Tag: UFO

ᴬ UFO ᴇɴᴄᴏᴜɴᴛᴇʀ: SCHOOLYARD SIGHTINGS

(Illustrated by abramsdesign)

In the year 1994, on the 16th of September, 12:12 PM, something deemed ‘unidentifiable’ was observed flying ‘very fast’ over Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa (Astronomers across the region soon reported that the “pyrotechnic display”, seen as far afield as Zambia and Botswana, had been a meteor shower—mg.co.za). This UFO sighting was observed by many people throughout these vast regions, with varying observations. Some claiming to have seen 2 large red/orange balls traveling silently across the sky. Others describing multicolored orbs. Or a single large orange glowing mass, as one woman stated to reporters at the time, “I just saw a glow over my chicken run. A very orange glow. It was just a big round ball.” The greatest commonality in all accounts, being the corroborating time and date, the 16th of September, 1994.

Most peculiar of all though, is that it’s said that something especially unworldly occurred on this same date, at approximately the same time, in the same region of the world. An unusual event, occurring at the Ariel private elementary school, in Ruwa, Zimbabwe. While 62 school children aged between 6 and 12 were out of the classroom, playing, eating, something strange was sighted in the clear blue morning sky by the students outside. According to many of the children who were most verbal about the event, there were 3 UFOs/UAPs observed flying above the school and surrounding areas (some claiming only 1 single silver craft). Of these dome-shaped ‘silver crafts’, one descended in a nearby field. Soon after, 2 humanoid figures exited the craft, appearing to be wearing tight-fitted black clothing, with pale faces, small or non-existent mouths and noses, with large black eyes. These figures then approached/engaged the children.

At this point the students accounts begin to diverge and vary greatly. Some students claiming that 1 being approached them (as the students grouped in astonishment/bewilderment/fear), others stating there were 2. Some saying that the figures walked, others claiming that they floated and their feet never touched the ground (one student recorded to have stated that the figures moved in a way to suggest mimicry/mockery, skipping/hopscotch movements replicating movements observed by students in such a fashion prior to their arrival). Many of the students claimed that the figures stared at them and that they were compelled to stare back.

During this time, the children believed they received warning ominous visions, regarding various environmental catastrophes. A desolate world, destroyed by pollution or nuclear holocaust. Students believed they were given information by the figures, that all regarded negative human impact on this planet. One student, ‘Emily’ claims to have seen images of environmental decline and was told telepathically that technology needs to be used more responsibly. Several students have put forward the notion (as adults) that they believe time was somehow being distorted throughout the duration of the encounter. One student remarking that she felt as though, despite wanting to, she was unable to break eye-contact with the figure staring at her. While many students agreed that the entire event felt as though it lasted about 15 minutes, fewer children witnessed the beings walk/float back to the craft and fly away. Most claiming that the being(s) along with the craft(s) vanished abruptly.

“When the spaceship had landed, all the insects and ants and stuff like that were all dead and there was a huge black mark there. My mum said there might have just been a fire there, but I don’t think there was, I think it was an alien ship. The ground was burnt and all the living things had died there.”

“It was at break time and then we saw something shiny. And we saw two people, wearing black, tight black suits, and they had big eyes. And a small, well, we didn’t actually see the nose, it was quite small. And their mouth was quite small, as well. One of them was running in slow motion, across the ship, and the other was standing beside the ship.”

“He had a long scrawny neck and huge eyes like rugby balls. He had a pale face with long black hair coming below his shoulders.”

“I could see the little man, about a meter tall, was dressed in a black, shiny suit, that he had long black hair and his eyes, which seemed lower on the cheek than our eyes, were large and elongated. The mouth was just a slit and the ears were hardly discernible.” [Adult reflecting on the childhood experience.]

“I had nightmares about it for about a year but then I stopped dreaming about it. I dreamt that, um, the same one I saw, with the dark hair, he came into my bedroom and he took me from my bed, I woke up and screamed.”

—Observations made by students/witnesses, during the many interviews that followed the event.

Students at Ariel Private school being interviewed about the UFO event, 1 year later.

The primary Ufologist and investigator involved with this occurrence was Cynthia Hind, who was the first to thoroughly investigate the site for any signs of evidence to really suggest if something out of the ordinary occurred. Hind found no scientific abnormalities, no readings of radiation or magnetism, no scorched earth, nothing to suggest any unusual event transpired there at all. Hind also spoke with 62 of the students (willing to discuss the event), documenting their claims and experiences. Dr John E. Mack, who was in Africa investigating the Abduction Phenomena throughout the continent also questioned many of the children, and examined the differences and commonalities of their claims.

Hind, drawn to the Ariel school UFO sighting, having been contacted with multiple odd events/sightings, the days prior, all following a recent meteor shower. The meteor shower, in more ways than one, acting as a potential catalyst to the events to come, legitimate or otherwise.

“Astronomers across the region soon reported that the “pyrotechnic display”, seen as far afield as Zambia and Botswana, had been a meteor shower. Hind, though, recorded receiving dozens of reports of a capsule-like fireball, trailing fire and flanked by two smaller capsules. She also received several reports of alien sightings around the same time: a young boy and his mother reported a daylight sighting; a trucker who had seen strange beings on the road at night. And then, on September 16, Hind received the report from Ariel School, which she records as Case 96, and describes as ‘one of the most exciting UFO stories of this or any year'”.

—Remembering Zimbabwe’s Great Alien Invasion, 4th of September, 2014

Cynthia Hind made this remark in her record of the event, “one little girl said to me, ‘I swear by every hair on my head and the whole Bible that I am telling the truth.’ I could see the pleasure on her face when I told her that I believed her.”

In a closing statement in the article, Remembering Zimbabwe’s Great Alien Invasion, one of the students (given the false name, Sarah), claiming to be one of the last remaining witnesses to this event, still living in Zimbabwe, 2014, gave this insight:

“You want to know the real message here? The real message is that this stuff can brand you for life. It undermined Mack’s credibility, became this huge unending thing for others, and it certainly fucked me up. I mean, try telling people that you live in permanent fear of these things returning one day. Try telling them that you can actually sense when they’re back in our atmosphere. They’ll think you’re a kook. All this lot do,” she said, casting mock-angry eyes down the bar at a fellow boozer, who raised his glass and said: “True, but we love you anyway, Sê.”

Despite her patently thick skin, a look of extreme sadness entered Sarah’s eyes for a moment, as she pretended to watch her fingers pulling the label from a beer bottle.

At the time of writing this sentence, the event occurred 27 years ago. It’s easy to think the story began and ended in Zimbabwe as individuals reflect over their strange experience in quiet bars over a drink. But the story didn’t actually begin in Zimbabwe at all, and the event hasn’t ended for a few reasons. Not only are the witnesses haunted to this day, but these events continue to be recorded around the world.

You might say these Schoolyard sightings began in the 60’s in Australia, (1) the Westall High School, UFO sighting at 11:00 AM, April 6th, 1966, Victoria, Australia. But that is likely not the case at all, despite impacting in some instances hundreds of lives, the events can pass by eerily unknown or unspoken of for generations.

(2) Crestview Elementary School, 11:00AM, April 6th, 7th and 8th, 1967, Florida, USA.

(3) Broad Haven Primary School, 12:00 AM, February 4th, 1977, Cheshire, England.

(4) Ariel Primary School, 12:12 PM, September 16th, 1994, Ruwa, Zimbabwe.

Could UFO phenomena be somehow drawn to Schools?

“No Men in Black came around to bother Mr. Elmore. I was the first reporter to talk to him. When he showed me the field I was perturbed to find it was right next to the Duncan Falls Elementary School. An unusual number of sightings and Fortean events seem to be concentrated around schools and the largest percentage of witnesses consists of children between the ages of seven and eighteen.”

—John A. Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 1975

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is westallufoschool.png

“For the past 170 years, schools have been targeted by UFOs. There are more than 100 cases on record, coming from across the world. Half of the cases occur at elementary schools. Thirty percent of the cases involve landings or humanoids. They are coming for our children.”

—Preston Dennett, Schoolyard UFO Encounters, 2019

Preston Dennett (Author of Schoolyard UFO Encounters) claims to have researched approximately 120 cases of UFO sightings around school grounds. Estimating that one third of these sightings involve the UFO landing in close proximity to onlookers, many of those events also involving being exiting the crafts.

Is the commonality of schoolyard sightings simply a collective of over-imaginative individuals that want to derail the tedious order of things, force the adults into a game that the children want to play? Is it a fantasy that takes hold and spreads like wildfire, consuming truth in it’s wake. Are those that make these claims the victims of mass hysteria, delusion, or some form of deception? Strangest of all, are these people not only telling a truthful account of what they observed, but what was observed, occurred, exactly as they experienced it. The question then arises, why are ‘they’ so interested in the children of our world?

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE: WHY ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ “ᴛʜᴇʏ” ᴍᴀᴋᴇ CONTACT?

(Illustrated by Artwoonz)

All too often the questions are put forward, if intelligent life exists beyond our planet, why hasn’t it been discovered? If intelligent extraterrestrial life exists, why doesn’t it make contact with human life? There’s no shortage of answers to these questions, but I resort to answering these questions with another question: Why would intelligent extraterrestrial life desire to make contact with human life in the first place? Not in a snide cynical way, insinuating that human life is best to be avoided (despite living my life by that very sentiment) but for what purpose would contact serve? If human history has taught us anything, the interactions of even slightly technologically advanced cultures with native inhabitants around the world time and time again has proven extremely detrimental to the contactee and often even those making contact. After contact is made, life for the contactee will never be the same again. Many naturalists might agree that ultimately, an act of benevolence can be as misguided and troublesome as an act of cruelty, in the end. One cannot inject themselves into a system, without changing it in some way, for better or for worse.

In many instances, after a great amount of observation, the ‘human experiment’ have generally come to appreciate this understanding. As of 2013, there were approximately 100 tribes existing on planet Earth, half of which living in the Amazon rainforest that have made absolutely no contact with the outside world. While some may seek to plunder resources, others may want to share religious views, others might just want to expose these groups to technologically advanced medical procedures, educational opportunities. All of these people may be certain within themselves that their desire for contact is justified and even in the best interest of these isolated people. Only, we’ve been down that road before, we already know how it ends. Who truly benefits from the collision of worlds? For one party, their world stands still, they are at the mercy of forces they never knew existed. For the other, it’s Tuesday.

In the fictional world of Middle-earth created by J. R. R. Tolkien the world goes about, in large part oblivious to the existence of hobbits (small humanoids) and their lands called The Shire. They have some interaction with the outside world, scarce travelers, merchants etc, but unknown to most hobbits, their borders are protected by guardians, rangers known as the Dúnedain from the evils of the outside world. Without the unseen allegiance working to protect the realm, the Shire and its inhabitants would likely cease to exist.

Personally, I find a great deal of comfort in knowing there are some few truly free groups of people left, scattered around this planet, and in a just and honorable world they could be left to their own devices, oblivious to the fact that anyone is speaking/typing about them at this instant, and for generations to come. They don’t need to be regulated, controlled, informed of anything. Inevitably a dying ambition, like all ambitions in the fullness of time, but as long as such groups are protected, preserved, the world in a way retains some of its innocence, some of its freedom that has been lost elsewhere.

Is it possible, that a theoretical extraterrestrial being could ever possess that same sentiment for our species? Someone/something understanding the repercussions of contact would be cataclysmic to the human race. Just as it were to other species of other planets seen throughout the universe throughout time. In the idealized fantasy, we are given advanced technology that we didn’t earn, that we don’t possess the wisdom to control. In the idealized fantasy, we receive access to medical technology that can cure any sickness, extend our mortal lifetime possibly indefinitely, utterly selfish and futile desires that serve only the individual. In the idealized fantasy of extraterrestrial contact, we learn the secrets of the universe. Secrets we would likely fail to comprehend, but in lieu of enlightenment, there would be an understanding of inferiority, bewilderment and a loss of our humanity. We would seek to adapt to a universal existence, beyond the reaches of our solar system. No longer big fish in a small pond, but microscopic paramecium inside a seemingly infinite ocean. You might be thinking, “well, that sounds awesome”. But that feeling you get after you learn how a magic trick is performed, applied to life as we know it, could lead to unfathomable despair. For instance, if it could be proven that the universe we exist within was actually inside a part of an incredibly large being, something similar to a gargantuan tapeworm (possibly also within some other even greater gigantic being), would you get out of bed for work on Monday morning? Would you still want to produce offspring?

If intelligent extraterrestrial life exists out there, anywhere, could the greatest proof of their benevolence be leaving us to our own devices, like those dwindling tribes of the Amazon rainforest? Existing in a haze of mystery and wonder, for the most part, staying out of human comprehension. Watching our every triumph and failure, similar to how we might momentarily observe an ants nest. Granted, many humans cannot resist the urge to kick in and destroy an ants nest upon observing one.

The thought could also be entertained, however, that there is not one singular body representing the will of all intelligent life in the universe. Just like those that trespass beyond borders and make unlawful contact with indigenous people to gain access to their lands/resources, certain extraterrestrial beings might not subscribe to the naturalist ideal either. One such proposed “alien race” (or inter-dimensional being) is the archetypal green/grey alien with a diminutive figure, large head with massive almond shaped, black eyes. ‘Greys’ are often associated with abductions, “probings”, cattle-mutilation, human experimentation, most negative experiences surrounding encounters of the third kind (and beyond).

Is it possible that some governing extraterrestrial force seeks to prevent/punish encounters, trespassers in earth’s observable celestial neighborhood? Are we being purposefully kept isolated by our own version of the Dúnedain for our own protection right now? Or is my assumption regarding a theoretical benevolence entirely misguided? Of the myriad of theories put forward regarding concepts pertaining to the Ancient Alien theory (belief that prehistoric and early humans made contact with advanced beings, interpreting them as “gods”) some suggest a somewhat more nefarious agenda is at work. Such as the ‘Ancient Alien’ interpretation of the Sumerian (Ancient Mesopotamian) Gods called Anunnaki. 𒀭 An or Anu, the personification of the Sky, Heaven or Sky God (above). 𒆠 Ki, personification of Earth, the Earth Goddess. Through the union of heaven and earth, came the Anunnaki. Interpretations (such as ‘The Twelfth Planet’, 1976 by Zecharia Sitchin) suggesting that mankind was created to serve as a slave race to the “gods” to acquire resources for the Anunnaki home-world, Planet X, or Nibiru (many of Sitchin’s claims and translations are disputed). Countless conspiracy theories regarding Planet X/Nibiru/the Nibiru cataclysm have roused authoritarian platforms in the past, with suggestions of flagging or banning such topics to stifle the spread of specific conspiracies, some deem troublesome because they pertain to ‘the end of the world’.

Then of course, the idea of being a genetically engineered slave, abysmal as it may be, is still a better plight than being genetically created livestock. Could there be beings somewhere in the universe that had a hand in harboring life on this planet not to plunder resources, but to be the resource itself. As highlighted in a previous topic ᵀᴴᴱ MISSING, some 4, 432, 880 people are documented to have vanished in the last 20 years, without ever being seen again. Perhaps, the silence, the reason for the dead air, the unusual often unpleasant interactions, the elusive behavior of UFOs in lieu of contact, is because extraterrestrial life has as much to say to us, as we might have to say to cattle soon to be slaughtered for human consumption. They would rather us unaware to their existence, unaware to their agenda because blissful ignorance means business as usual.

According to Worldometers.info by the time I finish typing this sentence there are an estimated 7, 838, 425, 754 human beings upon planet earth. There have been many varying estimations proposed in various studies suggesting there is a maximum human population that planet earth can sustain. One group, Worldpopulationbalance.org claim that the current human population is actually three times greater than the sustainable amount (based on renewable resources and absorption of waste). Applied to the concept of some nefarious extraterrestrial agenda, the current state of our world could be viewed as a prime time for ‘the harvest’. How unfathomably unpleasant it would be, if despite all human achievement, advancement of any kind, and in the end, the fate of our species was actually sealed before it began. Such beings could even orchestrate a genuine disaster and appear like biblical arks at the end of days. As our various governments herd us aboard, we stagger bewildered and unknowingly, to our doom.

Alternatively, perhaps the reason contact has not occurred, is because our nearest extraterrestrial neighbors are at an identical point in their technological ability as we currently find ourselves. For the time being, simply just out of reach from one another. Maybe our nearest living off-world neighbors are closer to prehistoric man. Maybe they have a stunning, beautiful planet of their own, rich in resources that we could only dream of. The question is, just like the dwindling isolated tribes of our own world, are they better off if we refrain from contacting them also? Would we have the benevolence to guard them from afar, stay unknown to them out of respect. Or would we arrive as “gods” and plunder from them? How odd would it be if we were in fact genetically created as livestock, or to serve as slaves and somehow avoided our fate, to reach the level of advancement of our creators. Only we chose a different path, we set a standard for life better than what might have been intended for us. When we have the means to make that choice and depending on what path we take, perhaps then certain beings will see us fit to make contact with, after all.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

ᵀᴴᴱ HOLLOW ONES

(Animation by Dave Strick)

Rather than asking someone, “do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life?” You might instead ask, “is it possible, or even likely, that life beyond this planet does not exist at all?” Is it possible to truly possess an ardent rejection of the concept of extraterrestrial life? Well, of course it is, belief is quite often unimpeded by reality (whichever variation happens to be accurate). Interestingly, unlike Ghosts, Demons, Goblins, conceptual beings which have the potential (regardless of the legitimacy of their existence) to exist only as a byproduct of human imagination, extraterrestrial life has one attribute, that cannot be denied: the existence of our species.

The fact that we can ask “is anything else out there?” indicates that all the conditions CAN be met in this universe, for something else to be asking the same question. The universe (seemingly) has the potential to spawn/harbor life (theoretical abiogenesis), otherwise the question would/could not be asked in the first place. (Someone might say “religion could disprove that statement”, but if we’re here by the will of God(s), then by the same notion, that will ‘could’ have created life elsewhere also?)

So then, if extraterrestrial life exists, why hasn’t it been discovered? It must either be in its primordial stages of development, or very, very far away? Then of course, there is another possibility, rarely considered to the extent that it deserves. What if extraterrestrials, are so very advanced, so incredibly adept, that they interact with us almost constantly, walking among us, entirely undetected?

ᵀᴴᴱ DECOY, dictionary.com

  • a bird or mammal, or an imitation of one, used by hunters to attract other birds or mammals. “a decoy duck”.
  • a person or thing used to mislead or lure someone into a trap. “we need a decoy to distract their attention”

verb (used with object)

  • to lure by or as if by a decoy: They decoyed the ducks to an area right in front of the blind.

The genetic similarity between a human and most avian species is around 60%, yet our species possesses the ability to deceive all of them. Simulate their calls to further lure them to a position or manipulate their behavior. In fact a great many animal species which share even closer genetic similarities with us, can be deceived with an array of decoys. We use robotic decoys to infiltrate highly social mammal groups, to study and monitor their behavior. Often (during closer inspections) the decoys fail, but as a species we have the ability to completely deceive another species, into thinking an object/machine is an acceptable member of that species’ social group.

Many of the animal species on this planet lack the ability to perceive the cues that would suggest illegitimacy, it’s a prospect (almost) entirely inconceivable to the animal world. Even after rejecting a decoy, its highly unlikely an animal would understand the nature of why the foreign imposter existed in the first place. When it comes to perception and self-awareness, the bulk of animal species on our planet don’t have much of an understanding of self. This is further investigated in research surrounding the mirror test.

(The Mirror test, a method used to determine an animal’s ability (or lack there of) to visually identify itself. Researchers place a mirror in front of various animal species and observe their behavior. Despite the arguments surrounding how substantial the results of the mirror test are, very few species on this planet actually pass the test.)

ᴡʜᴏ ᴀʀᴇ ᵀᴴᴱ HOLLOW ONES?

A wolf in sheep’s clothing is no new concept. Even in bygone ages suspicions of demonic beings, otherworldly entities wearing the skin of men as a guise was always a prospect (of a paranoid mind). If you think its a stretch of the imagination to envisage a member of our species presuming another is ‘something else’ in disguise, you should familiarize yourself with the various witch trials that proceeded throughout Europe and the American colonies.

Even today, with various AI systems, we attempt to decoy one another. False emails, automated calls. Eventually our species may be able to create the perfect decoy, undetectable from an organic life-form. Could we achieve that feat within the next 100 years? Would our species be scrupulous with that kind of technology, or use it for unprecedented levels of exploitation and manipulation of one another?

If, however, highly advanced technology existed ‘today’, these beings, these hollow ones, could be existing among us, right now. The question would be, if you gave the concept any credence, what are ‘they’ working to achieve? What are they doing right now, this very moment? Are they monitoring us, testing us, planning our demise?

I’ve spoken to many of the belief that if such a theoretical situation were to take place (or if it is taking place) they would not do it if they weren’t gaining something from our species. I’ve heard adamant opinions, in regards to this topic, that the decoy is the tool of the hunter, that ultimately any being that shrouds their very existence in secrecy, does so because their purpose is purely nefarious.

But I couldn’t honestly agree with that sentiment. I’m (currently) incapable of abandoning the notion that with true advancement, with ultimate theoretical evolutionary development (ᵀᴴᴱ NOÖSPHERE), a being would display a certain level of benevolence. Ask any naturalist, or someone whose worked on a documentary filming the natural world, it takes a great deal of restraint to observe from afar as the lions close in on the baby gazelle, and do nothing. To possess the power to intervene, but the understanding to know you can’t.

Maybe a being from a time, and a place so far removed from here and now, living the human experience is all ᵀᴴᴱ HOLLOW ONES are interested in? An entirely unremarkable person wanders through a crowded city, but her eyes transmit what she beholds to a group of beings in another dimension. She bumps into you, and says “excuse me” and smiles, you part ways, never giving it a second thought.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

ᴬ PORTAL ᵀᴼ ᴬᴺᴼᵀᴴᴱᴿ DIMENSION

(Animation from GIPHY.com)

I was falling asleep on a train, drifting in and out of consciousness. The cascading droplets of rain against the glass would momentarily catch my eye. The realest, truest thing in the world to me, in that moment, was the cold of the glass against the side of my forehead, the ice-cold collision came with the words of my inner-monologue, reminding me “don’t fall asleep”.

With each thud of my skull against the train window, with each jolt to my slipping consciousness, I found myself remembering, reliving similar moments. Different trains, different destinations, different times, different understandings of self. The blur of the outside world and the cascading droplets, rushing and colliding down and across the glass. Like the water droplets that form as one when they collide, when memories are so similar, the mind (under certain circumstances) might momentarily lose its bearing on exactly where, when, or (in some extreme cases) even who it is. A cascade of consciousness, altering, questioning the perceivable reality.

It’s like waking up in the middle of the night, and not knowing where you are. You’ve changed houses, changed beds multiple times but the subconscious mind can be caught off guard. Driving for five hours, with almost no recollection of how you actually got to your destination. For one moment, it’s as though a former self, by some miraculous means has taken the helm of a future/current self, bewildered by the changes that have come to pass. Until better senses return and you are living in the moment, once more (some of these experiences can be caused by serious conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, Dementia, Amnesia).

In my experience of human cognition, the mind doesn’t always want to live in the moment. Sometimes it seeks to traverse memories past, conjure events yet to come, or entertain some things that may never unfold in this reality. At this juncture in my existence, I’ve forgotten a great many details from my own life, let countless memories slip through the cracks of time. Even some of the chaotic, (relatively) cataclysmic moments, carelessly discarded. Yet strangely, sometimes I truly wonder, am I still falling asleep on that train to god-knows-where, soon to come to my senses, when my head next collides against the glass?

The ghost of a former self perpetually drifting in and out of consciousness?

Are we all essentially amalgamations of our many former selves?

To illustrate my point, you might ask yourself the following question:

Where are you right now? At this very moment?

You might tell yourself a geographical location, along with a juncture in time. But the relative geographical location, is fixed upon a planet that is moving (Earth orbits the sun at approximately 67,000 mph/107,000 km/h. 365 days for a full orbit. The sun and the solar system appear to be moving at 200 kilometers per second, or at an average speed of 448,000 mph/720,000 km/h —Space.com). The time you refer to, is also quite relative to where you are in this entropic universe. In fact, the relative time it’s taken to read to this point, the answer originally proposed, has already drastically changed.

Then there is the philosophical element, when asked where and when you are, your future self perpetually shed to join the amassing former selves, as every moment passes. Are the former selves, which for all of us, inevitably outnumber the current self, merely doomed to be lost to oblivion for all eternity? Outside of memory, outside of the physical implications, the footprints left behind, does/can anything truly last forever? Or is everyone, everything we’ve ever known like the particles of chalk temporarily marked on a blackboard, inevitably wiped astray?

As previously suggested in ᴛʜᴇ ILLUSION ᴏғ TIME, ᵀᴴᴱ WORMHOLE ᴬᴺᴰ ᵀᴴᴱ TIME PARADOX, TIME TRAVEL ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ 2ɴᴅ ʟᴀᴡ ᴏғ THERMODYNAMICS, I’ve slowly found myself veering further and further away from such an absolute, ultimately universal declaration.

So putting philosophy aside, putting psychology aside, removing the concept of a former-self “theoretically” returning (purely in the mind), due to some memory impairment etc. Is the past, the physical elements comprising what we consider to be a “past reality”, including our former selves, truly lost to oblivion?

Theoretically, no.

“Approximately 13.8 billion years ago, our comprehensible universe in its entirety existed in a fraction of time and space many, many times smaller than a single atom. Some have theorized the existence of parallel universes, a direct ‘shadow universe’ (connected/veiling our own and connected by gravity since and attributing to the beginning of our universe) and an entire multiverse linking/spawning universes and or dimensions. One theorized means of connecting two isolated points in space and time, universes, or junctures throughout the multiverse are naturally occurring ‘wormholes’.”

—ᵀᴴᴱ WORMHOLE ᴬᴺᴰ ᵀᴴᴱ TIME PARADOX

Theoretically, it would only take one single accessible ‘wormhole’ (located anywhere in this universe), even if it was only stable for a fraction of a second, for a highly technologically advanced being/machine to potentially have access to every single second of this universe, not excluding every moment that ever passed comprising the history of this planet (and your entire lifetime). If you could successfully get back to a starting point, the natural linear progression of the passing of time could be replayed over and over to access a certain event in history.

Such a wormhole could be a connection of time and space within this universe from the distant future, to the distant past (formation of earth). Or it could be a wormhole/portal naturally forming or technologically created connecting this universe (prior the formation of earth) to another dimension, where time as we understand it, may not exist.

The existence of inter-dimensional “portals” that have a constant or fixed entry point connected to a momentary conjuration in our universes history that collapsed in seconds, would still be a theoretical fixed portal to a very specific juncture in time (though problems would arise, if multiple objects arrive/exit at the narrow window of time output).

A highly advanced being/machine (some speculating UFOs to be traveling through time and dimensions, not just our atmosphere or space) may at some stage (or currently) possess the capability of creating dimensional portals at will, to travel through both dimensions and what we perceive as time relative to this universe (and beyond).

Immediately, traversing both dimensions and time would cause all kinds of theoretical temporal paradoxes to arise. The grandfather paradox, does an action committed by a (future) time traveling entity in the past, change the future from whence the traveler came? Does the Multiverse theory, allow for the possibility of so many (infinite) variations of universes/dimensions indistinguishably close to our own, that every single conceivable variation, is playing out in unison?

It’s so far removed from our understanding of time and reality, we come up with all sorts of answers to the paradox. If you travel back in time and assassinate yourself as a child, some might suggest you would immediately “vanish” or cease to be. But the physical being that committed the murder had to exist for the murder to take place. Perhaps, if time is a linear structure, played out like a game of chess, going backwards, every single time, has consequences that ultimately change the version of reality the time traveler left. Ultimately changing the arrangement of the pieces on the (shared) board. Meaning, while the individual entity of matter, and instrument of time alteration is unscathed in the past (now relative present), the future/time-line from whence the traveler came, no longer exists (connected to the current linear trajectory of time).

Aside from theoretically disconnected dimensions of the multiverse, there is also suggestions of a theoretical shadow universe/mirror universe, intrinsically linked with our own:

“If mirror matter is present in the universe with sufficient abundance then its gravitational effects can be detected. Because mirror matter is analogous to ordinary matter, it is then to be expected that a fraction of the mirror matter exists in the form of mirror galaxies, mirror stars, mirror planets etc. These objects can be detected using gravitational microlensing. One would also expect that some fraction of stars have mirror objects as their companion. In such cases one should be able to detect periodic Doppler shifts in the spectrum of the star.There are some hints that such effects may already have been observed.”

—R. N. Mohapatra, Vigdor L. Teplitz “Mirror matter MACHOs”, 1999

Right now, this very second, whenever that second may be, when whoever you are might be reading this. Is there currently, within this universe, a portal (naturally formed, or synthetically created) that leads to another dimension?

There isn’t currently, an authority on this Earth that could in all honesty give you a definitive answer to that question. But perhaps you could search yourself for the answer, in the form of yet another question.

Is there a limitation fixed upon infinity?

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

ᴬ COLLECTION ᴏғ INK ᴀɴᴅ SHADOWS

(Animation by TraceLoops, GIPHY.com)

A mysterious flying object shoots across the Kentucky sky, strange creatures advance toward an isolated homestead, August, 1955. A shootout lasting several hours, to keep the beings at bay, witnessed by five adults and seven children (Kelly–Hopkinsville Encounter).

Several flying saucers hovering over a Melbourne, Australian school on the 6th of April, 1966, hundreds of witnesses look on in awe (The Westall UFO encounter).

Also, allegedly on the 6th of April, 1967 (some sources disagree on dates of event), in North Dade County, Florida, Crestview Elementary School, another large group of witnesses observe the hovering and landing of several flying saucers (The Crestview Elementary School UFO Incident).

The 13th of October 1917, large crowds (30,000 to 100,000 people) gather in Fátima, Portugal to witness the Miracle of Fátima. Many claiming the sun shined and spun with colours similar to those that would shine through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral. One of the largest gatherings of onlookers to witness a “miracle” in human history (declared “of supernatural character” by the Catholic Church in 1930).

Many people believe some or all of the (randomly chosen) events listed above, to be entirely true. Others see a collection of elaborate misunderstandings or fallacies. Then there are a great many who don’t quite know what to believe. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, in other words, even if you yourself witness these incredible events, how could you absolutely, unequivocally, unabashedly declare such unworldly events to be definitively true (or accurately interpreted)?

You might think “seeing is believing”, but maybe you just haven’t seen anything literally ‘unbelievable’ yet?

Once witnessing an event that by all means could be viewed as a defiance of what you know of the laws of this reality/universe, would you be able to believe yourself? Or would you immediately seek out psychiatric help?

What if you view this incredible event in the company of hundreds or even thousands of others. Can everyone be mad (or rather deceived)?

(The gathering at Cova da Iria, Portugal, 13th of October 1917.)

Unshakable (speculatory or potentially baseless) belief can be quite a heavy burden to bear. I’ve known conspiracy theorists that have let their minds contort with paranoid delusions, eventually locking themselves in a prison of the mind, built of cynicism and fear. The self-fulfilling prophecy of one’s own growing distrust in their government, in some cases accurately predicting their own arrest or demise (Milton William “Bill” Cooper, May 6, 1943 – November 5, 2001). The path we take to avoid our destiny, is often the path that leads us to it.

I once knew someone, who in their desperate search for “answers”, found themselves involved with what was later revealed to be a cult, but not before this person (and father of two) partook in a ritualistic group suicide. Every so often, to this day, I wonder if he ended up learning what it was that he wanted to know so badly. Legally blame is placed on a specific guilty party, the fanatical leader(s) and so on. But in the end, was it the physical means by which his life was taken, that truly sealed his fate, or was it his unyielding dogmatic belief? A yearning to know the answers to questions the average person might live a lifetime and not even conceive, was that ultimately his doom?

One of the last conversations I had with this individual, before he vanished into the fanatical world, he was emphatically declaring events he deemed to be indisputable evidence of supernatural activity. I remember remarking something to the effect of, “these experiences are rooted in emotion and the interpretation of otherwise mundane happenings might be disregarded, unless the individual wanted to believe there was a governing will orchestrating the activities. But the same events could unfold even if such a will did not exist.”

Immediately, I knew he would never engage in another conversation with me again. And he never did. Shortly after, a series of unrelated events led to his dismissal from the company we were working for and the rest is history.

As time continues to unfold, what we call “strange and unbelievable claims” will continue to be reported. Perhaps you yourself will witness something that by all rights (governed by the current standards of normality), should not occur. Perhaps, you’ll experience something that will further solidify a belief that began to grow, a long time ago. Maybe you’ll know in the end, what you told yourself in the beginning, that it was nonsense, all along.

True belief is singular, regardless of how much any force attempts to influence and persuade otherwise. But in the end, outside of belief, outside of doubt, when there is no tangible evidence that an event ever occurred, where there is no physical proof that something ever existed, what are we actually left with?

In the end, in regards to the bulk of the paranormal, we are left with attempts to record or capture a moment in time. Experiences that echo throughout the ages, preserved in a collection of ink and shadows. You might not believe the letters marked in ink, as you might not believe the shapes that form in the shadows. Just as the ones who were there (or claimed as such) during those fateful moments might not have believed what their own eyes were seeing either.

Blind gullibility does not ascertain truth.

But neither does absolute doubt.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 1

ᴛʜᴇ CURIOUS CASES ᴏғ CATTLE MUTILATION

(Illustrated by Gabrielle Jerome, 2010)

“Since 1975, no arrests have been made in any of the over 10,000 cases involving cattle mutilations.”

—Investigator & Ufologist, Chuck Zukowski

Approximately thirteen thousand years ago, in Mesopotamia (current region of Iran and Iraq), it’s generally believed mankind first began harvesting crops and breeding livestock. The breeding of livestock comes with an assortment of challenges, but once mastered, the nomadic hunter can become a somewhat sedentary farmer. But while a farmer can abandon the hunt, the hunt (despite all attempts otherwise) will never abandon the herd.

“Since 2002, there have been more than 4,000 cases of cattle mutilation in South America – and are still reporting anywhere from three to a dozen cases a week.”

—Investigator/Author, Christopher O’brien, 2017

(Random assortment of archived news articles sourced from TROVE over the last century.)

It’s easy to conflate all sorts of explanations when it comes to the mutilation of cattle, because it is quite common. However, in most instances there is either a reasonable, if not obvious explanation for the death, method and culprit responsible for livestock mutilation. Natural predators prey on livestock, farmers the world over learn to identify these victims. Natural scavengers also share eating habits, vultures, for instance, take advantage of deep flesh wounds, but if the body is relatively intact the softest areas go first (eyeballs, extremities, and so on).

Then there are other, less natural events that lead to unusual mutilations. Throughout history, there have been many documented cases of deranged individuals harming passive, docile animals purely for their own amusement (or other motives). Ritualistic animal sacrifice, in some instances, pentagrams, (satanic) symbology left etched into a carcass. Again, an abysmal practice, yet common enough to be comparably identifiable.

There are some mutilations however, which leave very unusual signs behind. Indications that suggest, the usual suspects cannot be to blame. It’s these mutilations that cannot be explained, that do not have an identifiable culprit, that leave many of those who investigate them, wondering what exactly is going on?

“For several months my office has been receiving reports of cattle mutilations throughout Colorado and other western states. At least 130 cases in Colorado alone have been reported to local officials and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI); the CBI has verified that the incidents have occurred for the last two years in nine states.”

—Senator Floyd K. Haskell, August 29th, 1975. FBI Records.

What are the common characteristics of unexplained livestock mutilation?

  • The animal (prior to event) was healthy, in most reports, between four or five years old.
  • The carcass appears to be entirely drained of blood, also there is no blood present on or around the body. “We searched and searched and we could not find blood on the ground or on the cow. I just can’t understand how anyone could surgically remove a part from an animal and not spill some blood,” —Jim Garren, rancher from Walsenburg, Colorado, March, 2009.
  • Deep precise cuts can be examined on the remains, severing the hide, tissue and organs. “Surgical precision”.
  • Natural scavengers have been observed avoiding the mutilated carcasses. Animals of various species have been observed behaving differently to a carcass that died under normal circumstances, as opposed to unexplained mutilation. As further discussed in ANIMAL MUTILATIONS: WHAT WE DON’T KNOW by Microbiologist George E. Onet.
  • Total absence of tracks (no animal tracks, human tracks or vehicle tracks). No tracks appear from the animal itself, or any tracks indicating another animal predator, or human were present. Implying the animal is somehow picked up and put down, in some instance several hundred feet from where its own tracks stop. Some claims include remarks that the ground/grass around the carcass can seem unusual, scorched, discolored, dead.
  • Seemingly surgical removal of the eyes, ears, mouth, lips, udders, anus, genitalia. In 2008, a Survey Among Bovine Practitioners Concerning Animal Mutilation sent out 3,849 letters of inquiry across all 50 states. From the 189 responses, they correlated this data. Stating that in 76.08% of the results they acquired, the mutilated animals vulva/vagina and rectum were the most frequently removed body parts.
  • Last but certainly not least, unexplained livestock mutilations are alleged to occur on dates correlating with UFO (UAP) sightings. Also sightings of Black Hawk helicopters, further elaborated in Christopher O’brien’s book ‘Stalking the Herd‘.

“Marshall speculates the bulls were darted with a tranquilizer that knocked them out. While some people acted as lookouts, others bled the animals out by inserting a large-gauge needle into the tongue and into an artery, then removed the organs after the heart stopped beating, he surmised.”

—NYPOST.com, October 2nd, 2019 regarding Colby Marshall, Vice President of Silvies Valley Ranch

“A month-old calf was missing its spine from the hips to the skull and the brain was gone. It’s right front leg was also gone, and the vast majority of its ribs, both eyes, ears, intestines, reproductive tract, and lungs had been removed. Its rectum was also mutilated.”

—Christopher O’brien

(Illustration of El Chupacabra by Jeff Carter, Spanish for “the goat sucker”. A cryptid said to prey on animals, draining them of their blood. Sightings most prevalent throughout Southwestern United States, Mexico and Puerto Rico.)

(Map indicating cluster of cattle mutilations, by Christopher O’brien author of Stalking the Herd – Unraveling the Cattle Mutilation Mystery.)

One of the earliest known records of unexplained mutilation:

Year 1606 AD, London, England.

Alleged to be documented in the official records of the Court of James I of England. Though it should be noted, while this quote is mentioned consistently in articles written about cattle mutilation (and Wikipedia), I am unable to find a publicly available source definitively indicating the origin of this claim.

“About the city of London and some of the shires adjoining. Whole slaughters of sheep have been made, in some places to number 100, in others less, where nothing is taken from the sheep but their tallow and some inward parts, the whole carcasses, and fleece remaining still behind.”

Speculation & Summation

A great many unusual things occur, causing or contributing to the contortion and mutilation of a corpse during the various stages of decomposition. Something that can occur during the bloating stages of decomposition can cause the flesh (of some species) to split, giving the appearance of deep, surgical slices, as the decaying tissue ruptures due to the build up of internal gases (cadaverine, putrescine, indole, skatole, all contributing to the odorous smell of death).

Specific characteristics of decomposition, along with some of the most common body parts missing from the carcass being the primary choices of scavengers that feed on carrion, can lead one to believe the entire concept of unnatural cattle mutilation is purely built on misunderstanding a perfectly natural process. (Similar comparisons of misunderstanding the characteristics of death that once led to the belief in Vampires, mentioned in ᴛʜᴇ DARK ORIGIN ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ VAMPIRE).

But the sweeping generalization of “likely misunderstandings”, and that it is only inept individuals investigating these unusual events, is untrue. Private and government analysis of these unusual findings have taken place in multiple nations across the globe, continually drawing a blank. When our understanding of the laws of the natural world are defied, the supernatural comes to mind.

“The full necropsy yielded a heart that appeared “to have been blown apart.” The heart disintegrated when touched, although the pericardium (outer sac surrounding the organ) was intact. The decimated heart is a recurring factor in animal mutilation deaths that continues to puzzle researchers because the heart is normally the last organ to decay when an animal dies.”

—Lezlee E. Whiting, Deseret News, Jul 28, 1999

Are cattle mutilations just another form of “crop circles”? An elaborate means of arousing suspicion and intrigue? Likely perpetrated by individuals who for whatever reason, want to confuse and bewilder. There are a great many cases of animal mutilation where this is obviously the case. There are many groups of people in various nations that create crop-circles in an attempt to hoax extraterrestrial activity, some people genuinely enjoy mass deception.

Are governments around the world (or a separate group entirely) tampering/experimenting with livestock in various nations? In the brief research I’ve done for this topic, which almost solely comprises of events taking place in the U.S. and Australia there are not only mentions of UFO sightings, but the sightings of Black Hawk helicopters around events of cattle mutilation. Are experiments, possibly of a biological, neurological, pathological nature being undertaken without public knowledge? Are privately owned livestock of isolated individuals being used as test subjects, guinea pigs, without anyone knowing? Why would they primarily target cows, if it was some kind of experiment?

The average yearly consumption of meat per person:

  • USA: 124 kg (273 lb)
  • AUSTRALIA: 122 kg (269 lb)
  • ARGENTINA: 109 kg (240 lb)
  • NEW ZEALAND: 101 kg (223 lb)
  • SPAIN: 100 kg (220 lb)

If it is a group orchestrating these mutilations, traveling to remote locations (in Black Hawk helicopters) secretly dissecting and taking certain pieces from livestock, what exactly are they hoping to achieve? What are they looking for? Are the domestic livestock of today similar to the 19th Century miner’s canary, first to be sacrificed to give someone somewhere a cellular indication that something is doing or not doing what it’s suppose to.

Lastly, the correlation of cattle mutilation and the sightings of UFO phenomena. When discussing cattle mutilation and the possible involvement of extraterrestrials, one of the first questions raised is, why would an advanced interstellar being take an interest in mutilating cattle? Another point you might raise is, if it is an advanced being mutilating cattle, why leave remains at all?

There’s actually quite a lot more to the long domesticated grass-fed cow than what meets the eye. A member of the domesticated ungulates, mankind over thousands of years has directly intervened in the development of the species.

“Since the 1950s, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a number of steroid hormone drugs for use in beef cattle and sheep, including natural estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and their synthetic versions. These drugs increase the animals’ growth rate and the efficiency by which they convert the feed they eat into meat.” —FDA.gov

So it isn’t a random analysis of a random animal at a random location, to analyze livestock on a cellular level, could potentially reveal a great deal about our own species. What we seek to consume, our understanding of biological manipulation. An interesting thought, on the matter of cattle mutilation and the primary characteristic, being the removal of genitalia (more often the vagina, than testicles) is that an alien race could be interested in one very specific detail about our meddling in the existence of other species. Similarly to the belief that UFO activity spiked around July 16th, 1945 with the first Atomic bomb tests. They could be assessing whether we begin mass cloning our major food resources.

“Almost 40 countries have conducted research on animal cloning. However, animal cloning mostly occurs in Argentina, Brazil and the USA in the agricultural sector.” —Foodstandards.gov.au

A plethora of misunderstandings, secretive sadists, our own government(s) or even curious visitors from another world. Whoever the culprit may be, they have not yet achieved what they seek to achieve, they have not yet found what they seek to find, because to this day, these curious and horrific mutilations continue.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 1

ᵀᴴᴱ ENIGMA ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ UFO: FOLLOWING ᵀᴴᴱ SHADOW

(Animation from GIPHY.com)

Coincidence, all too often the garnish of an otherwise ordinary sequence of events. In most cases, the meaning derived is entirely arbitrary and essentially without consequence. But sometimes, under very special circumstances, coincidence is the direct result of someone or something and the physical implication(s) on the world they leave behind, be it by chance or design. Like the compulsion of a serial killer to leave his mark, a signature left in the wake. Yearning to be found.

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”

—Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle

When it comes to most topics pertaining to paranormal phenomena, one might quickly face an uphill struggle in any attempt at compiling tangible data, even finding multiple witnesses (exceeding 1) to a single event. When it comes to researching what many refer to as UFO phenomena, this is not the case. In fact, there is no uphill struggle, you are instead rather confronted with a wall, a wall of data (hoaxes and purposefully false reports are disproportionately prevalent pertaining to UFO/Aliens/Crop circles than any other form of folklore, paranormal or “outlandish” belief). The wall, the confusion, (not to mention the possible career suicide of any professional that publicly addresses the subject) funnily enough, all of this is equally as discouraging to most, as if there was no data at all.

(The belief in ghosts is slightly higher among Americans than the belief in UFOs as a phenomenon.)

(The USS Nimitz UFO, Coast of Southern California, November, 2004.)

In the event that you are not sufficiently discouraged, you’ll face a new set of obstacles in your search for clarity on the matter. The more you dig, the deeper you delve into into the proverbial rabbit hole, surrounding yourself with the countless claims of alleged sightings, alleged abductions, a world of speculation, confusion and doubt quickly envelopes you. Like a boa constrictor wrapping around its prey, the truth starts to suffocate within the many obscuring coils. In an attempt to combat convolution, I wanted to simplify the modern concept of the UFO into two primary elements.

Firstly, what APPEARS to be going on?

(Mystery Airship San Francisco Call, 22nd of November, 1896, during the rise of the “Scareship” sightings.)

ᵀᴴᴱ ENIGMA

ᵀᴴᴱ SHADOW ᴀɴᴅ ᵀᴴᴱ LIGHT

If you subscribe to the general publicly understood notion of the “UFO”, you would have no doubt realized by now, a reoccurring theme or trope to the story. One element wants to be seen, metaphorically, we could regard this as the light. Another, wants to pass unnoticed, and consume the light, naturally taking the role of the shadow.

The light, metaphorically speaking, is the UFO, conceptualized as a craft/object (“scareship”) capable of achieving controlled flight, surpassing what is considered technologically possible. This DOES NOT automatically indicate a craft somehow affiliated with the existence of extraterrestrial life (though it doesn’t rule it out either). Generally, the light takes dominion over the skies, where it is identified most often.

Alternatively, the shadow is primarily concerned with affairs on the ground. If the light shines on something, immediately, the shadow will follow. First the phenomenon occurs or is alleged to have occurred and then, like clockwork, the shadow appears. The shadow is more easily described as a metaphor than a tangible presence, but if I had to give it a name, “authority” seems fitting. The shadow, it seems, can do what it likes, how and whenever it pleases. The shadow is ominous and eerily successful at what it strives to achieve.

Below is a construct of common belief patterns most people entertain toward the notion of UFOs. Even in regards to an incident with multiple witnesses reported in the news, it is natural for many people to assume the witness is confused, mistaken or lying. Some who have personally witnessed UFO activity have came to this conclusion about their own sighting. Raising the question, has a culture of disbelief (on this issue) developed and perpetuated on its own accord, or by design?

If the light can do the things it is consistently reported of doing, theoretically, it could/can be unseen when/if it chooses. If that is an accurate statement, the light wants to be seen.

Whatever the shadow is, it has unsurpassed authority, access to advanced technology (as far-fetched as it may sound, many world governments have access to technology that far surpasses public access in various fields), access to vast wealth, a far deeper understanding of UFO phenomena than the general public. What the shadow wants is actually quite difficult to speculate, outside of “control”. Even in various documents declassified from the CIA, departments have claimed using the guise of UFO phenomenon to achieve various ends.

One such document being, “The CIA and the U-2 Program, 1954-1974.” 1998, by Gregory W. Pedlow & Donald E. Welzenbach. Declassified Mar 19, 2007.

Maybe in the face of an elusive, mysterious, unbridled power (or the illusion of such) anyone/anything associated with it attains authority by proxy. Much like a prehistoric humanoid that picks up a branch aflame after being struck by lighting. He did not create the fire, nor does he understand how it came about, but as long as he appears alongside it, others believe he holds the secrets of the flame.

After reading Edward J. Ruppelt’s report, I wanted to share two key entries that I found particularly interesting:

THE REPORT ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS

BY

EDWARD J. RUPPELT, 1956

1.

“But persistence paid off. Early in December, about ten o’clock in the morning, the grapevine reported sightings of a silvery, circular-shaped object near the instrument shack. The UFO was seen by several people.

When the “rock hounds” checked the recording tapes in the shack they found that several of the Geiger tubes had been triggered at 10:17A.M. The registered radiation increase was about 100 times greater than the normal background activity.

Three more times during the next two months the “mineral club’s” equipment recorded abnormal radiation on occasions when the grapevine reported visual sightings of UFO’s. One of the visual sightings was substantiated by radar.

After these incidents the “mineral club” kept its instruments in operation until June 1951, but nothing more was recorded. And, curiously enough, during this period while the radiation level remained normal, the visual sightings in the area dropped off too. The “mineral club” decided to concentrate on determining the significance of the data they had obtained.”

After explaining a correlation of detectable spikes in radiation during the presence of UFO sightings and an entire book of UFO speculation, this document ends on this note:

2.

“The only reason there are any “unknowns” in the UFO files is that an effort is made to be scientific in making evaluations. And being scientific doesn’t allow for any educated assuming of missing data or the passing of judgment on the character of the observer. However, this is closely akin to being forced to follow the Marquis of Queensbury rules in a fight with a hood. The investigation of any UFO sighting is an inexact science at the very best. Any UFO investigator, after a few months of being steeped in UFO lore and allowed a few scientific rabbit punches, can make the best of the “unknowns” look like a piece of well-holed Swiss cheese.

But regardless of what I say, or what the Air Force says, or what anyone says, we are stuck with flying saucers. And as long as people report unidentified objects in the air, it’s the Air Force’s responsibility to explain them.

Project Blue Book will live on.

No responsible scientist will argue with the fact that other solar systems may be inhabited and that some day we may meet those people. But it hasn’t happened yet and until that day comes we’re stuck with our Space Age Myth–the UFO.”

I’m not going to comment on these 2 specific excerpts. I’ll leave it up to you to make your own assessments.

Edward J. Ruppelt died 4 years after this publication, in 1960, at the age of 37, (heart attack).

BEYOND ᵀᴴᴱ SHADOW’S ʀᴇᴀᴄʜ

I can’t help but wonder, how long has it been like this? Was the shadow always intrinsically bound to the light? Was there ever a time when UFOs were seen before ‘authorities’ could be hiding flying programs, or covering the truth of a matter they wanted to control? Ironically, from an organization that currently monitors the skies of today, NASA released a PDF regarding this very inquiry.

Excerpts from:

Stothers, R., 2007: Unidentified flying objects in classical antiquity.

(full article)

• In 217 BC “at Arpi round shields (parmas) were seen in the sky” (Liv. 22.1.9; Orosius 4.15). A parma was a small round shield made partly or wholly of iron, bronze or another metal; we do not know whether the luster of these devices (and not just their shape) was intended to be an element of the description. Mock suns are an unlikely explanation, since in the Roman prodigy lists these were routinely described as “double suns” or “triple suns” (i.e. two mock suns on either side of the real one).

• In 212 BC “at Reate a huge stone (saxum) was seen flying about” (Liv. 25.7.8). The implication would seem to be that the object in question was a stony gray color; that it is said to have moved irregularly (volitare) leaves open the possibility that the object Livy describes was a bird or some kind of airborne debris.

Sporadic reports of similar objects continue to appear after this in the Roman prodigy lists. The immediate sources are again Livy and his extractors Pliny, Plutarch, Obsequens and Orosius:

• In 173 BC “at Lanuvium a spectacle of a great fleet was said to have been seen in the sky” (Liv. 42.2.4).

• In 154 BC “at Compsa weapons (arma) appeared flying in the sky” (Obsequens 17). The term refers to defensive weapons, especially shields.

• In 104 BC “the people of Ameria and Tuder observed weapons in the sky rushing together from east and west, those from the west being routed.” Thus Pliny (Nat. 2.148) who uses the term arma; Obsequens’ (43) version is essentially the same. Plutarch (Mar. 17.4) calls the weapons “flaming spears and oblong shields,” but may be merely glossing and expanding; since he noted the time as night, the phenomenon in question might be the streamers of an aurora borealis.

• In 100 BC, probably at Rome, “a round shield (clipeus), burning and emitting sparks, ran across the sky from west to east, at sunset.” Thus Pliny (Nat. 2.100), although Obsequens (45) called the phenom-enon “a circular object, like a round shield.” The clipeus was a round shield similar to the parma, but bigger. Seneca (Nat. 1.1.15; 7.20.2), quoting Posidonius (1st century BC), referred to a class of clipei flagrantes, saying that they persisted longer than shooting stars.

(The article further illustrates multiple claims of sightings of possible UFO phenomena throughout antiquity. ‘Shields’, ships of the air, achieving controlled flight through the ancient skies. Great thinkers of the past spoke of various events that intrigued them. Even claims of beings associated with the UFOs, “shining bright”. Things like the Celestial phenomenon over Nuremberg 1561, the Tunguska event of 1908, need to be taken into consideration.)

• The last encounter is again from the early Christian hagiographical literature and took place near the Via Campana between Rome and Capua ca.AD 150. On a sunny day, a “beast” like a piece of pottery (ceramos) about 100 feet in size, multicolored on top and shooting out fiery rays, landed in a dust cloud, accompanied by a “maiden” clad in white.32 There was only one witness to the event, probably Her-mas the brother of Pope Pius I.

Conclusions:

This collection of what might be termed ancient UFO reports has been culled from a much larger number of reports of aerial objects, most of whose identifications with known phenomena are either certain or at least highly probable. Embedded in the mass of relatively explicable ancient reports, however, is a small set of unexplained (or at least not wholly explained) reports from presumably credible witnesses. If these reports are examined statistically, essential features of what I will, for argument’s sake, call the ancient UFO phenomenon can be extracted:

• shape—discoidal or spheroidal;

• color—silvery, golden or red;

• texture—metallic or, occasionally, glowing or cloudy;

These events should be considered, because whether or not they were legitimate UFO phenomena, these strange occurrences were happening long before the modern agencies we associate with them existed.

Parmas (shields), defensive weapons (shields), oblong shields, clipeus (shields). Before they were known as flying saucers, the ancient world often called them flying shields.

(Circular Roman shields)

(Saucer)

In the end, as all we have here, is a coincidence. A humble coincidence, and ‘coincidence’ is all too often the garnish of an otherwise ordinary sequence of events. The meaning derived is entirely arbitrary and essentially without consequence.

Our human history is riddled with thousands of years of misinterpretation, confusion and lies?

Or is it possible, that we are still trying to solve the same ancient riddle? Still trying to make sense of things that bewildered our collective ancestors, thousands of years ago?

IF there is any sentient will affiliated with the UFOs of today, IF there was any sentient will affiliated with the UFOs of antiquity, then the answer is simple:

The truth, wants to be found. This slow, subtle compiling of ‘coincidences’ throughout the duration of our species existence may be entirely meaningless, by chance, or maybe by design. An uncaring, hostile extraterrestrial/ultraterrestrial being/race would make contact with our world, implicate us negatively or positively without giving it a second thought. A benevolent being would not do this.

If you think that concept is unrealistic, consider the prospect of the plights of the last remaining tribes scattered around this planet (like the Cujareño people of the remote regions of the Amazon rainforest). Would you want to introduce them to your way of life? Enrich their lives with technological advancement? Or would you rather they were left alone, left to their own devices, untouched by the outside world?

For the time being, Earth remains alone and the phenomena we call UFOs remain an enigma. However, there may come a time in the history of our planet, or even our species, when beings much like us envy the calm and the isolation that we currently take for granted. Once the veil is lifted, once the enigma is solved, there is no going back, and our world will never be the same again.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 1

AUSTRALIAN CLOSE ENCOUNTERS ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ THIRD KIND

(Animation from GIPHY.com)

ᴬᴺ INTRODUCTION ᵀᴼ “CLOSE ENCOUNTERS”

(Feel free to skip this introduction if you are already familiar with the classifications of ‘close encounter’ types.)

In ufology, when observing (primarily visual) UFO phenomena, there are seven types of encounters (the first three, coined by J. Allen Hynek, in his book, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry, 1972. The remaining four are believed to have came about organically among UFO theorists/enthusiasts, through speculation, trends, science fiction and commonalities of sightings/experiences).

An encounter of the first kind, is to observe a UFO, within 500 feet (approximately 152 meters), successfully identifying specific visual details of the craft.

Encounters of the second kind, are events of UFO phenomenon, where not only a visual presence is witnessed but it is accompanied by various (perceived) physical implications. This can range from presumed/recorded effects, such as feelings/recordings of extreme temperature change, paralysis, disorientation, headaches, fatigue (deviations in behavioral patterns). These effects can be seen in any forms of life close to the event (humans, animals, insects). Further examples of physical effects include mechanical impedance (engine failure), most commonly reported as vehicles/devices cease functioning, or behave erratically. Impressions in the earth, compressions of vegetation (crop circles), scorch marks on the ground, remnants of foreign chemicals, unusual spikes in detectable radiation levels.

Then there is the encounter of the third kind. These encounters include the (generally visual, though arguably in some cases mentally ‘perceived’) appearance/presence of being(s) affiliated with the UFO. Often believed to be the pilots or occupants of the unidentifiable craft.

An encounter of the fourth kind pertains to cases of alleged abduction (including unsuccessful or failed attempts).

Encounters of the fifth kind, involves direct communication between alien life and a human recipient.

Encounters of the sixth kind, result in the death of an abductee, witness, human or animal. It can also loosely be considered an encounter of the sixth kind if an inexplicable death occurs during the sighting of a UFO phenomenon (if there is cause to believe the events are somehow connected. If there are sightings of UFOs and inexplicable cattle mutilations, many would consider that to be an encounter of the sixth kind).

Lastly, encounters of the seventh kind pertain to the hybridization of Homo sapiens and extraterrestrial life (through various methods).

(Illustrated by Unknown Artist)

AUSTRALIAN CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

I.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF FREDERICK VALENTICH

21st of October, 1978

At the age of 20 years old, Frederick Valentich was undertaking a training flight over the Bass Strait sea, between Melbourne and King Island, in a small, four-seat Cessna 182L. At 7:06 pm he made radio contact with Melbourne air traffic control over concerns about an aircraft following him and flying directly above him, some 300 meters (984 feet). Frederick’s aircraft was at an altitude of around 1,400 m (about 4,500 feet).

Melbourne air traffic control responded that there was no other air traffic at that altitude. Frederick continued to report that a large strange aircraft continued to overshadow his Cessna, he couldn’t distinguish or name a craft with similar dimensions to what he was looking at. Though he described the UFO as having a shiny metallic surface, with a bright green light source. Frederick made remarks that the craft was moving at high speeds and that he believed at one point, that another pilot was “purposely toying with him”.

Finally, Frederick’s last radio message was, “it’s not an aircraft”.

Soon after Frederick’s last words, the transmission turned into sounds of “metallic scraping sounds” until there was radio silence.

Frederick Valentich (whose father Guido, had later made statements stating that Frederick had considered himself a believer in UFOs and had previously confided fears of being attacked by one) was never seen nor heard from again.

Just like the Kinross Incident, 1953, the pilot and the wreckage remain undiscovered to this day.

(Frederick Valentich, 1978)

II.

THE KNOWLES FAMILY UFO ENCOUNTER

(Also known as The Nullarbor Plain Incident.)

20th of January 1988

In the darkness of the hours following midnight, the Knowles family were well into their journey from Perth to Melbourne. They were traveling across the Nullarbor Plain (nulla ‘no’, arbor ‘tree’), South Australia (a notoriously long and isolated stretch of road. Around 1200 km to cross it, via the Eyre Highway. With a lot of nothing in between.) The family consisted of Faye Knowles and her adult sons Sean, Patrick and Wayne.

The otherwise long and dreary journey changed the moment an unusual light was spotted in the distance. A light that would be later described as appearing reminiscent of a single truck headlight. A small orb of light grew and a distant aerial phenomenon quickly turned into a frantic and bewildered chase, across one of the most isolated stretches of road in Australia.

Eventually, the Knowles family claim that the light or the craft attached to it, landed upon the roof of their vehicle with a “clunk”. Before their fear reached its pinnacle, the family car began to ascend. The strange light/craft lifted the vehicle into the air, the car shook violently before falling free, plummeting back to the road, where one of the tyres blew out upon impact.

“I wound down the window and I felt this thing on the roof. All of this smoke stuff started coming into the car, the car was covered in black stuff.”

“We thought we were dying, then we got out the car and we hid behind a little tree and the bushes and it couldn’t find us.”

—Faye Knowles, 1988.

After changing the tyre in under 2 minutes, the Knowles family got back on the road (leaving the jack behind) to continue their journey as fast as possible. Though noted the light/craft was seen going after other cars as well as their own. The family estimated their entire unusual experience lasted around an hour and a half, being chased and tormented by this highly unusual flying object.

Eventually, the Knowles family made it to Ceduna, South Australia, where they immediately reported the incident to police. The car was held by police for investigation. The car is said to have been dented and covered in dust, though no unknown traces were said to have been discovered.

(The Daily Mirror reports on the Nullarbor incident.)

III.

THE ABDUCTION OF KELLY CAHILL

(This event takes place in the Dandenong foothills, less than 40 minutes away from Clayton South, where the Westall UFO sighting of 1966 occurred.)

8th of August, 1993

Kelly Cahill’s unusual experience begins with the ending of a night spent with family and friends. After a social visit, Kelly Cahill (27), her husband and three children were taking the car trip home through the darkness of the Dandenong foothills (though it’s believed that other witnesses were present, Kelly Cahill remains the most publicly vocal regarding this incident). At around midnight the UFO appeared overhead.

Initially, Kelly tried to figure out what the UFO was, likening it at one stage to an illuminated zeppelin (similar to the “Scareship” sightings of 1909) but after seeing it perform various aerial feats and get relatively close to the family car, she realized the craft was unusual in many ways. The UFO eventually got so low, hovering silently, so close to the road, that Kelly believed that through the multiple spherical, bright lights of the craft, she could make out figures of moving silhouettes onboard.

After Kelly expressed what she was seeing, the UFO vanished, but soon after, a bright light emerged that seemed to be shining an unnaturally bright light at the car making it difficult for Kelly and her husband to see the road. At this point, Kelly believes she felt an overwhelming sense of calm wash over her, but noticed that a part of the familiar drive vanished from their trip (approximately 1 km or just over half a mile).

At the time Kelly inquired, “what happened, did I blackout?”

Over the following days, Kelly couldn’t shake the experience. Fixated on the belief that something wasn’t right, she continued to search her memory for the missing pieces of that night. Kelly had various medical problems following the event, including severe stomach pains and uterine infections. Through counseling and hypnosis she began to piece together events that she believed compiled the missing events of about an hour of her families life.

Through hypnosis, Kelly eventually came to believe/remember that not only did her family pull over to observe the UFO as it hovered in a field, but that there was another car present, who also pulled over to observe the craft. The passengers of the second vehicle are said to have been unknown to Kelly Cahill, but were convinced the sighting was compelling enough to be reported. Their illustrations of what they believe they saw are eerily similar to Kelly Cahill’s.

Kelly went on to recall that not only did she, her family, and others on the road get out of their vehicles to stand in awe of this 150 ft floating craft, but that there were beings beneath it. 8 or 9, 7′ tall dark entities, that were were black or so dark it looked as though they were standing in lieu of where matter was, now a void. The silhouette was the quintessential alien figure, narrow frame with a large head shaped a bit like a light-bulb, only the eyes were an intensely glowing red.

She recalled that the group split up, some glided toward Kelly and her family, the others she assumes went for the other group or groups of onlookers. All the while the saucer silently hovering in the field ahead of them. She recalled the beings traveled at an unnaturally fast speed.

Some time later on, Kelly would remember through dreams, various interactions with these beings and the UFO. One such interaction was comprehended by her as being kissed on the naval by one of the entities. It was eventually discovered by a physician, that Kelly had a small triangular burn on her naval. When she reached out to some of the other witnesses, she found those women had accumulated various markings, lacerations, and burns they could not account for as well.

Kelly went on to speak of her experience and ufology publicly and wrote about her experience in a book called, ‘Encounter’ in 1996.

(Kelly Cahill, 1993)

ғɪɴᴀʟ THOUGHTS

What is belief? Is it singular, the understanding of the individual? Is it a claim we can shout in a crowded place without fear of repercussion? Could you honestly allow yourself to believe something, if everyone around you shouted that you were wrong. Does belief evolve naturally, as new stimuli, changing opinions develop and shift? Are trends in belief universal among all living beings? If a belief becomes a detriment to the believer, is the annihilation of the belief similar to the eradication of an otherwise fatal virus? Is the purest unfiltered reality ideal for optimum development and sustainability? A belief may not be a tangible, physical thing, you can’t hear, touch, see or smell a belief, but the implications of belief in this world, are cataclysmic. As the ages turn, what were once considered facts are time and time again, discarded to make way for new ‘facts’ that in time, share the same fate as their predecessors.

Extraordinary claims are extraordinarily difficult to prove. Is it wise to claim that something like alien life, not only exists, but has come to this planet and presented itself to you? Regardless of what the truth is on that matter, some people would suggest it would be in your best interests to harbor such beliefs silently.

Contrary to extraordinary claims of incidents, you cannot so easily dismiss extraordinary claims of experience.

Do you genuinely believe, that Close Encounters of the Third Kind can or have taken place on this planet?

Regardless of the legitimacy of the incident (and the popular meaning attached), is it impossible for you to ever believe the experience could happen to you, or a loved one?

“About 2.5% of the people in the United States believe that they have been abducted by space aliens.”

—Psychology Today, 2017

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ᵀᴴᴱ WESTALL UFO ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ STRANGENESS ᴛʜᴀᴛ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡᴇᴅ

(Illustrated by Nicholas Eveleigh)

THE CLAYTON SOUTH UFO ENCOUNTER

A mysterious event takes place, in a land considered “far away” by most. Hundreds of children witness something they cannot explain, but no one believes them. The few adults present, teachers no less, are coerced into silence. Students vanish into thin air. The presence of a foreign unknown military force. An idealistic American scientist travels to the under side of the world looking for answers, eventually disgraced, he takes his own life. UFO sightings fluctuate, a man reports a UFO sighting and unusual experience, claiming that his car is being sucked into ethereal lights on an isolated road. Three days later, a fatal car accident occurs at the exact location where the strange event took place. You might be thinking I’m describing the events of some sci-fi drama series, only a great many individuals, to this day, would attest that all, if not most of these claims were entirely true. The least disputed detail of all the strangeness, is the sighting of an unidentified flying object, a flying saucer.

It was 11:00 am, Wednesday, April 6th, 1966, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. What no doubt may have presented itself as an ordinary day at Westall High school, would have drastically changed the moment voices began to shout, “look up in the sky, it’s a flying saucer!”

Immediately, a sense of frenzy, fear, wonderment and exhilaration resonated among the students, because as many eyewitnesses will tell you, as they looked to the clear blue morning sky, there was a silver flying saucer performing aerial feats beyond the capabilities of the (publicly known) aircraft of the day.

As hundreds of students charged toward an area nicknamed ‘The Grange’ where a paddock converged onto a grove of pine trees (today a nature reserve) beyond the edge of the school, numerous eyewitness reports claim that the flying saucer actually lowered into the tall grass. Causing a circular impression that remained after the UFO ascended, some noting also a swirling inner pattern. The UFO was not alone in the sky, according to many eyewitnesses, a number of small airplanes (claims as high as 5) were tailing it. (Though there were no reports of any unusual activity made by Air traffic control or the Royal Australian Air force. To this day, the alleged ‘5 pilots’ have never come forward).

There have since been claims that children, one girl identified only as “Tanya” and others that were closest to the unidentified object when it made its descent, passed out and lay unconscious on the ground around it. Eyewitnesses make the claim that even an ambulance attended the scene to see to the students seemingly suffering physiological effects of the experience. It is claimed by one eyewitness, that “Tanya” was never seen again, after succumbing to some physiological effect from the experience, never returning to school after the event on April 6th.

All up, it is believed the aerial chase, the landing and high speed escape/disappearance happened within a window of approximately 20 minutes. 20 minutes, according to most of the vocal eyewitnesses that has profoundly effected their lives.

(Dr. James E. McDonald)

In interviews conducted by American Physicist/Ufologist, Dr. James E. McDonald roughly one year later, he managed to speak with science teacher Andrew Greenwood who was there that fateful day. Greenwood upon realizing the frenzy sweeping up outside among the students, headed outside to get a look at what they were reacting to. Andrew Greenwood described the UFO as a “round, silver object about the size of a car with a metal rod sticking up in the air.” He then remarked that one of the first things to occur after the event took place, was the headmaster instructed all students to return to their classrooms, after which Greenwood said “he [the headmaster] gave the school a lecture and told the children they would be severely punished if they talked about this matter and told the staff they could lose their jobs if they mentioned it at all.”

From there, according to those who tried to speak out about the event, an element of secrecy and suppression arose. Military vehicles were seen around the area, the site was under total lockdown. Ironically, exactly as virtually every film surrounding such an event would have you believe. Men in camouflaged uniforms were reportedly seen by dozens of the eyewitnesses still vocal on the issue now more than half a century on. The unusual thing about men in camouflage is that in Australia during the 1960’s, neither the Australian nor the British had incorporated it into the military uniforms. Suggesting a possible involvement of either a group, outside of a national government, or even the U.S government which did/does have a presence on Australian soil.

There is talk of suppression of information surrounding this incident. I don’t know how things were managed at the time, perhaps due to the nature of news in the 1960’s it simply did not receive the coverage it might if it occurred today. Though, anecdotally, I would have to agree that something does seem unusual about the records. In researching the event through the usual channels, archives of Australian public newspaper records, the entire year of 1966 in Australia seems oddly slim. Searching terms like “UFO”, “Westall”, “Flying Saucer” were actually proving fruitless. So then I changed the search purely based on date.

In Melbourne, 1966, possibly by coincidence, 1966 draws a blank. So then I started checking other states, in case stories made it to further away Newspapers. When I looked up ‘The Canberra Times’, checking through dates around early April I didn’t find any mention of the Westall UFO event (though perhaps I was just lazily looking in all the wrong places). I did however, find this story, reported in Canberra, about a story that happened in Victoria, approximately 2 hours NW from the Westall incident, mere days after the UFO was sighted at the back of the school:

“MELBOURNE, Monday. — The current world-wide spate of sightings of flying saucers was brought closer to home today by a report by a Maryborough man. Mr Ronald F. Sullivan, a 38-year-old builder of Victoria Street, Maryborough, said he had seen an unidentified flying object on the Bendigo to St Arnaud Road last Monday. Three days later a youth was killed when his car ran off the road at the place where Mr Sullivan said he had seen the object.

Mr Sullivan said, “the headlights on my car were suddenly diverted to the right, for no apparent reason. And if I had followed them I would have run off the straight stretch of road. The fact that I am an experienced driver, and know the district well, saved my life. I managed to stop before I crashed.

Then I saw a display of gaseous lights in all colours of the spectrum in a nearby paddock. The object rose about 10 feet in the air. It later disappeared”, Mr Sullivan said.

Mr Sullivan said he drove on to Wycheproof where his headlights were checked and found to be in perfect order. He went to the crash scene with police on Friday. “We all noticed there was a depression about five inches deep in the freshly ploughed paddock, about 50 feet from the fence. It was about five feet in diameter.” Mr Sullivan said. Police at Maryborough, Castlemaine, Bealiba and Newstead said today they had all heard reports of flying saucers in the area. They have not been able to find the cause of the accident in which the youth, Gary Taylor, 19, of Carnegie, died.”

—THE CANBERRA TIMES, TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1966

It’s also claimed that the chemistry teacher at Westall High, Barbara Robins, had access to a camera and was hastily snapping photographs of the UFO during the 20 minute frenzy. There are a great many photographs claiming to be taken during this event, but when I cross referenced them (reverse google search) every single one was linked to other UFO sightings, though that is common in many news stories, surrounding issues even outside of the paranormal. It’s been suggested that Barbara Robins had her camera and film confiscated and was coerced into silence.

Ultimately, in my opinion, this is more a story about suppression than anything else. It has endless possible explanations, but these are the top four I could come up with.

  1. Mass Hysteria, somehow something potentially non-existent has been blown way out of proportion. Disingenuous recollections of a misinterpreted reality. This is actually the least likely scenario, in my mind.
  2. Extraterrestrial or Ultraterrestrial life with access to highly advanced technology, presented itself to hundreds of Australian schoolchildren. For whatever reason, some “agency” (government or otherwise) wants to keep it a secret, suppressed knowledge.
  3. Certain groups on this planet have access to technology that far surpasses what is currently available to the masses. Information is power, and the power is being kept from the general people. Those that rule the world don’t want individuals to be self-sufficient and able to thrive off of the nipple of “the system”
  4. The whole thing was a setup. The entire experience was orchestrated. “They” wanted to test how a group would react to something like this, then how they could suppress it.

Some estimations to the total number of witnesses of UFO phenomena (of varying levels and vicinity of encounters) in Victoria around the 6th of April, 1966 are approximately 300 individuals. 300 individuals that saw “a flying saucer” at a very low altitude. This wasn’t a craft people were squinting to see through the clouds, this was something narrowly avoiding telegraph poles (as one witness claimed). All said and done, in this account of strange events, there is one major thing to ask yourself. Someone in all of this is lying, that much is certain. The question that only you can truly ask yourself is, who? Did the students decide to create some charade? For the fun of it? For fame? They didn’t achieve any, the story barely got out. Or is the reason that seemingly “military” types were involved almost instantly, liaising with the powers that be, because certain people know certain things, that the rest of us are not allowed to understand.

If you think time will reveal the answers naturally, that the truth will rise to the surface on its own accord, like cream, remember this event happened over half a century ago. Many of the eyewitnesses have spent their entire lives waiting to make sense of what they saw, like something would emerge from the woodwork and link the pieces together. That day, unfortunately, has yet to come. Unless something changes, something gives out, the secrets will remain secrets, dormant and unknown.

According to UFO-Hunters.com as of the year 2020, there are over 200220 sightings reported and that number expected to continue to grow as more people around the world continue to more avidly monitor and record the activity of the skies.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 9

ᵀᴴᴱ MYSTERIOUS KINROSS INCIDENT

(Illustrated by Douglas Castleman)

When a magician makes something disappear in front of an audience, we applaud the deception. Misdirection, sleight of hand, ingenuity, we admire the skill of someone who can seemingly defy the laws of reality before our very eyes. However, every magician knows making something disappear pales in comparison to making something appear (or reappear), as if plucked from thin air. That’s what gets a crowd roaring with applause. To make an elephant appear out of nothing, evokes a sense of wonderment, it symbolizes endless possibilities. But what happens if a magician closes an act after making two audience participants disappear? Well, that symbolizes something else entirely. Something unsettling. The very real understanding, that in this world, by the work of accident, plot or very strange and unusual circumstances, any one of us could vanish without a trance. Never to be seen again.

As fate would have it, on the 23rd of November, 1953, as it stands, such an end(?) appears to have befallen the likes of First Lieutenant Felix Eugene Moncla Jr. and Second Lieutenant Robert L. Wilson. Their disappearance falls into the elusive category of ‘strange and unusual circumstances’.

At the time of writing this text, the following events took place 65 years ago. As the evening skies began to darken, air defense radar operators detected the movement of an unidentified flying object. The flight was tracked as the craft flew over the Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, Soo Locks. Unable to communicate with the craft to verify its clearance, it was decided to launch an F-89 Scorpion interceptor to investigate the nature of the unknown craft.

The Pilot of the craft was Felix E. Moncla and the onboard radar operator was Robert L. Wilson.

For unknown reasons Lt. Wilson was unable to track the craft with the onboard radar so Lt Moncla was guided by the ground radar at the Kincheloe Air Force Base (situated in the Kinross Charter Township, Michigan. The base sometimes referred to as the Kinross Air Force Base, hence this commonly being referred to as the ‘Kinross Incident’). The F-89 Scorpion interceptor was traveling at 500 mph and the chase was believed to have lasted for approximately half an hour. The two crafts were tracked on the radars from the airbase, where the two radar blips seemingly converged, 8000 ft above Lake Superior, Michigan.

At first it was believed that the F-89 Scorpion had either over or under shot the craft making it appear as though their blips had unified on the radar screen. But the Scorpion was unresponsive and there was total radio silence. It was now considered that the crafts collided and the blip would be the marker for the wreckage soon to be submerged in the lake. However, one remaining blip kept on its original flight path, as if nothing had happened. But the F-89 Scorpion along with its passengers, seemingly vanished without a trace. To this day, never to be seen again.

It was thought at the time (and said to be recorded by the United States Air Force) as an “investigation” of a Royal Canadian Air Force C-47 Skytrain. Although, the Pilot of the closest Canadian air craft, Gerald Fosberg along with the Canadian government deny there was a collision or encounter between aircraft of any kind.

The center of Lake Superior is about 148 miles (238 km) from the Soo locks, where the UFO was originally detected. An immediate rescue team, along with extensive searches in the years since have all been unsuccessful to retrieve any trace of the lost aircraft. Lake Superior contains 2,900 cubic miles (12,100 km³) of water, with a total area of 82,103 km². It’s widest length stretching around 350 miles (563 km).

While the search area is vast, if the assumption that the UFO was an RCAF C-47 Skytrain (or behaving very similar to one), at the time the maximum speed of that particular craft was around 224 mph at 10,000 ft. Maybe it was this speed along with altitude and behavior of the craft, that led to this belief. So assuming the speed being traveled was 224 mph, in half an hour at top speed, it would have traveled 112 miles. Therefore, if the origin of the radar blip began above the Soo locks, at maximum speed for the presumed craft, it would likely be within the radius illustrated on the map below. ☟

(Created with MapDevelopers.com)

It’s entirely possible that a series of accidents, mistakes, malfunctions or one fateful, singular error, led to the destruction of an F-89 Scorpion jet interceptor and consequently the loss of the lives of First Lieutenant Felix Eugene Moncla Jr. and Second Lieutenant Robert L. Wilson. Perhaps, somewhere in the depths of Lake Superior, 1,826 miles (2,938 km) at its deepest depth, there rests the submerged craft and what remains of those who were piloting it.

Alternatively, the watery depths of Lake Superior don’t hold the answers many have been seeking since the 23rd of November, 1953. Maybe something happened that evening, involving a UFO that possibly, somehow engaged with the F-89 Scorpion. Could have a foreign hostile aircraft have engaged and destroyed the Scorpion, where soon after, governments went to great lengths to cover up an event which could have led to escalations of national outrage?

But is it possible that something far more phenomenal occurred? Like for instance, a UFO of unworldly origins engaging with a USAF aircraft and either A) using such advanced weaponry, the F-89 Scorpion was absolutely obliterated 8000 ft above Lake Superior, leaving no physical remnants behind. Or B) as some have suggested about this iconic UFO encounter, is it possible that the F-89 Scorpion, along with those onboard, were never destroyed in a mid-air altercation, but rather abducted by an alien craft. Where the craft, or its crew are, in time and/or space, to this day, we don’t know.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 1