tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85106673102771873602024-03-05T03:59:45.135-08:00MORE MAGONIAUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-4513982429345124922023-11-13T08:49:00.000-08:002024-02-24T05:35:14.761-08:00The Liverpool Leprechauns and Other Playground Panics<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJ9p2gPsywWPDblCPPPyTuGMHza1BhU4J1SPCBXmHNB_I5rLgmSit_h8ajEPfhY-kOSvNuJMuPMkAezAqSIyF-55FBxY416838sb64hg8QsLirz_nRbbnurJDB7KP6kVVvudidpqv1qpsD7NM-yuft6Q9Tpyw3XHV89uVTm6FoIkgmmqpjfG2xN1xoRI8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="1197" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJ9p2gPsywWPDblCPPPyTuGMHza1BhU4J1SPCBXmHNB_I5rLgmSit_h8ajEPfhY-kOSvNuJMuPMkAezAqSIyF-55FBxY416838sb64hg8QsLirz_nRbbnurJDB7KP6kVVvudidpqv1qpsD7NM-yuft6Q9Tpyw3XHV89uVTm6FoIkgmmqpjfG2xN1xoRI8=w640-h134" width="640" /></a></div><div>đ»</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><a name='more'></a></span>A lot was going on in Liverpool in 1964. The Beatles were back in town for the world premier of their film <i>A Hard Day's Night,</i> and Liverpool FC was well on the way to winning their first football league title since 1947, under the guidance of new manager Bill Shankly. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">On July 2nd, the headline on the city's morning paper, the <i>Daily Post</i>, reported that the historic Aintree race-course, home of the Grand National, was about to be sold off for housing development. "This year's National will be the last", said the course's eccentric owner Mirabel Topham. Of course it wasn't. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But an item on page two of the same paper showed that in at least one area of the city, people were concerned about something much stranger than Liverpool's musical and sporting icons </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liverpool's Kensington district is a huge contrast to its London namesake. In 1967 it was a densely populated working-class area, with few open spaces for children to play. One such was Jubilee Park, a large grassed area on top of a covered reservoir, with bowling greens and a football pitch. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">After school on Tuesday 30th June, local children were playing in the streets and around Jubilee Park when an odd story began to circulate. No one knew where or how it started. Strange little men were running about the park and popping up in the gardens and yards of houses in the surrounding streets. These were immediately described as 'leprechauns', perhaps linking them to the Irish heritage of many families in the city. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Soon the city's Parks Police were called to the scene and found hundreds of children milling about in Jubilee Park. One policemen, Constable Nolan, reported that â stones have been thrown on the bowling green and no-one has been able to playâ.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As the crowds grew the excitement got out of hand. Children were throwing stones where they thought the leprechauns were hiding and began pulling up park shrubbery in search of them. It eventually became too much for the Parks Constabulary and Constable Nolan, who was forced to wear his motor-cycle crash helmet for protection, called in the City police. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">When the City police arrived in Z-Cars and motorbikes, they cleared the park and bowling green, and padlocked the gates, but then the youngsters crowded onto the top of the covered reservoir next to the site, and the police were unable to clear the area totally until 10.00 pm on the second night of the panic. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Many years later a former Liverpool parks constable and later a colleague of Constable Nolan, John Hutchinson, wrote to an Internet forum telling of his own experience. At the time he lived several miles away in the north of the city, on the Sparrow Hall housing estate, and heard about the leprechaun story from an item on the Granada TV local news: </p><p style="text-align: justify;">"In 1964 I was like most Liverpool kids visited places such as the Cavern and followed the Beatles music. News came on evening from Granada TV which led me and some dozen of my mates from Sparrow Hall to head to Kensington to see the "Irish Little People" that the Granada TV presenters had spoken about. So off we went to find them - I had a dog and two rabbits, catching one of those 'little people' would be no problem and I could keep it in the rabbit hutch!" </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Another local resident, 'Mike S' lived closer to the Kensington park, and described on the Internet site "what seemed like thousands of kids congregating at the park and being chased off by police. I was six at the time so exact details are not clear, but I do recall gong to the park with my sister and brother along with the rest of the kids in the area. Everyone was excited at the prospect of seeing a leprechaun". </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although neither John nor Mike recalls actually seeing any of the little creatures themselves, another forum contributor, contributor, 'Linda' was a pupil at Brae Street School, which adjoined Jubilee Park, and in her account of the incident reports: </p><p style="text-align: justify;">"I was one of the schoolchildren who saw those leprechauns ... we all saw them popping in and out of a window overlooking the school yard, there were about four of them all tiny, dressed like a school-book idea of a typical gnome, and they sat swinging their legs on the window ledge getting in and out. What they were I don't know, I only know what they looked like". </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The <i>Daily Post</i> carried a photograph of police confronting a row of children standing on the edge of the covered reservoir like a scene from a 1950s Western. Another photograph showed dozen of children milling around in the park. As the panic continued the local papers tried to find an explanation for the alleged sightings. The evening <i>Liverpool Echo</i> described the creatures as "little green men in white hats throwing stones and tiny clods of earth at each other". </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Of course, the phrase 'little green men' immediately created a connection with another popular mystery of the era: flying saucers and aliens invaders. And fortuitously for the local paper there was a UFO. report to fit neatly into the narrative. A woman in Crosby, on the coast to the north of Liverpool, reported seeing "glistening objects" flying in across the Mersey from the west, conveniently from the direction of Ireland. It was the work of a moment for a journalist to turn this sighting into speculation about the means the little folk used to travel to the city. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But the Irish connection goes deeper than this. In the nineteenth century Liverpool was the destination for thousands of Irish families fleeing the potato famine, and even today a large proportion of the city's population are of Irish heritage. Could it be as some writers have suggested that the stories of leprechauns came from folklore and stories circulating within the communities around Kensington? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The main influx of Irish people into Liverpool came in the 1840s and 1850s, so that youngsters in the city in 1964 would likely be fourth or fifth generation descendants of the original immigrants, and although Irish culture was still an important part of the city's life, very few people would be telling stories of the Old Country at the fireside in the evening, and local children would be more involved in the burgeoning Liverpool music scene. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But there was one other popular culture icon who might have had some influence on the birth of the rumour, the comedian Ken Dodd. In his popular TV shows he was usually accompanied by his troupe of 'Diddy Men', allegedly the inhabitants of his home suburb of Knotty Ash just three miles to the east of Kensington. Usually played by children or small adults in oversized dress, they portrayed a number of stereotypical characters, including an Irish leprechaun. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw0tRfP6273eEkN7TmQY8gEF0pePMHLBdwFCyzf7AH-y1G89Vt3faI0jqWe4KsRt6ToTeAEDhJF3M3KTU2aJOQEcWnpd1jkwaw7DJjE66qY1m7FUjnOszrJ5-dmEWHn-IYG5OT3mdrlMB7B4BgZih99EuGil4Np4VKZvjNoIvWGbBzS67rkbF46UxvofU/s640/diddyman.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="640" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw0tRfP6273eEkN7TmQY8gEF0pePMHLBdwFCyzf7AH-y1G89Vt3faI0jqWe4KsRt6ToTeAEDhJF3M3KTU2aJOQEcWnpd1jkwaw7DJjE66qY1m7FUjnOszrJ5-dmEWHn-IYG5OT3mdrlMB7B4BgZih99EuGil4Np4VKZvjNoIvWGbBzS67rkbF46UxvofU/w640-h316/diddyman.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">In one of his TV shows Dodd used a camera trick to miniaturise or 'diddyfy' the TV presenter Bill Grundy. It may be significant that it was Grundy who presented the Granada TV news magazine that sent John Hutchinson to Kensington to hunt leprechauns for his rabbit-hutch. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However, Ken Dodd was not the only person to claim credit, and nearly twenty years later the <i>Liverpool Echo </i>reported that a local resident called Brian Jones alleged that he started the story. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">His version was that at the time he was working in the garden of his grandfather's house in Edge Lane which backed onto Jubilee Gardens. He claims that he was wearing Wellington boots, old navy-blue trousers, a denim shirt with a red waistcoat and a bobble hat and smoking his pipe while taking a break from weeding. He then noticed children sitting on the wall, one of whom shouted âit's a leprechaunâ. Thinking they had misjudged his height because of some very high weeds in the garden he began clowning around until the children jumped down and ran away. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The following day he heard the noise of a crowd of children on the other side of the wall looking for the 'leprechaun' and again put on a show for them. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However once the panic started, Jones claims, it soon got out of control and he overheard older boys saying they would bring an airgun to shoot the creature. Others allegedly invaded his grandfather's garden and vandalised a nearby empty house in their search to the extent that it was later demolished. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However little of Jones's story stands up to scrutiny. The dates on which he claims these events happened do not tally with the newspaper reports, nor do his clothes match children's' description of what the leprechauns were wearing, and all the children's' reports come from the public park, not from any private gardens. Not do the local papers carry any reports of such a newsworthy event as leprechaun hunters causing the city council to demolish a house. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">After the first week the panic died down, and the streets and parks of Liverpool 6 returned to some sort of normality, when the panic began again in Kirkby. This is a 1950s 'overspill' town to the north-west of Liverpool, built largely to rehouse people displaced by the city's slum-clearance programmes. In the 1960s it had the highest proportion of under -16s of any town in England. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The first report came from the local <i>Kirkby Reporter</i> on Friday 17th July, and it immediately linked the two themes of leprechauns and flying saucers: "Flying saucers came to Kirkby last week - at least according to local children. What the connection was the children were not sure, but scores of excited children invaded the <i>Reporter </i>offices on Friday (presumably the previous Friday, 10th July), eager to tell they had seen both these things". </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The <i>Reporter </i>then goes on to describe accounts of "a strange object in the air", changing colour from red to silver, moving slowly at first then travelling off at great speed. UFO investigators would probably have provisionally identified this as an aircraft. However the reports from the other faction describe small humanoid figures, eight inches tall and in brightly coloured clothes. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The leprechauns this time seemed to have made their base in the churchyard of St Chad's, the parish church. The vicar reported that hundreds of children had invaded the site, and he was forced to call in the police to clear them. The children also flooded into and searched the grounds of St Marie's Roman Catholic School and Mother of God Church in the Northwood neighbourhood of the town.. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">One keen leprechaun hunter ended up with a permanent reminder of his adventure. Eddie McArdle told the <i>Magonia </i>website that he, along with dozens of schoolmates from St Marie's went hunting: </p><p style="text-align: justify;">"We went en-masse into the church as we hunted the little people. Some bright spark shouted that they were coming after us. Panic ensued and as we all fled quicker than we entered. A boy swung the church gate in his haste to escape, and I was hit on the forehead by the metal cross on it and I have a scar as a constant reminder of the event. I had to have my head stitched." </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Another former St Marie's pupil, Chris Jones recollects that he was one of the hoard of children who "invaded St Chad's". Commenting on suggestions that the panic may have been spread amongst the Catholic, predominantly Irish heritage community, he says "it does not surprise me. Religious education in school was full of stories about children being favoured by visitations: Lourdes and Fatima being two of the best known examples", adding "why leprechauns were involved instead of something more pious is a mystery to me". </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Another St Marie parishioner" signing themselves 'bri' remembers crowds besieging the church shouting "there they are", as the parish priest appealed for calm. The rumour spread that the imps had crossed into the Infants' School, and were hiding in the pupils lockers. 'Bri' did not sleep for days after, and still has a fear of such lockers. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Even thirty five years after the events, memories of the leprechauns kept surfacing. After the <i>Echo </i>ran a feature in 2009 on paranormal activity on Merseyside, two local men wrote to the paper to give their own accounts. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Stephen Cumming who still lived in the Kensington area remembered "a crowd of about a thousand men, women and children with jam jars and green fishing nets on canes congregating on Jubilee Drive looking for leprechauns ⊠I never saw any but my cousin, a tough lad from the Bullring [the nickname of a local block of flats] swore he had seen one on a wall, in Holt Road dressed all in green with a black pointed hat, he tried to grab him but the little man got away ⊠" </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Responding to the same article, another <i>Echo </i>reader, Alan Ferndale wrote: "I certainly do [remember the leprechauns] and I actually saw a few of them on Kensington Fields, close to the library, but my parents and other adults tried to convince me I'd been seeing things. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">"This would be one afternoon in early July 1964 and I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was ten at the time and on my way to play football with my mates and saw these little (I'd say just a few inches tall) men dressed in red and black standing in the grass looking at me. I'm sure one of them had some type of hat on. I panicked and ran all the way home. My mum said there had been reports of little men on Jubilee Drive and Edge Lane [both in the Kensington district] the day before" </p><p style="text-align: justify;">He also remembered children with jam jars that they claimed they were going to use to capture leprechauns. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is perhaps possible to make too much of the potential Irish family backgrounds of these children, as folklorists are familiar with the phenomenon of the 'children's hunt', spontaneous mobs of children hunting for strange or paranormal creatures. It is possible that the Irish connection, or Ken Dodd's Diddy Men provided the template for the Liverpool hunt. But it was not just on Merseyside where school children were encountering strange little creatures. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Some investigators have suggested that the Liverpool hunt might have been sparked by events across the other side of the country just a few weeks earlier in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The Newcastle Journal reported: </p><p style="text-align: justify;">"Flashes of light loud buzzes in the night ⊠little green men chasing each other round haystacks, egg shaped flying saucers ⊠the leprechauns are loose and it's no Irishman who is telling this tale - just the good people of Felling. For stories are going round Learn Lane Estate that flying spacemen in egg-shaped flying saucers are using the area for manoeuvres. So persistent are the stories that a full scale investigation has been launched by one organisation." </p><p style="text-align: justify;">A 14-year-old boy, David Wilson reported that he had seen "several small green creatures about two feet high running round a haystack on a field near the estate" </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Here again the rumours spread rapidly amongst local schoolchildren, and although one headmaster denied that he had called a special assembly to counter the rumours he was keen to emphasise that there was no basis to the stories. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Is it possible that this story could have travelled across from the North East to Merseyside to be the spark for the Liverpool events? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Fifteen years later another children's hunt hit Nottingham's Wollaton Park, a deer park surrounding a spectacular Tudor house not far from the centre of the city. In September 1979 a group of six children aged eight to ten from two families, were playing near a marshy area around the park lake as it began to get dark in the evening. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As they prepared to go home they suddenly saw a troop of sixty little men about two feet tall with long beards and hats "like old-fashioned nightcaps" with a 'bobble'. They wore blue jackets and yellow trousers. However these figures needed no flying saucers, as they rode around two abreast in tiny cars which they drove through a gate from a wired-off enclosure around the park lake.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The cars were brightly coloured, although the children gave different accounts of the colours. The vehicles had a "thing they could turn round with a handle on it" instead of a steering wheel, triangular lights and a bell instead of a horn.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The figures began to chase the children, seemingly in a playful manner. Even so, some of the children were crying and one tripped on a log and fell into the marshy ground. Neither the logs nor the condition of the ground seemed to prove any obstacle for the tiny cars, however, as according to one of the children they just "leapt over them". The eldest girl of the group returned the next day, and reported that she could not see any wheel marks in the soft earth. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Eventually the children ran to the park gate, chased by the little creatures, but when they fled into the road outside they were not followed and the 'gnomes' retreated to the enclosed area near the lake where they were first seen. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA70Ilo3ZKkGVUxmVa1zcOPtCVnn_ppYcIjWloJzFE5TgAfllMATLar5N6vOVFzQOqkSp_B7gOBAwk_UWz3f5RTVLbZ7IuwmttwW0MrdQMDmFk4ITD7G1fJnXmJJX19AwdqGlDx5TCo7f5ZmTW9mil9zmq10cut6wTyHZ-oO7jLiRzjOHkGTWQQF9CxOY/s618/gnomes.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="618" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA70Ilo3ZKkGVUxmVa1zcOPtCVnn_ppYcIjWloJzFE5TgAfllMATLar5N6vOVFzQOqkSp_B7gOBAwk_UWz3f5RTVLbZ7IuwmttwW0MrdQMDmFk4ITD7G1fJnXmJJX19AwdqGlDx5TCo7f5ZmTW9mil9zmq10cut6wTyHZ-oO7jLiRzjOHkGTWQQF9CxOY/w640-h430/gnomes.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">The children reported this to their parents, challenging their incredulity. Later their school headmaster questioned them individually and they stuck firmly to their stories. He made a tape recording of the interviews, which he later sent to a researcher from the Fairy Investigator Society. In a covering letter he wrote: </p><p style="text-align: justify;">"I think the tape reveals the wide measure of corroboration between the children, as well as the fluency with which they were able to describe the events. I remain sceptical as to the explanation of what they saw, but I am also convinced that the children were describing a real occurrence." </p><p style="text-align: justify;">When the story reached local papers other people came forward with accounts of similar incidents over a period of years. Wollaton Park and Hall has a number of other ghostly traditions connected with it, and for a few days afterwards crowds gathered at the park gates but there was no repeat appearance, although some people later claimed to have seen a similar phenomenon in the park at an earlier date. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The children and the press referred to these creatures as 'gnomes'. Without the Liverpool Irish connection, and with the curious detail of the tiny cars, the children described them in terms of Enid Blyton's character Noddy, who also wore a pointed hat with a bell or bobble on the top and drove about in a brightly coloured car, the beard being a characteristic of his friend Big Ears. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">All the stories I have looked at so far have involved people actually witnessing these bizarre creatures. However, ten years before the Liverpool events another playground panic and children's hunt caused chaos in a cemetery and it didn't need the sighting of a strange creature to set it off, just a rumour of a monster. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Glasgow's Southern Necropolis was opened in 1840 to provide a burial ground for the crowded Gorbals area. In September 1954 PC Alex Deeprose of the Glasgow force was called to this normally quiet location. Expecting some vandalism or a drunken incident he was amazed to find the cemetery flooded with hundreds of children, some armed with stick and knives. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As the local paper <i>The Bulletin</i> reported on the 24th: September:</p><p style="text-align: justify;">"Householders in Caledonia Road, Glasgow, phoned the police last night to complain of the clamour raised by hundreds of children swarming into the Southern Necropolis to track down and slay 'a vampire with iron teeth' </p><p style="text-align: justify;">"The 'vampire, according to the children) was credited with killing and eating 'two wee boys' / The hunt began shortly after school hours when grown-ups first noticed a steady trek towards the cemetery. The children climbed the walls and scoured the grounds in their search for the 'vampire'." </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Constable Deeprose was soon able to ascertain that no young people had been reported missing in the area, but the children were not in a mood to listen, and the next evening even more turned up at the burial ground. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">One person who had been involved in the hunt, Tam Smith, recalled fifty years later that he had heard the rumour in a local cafe: "Someone came in and said there's a vampire in the graveyard". At the time there was a steelworks adjoining the site. Tam remembered "the red light and the smoke from the steelworks would light up and make all the gravestones leap. You could see figures walking about at the back all lit up by the red light. The scare went on for hours." </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Another participant, Ronnie Sanderson, eight at the time, admitted that he did not even know what a vampire was: "The story had spread through the school that afternoon ... It all started in the playground. The word was that there was a vampire and everyone was going to head out there after school." </p><p style="text-align: justify;">"We sat there on the wall for ages waiting. I wouldn't go in because it was a bit scary. Someone saw someone wandering about and the cry went up: 'There's the vampire', and that was it ... and we would all scatter. I just remember scampering home to my mother: 'What's the matter with you?' 'I've seen a vampire!' and I got a clout round the ear for my trouble!"</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although the initial mob was dispersed children gathered in the Necropolis for several nights afterwards, and the rumours of the 'Iron Man' or 'Gorbals Vampire' spread around the city, and the frenzy reached the local press. Eventually one of the local primary school headmasters addressing a crowd of pupils at the school gate to reassure them that no children were missing and no vampires stalked the cemetery. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However it seems in the end that the panic subsided less from the headmaster's exhortations than the onset of a spell of rainy weather! </p><p style="text-align: justify;">This seems to have stemmed the panic, and the vampire hunters did not return to the cemetery. By the end of September a local paper was able to report "Vampire With Iron Teeth Is 'Dead' ... Last night (September 25th) all was quiet at the necropolis. Youngsters who swarmed the surrounding streets guiltily laughed at the idea of a vampire". </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Immediately the panic was over the search began for the source of the rumours. Some people pointed out that there was a popular dialect poem taught in schools called 'Jenny with the Iron Teeth'. This was an imaginary creature which parents would use in an attempt to frighten their children into good behaviour: </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Jenny wi ' the airn teeth, <br />come an ' tak' the bairn. <br />Tak him to your ain den, <br />Where the bowgie bides, <br />But first put baith your big teeth, <br />In his wee plump sides. </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It's possible that an eccentric local woman who lived near the cemetery in the nineteenth century was know as Jenny with the Iron Teeth, and her legend became attached to the area, giving a focus to the children's excitement. There had been similar hunts in Glasgow and neighbouring towns in the 1930s, one which involved a 'huge number' of children hunting a 'banshee' and crowds of 100-150 children searching for a ghostly 'White Lady' over two or three nights. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjICgbrnk_HOQgMtFr2mneUqQrMonqSsSz1BJBd5J_rjooXTtBlzJ-aI11E1ueJDke_cAL0OfoeAeaqUAgDQViULA6wPNBEHNlPMqoulevUbG3BZThovEx8XMGGScN_8cKa4vDbYzNtGAdD3O03Rct9MvL3LRV3xH5hK2nbzB4NucjYcX_LJ8vOvmfVLF8/s373/vampire.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="298" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjICgbrnk_HOQgMtFr2mneUqQrMonqSsSz1BJBd5J_rjooXTtBlzJ-aI11E1ueJDke_cAL0OfoeAeaqUAgDQViULA6wPNBEHNlPMqoulevUbG3BZThovEx8XMGGScN_8cKa4vDbYzNtGAdD3O03Rct9MvL3LRV3xH5hK2nbzB4NucjYcX_LJ8vOvmfVLF8/w512-h640/vampire.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">But the Glasgow Vampire panic didn't die down once the children had all gone home and life in the Gorbals returned to normal. The story fed nicely into a panic which was developing amongst grown-ups, not just in Glasgow but also across Britain and Europe - the campaign against the import of American 'horror comics'. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Glasgow based <i>Catholic Observer</i> (1st October) splashed a front-page story announcing that "Two Glasgow Catholics have launched an attack against lurid sensational American comics of the type which this week threw children into a panic of fear of a vampire with iron teeth ⊠" </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Soon the connection between the Vampire panic and horror comics was accepted as fact, even though there was not the slightest evidence that any of the children had even seen such comics, which were not widely available in Britain at the time. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The campaign was not confined to the Catholic press, it was also supported not only by right-wing newspapers, but also by the Communist Party who saw the comics as the intrusion of degenerate American popular culture into Britain. The Vampire even had its moment in Parliament when it was used as evidence for the passing of the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act in 1955. This banned the depiction of "incidents of a repulsive or horrible nature" in publication sold to children. After the passing of the Act no case came to court until 1970, and most cases which were brought for prosecution were turned down by the Attorney General who thought they would not result in successful prosecutions. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Sometimes playground panics do not involve children hunting strange creatures, but are the children's fear of being hunted themselves. In the 1980s schoolchildren in South London lived in fear of the Chelsea Smilers. These were allegedly a gang of violent Chelsea football fans who would drive around schools and housing estates in a blue van, and kidnap children, usually on their way home from school. They would ask their victims if they were Chelsea FC supporters and even ask them questions about the team to ensure that they were truthful if they said 'yes'. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">If they proved not to be a Chelsea fan, the 'Smilers' would take a razor and cut the corners of the victim's mouth then make them scream in pain, which would cause their mouth to be permanently scarred into a 'smile'. In some versions of the stories the attackers would use the sharpened edge of a credit-card to make the cut - a detail which played to the 'wealthy Chelsea' stereotype. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Stories would spread that the 'Smilers' had attacked at a school in the area, but one usually just far away enough that none of the children hearing the rumour would be likely to know any of the pupils at that school. The warning went that the gang would be visiting the child's own school the next day. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Steve Roud, a writer on London history and folklore heard these stories from his own daughter, and other relatives. Many children were in tears, almost hysterical, he records, often refusing to leave school in the afternoon until their parents came to collect them. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">He discovered that the story seemed to have started in Bexley, a suburb in south-east London at the end of January 1989. It gradually spread across South London and was well established in south-west London by the end of March, and later spread out into Kent and Surrey. Gradually, with no real victims ever coming forward, the rumour died away. But, he reported, it was still being used as a scare story in London playgrounds long after the initial panic died down. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Stories of mass panics in schools have a long history, and some researchers have traced them back as far as the seventeenth century, when children in Holland, France and Sweden engaged in violent 'witch-hunts', or behaved strangely, running around madly, laughing hysterically or even meowing, or barking like dogs. At the time these panics were attributed to witchcraft, and on several occasions local women were attacked, as people believed that they were responsible for bewitching the children. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">These scares have continued until the present day, and in a bizarre and sinister reinterpretation of the Liverpool Leprechauns, children in one American school district lived for a while in fear of murderous Smurfs. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In January 1983 rumours spread through the schools of Houston, Texas, that blue Smurfs, the Belgian cartoon characters, were attacking school principals at the city's schools. There were conflicting claims that the attackers would target anyone wearing blue clothes, or alternatively that blue clothes would protect the wearer from attack. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The 'Smurfs' were sometimes described as wearing a full head-to-toe character outfit, which would render them rather conspicuous in an urban area. Alternatively they would have covered themselves in blue body paint, or simply just be wearing blue jackets. Their weaponry was claimed to range from knives and broken bottles, to handguns and even automatic weapons. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In one area the story spread that the blue attackers were hiding in the schools' toilets, and pupils were reluctant to visit them - with the obvious unfortunate consequences, and one contributor to an Internet board for discussing urban legends countered claims that the stories were invented years later as a prank stating: </p><p style="text-align: justify;">"Rumours had been going around my school (not sure about other schools) that teenagers belonging to a mysterious gang called the Smurfs were attacking younger kids in the school bathrooms. The rumour was that our school was to be targeted on some specific day in the coming week. It got so bad that the principal actually interrupted classes to make an announcement over the PA system that 'smurfs' (at least the gang members) certainly did NOT exist and attacks were not imminent." </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The rumour may have started from news of the arrest of some members of a gang actually calling themselves The Smurfs, for relatively minor crimes such as shoplifting and petty theft, but a report later by the city's police stated that at the time there were no organised criminal gangs within the police's definition operating in Houston, although some youths formed loose groups that they themselves called 'gangs'. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The story began to fade when Franklin Turner, the principal of one school, who was said to have been murdered by the 'Smurfs' made a public appearance to counter the rumours. He commented "Kids wanted desperately to believe, they wanted some excitement" . </p><p style="text-align: justify;">A local journalist noted that the story "picked up variations and embellishments as it passed over the grapevine at debate contests, sports events and skating rinks - wherever teens and pre-teens gathered". </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As the Smurf panic was calming down in Houston a new scare was springing up to panic children, across the world in Chongqing City, Sichuan Province, China. Here the sinister invader was not a blue Smurf, but a Zombie Robot. The French news-agency France-Presse reported that in March 1993 a rumour swept junior schools in the city that a rogue American robot had escaped its controllers and make its way to their city. The children believed that the robot would eat children wearing red clothes, and that it had already devoured several before arriving in Chongqing. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Panicking children would not go to school unless their parents pack their school-bags with garlic and a cross made of chopsticks - clearly believing the zombie robot also had the vulnerabilities of a vampire, and reports claimed that there was a sudden shortage of garlic in local shops. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">No children were eaten, and the scare eventually faded away, but the panic did not seem to have any long-term effects on the local community, as Chongqing is now one of the centres of the Chinese robot automation industry, hosts a robot fair and has established an academy to boost the development of robotic automation in the area. Perhaps the panic actually stimulated interest in robotics amongst the young people in the region, or maybe was a symptom of the rapid industrial development of the country. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Child-eating vampires, zombie robots, violent football thugs and murderous cartoon characters seem a long way from the mischievous leprechauns of Liverpool, but they all form a pattern of rumour and panic. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Children from a particular school or neighbourhood are very influenced by the collective opinions of their peers and are usually anxious to be accepted into the group and can fear isolation if they try to challenge them. If a few dominant personalities within the group are sufficiently convinced about some improbable event it is likely that other children in the group will fall into line, and that this move to a conformity of opinion will spread across the group and into other areas. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">If the groups have a particularly connection - perhaps the deep community feeling of the Gorbals which made it unique within Glasgow, or the Irish Catholic background of many of the Liverpool children - the spread and acceptance of the rumour would be faster and stronger. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">A series of events in South-East Asia demonstrated just how strongly this group identity can be. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Throughout the 1970s and 1980s a series of strange stories emerged from schoolchildren in Malaysia. In October 1974 two boys at a school for children of Malaysian Air Force personnel told of seeing a "thumb-sized" brown-skinned figure: "It has two feelers on the head and held a steel-like rod". The creature appeared to be armed with a tiny pistol. One of the boys grabbed the creature but it escaped his grip and ran into the undergrowth. Later, coming home from school, other pupils reported a tiny UFO with three figures standing outside with it. One boy said he passed out after on creature 'shot him'. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the evening children returned to the site hunting the little creatures, and besides seeing one they also claim to have found a tiny wigwam woven out of grass and weeds. Eventually the whole community was in an uproar, and adults began seeing the creatures. For some reason they seemed to congregate around bus-stops and on buses - one woman reporting hearing an invisible entity talking to her from an apparently empty seat for the entire duration of her bus journey </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the 1991 there was panic in Kuala Terengganu in north-east Malaysia as 'scores' of tiny entities were seen on the local school grounds, a boy claiming to have been stabbed when he grabbed at one of them. Other children saw a hoard of creatures emerging from a hole in a drain. And in September 1992 students and residents in a district of Kuala Lumpur claimed to have met a creature just six inches tall, with glittering green skin, three long fingers on each hand. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In other Malaysian schools there have been outbreaks of mass panic, with pupils collapsing, screaming in panic or crying uncontrollably and hyperventilating. In come cases these attacks were attributed to 'djinns'. Many traditional Muslim societies accept the existence of djinns, supernatural entities in Islamic and pre-Islamic mythology, and they are mentioned frequently in the Quran. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Researchers who have looked at the reports of little people and other panics in Malaysian schools, particularly girls' schools which are tightly disciplined on strict Islamic lines, have suggested that the phenomenon provides an escape mechanism for releasing pent-up emotions. By blaming irrational folk-entities students can express their frustration with the oppressive school regime without directly attacking the authorities responsible, and by involving outside agencies such as local 'wise men' have often won a loosening of the strict religious discipline. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However school panics about invasions of tiny and malevolent entities are not confined to schools in Muslim countries. In the largely Roman Catholic Philippines there have been a number of similar incidents, again confined to girls' schools, and we can assume that a strict religious environment is involved. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In 1994 a school in Manila was forced to temporarily close when children claimed to have seen a 'demon', a giant with horns and a tail, standing under a tree in the schoolyard. The children were taken to a local church where the priest sprinkled them with holy water. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In January 2004 a teacher at a school in Iloilo in the centre of the country set her nine and ten year old pupils the task of clearing up the playground. Suddenly some of the girls claimed to be seeing tiny, inch-high dwarfs which spoke to them, saying they wanted to be friends. Their teacher was called out, but saw nothing. However, to reassure the girls she spoke to the creatures saying she was sorry if any of the girls were bothering them. The story made national headlines, but the teacher's apology seemed to have done the trick and there was no reappearance of the little beings. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Religious panics are not confined to distant parts. Schoolchildren were involved in a series of extraordinary events across Ireland in 1985, when a group of primary school children from Asdee, County Kerry went to pray at their local church next to the school. A seven year old girl suddenly announced that the hands on a statue of Christ had moved, and the eyes of a stature of the Virgin Mary also moved. Other children also began to see the movements of the statues. They rushed back to school and told other pupils and teachers of what they had seen. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Soon thousands of people in locations all across Ireland were seeing moving statues in churches and at roadside shrines. Ballinspittle in County Cork became a centre for these visions and at up to 20,000 people stood in vigil at a shrine in a grotto outside the village. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The appearance of movement was generally explained as being pious expectation coupled with the 'autokinetic effect', which creates the illusion of movement when a stationary object is stared at for a long time. This is the explanation for many UFO reports, when witnesses stare at a star or other celestial object for any length of time. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However, some of the accounts were startling. A local garda officer John Murray, described as a "bright, down to earth character", claimed that when he was at the Ballinspittle shrine, "rosaries were being said, hymns were being sung. Suddenly, without warning, it was as if the statue simply took off and became airborne." </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The crowds who gathered were largely quiet and respectful even if awed by what they thought they saw, but at least one such vigil created a panic. On 6th September 1985, a large crowd had gathered at a statue in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork. Suddenly a group of schoolchildren began screaming a crying, saying that the had seen the Devil. The panic spread through the crowd with some of the girls fainting, while others shouted "he's here, he's here" seeing demonic images on the statue. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">One unnamed 16-year-old boy who may have been the source of the panic, rushed home in terror, telling his mother that he had seen "shocking things". A report in the <i>Sunday World </i>newspaper claimed that "while looking at a statute of the Blessed Virgin, he saw it changing into various forms". At first he saw the face of the devil with horns, then the face of Jesus, the figure of a Pope wearing glasses. (The Pope at the time, John Paul II did not wear glasses in public) </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Some people reacted violently against the phenomenon, and three men from a fundamentalist Protestant Christian group in Dublin attacked the Ballinspittle statue with hammers and pickaxes. The leader of the group, an American preacher named Robert Draper, was charged with criminal damage but acquitted, although he was later sentenced to six months imprisonment for attacking non-moving statues of the Virgin at shrines in churches and schools in Dublin. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Irish 'Moving Statues' phenomenon is perhaps untypical, in that although it began amongst schoolchildren it rapidly spread amongst the adult population as it linked to pre-existing beliefs amongst what were then still largely devout Catholic communities. Children have traditionally been linked to apparition of the Virgin Mary, and the famous pilgrimage shrines of Lourdes, Fatima and Medjugorje were all founded on visions by children usually involving young and adolescent girls. The initial 'moving statue' sensation at Asdee fits this pattern </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Legend tripping' is a largely American phenomenon, where groups of children and teenagers make a trek to supposedly haunted or otherwise dangerous locations. Often these are cemeteries, abandoned hospitals, or other medical institutions where the ghosts of anguished inmates still roam the ruins - or in some cases the anguished patients themselves, who are believed to have remained or returned after the building was vacated. In other cases the youngsters trek through overgrown and forested areas looking for 'Bigfoot', the 'Jersey Demon' or some other crypto-creature. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although legend tripping is often simply a useful excuse for teen couples to escape adult supervision in dark and isolated locations, it also answers a youthful need for excitement by presenting an air of danger, even though this is mostly illusory. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Glasgow Vampire is perhaps the closest example here to the Legend Trip pattern as the children were visiting a spooky location with the clear intention of scaring themselves and getting the adrenalin rush of fear, even without confronting the object of that fear. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Liverpool Leprechauns were almost comical entities, perhaps based on fairy tales and popular TV characters. Nobody seemed to be frightened of them, in fact some children seemed intent on capturing them as pets. The only injury they caused was an accident to an over-enthusiastic pursuer. However large groups of young people behaving rowdily, disturbing the quiet adult environment of the local bowling green, still provides a rush of excitement by moving into and occupying an otherwise restrictive environment. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">It's clear that in Liverpool at least people are still convinced that they did actually see something very strange in their neighbourhood. The memories of Alan Ferndale and 'Linda' are quite clear, they saw the little folk, even to remembering how many were sitting on the school window ledge. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However the initial reports are rather short on eyewitness accounts, none of the children that reporter Don McKinley spoke to claimed themselves to have seen the leprechauns, they were there because they had learned of the leprechauns from school mates, and they had joined in the general panic. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Is it possible that memories of the panic turned into memories of the sightings? 'Bri', who commented on the website report may have touched on a clue when he/she said: "I laughed out loud when I found this site, for years I thought I imagined it all!" Memory is not a fixed record, and our memories of events can be changed by information we receive subsequently or by opinions and beliefs that we hold. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Linda's and Alan's memories were recorded on the Internet forum 45 years after the original event. At the time they were undoubtedly caught up in the excitement of the crowd, and all sorts of rumours and tales would be passed around. Anything unusual would be seized on as a manifestation of the leprechauns, shadows in the park shrubbery or any sudden movement in the corner of the eye, could all be later incorporated into the memory of the event. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">There is a great deal of expectation amongst children to conform to the actions and opinions of their peers, especially if this seems to be in opposition to the standards of their parents or teachers. There may be less opportunity for 'Legend Tripping' in the densely populated streets of inner-city Liverpool than in the open spaces of North America, but a leprechaun hunt in the local park would provide a great release of energy after a day in school. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Here was a chance to run around crazily, climb walls and trees, throw stones, challenge authority in the figure of Constable Nolan of the Park Police - generally "letting your soft out", as they say in Liverpool. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although no-one actually saw the Vampire in Glasgow, the spooky atmosphere of the cemetery, enhanced by the lights and flames from the iron works provided an outlet for the imagination for children living in what were then some of the most deprived streets in the country. It would certainly not have been difficult for just one imaginative child to have drawn the image of the creatures from the lights and shadows around him, for others to also discern its presence, and decades later, for even more to remember their own encounters with the monster. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Children live in a world which split between the security of parents and home, and the outside world which they gradually explore as the move from home to school and into the community of their peers. They respond to the unknown with a mixture of fear and curiosity, the curiosity strengthens when they are in a crowd. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And in a crowd the compulsion to go along with the collective opinion can be overwhelming. In Glasgow the panic seems to have started with a false rumour that two children had gone missing in the area. Once this spread the hunt was on for the culprits, and for many children the stranger and more scary that culprit was the better, because home and safety was always just round the corner. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Dallas and Chongqing panics seemed to arise from general societal worries, as with the Chelsea Smilers, at a time when football violence was a regular feature of newspapers and TV news. The Malaysian and Philippines episodes seem to have been a reaction to a controlling social and school environment, and by blaming their naughtiness on a mysterious 'other' the children sought to avoid any possible punishment for disrupting the schools' authority. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In a case such as the Liverpool Leprechauns it only needs one child to shout "I can see it" for the cry to be taken up by others. It doesn't seem to matter whether the stimulus far that cry was a man in curious gardening clothes, shadows in a shrubbery, or even little green men from a flying saucer. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In Kensington the covered reservoir is still there, but the bowling greens have been replaced by a sports centre, a young children's playground and a go-kart circuit. No leprechauns ever seem to have visited since 1964, not even little men with bobble-hats driving their multicoloured cars around the go-kart circuit. </p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-76209823537617799472022-02-27T05:31:00.009-08:002024-02-24T05:33:59.841-08:00Dark Doings in Rowton<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0nZTledAtCM_ZOf1OFNDuHDr-_Z029DHJA7UDUrq8fp32JNmorBglINdWS0CUj2FB_LgwpkHkk8uaKWvlhOD1CyHAABlMqevg2wggoRZSQB8anXS8wovJouWp3C-ceLuKHzIimQrDCWgotZmBex86HIqxm3LuitRiJF-xoecvUO_dTzFGYJJReLVHQLo/s1060/abduction.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="1060" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0nZTledAtCM_ZOf1OFNDuHDr-_Z029DHJA7UDUrq8fp32JNmorBglINdWS0CUj2FB_LgwpkHkk8uaKWvlhOD1CyHAABlMqevg2wggoRZSQB8anXS8wovJouWp3C-ceLuKHzIimQrDCWgotZmBex86HIqxm3LuitRiJF-xoecvUO_dTzFGYJJReLVHQLo/w640-h110/abduction.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">đ»</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><a name='more'></a></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is the story of Rosa Day, the story of which is told here from the <i>Cheshire Observer</i> and <i>Manchester Evening News</i> of the period. Whatever the nature of this incident, it marked a change in Rosaâs life, as she moved from being a governess to, in 1901, being a nurse in the David Lewis Northern Hospital in Liverpool, and in 1911 as âsick trained nurseâ at the âThe Hospiceâ in Marlowe Hill, Wycombe Abbey, High Wycombe. Wycombe Abbey was a prestigious girlsâ school of the period and Rosa seems to have been the assistant matron. Rosa died on 11 October 1937 at Rowton.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg17W0KI1OdTtgWjhG-Q3bje1HInhtDRrtG8V51FG801HDbjNalpp1ROjKS9TFFb5srkwTi2_W0b_P7zTyr_q4xqJf03Uu986ECN-glIZCkTx3ybQgBqPVqCehJ6YKTuwEnSXBw02vZm784GI8rLqL5eVGZk_2R6YuNIDVOQC7GK1IH2OcsUWpKosO3=s463" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="72" data-original-width="463" height="63" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg17W0KI1OdTtgWjhG-Q3bje1HInhtDRrtG8V51FG801HDbjNalpp1ROjKS9TFFb5srkwTi2_W0b_P7zTyr_q4xqJf03Uu986ECN-glIZCkTx3ybQgBqPVqCehJ6YKTuwEnSXBw02vZm784GI8rLqL5eVGZk_2R6YuNIDVOQC7GK1IH2OcsUWpKosO3=w478-h63" width="478" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">4 Feb 1899, page 8.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">CHESTER MYSTERIES.</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">YOUNG LADY'S DISAPPEARANCE</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">STRANGE AFFAIR AT ROWTON.</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The peace of the quiet little village of Rowton was rudely disturbed on Sunday by the spread of the news that Miss Rosa Day had disappeared. Her step-mother (Mrs. Day), and the Misses K. and N. Day, went to church as usual, but Miss Rosa stayed at home that morning, and at about eleven o'clock declared her intention of going out to skate. Her brother had gone out for a similar purpose to a large pond near the house, where others were also skating, and expected his sister to join him there. She did not do so. No one saw her leave the house, but when Mgrs. Day and the others arrived home from church it was found that Miss Rosa had disappeared, and that her hat and skates were also missing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"A search was at once instituted, and at (the) places in the district where it was possible or probable she had gone to make a visit enquiries were made. All efforts to trace her in this way were unavailing, and, as the afternoon progressed and no news as to her whereabouts was forthcoming, search parties were organised, and, until a late hour at night, the fields and ponds in the locality were well explored, but without tangible result.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"On Monday the search was renewed, and, during the day, dragging operations were conducted in several pits, while similar attempts were made on Tuesday. On Wednesday a boat was procured, and the great hole in the quarry examined. Afterwards the canal from the Bonework's Bridge down to Christleton Lock was dragged, and the next day the police continued the search in the direction of Hunting- ton and the river. But it has been all to no purpose, and just as nearly all hope of finding her in the locality had been given up, matters were to some extent explained.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">MISS DAY DISCOVERED.</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">EXTRAORDINARY STORY</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">KIDNAPPED AND STARVED</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Miss Day came back on Thursday night, and the story of her return is as extraordinary and as inexplicable as her disappearance seemed at first. Shortly before ten o'clock one of the maids was going out of the house for some purpose or other, and noticed a lady's hat on the ground. Startled, she rushed back into the house with the information, and the inmates at once went in the yard, to find Miss Day lying in an unconscious heap. She was immediately taken inside, restoratives were applied, and medical aid sent for. Dr. Taylor and Dr. Griffin arrived during the night, and Miss Day, whose appearance bore unmistakable evidence that nothing less than brutality must have been used towards her, was brought round so much as to be enabled to answer Dr. Taylor's careful questioning.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Her story which, as can only be expected at present, is not complete, is to the effect that shortly after eleven o'clock she went to the pit in their own field .to skate. Thinking that the ice was unsafe she went about half-a-mile further on to the lilt pit n Beech's field, not caring to go to another pond where several men, one or two young ladies, and her brother were playing hockey. Sitting down at the edge of the Lily Pit in order to put on her skates she was horror-struck when some man came up suddenly from behind and blindfolded her. He wanted money, but Miss Day had left her purse behind, and was unable to give him any. Thereupon he used dreadful language, tied her hands behind her back, and generally abused her, saying, "If you scream Iâll shoot you."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It is presumed that the shocking wound on Miss Dayâs forehead was inflicted at this point. The wound extends over the greater part of the forehead, and the skin has been penetrated to the bone. Subsequent to this treatment Miss Day has but a dim remembrance of being taken for what seemed to be an interminable distance to a kind of [shed]. She recovered a little, and found herself in a loft. There she lay until Thursday, alternating between semi-consciousness and insensibility, and not knowing whether she was or whether she was being watched. On Thursday she made a hole in the roof â it was only a small place in which there was scarcely room to move â climbed up, and dropped to the ground outside. By and bye she came to a stream which she knew, and she followed its course so far as it led her in the direction of home.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The journey was a terrible one. Miss Day fell from exhaustion time after time; now and again she absolutely could not move* and when at last she did reach home, she was so overcome that on arriving in the yard the only thing she could do was to stagger in the direction of the door, and sink to the ground in a faint. Had it not chanced that the servant came out a few minutes afterwards, it is probable that Miss Day would not have been found until the next morning. Considering the severe frost it is apparent that then it would have been too late.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Miss Day was in a deplorable condition. Besides the wound in her head she had sustained many bruises, her fur-boa bore a quantity of clotted blood, and her features were greatly swollen. Thus it is not to be wondered at that she lies in a somewhat dangerous condition. The medical gentlemen, however, hold out great hope and the hope is everywhere manifested that if such an outrage has been committed the villain will meet with justice. If expressed intention goes for much, the male inhabitants of the villages round would lynch him at a moment's notice. The police yesterday were engaged in investigating the country connected with Miss Day's narration, but up to the time of going to press nothing further has been heard. It seems plain that the assailant's object was murder, and that he left his victim for dead."</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEq6cmAfqroRILJoOWds3dGUzfRfZWvtQls1uXCbaPm-fdC7SnNmsnyAQ3iGIqsdjuQ9h8yHvZKrh8cMIWGxbKuEQamIHNfGPipuSfnlDtVjT61Cm2ek15s2OJhgeZ6VXFotzjGwpfXtEaxF-QNZCrLiT_Fbm4A2jtDm8D4U2Rv03oTqvt1lNmvEGM=s463" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="72" data-original-width="463" height="50" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEq6cmAfqroRILJoOWds3dGUzfRfZWvtQls1uXCbaPm-fdC7SnNmsnyAQ3iGIqsdjuQ9h8yHvZKrh8cMIWGxbKuEQamIHNfGPipuSfnlDtVjT61Cm2ek15s2OJhgeZ6VXFotzjGwpfXtEaxF-QNZCrLiT_Fbm4A2jtDm8D4U2Rv03oTqvt1lNmvEGM=w320-h50" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>HOPES OF HER RECOVERY</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Our reporter telegraphed shortly before two o'clock yesterday (Friday) that Miss Day was much better."</div><div><br /></div>The paper lists some parallels with a similar case from the eighteenth century, that of Elizabeth Canning.<div><br /></div><div><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEq6cmAfqroRILJoOWds3dGUzfRfZWvtQls1uXCbaPm-fdC7SnNmsnyAQ3iGIqsdjuQ9h8yHvZKrh8cMIWGxbKuEQamIHNfGPipuSfnlDtVjT61Cm2ek15s2OJhgeZ6VXFotzjGwpfXtEaxF-QNZCrLiT_Fbm4A2jtDm8D4U2Rv03oTqvt1lNmvEGM=s463" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="72" data-original-width="463" height="50" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEq6cmAfqroRILJoOWds3dGUzfRfZWvtQls1uXCbaPm-fdC7SnNmsnyAQ3iGIqsdjuQ9h8yHvZKrh8cMIWGxbKuEQamIHNfGPipuSfnlDtVjT61Cm2ek15s2OJhgeZ6VXFotzjGwpfXtEaxF-QNZCrLiT_Fbm4A2jtDm8D4U2Rv03oTqvt1lNmvEGM=w320-h50" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">THE CHESHIRE MYSTERY</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">SINGULAR COINCIDENCE</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Even the date January 29 fits into the two cases, although in the one instance it marks the beginning and in the other instance the end of the adventure. There have always been doubts as to whether Elizabeth Canningâs story was true, and as a matter of fact she ranks among famous "impostors," and suffered seven years transportation for perjury. But it. has always appeared to us that she was the victim of injustice and prejudice, and now that Miss Day's extraordinary similar experience has occurred we are more than ever convinced that Elizabeth Canning's story was true. We trust that Miss Day will he enabled to demonstrate the facts in her own case, and to see the perpetrators of a cruel outrage fittingly punished."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">LATEST DETAILS</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Deputy Chief Constable of Cheshire (Colonel Cope) has been making personal investigations into the extraordinary mystery, but nothing has been discovered so far which can in any way elucidate it. Miss Day has not, recovered sufficiently to be able to be further interrogated, and as a consequence her first statement cannot be subjected to the test of close repetition. She describes her assailant as a dark man with a big lower lip, about 30 years of age, and dressed like a labourer. Sue remarked to herself at the time that he was like a woman she knew, which was not flattering to the person she mentioned, as she added that he was a horrid-looking man.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"She further said he asked her for her money and her watch, but she had neither with her. She still, however, wears a gold brooch, which she had when she left her home, and the only article missing are her skates. The motive of robbery is therefore absent, and it is an important element, for there is no suggestion of outrage. She described in detail hew she escaped from the shed by clambering through a hole in the roof, and from her own story the shed cannot be far from her home. It has to be remembered in this connection that the bands of searchers who have been dragging all the ponds in the district for miles around also made a close search of all the sheds and outbuildings in the same wide area, but without result.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Miss Day has two nasty wounds on her forehead, and is in a very fatigued and collapsed condition. No explanation has been given as to how she subsisted during the four-and-a-half bitter winter days she was away. The correspondent states that shortly before Christmas Miss Day had a narrow escape from falling into a deep quarry while collecting greenery for decorating a church. She hung on to some bushes for twenty minutes, and was rescued from what appeared to be certain death "by two men. Since then she has been in failing health, and it is feared that her mind had been affected by the incidentâ</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghT_ucIGLYyeEXAkH0S0q6rX3zWYI300uR8aqf-jBoBODGWSD4OFN1WuZcCg3u2u_v068Yp1nUURc9OD70pLzY0GZQ80JE2Vkg71Ixq4GCRh5se3I1xyZMFHcRWgangNvzdXZKvqA_Lc0jMl5iK6rniMaWLmTYorJV_UeNqZyo8W9AZhgEmYIgUXRB=s398" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="53" data-original-width="398" height="43" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghT_ucIGLYyeEXAkH0S0q6rX3zWYI300uR8aqf-jBoBODGWSD4OFN1WuZcCg3u2u_v068Yp1nUURc9OD70pLzY0GZQ80JE2Vkg71Ixq4GCRh5se3I1xyZMFHcRWgangNvzdXZKvqA_Lc0jMl5iK6rniMaWLmTYorJV_UeNqZyo8W9AZhgEmYIgUXRB=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">4 Feb 1899 page 3.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>THE CHESTER MYSTERY</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>MISS DAY SUFFERING FROM A FRACTURED SKULL</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The mysterious circumstances surrounding the disappearance for five days of Miss Rosa Day, of Rowton, and her own strange story of her adventure when she returned home, are still exercising the minds of the people, not only of Rowton, but of Chester and all the villages around the city; for, if the young lady's story be true, it must be a matter of serious concern to parents that a ruffian such as she describes should be still at large. For the present, however, further questioning of the young lady is forbidden by Dr. Taylor, who informed a press representative at Chester on Saturday that in addition to the wound on the head already reported, Miss Day is also suffering from a fractured skull. The fracture, of course, indicates great violence; but Dr. Taylor is not prepared to suggest how the injury may have been inflicted, and until his patient's condition has been materially improved he refuses to allow any more questions to be put to her.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Rowton is a small village just outside Chester, and is but little known, although the Chester city guides never fail to remind the visitor that the top of the Phoenix Tower is the place from where King Charle3 saw his army defeated on Rowton Moor, in September, 1645.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"A visit to the Lily Pits on Saturday - on the bank of one of which pits Miss Day says she was blindfolded and hand-tied - revealed no trace of a struggle; but the frozen nature of the ground rendered this circumstance of no importance. It is, however, strange that the police have so far failed to find "a shed, barn, or outhouseâ that will tally with Miss Day's description of the scene of her imprisonment and method of her escape - i.e., by making a hole through the roof and then dropping to the ground. Colonel Hammersley, the chief constable of Cheshire, has himself visited Rowton, and his officers are still investigating the strange affair."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhQRkL8yLwMWKi1XnqykX4g6LfVQ8Q0MzCR8R7oTh2qzGNxXZHpOIF-isPy7eaM4DHnOnX6fydD_wZLnhzAqaPnFkngkLyOHNC6c5onm6-lPIBSgcuYWDzSmIDGMBmCqp01e592T759lrTqCE_GvA7shF1rY0LL66ayFOs_uiu9-tAoB26ekfRoBo1u=s398" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="53" data-original-width="398" height="43" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhQRkL8yLwMWKi1XnqykX4g6LfVQ8Q0MzCR8R7oTh2qzGNxXZHpOIF-isPy7eaM4DHnOnX6fydD_wZLnhzAqaPnFkngkLyOHNC6c5onm6-lPIBSgcuYWDzSmIDGMBmCqp01e592T759lrTqCE_GvA7shF1rY0LL66ayFOs_uiu9-tAoB26ekfRoBo1u=s320" width="320" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">6 Feb 1899, page 4</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>INTERVIEW WITH MISS DAY</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"On Saturday a Chester reporter had an interview with the young lady's stepmother, and in the main Mrs. Day's account of the matter corroborated the previously published reports. âRosa had not commenced to put on her skates," she said,â but was standing up looking at the ice, when this man came up behind her and asked what was the time. Although Rosa had not taken her watch, she instinctively put her hand to her pocket, and the wretch then suddenly tied her hands behind her and placed a handkerchief over her eyes, threatening her with the words, âDon't make a sound, or I'll shoot you.â Then he said âNow, go,â and she, being blindfold, terrified, and not knowing whether he had a pistol or not, went on before him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"'She says it was a long distance,' went on Mrs. Day. 'but one field would seem a long way when she could not see. Well, when they had walked a long time he asked her for money. The poor girl had none, and when he found that out he cursed and swore horribly. She just thinks she can remember receiving a blow, and then she knew nothing further. When she came to herself she found she was in a dark hole. She had no idea of the day of the week, and groped about, but could find no way out. I asked her how many times she tried, and she said about twelve or thirteen, but she cannot remember. This was a last despairing effort, and if she had not found a weak place in the roof and fallen outside she would have been too weak to have done anything more, and in that case.'</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">â'Can you say anything as to how she found her way home?' Mrs. Day, replied, with emotion, that the poor girl had wandered about the fields trying to find some place she knew. 'Then she saw the stream and came home, falling at every step. At first I thought that she had recovered consciousness on the Monday, then on the Tuesday, but now I think it must not have been until Thursday. I do not know how she would have lived for hunger and thirst, especially thirst, if this had not been so. Poor girl! She told me that once she took off her boot to warm her foot and that the agony of putting it on again made her afraid of doing the same to the other foot. The place where she lay must have been full of old dust, because her dress was covered with it. Her journey home took her about five hours. Her ankles were much swollen, but they do not appear to have been tied. The man, I have no doubt whatever, left her for dead in the shed, but whether he took the handkerchief and skates with him I cannot say. Possibly they will be found in the shed.'</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Mrs. Day, referring to the statement that Miss Rosa was covered with bruises, said this was not so. 'Beyond what I have told you and the wound on her forehead she bore no bruises. The wound is a round one in the centre. The doctor tells me that her skull is fractured and that it will be many months before it is all right and heals up. He says it is a wound of several days' standing, and was not done on Thursday. Had this been so it would not have been so serious? On the other hand, had the blow, which might have been struck with the butt end of a revolver, or by some heavy instrument, been given, say, at the side of the head, it probably would have been fatal. Dr. Taylor also says that it could not have been caused in any other way, except by a very high fall, and in that case there would have been other injuries. Perhaps this will be some answer to some of the unkind theories some people are expressing.'"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><hr />Of course, the<i> Illustrated Police News </i>had its own unique approach to the story!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix2mydALeNX8PCCJzd942CC1p-pFtjcEeWJ2_tQ_LgwbeuwgaZk_et_Vh4CVchwlvMvmBdZZz9qo-aS_TeZe6aglb5OQ6iRae18pGcAF2BZVKx6gck9bGeFKpdDtyg0gN1wUnP1xt9Efk/s16000/cheshire+mystery+pic0001.jpg" /></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE2tRvj1ziWdptA8oWiiHO8WBfqhXrwNoL-SJKMdciIBDa4uYO1j8oyd830CN4lMM0ynBFyjJsranvIbPYRWtAwt8qwG_KP2eZlL-sleWa2PQQb4FvpUET0BTF_HwP29XD2LlP5WavTS9poWGnnlEl_CqVGcWKjvX0U_3rmII8WY8Sal7ObHUA47Nq83s/s1060/abduction.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="1060" height="55" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE2tRvj1ziWdptA8oWiiHO8WBfqhXrwNoL-SJKMdciIBDa4uYO1j8oyd830CN4lMM0ynBFyjJsranvIbPYRWtAwt8qwG_KP2eZlL-sleWa2PQQb4FvpUET0BTF_HwP29XD2LlP5WavTS9poWGnnlEl_CqVGcWKjvX0U_3rmII8WY8Sal7ObHUA47Nq83s/s320/abduction.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-56134892253343665882021-08-29T03:58:00.012-07:002024-02-24T05:36:04.236-08:00Why do UFOs Spin?<span style="font-size: large;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTFQ5wUOBA-y1YFQdwpW0AqYa66wWiRreUzsE7PM36e_dyeZ8d_VCyCPMPgE17Vu0mbjHf0sX8tVY4RZnbrORGW9-QFRKXi4icc9rxD-8yA_CUIepyTxBnQ3kmaQsGzclHWMIVSI3-Esc6Zi-hiImTdLQOyJlQC2CVIUBVswt_e9SCH2wN8ojRyBSX19Y/s1280/more%20magonia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="222" data-original-width="1280" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTFQ5wUOBA-y1YFQdwpW0AqYa66wWiRreUzsE7PM36e_dyeZ8d_VCyCPMPgE17Vu0mbjHf0sX8tVY4RZnbrORGW9-QFRKXi4icc9rxD-8yA_CUIepyTxBnQ3kmaQsGzclHWMIVSI3-Esc6Zi-hiImTdLQOyJlQC2CVIUBVswt_e9SCH2wN8ojRyBSX19Y/w640-h112/more%20magonia.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">đ»</div></b></span><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><b><span></span></b></span></div><div><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><span><a name='more'></a></span>MARTIN KOTTMEYER</b></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many do. Most do not. There is no consistency in the matter. Some whirl madly. Some rotate slowly. Seen from below, they rotate counter-clockwise more often than clockwise, but not universally. (1) Some manage to spin both ways at once; the outer rim goes one way while the centre section turns the opposite way. (2) Sometimes the rim spins and the centre stays still, but there is also a case where the centre spun with the rim staying still. (3)</div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The inconsistency has bothered nobody, but it seems like it should. The natural assumption concerning the spinning of saucers is that it would be necessary for their propulsion. Yet most saucer reports don't show evidence of spinning. A non-spinning saucer would probably be more useful. It is hard to imagine anybody functioning very well in a spinning saucer. The prospect of aliens emerging from a saucer disoriented and puking their guts out veers into the area of slapstick and visceral disbelief. Yet if saucers can propel themselves and function without spinning, why should any of them spin? What purpose is served in those that do spin?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The idea that saucers spin did not originate directly from the Kenneth Arnold report. Arnold's report shows a bilaterally symmetrical craft that travels in the direction of the axis of symmetry. He mentions nothing about them spinning. The news stories about his sighting erred in calling the objects saucers, but did not compound it with any talk about spinning. They travelled very fast, waved in and out of formation, and were on a course between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams. This last suggested a horizontal trajectory.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite this, reports of spinning saucers turn up immediately and repeatedly in the reports of the 1947 Wave. There are at least 37 cases of people describing spinning, whirling, or twirling saucers among the 853 reports collected by Ted Bloecher. (4) There is good reason to believe that there was probably no imitation involved in this. They seem randomly distributed across the nation and are all minor cases with local news dissemination. Percentage-wise we are dealing with 4% of the reports. It is easy to guess why they arose. It seems an elementary elaboration inherent in our conception of the behaviour of round objects such as saucers and discs. When a person flings a plate or saucer into the air, you usually give it a spin so it travels farther. Round objects often possess the property of spinning: wheels spin, records spin, balls spin. It seems a natural generalisation and probably an inevitability in a population of UFO reports.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The paradox that spinning brings to saucers as intelligently piloted craft only emerges on conscious reflection. It took about two and a half years before a report turned up that resolved this paradox by having a craft that has the pilot in a stationary centre cabin while the outer rim moves. On 15 March 1950 Dr Craig Hunter, near Penfield, Pennsylvania, has a close encounter with a "radical new warplane". Though it has a slowly spinning ring visible on the underside, the centre cabin and outer edge are stationary. Critics noted the drawing was suspiciously similar to a drawing in a speculative article on saucer propulsion by Commander Robert B. McLaughlin for True. Hunter denied seeing the True article and this need not be untrue. (5) From the vantage of decades later, one can, however, say the two creations share the look of their era. Craft identical to Hunter's and McLaughlin's simply don't appear today. The idea of the stationary cabin, however, made good sense and is a property of UFOs that recurrently turns up afterwards on UFOs of different styles.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A flashier elaboration on the idea of spinning saucers combined the spinning with a common presumption of the era that jets or rockets propelled saucers. In this variant the jets generate the spinning with exhaust flames swirling out of the rim of the craft like a pinwheel. This form did not appear during the 1947 Wave. There were at least two dozen cases of saucers with jet or rocket flames in that wave, but they were associated with straight-line flight and never when the property of spinning was mentioned.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The earliest report of a pinwheel saucer came out of Russia some time in 1949. We only know of it because someone dug it out of the Blue Book files. A German POW told US military intelligence of his being in Dnepropetrovsk SSR and seeing large disc-shaped missiles that were black in the centre but glowed red to white hot as one goes out along the radius. Out of the rim came sparks. (6) The idea of jet-propelled rims does not become popular until 1952 and wide dissemination of news of the crash of a Soviet-made saucer on Spitzbergen. In the 28 June account, it was revealed the craft had a stationary cabin and a rotating rim having 46 jets on it. This craft was felt to be Russian since the chronometers and interior instrumentation had Russian symbols on them. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On 9 July 1952 the Oscar Linke report of an encounter near Germany's Russian Zone emerges. The refugee mayor saw figures in parkas rush to a saucer that took off vertically. "From the swirling effect of the glowing exhaust I got the impression the whole thing was spinning like a top." (7) On 26 August 1952 Herbert Long and two girls from Kutztown, Pennsylvania also report seeing a large saucer that swished skyward at a tremendous speed. There is a drawing by an artist displaying the pinwheeling effect. (8) Three days later, 29 August, comes the once strongly touted Villacoublay case involving military personnel who described a violet disc from which irregular trails spurted out that twisted like a whiplash. (9) The next year, blueprints appeared in The Aeroplane for a saucer with a stationary cabin and 4 jets pinwheeling along the edge. (10) Jacques VallĂ©e would showcase other pinwheeling UFO cases in his early writings, notably the Marignane story of 27 October 1952 and the Frederick Moreland case of 13 July 1959. (11)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One case I find particularly interesting from a psychosocial perspective wasn't investigated until 1982, but originally took place in October 1963 at Millersport, Ohio. It is a multiple-witness case and several drawings were made by the people involved. Glenna Parkinson's drawing imperfectly, but unmistakably, resembles Herbert Long's saucer by having rim flames, a broad bell-jar dome, and a broad antenna. The other three witnesses provide substantially different drawings. Most notably, none of the others drew pinwheeling flames. Here the elaborative effect of cultural set on perception is nakedly demonstrated. (12)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pinwheeling saucers constituted at most a minor strand in the UFO mythos and have pretty much vanished with the diminishing credibility of the secret weapons theory. Rocket and jet propulsion as a means of moving saucers is thoroughly out of fashion. The parallel or competing tradition of saucers propelled by magnetic drives was more evocative of alien forces and has showed staying power due to the cultural success of the ETH. (13) The Spitzbergen and Linke cases probably bear the most responsibility for the recurrent character of pinwheeling saucers due to their wide publicity. Though Linke is largely forgotten these days, his report not only appeared nationally in the newspapers but also was included in the first UFO documentary, a short film by Telenews titled <i>The Flying Saucer Mystery.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Linke was pretty clearly responsible for another strand of the UFO mythos. When it begins to take off the rim starts to move upward before the stationary cabin and the craft takes on a mushroom configuration. This very odd innovation may have been inspired by the nuclear imagery of the era, i.e. the mushroom clouds created by atomic bombs. There seems little doubt it served as the inspiration for the madly spinning Ray Harryhausen saucers of <i>Earth vs. the Flying Saucers</i> (1956). The pinwheeling flames are absent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is an alien saucer and the propulsion has to be magnetic to make their defeat by the scientists in the film possible. The mushroom launch configuration is prominent in several key scenes. It is visually startling, but ingenious in conception. The stationary stalk allows humans and entities to enter the saucer while, so to speak, keeping the motor running. The pilots don't have to waste time slowing the saucer down and then speeding it up again. The rapid take-off capability is a definite plus for a craft that must do battle at the climax. The spinning in flight and gyrational instability they show when attacked gives them a very animated appearance and is visually giddy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This mushroom configuration has recurred in a string of cases: Pajasblancas Airport, Argentina - 1 May 1957; (14) Rio Pardo, Brazil - June 1959; San Casciana, Italy - 10 April 1962; the Mount Etna contact of 30 April 1962 by famed Italian contactee Eugenio Siragusa; Chanaral, Chile - 19 July 1965; (15) Erie, Presque-Ile Park, Pennsylvania CE3K - 31 July 1966; (16) a series of Brazilian cases near Belo Horizonte and La Baleia in August and September 1967; (17) Boyup Brook, Australia - 30 October 1967. (18)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a Linstead, Maryland case three witnesses saw and many more heard a mushroom-shaped craft that had snow swirling under it. (19) As recently as December 1990 Robert Simpson, walking on a beach in India, saw a "a spaceship of some origin" hanging in the sky with a generally similar mushroom configuration. (20) Though ufologists are intrigued that people in such diverse locales report such similar craft, I am more impressed with the fact that these cases lack the pinwheeling flames of the original Linke case. The international distribution of the 1956 Harryhausen film seems to be the proper deduction of this spread of mushroom saucers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ5yIRKXPTYNLxw74LoclBHvFQzOTv_uDsHni_frtc1inUnp-jfQkSedPK8ckmsw_fhcgCIkFLRQCuBKkkOr1z33_NKPAHJuOnFPV8VyITleGlnMs_RDb8fys9lqiHn0NXckL4Udfap6M/s640/evtfs.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ5yIRKXPTYNLxw74LoclBHvFQzOTv_uDsHni_frtc1inUnp-jfQkSedPK8ckmsw_fhcgCIkFLRQCuBKkkOr1z33_NKPAHJuOnFPV8VyITleGlnMs_RDb8fys9lqiHn0NXckL4Udfap6M/w640-h480/evtfs.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I must deal here with a claim by Larry Robinson. In 'Behind the UFO Scenes' he writes: "Disk shaped UFOs were not generally reported to spin until after the movie <i>Earth vs. the Flying Saucers</i> [above] showed spinning disks. Before that, most disks flew with propulsion from exhaust ports located on the back of the disk, and vertical fins, as seen in <i>The Thing</i>." He parenthetically adds: "Of course, this was about the time advertising planes made their debut, with the spinning saucer illusion at a distance." It has already been demonstrated here that there was a fair number of spinning saucer cases already in 1947 and some in subsequent years were rather prominently reported. Told of this he elaborates: "My observation was that rotating saucers were a minority before the movie was released, but afterwards they were the majority. I have <i>The UFO Evidence</i> which contains some rotating saucer reports from the 1947 wave but they were in the minority then." (21) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To my knowledge, spinning never reached a level in any period where it could be called a majority as claimed by Robinson. As a brief test, I spent an hour looking through Hall's <i>The UFO Evidence</i> and found only one case post-film with rotation (p. 32: 10/7/62) and 4 pre-film (8/7/47, 22/7/52, 19/9/52, 29/12/52) with rotation or spinning. Most of the hundred or so I looked at give no relevant details and a few dozen were post-film. So the percentages of spinning saucer cases in both periods are in single-digit territory and not even close to a majority.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A fin much like that in <i>The Thing</i> appears in a 20 March 1950 case (case X in the collection of 12 drawings used in Battelle's <i>Special Study No. 14</i>). (22) But <i>The Thing</i> opened in April 1951. None of the other cases in that study had fins. Two had rear exhaust and one had jets on the side with exhaust directed backwards. "Most" had neither fins nor exhaust. Case VII (6 June 1952) displayed spinning.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It must also be said that spinning saucers made their debut in cinema in the <i>Flash Gordon</i> serial in 1938. One sequence of a madly spinning saucer appears in the <i>Bruce Gentry</i> serial of 1949 and this effects clip is recycled into the <i>Atom Man vs. Superman</i> (1950) and <i>Blackhawk</i> (1952) serials. The <i>Devil Girl from Mars</i>'s top-like spacecraft with a rim that whirls and whines like a jet turbine also beats Harryhausen's whirligigs to the screen by a year. Though some effect on the percentages of spinning saucers by Harryhausen's imagery is plausible, it has not been demonstrated and the effect would be less than turning a rarity into a majority.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The variety of cinematic saucer kinematics has its own fascinations. The flying craft of <i>The Mysterians</i> (1957) do not spin, but their Earth base is shaped like a bell jar with a rim that spins massively up and down through the ground. In <i>Warning from Space</i> (1956/1963) a saucer lifting up on vertical flames creates a strong whirlpool around it even though the craft itself is not spinning. In <i>Battle of the Worlds</i> (1963) the saucers are unmanned and spin very rapidly. The saucer craft in <i>Lost in Space</i> and <i>The Invaders</i> have lights that sequentially suggest spinning, but the craft do not actually spin. <i>Gammera the Invincible</i> (1966) is a gigantic spinning turtle that pinwheels flame out of its leg-holes.<i> Zontar</i> (1968) shows us a saucer with a slower spin rate. When we get to <i>Close Encounters of the Third Kind</i> (1977) the rotations are so slow they barely rate the word spin anymore.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The craft in the finale of<i> Starman</i> (1984) has a rim that slowly revolves. The saucer masquerading as a restaurant in <i>Doin' Time on Planet Earth</i> (1988) gets up a spin-rate comically large enough to put its restaurant identity in doubt, but never reaches gyration rates like those in the fifties. Modern saucers live a more sedate life than they had back then. (23) As a group, non-spinning saucers outnumber spinning saucers by a ratio of at least two to one.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Viewed from underneath, the saucers from cinema prefer counter-clockwise rotation, but not universally. I did not find any instance of counter-rotation in my set of videos, though whether this is because there aren't any or my collection is less than complete I can't say. Such kinematic mirroring as does exist, I suspect, is a working out of psychological biases shared by film-makers, UFO reporters, and humans generally more than imitation. The recurrent character of pinwheeling and mushroom saucers was a different matter since their somewhat higher conceptual complexity and their distribution over time seems to point to imitation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Should saucers spin? There's no reason they should not if many or all are in some sense products of human imagination. The puking alien or the technical challenge of marrying immobile cabin to spinning body is rendered irrelevant. How might ETH defenders patch over this difficulty? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Take one. The spinning saucers are instrumental craft that are unmanned. But what can be done with a spinning instrumental device? Spy devices would favour a stable platform. Atmospheric sampling can be done more simply by toy-sized planes, rockets, balloons, etc.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Take two. We've always granted a certain percentage of UFO cases are IFOs. All rational ufologists reject Spitzbergen as a hoax. Maybe these are all just IFOs - we still have our classics and none of them spin, do they? But do the spinning cases really seem any less evidential than the non-spinning ones? Linke's report involved multiple witnesses and alleged physical traces, and would rate better than many classics were it not for the fact that it supports the Russian secret weapon theory that ufologists have rejected. (24) Villacoublay involved military people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">VallĂ©e showcased examples in <i>Challenge to Science.</i> Supporting evidence offered by Coral Lorenzen for the validity of the Trindade photographs includes a report of the identically sounding greenish-glowing enringed spheroid being over the same island a few days before it was photographed. It includes the detail: "The ring appeared to be rotating at high speed." (25) I don't know of any photographic case more defended than this one and it is surely a classic. This strategy thus has problems. Take three. Aliens are weird and . . . Cut. We know the government tries to make the UFO phenomenon look ridiculous . . . CUT.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's enough to make a ufologist's head spin.</div><br /><hr /><br /><b>REFERENCES:</b><div><b><br /></b>1. Benson, Thomas. "Findings Related to the Abduction Experience from a Database on UFO Understructures" in Pritchard, Andrea, et. al. <i>Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference held at MIT,</i> Cambridge, MA, North Cambridge Press, 1994, 160-165<br />2. Ibid.<br />3. Bullard, Thomas. <i>UFO Abductions: The Measure of a Mystery,</i> Fund for UFO Research, 1987, 202<br />4. Bloecher, Ted. <i>Report on the UFO Wave of 1947</i>, author, 1967<br />5. Gross, Loren.<i> UFOs: A History: 1950: January-March</i>, author, 1983, 52-54<br />6. Gross, Loren. <i>UFOs: A History: Volume 2: 1949</i>, author, 1982, section 2, 47<br />7. Kottmeyer, Martin. "Missing Linke", <i>Promises and Disappointments</i>, 3/4, 17-20<br />8. Girard, Robert. <i>An Early UFO Scrapbook</i>, Arcturus Book Service, 1989, 127<br />9. Michel, AimĂ©. <i>The Truth about Flying Saucers</i>, Pyramid, 1967, 179-185, 226-228<br />10. Girard, <i>op. cit.</i>, 146-147<br />11. VallĂ©e, Jacques and Janine. <i>Challenge to Science, </i>Ace Books, 1966, 28-30, 75-76<br />12. Seigfried, Richard D. "Multiple Witness Sighting of Structured UFO", <i>MUFON UFO Journal</i>, l73, July 1982, 11-12<br />13. "Magnetic Drives" and "Conflicting Drives", unpublished files<br />14. Magonia catalogue, No. 393<br />15. Magonia catalogue, No. 658<br />16. Magonia catalogue, No. 784<br />17. Aleixo, Hulvio B. "Humanoid Encountered at La Baleia",<i> Flying Saucer Review, </i>14, 6, November-December 1968, 8-11, 20<br />18. Magonia catalogue, No. 893<br />19. Magonia catalogue, No. 819<br />20. Simpson, Robert E. "Missing Time in India", <i>UFO Universe,</i> Fall 1992, 39<br />21. <a href="http://php.indiana.edu/~lrobins/ufopage.htm">http://php.indiana.edu/~lrobins/ufopage.htm</a><br />22. See <i>Brad Steiger's Project Blue Book</i>, 161, or Ron Story's <i>Encyclopedia </i>under 'Battelle'.<br />23. Kottmeyer, Martin. "Blazing Saucers",<i> The Skeptic,</i> 10, 2, 1996, 8-12<br />24. "Missing Linke", <i>op. cit.</i><br />25. Lorenzen, Coral E. <i>Flying Saucers: The Startling Evidence of the Invasion from Outer Space,</i> Signet, 1966, 173.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><hr /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn_uZAgNBg6r1geqIOAfal0RT3YobiJ5h_6IVRvsgeQrJ2GTU7xVr413o3XG9aUt-KhYerlC4TSWro3ykiplBjW_YF33elJe8Imn2IJ9RBJQ7-nYLiNzNcwlhgS4NjCJXq4FwC2cMIZXw/s104/06+TINY+BLUE+SHIP.gif" style="font-weight: bold; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="104" data-original-width="96" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn_uZAgNBg6r1geqIOAfal0RT3YobiJ5h_6IVRvsgeQrJ2GTU7xVr413o3XG9aUt-KhYerlC4TSWro3ykiplBjW_YF33elJe8Imn2IJ9RBJQ7-nYLiNzNcwlhgS4NjCJXq4FwC2cMIZXw/s0/06+TINY+BLUE+SHIP.gif" width="96" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">From Magonia Monthly Supplement, No. 23, January 2000.</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-59449793844543765962021-02-04T05:15:00.003-08:002024-02-24T05:33:03.649-08:00Dunking Dr Jacobs in the Food Vat<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT4jTtZTEs9DbRtg4avvdhjqGs19U6A4M606Ju-c9P-pkggsZOVSK-wk59StF-WRGqS0E0PeI7-GAZcHH7OJ2dX2E7T8kwsJYrvR5q2Dn2uiuBQvCLtrrRZkwtF4YfKMSLfte1HiwzbYVUA86_3-7KCqshsq6wOsPrGlltbCKyVvu8ouRqF-KDnL8nOoQ/s1280/DIGBY.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="1280" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT4jTtZTEs9DbRtg4avvdhjqGs19U6A4M606Ju-c9P-pkggsZOVSK-wk59StF-WRGqS0E0PeI7-GAZcHH7OJ2dX2E7T8kwsJYrvR5q2Dn2uiuBQvCLtrrRZkwtF4YfKMSLfte1HiwzbYVUA86_3-7KCqshsq6wOsPrGlltbCKyVvu8ouRqF-KDnL8nOoQ/w640-h110/DIGBY.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">đ»</div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span><a name='more'></a></span>Dunking Dr Jacobs in the Food Vat</span></b></div></b><p></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Martin S. Kottmeyer</span></b></p><div style="text-align: justify;">It is fair to say that disbelievers in alien abduction claims find most of David Jacobsâs book <i>The Threat</i> (1998) a matter of high weirdness and maybe even a bit funny. Believers, a few anyways, however feel it is an important book. It deserves respect for calling attention to a world-class danger arising from the visions of those closest to the centre of the action of the UFO saga. (Sandow, ufoevidence) How dare you dismiss it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is one part of Jacobsâs book I found especially amusing. Against their wills, I trust even believers can be convinced this bit of the book is worth at least a smirk. Even if you are completely allergic to talk about common sense or scientific considerations, you can still appreciate how funny this is. While the Jacobs book presents itself as bringing fresh insights to the abduction phenomenon, there was one matter in which he was distinctly behind the curve and didnât realize it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is in a section detailing his findings on âBasic Alien Biology.â He repeats some observations from his prior book <i>Secret Life</i> (1992) about how aliens appear to never eat or excrete. They donât seem to have teeth, intestines, or an anus. (Nyah, nyan nyah -- Canât probe them!) One alien even directly tells one abductee, âWe need no human consumption of the matter that you eat.â Could they be robots? No, too easy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jacobs sets things up for his new discovery. He writes, âUntil now, how aliens obtain fuel has been a mysteryâ (<i>The Threat,</i> 1998, p. 98) In a regression dated 6 July 1994, one of his abductees, Allison Reed, gave him âthe key to the mystery.â She sees a room full of tanks filled with liquid and she sees Greys bobbing around in them. One tells her that the tanks are for eating and sleeping. Jacobs learnedly infers the aliens obtain their fuel âby absorption through the skin rather than ingestion.â He observes this probably explains how alien foetuses survived in incubatoriums without umbilical cords. He adds a comment from southern Illinois abductee Diane Henderson that the liquid they float in was nutritious. This was revealed in a session dated 14 July 1994. Jacobs further reports Susan Steiner reported seeing nutrients brushed on the skin. He learns this in a session dated 9 October 1995.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jacobs refers to this as âthe absorption theoryâ and he clearly regards the insight as a personal triumph and a fresh advance. He writes, âThus, whatever the specific and still unknown biological processes we now know that the aliens obtain fuel differently from humans, that their skin has a unique function, and that they convert âfoodâ to energy very differently.â Weâd know more, but aliens are a secretive lot. (<i>The Threat,</i> 1998, p. 101) Raise eyebrow, pause for it --- now?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ten years prior to Jacobsâs book, January 1988, a document was circulating on the Internet that is infamous in UFO circles. It was called The Krill Report and it gathered together a lot of the rumours and paranoia that had been building up surrounding revelations first advanced by Paul Bennewitz concerning the Dulce base, an underground facility purportedly populated by alien Greys. From this digital file, weâll lift two relevant quotes:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We knew that the Greys were instrumental in performing the mutilations of animals (and some humans) and that they were using the glandular substances derived from these materials for food (absorbed through the skin) and to clone more Greys in their underground laboratories.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The apparent reasoning for the Grey preoccupation with this is due to their lack of a formal digestive tract and the fact that they absorb nutrients and excrete waste directly through the skin. The substances that they acquire are mixed with hydrogen peroxide and "painted" on their skin, allowing absorption of the required nutrients. It is construed from this that some weaponry against them might be geared in this direction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">These lines unambiguously demonstrate the existence of the absorption theory a full decade before Jacobs claims to unveil it. The Krill Report was widely read among UFO buffs - it was, I feel it is fair to say, virtually impossible to avoid it if you surfed the net for information about UFOs. This information about Greys absorbing nutrients through the skin quickly found its way into taxonomies of the period. Valerian (1988) reports of Grey Species 3 The Rigelians: âThe nutrient glandulars extracted from terrestrial biological organisms is absorbed through their skin in a dual osmotic process. Nutrients are taken in and waste materials are excreted.â </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">George Andrews rephrases things for his âTentative Taxonomy of Extraterrestrial Humanoidsâ Rigelians developed glandular problems due to nuclear war. âThey derived nourishment - absorbed through their pores - from the glandular secretions and the enzymes extracted from the animals they mutilate. (Andrews 1993) Earlier versions of the Andrews taxonomy were available on the Web and Branton included a copy in his compilation/anthology <i>The Dulce Book</i> (1996).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Talk about the Greys and this information would eventually come up. Those who channelled Greys confirmed the information from purportedly firsthand sources. Early in Lyssa Royal's <i>Visitors from Within</i> (1992), we learn the Zeta Reticulans genetically altered their bodies to absorb nutrients through the skin when nuclear war forced them underground. Plants died, oxygen decreased, and they turned to raising embryos in labs, cloning them, and altering their genes to alter the way their bodies functioned.(Royal & Priest, 1992, p.4) In his 1996 article âShades of Grayâ Daryl Smith revises the Greys taxonomy of Andrews but keeps the information about nutrients being absorbed through the skin. (Smith 1996)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This absorption theory evolved out of Paul Bennewitzâs work. Back in May 1980, Myrna Hansen purportedly was abducted and brought into the Dulce Base. Inside, she saw the "top of a bald head," apparently of a hairless alien in a tank full of cattle parts and human body parts. Bennewitz derives from this case the idea that aliens conduct mutilations to create a liquid âformula made from human or cattle material or both.â In <i>Project Beta </i>he reports âIf they do not get formula/food within a certain period they will weaken and die.â They need water to create the âfeeding formula,â so he felt bombing the dams around the Dulce Base could be an effective way to attack them. In an April 1983 interview, he told a fellow colleague in cattle mutilation studies that the aliens use cattle DNA to create humanoids. If they do not get their food formula, they will turn green. They also eliminate through the skin. By March 1986 Bennewitz had reversed this. in a letter to a colleague Clifford Stone, he says the aliens are generally light green, but "when in need of formula or dead they turn GREY." They eliminate wastes via osmosis. (Branton 1996)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This information became high profile with the release of the John Lear statement [first version: 29 December 1987; revised: 25 March 1988]. Lear brings forward all sorts of paranoia such as the US being in business with little grey extraterrestrials for about 20 years. On the matter of the nature of Greys, Lear revealed they have a "genetic disorder in that their digestive system is atrophied and not functional." He indicates it's speculated that this came either from a nuclear war or they are "on the back side of an evolutionary genetic curve." They extract enzymes from human and animal tissues. He specifically refers to the Dulce Base having vats of human body parts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This information was further disseminated in newsstand UFO magazines in 1989. In their spring 1989 issue, <i>UFO Universe</i> gives a Clifford Stone interview that repeats Myrna Hansenâs observation of vats of human parts in an underground base (Boyajian 1989). In their fall 1989 issue William Cooper relays his tale of seeing a briefing book in 1972 that discusses the four types of Greys and states they have atrophied, non-functioning digestive systems. They have chlorophyll and can get energy that way, but they also use blood and other animal fluids to survive on. They excrete their wastes through the skin. (Cooper 1989) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1991, ufologist Forest Crawford reported that a crash-retrieval researcher he called Oscar had learned about a humanoid nicknamed Hank acquired in a disc-recovery research project called OSMA. Before Hank died Oscar was able to confirm Greys use human fluids for sustenance. âThey feed by immersing their arms in vats and/or rubbing the fluids on their bodies.â This was told in the spring 1991 issue of <i>UFO Journal of Facts</i> and repeated in Branton (1996).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">âRevelations from the Leading Edge,â [reprinted in Valdamar Valerianâs<i> Matrix II </i>(1991)] elaborates the theory in these terms: âThe Greys consume nourishment through a process of absorption through their skin. The process, according to abductees who have witnessed it, involved spreading a biological slurry mixture that has been mixed with hydrogen peroxide [which oxygenates the slurry and eliminates bacteria] onto their skin. Waste products are then excreted back through the skin.â This source also tells the story of another abductee taken by entities from Bellatrix whose two children were killed when she would not co-operate:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She managed to run down a hallway and went into a room where she saw a vat full of red liquid and body parts of humans and animals. She saw another vat of the same type in which the liquid was being agitated, and as she looked into the vat she could see Greys bobbing up and down, almost swimming, absorbing the nutrients through their skin. There is also the use of H2O2 [water molecules with an extra oxygen atom added] in the vats in order to aid in preserving the fluid from rapid degeneration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not really surprisingly, this sensational tale is unreferenced. Further down in the document, it is added that alien digestive tracts are useless. Nourishment is ingested by smearing a soupy mixture of biologicals on the epidermis. Food sources [include] Bovine cattle [and human] parts surgically removed by light technology [laser] and distilled into a high protein broth. Branton (1996, chapter 30) also repeats these revelations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even if one whimsically decides to praise Jacobs for his good taste in not wading through the sewer of extremist paranoia beyond and beneath mainstream UFO culture, there are still a couple of problems. These claims were discussed in depth by higher browed ufologists who held these beliefs in contempt. Jacques VallĂ©e, in <i>Revelations</i> (1991), described a meeting with William Cooper where he asserts of aliens, âTheir biology is well-understood... Their digestive system is atrophied⊠They absorb nourishment through the skin, and they excrete through the skin, tooâ (VallĂ©e, 1991, p. 74) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">VallĂ©e is a long time veteran of the UFO controversy and his writings are obligatory reading for every ufologist. It would be unthinkable that Jacobs didnât own a copy. There is also Peter Brookesmithâs <i>UFO: The Government Files</i> (1996). It was a major publication by Barnes & Noble that anyone considering himself an informed historian of ufology necessarily has in his library. The Myrna Hanson story is retold there in detail. In a section titled LEAR.TXT one also is exposed to the relevant details of aliens with atrophied digestive systems and formulas being applied to the skin by brush or by dipping. The absorption theory is unambiguously stated: âThe body absorbs the solution, then excretes the waste back through the skin.â(Brookesmith, 1996; pp. 108, 112)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So. Allison Reed clearly was not the first abductee to claim to see Greys bobbing around in vats and it would be a rare UFO buff who did not immediately think of Myrna Hansenâs claims on hearing Reedâs words. Susan Steinerâs talk of seeing nutrients brushed on the skin should similarly remind even casually informed buffs of the passage in The Krill Report quoted above. When Jacobs suggests that hybrid babies lack umbilical cords because they absorb food through the skin, I really had to smile. I had divined that interpretation myself in an article about incubatoriums back in 1995. (Kottmeyer 1995) The Greys' peculiar food habits were not exactly hidden. Type âGraysâ into a search engine and information about the knowledge about their absorption biology would pop up on the first page of links. Magazines and books likewise circulated this stuff widely among the digitally disadvantaged.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Let me emphasise that the more mainstream ufologists ridiculed the idea that aliens populated the Dulce base. VallĂ©e, in <i>Revelations </i>(1991, p. 54) was scathing, comparing them to Grimmâs Fairy Tales, and provided reasons for his disbelief that were convincing to anybody not blinded by paranoia. It is unclear to me what ufologists who believe in abductions but disbelieve that Dulce Base was an alien lair do with Myrna Hansonâs claims. Perhaps, like Jacobs, they forget them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Given all of this, the thought that Dr Jacobs presents his absorption theory as new product is just hilarious. You donât have to be a sceptic to ask what cave he had been holed up in.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A few may now be wondering why I bring this up now. <i>The Threat </i>has been around seven years. Though I recognised how funny it was immediately, by itself it didnât seem worth bothering about. It didnât contribute to any larger point and buffs would just shrug it off as a personal attack over a very trifling matter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Few Americans have ever seen Dan Dare comics. Its fame is such that its reputation as a must-see comic in British science fiction fandom is however known even here in the USA. Recently, a publisher in the USA finally decided to collect together and reprint the Dan Dare series. I didnât need much convincing to buy a couple of these new books of reprints. I liked it. Nice colour palette and intricate art. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the process of reading it I discovered something I never suspected. In the 16th strip - it first appeared 28 July 1950 - a character named Digby is taken to a tank with liquid in it. His alien guide, a Venusian Treen - it is a reptoid by current alien taxonomy conventions - presents this vat as âThe Food Bath - Thirty seconds immersion will give you all the nutriment you need.â (Hampson, 2004)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMUmoACla2Tu3olhu8tcyXZtJrTJUOKXZaKt_6gfjT2DS9e0v4eRLvdwO4ZY78Vmx6Tz4FnKm01iOmu50iRH08VvfbzRqU3JAHJN_eZVfljn6QVx9kFqnIXIIr-FAawlDlXjXJ5wm8uuA/s328/food+bath.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="327" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMUmoACla2Tu3olhu8tcyXZtJrTJUOKXZaKt_6gfjT2DS9e0v4eRLvdwO4ZY78Vmx6Tz4FnKm01iOmu50iRH08VvfbzRqU3JAHJN_eZVfljn6QVx9kFqnIXIIr-FAawlDlXjXJ5wm8uuA/w638-h540/food+bath.jpg" width="638" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Dan Dare's 1950 Venusian Food Bath</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The food bath ... thirty seconds immersion will give you all the nutrient you need"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"How are you for pepper and salt, Dig?"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"Give me a Lancashire hot-pot every time sir"</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While I am well used to UFO lore having precedents in science fiction, I was nonetheless happily amazed to see this. I mean this seemed pretty arcane stuff. My instinct was to discount the idea that this British strip could be a source of this absorption through the skin idea. There is nothing in Jungian psychology to suggest something like this would be archetypal. But could something like this be reinvented from scratch? Perhaps there is independent reasoning down from broader-shared pieces of knowledge.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The comic provides at least one clue. In <i>Dan Dare #14</i>, there was a seed planted in anticipation of discovering this vat. A Venusian Treen expresses feeling unfortunate to have landed among humans: âThey have never, alas, outgrown their digestions, emotions, or fighting instincts.â The Treens are implicitly a âsuperiorâ race. In this they represent a parallel future evolution like that we see overtly underlying our ideas about the Greys. Maybe this is all a transitional strategy, an interim way to grow big brains without the messiness and inconvenience of animal bodies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It should be remembered that H.G. Wells, no less, proposed as far back as 1893 that man in the far future might evolve an organic chemistry that made the distractions of eating and digestion a thing of the past.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Is there any absolute impossibility in supposing man to be destined for a similar change; to imagine him no longer dining, with unwieldy paraphernalia of servants and plates, upon food queerly dyed and distorted, but nourishing himself in elegant simplicity by immersion in a tub of nutritive fluid?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though this particular piece is an obscurity, the sentiment of wanting to be rid of our animal body is easy enough to come by. That sentiment pervades religion and in the present is easy enough to find in the writings cyber-philosophers who express hopes for downloading the mind into cyberspace and taking on virtual bodies. (Graham 2002)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Real-world knowledge of nutrient baths was common in the first half of the twentieth century. On 17 January 1912, Alexis Carrel, a Nobel laureate who revolutionised vascular surgery, extracted a chicken heart and kept it alive in a nutrient solution. He transferred the tissue every forty-eight hours, during which time it doubled in size and had to be trimmed before being moved to its new flask. According to legend it continued to live and grow for decades. This was immortalized in a 'Lights Out' radio play first aired 10 March 1937 (reran 23 February 1938, 24 November 1942). In it the exponential growth of the chicken heart threatened the entire Earth. A couple of decades further on, this 'Lights Out' episode formed the centre to Bill Cosbyâs famous chicken-heart comedy routine. It was preserved on his album <i>Wonderfulness.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The motif about excreting through the skin is perhaps a twist on the fact that the skin is regarded as part of the excretory system in biology texts. Take away the intestines, add fluids, and perhaps the skin is the logical remaining organ to deal with impurities. Shirley Ann Varughese had proposed something of the sort in a 1976 anthology of space writings. Playing around with a fictional species called Xenophians, she set it up as a native in a nitrogen environment. âLiquid and other waste products from the cells are expelled through the pores of the skin, as he has no lungs and no waste-removal system.â (Varughese 1975)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course, one can object that if these things are so logical why there is so little about food baths apart from Dan Dareâs comics and the material subsequent to The Dulce Base. But, no, I would not say it was âsoâ logical. One can reproduce the reasoning, but I donât feel it is an appealing notion. Swimming in broth is not my idea of a good meal. And if aliens excrete through the skin, how unpalatable might that bath be if you are swimming in leftovers? Is it plausible? Wells alludes to parasites that absorb their food from surrounding water, but can this work for full-grown humans? Humanoids? Reptoids? I tend to doubt it, since we did not evolve to work that way. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bipedal forms implicitly are evolved for walking on land. A creature getting its nutrients from fluids implicitly is most likely to have been evolved in an aquatic environment or other fluid medium. I will willingly defer to any organic chemists who can argue knowledgeably on whether it is absolutely possible or impossible to make non-aquatic skin absorb enough nutrients to survive on, but my gut rebels at the thought.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However you choose to account for the coincidence, presumably you understand why I started thinking of Jacobs again. He provides a happy little story by which to balance this notably more annoying mystery. It is one thing for a historian to be behind the curve; it is far more absorbing when the UFO phenomenon as a whole is yet again behind the curve. The fictional ones beat the ârealâ ones even in this weirdness.</div><br /><hr /><b><span style="font-size: medium;">References:</span></b><div><br /></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>George Andrews, Extraterrestrial Friends & Foes, Illuminet, 1993, p. 142.</li><li>Greg Bishop Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth, Paraview Pocket Books, 2005</li><li>Robert W. Boyajian, "Conquest Earth? A Shocking Look Inside the Government-Alien Exchange Program: Exclusive Interview with Sargeant Clifford Stone, on Assignment at Roswell, New Mexico" UFO Universe, volume 1, #5, Spring 1989, pp. 44-7, 70</li><li>Branton, The DULCE Book, October 1996, âChapter 12: Operation Retaliation One Man Against an Empireâ</li><li>Peter Brookesmithâs UFO: The Government Files, Barnes & Noble, 1996 pp. 108, 112</li><li>William Cooper, "Classified Above Top-Secret 'Operation Majority'" UFO Universe #7, Fall 1989 pp. 52-57, 63</li><li>Elaine L. Graham, Representations of the Post/Human: Monsters, Aliens, and Others in Popular Culture, Rutgers University Press, 2002</li><li>Frank Hampson, Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future - Voyage to Venus: Part 1, Titan Books, May 2004</li><li>David Jacobs, The Threat, Simon & Schuster, 1998</li><li>Martin Kottmeyer, âWater E.B.E.sâ The REALL News, 3, #2; February 1995, pp. 1, 7-8</li><li>âRevelations from the Leading Edgeâ [no author byline given] printed in Valdemar Valerian, Matrix II, 1991 and available on the Web at <a href="http://www.ufoarea.com/government_dulce_branton_ch30.html">www.ufoarea.com/government_dulce_branton_ch30.html</a></li><li>Greg Sandow, âDanger from the Skies - A Review of David M. Jacobs' Book 'The Threat'â www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc55.htm</li><li>Daryl Smith "Shades of Grey", Truthseekers Review #10, July/August 1996, 5pp</li><li>H.G. Wells âOf a Book Unwritten: The Man of the Year Millionâ Pall Mall Budget, November 9, 1893 reprinted David Y. Hughes & Harry M. Geduld, ed. A Critical Edition of The War of the Worlds, Indiana University Press, 1993, pp. 290-4</li><li>Valdamar Valerian, The Matrix: Understanding Aspects of Covert Interaction with Alien Culture, Technology and Planetary Power Structures, Arcturus Book Service, 1988, p. 61</li><li>Jacques VallĂ©e, Revelations: Alien Contact and Human Deception, Ballantine, 1991, chapter 3</li><li>Shirley Ann Varughese, âThe Planet Xenoâ in Magoroh Maruyama and Arthur Harkins, ed., Cultures Beyond the Earth, Vintage Original, 1975 p. 153</li></ul><div><div><hr /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>From Magonia Supplement No. 59 November 2005</b></div><br /> <br /></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-78676472492035334852021-01-12T05:46:00.009-08:002024-02-24T05:36:32.949-08:00Bees from a Dying Planet<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzd8Btj43HUHzPmpwyr7z2odS7up_Red3NNuBm85bLVeb1gfmLV59FJTXOBX3CRw4b6b_d8XLUARuu0p9AfYi_fTxh7lkXXlWzww6ZRSecgYDFznlyY7vpNMgS1wUW16-A_cT7HW7fz2TDbVl4ZGl6-SzwZLT48zDJxWNHfpJ1S1dTguhVeXGZUok6Rq8/s1303/bees%20from%20mars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="252" data-original-width="1303" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzd8Btj43HUHzPmpwyr7z2odS7up_Red3NNuBm85bLVeb1gfmLV59FJTXOBX3CRw4b6b_d8XLUARuu0p9AfYi_fTxh7lkXXlWzww6ZRSecgYDFznlyY7vpNMgS1wUW16-A_cT7HW7fz2TDbVl4ZGl6-SzwZLT48zDJxWNHfpJ1S1dTguhVeXGZUok6Rq8/w640-h124/bees%20from%20mars.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">đ»</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-family: Francois One; font-size: large;">J</span></span><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Francois One; font-size: large;">OHN HARNEY</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">In support of the psychosocial hypothesis, a number of writers, notably Martin Kottmeyer, have shown how many of the motifs found in UFO reports, particularly abductions, have been derived from science fiction books and films. Even some of the believers have had to concede that science fiction has coloured the accounts given by many witness</span></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">However, this leads to the question of how the science fiction writers got their ideas. In a recent book, Bruce Rux developed the idea that the process is really the other way around; science fiction writers get their ideas from genuine UFO reports. (1) Perhaps it would be more reasonable to consider the possibility of a two-way traffic between ufology and science fiction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An interesting example of this can be found in <i>Star of Ill-Omen</i>, by Dennis Wheatley, a tale of alien abduction first published in 1952. (2) Wheatley (1897-1977), author of 75 books, was a writer of historical novels and occult thrillers, perhaps the best known being <i>The Devil Rides Out</i>. He was noted for the research he conducted to give his fantastic stories authentic backgrounds, so that they often featured real people and real events. <i>Star of Ill-Omen</i> is rather different from his other works.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In this book, Wheatley not only makes use of his reading on UFOs, but he summarises it at tedious length. The story can briefly be summarised as follows:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our hero, Kem Lincoln (a James Bond sort of character), a scientist Escobar and his wife Carmen - with whom Lincoln is having an affair - are captured by giant humanoid Martians and taken back to Mars in a flying saucer. It turns out that the humanoids are the not-very-bright slaves of a race of intelligent insects, which are referred to as "bee-beetles". As Mars is drying up, they plan to take over Earth, having blasted its population using atom bombs. Despite their technical sophistication, they have no idea how to manufacture these, so they hope to get nuclear physicist Escobar to show them. Eventually the abductees manage to destroy the Martian civilisation by discovering that the bee-beetles have no sting and conveying this information to the humanoids, who rebel and start killing them off. Our heroes manage to escape in a saucer and return to Earth.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is surely one of Wheatley's less readable works. There are many pages where nothing much happens, especially on the tedious outward voyage to Mars, which takes about fifty days. One thus sees that the device of Lincoln having an affair with Escobar's wife is necessary to provide a little dramatic tension, although this only serves to make the voyage seem even more tedious than it would otherwise be.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0xe22FwQSjZltPa_BKoQI1ocYmduZuovhsiZ76VaLWwiFUUYwTB-VJu-tSJTfYwGFNoQIJtIrMeYoxGXIHq2BtkqJtlwQgsjW2SnFTpo5sOX1uWoUtwIe0ISCRcxFyRHp8fJkLgnnkr0/s499/riddle.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="354" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0xe22FwQSjZltPa_BKoQI1ocYmduZuovhsiZ76VaLWwiFUUYwTB-VJu-tSJTfYwGFNoQIJtIrMeYoxGXIHq2BtkqJtlwQgsjW2SnFTpo5sOX1uWoUtwIe0ISCRcxFyRHp8fJkLgnnkr0/s320/riddle.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There was not much UFO literature available when Wheatley wrote this book, so it should be possible to trace most of the details which he has borrowed from it. The bee-beetles obviously derive from the speculations of Gerald Heard, author of one of the first UFO books. (3) Having noted the high speeds and rapid changes of direction described in many UFO reports, he hypothesised that they were piloted by intelligent insects, and that they probably came from Mars.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another interesting detail is the idea that saucers are destroyed by bursting into flames if anything goes wrong, or in Wheatley's story, simply as a precaution against biological contamination. When the abductees reach Mars, they are sealed up in bags and ejected, and the saucer burns up. They are then subjected to a decontamination procedure. The idea of things being ejected from saucers comes from the Maury Island story. The burning saucer reminds one of the alleged Ubatuba magnesium incident, but that occurred in 1957, about 5 years after the book was first published.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In common with most modern abduction stories, the interior of the saucer has no ornamentation of any kind and everything in it is strictly functional. Another similarity is the vagueness about the saucer's propulsion system. Escobar speculates that it makes use of "magnetic lines of force".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The bee-beetles apparently have no art or culture, and they have great difficulty in communicating with other species. They use telepathy to some extent, particularly to control their humanoid slaves. They show their captives films, which seem to be a potted history of Earth civilisation, and include many scenes of wars and weapons. Our heroes eventually realise that they want to be shown how to make atom bombs. This reminds one of similar presentations given to abductees by the Greys (presumably with different motives), but in the early 1950s the Greys had yet to be invented.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Wheatley and Heard wrote their books, it was still possible to consider Mars as a possible abode of intelligent life, with a reasonable amount of water and a possibly breathable atmosphere and this had an obvious influence on the speculations of UFO writers of the early 1950s. The following paragraph from Heard's book shows how wrong theories about Mars could be before the era of space exploration:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">The surface of Mars seems innocent of scars when we think of our own surface and that of the pockmarked moon, our satellite. Mars seems to have cooled before volcanic eruptions took place. Lowell thought that it had only one low range of mountains reaching the very moderate height of 3,000 feet, the Mountains of Mitchell near its southern pole. Had Mars been often hit - as many of the vast craters on the moon are now thought to be "bullet marks" made by meteorites that have struck full force on the moon-surface (unscreened by an atmosphere) - then on the Martian landscape we should have seen these great rampart rings - some on the moon are thirty miles across and throw most striking shadows. But not a trace of such has been detected on Mars.</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The story ends with Lincoln and Carmen returning to Earth in a saucer, where they are ejected in a capsule which falls into the Thames. The saucer explodes in flames. They are recovered and revived, as described in a document marked Top Secret. The Earth is saved but the public never get to hear about all this as it remains secret. Just like the crashed saucers and dead aliens at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><hr style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">References</span></b></div></span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. Rux, Bruce. <i>Hollywood Vs. the Aliens: The Motion Picture Industry's Participation in UFO Disinformation,</i> Frog Ltd, Berkeley, California, 1997</div><div style="text-align: left;">2. Wheatley, Dennis. <i>Star of Ill-Omen, </i>The Lymington Edition, Hutchinson, London, 1966 (first published 1952)</div><div style="text-align: left;">3. Heard, Gerald. <i>The Riddle of the Flying Saucers: Is Another World Watching?</i> Carroll & Nicholson, London, 1950</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">For more on Gerald Heard's book: <a href="https://magoniamagazine.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-mystic-and-spy-two-early-british.html">https://magoniamagazine.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-mystic-and-spy-two-early-british.html</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><hr style="text-align: justify;" /><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>From Magonia Monthly Supplement, No. 31, September 2000.</b></div></b></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-17225978070134534692020-10-01T03:35:00.013-07:002024-02-24T05:37:01.961-08:00The Legends of Springheel Jack<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOnJb1vzMJqJ7c0Q8MopWH2pXIGh2Z1GLP55zrKmqYLKhg0pA6NLEHh-QCFfuxRPt8hI8VRHRc1i9e5mZq27iPrJ5BoYxbK_x_aZahIyFUihAl3jgLgTHAn0EgydCUgwe1pQoDOgHF-KNUrRMXEnDWAm-qAzrYVcomgC4G1nObVhVYRdXw8GWIR30wlXA/s1554/SPRINGHEEL%20JACK%20HEADING.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="1554" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOnJb1vzMJqJ7c0Q8MopWH2pXIGh2Z1GLP55zrKmqYLKhg0pA6NLEHh-QCFfuxRPt8hI8VRHRc1i9e5mZq27iPrJ5BoYxbK_x_aZahIyFUihAl3jgLgTHAn0EgydCUgwe1pQoDOgHF-KNUrRMXEnDWAm-qAzrYVcomgC4G1nObVhVYRdXw8GWIR30wlXA/w640-h122/SPRINGHEEL%20JACK%20HEADING.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">đ»</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a name='more'></a></div><div><span style="font-family: Francois One; font-size: large;">JOHN RIMMER</span></div><div><hr /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In January 1838 the Lord Mayor of London received a remarkable letter at his official residence at the Mansion House. It was from somebody signing themselves 'A Resident of Peckham' and reported on strange happenings in what were, at the time, the small villages that lay around the south and west of London. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'Resident' claimed that a group of men from "the higher ranks of life" had taken a wager that they would visit these villages, sneak into gardens and attempt to terrify the inhabitants by appearing in frightening disguises such as ghosts, a bear and the devil. These monsters had already "deprived seven ladies of their senses", two of whom "are not expected to recover. But likely to become a burden on their families". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Lord Mayor was rather taken aback by this letter, but decided that Peckham lay outside his jurisdiction and concluded that as the culprit had not entered the City he "could not take cognisance of its iniquities" </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Peckham was not the first of London's outlying villages to be visited by this frightening apparition. Now a fashionable suburb, in the early nineteenth century Barnes was an isolated village beyond the south-western edges of London, alongside a deserted and marshy 'waste', Barnes Common. In January 1838 the <i>Morning Chronicle</i> reported that "four months since" (i.e. September 1836) a figure in the form of a huge white bull had attacked a number of women on the Common. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shortly afterwards the attacker appeared again, in the nearby village of East Sheen, this time in the form of a bear. The apparition then moved on to the riverside townships at Richmond and Ham. As the scare spread, the ghostly figure was reported across all the small towns and villages that spread out from the south-western edges of London, including Hampton, Hampton Court, Twickenham, Hounslow, and Isleworth. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was at this point that the strange shape-shifting creature began to take on the supernatural human form which gave it its eventual name. According to the <i>Morning Chronicle</i> report the creature was an "unearthly warrior" in a suit of armour, with clawed gauntlets and springs on its shoes. In Isleworth an unfortunate carpenter was attacked by the armoured monster in the appropriately-named Cutthroat Lane (probably actually a corruption of âCut-through Laneâ). He put up a vigorous fight but the newspaper report claims that two other âghostsâ came to the assailant's aid, and tore the unfortunate victim's clothes to shreds. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At this stage the apparition was still being described as a âghostâ but the word was not intended supernaturally, as the general assumption was that the attacks were the work of a group of aristocrats intent on scaring the 'lower orders' out of their wits. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In February 1838, responding to the scare a group of concerned citizens formed a committee to investigate the affair. They were told that the attacks were being organised by "rascals being connected with high families", and that the wager was one of ÂŁ5.000 that they could "destroy the lives" of thirty people, "eight old bachelors, ten old maids, six ladies' maids and as many servant girls as they can", and frighten them to death. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As this story was circulating, Springheel Jack launched the attack which was to define his appearance and methods for most of the rest of the nineteenth century. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Before the development of the London docks and the expansion of the East End, Old Ford was a small village on the banks of the River Lee. On the outskirts of the village, in Bearbinder Lane (now part of Tredegar Road), 18-year-old Jane Alsop answered a knock on the door of the cottage where she lived with her parents and her two sisters. It was nine o'clock in the evening, and very dark in this isolated area. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Jane opened the door she was confronted by a man wearing a dark cloak who claimed he was a policeman and asked Jane to bring a light, as "we have caught Spring-heel Jack right here in the Lane." Jane went back into the house and came back carrying a lighted candle which she gave to the figure. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At that moment the 'policeman' flung open his cloak, and in the words of the report in The Times for 22 February 1838, "applying the lighted candle to his breast, presented a most hideous and frightful appearance, and vomited forth a quantity of blue and white flames from his mouth, and his eyes resembled red balls of fire." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The figure attacked the girl, scratching at her clothes with claw-like fingers. As Jane attempted to flee back into the house the creature followed her, nearly ripping her clothes off and tearing at her hair, but Jane was eventually pulled away from its grasp by her younger sister. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even after they had locked the door against it 'Jack' continued banging and shouting, until the household called for help from an upstairs window. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The next day Jane and her family travelled to Whitechapel to report the attack to officers of the newly-formed Metropolitan Police, who sent two officers to investigate. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They soon came up with other reports of a tall, cloaked figure wandering around the lanes of the area and frightening passers-by. Indeed, some of the people who rushed to the Alsop's house after hearing the family's cries said that they had passed a tall cloaked figure who told them that the police were needed at the Alsop's. At the time they took no particular notice of him, but on reflection concluded that he was in fact the culprit. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A couple of local characters, a bricklayer named Payne and a carpenter named Millbank were questioned about the attack, Millbank protesting that he was too drunk to remember what he was doing at the time. Susan Alsop however maintained that her attacker was not drunk. In the end despite further police investigations and other witnesses coming forward, no-one was charged with the attack, and no further information ever came too light. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the 25th February, while the hue and cry was still going on in Old Ford, another knock on the door alarmed a young servant-boy at a house in Turner Street, off Commercial Road in the East End, when he opened the door to a man who asked for the householder, Mr Ashworth. Before the boy could answer the figure threw off his cloak and, in the words of the <i>Morning Herald</i> "presented a most hideous appearance". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The young lad screamed in terror, which was enough to send the figure rushing off before taking any further action. There did not seem to be any police follow-up to this incident, although the fact that âJack' knew the householder's name would suggest that he might have been a local person aping the Old Ford incident. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In fact there were a number of copycat incidents at the time, which resulted in prosecutions. A man attacked the landlady of a West-End pub with a club, shouting that he was Springheel Jack, but fortunately he missed his target. In Lincoln's Inn Fields a woman was attacked by an assailant who grabbed her and captured her inside the cloak he was wearing, saying âit's no use struggling, I am Springheel Jack". The woman fought him off, but not before he struck her in the mouth. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jack's third East London manifestation came on 28th February. This more resembled the original attack on Jane Alsop than the Commercial Road incident or the copycat assaults, in that there is another report of mysterious fiery breath </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A young lady named Lucy Scales, along with her sister, were making their way home along Green Dragon Lane, a long-vanished passageway off Limehouse's Narrow Street, near the river. They saw a figure ahead of them lurking in an angle of the alley. As the couple approached the cloaked figure, it turned to Lucy and spurted a blue flame into her face. This temporarily blinded her and she dropped to the floor. According to a contemporary newspaper report she fell into violent fits for several hours. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lucy's sister, who was behind her when the attack took place described the assailant as tall and thin, wearing some sort of head-dress which at first she took to be a woman's bonnet. When the figure attacked her sister, as with the Old Ford Jack, he held a light, a 'bulls-eye' lantern, up to his face before blowing a flame into Lucy's face. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lucy and her father reported this to the Magistrate Mr Hardwick at the Lambeth Street Police Station at Mile End. This was same magistrate who had examined in the evidence in Jane Alsop's earlier attack, and he concluded that both attacks were perpetrated by the same person. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although copy-cat attacks continued in the London area, and further afield, most of these were easily attributed to local offenders. Two typical reports came from Kentish Town in north London. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A youth was arrested after jumping out of hiding at women passing by, shouting "Here's Springheel Jack". To add to the effect he wore a mask, which had blue glazed paper emerging from the mouthpiece to try to give the effect of flames. After a night in the cell he was discharged with a caution, and the mask was burned. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A police constable investigating another Springheel Jack in the district laid in wait, and was confronted by a figure running and leaping out of an alleyway towards a group of children who ran off in fear. Apprehending the culprit he discovered him to be a local man "who was considered of weak mind", wearing a bright blue mask. The magistrate who preside over the case seemed to be remarkably forbearing. <i>The Examiner </i>newspaper account records: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Mr Rawlinson to Prisoner,</i> "What have you to say? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Prisoner (with vacant smile)</i> "Why it was only a bit of fun, that's all; I meant no harm" </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Mr Rawlinson:</i> "Well I'm inclined to think so, you're discharged, but don't do it again." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Springheel Jack seemed to take a break from tormenting Londoners, but Mike Dash, a historian of strange phenomena, has tracked his later appearances around the country. Jack first moved up to Yorkshire, where the <i>Leeds Times</i> of 19th May 1838 reports his appearance in the seaside town of Whitby. The elaborate journalistic language of the period sometimes makes it difficult to gauge whether the report is to be taken seriously or not: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Within these last few days this mischievous personage has visited this borough, and disturbed the quiet of many of its peaceable inhabitants in his nocturnal wanderings" </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, his actions seems serious enough. The paper reports that he attacked a woman tearing her clothes from her and attacking her with his claws, leaving her face "much injured and disfigured". As in the earliest London reports, this figure is described as being disguised as a bear. The woman could give no clear description of her attacker as "her terror was so great that she could give but a faint description of his person". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The report again seems to assume a light hearted mode, saying that "Mr Spring-Heels mysteriously disappeared" but there is no description of giant leaps or other preternatural abilities. It is an interesting coincidence that sixty years later Whitby was chosen by Bram Stoker as the place where Count Dracula first set foot in Britain. Was Stoker aware of the Springheel Jack connection when he chose this town to introduce his own phantom terror? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>'Springheel Jack' had by now entered the vocabulary of the popular press, and for a while any random attack, particularly on a female, would be attributed to him, even if it bore no resemblance to the original stories. Incidents in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight in 1845, and Teignmouth, Devon in 1847, were attributed to Jack, even though very human culprits were charged and sentenced in the local courts. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There was still a strong belief that Springheel Jack was the result of the activities of some decadent aristocrat and his cronies, members of a revived 'Hellfire Club'. The prime suspect was the notorious Marquis of Waterford, who was certainly the ringleader of a group which was responsible for vicious attacks on random individuals. He is said to be responsible for the phrase 'painting the town red' as that is quite literally what he and his cronies did at Melton Mowbray after a drunken day at the races. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His character certainly fitted into that of the rogue aristocrat taking on outrageous wagers that occasionally resulted in serious injuries. However Waterford married and seemed to settle down to a quiet country life in Ireland, dying in 1859 as the result of a horse riding accident. But Jack's activities continued well after that date. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT9S9d-Hb8p7gMVweQpFrSoh0qvzrinIjpo5vgPFj-XWTlEN5S3nLcNay_Ojv9mzrbBC-LH_F3efzmdVzfiLL01bRtVsGslo2dhzB6T_KCvEvArBKnpQagq-_1e0xvntTR1q1Zu5_H6hw/s468/JACK.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT9S9d-Hb8p7gMVweQpFrSoh0qvzrinIjpo5vgPFj-XWTlEN5S3nLcNay_Ojv9mzrbBC-LH_F3efzmdVzfiLL01bRtVsGslo2dhzB6T_KCvEvArBKnpQagq-_1e0xvntTR1q1Zu5_H6hw/s320/JACK.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Nearly twenty years after his first appearance in London Jack was haunting the Black Country, to the west of Birmingham. There are reports from 1855 of him visiting Old Hill, midway between Dudley and Halesowen. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reports claim that he was seen jumping across the road from the roof of the Cross Inn to a butcher's shop opposite. Witnesses described him as a "frightening figure" with horns and cloven hooves. Police are alleged to have found hoof-prints on the rooftops. A local superstition soon arose that to see Springheel Jack meant sudden death. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thirty years after his original rampages, Jack re-appeared back in his old leaping-ground of Peckham, South London. Peckham was by then no longer a small village lying outside London, but had been swallowed up into the capital's rapidly expanding suburbs. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On 19th October, 1872, the <i>Camberwell and Peckham Times</i> denounced a "rascally night bird" scaring women in the Honor Oak neighbourhood, and calling for action against the prowler. The challenge was taken up by a "party of Peckham Gentlemen" armed with a "comfortable" cudgel, but their vigilante patrols did not seem to produce any result. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first clear account of Jack's reappearance is reported in the same paper for 26th October, and tells of a servant-girl working at a house in Lordship Lane. After returning from collecting beer for the family supper she was asked to go out on another errand, but complained that a man was lurking in the road near the house. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Her employer, a Mr Smith, reassured her that he would watch from the window, but the moment she went out into the front garden a white figure leapt up from behind a hedge. She screamed and ran back, but at that moment Mr Smith ran out to help her, tripped over the step and fell right onto the girl. Thinking that the apparition had claimed her in her clutches the girls screamed, "went into a fit, in which she remained two hours, and is now seriously ill." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The description of the figure given by Mr Smith is that it was about six foot tall, wearing a dark overcoat which was flung open to reveal a white lining to give a ghostly effect. The figure wore a dark hat with feathers, that concealed its face. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Other local residents confronted a similar spectre, including the daughters of the Head Master of Dulwich College and their governess. A figure dressed in white with its face masked appeared in front of them as they made their way to the College chapel, but it made its escape before they could raise the alarm. Again, the paper reports that the young ladies' health suffered as a result of this confrontation. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By now Peckham seemed to have been in a state of panic, with the local paper giving instructions on how to make a cosh studded with nails. It pointed out that such a 'life preserver' could be "remarkable elegant". Vigilante gangs patrolled the streets, and some youths went out at night dressed in women's clothes, presumably to act as bait for the villain, until the police advised that they went home and changed or "it would be the worse for them". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By November the local paper was running a regular 'Ghosts of the Week' column, recording the latest incidents. Through the whole course of the panic, the apparitions were never referred to locally as anything other than 'ghosts' and usually in the most derogatory terms: "The scrubby mortal designated The Ghost", or "the arrogant pretender". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But soon accounts emerged of Springheel Jack's preternatural nature, although at first they were taken less than seriously, and the paper carefully noted their origins in local public houses, and amongst the builders and navvies working on the rapidly expanding housing developments. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the first such case on the 2nd November, George, an itinerant musician who played in local taverns turned up at the Edinburgh Castle pub in Nunhead Lane, in a state of great distress and covered in mud. The <i>Camberwell and Peckham Times</i> was keen to note that he told his tale "having somewhat recovered himself by two or three pulls of potent liquor". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He had been walking through a brickfield when confronted by a figure "about seven feet high, all white with its face in a blaze". Here at last was something closer to the description given by Jane Alsop and Lucy Scales over thirty years earlier. George ran off in fright but the 'ghost' followed him, the chase only ending when he climbed through a hedge and fell into a ditch - hence his mud covered state. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The following night the 'Ghost' then appeared at the Linden Tavern, by Nunhead Cemetery, where it tapped at the window, provoking the customers, mostly navvies working on construction sites, to give chase. They pursued it alongside the cemetery wall, but it evaded them by jumping over a six-foot fence into the site where a reservoir was being built. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The next day near the same spot, yet another serving-girl collapsed in panic when a tall figure in white suddenly sprung up in front of her. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The area was now full of rumours of the ghost. The sight of a young girl who had fallen off a ladder and was being carried off on a stretcher to hospital started rumours that the creature had been killed. A group of youths dressed one of their number in white clothes and carried him through the streets to jeering crowds, and rumours again circulated that the trickster was an aristocrat involved in a cruel wager to frighten to death the very young and the very old. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The local paper's popular 'Ghosts of the Week' column was filled with stories of encounters with the Ghost, or explanations as to how he created his frightening appearance. Others told of various misunderstandings which led to claims that the ghost had been seen, one involving a scuffle between two men who each imagined the other was trying to steal a pig, its squeals gathering a crowd who thought they were seeing an attack by the ghost. In one street a ghost was burnt in effigy, with fireworks and a street party. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A letter to the paper reported an encounter at Herne Hill, with a figure that leapt over some railings and ran off across the fields at great speed. The write claimed that he wore a black suit and wore spring-heeled or rubber-soled boots "for no man living could leap so lightly and ... fly across the ground in the manner he did last night". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eventually a vagrant called Joseph Munday was arrested and charged with loitering and frightening a young girl by jumping up in front of her in her garden, waving open a black cloak with a white lining and causing her distress. He was bound over on a surety of ÂŁ10 to be of good behaviour for the next six months. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some people doubted that he could have been the cause of all the incidents, because as one person commented, he was "a clodhopper who could not run the length of a street without being captured". Even after his arrest there were some further incidents, but eventually the panic died down, and Springheel Jack left Peckham for a second time. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1877 the reports of Jack's exploits reappeared. He seemed to have moved westward from London, to the Army camps at Aldershot, which were regarded as 'the Home of the British Army'. On the 17 March a report appeared in the camp's military newspaper, <i>Sheldrake's Aldershot and Sandhurst Military Gazette</i>, which reported some 'questionable larks'. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The story was that an unidentified individual had approached a sentry at the camp and refused to identify himself when challenged. He was described as "dodging about the sentry box in a fantastic fashion" and made off "with astonishing swiftness". The sentry fired at him, but apparently missed his target. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The idea of 'Springheel Jack' was by now so well-established in public perception that a writer for the <i>Gazette</i> - 'Cove', who seemed to have a weekly gossip column - immediately described this prankster as Jack: "Springheel Jack has not been heard of, I believe, since the little affair with the sentries" </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The story was picked up by <i>The World</i> newspaper and later reprinted in the <i>Illustrated Police News,</i> a paper which made even today's sensationalist tabloids look tame when reporting crime stories. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The <i>Police News</i> immediately latched onto the Springheel Jack angle, suggesting that the figure could jump ten or twenty yards at a time and that there were two pranksters who performed their tricks aided by powerful springs in the heels of their boots. The fact that the sentryâs bullets did not stop him, rather than demonstrating the sentry's poor aim, was evidence that he was impervious to bullets. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>The Aldershot incidents continued, with the <i>Illustrated Police News</i> describing the phantom's method: "to approach unobserved some post, then climb the sentry box and pass his hand (which is arranged to feel as cold and clammy as a corpse) over the face of the sentinel." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rumours circulated around the camps that members of one or another regiment were perpetrating the pranks at the expense of other regiments, particularly as there was a pause in his activities when sentries at the camp were issued with live instead of blank ammunition, but started again when the use of blanks was resumed. But after a few alleged incidents later in the year, Jack's visit to Aldershot appears to have been brief and unspectacular. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But he wasn't finished, and after South London and Berkshire, his next appearance was to the east. This time the <i>Illustrated Police News</i> is our only source. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaWBbPG55QRwadc8FtVEnXW9D4PZM-Kz2hK10RTJRMOe_S11F123LPGB02ei9AYiWqZt027rBCGTTe7N3DuM4XPK-u45zAs06lENZiRNyKuaruHIGpocF1s_ec1KN3ghVWIjl0gqAwrwk/s448/lincoln.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="448" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaWBbPG55QRwadc8FtVEnXW9D4PZM-Kz2hK10RTJRMOe_S11F123LPGB02ei9AYiWqZt027rBCGTTe7N3DuM4XPK-u45zAs06lENZiRNyKuaruHIGpocF1s_ec1KN3ghVWIjl0gqAwrwk/w640-h430/lincoln.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The cover of the 3rd November 1872 edition carries a startling engraving of a figure clad in some sort of animal skin with a long tail, leaping onto the Newport Arch, a fragment of the Lincoln's old Roman wall. A gun-wielding figure leans out of a window in the roof of the adjoining building firing a pistol at him, and a crowd of people on the street below throw stick and stones at the apparition. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But according to the <i>Illustrated Police News</i>, who claimed that Jack had been disporting himself in the area for several days, the bullets and guns had little effect and Jack was able to leap 15 to 20 feet onto rooftops and make his getaway. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The authenticity of this story is doubtful, as diligent search by researchers has failed to find any reports in the local Lincolnshire papers for the period. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By the mid-nineteenth century Springheel Jack had become what we would now call a 'meme' - "an idea, behaviour, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture", a free-flowing concept which could be used culturally in a variety of contexts. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jack began to find himself represented in popular fiction, the so-called 'Penny Dreadfuls' forerunners of today's comic books. These were luridly illustrated weekly publications, filled with heroic accounts of Imperial adventures and sensational crime stories. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In some stories Jack was portrayed as a vengeful crime fighter rescuing damsels in distress, but other stories showed him in his traditional form as a fire-breathing monster, or a decadent aristocrat. He is always depicted in dramatic costume, with a helmet and cape, in many ways the precursor of modem superheroes such as Batman. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He also appeared as a character in popular and very bloodthirsty theatrical productions along with figures like Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber. Sometimes the two characters seemed to merge into a generic urban folk-demon. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His next major appearance was in North West England at the end of 1887 and the first months of 1888. The <i>Cheshire Observer</i> of the 29th October 1887 reported that "he is in the Wirral, and making a tour of the peninsula". Like the original London attacker, the story circulated that he was trying to satisfy "a wager of ÂŁ1000 that he could visit every village in the Wirral in character as Jack.â </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although it was not claimed that his aim was specifically to terrorise a certain number of people, that seems to have been how it transpired. The <i>Observer </i>reported: "The alarm which has been created among children and weak-minded persons in the district is quite unprecedented, and many persons who have seen, or fancied they have seen, the ghost are suffering from the effects of the shock, one person at least to the writer's knowledge being confined to her bed." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All the usual characteristics that had come to be associated with Jack were present on the Wirral phantom: "his favourite form of dress is that of a tall gaunt female or a military officer with a long cloak". He supposedly covered his face with a phosphorescent substance to look like a ball of fire, and that he wore an outfit made of rubber smeared with grease so that it was impossible to catch hold of him. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Again, the local newspapers of the period seemed determined to mix fantasy and wild rumour into their reports. Surely no-one was expected to believe that "he vaults over high houses with the greatest of ease, and on Thursday last week he broke the high leaping record by springing to the clock of the [Birkenhead] Town Hall and altering the fingers". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The story spread to the Manchester papers, which reproduced the <i>Cheshire Observer</i>'s stories, adding that police in Wrexham had arrested a young man who had been posing as Springheel Jack in a local cemetery, hiding lighted candles in the shrubbery to enhance the ghostly effect. He was fined 16 shillings, or could serve 14 days imprisonment. It is not recorded what option he took. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jack was also springing around across the Mersey in Liverpool, but for an account of his actions we have to rely on the memories of an elderly gentleman who recalled an incident from 1888 to Richard Whittington-Egan, author of a number of books on Liverpool history, people and curiosities, in the nineteen-fifties. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He told Whittington-Egan that he recalled an incident when he was attending a boysâ club at St Francis Xavier's school in Haig Street, Everton, when there was a commotion in the street outside. A boy rushed in to say that Springheel Jack had been seen in nearby Shaw Street and William Henry Street. When the boys rushed out they found a crowd of people in the street searching for the figure, which they said was hiding in the shadow of a church steeple. The unnamed boy did not see anything himself. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This may have been a confused memory, and there is no contemporary report in the local press. We will see that William Henry Street was later the site of what has generally been considered Jack's last appearance, and it is possible the man may have been confusing memories of this. However, there is some evidence that gives greater credence to this story. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Folklorist and local historian Peter Rogerson has discovered that in January 1888 Jack put in another appearance in South Lancashire, in Wigan. A report in the <i>Lichfield Mercury</i> â local papers would often reproduce curious stories from other parts of the country â begins by referring to "the notorious Spring-heel Jack who created so great a sensation some few months ago in Liverpool, has been alarming the inhabitants of Wigan". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Two coalminers in the Standish Lower Grounds area were pursued by a shrouded figure, and later a young lady was scared by the apparition to the effect that, as seemed to be typical of such encounters, "she has been unwell since". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here the identification of "Springheel Jack" seems to be the newspaper's convenient label rather than a description of the apparition's appearance or actions, as at no point does the report give any description of superhuman leaps or fiery breath. It concludes with the suggestion that Wigan's Springheel Jack is "none other than an ardent lover who has been prohibited from visiting his loved one (the young lady who was rendered 'unwell'?) and that he has determined to avenge the ungracious treatment" . </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Most accounts of Springheel Jack conclude with his second appearance in Liverpool, in 1904. The definitive popular version of the legend is given in Whittington-Egan in his book <i>Liverpool Colonnade,</i> first published in 1955. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He begins his story: "It is just over half a century since Spring-Heeled Jack, the Leaping Terror, set the good people of Everton trembling in their houses ... echoes of that old fear linger in the memories of elderly folk ... who have lived most of their lives in that part of Liverpool, and remember being told by their mothers, 'Spring-Heeled Jack will get you if you don't behave yourself'."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Whittington-Egan goes on to give a history of Jack's appearances, retelling many of the exploits described above in highly colourful terms and in some cases with wildly inaccurate details, beginning with his version of the Liverpool events: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It was on a late September's day in the years 1904 that the legendary figure of fear dropped in on the startled Evertonians, and hundreds of people watched in fascinated horror while the fantastic creature hopped up and down the length of William Henry Street. The extraordinary spectacle continued for some ten or twelve minutes". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He described Jack as making "gigantic bounds", some of over 25 feet, and across the streets from rooftop to rooftop, until finally after leaping across the houses to Salisbury Street he is never seen again. In Liverpool, at least. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately for this account researchers have been unable to find any report of Springheel Jack's exploits in the Liverpool newspapers of the period. The only available contemporary printed account from the comes from the notoriously sensationalist <i>News of the World</i>, published in London. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However there was something else going on in Everton at the time. A day before the <i>News of the World </i>story was published, the <i>London Star</i> reported on a house in the district being attacked by what we would now call a poltergeist: "Pieces of brick, old bottles, and other missile came hurtling down the chimneys of the haunted house ... the annoyance was so persistent and the terror among the neighbours so great that the residents of the house left hurriedly and the place was closed". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It seems possible that over the years this episode became conflated with the earlier Springheel Jack stories from 1888 in the same area of the city. However, during the 1960s the TV personality Fyfe Robertson presented a report for the early-evening BBC TV show 'Tonight' in which he interviewed witnesses to an early twentieth-century century Springheel Jack case, presumably the 1904 Liverpool incident. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But although most classic accounts of Springheel Jack end at this point, there have been many incidents since, both in Britain and around the world, which have kept his name alive. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The industrial town of Warrington lies just twenty miles east of Liverpool, and the memory of the incidents in that city may have led to local people identifying a mysterious intruder into their own community as Springheel Jack. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In August 1927 a local paper, <i>The Warrington Examiner,</i> boldly headlined a story "A Ghost in Galoshes: Hue and Cry in Haydock Street". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In the early hours of Sunday morning the whole neighbourhood was thrown into excitement by the news that a 'ghost' had been seen. It was stated that between the hours of one and two o'clock a 'tall figure dressed all in white' was seen passing along the streets adjoining Haydock Street and completely disappearing from time to time." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As by now seemed to be the pattern for Jack's appearances, "two women who witnessed the apparition were so overcome that they fainted and had to be revived by the crowd which soon assembled." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By Sunday night the whole area was in uproar, and hundreds of people had arrived from across the town, armed with spades, carving knives, bottles, brooms, and as seems traditional for such mobs, pitchforks! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The crowd gradually grew sceptical of the story, until at 11 oâclock a figure suddenly appeared and the mob set off in pursuit. The apparition ducked down a narrow passageway until confronted by a high wall which it leapt over with agility. One witness described it as being like "the famous Springheel Jack", but there was no suggestion that the figure wore spring-loaded boots, as another witness claimed that the 'pit-pat' noise it made suggested the figure was wearing galoshes. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The incident seems to have spread panic around the neighbourhood with many women and children fearing to go out alone into the streets, and for over a week groups of young vigilantes patrolled the area armed with stick and canes, but their searches did not uncover the culprit. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Stories of a mysterious ghost and frightening faces appearing the windows of houses recurred a few weeks later, and a crowd armed with pokers and household implements chased a figure which eluded them again by jumping over railings onto a railway embankment. The crowd in hot pursuit pulled down the railing to follow it, but it escaped by vaulting a ten-foot high corrugated iron fence â at least according to a rather sensationalised report in the <i>Warrington Examiner. </i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The more conservative <i>Warrington Guardian</i> dismissed the stories as "silly pranks", and quoted the local police superintendents as dismissing the whole scare as "more than anything else, that it is hysterical women who have 'got the wind up' and imagined most of the things which are reported." And with that it seemed Springheel Jack left Warrington. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is clear, reading these historical accounts that there was not one 'Springheel Jack', and that there are as many variants of the creature as there are people who have seen him, claim to have seen him, thought they had seen him, or even wanted to have seen him. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The fire-breathing monster, the dissolute aristocrat, the prankster, the deranged hoaxer, the pantomime villain and the ghost have all had their part to play in the growth of the legend of Springheel Jack. But by the middle of the twentieth century he began to take on a new identityâan alien. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Throughout the nineteen-forties and fifties much of the world became entranced by reports of mysterious flying objects, and the stories of people who claimed to have met the occupants of these alleged craft. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'Appointment with Fear' was a popular British radio series which ran from 1941 to 1953. It's presenter, billed as 'The Man in Black', was the character actor Valentine Dyall, whose rich, deep voice was ideal for dramatising stories of mystery and horror. He was later the voice of 'Deep Thought, the computer in the TV version of 'Hitchhikersâ Guide to the Galaxy.'</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1954 he wrote an article for <i>Everybody's</i>, a popular picture magazine, in which he suggested that Springheel Jack could be a creature from another planet. He wrote: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Today we are still without a likely answer to the question: whoâor whatâwas the fabulous, ubiquitous creature that terrorised a huge section of the British public for nearly sixty years? One thing is certainâhe was no ordinary mortal. It is significant that a high proportion of those who saw him were convinced that he was not of this world, but either a spirit or a visitor from some distant planet." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The article was accompanied by a very imaginative artist's rendition of two sentries at Aldershot, confronted by a bizarre glowing figure floating above the ground, wearing a helmet looking like some kind of strange sea creature. The caption describes it as "wearing a gleaming helmet of fantastic design, breathing blue flame". There was, of course, no mention of helmet or flame in the original Aldershot reports. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a subsequent issue of the magazine, a correspondent suggested that Jack was indeed a visitor from another planet, and this explained his prodigious leaps. Jack's home planet was much larger than earth, the writer speculated, and with much stronger gravity. A visitor from such a planet would have no difficulty leaping great heights in earth's weaker gravitational pull, he claimed. The creature might also have a much longer lifespan than earthlings, allowing it to continue its spectacular activities for a hundred years or more. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This line was taken to its logical conclusion in an article published in the magazine <i>Flying Saucer Review</i> in May, 1961. Although having a small circulation, this magazine was influential amongst researchers into strange phenomena. The writer, J. Vyner, claimed that Springheel Jack was indeed an alien. He presented a dramatised and often inaccurate account of Jack's early 1838 appearances, claiming that the flashes of light and flames that his victims reported were caused by the actions of a 'ray-gun', his giant leaps aided by "the possession of a device for neutralising gravity". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Vyner's thesis seemed to be that Jack was a spaceman who had been accidentally deposited into 1830's London, and his movement around the southern villages and suburbs was in search of a 'safe house' where he could await his rescuers. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Vyner's account not only exaggerated and distorted the original reports, but he also introduced details of his own. According to Vyner, Jack wore a "tall metallic helmet", and he had ears that were "cropped or pointed like that of an animal", descriptions which appear in none of the original accounts. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The <i>Flying Saucer Review</i> article fitted neatly into a theme that was growing amongst 'ufologists', as people who investigate UFO reports call themselves, that many strange historical phenomena could be explained as visitations from extraterrestrial creatures, that were misunderstood by earlier generations. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One such was the so-called 'Mad Gasser of Mattoon'. This was a spectral figure which in 1944 invaded houses in the small Illinois town of Mattoon. People began reporting being confronted by a figure which sprayed some kind of noxious substance into their homes. Although over two dozen people claimed to have been attacked and anaesthetised by the gasser, no conclusive evidence was found of its activities. Explanations ranged from mass hysteria or the work of a mentally disturbed individual, to a supernatural entity or a visitor from space. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Other scares featuring Springheel Jack-type entities have been reported from communities world-wide. Between 1938 and 1944 the New England resort of Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod was haunted by 'the Black Flash', a creature, 8 feet tall, with eyes "like balls of flame" which could vault over high walls after leaping out at terrified citizens.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II there were rumours of a figure known as the 'Spring Man' which leapt out to terrify pedestrians in the narrow alleyways of the Old Town. Many Czechs regarded him as a symbol of defiance to the curfews imposed by the occupying forces. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The history of Springheel Jack is confused by constant repetition of what is described as 'fakelore'. Stories are transferred from writer to writer, without checking sources and with details being added to make them more dramatic or to make the story fit the storyteller's own views and theories. Alternately, details which tend to de-mystify the story are left out. The fact that many of the nineteenth-century Jacks were local people who were caught and prosecuted is often left out of later accounts. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are also the problems of memory, when perfectly sincere individuals confuse major details of an incident. This may be what happened with the reports of Jack in Liverpool in 1904. Many years later, elderly 'eyewitnesses' telling their stories to Richard Whittington-Egan and Fyfe Robertson may be unconsciously mixing up elements of the 1888 story which perhaps they heard of from their parents, with the 'poltergeist' incidents of bricks being thrown down chimney-pots - both seemingly involving sinister characters surreptitiously moving about the rooftops of the local streets. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But some other stories were just completely made up. The first full length book on Springheel Jack was by Peter Haining, a prolific writer and compiler of books on a wide range of supernatural phenomena. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His book, <i>The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring-heeled Jac</i>k radically dramatises the accounts of his anti-hero's activities, and in some cases he seems to have made them up entirely. He is keen to identify the Marquis of Waterford as responsible for the early London incidents, at least. In his account of Jack's visit to the young servant boy in Turner Street he introduces the detail, completely absent in any contemporary record, that the comer of the assailant's cloak bore the elaborately embroidered letter 'W'. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1AX1Wqlp0iF98IPm-MNjOyx_XcXe89bK_slJ2InxzXMzO4E54KcRTXvL9jtlz8e7o_X3URpAgWeVXeNVYcv-8zkEVOoehQlwjia-Pyzzc6h2N4o_z-yvDFrd1s4kGtzKl7yqWGNlqx0/s512/jacobsisland.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="495" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1AX1Wqlp0iF98IPm-MNjOyx_XcXe89bK_slJ2InxzXMzO4E54KcRTXvL9jtlz8e7o_X3URpAgWeVXeNVYcv-8zkEVOoehQlwjia-Pyzzc6h2N4o_z-yvDFrd1s4kGtzKl7yqWGNlqx0/w386-h400/jacobsisland.jpg" width="386" /></a></div>This is not the only piece of elaborate embroidery in Haining's accounts, however. He gives a long and dramatic description of the attack and murder of a prostitute, Maria Davis, in the notorious Jacob's Island slum, for which there is also no contemporary record. He even reproduces a contemporary engraving showing men in a boat on one of the foul waterways that threaded through the Island, claiming it depicts the recovery of Maria's body, but researcher Mike Dash subsequently traced the original and discovered it had no connection to the alleged case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Newspaper reporters in the nineteenth century were also notorious for adding speculative detail and personal comment to their reports, and were free and easy in their descriptions. Although many of the early reports described Jack as a 'ghost' this did not seem to imply any supernatural qualities, but simply that he was an elusive figure who could not be apprehended. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The persistent reports of servant girls and old maids falling into a fit for days on end clearly implied that the reporters thought this was a sensation only likely to affect the uneducated or the infirm. And when impostors posing as Springheel Jack began to appear before the magistrates, the newspapers would be careful to point out their mental and physical frailties, their unprepossessing appearance and their tendency to drunkenness. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For most of the nineteenth century Jack became a rumour, a hobgoblin, a figure that mothers would use to threaten misbehaving children. As the memories of his original antics faded, the character built up by the media â newspapers such as the <i>Illustrated Police News</i>, penny-dreadfuls, sensational theatrical shows â took over from accounts of any actual expedience.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So was it all just rumour and speculation from the popular press? The clearest and most detailed accounts we have, shorn of later elaboration, come from the newspaper descriptions of the original East London incidents, and reporting on the details of the magistrate's inquiries, and the correspondence from the concerned residents of the villages south of London in 1837 and 1838. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The idea that a group of âyoung bloods' might be touring those still isolated communities and amusing themselves by scaring the wits out of what they no doubt saw as 'the lower orders' is by no means improbable â we can imagine a supernaturally-inclined Bullingdon Club â and it is certainly quite possible that the Marquis of Waterford may have been involved in at least some of these events. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We can be certain that somebody â or some thing â did actually attack Jane Alsop at Old Ford, and Lucy Scales in Limehouse. The verbatim accounts of the magistrate's examination make this clear. The attack on the boy in Turner street is less well documented, but seems to fit the pattern of the other two incidents and there seems no reason to doubt it. These could all be the activities of some malign individual with their own weird motives. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first use of the phrase 'Springheel Jack' seems to have been by the figure who attacked Jane Alsop: "For God's sake bring me a light for we have caught Spring-heeled Jack here in the lane!" This might imply that even that early on in the story the phrase was in common use, and Jane would be expected to understand what her visitor meant. But once this phrase entered the language it provided a hook for any kind of mysterious, threatening or just mischievous incident. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Who was he? A decadent aristocrat, targeting his lust at young, vulnerable girls in the lonely suburbs; a deranged creature of the night, his clawed fingers slashing at prostitutes in the fog-filled alleyways of the city, or a phantom, unconstrained by fences, walls, defying not just the law of the police, but the law of gravity? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Was he something created by the very fact that he had been given a name, a name that instantly touched something within ourselves? A name that meant that the fears and frights that lurk in the dark places of our cities and our minds could be contained in the figure of one leaping monster. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Springheel Jack belongs to a category of urban ghosts that seem to hover uncertainly on the boundaries of reality, rumour, the supernatural and fiction. As a Victorian archetype he shares characteristics with both Count Dracula and Jack the Ripper. Many later accounts of Jack's exploits seem to elide both Jacks, Ripper and Springheel, and the Vampire. The image of a billowing back cloak down a dark alleyway, the face glowing with phosphorous or wild blood-filled eyes, the blade slicing through the darkness and the final disappearance into the shadows of the feeble gas-lamps, becomes the shadow itself. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><span><!--more--></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-37898750316813260012019-11-02T11:16:00.010-07:002024-02-24T05:37:33.273-08:00Beyond the UFO Horizon. The Hill Case and Beyond<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCJLeTWuqPhrFjMsHRMHAuqWJNQkNr1dtMdNULp8s69xU6nLtTQYHK8b0bR6_Y-7wsJNadA60bUlBcpzcjbBGdyNHZIZNpO04I5joUe4pePTwRaKBV846ON60dioscqtFBBeomKZLGBvofdkP3ggJI5Y0EunmjEUzbMOkWV77hOmPxtvXZsItwTWBa8b8/s1220/HILLS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="1220" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCJLeTWuqPhrFjMsHRMHAuqWJNQkNr1dtMdNULp8s69xU6nLtTQYHK8b0bR6_Y-7wsJNadA60bUlBcpzcjbBGdyNHZIZNpO04I5joUe4pePTwRaKBV846ON60dioscqtFBBeomKZLGBvofdkP3ggJI5Y0EunmjEUzbMOkWV77hOmPxtvXZsItwTWBa8b8/w640-h126/HILLS.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On a dark September night Barney and Betty Hill saw something in
the sky; and what they saw changed their lives forever. If it was
what they came to believe it was, that is understandable, for they
had an experience which few if any mortals have been privileged to
have: an encounter with beings from another part of the universe. But
even if no such encounter took place, the fact remains that their
lives were changed, and that fact is central to any understanding of
their experience.</div>
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It is nearly forty years since Dr Simon and the Hills mutually
agreed to terminate their hypnosis sessions. During that period, the
crucial question, the only one that really matters - did the
encounter take place as ostensibly recalled? - has been left
dangling, unanswered. With so much hanging on the answer to that
question, it is astonishing that greater efforts have not been made
to answer it.</div>
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It is particularly astonishing that there has been no in-depth
reappraisal of the case. Fuller, who authored the only full-length
account of the matter, was a journalist: though we have no reason to
question his integrity, and though his book is a creditable piece of
reporting and so far as I am aware contains no major errors, it would
be reassuring to have a second opinion in so serious a matter.
Naturally the Hillsâ story is narrated, and to a degree commented
on, in such publications as Clarkâs UFO Encyclopedia: but we lack a
counter-investigation of the story, filling the gaps that Fuller
skipped over, perhaps because he did not even notice them, and to
provide answers to the questions he left hanging, perhaps because he
was in no position to answer them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps our best starting-point is this comment from his book: "Short of acceptance of the whole experience as reality, which
contradictory evidence prevented the doctor from doing, the best
alternative lay in the dream hypothesis." (Fuller 1966: 274)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That hypothesis, though it has never been formally set out, is to
the effect that Bettyâs dreams were a fantasy: a fantasy which she
communicated to Barney as the result of recounting her dreams to him,
and which both would subsequently recall in the course of their
hypnosis sessions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For those who cannot bring themselves to accept the hypnotically
recalled scenario as fact, the dream hypothesis remains the option of
choice. However, this alternative explanation has its own
shortcomings: not least, that the part played by fantasy in human
behaviour, though it has been extensively explored, has yet to be
precisely formulated. It is common acceptance that we are all
influenced by myths, archetypes and stereotypes derived on the one
hand from our cultural environment, on the other from our personal
experience. But the processes are yet uncharted whereby the paths we
tread through this labyrinth can, when the circumstances are
appropriate, lead us to all kinds of anomalous experience ranging
from simple misperception - an advertising blimp becomes an alien
spacecraft - to total fabrication - the figure of an Old Hag enters
our bedroom and seats herself upon our body.</div></div>
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The first step towards evaluating the explanatory power of the
dream hypothesis for the Hillsâ encounter is, therefore, to set it
in the wider context of anomalous experience. It needs to be
considered in the light of other experiences where it seems possible
that fantasy plays a crucial part.</div>
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This will not, of course, enable us to make an absolute yes-or-no
judgment on the Hillsâ encounter. But it will enable us to gauge
the probability that this is what set the process in motion. We shall
then need to consider how such fantasy may be communicated from one
person to another, and then, how it can re-emerge as ostensibly true
memory.</div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-size: large;"><b>Bettyâs nightmares</b></span></div>
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Some ten days after their encounter - approximately 29 September
to 3 October 1961 - Betty Hill experienced a series of remarkably
detailed dreams which, when the disparate elements are brought
together, rearranged and ordered, form a sequential narrative. This
narrative offers a complete and coherent story in which the initial
sighting, which the couple consciously recalled, leads seamlessly
into related events of which they have no conscious memory whatever.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What makes the Hillsâ experience so remarkable - unique, it may
be - is the fact that more than three years later, under hypnosis,
not only would Betty recall events which match her dreams in detail,
but Barney would echo her account. Understandably this would lead
many to the conclusion that both the dreams and the hypnotic recall
were literally narrating events that had actually taken place.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Could this be so? The interpretation of dreams had a long history
before Freud used it as the title for his landmark book. Dreams
requiring de-coding are notable incidents in the Judeo-Christian
Bible: the Roman statesman Cicero wrote a book about divination, and
dream books are as popular today as they were with Victorian
housemaids. But invariably we find it taken for granted that dreams
are not to be taken at face value. They must be interpreted: you must
read your Freud - or your gipsy astrologer - to learn what those
extraordinary happenings really signify.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
None the less Fuller asserts "It is not uncommon for dreams
resulting from an experience of shock to be literal; i.e. a complete
re-enactment, so to speak, of an event that actually took place".
(Fuller 1966: 333) He provides no authority for this statement, which
I suspect is open to question: I have found no confirmation of it in
the literature. The general opinion, as expressed by John Antrobus of
the City College of New York, is that "dreaming refers to a
mixture of thought and emotional properties that are rare in normal
waking, but common in sleep". (Antrobus 1993: 98)</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Though I am not aware of any case in the literature of dreams,
inquiry among my acquaintance elicited a case which at first seems to
confirm Fullerâs assertion. A car passenger was involved in an
accident in which a pedestrian was killed. Traumatised by the event,
she had repeated dreams of it, night after night. She said the dream
exactly matched the event.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
However, there is a significant difference between this and
the Hill case: this lady had consciously experienced her traumatising
event, and retained conscious memories of it. The Hills, on the other
hand, even if they lived their encounter on a conscious level - it is
difficult if not impossible to learn from Fullerâs account what
state of mind the couple were in while participating in their
adventure - they certainly had no conscious memories of it.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So even if we give Fuller the benefit of the doubt and accept
as possible that Betty might be one of the exceptional people whose
dreams are indeed a re-living of actual experience - or, at any rate,
that on this occasion they were so - we must, because this is so
exceptional an occurrence, consider the alternative as no less
possible: that her dreams were - as most dreams are - a fantasy,
making more or less use of veridical events, combined with material
obtained, consciously or unconsciously, from every conceivable source
to which she had ever been exposed, whether derived from her personal
experience, from her cultural milieu or from her imagination.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-size: large;"><b>The only scenario</b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There is one aspect of Bettyâs dreams which is easily
overlooked: veridical or not, the dreams made a highly significant
difference to the coupleâs situation. Before the dreams, their
experience comprised a UFO sighting followed by a period for which
they are amnesic. Afterthe dreams, the Hills are provided with a
possible account of what happened during that amnesic period.
Moreover, it is an account which is remarkably detailed, remarkably
coherent. We do not know whether Barney played any part in helping
Betty organise the scattered incidents of her dream-content into a
smooth-running narrative, but in the light of his dismissal of the
dreams, it seems likely that it was Betty alone who arranged the
disordered tableaux into a rational sequence. As set down by Betty,
it is a complete and generally plausible story. Furthermore, it is a
story that is rooted in known fact - or, at any rate, in the
incidents related to the initial sighting and Barneyâs panic,
details which the Hills regard as fact; so they can be forgiven for
speculating whether the dream-narrative, containing both the initial
sighting and the subsequent abduction, might be all fact.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Betty does not mention her dreams to their first interviewer
Walter Webb on 21 October 1961, and this is perhaps understandable in
view of the fact that at this stage, though the Hills recognise a
degree of amnesia in the course of their journey, they have not yet
been confronted with the challenge of the two-plus hours of missing
time. Though Betty found the dreams deeply disturbing, it is possible
that she at this stage regards them simply as fantasy, without it
even crossing her mind that they might bear some relation to real
experience. Even if she does initially have any such thoughts, she
might seek to put them out of her mind when Barney dismisses her
dreams as nonsense.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">The "missing time" mystery emerges a month later, in the
course of the meeting with Hohmann, Jackson and MacDonald on 25
November 1961. At once the amnesia is perceived to be greatly more
significant. Betty says "This was the first time I began to
wonder if they were more than just dreams. Then I really got upset
over my dreams." It is at this point that hypnosis is suggested
to aid recall, and both Hills favour the suggestion. Barney hopes
that hypnosis "might clear up Betty and her nonsense about her
dreams". (Fuller 1966: 47-48) In fact, however, the hypnosis
proposal is not taken up at this point; on 25 March 1962 they decide
against it, and the possibility will not be raised again until a year
and a half later.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
None the less, it remains a fact that, irrespective of Bettyâs
uncertainty about her dreams, and whether or not Barney regards them
as "nonsense", they provide the couple with a possible
scenario for what is otherwise a gap in their lives. Even if they do
not accept it as a true account, it is the only account they have. It
is inconceivable, therefore, that it is not in the back of their
minds - to say the least - throughout the year and a half which
elapses before hypnosis is undertaken, a period in which no
alternative explanation is ever seriously considered because there is
no other account to consider.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Even if, in the light of Barneyâs
dismissive attitude, neither of them ever actually speaks of the
dreams to the other, both of them must retain an awareness of the
dream-story, if only as a terrifying scenario they would prefer to
discard if only a better one were available.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-size: large;"><b>Fact or fantasy?</b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The question, whether those dreams were a factual replay of
real events or a fantasy in which fact and fiction are inextricably
jumbled, is therefore a crucial one: but in the absence of any
independent evidence or corroborative testimony it is a question
which it is well nigh impossible to resolve. All we have by way of
confirmation are a pair of subjective accounts, not consciously
recalled but elicited under hypnosis. In support of their being true
memories, there is the fact that both witnesses tell substantially
the same story: against it, there is the fantastic nature of that
story and the lack of any external corroboration.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
However, these very facts place the Hillsâ experience in the
same state of existential instability as a wide variety of other
claimed anomalous experiences which, because they lie beyond the UFO
horizon, are rarely perceived as relevant to UFO issues. Thousands of
individuals have laid claims to have met the Virgin Mary, mother of
the Christiansâ Jesus: thousands more have claimed to be, or been
diagnosed as being, possessed by evil spirits. Millions believe they
communicate with spirits of the dead, and ghost stories are as widely
reported today as they were two thousand years ago. Many of those who
were burned as witches in the 15th through the 17th century believed
they flew through the air to participate in sabbats: similar journeys
are claimed by shamans in primitive cultures who travel to
otherworldly destinations to consult with tribal deities.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
By and large, these experiences are not today supposed to be
literal accounts of physical events: alternative scenarios have been
proposed which are generally preferred by behavioural scientists. At
the same time, they are accepted as literal fact by those who
perceive them as being countenanced by a particular belief-system.
Some years ago I attended a conference in Basel where a speaker told
us about a case of diabolical possession in which he had been
involved: to my astonishment, I suddenly realised that the speaker,
though a university professor, believed implicitly in the literal
reality of a possessing demon. Those who communicate with the dead
round the séance table are not always the credulous victims of
exploiting charlatans: many of them are intelligent, educated people
who believe they have sound and rational grounds for believing that
they are truly doing what they think they are doing.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So an examination of other marginal experiences by no means
implies that we are seeking to place the Hillsâ experience in a
category occupied exclusively by fantasy: we must be prepared to
accept that any of these claims may tip either way, this way into
fact or that way into fiction. But at least, in the absence of either
confirmation or rebuttal of the Hillsâ abduction scenario, a look
at some of these other limbo cases may enable us to take a broader
approach to their particular experience.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Case 1: Glenda and the spacewoman</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In 1976 a 17-year old girl from Dagenham, near London,
England, told investigators of a series of strange experiences
culminating in a cigar-shaped UFO which followed her along a city
street. She revealed that five years earlier she had come home from
school one afternoon, gone upstairs to her room, only to be joined by
a spacewoman who walked in through the closed door, sat beside her on
her bed and talked with her for an hour or so. Ever since then, the
spacewoman had been a sort of companion, counsellor and friend -
generally unseen, but always felt.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Glenda had no doubt of her reality: I have the drawing she
made of her visitor. Did Glendaâs spacewoman exist? Probably not in
the literal, physical sense. Yet, paradoxically, in another sense she
did exist: for beyond question she played a significant role in
Glendaâs adolescent life, over a period of some five years. (Evans
1984: 15 et seq) That is to say, the fact of an entityâs
non-existence must not be allowed to stand in the way of its ability
to exert a very real influence on the individual who supposes
her/himself to have encountered it.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At the time, I was asked to provide an explanation for
Glendaâs experiences, and I failed, utterly. I did not believe that
a spacewoman had visited Glenda, but neither could I say what had
happened to her to make her think she had been visited. Then a year
later I met a French girl who claimed to have met the Virgin Mary,
and this not only provided additional incentive to find an
explanation, but also suggested which way to look for one.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Case
2: Blandine and the Virgin Mary</b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In 1981, Blandine Piegeay was a 14-year old Catholic French
schoolgirl. One day, walking to school, she met an angel who told her
she would shortly receive a visit from Mary, the mother of Jesus, who
died some 19 centuries ago: and two days later she did indeed
experience the first of some fifty encounters. Every Saturday morning
- for the Queen of Heaven agreed with Blandine that a weekend day
would be more suitable than a study-disruptive schoolday - Mary would
descend from Heaven and visit with Blandine in the family kitchen. No
one else saw her, though her father claimed once to have heard her.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Her parish priest was sceptical, but thousands of pilgrims
beat a path to her door: she was featured on television, a nine daysâ
wonder. Today she is married, with a child, her adventure all but
forgotten. But Blandine insists: "I know my apparitions were
true. Why would I have invented them?" (Evans 1987: 9)</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That question is the key to understanding her experience.
Instead of asking: Why would the Virgin Mary come down from Heaven to
meet with Blandine and tell her she eats too many bonbons? we should
ask, Why would Blandine claim such an experience?</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The conclusion
must be that Blandine had a psychological need for such an encounter.
She needed someone - and not just anyone, an authority figure whose
word she could accept - to tell her she was important, she mattered.
If not to her fellow-pupils or her teachers, then to the Queen of
Heaven. Crudely put, the Virgin Mary came in answer to Blandineâs
identity crisis.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Looking back to Glendaâs spacewoman, hindsight suggests that
her manifestation took place for much the same reason. The 12-year
old English girl, like the 14-year old French girl, needed an
authority-figure to whom she could look for guidance, counsel,
reassurance. Not for her, though, the Virgin Mary of Catholic
Blandine: instead, a stereotype from her own cultural milieu, an
extraterrestrial entity.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Each such encounter is both stereotyped and custom-made. The
content is personal - each individual has his or her own agenda: but
the format is largely cultural. In the history of Marian apparitions,
the pattern has become almost as ritualised as a Japanese stage
performance, with stock episodes - the apparition of the
authority-figure in some isolated place, the conventionalised
appearance, the formularised message, the healings limited to a
certain range of ailments, the manifestation of a sacred spring. In
similar fashion, stories of abduction by aliens have become stylised
and run to a pattern with a greater or lesser degree of conformity.
(Bullard 1987: Brookesmith 1998)</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This conformity has been seen as evidence both for and against
the authenticity of the claimed experience. On the one hand, the fact
that such narratives possess so many similarities, including very
specific details with which an âinnocentâ experiencer could not
reasonably be expected to be acquainted, has been taken as supportive
of the view that the event was genuinely experienced. And indeed it
is not easy to explain how such details could have been acquired
unless the individual had been exposed to other experiencersâ
accounts. On the other hand, the inclusion of such details - if it
can be shown that they could have been acquired in the course of the
individualâs casual daily reading or TV viewing - could point to
copycat replication. It is important to recognise that this would
almost certainly have been an unconscious process: the acquisition of
the details, and their assimilation into a personal experience, could
perfectly well have taken place on a subconscious level - and indeed,
more likely than not.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This issue remains unresolved, and those who make out the case
for the "abductions-are-real" case seem to have as strong a
hand as those who hold an "abductions-are-fantasy" view.
This is why we must look beyond the immediate issue, the stylised
pattern, to the individual encounter and the personal need to which
it responds. For then we find that each case is both one of a class
and one of a kind: both ubiquitous and unique.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Researcher Scott Rogo, investigating the 1953 Tujunga Canyon
abductions, went so far as to suggest:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Each time an abduction experience is uncovered, a psychological
inquiry into the life of the witness should indicate that he or she
was undergoing a life-crisis at the time or was recovering from a
psychological trauma. (Rogo 1980: 239)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The objection can be made that the Hillsâ encounter, being the
first to be widely publicised, can hardly have been conforming to a
pattern: if anything, it set the pattern. But this is to miss the
point. If subsequent abductions have tended to follow in the same
mould, it is because the Hillsâ experience was an acceptable model:
it embodies elements to which later protagonists respond. Their story
may seem to have been the first of its kind: but it is none the less
a stereotype.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: #999999; font-size: large;">Case 3: Barbara and the Operators</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The wisdom of Scott Rogoâs admonition to look before as well
as after is demonstrated tellingly in the book in which Barbara
OâBrien, an American professional woman, records her encounters
with otherworldly beings. (OâBrien 1958) Following on personal
problems, both domestic and at work, she begins to hallucinate a
number of entities, who identify themselves as denizens of some kind
of parallel world which interacts with ours. Though on one level she
is aware that they are hallucinatory, they are at the same time
totally real to her. She permits them to persuade her to leave home
and work, and wander for many months, living in two worlds at once -
the real world where she has to continue living as best she can, and
this strange other level of reality. Apart from occasional
breakdowns, she manages pretty well: and eventually she succeeds in
resolving her situation.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What makes her story so remarkable is her ability to
subsequently analyse it and to offer a diagnosis of what happened to
her. In retrospect, she realises that, triggered by her psychological
crisis, her unconscious had taken control of her life and substituted
its own unreal drama for the real play of events:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The unconscious stages a play: the conscious mind is permitted to
remain, an audience of one, watching a drama on which it cannot walk
out.... As you sit watching your Martian, it is your unconscious mind
which is flashing the picture before your eyes.. more than this, it
is blowing a fog of hypnosis over your conscious mind so that
consciously you are convinced that the hallucinations you see and
hear, and the delusions that accompany the hallucinations, are real.
(OâBrien 1958: 5)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What happened to Barbara could be what happened to Glenda and
Blandine: the illusion they take for reality is a presentation staged
by their subconscious minds.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Normally, the subconscious sits there
in the background, letting our conscious self get on with things. But
when the need arises, it steps in and makes its presence felt.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When
that happens, the individual starts to function on two separate
levels of reality. Sometimes for a single never-to-be-repeated
occasion, sometimes over a long period. So Glenda, Blandine and
Barbara, each in her own way, function in this way: retaining their
ability to live on the plane of everyday existence, but at the same
time intermittently maintaining their otherworldly contact. (For a
fuller presentation of these ideas, see Evans 1989)</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is one thing to formulate a theory, quite another to apply
it in practice. In November 1980 there was a notable case in England
involving a police officer who, on patrol alone at night, encountered
a UFO. Subsequently, under hypnosis, he recounted a horrific,
dreamlike abduction experience. When I diffidently suggested that
Alan Godfreyâs abduction might be a fantasy triggered by
psychological factors, he was indignant, rejecting my reading of his
adventure, feeling I was accusing him of mental instability. Since
then, though, he himself has come to question the physical reality of
his experience: "It seemed real but it might have been a dream".
(Randles 1988: 90) Investigator Jenny Randles writes:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Godfrey is commendably honest, pointing out that he read UFO
stories between the sighting and the hypnosis sessions months later.
He acknowledges this could have coloured what he said in an altered
state, which might therefore be open to other interpretations. While
nobody can prove what happened one way or another, if the witness
himself is unsure of the objective reality of the abduction phase of
his story, we must be wary of forming earth-shattering opinions about
extraterrestrial life. (Hough and Randles 1991: 189)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And she pertinently observes:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Of course, if it was a dream, the question is why it was so
similar to everyone elseâs dream of abduction. (Randles 1988: 90)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Which brings us back to the HillsâŠ</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Case 4: Madeleine and Jesus</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When popular fantasy author Whitley Strieber published his
autobiographical Communion, the press release issued with it declared
"I was interviewed by three psychologists and three
psychiatrists, given a battery of tests... and found to fall within
the normal range in all respects" and carried an endorsement
from the Director of Research at New York State Psychiatric Institute
which stated "I see no evidence of an anxiety state, mind
disorder or personality disorder". (Strieber 1987: 2)</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We can only assume that none of these highly qualified persons had
considered it relevant to their examination to glance at Mr
Strieberâs own non-fiction autobiographical writings. If so they
would have come across his description of the security arrangements
at the house where the alleged abduction took place, which by any
standards approached paranoia - though if his story is as true as his
dust-jacket says it is, perhaps in the light of what was to occur
paranoia was justified. They would have read of his erroneous belief
that he was present at the 1966 Charles Whitman massacre at the
University of Texas at Austin when he undoubtedly was elsewhere,
(Conroy 1989: 120) of his prolonged amnesia in the course of a visit
to Italy, and many other such incidents. Even from what he chooses to
reveal about himself, we can see that "disordered" would be
a mild description of both his mind and his personality both at the
time of his experience and, indeed, recurrently throughout his life.
(Strieber 1987 (1))</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Similarly, abduction researcher Budd
Hopkins assures us, with regard to the abductees whose stories he
recounts:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Three psychiatrists and two psychologists have conducted hypnotic
regression sessions over the years with a number of possible UFO
abductees. Two other psychiatrists have interviewed our subjects...
None of these psychological professionals have presented to me, even
tentatively, a psychological theory that might explain these bizarre
accounts. (Hopkins 1987: 25)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is a truly astonishing assertion: one can only suppose that
the psychologists in question had never taken the time to study the
findings of their eminent predecessors. Simply among the best known,
we can find similar behaviours described by Freud, Jung and Janet.
Pierre Janet, above all, laid the scientific foundations for such
studies, based on his observations of hysterical patients at La
SalpetriĂšre, Paris. His patient Madeleine, a gifted and articulate
lady, is convinced she makes periodic visits with Jesus - a spiritual
activity she describes as âvery rich and very beautifulâ, using
language which verges on the erotic:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No, the state I enter isnât sleep: sleep is a kind of suspension of the life of the spirit, whereas mine is just the opposite.... my spirit and my heart soar over immense horizons into which they plunge and lose themselves in delight... no earthly pleasure can be compared to it! .. I am united to God and he to me! (Janet 1926, volume 1: 68 et seq)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There is no doubt in Madeleineâs mind that her meetings with
Jesus are real, nor that he will, one fine day, fetch her to live
with him permanently in Heaven. She speaks of her "life in
common" with Jesus, and Janet describes it as "the life of
a couple, even, dare I say it, a ménage". While he had no doubt
that none of this had any basis in reality, he sought to examine the
process whereby she had come to make the claim, and how she was able
to live simultaneously on two levels of reality - aware, indeed, how
remote one was from the other, yet unsurprised at her ability to pass
easily to and fro between them.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In so doing, he laid the foundations of the studies upon which we,
today, are building. Siegelâs exploration of hallucination, (Siegel
1992) Huffordâs study of "bedroom visitors" (Hufford
1982) and Schatzmannâs account of his patient Ruth (Schatzmann
1980) all show that under appropriate circumstances sane, healthy
people can have encounter experiences which are so vividly veridical
that, if only for the time being, the witness sees no need to attempt
any reality-testing, and unquestioningly accepts them as
actual.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: #999999; font-size: large;">Case 5: The New Zealander and the flying saucer photo</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The process of self-delusion is fascinatingly devious, as this
trivial incident demonstrates. One day a gentleman from New Zealand,
a total stranger, visited me on business. The conversation touched
upon flying saucers, whereupon the visitor stated that he himself had
not only seen but photographed one. When I expressed suitable
amazement, he produced a glossy print and explained how, when and
where he had taken it - on a given date, at a given place in his own
country. However, I recognised it as a photo taken at an earlier
date, in the United States, by an American photographer.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Beyond
question, the man was lying: but was he lying knowingly? My guess is
that my visitor had somehow acquired a glossy print of the photo, and
from wishing he had taken it he had come to convince himself that he
was indeed the photographer. There must have been some part of him
that knew perfectly well he had not taken that photograph: but,
driven by whatever motivation, he chose to maintain the make-believe
which to him was belief.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While we have no reason to suppose that the Hills had any wish
to see a UFO, still less to meet its occupants, it is possible to
argue that Barneyâs aggressive hostility to UFOs had its roots in a
subconscious desire to do so. But this is pure speculation. What this
anecdote reminds us, though, is that there are people whose unspoken
motives can lead them to do and say things which consciously they
would indignantly reject. Once again, only a detailed examination
would disclose what motives were driving my visitor.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: #999999; font-size: large;">Case 6:
Allan Kirk and his otherworldly life</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A notable feature of OâBrienâs experience is the way she
accepts her otherworldly Operators into her life: their fantastic
nature seems, at the time, something she can take in her stride. This
seems to be generally true of those who meet with aliens. A Canadian
lady, who described to me how aliens visited her every evening in her
kitchen to report on the dayâs progress in helping the Mexican
government perfect a cure for cancer, was well-dressed, articulate,
seemingly normal in every other respect.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
American psychoanalyst Robert Lindner had the opportunity to
study at first-hand an extreme case of living on two different
levels. (Lindner 1954) Not long after World War Two he had a patient
referred to him, a physicist engaged in highly classified government
research, whose psychological condition was affecting the quality of
his work.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What Lindner gradually unravelled was that Allen Kirk, aside
from being a physicist on Earth, had been aware since childhood that
he was also a prince on a distant planet, to which he would return on
almost a daily basis. His written account of his other existence
comprised some 14,000 pages, accompanied by hundreds of drawings,
maps and sketches.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The creation of imaginary worlds is nothing new: apart from
the many utopian writers who have imagined alternative civilisations,
there are such people as the Brontë sisters whose fantasy creations
went beyond literary invention to play a role similar to those
imaginary playmates with which many children enrich their childhoods.
But Kirkâs world surpassed these not only in the detail of the
fantasy, but also the intensity with which he believed in it. He
himself told Lindner:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
How can I explain this to you? One moment I was just a scientist,
bending over a drawing board in the middle of an American desert; the
next moment I was Kirk Allen, Lord of a planet in an interplanetary
empire in a distant universe, garbed in the robe of his exalted
office, rising from the carved desk he had been sitting at, walking
towards a secret room in his palace, going over to a filing cabinet,
extracting an envelope of photographs, studying the photographs with
intense concentration.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It was over in a matter of minutes, and I was again at the
drawing-board - the self you see here. But I knew the experience was
real, and to prove it I now had a vivid recollection of the
photographs, could see them as clearly as if they were still in my
hands... (Lindner 1954: 183-184)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What puzzled Lindner was this:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The chief difficulty was that he regarded himself as completely
normal, was thoroughly convinced of the reality of all that he
experienced, and could not comprehend its significance in terms of
his sanity. (Lindner 1954: 185)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In all such cases, if we look for a simple, blanket explanation,
we shall almost certainly miss the point. Even if the fantasy itself
falls into a specific category - the MĂŒnchhausen syndrome, (Schnabel
1993: 26) say, which drives those it afflicts to claim false
identities and experiences, or the Jerusalem syndrome (Sieveking
1999: 21) whose victims come to believe they are chosen to give an
apocalyptic message to the world - even then, we have to ask why that
particular individual developed the syndrome. Putting people into
pigeonholes is a neat way of sorting them out, but more important is
to find out what got them that way in the first place. Lindner was
able to trace Kirkâs fantasy back to childhood problems: the
fantasy, for all its stereotypical nature, was custom-made for his
personal needs.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Case 7: Christi Dennisâs confession</b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Particularly revealing in this context is an incident which
occurred at one of the Rocky Mountain reunions which Professor Leo
Sprinkle holds every year at the University of Wyoming at Laramie.
Most attendees are abductees and contactees, who get together to
compare notes and share experiences in a supportive environment.
Experiencers tell their stories, and enjoy counselling from Leo and
his colleagues and the sympathetic support of others like themselves.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In May 1981, one of the speakers was a college student,
housewife and mother from Arizona named Christi Dennis. She told how
she been confined to bed after an accident, practising spiritual
exercises such as OBEs. One day she suddenly had the impression there
were otherworldly entities in her room. She found she could talk with
them. Subsequently she was transferred to their planet, where she met
a female entity over 7 feet tall who gave her instruction.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Christi provided a detailed and coherent account of her
experiences. She described her room which contained, among other
things, a television set where she could watch TV from earth from any
period in time, and much other sophisticated gadgetry. Her
presentation was lucid, sensible, impressive. (Proceedings of the
Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation 1981: 104) She was
welcomed by the delegates, most of whom had passed through similar
experiences, as one of themselves.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The following year, she wrote a
letter to Sprinkle, which he in turn communicated to the
conferencers, in which she confessed:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I am not a contactee. I have never had an extra-terrestrial
experience! The stories I have told and the book I have written are
nothing more than fair science fiction. (Proceedings of the Rocky
Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation 1982: 105)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Her letter made it clear this was no crude, sensation-seeking
hoax; rather, it was the outcome of some spiritual crisis. Christi
had projected herself into this imaginary scenario as a way of
working her way out of her personal psychological predicament. The
abduction process provided her with a ready-made scenario onto which
she could project her individual concerns.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Apart from vividly demonstrating the difficulty of
distinguishing between a true and a false abduction experience, the
Dennis case demonstrates the force - even the therapeutic value - of
the authorised abduction myth. For her, as for OâBrien, the myth
provided an existential framework for her personal situation. It
could be reasonably suggested that, just as a medicine contains
ingredients which the human biological system may from time to time
require, so the encounter myth may contain elements for which the
individual may have a psychological need. In the cases of Glenda and
Blandine, that need was met relatively simply by the ostensible
meeting and subsequent dialogues with a suitable authority-figure: in
the cases of OâBrien and Dennis, more mature persons with more
complex psychological needs, the psychodrama was more elaborate, but
the process was the same. As to why it took the form it did, we are
back with Scott Rogoâs requirement for a before-the-event analysis.
As to whether this has any bearing on the Hill case, this must remain
an open question.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Case 8: The New Ager and the aliens</b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Few books about abductions are as revealing as Betty Hillâs
own aptly-titled A Common-sense Approach to UFOs. It includes several
cautionary tales:</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the mid-1970s, a woman phoned to say she did not know if she
was crazy or had been abducted by a UFO. Her problems began when she
enrolled in a New Age psychic development class. They would lie on
the floor and were put into a light trance. They were âconnectedâ
to different kinds of UFOs⊠Over a period of time she began to
think her fantasies were real.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She sought out hypnotists. Every hypnotist gave her a
different abduction. She became fearful as she believed the "aliens"
were watching her through her windows, unlocking her doors, coming in
and giving her injections. She became suicidal. She was under
psychiatrists for fifteen years. She had all kinds of delusions. She
knew she was an alien who was forced to move to this planet.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Under hypnosis, it emerged that as a child she had been
mistreated by her family: her grandmother continually hit her, and
her mother followed the example. The resulting trauma was transferred
to the aliens. She preferred to believe her anxieties were the result
of UFO contacts, rather than the cruel treatment by her grandmother
and mother. (Hill 1995: 75)</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In connection with the Hill case, the possibility of trauma
stemming from the fact of their mixed marriage has inevitably been
raised, and generally dismissed. Probably correctly: there seems
little doubt that their marriage - a second marriage for each of them
- was a very successful one. But we do not know the circumstances
under which their previous marriages broke up, and the possibility of
trauma resulting from those circumstances cannot be entirely
dismissed. Without going so far as to trace a cause-and-effect
process along the lines of the case just cited, we should bear in
mind that trauma may have been lying dormant in the subconscious of
one or both of the Hills, and that they could have been transferred
to the aliens in a similar way, as a contributory if not a causative
factor.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Case 9: The party guest and the lost doll</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The trigger for belief need be nothing more than simple
suggestion, though that probably implies a suitably susceptible
recipient. At a party at Bettyâs house, a hypnotist offered to
uncover his guestsâ UFO abductions:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
They all laughed, for they knew they were never abducted. He requested a volunteer: a middle-aged woman volunteered. He put her into a light trance and began to question her. To our amazement, she told how she had been taken on board a UFO, made pregnant, came home and later gave birth to a âbig, fat baby girlâ. She gave it a name.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Six months later the UFO came back and took the baby with them.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">None of this was true. She lived in the same neighbourhood all her life: no pregnancy, no birth, no police looking for the body of a missing baby. So why had she told this tale?</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
One day, we were looking through her old family albums. Suddenly we saw a picture of her about the age of five, sitting on the front steps. What was she holding? A big, fat baby doll. Name? The same as the one she had used in her hypnosis. Where was this doll? She did not know, for it disappeared one day and she was never able to find it.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Finally, the solution to the tales she told under
hypnosis was found. She took a real experience and turned it into a
UFO abduction, while in a trance. (Hill 1995: 77)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yet again, only a study of the experiencerâs past life could
reveal the roots of the experience. But for the accident of the
family album, Bettyâs question, "So why had she told this
tale?" might have remained forever unanswered. While we have no
reason to suppose that a glimpse of the Hillsâ family snaps would
have been equally revelatory, such a possibility cannot be excluded.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Case 10: The abductee and the demons</b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hypnosis is often fingered as the cause of fantasy and
fabrication: but other and more down-to-earth factors can induce an
altered state of consciousness. Fasting undoubtedly underlay many
visionary experiences among religious people of the middle ages. For
example, the 7th century hermit Guthlac of Croyland left a
sufficiently detailed account of his personal life for researchers to
deduce that he probably suffered from protein and vitamin B
deficiency, among whose likely consequences might be hallucinatory
states: which could explain why he was continually troubled with
horrifying visions of demons. (Kroll and Bachrach 1982) In the
sixteenth century, a similar factor led to outbreaks of convent
hysteria, in which cloistered nuns would fancy themselves possessed
by demons, causing them to indulge in a variety of behaviours ranging
from outbursts of blasphemous language, obscene gestures and orgasmic
convulsions: the more open-minded doctors of the day traced it to the
effects of diet and fasting, and of the cloistered and celibate
lifestyle. (Wier 1560)</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Taking drugs, or not taking drugs, can have similar effects,
as illustrated by another of Bettyâs cases:</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A woman told her doctor she thought she had been abducted by
aliens. He referred her to me: I suggested she should be tested for
her lithium level. She was given lithium treatment and became normal
again.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then she said she didnât need lithium any more. She ran
naked round the garden, claiming the aliens were everywhere. She told
me demons were in her basement, while the UFO people were in the back
yard trying to get into the house to save her. The demons prevented
them doing this. She started destroying the house, finally setting
fire to it. She was sent off to a mental home while her husband faced
a huge bill for the damage.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
[In the end Betty convinced her to
face facts] I said: "UFOs are real, but the aliens stay on board
their crafts - remember you see them only when your lithium level is
down". (Hill 1995: 62)</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While it would be naĂŻve to suggest that the Hills ate something
in the Colebrook restaurant which triggered a shared fantasy, Bettyâs
common-sense diagnosis of this case reminds us not to ignore the
possibility that a factor as mundane as body chemistry can have
otherworldly consequences.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Case 11: Quintero and the thunderstorm</b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Clearly, there are a wide variety of circumstances in which
people will fantasise. Regrettably, fantasy is often associated with
hallucination; and to many psychologists, especially in America,
hallucination is perceived as an indication of a pathological
condition. If you see a ghost or the Virgin Mary or an alien visitor,
you are hallucinating; and if you are hallucinating, you must be
mentally afflicted.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But what constitutes mental affliction?
Studies by Israeli scientist Sulman show that "weather-sensitive
patients encompass about 30% of any population", and other
studies show that about 5% of the population are so sensitive to
climate that an altered state of consciousness can be induced.
(Sulman 1980)</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Consider, in the light of these findings, the case of
Colombian cowman Anibal Quintero:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In 1976 Quintero told investigators how a luminous egg-shaped
vessel landed close to him near his cowsheds. A number of people
emerged, including three long-haired women. Though he knocked four or
five down, they overcame him and took him into their spacecraft.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When he came to, he found himself being massaged by the three
females. They were naked, and behaved so provocatively that he
started caressing one; she responded enthusiastically, and in no time
they were making love. He described her as very hairy, with short
legs, but very attractive, even if she communicated like a dog
barking.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Afterwards he was given an injection and everything went
black. He woke to find himself lying on the grass, while dawn was
breaking. (Bowen 1977: 48)</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
However, there is an interesting additional aspect:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
His wife told the investigators Anibal had come home from work
that evening in an unusual state, throwing himself into a hammock
where he had fallen asleep. Shortly after, a violent thunderstorm
occurred. Quintero woke, feeling queer, as though something was about
to happen to him, and dashed out of the house. When the storm eased
off, he walked towards the cowsheds, feeling that he was "controlled
by some inexplicable external force".</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This behaviour makes no sense if what occurred was indeed a
surprise visit by real aliens. On the other hand, it could be very
relevant if Quintero was one of those who are strongly affected by
meteorological conditions. If this was the case, the oncoming storm
could have triggered an alternate state, in which he hallucinated the
spaceship fantasy.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Case 12: Maureen and the broken date</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While there is virtually no independent, external evidence for
abductions taking place, there is evidence that some alleged
abductions did not take place. The classic case is that of 37-year
old Australian housewife Maureen Puddy:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On 3 July 1972 she had a UFO sighting while driving home from
visiting her son in hospital - that is to say, at a time when we may
reasonably suppose that she was undergoing personal stress. Further
odd experiences followed, then in February 1973 she alerted two
prominent ufologists, Paul Norman and Judith Magee, that she had a
rendezvous with the aliens. At the location, Magee and Norman joined
her inside her car. She saw an alien figure, outside, beckoning,
though her companions saw nothing. She then gave a detailed account
of being aboard a spacecraft: yet all the time she was sitting right
beside them. (Basterfield 1992: 13)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
During the witchcraft outbreak of the Middle Ages, sceptical
observers would watch a supposed witch while she claimed to be
attending a sabbat. (Spina 1523) Back in our own time, nine-year old
Gaynor Sunderland was witnessed by her mother, lying on her bed in a
deep trance-like sleep: subsequently she described participation in
an abduction. Jenny Randles, who investigated, concluded, "There
is every reason to assume that these experiences were not objectively
real, but were psychic in nature." (Randles 1981) Yet there is
no reason to question the honesty of the witnesses who claimed these
experiences: here again, their ostensible reality was totally
convincing to the individual.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">The question of communication</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Every one of these case histories involves a single
individual, without corroboration of any kind. What makes the Hillsâ
case uniquely impressive is that Barney and Betty tell essentially
the same story under hypnosis.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One way of looking at this would be to say that it was the
Hillsâ exceptional good fortune that they had each other to provide
corroboration: perhaps many if not all of these other experiencers
might have found corroboration if their experience had not taken
place when they were alone. That is certainly a possibility, though
we must bear in mind that there are tens of thousands of
single-witness cases for each collective case, and that many
collective cases are of questionable authenticity.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Alternatively, we should consider the possibility that the
shared quality of the Hillsâ experience may point equally
effectively against its being a real experience: that the very fact
that Betty's story is corroborated by Barney is an argument against
its basis in fact. Fuller makes a significant observation when he
tells us:</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After the first sessions with Barney, Dr Simon began to assume
that the illusions and fantasies were his - and that Betty had
absorbed them from him. But with the completion of Bettyâs second
trance, it appeared that the reverse of the doctorâs initial
assumption might be true. If the total experience were not true, a
dream of fantasy initiated by Betty might have been absorbed by
Barney, who appeared to be more suggestible. (Fuller 1966: 191)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">In fact, Dr Simon noted that the things Barney experienced in the
abduction portion of the incident were in Bettyâs story. On the
other hand, very little of Bettyâs abduction sequence was included
in his story. His recall of being taken through the woods was vague
compared to hers. The details of the examination aboard the craft
were much more extensive in Bettyâs story than in his.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">Karl Pflock has pointed out that Simon was in error when he gave
the impression that everything in Barney's narration can be found in
Betty's: "There's a good deal of important material in Barney's
recollections that doesn't appear in Betty's". [personal
communication] None the less, Betty's narrative was sufficiently
richer than Barney's that Simon could arrive at his estimate of the
process which probably took place.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The question of contagion in
human behaviour is a complex one which has been insufficiently
explored. If we knew more about it we would be better able to
interpret multiple-witness cases.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The phenomenon known as <i>folie Ă deux,</i> though well known, is not
well understood: a substantial number of well-attested ghost
sightings are multiple in nature, but the mechanism of collective
hallucination is as uncertain as the nature of ghosts themselves. The
authors of the Society for Psychical Researchâs landmark study of
apparitions were convinced that this could be explained - as could
the apparitions themselves - by telepathy, (Gurney, Myers and Podmore
1886) though most researchers today would consider that this
explanation is over-simplistic. Be that as it may, there is little
doubt that what takes place in such cases is either some form of
extra-sensory communication, or some psychological process as yet
unidentified which successfully transcends normal modes of
communication. If the matter were better understood, we would find it
easier to tease out the process which led from the Hills' experience,
first to Betty's dreams, then to their independent recall. As it is,
we can only speculate, balancing the probabilities.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As suggested above, some degree of open discussion of Bettyâs
dreams must surely have taken place between herself and Barney, if
only for him to reach the conclusion that they were "nonsense".
It is hard to believe the subject would be dropped, never again to be
raised between them throughout the months that followed - months,
donât let us forget, when the couple were making repeated
excursions into the New Hampshire countryside in search of
topographical confirmation of their experience: the need to
understand the experience led to the need to substantiate it, and the
search for the geographical location was a primary requirement. But
even though their efforts were directed at something as down-to-earth
as the here or there of the experience, we must bear in mind that
those efforts were directed towards finding the location of events
for which there was no evidence outside Bettyâs dreams. This is to
say that, even if we accept that it was tacitly agreed between them
that the dream-scenario should not be openly discussed, that scenario
must none the less have been in the back, if not the forefront, of
their minds, since it was the only scenario they had, and thus was
the only starting-point for their repeated car searches of the New
Hampshire countryside.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My use of words "surely" and
"must" underline the fact that this can only be
speculation: but it is essential to appreciate the psychological
context in which those searches took place.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dr Simon himself seems to have recognised that the least
improbable alternative was "that an actual experience had taken
place on a sensitised background. A background existed on which could
be imprinted illusions or fantasies, later to be re-experienced in
dreams." (Fuller 1966: 190: these appear to be Fullerâs words,
though based on his interview with Dr Simon)</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In considering what might constitute "a sensitised
background" we run up against a crucial issue which divides the
proponents of a psychosocial explanation for the UFO phenomenon from
those who find the extraterrestrial hypothesis more probable. (For
fuller discussion of these contrasting views, see Clark 1998: 749;
Evans 1997; Evans 2001; Magonia, passim) Several researchers, notably
MĂ©heust, (MĂ©heust 1978; 1985; 1992) and Meurger (Meurger 1995) have
demonstrated the pre-conditioning created by the literature of
science-fiction, folklore and suchlike cultural influences. Opponents
have responded by pointing out that only a negligible fraction of
flying saucer witnesses would be likely to have read pre-1939 popular
fiction.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yet despite this objection, it seems unquestionable that cultural
contamination does indeed take place: this is supported by the fact
that there is no aspect of the flying saucer phenomenon which was not
foreseen by the American pulps of the 1920s/1930s. (Evans 1993: 4 et
seq) It is noteworthy that some of the details of the Hillsâ
encounter - notably the long-nosed, uniform-wearing aliens described
by Betty (though not by Barney) - seem closer to Amazing Stories than
to todayâs "greys".</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So, when Dr Simon suggests that "a background existed"
onto which the Hills could impose their own personal encounter, he is
not implying any out-of-the-way predisposition, but noting that no
one, in America in 1961, could have escaped cultural contamination to
the extent of being unaware of the possibility of alien visitation,
or without having acquired some subconscious ideas regarding what
form the aliens, and any encounter with them, would take. The
experiments of Lawson and McCall (Lawson 1983: 8), even though some
researchers dispute their conclusions, provide ample demonstration of
how firmly the abduction scenario is implanted in the minds of people
who claim no interest in the subject, serving as the basis for
fantasy "memories" whose only substance must be what has
been more or less subconsciously picked up from their cultural
milieu.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Despite his insistence that he was indifferent to UFOs, and
that he and Betty had not talked about them for four years previous
to their encounter, Barney could hardly have reacted to their
sighting as strongly as he did unless he felt he knew what UFOs are
and what harm they might do to Betty and himself. His actions in the
course of the sighting point not only to a strong awareness of UFOs,
but also to a strong fear - hence his sustained efforts to deny that
it was a UFO at all, his determination to hide from Betty that he is
scared, his feeling that he must get a weapon.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
His fear at the time seems in marked contrast to his
subsequent indifference. This indifference may well be, as Karl
Pflock has suggested [personal communication], a psychological
defence position, adopted to conceal an underlying fear beneath a
cloak of rationalisation. None the less it remains a fact that,
throughout, it is Betty who takes the initiative - it is she who goes
to the library to find Keyhoeâs book and who writes to him, it is
she who suggests the return trips to the encounter location and so
on. Barney is presented as always reluctant, going along with Betty
against his own feelings, and dismissing her dreams as nonsense.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Moreover, the dream-scenario is largely, and probably
entirely, Bettyâs handiwork. Her dreams, written up at an
unspecified date, are given coherence only when she edits them into a
sequential narrative. Her statement "I will attempt to tell my
dreams in chronological order, although they were not dreamed in this
way. In fact the first dream told was the last one dreamed,"
(Fuller 1966: 333) is extremely significant, for it implies an
awareness that the dreams represent a sequence of events, a sequence
which adds up to a plausible narrative. This could indicate a
subconscious knowledge that the dreams are factual: but equally it
could be her subconscious at work, persuading her to impose order on
a jumble of dream incidents.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">The recall</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The most remarkable element in the entire Hill case is that
both witnesses, under hypnosis, should recall substantially the same
events. But another feature is also worthy of remark: that both Betty
and Barney should respond in the same way to hypnosis. Both recall a
sequence of events seemingly devoid of fabulation. If they were
indeed both recalling true fact, it is remarkable that they should
both do so, given that most people introduce fantasy into hypnosis.
To have one veridical recaller is unusual enough, to have two is
remarkable.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, if they were both recounting a fantasy, the
fact that both narrated the same fantasy would be consistent with
psychological experience. Material learnt in one altered state of
consciousness can be forgotten in the normal state, but recalled when
again in an ASC, as this trivial anecdote illustrates:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
An Irish porter to a warehouse, in one of his drunken fits, left a
parcel at the wrong house, and when sober could not recollect what he
had done with it; but the next time he got drunk, he recollected
where he had left it, and went and recovered it. (Macnish 78)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The fact that both the Hills recall substantially the same events,
and recall them as lived experience, proves nothing either way: it
can be used to support either the veridical or the fantasy
hypothesis. Indeed, the same is true of each of the paradoxes
presented by their story.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Setting the Hillsâ adventure alongside other extraordinary
experiences does not resolve the matter. However, it enables us to
see that there exists in every one of us a faculty for mythmaking -
that is, combining material derived from the individualâs cultural
framework with other material with personal content, to create an
authorised yet made-to-measure myth. Each of us, given the
appropriate circumstances, could find ourselves living a fantasy with
the total conviction that we are really experiencing the events we
are actually imagining, or recalling imagined experiences with such
vividness that we are convinced they took place in reality.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">Is this what happened to the Hills? We cannot say for sure,
and perhaps we never will be able to say. But at least, by seeing
their story alongside other stories, we can see that the
dream-fantasy scenario envisaged by Dr Simon is a possible one.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><hr />
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>References</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Antrobus, John. 1993. Characteristics of dreams"
in Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreaming. New York:
Macmillan</div><div style="text-align: left;">Basterfield, Keith. 1992. "Present at the
abduction" in International UFO Reporter, volume 17: 3, May/June
Bowen, Charles. 1977. "Saucer Central, International" in
UFO Report volume 5, number 1, New York, November 1977</div><div style="text-align: left;">Brookesmith,
Peter. 1998. Alien Abductions. London: Blandford</div><div style="text-align: left;">Bullard, Thomas
E. 1987. UFO Abductions: The Measure of a Mystery. Bloomington,
Indiana: Fund for UFO Research</div><div style="text-align: left;">Clark, Jerome. 1998. UFO
Encyclopedia. (2nd edition): Omnigraphics, âPsychosocial
hypothesisâ</div><div style="text-align: left;">Conroy, Ed. 1989. Report on "Communion".
New York: Morrow</div><div style="text-align: left;">Evans, Hilary. 1984. Visions, Apparitions, Alien
Visitors. Wellingborough: Aquarian</div><div style="text-align: left;">Evans, Hilary. 1987. Gods,
Spirits, Cosmic Guardians. Wellingborough: Aquarian</div><div style="text-align: left;">Evans, Hilary.
1989. Alternate States of Consciousness. Wellingborough:
Aquarian</div><div style="text-align: left;">Evans, Hilary. 1993. "<i>Lo real y lo ficticio en el
relato OVNI</i>" in Cuadernos de Ufologia, no 15, Santander
(Spain)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Evans, Hilary. 1997. "A Twentieth-century myth"
in Evans, Hilary and Stacy, Dennis. UFO 1947-1997. London: Fortean
Times</div><div style="text-align: left;">Evans, Hilary. 2001. "The psychosocial approach"
in Story, Ronald. The Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters.
New York: Penguin Putnam</div><div style="text-align: left;">Fuller, John G. 1966. The Interrupted
Journey. New York: Dial Press</div><div style="text-align: left;">Gurney, Edmund, Myers, F W H, and
Podmore, Frank. 1886. Phantasms of the Living. London: Trubner</div><div style="text-align: left;">Hill,
Betty. 1995. A Common-sense Approach to UFOs. Private</div><div style="text-align: left;">Hopkins,
Budd. 1987. Intruders. New York : Random House</div><div style="text-align: left;">Hough, Peter and
Randles, Jenny. 1991. Looking for the Aliens. London:
Blandford</div><div style="text-align: left;">Hufford, David J. 1982. The Terror That Comes in the
Night. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania</div><div style="text-align: left;">Janet, Pierre.
1926. <i>De lâangoisse Ă lâextase</i>. Paris: Alcan</div><div style="text-align: left;">Kroll, J and
Bachrach, B. 1982. "Visions and psychopathology in the Middle
Ages" in Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, volume
170.1</div><div style="text-align: left;">Lawson, Alvin H. 1983. "The hypnosis of imaginary UFO
abductees" in Journal of UFO Studies number 1</div><div style="text-align: left;">Lindner,
Robert. 1954. The Fifty-Minute Hour. New York: Delta</div><div style="text-align: left;">Macnish,
Robert. 1834. The Philosophy of Sleep. London: Appleton</div><div style="text-align: left;">Magonia,
London, journal (still published), passim</div><div style="text-align: left;">MĂ©heust, Bertrand.
1978. Science-fiction et soucoupes volantes. Paris: Mercure de
France</div><div style="text-align: left;">MĂ©heust, Bertrand. 1985.<i> Soucoupes volantes et folklore</i>.
Paris: Mercure de France</div><div style="text-align: left;">MĂ©heust, Bertrand. 1992. <i>En soucoupes
volantes.</i> Paris: Imago</div><div style="text-align: left;">Meurger, Michel. 1995. <i>Alien abduction:
lâenlĂšvement extraterrestre de la fiction Ă la croyance. Amiens:
Encrage</i> (numéro 1 volume 1 of the collection Interface edited by
Joseph Altairac for Scientifictions)</div><div style="text-align: left;">OâBrien, Barbara. 1958.
Operators and Things. Cranbury, NJ: A S Barnes</div><div style="text-align: left;">Proceedings of the
Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation, 1981: Laramie,
Wyoming: 104</div><div style="text-align: left;">Proceedings of the Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO
Investigation, 1982: 105</div><div style="text-align: left;">Randles, Jenny. 1988. Abduction. London:
Hale</div><div style="text-align: left;">Randles, Jenny. 1981. Alien contact. Suffolk: Neville
Spearman</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rogo, D Scott. 1980. UFO Abductions. Signet : New
York</div><div style="text-align: left;">Schatzmann, Morton. 1980. The Story of Ruth. New York:
Putnam</div><div style="text-align: left;">Schnabel, Jim. 1993. "The MĂŒnch bunch" in
Fortean Times, 70. London: August 1993</div><div style="text-align: left;">Siegel, Ronald K. 1992.
Fire in the Brain. New York: Dutton</div><div style="text-align: left;">Sieveking, Paul. 1999. Fortean
Times 118. London: January 1999</div><div style="text-align: left;">Spina. 1523. <i>Quaestio de strigibus
Venezia</i> translated in Harner, Michael J. Hallucinogens and Shamanism.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1973</div><div style="text-align: left;">Strieber, Whitley. 1987.
Communion. New York: Morrow</div><div style="text-align: left;">Strieber, Whitley. 1987 (2). Press
release issued with Communion New York: Morrow, May 1987</div><div style="text-align: left;">Sulman,
Felix Gad. 1980. The effect of air ionization, electric fields,
atmospherics and other electric phenomena on man and animal.
Springfield : Charles C Thomas</div><div style="text-align: left;">Wier, Jean. 1560. <i>Histoires,
disputes et discours des illusions et impostures des diables &c.</i>,
originally published in German, translated Paris: <i>Bureaux de Progres
MĂ©dical,</i> 1885</div>
<h1 class="western" lang="en-GB">
<hr style="text-align: left;" />
<span style="font-size: small;"><div style="text-align: left;">From Magonia Supplement No. 58. 10
August 2005</div></span></h1>
<hr style="text-align: left;" />
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-47864159355638853782019-10-26T07:15:00.007-07:002020-10-03T15:36:43.917-07:00'The Day the Earth Stood Still' - Entertainment or Education<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBSct5JTmyhcnr7vvmW_8G9OWwtvyP12b9WHHurDY6SSq2o889FxAAOMSD_JB7EAHZptcRgXdnWABF-NRAZQOM9PE-FVjyaamhLw_a809B7emrAAZq8VUXD38jIiRLauN184GVyiole8k/s1009/STOOD+STILL.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="1009" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBSct5JTmyhcnr7vvmW_8G9OWwtvyP12b9WHHurDY6SSq2o889FxAAOMSD_JB7EAHZptcRgXdnWABF-NRAZQOM9PE-FVjyaamhLw_a809B7emrAAZq8VUXD38jIiRLauN184GVyiole8k/w640-h112/STOOD+STILL.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a></span>While looking through the DVD section at the local Walmart, I recently found a copy of </span><i style="text-align: justify;">he Day the Earth Stood Still </i><span style="text-align: justify;">(1951) bearing a production documentary and a commentary by Robert Wise, the filmâs director. While I already had a videotape, I confess I am a sucker for commentary tracks and was able to persuade myself that I had to have this. While listening to Wise reminisce about the problems of making the film, he mentioned that the army equipment in the film was not provided by the real army. He had to send the military a copy of the script and they decided they wanted no part of it. Someone on the staff of Twentieth Century Fox was able to get the equipment from a nearby National Guard facility outside of Washington, D.C. Though Wise wasnât formally told why his request was rejected, he felt somebody upstairs didnât like the message of the film.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
That seems easy to understand. Early in the film, a benevolent-looking alien is shot down by one of the military by accident - not exactly a testament to good training or restraint. The film is also a thinly disguised advertisement for the United Nations. Conservatives in the military were not supportive of the idea of the United Nations. It smacked of world government and threatened intrusive oversight.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
Reminded about this, I thought back to claims by some UFO authors that <i>The Day the Earth Stood Still</i> was intended as a tool by the government to prepare the public for the shocks forthcoming from the coming of aliens to our world. Does this refusal to provide a few tanks and jeeps to Wise make sense if the film was government-backed?</div>
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It had been a few years since I encountered these claims, so I dug into my library to check them over again. Considering them at leisure, armed with my recent viewing of the film, I realised I had the elements for an amusing sceptical romp.</div>
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Claims that Hollywood and the US government are partnered for various conspiratorial aims are a repetitive presence both in the culture of paranoia and, more particularly, UFO culture. They range from fragmentary rumours to whole books. My focus shall be on the treatment given The Day the Earth Stood Still in two books most focused on seeing a Hollywood/government UFO conspiracy: Michael Mannion, <i>Project Mindshift: The Re-Education of the American Public Concerning Extraterrestrial Life, 1947-Present</i> (M. Evans and Company, 1998) and Bruce Rux, <i>Hollywood vs. the Aliens: The Motion Picture Industryâs Participation in UFO Disinformation</i>, (Frog, Ltd., 1997)</div>
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Claims involving <i>The Day the Earth Stood Still</i> are more central in Michael Mannionâs book than Bruce Ruxâs. While Rux sees government influence in virtually every alien film ever made, Mannion is more selective and chooses <i>The Day the Earth Stood Still </i>as a showcase piece of evidence of how a relationship between Hollywood and Washington could be exploited to get information about aliens into the public realm. Mannion begins by stating it remains one of the best flying saucer movies ever made. He correctly observes, âThe film has a message unlike the other science fiction films of its day.â The technology in it is far in advance of the technology present in the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials.</div>
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<i>Some of the elements of </i>The Day the Earth Stood Still <i>may cause some to wonder how those who made the film were able to present a technology that not only was unlike other films of the era, but also resembles technology that has actually been developed over the past half-century.</i></div>
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Moving into specifics, Mannion observes that when Klaatu prepares to neutralize the earthâs electricity,</div>
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<i>He does not push buttons, pull levers, or turn knobs to activate the craftâs equipment. Instead, </i>he uses the energy field of his body to turn on and work the energy technology of the spaceship<i>. This is a sophisticated concept, far beyond science fiction movies of the time - or the science of the day, for that matter. How did filmmakers come by inspiration or information so far ahead of their time? [Mannionâs emphasis]</i></div>
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Though Mannion means the question to be rhetorical and unanswerable, the truth of the matter is that Klaatuâs mode of control was not beyond the science of his day. There was a device invented in 1920 that responded to the movement of a personâs hands in the air before it without any use of touch. It was a musical instrument. The location of hands relative to a pair of antennae alters capacitance in a pair of high-frequency electronic oscillators and that changes pitch and volume of a sound in an amplifier and speaker. </div>
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The inventor was a Russian physicist by the name of Leon Theremin. He gained some popularity in Russia and by 1927 was touring Europe and America. He patented it in America, giving manufacturing rights to RCA. Over the next ten years he developed some variations that incorporated dance movement. He also trained people in its use. Some of these students performed in concert settings. Eventually theremins found their way into filmwork and can be found in scores for <i>Spellbound</i> and <i>The Lost Weekend.</i></div>
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During the 40s, Bernard Herrmann was an emerging composer and he was hired to score a number of movies in his career - movies that included <i>Citizen Kane </i>and <i>All That Money Can Buy</i>. In 1951, Herrmann was selected to score <i>The Day the Earth Stood Still</i>. Herrmann immediately thought of theremins to provide the unearthly electronic tonalities announcing the arrival of Gort. Paradox solved. Klaatuâs gestures clearly mimic theremin performances.</div>
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This wireless style of prompting the activation of instruments would recur in several films, notably the beamer and shutter controls in <i>Forbidden Planet </i>and several episodes in the <i>Lost in Space</i> series - "The Derelict", "Invaders from the Fifth Dimension", and Michael Rennieâs famous two-parter "The Keeper". Theremins werenât the only source of non-pushbutton interfacing. There is a scene in the film <i>Things to Come</i> (1936) where a rebel enters a room and seemingly activates a broadcasting studio by a downward motion of his hand. The motion looks like he is activating a photo-electric cell by breaking a series of light beams. <i>The Day the Earth Stood Still </i>most clearly uses this method when Klaatu passes his hand in front of a vertical series of lights to open a door within the saucer. Photo-electric cells came to be called electric eyes and were quite popular in the Fifties, particularly as a way to open doors at grocery and department stores. They were famously parodied in cartoons, notably <i>Duck Dodgers in the 24Âœ Century</i>, (1953) where huge eyes looked down at approaching pedestrian traffic.</div>
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Mannion continues his argument by observing the resuscitation of Klaatu at the climax involves âan advanced alien energy medicine machineâ utilising ever-increasing levels of radiation head-to toe. This seems to Mannion to be like what is happening now âat the threshold of functional energy medicineâ. People are already readily resuscitated after heart stoppage in mechanistic medicine. Zero-point technology âwill yield equally astonishing resultsâ. He proposes that MJ-12 prevailed upon filmmakers to leak this information.</div>
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There are problems with this notion on several levels. First, Mannionâs description of the resurrection scene is quite odd. While there is some illumination from underneath the body at the beginning, it is rather subtle and there is nothing in the scene to indicate it is supposed to represent radiation. Itâs not like a blazing light engulfs the body. What does engulf the scene is a noise. There is a loud pulsing drone that rises in intensity. The Patricia Neal character - Helen Benson - covers her ears in clear discomfort. And it is also notable that there is a plate and coil in the region of the head. It suggests the resuscitation procedure involves the brain.</div>
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Second, the procedure in the film does not truly resemble any of the present resuscitative procedures developed in medicine in the past half century. It is not even clear it resembles any of the procedures performed by aliens in the UFO literature. Mannion does not cite any specific cases and the cases that occur to me seem merely similar, not exact.</div>
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Third, if this procedure was given by MJ-12; it was not given at the beginning of the writing process. The shooting script of 21 February 1951, penned by Edmund North, contains a significantly different description of the resurrection. Gort lays Klaatu on a long counter then fiddles with some knobs, switches, and dials - the wireless innovation is also absent from this script - and then attaches strange-looking electrodes to Klaatuâs wrists and ankles. âFrom a socket in the wall he pulls a strange-looking hypodermic needle on the end of a cord or tube and gives Klaatu a shot in the arm.â </div>
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Gort fiddles with the dials again and there are electrical cracklings and sputterings. Suddenly he flips a switch and all sound ceases. Gort removes the electrodes. Klaatuâs eyelids flutter and he is conscious. The questions of if he was dead and if they have the power of life over death are unchanged from the final form, but Klaatuâs explanation is slightly longer. While that power is only had by the Great Spirit, they âcan restimulate life for a limited time. Itâs a refinement of scientific principles known to your own people.â [scenes 316, 319, 321-2 on the script archived on the DVD]</div>
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Actually, it is more properly regarded as a refinement of the scene in the Boris Karloff horror classic <i>Frankenstein </i>(1931) where electricity is used to animate a stitched together corpse. Why else the electrodes and electrical crackling? This resurrection went through another revision before filming, obviously, but this revision actually jumps back to the original 1940 story by Harry Bates.</div>
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In that story, the murdered Klaatu is recreated using sound recordings done just before death. The literary justification is that sounds are unique to each living being, thus if you have the soundprint you can create the being that made it. However, these recreations only last a few minutes. While the film cannily omits this justification - people would surely balk at the absurd reasoning used in Harry Batesâs work - it retains resonance by having the temporary resurrection accompanied by an extreme sound. As the Bates story existed seven years before the alleged establishment of MJ-12 (24 September 1947; according to lore - Friedman & Berliner, p. 64) any potential link of the precise procedure seen in the final film to MJ-12 is severed.</div>
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Fourth, even if we blindly accepted Mannionâs interpretation of the scene as demonstrating radiation being used as a resuscitative technique, this is not a dramatic departure from cultural mythology of the era. </div>
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Cranks had touted remarkable curative, even aphrodisiacal, properties for radium in the 1930s. Some had even proposed the existence of radiations that were the essence of life energies, notably mitogenetic radiation and Wilhelm Reichâs orgone energy. Not long after Hiroshima, there was a campaign to show âThe Sunny Side of the Atomâ which showed people who were able to walk due to the use of radioactive isotopes. Infamously, one advertisement showed a paraplegic up from his wheelchair with a mushroom cloud superimposed. (Boyer, 1985 & Weart, 1988)</div>
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Mannion concludes his argument by speculating,</div>
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<i>Is it possible that the makers of </i>The Day the Earth Stood Still <i>were given this information, either officially or unofficially, by people with knowledge of the technology of advanced alien civilizations? In any case, this film shaped public perception of intelligently extraterrestrial life in the 1950s and, through its availability on videotape, continues to exert its influence today. (It is interesting to note that, as this book was being written, </i>The Day the Earth Stood Still<i> was featured in the âEmployee Picksâ section of Channel Video on Manhattanâs Upper west Side, indicating that a new generation holds the film in high regard nearly fifty years after its release.)</i></div>
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What is curious is why this should be a subject of speculation at this late date. People have repeatedly done retrospectives on The Day the Earth Stood Still in film magazines since the 1950s. Virtually everyone of consequence connected with the film has been re-interviewed. Shouldnât Mannion be able to quote testimony proving government involvement from any of these interviews? Did he even look? Why has neither screenwriter Edmund North or director Robert Wise spoken of governmental involvement especially as they seem entirely open with virtually the whole of the story of the creation of the film, even bringing attention to minor faults noticeable only to themselves because they know the tricks used. Wise admits to being a UFO believer, so why would he deprive himself of the pride of being able to say the government regarded him as helping their aims? Instead, he expresses his annoyance with the military for refusing to lend him the few tanks and jeeps he needed.</div>
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<i>The Day the Earth Stood Still</i> occupies a smaller role in Bruce Ruxâs conspiracy theorising than Michael Mannionâs, but Rux makes more aggressive claims.</div>
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<i>20th Century Foxâs T</i>he Day the Earth Stood Still<i>, [contained] Top Secret realities that would not be discovered until many years later. [Along with </i>The Thing<i>] both of these movies were drastically changed from their original source materials due to tampering on the executive level by Intelligence-connected men, and changed in accord with legitimate secret UFO facts.</i> (Rux, p. 65)</div>
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Rux phrases it to sound like this is a fact, but WHO were these Intelligence-connected men? Rux never says. The claims for tampering are also unsourced. There were script changes, but Rux forgets to show how it could be the work of anyone other than Ed North or Robert Wise. Rux escalates his claims:</div>
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<i>Most remarkable about the film in terms of this study are the facts we can see it presenting that were not publicly available in 1951 - nor were they in the short story on which the film is based. It is perhaps also of note that screenwriter Edmund North co-wrote the militarily patriotic </i>Patton<i> and the later </i>Meteor<i>, a cosmological collision story not as fictionally removed as it may once have appeared (based on an actual 1968 MIT-proposed planetary defence system called âProject Icarusâ), and that director Robert Wise is a UFO believer. Could someone in Hollywood have had an inside track? Or either knowingly or unknowingly, been in connection with with someone who did?</i></div>
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<i>There is no question that producer Darryl Zanuck was considered unlikely to have chosen </i>The Day the Earth Stood Still <i>for a project. It was a low-budget picture, surprising as that seems today upon viewing its superb craftsmanship, and science fiction was far too new a genre to attract anyoneâs attention on its own merits.</i></div>
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While Rux notes that Ed North was militarily patriotic, doesnât the fact that the Army refused to provide army equipment suggest this inside-track had little consequence? The paradox should have been obvious to Rux for, later in the book (Rux, p. 516) he has occasion to see the Armyâs refusal to provide equipment. There he laconically accounts for it by stating the Intelligence communityâs educational campaign âis not always in accord with the military.â Wise, on the DVD, observed that Zanuck bankrolled the film for basically capitalistic reasons.</div>
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<i>Bottom Line was Darryl just thought it was a damned good piece of entertainment and thatâs what he was interested in. He wasnât concerned about the politics and policy in it. He thought it would make a good film, an interesting film. And away we go.</i></div>
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Zanuckâs judgment proved correct. We must add that the risk was not trivial for Zanuck for the film was not truly low budget. It was an A-budget production costing $960,000. (Rubin, p. 22) For the Fifties, this was a pretty big chunk of change to throw away on what Rux wants us to believe is surreptitiously intended as an educational film. Rux continues,</div>
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The Day the Earth Stood Still <i>has so many coincidences with actual UFO facts that the question is unavoidable, especially given the year it was made. A classic flying saucer, bearing a human being and a robot - and the human being initially appears dressed in identical fashion to what was recognized for well over another decade as being a standard UFO occupant look - arrives from an unstated planet that is most probably Mars, which is even directly hinted at.</i></div>
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Rux gives no details on what he thinks the âstandard UFO occupant lookâ constitutes. I may be able to fill in the blanks here, but there are problems. Alice K. Wells did a drawing of the Venusian she saw, through binoculars, visiting George Adamski during a November 20, 1952 desert encounter. It was published in the 1953 book by Desmond Leslie.</div>
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`Both display a loose one-piece snow-suit with a cummerbund around the middle, set slightly high, and bound close around the feet and neck. Adamski called them one-piece ski-trousers, and emphasized their inappropriateness in the desert environment. It lacked zippers, buttons, buckles, fasteners, pockets and seams. There were also no ornaments like wristwatches or necklaces. </div>
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The primary disparity is an absence of bulging elbows to the suit of Adamskiâs Venusian. It also needs to said that Klaatu sports a haircut normal to earthly diplomats and businessmen. Adamskiâs Venusians had long, flowing hair more appropriate to a beautiful woman. (Leslie & Adamski, pp. 196, 209) Though these are not trivial differences, the look of the suits still seems close enough to regard them as probably related. If accepted, however, the educational value is dubious, since the Adamski case is widely doubted to be an authentic alien encounter not least because Venus is a hellish world no scientist believes could be a home to any form of life. For other doubts, consult Moseley and Stupple.</div>
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The other best match occurs during the 1973 Humanoid Wave. A lady driving Interstate 75 near Ashburn, Georgia encountered a small metallic man whose head moved as if programmed by a robot. (Webb, p. 13: October 19, 1973)</div>
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The match is compelling in this instance because of similar rectangular eye-slits in a globular helmet on top of a loose-fitting suit that has the bulging elbows. While the presence of a relationship seems probable, the idea that <i>The Day the Earth Stood Still</i> was intended to prepare the populace for this particular encounter, an obscurity placed 22 years after the film and well south of Washington, D.C., needless to say sounds dubious. Perhaps Iâm sounding tongue-in-cheek there, but the stronger point carried within the observation is that no humanoid case in the intervening two decades honestly bears close comparison to Klaatuâs appearance. It is easier to believe these two cases were âinspiredâ by the film, than that the film prepared the public for humanoids that so rarely match the film with accuracy. Returning to Ruxâs claims:</div>
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<i>Its occupant is concerned with our military, and threatens force to keep us in line, much as actual UFOs have monitored our atomic developments and sabotaged our military bases.</i></div>
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The notion that aliens were monitoring military bases and atomic experimentation was present in Keyhoeâs writings from 1950 and can even be found in Project Signâs papers. That feature of the UFO mythos was widely known before North put pen to paper. So that is hardly prophetic. Next, Rux claims,</div>
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<i>Failing to achieve direct contact, the alien visitor goes underground and gets to know the locals on a one-to-one basis, which appears to be a motivation for the UFO abductions that have been going on since at least 1957 (and probably a great deal longer) two actual abductions (performed by a robot, no less) even occur in the movie, one of them including medical procedures performed on the abductee by the robot. Who would have known about these things in 1951? More lucky guesses? Like </i>The Thing<i>? Are these movies isolated incidents, or are there other examples? </i>(Rux, pp. 183-4)</div>
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Here we have problems of the very worst sort. The person who has the operation is Klaatu. He is not abducted by the robot. Klaatuâs body - heâs dead - is rescued from jail. He is the robotâs companion and an alien, so it is sublimely strange to say there are two abductions here. The Patricia Neal character is taken up by the robot and carried into the ship and held there while he retrieves Klaatu, probably for her own protection.</div>
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There are no notable similarities to later UFO abductions. Certainly we see no paralysing mindscan by black eyes or the harvesting of sexual essences. Gort has to dissolve a wall with a ray to get at Klaatu. He does not pass through it like a ghost as modern aliens do. Neither does Klaatu ever magically teleport through a door or wall. He opens them via a doorknob or activates a sliding panel by passing a hand in front of detectors.</div>
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Most medical operations aboard UFOs are not blatantly done by robots. The robot in the Pascagoula case may be an implicit allusion on Ruxâs part, but as a later ancestor of Gort, the resemblance does not impress. Worse, though, Rux may have forgotten that the robot was a feature of the original Bates story of 1940. And, in that story, the robot performs numerous experiments involving sound, not exactly typical stuff in present-day abductions.</div>
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The idea that The Day the Earth Stood Still displayed âaccurately related UFO factsâ (Rux, p. 69.) is hard to sustain when considering things at anything more than the most superficial level. And it is very striking how few observations Rux offers given his belief that âmany coincidencesâ have been found by ufologists. He is very short on specific details, specific cases, and he gives no references to any discussions by UFO buffs about the âlegitimate secret UFO factsâ exposed by the film (Rux, p. 65). Iâm not saying these discussions donât exist, but I have to doubt they are worth digging up if neither Mannion or Rux could pull together better evidence than this nonsense to put into their books.</div>
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I feel the treatment of <i>The Day the Earth Stood</i> Still in Mannion and Rux is fairly described as symptomatic. The way they deal with this film classic is not appreciably different in quality or style than the way they deal with other films supposedly proving a UFO conspiracy exists linking Hollywood to clandestine Government groups. They are amazingly lazy; often failing to verify whether they have described the films accurately, and often comically vague about the material in the UFO literature allegedly paralleled by the films.</div>
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Ultimately, the arguments are too lightweight to balance against the heavier doubts. Hollywood would dish against the government as readily as Wise did against the army. How many screenwriters have ever stayed quiet when film directors and producers and board executives changed their stories? They always seem willing to discuss the sources of their stories. And, if the government did want to prepare the public, there are better ways to do it than works of fiction.</div>
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As I exit, stage left, I offer one final opinion. Doing things by committee and government edict is not going to get you a quality film with the stature of <i>The Day the Earth Stood Still.</i> It was WAY too good to be government issue.</div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">Sources:</span></b></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Harry Bates, âFarewell to the Masterâ Astounding, October 1940; reprinted in Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas, Adventures in Time and Space: An Anthology of Science Fiction Stories, Ballantine Books, 1975 (Random House, 1946) pp. 779-815</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Paul Boyer, By the Bombâs Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age, University of North Carolina, 1985, pp. 119-20, 156, 299-300</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Stanton T. Friedman & Don Berliner, Crash at Corona, Marlowe, 1994, p. 64</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Bart Hopkin, Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones, Ellipse Arts, 1998, pp. 54-8</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Desmond Leslie & George Adamski, Flying Saucers Have Landed, British Book Centre, 1953, pp. 196, 209</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Michael Mannion, Project Mindshift: The Re-Education of the American Public Concerning Extraterrestrial Life, 1947-Present, M. Evans and Company, pp. 178-182</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">James Moseleyâs Special Adamski expose issue, Saucer News #27, (October 1957)</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Steve Rubin, âRetrospect: The Day the Earth Stood Stillâ, Cinefantastique, 4, #4 (1976), pp. 5-22</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Bruce Rux, Hollywood vs. the Aliens: The Motion Picture Industryâs Participation in UFO Disinformation, Frog, Ltd., 1997, pp. 65, 69, 177-85, 516</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">David Stupple, âThe Man Who Walked with Venusiansâ Fate 32, #1; January 1979, pp. 30-9</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Spencer Weart, Nuclear Fear - A History, Harvard University, 1988, pp. 49-50</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Tom Weaver, âYears After Stillnessâ Starlog, #211, February 1995, pp. 24-7</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">David Webb, 1973 - Year of the Humanoid: An Analysis of the Fall 1973 UFO/Humanoid Wave, David Webb, 1974, p. 13</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the DVD commentary Robert Wise's precise comments were: âInteresting thing about - coming up, youâre going to see some -- All this equipment is not the real army. When you want some help with some of the personnel of the armed services, you have to submit a script to them. Well, they turned us down on this. We didnât need much from them, but we thought weâd get some jeeps and tanks from them. And I guess they didnât like the message.â He indicates Twentieth Century Fox had a good lobbyist and ââŠhe went over to the National Guard with Washington and they had no problem with it. And so all the equipment you see in the picture are all from the National Guard outside of Washington.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>First published in <span style="background-color: white;">MAGONIA Supplement, </span><span style="background-color: white;">No. 52, 14 September 2004</span></b></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-46217834030678038732019-10-19T06:32:00.008-07:002022-05-04T00:32:36.688-07:00The Trindade Case: Multiple Witnesses or Wishful Thinking? <div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">
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<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div><div style="text-align: justify;">1957 was "International Geophysical Year", a United Nations sponsored event which united scientists across the globe in a range of experiments and research designed to find out more about the structure of the Earth. (In fact, the "Year" ran to eighteen months, well into 1958.) As part of the Brazilian government's contribution, in October of that year it set up a research station on the small, rocky islet of Trindade, in the South Atlantic Ocean, 600 miles off the coast of Brazil.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although the main UFO event, which produced the photographs that have become the object of so much controversy, did not take place until after the arrival of the Brazilian naval training ship Almirante Saldanha in January 1958, a number of very interesting reports were made on the island before the ship's arrival. These included UFOs apparently interfering with radio transmissions from a balloon and an object tracked through binoculars and a sextant, and a photographic case which has important implications for subsequent events, which I shall return to later. Present on the ship, but not part of the Brazilian navy crew, was a professi<span style="text-align: justify;">onal photographer, Almiro Barauna, and several colleagues from an underwater photography club.</span></div></div>
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On 16 January 1958, at around mid-day as the ship was preparing to depart for Brazil an object was allegedly sighted by people on deck, and Barauna took some photographs of it. The object was described as "Saturn-shaped" - an ovoid disc with a distinct band around it at its widest point, which was likened to the rings of Saturn. Barauna took five photographs of the object as it moved around and behind the peak of the mountain on the small island.
Shortly afterwards, Barauna's photographs were developed in a makeshift darkroom on board the <i>Almirante Saldanha</i>, but because no photographic paper was available, only the negatives were available for examination at the time.</div>
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After examination by Captain Bacellar, the Commander of the naval post on Trindade who had now taken command of the ship for its return journey, Barauna was allowed to keep the negatives and <i>Almirante Saldanha </i>returned to Brazil, where Barauna disembarked, still with the negatives, at the port of Vitoria, and returned to his home by bus. The ship lay up in Vitoria for two days before sailing onward to Rio de Janeiro.</div>
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After returning home, Barauna produced prints from the negatives, and was then visited by Commander Bacellar , who took the enlargements away for examination, returning them a couple of days later. Barauna was interviewed by naval officials, and the negatives were examined by a photographic laboratory, which concluded that they were not the result of a double exposure.
The story of the UFO and the photographs had by now made the front pages of the Brazilian newspapers, and had attracted the attention of politicians, including the Brazilian President Juscelino Kubitschek.</div>
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On 24 February, the Naval Ministry issued a statement denying claims that it was impeding the publication of the photographs and statements by the ships crew about the UFO incident: "This Ministry has no motive to impede the release of photographs ... taken by Mr Almiro Barauna ... in the presence of a large number of the crew of the Almirante Saldanha from whose deck the photographs were taken". The statement concludes: "This Ministry will not be able to make any announcements concerning the object seen, because the photographs do not constitute sufficient proof for such purpose".</div>
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This is a very significant statement, as it is a clear declaration that not only were photographs taken of a UFO, but that this object was seen by a large number of people. It is this which has given the Trindade case a special position in UFO history. However, this statement is not borne out by closer examination of evidence subsequently released by the Ministry.
In his substantial <i>UFO Encyclopedia </i>Jerome Clark concludes his summary of the case with the claim: "Given the number of witnesses, the results of photo analyses both military and civilian and the need for debunkers to 'reinvent' the incident to explain it, it seems most unlikely that the Trindade photographs were hoaxed".</div>
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In captions to photographs in that encyclopedia Clark states that "48 witnesses saw the object", while the figure of 150 witnesses is given in Coral and Jim Lorenzen's account in<i> Fate</i> magazine. It is not clear what the source is for either of these figures.
Clearly, if the events are as described above, this is one of the most important UFO cases ever, being that rarest of things, a multi-witness, photographic case. Naturally, this account of events has been challenged, particularly by the 'usual suspects', UFO sceptics Donald Menzel and Phil Klass.</div>
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Menzel claimed that the photographs had been produced by double exposure. In a letter to UFO investigator Richard Hall in 1963 a Project Blue Book official pointed out that Barauna had previously produced a hoax UFO photograph for a Brazilian magazine article.
However, the question of whether or not the photographs were hoaxed would be irrelevant if it could be conclusively proven that the UFO was witnessed, at the time, by anything between 48 and 150 members of the crew of the Almirante Saldanha. As most of these potential witnesses were naval personnel they would obviously be readily available for interview by the appropriate authorities, and as the Naval Ministry had confirmed that they had no interest in impeding the story, many may have been available to speak to the press.</div>
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This is where things start to get more ambiguous.
In the first edition of <a href="http://www.users.waitrose.com/~magonia/ms01.htm"><i>Magonia [Monthly] Supplement,</i> </a>editor John Harney refers to this case when considering the evidence for the ETH. Quoting Jerome Clark's Encyclopedia remarks (above) he asks:
Well what are the agreed facts on this case? I was astonished to discover, on re-examining the literature on this incident that some of the most basic and presumably easily ascertainable facts are very much in dispute. For example, how many witnesses were there?</div>
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The answer, he claims, depends on whether you are a believer or a sceptic, as according to Coral Lorenzen, "Rio de Janeiro's <i>Ultimo Hora</i> on February 21 reported that at least a hundred individuals had witnessed the sighting of the object".
Harney then quotes the US Naval Attaché in Rio (who was quoted in the letter to Richard Hall) who says that the Captain of the <i>Almirante Saldanha</i> only named his secretary as having seen it, but when interviewed the secretary was noncommittal on the matter.</div>
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This debate was re-opened on the Internet's [now defunct] <i>UFO UpDates</i> mailing list. In commenting on an unrelated topic, I quoted John Harney's article as giving an example of the way that even apparently well-witnessed UFO sightings became more doubtful when they were looked at in greater detail. This sparked a response from several American ufologists as to what evidence I had that the Trindade case was not as well witnessed as claimed. As I had merely been quoting John Harney's article, I decided that I should have to do some more research of my own. Fortunately, the case is well documented on Internet resources, most notably the CUFOS and NICAP websites. <span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">(In the rest of this article, the quotations in italics are all from documents available on the CUFOS website.)</span></div>
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One of the first things I discovered was that the Brazilian Navy seemed to be remarkably careless about these photographs, which, if taken at face value, would be almost certain evidence that a large physical object was flying around a Brazilian scientific station and a naval ship which was engaged on a scientific mission! Although I had originally been concerned only about the veracity of the figure of 48 (or 150) witnesses, the more I learned about this case the stranger the story of the photographs themselves turned out to be!</div>
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For a start, it seems remarkable that the <i>Almirante Saldanha </i>had no facilities for developing and printing films, even though there were according to some reports, at least four photographers on board. Although there seemed to be developing equipment and chemicals available, Barauna had to develop his film in a makeshift darkroom in one of the ship's lavatories! Remember also, that at this time the ship was moored off Trindade Island, where there was an IGY scientific station. Was this also devoid of photographic equipment?</div>
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Apparently not.
As I mentioned above, even before the arrival of the Almirante Saldanha there had been a number of odd UFO-like incidents over the scientific station on the island, whose main function was a launching and tracking post for high-atmosphere research balloons. Olavo Fontes, in his extensive report on the case outlined seven separate incidents, including ones in which a UFO possibly interfered with radio transmissions from a balloon, and another object was observed through binoculars and a sextant.</div>
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The object sighted in the final, island-based case, "appeared to be made of polished aluminium (or similar metal), and was shaped like a flattened spheroid with a large ring circling its equator. The spheroid body did not rotate, but the ring appeared to be spinning at fantastic speed." This makes it very similar to the object depicted in the Barauna photographs.
Fontes then says that "the investigation also revealed another important thing (also denied by Com. Bacellar): that the UAO had been photographed by one of the witnesses, a Navy sergeant. The man was taking pictures of the island with a box camera when he spotted the UAO moving across the sky. He shot one picture before it disappeared".</div>
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The reaction of the naval authorities to this incident is quite different to the relaxed response to Barauna: "The negative was immediately requested by Commander Bacellar and the film developed the same day. The picture was good enough to show that the object photographed was the same as described by the witnesses. Its spherical outline as well as the large thick ring around it could be clearly seen in the enlargements made from the negative."
So, the scientific base on the island had the facilities to quickly develop films and produce good quality prints, yet Barauma developed his film in a makeshift darkroom on board ship and was unable to make prints due to a supposed lack of photographic paper. What is going on here?</div>
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Even after the film was developed and examined by Commander Bacellar on board ship, it was returned to Barauna, who then had complete possession of it for at least six days until Bacellar turned up at Barauna's home and asked to be allowed to take the film and prints away for examination.
The question of the lack of control of the exposed film before it received adequate analysis is addressed as a 'negative point' by Corvette-Captain Jose Geraldo Brandao in the Naval Intelligence Section's report on the incident:</div>
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<i>I-No prints of the film were made at the moment it was developed; </i></div>
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<i>II-The ship's Commander didn't take possession of the negatives, after they were developed, in order to get the prints made later in the presence of witnesses; </i></div>
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<i>III-The making of prints and enlargements was done by the photographer in his own photolab.</i></div>
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However, he also listed the 'positive points' that led him to accept the photographic evidence:</div>
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<i><i>I-The report of the CC Bacellar, who saw in the film immediately after it was developed, still wet, the images he identified in the prints as the object photographed, and also that the pictures preceding the sequence connected with the object's passage corresponded with scenes taken aboard a few minutes before the incident; </i></i></div>
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<i>II-The statements of the persons who sighted the object: they saw the copies of the photographs and declared they had seen exactly what appears on the photographs. </i></div>
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These positive points might be conclusive if we could verify that the UFO was also observed by 48 (or 150) other people who could confirm that its appearance and manoeuvres corresponded with the photographs. Surely, with all those witnesses there must be plenty of first-hand reports. In a response to my original comments on this case Jerome Clark pointed out that the official Brazilian Naval report into the case referred to "many" witnesses. This report, surely, would confirm the exact number of people who reported seeing the UFO at the time Barauna took his photographs? Well, the report does indeed say that "many" other people were present, but it presents no evidence to corroborate the claim that Trindade was one of the best witnessed reports in UFO history.
The official Brazilian report can be found on the CUFOS website. It is headed:</div>
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<i>INTERNAL COMMUNICATION- CONFIDENTIAL No. 0043</i></div>
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<i>From: The Subchief of Intelligence.</i></div>
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<i>To: The Vice-chief of the Navy High Command</i></div>
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<i>Subject: Phenomena observed over the Trindade Island</i></div>
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<i>Reference: Report No. 0005, of 1/6/1958, from the Chief of the Navy High Command to the Commander of the Trindade Island Oceanographic Post. </i></div>
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So this is a fairly high-level document. But its value as proof of an extraordinary event over Trindade is subverted by its opening paragraphs:</div>
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<i>a) That there are a number of witnesses who state they have sighted unidentified aerial objects (UAOs) over the Trindade Island; </i></div>
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<i>b) That most reports presented are insufficient, mostly due to the lack of technical skill of many observers and to the brief duration of the phenomena observed, so that no conclusion can be reached concerning positive data about the UAOs;</i></div>
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<i>c) That the most important and valuable evidence presented, the photographic, somehow loses its convincing quality due to the impossibility to [dis]prove a previous photomontage. [Note: this sentence only makes sense if the word is intended to be 'disprove'. I assume this to be a glitch in transcription - the inability to 'prove' a previous montage would actually add to its convincing quality.] </i></div>
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Further on, the report describes the circumstances under which the photographs were taken:
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<i>Obtained, from the deck of the NE "Almirante Saldanha", when anchored close to the Trindade Island, four photographs of a UAO, taken by a professional photographer in the presence of other witnesses who state they have sighted the object photographed. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Well, what we now expect are the names of these other witnesses, maybe not all 48 (or 150) of them, but at least eyewitness reports from the numerous naval officers, ratings and civilian personnel who we assume witnessed the events. Far from it. Although there are a number of references to "members of the ship's crew" having seen the object (at one point they are described as having an extremely strong emotional reaction to it) the only direct eyewitness reports, apart from Barauna's come from two people.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Firstly, the longest statement comes from Amilar Vieira Filho, president of the Icarus Club for Submarine [Underwater? - an over-literal translation from the Portuguese?] Hunting. In an interview to a reporter from <i>O Globo</i> he reports:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>First, I want to make it very clear that I don't know if what I saw was really the so-called 'flying saucer'. What I saw, in fact, was an object of gray color and oval in shape when first sighted, which passed over the island and then - emitting a fluorescent light it didn't possess before - went away toward the horizon and was gone, vanishing just on the horizon line. Everything happened in just a few seconds, in no more than 20 seconds, and for this reason I cannot give you more details about the curious craft. It looked like an object with polished surface and uniform color. I am sure it was not a balloon, an airplane, or a seagull.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Further questioned, he adds:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>As I said before, the thing was too rapid. It was almost impossible for the human vision to fix any detail of the object. Mr. Barauna, however, was operating with a camera of modern type which was able to register those details. Generally speaking, the shape of the object sighted was the same seen on the negatives developed aboard the NE 'Almirante Saldanha'.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This latter comment is rather odd, giving the impression that the whole event was over in a second or so, yet Barauna had time to take five photographs using his Rolleiflex camera, and after taking the last photograph the object remained in view for a further ten seconds before "gradually diminishing in size and finally disappearing into the horizon". Rather different from "the thing was too rapid, almost impossible for the human vision to fix any detail". The business about Barauna's "camera of modern type" is quite irrelevant.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The other directly quoted witness, Captain (Retd.) Jose Teobaldo Viegas, also was a member of Barauna's underwater exploration club. He mentions other witnesses on deck, but we have no statements from them, and although there was apparently another photographer on deck at the time he failed to get any photographs at all. Viegas states:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>I was on the deck. My friend Amilar Vieira Filho suddenly called my attention to what he thought to be a 'big seagull'. I looked toward it and was unable to control my excitement, shouting: 'Flying saucer!' Mr Barauna was 20 yards away with his Rolleiflex, watching the manoeuvres [loading equipment onto the ship before departure]. He heard my shouts and came running - in time to take four pictures of the object. Other people were also alerted by my alarm: a sergeant, sailors, the ship's dentist (Lieutenant Captain Homero Ribeiro), and other persons. They all sighted the object. The photographer Farias de Azevedo, who was more distant, didn't come in time to get photos. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One question occurs to me here; if the object was circling the mountain peak more than a thousand metres away, why would it have been necessary for Azevedo to "come in time" to get photos, if he was already on deck? Couldn't he have taken the photo from where he was standing? Viegas was also the person who accompanied Barauna into the makeshift darkroom to develop the negatives whilst Captain Bacellar remained outside.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIBlBYKgJUoYzJ_KqUtypd8cO_MjN38cG4t97vQQftuW674aJVyNIpxi-tOdAnnvHk665U6_Os5TqRGPGbkOZ3wrG7v1i5AUbjCY66KJl0wZkYtdtc9JeLcDAU70Ncs83oAPgtZ_3l0OY/s1600/trindade+2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="320" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIBlBYKgJUoYzJ_KqUtypd8cO_MjN38cG4t97vQQftuW674aJVyNIpxi-tOdAnnvHk665U6_Os5TqRGPGbkOZ3wrG7v1i5AUbjCY66KJl0wZkYtdtc9JeLcDAU70Ncs83oAPgtZ_3l0OY/s640/trindade+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
An odd aspect of this is that Barauna, apparently because of the hot conditions in the darkroom, stripped to his underpants to develop the film. Captain Bacellar and the investigator, Olavo Fontes, saw this as additional evidence that he could not have faked the photographs by smuggling some equipment or film into the darkroom. Curiously, we have no record as to whether or not Viegas also stripped.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The third named witness, Antonio Homero Ribeiro the ship's dentist, is never quoted directly in any of the reports I have been able to find, and is only mentioned by Barauna as one of the people, along with Viegas and Filho, who drew the UFO to his attention. So Barauna names three other people as witnesses of the event, but only two, Filho and Viegas, gives any form of direct statement, and this to a newspaper rather than the Government investigator.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Viego mentions Ribeiro and Azevedo, but we hear no more of them.
Although in the Internet discussion much was made, by Jerome Clark and others, about the "thorough" investigation by the Naval authorities, in fact the report is based solely on second-hand reports, largely from Commander Bacellar, who, on his own account was below decks at the time, and was only alerted by the shouts of - presumably - Barauna and his associates.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The "thorough" report does not interview any of the other alleged witnesses.
Federal Deputy Sergio Magalhaes who originally raised the matter at government level, requesting an investigation into the facts connected with the incident at Trindade, protested to the Navy Ministry at their failure to secure sworn statements from witnesses:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>For the first time in flying saucer history, the phenomenon was attended by large numbers of persons belonging to a military force, which gives these photographs an official stamp. Threats to national security require greater official attention and action.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So it's not only sceptical ufologists who were dissatisfied with the quality of the Brazilian Government's investigation.
Now, when I pointed all this out in the <i>UFO UpDates </i>discussion, I felt that all that was needed was for the proponents of the case's importance to come up with the names of a few more direct eyewitness testimonies, either from contemporary newspapers, or from Government sources. I wasn't expecting 48 (or 150), but even three or four more direct statements would have made my argument very shaky indeed. Perhaps even just one statement from someone who was not a member of Barauna's underwater diving team!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
(One small point: Jerome Clark took me to task for describing the other witnesses as 'friends' of Barauna, just because they were members of the same diving club. Captain Viegas describes Filho as a 'friend' in his statement (above), and Olavo Fontes also describes Barauna, Filhio and Viegas and 'friends'.)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It seemed now that I was expected to come up with a statement from someone who was present at the time who did not see the UFO! Surely, Jerome Clark thundered, with all the hullabaloo going on in the press and elsewhere, non-witnesses would be lining up to sell their non-story to the newspapers. In one exchange Clark says: "John has yet to produce the name of a single individual who, while in a position to see the UFO Barauna photographed, stated that he saw nothing. I have named witnesses. John has named none, only continued to indulge in innuendo."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The only comment I can make here is that if there were, as I suggest, no other witnesses to this event, how could anyone be "in a position to see the UFO [that] Barauna photographed", and how could anyone therefore challenge Barauna's version of events?
Even if you were on deck when Barauna and company were running around shouting hysterically - yes, that is what happened; it is claimed that ship's dentist Ribeiro was so flustered he allegedly fell over a cable in his panic! - how would you realise what you were supposed to see, or that it was significant that you didn't see anything?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After all, as Amilar Vieira Filho said: "the thing was too rapid. It was almost impossible for the human vision to fix any detail of the object". Over in a flash, what significance would it be if you hadn't seen anything? Certainly nothing worth going to the newspapers about, or risking the attention of more military investigators - perhaps the very ones whose report you were, by implication, criticising.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Imagine if you were a member of a military unit, and military Intelligence officers were coming around asking about an incident which, remember, was reported only by civilian personnel, would you voluntary stick you head over the parapet to present a statement that nothing happened? Especially if you knew that your country's authoritarian President had taken a personal interest in the case? How would you actually know that you were meant to be one of the 48 (or 150) witnesses? </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Maybe, buried deep in the vaults of the Brazilian National Archives there exists a report which lists the 48 (or 150) witnesses of this case. Maybe one day a Brazilian version of Dr David Clarke and Andy Roberts will uncover it and I will have to eat my words. But until then, I feel the Trindade Island case rests on far shakier foundations than its chroniclers would have you believe. And, moreover, that the responsibility is on saucer proponents to demonstrate that independent witnesses did see the object, rather than I should start searching for improbable statements from people who may not have been there that they didn't see it!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Postscript</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After this debate continued on the <i>UpDates </i>list for several weeks, gradually getting more and more circular in its arguments, there came an intervention from a researcher in Brazil, offering what he claimed was new evidence. In fact this turned out to be some cuttings sent to Richard Hall in the 1960s.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was unimpressed, and replied: "I have said this <i>ad nauseam,</i> and I will not repeat it until some new material is available (and Richard Hall's cuttings are certainly not new material. They are second, third, or fourth hand accounts); we have no direct evidence from anyone except two people who are known to be associates of the photographer prior to the incident. We are nowhere near the "48 witnesses" claimed in Jerry's encyclopedias."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then, in a dramatic intervention Jerome Clark replied, "Wrong, old boy. There is some very important new evidence. I'm sorry to say that the news, for you, is not good."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Before completing this piece, I e-mailed back to Clark to see if this new material was yet available for publication: "Are you able to give me any further details of this important new evidence?"
Jerry replied: "Yeah, it's still out there and will be announced, I'm sure, in the near future. As I understand it, it pretty much eliminates whatever small possibility there was, if any, that the photos were hoaxed. You'll know about it when the report is released."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It will be fascinating, after fifty years, to learn what this evidence might be. My hope would be that it was additional contemporary eye-witness reports, with direct statements from named individuals who were present, on the deck of the <i>Almirante Saldanha</i>. I would be disappointed if it were merely a re-hash of the photographic analyses that were made at the time.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>This article originally appeared in John Harney's <i><a href="http://www.users.waitrose.com/~magonia/ms44.htm#m44a">Magonia Monthly Supplement</a>,</i> No 44, December 2002. Needless to say, in the 17 years since then the new information promied by Jerome Clark has failed to appear.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In 2002, Amilar Vieira Filho gave an interview to Alexandre de Carvalho Borges, which gave the names of other people present at the time of the events described but none of then seem to have been witness of the actual sighting.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
</div><hr />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-53907930827448056422019-08-06T09:32:00.007-07:002020-10-03T15:42:08.179-07:00Intelligent Design, Panspermia and Ancient Astronauts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidBeppOBiL2fEDQ6DsODeaoyy-H1lqC22b5G-E9bNIL3mI-ZYAuA62ArYlMF2vvjquNRi69UHdvT2jRt9hUlXdqsPScOfwne-3283JjXQTZqBWNwRC1rFC0iuy8wedkdVx2wwt2Tf0xdQ/s993/ANCIENT.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="993" height="114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidBeppOBiL2fEDQ6DsODeaoyy-H1lqC22b5G-E9bNIL3mI-ZYAuA62ArYlMF2vvjquNRi69UHdvT2jRt9hUlXdqsPScOfwne-3283JjXQTZqBWNwRC1rFC0iuy8wedkdVx2wwt2Tf0xdQ/w640-h114/ANCIENT.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Intelligent Design, Panspermia and Ancient Astronauts. Looking at Richard Mooney, <i>Colony
Earth</i> (London: Granada 1974)</b>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<hr />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>David Sivier</b></span><br />
<hr />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">
</span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">This
is another book, which I picked up recently in a secondhand bookshop
in Cheltenham. It's very much a product of time, the early '70s, when
there was a spate of books following von Daniken's blockbuster
</span><i style="text-align: justify;">Chariots of the Gods,</i><span style="text-align: justify;"> as well as the growth of the New Age and
Fortean counterculture. Mooney follows von Daniken in claiming that
the deities of the world's religions were extraterrestrial space
travelers and that their scriptures, myths and legends preserve
memories of genuine, global ancient catastrophes. The blurb on the
back cover gives a warning of some of the book's claims in the
following questions:</span></div>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>What
was the great catastrophe that the Bible calls the 'Flood'?</i><i>Are
the Egyptian pyramids giant air-raid shelters?</i><i>Were
the bearded 'White Gods' of the Incas survivors from a catastrophe
across the Atlantic?</i><i>Were
the giant stone monuments of antiquity built with the aid of high
explosives?</i></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To
which the answer is obviously 'No'. Mooney, however, goes further
than von Daniken and argues that humanity itself, not just its gods,
came from elsewhere in the universe. The blurb also approvingly
quotes <i>Publishers Weekly</i> to recommend the book to readers of
von Daniken and Velikovsky:</div>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>For
those readers impatient with the gaps in traditional science and
theology, dissatisfied with both divine creation and evolutionary
theory, Richard Moony offers a radical hypothesis... followers of von
Daniken and Velikovsky will take it in their stride.</i></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But it's also interesting for the way it also anticipates Intelligent
Design and, in particular, astronomers Fred Hoyle's and Chandra
Wickramasinghe's theories that life began elsewhere in the universe,
and was seeded throughout the cosmos by a guiding intelligence, in
their books <i>Lifecloud</i>, <i>Diseases from Space</i> and
<i>Evolution from Space</i>. And it also prefigures the idea of
Ronald Pearsall, a science teacher and colleague of radical
Spiritualist Michael Roll, that there is a cosmic intelligence
composed of subatomic particles that created humanity.</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC1OW1WysQ62NNcoK2xUhZzfSPqZKI7sj1VDWA5f7dXipw2_SRjnuznxsF4WyHD0dNm3vCXQGDDlTRalY3oOHt1aDdoFnGO1SFfiTmarsjN15ZSfABYb7d3__RSHRvAgDSYdEBcBavJCk/s1600/Colony+Earth+Cover+Pic.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1036" data-original-width="636" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC1OW1WysQ62NNcoK2xUhZzfSPqZKI7sj1VDWA5f7dXipw2_SRjnuznxsF4WyHD0dNm3vCXQGDDlTRalY3oOHt1aDdoFnGO1SFfiTmarsjN15ZSfABYb7d3__RSHRvAgDSYdEBcBavJCk/s640/Colony+Earth+Cover+Pic.jpeg" width="392" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mooney's introduction discusses the evidence for a highly advanced,
ancient civilisation that is now vanished using some of the classic
examples of ancient technology, such as the Baghdad battery, an
aluminium belt found in China and the gold plating carried out by the
Chimu of South America. This, he states, can only be replicated
through electroplating. He also cites crystal lenses from ancient
Sumer and Babylon. It has been claimed that The 'Baghdad battery' was
an early voltaic cell. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
More recently it has been suggested that this
is correct, though this does not mean that the ancient Babylonians
were far more technologically advanced than previously known. It has
been argued instead that they are known to have treated people with
particular disorders with shocks from electric fish, like the Torpedo
fish. They therefore constructed the battery for use as a medical
instrument. If true, it does show that they did indeed know of
electricity. But it does not show that they also possessed other
advanced technological wonders, like electric lighting or computers.
Mooney then goes on from this to make rather more far-fetched claims.
Like the metal giant, Talos, created by Poseidon in ancient Greek
myth to guard the treasure of the kings of Crete, may have been a
robot. Or that the legends of serpents' eggs and magicians' wands
that produced fire were memories of hand grenades and rifles.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The first chapter discusses the place of our solar system in the
galaxy, and the two rival theories of its origin â that it was
either the result of a cosmic collision between the Sun and another
star, or that it and the Sun coalesced out of a nebula of gas and
dust. In subsequent chapters, the book goes on to suggest that the
best place for looking for planets with intelligent life is around
stars of a similar age or older to the Sun, that is G, K and M type
stars, and goes on to discuss the possibility that life existed
before Earth. It argues that life operates in complete reverse to
that of ordinary matter. While ordinary matter decays from the
complex to the former, life moves from the simple to the more
complex. It then suggests that DNA is similar to computer software
and so may have been the product of an intelligence. He states:</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>The discovery of DNA, with all its implications, was seized upon
by believers as further proof of the existence of God. In the case of
the computer, we know that someone has </i><i>programmed</i><i> the
information onto the tape for it to act upon. Could it not be said,
then, that as the computer has a </i><i>programmer</i><i>, the DNA
helix also has a planner? Perhaps the concept of a 'vital force'
which 'animates' chemical systems making them life systems, could be
expressed in a different way</i> (p. 23).</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is then followed by the theory, first proposed by the British
physicist, Sir Arthur Eddington, that there could be mental particle,
the mindon, similar to subatomic particles of matter, like the
neutrino. A professor at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand,
Lawdon, suggested that mind is a universal property of matter, and
physicist and astronomer V.A. Firsoff proposed that these mental
particles interacted to form 'mental entities' governing or
controlling purposeful action in organic chemical systems. It then
claims that the fossilised traces of life have been found in
meteorites, and that life may have been deliberately seeded on Earth
from elsewhere in the Solar system.</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This idea goes back to the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, but was more
recently put forward by the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius. One
of the strongest pieces of evidence for extraterrestrial life comes
from the meteorite that landed in Orgueil, France, in the 19th
century. This had 'organised structures', including collapsed spore
membranes and two mushroom shapes. There is therefore a possibility
that the Earth was seeded, purposefully or not, by intelligent
creatures from a lost planet, which broke up, creating the asteroid
belt. The book then discusses the evolutionary history of life on
Earth, and the mystery of what killed off the dinosaurs. This last is
supposed to have been a giant supernova explosion, but Mooney objects
to this on the grounds that if it killed off the dinosaurs, then why
didn't it kill off other reptiles?</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The possibility that life exists elsewhere in the Solar system is
then discussed. The book shows that Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune and Pluto won't be the home of life. It is unknown whether
there is life on Mars, as although organic compounds have been
discovered from spectral analysis of its light, the photographs from
the Mariner probes show that it is more like the Moon than Earth. It
also proposes three alternative models of the surface of Venus. One
is of a hot desert under perpetual clouds of carbon dioxide; a world
covered with seas and life-forms similar to those of Earth's
Paleozoic, or, alternatively, Venus is covered with oceans of
petroleum formed by condensed hydrocarbons.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the next chapter, Mooney debates the possibility that humanity
came from outside the Solar system, mentioning the possible evidence
from UFOs and that we may have been visited by automated probes. More
out of place objects are also cited as evidence that we may have been
visited millions of years ago by an extraterrestrial civilisation.
This includes Dr. Gurlt's Cube, a rectangular chunk of metal 67 mm by
47 mm, which was found in a mine in Silesia in 1887. It then cites
Dr. Lipp, von Hoerner, Carl Sagan and S.S. Huang that
extraterrestrial civilisations may be found and communicating
relatively close by in the Galactic neighbourhood â 100 to 1,000
light years, and that there might be 5 â 8 billion inhabited worlds
in the Galaxy. He also returns to Firsoff's idea that mind may be a
fundamental property of the universe. Firsoff suggested that the
universe may be alive, and the Galaxy a living entity operating on
nuclear rather than biological principles 'beyond our awareness and
comprehension'. Mooney goes on to say</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>We could therefore postulate that an intelligent physical life
form arose on a planet of a star near the galactic nucleus. How this
form arose we are unable to say â perhaps there</i> was <i>some
kind of 'divine creation'. Perhaps it arose only once, in human form
(which seems remarkably well designed as a functional,
machine-building organism), or there may be other, nonhuman
intelligences.</i></div>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Upon
reaching a sufficient level of progress so that space travel could be
commenced, this intelligent life form spread outward through the
galaxy, traveling from suitable star to suitable star, and leaving
some of its members on habitable planets or planets that could be
made habitable, in the hope that they would take root and survive.</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(p. 47). </span>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This chapter also cites the great Russian scientist and rocket
pioneer, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who said that colonisation rather
than evolution may have been the major factor in the spread of life
in the universe.</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The next chapter then ponders the question whether Earth has been
colonised. Mooney states that we are at the 'dug-out canoe level' of
space travel at the moment, and considers various methods by which a
spacecraft could travel to other stars. This needs massively more
powerful propulsion systems, such as nuclear or ion engines. Time
dilation at velocities near the speed of light would keep the crew
young, as decades or centuries passed on Earth. Other solutions
include ark ships, where generations of people are born and die
during the voyage, and suspended animation. Other, more exotic forms
of transport and interstellar communication are also considered, like
faster than light and warp drives, as well as telepathy and
teleportation. But there may also be problems for interstellar
colonists. The machinery and other advanced technology aboard their
ship may become worn out and fail to be replaced, to the point where
they may become unable to produce items like guns and shells. But as
pioneers on a new world, they would only need the simplest technology
and skills â weaving, pottery and candle-making. The first human
colonists on this world, thus equipped, would have found transistors,
printed circuits and lasers to be as mysterious as they would to a
Roman soldier.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Human evolution is then tackled in chapters with the titles 'The
Evolution Hoax' and 'The Myth of the Apeman'. The argument here is
that biologically modern humanity appeared suddenly, 40,000 years
ago, and is very different and far more advanced than its hominid
predecessors, the <i>australopithecines</i>, while there is a long gap of 7
million years between the disappearance of Dryopithecus, the Miocene
ape believed ancestral to the hominid line, and the next pre-human
ancestor, Ramapithecus. Mooney notes that there are no pre-human
ancestors found in the Americas and elsewhere outside of Africa, but
dismisses the theory that humanity evolved in Africa and later
migrated to the other continents. He discards this on the ground that
they would be moving from a warmer to a colder climate before they
had yet learned to make clothes, and thus would have died of exposure
during the Ice Ages.</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He also argues, <i>contra</i> Darwinian evolutionary theory, that the
gradual accumulation of mutations could have been sufficient to
produce the necessary physiological and mental differences between
humans and prehumans. He points to chimpanzees, stating that they
have been around longer than humanity, and asking why they haven't
advanced to a comparable level. He once again turns to von Daniken
for answers, who asked why there are no chimpanzees in trousers. It
is because they never possessed the capability to evolve into humans.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The old image of the Neanderthal as an unintelligent, shambling
creature is attacked and overturned. Mooney argues that Neanderthals
were intelligent beings. As for Cro Magnon people, they were taller
with larger brains than modern humans. He discusses the great skill
of the cave artists of the palaeolithic and the fact that even at
this remote epoch they appear to have worn well-tailored clothes,
with men shaving and cutting their hair. Mooney once again follows
von Daniken and asks why it is that human intelligence first appears
35,000 years ago, but it has only been in the last 6,000 years that
there has been a sudden rise in the construction of cities,
mathematics, agriculture, irrigation and medicine, concluding that
von Daniken's proposal that humanity was shown all this by aliens
'has much to recommend it'. He also claims that myths across the
globe not only show gods descending from the sky, but that humanity
also possessed the power of flight, leading to the possibility that
there was at one time an advanced, global civilisation. Part of the
evidence in support of this is that the remains have been found in
Alaska of pre-Inuit urban centres.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The book subsequently develops the idea that there was indeed such an
advanced civilisation, memories of which are preserved in the myths
of Atlantis and Lemuria as well as the Bible and the great texts of
other religions, like the Mahabharata in Hinduism. This great
civilisation was destroyed not by an Ice Age, but by a global
catastrophe. This would not, however, have been caused by the impact
of a comet or the close passage of Venus, as suggested by Velikovsky,
C. Beaumont or Hans Hoerbiger. He cites the evidence for mass
extinctions of animals like the mammoth and for a change in climate
when areas now deserts were flourishing, concluding that something
occurred to upset the world's axial tilt. This was caused by a great
flood, as described in the story of Noah in the Bible and in the
legends and myths of other religions.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The book goes on to discuss the origins of the different human races,
Blacks, Caucasians and Asians. These may have evolved separately
according to the different conditions on different planets, or they
may also have evolved in different regions on Earth. He notes that
racism and racial consciousness has only appeared recently. On the
other hand, he cites the myth of Viracocha among the Incas and the
Saiyam Unicob of the Maya to argue that the founders of these South
America cultures were White. He also claims that this is shown by the
skeletons of the rulers of the ancient South American pre-Inca
civilisation of the Chimu at their capital, Chan-Chan. The story of
the Garden of Eden refers to the idyllic condition of the whole world
before the Flood. South American legends are also cited to claim that
the ancient civilisation was also remembered as possessing electric
lighting.</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ancient mapmakers, like those who created the Piri Reis map, were
also aware of the geography of parts of the world, which they could
not possibly have known according to contemporary wisdom. And the
ancient astrologers were also aware of the as yet unknown 'odique'
rays coming from the sun, as suggested by the French astrologer
Michael Auphan. On the other hand, the global catastrophe recorded as
Noah's Flood is different from that which destroyed Atlantis. This
was caused by the eruption of Thera, which not only destroyed the
Minoan civilisation, but also produced the 12 plagues that afflicted
Egypt in the story of Exodus. Among the causes he considers for the
global Flood is the possibility that the Earth may have been shifted
in its orbit by an anti-gravity engine. Ancient civilisations could
also have used anti-gravity devices to levitate the great stones they
used to build monuments like Stonehenge and the other megalithic
monuments, the great Inca city of Sacsayhuaman and the great pyramid
of Cheops. He also cites the 'Brahma weapon' described in the
Mahabharata, which produced smoke like 10,000 suns, and caused
terrible gales and sickness in people and animals for days
afterwards, while the sun, stars and sky were hidden by clouds and
violent storms as a description of a nuclear war.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The description of God in the Bible and other religious texts
actually describes an extraterrestrial visitor, a space god. It was
these alien gods, who inflicted the great catastrophe on humanity as
a punishment for their rebellion. The cave people discovered by
archaeologists were thus not primitives, but the survivors of this
catastrophe, who had been forced to return to a primitive state.</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The emergence of the ancient civilisations across the world that for
conventional archaeologists and historians mark the beginning of
history and civilisation Mooney considers just a restoration by the
survivors of the ancient flood. He supports this by claiming that the
ancient cultures of Sumeria, the Minoans and Egypt in the Old World,
and the Incas, Maya and Toltecs in the New suddenly appeared without
any predecessors. He also draws on ancient myths of these
civilisations being founded by gods from across the seas â Poseidon
for ancient Crete, Quetzalcoatl for the Maya, to argue that their
founders were groups of survivors from northern Europe, who had fled
south and west to escape the destruction. He also attempts to explain
the differences between these cultures by suggesting that they
gradually forgot some of the common elements derived from the
ancient, antediluvian culture as time went on.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Drawing on the work of the archaeologists and prehistorians
investigating Stonehenge, like Alexander Thom and Gerald Hawkins,
Mooney concurs that the great stone circles were indeed ancient
astronomical observatories and computers. These can measure the
Earth-Moon-Sun distance with great accuracy. From this, Mooney argues
that they Stonehenge and the rest of them were built as one large
stone computer system spreading across continents in order to measure
the Earth's new axial tilt after the catastrophe. He also identifies
the ancient Hyperboreans mentioned in the Greek myths as the ancient
British. Following the suggestion of an American researcher that
Stonehenge was built to be seen from above, like the Native American
serpent mound in Ohio, the book goes on to claim that the ancient
Brits did so because they had aircraft. This is based on another
piece from ancient Greek literature, whose author, Abaris, claimed he
had flown in 'Apollo's arrow'. This is interpreted as a description
of an airplane. Mooney is also unconvinced by suggestions how
Stonehenge and the other monuments could have been built by cultures
that had only the most primitive technology. This was impossible, and
the reason why nobody has ever found the remains of the rollers and
other engineering works needed to move the building materials is
because they never existed. Instead the stones were brought to the
site and moved into position using anti-gravity technology.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The book then follows C. Beaumont in claiming that the passage graves
â the long barrows built at the same time as the henge monuments â
were shelters based on a passage in Isaiah ordering the Israelites to
go to shelters to avoid God's wrath. He notes the presence of fires
and cooking materials in these graves and sees them as evidence that
people were living in them, not that they were provisions left for
the dead for their journey to the other world. Noting how strongly
they were built, Mooney argues that they were fallout shelters. The
presence of human remains within them does show they were also used
as tombs, but this was afterwards by the survivors, possibly because
by the time the catastrophe had passed the chambers had acquired
religious meaning.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The pyramids, so the book argues, were similarly built as massive air
raid shelters and not as tombs for the pharaohs. He claims that there
is little real evidence that they contained human remains, and that
the claims that they did so are based on rock-cut tombs in the Valley
of the Kings. Discussing the Great Pyramid of Cheops, he states that
neither the ancient Greek historian Herodotus nor the ancient
Egyptian historian, Manetho, mention a king of this name. Mooney
cites instead an Arab historian, Masudi, who claimed that they were
built before the flood by a king called Surid. He then describes the
structure of the pyramids, noting that they had air shafts and
elevated entrances. These would have provided the people sheltering
within them with ventilation, and prevented the flood waters getting
in. As with the Stonehenge and the tumuli of neolithic and Bronze Age
Europe, he claims that it was simply beyond the ancient Egyptians'
ability to construct them using copper or bronze tools. Therefore,
like the passage graves, they were built using highly advanced
technology. They cut the rocks with laser beams, and hauled them into
position with anti-gravity devices.</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Moving on to the great civilisations of South America, Mooney
similarly argues that they were built by survivors of the ancient
flood using advanced technology. He states that the Incas had no
written language, but acknowledges that the Aztecs had a pictorial
alphabet while the Maya had a system of glyphs. He goes on to claim
that there are no indigenous South American epics like the Odyssey,
nor kings comparable to those of the ancient Egyptians. He also
argues from the carbon dating of wooden remains found in Maya ruins
that they are far older than the convention dating of AD 700. He then
describes the massive and impressive construction of Tiahuanaco on
Lake Titicaca and the Inca fortress as Sacsayhuaman. He claims that
by the time they were discovered by Europeans, the indigenous peoples
had forgotten who built them. He finds this incredible, and that it
contradicts mainstream historians' view that they were built by the
Incas or a similar indigenous civilisation. He also argues that the
Incas' road system was established long before they came to power,
and was appropriated by them as one of their own achievements.
Examining some of the structures in Tiahuanaco that were used as a
calendar, the book cites various scholars, who claimed that these
gave the true date for the construction of the city to about 9,300 to
14,600 years ago.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mooney is also impressed by the workmanship of other artifacts from
South America, like the very fine needlework of ancient textiles,
which cannot be replicated by modern mechanical weaving. He follows
von Daniken in believing the Nazca lines of the Atacama desert were
constructed to be seen from above. He is also impressed by tiny
golden beads, less than a pinhead in size, which were also
constructed by another South American culture. He notes the Mayas'
highly advanced mathematics, and claims that the Chimu were highly
sophisticated doctors and surgeons, who knew how to manufacture
artificial limbs. Because these are shown on their monuments,
allegedly. Altogether he concludes that these great engineering feats
were beyond the ability of their supposed builders using the tools
they are commonly believed to have had, and so, like the pyramids of
Egypt and the long barrows of Europe, they had to have been built
with advanced technology. The differences between these cultures also
arose for the same reasons as those between the rest of the ancient
civilisations as a whole. As time went on, the individual
civilisations forgot those parts of their culture which they shared
with the other groups of survivors, and developed others that they
inherited, so that the differences gradually increased.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinD5MwGe0PRnDYdWwYAzs6LrjEAFfbszQoWQ8akXHdQgEFngeaNz7jlxx7K5Sdu1BHXegZOMpnlhYaUKWQGGFPY4OPmeqMmsaMnZ05Qy2N7EPG3Q0YucPrh8jAPPSrzH-e_CKMN9g8HoQ/s1600/viracocha.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="756" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinD5MwGe0PRnDYdWwYAzs6LrjEAFfbszQoWQ8akXHdQgEFngeaNz7jlxx7K5Sdu1BHXegZOMpnlhYaUKWQGGFPY4OPmeqMmsaMnZ05Qy2N7EPG3Q0YucPrh8jAPPSrzH-e_CKMN9g8HoQ/s640/viracocha.jpg" width="472" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: small;"><b>THE INCA GOD VIRACOCHA</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The book then attempts to expand on its argument that the original
culture-bearers, the legendary founders of the South American
civilisations, were indeed bearded White men. It discusses and
discards the theory that the similarities between the great South
American civilisations and that of Europe and the Middle East were
due to colonists from Atlantis or the migration of lost tribes of
ancient Hebrews, as described by the Book of Mormon. Mooney does,
however, consider that there is still a possibility that some
Amerindian cultures may have been descended from the ancient
Israelites. He claims that in ancient Rome and Egypt, the possession
of White skin and reddish hair was a sign of nobility. He also cites
other scholars of South American mythology to show that the great
culture heroes of the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl, the Maya, Kukulcan, and
the Incas, Viracocha, were all White. The term Viracocha is still
used by the Amerindian peoples of Peru to describe White men.
Viracocha supposedly was not only White, but also had something like
a European tonsure and carried a book with clasps. This is
remarkable, considering that books were unknown in the West in 2000
BC, when writing materials consisted of clay tablets or were
inscribed on stone blocks instead of paper.</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He also claims that ancient Andean legends show that these White men
intermarried with local women and then were driven out by their
mixed-race children, who became the first kings, and claims that the
Conquistadors found that some Incas had lighter skin and reddish hair
like Europeans, rather than Amerindians. This part of the book says
that some Europeans believed that these White gods were appearances
by Christ, but he rejects that, claiming that the appearance of these
deities predate Jesus. He has no doubt, however, that these White
gods were actually real people, the survivors of the global
catastrophe, restoring civilisation after everything had lapsed into
barbarism. He also notes that these gods are described as 'bringers
of light' and are associated with 'cities of light', and that
Jerusalem in the Old Testament and the Book of Revelations is
described as a city of light. He believes this shows that both the
ancient Hebrew and the South American civilisations had a common
source.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The final chapter 'Gods and Men' argues that all the world's myth and
religions have essentially the same structure. This is that humanity
was placed here by beings from the sky and given dominion over the
Earth. Humanity then rebels, like Lucifer in Christianity and
Judaism, and is duly punished by a great disaster, including a
devastating flood. These myths preserve the memory of real events, in
which humanity came here from the stars. However, humanity rebelled
and was punished by its extraterrestrial overlords. The Bible is an
especially accurate record of these events. The story of Exodus
accurately describes in mythological terms the eruption of Thera near
Crete and the subsequent plagues this event inflicted on ancient
Egypt.
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ezekiel's vision of the flying creatures and something that looked
like wheels within wheels is a description of an encounter with a
real UFO, as is his description of being taken to a chamber where
special robes were needed. This is interpreted by Mooney as
suggesting that he was taken to an extraterrestrial base, where
special protective clothing was required because of radioactivity. A
description elsewhere in ancient Near Eastern legend of a traveller
gaining weight the closer he was taken to heaven describes the
effects of the G forces they experienced during their flight. The
scapegoat motif is also common to all religions, and appears in
Christianity as the death of Christ. Christ's death and resurrection
is part of the same mythological trope that sees the sun as dying
each evening only to be reborn the next day. This anxiety about the
sun's disappearance dates from the fear caused by its disappearance
during the nuclear war and subsequent flood. The ritual washing that
is also a part of so many of the world's religions also dates from
the catastrophe, and the need to clean clothes and other objects of
radioactive contamination.</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The book ends with a 'Concluding Word', stating that if the world
really did suffer a horrendous disaster in antiquity that caused
civilisation to vanish into barbarism, we are faced with a similar
situation where, due to our foolishness, we could thrust ourselves
back into ten thousand years of savagery.</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The book's now very dated, and it's central idea â that the ancient
gods were alien spacemen â has suffered from the attacks on von
Daniken's works in such books as <i>Crash Go the Chariots</i>. His
archaeological arguments also run against the facts. Some of his
ideas have been disproven by later discoveries, which he could not
possibly have known about, but some of them were well known at the
time he was writing. And some of the statements he asserts as fact
are simply wrong.</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For example, Cheops is most definitely mentioned by Herodotus as the
builder of the Great Pyramid. While it is, or was, a matter of debate
how the great stones were lifted into position, there's no doubt that
it was done by human workers. The pioneering Egyptologist Flinders
Petrie himself excavated the worker's town of Kahun, and the
archaeologist John Romer has written about another village occupied
by craftsmen working on the pyramids, Deir el-Medina. And in 1990 the
necropolis containing the workers' graves was also discovered. Scenes
of everyday life inside Egyptian tombs also show workers hauling
stone blocks from the quarries. And I'm fairly certain one of the
archaeological programmes screened on British TV in recent years also
proudly showed a tomb painting of ramps being used to haul the blocks
into position as proof that the pyramids were definitely not built
through anti-gravity or any other kind of super advanced technology.
The evolution of the pyramids from ordinary tombs through step
pyramids to their characteristic, fully triangular type, is also well
understood. As is the change in architectural materials, as the
Egyptians switched from largely wooden buildings to stone.
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Likewise, the book is quite wrong when it claims that the ancient
civilisations suddenly appeared out of nowhere without any
predecessors. The origins of civilisation are still being explored,
and the discovery of Gobekli Tepe earlier this century has shown that
it appeared earlier than previously considered, as well as
challenging the assumption that urbanisation and agriculture
developed together. But the great civilisations of Egypt and
Mesopotamia were preceded by the establishment of settled villages
and farming in the Natufian in Egypt, and at Jarmo in Iraq, for
example. I also believe that archaeologists in the Americas have also
found village settlements that preceded the great civilisations on
those continents. But if the book ignores some pieces of
well-established archaeology, it makes up others. I have not heard of
any urban centres having been discovered in Alaska, that predate the
Inuit. I don't think they exist. However, the Aleutian people at its
eastern tip used to live in wooden lodges half-buried beneath the
snow. Perhaps Mooney came across a garbled description about their
settlements, or became confused himself, and so made the claim based
on this, very much existing Native American people.
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The book is almost certainly correct when it claims that Stonehenge
and the other, similar stone circles in megalithic Europe were
ancient astronomical observatories. That's now accepted archaeology.
However, the idea that the long barrows were air raid shelters is
still wrong. They were indeed tombs, though archaeologists have
recently suggested that they were also sites of religious ritual as
well. Fires were lit outside their entrances and the bones themselves
seem to have been handled. This was possibly as part of shamanic
ceremonies to allow the community direct contact with their ancestors
in the afterlife.
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Back to the supposed similarity between the great civilisations of
South America and Egypt, these are, as very many people have said,
more apparent than real. Yes, the Egyptians and Mayans built
pyramids, but before the invention of the arch, this was only the way
to build extremely large structures. And I'm also certain that the
development of the Aztec pyramid from its more primitive predecessors
is also well understood. But the book's focus on these cultures and
those of the Near East also shows how it excludes facts that would
cast doubt on its own theories. The civilisations of China and Asia
are just as ancient, but with the exception of the Indian Mahabharata
and the flying ships â Vimanas â of the Hindu scriptures, these
are ignored. This is possibly because they and their architecture are
so markedly different from those of the Middle East, although the
Harappan civilisation certainly had links to ancient Mesopotomia.
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He's also wrong when he says that the South American civilisations
have no epics comparable to the Odyssey, and no kings to rival those
of Egypt. He writes this while citing the Popul Vuh, the Mayan holy
book that describes how their civilisation and its royal lineages
were founded by the gods. And yes, these civilisations certainly did
have their kings equal to those of the Old World, like the great Inca
emperors, the Aztecs and the Maya. The Maya glyphs have long been
decoded and read, and shocked the scholars who did so. Previously the
Maya were believed to be a peaceful, agricultural people. The
translated inscriptions, on the contrary, revealed a long history of
war and dynastic intrigue between the competing kings and their
cities. More recent theories also challenge the idea that the Inca
<i>quipu</i> is simply an accounting tool. They're actually a form of
writing, and the surviving <i>quipus </i>doubtless contains epics and other
works of literature, which we cannot yet read. And like the ancient
Egyptians, the techniques they used to carve and fit the great stone
blocks for their ancient cities and monuments are also known. The
Incas, for example, used round hammer stones. These have been found
discarded in rivers, and also in ancient salt mines, where the salt
has also preserved the leather thongs used to suspend larger stones
for use as battering rams against the rock.</div>
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And this reveals the central, chauvinistic, even racist premise at
the heart of the book. All the ancient astronaut theories are based
on the belief that ancient peoples were too stupid to build their
great architectural monuments or discover civilisation for
themselves. And this is compounded by the book's proposal that the
great culture heroes were all White. It's true that Quetzalcoatl,
Kukulcan and Viracocha were described as White in the religions of
the Aztecs, Mayas and Inca. However, the ancient Egyptians depicted
their men, including the pharaohs, as reddish brown, and their women
as yellow, and even sometimes portrayed themselves as black. They did
not portray themselves as White, and used pink for the skin colour of
non-Egyptian, European peoples like the Minoans. Similarly, I don't
doubt that the founders of the ancient South American civilisations
were indigenous Amerindians. Some of the archaeologists exploring the
great civilisations there have appeared on recent documentary series,
like BBC 4's <i>Lost Civilisations of South America</i>. These have
discussed the Chimu and shown the remains of people from its capital,
Chan-Chan. And they weren't White, but Amerindian.</div>
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Then there are the larger claims. Yes, many cultures have stories
about a global flood, but scholars have long since given up the idea
that there was a single flood covering the entire world. Rather,
these myths are probably based on the individual cultures' experience
of disastrous flooding. And some scholars believe that the story of
Noah's flood in the Bible, and related stories in ancient Greek and
Babylonian myth, may well have been inspired by the catastrophic
flooding of the Black Sea many thousands of years before. The book
may well be right about the eruption of Thera causing the twelve
Biblical plagues of Egypt. There have been books published in more
recent years proposing this. However, there are real objections to
his argument that the world's myths all share the same basic
structure. There are similarities across cultures, and themes
certainly can recur in widely different peoples separated from each
other by thousands of miles.
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But the world's religions can also be very different. Some of the
supposed similarities between Christianity and indigenous religions,
such as those of Africa, may be due to the unconscious bias of the
first anthropologists and other scholars to record them. Many of them
were Christians, and some were missionaries and other clergy, and
they may have been so struck by some similarities between their own
faith and those of the peoples they studied, that they unconsciously
gave excessive emphasis to them and ignored the differences. As for
the common theme that humanity has fallen from its previous close
relationship with God or the gods, this is probably an attempt to
deal with the existential question of why death and suffering exists,
rather than a memory of some ideal society in which humanity lived in
harmony with its extraterrestrial overlords. Religious scholars have
also rejected the idea that Christ's death and resurrection is
derived from the dying and rising gods of the Ancient Near East or
were a vestige of a solar cult.
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Of the two theories of the origin of the solar system he discusses,
astronomers now believe that it coalesced out a nebula. Probes to
Venus has shown that it is indeed a ferociously hot desert with
sulphuric acid clouds and rain. There may be microbial life on Mars,
but the organic compounds detected by the spectrascopes may be due to
light from the planet passing through our atmosphere, and picking up
the signature of organic chemicals this contains. And there is the
possibility that life exists on several of the moons of Jupiter and
Saturn in oceans under their mantle of ice, warmed by deep sea vents
or tidal heating.</div>
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There are also serious problems with his arguments against evolution.
He's probably right that the Neanderthals were far more advanced than
nineteenth century biologists believed. Certainly many
palaeoanthropologists believe they used jewelry, and hence understood
symbolic culture, looked after their aged and buried their dead with
respect, suggesting that they had ideas about an afterlife. They also
were fascinated by eagle's wings and may have had a religion centred
around cave bears. Some other scholars have also controversially
doubted that random mutation can account for evolutionary change.
Apart from Creationists and those associated with the Intelligent
Design movement, like Dr. Michael Behe, these include Fred Hoyle and
Chandra Wickramasinghe and the American physicist, Dr. Lee Spetner.
Spetner lays out his arguments against it in <i>Not By Chance:
Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution</i>, while Hoyle And
Wickramasinghe do the same in <i>Evolution from Space</i>. Hoyle and
Wickramasinghe also suggest that the genetic elements for life came
here from space.
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It's true that organic chemicals have been found in meteorites, the
carbonaceous chondrites, and organic grains exist in the nebulae
between the stars. It is also possible that some of these meteorites
may have contained the fossils of living organisms, such as the
Martian meteorite recovered from Antarctica which caused such a stir
in the mid-'90s. This was extremely controversial, though I think
some scholars still believe that the microfossils it supposedly
contained are those of real organisms, rather than geological
artifacts. However, the orgueil meteorite is less suitable as
evidence, as I think it was stored in someone's fridge or larder, and
actually dropped into a tub of butter or margarine before it was
examined for signs of life. It's therefore heavily contaminated with
the remains of terrestrial organic products. As for the origin of
these meteorites, the asteroids probably aren't the remains of a
destroyed planets, but debris left over from the creation of the
solar system, which did not coalesce into the planets.</div>
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The book is also similar to those of the Creationists in stressing
the differences rather than similarities between anatomically modern
humans and their pre-human ancestors. It's certainly believed that
the anthropoid lineage is derived from a Miocene ape that lived in
the forests of Africa about 8 million years ago. However, as the BBC
admitted in their show on the evolution of humanity, <i style="font-style: normal;">Walking with
Cavemen</i>, there's no direct evidence for it and the creature was
not shown. It was just suggested through a brisk movement behind the
trees. The <i>austrolopithecines</i> were, I believe, more primitive and
apelike than scholars at the time of the book's publication believed.
The Creationists also have cast doubt on whether some of the
anthropoid creatures were in fact humanity's remote ancestors, like
'Lucy', discovered by Richard Leakey and his team. However, there
were many more prehuman hominids than the book discusses. Mooney
cites only <i>australopithecus</i> and the Neanderthals. But there were many
others, including a direct ancestor, <i>Homo Erectus</i>, and <i>Homo
Heidelbergensis</i>, who may have been the common ancestor of Homo
Sapiens and the Neanderthals.
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But humanity's evolutionary history has become more complex in recent
years, as related species of ancient hominid, which lived at the same
time as humanity's remote evolutionary ancestors, have been
discovered. Some scholars have said the model of human evolution is
so confused it looks less like a tree than a bush. The out of Africa
theory certainly seems to account very satisfactorily for the origins
and spread of humanity, especially as it is supported by recent
genetic research. As for chimpanzees not evolving to the same level
as humanity, this can also be explained by conventional evolutionary
theory. Creatures evolve as they adapt to their particular
environments or ecological niches, if I understand it correctly.
Chimps don't occupy the same ecological niche, or were subjected to
the same environmental pressures that led to the evolution of humans.
They remained in the forest, and so have evolved to be chimps, not
people. Similarly, Blacks, Whites and Asians are all members of Homo
Sapiens. They did not evolve from separate hominid lineages, nor on
different planets, but are adaptations to the different environments
on Earth.</div>
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As for space travel and colonisation, he correctly describes some of
the problems. The book seems to have come before the Bussard
interstellar ramjet was proposed. This would solve some of the
problems surrounding the use of suitable fuel for interstellar
spacecraft by using the gas and dust between the stars. However, it
also has serious problems which may make this impossible, although
these may in time be solved. See Mallove and Matlock, <i>The
Starflight Handbook</i>. But this section of the book is also
contradictory regarding the technological level of the first
colonists. It argues that they would first land on a new planet
needing only very simple skills and technology, before claiming that
in the case of Earth's extraterrestrial pioneers, the colonists had a
very high technology, which was lost due to their rebellion against
their extraterrestrial masters. It's possible that if the first
colonists interstellar colonists at first only had Neolithic level
technology when they arrived at their new world, subsequent waves of
colonisation and succeeding ships would have more advanced
technologies, which could lead to the emergence of a far more
advanced technological culture. But the book doesn't discuss this
possibility.
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And then there's the book's mystical speculation that the universe
itself possesses life and mind. It's a form of mystical pantheism,
and so may well appeal to that section of the New Age community which
has the same pantheistic inclinations. The mindons â the subatomic
particle of mind, suggested by Sir Arthur Eddington and V.A. Firsoff
â is interesting. It rather resembles the monads of Leibniz. These
were the great seventeenth century philosopher's alternative to the
materialistic atoms then being debated by contemporary scientists.
The monads also contained elements of mind, with the human soul as
one of the leading monads.
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The theory also sounds, however, like an attempt to reformulate the
<i>elan vital </i>of vitalists to the new paradigm of atomic physics
after the existence of the ether was disproved by the
Mitchelson-Morley experiment. But the mindon is also an attempt to
solve a philosophically respectable question: how can inert matter
give rise to life and consciousness? For the materialist, the
solution is simply that life arises as a natural result of physical
law. Cartesian dualists solve the problem by suggesting that
consciousness and matter are two separate, but linked substances. And
a third solution is dual aspect monism, which states that matter and
consciousness/spirit are merely two aspects of the same substance.
The mindon and the idea that the universe itself possesses mind and
consciousness seem have much in common with this latter philosophical
position.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Time has moved on since this book's publication, and those of von
Daniken and the others that started and fueled the ancient astronaut
craze. But the book is fascinating for what it shows of the mystical
views of some of its believers and advocates. Way back in the 1990s
Gareth Medway, a long time contributor to <i>Magonia</i>, wrote a
fascinating article arguing that the ancient astronaut myth was a way
that some people could reinterpret the Judaeo-Christian religious
tradition so that they continued to believe in godlike beings â the
space people â even after losing faith in a purely supernatural
creator. There is certainly more than an element of that here.
</div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The book argues that the universe itself may be conscious, and thus
the creator of life. Humanity's interstellar cousins, who colonised
Earth, aren't gods, but almost had divine powers. The Fall was a
literal event, although it was humanity's rebellion against and
subsequent punishment by these aliens. It also shows how Creationist,
anti-Darwinist views were also shared by those, who otherwise
rejected a literal interpretation of Genesis and perhaps the entire
Judaeo-Christian religious tradition. These ideas are similar to the
directed panspermia idea of evolution of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe,
which then influenced, or at least anticipated, a section of the
Intelligent Design movement. And it demonstrates the strength of the
feeling many people continue to have that humanity ultimately has its
origins in the heavens, even in the increasingly secular and
atheistic societies of the West.
</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-27325451387904534852017-08-27T07:59:00.003-07:002020-10-01T07:59:43.566-07:00Science and Pseudoscience, Religious and Atheist<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcy5uKDaXbccvniRTzGy0-wAIJWaAdjmlUK40DRcaxc0neyq6Dj00nT-vubZ0ls7VTtDcm32UlOKDLTo8t0_anUdBz-sHUMUiz7nIoasvK_kq8WMSUdTiS9uE806iVmw5nBrX1AOcI0qY/s1010/TITAN+HEADING.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="173" data-original-width="1010" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcy5uKDaXbccvniRTzGy0-wAIJWaAdjmlUK40DRcaxc0neyq6Dj00nT-vubZ0ls7VTtDcm32UlOKDLTo8t0_anUdBz-sHUMUiz7nIoasvK_kq8WMSUdTiS9uE806iVmw5nBrX1AOcI0qY/w665-h110/TITAN+HEADING.jpg" width="665" /></a></div><br /><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><b><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a></span>Science and
Pseudoscience, Religious and Atheist, in Stephen Baxter's<i> Titan</i></span></b></b>
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Stephen Baxter is a leading British SF writer. He's probably best
known for his <i>Xelee</i> series of SF novels, set in a universe in
which the dominant lifeform is the mysterious and godlike Xelee, who
are locked in a war for survival and control of the universe with the
dark matter Photino Birds. The Photino Birds are hostile to ordinary,
baryonic matter and are engaged in a campaign down through billions
of years to age the universe, until it is cold, dark and lifeless. He
also wrote a series of books with the late Terry Pratchett, in which
humanity discovers the technology to travel to a series of parallel
realities, <i>The Long Earth</i>, <i>The Long War</i>, and <i>The
Long Utopia</i>. He has degrees in Maths and a Ph.D in aeronautical
engineering and is a writer of Hard SF, the subgenre that insists on
grounding the fiction as far as possible in known science, though
often extrapolated to extremes with a bit of artistic licence. In
the 1990s, he was the scientific adviser to the British SF TV series,<i>
Invasion Earth</i>. He is also a fan of H.G. Wells, and has been
president of the H.G. Wells Society.<br />
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Wells saw human civilisation as a race between education and
catastrophe, and <i>Titan, </i>published in 1998 by HarperCollins,<i>
</i>shares this pessimism. Its central theme is the conflict between
science and anti-science, centred on one last, crewed mission to
Saturn's moon, Titan. In it, a NASA weakened by decades of budget
cuts is finally closed down by a populist, extreme right-wing
president, Xavier Maclachlan, running on a wave of anti-science
feeling in a collapsing and fragmented USA. The Agency is finally
wound up after a shuttle accident, and the remaining rump given to a
violently paranoid USAF general, Al Hartle. Hartle, who has the same
attitude towards the Chinese as General Jack D. Ripper did to the
Russians in Stanley Kubrick's classic nuclear black comedy, <i>Dr.
Strangelove</i>, orders the remaining scientists and technicians to
develop a technique of delivering a genetically engineered virus that
kills only Han Chinese.
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As a reaction against the Agency's closure, a team of astronauts,
scientists and mission control leaders launch a last crewed mission
to Titan, where the Cassini probe has discovered the chemical
signature of life. They hope this will provoke the same public
enthusiasm for space exploration as the first moon landings did,
though they are now all but forgotten. They hope that a new
administration will either send another mission to rescue them, or,
failing that, send equipment and supplies to allow them to live
permanently on the ice-bound moon of Saturn. Maclachlan instead
cancels the entire programme, leaving the remaining astronauts
stranded.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Meanwhile, the Chinese respond to the germ warfare attack by
launching a crewed mission to an Earth-grazing asteroid. Ostensibly
for scientific purposes, this is a suicide mission. The single female
<i>taikonaut</i> sets off a nuclear explosion to nudge the asteroid into a
new course, so that it will hit America. The Chinese have, however,
miscalculated. The asteroid is too large, and the resulting impact
has the same force as that which wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million
years ago, destroying humanity. The two remaining survivors of the
<i>Titan</i> mission realise what has happened. The pair's scientist,
Rosenberg, prepares a germ culture that, properly inserted in one of
the lakes on Titan containing liquid water, will preserve the
microscopic seeds of terrestrial life against the time when the moon
will finally be warmed into a suitable environment billions of years
in the future when the Sun becomes a Red Giant. He dies, but
Benacerraf, the last surviving astronaut, manages to do this one,
final act, before she too, faced with dwindling supplies and
sickness, kills herself out on one of the icefloes.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
Billions of years pass, and the Sun swells into a Red Giant,
swallowing the inner planets. Rosenberg and Benacerraf, however, find
themselves resurrected on a warm Titan by the moon's indigenous
lifeforms, who have evolved after the Earth crew landed. These
creatures' biochemistry is based on ammonia, rather than water. Titan
has become too hot for them, and so they are retreating into
refrigerated cities, while developing an ecology based on terrestrial
biochemistry, derived from the germ samples planted by Benacceraf and
Rosenberg, to colonise the areas of their world which are now
unsuitable for their form of life. They are also engaged in a massive
panspermia project, launching robot vessels to nearby stars in order
to seed them with the microscopic spores of water- and ammonia-based
life against the final extinction of the solar system by the
expanding Sun.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i>Last and First Men</i>. A history of the
future, and the post-human civilisations that succeed ourselves, the
first men, this culminates in the final variety of humanity, who have
established a mature civilisation on Uranus. The sun is cooling,
however, and so this ultimate civilisation, the pinnacle of human
evolution, also seeds space with the germs of human and terrestrial
life. The great astronomer and science populariser, the late Carl
Sagan, also appears in <i>Titan</i>. In his afterword, in which he
pays tribute to him, Baxter says<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
As well as showing the influence of H.G. Wells, this part of the book
also follows the ideas of the British philosopher and SF writer, Olaf
Stapledon, in his <i>Last and First Men</i>. A history of the
future, and the post-human civilisations that succeed ourselves, the
first men, this culminates in the final variety of humanity, who have
established a mature civilisation on Uranus. The sun is cooling,
however, and so this ultimate civilisation, the pinnacle of human
evolution, also seeds space with the germs of human and terrestrial
life. The great astronomer and science populariser, the late Carl
Sagan, also appears in <i>Titan</i>. In his afterword, in which he
pays tribute to him, Baxter says</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Like H.G.
Wells, Sagan seems to have believed that the future of mankind would
be a race between education and catastrophe. In 1984 he co-authored
the concept of nuclear winter which may, perhaps, have helped avert
that very catastrophe from befalling us. As we near the end of a
millennium still largely gripped by the madnesses which dominated its
opening, we cannot afford to lose Sagan's brand of clear-thinking,
cheerful, communicative rationality.(p.
581).</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i>Titan</i> is science fictional exploration of the ways in which
rising anti-science irrationalism may not only pose a threat to the
space programme, but also to the very survival of humanity itself.
Someone once observed that all Science Fiction reflects the concerns
of the times in which it is written. In the case of <i>Titan</i>,
these are the Christian fundamentalist religious right, aggressive
nationalism, the militia movements, and rising interest in the
paranormal and fringe therapies of the 1990s, along with a number of
secular and even atheist brands of irrationalism. Although written
two decades ago, with the action beginning in the-then near future of
2004, this is still a very contemporary book. The description of the
policies of the new president, Maclachlan, could almost be that of
Donald Trump. As well as anti-science, Maclachlan is supported by
White nationalists and the militia movement. He is an economic
isolationist, withdrawing America from international trade agreements
like NAFTA, and the United Nations, whom he throws out of New York.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaJlxJG7WJSyHWQ7XEx7q6vBee8hoQ6woDHwvhZ-IkjFZFF6HUKeWRhY0YpPQS5E6SJmEOdI3YJ6Vo4d-bQ91M3-7bHED7rTMVGCPkpzzw9wGWW7QMMiX6z8G2Zsn-ABuN7qE2XYZCB44/s1600/Titan+Cover+Pic.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1035" data-original-width="644" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaJlxJG7WJSyHWQ7XEx7q6vBee8hoQ6woDHwvhZ-IkjFZFF6HUKeWRhY0YpPQS5E6SJmEOdI3YJ6Vo4d-bQ91M3-7bHED7rTMVGCPkpzzw9wGWW7QMMiX6z8G2Zsn-ABuN7qE2XYZCB44/s400/Titan+Cover+Pic.jpeg" width="248" /></a>On his election, he also declares that America is under Israeli
occupation. He is also a Creationist, who passes legislation
demanding that Aristotelian cosmology, including the crystal spheres,
is taught in schools. He also has NASA's extensive engineering,
launch facilities and administrative stations and offices destroyed,
except for a few, which are turned into museums. One of these is
dedicated to moon landings, but the exhibits have a strong religious
bias, so that the recorded voices of Apollo astronauts, like Buzz
Aldrin, tell the visitors only about the religious experiences they
had while on the moon.<br />
<br />
The book also mentions other subjects and
ideas, that are part of the wave of anti-science irrationalism
promoted or common in Lachlan's America. One of the planners of the
mission to Titan hopes that it will encourage more people to take up
engineering, rather than homeopathy and aramotherapy. The NASA
religious exhibit also includes Pete Conrad's ESP experiments on the
moon. So much of the irrational beliefs criticised and described in
the book are those, which were attacked by Sagan and the rest of his
colleagues in CSICOP as it was then, before it rebranded itself as
CSI. Which stands for the Committee for Scientific Investigation, and
not 'Crime Scene Investigation', the title of an American cop
programme. He also includes UFOs as one of the religious or
irrational parts of the NASA exhibit.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
The
book goes further to add some of the technological, scientific and
cultural trends, which are presented as also opposing or perverting
pure scientific rationality. These include Virtual Reality. The Net
in America has all been shut down, due to fears over its use by
terrorists. These are neo-Nazis, rather than Islamists, but it's
another part of the narrative that's still very contemporary. What's
left is run by the corporate giants, including a future conglomerate
made up of Coca-Cola and Disney. Benacerraf at one point expresses
the opinion that VR is also a symptom of America's decline, as
Americans have retreated from space exploration into elaborate
Virtual environments. Large numbers of young Americans are also
turning their backs on civilisation altogether, to live as
hunter-gatherers in a giant preserve set up by the Central American
nations. Other characters are also troubled by changes in gender
roles and reproductive technology. Benacerraf's daughter, Jackie, is
troubled by one of her teenage sons, who has decided that not only he
is gay, but that he also wants to become pregnant by his boyfriend,
using cloning techniques and implanting the resulting embryo in his
stomach lining.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
And among the other cults of unreason are the Nullists, young people,
who have become convinced that science teaches them that they do not
really exist. They cover themselves with computerised tattoos, which
bend light so that they are all but invisible. Fahy, a NASA mission
planner, sees them for the first time in a Chinese teashop during a
diplomatic mission. Her guide, the female taikonaut Jiang Ling,
explains that rather than being a protest against the Net's shutdown,
the Nullists are</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
a consequence
of the way we explain ourselves and our world to the young. Science
and economics: science, which teaches that we come from nothing and
return to nothing; economics, which teaches us that we are all mere
units, interchangeable and discardable. Science is already a cult of
non-existence, in a sense. The most extreme adherents cover their
bodies in image-tattoos, hiding themselves utterly. The Nullists are
a strange mixture of scientific and Zen influences.(p.
260).</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
This leads Fahy to contemplate Maclachlan and the anti-science
movement he was tapping. Ling then asks her what she feels the
Nullist say about the world they are building for the young. Fahy
replies that perhaps it is indeed hell, and there is no escape.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
Although she is not mentioned, this looks like an extrapolation from
the bizarre theory of the non-existence of human consciousness
developed by Sue Blackmore, a psychologist at the University of the
West of England. Blackmore was one of the New Parapsychologists, who
appeared in the 1990s. These didn't believe in psi or the paranormal,
but were interested in the psychological states behind the phenomena.
She caused something of a controversy with her research, which
suggested that the tunnel of light seen by some people during the
Near Death Experience was due to neurons firing in the dying brain.
She also appeared on the Beeb wearing the 'God helmet' designed by
Michael Persinger of Laurentian University in Canada. This was
supposed to generate feelings of a mysterious, supernatural presence
through magnetic fields acting on the brain. Other researchers have
failed to replicate Persingers results, and it seems the helmet
doesn't actually work.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
Blackmore came to the conclusion that consciousness didn't exist
partly through the work of Benjamin Libet, whose work may also have
influenced Baxter in the creation of the fictional Nullists. Another
of the book's characters, a female astronaut, also has Libet as her
surname. The real Libet conducted experiments that seemed to suggest
that the brain took the decision to perform an action a fraction of a
second before the conscious mind appeared to do so, which suggests
that free will is an illusion. Blackmore's views on consciousness
were included in her book, <i>Consciousness Explained</i>. She also
appeared to give a talk on the subject in July 2006 at the Cheltenham
Festival of Science. As well as Libet and other psychologists and
neurologists, Blackmore also mixed her ideas with a garbled version
of the Buddhist doctrine of <i>atman</i>, or 'no-mind'. Part of
Buddhist meditation involves the examination and stripping away of
levels of the mind, until one realises the illusory nature of the
self. However, in an interchange of letters in <i>New Scientist</i>,
the British philosopher Mary Warnock challenged her about this,
claiming that she had misunderstood the doctrine. The mind may be
held to be illusory in Buddhism, but there is still believed to be an
immortal aspect to humanity, and all other living beings, which is
subject to the wheel of rebirth, and which enters nirvana when one
achieves enlightenment and becomes a buddha.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
The Nullists, with their idea about the non-existence of the self
taken from science, economics and Zen Buddhism, appear to be a
fictional depiction of what would happen if people took Blackmore's
ideas seriously. Which is why most people don't. Blackmore also
shared some of Daniel C. Dennet's views on memes, which she developed
further in her book, <i>The Meme Machine</i>. Dennet was an American
philosopher, and one of the New Atheist 'Four Horsemen', along with
Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris. Dennet was
impressed with Richard Dawkins' theory of memes, self-reproducing
units of culture â jokes, anecdotes and so on, similar to genes in
biology, which he proposed in his book, <i>The Extended Phenotype</i>.
Blackmore took this idea still further, and claimed that the human
mind arose through purely naturalistic evolution as a biological
strategy for processing and reproducing memes, in the same way that
computers are designed to process and act according to software.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
The idea of memes has taken a battering since, as many philosophers
and scientists have pointed out that the concept is too imprecise and
vague to form a workable scientific hypothesis. The idea has
survived, and is used by computer nerds to describe certain recurrent
tropes and images on the Net. Although some did see Blackmore's views
on the non-existence of consciousness as the ultimate development of
purely materialist views of the human mind, in fact very few atheists
seem to have shared her view that the self didn't exist. Furthermore,
while the book's characters say that the non-existence of the self is
a product of science and the way it is communicated to the young,
this is in fact only true of specific attitudes in the philosophy of
science, positivism and scientism. It's only a problem if people
believe in science as an absolute system that rules out or
invalidates other ways people have used to give meaning to their
lives.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
Most people throughout history turned to religion, philosophy, art
and literature, to supply meaning to existence and make sense of the
human condition. Science could also be a part, and a very large part,
of this, but people of faith and some humanists have also made the
point that while science is immensely successful, it also has its
limits. Von Carnap and the positivism of the Vienna circle has
collapsed and given way to Critical Realism, because their views were
contradictory. Von Carnap and his followers claimed that science had
utterly discredited and supplanted metaphysics, but by making this
claim they themselves were making a metaphysical statement. More
recently Curtis White has pointed out that people need art and
literature to make sense of the world, as well as science, in his
book against Dawkins, Krauss and the other New Atheists, <i>The
Science Delusion</i>, published by Melville House. People take on
certain scientific findings as part of their worldview, but
supplement these with other, non-scientific views, views and beliefs
which, while not grounded in the hard sciences, may nevertheless be
equally valid on their own terms.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
Baxter is fair in his treatment of some of the secular movements
against civilisation and the space programme, with the possible
exception of the USAF. They are not presented as cardboard villains,
with strawmen arguments to be easily defeated by the heroes, who have
an answer to their every objection. The USAF, on the other hand, are
presented simply as paranoid militarists, who view NASA not just as
rivals for the exploitation of space, but almost as collaborators
with America's enemies. NASA is a civilian agency which stands for
the peaceful exploration of space, thus taking resources and
personnel away from, and blocking, the militarisation of the High
Frontier against America's external foes. Baxter's portrayal of NASA,
in this and his other book, <i>Voyage</i>, about a similar expedition
to Mars, is grounded in the Agency's history. The portrayal of the
USAF and their hostility to civilian spaceflight is probably
nevertheless historically accurate.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
Jackie Benacerraf's son also grounds his arguments for wishing to
become a modern day hunter-gatherer in solid archaeology. He states
that archaeologists have found that humans were more unhealthy and
less well-nourished after the invention of agriculture. While the
USAF's bitter resentment of NASA and its objectives is clearly stated
as being wrong, the son's statement of the detrimental effects of the
invention of agriculture is true, and a genuine problem for
archaeologists. They have solved the problem of why agriculture has
nevertheless been adopted by cultures across the globe by arguing
that population pressure forced societies to settle down in order to
feed their growing numbers on diminishing amounts of land, which
would be insufficient to feed the same amount of hunter-gatherers.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
Similarly, when Jackie Benacerraf argues with her mother over the
exploration of space, she makes the perfectly valid point that people
lost interest in the space programme because the other worlds of the
solar system were dead, offering nowhere interesting for humanity to
go, colonise and explore. This is true for very many people. The
solar system, dead as it is, is still important scientifically for
the information it may offer regarding its origin and that of life on
Earth, as well as the possible existence of life elsewhere in the
solar system at an earlier period, such as Mars. But for many people,
space exploration is at best uninteresting, at worst a waste of time
and resources, for precisely the reason Jackie Benacerraf says.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
This also makes the ending even more ironic. Rosenberg, contemplating
the high civilisation of the ammonia-based creatures on Titan, states
through tears that this is precisely what they went into space to
find, like Ray Bradbury's Martians. It's just that its billions of
years too late.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
However, the book does not tackle one of the main problems facing
anyone concerned with sorting out genuine, real science from
pseudoscience. For example,<i> Titan</i> presents the Apollo
astronauts experiments with ESP as irrational pseudoscience, but at
the time psychical research had been, or was well on its way to
becoming an accepted academic discipline by the American Society for
the Advancement of Science. Conversely, the Soviet Union lagged
behind America in the development of information technology because
Stalin's scientific advisor, Lysenko, who was responsible for some
truly astonishing pieces of bad science himself, considered it a
pseudoscience.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
Even some of Carl Sagan's ideas have not been immune to critique.
Sagan was a staunch advocate of SETI. He argued that the best
strategy for looking for extraterrestrial intelligence would be to
scan the skies with radio telescopes looking for their transmissions.
In one edition of his popular science series, <i>Cosmos</i>, he
imagined an advanced alien civilisation painfully hauling their old
radio telescopes out of museums and exhibitions, in order to return
them to use to signal to younger civilisations like ourselves. But as
the writers here have pointed out, this makes a number of highly
questionable assumptions. It assumes that intelligent aliens, if they
exist, must possess our kind of intelligence and consciousness, and
be engaged on much the same kind of technological projects as
ourselves. But this is anthropomorphism, a projection of human
characteristics onto creatures, which may be culturally and
psychologically, as well as biologically, so different from ourselves
that they are far beyond such human thinking or projects. I don't
know if Sagan would recognise it as such, but SETI is essentially a
religious project. And other scientists have certainly attacked it as
pseudoscience. I remember coming across one book in the popular
science section of Waterstones a few years ago, whose author included
it in a list of pseudosciences, which needed to be tackled as an
obstacle to real science.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
There is also another, related problem, in that not all
'unscientific' ideas and their adherents are necessarily anti-science
<i>per se</i>. Parapsychology is a case in point. While it might be
considered a pseudoscience to many orthodox scientists, nevertheless
the experimental standards of psychical researchers may be higher
than those in conventional science. Psi may not exist, but this does
not mean those looking for it are bad scientists, or that they are
opposed to conventional science. Indeed, rather than rejecting
conventional science, they wish to see it expanded to include their
subject.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
It's the same with UFOs. Flying saucers, as C.G. Jung said way back,
are 'a modern myth of things seen in the sky'. And as <i>Magonia's
</i>writers and Kevin McClure, a long time commenter on the
paranormal, have pointed out, it has had very serious and damaging
effects through the Abduction myth. But it can't be said that all
ufolks are necessarily opposed to conventional space exploration,
despite the bonkers utterances of some channelers and contactees.
Some years ago I went to a meeting of one of the UFO societies in
Bristol. Part of the evening was taken up with a couple of entirely
conventional talks on space and astronomy by members of the local
astronomical society, one of whom was an astronomy student at Bristol
university. One of the speakers remarked that she was surprised to
find so many members of the Astronomical Society in the audience. And
the Birdsall's <i>UFO Magazine,</i> when it was around, also carried
perfectly orthodox pieces on possible developments in space vehicles
and extraterrestrial life, along with the stupid and harmful material
about alien abductions and the bizarre views of Tony Dodds.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i>Titan </i>is an entertaining, and highly thought-provoking SF
novel, and it's to the author's credit that it includes secular, even
atheistic ideologies among the cults of unreason threatening
civilisation, human survival and the exploration and colonisation of
the universe. And some of the political trends, such as the
increasingly strident nationalism that could easily lead to a
military confrontation with China or Russia, is a serious problem.
Trump's administration also has an anti-science agenda in its
determination to suppress any government research supporting climate
change and the need to protect Earth's precious environment. The
problems facing space scientists and the supporters of crewed
missions to the planets and their colonisation also remain the same:
funding cuts from hostile governments, and an uninterested or even
actively hostile public.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
Bad science, such as that discussed and attacked by Ben Goldacre, in
his book of the same title, is a problem. But nevertheless, the
identification of what counts as pseudoscience, and going further,
harmful pseudoscience, is nevertheless always going to be somewhat
subjective. Goldacre's book, for example, does not take on
Creationism, as it's held by a minority of people on this side of the
Atlantic, and isn't as actively dangerous as some of the fringe
medical fads, which may damage people's health. And the attempts of
some reductive scientists to explain away religion, and displace and
discredit philosophy and the arts and humanities as equally valid
fields in their own right, can certainly also be viewed as another,
dangerous pseudoscience.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-49267775043525490802017-07-24T10:07:00.007-07:002021-04-09T05:57:43.969-07:00Slipped Discs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYGhhyJtqzOtgL5zL9FXFvoSx1L6iwMAWaJpOjctB1Yb-phRweXGDZzWRbmmblzFoqTkfoMd7TzhnFmCLVuBpEhRQ6ZCXod-RSMK8JNFqehu_HwCjOSe6hyphenhyphent26hIm0SMx0riOE36Hj78Q/s640/dzopa.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="640" height="114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYGhhyJtqzOtgL5zL9FXFvoSx1L6iwMAWaJpOjctB1Yb-phRweXGDZzWRbmmblzFoqTkfoMd7TzhnFmCLVuBpEhRQ6ZCXod-RSMK8JNFqehu_HwCjOSe6hyphenhyphent26hIm0SMx0riOE36Hj78Q/w640-h114/dzopa.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;">In January 1967 the </span><st1:place style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; text-align: justify;" w:st="on">Soviet Union</st1:place><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: justify;"> began issuing </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; text-align: justify;">Sputnik</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: justify;">, a monthly English language imitation of the </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; text-align: justify;">Readersâ Digest</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: justify;">, though of course written from a Communist viewpoint (and without any jokes or humorous anecdotes). I have been unable to obtain access to a copy of the first issue (though I do have a copy of the second, which I chanced upon in an antiquarian bookshop thirty years ago), but it is known that it contained an article Vyacheslav Zaitsev which came to be very widely cited, and a version is available on the internet, although this does not quite correspond to what was quoted of it by some subsequent writers. The gist is as follows:</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In 1938, the Chinese archaeologist Chi Pu Tei, who was exploring caves in the Bayan-Kara-Uula mountains on the borders of China and Tibet, found a total of 716 granite discs, something like gramophone records (although there are, as just stated, differences between the different accounts, all agree upon the figure of 716); they even had a hole in the centre, and bore spiral inscriptions. There were also graves of people with small bodies but large heads in the immediate vicinity. For many years the writing on the discs was inexplicable, but eventually, in 1962, a team led by the scientist Tsum Um Nui was able to decipher it. The result was so shocking that the Peking Academy refused publication.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The authors of these scripts stated that 12,000 years ago their spaceship had crash-landed on Earth, and that they were unable to take off again. The local Earthlings had been hostile and killed most of them off (despite possessing interstellar spacecraft, they had no technology to defend themselves against Stone Age tribesmen), so that these messages were written by the few survivors. This seemed to be confirmed by local legends that slender yellow beings who descended from the skies were hunted down by the âmen with the quick horsesâ (though it is unlikely that horses were domesticated as long ago as 12,000 years). Nevertheless, the local Ham and Dropa tribes are frail, stunted men, only four foot two inches (or five foot three inches) in height, who âhave defied any type of ethnic or racial classification, and the history of their origin is shrouded in mystery.â<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[1]</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The implication is that they are the survivors of the stranded aliens.[2] Another version has it that the Peking Academy of Prehistory <i>did</i> eventually publish the paper under the title âThe grooved script concerning space-ships which, as recorded on the discs, landed on Earth 12 thousand years agoâ. [3] The discs, or some of them, were at an unspecified date sent to <st1:place w:st="on">Moscow</st1:place> for examination. In traditional Chinese religion, small discs with central holes are sacred objects, but they are normally â at least those in English museums â made of jade or marble. These, however, were granite with a high cobalt content, and âhad a high vibration rhythm, which led to the conclusion that they had been exposed to very high voltages at some time.â<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[4]</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There are oddities to this story, even if one approaches it with a completely open mind with regard to the possible existence of extraterrestrials. How could an alien script be deciphered, when we cannot even read Etruscan? If the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Peking</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Academy</st1:placetype></st1:place> did not publish it, how is known about, or if they did, why are we not given a precise reference?</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Gordon Creighton</span></strong></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Gordon Creighton, a contributor to, and subsequently editor of, <i>Flying Saucer Review</i>, had been a diplomat in <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">China</st1:country>, and then worked at the Royal Geographic Society in <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>, where he specialised in studying this particular area of <st1:place w:st="on">Central Asia</st1:place>. He was a linguist of remarkable talent: he translated French, Spanish and Portuguese UFO reports into English, which might otherwise have never become known to Anglophone ufologists. When John Harney met him, he was teaching himself Tibetan with the aid of a Russian-Tibetan dictionary, and in an article in <i>Flying Saucer Review</i> in the early 1980s he referred to âmy newest hobby â Arabicâ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Since Creighton knew nothing of the above through his work at the Royal Geographic Society, in February 1968 he decided to do an independent investigation. A letter to a Russian ufologist produced the information that Zaitsev had derived the whole story from <i>Das Vegetarische Universum</i>, âan obscure vegetarian affairâ in the Black Forest of Southern Germany. (It has also been asserted, though, that this was the newsletter of Vegetaria Universa, âwhich claimed that the Universe is made entirely of vegetables.â<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[5]</span></span>) He wrote further letters to <i>Das Vegetarische Universum</i>, the Novosti News Agency in <st1:city w:st="on">Moscow</st1:city>, the <st1:placename w:st="on">Chinese</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Academy</st1:placetype> of Sciences in Peking, and the <st1:placename w:st="on">Chinese</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Academy</st1:placetype> of Sciences in <st1:place w:st="on">Taiwan</st1:place>, none of whom replied. âI also buttonholed several visiting Chinese professors and academic types, and received some more than usually astonished glances when I whispered the tale of the spindly-legged spacemen who had dropped in on <st1:place w:st="on">China</st1:place> all that long time ago.â</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He observed that âNeither <i>Tsum</i>, <i>Um</i>, nor <i>Nui</i> are monosyllables used in the transliteration of standard Chinese (Mandarin) of <st1:place w:st="on">Peking</st1:place>, though they might perhaps be understandable in one of the more outlandish minor dialects.â The name Ham is a garbled rendering of Kham, the people of eastern <st1:place w:st="on">Tibet</st1:place>. So far from being small and stunted, they are noted for being very tall. In a country (pre-1950) where one quarter of the population were monks, there were inevitably monk criminals, and hence the men of Kham were employed as monk policemen. Dropa, which should properly be transliterated as <i>Drok-Pa</i>, dwell in the highlands of northern <st1:place w:st="on">Tibet</st1:place>, and are, again, a very sturdy race.<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[6]</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">This might have been the end of the affair, but 1978 saw the publication of </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Sungods in Exile</i><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">, attributed to Karyl Robin-Evans, and âEdited by David Agamonâ.</span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[7]</span></span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"> It began with photographs of what appeared to be a metallic disc (without a central hole) engraved with a strange script, a âgreyâ alien, a flying saucer, some sort of reptile, and two tentacled creatures resembling those on the cover of the paperback edition of John Wyndhamâs sci-fi novel </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">The Kraken Wakes</i><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">. This was asserted to have been purchased in northern </span><st1:place style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;" w:st="on">India</st1:place><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"> in 1945 by a British army officer named Lolladoff, which is not a real surname, any more than Karyl is a real Christian name. After the war he returned to </span><st1:place style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;" w:st="on">Oxford</st1:place><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">, and showed the disc to Robin-Evans, who was supposedly another professor there, though inquiries have shown that the university was and is unaware of either man. They described it in articles in the (non-existent) </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Journal of Comparative Ethnology</i><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">. This produced correspondence which asserted that similar plates belonged to the </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Dzopa</i><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"> [</span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">sic</i><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">] people of north-eastern </span><st1:place style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;" w:st="on">Tibet</st1:place><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">, so Robin-Evans decided to go there and investigate for himself. </span><st1:place style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;" w:st="on">Tibet</st1:place><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"> was closed to foreigners at that time, but strangely he had no trouble in entering the country.</span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[8]</span></span></div></div></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Agamon, in editing the text, wrote that he was omitting most of the lengthy travel sequences, including only extracts, like this:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">âOnce when we were travelling in a long and wide valley at the usual pace of a yak, that is, about two miles an hour, a lightly dressed man appeared above and behind us on the cliff which ran parallel to our path some half-mile away. Within five minutes he came up with us and within another five had passed out of our sight. That is, this man, on foot and without visible efforts was (since I estimate that I could see four miles of the cliff) travelling at something like 24 m.p.h. Again, my servants were interested, but not amazed, though even in <st1:place w:st="on">Tibet</st1:place> such a sight is rare. They said that this was a <i>lung-gom-pa</i>, that is, one who by long years of meditation and exercises under the direction of a previous master, had come to a state where his bodyâs weight was reduced almost to nothing; the most of advance of these men, they said, were obliged to wear great heavy chains wrapped around them to keep themselves from floating away.â</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The above is strikingly similar to the account of <i>lung-gom-pas</i> in Alexandra David-Neelâs <i>Magic and Mystery in Tibet</i>, so much so that Robin-Evans might as well have simply copied it from her book, rather than troubling himself to travel halfway around the world for the experience.<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[9]</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Eventually he arrived at the territory of the Dzopa, who were indeed short, about four feet tall, and at first he thought that they were children. They obligingly instructed him in their language, of which he gives some details, of which it will suffice here to note that their word for penis was <i>hynapazay</i>, and <i>hynpsapazay</i> was the vagina. In due course they informed him - as is routine in such narratives, he was able to recall long conversations verbatim - that they were not originally of this world, but came from a planet orbiting Sirius. It is worth mentioning that Sirius is an A type star, and thus, according to conventional theory, has no planets, something overlooked by Ancient Astronaut authors. They came to Earth in a spaceship âtwenty thousand of your years agoâ. [So far as I know, the phrase âthousands of your Earth years agoâ first occurred in the film <i>Devil Girl from Mars</i>, 1954, and it should have been left there.] There was then no intelligent life here, but there were ape-like creatures who were sufficiently like themselves that their men went among them, clubbing the males and raping the females.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the year 1014 another Dzopa ship came to Earth, and observed from orbit that there were now intelligent beings on this planet. They realised that the previous explorers had departed, âleaving some of them pregnant with half-breed foetuses of whom some at least must have inherited the space-explorersâ intelligence in earth bodies . . . There then are the âsons of Godâ, founders of civilizations, of whom so many ancient legends tell.â Although their spacecraft were intended to function for thousands of years, something went wrong with this one, and it crash-landed. The wreckage now formed the Royal Hall, where a female ruler known as the Gyalma held court. Some of the flying saucers that had been on board this âmother shipâ (which was cigar-shaped, like that in <i>Flying Saucers Have Landed </i><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[10]</span></span>), were carried out and used as homes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One night, a generation earlier, they had seen a great light in the sky, which they believed might be a rescue ship. But suddenly it disappeared. This, apparently, was another crash, causing the explosion at Tunguska in <st1:place w:st="on">Siberia</st1:place> on 30 June 1908, which puzzled Russian scientists.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1485997200234349788#_edn11" name="_ednref11" style="color: #1b1bec; text-decoration-line: none;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[11]</span></span></a> Evidently, Dzopa spacecraft were not made like they used to be. Robin-Evans had by now got a Dzopa woman named Loren pregnant, and since he was so much larger than her, he was afraid that the oversized foetus would kill her, and he be held responsible for her death, so he hastily departed. As proof of the veracity of the book, at the end is an out of focus picture of a couple in oriental dress, said to be two of the Dzopas, but there are no photographs of the crashed spaceship or other wonders.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The âsons of Godâ refers to a passage in the Book of Genesis (6:1-4) that was quoted by Erich von DĂ€niken in <i>Chariots of the Gods?</i>: âAnd it came to pass . . . That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair: and they took them wives . . . There were giants in the earth in those days: and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.â<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[12]</span></span> (But if the âsons of Godâ were the diminutive Dzopas, then would not the Bible have said that there were <i>midgets</i> on the earth in those days?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One suspects, though, that a primary source for the author was the thirteenth chapter of Patrick Mooreâs <i>Can You Speak Venusian?</i>, which discusses the Tunguska event (that is, whether it was merely a large meteorite, or an alien spacecraft whose atomic motors exploded); the theory that earth was once visited by beings from Sirius; and von DĂ€nikenâs âfertilization theoryâ, which Moore summarised thus: â. . . the story began in the very remote past, when an unknown space-ship arrived on Earth (possibly to refuel) and found primitive life-forms here. No doubt from a spirit of pure scientific inquiry, the space-men fertilized some female members of the primitive Earth species, and went away well satisfied. Much later they came back, and found that their efforts had resulted in a general increase in local intelligence.â<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[13]</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A letter in <i>Fortean Times</i> in 1995, signed âDavid Gamonâ, said of <i>Sungods in Exile</i> that: âThe author of this leg-pull received correspondence about it from as far away as <st1:city w:st="on">Kiev</st1:city>.â Some further details have since been posted on the internet. It is said that Gamon wanted a name that would be an anagram for âload of ballsâ, but finding this difficult he settled upon âLolladoffâ. It is probably not a coincidence that one can rearrange the middle letters of âRobin-Evansâ to get <i>bovine</i>, signifying that the tale is a pile of cow droppings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nevertheless, the original version has been resurrected in a more recent book, <i>The Chinese Roswell: UFO Encounters in the Far East from Ancient Times to the Present</i>, by Hartwig Hausdorff.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1485997200234349788#_edn14" name="_ednref14" style="color: #1b1bec; text-decoration-line: none;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[14]</span></span></a> He boasted that he had new information: in 1974, Austrian engineer Ernest Wegener came across two of the discs in the <st1:placename w:st="on">Banpo</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Museum</st1:placetype> in <st1:place w:st="on">Xiâan</st1:place>. He could recognise the hieroglyphs, but they were partly crumbled away, though it seems unlikely that this would happen to granite. The manager, a woman, knew only that they were unimportant âcult objectsâ. He photographed them both, but the spiral grooves could not be seen, partly because his Polaroid camera had an integrated flash.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In 1994 Hausdorff and Peter Krassa (the biographer of Erich von DĂ€niken) interviewed the current manager of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Banpo</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Museum</st1:placetype></st1:place>, Professor Wang Zhijum, who told them that the woman had been called away from her job just a few days after Wegenerâs visit, and both she and the discs had disappeared. He then said: âThe stone discs you have mentioned do not exist, but being extraneous elements in this museum for pottery ware, they have been dislocated.â This demonstrates that the Chinese government are covering up the truth, so that, as with the American Roswell, the failure of anyone to find confirmatory evidence proves that the story must be true.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In later life Gordon Creighton became paranoid and obsessed with conspiracy theories. Among other things he maintained that a secret government agency was instructing libraries in <st1:place w:st="on">Britain</st1:place> to remove UFO books from their shelves. This produced a response from John Rimmer, a senior librarian himself, who said that he had never in his whole career received any such instructions, but the only result was that Creighton cancelled his exchange arrangement of <i>Flying Saucer Review</i> with <i>Magonia</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Almost his last act was a combination of his two primary interests, languages and conspiracies. He wrote a letter to the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, observing that the word Viagra means âtigerâ in Hindustani. They did not print it, because, he claimed, all of the countryâs newspapers had government orders not to publish letters by him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[1]</span></span> Robin Collyns, <i>Did Spacemen Colonise the Earth?</i>, Mayflower, 1975, p.153.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[2]</span></span> W. Raymond Drake, <i>Gods and Spacemen in the Ancient West</i>, Sphere, 1974, pp.102-3; curiously, he did not mention the story in <i>Gods and Spacemen in the Ancient East</i>, also Sphere, 1974, where it would have been more appropriate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[3]</span></span> Peter Kolosimo, <i>Not of this World</i>, Sphere, 1971, p.225.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[4]</span></span> Erich von DĂ€niken, <i>Return to the Stars</i>, Souvenir Press, 1970, p.110.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[5]</span></span> John Grant, <i>A Directory of Discarded Ideas</i>, Corgi, 1983, p.10. He says that he had this from A. T. Lawton, a writer on hypothetical extraterrestrial life, who however I suspect had misunderstood the phrase <i>Das Vegetarische Universum</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[6]</span></span> Gordon Creighton, âBut I Read It in a Book!â, in Charles Bowen (ed.), <i>Encounter Cases from Flying Saucer Review</i>, Signet, New York 1977, pp.85-94. It had originally appeared in <i>Flying Saucer Review</i>, Vol.19, no.1, January-February 1973.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[7]</span></span><i> Sungods in Exile: Secrets of the Dzopa of <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tibet</st1:place></st1:country></i>, Neville Spearman, 1978; Sphere Books, 1980.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[9</span></span>] Alexander David-Neel, <i>Magic and Mystery in Tibet</i>, Souvenir Press, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city></st1:place>, 1967, pp.199-216.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[10]</span></span> The author had probably read the revised edition, Futura, 1977, since it is evident that, although Robin-Evans had supposedly died in 1974, in fact he had never really been alive, and the actual author utilised some works that had appeared shortly before his own.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[11]</span></span> Rupert Furneaux, <i>The Tungus Event</i>, Panther, <st1:place w:st="on">St. Albans</st1:place>, 1977.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[12]</span></span> Erich von DĂ€niken, <i>Chariots of the Gods?</i>, World Books, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city></st1:place>, 1971, pp.54-55.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[13]</span></span> Patrick Moore, <i>Can You Speak Venusian?</i>, Star, 1976, p.114.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[14]</span></span> Translated from the German, New Paradigm Books, 1998.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-88317246470559668832017-07-24T09:50:00.006-07:002020-10-03T15:33:59.899-07:00The Pill Maker's Poltergeist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid7wxv_IqNL70L2XMdrxj-K-YgEuciRwyh4Uv_oE9K42hyphenhyphenkGvvRr8WSqLKP760vxXi5s3Qm8U04usUqc_sHzHaDeTzhupdg2ra4SyiQ7HxcoiW5NFJZccJ8W7c157lcBP8D4iY56XZFEw/s1007/beechams.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><img border="0" data-original-height="169" data-original-width="1007" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid7wxv_IqNL70L2XMdrxj-K-YgEuciRwyh4Uv_oE9K42hyphenhyphenkGvvRr8WSqLKP760vxXi5s3Qm8U04usUqc_sHzHaDeTzhupdg2ra4SyiQ7HxcoiW5NFJZccJ8W7c157lcBP8D4iY56XZFEw/w640-h108/beechams.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">
<a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span></span><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><!--more--></span><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>In his always fascinating 'Ghostwatch' column in Fortean Times 291, Alan Murdie draws our attention to the phenomena of 'urban ghosts'. These were not the typical SPR phantoms in nice country houses, nor the traditional ghosts of 'ye ancient pile'; they were stories of ghosts in urban settings, which became the centre of attention for huge crowds. The stories which I present here are a first selection of these</b>.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi861LueXFNt0GzixhRTsnmIhgq-v_R-vDO2msJ8_8rIkTTaI1F1TCZzZf9c8i6vOXWl7Wx6WZpktMy-pxRK9WLkDNZ9M-nrmzDC2wHogVzNFb_Nw0OvJF_8t3v1hGVFgwk7iPVbPlTJjI/s1600/beechams.png" style="clear: left; color: #1b1bec; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi861LueXFNt0GzixhRTsnmIhgq-v_R-vDO2msJ8_8rIkTTaI1F1TCZzZf9c8i6vOXWl7Wx6WZpktMy-pxRK9WLkDNZ9M-nrmzDC2wHogVzNFb_Nw0OvJF_8t3v1hGVFgwk7iPVbPlTJjI/s320/beechams.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(243, 243, 243); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="218" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The first takes place in St Helens, in the late 19th century a rapidly rising industrial town, best known for its glass works. The centre of this story however was another St Helens firm, Messers Beechamâs pill makers, owned by Thomas Beecham, grandfather of the famous conductor of that name.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He had come to the town in 1858/59 and by the 1880s his firm of patent medicines was making huge strides. In the years 1884-1889 the amount spent on advertising (example left) rose from ÂŁ22,000 to ÂŁ95,000 and the work force from 19 to 88. (T. C. Barker and R Harris, <em>A Merseyside Town in the Industrial Revolution 1750-1900,</em> Liverpool University Press, 1954, pp.378-9) This meant the construction of new premises and while that was going on the firm moved to temporary premises. This when the trouble began.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The man at the centre of things was the works manager, a man who gave his name as Walter Robert Andrews, said to have been born in the outskirts of Bristol around 1844, but who cannot be found until his marriage to the pregnant Elizabeth Dyson in Walton, Liverpool, in 1870. His association with the firm will terminate soon after the opening of the new factory in 1887. The 1891 census shows him working as an insurance agent in Walton on the Hill, by 1901 he is trying his hand as a mineral water maker and by 1911 he is described as retired engineer. He is joined in this adventure by his son Walter James Andrews (1870-1890).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have not been able to access St Helens papers as the local studies library there is closed for refurbishment, but regional papers tell the full story.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><em>Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, </em>26 August 1885.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">THE FREAKS OF A ST. HELENS GHOST. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">During the past few weeks the employees of Messrs. Beecham, manufacturers, St. Helens, have been alarmed by an extraordinary series of performances of what has been termed "ghost." The Messrs. Beecham some time ago determined to rebuild their manufactory, and for this purpose the machinery was moved into a building in Lowe-street belonging to the same firm, which had been used as sawmill, but which for a year or two had remained unoccupied.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A portion of the ground floor had recently been taken as a co-operative store, and the upper room by the Salvation Army as a barracks: and Messrs. Beecham utilised the remaining portion as a temporary pill manufactory. During the day the work goes on without anything extraordinary taking place, but as soon as darkness sets and the place is locked up, "beings of immortal shape" take possession. The public assemble nightly in Lowe-street watching for the "supernatural," which, however, has not been seen. So far our inquiries go, it seems that the "antics" of the ghost are confined to stone-throwing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The manager of the works, Mr. Andrews, gives us an instance. On Sunday night week he was a little conservatory the rear of the building with his son, about 15 years of age, and started to go his nightly rounds through the building. He opened back door and he and his son walked in, when a missile, apparently launched at him, struck the door with great force. He looked round, but saw one, as indeed he had seen no one on previous nights when he had experienced the same thing. He moved forward a little, when another stone came in a slanting direction and struck the wall. This was followed by another, which struck some iron wheels, making a clear ring, and then the further door was struck fourth. This sort of thing had been going on for some weeks, and although a number of workmen had been got together and formed band and scoured the place, searching particularly every nook and corner, no trace of anyone could be seen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The police had been appealed to, and constables had perambulated the premises, but with no effect, and as yet the mystery has not been solved. Of course the excited crowds outside have imagined all sorts of things appertaining to the invisible, and have done some damage to the building by breaking glass, &c. With the exception of the doors inside being dented and brass machine being struck by some missiles, no damage has been done inwardly. The chief work of the police has been to keep the street clear. An entrance has not been made into the works since Sunday night week, but it is stated that the missiles can be heard flying about. This extraordinary occurrence has caused great excitement, and will continue to do so until the mystery is solved. Suspicions are fixed on a certain person who is believed to be playing an exceedingly clover hoax; but if detected in the works it will be "the worse for him," unless he is made of stuff that the penetration of lead will not affect.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><em>Cheshire Observer</em> 29 August 1885</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A ST. HELENS GHOST STORY:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A sensation is just now raging in St Helens the cause the cause of which, being shrouded in mystery. has given rise to all kind .of wild speculation. Mr Beecham, the world-famed pill-maker, has. removed his. manufactory to premises in Lowe Street, pending the completion of his new works. The temporary building was formerly a saw-mill. Mr Beecham occupies the basement, comprising three rooms, and the large hall overhead is utilised as the headquarters of the local branch of General Booth's warriors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Almost every night during the past three months there has been s stone-throwing seance in the works, performed with such success that although the gas has been suddenly turned on the "spiritâ escaped detection. Whether these performances have a sinister motive in their accomplishment, or may be regarded as the outcome of a sportive disposition, remains yet to be discovered. But one thing is certain, that if the unknown one who has been the cause of so much annoyance is caught, he will be speedily introduced to a magistrate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is the custom of Mr Beecham's manager, Mr Andrews, to make a nightly inspection of the works. For between two and three months his entrance has been welcomed by the throwing of missiles with such velocity and accuracy of aim that it was deemed prudent to erect a door opposite the main entrance for protection. Scheme after scheme for the detection of the perpetrator has been unsuccessfully put into effect. Whoever the individual may be he has carried out his little game with a persistency and an ingenuity that would have distinguished him if employed in s better cause. For four successive nights - that is from eight till dsybreak - Mr Andrew, with s staff of men paraded the works determined to capture the delinquent. The stone-tbrowing went on as usual, but Mr Andrews and his men failed after repeated search to bring the mysterious one to light. At last the assistance of the police was obtained.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A detective backed by five men, good and true, entered the works determined not to leave the premises until they had captured the intruder. The gas had been left burning low. The instant the stone throwing commenced the lights were quickly turned up and the searchers rushed in the direction from which the missiles came. The mysterious one, however, had disappeared into thin air for the nonce, and the detective and his five men quitted the premises baffled and disappointed. On this night about 30 missiles - copper slag, pieces of brick, scraps of stone, etc., in weight averaging from four or five ounces - were thrown. Of the hundreds of missiles thrown, not one has caused personal injury, although some of them have passed in dangerous proximity to the person. No property has been removed from the works.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It having been suggested that the mischief-maker might be a member of the monkey tribe, dogs were introduced, but although the stones darted about as usual no " Jacko " could be found. Meanwhile the public got wind of the occurrence! Imaginative women, peeping through crevices, saw inhabitants of the invisible world in every shape and form floating about the air ; and gossip -mongers knew for s fact that skulls had been dog up, pointing to the conclusion that all kinds of foul murders bad been committed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Every night last week crowds of people thronged the streets near the works, and on Friday evening when the last seance took place hundreds of people congregated about the works, giving the streets the appearance of a fair. Fried fish sellers and hot potato vendors drove a roaring trade. The police had a busy time of it in keeping the thoroughfares passable, and it was not until the small hours of the morning that the crowd was finally dispersed. Hundreds of people again assembled on Saturday night, but as there was no seance the police had not so much difficulty in dispersing the crowd. The works are now being watched by the police and others, and no doubt the unknown one will cease his pranks â for the present at least.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><strong><em>Warrington Examiner</em> August 29 1885 p. 6, col. b.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A STRANGE GHOST STORY: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Extraordinary proceedings. A great sensation , and one that has occasioned very lively comment, has arisen in St Helens during the past few weeks by the alleged haunting of the manufactory of the world-famed pills of Messes Beecham. To say the least, the incidents which have occurred therein have been of the most startling character, and their exceedingly mysterious nature has given rise to rumours that they are of supernatural origin. Whatever doubts may exist as to the latter theory, the occurrences are still unexplained, and the mystery remains unsolved.</span></div>
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Messes Beechamâs establishment is situated in Westfield-street St Helens, but some months ago they decided to rebuild it on a more extended scale. In order to carry out these operations the machinery was removed to another building in Lowe Street, belonging to the firm. The greater portion of this building was formerly used as a saw mill, but it remained unoccupied for a year or two. At present Messes Beecham occupy the basement, comprising three rooms, while another portion of the ground floor is taken up by the St Helens Industrial Co-operative Society, and the upper room is used as a barracks by the Salvation Army.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Each day the employees of Messes Beecham perform their accustomed duties without hindrance or inconvenience, but after darkness has set in for some two or three months past their have been nightly occurrences, which have given rise to every imaginable rumour as to âGhosts and Goblinsâ. Party of the duty of Mr Andrews, the manager, has been to inspect the building each night after the men have left, and this has lately been an exiting the risky undertaking. No sooner has Mr Andrews entered the works to make his accustomed rounds than he has been assailed by an alarming shower of stones, pieces of brick, copper slag and other missiles, hurled with great force by some unseen hand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This has been an almost nightly occurrence for a considerable period, and the elucidation of the mystery has baffled the most searching investigation of police officers and other inquirers. As an instance of the stone throwing Mr Andrews states that on Sunday night week he was in a little conservatory at the rear of the building with his son, about fifteen years of age, and started to go on his nightly rounds through the building. he opened the back door and he and his son walked in, when a missile, apparently launched at him, struck the door with great force. He looked round, but saw no one, as indeed he had seen no one on previous nights when he had experienced the same thing. He moved forward a little when another stone came in a slanting direction and struck the wall. This was followed by another which struck some iron wheels, making a clear ring, and then the further door was struck by a fourth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">With the view of unravelling the mystery, bands of workmen have got together and patrolled the works and its neighbourhood, while the aid of the police has been sought. Scheme after scheme for the detection of the author of the stone throwing has hitherto been unsuccessful. The steps taken to secure the stoppage of the noisome visitations have apparently been of a most complete character. For four successive nights, from sunset till daybreak. Mr Andrews with a staff of men have paraded the works. but after the closest searches they have failed to bring the mysterious individual to light. On another occasion five police officers entered the works and determined not to leave the premises until they had [cornered?] the intruder. For that purpose the gas was set burning low, and the instant the stone throwing commenced the lights were turned up and the searchers rushed in the direction from which the missiles had apparently proceeded, but again the search was fruitless and the policemen left the premises disappointed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On the night in question about 30 missiles, including pieces of bricks, stones and etc., were thrown, their weight averaging from four to five ounces.. A suggestion was made that the mischief maker might be a member of the monkey tribe, but dogs were introduced without success, though the stones flew as usual. Information as to these alarming proceedings naturally spread throughout the town, and each evening for the past fortnight the neighbourhood of Beechamâs Pill Works has had an animated appearance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A crowd of some hundreds of persons has nightly gathered in the vicinity. The police have had some difficulty in keeping the footpaths clear. The superstitious gossip mongers in the vicinity have imagined all sorts of things, and rumours of âghosts and goblinsâ having been seen floating about have been circulated on every hand. It is needless to add that these and numberless other assertions are absolutely without foundation. The genuine manifestations have been confined to stone throwing, and of these mysterious occurrences there can be no doubt. A large number of individuals have volunteered to render assistance in ferreting out the âinvisible oneâ and Mr Andrews on several occasions has permitted them to undergo the trying ordeal. he states however that one trial has been sufficient to test the nerves of the bravest among them., and they have manifested an anxious desire to escape to a place of safety at all possible speed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Another singular part of the affair is the fact that not withstanding all the stones that have been flying about, neither Mr Andrews nor any of those who have witnessed the occurrences have ever been injured or even struck by any of the stones. There have, however, been some very narrow escapes, many of the stones having past within a few inches of the bodies and faces of those present. The only damage to the property inside has been the â[dinging?]â of doors and other woodwork, while a brass machine also bears evidence of having been struck by a stone. So violent and accurate was the stone throwing a short time ago that it was deemed advisable for the safety of Mr Andrews to erect a wooden partition opposite the main entrance, and this partition still remains.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The excitement attending the affair seemed to reach a culminating point on Sunday evening when some thousands of persons visited the spot. The crush around the doors to look inside the works through crevions(?) in the door was so great that the gate was burst open. From seven o clock on Monday evening until 9 o'clock on Tuesday morning thousands of persons flooded to the neighbourhood, but the crowd was a good deal more orderly than on the previous evening, On Monday night two policemen and six of Mr Beechamâs employees were stationed outside the building while Mr Andrews was on duty inside, with a view of capturing the âspiritâ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Notwithstanding these precautions, however, when Mr Andrews paraded the works a large stone of about half a pound in weight was violently thrown and struck the wall near to where he then was. That was the only missile thrown during the night. On Tuesday morning a member of the Salvation Army volunteered to solve the mystery, not by physical means, but he declared that he would invoke divine aid, and since Monday night the stone throwing has ceased. Mr Andrews expressing the opinion to our representative on Thursday that he thought the manifestations would (cease?)â for the presentâ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He added that he did not think the occurrences were due to any supernatural cause but he thought it was a clever dodge on the part of some scheming individual. In their efforts to the latter men had surrounded the works, been on the roof, stood at every door, and yet the stone throwing had gone on. He observed that one constable who was rambling in the dark through the works in his endeavour to discover the marauder fell down an old saw âpitâ and so damaged his clothing that the firm produced new articles of clothing for him. The room of the Salvation Army had also been visited by the nocturnal wanderer and on one occasion the drum and money-box were struck, sending a rattle through the room.. Up to Thursday evening the strange affair had not been explained, but as long as it remains in its present state the excitement is not likely to diminish.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For the last two days hopes have been entertained by Mr Beecham, Mr Andrews, his employees and public generally that the extraordinary performances had ceased, and that the âghostâ had either vanished entirely or removed his quarters. About half past seven o clock on Thursday night however, Mr Andrews and his son went into the works to fetch out their overcoats as the evening was wet. All seemed quiet and Mr Andrews remarked that he should very much like to do a little of the work, which was in arrears owning the disturbances, but that he was almost afraid to stay. He had scarcely uttered the words when a large piece of copper slag, weighing half a pound, came whizzing through the air, rolled over a number of parcels, struck a bench and then dropped to the floor. Neither Mr Andrews nor his son was hurt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Previous suspicions have been carried into another channel by the following letter which on Thursday was received by Mr Beecham:</span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">âDear Sir In reference to the ghost in Lowe-st by Reports I note that you cannot find anything, have you, Sir, Examined the floor. It is my firm opinion that someone Carrying out an illegal Business and that there are subterranean vaults of which you are not aware, it may be a subterranean passage from Cowley Hill (C.M.) Perhaps dynamitards) it is very advisable to be very Cautious in the Proceedings as the consequences might be fatal should you fall on them in their lair they would in all probability be desperate it is quite evident that there are someone there that have no business there, and you are stumbling block in their way, and so they have formed a conspiracy to try and frighten you from the premises. â</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The envelope bears the Prescot postmark and is addressed to Mr Beecham, pill manufacturer, St Helens, private. The letter bears a signature but until enquiries have been made it is not considered advisable to publish it. Mr Andrews says many persons have an idea that 'Beechamâs Ghost' has been 'got up' as an advertisement, but he states that no such idea has been entertained, and that the members of the firm are all mystified as to the extraordinary occurrences.!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />We can see one of the great âtraditions of disbeliefâ here; that ghostly things are got up by nefarious people trying to drive the residents out. These tend to be folk devils of the current social panics, here we see the coiners and smugglers of tradition replaced by 'dynamitards' (i.e. Anarchists, who occupied the same role as folk devils as do radical Islamists today).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This was not the first industrial haunting in the St Helens area. Peter Underwood in his <em>Ghosts of North-West England</em> (Fontana 1978) records the strange events in a flint glass work and showroom at Croppers Brow in September 1875 when âan industrious loyal and reliable glass engraverâ was interrupted at 3 o clock one Wednesday afternoon by a shower of stones smashing the windows. These did not come from a polt but from a crowd of people outside who claimed that they saw a ghostly face in the window. Clearly there was something of a local tradition for ghost stories to be an excuse for vandalism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Meanwhile the phantom chucker moved to the leafier Warrington suburb of Stockton Heath, an area that was just beginning the suburbanisation that would accelerated with the building of the Manchester Ship Canal the next decade.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><em>Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser,</em> Saturday 31st October, 1885, p.11.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">WARRINGTON GHOST STORY. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">During the past few days (says a Liverpool contemporary) the inhabitants of Stockton Heath, a usually quiet suburb of Warrington, have had their minds considerably agitated by some extraordinary phenomena. A short time ago the public of St. Helens were startled by mysterious operations a certain pill manufactory that were popularly supposed to be due to supernatural agency.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It will be remembered that despite all precautions that could be taken large numbers of stones of rather peculiar appearance wore thrown about the building in all directions in a most unaccountable manner. This took place whenever anyone entered the building, and in the presence large numbers of people, who had been attracted there by the rumours of the mysterious doings In spite, however, of the closest watching no one so far has fathomed the mystery, and a mystery it still remains. From what can be learned it would appear that the ghost, if ghost it be, migrated from the busy manufacturing Lancashire borough to the rural Cheshire village. Here mysterious stone-throwing, similar in character, has been taking place at intervals for some days.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The particular part of the village where this has been going on in close proximity to the churchyard, and the unwelcome visitant has displayed considerable activity. The scene of its operations is one of a row of better-class houses abutting on the high road. Instead of, like the rest of its kind, disturbing the quietude of timorous mortals in the darkness of night, it has not feared to brave the full light of day. The first indication of its presence was the smashing of glass in the greenhouse. At first little notice was taken of this, but when the first stone was succeeded by others, a temporary feeling of annoyance gave way to one of uncomfortable anxiety. The missiles were common paving stones, and after a large quantity of glass had been destroyed it was determined that no effort should be spared to clear up the mystery.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Accordingly sentinels were stationed in front, behind, and on the top of the house. Despite their vigilance, in one day, the third since the commencement of these strange doings, no fewer than twelve fomidable-looking stones were quietly dropped from the direction of the roof on the greenhouse, shattering about as many large panes of glass. A day of quietness intervened, but on the following day the window smashing was repeated in a more singular manner still.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">While several people were watching at various points, a crash of breaking glass was heard at the front of the house, and, a rush being made to the spot, an ordinary pane of glass was found to have been broken, and the glass was lying some yards away near a paving stone, and everything pointed to the theory that the stone had been thrown the inside of the house. The singular part of the story is that no one so far as can be ascertained, was in that portion of the house, which was the parlour, and the thing remains shrouded in mystery despite the efforts of the inhabitants and the police.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><strong><em>Warrington Guardian,</em> 24th October 1885 p.5, col. 2.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">BEECHAMâS GHOST AT STOCKTON HEATH: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">During the past week a peculiar affair, which has caused considerable excitement has taken place at Stockton Heath. A clerk employed by Wilderspool Brewery has had nearly twenty widows of his conservatory, which is attached to his private residence, broken. A rigorous look out has been kept both night and day for the depredators but they have not been discovered and some of the credulous attribute the damage to âBeechamâs Ghostâ, which caused so great a sensation at St Helens a short time since, but more sensible people consider it to be the work of some mischievous persons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Four years later a disused flour mill in Warrington was to become the scene of crowd excitement similar to that at Cropperâs Brow:</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><em>Liverpool Echo,</em> 5 September 1889.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">ALLEGED GHOST AT WARRINGTON. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The headless lady. The inhabitants the neighbourhood of Dial Street Warrington, are just now somewhat exercised in their minds regarding the alleged appearance of a ghost and other supernatural mysteries In the street in question there is an old mill formerly used as corn mill by Messers Fairclough, which is now in a state of disuse and neglect. One night this week, it is stated, a strange light was noticed in the building and rumours have since been circulated (about) a ghostly visitant, blood-curdling tales at the same time being told as to what occurred in the locale some time ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It said that in the dim and distant past a lady was murdered in the neighbourhood. in question, and that now her spirit haunts the place at that particular hour when "churchyards yawn and .graves give their dead." Tradition does not say what means were adopted to put an end to the to the life of the poor lady, but as she is reported appear in the spirit in a headless condition; its is surmised that her death must have been a terrible one. The apparition, it is alleged, when the ghostly presence is revealed to unfortunate members of the male sex, give an utterance to a scream (to) literally make the flesh creep, and hence the name of too "Screaming Lady" has been awarded the wandering headless one.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-3629849342459539032017-07-24T08:55:00.003-07:002020-10-03T15:39:53.745-07:00Manchester Mysteries<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b style="font-size: 15.4px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIKd086tA6bhyphenhyphenorO85Ie3dvknb6t_6VdSWRpDWK6ZrsQI2Whl5-1xR2l3r_XiRYad_OIol7S36sRXD5I0rpqgSB1zOmF5PgAZJ_TuIS9DV0lLeBcKxhp5yOiTkobFj4vlnuF5YZezA_c0/s1007/HILLS.jpg" style="clear: left; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="169" data-original-width="1007" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIKd086tA6bhyphenhyphenorO85Ie3dvknb6t_6VdSWRpDWK6ZrsQI2Whl5-1xR2l3r_XiRYad_OIol7S36sRXD5I0rpqgSB1zOmF5PgAZJ_TuIS9DV0lLeBcKxhp5yOiTkobFj4vlnuF5YZezA_c0/w640-h108/HILLS.jpg" width="640" /></a></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span><a name='more'></a></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b style="font-size: 15.4px;">January 1861 saw two strange ghost stories from Manchester.</b><br />
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<br />The first is an early example of the âhaunted innâ, which is now a staple of ghostlore. The mysterious ringing of bells has similarities to Bealings Bells which appears as Chapter 5 of Rupert T. Gouldâs <i>Enigmas.</i> The second seems to be a much older roadside boggart, though if encountered today may well come to the attention of ufologists.<i> </i><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "merriweather";"><span style="font-size: 15.4px;">Manchester Times 26 January 1861, page 5</span></span></strong><br />
<strong style="font-family: Merriweather; font-size: 15.4px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">GHOST IN MANCHESTER</span></strong></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><strong style="font-family: Merriweather; font-size: 15.4px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></strong></div>
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For several nights past, immense crowds have been collected in and about the Feathers Hotel, in London Road, attracted by a story so singular, and on the face of it so incredible, that the most remarkable circumstance connected with it is that so many people should instead of laughing off the matter as joke, have been, excited by real curiosity concerning it. The new sensation, which is filling the coffers of the landlord of the Feathers, and, at the same time mulcting the pockets of the ratepayers for the services of an extra force of policemen - uniform men and detectives - is a ghost which, of all places in the world, has chosen one of the busiest centres of Manchester, immediately opposite the London Road Station, for its nocturnal appearances.<br />
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The story is that for five weeks past the inmates of the hotel have been disturbed at all hours of the night by strange and unaccountable noises. When the weary waiters have gone to sleep, their dreams have been disturbed by the unwelcome tinkle first of one, then of two and more, and sometimes of all the bells in the house-fourteen in number-clanging together. A strict watch has on several occasions been kept, and when this has been done, the watchers have seen and 'heard nothing unusual but so surely as the lights in the inn have been extinguished and quite has been maintained, the strange noises have re-commenced. About a week ago, bellhangers were got in the house, who rearranged the wires and muffled the bells, and by this means it was supposed that the perturbed spirit had been laid at last to rest, an idea which was confirmed by the fact that for six nights thereafter the "ghost" made no manifestation.<br />
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In the "wee short hour" between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, however, the sound of hells again broke forth with undiminished violence, and in defiance of bellhangers and special detectives. An indescribable presence is said to have made itself manifest on the stairs of the hotel, dressed in most unghostly habiliments of black, to a couple of boys and a policemen, who were so much frightened by the appearance that they are unable to give any account of the spirit's disappearance. Of all the inmates of the house the cook, whom one would have thought the most material and unimaginative, has been most affected by the spiritual influence, and on Wednesday resigned leer comfortable situation with all its perquisites, and we believe has taken to bed seriously ill .<br />
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Meanwhile the house is nightly crowded by hundreds of visitors, who, excited by curiosity, thirst of knowledge, or other desire, have been exorbitant in their . demand for spirits, to the no small profit of the, landlord, to whom the presence of his singular guest lees been as lucky as angels' visits. At the same time, hundreds of people have thronged the streets and lanes outside anxious to obtain sight or hearing of the ghost Whatever else may be thought of it, this revival of the Cock Lane spirit has been and continues most successful as a sensation in drawing crowded houses.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A MANCHESTER GHOST STORY</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">THE MOSS LANE SPECTRE.</span></strong></div>
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"A ghost in Manchester!â - nonsense," some of our readers will exclaim. But there is no ânonsenseâ about the fact, for a ghostly form - whatever it is - has been seen on two successive evenings, and has frightened one man nearly out of his wits, while the whole neighbourhood has been-disturbed in the dead of night by the ghost-seer's cries. Close to Brooks's Bar runs Moss Lane, and in selecting this neighbourhood for the honour of a visit, the ghost has certainly shown some poetic taste. It appears that a portion of Moss Lane has been undermined by the bursting of a water-pipe, and the roadway for a length of about two roods is now broken in, and in course of repair.<br />
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The roadway has, in consequence of this, been blocked up for nearly a fortnight and from dusk to daylight fires have been kept burning in tripod fire baskets to prevent accidents. The man who has been tending these fires during the last fortnight is a little active-footed, wiry framed, wizened-faced man, and has for many years pursued the dreary calling of a night watchman. On Thursday night a constable, passing down the lane, found the watch-man busily engaged shovelling coal on to the fire basket. Near by stood one of the closed handcarts, in which gas men and watermen carry their tools.<br />
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"Hallo!â he shouted, "You're just the man I want." At the same time the shovel was dropped, and he hastily scratched his head preparatory to a long "spell." The constable crossed the road and stood by the side of the fire basket; while the watchman, in a voice husky with fear, proceeded to tell him of the appearance of a ghost between three and four that morning. Of course it was dressed all in white; but, unlike other ghosts, this one kept bobbing up and down in the roadway, a short distance beyond the other fire basket, while, at the same time, it kept its eyes fixed upon the watchman. After the ghost had disappeared, the alarmed "seer" knocked up a man belonging to a brewer's yard not far off and after telling him he had seen a ghost, the two searched the whole neighbourhood, but could find no track of His Ghostship.<br />
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The watchman's terror had been so great that persons residing in houses a short distance from where he stood, had been aroused from sleep by a most unearthly long-drawn "oh" which had escaped him. The constable laughed at the manâs story, but told him that years ago, he had heard, a man was murdered near the spot, and his spirit never could âsettleâ. The watchman repeated the word "settle" in the greatest alarm, and taking up an old-fashioned watchman's rattle and an oak cudgel, he said he had brought those with him that night to " nobble" the ghost with, but he thought he wouldn't try that on, but shut himself up in the cart. This the watchman did, and the constable went on. Between twelve and one o'clock, however, the same night, while the constable was conversing with another officer at the corner of a road some distance off, both were alarmed at the sound of the watchman's rattle.<br />
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They immediately ran to where he was standing, the very spot where one of the constables had seen him an hour or two previously, and where he was furiously shaking the rattle. The noise had aroused some of the inmates in the neighbouring houses, and heads were hastily thrust through open windows. The brewer's man, also startled by the rattle had got up, and he together with the two constables, reached the spot where the watchman was standing. at the same moment. The watchman was in a state of the greatest alarm, and pointing his finger up Moss Lane towards the Chorlton Road, kept on shouting, â There it is! There it is!" One of the constables stopped, looked in the direction whence the man pointed, and exclaimed, "By gem, there it is and it's coming this way; we'd better shunt, lads."<br />
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So saying the three made a hasty movement, calling out to the watchman as they ran to "nobble" it. But the watchman thought discretion was the better part of valour, he seized his stick, the rattle, and his breakfast can, and ran after the others as fast as his legs would carry him. he soon overtook them and was about to pass them, when they called upon him to stop. His reply was, "No, No, my names hoff," and he was quickly out of sight. More than half a mile from this he was met, still running, by a gentleman who was returning home, who called upon him to stop, but he shouted out, "I've seen a ghost, and I can't stop." Nor did he stop until he had reached the city. In the course of yesterday he waited upon his employer, and after telling his story, he positively refused, on any consideration, to "watch" at the spot another night That evening another man was watching, and he laughed heartily as he bore testimony to the truth of our story. We have no doubt that his, predecessor saw his own form reflected in the flame from the fire basket, and this gave rise to his ghost story; nevertheless, the truth of his tale is believed in by many of the more credulous residents in the neighbourhood.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-41104073743170401702017-07-24T08:35:00.002-07:002020-10-05T03:40:19.458-07:00Why Are You Stalling?<img border="0" data-original-height="165" data-original-width="1007" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqO2JKK0Fsx9-gk49u2YCGS_VS_QK2NZaRn8B-1R0UwFlUlE8Z5yktxZ0v7dAccFaG9SutiKJ1ZmUG6ID-2bJW3FP6NL6e4x646bFTT-2epuckR9qP0CJlwL7lgUY8dlMe55IvmnihaF0/w640-h104/holdup.jpg" style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: justify;" width="640" /><br /><div><span style="text-align: justify;"><span><a name='more'></a></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">One day in June 1936, so the story goes, Rachel, the wife of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, was planning to drive from Rome to Ostia on the coast, about twenty miles away. Over breakfast, her husband said: âI wouldnât be surprised if you had a very unusual experience today.â Indeed, she and her chauffeur were only a few miles past the city limits when they encountered a traffic jam. âWhatâs happening here?â Madame Mussolini demanded. âIt looks as if everyone is breaking down at once ....â her driver began. His own motor then coughed and died. He coasted to the edge of the road. âI canât understand it!â Several minutes passed, but then suddenly all of the stalled motors roared back to life again. âThere was a universal shrugging of shoulders as the fuming drivers got back into their vehicles and continued to Ostia. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This story was told by John Keel (The Cosmic Question, 1976, p.35), who, however, did not specify his source â possibly it was Albert Zarca, Mussolini sans Masque, 1973, which he <span style="text-align: justify;">mentions in a footnote. It was said to be the result of secret experiments by Marconi, who had moved back to his native Italy and was employed by Mussolini. Whilst trying to develop radar, he had inadvertently hit upon a radio frequency that caused internal combustion engines to stall.</span></div></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A similar story went around in Germany, where a large transmission mast had been built on the Brocken (traditionally a meeting place of witches) in the Harz mountains. âAs usually reported, the phenomenon consisted of a tourist driving his car on one of the roads in the vicinity, and the engine suddenly ceasing to operate. A German Air Force sentry would then appear from the side of the road and tell him that it was no use his trying to get the car going again for the time being. The sentry would, however, return and tell him when he would be able to do so. The sentry appeared in due course, and the engine started.â (R. V. Jones, Most Secret War, 1978, p.50) </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another version came from the United States: âWhat about the boy in Appleton, Wisconsin, whose short-wave set hit a magnetic frequency which not only paralysed automobiles within three miles of his home, but any plane flying over his house? Chet L. Swital was sent by his paper from Chicago to cover the story and when he reached Appleton he found the place crawling with FBI men. They confiscated the boyâs short-wave set and shipped him, his family, and the mystifying radio to Washington for further study. This was in 1941.â (Frank Scully, Behind the Flying Saucers, 1950, p.201.) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An obvious question arises: if the Italians or Germans or Americans were possessed of such devices, why did they not use them during the war? In the age of the propeller airplane they would have been lethal. Though the British government they did not believe these tales, during this period they a lot of time and effort to disinformation, hence, â... we thought that it might be a good idea to start the same tale going in England to see whether it would puzzle the Germans. The story spread rapidly, and we heard of it from time to time, with ever increasing detail. The last I heard of it was a family of Quakers, who of course never lie, driving across Salisbury Plain when the engine of their car stopped. In due course a soldier appeared and told them that it would now start again, and so they were able to continue on their way.â (Jones, idem.) So perhaps the other stories had a similar origin. </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course, the Second World War produced a number of rumours about secret inventions, some of which, such as the atomic bomb, turned out to be true. Death rays were popular, and perhaps not entirely fictional. Another story about Marconi was that he experimented with microwaves, and found that they were killing sheep on nearby farms. Some were deliberately invented. When R. V. Jones was working on infra-red as a way of detecting aircraft at night, which was abandoned when radar proved to be more effective, he told one man that they were working on a way to make ships invisible. They had so far managed to make a gunboat invisible, but the crew could still be seen. (One wonders if this has any connection with the yarn about âThe Philadelphia Experimentâ?) When radar did get working, the RAF put it about that they were able to locate the enemy at night by feeding their pilots carrots so as to improve their night vision. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">ï»ż</div><div style="text-align: justify;">These stories evidently came to the ear of Bernard Newman, author of The Flying Saucer, 1948. This was inspired by a remark of Anthony Eden, former foreign secretary (and future prime minister), that the Cold War had made enemies of nations who just before had been united against the Third Reich, and that a new common enemy would be beneficial. âWhat we need is an invasion from space.â In the novel, a group of scientists took him up on this and faked an invasion from space for the purpose. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Flying saucers only appeared peripherally: I get the impression that he was already at work on the book when the first UFO flap began in the summer of 1947, so he added a few pages based upon what had appeared in the press, though they did not really affect his plot. The science in it was shaky: a man who was supposed to be the worldâs leading physicist stated that the atom bomb worked by âa chain reaction of electronsâ (he meant neutrons). So it is not surprising that he went on to do the impossible, and next to their dummy spaceship erected a transmitter that caused engines to stop in the vicinity, so that people would think that alien technology was at work. One might have expected that that would have been the end of the matter, but âcar-stopsâ have been reported in many UFO cases. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It would be futile to attempt to list them all, but here is one of the most puzzling: on the night of 2nd November 1957 (coincidentally, or not, this was the night that the Russians launched their second satellite, Sputnik II), police in Levelland, west Texas, received phone calls from six different men who had almost identical stories. Each had seen a large glowing object near the town, usually thought to be more than 100 feet long, whereupon their motors failed and their headlights went out. After the object departed, the vehicles returned to normal. A seventh witness later reported the same thing to the Air Force. (Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, pp.159-64.) Dr. Donald Menzel, who initially thought that the object might have been âan unusually bright meteorâ, later observed that at the time the area was experiencing unusual weather, rain and lightning, so that the object must have been ball lightning, which can range in size from a few inches to several feet. He did admit that there is no âentirely satisfactoryâ explanation for ball lightning, and that âsome scientists have doubted its realityâ. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">âThe truckâs engine may have died for one of several reasons. The rain during the evening could have seeped under the hood and soaked the ignition or dampened the spark plugs. The feed line may have been clogged. Or the region of highly rarefied air created by the ball lightning may temporarily have deprived the engine of oxygen.â These would not explain the headlights being extinguished, however, and it is odd that it should happen to seven drivers in the same district on the same evening. Nevertheless, âOnly the saucer proponents could have converted so trivial a series of events â a few stalled automobiles, balls of flame in the sky at the end of a thunderstorm â into a national mystery.â (Donald H. Menzel and Lyle G. Boyd, The World of Flying Saucers, pp.174-80.) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1966 a man named Mel Noel claimed to the media that he had been involved with a secret U. S. Air Force group who had investigated UFOs and made contact with them. In one talk he gave that was transcribed and printed, he made a few howlers, such as saying that one Air Force document was headed: âTop Secret: Destroy Before Readingâ. He said that a group of scientists in South America had been building flying saucers under guidance from the space people, and that one would land on the set of the Jackie Gleason show in Florida. âHe backed his tale with frayed clippings of Marconiâs alleged experiments.â Needless to say, this landing did not occur. âMel Noel disappeared back into the cosmic woodwork.â Unfortunately, it is not clear whether these clippings referred to engine failures or something else. </div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Colorado UFO Project observed that âThere are many UFO reports in which it is claimed that an automobileâs ignition failed and the motor stopped, and in some cases that the headlights failed also, and that after this happened, a UFO was seen nearby. Usually such reports are discussed on the supposition that this is an indication that the UFO had been the source of strong magnetic field.â Of the people that they personally interviewed, however, there was only one such, and that âwas made by a diabetic patient who had been drinking and was returning home alone from a party at 3 a.m.â. Tests showed that, to stall a car, a field greatly in excess of 20,000 gauss would be required, and that this would permanently affect the magnetisation of the car. (Dr. Edward Condon, Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, 1969, p.38.) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Occasionally stalling turns up in accounts of hauntings. Rolling Acres Road in Florida is reputedly inhabited by the ghost of a murdered woman. A group named ghostbusters âwent there to check it out, and the car we were in stalled. It took better than ten minutes to get it cranked. I think it had something to do with that road.â (Charlie Carlson, Weird Florida, 2005, p.161.) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jay Ansonâs The Amityville Horror has been described as a novel. But the Lutz family, who lived there, were real, and maintained that the book was at least based upon what happened to them, though amplified by Ansonâs imagination. The story is that one afternoon they got so frightened by the spooks in their home that they decided to leave there and then, but their van would not start, so they had to remain. At seven oâclock the next morning they tried again, and this time âThe motor turned over immediately.â (Jan Anson, The Amityville Horror, pp.167, 179.) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I do not have any personal conclusion from all this. Some of these stories, clearly, are myths, so this may or may not be true of the others. I do know a woman with a car whose engine often conks out, not due to the presence of aliens or ghosts, but because it is a clapped-out old banger!</div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-42655985283279034972017-07-24T06:02:00.003-07:002021-02-04T09:52:40.682-08:00The Map Behind the Piri Reis Map<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDzgzafvvE-wnT6ZSNG3UjpqWh73_m7CTybCQSjzBl-jkBMc3NoWqU3Dpf-1YGq-6lJZnGYMPbLEEGSSYSm5nQn22rUp53wDUlqJCiDTB4GZhlStvfQ9oFqjEb8yga2HfI8Tr_j5fr4m8/s707/piri+reis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="123" data-original-width="707" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDzgzafvvE-wnT6ZSNG3UjpqWh73_m7CTybCQSjzBl-jkBMc3NoWqU3Dpf-1YGq-6lJZnGYMPbLEEGSSYSm5nQn22rUp53wDUlqJCiDTB4GZhlStvfQ9oFqjEb8yga2HfI8Tr_j5fr4m8/w640-h112/piri+reis.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span><a name='more'></a></span>Piri Ibn Haji Memmed (c.1470-1554), better known as Piri Reis, was a Turkish pirate who later became an admiral (which says something about the Turkish navy of the time), and was eventually executed for treason. He compiled a detailed atlas of the Mediterranean, but is best known for his world map, drawn on gazelle skin, dated 1513. At some point this was cut in two, and only the half showing the Atlantic survives. A small part of another map created by him, from 1528, is extant. In 1988 the 1513 map was on display in the British Museum as part of an exhibition of sixteenth century Turkish culture.<br />
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ï»żï»żï»żAlthough far from accurate, it is quite impressive for its time, showing the Caribbean islands and much of the eastern coastline of South America. Piri Reis wrote that he had compiled it from twenty earlier maps. The Brazilian mainland is decorated with drawings of animals, and a man with his face on his chest. Shakespeare makes Othello speak, whilst talking about his voyages, of âThe Anthropophagi, and men whose heads do grow beneath their shouldersâ. Evidently this was a common yarn at the time. Northwest Africa is shown as fertile, with lakes and rivers, when in fact it is largely desert. Of course, an admiral need only concern himself with coastlines, and not bother about what may lie inland.<br />
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The bottom of the map shows part of the Antarctic coast. It is drawn too far to the north, and is joined up to Brazil by a squiggly line, which seems to have been his way of indicating his guess as to what lay in the lacunae between his source maps. But it is nonetheless remarkable, in that conventional history has it that Antarctica was not discovered until 1818. The map also dates from before Magellanâs first round the world voyage of 1519-1522. (Actually, though it is attributed to Magellan, in the Philippines the natives killed him, and only one of the five ships that he set out with made it back to Spain. Nevertheless, this finally proved that the earth is a globe.)<br />
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In 1956 a Turkish naval official presented a facsimile to the U. S. Navy Hydrographic Office as a gift. Though the United States territory is not shown, it aroused interest as it was thought that it might have been based upon one made by Christopher Columbus. It was examined by a student of old maps, Captain Arlington H. Mallery, who came to a remarkable conclusion: the Antarctic coast showed features now concealed by the ice cap. Thus, it must have been mapped before the ice appeared, that is, perhaps 10,000 years ago. He consulted some other geographers, including the Jesuit fathers Rev. Daniel Lineham of the Weston Observatory of Boston College, and Rev. Francis Heyden, director of the Georgetown University Observatory. This resulted in a radio panel discussion on 26 August 1956. A transcript of this came to the attention of C. H. Hapgood, a Professor of the History of Science at Keen State College of the University of New Hampshire, who decided to do his own investigation. In December 1958 a debate on the subject was held at Georgetown University, and this was reported by the Fortean writer Ivan Sanderson in the January 1959 issue of Fantastic Universe (not seen).<br />
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Sandersonâs article was read by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, and summarised by them in <i>The Morning of the Magicians</i> (p.120). Some creativity had been added, however, as they related that âFather Lineham confirmed that the contours of North America, the location of the lakes and mountains of Canada, the coastal outline of the extreme north of the continent . . . were all correct.â Since the Piri Reis map does not show the North American continent at all, except for what seems to be the southernmost tip of Florida, this is hard to understand. Since they were interested in possible forgotten sciences, they then asked: âWere these copies of still earlier maps? Had they been traced from observations made on board a flying machine or space vessel of some kind? Notes taken by visitors from Beyond?â<br />
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Meanwhile, Hapgood had got his students involved with the project. They found some reasons for thinking that many mediaeval charts were based upon much older originals. Certainly, there were many copies of the map of the Mediterranean drawn by Ptolemy in the second century.<br />
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In the Thanksgiving recess of 1959 Hapgood went to the Library of Congress in Washington, whom he had asked about sixteenth and seventeenth century maps. They obligingly produced several hundred for his inspection. He discovered that Antarctica is shown on several of them, generally drawn too large. On Mercatorâs 1538 world map the continent is depicted as embracing Terra del Fuego, the Magellan strait being the only gap between it and South America. The Buache chart of 1754 shows it as two large islands, separated by a âMer Glaciaâ (frozen sea).<br />
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One problem that he and his students addressed was that of an island on the Piri Reis map that appeared to be Cuba, but was drawn vertically rather than horizontally. They tried various projections, that is, ways of representing a spherical surface on a two-dimensional map, and settled upon a Bonne Projection, as this might give such a distortion. Hapgood reproduced, in his 1965 Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, a U. S. Air Force âAzimuthal Equidistant Projection centred near Cairoâ, i.e. as the world might appear as viewed from a tremendous height above Cairo, and in this Cuba is vertical.<br />
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The Piri Reis map also shows a large island in the middle of the Atlantic. Its name is written in Turko-Arabic script, and is difficult to read as it occurs on a crease where the map was folded, but it may have read âAtlandâ, i.e. Atlantis. âHere, in this island, there might have developed the people who made these maps!â<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihVu1jdGyoS2xTPo-8j22GfoUFDO8ru4JvTDHV0S5hz4R2nH9p_jgRTwgHxnPwsp2S-KyzBakH61fp31yXVSS47E6QSRphESHTBC4ao4d6_eHqIoBWyCznh7u_zt5z0cD7PMLoD-gPgRU/s1600/Piri_reis_world_map_02.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihVu1jdGyoS2xTPo-8j22GfoUFDO8ru4JvTDHV0S5hz4R2nH9p_jgRTwgHxnPwsp2S-KyzBakH61fp31yXVSS47E6QSRphESHTBC4ao4d6_eHqIoBWyCznh7u_zt5z0cD7PMLoD-gPgRU/s1600/Piri_reis_world_map_02.jpg" /></a><br />
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Erich von DĂ€nikenâs <i>Chariots of the Gods?</i> appeared (in German) in 1968. His third chapter, âThe Improbable World of the Unexplainedâ, is a list of archaeological anomalies, many of them lifted from Pauwels and Bergier. The first was the Piri Reis map, for which he had bothered to read Hapgood, as he reproduced not only the map itself, but the Cairo projection. This he took as directly explaining the Piri Reis map: âA space-ship hovers high above Cairo and points its camera straight downwards . . . Admittedly the Turkish Admiralâs maps are not originals. They are copies of copies of copies.â (pp.30-31)<br />
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This book produced a greater volume of criticism than the text itself. On the present topic, Ronald Story (<i>The Space-Gods Revealed,</i> p.49) wrote that âThe map is not by any means correctly drawn, and the identification of Antarctica without its ice cover is highly dubiousâ, but did not elaborate. A. D. Crown (in E. W. Castle & E. B. Thiering, eds.,<i> Some Trust in Chariots!!</i>, p.28) produced an argument that it is hard to understand: âThe great cape which forms the southern most point [of Brazil] on the map is Cape Sao Roque itself. Thus, despite the claim of von DĂ€niken, Antarctica, echo soundings or no, is not shown on the map.â What he appears to have meant is that everything depicted south of Cape Sao Roque (the easternmost part of Brazil) was speculative, but even if so then it is remarkable that someone had correctly guessed the coastline of Antarctica. John Allan (The Gospel According to Science Fiction, p.12) asserted that âAntarctica is not shown, but Japan is . . . where Cuba ought to be,â without further explanation.<br />
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Notwithstanding these criticisms, others continued to enthuse. The astronomer Duncan Lunan (Man and the Stars, p.268) described Hapgoodâs book as âby far the best evidence of [alien] Contact currently available.â There has been no shortage of Ancient Astronaut authors. Andrew Tomas (We Are Not the First, p.115) asserted that âThe second map dated 1528 shows Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland, a part of Canada, the east coast of North America to Florida.â In fact, the 1528 map is only a fragment, which shows the Caribbean but little else. In a similar vein Peter Kolosimo (<i>Timeless Earth,</i> p.232) said that âThe only major error appeared to be that Greenland was shown in the form of three islands; but during the International Geophysical Year [1957] it was proved that this correctly represented the state of affairs over 5,000 years.â In this he was followed by W. Raymond Drake (Gods and Spacemen in the Ancient West, p.109), who refers to â. . . ice-free Greenland and three large islands, since confirmed by a French Polar Expeditionâ. To repeat, nothing north of Florida is shown at all, accurately or otherwise. It is hard to believe that these authors had actually looked at the map they were praising.<br />
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One who did study it was Robin Collyns (<i>Did Spacemen Colonise the Earth?,</i> p.94), who was struck by the presence of a lost island in the Atlantic: âComparing the Piri Reis map with a Theosophical map of the ancient world, I was intrigued to see this same island, known in Theosophy as âDaityaâ, a large Atlantean island, existing at precisely the same geographic location; but on the Piri Reis map, Atlantis itself seemed to have already sunk.â Brinsley Le Poer Trench (<i>Secret of the Ages</i>) mentioned the Piri Reis map to support his thesis that the earth is hollow and that UFOs come from the inside. Since the 1970s, Ancient Astronauts have gone out of fashion, but they have been supplanted by works on lost (advanced) civilisations, and Piri Reis is often brought in to support this, but that is a whole body of literature in itself which is too large to deal with here.<br />
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Drake (<i>Gods and Spacemen Throughout History</i>, p.67), typically observes that âThe maps omit Atlantis, they date before the glaciation of Antarctica, perhaps between 10,000 and 8,000 BCâ, and this approximate date is accepted by other writers. If Piri Reis were really able to access materials that old, it would mean that someone was making maps ten to twelve thousand years ago, which as far as we know is thousands of years before the invention of writing, or the creation of even the crudest early maps. Nevertheless, Antarctica did get onto some Renaissance charts.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia8zWrdW1s3njlw0mn6GulzxDz5DPTpc8V6qDjBkwCBSmcn7Tp-0BJo_pDFBgIVt34B5k6-cg57XNAnCal6A1tU7ntYvdcETMKPLUU_qY81Fh2eJmDLwG77Fld8XtA2PmqewCAFwsZLHk/s1600/Oronteus-Finaeus-21.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia8zWrdW1s3njlw0mn6GulzxDz5DPTpc8V6qDjBkwCBSmcn7Tp-0BJo_pDFBgIVt34B5k6-cg57XNAnCal6A1tU7ntYvdcETMKPLUU_qY81Fh2eJmDLwG77Fld8XtA2PmqewCAFwsZLHk/s1600/Oronteus-Finaeus-21.jpg" /></a><br />
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In my opinion there is a straightforward, if dull, explanation. The Oronteus Finaeusworld map of 1532 (above) shows Antarctica â drawn, as usual, too large â with the clear inscription Terra australis recenter inventa, sed nondum plene cognita, i.e. âThe Southern Land, newly discovered, but not yet fully known.â The implication is that someone had sailed around the continent and roughly mapped it half a millennium before Dame Ellen Macarthur, and before 1513, perhaps about 1500. This was at a time when the Spanish and Portuguese had started sending ships on years-long voyages, so there should be nothing surprising about this. Thus, Antarctica was only re-discovered in 1818. Research into the archives of Spain and Portugal might uncover something about this, but it would be a monumental task, and anyway the records may be lost.<br />
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Two questions arise, if this hypothesis is correct. One is, why did some experts think that the maps showed Antarctica free of ice? Since no-one explains how they reached this conclusion, I cannot say. Secondly, how come this expedition became known to map-makers, but not to historians? I would tentatively suggest that tremendous excitement was aroused by reports of Central and South America with their large quantities of gold; whereas a landmass with nothing except snow and penguins generated no interest.<br />
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P.S. Would it be possible to pass a law compelling UFO authors to provide their books with indexes?</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-67889166114870604742017-07-24T05:37:00.001-07:002021-02-04T10:04:27.272-08:00When Springheel Jack Wore Galoshes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFxQvm5F6FQ0hAuNTp4BmeIQcB1V2OBjc-14ZfuSgerz8KET2LMjSEj59K6wZbckL6-GXguRY3UvwpIqRzPuiKPyl10DD1hXbQ8Xr3dHNFfFGsulgtru-A06eRN75mFfAi4CacAJVCczA/s707/SHJACK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="123" data-original-width="707" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFxQvm5F6FQ0hAuNTp4BmeIQcB1V2OBjc-14ZfuSgerz8KET2LMjSEj59K6wZbckL6-GXguRY3UvwpIqRzPuiKPyl10DD1hXbQ8Xr3dHNFfFGsulgtru-A06eRN75mFfAi4CacAJVCczA/w640-h112/SHJACK.jpg" width="640" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFxQvm5F6FQ0hAuNTp4BmeIQcB1V2OBjc-14ZfuSgerz8KET2LMjSEj59K6wZbckL6-GXguRY3UvwpIqRzPuiKPyl10DD1hXbQ8Xr3dHNFfFGsulgtru-A06eRN75mFfAi4CacAJVCczA/s707/SHJACK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a><div style="background-color: white; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;">
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<div align="center" class="NormalTimesNewRoman" style="background-color: white; font-size: 15.4px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div align="center" class="NormalTimesNewRoman" style="background-color: white; font-size: 15.4px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div align="center" class="NormalTimesNewRoman" style="background-color: white; font-size: 15.4px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div align="center" class="NormalTimesNewRoman" style="background-color: white; font-size: 15.4px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div align="center" class="NormalTimesNewRoman" style="background-color: white; font-size: 15.4px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div align="center" class="NormalTimesNewRoman" style="background-color: white; font-size: 15.4px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span><!--more--></span></span></b></div><div align="center" class="NormalTimesNewRoman" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; text-align: left;">This is the full story of Spring Heeled Jack in </span><st1:city style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; text-align: left;" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Warrington</st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; text-align: left;"> in 1927 </span></span></div><div align="center" class="NormalTimesNewRoman" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">as told through the newspapers of the period:</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><strong>The Warrington</strong></st1:city></st1:place><strong> Examiner</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-family: "centschbook bt";">20 August 1927</span><b><o:p> </o:p></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><strong>A GHOST IN GALOSHES</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><strong>Hue and Cry in <st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">Haydock Street</st1:street></st1:address> After Tall Figure in White</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "centschbook bt";"><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">HUNDREDS IN THE CHASE</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><strong>A very evil-looking man in a black suit.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0c343d;"><strong>A tall figure dressed all in white.</strong></span><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
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These, literally, are the principal figures in a âDraculaâ like story which comes from the <st1:place w:st="on">Haydock Street</st1:place> district. Strange happenings have been reported during the week, and hundreds of people have had the not altogether unpleasant thrill of the âghostâ hunt. The most serious side of the story is that many women and girls have been alarmed, and a very sensible solution, told to the investigator, is that the âghostâ is either a practical joker or the accomplice of a thief who may be endeavouring to draw people from their homes to enable his confederate to have better facilities for breaking in.<o:p> </o:p><br />
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The story begins last week when it is stated âa very evil looking manâ in a black suitâ was seen prowling around in a very mysterious manner. This fact is authenticated by several residents of <st1:place w:st="on">Haydock Street</st1:place>.<o:p> </o:p><br />
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In the early hours of Sunday morning the whole neighbourhood was thrown into excitement by the news that a âghostâ had been seen. It was stated that between the hours of one and two oâclock a âtall figure dressed all in whiteâ was seen passing along the streets adjoining <st1:place w:st="on">Haydock Street</st1:place> and completely disappearing from time to time. Two women who witnessed the apparition were so overcome that they fainted and had to be revived by the crowd which soon assembled. A diligent search was afterwards made, but no trace of a supposed visitor from another world was to be found. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>SOLID ARGUMENTS FOR THE SHADE</strong></span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Comparatively few people saw the figure on Sunday morning, but on Sunday night a crowd of some hundreds of people from all over Warrington gathered in Haydock and Furness Streets armed with pokes, bottles, shovels, brooms, carving knives and hay making implements prepared to lay the ghost. Many of them ridiculed the suggestion that anything had been seen, but they were less sceptical when, about eleven oâ clock the âghostâ made its appearance once again. Immediately the cry went up âThere it isââ and the crowd set off after the apparition. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">After beckoning to various people, the ghost took to its heels and, instead of vanishing as all well-bred ghosts should, darted down a narrow entry in Furness-street. At the end of the entry is a high wall, but this did not stop the ghost in its flight, for its placed its hands on the top of the wall and sprang over like-to use one womanâs expression-âthe famous Spring Heeled Jackâ. From that point on all trace of it was lost. The search continued, however, until four oâclock in the morning , but nothing further was seen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The occurrence had such an effect on the people however that many of them could not get any sleep, and windows were bolted, extra fastenings were put on the doors, and some men even stayed up until daylight, in readiness for any other appearance that the âghostâ might make. On Monday morning however, many girls were hysterical and could not be calmed. If they moved from one room into another they had to take their father or mother with them, even when they were getting ready for work. Many of those who go early to work had to be escorted the greater part of the way. One girl said â I was so frightened that I kept looking behind me for fear the ghost should get me."<o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>WHAT EYE-WITNESSES SAW</strong></span> </span></div>
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Mrs Flanaghan of Furness-street and her three daughters were among the first to see the apparition. âI was standing at the doorâ said Mrs Flanaghan, about eleven oâclock on Sunday night and, happening to look across the road, I suddenly saw something white. I cried out âThere it isâ and my three daughters and a young man to whom we were talking, saw it too. The young man wanted to run after, but he was held back because we feared the âghostâ might have a knife under the white covering. The apparition was very tall, about six feet, and was covered from head to foot with something white, the only part of it visible being the eyes. When a chase was attempted it ran down the entry, taking off the white covering as it went, and we noticed that it had on a dark suit. It must of have had galoshes or something on its feet, for we heard the âpit patâ as it ran.â<o:p> </o:p></div>
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Another person who had a âclose upâ of the figure was Mrs Ellison of Scott-street, who was walking home with her husband on Sunday night after visiting a friend. âWhen nearing Furness-streetâ said Mrs Ellison â I saw a ghostly figure in white. I was startled and cried to my husband âOh a ghostâ. He replied there were no such things as ghosts, but when he turned and saw it he said âMy God it is a ghost!â. He said he would see if it really were a ghost and grabbed my umbrella. When the ghost saw this it put its hands up in the air, just like a ghost, and then ran down the entry.â<o:p> </o:p></div>
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Although another lady from Chorley-street states there are no such things as ghosts, the apparition frightened her when she came upon it suddenly on Sunday night. It was dressed all in white and was a very terrifying spectacle.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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The people of the neighbourhood are doing their best to lay the âghostâ as it is causing so much annoyance in the neighbourhood and the search was continued on Monday and Tuesday nights, but the ghost kept itself to itself.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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Each night through the week parties of people, mostly young, have waited until the early hours of the morning with the hope of seeing, and, as one young man said, âdoing forâ the apparition. One evening an âExaminerâ representative spent an hour or two in the district but, until after midnight, nothing was seen or heard except for a few ghostly wails which , when investigated, were found to proceed from very human throats-those of young children who took a delight in trying to frighten the watchers. Time after time persons would shout âThere it isâ but their imaginations were playing them a trick, for the âghostâ did not show its face.<o:p> </o:p><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-size: x-large;"><strong><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "gloucester mt extra condensed";">Manchester</span></st1:city></st1:place><span style="font-family: "gloucester mt extra condensed";"> Evening News</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "gloucester mt extra condensed";">Saturday 10 September 1927</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><strong>FACE AT THE WINDOW</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #0c343d; font-size: large;">WEIRD HAPPENINGS IN <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">WARRINGTON</st1:city></st1:place></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">DOGS HOWL</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-size: large;"><strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #0c343d;"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Warrington</st1:city></st1:place> has a ghost!</span></span></strong><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
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Women in the <st1:place w:st="on">Orford Lane</st1:place> district of Warrington have been terrified during the past week by weird happenings. A remarkable series of incident began three weeks ago when hundreds of people in the Haydock-street district chased a ghost-a figure in white which disappeared by jumping over a high wall,. Shortly before the appearance of the âghostâ the residents report that a person variously described as â a very evil looking manâ and âa tall strange manâ was seen in the vicinity.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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Last Sunday the ghost reappeared. At about 10.15 on Sunday night Miss May Evans of 26 Neston-street was sitting in the kitchen, sewing, while her brother Bernard aged nine years, was playing with a toy engine on the floor. The back gate and the door of the shed adjoining the house were unfastened.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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While sewing she heard a peculiar squealing noise in the shed, and turned the key of the door leading into the shed. Thinking no more about the matter she resumed her work, and suddenly Bernard exclaimed: âOh look at the windowâ.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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âI lookedâ said Miss Evans to our representative, âand had the fright of my life. There was a face, almost covered with something white, pressed to the window, while a hand over the bottom of the window held a big electric torch. It must have been a very powerful torch for it lit up the whole of the kitchen, thought the gas [light] was full on. I was frightened and could not move. At last I ran to the front and neighbours came out to see what was the matter. They made a search but could not find anything.â<o:p> </o:p></div>
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The only noise Miss Evans heard was the âsquealingâ before the apparition appeared at the window.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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Neighbours state that on the Sunday night all the dogs in the neighbourhood barked and howled for hours. Another appearance occurred in the Birchall-street district on Tuesday evening. Mrs Bird of 23 Chorley-street was sitting in the house with her little boy when she heard a loud rapping on a piece of three-ply wood which had been inserted in place of a broken window pane.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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âWe went to bedâ said Mrs Bird âand after a time we were awakened by a commotion at the back. We went down and found that the âghostâ had been visiting a house down the roadâ.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The <i>Liverpool Express</i> of the same date on page 5 also carried the story with even more alarming headlines:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "franklin gothic heavy";"><span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;">âGHOST FACEâ AT A WINDOW<span style="font-size: 20pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "franklin gothic heavy"; font-size: large;">TERROR CAUSED AMONG <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">WARRINGTON</st1:city></st1:place> WOMEN</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "franklin gothic heavy"; font-size: large;">ELUSIVE FIGURE</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "franklin gothic heavy";">RESIDENT ON LOOK-OUT WITH A TRUNCHEON.</span> </span><br />
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âWomen in the Orford-lane district have been during the week been terrified by weird happenings in the night and crowds of people have gathered in <st1:place w:st="on">Neston Street</st1:place> to watch for a ghost.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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<o:p>O</o:p>ne man went about with a truncheon up his sleeve, and another with a blank shot pistol, but nothing supernatural or otherwise has been captured.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather";">Excitement began three weeks ago, when the people in the </span><st1:place style="background-color: white; font-family: merriweather;" w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">Haydock Street</st1:street></st1:address></st1:place><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather";">district chased a âfigure in whiteâ which jumped over a high wall. Shortly before the appearences of the ghost, residents had reported that a person described as an âevil looking manâ and a âtall strange manâ had been seen in the district.â</span><o:p style="background-color: white; font-family: merriweather;"> </o:p><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The paper then went on report the story of May and Bernard Evans in almost the same language as the Manchester Evening News, adding that the little boy had to be given restoratives and that the face at the window had moved from side to side. Likewise the story of Mrs Bird. There was also the story of Mrs Bate of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">44 Birchall Street</st1:street></st1:address></st1:place>. She and her family were going to bed when âone of the family went into the kitchen. There were three loud bangs on the window, and the woman ran into the kitchen and said she had seen a large fist come to the window and bang on it three timesâ </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The next Saturday the <em>Manchester Evening News</em> had more on the ghost to <span style="font-size: 12pt;">report (17 September)</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p><b><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">HOWLING GHOST</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Warrington</st1:place></st1:city> Disturbed Again</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">UGLY VISITOR</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(From Our Own Correspondent.)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Warrington</st1:city></st1:place>: Saturday</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">----------------------------------------------------</span></span></span></div>
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The now famous <st1:place w:st="on">Warrington</st1:place> ghost has been up to his usual tricks again this week and the latest description of him which comes from the Birchall-street district is that he is â a second spring-heeled Jackâ who makes a noise similar to the howl made in âThe Face at the Windowâ.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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<o:p>M</o:p>rs Garner of Birchall-street was in the front room with her husband when they heard weird noises at the back. There were tappings on the window panes and a peculiar howling noise in the air.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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Although not unduly troubled about the matter, Mr Garner took the precaution of nailing up the back room window.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather";">It was just as well for the visitor came back again to the house on Tuesday evening and this time appeared to try and get in, for finger marks were found all over the window.</span><br />
<o:p style="background-color: white; font-family: merriweather;"></o:p><br style="background-color: white; font-family: merriweather;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather";">Two days later Mrs Garner went into the back room and saw something at the window. A white light flashed.</span><o:p style="background-color: white; font-family: merriweather;"> </o:p><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather";">At the window was a man with âa very large mouth and ugly faceâ. The light which flashed was, according to Mrs Garner, about six times brighter than the light from the gas mantle.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather";">Although hundreds of people were out within three minutes after the occurrence, no sign of the man could be found.</span><o:p style="background-color: white; font-family: merriweather;"> </o:p><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">UGLY FACE</span></b> </span></div>
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A little later the same evening the ghost appeared to have made its way round to Algernon-street. A Mr Dunn was in the yard when he suddenly saw a manâs head and shoulders appear above the gate, which is 5ft 6inches [about 1.65m.] high.<o:p> It wa</o:p>s an ugly face and he made a smack at it with his fist. His hand however hit the top of the gate and the ghost made off.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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Mr Dunn opened the gate and ran after the âthingâ but it disappeared like a shadow. It did not run but seemed to glide. It had a long white coat like a mackintosh (rain coat PR), and appeared to have no feet at all.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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The ghost also made an appearance in Hamilton-street, where it tapped a young man on the shoulder, and frightened him so much that he ran into a shop and fainted.<o:p> </o:p><br />
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Another unusual occurrence comes from Alder-street. A woman was in bed, and she told her husband she could heard a fizzling noise downstairs.<o:p> </o:p>Her husband went down to investigate and he found a plate of fried bacon in the back kitchen. He heard a sound as of someone running down the yard, but when he made a search nothing was revealed.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here is how it was presented in the two weekly newspapers in the town on Saturday 24 September 1927. First there was the more populist paper, the Liberal <i>Warrington Examiner</i>. That went in for the sensational approach:<o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "rockwell extra bold"; font-size: x-large;"><b>THE GHOST!</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "rockwell";"><span style="color: #0c343d; font-size: large;">Appearance Before an Armed Mob: White Robe and Folded Arms<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-family: "rockwell"; font-size: large;">â MY TIMEâS UPâ</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "rockwell";">--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></div>
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âWe think it is somebody playing pranks and, more than anything else, it is women who âhave got the wind upâ, is the opinion of the police with regard to remarkable happenings which have taken place in the Orford-lane and surrounding districts during the past few weeks.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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This is probably a common sense view of the whole matter, but at the same time there is no doubt that the repeated appearances of some individual posing as a âghostâ have created a big sensation in that part of Warrington, and is causing a lot of discomfort and alarm amongst the more nervous women and children.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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The Examinerâ learns that in many cases, parents have put their clocks on at night in order to get their children to go to bed before the time when the âghostâ is supposed to appear: and that the children themselves are becoming frightened of leaving their homes in the evening.</div>
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During the last week-end another probable solution to the mystery was arrived at following a message shouted to some young men by the âghostâ, which was being chased. âMy timeâs up on Thursdayâ was the message, and this would make appear that the âghostâ is carrying out his queer programme for a wager.</div>
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When the ghost was reported to be in Margaret-street on Sunday night, hundreds of men, women and even children, armed with pokers, fire tongues, bottles, truncheons, âchilalahsâ, [shillelaghs] and other weapons rushed in a mob to the neighbourhood with the object of âfinishing it offâ. <o:p> </o:p></div>
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The <st1:place w:st="on">Warrington</st1:place> âghostâ however is very brave and seems to care not what manner of revenge the public have planned for him, for he walked past the crowd with only a few feet separating them from him. âThere he is!â shouted the people and after him they went. Down Margaret-street, which is blocked at one end by railings separating the street from the railway, he went over the rails âlike greased lightningâ. The crowd uprooted the rails to get on to the embankment, and there was the âghostâ in his white robes and folded arms, staring at them. <o:p> </o:p></div>
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They again took up the chase and after flashing his powerful torch on a wall of corrugated iron, which is very jagged at the top and is about 10 feet high, over he went, making the peculiar howling noise which generally announces his coming. From that point he disappeared. Later however, however, he was again heard in a backyard at the other end of the street, but before the crowd could get hold of him he had once more disappeared. One man got so close to him as to almost touch him, but his hand came into contact with a wagon or something, and the âghostâ got away.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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Thus matters went on until about two oâ clock, but although the people saw the light being flashed in various places, nothing came of their searching.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "rockwell"; font-size: large;">GREEN EYES</span></b></div>
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Earlier in the evening Mr Frangleton, of Margaret-street, was in his yard, which adjoins the railway, when he saw the âghostâ dressed all in white standing in the middle of the yard with its arms crossed, staring at him. According to Mr Frangletonâs daughter, her father called for his slippers, but the ghost disappeared from the yard as if by magic. It had an extremely ugly face, which must have been a mask, for no human could have a face so ugly, and the eyes appeared to be green and illuminated. On his chest was something that resembled an electric light switch.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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Mrs Denmade and Miss Fragleton saw the âghostâ again in a wooden building on the railway.</div>
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On Monday night the people of the neighbourhood arranged a systematic search of the district around Margaret-street, but nothing unusual was seen.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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The extraordinary manner in which the âghostâ moves and the way it surmounts high walls lead people to surmise that is has springs on its feet.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "rockwell";">THE MYSTERY BACON</span></b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "merriweather";"><o:p></o:p>Another unusual occurrence, which may or may not be associated with the ghost is reported from the Alder-lane district. The report goes that a lady was in bed when she thought she head a frizzling noise downstairs. Her h</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">usband went do</span><span style="font-family: "merriweather";">wn to investigate, and found a plate of cooked bacon in the back kitchen. He heard a sound as of somebody running down the yard, but when he made a search nothing was revealed. </span><o:p style="font-family: Merriweather;"> </o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This was essentially the story that appeared in the <i>Liverpool Express</i> and <i>Manchester Evening News</i> of September 19th. They clearly had a common source. Similar stories also appeared in the Manchester Evening Chronicle but add no further details. The rival Conservative and somewhat more upmarket <i>Warrington Guardian</i> was much more sober in its reportage: </span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">A SILLY SCARE</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">âGHOSTâ STORY âALL BUNKUMâ</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">EYE-WITNESS VISITS THE âGUARDIANâ OFFICE</span> </span><br />
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The silly pranks of some persons who have been referred to as the â<st1:place w:st="on">Haydock Street</st1:place>ghostâ has caused considerable disturbances in that neighbourhood. Stories have been circulated of an ugly face, weird noises and green eyes, and children and credulous people have been unnerved. It was reported early this week that the man shouted a message to some young men who chased him saying âI wonât be sorry when my timeâs up on Thursdayâ</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><strong>A CHASE DESCRIBED</strong></span></div>
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Mr Stanley Trantum of 45 Laira Street, called at the âGuardianâ Office on Monday and stated that at 11.30 on the previous evening he was at the house of a friend in <st1:place w:st="on">Chorley Street</st1:place> when he heard screams. Running out, he saw a crowd of people in <st1:place w:st="on">Margaret Street</st1:place>, where a man was being chased. Mr Trantum followed and almost caught the man when he scaled a corrugated iron wall. He says that on the far side of the wall he fell into an iron box and then became entangled in some wire: otherwise, the man would not have escaped. The man was wearing a light fawn raincoat and was carrying an electric lamp.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>POLICE SUPERINTENDENTâS VIEW</strong></span><span style="font-family: "felix titling";"> </span></span></div>
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Mr Trantum had not reported the matter to the police, and when a âGuardianâ reporter visited Superintendent Holland with the information, he said he thought the story of the âghostâ was âall bunkumâ. We think it is somebody playing pranksâ he added and âmore than anything else, that it is hysterical women who have âgot the wind upâ and imaged most of the things which are reported. </div>
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<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">That was that, with the police pronouncement the story left the presses. It was to linger in the memories of older people and in <i>Ghost, Mysteries and Legends of Old <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Warrington</st1:city></st1:place></i> by charity worker Wally Barnes (Owl Books 1990), where there is a wildly exaggerated account of his activities. Far from the back streets of the original reports Barnes has âSpring Heel Jackâ bouncing up <st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">Horsemarket Street</st1:street></st1:address>, (the portion of the main road leading up to Warrington Central Railway Station from the central roundabout) on shoes with springs on their soles. He is now seen bounding along in 15ft leaps along <st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">John Street</st1:street></st1:address> and leaping as high as bedroom windows in <st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">Hardy Street</st1:street></st1:address> and leaping along <st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">Cockhedge Lane</st1:street></st1:address> in 20ft leaps. <o:p> </o:p></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The areas at the centre of this story were streets of terraced housing in a working class district to the north of Central Railway Station in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Warrington</st1:city></st1:place>. They can be seen on this 1910 map in comparison with a 21st century one here:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://maps.cheshire.gov.uk/tithemaps/TwinMaps.aspx?township=D4625-12" style="color: #1b1bec; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: blue;">http://maps.cheshire.gov.uk/tithemaps/TwinMaps.aspx?township=D4625-12</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Much of the housing was demolished in the 1970s, and though street names survive, the scene is quite different. There are no images of the streets at this period in the public domain (photographers concentrated on the main shopping streets and little of the working class housing was ever generated)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ghosts were in the news in this period; in July a man in Towcester refused accommodation proffered because a man had committed suicide there 30 years before and it was said to be haunted (e.g. <i>Western Daily Press</i> 21 July 1927) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Warrington</st1:city></st1:place> âghostâ was just one of three according to this report in the Aberdeen Journal of 23 August 1927: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "franklin gothic medium";">VARIETY IN GHOSTS</span></b> </span></div>
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<strong>Police Baffled by Weird Apparitions.</strong> Three ghosts are stalking abroad, if the evidence received is to be acceptedâone in London, one in Barry, Wales, and one in Warrington, who stalks six feet high with a menacing mien. That they were not members of the same Trade Union of Departed Spirits is very evident, for while the white-haired ghost of London gently kissed a sleeping woman on the forehead and silently stole away, he of Warrington shocked two women into a faint and leaped over a ten-foot wall like Spring-Heeled Jack, when angry husbands armed with bottles and carving knives, gave chase in the dead of night. <o:p> </o:p></div>
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The ghost of Barry a mystic Peeping Tom, peering in at windows feet above the, ground, terrorising a mother and children in flat. The London ghost, whom two women and a girl say they have seen flit across the hall of an ancient mansion house within five minutesâ walk of Denmark Hill station, is declared by a spiritualistic medium to be that of George Tavener, born in 1854, and his present mission on earth he has revealed to be a quest for an old desk of his where, a secret drawer, lie papers proving that his earthly niece is entitled to his property. <o:p> </o:p></div>
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The unearthly terror at Barry has been hunting a top-storey flat at 24, <st1:address w:st="on">Dock New Road</st1:address>, near the docks. Mrs Christoforato declares his visits have extended over three weeks. A policeman has been keeping guard at night, but nothing happened while he was there. After he had gone a stealthy footstep was heard in the corridor, but when a woman dashed out there was no one there, the same night a child screamed with fright when a ghostly face appeared at the window and then vanished.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">According to the <i>Derby Telegraph</i> of 6 September 1927 a ghost at <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Brampton</st1:place></st1:city> in Derbyshire led to a drunken women ending in the police courts: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">The <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Brampton</st1:place></st1:city> Ghost.</span></b><b> </b></span></div>
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Stories of a ghost have been, running about <st1:city w:st="on">Brampton</st1:city>, and when a woman was charged <st1:city w:st="on">Chesterfield</st1:city> police court yesterday with being drunk and incapable, a policeman said that when appeared, wearing his white overalls, the woman sank on her knees, bowed head to the ground, and shouted â Oh, the <st1:city w:st="on">Brampton</st1:city> ghost.â She was fined 10shillings.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The <i>Angus Evening Telegraph</i> of the 27th September reports a poltergeist story </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">THE GHOST OF MARKINCH GASWORKS. FROM A MARKINCH READER.</span></b></div>
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For some time past a strange thing has been going on at the gas works in -the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">village</st1:place>of <st1:place w:st="on">Markinch</st1:place></st1:place>. There are two stokers employed at different shifts, and one of them is pelted with missiles always on his nightshift week. The other man is not interfered with. Stones, half-bricks, bolts, &c., have come flying all directions, but no serious damage has been done except the smashing of a gas lamp and mantle. The â ghostâ waits till the smaâ âoors ayont the twal â before he begins, and sometimes the annoyance lasts till five or six oâclock. Fully score of men have tried to discover the culprit, but have failed, not even getting a glimpse of the â ghost.â It must be an eerie job for the poor stoker, especially on the long dark winter nightsâ<o:p> </o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Dundee <i>Evening Telegraph</i> of 27 September 1927 reported âghostly figures dressed in whiteâ leading to women and children collapsing on the way to home in the north end of <st1:place w:st="on">Dundee</st1:place> near Craigie Quarries. A 17 year old boy reported seeing two figures jump into the quarry, making strange noises. The next day the paper reported a flash mob on the site: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>5000 HUNT <st1:place w:st="on">DUNDEE</st1:place> âGHOSTSâ EVENING SEARCH AT CRAIGIE QUARRIES</b><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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What the Residents Think: A âghostâ hunt on a large scale took place in <st1:place w:st="on">Dundee</st1:place> last night, when over 5000 people of all ages went in search of the â spooksâ which have been appearing near Craigie Quarries. The crowd gathered early in the evening, intent on laying the âghostâ or âghostsâ which have been causing such terror in the district. Nothing, however, manifested itself, and although the crowd gradually dispersed, it was steadily joined by fresh arrivals. <o:p> </o:p></div>
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Throughout the evening and up to late hour the crowd scoured the environs of Dalkeith Road and the quarries, but apparently the â gameâ which they were after thought better of it than put in an appearance. Further instances of what had taken place was given by several persons who had been previously alarmed by the strange happenings. When coming home from evening School one night, a youth was greatly disturbed the sight of a white pony in one of the fields, on which was mounted a ghostly figure. There are a number of ponies grazing in a field nearby. <o:p> </o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Rather Have the âGhosts.â</b><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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Residents in the district have been greatly troubled by these unusual ongoings, but according to many they would rather have had the â ghostsâ than the crowd which gathered last night. A white sheet has been observed by more than one person lying on the high ground near the quarries. It possibly part of the equipment of the â ghosts.â The sheet has been lying for several days. Armed with lamps, torches, and even a miniature searchlight, the crowd surged over all the waste ground in the vicinity, but failed to unearth anything of an unusual nature.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The mob was back the following day:</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">THE CRAIGIE QUARRY âGHOSTâ</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Big Crowd Again Visits the District</b><b> </b></span></div>
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âThe Ghost of Craigie Quarry,â <st1:place w:st="on">Dundee</st1:place>, evidently quite pleased with the effect of its initial appearance, and refuses to give encore to the expectant crowds who would like to see it. A crowd of between 2000 and 3000 both sexes invaded the quarry and surrounding district last night in -the hope of seeing â spectre,â and were disappointed at its non-appearance. It is unfortunate that the â spook â hunters are inclined to become rather noisy in their efforts to locate their â quarry,â and the inhabitants of the district, particularly those in the immediate vicinity of the Quarry, are becoming rather annoyed their visits.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The next day however only a few hundred attended. The <i>Western Daily Press</i> of 27 August reported on a phantom perfume haunting a Monmouthshire farm.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-9556842428096410032017-07-24T05:18:00.003-07:002021-02-09T04:16:23.728-08:00The Magonia Problem<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: merriweather; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: justify;">One day not long after the year 800, Agobard, archbishop of Lyon, found himself in exactly the right place to stop a lynching. Lucky thing for three men and one woman, who were said to have fallen from ships that sailed through the sky.</span><br />
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Vis-Ă -vis the aerial ships, Agobard was what weâd now call a âdebunker.â If he were alive today, heâd probably be in CSICOP. Or maybe not: the foundation of his skepticism was that the popular beliefs he devoted himself to debunking were contrary to Holy Scripture.</div>
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But let Agobard tell the story:</div>
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But we have seen and heard of many people overcome with so much foolishness, made crazy by so much stupidity, that they believe and say that there is a certain region, which is called Magonia, from which ships come in the clouds. In these ships the crops that fell because of hail and were lost in storms are carried back into that region; evidently these aerial sailors make a payment to the storm-makers [<em>Tempestariis</em>], and take the grain and other crops. Among those so blinded with profound stupidity that they believe these things could happen we have seen many people in a kind of meeting, exhibiting four captives, three men and one woman, as if they had fallen from these very ships. As I have said, they exhibited these four, who had been chained up for some days, with such a meeting finally assembling in our presence, as if these captives ought to be stoned. But when the truth had prevailed, however, after much argument, the people who had exhibited the captives, in accordance with the prophecy (Jeremiah 2:26), âwere confounded ⊠as the thief is confounded when he is taken.</blockquote>
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Against the Multitudeâs Absurd Belief Concerning Hail and Thunder, chapter 2; translated by Wendy Lewis: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/Agobard-OnHailandThunder.asp)</div>
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Obviouslyâthe skyships were âreallyâ extraterrestrial vehicles, the three men and the woman âreallyâ humanoid beings from other planets. Thatâs what the UFOlogists of the 1950s and 1960s would have said. It was left for Jacques Vallee, in a groundbreaking book published in 1969, to float the idea that the obvious resemblances between reported UFOnaut behavior, and traditional beliefs about âlittle menâ and âfairy folk,â pointed instead to some transcendent realm which we humans canât grasp as it really is, and therefore try to force into whatever categories our culture approves. For Biblical prophets like Ezekiel, the appropriate conventionalization might be âvisions of God.â For us, itâs space-age technology.</div>
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Vallee took his code name for this realm from Agobardâs story. He entitled his book <em>Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers</em>. From there âMagoniaâ entered UFOlogical discourse, where it remains to this day.</div>
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But what and where was Magonia? Who were the four people alleged to have come from there? Nice that Agobard (or somebody voicing arguments similar to Agobardâs) seems to have kept them from being stoned to deathâbut what gave the crowd the idea in the first place that they ought to be stoned? Agobard gives hardly a clue. A true âdebunker,â heâs more interested in mocking than in understanding.</div>
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Getting behind a 1300-year-old story is seldom easy. But it canât hurt to try.</div>
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What exactly is Magonia? I learn from Miceal Rossâs fascinating article âAnchors in a Three-Decker Worldâ (in the 1998 volume of the journal <em>Folklore</em>) that the etymology of the name is a subject of dispute. Some derive it from Greek <em>magoi,</em> Latin <em>magi</em>, âmagicians,â and understand it as âland of the magicians.â This is the derivation thatâs always made sense to me. But thereâs another theory, associated with the famous nineteenth-century folklorist Jakob Grimm, that links Magonia to Old High German maganwetar, âwhirlwind.â As far as I know, the name occurs nowhere but in this Agobard passage.</div>
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Letâs grant that Agobard must be right: the three men and the woman were ordinary human beings. Magonia and the Magonians never existed. But the Tempestarii to whom they paid their tolls surely did. To judge from Agobardâs references, these âstorm-makersâ were as real, and every bit as pathetic, as the nasty old women who got burned at the stake in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when some witch-hunter decided they had near-infinite powers of malignity hiding behind their feeble exteriors. Agobard doesnât deny that the âstorm-makersâ are actual, identifiable people. Only, he says, they canât possibly have the magical mastery of weather that his contemporaries credit them with.</div>
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<em>Homunculi</em>, âlittle men,â he calls them (ch. 14). The term might evoke Valleeâs elfin folk and our modern UFO aliens, but it probably conveys only Agobardâs contempt for the storm-makersâ insignificance. Theyâre hated by their neighbors, he says, who at every passing breeze curse them as gale-raisers. He tells a rather funny anecdote (ch. 7) about someone who assured him heâd witnessed one storm-makerâs wonders with his own eyes, yet backed off under cross-examination and admitted he wasnât actually there at the time. He complains about a similar sort of folk, believed to have the power to ward off storms in exchange for a share of the farmerâs cropâand about the so-called Christians who canât be bothered to pay tithes for the church or the deserving poor, yet are only too eager to buy protection from these fakers.</div>
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Itâs a hardscrabble, superstition-ridden world Agobard calls up for us, where a hailstorm might doom an entire village to starvation while sky-riding âMagoniansâ feast off the fruits of their broken backs. Not very long before, Agobard tells us at the end of his treatise, a cattle plague was blamed on poison dust scattered through the fields by Charlemagneâs enemies. Whole crowds of people were scapegoated and lynched for the impossible crime, perversely insisting on their own guilt as they died. In a world like this, whatâs extraordinary about three men and a woman almost stoned for falling from airships?</div>
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Yet as I read Agobardâs story I sense a residue of bafflement, something pointing beyond simple superstition toward âMagonia,â in Valleeâs sense of the word . And to an oddly similar story from a different time and place, told by a dead man whom Iâve come to know exceedingly well, which may (or may not) give the key to what happened in Lyon centuries earlier. You be the judge.</div>
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This man is usually known as Abraham Cardozo, though he was christened Miguel at birth and carried that name with him until he died.</div>
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He was born in Spain in 1627, to a family that once had been Jewish but accepted Catholicism at the end of the fifteenth century, when the Iberian Jews were given the choice of conversion or exile. Not all such families preserved their ancestral Judaism in secretâconfessions of âJudaizing,â extracted by Inquisitional tortures, are often suspect. But the Cardozos did. At age six, little Miguel knew he was a Jew beneath his Christian façade. At age 21 he fled to Venice and formally converted. That was when he took the name âAbraham,â after Judaismâs first convert.</div>
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He became a physician, then a Hebrew scholar, then a Kabbalistâa devotee of Judaismâs mystic doctrine. In 1665, when a Turkish Jew named Sabbatai Zevi became an international celebrity by proclaiming himself Messiah, Cardozo was among the thousands who believed. He kept on believing even after 1666, when Sabbatai scandalized his followers by converting to Islam.</div>
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Cardozo knew what it was to profess a religion you didnât really believeâIslam in Sabbataiâs case, Christianity in Cardozoâs. He conceived that he also was Messiah, Sabbataiâs mirror and partner; and when Sabbatai died without doing what Cardozo believed was the Messiahâs task, of revealing the secret identity of God, Cardozo took it upon himself. Until his death in 1706, he wandered among the cities of the Turkish Empire, expounding upon the relation between God and the Supreme Being. (Hint: theyâre not the same.) He performed magic rites to bring about the messianic redemption. He maintained a lively intercourse with the world of ghosts and demons.</div>
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Insane, you say? Probably. (You might have turned out a little odd too, growing up in the shadow of the Spanish Inquisition.) Yet extraordinaryâintellectually brilliant, dazzling in his utter sincerity and devotion to Judaism as he understood it, which happened to be different from the way nearly every other Jew of his time did. For years Iâve felt admiration and spiritual kinship with this man, and eventually published translations of his Hebrew writings under the title <em>Abraham Miguel Cardozo: Selected Writings</em> (Paulist Press, 2001). The story Iâm about to tell may be found, with more detail and citation of sources, in that book.</div>
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It takes place in July 1683. Cardozo was at the time living by the Dardanelles, a hunted exile. Heâd predicted Redemption for the spring of 1682; prophecy, as often, had failed. Its failure was not just embarrassment but disaster. Cardozoâs Jewish enemies, fed up with him, were rumored to have planned a lynching. He fled.</div>
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From this time of exile and humiliation, Cardozo reports the following experience:</div>
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On Tammuz 11, 5443 [= July 5, 1683], one hour before nightfall, as I was descending into my garden from my upper chamber, I looked up and saw the moon. âI see what appear to be shapes on the moon,â I said to the people of my household. They looked and said: âThere are four shapes: Messiah ben David, Rabbi Nathan, Rabbi Isaac Luria, and a fourth shape that looks to be a woman.â</div>
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Cardozo lists five witnesses beside himself. They know, or think they know, who the three men on the moon are: Sabbatai Zevi, the Messiah descended from David; Sabbataiâs prophet Nathan of Gaza; and the sixteenth-century Kabbalist Isaac Luria. Three ghosts, in other words (for both Sabbatai and Nathan had died years earlier); and it comes as a shock when, later on, Cardozo discovers the three are not what they seem to be. No one tries to guess the womanâs identity.</div>
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Now I could see them clearly. âAfter our meal,â I told the others, âwe shall say the evening prayer. They shall tell us then what their appearance in the moon today may betoken. It has been many years since they visited us, sitting and speaking with us. This is a certain indication that something new has come to be, and after the prayer, we shall know what it is.â</div>
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(Am I the only one whoâs reminded of the Anglican missionary William Booth Gill, who on June 26-27, 1959, at Boianai, Papua New Guinea, saw close-up a hovering illuminated disk with four humanoid pilots? And who interrupted his contemplation of the extraordinary craft to eat dinner and lead a church service?)</div>
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About a half-hour past nightfall they began to speak with us from the moon, loudly, in human voices. We could hear them as distinctly as though they were conversing with us in the garden. I told them that the spot was ritually pure and that they might stand upon the trees, which they proceeded to do. They spoke that night for about two hours. They imparted attractive interpretations of the Bible, considered according to its literal meaning. They discussed Kabbalistic subjects with accuracy. And, after bidding us adieu, they departed. </div>
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The next day they visited me in my upper chamber, conversing with me as was their wont. I did not recognize them; I believed they really were the Messiah, and Rabbi Isaac Luria, and Rabbi Nathan.</div>
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The three men, in other words; the woman seems to have stayed on the moon. Gradually Cardozo unmasks his three visitors. They are not, as he and his friends first imagined, spirits of the blessed dead. Theyâre three demons, come to seduce him into misbelief.</div>
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Foul are the blasphemies the evil three pronounce. God, they tell Cardozo, has been stripped of His power by the Supreme Being; Satan now rules the world. Once God was able to drown Pharaoh in the sea, to kill Sennacherib within his camp. Now, the demons demandâif He has any power at all, let Cardozo call upon Him to send fire to burn them up! Cardozo accepts their challenge. But, horribly, itâs upon Cardozo himself that the fire descends.</div>
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For days Cardozo lies in his bed, teetering on the edge of death with fiebre ardiente, burning fever. Dressed in black, the three men stand by his bedside, declaring it their demon-godâs delight to do to him as his God once did to Pharaoh. Their black clothing has its roots in Talmudic legend; yet itâs striking that this is the first time âthree men in blackâ put in an appearance. They will re-appear in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 270 years laterâas Gray Barker relates in <em>They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers</em>âto terrorize Albert K. Bender into abandoning his UFO researches.</div>
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Of course all this is Cardozoâs hallucination. That his friends also see the foursome on the moon is a problem, but not much of one. Throughout his life Cardozo had a talent for getting others to share his hallucinatory experiences, to enter with him into a complex folie Ă deux, to see things that were never there to be seen. Itâs likely enough, actually, that his memories of the whole episode were a fever-hallucination, the beginnings of which he projected back to the time just before he fell ill. His moon-woman, his three moon-men, never had any physical existence. In this they differ from Agobardâs Magonian Four, who were plainly flesh-and-blood human beings.</div>
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Yet the parallel is haunting. A quaternity in the celestial realms, three men and one woman. They descend, three of them or all four, to earth. Their purpose is sinister and malignant. (And in case you wonder what evil beings would be doing in the sky rather than somewhere down below, the idea of âspiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly placesâ is as old as the New Testament: Ephesians 6:12.)</div>
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Forget the gap of nearly nine centuries that separates Agobardâs report from Cardozoâs. Can their resemblance be coincidence?</div>
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Well, of course it can.</div>
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The more fruitful question is, is it coincidence? Or is there another hypothesis that works better, that correlates and explains the two testimonies in a more satisfying way than treating their resemblance as random and accidental? I think there is. And as Iâve tipped you off with my use of the word âquaternity,â this hypothesis is rooted in the psychology of Carl Jung.</div>
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Iâm not a Jungian, not exactly. The mystagogic quality of Jungâs writings has always put me off. More than once Iâve found myself asking, as I read him: why canât he just say what he means, show us the evidence, and let us decide for ourselves? (The way I hope Iâve done with you, in this essay.)</div>
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Yet, during my three decades of research in some of the odder byways of Jewish mysticism, Iâve kept coming up against texts which Jung is highly unlikely to have been aware of, yet which best make sense through his explanatory models. The ancient rabbinic doctrines of the merkavah (the chariot seen by Ezekiel, chapter 1), for example, show us a quaternity very like the hypothetical Quaternity of which the Christian Trinity is a mutilated relic: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, plus the Fourth, the Devil. (Jung develops this idea in âA Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity,â in <em>Psychology and Religion: West and East</em>, vol. 20 in the Bollingen edition, pp. 109-200. I discuss the rabbinic materials in my book <em>The Faces of the Chariot: Early Jewish Responses to Ezekielâs Vision</em>, TĂŒbingen, J.C.B. Mohr, 1988.)</div>
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Cardozo also knows a divine, or at least messianic, quaternity. Itâs the same Jungian 3 + 1 patternâthree alike, the fourth tied to the three yet in some significant way different. Developing an ancient Jewish tradition of two Messiahs, Cardozo tells us there will be four: Messiah son of David, Messiah son of Joseph, Moses redivivus, and Elijah returned from heaven. Onlyâhere Cardozo bowls a major googlyâheâs not quite sure whether the fourth Messiah will really be Elijah after all. Maybe it will be a she, a woman Messiah, the She-Who-Brings-Good-News-To-Zion of Isaiah 40:9. This female Messiah has no precedent in Jewish tradition. Sheâs the Jungian Fourth, in a quaternity thatâs no longer 3 divine + 1 demonic (as in Ezekielâs vision), but 3 male + 1 female.</div>
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In Cardozoâs vision of 1683, this quaternity is transplanted to the moon. Degraded, in the process, from messianic to demonic. (But Cardozo admits: they had him fooled for a while.)</div>
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Thereâs more to Cardozoâs vision than Jungian psychology. I have no doubt that the unnamed moon-woman came to him, at least in part, from unconscious or half-conscious memories of his Catholic childhood. Seventeenth-century Spain was awash with paintings and sculptures of the Immaculate Conception, showing the Blessed Virgin as a beautiful young girl standing on the moon. (Thereâs a particularly gorgeous painting of this genre by VelĂĄzquez, done about eight years before Cardozo was born <a href="http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/diego-velazquez-the-immaculate-conception" style="color: #1b1bec; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/diego-velazquez-the-immaculate-conception</a>.)<br />
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Often the Virgin is accompanied by three male cherubic figures, whose wings could have suggested to an impressionable child that they might fly down from the moon to pay us a visit, while the Lady remains above.</div>
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Will this contradict the Jungian explanation of the vision, or render it unnecessary? Not at all. The two supplement each other. The archetypes clothe themselves in the cultural garb of the time and place in which they appear. And who knows?âthe tendency of Spanish artists to give the Virgin three cherubic attendants may itself have been influenced by the quaternity archetype.</div>
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You may say: this is well and good for a psychic production, a hallucinatory vision like Cardozoâs. But do the archetypes become flesh, as they must if weâre to use them to make sense of Agobardâs story?</div>
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Jung himself asked much the same question âŠ</div>
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In the final chapter of his classic <em>Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies</em> (1958), after demonstrating at length the psychic associations of the UFO, Jung confronts the problem: UFOs can be photographed. UFOs can appear on the radar screen. And if theyâre psychologicalâhow can this be?</div>
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It boils down to nothing less than this: that either psychic projections throw back a radar echo, or else the appearance of real objects affords an opportunity for mythological projections. ⊠</div>
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If these things are realâand by all human standards it hardly seems possible to doubt this any longerâthen we are left with only two hypotheses: that of their weightlessness on the one hand and of their psychic nature on the other. This is a question I for one cannot decide. ⊠But the psychic aspect plays so great a role that it cannot be left out of account. The discussion of it, as I have tried to show, leads to psychological problems which involve just as fantastic possibilities or impossibilities as the approach from the physical side ⊠psychology, too, has not only the right but also the duty to do what it can to shed light on this dark problem. </div>
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The question of anti-gravity is one which I must leave to the physicists, who alone can inform us what chances of success such an hypothesis has. The alternative hypothesis that Ufos are something psychic that is equipped with certain physical properties seems even less probable, for where should such a thing come from? If weightlessness is a hard hypothesis to swallow, then the notion of a materialized psychism opens a bottomless void under our feet âŠ</div>
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Fortunately, there are less drastic ways by which psychic phenomena can take on physical reality. The extent to which these can be applied to the more baffling modern UFO experiences, and the manner of their application, are questions upon which Iâm not yet prepared to offer an opinion. But for Agobardâs Magonians, I think theyâll work.</div>
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Iâm thinking of the mechanism called projection, to which Jung alludes in the quote above. The term refers to our psychological habit, nearly unbreakable, of projecting whatâs going on inside us onto people or situations in the external world. These persons or situations are sometimes wholly innocent of what we attribute to them, blank screens for our projections. Sometimes they collude, consciously or unconsciously, with our projections, in which case they confirm the illusion of reality that weâve created. But the essential process remains the same. What we wonât recognize within us, we conceive to be out there.</div>
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Sometimes, by taking action based on our projection we can make it be out there, in the manner of a self-fulfilling prophecy.</div>
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I imagine something of the sort happened in Agobardâs Lyon. For reasons I canât guess, the quaternity archetype of 3 + 1 had taken on a peculiar power and intensity in the collective psyche of the people of his time. (Like Jung, I do believe in a psyche that transcends the individual.) The archetype is a pattern, a form; it goes in search of matter to be formed, reality to be patterned and organized. One day early in the ninth century, the quaternity archetype encountered its matching reality.</div>
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That reality, no doubt, was something altogether banal. A fortuitous grouping of three men and one womanâthat by itself, perhaps, was enough to invoke the archetype. Or perhaps these people were seen conversing with one of the reputed Tempestarii, arranging something that looked like an exchange of goods or promises. In came the archetype, investing the situation, and the unfortunate individuals caught up in it, with its own uncanny numinosity.<br />
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And the populace, seeing its internal âspiritual hosts of wickednessâ made flesh before its eyes, set about stoning them.</div>
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My thanks to Dr. Thomas E. Bullard, author of <em>The Myth and Mystery of UFOs</em>(University Press of Kansas, 2010), for his reading of this essay and his insightful comments thereon.</div>
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<em>David Halperin was a teenage UFO investigator in the 1960s. Later he became a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hillâhis specialty, religious traditions of heavenly ascent and otherworldly journeys. His novel </em>Journal of a UFO Investigator <em>was published in the USA by Viking Press this past year. It appeared in Spanish translation in 2010; Italian and German editions are scheduled for 2012. David blogs about UFOs, religion, and related subjects at: </em><a href="http://www.davidhalperin.net/" style="color: #1b1bec; text-decoration-line: none;"><em>www.davidhalperin.net</em></a><em>.</em><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-4797570596770462082017-07-24T04:37:00.002-07:002020-06-27T16:41:18.894-07:00The Last Witch in Warrington<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">PETER ROGERSON UNEARTHS THE RECORD OF A CURIOUS 19th CENTURY TRIAL OF AN ALLEGED WITCHCRAFT CASE IN AN INDUSTRIAL TOWN IN LANCASHIRE</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Last Witch in Warrington</span></span></b></div>
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<b style="font-size: 15.4px;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">by Peter Rogerson</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Warrington_-_1851_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_13721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #1b1bec; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="430" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Warrington_-_1851_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_13721.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(243, 243, 243); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></div>
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We associate the late survival of witchcraft beliefs into the Victorian age with remote rural settlements, so it comes as surprise to see them associated with a quintessential Northern industrial town.</div>
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Warrington, between Manchester and Liverpool, was in the mid Victorian period rapidly growing industrial town, drawing in people from all parts, including not just the surrounding areas of Lancashire and Cheshire, but from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Midlands and Black Country. Unlike the traditional Lancashire mill towns it was far from a one industry town, with traditional industries such as tanning, textiles and tool and pin-making, vying with the new big industries of brewing, soap and chemicals and heavy iron and steel. Between 1871 and 1881 the population rose from 29,984 to 40,957.</div>
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It is against this background that the following story appeared in one of the main local newspapers the Warrington Examiner 16 September 1876.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><b>Alleged Witchcraft</b></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A man and his wife named Jackson were summoned for beating an old woman named Maria Platt, aged 84 years of age. She stated that during a dispute about the right of placing a clothesline in the yard at Dial Court, the female defendant struck her with a clothesline and her husband knocked complainant down and threatened to kill her. When on the floor she received blows from both of them. In answer to the defendantsâ solicitor she denied that she got a living from telling fortunes, but said that the defendant, Mrs Jackson, had cups, cards and glasses for the use of fortune tellers which she offered to sell her. The defendantsâ solicitor said his witnesses would not come up to court, as the complainant bore the reputation of being a witch and a fortune teller and neighbours were afraid that if they gave evidence against her she would bewitch them. Parents would not let their children come and were afraid to come themselves. It was very lamentable that there could be such gross and ignorant superstition in Warrington but such was the case. The bench considered the case proved and fined each of the defendants (ÂŁ1) and cost and bound over to keep the peace for 6 months.</span></blockquote>
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It is always difficult to accurately assess the value of money, but ÂŁ1 in 1876 would probably buy goods equivalent to ÂŁ60-ÂŁ70 in today's money, but in terms of average earnings it was more like ÂŁ500.</div>
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The main rival newspaper also reported the case, their report contained a number of errors, but did give voices to the people involved. Maria Platt says</div>
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â(A)t dinner time...Mrs Jackson went up to her door and used very abusive language towards her and afterwards attacked her, and beat her with a clothes line about the head. (Mr Jackson) then came up and struck her on the face and knocked her down. She was then picked up by some of the neighbours, and was being taken down the yard when (Jackson) cam up and knocked her down again, her face striking the ground and maintaining a severe cut. She had never given the least provocation and though it was shame that her at her age she should be subject to such treatment.â</div>
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The only witnesses are for the prosecution Ellen Reaney or Ready who said âshe saw Mrs Jackson with the clothes line several times. When witness interfered (Mrs J) struck her also. (Mr. J.) came up and knocked the old woman down and abused her in many ways. Another witness Alice Thompson, Mariaâs next door neighbour also reported seeing the two women fighting and that she saw Mrs J knock the old woman down and strike her with a clothes line.The defence solicitor, Mr Bretherton, said âthere was some dispute between the two parties about putting up a clothes line, and the old woman interfered with Mrs J to hinder her in putting it up. This led to a dispute, but he denied that any brutal assault was committed. The old woman was accused of being a witch by her neighbours, who were afraid that she would bewitch them and they dare not go past her door in consequence. It was a very sad thing that such ignorance should exist in a town like Warrington, and that a poor old woman like her should be thought to have such power, but such was the superstition.â</div>
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What can we make of this story. Well, for a start, witchcraft accusations have often been assumed to be the product of the tensions of small face to face societies, and you couldnât get more face to face than in a place like Dial Court. (Wider area along with a modern map can be seen here)</div>
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Dial Court, a narrow cul-de-sac off Dial Street was in a dense urban essentially slum area, People were literally in each others face, Things like hanging out washing really needed to be organised on a rota basis, and neighbourhood disputes would have been common.The two families involved in this case are also of interest, they were not members of the industrial proletariat, but rather on the precarious lowest rung of the petty bourgeoisie. Census and birth marriage and death indexes show something of their background. </div>
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Maria Platt was born Maria Morris in Holywell, Flintshire in 1793/4. At the rather late age of about 30 she married Henry Platt, a baker in the little village of Grappenhall just south of Warrington on 22 September 1824, but Henry died in 1846, leaving her a widow. By 1871 she was living with her son Henry, described as a baker, but not owning his own business. The <i>Warrington Guardian</i> index 1853-66 showed Henry in the courts several times, as both a defendant and plaintiff. After Maria died in 1879 he went further downhill, and by 1881 he was a pauper in the workhouse.</div>
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As the Plattâs are on the fall, the Jacksonâs are on the rise. In 1871 John Jackson was a coachman, but by 1881 they had a grocerâs shop in Dial Street itself which they will hold for at least the next twenty years. We can perhaps make a guess at the root cause of this conflict. Maria Platt has been telling fortunes as a way of making money and keeping out of the workhouse. Then John and Ann Jackson arrive on the scene and Ann goes in for fortune telling herself, only she can afford fancy equipment and tarot cards. At some point Ann offers to sell some of this fancy equipment to Maria, knowing she can never afford the price. A bitter neighbourhood quarrel develops and Maria gets the reputation of being a quarrelsome person, with a son rather prone to fights, which adds to her reputation as a witch. </div>
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If Maria is the stereotypical village witch, then Ann with her occult equipment is much closer to modern new age beliefs. These two women then represent the link between the village witch and the modern new practitioner.</div>
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(Copies of the original newspapers can be consulted in the local studies search-room at Warrington Library.) </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-32614698356203708232017-07-23T09:18:00.003-07:002020-06-28T00:50:43.253-07:00The Bristol Vortex<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><b>PETER ROGERSON TRAVELS THROUGH THE NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES UNCOVER AN UNSETTLING FORTEAN PHENOMENON IN A BRISTOL HOTEL ROOM</b></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><b style="text-align: justify;">Peter Rogerson's research into ghostly and Fortean happenings reported in nineteenth-century local newspapers continues with this court report of an extraordinary series of events that feature in Charles Fort's Lo!;(pages 152 - 154 of the Fortean Tomes edition)</b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Bristol Mercury
13th December 1873</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE AT A BRISTOL HOTEL</span></b></div>
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At the Council-house, on Tuesday, before the mayor (Mr.T. Barnes) and Messrs. G. Wiles and C. Godwin, a young man and woman of genteel deportment and address, and who gave the name of Thomas B. Cumpston and Ann Martha Cumpston, of Virginia-road, Leeds, were brought up on a charge of being disorderly and letting off firearms in the Victoria hotel, near the Terminus. Mrs Tongue the landlady of the hotel was first called, and she deposed that the defendants arrived at her hotel about eight o' clock the previous evening and engaged a room for the night, bringing luggage with them. She was away from the house when they came and they retired to rest about twelve o' clock. </div>
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About one o' clock in the morning she was alarmed by a great noise in their bedroom and found them in a very excited state, but she succeeded in pacifying them, and they returned to bed. At four o'clock she was awoke by loud screams, and cries of murder, and by the report of firearms. Being much terrified by the uproar she got up, and went down to see what was them matter and she heard Mrs. Cumpston exclaim, "keep that knife from meâ. They both jumped from their bedroom window into the back yard, a height of about twelve feet, then made their way to the front street, and ran across the road up to the railway station. She then spoke to a police constable Mr. Godwin. They left their luggage behind them.
Mr Thomas Hawker, who stated that he was on duty as night superintendent at the Bristol and Exeter railway station was next called and stated that, he was in the booking-office about four oâ clock in the morning making up his report, when he heard a noise outside, and immediately the doors of the office were burst open a person rushed in. </div>
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Someone tapped the window at his inner office, and screamed out "Murder". Witness was dozing at the time, and immediately went out on the platform see what was the matter. He there saw both defendants in the act of crossing to the express platform, and he spoke to them. The lady was in a very excited state. Her hair was flowing about, and neither she nor her husband had anything on their heads. Both of them were excited. They rushed toward him as soon as they saw him, and said they had been in some den or other, and had been waylaid by thieves, and were trying to get out of the way. </div>
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He (witness) could not tell what to make of them at first, and he took them into the parcels office by the fire. They appeared in a very excited condition; having succeeded in pacifying them, he put some questions as to who they were and where they had been. They told him they had been in one of the worst houses they were ever in their lives, Amongst a lot of thieves and rogues, and they had to do the best they could to defend themselves. He took them into the waiting-room, but scarcely anything would pacify them. They were under the, impression that someone was following them, to do them some bodily injury, and both of them expressed themselves to that effect. The lady told him her husband had a revolver. They made him go into the inside room and examine it, to see that there was no one there and they themselves went in and searched the room. The lady, took up the poker to defend herself. </div>
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Prior to this witness had sent for a city policeman, and during,the time he got he tried to keep them as quite as possible. He understood them to say that they had come, from the Victoria Hotel, and he told them there was nothing there to harm them and that it was a very respectable house, but nothing would pacify them until two of the city police arrived. They. searched, the gentleman and took from him a revolver and some knives. The male defendant declined to ask this witness anything - and a similar question being put to his wife, she also said she had nothing to ask him, adding, "I have to thank him for his great kindness last night." </div>
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Mr. Godwin (to witness)- Did the excitement appear to be from drink? </div>
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Witness- 'No. I thought they were labouring under insanity. </div>
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P.C.321 sworn, said he was called to the Victoria Hotel on Bath-parade, about five minutes to five o'clock that morning, and was told by Mrs. Tongue, the landlady that some parties who had been sleeping there had jumped out of the window and escaped to the railway-station. Upon proceeding to the railway station, he found both defendants to be comfortably seated before the fire in the waiting-room. He believed it was fright that caused them to run away. The witness produced a revolver and three knives, which he said had been found upon the gentleman. The revolver was here handed to Mr Brice (magistrates' clerk), who examined it. It was a small. weapon, but of apparently of highly-finished workmanship. </div>
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Mr. Cumpston, being asked what be had to say in answer to the charge, spoke with apparent incoherency, and his wife explained that he had an impediment in his speech. He said they came from Clifton previous day, and, has intended to proceed to Weston super Mare that morning. A porter took their luggage and they asked him at what hotel they could spend the night. He said he could take them to a very nice one and mentioned the George and the Victoria. He took them across the line and instead of taking them to the George he took them to the Victoria. They went to bed about twelve o'clock, and about one they became annoyed by a disagreeable row. He could not explain it. They were both frightened. The bed was peculiar one. It opened, and did all sorts of strange things. And the floor opened, and they heard voices, and then they jumped out of the window. </div>
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Mrs. Cumpston was asked to give her version of the affair, She said they were very much frightened about one o'clock that morning by what they heard, but the landlady came and reassured them for a time, and they went back to bed. About three or four o'clock they heard worse noises, but what they were they had no idea. The floor seemed to he giving way, and the bed also seemed to open. They heard voices, and what they said was repeated after them. Her husband wished her to get out of the way. The floor certainly seemed to open, and her husband fell down some distance, and she tried to get him up. She asked him to discharge his pistol to frighten anybody who might he near, and he fired his revolver into the ceiling. They got out of the window, but she did not know how, being so frightened; and when they got to the ground she asked him to fire off another shot, which he did. She certainly heard the repetition of their voices. Some one spoke every time they spoke. </div>
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In reply to the magistrates, she said she did not hear the noises so plainly as her husband.
In reply to Mr. W.K. Wait, who happened to be in court, Mrs. Cumpston gave the name of the parties with whom they were connected in Gloucester, and Mr. Wait thereupon remarked that they were most respectable people.
After a short delay, a gentlemanly young man, who said his name was Butt, and that be had just come from Gloucester, stepped into the witness-box. In reply to the Mayor he said the defendants were good friends of his. They were people who occupied a very good position. Mr. Cumpston was an independent gentleman.
Mr. Brice inquired whether he had any reason to believe that the gentleman had anything the matter with his mind Mr. Butt replied that he had not known him for a long time.
Mr. Brice remarked that Mr. Cumpston seemed to show some aberration of mind. </div>
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The parties were then discharged, and the weapons and other property found upon the gentleman handed over to Mr. Butt.
From inquiries we have made of the police who examined the room at the Victoria Hotel occupied by the parties, there seems nothing whatever to warrant such conduct on their part. There is little doubt that the whole was an hallucination. </div>
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The man at the centre of this story was Thomas Bowser Cumpston Jnr., the son of a Leeds linen merchant, Thomas Bowser Cumpston Snr., living at the time of the 1871 census at Woodfield House Potternewton, a posh suburb of the town (several of the Duchess of Cambridgeâs more affluent ancestors came from there). He was baptised on the 13 October 1847. He married Annie Martha Carter, the daughter of a surgeon, in Leeds Parish Church on April 10 1873 and died on the 9th December 1893 at his home âRosehurstâ Grosvenor Road, Headlingley, making Annie Martha the executor of his ÂŁ4,153 estate.
Some further details of his life can be found here: </div>
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<a href="http://www.cumpston.org.uk/#/thomas-b-cumpston-2nd/4539431388">http://www.cumpston.org.uk/#/thomas-b-cumpston-2nd/4539431388</a> </div>
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This site however incorrectly attributes the âparanormal episodeâ to his father, which would have been problematic to say the least as he died in March 1873!
The story has elements of a shared hynopompic hallucination, with elements of aware sleep paralysis and or night terrors. No doubt if it occurred today, the police would be testing the coupleâs blood for not altogether legal substances.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-51073666350230515612017-07-23T08:42:00.000-07:002020-06-28T00:54:24.929-07:00Philadephia and Beyond<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><b>TO PHILADELPHIA AND BEYOND. GARETH J. MEDWAY CHECKS UP ON THE STORIES OF INVISIBLE SHIPS AND THE SUICIDE SQUAD</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Gareth J. Medway</span></b>
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Jack Parsons was the only disciple of Aleister Crowley to have a crater on the far side of the Moon named after him. A rocket fuel expert, he blew himself up in his own laboratory in 1952, but his contribution to the science was remembered and commemorated. Half a century after his death, he was the subject of a biography, <i>Strange Angel</i> by George Pendle, and I just got around to reading it. His life is not well documented, and little is known about his early years beyond the fact that he was brought up in Los Angeles, and was interested in rocketry and science fiction from childhood onwards, so Pendle gives us potted histories of Los Angeles, rocketry, and pulp science fiction.</div>
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It is now largely forgotten that, except in Germany, few people took rockets seriously, until V2s started falling on London and Antwerp. So the Suicide Squad, as Parsonsâ little team was known from their regular handling of dangerous chemicals, usually had to fund their experiments themselves. The book is of interest for several reasons, but I want to look at a single paragraph whose possible significance seems not to have been noticed by the author. During the war, Parsons was invited to join the Mañana Literary Society, a forum for science fiction authors, though his own contribution was limited to an unpublished novel. It met at the L.A. home of Robert Heinlein.</div>
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âThe Mañana group did not last long. By the middle of 1943, the authors had been drafted, not for their writing or fighting skills but for their scientific pedigrees. In its dissolution the group provided one more good story. When word got out that Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague de Camp had all been sent to work at a research laboratory at the Philadelphia Naval Yard, rumors spread like wildfire among science fiction fans that they had been ordered by the Naval Research Board to create a think tank, heading a project that aimed to make their own futuristic inventions, âsuper-weapons and atom-powered space ships,â into realities. The truth was a little more prosaic; the three had been called up by the materials laboratory in Philadelphia but in order to investigate, among other things, hydraulic valves for naval aircraft, âexercises in monotony,â as de Camp called them.â</div>
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Some readers will by now already have thought of the âPhiladelphia Experimentâ, said to have taken place at the dockyard there in 1943. The Second World War was a fertile breeding ground for rumours about secret inventions, and some of them, such as the atomic bomb, turned out to be true. Others were not. R. V. Jones, in <i>Most Secret War</i>, tells how just before the war he belonged to a scientific team who tried to find a way to detect aircraft at night by the infra-red radiation from their engines, a project that was abandoned when radar proved to be more effective. This was to be done on a âneed-to-knowâ basis, so when a man from another department questioned him during a lunch break, he said that they were working on a project to make ships invisible. They had succeeded in making a gunboat invisible, but unfortunately its crew could still be seen.</div>
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John Keel gave another possible origin: âAs near as I can put it together, during the Second World War, the leading magician in the United States, Joseph Dunninger, who was also a master showman, came up with a proposition to the U. S. Navy that he would make ships invisible. He may have been talking about some form of camouflage; but in time, Dunningerâs claim did get publicity.â Two other facts that may have contributed to the legend are that Albert Einstein was then lived in Philadelphia, and was consulted by the navy; and that the dockyard was the site of degaussing, which was designed to make ships invisible, at least to magnetic mines.</div>
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Be all that as it may, the story took a long time to get any publicity. In 1956 astronomer and archaeologist Morris K. Jessup received two letters headed âCarlos Miguel Allendeâ, giving a box number in Pennsylvania as return address, but were signed Carl M. Allen. They were inspired by Jessupâs <i>The Case for the UFO</i>. In his rambling missives Allen(de) claimed that in October 1943 the navy had applied Einsteinâs Unified Field Theory to making a ship invisible. They succeeded, but afterwards half of the crew were found to be âMad as Hattersâ, while others âfrozeâ, burst into flames, or faded away once more and were never seen again. On one occasion the ship was teleported to its other dock in Norfolk, Virginia, but after a few minutes returned to Philadelphia. He knew of this because: âThis was also noted in the newspapers but I forget what paper I read it in or When It happened.â He also implied that he had seen it from a neighbouring ship.</div>
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Soon afterwards, Jessup was invited to the Office of Naval Research in Washington, where they showed him a copy of his own book, <i>The Case for the UFO</i>, which had been mailed to them in the summer of 1955. It was full of marginal annotations in three different coloured inks, ostensibly by three different persons, but at least one and perhaps all of them seemed to be by the mysterious Allende. They purported to give the truth about flying saucers (they are piloted by beings who once lived on earth, but have evolved to permanent residence in space, only returning here to abduct the occasional human).</div>
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It was subsequently determined that he was indeed a Pennsylvania man named Carl Allen, and that he had joined the navy in July 1943.All this remained unknown to the general public until 1968, when Brad Steiger and Joan Whritenour printed extracts from the letters and annotations in their <i>New UFO Breakthrough</i>. In 1974, Charles Berlitz included a section on it in <i>The Bermuda Triangle,</i> based upon what Jessupâs friend Manson Valentine had told him in an interview (Jessup himself had committed suicide in 1959). A journalist named William Moore conducted his own investigation, and was able to uncover several independent witnesses. Of course, Ufologists will be aware that off-duty and retired military personnel are often willing to proved researchers with exactly the information they were looking for, though usually demanding anonymity, and Moore is good at locating them.</div>
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Eventually he met Berlitz, and the two men had a bestseller with <i>The Philadelphia Experiment,</i> 1979. This, and the subsequent film, produced more witnesses, some of whom had âburiedâ their memories for many years. Meanwhile, the Office of Naval Information has maintained that nothing happened except routine degaussing â well, thatâs what they want you to think. Many writers have dismissed the case as a hoax, without giving coherent reasons. There is actually an obvious objection to it having really happened, however: if half of the crew of a destroyer had all suddenly gone insane, whilst others had mysteriously died, or disappeared entirely, then the navy would have been besieged by relatives of the men demanding an inquiry, or at least a full explanation. This did not happen, indeed, nothing is known to have been written about it for more than a decade. This is not to say that it was a hoax, exactly: Allenâs letters were so disjointed that he may well have believed what he was saying. What is impossible to say, at this distance in time, is how far it was inspired by gossip among science fiction fans.</div>
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Later, having written the above, it occurred to me that, whilst sci-fi fans may not have been able to build super-technological weapons to defeat the Nazis, there was nothing to stop them from writing about such things. Though Allen said that he could not recall the name or the date of the newspaper in which he had read about the affair, he thought he would be able to do so under hypnosis. If this had ever been tried, I suspect that he would have remembered that it had actually been a pulp science fiction magazine. This hypothesis is not easy to verify. The British Library does have microfilms of old numbers of <i>Amazing Stories</i>, but their holdings are not complete, and there are none from the Second World War. The editor was then Ray Palmer, who went on to edit <i>Fate</i> and <i>Flying Saucers</i> (despite having told a correspondent to <i>Amazing Stories</i>, in 1938, that âWe do not believe in the possibility of interplanetary travel, but the subject has given many good storiesâ); when the Philadelphia Experiment came to be widely discussed, in the late 1960s, he would surely have recognised it as corresponding to a fictional story that he had published a quarter of a century earlier, and said so.</div>
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The British Library also has Alva Rogersâs <i>A Requiem for Astounding</i>, a history of <i>Astounding Science Fiction</i> from its foundation in 1930 up until 1960, when its name was changed to <i>Analog.</i> He gives a summary, if only a very brief one, of every story that they ran, and I can find nothing that matches. But there were many other such magazines, including <i>Astonishing, Weird Tales, Wonder Stories, Startling Stories, Unknown, Fantasy, Comet Stories, Captain Future, Dynamic Science, Unknown Worlds</i>, and <i>Miracle Science</i>. Presumably copies of all of these were deposited with the Library of Congress. There may also be issues in the Special Collections of some American universities, such as the Sprague de Camp archive at the University of Texas in Austin. Perhaps someone in the United States, or planning a long vacation there, could find the time to look into this?</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-50173388045525165702017-07-23T05:06:00.002-07:002022-02-26T15:32:19.539-08:00The Butter Boggart<div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6o2KR4vPFBlMeCuKYf4CFH96W4j4CFhPXkXyBTiBGGYBNezbo0Ie5GCkqpqywIkt9_Tt3US4OOIWSEq7SOz9yAVu8Mm1ZXuiKeikv0eKwcuKcfPyeJVqFFLFRm0yQ6Oax1fTgVrZKofw/s1600/butterboggart.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="315" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6o2KR4vPFBlMeCuKYf4CFH96W4j4CFhPXkXyBTiBGGYBNezbo0Ie5GCkqpqywIkt9_Tt3US4OOIWSEq7SOz9yAVu8Mm1ZXuiKeikv0eKwcuKcfPyeJVqFFLFRm0yQ6Oax1fTgVrZKofw/s200/butterboggart.jpg" width="100" /></a><b>PETER ROGERSON UNFOLDS THE STORY OF AN ISOLATED COTTAGE IN LANCASHIRE THAT WAS HAUNTED BY A VERY PECULIAR POLTERGEIST <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <span><a name='more'></a></span>THE BUTTER BOGGART OF OLD LOSTOCK</b><br /> <br /><b> By Peter Rogerson</b><br /> <br /> In my review of Karl Bellâs <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">The Magical Imagination</a>, I mentioned that there was a story from my own area which I intended to look into, So here it is; the story of the mysterious appearance of butter in an isolated country cottage. <br /> <br /> <br /><b> The Place</b><br /> <br /> The locality was one of two cottages known as Knowsley Cottages (the other being unoccupied at the time), lying just to the west of Moss Lane (now Moss Vale Road) which ran from the Barton-Stretford turnpike in Lostock (now Lostock Road) to Gammershaw Lane (now Stretford Road) in Urmston. The lost village of Lostock was divided between the civil parish of Davyhulme (latter part of Urmston Urban District) and the Borough of Stretford toward the end of the 19th century. <br /> <br />Before the building of the Urmston and Flixton railway stations, the villages of Urmston, Flixton, Davyhulme, Lostock, Croft and etc were rural places, where according to Edwin Waugh writing in 1857 âEven now, the scattered inhabitants are mostly employed in agriculture, and their language and customs savour more of three centuries ago than those which we are used to in manufacturing townsâ<br /> (<a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">http://gerald-massey.org.uk/waugh/c_sketches_1a.htm</a>)<br /> <br /> Of these locations Lostock was the most underdeveloped, and much of the medieval field system remained. The area remained rural until the mid 1930s when there was a major housing development. <br /> <br /> <br /><b> The Personnel.</b><br /> <br /> At the heart of the story lies Samuel Warburton, baptised at St Michaelâs Church Flixton on 23 June 1793, and his younger brother William baptised there on 21 October 1799, the sons of William Warburton and his wife Betty Muddiman who were married at St Michael's on the 19th of October 1784. <br /><br /> Then there is Samuelâs wife Ann Royle, daughter of Benjamin and Betty Royle baptised at St Michaelâs on the 27th of July 1788, and whom he married at the Collegiate Church in Manchester on the 12th of January 1815. <br /><br /> The final person in the household is Annâs great niece Mary Maria Hopwood who was baptised on 22 August 1841 at the Manchester Collegiate. Samuel, Ann and Mary Maria are the core household, William has come to lodge with them after loosing his job as a schoolmaster in Hulme. The Warburton brothers are devout members of the Primitive Methodist denomination, and the familyâs life seems uneventful until the morning of Sunday 22 January 1854, when something very strange starts to happen. The Manchester Times of 4 February takes up the story. <br /> <br /><b> A STRANGE STORY. </b><br /> <br /> During the recent week a number of the inhabitants in the villages of Stretford and Barton-upon Irwell, near Manchester have had their wonder excited by a report that in a certain cottage situate in the latter township, occupied by persons of quiet habits and of rather advanced age, there had been innumerable instances of butter spontaneously and marvellously presenting itself, on the floor, the furniture, and the clothing, and even the beds of the occupants, for which they could assign no cause, and by which they were very much alarmed.<br /> <br /> The news of this spread to Manchester and Salford. Our reporter found the matter exciting the curiosity a of several individuals who had business at the New Bailey (1) on Thursday. One of them, a farmer, who is the owner of land in the vicinity of the cottage, had himself witnessed the circumstance, and was unable to find any rational solution. Police-constable Bent, (2) whose duties lay in the neighbourhood of Stretford, had also visited the place, but although tolerably clever in detecting parties who are in the habit of illegally taking butter away, lie was unable to discover who could be the contributor of it in the case under notice.<br /> <br /> With the view of tracing the odd story about the wondrous butter to its source, our reporter proceeded to the place on Thursday afternoon. The topic, he found, was even rife in the railway Carriages between Manchester and Stretford. Half an-hours walk from the Stretford station sufficed to reach the scene of the alleged mystery, and which, it would seem, was threatening to supersede the good offices of that useful animal, the cow, which has hitherto had the sole monopoly of supplying us with butter. The cottage is situate about six miles west of Manchester, between Stretford and Barton Bridge, a little to the right of Moss Lane, a few hundred yards beyond Lostock Hall. There are two double-story thatched cottages adjoining, having gardens and door in front, but only one of these is tenanted. There is no other house within 200 yards, and the others are thinly scattered, and at greater distances.<br /> <br /> The cottage, which has a brook running close at his rear, is occupied by Samuel Warburton, a man about 60 years of age (who we understand, has a small income, and weaves a little cotton plaid in a room within the house), his wife, William Warburton (a brother), nearly 60 years old, and a girl about 12, the daughter of a relative. William Warburton has also a small income, and was, during some part of last year, a schoolmaster in Hulme, (3) but is not now so engaged. On entering the cottage, our reporter found these four persons within, and a very few words sufficed to explain the object of his visit, for that was anticipated, as many had already preceded him to make inquiries. A glance around the apartment revealed the fact that he was in the fat of the land, for butter seemed to have budded from every description of substance from living boughs of holly to dead veneers of mahogany, and even glass.<br /> <br /> The door had been closed but a few minutes, when a knock was heard. On its being opened, a gentleman remarked, " How do you do, Mrs Warburton; I have heard a strange story, and I am come to investigate it." He was desired to take a seat, and was tolerably silent while the inmates gave an account of what seems to them an inpenetrable mystery. They are all professors of religion, and attend the services of the Primitive Methodist Connection (4). This may not apply to the girl, but she seems steady, and has been several years with her relatives, who have occupied this house about fifteen years. William Warburton, the younger brother, we may remark, was the owner of the house in Urmston where the celebrated Tim Bobbin was born .(5) The following is the narration of the parties: (6) <br /><br /> Samuel Warburton: 'The first time we noticed anything particular was last Sunday but one. Just before breakfast, we saw several bits of butter on the floor, upon some of which we had trodden. William (the younger brother) had gone out, and we thought he must have accidentally spilled some. Nothing was said or thought of further until last Saturday, in the forenoon, when he again observed little bits of butter on the floor.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Warburton: I said to my husband, it must have been done by William (who had gone to Manchester at the time), he must have had his coat amongst the butter, and then have shaken his coat, and so thrown the bits about; for I found them against the drawer, the cupboard, the sofa, the clock, the table, and all round.<br /> <br /> Samuel Warburton: The girl sleeps in a bed in our room, and my brother William in another room. On Saturday night, they went to their beds about nine o'clock, but I stayed up with my wife, to have a little talk, and a pipe of tobacco. It would be after one when we went to bed. We noticed nothing on the stairs that night, but on Sunday morning there was not, I believe, a single step without butter upon it. It seemed, in many instances, as if we had trodden upon it on Saturday night. We followed the track into each room, and there were marks on the, carpets. At first we thought this had come off' our shoes, but we don't think so now. We found a piece upon my brother's bolster, also on his night cap. Than we examined the bed clothes, and we found some between the two quilts, which were on the top of the bed; and another piece, being the larger, at the bottom of the bed, where his feet might lie. <br /><br /> He had gone to Manchester, and it kept us busy all the forenoon clearing it away. A piece of paper we found at the top part of the bed by the girl, with butter upon it, but we believe that had only had the butter wiped upon it which we collected, and then accidentally let the paper fall. There were several bits of butter found in our room, too. On Sunday morning last, my brother got up first, as usual, had lighted the fire. He goes to the Primitive Methodist Sunday school, to teach. I and my wife came down stairs about nine o'clock, and we found that bits of butter were all about the floor, and sticking to the furniture. <br /> <br />Mrs. Warburton: I had occasion to go into the garden, and took my shawl out of the drawer; I saw nothing on the shawl when I went out, but when I came in, after a few minutes, there was a large piece upon it. <br /><br /> Will. Warburton: I found a piece inside my coat, before I set off to the school, in Urmston; (7) and when I came home there was a piece on my trousers. <br /><br /> Samuel Warburton: We kept picking it off the furniture, and still we found it, On Sunday, after dinner, it was again a on the furniture. As we sat by the fire we kept observing it on our clothes. We never saw it coming, an know not how it came. On Sunday evening, I and my brother were going to public service (8), but my wife and the girl, owing to it, did not like to stay by themselves, so we arranged for or my brother to stay with them. When I put my coat on to go there were pieces of butter on it, and my wife took a number off, and then, when she thought I were partly clean, she said, "Will't be off, while thouâs decent." (9) <br /><br /> Mrs. Warburton (appearing very serious): I could not keep straight with it, and I said, âWillât be off while that only a bit like." <br /><br /> Samuel Warburton: When I come back from the preaching, they told me they had been standing by the fire, picking the butter off each other's clothes, They threw it into the fire and it burned. <br /><br /> Mrs. Warburton: At last I said, âLet's sit down, and let it do as it likes" for I was weary. It never came on our skins, but I found one piece between my dress and my petticoats, and two pieces on my cap, and the girl had some on her hair, <br /><br /> Samuel Warburton: On Monday morning it continued to appear on the furniture, and instead of burning it, as we had done, we determined to keep it. About nine o'clock, I d collected what I could see, and put it on that piece of pot on the table. I thought that it must be some black thing or other, and I have a Herbal, and read in this book that holly boughs were good against witchcraft. (10) I thought, "Well, I can easily get them, I'll try that." So I got three holly boughs, and I hung them up to the ceiling of the house, and in half an hour there was a piece of butter on every bough So that 1 am satisfied that holly boughs can do no good. <br /> <br />Mrs. Warburton: As we were going to wash, the girl was putting water into a boiler in a little scullery, and she called me to look at a piece of butter sticking to the side of the boiler. <br /><br /> Samuel Warburton: I weave a little plaid cotton, in a small room adjoining the kitchen, and, on Monday forenoon, when I went to work at my loom there were two pieces of butter on the cloth, and other two pieces on the panes of glass. I read a passage of scripture every morning; and on Monday I was surprised to find several bits of butter between the leaves of different parts of my Bible; and they were not in the places where I had read. <br /><br /> The Bible was then shown, and the greasy marks were visible enough. Of course there was nothing in the stained places referring to the importation of foreign butter, but to satisfy the curiosity of any who might wish to examine for themselves, we may state that the first mark was in 1st Saml. (Chap.6, v.5) and 1st Saml. (Chap.9, v.2-3); Isaiah (Chap. 57, v.1) and another between the v. and vii. chapters of Revelations. <br /><br /> It was stated that there had been no obvious accumulation since Monday noon, although a few bits were noted on the furniture on Tuesday morning which were not seen on Monday. On Tuesday the head family invited the Rev. J. Garner, Primitive Methodist preacher residing in Warde Street, Hulme (11) (and who was to preach in the neighbourhood) to take tea with him. The particulars of the unusual situation were discussed, but no explanation could be given. <br /><br /> No clear notion of the weight of the butter thus collected could be ascertained, but as the bits were only from the size of a bean to that of a nut, it would probably not exceed a few ounces,. although the master of the house said he must have burned hundreds of them. <br /><br /> In answer to various questions, it does not appear that it can be the interest of anyone to frighten them from the house. The house is so isolated, and there are no mischievous boys about, and no one has been near the house. No broken panes were observed, through which the pellets of butter could be introduced, nor does it seem likely they could have come from without, as they were found in the chambers, and inside two other small rooms down stairs, and at the time our reporter vas present there were fourteen or fifteen bits collected together, a few of which were brought to Manchester, and there can. be no doubt of its really being butter, from various tests; there were four or five bits adhering to the front of the mahogany drawers; two upon a bookcase, one of them on the glass; three on a waistcoat belonging to the younger brother, the schoolmaster, and three on the holly boughs. one it the frame of a sampler, and another or two on the weaving rooms, inside.<br /> <br /> That there can be no such thing as butter springing out of glass, is evident enough; the whole must, of course, be a trick, but it has hitherto been so ingeniously accomplished, that the perpetrator of the deception is undiscovered. The bits of butter are very varied in shape, and although some of them have an appearance which would suggest the probability of their being sucked in the mouth and then ejected, yet others are so irregularly shaped as to preclude any such supposition. One thing was noticeable, however, that some of them had struck the surface obliquely (as drops of rain do when falling against vertical panes of glass), and thus slid along a little, and thus left a mark at the point of first contact. This ought to have been sufficient to have .prevented the idea which the old people seem to entertain, that the substance might possibly grow where it was found.<br /> <br /> The young girl does not appear to have anything about her indicative of the artfulness which a series of' tricks of this kind would imply. The manner in which the old man and woman speak about the circumstances, and seem to be affected by them, would lead even an observer of the deceptiveness of human nature to acquit them of any participation it the fraud.<br /> <br /> Probably the reader of the above will think that the âschoolmaster'' is the most likely person to explain the matter.</div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><br /> The rival Manchester Courier and Lancashire Advertiser also published the story on the same day, a shorter piece but giving some additional information. <br /><br /><b> The Manchester Courier and Lancashire and General Advertiser of Saturday 4th February 1854, p. 7 col. 7. </b><br /> <br /> Mysterious production of butter in a cottage<br /> <br /> The labouring population of Lostock near Stretford are in a state of some excitement in consequence of a mysterious and very novel mode in which butter has been supplied to the inhabitants of a cottage in Moss Lane, leading to Urmston from the turnpike and between Stretford and Barton Bridge. <br /><br /> The inmates of the cottage are a couple named Warburton, near sixty years of age, a brother of Mr Warburton who is, we should guess between forty and fifty, and a girl of about 12, a relative of Mrs Warburton. Warburton has some little property and also follows and occupation of handloom weaver; the brother is a schoolmaster, but has been out of employment since Christmas, and the girl takes a share in the homework. <br /><br /> Last Sunday week when Mr and Mrs Warburton got up, they observed lumps of butter varying in the size from the bulk of a bean to that of a small nut and they thought that Mr William Warburton had been getting something to eat, and had been careless with the butter, which it should be stated, he purchases for himself along with other provisions. <br /> <br /> The week passed over without any more appearances, but on the following Saturday morning, a quantity was observed on the floor. They thought it belonged to William, who had gone out, but they were puzzled, when in the course of the forenoon, they found it sticking upon the furniture, where they had not observed it before. <br /> <br />On Sunday morning they found it upon the steps heading to the bedroom, upon the bedroom floor in patches as though it had been trodden into the room, upon the beds, and upon various articles of clothing. In some places it appeared as if it had been patted on, in others as if it had been rubbed on by a finger. The old man and woman are members of the Primitive Methodist Society and the brother is a teacher in the Sunday School connected to the chapel of that body near the house, and on putting on his clothes to go to school he found the butter adhering to his clothes. It was with some difficulty he was put in proper trim to go to school , and when he came home at noon, he found a lump sticking to his leg. <br /><br /> While he had been out the old couple and the girl has so much to do in picking it off their clothes that they had not got the dinner ready, and they were both puzzled and worried. it got into impossible places, between Mrs Warburtonâs gown and petticoat, inside the collar of a waistcoat and, on Monday, three lumps were actually found inside a bible. There was another visitation on that day, and on the last time we have heard of, appeared on Tuesday. The only man having heard that holly bushes are a check to witches, thought he would try if they were any good, though he had no faith in them, and got three, but they had not been up many minutes before a lump adorned them. Many persons have visited the house and declare, from having tasted it, that the substance is butter, rather old and âturnipyâ but without any flavour of sulphur. It burns in the fire as butter would, and without any blue accompaniment. If any more should make its appearance, we will examine the matter and report more at length. <br /> Despite this publicity neither paper ever referred to the matter again, and one has to presume after the Rev Garnerâs visit the events ceased. No doubt if such a story were reported today it would be ascribed to a poltergeist, albeit a reasonably well behaved one. At the time William seems to have been the chief suspect, perhaps because people thought that a schoolmaster might be a better trickster than a young girl, but the latter clearly fits into Frank Podmoreâs stereotype of the bored young girl. <br /><br /> Life cannot have been easy for a girl verging on her teens living with a strongly religious elderly couple in an isolated spot, and that may have been exacerbated by the arrival of schoolmaster William. Perhaps she had to give up her own room to him, hence her sharing a room with the elderly couple. <br /> However as we saw, at the time it seems to have been attributed to witchcraft, or at least to some âdark thingâ.<br /> <br /> One explanation of the period would have been the actions of a boggart. Boggarts were quite well known in the district, the road at the southern end of Moss Lane, Gammershaw Lane, was the haunt of a notorious boggart, though no-one ever seems to have given a clear description of it. Along the Barton-Stretford turnpike was a house called by the Victorians the boggart house, though whether this referred to an alleged haunting, or was a Victorian euphemism for âbuggedâ, (local term for stupid or ruined) as that was how it was described in the 18th century Stretford Parish Registers. <br /><br /> Mary Maria stuck it out however, she was still there at the time of the 1861 censuses, and when Samuel died on the 25 June 1864, she was the main executor of his will. By 1871 she had gone and her widowed mother Mary Hopwood Snr. had come to look after her aunt. <br /><br /> The cottages remained in existence into the early twentieth century, apparently now run together into a house called locally âThe Butterhouseâ after the incident, but memories were vague and confused. In one of two histories of the district written for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria but not published until the following year. Richard Lawson, the Head Master of the Urmston Higher Grade School wrote; <br /> <br /> âTHE BUTTERHOUSE. This farmhouse still standing on the left hand side of Moss Road, was the subject of a supposed mystery, about the year 1848; it was then occupied by Samuel Warburton and his wife. A greasy substance, resembling butter was supposed to have unaccountably appeared on the walls, furniture, pictures but especially the leaves of the family bible; in fact everywhere except Samâs suite of Sunday clothes. It is generally supposed the author of this âmysteryâ was Warburton himself, due to mental alienation.â (Lawson, Richard. A History of Flixton, Urmston and Davyhulme. The author, 1898, p.123) <br /><br /> This area was finally urbanised in the mid 1930s and became an estate of semi-detached houses. No trace of the old cottages remains, and I have not been able to find a photograph of it. <br /> <br /> <br /> NOTES<br /> <br /> 1. New Bailey: the old prison in Salford, opened in 1787 and closed in 1868. <br /> <br />2. Police Constable Bent. James Bent (1828-1901), In 1853 he was the constable for Lostock and Davyhulme. By 1868 he had risen to the Superintendent at Stretford in the Lancashire Police. He was noted for his work with destitute children, and was author of My Criminal Life. (1891) He does not refer to the incident in this book, but does confess that as a young man he was much afraid of ghosts and the like, mainly from reading too many âpenny dreadfulsâ <br /><br /> 3. Not traced; in the 1851 census William was lodging with John Owen a farmer at Pownall Fee in Cheshire, probably a distant relative, Samuel and Williamâs grandfather was John Owen alias Warburton. Hulme was a suburb of Manchester, already it was an industrial area. In 1851 the population was 53,482 <br /><br /> 4. Primitive Methodist, a radical evangelical and essentially working class breakaway from the mainstream Methodist Movement, starting from a camp meeting at Mow Cop in Staffordshire in 1807. Regarded as âemotionalâ and âenthusiasticâ by its critics. Both its founders William Clowes and Hugh Bourne believed in witches and boggarts. Handloom weavers and petty property owners like the Warburtons were the sort of people attracted. By 1854 the denomination was edging much closer to respectability.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_Methodism</a> and <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">http://www.methodist.org.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=opentogod.content&cmid=1619</a>) <br /><br /> 5. Tim Bobbin, John Collier (1708-1786) was a Lancashire dialect writer of both prose and poetry, he was the son of a local schoolmaster, and was born in a house in Church Lane (Church Road) in Urmston. However the actual house was demolished by this period, and its exact location was disputed, Warburton presumably owned one of the cottages on the most probable site. For more details on Collier and his house see the Waugh reference above. <br /><br /> 6. These purport to be verbatim transcripts, yet they are all in suspiciously standard English, not the heavy local dialect (briefly used in the bit about Samâs suit.<br /> <br /> 7. I have not been able to locate this Sunday School<br /> <br /> 8. Possibly the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Davyhulme Road built in 1853.<br /> <br /> 9. The couple may have been bilingual in standard English and Lancashire but it is perhaps more probable that the editor has standardised the speech and perhaps altered in other ways. <br /> <br />10. Briefly mentioned in A Dictionary of Superstitions edited by Iona Opie and Moira Tatem Oxford University Press, 1992 pp.200-01 and Steve Roud The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. Penguin Books, 2003 p.250. <br /><br /> 11. James Garner 1809- 1895, was a noted member of the Primitive Methodist Community (born in Leake, Nottinghamshire) and spent much of his career in the nearby Cheshire town of Sale. <br /> <br /><div style="text-align: center;">----------------------------------------------------------------------------</div> <br /> The location can be found on this map;<a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">http://www.british-history.ac.uk/mapsheet.aspx?compid=55125&sheetid=4739&ox=4134&oy=3116&zm=1&czm=1&x=157&y=297</a> <br /> <br /><br /> Knowsley Cottages can be see marked to the bottom left of the large letter 'R' <br /><br /> The Lostock area was relatively unchanged as late as 1910, and a comparison with a modern map can be found here. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">http://maps.cheshire.gov.uk/tithemaps/ </a>You should enter 'Sale' township and move slowly north-west at high magnification to find the locality. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||</div> <br /> <br /><b> Readers Comments:<img src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/blank.gif" /></b><br /> <br /> Anonymous<a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">5.5.12</a> <br /> An excellent piece of research. It's always interesting to see the original sources for these stories. Great detective work. <br /><img src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/blank.gif" /> <br /> <br /> Anonymous<a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">31.7.15</a> <br /> I am thrilled to bit to read this :) I have been a resident of Lostock, Stretford for 32 years and only just begun to explore its local history and inhabitants. Many references in the tale told resonated with me, Tim Bobbin :), for a while one of our local pubs in Urmston was named 'The Tim Bobbin', (may still be so) a Wetherspoon's. I have been trying to find out more about Lostock Hall, any info on this would be lovely. I have seen for sale on ebay Lostock Hall milk bottles, fascinating, there was no doubt a dairy farm there and it appears to have been where Lostock park is presently. A neighbour of mine in Chatsworth Road, Lostock, by Humphrey Park Holt, made mention of a pig farm and a rubber manufacturers (he thinks) and that the area was some kind of pound (sp?) for pigs; the area Lostock side of the railway line and on the land where the school and housing exists today (c/f Lostock College). The forgotten village of Lostock it certainly is, it seems, I have been trying all afternoon to find some information on Lostock Hall and Lostock in general and Lostock Village area does not seem to appear fully on any O/S maps, that I can find. So I am delighted to have found this piece and thank you for sharing the same. Kind regards.<br /><div class="comments" id="comments" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Merriweather; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 10px; min-height: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="comments-content" style="margin-bottom: 16px;"><div id="comment-holder"><div id="bc_0_3C" kind="c"><div id="bc_0_3CT"><div class="comment-thread" id="bc_0_2T" kind="r" style="margin: 8px 0px;" t="0" u="0"><ol id="bc_0_2TB" style="list-style-type: none; padding: 0px;"><li class="comment" id="bc_0_1B" kind="b" style="border-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0.25em 0px 0px;"><div class="comment-block" id="c4193745390171086992" style="margin-left: 48px; position: relative;">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-18485480834124518732016-03-08T06:32:00.002-08:002020-06-28T07:25:56.185-07:00Beyond the UFO Horizon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKYzUlNDdx8kGAgd-9kQqqb2tid6D0TjSymChyKmOw6g6JVdmqSQ50iVzkUbCTYP28h8aNLOxgmV8qIKqW5YXccL7lZgQhIMl1oC5IygjVXL7ICRhMvdX65h2c-gPFDUd0CSbHDw0WRkA/s1600/hilary+evans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="187" data-original-width="187" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKYzUlNDdx8kGAgd-9kQqqb2tid6D0TjSymChyKmOw6g6JVdmqSQ50iVzkUbCTYP28h8aNLOxgmV8qIKqW5YXccL7lZgQhIMl1oC5IygjVXL7ICRhMvdX65h2c-gPFDUd0CSbHDw0WRkA/s200/hilary+evans.jpg" width="100" /></a><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><b>ON A DARK SEPTEMBER NIGHT, BETTY AND BARNEY HILL SAW SOMETHING IN THE SKY, AND WHAT THEY SAW CHANGED THEIR LIVES FOREVER. HILARY EVANS EXPLAINS </b></span><br />
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If it was what they came to believe it was, that is understandable, for they had an experience which few if any mortals have been privileged to have: an encounter with beings from another part of the universe. But even if no such encounter took place, the fact remains that their lives were changed, and that fact is central to any understanding of their experience.
It is nearly forty years since Dr Simon and the Hills mutually agreed to terminate their hypnosis sessions. During that period, the crucial question, the only one that really matters - did the encounter take place as ostensibly recalled? - has been left dangling, unanswered. </div>
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With so much hanging on the answer to that question, it is astonishing that greater efforts have not been made to answer it.
It is particularly astonishing that there has been no in-depth reappraisal of the case. Fuller, who authored the only full-length account of the matter, was a journalist: though we have no reason to question his integrity, and though his book is a creditable piece of reporting and so far as I am aware contains no major errors, it would be reassuring to have a second opinion in so serious a matter.<br />
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Naturally the Hillsâ story is narrated, and to a degree commented on, in such publications as Clarkâs <i>UFO Encyclopedia</i>: but we lack a counter-investigation of the story, filling the gaps that Fuller skipped over, perhaps because he did not even notice them, and to provide answers to the questions he left hanging, perhaps because he was in no position to answer them.
Perhaps our best starting-point is this comment from his book: "Short of acceptance of the whole experience as reality, which contradictory evidence prevented the doctor from doing, the best alternative lay in the dream hypothesis." (Fuller 1966: 274)<br />
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That hypothesis, though it has never been formally set out, is to the effect that Bettyâs dreams were a fantasy: a fantasy which she communicated to Barney as the result of recounting her dreams to him, and which both would subsequently recall in the course of their hypnosis sessions.
For those who cannot bring themselves to accept the hypnotically recalled scenario as fact, the dream hypothesis remains the option of choice. However, this alternative explanation has its own shortcomings: not least, that the part played by fantasy in human behaviour, though it has been extensively explored, has yet to be precisely formulated.<br />
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It is common acceptance that we are all influenced by myths, archetypes and stereotypes derived on the one hand from our cultural environment, on the other from our personal experience. But the processes are yet uncharted whereby the paths we tread through this labyrinth can, when the circumstances are appropriate, lead us to all kinds of anomalous experience ranging from simple misperception - an advertising blimp becomes an alien spacecraft - to total fabrication - the figure of an Old Hag enters our bedroom and seats herself upon our body.
The first step towards evaluating the explanatory power of the dream hypothesis for the Hillsâ encounter is, therefore, to set it in the wider context of anomalous experience. It needs to be considered in the light of other experiences where it seems possible that fantasy plays a crucial part.
This will not, of course, enable us to make an absolute yes-or-no judgment on the Hillsâ encounter. But it will enable us to gauge the probability that this is what set the process in motion. We shall then need to consider how such fantasy may be communicated from one person to another, and then, how it can re-emerge as ostensibly true memory.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #666666;">Bettyâs nightmares</span> </b></span><br />
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Some ten days after their encounter - approximately 29 September to 3 October 1961 - Betty Hill experienced a series of remarkably detailed dreams which, when the disparate elements are brought together, rearranged and ordered, form a sequential narrative. This narrative offers a complete and coherent story in which the initial sighting, which the couple consciously recalled, leads seamlessly into related events of which they have no conscious memory whatever.<br />
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What makes the Hillsâ experience so remarkable - unique, it may be - is the fact that more than three years later, under hypnosis, not only would Betty recall events which match her dreams in detail, but Barney would echo her account. Understandably this would lead many to the conclusion that both the dreams and the hypnotic recall were literally narrating events that had actually taken place.
Could this be so? The interpretation of dreams had a long history before Freud used it as the title for his landmark book. Dreams requiring de-coding are notable incidents in the Judeo-Christian Bible: the Roman statesman Cicero wrote a book about divination, and dream books are as popular today as they were with Victorian housemaids.<br />
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But invariably we find it taken for granted that dreams are not to be taken at face value. They must be interpreted: you must read your Freud - or your gipsy astrologer - to learn what those extraordinary happenings really signify.<br />
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None the less Fuller asserts "It is not uncommon for dreams resulting from an experience of shock to be literal; i.e. a complete re-enactment, so to speak, of an event that actually took place". (Fuller 1966: 333) He provides no authority for this statement, which I suspect is open to question: I have found no confirmation of it in the literature. The general opinion, as expressed by John Antrobus of the City College of New York, is that "dreaming refers to a mixture of thought and emotional properties that are rare in normal waking, but common in sleep". (Antrobus 1993: 98)<br />
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Though I am not aware of any case in the literature of dreams, inquiry among my acquaintance elicited a case which at first seems to confirm Fullerâs assertion. A car passenger was involved in an accident in which a pedestrian was killed. Traumatised by the event, she had repeated dreams of it, night after night. She said the dream exactly matched the event.
However, there is a significant difference between this and the Hill case: this lady had consciously experienced her traumatising event, and retained conscious memories of it. The Hills, on the other hand, even if they lived their encounter on a conscious level - it is difficult if not impossible to learn from Fullerâs account what state of mind the couple were in while participating in their adventure - they certainly had no conscious memories of it.<br />
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So even if we give Fuller the benefit of the doubt and accept as possible that Betty might be one of the exceptional people whose dreams are indeed a re-living of actual experience - or, at any rate, that on this occasion they were so - we must, because this is so exceptional an occurrence, consider the alternative as no less possible: that her dreams were - as most dreams are - a fantasy, making more or less use of veridical events, combined with material obtained, consciously or unconsciously, from every conceivable source to which she had ever been exposed, whether derived from her personal experience, from her cultural milieu or from her imagination.<br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> The only scenario </b></span><br />
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There is one aspect of Bettyâs dreams which is easily overlooked: veridical or not, the dreams made a highly significant difference to the coupleâs situation. Before the dreams, their experience comprised a UFO sighting followed by a period for which they are amnesic. Afterthe dreams, the Hills are provided with a possible account of what happened during that amnesic period. Moreover, it is an account which is remarkably detailed, remarkably coherent. We do not know whether Barney played any part in helping Betty organise the scattered incidents of her dream-content into a smooth-running narrative, but in the light of his dismissal of the dreams, it seems likely that it was Betty alone who arranged the disordered tableaux into a rational sequence. As set down by Betty, it is a complete and generally plausible story. Furthermore, it is a story that is rooted in known fact - or, at any rate, in the incidents related to the initial sighting and Barneyâs panic, details which the Hills regard as fact; so they can be forgiven for speculating whether the dream-narrative, containing both the initial sighting and the subsequent abduction, might be all fact.<br />
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Betty does not mention her dreams to their first interviewer Walter Webb on 21 October 1961, and this is perhaps understandable in view of the fact that at this stage, though the Hills recognise a degree of amnesia in the course of their journey, they have not yet been confronted with the challenge of the two-plus hours of missing time. Though Betty found the dreams deeply disturbing, it is possible that she at this stage regards them simply as fantasy, without it even crossing her mind that they might bear some relation to real experience. Even if she does initially have any such thoughts, she might seek to put them out of her mind when Barney dismisses her dreams as nonsense.<br />
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The "missing time" mystery emerges a month later, in the course of the meeting with Hohmann, Jackson and MacDonald on 25 November 1961. At once the amnesia is perceived to be greatly more significant. Betty says "This was the first time I began to wonder if they were more than just dreams. Then I really got upset over my dreams." It is at this point that hypnosis is suggested to aid recall, and both Hills favour the suggestion. Barney hopes that hypnosis "might clear up Betty and her nonsense about her dreams". (Fuller 1966: 47-48) In fact, however, the hypnosis proposal is not taken up at this point; on 25 March 1962 they decide against it, and the possibility will not be raised again until a year and a half later.<br />
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None the less, it remains a fact that, irrespective of Bettyâs uncertainty about her dreams, and whether or not Barney regards them as "nonsense", they provide the couple with a possible scenario for what is otherwise a gap in their lives. Even if they do not accept it as a true account, it is the only account they have. It is inconceivable, therefore, that it is not in the back of their minds - to say the least - throughout the year and a half which elapses before hypnosis is undertaken, a period in which no alternative explanation is ever seriously considered because there is no other account to consider.<br />
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Even if, in the light of Barneyâs dismissive attitude, neither of them ever actually speaks of the dreams to the other, both of them must retain an awareness of the dream-story, if only as a terrifying scenario they would prefer to discard if only a better one were available.<br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> Fact or fantasy? </b></span><br />
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The question, whether those dreams were a factual replay of real events or a fantasy in which fact and fiction are inextricably jumbled, is therefore a crucial one: but in the absence of any independent evidence or corroborative testimony it is a question which it is well nigh impossible to resolve. All we have by way of confirmation are a pair of subjective accounts, not consciously recalled but elicited under hypnosis. In support of their being true memories, there is the fact that both witnesses tell substantially the same story: against it, there is the fantastic nature of that story and the lack of any external corroboration.<br />
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However, these very facts place the Hillsâ experience in the same state of existential instability as a wide variety of other claimed anomalous experiences which, because they lie beyond the UFO horizon, are rarely perceived as relevant to UFO issues. Thousands of individuals have laid claims to have met the Virgin Mary, mother of the Christiansâ Jesus: thousands more have claimed to be, or been diagnosed as being, possessed by evil spirits. Millions believe they communicate with spirits of the dead, and ghost stories are as widely reported today as they were two thousand years ago. Many of those who were burned as witches in the 15th through the 17th century believed they flew through the air to participate in sabbats: similar journeys are claimed by shamans in primitive cultures who travel to otherworldly destinations to consult with tribal deities.<br />
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By and large, these experiences are not today supposed to be literal accounts of physical events: alternative scenarios have been proposed which are generally preferred by behavioural scientists. At the same time, they are accepted as literal fact by those who perceive them as being countenanced by a particular belief-system. Some years ago I attended a conference in Basel where a speaker told us about a case of diabolical possession in which he had been involved: to my astonishment, I suddenly realised that the speaker, though a university professor, believed implicitly in the literal reality of a possessing demon. Those who communicate with the dead round the séance table are not always the credulous victims of exploiting charlatans: many of them are intelligent, educated people who believe they have sound and rational grounds for believing that they are truly doing what they think they are doing.<br />
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So an examination of other marginal experiences by no means implies that we are seeking to place the Hillsâ experience in a category occupied exclusively by fantasy: we must be prepared to accept that any of these claims may tip either way, this way into fact or that way into fiction. But at least, in the absence of either confirmation or rebuttal of the Hillsâ abduction scenario, a look at some of these other limbo cases may enable us to take a broader approach to their particular experience.<br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> Case 1: Glenda and the spacewoman</b></span><br />
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In 1976 a 17-year old girl from Dagenham, near London, England, told investigators of a series of strange experiences culminating in a cigar-shaped UFO which followed her along a city street. She revealed that five years earlier she had come home from school one afternoon, gone upstairs to her room, only to be joined by a spacewoman who walked in through the closed door, sat beside her on her bed and talked with her for an hour or so. Ever since then, the spacewoman had been a sort of companion, counsellor and friend - generally unseen, but always felt.
Glenda had no doubt of her reality: I have the drawing she made of her visitor.<br />
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Did Glendaâs spacewoman exist? Probably not in the literal, physical sense. Yet, paradoxically, in another sense she did exist: for beyond question she played a significant role in Glendaâs adolescent life, over a period of some five years. (Evans 1984: 15 <i>et seq)</i> That is to say, the fact of an entityâs non-existence must not be allowed to stand in the way of its ability to exert a very real influence on the individual who supposes her/himself to have encountered it.
At the time, I was asked to provide an explanation for Glendaâs experiences, and I failed, utterly. I did not believe that a spacewoman had visited Glenda, but neither could I say what had happened to her to make her think she had been visited. Then a year later I met a French girl who claimed to have met the Virgin Mary, and this not only provided additional incentive to find an explanation, but also suggested which way to look for one.<br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> Case 2: Blandine and the Virgin Mary </b></span><br />
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In 1981, Blandine Piegeay was a 14-year old Catholic French schoolgirl. One day, walking to school, she met an angel who told her she would shortly receive a visit from Mary, the mother of Jesus, who died some 19 centuries ago: and two days later she did indeed experience the first of some fifty encounters. Every Saturday morning - for the Queen of Heaven agreed with Blandine that a weekend day would be more suitable than a study-disruptive schoolday - Mary would descend from Heaven and visit with Blandine in the family kitchen. No one else saw her, though her father claimed once to have heard her.
Her parish priest was sceptical, but thousands of pilgrims beat a path to her door: she was featured on television, a nine daysâ wonder. Today she is married, with a child, her adventure all but forgotten. But Blandine insists: "I know my apparitions were true. Why would I have invented them?" (Evans 1987: 9)<br />
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That question is the key to understanding her experience. Instead of asking: Why would the Virgin Mary come down from Heaven to meet with Blandine and tell her she eats too many bonbons? we should ask, Why would Blandine claim such an experience?
The conclusion must be that Blandine had a psychological need for such an encounter. She needed someone - and not just anyone, an authority figure whose word she could accept - to tell her she was important, she mattered. If not to her fellow-pupils or her teachers, then to the Queen of Heaven. Crudely put, the Virgin Mary came in answer to Blandineâs identity crisis.<br />
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Looking back to Glendaâs spacewoman, hindsight suggests that her manifestation took place for much the same reason. The 12-year old English girl, like the 14-year old French girl, needed an authority-figure to whom she could look for guidance, counsel, reassurance. Not for her, though, the Virgin Mary of Catholic Blandine: instead, a stereotype from her own cultural milieu, an extraterrestrial entity.
Each such encounter is both stereotyped and custom-made. The content is personal - each individual has his or her own agenda: but the format is largely cultural.<br />
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In the history of Marian apparitions, the pattern has become almost as ritualised as a Japanese stage performance, with stock episodes - the apparition of the authority-figure in some isolated place, the conventionalised appearance, the formularised message, the healings limited to a certain range of ailments, the manifestation of a sacred spring. In similar fashion, stories of abduction by aliens have become stylised and run to a pattern with a greater or lesser degree of conformity. (Bullard 1987: Brookesmith 1998)<br />
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This conformity has been seen as evidence both for and against the authenticity of the claimed experience. On the one hand, the fact that such narratives possess so many similarities, including very specific details with which an âinnocentâ experiencer could not reasonably be expected to be acquainted, has been taken as supportive of the view that the event was genuinely experienced. And indeed it is not easy to explain how such details could have been acquired unless the individual had been exposed to other experiencersâ accounts. On the other hand, the inclusion of such details - if it can be shown that they could have been acquired in the course of the individualâs casual daily reading or TV viewing - could point to copycat replication.<br />
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It is important to recognise that this would almost certainly have been an unconscious process: the acquisition of the details, and their assimilation into a personal experience, could perfectly well have taken place on a subconscious level - and indeed, more likely than not.
This issue remains unresolved, and those who make out the case for the "abductions-are-real" case seem to have as strong a hand as those who hold an "abductions-are-fantasy" view. This is why we must look beyond the immediate issue, the stylised pattern, to the individual encounter and the personal need to which it responds. For then we find that each case is both one of a class and one of a kind: both ubiquitous and unique.<br />
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Researcher Scott Rogo, investigating the 1953 Tujunga Canyon abductions, went so far as to suggest tha<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t "e<span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">ach time an abduction experience is uncovered, a psychological inquiry into the life of the witness should indicate that he or she was undergoing a life-crisis at the time or was recovering from a psychological trauma." (Rogo 1980: 239).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span>The objection can be made that the Hillsâ encounter, being the first to be widely publicised, can hardly have been conforming to a pattern: if anything, it set the pattern. But this is to miss the point. If subsequent abductions have tended to follow in the same mould, it is because the Hillsâ experience was an acceptable model: it embodies elements to which later protagonists respond. Their story may seem to have been the first of its kind: but it is none the less a stereotype.<br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> Case 3: Barbara and the Operators </b></span><br />
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The wisdom of Scott Rogoâs admonition to look before as well as after is demonstrated tellingly in the book in which Barbara OâBrien, an American professional woman, records her encounters with otherworldly beings. (OâBrien 1958) Following on personal problems, both domestic and at work, she begins to hallucinate a number of entities, who identify themselves as denizens of some kind of parallel world which interacts with ours. Though on one level she is aware that they are hallucinatory, they are at the same time totally real to her. She permits them to persuade her to leave home and work, and wander for many months, living in two worlds at once - the real world where she has to continue living as best she can, and this strange other level of reality. Apart from occasional breakdowns, she manages pretty well: and eventually she succeeds in resolving her situation.<br />
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What makes her story so remarkable is her ability to subsequently analyse it and to offer a diagnosis of what happened to her. In retrospect, she realises that, triggered by her psychological crisis, her unconscious had taken control of her life and substituted its own unreal drama for the real play of events: "The unconscious stages a play: the conscious mind is permitted to remain, an audience of one, watching a drama on which it cannot walk out.... As you sit watching your Martian, it is your unconscious mind which is flashing the picture before your eyes; more than this, it is blowing a fog of hypnosis over your conscious mind so that consciously you are convinced that the hallucinations you see and hear, and the delusions that accompany the hallucinations, are real." (OâBrien 1958: 5)<br />
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What happened to Barbara could be what happened to Glenda and Blandine: the illusion they take for reality is a presentation staged by their subconscious minds.
Normally, the subconscious sits there in the background, letting our conscious self get on with things. But when the need arises, it steps in and makes its presence felt.
When that happens, the individual starts to function on two separate levels of reality. Sometimes for a single never-to-be-repeated occasion, sometimes over a long period. So Glenda, Blandine and Barbara, each in her own way, function in this way: retaining their ability to live on the plane of everyday existence, but at the same time intermittently maintaining their otherworldly contact. (For a fuller presentation of these ideas, see Evans 1989)<br />
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It is one thing to formulate a theory, quite another to apply it in practice. In November 1980 there was a notable case in England involving a police officer who, on patrol alone at night, encountered a UFO. Subsequently, under hypnosis, he recounted a horrific, dreamlike abduction experience. When I diffidently suggested that Alan Godfreyâs abduction might be a fantasy triggered by psychological factors, he was indignant, rejecting my reading of his adventure, feeling I was accusing him of mental instability.<br />
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Since then, though, he himself has come to question the physical reality of his experience: "It seemed real but it might have been a dream". (Randles 1988: 90) Investigator Jenny Randles writes:
Godfrey is commendably honest, pointing out that he read UFO stories between the sighting and the hypnosis sessions months later. He acknowledges this could have coloured what he said in an altered state, which might therefore be open to other interpretations. While nobody can prove what happened one way or another, if the witness himself is unsure of the objective reality of the abduction phase of his story, we must be wary of forming earth-shattering opinions about extraterrestrial life. (Hough and Randles 1991: 189)
And she pertinently observes:
Of course, if it was a dream, the question is why it was so similar to everyone elseâs dream of abduction. (Randles 1988: 90)
Which brings us back to the HillsâŠ<br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Case 4: Madeleine and Jesus </b></span><br />
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When popular fantasy author Whitley Strieber published his autobiographical <i>Communion,</i> the press release issued with it declared "I was interviewed by three psychologists and three psychiatrists, given a battery of tests... and found to fall within the normal range in all respects" and carried an endorsement from the Director of Research at New York State Psychiatric Institute which stated "I see no evidence of an anxiety state, mind disorder or personality disorder". (Strieber 1987: 2)<br />
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We can only assume that none of these highly qualified persons had considered it relevant to their examination to glance at Mr Strieberâs own non-fiction autobiographical writings. If so they would have come across his description of the security arrangements at the house where the alleged abduction took place, which by any standards approached paranoia - though if his story is as true as his dust-jacket says it is, perhaps in the light of what was to occur paranoia was justified. They would have read of his erroneous belief that he was present at the 1966 Charles Whitman massacre at the University of Texas at Austin when he undoubtedly was elsewhere, (Conroy 1989: 120) of his prolonged amnesia in the course of a visit to Italy, and many other such incidents. Even from what he chooses to reveal about himself, we can see that "disordered" would be a mild description of both his mind and his personality both at the time of his experience and, indeed, recurrently throughout his life. (Strieber 1987 (1))<br />
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Similarly, abduction researcher Budd Hopkins assures us, with regard to the abductees whose stories he recounts: "Three psychiatrists and two psychologists have conducted hypnotic regression sessions over the years with a number of possible UFO abductees. Two other psychiatrists have interviewed our subjects... None of these psychological professionals have presented to me, even tentatively, a psychological theory that might explain these bizarre accounts." (Hopkins 1987: 25)<br />
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This is a truly astonishing assertion: one can only suppose that the psychologists in question had never taken the time to study the findings of their eminent predecessors. Simply among the best known, we can find similar behaviours described by Freud, Jung and Janet. Pierre Janet, above all, laid the scientific foundations for such studies, based on his observations of hysterical patients at La SalpetriĂšre, Paris.<br />
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His patient Madeleine, a gifted and articulate lady, is convinced she makes periodic visits with Jesus - a spiritual activity she describes as âvery rich and very beautifulâ, using language which verges on the erotic: "No, the state I enter isnât sleep: sleep is a kind of suspension of the life of the spirit, whereas mine is just the opposite.... my spirit and my heart soar over immense horizons into which they plunge and lose themselves in delight... no earthly pleasure can be compared to it! .. I am united to God and he to me!" (Janet 1926, volume 1: 68 et seq)<br />
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There is no doubt in Madeleineâs mind that her meetings with Jesus are real, nor that he will, one fine day, fetch her to live with him permanently in Heaven. She speaks of her "life in common" with Jesus, and Janet describes it as "the life of a couple, even, dare I say it, a mĂ©nage". While he had no doubt that none of this had any basis in reality, he sought to examine the process whereby she had come to make the claim, and how she was able to live simultaneously on two levels of reality - aware, indeed, how remote one was from the other, yet unsurprised at her ability to pass easily to and fro between them. In so doing, he laid the foundations of the studies upon which we, today, are building. Siegelâs exploration of hallucination, (Siegel 1992) Huffordâs study of "bedroom visitors" (Hufford 1982) and Schatzmannâs account of his patient Ruth (Schatzmann 1980) all show that under appropriate circumstances sane, healthy people can have encounter experiences which are so vividly veridical that, if only for the time being, the witness sees no need to attempt any reality-testing, and unquestioningly accepts them as actual.<br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Case 5: The New Zealander and the flying saucer photo</b></span><br />
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The process of self-delusion is fascinatingly devious, as this trivial incident demonstrates. One day a gentleman from New Zealand, a total stranger, visited me on business. The conversation touched upon flying saucers, whereupon the visitor stated that he himself had not only seen but photographed one. When I expressed suitable amazement, he produced a glossy print and explained how, when and where he had taken it - on a given date, at a given place in his own country. However, I recognised it as a photo taken at an earlier date, in the United States, by an American photographer.
Beyond question, the man was lying: but was he lying knowingly?<br />
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My guess is that my visitor had somehow acquired a glossy print of the photo, and from wishing he had taken it he had come to convince himself that he was indeed the photographer. There must have been some part of him that knew perfectly well he had not taken that photograph: but, driven by whatever motivation, he chose to maintain the make-believe which to him was belief.
While we have no reason to suppose that the Hills had any wish to see a UFO, still less to meet its occupants, it is possible to argue that Barneyâs aggressive hostility to UFOs had its roots in a subconscious desire to do so.<br />
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But this is pure speculation. What this anecdote reminds us, though, is that there are people whose unspoken motives can lead them to do and say things which consciously they would indignantly reject. Once again, only a detailed examination would disclose what motives were driving my visitor.<br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> Case 6: Allan Kirk and his otherworldly life </b></span><br />
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A notable feature of OâBrienâs experience is the way she accepts her otherworldly Operators into her life: their fantastic nature seems, at the time, something she can take in her stride. This seems to be generally true of those who meet with aliens. A Canadian lady, who described to me how aliens visited her every evening in her kitchen to report on the dayâs progress in helping the Mexican government perfect a cure for cancer, was well-dressed, articulate, seemingly normal in every other respect.<br />
<br />
American psychoanalyst Robert Lindner had the opportunity to study at first-hand an extreme case of living on two different levels. (Lindner 1954) Not long after World War Two he had a patient referred to him, a physicist engaged in highly classified government research, whose psychological condition was affecting the quality of his work.
What Lindner gradually unravelled was that Allen Kirk, aside from being a physicist on Earth, had been aware since childhood that he was also a prince on a distant planet, to which he would return on almost a daily basis. His written account of his other existence comprised some 14,000 pages, accompanied by hundreds of drawings, maps and sketches.<br />
<br />
The creation of imaginary worlds is nothing new: apart from the many utopian writers who have imagined alternative civilisations, there are such people as the BrontĂ« sisters whose fantasy creations went beyond literary invention to play a role similar to those imaginary playmates with which many children enrich their childhoods. But Kirkâs world surpassed these not only in the detail of the fantasy, but also the intensity with which he believed in it.<br />
<br />
He himself told Linder, "How can I explain this to you? One moment I was just a scientist, bending over a drawing board in the middle of an American desert; the next moment I was Kirk Allen, Lord of a planet in an interplanetary empire in a distant universe, garbed in the robe of his exalted office, rising from the carved desk he had been sitting at, walking towards a secret room in his palace, going over to a filing cabinet, extracting an envelope of photographs, studying the photographs with intense concentration.
It was over in a matter of minutes, and I was again at the drawing-board - the self you see here. But I knew the experience was real, and to prove it I now had a vivid recollection of the photographs, could see them as clearly as if they were still in my hands..." (Lindner 1954: 183-184)<br />
<br />
What puzzled Lindner was this; "The chief difficulty was that he regarded himself as completely normal, was thoroughly convinced of the reality of all that he experienced, and could not comprehend its significance in terms of his sanity." (Lindner 1954: 185)<br />
<br />
In all such cases, if we look for a simple, blanket explanation, we shall almost certainly miss the point. Even if the fantasy itself falls into a specific category - the MĂŒnchhausen syndrome, (Schnabel 1993: 26) say, which drives those it afflicts to claim false identities and experiences, or the Jerusalem syndrome (Sieveking 1999: 21) whose victims come to believe they are chosen to give an apocalyptic message to the world - even then, we have to ask why that particular individual developed the syndrome. Putting people into pigeonholes is a neat way of sorting them out, but more important is to find out what got them that way in the first place. Lindner was able to trace Kirkâs fantasy back to childhood problems: the fantasy, for all its stereotypical nature, was custom-made for his personal needs.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Case 7: Christi Dennisâs confession </b></span><br />
<br />
Particularly revealing in this context is an incident which occurred at one of the Rocky Mountain reunions which Professor Leo Sprinkle holds every year at the University of Wyoming at Laramie. Most attendees are abductees and contactees, who get together to compare notes and share experiences in a supportive environment. Experiencers tell their stories, and enjoy counselling from Leo and his colleagues and the sympathetic support of others like themselves.<br />
<br />
In May 1981, one of the speakers was a college student, housewife and mother from Arizona named Christi Dennis. She told how she been confined to bed after an accident, practising spiritual exercises such as OBEs. One day she suddenly had the impression there were otherworldly entities in her room. She found she could talk with them. Subsequently she was transferred to their planet, where she met a female entity over seven feet tall who gave her instruction.
Christi provided a detailed and coherent account of her experiences. She described her room which contained, among other things, a television set where she could watch TV from earth from any period in time, and much other sophisticated gadgetry.<br />
<br />
Her presentation was lucid, sensible, impressive. (Proceedings of the Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation 1981: 104) She was welcomed by the delegates, most of whom had passed through similar experiences, as one of themselves.
The following year, she wrote a letter to Sprinkle, which he in turn communicated to the conferencers, in which she confessed, "I am not a contactee. I have never had an extra-terrestrial experience! The stories I have told and the book I have written are nothing more than fair science fiction." (Proceedings of the Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation 1982: 105)<br />
<br />
Her letter made it clear this was no crude, sensation-seeking hoax; rather, it was the outcome of some spiritual crisis. Christi had projected herself into this imaginary scenario as a way of working her way out of her personal psychological predicament. The abduction process provided her with a ready-made scenario onto which she could project her individual concerns.<br />
<br />
Apart from vividly demonstrating the difficulty of distinguishing between a true and a false abduction experience, the Dennis case demonstrates the force - even the therapeutic value - of the authorised abduction myth. For her, as for OâBrien, the myth provided an existential framework for her personal situation. It could be reasonably suggested that, just as a medicine contains ingredients which the human biological system may from time to time require, so the encounter myth may contain elements for which the individual may have a psychological need. In the cases of Glenda and Blandine, that need was met relatively simply by the ostensible meeting and subsequent dialogues with a suitable authority-figure: in the cases of OâBrien and Dennis, more mature persons with more complex psychological needs, the psychodrama was more elaborate, but the process was the same. As to why it took the form it did, we are back with Scott Rogoâs requirement for a before-the-event analysis. As to whether this has any bearing on the Hill case, this must remain an open question.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> Case 8: The New Ager and the aliens </b></span><br />
<br />
Few books about abductions are as revealing as Betty Hillâs own aptly-titled <i>A Common-sense Approach to UFOs.</i> It includes several cautionary tales.<br />
<br />
"In the mid-1970s, a woman phoned to say she did not know if she was crazy or had been abducted by a UFO. Her problems began when she enrolled in a New Age psychic development class. They would lie on the floor and were put into a light trance. They were âconnectedâ to different kinds of UFOs⊠Over a period of time she began to think her fantasies were real.
She sought out hypnotists. Every hypnotist gave her a different abduction. She became fearful as she believed the "aliens" were watching her through her windows, unlocking her doors, coming in and giving her injections. She became suicidal. She was under psychiatrists for fifteen years. She had all kinds of delusions. She knew she was an alien who was forced to move to this planet.
Under hypnosis, it emerged that as a child she had been mistreated by her family: her grandmother continually hit her, and her mother followed the example. The resulting trauma was transferred to the aliens. She preferred to believe her anxieties were the result of UFO contacts, rather than the cruel treatment by her grandmother and mother." (Hill 1995: 75)<br />
<br />
In connection with the Hill case, the possibility of trauma stemming from the fact of their mixed marriage has inevitably been raised, and generally dismissed. Probably correctly: there seems little doubt that their marriage - a second marriage for each of them - was a very successful one. But we do not know the circumstances under which their previous marriages broke up, and the possibility of trauma resulting from those circumstances cannot be entirely dismissed. Without going so far as to trace a cause-and-effect process along the lines of the case just cited, we should bear in mind that trauma may have been lying dormant in the subconscious of one or both of the Hills, and that they could have been transferred to the aliens in a similar way, as a contributory if not a causative factor.
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Case 9: The party guest and the lost doll</b></span><br />
<br />
The trigger for belief need be nothing more than simple suggestion, though that probably implies a suitably susceptible recipient. At a party at Bettyâs house, a hypnotist offered to uncover his guestsâ UFO abductions, She writes:<br />
<br />
"They all laughed, for they knew they were never abducted. He requested a volunteer: a middle-aged woman volunteered. He put her into a light trance and began to question her. To our amazement, she told how she had been taken on board a UFO, made pregnant, came home and later gave birth to a âbig, fat baby girlâ. She gave it a name.
Six months later the UFO came back and took the baby with them.
None of this was true. She lived in the same neighbourhood all her life: no pregnancy, no birth, no police looking for the body of a missing baby. So why had she told this tale?
One day, we were looking through her old family albums. Suddenly we saw a picture of her about the age of five, sitting on the front steps. What was she holding? A big, fat baby doll. Name? The same as the one she had used in her hypnosis. Where was this doll? She did not know, for it disappeared one day and she was never able to find it.
Finally, the solution to the tales she told under hypnosis was found. She took a real experience and turned it into a UFO abduction, while in a trance." (Hill 1995: 77)<br />
<br />
Yet again, only a study of the experiencerâs past life could reveal the roots of the experience. But for the accident of the family album, Bettyâs question, "So why had she told this tale?" might have remained forever unanswered. While we have no reason to suppose that a glimpse of the Hillsâ family snaps would have been equally revelatory, such a possibility cannot be excluded.<br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> Case 10: The abductee and the demons </b></span><br />
<br />
Hypnosis is often fingered as the cause of fantasy and fabrication: but other and more down-to-earth factors can induce an altered state of consciousness. Fasting undoubtedly underlay many visionary experiences among religious people of the middle ages. For example, the seventh century hermit Guthlac of Croyland left a sufficiently detailed account of his personal life for researchers to deduce that he probably suffered from protein and vitamin B deficiency, among whose likely consequences might be hallucinatory states: which could explain why he was continually troubled with horrifying visions of demons. (Kroll and Bachrach 1982)<br />
<br />
In the sixteenth century, a similar factor led to outbreaks of convent hysteria, in which cloistered nuns would fancy themselves possessed by demons, causing them to indulge in a variety of behaviours ranging from outbursts of blasphemous language, obscene gestures and orgasmic convulsions: the more open-minded doctors of the day traced it to the effects of diet and fasting, and of the cloistered and celibate lifestyle. (Wier 1560)
Taking drugs, or not taking drugs, can have similar effects, as illustrated by another of Bettyâs cases.<br />
<br />
"A woman told her doctor she thought she had been abducted by aliens. He referred her to me: I suggested she should be tested for her lithium level. She was given lithium treatment and became normal again.
Then she said she didnât need lithium any more. She ran naked round the garden, claiming the aliens were everywhere. She told me demons were in her basement, while the UFO people were in the back yard trying to get into the house to save her. The demons prevented them doing this. She started destroying the house, finally setting fire to it. She was sent off to a mental home while her husband faced a huge bill for the damage.
[In the end Betty convinced her to face facts] I said: 'UFOs are real, but the aliens stay on board their crafts - remember you see them only when your lithium level is down'". (Hill 1995: 62)<br />
<br />
While it would be naĂŻve to suggest that the Hills ate something in the Colebrook restaurant which triggered a shared fantasy, Bettyâs common-sense diagnosis of this case reminds us not to ignore the possibility that a factor as mundane as body chemistry can have otherworldly consequences.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> Case 11: Quintero and the thunderstorm </b></span><br />
<br />
Clearly, there are a wide variety of circumstances in which people will fantasise. Regrettably, fantasy is often associated with hallucination; and to many psychologists, especially in America, hallucination is perceived as an indication of a pathological condition. If you see a ghost or the Virgin Mary or an alien visitor, you are hallucinating; and if you are hallucinating, you must be mentally afflicted.
But what constitutes mental affliction? Studies by Israeli scientist Sulman show that "weather-sensitive patients encompass about 30% of any population", and other studies show that about 5% of the population are so sensitive to climate that an altered state of consciousness can be induced. (Sulman 1980)<br />
<br />
Consider, in the light of these findings, the case of Colombian cowman Anibal Quintero. In 1976 Quintero told investigators how a luminous egg-shaped vessel landed close to him near his cowsheds. A number of people emerged, including three long-haired women. Though he knocked four or five down, they overcame him and took him into their spacecraft.
When he came to, he found himself being massaged by the three females. They were naked, and behaved so provocatively that he started caressing one; she responded enthusiastically, and in no time they were making love. He described her as very hairy, with short legs, but very attractive, even if she communicated like a dog barking.
Afterwards he was given an injection and everything went black. He woke to find himself lying on the grass, while dawn was breaking. (Bowen 1977: 48)<br />
<br />
However, there is an interesting additional aspect:
His wife told the investigators Anibal had come home from work that evening in an unusual state, throwing himself into a hammock where he had fallen asleep. Shortly after, a violent thunderstorm occurred. Quintero woke, feeling queer, as though something was about to happen to him, and dashed out of the house. When the storm eased off, he walked towards the cowsheds, feeling that he was "controlled by some inexplicable external force".
This behaviour makes no sense if what occurred was indeed a surprise visit by real aliens. On the other hand, it could be very relevant if Quintero was one of those who are strongly affected by meteorological conditions. If this was the case, the oncoming storm could have triggered an alternate state, in which he hallucinated the spaceship fantasy.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Case 12: Maureen and the broken date </b></span><br />
<br />
While there is virtually no independent, external evidence for abductions taking place, there is evidence that some alleged abductions did not take place. The classic case is that of 37-year old Australian housewife Maureen Puddy.
On 3 July 1972 she had a UFO sighting while driving home from visiting her son in hospital - that is to say, at a time when we may reasonably suppose that she was undergoing personal stress. Further odd experiences followed, then in February 1973 she alerted two prominent ufologists, Paul Norman and Judith Magee, that she had a rendezvous with the aliens. At the location, Magee and Norman joined her inside her car. She saw an alien figure, outside, beckoning, though her companions saw nothing. She then gave a detailed account of being aboard a spacecraft: yet all the time she was sitting right beside them. (Basterfield 1992: 13)<br />
<br />
During the witchcraft outbreak of the Middle Ages, sceptical observers would watch a supposed witch while she claimed to be attending a sabbat. (Spina 1523) Back in our own time, nine-year old Gaynor Sunderland was witnessed by her mother, lying on her bed in a deep trance-like sleep: subsequently she described participation in an abduction. Jenny Randles, who investigated, concluded, "There is every reason to assume that these experiences were not objectively real, but were psychic in nature." (Randles 1981)<br />
<br />
Yet there is no reason to question the honesty of the witnesses who claimed these experiences: here again, their ostensible reality was totally convincing to the individual.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The question of communication</b></span><br />
<br />
Every one of these case histories involves a single individual, without corroboration of any kind. What makes the Hillsâ case uniquely impressive is that Barney and Betty tell essentially the same story under hypnosis.
One way of looking at this would be to say that it was the Hillsâ exceptional good fortune that they had each other to provide corroboration: perhaps many if not all of these other experiencers might have found corroboration if their experience had not taken place when they were alone. That is certainly a possibility, though we must bear in mind that there are tens of thousands of single-witness cases for each collective case, and that many collective cases are of questionable authenticity.<br />
<br />
Alternatively, we should consider the possibility that the shared quality of the Hillsâ experience may point equally effectively against its being a real experience: that the very fact that Betty's story is corroborated by Barney is an argument against its basis in fact. Fuller makes a significant observation when he tells us "after the first sessions with Barney, Dr Simon began to assume that the illusions and fantasies were his - and that Betty had absorbed them from him. But with the completion of Bettyâs second trance, it appeared that the reverse of the doctorâs initial assumption might be true. If the total experience were not true, a dream of fantasy initiated by Betty might have been absorbed by Barney, who appeared to be more suggestible." (Fuller 1966: 191)<br />
<br />
In fact, he tells us "Dr Simon noted that the things Barney experienced in the abduction portion of the incident were in Bettyâs story. On the other hand, very little of Bettyâs abduction sequence was included in his story. His recall of being taken through the woods was vague compared to hers. The details of the examination aboard the craft were much more extensive in Bettyâs story than in his."<br />
<br />
Karl Pflock has pointed out that Simon was in error when he gave the impression that everything in Barney's narration can be found in Betty's: "There's a good deal of important material in Barney's recollections that doesn't appear in Betty's". [personal communication] None the less, Betty's narrative was sufficiently richer than Barney's that Simon could arrive at his estimate of the process which probably took place.
The question of contagion in human behaviour is a complex one which has been insufficiently explored. If we knew more about it we would be better able to interpret multiple-witness cases.<br />
<br />
The phenomenon known as <i>folie Ă deux</i>, though well known, is not well understood: a substantial number of well-attested ghost sightings are multiple in nature, but the mechanism of collective hallucination is as uncertain as the nature of ghosts themselves. The authors of the Society for Psychical Researchâs landmark study of apparitions were convinced that this could be explained - as could the apparitions themselves - by telepathy, (Gurney, Myers and Podmore 1886) though most researchers today would consider that this explanation is over-simplistic. Be that as it may, there is little doubt that what takes place in such cases is either some form of extra-sensory communication, or some psychological process as yet unidentified which successfully transcends normal modes of communication. If the matter were better understood, we would find it easier to tease out the process which led from the Hills' experience, first to Betty's dreams, then to their independent recall. As it is, we can only speculate, balancing the probabilities.<br />
<br />
As suggested above, some degree of open discussion of Bettyâs dreams must surely have taken place between herself and Barney, if only for him to reach the conclusion that they were "nonsense". It is hard to believe the subject would be dropped, never again to be raised between them throughout the months that followed - months, donât let us forget, when the couple were making repeated excursions into the New Hampshire countryside in search of topographical confirmation of their experience: the need to understand the experience led to the need to substantiate it, and the search for the geographical location was a primary requirement. But even though their efforts were directed at something as down-to-earth as the here or there of the experience, we must bear in mind that those efforts were directed towards finding the location of events for which there was no evidence outside Bettyâs dreams. This is to say that, even if we accept that it was tacitly agreed between them that the dream-scenario should not be openly discussed, that scenario must none the less have been in the back, if not the forefront, of their minds, since it was the only scenario they had, and thus was the only starting-point for their repeated car searches of the New Hampshire countryside.<br />
<br />
My use of words "surely" and "must" underline the fact that this can only be speculation: but it is essential to appreciate the psychological context in which those searches took place.<br />
<br />
Dr Simon himself seems to have recognised that the least improbable alternative was "that an actual experience had taken place on a sensitised background. A background existed on which could be imprinted illusions or fantasies, later to be re-experienced in dreams." (Fuller 1966: 190: these appear to be Fullerâs words, though based on his interview with Dr Simon)<br />
<br />
In considering what might constitute "a sensitised background" we run up against a crucial issue which divides the proponents of a psychosocial explanation for the UFO phenomenon from those who find the extraterrestrial hypothesis more probable. (For fuller discussion of these contrasting views, see Clark 1998: 749; Evans 1997; Evans 2001; Magonia, passim) Several researchers, notably MĂ©heust, (MĂ©heust 1978; 1985; 1992) and Meurger (Meurger 1995) have demonstrated the pre-conditioning created by the literature of science-fiction, folklore and suchlike cultural influences. Opponents have responded by pointing out that only a negligible fraction of flying saucer witnesses would be likely to have read pre-1939 popular fiction. Yet despite this objection, it seems unquestionable that cultural contamination does indeed take place: this is supported by the fact that there is no aspect of the flying saucer phenomenon which was not foreseen by the American pulps of the 1920s/1930s. (Evans 1993: 4 et seq) It is noteworthy that some of the details of the Hillsâ encounter - notably the long-nosed, uniform-wearing aliens described by Betty (though not by Barney) - seem closer to <i>Amazing Stories</i> than to todayâs "greys".<br />
<br />
So, when Dr Simon suggests that "a background existed" onto which the Hills could impose their own personal encounter, he is not implying any out-of-the-way predisposition, but noting that no one, in America in 1961, could have escaped cultural contamination to the extent of being unaware of the possibility of alien visitation, or without having acquired some subconscious ideas regarding what form the aliens, and any encounter with them, would take. The experiments of Lawson and McCall (Lawson 1983: 8), even though some researchers dispute their conclusions, provide ample demonstration of how firmly the abduction scenario is implanted in the minds of people who claim no interest in the subject, serving as the basis for fantasy "memories" whose only substance must be what has been more or less subconsciously picked up from their cultural milieu.<br />
<br />
Despite his insistence that he was indifferent to UFOs, and that he and Betty had not talked about them for four years previous to their encounter, Barney could hardly have reacted to their sighting as strongly as he did unless he felt he knew what UFOs are and what harm they might do to Betty and himself. His actions in the course of the sighting point not only to a strong awareness of UFOs, but also to a strong fear - hence his sustained efforts to deny that it was a UFO at all, his determination to hide from Betty that he is scared, his feeling that he must get a weapon.
His fear at the time seems in marked contrast to his subsequent indifference.<br />
<br />
This indifference may well be, as Karl Pflock has suggested [personal communication], a psychological defence position, adopted to conceal an underlying fear beneath a cloak of rationalisation. None the less it remains a fact that, throughout, it is Betty who takes the initiative - it is she who goes to the library to find Keyhoeâs book and who writes to him, it is she who suggests the return trips to the encounter location and so on. Barney is presented as always reluctant, going along with Betty against his own feelings, and dismissing her dreams as nonsense.<br />
<br />
Moreover, the dream-scenario is largely, and probably entirely, Bettyâs handiwork. Her dreams, written up at an unspecified date, are given coherence only when she edits them into a sequential narrative. Her statement "I will attempt to tell my dreams in chronological order, although they were not dreamed in this way. In fact the first dream told was the last one dreamed," (Fuller 1966: 333) is extremely significant, for it implies an awareness that the dreams represent a sequence of events, a sequence which adds up to a plausible narrative. This could indicate a subconscious knowledge that the dreams are factual: but equally it could be her subconscious at work, persuading her to impose order on a jumble of dream incidents.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The recall </b></span><br />
<br />
The most remarkable element in the entire Hill case is that both witnesses, under hypnosis, should recall substantially the same events. But another feature is also worthy of remark: that both Betty and Barney should respond in the same way to hypnosis. Both recall a sequence of events seemingly devoid of fabulation. If they were indeed both recalling true fact, it is remarkable that they should both do so, given that most people introduce fantasy into hypnosis. To have one veridical recaller is unusual enough, to have two is remarkable.
On the other hand, if they were both recounting a fantasy, the fact that both narrated the same fantasy would be consistent with psychological experience.<br />
<br />
Material learnt in one altered state of consciousness can be forgotten in the normal state, but recalled when again in an ASC, as this trivial anecdote illustrates:
An Irish porter to a warehouse, in one of his drunken fits, left a parcel at the wrong house, and when sober could not recollect what he had done with it; but the next time he got drunk, he recollected where he had left it, and went and recovered it. (Macnish 78)<br />
<br />
The fact that both the Hills recall substantially the same events, and recall them as lived experience, proves nothing either way: it can be used to support either the veridical or the fantasy hypothesis. Indeed, the same is true of each of the paradoxes presented by their story.
Setting the Hillsâ adventure alongside other extraordinary experiences does not resolve the matter. However, it enables us to see that there exists in every one of us a faculty for mythmaking - that is, combining material derived from the individualâs cultural framework with other material with personal content, to create an authorised yet made-to-measure myth.<br />
<br />
Each of us, given the appropriate circumstances, could find ourselves living a fantasy with the total conviction that we are really experiencing the events we are actually imagining, or recalling imagined experiences with such vividness that we are convinced they took place in reality.
Is this what happened to the Hills? We cannot say for sure, and perhaps we never will be able to say. But at least, by seeing their story alongside other stories, we can see that the dream-fantasy scenario envisaged by Dr Simon is a possible one. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: left;"><b>From Magonia Supplement No. 58 10 August 2005.</b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
References </div>
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</div>
<ul>
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<li style="text-align: left;">Basterfield, Keith. 1992. "Present at the abduction" in International UFO Reporter, volume 17: 3, May/June </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Bowen, Charles. 1977. "Saucer Central, International" in UFO Report volume 5, number 1, New York, November 1977 </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Brookesmith, Peter. 1998. Alien Abductions. London: Blandford </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Bullard, Thomas E. 1987. UFO Abductions: The Measure of a Mystery. Bloomington, Indiana: Fund for UFO Research </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Clark, Jerome. 1998. UFO Encyclopedia. (2nd edition): Omnigraphics, âPsychosocial hypothesisâ </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Conroy, Ed. 1989. Report on "Communion". New York: Morrow </li>
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<li style="text-align: left;">Evans, Hilary. 1987. Gods, Spirits, Cosmic Guardians. Wellingborough: Aquarian </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Evans, Hilary. 1989. Alternate States of Consciousness. Wellingborough: Aquarian </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Evans, Hilary. 1993. "Lo real y lo ficticio en el relato OVNI" in Cuadernos de Ufologia, no 15, Santander (Spain) </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Evans, Hilary. 1997. "A Twentieth-century myth" in Evans, Hilary and Stacy, Dennis. UFO 1947-1997. London: Fortean Times </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Evans, Hilary. 2001. "The psychosocial approach" in Story, Ronald. The Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters. New York: Penguin Putnam </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Fuller, John G. 1966. The Interrupted Journey. New York: Dial Press </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Gurney, Edmund, Myers, F W H, and Podmore, Frank. 1886. Phantasms of the Living. London: Trubner </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Hill, Betty. 1995. A Common-sense Approach to UFOs. Private </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Hopkins, Budd. 1987. Intruders. New York : Random House </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Hough, Peter and Randles, Jenny. 1991. Looking for the Aliens. London: Blandford </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Hufford, David J. 1982. The Terror That Comes in the Night. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Janet, Pierre. 1926. De lâangoisse Ă lâextase. Paris: Alcan </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Kroll, J and Bachrach, B. 1982. "Visions and psychopathology in the Middle Ages" in Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, volume 170.1 </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Lawson, Alvin H. 1983. "The hypnosis of imaginary UFO abductees" in Journal of UFO Studies number 1 </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Lindner, Robert. 1954. The Fifty-Minute Hour. New York: Delta </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Macnish, Robert. 1834. The Philosophy of Sleep. London: Appleton </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Magonia, London, journal. passim </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">MĂ©heust, Bertrand. 1978. Science-fiction et soucoupes volantes. Paris: Mercure de France </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">MĂ©heust, Bertrand. 1985. Soucoupes volantes et folklore. Paris: Mercure de France </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">MĂ©heust, Bertrand. 1992. En soucoupes volantes. Paris: Imago </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Meurger, Michel. 1995. Alien abduction: lâenlĂšvement extraterrestre de la fiction Ă la croyance. Amiens: Encrage (numĂ©ro 1 volume 1 of the collection </li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><i>Interface </i>edited by Joseph Altairac for Scientifictions) </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">OâBrien, Barbara. 1958. Operators and Things. Cranbury, NJ: A S Barnes </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Proceedings of the Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation, 1981: Laramie, Wyoming: 104 </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Proceedings of the Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation, 1982: 105 </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Randles, Jenny. 1988. Abduction. London: Hale </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Randles, Jenny. 1981. Alien contact. Suffolk: Neville Spearman </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Rogo, D Scott. 1980. UFO Abductions. Signet : New York </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Schatzmann, Morton. 1980. The Story of Ruth. New York: Putnam </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Schnabel, Jim. 1993. "The MĂŒnch bunch" in Fortean Times, 70. London: August 1993 </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Siegel, Ronald K. 1992. Fire in the Brain. New York: Dutton </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Sieveking, Paul. 1999. Fortean Times 118. London: January 1999 </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Spina. 1523. Quaestio de strigibus Venezia translated in Harner, Michael J. <i>Hallucinogens and Shamanism. </i>New York: Oxford University Press, 1973 </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Strieber, Whitley. 1987. Communion. New York: Morrow </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Strieber, Whitley. 1987 (2). Press release issued with Communion New York: Morrow, May 1987 </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Sulman, Felix Gad. 1980. The effect of air ionization, electric fields, atmospherics and other electric phenomena on man and animal. Springfield : Charles C Thomas </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Wier, Jean. 1560. <i>Histoires, disputes et discours des illusions et impostures des diables &c., </i>originally published in German, translated Paris: Bureaux de Progres MĂ©dical, 188</li>
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<b>From Magonia Supplement No. 58, 10 August 2005.</b></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-7933139151886757282015-02-04T09:17:00.000-08:002020-06-28T07:23:04.257-07:00Nazi UFO Mythos, Part One<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvNQcKCfsTKsIgobC8gtIquTF4fC33ZsO1Yb3p0hhztgfLG9R0cmZqJJp7MJJh602OuX58rgk-KOBKY4YD0G0X46_YsCFAK4myT5T6juA6iCzyS4AJj5Y6HyfqzTB9yGoy8KxCGTKl3v0/s1600/nazi+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="198" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvNQcKCfsTKsIgobC8gtIquTF4fC33ZsO1Yb3p0hhztgfLG9R0cmZqJJp7MJJh602OuX58rgk-KOBKY4YD0G0X46_YsCFAK4myT5T6juA6iCzyS4AJj5Y6HyfqzTB9yGoy8KxCGTKl3v0/s200/nazi+1.jpg" width="100" /></a><b><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">THE NAZI UFO MYTHOS, AN INVESTIGATION BY KEVIN McCLURE</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: blue;">PART ONE: INTRODUCTION AND SECTIONS 1 TO 5</span></b><br />
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<!--more-->The following is, essentially, the article published under the title âPhoney Warfareâ in <em>Fortean Studies</em> 7. Having allowed a decent interval for those who had intended to buy Fortean Studies to do so, Iâm happy to have it appear on the Magonia site so that it can reach a wider â and undoubtedly discerning â audience.
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The relationship between the history of the paranormal, and the âconsensusâ history that most of us, informed by historians and the mainstream media, agree on as real, is usually pretty distant. Forteanism could be said to lie somewhere between these two histories, in that it notes the allegedly factual, but possibly anomalous accounts recorded in the media of âconsensusâ history, while often rejecting the âconsensusâ explanations given for dismissing the strangeness of those events, and the rationale and reasoning adopted in doing so. Fort was lucky to live and work before the worst excesses of Ufology and the New Age appeared. His method of approaching existing, already-recorded facts with an open and wide-ranging mind would often have been thwarted by the sheer lack of facts, and the predominance of imaginary elements, in both of those disciplines. He was generally able â and willing â to trust the reports his research uncovered. To take that approach now would invite ridicule.</div>
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The investigations Iâve set about during the last twenty-odd years usually had their origins in my unease at the wild interpretations being made of reports which had never been properly researched. The âEgryn Lightsâ of evangelist Mary Jones and others were being turned into evidence for the âearthlightsâ lobby. The Fatima visions and the âDance of the Sunâ were becoming a âclassic UFO eventâ, artificially extending the history of the UFO thirty years back before 1947. The âAngels of Monsâ legends, in contrast, were being too readily debunked. The usual sceptical explanation was too trite, and I think mistaken.</div>
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Similarly, most of my research has been in areas where, although the phenomena in question has been visible â audible, tangible even â to certain individuals, its visibility has been selective. There was always room for a debate about why certain persons subjectively perceive extraordinary sights, and events, and information, while others do not. The situation here, where vast metal disks were meant to be thundering across the European skies before the summer of 1945, is completely different. They were either there or they werenât.</div>
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What prompted me to start questioning the accepted wisdom about âNazi UFOsâ was that awful period in Fortean history, two or three years ago, when newsstand magazines of limited quality and dubious intentions blossomed all over the UK. In addition to FT itself and âUFO Magazineâ, suddenly there was Alien Encounters, Sightings, UFO Reality and all sorts of other, short-lived titles, all struggling to fill their pages with startling and saleable material. Rotten writers started submitting articles half-heartedly strung together from a handful of second-hand sources, and a couple of hours on the Internet. The publishers accepted these articles with open arms and small amounts of money, and old myths were revived and new myths born. Among them were myths based around the creation and flight of Nazi UFOs.</div>
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The more I looked at the emerging tales of astounding Nazi technical achievement, and compared them with Germanyâs ignominious and ruinous defeat, the less sense that contradiction made. It isnât â and I know I need to make this clear â that Iâm asserting that the Axis had no plans, designs, or hopes for the production of high-performance flying disks. Nazi Germany was good at plans, and designs, and â perhaps fortunately for the rest of the world â wasted much time on speculation, and dreams of achievement and power. But it looks as though no high-performance disc so much as left the ground, and if that proposition is true then the Nazi UFO mythos, now celebrating a half-century of vigorous existence, is the most sustained, widespread, complex and multi-faceted hoax ever contrived in our field. A hoax, strangely enough, in which few of the principal participants even knew each other, but which has attracted hundreds to play their part in its development and many, many more individuals to believe that some or all of its claims are true. Tentative as some of my findings of fact may be as yet, what is published here is what Iâve established so far.</div>
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This is not a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Like all the best myths it starts when somebody either thought of it, or first recounted publicly a pre-existing tale. It looked to the past to find support for its claims and then, as time went on, spiralled out of control as further elements were added. My intention in setting out this âfirst investigationâ of the Nazi UFO mythos is to make available, in one place, the principal sources for all of the reports and claims that seem relevant and of which â of course â Iâm aware. Iâm sure there will be more. I make no pretence of having done all this work myself, or of having any kind of monopoly on the subject. If others want to use this piece as a basis for pursuing their own research, Iâll be more than pleased. If Iâve quoted or adopted anyone elseâs work without crediting it, please accept my apologies.</div>
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Iâll start by giving a substantial overview of what is probably the only genuine unsolved mystery in all of the speculation about wartime aeronautical technology. This is the first of five specific âcoresâ of key material that Iâve concluded lie at the heart of the mythos. Having set those cores out first, Iâll deal with many of the other contributors to the development of the mythos, both deliberate and unplanned. One brief explanation in advance â while Iâve almost certainly made errors of my own in translation, and the names of people and places, Iâve generally refrained from correcting the spelling and grammar of quoted material. Sometimes, style and presentation conveys almost as much as content!</div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><strong>01: Foo Fighters - A Red (and Yellow, and Blue) Herring</strong></span></div>
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The âfoo fighterâ phenomenon seems to have been so named after a wartime US comic strip which featured a character called Smokey Stover, whose catchphrase was âwhere thereâs foo thereâs fireâ. No doubt this seemed funny at the time, but it is in giving a memorable and appealing name to a very disparate, and under-researched, range of reports of aerial light phenomena that Stover has found lasting fame. Without that name, such different reports might never have been linked together.</div>
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In a way, the âfoo fighterâ evidence doesnât help us much. It is reasonably clear that whatever was seen, the accounts are seldom, if ever, of solid, metal objects. Many of them actually come from the skies over Japan and other Far East countries. Nonetheless, reports of the existence and behaviour of the âfoo fightersâ over Europe during the war underpin key strands of the âNazi UFOâ mythos, and while this canât be the thorough examination that the subject deserves to receive one day, any investigation has to start somewhere. I can claim particularly little credit for the research into foo fighters which, effectively, sets the scene for my own research into the more exotic world of the Nazi UFO, but I hope that by setting it out here, it will become more accessible, and will eventually be seen in its proper â very distant â relationship to later claims of wartime flying disk development.</div>
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Two thorough and credible researchers have investigated the wartime âfoo fighterâ phenomenon. One is the UK researcher and ufological iconoclast Andy Roberts, and the other is US folklore graduate Jeff Lindell. Both have, helpfully, published summaries of their material on the net, and it would be fair comment to say that they have reached somewhat different conclusions. Before turning to their more careful analysis, and ignoring the dubious material presented in post-war editions of Ray Palmerâs largely fictional Amazing Stories , it is first worth considering the key, popular article on the subject which, as Roberts comments, âforms the substance of almost every piece written on the subject of foo-fightersâ. It appeared in the American Legion Magazine for December 1945, one with which Renato Vesco â who had worked in the USA â was familiar, but the German Rudolf Lusar, apparently, was not.</div>
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The article was titled âThe Foo Fighter Mysteryâ, and was written by one Jo Chamberlin. This account is enlivened with contemporary âquotesâ from the witnesses, making it that much more immediate and appealing. It begins with an account of reports from Japan, apparently after Germany had been defeated . . .</div>
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During the last months of the war the crews of many B-29s over Japan saw what they described as âballs of fireâ which followed them, occasionally came up and almost sat on their tails, changed color from orange to red to white and back again, and yet never closed in to attack or crash, suicide-style . . </blockquote>
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âThe balls of fire continue to be a mystery â just as they were when first observed on the other side of the world â over eastern Germany. This is the way they began.</blockquote>
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At ten oâclock of a November evening, in late 1944, Lt. Ed Schlueter took off in his night fighter from Dijon, France, on what he thought would be a routine mission for the 415th Night Fighter Squadron. Lt. Schlueter is a tall, competent young pilot from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, whose hazardous job was to search the night sky for German planes and shoot them down. He had done just this several times and had been decorated for it. As one of our best night fighters, he was used to handling all sorts of emergencies. With him as radar observer was Lt. Donald J. Meiers, and Lt. Fred Ringwald, intelligence officer of the 415th, who flew as an observer.</blockquote>
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The trio began their search pattern, roaming the night skies on either side of the Rhine River north of Strasbourg â for centuries the abode of sirens, dwarfs, gnomes, and other supernatural characters that appealed strongly to the dramatic sense of the late A. Hitler. However, at this stage of the European war, the Rhine was no stage but a grim battleground, where the Germans were making their last great stand. The night was reasonably clear, with some clouds and a quarter moon. There was fair visibility.</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "times";"></span> In some respects, a night fighter plane operates like a champion boxer whose eyesight isnât very good; he must rely on other senses to guide him to his opponent. The U. S. Army has ground radar stations, which track all planes across the sky, and tell the night fighter the whereabouts of any plane. The night fighter flies there, closes in by means of his own radar until usually he can see the enemy, and if the plane doesnât identify itself as friendly, he shoots it down. Or, gets shot down himself, for the Germans operate their aircraft in much same way we did, and so did the Japanese.</blockquote>
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Lt. Schlueter was flying low enough that he could detect the white steam of a blacked-out locomotive or the sinister bulk of a motor convoy, but he had to avoid smokestacks, barrage balloons, enemy searchlights, and flak batteries. He and Ringwald were on the alert, for there were mountains nearby.</blockquote>
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The inside of the plane was dark, for good night vision. Lt. Ringwald said, </blockquote>
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âI wonder what those lights are, over there in the hills.â </blockquote>
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âProbably stars,â said Schlueter, knowing from long experience that the size and character of lights are hard to estimate at night.</blockquote>
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âNo, I donât think so.â</blockquote>
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âAre you sure itâs no reflection from us?â</blockquote>
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âIâm positive.â</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "times";"></span> Then Ringwald remembered â there werenât any hills over there. Yet the âlightsâ were still glowing â eight or ten of them in a row â orange balls of fire moving through the air at a terrific speed. Then Schlueter saw them far off his left wing. Were enemy fighters pursuing him? He immediately checked by radio with Allied ground radar stations.</blockquote>
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âNobody up there but yourself.â they reported. âAre you crazy?â</blockquote>
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And no enemy plane showed in Lt. Meiersâ radar.</div>
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Lt. Schlueter didnât know what he was facing â possibly some new and lethal German weapon â but he turned into the lights, ready for action. The lights disappeared â then reappeared far off. Five minutes later they went into a flat glide and vanished.</div>
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The puzzled airmen continued on their mission, and destroyed seven freight trains behind German lines. When they landed back at Dijon, they decided to do what any other prudent soldier would do â keep quiet for the moment. If you tried to explain everything strange that happened in a war, youâd do nothing else. Further, Schlueter and Meiers had nearly completed their required missions, and didnât want to chance being grounded by some skeptical flight surgeon for âcombat fatigue.â Maybe they had been âseeing things.â</div>
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But a few nights later, Lt. Henry Giblin, of Santa Rosa, California, pilot, and Lt. Walter Cleary, of Worcester, Massachusetts, radar-observer, were flying at 1,000 feet altitude when they saw a huge red light 1,000 feet above them, moving at 200 miles per hour. As the observation was made on an early winter evening, the men decided that perhaps they had eaten something at chow that didnât agree with them and did not rush to report their experience.</div>
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On December 22-23, 1944, another 415th night fighter squadron pilot and radar-observer were flying at 10,000 feet altitude near Hagenau. âAt 0600 hours we saw two lights climbing toward us from the ground. Upon reaching our altitude, they leveled off and stayed on my tail. The lights appeared to be large orange glows. After staying with the plane for two minutes, they peeled off and turned away, flying under perfect control, and then went out.â</div>
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The next night the same two men, flying at 10,000 feet, observed a single red flame. Lt. David L. McFalls, of Cliffside, N. C., pilot, and Lt. Ned Baker of Hemat, California, radar-observer, also saw: âA glowing red object shooting straight up, which suddenly changed to a view of an aircraft doing a wing-over, going into a dive and disappearing.â This was the first and only suggestion of a controlled flying device.</div>
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By this time, the lights were reported by all members of the 415th who saw them. Most men poked fun at the observers, until they saw for themselves. Although confronted with a baffling situation, and one with lethal potentialities, the 415th continued its remarkable combat record. When the writer of this article visited and talked with them in Germany, he was impressed with the obvious fact that the 415th fliers were very normal airmen, whose primary interest was combat, and after that came pin-up girls, poker, doughnuts, and the derivatives of the grape.</div>
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The 415th had a splendid record. The whole outfit took the mysterious lights or balls of fire with a sense of humor. Their reports were received in some higher quarters with smiles: âSure, you must have seen something, and have you been getting enough sleep?â One day at chow a 415th pilot suggested that they give the lights a name. A reader of the comic strip âSmokey Stoverâ suggested that they be called âfoo-fighters,â since it was frequently and irrefutably stated in that strip that âWhere thereâs foo, thereâs fire.â The name stuck.</div>
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What the 415th saw at night was borne out in part by da</div>
y. West of Neustadt, a P-47 pilot saw âa gold-colored ball, with a metallic finish, which appeared to be moving slowly through the air. As the sun was low, it was impossible to tell whether the sun reflected off it, or the light came from within.â Another P-47 pilot reported âa phosphorescent golden sphere, 3 to 5 feet in diameter, flying at 2,000 feet.â<br />
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Meanwhile, official reports of the âfoo-fightersâ had gone to group headquarters and were ânoted.â Now in the Army, when you ânoteâ anything it means that you neither agree nor disagree, nor do you intend to do anything about it. It covers everything. Various explanations were offered for the phenomena â none of them satisfactory, and most of them irritating to the 415th. It was said that the foo-fighters might be a new kind of flare. A flare, said the 415th, does not dive, peel off, or turn. Were they to frighten or confuse Allied pilots?</div>
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Well, if so, they were not succeeding â and yet the lights continued to appear. Eighth Air Force bomber crews had reported seeing silver-colored spheres resembling huge Christmas tree ornaments in the sky â what about them? Well, the silver spheres usually floated, and never followed a plane. They were presumably some idea the Germans tried in the unsuccessful effort to confuse our pilots or hinder our radar bombing devices.</div>
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What about jet planes? No, the Germans had jet planes all right, but they didnât have an exhaust flame visible at any distance. Could they be flying bombs of some sort, either with or without a pilot? Presumably not â with but one exception no one thought he observed a wing or fuselage. Weather balloons? No, the 415th was well aware of their behavior. They ascended almost vertically, and eventually burst.</div>
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Could the lights or balls of fire be the red, blue, and orange colored flak bursts that Eighth Air Force bomber crews had reported? It was a nice idea, said the 415th, but there was no correlation between the foo-fighters they observed and the flak they encountered. And night flak was usually directed by German radar, not visually. In short, no explanation stood up.</div>
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On Dec. 31, 1944, AP reporter Bob Wilson, was with the 415th and heard about the foo-fighters. He questioned the men until 4 a.m. in the best newspaper tradition until he got all the facts. His story passed the censors, and appeared in American newspapers on January 1, 1945, just in time to meet the customary crop of annual hangovers. Some scientists in New York decided, apparently by remote control, that what the airmen had seen in Germany was St. Elmoâs light â a well-known electrical phenomenon appearing like light or flame during stormy weather at the tips of church steeples, shipsâ masts, and tall trees. Being in the nature of an electrical discharge, St. Elmoâs fire is reddish when positive, and blueish when negative. The 415th blew up. It was thoroughly acquainted with St. Elmoâs fire. The men snorted, âJust let the sons come over and fly a mission with us. Weâll show em.â</div>
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Through January, 1945, the 415th continued to see the âfoo-fighters,â and their conduct became increasingly mysterious. One aircrew observed lights, moving both singly and in pairs. On another occasion, three sets of lights, this time red and white in color, followed a plane, and when the plane suddenly pulled up, the lights continued on in the same direction, as though caught napping, and then sheepishly pulled up to follow. The pilot checked with ground radar â he was alone in the sky. This was true in every instance foo-fighters were observed.</div>
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The first real clue came with the last appearance of the exasperating and potentially deadly lights. They never kept 415th from fulfilling its missions, but they certainly were unnerving. The last time the foo-fighters appeared, the pilot turned into them at the earliest possible moment â and the lights disappeared. The pilot was sure that he felt prop wash, but when he checked with ground radar, there was no other airplane.</div>
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The pilot continued on his way, perturbed, even angry â when he noticed lights far to the rear. The night was clear and the pilot was approaching a huge cloud. Once in the cloud, he dropped down two thousand feet and made a 30 degree left turn. Just a few seconds later be emerged from the cloud â with his eye peeled to rear. Sure enough, coming out of the cloud in the same relative position was the foo-fighter, as though to thumb its nose at the pilot, and then disappear. This was the last time the foo-fighters were seen in Germany, although it would have seemed fitting, if the lights had made one last gesture, grouping themselves so as to spell âGuess Whatâ in the sky, and vanishing forever.</div>
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But they didnât. The foo-fighters simply disappeared when Allied ground forces captured the area East of the Rhine. This was known to be the location of many German experimental stations. Since V-E day our Intelligence officers have put many such installations under guard. From them we hope to get valuable research information â including the solution to the foo-fighter mystery, but it has not appeared yet. It may be successfully hidden for years to come, possibly forever. The members of the 415th hope Army Intelligence will find the answer. If it turns out that the Germans never had anything airborne in the area, they say, âWeâll be all set for Section Eight psychiatric discharges.â</div>
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Meanwhile, the foo-fighter mystery continues unsolved. The lights, or balls of fire, appeared and disappeared on the other side of the world, over Japan â and your guess as to what they were is just as good as mine, for nobody really knows.â [8]</div>
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Had this article not been published, then we would probably have heard little more about this unusual range of events, in different times, in different places, which has been gathered together under the foo-fighter name. Fortunately, others have gone on to gather more accurate, less dramatised accounts, and to make informed judgments about the possible causes underlying the reports.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Andy Roberts</span></strong></div>
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Andy Roberts is a seasoned UK researcher with a reputation for unravelling seemingly complex cases. He went out and found a number of first-hand experiencers
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âI wrote to every air-related magazine in the UK with a request for information from ex-aircrew. To date I have had some thirty replies from pilots and crew detailing their experiences with strange balls of light (incidentally not one of them knew them by the name âfoo-fighters,â or any other name for that matter).</div>
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Official confirmation of wartime phenomena was not so easy to come by</blockquote>
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âMy research so far with the RAF/MOD/PRO in the UK has drawn a total blank regarding official documentation and investigation of the subject, as have preliminary investigations in the USA. UFO skeptics will of course say that this is because it doesnât exist, proponents, especially cover-up buffs, will say it is because it is being kept secret.</blockquote>
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The simple facts are that if documentation does exist in the UK I am unlikely to be able to get at it easily because of our archaic procedures for obtaining any government documents. We are not blessed by a FOI Act as is the USA, and obtaining any document depends on whether a department can be bothered to answer your letters or if so, can be bothered to undertake a meaningful search of their records. The situation is further complicated by the fact that many records in our Public Records Office are hard to locate due to how it is organised and furthermore are subject to ârulesâ such as the 30 year rule whereby information is not available for 30 years from date of classification. Worse still many W.W.II records are languishing under a 75 year rule for reasons I have not yet fathomed! In addition to this fact I have spoken to some ex-wartime RAF intelligence people in the UK and they claim no knowledge of the phenomena.â</blockquote>
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Roberts has a very low opinion of most âfoo fighterâ research. I fully support his view, which he illustrates by identifying one certain âfooâ hoax, and another probable one: these are summarised in the âFalse Historiesâ section, below. Yet Roberts is not entirely disillusioned by his discoveries, and concludes of the many apparently guileless reports of aerial lights that:</div>
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âOut of all this some clear facts are apparent. Hundreds of aircrew saw and recorded what we now call foo-fighters during W.W.II. There must be many thousands of ex-aircrew who have stories to tell. The problem is finding them and the odd ad. or article is only going to draw a few out and I have yet to attempt to get to American information from squadron survivors units etc. The situation regarding German information is further complicated by a language barrier but it is only a matter of time. </blockquote>
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I firmly believe that foo-fighters were a real, although non-solid phenomena and I reject the hallucination/misperception hypothesis almost entirely. These peopleâs lives depended on being able to see and identify aerial objects very quickly. One mistake and it was their last. Some crew have admitted misperceiving Venus etc., but realising it in seconds, and certainly not a whole crew being fooled for any length of time.â [9]</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>Jerr Lindell</strong></span>
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US folklorist Jeff A Lindell is a retired USAF electronic warfare systems analyst. He has conducted extensive interviews with airmen who witnessed light phenomena during WWII, and tends towards a rationalist explanation of all such reports, utilising the possible misinterpretation of different kinds of natural events. In his paper âThe Foo Fighter Mystery: Revisedâ in the context of historical accounts identified as âJack oâLanternâ and âWill oâ the Wispâ, he sets out some key âfoo fighterâ reports from earlier sources</div>
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âLet us proceed with the World War II version of this legend type. Early in October of 1944, pilots in the 422 Night Fighter Squadron (NFS), based out of Florennes, Belgium began to report âballs of lightâ pacing their fighters over Western Germany. By early November several 422nd pilots and radar operators had reported encounters with Me163 rocket fighters and Me262 jet fighters on night missions over the Reich. On the 7th of November of 1944 the Associated Press Corps in Paris released this statement:</blockquote>
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Paris (AP)â The Germans are using jet and rocket propelled planes and various other ânewfangledâ gadgets against Allied night fighters,â Lt. Col. B. Johnson, Natchitoches, La., commander of a P-61 Black Widow group, said today.â In recent nights weâve counted 15 to 20 jet planes,â Johnson said. âThey sometimes fly in formations of four, but more often they fly alone.â (The Day, New London, Connecticut, p.1).â</blockquote>
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In an interview with Philip Guba, Assistant Intelligence Officer of the 422 NFS, he states: </div>
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âAt first we thought they (the pilots) were seeing things, and they kept saying that these things were chasing them around. Whether they actually identified⊠not while I was on duty, they did not identify a jet as such. But I think that was the only conclusion we could reach⊠that was a jet. It could not have been a Will-oâ-wisp or something like that. What they reported seeing was simply the exhaust, you see. They did mention that these guys (the jets) seemed to play around with them. They did mention that these guys (the jets) never shot at them and I canât recall whether the Radar observer actually saw them on the screen. It was mostly visual in other words.â</blockquote>
Meanwhile, the 415th N.F.S. based out of Dijon France began to report the âballs of fireâ which they had affectionately dubbed, âfoo fighters.â On the 27th of November the first foo fighter was sighted over Western Germany by an Ed Schleuter and Don Meiers flying a Beaufighter, here is Donâs account:</div>
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âA foo fighter picked me up at 700 feet and chased me 20 miles down the Rhine Valley,â Meiers said. âI turned to starboard and two balls of fire turned with me. We were going 260 miles an hour and the balls were keeping right up with us. On another occasion when a foo fighter picked us up, I dived at 360 miles an hour. It kept right off our wing tips for awhile and then zoomed into the sky. When I first saw the things, I had the horrible thought that a German on the ground was ready to press a button and explode them. But they didnât explode or attack us. They just seem to follow us like the Will-oâ-the-wisp.â(N.Y. Times, 2 Jan.1945, p.1,4.)</blockquote>
Well, to complicate things even more, the 416th N.F.S. stationed in Pisa Italy also began to spot âfoo fightersâ in February of 1945. Here are some excerpts from the 416th NFSâ historical data and operations records respectively:</div>
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17 February 1945: âOur crews are beginning to report mysterious orange-red lights in the sky near La Spezia and also inland. These âfoo fightersâ have been pursued, but no one has been able to make contact. G.C.l. and intelligence profess to be mystified by these ghostly apparitions. The hypothesis that the foo-fighters are a post-cognac manifestation has been disproved. Even the teetotalers have observed the strange and mysterious foo-fighters which have also been observed in France and in Belgium.â (17 Feb.1945, 416th historical data. U.S. Army.) </blockquote>
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17 February 1945: âAt 21:30 saw reddish white light going off and on in spurts about 6 or 8 miles away, near La Spezia at 10,000 ft. going NE. chased it at 280 MPH for 11/2 minutes. It took erratic course and faded out. At 21:40 saw some type of light 10 miles South of La Spezia and it went North and turned East of La Spezia at 9000âČ. Faded near La Spezia. Pilot came within 5 miles of La Spezia, suspected Ack Ack trap. At 21:55,10 miles south of La Spezia chased another and it went across La Spezia and pilot followed. Faded 10 or 15 miles North of La Spezia. Our aircraft at 300 MPH couldnât catch it. No ack ack at La Spezia. At 22:50, 5 miles south of Pisa, saw same light from distance of 10 miles. Chased it for 2 or 2 1/2 minutes. It took north course, disappeared over Mt. this light 10,000âČ. Light described as glow that alternates between weak and bright. No contacts on Al (radar). Apparently no jamming.â (17 Feb.1945. Daily Operations Report, 416th NFS, 12th AF-SCU-01.) </blockquote>
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The above sighting was made by George Shultz and Frankie Robinson.â</blockquote>
Lindell presents a convincing case for accepting that whatever the cause of the reports, because of their low numbers and limited geographical range, Me163 rocket fighters and Me262 jet fighters were seldom responsible. He reports:</div>
Kurt Welter was appointed to form the first Me 262 Night Fighter test detachment (Erprobungs-Kommando) on 2 November of 1944. This was the only German Jet Night Fighting outfit in WWII and until the last week in February, Kurt Welter was the only pilot flying the Me 262 aircraft at night. Welterâs detachment did not become operational until mid-December of 1944 with only two Me 262 Al-aâs. His orders were to intercept the nightly assaults of Mosquito bombers hitting Berlin known as the âBerlin Express.â This allows Welter very little time to organize, recruit, equip and fly all of the missions which Allied pilots claim were flown. (From Hugh Morganâs âMe262, Stormbird Risingâ)<br />
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This still leaves us with the question of the Me 63 rocket fighter. The Second Squadron of Jagdgeschwader (JG) 400, the first and only Me 63 Combat Wing, was stationed at Venlo airfield in the Netherlands and saw limited action until it was withdrawn to the home wing in Brandis, south of Leipzig, in July of 1944. At Brandis, JG 400 saw itâs peak of operational performance on the 28th of September of 1944 when it was able to scramble 9 Me 63s in order to intercept an Allied day-light bombing raid. This rocket fighter was only used as a day interceptor for bombers, no records exist concerning the night testing of the Me 163 at the German experimental airfield, Estelle Retime, which is where all of the experimental aircraft were tested for night flying. (Morgan, Price, Ziegler.) Mano Zeigler who flew as one of the three chief test pilots assigned to Erprobungs-Kommando 16 and later a Rocket pilot in JG 400 commented on the practicability of flying such a nocturnal mission in a Me 63, âTrying to land in the dark youâd spread yourself in small pieces around the countryside!â (Ziegler p.113) This aircraft also had an effective combat radius of no more than 25 miles under perfect visual conditions and thus limited JG 400âČs operations to the Leipzig area for the duration of the war.â[10]</div>
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Lindell goes on to present information about later sightings of mysterious â and possibly responsive â lights in the Far East where, of course, the war continued after Germanyâs defeat. Interesting, and broadly similar, as that material is, it doesnât really form part of our investigation into the flight of high-performance German disks. His careful conclusions are, however, helpful. He admits to a fairly sceptical approach to the material, but conclusions drawn from such thorough research have considerable value. He says:</div>
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âAt this point it is of vital interest to relate the above terms with that of âaviatorâs vertigo.â In May of 1946, Dr W E Vinacke submitted the first ever report concerning folk beliefs among aviators concerning anomalous experiences associated with flying. In his report âThe Concept of Aviatorâs Vertigoâ, Vinacke states:</div>
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âVertigo is primarily a psychological problem. It appears to be associated with the mental hazards of flying, and with the âmysteriousâ events which sometimes happen in an aircraft. there is thus a two-fold source of emotional loading in the term âvertigoâ, ie dangerous conditions and unexplained, though actual, phenomena. (Vincacke p.2)</blockquote>
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In the pursuit of fairness I have also interviewed the same pilots periodically and concerning various topics involving nightflying. This effect has been significant. Pilots who never reported seeing foo fighters were asked if they had experienced vertigo. The vertigo stories could easily be classed as foo fighter stories. These persons tended to be either commanders or high ranking experienced night fighters. The point is that there are a wide variety of âconditionsâ in which a story can be recounted concerning an anomalous personal experience. Persons who had not seen foo fighters could offer no such similar experience other than a âmistaken identificationâ interpretation such as St.Elmoâs fire, jets, Venus, etc. Persons who had experienced âvisual-vertigoâ in night flying offered experiences which are, for all practical purposes, identical to first hand experience narratives concerning foo fighters, baka bombs, jets, Venus, balls of fire and the Jack-oâ-lantern. Edgar Vinacke writes,</div>
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âPilots do not have sufficient information about phenomena of disorientation, and, as a corollary, are given considerable disorganized, incomplete, and inaccurate information. They are largely dependent upon their own experience, which must supplement and interpret the traditions about âvertigoâ which are passed on to them. When a concept thus grows out of anecdotes cemented together with practical necessity, it is bound to acquire elements of mystery. So far as âvertigoâ is concerned, no one really knows more than a small part of the facts, but a great deal of the peril. Since aviators are not skilled observers of human behavior, they usually have only the vaguest understanding of their own feelings. Like other naive persons, therefore, they have simply adopted a term to cover a multitude of otherwise inexplicable events.â (Vinacke p.5.) [11]</blockquote>
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Surprisingly, this is probably the most thorough account of âfoo fighterâ reports yet published, and Iâve almost completely ignored the reports from outside the European theatre of war. There is an excellent book to be written about the whole âfoo fighterâ issue, which ideally would include the research conducted by both Andy Roberts and Jeff Lindell. I would strongly suggest, however, that none of the âfoo fighterâ evidence correlates in any objective manner with the later claims for the existence of high-performance flying disks.</div>
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A final point about âfoo fightersâ. There are various photos of planes seemingly accompanied by blobs of what may be light, or emulsion flaws, or tiny aircraft, or whatever. They are paraded periodically â Mark Ian Birdsall of the UK <em>UFO</em> magazine seems keen on them â as evidence of the physical reality of the phenomenon. To date, I have found no evidence of the specific provenance of any of these photos â who took them, on what date, where, with what camera, in what circumstances, and so on. In the case of the photo most commonly reproduced, it is not even clear what type of aircraft is shown. Others images look as if they might well have been manipulated. At present, these photos are evidence of nothing but the willingness to accept inadequate evidence to support an inadequately evidenced belief. Of course, if relevant provenance could be established, my opinion might well change.</div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><strong>02: Renato Vesco, Feuerball and Kugelblitz</strong></span><br />
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One individual â only partially aware that he was doing anything of the sort â turned the press reports of âfoo fightersâ into armed, controlled, high-performance flying discs. His name was Renato Vesco, an Italian who wrote three books in his own language, only one of which was translated into English. He also had an article published in the August 1969 edition of the US menâs magazine Argosy, which was probably little more than a hack writerâs rendering of material in the book. The article was titled Aerospace expert claims Flying Saucers are Canadaâs Secret Weapon, and in the introduction to the piece there first appears the statement which lies at the heart of the authority which Vesco has come to command over the years. It said:</div>
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Renato Vesco is a fully licensed aircraft engineer and a specialist in aerospace and ramjet developments. He attended the University of Rome and, before WWII, studied at the German Institute for Aerial Development. During the war, Vesco worked with the Germans at the Fiat Lake Garda secret installations in Italy. In the 1960s, he worked for the Italian Air Ministry of Defense as an undercover technical agent, investigating the UFO mystery.â [12]</div>
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It is in the context of this statement that many writers have first considered the material set out by Vesco in the first of his three books, often without having actually seen the book itself. Here are some key selections of what Vesco says about the supposed Feuerball and Kugelblitz in the paperback version of âIntercept UFOâ.</div>
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âanother center, run by Speer and the S.S. Technical General Staff, had adopted the idea of employing âproximity radio interferenceâ on the very much more delicate and hence more vulnerable electronic apparatuses of the American night fighters . . . Thus a highly original flying machine was born; it was circular and armored, more or less resembling the shell of a tortoise, and was powered by a special turbojet engine, also flat and circular, whose principles of operation recalled the well-known aeolipile of Hero, which generated a great halo of luminous flames. Hence it was named Feuerball (Fireball). It was unarmed and pilotless. Radio-controlled at the moment of take-off, it then automatically followed enemy aircraft, attracted by their exhaust flames, and approached close enough without collision to wreck their radio gear.</div>
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The fiery halo around its perimeter â caused by a very rich fuel mixture â and the chemical additives that interrupted the flow of electricity by overionising the atmosphere in the vicinity of the plane, generally around the wing tips or tail surfaces, subjected the H2S radar on the plane to the action of powerful electrostatic fields and electromagnetic impulses (the latter generated by large klystron radio tubes protected with special antishock and antiheat armor). Since a metal arc carrying an oscillating current of the proper frequency â equal, that is, to the frequency used by the radar station â can cancel the blips (return signals from the target), the Feuerball was almost undetectable by the most powerful American radar of the time, despite its nighttime visibility.</blockquote>
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In addition, the builders of the device hoped â and their hopes were fulfilled â that when the Allied flyers, not knowing their nature or purpose, noticed that the fiery balls were apparently harmless, they would not fire on these enormous-looking (because of their large halos of fire) âinoffensiveâ devices for fear of being caught in some gigantic explosion. More than one, in fact, as they fearfully watched those huge lights close in, the American pilots thought that some German technician on the ground was perhaps getting ready to push a button and cause the Foo Fighter to explode.</blockquote>
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Project Feuerball was first constructed at the aeronautical establishment at Wiener Neustadt, with the help of the Fluggfunk Forschungsanstalt of Oberpfaddenhoffen (F.F.O.) in so far as radio control of the missile was concerned (but was it really a missile?) One person who saw the first short test flights of the device, without its electrical gear, says that âduring the day it looked like a shining disc spinning on its axis and during the night it looked like a burning globeâ.</blockquote>
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Hermann Goring inspected the progress of the work a number of times, for he hoped, as in fact happened, that the mechanical principle could also later be used to produce an offensive weapon capable of revolutionising the whole field of aerial warfare.</blockquote>
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When the Russians began to press on toward Austria, the construction of the first Fireballs was apparently continued by a number of underground plants in the Schwarzwald that were run by the Zeppelin Werke. The klystron tubes were supplied by the section of the Forschungsanstalt der Deutschen Reichpost (F.D.R.P.) of Aach bei Radolfzell on Lake Constance, and later also by the F.D.R.P. section of Gehlberg, whose products, however, were not as perfect as those delivered by the F.D.R.P., a fact that caused a number of Fireballs to be used simultaneously in formation.â [13]</blockquote>
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Expressly identifying the reports of aerial lights known in some parts of the US Air Force as âfoo fightersâ as being evidence of the amazing, hitherto and hereafter unheard of secret weapon he called the Feuerball, Vesco sets out some more technical details:</div>
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âThe Foo Fighters did contain a strong explosive charge to destroy them in flight in case serious damage to the automatic guidance system made it impossible for the operators to control it. It seems, however, that during the time they were last seen, at least one American flyer opened fire on a Foo Fighter from a safe distance without succeeding in shooting it down, although he had it well within his sights. A convincing detail, this, especially in view of the fact that under the armored covering of the Foo Fighters there was a thin sheet of aluminum attached to it (but electrically insulated) that acted as a switch. When a bullet pierced the outer covering, contact between the two sheets was established and the consequent closing of the circuit that operated the maximum acceleration device of the craft (generally in a vertical direction) caused the Foo Fighter to fly off, taking it out of the range of further enemy fire.â [14]</div>
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Now and then, Vesco includes references which support his claims, but he never does so with regard to the Feuerball. Letâs analyse what he is actually saying here, and what sense (if any) it makes, because, thanks to Vesco, and Vesco alone, we know that this device designed to achieve âproximity radio interferenceâ</div>
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<ul>
<li>was circular and armored, more or less resembling the shell of a tortoise</li>
</ul>
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<li>was âenormous-lookingâ</li>
<li>during the day it looked like a shining disc spinning on its axis and during the night it looked like a burning globe</li>
<li>was powered by a special turbojet engine, also flat and circular, which generated a great halo of luminous flames around its perimeter.</li>
<li>was unarmed and pilotless.</li>
<li>was radio-controlled at the moment of take-off</li>
<li>âautomaticallyâ followed enemy aircraft, attracted by their exhaust flames,</li>
<li>approached close enough to the enemy aircraft, without collision, to wreck their radio gear.</li>
<li>carried large klystron radio tubes protected with special antishock and anti-heat armor</li>
<li>could be used simultaneously in formation with other feuerballs</li>
<li>contained a strong explosive charge to destroy it in flight in case serious damage to the automatic guidance system made it impossible for the operators to control it</li>
<li>had under its armored covering a thin sheet of aluminum attached to it (but electrically insulated) that acted as a switch. When a bullet pierced the outer covering, contact between the two sheets was established and the consequent closing of the circuit that operated the maximum acceleration device of the craft (generally in a vertical direction) caused it to fly off, taking it out of the range of further enemy fire</li>
<li>had chemical additives (in its fuel?) that interrupted the flow of electricity by overionising the atmosphere in the vicinity of the plane, generally around the wing tips or tail surfaces, subjecting the H2S radar on the plane to the action of powerful electrostatic fields and electromagnetic impulses, making it almost undetectable by the most powerful American radar of the time</li>
I donât want to labour the point here â we could go on for a long time making fun of this nonsense â but this is not a description of anything real. We arenât told what its actual size was. We know that it had no wings, but that it did carry a powerful engine, two layers of metal to protect it and trigger its escape when hit, liquid fuel (lots of it, presumably), large klystron radio tubes protected with special antishock and antiheat armor, a strong explosive charge, radio control equipment, and the absolutely mysterious devices which interfered with radio transmissions and made it nearly invisible to radar. It must, therefore, have been a dense, heavy, tortoise-shaped package. We can only speculate how it developed the lift not only to reach heights of 10,000 to 25,000 feet (the range within which bombing raids usually took place), at speeds in excess of 200mph just to follow the bombers, and faster to accelerate away from them.<br />
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It seems to have been radio-controlled at launch (however launch was achieved, let alone landing â were these devices meant to be landed and reused?), and also, because otherwise why would it contain âa strong explosive charge to destroy it in flight in case serious damage to the automatic guidance system made it impossible for the operators to control itâ during flight. Between 2 and 5 miles up. In the dark. Following aircraft travelling at 200mph or so, apparently over considerable distances. We are again left to speculate how the operators knew what they were controlling, what was happening to their particular feuerball at any given moment, or what form of radio control could, in 1943 â 1945, work that accurately over that distance. Vesco does not address the question of how direction or speed of flight (if the motion of an armoured wingless tortoise can be accurately described as flight) was controlled or determined.</div>
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Other questions arise. How did the feuerball distinguish an enemy aircraft from a friendly one? How did it stop following the exhaust flames? Where did it go when it stopped? Why, when it was travelling laterally behind the engines of an enemy aircraft, attracted by its exhaust flames, did it suddenly depart âgenerally in a vertical directionâ when hit? Which âchemical additives interrupted the flow of electricity by overionising the atmosphere in the vicinity of the planeâ? Just how did that work? How did it wreck the radio gear of enemy aircraft? Where? When? And how, for pityâs sake, could these devices ever have flown âin formation with other <em>feuerballsâ?</em></div>
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Those of you who actually know about aeronautical engineering â as Vesco is supposed to have done â will be able to phrase these questions far better than I. Perhaps Vesco himself would like to put his mind to answering them: I certainly canât. At present, though Iâm happy to be persuaded otherwise, and to publish any hard evidence to that effect, my view is that the feuerball â which even Lusar had never heard of â is a fantasy. How this fantasy came to be published, Iâm really not sure. But I wondered for a year or two how he had come to construct these pseudo-technical descriptions, which originate absolutely and only with Vesco. Eventually I realised that what he had done was to look at the few reports of âfoo fightersâ that he quotes â from the âAmerican Legion Magazineâ and âAmazing Storiesâ, because he didnât have the benefit of the excellent investigative work done by Roberts or Lindell â and to build round those descriptions of the behaviour of those lights, speculative technical explanations which he considered matched their reported performance. The only reasonable conclusion available to me is that Vesco â or one of his obviously careless editors or publishers â put these âtechnicalâ descriptions in his book knowing that they had no factual basis. Passing time, the laziness of later authors, and the inexplicable readiness to believe in the wonders of Nazi intellect has gradually turned these dumb speculations into accepted facts.</div>
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Unless strong and reliable evidence appears to the contrary, I think we can dismiss the feuerball â and its even less defined relative the kugelblitz, to which Vesco mistakenly gave the name of a flak panzer in development early in 1945 â as objects that never had any physical reality, and were probably never even designed. I think that we could, quite reasonably do this on technical and scientific grounds alone.</div>
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Yet Vesco continues to be highly influential, regarded as the leading authority of the Axis on secret technological developments in aeronautics. And, given his background, his experience and his authority, as summarised in the article in <em>Argosy</em>, what could be wrong with that?</div>
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Had readers looked as far as the cover of the book from which these claims came, they would have found a substantially different version of Vescoâs authority to that given in âArgosyâ. This didnât say that he had, before WWII, âstudied at the German Institute for Aerial Development.â Or that, during the war, he had âworked with the Germans at the Fiat Lake Garda secret installations in Italy.â Nor did it claim that âIn the 1960s, he worked for the Italian Air Ministry of Defense as an undercover technical agent, investigating the UFO mystery.â Instead, it said that:</div>
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âRenato Vesco was born in Arona, Italy, in 1924. A licensed pilot, in 1944 he commanded the technical section of the Italian Air Force. In 1946-47 he served in the Reparto Tecnico Caccia. Mr Vesco has been a senior member of the Italian Association of Aerotechnics since 1943, and is a student of aeronautical problems, particularly in the field of jet propulsion. He is a contributor to various aeronautical publications.â [15]</blockquote>
There is clearly something very wrong here. Born in 1924, Vesco would have been 14 or 15 when WWII broke out. Surely, by that age, he had not attended the University of Rome and studied at the German Institute for Aerial Development? If he worked with the Germans at the Fiat Lake Garda secret installations in Italy, why didnât other authorities mention him?</div>
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Would he really have âcommanded the technical section of the Italian Air Forceâ at the age of 19 or 20, and âbeen a senior member of the Italian Association of Aerotechnicsâ at the age of 18 or 19? Surely, if he really were that remarkable, that important, his name would have appeared in the index or references of at least one of the countless books about the war that Iâve examined? Yet it doesnât. Who was Vesco, and what did he really know about wartime German aircraft? Where did his material come from?â</div>
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Thanks to the highly-respected Italian researchers Maurizio Verga and Eduardo Russo, we now have clear answers to these questions: they both know Vesco personally. As Verga says:</div>
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âVesco exists, definitely! . . He is an old man now, born in 1924. Whatâs written by him by people like Al Pinto on the Internet and BBSs, as well as by Harbinson, is complete rubbish. His introduction in the 1971 English translation of his first book is quite accurate, even though he was not commanding any âtechnical sectionâ in the Italian Air Force . . He was an aeronautical engineer and he got an interest in flying saucers (always seen as a secret development of man-made aircraft) in the late 40âČs. He published several articles (about German secret weapons, flying saucers, aviation and other subjects) since the very early â50s, soon becoming a real skeptic against the then-common idea of ETH visits (he commented and explained some sightings due to atmospheric or conventional phenomena). </blockquote>
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The manuscript of his first book was ready in 1956, but he stopped publication because he was to go abroad for a long time, due to his job. When he was back in the â60s, after collecting a huge quantity of additional stuff, he had hundreds and hundreds of written pages, later to be turned into his three books. </blockquote>
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Vesco claims his sources are BIOS and CIOS reports dating between 1945 and 1947, plus other military and intelligence documents, mostly British. He told me âimportant personsâ (I guess high-ranking officers from the Italian Air Force and other foreign Air Forces) contributed to his research with information and documents still classified. He promised not to make public their names, even though he says that most of them are surely dead. I know he borrowed the BIOS/CIOS reports he quoted in his books from some Italian AF officers, through the library or libraries of the IAF itself . . It is true he is the only aviation student who introduced the âFeuerballâ and âKugelblitzâ devices, at least as far as I know. Please also note that âKugelblitzâ was a name given to other German weapons, including a flak panzer.</blockquote>
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Vesco thinks the Schriever & Co stories simple bullshits, while Vril and Haunebu pure science-fiction.â [16]</div>
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The deceptive biographical information provided by Vescoâs various publishers has succeeded in misleading many later writers and researchers, and in providing support for the false claims of others. Like all too many of those involved in the world of Nazi UFOs, Vesco gave an impression of authority, and that authority was accepted without challenge.</div>
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It now appears that Vesco was a man with an interest in man-made UFOs, who was strongly opposed to the extra-terrestrial hypothesis (ETH), used to explain many early âflying saucerâ sightings. He provides, in the feuerball and kugelblitz accounts given in a book we now know was completed by 1956, what sounds like a convincing hypothesis for explaining away, without the involvement of spacemen and interplanetary travel, not only the âfoo fighterâ reports of which he was aware, but also the very âphysicalâ sightings and photographs of the late â40s and early â50s. It is unfortunate that, in seeking to use his knowledge of aeronautical engineering to popularise what he apparently saw as a rational explanation for a body of irrational reports and interpretations, he only succeeded in co-founding the Nazi UFO mythos, a living and growing belief system which, for sheer irrationality and unpleasantness, came to far exceed anything from those innocent early days of ufology.</div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><strong>03 Major Lusar, the Saucer Builders, and the test flight</strong></span><br />
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The book <em>German Secret Weapons of the Second World War</em> by Rudolf Lusar contains less than two pages of text in the section headed âFlying Saucersâ, but its influence has been quite remarkable. Here, in full, is the text of that brief section: </div>
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Flying saucers have been whirling round the world since 1947, suddenly turning up here and there, soaring in and darting off again at unprecedented speed with flames encircl-ing the rim of the saucerâs disc. They have been located by radar, pursued by fighters and yet nobody has so far succeeded in establishing the existence of such a âflying saucerâ or managed to ram or shoot one down. </blockquote>
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The public, even the experts, are perplexed by an ostensible mystery or a technical miracle. But slowly the truth is coming out that even during the war German research workers and scientists made the first moves in the direction of these âflying saucersâ. They built and tested such near-miraculous contraptions. Experts and collaborators in this work confirm that the first projects, called âflying discsâ, were undertaken in 1941. The designs for these âflying discsâ were drawn up by the German experts Schriever, Habermohl and Miethe, and the Italian Bellonzo. Habernohl and Schriever chose a wide-surface ring which rotated round a fixed, cupola-shaped cockpit. The ring consisted of adjustable wing-discs which could be brought into appropriate position for the take-offâ or hori-zontal flight. respectively. Miethe developed a discus-shaped plate of a diameter of 42m in which adjustable jets were inserted. Schriever and Habermohl, who worked in Prague, took off with the first âflying discâ on February 14. 1945. Within three minutes they climbed to an altitude of I2,400m and reached a speed of 2,000 km/h in horizontal flight (!) It was intended ultimately to achieve speeds of 4,000 km/h.</blockquote>
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Extensive preliminary tests and research were necessary before construction could be started. Because of the great speed and the extraordinary heat stress, special heat-resisting materials had to be found. The development, which cost millions, was almost completed at the end of the war. The then existing models were destroyed but the plant in Breslau where Miethe worked fell into the hands of the Russians who took all the material and the experts to Siberia, where work on these âflying saucersâ is being successfully continued. </blockquote>
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Schriever escaped from Prague in time; Habermohl, however, is probably in the Soviet Union, as nothing is known of his fate. The former designer Miethe is in the United States and, as far as is known, is building âflying saucersâ for the United States and Canada at the A. V. Roe works. Years ago, the U.S. Air Force received orders not to fire at âflying saucersâ. This is an indication of the existence of American âflying saucersâ which must not be endangered. The flying shapes so far observed are stated to have diameters of 16, 42, 45 and 75 m respectively and to reach speeds of up to 7,000 km/h. (?). In 1952 âflying saucersâ were definitely established over Korea and Press reports said they were seen also during the NATO manoeuvres in Alsace in the autumn of 1954. It can no longer be disputed that âflying saucersâ exist. But the fact that their existence is still being denied, particularly in America, because United States developments have not pro-gressed far enough to match the Soviet Unionâs, gives food for thought. There also seems some hesitation to recognise that these novel âflying saucersâ are far superior to conven-tional aircraft â including modern turbo-jet machines â that they surpass their flying performance, load capacity and maneouvrability and thereby make them obsolete.â [17] </blockquote>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">THE SAUCER-BUILDERS</span></strong></div>
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I am grateful to the carefully-presented information provided by Maurizio Verga on the UFO Online website [18] () for much of the material I have used, in this section, to try and answer the questions raised by Lusar.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Belluzzo</span></strong></div>
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The earliest claim by an individual of the construction of a wartime flying disk was made by Guiseppe Belluzzo on or around March 27 1950, at a time when there had been a number of flying saucer reports in the Italian media, and European interest in the subject was high. On that date the Italian newspaper âIl Mattino dellâItalia Centraleâ published, with a vague and uninformative line-drawing as illustration, Belluzzoâs apparent claim that circular aircraft had been developed since 1942, first in Italy, and then in Germany. The Italian idea was, supposedly, developed by the Germans in North-East Norway. The story also appeared in âIl Corriere della Seraâ, âLa Nazioneâ, and âLa Gazzetta del Popoloâ, and, in âIl Corriere dâInformazioneâ of March 29-30 1950, with a comment by a General Ranza of the Italian Air Force dismissing Belluzzoâs claims. It seems that Belluzzo did not claim that the disc flew during the war but that, by 1950, it had been sufficiently developed to deliver an atom bomb. This development was said to be some 10 metres wide, constructed with very light materials, and unmanned.</div>
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We know something of Belluzzoâs background and competence. Verga notes that he lived from November 25 1876 to May 21 1952, and was a turbine expert who published nearly fifty technical books. He was elected to the pre-war Fascist parliament, and from 1925 to 1928 served as Minister of the National Economy. I have traced a listing for a book of his â on turbines â full of technical drawings and translated into English in 1926. It is quite feasible that he could have contributed to a range of technological projects, but it seems that he never claimed to have built a flying disc, nor to have named those who worked with the Germans in Norway. As in all such reports, no viable propulsion, launch, lift, flight, control or landing data is provided, and the criteria for publication seems to have been that the object should resemble the flying saucers which, as ever, had caught the mediaâs attention.</div>
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It is quite possible that a former Fascist minister would be happy to seek a little belated glory for his nation and his regime, but for all of the later interpretations of his role in the history of Nazi UFOs his claims were very limited, and so far as the assertion of a design for a reasonably-sized, unmanned flying disc was concerned, they are neither unique nor implausible. Belluzzo may, in part at least, have been telling the truth.</div>
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It is worth noting that several later sources changed the name of the one individual who we can be sure actually had some relevant technical background from Belluzzo to Bellonzo.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Schreiver</span></strong><br />
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News travels fast. Verga speculates that the Belluzzo story was also published in Germany, where it would certainly have been of great interest. Anyway, just days after Belluzzoâs claims were first published, one Rudolph Schreiver made very similar claims in a general flying saucer article in âDer Spiegelâ for March 30 1950. He, too, claimed only that he developed blueprints, starting in 1942, which he believed later fell into the hands of the Americans or Germans. The article first introduced a wonderfully infeasible drawing/diagram which looked like something designed by a latterday Otto Lilienthal and, of course, lacked any meaningful technical information. This regularly resurfaces (most recently as an amazing new and secret discovery on the Sightings website [19]) in the belief-oriented media. It is said that drawings of flying discs were found among Schreiverâs possessions after he died in the late 1950s.</div>
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It seems that Schriever described himself as âFlugkapitan Schrieverâ, and that in March 1950 he was working for the US Forces in Germany, delivering copies of the newspaper âStars and Stripesâ to army bases. Vladimir Terziski, that least reliable of sources, tries to find some glamour in this job, suggesting it was a cover for smuggling valuables of various kinds for some Nazi underground. Harbinson says that he purported that his âflying discâ had been ready for testing in early 1944, but, with the advance of the Allies into Germany, the test had been cancelled, and the machine destroyed. Initially, though, he appears to have claimed little more than Belluzzo earlier the same week. Again, his involvement is just a side-bar to media coverage of a UFO flap. Again, it is others who have made entirely different claims for him. After all, you donât have to be a rocket scientist to be a lorry driver.</div>
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Miethe</div>
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There is an interview with a âDr Richard Mietheâ, âGerman aeronautical engineerâ and âex-Colonelâ, in France-Soir for 7 June 1952. I only have a transcript, in French, but apparently the paper also published a photo of Dr Miethe in his swimming trunks.</div>
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My French isnât great, but it seems that in the interview with Dr Miethe, conducted in Tel Aviv in June 1952, he says that he is 40 years old, gives specific details of his military background, and claims that he built a flying-saucer â the V7 which he built in 1944, the motors of which the Russians found at Breslau. He claims that from April 1943 he commanded a group of technicians of the 10th Reich Army, at Essen, Stettin and Dortmund, where the main research into German secret weapons was conducted. He doesnât name any of the other six engineers he says were involved, but says clearly that three are dead, and three are believed to have been taken by the Russians.</div>
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Not unusually, the heart of the interview is his comments on some recent Brazilian flying saucer reports, and his opinion that if flying saucers are seen, then they will have been Russian-built from the knowledge of his three captured colleagues. But perhaps the most important point of all is that this Miethe seems to have had nothing to do with the USA, Operation Paperclip, or anything similar. The article says, I think, that a few days before the German surrender he left the front to join the Arab Legion based in Addis Ababa and Cairo, where a number of Hitlerâs senior officers had regrouped. At the time of the interview, in Tel Aviv, it seems that he had been ejected from Egypt, where he says he had been working with others to reconstruct the engine with which his earlier flying disc had been powered. The trigger for the expulsion may have been a breakdown in diplomatic relations between Germany and Egypt.</div>
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As ever, we have no idea how the saucer flew or functioned, but more than two years later, in September 1952, the Italian magazine published some fuzzy, unconvincing photos of something looking not unlike a curling stone, on an angle against a featureless background (those featureless backgrounds are everywhere in 50s ufology). These, âTempoâ claims, were taken over the Baltic on April 17, 1944, when the Miethe saucer was test-flown. The article persisted with the assertion that the Russians had obtained the secrets of these miraculous flying discs.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">George Klein â February 1945</span></strong><br />
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Harbinson notes that âalleged eye witness Georg Klein, a former engineer with Albert Speerâs Ministry for Armament and Ammunition . . told the press that he had actually seen the test flight of the Schriever disc, or one similar, near Prague on 14 February 1945.â</div>
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Redfern and Downes quote a CIA report dated 27 May 1954, which says:</div>
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A German newspaper (not further identified) recently published an interview with George Klein, famous German engineer and aircraft expert, describing the experimental construction of âflying saucersâ carried out by him from 1941 to 1945. Klein stated that he was present when, in 1945, the first piloted âflying saucerâ took off and reached a speed of 1,3000 miles per hour within 3 minutes. The experiments resulted in three designs: one designed by Miethe was a disc-shaped aircraft, 135 feet in diameter, which did not rotate; another designed by Habermohl and Schriever, consisted of a large rotating ring, in the centre of which was a round, stationary cabin for the crew. When the Soviets occupied Prague, the Germans destroyed every trace of the âflying saucerâ project and nothing more was heard of Habermohl and his assistants.â [20]</blockquote>
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The German newspaper appears to have been â<em>Welt am Sonntagâ</em> for (different dates are given) April 25 or 26 1953. The article is titled âErste âFlugscheibeâ flog 1945 in Pragâ, and there is a photo of âGeorge Kleinâ pointing at the same vague diagram that Lusar reprints.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">HABERMOHL</span></strong><br />
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It may be that there is another source of which Iâm not aware, but âKlausâ Habermohl seems to have made his first and last appearance in Kleinâs 1953 account. Real history and science reveal nothing of his existence or his achievements. He may well have lived nowhere but in the active brain of Herr Klein, of whose existence the worlds of science and engineering are similarly ill-informed.</div>
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The Lusar question â solved.</div>
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The copy of <em>German Secret Weapons of the Second World War</em> that I read came from the British Library. It is worth noting that it didnât have a dust jacket, which may have contained additional information, but the text of the book itself gives no clue as to the authorâs background, his sources, or of any special authority or knowledge he might have had, or of access to information that was not already in the public domain. To afford some impression of authority, others have given Lusar various different jobs and titles by various different commentators, but as with so many others in the mythos, there is no objective evidence to verify any of them. The simple fact is that all the âfactualâ content of Lusarâs section about âflying saucersâ came from the content of the newspaper comments by Belluzzo, Schriever and Klein. He seems to have been aware of the <em>Tempo </em>article including the photos of the âMiethe saucerâ, but not of the earlier interview with Miethe. </div>
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He has Miethe as a builder of saucers, but says he is in Canada, and not in Egypt or Israel. He ignores the fact that neither Belluzzo nor Schriever â initially at least with regard to the latter â claimed that discs had been built or flown. Instead, he adds Kleinâs claims of construction and flight to the names and supposed background of Belluzzo and Schriever and, as he had seen the photos of Mietheâs disc in Tempo, purports that Mietheâs design flew, too. Why he excluded Kleinâs name from Secret Weapons . . is not clear, but because he wasnât named, he never achieved the fame of the others. Even Habermohl, whose name was neither German nor Italian, and who probably never existed at all in the context of the development of flying discs, has achieved greater fame than George Klein. Perhaps we can, in future, acknowledge the vital, perhaps paramount part he played in building the Nazi UFO mythos. After all, it was Klein who decided that the high-performance wartime discs actually flew: Lusar only gave Kleinâs decision lasting, international publicity.</div>
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Very few writers have made clear that Lusar actually wrote his explanation of German disc developments in the context of worldwide flying saucer reports. Indeed, little emphasis has been placed on the fact that all of the material published prior to Lusarâs book only appeared in that context, providing a relatively local angle on reports of flying saucers further afield. Given the total absence of tangible, objective, contemporary evidence to support any of Lusarâs assertions, I think we can safely say that Nazi UFOs did not lead to any of the reports of flying saucers from 1947 onwards. It would be far more accurate to say that the flying saucer craze led to the making of increasingly false and hollow claims about the existence, and achievements, of Nazi UFOs.</div>
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Finally, the question of why Vesco, published in 1969, didnât mention Lusar or the Saucer Builders. The answer seems to be that because Vescoâs first book (the only one of interest to us here) was completed in 1956, before the earliest version of Lusarâs book appeared, and because Lusarâs book was published long before the actual publication of Vescoâs first book in 1969, we shouldnât be surprised that their two theories of German flying saucers are entirely exclusive: Lusar doesnât mention Vescoâs feuerball and kugelblitz, and Vesco has clearly never heard of Lusarâs SMBH disk. Thereâs no mystery here. There just isnât anything at all!</div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><strong>04: A. Harbinson and Projekt Saucer</strong></span><br />
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SF author W A Harbinson has written a series of chunky paperbacks based on the Nazi UFO mythos. The series is run under the overall title Projekt Saucer, the key titles relating to WWII being Inception and Genesis [21]. I find his writing interesting and often quite exciting, though the accounts of violence and cold Nazi ruthlessness can be a little strong for my taste. Were these books sold only as fiction, theyâd be of little interest to us here.</div>
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However, not only do the novels include an âAuthorâs Noteâ which suggests that the authorâs own research has established a factual basis to his âfictionâ, but he has also published a non-fiction book , Projekt UFO. The blurb on the back says:</div>
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âFor nearly half a century, ever since the first UFO sightings of June 1947, it has been assumed that flying saucers, if they exist at all, are of extraterrestrial origin. Projekt UFO: The Case for Man-Made Flying Saucers proves conclusively that this is not so.â [22]</blockquote>
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The book extends well beyond the end of WWII, and for the most part it deals with the usual post-war questions regarding the reality of UFO sightings, the development of terrestrial technologies, and key cases, such as Socorro. It also introduces â in Harbinsonâs Foreword â the âBrisantâ document, one of the truly great ufological red herrings:</div>
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In May 1978, at Stand 111 in a scientific exhibition in the Hanover Messe Hall, some gentlemen were giving away what at first sight appeared to be an orthodox scientific newspaper called Brisant. The paper contained two seemingly unrelated articles: one on the scientific and ecological value of the Antarctic, the other about a German World War II flying saucer construction project, named âProjekt Saucerâ.</blockquote>
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The first article, written from a neo-Nazi standpoint, included a suggestion that West Germany should claim back their right to Queen Maud Land in the Antarctic, which the Nazis stole from the Norwegians during World War II and renamed Neu Schwabenland. The second article, which asserted that the German scientists were the first, but not the only ones, to construct highly advanced saucer-shaped aircraft, was accompanied by reproductions of technical drawings 6f a World War II flying saucer.</blockquote>
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The unnamed author failed to name the designer of the flying saucer and claimed that the drawings had been altered by the West German government to render them âsafeâ for publication. Adding weight to his claim, he also pointed out that during World War II all such inventions, whether civilian or military, would have been submitted to the nearest patent office where, under paragraphs 30a and 99 of the Patent-und Strassezetsbuch, they would have been routinely classified as âsecret.â After being confiscated and passed on to one of Himmlerâs many 55 research establishments, at the end of the war they would perhaps have disappeared into secret Soviet files, or into equally secret British and US files, or lost with âmissingâ German scientists and SS troops. </blockquote>
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The rest of the article was just as intriguing. It claimed that throughout the course of World War II the Germans sent ships and planes to Queen Maud Land, or Neu Schwabenland, in the Antarctic, with equipment for massive underground complexes, similar to those they had con-structed in Thuringia and the Harz Mountains in Germany. It said that at the end of the war some of the scientists and engineers who had worked on Projekt Saucer escaped from Germany by submarine and ended up in an underground base in the Antarctic, where they continued to construct even more advanced flying saucers, and that the Americans and Soviets, upon learning about this, then used their captured German scientists and technical papers for the secret construction of their own flying saucers.â [23]</blockquote>
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Mark Ian Birdsall, in his paper âThe Ultimate Solutionâ asserts that it was Harbinson himself who found âBrisantâ, though Harbinson doesnât make that claim:</div>
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âHarbinson while researching âGenesisâ paid a visit to the semi-Northern city of Hannover in the late 70âČs. It was here that he reportedly attended a science lecture exhibition at the âHannover Messe Hallâ. Whilst looking around the hall, Harbinson arrived at stand number 111, it was here that he was handed a magazine called âBrisantâ.â [24]</blockquote>
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I wrote to Harbinson via his publishers to ask for further information about âBrisantâ, because it is clearly â if it ever actually existed â a key document in the development of the mythos. Henry Stephens of the German Research Project (see below) offers copies of what he says are some pages, and claims that the originals of âBrisantâ were lost by Harbinsonâs publishers: so I asked about that, too. Unfortunately, I received no response, so the authority and provenance of âBrisantâ remain unknown.</div>
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Harbinson seems to have been inspired by the content of the paper, despite the implausibility of the bit about the patent office and the plans having been âaltered by the West German government to render them âsafeâ for publicationâ. That sounds more like an excuse for the technical infeasibility which afflicts every diagram of discs in the mythos. Undeterred, Harbinson continues:</div>
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âThis theory would explain why, even before glasnost, all the nations of the world â even the Soviets and the Americans â had cooperated with one another only in the Antarctic. In short, the flying saucers seen by so many people since World War II are not extraterrestrial space-craft, but are, in fact, extraordinarily advanced, top secret, man-made machines. They come from right here on Earth... </blockquote>
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During my two years of intensive research, I uncovered written and photographic evidence which proved beyond doubt that Nazi Germany had in fact initiated a research programme for the development of saucer-shaped aircraft. I found that at the close of the war seasoned Allied pilots were sub-mitting official reports about harassment by âballs of fireâ that tailed them and made their aircraft and radar mal-function. In addition, one of the leading members of Germanyâs Projekt Saucer development team disappeared into the Soviet Union and another went to work with Ger-man rocket expert, Wernher von Braun, for NASA in the United States.</div>
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y research also uncovered articles about man-made flying saucers, in-cluding the German Kugelblitz and the Canadian AVRO-Car prototype published not only by the âlunaticâ fringe but by highly respected aeronautical magazines such as Lufthahrt International, the Royal Air Force Flying Review, and the US News and World Report. So, flying saucers, whether primitive or highly advanced, were certainly constructed in Nazi Germany and post-war Canada, in the latter case with the aid of the United States.In 1980, my 615-page novel, Genesis, based on a mass of research material, including that mentioned above, was published. It became a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic, eventually becoming a âcultâ book, and is still in print ten years after its publication. Reviewing the novel on its publication in the United States, <em>Publishers Weekly</em> said: âHarbinson has drawn so heavily on factual material and integrated it so well into the text that the book begins to read like non-fictionâŠâ [25]
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That <em>Publishers Weekly</em> was so impressed says much for the quality of Harbinsonâs writing, but little for his research. In his chapter âTechnology and Sightings of World War IIâ we find a familiar statement, with a few added details:</div>
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âRenato Vesco was an aircraft engineer specializing in aerospace and ramjet developments. Educated before World War II at the University of Rome, he then studied aeronautical engineering at the German Institute for Aerial Development. During the war, he was sent to work with the Germans at Fiatâs immense underground installations at Lake Garda, near Limone in northern Italy, where he helped in the production of aeronautical devices that were tested at the Hermann Goering Institute of Riva del Garda. After the war, in the 1960s. Vesco worked for the Italian Air Ministry of Defence as an undercover tech-nical agent, investigating the UFO phenomenon.â [26]</div>
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Harbinson accepts Vescoâs claims without further ado, and then goes on, in his chapter âDivision of the Scientific Spoils of Warâ, to accept Lusar, too, saying:</div>
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An article about âProjekt Saucerâ was later published in the indispensable volume, German Secret Weapons of the Second World War (1959) by Major Rudolph Lusar, and included reproductions of the flying saucer drawings of Schriever and Miethe.â [27]</blockquote>
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Harbinson sets out more of Lusarâs material, and then reports, helpfully, some research of his own</div>
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âSchrieverâs recollection of the test flight date is contra-dicted in certain details by alleged eye witness Georg Klein, a former engineer with Albert Speerâs Ministry for Armament and Ammunition, who told the press that he had actually seen the test flight of the Schriever disc, or one similar, near Prague on 14 February 1945. A certain doubt may be cast on Kleinâs date, since according to the War Diary of the 8th Air Fleet, 14 February 1945 was a day of low cloud, rain, snow and generally poor visibility â hardly the conditions for the testing of a revolutionary new kind of aircraft.â</blockquote>
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One of those who may have been involved in the actual Projekt Saucer is Heinrich Fleischner, of Dasing, Augsburg in the Federal German Republic. Interviewed for the 2 May 1980 edition of <em>Neue Presse</em> magazine, Fleischner, who was then seventy-six, claimed that he had been a technical consultant on a jet-propelled, disc-shaped aircraft that had been constructed by a team of technicians in Peenemunde, though the parts had been built in many other places. According to Fleischner, Hermann Goering had been the patronâ of the aircraft and had planned to use it as a courier plane. At the end of the war, the Wehrmacht des-troyed most of the plans and a few of the âunimportantâ drawings fell into the hands of the Russians.</div>
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Hermann Klaas, from Muhlheim, West Germany, a bio-technician specializing in aerodynamic phenomena, was another who claimed to have worked on various remote-controlled models for disc-shaped aircraft during World War II. The most common model was 2.4 metres in diameter and propelled by an electro-engine supplied by the Luftwaffe. According to Klaas, these models were simi-lar to those then being developed by Schriever, Haber-mohl, Miethe, and Belluzzo in Bohmen (Czechoslovakia) and Breslau (now Wrocklaw, Poland). [28]</div>
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Overall, bearing in mind the quality of most of his sources, Harbinsonâs research is better than most: it takes a while to realise that the world of ufology is full of dreams, misapprehensions and outright lies. For me, though, why the Germans would have called their enterprise âProjekt Saucerâ is a mystery in itself. The drawings produced during the 1950s, and even in the hypothetical âBrisantâ, in no way resemble saucers, âsaucerâ is not a German word, and the term âflying saucersâ didnât appear until 1947 when a journalist mistook Kenneth Arnoldâs description of the way unidentified objects moved in the air over the Cascade Mountains for a description of what they looked like. Maybe this is what they call artistic licence, fine for fiction, but distinctly out of place if itâs conveyed as the truth. I have no hesitation in concluding that there was no âProjekt Saucerâ in the real world, and that Harbinson has, presumably quite inadvertently, made a major contribution to the development of the mythos</div>
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<strong><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">05: Vril, Haunebu and Interplanetary Travel.</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vladimir Terziski</span></strong><br />
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One of the few references that I havenât managed to find before writing this piece is a book, probably from 1993, called Close Encounters of the Kugelblitz Kind, by Vladimir Terziski. Terziski first appeared in or around that year, claiming to be the âPresident, American Academy of Dissident Sciences, 10970 Ashton Ave. #310, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA. When I wrote to the Academy asking for further information, my letter was returned, the Academy not being known at the address. He also claims that he is âa Bulgarian born engineer and physicist, graduated Cum Laude from the Master of Science program of Tokai University in Tokyo in 1980. Served as a solar energy researcher, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, before immigrating to the US in 1984.â [29]</div>
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Terziski seems, with a little help from Al Bielek of the completely loopy âMontauk Projectâ, who was co-founder of the Academy, to have introduced a completely new strand of âNazi UFOâ material. It also appears in one of the series of Montauk Project books. It is so outrageously unbelievable, implausible, and devoid of supporting evidence that it has proved to be very popular among those who believe in an Illuminati conspiracy, the New World Order, and the links between our rulers and Reptilian Aliens. The last trace Iâve found of Terziski is at a speaker at a âpatriotâ meeting in 1998, but his influence lives on, creating an alternative, revised history in which the Nazis won in the end.</div>
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Terziski describes Renato Vesco as âthe Italian Wernher von Braun, the research scientist in charge of the Italian Air Force and Space Research and Development program during the warâ, which says much for the thoroughness of his research. But then, research isnât really what Terziski is (or was) about. Brad Steiger quotes him as telling of:</div>
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âan âalien tutor raceâ that secretly began cooperating with certain German scientists in the late 1920s in underground bases and began to introduce their concepts of philosophical, cultural, and technological progressâ . . â(he) maintains that antigravity research began in the 1920s with the first hybrid antigravity circular craft, the RFZ-1, constructed by the secret Vril society. In 1942-43 a series of antigravity machines culminated in the giant 350-foot-long, cigar-shaped Andromeda space station, which was constructed in old Zeppelin hangars near Berlin by E4, the research and development arm of the SS.â [30]</blockquote>
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He is also quoted (by Branton â see below) as making comments about the continued use of slave labour by the âpure-bred Aryan S.S.â who live underground, conducting genetic experiments continuing those of WW2, in pursuance of the âGermans-Nazis-Illuminati pactâ, which was established âwith the serpent races long years before the American âsecret/conventionalâ hybrid government had done so.â [31]</div>
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Nor has Terziskiâs account of the trips to the Moon or Mars proved as unbelievable as we might hope. He says:</div>
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âThe Germans landed on the Moon as early as probably 1942, utilizing their larger exoatmospheric rocket saucers of the Miethe and Schriever type. The Miethe rocket craft was built in diameters of 15 and 50 meters, and the Schriever Walter turbine powered craft was designed as an interplanetary exploration vehicle. It had a diameter of 60 meters, had 10 stories of crew compartments, and stood 45 meters high . . .</blockquote>
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Ever since their first day of landing on the Moon, the Germans started boring and tunneling under the surface, and by the end of the war there was a small Nazi research base on the Moon. The free energy tachyon drive craft of the Haunibu-1 and 2 type were used after 1944 to haul people,â materiel and the first robots to the construction site on the Moon. When Russians and Americans secretly landed jointly on the Moon in the early fifties with their own saucers, they spent their first night there as guests of the âŠ. Nazi underground base . . .</blockquote>
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According to the authors of the underground German documentary movie from the Thule society [presumably 'UFO Secrets of the Third Reich', which Terziski is alleged to have produced himself - KM], the only produced craft of the Haunibu-3 type â the 74 meter diameter naval warfare dreadnought â was chosen for the most courageous mission of this whole century â the trip to Mars. The craft was of saucer shape, had the bigger Andromeda tachyon drives, and was armed with four triple gun turrets of large naval caliber (three inverted upside down and attached to the underside of the craft, and the fourth on top of the crew compartments).</blockquote>
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A volunteer suicide crew of Germans and Japanese was chosen, because everybody knew that this journey was a one-way journey with no return. The large intensity of the electro-magnetogravitic fields and the inferior quality of the metal alloys used then for the structural elements of the drive, was causing the metal to fatigue and get very brittle only after a few months of work of the drive. The flight to Mars departed from Germany one month before the war ended â in April 1945 . . The radio message with the mixed news was received by the German underground space control center in Neu Schwabenland and by their research base on the Moon.â [32]</blockquote>
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By March 2000, the Vril and Haunebu craft had become real in many minds, not least that of the author of William Baconâs Home Page/Nordic Saucer Report. In addition to the Feuerball and Kugelblitz, and assorted Schreiver, Belluzzo, Miethe and Habermohl creations, he included in his list, âReported German Disc Aircraft Types January 28, 2000 (updated to March 2000)</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Electrogravitic Craft Based on Currently Unknown Physics.</span></strong></div>
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1. Original Vril Society Craft. Said to be a âtime machineâ, it underwent two years of experiment. Dismantled early in 1924 (!) and shipped to Augsburg. The design was said to have been based on channeled information from a supposed planet orbiting the star Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri). Disposition unknown.</div>
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2. RFZ-1 (RFZ=runflugzeug=round aircraft). Disc created in mid 1934 by Vril Society. Crashed from low altitude on first test.</div>
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3. RFZ-2. Completed at the end of 1934 by the Vril Society. length was 16 feet, and it was the first with âmagnetic field impulse steeringâ. It was operational in 1940 as seen in a photograph taken over an ocean, said to be the South Atlantic.</div>
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4. RFZ-4. A test craft driven by propeller to study the aerodynamics of a disc-shaped craft. associated with Schutzstaffel (SS) unit E4.</div>
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5. RFZ-5. Also known as Haunebu I (note: nebel=haze or smoke). Flew 08/1939. Diameter 83 feet. Photograph exists, said to have been taken over Prague. With a crew of eight, said to have reached 12,000 mph and upper atmosphere. Claimed to have been equipped with two laser (apparent anachronism) guns.</div>
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6. RFZ-6 (Haunebu II). Work began before the end of 1942. Various shapes, 85 feet to 100 feet in diameter and 30 to 36 feet high, were produced. A 3200 knot speed is assigned, making for near-space capability. One plan shows a Donar Ray Gun (!) in a turret on the underside. Some had sleeping quarters. a deep-space variant was said to be 234 feet in diameter. At least one side-view drawing with data survives and it bears an uncanny resemblance to an orthographic projection which has been made from the famous Adamski and Darbishire UFO photographs.</div>
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7. Haunebu III. An SS E4-planned deep-space disc craft. Various photographs show design variations. Over 400 feet in diameter. A side view drawing with data survives. Reportedly, U.S. found none. A Haunebu IV also is reported</div>
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8. Andromeda Project A large craft planned by SS E4 for interstellar travel, Over 100 ton capacity. 360 feet long</div>
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Other Craft. These types may have combined what we now consider known and unknown physics. The Vril craft were of 20 to 40 feet in diameter. </div>
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1. RFZ7T. Work began in 1942 on a discus craft by Miethe, Joined by Bellonzo then Schreiver and Habermohl. A âreliable, functional light craftâ.</div>
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2. Vril I. A 36 foot single seat craft, which was armed and tested before the end of 1942. Flew 7000 mph from its Brandenburg test site. Could instantly change direction.</div>
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3. Vril II. An air-water motor in the center of the craft spun rapidly like a tornado, thus according to Schaubergerâs implosion principle, neutralizing gravity, as with the Vril I craft. diameter also similar. Vril VII and Vril IX also reported.</div>
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4. V7. Possibly numbered as one of the Vergeltungswaffen(retaliation weapons). Fitted with 12 BMW jet engines. Reached 78,000 feet, later 80,000 feet on first tests over the Baltic sea, 04/17/1945. A spherical glass like-dome surrounded by a rotating wing of turbine blades.â [33]</div>
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This presentation of completely fictitious data as historical and technical data makes it that much more credible, but Bacon is by no means the most extreme of believers.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">BRANTON</span></strong><br />
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The imaginary history invented or presented (or both) by Terziski has itself been carried forward by others, for reasons that continue to baffle me. Probably the most high-profile, and perhaps the most productive of these is âBrantonâ, whose âOmega Filesâ material in various areas of conspiracy and that peculiar neo-fascism that exists among âpatriotsâ who also believe in the intervention of alien beings is all too easy to find on the Net. I had been wondering who Branton was, and an answer seems to have come recently from an Alan DeWalton, under the title âBrantonâs Testimonyâ:</div>
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Branton is a guy who has been involved in abductions since he was a child [generational family stuff], MANY of which involved Alien/CIA agendas in the underground bases. He was âprogrammedâ As an alternate personality, or a âsleeper agentâ by the CIA and has interacted with underground bases and especially Dulce WHILE IN THE altered state of consciousness. Many abductees will tell you that during abductions their âconscious mindâ seems to switch off and another âpersonalityâ that is programmed by the alien agenda kicks in. These alternate identities are individuals in a sense, but also are linked to the alien collective which is how Branton gets much of his information, literally âhacking the hiveâ⊠having spent years being manipulated by the alien group-mind he has now turned it around WITH Godâs help and is using it as a weapon against them, although youâll never know how painful it has been for him⊠a literal hell⊠but having taken up the âcrossâ as his sword and shield he is prevailing against the âbeastâ, just like âSaintâ George the Dragon slayer of old you might say. Branton was âsavedâ [born again] in 1985 and âBranton the alter egoâ is apparently still involved with the underground scenarios on a nocturnal basis, trying to put together a literal âunderground resistanceâ movement, both in the underground bases and above. This resistance movement involves freedom fighter forces within certain military bases, several âhybridsâ [many his own 'kids'], Nordics, Telosians, several of âthe orangeâ group, and even some of the Sasquatch type aliens . . â [34]</blockquote>
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These biographical details may make Brantonâs willingness to accept Terziskiâs claims as true. Branton reports:</div>
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Although it may sound rather incredible, Terziski alleges that he possesses confirming information such as the ââŠfirst video expose of Nazi UFOs. German/Japanese saucer landings on the moon and Mars in 1944-46, Marconi groupâs landing on Mars in 1956⊠video footage of Nazi interplanetary dreadnoughts and of secret Soviet-American saucer landing on Mars.â Although many of the âGreysâ have been described as being of neo-saurioid configuration, other âGreysâ pose a different mystery as to their origin and seem more of a bio-synthetic or âmanufacturedâ configuration. Vladimir Terziski suggests that some of these greys may be ââŠa product of the US governmentâs biogenetic cyborg R&D program.â [35]</blockquote>
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The Omega File titled âNazi Historyâ is another example of the presentation of the incredible as if it were fact. This is just an excerpt, and I have excised some of the rambling about rich industrialists and the Illuminati:</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">370000 Germans recover crashed disk. Work begins on German disk program based on recovered âalienâ technology.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">380000 Standard [EXXON] Oil sends I.G. Farben 500 tons of lead additive for gasoline.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">390000 Germans working on mini-television for bomb / rocket guidance.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">390901 Germany invades Poland.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">390901 Soviets invade Poland.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">410000 Germans test Schriever-Habermohl Model I prototype flying disk or lenticular aircraft Model II in 1944.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">410600 Germany successfully tests Schriever disk design.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">410800 I.G. Farben tests Zyklon B gas.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">420000 German âfireballsâ harass allied pilots and aircraft.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">420225 [German?] UFOs appear over Los Angeles. 1,430 rounds fired against them. Some on the ground killed or wounded by unexploded anti-aircraft shells.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">430000 CIAâs Allen Dulles [Bavarian Illuminati] cuts a deal with Nazi SS intelligence. This would eventually lead to a massive infiltration of the CIA by Nazi S.S. agents, who would in turn begin a global program of toppling third world governments and replacing them with their own fascist puppet dictatorships. Germans complete research on alloy of magnesium and aluminum.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">440000 OSS agent Douglas Bazata receives contract on General George</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Pattonâs life. Feuerball aircraft constructed at aeronautical factory at</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wiener Neustadt. Germans test Bellonzo-Schriever-Meithe designs based on Coanda disk.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">440300 Wilson* replaces German saucer [rotor] propulsion with advanced jet propulsion. *(âWilsonâ is presumably the fictional character in the âProject Saucerâ novels of W A Harbinson, who has somehow crossed over into Brantonâs version of reality)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">441123 Allied pilots run into âfireballsâ over Strasbourg.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">450000 Both L.F.A. at Volkenrode and center at Guidonia working on disk craft. Soviets gain some German disk data [and apprehend?] Dr. Guenther Bock. United States captures some German disk technology and scientists. British technical advisor discovers German plans for advanced lenticular aircraft.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">450200 Kugelblitz [crew-carrying Fireball] test flown in Thuringia, reached speeds of 1250 mph.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">450216 Kugelblitz tested near Kahla, disk-shaped, 1250 mph. Germans begin to transfer saucer projects to South Polar underground bases.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">450223 Perfected engines removed from Kugelblitz and sent to polar base. Kugelblitz, minus engines, blown up by SS personnel to prevent the design from falling into the hands of the Allies.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">450225 Workers at Kahla complex brought to Buchenwald and gassed so as</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> not to reveal secret of Nazi disk projects. Kahla closed. Slavian slave-laborers from various underground facilities also taken to Karshagan and other camps and killed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">450400 General Hans Kammler disappears from Germany.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">450425 Gen. Kammler joins Wilson and Gen. Nebe on U-977 bound for South Pole.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">450507 Germany âsurrendersâ.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">460000 America turns 2/3rds of Germanyâs aircraft manufacturing over to Soviets. Nazis help form CIA operations division with Rockefeller assistance. Imported SS intelligence officers help form Radio Liberty and Voice of America. Gen. Hoyt Vandenburg becomes director of CIA. U.S. and Canada begin joint disk development programs in underground plants.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">460726 Truman signs National Military Establishment Act. Creates NSC, CIA.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">470000 CIA Mind-Control drug project begins at Bethesda Naval Hospital. German disks start flyovers over United States. National Security Act. CIA begins to monitor UFOs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">470100 Operation Highjump begins at South Pole to find the German Bases.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Military Commander Admiral Richard E. Byrd leads 4000 troops in</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> reconnaissance over Antarctica, and encounters resistance from âAryanâ [German/Austrian] saucer fleets. Apparent casualties on both sides. [36]</span>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Iâve begun to be accustomed to dealing with extreme beliefs and outlooks, without ever getting immured to the moral and intellectual desert that inevitably underpins them. Yet there is something almost uniquely twisted about the statement, âWorkers at Kahla complex brought to Buchenwald and gassed so as not to reveal secret of Nazi disk projects.â In that there were no construction projects for Nazi discs, there were no slave workers building Nazi discs, and therefore no workers could have been taken to Buchenwald and gassed for the reasons Branton gives. He also asserts that huge numbers of slave workers were taken to build the Nazi bases under the South Pole. What sort of need is fulfilled by simply making up these demented distortions of the miserable truths of the Holocaust is quite beyond my understanding. If we actively resist no other element of the Nazi UFO mythos, perhaps we can at least make our rejection of this one as obvious, and effective, as is possible. Other âfalse historiesâ follow.</span> </span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">References for Part One</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[1] Lusar, Rudolf (1959) Trans Heller, R P and Schindler, M German Secret Weapons of the Second World War Philosophical Library New York p.165</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[2] Vesco, Renato (1971) Intercept UFO Grove Press New York p.85</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[3] Kasten, Len (1996) âNazi UFOsâ in Atlantis Rising No.7</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[4] Stephens, Henry (1998) âUFOs and the Third Reichâ in The Probe Vol 3 #4</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[5] terziski</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[6] Stevens, Wendelle, interviewed in âThe Godfather of UFOsâ in Alien Encounters #25</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[7] Redfern, Nicholas (1998) The FBI Files Pocket Books London p.210</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[8] Chamberlin, Jo âthe Foo Fighter Mysteryâ in the American Legion Magazine, December 1945</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[9] Roberts, Andy Foo Fighters â the Story So Far Project 1947 website</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[10] Lindell, Jeff A. âThe Foo Fighter Mystery Revisedâ I.U. Folklore Institute</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[11] Ibid</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[12] Vesco, Renato âAerospace expert claims Flying Saucers are Canadaâs Secret Weaponâ in Argosy Magazine August 1969.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[13] Vesco, Renato (1971) Intercept UFO Grove Press New York p.85</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[14] Ibid p.86</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[15] Ibid (back cover)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[16] Correspondence with author</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[17] Lusar op cit p.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[18] </span><a href="http://www.ufo.it/german"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">www.ufo.it/german</span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[19] âSightingsâ website</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[20] Redfern, N and Downes, J (2000) Weird War Tales 1 â UFOs: 1939-45 Weird War Tales Library</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[21] Published by New English Library, London</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[22] Harbinson, W A (1995) Projekt UFO â The Case for Man-Made Flying Saucers Boxtree London (back cover)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[23] Ibid (Foreword)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[24] Birdsall, Mark Ian (1988?) The Ultimate Solution Self-published p.13</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[25] Harbinson op cit p.5</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[26] Ibid p.61</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[27] Ibid p.72</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[28] Ibid p.74</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[29] Interview with Terziski on Sam Russellâs âOpen Mind Forumâ radio programme on June 5 1993.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[30] Steiger, B and SH (1994) The Rainbow Conspiracy Windsor Publishing Corp New York p.62</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[31] Branton â Omega Files</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[32] Branton â Omega Files</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[33] Website â William Baconâs Home Page/Nordic Saucer Report.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[34] Brantons Testimony </span><a href="http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/media/mailing/archive/iufo/msg18723.shtml"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/media/mailing/archive/iufo/msg18723.shtml</span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[35] Branton â Omega Files</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">[36] Branton â Omega Files â âNazi Historyâ</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: x-small;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: x-small;"></span> <a href="http://moremagonia.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/nazi-ufo-mythos-part-two.html"><strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">PART TWO</span></strong></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: x-small;">......</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8510667310277187360.post-78326584818400290642015-02-04T09:16:00.004-08:002020-06-28T07:10:39.719-07:00Nazi UFO Mythos, Part Two<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp4tXUpIVMDsF4sO4z4UVq7HJncM6U2LWq88boH3QMXeH0UETj3RRjnVRIxYYa8WbJDiCU2m67wrJmktdZLV0TdC1IjYWRsHLfsPZYn4aacfsT6mGUP6O6BitMcGXeovl59XvdaK1ACnA/s1600/NAZI+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="383" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp4tXUpIVMDsF4sO4z4UVq7HJncM6U2LWq88boH3QMXeH0UETj3RRjnVRIxYYa8WbJDiCU2m67wrJmktdZLV0TdC1IjYWRsHLfsPZYn4aacfsT6mGUP6O6BitMcGXeovl59XvdaK1ACnA/s200/NAZI+02.jpg" width="100" /></a><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><b>THE NAZI UFO MYTHOS AN INVESTIGATION BY KEVIN McCLURE </b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: blue;"><b>PART TWO: SECTIONS 6 TO 10 AND CONCLUSIONS </b></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b>06. False Histories
</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Project Uranus</span></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In another careful analysis of a dubious element of UFO history, Andy Roberts says:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âWe have at least one outright hoax in foo-fighter lore. For years rumours had been flying round that the Germans had been fully aware of the foo-fighter phenomenon and that they had a special study group formed to look into the problem under the name of âProject Uranusâ, backed by a shadowy group by the name of Sonderburo 13. This was first detailed in La Livres Noir De Soucoupes Volantes (The Black Book of Flying Saucers â 1970) by French ufologist Henry Durrant. The rumour spread in Europe and eventually took physical form in the English language in Tim Goodâs acclaimed book Above Top Secret where it is used to help substantiate further vague rumours of an Anglo/American foo-fighter study. Good had not checked his facts and had in fact just copied the information direct from Durrantâs book. </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When I checked this out with Durrant he informed me that the whole âProject Uranusâ affair was a hoax which he had inserted in his book precisely to see who would copy it without checking. The hoax apparently had been revealed in France some years before but hadnât percolated its way through to English speaking ufologists. Perhaps other foo hoaxes await discovery.â [37]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The âSchweinfurt Raidâ</span></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This tale involves, well, little flying saucers, in a B-17 raid on October 14 1943, aimed at the ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt in Germany. It was publicised by popular US author Frank Edwards in Flying Saucers â Here and Now [38] in 1967, but I understand that the original glamourised version comes from one Martin Caidin, in his book Black Thursday, published in 1960. Caidin reports that:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âDuring the bomb run of several groups, starting at about the time the Fortresses approached the Initial Point, there occurred one of the most baffling incidents of World War II, and an enigma that to this day defies all explanation.â âAs the bombers of the 384th Group swung into the final bomb run after passing the Initial Point, the fighter attacks fell off. This point is vital, and pilots were queried extensively, as were other crew members, as to the position at that time of the German fighter planes. Every man interrogated was firm in his statement that âat the time there were no enemy aircraft above.â</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âAt this moment the pilots and top turret gunners, as well as several crewmen in the Plexiglas noses of the bombers, reported a cluster of discs in the path of the 384thâs formation and closing with the bombers. The startled exclamations focused attention on the phenomenon and the crews talked back and forth, discussing and confirming the astonishing sight before them.â</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âThe discs in the cluster were agreed upon as being silver colored, about one inch thick and three inches in diameter. They were easily seen by the B-17 crewmen, gliding down slowly in a very uniform cluster.â âAnd then the `impossibleâ happened. B-17 Number 026 closed rapidly with a number of discs; the pilot attempted to evade an imminent collision with the objects, but was unsuccessful in his maneuver. He reported at the intelligence debriefing that his right wing âwent directly through a cluster with absolutely no effect on engines or plane surface.â</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âThe intelligence officers pressed their questioning, and the pilot stated further that one of the discs was heard to strike the tail assembly of his B-17, but that neither he nor any member of the crew heard or witnessed an explosion.â âHe further explained that about twenty feet from the discs the pilots sighted a mass of black debris of varying sizes of clusters of three by four feet.â âThe SECRET report added: `Also observed two other A/C flying through silver discs with no apparent damage. Observed discs and debris two other times but could not determine where it came from.â</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âNo further information on this baffling incident has been uncovered, with the exception that such discs were observed by pilots and crew on missions prior to, and after, Mission 115 of October 14, 1943.â [39]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Caidinâs account is footnoted â1 Memorandum of October 24, 1943, from Major E.R.T. Holmes, F.L.O., 1st Bombardment Division, Reference FLO/IBW/REP/126, to M.I.15, War Office, Whitehall, London, SW (copy to Colonel E.W. Thomson, A-2, Pinetree)â, but Andy Roberts actively investigated the reference, and reports that</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âa letter to the M.O.D at their Air Historical Branch 5 came to nothing, suggesting that either of the documents may be held at the Public Records Office at Kew, London. A professional researcher was despatched to try to find the document. She searched all relevant Air Force records available (some are still bound by various `rulesâ with embargoes on viewing of up to 100 years) but could find nothing, despite the help of staff there and noting that âthe reference FLO etc. does not correspond with any references at the record office.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the USA, Dennis Stacy (then MUFON UFO Journal editor) had taken an interest in the case and followed up several leads, aided by the Freedom of Information Act. Firstly the A.F. Historical Research centre at Maxwell AFB searched their 8th A.F. files but could come across no documentary record of the event (interestingly enough I tried the same source and whilst they gave me squadron histories of the 415th Night Fighter squadron and their documented foo-fighter sightings, they could provide nothing on the Schweinfurt raid â odd if the Schweinfurt events were real).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The National Archives (Washington) searched their files but drew a blank. A letter written to French researcher J. M. Bigorne from the National Archives stated âA search in records of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS), European War, Target Damage File, 11a (2606), Schweinfurt, failed to disclose any documentation or information regarding little flying discs by B-17 pilots.â All this presents us with a quandary. If the Archives are quite free about some foo-fighter info why, if it exists at all, should they be that bothered about concealing the Schweinfurt material? So far three independent researchers over the past ten years have had the same answer â none of the flight records for that day record the event in Caidinâs book. As I have seen other pilotsâ logs which mention unusual UFO-type sightings during missions it would be inconceivable for at least a few aircrew on that raid to have mentioned it even in passing â especially as in this case it was obviously something of an item at de-briefing.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Letters in numerous aircrew magazines (UK & US) requesting info on the raid were placed and despite many replies no-one knew anything. Aviation writers Martin Middlebrook and Chaz Bowyer who have written many highly detailed books about the air war, and have interviewed thousands of aircrew, wrote to say they had never heard of the incident, despite having had foo-fighters mentioned to them in other contexts.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dennis Stacy contacted the 384th Bombing Group survivors association and with no account of the UFO sighting forthcoming from them was put onto General Theodore Ross Milton who led the raid that day and went in first with the 91st Group Formation. He wrote; âI donât recall seeing black discs or hearing about any strange phenomena from any of my group.â [40]</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Roberts and Stacy pursued the source further</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Martin Caidin, originator of the rumour also presents problems. His book <em>Black Thursday</em> was first published in 1960 and yet quotes an alleged SECRET report. How did he get hold of it then and why has it not been seen since? As for Caidin himself, several people have tried to get in touch with him without success. Both myself and (then) MUFON Journal editor Dennis Stacy have tried to track him down via his publishers and a UFO magazine he has written for, but to no avail. He last appeared in the dodgy US magazine UFO Universe where he was featured on the front page as having âchased bogies at 20,000 feet,â (an astonishing spectacle no doubt!), but whilst the article gave details of UFOs heâd seen post-WWII, government film of UFOs, cover-ups, and you name it (along with mucho promotion for his many books, including UFO based novels) the Schweinfurt raid was never mentioned. Funny that, really.â [41]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
However, with the terrier-like tenacity for which he is renowned, Roberts kept searching, and in September 2000 finally found, in the Records Office at Kew.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The document which Caidin obviously based his account on. It reads as follows. All spelling and punctuation is in the original. The file in which the document can be found is: AIR 40/464. At the top right of the document is a rubber stamp giving details of circulation to:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
1. Col Kingman Douglas<br />
2. A.I.3. ? (W/Cdr Smith)<br />
3. A.I. 2. ? (W/Cdr Heath)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
(Authorâs note: the ? refers to a squiggle or letter I cannot decipher, although it could well be âtoâ. Also the background of the stamp on which the above was written says:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âReceived 17 Oct 1943?<br />
âCopies sent to A.I.8 (USA))</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The rest of the document is as follows:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">EKG. TELEGRAM EN CLAIR 4112<br />Recd. AMCS. 171129a hrs Oct.43</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">To- OIAWW, OIAJX, OISHL, HBC, AMY.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">From â OIPNT</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">IMPORTANT â CONFIDENTIAL</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">8 BC 0-1079-E<br />Annex to Intelligence Report Mission Shweinfurt 16 October 1943</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">306 Group reporta partially unexploded 20mm shell imbedded above the panel in the cockpit of A/C number 412 bearing the following figures 19K43. The Group Ordnance Officer believes the steel composing the shell is of inferior grade. 348th Group reports a cluster of disks observed in the path of the formation near Schweinfurt, at the time there were no E/A above. Discs were described as silver coloured â one inch thick and three inches in diameter. They were gliding slowly down in very uniform cluster. A/C 026 was unable to avoid them and his right wing went directly through a cluster with absolutely no effect on engines or plane surface. One of the discs was heard striking tail assembly but no explosion was observed. About 20 feet from these discs a mass of black debris of varying sizes in clusters of 3 by 4 feet. Also observed 2 other A/C flying through silver discs with no apparent damage. Observed discs and debris 2 other times but could not determine where it came from.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Copies to:-</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">P.R. & A.I.6.<br />D.B.Ops<br />War Room<br />D.A.T.<br />A.I.3. (USA) (Action 2 copies)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Presumably Caidin must have seen a copy of this document from one of the American recipients . . . The Rubber stamp clearly states it was received on 17 October, pre-dating Caidinâs reference by seven days. But the sheer number of channels through which documents went could be the reason for this confusion and now the original document has been located I donât think we need get hung up on the original reference any more. I have found no record of most of the personnel listed. However a Squadron Leader Heath was involved in the UKâs investigations of the Scandinavian âghost rocketsâ in 1946.â</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He concludes:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At least we now know Caidinâs reference exists! Besides that there is little to say really. The objects reported are intriguing but not completely mystifying. There were many types of flak being used by the Germans in W.W.II and several files in the PRO refer to coloured flak, flak which threw off unusual fragments, and so on. This explanation is made more likely by the fact that the âF.L.O.â in Caidinâs reference stands for âFlak Liaison Officerâ, at least suggesting that the Air Ministry were treating it within a flak context. The objects could also have been some kind of âwindowâ dropped by the Germans in an attempt to disrupt radar or radio communication among air crew. The explanation as to what the small objects were is now more of a task for the air historian than it is for the ufologist. What is clear from the original account is that the discs, whilst unusual, were clearly not any type of âcraftâ, under intelligent or purposeful control or dangerous to the air craft or crew.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In my opinion these objects do not belong in the category of sightings referred to as âfoo-fightersâ, both by their physical description and by their behaviour and characteristics. Although often lumped in with foo-fighter reports they are clearly different. This story has been a staple of UFO writers for the past three four decades. Now we have further clarification and I believe that this particular mystery is more or less laid to rest.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Andy Roberts is more charitable to Caidinâs exaggerated and redefined version of the report than I, but Caidin is nowhere near as foolish as those who put together the second block (1998 release) of âMajestic 12' documents. Nevertheless, Nick Redfern and Jonathan Downes present a copy of a section of these silly documents, which says:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âAerial interference with military aircraft has demonstrated the ability to observe our air operations in war and peacetime conditions. During the war over 900 near-miss incidents were reported by allied pilots and crews in all theater of operations. One of the most dramatic near-miss encounters occurred on 14 October 1943, 8th AF Mission 115 over Schweinfurt, Germany, B-17 crews reported many formations of silvery discs flying down into the B-17 formations. Several times during the bombing mission, large objects were seen following the discs descent into the formations. Unlike previous reports, no engine failures or airframe damage was reported. After the surrender of Nazi Germany, GAF fighter pilots were interrogated by AF intelligence concerning Mission 135. GAF did not have any aircraft above our bombers at that time.â [42]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Iâve never found the whole âMJ-12' idea credible, but at least the first release of documents was prepared with sufficient care to provoke meaningful discussion. This ridiculous exaggeration of an already elaborated tale makes the second release of documents look absurd. I would also point out that the Nazi UFO mythos and MJ-12 are essentially incompatible: if the Americans had already gained the ability to build high-performance flying discs from the Germans, why would they have become so excited about crashed ET discs? And why didnât all those portentous âfirst-releaseâ documents mention them at all?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Massey Project</span></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Redfern and Downes continue to publicise another claim made by Frank Edwards, just before his account of the Schweinfurt Raid. Despite being aware of the negative outcomes of research conducted by both Andy Roberts and Tim Good, they say</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
âAs far as the British Government is concerned, there is strong evidence to show that extremely rigorous investigations were made into the Foo Fighter phenomenon by an elite team of Air Ministry and Royal Air Force operatives.â [43]</div>
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They quote Edwards:</div>
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âAs early as 1943, the British had set up a small organisation to gather information on these objects. It was under the direction of Lieutenant General Massey, and it had been inspired to some extent by the reports of a spy who was in reality a double agent, working under the directions of the Mayor of Cologne. He had confirmed that the Foo Fighters were not German devices, which of course the British knew they were not. The British Air Ministry, in 1966, told me that the Massey project was officially terminated in 1944. Perhaps it is only coincidence that the double agent was exposed and executed in the spring of 1944.â [44]</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Three problems arise immediately. Tim Good has established, from a dependable source, that there was no Lieutenant General Massey. Almost all the foo fighter reports date from 1944 onwards, so itâs not clear why âextremely rigorous investigationsâ should start in 1943 and end in 1944. And what on earth was a spy doing being controlled by the Mayor of Cologne? On the evidence, the âMassey Projectâ sounds like a complete, and deliberate, fabrication.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Crashed saucers and back-engineering</span></strong></div>
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Nick Redfern makes a great deal of limited evidence in suggesting that there has ever been one extra-terrestrial flying craft crash on Earth since 1900, let alone more than one. He has not, however, been unwilling to suggest that the Nazis had access to one or more crashed flying saucers, and back-engineered technology from them. This, supposedly, was how they were able to develop such sophisticated flying discs! Of course, he is not alone in making suggestions of this kind, but I hardly need point out that when the evidence suggests that Germany had no sophisticated flying discs, then there is nothing to explain. Anyway, Redfern concludes from the rather desperate, and generally quite implausible intelligence reports that he has collected</div>
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âIf . . the data related in official FBI memoranda of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s is accurate, how were the Nazis able to develop technology that, years later, was still defying Americaâs finestâ As I will later show, there are firm grounds for believing that a number of extra terrestrial vehicles crashed to earth on US soil in the late 1940s. Is it stretching the bounds of possibility to speculate that a similar event may have occurred on Nazi territory several years previously? If such an event did take place, and the Germans were able to grasp the rudiments of the technology, this would perhaps go a long way towards explaining their pressing desire to perfect a man-made flying saucer. The truth may ultimately turn out to be far stranger than has previously been realised.â [45]</div>
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Well, yes, it really does stretch the bounds of possibility, but that doesnât stop Corso from reporting, in <em>The Day After Roswell</em>, what he and General Twining had wondered about after inspecting the crashed saucer at Roswell:</div>
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âAt the very least, Twining had suggested, the crescent-shaped craft looked so uncomfortably like the German Horten wings our flyers had seen at the end of the war that he had to suspect the Germans had bumped into something we didnât know about. And his conversations with Wehrner von Braun and Willy Ley at Alamogordo in the days after the crash confirmed this. They didnât want to be thought of as verruckt but intimated that there was a deeper story about what the Germans had engineered. No, the similarity between the Horten wing and the craft they had pulled out of the arroyo was no accident. We always wondered how the Germans were able to incorporate such advanced technology into their weapons development in so short a time and during the Great Depression. Did they have help? With an acceleration capability and maneuverability weâd never seen before, this craft would keep American aircraft engineers busy for years just incorporating what you could see into immediate designs.â [46]</div>
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While weâre in a corner of reality that accepts the reality of the Roswell crash, and its cargo of dead or possibly living entities, I have to mention the analysis of Polish writer Zbigniew Blania-Bolnar in Alien Encounters for April 1998. Telling us that â . . the post-war American Army had at its disposal a considerable number of V2 rockets, several V3 and V4 prototypes, and about 30 kugelblitzes of different kindsâ, he concludes that the dead entity in the Laredo crash (the Laredo crash?) was âa laboratory monkey used by the Air Force in a secret experiment.â And, of course, âif a tested kugelblitz crashed at Laredo, then a similar object could have crashed at Roswell.â [47]</div>
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None of the suggestions that the Germans back-engineered crashed alien craft pre-date the Lazar and Lear back-engineering stories. Three more have come to light already. In her book âSightings: UFOsâ Susan Michaels reports that writer Jan Van Helsing (a contact of the inner circle of the âMontauk Projectâ)</div>
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âdescribes the discovery of a crashed saucer in the Black Forest in 1936 and says that this technology was taken and combined with the information the Vril Society had received through channeling and was made into a further project called the Haunebu.â [48]</div>
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There is also a report of a crash in Italy in 1933, the details and information of which were made known to Mussolini, and which assisted Belluzzo in his design and development. [49] And at the âGdansk UFO-Marathonâ in October 1997, it was announced that there had been a crash in Poland in the summer of 1938, in Czernica. Evidence and wreckage recovered from the crash was seized by Nazi Germany after the invasion of Poland the next year, and the information so gathered was used in the building of the âHaunebuâ and âVrilâ craft. [50] The current popularity of back-engineering is such that I expect to see more such reports.<br />
</div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><strong>07: Unnamed Soldiers</strong></span> </div>
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The term âunnamed soldierâ is one which I â I think â coined to describe the anonymous supposed ex-forces personnel who purveyed such nonsense about alien abductions and secret military activities over the last decade or so. But the phenomenon is nothing new, as is evidenced by a few typical reports which Iâve selected here.</div>
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Redfern and Downes have reprinted some accounts volunteered to the US intelligence services. The nature of intelligence collection is, of course, that it involves collecting every scrap of nonsense, every wild claim that can be collected, and then sifting through it for what might be important. I donât think that any of these reports could be said to be important, or even truthful, but it is always useful for authors to present material like this as âintelligence reportsâ. This is, it seems, from a letter from 1947, the writer have been inspired by early flying saucer accounts:</div>
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âRecently I have heard and read about reports of disc-shaped aircraft or whatever they are, in our Western regions. They reminded me of a nearly-forgotten incident in Germany, after the war. I report this to you because I feel this may be of international scope.</div>
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My buddy and I went on pass to see a friend of his. One evening the three of us were driving along some back roads when I sighted strange-looking object in the sky from eight to ten miles to our front and approximately 5,000 feet high. I immediately stopped the jeep for a better look The object rapidly came toward us, descending slowly. About a mile away it stopped its horizontal motion but continued a slow-oscillating descent similar to a descending parachute. Then it stopped in a spiral motion.</div>
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Immediately I drove to where it had dropped. It took almost five minutes to reach the place but we saw nothing. After ten minutes of cruising around the area it became too dark to see so we went back to town.</div>
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I am not sure my companions saw this because it happened so quickly it could easily have been missed, but I described what I had seen so vividly that they were as excited as I was . . The locale of this incident was approximately 120 miles north-west of Ubberbishophiem.â [51]</div>
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Redfern and Downes continue</div>
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âWhat were perhaps two of the most persuasive accounts positing a direct link between the Nazi war machine and unidentified flying objects came via two individuals interviewed by FBI agents, in 1957 and 1967 respectively.</div>
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In the 1957 case, agents at Detroit recorded that they had spoken with a man who wasâŠ</div>
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ââŠborn February 19,1926, in the State of Warsaw, Poland, and was brought from Poland as a Prisoner of War to Gut Alt Golssen approximately 30 miles east of Berlin, Germany, in May1942, where he remained until a few weeks after the end of World War II. According to the man, during 1944, month not recalled, while enroute to work in a field a short distance north of Gut Alt Golssen, their tractor engine stalled on a road through a swamp area. No machinery or other vehicle was then visible although a noise was heard described as a high-pitched whine similar to that produced by a large electric generator.</div>
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An âSSâ guard appeared and talked briefly with the German driver of the tractor, who waited five to ten minutes, after which the noise stopped and the tractor engine was started normally. Approximately 3 hours later in the same swamp area, but away from the road where the work crew was cutting hay, he surreptitiously, because of the German in charge of the crew and âSSâ guards in the otherwise deserted area, observed a circular enclosure approximately 100 to 150 yards in diameter protected from viewers by a tarpaulin-type wall approximately 50 feet high, from which a vehicle was observed to slowly rise vertically to a height sufficient to clear the wall and then to move slowly horizontally a short distance out of his view, which was obstructed by trees.</div>
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âThis vehicle, observed from approximately 500 feet, was described as circular in shape, 75 to 100 yards in diameter, and about 14 feet high, consisting of dark gray stationary top and bottom sections, five to six feet high. The approximate three foot middle section appeared to be a rapidly moving component producing a continuous blur similar to an aeroplane propeller, but extending the circumference of the vehicle so far as could be observed. The noise emanating from the vehicle was similar but of somewhat lower pitch than the noise previously heard. The engine of the tractor again stalled on this occasion and no effort was made by the German driver to start the engine until the noise stopped, after which the engine started normally.â</div>
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The next report comes from 1967:</div>
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âOn April 26,1967 [the witness] appeared at the Miami Office and furnished the following information relating to an object, presently referred to as an unidentified flying object, he allegedly photographed during November, 1944.</div>
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âSometime during 1943, he graduated from the German Air Academy and was assigned as a member of the Luftwaffe on the Russian Front. Near the end of 1944, he was released from this duty and was assigned as a test pilot to a top secret project in the Black Forest of Austria. During this period he observed the aircraft described above. It was saucer-shaped, about twenty-one feet in diameter, radio-controlled, and mounted several jet engines around the exterior portion of the craft. He further described the exterior portion as revolving around the dome in the center which remained stationary. It was his responsibility to photograph the object while in flight. He asserted he was able to retain a negative of a photograph he made at 7,000 meters (20,000 feet).</div>
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According to him, the above aircraft was designed and engineered by a German engineer whose present whereabouts is unknown to him. He also assumed the secrets pertaining to this aircraft were captured by Allied Forces. He said this type of aircraft was responsible for the downing of at least one American B-26 airplane.</div>
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He has become increasingly concerned because of the unconfirmed reports concerning a similar object and denials the United States has such an aircraft. He feels such a weapon would be beneficial in Vietnam and would prevent the further loss of American lives which was his paramount purpose in contacting the Federal Bureau of Investigation.â [52]</div>
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Paul Stonehill of the Russian Ufology Research Centre has presented some unlikely tales from the former Soviet Union, but few are as dramatic as the anonymous account apparently told to âKonstantin Tiouts, an engineer in Moscow, Russiaâ who passed it on to Stonehill. Stonehill is âconvinced of the authenticity of the documentâ. The witness â âXâ â was in the Red Army when, in 1941</div>
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âThe Germans took him and his comrades to a POW camp. X was then immersed into living hell. He starved. He was betrayed. He was dying of typhus, but he managed to survive and attempted an escape. But they caught him and sent him to Auschwitz. There he was âemployedâ as a medical orderly, until he again contracted typhus.</div>
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X was sent to the ovens. He recalls the nauseating smell of the burning human flesh as he stood in line to be dispatched into a crema-torium oven. But X did again survive. In August of 1943, X and some other prisoners were moved to a camp in the vicinity of Peenemunde, where the Nazisâ camp was designated as âKZ-A4,â and located in Trassenhede. The campâs purpose was to carry out the programs of the Hochdrukpumpe Project: removal of the consequences of British bombing raids. Hangman of Auschwitz, SS Brigadenfuhrer Hans Kampler ordered prisoners to be transferred to the Peenemunde testing grounds. Major General Dehrenberger, head of the testing ground, had little time for the reconstruction work, and therefore sanctioned the use of concentration camp prisoners.</div>
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In September of 1943. X inadvertently became a witness to something that is of great interest to UFO researchers. X was with a group of prisoners engaged in demolishing a reinforced concrete wall. During the lunch break, the group was driven away. under guard. However, X remained at the demolition site, because of a dislocated foot. Later he set the bone himself, but the truck with his fellow prisoners had already left. Sud-denly, four workers rolled out on a concrete landing strip next to a nearby hangar a weird looking apparatus. X described it as round in parameter with a drop-shaped cockpit in the center with small inflatable wheels. He said it looked like an upside down washbasin. After a hand signal from a short, stout man, quiver-ing in the wind, the strange apparatus. the color of heavy silvery metal, made a hissing sound and took off.</div>
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It hovered at an altitude of approximately five meters over the landing strip, the hissing sound reminding X of a blowlamp. He noted that the outline of the apparatus clearly showed through on its silvery surface. For a short while the device rocked, like a tilting doll. and then the borders of the outline slowly began to blur as if it were going out of focus. Then it jumped up sharply like a humming top and gained altitude in a snakelike motion. The flight, judging by the rocking of the apparatus, advanced erratically. A sudden gust of wind from the Baltic Sea turned the craft upside down, and it began to lose altitude rather sharply. X was enveloped in a mixture of smells-burning, hot air and ethyl alcohol. He heard the apparatus impacting with the ground, the crunching and breaking of compo-nents. It hit the ground not far away from X. Instinctively, the inmate ran toward the crashed apparatus, thus revealing himself. But he had only one thought in his mind-to try to save the pilot, a human being . . . [53]</div>
</li>
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</div>
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And so it goes on, a man who makes Indiana Jones look like Thomas the Tank Engine, and sees flying saucers as well. Another classic â and amazingly brave except when giving his name â âunnamed soldierâ comes from an Internet posting also, as often happens, published by Nexus magazine. This is, supposedly, an account of the real secrets of the âfoo fightersâ, told by a former Italian Resistance member who became so close to the SAS in Southern Italy from 1943 to 1945 that he was able to see films taken of them shot by allied planes but (and does this seem familiar?) could only show âItalian researcher Fabio Di Radoâ stills taken from these. In a particularly modern twist this nameless witness did not, however, say that he believed that they were of German manufacture. Instead, he supposedly told Di Rado:</div>
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âThose machines, if we can call them that, could perform such quick and agile movements that they were unlikely to have been built by human beings. You can believe me â foo-fighters couldnât be Nazi â otherwise they could have won the war easily. The more likely hypothesis . . an Air Force coming from other worlds was among us.â</div>
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The absolute giveaway to this tale lies in the beginning of the account</div>
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âDuring the Spring of 1998 I went with another person to an inland village of Sicily to meet an 80-year-old man who claimed to have some unknown documents about foo fighters.</div>
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When we arrived at a farmhouse in the heart of the countryside, our witness showed us into a room which seemed to be his private study . . We were ordered not to take pictures; we could only make notes. To our disappointment, we had to accept this. I was given a copy on high-resolution CD-ROM of the pictures and documents that I saw there in the original version, with some censored parts.â [54]</div>
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Whatever would we do without the contribution of these rural Italian 80-year-olds and their high resolution CD-ROMs?</div>
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</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Prague-Kbely</span></strong></div>
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Probably the most influential of the original âunnamed soldierâ accounts formed, in the late 1980s, an input to the mythos which led to the identification of a specific aerodrome as the location for a test flight of a substantial flying disc. This seems to have come from an anonymous, untested press account, here summarised (in translation) in an excerpt titled The Reichâs Flying Saucers by Manuel Carballal, excerpted from his book <em>Saucers Unveiled!.</em></div>
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âIn its February 1989 issue, the German magazine Flugzeug published the following report made by a German aviation official who, allegedly, been the protagonist of the astonishing sighting involving a âflying saucerâ at the Prag-Gbell (formerly Praha-Kbely) aerodrome in 1943. The controversial report follows:</div>
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Place of Sighting: C 14 Flight School at the Prag-Gbell aerodrome. Date of Event August/September 1943, supposedly on a Sunday (I seem to recall there were no services on that day. The weather was good, dry and sunny. Kind of Observation: âI was with my flight comrades on the air strip, more precisely, near the school buildings, some 2000 meters away from the arsenal (located to the extreme left). See adjoining diagram. The device was inside the hangar: a disk some 5-6 meters in diameter. Its body is relatively large at the center. Underneath, it has four tall, thin legs. Color: Aluminum. Height: Almost as tall as a man. Thickness: some 30 â 40 cm., with an rim of external rods, perhaps square orifices. The upper part of the body (almost a third of the total height) was shrunken over the upper half of the disk. It was flat and rounded. See the attached sketch for the lower half.</div>
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Along with my friends, I saw the device emerge from the hangar. It was then that we heard the roar of the engines, we saw the external side of the disk begin to rotate, and the vehicle began moving slowly and in a straight line toward the southern end of the field. It then rose almost 1 meter into the air. After moving around some 300 meters at that altitude, it stopped again. Its landing was rather rough. We had to leave the area while some custodians pushed the vehicles toward the hangar. Later on, the âthingâ took off again, managing to reach the end of the aerodrome this time.</div>
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<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
Afterwards, I made a note in my flight log of the members of the FFS C14 who were present at the moment: Gruppenfluglehrer (group flight instructor) Ofw. Michelsen; Fluglehrer Uffz. Kolh und Buhler; FlugschĂŒler (flight students): Ogefr, Klassmann, Kleiner, MĂŒller, Pfaffle, Schenk, Seifert, Seibert, Squarr, Stahn, Weinberger, Zoebele, Gefr, Hering, Koza, Sitzwohl, Voss, and Waluda.â</div>
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Certainly, even <em>Flugzeugâs </em>editors treat the report cautiously: âthe device described by these observers is antithetical to those described by Schreiver, Habermohl, Miethe, and Bellonzo with their vast basic dimensions.â And these German experts cannot be mistaken, since it is known to all of those who are well-versed in aeronautics that during the history of Nazi aviation at least two circular-wing aircraft were built, and fifteen others were designed, although there remains the possibility that the object supposedly tested at Prag-Gbell was one of the prototypes destroyed by the Nazis in order to keep it from falling into Allied hands after the fall of the Third Reich.â [55]</div>
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<strong><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">8. Authorities from Earth and Elsewhere</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ashtar</span></strong></div>
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Perhaps we should start at the top, in worlds other than ours, and then work our way back, very much, down to the depths. You can always be sure that wherever two or three are gathered together to listen to channeling, Ashtar will be there too. Here is a message channeled by âLady Nadaâ in 1996, under the title âHome Questions From Our Visitorsâ. The presentation and spelling are verbatim!</div>
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Ques: What is the Relation of the Ashtar Command & the Human Race?</div>
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Ans: The Ashtar Command are among many entities that come to Earth and have been circle above the Earth-for the most part invisible to the naked Eye Since early 1950's A.D. . . There have been many people who were contacted by Extra-Terra-Astrals. Some of their stories were fabricated and some were authentic. These Beings from Aldebaran were insulted after they were labeled untrustworthy. They Went back in time and had a meeting of psychics with the Thule Society who were a secret society. The meeting of the Thule Society led to what is Called the Third Rite (Reich). The Ashtar Command were also in contact with two psychics, named Maria Austish and Zigrum who were in contact with Hitler. Hitler and Nazi Germany were building crafts during WWII. Hitler assembled a team of elite and intelligent scientist and engineers who were experts in the field of Aerodynamics. They began designs for the flying disc in 1941 A.D. During the year 1945-47 three German experts Schriver, Habermohl, and Meithe and an Italian A. Bellonzo were involved in R&D of a saucer-shaped craft. On February 14,1945 A.D. Shriver & Habermohl flew a disc that within 3 minutes climb to an altitude of 12,400 meters and reached a speed of 2,000 km/h in horizontal flight. This technology was given to them by the Ashtar Command. [56] </div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Billy Meier and Pâtaah</span></strong></div>
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Billy Meier, the Swiss contact and photographer of beings, and craft, from the Pleiades, has never really convinced me of the objective reality of either his contacts or his photos. I am certainly not alone in taking that view, and my opinion has not been improved by a conversation that Meier reports in Volume 1, No 6 of his FIGU Bulletin, published in English in October 1997. A reader â âTil Meisterhans, Germanyâ â quotes from a balanced, and quite sceptical, article âarticle in the January 1980 edition of UFO magazineâ, and asks:</div>
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âWhat should one think of the claim that during World War II the Germans built flying disks, respectively flying âFoo Fighters,â and actually flew them?</div>
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Those of you who are accustomed to the staking of claims for responsibility for anomalous objects and events will not be surprised to find that Meier cannot resist responding with âinformationâ to which only he has access. He writes:</div>
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âThe following is worth mentioning: According to the Pleiadians/Plejarans, such âFoo Fightersâ or disks were constructed in Germany but were never test flown, let alone put into service. Anyone claiming such flying devices reached speeds of several thousand kilometers per hour, flew at altitudes of 12.000 meters [36,000 ft.], and actually reached Mars, is talking complete nonsense. The authentic story about these events is discussed in the 254th contact conversation with Pâtaah on November 28, 1995:</div>
</li>
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âBilly: . . .You know, my dear friend, now and then one hears strange things regarding the German flying disks. Is it true that the Germans actually attempted to fly them, and did the disks reach altitudes of up to 12,000 meters?</div>
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Ptaah: Such claims are absurd. The âFlying Tops,â as they were called, were never finalized in Germany. However, flying disks were eventually built some time later in other countries, e.g., in South America. In the former Soviet Union and in America attempts were also made to construct such flying devices after pertinent blueprints fell into the hands of Germanyâs occupying forces. These blueprints were incomplete in that those who held the plans needed to input a great deal of effort to construct the flying disks. These units were and are flown in terrestrial air space only to this day, excluding, of course, a particular group of people in South America of which you are well aware.</div>
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Billy: Can you also tell me whether the blueprints for this type of flying disks secured by the occupying forces were the same ones you people telepathically transmitted to the Germans via impulses? Who was actually in charge in Germany?</div>
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Paah: The transmissions were directed to two men, Schriever and Miethe who, on their own, had drawn up plans for the âFlying Tops.â These blueprints fell into the hands of the Americans and Soviets who began studying and constructing the units. Also, through theft, the group in South America obtained copies of the same âFlying Tops.â </div>
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Billy: One can say with certainty that this group consisted of high-ranking Nazis who fled from Germany after the war ended and disappeared in South America.</div>
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Ptaah: You should not mention any more about this subject.</div>
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Billy: Of course not. â On account of World War II, disk-shaped flying objects were observed also in Germany, indeed, worldwide . . .</div>
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Ptaah: You are correct in this, yes. However, these flying objects were not of terrestrial origin. They belonged to us and to our allies from the federation.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Billy: This would mean that the flying disks which had been observed were not related to the flying disks, respectively âFlying Topsâ disks, or Foo Fighters, of the Germans. Claims to the contrary, therefore, are actually foolish assertions by liars, fantasists, and know-it-alls. Weâve wanted to know about this for a long time.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ptaah: What I have told you only refers to the Schriever and Miethe Foo Fighters.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Billy: You mean there were others?</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ptaah: Yes, others did exist. However, they were part of a private research program conducted by power hungry Nazis who drew upon Schrieverâs and Mietheâs blueprints. Efforts to develop and test fly their Foo Fighters were underway with positive results in Germany at that time.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Billy: By the group now in South America?</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ptaah: Your conjecture is correct.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Billy: And all of this took place right under the nose of the Gestapo?</div>
</blockquote>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
Ptaah: Many influential members of the Gestapo and its SS-leadership were secret, active participants who attempted to prevent the rest of the world from gleaning any information about the construction, test flights, and other matters. When the war ended, they fled Germany and went to South America, taking with them all of their material and staff. This was not a difficult task, for the Foo Fighters had reached a point were they had the capability of circling the Earth non-stop and transporting all required personnel and materials to South America before the Allied Forces could seize them â or prior to the Allied Forces finding out anything about these secrets.</div>
</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Billy: So thatâs how this all happened. How far did the construction of Schrieverâs and Mietheâs Foo Fighters progress?</div>
</blockquote>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
Ptaah: The prototype for the first test flight was available on July 15, 1941. We monitored this very closely. The Foo Fighter was, however, not constructed according to the data we had transmitted, for we had intentionally made them ineffective by then, as we could foresee the grave danger they would present for terrestrial mankind. [Comments by Billy: The Pleiadians/Plejarans transmitted data for the construction of flying disks to the Germans Schriever and Miethe at the end of the 1920s and beginning of 1930s with the intent to produce an aeronautical technology that would help prevent the looming warfare conflicts. Unfortunately, they soon realized that this technology would be used for the exact opposite purposes. For this reason, the Pleiadians/Plejarans counteracted the undertaking again.] We did not attempt to interfere in the development of Schrieverâs and Mietheâs Foo Fighter until we suddenly recognized that the units also posed an immense threat to mankind. Once we realized the flight was going to be a full success, and that mass production of the Foo Fighter would result, we intervened during the preparations to the first test flight.â</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This âdialogueâ continues on for some time, until Meier concludes:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
â . . fantastic stories were concocted about flying disks/Foo Fighters which were said to have reached altitudes of 12,000 meters [7_ miles] and Mach 2 or more during their first test flight (which never did take place). Additionally, a fairy tale tells of the Germans having flown to Mars, landing and performing studies there, so that they could inhabit the planet one day. Complete nonsense, all of it. Billyâ [57]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Henry Stephens</span></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Henry Stephens runs the âGerman Research Projectâ, and sells copies both of much of the pro-mythos material, and of more identifiably Nazi and arguably antâSemitic material. In an article in âThe Probeâ, referring to the work supposedly done on a flying disc by A.V. Roe in Canada, he claims that one of the recorded contributors to the project is shown as âMiethe-Designer 1950(?)â Spinning off into the realms of imagination, Stephens continues:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âThe reference is obviously about Dr Heinrich (Heinrich? How many names does this man have?) Richard Miethe, who was the designer and builder of the wartime German saucer project, the V-7. Dr Miethe worked during the war at a German facility in Breslau, now part of modern Poland. After the war, he was recruited by the Americans and Canadians to recapitulate his earlier work for Germany in America. Renato Vesco, an Italian engineer who worked with the Germans during the war and who afterwards held a cabinet position with the Italian government, states that Kahla was the location where a turbo-jet powered German saucer lifted off in its maiden flight in February of 1945. Vesco later wrote a book about his experiences, originally titled âIntercept but Donât Shootââ [58]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Actually, for all his wild speculation, Vesco never claimed that he was writing from his own experience, but details like that simply donât bother Stephens, as he spirals off into wild assertions about German free energy, atom bombs, Vril, Haunebu, Tesla, Montauk, the New World Order and the rest. And all this from the man whose mail-order business makes him one of the more influential figures in this strange field. His 1998 catalogue outlines the purposes of the GRP:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
German Research Project is an organization devoted to distributing information concerning flying saucer-type devices made by the Germans during the Second World War. Beyond this goal, we also hope to distribute information concerning other German weaponry and technology, such as free-energy technology, which is still kept secret and classified by the former Allied Powers. We also hope to explore the reasons for this secrecy. Part of this technology now comprises the research being done by the Americans at Area 51. Much of this technology was retained by a German organizations which did not surrender at the cessation of hostilities. These groups and their histories will be explored also.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Germans built several types of flying craft which today we would designate âUFOsâ. Some were conventionally powered, that is with jet and rocket power, and some were powered electromagnetically. They were built in different places throughout the greater German Reich by different organizations within the government. They were kept under the tightest secrecy. Near the close of the War some of these devices were disassembled and transported by U-boat or simply flown to secure areas outside Germany.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Today, especially since the unification of Germany, more and more information is surfacing concerning these developments in spite of the efforts by our government and its media to discredit, divert and confuse the issue. For those individuals new to this topic, we suggest first reading item number 16 in our catalogue, âIntroduction To Secret German Flying Discs Of World War 2? and any title from our video offerings.â [59]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Len Kasten</span></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The incidence of disinformation with relation to Nazi achievements in general, and flying discs in particular, is high. Hereâs some parts of an article by âLen Kastenâ from the New Age glossy Atlantis Rising. As usual, he adopts Vesco as an authority, and introduces Viktor Schauberger into the myth. It may be that he actually produces the most detailed account of disc-propulsion, too!</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âThe more important anti-gravity weapons research was carried on near Prague primarily by Viktor Schauberger and Richard Miethe. In 1944 Miethe, in cooperation with the Italians, developed the large helium powered V-7 and the small one-man Vril models which achieved a speed of 2,900 km/hr in flight tests . . Captain Hans Kohler developed the Hanibu 2 with a diameter of 25 metres which carried a complete flight crew and was powered by a simple electrogravitation motor called the Kohler Converter . .</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kasten describes the (totally fictional) Kugelblitz as an âexplosive gas weaponâ, having</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âa 50-50 mixture of butane and propane, which was ignited by the exhaust of the bombers . . direct gyroscopic stabilisation, television-controlled flight, vertical take-off and landing, jam-free radio control combined with radar blinding, infrared search âeyesâ, electrostatic weapon firing, hyper-combustible gas combined with a total reaction turbine, and last, but not least, anti-gravity flight technology. This was the incredible Kugelblitz or âlightning ballâ. If it had emerged even six months earlier, could the war have turned out differently? We will never know, because by this time the Allied armies were rapidly converging on Berlin. So the Kugelblitz puffed out a formation of bombers, and flew off into history â or did it?â [60]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Weâll return to the âformation of bombersâ when we come to Wendelle Stevens</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">David Hatcher-Childress</span></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Those of you familiar with the fields of both pseudo-science and pseudo-history â and pseudo pretty much anything, really â will already know of the boundless imagination of Hatcher-Childress. In his publication <em>Man-Made UFOs 1944 â 1994, 50 Years of Suppression</em>, by âRenato Vesco and David Hatcher-Childressâ, Hatcher-Childress actually republishes the whole of Vescoâs first book (without really making clear thatâs what it is), adds some early UFO photos that might look like the ones he appears to believe were built in Germany during the war, and speculations of his own. His âSummary of the Claims and Evidenceâ has some familiar elements . . .</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âAfter various experimental prototypes, including the rocket powered Miethe and Schriever discs, production began on the small ten meter diameter interceptor-fighters of the Vril series. The larger Haunibu series began with the 25 meter Haunibu 1 & 2. These craft had canons mounted underneath and were designed as âtank Killersâ.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The 74 meter Haunibu-3, designed as an anti-shipping craft for use over long distances, was actually built and tested. It had inflatable rubber cushions on the underside for landing. The 300 meter Haunibu-4 was on the design board for interplanetary travel. It was disc shaped and could also carry several of the smaller Vril craft. Also reportedly in the design stage was an immense 330 meter cigar-shaped battleship.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Towards the end of the war, the Germans had developed interplanetary craft with no moving parts which were capable of going to the Moon or even Mars.â [61]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In âThe Thesis of This Bookâ, he also asserts that</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âSome German divisions removed themselves to South America and Antarctica in the few months and weeks before the end of the war . . the Americans, British and Russians began to build test discoid aircraft in the late 40s and 5Os. Isolated German pockets in South America have intense UFO activity. Antarctic bases are probably vacated or captured by Americans and Russians. Today, a seven-story or more underground base run jointly by America and Russia exists at the South Pole.â [62]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have no idea whether Hatcher-Childress actually believes this nonsense. I suppose he must, because otherwise heâd be knowingly misleading his many readers. Unfortunately, this concoction of a book has created something of a new generation of believers, including the UK author Alan Baker. In spite of his publisherâs confident assertion of his âmeticulous researchâ for his book <em>Invisible Eagle</em>, Baker accepted Hatcher-Childress without question, and now a new readership is stuck with Vesco developing flying discs at Lake Garda and investigating UFOs for the Italian Air Ministry, the reality of the Feuerball and Kugelblitz, and the top-secret Projekt Saucer. One manâs research is another manâs trip to the bookshop.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wendelle Stevens</span></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Wendelle Stevens, veteran ufologist and Billy Meier supporter has, he says, been privy to a unique range of experiences pertaining to Nazi UFOs. As well as having been âsent to Alaska to supervise the installation of special equipment onboard B-29 bombersâ to look for âmysterious flying objects known as âfire ballsâ or âfoo fightersââ, he claims in âAlien Encountersâ issue 25 that the Vril and Haunebu discs âwere used just once against the Allies, in which they devastated a vast 800 bomber raid over Germany, shooting down an unprecedented 200 in just one nightâ. [63] Bomber Command clearly missed this tragedy when compiling its records.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
David Icke, who in <em>The Biggest Secret</em> takes the Nazi UFO mythos as true along with hundreds of other nonsensical beliefs, reports Stevens as saying that</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âthe Foo Fighters were sometimes grey-green, and sometimes red-orange. They approached his aircraft as close as five metres and then just stayed there, he said. They could not be shaken off or shot down and caused many squadrons to either turn back or land.â [64]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Stevens also purports that while working at the Air Technical Intelligence Center he saw a map of Germany which was marked with nine Saturn-shaped symbols. He later found out from Vladimir Terziski that these were where Nazi research centres were located,</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âBy the end of the war the Nazis had nine secret research facilities where they built two types of disc: the smaller âVrilâ craft, and the much bigger âHaunebuâ Both of these were powered by a âgravity null fieldâ. In test flights the craft rose 60,000ft in just six and a half minutes, which radically outstripped the performance of any allied aircraft.â [65]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vanguard Science/KeelyNet/Al Pinto</span></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Any Internet search for âNazi UFOsâ and similar subjects is likely to produce links to material by âAl Pintoâ or âTalâ, apparently âSponsored by Vanguard Sciences, PO Box 1031, Mesquite, TX 75150, USAâ which depends heavily on the article written under Vescoâs name in âArgosyâ. [66] Additional material re Nikola Tesla and Viktor Schauberger is added to quotes from Vesco and Lusar, particularly a claim that Schauberger had developed the âSchriever, Habermohl, Miethe and Bellonzo Flying Discâ at Malthausen Concentration Camp, using prisoners to do the work. I still donât really know quite who âAl Pintoâ and âTalâ are, or what the underlying intention of âVanguard Sciencesâ may be. The coincidence of the name âVanguardâ with a prominent neo-Nazi organisation has been mentioned to me on several occasions.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I did receive, through a friend who had published some earlier findings on Nazi UFOs, a message from a Jack Veach who said (inter alia) that</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âMr McClure makes some very positive statements debunking a great deal of untruths about Nazi UFOs, however I would like to offer him a website and an email whereby he might find more information about Mr Renate Vesco.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I am a member of Vanguard Science, not Vangard Science, as he has listed. This is a civilian group of folk, here in the Dallas-Ft Worth area that are open-minded about the verity of science and have taken it upon ourselves to study Tesla, Keely, and a host of others we feel have been given the short-end of the stick with respect to technology and applications thereof.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mr Jerry Decker and Mr Chuck Henderson could much better avail you of information about Mr Vesco and his work. I personally had an English translation of one of his works I gave away about ten years ago pursuant the German V-7.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My father and his C.O. both saw Foo Fighters over Europe during WWII, so that much is real. Neither my dad nor Col. Lasly knew anything about UFOs, nor had any interest in them. What they did say was that between the Foo Fighters and the Me-262s they encountered, they felt they would be killed before the war was over in Europe.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I hope that will clear some things up for Mr McClure with respect to Vanguard Science and Mr Vesco and hopefully all of us can clear the riddle of the Nazi UFOs from all the smoke and mirrors that unfortunately come to the fore on something of this nature.â</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My friend sent an e-mail back to Mr Veach, expressing my interest in receiving further information about Vesco, but no response was forthcoming. The post-mortem involvement of both mainstream and fringe scientists in the development of flying discs has raised a variety of names including Marconi, Einstein, Tesla, Schauberger, Keely and others. I am unaware of any real evidence that Schauberger worked at Malthausen using slave labour. If that suggestion is no more than wishful thinking, then I am left wondering why anybody should wish for it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mark Ian Birdsall</span></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Birdsall has long been an influential figure in ufology. Currently Editor of the newsstand magazine <em>Unopened Files â Access a Number of Well Kept Secrets</em> and Features Editor of <em>UFO Magazine</em>, he has an established interest in wartime UFO events. In his 1998 book Alien Baseâ, Tim Good says</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âInterestingly, there is circumstantial evidence that at least one of the V~7 project aircraft was prototyped. According to the researcher and author Mark Ian Birdsall, several projects involving a circular-wing aircraft were conceived during the war, the most elaborate of which was constructed by Dr Richard Miethe at facilities in Breslau (Wroclaw), Poland, and in Prague. A small prototype was rumoured to have flown over the Baltic Sea in January 1943, and two full-scale aircraft with a diameter of 135 feet were eventually built. Also, reports Birdsall, another V-7 project was a âspinning saucerâ, based on helicopter principles, about 35 feet in diameter, designed by Rudolf Schriever, a small prototype of which was allegedly first flown in 1943.â [67]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Goodâs reference for these comments is given as âBirdsall, Mark Ian,<em> Flying Saucers of the Third Reich: The Legacy of Prague-Kbely</em> (pending publication). That book has not, as I write, yet been published.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In, I think, 1988, Birdsall had published the unfortunately-titled booklet <em>The Ultimate Solution</em> which, in just 29 pages, presented three different pictures of Hitler. It also includes copies of US intelligence documents reporting the newspaper accounts of George Kleinâs claims of the test-flight on 14 February 1945, diagrams of assorted Miethe-Schreiver-Bellonzo discs, and some probably avoidably uncritical material about âsecretâ Antarctic exploration and the escape of Nazis from Germany at the end of the war. [68] In 1992, in Vol.7 No.4 of the US <em>UFO Magazine</em>, he wrote an article titled âNazi Secret Weapon â Foo Fighters of WWIIâ, and included illustrations of a supposed âSchriever-Habermohlâ disc. [69] The introduction to the article says that Birdsall âjust completed a hefty manuscript which enlarges considerably the scope of the available source materialâ. It would be interesting to see what material Birdsall has found, and whether his views might be influenced by what is being published in this piece.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ernst Zundel/Mattern Friedrich</span></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst Zundel, also known as Mattern Friedrich (the name under which he authored UFOs â Nazi Secret Weapon? [70]) and Christof Friedrich (how he has signed the copy of that book which I have) has had considerable involvement in the distribution of material regarded as Holocaust revisionism. He has often been described as an anti-Semite.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Zundel sustained the âNazi UFOâ myth through much of the 1970s, presenting a mixture of Lusar, Schauberger, and the âHitler survived/Nazi Antarcticaâ material, illustrated with vague photos of uncertain provenance, and the usual diagrams from the European press. He seems to have been unaware of Vesco, but could well have introduced the idea that Schauberger worked actively on disc development with slave labour. While not doubting the underlying sincerity of Zundel in promoting German wartime achievements, a report of comments he allegedly made to Frank Miele may well reflect his attitude to his readers. Miele quotes Zundel as saying</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âI realised that North Americans were not interested in being educated. they want to be entertained. The book was for fun. With a picture of the Fuhrer on the cover and flying saucers coming out of Antarctica it was a chance to get on radio and TV talk shows. For about 15 minutes of an hour program Iâd talk about that esoteric stuff. Then I would start talking about all those Jewish scientists in concentration camps, working on these secret weapons. And that was my chance to talk about what I wanted to talk about.â [71]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Whatever else may be true of Zundel, I think I can safely say that his work has no factual contribution to make to the âNazi UFOâ debate. But that doesnât mean that he hasnât influenced its development, or that others less canny than he, but with similar beliefs, have not involved themselves in the subject because they believe what he said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">09: Official Comments and Intelligence.</span></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The publication of Lusarâs book in 1957 not surprisingly provoked both military and intelligence interest. From the <em>New Britain Herald</em> for Thursday, March 14 1957 comes a media-friendly response to the publicity the book had been given.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No Flying Saucer Built by Hitler</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
WASHINGTON (AP) James H Doolittle says it âjust ainât soâ that Nazi Germany developed a flying saucer and a bomber that could attack the United States and return without refuelling.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The veteran airman, chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, gave a House Appropriations subcommittee his estimate of reports published in Germany of great aviation accomplishments under Hitler. These were contained in a book by Rudolf Lusar, former German War Ministry special weapons chief.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Doolittleâs testimony was published today, along with that of Hugh L Dryden, director of the advisory committee. Dryden said âthere is no truthâ in a statement that German engineers designed a flying saucer which attained a height of 40,000 feet and speed of 1,250 miles an hour.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
âThis is an advertisement for a book which includes material discovered by our groups who went into Germany after the warâ, he said.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dryden said also the man supposed to have designed the bomber that could cross the Atlantic without refuelling had written a book of his own with no mention of any such invention.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Doolittle, asked about both the saucer and the bomber, said, âIt just ainât so.â [72]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A report dated 29 March 1957, declassified in 1978, from Robert E OâConnor of the Air Technical Intelligence Center to the Director of Intelligence is considerably more specific. It has become very common in the past few years to publish âintelligenceâ documents on the pretext that they all have equal value, but this report records the outcome of genuine research by those competent to conduct it. Iâve quote the relevant sections â perhaps it isnât too surprising that those who want us to believe in the Saucer Builders havenât given it much publicity!</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Subject: (Unclassified) Review of Book by Rudolf Lusar</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
1. Reference is made to conversations between Colonel W O Farrier and Dr S T Possony on the above subject (Unclassified)</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
2. This office basically concurs with your review of the book âThe German Weapons and Secret Weapons of World War II and their subsequent developmentâ (Unclassified)</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
3. There is no evidence in AFOIN-4 files of German development of âFlying Discsâ, nor is there any indication of Soviet development of such a vehicle. A check of available biographical files reveals no information on Miethe. The A V Roe engineering staff were contacted and they have no knowledge of Miethe in their organisation.â [73]</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There seems to be no reason to believe that these comments were at any stage designed to be misleading, or were based on inadequate or inaccurate research. What the Air Technical Intelligence Center found seems to have been the truth: that there were no high-performance flying discs, and that nobody had a clue about âMietheâ, whatever his first name may have been, becoming involved in disc or rocket development anywhere, at any time.<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">10. Mistakes & Fantasies</span></strong> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ufologists â especially, I suspect, those who want to believe that the Nazis flew high-performance UFOs â can take life dreadfully seriously. Unfortunately, this failing extends to not being able to spot a genuine mistake, or recognise a fantasy or a fiction that was never intended to be anything but that. Two classic blunders involved taking Lusar far too seriously, and undermining the credibility of otherwise serious and respectable books.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>German Jet Genesis</strong></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The first is in a Janeâs publication â a publisher with a fine reputation of dealing with all kinds of arms and armaments. However, in <em>German Jet Genesis</em> by David Masters, published in 1982, the author not only reprints Lusarâs claims re flying performance, but also what appear to be pre-Harbinson details from âBrisantâ. Particularly absurd are the three apparently freehand drawings, depicting a âMiethe flying discâ, a âSchriever flying discâ and a âSchriever and Habermohl flying disc. Masters sets out some of the traditional array of excuses for the absence of evidence, saying</div>
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âInformation on this aspect of German jet aircraft development is very sketchy. the project was always highly secret, and documents that may have existed were probably either destroyed, lost or taken by the Russians when the war ended. A last possibility is that the Allies discovered Schrieverâs work and considered it too important to revealâ, [74]</div>
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but in reality Iâd guess this was one of the publisherâs most embarrassing moments.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>Robert Jungk</strong></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
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Jungkâs 1956 book <em>Brighter than a Thousand Suns</em> was first published in English in 1958. An impressive history of the development of the atomic bomb, it contains (at page 87 in my 1965 Pelican edition) a curious footnote, which has been used to add credibility to the âSaucer Builderâ legends. Referring to a sentence in the text where Jungk says âThe indifference of Hitler and those about him to research in natural science amounted to positive hostilityâ, the footnote says</div>
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âThe only exception to the lack of interest shown by authority was constituted by the Air Ministry. The Air Force research workers were in a peculiar position. They produced interesting new types of aircraft such as the Delta (triangular) and âflying discsâ. The first of these âflying saucersâ, as they were later called â circular in shape, with a diameter of some 45 yards â were built by the specialists Schriever, Habermohl and Miethe. They were first airborne on 14 February 1945 over Prague and reached in three minutes a height of nearly eight miles. they had a flying speed of 1250 mph which was doubled in subsequent tests. It is believed that after the war Habermohl fell into the hands of the Russians. Miethe developed at a later date similar âflying saucersâ at A V Roe and Company for the United States.â [75]</div>
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It is clear that this footnote derives from Lusar, and should therefore not be taken as true. I note that the original book was written in 1956 and I wonder whether, in fact, the footnote was added by someone other than Jungk at the translation stage in 1957 or 1958. It would be interesting to know whether the original <em>,Heller als tausend Sonnen</em> (Alfred Scherz Verlag 1956) had this footnote, too. Either way, Jungk â of whose book the Spectator said</div>
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âHe tells the story brilliantly; no intelligent man or woman can afford to miss it . . Should be compulsory reading for every budding scientist in every sixth form and every university in the worldâ may be forgiven this lapse, which should not be exploited in order to provide support for the nonsense that Lusar concocted.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>The Miethe Legend</strong></span></div>
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In âProjekt UFOâ, Harbinson asserts that, of the ârocket scientistsâ involved in flying disc development</div>
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âat the close of the war, Walter Miethe went to the US with Wernher von Braun, Dornberger, and hundreds of other members of the Peenemunde rocket programme . . . Miethe, though initially working under Wernher von Braun for the United Statesâ first rocket centre in the White Sands Prov-ing Ground, New Mexico, joined the A.V. Roe (AVRO-Canada) aircraft company in Malton, Ontario, re-portedly to continue work on disc-shaped aircraft, or flying saucers just as Habermohl was thought to be doing with the Russians.â [76]</div>
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These assertions, presumably based on Lusarâs, seem to have led to the development of an impressive, but entirely false, history for the elusive Miethe, covering many years. I think we can now dispose of them. . . .</div>
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Tim Matthews, in his book UFO Revelation, refers to the</div>
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âthree years of painstaking research by UK astronomy, aviation and photographic specialist Bill Rose, which included on-site research in Germany, Canada and the USA . . he was able to discover that Dr Walter Miethe who all sources agree was involved with Schriever, Klaus Habermohl and Guiseppe Belluzzo (an Italian engineer) had been the director of the saucer programme at two facilities located outside Prague. In May 1945, after testing of the prototype had taken place, both Miethe and Schriever were able to flee in the direction of allied forces .</div>
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Rose learned not only that test-flights had taken place but that there was film footage of them . . Rose was shown some stills taken from the original 16mm film and, given his expert photo-technical background, concluded, after careful consideration, that this was probably real and historical footage . .</div>
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We know a little more about Dr Miethe. One of the important pieces of information came in the form of a rare group photograph showing various young German scientists in 1933. The photograph shows Werner von Braun and Walter Miethe (or Richard Miethe â different sources mention different first names). It would seem that these two knew each other wellâ [77]</div>
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Rose and Matthews claimed that Miethe worked with von Braun in 1933, and that the photo provided by the person who responded to an advert Rose had placed showed them together with other rocket scientists in that year. Fortunately, this is a well-researched and well-recorded period of history, and it should be no more difficult to find records of Miethe than it is that of von Braun. Indeed, von Braun was born in 1912 and if Miethe was 40 in 1952, they should have been absolute contemporaries. The Rocket and the Reich by Michael J Neufeld [78] covers this period, and von Braunâs activities, in detail, as well as detailing rocket and âsecret weaponâ development right through to the end of the war. Yet it makes no mention at all of Miethe (Walter or Richard), Habermohl, Schreiver, or Belluzzo, Klein or Klaas. Nor, for that matter, does Philip Henshall in Vengeance â Hitlerâs Nuclear Weapon Fact or Fiction [79], which covers a similar range in rather less detail. You might think that these people never existed or that, if they did, they played no part in the development of any German flying disc.</div>
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Since his book was published Iâve spoken to Tim Matthews about this matter, and corresponded with Bill Rose. I donât think either would disagree if I were to say to that it seems that, while Rose is not in a position to disclose details of the elderly West German from whom it appears that both the photos and the surrounding information derived, those photos did not depict a craft in flight or, indeed, fully constructed. In view of the 1952 âFrance-Soirâ interview, the 1957 intelligence report, and the complete absence of anyone called Miethe in the mainstream history of rocketry, I think we can safely set any contrary evidence aside. In view of the considerable influence UFO Revelation and its effective and communicative author have had, particularly in the USA, I hope that the full story behind Roseâs source(s) will be made public. In the meantime, if what was published wasnât exactly a mistake, it may be fair to say that somebody got hold of the wrong end of the stick, but Iâm not sure who was holding the stick at the time.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>Balls</strong></span></div>
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I strongly suspect that a supposed AP release of December 1944 about the Germans having âa secret weapon in keeping with the Christmas seasonâ which âresembles the glass balls which adorn Christmas treesâ, âare coloured silver and are apparently transparentâ, and âhave been seen hanging in the air over German territory, sometimes singly, sometimes in clustersâ, was actually a light-hearted bit of fun designed for Christmas. The phenomenon described certainly doesnât bear any resemblance at all to the âfoo fighterâ reports.</div>
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This item was apparently only published â in similar but not identical versions â in the South Wales Argus for 13 December 1944 and the New York Herald Tribune for 2 January 1945. Any competent historian will be aware that in wartime, censorship ensures that the existence of mysterious, enemy secret weapons is not announced by AP, and published openly by the newspapers of combatant nations. Mainstream history has taken no notice of these reports, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary I suggest they were no more than slight, seasonal jokes, published by just two newspapers out of the thousands that, if the information really derived from a serious AP report, would have taken it up.</div>
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<strong><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Conclusions</span></strong></div>
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An extensive search in the mainstream, âconsensusâ historical record of this, the most researched and chronicled period in history, found no mention of even the most prominent features of the mythos. Putting these two findings together, the only reasonable conclusion on the available evidence is that the long-held belief that high-performance, German, disk-shaped craft actually flew during the Second World War can be shown to be a false belief. I hope that this investigation into the âNazi UFOâ mythos has demonstrated that the evidence presented to date â at least, that of which I am aware â is irrevocably flawed.</div>
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Of course, there is much more to investigate, particularly the links between the âflying discsâ and the supposed survival of the Third Reich in -or under â South America and the Antarctic. Joscelyn Goodwinâs book Arktos [80] has set out some useful information in this respect, but misses the drama of the creation of New Berlin, the trips to the Moon and Mars, the belief in the dramatic US-Nazi battles in Operation Highjump, and the links that those making these claims may have with particular cultural and political groups.</div>
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I donât want to try to direct the responses that readers may have to the material Iâve put together here. My opinions of fascism and those who use their authority â real or false â to mislead others for their own profit or other advantage are pretty obvious. I hope that readers will also have appreciated that I have tried to distinguish between material that harms, and that which does not. However, Iâd like to set out a couple of points that arise from the inconsistencies between the mythos version of history, the âconsensusâ version of history, and the somewhere-in-between history of ufology.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Operation Paperclip</span></strong></div>
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Operation Paperclip was a secret , now well-documented initiative by the US government to enable the Western Allies in the war to benefit from the knowledge of former Axis scientists who were, nominally, forbidden to enter the USA because of their previous affiliations. Even before the defeat of the Germans, it was apparent to both politicians and military leaders in the West that the Soviet Union was now the enemy of choice, and Paperclip was one of the steps seen as necessary to deal with that enemy. Overall, it appears to have been a sound policy decision, apparently (though reports are not entirely consistent) bringing the talents of luminaries like Werner von Braun to work in, and for, the West.</div>
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Paperclip was, if nothing else, carefully organised. It was a secret operation, being run for high stakes, and there is no reason to believe that it failed to target the best and most skilled scientists available. In the field of rocketry, certainly, it succeeded, laying the foundations for the US space program in general, and the US successes of the Sixties in particular.</div>
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Most detailed Nazi UFO accounts refer to Operation Paperclip, using it to support the argument for the extent of German wartime technical achievements with flying discs by implying that the development of US technology â up to and including the present generation of âStealthâ aircraft â depended on the importation and input of German scientists. Yet the very German âscientistsâ who were supposedly responsible for the development of those wonderful discs seem to have been completely ignored by Paperclip, and to have ended up in inappropriate employment in Europe, with only popular newspapers showing an interest in their skills. Either the saucer builders were also âthe men that Paperclip forgotâ, or because there were no saucers, Paperclip didnât make a mistake in not taking them off to the USA.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>Early ufology</strong></span></div>
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In a recent disagreement I had with Tim Good and his publishers over the provenance of photographs printed in his book Alien Base [81], I raised what I thought was a valid point. Many of the photographs â the ones which didnât depict faked alien corpses â were from Fifties ufology, supposedly taken by George Adamski, Paul Villa, Daniel Fry, Howard Menger and Hugo Vega. These have attracted both belief and ridicule over the years, and Good had not addressed various doubts about their provenance, such as possible associations with kitchen equipment, string, the use of perspective to make small objects look larger, and the simple tactic of throwing things in the air.</div>
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Tim Good agreed, honourably, to have these photographs examined by a university expert using modern techniques at his own expense, and although hampered by the copies being some generations from the original, these reports were published. The expert was not convinced that the photos depicted independently airborne craft of the size and at the distance claimed by the photographer.</div>
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The point I had raised was whether, even if the photographs showed no evidence of deliberate faking, it was likely that these craft â mostly chubby, awkward, tinny and lacking any visible method of propulsion or steering â were actually aerodynamically viable. Could they fly over short distances here on Earth, let alone between planets in our solar system or beyond? As it happened, there was sufficient doubt about the provenance of the photos, and the reality of what they purported to show, that the wider question didnât have to be answered, but Iâd suggest that the answer should be a resounding âNoâ. If these craft were real, and of the size and in the place that those who took the photographs suggested, then there isnât the slightest chance that they had flown from Venus or Mars, let alone any further away. They couldnât. They look as though theyâd been made out of the bits left over in the average suburban garage, and that they would fall to bits if the string holding them up were to break: whether thatâs what they actually were you might well ask, but I couldnât possibly comment.</div>
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An alternative explanation has been given for the inadequacy of these âcraftâ. Itâs always lurked somewhere in the background of extra-terrestrial ufology, as a fall-back position to take where interplanetary flight seems a deeply unlikely explanation for a UFO photograph, but nobody wants, or dares, to cry âfakeâ. In recent years this second-best explanation has been adapted into an explanation of choice, eagerly adopted by David Hatcher-Childress and others, in books and in videos. No longer are these clumsy aggregations of household waste even supposed to be extra-terrestrial craft. Instead, they are prime evidence of the might of Nazi UFO technology, either imported by the US after the war, or by the Russians, who were using them for reconnaissance or, even more wonderfully, by the Nazis themselves, flying to prove that the Third Reich never died, but lives and fights on in secret bases in South America or Antarctica. As you can imagine, if there was no wonderful flying disc technology in Germany during the war, then it could never have been exported. And if that was the case, then fakes is pretty well all the close-up photos of that era could have been.</div>
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That said, one hopefully simple conclusion â moral, even â does come to mind. Ufology has always sought for respectability. It has sought scientific respectability and, trying to explain away the absurdly sudden beginning it had in 1947, has also looked for a history going back before that date. The âfoo fighterâ material is certainly interesting in this respect, but those sightings bear no real resemblance to the craft of early ufology: Iâd suggest that for research purposes it should be regarded as an entirely separate subject from the tinny close-up saucers and Nordic occupants of just a few years later. If my approach to the wartime flying disc material is correct, then 1947 looks more sudden â and inexplicable â than ever, and the contact experience even more isolated. Far from achieving any kind of respectability, by accepting so readily the existence of high-performance wartime German flying discs without, with a handful of honourable exceptions, bothering to make even the simplest of enquiries, ufology has again made itself look amateur, gullible, and easily manipulated. So no change there, then.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>Thanks</strong></span></div>
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Thanks, at least, are due to David Sivier, Dave Newton, Peter Brookesmith, Peter Williams, Wayne Spencer, Andy Roberts, Eugene Doherty, Hilary Evans, Martin Kottmeyer, James Moseley, JC Carbonel, Peter Rogerson, Maurizio Verga, Tim Matthews, Jeff Lindell, Claude Mauge and Eduardo Russo for their thoughtful and intelligent assistance in putting this investigation together.</div>
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ââââââââââââââââââââââ<br />
REFERENCES<br />
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[37] Roberts, Andy Ibid<br />
[38] Edwards, Frank (1967) Flying Saucers â Here and Now! Lyle Stuart<br />
[39] Caidin, Martin (1960) Black Thursday<br />
[40] Roberts, Andy âIn search of âFoo-Fightersââ in UFO Brigantia No.66 July 1990<br />
[41] Roberts, Andy Ibid<br />
[42] Redfern, N and Downes, J Ibid p.62<br />
[43] Ibid<br />
[44] Edwards, Frank (1967) Ibid<br />
[45] Redfern op cit p.210<br />
[46] Corso, Col. Philip J., with Birnes, William J. (1997) The Day After Roswell Pocket Books London and New York p.73<br />
[47] Blania-Bolnar, Z (1998) âMonkey Businessâ in Alien Encounters April 1998<br />
[48] Susan Michaels (1997) Sightings: UFOs Fireside Books<br />
[49] âLâUFO Crash di Mussoliniâ Unknown website<br />
[50] UFO Magazine May/June 1998 p.49<br />
[51] Redfern, N and Downes, J p.16<br />
[52] Redfern, N and Downes, J p.18<br />
[53] Stonehill, Paul âNazi UFOs: A Russian Eyewitnessâ in UFO Magazine (California) Vol 10, No.2, 1995.<br />
[54] Di Rado, Fabio (allegedly) Unattributed Net posting.<br />
[55] Carballal, Manuel (1995) from Saucers Unveiled!<br />
[56] From: âladynadaâ <ur-valhalla!usa1.com!ladynada><br />
[57] Meier, Billy and Pâtaah in FIGU Bulletin Vol1, No 6<br />
[58] Stephens, Henry (1998) âUFOs and the Third Reichâ in The Probe Vol 3 #4<br />
[59] Stephens, Henry (1998) German research Project catalogue<br />
[60] Kasten, Len Op cit<br />
[61] Hatcher-Childress, D and Vesco, R (1994) Man-Made UFOs 1944-1994 â 50 Years of Suppression Adventures Unlimited Press 1994 p.366<br />
[62] Ibid p.370<br />
[63] Stevens ibid<br />
[64] Icke, David (1999) The Biggest Secret Bridge of Love Scottsdale p.254<br />
[65] Stevens op cit<br />
[66] Vesco (1969) ibid<br />
[67] Good, Timothy (1998) Alien Base Century London p.23<br />
[68] Birdsall, Mark Ian op cit p<br />
[69] Birdsall, Mark (1992) âNazi Secret Weapon â Foo Fighters of WWIIâ in UFO Magazine (California) Vol 7 #4<br />
[70] Friedrich, M (1975) UFOs â Nazi Secret Weapon? Samisdat Toronto<br />
[71] Miele, Frank in an article âGiving the Devil His Dueâ. Found on Zundelâs Flying Saucers Index website.<br />
[72] âNo flying saucer built by Hitlerâ, New Britain Herald for Thursday, March 14 1957<br />
[73] Air Technical Intelligence Center Memorandum T57-7999, 29 March 1957<br />
[74] Masters, David (1982) German Jet Genesis Janeâs London p.135<br />
[75] Jungk, Robert (1965) Brighter Than A Thousand Suns Pelican Middlesex<br />
[76] Harbinson op cit<br />
[77] Matthews, Tim (1999) UFO Revelation â The Secret Technology Exposed Blandford London<br />
[78] Neufeld, Michael J (1995) Peenemunde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era Harvard University Press Massachusetts<br />
[79] Henshall, Philip (1995) Vengeance â Hitlerâs Nuclear Weapon Fact or Fiction Alan Sutton<br />
[80] Godwin.Joscelyn (1996) Arktos â The Polar Myth Adventures Unlimited Illinois<br />
[81] Good op cit Various illustrations<br />
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