Age Publishing Co., 1958.
* Trevor James
onstable ''The cosmic pulse of life: the revolutionary biological power behind UFOs.'' Santa Ana, CA: Merlin Press, 1976.
References
Sources
* ''
H-Soz-Kult H-Soz-u-Kult (''Humanities – Sozial und Kulturgeschichte'') is an
online information and communication platform for historians which disseminates academic news and publications.
The project is committed to the principles of open access and commun ...
''
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Constable, Trevor James
1925 births
2016 deaths
Parapsychologists
People from Wellington City
UFO writers
United States Merchant Mariners