Overview
In the premiere episode of her podcast Inquiry, Kelly Chase examines how public narratives are shaped, suppressed and defended by institutions and influential individuals. The episode, titled “Starlight Sickness,” combines a historical critique of propaganda and psychoanalysis with a personal discussion of an alleged threatening incident involving figures in the UFO community. The incident was first referenced in a section later removed from Chase’s documentary Origins. She has since shared additional details on X, including allegations of serious sexual misconduct involving her former creative partner, Jay Christopher King. Those allegations have not been independently verified in the material discussed here.
Propaganda and Perception Management
Chase begins with Edward Bernays’ 1928 book Propaganda, presenting it as an early framework for understanding what he called an “invisible government.” Bernays argued that the “conscious and intelligent manipulation” of public habits was a necessary feature of democratic society. Drawing on ideas associated with his uncle, Sigmund Freud, he maintained that people were often motivated less by reason than by unconscious desires.
The episode highlights Bernays’ “Torches of Freedom” campaign in 1929, which reframed women’s public smoking as a symbol of independence and equality while expanding the market for the American Tobacco Company. Chase also discusses Bernays’ work for the United Fruit Company during the 1950s, when the company’s dispute with Guatemala’s democratically elected government was portrayed as a Communist threat. That messaging helped create public support for a CIA-backed coup, followed by decades of civil war and an estimated 200,000 deaths. Chase uses these examples to argue that public relations can transform political and commercial interests into seemingly organic public beliefs.
The Suppression of Childhood Trauma
A central section of “Starlight Sickness” concerns Freud’s early “seduction theory,” which held that adult psychological disorders could stem from actual childhood sexual abuse. Chase draws on the work of scholar Jeffrey Masson, who argued that Freud later abandoned the theory amid professional pressure and replaced it with explanations centered on unconscious fantasy, including the Oedipus complex.
Chase also discusses Emma Eckstein, a patient who suffered severe complications after nasal surgery performed by Freud’s associate Wilhelm Fliess. According to Chase’s presentation, Freud’s interpretation of Eckstein’s continuing hemorrhaging shifted attention away from possible medical negligence and toward an alleged psychological explanation. She argues that this episode illustrates a broader danger: experts can claim authority to reinterpret a victim’s account until the original allegation becomes secondary to an institutionally approved narrative.
Allegations Involving Jay Christopher King
The podcast then turns to Chase’s experience within the UFO “experiencer” community and an incident she describes as profoundly destabilizing. The discussion concerns Jay Christopher King, her former creative partner and director of The Experiencer Group. Following public allegations of sexual misconduct against King in early 2024, he issued a statement in May of that year.
Chase characterizes the statement as an example of “perception management,” arguing that its language of accountability and “complexity” obscured the specific allegations and avoided a direct acknowledgment of harm. King’s response and the allegations should be evaluated separately, and no independent findings confirming the claims are provided in the episode summary.
Implications for the UFO Community
Chase concludes that public-relations techniques and psychological frameworks can be used not only to understand people but also to shield powerful individuals from scrutiny. She argues that the UFO community may be particularly susceptible to such dynamics because many experiencers are navigating trauma, uncertainty and a strong openness to unexplained phenomena.
Her proposed response is “cognitive sovereignty”—the ability to recognize when one’s interpretation of events may be influenced by outside actors and to demand evidence, transparency and accountability. The episode therefore presents Chase’s allegations within a wider argument: that communities built around extraordinary claims must remain equally attentive to ordinary questions of consent, power and responsibility.
