Afleveringen
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Rony Vernet returns to Podcast UFO to discuss his field investigations into unusual phenomena reported in the Amazon rainforest and other remote regions of Brazil. An electrical engineer and researcher, Vernet shares accounts from indigenous communities involving luminous orbs, humanoid figures, strange lights, apparent equipment interference, and encounters that local residents believe originate from the forest itself. Martin and Rony also discuss the Peru flying humanoid reports, the Varginha case, alleged Brazilian military and police encounters with UAPs and beings, and the difficulty of collecting repeatable scientific data in unpredictable field conditions. Vernet explains his use of cameras, drones, infrared equipment, sensors, and other tools, along with why some of the most striking incidents reportedly involved lost or corrupted recordings. The conversation explores possible physical, spiritual, psychological, and interdimensional interpretations of the phenomenon, as well as Ronyâs upcoming work and documentaries.
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Martin Willis is joined by Donna Killeen, UFO Jack, Kelly Hughes, and Sam Milodragovich for UFO Headlines, discussing the latest developments in the UAP and UFO world. Martin and Donna share highlights from the recent Disclosure Forum in Washington, DC, including Martinâs question to Representative Eric Burlison about government file releases, private-sector crash-retrieval claims, and the search for more meaningful transparency. The panel also discusses the latest UAP records release, unusual orb reports, the role of skeptics, government disclosure efforts, archival research, and major historic cases including Roswell, Ariel School, Phoenix Lights, and Rendlesham Forest. They also explore the larger questions: Could there be multiple intelligences behind the phenomenon, and what evidence would it take for the public to truly accept the reality of UAPs?
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Guest Joe Biscotto, founder of the rapidly growing UAP Reporting Center and host of Beyond Top Secret. Joe discusses his background in law enforcement, his lifelong fascination with UFOs and the unexplained, and how he built one of the fastest-growing UAP news platforms online. We also talk about UFO disclosure, investigating sightings, social mediaâs impact on the subject, and his work with The Contact Report.
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Rhys Dalton-Morgan joins me from Contact in the Desert for a fascinating conversation about a remarkable family connection to one of Australiaâs most intriguing UFO cases. Rhysâs grandfather, a decorated RAF fighter pilot and later operations head of the vast Woomera Test Range in South Australia, reportedly witnessed a bright disc-shaped object during the era of Black Knight rocket testing. According to Rhysâs research, the object was seen over the range by multiple personnel, appeared to circle a missile site, and then accelerated away at extraordinary speed. The case has since led Rhys into a deeper investigation of his grandfatherâs military background, including a reported early involvement with a secret U.S.-U.K. UFO inquiry. We also discuss Rhysâs motherâs personal experiences, the role of respected Australian researcher Bill Chalker, the strange history surrounding Woomera, and some of Australiaâs most compelling cases. Later, Rhys gives an excellent overview of the 1966 Westall school UFO incident, including the witnesses, reported landings, unusual aircraft, alleged military response, and some lesser-known details surrounding the event. We also touch on Australian high strangeness, alleged abduction cases, cryptid reports including the Yowie, and why the UFO phenomenon may be far more complex than simply unexplained technology.
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Actor, writer, and technology innovator Sal Amato joins Martin Willis for a fascinating discussion on UFOs, disclosure, media influence, and the inspiration behind his upcoming novel, Hidden Powers: Disclosure From Within. Drawing from decades of interest in unexplained phenomena, technology, and human behavior, Sal shares his thoughts on historical UFO cases, the 1952 Washington, D.C. sightings, information control, and why curiosity is essential when exploring extraordinary claims. The conversation also explores how technology shapes public perception, the challenges of separating fact from fiction, and the themes of disclosure, power, and truth woven throughout his new book. An engaging discussion for anyone interested in UFOs, mysteries, and the bigger questions surrounding what we knowâand what we may not know.
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Martin Willis is joined by Podcast UFO producer Donna Killeen, UFO Jack, Kelly Hughes, and Sam Milodragovich for a lively, spoiler-filled roundtable discussion of one of the most anticipated UFO films in recent memory. The panel shares their honest reactions to the movie, explores its many references to UFO history and lore, and debates whether Spielberg successfully captured the mystery, wonder, and complexity of the UFO phenomenon. Topics include experiencers, screen memories, government secrecy, whistleblowers, historical UFO cases, disclosure, and the film’s surprising ending. Was Disclosure Day a groundbreaking UFO movie, a fun science-fiction adventure, or a missed opportunity? Tune in to hear a range of perspectives from voices deeply involved in the UFO community. Plus, the panel discusses some of the real-world UFO developments making headlines and what the movie may mean for public interest in the UFO topic going forward.
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Martin Willis welcomes Simon Bown, author of Aspects of Alien Abduction: Shocking UFO Encounters, Vol. 1. Simon discusses his own UFO sightings, a possible abduction memory recovered through hypnosis, and the recurring patterns he has found after interviewing hundreds of experiencers. Topics include consciousness, missing time, healing cases, family connections, and the mystery behind alien abduction reports.
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Recorded at Contact in the Desert, Martin Willis sits down with explorer Dennis Ă sberg, discoverer of the Baltic Sea Anomaly, and astronomer Dr. Beatriz Villarroel of the VASCO Project. Dennis discusses new developments surrounding the anomaly, repeated equipment failures during expeditions, and the discovery of the lost Russian submarine Som, while Dr. Villarroel shares her groundbreaking research into unexplained transient objects, vanishing stars, and evidence suggesting highly reflective objects in Earth orbit. Together they explore the intersection of ocean exploration, astronomy, UFOs, scientific inquiry, and some of the most intriguing mysteries of our time.
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Preston Dennett returns to Podcast UFO to discuss his latest book, Humanoids & High Strangeness: 20 True UFO Encounters. In this fascinating conversation, Preston shares remarkable cases involving face-to-face encounters with mysterious beings, missing time, telepathic communication, giant owls, elf-like entities, and other bizarre experiences that challenge our understanding of the UFO phenomenon. Martin and Preston also explore schoolyard UFO encounters, witness credibility, differing memories among eyewitnesses, the famous Ariel School case, and the possible connection between UFO contact and consciousness. A thought-provoking discussion with one of ufology’s most prolific researchers that ventures far beyond lights in the sky.
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In this special live episode, Martin Willis reviews the June 9 Capitol Hill UAP Disclosure Press Conference featuring David Grusch, James Fox, Leslie Kean, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Rep. Tim Burchett, Rep. Eric Burlison, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, and others. The speakers called for increased transparency, declassification of government records, stronger whistleblower protections, and further investigation into claims involving recovered craft and non-human biologics. Grusch discussed ongoing oversight concerns, alleged obstruction of congressional inquiries, and the need for greater accountability. After the event, Martin was joined by Matt Ford of The Good Trouble Show, along with Krys Devine and Kelly Hughes, for an in-depth discussion of the key statements, potential implications, and what may come next in the ongoing disclosure effort.
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At Contact in the Desert, Martin Willis sits down with entrepreneur, AI researcher, and quantum computing expert Deep Prasad for a wide-ranging discussion that explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, consciousness, advanced physics, and the UFO phenomenon. Deep shares details of an extraordinary experience he had in 2019 that profoundly changed his understanding of reality and led him to explore questions surrounding non-human intelligence and consciousness. He also discusses the rapid advancement of AI, the promise and challenges of quantum computing, and how future technologies may help unlock some of the deepest mysteries surrounding UAP.
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Tonight on UFO Headlines, we’re joined by UFO Jack, Kelly Hughes, and Sam Milodragovich to discuss the latest developments in the UAP world. We’ll cover the recent release of more than 160 government UAP files, the upcoming June 9 Capitol Hill press conference involving David Grusch and congressional transparency advocates, the controversy surrounding Aliens.gov, and some of the most talked-about cases emerging from the newly released documents. We’ll also share our experiences from Contact in the Desert 2026, including standout presentations, behind-the-scenes conversations, and the overall mood of the UFO community regarding disclosure and the future of UAP investigations. Join us live and bring your questions and comments as we discuss the latest UFO headlines and what may be coming next.
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Whitley Strieber returns to Podcast UFO for a thought-provoking discussion on UFOs, non-human intelligence, Roswell, consciousness, AI, and the enduring mystery of contact. Best known for his groundbreaking book Communion, Strieber shares personal experiences, reflects on the impact of disclosure, discusses the possibility that UFO intelligences originate from another reality, and explains why he believes humanity may have lost abilities once possessed long ago. From the Allagash Abduction case and Roswell to artificial intelligence and the future of human consciousness, this conversation explores some of the deepest questions surrounding the UFO phenomenon and our place in the universe. Whether you’re a longtime follower of Strieber’s work or new to these topics, this is an engaging and wide-ranging interview you won’t want to miss.
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In this episode of Podcast UFO, Martin Willis and UFO Jack welcome Jordan Flowers of the Disclosure Foundation for a discussion on UFO disclosure, government transparency, classified file releases, and the growing momentum surrounding the UAP topic in Washington, D.C. Jordan discusses the impact of the 2017 The New York Times UFO article by Leslie Kean, the Disclosure Foundationâs work with FOIA requests and congressional briefings, recent NSA and military UAP releases, and the upcoming Disclosure Forum taking place June 25th in the historic Kennedy Caucus Room inside the U.S. Senate. Topics include national security, declassified documents, whistleblowers, public stigma, media coverage, and the future of UFO transparency and disclosure.SHOW NOTES
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by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
In the early years of the flying saucer/UFO mystery, magazines played a significant part in the public perception of the phenomenon. One of the most popular magazines in that era was LIFE, which started covering saucer/UFO news at the very beginning during the 1947 summer of the saucers. For anyone interested in the early history of the phenomenon, Archives for the Unexplained has a collection of related magazine articles which includes LIFE articles from 1947 t0 1966.
In the article published in the July 1947 issue headlined âSpeaking of Pictures… a Rash of Flying Disks Breaks Out Over the U.S.,â it is lamented that none of the many saucers seen that summer paused long enough to get its picture taken. There are pictures, however, of two fake saucers: one an obvious saw blade with what looks to be a capacitor attached to it held up by Reverend Joseph Brasky who claimed it hit the lightning rod of his church with an explosion, and the other an aluminum disk with what looks to be spent fireworks attached held up by a man from Shreveport, Louisiana, who said it flew out from behind a signboard.
In 1950, a saucer in McMinnville, Oregon, seemingly did pause long enough for not only one, but two photos, and the article headlined âFarmer Trentâs Flying Saucerâ published in the June 6, 1950, issue presents two photos taken by Paul Trent of what he said was a saucer flying over his farm. Trent is described as frugal, and it is noted that after he took the two saucer pics on May 11, he used up the last of the roll taking three pictures at a family picnic on Motherâs Day. LIFE had this to say about Trent and his photos: âHerewith LIFE prints Farmer Trentâs pictures. No more can be said for them than the man that took them is an honest individual and that the negatives show no sign of having been tampered with, although there are people who would say that the object looks like the lid of a garbage can.â
The next issue in the collection is the May 5, 1951, issue which has the article headlined âThrough the Interstellar Looking Glass.â The article is about the rise in popularity of science fiction, described as âthe fastest-growing folklore of the machine age,â which had been a genre with a small dedicated fandom since the 1930s. The article covers the recent spate of movies featuring space travel and aliens such as Man From Planet X, and The Day the Earth Stood Still, and then gets deep into the culture of science fiction fandom. Significantly, the Shaver mystery (called the âShaver hoaxâ) is discussed, which set a precedent for the flying saucer mystery.
There are three issues from 1952, which was a big year due to a major flap throughout the country and the fact that the Air Force had resurrected its neglected saucer investigation, Project Grudge, under the new name, Project Blue Book. The director was Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, who wrote about his time as director throughout 1952 in his 1956 book The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. In it, he mentions reporters from LIFE contacting and visiting the office of Blue Book, but describes personnel other than himself interacting with them. Throughout the 1952 LIFE articles, Blue Book and Ruppelt are not mentioned by name.
The April 7, 1952, issue has Marilyn Monroe on the cover next to the teaser, âThere is a Case for Interplanetary Saucers,â for the article by H. B. Darrach and Robert Ginna headlined âHave We Visitors From Outer Space?â The article is based on the fact, as the reader is told, that the Air Force had, âfor the first timeâ opened up its files on UFOs âfor study.â
At the top of the article is a center page spread of an illustration of a green fireball done by the wife of Dr. Lincoln La Paz. Dr. La Paz was head of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy at the University of New Mexico and had investigated a series of such sightings (and claimed to have had one himself along with his wife) for the Air Force. The article is then introduced with this: âThe Air Force is now ready to concede that many saucer and fireball sightings still defy explanation; here LIFE offers some scientific evidence that there is a real case for interplanetary flying saucers.â
The article begins with a list of âfactsâ reported to LIFE by the Air Force, which includes statements that the Air Force is maintaining an active investigation with a âpositive policyâ in its efforts to discover the source of UFO reports. Significant is the news that the Air Force was now welcoming civilian reports and guaranteeing confidentiality and freedom from ridicule.
Then, after a review of what are now classic cases in UFO history up to that point, starting with Kenneth Arnoldâs June 24, 1947, sighting and including the Thomas Mantell incident, the sighting reported by pilots Clarence S. Chiles and John B. Whitehead, and the âGorman dogfight,â ten cases from the Air Force files are presented in detail along with three cases uncovered by LIFE investigators and âreported for the first time.â The most notable of these is the first case presented known as âThe Lubbock Lightsâ which involved photos taken on August 30, 1951, by 18-year-old Texas Tech student Carl Hart Jr. of lights in formation over Lubbock, Texas. The photos are printed under the fireball illustration, and copies can be seen in the Blue Book files.
The June 9, 1952, issue has the article by Ginna headlined âSaucer Reactionsâ which describes âunprecedentedâ reader responses to the former article: âSome have been non-sensical, some philosophical, some have contained provocative and plausible theories.â It is noted that the Air Force is âenlargingâ its investigation and that LIFE has offered its news resources to Air Force intelligence for âthe gathering of pertinent data.â Readers are encouraged to report their sightings to the Air Force and instructions are given on what information to include and how use a coin to judge elevation.
The August 4, 1952, issue has an article headlined âWashingtonâs Blipsâ covering the two consecutive weekends in July starting July 19th when multiple UFOs in restricted Washington, D.C., airspace were spotted visually and on radar. Jets were scrambled and the blips on radar disappeared when the jets arrived. Ruppelt mentions in his book that Blue Book hadnât been alerted and that he found out about the events when Ginna asked him for a statement. Afterwards, the largest press conference since WWII was held by the Air Force and the explanation was offered that the radar returns might have been caused by a temperature inversion. Notably, the coverage in the LIFE article is cursory, and the main source is the chief of radar at Washingtonâs CAA control center, Harry Barnes. The Air Force is said to have denied sending in jets and then to have later admitted doing so with no explanation for the denial. The press conference isnât mentioned.
After 1952, coverage is scant. There is a short article on plans to build a practical flying saucer in the May 31, 1954, issue and a short article in the November 29, 1954, issue covering three Italian cases. The first of these is the famous case of Rosa Dainelli who claimed that two small humanoids took one her stockings along with some flowers. A picture of her with her husband and children is presented over the well-known illustration of the reported incident from the cover of La Domenica del Corriere.
There is another short article in the December 5, 1955, issue on the various shapes of craft reported to the Air Force and an article in the May 27, 1957, issue covering contactees and George Van Tasselâs Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention at Giant Rock Airport near Yucca Valley, California.
The April 1, 1966, issue is the last in the collection and it makes up for the lean years with three articles. In spite of it being April Foolâs Day, the articles are a mostly serious look at the phenomenon up to that point with a major focus on the flap in March around Dexter, Michigan. Several pictures of strange lights in the sky are presented under the headline, âA Well-witnessed âInvasionâ by Something,â and the Dexter flap is covered under the headline ââIt wasnât no hullabillusion,â said the farmer, and 52 agreed.â The quote is from the main witness, Frank Mannor as he was complaining about the crowds of people around his property in the aftermath. His wife, Leona is quoted at the end of the article saying, âWe ain’t Martians- they act like you’re not human or something because you seen it. I’m about to get a gun and shoot some of these smart alecks if they don’t stay to hell away.â
Blue Bookâs director at the time was Hector Quintanilla (spelled Quintanella in the LIFE articles), and he sent consultant Dr. J. Allen Hynek to investigate. Hynek is quoted as saying, âI believe the people who made these sightings are entirely honest and sincere, but I am not willing to guess what they saw.â Unfortunately, Hynek did guess, and at a press conference given after the article was written he suggested that some of the sightings in the area were of flaming marsh gas, which became âswamp gasâ in the press. This led to the Air Force representatives being brought before Congress at the behest of outraged Michigan State Representative Gerald Ford.
The last article is headlined âOf 10,147 flying saucer sightings there are rational explanations for all but 646.â Hynek and âQuintanellaâ are featured giving their thoughts on the phenomenon. Hynek expresses his feeling that there is an obligation to try and provide an explanation to âsolid citizensâ who report âsomething puzzling,â and Quintanilla says, in spite of his belief that there has been no evidence that saucers are of interplanetary origin, that âit is impossible to prove that flying saucers do not exist.
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by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
Ted Bloecher, who passed away not too long ago at the age of 94, was a researcher/investigator who started out in the days of flying saucers as a founding member of Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York and was active until the mid-1980s. He was an early researcher of humanoid reports starting in 1955, just after the 1954 French humanoid wave and the 1955 Kelly-Hopkinsville incident, and was the author of numerous publications on the subject. Tucked away in the United Kingdom file of the downloads section of the Archives for the Unexplained website is a report he wrote titled Close Encounters of the Third Kind that was published in 1977 by the British UFO Research Association. According to the introduction, the paper was prepared for a talk he gave at the BUFORA National UFO Conference at the Centre Hotel in Birmingham, England, in November 1976. The subtitle describes the paper as âThe preliminary presentation of extensive study into UFO cases involving the reported sightings of humanoids and other alien beings.â In this blog, weâll look at some of the highlights.
The publication starts off with a biography of Bloecher which includes his saucer/UFO involvement as a founding member of CSI-NY, a staff member of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, a member of the Mutual UFO Network (since 1972), and some of his publications. At the time, he was MUFONâs state section director for New York City and co-chairman with David Webb of MUFONâs Humanoid Study Group founded in 1974.
Bloecher begins his report saying that there had been âa number of unusual events that involved strange humanoid beingsâ reported throughout North America during the fall of 1975. He describes them as being the source of a great deal of âdisbelief, confusion, and controversy,â and posits they may be the result of alien visitation or âas some researchers are suggesting, poorly understood manifestations of the human psyche about which there is much to discover.â According to him, CE III reports (from a classification system developed by J. Allen Hynek) had not only escalated, but their level of strangeness had as well.
Bloecher then summarizes specific cases, which are all footnoted with references. The first is a mother and daughter from Birmingham, Alabama, who, in November, reportedly saw two eight-foot-tall humanoids wearing tight-fitting silver suits, silver ankle-high shoes, and helmets that reflected their carâs headlights as they drove towards them. One of the figures held one arm over its head. The women were âstartledâ by the creaturesâ appearance and swerved around them without stopping to investigate.
Next, a woman driving near Peers, Alberta (Canada), at 5:30 p.m. on October 14, reportedly saw what she first thought was a cattle truck parked with its lights on. It turned out to be some sort of object with two men, each holding a staff and wearing a helmet, standing motionless on top. The woman went to get two witnesses, but when they returned, the object and the men were gone.
A highly strange case involved an elderly couple in Wauwatosa near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. According to Bloecher, they were at home on the evening of November 10th. The doorbell rang, the wife answered it, and was confronted with a âmanâ wearing a narrow-brimmed hat. He had a brown face âlike smoked meat,â with vertical grey lines, a narrow chin, a small opening for a mouth less than a quarter inch wide, and he was holding a white, five-foot-long rod.
He didnât respond to âher queries,â and she called her husband over. When he saw the man, he said, âWhat the hell is this, something left over from trick or treat?â He went to grab the man, and the man hit the ground with the rod, which made an audible click, and he then glided backwards out of the husbandâs reach. As he drifted across the lawn, he raised his arm and presented a bent hand to the witnesses. In spite of having seen the man up close, the husband was unable to recall the details of his face other than the small mouth.
The couple saw at least four other similar creatures on their lawn and in the street. They were all moving âlike the astronauts on the Moonâ in long, slow jumps. They all had rods and hit them on the ground and would then float a few inches above the lawn. The creatures are described as looking deformed âlike gnomesâ with bowed legs and claw-like hands. Bloecher notes there were no UFOs reported in the area.
The next case from Poland Springs, Maine, does involve a UFO. According to Bloecher, on October 27, at 2:30 a.m., âtwo youthsâ were driving and found themselves no longer controlling the car. The car proceeded down a back road near a lake, and they saw a UFO, described as a âlarge, cylindrical object,â as it rose up over a field.
A ânumber of strange eventsâ are said to have occurred, which included a fog or mist enveloping the car. They were able to drive away, but later returned due to an âirresistible impulse,â and this time, they saw the original object as well as another one.
When they got home, there was a period of time they couldnât account for, and one of them, identified as a young man, began to suffer âsome odd physical effects.â The young man underwent hypnotic regression âweeks laterâ and recounted being taken from the car and then finding himself looking down at his car and companion through a porthole. According to him, he was confronted by a four-and-a-half-foot-tall creature that communicated telepathically and told him not to be afraid. He was led into a room, told to undress, and then underwent a physical exam which included blood being taken and him being scanned by a âmachine with dials.â He was told to get dressed, that theyâd see him again, and he then found himself back in the car where his companion seemed unaware that heâd been gone.
According to Bloecher, the young man and his family reported seeing UFOs afterwards âon numerous occasions.â He says they also reported other events of a strange nature that were âtoo complex and involved to be included in this summary…â and that everything had occurred during a âspate of reported UFO sightings in the area.â
The last case Bloecher summarizes is the Travis Walton incident. He notes that it was âwidely publicized here and abroadâ and out of all the cases summarized, âthe most highly controversialâ with too many âcomplicationsâ to include in the summary.
After his summaries, Bloecher explains that due to the enormous number of UFO reports, for instance, the 90,000 case entries in the computerized UFO Catalogue (UFOCAT) set up by David Saunders, researchers are âobligedâ to focus on the phenomenon âin microcosm,â and that this is what he is doing with humanoid reports.
Bloecher then makes note of the benefits of research into CE-III reports in terms of the amount of data they provide as compared to a light in the sky report. He introduces the term âentityâ and goes on at length about the reports of their appearance, behavior, activities, association with vehicles, and communication with witnesses. He provides a chart of the yearly distribution of reports and a statistical breakdown, and introduces the Humanoid Study Group and Humanoid Catalogue (HUMCAT).
Bloecher was a pioneer in humanoid study at a time when most researchers, in his words, âdealt only gingerly with the subject.â After the Travis Walton incident and the Pascagoula incident just over three years before, at the time of his talk, Bloecherâs fringe research was on its way to becoming mainstream.
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by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
Itâs always a plus when UFO cases come along with physical evidence to back them up. Sometimes this evidence is in the form of physiological effects on the witnesses, and cases involving these are numerous enough that investigators have been able to focus on them as a specific area of study. Conjunctivitis (burning red eyes), nausea, hair loss, numbness, paralysis, and burns are some of the symptoms commonly described, but a very unusual effect was reported in the following 1976 case from Bolton, England.
While the incident was said to have occurred in 1976, it didnât show up in major media until 1987. In the March 1987 issue (page 19 of the pdf) of She magazine, there is an article by Peter Hough headlined âThe UFO in Armadale Road.â According to Hough, at 5:15 p.m. on January 23, 1976, 17-year-old Shelley McLenaghan had just gotten off a bus and was 100 yards from home when she saw a UFO. She is quoted as saying, âBefore that, I would have thought anybody who said theyâd seen a UFO was crazy.â She added, âI think the government know far more than they let on.â
McLenaghan is then quoted describing her encounter:
Peter HoughI saw a red and green light in the sky, thought ‘what’s that?’- it was a bit weird. The lights were about four or five times the size of a star. Then, as if they’d said, âwe’ll catch your eye with the space ship,â the lights merged and the semblance of a real nuts-and-bolts craft zoomed in. It was the size of a small house, flat on top, with sloping sides and sloping underneath, with a trap door, tripod legs. It was spinning on an axis, then righted itself, I could see portholes with light shining through.
Suddenly, it tilted towards me, then there was a terrible pressure on my head and shoulders, an off taste in my mouth. My teeth seemed to vibrate. When I tried to run it was like being in a nightmare. My arms and legs moved, but in slow motion. I tried to scream, nothing came out. Then everything went hazy until I remember bursting through the side door at home.
Mother was cooking tea. She gave one look at me, then said ‘What on earth’s happened?’ She thought Iâd been raped. I grabbed her arm, dragged her outside and pointed at the sky, but whatever it was had gone. We went back into the kitchen and I started to calm down. Then I noticed the time â ten minutes past six. A ten-minute walk had taken me 45 minutes.
According to Hough, when McLenaghanâs father got home that night, the family called the Bolton Police, who didnât believe Shelleyâs story and suggested she had misidentified a low-flying plane.
Over the weekend, McLanaghan developed a rash that covered her upper body from the neck down. Along with this, her eyes hurt, her joints ached and âshe had problems with her mouth.â She went to a doctor who told her mother that the symptoms were due to hysteria and a means to get attention. However, a dentist she went to thought otherwise and was puzzled by the condition of her teeth: her top fillings had come out, and her bottom fillings had turned to powder. Hough describes this as being what would come from a serious head injury like one might get from a car accident.
According to Hough, the family was visited by two men eleven days later at 7:00 p.m. in the midst of a downpour. They were âan odd couple,â and one of them said he was an RAF commander. Hough points out that that rank only exists in the Navy. The âcommanderâ was around 40, had fair hair, only one arm, and âdid most of the talking,â while the other man was dark-skinned, small, and sat silently with âa black box on his knee.â This man said it was a tape recorder, but reportedly never changed a tape in the course of a four-hour discussion.
McLenaghan said the âcommanderâ gave her a âgrillingâ calling her a liar, âstupid enough to wrongly identify a weather balloon,â and just looking for publicity. She told him that the Bolton Evening News and Granada TV must have heard about her sighting from the police and that she hadnât cooperated with them, and âhe seemed placated.â He said this was good and insisted that she, in her words, ânot mention it to anyone â especially UFO organizations.â
McLenaghan describes being pushed to the point of breaking down, at which point the âcommanderâ would talk to her parents âabout something trivial.â She says the men âhad a strange effect on all of us,â and that her father, who was normally protective, âsat by while this man was tearing me to pieces.â She says the man seemed to know about her rash even though the family hadnât said anything about it. Hough adds that when her father asked for identification, the men evaded the issue and then said âWe investigate these sort of things.â They then drove off in a black car.
According to Hough, McLenaghan agreed to help him and Jenny Randles âreopen the case,â and he recounts McLenaghanâs experiences under hypnosis. She described herself lying on a table in a strange room with, in Houghâs words, âa figure with long blond hairâ examining her feet. She then found herself running home.
Hough says that during a second session, McLenaghan said she was talked to by the âcommanderâ twice. She is quoted as saying, âBut I canât say anything about the hypnosis because I wasnât conscious. Maybe it was something like a nightmare.â
What is noteworthy here is that Randles was the director of investigations for the British UFO Research Association from 1981 until 1993 and instrumental in getting a moratorium put into place starting in 1988 on the use of hypnosis in investigations by BUFORA members. She and Hough wrote several books together covering UFOs and the paranormal.
The article ends with a final quote from McLenaghan: âIf anyone has an experience they canât put in a box, file away and take out as a normal memory, theyâre bound to ask just what happened. Why did they choose me?â
In a box below the article, Randles is quoted explaining why McLenaghanâs case was re-investigated: âBecause the information is verifiable via other people, for example Shelley’s parents, and also because of the associated effects of the sighting – Shelley’s rash and crumbled fillings. One odd aspect is the medical silence over these; we have asked in vain to look at Shelley’s medical records of the time.â
This case is included in A Catalogue of UFO-Related Human Physiological Effects (page 69 of pdf) published in 1996 by John Schuessler, and in Jacques VallĂŠeâs 1990 book, Confrontations. Accounts can also be found in the March 22, 1988, Weekly World News, and the July 30, 1987, Australasian Post.
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by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
Recently, footage taken of a video that has been described by documentarian James Fox as the holy grail of UFO videos has been shown online. The original video on VHS had been in the possession of one of the early Area 51 researchers, Chuck Clark, since 1995. Clark was reportedly offered a large sum of money to turn over the video, and he refused, whereupon underhanded means were employed to get what was on it out to the public.
This story goes all the way back to the 1990s when the United States was in the midst of its own special brand of paranoid UFOlogy, which emphasized government cover-ups and conspiracy theories fueled by the popularity of The X-Files. Area 51 had become the most famous secret base in the world after Bob Lazar, in silhouette using the name âDennis,â was interviewed by George Knapp on KLAS in Las Vegas in May 1989. He claimed to have worked on reverse-engineering nine recovered alien space craft at a site he said was called âS-4â located in the southern section of Area 51.
The excitement stirred up by Lazarâs claim resulted in a flood of UFO tourists descending on the area. Many would stop at the only bar in the nearby small town of Rachel, Nevada, a population that usually numbers around 50 people. According to the âRachel Timelineâ section of A Short History of Rachel, Nevada by Glenn Campbell and Edith Grover, Pat and Joe Travis bought the Rachel Bar and Grill in 1988. They renamed it âThe Little AâLeâInnâ and held the first annual UFO conference there in July of 1990.
According to the timeline, Campbell moved into the Little AâLeâInn in January 1993, and started âpublishing his Area 51 Viewerâs Guide.â In August 1993, he was âkicked outâ by Joe Travis and started the Area 51 Research Center in a mobile home in the trailer park owned by the founder of Rachel, D. C. Day.
The first Area 51 researcher to gain notoriety was Norio Hayakawa. According to his autobiography on DreamlandResort.com, he first became interested in Area 51 in 1987 when Bill Moore sent him a copy of a satellite photo of Groom Lake taken by the Russians along with a 10-page research paper. He says he attended a lecture given by Bill Steinman who wrote The Crash at Aztec, which had a chapter devoted âto the mysterious base in Nevada, and also that âArea 51 was briefly mentionedâ in the 1988 TV special UFO Cover-Up?: Live! He goes on to describe the developments that led to Rachel being permanently associated with extraterrestrials and credits Campbell as being the person to discover the Area 51 vantage point that came to be known as âFreedom Ridge.â
It appears that Clarkâs history with Rachel and Area 51 begins around 1991. There is a 1995 video covering a UFO Clark said he saw over Area 51, and he is described as an author and astronomer who has lived near the base âfor the past four years.â
A comprehensive look into his history and activity regarding Area 51 is presented in the article âChuck Clark: The Desert Astronomer Who Kept Looking at Area 51â posted on UAPedia. According to the writer, âbiographical data on Chuck Clark is sparse, which is itself very Rachel. In a video posted 17 years ago on YouTube, Clark says he formerly lived adjacent to Vandenburg AFB in Southern California and was the director of the Western Spaceport Observatory. A web search failed to find any such observatory, so it might have been an amateur facility and Clark is often described as an amateur astronomer. He describes capturing footage a UFO passing by a rocket during launch and what seems to be that footage is shown.
According to the UAPedia article, Clark has been described as ex-military and there is a link to an Area 51 tour site where Clark is described as âex-Air Force Captain Chuck Clark.â Anyone with access to military records could, of course, verify this.
Clark put out his own guide for Area 51 tourists around 1995-96 titled The Area 51 & S-4 Handbook, which is said to have angered Campbell. He continued his observation of Area 51 into the 21st Century and ran into trouble with the Air Force and the FBI. According to the UAPedia article and other sources, Clark had discovered sensing devices on public land, dug them up, reburied them, and mapped them. After Clark showed several of them to a Las Vegas TV crew (KLAS), Air Force personnel and FBI agents raided his trailer and took his computer, photos and records. One of the sensors reportedly went missing and Clark was charged with âmalicious interference with a communications system used for the national defense.â He reached a deal to either replace the sensor or pay restitution, and the case was dismissed in January 2005.
James Fox made the acquaintance of Clark when he was working on his first UFO documentary. He spoke about this in an interview with Richard Dolan. According to him, he interviewed Clark about his reported Area 51 sighting and later got a phone call from him saying he had something to show him and that in Foxâs words, âWhen you see it, your jaw is gonna hit the floor.â
Fox says he drove twelve hours to Clarkâs double-wide trailer in Rachel where Clark told him that what they were going to watch was shot by two men from Los Angeles, one around 19 and the other around 30. Fox says it was a typical Area 51 road-trip video with them hitting all the stops and that there is then a section shot at dusk from what seems to be the armrest of the car.
At this point he describes the men being in a panic and seeming like theyâre trying to crawl under the seats. According to him a âyellowy-orange lightâ flooded the inside of the car and the shadows shifted as if the light source was on a pendulum. He describes the effect as âfluidâ like âsomething youâve ever seen before.â One of the men, Fox assumes it was the younger man, said he was getting out and in the midst of his companionâs protests, took the camera and started filming what was above the car. Fox describes it as a âperfect, perfect flying saucerâ at about the height of a telephone pole. He says it was rocking and that it glowed like âphosphorous on a beach.â He says there were seams like the lines in a sliced pizza.
What was on the video can now be seen thanks to Logan Paul who made arrangements to see the video through Royce Meyers, known for running the website UFO Watchdog. On the May 9, 2023, episode of his Impaulsive podcast, Paul admitted to secretly filming the video using a button camera after Clark had refused to sell him the video for $1oo,ooo. He says heâs waiting for the right time to release it, describes it as âcompelling, not convincing,â and that âeverything about it screams bullsh*t.â
Coming full circle in the Area 51 saga, Paul chose to show his footage for the first time to Bob Lazar (at around 1:22:00) when Lazar was a guest on the April 13, 2026, episode of American Alchemy hosted by Jesse Michels. Lazar comments that âitâs moving the right way, itâs the right color, and itâs the right shape. It makes it very compelling.â
Adding some context, Reddit user SignalsIntelligence posted a link to a transcript of an interview he did with Clark regarding the video, where it came from, and where it is now. According to Clark, he got the video from someone who âwas in the media out of Hollywood, Burbank.â He was a cameraman for a, in the writerâs words, âmajor network news organization,â the name of which was redacted. Clark got to know him when he was in the area working on a non-UFO-related Area 51 documentary. This person was âacquainted with at least oneâ of the men who shot the video. They had brought it to him, he made a copy of it, and he gave it to Clark to evaluate. Clark said he made a promise not to release it and that the man had since died.
As for Paul offering to buy the video from him, Clark says he didnât recall Paul offering him money. He adds that he âmade it pretty clear that it wasnât for sale.â He says he was âadvisedâ afterwards that Paul had $200,000 with him.
Meyers made an unsuccessful attempt to locate the men who had shot the video by posting stills on X on March 26, 2022. Their identities remain a mystery.
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by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
Last week, Nick Pope, full name Nicholas George Pope, passed away on April 6th at the age of 60. A fixture in the UFO scene, Pope first gained notoriety with his 1996 book, Open Skies, Closed Minds. Besides providing an overview of UFO history up to that point, the book has an autobiographical account of his time as the head of the âUFO deskâ at the Ministry of Defense from 1991 t0 1994. After the book came out, he became a go-to âUFO expertâ whenever an authoritative comment was needed to punch up a news story. He maintained his interest and a media presence and was sought after as a speaker at conventions and a commentator in various documentaries. By the time of his passing, he was a well-known personality in the UFOtainment industry, having appeared regularly on Ancient Aliens and at Contact in the Desert. In the midst of his notoriety and association with the more sensationalistic aspects of UFOlogy, his commentary seemed to be heartfelt and true to his actual beliefs.
According to Pope in his book, he was a skeptic before he was assigned to the âUFO deskâ in Secretariat (Air Staff) Department 2A at the Ministry of Defense. He had been with the MoD since 1985, and personnel were shifted to different sections every three to four years as a matter of policy to give them âa breadth of knowledge and experience.â When he was assigned to deal with UFO reports, he took it upon himself to learn as much as he could about the subject, and the comprehensive historical overview in the book shows the depth of his research.
Besides studying UFO history, Pope reached out to British UFO researchers, such as Timothy Good who wrote the Foreword of the book, and established relationships with organizations such as the British UFO Research Organization. This set him apart from his predecessors and helped diminish the us-and-them perception between the MoD and the British UFO community.
Popeâs assignment came when The X-Files was popular and he describes his co-workers calling him âSpookyâ and whistling The X-Files theme when passing him in the hallway. He was fully aware how unusual his job was, and when Focus, the MoDâs in-house journal, started a regular feature on unusual jobs within the organization, he was the first person to be profiled.
Pope presents cases he looked into, and the most notable of these was what has become known as âThe Cosford Incidentâ which involved over 30 reports to the MoD of bright lights over the Southwest England in areas that included RAF Shawbury and RAF Cosford, overnight from March 30-31, 1993.
According to him in his book, the MoD was âasked to take partâ in the production of a Central Television program on UFOs. While such a request would normally have been refused, Pope persuaded his superiors that it would be good to explain the Ministryâs policy on UFOs on camera and âlay to rest a few misconceptions.â On April 24, 1994, he was interviewed by producer Lawrence Moore and âfreely admitted that many of the cases on file cannot be explained today in conventional scientific terms.â
Just before his book came out, Pope made his first BBC Television appearance on the Newsnight program. A segment was devoted to him and his book and begins with an actor dressed like him on a shadowy office set reading from the book over ominous background music. The actor reads from the section describing cases Pope looked into, and witness interviews are presented covering incidents in Bonnybridge, Scotland, and Dorset, England. Pope is then interviewed, and he is remarkably confident and articulate in this very early television appearance. The interviewer, Peter Snow, is noticeably taken aback when Pope says that he is âconvinced by the sheer weight of evidenceâ that some of what are seen in the sky âare extraterrestrial in origin.â
After moving on from Sec (AS) 2a with what he describes in the book as a promotion, Pope continued investigating UFO reports in his spare time, and there is an early account (page 14 of the pdf) of one of these in the article by Mike Merritt headlined âExpert in UFO Probe on Isleâ published in the November 4, 1996, Sun. According to Merritt, âTop UFO hunter Nick Pope is probing a mystery mid-air explosion which sparked a massive search nine days ago.â Pope is quoted as saying, âThis sighting off (the Isle of) Lewis could be a UFO â I would not rule it out until I look at the reports I have asked for.â The caption under his picture at the top of the column reads âPope… former MoD man,â which is inaccurate because he was still with the MoD at that time.
Pope left the MoD in 2006, and in 2007, the Ministry made the decision to release its UFO files. Pope describes this on his website, Nick Pope in the section titled âMoD UFO Files.â According to him, there were three reasons for the decision: the French had released their UFO files that year, it would be good P.R., and there had recently been a huge number of Freedom of Information Act requests for UFO-related documents. Pope describes the laborious process of review, redaction, and digitizing which led to the first group of documents being released in 2008 and the final group in 2019. As for his involvement, Pope says that the staff at the National Archives asked him to select cases to highlight in the media, and that he did âliterally hundredsâ of interviews across all media âand thus became the public face of the file release project.â
As can be seen in the section titled, âSpokespersonâ on his website, Pope embraced his fame as a âUFO expertâ and capitalized on it working in film, television, video games, and advertising. Besides his appearances on sensational programs such as Ancient Aliens, in 2019, he began appearing as a regular guest on The Basement Office with Steven Greenstreet starting with the first episode which premiered on May 29th. While still advocating for the extraterrestrial hypothesis and displaying obvious enthusiasm when discussing cases that he has a personal interest in, his commentary is restrained and well-informed.
Pope wrote a total of six books in his lifetime which include three books on UFOs, two science fiction novels, and one action thriller. Besides Open Skies, Closed Minds, his other two UFO books are The Uninvited, a book about abductions published in 1997, and Encounter in Rendlesham Forest written with John Burroughs and Jim Penniston (both USAF Ret.) about the reported lights and UFO landing near RAF Woodbridge in 1980 that was published in 2014.
R. I. P. | Check out Martin’s Tribute HERE
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by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
For many years, stories of recovered crashed saucers and alien bodies were usually dismissed by investigators due to the stigma created by the effective debunking of the Aztec incident by J. P. Cahn in two articles he wrote for True magazine, the first in 1952 and the second in 1956. The stigma remained until the 1970s when influential researchers started becoming open to such cases, and an early story to come out during this period was that of a 1953 crash in Kingman, Arizona, that made the news in 1973. It was looked into by National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena investigator Raymond E. Fowler, who published an article covering it titled âWhat About Crashed UFOs?â in the April 1976 issue of Official UFO. Leonard Stringfield included the Kingman portion of it in his 1977 book, Situation Red!
The beginning of the renewed interest in crash recovery stories can be traced back to January 15, 1974, when Robert Spencer Carr claimed during a debate at the University of South Florida that the government was keeping two saucers inside Hangar 18 at Wright-Patterson AFB. This was reported on in the January 16, 1974, edition of The Tampa Tribune. According to the article headlined âDoes USAF Have UFOs?â by Frank Bentayou, Carr was a âmass communications instructorâ at the university.
It was around this time that Fowler began looking into an article that was published in the Framingham, Massachusetts edition of the Middlesex News on April 23, 1973. Kevin Randle described this in a report he submitted to NICAP on February 19, 2007. According to Randle, the article is based on an interview of a man named Fritz Werner by two teenage UFO researchers, Jeff Young and Paul Chetham. Fowler contacted Werner and also interviewed him. He wrote a report for NICAP, which Randle has said he has a copy of, and presented Wernerâs story, along with a signed affidavit, dated June 7, 1973, in the April 1976 issue of Official UFO:
I, Fritz Werner, do solemnly swear that during a special assignment with the U. S. Air Force on May 21, 1953, I assisted in the investigation of a crashed unknown object in the vicinity of Kingman, Arizona.
The object was constructed of an unfamiliar metal which resembled aluminum. It had impacted 20 inches into the sand without any sign of structural damage. It was oval and about 30 feet in diameter. An entranceway hatch had been vertically lowered and opened. It was about 3½ feet high and 1½ feet wide. I was able to talk briefly with someone on the team who did look inside only briefly. He saw two swivel seats, an oval cabin, and a lot of instruments and displays. A tent pitched near the object sheltered the dead remains of the only occupant of the craft. It was about 4 feet tall, dark brown complexion and had 2 eyes, 2 nostrils, 2 ears, and a small round mouth. It was clothed in a silvery, metallic suit and wore a skull cap of the same type of material. It wore no face covering or helmet.
I certify that the above statement is true by affixing
my signature to this document this 7th day of June, 1973.
Signature: Fritz A. Werner
Date Signed: June 7, 1973
Witness: Raymond E. Fowler
Date Signed: June 7, 1973
According to Fowler, in the process of trying to verify Wernerâs story, he contacted Wright-Patterson AFB, former Blue Book personnel, the Atomic Energy Commission, Stanford Research Institute, âand a number of persons employed within the military-industrial complex.â While he didnât find any corroborating witnesses, the tests, dates, people, and places in Wernerâs personal account which follows âchecked out very well.â
Wernerâs story as he told it to Fowler is the same as that in the affidavit with more details added. He explained that he had been working for the AEC under Dr. Ed Doll as a project engineer for Operation Upshot-Knothole. This involved a series of three atomic explosions at the atomic proving ground in Nevada, and Wernerâs job was to measure the effects of the blasts on different buildings built for the tests, which were the âtestsâ Fowler was referring to.
According to Werner, he got a phone call from Doll who told him he was going on a special job the next day. He reported for his assignment and was driven to Indian Springs AFB where he and about 15 other âspecialistsâ got on a plane, were told not to âfraternize,â and were flown to Phoenix, Arizona. There, they got on a bus with blacked out windows. Others were already onboard and they were driven or four hours to what Werner thought might have been the area of Kingman. On the way, an Air Force colonel told the group that they were to conduct an investigation on a crashed âsuper-secret Air Force vehicleâ based on their own individual specialties only. Wernerâs job was to determine the forward and vertical velocities of the vehicle when it crashed.
Werner was escorted to the crash site, and it was there that he happened to glance inside a tent with an armed guard in front of it. This is where he said he saw the body and he speculates that the creatureâs dark brown skin may have been due to exposure to our atmosphere. This was the explanation for the âchocolate-brownâ skin color of the Aztec creatures.
When everyone was done and back on the bus, the colonel had them raise their right hands and take an oath that they wouldnât tell anyone what they had seen. They were told to write out a report in longhand and were given a number to call when they were finished. When Werner finished his, he called the number and an airman came and picked it up.
Kevin Randle took an interest in the case and wrote numerous blogs about it, which were mostly dismissive. In his August 14, 2024, post titled âThe Kingman UFO Crash Conundrum,â Randle tells the reader he âwas unimpressed with it (the case) for several reasons.â His reasons included the fact that Stansel was the only witness, there was no documentation supporting his story, âand a suggestion that Stansel, after he had been drinking, told wild stories.â
What throws a new light onto Stanselâs tale is part of the interview with Young and Chetham âthat seems to have been left out of this whole tale.â Randle, presents a transcript of a section of the interview with Young and Chetham that starts with Stansel being asked, âDid you say that you had contacted beings from other planets?â Stansel answered, âYes, but now weâre getting into things where youâll just have to take my word for it because I canât produce it or prove it.â
Stansel said he met with a group once a week and that after a year they were able to make psychic contact. He said he âlearned astral projectionâ and was able to project himself onto a ship. He then goes on much like many contactees have done throughout the years.
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