If the wizened testimony of professional UFO-ologists have taught me anything, it's that extraterrestrials — having cavalierly made the millennia-long trip across the galaxy in search of intelligent life and consequently having stumbled upon Earth — are inordinately fascinated with probing the rectums of drunken hicks and drugged-out hippies.

Why ETs are so interested in anally probing rednecks is a mystery that may very well never be solved. But the link between aliens and hippies is well plunged.

The latest issue of the UFO enthusiast publication The Fortean Times — even for skeptics, a consistently fascinating and entertaining magazines — has a wonderful article up by Andy Roberts about the link between hippies and UFOs.

The source of such an association is actually pretty obvious: it turns out that when you start gobbling up loads of LSD, you tend to see some pretty wacky things in the sky. But the charm is in the details: with wonderful grace Roberts walks us through a period in the 60's where music, sex, drugs and the paranormal reached a sort of cultural confluence, with each impacting the others in profound ways. Don't miss the stunning gallery of UFO-themed hippy art, either.

A Saucerful of Secrets [Fortean Times]