by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

UFOlogy has always attracted its fair share of academics, and some have managed to incorporate it into their fields of study. Fields such as astronomy, psychology, sociology, history and folklore studies lend themselves easily to the subject, and the literature is filled with books, papers, and articles, often in peer-reviewed journals, by professionals in those fields. Two famous examples are Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Dr. Jacques Vallée. Some were drawn to the subject because of a personal experience (Vallée had a sighting as a teenager) and one of those was Julliard professor of humanities and folklore, Peter Rojcewicz. He focused on Men in Black stories, wrote an article that was published in an academic journal in 1987, and then made the news when he lectured on the subject.

Rojcewicz wrote a 13-page article titled, “The ‘Men in Black’ Experience and Tradition: Analogues with the Traditional Devil Hypothesis,” that was published in the April-June 1987 (Vol. 100, No. 396, pp. 148-160) Journal of American Folklore.

In his article, Rojcewicz traces the origin of the modern Men in Black “tradition” to Albert K. Bender who shut down his organization, the International Flying Saucer Bureau, in 1953 after claiming he was visited by three MiBs. Rojcewicz describes the reported appearances and behaviors of the MiB that are familiar to many readers, provides first-hand accounts, compares the MiB tradition with the Devil tradition, and concludes that folklorists should entertain “the possibility that a real experience lies behind traditional belief.”

In 1990, Rojcewicz spoke in Minnesota, as part of a lecture series presented by Medtronic, which brought in people from the world of alternative science and the paranormal to speak about their work. Covering his talk is the article (page 1 of the pdf) by Gordon Slovut headlined, “Encounters With ‘Men in Black’: Fact or Fantasy?” published in the March 24, 199o, Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Dr. Peter M. Rojcewicz

According to Slovut, “in a dark-paneled room near Lake Calhoun,” Rojcewicz gave a talk in front of an audience that included a scientist, an engineer, a physicist, a doctor, and “polymer scientist Arthur Coury, Medtronic’s director of venture technology.” He talked about the history of the Men in Black, saying that its modern era started in the 1950’s with the report by Albert K. Bender. He then spoke about his own experience in 1980, saying, “I have never gone public with this before.”  Notably, he had included his story as one of the first-hand accounts in his paper (page 5 of the pdf) using the pseudonym, Michael Elliot, and wrote, “The following memorat was collected from Mr. Elliot on 13 May 1982.”

Rojcewicz said he hadn’t had a UFO sighting, but he was sitting in the University of Pennsylvania library reading a book on UFOs suggested to him by a fellow professor who thought he would be interested in the subject as a folklorist. He then described what happened next: “Then, in the corner of my vision, I noticed a black pants leg and a black shoe, scuffed.”

According to Rojcewicz, standing in front of him was a very pale, very gaunt man who was about 6’-1,’’ about 140 pounds, wearing a black suit that looked as though it had been slept in for three days, with a bright white shirt, and a black string tie.

At the time, Rojcewicz didn’t know about the MiB. He said, “He sat down, like he dropped from the ceiling – all in one movement – and folded his hands on top of the stack of books in front of him.” According to him, the man asked him what he was doing, and Rojcewicz told him he was reading a book on flying saucers. The man asked if he had ever seen one and if he believed in them, and Rojcewicz said he hadn’t, that he didn’t know much about them, and that he wasn’t sure he was interested in them. The man then screamed, “Flying Saucers are the most important fact of the century and you’re not interested?”

As Rojcewicz tried to calm him down, the man got up awkwardly, again in a single movement. Putting a hand on Rojcewicz’s shoulder he said, “Go on well with your pupose,” and then left.

Rojcewicz described what happened next:

“In ten seconds, I was completely overwhelmed by fear. I had a sense that this man was out of the ordinary, and that idea frightened me. I got up and walked around the stacks toward where the reference librarians usually are. The librarians weren’t there. There were no guards there – there was nobody else in the library… I was terrified.”

According to him, he sat down at the table where he had been reading and focused on getting himself together, which took about an hour. He then got up and “everything was back to normal, the people were all there.”

Rojcewicz said he suspected he was in an “altered state” and that his experience with the MiB, and those of others, took place “in the crack between reality and fantasy.”

After his experience, Rojcewicz began studying and learning about the MiB phenomenon and went on to interview people who reported encounters. He told his audience about the various aspects of the MiB, including them frequently appearing in groups of three, sometimes representing themselves as Air Force investigators, and telling people not to talk about, in Slovut’s words, “their experiences with aliens from outer space.”

Rojcewicz then described how people would become dizzy, fearful, and nauseous after MiB encounters and that some experienced life changes. He said that some became more successful in their jobs and marriages while others lost both, and that people’s reactions depended on their backgrounds. He gave as an example a couple who had an encounter after seeing a UFO in Maine. He said the woman, a psychiatrist, was fine afterwards, while her husband, a professor of education, was not. He explained that this was due to the woman being open to spiritual ideas and her husband’s background and training being rooted in reason.

He described another case where a woman from Burlington, Vermont, said she’d been visited by a slender, 6’-9” MiB who was wearing a bowler hat. She said her knees went weak when he came near her and that “There was something wrong – evil about this.” Rojcewicz said that when he called her to check his notes, there was a beeping noise on the line and they couldn’t hear each other, and that when he called back, it was gone.

Rojcewicz told his audience that MiB stories went back to Biblical times and that some of the Catholic saints had had encounters. He said that MiB’s were often thought to be the Devil or his emissaries and that “the church itself recognizes the possibility by endorsing exorcism.”

When he was asked what a good defense was against the MiB, he said “Laughter. If they ask you why you’re laughing, tell them ‘Rojcewicz told me to do it.”

Rojcewicz continues to lecture on various subjects and has an active website.