Alternate Horizons

History

Allen H. Greenfield launched Alternate Horizons Newsletter from 2875 Sequoyah Drive NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30327 in late 1966 as the official publication of the Foundation for Philosophic Advancement (FPA). Single copies cost 50 cents; membership in the FPA ran five dollars per year, with applicants required to write for approval before sending money. The publication ran through at least five volumes (19 whole numbers) before ceasing around 1971.

The newsletter existed to develop and test what Greenfield called the "AR" (Alternate Reality) theory: the proposition that UFO phenomena, Fortean events, contactee experiences, and paranormal occurrences might all be manifestations of multiple coexisting realities rather than purely physical spacecraft from other planets. The first issue opened with characteristic candour: "I don't know what I'm talking about. Perhaps that is an odd way to inaugurate a new publication, but it's an odd subject."

The contributor network was remarkable for a small-circulation newsletter. John A. Keel wrote "The Secret Is Out, But There's a Credibility Gap" for Volume 3. Lucius Farish (who would later become a prolific UFO bibliographer) contributed a historical survey of contactee cases from the 1600s through the 1897 airship wave. Jerome Clark's work on the 1897 airship in Flying Saucer Review was extensively discussed. Tom Comella (writing as Peter Kor) contributed theoretical pieces on "substratic" versus physical explanations. Joseph M. Erhardt of UFO Chronolog contributed speculative physics. Donald R. Cook Jr. assisted with the AR theory Q&A. Paul Gregory wrote from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, researching "Space Children" cases.

Greenfield maintained active connections across the UFO network. Rick Hilberg arranged a radio discussion of the AR theory on the Gary Short Program, WERE Radio, Cleveland, Ohio (22 September 1967). Timothy Green Beckley devoted a portion of his "On The Trail of the Flying Saucers" column in Flying Saucers Magazine to Greenfield's ideas. Gary Lesley of UAPRO provided sighting data. Gene Duplantier's Saucers, Space and Science was cited for reports. The newsletter referenced the CAPIC Newsletter, Saucer News, Flying Saucer Review, and the work of Ray Palmer, Steve Erdmann, and Paul Thomas.

Content ranged from Fortean archaeology (Baring-Gould's "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," the Horselberg legends, Willis George Emerson's "The Smoky God," Richard Shaver's cavern world) to specific case analysis (the Ravenna police chase, the Reverend Gill incident in Papua New Guinea, the Cynthia Appleton contact of 1959) to practical calls for fieldwork. Greenfield published a "PNV Form" for standardised field investigation and pleaded for readers to physically visit sighting hotspots rather than merely reading about them.

The editorial voice was passionate and occasionally frustrated. "For God's sake, help us!" Greenfield wrote in Volume 2, listing five categories of needed work: investigation of saucer centres, cataloguing historical Fortean records, researching the 1897 flap via newspaper microfilm, forming in-depth study groups, and conducting field investigations informed by the AR concept.