The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters

by Story, Ronald

  Today BUFORA is a nationwide network of about four hundred people who have a dedicated, non-cultist interest in understanding the UFO mystery. Within that membership are many active investigators and researchers working with the direct claims of witnesses to collate the data necessary to bring that understanding nearer.

  A loose federation of U.K. regional UFO groups called the British UFO Association was formed in 1962. Over the next two years many of these groups decided to amalgamate all their activities under the BUFOA banner; so the organization was renamed the British UFO Research Association in 1964.

  Benefits to members include BUFORA’s principal publication, which is the BUFORA Bulletin, a bimonthly magazine of current interest articles.

  The three aims of BUFORA are:

  1. To encourage, promote and conduct unbiased scientific research of unidentified flying object (UFO) phenomena throughout the United Kingdom

  2. To collect and disseminate evidence and data relating to unidentified flying objects

  3. To coordinate UFO research throughout the United Kingdom and to cooperate with others engaged in such research throughout the world Research and Investigation Activities.

  In pursuit of its aims, BUFORA supports active investigation and research teams. The investigation team carries out on site field investigation of cases, whilst the research team is involved in activities such as statistical research and technical support activities.

  There are approximately fifty investigators and trainee investigators spread around the country. Trainee investigators are expected to work with an experienced investigator and to undertake a postal training course. These are supplemented by guidance notes. Investigators are expected to work to a Code of Practice.

  BUFORA disseminates its findings and updates through several means:

  • A lecture programme.

  • UFO Telephone hotline.

  • Publications.

  • Internet.

  Address:

  70 High Street

  Wingham

  Kent CT3 1BJ

  England

  E-mail:

  enquiries@bufora.org.uk

  Web site:

  www.bufora.org.uk

  Buff Ledge (Vermont) abduction Located on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain, north of Burlington, Buff Ledge Camp for girls became the scene for a dual-witness UFO abduction episode on August 7, 1968.

  THE ENCOUNTER

  Just after sunset “Michael Lapp” (a pseudonym), 16, who maintained the camp’s waterfront equipment, and “Janet Cornell,” 19, the water-skiing instructor, stood together on the end of the dock. Most of the campers and counselors were away on a two-day break

  As the two coworkers watched the western sky, a white cigar-shaped object appeared over the lake. Before departing, it released three small round objects which performed a series of acrobatic maneuvers. Then two of the satellite objects accelerated out of sight.

  The remaining UFO headed directly toward the amazed witnesses and stopped within about ten feet from the end of the dock. Michael, who retained more conscious recall of the whole experience than Janet, described a classic “flying saucer,” complete with transparent dome and revolving multicolored glowing rim. The object emitted a vibratory hum, he said.

  While the female witness appeared frozen in a trance, her associate reported two short entities behind the dome clothed in tight-fitting uniforms. They had large heads, big oval eyes, and a small mouth. Michael was told telepathically they were from a distant planet and that he would not be harmed.

  Next the craft moved overhead and a brilliant beam of light came on underneath, bathing the two in its glow. Michael, and presumably Janet, lost consciousness.

  When the teens became aware again it was totally dark out, and they could hear the voices of campers returning from a swim meet. A tree-covered bluff and pavilion partially concealed the scene below on the dock. But Michael said two of the swimmers, “Susan” and “Barbara,” rushed down to the top of the bluff, perhaps attracted by the UFO’s glow, and must have seen the object at that moment as it angled upward and disappeared across the lake.

  AFTERMATH

  Both primary witnesses felt extremely tired afterward and fell asleep in their separate quarters. Although Michael remembered the close encounter and the entities, Janet apparently recalled only moving lights in the sky. Not wishing to traumatize his friend, Michael said he decided not to discuss with her what had taken place. The camp closed and the two participants went their separate ways.

  TEN YEARS LATER

  After ten years had passed, the male witness said he had come across Dr. Allen Hynek’s name and promptly called the Center for UFO Studies, which put him in touch with me. Thus began a five-year investigation into an experience—significant for its uncontaminated testimony; the two witnesses had never discussed with one another their shared encounter with the UFO.

  During separate hypnosis sessions, not only did Michael fill in his “missing time” with an abduction scenario, but so did his female counterpart.

  SIMILAR ACCOUNTS REVEALED

  There were remarkable similarities between their accounts. Both individuals recalled being inside the UFO’s dimly lit interior. Their captors were described similarly as having large elongated heads, big eyes, two nasal openings, and a mouth-slit. Each abductee had a “guide” who kept in telepathic contact with them throughout the experience. While Janet felt herself being probed and inspected by strange figures (she was instructed to keep her eyes closed), Michael stood nearby with his “guide” and watched the examination. He said this included taking blood and skin samples and extracting vaginal fluid (eggs?).

  Michael’s drawing of closeencounter UFO as seen from the dock. Two entities were visible through the dome. Glowing plasma-like energy moved around the furrowed rim. Square plates covered the UFO on both top and bottom surfaces.

  While two entities conducted the actual examination on Janet, a third figure monitored a console below an array of screens. The displays appeared to register various parts of the exam. Independent confirmation of this monitoring array by both witnesses provided strong evidence for a shared abduction experience.

  MICHAEL’S JOURNEY

  Though Michael had no memory of the tests performed on him during his own physical examination, he apparently remained aware through much of the encounter, and consequently his overall experience was more detailed. During his hypnotic regressions, the male subject spoke of a journey he and his guide took through a “mother ship” into which the abduction craft had entered.

  His tour included riding a tube of light across a giant hangar, the placement of a helmet on his head which conveyed some sort of imagery to a curved screen, and the presentation of a park-like landscape where Janet joined him. After this, Michael sensed himself falling through space and then waking up on the dock next to his coworker.

  SUPPORTING WITNESSES?

  A persistent search turned up three possible supporting witnesses to both the UFO’s abduction departure and its final exit from the dock. They were the two swimmers “Susan” and “Barbara,” and the camp’s playhouse director “Elaine.” Unfortunately, the exact dates of their sightings could not be confirmed.

  Michael’s drawing of one of the aliens

  I subjected the two abductees to extensive psychological tests, including the Psychological Stress Evaluator (voice analysis), and to background character checks. Both individuals appeared to be honest and credible. A hoax or some sort of shared hallucination was ruled out.

  —WALTER N. WEBB

  NOTE: For more information, see the full account in Walter Webb’s book Encounter at Buff Ledge: A UFO Case History (J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, 1994).

  Bullard, Thomas Eddie (b. 1949). Thomas Eddie Bullard was born in North Carolina and educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Indiana University, where he received his Ph.D. in Folklore. A lifelong interest in UFOs led to a dissertation on UFOs as m
odern folklore and articles treating the same theme in the Journal of American Folklore, Magonia, International UFO Reporter, and the Journal of UFO Studies.

  Under sponsorship of the Fund for UFO Research, Dr. Bullard carried out a comparative study of abduction reports, UFO Abductions: The Measure of a Mystery (1987), and a comparative survey of abduction investigators, The Sympathetic Ear (1995). He participated in the Abduction Study Conference Held at M.I.T., while his articles on UFO waves and historical UFOlogy appear in Jerome Clark’s UFO Encyclopedia (1998). He serves on the boards of the Center for UFO Studies and the Fund for UFO Research.

  Address:

  517 E. University St. #2

  Bloomington, IN 47401

  U.S.A.

  Thomas Eddie Bullard

  POSITION STATEMENT: There is no question in my mind that people have seen strange objects in the sky and have undergone unusual experiences in the presence of these objects. I am also convinced that any hard and fast conclusions about the nature of these objects is premature.

  Only scientific investigation of reports and a better understanding of the witnesses, as well as the interaction between observation and belief or cultural expectation, will set conclusions on a solid foundation. Until then I will admit that some reports seem unlikely to evaporate into any conventional explanation, but the human mind is full of surprises, and human ability to err in observation appears boundless. All in all the best position to me seems one of speculative restraint and investigative vigor.

  —THOMAS EDDIE BULLARD

  C

  Case for the UFO, The (The Citadel Press, 1955). Astronomer Morris K. Jessup says in this book that UFOs have been present throughout human history and these visitors, operating from bases perhaps on our own Moon, are abducting human beings.

  Jessup beat Erich von Däniken by more than a decade in describing how megalithic structures worldwide, from the Nazca lines in Peru to the Easter Island statues, could be the calling cards of extraterrestrials. He also was the first author by fifteen years to describe “Bermuda Triangle” areas where ships and planes “vanished without a trace.”

  —RANDALL FITZGERALD

  Cash-Landrum UFO encounter Three Texans encountered a UFO while driving on a dark, lonely road near Huffman, Texas, on December 29, 1980. They suffered lifethreatening injuries as a result of the encounter.

  Betty Cash (51), Vickie Landrum (57) and Vickie’s grandson Colby (7), were driving on the Cleveland-Huffman Road on the way to their homes in Dayton, Texas, when they spotted the UFO. It was about 9 P.M. and the road was deserted. The first indication of something unusual was the presence of a very intense light several miles ahead just above the pine trees. Betty remarked about the unusual brightness, but temporarily lost sight of it due to the many trees along the road.

  Suddenly, hovering over the road only a short distance ahead was an enormous diamond-shaped object. “It was like a diamond of fire,” Vickie said. The glow was so intense they could barely stand to look at it. Vickie at first thought it was the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and expected Jesus to come out of the fire in the sky.

  In addition to lighting up the whole area like daytime, the UFO periodically belched flames downward. Fearing they would be burned alive, Betty stopped her 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass without leaving the road. They all got out of the car to escape the heat and to get a better took at the UFO. Colby was terrified and dove back into the car, begging his grandma to get back in, too. Vickie quickly reentered the car and comforted Colby.

  Artist’s depiction of the UFO

  Betty stood momentarily by the driver’s door and then walked forward to the front of the car. After much pleading by Vickie, Betty finally returned to the car; but the door handle was so hot he had to use her leather coat as a hot pad to open the door. Although the winter night air was only about 40 degrees, the heat from the UFO caused the witnesses to sweat and feel so uncomfortable that they turned on the car’s air conditioner.

  The sound from the UFO would increase each time it shot flames downward, but the intense glow never changed. In addition, the threesome heard an irregular beeping sound throughout the encounter.

  Finally, the flames stopped and the object rose to the southwest and was lost from sight. Vickie and Colby commented that they could also see several helicopters and they seemed to be following the UFO. Betty started the car and headed for Dayton.

  Betty was outside the car and directly exposed to emanations from the UFO for five to ten minutes. Vickie was outside for a much shorter time and Colby was exposed for only a minute or so.

  As Betty raced homeward bound, she turned right on to highway FM-2100. Five minutes had lapsed since the encounter and just ahead of the car they could see the UFO and a large number of helicopters. “The sky was full of helicopters,” Betty said. Some were near the object and others lagged behind. Betty pulled the car to the side of the road and waited for the entourage to get out of the way. It was then, they counted more than twenty helicopters, many of them with twin rotors on top.

  December 29th was a turning point in their lives. Betty, an unusually energetic woman, had plans to open a new restaurant the following week.

  The sickness that followed the incident ruined those plans. Betty did not know it, but she would never work again. For the next four days, Betty’s health degenerated. Red blotches on her skin became blisters of clear fluid, her eyes swelled closed, and she was weak from dehydration. At the same time Vickie and Colby were experiencing similar ills, but to a slightly lesser extent than Betty.

  Betty was hospitalized for twelve days, went home briefly, but returned to the hospital for another fifteen days. The blisters caused a significant amount of skin loss and by the end of the third week she was losing a significant amount of her hair. Betty was also suffering from diarrhea, stomach distress, and severe headaches.

  Vickie treated Colby and herself with home remedies. She also lost some hair, suffered some eye-damage, had diarrhea, stomach distress, and headaches. Colby’s maladies were similar.

  SUMMARY OF MEDICAL EFFECTS

  Vickie, Betty, and Colby

  Although others also witnessed the UFO and the helicopter activity that same evening, various military agencies denied participating in the incident. With the help of Senators Bentsen and Towers, a meeting was arranged with U.S. Air Force attorneys at Bergstrom Air Force Base to get to the bottom of the situation. Other than a suggestion that Betty and Vickie might want to file a claim against the U.S. government, nothing else came from the meeting.

  With the assistance of private attorney Peter Gersten, they did file a claim against the government for damages, which was denied. Then they filed for damages in the U.S. District Court in Houston, Texas. After months of activity in the discovery process, the judge finally refused to hear the case and their hopes of medical or any other kind of help were squashed.

  Neither Betty nor Vickie ever worked again. Betty lost her businesses and moved to Alabama, where her family could care for her. She was hospitalized several times each year and many of those visits were in the Intensive Care Unit. Betty’s life ended on December 29, 1998, exactly 18 years after the UFO encounter. By the fifteenth anniversary of the event, Vickie’s health had slowly recovered. After several years, Colby overcame the physical and emotional impact of the event and became a productive adult.

  Betty and Vickie requested that the investigators of this case make it known as broadly as possible, so that others who might experience the same thing in the future would know what to expect.

  —JOHN F. SCHUESSLER

  For more information, see John Schuessler’s book, The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident (1998), available from MUFON (the Mutual UFO Network, P.O. Box 369, Morrison, CO 80465 U.S.A.).

  categories of UFO reports The following classification system is now the most widely used among UFOlogists and popular journalists around the world:

  RELATIVELY DISTANT SIGHTINGS

  1) Nocturnal Lights. These are sightings
of well-defined lights in the night sky whose appearance and/or motions are not explainable in terms of conventional light sources. The lights appear most often as red, orange, or white. They represent the largest group of UFO reports.

  2) Daylight Disks. Daytime sightings are generally of oval or disk-shaped metallic-looking objects. They can appear high in the sky or close to the ground and are often reported to hover. They can seem to disappear with astounding speed.

  3) Radar/Visuals. Of special significance are unidentified “blips” on radar screens that coincide with—and confirm—simultaneous visual sightings by the same or other witness(es).

  RELATIVELY CLOSE SIGHTINGS

  (within 200 yards)

  1) Close Encounters of the First Kind (CE-I). Though the witness observes a UFO nearby, there appears to be no interaction with either the witness or the environment.

  2) Close Encounters of the Second Kind (CE-II). The encounters include details of interaction between the UFO and the environment, which may vary from interference with car ignition systems and electronic gear to imprints or burns on the ground and physical effects on plants, animals, and humans.

  3) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (CE-III). In this category, occupants from a UFO (entities of more or less humanlike appearance now referred to as “humanoids,” or nonhuman creatures) have been reported. There is usually no direct contact or communication with the witness, but there have been some reports, increasing in recent years, of incidents involving very close contact with, and even temporary detainment of, the witness(es).

  Since Dr. Hynek’s death in 1986, two more categories of close encounters have entered the UFO lexicon:

  4) Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind (CE-IV). This category makes the jump from mere sightings to kidnappings or abductions. In these cases, the UFO-related entities take the witness (or abductee) to another place, either mentally or physically.

  5) Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind (CE-V). This category involves human-initiated contact with a UFO and/or its occupants. In these cases, the witness (or contactee) deliberately establishes contact with the UFO—via signaling or mental telepathy—and receives a like response.