The MUFONUFO JOURNAL

NUMBER 125 APRIL 1978

Founded 1967 ^̂ P̂" * $1.00

•••••••••M OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF HiUFONj MUTUAL UFO NETWORK, INC. ••̂ •l̂ ^H

DAYTON CONVENTION CENTER, OHIO-SITE OFMUFON SYMPOSIUM, JULY 29 & 30, 1978

PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS IN URUGUAY (See story, p. 3)

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE IN CALIFORNIA (See story, p. 6)

f The MUFONUFO JOURNAL

103 Oldtowne Rd.Seguin, Texas 78155

RICHARD HALLEditor

ANN DRUFFELAssociate Editor

LEN STR1NGFELDAssociate Editor

WALTER H. ANDRUSDirector of MUFON

PAUL CERNYPromotion/Publicity

REV. BARRY DOWNINGReligion and UFOs

LUCIUS PARISHBooks/Periodicals/History

MARJORIE FISHExtraterrestrial Life

MARK HERBSTRITTAstronomy

ROSETTA HOLMESPromotion/Publicity

TED PHILLIPSLanding Trace Cases

DAVID A. SCHROTHSt. Louis/Mass Media

JOHN F. SCHUESSLERUFO Propulsion

NORMA E. SHORTDWIGHT CONNELLY

Editor/Publishers Emeritus

The MUFON UFO JOURNAL ispublished by the Mutual UFONetwork, Inc., Seguin, Texas.Subscription rates: $8.00 per yearin the U.S.A.; $9.00 per yearforeign. Copyright 1978 by theMutual UFO Network. Secondclass postage paid at Seguin,Texas. Publication identificationnumber is 2970. POSTMASTER:Send form 3579 to advise change ofaddress to The MUFON UFOJOURNAL, 103 Oldtowne Rd.,Seguin, Texas 78155.

FROM THE EDITOR"Close Encounters" is hardly the expression for the strange

reports reaching MUFON from all over the world. If even one-thirdof these reports is true, the need for urgent international scientificstudy is obvious. In this and the next several issues will be casesinvolving severe physiological effects in Uruguay, "teleportation" ofa car in Belgium, physical evidence and possibly relatedphysiological effects in northern California, and many similarreports. They, indeed, constitute a challenge to science — both interms of retaining public credibility by investigating rather thandebunking, and in terms of showing whether science can supplyanswers for the bizarre events so disturbing to so many people. If theanswers are basically psychological, let the behavioral scientistsinvestigate in depth and explain what is happening. If the answersare in the realm of the objectively physical, we are decades behind inmounting a vigorous scientific investigation. It is an understatementto say that the stakes are extremely high, not only for rationalscience as an institution, but also for humanity.

In this Issue

SEVERE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS IN URUGUAY 3By Mario Rodriguez

THE REDDING, CALIFORNIA, MINING CASE 6By Paul Cerny

THE FORCE FARCE 11By Ted Peters

MUFON UFO SYMPOSIUM (News) 12CALIFORNIA REPORT 13

By Ann DruffelBOOK REPORT 15

By Barbara MatheyMILITARY SIGHTINGS & LIGHT SIGNAL CASE IN SWEDEN 17

By Bertil SoderquistIN OTHERS' WORDS 19

By Lucius ParishDIRECTOR'S MESSAGE 20

By Walt Andrus

The contents of the MUFON UFO JOURNAL aredetermined by the editor, and do not necessarilyrepresent the official position of MUFON. Opinions ofcontributors are their own, and do not necessarily reflectthose of the editor, the staff, or MUFON. Articles may beforwarded directly to MUFON.

Permission is hereby granted to quote from this issueprovided not more than 200 words are quoted from anyone article, the author of the article is given credit, andthe statement "Copyright 1978 by the MUFON UFOJOURNAL, 103 Oldtowne Rd, Seguin, Texas" isincluded.

SEVERE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTSIN URUGUAY

By Mario Rodriquez (MUFON Representative for Uruguay)

The owner of a large SouthAmerican cattle ranch was burned onthe arm and his dog was fatallyinjured—its insides virtually cooked—when a brilliantly glowing orangeunidentified flying object swooped nearthem. The incident was one of a seriesof UFO sightings that occurred innorthwestern Uruguay in February and

/, March, 1977, often leaving entire citiesblacked out as UFOs were seenhovering over high tension power lines.

The rancher is Angel Maria Tonna,52, who owns 3,000 acres of rollingfarmland (1,200 hectares) with some730 head of cattle and numerous sheep.It is located 9 miles (15 kilometers)south of Salto, a city of 40,000population on the Uruguay River.

Tonna told the investigator that heand members of his family (wife, twosons, 19 and 22, and daughter, 15) andhis 11 farmhands saw UFOs about adozen times in February and March.The most serious incident occurredabout 4 AM the morning of February 18as he and his foreman, Juan ManuealFernandez, were, herding about 80cows into a barn to be milked.

"When I get up in the morning Iusually turn the generator on, so Iturned the generator on that morningand there were about 20 lights on(around the bam and other buildings),"Tonna said. "I was bringing the cows into be milked and suddenly, about 4:10,all the lights went off. A bright lightappeared on the east end of the bam(the far end from him) and I could seethe barn's shadow. I thought it was ashort circuit. I keep hay in that end ofthe bam for the cows and I thought itwas burning. I jumped over the fenceand ran toward the other end of thebarn. Topo was with me. He was awatchdog and he always used to walk

with me wherever I went around thefarm in the mornings.

"Then I heard a noise . .. and thenext thing I saw was a fire disc, like twoplates facing each other. I stood therenot knowing what to do. My foremantold me the cows were running away.The cows were going crazy, runningeverywhere, and all the dogs startedbarking. The object began to move. Itbroke the branches of a tree near thebarn and moved across the barnyard tomy right and hovered over some trees(about 100 yards to the south of thebarn).

"It moved across the barnyardwith a rocking motion," Tonna said,holding his hand horizontal and tippingit from side to side. The object sat about60 feet above the trees for a momentand then moved to the right (east) andmoved another 75 yards or so, haltinglower and directly above a concretebath that cows are forced to walkthrough to disinfect them, Tonna said.

By this time he and Topo, a 3-year-old black and brown police dogweighing more than 60 pounds, had runback to the west side of the barnyardand climbed back over the fence again.They walked a few feet toward theUFO, now glowing bright orange, whenit made another turn and began movingtoward them, Tonna said. It came to astop about 20 feet above the groundand next to a rectangular-shaped watertank.

Dog Approaches UFO"It was shining with a very bright

light and lit up the whole barnyard,"Tonna said. "Topo ran toward theobject to attack it but suddenly stoppedon a little mound, sat down and beganhowling." He said that Topo was within15 feet of the object and sat looking upat it.

"The object was about 60 feet

(20 meters) from me," Tonna said. I sawsix beams of light like small wings, in theshape of small wings, like lightning,three on each side. When the objectturned toward me it felt like electricshocks went all over my body and avery intensive heat hit me. I put my armup over my face to protect my eyes.

"I was scared in the beginning. Forsome reason I couldn't move. I feltattracted to the light. 1 don't know if Icouldn't move or didn't want to."

After several minutes the objectbegan moving away, turning frombright orange to red. "When it movedaway it increased its speed as it wasturning red and when it got to the forest(about half a mile to the south) itdisappeared. After the object left, thegenerator started working again but itwasn't producing electricity becausethe wires were burned out," he said.

The incident lasted about 10minutes. Tonna's son, Tulio, 19, asecond-year veterinary student at auniversity in Salto, said he had watchedthe whole incident from the house.Tonna said the farm workers usuallyget up around 4:30 AM and thoseawake at the time saw only a bright lightin the area.

"Topo didn't eat anything afterthat," Tonna said. "He walked aroundas he normally would but he wouldn'teat or drink anything. He stayed in thehouse all day, which wasn't normal. Itwas like with a said feeling."

Disturbing Autopsy ReportOn the morning of the third day

after the UFO incident, Topo's bodywas found on the very same moundwhere he had sat howling at the UFO.An autopsy was performed at the ranch

(Continued on next page) 3

(Uruguay, Continued)by a veterinarian who teaches at theNorth University in Salto. He wasassisted by Tulio Tonna and three othersecond-year veterinary students. Theveterinarian refuses to discuss the casebut he allowed Tulio to make a copy ofthe autopsy report. It said in part:

"The hair along the animal's spinewas sticky but completely hard. The fatunder the skin was found on theoutside. The fat is normally solid, so toget to the outside it had to be meltedand come through the pores. Once itwas outside it solidified again. Theanimal was exposed to a very hightemperature that can't be reachednaturally by the dog.

"All the blood vessels had beenbleeding very much and all thecapillaries were broken. The rupture ofthe blood vessels was caused by anincrease in temperature that couldn'tbe natural. The liver, normally dark andred, was completely yellow, caused by ahigh fever. All the blood vessels wereyellow too. With all the blood vesselsbroken, the animal started bleedinginside and lost so much blood that 48hours later the amount of blood he hadcirculated was insufficient and he diedof a heart attack.

"When we took the skin off thedog, we didn't see any marks. He didn'thave any bruises or anything . . . norwas the hair burned. The conclusionwas that something very hot hadcaused this."

Tonna said that the morning afterthe UFO incident, the underside of hisright arm began hurting. He had turnedthat side to the UFO when he put hisarm up to protect his eyes. Several dayslater Dr. Bruning Herrara, a Saltophysician and a friend, stopped at theTonna ranch for a personal visit.

"When I first went to Mr. Tonna'shouse I didn't know anything about theincident," Dr. Herrara told theinvestigator. "I talked to him and he saidhe wasn't feeling very well and westarted talking about the incident. WhatI saw on Mr. Tonna's arm was an

irritation. His arm was completely red... My first conclusion was that the skinirritation was due to radiation causedby an extremely bright light. I didn't findany other irritation on any other part ofhis body.

"I recommended that Mr. Tonnahave a special examination to see if hehad been exposed to radiation but herefused to do it. 1 don't know why. Ididn't want to prescribe any kind ofmedicine for Mr. Tonna because I firstwanted to know if he had been exposedto any kind of radiation . . . I didn't seehim after that."

Tonna's son, Tulio, explained thathis father would have had to go toMontevideo, 200 miles away, for theexamination and didn't want to take thetime. He said his father doctoredhimself with home remedies.

Circles and Tree DamageTonna and his farmhands have

found a number of mysterious darkgreen circles in some of his grazingpastures. In addition, two tall, healthytrees in a 10-acre stand of euclyptustrees planted 10 years ago were foundpushed to the ground one morning.

"A worker found the trees," Tonnasaid. "I couldn't believe it because therewan't any storm or any strong winds oranything that night." Curiously, bothtrees were in the outside row on theeast side of the grove, which is about3,000 feet long and 200 feet wide. Eachtree was the eighth tree from the end,one from the north end and one fromthe south end, each had been pushedinto the grove of trees.

Tonna said that a dozen or moredark green circles have been found inpastures some distance from the houseand farm buildings. Most measureabout 35 feet across, while several arenearly 200 feet across. Showing one 35-foot circle about 2 miles from the houseto the investigator, Tonna commented:

"When we found it the grass wasburned, completely dead. Some timelater we found mushrooms growing onthe outer edge and then the grass grewdark green."

He also found three circularimpressions forming a triangle in thecenter of the ring, the impressionsbeing about 10 feet apart. He alsopointed out that the small rocks in thearea were darker on the top than on thesides and bottoms, and appeared tohave been burned.

There were numerous sightings inthe Salto and Paysando area, morethan 20 in Mr. Tonna's neighborhoodalone. I interviewed about 20 witnessesin the Salto area, but there are manymore, maybe thousands. Once youinterview one witness, he gives you thenames of two or three more who sawUFOs.

Police See UFOsBlackouts occurred in the cities of

Salto, Paysando, and Youngsimultaneously and UFOs were seenover high tension towers during theblackouts. On my first visit to Salto onFebruary 27, Police Officer HectorLopez drove me around the area so Icould talk to people who had reportedseeing UFOs. Lopez, who at that timewas in charge of the police station atParada Daymen, several kilometersfrom the Tonna home, was one ofseveral policemen who saw a brilliantUFO the night of February 22. (Lopezhas since been transferred to anotherpart of the country).

Lopez told me he was sittingoutside the police station that eveningwhen he saw what he first thought was aflash of lightning, but the lightcontinued, getting brighter andbrighter. "It was so bright it lit up thearea like daylight," he told me. "Thelight was so bright I could have seen apin on the ground." Lopez called theother policemen outside so there wouldbe other witnesses. Several climbed tothe roof of the station but could see littlemore than what the men on the groundwere seeing.

Lopez then called Salto andPaysandu and learned that at this timethere was a blackout in those cities. Thesame thing happened in Young. Lopezsaid that later the object seemed to fallapart. The next day he and severedother officers on horseback searchedthe power lines for several miles in both

directions. "There was nothing on thetowers, nothing on the ground, noburned grass, nothing. I was verysurprised. I have no explanation for thisphenomenon. The light was seen notonly in Salto but in Paysandu... Almosteverybody in Salto and Paysandu sawthe light."

Lopez told me the Paysandu policehad also seen the light and had filed areport on it. Two other witnesses thesame evening were Elida Eva Llovet deGimenez, 56, who is in charge of thetelephone exchange at ParadaDayman, and her husband, Angel de losSantos Gimenez, 62. The. phoneexchange is near the police station andis separated from it by an elementaryschool house.

"At 10:10 PMI heard a loud noise,"Mrs. Gimenez related. "I went outsideand saw a UFO over a high tensiontower. It was shining a very brilliant lightand it lit up an area about 2 milesaround (3 kilometers). This tower is onMr. Tonna's farm about 3 kilometersfrom here. It lit up the school and thepolice station too. All the radios wentdead. The police saw it too.

"My husband climbed a pole andhe was looking there and he heard astrange, funny noise, like when youtouch two wires together. The light hadsome blue in it, but after a while itstarted changing to orange and thenbright red. The size of the objectseemed to decrease and after that itdisappeared. We thought it was a shortcircuit in one of the towers and I calledthe electric power company and theysaid there was a blackout in Salto."

There is a local organization inSalto that has been investigating theseries of UFO sightings this year andone of its members, Alberto Ghizzoni,42, submitted his findings.

"Many of the people of the cityhave seen the phenomenon. Therehave been many blackouts. On thenight of March 24 and 25, a blackoutlasted for half an hour. When it started,everybody went out of their houses andthey saw a disc-shaped object goingfrom south to north. It remained in theair and got higher and higher until it

looked like a star with a reddish color.The UFO stopped over thenorthwestern part of the city. After awhile it disappeared without moving,just faded out. The moment itdisappeared, the lights began comingon again. The power and light companynever gave any explanations. Wepersonally interviewed an employee weknow and he told us he was ordered tosay that there was failure in the plant,but he was absolutely sure there wasnothing wrong there."

(For Journal readers' consideration,Uruguay is ruled by a military junta, is apoor country and nearly everybodyneeds two jobs to earn a living. Virtuallyeveryone who works for thegovernment is afraid to talk about thesematters for fear of losing his job. Thisincludes the veterinary professor andthe power company employees.)

Editor's note: MUFON's Represent-ative for Uruguay, Mario Rodriquez, 41,is considered to be one of that country'sfinest UFO investigators. He is anelectronics engineer and director of theDepartment of Space Investigations for

the International Press Association inMontevideo. He has been interested inUFOs for many years and has beeninvestigating UFO cases for about 10years. Mr. Rodriguez becameMUFON's Representative during theFirst International UFO Congress inAcapulco, Mexico, when he was invitedto join by Walt Andrus, InternationalDirector.

Later information on this case.The rancher, Angel Maria Tonna,

is now in very poor health. Untilextensive medical tests areadministered, it cannot be stated that itwas due to close exposure to the UFO,which apparently was responsible forcausing his dog to die. Mr. Tonna hasbeen reluctant to travel to Montevideo,the capital, where adequate tests couldbe made. The physical well being of hisprize bull started deteriorating shortlyafter this incident. This is such a strongcase for the physical effects upon ahuman and animals, that it deservescontinuous observation by those nearthe scene. Mr. Rodriguez promises tokeep MUFON informed of the currentstatus as significant new eventsoccur. — Walt Andrus

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, THURSDAY. MAY 18, 1978

Flying Object Baffles ComputerWith Maneuvers in Florida SkyOCALA. Fla., May 17 (AP)—"I've never seen anytrung l ike it."

says Timothy Collins, a Navy radar technician who tracked anunidentified f ly ing object over the Florida sky. "And I don't wantto see anything like it again."

He was among at least a dozen workers at the Navy's PinecasileElectronic Warfare Range who said they spotted the brightly litobjects late Sunday. The Navy personnel, interviewed by the OcalaStar-Banner, saic' one object seemed to hover, then turned abrupt lyand sped off. Computer-equipped radar could not follow the UFO.they said.

"The computer wouldn't handle it, said Lt. Cmdr. John Sullivan,commander of the range, used by the Navy to train its combatpilots in tactics for avoiding enemy weapons.

Robert Clark, duty officer on Sunday night, said curious civi l iansbegan calling, including one man who said he and seven others hadseen an object 50 or 60 feet in diameter with flashing lights.

The Naval Air Station at Jacksonville said no Navy planes werein the area. . •

"So we got out the binoculars and went up on the tower." Mr.1

Clark said. "We located an object due north, approximately 1,500feet above the trees. We watched it for 15 or 20 minutes and itlooked like it was pretty stationary."

Then, he said, the object came up on the radar."We locked in on it and then all of a sudden it was gone," he

said.

THE REDDING, CALIFORNIA, MINING CASEByPaulCcrny

(MUFON Western Regional Director)

An unusual and highly interestingcase has come to us recently involving aman and wife hard-rock mining team.Clinton and Jane Chapin of Redding,California, are both 75 years "young"and still occasionally check in on theirmining claim which they have operatedfor 40 years. The Chapins are unable todo any hard work at their claim like theyused to. Jane had a heart attack sometime back, and Clint had a stroke someyears ago but still manages to drive his.small station wagon over back countryroads. Both are presently in rather poorhealth, which they think may be apossible result of a dual UFOexperience at their mining site.However, they still manage to getaround when they are feeling somewhatbetter and frequent their mining siteonce or twice a week, which they referto as "home." Both have fairly goodeyesight at distances in daylight; Clint'sseems better than Jane's. Both usereading glasses, but a lot of us do! Janehas some difficulty in reading.Observation and describing the 2daylight UFOs was not difficult.

They have asked that the generallocality of their mine not be publishedfor obvious reasons. I have visited thesite with the Chapins, looked the areaover carefully, and taken photographs.Approximately 6 months had elapsedsince the last and most violent UFOencounter of the second kind. Theincident first came to us through KGOradio communicaster Al "Jazzbo"Collins, a talk show acquaintance. I hadbeen a guest on his program a couple oftimes and an occasional caller as well.The Chapins had no prior knowledge ofUFOs, nor any apparent interestexcept that they used to listen toanother old miner, since deceased, tellof the many times he saw those"strange objects" zipping around themining area.

The first CE-II occurred at about6

10:00 AM, October 30, 1969. The minelocation is in the bottom of a hillywooded canyon with each sideaveraging about 45 degree slopes. Theheight to the top is approximately 3,000feet from the canyon bottom where asmall dirt road and stream share thebase of the canyon. At the minelocation the canyon bottom flattens outvarying 50 to 80 feet in spots. Thecanyon bottom is roughly 2,000 feetabove sea level. In the summer it is veryhot and dry. In the winter it gets quitecold with some snow and ice. InOctober it is bordering on the cold side.

The Chapin's arrived at the minelocation to do some work. As they wereabout to stop the car, they saw arattlesnake of fair size stretched out inthe middle of the road. As they each gotout of the car on opposite sides, theynoticed that it was stifling hot outside inthis immediate area where farther backdown the road it had been quite chilly.Normally, they do not see snakes in thecanyon in October as it is already toocold for these reptiles. Still trying todetermine why it was so hot in just thisimmedia te area, they madepreparations to kill the snake and burythe head under a rock as was theircustom and precaution for themselvesand other animals in the area. Jane tooka picture of the snake with a small boxcamera shortly after Clint killed theanimal with a shovel blade.

At this point they were bothsimultaneously aware of somethingmoving in the brush about sixty feetaway to the east and off to their rightwhere there was a flattened area ofmine tailings. Suddenly an egg-shapedobject with a flat bottom, about the sizeof a Volkswagen, rose up off the grounda few feet, then took off like a shot upthe canyon, swaying but not strikingsmall trees as it went. It raced up thecanyon for 600 to 700 feet, then zoomedupward at about a 50 to 60 degree angle

and was out of sight all within 2 to 3seconds! The egg shape was describedas half an egg shape or slightly less.There were no lights, windows, orprotrusions of any kind visible in thebrief observation. The object appearedcream in color to Jane, and light gray toClint. No noise of any kind was heard,though they were only 60 feet awayfrom it at the time.

Both the Chapin's stood theregaping in stunned amazement at whatthey had just observed, not evenventuring to guess what the strange andelusive object was. Jane stood therewith the camera still in her hand, toodumbfounded and startled to have eventhought to use it. After gathering theirwits about them; they cautiously wentover to the spot where they saw thestrange device raise up and take off sohurriedly. They discovered an oblongor oval depressed spot measuringapproximately 10 feet in diameter in themixture of dirt and rock of the tailingsthat were scattered out in a flat area.The depression varied from 1 to 2inches deep. With all of the heat theyhad experienced, they immediately feltthe ground in the depressed area,expecting to find it hot, but to theirsurprise, it was cold as the groundanywhere around them. They alsofound that the depressed area wasslightly discolored in appearance fromthe surrounding ground.

After the UFO had left, the stiflingheat in the area suddenly diminishedand the temperature, or what appearedto be temperature, seemed to return tonormal — on the cool side. Interestingspeculation at this point would be: Wasthe heat possibly caused by a type ofmicrowave radiation emanating fromthe strange craft? Did the Chapin's feelthis instead of actual transmitted heatdissipation as from some heatingsource? The heat did not seem toemanate from the vicinity of where theUFO was, but seemed to be equally

ShallowCanyon Wal l , '

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4_— Huti s l j f f v ^ I ' i |c nl- 'Sand& Creen Glass

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- — -•• - . . ^

r t h ^s" Dirt Road

uT(Drawing not to scale) •

From Roac

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3 Witnesses'60 feet down.

t he road

1969 UFO Landing Site

present everywhere around them, as ifit were just a hot summer day.

Just outside of the circle at onespot on the side toward the road was asmall pile of unusual looking sand. Thiswas piled up in a typical conical pile as ifsomeone had just gradually poured itthere out of a container. It measured.roughly 8 to 10 inches across the base.It had not been there the day before.The Chapin's scooped most of the sandup into a fruit jar and took it back homewith them. Two days later theydiscovered an unusual "glob" of heavymetal which was lying on the groundtailings about 8 feet away from the sandpile and about 2 feet outside of thedepression ring. It had not been therethe day before the UFO was sightedeither. The reader should keep in mindthat this all occurred on October 30,1969, and we did not investigate until weheard about the case in the summer of1977.

The metal "glob" is about half thesize of the average man's fist, roundedon top with stubby protrusions on thebottom. The object weighs about apound. The rounded top appears tohave been burned somewhat. We,thought of a possible meteoriteexplanation, but ruled that out after

talking to astronomer consultant TomGates and others. The "glob" wasresting gently on top of the ground as ifplaced or lightly dropped there. (Seephotos of sand and "glob".) JaneChapin refused to handle the sand inher bare hands for some reason, but

" would hold the metal "glob". Analysistests were run in two different highlyequipped and qualified laboratorieswhich cannot be named for securityreasons: One testing lab is outside ofCalifornia. The other was arranged forby Dr. Richard Haines here inCalifornia. One should keep in mindalso that neither the sand nor the "glob"was seen by anyone as being physicallydropped or somehow discarded out ofthe UFO. Both were simply discoveredthere after the craft departed, and werenot there according to the witnessesthe day before.

It is interesting to speculate thereason for UFO interest around miningareas. Is it possible their frequent

' presence is due to the extraction ofminerals from these areas for their ownuse or replenishment? It would beinteresting to learn if this were the case.An interesting speculative theory of myown is to envision planet Earth as alikely oasis in the vasthess of spacewhere travelers could replenish their

needs of resources such as minerals,fuel, water, and food — a stop-overplace to replenish what is needed forcontinued explorations farther out intospace. We are already considering ourown moon for just such a purpose.Reports of UFO activity around othermining areas of the country are notnew. We have had similar reports frompther parts of the country, involvingUFOs and, in some cases, occupantsobserved near or at old mine entrances.Speculative, of course, but wouldn't itbe interesting if we had residue from aUFO mining extraction operation inour possession!

A few additional commentsregarding the UFO .landing site. Theobvious spot where the craft had beensitting was right next to the creek whichwas 6 to 8 feet wide at that point. Thetailings are gray and beige in color, acombination of gravel and dirt, verylittle sand. The stream itself is veryrocky. The mining operation is mostly"placer". A shallow tunnel area only 4feet into a rock wall is the only tunnelingbeing done. There was no trail orexhaust from the disappearing craft.No paralyzing effects, numbness, orother physical effects were felt by the

(Continued on next page) '

(Mining Case, Continued)witnesses; however, they commentedthey felt like they were "glued" to thespot where they were standing, as ifthey could not move. This could havebeen actual astonishment, a naturalreaction in such a spectacularcircumstance. Asked whether theyreported the incident to any of the lawenforcement agencies, the reply was"no".

The sand and the "glob," theChapin's say, are completely foreign tothe area. They have never seenanything like these two items in their 40years of active mining in this vicinity. Inmy many visits with the Chapin's, thecouple appear to be completely honestand sincere, so much so in fact that Iwas overly impressed. No way, in myestimation, could these fine peoplehave fabricated such a story, especiallywith all the unusual features and thetwo material samples connected with it.The information and analysis reportswere shared during the overallinvestigation by several local scientistsand other investigators. Thoughdoubting questions were asked, andshould be, all seemed satisfied that theencounters were genuine.

The second CE-II encounter occurredon December 29, 1976, at the samemine location only about 80 feet west ofwhere the 1969 UFO had been sitting.This was down the road farther wherethe approach to the claim is, as youdrive toward the mine. The time of daywas approximately 11:00 AM on thiscold morning with some ice on the dirtroad. As the couple stopped and gotout of their car, they again noticedsome heat similar to the 1969experience but not nearly as hot.Suspecting perhaps another UFO wasthere again as in 1969, they begancautiously looking around. Clint walkedover to the wall area beyond the creekand Jane stood in the road by the car,her .38 pistol strapped to her belt whereshe usually carried it. Suddenly a yellcame from Clint, "Jane, bring the gun!"

8

Jane and Clint Chapin

The Metal "Glob": Drilled Spots Show Where SamplesWere Taken for Analysis

Side View

Direction ofFlight

Flat Bottom

December 1976 UFO at Redding, Calif., Mine Site

He had spotted the same or a verysimilar craft again, down stream in thebrush. He no more than got the wordsout of his mouth when the craft roserapidly into the air to an estimatedheight of about 90-100 feet andimmediately hit them both with somesort of ray or force field. Asked if theyrecalled seeing a beam or flash ofanything emanate from the craft at thispoint, the couple said "no".

The hostile or perhaps defensiveresult was that they were both knockeddown by whatever struck them. Clintwas against the shallow rock wall of theopposite side of the canyon beyond the

j creek and had struck his head againstthe wall as he fell. Jane was in themiddle of the dusty and somewhat icyroad near the car. She fell in the road onher hands and knees, injuring her leg.The barrel of her gun was plugged withmud. They both concluded that theywere knocked unconscious for about12 to 15 minutes. Jane made no bonesabout the fact, unembarrassed, thatshe struggled to her feet drenched inher own urine, cold and wet!

There was no sign of the UFOanywhere. They did not see it leaveunder the circumstances of the attack.Completely exhausted and exasper-ated after this spectacular experience,they painfully got into the car and slowlydrove home to Redding.

As the craft rose up to its attackingaltitude, both managed to get a pretty

^ good look at it for a second or twobefore it "zapped" them. It was about

~* the size, shape, and color of the 1969vehicle, with the exception that this oneseemed to have a pock-markedappearance to its surface, similar to theexterior of an orange. There was notime lapse except for the briefunconscious period and the UFO wastoo small for taking anyone aboard. Itmight be safe to say that this was nopsychic phenomenon, no hallucinationor ball lightning! These phenomena donot depress the ground, zap people, orappear to be intelligently controlled.Checking the area some days laterwhere they believed the UFO had been,

Sand and Green Glass Chips

the Chapin's could find no evidence of alanding depression this time and it isassumed the craft may have beensuspended slightly off the ground,which is common. This object wasdescribed as tan in color. There was anoticeable amount of heat again, butnot as intense as in the first 1969encounter. The UFO was estimated tohave been about 175 to 200 feet awayfrom Clint.

It seems apparent that this UFO,as in the case of others investigated,may have a bui l t - in defensivemechanism for self protection in theevent of attack by human influence.The defensive mechanism may activateat the least sign of threatened hostilityfor self preservation of the craft beingdisabled to fall into human hands. Ofcourse, remote control is not ruled outeither. This was obviously exercisedwhen Clint excitedly yelled for Jane to"get the gun!"

Needless to say, the Chapin's arevery angry and intent on revenge forwhat the device did to them. They wentso far as to plant a dynamite trap with aweight tripping gadget in hopes ofblowing up the UFO if it came back.They were encouraged by the localsheriff to abandon this idea and removethe explosives in case some innocentperson or large animal might accidentlytrigger it off. The Chapin's tend to

blame their present poor health on theUFO. They feel it is responsible for theirhealth problems. Jane has a rupturedstomach membrane which sheattributes to the incident. She lost 24pounds from December to February.

On October 13, 1977, the coupleagain experienced an indication of heatin the canyon at the mine site, sayingthey both got sick and vomited but didnot see any UFO. One wonders howmany more times this alien craft orsimilar ones had been frequenting thisparticular mining site or generalimmediate area between October 1969and December 1976!

A mysterious aspect has recentlysurfaced where the Chapin's said theywere visited by some mysteriousscientists who were highly interested intheir experience and the mineralmaterials, asking that their identitiesnot be disclosed. According to theChapin's, they were flown out of thestate to an extensive laboratory facilitywhere they were medically examinedand treated in conjunction with theirUFO experience and the mineralsamples examined as well. However,the couple would not say where theywere taken or by whom. This doesbring to mind a similar experience

9(continued on next page)

(Mining Case, Continued)involving a private pilot I interviewed inthe late 1960's who was interrogated bya U.S. Air Force Major after a closeencounter in the air, warning him to getto a military hospital if he had any afterill effects from possible radiation! (Myspecial thanks for transcribing andclerical assistance on this case toEleanor Sanini and Louise Canning.)

Analysis Results

The sand has been analyzed by Dr.Edward Zeller of the Radiation PhysicsLab. at the University of Kansas SpaceTechnology Center, as well as byassociates of Dr. Richard Haines in LosAltos, California, who had analysis testsrun,:on the metal "glob" particles also.An additional analysis was conductedon the metal particles by another highquality lab outside of California asmentioned before. The researchers didnof wish to disclose their identitypublicly for security reasons.Assistance from three other localscientists added to the analysisinvestigations of the materials. Theseanalysis reports are lengthy withcomparisons, tables, micro-photos,charts, etc., and are not includedherein, but copies are on file atMUFON and CUFOS. These may bepublished later if interest in the reportswarrants it.

The unusual greenish glass wasanalyzed using an x-ray EDAX(Nuclear Diodes Energy DispersiveAnalyzer). The sample is made upprimarily of relatively pure silicon, withjust minor traces of potassium,chlorine, t i t an ium, iron, andneodymium.

The scientist who conducted theanalysis made several suggestions andinteresting comments: (1) Theseparticles should be chemically analyzed(e.g., gas chromatography). (2) Thepanicles analyzed were considered tobe considerably purer than glass. Whenasked how one might produce suchpurity he said, ".... in a vacuum or inspace!" He has analyzed lunar soil, theMurchison meteorite, and other space-

10

related material. Being experienced inanalyzing unusual materials, he wassomewhat surprised to find such purityin these samples. (3) Due to the veryshallow depth nature of the scinterirtg(melting), he speculated that the energyapplied to the particles would have hadto be very great and very brief whichrules out any origin that would bemeteoritic in nature. The heating wouldhave had to been very selective.Chemical analysis of the scinteredgreen glass will be completed soon.

Dr. Zeller stated that the sand wasnot naturally formed. He felt there wasa geological process of commonminerals, composite of rock fragments,and manufactured materials involved.The sand contained the usual quantitiesof quartz fragments, feldspar, pyriteand magnetite, silt stone, sulphide, andvolcanic components, but no mica.Three other items of unusual interestare the flakes of metallic gold, the nearlywhite scintered silicate which adheredto the green glass fragments, and theunusually pure pale green glass itself.

Metal Analysis

The metal contained mostlycopper, then tin, and lesser amounts ofiron, chrome, silver, thorium, and asmall amount of silicon. One lab report,only after a second analysis, showed nothorium. In essence, the main metalsindicate the material may be brass.However, these minerals are alien tothe Chapin mining claim minerals withthe exception of silver and iron. How itgot there, and why, is an unsolvedmystery.

The analysis of the metal chips wasconducted by a skilled scientist in themetallurgic field using sophisticatedlaboratory analysis equipment and anelectron microscope. Printouts of the x-ray fluorescence process and otherdetails of the tests are in MUFON-CUFQS files, too lengthy to be includedin the article.

Samples of the metal were sentsome years ago to the Division of Minesin Golden, Colorado, Miles Rambaugh

Labs in Sacramento, the Statemineralogist in San Francisco, NevadaState University Geology Department,and Griffith Observatory in LosAngeles. The Chapin's received nosatisfaction from any of these sourcesas to the breakdown content or whatthe object was.

The puzzling thing about the"glob" of metal is the variety of metalsall molded into one mass. For whatpurpose? Alloys are common butusually consist of just two or moremetals of more equal amounts, not asmany or the odd combination thisspecimen has.

Another odd thing about themetallic content of the "glob" was thatthe greater percentage of the mass wascopper, yet the assay of the mineralsextracted from the mining operationitself indicates only .05% copper.

The Chapin's would not part withthe metal specimen but did agree tohave it drilled into to secure innermetallic chips for our analysis as hadalready been done to it in four places.The interior appears in all respects toresemble brass but it is quite hard todrill and the chips are quite brittle,unlike ordinary brass. The Chapinswere afraid to tell those who examinedthe metal "glob" where or how theycame by it for fear of ridicule!

The "glob" appears to have beenheavily plated in some sort of heavyplating bath as the exterior appears tobe dull gunmetal colored.

THE FORCE FARCEBy Ted Peters

(MUFON Consultant for Theologyand Louisiana State Director)

The rudiments of a new UFOtheology are developing. I call it the"Force Farce". The term "Force" isgaining currency due to itsprominent role in the unexpectedlypopular science fiction movie, StarWars. I apply the term "farce" tothose who attempt to exploit thispopulari ty by construct ing aglamorous but flimsy religiousprogram.

One case in point is theDecember 1977 issue of Official UFO.The guest editorial plus threearticles seek to propound such areligious vision. The guest editor isnamed Jack Crandall. He isidentified twice as a philosopher,even though his name does notappear in the 1974-75 issue of TheDirectory of American Philosophers.

The editorial writer says theForce is "all things controlled by theuniverse". It reminds me of theHindu concept of Brahman,referring to the one undifferentiatedand impersonal ground of all reality.Crandall goes on to depict the Forceas -omnipresent and influencingeach of our thoughts as well as usingflying saucers, among other things,to carry messages. He says that tofollow the Force is to become"greater than before;" to fail to"believe" in the Force is to become"less".

The Force theology assertsthat the universe is caught in astruggle between the Force and ananti-Force. The Force has enemiesand, curiously enough, theseenemies are those who criticize themagazine the philosopher Crandallis writing for: The Force stands onthe side of the editors of OfficialUFO. (I presume this makes past-

editor Dennis Hauck now an enemyof that which controls the entireuniverse. Not only has be roused theire of the publishers of Official'UFObut even the gods are supposedlyangry with him. Poor Dennis!) Iwould like to offer a word of cautionto the priests of the new Force cult:whenever we presume that thedivine supports our own view overagainst those we deem our enemies,then we have become not onlyfanatical but idolatrous. Rather thanobeying the divine will, we haveenlisted the divine into our ownservice.

Three other articles in thesame magazine also draw upon purreligious sensibilities: "New UFOReligion Holds Key to Man'sSalvation," by George S. Winslow;"How to Tap the Force: CosmicPower of the Space: Gods," byAndrew Trent; and "Saved by aUFO," by Julie Riggs.

The Trent article tries toprove the Force exists by citingalleged conversion experiences ofUFO witnesses. This approachresembles the testimonial periodduring a Pentecostal faith-healingservice. The Force is depicted as —what I have elsewhere termed — the"celestial savior". The Force caninspire persons to re-open theirminds, fill them with energy tosearch out new goals and conquerthem, halt a boring frame of thought,and introduce new and excitingways of thinking. Wouldn't it begreat to be able to get all thesethings from a UFO!

One testimonial in the Trentarticle was taken from a Mrs.Barbara Koffman, allegedly a 31-

year-old mother of three living inCutoff, Louisiana. She describes herUFO experience in terms of amiraculous conversion, after whichh e r p r e v i o u s l y " m i s e r a b l eexistence" was replaced byhappiness and success. This calls tomind the "born-again" experience ofevange l i ca l C h r i s t i a n s . Mrs.Koffman and her husband are saidto have begun a catering service 6months after the UFO sighting,which has now become a whoppingsuccess. Well, the town of Cutoffdoes in fact exist and appears onsome larger maps. On twooccasions I tried calling her longdistance. No number is listed forher, her husband, or any cateringservice associated with the Koffmanname.

My point here is not to rendera criticism of a particular magazine.It is rather to show that thisunderstanding of the Force isgrounded in the f ic t ions ofHollywood movies and New Yorkpublishing. It is not the result of anew revelation or spiritual insight. Itis a self-serving religious concept,appealing to our less-than-nobledesire to gain individual happinessand financial success. It does notcall us to serve the will of God toshow love to all mankind, a will thatcould on occasion . come intoconflict with our own will anddesires. It is strictly a "gimmie-gimmie" religious posture.

To my knowledge the conceptof the Force first appears inPerelandra, the science-fiction novelwritten by C.S. Lewis back in 1944.The Force theology there is

(Continued on next page) 11

(Force Farce, Continued)unpacked by a Professor Weston,the antagonist who later in the bookbecomes the Devil himself. Westonis portrayed as a truly modernintellectual trying to marry up-to-date science with old-fashionedreligion. He is sitting on a rocksomewhere on the planet Venusexplaining his views to the novel'shero, named Ransom:

Call it a Force. A great, inscrutableForce, pouring into us from thedark bases of being. A Force thatcan choose its instruments....I'mbeing guided. I know now that I amthe greatest scientist the world hasyet produced. I've been made for apurpose. It is through me that Spirititself is at thi moment pushing on toits goal.1

i

Like the editorial writer forOfficial UFO, Weston is very confidentthat he is a special vehicle of thistranscendent power, a messenger fromthe Force. In Perelandra, however,what Weston does not know is that theSpirit using him is not God or anythinglike God. With disconcerting irony,author Lewis portrays Weston'sconceit as a weakness that allows Satanhimself to overcome his will and takepossession of his soul. It is alwaysdangerous to presume that the devineserves to edify me rather than the otherway around.

Elsewhere I have attempted toanalyze the religious propensityinherent in the UFO phenomenon.2

The rise of the Force theology is anexample of the tendency to seekfullfillment of our deep inner religiousneeds through concepts appropriate toour scientific and technological mind-set. We have spiritual needs but a non-spiritual mentality, a mentality thatunderstands electrical charges or radiobeam transmission better than itunderstands worship or prayer.

The religions of ancientmythology and the Bible see the devinepower behind all things as essentiallypersonal. The Force is not seen as a

12

MUFON UFO SYMPOSIUM,JULY 29 & 30, DAYTON, OHIO

If you have not already made your reservations for the 1978 annualsymposium, to be held at the Dayton Convention Center, you had better do so now.This may be the largest convention yet and time is short. Speakers include TedBloecher, Dick Hall, J. Allen Hynek, Donald E. Keyhoe, and Len Stringfield. Therewill also be workshops on special topics and a slide presentation on close encountercases, revealing new details resulting from MUFON investigations.

Ticket prices are morning - $3; afternoon - $4; Saturday evening - $4; andSunday afternoon - $3, with a package price of $12 for all sessions. Make checkpayable to OUFOIL and send it to the symposium treasurer, George Pelizzari, P.O.Box 544, Forest Park Branch, Dayton, OH 45405.

You should make hotel reservations directly with the hotel of your choice. Ifyou choose Stouffer's Dayton Plaza Hotel, adjacent to the convention center,specify that you are attending the UFO Symposium. A block of rooms has beenreserved for attendees.

personal god who loves us with apassion and who weeps at humanselfishness and cruelty; it is not theholy God of Israel who requires that welive righteously and who sheds his ownblood when we fail to love one another.The Force, in contrast, is the machineidolatrized. It is part and parcel of apost-Newtonian culture that believeseverything to be run by the mechanicaland mathematically reducible laws ofnature. Our culture is thoroughlynaturalistic and scientific. We think wemust answer all life's questions in theseterms. The Force appears to be such ananswer. But it is not.

The Force is a farce for threereasons. First, it is a fictional creationrather than a divine revelation. Second,it tends toward megalomania andfanaticism, i.e., believing that I amspecially chosen and hence better thanother people. Third, it fails to meet ourdeepest spiritual need, namely, theneed to know that ultimately God ispersonal, and that he is thereby capableof loving us.

REFERENCES1. Lewis, C. S., Perelandra (New York:MacmiDan Co., 1965) p. 92F.2. Peters, Ted, UFOs--God's Chariots? FlyingSaucers in Politics, Science, and Religion(Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1977).

'HUMANOIDRETRIEVALS'

KEY TALK ATMUFON

SYMPOSIUMLen Stringfield's report at the

Symposium will present important newevidence tending to confirm the rumorswe have heard off and on for 30 years,that humanoid UFO occupants andcrashed IFOs are in the custody of theU.S. government. His paper on thesubject was completed in April.Associate Editor Stringfield has toldMUFON UFO JOURNAL that sincethen he has obtained additional data,which may result in some amendmentsto the original paper. His talk willpresent possible documentation, someof it quite surprising, that goes beyondmerely verbal claims. The sensationalnature of his presentation is sure tocause a lot of re-thinking, both byserious UFO researchers and casualobservers. Widespread news mediaattention is almost certain, but thedirection it will take — ridicule orserious cpns ide ra t ion — isunpredictable. His summary of the datahe has uncovered will appear in theJournal as soon as practicable.

tt

By Ann Druffel

THE NOMINAL UFO RESEARCHER

By Walt Greenawald

(Note: This month's guest writer is a California aerospace engineer with seven years research of the UFO phenomena. Mr;Greenawald's most recent poll is edited here from a seventeen-page report, well worth the attention of all researchers. Shortageof space necessitates editing some interesting material — AD)

The number of UFO researchersin the United States is estimated to beon the order of only 10,000 individuals.This means that only one out ofapproximately 20,000 persons is astudent of the UFO phenomenon. It issmall wonder that UFO witnesses havedifficulty in finding a sympathetic ear.Ufologists are hard to find.

Based on a poll of mostly MutualUFO Network (MUFON) members,the nominal member of an objectiveand active UFO organization looks likethis: male, 42 years old, a successfulprofessional, college educated. He isProtestant, politically conservative, ofAnglo-Celtic/German parentage, andhas sporadic psychic capabilities. Hehas had more than one UFO sighting,believes that UFOs are ofextraterrestrial origin, is convinced theU.S. Government is still studying.UFOs, and has been interested in UFOfor 16 years. He spends 14 hours a weekresearching UFOs, doesn't care aboutanonymity, and is an {dependent type.

From the above average "profile,"the following were thought to beunusual results of the poll and indicateareas of future study:

COLLEGE EDUCATED: Not onlywere most of the UFO researcherscollege educated, but a significantpercentage had advanced degrees.

POLITICALLY CONSERVATIVE:Politically conservative people in thiscountry are in the distinct minority, andto find them involved in this strangebusiness most assuredly should beinvestigated by a sociologist.

HAS HAD MORE THAN ONE UFOSIGHTING: Millions of people havereported UFOs, but few havedeveloped sufficient interest toresearch them. Multiple sightings bymore educated persons appear toarouse curiosity toward UFOs.

BELEVES THE U.S. GOVERNMENTIS STILL STUDYING UFOs: Maybenot surprising but definitely opposed tothe opinion of the news media.

During my early involvement withthe UFO enigma, I assumed that therewere NICAP and APRO members inalmost every neighborhood. Afterseveral years of. stark loneliness, Irealize that there were very few folksabout who took an objective posture onthis strange business.

An estimate of the total number ofmembers in the major UFOorganizations in the United States ispossible through a study of clubpublications over the past severalyears. The figure I arrived at was10,000. I also estimated that the threemost prestigious organizations —NICAP, ,MUFON, and APRO —equalled the membership of all the UFOgroups scattered across the U.S. sothat the total number is approximately20,000. Bear in mind that this is the totalnumber who have joined a UFOorganization — not necessarilyproductive UFO researchers. Many ofthe aforementioned probably aremembers of more than one group andmay have been counted more thanonce. Those could be offset by thoseUFO students who haven't bothered tojoin any UFO group — the independent

researcher.Of this generous estimate of 20,000

members, I guessed that only half areproductive — people who interviewUFO witnesses, those who lecture onUFOs, teach classes about the subject,or those who write reports, articles, orbooks. This would leave .only about10,000 individuals to "advance the stateof the art".

Last year, I mailed a questionnaireto approximately 150 members ofMUFON whose names and addressesappeared in the MUFON publication(SKYLOOK and, later, MUFON UFOJOURNAL), 1974 through 1977.Names were chosen somewhat atrandom, and along with an introductoryletter, four copies of the form wereenclosed with a request to distributethem to other UFO types in the same,area. Forty-three (43) individualsresponded. One nationally-knownufologist declined to fill out thequestionnaire, writing back that he feltthis was of sociological interest only anda waste of time.

Some of the interesting commentsfrom respondees ran thus: "Ludicrous,it seems to me, has been theappearance of a wave of so-called'UFOlogists,' who are so upset by beingunable to pigeonhole all their facts inone neat little box, that they have givenup in disgust and turned it all over toDemons, Elementals, and Evil Men inBlack, etc., all of whom now aresupposed to represent a unifying forcewhich spends all its time deceiving us."

Another wrote, "I dispatch for thepolice department. My

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(California Report, Continued)original thought in getting involved wasto see that anybody having a sightingwould have some place to report it...Asfar as where Ufology is going, I can'tsay, but I think the more data we gatherfor research, the better."

And still another, "With the fourlaw logic that I developed, mind, life,matter, being, etc., can be preciselymodelled in a scheme based onEverett's physics. Mechanisms forUFOs, angels, Sasquatches, Nessies,etc., then concretely emerge, and thephenomena can be understood andexplained — as can telepathy,psychokinesis, etc."

These sample comments from ourresearchers were quite varied as onemight expect, indicating that we have along way to go before any one theorybecomes solidified. The widedivergence probably explains some ofthe mistrust of one researcher towardanother.

AGE AND GENDER: The average ageof the group polled was 41.9 years.Henry McKay, the noted Canadianufologist, conducted a similar poll at the1976 CUFOS conference and the twopolls are compared below.

Age McKay Poll Greenawald Poll21-3031-4041-5051-6061-70

815186552

1011119243

Interestingly enough, McKay'smost popular age group was the 41-50,whereas Greenawald's poll showed nosignificant difference between groupsuntil the oldest one. McKay's poll nodoubt reflects data from the top 10percent of the UFO researchers in theUnited States, as to be able to attendDr. Hynek's conference was indeed anhonor.

A ten to one ratio exists betweenthe men and women involved in this

14

business. Why more of the fairer sexare not involved invites speculation.

McKay Poll Greenawald PollFemale 3 3Male 49 40

POLITICAL LEANINGS: A verysurprising result was the largepercentage of political conservatives inthe UFO arena. Of the 43 personsresponding, 12 were liberal, 20conservative, 6 middle-of-the-road, and5 termed themselves "other". It isestimated that for every conservative inthe U.S. there are three liberals. This isbased on recent surveys which showRepublicans at about 25% of thenational total. Thus, the number ofconservatives in the UFO field,relatively speaking, is inordinately high.They outrank liberals by a factor of 5 to1 when adjusting for the estimatednational spread.

Being a political ' conservativemyself, I can only surmise thatsupporting one more unpopular causedoesn't seem to be too big an additionalload to bear.

Nevertheless, why would apolitical conservative become involvedin the UFO enigma, where liberal socialand technical thoughts seem to be theaccepted patterns?

ETHNIC BACKGROUND: I wasinterested in the country of origin of therespondees' parentage. Since most ofthe respondees did not appear to beworried about anonymity, I was able totrace most back to a last name. I got:Anglo and Celtic,* 29; German, 15;French, 5; Swedish, 2; Slovak, 2; andseveral other national origins, 1 each.The preponderance of the Anglo,Celtic, and German backgrounds maybe an interesting study for one skilled inthe statistics of immigration. Mostlikely, the British Isles, Ireland,* andGermany supplied the bulk of our fore-fathers to this country in the earlyyears.

UFO SIGHTINGS: The majority ofthose members of MUFON polledreported a UFO sighting, 58% of allrespondees. However, 80% of those

admitting to a sighting also, had seenmore than one UFO. Apparently theseevents in many cases were instrumentalin transforming an average person intothe unique UFO researcher.

ANONYMITY: No names wererequested on the questionnaire.Regardless, about 90% of the UFOresearchers did not seem to mind thatthey were associated with the UFOphenomena. One commented, "Leteveryone have the courage of hisconvictions, or get out of UFOresearch."

RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND: Mostof the researchers were from aProtestant background, 27 in all. Sixwere Catholic, and 3 were Jewish; theothers (1 each) listed various otherdenominations, plus "atheist,""agnostic," and "none". Those whowere religious were still active in churchactivities. No importance was attachedto the above as it probably reflects thenational average.

CURIOSITY AND COOPERATION:A surprising result was that only 14 of43 respondees (33%) gambled 39$ instamps for a free copy of the report.

I could find little evidence that anyof the respondees from MUFONpassed the additional forms providedthem to nearby colleagues. Thisstrengthens my opinion that theexistence of the average UFOresearcher is a lonely one. There arefew of us, and we are spread out over alarge country. We apparently don'tcommunicate much with one another,especially with those that we don'tknow. Our nominal UFO researcherseems a bit wary of and not toocooperative with his colleagues.

GOVERNMENT STUDYING UFOs?:"Do you think the U.S. Government isstill studying UFOs?" The answer to

,*Mr. Greenawald includes "Anglo" with "Celtic"and Ireland with the British Isles, but in goodconscience I cannot do this. I feel the categoriesand national boundaries must be separated; andhave taken the liberty of editing the text in thisway. — AD.

that was a resounding yes! from mostrespondees.

SOURCE OF UFOs: I wondered howmuch of an impetus the interdimen-sional hypothesis has received. Fromthe answers, it seems not much. TheETH received 38 votes; the interdimen-sional 8; the paraphysical 3 votes, andthose who expressed no opinion, 3.Some respondees think UFOs comefrom more than one "source".

UFO ORGANIZATIONS ANDPUBLICATIONS: From a carefulstatistical study, it is evident that theindividual respondees from MUFONsupport other UFO organizations andpublications. However, surprisinglyonly a few subscribed to the FLYINGSAUCER REVIEW which, in myopinion, is one of the finest publicationsof its kind.

STANDARD OF LIVING: Of the 60%who responded regarding financialincome, the average seemed to be atthe high end of the $11,000-$20,000 peryear bracket. This figure is probablyclose to the upper middle class in theU.S. I would guess this results from therelatively high average educationallevel. Educationally, the following wasnoted: 70% had college degrees, 12%had some college, and the remaining18% no college training. Of those whoattained the bachelor's degree, 19continued their intellectual pursuits forMA's and PhD's. This seems aremarkably high level of education foran area popularly assumed to be on thefringes of the occult.

HAVE YOUR EFFORTS EVER BEENUNDER SURVEILLANCE? To thisquestion, 36 answered "no," 5answered "yes," and 2 thought that itwas "possible".

WHAT PROMPTED YOUR INTER-EST DM UFOs? Personal sightingsheaded the list in this category, with 13responses. Curiosity received 10responses, and media coverageaccounted for 9. Sightings of others wascited by 8 respondees, and variousother reasons accounted for the rest.

BOOK REPORTBy Barbara Mathey

A Plunge into Hyperspacc (Mergulhono Hiperespaco) by A. Moacyr Uchoa— Esoteric Dimensions of FlyingSaucer Research. No publisherindicated, privately printed? (GeneralUchoa sent us a copy as a friendlygesture, with no explanation.)

About the author: in September1975, when my husband and I traveledwith Dr. and Mrs. J. Allen Hynek inBrazil, we had the pleasure of makingthe acquaintance of General Uchoa, akindly man of ebullient temperment andoperatic personality. Besides being acivil engineer, he is Chief Professor ofLogical Physics in the Military Academyof Agulhas Negras, and also teaches atthe Superior School of War. He is asuccessful man of his world (i.e.,Brazil), and guided the Hynekentourage easily and joyfully through amaze of politicians, bureaucrats,schedules, airports, universities,crowds, the press, television, socialaffairs, speeches, interpreters, and redtape: A delightful dinner party wasgiven in honor of the Hynek's by theGeneral and his lovely wife at theirapartment in Brasilia, where weenjoyed speaking English with hisattractive, intelligent daughters, andlistening in fascinated amusement astwo couples described observing aUFO from a bus (which was full ofpassengers).

The Brazilian culture is differentthan that of the United States. Thepeople are more relaxed. Magic,

A personal sighting was apparentlythe major influence in developing astudent of the UFO phenomena. Thishappened to me. What I saw I can'texplain. Whatever it was, it certainlyaroused my curiosity!

In conclusion^ I invite any UFOinvestigator desiring to pursue theareas suggested by this report tocontact me personally: WaltGreenawald, 20709 Collins St.,Woodland Hills, CA 91367. Telephone(213) 887-6632.

healing, and parapsychology arecommonplace. UFOs are accepted asone of the facts of life (though not by thescientists, according to this book). TheBrazilian UFO researchers are moremystic and more Jungian than theAmerican. Spiritism is the religion ofmany intellectuals.

These personal comments areintroduced to show that the General,the contents of his book notwithstanding, is not a "nut".

The preface is by Professor FlavioPereira, Director of the School of SpaceSciences at Sao Paulo, President of theBrazilian Institute of Aeronautics andSpace Sciences, President of theBrazilian Committee of ConfidentialInvestigation of UFOs, and author ofThe Red Book of Flying Saucers.Professor Pereira mentions meetings ofBrazilian UFO groups, including theones at which Dr. Hynek spoke. Heremarks on books about UFOs, someby Brazilians, some translations(Ruppelt, Hynek, Vallee). He goes on tosay that the paranormal is here, that thecenter of gravity of Ufology is shifting.Ufology now includes not . onlyparapsychology but also esotericphilosophy. General Uchoa's book istimely, and he hopes there will beEnglish and French translations soon.

In the preamble the General stateshis high spiritual ideals. He criticizesand analyses the narrow-mindedness ofscientists. They decide summarily whatis impossible. Intelligent life in our solarsystem is impossible, according tothem, as are trips from outside our solarsystem. As for UFOs — absurd! Theydon't exist! Also our idea of space-timelimits our knowledge. With his book heis going to try to wake us up, to make usrealize that if we can exceed our normalsense limitations we can have a new lifein a cosmic apprenticeship.

After attacking academic science,which is material and gives us the power

15(Continued on next page)

(Book Report, Continued)

to destroy ourselves, the Generaldescribes esoteric and spiritual science.In it, time becomes a dimension.Instead of three dimensions there arefour. After a discussion of UFOresearch on the levels of ordinary andadvanced science, he comes to theesoteric-spiritual level, and the heart ofthe matter appears.

This is his research, together witha small group of friends, on farms nearBrasilia, from July 1968 to February1969. First, a being called Yogarimappeared to the General alone at 1:30AM at a deserted spot not far from thefarmhouse. The being told the Generalhe had a mission: to observe, toinvestigate, to write a book. He wouldbe protected by Yogarim, whoresembled the portrait of the MasterMorya of the White Brotherhood of theHimalayas. It was the Master and hisbrother Kut-Humi who instructedMadame Helena Blavatsky, the founderof Theosophism.

Those readers who are notsympathetic may stop here.

There follows an account of thegroup seeing various lights, demandingand receiving proofs that the beings willcommunicate with them, and theGeneral "hearing" messages. TheGeneral is either able to hypnotizehimself at will, or allows himself to beput into a trance state by these beings.As far as I can tell, it is the latter thathappens throughout the period ofresearch.

The rest of the book is an accountof what the General experiences whenin trance. He has a meeting with Yasha-Avi, a personage of high degree. Hedescribes the nature of hyperspaceandhypertime, which will lead to arevolution in the world of science. Thetelepathic communications betweenthe beings and the General remind mesomewhat of the Seth books by JaneRoberts, and of parts of Uri by AndrijaPuharich. The beings work to bringgoodwill, love, and peace to mankind.We are reminded that "many are called,

16

but few are chosen".

The General watches a screen, onwhich the beings can see anybody orany group they wish. They can "pickup" on our mental and emotional"waves," and can influence us mentallyand emotionally. They state firmly thatdrugs are bad. The author observesunisex beings, and meets a Christ-likefigure called Yashamil. He goes to a"harbor," where spaceships of differentshapes are moored together. They arefueled by solar energy. He goes aboarda spaceship of .rare beauty, and listensto a Commander Zyaish. There is ascreen which projects images andsounds of distant planets. TheCommander explains how the shipworks, the method of propulsion.Zyaish says there are many differenttypes of beings who visit Earth, andsome wish to dominate us.

On a sort of TV the Generalobserves a city on another planet; hecan see the people and they are happyand gay. He has conversations with thegreat Yashamil, asking him if our way ofsuffering is the only way to evolve, or ifthere are other ways, more noble andhappy. Yashamil replies that suffering isnot the only way for all the differenttypes of humanity, but, sadly, it is theway for us. The ways of spiritualprogress for all the different types ofhumanity are as infinitely multiple andflexible as are the ways of destiny ofeach individual human being.

These beings can influence usmentally, and in their efforts to bringabout love among men they are nearerto us than we realize. The beings uselight, as a weapon and as an aid tohealth. They can materialize anddematerialize objects, but this isdifficult. They use energy from stellarradiation.

The General ends by exhorting hisreaders to support with courage thisnew and fascinating reality.

There is-an extensive bibliography.

1977MUFONSYMPOSIUMPROCEEDINGS

(166 pages)

UFOs: WHAT'S YOUR BALL GAME? by

Thomas M. Gates, Sunnyvale, CAIIf. MUFON

Consultant In Astronomy

FURTHER EVIDENCE OF UFO RADIATION

BY James M. McCampbell, Belmont, Calif.,

MUFON Director of Research and Author of

UFOLOGY.

UFO INVESTIGATIONS by Bill Pitts, Fort

Smith, Ark. MUFON State Director for

Arkansas

WHY THE COVER-UP? by Richard Gottlieb,

Phoenix, Arizona Member of Ground Saucer

Watch (GSW. Inc.) Research Board

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF INVESTIGA-

TING UFOs by John L. Warren, Ph.D. Los

Alamos, New Mexico. MUFON Consultant

In Physics and State Director for New Mexico

FUTURE PHYSICS AND ANTI-GRAVITY by

William F. Hassel, Ph.D., Woodland Hills,

Calif., MUFON Consultant and State Section

Director

MODERN IMAGE PROCESSING REVISITS

THE GREAT FALLS, MONTANA AND

TREMONTON, UTAH MOVIES by William

H. Spauldlng, Phoenix, Ariz., Director of GSW,

Inc., MUFON State Director for Arizona and

Photographic Consultant

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM HYPNOSIS

OF IMAGINARY ABDUCTEES? by Alvln

H. Lawson, Ph.D., Garden Grove, CAIif.

MUFON State Section Director for Orange

County

SCIENCE FICTION, SCIENCE, AND UFO» by

Stanton T. Friedman, Nuclear Physicist, UFO

Lecturer, and MUFON Consultant In Nuclear

Physics

Price: $6.00 Post Paid From:

MUFON

103 OLDTOWNE ROAD

SEQUIN, TEXAS 78136 U.S.A.

SWEDEN

MILITARY SIGHTINGS & LIGHT SIGNAL CASEBy Prof. Bertil Soderquist

(MUFON Representative for Sweden)

An observation of an object by twopilots and confirmed by military radar,observations took place on August 24,1977, at 5:45 PM (i.e., under daylightconditions). The pilots were standing atthe landing strip at Koping airfield,when the object, estimated to be 10-15meters long, could be seen at a distanceestimated to be 2000 meters on acourse toward NNE. Its altitude wasestimated to be 100 meters, and itdropped to yet lower height over freeground with no obstacles. No soundwas heard. The speed was estimated tobe 400-500 kilometers/hour, and this

"estimate has been confirmed by militaryobservations. The weather was clear atthe time. One of the observers thoughtthat the object resembled a "flyingbarrel," an older • and now obsoletemilitary aircraft, but the other one couldsee no likeness to an aircraft, as nowings or protruding details wereevident. ;

Conclusions are better held inabeyance, pending further investiga-tion. My initial reaction was that we hadbeen visited by a vehicle with the samecapabilities as the "cruise missile," butthat in this case its famous orientationcapacity must have been considerablydiminished. We'll see if there are anyfurther developments on this case.

On December 12, 1975, at 11:10PM in the county of Tuusulans, in adirection toward Rusut lake, fouryouths saw a brilliantly lit, silent UFOwith a length estimated from 8 to 10meters appear only 50 meters away atan altitude of 50 meters, barely clearingthe treetops. A row of square windowslined the fuselage, emitting a yellowlight. Centrally located, between themiddle windows, a field of bluish lightwas seen. Above and below thewindows were brilliant circular lights,

which were blinking on and off —sometimes four, sometimes six of them.

The UFO had passed, when one ofthe youths started to blink with theheadlights. Immediately the UFOstopped, turned and started toward thecar and the youths. This obviouslyscared them, since they quickly got intothe car and prepared to removethemselves from the place. The UFO,however, did not approach any closerthan about 100 meters. Shortlyafterwards, the UFO disappeared athigh speed toward the nearby city ofHelsingfors.

In my letter of November 29,1977,I reported a series of incidents onJanuary 8,1977, centered at the town ofNykoping (see January issue, No. 122).The events received quite extensivecoverage from the press, both locallyand nationwide. Probably as a result ofthe good coverage, several additionalwitnesses have come forward, whichhas prompted the local UFO-group tomake a more thorough investigation. Iskip the details and concentrate ontheir summary.

Over 50 witnesses have relatedtheir experiences. The observationstook place on January 8, 1977, from2:30 to 3:55 PM and can be pin-pointedto the southern area of Nykoping,especially Hemgardsorriradet. Thenumber of objects involved -variedbetween five and six. At the sameoccasion, one or two aircraft appearedon the scene.Characteristics: Glowing red color,shifting from red to white to yellow. Sizevarying; one of the smaller objects wasspherical, others pencil-like, yet othershad the classical saucer shape. In twocases cupola-shaped superstructurescould be seen. No sound was heard inany of the sightings. The movements of

the objects were described as jerky,with sudden changes in course,coupled with long periods of stationaryposi t ion in m i d - a i r . Suddendisappearances occurred in half of thereports. Observation times are quitelong, upwards of ll/2 hours.

Military activity: Three witnesses sawmilitary aircraft in the area. At least oneof these has been identified as anadvanced interceptor. Military sourcesgenerally deny such activities, butexpress interest in the results of theinvestigations.

Witnesses: Estimated "reliability"varies, but the most interesting detailshave been given by persons with-thehighest "credibility ratings".

General: Observation conditions wereexcellent, with clear and cold weather.The sun set at 4:15 whenceobservations were made during thedaylight period. There have been noreports of radio interference. Nounusual animal behavior has beenobserved.

MUFON103 OLDTOWNE RD.SEGUIN, TX 78155

17

GALLUP POLL

SHOWS STRONGBELIEF IN UFOs

A new Gallup poll taken in. Marchand reported May 25 shows that 57% ofAmericans believe UFOs are "real"rather than imaginary, an increase of11% since 1966. Among adults polled,93% were aware of the subject and 9% ofthem claimed to have sighted a UFO.The conviction that UFOs are real isconsiderable higher in the West andMidwest than in the East and South,very high in people under 30 (70%), andhigher with increasing educationalbackground (college, 66%).

I Mark R. Herbstritt

AstronomyNotes

THE SKY FOR JUNE 1978

Mercury — It is too close to the sun tobe easily visible, being in superiorconjunction on the 14th.

Venus — It is about 26 degrees abovethe western horizon at sunset and setsabout 2% hours later.

Mars — In Leo, it is well up in thesouthwest at sunset and sets about 4hours later. It is 0.1 degree south ofSaturn on the 4th and 0.8 degree northof Regulus on the 12th.

Jupiter — In Gemini, it is very low inthe west at sunset and sets about 1%hours later.

Saturn — In Leo, it is high in thesouthwest at sunset and sets about 4hours later.

18

GUEST EDITORIAL(Newsletter, UFO Research of SouthAustralia, No. 29, Jan-Feb, 1978)

Do UFOs exist? Seemingly avery simple question. We know thatreports of unidentified (to the observer)objects in the sky and on the ground arereceived by our organization. Most ofthem are explainable in conventionalterms, but a small residue remains. Thisresidue contains some quiteprovocative accounts which on facevalue do not fit into the scheme ofthings. As an organization we do not gobeyond a statement that "after anin t e l l i gen t and commpnsenseinvestigation of reports made to us,there exists a residue which does notappear to be due to natural orconventional causes." As you can seethis is far from acceptance of anyhypotheses which are put forward fromtime to time.

This attitude is reflected in thetype of items this newsletter carries. If itis concerning a report then the detailsas given to us are provided, togetherwith however much comment we cangive on checkable facts plus ourconclusions if we have arrived at any. Itshould be remembered thatinvestigation of reports takes time. Wedo not and will not react to mediarequests for "instant" answers. Wherea newspaper article is printed we will tryand provide you with follow up detailswhere we are able to get them. Factualarticles are based on investigationmaterial wherever possible, andspeculative ones should clearly indicatetheir nature.

So, to answer the questionposed of us, there is not enough goodscientific evidence to suggest thatUFOs are or are not anything morethan 100 percent conventional stimuliat the moment. Scientists ridicule thesubject without checking into it, andsome UFO clubs make outrageousclaims without substantiation. Theseare two extremes. UFO Research

(S.A.) Inc., is in the middle and says let'scheck out all these accounts to the bestof our ability to either prove or disprove— but let's use scientific method andlet's do it now.

Do you believe in UFOs? Tothis, the organization answers that wedo not "believe" in anything, as beliefconjures up a vision of blindacceptance, or acceptance based onthe evidence. So far there is neither.

(Director's Message, Continedfrom backcover)

upsurge in reports during the firstquarter of 1978 that could be attributedto hoax reports. However, a verygratifying, exciting, and positive actionwas inspired by the motion picture(CE3K) and the Jack Webb TVprogram "Project UFO." We are nowreceiving a very significant number ofolder reports from reputable citizenswho are coming forward to relate theirexperiences, which they previouslyonly shared .with their immediatefamilies.

The fear of ridicule and anticipateddamage to their personal respectabilityin their jobs and communities hadprompted these people to refrain frommaking their sightings public. Afterviewing the current films and TVprograms, they have realized that whatthey had personally considered such anunusual event that "no one would everbelieve it" has been occurring to othersthroughout the past 25 years. U.S. AirForce, CIA and governmental agencies'public statements have also been adeterrent to citizens' disclosures onUFO sightings. In spite of the officialgovernment negative philosophy onUFOs, the intelligent populace hasbeen able to disperse the proverbial"fear smoke screen," evaluate the facts,and accept the UFO phenomenon as atruly scientific dilemma that must beresolved. And, yes, this sameenlightened populace is comingforward to volunteer their services toMUFON to intelligently attack aproblem which may be considered "thegreatest mystery of our time."

Lucius Parish

In Others' WordsThe March 21 issue of NATIONAL

ENQUIRER reported on a UFO seenby policemen and others in Simi Valley,C a l i f o r n i a , in Augus t , 1977.Photographs of the object have nowbeen "mislaid," according to aspokesman for the police department.The March 28 ENQUIRER quotesformer astronaut Gordon Cooper assaying that he saw "hundreds" of UFOswhile stationed in West Germany as atest pilot in the early 1950's. Accordingto Cooper, formation flights of UFOsappeared at high altitudes overNeubiberg Air Base for two days. Jetsattempted to intercept them, but wereunable to climb above 45,000 feet. Asecond article in this issue reports onthe impact (or lack of it) of "CloseEncounters of the Third Kind," insofaras public reports of UFO experiencesare concerned. There has been noCE3K-inspired flap (in the UnitedStates, at least), despite the predictionsof same by various super-skeptics.

The April issue of SCIENCEDIGEST has an article by Don Berliner,commenting on some of the humanoidencounters from the Project Blue Bookfiles, including a couple of interestingcases which have received littlepublicity thus far. ,

UFO REPORT for May has anexcellent article by Wendelle C.Stevens on his investigation of theEduard Meier contact story inSwitzerland. Meier has producednumerous photos and films to back uphis story of contact with beings whoclaim to be from a planetary system inthe Pleiades. This issue also has areport of "phantom aircraft" by CurtSutherly & David Fideler, plus JohnKeel on "skyquakes" and other articles.

A new magazine specializing inboth science-fact and science-fiction isFUTURE, a companion publication to

STARLOG (mentioned in a previouscolumn). FUTURE is published eighttimes a year and the May (#2) issue hasan interview with Dr. Hynek, as well asfeatures on the search for intelligent lifein space, the debate over planetaryexplorations by manned expeditions orrobot probes, and many other items ofin te res t . Both F U T U R E andSTARLOG are highly recommended.

Again, it is Wendelle Stevens to therescue, saving the #9 issue of TRUEFLYING SAUCERS & UFOs from aterminal attack of "rehash-itis."Stevens' article on capsule-shapedsaucers is up to his usual standards andis accompanied by a number of UFOphotos depicting this particular type ofobject.

The #2 issue of IDEAL'S UFOMAGAZINE is now available. If youhappen to pick it up and notice myletter to the editor with kind words forthe #1 issue, be advised that someediting has taken place! My remarksabout the initial offering were not allcomplimentary and I share the samereservations with respect to the currentissue. Too much of the materialoriginates with Richard Draper, RonaldDrucker or a variety of other suspectedpseudonyms for the same writer. Inshort, do not accept any of themagazine's contents as genuine unlessthey can be verified by other sources.IDEAL's presentation of material is farmore conservative than some of itscompetitors (whom we need notname), but conservative fiction is reallyno more palatable than outlandishfiction.

During the period of 1962 to 1967,a somewhat unique publication wasavailable to those interested in UFOs.C.A. Honey, an associate of the lateGeorge Adamski, produced theSCIENCE PUBLICATIONS NEWS-LETTER ( o r i g i n a l l y COSMIC

SCIENCE NEWSLETTER), whichconsidered the UFO subject from acontactee viewpoint. There have beenother such publications, but Honey'swas certainly one of the best. Heattempted to approach the topicobjectively, as befits an engineer forHughes Aircraft Company (which hestill is). The SPN issues were also madeavailable in Yearbook form and copiesof those (excluding the 1963 volume)are still available. Those interested inmore information may write to Honeyat P.O. Box 2431, Fullerton, CA 92633.

The PBS "Nova" program recentlypresented yet another critique of vonDaniken's writings and theories, "TheCase of the Ancient Astronauts." Aswith most such efforts, the biases wereall too evident. However, anyonedesiring a transcript of the programmay obtain one for $2.00 from: Nova,P.O. Box 1000, Cathedral Station,Boston, MA 02118.

— MUFON AMATEUR —RADIO NETS

SATURDAY: 40 meters, 7237 KHZ.0700 (COST)Net Control--N1JS

75 meters, 3975 KHZ.0800 (COST)Net Control-WA9ARG

SUNDAY: 20 meters, 14,284 KHZ.1300 (CDST)Net Controls-NUS &

WONC

19

DIRECTOR'S MESSAGEThe "Second Annual MUFON

North Carolina Training Conference"was held Saturday and Sunday, June 17and 18,1978, at the Sears, Roebuck andCompany activity room of the HanesMall Shopping Center in WinstonSalem, North Carolina, hosted by theTarheel UFO Study Group. Principalspeakers were George D. Fawcett,Lincolnton, NC, MUFON StateDirector; Dan Duke, Boone, NC,MUFON State Section Director; P.Wayne LaPorte, Matthews, NC, StateSection Director; Nolie L. Bell,Winston Salem, President of theTarheel UFO Study Group andMUFON State Section Director; Dr. T.A. Guiton, Jamestown, NC, hospitaladministrator, teacher, psychologistand professional hypnotherapist; andHenry H. Morton, Wadesboro, NC,master of ceremonies and MUFONField Investigator. Commendationsmust be extended to Ray Rhein, theCommittee Chairman, who wasinstrumental in organizing thisoutstanding event. MUFON hascooperated with Ray to help make thisanother successful training meeting bysupplying visual aids, door prizes, andliterature.

A major reassignment ofresponsibilities in Illinois that was notgiven exposure in this column, shouldbe announced at this time. Mr. LeonardW. Sturm, 1835 South FairviewAvenue, Decatur, IL 62521; telephone(217) 428-7182, formerly a State SectionDirector, has replaced Robert Smullingas State Director for Illinois. Mr.Smulling is now the State SectionDirector for Hancock, Henderson, andMcDonough counties. Bob resides at8th and Broadway in Hamilton, IL62341. Both Bob and Leonard arefounding members of MUFON, eachwith years of experience in UFOlogy,Bob as a professional photographerand Leonard as an electrical engineerwith Illinois Power.

Mrs. Idabel E. Epperson, State

Director for Southern California, hasselected Willard D. Nelson, 18302Montana Circle, Villa Park, CA 92667;telephone (714) 538-9467, to becomethe new State Section Director forOrange County to replace Alvin H.Lawson, Ph.D., who resigned in orderto devote more of his time to personalUFO research. Dr. Lawson, a speakerat the 1977 MUFON UFO Symposiumin Scottsdale, AZ, has concentrated hisresearch, with Dr. McCall, in the areasof hypnotic regression of abducteesand "imaginary" abductees to test thevalidity of this process as a tool inreconstructing events and experiences,during time lapses of "real" abductees.Willard, an aircraft structural researchengineer, was formerly a MUFONResearch Specialist.

A name that many of you areseeing in correspondence with ourMUFON Administrative Office is thatof Mrs. Virginia Castner, our OfficeSecretary. She was also responsible forthe typing of the speeches in the 1977M U F O N UFO SYMPOSIUMPROCEEDINGS, and is now veryinvolved with the 1978 proceedings inthe same capacity. Virginia, a verycompetent and sincere secretary, herhusband John, and daughter Beckyhave moved into a new home in Seguin,where they have adequate land to rideand train quarter horses.

When Richard H. Hall becameEditor of the MUFON UFO JOURNALwith the January 1978 issue, this heavyresponsibility made it necessary forMUFON to seek a new InternationalCoordinator to fill Richard's previousBoard of Directors position. At thepresent time Richard is serving in a dualrole, however he does not haveadequate time to handle the essentialcorrespondence with MUFON'sforeign representatives and nationaldirectors, while also editing theJOURNAL. Volunteers will be solicitedfrom our membership, who express an

interest in serving in this importantposition. Please contact yourInternational Director in Seguin, Texas,if you desire to volunteer your services.

The 1978 MUFON SYMPOSIUMPROCEEDINGS will be available at theSymposium in Dayton, Ohio, on July29, 1978, to attendees and to all otherson August 1st for $6.00 in the UnitedStates and $7.00 in all other countriespostpaid. The difference in price is dueto the monetary exchange rate andincreased postal costs. The followingMUFON Proceedings from previoussymposiums may still be secured byordering from MUFON, 103 OldtowneRoad, Seguin, Texas 78155, U.S.A., forthe following amounts postpaid: 1973 -$3.25, 1975 - $4.00, 1976 - $5.00, and1977 - $5.00.

In 1977 at least four major UFOConferences? or symposiums vied forthe attention and participation ofpeople interested in UFOlogy. Since itwas not financially feasible for a personto attend each one of them, theparticipants were divided to such anextent that each conference sufferedfinancial losses of various degrees. Weare therefore elated that MUFON is theonly major organization sponsoring asymposium of this nature in 1978 andexpect the largest attendance of our 9year history for this prestigious UFOConference.

Newspaper and magazine writersare presently involved in follow-upstories to previously publishedpredictions that a rash of hoax UFOsighting reports would be motivated bythe motion picture epic "CloseEncounters of the Third Kind." UFOdebunkers, led by Philip Klass, receivedunwarranted news coverage for theirforecasts, which did not materialize,much to their dismay. Actually,MUFON statistics indicate that 1977was a slow year with no appreciable

(Continued on page 18)