Mufon UFO JournalOfficial Publication of the Mutual UFO Network Since 1967

Number 263March 1990

$2.50

MEN IN BLACK:Challenging ParadigmsBy Peter M. Rojcewicz, Ph.D.

MUFON UFO JOURNAL(USPS 002-970)

(ISSN 0270-6822)103 Oldtowne Rd.

Seguin, Texas 78155-4099 U.S.A.

DENNIS W. STACYEditor

WALTER H. ANDRUS, JR.International Director and

Associate EditorTHOMAS P. DEULEY

Art DirectorMILDRED BIESELEContributing Editor

ANN DRUFFELContributing Editor

ROBERT J. GRIBBLEColumnist

ROBERT H. BLETCHMANPublic RelationsPAUL CERNY

Promotion / PublicityMARGE CHRISTENSEN

Public EducationREV. BARRY DOWNING

Religion and UFOsLUCIUS PARISH

Books & PeriodicalsLOREN GROSS

HistorianT. SCOTT CRAIN

GREG LONGMICHAEL D. SWORDS

Staff WritersTED PHILLIPS

Landing Trace CasesJOHN F. SCHUESSLER

Medical CasesLEONARD STRINGFIELD

UFO Crash / RetrievalWALTER N. WEBB

AstronomyNORMA E. SHORT

DWIGHT CONNELLYDENNIS HAUCK

RICHARD H. HALLROBERT V. PRATT

Editor / Publishers Emeritus(Formerly SKYLOOK)

The MUFON UFO JOURNAL ispublished monthly by the Mutual UFONetwork , Inc. , Seguin, Texas.Membership/Subscription rates:$25.00 per year in the U.S.A.; $30.00foreign in U.S. funds. Copyright 1990by the Mutual UFO Network. Secondclass postage paid at Seguin, Texas.POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 toadvise change of address to theMUFON UFO JOURNAL, 103Oldtowne Rd., Seguin, Texas 78155-4099.

FROM THE EDITORChanges, as you may have noticed, are afoot in the Journal's format and ap-pearance. It's probably not too far off the mark to say that human nature, ingeneral, resists change on principle, so I expect to receive a few complaints.I should add, however, that the changes are not for changes' sake, i.e., idletinkering, but are designed to make the Journal more readable, that is, moreuseful to you, our members and subscribers. A less dense page of text is lesswork for the eye of the reader. Regular departments will eventually be iden-tified so that they become readily recognizable and easier to find. Other minordesign elements will be added as time goes along. And no doubt a mistake,or kink or two, will be made along the way which will have to be worked outlater. In the meantime, we ask your patience. We hope you like our new ap-pearance, and we look forward to hearing from you.

IN THIS ISSUEMEN IN BLACK Peter M. Rojcewicz, Ph.D 3THOUGHTS ON PSYCHIATRISTS &

UFO INVESTIGATORS Budd Hopkins 13EARTHLIGHTS REVELATION REVIEWED Ralph Noyes 15THE ROAD TO COMPUTERIZATION Dan Wright 16NEWS'NVIEWS 18LOOKING BACK Bob Gribble 21LETTERS Stacy, Good, Smith, Deardorff, Etc. 23APRIL NIGHT SKY Walter Webb 26DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE Walt Andrus 28COVER ART Sal Amendola

Copyright 1990 by the Mutual UFO Network, Inc. (MUFON), 103 Old-towne Road, Seguin, Texas 78155-4099 U.S.A.

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Folklore of the "Men in Black":Challenge to the Prevailing Paradigm

Peter Rojcewicz is assistant pro-fessor of humanities in the Depart-ment of Liberal Arts at the JuilliardSchool in New York City. A previouscontributor to the MUFON Journal,his Ph.D. dissertation ('The Boun-daries of Orthodoxy: A FolkloricLook at the UFO Phenomenon") ex-plored UFOs in the context of thefull range of human encounters withspiritual entities. We welcome Mr.Rojcewicz back to our pages withthis article, reprinted with the per-mission of the author and ReVision:The Journal of Consciousness andChange, where it originally ap-peared. Subscriptions to the latter(4 issues/$18) are available fromHeldref Publications, 4000 Albemar-le St., NW, Washington, DC, 20016.

M ost folklorists shy awayfrom serious consider-ation of the truth of re-ported anomalous ex-

periences, fearing that the question-able nature of the experiences castsan unprofessional light on their workand because the question of the ob-jective basis underlying anomalousbeliefs is not considered by many tobe folklore concern. Such a positionis indefensible because as folkloristsand humanists we have to be con-cerned with explanation in general.

Folkloristic interest in UFOs beganwith a 1950 Hoosier Folklore (Peck-ham 1950) article. Not until the 1970s,however, did folklore's prevailing at-titude toward UFOs crystalize (Degh1971). Simply stated, although weshould study UFOs and related anom-alous phenomena in terms of trans-mission, motif, and distribution, the in-vestigation of truth-claims is not a func-tion appropriate to a folklorist (Degh

By Peter M. Rojcewicz, Ph.D.

1977; Ward 1977; Bullard 1982). Theprevailing position insists that we seeanomalous beliefs as products of cul-tural expectations (Honko 1965; Lowe1979) and human needs (Evans1987).

This well-established position is in-defensible. Explanation has alwaysbeen a fundamental function of folk-lore, and we must be prepared to gowhere we must to find it. It is time tostop insisting that we look atanomalous phenomena only as rep-resentational or symbolic, thus ex-cluding consideration of naturalisticand supernatural explanations.1 Weowe our primary allegiance to theidentification, classification, andanalysis of the subject matter and notto the conventional parameters of ourdiscipline. To insist that folkloristsshould consider only certain kinds ofexplanations and exclude others is ar-bitrary and confining.

The problem is that the majority offolklorists and anthropologists, as wellas behavioral scientists, pursue theirdisciplines with unconsciously helddogmas concerning what can or can-not be true. These unconscious dog-mas and assumptions, which makeordinary scientific practice possible,constitute what Thomas Kuhn([1962] 1970) calls a "paradigm." 1think it is fair to say that modernscience is almost entirely governed bythe paradigm of scientific materialism.Now, to the extent that modernfolklore studies are governed by thisoverarching paradigm, it is no surprisethat the objective basis of anomalousbeliefs if never addressed; as Kuhnpointed out, it is precisely anomaliesthat challenge the normal paradigmof any given science.

Consider, for example, stories ofmiraculous healings. The modern

folklorist is apt to say that peoplebelieve in the miraculous power ofsaints because they are overwhelmedby anxiety and helplessness; at anyrate, he or she is probably well stockedwith a priori arguments, designed toexplain away claims of miraculouscure. However, the truth is thatmedical ly attested claims foranomalous healings in a religious set-ting indubitably exist (Thurston 1952;Rogo 1982; Thompson 1987; Mur-phy 1987). This complicates mattersfor the folklorist operating faithfullywithin the parameters of the mainlineparadigm.

In my view, there is a considerablebody of data that, taken en masse,has unsettling implications forstudents of folklore, religion, and an-thropology. This problem was alreadyseen by folklorist Andrew Lang2 dur-ing the Victorian age when Britishpsychical research was first gettingunder way (Dorson 1968, 212-16)and again more recently by David J.Hufford (1982a) in his investigationsof the Old Hag. Indeed, one mightsay an underground tradition offolklorists (those who take anomalousclaims seriously) has been active sincethe days of Sir James Frazer (a pro-totype of modern folklorists whoautomatically dismiss such claims as"impossible").

Generally speaking, these puzzlingphenomena raise questions about theadequacy of the existing paradigm.Indeed, the data in question mayeven present exciting possibilities forrevising the dominant model. Thedata in question have revolutionaryimplications not only for folklore butfor all the behavioral and socialsciences.

My own investigations into thephenomena and folklore surrounding

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the so-called Men in Black (MIB) havecontinually forced me to confront od-dities and anomalies not easily en-compassed by the established para-digm. My purpose here is to explore,in a tentative vein, my misgivingsabout the prevailing model, particular-ly with regard to Men in Black.

Now, in other areas of folklore,scholars include the objective mater-ial aspects of their subject in theirresearch equation. Folklorists inter-view singers and instrumentalistsabout what it is like to make music,about what constitutes good and badmusic, and about standards of com-petence in the performance of music.No folklorist would argue that you cando an adequate job merely by talk-ing about music and not describing,notating, and recording it. Similarly,students of material culture not onlylook at or talk about barns andhouses, they also accurately measurethem, carefully noting relationshipsamong the constituent parts and thewhole.

Those of us who study folk food-ways are not only interested in collect-ing recipes; we are also interested inthe particular plants and vegetablescalled for by the recipes, as well as thegarden that produces those products.In addition, we observe and comparedifferent cultural methods of the useof those foods. Finally, we eat the pro-ducts of these recipes and find themdelicious or wanting. In all areas offolklore, we concern ourselves withobservations of real things (Hufford1977, 1983, 1985, 1988). We ob-serve, compare, and analyze our sub-ject matter in order to further ourknowledge.

Anomalous Beliefs

Folklorists interested in anomalousbeliefs are likewise concerned withknowledge, and they have the sameduty to investigate the objectiveaspects of their subject matter.Everyone in folklore knows aboutthose kinds of truth questions, andfolklorists studying belief materials aresimply doing the same thing in pur-

The problem is that the majority of folklorists and an-thropologists, as well as behavioral scientists, pursue theirdisciplines with unconsciously held dogmas concerningwhat can or cannot be true.

suit of other kinds of knowledge.3

Recently Bruce Jackson (1988,276-92) has rightly raised importantquestions about authenticity and truthin ethnographic interpretation andnews reporting.

Finally, folklorists should inquire intothe reality claims of anomalous beliefsbecause they are extremely interestingand profoundly important. The merefact that anomalous beliefs are held bya majority of the world's people in con-tradiction to the attitudes of the ma-jority of academics studying themmakes them worthy of study. Admit-tedly, it is difficult to give cases wherethe dominant reductionist position re-jected a priori the reality claims ofanomalous beliefs that proved in theend to be true. But we can be greatlyencouraged by recent studies of thestigmata (Thurston 1952, 32-129),out-of-body travel (Grosso 1975),near-death experiences (Moody 1976,Ring 1984), and the classicalNightmare (Hufford 1982a).

Several scholars have argued thatpeople believe they have had anom-alous experiences because theirpsychology or culture supports andencourages such beliefs (Scorneaux1984, 3-6; Rogerson 1984, 10-13),yet there is growing evidence indi-cating that some anomalous beliefsare products of accurate observationsanalyzed reasonably. Thomas E. Bui-lard has recently moved away from hisstrict reliance upon the prevailingfolkloristic paradigm (1982, 1). Not-ing that David J. Hufford's study ofthe Old Hag indicates that witnessescan offer accurate descriptions of theirexperiences even when cultural ex-pectations color the account, Bullard(1988, 11) states that "the critic mustallow abductees and other UFO wit-nesses the same capability" because"any complete account of the abduc-tion phenomenon must also reckon

with these indications of reality."It is our business and our tradition

as folklorists and humanists to inquireafter the reality of anomalous truth-claims. Roger D. Abrahams (1986, 65)eloquently describes our professionalenterprise: "To some degree, all ob-servers of human behavior seek a cor-ner on the market of reality, for it isour [emphasis his] profession, our[emphasis his] way of managing ourown destinies. The project of all thehumanistic disciplines has been todiscriminate between the real and theunreal, the genuine and the fake, therealistic and the sentimental or fan-tastic, the verifiable truth (all thosethings we call the 'facts') and illusions,the misleading, the mystified, and themythical."

Yates Encounter

Folklore studies of UFO beliefmaterials have failed to appreciate theinterrelatedness of UFOs with num-erous belief traditions. This failing isclearly demonstrated with belief in theMen in Black. The MIB experience isa cryptic part of the UFO phenome-non that consists of a continuum ofrelated but discrete events. The overallUFO framework provides a usefulmeans of reorganizing the contexts offolk traditions into more contempor-ary ones without negating either thetraditional elements or their importantphenomenological differences.

The Robert Yates MIB experienceis similar in many respects to the ex-periences of other people. In fact,similar encounters have been reportedso often that we can rightfully speakof the MIB experience as a discretecategory of encounter experience witha stable structure of phenomenology.

While mention of MIB encountersis most often found in the literatureof UFOs (Rojcewicz 1984), they can

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also be found in accounts of ghosts(Royal and Girvan [1976] 1986,8-10), devils (Scot [1584] 1972, 86),werewolves (Summers 1973, 232-4),bedroom apparitions (Keel 1970,188-94), manifestations of the VirginMary (Evans 1984, 136-7), and themystical tradition of the "Brothers ofthe Shadow" (Blavatsky [1877] 1972,I, 319). The term Men in Blackoriginated from the 1952 encounterof Albert K. Bender (1962). Robert

The MIB experience is acryptic part of the UFOphenomenon that consistsof a continuum of relatedbut discrete events.

Yates himself never had a UFO ex-perience. His MIB encounter seemsto have occurred because hetranscribed several audiotapes of MIBnarratives for a Philadelphia UFO In-vestigator and therefore was guilty asif by UFO association.

On the evening of 9 March 1983,an unknown man dressed in black at-tempted to purchase books costingapproximately forty-five dollars froma Philadelphia bookstore while RobertYates was the cashier on duty. TheMan in Black stood five feet eleveninches tall and weighed in excess oftwo hundred pounds.

Because the man did not have pro-per identification, Yates refused tohonor his personal check. To establishhis credibility, the man left an envelopeon the counter containing various per-sonal papers that included job infor-mation, personal philosophy, andphotocopies of identification cards in-dicating membership in severalorganizations. Also included was acopy of a photo of the man taken bya studio in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

When Yates refused to accept thecheck, or even glance at the envelope,the man, clearly annoyed, declaredthat he would have to go to his carto get some money. After waiting forsome time for the man's return, Yateswent outside to survey the parkingplaces near the store, but he saw no

one. The man did not return until twonights later.

Anti-Semitic

On that evening, Yates was againworking at the cash register. He wascursorily reading a book while main-taining a general awareness of whatwas happening in the store. The man'sunverifiable appearance that night ischaracteristic of many MIB accounts.Yates described it this way: "Sudden-ly he was just standing there! I lookedover and he stood just to the right ofthe cash register. He would have hadto pass me [from the left] to get intothe store to be in that position. He wasjust suddenly standing there."

As on the first encounter, the Manin Black tried to pay for his books bycheck, again using a photocopy of adefaced driver's license as identifica-tion. Again Yates refused to acceptthe check. The man shook withanger. "You'd think this bookstore wasrun by Jews," he said. A male cus-tomer standing with a woman severalfeet away responded to the challenge:"He is Jewish; so what?"

The MIB continued his disparagingremarks: "It was Jewish people whobrought mistrust into this country!"Just as Yates began to advise the MIBto leave, the agitated customer yelled,"He's leaving now," and forcibly re-moved the man from the store. Onceat the door, the customer, tired of theman's crudity and resistance to leav-ing, struck him a solid blow to theface. Yates immediately called thePhiladelphia police.

The police arrived, and after Yatestold them what had happened, theydecided to escort the man outside forfurther questioning. Just outside thedoorway, the Man in Black turnedaround and walked in a most peculiarmanner back toward the middle of thestore. Yates recalled the scene:

"The cops said, 'Hey, watchadoin'?' And he said, 'I've left my brief-case.' An officer said, 'You wait here.We'll get it.' So the two police officerswent back in, and the other twowaited outside the door. We walked

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around looking ... there was no brief-case anywhere. And when the copswalked back to tell the man theycouldn't find the briefcase, the othertwo cops [at the door] said [pause],'Well, he must have gone back intothe store!' because they didn't see him— they didn't — he just suddenly,kind of [pause, sigh] wasn't there!"

Yates soon felt nauseated, light-headed, and weak, despite havinghad sufficient rest and dinner threehours earlier. The police exited quick-ly, leaving confusion behind them.

The term "Men in Black" can betraced back to the 1952 encounter ofAlbert Bender, a Bridgeport, Connec-ticut, factory worker. Bender wrote toa friend saying that he had learnedthe origin and ultimate purpose be-hind "flying saucers." Soon after mail-ing the letter, Bender was approachedby three men dressed in black, oneof whom inexplicably carried Bender'sletter. The MIB informed Bender thathe had indeed. stumbled upon thesecret of the flying saucers, and theywarned him that he should neverreveal to anyone what he knew.Bender was frightened enough todiscontinue his UFO activities.However, pressured by his friends,publisher, UFO researcher GrayBarker (1956) (who published hisown account of the Bender incident),and gyroscope technician DominicLucchesi, Bender finally in 1962published the story of his confronta-tion, entitled Flying Saucers and theThree Men. This version is so fantasticthat even Barker and Lucchesi foundit difficult to believe.4

Black Cadillac

In the prototypical narrative, MIBtravel in threes by foot or car. Whena car is involved, it is typically a black,early model Cadillac, usually in ex-cellent condition. When witnesseshave had the presence of mind torecord the license plate numbers, it isalways the case that the plates havenever been officially issued. Likewise,identification cards bearing the allegednames and organizational affiliations

are always phony. Investigators havechased these cars, only to have themdisappear impossibly around busy cor-ners or at dead-end streets (Keel[1970] 1976, 255).

Similarly, vampires are known tomake their retreat in black carriages(Blavatsky [1877] 1972, 1,454). Likevampires, MIB often wear black suits,a white shirt, and a black tie. Largebrimmed hats are not unusual. Theseclothes are sometimes different fromwhat most people are wearing duringthe current season of the year and areeither impeccably neat or wrinkledand soiled (Rojcewicz 1987, 152). Ifnot in suits, MIB wear black turtleneckshirts or sweaters, often with a darkwoolen ski hat. Sometimes referredto as strong-arm agents, MIB resem-ble movie stereotypes of gangsters, in-ternational terrorists or spies. In ad-dition, MIB have been reported to bemilitary intelligence personnel, a factnoted by the Pentagon (Fawcett andGreenwood 1984, 237).

Men in Black often appear likecadavers with gaunt, withdrawn faces,high cheekbones, and deep-set eyesthat compel the witness to stare intothem. Vampire lore contains num-erous accounts of mysterious men in

black who first paralyze their victimswith a hypnotic stare and then drinktheir blood. The gypsies, famed forappearing strange and wild looking,possess the eyes of the "fascinator,glittering and cold as that of a serpent"(Leland [1891] 1971, 2). Pale orgrayish skin gives the Men in Black aghoulish air. These cadaver types areusually puppet-like.

Not all MIB look like cadavers,however. They also can have anOriental, Burmese, Italian, or an In-dian look. Some witnesses have in-sisted that the MIB were neither blacknor white. When on occasion theyhave been shown pictures of variousethnic groups as models, witnessesoften insisted that the Laplanders lookthe most like the individuals they met.As Clark notes, in addition to the so-called cadavers and the "racially am-biguous crypto-Asian types," MIB alsoappear to be "American or Spanish,or Portuguese, or French or Nor-wegian" (Clark 1980, 288). There issome question as to the internationaldistribution of the phenomenon.5

The speaking style and walking mo-tion of Men in Black are always mem-orable. Witnesses are startled to heara resonant eloquence, mechanical

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monotone (Schwarz 1983, II, 242),annoying sing-song, or whiningsound. MIB sometimes display dif-ficulty breathing, wheezing and gasp-ing between words (Keel 1976, 57).When they appear in the mode of the"tough guys," their speech is apt to besuggestive of the stilted phrasings andthreatening cliches of conventionalvillains of crime and gangster films ofthe 1940s: "Again, Mr. Stiff, I fear thatyou are not being honest!" "Mr. Veich,it would be unwise of you to mail thatreport" (Evans 1984, 139). MIB walkas if their hips were swivel joints, pro-ducing a gliding or rocking effect, withthe torso and legs moving off in op-posite directions. Some witnesseshave stated that MIB walk as if intox-icated or otherwise disoriented.

Intimidation

The purpose of MIB visitations isintimidation, harassment, and inva-sion of privacy. Arriving at the homesor workplaces of witnesses to anom-alous events, Men in Black are knownto warn witnesses and investigatorsthat the open discussion of or con-tinued investigation into anomalousphenomena could be dangerous tothemselves and their families. Dr.Herbert Hopkins, the physician whoconducted hypnosis sessions withDavid Stephens after his UFOsighting, confronted a MIB in 1976.The MIB told Dr. Hopkins that unlesshe handed over the audiotapes of theStephens hypnosis sessions, he mightsurfer the same fate as UFO abducteeBarney Hill (Fuller 1966), who diedbecause he "knew too much aboutflying saucers." Despite the toughlanguage and bullying tactics, nothreat against a witness has been car-ried out, as far as we know.

Men in Black have visited witnessesbefore they have communicated theiranomalous experiences to anyone. Ifwitnesses have secretly snapped photosor made audiotapes, the MIB demandand usually obtain those artifacts(Schwarz 1983, I, 242-44). UFO in-vestigators and their assistants whothemselves have never seen a UFOhave been nevertheless visited by MIB,

as if guilty by investigation and associa-tion (Rojcewicz 1987). Witnesses areextremely frightened when MIB haverevealed an impossible knowledge ofpersonal details of their lives, and thusMIB can possess an omniscient air(Hynek and Vallee 1975, 141).

Similarly, the Devil of tradition isdescribed as a man in black or a blackman (Scot [1584] 1972, 86). TheDevil, who with his two lieutenantscomprise the "Trinity of Evil" (Wall[1902] 1968, 27-8), knows "all thesecrets and mysteries of the naturalworld" (Thomas 1971, 470). Else-where I have demonstrated the numer-ous analogues between the MIB andthe Devil of tradition (Rojcewicz 1987).

The prototypical Men in Black nar-rative is never fully realized in its com-plete form. For example, in a detailedstudy of thirty-two reliable cases,British researcher Hilary Evans (1984,139) discovered considerable varia-tion from the norm. In four of thethirty-two cases, witnesses to anom-alous experiences did not receive avisit and were instead intimidated overthe telephone. In five cases, the MIBtraveled in groups of three, in twocases in groups of four, and in fivecases in groups of two. In twenty ofthe total thirty-two cases, there wasonly one Man in Black. Evans alsofound variation from the norm withthe famed phantom Cadillac. A carwas mentioned in only nine cases.The car was a Cadillac in only threeof these accounts, and only two ofthese were black, and only two (notthe same two) were out-of-datemodels. These variations on the idealMIB account point to a difference be-tween experience and tradition, andif those differences do not in them-selves prove that the witnesses aredescribing an actual event, they arenevertheless significant.

Further Considerations

The Robert Yates account is not amere tale or story, which by defini-tion of genre does not require beliefor disbelief in the ordinary sense ofthe word. Neither is it a legend,whose message is or was or, at least,

can be believed (Degh 1981, 62). TheYates narrative is a personal ex-perience account told in the first per-son and constitutes what folkloristsrefer to as a "memorate." The accounthas not circulated and therefore hasnot undergone the cultural changescommon to oral transmission. Thereis always difficulty in gauging thedegree of belief in an experience likethat of Robert Yates. The problem ofinterpretation arises in part from thefact that belief is an ambiguous andimprecise analytical category (Hufford1977a). Before we researchers affirm,condemn, or simply note the realityclaims of anomalous beliefs, we needto be clear as to what actually isbelieved. There is no good reason toassume that people holding the samebeliefs will necessarily express thesame attitudes toward them. This istrue not only from informant to infor-mant but also from the same infor-mant from one instance or situationto another (Goldstein 1964).

Accounts of anomalous eventsoften reveal a wide range of attitudesfrom, say, unequivocal certainty, toneutrality, to skepticism, to utterdisbelief or debunking (Degh andVazsonyi 1976; Bennett 1987, 213).Hypothetically, an individual may beutterly convinced that he or she hashad an authentic UFO experience,have some belief that it was trulyanomalous, feel unsure as to whethera controlling intelligence was involved,be skeptical that it was, say, a Sovietsecret weapon, and absolutely certainit was not paranormal. There is noreason to assume outright thatanomalies like MIB encounters, near-death experiences, shamanic voy-ages, and UFO abductions generatebeliefs possessing a clearly deter-mined and fixed truth claim, becausein fact they sometimes carry multiplemeanings and constitute a fuzzy setof often contradictory mental attitudes(Sperba 1982).

"Flesh & Blood"

Robert Yates is absolutely sure thathe encountered a man dressed inblack in a Philadelphia bookstore. He

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8asserts that his experience "fits thedescriptive pattern of UFOs" as heknows it. He is convinced that the manwas neither paranormal nor extrater-restrial. He maintains in a tentative waythat the man was an "earthly militaryman in a possession state." He is dis-turbed by the nonveridical appearanceand disappearance of a man he is con-vinced was flesh and blood. To talk ofa witness' belief as if it always carriesa precise emotional and intellectualcommitment is precarious to accuracy.Beliefs, like Robert Yates| often carrydegrees of personal investment as wellas several possible interpretations, anyone of which can be held without fullcommitment.

Many accounts of anomalous beliefsare presented as if assertions by wit-nesses carry the same degree of beliefregardless of contextual factors. Theresearcher should expect some varia-tion in belief depending on whether thewitness feels he or she is in the pre-sence of a sympathetic or antagonisticlistener; whether a considerable periodof time has elapsed since the originalevent; whether the witness has beenexposed to potentially misleading post-event information; or whether the wit-ness has recently undergone a changeof attitude that would induce a par-ticular bias in the recollection of detailsof the event (Hall, McFeathers, andLoftus 1987).

Strange experiences do not nec-essarily assert complete or lasting belief.Accounts of Men in Black and UFOsmay "explore the nature of nature todiscover what can be believed" (Classic1982, 62). Because no epistemologicaldifferentiation among beliefs is offeredby most researchers, an informant'sstatements get fitted neatly together,and they thus display the appearanceof a homogeneous commitment thatis a product of the researcher and notof the informant.

Crack Event

Furthermore, it is difficult to interpretthe Yates MIB encounter because itfuses two qualitatively different modesof reality. The Yates affair emerges ata crack in the axis dividing the world

The prototypical Men inBlack narrative is neverfully realized in its com-plete form.

of the everyday from the world of theapparently impossible. The crack event,neither entirely concrete nor entirelyephemeral, is an ontologically am-biguous experience whose nature ex-ists somewhere in between.

The Yates report describes the MIBin naturalistic, flesh-and-blood terms.Initially, there is no obvious suggestionthat this is a mystical or psychic event.From Yates' description, we can seethat the MIB is relatively well integratedinto his context, as is the situation inmany other accounts (Evans 1984,136-7). In addition, unlike in the caseof other MIB narratives, I possessreasonably reliable information concer-ning the MIB's name, occupation, ap-pearance, group affiliations, telephonenumber, and post office boxes. He wasseen by several witnesses. All thosefacts give the incident sufficientplausibility as a normal event. It wouldseem that what we have here is simp-ly a weird but quite ordinary experienceinvolving an unruly bigot.

This conclusion, however satisfyingto some, can only be derived by selec-tively refusing to consider all the de-tails. For despite the appearance of anordinary event, there are details in-dicating the prototypical MIB scenario.Let us discuss a few of these pro-vocative details. First, the incident in-volves a man, and although there arereports of Women in Black, they areextremely rare (Schwarz 1983, 1,247).Next, the man's untidy black pants andsports jacket are in accord with theusual MIB attire. The man was not oneof the cadaver or "crypto-Asian" typesdiscussed earlier, but his unshaven facedid give him a darker air.

His hairstyle was eccentric andmatched the norm (Keel [1970] 1976,77-8). According to Yates, the man'sblackish gray hair was "half stickingup all over the place; except it was.matted on the top as though he had

been sleeping on it or wearing a hat."He walked strangely, a feature des-cribed by many MIB witnesses. Filmactor and director John Sayles hasnoted this peculiar MIB feature in hisfilm entitled The Brother fromAnother Planet (Sayles 1984). Yatesreported the man's "clumsy sort of liltas though his body was a little dou-ble jointed all over" and noted that"his body seemed to juggle or jum-ble around."

Yates found his movements to be"unnatural," "disorienting," and "off-setting." Immediately upon the disap-pearance of the man, Yates felt"nauseated, lightheaded, and weak,"as have many other MIB witnesses.Vertigo and time distortion have alsobeen reported. Some witnesses havesuffered from effects associated withaeroembolism or "caisson disease"(popularly referred to as "the bends"),whose symptoms include pains in thejoints, limbs, stomach, and head, aswell as dizziness and paralysis (Keel1988, 151, 153).

Even the anti-Semitism displayedin the Yates affair has its place in theMIB tradition. Some of the UFO con-tactees of the 1950s possessedmembership in fascist fringe groupsthat for political and racist reasons ac-cused the Jews of dispatching MIB.The personal papers left in thebookstore in lieu of adequate iden-tification contained mottos that re-vealed the man's prevailing state ofmind: "Seeking to Guide Society,""Solve Unmet Social Needs," "WeMust Return to Traditional AmericanValues or We Shall Face Decay.America First (including criminals),"and "Law, Truth and Justice (NOTJEWSTICE) for All." The display ofanti-Semitism, rather than a momen-tary outburst, seems to have been avolatile part of his personal beliefsystem. In fact, numerous radicalpolitical groups maintained that Jewssponsored the MIB to make lifemiserable for decent white Aryan folk(Clark 1980, 286).

Another strange feature of theYates incident is the presumed in-telligence and security background of

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the man. His personal effects leftbehind at the bookstore includedphotocopies of membership cards forthe (1) American Security Council-National Advisory Board (expired1982), (2) United States Congres-sional Advisory Board: Charter Mem-ber, and (3) United States SenatorialClub-Republican Party. According tothe information culled from his per-sonal papers, the man was a consul-tant and analyst for a systems devel-opment electronic trading service anda member of the Institute of Electricaland Electronic Engineers.

When Robert Yates first asked himfor proper identification that Marchevening, the man stated that thepolice had confiscated his driver'slicense after accusing him of being "aforeign agent." Calling himself "agent005," he aspired to become an"honorary member of the FBI, CIA,NSA," and he stated clearly that hewas an adversary of the KGB. Heclaimed to provide legal services aspart of what he referred to as hisPrivate Bureau of Investigation (PBI).Clearly against lawyers and for thelaw, the man insisted that he in-vestigated corruption in the judicialsystem. He called himself a victim ofnumerous violations by "organizedwhite collar crime [and] corrupt local,state and federal agencies" influencedby extreme Zionist organizations.Recall that the MIB tradition includesnarratives and beliefs pointing to analleged connection with spies, con-spirators, terrorists, and governmentintelligence officials. The man's fav-orite car is a 1976 Cadillac Seville!6

All evidence indicates that the mandressed in black, who disrupted bus-iness in a Philadelphia bookstore, whodefamed Jews, and who suffered ablow to the face, was an ordinary manof flesh and blood. He was neither ex-traterrestrial nor apparitional. He wasnot a government agent. He existedin the realm of the ordinary. And yet,in the confrontation with RobertYates, this same man qualified as anauthentic Man in Black. Existingsimultaneously with the above factsare others that are nonordinary facts.

The Yates account has features associated with both themundane and fantastic worlds. It is a hybrid phenomenonof fact and fiction.

We have noted numerous parallelsbetween the Yates incident and otherMIB cases. Even if there were noother corroborating MIB features tothe Yates affair, the ghostlike non-veridical appearance and disappear-ance strongly suggest something outof the ordinary. The Yates accounthas features associated with both themundane and fantastic worlds. It is ahybrid phenomenon of fact and fic-tion. The Yates story is only one formof phenomenon emerging today fromthe crack between the worlds, andbecause it reveals significant informa-tion about the nature of folklore anda unique category of experience, itwarrants our attention here.

Two Worlds?

Crack experiences challenge our"cognicentrism" (Hamer [1980] 1982,xvii), that is, our narrow-conscious ex-perience, encouraging multiple con-sciousness of a richer reality. Bakhtimwould refer to that mode as "dia-logical," meaning an interrogation ofsingle ways of seeing. The poet Wil-liam Blake wrote of a "fourfold vision"and asked that "God us keep fromSingle vision and Newton's sleep!" Ex-periences of multiple presencephenomena like the MIB require aconservation of both the objective andfantastic features in a way that main-tains their complementarity .withoutforcing them prematurely into a pleas-ing but false synthesis.

The crack is a transition zone,where one realm passes through andblurs the boundary between tworealities — for example, the mundaneand the sacred, the material and theimaginative — that are simultaneouslyperceived by the same witness. It isa category of experience betwixt andbetween, constituting what VictorTurner ([1969] 1979, 97-130) calls a"liminal" state in the process ofmanifesting itself. Henry Classic

(1975, 66) has noted that Irish "mum-ming emerges as the interval betweenthe concrete and the abstract closes... It pitches mythically between dreamand awareness. Mumming ... risesbetween these poles of Westernthought, falsifying their purity, unitingthem in mysterious imagery."

The repetitiousness, simplicity, andseeming unreality of much folk artarises, according to Glassie (1975,64), from "its authors' sincere at-tempts to express a resonance be-tween a spiritual inner sound and anoutward materiality." Robert Rickard(1988, 67) has likewise noted that"the central phenomena of almostany folk tradition may have charac-teristics which are seemingly of thisworld and others which are moreephemeral, dreamlike, mythical,paranormal or even supernatural."Rickard argues that emphasizing oneaspect over the other is "an exercisein futility." Bill Ellis (1988, 268-9), wholikewise has noted the ambiguousnature of border phenomena, insiststhat we "abandon the simple dualismof classifying narratives into 'fiction'and 'nonfiction'."

Perhaps it is useful here as part ofour discussion of this blurred realitygenre to consider a term employed inthe field of optics. Paraxis signifies apar-axis — that which lies on eitherside of a principle axis or that whichlies alongside the principle body.Technically speaking, a paraxial re-gion is an area in which light raysseem to unite at a point after refrac-tion. Object and image seem tobecome one here.7

Picture yourself for the momentwith an apple cupped in both hands,standing in front of your bedroommirror. As you look at the mirror, itappears as if you and the apple fusewith the reflected image. The area ex-tending from the mirror's surfacebeyond to your reflected image is the

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10

The crack is a transition zone, where one realm passesthrough and blurs the boundary between two realities thatare simultaneously perceived by the same witness.

paraxial region. This region is an am-biguous reality, neither entirely realnor entirely unreal, but lying some-where indeterminate between thesetwo states. Crack phenomena, likethe Yates MIB encounter, initiallyestablish their reality mimetically, thatis, by treating the objective world ob-jectively, before bleeding into a moremarvelous mode manifesting im-possibilities, were it not for its initialgrounding in the mundane.

Perhaps another visualization maybe helpful. Picture yourself in yourbackyard looking directly at yourneighbor's wall separating your yardfrom his. There is a crack in the wallthrough which a person might seevague figures and movements. Wecan say that those people who under-go extraordinary encounters haveglimpsed those figures. Whether theyfirst saw anomalies from the crackbecause they were once accidentallyclose to that area of the wall, orbecause some mundane event occur-ring near the crack made them there-after predisposed to look there, orbecause the family tradition taughtthem to look, we do not know. In anycase, imagine also that there is a trellisor lattice in front of the wall, obscur-ing the crack. Most of us might noteven be aware that the crack exists,not to mention being able to spot theshadowy figures behind the wall, be-cause the trellis — that is, our culturalmap of reality — stands in the way.

Because the crack in the axis of ex-perience exists between the visibleand the obscure, phenomena emerg-ing here engender questions of visionand visibility, knowledge and reality.How do we see? What is sighted?What can be known? Experiences likethose of Robert Yates possess bothmundane and extramundane featuresand thus are a kind of phenomen-ological oxymoron. Here, straddlingthe axis between two worlds, an event

is real in relationship to a manifesta-tion beyond the wall in the neighbor'syard and unreal, or fantastic, in rela-tion to one occurring in your yard.There exists a continuum of ex-periences where reality and imagina-tion imperceptibly flow into eachother.8

Reality Continuum

The optical and wall metaphorsdiscussed above are intended to in-dicate that special forms of folkloreemerge at the phenomenologicallyrich borders along a reality con-tinuum. In 1904, William James([1904] 1987, 1180) posited a reali-ty continuum when he noted that "lifeis in the transitions as much as in theterms connected." He pointed out thatevents at these transitions seem to bemore vibrant, as if the slight hesita-tions we experience there energizeand heighten life. The Yates MIB in-cident challenges the validity of thedualistic mental-physical world ofDescartes.

Border phenomena reveal a pecul-iar mixture of discrete realms. Theserealities ignore our academic debatesconcerning the assumed divisions be-tween the mental and physical. Whathappens along the continuum of theusual and the strange happens as anindivisible act.

Although the Yates encounterpossesses both concrete and abstractfeatures, it does not quite belong toeither category. It is a unique thirdcategory produced from the coor-dinated workings of the parts, an ap-parent manifestation of the beyondcontinuous with the here and now.Encounters with the Men in Black andother nonordinary phenomena (suchas out-of-the-body travel, near-deathexperiences, UFO abductions, andshamanic journeys) point to a con-tinuum of discrete but related folkphenomena (Rojcewicz 1984, 1986,

1988; Grosso 1986; Ring 1989;Thompson 1988; Kalweit 1988).Although encounters at the crack inthe fabric of life are sometimesfrightening and disarming, they never-theless point to a deep connection inthe warp and woof of reality (Bohm1980; Dossey 1982, 223). WilliamJames (1987, 1182) knew this to betrue when in 1904 he said, "Theworld is ... a pluralism of which theunity is not fully experienced as yet.But, as fast as verification comes,trains of experience, once separate,run into one another; and this is why... the unity of the world is on thewhole undergoing increase. The uni-verse continually grows in quantity bynew experiences that graft themselvesupon the older mass; but these verynew experiences often help the massto a more consolidated form."

Naming & Named

Numerous attempts to name ex-periences generated at the crack havebeen made. Henry Corbin (1977b,17) has offered the term mundus im-aginalis, or simply the "imaginal."Corbin argues that the world of theimagination is perfectly real and morecoherent than the empirical world.Imagination, according to Ken Ring(1989), is a creative power that revealsa supersensible reality that can bedirectly apprehended. Similarly, PaulVeyne (1988, xii, 88) defines the im-agination as a transcendental facultythat creates our world.

In his study of shamanism, KolgerKalweit (1988, 125) argues that spiritbeings encountered by shamans are"more than mere psychodynamiccomplexes of the unconscious" be-cause they are "characteristic of a sup-rapersonal realm of consciousness."Michael Grosso (1988) has recentlybegun the important work of con-structing an "imaginal" taxonomyof nonordinary events. C. G. Jung([1968] 1973, 99) coined the termpsychoid to assert that although ar-chetypes originate in the mind, theyoccasionally transgress the psychicrealm, and materialize, however tem-porarily, in the physical world, and

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11thus are signals of the transcendentpsychophysical background of reality(Jaffe 1979, 200; Rojcewicz 1988).Michael Talbot (1981, 2) utilizes theterm omnijective to refer to a form ofreality neither completely objective norsubjective but simultaneously both.

Although such terms as paiaxial, im-aginal, psychoid, or omnijective can behelpful as initial probes toward under-standing nonordinary phenomena, itmust be understood that the locking inof such phenomena with our termin-ology creates a potentially serious prob-lem. I have consciously refused hereto prematurely image and name thenature of the Robert Yates incident(outside the use of the operative termcrack experience necessary to beginour probe) until we can accumulatemany more reliable examples. Onlyafter the image is fully grasped shouldwe even think of applying a rigid ter-minology. It is not that naming is badin itself, but premature naming alwaysis. Once it is imaged and named, theunknown is absorbed into the known,and nothing new can be learned. Thereare precedents for such caution.

Naming is a means of incarnating,that is, of calling down the spirit. Forthis reason, the ancient Hebrews re-fused to image or name God, for noone was to limit deity. Early Christiansbaptized their children much later in lifethan Christians today. Naming a childsoon after birth and before we have aviable image of his or her spirit is thereason that our names mean little tous. In the tradition of the Church, if youentered an order because you ex-perienced a period of visions of newspiritual development stretched overtime, you took a new name to matchthe spirit of the vision. At puberty ritesor vision quests, Native Americans leftthe confines of the tribal village, desir-ing an image or vision from which totake their names. The naming pro-cedures of the ancient Hebrews, earlyChristians, and Native Americans to-gether indicate that naming is an actthat comes only after a clear vision ofthe spirit of the thing to be namedis obtained.9 The Persian poet Rumiwrites that "no ones knows our name

until our last breath goes out" (Ely1983).

Dostoevsky understood the difficul-ty in adequately naming new modesof reality when he stated in hisNotebooks that "reality is not limited tothe familiar, the commonplace, for itconsists in huge part of a latent, as yetunspoken future word" (Jackson 1981,19). Our experiences of what Dostoev-sky called a huge and latent reality arealways more important than allowingour egos to get attached to any namethat we provide for the experience. Forwithout sufficient caution here, themotto of the scholar could be "I see,therefore I do not understand."

Flooding our research with abstract,ugly terms frustrates the formulation ofaccurate terminology, confuses ourclassification systems (Rojcewicz 1985),and, most unfortunately, fails to servethe people who look to us for help incomprehending their life experiences.Failing in the latter, we fail in our essen-tial roles as folklorists, as students,teachers, and friends of the people westudy, the people we need. William'A.Wilson (1988, 166) clearly stated thenature of the grand enterprise offolklore on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the UCLA folkloreprogram: "It is my belief that folklorewill give us the best picture we can getof our fellow beings struggling to en-dure. And it is my even stronger con-viction that we have a duty to use theknowledge we have gained fromfolklore study, and the skills we havedeveloped, to help each other prevail."

In the same vein, Roger D. Abra-hams (1986, 65) has remarked thatfolklorists as humanists "seek insight in-to life as a means of living more fullyourselves, of experiencing moreknowledgeably and deeply, and thusbeing able to impart these techniquesand this accrued knowledge andwisdom to others." Let this be our goal:to fuse concepts, beliefs, and ex-periences into a single open system forthe use of folklore in everyday life —first to endure, then to prevail.

NOTES

This article was presented in abbreviated form asa paper at the Centennial Meeting of the AmericanFolklore Society, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 29 Oc-tober 1988. Special thanks to Professors MichaelCrosso, Jersey City State College; Fran Quinn,Assumption College, David J. Hufford, HersheyMedical Center; S. C. V. Stetner, Long IslandUniversity, C. W. Post Campus; Ron MacKay,Northeastern University; and Tom Burns, Univer-sity of Pennsylvania, for their stimulating conver-sation and helpful suggestions.

1. This is not to suggest that phenomenagenerated from naturalistic or supernatural sourcescannot possess representational, symbolic orpsychodynamic significance. It is not a matter ofeither/or nothing but; rather, all things aresimultaneously themselves and signifiers of otherthings and meanings. I have argued this positionregarding accounts of human sexual relations withnonhumans (Rojcewicz 1989, 8-12).

2. Andrew Lang wrote the following concerningwhat David J. Hufford (1982b) refers to as tradi-tions of disbelief: "When psychical students are ac-cused, en masse, of approaching their subjects witha dominant prejudice, the charge to me, seems in-accurate (as a matter of fact) and, moreover, verycapable of being restored. Not the man who listensto the evidence, but the man who refuses to listen(as if he were, at least negatively, omniscient) ap-pears to me to suffer from a dominant prejudice ...Of all things, modern popular science has mostcause to beware of attributing prejudice to studentswho refuse its Shibboleth" (Bennett 1987, 99).

3. Scholars interested in folk medicine have of lateboldly entered the matrix of modern orthodoxmedicine to conduct systematic studies of beliefs notas superstitions to be catalogued but rather asdynamic factors in the patients' overall context ofhealing. A panel entitled "The Relevance of Folkloreto Modem Medicine," composed of Becky Vorpagel,chair, and Bonnie O'Conner, Richard Blaustein, Mag-gie Kreusi, Susan Pomerantz, and David J. Hufford,discussants, recently presented papers at the Centen-nial Meeting of the American Folklore Society inCambridge, Massachusetts, on 27 October 1988. Twopapers most pertinent to the present topic were Bon-nie O'Connor's (1988) "Clinical Applications of theFolklorist's Skills" and Becky Vorpagel's (1988) "It'sAll in Your Head: The Role of Belief in the Construc-tion and Interpretation of Sickness."

4. In his published account of his MIB encounter,Bender states that grizzly monster-like UFO oc-cupants abducted him and brought him in a spaceship to the South Pole. According to Bender, theMIB were paranormal entities whose mission wasto collect mineral samples from Earth's oceans andbring them back to their planet "Kazik." Benderstates that up until 1960, when the MIB finally re-linquished control over his mind, he suffered in-capacitating migraines whenever he even thoughtabout revealing the secret of the "flying saucers."

5. UFO investigator Raymond E. Fowler (1982,218) has written that "MIB reports are not limitedto the United States." John A. Keel (1975, 141) hasreported that MIB have been encountered "fromSweden to Spain, Australia to South America."Margaret Sachs (1980, 196), on the other hand,has claimed that although MIB have been active onthe American scene since 1947, they "rarely ap-pear in foreign countries." Despite some opinion tothe contrary, a close examination of the data in-dicates an international scope of MIB activity.

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126. The man also has a fondness for a 1976 Mer-

cury Cougar. The year is preferred because it marksAmerica's bicentennial; the model is preferred forreasons unknown.

7. This union exists only as a virtual state and notan actual one. Crack phenomena, on the other hand,do actually exist as ambiguous modes of reality ex-perienced by witnesses. Special thanks to physicist-engineer Melvin A. Dachs for his helpful commentsrelative to the paraxis idea.

8. By continuum, I do not mean to suggest a lin-eality only. I do mean to suggest a multifaceted andsuccessive phenomenon, no part of which can beabsolutely separated from neighboring parts, exceptby arbitrary division. I mean to suggest a connectedseries or group possessing links or bonds betweenmembers of the whole, and so, perhaps, the wordsnexus, polygon, or spectrum are also useful probes.

9. It was Fran Quinn who helped me sort out mythinking concerning the naming process and whosupplied me with a copy of the Rumi poemtranslated by Robert Ely.

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Thoughts on Psychiatrists & UFO InvestigatorsBy Budd Hopkins

Hopkins, a New York abstract ar-tist and long time UFO investigator,is the author of Missing Time andIntruders, as well as the founder ofIF, the Intruder Foundation.

P robably no one today shouldbe solely defined by his orher major occupation. Bishop,

baker, candlestick-maker, or for thatmatter, psychiatrist, painter or UFOresearcher — none of these terms, wesubmit, necessarily tells the whole, oreven most, of the truth about us.

Though helpful to a point, theseclassifications can seem stifling,claustrophobic, and to the outsideobserver, misleading. We have otherlives, other roles, other selves.

I came into UFO research full-tilt in1975, but I was, and still am, an ar-tist. Over the years the exhibition ofmy work has brought me into contactwith people from widely varying pro-fessions, and like any of us, the peo-ple in these other groups vary enor-mously in their ethical standards, theircompetence and their ambition.Above all, they are only partiallydefined by their chosen professions.

Outside of the art world, I am bestacquainted now with two relatedgroups: UFO researchers andpsychiatrists. (And by this last term Imean to include, umbrella fashion,clinical psychologists and psycho-therapists).

The resemblances between thesetwo groups are striking. First of all,UFO researchers disagree — oftenviolently — among themselves, withfaction arguing against faction, eachfeeling it possesses the largestmeasure of truth. (I have, myself,often been involved in this kind ofideological dispute.) Argument is rife,with many of the most seasoned UFOresearchers disagreeing on basicissues. But from years of close obser-

vation of the psychiatric communityI can say that exactly the same con-dition exists there, though some oftheir more radical and vitriolic on-going disagreements were formalizedlong ago into opposing institutionsand organizations.

Credentials No Guarantee

Not surprisingly, possession of thecredentials guarantees nothing withinthe psychiatric community, other thanthe opportunity to charge large fees.Within the UFO research communi-ty, the possession of vast stores of in-formation and the consumption ofhundreds of UFO books againguarantees nothing, except, perhaps,the right to appear on a talk show andto claim to speak as an authority onthe subject.

Some members of the psychiatriccommunity are among the most in-telligent, generous and helpful peo-ple I have been privileged to know,shining examples of mind and spirit,while others 1 have known are in-competent, unethical, and even emo-tionally unstable.

But then we all know the sad, ob-vious truth about our own field: thesame range of humanity exists amongUFO researchers, where profoundaltruism and creative intelligencecharacterize some, while confusion,stupidity and avarice characterizeothers. If psychiatry has an occas-sional Leona Helmsley, UFO re-search, unfortunately, also producesan occasional Donald Trump.

Most assuredly, the possession ofcredentials within MUFON or theAmerican Psychiatric Association isno guarantee of mental stability. I wellremember an emotionally disturbedpsychiatrist leading me onto her porchso she could point out to me a near-by hill on which, she said, "the Mafia

sets up their lasers and aims them atmy house in a plot to drive me away."She also showed me some normal-looking corrosion on a window frameas evidence that the Mafia was pour-ing acid on her storm windows. WhenI reported this and other, similarbehavior to a well-known psychiatrist— a friend of mine — he told me thatunfortunately very little can be done.Psychiatry is not known for rigorousself-regulation, and so far as 1 knowthis poor paranoid woman is still see-ing patients.

UFO Horror Stories

But if all of us know horror storiessuch as this involving members of thepsychiatric profession, consider themany similar tales from within ourown community: Not long ago Ispoke with a distraught UFO abducteewho reported a long telephone con-versation she had had with a notedUFO researcher. In her fragile state hehad informed her as fact that thealiens are virtual cannibals, stealingtens of thousands of our children touse as food. In addition, they werecastrating men left and right, and itwas highly possible that she, herselfmight end up disappearing forever.The phone call led the woman to thebrink of suicide, and it was onlybecause of the careful reassurance ofanother UFO investigator that her ter-ror finally became manageable.

U FO researchers and psychia-trists alike have personal prob-

lems, hidden agendas and a widerange of deficits and skills. For mypart, over the past fourteen years ofworking with hundreds of abductees,I know that I've been highly successful— but I also know that I've mademistakes, and that I'm not always theright person to deal with certain per-

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

14sonality types.

Obviously, this kind of demandingwork requires great subtlety of feelingand awareness of the emotionalfragility of some of those we are try-ing to help. If you, the reader, are aUFO investigator who has workedwith close-encounter witnesses orpossible abductees, you know thatwhat you have been doing, along withresearch, is a kind of de facto therapyalready. You are also probably awarethat in carrying out this de factotherapy - calming the witness, pro-viding grounding, reassurance andhelpful information — successdepends upon a mix of intelligence,empathy, common sense and psy-chological insight. Unfortunately, notraining can guarantee these qualities.Some UFO investigators and somepsychiatrists possess all of thesedesirable qualities and are naturallyhelpful. Sadly, other investigators andpsychiatrists lack these basic assetsand have demonstrably caused harm.

Accumulation of Cases

If the problems of dealing with eachindividual aren't serious enough, thecumulative volume of cases is virtuallyoverwhelming. Over the years I havereceived literally thousands of lettersas a result of the publication of In-truders; appearances on varioustelevision and radio programs haveadded even more. Many of those whohave contacted me are peopledesperate for reassurance and infor-mation, and a large percentage desirehypnotic regressions to explore theirdisturbing memories.

As a result I have created a not-for-profit foundation called IF, theacronym of the Intruders Foundation.Under its aegis I have established anetwork of therapists and hypnotist-investigators. A small group of peo-ple have aided me in the massive taskof answering letters, routing cases tothe various members of the helpingnetwork, and sending out informationkits.

This effort, it should be pointed out,began in the early 1980's with the let-

ters I received in response to MissingTime, and has only recently taken amore precise shape. Though we havebeen able to help a large number ofpeople, there still remain many hun-dreds who have received nothingfrom me — no reply to their letters,no referral to a hypnotist, no aid ofany sort. We are working to end thisproblem, but the sheer numbers aredaunting.

We are limited in our ability to re-spond, partly by my care in selectingtherapists and hypnotist-investigators.Dr. Rima Laibow, in a recent articlein the MUFON UFO Journal, praisedmy work in this field as "scrupulous,"for which I am grateful. But this veryscrupulousness slows our ability todeal more immediately with theproblem.

Most of those participating in theIF network have credentials as psy-chotherapists and are experienced inthe use of hypnotic regression. Theexpertise of some lies in more tradi-tional medicine, and a few are highlyskilled hypnotists from yet otherbackgrounds. But since working withabductees requires such an unusualcombination of skill, information andcommon sense, assembling such areliable network has proven difficult.

Unfortunately I have already hadto drop one psychiatrist from my net-work on grounds of price gouging andclinical incompetence. And I havestopped referring people to anotherhypnotist-investigator because of whatI feel is his fantasy-tinged, evenparanoid, view of the abductionphenomenon. Though the psychia-trist I mentioned is intelligent and hasimpressive credentials, and thehypnotist-investigator is sincere andpossesses the requisite skills in hyp-nosis, I feel that sending abductees toeither of them would be irresponsible.

S everal people have recentlyurged that our dealing with UFO

abductees be "medicalized." These"medicalizers" insist that anyonewishing to explore his or her ex-periences through regressive hyp-nosis, no matter how emotionally

stable and psychologically sound,should automatically.be regarded asthe "patient" of a "doctor" — definedhere as a psychiatrist, psychologist orpsychotherapist.

A corollary of this position, as onepsychiatrist-proponent of medicaliza-tion is careful to point out, is that theabductee-patient should be asked topay normal psychiatric charges forregressive hypnosis — charges whichin one instance came to $500 for asingle hypnotic session! And sincemany of us who have been doing thiswork for years do not charge anythingfor regressive hypnosis, one can easilysuspect a financially self-servingmotive on the part of those pushingfor such forced and expensivemedicalization. Virtually no abducteenor veteran hypnotist-investigatorsupports the medicalizers' attemptto undermine abductee rights inchoosing either a therapist or ahypnotist-investigator.

At any rate, the issue of who shouldand who should not work with ab-ductees — interviews, de factotherapy, regressive hypnosis and all —comes down to one of simple com-petence. Extensive training, profoundknowledge of UFO history and thepossession of elaborate credentials areall desirable — though none canguarantee either competence orethical behavior. For the truth is thatwe are in a new and largely unchartedterritory.

Our best hope for success lies inour natural intelligence, our caringhumanity and our simple commonsense. Though some abductees are indefinite need of formal psychotherapy— and the IF network includes manytherapists for just such referrals —most abductees resent being sum-marily labelled "psychiatric patients"just because of their UFO encounters.Most, in fact, simply want to find outexactly what happened to them.

Fourteen years of experience withthe UFO abduction phenomenonhave assured me that in hundredsupon hundreds of cases we have

Continued on page 17

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

15

EARTHLIGHTS REVELATION: UFOs and Mystery LightformPhenomena, The Earth's Secret Energy Force

By Paul DevereuxWith David Clarke, Andy Roberts & Paul McCartney

Blandford Press, 1989, 254 pp, 40 color illust., 22 line drawings, cloth, S12.95

There are remarkable energiesaround our planet. Often invisible andintangible, they sometimes manifestas mysterious lights which account forat least a proportion of UFO reports.They may be the source of appari-tions, hauntings, poltergeist activity,'mystery animals' and other suchborderland phenomena. They appearto have a strange relationship withhuman consciousness and human in-tentions. Our understanding of themmay be the key to considerable ad-vances in the knowledge of ourselvesand the world we live in.

These are the large claims made bythis interesting and exciting book. Itfollows, of course in the line of suc-cession from Earthlights (Devereux &McCartney, Turnstone Press, 1982)and the work initiated by Persinger etal in Space-Time Transients andUnusual Events (Nelson Hall, 1977),both of which looked for earth-boundexplanations for some of the weirderevents that haunt us.

Unlike much else in ufology, Earth-lights Revelation is a serious contribu-tion to science. It rests on a painstak-ing accumulation of facts and at-tempts to make correlations betweenthem. It suggests the lines of furtherfruitful research. Above all, it offerssome testable hypotheses. For thisreason alone it deserves the closest at-tention, not only of ufologists, but of.scientists presently plumbing a widerange of disciplines. If some of mycomments below are critical, then thisis the compliment one pays to seriousresearch.

Main Thesis

The main thesis of Revelation isthat we have overwhelming evidence

Reviewed by Ralph Noyes

of the occurrence of transient formsof energy which tend to cluster in cer-tain areas, are poorly understood atpresent (to the extent that some scien-tists still deny their mere existence),and have properties which are akin toelectromagnetism, but which mayalso require a radical expansion of ourunderstanding of the latter. A specialcategory of "earth lights" is suggestedwhich the authors contend can bedistinguished from such similar tran-sient phenomena as earthquakelights, ball lightning and Will-O'-the-Wisps. Earthlights are postulated ashaving very special properties, in-cluding the likelihood of engaging ina two-way interaction with humanconsciousness. We are even givenhints (to be more fully explored inDevereux's forthcoming books, Earth-mind and Place of Power) that thesiting of sacred monuments, alongwith much of mythology and folklore,is closely bound up with the Earth-lights phenomenon.

Main Problems

But the book faces two naggingproblems. Can Earthlights actuallyand reliably be distinguished fromother luminous "transients," like thosementioned above? And secondly,what is the source of the energy whichfuels them? Devereux continues toback his hunch that the answer toboth questions lies in the markedtendency of certain kinds ofanomalous events to cluster in distinctareas with equally distinctivegeological characteristics, particularlysurface or near-surface faulting (in-dicative of the proximity of tectonicstrain), and the likely presence of cer-tain minerals.

Since Earthlights was published in1982, much further work has beendone in support of Devereux's thesis,and his world-wide review of the re-cent evidence makes for fascinatingreading. Particularly compelling is thesummary of the work done thus farby David Clarke and Andy Roberts inseveral areas in the Pennines, whichhave proved extremely rich in haunt-ings, strange luminosities, and relatedfolklore. And the correlation withgeological factors in the casesDevereux examines is indeed stronglysuggestive.

But to my mind, at least, many un-certainities remain (as Devereux him-self acknowledges). For example, thereis much faulting around the planetwithout obvious associated anomalies.The infamous "ring of fire" around thePacific Rim is curiously selective aboutthe precise points at which it will pro-duce "UFO effects"; and similar in-stances could be multiplied.

Moreover, even when the geolog-ical association can be reasonablyasserted, it is often markedly sporadicin its manifestations. By way of exam-ple, we have that amazing outbreakof "luminosities" over north Wales in1904-5, apparently in intimate asso-ciation with one Mary Jones, the re-vivalist, which is strongly linked tolocal faulting; but oddly, not much ofa similar vein has ever been heard ofbefore or since from the same area.

Devereux takes care to avoid press-ing his geological correlation toostrongly. He accepts, for instance, thattectonic strain may wax and wane inresponse to, or alongside, other fac-tors, while arguing that it may operateindirectly over very considerable dis-tances. Devereux also acknowledges

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

16that despite the laboratory work onrock-crushing and the like (of whichwe receive an absorbing account), weare still far from understanding theprecise mechanisms which can beassured of generating a ball of lighthigh above ground level.

Implications

What this all implies is that we arestill at a very exploratory stage interms of knowing what weight toassess any geological factor; theremust almost certainly be other com-ponents at work. And without wishingto lend any further credence to the ex-traterrestrial hypothesis, about whichI feel as much skepticism as Dev-ereux. I think we are far from beingable to assimilate the whole of theUFO phenomenon into its Earthlightscounterpart.

Can a mysterious object seen by anairliner at 30,000 ft. (and there aremany such cases) really be the samething as a small ball of light glimpsedskimming the Yorkshire moors? Andcan we confidently assimilate an iso-lated poltergeist outbreak in theHebrides (pp. 214/15) with the sameclass of occurrences as those re-

Can Earth Ugh ts actuallyand reliably be distin-guished from other lumi-nous ''transients," and whatis the source of the energywhich fuels them?

markable luminosities in Norway'sHessdalen Valley?

But it is the underlying strength ofthe book; in the final analysis, thatprompts such questions and directsour attention to a naturalistic ap-proach to strange phenomena. In-terestingly and coincidentally, 1989also saw the publication of a some-what similar work, Terence Meaden'sThe Circles Effect and Its Mysteries,which, while examining the entirelydifferent problem of the so-calledcropfield circles, came equally closeto postulating a "naturalistic UFO,"with admittedly highly exotic proper-ties, as a solution or explanation.

Conceivably, these two books havesomething to learn from each other;certainly, both are welcome to thoseof us who prefer searching for earth-

bound explanations before acceptingthe hopeless position that we aremerely the passive recipients of super-natural or extraterrestrial visitation.

Earthlights Revelation makes amost welcome contribution to rationalinquiry. On the side, it also happensto be a damn good read!

The above review is reprinted with thekind permission of Ralph Noyes and An-dy Roberts, editor of England's respec-table UFO Brigantia, where it first ap-peared. The latter is available ($25/4issues/airmail) from 84 Elland Road,Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England,HD6 2QR. Mr. Noyes, a former MilitaryIntelligence official in Her Majesty's ser-vice, and the author of A Secret Proper-ty, as well as an astute student of the"crop circle" phenomenon, continues toinsist that he is unavailable forsubscription.

Fortunately, Earthlights Revelation itselfshould be available from a couple ofsources in this country. Try either theAmerican distributor, Sterling Publishing,Co., 387 Park Avenue South, New York,NY, 10016-8810, Tel: (212) 532-7160,Fax: (212) 213-2495, or William Corliss'ever reliable Sourcebook Project, Box107, Glen Arm, MD, 21057.

The Road To ComputerizationBy Dan Wright

Wright is MUFON's DeputyDirector, Investigations.

I n June 1989, having evaluatedthe two hundred most recently sub-

mitted case reports for completenessand clarity, the author assembled abasic list of pertinent case factors foran informal, all-comers session in LasVegas where the MUFON 20th An-nual UFO Symposium was beingheld.

A free-wheeling discussion, involv-ing at times over forty symposium at-tendees, resulted in a direction as wellas a core group thereafter known as

the intrepid "Computerization Com-mittee."

Our objective had been ably iden-tified years before by the late Dr. J.Allen Hynek when he remarked, "Wesuffer from an embarrassment ofriches." That is, if we only understoodthe UFO data already gathered, wewould be well down the road toanswering the essential questions:"Where do they come from?" and"Why are they here?"

Soon thereafter, the Committeetook shape, with Jennie Zeidman,MUFON's Coordinator of TechnicalAnalysis, serving as traffic cop. The

task involved three functions: (1)designing a new, more comprehen-sive MUFON Form 2, Computer In-put, along with instructions for its use;(2) selecting a suitable database soft-ware program; and (3) ensuring thatthe many thousands of existingMUFON case records are properlyreviewed and encoded. To date, thefirst two of these functions have beencompleted.

After numerous drafts submittedover the Autumn and Winter to theCommittee members for comment,the expanded Computer Input formis now final, and supplies are available

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

17from MUFON state and provincialdirectors and from MUFON Head-quarters in Seguin, Texas.

The new Form 2 is far morethorough, capturing the key elementsof the remaining MUFON sightingforms in addition to certain other datafrom the written case report that hasnever before been gathered on asighting form. It does not displace, butrather complements, the detailed in-formation that comprises an entireUFO case record.

The Input Form is designed so that,in a less complicated (e.g. nocturnallight) case, most of the sections re-quire only a single entry. In any event,it will take longer to complete(perhaps half an hour in the mostcomplex cases). In return, the in-vestigator will be assured that a per-manent, computerized record of theevent characteristics can be used in avariety of ways in comparativeresearch and analysis.

"Paradox"

The Committee's second, and con-current, function was to selectdatabase software powerful enough toload hundreds of thousands of dataelements and retrieve them quickly inresponse to research requests. Aftermuch discussion, "Paradox" (by An-sa, a Borland company) was selected.As a relational database program, itis both highly sophisticated and "userfriendly." This state-of-the-art PC soft-ware has drawn kudos from computermagazine editors and will not beseriously superceded for years tocome.

Unlike previous attempts outsideMUFON to create a UFO database,the procedures decided by the Com-mittee prohibit any individual's subjec-tive judgement from displacing thefacts as documented in the casereport. Examples: A case will not beignored simply because there was asingle reporting witness. Cases ofvehicle pacing will be included evenif the auto continued to operate nor-mally. And the person who preparesthe case report need not be a "name"

investigator.In short, there will be no attempt

to reduce the many thousands of welldocumented cases to a few hundredin order to magnify the validity ofthose selected. For, in the end, suchan attempt would only skew the datatoward cases with obvious (i.e. lesssubtle) effects on the witness orenvironment.

In fact, the database as arranged forour purposes will present all thecritical factors of every substantiallyverified case during our 21-yearhistory as well as those investigatedin the future. It is the proper role ofindividual MUFON consultants,research specialists and investigators— and only them — to determinewhich cases and case factors they willpursue in comparative analysis.

The only criteria for database inclu-sion, therefore, are the extent andclarity of the verification, as presentedby the investigator, to demonstratethat the witness is reliable and thatmundane explanations of the eventare untenable.

Certainly, many cases currently onfile will not be encoded (though theywill continue to be stored in hardcopyform). After all, the submirtal of asighting form alone does not con-stitute an investigation.

By the same reasoning, databaseintegrity demands that an investigativesummary provide more than an un-verified recounting of the witness'story. The case record must provideevidence to support a finding thatnatural phenomena and manmadeobjects played no part, and that thewitness is both honest and a capableobserver.

Encoding Files

The f ina l stage in creatingMUFON's database involves review-ing and encoding the many thou-sands of cases on file, a task whichwill dominate the time of several "oldhands" over the next few years. Thesewill be handled in reverse order oftheir submittal. In this manner, at anearly point we will be ready to accept

requests to search the more recentdata for specific characteristics —even while the coding process con-tinues in respect to older cases.

It is fair to say that the state of per-sonal computer technology had tocatch up with our needs before a pro-ject of this magnitude was feasible.Frankly, at this point we cannot pro-ject with any certainty what the resultswill show. We can state with con-fidence, however, that this library ofUFO phenomena will spur new ave-nues of research and, thereby, a hostof surprises.

The author wishes to thank thefollowing MUFON individuals for theirdedicated efforts in this major under-taking: Jennie Zeidman, Coordinatorof Technical Analysis; Walter Webb,Consultant in Astronomy; MichaelSwords, Ph.D., Consultant in theHistory of Science and Technology;Francis Ridge, State Director for In-diana; Mike Rigg, Assistant StateDirector for Indiana; Fred Hays, StateDirector for Ohio; Rick Dell'Aquila,Ohio State Section Director; EdwardSanborn, State Director for Massa-chusetts; Donald Johnson, Ph.D.,State Director for New Jersey; WilliamMcNeff, State Director for Minnesota;Charles Flannigan, Florida StateDirector; Forest Crawford, AssistantState Director for Illinois; Mara Ulis,Assistant State Director for Utah;Wayne Erickson, Assistant StateDirector for Michigan; and especiallyWalter H. Andrus, Jr., InternationalDirector, who believed we could doit and so afforded us both moral andfinancial support.

HOPKINS, Continued

instinctively been doing things cor-rectly. Our textbook is being writtendaily, on the job. For it should neverbe forgotten that the UFO abductionexperience, in all its pervasive anddisrupting mystery, is as new to con-ventional psychology as it is to con-ventional physics.

© 1990

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

18

.. Fireballs, Video & Valium

Space ShuttleCommunicationsPortions of the communications be-tween Space Shuttle flight crews andtheir ground controllers (except forclassified Department of Defenseflights) are re-transmitted on amateurradio frequencies and can be heardon appropriate receivers anywhere inthe world.

This service is provided by theGoddard Spaceflight Center AmateurRadio Club in Maryland, and runscontinuously from one hour prior toscheduled launch until landing of theShuttle. Technical briefings about theflight, its payload and experiments,are used to fill time between actualspacecraft to ground transmission.

The primary frequency is 14.295MHz, with alternate frequencies of28.65, 21.395, 7.185 and 3.86 MHzused as radio propagation conditionswarrant. These transmissions aresingle-sideband in crowded amateurbands, so a good quality communica-tions receiver, not a broadcastreceiver, will be needed to properlyhear them.

Ask a neighbor who is a radioamateur to advise you about acquir-ing an appropriate receiver if youdon't have one, or to make ar-rangements to listen to their receiver.There is also an outlet on 147.45 FMwhich can be heard on VHP receiversor "scanners" in the immediate areaof the Goddard Spaceflight Center.Transmissions are identified by theclub's callsign: WA3NAN.

— Jerold R. JohnsonWA5RON

TREAT IITREAT II, the second conference onthe Treatment and Research on Ex-perienced Anomalous Trauma, washeld from January 31 to February 4on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic

Institute and State University inBlacksburg. The conference washosted by the Donaldson BrownCenter for Continuing Education, theCenter for Research, Training andTreatment of Anomalous Trauma,and the Biomedical Engineering Pro-gram of the Department of Engineer-ing Science and Mechanics.

This invitational conference was at-tended by mental health care profes-sionals, physicists, engineers, physi-cians and other researchers in thefield. They discussed issues associatedwith experienced anomalous traumaas manifested by symptoms similarto post-traumatic-stress-disorder(PTSD). The American PsychiatricAssociation awarded ContinuingMedical Education (CME) credits, andadditional 'Continuing EducationUnits were awarded to the participantsby the Donaldson Brown Center.

TREAT I was held in May 1989, atthe conference center of the FairfieldUniversity Campus in Connecticut.TREAT II encouraged further database development and collegia! net-working aimed at better under-standing the various issues involvedin the scientific and clinical manage-ment of patients exhibiting the Ex-perienced Anomalous TraumaSyndrome.

The proceedings from both TREAT

I and II are scheduled to be published.For further information, contact eitherDr. Daniel J. Schneck at VirginiaPolytechnic Institute and State Uni-versity; Mail Station ESM/0219,Blacksburg, VA, 24061, or: Dr. RimaLaibow, 13 Summit Terrace, DobbsFerry, NY 10522.

Japanese VideoEnclosed is a color photograph of aUFO which was video-taped in HakuiCity, Kanazawa Prefecture, Japan, onJuly 6, 1989, during a clear sunnyday.

A high-quality Sony video recorderwas used to capture well over aminute's worth of the object's motionas it descended rapidly toward theEarth at a shallow angle of about 45degrees relative to the horizon.

Then, suddenly and unexpected-ly, it changed directions and rose ata steep angle and a speed that wasso great that it disappeared fromseveral video frames. It certainly wasnot an airplane, balloon, kite or modelairplane.

During this sequence, the objectappeared only as a bright spot againstthe blue sky. But the photographer,Yasuhiko Hamazaki, then zoomed inon the object, enlarging its detail and

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

19bringing it into much better focus onthe TV screen. Here one sees aSaturn-shaped white object with aprominent ring encircling it in thehorizontal plane.

Even though a great deal of opticalinformation is missing in raster videoimages of UFOs, due to the darkerhorizontal scan lines, this object stilloccupies at least seven separate ac-tive scan lines at its greatestmagnification.

My studies are continuing on thisimportant video tape evidence. If anyreaders should know of other casesinvolving this same shape, I wouldgreatly like to learn the details.

— Richard F. Haines, Ph. D.

MUFON obtained a video copy of thissequence, and an English translationof the audio portion, courtesy of Mr.John Timmerman, when he wasvisiting in Japan. Bruce S. Maccabeehas also done an analysis of the videotape. We are indebted to Dr. Hainesfor sharing his preliminary findingswith Journal readers.

New EnglandFireballA dazzling fireball lit up the NewEngland sky from Nova Scotia to NewJersey, Sunday evening, February18th, of this year. It changed colorfrom white to green to orange, andexecuted a loop in the course of its10-second passage about 7:50 p.m.

"It went into a cloud and lit up likea sunset," said Walter Webb, assistantdirector of Boston's Museum ofScience Hayden Planetarium. Webb,of course, is also a MUFON Consul-tant in Astronomy and author of theJournal's monthly "Night Sky" col-umn. "The thing went up verticallyand came down again in a closedloop," Webb added, "leaving a glow-ing trail behind it."

Webb was quoted in an articlewhich appeared in the Boston Globeon February 23, 1990. Air Force per-sonnel said the object was almost cer-

tainly a meteorite or incomingsatellite.

A similar article (contributed by Mr.Webb) in The Nantucket Beacon forWednesday, February 21, said that"Mysterious green lights in the skyabove New England are not new. Ina series of sightings in the summer of1987, residents across southern Ver-mont reported seeing a bright greenorb darting across clear skies.

"On one Thursday night, itreportedly hovered over a cluster ofhomes outside of Bennington longenough for several families to walk outof their homes and view it for severalminutes. One resident said he fixedhis rifle scope on it and got a clearenough view to draw a detailed sketchof it."

Gulf Breeze:Final ReportNorthwest Florida MUFON Case #15;CE 1, 2, 3 and 4, with 41 photo-graphs; duration 11 Nov., 1987through May 1, 1988; location GulfBreeze, FL; evaluation: Unknown ofgreat significance.

The investigation of this GulfBreeze case has been extensive andis complete. About ten hours of hyp-notic regression were videotaped bythe late Dr. Dan C. Overlade concern-ing on-board experiences of 1 May1988, 17 December 1987 and fourprevious dates going back to ageeleven. The so-called "ghost-picture"has been shown to have been adebunkers' diversion. Dr. Maccabeealso advises that his detailed analysisof the 41 photographs is nowcomplete.

The encounters of Ed and his fami-ly, along with numerous supportivesightings by highly credible people, areevidence of alien visitation. Webelieve that Ed was allowed 18separate photographic sessionsbecause the aliens wanted him to takepictures. One could logically assumethis was done because they wantedpeople to see the pictures.

Arrangements have been made tohave the detailed story told in bookform and on television. (The sched-uled publication date of The GulfBreeze Sightings: "The Most As-tounding Multiple Sightings of UFOsin U.S. History," by Ed and FrancesWalters, 348 pages, plus 30 pages ofcolor photographs, $21.95 fromWilliam Morrow, is March 19th,1990.) We appreciate your support inour lengthy investigation of this highlysignificant case.

— Donald M. WareMUFON State Director

— Charles D. FlanniganState Section Director,Chief Investigator

UFOs & Valium?According to an article which original-ly appeared in The Washington Post,one of the world's most commonlyadministered prescription drugs,Valium, a member of the family ofbenzodiazepines, may be responsiblefor reports of imaginary sexualassaults and fantasies.

The article (I'm working from theHouston Chronicle of March 5, 1990)cites the case of London dentist GeorgeLarah, who was recently acquittedof sexual assault charges lodged by

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

20seven female patients. Larah's lawyerspresented apparently convincingevidence of a little known side-effectof Valium, a popular tranquilizer. Thedefense referenced a recent article inthe prestigious British medical journal,The Lancet, which in turn referenced43 alleged episodes of vivid sexualfantasies, including assaults that couldnot have possibly happened.

According to the presiding judge,the women honestly believed their ex-perience was real, but it was also"clear that there is a mounting bodyof evidence that patients under seda-tion from this class of drugs dosometimes experience erotic fan-tasies." Larah had prescribed Valiumfor all of the women who subsequent-ly lodged charges.

The Lancet article seems to suggestthat imaginary sexual assaults pre-dominate among women, but thiscould be because the popular tran-quilizer is not as commonly prescribedfor men. Or it could be that the drugdoesn't have the same effect on men,or that men are less likely to reportsexual fantasies, if and when theyoccur.

These are potentially curious find-ings in light of increasing reports ofUFO abduction, and I hope someonewill be driven to delve deeper. Ob-viously, it's out of the question for usto routinely demand that abducteesundergo a urinalysis or blood test todetect the presence of Valium or othermood-altering chemical substances.Still, a question directed toward an ab-ductee's previous medical history,especially in regard to Valium andrelated medication, might eventuallyprove fruitful.

Examining Earthlights

B y now we've all heard of"earthlights." Paul Devereuxof Great Britian coined the

term in 1982, when he publishedEarthlights. In that book Devereuxdeveloped the idea that UFOs are abyproduct of natural processes in theearth. Michael Persinger of Canada

had already been saying the samething for years in a continuous out-pouring of papers in which hedeveloped his Tectonic Strain Theoryof UFOs.

Unfortunately, despite Devereux'sand Persinger's passion for the con-cept of a UFO/earth stress link,neither researcher has yet proventhe case that UFOs are purely anatural phenomenon. Rock has beencrushed in the laboratory, eliciting ex-traordinarily brief pulses of light, butthe result of that experiment — in thewords of Brian Brady, who developedthe experiment — cannot account for"discrete" light forms seen at highaltitude (read: spherical UFOs at highaltitude). In fact, Brady's experimenteven does away with the famous"piezo-electric effect" as a source ofUFOs; in terms of energy output,piezo-electricity is simply too weak toaccount for anything more thanmomentary, diffuse glows of light.

More importantly, how can amysterious, elusive and undefinedphysical mechanism create structuredobjects? This is the great failing of the"earthlights" theory: it attempts tosolve the UFO mystery by ignoring theactual content of the UFO report. Anyunexplained object seen in anearthquake-prone region — no mat-ter how artificial in appearance or "in-telligent" in its actions — suddenlybecomes a byproduct of ionization,plasmas or some other little-understood electrical process.

In 19811 began an investigation in-to UFO sightings that had occurredover 20 years in a single area, theYakima Indian Reservation in south-central Washington state. In the ear-ly 1980's, the MUFON UFO Journalpublished several of my papers basedon the preliminary findings. Now theJ. Allen Hynek Center for UFOStudies has published my completefindings as a book: Examining theEarthlight Theory: The Yakima UFOMicrocosm.

Examining the Earthlight Theorylooks microscopically at the TectonicStrain Theory of UFOs. I use theYakima data (nearly 200 reports from

a variety of witnesses, plus numerouscolor photographs) to test the viabili-ty of the Tectonic Strain Theory whichPersinger believes explains the Yakimasightings. The Yakima data forma "microcosm," a fascinating, self-contained world of strange reports,which includes a range of unex-plained occurrences — orange ballsof light, CES's, possible abductions,Bigfoot sightings, daylight objects,subterranean sounds and more. Near-ly every part of the Reservation ex-perienced some type of unexplainedevent over a 20-year period, makingthe Yakima Indian Reservation an ex-cellent "laboratory" for detailed ex-amination of UFO phenomena.

Earthquake faults mark the ridgesof the Reservation; it lies at the footof the volcanic Cascade Range; andfire lookouts were in place on top ofthree mountains to observe andrecord strange lights year after year ...the right conditions for data collection,plenty of UFOs and more thanenough meticulous documentation towhet the appetite of a curious scien-tist in search of an explanation.

Examining the Earthlight Theorytakes the reader on an historicaljourney, following the sightings totheir most recent occurrence. All thedata of this unique mini-flap are usedto thoroughly evaluate the basic com-ponents of the Tectonic Strain Theory.Examining the Earthlight Theory is anexperience in detective work, whereall the facts of the Yakima microcosmare weighed, sifted and evaluated inthe systematic pursuit of a solution tothe mystery of the microcosm.

Examining the Earthlight Theory isavailable from the J. Allen HynekCenter for UFO Studies: 178 pages;16 color and b/w photos, maps,drawings, tables, index. $17.95, plus$2.00 for postage and handling.

— Greg Long

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

21

Looking BackBob GribbleMarch 1950 • Fully half of Farm-ington, New Mexico's population wassure that it saw space ships, hundredsof them, flying overhead on the 17th.Estimates ranged from "several" tomore than 500. They caused a ma-jor sensation in Farmington, which islocated 110 miles NW of the LosAlamos atomic installation. The ob-jects appeared to play tag in the air.At times they streaked away atunbelievable speeds.

Using triangulation, a witnessestimated the speed of one object atabout 1000 mph, and its size as twicethat of a B-29. "I'm not an engineer,"Harold F. Thatcher said, "but I haveengineers working under me, and Iknow how to work out a roughtriangulation on an object."

He emphatically denied a reportthat the objects could have been smallpieces of cotton floating in the at-mosphere. The "cotton" explanationwas initiated by State PatrolmanAndy Andrews, who quoted severalresidents to that effect. Those quotedlater denied Andrew's report.

The first sightings occurred a fewminutes after 9 a.m. All but one of theobjects were silver; what appeared tobe the leader of the fleet was red, andboth bigger and faster. John Bloom-field said they appeared to be travel-ing ten times as fast as a jet plane andmade frequent right-angle turns."They appeared to be coming at eachother head-on. At the last second,one would veer at right angles up-ward, the other at right anglesdownward. One vehicle would passanother, and immediately the one tothe rear would zoom into the lead."Marlow Webb said the craft "flewsideways, on edge, and at every con-ceivable angle. This is what made iteasy to determine that they were disc-shaped."

The fleet of discs continued tomaneuver over the city until 11:30a.m., when they sped out of sight tothe NE. There was no doubt aboutthe physical nature of the craft. Threeand a half hours later, at 3 p.m.,another fleet of discs appeared overFarmington, flying in formation andapproaching from the NE. Only thistime, instead of stopping, the fleetcontinued toward the SW and even-tually disappeared over the horizon.

Clayton Boddy, business managerof the Farmington Daily Times, notedthat, "We contacted the Air Force andthey denied everything. They said itdidn't happen." Lincoln O'Brien, thepaper's owner, remarked that the wireservices were reluctant to believe thestory: "We finally got AP to accept thestory, phrased in a rather doubtingmanner."

On the same day, a similar UFOmanifestation occurred over Tucum-cari. New Mexico, resembling the Far-mington case even to the presence ofa single red-colored craft in with thefleet of discs.

•1955 On the 28th, former Air Forcepilot Glenn Blansett and his wife spot-ted a large, circular cloud of smokehigh in the sky over Joseph City,Arizona, accompanied by what hethought was a large formation of jetplanes engaged in mock combat. Butafter several minutes, the objects stop-ped their conventional maneuvers,abandoned formations, and enteredinto a strange fluttering motion, mov-ing much faster than conventional jetaircraft. Blansett and his wife agreedthat there were at least 25, andperhaps more than a hundred of thecraft, moving across a clear blue skyat a high speed before disappearingto sight in the SW.

• 1960 Eastern Airlines Capt. ErieW. Miles, his co-pilot and engineer,and the captain of another airliner fly-ing below, spotted a "huge craft" whilethe two planes were just SW of Gor-donville, Virginia. Another crewreported seeing it a few minutes laterin South Carolina.

"We were at 14,000 feet," Milessaid. "It was still fairly light at ouraltitude and visibility was perfect. Thisthing came overhead just off our rightside. We all three saw it. It was unlikeanything we had ever seen before. Itwas tremendous in size — looked likea greatly enlarged fuselage of amodern day plane barreling throughthe air. It was clearly visible, includingthe outline of its shape and certaindetails.

"There were no wings or protru-sions on the body that could havebalanced or directed it. I could see nowindows or markings, but it lookedlike there were running lights aroundit. It was gone across the sky and haddisappeared in about 50 to 55seconds. From what we know of flightspeed, it was moving at about 6000miles per hour. I was talking to air-ways control at the time and told themwhat we saw. Capt. Bob Neal was fly-ing a Constellation below us andreported the same thing. A fewminutes later we got a report from theColumbia, South Carolina tower say-ing they had sighted it." In additionto the two crews, Capt. Miles saidanother airliner had seen the craftover Anderson, South Carolina.

The 51-year-old captain added thathe talked to his and other crews aboutit, and they were all reluctant to reportthe incident "for fear we'd be calledcrackpots." He said that the "atmos-phere isn't encouraging" for pilots to

Continued on next page

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

22report UFOs and that he would havesaid nothing about it if the observa-tion had been less sensational.

• 1965 Two airliners flying fromOsaka, Japan, to Hiroshima werechased by a strange object over theSeto Inland Sea. The Emergencyreports were made to the TakamatsuAir Safety Office on the 18th. TheConvair 240 aircraft of the Toa AirLines with 28 passengers aboard wasflying over the Deshima Islandssouthwest of Himeji City, HyogoPrefecture, at an altitude of about2000 meters at 7:06 p.m., when chiefpilot Yoshiharu Inaba, 43, suddenlynoticed something oblong andluminescent approaching his plane.

It came close to the airliner, stop-ped, made an abrupt turn and flewalong with the aircraft for about threeminutes. It finally disappeared inthe direction of Takamatsu City onShikoku Island. About thirty secondslater, the Takamatsu Air traffic controltower received another emergencycall from a Piper Apache plane ofthe Tokyo Air Lines that it was beingpursued by a UFO over TakamatsuCity.

According to Inaba, when the ob-ject came dangerously close to hisplane he signaled his position andmade a 60-degree turn to the right toavoid collision. "The craft was about15 meters in diameter. As it radiateda greenish light, I could not ascertainits exact shape. I did notice, however,that the two needles of the automaticdirection finder vibrated violently," In-aba said.

The vehicle that chased the two air-craft was also seen from the groundby three workers of the ChugokuElectric Company at Hiroshima. Kat-suo Asano, 43, chief engineer of theFuchu office of the company, ToshiroSakurai, 25, and Terumi Tahara, 23,were in a car on a highway at YukiTown, Kamiichi-gun, around 7 p.m.when they saw a strange object in thesky. "It was shaped like a trianglewhose top radiated brilliant light. Itwas in sight for about 10 seconds,"they said.

• 1975 A strange case involving apregnant cow occurred at Ellsworth,Wisconsin about the end of themonth. It seems that a farmer hada cow that was about to have a calf,so he was holding her in a barn wherehe could keep a close watch on her.One night a neighbor called and ex-citedly told him there was a glowingred light directly over his barn. Hewent out to look, but found nothingunusual. A few days later, the cowstill had not given birth so he calledthe veterinarian. After the vet ex-amined the cow, he turned to thefarmer and said, "This cow calvedat least three days ago!" But therehad never been any sign of a calf, ortraces of birth.

• On the 13th at 9 p.m., 15-year-old Jane Baker had just let her twocats outside when she saw a strangeobject parked on the road outside thefamily's farmhouse near Mellen,Wisconsin. She screamed — and herfather, Phil Baker, 37, rushed outside,followed by his wife and two of theirsons.

"I didn't believe what I was seeing,"Baker said. "It was circular, about 12feet across, with red and bluish-greenlights running around the outside. Inthe center was a door, with a brilliantlight coming from inside. It made ahigh-whining sound — a sound I'dnever heard before." The family staredwide-eyed at the craft for severalminutes, then raced fearfully insidetheir home. "I no sooner called policewhen there was this loud explosion,"Baker said. "I looked out and thething had vanished."

The same night, seven sheriff'sdeputies spotted four differentmysterious vehicles skipping andgliding, through the skies in a four-county area around Lake Superior'ssouthwest shore. Ashland DeputyDrolson, 24, was excitedly describingone such craft zipping directlyoverhead when his police radio wentdead. "The vehicle made awhooshing sound, like a giant gust ofwind roaring through the woods,"Drolson said. Ashland Undersheriff

George Ree, listening on his radio 18miles away, heard the rushing noise"and then Drolson's radio went blank."A few moments later, Drolson's voicecame back on the air.

• "Nothing from this world could flylike that!" exclaimed Keith Nance, 14.He was referring to a mysterious oval-shaped craft he and a friend saw mak-ing 90-degree turns near his home atAntioch, California, at 12:54 a.m. onthe 27th. After dawn, Keith and hisbuddy, Richard Gill, 16, examined afield the vehicle hovered over.

They came across a depressionabout a foot and a half long andseveral inches wide in a small openarea of compacted sand in the mid-dle of a grassy field. Next to thedepression was a compacted moundof sand, the same size, shape andlength of the furrow. Keith said he sawa tube emerge from the craft with anozzle on the end the approximateshape of the depression. When thevehicle left, it flew off between twotrees. The limbs of the two treesbranch straight out and touch, excepttowards the top of the trees wherethere was a space and no longer anylimbs.

• 1980 Mysterious light forms werespotted over Burlington, Vermont,about 10 p.m. on the 22nd by air traf-fic controllers and police officers. "Thelights I saw were not like anything Ihad ever seen before," said DonaldKernan, an air traffic controller at Burl-ington International Airport.

Another controller, Richard Morris,said they showed up on the airportradar screen. "It was a radar targetthat was not identified," he said. Itmoved about four miles in two sweepsof the radar scanner. That wouldtranslate into a velocity of about 1500mph if it were an airplane. The radarscreen showed small or faint objects,similar to three small aircraft, joininga larger, brighter object, thenseparating into four objects again,Morris added. Within minutes thelight forms disappeared to the east.

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23

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ... Giving Crop Circles A WhorlDear Editor:I am terminally curious about the

crop circle phenomenon. Of all thecomments that come to mind, I canthink of only one that makes any con-tribution at all to the puzzle. Iremember having read an observationby a mathematician once about thewhorl effect of the crown of thehuman head, namely that the ob-served whorl pattern is not a biologicalfeature (i.e., hair does not sprout fromthe scalp in a whorl pattern — assum-ing no baldness, it grows more or lessevenly distributed over the entirescalp).

The whorl pattern does not exist aslong as all the hair (wheat, etc.) isstanding straight up. It is only createdwhen the hair is flattened (or combed,as the case may be), and some hope-lessly arcane principles of mathgovern the inevitable formation of awhorl. The whorl occurs only whena roughly circular area is flattened (thesurface of the scalp is circular aroundthe crown if projected onto a plane,according to this hairy Einstein).

Obviously, if a whole wheat fieldwere flattened by a straight wind, allthe wheat would fall in a uniformdirection. The irreverent thought oc-curred to me to wonder whether one'shair whorls clockwise south of theEquator, and if so, whether onewould feel it rearrange itself if onetook a speeding Concorde from, say,New York to Buenos Aires, but themathematician wisely avoided attack-ing that issue. Do crop circles occurin the southern hemisphere and if so,do they whorl in reverse there?

My point (if there is one) is that awhirling wind is not required to pro-duce a whorled effect in the case ofupright rods attached at one end overa roughly circular area. The rodswould automatically fall in a whorlpattern when knocked over as longas they cannot fall in any other way.

What intrigues me is the perfectionof the pattern, which a natural windwould never create, anyway. It would

seem instead that something slowlypushed or sat down on the field, giv-ing the stalks time to find their naturalfall pattern rather than taking place soquickly as to produce a chaotic pat-tern, and at the same time changedthe light-seeking property of the cropso that the stalks, once laid over, con-tinued growing horizontally, which isanother mind bender. That feature isat least as difficult to explain as theformation of the whorls in the firstplace.

The only thing I can come up withat all would be a biological factor, suchas a gene-changing fungus thatmodifies the light-guided growingdirection of plants or perhaps simplydestroys the ability of the stems tostand at all, and perhaps causes thecrop to lay over in the first place.

But how could it spread in suchperfect circular patterns? However,fairy ring mushrooms are known forgrowing in highly regular circles, sowho knows?

— Mike StacyCarrollton, TX

Mr. Ralph Noyes, Esq. of London,author of several timely updates onthe crop circle phenomenon for theJournal, responds:

Obviously, we can't leave Mr. Stacyin this near-terminal state. Hopeful-ly, the following will resolve his con-dition — one way or the other.

First, I might point out that I'verecently received a communique fromanother local correspondent whichhints that the phenomenon coulddate back to at least 1678. I'll leavethe final acceptance of that particulardatum to a majority vote, however.

Secondly, it can't be a fungus. Thecircles occur very suddenly. Some canbe dated to within a period of a fewhours, and there are reasons to thinkthey form in a matter of seconds.Funguses, however rabid, don't dothat. Moreover, the well-knownfungus circles (the "fairy rings") stayin the same place year after year,

slowly expanding; the crop-circlesnever occur in precisely the same spotfrom one year to the next (thoughthey do tend to "haunt" certain areas).

The analogy with the 'top-knot'whorl is interesting (albeit I haven't yettried it on a physicist). But if Mr. Stacyis arguing that we don't need a whirl-ing disturbance to produce that whorl,I suspect he's wrong. I feel sure he cansecure a wholly straight-raked lookedin this coiffure by drawing his combaccordingly. If he cares to experiment(particularly in Buenos Aires), I'll pullwhat strings I can to get a properlydocumented paper published eitherin Nature, Playgirl, or that even moreprestigious English quarterly, Hairflair.

But it looks like a vortex to me.The funny thing is that the first

circles seen in 1980 and '81 were allclockwise. Meteorologist Meadendidn't like this, and said so. Thephenomenon immediately came toheel. Nowadays we get about half andhalf.

You also asked about biochemicalchanges in the crops. Some very in-judicious statements in that regardhave been made over here, to wit,that the disturbed grain may bedangerous to human health. Thereisn't a shred (or should I say, grain)of evidence for this. Nonetheless,some people are now convinced thatmechanical forces alone cannot ac-count for the obedient collapse of thegrain in such delicate patterns. Thereis an indication that somethingmolecular happens to the stalk nearor at ground level. We're hoping thata good agronomist can be got ontothe scene very quickly next year.

Dear Editor:The book by Terence Meaden, The

Circles Effect and Its Mysteries, wasdiscussed by Ralph Noyes in the Oc-tober issue. The topic provided an op-portunity for me to bring the phenom-enon to the individual attention ofnine colleagues at Oregon State Uni-versity who work either in atmos-

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

24pheric sciences or in plant or soilsciences, all with PhD degrees. Six ofthe nine concluded that it could onlybe the work of intelligence, one moreleaned that way, and two avoidedtalking about it. Six of the nine areassociated with the Department of At-mospheric Science, and none of themgave any support to Meaden's viewthat the circles were caused by naturalatmospheric vortices of a previouslyunknown type.

Readers of the British magazineWeather, in which Meaden had an ar-ticle on the circles in January 1989,evidently felt likewise and were leftwith no alternative but hoax as thesolution, which they proposed in let-ters to the editor in April. Meaden, inthe article and in his book, did statesome of the reasons for ruling out thehoax hypothesis; however, the bookCircular Evidence by Delgado and An-drews is much more thorough in this.

For example, regarding the circles inthe rape crop, they mention how brit-tle that crop is and how impossible it.is to bend its stems over manually atthe ground without their breaking.Their book is also much less specu-lative, whereas Meaden frequentlyspeculates that some sort of obscureelectro-magnetic vortex is causing thephenomenon, then in the followingsentence speaks of this as represent-ing the solution to the problem.

The most serious omission of Mea-den's book is any mention of thegrowth of the crop that occurs after-wards within the circles, but growththat is horizontal. In Circular Evidencethat aspect is clearly pointed out. Thisaspect alone eliminates the atmos-pheric vortex theory. Circular Evi-dence is also superior in its review ofprevious evidence associated withUFO sightings in which circular land-ing traces were left behind, includingthe one previous case where thesubsequent growth within the circleswas reported to be in the horizontaldirection.

I fear that Noyes was taken in byMeaden's pseudo-scientific presenta-tion. However, it is to Meaden's creditthat he was able to place an article

about the subject within the magazinecalled Weather. His self-publishedjournal, the Journal of Meteorology,which has articles on the phenome-non, is not to be confused with theprimary journal of the AmericanMeteorological Society which oncehad that same name.

— Jim DeardorffCorvallis, OR

Dear Editor:With reference to the January 1990

article by Dennis Stillings on Jung, Iwould like to note that the quotesused in Above Top Secret were thebest that I had available at the time.Last year a British researcher pointedout that the translation I had used(published in FSR in 1955) wasmisleading, and he thankfully pro-vided a more accurate version, theone published in The Collected Worksof C. G. Jung. 1 have been able toamend future editions of my bookaccordingly.

I was likewise ignorant of Jung'srebuttal to the press release, for whichI apologize. There was certainly nodeliberate intention on my part tomisrepresent Jung, as Mr. Stillingsimplies.

And with regards to his commentson "the very silly book" which I co-authored with the late Lou Zinsstagon Adamski, both Lou and I at-tempted to be as objective as possi-ble about this controversial contactee,and cited evidence both for andagainst his claims. Mr. Stillings impliesthat we both gullibly and uncriticallyaccepted his story at face value, whichis far from the truth.

— Timothy GoodKent UK

Dear Editor:In its extensive coverage of the

UFO enigma, the MUFON Journal isto be congratulated for its consistent-ly high quality. Yet as with any humanendeavor, errors creep in. I referspecifically to Bob Cribble's "LookingBack" column in the June 1989 issue,page 20, first column, last paragraph.

Gribble quotes a Lt. Col. JohnO'Mara of Wright Patterson AFB assaying, "Dr. Clyde W. Tombaugh andDr. Lincoln La Paz are heading a pro-ject in White Sands, New Mexico,where scientists are tracking two ar-tificial satellites circling our planet."

I met Dr. Tombaugh in June of1978, in his office on the campus ofNew Mexico State University. He wasprofessor emeritus there and did agreat deal of public relations work onbehalf of the university. During ourtwo-hour conversation we touched onmany bases, including his earlier UFOsightings in the company of his fami-ly. At that time I asked him to com-ment on the published claims that heand his team of investigators haddiscovered artificial satellites in orbitabout the earth. He denied anythingof the sort, and also gave me printedcopies of that particular study.

I recently sent him Xeroxed copiesof the article in question, plus otherson the same subject. I have beenauthorized to pass along his reply:

"I never had a joint project with Dr.Lincoln La Paz of Albuquerque. I wasthe principal investigator of an obser-vational project (known as) Search forPossible Natural Small Earth Satellites... (but) three years searching in over100 zones at different distances fromthe earth, each with its own computedangular drive and nearly 1500 films,revealed no such objects. It wastherefore concluded that astronautscould fly to the moon with little riskof damaging collisions. We certainlyfound no satellites at 400 and 600miles from the earth."

— Americo CandussoMedina, OH

Dear Editor:Bob Cribble's monthly feature,

"Looking Back," is an excellent ideawhich could help newcomers to thefield acquire an accurate perspectiveof the golden days of ufology.

However, as has been pointed outby others than myself, it lacks anecessary condition to be considereda scientific effort, namely, the exact

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

25detail of the references from which theinformation is extracted. This is amust, as it is the only way researcherscan follow the pedigree and value ofany case listed.

In recent issues, however, the ac-curacy of what is reported hasdeteriorated, and since no sources areindicated, only a small number ofspecialists with a deep knowledge ofthe field are able to detect the incor-rectness of the information presented.

Two examples will illustrate thepoint:

a) The Journal #257, Sept. 1989,p. 13, the case of Marius Dewilde ispresented without mentioning that theincident is now considered a fraud byserious researchers.

b) In Journal #261, January 1990,p. 23, the very dubious Botta affairis so distorted that I could hardly iden-tify it. The name of the single witnessis Enrique Bossa or Enrico Botta, anItalian architect allegedly then livingin Argentina. There is no such thingas a Province of Bahia Blanca, whichis in fact a city in the Province ofBuenos Aires. All the information isobtained from letters written by thewitness, and the exact date is known.The interested reader can find a com-plete analysis of the case in IUR, Vol.11/#1, Jan./Feb. 1986, p. 18.

I understand that it is difficult tosecure enough accurate informationabout a case, as well as its sources,unless one has access to a data baselike UNICAT. We in the UNICAT Pro-ject would be happy to research forMr. Gribble the cases he is consider-ing for publication, and provide freeof charge whatever information wemay have, which could well be none.This is the second or third time wehave made the offer, which for somereason has never been taken up.

- Dr. Willy SmithUNICAT Project

My source for the Tombaugh - LaPaz information was Len Stringfield'sC.R.I.F.O. Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 24,July 2, 1954. Stringfield received theinformation from Col. John O'Maraduring a telephone conversation with

him on June 8 of 1954. It appearedto be a reliable source, so I includedit in the "Looking Back" series.

But I appreciate your bringing thismatter to the forefront. Even thoughback-dated, it's important to keep therecord straight.

— Bob GribbleSeattle, WA

Dear Editor:Having read The Gulf Breeze

Sightings by Edward and FrancesWalters, published by William MorrowCompany (1990), and mindful of thepower of a book to change the world,I believe MUFON deserves a little self-congratulations. Implicit in MUFON'sintegral role in the making of this bookis its farsighted leadership.

When events broke in Gulf Breeze,Florida (by virtue of publication of pic-tures in the local Gulf Breeze Sen-tinel), MUFON was ready. A leader-ship that was committed to the resolu-

tion of the UFO phenomenon, nomatter what, created the resources tohave trained investigators ready-to-go,if and when.

No investigative reporters probedfor, evaluted and preserved the evi-dence (Dave Berry, Pulitzer prize win-ning writer, casually dismissed thecase as laughable). No universitiessent academicians. No governmentagency openly committed resourcesto study this ongoing phenomenon ofsuch potential cosmic consequences.

But for the vision and tenacity ofpeople like Don Ware, Charles Flan-nigan, Walt Andrus, Bruce Maccabee;Budd Hopkins, Bob Oechsler, et al,this case would likely have sufferedthe ignominious fate of similar"classic" cases, i.e., relegation to thearchives of the Sentinel or someequally musty shelves of collectors ofthe arcane.

This time, I think the world willknow. Congratulations.

— Robert H. Bletchman

Calendar of UFO Conferences for 1990April 6,7,8 — Ozark UFO Conference - Inn of the Ozarks, Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

April 21 & 22 — Northern California UFO Conference - Fort Mason Center, San Fran-cisco, California.

April 28, 29 & 30 — Fourth European Rencontres de Lyon UFO Congress - Lyon, France.(Sponsored by Association D'Etude Sur Les Soucoupes Volantes.)

May 11, 12 & 13 — 27th Annual National UFO Conference - Holiday Inn Oceanside,Miami Beach, Florida.

June 28, 29, 30 — 10th Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigations - Universityof Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

July 6, 7, 8 — MUFON 1990 International UFO Symposium - Pensacola Hilton, Pensacola,Florida.

July 14 & 15 — Phantoms of the Sky - Ufology into the 90's - Sheffield Library Theatre,Sheffield, England.

October 13 & 14 — The UFO Experience - Ramada Inn, North Haven, Connecticut.

Coming in future issues ...• Stanton Friedman on MJ-12• Frederick Taylor on Crop Circles• Rex & Carol Salisberry on Gulf Breeze• Martin Cannon on Mind Control & 'Abductions'• Walter Webb, Bob Gribble & More ...

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

26MESSAGE, Continuedmeantime, a small supply of formsand instruction sheets will be mailedto all State and Provincial Directorsimmediately. During the transitionperiod, anyone may order same fromMUFON in Seguin, Texas.

Prompt utilization of the new Com-puter Input Form 2 will simplify themassive job facing the seven membercommittee who will be evaluating thehistorical cases, somewhat chrono-logically, and preparing Form 2 forcomputer input. The following peoplehave volunteered to tackle this timeconsuming and detailed job, that couldtake a few years to cover all cases inthe MUFON UFO sighting files: Fran-cis Ridge, Michael Rigg, (Indiana)Fred Hays, Rick Dell'Aquila (Ohio);Mara Ulis (Utah); Forest Crawford(Illinois) and Charles D. Flannigan(Florida). Hard copies of the MUFONfiles will be systematically sent to eachof these people and then returnedupon completion of the Form 2.

MIB, ContinuedScorneaux, J. 1984. The rising and the limits of

a doubt. Magonia 15:3-6.Scot, R. (1584) 1972. The discoveries of witch-

craft. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.Sperba, D. 1982. Apparently irrational beliefs. In

Rationality and relativism, eds. M. Hollis and S.Lukes. Cambridge: MIT Press, 149-80.

Summers, M. 1973. The werewolf. Secaucus, N.J.:The Citadel Press.

Talbot, M. 1976. UFOs: Beyond real and unreal.In Gods of Aquarius, UFOs and the transformationof man, B. Steiger, 28-33. New York: Harcourt,Brace, Jovanovich.

. 1981. Mysticism and the new physics. NewYork: Bantam New Age.

Thomas, K. 1971. Religion and the decline ofmagic. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Thompson, K. 1987. The Esalen Institute studyof exceptional functioning. Noetic Sciences Review4:4, 7-9.

. 1988. The stages of UFO initiations. MagicalBlend 18 (Feb.-Mar.-Apr.) 9-16.

Thurston, H. 1952. The physical phenomena ofmysticism. Chicago: Henry Regnery.

Turner, V [1969] 1979. The ritual process, struc-ture and anti-structure. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univer-sity Press.

Veyne, P. 1988. Did the Creeks believe in theirmyths? An essay on the constitutive imagination.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Vorpagel, B. 1988. It's all in your head: The roleof belief in the construction and interpretation ofsickness. Paper delivered at the Centennial Meetingof the American Folklore Society, 27 October, Cam-bridge, Mass.

Wall, J. C. [1902] 1968. Devils. Detroit: SingingTree Press.

Ward, D. 1977. The little man who wasn't there:Encounters with the supranormal. Fabula 18:212-25.

Wilson, W. A. 1988. The deeper necessity:Folklore and the humanities. Journal of AmericanFolklore 101: 156-67.

The Night SkyBy Walter N. Webb

April 1990Bright Planets (Evening Sky):

Jupiter (magnitude -2.0), in Gemini, stands high in the WSW at dusk inmid-April, moving westward during the evening. The big world is below thequarter Moon on the 1st and near the lunar crescent on the 28th and 29th.

Bright Planets (Morning Sky):From left to right, Venus (-4.2), Mars (0.9), and Saturn (0.5) occupy theSE dawn sky. The crescent Moon lies near Mars on the 20th and near Venuson the 21st and 22nd. In midmonth the latter two planets rise about 2 hoursbefore the Sun, while Saturn rises about 4 hours before.Jupiter sets in the NW about 1 AM daylight time.

Meteor Shower:Unlike last year, there is no moonlight to interfere with the April 22 dawnmaximum (about 15/hour) of the Lyrid meteors. Radiating from an apparentpoint SW of Vega, the Lyrids are bright, white and swift, frequently leaving.glowing wakes which remain in the atmosphere for a few seconds.

Comet Austin:What could be the brightest naked-eye comet since 1976 may now befavorably visible — Comet Austin, which was discovered last December byNew Zealand amateur comet hunter Rodney Austin. On April 1 the object,sporting a short vertical tail, might be seen without optical aid briefly aboutan hour after sunset very low in the WNW about 6° to the upper right oforange-tinted Mercury. (The chances of seeing it are better with binoculars.)About a week and a half later Austin appears brighter (predicted to be zeromagnitude) but lower, about 17° to the right of Mercury.Beginning in mid-April, look in the NE morning sky about 4:30 (EOT). Onthe 15th the comet is very low and 5° below the star Beta Andromedae.Each morning thereafter the comet's position improves, getting higher inthe sky (passes 1° from Beta Andromedae on the 19th and 20th) and dim-ming only slightly to a predicted 1st magnitude. Best viewing should belate April through early May when the Moon is out of the way. CometAustin's position on the 14th is at R.A. Ih 26m, Dec. +30° 36' (1950coordinates); on the 24th, Oh 42m, +35° 36! For comet updates, call S/cy& Telescope's recording at (617) 497-4168.

Moon Phases:

First quarter — April 2

Full moon — April 9

Last quarter — April 18

New moon — April 25

O

The Stars:At 10 PM daylight time a dozen Ist-magnitude objects can be sighted acrossthe mid-April heavens. Vega has just emerged above the NE horizon; Arc-turus (in Bootes) and Spica (in Virgo) are found in the east and SE; Regulus(in Leo) is high in the south; the six stars of the Winter Circle — Sirius,Procyon, Pollux, Capella, Aldebaran, and Rigel — are in the west; andfinally inside the Winter Circle are the star Betelgeuse and the planet Jupiter.This month the Big Dipper hangs high up in the northern sky. Actually,the dipper's bowl forms the body of the Great Bear, Ursa Major, while the3 stars in the handle outline the animal's long, bushy tail. (Real bears, ofcourse, don't have long tails!)

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

27MESSAGE, Continued

Speakers scheduled and theirspeech titles are the following: Edwardand Frances Walters (Gulf Breeze,FL), "The Gulf Breeze Sightings";Reverend Barry H. Downing, Ph.D.(Endwell, NY), "ET Contact: TheReligious Dimension"; Brian OTeary,Ph.D. (Phoenix, AZ) "UFOs, Extrater-restrials and the New Science";Donald R. Schmitt (Hubertus, WI)"New Revelations from Roswell";Carey H. Baker, newspaper publisher(Rainsville, AL), "The Fyffe AlabamaExperience"; David A. Gotlib, B.Sc,M.D. (Toronto, Canada), "WhoSpeaks for the Witness? Medical andEthical Issues in Therapy ofAnomalous Trauma" and BuddHopkins (New York, NY), "Gulf CoastUFO Abductions and the HistoricalPatterns."

Other outstanding speakers duringthe five sessions will be John L.Spencer (Harpenden, England)Robert L. Hall, Ph.D. (St. Michaels,MD), Rima E. Laibow, M.D. (DobbsFerry, NY) and John E. Branden-burg, Ph.D. (Alexandria, VA). MarkCurtis from WEAR Channel 3 in Pen-sacola has graciously consented toM.C. and introduce the speakers.

The Pensacola Hilton is located at200 East Gregory St., Pensacola, FL32501. Special room rates of $55 pernight (1 to 4 occupancy) are available.Make your reservations directly withthe hotel by calling (904) 433-3336 or1-800-HILTONS. The Hilton will pro-vide free shuttle service to and fromthe Pensacola Regional Airport.

A "Get Acquainted" Reception withhors dbeuvres will be held Friday eve-ning, July 6, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.Cost: $5 per person before June 1; ad-vance reservations are required. A cashbar will be available. The formal por-tion of the symposium will consist offive sessions: three on Saturday, July 7,from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and twoon Sunday, July 8, from 10:00 a.m.to 5:00 p.m. with breaks for meals. Theadvance registration fee for all five ses-sions is $35 before June 1 and $40thereafter. Individual sessions will be ona space available basis at $10 per per-

David A. Gotlib, M.D.

son per session, paid at the door.A chartered bus tour of UFO sites

in the Gulf Breeze area is planned forSunday morning, July 8, from 8:30to 10:00 a.m. Advance reservations forthe bus tour are required; bus fee: $12per person before June 1. If there isinsufficient interest in the tour, theprepaid tour fee will be refunded.

Delta Airlines is the official airline forthe 1990 Symposium. Delta is offer-ing 40% off regular coach fares and5% off their lowest available fare.Seniors (age 62 or older) get an ad-ditional 10% off the lowest availablefare. To get these discounts, you mustcall: 1-800-768-5463; ask for Reaganor Sue (at Gulf Breeze Travel), and tellthem you are coming to the MUFONSymposium.

Send advance registration form withyour check to: Art Hufford, 2300Hallmark Drive, Pensacola, FL 32503.Make check payable to: MUFON 1990Symposium. Vicki P. Lyons' commit-tees have been performing superbly tomake this one of MUFON's finest andmost enjoyable symposia. An advanceregistration form was enclosed in amajority of the February 1990 issuesof the MUFON UFO Journal. If youdid not receive one, please use the in-formation above for your hotel reser-vation and registration. (Please advise

the name as you would like it shownon your nametag; since many of ususe nicknames.)

Computerized Files

All members are invited to read thearticle by Dan Wright, MUFON'sDeputy Director, Investigations, titled,"The Road to Computerization" in thisissue of the Journal as an introductionto the forthcoming program which willsoon be a reality. Dan Wright, JennieZeidman and their committee are tobe highly commended for thismonumental task.

The fourth edition of the MUFONField Investigator's Manual has beendelayed intentionally so as to includenot only the new Computer InputForm No. 2 and the 12-page instruc-tion sheet, but also to compose and in-clude major revisions, including abduc-tion cases and treatment of the victims.

Five hundred additional copies ofthe third edition were published tosatisfy the current demand for thisessential manual. Since it is printed ina 3-ring binder format, plans havebeen made to incorporate the newComputer Input Form 2 with accom-panying instruction sheets into the 3rdedition before they are mailed. In the

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MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 263 March 1990

Director's MessageBy Walt Andrus

1989-90 Award

The Annual MUFON Award plaquefor the most outstanding contributionto Ufology for 1989-90 will bepresented at the MUFON 1990 Inter-national UFO Symposium in Pen-sacola, Florida on July 7, 1990. On-ly Board of Directors may nominatecandidates for this prestigious rec-ognition. Anyone may nominate aperson for the award by submittingthe name of their candidate with awritten paragraph stating theiraccomplishments and mailing sameto one of the Board of Directors listedin the 1989 Symposium, as well asJennie Zeidman.

The actual contribution or work isnot confined to the calendar year of1989-90, but may include significantaccomplishments during the past fiveyears. The Fund for UFO Researchwill provide a cash award to the reci-pient. Last year's awardee, Bruce S.Maccabee, received $500. The dead-line for receiving nominations fromBoard Members is April 15, 1990 inSeguin, Texas. A ballot will be en-closed with the May 1990 issue of theMUFON UFO Journal so all membersand subscribers may vote for theirchoice from the candidates proposed.

New Officers

MUFON is proud to announce thatthe following people have volun-teered to serve in leadership rolesduring the past month. John W.Komar, State Director for Tennessee,appointed Keith Tarpley (Harriman)to Assistant State Director, while con-tinuing as State Section Director.Chee Kong Lee, living in KotaKinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, is thenew Representative for Malaysia.Michael F. Corbin (Lakewood, CO)has joined the MUFON Staff,representing the Paranet ComputerNetwork. For further information on

Paranet, please contact Mike on hisvoice line (303) 232-8303.

Shirley A. Coyne, Michigan StateDirector, has made the following StateSection Directors appointments andrevisions in the county responsibilities:Dennis M. Hafer (Stevensville) forBerrien County; Virginia M. Tilly,M.S. (Lansing) for Ingham County;David C. Reinhart (Swartz Creek) forGenesee, Shiawasee and SaginawCounties; Mike Steffes (Kalamazoo)for Kalamazoo County; Sheral L.Bradley (South Haven) for VanBuren County; Thomas R. Quinn(Grand Blanc) for Oakland County;Rex W. Schrader, Jr. (Lansing) forClinton County; Harold G. Mar-quardt (Mt. Clemens) for MacombCounty; and John M. Orsini(Stevensville) for Cass County.

Donald M. Ware, Florida StateDirector, appointed two State SectionDirectors; Edward A. Wilbanks(Panama City) for Bay and GulfCounties; and Harriet Beech(Naples) for Collier County. Skip D.Schultz, State Director for Oregon,promoted Stephen T. Bastasch(Corvallis) to State Section Directorfor Benton County. Mark E.Blashak, Virginia State Director, ap-proved selection of Michael B.Shields (Virginia Beach) to StateSection Director for the HamptonRoads or Tidewater Area. Ethan A.Rich, State Director for Colorado, hasassigned Donavon "Don" Johnson(Denver) to be State Section Direc-tor for Clear Creek, Denver, Gilpinand Jefferson Counties. Mr. Johnsonwas formerly a State Section Direc-tor in North Dakota.

Donald A. Johnson, Ph.D., NewJersey State Director, selected RobertJ. Durant (Pennington) as the newState Section Director for MercerCounty. Mr. Durant is a Pan AmAirline Captain and amateur radiooperator (W2GZH), who attended

the recent TREAT II meeting inBlacksburg, VA. Walter L. "Barney"Garner, Jr., State Director for Loui-siana, appointed Michael L. James(Montegut) to the position of StateSection Director for the followingparishes: Lafourche, Terrebonne,Assumption and St. James.

New Consultants this month, whohave volunteered their expertise, areRauni-Leena Luukanen-Kilde, M.D.(Geneva, Switzerland) in PublicHealth Administration. She retiredas chief medical officer of Laplandin Finland. Dr. Luukanen-Kilde at-tended the recent TREAT II con-ference at Virginia Tech (V.P.I.).Others are Thomas C. Moss, M.D.retired, (Memphis, TN) in Pathology;Gordon L. Williams, Ph.D., (Reno,NV) in Biochemical Genetics; GaryKnight, J.D. (Austin, TX) in Law(Doctoral program in neuroscience);and Joseph W. Gandert, J.D. (Albur-querque, NM) in Law. Steve K.McComas, M.S. (Quartu S.E., Italy)volunteered as a translator of Italianto English. He holds a Masters Degreein Applied Linguistics.

MUFON 1990 Symposium

The theme for the MUFON 1990International UFO Symposium in Pen-sacola, Florida is "UFOs: The Impactof E.T. Contact Upon Society." It willconvene on the weekend of July 6,7 and 8 at the beautiful PensacolaHilton Hotel, only a few miles from theGulf Breeze sightings that have con-tinued for over two years. Sponsoredby the Mutual UFO Network, Pen-sacola MUFON will host the sym-posium with Vicki P. Lyons, GeneralChairman; Charles D. Flannigan,State Director; Carol and RexSalisberry, Co-State Section Direc-tors; and Donald M. Ware, EasternRegional Director.

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