The UFOs that never were

This is the title of a 2000 publication by Jenny Randles, Andy Roberts and David Clarke, published by London House, ISBN 1902 809 351.

It is a book about UFO cases "that have been solved." page 9.

"In the crazy world of UFO buffs you either support the "great truth" - that a massive alien invasion is underway - or are considered with great suspicion even for being interested in this field." page 13.

"To be a UFOlogist you need to be part social worker, a detective, a lateral thinker , a logic puzzle addict and have dogged commitment to wade through a myriad possibilities towards the truth." page 14.

The book presents research into a range of previously apparent UFO accounts, including the following:

24 March 1997 Howden Moors UK
UFO hovering in night sky. RAAF jets. Explosion. Accounts of aircraft coming down. Search by rescue teams. However, no aircraft was know to be missing, and there was no radar sighting.

"It seems obvious that a concatenation of unconnected events conspired on this particular night to produce a scenario which led the emergency services to conclude an aircraft had crashed." page 50.

June 1973 The Peter Day film UK
Peter filmed an orange ball of light during the daytime. The film turned into a classic UFO case as there were independent observers.

However, great detective work over time revealed the film showed a USAF aircraft dumping fuel. The plane later crashed.

26 Oct 1996 Isle of Lewis UK
There was a flash of light and a loud explosion. However, there was no missing aircraft. Was it a UFO?

Research indicated the object was in fact a bolide or space debris re-entering the atmosphere.

23 Jan 1974 Berwyn Mountain UK
One, possibly two explosions heard over a wide area. Rumbling of ground. Glow seen over mountains. Possible aircraft crash or UFO?

The final explanation was a combination of prolific meteor activity, an earth tremor and poaching activity.

The facts about these and other similarly apparently puzzling cases, are examined in detail in the book. In each case a mundane explanation which fits the facts is revealed.

I found this book in the local library and it shows that you have to always be willing to take the time to examine all the facts and look at all the possible explanations.

A great read. A book all UFO researchers should have in there shelves.

MI5 again

Well, I've finally ploughed through all 1032 pages of the authorized history of the British intelligence agency MI5, and as I expected not one mention of the UFO phenomenon!

It was, however, a fascinating read with some excellent insights into the value of, and uses of intelligence.

If you are into intelligence agencies then I would recommend this book to you.

Where have all the abductions gone?

Have abductions gone away?

I have just browsed a number of websites of Australian UFO groups and looked at their online reports listings; and browsed the last 10 issues of the UFOlogist magazine in hard copy. Hardly a classic abduction case in sight!

So, hence my question. Have abduction reports really gone away? What do readers think?

MI5

Well, it is Sunday again and what a week it has been in Adelaide! Our first November heatwave on record. Several days where the maximum was 39 degrees centigrade, and today it is forecast to be 40 degrees!

Looking out of the window I see clouds in the sky which herald the approaching cooler change (predicted 28 degrees tomorrow).

I haven't been posting for a while, as I have been distracted by both the heat, and a book I bought last week.

I started reading a non-UFO book (yes, I do read the occasional non-UFO title) titled "The defence of the realm: the authorised history of MI5" It is written by intelligence historian Christopher Andrew. Published this year in the UK by Allen Lane, it is a whopping 1032 pages long, and after a week at it, I am still only half way through.

Why am I reading this book, I hear you ask?

If you have read some of my earlier posts about Jacques Vallee's work, you will see that I have a keen interest in the relationship between intelligence agencies and the UFO phenomenon.

So I am reading my way through the 1032 pages to improve my general understanding of the working of MI5, and the very smallest hope that there might be something in the book which I can relate to the UFO phenomenon (cross your fingers!)

Well, back to page 523!

Peter Khoury's alien encounters

Sunday again. I don't know if you are like me, but there is always a bunch of books next to my bed, waiting to be read or re-read, when the opportunity arises.

This morning it was "Hair of the alien" by Sydney based researcher Bill Chalker, published in New York in 2005 by Paraview Pocketbooks.

After finding out about the current scientific thinking on out-of-body experiences, I had a niggling thought in my mind about the accounts of abductee Peter Khoury, which are documented in Bill's book. Somewhere, I had the feeling that part of his encounters were viewed from a perspective out of his physical body. So, out came the book to check it out. What did I find?

On page 23 Peter is quoted verbatim about his 1992 encounter. "...it was at a time I had had head injuries and I was on a lot of medication, and I was pretty sick."

Pages 25-26. "...drove my wife to the station. I did pull up a few times and get sick. I came back home. I felt really ill, so I went straight back to bed at about 7.05am. I was clothed. I fell asleep. At about 7.30 I sat up bolt upright in bed...I was trying to get my bearings. I was looking at a transparent image. I'm looking at myself...The way I was looking it, was like I was looking through the back of my head, like though my eyes, sitting behind me, watching myself, like I could see myself in front. Like I could see the back view of me...It is really hard to explain, but I was virtually looking ...standing back, looking through my image in front of me. I was watching this and I could see myself as well as the two women. Then I caught up-my physical body."

This seems to be a very clear description of an out-of-body experience which science is now saying is internally generated by the human mind!

How did this experience end?

On page 32, it tells us that "...I started to cough, got this coughing fit, and I might have taken my eyes off them for a split second, I think, I've looked up and they weren't there anymore."

To me, it is suggesting that Peter's internal focusing was disturbed by the physical act of coughing and this returned his attention to the external world, and thus the mind generated images ceased to exist.

Peter later, page 109,describes an earlier encounter with what appeared to be the same two women, in about 1991. Again, in this earlier encounter, his perspective of viewing was "...when all of a sudden I saw myself sitting in bed, sitting up in bed." He seemed to be viewing from a perspective next to his physical body.

There is also a description of a 1996 event, on page 106 of the book. Peter was in bed and experienced a sort of creeping paralysis. He then saw a whole group of beings coming through a mirror in the room he was in. "I'm just getting lifted off the bed...no one is touching me...I'm being floated towards the mirror...I'm starting to go through it..." He found himself back in bed without recalling traveling back through the mirror.

If one starts from the assumption that a human being cannot actually travel through a mirror, then this is again a good description of an out-of-body experience and not a physically kidnapping by aliens.

These 1991, 1992 and 1996 episodes all seem to indicate that they were in fact instances of an altered state of consciousness, where the content of the experiences, which we no doubt utterly real to the experiencer, were generated by the human mind.

Having said all of the above, in Peter Khoury's case there is always the "hair" from the 1992 experience, which when analysed showed some pretty unusual properties. But still, is the "hair" an actual physical indicator of a real experience, or could there be some other explanation which explains the hair but leaves the experiences as altered states? A fascinating question, which I will leave the reader to ponder.

Am I really here?

Just been re-reading a book by English researcher Jenny Randles, after digesting more of the posts on out-of-body experiences:
http://anomalies-australiancomments.blogspot.com

The book is "The complete book of aliens and abductions." Piatkus. London. 2000.

On page 40 Jenny writes about the October 1974 Aveley, Essex, England case. "The witnesses told under hypnosis of how the car was stopped in the mist and they were then 'beamed' into a UFO. They could see their own physical bodies back in the car, as their 'other selves' wandered about the UFO."

Later, (page 41) Jenny commented "The second phase of this abduction memory is far more like an out-of-body experience than a ride in a spacecraft."

Here, we have an episode where the individuals involved described viewing from a location that was not coincident with their physical bodies, and of seeing their own physical bodies. A classic OBE perspective. Given the latest scientific research on OBEs and its apparent brain generated origin, what then does this say of this abduction?

I read further into Jenny's book looking for other examples. On page 49 there is a description of events at Lindholman, Sweden from 24 March 1974. A voice in a man's mind told him to walk across a road, when there was a blinding flash of light and the man fell to the ground. Later, when regressed "...as the light beam struck, he had begun to float upwards as if in an out-of-body state..." Then followed shades of Albert Budden's work (see previous posts), the witness "...seemed hypercharged with electricity for days after the encounter...When he went near electrical equipment it stopped working properly." Interestingly, a witness was found to some of the event. This person related seeing "...a light beam fall to the ground..." but did not see the witness abducted by a UFO.

On page 82. In 1963 Olaf Neilsen was walking in woods "...when he was struck by a swirling sensation that made him dizzy. He floated upwards and could see a hovering object. His next memory is of being inside a room on a couchlike bed with an entity of human size and appearance nearby."

Did anyone conduct a medical examination of Olaf? Was there some sort of medical seizure which precipitated the floating sensation?

Interesting that the shift from normal perception to OBE perception almost always happens in an instant with the OBE percipient unaware of how the change happened. Recall, that in alien abductions the transition from bed to strange room or car to strange room seems to happen in an instant. Could this simply be the transition from external to internal brain mode?

Reading on, to page 143 where Jenny reminds of of her "Oz factor." "In case after case we hear witnesses describe the 'Oz factor.' They tell of all environmental sounds fading, time stretching out and a sort of inward tuning of consciousness where the external world temporarily disappears."

This switch from being aware of external factors to focussing inwardly, is an important clue. Does it indicate the event was internally brain generated?

Finally, on page 144, talking of consciousness researcher Lilly. "By 1964, Lilly was regularly able to slip into the "Oz factor." This was marked by the sensation of floating out of his body. Many abduction stories start with this claim by the witness."

Well now. Isn't this telling? Start with the latest scientific OBE research, and go back through some of the UFO abduction literature and I start seeing it all from a new perspective - that of a brain generated event. Happy reading!

Alien hand syndrome

An individual who has the medical condition termed "alien hand syndrome" believes that their physically real and existing hand, does not belong to them. Their hand can apparently perform all on its own volition.

Contrast this with an individual who suffers from phantom limb pain of the hand. An amputee with a missing hand feels sensations from a missing limb, as if the limb were still physically present.

With the recent findings of neuroscience, relating to out-of-body experiences and the sense of self (see Keith Basterfield's excellent blog at:http://anomalies-australiancomments.blogspot.com )
both 'alien hand syndrome' and 'phantom limb pain' can be seen as bodily-self image issues. With 'alien hand syndrome' your brain is telling one hand of yours that it does not belong to you, i.e. does not form part of your body self image; with phantom limb pain of a hand, your brain continues to tell you your hand is still there - still part of your body self image.

An extension of this concept occurred to me while I was reading the latest OBE scientific literature. It may explain why some UFO abductees and contactees speak of their belief that they are not human. They talk of the sense that they do not belong, and in fact must therefore be of extraterrestrial origin.

Could this feeling of being 'alien' indicate that the bodily self image within the brains of these individuals has been totally distorted? They would then not feel the sense of 'self' which other people do?

It would certainly be a much more mundane explanation than that they are really from out there.