499 lines
35 KiB
Plaintext
499 lines
35 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: ASSORTED UFO CASES FOR 1991 FILE: UFO2621
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1991 UFO Sightings
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01-14-91 VANCOUVER, BC A UFO organization says tiny worms could hold a clue
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to the mysterious rings that've appeared in fields from England to northern
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British Columbia. The rings've been blamed on everything from whirlwinds to
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UFO's. Scientific analyses of soil from 2 Canadian crop circles show
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astronomically high numbers of microscopic nematodes threadlike, often
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parasitic worms that live in the soil, said Mike Strainic of MUFON. Soil
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samples from rings in Saskatchewan & Dawson Creek were sent to agricultural
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scientists in eastern Canada & the United States. Soil from both rings'd
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identical counts of nematodes 8 times that of inside & outside the rings.
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"Scientists are looking into the significance of the high count," adding that
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more analysis is being done on the samples.
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03-12-91 LOS ALAMOS, NM Oft-maligned UFO-debunker Phillip J. Klass chided
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people who cling to flying-saucer lore, telling a Los Alamos National
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Laboratory colloquium such believers've failed to produce any evidence. Klass
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spends 20 to 40 hours a week investigating reported sightings of unidentified
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flying objects, or UFOs. All're explainable as meteor firefalls, abandoned
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space junk burning up as it re-enters Earth's atmosphere, ball lightning or
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retail UFO kits such as balloons with flares attached. "There's not a single
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piece of physical evidence, a single piece of metal that could not've been
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made in this world...not a single photograph that'll hold up under rigorous
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scrutiny," Klass told about 300 people. Most of'em were Los Alamos
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scientists. He drew laughter as he told of 1 sighting reported by a woman
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who's dog shrank to the ground in terror. The dog was whimpering because it
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was cold out that night. Her sighting on March 3, 1968, was among several
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from people hundreds of miles apart. All reported seeing a cigar-shaped craft
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in the sky over the Midwest. Klass said it was a jettisoned Soviet rocket
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burning up as it fell to Earth. He said 98% of all such sightings come from
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people who sincerely believe they saw a UFO. Kendrick Frazier, editor of
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Skeptical Enquirer magazine, said Klass "is hated & detested by UFO
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believers. He comes up with powerful evidence to puncture holes in their
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claims." Klass, former senior avionics editor with Aviation Week & Space
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Technology magazine, has written 4 books on UFO's, including "UFOs: The
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Public Deceived." Klass criticized former New York Times reporter Howard
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Blum, who's written a book called "Out There: The Government's Secret Quest
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for Extraterrestrials." "Blum's written a book that's essentially fiction &
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labeled it non-fiction."
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03-11-91 CUSTER, S.D. Davina Ryszka says her hobby sometimes makes people
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look at her a little funny. She likes to check into sightings of unidentified
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flying objects. Ryszka's the state director of the Mutual UFO Network, a
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Texas-based non-profit corporation that tries to document UFOs. Ryszka'd like
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South Dakotans to keep their eyes to the skies for unusual objects butn't to
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forget the ground, too. Her group's checking out some puzzling rings found in
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crop fields. Circle-shaped patterns of flattened crops're most common in
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England, but they've also appeared in Japan, New Zealand, the Soviet Union &
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South Dakota. Last year, a circle appeared under a power line in a pasture
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south of Eagle Butte. And last summer, a question mark-shaped depression
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showed up in a Leola-area wheat field. Nobody's been able to explain the
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patterns. Ryszka's been interested in UFOs since she was a teen-ager on her
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parents' ranch in western Montana. There were plenty of UFO sightings there,
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although she's never seen 1. "I've always hoped to." She's sure that reports
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of unexplained events & objects like UFOs point to an exciting conclusion,
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but she's not sure just what it is. "I've read so many accounts from so many
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good, upstanding citizens. They'd have nothing to gain by going public." But
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she'll risk having people "look at you a little funny" in order to be a
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clearinghouse for observations & sightings of things that can't be readily
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explained. Ryszka gets help from a Winner woman, Yvonne Hermsen, who said
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some people might think she's as strange as the crop rings she's
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investigated. "I may get branded as a real nut case." Recently, strange
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lights in eastern South Dakota, possibly from a meteor, were all the rage.
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"They caused a lot of talk & commotion around here."
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03-25-91 BILOXI, Miss. It's been 17 years, but Charles E. Hickson still
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remembers every detail of his intriguing abduction by aliens onto an
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unidentified flying object in Pascagoula in 1973. Hickson, 1 of 4 speakers at
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the first UFO International Conference held in Biloxi, told of his unique UFO
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experience that occurred on a fishing trip with his friend, Calvin Parker.
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Sitting on a bank near a bridge on the Pascagoula River, Hickson & Parker
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unexpectedly saw an unusual round or oblong aircraft about 30 feet long land
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near them. Immediately they were approached by 3 robot-like creatures who
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picked Hickson up & carried him aboard the aircraft. "Calvin fainted so he
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didn't know what'd happened, but I was carried aboard by these robots. Once
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inside an object came out of the wall which seemed to scan my entire body
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from top to bottom. I saw living beings through a window but they never
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touched me or said anything to me." The beings in the window looked similar
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to humans, with light colored skin & normal facial features. "I didn't know
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what was going on. But I felt suspended for about an hour or hour & a half
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while they inspected me." Eventually, the robots took Hickson back outside to
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the river bank & the aircraft left, leaving him in a state of shock &
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disbelief. However, knowing that his experience wasn't his imagination
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playing tricks on him, Hickson's come very strongly to believe that what
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happened to him was a visit by real alien beings who arrived on earth from
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another planet or sphere in what're known as unidentified flying objects.
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He's continued to've contact with the aliens in the years since that time &
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that there'll be further UFO activity in the near future. "There's no doubt
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in my mind that UFOs exist." Also speaking at the conference, which drew
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several hundred UFO enthusiasts from across the Gulf Coast & other parts of
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the United States, were UFO experts Antonio Huneeus, a UFO investigator &
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researcher; Budd Hopkins, an author of UFO books who himself experienced a
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sighting in 1964; & Stanton Friedman, a UFO investigator, scientist, author
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& maker of documentary UFO movies. Huneeus said UFOs're a global phenomenon
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& has recently, since the period of Glasnost in the USSR, been able to study
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many sightings in Russia which were formerly kept secret. Sightings've
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occurred in almost every country around the world. Showing slides of
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photographs said to be taken of actual UFOs, 1 of the problems all legitimate
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UFO investigators must deal with're the people who deliberately take photos
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or make claims which later're proven to be hoaxes. "We do study UFOs
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seriously, & we may not've the final answers, but we do believe we've some
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evidence that some UFO sightings're real." Friedman, who's studied the
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phenomenon for 32 years, is convinced that some UFOs're indeed alien aircraft
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& that the US government's known this to be true since 1947. "None of the
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arguments made by the skeptics can stand up under careful scrutiny. Alien
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visits're the biggest story of the past millenium."
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03-26-91 GRAND FORKS, N.D. A University of North Dakota professor & his
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son've been interviewed about their alleged run-in with extraterrestrials for
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a television show about unidentified flying objects. John Salter & his son
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were interviewed for the television show "UFO Abductions" which its producer,
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Sharron Gayle, said's likely to air on CBS television later this year. The
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interviews'll be combined with actors' portrayals of their alleged 1988
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encounters. Salter says his health's improved in 21 ways since the incident.
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The professor, who chairs the Indian studies department at UND, now teaches
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a class about UFOs.
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04-01-91 Nebraskans who think they've seen ghosts, unidentified flying
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objects or other weird things now've a telephone help line they can call for
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assistance & information. E.A. Kral of Grand Island, an English teacher with
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an interest in paranormal phenomena, started the Nebraska Scientific Claims
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Investigation phone line 3 years ago with a $10,000 donation to the
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University of Nebraska Foundation. "It seems to me it answers the question
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`who do you call?' & it answers it in a responsible, professional manner.
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This' not a matter of reinforcing beliefs. It's a matter of trying to seek
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the truth." A caller to the line got a recorded message saying reports of
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paranormal phenomena could be left on a recording device, & the call'd be
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returned later. The answering machine's located in Omaha, at the University
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of Nebraska Medical Center Dept. of Psychiatry. During regular business
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hours, staff members take messages & either return calls or refer'em to local
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people with expertise in the particular topic of the call. The phone number's
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402-559-5035. Despite limited publicity, about 50 serious callers've
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contacted the phone line, said facilitator Katherine Karrer. More than half
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of the calls've come from students or others doing research on topics in the
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paranormal. The line offers confidential help & information to people with
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questions about the paranormal. Kral saw the need for the phone line after
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his own experience delving into reports of UFOs during the 1970s. Originally
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a believer, Kral became a skeptic after years of research. In the process, he
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realized that people who were curious or concerned about paranormal topics'd
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nowhere to turn for independent, scientific information. People seeking
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information're referred to a collection of materials housed at the McGoogan
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Library of Medicine at the medical center. The collection, which was set up
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with an additional donation from Kral, includes materials by both believers
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& skeptics on each topic. Other calls come from people who've had unexplained
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experiences or've questions about paranormal claims. "It's mostly for people
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who were very uncomfortable with the phenomena. Usually they just really want
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to talk to someone who knows about it." The calls've covered a variety of
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topics, including several ghostly experiences & 1 from a person reporting
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time travel. The phone gets a workout whenever there's publicity about a
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strange phenomenon or when a movie about the occult's released. If that
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pattern holds, the line might get a rash of calls in May following the third
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annual conference on Exploring Unexplained Phenomena in Lincoln. Topics to be
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covered at the May 17-19 conference, sponsored by the Fortean Research Center
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of Lincoln, will include ghosts, crop circles, UFOs & spontaneous human
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combustion. It'll be at the Nebraska Center for Continuing Education. Among
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conference speakers: John Keel, author of several books & articles on the
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unexplained; Larry Arnold, a researcher on spontaneous human combustion;
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Harry Jordan, who says he's evidence of architectural artifacts on Mars;
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William Roll, a parapsychologist; & Budd Hopkins, a UFO abduction researcher.
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There's a fee for the conference.
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04-08-91 EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark. Lou Farish's heard the snickers of those who
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discount talk of cow mutilations, crop circles & extraterrestrial
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kidnappings. But he isn't laughing. He helped organize the third annual
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Ozarks UFO Convention. "I'm assuming the skeptics don't know anything about
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the subject or they don't want to face the implications of the subject. They
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don't want their world disturbed." About 400 people attended. "The
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implication of the subject...is we're definitelyn't alone. I don't know if
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we're in danger. There's that possibility," said the part-time postal clerk
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who publishes a UFO news-clipping service with worldwide circulation.
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"There're beings out there who don't seem to've any hostile intent toward us.
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There're other beings out there who simply don't care they've an agenda to
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carry out & they don't care if we know about it. They're going to do their
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job. Period. I don't know if there're any out there who're hostile or not.
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But the universe's a big place." The conference featured UFO researchers from
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the United States & other countries. Linda Howe, an author & film producer
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from Pennsylvania, spoke about animal mutilations. Farish said a cow was
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mangled in Berryville 2 months ago by an incision produced by high heat,
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along the lines of a laser. Sergei Bulantsev, a UFO researcher from the
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Soviet Union, told conference-goers that aliens in his country're better
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looking than those in the United States. "They're just like Europeans, like
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foreign tourists," he said of the aliens that visit the Soviet Union. "It
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seems to be different teams of aliens're operating in our 2 countries."
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George Wingfield of Glastonbury, England, said circles're being cut out of
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crop fields all over the world. He wasn't sure why the numbers of
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incidents're increasing. "I can't explain, but it does seem that there's been
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a sort of response to the fact that people're & taking interest in these
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sightings."
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04-15-91 EUGENE, Ore. The UFO Contact Center International provides a haven
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from the hostility & ridicule that follows the terror of being abducted by
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aliens, members say. "I tried to talk to a close friend, & now we haven't
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talked since. I get that from a lot of people," center board member Clay
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Kruger said. "But (at the center) I wasn't laughed at, I wasn't ridiculed. I
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could talk to people who'd real good track records, real pillars of society."
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Several members shared their unearthly stories with a small audience at the
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University of Oregon. Kruger's first contact with UFOs occurred in July 1989
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at his home in Kent, Wash. He awakened 1 night to see a cylindrical object
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outside, about 6 by 8 feet. It radiated a purple glow around the back yard &
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later went to the front of the house. Suddenly, he found himself against a
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wall with nothing beneath him. He looked down to see a grass field in his
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neighborhood. Kruger recounted 2 more nocturnal episodes alien contact 1
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featuring a monkey-like being in his living room. Aileen Bringle, director of
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the UFO Contact Center International, said the trauma of her first encounter
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38 years ago led her to organize the center in 1978. Today, there're 60
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regional groups in North America. Bringle, of Federal Way, Wash., described
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her first encounter in 1953. It was midnight. She was asleep in the car next
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to her husband, who was driving west near Pendleton. She awakened to his
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screams & looked out the window to see the entire landscape fully illuminated
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in green. "When something unknown's happening, there's no way to rationalize
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it. We thought it was Hanford blowing up." Eventually the sky darkened & the
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couple went on their way. Since then, Bringle's seen a UFO over Wyoming; been
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told by her ex-husband that 5 aliens entered his bedroom & stomped on a pair
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of shoes; & earlier this year awakened to find fingerprints on the insides of
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her thighs. "That really disturbed me. I live alone." Bringle said the debate
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about UFO contact intensified in 1987 when author Whitley Strieber published
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"Communion," an account of being abducted from his secluded New York cabin.
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"Scoffing at (abductees) is as ugly as laughing at rape victims," he wrote.
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In 1988's "UFO Abductions: A Dangerous Game," Philip J. Klass included a
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"Post Script for Potential Abductees." "If you worry that your teenage
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daughter may be abducted & impregnated with UFOnaut sperm," he wrote, "shift
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your worries to more prosaic causes of pregnancy." Bringle calls Klass a
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"paid debunker." Francesco Pagliaro set up the meeting after reading a letter
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Bringle'd written in Omni magazine. "I know these people're sincere. You can
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see it in their faces."
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04-30-91 COHOES, N.Y. ALIENS GIVE ABDUCTEE GOOD HEALTH, BAD WORK RECORD!
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Cruel-To-Be-Kind Space Magi Implant Disease-Killing Licorice Stick! Jobless
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Victim Laments: `They Ruined My Life, But Cured My Cold!' Were life a
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supermarket tabloid, those headlines'd sum up Richard Price's story. When he
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was 8, aliens did take him aboard their ship. They did implant a substance
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soft, like stale licorice in his stomach, an implant that seemed to keep him
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healthy. They did spoil his employment prospects, messing up his mind so he
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couldn't hold a job. Really. A Florida insurance company took his story so
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seriously it agreed to pay off on a prank UFO abduction insurance policy.
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Price's getting $10 million-a dollar a year for 10 million years. UFO
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devotees & skeptics agree that Price probably believes his own story. UFO
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believers say they can't absolutely prove it, but they're willing to accept
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his tale. Skeptics say they don't have to prove anything that Price proves
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he's a kook every time he opens his mouth. Family, friends, psychiatrists
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these were the first to disbelieve Price's tale. His parents warned himn't to
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talk about it; he kept talking, so they stuck him in a mental hospital when
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he was 17. "I finally denied it all just to get out. After that, I kind of
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kept it quiet." Lately, Price's begun talking again about his alleged
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abduction Sept. 23, 1955 & people're starting to, well, almost believe him.
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"We've no reason to disbelieve him," says Budd Hopkins, author of the 1987
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bestseller "Intruders" about alien visitations. "I've seen nothing that'd
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make me doubt that he's simply telling the truth." Retired University of
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Kentucky psychologist Robert Baker, who's written scholarly articles
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debunking UFO abduction claims, says Price's a harmless crank. People who
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make such claims're what psychologists once called "simple schizophrenics.
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They're not very bright, & they've to've some explanation for their
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inadequacies." Like other UFO abduction claimants, Price's involvement with
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aliens' an ongoing thing. Price says that while driving a cab, he saw 2
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glowing beings in a house. After seeing them, he suffered a 3-hour memory
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lapse during which aliens may've abducted him again, or at least stiffed him
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on cab fare. Price also thinks he's being trailed by 1 of the MIBs-Men In
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Black: human automatons with black clothes & glasses who try to intimidate
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UFO abductees into silence. "I've never heard of a UFO case that can't be
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explained in prosaic or earthly terms," says Philip J. Klass, whose book "UFO
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Abductions: A Dangerous Game" has become something of a bible for UFO
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skeptics. If anyone can prove otherwise, he'll refund the full purchase price
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of all his books. He's also offered $10,000 for proof of an alien abduction.
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Confirmation by the FBI'll satisfy him. Instead of aliens doing the
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kidnapping, "I could sooner believe that they're ghosts or poltergeists or
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some of Santa Claus' mischievous elves." Skeptics & believers admit Price's
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a troubled man. Price says "UFO stress" has kept him from holding a job for
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more than a decade. The incident's hurt his marriage, & his UFO claim
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embarrasses his wife & 3 sons. Price says he wants to see the aliens again &
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ask "'What did you do this for, why did you screw up my life?' If they're
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that advanced, it seems like they'd try to do something to help the person
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they're abducting." The villains're not aliens but people such as Hopkins,
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who perpetuate "this type of stupidity & nonsense," Baker says. "Through
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their naivete & lack of understanding of human psychology, they've ballooned
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this thing into a national headache." Abduction stories appear throughout
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history, tailored to the whimsies of the times. In the Middle Ages, people
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claimed flying dragons swooped down & abducted them. Later, fairies & trolls
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did the kidnapping. In the late 1800s, stories appeared of aliens in
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spaceships like the early dirigibles. In the 1940s, spaceships were
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transformed into the flying saucers popularized by science fiction pulp
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magazines. That's the kind of craft Price describes. While playing in a
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cemetery by his home in nearby Troy, N.Y., Price claims, 2 helmeted aliens in
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red & blue uniforms took him aboard their ship. He couldn't resist, as if his
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will'd been sapped. The aliens, with pinkish-gray skin & about 4 to 5 feet
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tall, showed him a movie then'd him undress so they could examine him. They
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inserted the implant a 4-millimeter-long chunk of dark material & told him to
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leave it alone or he'd die. It lay visible just below the skin until 1989,
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when it broke through & popped out, he says. Until then, Price says, he'd
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been healthy & thinks the implant may've had something to do with it. Since
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the implant came out, he's suffered persistent colds. The implant's intrigued
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UFO investigators. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist's run
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tests on the substance but says he hasn't yet identified it. "I don't know if
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it's animal, vegetable or mineral," says the physicist, who asked that his
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name be withheld. While Price "is a little bit of a crackpot," the physicist
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says he hopes the implant'll prove to be genuine. "Finding other intelligent
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life in the universe'd be completing the Copernican revolution." Implants're
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common in abductees' stories, though Price's among the first UFO
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investigators've been able to study. UFO researchers theorize implants may be
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like radio tags humans use to track wildlife. Price's story's 1 of at least
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1,000 reported cases of people who claim aliens took'em aboard their
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spaceships. 1 of Price's fellow travelers' Ed Walters of Gulf Breeze, Fla.,
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a building contractor who thinks aliens took him on a joyride in 1988.
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Walters says he was photographing UFOs when he suffered a 90-minute memory
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lapse. Under hypnosis, he recalled being taken aboard a spaceship. "It's kind
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of good I didn't have any conscious recall. If I could remember all that
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stuff, I'm sure it'd be very disturbing." David Jacobs, a history professor
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at Temple University in Philadelphia, says he & Hopkins've been awarded a
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grant to find out how many people've been abducted by aliens. Jacobs won't
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say how much the grant was & identifies the source of the money as a "Las
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Vegas financier" who wants to remain anonymous. The details of abductees'
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stories're generally hazy, a sign that they're not fabricating the tales. If
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they were imagining it, dreaming or just plain faking, "every story'd be rich
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& filled with idiosyncratic situations from their own lives. We know this
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from hallucination & fantasy studies." In abductee accounts, the aliens seem
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bored, like medical technicians tired of taking X-rays. "These creatures
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don't seem to've the sensitivity of humans. They've a job to do & they do
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it," says Walter Andrus, director of the Mutual UFO Network in Seguin, Texas.
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"We're not talking about the standard science fiction contact, where 2 equals
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meet in a dramatic situation & exchange presents. We're talking about
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exploitation. Humans're just specimens." Abductees're not publicity seekers,
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investigators say. Of 300 abductees Hopkins' studied, only 9 have allowed
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their names to be used. Price does seek publicity, hoping it'll vindicate
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him. Surprise, he's writing a book. He doesn't feel as if he's cashing in; he
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figures the aliens owe him. Lately, he's gotten some dubious national
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attention. He appeared on the TV tabloid show "Hard Copy" & Joan Rivers' talk
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show & was written up in UFO Universe, the supermarket tabloid of UFO
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magazines. Among the magazine's cover stories: "Elvis Presley's Mysterious
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UFO Connection" & "Strange Pregnancies! What Do Aliens Want With Our Women?"
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The purveyors of such headlines "used to be people looking for God. Now it's
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aliens," says UFO skeptic Baker. "They're looking for aliens instead of God,
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or Jesus, or Moses, or Napoleon. They're to be pitied. They're unfortunate
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people."
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05-13-91 LINCOLNTON, NC Danny Barger of Lincolnton's never seen a UFO, but
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that doesn't keep him from looking for them. Barger's a field investigator
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for the Mutual UFO Network. He looks into people's reports of strange
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sightings & events for evidence of UFOs & for evidence of alien life. Since
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1950, investigators've documented 11 fourth-kind close encounters in North
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Carolina. The fourth kind're those in which a person claims to've actually
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seen an alien being or been abducted. None occurred in Lincoln or Gaston
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County. Right now, Barger's investigating a case in Charlotte. The reports
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|
get strange & stranger, such as 3-finger marks without fingerprints on the
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inside of house windows. Barger keeps more than 300 books on UFOs & magazines
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|
dating back to 1953, when he was 12. Barger himself's never seen a UFO. "I
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don't go out at night looking up at the sky expecting to see one. People say,
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`If I haven't seen it, it's not so.' I've got the interest without seeing it.
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I've met enough people. All these people're not lying. I believe some of the
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sightings're actually UFOs."
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05-18-91 GRAND FORKS, N.D. A UND professor whose story of an encounter with
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aliens was featured on a network television special saysn't only Hollywood
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filmmakers believe in UFOs. John Salter, chairman of Indian studies at UND,
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claims to've come across a group of aliens in 1988 while driving with his son
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|
on a highway near Richland Center, Wis. Studies show that a majority of
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|
Americans recognize the reality of unidentified flying objects & attribute it
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|
to extraterrestrials. The US government's more serious about UFO encounters
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|
than it acknowledges, & even the pope's gotten in on the action. "The
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Vatican, under urging by the Jesuits, has set up a special office to make
|
|
contact with visiting extraterrestrials & offer'em the Mother Church. While
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|
that certainly says we're making progress, my feeling's the
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|
extraterrestrials've a very satisfactory theology in their own right." Salter
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|
watched CBS' special, "Visitors from the Unknown," on a wide screen
|
|
television with a group of 20 people in a lounge in Grand Forks. Salter's
|
|
story climaxed the hour-long show. The 15-minute segment on Salter contained
|
|
footage of an interview with him done in February in Grand Forks, as well as
|
|
narration by Salter & son John. Actors were used to recreate certain scenes.
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|
Salter & his son both claim to've had amnesia right after the alleged
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|
encounter. They later recalled through flashbacks their visit with a group of
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|
aliens. The aliens were short & big-eyed. Their ships were spinning
|
|
saucer-types similar to those in popular movies such as "Close Encounters of
|
|
the Third Kind" & "E.T." Salter claims a larger alien used a "telekinetic
|
|
force" to prevent Salter from hitting the ground after he tripped. The aliens
|
|
also did medical examinations of Salter & his son. Salter also claims that
|
|
the aliens gave him a nose implant & injections in the throat & upper chest
|
|
that've resulted in a long list of beneficial physiological changes. None of
|
|
the changes've been verified by doctors. Salter's colleagues at UND seem to
|
|
believe his story, or at least're too polite to say otherwise. "I've
|
|
encountered virtually no open skepticism. I assume there's some. It just
|
|
hasn't been openly manifested. My UFO courses've been brimful. No sweat with
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|
the students." The aliens were nice & he wouldn't mind seeing'em again.
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05-28-91 HUNT, Texas Unlike its counterpart in England, there's no question
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|
about who built the Kerr County arches. But why Stonehenge II was built's
|
|
just as elusive as the mystery surrounding the prehistoric megaliths rising
|
|
up from the English countryside. "We didn't set out to build Stonehenge,"
|
|
said Al Shepperd, who designed it along with neighbor Doug Hill. "We were
|
|
just messing around with rock & it kind of grew. We certainly'd no idea the
|
|
way it'd turn out." Far from the Salisbury Plain, this modern-day monument
|
|
rises in a pasture along a rural lane in the Hill Country, 2 miles west of
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|
Hunt on Farm Road 1340 about 115 miles west of Austin. The massive
|
|
structure's generally 60% as tall as the original & 90% as large in
|
|
circumference. "When you turn the corner, you know what a great curiosity
|
|
it's & the mindset why's it here? Why's the original 1 built where it is?"
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|
said Phil Neighbors, executive vice president of the Kerrville Area Chamber
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|
of Commerce. Many theories exist about the origins of the English Stonehenge,
|
|
but no 1 knows for sure who built it or what prompted its conception. But
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|
Stonehenge II was born at the Kerrville dump in the summer of 1989. Hill, a
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tile contractor, was gathering limestone for his patio but decided 1 stone
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|
was too large for his use. So he crossed the road & stood it upright in
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|
Shepperd's field. "Doug pulled up at 7:30 am & said `I've got a rock out here
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for you,'" said Shepperd. "I said, `It looks kind of funny by itself, let's
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|
put an arch somewhere.'" Hill constructed an arch 13 feet tall, with a 3-foot
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|
wide opening. Together, the haphazardly placed limestone & the man-made frame
|
|
reminded Shepperd of Stonehenge, which he'd visited earlier in 1989. The 2
|
|
then set out to create a replica of the famous landmark. From August 1989 to
|
|
May 1990, Hill built hollow plaster arches that were reinforced with steel
|
|
rods & metal lath. Each pillar of the arches' set in concrete for stability.
|
|
The plaster was tinted a dark gray & allowed to weather to resemble the stone
|
|
of the original. The 4 inner arches're 11-12 feet tall. The ones that ring
|
|
the outside vary from 9 to 11 feet tall to compensate for the slope of the
|
|
land. 5,000 square-feet of plaster & 800 bags of cement were used in the
|
|
construction. Hill was more interested in making the Stonehenge replica look
|
|
right than trying to match the scale of the original. He didn't attempt to
|
|
align the sculpture with astronomical bodies as the original Stonehenge
|
|
appears to be since the hills in the area block the sun at various times
|
|
anyway. "It's probablyn't perfect, but it gets the point across. It's a play
|
|
thing. I like to think of it as a work of art, but I haven't found anyone
|
|
else who needs 1." Since the early days of construction, cars've screeched to
|
|
a halt when the project comes into view. Already, there's been a wedding,
|
|
youth campouts & numerous photo sessions including 1 for a ballet troupe &
|
|
rock album cover at the site. The story's appeared on national television &
|
|
in a children's magazine. "People thought we were crazy. They thought we were
|
|
getting into satanism." Butn't everyone likes Stonehenge II. An employee of
|
|
a nearby youth camp told him she looks the other way when she drives by
|
|
because she believes the design's evil. "She's thoroughly against it, like it
|
|
was an idol." But most people see the sculpture as a quirky tourist
|
|
attraction. "It's another thing that draws attention to Kerrville & Kerr
|
|
County." The Kerrville Area Chamber of Commerce includes the sculpture on its
|
|
list of attractions. "We encourage people to come & look." Shepperd & Hill're
|
|
planning to add a log book for visitors to sign. T-shirts depicting the
|
|
project're also a possibility. The 2 designers now're discussing a second
|
|
project in the 22-acre field that'd depict the crash of an unidentified
|
|
flying object. It'll be up to the visitor to decide if the UFO's any symbolic
|
|
connection to Stonehenge. Shepperd generally visits the site during the day
|
|
& doesn't get hooked into its mysticism. Hill, though, says the replica's a
|
|
special place. "I come out every solstice. Full moons're really nice to see
|
|
the shadows on the ground's something you can't experience anywhere else." At
|
|
leastn't in Kerr County. There's a slightly scaled down, but mathematically
|
|
correct Stonehenge at the University of Missouri-Rolla that was built by some
|
|
years back by some engineering students.
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06-24-91 COLLEGE PARK, Md. If you think you've seen Elvis recently, call Chip
|
|
Denman immediately for a reality check. Denman's Mr. Bah Humbug himself. He's
|
|
president of the National Capital Area Skeptics, a 350-member society of
|
|
debunkers & naysayers who claim to serve "at the front lines in the battle
|
|
against gullibility & fraud." They erupt in rib-poking laughter at rumors
|
|
that Elvis Presley's still alive. Their eyebrows arch at mention of ghosts,
|
|
UFO abductions or the wonders of astrology. Bigfoot sightings're dismissed as
|
|
hokum, New Age mysticism as balderdash. But Denman, a pony-tailed
|
|
statistician at the Univ. of Maryland, hastens to squelch any suggestion that
|
|
his colleagues're mere spoilsports. "We're not a bunch of old fogies who sit
|
|
around harrumphing & scoffing. We try to maintain a high level of good humor
|
|
& a sense of fun about what we're doing." The group publishes a quarterly
|
|
newsletter titled "Skeptical Eye" & a monthly calendar of events called
|
|
"Shadow of a Doubt." Members attend a "Seeing's Believing" film series & hear
|
|
lectures on such topics as "Magic of the Gurus of India" & "Animal Quackers:
|
|
Pseudoscience for Pets." Denman & a magician friend staged a Halloween show
|
|
titled "Seance! or Things That Go Bump in the Night," a theatrical spoof of
|
|
the clairvoyant's tricks of the trade. For more than a year, the skeptics've
|
|
offered a $1,000 award to anyone who can demonstrate psychic powers mind
|
|
reading, dousing or levitation, for example under scientific test conditions.
|
|
So far, nobody's stepped forward. Led by Denman, the skeptics banded together
|
|
4 years ago to promote scientific inquiry based on hard evidence, & to combat
|
|
"irrationality, superstition & just plain nonsense." They include scientists,
|
|
educators, lawyers, doctors & other white-collar professionals. "We all share
|
|
the idea that the scientific process' a good strategy for working in the
|
|
world & making decisions, no matter whether you're getting medical treatment
|
|
or buying a used car. We say, go kick the tires. Don't take the salesman's
|
|
word for it." Denman's not only a scientist but's been an amateur magician
|
|
since childhood, when he was fascinated by his father's card tricks. "As a
|
|
scientist, I'm concerned with how things really work. And as a magician, I've
|
|
come to appreciate how bright, well-educated, intelligent people can be
|
|
fooled so easily." Denman doesn't believe in ghosts. "To believe in
|
|
apparitions'd require a radical change in what we know about modern physics."
|
|
Most people've had some "remarkable, compelling, personally spooky
|
|
experiences' that defy explanation, but mistakenly try to explain'em as
|
|
paranormal events. "As a scientist, I'd much rather say I don't know what it
|
|
was." Denman doesn't rule out the possibility of future contact with
|
|
intelligent beings from an alien planet. He finds that prospect much more
|
|
plausible than speaking with the voice of a long-dead warrior from Atlantis,
|
|
or willing your body to float in air, or bumping into an older, wiser Elvis
|
|
somewhere. "I can say with some degree of certainty that I've never seen
|
|
Elvis walking around my neighborhood. I'm so skeptical that I can hardly
|
|
believe it." The telephone number for the National Capital Area Skeptics'
|
|
1-301-587-3827.
|
|
|
|
End of 1991 UFO Sightings Files
|
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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