"I saw Watchers in my vision, a dream vision, and behold two of them argued about me…and they were engaged in a great quarrel concerning me. I asked them: ‘You, why do you argue thus about me?’ They answered and said to me: ‘We have been made masters and rule over the sons of men.’ And they said to me: ‘Which of us do you choose?…’”

The preceding is a fragment from the Testament of Amram, a document written in Aramaic which forms part of the Qumran scrolls, more commonly known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The entire fragment, some eight patchy paragraphs, relates a story told by Moses’ father, Amram, to his children, concerning the burden of choice: whether to serve the evil Watcher Melkiresha, a viper-faced demon, or his counterpart, the Watcher Melchizedek, who is ruler of the “Sons of Light.”

Much has been made over the last few decades of the link between the role played by the biblical Watchers and that played by UFOs and their occupants, as well as the phenomena associated with them. This order of nonhuman beings, which fell from grace on account of their transgressions with “the daughters of men,” are at the core of a current controversy. The viper-eyed Melkiresha, allegorical though it may be, is strangely reminiscent of some of the more reptilian UFO entities that have been reported in a number of encounters. The Watchers, as described in the Bible or by the Tibetan monks who discussed the topic with the Russian artist/mystic Nicholas Roerich (whose paintings of Asian hill-forts are often referred to in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft), are in essence a race of beings which have always lived in the skies and lord over humanity, reveling in intermarriage with humans. The biblical Noah, for example, was the offspring of a Watcher.

Struggles of Angels and Men

Mexican author Luis Ramírez Reyes describes interaction between the same kind of strange beings and humans taking place in our very own times. While the following report would perhaps be better filed under “alien aggression,” there are certain elements which make it a more suitable fit for “interaction between humans and hostile spiritual agencies.”

In 1993, Rafael Perrin, a television talk show personality, was hosting a party one night at his apartment in Mexico City’s swank “Zona Rosa” district. Around midnight, he stepped out onto his balcony to catch a breath of fresh air when, looking down to the sidewalk, he noticed a wounded dog lying on the sidewalk, twisting and howling. Moved by the sight, Perrin left his apartment to assist the suffering animal, but was prevented from touching the dog by a “young fellow dressed in rags,” who in spite of his reduced circumstances did not act like a beggar. The youth told Perrin that a band of aliens roaming the streets of Mexico City had inflicted harm upon the canine with a small beam-emitting device they carried on them. Perrin was further astonished when the young beggar went into a lengthy discussion of the beam weapon’s origin, its effect, the nature of the predatory aliens and the damage attributed to “unknown parties” that was common in the area. The youth was about to heal the suffering dog using a similar device which “reversed the effect” of the harmful beam.

Rather than staying to witness the miraculous cure, Perrin ran back up to his apartment to fetch his camcorder, hoping to capture on film the curing of an injured animal by means of nonhuman technology. But when he returned to the scene, the young beggar was nowhere in sight. Perrin saw only the no-longer-wounded dog walking away down the sidewalk. “Imagine how I regret not having remained to witness the way in which that person used the device and…listening to his accounts of how there were aliens among us, fighting and squabbling with each other over control of the earth.”

Readers may take Perrin’s story, as told to Ramírez Reyes, with a grain of salt, but note the similarity to biblical accounts of warring factions of angels (or the mysterious Watchers) and the propensity of angels to appear as young human males endowed with special powers.

In November 1991, Monica María Ortega, a young Colombian woman, told of a nocturnal sexual encounter with an alleged “alien” (which could well have been one of the Watchers) on a nationally syndicated TV show. Far from being one of the current crop of Greys, her nonhuman lover was more in step with the traditional sky people, elementals, or other creatures who have interacted with humans on a biological level in traditions that span the globe. Ms. Ortega was 12 years old at the time and living in New York City when this tall, blond, green-eyed entity suddenly materialized in her bedroom.

“At first, I saw two lights. I felt a presence, and naturally felt scared. One light was red in color and the other was green,” she recalled. The lights told her not to fear for her safety. As she began to fall asleep, in spite of the luminous globes’ presence, she felt caresses and kisses all over her body as her nightclothes were removed. “I felt something spread my legs open and a sharp pain soon after. I woke up, terrified, and saw a being in a tight-fitting outfit in bed with me. His eyes were so green that it made me dizzy to look at them. I found him very handsome, was attracted to him and fell in love.”

Monica’s lover and his silent companion (never manifested in human form) told her that they traveled around the world. Curiosity, they advised her, was the motivation for their sexual contacts.

In 1987, Monica had her third contact with the Watchers. After two years, she had moved back to Colombia, and was overjoyed at seeing her otherworldly lover again. At the end of their encounter, Monica expressed a desire to go with him to “his world,” but the being turned her down. Nineteen years old at the time of the interview, the young woman had still not had sex with a human male. “They have the advantage,” she explained, meaning the Watchers, “of not making you pregnant.”

A History of the Watchers

The mystical figure of Apollonius of Tyana-sorcerer, philosopher and indefatigable traveler-visited a place, according to the chronicles, known as the City of the Gods, whose inhabitants allegedly “lived on the earth, yet outside it at the same time.” Said parallel universe or dimension was located in the Himalayas, and as Apollonius and his guide, Damis, would near their destination, the more unreal the landscape became. Apollonius’ larger-than-life adventures include teleportation away from the court of the Emperor Domitian in a.d. 96, and other occult phenomena.

Could these skills have been learned in the City of the Gods? Considering Apollonius’ stature in ancient history, could he himself have been a Watcher?

Metal disks have been reported in the skies over the Himalayas for centuries. These have been considered manifestations of the Watchers by the lamas of Tibet and Nepal-“a sign of Shamballah,” the subterranean (or extradimensional) land ruled by a higher order of beings who visit our world in gleaming metallic vehicles. Foremost among Shamballah’s denizens is the Rigden-Jye-Po, the King of the World, who is identified with the leader of the Sons of Light mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Scriptures Speak

To the dismay of those who expect hard-boiled facts every time, the vast majority of the literature concerning the Watchers lies in mythology and in religious documents such as the Old Testament.

In the Apocryphal book which bears his name, the Old Testament figure Enoch is taken to heaven to intercede on behalf of the fallen Watchers with the angels of the highest heavens. The appeal is turned down: for having taught the secrets of nature to human females, and worse yet, for having conceived children with human females (the giant Nephilim), the 200 spirits involved are condemned to never again regain their lofty status.

We are given the names of the ringleaders of this heavenly conspiracy, and one of them, in particular, does more than ring a bell to a ufologically-minded ear: Semyaz. While phonetic similarity proves nothing, it is unusual that the leader of the alleged “Pleiadans” visiting Billy Meier at his Swiss retreat should call herself Semjase. Meier’s claims have been at the center of a number of disputes, mainly accusations of fraud concerning the fantastic UFO photographs which he circulated.

What evidence suggests that the Watchers mentioned by the ancient religious chronicles, and the entities that accompany the UFO phenomenon, are one and the same? A careful examination of certain contemporary cases, along with some outstanding ancient ones, can leave no doubt as to the conflict between the fallen Watchers (the 200 which descended in the ancient Middle East, led by Semyaz/Semjase), the “Forces of Good,” and hapless mortal humans, stuck squarely in the middle.