History of Mystery - UfO part 6

The Lead Masks case part 2

From skeptic to Believer

Allen Hynek (left) and Jacques Vallee

What I didn’t know back then was Jacques Vallee and J Allen Hynek, complete skeptics to begin with, both underwent a complete turnaround in their beliefs from doubter to believers after a very prolonged period of thorough and scientific study. Not only that, but Vallee in particular was of the opinion this phenomenon is not really extraterrestrial in nature as so many claim, and these sightings and experiences are not really visitors  from a Galaxy far far away . . .

but in fact much closer to home. . .

Heres Jacques Vallee again . . .
ln my earlier works, most notably in “Dimensions”, I have enumerated the difficulties of the extraterrestrial theory and the concerns raised by the abduction reports. I will not repeat the details  here. Careful analysis of the reports shows that there are many more landings and "close encounters" than would be required for a survey of our planet. The reported interaction with the occupants of the objects is absurd and their overtly "scientific" experiments are crude to the point of being grotesque. The "medical examination" to which abductees are said to be subjected, often accompanied by sadistic sexual manipulation, is reminiscent of the medieval tales of encounters with demons. 

Lets see how this concept ties in the the reports. . .

1966 - Rio de Janeiro

The bodies of two men are found on a hill outside Rio. 

The City of Campos - over 200 km from Rio 

A boy named Jorge da Costa Alves (who was 18 at that time) was flying a kite at the Morro do Vintém (Vintém Hill), situated in the relatively wealthy Rio de Janeiro suburb of Niterói. I when he stumbled across two dead men and immediately alerted the authorities.
As the investigation began, the case became more and more bizarre Police were summoned and found the two men, Manoel Pereira da Cruz (32) and Miguel José Viana (34), who were electronics repairmen in Campos dos Goytacazes, which is about 200 kilometres away. Both men lived in the town of Campos where they were well known and respected citizens.

The bodies were next to each other, slightly covered by grass, they were both wearing business suits and raincoats, with a package containing an empty water bottle and two small towels. But the oddest thing of all is that they were wearing lead masks. There was no clue what the lead masks were, or what the cause of death might have been.

The first angle of investigation was to see if they had been murdered, but this was ruled out.

Reconstruction of Events

After an investigation, the detectives reconstructed a plausible narrative of the last days of both men.

On August 17, they left their city, Campos dos Goytacazes, stating that they intended to buy some materials for use at their work. They took a bus and arrived in Niterói at 14:30. 

The men took a bus to Rio and had a reasonable amount of money on them (about the equivalent of $1000) apparently enough to buy a used car. The bodies were found with very little money on them, which placed some suspicion on the policeman who found them.

They had also bought the raincoats on that day since they had the receipts and it was raining they also had a  receipt for a bottle of water, which could be later returned for the deposit

The waitress who served them on the bar stated that Miguel seemed very nervous and looked at his watch frequently. From the bar, they went directly to the place where they were later found dead.

No obvious injuries were discovered at autopsy. The coroner Astor de Melo concluded that death was by natural causes (cardiac arrest) and closed the file. No trace of poison was found in the bowels (although in another report it was stated that the bodies had decomposed too far for this to be verified.)Apparently a second autopsy was conducted which also revealed nothing. 

Jacques Vallee visits the site

In his book “confrontations” Valle writes . . .”everything I knew about the case had come to me secondhand through the U FO rumour mill or through the media, a notoriously unreliable source in Latin America.

 The only way to learn more about the precise circumstances of the event was to fly to Rio and climb that hill. 

With me were my wife, janine, and a small party of investigators : Saulo Soares de Souza, a detective from Rio police headquarters who specializes in long-term follow-up of unsolved cases; Mario Dias, a journalist; Alberto Dirma, a press photographer; a local French teacher who was kind enough to serve as my interpreter; and the first adult who had seen the bodies that August day in 1 966, when a group of boys came running to his house. 

He had accompanied them to the police station at the foot of the hill, where they described their grisly find to the officer in charge, Oscar Nunes. 

The Lead Masks

The masks appeared to be a ‘homemade’ cover used for possibly for protection from radiation. 

But in an article from “Skeptoid's” Brian Dunning says the following  

“English and Brazilian blogs both describe these eye shields as being similar to what's used to protect against radiation.

Ummm.... no. They're not. I dug to find as many different radiation shields and masks as I could to see if there was anything like these lead eye shields. Masks for working in high radiation environments cover your whole head or face, and incorporate goggles so you can see what you're doing. These were the opposite; leaving the entire head and face unprotected, but blocking and blinding the eyes. There is no environment in which such shields would be useful.”

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4398

Police found a small notebook stating: "16:30 estar no local determinado. 18:30 ingerir cápsulas, após efeito proteger metais aguardar sinal máscara", which translates to "16:30 be at the agreed place. 18:30 swallow capsules, after effect protect metals wait for sign mask [or 'mask sign’]".

Were the two men expecting to be contacted by a UFO? Or were they, more prosaically, taking part in a spiritualist experiment that went wrong? 

Occult Society 

Police found similar masks in Miguuel Jose Viana’s home along with remnants of the lead that had been used. Also found was a book called “Scientific Spiritualism”. Passages had been underlined with regarding spirits, intense luminosity and masks. Miguel’s sister was interrogated, she mentioned he spoke of a “secrete mission”

The widow of Manuel Pereira da Cruz told of a “spiritist group” both men were members of, an occult society of unknown objectives. 

A civilian pilot, Elcio Correa da Silva, was also a member of this group. He described a number of “experiments’ that were conducted one of them on the beach at Atafona in which a huge blast occurred. This was two months before the tragedy in Niteroi.

A priest and parapsychology professor said that they could have been making an experiment to see to the "other world", some people apparently say that there is a very strong light for which protection is needed, and that people who make that experiment take some kind of drug before.

The Note found on the Bodies with the bizarre instructions 

Calling Mars

Gomes said the three of them were interested in trying to contact Mars, and that the explosion had been the unfortunate failure of some device they'd built in pursuit of their spiritualist interests. Compounding this was a book found in Miguel's home workshop, where police found the tools and scrap used to cut the lead masks, with passages highlighted pertaining to "intense luminosity" related to spirits. Someone expecting to be exposed to "intense luminosity" might well choose to protect his eyes with lead shields.

Apparently, four years before, a television technician died in the same place in similar circumstances; no signs of violence, no other objects and a lead mask. He was trying to catch a "television signal" without any electronics and he died after taking a round pill.

UfO presence

Skeptoid mentions an article by Charles Bowen who did as thorough an investigation as possible way back in 1967. He found articles reporting a round orange coloured UfO hovering near Vintém Hill on the night that the men went up there.

Jacques Vallée mentions in his book “confrontations” that after the initial newspaper report the police were ‘deluged with calls’ from the public in the Niteroi area.

He reports on a caller, a ‘society matron’ called Gracinda Barbosa Coutinho de Souza. She reported she was driving with three of her children when her daughter told her to look up at a large oval orange coloured object, “sending out rays in all directions” hovering over Vintem Hill. She stopped the car and observed the object as it rose and fell vertically for a few minutes, giving off a distinctive “blue ray”. She told her husband when she arrived home, he drove back to the vicinity but didn’t see anything. 

This account was confirmed by a large number of witnesses who called the Police independently and described a similar object. All of these reports placed the mysterious object at the same time in the vicinity of the  two dead victims. 

Vallee reports: March 16, 1966, at 9: 15P.M., two months before the tragedy. A luminous object, elliptical in shape, was seen al an altitude of 100 feet. The witness, a Fifty-four-year­ old manager with an electronics firm trained as an industrial technician. He drew a sketch of a series of what he called "effervescent" spheres that he observed with his wife, his daughter, and his future son-in-law, an official with the Bank of Brazil. The object flew over the Morro da Boa Viagem, in Niteroi. 

Possible theories

Murder

Theories abound as to why these men died that fateful day on Vintem hill.  One was that the two men were lured to the location by an unknown third party and murdered.  Proponents of this idea point to the note, claiming the spelling and grammatical errors were due to the words being dictated by someone else, possibly in an attempt to take advantage of these men’s gullibility in order to rob them.  Acceptance of this scenario requires several assumptions, however, the main clue was the missing money, stolen from the men after unwittingly ingesting poison pills.

Gay suicide Pact

Another popular theory is they were homosexuals who had made a suicide pact and wanted to go out with a misleading story.

Time travel

Or perhaps they were attempting to put to the test a scientific test to do with time travel or worm holes.

UfO Rendevous

The UfO connection to the men is not clearly determined but there certainly seems to be a strong link between these events. The most persistent theory was they were attempting to make contact with extraterrestrial visitors.  The victims were both said to be very intrigued by the mysteries of flying saucers, researching them extensively.  

Unanswered questions

But then why take the capsules and what were the two towels for? There is no evidence the men even took the capsules since the note is the only reference to them. The organs of the men were too decomposed for a definitive report on the contents of their stomaches.

we are not even sure if the notes refer to that day, though at least that seems likely. “Protect the metals” may refer to some metals they were meeting to get rid of. “Wait for mask signal” obviously means they were waiting for someone to tell them to put on their masks.

Even years later, grass refused to grow at the location where the bodies were discovered giving rise to many sinister theories. Apparently the area was checked for radiation, but nothing was found. In the case of decomposing bodies investigators who work the scene sprinkle formalin around the area to hide the smell, and that this is what could have contaminated the soil.  

References:

Bowen, C. "The Mystery of the Morro do Vintem: How Did the Men with the Lead Masks Die?" Flying Saucer Review. 1 Mar. 1967, Volume 13, Number 2: 11-14.

DIMENSIONS: A Casebook of Alien Contact (Alien Contact Trilogy 1)Jacques Vallee

CONFRONTATIONS: A Scientist's Search for Alien Contact (Alien Contact Trilogy Book 2) by Jacques Vallee 

REVELATIONS: Alien Contact and Human Deception (Alien Contact Trilogy Book 3)Jacques Vallee 

Dunning, B. "Solving the Lead Masks of Vintem Hill." Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, Inc., 21 Jan 2014. Web. 19 Jul 2015.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_Masks_Case

Where to from here?

One more quote from Jacques Vallee:

Like many of my colleagues, I have become convinced that the U.S. government, as well in other governments, was very much involved in the UFO phenomenon. This involvement is not limited to the kind of data collection that is the normal responsibility of intelligence agencies. It extends to the close monitoring of the UFO organisations themselves and, in some cases, to the staging of false sightings and the occasional leaking of false documents. It is not my business to interfere with such activities. The belief in extraterrestrials, like any other strong belief, is an attractive vehicle for some mind control and psychological warfare activities

  That’s some pretty heavy statements to make and to be sure what ever information is available out there we are gonna check it out piece by piece 

follow the rabbit hole Alice. . . 

History of Mystery - UfO part 5

The Lead Masks Mystery: part 1.

 Alice and the matrix

ALICE was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do . . .when suddenly a white rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural)

Humankind seems in general to be in a trance state. 

I often think back to years past when I too was living in this state, you are aware of whats around you and there are many aspects of life that fill your thoughts and actions but you are so insulated in your own world that a much broader reality is not accessible. The media is very much a part of encouraging this in that we as humans are fed daily information that re-inforces this mindset.

“Welcome to The desert of the Real World" 

This statement made by Morpheus in the Matrix was originally coined by French Philosopher Jean Baudrillard which is clearly referenced in the movie “the matrix”. . . in an early scene Neo stashes his illegal software inside a hollowed-out copy of a book by Jean Baudrillard entitled Simulacra and Simulation published in 1981. Watch it Here 

Baudrillard argues that late-twentieth-century consumer culture is a world in which simulations or imitations of reality have become more real than reality itself, a condition he describes as the “hyper-real.” 

My summary

• The Matrix film is a little misleading in that it takes this idea rather literally which is understandable in making a popular film Baudrillard's concept is a little bit tricky to grasp. We have to understand this concept is to do with us being rooted in a reality that is not merely  simulated in our minds but in fact has become changed, over time, by perceptions that are bogged down by the limitations of language and the media.

• Your perception of Reality compared to mine is infinity variable, (one can see references to existentialism here . . . )But this simulacrum idea is that there is an "architect"  that creates reality not at all as it is, but a mental construct that exists only in our consciousness. One has to question the motives of this "Prime mover" or "instigator" and what their, (no doubt,) nefarious goal is. Who controls information? or does it simply flow organically and fluidly in an unrestrained and natural manner? 

• Well no it certainly doesn't . . .

• The ideas and views that are so confidently asserted by many are not at all based on their first hand experience but rather a mental construct that can be created or 'projected' into our minds by second hand means such as television and other forms or media. 

• Our education system is a more subtle means of creating simulacrum, we as children are 'plain slates' upon which the system (architect) can create a view of reality that covers all aspects of our lives. We don't have to go beyond the walls of the classroom to develop a solid view of truth and reality that is very powerful and impregnable, even though we have never been able to check these ideas or question them. 

• This is not to say we are brains in a vat in a literal sense but rather our collective consciousness is controlled by certain interpretations of reality that we have no possibility of proving by empirical means and we simply accept them as they are fed to us. 

We will return to this but lets get back to our case at hand 

This Story about the Lead masks case had a peculiar affect on me personally and it seemed to create a response in me that I feel was instrumental in my own "wake up Neo" experience

This happened around the early 1990's on a day much like any other day. . . 

 What happened to me was a casual picking up and reading of a very nondescript book whilst waiting in the reception room for a doctor or dentist,  cant remember which. 

http://www.ronankavanagh.ie/blog/waiting-room-for-improvement/

The book i picked up was “confrontations” by Jacques Vallee. I had no clue what it was about or who Jacques Vallee was and bored i began reading the prologue in which he describes his journey to Rio in order to investigate a bizarre story involving the mysterious death of two men found on a hillside who were found with lead masks on their bodies.
Well its a book on UfO's I guessed correctly. . .

Now I had naturally heard of the UfO phenomena and I had seen Spielberg’s  “Close Encounters of the third Kind” but beyond these I had heard little and was vaguely curious but not particularly interested or involved. 

Upon reading this book my eye fell upon a particular section of the tale that read .

 . . Also interrogated was Manuel Pereira da Cruz's widow. Her testimony indicated that the two victims were members of a "spiritualist" group, an occult society. It was rumoured that the group attempted to communicate with other planets. 

. . . A lengthy discussion we had at the home of Professor Silvio Lago, a medical doctor who had been called by the court as an expert witness on parapsychology, threw some light on the spiritualist aspects. Ac­ cording to Professor Lago, the victims may have been engaged in a series of seances during which a paranormal entity was supposed to manifest itself.

 I immediately made a connection between the UfO phenomena and the Occult.This was not simply because it was part of this particular tale, but rather as if a light went on in my head and I realised there was a connection to the phenomena as a whole. By “Occult” I mean people who attempt to connect with the spirit world using various methods from religious rituals trances and seances, astro travel and various psychedelic drugs. 

This is a kind of awakening experience form me and triggered a host of strange experiences which seem very mundane in the telling but in fact could be a struggle to get out of a kind of a stupor into something broader and more encompassing, there begins a here a tale that linked me with so many interesting people and a shared journey that doesn't always run parallel but has a recognisable link. I have meddled on and off with this story for over 20 years. Very often against the good advice of my peers. . . 

But that initial realisation has become more and more of a conviction, over time and I keep being drawn back into the study of this kind . . .in spite of myself.

Perception and Awareness 

This is still introductory, there is so much more to be said in this regard but there is an angle that I want to narrow the focus onto.

Firstly if we understand the difference between perception and awareness.
 I can illustrate this . . . when we look around ourselves at any given time we are aware of what is going on around us only at a certain level. 

Think of your age, your sex and what are your chief concerns. If a man went to the Mall with his wife and teenage daughter and pre-teen son. If someone asked them to write down everything they noticed, keep in mind they are a family and live together, same race background etc. . .

. . . They would all have noticed vey different things and they would probably would have noticed totally different things. This demonstrates the effect of our own mindset that sees the world quite differently from person to person. 

TEST YOUR PERCEPTION

Another example: When my wife was pregnant for the first time, I was astonished to see just how many pregnant woman  there were all around us, it was as if there was nothing other than pregnant women. 

I even began to think that maybe this must be a very fertile time in history in our city. 

Well obviously my awareness had become heightened by my own experience, even as I write this today  I think to myself how many pregnant women am I aware of? Well. . .I do remember a few here and there. . . but not anything like when I think back to that time. 

I am sure there are any number of examples in which many people can say they had a similar experience/s.
This is beautifully demonstrated by Derren Brown using subliminal suggestions to manipulate people's choices i his TV series "Trick of the Mind"

DERREN BROWN - Perception without awareness.

The Advert for his TV show says this "Derren Brown demonstrates his unique powers of psychological mentalism, hypnotism, misdirection and showmanship."

Perception and Awareness
It even says Toy Story- How to Control a nation. . . This program is just for fun but surely it could be the tip of a more sinister iceberg? 

We are Fed - not just Information but also our responses  

Isn’t this how we are made aware of so many aspects of our perception of reality? Just how many elements of reality are we only aware off through third party reports such as books Newspapers and television? We accept these things as truth without questioning them simply on the basis of what fits in with our society.

We would simply believe just about anything we are fed through the mass media. The passive  acceptance of most people we encounter is perhaps due to our need for peace and happiness. It is far more important to us to go with the flow than to go against the grain and questioning widely accepted ideas. 

Isn’t it true that people can and do believe quite absurd ideas when they are in the company of a large enough community that reinforce these ideas no matter what they may be? I am thinking of the mentality of Nazi Germany and how the masses simply went with the flow rather than object to the madness they were being fed.

Of course the media in 1940 was not as sophisticated as it is today, but nevertheless what was available was used to manipulate the thinking of the German people to brilliant effect.

What about today? I wonder how many people remember a movie called “Wag the Dog” in which the media is shameless manipulated in order to get the president re-elected. when robert de Niro's character is told there is no war in Albania he simply quips "of course there's a war I just saw it on TV"  Wag The Dog

One can begin to see the problem here, how do I explain an experience or activity to someone who  has ever experienced it? 

Is common practice to listen to debunkers trying to explain away UfO experiences by trying to find a “fit” for them in our own limited sphere of understanding. 

Brings to mind the “swamp gas” explanations and the “weather balloon” stories one can sense the frustration and anger in the witnesses when having to deal with these unimaginative debunkers

Jacques Vallee: The scientific community is far behind the times, fighting rear­ guard skirmishes in the name of Rationalism. Academic scholars periodically rally behind some luminary who has just "discovered" the final, rational explanation, and periodically the explanation has to be withdrawn under public ridicule. Flying saucers have been "explained scientifically" as plasma discharges, swamp gas, status inconsistency, cognitive dissonance, refraction effects, and temporal lobe epilepsy. But they keep right on flying, under the noses of the explainers. 

But getting back to our UfO Phenomenon 

Now you can shift this perception thing to a whole new level. This may be a small clue that can help explain what went wrong with the guys in the Led Masks

History of Mystery - UfO part 4

Westall UFO 1966 mass sighting 

The Report in the Dandenon Journal 

• In Australia way back in 1966 apparently a UFO appeared in full view of 200 school children and teachers at Westall School in Clayton Melbourne. The chemistry teacher Barbara Robbins did in fact take photographs but both her camera as well as the film was later inexplicably confiscated. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?

• It happened almost 50 years ago since the event took place an amateur investigator Shane Ryan shot a video in 2005 in which he interviewed about 30 of the original witnesses  in an attempt to find some tangible evidence for the siting. 

Eye Witness Report

At approximately 11.00 am on Wednesday, 6 April 1966, a class of students and a teacher from Westall High School were outside on the main oval when an object, described as being a grey saucer shaped craft like a bell shape, was seen. Andrew Greenwood, a science teacher at the high school, told The Dandenong Journal at the time that he saw a silvery-green disc. 

• There were reports from some witnesses that the largest craft flew over and along some large Electricity Pylons near the school before landing. 
• Claude Miller was on yard duty that day he tells that the children arrived in the school yard just in time to see the craft lift off and was about 50 feet in the air, Andrew Greenwood came up to Claude him and asked him if he had “seen it”. The craft then set down further ahead and then it was said some small planes came in the area and the craft lifted straight up and took off at a breathtaking speed. It went across to an area called “the Grange” a smaller wooded area  a short distance away  behind the School. The students all took off and ran after it towards this wooded area

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vahJIDsOvp4

This is taken from a brilliant video made by illustrator Lee Whitmore 

http://www.leewhitmore.com.au/westall.php

• It was further reported that there were two other smaller craft of similar design that had hovered over ( but not landed on and only hovered above ) the dirt roadway at the front of the school. 
• One student a girl called Tanya had ran to the craft and had touched it apparently, she was found passed out, she was taken to Hospital and in another strange twist she never came back to School , her parents moved out from their home and they were never seen by anybody in the area again. Students rang up newspapers and TV and reporters were dispatched. The Police were called as well as the local RAAF base.

A Drawing made of the strange craft from a witness

• The incident was reported on television news that night and in the local newspapers. But despite the evidence, that day at Westall High School, the headmaster called a special assembly. He told students and staff that they had not seen a flying saucer – in fact, they hadn’t seen anything at all. And they were not to talk about it to anybody.
• Afraid of being ridiculed or punished, many witnesses kept the secret of that day. Some are still angry about not being believed. Others say the incident has affected their lives and continues to haunt them today.

Shane Ryan

In 2010, researcher Shane Ryan presented his documentary - Westall '66 - about his investigation of the incident, based on exhaustive research over a five year period. 

Through a public appeal, Ryan was able to uncover many previously unknown witnesses to the event and many from the surrounding area beyond the school grounds. In an interview given to the The Age in 2010, Ryan expressed his certainty that all those witnesses had seen... something:

• Forty-four years after the event, Shane Ryan inspired by a deep sense of injustice at how the students were treated, tracking down former students and staff and searching for the authorities that presided over the day.
• Canberra academic Shane Ryan , who organised a 40th anniversary reunion for eyewitnesses in 2006, has claimed GTV 9 news footage was pulled after Federal Government intervention.
• On his documentary he describes how he was Told GTV channel 9 television ran a report and interviewed a student. But when he went to the station to ask for the tape, it had mysteriously disappeared.
• Channel Nine Journalist, who told him a Government minister had requested that owner, Sir Frank Packer, based in Sydney, remove the footage from the news archives.

Missing Film

• Channel Nine didn’t confirm or deny the story. An archivist at the Melbourne station said the film could not be found for a story on the April reunion. She said it could have been lost through the vagaries of an old system of cataloguing or deliberately removed. The film was filed under a card system, and keyword searches such as “UFO” were unsuccessful. She said the Sydney station could not find the footage either.
• Mr. Ryan said he’d searched all publicity accessible records on UFOs at the National Archives, but there was no mention of the Westall High School incident.

• He said he was pursuing the mystery because of the passion of the eyewitnesses to know what had happened. “If it was an official secret then surely it can be spoken about now.A Department of Defence spokesman said the air force was responsible for responding to reports of “unusual aerial sightings” at the time, “the air force has been unable to access any information relating to this incident within the timeframe available.”

• Here is a case with multiple witnesses, military involvement and cover up (No reports have ever been released) and physical evidence there is no film or even a photograph but the sheer number of witnesses is cause for some credibility.
• Article from: ”http://thearrowsoftruth.com/tag/shane-ryan/

Excerpt from original report 

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Westallhighschoolufo/conversations/topics/30

An account by one of the students appeared in the school 
magazine, "The Clayton Calendar", which was produced by pupils of 
grade 6C-5C: 

"I was in class when the disturbance occurred outside. I didn't 

take any notice and when the bell went for morning recess my classmates and I went to our lockers and then walked out into the yard. we noticed that all the girls who were doing Physical Education 

were gathered right down near the end of our playing field. Suddenly 

the school came alive with excitement and everyone began running down towards where the girls were. I was among the surging mob. I had seen something that looked very unusual in the sky. 

"As I looked up I saw a dazzling, silvery object flying around 

some pine trees which grew on a ridge about a quarter of a mile 

directly behind the school. It then flew across some open paddocks 

also behind the school and returned to the pines. On the other side 

of the ridge there is a small field. The thing hovered over the pines 

and descended behind them and must have been directly over the field. 

I then lost sight of it because of the pines. 

"As the thing was out of sight I began to notice many private 

aircraft mainly Cessna, flying towards the pines. It was then, the 

thing reappeared and rose to the level of the approaching aircraft. 

This enabled me to get a rough idea of its size. It was a silvery 

object as long as one of the Cessnas, but very thin. 

"As the aircraft approached the thing tilted on about a 45 degree 

angle and started to move into the distance, gradually gaining height. 

The planes increased their speed and began to follow it, but the 

object streaked away leaving the planes far, far behind. The planes 

turned back, but we all stood hoping it would return but it didn't, so 

we all went into school, fifteen minutes late. 

"After school two friends and I went to the field where the 

object had descended. In a few minutes we were crawling under a 

barb-wire fence which surrounded the field at a height of about four 

feet. We waded through the waist-high grass making for a gap in it. 

Suddenly we were there. We found ourselves standing in a spot where the grass had been utterly crushed against the earth. It was an area of about 25-30 feet in diameter. Cows could not have done it because the fence was barbed, and also cows would have left a track through the grass. There was no track. The object had descended over the field; could it have done this? It all leads back to the same question. What was the object? Some people say it was a weather balloon, but do weather balloons go up and down quickly, crush grass and fly across the skies faster than reasonably speedy aircraft? Otherwise, your guess is as good as mine." 

The proceeding statement by a male student at Westall High school was 

released by the science teacher, Mr. Andrew Greenwood. Mr. Greenwood said of the student, "I taught him some years ago and found him intelligent and well balanced, and certainly not given to making irresponsible statements." 

Andrew Greenwood

The teacher who saw the craft, who was a science teacher at the time, Andrew Greenwood, says that two Air Force officers visited him at home and threatened him with destruction of his reputation and career if he continued to talk about what he had seen. In the word of Shane Ryan, who spent four years looking into the incident:

“He didn’t put any spin on it, he didn’t give nay particular interpretation, he wasn’t saying what the objects were because he didn’t know.”

Witness Reports Today

Joy Clarke, now 60, 
 For years and years we were made fun of. You got told: ‘How crazy were you? What drugs were you on?’ For God’s sake, I was 12 and a half and at school. I wasn’t dropping LSD.

A History of Mystery - UfO part 3

A most disturbing event in Zimbabwe 1994

This section is for those who say there are never any UFO stories that take place in South Africa where we live. 

This next event is well known to UfO enthusiasts but certainly not widely known outside of enthusiast reports

The story has remained as mysterious and unexplained as it was reported back in 1994 when it happened.

• This is our second case involving multiple witnesses, again there is not much more that the testimony of 62 kids who witnessed a bizarre encounter whilst they were outside in the playground of Ariel School in Ruwa Zimbabwe.
• The credibility of the  Story is based on the consistency as well as similarity of the accounts given by the children.
• However, there were no adults at the School to corroborate the story which leads others to say perhaps it was a prank . 
• But then again we must firstly ask if Adults are better at telling the truth than children, and are 62 Kids all capable of inventing a lie that not one of them at any stage admitted to.
• There was no physical evidence left of any kind and no photographs or records made. 
• But then again when some of the children were located 20 years later they still did not change their story and all agree that they saw something inexplicable in conventional terms.  

• The only adult near the playground was a mom working in the tuck shop who was reluctant leave the shop unattended even when the kids ran to her screaming and crying. The teachers apparently were incredulous and they carried on classes, but the children were do unnerved by the event they told their parents who began one after the other to contact the School asking what had happened. 
• It seems someone new a local journalist who specialised in the paranormal and Cynthia Hind was contacted.She then arrived at the School the next day armed with camera to find out what had happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imBubaiUzHQ&index=3&list=PLXvVJ6vqlYrTzJ2rO_f9xOorT_a217PNX

Cynthia Hind 

• These events took place were reported by Cynthia Hind.
• Who is Cynthia Hind?
• Born in Namaqualand in South Africa 
• After living in England and having her family she emigrated to Zimbabwe in 1957. She began free-lance writing and during this period her interest was aroused in UfO’s

So in 1974 she Joined MUFON

• Stands for the “Mutual UfO network, this was originally established in 1969 to investigate the validity of UfO reports. 
• The stated mission of MUFON is the study of UFOs for the benefit of humanity through investigations, research and education. The members who investigate claims are trained in how to interview witnesses, perform research, and how to draw conclusions from the evidence.Although investigators are not paid, they must pass both an exam based on a 265-page manual, and a background check.
• The groups intention is to furnish data that can separate explainable cases which occur because of a natural phenomena or whether it is man made such as a helicopter, military flare or stealth fighter etc. 

Field Investigator

• Cynthia became a field investigator as well as the representative for MUFON in Zimbabwe.
• she was the featured evening speaker at the MUFON 1981 UFO Symposium held at M.I.T. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her paper was titled "African Encounters: Case Investigations". (Dr. J. Allen Hynek was the keynote speaker). She was also appointed Continental Coordinator for Africa in 1981, a position she faithfully held in MUFON's global organization until her death in 2000 - http://www.noufors.com/Cynthia_Hind.htm
• To view all 22 UFO Afrinews issues, which Cynthia Hind published from 1988 to 2000, go to: 

http://www.ufoafrinews.com/resources.html

John Mack

John Mack

• The Report she made was conducted with John Mack
• John Edward Mack M.D. (October 4, 1929 – September 27, 2004) was an American psychiatrist, writer, and professor at Harvard Medical School. He was a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, and a leading authority on the spiritual or transformational effects of alleged alien abduction experiences (wikipedia)
• In the 1990’s Mack began psychological study of people who had an alien abduction experience.
• He is the highest ranking Scholar in the world to have taken a serious interest in the UfO phenomena
• This was regarded with much suspicion and even hostility from his fellow faculty members.
• He subsequently became the subject of an investigation by the Dean of Harvard Medical School in which he was accused of “unprofessional Scholarship” on a subject that did “not merit the time and expense of a reputable university”. 
• The biased and prejudicial enquiry was basically exposed when it inadvertently became leaked to the public, the academic community objected to the unprofessional “investigation of a tenured professor who was not suspected of ethics violations or professional misconduct. Concluding the fourteen-month investigation, Harvard then issued a statement stating that the Dean had "reaffirmed Dr. Mack's academic freedom to study what he wishes and to state his opinions without impediment," concluding "Dr. Mack remains a member in good standing of the Harvard Faculty of Medicine.”
• John Mack was struck down and killed by a drunken driver in 2004

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw4DdRPHuxM&list=PLXvVJ6vqlYrTzJ2rO_f9xOorT_a217PNX&index=4

Hind’s article “UFO flap in Zimbabwe: Case No 95”:

“Wednesday, 14th September, 1994, was an exciting night for Southern Africa. Round about 20:50 to 21:05 hours, a pyrotechnic display of some magnificence appeared in the almost clear night skies of this part of the continent.”

Astronomers across the region soon reported that the “pyrotechnic display”, seen as far afield as Zambia and Botswana, had been a meteor shower. Hind, though, recorded receiving dozens of reports of a capsule-like fireball, trailing fire and flanked by two smaller capsules.

She also received several reports of alien sightings around the same time: a young boy and his mother reported a daylight sighting; a trucker who had seen strange beings on the road at night. And then, on September 16, Hind received the report from Ariel School, which she records as Case 96, and describes as “one of the most exciting UFO stories of this or any year”.

initial report by Cynthia Hind in the UFO AFRINEWS, 1994: 

"On Friday 16th September, at approximately 10:15, 62 children from Ariel School, a private primary school in Ruwa (about 20 km from Harare) were in their playing field for the mid-morning break. Suddenly, they saw three silver balls in the sky over the school. These disappeared with a flash of light and then reappeared elsewhere. 

This happened three times and then they started to move down towards the school with one of them landing (or hovering) over a section of rough ground made up of trees, thorn bushes, and some brown-grey cut grass with bamboo shoots sticking up out of the ground. 

The children are not allowed in this area although it is adjacent to their playing field and is not fenced off, because of snakes, spiders and perhaps other harmful creatures. One can soon disappear from view while walking here, and there is only one very rough track used by tractors in an attempt to clear this area. 

"There is a line of electricity pylons and according to one boy, the object followed along this line prior to landing. "There is also some controversy as to whether the object _landed_ on the ground or hovered above it. 

On Tuesday, 20th September, I went out to the school with a BBC reporter and their television equipment, as well as my son and Gunter Hofer, a young man who builds his own electrical equipment, viz, a Geiger counter, a metal detector and a magnetometer, to try and see if the object left any traces behind. 

"The headmaster of the school is Mr. Colin Mackie, who was most co-operative, and although he had never been involved with UFOs or a believer in them, said that he believed the children had seen what they said they saw. 

"I was able to interview about 10 or 12 older children and this was recorded for BBC television. "One eyewitness, Barry D., said he had seen three objects flying over, with flashing red lights. They disappeared, and reappeared almost immediately, but somewhere else. This happened about three times. Then they came and landed near some gum trees; Barry said the main one (object) was about the size of his thumb nail held at arm's length. 

The reports were similar although some children were more observant than others. The consensus of opinion was that an object came down in the area where they indicated, about 100 metres from where they were at the edge of the school playing field. 

Then a small man (approx 1 metre in height) appeared on top of the object. He walked a little way across the rough ground, became aware of the children and disappeared. He, or someone very like him, then reappeared at the back of the object. The object took off very rapidly and disappeared." "The little man was dressed in a tight-fitting black suit which was 'shiny' according to one observant girl (11 years of age). 

He had a long scrawny neck and huge eyes like rugby balls. He had a pale face with long black hair coming below his shoulders. "I had suggested to Mr. Mackie prior to visiting the school and before the children had been interviewed, that he let the children draw what they had seen and he now has about 30-40 drawings, some of which are very explicit and clear, although some are rather vague. 

The children's' ages vary from 5/6 to 12 years. I have 22 photocopies of the clearer drawings as Mr. Mackie kindly allowed me to page through the pictures and choose those I wanted. Most of the descriptions are similar but some of the craft are very obviously 'flying saucers', and I wonder how many of these children have had access to the media. Others are crude but more or less in this saucer shape. 

"The children vary in cultures: there are black, white, coloured and Asian children. One little girl said to me, 'I swear by every hair on my head and the whole Bible that I am telling the truth.' I could see the pleasure on her face when I told her that I believed her. The smaller children from 5-7 years were very frightened at the time and ran shouting 'Help me, help me.' When the older children asked why they were saying this, the reply was, 'He is coming to eat us.' I should think this applied more to the black African children who have legends of tokoloshies eating children. 

"Their teachers were in a meeting and did not come out. When I queried the headmaster about this he said the children always shouted and yelled during their playtime and no-one thought there was anything unusual going on. The only other adult available at the time was one of the mothers who was running the tuckshop. 

When the children came to call her, she did not believe them and would not come out: she was not prepared to leave the tuckshop with all the food and money. 

"Gunter and the men thoroughly examined the ground around where the children had seen the object, but could get no reaction on the Geiger counter or any other equipment. If the object was hovering perhaps nothing would show. I walked, on my own, along the electricity pylons for quite a away, caught up in thorn bushes, trampling blithely over snake holes and discarding all caution. I found no place where some object could have landed and pressed down the foliage. In fact, I should think the bamboo stumps would have been a deterrent. 

The day was hot, around 33 C (91F)... "Dr John Mack was visiting Zimbabwe at the time of the event, and he spent two days at Ariel School with the children. 

He also spoke to the Headmaster, Colin Mackie, the teachers and some of the parents. John and his fellow researcher, Dominique Callimanopulos, were able to get through to the parents and teachers and convince them that even if they did not believe the children, it was counter-productive to accuse them of lying. 

Listen and think about what they were saying, he advised. His particular interest in child psychiatry was also of great use during the questioning and many former hidden memories came to light, something John is sure to make public when he has had a chance to reassess his interviewing." - See more at: http://jackbrummet.blogspot.com/2012/02/alien-lore-no-ariel-school-ufogrey.html#sthash.bZ0hkACV.dpuf 

Report made by John Mack and Dominique Callimanopulos

The Ariel School sighting is one of the most significant in recent UFO history. The event lasted about fifteen minutes, the children said, before the spaceships faded from view. But even in their state of fear, many of the children reported also being curious and fascinated by the strange beings they saw, whose eyes in particular commanded an intense attention.

“I got the feeling he was interested in all of us. ... He looked sad and without love. ...In space there is no love and down here there is.” 

John Mack and I were at the Ariel School, a small elementary school outside Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, listening to Elsa (not her real name) describe her encounter last September 16 [1994] with an “alien” being. In all, sixty children, ages six through twelve, reported seeing one large and several smaller spaceships land - hover, really - over the scrubby bushland adjoining their playground. 

The twelve children we interviewed over the course of two days all described the same event with a steady consistency of detail. In addition to the spaceships, the children had seen two “strange beings,” one sitting on one of the spaceships and the other running back and forth in the grass, “bouncing as if he were on the moon, but not quite so much.” 

The beings were described as blackwith long heads, “eyes as big as rugby balls,” with thin arms and legs. The event took place during the children’s morning recess while teachers were in a staff meeting. Many of the younger children were very scared and cried. “At first I thought it was a gardener,” one fourth-grader told us. “Then I realized it was an alien.” 

The event lasted about fifteen minutes, the children said, before the spaceships faded from view. But even in their state of fear, many of the children reported also being curious and fascinated by the strange beings they saw, whose eyes in particular commanded an intense attention. Elsa told us that she thought the beings wanted to tell us something about our future, about how “the world is going to end, maybe because we don’t look after our planet or the air.” She said she felt horrible inside when she got home that day. “Like all the trees will go down and there will be no air. People will be dying. Those thoughts came from the man - the man’s eyes.” 

Isabelle, a composed and articulate ten-year-old, echoed Elsa’s feelings. “He was just staring. He was scary. We were trying not to look at him ‘cause he was scary. My eyes and feelings went with him.” What came through her “conscience” as she looked at the being was, “We are doing harm to the Earth.” 

The Ariel School sighting is one of the most significant in recent UFO history. It is the first time such a large group of people have reported witnessing the simultaneous appearance of spaceships and alien beings. After receiving a call in September from a BBC reporter telling us that a flight of strange objects and ships had glided across Zimbabwean skies for two nights prior to September 16 culminating in the dramatic sighting at the Ariel School, we decided to investigate firsthand.

  

Good Alien Creatures or Bad?

What is intriguing to me is that the Kids said they felt very scared and the creatures gave the one kid "the creeps". John mack seems to emphasise the idea that these beings are from another Galaxy and they are here to warn us about the danger of nuclear arms or global warming. 

There is much evidence to sift here but I have to say in advance that I personally think they are not good and there is a deceptiveness to these ideas of kindly "Space brothers" that we need to investigate. 

But there is a long way to go

NEXT TIME: Westall encounter in Ausie - just in case you thought Australia has no major sightings watch this . . .