Saturday, January 29, 2011

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE SECOND KIND, physiological effects part two

In the early years of modern UFOlogy [WWII to 1952], the phenomenon was almost entirely manifested as an analog of military technology [low-aspect planes or missiles, ghost rockets, fireballs]. They flew with our planes, and generally mocked them. But they rarely came close. In 1954 all manner of close-up weirdness broke out. And it WAS close. Odd critters, some of them technological looking, some of them boasting a more folk entity appearance, swarmed all over France and Italy, and spilled over to northern South America. When they had effects on we humans, it was either unsurprising [like eye irritation from a bright light] or it was the main intriguing effect of the CE2p pile to come: paralysis. 1954 "went away"and took its weirdness with it for the most part, and we were back to the aerial flying machines again. But then the phenomenon decided to make a sharp incision [time-wise] with another burst of close encounters. Along came the narrow time-blade of Oct/Nov 1957 and the vehicle effects. Within that period were another set of close encounters less featured by the media and even our own history: the CE2p "sunburn" archons. The following log pages for my CE2p "collection" run us up to that era.
Cases #16-20 in the log are from 1956. There are several things of interest. Lakewood CA is a rare thing in UFOlogy with completely independent witnesses, and thereby solid UFOlogy. But it's CE2p element is of the most mundane sort---temporary blindness due to the brightness of the source. The object was a red roundish thing with "feelers" hanging down from its edge. People in different locations saw it. There is the controversial Night Watchman case, wherein he attempted to get compensation for injury by the craft [and I think did]. At Clackamas OR two policemen saw a bright light which blinded one of them. My favorite is the Gjersonjoen Denmark encounter wherein we have a "stalker" which blocks the road. Witnesses feel "prickling" on faces and subsequently cannot stomach food. The event seems to have both stopped a watch and altered the paint color of the car.
Cases #21-25 bring us to the beginning of 1957. I cannot with intellectual honesty claim any great cases here. Four of the five cases are "animal effects" cases, mostly affecting dogs. I must mention, though, that two of these five come from someone whom I view as a special person. This is L.Taylor Hansen. She [this is a lady despite what some people have thought] was a rather brilliant writer of science columns, and columns about esoteric archaeological knowledge for AMAZING STORIES magazine in the thirties and forties. Her stuff is, to me, very good and challenging. She, in the mid-fifties, became interested in the UFO phenomenon, particularly through some incidents that she herself or relatives or friends had witnessed. Because my experience of her writing gives me confidence in her as an honest scholar/researcher I trust the three cases she published---two of which had CE2p elements and are noted here. But, despite being biased by her lovely mind, I cannot say that any of these five CE2ps is worth shouting about.
Cases #26-30 [the last for today] bring us up to the "Great CE2em Incision" of [mainly] early November 1957. More of this will come with the next page entry whenever I get it up. This set of five has some mind-bogglers and one great case. Milford PA is a CE3 old-style, with an occupant in a transparent dome. I have it in my CE2p file for the exact opposite reason that things should be there. Although the 20-foot diameter, whirring along as it went, came very close to the farm's chicken coop, the poultry showed NO RESPONSE to the thing at all. This was viewed by the witness as utterly impossible. We have another "stalker" case causing eye irritation, which my hunch is a good one; and another "paralysis" case, which is also probably quite stronger than the "3" that my file can give it.

The great case is the James Stokes case of Orogrande NM happening in the wake of Levelland. This is a vehicle-stop and a "sunburn". In fact it is probably the Case which inspired the Roy Neary sunburn in Spielberg's movie. But the greatness of the case comes from its smooth sequence of reporting, witnessing-of-Stokes' "burn", and "testing/quizzing" by the military. In fact, I've rarely been so impressed as to how this story fits together [from the seeing of Stokes by the Lorenzens, the local newswriter, the base personnel, the AF investigator who tries to write him off, etc right down the line]. I give Orogrande a "5" but am tempted to a "6".

Far wilder and more difficult to grasp is the famous Fort Itaipu case from Brazil. A spectacular blasting of the Fort with heat waves causing hospitalizable burns to the guards and heavy electromagnetic effects to base equipment. This case makes almost all the books writing about the wild and wooly side of UFOlogy. I grudgingly go along with its hyped image, just due to the weight of writers before me [most of whom would give it higher rates than my "4".] Why do I hesitate on this one??

My view of Brazilian UFOlogy is that it had a terrifically good and interesting early period, due to the combination of the three great researchers [Simoes, Faria, &Perriera] plus the interest of a few key personnel in the Brazilian Air Force. We lucked out then, and the foundationstone cases of Isla Trindade and Gravatai AFB were revealed. At the latter stages of that period, a young MD met the big three and began his legendary UFO career---Olavo Fontes. The big three always wondered about Fontes [he seemed a bit "enthusiastic" for their harder analytical tastes], but they liked him personally.

After these early "solid" UFOlogical years, the big three got out of the game, leaving Brazil to Fontes and much worse, like fiction-writing newsmen and the standards-less Walter Buhler. From that point forward, I have really no way of assessing the goodness of anything which came out of that area of the world. MANY times cases have been shown to have been just made up there, or heavily embellished. Without better confidence in the investigators and the sources, I can't rate anything very highly. Ft.Itaipu is just on the cusp of my failed confidence---so I give it some nervous benefit of the doubt.

Until we meet again....may all your encounters be pleasant ones.

2 comments:

  1. "My view of Brazilian UFOlogy is that it had a terrifically good and interesting early period"

    How about the Antonio Villa Boas case that happened at early period of Brazil UFOLOGY ? There's pretty complete reference on AVB case in FSR including interviews.

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    1. I do not find the AVB case to be researched in a way which gives me similar confidence as the research done on the Hills case, for instance. If I can not personally gain the same level of confidence in the credibility area, then I {whether the case is solidly real or not to some people's knowledge] cannot rate it very high. This is the problem that I have with many worldwide cases where I have no good means of assessing credibility.

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