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UFO JOURNALMAY 1997 f NUMBER 349 $3

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IJTO Coalition advances serious research -- A significant development forsenous UFO research ni recent years has been the formation of the UI'O ResearchCoalition, comprising the : .'vntor for "I;C lytujjie?, Muti;^ UI;O.Ni-tv.'vrk, and Fundfor UFO Research The groups combine forces and resources on projects of mutualinterest, and hwe established a separate bank account IRS tax-exempt status hasbeen applied f :>r. Each group will continue to pursue its own in=iividua! activifces. TheCoalition has conducted several joint investigations and issued final rep>ns. Numerousother projects, including a major initiative for investigation of UFO abduchon cases, arein the planning stage1TUFOK - 4/liWj

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M U F O N U F O J O U R N A LO F F I C I A L P U B L I C A T I O N O F T H E M U T U A L U F O N E T W O R K S I N C E 1967

MAY 1 997 N U M B E R 3 4 9

MASS SIGHTINGS IN ARIZONA

SECOND COMING OF MARSHALL APPLEWHITE

WHO ARE WE?

THE UFO PRESS

William F. Hamilton

Dr. Barry H. Downing

Brenda Denzler

Robert H. Coddington

MUFON FORUM (Bierman, Larson, Thompson, Durrant and Young)

READER'S CLASSIFIEDS

THE JUNE NIGHT SKY Walter N. Webb

CALENDAR

DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE Walter Andrus

COVER — Fund for UFO Research, Inc. on Netscape

17

21

22

22

24

MUFON UFO JOURNAL(USPS 002-970)

(ISSN 0270-6322)103OldtowneRd.

Seguin,TX 78153-4099Tel: (210)379-9216FAX (210) 372-9439

EDITOR

Dennis StacyASSOCIATE EDITOR

Walter H. Andrus, Jr.COLUMNISTS

Walter N. WebbJohn S. CarpenterT. David Spencer

ART DIRECTOR

Vince Johnson

Copyright 7997 by the Mutual UFO Network. All Rights Reserved.

No fiirl of thif document may Iv reproduced in any form without the written permission oftlie Copyright Owneis. Permission if herein/ granted to quote up to 200 words of ami one arti-cle, piovided tlie author if credited, and the statement. "Copyright 1997 by the Mutual LIFONetwork, 1U3 Oldlowne Rit, Segitin. Tc\as 7S155, ' is included.

The contents of the MUFON UFO journal iiie determined by the editors and do not necessari-ly reflect the official position of the Mutual UFO Netwoik Opinions impressed are solely thoseof the indii'idiial aulhois.

The Mutual UFO Network. Inc if c\empl from Fcdeml Income Ta\ under Section 507 (c)( .3) of the Inteinal Revenue Code. MUFON if a publicly stippoiled organisation of the typedescribed in Section 509 d i ) ( 2 ) Donors may deduct contributions from their Federal IncomeTin. Bequests, legacies, devises, transfers or gifts are also deductible loi estate and gift purposes,piovided they meet the applicable provisions of Sections 2V55. 21i)6 and 2522 of the InternalRevenue Code. MUFON is a Te\iif nonprofit corporation.

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MUFON UFO JOURNAL

MASS SIGHTINGS IN ARIZONAby William F. HamiltonField Investigator for MUFON

I arch 13th started like any other day.I had an incoming message in mye-mail box. The message was from

Joe Trainor in the U.K. He had been retreiv-ing messages from a man named Steve wholives in Awahatukee, Arizona just south ofPhoenix and behind South Mountain. Stevereported that starting on March 10th, he andhis family had noticed and were videotapingstrange orange lights over the Gila RiverIndian Reservation. After I made contactwith Steve and obtained directions to hishouse I met with Tom King according to aprior arrangement and asked him to join methat night.

When we arrived at Steve's house wesaw at least a dozen of Steve's neighborstraipsing in and out of the house, Steve metus cordially at the door and introduced us tohis wife and children. The first words afterthat were "you're too late, they were hereand gone again." He proceeded to show usvideo segments he had taken that night andfrom previous nights. We asked him toshow us his observation point which was asecond-floor balcony off the master bed-room facing south. All of us went up thestairway and out to the balcony. Steve hadreported that he had been seeing the lightsbetween 9 and 10 P.M. That night we wentup to the balcony at about 9:30 P.M. Steveand his neighbors pointed to the southwestin the direction of the Estrella Mountains onthe reservation where they had most of theirsightings, Shortly before 10 P.M. one ofthese brilliant lights just turned on. Within aminute we saw six globes or orbs of yellow-orange lights appearing near and in front ofthe Estrellas. They were extremely brightand formed a straight line at a slight slant.The light on the left of the formation wasdivided into two parts (or orbs). I personallyobserved these lights through a Celestron500mm spotting scope. My videocam bat-tery failed, but Tom King managed to tapeover four minutes as we watched these orbsgradually extinguish one by one in the re-verse sequence which was from right to left.Little did we know at that time that a pri-mary object was sighted earlier that eveningfrom various cities in the state, that, accord-

ing to the time sequence of the sightings,moved from north to south down the state.

A man in Paulden, Arizona, called theDaily Courier and said he saw five dia-mond-shaped objects with wispy tails. Thatwas around 8 P.M. Shortly after, callspoured into the National UFO ReportingCenter from Prescott, Prescott Valley, andDewey before reaching the Phoenix metro-politan area around 8:23 P.M. that night.The witnesses described the object as"huge," sporting five or six lights in a trian-gular formation and traveling at "blimpspeed" according to several witnesses. Thistriangular formation was seen to accelerateand slow to a hover on several occasionsand passed very low over the cities ofScottsdale, Tempe, and Chandler where wit-nesses observed some structure to the trian-gular object. Around 8:45 P.M. the objectwas sighted in the Tucson area. One of thelights attached to the front of the objectwould detach from the object and fly offand return.

Some mysterious military source sug-gested that the strange lights over Phoenixwere explained as an anti-aircraft experi-ment in a military operating area over 50miles from Phoenix. This experiment in-volved flares descending on parachutes. Weare not sure how the flare story got started,but two witnesses we interviewed were de-molition experts for the military and theystated that what they saw were not flares.

As we started collecting reports as theypoured into MUFON Arizona field investi-gators, we learned that the "orb" lights wereseen as early as March 7th. One of our MU-FON members, Herb Moran, reported hehad a sighting between 9:10 P.M. and 9:30P.M. on March 7th on a road which runsparallel to the Goodyear Airport. He ob-served at some distance directly ahead ofhim a large light the color of an ambersodium vapor lamp but with the intensity oflanding lights on a heavy jet aircraft. Thelight was on a line of sight which wouldhave placed it approximately five to eightmiles south of the Palo Verde NuclearGenerating Station which is 45 miles westat 250 degrees from Phoenix Sky Harbor

A man in

Paulden,

Arizona,

called the

Daily Courier

and said he

saw five dia-

mond-shapedobjects with

wispy tails.Shortly after,

calls poured

into the

National UFO

Reporting

Center from

Prescott,

Prescott

Valley, and

Dewey beforereaching the

Phoenix met-

ropolitan

area.

May1997Number 349Page3

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

Frame of a

video taken

of black heli-

copters by

Tom King

during a UFO

sighting.

Frame cap-

ture courtesy

of John

Velez.

May1997Number 349Page 4

Airport. Puzzled by this light, different fromany Herb had seen after 48 years as a pri-vate pilot and an aviation industry worker,he began to scan the sky just as the lightblinked out. Unknown to Herb and the restof us was the fact that a young man namedScott Montgomery was videotaping thesestrange lights in the same location and heand his wife came forth with some of theirvideo on the Channel 10 local news afterthe reports of the March 13th sightings.

At about 8:35 P.M. a resident of Phoenixwas walking near 42nd Street and Ray Roadwhen he glanced towards the northern skiesand was surprised to see a group of lights ina triangular pattern. He estimated the num-ber of lights as between five and seven. Atfirst, he thought this was a solid triangularobject much like a flying wing. He wasnearly underneath' the flight path which wasfrom north to south. As he looked closely hesaw relative movement between the lightsas if moving toward and away from eachother. The object(s) emitted no noise what-soever. As it flew ahead, the lights appearedto get dimmer and dimmer. Strangely, theselights would disappear one by one un t i l allthe lights disappeared. As it Hew above thiswitness, he could barely distinguish a trian-gular layout.

Another witness, Bruce Gerboth, re-ported from Ahwatukee near the SE corner

of South Mountain (a prominent mountainin Phoenix topped by television transmis-sion towers). He had gone for a walk intothe park at about 7:15 P.M. He walked tothe foot of the hi l l s which are closelyaligned with Elliot and 40th street. Thatnight at about 8:30 he saw something in thenight sky he had never seen before.Cruising at high al t i tude were five amberlights in a tr iangular formation. He had thefeeling that the lights were connected to asingle structure. He observed those lightsun t i l they disappeared over the Gila RiverIndian Reservation. This places the primaryobject in the vicinity of the secondary ob-jects that Tom and I viewed later. Brucegoes on to say that he stayed in the park un-til 9:30. As he walked home he observedseven bright amber lights (we could see sixand others saw more depending on their un-obstructed view) appear in the west-south-west. They were in an almost diagonal lineand appeared to slowly set behind theEstrella Mountains near the sailport at thesouth foot of the mountains. He felt thesewere the same lights he had observed ear-lier.

Another witness reported seeing fivelights in a V formation moving south alongroute 51 and a l i t t l e to the east of it. Theyseemed to be moving in a straight line to-ward South Mountain which places them in

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

the position that Bruce saw them a littlelater.

Another man, named Kelley, and his wifewitnessed the sighting from the west

end of the valley in the city of Glendale. Atabout 8:15 P.M, they were driving north on67th Avenue. Kelley's wife saw the lightsfirst and called his attention to them. Theysaw a perfect V-shaped formation of sevenlights, a lead light with three trailing lightson each side of the V formation. He pulledthe car off of 67th and shut off his motor sothat they could exit the car and watch theformation more closely. It was difficult forKelley to determine whether they werewatching one object or a flight of smallerobjects. They watched the event for severalminutes. Kelley and his wife are both ex-Air Force and were well acquainted withaircraft and their characteristics. There wereno navigation lights visible and no enginesounds detectable. He "guesstimated" this Vto be no greater than five thousand feet, andno less than two thousand feet in altitude.This accords well with other witnesses' esti-mates. He described the V as moving at"blimp" speed. As they continued to viewthe objects the third light back on the rightbroke formation and moved toward the leadlight briefly. This is when they concludedthat it wasn't a single large object. Kelley'sis one of the reports that I have used to con-struct my four-event scenario that I will de-scribe in summing up. While they werewatching, the formation began to turn to-ward the east and then faded out as if itwere climbing into some overcast. Kelleyhad heard the so-called "flare" explanationand dismissed it. He also stated that he wasa former skeptic.

One of the triangles seemed to be ap-proaching Phoenix from the north on theeastern side and heading directly south to-ward South Mountain at around 8:30 P.M.This object returned at close to 10 P.M. thatnight and deployed "orbs" in the vicinity ofthe Estrella Mountains or appeared as anobject in a wide configuration that from adistance of 25 miles had the appearance ofan arc of ten lights spanning a mile across.The object moving southeast passed lowover Scottsdale and was seen by a youngwoman, Ozma, and her friend in the mili-tary reserve, Willie. As the object de-scended to a low altitude it looked as if itwere going to stop. Their description of theobject as huge, three to four times the size

of a Boeing 747, and silent, was consistentwith other witnesses who had viewed theprimary object.

Just west of Ozma's position inScottsdale, Pete Fournier was coming homefrom a Neighborhood Association meeting alittle after 8 P.M., walking west onEdgemont from 42nd Street in Phoenixwhen he observed five bright lights to hisright as he looked between the houses. Theyappeared to be over Squaw Peak. The fivelights appeared to be in a single row andhovering. As he walked he determined thatthe lights were moving to the southeast. Ashe arrived at his house, he called out to hiswife and grabbed binoculars. The V-shapedformation passed over to the west of hishome. The uni t of lights was not making asound. He continued to watch this formationmove to the southeast when the light on theeastern leg of the triangle shifted slightlyout of formation. There was no noise fromrotors. Peter was familiar with aircraft andwas definite that these were not part of atypical aircraft and all the lights appearedbright white. There were no conventionalred and green running lights and no strobelights.

This object crossed the approach and de-parture flight path of Phoenix SkyharborAirport. Channel 15 local news reportedthat a pilot on takeoff from Skyharbor spot-ted the lights above him and called thetower operators to ask them if they pickedup anything on radar above him. The toweroperator reported that they had nothing onradar. Tom King has started the wheelsrolling on attempting to get a record oftower communications or radar records forthe night of the 13th.

One woman in Chandler just southeast ofPhoenix reported that she did not see thelights that night, but that her 9-year olddaughter reported that a traveling beam oflight had moved through her bedroom andthrough the birdcage in her bedroom. Thiswoman had neighbors who had a very goodview of the primary object as it passed overtheir heads at a very low altitude. Theseneighbors drew sketches of what they sawat between 8:50 P.M. and 9:10 P.M.

The neighbor, Don, and his wife, Grace,could observe structure on the triangular ob-ject. Don and Grace both observed graypanels on the underside of this structurewith seven orange lights on the forward sec-tion of the triangular structure. One of theorange lights detached and went out to the

Their de-scription of

the object as

huge,threeto four times

the size of aBoeing 747,and silent,

was consis-tent withother wit-

nesses whohad viewedthe primaryobject.

May1997

Number 349Pages

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

He described

the objectsas looking

like toy topsor hot-air bal-

loons without

the gondolas,glowing a yel-

low-orangefrom within

and engirdledwith a pulsat-

ing red-glow-ing ring oflight.


right and then returned and redocked withthe primary object. Could this detached or-ange light be one of the "orbs" deployedinto the environment and seen later?

We do not know, but other reports thathave come in from California indicate

that these orbs have been seen leaving andre-merging with some primary object orlight. Both Don and Grace reported hearingno sound from the triangle. They also saw abrilliant white ball of light followed by ared glow trail behind the object.

Witness Mike Fortson seems to haveseen a different object that I identify withEvent 1, the V-shaped formation of lights.Mike observed these from his Chandlerhome and was impressed by the sheer sizeof this object. He believes that what he sawwas a massive singular object that had atranslucent surface which passed betweenhim and the moon. When it did so, he said,the moon turned from white to yellow. Hecould also make out a kind of "distortionfield" around the object and between himand the lights that seemed to "ripple" likewaves traveling through water. Another wit-ness named Tim Ley also noticed this rippleeffect. The object Mike saw passed his posi-tion going south down Alma School Roadaround 8:30 P.M.

A later witness, a truck driver named BillGreiner gave one of the most impressivetestimonies, but viewed a different eventthat I have labeled Event 4. He witnessedtwo orange lights for two hours while hewas driving his truck south on Interstate 17from Verde Valley to a cement/gravel plantnear Luke AFB. When he arrived at his des-tination in the west valley, he witnessedthree jets scramble from Luke to interceptthe nearest of the two now seen hovering 1-2 miles away to the southwest while theother object hung at a position in the north-west. He described the objects as lookinglike toy tops or hot-air balloons without thegondolas, glowing a yellow-orange fromwithin and.engirdled with a pulsating red-glowing ring of light. As the jets ap-proached the near object, the object shotstraight up and disappeared with the jetspassing through the spot where the objecthad been hovering. A call to Luke AFB byTom King received the answer that all jetshad been bedded down for the night by 7P.M. The witness has volunteered to take alie-detector test as he said that despite theAir Force denials, he knows what he saw.

A report received from Tucson's MU-FON Section Director, June Scherrer, re-veals that a witness saw a diamond forma-tion of slow-moving golden yellow lights ataround 8:45 P.M. in Saddlebrook, north ofTucson and flying southward towardTucson. It is difficult to determine whetherthe formation in Tucson was the same for-mation seen earlier over Phoenix.

Shortly after these reports started comingin, I went on a local radio station and re-quested more witnesses to come forwardand have been doing so every Saturdaynight since the March 13 sighting. Therewas an additional report that was forwardedfrom Tucson of a sighting on March 22 of aformation of thirty lights seen at 5 A.M.moving northward. Isolated reports havebeen coming in up to April 14th when asmaller version of the Phoenix sightingstook place over the cities of Chandler andCoolidge.

The sightings on March 13th were re-markable due to the wide range of sightingson that night, the sheer number of peoplecalling in reports to local police and newsstations, and the calls received by PeterDavenport of the National UFO ReportingCenter, and the number of witnesses whorecorded video images of their sighting. Ihave been able to discern in the Phoenixsightings four or five separate events.

Event 1 is generally described as a largeV-formation of six or seven lights. Event 2is generally described as a huge, dark blacktriangle with structural details. Event 3 isgenerally described as intensely glowingspheres or orbs of golden-yellow light.Event 4 is the description given by BillGreiner of the large orbs hovering nearLuke AFB. There may have been more thanfour events on that night, but there are atleast four definitive ones.

Spokesmen from Luke AFB said: 1)They received no calls ftom residents aboutthe strange lights on March 13. PeterDavenport reports that some of his callersobtained his hot line number by calling thedesk out at Luke. 2) They report that theybedded the jets down at 7 P.M. on that nightand generally do not fly jets at night.Witnesses have reported to me that theyhave seen jets fly out of Luke at night, andBill Greiner stands by his testimony that hesaw three jets sent out at 10 P.M. on March13 on intercept of the UFOs he had under

Continued on Page 14

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

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The Second Conning of Marshall ApplewhiteDr. Barry H. Downing

One of severalmirror sites

for the Hea-

ven's Gate

Web page.This one is at

higher source,org/

Two decades ago I published an articlein the MUFON UFO Journal dealingwith a religious cult called "The

Two" headed by Marshall Applewhite andBonnie Lu Trusdale Nettles.

This man and woman had put together aUFO/Christian cult in which their task wasto lead their followers to a higher state ofconsciousness, preparing for their exit fromplanet Earth to heaven. Then the cult disap-peared from the media screen, only toemerge with graphic force during HolyWeek 1997.

We have witnessed the Second Comingof Marshall Applewhite, who was theleader of the Rancho Santa Fe, California,cult that ended its life on earth with 39 sui-cides, including that of Applewhite.Applewhite's cult began as "The Two," andended as "Heaven's Gate." suicide beingthe chosen means to pass through the gate.Missing was Bonnie Lu Trusdale Nettles,who had died in 1985.

The fact that Ms. Nettles died in 1985undoubtedly caused a revision in the origi-

nal theology of the cult of "The Two." forthe original story was that Applewhite andNettles were "The Two" prophets spoken ofin Revelation 11:3, "And I will grant mytwo witnesses power to prophesy for onethousand two hundred and sixty days,clothed in sackcloth." The prophecy wasthat The Two would prophesy together, andthen die together. When Ms. Nettles died in1985, while Applewhite lived on, I am suresome kind of theological revision was re-quired.

Groups that prophesy the end of theworld have always been adept at "adjust-ing" to a failed prophecy. Some modernforms of religion, such as the Jehovah'sWitnesses, are an example of adjustmentmade to failed prophecy. Christianity as awhole, at the beginning, expected Jesus toreturn very soon, and when that did nothappen, religious leaders by and large putthe Second Coming off to an indefinite fu-ture. Conservative Protestants have alwayshad millennial fever, and with the year2000 approaching, we can expect that fever

May1997

Number 349Page?

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

Although the

hi-tech UFO

cult called

Heaven's

Gate seems

strange to

the world, its

basic mes-

sage—we are

trying to im-

prove our-

selves

morally, so

that the

God/Force

will take us

to heaven—is

little different

from tradi-

tional Judeo-

Christian

faith.

May1997Number 349Pages

to heighten. They will be looking for"signs" that the end is near. For theHeaven's Gate cult, the comet Hale-Boppwas the sign that it was time for them toleave Earth and join their UFO salvation inthe sky. (Also, leader Applewhite may havefigured his prophetic time was runningout.)

Likewise the Jewish faith, based onMalachi 4:5, had expected the SecondComing of Elijah, who had ascended intothe sky in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11).

Ithough circumstances forcedlewhite to revise his logo from

"The Two" to "Heaven's Gate," as I watchthe film of the dead bodies in the suicidemansion, broadcast by CNN and all the net-works, the words from Revelation are inter-esting, for the beast is to to rise up and killThe Two, and then "For three days and ahalf men from the peoples and tribes andtongues and nations gaze at their dead bod-ies and refuse to let them be placed in atomb, and those who dwell on the earth willrejoice over them and make merry and ex-change presents, because these twoprophets had been a torment to those whodwell on the earth." (Rev. 11:9-10)

Applewhite and other UFO cult leadershave also "been a torment" to the scientificstudy of UFOs of the type that MUFON hasbeen carrying out for nearly three decades,The Heaven's Gate cult is similar to othercults, like those involving Jim Jones andDavid Koresh, in that all used the book ofRevelation to justify their own position as aspecial chosen prophet, all had male leadersthat expected some kind of "end of theworld" crisis to come soon. When that enddid not come as prophesied, then eachleader pushed the cult into death, eitherthrough confrontation with authorities, aswith David Koresh, or through suicide, aswith Jones and Applewhite.

The Heaven's Gate cult impacts MU-FON because this is a UFO cult. Religionhas always been a "wart" on what MUFONhoped was a scientific UFO hog, as I ex-plained in my article "The GodHypothesis" (Journal, October 1988). Cultslike that of Applewhite help discredit thescientific search for UFO truth, but the reli-gious dimension of UFOs will not go away.

What we need to do is handle the reli-gious dimension of UFOs as scientificallyand objectively as we do the "hard core"

UFO information, not an easy task, but anecessary one.

Cults like that of Applewhite can thrivebecause 1) we live in a culture in which weexpect government leaders to lie regularly,and they do, and so when they make publicstatements about UFOs, they are not be-lieved (and shouldn't be). It is this conspir-acy world view that makes a program like"The X-Files" so believable. 2) UFO cultsthrive in our culture because as the coverstory of the March 24, 1997 issue of Timemagazine ("Does Heaven Exist?") makesclear, people still hunger to know what hap-pens after we die. But traditional religiousleaders, Jewish and Christian, by and largeno longer deal with the issue of heaven, andlife after death (except at funerals). Whentraditional religious leaders will not answerthe question: What happens when we die?,then cult groups move in to fill the void.Although the hi-tech UFO cult calledHeaven's Gate seems strange to the world,its basic message—we are trying to im-prove ourselves morally, so that theGod/Force will take us to heaven—is littledifferent from traditional Judeo-Christianfaith, which believes in a Sky God that willsave us. whether at Passover, or at Easter.

This is what I believe. I believe UFOsare real, some kind of intelligent force notof this world. If they can abduct humans,evade military planes, and all the otherthings a scientific analysis of UFOs seem toindicate, then we are dealing with a verypowerful force, one that can shape the de-velopment of human culture, as JacquesVallee has stated so well in Dimensions. Inany other generation, a force like thiswould have been called God. The religionissue will not soon go away from UFOstudies.

FINAL REPORT ON AMERICAWEST AIRLINE CASE

Publ ished by the UFO ResearchCoalition, this 27 page booklet providesthe details on the May 25-26, 1995UFO sighting. A copy may be obtainedfor $10 plus $1.50 for postage and han-dling by writing to MUFON in Seguiri,Texas.

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

WHO ARE WE?by Brenda DenzlerCopyright 1997: Brenda Denzler

I remember my first MUFON statewidemeeting. I had been reading a fewbooks on UFOs and found myself capti-

vated by the subject—and also a little un-nerved by it. In an effort to find out more,I had decided to find others who were in-terested in UFOs and try to pick theirbrains. But I was somewhat hesitant when1 walked into the meeting room. Everyonelooked normal enough (whew!). Many ofthose present seemed to know each otheralready. Clearly there was a core commu-nity of believers here. But I was astranger—and I thought that I might wantto remain that way. I kept to myself.

There were a number of displays ofUFO photos and articles around the periph-ery of the room, so I pretended that I wasan anthropologist in an exotic new villageand I wandered around looking at thingsand getting a feel for this new environ-ment. On one low table against the backwall there was a framed picture of Bettyand Barney Hill. "A shrine," I thought tomyself. On the table next to the podium atthe front of the room there were a coupleof busts of what I immediately recognizedwere aliens. "Weird."

Then the meeting began. I sat safely inthe back of the room. While not exactlyrun according to Robert's Rules of Order,it was business-like and, to a pretend an-thropologist, fascinating. Someone talkedabout a recent sighting investigation theyhad just finished. Someone else gave atalk on the history of UFOs and science.There was normal group administrativebusiness to be conducted. And then therewas the time when those who had seenUFOs or had other types of alien encoun-ters could get up and tell their stories.Some people described sightings. Oneperson described an abduction experience.Very fascinating. Very weird. Who arethese people. I wondered.

Four years later I had decided thatthey—that we—were basically sane, nor-mal people who had daily lives as mun-dane and as exciting as the next person.We had children, paid taxes, celebrated an-niversaries, struggled with jobs and fami-lies, shopped, changed the oil in the car,were active in the theater scene or in the

environmental movement.... The localMUFON chapter seemed to consist offairly bright, well-educated people, and Iunderstood that this was the norm in UFOcircles. But we also seemed unique insome ways: more attuned to developmentsin the world of science, more sensitive togovernmental actions, more metaphysi-cally inclined.

By this time I had become the historianfor the state MUFON chapter and had re-ceived permission to write my doctoral dis-sertation on the UFO abduction phenome-non in society. I was also a minor assistantin North Carolina's sponsorship of theInternational MUFON Symposium in1996. With the kind permission of WaltAndrus and the local symposium organiz-ers, I was able to circulate a survey at thatconference in order to test some of my sub-jective observations about people in theUFO community. I found some of the re-sults rather surprising. [1]

The average MUFON Symposium par-ticipant in 1996 was a married white male(83% of us were white; 68% of us, male)between 46 and 60 years of age who had abachelor's degree (21% of us) and earnedbetween $36-50 thousand per year (19%).By way of comparison, the average levelof educational attainment nationally is ahigh school diploma and the median in-come for individuals with that degree is$30,000 a year. [2] Our typical MUFONconference-goer was a Protestant Christian(45% of us) who attended his church onmajor holidays and for other special occa-sions (as do 13% of us), but not on an oth-erwise regular basis.

On survey questions designed to mea-sure social alienation the average confer-ence participant came out about normal—or even slightly more optimistic—whencompared to the rest of the U.S. popula-tion. He was not sure that the condition ofthe average person is getting worse (50%of conference-goers thought it was gettingworse, compared to 66% of respondents tothe same question on a national survey),and he was only somewhat more inclinedto think that officials have no interest inthe average person's problems (56% com-pared to 76% nationally). [3]

1 The followinginformation onMUFON confer-ence partici-pants is basedon 161 surveys.

2 See GeneralSocial Surveys,1972-1993:CumulativeCodebook of theNational OpinionResearch Centerat the Universityof Chicago,August 1993,and theStatisticalAbstract of theUnited States:1996, 116th ed.(Washington,D.C.: U.S.Bureau of theCensus, 1996),Table 711.

3 See theGeneral SocialSurveys for1993.

May1997

Number 349Page 9

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

4 It is surpris-ingly difficult tofind data on thepercentage ofthe adult popu-lation in the U.S.that makes cam-paign contribu-tions or doesvolunteer workon political cam-paigns. Statisticsare available forthe amount ofcampaign fundsthat come fromindividual dona-tions, but almostno one seems tohave any ideawhat percentageof the popula-tion it is thatmakes thosecontributions.The only figure Ihave been ableto locate so farstates that lessthan 1% of thepopulation madecontributions inthe 1992 con-gressional elec-tions. See MartyJezer and RandyKehler, "Buildinga DemocracyMovement:People orCorporations?"in Social Policy(Fall 1995): 57and n.1.

Will the mystery of UFOs

ever be solved?

Missing Possible but doubtNever Not sure

Prob'lyWithout a doubt


In accordance with this relatively posi-tive outlook on society, his level of partici-pation in social processes such as politicsand charities is at or above the national av-erage. Although he seldom actively cam-paigned for or donated money to politicalcandidates (only 9% of us do campaignwork, and only 29% of us make campaigncontributions [4]), he was likely to supportthem by voting (87% of us vote, comparedto anywhere between 36% and 55% nation-ally [5]). Charities and volunteer organiza-tions were more likely to get his financialcontributions (85% of us give, compared to73% nationally [6]), but once again, theywere less likely to get his time (only 34%of us do volunteer work, compared with48% nationally [7]).

If one had to boil down MUFON sym-posium participants into a single person,that is who he would be. The picture ofconference-goers as a group, however, ismore diverse. For instance, the generalage of the crowd tended to be older ratherthan younger (only 36% of attendees wereunder 45 years of age). And as other stud-ies have indicated, people in the UFO com-munity are generally well-educated. Fully63% of us who attended the MUFON con-ference have at least a bachelor's degree,

and 11% of us have gone on to get a doc-toral degree of some kind. (In the U.S.population as a whole, these figures are16% and 1.5%, respectively. [8]) In termsof political affiliation, the make-up of theUFO community is generally in keepingwith the national average: we are Demo-crats (31%), Republicans (27%) andIndependents (25%). Although most of usare Protestant, a surprising number—27%of us—consider ourselves to be "Other" re-ligiously, a category that includes anythingfrom Quaker to neo-pagan to Hindu to sim-ply "spiritually evolving." Perhaps be-cause of our non-mainstream religiousidentification, many of us report that weseldom participate in the communal life ofa religious group. Almost 35% were inthis category. Another factor contributingto the low rates of participation in orga-nized religious life may be that 14% of usclaimed to be agnostics/atheists (comparedto 9% nationally [9]).

While on the average we tend to be lesspessimistic about society than the averageAmerican, the distribution of responses on

t the two survey questions measuring socialalienation shows that, like many others, wedo feel that conditions are getting worseand that officials are not really very inter-

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

ested in the growing problems faced by theaverage person. We hold these opinionswith varying degrees of firmness. Askedwhether the condition of the average per-son was getting worse, 35% of us re-sponded positively, and another 14% of usresponded strongly positively. Askedwhether officials care about the problemsof the average person, only 30% of us re-sponded with a simple positive, whereas awhopping 26% of us strongly agreed withthe statement.

The relevance of these figures lies intheir ability to shed light upon the

common wisdom which holds that peoplewho are interested in UFOs are harboring adeep-seated anomie and feel impelled tolook for solutions to our social problemsfrom "out there." In fact, when comparedto the average citizen, members of theUFO community (as represented by MU-FON Symposium participants) appear to beno more—and even somewhat less—so-cially alienated than the norm. One area ofdeviation from the demographic norm thathas been revealed by this survey data is inthe area of religious identity and participa-tion. However, that deviation may haveless to do with the survey respondents asindividuals interested in UFOs and more todo with the age of the respondents. Fully41 % of us were between the ages of 46 and60, i.e., Baby Boomers, who have been no-torious for their individualistic religiouspursuits. [10J The same generational fac-tor may account at least in part for thesomewhat greater tendency to view publicofficials as uninterested in the problems ofthe common person.

If peoples' interest in UFOs does notseem to be strongly marked by such a pes-simistic outlook on society that they mightbegin to search for an otherworldly answerto social ills, then what does motivate theirinterest? The data collected does not di-rectly answer that question, but does sug-gest that personally having a UFO-relatedexperience is not a pre-requisite for inter-est in the subject. Forty percent of us re-port having had a sighting of a UFO, while53% say that they have never had theirown sighting. Broken down further, mostpeople (44%) had not had their own sight-ing but knew someone else who had hadone, but a few (9%) said that not only hadthey never had a sighting of their own, butthey did not know anyone else who had

had one, either. It is not clear from thedata whether those who have not had theirown sighting, but know others who have,are referring to "others" within the UFOcommunity, or whether the "others" arefriends and family (initially) outside theUFO community. What is clear is thatsome people are not waiting for UFOs tofind them; 7% of us have at some point ac-tively attempted to contact UFOs. Perhapsthey will succeed: of those who have hadtheir own UFO sightings, 73% of them saythey had a prior interest in the subject.Only 11 % of conference participants claimthat before their sightings they had no par-ticular interest.

Although 40% of us report having had a"simple" UFO sighting, far fewer of ushave experienced any of the effects oftenassociated with such incidents. Eight per-cent of us indicated that we found physicaltraces after having a sighting, 8% sawUFO occupants, 9% felt that the surround-ing reality had been altered somehow dur-ing the sighting, but only 4% sustainedphysical effects on their persons. It is notclear that all of these figures necessarilyrepresent sighting-related events, however.Marginal comments on the survey formsindicated that some respondents had expe-rienced the associated effects (e.g., sight-ing occupants) without a prior UFO sight-ing, but nevertheless considered the experi-ences to be UFO-related.

H aving developed an interest in UFOs,MUFON conference participants were

asked how they nurtured their interest.Most of us—90%—do so by reading. (Byway of comparison, the cumulative re-sponse for this survey question at all con-ferences and meetings where it has beencirculated is only 58%.) Almost as manyreported getting information from watch-ing television shows and movies on UFO-related topics (88%) and from attendingUFO conferences (85%). What is surpris-ing is the fact that only 65% said they at-tend local UFO meetings or study groupsin order to further their knowledge. Itmight be interesting to speculate on thereasons for this relative lack of local par-ticipation and the ways in which it affectsthe development of ufology.

Whatever our collective habits as re-gards the study of UFO topics, our effortshave led us to have a certain amount oftrust that the mystery of UFOs will be

5 See theStatisticalAbstract of theUnited States:1996, Table 459.

6 Giving USA:The AnnualReport onPhilanthropy forthe Year 1994(AmericanAssociation ofFund-RaisingCounsel, 1995),46.

7 See theStatisticalAbstract of theUnited States:1996, Table 608.

8 See theGeneral SocialSurveys for 1993or the StatisticalAbstract of theUnited States:1996, Table 720,from which I de-rived the figurefor doctoral de-grees.

9 See theGeneral SocialSurveys for1993.

10 See WadeClark Roof, AGeneration ofSeekers (NewYork:HarperCollinsPublishers,1993).

11 On this item,N=60.


MUFON UFO JOURNAL

"Like the aver-age MUFONsymposium par-ticipant, the av-erage abducteeat the confer-ence had an in-come in the $36-50,000 a yearrange and abachelor's de-gree. Fully 61%of abducteeshad at least abachelor's de-gree; 35% hadmaster's de-grees and 9%had doctoral de-grees."

Are you an abductee?

Missing Perhaps but doubtNo Maybe

Prob'lyYes


solved. Only 16% of us,said that the mys-tery was never or not likely to be solved.Thirty percent expressed uncertainty on thequestion, but fully 50% of us said they werereasonably sure or absolutely sure that therewas a discoverable answer and that wecould find it. (The average date for this dis-covery, when one was suggested, was 2030.[11]) The means by which we will find theanswer is, however, another matter. Inkeeping with the emphasis placed by theUFO community on ufology as a scientificdiscipline, most of us had relatively highlevels of confidence in the ability of scienceto provide us with answers about theenigma. Fifty-three percent of us thought itlikely or very likely that science would pro-vide the key that would open the door tofuller understanding. Nevertheless, a signif-icant number of us—29%—were moreequivocal about science's potential contri-butions, and 16% of us were decidedlyskeptical. The greatest measure of skepti-cism, however, was reserved for politics andreligion as sources of ufological knowledge.Sixty-four percent said that they had little orno confidence that political revelationswould produce any significant understand-ing about UFOs, and 76% expressed thesame reservations about religion.

Conversely—and interestingly, giventhe fact that so many conference partici-pants are not, themselves, UFO experi-encers in any sense of the word—73% ofrespondents indicated they thought it likelyor very likely that we would ultimatelylearn more about UFOs through personalexperience. The survey did not provide away for respondents to indicate what "per-sonal experience" meant to them. It mightindicate a belief that an individual en-counter with a UFO is the only thing thatwould be capable of satisfying anyone'scuriosity about them. Or, it might indicatea belief that some kind of mass landing orUFO overflight, which would provide si-multaneous personal experience to massesof people, is really the only way we canever hope to know more.

With such a strong belief in the effi-cacy of personal experience as a

means of knowing, and given the level ofinterest in abductions in recent years, it isinteresting to note that the average confer-ence participant did not believe it waslikely that he or she was an abductee. It isequally interesting to note that a significantminority of individuals could not "just say •no" to the idea, either. Although 65% of

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

us responded clearly and unambiguouslythat we were not abductees. 2% thought itunlikely but possible, 12% were uncertaineither way, 3% were uncertain but thoughtit probable, and 15% were quite convincedof it. Men were more likely to flatly denythat they were abductees—72% of all mensaid "no" compared to only 55% of allwomen. In fact, the data indicates a posi-tive correlation between being an abducteeand being female (r = .159). Nevertheless,of those who responded "yes" to the ab-ductee question, 58% were men. The posi-tive correlation between gender and ab-ductee status was expressed in this groupby a higher mid-range distribution ofwomen's responses to the abduction ques-tion. Eighteen percent of women respon-dents chose a simple "maybe" as their an-swer.

Given the nature of their experiences,one might suppose that abductees (thoseflatly answering "yes" to the abductionquestion) are a unique group within theUFO community in other ways as well, butthis does not seem to be the case. Like theaverage MUFON symposium participant,the average abductee at the conference hadan income in the $36-50,000 a year rangeand a bachelor's degree. Fully 61% of ab-ductees had at least a bachelor's degree;35% had master's degrees and 9% haddoctoral degrees. Interestingly, those withthe highest rates of negative response tothe abduction question were individualswithout a high school diploma (80% ofwhom responded "no"), those with only ahigh school diploma (86%). and those witha bachelor's degree (88%). More of thosewith some college education but no degreewere likely to countenance the possibilityof being an abductee (an average of only60% saying "no"), as were those havingtaken degrees beyond the bachelor's level(an average of 56% saying "no").

Socially, abductees were no more likelyto struggle with alienation than the averageconference-goer. Half agreed that officialsdon't really care about the problems of theaverage person, compared to 56% of con-ference-goers as a whole and 76% of a na-tional sample. But they were more likelyto equivocate: While 22% of conference-goers flatly disagreed with the statement,only 13% of abductees did, and a signifi-cant minority—37%—said they were un-sure whether it was true or not. An evenlarger percentage of abductees—58%—

were unsure that the lot of the average per-son is getting worse. Few conference-go-ers (only 17%) and even fewer Americansin the general population (only 4%) re-sponded similarly. In the same vein, only25% of abductees agreed that conditionsare getting worse, while 50% of the confer-ence sample agreed and 66% of the U.S.population agreed.

The most surprising single characteristicof abductees was the fact that the morestrongly one identified as an abductee, themore likely it was that one would alsovalue religion as a source of knowledgeabout UFOs (r = .219). Fourteen percentof probable or certain abductees thought itwas "most likely" that we would learnmore about UFOs from religion, comparedto only 4% of conference participants ingeneral. Yet levels of participation in reli-gious communities was as low among ab-ductees as it was among others at the con-ference. A key to this odd juxtaposition ofconfidence in and distance from religionmay lie in abductees' extreme confidencein personal experience as a source of ufo-logical knowledge. While 93% of proba-ble or certain abductees saw personal expe-rience as a very good source of knowledge(r = .294), only 52% of the conference par-ticipants felt the same.

It seems reasonable to suggest that formany abductees their personal experienceshave affected them at profound levels ofexistence normally associated with reli-gious experience. The personal and the re-ligious thus become the most logicalsources from which to expect further un-derstanding...though not the only sources.Abductees also expressed confidence inscience as a source of understanding aboutUFOs at roughly the same rates as did con-ference participants as a whole (24% of ab-ductees responding in the highest confi-dence category compared to 28% of all re-spondents).

So what is to be said about all this? Ihave begun a more elaborate survey pro-ject specifically targeting abductees in or-der to test and further refine the informa-tion I have acquired to date. (Abducteeswho would be willing to participate in thatproject are invited to contact me.) In fact,considered as a whole, the picture the datapaints of MUFON symposium participantsis a fairly positive one—abductees and all.If one wanted to say that abductions arephenomena that arise through negatively-

"If one wantedto say that ab-ductions arephenomena thatarise throughnegatively-val-ued internalstates andprocesses (suchas anomie) exac-erbated by thesociological con-ditions of the ex-periencer (suchas lack of edu-cation or lowersocio-economicstatus), onewould have adifficult timemaking thatcase based onthis set of data."


MUFON UFO JOURNAL


valued internal states and processes (suchas anomie) exacerbated by the sociologicalconditions of the experiencer (such as lackof education or lower socio-economic sta-tus), one would have a difficult time mak-ing that case based on this set of data.

U nfortunately, everything I have pre-sented in this paper must be set in a

context that necessarily takes some of theluster off the bright picture I have painted.The most important point to keep in mindwhen it comes to this data is that it is basedon a relatively small number of surveys.Although each and every symposium par-ticipant received a survey, only 161 indi-viduals returned them. Such a small num-ber of responses does not invalidate thedata gathered from them, but it does makeit important to recognize that the resultsmay not be truly representative of thelarger MUFON—much less UFO commu-nity—population. The second caveat re-garding this data is that the very populationfrom which it was taken is a privilegedgroup: those with enough financial re-sources (which suggests those with moreeducation) to be able to afford to attendsuch conferences. This may skew educa-tion and income results toward the higherend of the scales. In addition, people withthe level of affluence and freedom that en-ables them to travel may tend to be older,hence the larger numbers of attendees whowere in the 46-60 age group.

Although this particular survey groupmay not be totally representative of thelarger UFO community, it certainly estab-lishes one thing: Early-on in my UFOstudies I found a cartoon with two littlealiens in the bubble top of a UFO flyingaway from Earth. One alien turned to theother and said, "It's weird, Zork. We'vebeen visiting that planet for years and theonly ones who believe in us are the poorwhite trash!"

I think not.

Brenda Denzler is the historian forthe North Carolina Chapter of MUFONand a Ph.D. candidate at Duke Univer-sity working on the sociological aspectsof alien abductions. She can be reachedthrough the Graduate Program inReligion, Campus Box 90964, DurhamNC 27706.

ARIZONA - Continued from Page 6

observation. It seems like the official state-ments made to members of the press andpublic by those representing our Air Forceare, to put it delicately, on a course devia-tion from the truth.

The Governor of the state had no com-ment to make about these sightings. TheArizona Republic published an article a fullfive days after the sightings took place. Themayor of Phoenix made a statement to oneof the staff of Strange Universe whenqueried that no UFOs hovered abovePhoenix. Even though we were told bynews stations of reports made by pilots, theFAA was not forthcoming with any officialword about the sightings, or foreign flyingobjects crossing air traffic lanes, or anyother encouraging or discouraging word.

Conventional explanations that wereproffered included flares or a formation ofairplanes, however, when all witness testi-mony is taken into account, such conven-tional explanations do not seem consonantwith the facts.

Even though this summary report consti-tutes a fraction of witness testimony for thenight of March 13, it conveys a fair idea ofthe remarkable series of mass sightings thathave occurred over Arizona and further re-ports could be made at some future date.Meantime, we are continuing to collect re-ports and keep an ever-vigilant eye on thosecrowded skies.

MUFON COMMUNICATIONNUMBERS

MUFON Headquarters: Seguin, TXTelephone: (210)379-9216

Fax: (210)372-9439

MUFON UFO HOT LINE 1-800-UFO-2166

THE INTERNET -mufon.com

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MUFON Amateur Radio Net40 meters - 7.237 MHz - Saturday, 8 a.m.

Eastern Time

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

LhftlffiCLERESS,

Robert H. Coddington

CONNECTIONS:Solving Our Alien AbductionMysteryby Beth Collings & Anna JamersonWildflower Press, Newberg, OregonSoftcover, 1996. 355 pgs., $17.95

Imust be having a nervous breakdown. Beththought. "Nothing in [my] conscious mem-

ory remotely compared to this imagined ex-perience. For surely that is what it was; aflight of fancy, some outlandish trick of themind, a flaw in the subconscious. I was, Godforbid, having a nervous breakdown!" Herfear changed to a grim hope, though; even amental breakdown would be preferable toaccepting that some inscrutable reality laybehind such bizarre happenings. Happeningssuch as missing time episodes, for example.

Co-written by two women who now be-lieve they are UFO abduction experiences,Connections portrays a formidable profusionof the bizarre and incredible. Beth Collings,the pragmatic rationalist, and AnnaJamerson, more open to speculative con-cepts, have written in parallel, alternatingsection by section throughout the book.Having met them at a book signing, I foundit easy to visualize their individual personali-ties and narrative styles as I read their ac-counts. Both seem entirely sensible,grounded, forthright and earnest in personand in print. This view is seconded by BuddHopkins, who devoted an appendix in his re-cent book, Witnessed, to them.

Writing more or less chronologically —not in the order of hidden events' occur-rences but as they came to light — Beth andAnna carry us through a convoluted processof multiple revelations. As their individualexplorations unfolded, they came in time toconfront and grudgingly accept that they hadshared common abduction experiences, evenduring girlhood years when they lived ondifferent continents. It is interesting to com-pare their perceptions from their differing

viewpoints as these common elementsemerge.

With considerable help, the details cameto light slowly. The search began after Bethhad an inexplicable time loss while drivinghome one night. Anna, who had read someof the classic UFO literature, thought Bethmay have had an abduction, but Beth, the re-alist, would have none of such nonsense. Yetshe continued to feel an undefined unease,fearing she was verging on some sort ofmental breakdown. Persistently seeking tohelp her, it was Anna — utterly oblivious atthe time to her own abduction history —who finally coaxed Beth to join her in meet-ing with Richard Hall of the Fund for UFOResearch (FUFOR). Through such familiarUFO researchers as Hall, Rob Swiatek andDon Berliner, they met others with similarexperiences. Later they also met BuddHopkins and participated in the 1992Abduction Study Conference at MIT.Connections contains upwards of 100 pagesof literal transcripts of their hypnosis ses-sions conducted by Hopkins and others.

Seasoned ufologists will find few uniqueoccurrences in this book, but for the new-comer to the field, it affords perhaps thewidest range of abduction experiences to befound in a single volume. Between them,Beth's and Anna's recollections cover virtu-ally the whole spectrum of reported UFO-re-lated experiences. In fact, if anything threat-ens the book's seeming verity, it's thesweeping variety, and their frequency, ofphenomena visited on just two experiencers.

There were forcible abductions by "typi-cal" alien grays from open fields, automo-biles, and bedrooms; medical examinations;mysterious lesions on various body parts;unexplained bleeding from ears and nose;early pregnancy symptoms experienced byboth (even though Beth had had a hysterec-tomy!), followed by sudden returns to a non-pregnant state.

Both women underwent clinical gyneco-logical procedures resembling those

widely reported by others, with various in-struments probing navels and genitalia.Anna also recalled at least one forced sexualcoupling with an unwilling but helpless hu-man male.

Another aspect that surfaces in many ac-counts is multigenerational abductionswithin the same family. As their search pro-gressed, Beth came to suspect that not only

Seasoned

ufologists will

find few

unique oc-

currences in

this book, but

for the new-

comer to the

field, it af-

fords perhaps

the widest

range of ab-

duction expe-

riences to be

found in asingle volume.


MUFON UFO JOURNAL

Also there

were theusual electri-

cal effects:

cars stalled

at secluded

places; spo-radic extin-

guishment of

street lights;mysterious

phone calls,

both with and

without anoriginating

voice; and

failures ofrecordersand comput-

ers.


she, but her father, her son, and her grand-daughter all were victims of alien interfer-ence. The fact that she seems powerless toforestall further intrusions continues to gall'her.

By her own admission, Anna suffers froma phobic fear/hate reaction to babies and

small children, long a puzzle to her. Then, inthe course of her hypnotic regressions, sherecalled being taken into the presence of hy-brid children, some with sparse blond hair,and was repulsed by her captors' expectationthat she pick them up and caress and com-fort them. During this session she told Budd,"I hate [those] babies! They're not human!They don't look right."

Besides the usual "grays," other alienforms populated the women's experiences.Anna described one with reptilian skin ashaving pointed and tufted "Spock-ears."During one altered-consciousness episodeBeth was confronted by "security enforcers"appearing as very tall and brusque humans.And even the grays came in differingheights, with the taller ones clearly being incharge of the proceedings.

Both women, in separate sessions, re-called having been indoctrinated in psychi-cally levitating and controlling physical ob-jects, evidently for either training or testingtheir mental powers.

There were, of course, the missing timeepisodes that triggered their search. Bothwomen experienced being levitated intohovering vehicles, and stepping or floatingthrough closed doors and windows. Annasaid the feeling, when going through aclosed window, was "Kinda tingly. It feelskinda good, like itching on the inside."

There were the standard-issue warningsand projected scenes of purported impendingcataclysmic catastrophes to devastate theearth. Also there were the usual electrical ef-fects: cars stalled at secluded places, oneonce suffering severe electrical system dam-age; sporadic extinguishment of street lights;mysterious phone calls, both with and with-out an originating voice; and failures ofrecorders and computers. Too, almost as im-possible to reconcile with our physics as isfloating through solid windows and walls, isthe coming on or staying on of electrical ap-pliances even when not plugged into an out-let! Yet this is an anomaly seriously reportedby other experiences (as mentioned by JohnCarpenter in his "Abduction Notes" in theApril '97 UFO Journal), and Beth, too, once

found herself turning off a lighted lamp thatwas not plugged in.

There were power outages localized to in-dividual bedrooms during visitations. BobHuff of FUFOR installed a series of elec-tronic alarms designed to alert the women inthe event of intrusion, but they failed to doso. Of course, when alien technology can soeasily induce selective power failures andother electrical malfunctions, it's not surpris-ing that Huff's efforts were in vain.

Beth's father once was questioned abouther by two men in Air Force uniforms, andunmarked helicopters and planes flew overAnna's farm in apparent reconnaissance.Beth consciously recalled having one nightapproached a brightly illuminated roadblockmanned by [human] police and unidentifi-able others, and having subsequently beenwaved on to continue her journey. Only dur-ing later hypnosis did she recall that at theroadblock she had been taken blindfolded toan unknown place, tied to a chair, and givenan injection. Then, still blindfolded, she un-derwent a medical examination of some sortbefore she was returned to her car and senton.

Perhaps the most daunting aspect of thisbook is the persistence and frequency withwhich the inscrutable visitors seem to haveintruded into these women's lives (and theystill may be). Even if genetic experimenta-tion is the objective, intrusions more or lessweekly would scarcely seem necessary.Whatever, Beth and Anna agree, "Some-thing is certainly going on..." And, unlikesome abductees, they entertain no belief thatthe aliens are in the least altruistic. They'renot here, they strongly feel, to help or tosave us.

A CATALOG OF UFO-RELATEDPHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS

by John F. Schuessler400 reported medical cases, 105 pages

$15 plus $2.00 for postage and handling.Order From: MUFON, 103 Oldtowne Road

Seguin, TX 78155-4088

UFOs, MJ-12ANDTHEGOVERNMENT:

A Report on Government Involvement inthe UFO Crash Retrievals (113 pages)

by Grant Cameron and T. Scott GrainPRICE:

$19 plus $1.50 for postage and handling.ORDER FROM:

MUFON, 103 Oldtowne Rd., Seguin, TX 78155-4099 /

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

Letters to Mufon UFO Journal o

To Kill an Alien

I appreciated Mr. Prouty's article lastmonth addressing the legal ramifications ofki l l ing an alien. I would, however, arguethat he spent too little time addressing thereally interesting question and too muchtime speculating about an infinitely less in-teresting aspect of the inquiry.

Particularly, Mr. Prouty concentrated onthe possible criminal liability by analogy tohomicide and animal cruelty statutes. Whilethis may be interesting, I'm certain Mr.Prouty knows that even in common law ju-risdictions, the criminal law is statutory.This fact demands that the relevant questionto be posed is. "Will the state legislatures orthe federal congress enact a law whichcriminalizes the killing of an alien?" Theanswer to that question depends upon sev-eral variables, the foremost being:

1) Do aliens exist and do they visit theearth?

2) If they exist will the government everadmit to it?

3) Are they in any way comparable tomankind?

4) Are their intentions hostile?5) Do they require protection?

The more interesting question then, iswhether our courts would recognize a causeof action brought by either the "survivors"(usually family members) or estate of analien who (which?) had been killed throughthe tortious act of a human. Most states al-low, either at common law or by statute, thissort of recovery in the case of the death of ahuman being caused by the tortuous act ofanother. While this cause of action wouldobviously be foreclosed in those stateswhich recognize wrongful death and sur-vivor's actions by statute, it would be fasci-nating to see argument before a court as tothe applicability of the common law causesof action to alien beings.

It is most likely that the courts would'de-fer to the legislatures, claiming an inabilityto make a reasoned determination.However, there is always the possibility thatthis sort of case would force the courts to

determine what it means to be "a person."Does personhood require that one share99.9% of the genetic material of the rest ofhumanity? Does it mean that one must be amember of the species Homo sapiens andtherefore be able to procreate with othermembers of the species? Does it simply re-quire a threshold of intelligence and self-awareness and if so, what does this suggestabout the rights of human beings with se-vere cognitive impairment?

What I am driving at is that it is not veryinteresting what a bunch of legislatorswould decide as to the potential criminalpenalties for killing an alien. What is inter-esting is what the common law courtswould decide faced with such a bizarre setof unique circumstances.

—Jon Andrew BiermanSt. Louis, MO

Mormonism

In his April 1997 article called "The GodHypothesis: A Review," Barry H. Downingwrote that we may believe "UFOs are real,intelligent, and highly technological... havea spiritual and psychic dimension... carryingout a god-like role in our world..." Manyreaders may be surprised to find out that amost astonishing and god-like close en-counter of the third kind happened in upperNew York State during the early spring of1820.

Orson Pratt was a close friend of JosephSmith. In his 1975 book. The Orson PrattJournals, author Elden J. Watson reportedthat a 14-year-old youth named JosephSmith visited a wooded clearing near hisfarm home in Manchester, New York. Thedate was the early spring of 1820. Whilepraying, young Joseph saw a brilliant andglorious light in the clear sky that graduallydescended towards him. As it drew nearer,the object increased in brightness and illu-minated the nearby trees and tops but didnot consume the leaves and boughs. The ob-ject descended slowly and came to rest onthe earth. A brilliant light engulfed theyoung man. Joseph said he was enwrappedin a heavenly vision and saw two glorious

Many readers

may be sur-

prised to find

out that amost astoni-shing and

god-like

close en-counter ofthe third kind

happened inupper New

York Stateduring the

early springof 1820.


MUFON UFO JOURNAL

Whether re-

mote viewingcan be used

for predicting

the future isaltogether

another

thing. I doubt

it. When it

comes tousing RV to

communicatewith aliens,

Jesus, and soon, I have

more thanjust doubts.


personages who exactly resembled eachother in features and likeness.

The two beings gave Joseph a religiousmessage and departed. Joseph experienced asense of well-being and relief and wenthome to describe the experience to his par-ents, brothers, and sisters. Over the yearsbetween 1820 and 1827, an angel namedMoroni visited Joseph and gave him ad-vanced information about future events andof a religious nature. Moroni told Josephabout a book of engraved metal plates con-cealed within a stone box in the ground.Joseph said he recovered the buried plates,translated them with a translating instru-ment found in the stone box, and publishedthe complete record as The Book of Mormonin 1830. Recorded in his own handwriting,these striking events seem to substantiateDowning's statement that the UFOs mayhave influenced the religious traditions ofthe nations of the world.

—Kenneth LarsonLos Angeles, CA

Multiple Entity Abuse (MEA)

I have been following the ongoing debatein the Forum regarding Helmut Lammar'sMILAB story and Victoria Alexander'scomments. Unlike Victoria, I admire thecourage of such women as Leah Haley,Debbie Jordon, Linda Cortile, KatharinaWilson and the late Dr. Karla Turner, forcoming forward with their personal stories.I know that there are hundreds (maybe thou-sands) of women who could tell similar sto-ries. I have spoken to many of them. Aswell as relating interfaces with other-dimen-sional entities, there has been obvious inter-ference in their lives from government sur-veillance, and even physical abduction.Unlike rape or abuse victims, these womendo not have the luxury of appeal. And un-like rape victims (who can face and accusetheir attackers), the abuse that women likeDebbie Jordon experienced often takesplace in a drugged state.

Having experienced many of the sameordeals as Leah, Debbie, Linda, Katharinaand Karla, I can understand their reticencein coming forward to legal authorities.Despite assurances that the crimes commit-ted against them will be addressed, all thathas been received by them is ridicule, disbe-lief and loss of credibility.

You will find that women, who have alife history of both alien and human inter-ference in their lives, may strive to makesense of their experiences by writing, eitherthrough published works or keeping jour-nals — I have 19 such journals. Unlikeother abuse victims, whose lives fall apart,victims of Multiple Entity Abuse (MEA —my definition and which includes humans),often strive to excel in their fields, whetherit be home-making, service to others, thearts, the sciences or humanities. The indi-vidual and combined strengths of thesewomen is astounding. I would be interestedin hearing from women with similar experi-ences with a view to telling their stories.

—Angela ThompsonLas Vegas, NV

Remote Viewing

I thought you did a fine job on the reviewof Jim Schnabel's book about remote view-ing. Loved the intro quotes from Fort!

As you probably know. Schnabel and Iwere trained by [Ingo] Swann, simultane-ously. This stuff really works, but for placesand structures here and now. Both JS and Iwere very successful in doing this duringour training.

Whether it can be used for predicting thefuture is altogether another thing. I doubt it,and Swann can't do it. When it comes to us-ing RV to communicate with aliens, Jesus,and so on, per Courtney Brown, I havemore than just doubts. Ed Dames made sev-eral great leaps in this "technology" butwithout any proof that he was doing morethan indulging in wild flights of imagina-tion. Brown learned at the feet of Dames,and since these two have done all the publictalking about RV, their version of what RVis and can do has become the publicly re-ceived picture of remote viewing. The"real" remote viewers, including Swann,have refused to speak out, but in private aremortified.

Remote viewers live and die by "feed-back," meaning data that checks the resultsof the viewing. Swann has gone so far as tosay that without feedback, the processshould not be called remote viewing. Thisapplies especially to remote viewing topicswhere there is no possibility of feedback,such as almost all of the work of Dames andBrown.

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

Over the past two years I've gotten toknow a number of the RV insiders, mainlythose who did it nine to five for the U.S.government, and they seem unanimous insaying that they were never officially taskedwith a UFO related target. On the otherhand, they all seem to take the existence ofalien craft and aliens for granted, with a to-tally unemotional "doesn't everybody knowthat?" approach. This conclusion seemsbased on private remote viewing of UFO in-cidents.

About six months ago the archives of thevarious government operational remoteviewing projects were collected for the pur-pose of declassification. Names of individu-als will be deleted, as will other sensitivedata, such as the names of embassies of"friendly" nations, and that sort of thing.We expect the sanitized records to be madepublic by the end of the year. The remoteviewers are eagerly awaiting this, and be-lieve that when the real record of what theydid is scrutinized, they will be vindicated.

Schnabel's book is very well done. Thisamazed me, given his track record. I dothink his publisher wanted something lesssnide and demeaning than his previous of-ferings on anomalies, and that may have re-sulted in the even-handed reporting job hefinally turned in.

The question for the UFO crowd is, canwe use RV to learn anything useful aboutsaucers? I think the answer is yes, but thetechnique must be used with great care, andeven then we can only use the results asspeculative and tentative.

—Robert DurantPennington, NJ

Harrisburg "Flap"

Joseph W. Ritrovata. in "The Importanceof UFO Waves and a Cyclic Connectionwith Some Curious Links" (June, 1996,MUFON UFO Journal), cited the NationalUFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) for aHarrisburg "UFO flap" in Feb. 1995. Healso credited the *U* UFO Database for theinformation in the article. Ritrovata wasidentified as a researcher for a major dailynewspaper.

A public observatory and a public mu-seum's planetarium with which I am associ-ated had received no UFO reports for Feb.

1995, nor had I heard of sightings via themedia or from other sources.

I wrote to the state and section MUFONdirectors and Larry Hatch, who maintainsthe *U* UFO Database. The local MUFONdirector did not respond, but the others wereunable to provide any information and werenot aware of any reports from Harrisburgduring the period. I also sent two letters toNUFORC, but because of a family emer-gency, the director of that project could notrespond at that time. So, I had reached adead-end.

Recently, I came across the NUFORCWeb page and noticed that for 2/27/95 therewas an entry that a "Mennonite College in-structor reports UFO flap is in progress inthat area [Harrisburg] of PN." Althoughthere are Mennonite people living in thisarea, I have never heard of an institutionwith that name. I checked with the StateDepartment of Education and they con-firmed that no such institution existed in thestate, but that there is an Eastern MennoniteUniversity in Harrisonburg, VA.

I suspected that perhaps voice-mail mayhave resulted in a garbled report, and wroteagain to NUFORC with my suspicions as towhat had happened. Peter Davenport kindlychecked his records and confirmed (March28, 1997 letter) that the caller's telephonearea code was 703 and his address was inHarrisonburg, Va. Mr. Davenport agreedthat a mistake had been made and that theentry on their Web page would be corrected.

I believe it can be assumed that there isno evidence of a sighting "flap" atHarrisburg, PA, during February 1995.

—Robert R. YoungHarrisburg, PA

Anniversaries on the Horizon...

Next month marks the 50th anniversary,on June 24th, 1947, of the landmarkKenneth Arnold sighting, initiating themodern UFO era.Two weeks later, headlinesout of Roswell, New Mexico, to the effectthat the Army Air Force had recovered aflying disc, electrified the world.

Next month's Journal looks at the latestRoswell revelations.

Send lettersor commentsto the editor:

Dennis StacyPO Box 12434San Antonio

TX 78212

Address Cal-endar listings

to MUFON,103 OldtowneRd,. Seguin,

TX 78155

May1997

Number 349Page 19

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

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MUFON UFO JOURNAL

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UFO SEMINAR OF THE YEAR: Stanton Friedman (June 21)on crashed saucers, govt coverup and MJ-12. Dr. John Mack(June 22) will discuss UFO abductions, their social & spiritualimplications. Per day: $65 until March 31; $75 thereafter. Bothdays: $120 until March 31, $150 thereafter. OmegaCommunications, Box 2051-M, Cheshire, CT 06410-5051.

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NATIONAL UFO CONFERENCESeptember 6 — 34th Annual National UFO Conference,Springfield, Ohio. Stanton Friedman, Robert Galganski, RichHillberg, James Moseley & others to be announced. A scientif-ically oriented conference. For information write NationalUFO Conference, P.O. Box 375, Springfield, OH 45501-0325.

"KINGMAKERS OF SATURN"Norman Bergrun, Pentland Press, 1996. Many color pho-tographs enlarged from Voyager pictures. Shows severalgigantic Electromagnetic Vehicles forming rings. Implies pres-ence of long-lasting super-intelligent civilization with ability tomove moons. Consistent with centuries of telescopic observa-tions of rings. Robert Willsey recommends best buy, $55.00.(800) 948-2786.

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IS PLANET X HEAVEN?Bible provides orbital period and return date for Silchin's NibiruWhich Mesopotamian deity is YHWH? Bible mathematicallycoded transmission. Relates UFOs Etcontaci. Christ Nibirianhybrid. Revised edition of The Bible — An ExtraterrestrialTransmission. C.L. Turnage. $20.00, Flying Disk publications,P.O.Box 141049, Dallas, TX 75214.

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May1997

Number 349Page 21

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

June 1997

Bright Planets (Evening Sky):

Venus (magnitude -3.9) lies very low in the WNWat dusk, setting almost an hour and a half after theSun. The radiant object is near the crescent Moonon the 6th.Mars (0.4), in Virgo, is well up in the SW at dusk.The red planet stands near the quarter Moon onthe 12th and 13th.

Bright Planets (Morning Sky):Mars sets in the W about 1 AM in mid-June.

Jupiter (-2.6), in Capricornus, rises in the ESE about11:30 PM in midmonth, dominating the morningheavens with its brilliance. It arrives in the S atdawn. Jupiter begins retrograde or westward mo-tion on June 10 and is near the gibbous Moon onthe 24th.

Saturn (0.7), in Pisces, rises in the E about 2 AM inmid-June. The ringed world can be seen near thelunar crescent on the 1st and 28th (quite near onthe latter date).

o

Moon Phases: ^^New moon—June 5 ™

First quarter—June 13

Full moon—June 20

Last quarter—June 27

The Stars:Late in the evening the constellations of spring—Leo, Bootes, Virgo—are now W of the meridian,while the summer season patterns occupy theeastern half of the sky. The Summer Triangle ofVega, Deneb, and Altair is well up in the E. Andthe Big Dipper has now swung W of the Pole Star.

Meantime, low in the SE, Sagittarius the Archerappears to aim his arrow at Antares, the red heartof lifelike Scorpius the Scorpion. To many, thearcher looks more like a teapot whose handle ison the left, triangular lid on top, and spout to theright.

June 7 — First Annual Fourth Corner International UFOConference, Bellingham. Washington. Write to BUFOG, 1410Girard St., Bellingham, WA 98225 or telephone 1-800-746-0377.

June 21 -22 — Joint UFO Seminar "1997 - 50 Years On" atRiverwood Legion Club in Sydney, Australia. For information con-tact INUFOR, P.O. Box 783, Kogarah, N.S.W. 2217, Australia.

June 21-22 — The UFO Seminar of the Year, Holiday inn, NorthHaven, CT. For information, write Omega Communications, P.O.Box 2051, Cheshire, CT 06410-5051.

June 26-28 — 18th Rocky Mountain UFO Conference at Universityof Wyoming, Laramie, WY. For information contact Institute for UFOResearch, 1304 So. College Ave., Fort Collins, CO 80524 or call(970) 482-3731.

July 1-6 — Third Annual Roswell Days, 50th Anniversary. For fur-ther information and schedule of events write to International UFOMuseum, P.O. Box 2221. Roswell, NM 88202.

July 11-13 — Twenty-eighth annual MUFON International UFOSymposium, Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, Grand Rapids, Michigan.Theme: 'The Fiftieth Anniversary of Ufology." For further informationwrite to MUFON 1997 Symposium, 3628 Aragon Drive, Lansing, Ml ,48906-3508.

August 3-8 — Ancient Astronaut Society 24th Anniversary WorldConference at Sheraton Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Florida. For furtherinformation contact Ancient Astronaut Society, 1921 St. John'sAve., Highland Park, IL 60035-3178.

August 10-16— International UFO Congress 1st Annual "SummerSeminars." Theme: Beyond Hale Bopp: Hidden Human History -Modern Suppression & Control - The Prophecies. Gold RiverResort, Laughlin, Nevada. For information contact the UFOCongress, 9975 Wadsworth Parkway #K2-274, Westminster, CO80020. Phone/Fax (303) 543-9943.

September 6 — National UFO Conference, Springfield, Ohio.Details to follow.

September 13 & 14 — Seventh Annual UFO Conference at theYokens Convention Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Forinformation write to New Hampshire MUFON, P.O. Box 453, Rye,NH 03870.

October 4 & 5 — Second Scandinavian ET Conference, Oslo,Norway.

October 11 & 12 — 'The UFO Experience" at Holiday Inn in NorthHaven, Connecticut. Contact Omega Communications, P.O> Box2051, Cheshire, CT 06410.

October 17-19 — Australian International UFO Symposium 1997 atCarlton Crest Hotel, Brisbane, Australia. For further informationwrite to Glennys Mackay, P.O. Box 2183, Mansfield MC, Brisbane,OLD 4122, Australia.

November 22 & 23 — 5th Symposium on Ufology and Exobiology.Sindipetro, Santos, SP Brasil. For further information call 55 (043)336.3719 or 55 (011) 5513.7107.


MUFON UFO JOURNAL

DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE - Continued from Page 24

Associate Members Auxiliary is Kenneth D. Boring(Lyndonville, NY). He has contacted Thomas L.Lyon, the Director, and offered his help and support.We sti l l need additional people to form the advisorycommittee. We are very excited about this new groupof teenagers that are becoming involved in a positivemanner with MUFON. Please contact Walt Andrus ifyou would like to help. Tom Lyon's new telephonenumber is (716) 786-3597.

JUDY TUBERG HAS PASSED AWAYJudy joined MUFON January 24, 1989. She was in-strumental in building the Washington State organiza-tion as Assistant Director with Marilyn and LarryChilds, Co-State Directors, and Bob Gribble,Regional Director, from February 16, 1991 unti l 1994when she became State Director. She was StateDirector unt i l November 1994.

She did extensive research and reading in ufology.She also belonged to CUFOS and CAUS. She fol-lowed the UFO topic for over thirty years. Her work(job related) was in psychiatric nursing. She held anR.N. degree. The highlight of her caring for otherswas the summer of 1996 when she volunteered hertime to Carl Sagan and family when he was in Seattleundergoing treatment before he passed away. Judyworked tirelessly doing research in ufology even dur-ing her own difficult health challenges. She will bemissed by family and friends.

FUND RAISING PROGRAMFund Raising Director, Mrs. Carolyn McNellis is de-veloping a program to raise money for future MUFONprojects in UFO research to be timed with the 50thAnniversary of Ufology. Money is available to fulfi l lthe goals and objectives of MUFON, provided it is di-rected and orchestrated by a professional fund raiserof the caliber of Carolyn McNellis. She will presenther proposals to the MUFON Board of Directors an-nual meeting on July 13, 1997 in Grand Rapids, Ml.

FIELD INVESTIGATOR'S EXAMAnyone who has purchased and studied the 4th edi-

tion of the MUFON Field Investigator's Manual is eli-gible to take the exam via mail when they feel quali-fied. The 100-question test may be secured from MU-FON headquarters in Seguin and returned to KathleenF. Marden, 103 Willow Road. East Kingston, NH03827, for grading. In localities where field investiga-tor training classes are conducted, the instructor mayorder sufficient quantities of the test and administerthe exam at the conclusion of the training classes.However, the majority of people will study the manuallike a correspondence course before taking the exam.

It is an open book test and other references may beutilized to broaden the scope of your knowledge.

A passing grade is 75%. A few individuals have re-quested that they want to know which questions theymissed. To supply the correct answers would make itpossible for them to possess every answer to the test.Obviously, we would not like for them to share theiranswers with colleagues, therefore we have been re-luctant to do so.

A study is being conducted, based upon questionsconsistently answered incorrectly, to revise the exam.Some of the True-False questions need rewording oreliminated as an example. A few questions are a mea-sure of the overall knowledge of Ufology of the exam-inee, based upon reading the literature. These answersare obviously not in the MUFON Field Investigator'sManual. For current members, the new manual maybe purchased for $25.00 plus $3.50 for postage andhandling from MUFON in Seguin.

Congratulations to the people who have recentlytaken the Field Investigator's Exam and received apassing grade. Kathleen Marden now grades the ex-ams and forwards the name and score to MUFONheadquarters, where Phyllis Hutson records the gradeon your membership application, revises the applica-tion, and mails the new Field Investigator their newl.D. card.

ADDITIONAL EVENTS AT GRAND RAPIDSA press conference for all speakers is scheduled forFriday, July 11th from 1 to 3 p.m. The annualState/Provincial Director's meeting will be held from9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July l l t h with Dr. John C.Kasher, moderating. Time will be allocated for shortactivity reports from each State and ProvincialDirector. If the State Director will be unable to attend,he/she should designate someone to represent them.The MUFON Annual Board of Directors meeting willtake place on Sunday, July 13th from 9 a.m. to 1:00p.m.

All State and Provincial Directors will submit theirannual reports to Dr. Kasher at the meeting if they or arepresentative attends. If they do not attend, the re-ports should be mailed to Walt Andrus. Here is youropportunity to share with your colleagues your accom-plishments and ideas in promoting MUFON. For peo-ple arriving on Thursday or Friday, three workshopshave been scheduled during the day on July llth.

MUFON 1996 SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS"UFOLOGY: A Scientific Enigma"

Fourteen papers — 308 pagesPrice: $25 plus $1.75 for postage and handing, in U.S. funds

ORDER FROM:MUFON, 103 Oldtowne Road, Seguin, TX 78155-4099


MUFON UFO JOURNAL

Walter Andrus

NEWS FROM AROUND THE NETWORK

MUFON 1997 UFO SYMPOSIUMMUFON's twenty-eighth International UFO Sym-posium wil l be held July I I . 12, and 13, 1997, at theelegant Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids.Michigan, hosted by Michigan MUFON. David E.Toth, Ph.D.. is the symposium coordinator. "TheFift ieth Anniversary of Ufology" is the symposiumtheme. Several of the speakers wi l l address the monu-mental events of 1947 to recognize the anniversary ofthe modern era of ufology.

Confirmed speakers and their speech titles are JanL. Aldrich, "1947: The Beginning of the UFO Era";Warren P. Aston (Austral ia) "An Analysis of the1940 Udo Wartena Case: Discovering the AlienAgenda": John S. Carpenter, "Encounters: Now andThen": Beth Collings and Anna Jamerson,"Connections: A Lifetime of Shared Experiences"(co-authors of the book Connections: Solving OurAlien Abductions Mystery): Stanton T. Friedman,M.S. (Canada), "The Roswell Story - 1997": CynthiaHind (Zimbabwe), "Sightings From an AfricanCasebook"; Budd Hopkins, "The UFO Phenomenonand the Suicide Cults - An Ideological Study": J.Antonio Huneeus; David M. Jacobs, Ph.D. "UFOsat Fifty: Some Personal Observations: Bruce S.Maccabee, Ph.D.. "June 24. 1947: How It All Began -The Story of the Arnold Sighting"; Vincente-JuanBallester Olmos (Spain), "Monitoring Air ForceIntelligence on Spain's UFO DeclassificationProcess"; and Dan R. Wright, M.A., "Five Themes:Further Findings of the Abduction TranscriptionProject."

The host committee has announced that pre-regis-tration tickets are now available for $65 for all fivesessions before the cutoff date of June 21, 1997, and$75 thereafter. Individual sessions wil l be $20 per ses-sion. The cost to attend the reception Friday eveningfrom 6 to 9 p.m. will be $15 per person with a cashbar. Checks or money orders should be made payableand sent to "MUFON 1997 Symposium," 3628Aragon Drive, Lansing, MI 48906-3508. Advanceregistrants will receive a postcard confirming receiptof their attendance fee. An information envelope withyour tickets will be held at the registration desk inGrand Rapids for your arrival. Vendor tables wi l l cost$25 per day. Make your reservations for tables at thesame address listed above in Lansing, MI.

The Amway Grand Plaza Hotel is located at Pearland Monroe Streets in Grand Rapids, Michigan49503-2666. Special guest room rates for the sympo-

O

sium are for a single ( I person) $82. double (2 per-sons) $89, tr iple (3 persons) $96, and quad (4 persons)$103 per night. Reservations may be made by cal l ingthe hotel at (616) 774-2000,1-800-253-3590 or FAX(616) 776-6496. The group block cut-off date is June10. 1997. These rates cannot be guaranteed after thatdate.

An advance registration form is included wi th thisissue of the Journal for your convenience.

Plan your fami ly vacation now to vis i t the beaut i fu lstate of Michigan and the historical sights in GrandRapids. There wi l l be additional act ivi t ies for thewives and children.

NEW OFFICERSNine new or reassigned State Section Directors were

designated this month. They are Kerry Wisner(Nashua, N H ) for Hillsborough County: Robert A.Fairfax (Snohomish. WA) for Snohomish and KingCounties: Kathleen M. Andersen, B.A. (Seattle, WA)for King County; James E. Clarkson (Aberdeen,WA) for Grays Harbor, Mason, Jefferson, Pacific, andWahkiakum Counties: James J. Clifford(Lawrenceville, GA) forGwinnet , Forsyth, Hal l ,Barrow, and Walton Counties: Larry W. Mitchell,B.S. (Baylown, TX) for Chambers County; Tom A.Purnell, Jr. (Castroville, TX) for Medina County:Cynthia C. Hall (Chattanooga, TN) for Hamilton andMarion Counties, and Michael Ayers. Ph.D.(Oklahoma City, OK) for Oklahoma, Logan, Payne,and Lincoln Counties.

NEW CONSULTANTS AND RESEARCHSPECIALISTSThe following new Consultants volunteered their tal-ents to MUFON: Prakask R. Patel, Ph.D. (TerreHaute, I N ) in Chemistry and Thomas Poindexter,J.D. (Germantown, MD) in Law. Six new ResearchSpecialists came forward this month to add their ex-pertise in resolving the UFO phenomenon: Jason K.Binder, M.A. (San Francisco, CA) in Sociology;Andrew Reiff, M.S. (Merrick. NY) in Education:Roberto Santillan, M.A. (Marysvil le , CA) in FamilyCounseling: Shawn Lucus, M.S. (Brazil, IN) inChemistry; Win Balcavage, M.S. (Terre Haute, IN) inEnvironmental/Analytical Chemistry; and Bruce A.Pletsch, M.A. (Cincinnati , OH) in Geology.

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS AUXILIARYWe are delighted to announce that the first adult vol-unteer to serve as a consultant and advisor to the new

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