Journal of Alternative Realities    Volume 6.   Issue 1.  1998

The Child That Never Was?

Deconstructing An Apparition

Some years ago I received a call from a Miss Fotheringham (pseudonym) who told me that a neighbour of hers was having her house exorcised that morning because it was haunted.  The next day I contacted the neighbour, Mrs Rossmoyne (pseudonym), of Subiaco and found her to be an intelligent, rational and helpful informant.
Mrs Rossmoyne told me that the previous August a friend had given her an old photograph album, bound in leather with a brass catch, which had been identified as being an Australian album of an unusual design, probably dating from about 1880.  Her friend had purchased this from a second-hand shop.  It was a family album containing approximately twenty photographs, among them one of a grave-stone marking a grave in which were buried George Whitehead, a child aged one year and four months who had died in 1856, and his elder brother, also named George, who had died at the age of twenty-four in a railway accident.  It was impossible to ascertain the location of the grave, but the inscription on the gravestone would seem to indicate that it might be found in or around Darlington.  This could refer either to Darlington, New South Wales, or Darlington, Western Australia, though the latter would appear to be the more likely site.  So far, I have not succeeded in finding the gravestone.

After Mrs Rossmoyne had owned the album for a couple of weeks, she was sitting in front of the fire with her husband, glancing through the photographs, when she suddenly decided that she did not wish to keep the picture of the grave because it was "morbid".  She thereupon took it out of the album and threw it into the fire.  Her husband, who was able to corroborate that she had remarked that she did not like the picture in question, did not actually see her do this.  Mrs Rossmoyne however, is quite positive that she pulled it out of the slots in which it was set and burnt it.

About three weeks later, while showing the album to her younger brother, she noticed to her amazement that the photograph was back in its original place in the album.  She was certain that there could not have originally been two photographs of the gravestone as she had gone carefully through the album on a number of occasions.  She immediately rang a friend of hers who acts as a medium to a Roman Catholic group, and asked her advice as to whether she should burn the picture again.  The medium advised her not to do so.  On 27th December, Mrs Rossmoyne noticed that a photograph of her father, taken when he was approximately two years old, had disappeared from the shelf on which it stood.  A thorough search of the room revealed nothing.  At the end of January, however, when Mrs Rossmoyne and her husband returned from an overseas holiday, the photograph had reappeared, not in its original position but on the shelf beneath, standing up as though it had been put there deliberately.  Mrs Rossmoyne had previously checked this shelf thoroughly.  Since the house had been locked up during their absence it was clearly impossible for the photograph to have reappeared through normal means.

Just before she went on holiday, Mrs Rossmoyne had woken up in the middle of the night feeling thirsty and on walking down the long hall to the kitchen to get herself a drink, had encountered the apparition of a child, who appeared to be about the size of a two-year-old.  Since she is used to baby-sitting toddlers, her immediate reaction was to step back and apologise as though she was dealing with a real child that she had almost bumped into.  When she switched on the light however, she suddenly realised that she had seen a ghost, since there was no child in the house at all at that time.  She described the apparition as looking like a little girl, even though she could not see its clothing or its face, for it seemed like a dark shape.  Nevertheless, though she distinctly had the impression that it was wearing a dress and had long hair, she believed that it may have been the ghost of young George Whitehead, for she was well aware that Victorian boys wore dresses until they were around four years old.

On the morning of 26th February Mrs Rossmoyne was looking after a friend's child, Kay (pseudonym), aged two years and eleven months.  Kay, who Mrs Rossmoyne describes as a precociously intelligent child, complained to her that unseen children were "laughing noisily" and annoying her.  Mrs Rossmoyne was surprised at this as there were no other children in the house and all was quiet.  When she asked if Kay had seen children around the house, Kay replied that on previous occasions, she had seen "a little pink person" (Kay's habitual term for a white-skinned child), smaller than herself, both in the house and in the back garden.  This child was a stranger to Kay and not one of the four children whom Mrs Rossmoyne normally baby-sits.  Kay said she had seen the child, a girl, in the sitting-room on one occasion playing with the photographs on the shelf.  On another occasion, when Kay had been by herself in the toddlers' pool in the garden, the little girl had come up to her and "thrown things", then had told her that she should "put a scarf around her hat".  Kay must have found this odd, as she wasn't wearing a hat.  According to Kay, the little girl had come in through the locked back gate, which is about five feet in height and impregnable to small children, and had walked away in the same way, disappearing through the locked gate.  She had not given Kay her name.

That evening Mrs Rossmoyne's husband was standing in the kitchen when a glass cheese-dome some twenty centimetres tall, flew out of the deep crystal bowl in which it is normally kept, and crashed down onto the seagrass matting in the kitchen with force enough to shatter it to pieces.  Her husband was standing near the sink at least two metres away from the bowl, which was on a top shelf.  Mr Rossmoyne, a librarian by profession, who was described by his wife as being open-minded yet fundamentally rationalist in outlook, was quite certain that the dome could not have fallen naturally from the bowl in which it was kept.

Mrs Rossmoyne at this time was suffering from insomnia, though she is normally a sound sleeper.  Her insomnia had lasted for some three months and had become so severe that she was getting only two to three hours' sleep a night.  Even though she was exhausted, she would wake up shortly after falling asleep and would find it almost impossible to fall asleep again.  She had tried taking Mogadon, a hypnotic, but found it had little or no effect.  From 18th February onwards what sleep she did obtain was troubled by nightmares.  On 27th February, after a day disturbed by events described above, she had to wake her husband to keep her company during the small hours.  Her sleeplessness appears to have been connected with what she described as the oppressive atmosphere of her old house, an increasing sense of tension and depression which finally began to have its effect on her domestic harmony, forcing her to think seriously that she and her husband might have to move in with friends.

At last, on 3rd March – curiously enough, the very day on which I first contacted her – she called in an Anglican Bishop who duly exorcised the house after commenting on the atmosphere of evil that he encountered there1.  Mrs Rossmoyne was adamant that, though she and her husband had been living in the house for three years, its psychic atmosphere had been wholesome until she burnt the photograph of the gravestone.  She was equally certain that the exorcism had "cleared the air", a statement with which her husband agreed.

At this stage let us take stock of the paranormal features of this case, which may be listed as follows:
1.The reappearance in the album of the burnt photograph.
2.The disappearance of the father's photograph.
3.The apparition of the child.
4.The children's laughter heard by Kay.
5.The child seen in the back garden by Kay.
6.The paranormal breaking of the glass cheese-dome.
7.The growing sense of tension and oppression in the house.

Let me now comment on the above items:

1.   This is clearly the most unusual feature in this case.  I cannot recall another instance in psychical literature involving the reconstitution of an object destroyed by fire.  It could well be, of course, that Mrs Rossmoyne was mistaken and that she did not throw the photograph into the fire though she was strongly tempted to do so.  Since there were no witnesses to her act, we cannot definitely say that it occurred.

2.   The disappearance of the father's photograph is especially interesting, since it depicted him at the age of two years, that is, at about the same age as the younger George Whitehead.  Both Mrs Rossmoyne and her husband were quite certain that the photograph disappeared in December and was replaced at the end of January.  It seems impossible that this could have been done through normal means.

3.   Mrs Rossmoyne's encounter with the apparition was again not witnessed.  We should note that it was seen in the dimness of a shadowed hall and disappeared when the light was put on.  Could it conceivably have been a hallucination?  Yet Mrs Rossmoyne was quite positive that she had seen the figure of a child, even though it only appeared to her as a dark shape.  Certainly her action in stepping back and apologising would indicate that whatever she saw was very real to her.

4 & 5.   Kay's evidence deserves to be taken seriously in spite of her age.  She was described to me as a highly intelligent and sensible only child, who had never before given the slightest that she was in any way psychically sensitive.  Her reaction to the laughter was one of annoyance, verging on anger, and not of fear.  She was quite precise about the "little pink person" she had seen in the house and the garden, and would not budge from her story.  At no time did she give the impression that she was indulging in fantasy.  When Kay said she had seen the child playing with the photographs, she was not aware that one of the photographs had disappeared.  Similarly, when she said that the child had been throwing things she was not aware of the breaking of the cheese-dome, all these phenomena having been kept from her for fear of alarming her.  Her remark that the child had urged her "to put a scarf around her hat" is interesting since, in the Victorian period, no lady in Australia would venture out under our ferocious sun without a large hat, often tied on with a scarf which came around the face and fastened under the chin.  This is just the sort of remark that a Victorian child might well make on seeing a little girl out in the sun without a hat.  Kay's identification of the child as a little "girl" need not be taken literally, as it could well mean no more than that the child had long hair.  A talking apparition is rare but not unknown, as both Myers (1906) and Tyrrell (1963) can testify2.  In any case this apparition seems to have been a laconic one, for Kay reported no further conversations.
I should stress that Kay's remarks were largely spontaneous and that the minimum of questioning was used and then only to clarify details.  As Professor Stevenson has shown, in his studies of cases of the reincarnation type, quite young children can make remarkably accurate witnesses provided the utmost caution is exercised when seeking to elicit information from them.

6.   The paranormal flight of the cheese-dome would clearly indicate some type of poltergeist activity and may be compared with the previous disappearance and replacement of the father's picture.  Both Mr Rossmoyne, who witnessed the event, and his wife who heard it, were quite positive that there was no way in which the glass cheese-dome could have emerged from the crystal bowl under normal circumstances.  Mrs Rossmoyne was surprised that the dome had broken, since the matting on which it fell was so soft that she had many times dropped delicate glasses onto it without even cracking them.  It appears to have been hurled out of the bowl with considerable force.

7.   The growing sense of oppression and tension in the house from September to March was commented on not just by the Rossmoynes but by their friends, as well as by the Bishop who carried out the exorcism.  It seems to have been directly responsible for Mrs Rossmoyne's insomnia and nightmares.  I should add that during the course of the interview I mentioned to Mrs Rossmoyne that since I began working on the case I had myself been suffering from greatly disturbed sleep, awakening on several consecutive mornings at precisely 2.13 am.  She was astonished, pointing out that she also had been waking up at precisely that time for some weeks.  Clearly some form of telepathy was at work here, with rather unpleasant consequences for the investigator.

To sum up: I think we may say that although no single feature of this case carries complete conviction, all of them taken together are impressive and certainly exhibit an inner logic which I personally find convincing.  I should also say that I was most favourably impressed by the principal informant, who emerges as a sensitive yet rational witness of considerable commonsense and courage.  I might add that she has resolutely refused to give up either the album or the offending photograph, both of which are still in her possession.
There are certain unusual features about this haunting which should be carefully analysed.  Let us begin by assuming for argument's sake, that we are actually dealing with the manifestation of the ghost of a very young child.  Certain difficulties immediately present themselves if we adopt this hypothesis.  Firstly, the photograph in question was that of a grave in which two members of a family were buried.  Yet, in Mrs Rossmoyne's account, only one of them appears in response to the burning of the photograph, and that one not the elder boy who died violently in a railway accident at a comparatively mature age, but the younger one, no more than a baby, who died when just over a year old.  This is startling, because there is no mention of the ghosts of babies – and seldom of young children in the literature of psychical research.  Traditionally, it is held that such spirits cannot become 'earth-bound' and give rise to hauntings simply because they have not yet had time to form attachments to persons, places or things.  Yet in this case the little ghost seems to have been evoked by a photograph of its grave taken some thirty years after its death.  All in all, this seems so unlikely that we are perforce driven to look for other more plausible explanations of what was actually happening.

We may begin with what I believe is the most important aspect of this case, namely, the growing air of tension and oppression in the atmosphere of the house between the acquisition of the album in August and the successful exorcism in March3.  Mrs Rossmoyne and her husband both commented on the remarkable change for the better in the psychic atmosphere of their home after the exorcism, commenting that it was as though "a black cloud had been lifted from the house" and "oxygen pumped into the air".  Furthermore, Mrs Rossmoyne's serious insomnia, which had begun with the burning of the photograph, disappeared immediately after the purgative ceremony and so far has not returned.
Here again, we have departed from the pattern of the usual haunting, which is seldom accompanied by such symptoms.  Are we not, in fact, in the realms of the poltergeist here, where tension and depression are only too common?  Apparitions are often connected with poltergeist cases, so much so that William G. Roll includes a section on 'non-physical phenomena', including ghosts, in his useful Questionnaire appended to his book, Poltergeist.4  In the present case, we have only one classic poltergeist manifestation – the shattering of the cheese-dome – but it seems likely, in view of the increasing tension in the house, that such disturbances would have increased had the exorcist not been called in promptly.  In any case, the disappearance and replacement of the father's picture is a typical poltergeist trick and not one normally connected with apparitions.  I believe that we may therefore be dealing here not just with an apparition but with a rather unusual poltergeist situation, which was scotched before it had a chance to develop fully.

George Zorab (1980, p.290) has well remarked that "in haunting cases as well as in poltergeist cases there is a certain living person who should be regarded as the 'energy centre' producing the phenomena observed and the same paranormal faculties are involved in both types of spontaneous case."  In this instance the focus of the haunting was clearly Mrs Rossmoyne.  It was she who burnt the photograph and witnessed its reappearance.  It was she who saw the apparition; who suffered from insomnia and was in charge of Kay.  It was also her own father's photograph, taken, significantly enough, when he was a child of two, which vanished from the shelf.
Why did Mrs Rossmoyne wish to burn the photograph of the gravestone?  Her explanation that it was "morbid" does not, I feel, fully account for her action.  Could it be that she felt subconsciously anxious at the sight of a child's grave and was therefore impelled to destroy the disturbing picture?  Mrs Rossmoyne has no children of her own and has never lost a child, therefore the picture could not have evoked unpleasant memories for her, unless it subconsciously evoked recollections of an abortion or a miscarriage, though I felt this was too delicate a question to put to her and therefore refrained from asking it, especially as I should also have had to ask whether, in the case of an abortion, her husband had also been in favour of it.  Certainly, her impulsive destruction of the picture is hard to explain, unless one postulates that it disturbed her subconsciously to such an extent that she felt compelled to get rid of it.  This postulated conflict would also help to explain the return of the picture.  I am convinced that Mrs Rossmoyne was certain she destroyed the picture and equally convinced that she did not do so.  But her shock on seeing the picture intact in the album, after she thought she had destroyed it, like the ghost of a child that never was returning to haunt her, was sufficient to spark off the manifestations that followed.  The first of these was the onset of her insomnia, characterised by that early-morning waking typical of intense anxiety and depression.  The second was the disappearance of her father's photograph, a highly significant occurrence, not only because it was her father's picture that vanished but because it depicted him at the age of two, suggesting that a subconscious equation was being made between the father, who may here have symbolised Mrs Rossmoyne's husband, and the dead child of the "burnt" photograph.

The appearance of her father's photograph after a tension-dissolving holiday away from the house was almost immediately followed by her seeing the apparition of a child to whom she apologised.  This detail is again highly significant, since it clearly indicates a subconscious feeling of guilt that had centred around the child and/or father/husband.  It was about this time that Kay, who was not Mrs Rossmoyne's own child but a neighbour's, began seeing "a little pink person" playing with the photographs on the shelf from which the picture vanished.  In the article mentioned above, Zorab states that "the phenomena in haunting need not be of a purely subjective, hallucinatory nature", a point made also by Alan Gauld and A.D. Cornell (1979, pp.179; 250-251) as well as by Andrew MacKenzie (Zorab & MacKenzie, 1980, pp.292-293).

It seems highly likely then that Kay really did see a phantom that not only removed and replaced the photograph of the father but also appeared in the garden, "threw things" and spoke to her before disappearing through a locked gate.  Such an apparition might well have been a thought-form created by Mrs Rossmoyne in much the same way as Madame Alexandra David-Neel (1958) created her celebrated tulpa of a monk.  Against this, however, we might contend that the child's laughter, its advice to Kay about putting a scarf around her hat and the very fact that it spoke (unlike a tulpa), would argue for its existence as an independently existing entity, whether connected with the long-dead George Whitehead or not.

The climax of the haunting came with the hurling of the cheese-dome, which narrowly missed Mrs Rossmoyne's husband, who until then had remained on the periphery of the events.  We should note here that since this act of aggression was directed against her husband, there are traces once again of an unresolved conflict here.  It was, furthermore, this incident that led to his agreeing to let Mrs Rossmoyne call in an exorcist and put an end to a situation which could well have degenerated into a full-blown poltergeist disturbance, which may well have led to actual injury being inflicted on the husband, but never, if my conjectures about the origin of the disturbance are correct, upon anyone else.
It is certain that Mrs Rossmoyne is psychically gifted.  Indeed, at the beginning of our interviews she indicated as much, telling me, among other things, that at the age of sixteen she had seen an apparition in the garden of three people dressed in old-fashioned clothes, which had lasted for a full fifteen minutes!  She also added that her mother possessed the same talents and, like herself, was afraid to develop or even use them.  In this case, I believe, Mrs Rossmoyne used her considerable psychic powers to initiate a haunting of a highly unusual type, which helped to resolve a deep inner conflict brought to the surface by the sight of the photograph.  Precisely what this conflict is, I cannot say, nor is it the task of the psychical researcher who is not an analyst to delve into such matters.  But noting that D. Scott Rogo (1979, pp.236-237) asserts that "unmanageable guilt" is at the root of most poltergeist activity, we may well be inclined to suspect its presence in this case5.  So powerful, indeed, were Mrs Rossmoyne's psychic talents that she was able not only to initiate the haunting but even to transmit her insomnia to me when I began to work on the case, even to the extent of waking me up at precisely the same time every morning at which she had been accustomed to wake, namely 2.13 am6.  The time  itself is highly significant, for symbolically I believe it may stand for 'doubly unlucky', ('twice thirteen') which is certainly a reference to the Whitehead family, who were doubly unlucky to lose two of their sons, and perhaps a reference to other circumstances in Mrs Rossmoyne's life (a second miscarriage or abortion perhaps?) which only she could explain.

Professor Ian Stevenson (1972) has argued that not all poltergeist cases can be explained psychologically in terms of the projection of repressed feelings by the subconscious or unconscious mind.  While agreeing wholeheartedly with Professor Stevenson that this is so, I was nevertheless driven to the conclusion that in this instance we cannot conclusively ascribe the events witnessed to a discarnate entity, though certain aspects of the case argue in favour of this hypothesis.  Beside those aspects mentioned above, the only other indication in favour of such a thesis is the fact that the haunting ceased after the exorcism.  But here again it could be argued that this was due to the calming effect this impressive ceremony had on Mrs Rossmoyne rather than that th  e ceremony was instrumental in banishing a child's unhappy ghost.
D. Scott Rogo (1982, p.236) has rightly pointed out that  poltergeists are sometimes "reactions to a total family situation" and not necessarily "a psychic eruption revolving around a central agent".  In this case, however, I would argue that it seems probable that we are dealing not with a situation generated by a family disturbance, for the household in question is a harmonious one, but with an outbreak centering around a single person, who undoubtedly suffered a great deal from the haunting, regardless of whether it was self-generated or not, and was deeply relieved when it was terminated by a traditional exorcism.

Notes
1.   The bishop, an experienced exorcist, was insistent that the focus of the evil he sensed in the house lay in the kitchen, scene of the poltergeist activity.
2.   See Forman, 1978, for a description of a group encounter with a loquaciously shrewish apparition of an old lady.
3.   Such an atmosphere of depression and tension is frequently associated with both hauntings and poltergeists.
4.   Roll, 1976, p.190; Rogo, 1979, passim.  Rogo, 1982, 237, observes rightly that "it may be very difficult to clearly differentiate between hauntings and poltergeists and...some cases which we classify as hauntings may be hidden poltergeist cases."
5.   Rogo, 1982, p.252, states that, "Each poltergeist agent is imbued with the ability to create a PK-being from his inner guilt, hate and repression, knowing only that it exists to cause destruction."  In the case under review there was no destruction beyond the breaking of the cheese-dome, though little Kay stated that the apparition "threw things".
6.   A careful search of my case-notes has made it certain that Mrs Rossmoyne did not inform me of the time of her early morning waking until after I had mentioned mine to her, so I was not consciously influenced by her experience.

Bibliography
David-Neel, Alexandra, 1958,  Magic and Mystery in Tibet, New Hyde Park.
Forman, J., 1978,  The Mask of Time, London.
Gauld, A. & A.D. Cornell, 1979,  Poltergeists, London.
Haining, Peter, 1988,  Poltergeist: Tales of Deadly Ghosts, London.
Kettlekamp, Larry, 1980,  Mischievous Ghosts: The Poltergeist and PK, New York.
Myers, F.W.H., 1906, Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death, London.
Playfair, Guy Lyon, 1982,  This House is Haunted: An Investigation of the Enfield Poltergeist, London.
Rogo. D. Scott, 1979,  The Poltergeist Experience, London.
Rogo. D. Scott, 1986,  On the Track of the Poltergeist, London.
Rogo. D. Scott, 1982, 'The Poltergeist and Family Dynamics', Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 51, No.790, 233-237.
Roop, Peter, 1982,  Poltergeists: Opposing Viewpoints, London.
Spencer, John & Anne, 1997, The Poltergeist Phenomenon: An Enquiry into Psychic Experience, London.
Stander, Philip & Paul Schmolling, 1996,  Poltergeists and the Paranormal. Fact Beyond Fiction, New York.
Stevenson, Ian, 1972,  'Are Poltergeists Living or are they Dead?', Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 66, 235-252.
Thurston, Herbert & J.H. Crehan,  Ghosts and Poltergeists, London.
Tyrrell, G.N.M., 1963,  Apparitions, New York.
Williams, Gurney, 1979,  Ghosts and Poltergeists, New York.
Williams, Jobeth, 1997,  Poltergeist, VHS Tape, New York.
Wilson, Colin, 1993,  Poltergeist: A Study in Destructive Haunting, London.
Zorab, G. & Andrew MacKenzie, 1980,  'A Modern Haunting',  Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 50, No.783, 284-293.

Any reader who may have come across this gravestone, or knows where it might be found, is asked to contact me.  JDF
 

Abductions

Searching For The Footprints

Few would dispute the fact that public awareness and interest in the phenomenon of UFOs has increased sharply over the past decade.  A distinct expansion in the volume of mainstream media attention to the subject has been supplemented by airing of some of the large volume of pilots' reports, film, radar traces and more recently, the confessions of long-retired, high-ranking military personnel.
As a direct result, the sceptics have had to lift their game and be even more imaginative in their attempts to refute all such claims, as a matter of principle.  On occasions they have come up with such obviously ill-conceived and implausible explanations (as in the latest air force account of Roswell), that even mildly interested members of the public have chortled in disbelief.
On the other hand, the allied phenomenon of systematic abduction of humans by aliens, has met with guarded interest and considerable scepticism on the part of the public and more often than not, derision by the media.  It is even fair to say that some UFO researchers have viewed this aspect of their subject with less than enthusiasm, perhaps on the grounds that such bizarre and ill-timed claims can only weaken the 'nuts and bolts' case that they have worked so hard to assemble, at the same time providing more ammunition for the sceptics to use.
In general, those media outlets not totally ignoring the subject of abductions, have predictably concentrated on the more sensational cases and personalities.  Critics and the majority of health professionals on the other hand have tended to generalise about all such reports.  They are labelled as misconceptions, the product of disturbed minds.  At the very least they are viewed as resulting from false memory syndrome elicited by well-meaning but ultimately incompetent hypnotists leading a fantasy-prone experiencer into unravelling a fictitious scenario.
This begs a very important and practical question.  How can our society continue to ignore the experiences of a diverse group of thousands of people, completely psychologically normal human beings, from many different cultures and countries, all narrating the same experience, with a multiplicity of features common to nearly every report?

A recent United Kingdom study has once more emphasised the problems associated with memory retrieval through hypnosis.  Typically there will be some who, with reference to the abduction syndrome, will be ready to say, "I told you so!"  Is it possible that all abduction reports result from psychological experience or a mind-generated fantasy?  Critical and objective examination of all the facts surrounding these events suggests that the only answer to this question, inconvenient though it may be for some, is a definite negative response.  The plain truth is that the definitive pattern of events common to nearly all abductions is sometimes accompanied by physical evidence.
So called 'abductees', courageous or perhaps unwise enough to report their experiences, are not likely to find either a non-judgemental response or a sympathetic and understanding reception.  The details that they relate are so totally outside what we know as consensus reality that many therapists are likely to exclude them from initial diagnosis.  In the process of not accepting the remotest possibility that these events could actually have occurred, the chance of applying scientific method towards refining our understanding of our position in the universe is denied.

Professional researchers and therapists such as Professors John Mack and David Jacobs, Dr Rima Laibow, John Carpenter and others with many years of experience in dealing with abductees, repeatedly emphasise the discrepancy between the expected outcomes from dealing with victims of psychological trauma and the process of working with abductees.  These features, they point out, challenge schematic assumptions about classifying such cases under conventional labels.
To repeat, abductees represent a socially diverse, normal group of individuals from different countries, reporting experiences which have many features in common.  Details of their ordeals emerge not because they seek publicity, on the contrary, most experiencers fearing for their sanity repress the memory of these unwanted events.  In reading case study after case study, one can fully understand why science has problems with studies of the anomalous and why people like Mack, Hopkins and Jacobs have serious difficulty in bringing the reality of this phenomenon to the attention of the scientific community.
The abductees' accounts unfold through conscious recall, sometimes aided by hypnosis.  Typically they include highly detailed descriptions of procedures and interaction, accompanied by strongly expressed emotions such as anger and fear.  Professor Mack believes that any theory based on psychology alone has to account for the clear distinction between events related to past abuse at human hands and the victim's experience with the aliens.
One cannot over-emphasise the significance of often minute descriptive detail matching between people speaking different languages and from totally different backgrounds.  Psychiatrist Rima Laibow (1991) comments on this feature, "there is a perplexing and intriguing concordance of features in these reports.  Certain details of the scenarios repeat themselves with disturbing regularity no matter what the educational, national, social, experiential or other demographic characteristics of the reporter. ... in general, the appearance and modus operandi of the aliens, their effect and procedures, their tools and interests, their crafts and physical features, all tally from report to report with a high rate of concordance."
When John Mack says that in his opinion no theory based on psychology comes close to accounting for such experiences, he is including the fact some of the experiencers are as young as two years old.  What the overlapping details of these accounts do confirm is a degree of consistency independent of outside influence.  Hopkins (1989) adds, "it also argues for the hard-edged, precise reality of this bizarre phenomenon."

One form of physical evidence for abductions lies in the cuts, scars, lesions and patterns of skin marking left on some abductees.  This aspect will be discussed later in this article.  At the outset we need to mention that the patterns of this type are more than coincidental, but for the purposes of Western science and its complete dependence on physical evidence, these aspects have not yet proved to be conclusive.  John Mack (1996) believes that "the phenomenon is designed by its very nature to move us beyond our lifelong dependence on a gross materialist world-view.  We need to realise and appreciate that the release of information is controlled solely by the aliens and that they allow us only as much as they want to."
Have there been any witnessed abductions?  The short answer is yes, quite a few.  These range from the thoroughly documented Travis Walton abduction case in 1975, to a soldier being taken in front of military witnesses.  Walton's kidnapping was witnessed by five of his workmates whose consistent testimony has been sustained by repeated lie detector tests plus Walton's own account of his experiences.  Another case in 1976 saw Florida man Filberto Cardenas lifted into the air in front of three screaming witnesses, including his wife and daughter, when he got out of his car to attend to an engine problem.  The disappearance was reported to the police who later found a confused and injured Cardenas some twenty-five kilometres away from where he was picked up.  As a result of his experiences he was hospitalised with physical symptoms similar to those suffered in other such cases.

Yet another abduction witnessed by six soldiers was that of Corporal Armando Valdes in Chile.  The Corporal was returned fifteen minutes later sporting a five day growth of beard and with his calendar watch advanced for the same period of time.  Several other cases of witnessed abductions have been recorded including the famous public snatching of Linda Cortile (Napolitano) from her apartment building in New York city in November 1989.  Linda's kidnapping was witnessed by several people from different vantage points, as she was floated out of her window atop a high building, in the company of three alien escorts.
Professor David Jacobs recounts the case of a former naval officer, now working as a computer consultant who, after experiencing a number of strange childhood contacts, decided to resist in some way.  Angry and distressed at the blatant exploitation of his vulnerability and in a forlorn gesture of defiance he wrote a letter expressing his feelings and taped it securely to his ankle before going to bed each night.  Not long after, he awoke to find that the letter was nowhere to be seen.  Three days later the letter reappeared, mysteriously taped to his leg in exactly the same fashion.  Subsequent hypnosis revealed an abduction experience during the night in question.

There are also many recorded cases of people who after a close UFO sighting, found themselves, usually after an interval of missing time, in another location remote from their point of departure, for example, in their car in the middle of a crop field.  Writer/researcher John Keel in his book Operation Trojan Horse (1973), wrote, following an enormous amount of fieldwork, "Contactees often find themselves suddenly miles from home, without knowing how they got there. They either have induced amnesia, wiping out all memory of the trip, or they were taken over by some means and made the trip in a blacked-out state."
As interesting as these publicised cases are in terms of high strangeness, they constitute only a minute fraction of the apparent systematic nightly abductions carried out on a regular basis and usually without the awareness of the abductee.
Let us now return to the presence of physical marks on the bodies of some abductees.  To begin with there is a high degree of similarity from case to case, when they do occur.  Budd Hopkins (1989) describes them as, "the kinds of scars that remain after apparent cell sampling operations.  These scars are of two types: long, thin, scalpel-like incisions and round, deep scoop marks."  These wounds constitute actual physical evidence that the abduction was a physical event.  One does not receive a wound that leaves a distinct, previously unknown scar as the result of an out-of-body experience.

A few years ago UFO researcher and UFORUM committee member Brian Richards and myself investigated a case in which a group of young people, camping out at night a few hours away from Perth, Western Australia, had experienced a strange and frightening series of events.  After spotting some strange lights, they appeared to have not only lost some time, but loss of power as their car batteries went flat.  In the process we had the opportunity to photograph a fresh scoop mark on the ankle of one of the female campers and a distinct red mark on the forehead of her boyfriend.  This was not the first time we had seen such marks, claimed by the reportees as just suddenly having appeared.
Kelly Cahill, after her unforgettable experience when a huge UFO landed in Victoria's Dandenong area in 1993, understandably had problems trying to come to terms with her experience.  Recalling this period she writes, "proof wasn't long in coming.  Before retiring for the night I went to the bathroom where I was concerned to discover a red triangular mark beneath my navel, with the appearance of an even burn or as if the first few layers of skin had been removed.  What I did find that was more recognisable to me, therefore of far greater importance, was a small cut on my bikini-line similar to a laparoscopy mark but finer, and with the appearance of being a few days old or partially healed." (Cahill, 1995)  Later, of course, Kelly was to discover that two women in a following car who, unbeknown to her, had witnessed the same event, were to experience the same type of physical scarring.

Mary Rodwell, one of two professionals convening ACERN, a support group for abductees here in Perth, Western Australia, has many reports of such body marks in her files, including photographic evidence of lesions, bruises and scars resembling microsurgery markings.  She deals with experiencers who suffer regular nose bleeds and female abductees who, in common with others throughout the world, often after having their pregnancies confirmed medically, suffer baffling miscarriages, where later ultrasound authenticates the presence of foetal membrane but no foetus.  So here we have the physical sequelae that accompany the psychological trauma.  John Mack writes, "These include headaches, sinus infections abdominal distress, various gynaecological problems, etc.  These may be subtle, but are nevertheless real and occur throughout the body, corresponding anatomically to the procedures that were done during the abductions." (Mack, 1993)

Apart from physical markings, another perhaps lighter, but nevertheless salient aspect of this experience is brought about by the fact that the aliens sometimes make all too human mistakes.  Experiencers might awaken to find themselves upside down in their beds or returned to the wrong bed or room, or else find themselves naked outside a locked house.  Young children can sometimes be stranded miles from home.
Physical reality is sometimes supported by the appearance and disappearance of physical objects.  John Carpenter (1992) tells of a woman in her fifties finding herself on two occasions outside her home completely naked, in itself disturbing enough, but adding to her distress was the loss of a special and favourite nightgown.  Budd Hopkins relates the case of "a six-year old boy who recalled seeing a nun aboard a UFO during his own abduction experience.  After an apparent examination, she failed to pick up her beautiful and perhaps priceless rosary beads.  When Budd Hopkins inquired about the disposition of the beads, the young boy went to his bedroom and unceremoniously produced the beautiful rosary beads, which he had taken into his possession while aboard the UFO." (Carpenter, 1992)

Following abduction experiences, some abductees have reported physical transformation such as the healing of major wounds or changes to existing medical conditions.  Others may report the sudden ability to receive physical electrical pulsations from external stimuli or find that they have the unwanted capability of adversely affecting household electrical circuits.  Physical problems connected with abductions may produce symptoms currently unknown to medical science and the abductees may suffer these consequences for years.
Many experiencers firmly believe that they have had implants placed in their bodies.  They may report expelling such objects, and it is a fact that some have been detected as a result of x-rays and MRI scans.  I think that it is fair to say that at this stage, despite inspection of such objects under electron scanning microscopes, the results are inconclusive.
Many detractors of this particular subject are tempted to dismiss reports on anomalous phenomena by discussing them on a purely theoretical level.  However as we can see there is much more to this experience than descriptions of bizarre sequences of events, raising profound questions about our notions of reality.  We cannot simply exclude some of the facts because they do not fit our concept of 'hard evidence'.  Each experience has to be considered in its entirety, including all of the physical accompaniments.  When data consistently fails to conform to science's concept of reality, isn't it time to examine that particular model critically?  The great Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung in his work Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies, makes it clear that he didn't view UFOs as merely creations of the human psyche.  Psychological projections, Jung reflected, cannot be tracked on radar at over nine thousand kilometres per hour. (Jung, 1958) .

References
Cahill, Kelly.  (March, 1995)  Australia's Most Credible UFO Abduction Case.  Nexus.
Carpenter, John.  (1992)  The Reality of the Abduction Phenomenon.
Hopkins, Budd.  (1989)  Patterns of UFO Abductions:  The Bulletin of the Intruders Foundation. Vol.1, No.1.
Jung, Carl.  (1958)  Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies.
Keel, John.  (1973)  Operation Trojan Horse.
Laibow, Rima.  (1991)  Clinical Discrepancies between Expected and Observed Data In Patients Reporting UFO Abductions: Implications for Treatment.
Mack, John.  (1993)  The UFO Abduction Phenomenon: What Might It Mean for the Human Future?  MUFON Symposium Proceedings.
Mack, John.  (1996)  Peer Perspectives. Vol.1, No.1.
 
 

Battle Lines

Exploring the discord behind accepting or rejecting the reality of UFOs, and the hazards of talking about it in public.

THE WAY IT IS.   Nature is full of examples of how memory-habits impair adaptation to changes in environment or circumstances.  Take the potted plant that becomes root-bound.  If freed from the pot and planted in the earth, the roots continue the clogged growth-pattern as if they are still trapped in the pot.  We are apt to forget that the analogy applies to us, that once we fit the mould of the society we are born into, we are culture bound.  We would feel anxious and lost if it suddenly changed around us.
At the Brisbane 'Australian International UFO Symposium' in 1996, Professor John Mack of Harvard Medical School said that "society organises itself through a certain elite group, to determine for the rest of that society what is real, what is to be believed." (p.128)  Thus a world-view is established that organises a sense of self.  When the common world-view is challenged it can create terror.  This, of course, applies to all races and cultures, even to our own 'science-based society' which has chased all superstitions away
and has gained such mastery in understanding and controlling nature.  Subsequently, our society prefers to deny and debunk reports of unknown craft that frequently invade our airspace and disobey our scientific laws.  The bulk of the world's population follow this view because it assumes our political leaders and scientists must know best and also because the media doesn't take the matter seriously.

This complacent attitude to this persistent mystery is supported by the general agreement that ninety-five per cent of UFO reports can be explained away as fraud, uncertainties, unreliable witnesses, faulty radar, hallucinations etc.  Many assume this is evidence enough to justify dismissing the subject entirely.  Yet over fifty years the remaining five per cent amounts to over half a million well documented cases that still remain a puzzle to science.  This assortment of evidence, outlined in a growing body of serious literature, suggests that UFOs, along with an alien presence, are a reality.  This is a challenge indeed to our world-view.  Humanity, understandably rightly or wrongly, is not facing the implications or the challenge squarely.

TESTING THE TERRITORY.   Consequently, broaching the subject of UFOs in social gatherings to test opinions has its difficulties.  Reactions can range from interest to awkwardness, from laughter to derision and even anger.  I felt it would be invaluable to get comments from people whom I suspected had not read or thought much on the subject.  In mid-1997, with the excuse that I was writing an article on controversial issues, I armed myself with eight written questions and chose about twenty people to ask what they thought of the UFO mystery.  Generally I avoided agreeing or disagreeing with them.  Only afterwards if they opened the discussion did I add a viewpoint.  The exercise was not without its hazards.  Some people were unsettled by the topic.  Others were hesitant because they were unsure of my motives, and wondered if they should tell me what they thought I wanted to hear.  The questions were designed mainly to get them talking and committed to the subject.

Your Response to a Controversial Issue – UFOs.

1.Do you think there is any validity to the claims of a UFO/alien presence on earth?
2.What is your explanation for people claiming that they have been abducted by aliens?
3.Should research on this matter be encouraged or not?
4.What have you read on the subject?
5.What procedure should be followed to gain a clearer understanding of this worldwide phenomenon?
6.Is there anything we can learn from, as well as heal, the deep rift between sceptics and believers/researchers?
7.Should science/society remain with its well established theories/views, or be continually updating to keep abreast of new phenomena/new theories?
8.Are these questions worthless, irrelevant, threatening, unsettling or challenging?

What I found was that the majority of people were simply not interested because they were quite ignorant of the respectable literature that contained both facts and intelligent theories in efforts to explain the UFO phenomenon.  They were also ignorant of the politics of denial.  They had every right, of course, to remain disinterested and culturally moulded into preoccupations with fashion, sports and scandals, though, to add a social comment, a thinker like Noam Chomsky would say their 'consent' to this had been manufactured.
Some, who were quite ignorant of the current material for and against UFOs, voiced a firm belief that ETs were visiting us.  Others were also quite ignorant of the debate as to whether UFOs were here, but had firm convictions that anyone believing in UFOs or aliens was deluded, and refused suggestions that it could be otherwise.  Invariably I would run into someone who felt threatened by the questions and I would get a lecture, while others would put up a front of interest that quickly broke down into resistance.

THE SAFE RESPONSES.   However, I will begin with one ongoing encounter that has a lighter side.  T and C are a couple who treat my interest with amused contempt, and on the few occasions we talk about it, things seldom get out of hand because we are old friends.  We have traditionally enjoyed disagreements on many subjects because we often inject them with humour.  If they should visit us unannounced when I'm preparing the Society's newsletter, he will sit down to help me fold them, but reassure me in a sing-song tone that I am doing no harm at all – and no good either.  On one occasion I had just returned from the MUFON UFO Symposium in Seattle and eagerly showed him the book of the proceedings.  He ignored it, laughing "Do you really think that if there were UFOs Paul Davies wouldn't know about it?  Haven't you heard about SETI?  Don't you think SETI and NASA are more likely to know the truth about UFOs than amateurs in a UFO group?"
In vain I stressed the distinction between believing in UFOs and researching UFOs.  "If you're bothering to research it", he replied, "you must believe it!"  I was a bit annoyed because he was partly right and he had declined to open the book.  His sharp criticism, however, is often more than welcome as it keeps me alert to common attitudes and responses.
Tensions arose on the days that reports were made about the Heaven's Gate suicides.  They let the awful details sink into me and waited as if I were aligned with the cult.  Luckily I thought to spell out the difference between fanatical belief and healthy curiosity.  On another occasion we met after seeing the Australian Broadcasting Commission Compass television programme in which the abductee Rael was being interviewed before his tent embassy in Queensland.  Rael repeated his claim of being taken to another planet and being chosen by aliens to be a sort of ambassador.  "You didn't spend your life savings going to hear that sort of crap at a symposium did you?  Is that the stuff that interests you?"  The accusations had a touch of menace because the good natured jocularity seemed to be missing.  I felt I had to defend myself.

I admitted that Rael and his gathering seemed embarrassingly cult-like, and that some so-called contactees do act strangely in founding movements and enticing followers.  I stressed that Raelians weren't researchers trying to get to the truth, they were into belief, and this was an odd pattern that had surfaced in many countries and would be placed in a certain category.  I admitted there were hoaxers, people preying on the gullible, people looking for a structure acceptable to them on which to rest their delusions or mental illness.  I didn't think till after they were gone that it was possible that Rael had had a genuine experience, and that his interpretation didn't make sense to us.  That it was possible that the experience was disturbing enough for him to deflect the reality of it into dissociation; that Rael had dressed it up into a memory easier for him to accept – a common way of dealing with trauma.  But I doubt that they would have bought that either.
Despite the hurts and bruises suffered in our occasional bouts to make the other submit to reason, we somehow realised that maintaining the friendship was more important.  For months the subject had been avoided but in August 1997 they returned from England with a ninety minute ITV programme on UFOs which they had copied for me.  More on this later.
Recently, with some hesitation, I offered them the questionnaire.  Each responded with short written answers.  C thought people claiming abduction were "seeking something ... needed attention or affection."  Both had only read media reports on the subject but thought claims should be researched and continually updated.  C: "I think that UFOs are around, but don't think aliens are on this planet."  T didn't think UFOs existed and that people interested were searching for "meanings that man doesn't have the answer to."

TOUGHER CASES.   JB, a hydro-geologist, who was originally contemptuous of ufology, phoned with a respectful response.  "No, I don't think UFOs or aliens are here", he said in answer to the questions.  "Life on earth has arisen by natural processes, and it is almost certain statistically that life had arisen in other places of the universe.  But travel between earth and alien life-forms is extremely unlikely due to the limit of the speed of light.  There may be anecdotal evidence of UFOs and of experiences, but there is a lack of hard evidence.  I've often thought that with all the cameras in the world you'd think there would be a clear shot of a craft, but there hasn't been."
He said many sightings could be attributed to the thousands of satellites orbiting earth and to top secret military craft.  Further research into the matter, if there was evidence, would be curtailed by cost.  He had no explanation for abductions, other than there was no clear evidence.  I said there was indeed evidence, but the sort of hardware evidence that sceptics wanted – like an alien body and parts of a UFO being tested in labs with the media present – just wasn't available.  He said he had only read a few articles and some of the early books, and believed satellites and telescopes covered the whole electromagnetic spectrum, which meant that nothing of significance had showed up there, or the world would have heard about it.
He agreed with keeping an open mind, and reminded me there was a difference between belief and knowledge.  He said that lack of time curtailed his further reading.  As to question seven, he said science does automatically update whenever something new is discovered or proven, and that we should apply Occam's razor: The simplest explanation is usually true when something unusual comes along.  We spent some time talking after my eight questions and he asked about John Mack's position at Harvard, which I had mentioned to him some months earlier.  He listened with some interest.  I said I was sympathetic to genuine scepticism, and told him about the Kelly Cahill and Linda Cortile abduction cases which I felt could not be explained away, that I could not see how they could be faulted, but that I would certainly change my opinion if good contrary evidence came up.  He said he would be interested to see a copy of the article I was writing.

I read the questions to RG, who also had a science degree.  His knowledge of ufology came only from newspaper reports and television documentaries.  I said I was puzzled by the lack of proper dialogue between sceptics and those who believed in researching the UFO mystery, and more so by the hostility between the two.  He said the hostility was probably a natural response, it was human nature, particularly with such a subject.  After fifteen minutes on the phone much of what he said was similar to the remarks of JB above.  He had no expectations that anything new lay in the sightings of UFOs.  There may have been a touch of impatience (at my gullibility) in the tone of his final "But there is no evidence."

A medical technician who had read little on the subject, and was clearly disinterested, said the main reason research into UFOs wasn't justified was the economic factor.  Research was being cut back on many medical fronts and it was only right that research into rumours should be scrapped.  It was unjust to spend money on lights in the sky and stories of aliens landing on earth.  He was patient, but did not seem interested or curious.
Another could not see the point of the questionnaire and wasn't sure if there were UFOs, but wanted to say that people on these New Age lecture circuits are really only there because of a sharp business sense.  "They know what people want to hear, and what they want to believe, and they give it to them."  He mentioned industries that had been built up "on snake oil".  I admitted I had seen degrees of that, but that having a stake in a set belief applied to some sceptics too.  The interview ended with my listening to the merits of Carl Sagan and SETI.

PREPARING TO GAMBLE.   To return to John Mack's notion of an elite group setting the standard of what we should believe.  There is a class element in the way people decide to align their views to those of an elite.  People have learned that those socially abreast of the scientific and governmental elite, often seen as the intelligentsia, are somewhat contemptuous of 'belief in UFOs'.  It is not uncommon for people to go along with the viewpoint that provides a sense of safety as well as social standing.  Additionally, some religious people I contacted felt that questions on UFOs implied a threat to their beliefs and were reluctant to answer questions.  "They come from darkness" came one terse reply.  Having heard similar comments before, I could only conclude "All the more reason to learn about them so we can protect ourselves."
There is an area in which the sceptics may be right, although they may not realise it yet.  There is a theory that if there really is an alien presence it is perhaps best to deny it and ignore it.  If we make everyone aware of it, we will create a bridge for it to take us over and drain us.  If we remain sceptical (and ignorant) it will always have difficulty reaching us.  Although, the sceptics would interpret any notion of an 'alien presence' as a superstition, and claim that any large scale belief in it could induce mental illness.  Going by events in the Middle Ages, they could have a point.
In the rift between those who study ufology and those who avoid it, we encounter an age-old human weakness: We take sides, usually before we have all the facts.  Each side, because of genetic and emotional baggage, prefers to believe that their way of seeing an issue is right and that the other must be wrong.  What people choose to believe is often a gamble to gain satisfaction from the power of knowing and of being right all along.  Sceptics have invested in siding with the power elites in mainstream science (and taunt that ufologists have no evidence).  Ufologists have invested in believing that many UFO reports are true, and that this will lead to admissions of an alien presence and a subsequent paradigm shift (and wince that they still can not produce the 'nuts and bolts' demanded).  Therein lies the difference that sets the current battle line.
The trouble is that both groups have a mixture of followers that vary greatly in standards and attitudes, and this has resulted in an ego war between the extremists of each group.  Less mature ufologists stretch stories for their own ends and are inclined to believe or sensationalise anything that draws in more believers.  Less knowledgeable sceptics appear to suffer that fundamentalist obsession of adhering to 'first heard' dogmas (that reject the possibility of UFOs or aliens); they utilise the fundamentalist instinct to anchor themselves to entrenched knowledge as the way to hang on to power.

SKIRMISHES.   Fortunately both groups patrol enemy territory.  In their book Crop Circles – A Mystery Solved (1990), Jenny Randles and Paul Fuller arrived at a firm new conclusion that plasma vortices, natural phenomena, accounted for crop circles, UFOs and reports of aliens.  They charged that "science is scared off by the alien delusion that ufology represents."  Arguments erupted.  Further studies found that plasma vortices did not account for all UFO activity, and that serious anomalies remained.  However, it was a welcome change in that it kept researchers more alert and diligent.  It was encouraging that Paul Davies crossed the battle line in three pages in his book Are We Alone?, but a pity that he tied explanations of UFOs to the dated von Däniken and Adamski and concluded that "No clear distinction can be drawn between UFO reports and descriptions of religious experiences of, say, the Fatima variety." (Davies, 1995, p.87)  John Mack was a sceptic until he met Budd Hopkins and examined some abductees.

In Revelations Jacques Vallee still believed there was a legitimate core to the UFO mystery, but speculated that ingenious disinformation and rumours about UFOs were deliberately planted by the US government as a cover for top secret craft and a new type of warfare.  Despite legitimate claims appearing in the growing UFO literature, mainstream science appeared reluctant to acknowledge it, at least openly.

WIDENING THE PARAMETERS.   But perhaps a turning point in another area has been reached.  Take the release of Colonel Phillip Corso's book The Day After Roswell which claimed proof of captured saucer and alien technology.  Corso's position as head of the Pentagon's Foreign Technology desk, and being in Army Intelligence, as well as having been in Eisenhower's National Security Council, makes it look as if he was permitted to make these world shattering disclosures.  What this could mean, however, is that the final brazen test has been made.  Corso's admissions prove that population control has succeeded.  The release of key cases, for instance Budd Hopkins' Witnessed, Larry Warren and Peter Robbins' Left at East Gate, Travis Walton's Fire in the Sky, and finally the revelations in The Day After Roswell mean the truth is finally out.  And so is the other truth: populations have remained indifferent.  They have become isolated from truth and realisation.  They, we to be honest, wait passively for it, or anything, to be spelled out on television between advertisements.

The evidence of such covert control is stark in Dr Sharon Beder's Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism.  It has nothing to do with ufology, but it shows how society has been shaped over the decades by (and for the benefit of) transnationals through their lobbying power with governments and their control of the media.  Whole populations are now addicted to consumerism through entertainment, and advertising dressed as news.  Any issue that might disrupt this strategy, like environmentalism (or the serious study of UFOs) is either 'captured' and reloaded with disinformation, or misrepresented.  This of course smacks of population control.  People have been conditioned to think in ways that suit corporate interests.  Undoubtedly the military/intelligence side of governments is fully versed in these tactics and were no doubt confidently awaiting the non-response to Corso's book.

Proof of an alien presence that is periodically claimed by respected authors is one thing.  The official announcement by a president that "contact has been made" is quite another.  This is where we wonder about the unpredictable behaviour of populations unprepared for such news.  Official admissions could also unleash the sort of revolutionary fervour that means everything changes, that means we lose our bearings and become demoralised by total unknowns, perhaps to a panicky global gold-rush mentality.  Alien knowledge, being synonymous with ultimate power, would draw certain elements to covet it at all costs.  Those who obtain it would do anything to prevent others getting hold of it, and, as they who hold it could influence the world's media (they may already own it), we will never quite know the truth about anything of importance.  There are optimistic views of this of course, one being that we can quickly adjust to the existence of 'gods' as did the ancient Greeks.  Sceptics do represent the majority world-view of how people think in these remaining years of the second millennium, but they haven't bothered to tackle the quality of UFO literature because they assume there isn't any.  They have dismissed well-researched individual cases on the grounds that other similar cases were found to be questionable.  The challenge remains for them to embrace the whole picture of the UFO enigma.  That is the five per cent over fifty years that now amounts to 650,000 unexplained, well-documented cases from around the world (Pope, 1996).  They include many that are multi-witnessed, with physical evidence, and with conscious memories not requiring hypnotic regression.  The videoed stories of expressive, level headed children (Mack's cases in Zimbabwe, 1996), and the UFO connection with decades of unsolved cattle mutilations (Howe, 1989) – all these form a picture so persuasive that entirely to dismiss UFOs and abduction stories as imaginary nonsense is not only dishonest and reprehensible, but bad science.

OUTCOMES.   If you ask either group, ufologists or sceptics, whether they want to get to the truth about UFOs they will answer 'yes!'  But how would we, or they, cope with losing the debate?  Let us suppose that it becomes established that there are no UFOs, and no aliens.  It would be embarrassing for some ufologists or paranormal researchers to find that some crop circles and UFO sightings were due to plasma vortices; that all the other strange and unusual sightings, abductions and cattle mutilations were not the work of extraterrestrials or aliens from parallel universes, but were merely top secret aircraft and high technology holograms of the military experimenting with psychotronic warfare.  All masterminded since the 1940s to keep enemies afraid and the gullible misled – all an experiment designed to control populations.  In this case we would have to endure the humiliation of being proved persistently gullible.  But at least we had been prepared to look, and we could hardly be blamed for being tricked by such brilliant, secret psi technology.

Now suppose the opposite happens.  That it becomes established that there are UFOs and there is an alien presence on earth.  It had all been happening just as we suspected.  It would therefore be much harder for the sceptics in mainstream science to admit it.  With so much investment in certainty, in higher education and with the technology of science racing into space (much of it powered by military black budgets), to have to admit that they cannot understand how UFOs and aliens have penetrated humanity repeatedly for over fifty years would be humiliating indeed.  Even worse would be to admit that many New Agers, clairvoyants and ordinary people with no special education had perceived the facts before them.  It would mean that enormous revision would lie before large sections of science, much of which would grind to a halt before it could change direction and start up again.  And think of the effect on the stock market.

In addition, segments of some religions would be uneasy indeed, with weakened beliefs and a loss of purpose and direction.  Would there be a period of primitive grovelling before 'dark forces', or would we be uplifted by a clearer perception of a Supreme Being?  Would a more authentic spiritual growth lead us into an awareness of Christ Consciousness?  As yet it is difficult to imagine what would happen if all the energy ossified in narrow beliefs and dogma were suddenly released.
This takes us back to the analogy of the plant that becomes root-bound and is suddenly released from the pot.  What happens when our assumptions and habits, memories and beliefs become suddenly useless and meaningless?

A BATTLE TELEVISED.   My friends T&C have made it clear they do not want their 'place' in the world disrupted by my nonsensical delvings.  Can we blame them?  I rarely comment on the matter and receive thankfully any news-cutting they offer.  The video they brought back from England was Michael Aspel's Strange But True.  It was a debate to decide whether or not aliens had already visited earth.  Stanton Friedman, Timothy Good and Nick Pope were against sceptics Dr Chris French, David Hughs and Professor Frank Close, and there was a wealth of available witnesses including top scientists, Russian military, NASA astronauts, Bentwaters personnel, for and against the reality of UFOs and aliens.  Timothy Good showed flexibility in saying he agreed with some points of the sceptics but firmly believed abductions did take place.  On the latter point, so did ninety-two per cent of the 100,000 phone-in audience.  The sceptics, however, were noticeably articulate in defence of their entrenched denial.  In the face of well-documented cases they remained 'closed men'.  Their concluding remarks were "show me the evidence" as if they expected alien artefacts had to be brought to them rather than that their curiosity should take them out to follow the many new leads being offered.

The world needs more of such debates, with improved ground rules, so that progress can be made.  Surely more open minded opponents will have an interest in each other's views, and will be more interested in finding out and adjusting to outcomes than holding to favoured or preconceived ideas.  The very fact that the intelligent personnel of these two groups are currently diametrically opposed over evidence, or lack of evidence, means that whichever way the chips fall we are going to learn something.  With the world the way it is, reappraisals are required urgently.

THE FULL PERSPECTIVE.   In Aspel's UFO debate it looked as if the sceptics with a science background were not speaking from science as much as they were from the preferences and prejudices of their ordinary selves, once their education had locked them into a certain world view.  Perhaps, despite all our surface learning and sophistication, we remain as ignorant, wise and culture bound as we have always been.
It can be difficult for some of us to explore across the divide to examine our basic preferences and aversions in a different light.  We should admit that the subject has become so mined with disinformation that it also involves the risk of finding that we (and they) can be wrong here and there, and that some unlearning and relearning might be necessary.  There is something mysteriously perilous about being faced with a reality different from the one we had banked on.  Winning or losing our grasp on what we believe in throws us back to instincts of a battle line running through us all.  We become like the primitive hunter following freshening tracks and arriving for the climax at the end of the hunt.  You know what you want it to be, but the signs show it to be huge and something quite different.  Soon you must face the creature.  And probably fight for your life. 

References
Beder, Sharon.  (1997)  Global Spin. The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism.
Corso, Col. Philip J. (1997)  The Day After Roswell.
Davies, Paul.  (1995)  Are We Alone?  Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life.
Hopkins, Budd.  (1996)  Witnessed.
Howe, Linda Moulton.  (1989)  An Alien Harvest.
Mack, John.  (1996)  Australian International UFO Symposium Proceedings.
Pope, Nick.  (1996)  Open Skies, Closed Minds.
Randles, Jenny & Fuller, Paul.  (1990)  Crop Circles: A Mystery Solved.
Vallee, Jacques.  (1991)  Revelations.
Walton, Travis.  (1996)  Fire in the Sky.
Warren, Larry & Robbins, Peter.  (1997)  Left at East Gate.
 
 

Phasers & UFO Light Beams

By Simon Harvey-Wilson

The Travis Walton abduction case occurred on November 5th 1975 in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona, USA.  Several young men returning from woodcutting came across a glowing structured object hovering above a forest clearing.  One of them, Walton, got out of the vehicle and walked closer to get a better look.  His friends then saw a blue-green beam shoot out from the bottom of the UFO and hit him in the upper area of the body.  He was lifted into the air with his arms outstretched and then flung back onto the ground.  Thinking that they were in danger, his friends hurriedly drove off.  They returned when they thought they had seen the UFO fly away, but could not find Walton. (Story, 1980, p.386)

In a MUFON UFO Journal article on human physiological effects from UFOs, John F. Schuessler (1997) gives several examples that include beams of light.  On 6th March 1969 near Glenwood, Missouri, a woman drove her car into a beam of light coming down from a UFO hovering above the road.  The car slowed and wouldn't respond to the accelerator.  She felt the hair stand up on her arms and her dog tried to hide under the seat.  Her eyes bothered her for three days after the event.  On 12th August 1981 a man was in a field with his wife near Anderson, Indiana, to photograph a meteor shower, when a strange light came down from above.  His head and shoulders felt like he had been hit with a wet blanket.  It was a very uncomfortable feeling and he was unable to move until the light retracted.  On 10th September 1981 a young woman was outside her parent's home in Weston Mill Hill, England, when she saw a massive metallic grey craft with pink, purple, and white lights.  As she reached for the house door, a lime green beam came down and hit her hand.  She was frozen in place – paralysed.  When the beam retracted she could move again.  After the event a mark appear on her hand where the beam hit.

In his excellent book Alien Identities: Ancient Insights into Modern UFO Phenomena,
Richard L. Thompson quotes a study by Dr Donald Johnson, a US psychologist and statistician, who performed a cluster analysis of two hundred UFO car encounter cases from 1949 to 1978.  The analysis used three variables: duration of the event, estimated distance from the car to the UFO, and estimated size of the UFO.  Johnson found that the cases fell into seven clusters, of which the fourth, containing eleven sightings, is of interest to us.
It contained:
"Objects of average size, but approaching closely to an average distance of about 15 metres.  Encounter times average to about one hour.  Many of these cases involve pursuit (82%), landing (45%), and abduction (27%).  Nearly 66% involve physiological effects such as paralysis, electrical shock, tingling, or heat.  There are often noises (eg, humming) from the UFO (45%), a light beam (45%), and the UFO often has multiple colours (45%).  The UFO often shot up or away very quickly when departing (64%), and 75% of the witnesses experienced fear or panic during or after the event." (p.71)
From his analysis Johnson concluded that "My advice is to watch out for the noisy, domed disks with the bluish-white light beams, because the odds are that if you encounter one of those you are likely at the very least to suffer some physiological effects.  This appears to be particularly true if the object is hovering over the roadway in front of your car, and seems to take an interest in your course of travel!" (p.73)
Elsewhere in his book Thompson reviews the Bluff Ledge UFO abduction case which occurred at Lake Champlain in Vermont, USA, on 7th August 1968.  The two abductees, Michael and Janet, were relaxing at the end of a jetty at the lake's edge when, after a series of manoeuvres, a UFO with two entities visible under a transparent dome flew very low directly over their heads.  As Michael jumped up to try to touch the underside of the craft, a brilliant beam of light came on and he had a feeling of "floating up" (p.117) while losing consciousness.  Ten years later while under hypnosis Michael was able to fill in the details of his missing time.  He described how, "while in the beam of light, he heard a whining noise and felt as though he was 'filled with light'.  He seemed to be floating upwards.  He saw streams of coloured lights and seemed to be flying through space.  He then remembered standing next to one of the alien beings on an upper deck inside the UFO." (p.118)

Thompson later quotes a case where an abductee, Sara, is more specific about the nature of the beam of light she encountered.  "I'm on the beam of light.  I'm standing on it, and it's angled.  It's like an escal–no!  It's about the same angle as an escalator would be, except it doesn't have ridges or steps.  It's just a very smooth, solid beam, and you just kinda stand on it." (p.283)  Sara's fellow abductees are also being transported in this fashion.  "All of us are walking, but in addition, the beam is conveying us.  The beam is moving, but in addition to that, we're kind of walking on it, too." (p.284)  On other occasions these beams of light appear to move both abductees and aliens through the roof or walls of their homes, and sometimes through what appear to be walls within the UFOs themselves.  If abductees' memories of these events are genuine, these beams seem somehow able to counteract gravity as well as transcend three dimensional physical barriers such as roofs and walls.  The beams also sometimes display considerable power as, for example, when they lift vehicles up into the air. (Thompson, 1993, p.349)

In UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union, Jacques Vallee quotes a factory worker M.N. Polyakov who in September 1989 was driving in Voronezh when:
"I turned around and saw a pinkish-yellow sphere shining dimly above the road…. At the bottom of the sphere there was a protuberance that reminded me of a ball-shaped growth on a tree.  Suddenly a light appeared from it, not very bright, trembling and flickering.  The beam came down and slowly moved along the ground toward us.  It seemed strange that the surface touched by the ray was full of bluish sparkles, and everything was quivering as if we were in a haze on a hot day.  Once in a while there was a blinding flash that was reflected by the surface.  When the beam approached the car I experienced an unpleasant fear.  I felt constrained.  I did not want to move or to do anything.  My good mood disappeared without a trace.  The ray moved over to the car hood.  The engine started to smoke the way it does when the radiator is overheated.  There was a feeling of something slipping in.  The car moved and something appeared on the driver's seat.  I sensed an alien presence; I felt that I could stretch my arm and touch the invisible being.  And although my brain and my willpower ordered my hand to touch the unpleasant thing, I could not move my arm.  What was it?  Fear?  Was I like a rabbit hypnotised by a cobra?  Then the ray moved away.  Then I could breathe easier.  For several seconds it was dark and quiet, and then, great!  The dashboard lit up!  The radio came back on as if nothing had happened.  The driver turned on the engine." (p.50)

British researcher Jenny Randles (1987) describes a UFO close encounter that occurred to Ken Edwards, an engineer on 17th March 1978 in Cheshire, England.  Returning from a union meeting, Edwards saw a "glowing white mass" drift into the centre of the road in front of him.  "For a few moments there was a staring match between the engineer and the 'thing', before two beams of light emerged from round eyes and struck the witness where he was holding the steering wheel." (p.150)  Edwards was deeply shocked and shaking and his car radio had blown up, but he managed to drive home to his wife.  Although his watch had stopped, Randles later estimated that he was missing forty-five minutes time.  She also tells us that "the insides of the fingers of one hand (the one that had been exposed to the beams of light from the thing) were coated by a faint sunburn."  Unfortunately this did not appear to be the only effect of this suspected abduction.  As Randles writes:
"In the year following his experience, whilst only in his mid-thirties, [Edwards] began to feel progressively tired and unwell.  Treatment failed and cancer of the kidneys was diagnosed.  He had surgery at the beginning of 1980.  However, he did not fully recover and cancer of the throat was then discovered.  Just four years after the UFO encounter he lost his fight for life.  To the end Ken never associated the illness with the UFO, and his doctors almost certainly did not know about it (Ken did not tell them).  It is impossible to say that the two things are related, but in view of the known effects in this case and the clear evidence of radiation in other UFO sightings I do not think we can rule it out.  I am sure Ken would have wanted me to warn of the potential danger, so that anyone else in the same situation can have regular medical check-ups immediately after being struck by beams from a UFO.  It always pays to be cautious." (p.152)
Well known US animal mutilations researcher Linda Moulton Howe (1997) provides us with another example, this time from Puerto Rico.  "In June 1995 Mrs Enrique Gonzales and her six-year-old daughter were outside around 11.30pm on a warm summer evening.  Mr Gonzales heard both of them scream and immediately ran over to them, whereupon he saw a huge round glowing object.  His wife and daughter told him they were watching the object when suddenly a red beam of light came out and touched the little girl on her upper right arm.  Mr Gonzales reported that his daughter's skin reddened in a circle and 'bubbled up' where she'd been hit with the beam."  By the time a newspaper photographer had travelled to the Gonzales' home, "the little girl's upper arm had several bumps, but the redness had gone. (p.66)

A multiple witness light beam encounter is reported in the January/February 1998 edition of UFO Magazine.  On the evening of 4th December 1995 Mrs Joanna Barnes was driving to visit a friend in Crosshills, in England, when a UFO appeared and started to fly along above her car.  It then shone "a vertical beam of bright white light onto the car and continued to follow as Joanna forked left." (p.13)  She soon arrived at her friend's house where, with the 'laser beam' still illuminating her car, she ran inside.  Bravely, she and several friends then came back outside to see the UFO still spotlighting the car.  "It was a black coat hanger-shaped craft with a bright white light at the front and rear of the fuselage with a laser beam projecting down from the centre.  We watched it hovering silently above the car for a few seconds, before it retracted its beam and disappeared in an instant without making a single sound", said Joanna.
In their book Left at East Gate, Larry Warren and Peter Robbins report that at one stage during the extended encounter at the Bentwaters Air Force base in England, starting in late December 1980, the UFOs involved were over the base's "most sensitive location – the weapons-storage area", where they were seen to be "firing laser-like beams of light into the compound's hardened bunkers."  This might not seem particularly significant until the authors tell us that "The bunkers were full of nuclear bombs that were being held on base without the official knowledge or consent of Her Majesty's government." (p.408)

Brazil in South America seems to have an unusual number of UFO cases involving beams of light, some of which injure or even kill people.  In a dramatic article in the British Flying Saucer Review entitled 'Extraterrestrial Vampires in the Amazon Region of Brazil: Part II', the magazine editor, Gordon Creighton, provides readers with a précis translation from the Portuguese of Chapter IV from the book of that name by Dr Daniel Rebisso Giese (1996).  These events occurred on Colares Island, which is in the delta of the Amazon river on the north-eastern coast of Brazil.  So many people reported being attacked by beams of light from small UFOs in this area that only a sample of them are reported here.  On 20th October 1977 three women were hit in the breast by beams of light.  "All three were overcome by tremendous nervous tension and an unknown sort of lassitude 'as though they were receiving constant electric shocks'."  During this UFO flap the locals were so frightened that many of them left town, while the men that remained lit bonfires to mount guard at night, letting off fireworks and banging tins whenever they saw UFOs, which they termed chupa-chupas, approaching. (Giese, 1996)

The beams of light from the craft were described as being so bright that they resembled those used to illuminate night sporting events.  They were "always sharply defined, directed with perfect precision towards any target – houses, people, boats, trees, even the Brazilian Air Force's helicopters deployed over the island during the investigations of the UFO wave."  On one occasion one of these powerful beams is reported to have obliged one of the helicopters to land, although the exact technical reason is not given. (Giese, 1996)

On the evening of 29th October 1977 Benedito Campos and his seventeen year old wife Silvia Mara were at home when "they spotted an oval, silvery object emitting a greenish beam like a searchlight towards the room where they were lying.  Filled with curiosity, they approached a small window and, as they did so, the beam shot in through and made straight for Silvia, throwing her into a sort of benumbed trance-like state."  Silvia, who was pregnant at the time, then fainted whereupon two entities apparently entered the house carrying something resembling a golden torch and "once again the beam struck Silvia, this time hitting her in the left arm at the level of the wrist.  Her veins seemed to 'rise up out of the body' so swollen were they by the beam striking them."  Later, while at a neighbour's house, Benedito was also briefly paralysed by a light beam.  Fearing a miscarriage, husband and wife were taken at night by boat to the Mosqueiro Medical Clinic, followed all the way by the UFO, which made no further attempt to harm them.  They remained there for three days where the wife recovered, but Benedito "was in a state of severe depression for some days, his motor functions disturbed and, as his mother reports, weeping frequently." (Giese, 1996)

One night several months later, on 24th May 1978, a journalist and photographer, who had been sent to cover the local UFO encounters, were in their car when despite the heavy rain they were woken up "by a powerful beam of light which – however unbelievable it may seem – passed through the metallic structure of the roof of the vehicle."  Not surprisingly they leapt out of the car to see that "a tube-shaped light beam, about [twenty-five centimetres] in diameter, was coming down from above onto the roof of the car and passing through the metal panelling."  On this and other occasions they managed to take numerous photographs which they claim that their newspaper later sold to "a North-American group".  On another night while trying to use flash equipment to photograph one of these craft "the UFO emitted such a vivid beam of light that it smashed the windscreen" of their car. (Giese, 1996)

Researcher Dr Jacques Vallee went to South America to investigate the numerous reports of UFO close encounters that have resulted in the death or injury of witnesses.  The results of his extensive field investigations are detailed in his book Confrontations: A Scientist's Search for Alien Contact, which is recommended to anyone interested in pursuing this matter.  For example, in Parnarama in central Brazil, Vallee reports that at least five people are reported to have died "following close encounters with what were described as boxlike UFOs equipped with powerful light beams."  Many victims were hunters who, following the local tradition, had climbed into jungle trees at night to wait for passing animals that they could spotlight and shoot.  In an ironic twist, the hunters had themselves been hunted by UFO craft which injured or killed them using light beams of their own.  As Vallee reports, these chupas (UFOs) "are said to make a humming sound like a refrigerator or a transformer, and this sound does not change when the object accelerates.  The object does not seem large enough to contain a human pilot." (p.118)  In one case a victim called Dionizio General "was atop a hill when an object hovered above him and shot a beam in his direction; it was described as 'a big ray of fire'.  The witness, José dos Santos, testified that Dionizio seemed to receive a shock and came rolling down the hill.  For the following three days he was insane with terror, then he died." (p.119)  Witnesses describe the light beams as being blinding, like electrical arcs, with pulsating colours inside and smelling unpleasant, which Vallee suspects may be ozone. (p.120)

By November 1977 the physician in charge of the health unit on Colares Island, Dr Wellaide Cecim Carvalho de Oliveira, "had seen no fewer than thirty-five patients claiming injuries related to the chupas.  All of them had suffered lesions to the face or the thoracic area." (p.123)  These lesions, which resembled radiation injuries, "began with intense reddening of the skin in the affected area.  Later the hair would fall out and the skin would turn black.  There was no pain, only a slight warmth.  One also noticed small puncture marks in the skin.  The victims were men and women of varying ages, without any pattern." (p.122)  Vallee later provides us with a more comprehensive list of symptoms drawn up by Dr Carvalho. (p.199)

• A feeling of weakness; some could hardly walk.
• Dizziness and headaches.
• Local losses of sensitivity.  Numbness and trembling.
• Pallid complexion.
• Low arterial pressure.
• Anaemia, with low haemoglobin levels.
• Blackened skin where the light had hit, with several red-purple circles, hot and painful, two to three centimetres in diameter.
• Two puncture marks inside the red circles resembling mosquito bites, hard to the touch.
• Hair in the blackened area fell out and did not rejuvenate, as if follicles had been destroyed.
• No nausea or diarrhoea.

After asking various forensic pathologists to review his findings, Vallee claims that "what UFO witnesses describe as 'light' may, in fact, be a complex combination of ionising and non-ionising radiation.  Many of the injuries described in Brazil, however, are consistent with the effects of high-power pulsed microwaves." (p.124)  Later he points out that pulsed microwaves may "interfere with the central nervous system.  Such a beam could cause the dizziness, headaches, paralysis, pricklings, and numbness reported to us by so many witnesses." (p.202)
The difference between ionising and non-ionising electromagnetic radiation is that, when radiating through the air, the former has a high enough frequency, and therefore enough power, to ionise the gaseous atoms and molecules that comprise the atmosphere.  This means that those atoms and molecules acquire an electric charge by either gaining or losing one or more electrons.  A gas that has been ionised becomes highly conductive, and may also radiate light, a phenomenon which is called fluorescence.  The boundary between ionising and non-ionising radiation is in the ultraviolet (UV) part of the electromagnetic spectrum, about 3 X 1015 Hz.  (Smith & Best, 1989, p.293)  This means that higher frequency UV radiation, x-rays and gamma radiation are considered to be ionising, while lower frequency UV, visible light, infrared radiation, microwave radiation, and all the radio frequencies, are referred to as non-ionising radiation.
In the conclusion to Confrontations Vallee discusses whether these Brazilian UFOs are deliberately trying to kill people.  If they are, he considers that they are fairly inefficient at doing it.  After all, someone in a helicopter with a high powered rifle and night scope, could probably do a better job.  He does however point out that a radiation beam that was designed merely to stun people at one range might be lethal at another range. (p.206)

The previous examples show that UFO light beams seem able to do several different things apart from just injuring people.  In attempting to analyse their function further we need to remember that these UFOs are not necessarily all of the same design.  If they are indeed the product of alien cultures, some of them, light beams included, may be more sophisticated than others.  If, in addition, some of their light beams are multi-functional, we might have so many variables at work that a meaningful analysis of those functions becomes impossible.  However at times the whole of ufology seems to be an attempt to understand the impossible, so I don't think we should let that put us off.
We earlier dismissed the suggestion that UFO light beams are purely for illumination.  One reason to suspect this is to be found in Colonel Phillip Corso's book The Day After Roswell.  Corso claims that night vision equipment was found among the debris at the Roswell UFO crash site in 1947.  He claims that the 'eyepieces' found on one of the autopsied aliens from the crash were "a complicated set of reflectors that gathered all the available light and turned them into night-time image intensifiers." (p.132)  He further states that the soldiers that looked inside the wreckage, through a split in its side, were astonished to discover that, "when they looked through the view ports, they could see daylight, or a greenish, hazy kind of diffused light that looked like dusk, but outside it was completely dark." (p.132)  This evidence, unsupported though it is, would suggest that aliens on UFOs do not need spotlights to see what they are doing at night, although perhaps not all UFOs are designed like the one Corso describes.

If Jacques Vallee's earlier suggestion that these beams contain several types of electromagnetic radiation is correct, we should remember that, just because the visible light component of the beams is the most apparent to our eyes, does not mean that it is the most important from the UFO's perspective.  What other functions can visible or invisible radiation beams serve?  Let us for a moment consider some of the electromagnetic radiation beams that humans have invented.  For example, we use headlights on cars to see where we are going, but our brake-lights are designed as communication signals for safety purposes to tell people behind that we are slowing down.  Kangaroo or rabbit shooters use spotlights to illuminate and hopefully paralyse their prey, which gives them a dual purpose.  Most of us use invisible beams of infrared radiation from hand-held remote controls in our living rooms to control our televisions, VCRs, sound systems, or air conditioners.  (Perhaps UFOs are firing powerful remote control beams at us to see if some of us are realistic looking robots!)  Likewise, many modern commercial buildings have automatic doors that open when radiation beams bounce off approaching customers.  Similarly, some burglar alarms and outdoor security lights use invisible beams to detect people by their movement.

Radiation beams called lasers are today used for a large number of purposes.  The word LASER is an acronym which stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.  The difference between a normal light beam and a laser is that, whatever its colour, normal light is noncoherent, meaning that its light particles or waves are out of phase or unsynchronised with each other, whereas in a laser they are perfectly in phase, thus producing a coherent, synchronised beam of light.  Laser light can therefore be made extremely intense, directional and, because it is only of one frequency, very pure in colour.  Lasers beams can now be produced in the infrared, visible, UV and even x-ray frequencies.  Modern technology uses lasers for an increasing variety of purposes, ranging from red laser pointers used in the lecture hall, to those used in industry to drill holes in metal or diamond.  Lasers can be used in surgery to cut and cauterise flesh.  It is speculated that surgical laser cutters may be being used in the animal mutilation phenomenon, which is often associated with UFOs.  The high frequency of laser light enables it to carry hundreds of times more television channels than microwave transmissions, which makes it an ideal system for space communications.  Military technology also makes extensive use of lasers.  They may be used as a sighting or ranging device on a rifle or tank, or with laser guided bombs.  There are also claims that powerful lasers and other classified high-energy beam weapons are being used by the US military to shoot at UFOs. (Wolf, 1996, p.207)  Perhaps the most interesting use for lasers is to illuminate holograms.  In 1997 the US Army Research Laboratory in Maryland, claimed that their research into non-linear optics might in future enable the army to project three dimensional holographic images of tanks, planes and soldiers onto a battlefield to confuse the enemy.  Perhaps aliens are already using a sophisticated version of this technology.
Because of their intensity, directional nature and colours, we might therefore speculate that some UFO beams are types of lasers.  However, given the variety of uses to which we put lasers, this is not much help in deciding what aliens might be using them for.  Also, given the speed with which we continue to invent exotic uses for laser technology, the alien's beams may be several generations further down the track and therefore incomprehensible to us.
One interesting idea is to compare the multiple effects of UFO beams with the abilities of various types of proboscis found on animals and insects.  An elephant's trunk for example can be used to blow, suck, smell, feel, transmit and receive information, acquire food, lift things, or as a weapon.  This is an astonishing range of abilities, and is only possible because the sensitivity of the elephant's trunk is coupled with the high level of intelligence, or data processing ability, possessed by these animals.  UFO beams of light may be some sort of technical equivalent, with a wide range of purposes, some of which may be less obvious to us than others.  We might speculate, for example, that, among other things, these light beams can receive and transmit information by being coupled to highly sophisticated artificial intelligence devices aboard the UFOs.

What do we know about radiation produced by UFOs?  In his excellent book Unconventional Flying Objects; A Scientific Analysis, NASA scientist Paul Hill tells us about an incident on January 30th 1973 in which UFO investigator Bill Rogers used a Geiger counter (an instrument for the detection of ionising radiation) to record the radiation given off by a UFO in Lexington, USA.  The craft dipped repeatedly below a hill and every time it reappeared Bill got the same reading of 400 volts and 250 milliroentgens from a distance of about one kilometre. (Hill, 1995, p.71)  In his scientific analysis, Hill concludes that in this particular case the UFO was emitting powerful ionising radiation in the x-ray or lower gamma ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum.  Although this UFO did not have a light beam visible at the time, this case might make our analysis of sightings of UFOs that do have light beams rather more complicated.  If they too emit powerful all round gamma and x-ray radiation, then some of their physical effects on people may result from a combination of this all round radiation and their light beam radiation.
Unfortunately, Paul Hill says little about UFO light beams except that "some luminous beams may be weapons, having as a purpose the projection of heat, the disruption of electric and electronic equipment, and even the temporary paralysis of individuals." (p.53)  He does point out that UFOs' high-energy generalised radiation affects the atmosphere around the craft to form a bright ionised gas or plasma sheath whose nitrogen component "radiates strongly in the ultraviolet frequency." (p.59)  This bluish coloured UV radiation would explain the painful eyes and sunburn that some UFO witnesses experience even at night, and, if the beams of light also cause nitrogen to fluoresce, people hit by them could suffer similar symptoms.

Returning to Vallee's reference to the microwave component of UFO beams, the microwave equivalent of a laser beam is called a MASER (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation).  Masers can be tuned to operate at frequencies ranging from less than one megacycle up to several hundred megacycles.  A maser beam would be invisible to the human eye, but could still be one component of UFO beams of light.  It is interesting to note that, when one tries to look up the uses to which masers can be put in an encyclopaedia or technical reference, there seems to be very little information available.  This may mean that masers have few uses, or that perhaps many of them are the subject of classified research.  There are however a few articles in the UFO literature about developments in microwave technology that can be used on humans or animals, often for sinister or unpleasant purposes.
What seems to be in doubt in the case of the South American UFO light beams is whether these are examples of microwave technology being used on people by aliens, humans, or both.  It is possible that the military's classified development of such technology might have derived from their observation of UFOs that use it.  This might give the military a convenient cover to develop and then test microwave weapons on people, enabling them, if accused of unethical behaviour, to try to blame it on the aliens.  Another possibility might be that someone in the military-intelligence community is deliberately zapping people with electromagnetic beams in an attempt to give aliens a bad name.  Finally, just to confuse us even more, it is possible that, unknown to each other, different compartmentalised sections of the US military, as well as some aliens, are doing all of the above simultaneously.

This leads us to explore the possibility that some UFO beams of light may be human designed weapon systems being secretly tested on humans in a part of the world where communications are so poor that the Western media would probably either not hear about these events, or not bother to report them even if they did.  Given that there is evidence that research has been done into High Powered Microwave (HPM) weapons, Jacques Vallee ponders the relationship between human and alien technology.  "Here again, the UFOs seem to represent an alien force that anticipates our own scientific developments by decades, mocking our own efforts to identify its nature and its long term intentions." (Vallee, 1990, p.206)
A brief news snippet in New Dawn magazine (May-June 1997, p.10) claims that "The USAF Office of Scientific Research is working on developing a small affordable laser and high powered microwave (sic) for unmanned aerial vehicles to perform a wide variety of missions, including enemy communications and computer systems."  Although it does not mention human targets, this sounds suspiciously like the UFOs seen in South America.  Could it be that over the last twenty years someone has been testing the propulsion, guidance, and radiation beam target-acquisition systems of such unmanned devices in the jungles of Brazil?

A 1991 MUFON UFO Journal article by Dr Richard M. Neal Jr., called 'Paralysis by Microwaves', discusses how such radiation might affect people.  For example, it is known that low frequency microwave radiation will penetrate the body more effectively than higher frequencies.  Neal claims that from 1965 to 1970 the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) undertook Project Pandora "to determine the health and psychological effects of low intensity microwaves."  He suggests that when this radiation is "modulated with low biological frequencies" it may be able "to cause performance decrements and disorganisation by interfering with neuroelectric functions; or by causing central nervous system effects".  We know from witness reports that, while UFO light beam paralysis does not affect a person's breathing, cardio-vascular system or senses, it does prevents them from moving.  By pulsing the microwave radiation so that the appropriate motor units within the brain are affected, the body's musculoskeletal system can be stimulated at an increasing frequency until "successive contractions fuse together and cannot be distinguished from one another."  This condition, called tetanisation, produces paralysis.  (Neal, 1991)
Five years later in 1996, Dr Helmut Lammer, again in the MUFON UFO Journal, referred to something called the New World Vistas which
"was a major undertaking for the USAF Scientific Advisory Board (SAR).  This military publication was published in June 1996 and is a forecast of possible military developments over the next fifty years.  In it military scientists suggest the development of electromagnetic energy sources, the output of which can be pulsed, shaped, focused, and coupled with the human body in a fashion that will allow one to prevent voluntary muscular movements, control emotions and actions, produce sleep, transmit suggestions, interfere with both short-term and long-term memory, and induce an experience set or delete an experience set." (p.6)
If, as Dr Lammer suggests, such technology has already been developed, then some apparent UFO abduction experiences, including physical paralysis, may be the results of humans using this technology.

In 1997, Tim Rifat, writing in UFO Reality magazine, gives us more details of developments in this field.  (This research was primarily done to develop mind control technologies, which are beyond the scope of this article.  Those interested in following up on such research are recommended to read Rifat's article.)  He tells us that pulse modulated microwave radiation has been "found to be especially useful as a carrier for the mind control signals as they were able to pass through the cranium, which is rather resistant to low level electromagnetic radiation.  This pulse modulated microwave carrier beam could be used to carry signals rather like radio signals can be frequency or amplitude modulated to carry music or speech." (p.48)  This Remote Mind Control Technology (RMCT) can be "keyed to distinctive patterns of brainwaves called 'preparatory sets', which exist for every mechanical gesture the body makes.  There are also specific excitation potentials which exist for specific emotional states." (p.49)  Later Rifat confirms our earlier suspicions by claiming that "Victims who are paralysed by the light from UFOs are in fact being deceived.  It is not visible radiation but microwaves, that are paralysing them." (p.49)  While Rifat's article appeared in 1997, other relevant mind control articles have been appearing intermittently in the UFO literature since the early nineteen-nineties.  For example Martin Cannon's book The Controllers: A New Hypothesis of Alien Abductions was published in 1992, yet the classic text on this subject, Walter Bowart's Operation Mind Control, came out in 1978.

Sometimes UFO-related inventions appear that do not seem to be the result of classified military research.  An article by Paul Guinnessy in New Scientist magazine (1st Nov. 1997, p.6) described a patent awarded to Hans Eric Herr from San Diego, California, "for a 'phaser' that uses laser light to stun or kill."  Currently some American police forces use electronic stun weapons called tasers which work by firing two small metal darts attached to thin wires that carry a pulsing electric current that stuns their victim.  By using a laser to create an intense beam of ultraviolet light which ionises the air molecules in its path, Herr's invention does away with the use of wires.  Instead a carefully modulated electrical current which can painlessly stun the victim, cause painful contractions, or a heart attack, simply travels down the ionised light beam.  The phaser has a range of over one hundred metres, and can penetrate clothing.  Although we are told that the laser needed for Herr's invention is still too large for hand held phasers to be made, one imagines that they will not be long in arriving, and of course such a device could easily fit into a UFO sized craft.  The article ends with Herr's worrying claim "that any technically competent person would be able to build a phaser." (p.6)
Just because Herr's phaser seems to have similar paralysing abilities to some UFO beams of light does not prove that this is how aliens are paralysing people.  Nevertheless it does appear to show that some aspects of human technology may not be that far behind that of the aliens, although unfortunately, the closer our technology does get to theirs, the more likely it will become that some UFOs are actually human craft mimicking alien ones.  For example, in an article in New Dawn (May-June 1997, p.25), Dr Richard J. Boylan claims that the US military's Project Snowbird involves "pseudo-UFOs used as disinformation", while Project Tacit Rainbow apparently involves "stealth drones/pseudo-UFOs".

This article is not trying to suggest that UFO light beams are always trying to hurt people.  Sometimes they appear to be trying to assist, as this next case suggests.  Late at night on 18th October 1973 a Bell Huey helicopter of the US Army Reserve was flying from Columbus to Cleveland in the state of Ohio, with four crew aboard, when a bright red light started to approach them.  Captain Lawrence Coyne, fearing a collision, grabbed the controls from his less experienced copilot, and put the helicopter into a very rapid descent.  Despite this evasive action, the UFO was now so close that it seemed to the crew to fill the windscreen.  A green 'searchlight' beneath the UFO then swung around and "shone into the cabin bathing all four men in a greenish haze!" (Randles, 1987, p.104)  The cigar shaped UFO then shot off leaving the helicopter's magnetic compass spinning at four revolutions per minute, and the altimeter reading 1066 metres, whereas it had previously been at 518 metres.  Captain Coyne later realised that the helicopter had been within seconds of hitting the ground when the green 'tractor beam' from the UFO had pulled them upwards about five hundred metres.
Jenny Randles (1987) gives another example in which a green beam from a UFO appeared to try to assist a witness.  The case "involved a British Rail worker walking along the tracks from Headingley, Leeds, to his home in the early evening of 12th February 1979.  He observed a strange green light above him, but then had to move quickly onto an adjacent track as the Harrogate to Leeds train went by.  Whether this was perceived as endangering the man is hard to know.  He was quite safe.  However, the green thing came low above him and seemed to suck him upwards into the air.  It felt like a powerful magnet had pulled him about [two metres] skywards and moved him bodily along the track, depositing him unharmed further along.  He stood petrified for a few moments, but then turned back and saw an oval with a misty vapour moving away.  Needless to say he did not take this short cut home after that!" (p.105)
This article has detailed numerous examples of the capabilities of UFO light beams, some of which appear to resemble classified military technology.  To study the subject further would require a more comprehensive database that, for example, categorised the light beams by colour or effect.  Given ufology's shortage of funding, finding a suitable physicist to do this research would be difficult, although it seems that the US military has already done it.

References
Bowart, Walter.  (1978)  Operation Mind Control.
Boylan, Richard J.  (May-June 1997)  The shadow government: Its identification and analysis.  New Dawn.
Cannon, Martin.  (1992)  The Controllers: A New Hypothesis of Alien Abductions.
Corso, Col. Phillip J.  (1997)  The Day After Roswell.
Giese, Daniel Rebisso.  (Summer 1996)  Extraterrestrial Vampires in the Amazon Region of Brazil: Part II.  Flying Saucer Review.
Guinnessy, Paul.  (1st November 1997)  Set phasers to shock.  New Scientist, No.2106, p.6.
Hill, Paul R. (1995)  Unconventional Flying Objects; A Scientific Analysis.
Lammer, Helmut.  (1996)  Preliminary findings for Project Milab.  MUFON UFO Journal, No.344, pp.3-8.
Moulton Howe, Linda  (June-July 1997)  Chupacabras – The Mysterious Bloodsuckers, Nexus, Vol.4, No.4, p.66.
Neal, Richard M. Jr.  (November 1991)  MUFON UFO Journal, No.283, p.13.
Pentagon's New Offensive Info War (May-June 1997)  New Dawn, No.42, p.10.
Randles, Jenny.  (1987)  The UFO Conspiracy: The First Forty Years.
Rifat, Tim.  (June-July 1997)  Big brother is all in the mind, UFO Reality, Issue 8, p.48.
Schuessler, John F.  (November 1997)  Human Physiological Effects From UFO Reports.  MUFON UFO Journal, No.355, p.20.  These three reports are 'Copyright 1997 by the Mutual UFO Network, 103 Oldetowne Rd., Seguin, Texas 78155 USA.'
Smith, Cyril W. & Best, Simon.  (1989)  Electromagnetic Man: Health & Hazard in the Electromagnetic Environment.
Story, R.D. (Editor, 1980) The Encyclopedia of UFOs.
Thompson, Richard L.  (1993)  Alien Identities.
US Army Plans Phoney War.  (13th May 1997)  The West Australian.
Window to another world.  (January/February 1998)  UFO Magazine, p.13.
Vallee, Jacques.  (1990)  Confrontations: A Scientist's Search For Alien Contact.
Vallee, J.  (1992)  UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union.
Warren, L. & Robbins, P.  (1997)  Left at East Gate.
Wolf, Michael.  (1996)  The Catchers of Heaven.
 
 

Western Australian Sightings

Lights in the sky (LITS) continue to be a world-wide phenomenon, causing mixed reactions amongst the UFO fraternity, from ardent belief to downright scepticism.  Of all the different types of lights, the orange balls or spheres, often travelling in twos or threes, inflame the most passion.  UFO groups and researchers are clearly divided as to the origin and purpose of these silent sky riders, some claiming that ninety per cent of them are Identified Flying Objects (IFO) in the form of garbage bags made airborne by firelighters and/or metho burners.  Others claim they are alien intrusions, advanced remotely operated probes, or scanners transmitting heaven-knows-what information to a central nerve centre/control room.
Whatever the origin, each case must be judged individually.  If, for example, two orange lights were drifting slowly with the wind, one shedding bits of 'orange', the other flickering and going out, it would be safe to assume the hot-air balloon hypothesis.  If however, sphere one rapidly overtakes sphere two, stops, backtracks, does a couple of vertical ascents or descents, both coming together before speeding off into the night, never changing or constantly changing the intensity and size of their illumination, then we must assume something other than a firelighter-powered plastic bag.  Witnesses not infrequently attribute bizarre aerial behaviour or manoeuvres to these orange lights, but their testimony is often dismissed as a flight of fancy, or simply ignored.
I do not hold the view that the collection of data relating to LITS, or any other unidentified aerial object, is a waste of time.  While they may not tell us a great deal, noting their presence in our skies, in water, or on land, gives a much clearer picture of the volume of this intrusive traffic, not to mention their plethora of shapes, sizes and behaviour.

SIGHTINGS UPDATE

Monday 26th January 1998, 10.30pm.   Bunbury WA.  Shane and Jason reported a bright orange shimmering sphere with no tail, which travelled in a straight line from Bunbury to Perth (south to north).  The lemon-sized object was shedding bits of burning matter.  It was seen for about twenty seconds.  (Possibly space junk – BR)
Saturday 28th February 1998, 9.10pm.   Warnboro WA.  Elwyn, a trained pilot, and two other witnesses watched three orange lights move in a triangular formation from NW to SE.  They were about the size of Jupiter or Venus.  The leading light stopped, did a U-turn and took a rear position behind the other two.  At no time was there any sound.  The lights were always constant and of equal intensity from every angle.  The sighting lasted about fifteen seconds.
Friday 6th March 1998, 10pm.   Fremantle WA.  Gary reported two orange lights flying side by side overhead from NE to SW.  They appeared to be travelling very fast and were larger than Venus.
Friday 6th March 1998, 11.30pm.   Westminster WA.  Jeff A reported a bullet-shaped object, yellow-orange in colour travelling from east to west in four to six seconds.  It was very high up and the size of a tennis ball.
Friday 13th March 1998.   Grace H of South Perth reported a bright star-like light giving off green, red and blue colours over Perth Airport over a three day period from 9.30pm till late.  (Probably a hot star – BR)

The Greenwood UFO.  Thursday 19th March 1998, 8.50pm.   Pamela S of Greenwood WA was driving in a westerly direction along Hepburn Avenue when she noticed a large stationary object hovering over the Cockman Road intersection.  Her car passed under the object which appeared to be a very low, large saucer-like craft of a dark metallic structure.  A central depression was also evident under the object.  Two crescent-shaped rows of small blue lights shone constantly from the underside rim on opposite sides.  Other people were looking up at the object and no doubt it was witnessed by other motorists, as traffic was fairly heavy.  Pamela felt acute apprehension, but on reaching her house, ran inside to get her son to have a look.  When they emerged from the house the object had gone.
Interestingly, power to 100,000 homes in Perth failed about 1.30pm, and areas in the South-West including Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, Bunbury and Albany were affected by a fifteen per cent loss of generating capacity.  Muja Power Station failed at 1.30pm followed by Kwinana ten minutes later.  No cause for the failure has been found and Western Power management are investigating the incident.  (Note: I personally know the witness in this sighting and find her to be a person of the highest integrity.  Another witness has also testified to seeing the object.)
Orange Light – Helicopter Flight.  Wednesday 1st April 1998, 7.50-8pm.   Two separate groups of witnesses called from the Rockingham WA area to relate an interesting sighting.  The first group, a Mr Hulme, his wife, son, and daughter all saw an orange light heading fairly rapidly north towards Perth from the south-east.  As they watched, the object appeared to slow down and drop something round and glowing which headed straight for the ground.  The main object continued towards Perth and faded out or was lost from view.  About ten minutes later a police helicopter appeared and searched the area for ten or twelve minutes using its spotlight.
The second witness, his wife, and a neighbour, reported the same light.  Matthew C was looking towards the Orion group of stars from Waikiki, at about 8pm.  Suddenly he saw a bright flash overhead and from it emerged an orange ball.  The orange ball headed towards Perth (north) very fast, stopped and dropped a smaller orange ball towards the ground.  This smaller object was pulsating as it fell.  The main object also increase