Articles in Phenomena Magazine

Although I plan on using this blog for most of my personal research/writing, I want to occasionally pursue other outlets as well, for several reasons. One reason is because I sometimes write articles that seem better suited for a magazine than a blog post. Also, it is a good opportunity to connect with new readers, who might not have discovered my relatively obscure blog yet (or, let's face it, maybe never would otherwise).

The June 2014 issue of Phenomena features two articles by me, that were written specifically for the magazine. One is about the classic Danish Poltergeist/Possession case known as "Køge Huskors". The story is well known in Denmark, but the literature in English about it is limited. I felt that this case deserved a larger readership and more "official" recording into the "paranormal community". The other article is about a personal UFO experience I had back in 2006 in Wales, which is connected to one of my previous posts.

Well, enough about that. The issue with the mentioned articles can be found here, and in a few weeks time it will be accessible through the Phenomena site archive.

Many thanks to Steve Mera for featuring both articles. I hope we can do it again.

UBO's (Unidentified Box-like Objects) - Part 1

As those who study a sufficiently large amount of UFO reports will eventually realize, a handful of well-defined themes and elements tend to stand out and keep recurring. What is frustrating, is that they often do so in (what at least seems like) a random and nonsensical manner. This is most obvious when comparing earlier ”landing” type cases, before abductions began to dominate the picture. It almost seems like variations of a sci-fi themed theatre play was being acted out again and again, with the help of involuntary bystanders. 

One of the recurring "props" that have fascinated me the most, for some reason, have been the strange boxes employed in one way or another by UFO occupants, particularly in CE3 (close encounters of the third kind) reports. I have long been curious about how this particular element has ”spread” over time, across the world. Are there perhaps some genuine patterns to be found here? Consider this the first in a series of articles, where i attempt to answer that question.

While several CE3 cases share similar traits, boxes aren't nearly as common an element as, say, the taking of ground samples, or the paralysis of witnesses (strange boxes have appeared in both these kinds of scenarios as well, though), but there are several interesting ”box cases” that go way back. Furthermore, many classic and high-profile UFO cases turns out to involve boxes, when you look a little closer at them. For example, a ”black box” is said to have been recovered among the Roswell debris in 1947, and two large, cube-shaped objects were supposedly found somewhere within the Tunguska impact area in 2004 (interpreted by some Russian ufologists to be leftovers from a crash between a UFO and a comet).

I will get around to covering these types of cases too, eventually. But this first post will focus mainly on box-like devices in connection with UFO occupants.

Approach

My main point of departure has been Albert Rosales' extensive catalogue of Human Sighting Reports, but I have expanded with many additional sources. In searching through Albert's reports, I looked for the recurrence of the words ”box” and ”cube” in every .pdf file. This has taken a lot of time - both to read through, but also to sort into a meaningful narrative for analysis. Consequently, a lot has been filtered out.

For example, there are many reports involving ”boxes” which, on closer inspection, appear more like astronaut or diving gear, or are stated explicitly as being more like large containers on board flying saucers, used in the collection of samples...and so on. Also, there were quite a few that involved box or cube-shaped craft, especially from the 1990's onward. I decided to discard most of these, and focus mainly on those reports that involve boxes with (seemingly) superior technological or magical/supernatural qualities.

The Earliest Reports

The earliest examples I could find of humanoid encounter cases involving boxes, are the Japanese Utsuro Bune stories from the early 1800's. These stories have been interpreted as spaceship visitations by some ufologists, but Japanese scholars have pointed out that they are actually a continuation of earlier, local legends. There are certain features that are reminiscent of mermaid encounters as well.

A more precise date of the first of these alleged encounters, the 22^nd of February 1803, is mentioned in Jenny Randles' Abduction. On this day, a group of Japanese fishermen from the Hitachi province found a drifting vessel, which they proceeded to tow back to land. This particular ”ship” had a shape reminiscent of a Japanese incense burner. In some drawings it looks very much like the UFO that Travis Walton encountered. In later variants of the story, the ship is described as looking more like a ”kama” cooking pot - an object that actually looks more like your standard flying saucer.

Various Utsuro-Bune drawings.

The following details are more or less the same across all of the known reports: The ship is partially transparent, and, looking inside, the fishermen see various strange symbols and writings on the walls. Inside they also discover a very short (1.5 meters tall), young woman with red hair and pink skin, dressed in strange garbs. The woman speaks in a language unknown to the fishermen and is carrying a 1 meter long square box. She is described as friendly, but clutching the box to her intensely at all times. No matter what the fishermen do, they are never allowed to look inside, or even come near it. Check the video clip below for more.

The next account I found going through Albert's files, is from 1851, and of the bedroom visitation type. It seems to have been discovered fairly recently, among miscellaneous writings from the early American spiritualist movement. Essentially, it reads like an instance of sleep paralysis, where a group of entities in ”ancient clothing” were seen hovering over the immobilized victim, who relates:

”[O]ne of them had what appeared to be a box about eighteen inches square, and some nine inches high: it seemed to contain electrical apparatus. They placed the box on the table, and then electrical emanations like currents of light of different colors, were seen issuing from the box.”

The figures proceeded to place a pen on top of the box, which went on an automated writing spree (in a language that later turned out to be a form of Hebrew). Concerning the ”ancient clothing”, this site alludes to the possibility that it might be cowls or tunics. This is interesting, as it appears a lot in later box cases.

The next report takes us back to Japan, some time during the summer of 1926. A two-year old boy named Warabe, who had several prior contacts, was telepathically summoned outside one night, by a young man with long golden hair. Over the following years the boy was given many gifts by this man (who he came to call ”Uncle”). Among the gifts was a metallic box with some curious carvings of a triangle/pyramid on top and snakes on the sides.

8 years later, in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, a young man named Juan Rivera Felliberti was flying his kite one morning, when he was suddenly interrupted by a 20 ft spherical, silvery object in the sky. The ”craft” snatched his kite and subsequently beamed him up. Inside, he encountered a male and a female humanoid. The male wore a tight-fitting green outfit, and the female, who was holding his kite, was described as pink-skinned with platinum blonde hair, wearing a silvery suit. She looked no more more than six years old. Juan asked for his kite back, but she refused. Instead she proceeded to show him a box which emitted various images. After this, he was shown yet another, smaller box, which he was encouraged to play with. The woman pressed a button on this 20x20x20 cm cube-shaped box, and smoke came swirling out, transforming into several small ”monkey-like” creatures.

Juan traded the box for his kite and kept it for many years, entertaining several of his friends with the ”monkey trick”. He later buried the box because he had trouble controlling the creatures, which would always escape from him after having manifested. They allegedly caused serious mischief around Puerto Rico, and were even rumored to have been involved in a series of deaths. Juan felt that some of them were still alive and roaming the countryside many years later.

The Finnish Connection

Finnish ufologist Heikki Virtanen reports an encounter from 1939 in Saarijärvi, Finland, that took place the day before the great Winter War with Russia began. A 14 year old boy, Arvo, was collecting firewood in the forest together with his father, when he saw something curious in the distance. At first he assumed that it was a moonshine factory, and since he had never seen one of these before, he went in for a closer look. It turned out to be something quite different: an object shaped like a kettle at the bottom and narrowing at the top. From the bottom, flames of different colours shot out. Outside the object, a 1.60 meter tall human-like entity in (what must later have been interpreted as) an astronaut-style suit, was standing. It had a box in its hands, which it seemed to be directing a couple of nearby robots. 

Certain parts of the above may sound familiar, and there is a good reason why. The 1970 Imjärvi encounter is one of the most memorable and recognizable in UFO history - especially because of the illustrations that have accompanied it whenever it has been featured. Both cases share many of the same details.

Well-known illustration of the Imjärvi CE3.

Looking at the details of the case as they emerged in the pages of Flying Saucer Review (beginning with issue 3, 1970), however, it becomes clear that the story was compartmentalized - although perhaps not conciously. Initially, the related encounter only described what could "simply" be an exotic weather phenomenon. It then developed into also including an ”object” similar to an ”Adamski” saucer (in issue 4, 1970). Finally, in the following issue, the now legendary humanoid was revealed. There are also some discrepancies between Heinonen and Viljo's statements, although this can be due to gradually recovered memories. I won't go any further into that matter. Just consider it as a disclaimer from which you can draw your own conclusions. 

The story, as it was eventually recalled, is more or less as follows:

On January 7^th,, 1970, Aarno Heinonen and Esko Viljo, both in their 30's at the time, were out skiing. At some point they heard a buzzing noise and saw a light coming at them from the same direction. The light came gradually closer, and then a reddish-gray colored mist appeared around it. From this mist emerged a disc-shaped metallic object, about 10 feet in diameter, which descended until it was 10-12 feet off the ground. Heinonen described it as being so close that he could touch it with his ski staff. Then, suddenly, a light shot out from the bottom of the disc, accompanied by sparks and flames, illuminating a small area on the ground in front of them. Then followed another swirl of reddish-gray mist.

When this had disappeared once more, they saw a 3ft tall entity standing in front of them, dressed in a light green coverall, dark green boots, white elbow-length gauntlets and a conically-shaped helmet. It's skin was pale, as if made of wax, and it had a strange, hooked nose. In its hand it was carrying a black box with a yellow pulsating light, which it pointed towards Heinonen. Shortly after, it disappeared again, and so did the flying disc. Both men were left with serious physiological side effects, but Heinonen developed the most serious symptoms. They also both had a series of further ”supernatural” experiences. Heino claimed many later UFO-sightings, two encounters with a female spacewoman (who summoned him to a secluded area via telepathy), and on top of this developed psychic abilities in the wake of the initial experience.

Sketch of the Imjärvi humanoid's face, and it's mysterious box.

That Heinonen and Viljo saw something, seems to be confirmed by the fact that there were other witnesses in the area who saw a strange light in the sky at the same time. But even more interesting is the fact that an encounter took place about 100 meters from there, less than a year before. In February of 1969, Matti Kontulainen (16 years old at the time) was skiing through the forest at night, when suddenly an intensely bright light flew by, just above treetop level. He decribed it looking like ”a huge welding flame”. So, in the three Finnish reports above, we also have the curious occurence of strange flames – not the most common element found in UFO reports of this kind.

It might also be of interest, that a legendary Finnish nightclub, The Funky Maruschka, opened close to Imjärvi a few years later. At least one person i know, who visited the club as a young man, has expressed the opinion that this is probably not a coincidence.

Variations on a Theme

That the Imjärvi case came to be one of the most famous in ufology has, as with so many other things in life, a lot to do with both circumstance and timing. There are many other cases like it that raise just as many eyebrows and questions (as Albert Rosales' files shows countless examples of), but which, for some reason or another, wasn't explored in more detail at the time. When backtracking a bit, it becomes clear that even the basic ”formula” for the Imjärvi encounter had already been tried and tested quite a few times by 1970. There is even a lesser known Finnish incident from 1965, which happened about 100 km from where Heinonen and Viljo had their encounter. This case almost seems like a mix between the Imjärvi encounter and the 1939 Saarijärvi case, mentioned earlier:

On August 19^th of that year, a father and his son - Matti and Teuvo Kuningas – strayed away from the rest of their family (the mother and younger brother), while out picking blueberries. Suddenly, they saw what looked like a giant stone about 30 meters away inside the forest. On further inspection, they encountered a 1 meter tall, broad-shouldered entity, with skin the colour of a carrot and wearing a green overall. It had a box-like device on it's chest, from which came some kind of a flashing light. The entity made a number of strange sounds and movements before it disappeared. They both experienced missing time and memory loss, but after about six months Teuvo remembered the above details and related it to his younger brother, Tapani. The father also recalled many of the details later on. Tapani Kuningas, by the way, later became one of Finlands most active ufologists.

I have already started to draw attention to the shared details of these cases, but even more will become obvious later on. I also plan on making a seperate post exclusively about mythological and fairy-tale precursors, but i should mention in passing that i have looked into the tradition of Finnish folklore and fairytales, for potential sources of influence. I was not able to find any particularly affinity for stories about mysterious boxes, although there is indeed a tradition of magic objects, such as purses that supply an endless amount of riches, magic handkerchiefs, etc. I did find mention of a ”magic tinderbox”, but nothing that really matches the box of the Imjärvi entity.

Click here for Part 2

Sources:

Albert Rosales Humanoid Catalogue at http://www.ufoinfo.com/humanoid/

Flying Saucer Review

UFO-Nyt (Denmark)

Apo, Satu: The Narrative World of Finnish Fairy Tales: Structure, Agency and Evaluation in Southwest Finnish Folk Tales (FFC no:256, 1995)

Carey, Thomas J. & Schmitt, Donald R.: Witness to Roswell (2009)

http://jburogu-godzillaradio.blogspot.com.tr/2012/01/legend-of-utsuro-bune-ufo-in-edo-period.html

http://keichow.tumblr.com/post/8506228332/utsuro-bune-japans-first-modern-ufo-encounter

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/49ufo_files/03files2/1803_Japan_Utsuro_Bune.html

http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/04/was-the-legend-of-utsuro-bune-a-close-encounter-of-the-third-kind/

http://inexplicata.blogspot.com.es/2007/11/in-wake-of-avb-more-sex-and-saucers.html

http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case741.htm

And others...

The Illuminati, Before They Were Famous - Part 1

Incorporating occult symbolism into popular culture has become more than a cliché these days, and consequently no longer holds the same sense of mystery as it once did. There is of course still an ongoing "debate" about why these symbols have become so common, but there is no doubt that a lot (or most) of it is simply thrown out there to provoke and create publicity. On the other hand, there are of course countless examples of celebrities being open, and apparently sincere, about holding various "alternative" beliefs that would explain this heavy usage.

Of all the occult symbols that have appeared in movies and music videos during the last couple of years, the "All-Seeing Eye" (The Eye of Providence/Eye of Horus/Eye of <insert here>) has been the most popular and widespread. There are so many variations and interpretations of what this eye represents, and how exactly it connects with anything we can remotely call The Illuminati, that I can't go into it here. Discussing The Illuminati, either as a real organization or more as a concept, is in itself a challenge that I don't feel up to at the moment. But it's important to note that until recently, it was very much an American phenomenon, specificallly connected with the religious culture of the USA.

All this changed in the wake of 9-11, particularly after the launching of YouTube and other large streaming services. During this period, hundreds of old and new conspiracy themed videos became readily available to millions of viewers across the world, where before they were underground and shared among small communities of users. 

The obnoxious semi-reflexive, tongue-in-cheek approach to using occult imagery, was epitomized by movies such as last year's Now You See Me, which uses eye symbols to such a degree that its not even funny anymore. As a result, analyzing the why's and who's in relation to movies that incorporate "Illuminati symbolism" these days, is not particularly interesting. But only a few decades ago, symbols such as the All-Seeing Eye were still relatively obscure, not appearing in movies except on rare occasions. Or...  

Has it always been there, watching us?

One can in fact find many examples of eye symbolism in many different movies throughout the 20^th century. Some of these are fairly well known and obvious, but i will try to present a few here that haven't been re-posted to death already. Whether all of them have their basis in deliberate, conspiracy-oriented ideas, is uncertain. But considering the themes of the movies they tend to show up in, it's hard to believe that there wasn't some element of esoteric awareness behind their use. Was someone putting the imagery out there to mess with our minds? To condition us for something in the future? Or was it more of an inside joke, even back then?

Years before The Matrix, Dark City and other, less succesful gnostic-themed "simulation" movies, there was Rainer Werner Fassbender's German sci-fi tv-drama Welt Am Draht (The World On A Wire), based on the novel Simulacron-3 by Daniel Galouye (which also influenced the 1999 movie The Thirteenth Floor). The story in Welt Am Draht revolves around a government institute of computer research and future studies, which has developed a virtual world similar in almost every aspect to the "real" world. When a series of people start to mysteriously disappear – not only physically, but literally with their histories getting erased from official records and memories – from the "real" world, the protagonist starts to suspect that he is already living in a simulation.

Below is a clip from the opening scene of Welt Am Draht, where we are shown the entrance to the IKZ (Institut für Kybernetik und Zukunftsforschung) as well as the main protagonist, arriving by car:

In this scene we are also presented with a long shot of the image of an eye inside a triangle, on a flag blowing in the wind. One would assume that it is the IKZ logo, but as far as i have noticed this is actually the only time that it appears in the movie. In any case, it seems quite clear that it was intended to be interpreted as something ominous. It is also obvious that, especially The Matrix, got a lot of inspiration from Welt Am Draht (although Grant Morrison has claimed a large a stake in influencing it too), not just regarding the plot, but also the whole presence of "Men In Black" (a few of these can be seen at the end of the above clip). These figures play a large role as "reality enforcers" throughout the movie, just like Agent Smith & co. in the Matrix Trilogy. Another constant element in Welt Am Draht is the constant use of women and sex as distractions.

The next example comes from one of the lesser-known post-nuclear scenario movies of the 1980's, Testament (1983). In it we follow a suburban California family during the aftermath of a nuclear attack on San Francisco (and other American cities), as their once harmonic neighborhood starts to detoriorate. One by one, citizens die from radioactive fallout, while the social order falls apart even faster. The first scene where we see the authorities involved in establishing control of the situation, a group of people are standing outside a public rationing area:

The symbol somewhat less prominent here, and it has been pointed out to me that what we in fact are seeing, is a variation of the American Civil Defense logo. This makes a lot of sense, even if the letters are joined almost beyond recognition, considering who has been put in control of the situation. I personally still get associations to an eye seeing this sign, and I think that the way that the scene is shot, placing the head of the passsive-aggressive, curly-haired woman right in front of it, is meant to add some visibility to the symbol. So take away from that what you will.

Part 2 is now up here.

1826: When The Devil Was Loose In Salmon Street

What I will be relating here is a classic Danish "poltergeist" case from 1826. This incident became so well known that it even led to the popular expression, "The Devil is loose in Salmon Street", similar in meaning to "when the shit hits the fan". It is still used occasionally, but more in a nostalgic manner. Many people don’t actually know the origin of the expression, but the story, popularly told, goes something like this:

One night in September 1826, a house located on Laksegade (Salmon Street) 15 in the center of Copenhagen, became the source of much commotion. Suddenly, all the building's residents fled to the street in panic, from where they could observe their home develop into a state of total chaos. Soon the message spread and people from all over the city came to see what was happening. Witnesses would describe windows being smashed and potatoes, cutlery and firewood flying through the air, as if thrown by an enormous, unseen force. Also bursts of harsh and scary laughter, swearing and cursing sounded loudly throughout the street. Some witnesses even claimed to have heard growls like those of a wild animal, and seen large red eyes glowing behind the windows.

Laksegade 15, many years later (date unknown).

When the police arrived at the address they duly searched the building, but couldn't locate the source of disturbance. Eventually things died down, but officers were placed on guard there for several days after. During the subsequent questioning of eyewitnesses, further strange details emerged. An elderly female resident even ended up taking responsibility for the events, believing she had called forth evil spirits by accident, while consulting her Cyprianus earlier in the day (The Cyprianus is a lightweight occult grimoire of sorts, which was once rumored to have be written in blood. In actuality, it was a widely copied and popular book in many homes at the time).

An old (left) and more recent (right) version of the once so popular Cyprianus

After a while, people started to believe that the commotion at Laksegade was simply a mischievous plan cooked up by a group of pranksters. Another popular theory was that the event had been staged by a chicken farmer, as revenge for his daughter who had been treated unfairly by a family living there. As to what really happened, it has never been properly resolved. In fact, there are several contradictory stories and details that makes it even more confusing. For example, there is no official date for the event in any of the writings i have come across, but a police report came out in early October, so it must have been some time prior to it's release. An official police statement also exists, dated 15^th of September:

Københavns Politi: Politimesterens korrespondanceprotokol nr. 41, 1826:

Nr. 1688. Bekendtgørelse fra politiet, 15. september 1826:

”Da de urimeligste rygter om begivenheder, der skulle være bemærkede i huset nr. 20 i Laksegade, har i de sidste dage forårsaget betydelige folkesamlinger i bemeldte og tilstødende gader, så finder jeg mig foranlediget til herved at bekendtgøre, at det, der har tildraget sig så manges opmærksomhed, ikke består i videre, end at en i huset boende mand har i løbet af omtrent 3 uger til forskellige tider fået adskillige vinduesruder indslagne fra gaden”.  

The statement notes that a man living in Laksegade 20 (not 15), had experienced several of his windows being smashed from the outside, over a period of three weeks. This had eventually created a spectacle by drawing large crowds to the street, but was all there was to it. Whether this is really true or if it was simply an attempt by the police to calm things down, we can at least conclude that the night in question must have been before the 15th of September. Looking through the archives at The Royal Library in Copenhagen, i tried to find even just a mention of the event in local newspapers from the period, but to no avail. This is suspicious too, since references often are made to specific newspaper coverage from September 1826, when the case is mentioned.

In any case, SOMETHING clearly happened back then, but how much of it was a result of an escalating social panic is difficult to say exactly. It might take some more digging in the archives to get closer to the truth. Until then, it remains an example of a good story that exerted great influence for many years to come.

Sources:

• Fanden er løs i laksegade og anden overtro in Guldalderen issue no: 5, 2003
• Hamilton-Wittendorf, Bo Bomuld: Guide til det okkulte Danmark - København, Sjælland, Lolland-Falster, Møn og Bornholm (2006)
• Hamilton-Wittendorf, Bo Bomuld: Guide til det okkulte København (2007)
• Thomas, Lars: Det Mystiske Danmark vol. 1 (2006)
• http://www.sa.dk/Elearning_og_webudstillinger/temaer_til_inspiration/himmeljord/fanden.htm

Who Watches The Waltons? Part 2

Continuing from my previous post, I am picking up the trail of The Waltons, from where i last left it. First of all, there are some general facts about The Waltons TV-show that i didn't really look into the first time around. Primarily because it didn't occur to me that there could be much more to find here, thinking I was probably just dealing with a few interesting UFO-related coincidences emanating from an otherwise standard family show. After all, what could be more mundane than a rural all-American family's daily problems during the great depression?

It is certainly not my usual choice of entertainment, although I must admit that I have actually come to like this series a great deal over the last couple of months. The general themes of The Waltons may be as plain and moralistic as anything can get, but it also features some great storytelling, as well as some really good actors and likable characters. So it's popularity, at least, is no longer a mystery to me. But more relevant for the topic at hand, there are indeed also other, and even more explicit, UFO-connections with The Waltons than those i pointed out in my first post. 

Enter The Twilight Zone

The Waltons was co-created by American writer Earl Hamner Jr., based on his bestselling book Spencer's Mountain, which in turn is inspired by his own life during the 1930's depression-era USA. According to Wikipedia, the name "Walton", as used here, is actually an artificial construct which incorporates the names of his paternal grandfather Walter Clifton Hamner and great-grandfather Walter Leland Hamner. 

Many years before The Waltons, in 1963, a movie adaptation of Spencer's Mountain came out - which in retrospect is kind of like watching a condensed (and slightly less sanitized) version of several Waltons episodes. In addition to this, a few years before the show first aired, another book-based movie called The Homecoming was made. This movie ended up effectively serving as a pilot episode for The Waltons, but didn't feature entirely the same cast.

With this in mind, one could easily come to the conclusion that these kind of stories are all Hamner ever dealt with. But throughout the 1960's he actually wrote a lot of other, all-together different material, including some interesting episodes for the original Twilight Zone series. In fact, he wrote the very last episode for the show, The Bewitchin' Pool.

Some of Hamner's Twilight Zone stories has that particular "Walton feeling" to them, such as The Hunt (Episode 84) and Jess-Belle (episode 109), which both take place in the same Virginia mountain range (The Blue Ridge Mountains) as the fictional Walton's Mountain is supposed to be located. Of course these stories are underpinned by various supernatural undercurrents befitting of The Twilight Zone, but many of the same elements appear later on in The Waltons as well. In The Hunt, for example, the main character is warned off by his wife because of some ill-interpreted omens, and towards the end of Jess-Belle we see a falling star - similar to the scene in The Waltons episode The Star:

And not just that, but in episode 87, A piano in the house, the word 'snowflake' appears once again, although in a different context:

But the most intriguing of the Earl Hamner Jr. Twilight Zone stories are those that deal specifically with the subject of extraterrestrial visitors: Black Leather Jackets (episode 138), which is about a group of leather clad "Men In Black" type aliens, trying to take over the earth and Stopover in a Quiet Town (episode 150) where a couple are abducted from their car on the way home from a party.

Stopover in a Quiet Town is by far the most interesting of the two, not only because it is a full-blown alien abduction story (and therefore takes us back to where I started in my previous post, namely with the Travis Walton case), but also because it has elements that were not very well-known outside of ufological circles at the time (it aired April 24th, 1964, but it is hard to say for certain when it was written), including the sense of isolation and lack of natural sounds of the abductees - hinting towards what Jenny Randles has popularly termed The 'Oz Factor' aspect of many close encounter cases.

I suggest that you watch the whole episode, which i have linked to below, as there are too many interesting parts to highlight:

The Waltons Meet The Invaders

As if the above examples weren't enough, there is even a number of direct connections between The Waltons and the classic 1960's alien invasion series The Invaders. Here i suggest that you read up on some of the research Kenn Thomas has done, linking The Invaders to the JFK assassination via the Maury Island UFO case.

Not only did Earl Hamner Jr. write an episode for season 2 of The Invaders called The Watchers, but several lead actors from The Waltons have prominent roles in the series - both in the original and in the 1995 follow-up mini-series of the same name. They are furthermore all destructive roles, which support the agenda of the invaders in one way or another. This is just a fact that I find interesting, since it contrasts so dramatically with their usual Walton personas. I don't mean to imply that it has any deeper meaning as such. It is possible to watch all the episodes (minus the 1995 ones) on youtube, by the way.

The first Walton that appears on The Invaders, is the most tight-lipped of the bunch, "Grandma Walton" Ellen Corby, who plays a homicidal alien invader posing as well-meaning contactee in the pilot episode The Beachhead. As a fun little detail there is a scene in the episode where Roy Thinnes walks into the Palomar Hotel and is introduced to the manager, Mrs. Adams. 

This is clearly an intentional reference to pioneer contactee George Adamski and the fact that he and his initial followers were very active around the Mount Palomar area in the early UFO days. Mount Palomar is also the location of the famous Palomar astronomical observatory.

The next time a Walton family member appears on the show, is in the penultimate episode, The Pursued. This time it is "Grandpa Walton" Will Geer, who plays a former sheriff whose wife is murdered in the beginning of the episode by an alien defector. He ends up killing the defector (who by this time has become a love interest of Roy Thinnes' character David Vincent) and in the process destroys crucial evidence that could have lead to an exposure of the invasion.

In the 1995 "sequel", the main boss alien is played by none other than Richard Thomas AKA "John Boy Walton", the lead star of the The Waltons. The character of John Boy basically is Earl Hamner as he was growing up in Virginia, writing and compiling stories about his family and their surroundings. So we have here a bit of a convoluted interrelation between a real-life writer, who created a fictional character based on himself, that in turn also writes and tells stories and who's fictional family turn up in some surprisingly coincidental places. Together with the allusions to future events, the lines between reality and fiction end up being somewhat blurred.

Richard Thomas as John-Boy Walton, alter ego of Earl Hamner Jr.

Leaving The Mountain

I would very much have liked to correspond with Earl Hamner Jr. while creating this post, and did in fact try to contact him as he is still alive and apparently active. It would have provided me with some more background for those of his writings I discuss here, and perhaps even have made some of them seem less synchromystic. I never did get an answer from him though, but I'm not too surprised that something like this would be low on his list of priorities. Instead I made good use of the book "Goodbye John-Boy", which did have some valuable information, but had to be supported with a lot of Internet search activity.

I will leave The Waltons for now and concentrate on other writings. But I have, as of yet, only watched the first season of the series, so who knows what else might appear along the way. In fact there are a few more potential leads that I have tried to follow, but so far have not gotten me anywhere. If something develops with that, I will probably write a short follow-up or update the existing posts.  

Who Watches The Waltons? Part 1

The Waltons (screenshot from the 1972 episode "The Star").

A lot has been said about the Travis Walton abduction case over the years and the discussion continues to this day over what really happened that November 5th, 1975 in the forest near Snowflake, Arizona. But many interesting details relating to the case are scattered throughout the UFO literature and seem to have been halfway forgotten over the years. In this post, I will bring some of them together and highlight a string of curious "coincidences" surrounding the incident, as well as show some intricate connections with other UFO cases. The background and main story of the Travis Walton abduction has been summarized so many times already on the Internet, that I advise people not familiar with the case to read up on the basics before continuing here.

Controversy has existed practically from day one with the Walton case and much of the immediate aftermath consisted of a long struggle between Travis/APRO and CSICOP - led by the late debunker-berserker Phil Klass – arguing for and against the sincerity of Travis and his fellow witnesses. Recently doubts were fueled again, due to Travis' appearance on the show Moment of Truth.

In my opinion, good points and arguments have been put forward from all sides of the debate, as to the overall solidity of the case. But at the same time, I don't think that the information I will be bringing up here can or should be measured by categories of 'true' and 'false'. It is something that goes beyond simple validation of UFO and abduction experiences.

Artist rendition of Travis Walton & UFO by witness Mike Rogers.

UFO's And The Influence Of Fiction

It has often been pointed out that the 1975 TV-movie adaption of the Barney and Betty Hill abduction case, The UFO incident, aired only a few weeks before the Travis Walton abduction. Therefore, Travis and his fellow crew members would very likely have been aware of it and could have been influenced by it, even - as some have claimed - to the point of using it as building material for an elaborate hoax.

According to Travis, in his book Fire in the Sky: The Walton Experience, crew leader and friend Mike Rogers did actually watch part of The UFO Incident the day it aired, but he claims that he turned it off after only a few minutes. Travis insists that he himself did not own a TV at the time, so there is no way he could have seen it (at least not at his own house). Actually, parts of the Hill abduction story itself has been called into question in much the same way, assumed to have been influenced by an episode of The Outer Limits called 'The Bellero Shield'. This episode was shown on TV shortly before the hypnosis session where Barney Hill first describes their abductors (You can read more about that here). 

These examples of "fictional contamination" are often used both as an argument against the reality of UFO experiences and as evidence for foul play involved in them. Therefore, although such potential influences are both interesting and important to acknowledge, they also tend to put at stop to any further discussion of a "real" phenomenon. But there are other ways of looking at it.

Travis brings up a fair point in Fire in The Sky, namely that hardcore skeptic/debunker conclusions about the influence of science fiction sometimes appear pretty shallow, considering that even in 1975, the theme of UFO's and aliens had become so widespread and popular, that tying ”real” UFO experiences to a fictional counterpart – say a movie that came out a few weeks prior to an incident - would be almost a no-brainer.

He also brings up the question - not so much in relation to his own experience (and i don't bring this up to make a comparison with the aforementioned examples), but against the general skeptics argument, that virtually all UFO experiences have their roots in fiction - of why these influences should be coming from so many obscure sources. Why would so much be traceable back to f.x. low level sci-fi productions (which, after all, fewer people are likely to have seen), compared to large scale blockbusters such as Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.?

Granted, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, for instance, did certainly play a determining role in spreading the imagery of small proto-grey type creatures to the rest of the world. But very often, as many "synchromystic" bloggers and researchers can attest to, one can track strangely coincidental and (seemingly) non-causal links, back to the most unlikely of sources. So maybe we could in fact be looking at a more indirect form of "cultural" influence, that doesn't always adhere to an obvious set of rules.  

Enter The Waltons

In Fortean Times, No. 82 (1995), on the basis of a letter written to her at the time, Jenny Randles mentions some ufologically - as well as synchronistically - interesting details, appearing in certain episodes of the 1970’s family series The Waltons (which can be described as an inter-war-period equivalent of The Little House on The Prairie). The first event noted by Randles, takes place in episode 6 of the first season, named “The Star” (which aired the 19th of October, 1972). In the beginning of the episode we see a flaming meteorite fall from the sky, which is immediately interpreted as a bad omen by grandpa Walton, setting the precedent for the theme of the episode.

While there is no appearance of, or even talk about UFO's or aliens in the episode, it is still interesting to note both the imagery and the effect it has on the family. Watching the whole episode, I would say that certain "supernatural" implications are definitely there, although downplayed to a certain degree. But it is when the town of Snowflake, Arizona is mentioned, seemingly at random, in episode 12 of the same season, "The Dust Bowl Cousins" (aired December 7, 1972), that it becomes almost too good to be coincidental.

The Waltons is supposed to take place somewhere in the state of Virginia, which is almost as far away as you can get from Arizona, while still being within US borders. Why, of all the potential places they could have chosen, does Mary-Ellen Walton mention the small and easily overlooked town of Snowflake? Also note the way the cousin in this scene underlines how he hasn't even heard of the place, almost as if the director meant to stress the point of the curiosity of wanting to go there.

It almost seems like the Travis Walton abduction (real or fake) was at least being hinted at, years before it happened. At the same time, I acknowledge that this might just be a case of coincidence paired with over-interpretation of detail which, when taken out of context and presented in the way i have done here, has a tendency to appear more anomalous than it actually is. But the person who contacted Jenny Randles, signing the letter as "A Walton fan" (who therefore, presumably, must have watched most if not all the episodes), sure did assign it enough significance to write in about it. It also makes you wonder what else could be unearthed by checking into sources that don't (at least not in any direct way) pertain to UFO’s or related phenomena

More coincidences?

I don't know if Travis has ever been presented with the above examples or, if he has, view them as anything more than a freak coincidence. But it is no secret that he has had several synchronistic experiences himself over the years, many of which happened during the production and filming of Fire in The Sky. He relates quite a few examples in his (revised) book - too many to mention here. But one of the most incredible of these, involves actor Robert "T-1000" Patrick, who plays the role of Travis' friend and crew leader Mike Rogers in the movie.

Robert Patrick's birthday is the 5th of November 1958, which means that he turned 17 on the very day of the Walton abduction. 17 years later, he would then go on to have one of the largest roles in the movie about the abduction AND find out that he actually had family ties to Snowflake, going way back. He even found out that he was related to the real life Mike Rogers. (As an aside, there is an interesting connection between Mike Rogers and this case, which happened three years before). Reading Travis' account of this and other similar stories, one almost gets the feeling that unseen forces were pushing certain people with obscure connections to each other, to come together around the project.

One particular thing that comes up a lot in this case, is the number 5. Travis mentions that during the filming (which took place in Oregon, not Arizona), a meteor hit a ravine nearby. The meteor was only the fifth recovered meteorite in the state's history. The abduction of course took place on the 5th of November 1975, with Travis disappearing for 5 days. And we can even tie this to a further case, which took place 5 years later in the UK.

On June 6th (which would almost be the 5th, if one accounts for US time difference, and therefore exactly 5 months before the anniversary of the Walton incident – but let’s not stretch the argument too much here :)) 1980, a 56 year-old Polish immigrant disappeared near a mining area in West Yorkshire, England. The man's name was Zygmund Adamski - a name that should more than stick out to most UFO interested people. Adamski disappeared under strange circumstances, the day before he was to act as best man at his goddaughters wedding, an event he had been looking forward to, according to family and friends. At some point during the day, seemingly out of the blue, he told his wife that he had to make a quick shopping trip for some potatoes. 5 days later he was found dead, on top of a 15-foot-high pile of coal, 20 miles away from his home where he was last seen.

Jenny Randles chronicles the case of Zygmund Adamski in her books The Pennine UFO Mystery and Death By Supernatural Causes? (with Peter Hough), both of which are highly recommendable. She writes, that while the autopsy revealed that Adamski had apparently died of a heart attack and had climbed on top of the coal pile on his own, the investigators did not agree with that conclusion. But in short time they were pulled from the case, which was afterwards put on ice.

Other strange details about Adamski's death involve some unusual burn marks found on his body. He had also died with a painful grimace on his face, looking upwards towards the sky. According to one of the investigators, PC Alan Godfrey, many things pointed towards Adamski having been murdered and dumped on top of the large coal-pile, although he never thought along the lines of an alien abduction. But the strange circumstances, combined with some dubious ethics of certain researchers at the time, made sure that this connection eventually became popularized.

It wasn't entirely unfounded to make such an alien connection though, since Alan Godfrey actually had a close UFO encounter only a few months later, on the 28th of November. Driving along a deserted road he came across a large hovering craft in the shape of a “spinning top”, blocking his way. Suddenly he found himself a lot further down the same road, without any memories of how he actually got past the UFO. He later found that he had experienced a short time lapse. During hypnotic regression, he recounted having been led aboard the craft during this missing time period, where he encountered an "alien" and even a black dog. The case was investigated by veteran British ufologist Harry Harris, and as another curious detail, Jenny Randles points out that one of the later Waltons episodes from season one, "The Fire", was written by a person called...Harry Harris!

Before moving on, I should point out that there is actually another ufological 5 day disappearance (sort of) on record, namely that of Armando Valdes from April 25th, 1977. Although Valdes was only physically gone for 15 minutes, his watch indicated that 5 days had passed, and he had a growth of beard that apparently matched that period. There are good reasons to be sceptical about this case too, but the coincidence and details are curious to say the least. 

Is this all a result of some cosmic copycat effect? And if so, what would the criteria for "participating" be? 

Click here for Part 2

2006: UFO's Over Anglesey

In this post I will be sharing some, until now, unreleased UFO videos, recorded by a friend of mine back in the summer of 2006. I have shown the raw footage to a lot of people throughout the years, being met with with mixed reactions. I have also tried (sporadically) to get a qualified opinion on the footage, by emailing different people in the field of ufology, asking if they were interested in taking a look at it, but nothing ever really developed from it.

In my opinion the footage is significant. But i realized a while back that it needed some editing and commentary to go along with it, in order to properly point out the finer details. Indeed, it is only after several viewings, and conversations with my friend who recorded the video, that I myself have been able to somewhat sort out what is going on. Also, I didn't want to simply post one long video with some ridiculously short commentary (as is the case with most UFO videos floating around), but also explain the proper context of the sighting - the area where the video was taken, how it looks in daylight, etc. Now that i have my own blog, this became a much easier task.

To create a better overview I have split the main video up into several smaller clips, and addressed them individually throughout the post. This particular video/sighting ties into an experience I had myself, only weeks before, in exactly the same location, of much the same type of phenomenon. The experience was, incidentally, also what sparked my serious interest in UFO's.

UPDATE: You can now read about my own experience in the June 2014 issue of Phenomena magazine.

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Background and context

The video was recorded in early August, 2006, on the isle of Anglesey in Northern Wales. More specifically it was taken from a campsite in the town of Moelfre. The campsite (Nant Bychan Caravan/Camping Site) can be found loking here, and the green arrow marked on the picture below is zoomed in on where exactly my friend was standing when he was recording (facing towards the sea). 

Correlating the placement of the UFO's in the video with a local map it would seem that, following a birds eye view, the nearest point of land is in the range from Barrow-in-Furness to Blackpool. That piece of land is several miles away, across the sea, though, whereas the objects/lights in the video appear to not be that terribly far off-coast.

It should also be noted that the campsite slopes down several meters towards the beach, so he was filming from a relatively high vantage point. This can be seen in the below pictures, which show the range of vision (left to right)  in daylight, from the point where the video was taken. This is useful when trying to get an impression of what is going on in the video.

1. Left side of the camping area

2. Middle part of the camping area

3. Right side of the camping area

Videos and commentary

The first two clips are shot almost straight ahead, to the right of the small island - which is actually a bird sanctuary ( you can actually hear the birds if you listen closely) - seen on picture 2. In the video the swaying movement, and the shifting between almost complete standstill and motion, are both clearly noticeable. At the end of par 2, you can get a better impression of the coastline, as my friend pans the camera further to the left side of the camping area (seen in daylight on picture 1)

In the above clip, a second light/object appears further to the left, until it is in alignment with the other one. An important thing to notice, is the reflection in the water. You will notice throughout the videos how the distance between light/object and the surface of the water changes. Compare it to the daylight photos of the coastline, and its clear that they must be some distance away from the coast (and also of some size)

In part 4, we can see the light closest to the water surface, with a smaller red light, apparently attached to it. In part 5 the light has moved to a higher altitude. It now appears to be "detaching" the light (probe?), which in turn changes its color and shape. At one point it looks almost as if it becomes the same shape as the "mother" object. Other smaller lights appear around it in no apparent order.

In part 6 we see even more swaying motion, from the object furthest to the right - far above the water surface. Considering also how far it appears to be away, from the coast, these are some very impressive moves. In part 7, we see the movements continuing, but this time the light/object has moved to a position almost directly above the lower light. Some sort of communication seems to be taking place between the two. At the end of part 7, we see another light being "shot off".

The light activity continues in part 8. Lights of different color seem to be fading in and out, having a life of their own. At certain points they become the same shape as the main light/object, and around 00.40 one of them even appears larger. Towards the end of the clip, the smaller lights almost appear to be playing with each other.

This clip is where it really takes off, moving with pretty impressive speed. The smaller lights seem a lot more artificial now, almost like on an airplane. At the same time, the green light becomes more prominent, and towards the end of the clip it looked as if it was making its way towards the coast. This frightened my friend to the point where he simply stopped filming and went inside his tent, which you can hear on the video.

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So...what to make of this? I've thought a lot about it, and my speculations have gone from ET spacecrafts on a local mission, to terrestrial aircraft/ helicopters on a training exercise, to some kind of natural phenomenon akin to "earth lights" or ball lightning. As unlikely as the latter suggestion may seem, there are in fact a lot of cases on record of (as yet unexplained) huge balls of light, behaving in a way that seem intentional, but which don't appear to resemble any form of technology - man-made or otherwise (see f.x. William Corliss' catalogs and handbooks of geological and meteorological anomalies). But even though there are many things that indicate that we are dealing some kind of natural anomaly, there are also lot of that point to the opposite. Actually, a mix between the two somewhat makes the most sense to me. How that is possible i don't know, but interesting it is.

I would be very happy to get some suggestions from readers on this, so please drop some comments. Also, please point out any errors or things i might otherwise have overlooked.

Merry X-mas

- V