Number 111 THE MUFON FEBRUARY 1977

UFO JOURNALOFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF MUFON

$1.00MUTUAL UFO NETWORK, INC.I

Robert Melerine of Yscloskey, Louisiana, points to water towerover which he watched a UFO hover for nearly half-an-hour. Thecase is described in detail by Dr. Ted Peters in this issue.

MUFON UFOJOURNAL

103OldtowneRd.Seguin, Texas 781 55

Dennis William HauckEditor

Walter H. AndrusDirector of MUFON

Paul CornyPromotion/Publicity

Rev. Dr. Barry DowningReligion and UFOs

Ann DruffelCalifornia Report

Lucius ParishBooks/Periodicals/History

Marjorie FishExtraterrestrial Life

Stan GordonCreatures* UFOs

Richard HallAssociate Editor

Mark HerbstritlAstronomy

Rosetta HolmesPromotion/Publicity

David A. SchrothSt. Louis/Mass Media

John F. SchuesslerUFO Propulsion

Dwight ConnellyNorma E. ShortEditor/Publishers Emeritus

Len StringfieldCommentary

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Nutuil UFO Network. Sefuin, Tun. SubttriptiOi ntex

J8.00 per yeir in U.S.; $9.00 pn jai foreijn. Copjrijttt

1976 by Mutiiil UFO Network. Stand din postife piid

it Sejuin, Tnn. Return undelhnnble copiis to MUFON

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FROM THE EDITORRecent developments

such as the SturrockReport, discussed byDirector Walt Andruson page 6, Prime Min-ister Gairy's UN ini-tiative (see last is-sue), the Acapulco Con-ference, and even arecent squib in the"Washington Whispers"section of U.S._News& World Report to theeffect that PresidentCarter is about to re-lease 'disturbing1 UFOinformation, all point

to the fact that theyear 197? will be oneof extreme importanceto anyone interestedin ufology.

Add to this, a bigsurge in media inter-est in UFOs and a sig-nificant increase inclose encounter casesof all types in recentmonths. Yes, it's go-ing to be quite a year.So buckle down! We pro-mise to keep you inform-ed in depth every stepof the way!

In this issue

WARM LIGHT STOPS EVERYTHING! Jby Dr. Ted Peters

REPORT OF A SURVEY OF THE A .A .S 6by Walt Andrus

THE HEFLIN CONTROVERSY ^ . . 7by Idabel Epperson

UFOLOGY, RELIGION, AND DECEPTION 9by Barry H. Downing

UFO SIGHTED FROM POLICE HELICOPTER 13by Ann Druffel

ANCIENT ASTRONAUTS? 16by Stuart W. Greenwood

FOLLOW-UP AT ASSERVANT 17by Richard Hall

IN OTHERS ' WORDS 18by Lucius Parish

DIRECTOR 'S MESSAGE 19by Walt Andrus

RECAPPING AND COMMENTING 20by Richard Hall

ASTRONOMY NOTES 20by Mark R. Herbstritt

Tbi conttnti of the HUFOII UFO JOUHNtt in determined bj thi editor, utd doact wcBsinlj rtpront tin offlctel portion or iod|tmeat of MlffON. Opimornol cmtriluton in Ikeii own, nd do not n««ntrirj reflect tax of tin editor,(Ji Miff, of MUFON. btltia tauld be ubnrtiid to Dura Willing Hnci, 114GotffaSUHumnond,l«1.46«7.

Pemioion B hereb) frutad to quote from thh blue proflded M mn tun M«ords ire qnti from this iooe pmttel not non tbu 200 mdi mfram mi one irtide, tbt uthor of the ertick t> irno cndit at the t

"CopjriUit 1976 b) MUFOII UFO JOUIMI, 103 Otdtnoi W, Snob, IT feloduM.

Warm Light Stops Everything!By Dr. Ted Peters,

MUFON State Director

for Louisiana

It was nearly 8:45 p.m. on a clearnight, January 21, 1977, when RobertMelerine was paddling quietly up theDike Canal in St. Bernard Parish,Louisiana. He was alert. He washunting nutria to sell the pelts to NewYork furriers. In the northwesternsky he saw a light about the size of

} a star moving toward him, growingbigger. "Oh, it's probably a star or

[ something," he thought. His eyesfell to the banks and trees, looking forgame. He ceased paying attention tothe moving star.

Suddenly, he was engulfed in warmlight. "The next thing I knew every-thing was bright. So I turned my lightoff. I thought it . was the lightitself. (The little light he was referringto was the equivalent to a six voltflashlight.) But everything was stillbright: in the boat, the side of me.There was a big glare, ya know. AndI looked up and it was above me!And I said, 'Wow!' I looked aroundbut I could barely make it out. Itwas gigantic, ya know."

Merlerine's first thought was thatit was a game warden helicopter

, about to arrest him. The Department^ of Wildlife and Fisheries will occasion-

ally put a search light upon a sus-pected poacher before landing on thewater to make the arrest. Later,when telephoned, the conservationdepartment reported they had had nosurveillance aircraft in the areaat that time.

"I figured they'd come over a loudspeaker or somebody'd hollar down.So I listened.'' But there was no soundwhatsoever. No 'helicopter engine.No loud speaker. No wind. No frogscroaking or ducks calling. Silence.

Robert Melerine (front) and Irwin Menesses (rear)with boat and outboard used at original encounter.

Merlerine said the light made himfeel warm. "Then it left me. Justthat fast it was gone." He followed itwith his eyes as it shot up into thesky towards the woods. "It wasglowing," he remarked.

The aghast hunter continued towatch it until he turned the bend andlost sight of it behind the trees.Then he spotted the glow of the camp-fire built by his partner, IrwinMenesses. Menesses, known widelyas Captain Pinky because of his titleat the St. Bernard Fire Department,was warming his hands in the 45degree weather. Melerine recited hisadventure to which Pinky respondedwith a laughing "You're crazy!"Pinky suggested that it might havebeen a "gas light" (swamp gas),but Melerine said he was certainit was not. •

With both men in the boat and the25 hp Evenrude motor running slowly,

they continued their hunting, proceed-ing southeast down the canal. Theywould shine their light, looking forthe red sparkle in the nutria's eyesas they swam in the water. Now,however, none were to be seen.No sign of life.

Then the light came flying down thecanal from the west aimed right atthem. It stopped and hovered abovethe boat at an elevation of 65 to 70feet. "Robert, put yer light out.They got us," hollared Pinky. Butagain there was only silence. Nohelicopter engine could be heard.

The men were petrified-perhapsliterally motionless. Melerine hadhis rifle on his lap and talkedabout shooting it, but Pinky said,"no, just in case it belongs to thegovernment." Melerine's hair wasstanding on end. "It stood out likewire," reported Menesses.

Then everything felt warm. Nothing

ST. BERNARDLOUISIANA

O |o»O 1000

moved. The men did not speak,stand up, or move their limbs. Theywere aware that the motor was stillrunning, butg the boat stood ab-solutely motionless. Something washolding them. Pinky described itasbeingheldby 'stronggravityforces.'

The boat was stopped in the middleof the canal near a tree stump uponwhich a small palmetto plant wasgrowing. Dr. Peters, MUFON in-vestigator, reports that the canal isapproximately 40 feet wide at that

point, freshly dredged to permitlarge fishing boats to pass, andthere is no sign of roots or or treelimbs in the water which could havecaught and held the small row boat.

"It was shaped on the order ofround," said Pinky, "and was everybit as big as my kitchen." He esti-mated it to be 15 to 25 feet in diameter.The surface of the glow had" a con-nected diamond or square textureor pattern to it. Both men drewpictures of the reported craft, but

Merlerine was much less certainof the shape than was Menesses.

When the glowing light left theboat lurched forward. Pinky wasthrown back against the motor andMelerine down to the floor of theboat. Evidently the force that hadbeen holding the boat from movingreleased its grip and the suddenacceleration caused by the motorthrew the men off balance.

The object flew straight back towardhighway 46 and then turned and

stopped near the Shell refinery.It was 9:05 p.m. The two frightenedhunters were now racing down thecanal at full throttle, but they slowedas they passed the Shell plant. Therethey saw the UFO about 50 feetabove the two hundred foot highrefraction towers. They also saw aguard standing on the Shell bridge.Later, after the incident had beenreported in a local newspaper, theSt. Bernard fire station where'bothmen work received a telephone call.The voice claimed to be that of theguard on duty, but he declined togive his name. He said, "tell thosefirementhey'renotcrazy.l saw it too."

The bright object then flew overtoward the water towe.r located afew hundred yards east of the AlluvialBaptist Church near highway 46.There it hovered just above the tower.The boatmen lost sight of it behindthe trees as they neared the turninto Bayou LaLoutre. They could seeit again, however, as they dockedat the canal bank in front of theYscloskey fire station. Pinky reports,"When I got to the fire station itwent right on the side of the watertower and stood there for every bitof 30 minutes 1 could see the beamcoming down beside the water tower."The hunters drove home about 10:00exclaiming to one another that theyhad had an almost unbeliev-able experience.

Robert Melerine (left)-and Captain Pinky (right) withactual light used on the-night of the UFO encounter.

Palmetto bush and stump near which 2nd UFO encountertook place. Iscloskey Shell Refinery in background.

PhoenixEighth Annual MUFON Symposium

Saturday, July 16, and Sunday,July 17,1977 at the Safari Hotel& Convention Center, 4611 N.Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale,Arizona 85251. The public isinvited to the affair, which willbe hosted by Ground Saucer

Watch and MUFON of Ari-zona. Advance registration maybe made by writing to: GSW/MUFON, 13238 N. 7th Dr.,Phenoix, AZ 85029. The pack-age price for the Symposium is$16.00.

REVIEW BY: WALT ANDRUS

'' REPORT OF A SURVEY OF THEMEMBERSHIP OF THE AMERICAN

ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY CONCERNINGTHE UFO PROBLEM"

Sketch of UFO seen by Irwin Menessesand Robert Melerine, St. Bernard Parish,Louisiana, January 21,1977,

ADDENDA

At one point in the investigation,Robert Melerine reported twentyminutes for which he could not ac-count. Pinky's watch read 8:45 whenthey entered the boat at the camp-fire sight. They did not check the timeagain until passing the Shell refineryat 9:05. Where did the time go?Dr. Peters suspected a time-lossabduction case and consideredhypnotherapy.

In the initial interview, IrwinMenesses judged the distance fromthe camp fire to the palmetto stumpto be about two city blocks. Thisestimate proved to be very short.Later, when Dr. Peters went to the sitein the same boat with the same motor,it took five minutes at full throttleto reach the stump from the campfire.The distance is estimated now be-tween one and two miles. If the boathad been traveling on January 21 atthe quiet speed of a slow troll-as isreported-then 20 minutes would beappropriate to cover the distance.At open *throttle it took less thanfive minutes to return from the Shellplant to the point of disembarkment,and the men had reported arrivingthere at about 9:15 p.m. pn the 21st.

We are indebted to Peter Sturrock,Phd., for mailing us a personal copy ofhis book titled "Report on a Survey ofthe Membership of the AmericanAstronomical Society Concerning theufo Problem", SUIPR Report #681dated January 1977. Dr. Sturrock isProfessor of Space Science and Astro-physics, Institute for Plasma Researchat Stanford University, Via Crespi,Stanford, California, 94305.

When he conceived the idea of aquestionnaire to professional astrono-mers, it was with a definite pur-pose in mind. If trained astro-,nomers offer no reports of the UFOtype, this would strengthen the viewthat such reports are misperceptions ofknown objects and phenomena. If onthe other hand, a group of astronomerssubmit a number of reports fitting forinstance, the categories described byDr. J. Allen Hynek in his book "TheUFO Experience", this would supportthe view that there is a real phenom-enon which a trained observer candistinquish from known natural objectsand events.

Of the 2611 questionnaires mailedout, 1356 were completed and return-ed. The initial letter to A AS memberswas written on April 25,' 1975. Sum-marizing the 202 page report, it leadsto these basic answers from the mem-bership of A.A.S.:

(1) Scientists have thoughts andviews but no answers concern-ing the UFO problem.

(2) Although there is no concensus,

more scientists are of the opin-ion that the problem certainly orprobably does not.

(3) A small fraction (of order 5%)are likely to report varied andpuzzling observations, not un- {like so called "UFO reports"made by the general public. As jis the case with reports from thepublic, many may be unusualobservations of familiar objects,however, some seem to be defin-itely strange.

These results are consistent with thefindings of an earlier but more limitedsurvey of members of the AmericanInstitute of Aeronautics and Astron-autics (Sturrock 1974), except that theopinions of astronomers (expressed in1975) concerning the significance ofthe UFO problem were more positivethan were the views of aeronauticalengineers (expressed in 1973).

The major portion of the report con-sists of sightings by astronomers ofunusual events witnessed. Dr. Stur-rock is to be commended for this posi- |tive step to lend more credibility to theUFO phenomenon by surveying pro-fessional astronomers. Another signi-ficant point was established in thatover 80% of the respondents express-ed a willingness to contribute to theresolution of the UFO problem if theycould see a way to do so but, of thoseexpressing this interest, only 13%could see a way to do so but, of thoseexpressing this interest, only 13%could see a way. Those who have stud-ied the subject are more willing tohelp and more likely to see a way to help.

CALIFORNIA REPORT"THE HEFLIN CONTROVERSY"

BY ID ABEL EPPERSON

(Note: The original concept for"California Report" was a monthlycolumn to be written alternately byAnn Druffel and Rick Zimmerman.Since Mr. Zimmerman has been un-able ' because of work responsibil-ities to contribute, the alternatemonths will be available for otherCalifornia researchers to write ontopics of interest. The followingdiscussion of the "Heflin Contro-versy" is by Idabel Epperson,MUFON State Director for SoutherCalifornia. She is in a unique positionto speak out authoritatively, as shewas Acting Chairman of the LosAngeles NICAP Subcommitte (LANS)during the years of the Heflininvestigation. AD)

On June 12, 1976 a statementwas made before the MUFON AnnualUFO Symposium that the photo-graphs of a UFO taken by Rex Heflinin Santa Ana, California "werefraudulent''. The speaker suggestedthat the pictures could have beenfaked by suspending an aluminumplate from a pole balanced on the roofof Heflin's truck, and the fourthphoto, the "smoke ring" could havebeen a photo montage.

The UFO field has never beenpublicly and completely acquaintedwith the true story of the Heflin

[ photos, which were taken August 3,1965. For the past decade, however,the series of four pictures have been

> generally accepted by knowledgeableresearchers as genuine.

The story has two parts: 1. thescientific examination of the photosby six photographic experts and theestablishing beyond doubt of RexHeflin's integrity; 2. the persistentand determined efforts by either agovernment agency or cranks (or both)to discredit Heflin and the photographs.

I will not at this time try to coverthe second phase of the storyalthough it is fantastic and incredible,but will try to fill that in at a later date.I would like to say this much, however.Over the past twenty years we have

observed a "pattern" in the attemptsto discredit certain UFO reports andthe witnesses. A UFO report may beexceptional, but if it is only. knownlocally and does not get nationalcoverage the witnesses are notharrassed. But if the UFO report isexceptional and gets national cover-age, the witnesses are in for trouble.The Heflin photos were publicized.Internationally! The results were tobe expected and history has bornethis out.

Regarding the scientific examin-ation of the Heflin photos, the follow-ing experts pronounced them authen-tic: Clay Miller, Chief Photographerof the. Santa Ana Register; RalphRankow, at the time NICAP's photo-graphic analyst; Joe Carson, a LosAngeles photographic expert; Adrian

"Vance, former official photographicconsultant for MUFON; Don Berliner,also a NICAP photo analyst.

•The sixth analyst to study the Heflinphotos was a Dr. "A", who hasalways requested, anonymity. He isa top scientist' at Jet PropulsionLaboratory who spent several monthsinvestigating the Heflin case and hadconcluded that the picture weregenuine. He had available to him atype of corhputer photographicenhancement process that resolvedobscure details. - With the type ofequipment he had to work with,it was only natural that he shoulddiscover much detail that had notbeen -visible to the others. It wasDr. A. who discovered that the objecthad a "dome", that the black bandaround the UFO was "particulatematter"—in other words smoke orsmog and other particles, one dayhe excitedly phoned to report thathe had found a "shimmering" aroundthe object, exclaiming that the objectseemed unearthly. The shimmeringhad nothing to do with the objectbeing in motion. It was somethingelse, but just what, this highly qua-lified man did not know.

Dr. A. made a wood model of theHeflin UFO, the upper exterior

painted with aluminum finish, theunderside black. It was completewith a black band, a dome, and a20-30 degree pie-shpaed wedge ofaluminum to represent the rotatingbeam of light reported by Heflin.Two years to the date of Heflin's sight ring, on August 3, 1967 Dr. A., RexHeflin and three NICAP aerospaceengineers met at the sighting locationon Myford Road,in Santa Ana. Pic-tures were taken of the model on topof a pole, measurements were takenand other experiments performed.

Dr. A. was pleased and satisfiedwith his findings. He went onto conduct his own investigation ofthe Heflin case, going over groundalready covered by the NICAP Sub-committee, including calculations byJohn Gray. These were calculationsthat the Air Force had never chal-lenged. They ignored them—but theydidn't challenge them. Dr. A.personally interviewed Heflin'sassociates, and concluded that thephotos were not a hoax and thatHeflin was ah honest man, asother investigators before him hadconcluded.

Strangely enough, some of Heflin'sstrongest support can be found inthe original AIR FORCE REPORT(marked FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY)giving a detailed account of the AFINVESTIGATION AND A THREEAND ONE—HALF HOUR INTER-VIEW WITH Heflin by CaptainCharles F. Reichmuth whose fulltitle was: Investigating Officer USAF,Director Technical Support Direct-orate, Deputy for Foreign Technology,Space Systems Divisions, SystemsCommand. Here are a few excerpts:

"Pg. 138 - Par. f. ...Observerstated that when the UFO was tiltedso that he could see the undersidethat he observed a small, narrow,rotating beam of light which beganat the center of the . underside ofthe object and ran to-the outsideedge of the object Officials in theG-2 office at El Toro [Marine BaseCalifornia] stated that the light line

Heflin's first photo of UFO takenthrough windshield of his truck.

Second photo taken through Heflin's rightdoor window.

£ ̂ ^^

Third photo through rightdoor window as object began to movenorth.

was clearly visible in the originalphoto."

"Pg. 145 - Par. 2...About onehour's conversation ensued with Mr.Heflin's supervisor, Mr.—and one ortwo other officials in the Road De-partment. All vouchedd for Mr.Heflin's character, etc. which isdescribed earlier in this report."

"Pg.145 - Par. 8...Based on theinvestigating officer's conversationswith Mr. Heflin, it appeared thathe was a normal, upright and tolerantcitizen. From all appearances he. isnot attempting to perpetrate a hoax."

Another surprising source , ofsupport for Heflin came from RobertJ. Low, a prominent member of theCondon Committee. Accordingto a Santa Ana newspaper, Low was,"impressed with Heflin's cooperativeattitude and sensible viewpoint.""He certainly isn't the crackpot type,"Low commented. Despite the officialAir Force verdict, .Low termed theHeflin photos "among the top fouror five items of photographic evidencein existence" on UFOs.

The UFO which Rex Heflin saw andphotographed was only one of manythat visited Orange County duringAugust of 1965, the same time periodother parts of the nation were exper-iencing flaps of their own. Sometimeduring the first week of August 19658

two .women and a child observed anobject which was identical or nearlyidentical to the Heflin object, anoutstanding and well-documentedcase occurring in Sherman Oaks,California, about 30 miles northwestof Heflin's sighting location.

Another sensational low altitudesighting also occurred during thefirst week of August 1965 about15 or 20 miles from the area of Heflin'ssighting. Viewed by numerous wit-nesses, the UFO was a brilliantlylighted disc with a dome top whichsilently hovered above high tensionwires bordering the Santa Ana Free-way, as cars lined up, parked on theshoulder and some persons evenscrambled up the embankment toget a closer look, the UFO movedvery slowly slightly above the wires.One mont later, on September 4, 1967a private pilot flying near the ElToro Marine Corps Air Station spotteda "saucer"-like craft which shone likepolished aluminum. He was not alone;two passengers in his Piper Cherokeeshared the sighting with him.

These reports of UFO sightings inand near Santa Ana during the sametime period as the Heflin sightingshow clearly that the Heflin UFOwas not an isolated one. in fact,it was one of many described by in-dependent witnesses which showed

Last photo taken by HeWn,outside his truck as UFO suddenly shotstraight up, leaving this strange vapor InIts wake. , . _

s. V

a strong resemblance to the UFO thatHeflin saw and photograhed.

During our first interviews withRex Heflin, he told us about a crewof surveyors working near the SantaAna Freeway at the time he tookthe pictures of the object. We triedto locate the members of this surveycrew, but I realize we did not putsufficient effort into it. Obviouslythey did not report the-• sightingfor the same reason Rex did notreport it, and for the same reasonthat the vast majority of witnesseseverywhere prefer to remain silent.

years after Heflin's sightingI received confirmation of the crew Iof surveyors working near the Free-way, including the name of thecrew's supervisor. This lead is beingfollowed up by a MUFON memberwhose professional experience in-cludes searching for missing persons.

We have lived a. long time withthe Heflin case, and apparentlythe work isn't over yet. But we cannotlet the statement that the Heflinphotos are "fraudulent" go unchal-lenged. This patently false attackupon Heflin, eleven years late, withno attempt to check with the originalinvestigators seems very curious.Is it an example of "debasement ofthe strongest cases"? Or is it merelyrank ineptitude?

UFOIogy, Religion, and DeceptionBy Barry H. Downing

One element which constant-ly hovers over UFO research isthe issue of deception. Peoplesay they see somethng, whichwe call a UFO, and which manyof us have concluded is somekind of reality from anotherworld. But, are we being de-ceived? The issue of deceptionhas important ramificationsfrom the point of view of theBiblical religion.

1) Readers of the UFO Jour-nal are deeply indebted toPhilip J. Klass for his time-consuming research in the Tra-vis Walton case, published inthe July and August, 1967,issues of the Journal. WhileKlass has not proven beyonddoubt that the Walton case is afraud, it is clear that theevidence in favor of the fraudtheory is strong.

Thus, the first thing thatfaces us in UFO research is thereliability of the witnesses. Arethey trying deliberately to de-ceive us? In UFO research,especially if we hope that UFOsare some kind of reality fromanother world, we are vulner-able to being "taken in" by agood UFO story because wedesperately want to get at thebottom of the UFO mystery,and hope that the latest report,no matter how fantastic, maybe true because we want it to betrue.

In the field of religion, thisproblem is very old. There havebeen traveling evangelists in theUnited States, who have claim-ed to have "Healing Powers"and other types of supernaturalgifts. Maybe some have, but it

is also clear that this has beenan area of much fraud. Manypeople want to believe in pro-phets and miracle workers.

The Bible tells the story ofhow one old prophet deceivedanother prophet .nto coming tohis house for dinner against thewill of God by saying, "I alsoam a prophet as you are, and anangel spoke to me by the wordof the Lord saying, 'Bring himback with you into your housethat he may eat bread anddrink water'." (I Kings 13:18)The young prophet wanted tobelieve in the angel story — hewas hungry. But the old pro-phet had lied.

In the New Testament, Jesuswarns frequently not to be de-ceived by false prophets, butsorting out false and true is noeasy task. Many people thinkJesus was a false prophet — amaster of deception, as HughSchonfield has shown in hiswell known book The PassoverPlot, which argues that Jesusfaked his death on the cross.

In the field of religion, we areused to dealing with the issue offraud, deliberate deception.Many of those scientists work-ing in the UFO field are notused to this. Recently we haveheard of scientists "doctoring"mice to make their experimentsappear to yield results whichwill lead to further governmentfunding, but for the most part,scientists do not work with theconstant fear that they aredeliberately being taken in. Butfraud does go with the UFOterritory, just as surely as itdoes with religion.

Thus, in the UFO field, as inreligion, we must guard againstbeing too quick to believe. Thismeans that we must risk in-sulting those who claim to beUFO witnesses, by questioningthem carefully. We can, per-haps, take away some of thepain of not trusting witnessesby explaining to them thatfraud has been frequent in ourfield, and we must take all pre-cautions to guard against it. Inreligion I say, "I believe in God.Forgive me for being less sureabout you."

The other thing is that wemust not get down on ourselvestoo badly if we are taken inonce in awhile by fraud. Aboxer who gets into the ringexpects to take a few punches.He doesn't want to. He guardsagainst it. But if he can't takepunches, he had better get intoanother line of work. We in theUFO field must guard againstfraud, but we should not be toodiscouraged if we have been"taken in" by the Walton case.We have to take the risk ofbeing "taken" by the TravisWaltons, because, of course,the case might be true. It mightprovide the key to the truthabout UFOs. So this type of "deception" problem is one wehave to live with if we want tokeep trying to uncover the UFOmystery.

2) A second aspect of the"deception" problem is that aUFO observer may be sincere,but he himself may have beendeceived. This deception mayhave been accidental, or delib-erate. If deliberate, it may have

been of human, or superhumanorigin.

a) The United States Gov-ernment, in its explanation ofthe UFO problem, has, for themost part, developed a "naturaldeception" theory of UFOs.The usual term for this is"misidentification of naturalphenomena." In other words,the UFO observer reports see-ing what he thinks is a UFO, areality perhaps from anotherworld, but instead he has seen aweather balloon glowing in thesky, a shooting star, swamp gas,airplane landing lights, or asone scientist speculated, maybeeven clusters of flying antswhich were giving off an elec-trical charge.

Most scientists who do notbelieve UFOs are from anotherworld start with the assumptionthat if the observer is sincere,then he has been "deceived" bynatural phenomena. PhilipKlass, author of UFOs Ex-plained, has this underlyingthesis behind all his work. Inthe case of most UFO objects inthe sky, this works out fairlywell. There are so many thingsin the sky — stars, plane lights,etc., at night, and birds, planes,balloons, clouds, etc., in theday, not to mention esotericsubjects such as plasma andatmospheric distortions, thatalternate plausible explana-tions for most UFOs which arein fact flying can be offered. Ina sense, after the horse has beenstolen, it is anyone's guess whohas it.

When UFOs are on theground, men like Klass tend toassume the possibility of fraud,and often this thesis apparentlyproves to be true, as he so wellargues in his analysis of theWalton case.

We in the UFO field do have10

to be careful of the "naturaldeception" of the UFO ob-server. But, at the same time, Ido not believe we should adoptthe thesis of Klass, that allUFO reports can be explainedas either natural or deliberatedeception. This means that ifsomething new did happen — ifwe did confront a reality fromanother world — we couldnever admit it, because we weretoo busy "explaining it away."

We have a similar problem inthe field of religion. It is called"demythologizing." There aremany in the field of religionwho do not believe in the pos-sibility of the miraculous. Theybelieve all miracles are myths.Thus Schonfield, mentionedabove, cannot believe the resur-rection of Jesus is a true story.It must be a plot, a fraud.

The relation between "de-mythologizing" in the UFOfield and in religion is wellillustrated in the work of thelate Dr. Donald H. Menzel ofHarvard. Menzel assumed thatall UFOs could be explainedaway as misidentification of na-tural phenomena. In an articleby Menzel entitled "UFOs —The Modern Myth," publishedin the book UFOs: A ScientificDebate, edited by Carl Saganand Thornton Page, Menzelhas a section entitled "FlyingSaucers of the Bible." Withease, Menzel explains the burn-ing Bush of Moses as an ex-ample of "St. Elmo's Fire," andthe parting of the Red Sea as amirage.

It is probably possible toexplain away most of the mira-cles in the Bible as mistakennatural phenomena, or as someform of fraud. Also, we canexplain away most UFO reportsas some form of deception.

It is possible. But it is also

dangerous. Suppose that hid-den in the midst of all thisdeception is something ex-tremely important to everyhuman on the face of the earth.It would be unwise to allow thefrustration caused by all thispossibility for "deception" tocause us to throw out either thereligious, or the UFO, babywith the bath.

b) An additional dimensionto the deception of the observeris the possibility that he really isseeing what he thinks he sees, jbut what he sees has beencontrived by another human ibeing in order to deceive him.

A common example of thisinvolves stories of students whotie a flash light to a heliumfilled balloon, and let it float upinto the night sky. Sure enough,many fooled observers call in aUFO report.

One can speculate on an evenmore elaborate example. Onemight suppose that the U.S.government, or some govern-ment of the world, has built ourUFOs, and has had crews ofmidgets in strange uniformsland on highways where theycan be observed and reported,for the very purpose of causingthe people of the world to thinkwe are being visited by beingsfrom another world. They jwould then leak a rumor thatthey are carrying on a secret „investigation, while publicly de-nying it. For what purpose? Tokeep the public in favor of thespace program? Who knows? Iam not suggesting this is hap-pening, but is shows furtherpotential for another layer onthe onion of deception.

Again, the parallel to this inthe religion field is the theory ofSchonfield that the crucifixionand resurrection of Jesus wasstaged by him, and a few

disciples, all for the purpose offooling the public. I don'taccept this theory, but it illus-trates how this dimension of thedeception problem in the UFOfield has a counterpart inreligion.

c) The final aspect of theproblem of deception is in asense the ultimate one. Theproblem goes something likethis: UFOs really exist, andthey are operated by beingsfrom another world. But thepurpose of these beings is im-possible to understand (or near-ly so) because they are delib-erately deceiving us concerningtheir purpose.

Richard Hall has raised thisproblem, and Ron Westrum,MUFON consultant in soci-ology, responded with an article"Matching Wits with Extra-terrestrials" in the June 1975issue of Skylook. Westrumargues that UFO investigationis more like a criminal investi-gation than a scientific investi-gation, with which I agree,except that to tie UFOs with"criminal" is prejudicial. Afterall, do we have much proof theyhave done any harm? Are theyguilty of anything worse thanexisting, and watching?

Hall had argued that if UFOsare trying to deceive us onpurpose, then we might as wellquit. Westrum said, "To theETIs are often attributed manycharacteristics formerly reserv-ed for God: in particular,omnisience and omnipotence.If one assumes these attributesare indeed possessed by theETIs, then if we ARE beingdeceived by them, throwing inthe towel would be justified."Westrum then went on to arguethat probably UFO beings arefallible and vulnerable, and,

therefore, we have every right tocontinue our search, our at-tempt to see through theirdeception.

I am not so easily discourag-ed. I would say that even ifUFOs have the deceptive powerof God himself, I still want tosee if I can figure out his game.After all, even if God decided todeceive us, it might be for apurpose; psychologists makerats run mazes. A maze isdeliberate deception by a godfigure. If the rat does not try tofind his way through the maze,God will not be pleased!

A fruitful approach is to askthe question: if a UFO realityfrom another world is trying todeceive us, what is the purposeof this deception?

I believe Jacques Vallee'srecent book The Invisible Col-lege makes good progress inanswering this question. Vallee,who through the years has beenscientific in his method, in thisbook winds up with an es-sentially religious conclusionabout the purpose of UFObe-ings. His final statement con-cerns "The Next Form ofReligion."

Vallee offers the theory thatUFO beings have made selectedcontact with human beings overthe past centuries. They havedone this, however, under co-ver, or at least, in the back-ground of human conscious-ness. What is the purpose ofthese contacts? Vallee says theUFO beings are exercising akind of control over humanhistory. He uses the analogy ofa heating control system in ahome in which a furnace comeson if the house becomes toocold, and the air conditionercomes on if it becomes too hot.The UFO beings thus exercise

some control — but not ab-solute control — over humandestiny. They control withinlimits.

I like this theory, and amplesed that Vallee sees its es-sentially religious nature. Whatthen is the purpose of thesebeings carrying on a kind ofcontrol of human history, but atthe same time remaining "hid-den" in part, and perhapstrying deliberately to deceive usconcerning their role and pur-pose?

It could be, within the "tem-perature limits" of perhaps 67to 72 degrees, to maximize thehuman, experience of freedomin these limits.

What is the purpose ofhuman life? Is there any pur-pose? Is there any God, anyreality who made it all with anypurpose in mind? These are thetraditional questions of relig-ion. Mankind has yet to agreeon the answers to these ques-tions. There have been answersoffered. The Biblical religionhas been provided as part ofthis answer. Yet this answer canonly be accepted on "faith,"that is, there is the possibilitythat those who accept the bib-lical religion have been de-ceived.

It has been my theory — myguess, and I may have beendeceived — that the samereality is behind our genuinemodern UFO reports, and thebiblical religion. The God ofthe Bible, after all, hides be-hind some kind of screen. He isnot out in the open for everyoneto see. But there are rumors he,on occasion, sends his angels —if you can believe the reports.

All of this brings us full circleto the Travis Walton case.Klass has done an excellent job.

11

of collecting evidence in favorof deliberate fraud by Walton.But, of course, Klass has notproven fraud. Walton has notadmitted fraud. ~

Suppose that the UFO realitypicks its "abduction" targetscarefully, it picks humans whodo not have too good a reputa-tion. It picks a man like TravisWalton with a desire to betaken aboard a UFO, a manwho has flirted with drugs, andthen sends him back to earth,with an abduction story, butriot an> air tight story. How'sthat for cover?

Ernest P. Moyer has, in fact,argued, in his book The Day ofCelestial Visitation, that UFO

"contactee targets are carefullychosen, in such a way that theywill tell their story, because theyhave an inner need to tell it, butthey will not be believed. Hementions George Adamski andDaniel Fry as examples.

My personal view is thatKlass is right, and Walton isprobably a fraud. But the otherpossibility is there, the possi-bility that the UFO beings havecontacted us, and covered theirtrail beautifully again.

There is one piece of evi-dence, which -Klass does notappear to examine carefully,which might point to the possi-bility that Walton does not tella reliable story precisely be-cause the UFO beings tamper-ed with the evidence. Accordingto Klass, of the six men whoreported seeing Travis Waltonrunning toward the UFO, nonefailed a lie detector test ad-ministered by C.E. Gilson ofthe Arizona Department ofPublic Safety of Phoenix, andfive were judged to "pass" it.This would be pretty strongevidence in favor of Walton12

coming in close contact with theUFO reality; Furthermore, itwould be strong evidenceagainst mass conspiracy tocommit fraud, which is Klass'sthesis.

I believe that any furtherinvestigation of the Walton caseshould focus on those otherthan Walton who were wit-nesses to his apparent ab-duction. If their testimonystood up under further exam-ination by a competent poly-graph operator, where wouldwe be?

We would be left with thepossibility Walton appeared tobe abducted but wasn't, by thepossibility that he was ab-ducted, but is lying about whathe saw, he was abducted and istelling some mixture of truthand falsehood about what hesaw, is really telling what hesaw, but has been programmedby the UFO reality in such away that he thinks he is lyingabout what he saw, or that hereally saw what he says he saw,but it was all "staged," forsome mysterious purpose of de-ception, or combination ofdeception and revelation, aspart of what Vallee calls thecontrol process.

Would God lie to us? Or,more likely, the devil? Doesanything turn out to be "real"when you get to the bottom ofthe UFO story? Or are we likethe physicists who are in searchof the "atom," who keeplooking for the "smallest" par-ticle of energy, only to discoveratoms can divide into protons,neutrons, electrons, and these,in turn, broken into "quarks,"and quarks into who knowswhat?

The difference is that physi-cists can get government grants

to go chasing after quarks.Students of UFOs just have tokeep going on faith. But if itweren't for deception, would wereally love truth?

To many, the idea that Godwould deceive people delib-erately seems unethical, and,therefore, ungodly. Whateverthe ethics of it, it seems firmly apart of the biblical God.

The disciples of Jesus askedhim why he taught in parables.He answered: "To you it hasbeen given to know the secretsof the kingdom of heaven, butto them it has not been given."Furthermore, "This is why Ispeak to them in parables, be-cause seeing they do not see,and hearing they do not hear,nor do they understand." (Mat-thew 13:10-13) This was all tofulfill the words of the prophetIsaiah, who had said that menwould see God in action, butnot understand what they saw.

Thus, Old Testament andNew Testament testify to aGod, who as part of his plan,confounds, fools, blinds, de-ceives and confuses the wisemen of the day. The biblicalrationale for this is that Godwants to crush the pride of thewise men of each age.

If UFOs are in fact the angelsof God, doing their thing, Godhas indeed done it again. Afterall, who among the Christianwise men has suggested thatUFOs carry the angels of God?Needless to say, I have sentmany articles to this effect toChristian magazines, and havebeen quietly rejected.

But, of course, maybe I amconfused, deceived, and deserveto be rejected. No matter howyou look at it, deception lookslike a good bet, except thatdeception can be deceiving.

UFO Sighted from Police Helicopterby Ann D ruff el

On February 2, 1977 Sgt. RogerStevens of the Glendale Police Depart-ment called. There has been a stand-ing agreement between Sgt. Stevensand SKYNET (MUFON) for abouttwo years that if a worthwhile sighting

.occurred over Glendale, he wouldcall us. He informed me that a Glen-dale police helicopter had sightedan unusual object the previous eveningFebruary 1, 1977 (Tuesday) at8:40 p.m.

I spoke with one of the two wit-nesses, Officer Richard Quinn, whohad given the report to Sgt. Stevens,his immediate supervisor. He wasinterviewed initially by phone. Thefollowing is his statement, para-phrased as exactly as possible fromnotes taken during the conversation:

"I and Officer Robert Doom wereflying police patrol in the Glendalearea, southbound near Gloriettaand Canada Blvd. We were at 2000feet mean sea level, about 1100 feetoff the ground.

"We saw what at first appearedto be a fixed wing aircraft flying about100 mph northbound. It was about200 feet below us oh our left. Sincethe object only had one yellowish-white, bright light and no otheridentifiable navigation lights, 1 turnedthe helicopter in a left turn toinvestigate. The light came up toour level and began an orbitingmaneuver with us.

"As the helicopter went into aleft-hand orbit, the object followedsuit. For one to two full minutesthe helicopter orbited with the objectmaintaining a perfect 180 anglefrom their chopper, going the samespeed (60miles per hour) and at the

same altitude as the helicopter,maintaining a distance of 300-500 feet.

"The object looked like a longcylinder, 10-15 feet high and 5-8 feetwide. Its one light was bright yellow-ish-white. One one occasion it looked

,as if the object was coming towardus. I quickly turned the helicopterto the right and the object seemed torecede to its original 300-500 feetdistance. We continued orbiting.

"After one to two minutes the objectstarted rising. It climbed about500 feet and started away in thedirection of Chevy Chase Canyon

* ' _ • _ _ . ' '(southeast). The object appearedto turn on this maneuver and moment-arily (1-2 seconds) it appeared asif it had two or a dual .light. Thenthe light arid the entire object vanish-ed. It did not disappear into thedistance as if it put on speed. Onemoment it was plainly visible; the nextinstant the light and cylinder werenot there.

"The sighting lasted 4-5 minutes inall. Neither Officer Doom or I noticedany effect on the helicopter motor,controls or gauges. The radio con-tinued to work without static. Wetalked about the encounter for anhour afterwards, trying to figure outwhat the object could have been.

"The light was positioned directlyat the bottom and sent a glare upwardsonto the cylinder, showing its outline.The cylinder was dark black, againstan average clear sky with a near-fullmoon. I was stunned at the encounter.I never believed in UFOs before,but now I believe that people havereally seen things.''

At the investigator's suggestion,Officer Quinn that afternoon called

the Hollywood-Burbank Airport toinquire if the chopper and/or theobject had been caught on radar.He learned that the chopper wasoutside the airport's five mile radarlimit and that it had not beenseen on radar at the time in question.FOLLOWUP: On February 3 OfficersDoom and Quinn were interviewedin person at their ground rest quartersat the police heliport, 1000 Flower St.Present on behalf of MUFON andCUFOS were Ann and Charles Druffelland Dr. William Hassel. The wit-nesses were interviewed for twohours, and a 90-minute tape recordingwas made. " • .

Officer Doom fully confirmed .OfficerQuinn's description of the object andthe encounter. They drew sketches,copies of which are attached to thisreport. Some new information con-cerned the witnesses' sighting of"struts" which were seeminglyattached to the object's cylindricalbody. The two witnesses saw these"struts" in different poistions onthe body. This could be due totwo causes: 1) that the angle atwhich Quinn was viewing the objectwas sufficiently different from Doom'svantage point that the struts seemedto be projecting away from the bodyrather than closed in onto the bodyor 2) that the object had, in reality,four or more "struts" and the twowitnesses viewed or horned in ondifferent ones, not noticing the others.An interesting fact here is that if thetwo sketches are put together (seedrawing), the result is very similar toa UFO reported from Bebedouro,Brazil in the FSR Vol. 19, No. 6November-December 1973. In an

13

Officer Quinn1s sketchof the UFO. The bodywas black with a yellowlight at the bottom.'"Struts" were seen pro-jecting downwards.

Officer Doom's sketchshows UFO with "struts"pulled in against UFObody. He reported thesame color configurat-ion as Officer Quinn.

Composite sketch byAnn Druffel shows feat-ures of both drawingsand a marked similaritywith a UFO seen overBebedouro, Brazil, -sev-eral years ago.

G 'i""t-.-K.r r\ A i rt E N D A L E

i «£*> -. -. i>-.,?v,*/, '<«' V - - r ' ••' -^ S?' --'.'^ -'

fV-.--:--̂ -O -1:>-:? ̂ -̂.,...,..\|-> '- r̂ '.-. '. •" V

/̂

^ -/̂

attempt at correlation, it is pointedout here that the Bebedouro object wasabout 2 meters wide and about4 meters high, corresponding gen-erally with the Glendale object,and the color was similar.

Also, there is possible correlaionhere with the Yorba Linda, Californiaphoto. This object had four thin"legs" protruding from the bottom,and there is evidence that one "leg"had been retracted or otherwise"folded up" out of view before thephoto was taken.

The transcript is cut short becauseof a malfunction within the machine.In addition to the dialogue in thetranscript, the witnesses statedthat they did not notice any physicalor physiological Affects from thesighting—no reddened eyes, etc.

Dr. Hassel went over the helicopterconcerned with a compass, comparingthe results with another helicopterstationed nearby. he compassneedle deflected in different directionson the two craft, but there was noevidence of any meaningful magneticresidual effect on the helicopter fromthe encounter. Most of the heli-copter's structure was of magnesiumand aluminum, and very little steelwas used in the manufacture.

On February 4th CUFOS wasinformed of the sighting. AllanHendry stated that he would try to seeif any meteorological radar recordshad by chance captured the images,or partial images of the helicopterand/or the object's circling man-euvers. He also stated that he wouldcontact complete radar coverage forSouthern California regardingthe sighting.

On February 9th the investigatordiscussed the case once more withMr. Hendry. He had contacted allavailable radar facilities up anddown the coast and none of them had

any confirming data on the sighting.Mr. Hendry raised the possiblity

that the object could have been alarge helium-filled balloon, perhapsfrom a private source such as pol-lution research. He suggested thepossiblity that the witnesses were,in fact, circling around a balloonslowly rising up into the air, ratherthan the object actually foljowing themaround in a circular orbit. He hadlearned that the winds on the night inquestion were light and variable,generally northerly (20-30 degreeseast and west of north), at 3 knots.Since the object seemed to movesoutheast before disappearing, if ithad been a balloon it could havecaught a northwesterly breeze. Also,he wondered about the witnessbeing able to see the light (postionedon the bottom of the object) when theobject was 200 feet below them. Thefollowing facts would seem to workagainst the balloon theory:

1. the object, even at 200 feet loweraltitude, was clearly visible to bothpilot and observer; therefore, it wouldhave had to be at such an angle thatthe lightg would be visible evenwhen at a lower altitude, even at thebottom of a solid black cylinder.

2. The statement that the objectwas proceeding northward at 100 milesper hour (against the wind).

However, since the balloon theorycannot at this time .be completelydiscounted, continued efforts will bemade to locate witness on the groundespecially persons who might haveviewed the circling maneuver des-cribed. A notice is appearing in theGlendale Ledger on February 9thasking for ' 'witnesses to <j > aerialobject, cylindrical with a Igrjje light,on Feb. 1st, about 8:40 p.m."

The possibility that a meteorologicalradar record would confirm a truecircling maneuver with the object isbeing checked out by Mr. Hendry.

1976 MUFONSYMPOSIUMPROCEEDINGS

(84 pages) ,

"Swamp Gas Plus Ten - And Counting" by'Dr. J. AllenHynek, Director of the Center for UFO Studies.

"Canadian UFO Residuum" by Henry H. McKay, MUFONCanadian Regional Director.

'.'Heavenly Chariots And Flying Saucers" by Dr. Ted Peters,MUFON State Section Director for Central South Carolina.-

"UFOIogy and the Digital Computer - A Lesson In TheEvaluation Of UFO Secondary Evidence" by William H.Spaulding, Director of Ground Saucer Watch, Inc.

"The Operation ARGUS Concept - A New Look At UFOEvent Sharing And UFO Data Sharing" by Ray Stanford,Director of Project Starlight International.

"Analysis Of Humanoid Reports" by David F. Webb,MUFON Eastern Regional Director and Co-Chairman of theMUFON Humanoid Study Group.

"Must We Stand Idly By? Social Reaction To UFO Reports"by Dr. Ron Westrum, MUFON Consultant in Sociology.

The 1976 Proceedings'is availablefrom MUFON, 103 Oldtowne Rd.,Sequin, Texas 78155 for $5.00 post-paid.

MUFON103 OLDTOWNE RD.S E G U I N , TX 78155

Phones-

512-379-9216(MUFON headquarters and

Walt Andrus' home)

15

ANCIENT

ASTRONAUTS?Did our planet receive visits from

extraterrestrials in prehistoric or earlytimes? There are those who say yesand those who say no. At the timeof writing I regard both positions asindefensible.

We have no unquestionable proof ofsuch visits, in my opinion. Nor dowe have any reason for excluding thepossibility of such visits. To bedogmatic about the question of ancientastronauts either way is therefore toinvite the contempt of rational sch-olars. What is evidently required isa sincere approach to the hypothesis ofextraterrestrial contact with Earth.

A hypothesis is, after all, no morethan a proposition to be used as abasis for further study and reasoning.As with other areas of scientific in-quiry, pursuing the ancient astronauthypothesis may lead to sufficientprogress that it becomes an establish-ed scientific discipline. On the otherhand it may flourish for a while andthen become no more than a historiccuriosity. No true scientist will objectto either development as in eitherevent we shall all end up the wiser forthe experience.

The above preamble is by way ofappealing to anyone who gets involvedin the subject to take it seriouslyas a subject. Too many books andarticles have claimed to have proventhe reality of extraterrestrial contactwhen such proof has not, in my view,16

BY STUART W. GREENWOODDEPT. OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLANDCOLLEGE PARK, MD 20742

been forthcoming. Too many booksand articles have attacked the hypo-thesis on the grounds that the so-called evidence offered is insubstantialthereby throwing out the baby withthe bathwater.

I already, have five different booksdevoted almost exclusively to atackingthe book "Chariots of the Gods?"by Erich von Daniken. It really istime the critics spread their net widerif they wish to perform a service tocontemporary ideas. To this end Ioffer the following list jof my favoritehalf-dozen books dealing directly withthe ancient astronaut theme.

I.Erich von Daniken, "In Search ofAncient Gods", SouvenirPress, 1973.

2.Josef F. Blumrich, "The Space-ships of Ezekiel", BantamBooks, 1973.

3.Max H. Flindt and Otto 0. Binder,"Mankind-Child of the Stars",Fawcett Publications, 1974.

4.W. Raymond Drake, "Gods andSpacemen Throughout History",Henry Regnery, 1975.

S.Zecharia Sitchin, "The 12thPlanet", Stein and Day, 1976.

6. Peter White, "The Past isHuman", Angus andRobertson, 1974.

The last-named book is in fact acritical treatment of the hypothesis

distinguished from the other "anti"texts in its generally restrained andobjective approach. In the othercritical books there is all too frequentlya concentration on a few specific andeasily dismissed ideas that have beenoffered in some of the ancient astro-naut books. For my part, I have neverimagined that the markings on theNazca plain in Peru showed that itwas an extraterrestrial landing site,and it is time the suggestion was laidto rest by both proponents and criticsalike. There are more promisingindications from the past that deserveour • consideration and I will offer afew possiblities that have attracted myown interest:

l.The symbols on the Nazca plainwere formed to attract the attentionof overflying vehicles approaching alanding site to the East (Tiahuanaco?.

2. Cast gold pendants from Colum-bia, South America dated at around1000AD, exhibit many features onewould expect to observe on one-waysupply vehicles from orbit designedto be flown down to a landing.

3.Single-eyed figures among therock paintings on the Tassili Plateauin the Sahara Desert may be connectedwith the cyclops myth. The TassiliPlateau lies close to the Tropic ofCancer-locations close to eitherTropic are ideally positioned for launch

base operations for flights within theSolar System.

4. Many of the early centers ofcultural development lie close to theTropic of Cancer, notably the rivervalleys East of the Mediterranean.They are suitably placed for inter-palnetary flight operations.

5.One the American continent,the Tropic of Cancer passes throughMexico. The myth of Quetzalcoatl(the winged serpent) is one of themost suggestive in relation to theancient astronaut hypothesis. Thereare exciting possibilities relating thesymbol to the appearance of Floridaand the South-Eastern United Stateswhen viewed from space duringan approach to a landing.

The Ancient Astronaut Society,founded in 1973 by Gene Phillips,an Illinois attorney, prints the invita-tion "Come Search With Us" beneaththe title of its bi-monthly publication"Ancient Skies". That is surelythe right spirit in which to approachthe question we are considering.Just as it would be absurd to claimpremature proof of extraterrestrialcontact so it would be absurd tocondemn the whole concept justbecause we interpret a particularmyth or artifact as a purely imagina-tive expression.

So let us join in a search for our past,including a search,for evidence ofextraterrestrial visitors. It may tellus much about our present.

© 1977 by Stuart W. GreenwoodAll rights reserved

Follow-Up at Asservantby Richard Hall

MUFON International Coordinator

from Nostradamus N.O.184, October 15. 1975.

In the Journal for July 1976(No. 104), I summarized onPage 7 a report from the Frenchtabloid Nostradamus describ-ing a huge disc that emitted acone-shaped satellite object.French UFO investigators wereinvited to comment on the case,which allegedly took placeSeptember 26, 1975 at Asser-vent, a small village nearMaubege. Because of the re-ported qualifications of thewitness and the apparentlycareful observation, the caseseemed to be a good one.

Now Jean Bastide of Aix-en-Provence, France (who will soonbe a regional representative forMUFON) informs me thatsome French investigators havedoubts about the case. Bastidereceived a letter dated 20December 1976 from ReneFouere of GEPA (69 rue de laTombe-Issoire, 75014, Paris)with the following comment:

"Unfortunately, Mr. Jean-Marie Bigorne (a well-knownFrench UFO investigator), whohad made a persistent invest-igation of the case of Asservent,has recently sent us a very longreport of his investigation, andhis conclusion is that theobservation is without value, itseems that deluded people mis-took the flames of blast fur-naces, lighting the night in thedistance, for a strange object.Anyhow, no flying saucerhere!"

The details of the sighting,including electromagnetic ef-fects on the car, would seem tocast doubt on this interpret-ation unless Nostradamus hasdistorted the facts. Therefore,we hope to obtain more detailsof the GEPA investigation andmore information about thenow-disputed reliability ofNostradamus. -i-

Lucius Parish

In Others5 WordsUFO-related material is not

as frequent in the weeklytabloids these days (or not inthe ones I read, at least).However, two recent issues ofNational Enquirer have con-tained such articles. The Feb. 1issue reported on a number ofsightings near Indian Pointnuclear power plant, 30 milesnorth of New York City. Thesesightings were publicized by thewire services soon after theyoccurred in August and Sep-tember, 1976. -The Feb. 8Enquirer told of a poll of airlinepilots which indicated that 46%of the 88 pilots questionedbelieved UFOs may be of extra-terrestrial origin. Ten of thepilots reported personal sight-ings of UFOs and four of theseaccounts were presented in thearticle.

In addition to the profusionof newsstand magazines onUFOs and related subjects,there are some more-or-less"private" newsletters and bul-letins which carry very goodand interesting information.One of these, which has im-proved markedly in the courseof its four issues, is AnomalyResearch Bulletin, edited andpublished by David Fideler(7098 Edinburgh Drive, Lam-bertville, Ml 48144). Perhapsthe highlight of ARB's #4 issue,recently released, is a report ona "spook light" investigation inNew Jersey which was con-ducted by Vestigia, a recently-formed Fortean organization.ARB is available by subscrip-tion for $3.00 per six issues andis well worth the money. It is18

published bi-monthly and backcopies of the #2 and #3 issuesare available at 25c and 50c,respectively. —An excellent tri-weekly publication from Cana-da is the Res Bureaux Bulletin,produced by the highly capableFortean researcher, Mr. X (yes,that is his legal name!). It is asix-page effort which covers theentire field of anomalousevents. There is no actualsubscription price for RBB, butdonations of clippings andother materials are accepted as"payment." Mr. X's address isBox 1598, Kingston, OntarioK7L 5C8, Canada. —TimChurch's monthly publication,Shadows, is designed as a"newsletter of 'cryptozoology',"meaning that it concentrates onmaterial relating to Bigfoot,water creatures, etc. A goodmixture of articles, clippingsand news notes makes Shadowsworth the 25c per copy Timasks. You might also enclose astamped, self-addressed envel-ope to help him along a bit. Hisaddress is P.O. Box 932, Mis-soula, MT 59807. —The Seekeris the latest entry in this field,being published tri-weekly byRoberta Floyd-Kresse of 6087th Street, Clarkston, WA99403. It is also 25c per issue.Like ARB and RBB, it coversthe full range of Forteana, fromUFO reports to mysteriousdisappearances to cattle muti-lations. Two issues have beenreleased thus far and it prom-ises to become a worthy ad-dition to the ranks of suchpublications.

The March issue of Ancient

Astronauts, like the Januaryissue, contained some veryspeculative material, somewhatoffset by good articles from Dr.Barry Downing and UFO-LOGY editor Bruce Schaffen-berger. Dennis Hauck's edi-torial message in this issue wasalso quite good.

Official UFO for March wasanother good issue, with severalinteresting articles and fea-tures. Errors are inevitable, butthey are kept to a minimumand this magazine still repre-sents one of the best buys on thenewsstands.

The Saga 1977 UFO Annualis on sale as this is beingwritten. It consists almost en-tirely of reprinted materialfrom past issues of UFO Re-port, along with a couple of newcolumns from regular . con-tributors.

The March/April issue ofBeyond Reality has an inter-esting article by Hugh F. Coch-rane on "Religious Scripturesand Ancient Astronauts." Thisissue also contains psychic AlexTanous' ideas relating toUFOs.

The April issue of CosmicFrontiers represents somethingof an improvement over thepast two issues, but it is still abit overpriced at $1.50 perissue. A considerable amount ofUFO/space material may befound in each bi-monthly issue.

An interview with Dr. J.Allen Hynek is scheduled forthe April issue of OUI. Isuppose we can stand onemore!

DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE byWalt Andrus

The Eighth Annual MUFON UFOSYMPOSIUM in Scottsdale, Arizonaon July 16 and 17 at the beautiful Sa-fari Resort Hotel and Convention Cen-ter will feature the following speakers:Thomas M. Gates, Sunnyvale, Calif.;Alvin H. Lawsoln, Ph.D, GardenGrove, Calif.; Bill Pitts, Ft. Smith,Ark.; William F.Hassell, Ph.D, Wood-land Hills, Ca.; James M. McCamp-bell, Belmont, CCalif.; Stanton T.Friedman, Hayward, Calif; andWilliam H. Spaulding, Phoenix, AZ.Advance reservations may be obtainedby writing to GSW/MUFON, 13238North 7th Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85029,for the package price of $16.00 includ-ing the banquet.

Thomas A. Long, former State Sec-tion Director of 2110-43rd Avenue(P.O. Box 167), Meridian, MS 39301has been appointed State Director forMississippi. Roger C. Hight, 6433Longneadow, Corpus Christi, TX78413, a State Section Director since1971 has been reassigned the Countiesof Nueces, Kleberg, San Patricio, andJim Wells. Vicel A. 'Sonne" Herron,506 Beaufort Drive, Augusta, GA30904 has assumed the post of StateSection Director for the Georgia Coun-ties of Richmond, Burke, Jefferson,Columbia, and Duffie.

Joan L. Jeffers and Robert L. Cowellhave become Co-Directors of the Penn-sylvania Center for UFO Research re-placing Stan Gordon who has electedto take a less active role in UFO re-search. Ms. Jeffers, 3408 ParkviewAvenue, Apt. 19, Pittsburgh, PA15312 has been appointed toMUFON's State Section Director forAllegheny, Butler, Beaver, and Wash-ington Counties. Robert L. Cowell,287 Colony Drive, Irwin, PA 15642

will be responsible for Westmoreland,Fayette, Camberia, Indiana andSomerset Counties. Paul C. Cerny,Western Regional Director, hasselected Wayne R. Edmiston, P.O.Box 411, Durham, CA 95938 to be theState Section Director for Butte,and Glenn Counties and Thomas D.Page, 5385 Volkerts Road, Sebastopol,CA 95472 to cover Sonoma and LakeCounties as State Section Director.

Richard H. Hall, InternationalCoordinator, has appointed M. JeanBastide, 5 Avenue Maurice Blondel,13100 Aix-en-Provence, France asRegional Director working withJoachim Fernandez, the MUFONDirector for France.

New Consultants joining MUFON'sadvisory board of Consultants are Dr.Will Franklin, Physics Dept.,State University, Kent, Ohio 44242;Consultant in Paraphysics and Burt L.Monroe, Ph.D, P.O. Box 23447,Anchorage, KY 40223, who is Chair-man, Dept. of Biology at the Univer-sity of Kentucky. Burt becomes aConsultant in Biology. Peter A.Gersten, J.D., c/o Szapiro, 40 ClintonStreet, Brooklyn, NY 11201 has joinedMUFON's Legal Staff in the specialtyof Funding Proposals.

John F. Schuessler, MUFONDeputy Director for Administration,has recommended Peter McNeall,7550 Long Point Road, #87, Houston,TX 77055, as a Research Specialistin Gravitation. John will be featuredspeaker at the Ninth Annual UFO Pic-nic in Carlyle, Illinois on Sunday, June26th, hosted by Rosetta and DickHolmes and sponsored by the UFOStudy Group of Greater St. Louis. TheSkywatch will be Saturday evening,June 25th. Further information may

be secured by writing to Mrs. RosettaHolmes, 1690 Hill Drive, Carlyle,111. 62231. There is no charge forattending this enjoyable affair whichgrows in size every year. Bring foodand your appetite. It will be held atthe Fish Hatchery Park on HighwayU. S. 50 just east of Carlyle.

Curtis Fuller, publisher of FateMagazine and sponsor, has announcedthat the FIRST INTERNATIONALUFO CONGRESS will be held inChicago at the Pick-Congress Hotel,June 24-26. This is exactly 30 yearsafter Kenneth Arnold reported his nowfamous sightings over the CascadeMountains in Washington State.Arnold will lecture and be an honoredguest at the Congress. Other Inter-nationally famous academic author-ities, lay researchers and writers onthe subject have accepted Fuller'sinvitation and will speak such as; BettyHill, James Harder, David M. Jacobs,Coral and James Lorenzen, Dr. J.Allen Hynek, Raymond A. Palmer,Frank Salisbury, R. Leo Sprinkle,Berthold E. Schwarz, and Dr. J.Gordon Melton. Cost for the three-dayCongress will be $30.00 on day ofregistration, or $25. if advance reser-vation are sent to International UFOCongress Ltd., 500 Hyacinth Place,Highland Park, 111. 60035.

Since the MUFON Eighth AnnualUFO Symposium is being held thisyear in the Western Region, some ofyou may like to make plans for the1978 MUFON UFO SYMPOSIUM toheld July 29 and 30th. at the DaytonConvention Center in Dayton, Ohiowith motel facilities at the Stauffer Innand Holiday Inn. Richard Hoffman,Charles Wilhelm, and Len Stringfieldare spearheading the planning.

RECAPPING AND COMMENTINGBy Richard Hall (MUFON International Coordinator)

(tomments in (his month'scolumn are based, in part, onarticles appearing in the Octo-ber 1976 issue, No. 107)

What is a UFO journal allabout, or what should it beabout? The October issue (re-leased in February 1977) strikes

and their theme of "upgradingUFO research" seems to becommanding the respect andattention of news media andofficials who could influencethings for the better.

Another name for what isafoot might be "internal housecleaning" — eliminating care-

me as coming pretty close to a less and inexpert investigationsmodel of good content. Some and unwarranted theory-spin-

withinvery unfortunate typographicalerrors have detracted from theoverall quality of recent issues,but hopefully .more carefulproofreading will eliminate thisduring the trying hurry-upperiod of rushing to get backon schedule.

The wide range of detailedcase reports (with photographsand diagrams), internationalnews, special effect cases, con-troversial abduction and time-lapse cases, columns and gen-eral newsnotes provide a cov-erage that is, first and foremost,informative. That, with asprinkling of judgments byexperienced UFO researchers,is what it should be all about.UFO publications presumablyreflect the ultimate purposes ofUFO groups, most of whichprofess to be in the business ofbetter informing an ill-inform-ed public.

UFO Conferences &UFO Groups

The recent spate of UFOconferences world-wide is anoteworthy social phenomenon.I think it indicates a wide-spread discontent with officialnon-explanations and a fer-ment that could lead to somenew and possibly more mean-ingful governmental initiatives.The refreshingly high caliber ofthe participants, on the whole,

nmg from within our ownranks. If we hope to be takenseriously, that is certainly anessential and long-overdue ex-ercise. Surely the mish-mosh ofpseudo-science that constitutes"UFOlogy" has been a handi-cap in trying to call attention toserious facts.

The other major handicaphas been the sometimes ludi-crous image of UFO groups assquabbling, self-importantclubs bent on glorifying them-selves. The cross-group cooper-ation evident in many of theconferences is helping to coun-teract this image, an imagewhich delights UFO skepticsand provides cork for theirpop-guns. Still, 1 doubt thatthere is any field of humanendeavor for which one organ-ization or society commandssole support.

Pluralism and a healthy formof competition which prods thecompetitors into producing bet-ter products is a natural anddesirable state of human af-fairs. Among other things to begained in this way are differentperspectives and insights, and apreventative for dogmatism (ormonopoly). There is a goodanalogy here with businessfirms, who generally have thegood sense to stop short ofdestroying the "product" or

alienating the "market." Busi-nesses recognize the import-ance of banding together inassociations designed to furthertheir common goals while pre-serving their individuality andintegrity.

The parallel question in thebusiness world is whether corp-orations owe sole allegience tothemselves and stockholders, orwhether they have a "socialresponsibility" transcendingsuccess measured by profits.The theory is that, in a largersense, corporations serve so-ciety and better it, and thatcapitalism is a means to the endof a better society. However farsome corporations may departfrom that ideal, the analogyholds for UFO groups: Do theyserve only themselves, or dothey have a larger purpose inserving society?

IMark R. Herbstritt

stronomyNotes

MARCH 1977

MERCURY - It is too close to thesun for observation, superior conjunc-tion being on the 16th.

VENUS - It reaches greatest bril-liancy at the beginning of the month,but as it approaches the sun it is nowperceptibly lower in the sky at sunsetand sets within three hours (on the15th). By the end of the month it isvery close to the western horizonat sunset.

MARS - It is in the morning sky butstill too close to the sun for easyobservation.

JUPITER - In Taurus it is past themeridian at sunset and sets beforemidnight.

SATURN - In Cancer, it is well upin the east at sunset and sets beforemidnight.