Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein - why was he interested in UFOs?

Background

Last week, I was interviewed about my interests in astronomy and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, for a chapter in a yet to be published book. In passing, I mentioned that I had once been to a conference in America, which had been partly sponsored by the Prince of Liechtenstein. This recollection made me curious about the Prince's interest in Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, so I set about exploring what I could find.

Hans-Adam II is still the reigning Prince of Liechtenstein, and was born 14 February 1945 as Johannes Adam Ferdinand Alois Josef Maria Marco d'Aviano Pius, in Zurich, Switzerland. Hans-Adam II attended the University of St Gallen, in Switzerland, and graduated with a masters degree in Business and Economic Studies. His current financial wealth is estimated as $4 billion. 

I recalled that Jacques Vallee and his wife Janine,  had once been a guest of  Hans-Adam II, and located the relevant diary entries of Vallee. I will reproduce the text from the diary, and add some explanatory notes as the best form of documenting what I have found out about Hans-Adam II's UAP interest.

Image courtesy of Amazon Books

Hyde Street Thursday 18 May 1989 

'Crown prince Hans-Adam von Liechtenstein was in town yesterday with his consulting engineer from Toronto, a man named George Hathaway who helps him study the phenomenon with the hope of discovering new forms of energy production. Hathaway had written to me during my trip to Europe [April/May 1989 - KB]. He has spoken to Fred Beckman with whom they spent the afternoon.

"You've never met the Prince?" Fred asked me. "He's one of those people who are still looking for propulsion systems, advanced spacecraft and the like.'

"Perhaps he's right," I replied. "There's no question in my mind the phenomenon is physical. But the real answers may come from other directions, like cosmology and particle physics, rather than beating the bushes looking for flying saucers."

"Unless, of course, we become much, a lot more clever in the way we're doing it, without preconceived notions," Fred reminded me.'

My notes:

1. George D Hathaway was born in 1951, in Canada. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1974 with a BA Sc. in Electrical Engineering. Inter alia, he investigated exotic energy propulsion systems.  

2. Fred Beckman was a long term associate of Jacques Vallee, who first joined one of Vallee's study groups, in October 1966 after reading Vallee's book, 'Anatomy of a Phenomenon. [See for example, Vallee, J. 1992. 'Forbidden Science: Journals 1957-1969. North Atlantic Books. Berkeley, CA. p222.] By 1988, Beckman, like so many other US researchers, was intrigued by tales of alien abductions.

Hyde Street. Monday 26 June 1989

'George Hathaway, the Canadian engineer who works with Leichtenstein, tells me he has been making contact with all leading UFO researchers who had ideas about energy or propulsion systems at the request of the Prince, who is also quietly sponsoring studies on abductions. That group tends to discount me because I have written 'Dimensions.' My views on the subject are mis-represented: Jerome Clark and Budd Hopkins have told Hathaway "Vallee doesn't even believe that the things are physical." So I found myself having to explain to him I did believe that UFOs represented a physical technology.

"But did you say they were multi-dimensional, rather than physical?" Hathaway countered.

"You and I are multi-dimensional, aren't we? Does that mean we're not physical?

He finally understood the point but stayed on his positions. He gave me some insight into his (and the Prince's) theory: there is an extraterrestrial force that is monitoring and controlling men's drive into space: "It's a question of how far we'll be allowed to go before some other entities put the lid on what we do with our little rocket firecrackers. We have to be prepared for certain pressures. Space is not the beckoning, wide open, new frontier people dream about..."

The Prince seems to be aware of covert studies going on "at his level" (that is, Head of State level) around the world. Hathaway, in the meantime, investigates Tesla phenomena and alternative energy devices and lectures on such topics.

Later the same day

Hal Puthoff tells me that he's met a couple of times with the Prince, a sophisticated aristocrat in his late forties. Leichtenstein is excited about energy concepts, to the point of setting up a corporation to which inventors of alternative devices can sell their patents and obtain royalties, free from military considerations of their respective countries. 

One of the times when Hal met Prince Hans-Adam was at the SSE meeting in Cornell, where the Prince argued knowledgeably with Carl Sagan.'

SSE Cornell, (L to R) Bob Jahn, Hal Puthoff, Hans-Adam, Paula, Scott Jones, Brenda Dunne, John B Alexander.
Source: http://www.johnbalexander.com/links

My notes:

3. The SSE is short for the Society for Scientific Exploration. 

Leichtenstein Schloss Vaduz. Saturday 4 November 1989

'Sleep comes easily behind the walls of this massive castle. from our guest room we can see the courtyard, the base of the huge keep (a 12th century square tower, walls four meter think) and the cannons guarding the valley. To the west, towards Switzerland, the outer wall hangs over a sheer precipice, the town of Vaduz and the Rhine far below. To the east the mountain rises all the way to Austria.

As soon as we arrived there were people to greet us. Prince Hans-Adam appeared wearing a blue open shirt and beige trousers. We had lunch in the smaller dining room with the family: the Prince's wife, his sister, two of his children. Coffee was served in a drawing room. Conversation about various paranormal topics began over lunch and continued well into the afternoon.

We walked through he garden, watching great dark and light patches in the sky, agitated by the warm Foehn wind that blows from Italy...At five o-clock Prince Hans-Adam graciously met us again... We had dinner at seven, after meeting Hans-Adam's brother Louis who had just obtained his medical degree in Zurich. The Prince's other brother Nicholas joined us in the drawing room after dinner. A fine mist had begun condensing into light rain when we resumed our talks about paranormal phenomena, which lasted until midnight.

Breakfast was served in our room this morning. A silent servant spread it out on a table, silver spoons with the arms of Liechtenstein  on both sides of each cup. Prince Hans-Adam told Janine he had become interested in the subject of UFOs following a sighting by one of his aunts near Munich in the fifties.

A few months later a cousin also observed an unusual object. The most interesting part of the discussion with Prince Hans-Adam had to do with history, specifically the history of secret knowledge. He spoke simply, with a smart grasp of the subject:

"It is as if mankind periodically rose towards a peak of enlightenment and wisdom and then fell again into bloody wars and anarchy," he said.

We spoke at length about the control system idea. Could we ever graduate from such a system?

I measured how little progress we had made in the last 15 years. We do have a lot more data but we have not improved either our ability to organise it, or our theoretical framework to understand it. Those who have made sensational claims of an imminent breakthrough; Strieber, Hopkins, Moore and Lear, have rapidly disqualified themselves. Hans-Adam listened kindly to the facts I presented to him about the inconsistencies of extraterrestrial argument.

I mentioned my visit to Lundahl. The Prince told us he had made similar inquiries and came back with the same empty net. Yet when he discussed the phenomenon he still spoke in the same terms as before, heavily biased towards the abductionist view: he insists it, seems we are visited by a race that lacks certain features. Aren't they aiming at crating hybrids of human, animal and insect life?

"People listen to you," Janine told me later, "but they go on believing whatever they want to believe, as if you had not given them new evidence to think about..."

Prince Hans-Adam is spending small amounts of money (a few tens of thousands of dollars, he said) validating experiments in free energy that, he claims, are generating more watts than are put in.

George Hathaway, who is well qualified, is in charge of these validations. I hope it is clear to Prince Hans-Adam that I am not looking for any subsidies for my own work...'

My notes:

4. I looked for other references to the Prince donating monies to researchers. I found:

4a. 1990. Christine Tulk In July 1990 in Arlington, Virginia, USA, Christine Tulk, the grand-daughter of the sheriff who reportedly saw the Roswell debris, reportedly met with Prince Hans-Adam. Hans-Adam is reported to have funded a project called ''Recollections of Roswell." 

4b. 1994.  Steven M Greer, in his book 'Hidden Truth - Forbidden Knowledge' (ZTT Consulting. Lansing, MI.) stated, that in 1994 he reached out to a Prince he refers to as S.A. (which is almost certainly Prince Hans-Adam.) Greer says he met the Prince in New York in July 1994 and that when Greer was speaking about the concept of  'disclosure,' says the Prince said "The aliens won't let you." Greer says they agreed to disagree. Greer summarises the Prince's views as that the ET presence was something to fear. (pp121-124.)

4c. 2002. In an unauthorised biography of Cdr. Cecil Beam "Scott" Jones it is stated that Prince Hans-Adam funded, or part funded the following:

1. Scott Jones' Center for Applied Anomalous Phenomena.

2. The 1992 abduction conference, held in 1992 in Boston, USA.

3. Scott Jones' The Human Potential Foundation Inc.

4. The "Witnesses to Roswell" video tape, via a $10,000 donation to the Fund for UFO Research.

5. Rima Laibow's TREAT conferences. 

Back to Vallee

Hyde Street Thursday 16 November 1989.

'Dick Haines told me over lunch that the Prince had described to him what seemed to be a landed UFO he had observed from his upper garden when he was young.The object was seen towards Switzerland and was shielded by trees...'

Since the 1990's

My research trail went cold after 1994. If any blog readers can add to the above material, I would be grateful. I may be contacted via email at keithbasterfield@yahoo.com.au

An aside:

Hans-Adam II is not the only financially well off person who has taken an interest in our subject.

There is the well known tale of US entrepreneur Joe Firmage.My former co-blogger, Pauline Wilson wrote a 2011 blog piece about Firmage

The other well known advocate for the subject, is US CEO Robert Bigelow.