Sunday, September 28, 2008

WING COMMANDER ALAN TURNER MBE

RAF SOPLEY UFO – 1971
By Philip Mantle


At the UFO DATA conference in October 2007 I met up with veteran UFO investigator David Beezer. I’ve known David for many years and he has regularly attended many of our public events. David wanted me to read a report he had received from a for RAF officer but on the day I simply did not have the time. David made me a copy of the report in question and I read it a day or two after the conference had finished.

The report came from a Mr. Alan Turner MBE and concerned a UFO observed on radar at RAF Sopley in the summer of l971. I subsequently contact Mr. Turner and have his permission to document the following. His report is published in full.

Alan Turner was aged twenty-five when he joined the Royal Air Force in l966 and was commissioned that year as an Air Traffic Control Officer. RAF Sopley was a wartime bunker, which had been converted into a joint military/civilian Air Traffic Control Radar Unit (ATCRU): it closed in l974 when both the civil and military ATC functions were transferred to West Drayton.

Alan Turner remained in the RAF eventually to command the Central ATC School from 1990 to 1992. In July 1995 he was discharged from the RAF in the rank of Wing Commander.

A photo was taken in l982 when Alan Turner was the Senior Air Traffic Control Officer at RAG Lossiemouth.

This is Wing Commanders Turner’s account of what he personally observed at RAF Sopley in the summer of l971 in full:

In the summer of 1971 I was the Duty Military Supervisor at RAF Sopley, which was a joint military/civil Air Traffic Control Radar Unit (ATCRU). It was a Tuesday afternoon but I cannot remember the exact date. The Duty Civil Supervisor drew my attention to a situation on radar the likes of which neither of us had ever encountered.

Emanating from a point some twenty nautical miles east of the eastern extremity of the Salisbury Plain Danger Area were a series of six or seven blips moving on a south-easterly track each being separated from the other by about six miles. At about forty miles from the point they appeared on radar they disappeared to be followed almost immediately by a replacement at the point of origin.

I put the FPS 6 Height Finder onto some returns to discover that they were about 3000 feet when they came into radar cover and climbing extremely rapidly so that, by the time they disappeared from radar, they were in excess of 60,000 feet. To climb to such a height in only forty miles was beyond the ability of any fighter aircraft at the time.

The phenomenon was witnessed by four civil and six military controllers on duty at the time. I called Heathrow Radar to discover that they, also, were seeing a similar picture. The same situation prevailed in the Fighter Control Operations Rooms at RAF Neatishead. The three units involved operated different radars from each other thus different frequencies were in use. The weather forecast from the south of England was calm and sunny. I called the Met Office to confirm the strength of the upper winds to find that they were also relatively calm and were about fifty degrees off the southeasterly track of the blips; they also confirmed that there were not Met balloons/probes airborne at the time.

The winds were not strong enough, nor in the right direction, to cause the blips to travel on their observed track especially at the speed they were traveling. It was estimated that they were doing around 250 knots, but it must be borne in mind that this was a lateral speed as seen on radar – they must have been traveling very much faster to climb over 50,000 feet in less than forty miles. Equally the weather was such that there were no ‘angels’ to affect the radar picture. “Angels” was a euphemism for, what were believed to be, ionized pockets of air which, under very specific atmospheric conditions, were often seen on radar screens in those days: when seen, these ‘angels’ traveled extremely slowly simply drifting along haphazard tracks. In those days all radars were ‘raw’. That is to say that, whatever was within the coverage of the radar envelope and capable of bouncing (returning) the radar pulse back to the receiver, would be seen on the radar tube. Today’s radars are computerized thus such interference is processed out so as not to affect the picture.

Looking around for some other method of checking what was going on, I discovered that a controller had two Canberras on frequency returning from Germany. One of the pilots agreed to investigate so I assumed control of his aircraft and, having confirmed he was in good visual met conditions, I vectored him on to the blips keeping him regularly updated on their position relative to the Canberra. The aircraft was flying at around nineteen thousand feel and when it got within a mile or so of one particular blip, the pilot reported, in a very agitated voice, that his radar had picked something up heading down his port side by about a quarter of a mile and ‘climbing like the clappers’, it was on a reciprocal heading to the Canberra. The pilot admitted that neither he nor his navigator made any visual contact and confirmed that the weather conditions were such that they would have had no difficultly seeing something that close.

The whole episode lasted for twenty minutes or more before the blips stopped appearing. I impounded the R/T tapes and the Radar Video film and made appropriate entries in the log. Each person in the Ops Room who witnessed the incident was required to write a report. The Squadron Leader in charge of Operations collated the reports and informed higher authority. Within a couple of days I was interviewed in the Squadron Leader’s office by two men who were not identified to me. I, along with all the others in the Ops Room on the day in question, were told in no uncertain terms not to relate what we had seen until cleared to do so. About four years later I was serving at RAF Wattisham when the Station Commander asked to see me. I was told that he had a communication from the MoD about the incident at Sopley and that as ‘nothing could be confirmed’ the situation was such that doubt would be cast on anything I said about it. I took this to mean that I was no longer to remain silent.

I am at a loss to explain what I, and many other people, saw. In those days aircraft could not climb at such a rate. To be seen on displays by three different ground radars, plus the airborne radar in the Canberra, is also a mystery. The weather conditions were very definitely VMC or Visual Met Conditions; the aircraft was clear of cloud by at least a thousand feet vertically and with a forward visibility of at least five nautical miles.

In Mr. Turner’s letter to be dated 10th November 2007 he apologized for not remembering the exact date of the incident and believes that there are those out there that will use this to discredit his account. I’ll leave you with his final comments on the incident; “Please use the information in any way you see fit; I stand by what I saw because I know what I saw.”

Colleagues and I intend to submit a Freedom of Information request to the UK Ministry of Defense, and should we obtain any further information we will of course publish it due course.

Thanks must go to David Beezer for supplying the information and contact details and special thanks to Alan Turner MBE for allowing me to publish his account.


Philip Mantle is an international UFO researcher, author and broadcaster. He can be contacted via email at: philip@mantle8353.fsworld.co.uk

NB: Wing Commander Turner will be making his first public presentation detailing the above events at this years International UFO Conference sponsored by UFO DATA Magazine (www.ufodata.co.uk). Full details on their web site or email direct to: ufo-data@hotmail.com


Thanks to Philip Mantle for sending this over! He is a good friend.

Thursday's Child

Thursday, September 25, 2008

SASQUATCH, SASQUATCH, WON'T YOU COME ON DOWN?

Rash of Sasquatch sightings near Northern B.C. town has expert baffled
Cheryl Chan, The Province
Published: Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Tales of a giant, hairy ape-like creature trampling through the woods are running wild in a northern Interior town after a rash of Sasquatch sightings.

There have been three reported sightings in the area within a month, said Brian Vike, Director of HBCC UFO Research.

"To be honest with you, I don't know what to make of all this," said Vike. "I know with UFOs we're doing well in B.C. but I don't know with the Sasquatch. I'm just trying to figure it out."

One of the sightings was reported by Houston resident Delores Harrie, who was at home on July 28, just after 6 p.m., when her two dogs began barking furiously.

She saw the doorknob rattle, and when she went outside to investigate, she saw a shaggy creature running across the tree line into the bushes:

"It was huge, about seven to eight feet tall, and hairy," said Harrie, 45.

"He had long hair, shaggy, . . . in a pine-beetle colour, totally covered.

"I couldn't believe how fast he moved," she added.

"I can't see it being a grizzly. They run but they don't run on two legs, and I know it's not a moose either."

Harrie reported the incident to Vike, who investigated and recorded some strange markings on the ground.

"Definitely, something had been there," said Vike.

"There's some cow tracks, but this was something else - someone with a good-sized foot."

The other sightings were on Morgan Road in Houston in July on Telkwa Highway Road in Moricetown, about an hour and a half away, on Aug. 27.

There was also a reported Sasquatch encounter in Campbell River on Aug. 31.

Vike said he gets periodic Sasquatch sightings across B.C. and the Pacific Northwest but it hasn't been active - until recently.

Harrie, who was "freaked out" about the encounter, said she's trying to be open-minded about what she saw.

"There's so many things out there I think it would be a little crazy to think we're the only ones here."

Thursday's Child

Sunday, September 21, 2008

SPOKES OF LIGHT

I was out walking one early winter evening, I was nearing the end of my walk when some movement and flashes of light caught my eye. I stopped, turned to face the movement and lights and this is what I witnessed. Keep in mind the weather was cool, it was overcast with a medium fog. Visibility at street level was just under 100 yards. What I saw was some spokes of lights revolving within a small dense cloud. The cloud was billowing downward; picture a CO2 fire extinguisher being discharged, it was like this...only silent.

The spokes of light were diffused while within the cloud and were of primary and secondary colors, red, blue, yellow, green and orange. The cloud halted it's descent but the lights continued with their downward spiral and began to reveal what they were attached to. What I saw was the bottom of some kind of structure that was spinning and wobbling, then the beams of lights caught me full in the eyes in quick succession: Flashes, FLASH! Funny thing is, while they were intense, bright, they weren't blinding. In fact, they seemed to carry some kind of subliminal images as if carried on a sideband frequency of the light itself.

Now the object was completely clear of the cold mass of the cloud and I could clearly see a disk, silent, hovering just over the tree top and a telephone pole that was near. How near? My best guesstimate is that it was no more than 50 feet up and no more than 75 feet Northwest of where I was standing. The disk itself was probably no more than 25 feet in diameter by 15 feet in height. It hovered there in mid air, spinning at about 30 RPM and wobbling with precession-like movement.

The lights I mentioned before dimmed considerably and I noticed an opaque domed canopy on top of the disk, it glowed from within and I could make out a silhouette of head and shoulders, then the disk began to move in a serpentine fashion toward the street on which I was standing, in fact, I was standing right in the middle of the street and I could see by the crafts' trajectory that it was going to land right in front of me, no more than 30 feet away.

I can remember saying out loud, "Motherf****r, oh WOW!" and asking myself inwardly, "Am I ready for this?"

"Am I ready for this?" I'm thinking and I search my mind for any pertinent information I might possess that could help me now. The only thing that came to mind was something that I read in a book by George Adamski! In the back of one of his books he wrote that if someone should ever find themselves in this situation that they should show the UFO occupants your car/house keys, presumably this would indicate to them just what a smart cookie you were because you belonged to a race that could work metals.

I might as well have drawn a blank, but then I hefted my book bag and quickly, mentally, performed a personal inventory. I had on me about 20 pounds of college text books on engineering, chemistry, and trig/calculus mathematics, a calculator, a watch, a Buck knife and my friggin' key ring (Thanks, George! You crazy Pollock).

This inventory took all of about 5 seconds as I continually watched the disk coming closer and closer. Ready or not, it was time for me to move. I hefted my book bag one last time and started sprinting towards the craft and the spot where I thought it would land. Another person probably would have run the other way but I was really excited and wasn't about to miss this opportunity, even if I had to tackle this thing to bring it down and gain access.

I had run about 20 feet or so when every thing went blank. This is where my missing time started, about two and a half hours total. I've recovered some memories of this missing time by various means but that's another story and besides I'm just dealing with my real honest to goodness memories here. So, here's what happened next:

Seamlessly, it seems that I went from running toward the craft to being suspended in the air. I could see my right foot, the top of a tree and the roof of a nearby building, these things were getting closer. I was being floated down to the ground, my right foot touched the curb and I was released. I took a few steps then turned my head to see the disk over my right shoulder. It was now on the opposite side of the street and ascending in the same manner in which it arrived. A small dense cloud engulfed it, and then it was gone.

Watching it go I had the most abhorring feeling, the hair on my body stood straight and bristled. I shrugged it off and turned to go. When I got to where I was going, which was only three doors down the block, the first person I saw had a very strange and wild look in his eyes as he let me in. Another friend there said that they had been worried about me, that they had expected me hours ago. I said nothing about the thing that had just happened, I don't think I could have and I still have my suspicions that the encounter was a group abduction.

The next morning I was shaving when I noticed a BB sized lump under my skin between my nose and cheek about an inch below my right eye, I thought "cyst" but wondered how it could just appear overnight. I didn't put two and two together until after I read Jacobs' Secret Life.

A couple of days after the incident I was in a supermarket parking lot, I had bought a number of local newspapers to check the want ads. I was sitting in my car reading the papers when I came across a large ad, it was 2 in. x 4 in. and in bold type said, "IF ANYONE SAW ANYTHING UNUSUAL on the night of (gives date), near the intersections of (gives location), between the hours of (gives time). PLEASE CONTACT (gives name and number)" ..... Realization sets in, no doubt about it, someone else saw it, saw me, saw me and it! All of a sudden I became very flushed, my face and neck felt like it was on fire then I became nauseated .....VERY NAUSEATED. I opened the car door, rolled out onto the asphalt and on all fours puked my guts out.

Post hypnotic aversion therapy? Hey! I think I'm getting over it!

J@X
__________

I don't know where this came from so no credit - sorry. A good story though! Thanks to whomever this happened to for sharing! I would like to hear the rest of the story!

Thursday's Child

Thursday, September 18, 2008

CONVERSATIONS WITH AN ABDUCTEE

FROM UFO DIGEST

by Dirk Vander Ploeg

I was introduced to a woman who states that she and her entire family interacted with several extraterrestrial alien races for many decades.

This remarkable woman's name is Evelyn B. and she is 72-years old. Before she retired, she worked as a reporter. She has a very unique view of her visitors and claims to have felt no fear while in their presence.

For the past five months we have been corresponding by email. A friend named "MJ" suggested I write Evelyn because she was a nice person and had a great story to tell.

After reading sections of her story she seemed detached from her experiences with the visitors. It is as if she was an observer and the events she was retelling were those of someone else. When I pointed this out to her she said, "Interesting question, Thanks. My 'almost detached' reporting style: definitely a mark of maturity! Having been a reporter helps."

She recalls in great detail encounters with races known as "The Nordics," "The Invisibles" and "The Greys."

The Nordics and Invisibles

She remembers her first encounter with aliens in September 1938. Her family was staying at her grandmother's house in Martinburg, West Virginia, when their neighbor's daughter brought some visitors to their yard. Evelyn describes them as "beautiful blond people." They looked college age, were bright, friendly and athletic.

Evelyn's family members walked toward and met the strangers in her grandmother's driveway. Within a few minutes of polite conversation, the topic turned to the possibility of life on other planets. They mutually agreed that life probably did exist on other planets and Mars was probably the best candidate. The science of the day believed there were canals on Mars and Flash Gordon's movies and Saturday afternoon serials made alien life almost acceptable. She remembers that the young people appeared delighted with the discussion and called us, "Open minded!"

At some point she accompanied her eldest sister up the street to fetch her middle sister because it was time to eat. They had just begun walking up the street when Evelyn was "summoned" to a tree across the street. She knew or realized that a man was there who wanted to ask her questions. Evelyn's eyes were special and she states that, "as a child, my eyes were sensitive to subtle light energy and I was assigned to lead family members in the dark more than once."

She crossed the street and arrived at the tree, which bordered on a large field. As if directed, she turned and looked where she knew the man was standing, but only sensed the vibration in the air. Decades later the alien in the movie, "Predator," reminds her of this man!

Within seconds her eldest sister was at her side. Her eyes were wide with anticipation and the hair on her arms stood straight up. She explained to her sister that they were staring at an "invisible man"! She told the man that they had to leave and find their sister. Suddenly, Evelyn saw something move and realized that a woman was moving around the tree. She heard her tell the invisible man that they were out of time and had to go. The man leaned over and touched her shoulder saying" "You're a good little girl."

Then both sisters quickly ran away.

When they arrived at the house where their sister was visiting, they were surprised that the girls were reluctant to open the door. They were afraid. They had encountered a man near the same tree, but he was dressed in a silver suit, wide belt and strange buttons. He asked the girls to follow him to the hills to meet his people. (Sounds like a horror movie or pedophile).

The story about the people in the silver suits soon overshadowed her tale of "the invisible man."

Her grandparents remembered the gypsy caravans that camped on the outskirts of town and of the stories of children going missing. They warned the children again to be polite but under no circumstances go anywhere with a stranger.

Later that night, Evelyn was sitting on the porch as her grandfather smoked his pipe when she felt an "invisible woman" approaching. The woman whispered into her ear, "We came from out there in the stars" and added, "Far, far away." Apparently, Evelyn's entire neighborhood had been visited by blond extraterrestrials. Evelyn had continued encounters with the Nordics and "the invisibles" for over a decade.

The Greys

In 1944, Evelyn and her family were living in Somerville, New Jersey. One day she and her oldest sister were in the upstairs office of a bottling plant when they were taken! Evelyn calls this period of time "the TERROR stage" of their continuing relationship with the Greys. Upon regaining consciousness they experienced nose bleeds, distorted space and out of body experiences (OBEs).

This introduction to the Greys was a very strange period for the entire family. Neighbor pets went missing and then suddenly reappeared with shaved patches and clean incisions. Their own cat was taken twice, only to be returned shaved, treated with bloodless wounds.

The family was living in North Carolina in 1948. They had just returned home late after a dinner out. Upon opening the front door, they were surprised to see the entire living room bathed in blue mist. And they heard, "Come in, we won't hurt you." And then time stopped.

The next thing the family, mom, dad, and the three girls, realized was that they were walking on Virginia Beach, when Evelyn shouted, "What's the matter with you all? Why are you acting like nothing happened? We've got to get out of here!" Her sisters remember their father saying something about waiting for their pet to return.

Evelyn was in Jacksonville, Florida in 1950. She remembers seeing flying saucers and one of them landed near her. Three Greys approached her apartment building. One of the trio stood guard at the entrance, a second waited outside their apartment and the third entered. He was bald with a smashed-in profile and had a notable pallor.

Evelyn remembers they were wearing tight fitting jumpsuits and their eyes were covered with goggles. The gray in their apartment approached the eldest sister and telepathically conveyed the following, "We did not come for you this time." Evelyn had the ability to hear their communiqués. They were having problems because they had overly complicated something and were trying to establish better relationships.

Later leaving, the Gray said, "You will not remember this."

Evelyn said that bits and pieces of the events with extraterrestrials have come back to her, but it was her curiosity that made her seek out help and undergo hypnotic regression in 2003 to regain more memories.

She is hoping to undergo more hypnotherapy to answer questions, which have arisen since her last regression. She would really like to know why she told her mother that a monster, which resembled "The Wolf Man", was chasing her and her sister! Evelyn wonders if this type of alien is like the Yeti: a race resembling Chewbacca from Star Wars?

Fleeting memories of the dark haired people sneak back and she contemplates the possibility that the man her sister and friend saw wearing a silver suit was one of them?

Evelyn's Opinion of the Visitors

She does not believe that Greys are evil, but rather "cool and strange." She also likes the Nordics and the Invisibles. She thinks the Invisibles might be mistaken for angels and remembers one with black hair. She also has a memory of a stranger she saw in the background with black hair. He was wearing a janitor-like outfit and was a bit shorter than the Nordics.


My Questions to Evelyn

Dirk: Do you believe the Nordics are here to protect us from other ETs?

Evelyn: The Nordics: I didn't get any "police protection" vibes from ones I'm able to identify. Those struck me as young adults doing social studies "in the field" - new to and excited about the project. Because of events in 1938, I'd say, "Invisibles" were linked to the" Nords." If the invisible man at the tree was the same man my sister had met, unless they're "shape shifters" they may have been humans or a breed that looks like Europeans: Average size, black hair, and dark eyes. In stealth gear, those I remembered as a preschooler could observe without being observed - why would one interact with a child, while cloaked: It suggests some sort of study was in progress. (Wonder what they'd conclude, concerning a 4-year old being less frightened by an invisible than her 8-year old sister was of a man in silver?)

Dirk: Do you believe the Greys are a threat to humans?

Evelyn: I'd be surprised if Greys are still on the planet. Their "files" could have been "handed over" to other ET types, maybe clones or human initiates.

Why are They Here?

I'd say they were well-trained professionals - like union members - Docs collecting eggs or sperm didn't cross over. Troops I met may have had kids back home (on aboard their ship) who'd have loved something equivalent to sharing scrapbooks or learning hop-scotch, once they got past how strange I seemed. Greys may have taken time to discuss cultures with our big shots - having greater respect for those who have power over others. They are selective as are many humans. One Gray squad leader bothered to give information even though he was under orders to seal our memories. That suggests to me, some sociability. Perhaps he'd like a similar "courtesy" in some reverse situation. I find this too human-like to ignore.

There may be no superior race involved - only superior science!

As I've pointed out - they did provide a "good nurse" person to help this hysterical little teenager calm down a bit. I wasn't in a dispassionate state - seeing my whole family frozen, which is likely the reason we didn't exchange small talk. I'm sure I was kept mobile so I could demonstrate how buttons open a placket on the side of one's slacks. They requested, "Please show us how" - can you imagine asking an ant to please show you anything? This is not the tactics of brutes. They weren't rapists or thugs and we weren't lab rats, any more than we are at the local medical center.

Dirk: What do you believe their agenda is?

Evelyn: I feel we had all have been very "setup" for all encounters. I noticed more than once, events of "High Strangeness" have a very "scripty" quality. However, isn't that like Madison Avenue type thinking? Such "clever" ploys, you could puke.

Maybe some of them can't think six steps ahead to what protocols are going to produce a couple of generations down the road. They may be every bit as ignorant ("forgive them, they know not what they do") as many of our "Uh-Oh!" leaders who got a different outcome than what was schemed. I'm determined to keep their unsettling behaviors in perspective. Believe me, it works. The key, I believe, is to measure them against human equivalents. Aren't there even worse humans around?

Greys have been around longer, their technology is leaps and bounds ahead of ours, but I think we're more like "country cousins" than lower life forms to them. Their guys just have more fascinating toys than ours. Being motivated by more than curiosity, they may have had little to make light of in our presence. They're as frail as they are pale, they may indeed be in survival mode. They may be elsewhere, working on other possibilities, by now.

Reality is so much more complex than we're taught to expect or to "embrace" - Creation is so unlimited, compared to what our universities explore - we need to teach expansive thinking! Outside the box" that boxes the boxes!

Evelyn remembers "TOO REAL DREAMS", a type of virtual reality that was used on her to demonstrate possible future events. She was a witness to end of the world scenarios: such as a 5-story tidal waves, giant boulders emerging from swamps, wind so cold she had to seek shelter, ground upheavals, the sound of crying and wailing.

She believes she was told to "keep the faith". That some natural disaster was approaching that would last 3-days and then the world would be like new.

Conclusions

As I mentioned in the opening paragraphs of this article, Evelyn's statements and answers are detached and what I would expect in light of her experiences with her extraterrestrial visitors.

She states that she believes that the Greys are "cool and strange." She seems to be completely willing to ignore, forgive and rationalize the actions of the Greys.

Her first encounter with the Greys was in 1944 when she and her sister were abducted from the bottling plant. Her own words describe this period as, "The TERROR stage of our relationship with ETs had begun!"

An example of this rationale can be taken from one of her emails to me, "while they worked on me, but had the courtesy to provide a trained team member to comfort and distract me (her) during my forced (physical) exam." So she believes its O.K. to rape her as long as someone tells her "It's alright." She appears by her own words to be completely mesmerized by the Greys.

Again, she tells about the trio of Greys that came to their family's apartment and admits they blocked the doorways, preventing escape, and admits (albeit telepathically) to the kidnapping the eldest sister, by saying: "We did not come for you this time."

When the entire family was taken and suddenly found themselves walking on the sands of Virginia Beach. Evelyn shouts out, "What's the matter with you all? Why are you acting like nothing happened? We've got to get away from here!" Her yelling shocked her family out of their trance-like state and they collectively asked what she was going on about? She admits that she then went blank, but was terrified.

Evelyn also remembers her family being frozen as members were examined. All of the evidence, her evidence, paints a picture of the Greys not as being "cool and strange," but rather evil and demonic.

Evelyn is putting pen to paper and writing her family's experiences. She plans to publish the tale in the near future. Keep a lookout for "Sometimes You Just Have To Wonder!"

Thursday's Child

Sunday, September 14, 2008

HARRY KING

By Thursday's Child

In 1982 the UFO Contact Center International decided to take a very long trip to find a place inland where contactees/abductees could move. They felt that the coast was in jeopardy of caving in because of the earthquake faults. One place we visited was Alamosa, Colorado.

We had an experience there! Alamosa is where the first publicized mutilation took place on "Snippy" the horse. We asked around town about the incident and the old timers told us it was on Harry King's ranch and then told us how to find Harry. Snippy's bones are supposed to be on display at the College in Alamosa.

We were more interested in Harry King. (There are several things in this report from Harry that have not been known publicly.) We drove out to where we had been advised to go. After finding the wrong farm we finally found the King Ranch. Barbed wire fence and gates with signs all over saying No Trespassing and Keep Out! I saw Harry putting his car away as a storm was coming. I yelled at him while standing at the gate. He came over to see what we wanted and then invited us in. Just in time too, as the storm hit right then.

While driving down the dirt road to his farm we saw these huge Australian Jack Rabbits. They had black ears and feet and a cute little black bunny tail. Harry told us that they had proliferated so much that next they imported Jaguars to thin them out. I have not heard if the Jaguars are still in that area or not.

Poor Harry. He was a bachelor - 79 years old - lived all alone. He was a devout Morman. He said that the "Holy Ghost" told him things and if you were a Mormon he told you even more!

Harry was sure the government had mutilated Snippy to create a diversion away from the activities happening on Mt. Blanca to the east of him. He told us that sheep and rabbits had been mutilated during that same time period but it never got into the papers. Also said they saw foot prints of unusual shape 12 feet apart around Snippy. He never reported that either.

Harry also told us about "government" flying saucers that had flown all around his ranch and had scared the people in their cars on the highway by flying up and over them. He told us that one landed in his yard but by the time he got outside to see who was in it, it flew away. He also said that one day one of these little ships landed and a man got out that was the pilot. He said his name was Larry Childs! I almost fell over. Larry is head of MUFON in Seattle now and a very good friend. Harry said he was invited to take a ride in the little ship. I cannot recall if he said he did or not.

Harry had much more to say and it wasn't about UFOs. He was anxious to tell us what happened one day when he went into town to his bank. Alamosa is a college town and the students were on the sidewalk yelling "Hitler, Hitler" and pointing to the bank. This was 3 days before the war ended. Well Harry didn't know what they were talking about but when he walked into the bank, Hitler was walking out and ran into him. He said there was no mistaking him! Later Harry found out that Hitler's cousin was the President of the bank. He also told us Hitler had owned a horse ranch over near Denver before the war started. I have never researched this to find out if it was true or not but it makes for an intriguing story, like how did Hitler get there? And where did he go? Something we will never know the answer to.

Thursday's Child

Thursday, September 11, 2008

AMAURY RIVERA TORO ALIEN ABDUCTION CASE

From Phantom and Monster's Blog

I was born and raised in New York City. I was working as a waiter in one of the major hotel chains when I received an alarming phone call from one of my aunts. She informed me that my grandmother was terribly ill. My grandmother was the woman whom I considered to be my mother. I just had to go to Puerto Rico where she lived to see her.

Puerto Rico 1988

When I arrived on the island I was amazed by its beauty. After being there a few days my grandmother recuperated and I was able to make my brief visit a real vacation. Upon returning to New York City I found myself constantly thinking about Puerto Rico. Something was pulling me -- drawing me in like a magnet. I phoned my aunt out in PR and expressed to her my feelings. I told her that I wanted to come out and live on the island. She reminded me that the employment situation on the island was pitiful.

Without knowing why I lifted my roots. I either sold, or gave away, everything that I owned and headed towards the island. Even though it was the birth place of my parents I really didn't know PR. I was like a stranger in my own land. Even its roads were unfamiliar to me.

One of my cousins had heard over the radio about a job opening at a local night club. The waiters job suited me perfectly. I landed the job and bought myself an old jalopy of a car as a means of transportation to and from my new job.

Everything went fine until the night before Mother's Day. A few days before this event the same cousin who had helped me obtain my job called me up to ask a favor of me. She asked me to please photograph one of her favorite musical groups, which was going to be appearing at the night club where I was working.

The night before Mother's Day I arrived at the nightclub toting my cousin's 110 Instamatic Camera. The club was packed and I was barely able to snap some pictures of the musical group called "El Gran Combo." I managed to take a few. When the night was over I headed home. My feet were aching and all I could think at the time was about getting home and having something to eat.

I took the usual route home, the one which one of my other relatives had showed me to utilize going to and from the night club. I was driving very slowly. It was about 4:30 a.m. I had to keep in mind what some of my family members had warned me about; they said that while driving along these country roads one had to watch out for stray cows or horses that often wandered on to the roads. What they really should have warned me about was something else!

As I drove through this lonely stretch of unpopulated country road named "La Bajura" (literally translated means "the low part"), I came across a thick mass of fog, I didn't find this strange because I had encountered this cloud of fog other times on my way home from work. I slowed down even more so and kept my eyes on the road at all times. Suddenly I heard what I initially thought were the sounds of hooves on the paved road. Calves? The sound was coming from the left side, the driver's side, my side.

I turned my head towards where the sound was emanating from and to my great surprise what I saw in that moment changed my whole sense of reality. Jogging alongside my old car was a... midget? child? "What the ____ is it?", I remember thinking to myself. My mind was going wild. I didn't know what to think. Demons? "Oh, my God, it's a demons," I thought. I was scared beyond description. This thing was about three or four feet tall. It had a huge head and black bulging eyes. The eyes are what really freaked me out. The being looked at me with those black pools it had for eyes and it had a strange effect on me. This thing had eyes that seemed to penetrate my very being. They were like those of a Pekingese dog except a lot larger. Its skin was white, almost like if it were wearing clown makeup. The nose was a pugged one and the mouth was no more than a slit. It wore what seemed to be a small one piece suit; the color being olive green. What in hell was this? The farthest thing from my mind was that this strange creature was an extraterrestrial being. At that place in time I didn't think about space beings or UFOs. My mind did not ponder into those realms.

I didn't believe in UFOs so I didn't think about UFOs or their occupants. I was so frightened and nervous that when I attempted to speed away from the horror, instead of stepping on the accelerator I stepped on the brakes. When I was about to move on I see movement on the right hand side in front of my car. Coming in from the fog was that same creature. How could this be? I though. How did it get from where it was running beside my door to where it was located now? In those few precious moments in which I debated whether to run the thing over with my car something even more unexpected occurred. Someone or something opened my car door. I jerked my head to the left and then it was staring at me. There were two. Not one -- but two. I gasped and held tight to the steering wheel. My foot felt like lead on the brake pedal. Mentally I prayed to God and asked him to forgive my many sins. I urinated in my pants and helplessly passed out.

When I woke up I had no idea of my whereabouts. I was still seated in my car but I was no longer on the road. I found myself in a strange place where there were other cars. These other cars were empty. I distinctly remember looking around for a sign that would read "Exit." There were none in this place that looked like an underground parking lot. There were no doors that I could see; no windows either. The colors of the walls were a non metallic light gray. As I sat there confused and gripping the steering wheel, the thing appeared next to the drivers seat door -- mine. This time I did not hear it approach my car. I just happened to look towards my left in search of a way out and there it was. Those eyes! It reached out to me with its skinny arm. The hand, I noticed, had five fingers but they were all about the same length. With his white hand he, or it, touched me. He placed the palm of its tiny hand upon my forehead. With this action on the creatures behalf, I faded into darkness.

When I gained my mind I found myself seated in another room along with 14 other people. This room was also the same color as the previous one; a light gray. There were no light fixtures visible to the eye, yet the place was illuminated. I saw no doors or windows. The rest of the people looked as terrified as I felt. None of us spoke. Out of what seemed nowhere, from some point of departure behind us, walked in the two small beings and right behind them came a man.

This man was dressed in a black shirt and black pants. His shoes were of the same color. His skin was a dark tan complexion. Like the skin color of an Arab or a Hindu. He did not appear to be tall; maybe 5 feet 7 inches or so. He stood before us and the two small beings situated themselves -- one to his right, the other to his left. This man with long black shoulder length hair spoke to us in perfect Spanish. He claimed to be as human as we are but from a different planet, another world which rotates around an alien star (sun). (Emphasis added - TC)

In this room the extraterrestrial human displayed to us all various projections which seemed to be totally real in appearance. At the end of these events, the small beings (the ones that the ET human had informed us were in fact made by his people) touched every one of us on the forehead. Everything went away and I awoke seated in my car.

It was now daylight outside and I was in a different area of my home town. At the time I didn't have any idea of where I was. I knew this was not the "Bajura Road." Where was I? I had woken up in a total state of confusion and I couldn't stop crying. The Bajura was a paved road and this was a dirt road.

The next thing I knew, I heard the roar of military jets flying above. When I looked out the window of my car I saw it for the first time. It was hovering without making a single sound. The F-14 Tomcats were on their way back. Like a zombie I took hold of my cousin's camera and found the disc-shaped object through the lens. I just stood there observing it through the lens when suddenly out of nowhere I started to hear a strange beeping sound. Automatically I would snap a photo on every second beep. Beep-beep-snap-beep-beep-snap.

The disc tilted itself at an odd angle and shot off straight into the sky. The jets flew into formation and they took off frustrated in their
attempts to ground the alien aircraft.

After this experience my life was never the same. These photographs have brought me lots of grief. In the near future I hope to be able to publish my book which I'm now completing, where my experience in its totality will be described in depth. There are many wonderful things out there awaiting us, but let us not forget the many wonderful things that we have right here on earth... Amaury Rivera Toro
________
NOTE: I met Amaury in Las Vegas at the International UFO Congress. He had come there to tell his story but he was so frightened he was shaking all over. I went up to him and tried to calm his nerves. We immediately liked each other and I felt he trusted me. There is much more to his story he hasn't relayed in this article.

For one thing information that he had taken the pictures of the UFO got out. Next thing you know the Feds came to his grandmother's house where he lived and raided it looking for the pictures. They went through all the drawers in the house and made a big mess. When Amaury heard that they were coming he hid the pictures inside the dog house in the roof. Of course the Feds didn't want to stick their arm in there with a big dog that might bite them so they didn't even look.

Another thing; if I remember correctly, there were two jets chasing the big UFO. One was sucked up by the UFO and that was the last they heard of it or the pilot. The other one was in pursuit when Amaury took the picture. Amaury gave us permission to print that picture on the front cover of our magazine, The Missing Link. For others he did not give permission but many obtained the picture for their own use. He had copyrighted it because he knew that picture was very important. It was proof. I am glad he is writing a book. I wonder when he wrote this piece because it could be that the book was never finished, or if it was written recently, then perhaps it will be published shortly.

Thursday's Child

Sunday, September 7, 2008

SHADOW OF ANOTHER WORLD

By Richard D. Seifried
Journal of the Fortean Research Center

The following article does not deal with UFO's. However, anyone who has been in the investigative business for long knows that no matter how one tries, fringe mysteries keep appearing in cases. The so-called Bigfoot is one of them. I have refrained from including UFO cases that have Bigfoot material in them. In fact I have never investigated such a case; but others have. Some of the people are very sincere, intelligent, and sometimes badly frightened witnesses.

The witnesses in the article are all very reputable. Most are shy in revealing such bizarre experiences. The Native Americans in the document do not have this problem. To them, the Bigfoot legend is a part of their heritage; a small segment of their environment. They neither boast of their experiences nor accept the shallow explanations of their white neighbors.

As for myself, not only am I fairly well educated but I am also a well trained woodsman. I am very comfortable presenting this information because I know what I have experiences. A Bigfoot spoor, for example, i not easily confused with a Grizzly Bear's paw print. I am somewhat of an expert on this point.

At a time in the history of UFO studies when we find ourselves going back and reassessing formerly rejected material, I submit this to you for your critical, analytical evaluation.

... Disbelief overwhelmed me and I brushed my fingers before my eyes, trying to regain reality.

It was still there.

Dark, clearly visible, yet illusive, the specter seemed to glide rapidly across the roadway. Immediately the intense forest shadows enveloped the creature in a blanket of seclusion.

Thoughts, memories, and images from the past rushed at me. What had begun twenty-three years ago had reached a visual climax. I had seen the apparition.

My quest for the truth began in the spring of 1964. While hiking in the rain forest of Olympic National Park, overwhelming odors of soured meat, garbage, and offal had assailed my nostrils.

The putrid stench emanated from a cave entrance a half-dozen feet above my head. Instinctively I assumed that a bear was above me. I hurried on. Inexperience had prevented me from realizing that no bear, however offensive, smelled quite that bad.

I immediately put the experience out of my mind.

Months later, after we moved away, I received a newspaper clipping. It reported that a giant ape-like creature had been seen on the outskirts of Hoquim, Washington. That wasn't very far from the rain forest. For the first time I wondered if the smells, so extremely disagreeable, had really been from a bear. Perhaps not.

My next encounter with a mysterious creature took place on a Saturday of July in 1977. I was hiking up the rugged slopes of Steen Mountain, in the Salmon National Forest, Idaho.

The trail led out onto a very steep meadow. Below, apparently from within an island of firs, a powerful roaring sound welled upslope, assailing my ears. My mind conjured up the image of Gargantua, the famous circus gorilla of the 1940s.

Never before or since have I experienced such a powerful, chesty roar. There is no animal that I am aware of that can duplicate what I heard; not even a male grizzly.

Two days later I told my boss about the sound. He informed me that the previous April two United States Forest Service employees had experienced a frightening encounter. I was able to interview one worker.

One morning, around 2:30 am, the two men were driving home from a visit to the town of Salmon, Idaho. Fearing that the driver would fall asleep, they steered their pickup off the side of the road at Waggonhammar Springs. A cold drink of water would awaken them.

As Troy, the man I interviewed, stepped out of the truck that morning, his companion, who was already walking toward the spring, suddenly screamed in terror. Troy ran to the front of the truck and saw nothing. However, he did hear the crashing of underbrush as a huge animal made its way back into the forest.

His young companion was in shock. When Troy got him calmed down the youth explained that there had been a gigantic ape-like creature sitting on a boulder, watching them.

The two men had confronted the animal at the mouth of the same canyon where I had heard the roaring sounds; 3,000 feet above the road.

Naturally everyone, except my two supervisors, laughed when I told my story. I went into detail about the odors I had experienced thirteen years before.

At the end of the winter of 1977-78, one of my supervisors and another employee were scattering grass seed upon a snow-covered slope of a mountain. The spreader was towed behind the truck, with one worker manning the machinery.

A slight breeze wafted up slope. Earl, my summer boss, and his companion caught the horrible scent I had described. Frightened, the two men scrambled into the cab of the pickup, rolled up the windows and locked the doors. Hurriedly, they bumped and rumbled down the mountain road, away from the terrible smell. The location was a mere three miles from the place where I heard the roaring sounds.

During the summer seasons of the early and mid-1980s, I worked in Glacier National Park as a Ranger Naturalist. By then my curiosity had been greatly aroused about the crazy stories of a gigantic creature living in the vastness of the northern Western states.

Having read about a "Bigfoot" sighting at Logan Pass in Glacier Park I asked the District Ranger about the incident. Bob became extremely irritated and said that such stories were a lot of nonsense.

Over the years I became friends with several of the BLackfeet who were employed by the National Park Service. They believed that the creature existed, whatever it was.

They told me that one winter, citizens of the tiny community of Babb, Montana, located on the eastern side of Glacier National Park, stood outside in the snow, listening. An animal of some sort was running back and forth along the nearby ridge top. As it moved the animal emitted bone chilling screams.

The local Deputy Sheriff was called. By the time he arrived the sounds had stopped. The next morning he found huge, but obscure, prints in the snow and a large patch of woolly fur, snagged on a barb of a wire fence. He gave the fur to the District Ranger.

I was told that the patch of hair was sent to a university laboratory in Bozeman, Montana. Somehow it h ad been "lost." A report was issued indicating it had been grizzly bear fur.

The Blackfeet didn't believe the report.

When I heard that story I realized that the mystery had greatly aroused my curiosity. Try as I would to avoid it, the topic kept coming up in conversations not initiated by me.

One winter, the year escapes me, my family and I attended a spaghetti dinner at my childrens elementary school. This was in Ohio where I now reside.

A gentleman who is now an official of a local community sat next to me. Since we shared a love for the Northern Rockies we began talking about the area. Without my mentioning the subject of the mystery creature, the friend began telling me about his experience.

Years before, he had been employed by the United States Forest Service. He was a trained Civil Engineer and had been part of a small crew surveying an area far back in the Jim Bridger Wilderness Area of Wyoming. One night, as the crew members sat around their campfire, strange, high-pitched cries alerted them that a large, unknown animal was also on the mountain.

Although it was in violation of Federal law, one of the men had packed in a disassembled 22-caliber rifle. He took the weapon from his pack and put it together. The others protested his disregard for the law. Ignoring them, he announced that in the morning he was going t hunt the animal that was making the screaming noises.

At dawn he was gone. Not knowing what else to do or which way the man had gone, the remaining crew members spent the day surveying.

That evening they returned to camp. Their companion had not returned. Next morning he was still absent, so they began searching for him.

They found the rifle first. It was lying alongside the trail, its barrel bent into a "U" shape. Next to the trail the land plunged into a deep canyon. At the base of the cliff they saw the lifeless form of their companion.

"What did the Forest Service do?," I asked.

"Do? Why, they did nothing."

"Nothing?," I echoed.

"That's right. Nothing. The area was closed off to all travel for the remainder of the season. Of course, they brought the body out."

In July of 1985, my wife, youngest daughter and I were hiking along a heavily forested trail in Glacier National Park. The season had been very hot and dry. But that morning some precipitation had fallen. Moisture had settled the thick trail dust.

I was in the lead, for grizzly frequented the trail. Again the phantom entered my life. There before me in the moist earth, was a perfect footprint. It appeared to be of human origin. Five toes, delicate arch, well-proportioned heel--all were clearly evident. Because of the slender gracefulness of the imprint, I took it to be from a female. The length was greater than my heavily booted feet.

Most amazing was the fact that there was but one print, crosswise in the trail. No one else had been on the trail since it had rained the previous night.

Whatever made the impression had a most unusually long stride. One step down and out of the forest onto the middle of the trail and the next footfall must have been on the downhill slope, well beyond the trail itself.

In wonder I paused and marveled at the spoor. My daughter, for some reason, would not look at it. My wife looked and after a pause, turned away. Nowadays, she comment that is must have been something else. "Perhaps a deer made it," she says.

Most importantly, the footprint marked a turning point in my attitude toward the so-called "Bigfoot." If I was to continue to maintain a scientific attitude... open-mindedness, as a rule, then I had very hard evidence to deal with.

Still, reason dictated that any such creature would have been killed or captured by man. Only rumors indicated that this had happened. Continually I asked myself how it could remain virtually unseen. What did it eat? What exactly was I trying to identify?

In May of 1987 I stopped in Chouteau, Montana, to visit with an acquaintance. When Jim discovered that my summer assignment was Crater Lake National Park, he had stated, "Be sure that you carry a five pound bag of plaster of Paris with you."

Laughing at the prospect of doing so, I asked, "why?"

"Because," he unsmilingly responded, "that is Bigfoot country and you might be lucky enough to see a footprint. So, be sure to make a cast of the imprint."

Although I didn't take his advice seriously I did decide to check up on any Crater Lake sightings. In doing so I discovered that there had been perhaps four; all I was informed, by experienced National Park employees. One report I never found. Three were recorded in a history book of the park entitled, The Smith Brothers' Chronological History, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon.

The first recorded sighting occurred on June 8 or 9, 1976. The Chief Naturalist, a George Morrison, observed a Bigfoot walking upright across the road in the southern part of the park. He claimed the creature covered the distance across the road in four giant steps. Since it was twilight, the color and shape were difficult to describe. An investigation revealed no footprints.

Two Rangers, Vic Affolter and Marion Jack, had a strange experience during the summer of 1978. They were at the Pacific Crest Trail junction with the West Road of Crater Lake National Park. The two Rangers heard "....something large crashing through the forest." As they listened, the unseen animal threw a pine cone in their direction. Next, they detected an overwhelmingly powerful odor.

Of the Crater Lake sightings, Roger Wade's was probably the best. Again it occurred on the West Entrance Road.

Wade reported "...seeing a Sasquatch, upright-type animal." It was fifty yards ahead of his car. Its fur was a light brown or cinnamon. Contrary to most Bigfoot reports, Roger estimated the animal to be six feet tall. Another difference was that the sighting occurred at 9 am, not in the evening or at night.

Later in the day Roger Wade returned to the site of his encounter. Although somewhat indistinct, large footprints were found. The middle toe appeared to be longer than the others. According to the witness, this is an often reported characteristic of Sasquatch.

Unexplainable odors, sounds, huge footprints, a patch of unidentified fur, and numerous sightings all enabled me, on that beautifully calm night in August, 1987, to recognize and accept what I saw crossing the road.

Even though I felt certain that I had seen the creature, with events so bizarre, there would have always been doubt without some verification. The exaggerated swing of the elbow seemed peculiar. Quickness of step and gracefulness of stride pointed to only one explanation. Whatever it was, the furry monster was a "new" species not yet accepted by the modern world.

But what if there had been nothing?

The next day I reported for duty up at the rim overlooking Crater Lake. When I got out of my government vehicle, a young lady Ranger saw me. She smiled and hurried over.

"I have something to tell you," she exclaimed.

I laughed and responded, "You go first, for something happened to me, too!"

"Last night, after my campfire talk," she began, "the night was so beautiful that I couldn't stay inside our cabin. Placing a chair outside, I sat there with my big dog, looking out over the moonlit valley."

"Shortly after I sat down, a huge animal began smashing branches and logs down along the creek bed. The sounds were the result of tremendously powerful movements from some sort of animal."

"I'm not afraid of wild animals but I was last night." "And you know," she added, "My dog didn't pay the least bit of attention to those crashing sounds. Normally he would have been barking and trying to get loose."

My hair tingled with excitement. The sounds of destruction had come from off the road at exactly the location where my phantom had appeared. The time of her experience was a half-hour after my sighting. The lady Ranger's experience dramatically supported my own encounter.

Reason dictates that something other than the "known" co-exists with us.

Is it truly Sasquatch? Bigfoot? Are there really other dimensions in our natural world? Is the creature a spiritual being? Perhaps he is an illusion of the mind.

Whatever he is, I, like a growing number of other people, know with certainty that he does exist.

We have seen him!


Thursday's Child

Thursday, September 4, 2008

TALES OF A SPACE TRAVELER

By Darrell Laurant

SALEM - The weird thing about William Goodlett is that there's nothing weird about him.

He lives in a big, broad-shouldered Victorian house on an Anytown, USA side street in Salem. The house is cluttered as only someone who reads four books a week can clutter it.

He seemed glad that I had stopped by on a recent Friday morning, but said he didn't have much time to talk to me.

"I've got to run off at 11:30," he told me. "I'm secretary of the Diner's Club and we've got a meeting."

It was just after 10 a.m. Goodlett was dressed in mouse-colored slacks, a slightly darker sweater, a flannel shirt (obviously an old friend), faded running shoes and a western string tie. A robust 78 years old, he resembled everyone's favorite grandfather. When he talked about his travels, which had been extensive to say the least, his eyes crinkled and twinkled.

Either Goodlett had sized me up as open-minded, or else he didn't care. In his occasional glances in my direction, there was no hesitation, no unspoken "you may think I'm nuts, but...."

"I have done astral projection my whole life." he said quietly, "I've been all over the world." Not to mention the galaxy.

A few weeks earlier, a friend had called and asked, "Have you ever interviewed an extraterrestrial?"

Negative. Gurus, yes. Howard Cosell, yes. A snake swallower, yes. So far, though, my interview subjects have been limited to this planet. My slogan is "Earth, love it or leave it."

But I was curious, nonetheless.

"I think you'd enjoy hearing this fellow speak in Rose McKnight's class at CVCC," my caller said. "He'll be there on Halloween."

Alas, I missed him then (it was my daughter's last year for trick or treat), but I did manage to call Goodlett and set up an interview. And in doing a bit of research, I found out that he is a very big deal in the world of astral projection, interplanetary travel and the like.

Ruth Montgomery's best-seller "Aliens Among Us" devotes an entire chapter to him. She calls Goodlett "one of the most fascinating men I ever met."

I had to agree. Even forgetting the astral projection stuff. Goodlett is unusual. He is an artist. He has taught dance, pioneered a method of teaching reading phonetically and served as a cryptographer in World War II.

And he says he travels to other planets -- not just Mars or Saturn. He says he goes to anonymous worlds like "The Planet of the Tall Trees" and "The Planet of the Small Islands."

How?

"I just go," Goodlet said, "I ask to go, and that's it."

Sometimes his requests go unheeded. It happens every few years, and he travels outside of his body.

OK. I thought dreams, vivid dreams, Goodlett shook his head gently, as if correcting a stubborn child.

"With dreams, I'm outside looking in," he said. "I know what a dream is. This is different, I'm there."

When he returns, he makes drawings. He showed me a dozen or so, incredibly elaborate and bizarre, filled with creatures and landscapes unlike anything I had every seen.

You may be interested to know that William Goodlett is not alone. Actress-author Shirley MacLaine has gone on record as believing in astral projection and out of body experiences. The Monroe Institute in Amherst County has been set up to study them. Goodlett gets supportive calls from all over the world, he pointed out, many congratulating him for "coming out of the closet."

Which is nice. But Goodlett doesn't care if people think he's eccentric. Back in 1978, he told me, he died of a heart attack.

"I was sitting in that chair," he said, pointing toward an overstuffed wingback in a corner of his kitchen. "And my heart stopped. I felt myself coming out of my body. I heard beautiful music. I moved toward a light, and then something told me to go back. Since then I haven't feared death."

Or ridicule.

By Goodlett's estimate, thousands of planets in our solar system harbor life, and "600 or so that have humans. I've seen creatures just like us," he said.

Thursday's Child