Number 110 THE MUFON JANUARY 1977

UFO JOURNALFounded 1967 $1.00

I OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF MUFONj MUTUAL UFO NETWORK, INC.l

.:• ~ I-- n ;:.,; V :s:\ $ 5' fe-^^ ^W&?£&-. . . . . . . . . . f-^--":^v.v:^;^. •=

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Drawing by Mona Stafford based on her recaJJ the day following hypnosis, when asked to explain the light at the end of a tunnel

in what appeared to be a volcano. The female on the table was not identified; the huntanoids were described as small and in white garb.

I MUFON UFOJOURNAL

103 Oldtowne Rd.Seguin, Texas 781 55

Dennis William HauckUllOI

Waltoi H. AndrusDim. lor ol MUFON

Paul Cernyl'i ..'r, o'-v.in Pub l i r i t y

Kc. -v .Dr Bony DowningReligion and UFOs

Ann DrutfelCalitoinia Report

t.ucius ParishBooks Penodicals'History

Marjorie Fishtx i io ierrestr io l Life

Man GordonTioalures & UFOs

Richard Hall

Associate Editor

Mark HerbstritlAstronomy

Roset ta HolmesPromotion'Publicity

David A. SchrothSt Louis-Mass Media

John F SchuesslerUFO Propulsion

Dwight ConnellyNorma E. ShortEditor-Publishers Emeritus

Len StringfieldCommentary

The MUFON UFO lOURNUl is published month!; bj theMutual UFO Network, Seguin. Tens. Subscription ittes:(8.00 per year in U.S.; 19.00 pel year foieign. Copyright1976 t>r Mutuil UFO Netfork. Second class postage paidit Seguin. Teias. Retum undeliierable copies ID: MUFONUFO JOURNAL 103 Oldtoine Rd.. Seguin. Teias 71155.

FROM THE EDiTORThis issue is 'de-

voted primarily tocoverage of the Stan-ford, Kentucky, ab-duction case. In itwe present one of themost thorough and in-depth investigationsof a close encountercase ever to be' pub-lished.

We owe this highquality investigat-ion to none otherthan veteran UFOresearcher Len H.Stringfield, not tomention the indis-pensible aid of BobPratt of the NationalEnquirer, Leo Sprinkleof the University ofWyoming, and JerryBlack of MUFON Cin-cinnati .

We only wish thatevery case could begiven the completeinvestigation thatwe see in the Stan-ford case. Certainlythe mere catalogingof close encountercases is not enough.What we need is athorough and per-sonnal investigationof each such case,and that of courserequires a heavyinvestment in bothman-hours and funds.

But it is an in-vestment that I thinkwill eventually payoff handsomely ininsights and under-standing of thenature of the UFOproblem.

In this issueiiOY BURNED BY UFO by Richard Hall 3NEW E-M CASE 3Ui'Os TRACKED ON RADAR by Richard Kail 3THE STANFORD,KY,ABDUCTION by Len Stringfield 4NSW CLOSE ENCOUNTER CASES b> Len Stringfield 16EIGTH ANNUAL MUFON SYMPOSIUM 16IN OTHERS' WORDS by Lucius Parish 17DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE by Walt Andrus 13RECAPPING AND COMMENTING by Richerd Hall 20ASTRONOMY NOTES by Mark Herbstritt 20

L

Tlw contents ol the MUTON UFO JOU8NHI in Minnintd b> the editor, and doM necessarily reprtsart Hn official position or judgement of MUfON. Opiumsit cntribiiton in Iheir own, and do not nocouril; rifled (host of the editor.Hit tflff, or MUFON. Articles dmld b. uibmhM to Otnnis William Hiuck, 114Goftlin SU Humond, ltd. 4(327.

Permission is herebj granted to quit Iran this issut pnnided lot Bin thai 2M•ords in qoott from this issue praiideO not more Una 200 nt* an piMfrom u) one irtielo, thi authoi of tho article is pirn credit, ud tin MM*"Coppifht 1976 b, MUFON UFO JOUINM, 103 MdMnt Id, Sepiv W »Indutad.

Boy Burned By UFO ey Richard Han

Reports of two mysteriousballs of light which appeared inthe sky over Sweden are baf-fling authorities. The riddle be-gan with a report from Finnishschoolboy Eero Lammi, whoclaimed to have been knockeddown by a "beam of light". Hewas on his way home to Ulea-borg, near the Swedish border,when he saw a ball of lightmove across the border fromSweden and apparently land ina nearby field.

"1 went to look at it," hesaid, "but suddenly a ray oflight seemed to beam out fromit and 1 felt a searing pain in mychest and everything wentblack." Even his parentsthought it was a prank until adoctor found slight burns onthe boy's chest and back.

New E-M CaseDiscovered

Source: Cronica, 6/5/76

Jose Pascali, a TV techni-cian, did not believe in UFOs— until June 4, 976. Now hesays, "they sure are there." Hehad gone that afternoon to theLos Ranches suburb of Virgende Lujan, Bahia Blanca, Ar-gentina, to fix a TV set and hiscar failed at the intersection ofGuemes Avenue and the Arroyodel Medio, Pascali then saw, ata height of about 120 meters, aluminous UFO about 30 metersin diameter. The UFO re-mained over the area for sometime, then rose taking offtoward Tres Arroyos. When itleft, his car again functionednormally, "like magic."

At the Swedish Mili tary HighCommand, which investigatesall reports of unidentified flyingobjects, Colonel Bertile Eriks-son said: "We do not know howit happened. We have beenunable to trace anybody else inthe area who saw anyth ingunusua l on t h a t day." However,a second report did come froma universi ty s tudent who was.out b i rd-watch ing near Tive-den, 400 miles south of theborder. His description of theobject tall ied exactly with .themeasurements given by the boy:"It was about five meters inwidth and looked like a movingball of light."

Mr. Sture Wickerts, ufologistand research chief at the ^Swe-dish Defence Intelligence Or-ganization, said: "The stu-

dent 's name is not being re-ek'ased at the momen t . He is atechnical s tuden t and was veryprecise w i t h his description. Hew a s us ing binoculars a t (het i m e and s u d d e n l y spotted around object w i t h p u i s a r i i i gl i g h t s l i f t . i n t o t h e air. f i e "wasable to detect t h a t t he objectwas colored black and grey, andhe heard a s t rong th robb ingnoise w h i c h l as ted about tenseconds. He.evcn es t imated t h a tthe frequency of the sound -wasabout three her t / ! We havecarried out a t ho rough i n v e s t i -ga t i on , but l i k e the case of t h eF inn i sh hoy, we. .have d r a w n acomplete b l ank . All I can say atthe moment is t h a i I do notbelieve for one m o m e n t , t h a i 't h i s young man would make upsuch a s torv."

UFOs Tracked on Radarat Venezuelan Airport

submitted by Richard Hall

A secret report is said to havebeen prepared for high govern-ment authorities about an in-cident March 15, 1976 in whichtwo UFOs were tracked -onradar at Simon Bolivar airport.Caracas. The newspaper ElNacional in Caracas reportedthat the UFOs caused "com-motion in the control center" ofthe airport, and the toweroperators asked the unidenti-fied craft to identify themselves.Instead, the objects took offseconds later and "disappearedat supersonic speed" northwest

over the Caribbean. I IK- UI- 'Os-firs I- appeared, on me r a d a r -screens at 10:14 p . M I . a t t r a c t -ing the . a t t e n t i o n .of r .-ular con-trollers by the i r sudden a p -pearance and e x t i a o r d i n a i vspeed. They crossed ovci i h cl and ing strips at an e s t i m a t e d5.000 km/h r . "

(Source : Mayoria, 3 / 1 7 / / 6 ,Buenos Aires. Translated byJane Thomas)

Drawings by Louise Smith, Elaine Thomas andMona Stafford showing their versions of the UFOthey encountered near Stanford, Kentucky,January 6, 1976.

A New "Classic" Candidate. . .

THE STANFORD, KENTUCKY ABDUCTIONby Leonard H. Stringfield

The Stanford, Kentucky"abduction" case of January 6,1976, now well publicized inter-nationally, seems destined tobecome a classic. Its candidacyfor thus ufological honor comesfrom many qualifying sectors.Basically, and of uppermostimportance, its credibility isstrengthened by the three ab-ductees themselves, who ex-perienced a night of terror. It isthe character profile of LouiseSmith, Mona Stafford andElaine Thomas as normal andhonest people that is so vital asone ponders the bizarre se-quence of events and the evi-dence: physical and electro-magnetic effects, animal re-action, supporting testimony ofadditional witnesses of a UFOon the same night — plus thestrength of careful and scien-tific investigation.

By maintaining continuouscommunications with the threewomen and being privileged toshare their many ordeals, some-times in confidence, has pro-vided, for this investigator, awealth of valuable data, notonly about the "time lapse"incident and subsequent events,but the long range effects ontheir health and behavior. It istherefore, my firm belief thatthe Stanford story, which readslike science fiction, is one of themost convincing UFO encoun-ters that I have ever personallyinvestigated.

In the period of one yearsince the incident occurred, the

I he "alxliK-linn" site, shm>in|> (he entrance lothe COM pasture, flanked In ficldslonc \>all, whereMrs. Smith's Chevy went out of control while thehuge UFO hovered overhead.

case has captured the frontpage headline in the NationalEnquirer, made top billing inUFO research bulletins and hasbeen aired on numerous radiostations and national TV. Thus,there is little need at this timeto recount the many details inthe sequence of events duringthe night of the encounter asthe highlights are now publicdomain. Although some aspectsof the case, as reflected inpublished accounts, have eitherbeen treated too briefly, or self-servingly, my observation ofcertain important sequentialdata, based on the early first-hand testimony of the threewomen, have been recorded inmy forthcoming hard coverbook Situation Red, The UFOSiege, to be published by

Doubleday in May, 1977. How-ever, to refresh the reader, Icapsulate the story as follows:

January 6 was Mona Staf-ford's 36th birthday. It wasgood reason for Louise Smithand Elaine Thomas to celebratethe occasion with the i r friendover d inner at the Redwoodrestaurant located south ofLancaster, Ken tucky , on U.S.27, about 35 miles from theirhometown of Liberty. The wea-ther condit ions, according tothe U.S. Weather Bureau, werethe following: 38 deg. F. temp-erature, winds from the southat 15 mph, cloud cover at10,000 ft., visibi l i ty 15 miles.

With Louise Smith at thewheel of her 1967 Chevy Nova,they left the Redwood about11:15 p.m., in a chatty and

I llr l l i i t t | i i i 'H i | i . lK in ihf nisr. It'll In right,Mciri i i Slal lurd, Maine Thomas and LouiseSmith, ill the lallfr's trailer home. The trailerhmm- »!is later the scene of a number ofm.vslvrious pstchic incidents experienced by Mrs.Smith after the abduction.

amiable mood (no intoxicants).While travelling out of Stanfordand heading for Hustonville onHighway 78, the trio witnesseda bright red object in the sky.Mona was frightened. Shethought it was a large aircrafton fire. The glowing objectcame closer and suddenly Mrs.Smith lost control of her car.

The speedometer showed 85mph. Cried Louise, "I can'thold the car on the road!"Mona tried to health steer, butin vain. The car held on 85mph. Louise later commented,"My foot wasn't even on the gaspedal." Within seconds theUFO had ranged close to theircar, first following from behind,flipping on end, then cameclose to the driver's side. Allagreed it was enormous, metal-lic and disc-shaped with a domeon top with a ring of red lightsat the equator and a singleyellow light near the under-belly.

As the UFO hung at thedriver's side and moved toward

The first meeting, February 29, 1976, with thethree women inside Mrs. Smith's trailer. Shown isLcn Stringfield. Also present were Jerry Blackand Jim Miller. Peggy Schnell Is seated secondfrom right.

the front of the car, a bluishwhite light shot out on the road.Then, suddenly the beam stab-bed at the car. The inside lit up.A later comment by Mrs. Smith:"A hazy like air, sort of a fog,filled the car." Suddenly, asevere burning sensation over-took all three women. Monaremembers her eyes burningwith such intensity she couldn'tsee. Their last cognizance wastheir car backing crazily into apasture entrance flanked oneither side by a weathered fieldstone wall. One hour and 20minutes later they found them-selves intact in the car drivinghome to Liberty. Shaken, andwith exposed areas of fleshsmarting from burns, theycould not account for the timelapse.

When they reached Mrs.Smith's trailer home, the kit-chen clock showed 1:20 a.m.They went to her neighbor,Lowell Lee, for help and there,too, they found the lapse oftime confirmed. Confused, des-

perate, and unfamiliar withUFO's, they called the police,and the next day a Navyrecruiting station, but got nohelp or sympathy in eitherplace. It was, however, theNavy recruiter who gave thenews to a Lexington, KentuckyTV station. Later, the storyreached the press and onFebruary 12, 1976 it made bignews in the Casey County News.

Jerry Black of MUFON inCincinnati got the newspaperclipping from a friend in Lib-erty, Kentucky. Jerry called JimMiller, MUFON in Middle-town, Ohio, and me on Feb-ruary 20, to relate the news. Hesaid he had already called Mrs.Smith about the incident somedays before. At first the threewomen were reluctant to dis-cuss the case and they wantedno strangers from out of townto visit their homes. Morephone calls were made, creden-tials offered (MUFON, CUFOSetc.) and finally their confi-dence was won. An interview

was arranged for February 29.To put them further at ease,Black invited Mrs. PeggySchnell of Blanchester, Ohio,who could provide a reassuringfeminine touch and offer thecompassion of sharing her ownweird UFO experience occur-ring during the flap of 1973.

Our first meeting was cor-dial, candid and rewarding.But, it was obvious at the outsetthat the trio was enduring greatphysical strain from their dra-matic experience. All threechain-smoked, enough toprompt me to comment. Allagreed that it was the result oftheir tensions, and also men-tioned they had a lingering in-satiable thirst for liquids fol-lowing the incident. Also, eachclaimed excessive loss ofweight.

Black, Miller and I madecopious notes as we extracteddetails about the sequence ofevents, their observations of theUFO, its, structure and be-havior, their claims of physicaleffects — all ugly, pent-upmemories leading up to thephase of time lapse. Said Mrs.Thomas, the most stoic of thetrio, "We live in fear of what wedon't know. I'm worried aboutLou and Mona. I think they'reready for a breakdown."

Mrs. Smith admitted that shehad great difficulty facing peo-ple while attending her dutiesas an assistant for the CaseyCounty Extensive Office (coun-selling families in nutritionalcare). Mrs. Stafford was themost distressed pyschologically.With her eyes still showingstrong traces of inflammation,she was insistent in her plea toknow what happened to herduring the time lapse. 1 assuredher that I would make everyeffort to get professional help toperform regressive hypnosis as

soon as possible. This was to bemy number one goal.

During our brisk day ofgathering data, we were privy tosee evidence of two dramaticeffects of the close encounter.One was the result of the UFO'sthermal light beam; seeing firsthand the vestige of a flesh burnsuffered by Mrs. Smith. Havingkept it under close observation,she obligingly lifted her hair toshow us the mark on the napeof her neck. There, unmistak-ingly, was a round pinkish-grayblotch the size of a half dollar.

The second revelation wasanimal reaction. This involveda 4-year old pet parakeetbelonging to Mrs. Smith. Ac-cording to its mistress, whenshe arrived home following herincident, the parakeet, nor-mally peaceful, rebelled at herpresence. She said the birdbolted against the screen of thecage, its wings fluttering vio-lently. Commented Louise,"Since that night the bird hasnothing to do with me."

1 tried a test. Being familiar

wi th exotic birds, allowing themto fly free in my tropical gardenroom, 1 persuaded Mrs. Smith,in the presence of Jim Mi l l e rand myself, to put her fingerinside the 'cage. .The birdpanicked! Next, 1 put my fingerinside. The parakeet only budg-ed on its perch. Then Jimduplicated the test. Again, thebird only budged.

The pet parakeet died inMarch, 1976. Could Mrs.Smith ' s t raumat ic state haverubbed off to affect the bird'ssensorium, thus triggering it'sviolent reaction? Or, had shebecome a walking force field?Whatever the strange-emissionshe generated, it may also haveaffected other mechanical de-vices such as the wrist watchshe wore during the incident,whose minute hand, on herreturn home, sped around thedial like the second hand; and,during the next week, the non-electric alarm clock in hrrbedroom which when touched ,stopped runn ing . So d i s t u r b i n gwas the alarm clock i n c i d e n t 10

Pho'.o (aken b} Jerry Black, February 24, shoeingtrace of burned mark on the nape of Mrs. Smith'sneck. The burned effects had vanished from theother women, except for Mona'* e\e inflam-mation.

Mrs. Smith's 1%"' ( I I . -M N m . i i > , > n | > i f i l l i > i lnChrcc tinmen in sanu- |>< i s i i i ,m ;is ( In t i i y h i i > l I heirI ' lO CMfounlcr. Thr i;n i.;is .illolcil c l i - c l i i p .

Mrs. Smith that in utter frus-tration she finally threw itoutdoors. Broken beyond re-pair, she discarded it in thetrash. Then, too, there wasLouise's Chevy Nova which de-veloped electrical failures. Thisshe discovered when she firsttried to drive the car after theincident. While driving to work,she was stopped by the policewho informed her that hersignal lights were not working.

Out of concern for the de-bi l i t a t ing health status of thethree women, and feeling as-sured that we all had won eachother's complete confidence, weall agreed on February 29 thatthe affair should not be furtherpublicized. I later called WalterAndrus of MUFON and Dr.Allen Hynek of CUFOS toinform them of the incident andstated that I preferred the datato be kept confidential. Theyagreed.

Black, Miller, Ms. Schnelland 1 departed from Liberty atdusk, a five hour drive to Cin-cinnati ahead of us. We were8

i u ' i n n - . i l h l i , il\n sli iK.nl n-iiiTs nl Misteringl lu I H I I K ! .I ' icl n p i i l . l i u l lliis i-Mik-iUT v,as

convinced that the Stanfordincident was as solid as it wasdisturbing. The time lapse andall its secrets was like a timebomb in our thoughts. Itspotential impact ticked away inour minds all the way home>

Back in Cincinnati, duringthe next week, 1 again calledHynek for his advisement ongetting professional psychiatrichelp to probe the time lapse.The problem was two-fold:distances of competent andcooperative help, and funding.In our conversation the name ofDr. Berthold Schwarz came up,a psychiatrist living in Mont-clair, New Jersey, who had dis-tinguished himself in the pur-suit of many UFQ-related psy-chological cases. 1 called Dr.Schwarz, but, understandably,he was not in a position to makethe trip. However, he recom-mended two prominent psy-chiatrists, whom I consideredcalling at the first opportunity.1 also suggested Dr. Leo Sprin-kle, APRO's consultant in psy-chology in Laramie, Wyoming,

but we agreed that his greatdistance from Kentucky, andfunding the trip, were bigproblems regarding his ser-vices.

While I was eating dinner onMarch 5, 1976, Jerry Blackcalled. Shaken, he said he hadjust received a call from Mrs.Smith stating that Dr. LeoSprinkle of APRO had flown toLouisville and was at the homeof Bill Terry, ready to depart toLiberty the next morning toperform hypnosis on Mrs. Staf-ford. Black was disturbed,thinking that I had brought inDr. Srinkle without consultinghim. Indeed, it took only asecond to clear the air: Dr.Sprinkle's plans were news tome!

Perplexed, Black then calledthe womfin to discuss the issuesand all had agreed not to allowSprinkle and Terry at theirhomes to conduct the hypnotictests. According to Mrs. Smith,she and her companions were ofthe opinion that Dr. Sprinklewas the MUFON or CUFOSspecialist 1 had promised todeliver! She knew nothingabout Dr. Sprinkle's associa-tion with APRO, or evenAPRO.

Typical of UFO researchwithout discipline, there was amelee of phone calls back andforth from Black in Cincinnatito Liberty and Louisville and Icould sense the utter frustrationbeing experienced by everyone,especially Dr. Sprinkle. I knewSprinkle, having met him at theMUFON Symposium in DesMoines, June, 1975, where hepresented a paper. I had, andhave, the greatest respect forhim as a person and his compe-tence in the field of psycho-logical research in ufology andas a specialist in regressivehypnosis. Despite the confu-

sion, 1 was pleased to know thathe had gotten as far as Louis-ville. 1 called Dr. Sprinkle atTerry's house and said so. Butthe issues, beyond that were farfrom solved.' As the plot deepened, and

with visions of another TravisWalton fiasco, I decided (and itwas agreed upon by all parties)to call the Lorenzens of APROin Tucson. Nearing midnight, itwas my hope that I could makea sensible arrangement to per-mit Dr. Sprinkle to proceed toLiberty. After much bloodlet-ting over the issues on hand,accord with APRO (Jim andCoral Lorenzen) was achieved.We agreed that the immediateresults of the hypnosis wouldnot be published in our respec-tive bulletins and hopefully notthe national media, as long asthe three women were in ahighly emotional state. Thedate was set for Sunday, March7, for Sprinkle, Terry, and forBlack, Miller, Schnell and my-self to meet at Mrs. Smith'strailer.

As a side comment on thebehind-the-scene activity dur-ing the early investigation, BillTerry called me in the eveningfollowing his visit with Mrs.Smith in Liberty, March 1st,which was the day following theMUFON visit from Cincinnati.

Although Terry did not men-tion APRO's involvement toMrs. Smith during his visit, orto me by phone, he tpld melater that he called the Loren-zens about his findings. Ac-cording to Terry, with whom Ihad built up a cordial relation-,ship in the exchange of UFOinformation since 1974, his callto APRO was triggered by hisinterest in the Sergeant Moodyabduction case which he knewAPRO had investigated and itwas his belief that the Kentucky

On the Liherlt M-CTK-. June 23, reach l«i begin thepolygraph and hypnosis sessions. Left to right,Bob Pratt of National Enquirer, James Young,polygraph expert from the Lexington Police

incident might serve their re-search with valuable correlativedata.

Personally, I hold no ill-feelings toward anyone involvedin the case despite the grossmisunderstandings. And it wasnever my intention, obviously,of "scooping" the Stanfordstory. My main concernthroughout the early (and stillcontinuing investigation,) hasbeen the health and welfare ofthree victimized women, as allpersons directly involved in thecase are well aware. My secondconcern is that the data col-lected serves UFO researchobjectively: .

The rendevouz in Libertystarted at midday, March 7.Greetings were cordial andthere was a pledge of coopera-tion. .We decided to conduct thehypnosis of Mona (Louise aridElaine not consenting to hyp-nosis) at her parent's homewhere there was more room.Everybody sat in tense silencewatching Dr. Sprinkle calmlyand methodically put his sub-

Departnienl, Len Slringfield, and Or. LeoSprinkle, APRO psychology consultant whoconducted the hypnosis. .•'.

ject at ease, then into a deephypnotic state. Mona's repliesto the questions came slowly.She agonizingly recalled theUFO and her responding fearthat it was an aircraft in fierydistress; the UFO in differentflight attitudes; the sickeningheat; the darkness and anunexplained light, but shecould not go further into thedeep secrets of her time lapse.Mona, tearful, seemed exhaust-ed. More time was needed andtime ran out. $

Dr. Sprinkle had to return toLouisville with Terry, there tocatch his plane to Lararnie.Before departure, he told methat Mona was still in a post-hypnotic state and that I mightcontinue to work with her basedon certain guidelines.

As Black continued to ques-tion Louise and Elaine,' Monamoved quietly to a chair near alarge coffee table. Edging mychair close to Mona, I withdrewfrom my briefcase, a folderdepicting a group of humanoids1 had drawn representing the

Drawing of humanold occupant recalled byLouise Smith after hypnosis, dated October 1,1976.

10

different types of configura-tions and heads described bywitnesses in previous encoun-ters. Jim Miller stood by andwatched in silence. Uncere-moniously, I placed the folderon the table and said nothing.Up to this time no mention hadbeen made of a possible hu-manoid factor in the Stanfordtime lapse case. A minute or sopassed by: more silence. Then,Mona's eyes brightened as shestared at the folder. Suddenly,her finger reached out andpointed to one of the weird,crinkled heads. "This looks likethe light I saw...It was shapedlike that head!"

Mona sat reflectively, thenshe added, "Yes...I can see theface now but it doesn't seemsolid. It comes and goes...Imean, fades and reappears likein a fog. Its eyes are far apartand at the bottom...the chin...islike that drawing."

She could recall no more. Butthis was the breakthrough. Wehad pierced the barrier of thetime lapse.

The next d ay, M arch -'8,according to my UFOLOGnotes, I called Dr. Sprinkle atthe University of Wyoming. Iinformed him of Mona's recallof a humanoid head surround-ed by fog. Promptly, I sent hima copy of the drawings with thedesignated head encircled. Alsoenclosed was Mona's statementrelative to her recall of theapparition. I told him to send acopy to A PRO as per our agree-ment to work in cooperation.

Weeks, unfortunately, turn-ed into months of stalemate.Black and I stayed in touchwith the three women by phoneon a constant basis. The womencontinued to wallow in fears,experienced many frighteningphysical events and continuedto lose weight. Needed was the

return of Dr. Sprinkle, or some-one else to take over the case. Idiscussed this with Dr. Sprinklewhom I met later at the CUFOSConference in Chicago, April30-May 1. We talked aboutfunding, or lack of it, and whilethere, in the afterhours, I ap-proached Dr. Hynek again onthe matter of funding. It wasnot a good question at thattime. No funds were available,although he recognized theneed for a list of professionalconsultants who could under-take field trips within a limitedradius of their home base.

On May 12, I called CoralLorenzen in Tucson. We dis-cussed the stalemate in theStanford case and she said shewould consider financing Dr.Sprinkle for a return trip toLiberty. On June 10, Coralcalled me and said she wasconsidering sending Dr. JamesHarder of Berkeley, California,an adept at regressive hypnosis,to Liberty for a follow-up, as hewas planning a visit to APROheadquarters soon and hemight be able to extend his tripto Liberty. I heard nothingmore about Harder, but onJune 16, I called Coral regard-ing a request by the LouisvilleTimes for hew data to publishon the Stanford case. As perour agreement, I told her that Ihad refused the request.

Then came the sudden an-nouncement on July 1st by JerryBlack, who, acting unilaterally,called Bob Pratt at the NationalEnquirer. He had made a deal.In concert with the three .wo-men, he basically had negoti-ated a swap of their close en-counter story with the NationalEnquirer in return for thetabloid's financing the return ofDr. Leo Sprinkle to Liberty, toconduct regressive hypnosis,and a polygraph test to be

conducted by an expert yet tobe named. In the terms, Blackagreed to the stipulation that ifthe time lapse case turned outto be an abduction, backed byprofessional testimony, the Na-tional Enquirer would get firstrights to publish the story and,in turn, the three women wouldreceive remuneration for theircooperation. Black, Miller andI were to pay all trip expensesout of our own pockets, as wehad done in the past.

Black's daring move, he aver-red, was out of concern for thewomen's health and to freetheir anxieties that had built upover the time lapse. He couldnot wait for funding or otherdelays by CUFOS, MUFON orAPRO.

My reaction was mixed atfirst. Being impervious to shockafter 27 years spent in ufology, Iwas, however, caught off-guardand felt some embarrassmentfor the stagnating agreement Ihad vowed to uphold aboutkeeping the story out of thenational media. However, therewere some pluses. Foremostwas relief that research hadanother chance at breaking thetime lapse. And, I was heart-ened that Sprinkle was thechoice to try!

,The meeting place was at theBrown Motel in Liberty, June23, 1976. It was a sapping-hotday as felicitous greetings wereexchanged with the old dra-matis personae. And it was apleasure to see Bob Pratt again,the National Enquirer's topUFO investigator-reporter. Atrue yet in the news business,Pratt had impressed: me assincere, honest. We had met atthe CUFOS Symposium inChicago on May 31, 1976. Atthat time, ironically, Pratt hadasked me for the Stanford casestory, but I refused out of

11

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— . .i—Drawing by Louise Smith of a "kind of Instru-ment I saw aboard the craft," recalled vividlyabout 1:00 p.m., September 30, 1976. She said,"The line from the center to the outer edge wasgoing around counter clockwise as though a lightwas running through a coil."

dedication to the proverbialagreement.

The mood of the day wasserious. Without delay the bus-iness of polygraph tests gotunderway. James Young, de-tective for the Lexington PoliceDepartment, was the expert.After completion of his lengthytests, executed privately foreach of the three women,Young's facial expression wax-ed between triumph andamazement. Skeptical aboutUFOs when he came to thescene, Young said that hissubjects "breezed through"their incredible story and poly-graphically came out of thetests as credible people. In amatter of several hours, headmitted his views on the UFOhad changed. He said he be-lieved that all three womenwere telling the truth, evenovercoming his strategy of em-ploying one trick manuever12

which suggested they were per-petrating a hoax to gain pub-licity and money.

Now the stage was set for Dr.Sprinkle's hypnotic sessions.

It is beyond the scope of thisJournal to publish the lengthverbatim questions and answerscontained in tapes of the entirehypnotic proceedings. Dr.Sprinkle superbly handled thehypnosis and it is the belief ofall witnesses that significantinformation was obtained to getto the roots of the time lapsesecrets, thus providing suffi-cient credence to the hypothesisof abduction.

The first hypnosis was per-formed with Mrs. Smith thesubject, during the eveningfollowing the polygraph tests.The following day, all womenwere subjects, each making theregression circuit twice. Sittingnext to Mona, Louise andElaine during these sessions, I

watched their great emotionalpsycho-physical stresses as theyslowly, agonizingly and tear-fully relived and related theirexperiences. Sometimes a phaseof long silence was punctuatedby a sudden recall of an inci-dent so horribly disconcertingthat the subject's body writhedand contorted in pain.

Unquestionably, the treat-ment received by each of thewomen inside the round darkroom, as each described theircaptive abode, was harsh in-deed, even torturous. While nosexual molestations were re-vealed, each woman complain-ed about the rigors of beingrestrained forcibly by theirhumanoid captors into a de-mobilized position for physicalexamination. For Mrs. Smith, itwas on a table; Mrs. Thomas,inside a capsule with the stric-ture of a noose-like devicearound the neck which tight-

Len Strlngfield standing at the weathered Hallwhich Mrs. Smith fearfully refused to go nearwhen she and companions, with members of theresearch team, returned on the night of June 24to, hopefully, reconstruct the abduction incident.

ened as she tried to speak orthink; and, for Mrs. Stafford, itwas in a chair-like device.

According to each subject,their bodies were scanned (de-spite no recollection of beingdisrobed) and instruments usedin exerting great pressure onthe limbs. Mrs. Thomas recallsa tube with a bullet-like tip,probing her chest and alsorecalls, as did Mrs. Stafford,that a warm liquid was appliedto their faces and bodies.

During the hypnotic sessionstwice-held for each woman,characteristic details of thehumanoids never reached apoint of clarity. Each describedshadowy forms floating or glid-ing by them or the emergence ofone eye, or two, hovering overthem. One bizarre phase re-called by Mona was the sight ofa light at the end of a shaft ortunnel which she described as avolcano with "jagged edges". Itwas during this frame of timethat she complained of inten-sive pressure to her eyes,

Louise Smilh undergoes hypnosis by Dr. Sprinklewhile Bob Pratt tapes the proceedings, June23-24, 1976.

"...Just like they've been pulledout." Following this, Mona wasimpressed by a single brightpurple eye that seemed toradiate lightning-like rays.

Elaine was percipient to atwo-eyed form like a roundhead in deep darkness. Oneeye, she said, was a "beautifulblue" encircled by a bluemembranous lid, "like a tur-tle's" and the other eye ap-peared dark. Louise, duringhypnosis said she saw severalforms but was so frightenedthat she didn't keep her eyesopen long enough to rememberany details. It wasn't untilmonths later that she conjuredup a vision of her captors.Similar in general appearanceto the humanoids seen by hercompanions, she added thattheir hands looked like jaggedwing tips. It was Elaine who,during hypnosis, .recalled themost about the entities in theroom. "There were severalsmall figures," she said, "about4 feet tall."

All three subjects stated thattheir captors communicatedtelepathically — never verbally.No one recalled an entity witha mouth!

Perhaps the most revealingdrama about the alleged craftwas witnessed by Mona, onSunday morning following theprevious day's hypnotic ses-sions. While we were sittingaround summarizing the "ab-duction," 1 asked Mona if shecould elaborate on her hypnoticreference to a volcano.

Without hesitation, she re-lated that she could now "see"a room...like through a tun-nel...at the end of which was abright light. As the pictureemerged, she could see a squaretable top upon which lay aprostrate figure of a womansurrounded by a group of foursmall figures clad in white.They appeared to be studying,or examining the subject undera brilliant white light. She said,"I'm not sure if the personwas Elaine, or Lou, or maybe

13

Mona Stafford under hypnosis.

even me.Providing additional evi-

dence for the Stanford case area number of people I reachedwho testified they witnessed aUFO oh the same evening,January 6, 1976, in the Caseyand Lincoln County areas.

One couple, living withinseveral hundred yards of the"abduction" site, watched fromtheir house window a large,lumnious object shaped like alight bulb pass low over theStanford area. Significantly,the time of this sighting wasabout 11:30 p.m. Although thecouple preferred anonymity,other reports of UFO sightings,observed earlier in the evening,were more detailed, each de-scribing a ring of red or orangelights around a disc-shapedobject. Two teenagers told methey pursued a low-level UFOin a hotrod after they watched ithover over the Angel Manu-facturing plant in Stanford.Their chase took them as far asDanville, Kentucky, to the14

north. They gave their report tothe police there.

Another UFO report of sig-nificance surfaced when JerryBlack, during a later trip toLiberty, learned that the owner

of the farm property where theincident occurred had observ-ed, "down the road" from hisfarm, an unusual low-level,glowing, white object whichshot a beam of white light downto the ground. The time wasabout 10 p.m., however, thesighting's only weakness is thathe could not pin down thedate...whether it occurred Jan-uary 5th or 6th.

More positive about the date,January 6, is Mrs. Janet Stewartof Bethel, Minnesota, who ex-perienced a close encounterwith a UFO causing her physi-ological effects. Although Beth-el and Stanford are greatdistances apart as the crowflies, they may not be so un-related when one considers theUFO's capabilities. The Bethelreport, received from Joe Brill,begins with Mrs. Stewart driv-ing alone at 7:30 p.m. to pickup a girl friend with whom sheplanned to attend a nightschool class in Moundview.Suddenly, a strange, red, glow-

Elaine Thomas under hypnosis.

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ing object with small blinkinggreen lights came down towithin 25 feet above her car. Itfollowed at close range until shereached her friend's, house.

As Mrs. Stewart and frienddrove to Moundview, the sameUFO appeared again. As be-fore, it followed the car at closerange for about two miles untilreaching their destination.

The next day, Mrs. Stewartclaimed, in a signed statement,that she suffered severe men-strual cramps and bleedingeven though her normal periodhad ended six days before. Shealso suffered eye inflammation.When she checked with her girlfriend, she learned that she,too, had been menstrually af-fected.

The Stanford case, I believe,stands on the strength of themany factors I relate in thisaccount and in more detail inmy forthcoming book. Simplyput, the case is no humpty-

dumpty on the ground waitingfor a Phillip Klass or anotherDr. Donald Menzel to gloatover the ignominious pieces.

A happier moment enjoyed by Elaine Thomas,Louise Smith and Mona Stafford following'hypnosis. They are standing outside room usedfor the sessions at' Brown Motel in Libert)-. 15

New Close Encounter Cases Under Investigationby Leonard H. Stringfield

Two close encounter casesare currently being investigat-ed, both occurring on the samedate — January 27,1977 — andwithin a short distance fromeach other.

One incident occurred inProspect, Kentucky, near Louisville. Involved is a 19-year-oldmale (name withheld at thistime) who, while driving a Jeep-ster alone from his girlfriend'shouse to his home, encountereda low-level, luminous red, rec-tangular object hovering along-side the road. The boy recallsbeing attracted to the object;

Then Limbo! He next recalleddriving home, his eyes burningand being greeted by his con-cerned mother.

His mother confirms that herson suffered eye inflammationand skin irritation to both legs.There were also alleged electro-magnetic disturbances to hisvehicle. Local researchers con-ducted regressive hypnosiswhich revealed that he wasabducted into a large roomwhere he encountered threerobot-like entities, each havingmechanical arms which probedat his body.

The second case involves aconcerned business man (pre-ferring anonymity) while driv-ing through Clarksville, Ten-nessee. Incensed by his bizarreexperience, he flew to Wash-ington, D.C. to report his closeencounter to the "authorities".He also witnessed entities ap-pearing "half visible" who com-municated telepathically. Thelone witness was reluctant torelate full details by telephone.

Hopefully, more informationis forthcoming for both en-counters and will reveal corre-lative details.

Eighth Annual MUFON Symposium Scheduled

Preliminary scheduling forthe annual MUFON Sympos-ium has been completed. TheSymposium will take place onSaturday, July 16, and Sunday,Ju ly 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 SaucerWatch 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.

Besides MUFON DirectorWalt Andrus and GSW Di-rector William Spaulding,speakers will include Bill Pitts,MUFON State Director forArkansas, and James McCamp-bell, author of UFOlogy andMUFON Director of Research.16

Dr. William Hassell will pre-sent his paper "Future Physicsand Anti-Gravity" and Dr.Alvin H. Lawson will present ananalysis of close encountercases entitled "What Can WeLearn From AbductionCases?" Other speakers willinclude Thomas Gates, Direct-or of the Space Science Centerand MUFON Consultant in As-tronomy; and Stanton T. Fried-man, UFO lecturer andMUFON Consultant in NuclearPhysics.

Specialization workshops willbe held during the late Satur-day afternoon session. Theyare: "Field Investigation Tech-niques" (Bill Pitts); "Instru-mentation for UFO Detection"(Melvin Podell, MUFON StateSection Director for San DiegoCounty); "How to Obtain GoodPublic Relations" (Paul Cerny,MUFON Western Regional Di-

rector, and Thomas Gates); andfinally, "Possible UFO Pro-pulsion Methods" (James Mc-Campbell and William Hassell)

Other special activities willinclude the Amateur RadioLuncheon with Dr. Willard P.Armstrong, Moderator ofWONC, on Saturday; and onSunday, the MUFON Corpor-ate Meeting and a GSW pre-sentation of the Tremonton,Utah, and Great Falls, Mon-tana UFO film footage in-cluding computer analysis ofthose films.

Along with the usual publicparticipation sessions and be-hind-the-scenes conclaves, theEighth Annual MUFON Sym-posium promises to be one ofthe most exciting and import-ant held to date. Make yourreservations now!

Lucius Parish

In Others' WordsThe January 4 National En-

quirer featured a report on anOctober 17 UFO sighting at theAkita Airport in Japan. Theobject was filmed, but was toodistant for details to be seen onthe film.

An article in the Februaryissue of Fate re-examines someof the seeming evidence thatUFOs are interfering with satel-lites, lunar ALSEP stations, etc.A very interesting aspect of thesubject. This issue also containsJerome darks' revelation thatthe "classic" airship story ofAlexander Hamilton's rustledheifer was merely a practicaljoke of the period. Since I havebeen instrumental in publi-cizing this particular accountover the years, I would like toapologize for doing so, al-though the true nature of thecase has only recently becomeknown. Even so, better truththan "classic" tales.

The February issue of Cos-mic Frontiers contains severalarticles relating to UFOs, butoverall, this issue is no betterthan the first one. It is a verynicely-done publication, but thematerial is rehash.

Larry W. Bryant's article onthe FBI's role in UFO investi-gations would be ample reasonto buy the March issue of UFOReport. A most interesting lookat the Bureau's non-publicinvolvement in the subject. Thisissue also features articles byWendelle C. Stevens, GrayBarker, Gordon Lore, CurtSutherly and others.

Rumor has it that KevinRandle is editing a new maga-

zine, Quest, due on newsstands.in February. More details inlater columns.

Two recent publications fromthe Center for UFO Studies areworthy of mention here. Thefirst is Vicente-Juan BallesterOlmos' A Catalogue of 200Type-1 Events in Spain andPortugal ($4.50). This is anexcellent compilation of close-approach sightings from 1914to 1975. It includes reports oflandings, occupant sightings,EM effects, etc. Ballester Ol-mos is to be contratulated forhis work and Richard Heidendeserves credit for his help withthis project. The catalogue con-tains photos, illustrations andgraphs pertaining to the variouscases. A well-done and in-teresting addition to the lit-erature.

1 am not quite so enthusedwith the second publication, theProceedings of the 1976CUFOS Conference. This, ofcourse, was the (in)famous"secret" conference, held dur-ing the period of April 30-May2, 1976. All the papers pre-sented at the conference are tobe found in this volume, al-though, in my opinion, at least60% of them are "utter dulls-ville," for various reasons. Par-ticipants included such well-known researchers as Ted Bloe-cher, Vicente-Jaun BallesterOlmos, Ann Druffel, LorenGross, Richard Hall, DavidJacobs, Robert Klinn, JamesMcCampbell, John Musgraye,David R. Saunders, R. LeoSprinkle, David Webb, RonWestrum, Don Worley and

several others. Topics coveredranged from the periodicity offlaps to exosociology to hu-manoid and creature reports,plus many other subjects. Thereis a considerable amount oftechnical information, which,while undoubtedly of value,makes for quite boring reading.But, 1 suppose my major com-plaint about the Proceedings isits price of $15.00. Yes, it's alarge volume, comparable toThe UFO Evidence or TedBloecher's Report on the UFOWave of 1947, but, in myopinion, it is decidely not worththe price being asked for it.Both this and the BallesterOlmos catalogue may be or-dered from The Center forUFO Studies, Box 11, North-field, 1L 60093.

1976 MUPONSYMPOSIUMPROCEEDINGS"Swamp Gas Plus Ten - And Counting" by'Dr. J. Allen

Hynek, Director of the Center for UFO Studies.

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

-"Heavenly Chariots And Frying 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 ol Protect Starlight International.

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

17

DIRECTOR'S MESSAGESpeakers already committed

are Stanton T. Friedman, Nu-clear Physicist and UFO lec-turer; James M. McCampbell,MUFON Director of Research(Engineer and Author); RayStanford, Director of ProjectStarlight International;Thomas M. Gates, PlanetariumDirector and MUFON Astro-nomy Consultant; and WilliamH. Spaulding, Director ofGSW/West and MUFON StateDirector for Arizona. 100 guestrooms have been reserved at thebeautiful SAFARI Resort Hotelin Scottsdale, AZ., site of the1977 Symposium with singles at$16.00 and doubles for $20.00.MUFON's annual corporatemeeting will be held Sundaymorning at 9 A.M. on July 17,followed by a brand new slide/motion picture UFO lecture inthe afternoon by Bill Spauld-ing. Several thousand people inPhoenix viewed this presenta-tion on Jan. 7, 1977. RoomReservation cards will be avail-able from both MUFON inSeguin, TX. and GSW in Phoe-nix, AZ. Ms. Barbara Stahl,10652 East Oasis Drive, Apa-che Junction, AZ 85220; Tele-phone 602/986-4622 is theChairperson heading up theMUFON Symposium at thelocal level.

A UFO Conference of ex-treme interest that is attractingspeakers and UFOlogists fromEurope, Africa, North, Southand Central Americas is theI N T E R N A T I O N A L UFOCONGRESS to be held in Aca-pulco, Mexico on April 18,through 23, 1977 at the fabu-lous Acapulco Convention Cen-ter. This ambitious event isbeing sponsored by Guillermo18

Bravo and Pedro Ferriz. Allspeeches will be translated in-stantaneously into English,Spanish, French, Portugese,and German, similar to theUnited Nations arrangement inNew York City. Your Directorhas been invited to speak at thisprestigious event. He will pre-sent a slide illustrated lecturecovering the National EnquirerBlue Ribbon Panel annualUFO award cases, plus the Pas-cagoula, Miss, incident.

This will be an opportunity topersonally meet a majority ofthe leading UFO authorities inthe Western Hemisphere. Den-nis W. Hauck is coordinatingthe speaker invitations in theU.S.A. with Mr. Bravo. OurJOURNAL Editor will alsospeak, as he did in a recentUFO meeting in Mexico City.

Amateur Radio Operatorswere treated to a unique ex-perience when they read an

article titled "The UFO Con-nection" by David L. DobbsK8NQN, 6612 Pleasant St.,Cincinnati, OH. 45227 in theJanuary 1977 issue of the maga-zine called "73". The article iswritten as an "open letter"concerning a UFO experienceto Mr. Wallace Andrews, Di-rector; National UFO Network,Inc., 301 Newtown Road, Sa-gum, TX. 78155, and starts outwith "Dear Wally". Yes, Davidis a member of MUFON andthe UFO sighting report is not a"hoax" as some thought whenour address appeared to be a"spoof. It did give the postoffice department in some citiesa little difficulty, because onlythe state and zip code werecorrect. If the mail got as far asSeguin, TX. there was noproblem, however, David hasreceived most of the corres-pondence since his address wascorrect. Dave worked with

UFO NETWORK

Paul C. Cerny, MUFON's Western Regional Directpr,joins the MUFON UFO JOURNAL staff.

nard Stringfield, MUFON Di-rector of Public Relations, onthe basic case. Leonard wasreferred to as "Leo Springfield"in the article. "Hams" willremember that Wayne Green,Editor of 73 Magazine, is aformer "UFO buff' and nodoubt enjoyed sharing this arti-cle with his readers.

An additional MUFON Am-ateur Radio Net presently ac-tive each Saturday morning at0800 Central Standard Time isthe seventy-five meter net on3975 KHZ with WA9ARG,Marshall Coins in Quincy, 111.,as net control.

The MUFON Board of Di-rectors and the Staff of THEMUFON UFO JOURNALwould like to take this oppor-tunity to extend best wishes forthe new year to all membersand subscribers. Your continu-ed support and interest in theUFO phenomenon will not onlyhelp MUFON to grow in sta-ture, but to expand it's investi-gative scope worldwide.

Joe Santangelo, State Direc-tor for Massachusetts, was thefirst to file his annual activitiesreport for 1976. In Joe's casethis included a UFO sightingreport summary, the MUFONAmateur Radio Net (40 meters)weekly log sheets, and copies ofgeneral correspondence to allMassachusetts members. Theforty meter phone net meetsevery Saturday morning at 1300Universal Time on 7231 KHZwith Joe, W1NXY, as NetControl from Waltham, MA.Some of the stations checkingin most frequently are WONC(Bill Armstrong in St. Louis),K9PAW fceorge Ostrowski inSo. Holland, 111.), W8QBG,WA8VFS, WOSWY (DonCampbell in Mt. Pleasant,Iowa), WA4RPW, WB4YDD,

WA5CTJ (Elmer Rbmigh inBandera, TX), WB3BAN, andK8CCG (Bob Swett in Muske-gan, MI). Joe provides an out-standing example to other StateDirectors of how state organi-zation should function. TheState and National organiza-tional levels of MUFON makeit unique to that of any othermajor UFO organization in theworld.

Paul C. Cerny, MUFONWestern Regional Director,and State Director for NorthernCalifornia, is joining the staff ofThe MUFON UFO JOURNALin the capacity of "Promotion/Publicity" along with Mrs.Rosetta Holmes. Paul's publicrelations endeavors, via tele-vision, radio, newspapers, andprinted brochures on the westcoast has been fabulous. Heand Bill Pecha (Colusa, Cali-fornia case reported in the Oc-tober issue of the Journal) wereinterviewed and filmed themiddle of January by ABC-TVfor the Harry Reasoner newsprogram to be aired nationwidein February. The National Starplans to feature this case in acurrent issue, which will prob-ably be published before youread this message.

John Wallace Spencer,MUFON Field Investigator,and author of the best sellingpaperback "Limbo of the Lost"lectured at Trinity University inSan Antonio on Dec. 9, 1976,speaking on the Bermuda Tri-angle followed by UFOs in thusecond half. It was a pleasure tomeet John and to dine with himafter the lecture. He has justreleased his latest book, titled"THE UFO YEARBOOK"covering some of the best 1975and 1976 cases plus a chapteron UFO organizations withphotographs. It is a paperback

priced at $2.25 published byPhillips Publishing Co., 23Hampden Street, Springfield,MA. 01103.

Bill Irby, State Director forOklahoma, has appointed GaryW. Roberson, 323 So. Madison,Tulsa, OK. 74120; telephone:918/584-6913 to be the newState Section Director for Tulsaand Osage Counties. Gary hasthe enthusiasm and determi-nation to expand MUFON'sinfluence in northeast Okla-homa.

William H. Boyce, M.D., 22Cameron Court, Princeton, N.J.08540, formerly acting StateDirector for N.J., will confinehis UFO activities to his spec-ialized area as a Consultant toMUFON in Psychiatry, a posthe assumed in 1972. Tom Ben-son, 129A Wingate Apts., Tren-ton, N.J. 08606 is State SectionDirector for Mercer, Hunter-don and Burlington Counties.

Visitors to MUFON in Se-guin, TX, during Decemberincluded Peter M. Tomikawa,his wife and small son as theywere moving from Glendale,AZ. to White Plains, N.Y.Peter, a Japanese citizen andMUFON Field Investigator, isemployed by NIPPON ZEON ofAmerica, Inc. Due to his moveto New York, he may be unableto attend MUFON's 1977 UFOSYMPOSIUM in Scottsdale,AZ. on July 15, 16, and 17.

MUFON103 OLDTOWNE RD.SEGUIN, TX 78155

Phone:

512-379-9216(MUFON headquarters and

Walt Andrus' home)

19

RECAPPING AND COMMENTINGBy Richard Hall (MUFON International Coordinator)

(Comments in this month'scolumn are based, in part, onarticles appearing in MUFONUFO Journal No. 106, Sep-tember 1976)

Since we don't know anyfacts about UFOs and all isconjecture, according to HarvHoward ("The importance ofKeeping an Open Mind"), Iwonder how he can know thatthe "radicals" are on the righttrack. Furthermore, I wonderwhy he allows the "radicals" tofind "enough cases to indicate"anything when this privilege isdisallowed to the rest of us.When it is further alleged thatthe "liberals" are "stagnatingthemselves and the UFOsearch," the biased nature ofthe author's polemics may beclearly seen.

The real issue, not illumi-nated by this rather inappro-priate application of politicallabels, is whether there areviable alternative hypotheses tothe extraterrestrial visitor hypo-thesis. To be "open minded,"an ETH advocate must explorealternatives and constantly re-view the data and his/her rea-soning. If and when the evi-dence strongly contradictsETH, or some competing hy-pothesis better explains thedata, then the ETH would beuntenable. Advocates of otherhypotheses — if they are rea-soning logically and scientif-ically — would follow a similarprocess.

As for reasonable discourseamong the various advocates, itwould help (outside those in-stances where outright dishon-esty or psychological disorders

are evident) if each "attacked"or criticized the other's use offacts and logic rather than theirintentions or personalities. If anidea is wrong or misguided, itshould be possible to make thecase without labelling or char-acterizing the purveyor of theidea in a negative or insultingfashion.

It would be very easy for meto counter Mr. Howard's re-marks by stating my opinionthat his "radicals" are doingthe reverse of "stagnating"UFO research — they aremuddying it up by speculatingwildly in terms that often havelittle empirical meaning. I don'tclaim to be simon pure in thematter of tending to think otheradvocates are either dishonestor nutty, which is, undoubtedly,overdone on all sides. However,I do bridle at the "radicals"oft-times pretensions to super-ior objectivity, usually coupledwith derogatory remarks aboutresearchers who disagree withtheir approach to the problem.

I know that the "radicals"consider me to be closely linkedwith the "nuts-and-bolts"hardware ET view, and they areright — up to a point. "But theydo me (and others) an injusticeby failing to recognize that I amentirely capable of giving dueconsideration to modificationsof ETH or other alternatives.We "liberals" are not hide-bound; merely looking for com-pelling evidence. Apparentlythe only way to be "openminded" to a "radical" is to bea "radical."

Thus, about all I can agreewith is Mr. Howard's last para-graph. We do need to avoid

becoming enamored of our ownviews and failing to consideralternative views. But eventhere, I think "infighting" is anatural and important process,provided it is done in thescientific spirit.

* * * *A number of interesting close

encounter cases are included inthis issue, but I have nowpolemicized myself out of spaceto comment on them. Theycontain strong physical evi-dence aspects, somehow sug-gesting to me that we aredealing with real, physical,technological objects — orreasonable facsimiles thereof.

IMark R. Hertxtrin

AstronomyNotes

- February 1977

MERCURY — Except forthe first few days of the month,Mercury is too close to the sunfor observation.

VENUS — Although closerto the sun than last month,Venus is now even higher in thesouthwestern sky at sunset(about 40 degrees) and setsabout four hours later.

MARS — It is in the morn-ing sky, but still too close to thesun for easy observation.

JUPITER — Moving backinto Taurus, it is nearing theMeridian at sunset and setssoon after midnight.

SATURN — In Cancer, itrises about sunset and is visibleall night. Opposition is on the2nd.

The ALPHA AURIGIDMETEOR SHOWER occursFebruary 5-10.