The Coast Guard (Salem) UFO Photograph – a Pair of Jungian Quaternities?

I suppose it qualifies as an iconic photograph.  Taken at Salem, Massachusetts, on July 16, 1952, it remains more than 50 years later a stock illustration for popular journalism on UFOs.  The Guardian used it in 2011, Time magazine in 2015, the New York Times in 2019.  Just this month, attractively colorized, it leads off a long and excellent New Yorker article on UFOs by Gideon Lewis-Kraus, entitled in the print edition (May 10) “The U.F.O. Papers” and on the web, “How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously.”

According to skeptic Robert Sheaffer, the prominent UFO author Leslie Kean has made this “her profile photo.”  I haven’t found this on the web, myself, but Sheaffer generally knows what he’s talking about.  Clearly, this picture is an enduring part of UFO history that just won’t be buried or forgotten.  Why?

Not that it’s a particularly impressive element in the UFO dossier.  On the contrary: in a post to his “UFO Conjectures” blog (May 6), Rich Reynolds calls it “an obvious fake” and not even a very good one, although he adds that “there has never been, as far as I know, any analysis of the above snapshot by anyone who has the qualifications to show how and why the photo is a fake.”  Similarly  on Facebook (“UFO UpDates”): “Fake photo continues to haunt ufology.”  

In the discussion thread on Reynolds’ Facebook post, Curt Collins posts a link to the Project Blue Book file on the Salem photograph.  “Two coast guard photographers observed and photographed four bright lights over Salem coast guard station,” is the report’s summary; and we’re told that the analysis of the photo was completed on August 1, a little over two weeks after the supposed incident.  “The results of this analysis indicated that the photo was a hoax. … Failure of the light source to cast reflections on the highly polished polished cars below indicated that the light was not outside, and it was assumed by the analyst at the time, that the photo was a double exposure and for this reason was a hoax.”

That was the original analysis.  But for some reason that’s never made clear, Project Blue Book decided to revisit the photo in October 1963, and came to a different conclusion: “the photos represent light reflections from an interior source (probably the ceiling lights) on the window through which the photo was taken.”  So, says the Blue Book report, it wasn’t a hoax after all.

Which makes about zero sense to me, since I can’t imagine you’d see a reflection of ceiling lights in a window and not be aware that was what they were, so that you’d submit a photo of those reflected lights in good faith as something external and anomalous.  But let it be.  My interest is not in the photo’s dubious pedigree, but in its remarkable perdurance.

Some of the comments on the Facebook thread seem to attribute this to the persistent folly of UFOlogy and those of us who pursue it.  But I don’t think foolishness is what’s operating here.  I’d look in a different direction.

I’d suppose that there’s something in the photo so compelling, so appealing to the psyche, that it overrides whatever doubts we may have as to whether it really shows what it purports to show.  Which makes it a natural fit–I’d even say, instinctive fit–with any discussion of UFOs, from whatever perspective.

What might that “something” be?  Those of you who know my Jungian inclinations will probably know what I’m going to say.

The picture shows a complementary pair of quaternities, one in heaven and one on earth, mirroring each other along a vertical axis.

The quaternity, say Jung and those influenced by him (like me), is an archetype of wholeness, popping up spontaneously in our dreams and our myths, our art and our religions and our literature.  It manifests as a group of four–doesn’t matter four what; the content of the archetype will vary even while the organizing pattern remains stable–organized as a 3 + 1.  In other words, three of the four are alike, while the fourth, although related to the other three, is in some way different.

The classic example: the four Gospels, 3 + 1, the three Synoptics + the Gospel of John.  Or the vision of Ezekiel chapter 1, which (Jung says in Answer to Job) is “made up of two well-ordered composite quaternities,” these presumably being the “living creatures” (with three animal faces + one human face) and the “wheels.”

In this photo, the 3 + 1 structure of the UFOs is obvious: the fourth is larger than the other three, and is beneath their line.  It’s not quite so clear in the four automobiles beneath them.  But the right-most car is partway out of the picture and it seems to merge into its neighbor, so you have to look carefully to assure yourself there really are four vehicles here and not three.

Did the Coast Guard hoaxers aim for this composition, even unconsciously, when they created the photo?  We don’t know, and it’s unlikely we ever will.  (It’s just barely possible that one or both of them is still alive.)  But intentional or not, the double quaternity is there.  That is not speculation.

What is speculation is that this is the way we’re to explain the photo’s otherwise baffling popularity and persistence–debunk it all you like, it won’t go away.  Plausible speculation?  This depends on how plausible you consider Jungian psychology.

I’ve already weighed in on that one.