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                             RIMA E. LAIBOW, M.D.
                          Child and Adult Psychiatry
 
                                             Cerridwen
                                     13 Summit Terrace
                                Dobbs' Ferry, NY 10522
                                         (914)693-3081
 
     CLINICAL DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN EXPECTED AND OBSERVED DATA IN PATIENTS
             REPORTING UFO ABDUCTIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR TREATMENT
 
  ABSTRACT:  IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THIS PAPER MAKES NO ATTEMPT TO ASSIGN OR
WITHHOLD EXTERNAL VALIDITY RELATIVE TO UFO ABDUCTION SCENARIOS.
 
        Patients who believe themselves to be UFO abductees are a
heterogeneous group widely dispersed along demographic and cultural lines.
Careful examination of these patients and their abduction reports presents
four areas of significant discrepancy between expected and observed data.
 
        Implications for the treatment of patients presenting UFO abduction
scenarios are discussed.
 
        INTRODUCTION
 
        If a patient were to confide to a therapist that he had been abducted
by aliens who took him aboard a UFO and performed a series of medical
procedures and examinations on him it is not likely that the patient would
find either a receptive ear or a respectful and non-judgemental response from
the therapist.  The material presented would lie so far outside the confines
of our personal and cultural belief system that it would seem intolerably
anomalous to most of us.  We would probably dismiss or repudiate it using a
few comfortable and familiar assumptions which hold so much obvious wisdom
that they do not require specific examination.
 
        When events which are too anomalous to allow their incorporation
into our world schema are presented to us, we are likely to dismiss them
by using assumptions based in out currently operative world view.  This
effectively precludes the open evaluation of the anomaly.  Hence, the
"expressible" response of most clinical and lay individuals upon hearing a UFO
abduction account would be an immediate dismissal of even the possibility that
such an episode might occur.  Close upon the heels of that determination the
rapid and complete pathologization of the person offering such an account
would follow.  Dream states, suggestibility, poor reality testing, outright
dissembling or frank psychosis are customarily offered and accepted as evident
and reasonable organizing models by which the production of this material may
be understood. These are typical maneuvers by which the presentation of
information which challenges schematic assumptions is dismissed or screened
out before the assumptions can be adequately tested for predictive reliability
and accuracy.  Such testing is highly desirable, however, because it offers
us the opportunity to apply the scientific method to our current level of
theorital sophistication and thereby refine our understanding of reality
further still. Of course, this process is severely impeded when the new data
is excluded from consideration strictly because it is too anomalous for
assessment.
 
        Westrum has offered a model by which events become "hidden" and
therefore remain anomalous to the perception of society in a circular
process: the hidden event is disbelieved and its disbelief helps to keep it
hidden.  Citing the lengthy period during which battered children and their
battering parents remained hidden, Westrum states:
 
                "An event is hidden if its occurrence is so implausible
                that those who observe it hesitate to report it because
                they do not expect to be believed.  The implausibility
                may cause the observer to doubt his own perceptions,
                leading to the event's denial or mis identification.
                Should the observer nonetheless make a report, he/she
                can expect to be treated with incredulity or even
                ridicule.  Since the existence of a hidden event is
                contrary to what science, society, and perhaps even
                the observer believes, the event remains hidden because
                of strong social forces which interfere with
                reporting.  The actual degree of underreporting is
                sometimes difficult to believe, a skepticism which
                itself acts as a deterrent to taking seriously
                those reports which do surface." (1)
 
        But for the clinician who spends a moment before reaching these
"obvious" and "intuitive" conclusions, several fascinating and potentially
productive questions present themselves.  If we refrain for a short period
from dismissing this material out-of-hand, we find that there are at least
four areas of puzzling and important discrepancy between our intuitive sense
of order and the data presented by the patient.  These discrepancies force us
to re-examine our assumptions in light of a demonstrated failure of the theory
to account for the observed phenomena.  This process, while taxing and
challenging, is nonetheless, the way we systemize our understanding of human
health and pathology.  Noting the previously un-noted and using it to refine
our conceptual framework leads to better prediction and therefore to better
treatment.
 
        It is not the purpose of this paper to ascribe relative reality to the
experience of abduction reported by some patients. Rather, precisely because
it lies outside the realm of clinical expertise to assess with certainty
whether these events actually occurred or if they are mere fantasy, it is
mandatory for the clinician to examine the impact of these experiences,
whatever their source, upon the patient. This must be done in a clear sighted
and open-minded fashion so that the impact of the experiences may be dealt
with rather than made into hidden events.
 
        AREAS OF DISCREPANCY
 
        1. ABSENCE OF MAJOR PSYCHOPATHOLOGY:    It is intuitively
seductive (and perhaps comfortable) for us to assume that psychotic-level
functioning will necessarily be present in a person claiming to be a UFO
abductee.  If this level of distortion and delusion is present, a patient
would be expected to demonstrate some other evidence of reality distortion.
Pathology of this magnitude would not be predicted to be present in a well
integrated, mature and non-psychotic individual.  Instead, we would expect
clinical and psychometric tools to reveal serious problems in numerous areas
both inter- and interpersonally.  It would be highly surprising if otherwise
well-functioning persons were to demonstrate a single area of floridly
psychotic distortion.  Further, if this single idea fix were totally
circumscribed, non-invasive and discrete, that in itself would be highly
anomalous.  Well-developed, fixed delusional states with numerous
elaborated and sequential components are not seen in otherwise healthy
individuals.  Prominent evidence of deep dysfunction would be expected to
pervade many areas of the patient's life.  One would predict that if the
abduction experience were the product of delusional or other psychotic states,
it would be possible to detect such evidence through the clinical and
psychometric tools available to us.
 
        This points to the first important discrepancy:  individuals
claiming alien abduction frequently show no evidence of past or present
psychosis, delusional thinking, reality-testing deficits, hallucinations or
other significant psychopathology despite extensive clinical evaluation.
Instead, there is a conspicuous absence of psychopathology of the magnitude
necessary to account for the production of floridly delusional and presumably
psychotic material.(2)
 
        In order to test this startling and anomalous information, a group of
subjects who believe they have been abducted by aliens (9, 5 male, 4 female)
were asked to participate in a psychometric evaluation. An experienced
clinical psychologist carried out an investigation using projection tests
(Rorschach, TAT, Draw a Person and the MMPI) and the Wechler Adult
Intelligence Scale.  The examining clinician was told "the subjects were being
evaluated to determine similarities and differences in personality structure,
as well as psychological strengths and weaknesses".  All of the subjects
actively refrained from sharing UFO-related experiences with the examiner and
she was unaware of this theme in their lives.
 
        The investigator found that commonalties were not strongly present and
that:
                "while the subjects are quite heterogeneous in their
                personality styles, there is a modicum of homogeneity
                in several respects: (1) relatively high intelligence
                with concomitant richness of inner life; (2) relative
                weakness in the sense of identity, especially sexual
                identity; (3) concomitant vulnerability in the inter-
                personal realm; (4) a certain orientation towards
                alertness which is manifest alternately in a certain
                perceptual sophistication and awareness or in inter-
                personal hyper-vigilance and caution.... Perhaps the
                most obvious and prominent impression left by the
                nine subjects is the range of personality styles
                the present.... There is little to unite them as a
                group from the standpoint of the overt manifestations
                of their personalities.... They [are] very distinctive
                unusual and interesting subjects. [But] "Along with
                above average intelligence, richness in mental life,
                and indications of narcissistic identity disturbance,
                the nine subjects also share some degree of impair-
                ment in personal relationships.  For [some] subjects,
                problems in intimacy are manifest more in great
                sensitivity to injury and loss than in lack of
                intimacy and relatedness.  [Ad] "...The last salient
                dimension of impairment in the interpersonal realm
                relates to a certain mildly paranoid and disturbing
                streak in many of the subjects, which renders them
                very wary and cautious about involving themselves
                with others.  It is significant that all but one of
                the subjects had modest elevations on the MMPI paranoia
                scale relative to their other scores.  Such modest
                elevations mean that we are not dealing with blatant
                paranoid symptomology but rather over-sensitivity,
                defensiveness and fear of criticism and susceptibility
                to feeling pressured.  To summarize, while this is a
                heterogeneous group in terms of overt personality style,
                it can be said that most of its members share being
                rather unusual and very interesting.  They also share
                brighter than average intelligence and a certain rich-
                ness of inner life that can operate favorably in terms
                of creativity or disadvantageously to the extent that
                it can be overwhelming.  Shared underlying emotional
                factors include a degree of identity disturbance, some
                deficits in the interpersonal sphere, and generally
                mild paranoia phenomena (hypersensitivity, wariness,
                etc.)" (3)
 
        Her findings demonstrate a uniform lack of the significant
psychopathology which would be necessary to account for these experiences if
abduction experiences do represent the psychotic or delusional states
predicted by current theory.
 
        When the examiner was informed of the true reason for the selection of
the subjects for this evaluation (i.e., their shared belief that they had been
exposed to alien abductions), she wrote an addendum to the original report re-
examining the findings of the testing in the light of the new data.  In it she
states:
                "The first and most critical question is whether our
                subjects' reported experiences could be accounted
                for strictly on the basis of psychopathy, i.e., mental
                disorder.  The answer is a firm no.  In broad terms,
                if the reported abductions were confabulated fantasy
                productions, based on what we know about psychological
                disorders, they could only have come from pathological
                liars, paranoid schizophrenics, and severely disturbed
                and extraordinarily rare hysteroid characters subject
                to fugue states and/or multiple personality shifts...
                It is important to note that not one of the subjects,
                based on test data, falls into any of these categories.
                Therefore, while testing can do nothing to prove the
                veracity of the UFO abduction reports, one can conclude
                that the test findings are not inconsistent with the
                possibility that reported UFO abductions have, in fact,
                occurred.  In other words, there is no apparent
                psychological explanation for their reports." (4)
 
        2. CONCORDANCE OF REPORTED DATA:        The second point of
intriguing discrepancy follows from this surprising absence of evidence
of a common thread of severe and reality-distorting psychopathology to
account for the patient's bizarre assertions.  They claim that they have
been abducted, sometimes repeatedly over nearly the whole course of their
lives, by aliens who have communicated with them and carried out procedures
much like medical examinations.  Persons reporting these experiences are seen
to be psycho-dynamically varied.  They are also demographically varied.
Reports of this basic scenario, numbering in the hundreds, have now been
recorded.  Even though the reporters range from individuals as diverse as a
mestizo Brazilian farmer(5),an American corporate lawyer (6), and a Mid-
Western minister(7), there is a perplexing and intriguing concordance of
features in these reports.  Certain details of the scenarios repeat themselves
with disturbing regularity no matter what the educational, national, social,
experiential or other demographic characteristics of the reporter.  In the
production of dreams, reveries, poetry, fantasies and psychotic states, while
the general themes of concern may be identified easily between individuals,
the specific symbolization, concretion, abstraction and representation of
those themes is relatively indiosyncratic for each individual.  This of course
necessitates careful empathic and attentive listening on the clinician's part
to gather both the general flavor and specific meaning of the elements of the
fantasy state.  This careful listening often means that a personal symbolic
representational system can be unraveled and its contents can be rendered less
mysterious to the patient.  In the abduction scenarios however, both specific
details and themes repeat themselves with surprising regularity:  In general,
the appearance and modus operandi of the aliens, their effect and procedures,
their tools and interests, their crafts and physical features all tally from
report to report with a high rate of concordance. (8,9,10)  This intriguing
fact seems impervious to the socio-economic, educational, national, or
cultural background of the abductee.  Similarly, whether the individual has
had previous contact with the literature of abduction seems to make little
difference in this vein since the reports of individuals who can be shown to
have had no exposure to abduction literature also contains these common
features.  Skilled practitioners and investigators report in these cases that
they are convinced that each of these subjects was being wholly truthful in
his/her report.
 
        The concordance of both content and event in these reports makes
them unlike any other fantasy-generated material with which I am familiar.
Indeed, investigators like Hopkins and others claim they have intentionally
withheld dissemination of certain important, frequently reported aspects of
the abduction scenarios in order to provide a "check" on the material being
presented to them by individuals who may have had access to this literature
since abductees may have been influenced at either the conscious or the
unconscious level by it.  In these cases as well, the features which have
previously been published as well as those withheld are both produced by the
abductee (11).  In instances in which the patient has read some of the
abductee literature, this previously withheld material may be offered to the
investigator with a sense of personal invalidation, apology and embarrassment.
He often expresses concern that this information is less likely to be
believed than the other material with which he is already familiar. (12)
 
        Jung and others have written widely about the use of archetypes
and the collective awareness of themes and images which are asserted to
present themselves in a world-wide and multi-personal way.  The amount of
individual variation and creative latitude demonstrated within the closed
system of archetypes and collected creativity is vast.  Those who pose such
universals detect their presence in the complex and highly idiosyncratic
presentations and guises which they are given by the unconscious mind of the
patient and the artist.  This disguise is idiosyncratic, they hold, precisely
because a set of available images is being used to work and rework the
personal realities of the individual against the background of the collective.
But the abductee does not seem to be involved in the reworking of personal
mythologies against the canvas of the race's mythology.  The details and
contents of the scenarios seem, upon extensive investigation, to bear little
thematic relevance to the issues inherent in the life of the abductee.
Intensive follow up investigation frequently yields no thematic, archetypical,
primary process symbolic meaning to the shape or activities of the abductors
and the scenario of the abduction itself. Instead, therapeutic work in these
cases centers around the issues inherent in the powerlessness and
vulnerability of the individual even is this were not a prominent theme in his
life before the putative abduction.  In other words, the customary richness of
association and creativity found in the examination of dreams and other
fantasy material is lacking with regard to the scenario and presentation of
the aliens who abduct and manipulate the patient in the abduction story.
 
        If the abduction material is indeed archetypal or fantasy generated in
nature, this is a new class of archetypes.  These archetypes demand rather
exact representation and mythic presentation since the activities and behavior
of the aliens is rather invariant within a narrow latitude regardless of the
other dream and fantasy themes of the patient.
 
        3. ABDUCTION SCENARIOS AND HYPNOSIS.    Members of both the lay and
professional communities frequently assume that material referring to UFO
abduction scenarios is retrieved under hypnosis.  Since it is generally
believed that people under hypnosis are open to the implantation of
suggestions through the overt or covert influence of the hypnotist it is
concluded that this material reproduces the hypnotists' expectations or
interests.  It is further concluded that since the hypnotist "put it there"
the abduction could not be accounted for as material which emerges solely from
the patient's end of dyad.
 
Thus, the abduction scenarios are commonly dismissed as merely representing
the production of desired material by compliant subjects. The abductees strong
sense of personal conviction that this really happened to him during the
session itself and upon recall of the session is similarly dismissed as an
artifact of the process by which the fantasies were generated.
 
        Several compelling factors mitigate against the facile dismissal of
data in this way.  Firstly, about 20% of these highly concordant abduction
scenarios are available spontaneously at the level of conscious awareness
prior to hypnosis.  (13,14)  These accounts may be enhanced or subjected to
further elaboration through the use of hypnosis or other recall enhancement
techniques, but in a significant number of people producing abduction
scenarios the recall is initially produced without recourse to such
techniques.  If their stories were substantially different from the concordant
abduction scenarios produced under regressive hypnosis, a different phenomenon
would be taking place.
 
       However, given the perplexing clinical presentation of similar stories
from dissimilar people who are uninformed about one another's experience, this
presents another highly interesting area of discrepancy.
 
        Hopkins has classified patterns of abduction recall into five
categories:
 
        Type 1.  patients consciously recall parts of the full abduction
scenario without hypnotic or other techniques designed to aid recall. The
emergence of this material may be delayed.
 
        Type 2.  patients recall the UFO sighting, surrounding circumstances
and/or aliens, but do not recall the abduction itself. Only a perceived gap in
time indicates any anomalous occurrence.
 
        Type 3.  patients recall a UFO and/or hominids but nothing else.
There is no sense of time lapse or dislocation.
 
        Type 4.  patients recall only a time lapse or dislocation.  No UFO
abduction scenario is recalled without the use of specific retrieval
techniques.
 
        Type 5.  patients recall noting relating to UFO or abduction
scenarios.  Instead they experience discrepant emotions ranging from uneasy
suspicions that "something happened to me" to intense, ego-dystonic fears of
specific locations, conditions or actions.  They may also exhibit unexplained
physical wounds and/or recurring dreams of abduction scenario content which
are not fixed in their experience as to place and time. (15)
 
        Examination of the transcripts of hypnotic sessions which yield
abduction material reveals that although subjects are sufficiently
suggestible to enter the trance state as directed by the therapist, they
resist having material "injected" into their account.  They customarily
refuse to be "lead" or distracted by the therapist's attempts to change
either the focus or content of their report.  The subject characteristically
insists upon correcting errors or distortions suggested or implied by the
hypnotist during the session.  Hence it is difficult to account for the
similarities and concordances of these scenarios through the mechanism of
suggestibility when these subjects so steadfastly refuse to be lead by
hypnotists.
 
        In fact, it is even more striking that while these patients feel the
material which they are producing both in and out of hypnosis as
experientially "real", nonetheless they frequently seek to discount or
explain away this bizarre and frightening material.  This remains true even
though sharing it regularly results in a significant remission of anxiety-
related symptoms and discomfort.  These abduction scenarios are so ego-alien
that they have frequently not shared the material with anyone at all or with
only a highly select group of trusted intimates. In the vast preponderance of
cases patients are reluctant to allow themselves to be publicly identified as
having had these experiences since the perceive that the abduction scenario is
so highly anomalous that they expect to experience ridicule and repudiation if
they become associated with it publicly.  It therefore functions like a guilty
secret in the way that rape has (and, unfortunately still does in some cases).
 
        After the material is produced and explored, these subjects often
experience a marked degree of relief.  This is true with reference both to
previously identified symptomatic behaviors and other anxiety manifestations
not noted on initial assessment.  These other symptoms may remit after
enhanced recall of the scenario and its details takes place.  It is
interesting to note that while the scenarios may contain a good deal of highly
traumatic material specifically related to reproductive functioning, these
episodes are nearly uniformly free of subjective erotic charge when either the
manifest or latent contents are examined.
 
        4.  POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD) IN THE ABSENCE OF
EXTERNAL TRAUMA:        PTSD was first described in the content of battle
fatigue (16).  Although it may present in a wide variety of clinical guises
(17) PTSD is currently understood as a disorder which occurs in the context of
intolerable externally induced trauma which floods the victim with anxiety
and/or depression when his overwhelmed and paralyzed ego defenses prove
inadequate to the task of organizing unbearably stressful events.  In the
service of the patient's urgent attempt to still the tides of disorganizing
anxiety, fear or guilt<18> which accompany the emergence of cognitive, sensory
or emotional recall of these traumatic events, the trauma itself may be
either partly or completely unavailable to conscious recall. <19>...Both
physical and psychological responses to the trauma are profound and pervasive.
PTSD follows overwhelming real-life trauma and is not known to present as a
sequel to internally generated fantasy states.<20>
 
        This fourth area of discrepancy between predicted and observed data is
perhaps the most striking and challenging. Patients who produce alien
abduction material in the absence of psycopathology severe enough to account
for it often show the clinical picture of PTSD. This is remarkable when one
considers that it is possible that no traumatic event occured except that
rooted only in fantasy.  These trauma are, in large measure, split off, denied
and repressed as they are in other occurrences of PTSD.
 
        As discussed above, these scenarios frequently appear in individuals
who are otherwise free of any indication of significant emotional and
psychological instability or pre-existing severe psycopathology. On careful
clinical assessment, these memories do not appear to fill the intrapsychic
niches usually occupied by psychotic or psycho-neurotic formulations. The
abduction scenarios do not encapsulate or ward off unacceptable impulses, they
do not define  split off affects, they are not used either
to stabilize or to divert current or archaic patterns of behavior nor do they
provide secondary gain or manipulative control for the individual.
 
        Instead, this material, experienced by the patient as unwelcome and
totally ego-dystonic, seems quite consistently to be woven into the fabric of
the patient's internal life only in terms of his reactive response to the
stress inherent in these experiences and the contents of the repressed
material related to the stressful memories.  But the extent of this secondary
response can be extensive.  It should be noted that PTSD has not previously
been thought to occur following trauma which has been generated solely by
internally states.  If abduction scenarios are in fact fantasies, then our
understanding of PTSD need to be suitably broadened to account for this
heretofore unexpected correlation.
 
        In addition, there are significant clinical implications to the
finding of abduction scenario material in a patient who shows PTSD but is
otherwise free of significant psychopathology.  Since abduction scenario
material presents several crucial areas of anomaly and discrepancy between
what is known and that which is observed.  It is very important for the
therapist to refrain from the comfortable (for the therapist, at least)
description of psychotic functioning to the patient who produces this material
until such disturbance is, in fact, demonstrated and corroborated by the
presence of other signs beside the UFO-related material.  It is imperative for
the therapist to adopt a non-judgemental stance.  He can attend to the
distress of the patient without attempting to confirm or deny possibilities
which are outside the specific area of his expertise.  The clinician should
adopt as his therapeutic priority the alleviation of the PTSD symptomology
through the use of appropriate and acceptable methods specific to the
treatment of PTSD.  In addition, the therapist must remember that while he may
have strong convictions pro or con the abduction actually having occurred, it
is not within either his capability or expertise to make such a judgement with
total certainty.  Furthermore, as the clinical psychologist who evaluated the
nine abductees pointed out in her addendum, the sophistication of the
psychotherapies has not advanced to the point at which this determination can
be made on the basis of currently available information (21), although the
treatment of post traumatic symptomology is currently understood.  Hence, it
is important for the therapist to retain the same non-judgemental and helpful
stance necessary to the successful treatment of any other traumatic insult.
When a therapist labels material as either unacceptable or insane, the
burden of the patient is increased.  If the therapist is reacting out of
prejudices which reflect his own closely-held beliefs rather than his
complete certainty, he unfairly increases the distress of the patient.
 
        SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS:        Although it has long been the
"common wisdom" of both the professional and lay communities that anyone
claiming to be the victim of abduction by UFO occupants must be seriously
disturbed, thoroughly deluded or a liar, careful examination of both the
reports and their reports calls this assumption into question. Clinical and
psychometric investigation of abductees reveals four areas of discrepancy
between the expected data and the observable phenomena and suggests further
investigation.  These discrepant areas are:
 
        1. ABSENCE OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY   An unexpected absence of severe
psychopathology coupled with the high level of functioning found in many
abductees is a perplexing and surprising finding. Psychometric evaluation
of nine abductees revealed a notable heterogeneity of psychological and
psychometric characteristics.  The major area of homogeneity was in the
absence of significant psychopathology.  Rather than consulting a subset
of the severely disturbed and psychotic population, there is clinical
evidence that at least some abductees are high functioning, healthy
individuals.  This interesting discrepancy requires further investigation.
 
        2. CONCORDANCE OF REPORTS       Highly dissimilar people produce
strikingly similar accounts of abductions by UFO occupants.  The basic
scenarios are highly concordant in detail and events.  This is surprising in
light of the widely divergent cultural, socio-economic, educational,
occupational, intellectual and emotional status of abductees.  Further, the
scenarios themselves do not seem to show the same layering of affect and
symbolic richness present in other fantasy endowed material.  Instead,
symbolic and conceptual complexity centers around the meaning of the
experience for the individual, not around the shape, form, activity, intent,
etc., of the aliens and their environment.  This is in stark contrast to the
expected complexity and diversity of thematic and symbolic elaboration found
in our fantasy material.
 
        3. RESISTANCE TO SUGGESTION UNDER HYPNOSIS      Abduction scenario
concordance is frequently attributed to the introduction of material into the
suggestible mind of a hypnotized patient.  Examination of abduction reports
indicates that a significant percentage of these reports emerge into conscious
awareness prior to the use of hypnosis or other techniques employed to
stimulate recall.  Furthermore abductees resist being lead or diverted during
hypnosis and regularly insist on correcting the hypnotist so that their report
remains accurate according to their own perceptions.
 
        4. PTSD IN THE ABSENCE OF TRAUMA        Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD) has not been previously reported in patients experiencing
overwhelming stress predicted only in internally generated states such as
psychotic delusional systems or phobias.  But patients reporting abduction
frequently show classic signs and symptoms of PTSD. Like other kinds of PTSD
it is subject to clinical intervention which frequently leads to substantial
clinical improvement.  But in order for this improvement to occur, the patient
must be treated for the PTSD he exhibits rather than the psychotic state he is
presumed to display by virtue of his abduction report.  If the abduction
scenarios represent only a fantasy state, then it is worth investigating why
(and how) this particular highly concordant and deeply disturbing fantasy is
involved in the pathogenesis of a condition otherwise seen only following
externally induced trauma. Further, if this is found to be the case, the
nature of PTSD itself should be re-examined in light of this finding.
Alternatively, it may be that the trauma is, in fact, an external one which
has taken place and the post traumatic state represents an expected response
on the part of a traumatized patient.
 
        It is not within the area of expertise of the clinician to make an
accurate determination about the objective validity of UFO abduction events.
But it is certainly within his purview to assist the patient in regaining a
sense of appropriate mastery, anxiety reduction and the alleviation of the
clinical symptomalogy as efficiently and effectively as possible.  This is
best accomplished through an assessment the patient's *actual* state of
psycho-dynamic organization, not his *presumed* state.  In other words, in
order to make the diagnosis of a psychotic or delusional state, findings other
than the presence of a belief in UFO abduction must be present.  In the
absence of other indications of severe psychopathology, it is inappropriate to
treat the patient as if he were afflicted with such psychopathology.  It lies
outside the realm of clinical expertise to determine with absolute certainty
whether or not a UFO abduction has indeed taken place. Patients should not be
viewed as demonstrating prima facie evidence of pervasive psychotic
dysfunction because of the abduction material alone nor should they be
hospitalized or treated with anti-psychotic medication based solely on the
presence of UFO abduction scenarios. Instead, they should be assessed on the
basis of their overall psychologic state.  Unless otherwise indicated,
treatment should be focused on the PTSD symptomatology and its repair.
 
        The areas of discrepancy which arise from the examination of UFO
abductees between the expected clinical finding and the observed ones
highlight interesting questions which require further investigation into
the nature and impact of fantasy on psycho-dynamic states and symptom
formation.
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(1)Westrum, R., Social Intelligence About Hidden Events,
Knowledge:Creation, Diffusion, Utilization, Vol 3 No 3,
March 1982, p.382
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(2)Hopkins, B. Missing Time: A Documented Study of UFO Abductions.
New York, Richard Marek 1981.
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(3)Slater, E., Ph.D. "Conclusions on Nine Psychologicals" in
Final Report on the Psychological Testing of UFO Abductees"
Mt Ranier, MD, 1985
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(4)Slater, E., Ph.D. Addendum to "Conclusions on Nine Psychological"
in Final Report on the Psychological Testing of UFO "Abductees", op.cit.
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(5)Creighton, G. "The Amazing Case of Antonio Villas Boas" in
Rogo, D>S>, ed., Alien Abductions. New York, New American
Library, pp. 51-83, 1980.
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(6)Hopkins,B. Missing Time: A Documented Study of UFO Abductions. op.cit.
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(7)Druffel,A. "Harrison Bailey and the 'Flying Saucer Disease'" in
Rogo, S.D., ed., op.cit.  pp. 122-137
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(8)Strieber, W. Communion. New York, Avon, 1987
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(9)Fowler, R. The Andreasson Affair. New York, Bantam Books, 1979
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(10)Fuller, J. The Interrupted Journey. New York, Dell, 1966
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(11)Hopkins, B. Intruders: The Incredible Visitation at Copley Woods.
New York, Random House, 1987
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(12)Hopkins, B. Personal communications with the author about the more
than 200 abductees whom Mr. Hopkins has investigated both with and
without the use of hypnosis.
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(13)Westrum, R. personal communication with the author.
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(14)Hopkins, B. personal communication with the author.
---------------------------------------
(15)Hopkins, B. "The Investigation of UFO Reports" in The Spectrum
of UFO Research. Proceedings of the Second CUFOS Conference
(September 25-27, 1981), Hynek, M. ed., pp 171-2, Chicago,
J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, 1988.
---------------------------------------
(16)Kardiner, A., The Traumatic Neuroses of War. New York,
P. Hoeber, 1941
---------------------------------------
(17)van Der Kolk, B.A., Psychological Trauma. Washington, DC, American
Psychiatric Press, 1987
---------------------------------------
(18)Horowitz,M.J., Stress Response Syndromes. New York, Jason Aronson,1976
---------------------------------------
(19)van Der Kolk, op.cit.
---------------------------------------
(20)American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders, 3rd ed. Washington, DC,
American Psychiatric Association, 1980
---------------------------------------
(21)Slater, op.cit.
---------------------------------------

EOF

-- 


Article 3929 of alt.conspiracy:
Path: lassie!voder!pyramid!decwrl!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!masscomp!peora!tarpit!bilver!dona
From: dona@bilver.uucp (Don Allen)
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors,alt.conspiracy
Subject: INFO: Roswell Witness Linkage
Keywords: Roswell UFO USAF Coverup "Weather Balloon"
Message-ID: <1991Apr10.021939.24277@bilver.uucp>
Date: 10 Apr 91 02:19:39 GMT
Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL
Lines: 448
Xref: lassie alt.conspiracy:3929

This is an article that was posted on Paranet not long ago
and germane to the infamous Roswell case a number of years
ago.
   
----------Begin included text------------------------------


Message #4515 - INFO.PARANET 
   Date : 17-Dec-90  2:11
   From : Michael Corbin
     To : All
Subject : Roswell Witness Surfaces
 
Here is an article that was contributed by Sandy Barbre regarding an article
which appeared in a Springfield, MO newspaper on December 9, 1990.
============================================================
CONTRIBUTED BY: Sandy Barbre
December 17, 1990
============================================================
The following was taken from a newspaper from Springfield, Missouri,
dated Sunday, December 9th, 1990.  The name of the newspaper I think,
is the NEWS-LEADER and article is in the section called Ozarks Accent.
 
-+--------------
 
TITLED:  NOTED EXPERT FINDS ACCOUNT CONVINCING.
BY: Mike O'Brien
 
   What sets Gerald Anderson apart from the thousands of other
   American's, including scores of Ozarkers, who say they've seen
   UFO's or even insist they've been kidnapped by creatures from
   outer space?
 
   Why are Gerald Anderson's childhood recollections stirring
   international interest among UFO researchers whose reputations
   have been built on healthy skepticism and willingness to
   debunk hoaxes?
 
   Because of little things he has to say and how he says them.
 
   Stanton Friedman, a nuclear physicist who has lectured on more
   than 600 college campuses about UFOs, describes Anderson as "a
   really significant, potentially the most important" witness to
   what both men believe was the aftermath of one of two space
   craft crashes in New Mexico in mid-summer 1947.
 
   Friedman is co-authoring a book based upon several years of
   painstaking investigation into the haunting mystery.  He was
   startled, upon meeting Anderson for the first time only a few
   months ago, to hear the Springfieldian echo details of the yet
   to be published research.
 
   "There's no way he could know some of these things unless he
   had been there at the time," Friedman believes.
 
   Example:  only days before first talking with Anderson,
   Friedman coaxed a heretofore reluctant New Mexico mortician
   into recounting a run-in he'd had in 1947 with an especially
   unpleasant red-headed captain who was heading up a team
   recovering bodies from a hush-hush aircraft crash.  Anderson,
   too, spoke of a red-headed captain with a mean disposition.
   Friedman says the descriptions of the ornery officer provided
   by the two match precisely, although Anderson and the mortician
   never have met.
 
   In sketches of the desert crash scene drawn by Anderson in
   Springfield following a hypnosis, a lonely windmill appears in
   the distance.  When Friedman later arranged for Anderson to
   return to New Mexico to pinpoint the long-ago crash site, no
   such windmill could be see on the horizon-- until, almost by
   accident, the windmill wa spotted behind tress that had grown
   up during the 43 years since Anderson was last there.
 
   "I got shivers over that one," says John Carpenter, who has
   extensively debriefed Anderson over the past 4 months and went
   along on Anderson's return trip to New Mexico in October.
 
   Carpenter holds degrees in psychology and psychiatric social
   work from DePauw and Washington universities and trained in
   clinical hypnosis at the Menninger Institute.  He's in his
   12th year of work at a psychiatric hospital facility in
   Springfield.
 
   "When Gerald tells his story, it's not just a story -- it's
   his life he's telling you, intermixed with his feelings and
   his beliefs and all that is Gerald," Carpenter says.
 
   "When someone is spinning a hoax or tale, they only give you
   enough to raise your curiosity.  Not Gerald.  He gives you
   everything, in detail, much more than you ask him for.  He'd
   be setting himself up to be found out if it wasn't true.  He's
   so confident, he goes so much further than a hoaxer would ever
   dare."
 
   Carpenter puts great stock in Anderson's recountings under
   hypnosis.  "It's what he didn't say that was significant."
   Carpenter says, explaining that despite clever prodding,
   Anderson never committed a hoaxer's mistake of "recalling"
   something that shouldn't be a part of his own memory.
 
   "And when he's under hypnosis, all the bigger, adult words
   drop out when he describes events from his childhood,"
   Carpenter found.  "He relates what he was in child-like
   terms."
 
   Carpenter also detected "genuine amazement" when Anderson
   heard what had been dredged from his subconscious memory under
   hypnosis.  "The look on his face was priceless when he realized
   he'd produced details he'd forgotten on a conscious level so
   long ago."
 
   Most subtle but perhaps most telling, in Carpenter's view, was
   Anderson's reaction to being accepted as a viable witness to
   an extraordinary encounter with a spacecraft and creatures from
   beyond Earth.
 
   "He was so grateful at being taken seriously.  You could see
   the relief and release after all those years, and the great
   hope that other people would take him seriously too, once and
   for all."
 
   Ironically, Friedman points to Gallup Poll results indicating
   that 60 percent of Americans who have college degrees say they
   believe UFOs are real.  With such a receptive constituency,
   why would government officials persist in what Friedman calls
   the "Cosmic Watergate" -- the cover-up and denial of the New
   Mexico crashes?  Perhaps, some speculate, because it would be
   too embarrassing now to admit that some supposedly made-in-USA
   technologies actually were plagiarized from confiscated
   spacecraft.
 
   Friedman emphasizes that he's not as interested in uncovering
   past misdeeds as he is in encouraging future progress.
 
   "I believe we should have an 'Earthling" orientation rather
   than nationalistic orientation.  The easiest way to
   demonstrate the wisdom of this is to prove that life forms
   from other planets are coming here.  If we can do that, then
   everyone will be forced to look at our world differently, as a
   part of a galactic neighborhood."
 
-+-----end.
 
The second part of the Springfield newspaper, dated December 9th,
1990 is as follows:
 
Titled:  Fact or Fantasy?  Springfieldian seeks validation of UFO
         encounter 43 years ago.
 
Written by: Mike O'Brien
 
ALSO NOTE: the actual newspaper article shows a scene of the UFO
crash drawn by Gerald Anderson and also a sketch of a creature he
believes was a visitor from another galaxy.
 
-+-------------begin story--------------
                                    
   To a 5-year-old kid from Indianapolis, the mountains and mesas
and vast scrubland surrounding Albuquerque seemed an alien world.
   "I was in awe" recalls Gerald Anderson of his arrival in New
Mexico with his family in July 1947.  "I was in the wild
frontier.  There were real, live Indians out there."
   Then says Anderson, on his second day in the Southwest he
bumped into real,live creatures from a truly alien world.
   There were four -- two dead, on dying, one apparently
uninjured.  The creatures were about 4 feet tall, with heads
disproportionately large for their bodies by human measure and
almond-shaped, coal black eyes.  They huddled in the shadow of
50-ft-diameter silver disk - a "flying saucer" that had crashed
into a low hillside on the rim of what locals call the Plains of
San Augustin.
   Anderson, a former police chief at Rockaway Beach and Taney
County deputy sheriff who now works as a security officer in
Springfield, is adamant about events on the hot midsummer day so
long ago.
   "I saw them.  I even touched one of the creatures.  I put my
hand on their ship.  And I wasn't alone - my dad, my uncle, my
brother and my cousin all saw the same things.  And so did a lot
of other people.  But they aren't talking.
   Anderson is talking, publicly, after 43 years of silence.
   Among those listening most intently are some of the foremost
researchers into unidentified flying object (UFO phenomena.
These experts say Gerald Anderson appears to be an important link
in a frustratingly fragmented chain of evidence concerning the
most famous - or infamous - chapter in UFO annals: the so called
"Roswell Incident."
   No one denies that "something" happened in July 1947 in
central New Mexico, cradle of U.S. nuclear and rocket technology.
However, military authorities insist reports of strange craft in
the sky and bizarre wreckage on the ground were traced at the time
to an errant weather balloon and other manmade or natural
circumstance.
   Nonetheless, over the years, persistent whispered rumors grew
into published articles and books, even movies, which fanned
speculation that what actually occurred was a visit by creatures
from another planet - an intergalactic expedition that turned to
tragedy on the high desert and then into a massive cover-up in the
highest circles of the U.S. government.
   Anderson says he was unaware of ongoing fascination and
controversy over the strange episode from his childhood until one
evening this past January when he was flipping through channels
on his television set and stumbled across the popular program
"Unsolved Mysteries."
   "I wasn't looking for any unsolved mysteries - I have enough
mysteries in my life that are unsolved, and I don't need any
more," Anderson jokes.  He is a burly, barrel-chested man
standing 6-4 and carrying a muscular 250-plus pounds, with
reddish hair and a ruddy complexion creased from easy laughter.
   "But, bingo! On comes this story, and everything was wrong,"
Anderson recalls of the TV show.  On sudden impulse, he dialed an
800 phone number that flashed onto the screen. "I guess I figured
that if people were still interested in this thing, they might as
well get it straight" is the only explanation he can muster for
speaking up after years of keeping mostly mum on the matter.
   "These people don't know what they're talking about," Anderson
told the operator on the other end of the long-distance line.
"The shape of the craft is totally wrong. 'And how do you know
that, sir?" she asked. ' I saw it, I was there,' I told her.
"Whoa!" she said.  "Thee are some people who will want to talk to
you...'"
   Anderson's phone soon was ringing with calls from UFO
researchers around the country.  One in particular, Stanton
Friedman, a nuclear physicist and popular lecturer who had
advised the "Unsolved Mysteries" producers, was struck by
correlations between Anderson's recollections and obscure
details Friedman uncovered while sleuthing for a book to be
published next year.
   Friedman, who lives in Canada, contacted John Carpenter, a
Springfield professional therapist who in his spare time serves as a
director of investigations for the local chapter of Mutual UFO
Network, a nationwide organization of UFO researchers.  At Friedman's
request, Carpenter conducted extensive in person interviews of
Anderson, including sessions under hypnosis.
   The results excited Friedman.  "Powerful stuff!" he exclaimed upon
hearing interview tapes.  Friedman arranged airline tickets for
Anderson and Carpenter to join him in New Mexico to pinpoint the crash
site.
   Anderson says the flight was his first return to New Mexico in more
than a quarter-century.  After pointing the pilot of a chartered
helicopter to a spot in the desert 75 air miles southwest of
Albuquerque, Anderson gazed at a hillside, strewn with boulders the
size of Volkswagens and dotted with a few gnarled pinion trees, that
he says he saw in the summer of 1947.....
 
A NEW HOME
 
   The Anderson family arrived in Albuquerque from Indiana on July 4,
1947.  they took up temporary residence at the home of one of Gerald's
uncles, Guy Anderson.  Gerald's father, Glen, was about to take a job
as a master machinist involved in nuclear weapons design at the
super-secret Sandia base on the outskirts of town.
   The next day, another uncle, Ted, struck up a conversation with
Gerald's older brother Glen Jr., who was on leave from the Marine
Corps.  Glen Jr. was a rockhound, and his uncle piqued the young
Marine's enthusiasm with talks of gorgeous stones just waiting to be
collected in the desert.
  " Ted told my brother, ' I know where there's plenty of moss agate.'
So we all piled into a 1940 Plymouth - Uncle Ted, my cousin Victor
(Ted's 8 year old son), my brother, Glen, my dad and myself.  We went
out into this area where the moss agate was supposed to be - followed
two ruts into the desert, bounced along out there for a while, and
ended up on top of a ridgeline.  We parked the car and started to walk
down an arroyo (gully) and dry creek bed and out onto the plains.
 
 
A STRANGE DISCOVERY
 
   "But we came around a corner and right there in front of us stuck
into the side of this hill, was a silver disc.  There were some
remarks like"There's a crash up here!  Something's crashed up here! And
then someone saying 'That's a goddamn spaceship!"
"We all went up there to it.  There were three creatures, three
bodies, lying on the ground underneath this thing in the shade.  Two
weren't moving and the third one obviously was having trouble
breathing, like when you have broken ribs.  There was a fourth one
next to it, sitting there on the ground.  There wasn't a thing wrong
with it, and it apparently had been giving first aid to the others.
   Anderson animatedly acts out the fourth creature's reaction when
the family members approached. "It recoiled in fear, like it thought
we were going to attack it," anderson recounts, covering his face with
crossed arms.  The adults tried to repeatedly to communicate with the
frightened creature, Anderson says, but there was no audible response
to greetings spoken in English and Spanish.
   A few minutes after the Anderson clan happened upon the bizarre
scene, six other people arrived - five college students and their
teacher.  They'd been working on an archaeological dig around cliff
dwellings a few miles away and had decided to hike over after seeing
what they thought was a firey meteor crashing the night before.  The
professor, a Dr. Buskirk, tried several foreign languages in
unsuccessful attempts to coax a verbal response from the creature,
Anderson says.
   The sun had climbed to a midday peak by this time and recalls
anderson, "to a kid from Indiana, it was hot brother, let me tell
you."  He chugged a chocolate flavored soft drink an hour earlier and
the sweet soda pop was churning uncomfortably in his stomach. so he
sought shelter in the shadow of the spacecraft.
   "It was 115 (degrees) out there that day.  But around the craft,
when you got close to it, it was cold.  When you touched the metal, it
felt just like it came out of a freezer."
 
SOMETHING WASN'T RIGHT
 
   Anderson also touched one of the creatures lying motionless on the
ground - and it, too was cold.  In his child's mind, he had thought the
figures looked like dolls.  But when he felt the cold skin, " I knew
something wasn't quite right.  Yuck!.
   Anderson says he ran to the crest of a nearby knoll to take stock.  A
pickup truck arrived on the ridge, and a fellow whom researchers believe
was a civil engineer named Barney Barnett joined the curious audience.  "I
remember thinking he looked like Harry Truman.  In 1947, every kid knew
what Harry Truman looked like," Anderson says.
   After a few minutes, Anderson summoned the courage to again creep close
to the strange saucer.  It was then more chilling than the surface of the
craft of the skin of the corpse; The upright creature turned and looked
right at me and it was like he was inside my head - as if he was doing my
thinking, as if his thoughts were in my head."
   Anderson remembers a mental sensation of falling and tumbling
end-over-end. "I felt that thing's fear, felt its depression, felt its
loneliness.  I relived the crash.  I know the terror it went through.  That
one look told me everything that quickly," he says with a snap of his
fingers.
 
   Other things began happening quickly about this time, Anderson says.  A
contingent of armed soldiers suddenly appeared.  The creature, which had
calmed down after its initial fright, "went crazy" at the sight of the
soldiers.  Thinking back on the creature's plight today brings on the
"awfulest, horrible feeling," Anderson says.
   "His situation was hopeless. He knew it.  He'd just lived through a
nightmare that most of us wouldn't be able to psychologically stand.  He'd
watched two of his crew, his friends or maybe even his family die.  He's
watching another one die. He knows there's no chance of rescue, because the
military is here and his people aren't going to be able to get him.
   "God only knows how far away from home he was, and he knew he was never
going to see - if they have loved ones - his loved ones again.  He was
totally alone on a hostile planet, and the only people who where showing
him kindness were being run off by the military at weapon-point.
   "As a kid, I was aware of what being afraid of the dark was like., and
the feeling I got from him was that feeling multiplied a million times.  It
was scary.  It was terrifying.
 
 
SOLDIERS ON THE SCENE
 
   Anderson says he lost sight of the creature as the soldiers swarmed over
the site.  The civilians were brusquely shoved from the craft. Anderson
remembers shouts and threats.  His uncle Ted threw a punch at one of
the GIs.  "Things got very tense, very dangerous," Anderson says.
"The soldiers ushered us out of there very unceremoniously.  Their
attitude, to describe it at best, was uncivilized."
   Anderson has an especially vivid memory of a tough-talking red
haired Army captain and an equally gruff black sergeant.  "They told
my dad and my uncle, who also worked at Sandia, that if they were ever
to divulge anything about this - it was a secret military aircraft,
they said - then us kids would be taken away and they'd never see us
again."  It seems an outrageous threat in hindsight, Anderson
concedes.  But at the time, he reminds, "These people had machine guns
and you listened to what they said."
   Another recollection strikes Anderson as odd today:  The soldiers
didn't appear surprised about the otherwordly craft and creatures.
they didn't gawk, slack-jawed and awe-struck as the Andersons had done.
"The soldiers weren't saying, 'Gee, look at that!"  They were very
cognizant of what they were looking at.  They knew what it was.
   And it soon became apparent, Anderson says, that the Army knew what
it wanted to do with the find. "there was a battalion of military, a
real invasion force, when we got back up on the hilltop.  There were
trucks, there were airplanes - they had the road blocked off and they
were landing on it.  They had radio communications gear set up.  There
were ambulances, and more soldiers with weapons."
   In the days that followed, all of New Mexico was abuzz with talk of
strange lights in the sky, strange echos on radar, strange doings in
the desert.  On July 7, new reports told of remnants of an
unidentified aircraft found by a rancher near the town of Roswell,
N.M. about 150 miles east of the hillside where the Anderson's stumbled
upon the saucer.
   Although several witnesses said it was like nothing they'd ever
seen before, military officers insisted the metallic pieces came from
an ordinary weather balloon.....
 
A WEATHER BALLOON?
 
   Forty three years later, Anderson smiles wryly when reminded of the
Army's pronouncement, "A lot of people wondered why, if it was just a
weather balloon, the military put the pieces under armed guard and flew
them in a B-29 to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio," he observes.
   Anderson believes the wreckage scattered near Roswell and the barely
damaged saucer on the Plains of San Augustin are connected.  "There was a
gash in the side of the disc we saw, like it had been crushed in," he says.
"The contour of the craft would fit into that gash perfectly - like another
one of these things had hit it.  I think two of these discs had a mid-air
collision.  One exploded and feel in pieces near Roswell, and the other
crash-landed where we found it.
   With all evidence confiscated and the military steadfastly sticking
by the weather balloon explanation, the story faded from the news by July's
end.  And Gerald Anderson says he tucked away the memory as he grew into
manhood.  "I learned you just don't go up to the average person on the
street and say, "Damn, know what I saw?" The guy will go, "Get away from
me, fool!  Are you crazy?"  In later life, he didn't mention it even to his
wife until a few years after their marriage.
   Anderson joined the Navy in the late 1950s and served a dozen years in
posts around the globe.  He lived for a few years in Colorado, working as a
paramedic and working toward a college degree in microbiology.  In 1979, he
moved to Missouri to better raise his daughter away from what he terms the
"druggy" atmosphere of Denver.  In addition to his law enforcement posts,
Anderson has worked for two southwest Missouri trucking firms as a driver
and instructor.
   Anderson also has been active in the Episcopal Church.  He recently was
elected to the vestry at Ascension Episcopal in Springfield and is studying
toward becoming a deacon.   A gold crucifix - a cross complete with a
figure of the martyred Christ affixed to it - suspended from a chain around
Anderson's neck is testimony to his faith.
 
 
NO CONFLICT IN BELIEFS
 
   Although he concedes his account might make some fellow churchgoers
uncomfortable, Anderson sees no conflict between what he saw with his eyes
and what he believes in his heart:  "When you're talking about the concept
of God, you have to be talking in the context of a universal situations, a
deity that built the whole universe.  And why should we assume that this
speck of sand in the backwater of space would be the only place that an
all-perfect, almighty God could create life?"
   In fact, Anderson says he "wouldn't be one bit surprised to find out
that, wherever this creature came from, there they have a very strong
concept of a supreme being.  Because of my contact with the creature showed
a high degree of civilized sophistication, gentleness, compassion - all of
the things we hold as ideals."
   Of the five anderson men who ventured into the desert that day in 1947,
only Gerald is still alive. Age, illness and accidents claimed the other
four in recent years.  But not only andersons were at the scene, Gerald
says, and he hopes his decision to come forth, albeit belated, will
encourage others to tell what they know and spur official revelations about
the captured craft and creatures.
   "I want to see the government stand up and say, 'Look, we're not alone
in the universe.
 Let's make a 'Star Trek' really happen.  Let's do go out there and explore
the universe.  That may be our only salvation. Because with what's doing to
this Earth, we're not going to make it much past the year 2000."
 
-+-----end of story--------------
 
EOF


-- 
-* Don Allen *-  InterNet: dona@bilver.UUCP  // Amiga..for the rest of us.
USnail: 1818G Landing Dr, Sanford Fl 32771 \X/ Why use anything else? :^)
UUCP: ..uunet!tarpit!bilver!vicstoy!dona      0110 0110 0110 Just say NO! 
Illuminati < MJ-12|Grudge|TLC|CFR|FED|EEC|Bush > WAR = "New World Order"


Article 3930 of alt.conspiracy:
Path: lassie!voder!pyramid!decwrl!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!masscomp!peora!tarpit!bilver!dona
From: dona@bilver.uucp (Don Allen)
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors,alt.conspiracy
Subject: INFO:CHAPTER XIII - UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS
Keywords: USAF Chapter in Training Textbook, long since censored.
Message-ID: <1991Apr10.025020.24433@bilver.uucp>
Date: 10 Apr 91 02:50:20 GMT
Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL
Lines: 686
Xref: lassie alt.conspiracy:3930

This is considered a *classic* among various UFO text files. 
 
Read and make up your own mind :-)

-------Begin included text -----------------------------------
 

 
             CUFON - UFO Information Service Seattle, Washington
 _______________________________________________________________
 
    INTRODUCTORY SPACE SCIENCE - VOLUME II - DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS - USAF
                                  Edited by:
                          Major Donald G. Carpenter
                                  Co-Editor:
                      Lt. Colonel Edward R. Therkelson
                                 CHAPTER XIII
                          UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
     What is an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO)?  Well, according to United
 States Air Force Regulation 80-17 (dated 19 September 1966), a UFO is "Any"
 aerial Phenomenon or object which is unknown or appears to be out of the
 ordinary to the observer."  This is a very broad definition which applies
 equally well to one individual seeing his first noctilucent cloud at
 twilight as it does to another individual seeing his first helicopter.
 However, at present most people consider the term UFO to mean an object
 which behaves in a strange or erratic manner while moving through the
 Earth's atmosphere.  That strange phenomenon has evoked strong emotions
 and great curiosity among a large segment of our world's population.  The
 average person is interested because he loves a mystery, the professional
 military man is involved because of the possible threat to national
 security, and some scientists are interested because of the basic curiosity
 that led them into becoming researchers.
 
     The literature on UFO's is so vast, and the stories so many and varied,
 that we can only present a sketchy outline of the subject in this chapter.
 That outline includes description classifications, operational domains
 (temporal and spatial), some theories as to the nature of the UFO
 phenomenon, human reactions, attempts to attack the problem scientifically,
 and some tentative conclusions.  If you wish to read further in this area,
 the references provide an excellent starting point.
 
 33.1 DESCRIPTIONS
 
     One of the greatest problems you encounter when attempting to catalog
 UFO sightings, is selection of a system for cataloging.  No effective
 system has yet been devised, although a number of different systems have
 been proposed.  The net result is that almost all UFO data are either
 treated in the form of individual cases, or in the forms of inadequate
 classification systems.  However, these systems do tend to have some common
 factors, and a collection of these factors is as follows:
 
  a. Size
  b. Shape (disc, ellipse, football, etc.)
  c. Luminosity
  d. Color
  e. Number of UFO's
 
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
                               ( Page Two )
 
              CUFON - UFO Information Service Seattle, Washington
________________________________________________________________
 
 Behavior:
 
     a. Location (altitude, direction, etc.)
     b. Patterns of paths (straight line, climbing, zig-zagging, etc.)
     c. Flight Characteristics (wobbling, fluttering, etc.)
     d. Periodicity of sightings
     e. Time duration
     f. Curiosity or inquisitiveness
     g. Avoidance
     h. Hostility
 
 Associated Effects:
 
     a. Electro-Magnetic (compass, radio, ignition systems, etc.)
     b. Radiation (burns, induced radioactivity, etc.)
     c. Ground disturbance (dust stirred up, leaves moved, standing wave
     d. Sound (none, hissing, humming, roaring, thunderclaps, etc.)
     e. Vibration (weak, strong, slow, fast)
     f. Smell (ozone or other odor)
     g. Flame (how much, where, when, color)
     h. Smoke or cloud (amount, color, persistence)
     i. Debris (type, amount, color, persistence)
     j. Inhibition of voluntary movement by observers
     k. Sighting of "creatures" or "beings"
 
 After Effects:
 
     a. Burned areas or animals
     b. Depressed or flattened areas
     c. Dead or missing animals
     d. Mentally disturbed people
     e. Missing items
 
 We make no attempt here to present available data in terms of the foregoing
 descriptors.
 
                           ( Page Three )
 
             CUFON - UFO Information Service Seattle, Washington
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 33.2 OPERATIONAL DOMAINS - TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL
 
     What we will do here is to present evidence that UFO's are a global
 phenomenon which may have persisted for many thousands of years.  During
 this discussion, please remember that the more ancient the reports the less
 sophisticated the observer.  Not only were the ancient observers lacking
 the terminology necessary to describe complex devices (such as present day
 helicopters) but they were also lacking the concepts necessary to
 understand the true nature of such things as television, spaceships,
 rockets, nuclear weapons and radiation effects.  To some, the most
 advanced technological concept was a war chariot with knife blades attached
 to the wheels.  By the same token, the very lack of accurate terminology
 and descriptions leaves the more ancient reports open to considerable
 misinterpretation, and it may well be that present evaluations of
 individual reports are completely wrong.  Nevertheless, let us start with
 an intriguing story in one of the oldest chronicles of India...the Book of
 Dzyan.
 
     The book is a group of "story-teller" legends which were finally
 gathered in manuscript form when man learned to write.  One of the stories
 is of a small group of beings who supposedly came to Earth many thousands
 of years ago in a metal craft which orbited the Earth several times before
 landing.  As told in the Book "These beings lived to themselves and were
 revered by the humans among whom they had settled.  But eventually
 differences arose among them and they divided their numbers, several of the
 men and women and some children settled in another city, where they were
 promptly installed as rulers by the awe-stricken populace.
 
     "Separation did not bring peace to these people and finally their
 anger reached a point where the ruler of the original city took with him
 a small number of his warriors and they rose into the air in a huge shining
 metal vessel.  While they were many leagues from the city of their enemies,
 they launched a great shining lance that rode on a beam of light.  It burst
 apart in the city of their enemies with a great ball of flame that shot up
 to the heavens, almost to the stars.  All those who were in the city were
 horribly burned and even those who were not in the city - but nearby - were
 burned also.  Those who looked upon the lance and the ball of fire were
 blinded forever afterward.  Those who entered the city on foot became ill
 and died.  Even the dust of the city was poisoned, as were the rivers that
 flowed through it.  Men dared not go near it, and it gradually crumbled
 into dust and was forgotten by men."
 
     "When the leader saw what he had done to his own people he retired to
 his palace and refused to see anyone.  Then he gathered about him those
 warriors who remained, and their wives and children, and they entered their
 vessels and rose one by one into the sky and sailed away.  Nor did they
 return."
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 Continued -
 
 
                               ( Page Four )
 
            CUFON - UFO Information Service Seattle, Washington
________________________________________________________________
 
     Could this foregoing legend really be an account of an extraterrestrial
 colonization, complete with guided missle, nuclear warhead and radiation
 effects?  It is difficult to assess the validity of that explanation...
 just as it is difficult to explain why Greek, Roman and Nordic Mythology
 all discuss wars and contacts among their "Gods."  (Even the Bible records
 conflict between the legions of God and Satan.)  Could it be that each
 group recorded their parochial view of what was actually a global conflict
 among alien colonists or visitors?  Or is it that man has led such a
 violent existence that he tends to expect conflict and violence among even
 his gods?
 
     Evidence of perhaps an even earlier possible contact was uncovered by
 Tschi Pen Lao of the University of Peking.  He discovered astonishing
 carvings in granite on a mountain in Hunan Province and on an island in
 Lake Tungting.  These carvings have been evaluated as 47,000 years old, and
 they show people with large trunks (breathing apparatus?...or "elephant"
 heads shown on human bodies?  Remember, the Egyptians often represented
 their gods as animal heads on human bodies.)
 
     Only 8,000 years ago, rocks were sculpted in the Tassili plateau of
 Sahara, depicting what appeared to be human beings but with strange round
 heads (helmets? or "sun" heads on human bodies?)  And even more recently,
 in the Bible, Genesis (6:4) tells of angels from the sky mating with women
 of Earth, who bore them children.  Genesis 19:3 tells of Lot meeting two
 angels in the desert and his later feeding them at his house.  The Bible
 also tells a rather unusual story of Ezekiel who witnessed what has been
 interpreted by some to have been a spacecraft or aircraft landing near the
 Chebar River in Chaldea (593 B.C.).
 
     Even the Irish have recorded strange visitations.  In the Speculum
 Regali in Konungs Skuggsa (and other accounts of the era about 956 A.D.)
 are numerous stories of "demonships" in the skies.  In one case a rope from
 one such ship became entangled with part of a church.  A man from the ship
 climbed down the rope to free it, but was seized by the townspeople.  The
 bishop made the people release the man, who climbed back to the ship,
 where the crew cut the rope and the ship rose and sailed out of sight.
 In all of his actions, the climbing man appeared as if he were swimming
 in water.  Stories such as this makes one wonder if the legends of the
 "little people" of Ireland were based upon imagination alone.
 
     About the same time, in Lyons (France) three men and a women supposedly
 descended from an airship or spaceship and were captured by a mob.  These
 foreigners admitted to being wizards, and were killed.  (No mention is
 made of the methods employed to extract the admissions.)  Many documented
 UFO sightings occurred throughout the Middle Ages, including an especially
 startling one of a UFO over London on 16 December 1742.  However, we do
 not have room to include any more of the Middle Ages sightings.  Instead,
 two "more-recent" sightings are contained in this section to bring us up to
 modern times.
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                             ( Page Five )
 
            CUFON - UFO Information Service Seattle, Washington
 
________________________________________________________________
 
 
     In a sworn statement dated 21 April 1897, a prosperous and prominent
 farmer named Alexander Hamilton (Le Roy, Kansas, U.S.A.) told of an attack
 upon his cattle at about 10:30 p.m. the previous Monday.  He, his son, and
 his tenant grabbed axes and ran some 700 feet from the house to the cow
 lot where a great cigar-shaped ship about 300 feet long floated some 30
 feet above the cattle.  It had a carriage underneath which was brightly
 lighted within (dirigible and gondola?) and which had numerous windows.
 Inside were six strange looking beings jabbering in a foreign language.
 These beings suddenly became aware of Hamilton and the others.  They
 immediately turned a searchlight on the farmer, and also turned on some
 power which sped up a turbine wheel (about 30 ft diameter) located under
 the craft.  The ship rose, taking with it a two-year old heifer which was
 roped about the neck by a cable of one-half inch thick, red material.  The
 next day a neighbor, Link Thomas, found the animal's hide, legs and head
 in his field.  He was mystified at how the remains got to where they were
 because of the lack of tracks in the soft soil.  Alexander Hamilton's sworn
 statement was accompanied by an affidavit as to his veracity.  The
 affidavit was signed by ten of the local leading citizens.
 
     On the evening of 4 November 1957 at Fort Itaipu, Brazil, two sentries
 noted a "new star" in the sky.  The "star" grew in size and within seconds
 stopped over the fort.  It drifted slowly downward, was as large as a big
 aircraft, and was surround by a strong orange glow.  A distinct humming
 sound was heard, and then the heat struck.  One sentry collapsed almost
 immediately, the other managed to slide to shelter under the heavy cannons
 where his loud cries awoke the garrison.  While the troops were scrambling
 towards their battle stations, complete electrical failure occurred.
 There was panic until the lights came back on but a number of men still
 managed to see an orange glow leaving the area at high speed.  Both
 sentries were found badly burned...one unconscious and the other incoherent,
 suffering from deep shock.
 
     Thus, UFO sightings not only appear to extend back to 47,000 years
 through time but also are global in nature.  One has the feeling that
 this phenomenon deserves some sort of valid scientific investigation, even
 if it is a low level effort.
 33.3 SOME THEORIES AS TO THE NATURE OF THE UFO PHENOMENON
     There are very few cohesive theories as to the nature of UFO's.  Those
 theories that have been advanced can be collected in five groups:
     a. Mysticism
     b. Hoaxes, and rantings due to unstable personalities
     c. Secret Weapons
     d. Natural Phenomena
     e. Alien visitors
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 Continued -
 
                                   PAGE SIX
________________________________________________________________
 
 Mysticism
 
     It is believed by some cults that the mission of UFO's and their crews
 is a spiritual one, and that all materialistic efforts to determine the
 UFO's nature are doomed to failure.
 
 Hoaxes and Rantings due to Unstable Personalities
 
     Some have suggested that all UFO reports were the results of pranks
 and hoaxes, or were made by people with unstable personalities.  This
 attitude was particularly prevalent during the time period when the Air
 Force investigation was being operated under the code name of Project
 Grudge.  A few airlines even went as far as to ground every pilot who
 reported seeing a "flying saucer."  The only way for the pilot to regain
 flight status was to undergo a psychiatric examination.  There was a
 noticeable decline in pilot reports during this time interval, and a few
 interpreted this decline to prove that UFO's were either hoaxes or the
 result of unstable personalities.  It is of interest that NICAP (The
 National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena) even today still
 receives reports from commercial pilots who neglect to notify either the
 Air Force or their own airline.
 
     There are a number of cases which indicate that not all reports fall
 in the hoax category.  We will examine one such case now.  It is the
 Socorro, New Mexico sighting made by police Sergeant Lonnie Zamora.
 Sergeant Zamora was patrolling the streets of Socorro on 24 April 1964
 when he saw a shiny object drift down into an area of gullies on the edge
 of town.  He also heard a loud roaring noise which sounded as if an old
 dynamite shed located out that way had exploded.  He immediately radioed
 police headquarters, and drove out toward the shed.  Zamora was forced to
 stop about 150 yards away from a deep gully in which there appeared to be
 an overturned car.  He radioed that he was investigating a possible wreck,
 and then worked his car up onto the mesa and over toward the edge of the
 gully.  He parked short, and when he walked the final few feet to the edge,
 he was amazed to see that it was not a car but instead was a weird
 eggshaped object about fifteen feet long, white in color and resting on
 short, metal legs.  Beside it, unaware of his presence were two humanoids
 dressed in silvery coveralls.  They seemed to be working on a portion of
 the underside of the object.  Zamora was still standing there, surprised,
 when they suddenly noticed him and dove out of sight around the object.
 Zamora also headed the other way, back toward his car.  He glanced back at
 the object just as a bright blue flame shot down from the underside.
 Within seconds the eggshaped thing rose out of the gully with "an ear-
 -splitting roar."  The object was out of sight over the nearby mountains
 almost immediately, and Sergeant Zamora was moving the opposite direction
 almost as fast when he met Sergeant Sam Chavez who was responding to Zamora'
s
 earlier radio calls.  Together they investigated the gully and found the
 bushes charred and still smoking where the blue flame had jetted down on
 them.  About the charred area were four deep marks where the metal legs
 had been.  Each mark was three and one half inches deep, and was circular
 in shape.  The sand in the gully was very hard packed so no sign of the
 humanoids' footprints could be found.  An official investigation was
 launched that same day, and all data obtained supported the stories of
 Zamora and Chavez.  It is rather difficult to label this episode a hoax,
 and it is also doubtful that both Zamora and Chavez shared portions of the
 same hallucination.
 
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                                 PAGE SEVEN
________________________________________________________________
 
 Secret Weapons
 
     A few individuals have proposed that UFO's are actually advanced weapon
 systems, and that their natures must not be revealed.  Very few people
 accept this as a credible suggestion.
 
 Natural Phenomena
 
     It has also been suggested that at least some, and possibly all, of the
 UFO cases were just mis-interpreted manifestations of natural phenomena.
 Undoubtedly this suggestion has some merit.  People have reported, as UFO's,
 objects which were conclusively proven to be balloons (weather and skyhook),
 the planet Venus, man-made artificial satellites, normal aircraft, unusual
 cloud formations, and lights from ceilometers (equipment projecting light
 beams on cloud bases to determine the height of the aircraft visual ceiling)
.
 It is also suspected that people have reported mirages, optical illusions,
 swamp gas and ball lightning (a poorly-understood discharge of electrical
 energy in a spheroidal or ellipsoidal shape...some charges have lasted for
 up to fifteen minutes but the ball is usually no bigger than a large orange.
)
 But it is difficult to tell a swamp dweller that the strange, fast-moving
 light he saw in the sky was swamp gas; and it is just as difficult to tell
 a farmer that a bright UFO in the sky is the same ball lightning that he
 has seen rolling along his fence wires in dry weather.  Thus accidental
 mis-identification of what might well be natural phenomena breeds mistrust
 and disbelief; it leads to the hasty conclusion that the truth is
 deliberatly not being told.  One last suggestion of interest has been made,
 that the UFO's were plasmoids from space...concentrated blobs of solar wind
 that succeeded in reaching the surface of the Earth.  Somehow this last
 suggestion does not seem to be very plausible; perhaps because it ignores
 such things as penetration of Earth's magnetic field.
 
 Alien Visitors
 
     The most stimulating theory for us is that the UFO's are material
 objects which are either "Manned" or remote-controlled by beings who are
 alien to this planet.  There is some evidence supporting this viewpoint.
 In addition to police Sergeant Lonnie Zamora's experience, let us consider
 the case of Barney and Betty Hill.  On a trip through New England they
 lost two hours on the night of 19 September 1961 without even realizing it.
 However, after that night both Barney and Betty began developing
 psychological problems which eventually grew sufficienty severe that they
 submitted themselves to psychiatric examination and treatment.  During the
 course of treatment hypnotherapy was used, and it yielded remarkably
 detailed and similar stories from both Barney and Betty.  Essentially
 they had been hypnotically kidnapped, taken aboard a UFO, submitted to
 two-hour physicals, and released with posthypnotic suggestions to forget
 the entire incident.  The evidence is rather strong that this is what the
 Hills, even in their subconscious, believe happened to them.  And it is of
 particular importance that after the "posthypnotic block" was removed, both
 of the Hills ceased having their psychological problems.
 
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                                PAGE EIGHT
________________________________________________________________
 
     The Hill's description of the aliens was similar to descriptions
 provided in other cases, but this particular type of alien appears to be
 in the minority.  The most commonly described alien is about three and one-
 half feet tall, has a round head (helmet?), arms reaching to or below his
 knees, and is wearing a silvery space suit or coveralls.  Other aliens
 appear to be essentially the same as Earthmen, while still others have
 particularily wide (wrap around) eyes and mouths with very thin lips.  And
 there is a rare group reported as about four feet tall, weight of around
 35 pounds, and covered with thick hair or fur (clothing?).  Members of this
 last group are described as being extremely strong.  If such beings are
 visiting Earth, two questions arise: 1) why haven't there been any accidents
 which have revealed their presence, and 2) why haven't they attempted to
 contact us officially?  The answer to the first question may exist partially
 in Sergeant Lonnie Zamora's experience, and may exist partially in the
 Tunguska meteor discussed in Chapter XXIX.  In that chapter it was suggested
 that the Tonguska meteor was actually a comet which exploded in the
 atmosphere, the ices melted and the dust spread out.  Hence, no debris!
 However, it has also been suggested that the Tunguska meteor was actually
 an alien spacecraft that entered the atmosphere to rapidly, suffered
 mechanical failure, and lost its power supply and/or weapons in a nuclear
 explosion.  While that hypothesis may seem far fetched, sample of tree
 rings from around the world reveal that, immediately after the Tunguska
 meteor explosion, the level of radioactivity in the world rose sharply for
 a short period of time.  It is difficult to find a natural explanation for
 that increase in radioactivity, although the suggestion has been advanced
 that enough of the meteor's great kinetic energy was converted into heat
 (by atmospheric friction) that a fusion reaction occurred.  This still
 leaves us with no answer to the second question: why no contact?  That
 question is very easy to answer in several ways: 1) we may be the object
 of intensive sociological and psychological study.  In such studies you
 usually avoid disturbing the test subjects' environment; 2) you do not
 "contact" a colony of ants, and humans may seem that way to any aliens
 (variation: a zoo is fun to visit, but you don't "contact" the lizards);
 3) such contact may have already taken place secretly; and 4) such contact
 may have already taken place on a different plane of awareness and we are
 not yet sensitive to communications on such a plane.  These are just a few
 of the reasons.  You may add to the list as you desire.
 
 33.4 HUMAN FEAR AND HOSTILITY
 
     Besides the foregoing reasons, contacting humans is downright dangerous.
 Think about that for a moment!  On the microscopic level our bodies reject
 and fight (through production antibodies) any alien material; this process
 helps us fight off disease but it also sometimes results in allergic
 reactions to innocuous materials.  On the macroscopic (psychological and
 sociological) level we are antagonistic to beings that are "different".
 For proof of that, just watch how an odd child is treated by other children,
 or how a minority group is socially deprived, or how the Arabs feel about
 the Israelis (Chinese vs Japanese, Turks vs Greeks, etc.)  In case you are
 hesitant to extend that concept to the treatment of aliens let me point
 out that in very ancient times, possible extraterrestrials may have been
 treated as Gods but in the last two thousand years, the evidence is that
 any possible aliens have been ripped apart by mobs, shot and shot at,
 physically assaulted, and in general treated with fear and aggression.
 
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                                  PAGE NINE
________________________________________________________________
 
     In Ireland about 1,000 A.D., supposed airships were treated as "demon-
 ships."  In Lyons, France, "admitted" space travellers were killed.  More
 recently, on 24 July 1957 Russian anti-aircraft batteries on the Kouril
 Islands opened fire on UFO's.  Although all Soviet anti-aircraft batteries
 on the Islands were in action, no hits were made.  The UFO's were luminous
 and moved very fast.  We too have fired on UFO's.  About ten o'clock one
 morning, a radar site near a fighter base picked up a UFO doing 700 mph.
 The UFO then slowed to 100 mph, and two F-86's were scrambled to intercept.
 Eventually one F-86 closed on the UFO at about 3,000 feet altitude.  The
 UFO began to accelerate away but the pilot still managed to get within 500
 yards of the target for a short period of time.  It was definately saucer-
 shaped.  As the pilot pushed the F-86 at top speed, the UFO began to pull
 away.  When the range reached 1,000 yards, the pilot armed his guns and
 fired in an attempt to down the saucer.  He failed, and the UFO pulled away
 rapidly, vanishing in the distance.  This same basic situation may have
 happened on a more personal level.  On Sunday evening 21 August 1955, eight
 adults and three children were on the Sutton Farm (one-half mile from Kelly,
 Kentucky) when, according to them, one of the children saw a brightly
 glowing UFO settle behind the barn, out of sight from where he stood.
 Other witnesses on nearby farms also saw the object.  However, the Suttons
 dismissed it as a "shooting star," and did not investigate.  Approximately
 thirty minutes later (at 8 p.m.), the family dogs began barking so two of
 the men went to the back door and looked out.  Approximately 50 feet away
 and coming toward them was a creature wearing a glowing silvery suit.  It
 was about three and one-half feet tall with a large round head and very
 long arms.  It had large webbed hands which were equipped with claws.  The
 two Suttons grabbed a twelve guage shotgun and a 22 caliber pistol, and
 fired at close range.  They could hear the pellets and bullet ricochet as
 if off of metal.  The creature was knocked down, but jumped up and
 scrambled away.  The Suttons retreated into the house, turned off all
 inside lights, and turned on the porch-light.  At that moment, one of the
 women who was peeking out of the dining room window discovered that a
 creature with some sort of helmet and wide slit eyes was peeking back at
 her.  She screamed, the men rushed in and started shooting.  The creature
 was knocked backwards but again scrambled away without apparent harm.  More
 shooting occurred (a total of about 50 rounds) over the next 20 minutes and
 the creatures finally left (perhaps feeling unwelcome?)  After about a two
 hour wait (for safety), the Suttons left too.  By the time the police got
 there, the