Wonders in the Sky

by Jacques Vallee

  Fig. 4: Flying apsara: painting from the Mogao caves, China

  On the one hand, there are thousands of instances where witnesses describe “entities” similar to those typically associated with UFOs, in connection with a “halo of light” that can hardly be considered as a material object. These are often reported in the contemporary literature as “bedroom visitations” or apparitions. We did agree that a difficult line must be drawn between such events and reports of ghosts, ape-men or monsters, which belong in a related but separate study. On the other hand, we find continuity between the interpretation of “signs in the sky,” aerial objects with entities aboard, and flying or luminous entities seen by themselves. Accordingly, we have included a limited number of prominent cases of this kind.

  Source: John Henry Gray, China, a History of the Laws, Manners and Customs of the People (Courier Dover: 2003), 106; Arthur Lillie, Buddhism in Christendom or Jesus the Essene (London: K. Paul, Trench, 1887), 188.

  25.

  21 May 70 AD, Jerusalem

  Flying chariots surround the city

  Flavius Josephus writes: “On the one and twentieth day of the month Artemisius, a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding cities.”

  Source: Flavius Josephus, History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, Jewish Wars, Book CXI, quoted in “The Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus, the Jewish Historian,” translated by William Whiston, (London, 1737). See also: Sara Schechner, Comets, Popular Culture and the Birth of Modern Cosmology (Princeton University Press: 1999), 32.

  26.

  Winter 80 AD, Caledon Wood, Scotland

  Fast-moving airship

  “When the Roman Emperor, Agricola was in Scotland (Caledonia), wondrous flames were seen in the skies over Caledon wood, all one winter night. Everywhere the air burned, and on many nights, when the weather was serene, a ship was seen in the air, moving fast.”

  The passage goes on to describe another staple of Fortean literature: “In Athol, shower of stones fell from the sky into one place, and a shower of paddocks (frogs) fell on one day from the sky. And high in the air, at night, there raged a burning fire, as if knights in armor and on foot or horse fought with great force.”

  Here again, these phenomena were not simultaneous or even in the same region but they provide us with a treasure-trove of anomalies, from the fall of frogs to the mention of an aerial ship. Caledon Wood appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s rendition of the King Arthur legend (in The History of the Kings of Britain). Arthur defeated the Saxons at Caledon Wood, among other places.

  Source: Hector Boece, Historia Gentis Scotorum (1527).

  27.

  187, Rome, Italy: Hovering stars in daylight

  “We read in Herodian that in the time of Commodus stars were seen all the day long, and that some stretched in length, hanging as it were in the midst of the air, which was a token of a cloud not kindled but driven together: for it seemed kindled in the night, but in the day when it was far off it vanished away.”

  Source: Lycosthenes, Julii Obsequentis Prodigiorum Liber…per Conradum Lycosthenem Rubeaquensem integrati suae restitutus (Basel, 1552).

  28.

  January 195, Rome, Italy: Bright stars around the sun

  “I shall now speak of what happened outside, and of the various rebellions. For three men at this time, each commanding three legions of citizens and many foreigners besides, attempted to secure the control of affairs – Severus, Niger, and Albinus. The last-named was governor of Britain, Severus of Pannonia, and Niger of Syria. These, then, were the three men portended by the three stars that suddenly came to view surrounding the sun when Julianus in our presence was offering the Sacrifices of Entrance in front of the senate-house.

  “These stars were so very distinct that the soldiers kept continually looking at them and pointing them out to one another, while declaring that some dreadful fate would befall the emperor. As for us, however much we hoped and prayed that it might so prove, yet the fear of the moment would not permit us to gaze up at them except by furtive glances.”

  Were the “bright stars” a case of parhelia or false suns? The description here does not suggest simple refraction.

  Source: Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Dio’s Rome: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimus Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus, trans. Herbert Baldwin Foster (Troy, New York, 1905), vol. 9, 151.

  29.

  235, Weinan, China

  A red object flies above the Emperor’s army

  The army of Emperor Hou Chu saw a red object with pointed rays that flew over them three times.

  This case is reported in a compilation of “shooting stars and meteors,” but the notion of an ordinary meteor returning three times to fly over an army stretches credulity.

  Source: Edouard Biot, Catalogue des étoiles filantes et des autres météores observés en Chine pendant 24 siècles (Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1846).

  30.

  240, Che-chiang Province, China

  The dragon and the little blue boy

  “Under the Emperor Ta Ti of the Wu dynasty (AD 228-251), in the seventh month of the third year of the Ch’ih-wu era, there was a certain Wang Shuh who gathered medicinal herbs on T’ien Tai Mountain. At the hottest time of the day he took a rest under a bridge, when suddenly he saw a little blue boy, over a foot long, in the brook.

  “The boy held a blue rush in his hand and rode on a red carp. The fish entered a cloud and disappeared little by little.

  “After a good while Shuh climbed upon a high mountain top and looked to all four sides. He saw wind and clouds arising above the sea, and in a moment a thunderstorm broke forth. Suddenly it was about to reach Shuh, who terrified hid himself in a hollow tree. When the sky cleared up, he again saw the red carp on which the boy rode and the little boy returning and entering the brook. It was a black kiao!”

  We include this case, clearly unexplained in terms of ordinary phenomena, because it illustrates characteristics ascribed to “dragons” in the Chinese literature.

  Source: Dr. M. W. De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan (Amsterdam: Johannes Müller, 1913), 80-81. Visser quotes from “the Wu ki.” A Kiao is a “scaled dragon.”

  31.

  Circa March 260, China, exact location unknown

  A child from Mars flies away

  At a time when the government of Wu faced critical dangers, during the reign of Sun Hsiu (258 to 263) the generals of border garrisons used to leave their wives and children (known as “hostage children”) as pledges of loyalty. It was not unusual for a dozen of these children to play together. The record goes on:

  “A strange child suddenly joined the hostage children in their play. He was less than four feet tall, dressed in dark clothes, and appeared to be between six and seven years old. None of the other children recognized the newcomer, so they asked him, “To what family do you belong, that you should suddenly appear among us?”

  “I came only because you seemed to be enjoying yourselves so much,” was the reply. On closer examination, it was noticed that light rays from the stranger’s eyes flashed brilliantly, and the other children began to be afraid. They asked him about his past. “Do you fear me, then?” he asked. “Don’t. Though I am not human, I am the star-god Yung-huo (Mars) and have come to deliver a message to you: ‘The Three Lords will return to Ssu-ma.’

  “The children were startled, and some ran off to tell their parents. The adults arrived in haste to witness all this, but the visitor said, ‘I must leave you.’ So saying, he propelled his body upward and transformed himself.

  “The children looked up and watched him rise to the heavens leaving what
appeared to be a great train of flowing silk behind him. Some of the adults arrived in time to watch him drifting gradually higher. A moment later, he vanished.”

  Given the political crisis, nobody reported this at the time. Four years later Hsiu was overthrown; in 21 years Wu was put down, and the power fell to Ssu-ma.

  Source: In the Wu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms Period (222-280), cited in In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record, trans. Kenneth J. DeWoskin and J. I. Crump (Stanford University Press: 1996), 110.

  32.

  January 314, China, exact location unknown

  Three suns, flying east

  The Sun came down to the ground and three other suns rose together over the western horizon and “flew together towards the East.” This is yet another frustrating example of partial information which, taken literally, indicates a most unusual phenomenon. Only reference to the original text could permit a fuller interpretation.

  Source: Shi Bo, La Chine et les Extraterrestres (Paris: Mercure de France: 1983), 47. We have not been able to find an original source for this case.

  33.

  Circa 334, Antioch, Turkey

  An object emitting smoke for hours

  “In Antioch a star appeared in the eastern part of the sky during the day, emitting much smoke as though from a furnace, from the third to the fifth hour.” The duration of the phenomenon precludes a comet, but it was seen too long for a meteor.

  Source: Theophanes, Chronographia, trans. C. Mango & R. Scott, with G. Greatrex, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284-813 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 49.

  34.

  Circa 350, Emesa, Syria: Dialogue with a globe of fire

  In Ancient Greece, where meteorology played an important role in religion and scientific philosophy, claims involving strange aerolites abound. Damaskios, in his book, The Life of Isidorus, relates that one sacred baitylos (meteorite) was kept by a man named Eusebios, who acquired it in strange circumstances. A Byzantine scholar called Photios, who lived in the 9th century A.D., described the story in his own writings. The following is from Arthur Bernard Cook’s Zeus, A Study in Ancient Religion, Vol. III, 888:

  “This man stated that there had once come upon him a sudden and much unexpected desire to roam at midnight away from the town of Emesa as far as he could get towards the hill on which stands the ancient and magnificent temple of Athena. So he went as quickly as possible to the foot of the hill, and there sat down to rest after his journey. Suddenly he saw a globe of fire leap down from above, and a great lion standing beside the globe. The lion vanished immediately, but he himself ran up to the globe as the fire died down and found it to be the baitylos. He took it up and asked it to which of the gods it might belong. It replied that it belonged to Gennaios, the ‘Noble One.’ He took it home the self-same night, traveling, so he said, a distance of over 210 furlongs…. It was, he says, an exact globe, whitish in color, three hand-breadths across. But at times it grew bigger, or smaller; and at others it took on a purple hue. He showed us, too, letters that were written into the stone, painted in the pigment called cinnabar.”

  Cinnabar was employed widely in antiquity as a pigment for calligraphy and for decorating precious objects, such as in jewelry. The bright red pigment, whose name has been traced to the Persian zinjifrah (“dragon’s blood”), was held in extraordinary esteem in ancient times.

  Meteorites are very unlikely to contain enough cinnabar to mislead even the most superstitious priests. Meteoric stone is dark, not white, and any trace of mercury sulphide is unlikely to be visible to the naked eye. In nature, certain stones, such as opal and limestone, can display narrow veins of cinnabar that could possibly be interpreted as esoteric writing, but this would not explain the anomalies in Eusebios’ baitylos.

  Source: Arthur Bernard Cook, Zeus, a study in ancient religion (Cambridge University Press, 1914), vol. 3, 888.

  35.

  7 May 351, Jerusalem

  A luminous cross terrifies witnesses

  Hermias Sozomen, in his Ecclesiastical History, notes that “At the time Cyril succeeded Maximus in the government of the church of Jerusalem, the sign of the cross appeared in the heavens; its radiance was not feeble and divergent like that of comets, but splendid and concentrated. Its length was about fifteen stadia from Calvary to the Mount of Olives, and its breadth was in proportion to its length.

  “So extraordinary a phenomenon excited universal terror.”

  He also stated it was visible for several days and was brighter than the sun.

  Source: The Ecclesiastical History of Philostorgius, compiled by Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, trans. Edward Walford (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855), 49. The Byzantine text Chronicon Paschale provides the date of May 7th.

  36.

  Ca. 393, Rome, Italy: A sign in the sky

  A “new and strange star was seen in the sky, announcing the arrival of major disasters on Earth.”

  This oft-quoted sighting listed in the UFO literature seems to have been a comet. The original text describes the “star” being seen for the first time at midnight towards the east: “It was big and bright and the light was not much less than the morning star [Venus]. After that, a cloud of stars gathered around it on the same side, like a swarm of bees, clustering together around their queen.”

  Later it took the form of “a double-blade sword, great and terrible.” Its movement was very different from the rest of the stars: it began to rise and came next to the Morning Star. Later it moved to the North. Finally, after completing this trip in forty days, it came inside the Big Dipper and was last seen at the center of it, where it became extinct. We only include this case in the Chronology because we have not found confirmation of a cometary observation about this date in Gary Kronk’s extensive Cometography, but we suspect the object was indeed a comet.

  Source: The Ecclesiastical History of Philostorgius, compiled by Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, trans. Edward Walford (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855).

  37.

  396, Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey

  Sulphurous fire from Heaven

  St. Augustine wrote that “At the beginning of the night as the world was being darkened, a fiery cloud was seen from the East, small at first then, as it approached the city, gradually enlarging, until it hung terribly over the whole city. All fled to the Church; the place did not hold the people. But after that great tribulation, when God had accredited His word, the cloud began to diminish and at last disappeared.

  “The people, freed from fear for a while, again heard that they must migrate, because the whole city would be destroyed on the next Sabbath. The whole people left the city with the Emperor; no one remained in his house.”

  The city was saved. “What shall we say?” adds Augustine. “Was this the anger of God, or rather His mercy?”

  Source: Albert Barnes, Minor Prophets I (Michigan: Baker Books, 1985), 414. Augustine doesn’t give a date, but 16th century ecclesiastical historian Cesare Baronius said it was 396. It isn’t known how he reached this conclusion.

  38.

  438, Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey

  A child abducted to Heaven

  An earthquake has destroyed Constantinople; famine and pestilence are spreading. The cataclysm has leveled the walls and the fifty-seven towers. Now comes a new tremor, even stronger than all the previous ones. Nicephorus, the historian, reports that in their fright the inhabitants of Byzantium, abandoning their city, gathered in the countryside: “They kept praying to beg that the city be spared total destruction: they were in no lesser danger themselves, because of the movements of the earth that nearly engulfed them, when a miracle quite unexpected and going beyond all credence filled them with admiration.”

  “In the midst of the entire crowd, a child was suddenly taken up by a strong force, so high into the air that they lost sight of him. After this, he came down as he had gone up, and told Patriarch Proclus, the Emperor himself, and
the assembled multitude that he had just attended a great concert of the Angels hailing the Lord in their sacred canticles.

  “Acacius, the bishop of Constantinople, states, ‘The population of the whole city saw it with their eyes.’ And Baronius, commenting upon this report, adds the following words: ‘Such a great event deserved to be transmitted to the most remote posterity and to be forever recorded in human memory through its mention every year in the ecclesiastical annals. For this reason the Greeks, after inscribing it with the greatest respect into their ancient Menologe, read it publicly every year in their churches.’”

  Source: This story has been collected and published by writers for many centuries. The version quoted here is by 14th century chronicler Nicephorus Callistus, but versions can be found in a letter by Acacius, Patriarch of Constantinople (d.489) to Peter Fullo, Patriarch of Antioch, and also in a letter by Pope Felix III (483-492) to the same Peter Fullo. The story in itself serves as the founding story for the origin of the Trisagion hymn of the Greek Church. The different versions agree on most details except the precise year and the fate of the raised child.

  39.

  497, British Isles: Globe in the sky and two light beams

  An immense globe appeared in the sky. A second ball of fire came from its rays, projecting two beams: “During these transactions at Winchester, there appeared a star of wonderful magnitude and brightness, darting forth a ray, at the end of which was a globe of fire in the form of a dragon, out of whose mouth issued forth two rays; one of which seemed to stretch out itself beyond the extent of Gaul, the other towards the Irish sea, and ended in seven lesser rays.”

  There is some doubt about the date here because Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote it coincident with Ambrosius’ death. Scholars disagree about the date of this event, suggesting either 473 or, according to Roger of Wendover, 497.