Articles

Request for participation in Psychology dissertation study (University of Northampton) on UFO belief and scepticism by BUFOG member Andrew Hodrien

2011-12-29T18:43:00.001-08:00

UFO believer or sceptic?

Participants are requested for a Psychology dissertation research study, exploring how our beliefs affect the way we process new information.

This is a new study which will hopefully develop further understanding in UFO belief, specifically with regard to some UFOs having an extraterrestrial cause. Whether you believe, are sceptical, or are unsure…this study is for you!

Research is collected anonymously, by completion of an online survey. So this can be completed at a time suitable to you, anywhere with an internet connection. This may take around 20-30 minutes, and involves some questionnaires and simple tasks.

If you are able to take part can you please contact the researcher via email (putting UFO research in the subject), who will provide you with the survey link and a participant number. Further information will be provided at the start of the survey, so you won’t have to decide if you wish to complete it until after that. Thanks!

Contact – andrew.hodrien09@my.northampton.ac.uk

* If you have taken part in a previous UFO belief study for me then unfortunately you will be unable to take part.

Cannock Chase September 2011 Skywatch

2011-09-11T17:25:00.000-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 12/09/2011

In the summer of 2011, one of BUFOG’s members Adam Tustin decided that it would be a great idea for the group to organise a skywatch in the area of Cannock Chase. The chase is a well known UFO hotspot, and there have been many sightings over the years in the area. There has also been other strange activity reported including big cat sightings and ghostly phenomena. So it seemed like the ideal place to choose for BUFOG’s first ever official skywatch.

And so it was that on the evening of Saturday 10th September, 16 people made their way out to Cannock Chase, North West of Birmingham. These people were made up of official BUFOG members, several contactees whose cases I have looked into, their partners, and others interested in the chance of maybe spotting something out of the ordinary.

The weather through the day wasn’t looking too promising, alternating between periods of sunlight and then heavy showers. However we planned to head on out to Cannock Chase whatever the weather, with the intention that if it rained we would just remain in the bar where many of us initially met – The Barns on Cock Sparrow Lane.

After chatting a while about UFOs over a pint, some of those present headed out to the place where the skywatch was due to take place. Adam knows the area well and recommended an area of forest and open fern-covered ground accessed via Broadhurst Green Road to the North of Cannock. I, my brother and others remained behind to wait for a few others to show up.

About 15 minutes later we too headed outside to find that it was now absolutely tipping it down. Things were not looking too hopeful, but we decided to head on out to the skywatch location anyway. We drove in convoy and soon arrived at a small lay-by at the side of the road.

Here we met up with the rest of the skywatchers.Almost immediately the rain ceased and the clouds above us began to part, exposing a star filled sky. There was also a full moon shining brightly. Things were looking up, but many of us took umbrellas and waterproofs along just in case. I took my chances in a leather jacket and T-shirt – it was actually quite a mild night and was quite still so was not too cold. Many of us brought torches, and I was especially impressed with BUFOG member Martin’s head mounted light!

We took some photos and then left the road along a gently sloping pathway. To the left of us was a large expanse of ferns, to our right some tall fir trees. It was quite clear and there was no fog, so made for a very pleasant walk. After several minutes we then took a left and continued up another steeper path. It was extremely quiet and peaceful – or rather it would have been except that we were all chatting away about UFOs and what we may or may not see!

Within 5 minutes we reached a nice open area on the path, where a second path adjoined it and headed off into the forest. This was to be the official location for our skywatch. We put our bags down and began checking out the starry sky above us, while continuing to talk in groups. The location has superb visibility in most directions so is perfect for skywatching. There was still light cloud but luckily the rain had moved away and did not return. It is certainly a very atmospheric and open place, and was far enough away from the road to not be bothered by passing traffic.

We saw several satellites travelling across the sky, and also a number of “shooting stars” entering the earth’s atmosphere and quickly burning up. There were several distant planes with standard navigation lights, but none flew right overhead so we were clearly not in a flight corridor.

For a number of weeks prior to the skywatch, one of the contactees had actually felt that she should go to the area of Cannock Chase. She did not know why she felt this, she was not even aware it was known as Cannock Chase before finding out off someone. She also for some reason had the time 11.36pm in her head, although she did not have a particular date. However she sensed that we were not at the right location and wanted to head further up the slope to see what was around. I felt that this was definitely worth pursuing, just in case something may take place. So we decided to head further uphill to the edge of a forested area of tall trees. Several paths led off into the darkness here, and I’m sure if there weren’t so many of us there it would have been pretty spooky!

After a while we noticed a distant helicopter shining a search light down. It appeared to be looking for something. About 15 minutes later we suddenly heard the helicopter moving closer. But when we looked around we could barely see it. After locating it in the sky we realised it was flying with no lights on whatsoever. We all thought this was pretty strange, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a helicopter fly without lights on before. It flew pretty close to us and disappeared over the nearby trees. A few minutes later it returned, heading off to the South West, still with no lights on. We did not hear or see it again after this point.

At about 11pm some of the skywatchers had to make their way home as they had travelled quite a distance. Five of us remained. We continued to watch the sky for a while but did not see anything unusual. Twenty minutes later we decided to walk into the forested area along one of the paths to see where it lead. However the path did not seem to head anywhere in particular, and if we had kept following it we would have just ended up at another road, so we decided to return to our prior position.

We waited there and chatted a while longer. A couple of moments we felt that we could hear distant talking which was odd, but could possibly have been a breeze or nearby animals making noises. 11.36pm came and went with nothing seen in the sky. I’m pretty sure nothing took place, and there was no missing time or anything like that. But as the contactee said, she did not know the exact location or even the date so perhaps it was meant for another time and place entirely.

Soon afterwards we decided to call it a night and headed back down the slope to the cars, the full moon still glowing brightly to light our way. Other than the helicopter with no lights we had not really seen anything unusual, but we had all had a really great evening and were in high spirits (I’m sure partially down to the fact that we had not got soaked). We will certainly be back to the location next year for another skywatch, and who knows what we may see next time.

Photograph Anomalies

After checking out the photos from the skywatch, my brother and I came across some photos which seemed to show glowing orbs of light or other anomalies in them. These were definitely not caused by our torches, but it is quite possible that many, if not all of them were caused by reflection in the camera lens from the full moon. However they are shown here for interest, so see what you make of them...

Unexplained bright light seemingly close to the ground:

The small white light towards the middle of the picture is the moon, so what's the much larger light at the left?

Attack of the Cannock Chase orbs!

The white light in this picture over our heads is much too low down to have been the moon:

Something glowing or catching the moon light up in the branches of one of the nearby trees...

As I said, these can probably be explained away and I'm not suggesting for a moment that they are anything paranormal, especially as we didn't see any of them at the time with our own eyes. Still who can say for sure? Maybe something else was there with us that evening and wanted to make it's presence known. Either way, I'm sure BUFOG will be back to once again take Cannock Chase by storm!

Into The Unknown 4 Conference Review

2011-08-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 25/08/2011

Early in 2011 I was contacted and invited to speak at Into The Unknown 4, a single day UFO conference held by UFO Academy, and set to take place on Saturday 20th August down in Watford, London. This is my review of how the day went.

As with previous years, the conference took place at High Elms Manor, a picturesque manor house hidden away off the main roads of Watford. I, my father and brother arrived about 9.20am, giving us 40 minutes before the official start time. We almost immediately met up with Cheryl, an experiencer who’s case I investigated earlier in the year. We then met conference organiser Catrine O’Neill in the entrance lobby. The conference took place in a large open room at one end of the manor, with a side room available for drinks and snacks. I headed through to the main room to sort out the equipment setup, and found that Win Keech, the first speaker of the day, was already there getting organised. It wasn’t long before I also ran into contactee Steven Jones and his wife Valerie. Steven had spoken at a previous Into The Unknown conference, and has also come to speak at BUFOG before.

At 10am Win began his lecture. He gave a fascinating talk on a variety of topics, focusing primarily on crop formations. Win is an expert in video recording and analysis and spends a lot of time sky watching in the hope of capturing UFOs on camera. He began his talk with an excellent series of UFO video clips which he had managed to capture at various locations. This set the scene for his lecture very well indeed. He then spoke about the phenomenon of the shadow beings which have been seen around crop formations. He and others believe that these beings are connected with the formations and utilise portals to come through into our reality. He showed some video evidence for their existence which seemed to show some flashes of light followed by two of these entities appearing in a corn field. The video was distant but interesting none the less.

However one of the most impressive videos that Win showed was some night vision footage of a large crop formation seemingly forming of its own accord over a short period of time. This was very impressive as it seemed far too big to have been created in the time period and there was no evidence of anyone being in the field at the time. For me it is some of the best evidence available that some crop formations are the real deal and not hoaxed.

After a short break it was time for the second speaker of the day – an individual with an incredible amount of knowledge, stunning charisma, astounding intelligence and all round greatness. To put it simply...it was me. All joking aside though, I did get some decent feedback and I think everyone enjoyed my lecture. The title of my talk was “Contact Is Reality”, and it was a general lecture on the ET contact phenomenon. I began with an introduction video which featured many drawings from actual contact cases. It served as an example of some of the fascinating cases I have looked into over the years.

I started my talk with an overview of contact, including various misconceptions about the subject, evidence for its reality, and some of the possible reasons why it may be taking place. I then went over some analysis of 25 good contact cases I have investigated, pointing out how common each of the many signs of contact has been through these cases. The later half of my lecture focused on a specific contact case from Whitwell (you can read the full report on this case elsewhere on this site). I did not have enough time to go into all the experiences of the individuals involved, so I covered a specific abduction experience in depth where three people were taken aboard a Flying Triangle craft. I did bring along some footage of the regression of the key individual, but did not have enough time to show it during the lecture. Luckily Catrine agreed that I could show it at the end of the day instead.

It was then a break for lunch. We headed out with Cheryl, with the intention of finding a nearby Harvester pub for a nice meal. Unfortunately the map we had lead us into a residential cul-de-sac, not exactly a good start! After getting directions from a helpful postman we were again on track. However his directions were not exactly clear and no matter how hard we looked we could not find the place. So what to do in such a situation? Good old McDonalds saved the day! Not as classy a meal as we had initially hoped for but no doubt just as tasty.

The afternoon kicked off with an intriguing lecture from Carol Cochrane. Her lecture was entitled “The Sirius Letters – Crop Circles Reveal Secret ET Communications”. Carol is a former chairman of the Centre for Crop Circle Studies and is both a Cheirologist and a medium. In her talk she claimed that there were hidden messages inside the place names where crop formations have appeared, both in the UK and abroad. She claims to have received these messages via channelling using a special code. I have to admit that although it was interesting I was dubious of the messages themselves, not because of how they were received, but because they were being derived from human-named locations. However I have learned that in this field it is always good to keep an open mind, no matter how bizarre the implications.

The next speaker was Mark Bennett, an author and member of the Aetherius Society, a spiritual organisation founded by George King. Mark gave an excellent and varied talk. He first focused on the evidence for the reality of UFOs both historically and in modern times. He then looked into the spiritual aspects of the subject, and explained how important it is to look at the subject from this perspective as well as just the nuts-and-bolts angle. Mark is a very good speaker, and I thoroughly enjoyed his lecture.

The last speaker of the day was Robbie Graham. Robbie is currently studying a PhD on Hollywood’s historical representation of UFOs and extraterrestrials. He gave an excellent talk on the way that Hollywood has manipulated movies with UFO-related themes over the years, especially where there is a military connection. This appears to include direct involvement from the CIA, who have actively changed scripts to ensure the subject is portrayed in certain ways. Robbie’s talk was very visual, with lots of movie posters and photographs, and the evidence he provided was fascinating.

As promised by Catrine, at the close of the day I was able to show the regression footage which I had not had time to show during my lecture. Unfortunately due to a technical hiccup we had no sound, but luckily I had subtitled the footage anyway so it was still quite watchable. I gave a voice over explaining some of what was being said, and it seemed to be well received.

After talking a while with several contactees it was time to head for home. I loved having the chance to speak at the conference, and will more than happily return in the future if given the opportunity.

LAPIS Conference 2011 Review

2011-06-15T12:47:00.001-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 15/06/2011

Early on the morning of Saturday 11th June 2011 I and my friend Chris set off from Birmingham on our journey to Blackpool for the yearly LAPIS paranormal conference. It was a fantastic sunny day and the roads were nice and clear. This year the conference took place at the Carousel Hotel right on the seafront, just a short distance along the main promenade from Blackpool Pleasure Beach. As we arrived around 9.30am, both Blackpool Tower and “The Big One” rollercoaster were in plain sight.

The conference took place inside the main bar room of the hotel. This was really nicely furnished and well lit, a comfortable location for two days of lectures. There was also another side room where a number of merchandise stalls had been laid out.

We almost immediately bumped into Paul Vella, who was billed to speak first at the conference, and a friend of mine, Mike Rutter from Rapport contactee support group and magazine. After socialising a while with them over a coffee, we then caught up with some of the other speakers including Malcolm Robinson (who had spoken at BUFOG only two weeks before), Mike Hallowell and Rob Whitehead. Prior to kick off I also had a good look round the merchandise room, where I was pleased to once again meet up with contactee Mike Oram, who was also on the speaker line up.

After claiming some nice comfy seats towards the back of the room, we settled down to listen to Paul Vella, who gave a fascinating first talk on the “Minnesota Ice Man”. This was a sideshow attraction which was put on display around the USA in the late 1960s, and appeared to be a caveman/bigfoot like creature encased in a block of ice. Many people believed it was real and was the missing link. Over the years various people claimed to have been involved with the discovery or death of the ice man, and Paul went over their claims in detail. He personally believed it to be a clever hoax made by a special effects studio rather than an actual creature, however scientists were never given the chance to thaw it out, and then it mysteriously vanished without trace, so we will probably never know for certain either way.

After Paul’s lecture there was then a break for lunch. We decided to explore the local area and find a shop to buy some food. It wasn’t long before we discovered a number of art sculptures on the promenade including a giant mirror ball which was brightly reflecting the suns rays. This was begging out for some photo opportunities, some of which are displayed below!

The afternoon began with a talk from Jon Ronson, investigative journalist and author of numerous books including The Men Who Stared At Goats, which has since been made into an excellent comedy film starring Ewan McGregor and George Clooney. Rob has looked into numerous unusual fringe subjects including remote viewing and the Bohemian Grove ceremony (Which he managed to sneak into with Alex Jones) However his lecture mostly focused on psychopaths, the subject of his latest book. He covered the various officially recognised signs of madness, and explained how some of these signs were quite ridiculous and could be attributed to most people in one way or another. His talk was both interesting and amusing, though I can’t help but feel that someone so openly sceptical of the paranormal was a little out of place.

Next Mike Hallowell took to the stage. He warned at the start of his lecture that it was not really suitable for children and that he would be discussing some quite disturbing things, and he wasn’t joking either! Mike’s talk was about an ongoing case of a family who were being plagued by poltergeist-like activity that clearly had malicious intent and was far from friendly. However Mike put the activity down to a demonic entity from folklore know as a Brag, as some of the activity fitted in with this. This activity unexplained sounds and footsteps, laughing and voices heard over the telephone or actually in the household, fires which had burst out of nowhere, and a cloud like mist which was witnessed in the hallway that actually rained urine all over the floor and stairs, before hoof like markings appeared walking up the stairs one step at a time. The entity appeared to be linked to the family rather than their home, as it had also followed them out of the house on numerous occasions. The most disturbing incident of all was where one of the family had been beaten around the face by an invisible assailant while Mike was speaking to another family member over the phone. He played the unpleasant audio recording of this conversation, as well as a number of EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) recordings. One of the most impressive aspects of the case was the fact that the police had got involved and had not only witnessed some of this activity first hand, but had allowed for their identities to be revealed. This certainly aided in backing up the validity of the case.

The final speaker of the day was Malcolm Robinson from Strange Phenomena Investigations (SPI). Malcolm is an accomplished and well versed speaker with many years experience in the field, and his lectures are always a joy to listen to. His lecture was entitled “The Weird And The Wonderful”, and covered many varied experiences and incidents. These included his own UFO sightings and efforts to find the Loch Ness monster. He then covered the curse of American actor James Dean’s car. James lost his life in the car during a fatal accident. However after his demise there were many other accidents and fatalities linked to the car in various ways, leading people to believe that it was cursed. Malcolm also covered a terrifying séance he had personally been involved in where lots had taken place he could not explain, and a photograph from Chile which claims to show a live ET being walking across a road. He then went on to talk of other UFO cases including a silver disc that was seen from the window of an aircraft, and another saucer-shaped craft that was seen by the crew of a ship out at sea. He ended his talk by covering a case where a woman’s car had seemingly collided with an invisible force of some kind which had crumpled the side of the car without causing any damage to the paintwork – very bizarre! Malcolm’s lecture was pretty much identical to the one he had given at BUFOG a fortnight before, but it was great hearing it a second time.

And so ended the first day of lectures, but the fun was far from over! We headed outside a while for some drinks in the early evening sunlight, and a chat with Malcolm, Mike and Paul. I also met the presidents of the Scarborough UFO Society (SUFOS).

After a short while, the merchandise room had been cleverly transformed into a “Meet the speakers” buffet room. The food was really good, and after dinner and drinks it was time for a thoroughly enjoyable paranormal themed quiz. With Malcolm Robinson on our team we came a respectable second place, and were only one point away from being declared the winners. We were just pipped to the post by Mike Hallowell and Oll Lewis, who won a load of skywatch related equipment.

In actual fact, the prize would surely have come in handy, as after a few more drinks I, Chris, Malcolm and Mike Rutter decided to head on out to some nearby sand dunes and end the night with a short skywatch. It was quite a mild evening with a relatively clear sky, ideal skywatching conditions! It took about 10 minutes to walk to our destination. After the facing the perils of numerous sand covered pathways while under the influence of alcohol, we ended up at the highest point of the dunes, which gave a great view of the surroundings and also out over the sea. There were some other people close by next to a fire but we decided not to approach them. In the distance we could see numerous ships lights.

Initially there was very little activity in the sky. We caught sight of one distant plane and then spotted a single satellite on its course across the sky. But then suddenly we noticed a bright white light heading inland from the West. It was definitely in the atmosphere, no higher than 3000 feet. However as it got closer we realised there were no additional navigation lights on it at all, nor could we hear any sound coming from it. We had cameras but were too busy debating whether or not it was a plane to take a photograph, and I am certain even if we had it would not have come out against the night sky. I was surprised to find out that even Malcolm thought it looked unusual. We had to conclude that it was unidentified, therefore it was a UFO. A short while after the light vanished into the distance we decided to call it a night and returned to the hotel.

I and Chris had decided in advance to save money by sleeping in the car. I’ve had many years roughing it at various music festivals so this really didn’t bother me too much. The worst part was waking up due to the early morning light. We checked the clock and found it was 6.15am. Knowing that we would probably not be able to drop back off, we decided to grab the BBQ from the boot and walk back down to the sand dunes to cook some breakfast. It was hard work hulking all the gear down there, but worth it in the end. Chris’s BBQ skills are commendable.

By the time we returned to the hotel it was 9.30am and other people were milling about. We met back up with Malcolm and headed back to the mirror ball for some more photos.

Malcolm was speaking a second time so we then had to return to the venue so he could get set up. He began at 11am with an entertaining visual talk on supposed ET photographs. This was just the ticket for those of us who were still recovering from the previous evening, and although I had seen the majority of the photos before it was interesting none the less.

The next lecture was by Oll Lewis, and was all about the beast of legend known as the Kraken. Oll covered many of the theories as to the origins of the creature and explained why many of these could not really explain it. During the lecture he showed a number of old drawings of the Kraken. The legend goes that a boat of sailors moored on the back of the beast assuming it was an island. After lighting a fire, the Kraken dived below the waves and many of the men were drowned. Oll presented an interesting theory of his which suggested that the Kraken was actually an island, but the tide had risen very fast giving the impression that it was a huge creature slowly diving underwater. I’m not really sure the tide could rise fast enough to fool anyone in this way, but I guess it's a possibility.

The afternoon began with a rather unsettling lecture by Rob Whitehead. He spoke about the case of the “Women In Blue” which took place in the 1990s. This involved many incidents where women and occasionally men would visit people’s houses claiming to be social workers. They would ask for permission to perform an intimate examination of the children, and would occasionally attempt to take the child away into custody. This happened many times around the area of Yorkshire and a number of times elsewhere in the UK. It made the papers on numerous occasions and the police released a number of photo fits of the suspects. Its clear what the suspected motive was, but after following some leads Rob had been informed of a completely different motive, one with bizarre implications.

The last speaker of the conference was the ongoing contactee Mike Oram. Mike has had experiences since the age of four, and has had many meetings with a Nordic being named Telos, who he refers to as his “space brother”. I have heard Mike speak before of his experiences, and he is always fascinating to listen to. He gave a brief overview of some of his many encounters, but focused mostly on two particular experiences. Firstly he described something which had happened recently and which he had not spoken of before. One evening at his home he received a psychic message which told him to go outside with a camera and take photographs. He sensed that something was leaving the Earth for a while, perhaps a particular group of ETs, and that some kind of event was taking place. He took about 40 photographs. On some of these photographs he saw what looked like white orbs of light shooting upwards with trails running behind them. He showed these unusual photos during the talk.

The second part of his lecture focused on the events which had happened to him and his wife in Nevada while visiting the gate of Area 51 and the Little A’le’inn. At the time he felt that things were amiss and experienced some periods of missing time. Because of this he deciced to get regressed. Under regression he stated that he had been chased down by a military vehicle with a device on the back that had opened a portal. He was taken through this and found himself in a building with many military personnel, and something was placed on his head. It seemed like the military had known he was a contactee and wanted to obtain something from his mind. The odd incidents which happened later on turned out to be a visitation by Telios, another Nordic and a short Grey-like being. Mike’s lecture was a fascinating way to end the conference, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

After saying our goodbyes we stepped outside the hotel to find ourselves in a heavy downpour of rain. I felt glad that the weather had held off until now otherwise the weekend would have been far less fun. Despite the rain and tiredness, our spirits were raised by the memories of the last two days as we began the long drive back to Birmingham. It was certainly one of the most varied and enjoyable paranormal conferences I have attended, and I look forward to seeing what next year’s conference will bring.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2011

BUFOG Prank Reports/Forum Posts

2011-03-25T16:14:00.000-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 25/03/2011

Introduction

Occasionally, as to be expected, we receive prank or unintentionally daft/funny reports via either here, the BUFOG forum or Richard Hall's site Richplanet.net. I don't in any way condone these but I figured I'd put them on display for you to have a read. I have purposely removed any contact details from them. Note that these are usually pretty rude/adult in nature and contain sex references and bad language. If you are offended by such things please do not read on, you have been warned. Otherwise enjoy!

An ET Transplant Operation
Received: 25/03/2011
Via: BUFOG site

Subject: Alien Experience

Message:

Hi David,

I have recently had a bad experience with some abnormal beings.

The event all started while on a night out 2 weeks ago. On this particular night an hour of my life seemed to disappear during which i am positive i saw bright lights and experienced a reality of being in a spaceship and floating. I'm sure these beings did experiments on my body.

Once i was released from the lift i went to bed and woke up the next morning slightly hungover. However ever since that night my penis has grown from its usual 7inches to 13inches.
I now feel like i have a snake in my pants everytime i walk.

I just do not know what to do. Gravity is certainly not helping. I would be over the moon with my new penis size but unfotunately my penis is now black and my body is white????? WTF!!!!! Do you think the alien beings abducted me and replaed my cock with a black mans?

I'm shy and scared to go to my doctor incase he laughs. I found you on google and live in solihull so maybe we could talk and i could tell you more of my experience on the space ship. I was not drunk.. just tipsy. I am now scared though.

Have you had this happen to anyone else in the area? Please give me a call.

BUFOG Agony Column
Received: 09/01/2011
Via: BUFOG Forum

Initial post:

I meet a girl , she was in a relation, after few months , she broke whit his fucking boyfriend , to night at last I`ll going to to dance whit her, we speak by phone, all right, after half hour she call me, … and said ….Hey Im sorry Im whit my ex boyfriend, tomorrow I will talk whit you , now Im lonely im my room thinking that she is whit her fucking boyfriend in her apartment , fucking life , fucking life , fucking life, damned life , i hate my life

Replies from various forumites:

Just What do YOU think 'U.F.O.' means ???

...

This is the trouble when your girl breaks whit HIS boyfriend, didn't you notice at the time the bulge down below? The cross dressing two timing slut! You dance whit HER when you should be getting your end away. You speak by phone and after half hour SHE/HE calls you! Then you realise you was talking to yourself because there was nobody on the other end of the phone! I can see why you hate your life, you have got no friends and you are confused with your sexuality dating transvestites.

PS. Have you ever seen a UFO?

...

My advice is to track down the boy-girl who got away and announce to them that you randomly decided to post about them on a UFO group's forum even though it had nothing to do with the subject. I think he/she will be impressed and may even give you a good hard poking so you won't hate your life so much anymore. Dave the part time agony columnist love doctor UFO investigator has spoken.

A Very Close Encounter
Received: 04/01/2011
Via: Richplanet.net

NAME:

ADDRESS:

POST CODE:

OCCUPATION: retard

LOCATION: fuckshire

DATE OF SIGHTING: couple of days ago mate

TIME OF SIGHTING: peanut butter jelly time

WEATHER CONDITIONS: cloudy with a chance of cock

HOW DID THE EXPERIENCE BEGIN: jerking off

OBJECT SHAPE: a roswell dick

OBJECT COLOUR: grey

OBJECT LIGHTING: beautiful

ESTIMATE OF SIZE: 2\"

ESTIMATE OF HEIGHT: 4\"

DIRECTION FROM YOU: away

DISTANCE FROM YOU: attatched to me

ANY SOUND EVIDENT: a subtle slapping noise

MOVEMENT/PATH/PATTERN: up and down a vigorous cares

ESTIMATED SPEED: 20 nautical nots

ANY INTERACTION EXPERIENCED: my hand and the object

DETAILS OF ANY BEINGS SEEN: nar just a dick

DETAILS OF ANY COMMUNICATIONS: i was talking in a dishonourable manner to my own penis

ANY MISSING TIME: no

ANY OTHER UNUSUAL ASPECTS: pink semen all over me after i caresed the object into submission

LENGTH OF SIGHTING: 8-10 minuets

HOW DID THE SIGHTING END: with ejaculation

WITNESSES PRESENT: only me or else i wouldn't be jerking my own stick

EMOTIONS DURING SIGHTING: imense pleasure

ANY ADDITIONAL DEETAILS: small warts on the object

My response E-Mail:

Thanks for getting in touch about your strange experience. After analysing all the details you have provided I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are a wanker. This is more common than you may think so is nothing to be alarmed about, many people have gone through similar experiences.

It Was Huge!
Received: 04/01/2011
Via: Richplanet.net

NAME:

ADDRESS:

POST CODE:

OCCUPATION:

LOCATION:

DATE OF SIGHTING:

TIME OF SIGHTING:

WEATHER CONDITIONS:

HOW DID THE EXPERIENCE BEGIN:

OBJECT SHAPE: Huge penis

OBJECT COLOUR:

OBJECT LIGHTING:

ESTIMATE OF SIZE:

ESTIMATE OF HEIGHT:

DIRECTION FROM YOU:

DISTANCE FROM YOU:

ANY SOUND EVIDENT:

MOVEMENT/PATH/PATTERN:

ESTIMATED SPEED:

ANY INTERACTION EXPERIENCED:

DETAILS OF ANY BEINGS SEEN:

DETAILS OF ANY COMMUNICATIONS:

ANY MISSING TIME:

ANY OTHER UNUSUAL ASPECTS:

LENGTH OF SIGHTING:

HOW DID THE SIGHTING END:

WITNESSES PRESENT:

EMOTIONS DURING SIGHTING:

ANY ADDITIONAL DETAILS:

My Response E-Mail:

Sigh. There's always one...

Rendlesham 2010 30th Anniversary Conference

2010-12-31T09:47:00.001-08:00

Birmingham UFO Group Review
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 31/12/2010

The Rendlesham Forest incident of December 26th – December 28th 1980 still remains one of the UK’s most impressive and intriguing UFO cases. Multiple encounters with unexplained lights, physical craft and even beings over three consecutive nights. Direct involvement of two nearby army bases. Many highly respected military and civilian witnesses. Both physical and testimonial evidence. Official recognition by the MOD that something unusual took place. The incident was truly fascinating. There is a mass of information about it available online, and I will assume that you already have a background knowledge of the case in this article.

On 28th December 2010 a superb event took place down in the town of Woodbridge. It was exactly 30 years since the final night of the incident, and to mark this important date a conference about the incident was planned. At this conference, two of the key witnesses John Burroughs and Jim Penniston would at last openly speak about what happened to them. Other speakers included UFO researcher and co-author of Left At East Gate Peter Robbins, highly respected UFO investigator Linda Moulton Howe and ex-MOD investigator Nick Pope.

As soon as I found out about the conference I sent off for a ticket, as did my father and brother. I had been waiting for a long time to visit Rendlesham Forest, and finally I would get that chance. It was just after Christmas but there is no way I would have missed it for the world, however bad the weather. I was worried that it would be cancelled due to recent snow fall, but luckily when the day arrived, the snow had started to melt. It was however still quite foggy, making the drive down quite precarious!

We arrived at Woodbridge about ten minutes before the conference kick off time of 6pm. Luckily we managed to find the venue with ease. The conference was set to take place at Woodbridge community hall. In the foyer we immediately met Larry Warren, the original whistleblower of the incident. Larry and I have become good friends after he joined me for my wedding day at Area 51 back in February, and then later came and gave a talk for BUFOG. It was really great to see him again.

When we entered the hall, I was pleased to see that there was a very decent turn out for the event. There must have been a good few hundred people, and every chair in the hall was filled. In fact I think they ran out of seats and people even stood around the back. We managed to find some seats about 2/3 of the way back, and it wasn’t long before the lights dimmed and the conference began.

The first speaker of the evening was the renowned UFO researcher Peter Robbins. Peter was co-author of Left At East Gate with Larry Warren. The book detailed the incident in full, concentrating on the final night where both a craft and several entities were seen by Larry and many other personnel. Peter began by covering some of the explanations given for the incident over the years, including the infamous light-house, a meteor shower, stars and the recent claim thata burning fertilizer truck was to blame. He detailed why these explanations do not hold water when faced with the facts of what took place.

At the end of his talk he specially called up Larry to the stage to thank him for his efforts in bringing the case to the public eye. Without him the case may have never been known about, so I was pleased to see him get this recognition.

Next up was US researcher Linda Moulton Howe. Linda has been involved with the UFO subject for many years, and is one of the worlds leading experts on the animal mutilation phenomenon. Over recent years she has been working with John and Jim to get to the bottom of what really happened to them during the incident. This involved numerous hypnotic regressions which they had undergone, and it was fascinating to see footage from these regressions.

Some of the revelations of these regressions were truly stunning. It appears that both John and Jim may have been abducted on the first night when they saw the lights in the forest and went to investigate them. There is evidence of missing time, which is mentioned in the original notes and transcripts. Both the men lost about 40 minutes of time, during which their radios stopped functioning correctly. This caused quite a bit of confusion at the time. Under hypnosis John describes seeing white light all around and also states that the blue lights seen floating in the air at the time were in fact life-forms which may have communicated with him in some way. It also appears that John was possibly abducted again on the 2nd night of the incident. When Jim was regressed, he actually stated that the occupants of the craft were from our own future, and had come back in time to harvest genetic material to help them in some way. If you do not know about this particular aspect of the case it is well worth looking into.

It was then time for a short break. We first met up with BUFOG member Adam, then also bumped into UFO researcher Joanne Summerscales (who came to speak at BUFOG about John Searl a few months back), and some old friends from Swindon UFO Group.

We then went to check out the merchandise, which included some hilarious flying lighthouse parody T-shirts and pictures. Not sure who came up with the picture, but whoever did certainly has a good sense of humour. Here’s the pic for your enjoyment:

Soon it was time for John and Jim to take the stage. They gave a very detailed account of what happened to them. They discussed what they remembered from the time, and also what was uncovered under their regressions. It was fascinating hearing about the incident from two of the original witnesses, and they came across both sincere and believable. I would certainly dispute claims that they are making up what happened to them, they were obviously speaking from the heart and deserve great respect for speaking openly about what they experienced, especially considering the possible implications of doing so.

Jim then covered recent developments in the case based around a “download” of information he received soon after experiencing the craft in the forest. He felt compelled to write down 8 pages of numbers made of 0’s and 1’s. He kept these notes but was only aware of their potential significance recently. This did create a small amount of backlash from the crowd, who questioned why it was only being revealed now so long after the incident. However I felt that the reasons Jim gave for this were acceptable. At the time he was not aware that what he had written down was in fact binary code. After meeting with John earlier in 2010 for the first time since the incident, he realised the importance of these pages of numbers. He handed them over for analysis to see if the numbers could be translated. The binary code did translate to a message. However Jim was unable to share this message as he wanted all the evidence to be revealed at once in a US documentary. This documentary aired on the History Channel on 30th December. Below is a link to the Youtube video of the relevant part of this documentary, which gives full details of the message behind the code:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpvEShmpwHU

The last speaker was the well known ex-MOD UFO investigator Nick Pope. He spoke of the MOD’s involvement with the case, and that it appears a cover up did take place. He apologised on microphone to both John and Jim for the fact that the true reason behind the incident is still not known, and that the MOD seems partially responsible for this.

Following Nick in time honoured tradition was an extensive Q&A session, with all speakers on stage together. This Q&A got quite heated at times, especially regarding the binary code announcement. But John and Jim certainly held their cool throughout and I felt they dealt with the questions they were asked very well indeed.

By the time the Q&A drew to a close it was already 11.30pm. But the conference was only the first part of the night, for now it was time to head to the forest to visit the actual location where John and Jim’s encounter took place! Whatever the weather, there was no way I was going to miss out on this. Quite a few headed for home at this point, but there was still at least 100 people, including a TV crew who were filming the conference for a documentary. We all drove out to the forest in convoys of vehicles, one of which I was leading so I had to pay attention to the route! Our destination was the visitors car park at the edge of the forest, the usual meet up point for Rendlesham skywatches, and starting point for the official UFO trail.

When we arrived it was pitch black, cold and foggy, but all around the car park the lights from many torches could be seen darting around and beaming into the night sky. I have to admit the weather conditions actually added to the atmosphere. It was great to finally be at the forest. After locating John and Jim in the dark, we all headed along one of the tracks towards Woodbridge base.

After about 5 minutes we arrived at the East Gate, the location where John and Jim’s experience on the 26th December 1980 first began. We huddled up around them as they reminisced about seeing the lights in the distance and being given orders to go and check them out, as TV microphone hovered above them like a dark grey cigar-shaped UFO.

After answering whatever questions people had, we then walked back to the tree-line near the car park to continue the story. They then recounted in detail what happened next, with the approach to the lights in the woods, subsequent missing time, and Jim’s close encounter with the triangular craft. They did not falter in their words at all, and were obviously describing a real event. There is no doubt in my mind at all that they experienced what they described.

I was hoping that we would then actually head into the forest to the exact spot where the encounter took place. Unfortunately they had decided against this, probably because of the number of people present. But I had come this far, there was no way I was going to turn back now! I at least wanted to see Carpal Green, the field where the 3rd night of the incident took place. After getting directions to the field from John, me, my brother and dad headed off on our own along the trail.

It was about 2am, and extremely foggy and dark. Walking through the trees on our own was quite an experience! As we walked I thought to myself that if something were to happen to us now, no-one would know until our empty car was found the following morning. Strangely there was no sounds at all from the undergrowth, I expected to at least hear small animals scuttling around in the dark but it was silent.

Utilising a print out of the UFO trail map we finally arrived at a picnic bench overlooking Carpal Green. It was so foggy we could only see a few feet in front of us. The open field spanned out into the darkness. We thought that we would be able to see the lighthouse from here but due to the weather conditions it was not visible at all. We had no need to explore any further, we had reached what we had set out to reach.

After getting a few fog covered photographs we then began our walk back to the car. On the way to the field we had tried our best to remember the route, but we still accidentally took a wrong turn on the way back! I had a brief vision of us walking around aimlessly for hours with torches out of batteries. Luckily we managed to find the right path and get back on track.

We arrived back at the car park without having seen or heard anything out of the ordinary, but happy we had made the journey. It was now about 3am and everyone had already left. Well I say everyone – there were a couple of cars still parked there with no lights on. Considering certain activities known to take place at remote car parks after dark, we didn’t hang around and quickly headed for home. We finally arrived back in Birmingham about 6am, tanked up on energy drinks. Not that I felt sleepy after such a superb evening. It truly was fascinating, and the trip to the forest after was such an adventure. I would like to thank all the speakers and organisers for one of the best conferences I have ever been to.

Side Note: The only paranormal thing we saw through the evening was an appearance by the infamous "Dudley Dorito", which must have followed us from Brum. And in case you think I'm making it up, we luckily managed to capture it on camera:

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2010

Steven Greer July 2010 Lecture

2010-07-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 19/07/2010

Dr Steven Greer is the founder of the Centre for the Study of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (CSETI). In 2001 he was the director of the Disclosure Project, a concerted effort to kick-start UFO disclosure in the USA. He has liaised with many high ranking governmental and military officials on the UFO subject. More recently he has been involved with training people on how to establish positive contact with ETs.

Greer rarely lectures in the UK, this is the first time he has spoken across this side of the pond in the last decade. And so it was that on Saturday 17th July 2010 I, my brother and several friends drove down to Melksham in Wiltshire for a one off lecture by the man. It was fantastic weather for our journey down from Birmingham. As we were travelling through Wiltshire we kept a good look out for crop formations but sadly didn’t see any. As it turned out there was a carnival taking place at Melksham on the same day, so the entire town was lined with flags.

After grabbing a late lunch, and meeting up with my dad who was also attending, we found our way to the Assembly Hall where the lecture was due to take place. Despite arriving early, there were already many people there waiting for the talk to begin. The venue was nicely laid out with some coloured mood lighting and relaxing background music to listen to.

Soon it was time to take to our seats. First to speak were a couple of other people from CSETI who introduced Greer before inviting him onto the stage to much applause. Greer essentially split the lecture into two halves. The first part of his talk was about the ongoing UFO cover up and the reasons behind it. He explained the fact that the US government already has access to free energy technology retrieved from the ETs, and that if released to the public this could bring an end to fossil fuel usage around the globe. He then explained the difficulties that this would cause, and how the official announcement of the extraterrestrial reality would impact on many aspects of life. It could well destabilise our economy, scientific and historic books would have to be rewritten, and religion would have to be rethought. Greer also went over numerous discussions he had had with high ranking people including the head of the CIA.

The second part of Greer’s lecture concentrated on his “Ambassador Training Programme”. This is where he explains to groups of individuals ways in which they can actually make contact with the ETs visiting our planet, and sometimes get them to actually manifest in the near vicinity. This is done primarily through sessions out at specific chosen locations. Greer says that through meditation it is possible to put the mind into a certain state in which it is possible to directly contact the ETs on board craft and vector them in. He proceeded to show many different videos and photographs taken during these sessions which he believed showed ET craft. A lot of this footage was shot using night vision camera, and appeared to show objects moving across the sky that were suddenly flashing brightly, sometimes seemingly in response to a powerful laser pointer aimed at the sky. Although some of this footage was interesting I do wonder whether some of it could have been misidentification of space debris reflecting sunlight, satellites or meteorites. He also showed several photographs of disc shaped craft, admittedly blurred, and a strange sound he claimed was the syllable of an alien language that had been recorded (This I found especially hard to believe, but then who’s to say for sure?) Greer also covered a recent photograph taken at Joshua Tree National Park in California, which he claims shows an actual manifestation of an alien being, lit up in light which came from a non-human source. Its certainly an unusual photograph, though I do feel it could perhaps be a simulacrum – a random mix of light and shadow which gives the appearance of a being. Of course the fact the photo should have been pitch black is in itself very interesting.

Click on the below address to see the photographic analysis of this incident:

http://www.cseti.org/reports/joshuatree09pictures.htm

Greer’s lecture was certainly interesting, though I and many others there were disappointed that he did not give any chance for a Q&A at the end. I’m sure that there were a lot of questions people had about his knowledge and the information he had shared during the lecture. Afterwards I caught up with some other friends who I spotted in the crowd, and then managed to sneak a quick photo with Greer at the Assembly Hall entrance.

We then headed out onto the street and found ourselves in the middle of the carnival! All the roads were blocked off, there were crowds everywhere and floats carrying groups of fancy-dressed people heading on past! I have to admit, the girls in the white bikinis got my personal vote. We managed to squeeze our way through the crowd and find a pub to have a drink and a chat about the lecture. After a while the carnival drew to a close and we were able to head back up to Birmingham. Ironically on our return journey we saw our own “UFO” – which turned out to be a Chinese lantern on closer inspection, just like some of the sightings I get in at the group!

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2010

LAPIS Conference 2010 Review

2010-05-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 23/05/2010

On Saturday 22nd May I and my friend Chris drove up to St Annes from Birmingham to attend the LAPIS (Lancashire Anomalous Phenomena Investigation Society) UFO Conference for the first time. It was to be an absolutely fantastic day of listening to lectures and meeting up with old friends. The weather was absolutely stunning – one of the hottest days of the year so far. Clear blue skies and streaming sunlight made the journey to St Annes very pleasant indeed.

We arrived at 10.15am, 15 minutes before the first lecture ws due to start. The conference was held at a spacious sports hall in the YMCA (sing it) on St Albans Road. We immediately met up with Martin and John, two regular BUFOG members who had also made it to the conference. I then went to have a catch up with two of my friends from the UFO circuit – Larry Warren and Phil Mantle, who would both be speaking later in the day. For any of you who don’t know, Larry is one of the key witnesses and also whistleblower of the Rendlesham Forest UFO incident. Phil Mantle is one of the Uk’s most well renowned and experienced UFO researchers. Larry showed me a number of his paintings that were on display, including one directly based on what he experienced at Rendlesham. I had a brief look at some of the other merchandise tables around the room, and was surprised to see a number of bigfoot footprint casts on display by Paul Vella.

Soon it was time for the lectures to kick off, with Paul beginning proceedings. Paul is one of the UK’s leading experts on bigfoot. However considering the theme of the day, he had opted to give a talk linked with UFOs rather than elusive hairy creatures! His lecture was all about the portrayal of aliens and UFOs in movies over the last century up to recent times. He proposed that individuals involved with the UFO cover up may have influenced these movies and decided on how they were portrayed at various times. It was brilliant fun seeing the old B-movie posters featurning hideous alien creatures and terrified humans! He also showed a hilarious trailer for a black-and-white film named “The Giant Claw”, which featured what can only be described as a giant killer prehistoric turkey. Oh yes.

I was surprised to see that Paul didn’t feature the most recent UFO-themed movies such as The Fourth Kind or District 9, but other than this it was a great look back through the history of UFO cinema.

After a short break it was then time for Phil Mantle to take to the podium. I always enjoy Phil’s lectures, and this one did not disappoint. It was a general look at lots of very interesting cases. He began by talking about sightings around the Yorkshire area, including those by the late UFO researcher Tony Dodd. He even showed some photographs Tony had taken of unusual glowing aerial objects. The second half of Phil’s talk covered a number of fascinating contactee cases. These included well known cases such as the Alan Godfrey incident, and the Ilkley Moor abduction, which led to the famous photograph of the ET being that the witness had snapped before it ran away. It truly was an informative lecture on some highly convincing cases. Phil ended up speaking a bit about the new UFO publication which he is launching in July – UFO Matrix. This is intended to be a commercially available magazine on the subject, and I wish him and Malcolm Robinson all the best with it. I for one will be subscribing as soon as it hits the shops.

At the half way point of the conference, we stuck with time honoured tradition by finding the nearest pub and getting some lunch and a quick pint. Over lunch I chatted with Sasha Christie (contactee and researcher), Larry, Jason from the LAPIS crew and new friends Nathan and Luke who were experiencing a UFO conference for the first time.

The first speaker of the afternoon was Alan Murdie. Alan writes about UFOs for Fortean Times magazine, and is a former chairman of the Ghost Club. His lecture focused on UFO incidents from Columbia. There have not been many significant sightings from here, however he covered an incident where a strange metallic object crashed in the Columbian jungle spreading debris over an area. This debris was promptly cleared up by the US military and was never seen again. Alan also covered some other interesting features and mysteries of Columbia, including statues with large dark eyes and a town where the dead have mummified in the ground rather than rotted away.

By this time of day the venue had really started to heat up, and unfortunately there were no ceiling fans. To our relief someone decided to open a door to let in some air. After Alan’s talk there was a short break, during which I took to the mic to announce BUFOG Contactee Support, the monthly online contactee meeting I will be hosting from now on through the website.

It was then time for the final speaker of the day, the one, the only, Larry Warren. Larry gave a superb talk about many aspects of the Rendlesham incident and the part that he played in it. Rather than concentrate on the actual details of what took place, he focused more on how it had affected both his life and the lives of the other witnesses. He showed many documents to back up his statements, and it was a very heartfelt talk. He also spoke of the new Facebook group set up by John Burroughs. The purpose of the group is to draw attention to the Rendlesham incident, which will hopefully lead to disclosure about what took place.

Towards the end of his lecture he invited Sacha to give her thoughts on the Rendlesham incident. She pointed out a number of official statements which did not add up and could be used as evidence that a cover up about the incident had taken place.

I ended the conference chatting with Paul Vella about bigfoot sightings, and two contactees who were interested in joining in with the contactee support meetings. I also managed to sneak a shot of the LAPIS crew who were gathered for an official photograph.

After saying goodbye to the speakers and our new found friends, we headed down to the seafront for a few minutes to check out the beach in the evening sun and eat some fish and chips by the pier, before beginning our journey back to Brum. It had been an excellent and informative day, and I will surely be returning next year.

Area 51 Wedding & UFO Congress 2010 Review

2010-03-09T12:19:00.000-08:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 09/03/2010

It was back in December 2009 when my fiancée Kate came up with the idea. She rang me at work to see what I thought. Needless to say I thought it was fantastic. Why have a normal marriage in England when we could get on a plane, spend a day in Las Vegas, visit the UFO Congress in Laughlin and get married at the Black Mailbox near to the most infamous secret base on the planet - Area 51? Kate had managed to find a wedding package which included photos at the Extraterrestrial Highway sign, a visit to both gates of the base, dinner at the alien-themed Little A’le’inn at Rachel, and a sunset marriage at the mailbox - essentially a dream wedding for anyone interested in UFOs. The rest of our week would be spent exploring Vegas and attending the UFO Congress, one of the largest UFO conferences in the world. It had been my dream to attend the congress for many years, and now at last I was finally going to get the chance.

And so it was that early morning on Friday 19th February we left Birmingham airport on a three tier flight to Vegas. There had been a heavy snowfall the evening before, and we were worried our flight was going to be delayed, but to our surprise it left on time. By the evening we had arrived at the stunning Egyptian themed Luxor hotel. After checking into our spacious room we explored a while, but were sadly too tired after our journey to head out for sightseeing, drinks or gambling!

The following day was our chance to check out Vegas. There is of course only so much one can fit into a day, but I think we made the most of it. We started with a classic American breakfast at Denny’s. We then had to go pick up our wedding licence from the county clerk office, which was quite far from the strip. After an expensive taxi ride followed by a un-nerving walk through the back streets of the city, we made it back to the Stratosphere hotel. The tower is the tallest building in Vegas, thousands of feet high. We took a lift up to the viewing gallery, and then I took a ride on Insanity – a spinning chair ride which hangs right off the side of the building. The view was truly breathtaking, and understandably my legs turned to jelly! We then headed to Caesar’s Palace for a quick go on the slots and a look round The Forum shopping centre, complete with a free Atlantis moving statues show. Next up was Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, followed by some roulette and cocktails back at The Luxor. Wish I could say I won hundreds of dollars but sadly this wasn’t meant to be. We ended our day in Vegas at Believe – the stunning Criss Angel magic show.

At 10pm a minivan arrived at Las Vegas airport to take us to the Aquarius Hotel at Laughlin for the UFO Congress. Everyone else on the van had the same destination, so we made some new friends from the off and had a great journey sharing our views on UFOs and aliens. If you’ve been to Laughlin before, you’ll know that like Vegas it’s based around casinos. As we saw the Aquarius for the first time we realised that the noise of slot machines is something we would have to get used to! We entered the hotel and were immediately greeted by the iconic figure of the UFO Congress – a massive inflatable green alien. The conference was set to start early the following morning, so we headed straight for our room.

The first day of the congress kicked off in style. We explored the entrance area, complete with another inflatable alien, and immediately bumped into Gary Heseltine and his wife Valerie, who were planning to join us for our wedding. Soon after we met Larry Warren, the famous whistleblower of the Rendlesham UFO incident. We decided to invite him for the wedding as well, which he immediately agreed on with much enthusiasm!

Before the lectures kicked off I decided to have a quick look around the dealer room. It was certainly the biggest room full of UFO-related merchandise that I have ever had the pleasure of exploring! There was table after table loaded with books and DVDs. Some stone Grey heads and models caught my attention, as did some superb funny T-Shirts from Alienzoo. Some other quirky merchandise I spotted included some alien-themed car bumper stickers, a Cow Abduction calendar and some singing bowls which according to the vendor could be used to contact extraterrestrials. I figured I’d leave that to her, and headed into the main hall where the lectures were due to take place.

I can’t say for definite, but I assumed the setup was the same as it had been in previous years – many rows of chairs with a central stage at the front and a huge screen to either side. There were also a few tables behind the chairs for people to sit at with drinks. After an introduction by the co-founder of the congress, Bob Brown, it was time for the speakers to begin. I did not get to see every speaker of the week, we missed the Monday entirely for the wedding, and missed various other lectures to explore Laughlin instead, but I will give you the lowdown on the ones I did attend.

The first lecture of the day that I got to see was Jim Nicholls. It was all about the supposed incident in 1954 where President Eisenhower was rumoured to meet with extraterrestrial beings. During this meeting he learned of their intentions and got to view a number of craft. The aliens also demonstrated numerous abilities including making themselves invisible for a short while. The film Close Encounters Of The Third Kind was apparently partially based on this incident. It certainly seems logical to me that there would have been a number of meetings between ETs and representatives of various countries, and the facts suggest that this did indeed take place.

Next was a lecture by one of my favourite UK UFO researchers, Gary Heseltine. I always find Gary’s talks interesting and he shares similar views on the subject to myself, preferring the nuts-and-bolts angle and looking at what the evidence points to. As a detective constable he certainly has the credentials to do this! Gary’s lecture was all about the online Police Reporting UFO Sightings (PRUFOS) Database. He covered some of the most fascinating cases he has received over the years, as well as gave details of his own UFO sighting which got him interested in the subject.

Due to poor health, Wendelle Stevens could sadly not attend the congress, but we were instead treated to a video recording of his planned lecture. Like Jim Nicholls, Wendelle’s talk covered meetings between extraterrestrials and governmental powers, this time focusing on the rumoured Gorbachev contacts. He described a number of incidents where President Gorbachev met with a race of tall humanoid beings, and a previous landing by the same species. It is believed that these contacts influenced the president’s decisions in government and gave rise to a number of initiatives.

In the evening was the first of a number of contactee sessions hosted by Mary Rodwell. Due to my interest in this particular angle of the subject, she recommended that I came along. About 30 people turned up for the initial session, the majority of which were actual contactees. It was truly fascinating listening to them discuss their experiences with one another.

After one complete day at the congress, our wedding day had arrived! We met up with Gary and Valerie at 7.30am at the entrance to the Aquarius. For a few minutes we assumed Larry was not going to be joining us, but then to our relief he too turned up. A moment later our hummer arrived and we met our driver Dave for the first time. We then set off on our journey which would take us first back to Las Vegas to pick up Kate’s parents, and then onward to Area 51, with a quick stop at a diner for breakfast. It was here that we picked up our minister, Reverend Ralph, who had a great sense of humour.

On route, Dave regaled us with his fantastic knowledge of the local area, pointing out everything from mountain ranges to deserted gold mines. We also got to have a good chat with our guests. As we got nearer we came across a new "attraction" - an Alien Research Centre! Sadly we did not have enough time to take a look inside, so its secrets will have to wait for another time.

Before reaching Area 51, we stopped at the infamous Extraterrestrial Highway sign for some photographs. Seeing the sign with my own eyes was truly an experience and felt like we had finally reached our destination.

We then began driving down the highway towards the back entrance of the base. We were informed by our driver that we were now being monitored and that some of the Joshua trees had hidden microphones in them. As we got closer to the base perimeter, we suddenly noticed a vehicle coming down the road behind us. We soon realised it had no licence plates and immediately became concerned. The car overtook us and luckily continued driving into the distance without incident. I can only assume that they were checking us out.

We arrived at the gate with the famous warning signs, and stopped about 100 yards from the perimeter. It was strange to see a thin covering of snow over the desert ground. To our right was a small hill, upon which another vehicle was parked. The vehicle contained two guards, who were looking at us through binoculars. Our driver said it was ok to take photographs but not to get any closer to the perimeter. The presence of the guards was more than a little un-nerving, so we only remained at the gate for several minutes before beating a retreat back up the highway. As we departed, the vehicle on the hill flashed its lights, just to indicate its presence to us.

Our next stop was the mailbox where we would later be getting married. We took some more photographs and checked out the graffiti on the box, before making our way to Rachel and The Little A’le’inn.

It was fantastic to finally reach at the infamous alien-themed diner. After checking out the merchandise and getting a bite to eat (an “alien burger”) we then chatted with the locals, who were thrilled by our impending marriage and asked whether they could join us for the ceremony. Among our new wedding guests was the mysterious self-titled Agent 51, who rushed home to put on a sharp black suit and shades!

With the afternoon quickly disappearing we drove out to the second entrance to Area 51. Rather than just signs and a fence, this entrance had a double gate and guard post. As we approached, a solitary guard came and stood at the inner gate and appeared to take a photograph of us before heading back inside.

We did not have long, so then made our way back to the mailbox, racing the setting sun. We arrived just in time, with the sun nicely catching the mountains in the background. We stood next to the box for the wedding ceremony, and I am pleased to say that everything went smoothly. The ceremony included a number of alien-themed lines and was great fun. After some final sunset photographs we then began our long drive back to Laughlin. It truly was a superb day and everyone involved was extremely happy with how it had turned out.

Below is a short video I've made of the wedding day, featuring footage from Area 51, the Mailbox, and the Little A'le'inn, as well as some of the ceremony:

Ross Hemsworth from the UK started Tuesday with an informative and amusing look at conspiracy theories and how much or little they were based on fact. These ranged from the well known theories surrounding such events as the moon landings and 9/11, to more modern topics such as swine flu and global warming. He also discussed Project Serpo and the evidence which suggests it may have taken place, including the findings of hacker Gary McKinnon.

John Venture, Director of Pennsylvania MUFON, then gave a superb and detailed lecture on the various prophecies surrounding 2012. These included the ending of the Mayan calendar, various religions which believe that something major is going to occur, and various premonitions by individuals which also point to the infamous date. It was amazing to hear them talked about back to back, and I think many in the crowd ended up with the distinct feeling that something is set to take place, though exactly what is still open to speculation.

I missed the afternoon’s lectures to take a look around Laughlin with Kate, but returned in the evening for the contactee session, which was once again fascinating.

Chuck Zukowski kick-started Wednesday in style with a riveting lecture on a number of archaeological digs which he and a team had done at the various Roswell debris sites over the previous nine years. He talked of how they initially defined the precise locations of the sites, and how the digs were performed. The team had uncovered a number of artefacts including pieces of metal with certain strange properties, and a horse bridal that was coated in unusual chemicals. The metal fragments are made of recognisable earth metals, but are still very interesting. Scientific analysis of the artefacts is ongoing.

Donald Ware’s lecture was interesting and covered six extraterrestrial species which he believes inhabit the earth. Four of these are advanced enough to have flying craft. The other two are spiritual beings in physical bodies, the cetaceans (whales & dolphins) and bigfoot. Not sure if I’d agree with the arguments for the last two being ET, but there was some fascinating information including some close encounters with bigfoot creatures.

Dr C. V. Tramont ended the day with a talk about regression hypnotherapy. He discussed many aspects of the subject including past life regression, and various entities, including extraterrestrial and dark, which can become attached to the subconscious mind. He believes that on many occasions he has assisted in removing these entities, which has apparently greatly improved the lives of those involved.

Wednesday evening was the “meet the speakers cocktail party”. This was held in the same room as the conference, with many tables laid out for everyone to sit round. There was free taco’s and free drinks for a large part of the event. The only odd thing was that nobody could find any cocktails! I and Kate sat at a table with Gary and Valerie Heseltine, Larry Warren, Miles Johnson and some new friends. During the party, Larry went up on stage and introduced a number of witnesses who had testified back in 2001 as part of the Disclosure Project.

Thursday’s lectures were themed around contact experiences. Mary Rodwell was the first speaker, and in the first part of her lecture invited a number of contactees to tell their stories over the mic. Some of them I had met in the evening contactee sessions, while others were new to me. Mary’s lecture was fascinating and covered many angles of the subject, including abductions, star kids, writing and speaking of alien languages and healing abilities gained through experiences. She also displayed a number of fascinating drawings by children who had seen Grey beings in their rooms.

The final lecture of the day was by Stan Romanek, and was easily the most controversial lecture of the entire conference. You may well have seen his footage reported to show a Grey peeping in a window of his house. If not you can now find it on Youtube, but be aware that there are a number of reconstruction videos (and some amusing parodies) also doing the rounds. Prior to the lecture this was all I had seen on Stan’s case so it was very interesting to hear the full story. Apparently Stan has had many experiences over the last ten years, including UFO sightings, abductions, and both Grey and hybrid beings seen around his house. He has also encountered glowing orbs, as well as various other paranormal activity. He presented an impressive amount of photographic and audio evidence to back up his claims, including some other photographic stills of Greys. There also appears to be evidence that he is being monitored by unknown persons intent on stopping the truth getting out. I certainly found the lecture interesting, and also bought Stan’s book to look into the case in more depth. But it almost seems too good to be true, and much as I want it to be real, I remain wary of the case.

Thursday evening’s contactee session was specially themed around MILABs (Military abductions). It was interesting to hear that a number of the contactees present had had particular abductions where military personnel as well as extraterrestrial beings were seen. Melinda Leslie, a hypnotherapist and researcher specialising in the subject, informed me that these had been reported as early as the 1950s and are an integral part of the contact phenomenon. There are many theories as to the reason behind these experiences.

Friday morning began with one of my most awaited lectures – Travis Walton. I had only ever seen Travis speak once before, many years ago at a UFO Magazine conference, so I was really looking forward to hearing him again. The talk began with a video introduction featuring clips from the movie Fire In The Sky mixed with real clips of the actual people involved in the case. Travis first gave an overview of what happened to him, showing a number of illustrations, and described how it had affected his life ever since. He then went on to share with us some new unusual evidence which had come to light. It was found that, since the incident, the trees in the clearing where the craft had been situated are growing at a more rapid rate than before! Diagrams were displayed to indicate what had been discovered, and it was great to see yet more proof that the incident took place.

Douglas Taylor is a contactee and artist. In his lecture he described his experience, during which he got taken aboard a craft and met a number of humanoid Nordic-type beings. He explained how this had changed his perspective of the world, and inspired him to create a number of works of art themed around UFOs and conservation of the planet. During his talk he displayed a number of these paintings, some of which were animated to highlight particular aspects. However my favourite animation was the visual representation of the journey of his mind through space and time on his return from the craft, which featured a photograph of himself rather than a drawing, and was unintentionally amusing (A still from this is shown below).

In the afternoon, Barbara Lamb gave the only lecture of the week fully themed around the crop formation phenomenon. She described some of the evidence which points towards a non-human cause for some of the formations discovered, and showed many photographs of formations from around the world right up to 2009. Some of the larger formations which have appeared are truly beautiful. Despite the fact that many of the modern formations are almost certainly hoaxed, I still feel there is an element of truth to crop formations, and I hope that one day someone manages to prove it beyond doubt.

Richard Dolan ended the day with a well structured lecture on expolitics. Rather than look to the past, Richard talked about the directions the subject needs to head in the coming years, and how we should prepare for the inevitable disclosure of extraterrestrial reality. Richard feels this disclosure will come within the next couple of decades, and that it will dramatically alter our perception of the world, and impact on our society in many different ways.

As we got used to the fact that it was sadly the final day of the conference, Larry Warren and Gary Heseltine took to the stage in a fantastic joint presentation on the Rendlesham incident. Larry first discussed his part in bringing the case to the public’s attention, and showed numerous documents as evidence of his involvement. He did not discuss the events of the incident itself – I’m sure most of the audience knew about what took place already. Before handing the mic over to Gary, he got Kate and I to stand up and told everyone about our marriage to great applause. This was a nice gesture that we were both very thankful for.

Gary’s part of the lecture covered evidence that nuclear weapons were secretly being stored at the bases, and that this was a probable reason for the entire incident. It was certainly one of the best lectures of the entire week, and I look forward to welcoming Larry to speak for BUFOG in April.

Paola Harris was up next to talk, and gave a lecture about the changing trends in exopolitics, moving from a strictly nuts-and-bolts view to take more metaphysical angles into consideration. She discussed how this change in viewpoint can increase our understanding of what is taking place, and argued that it is a vital part of the subject which should not be ignored.

Jaime Maussen and Santiago Garza, two of Mexico’s most popular ufologists, gave a superb lecture featuring a large amount of video footage and photographs. They showed NASA footage of glowing objects captured on camera outside of the atmosphere, various videos showing fleets of spherical UFOs, and some highly unusual flying snake-like objects. They then went on to talk about research into an unusual small creature which had been captured in a trap. Various DNA tests had been done on it, most of which came back unidentifiable, and one which came back as human. I am suspicious of this particular case for a number of reasons, but it would be amazing if it does turn out to be extraterrestrial in origin. Another interesting photograph Jaime and Santiago showed was of a Mayan temple with what looked like a beam of light coming down from the sky into the top of it. Apparently the photograph has been analyzed and is believed genuine.

The final lecture of the UFO Congress was by David Sereda. It covered complex research and experiments into anti-gravity from Lockheed Martin scientist Boyd Bushman. He hopes that someone will fund his research further, which will enable him to create an actual saucer-like craft. David also discussed theories of worm-hole technology which would enable teleportation from a different point in space, and suggested a possible link to ancient Egypt and the pyramids.

After a couple of hours it was time for the banquet dinner and EBE awards ceremony to end the congress in style. After a nice buffet and some free glasses of wine, the speakers and then the organisers met up on stage for some photographs. This was then followed by some end speeches by organisers Bob Brown and Nicola Irvine, and a special video tribute to Nicola’s departed mother.

The EBE awards then commenced, and numerous awards were given out for the many UFO/alien themed documentaries and films which had been played on each of the evenings of the congress (Due to the contactee sessions I had not seen any of these but hope to soon watch some of them online). The most popular documentary of the week was The John Searl Story, which was about a man who has created a method of producing free energy, and has created a number of small flying craft using the technology.

I and Kate set off on a coach to Las Vegas airport the following morning. It truly was a spectacular week, and we loved every moment of it. Even the long delay at Paris due to stormy weather was manageable thanks to Larry Warren who happened to be on the same flight as us! Next year the UFO Congress moves to Phoenix, Arizona, and I hope that it continues to be as top quality as 2010’s was. It’s a shame that it is so far away, making a yearly return to the congress extremely difficult, but I’m sure I’ll be back there in the future – either as an attendee or as a speaker.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2010

Dave's UFO Music & Poem Videos

2009-10-23T02:14:00.000-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien

Over recent years I have created numerous videos about UFOs and extraterrestrials, including a number of original poems on the subject. I create them as and when I get inspired. If you have any ideas for new ones by all means contact me and I may decide to work on something. Below are each of the videos which I have uploaded to Youtube, including a bit of info on each:

Crashes, Cover Ups and Conspiracies

A video of UFO/alien artwork and photographs, set to the song Altered States by the Australian prog rock group Cog. The song is quite rare and sadly does not form part of any of their commercial albums. It is all about ongoing UFO crashes and the governments attempts to cover them up from the general public. The band have sung other interesting tracks too including Are You Listening? which is about new world order.

Aliens - The Photographic Evidence

A collection of supposedly real alien photographs. I am of course aware that some of these are suspect and may have since been proven a hoax, but I think that at least a few of them could be the real deal. At the time I did not include photos that I believed were already proven fake, which is why stills of the Roswell Alien Autopsy video are not present. And the reflection behind Bush at the end I just put in for a laugh! I've set the vid to the stunning abduction-themed song Rosetta Stoned by Tool.

Account Of An Encounter - A Poem About UFOs

The first poem I wrote about the UFO subject, describing the sighting of a saucer-shaped craft from the perspective of the witness, and the reaction from other people to the incident. Set to music from The Island.

The Other Place - A Poem About Alien Abduction

The longest poem I have written so far. A non-rhyming account of someone's abduction from start to finish, taking in many regularly reported aspects of the phenomenon. Set to music from The Abyss.

Survivor - A Poem About Roswell

With this poem I decided to take a different angle, and imagine what the UFO crash at Roswell could have been like from the perspective of the suriving Grey alien. I am quite pleased with the results. Set to music from Lady In The Water.

Art In The Crop - A Poem About Crop Formations

In summer 2008 with the latest rash of formations on the news I decided to write a poem about the ongoing appearance of them in fields around the world. I am well aware that many formations these days are hoaxes but still believe there is an underlying truth to them related to the UFO phenomenon. Set to music from The Village.

Skeptic - A Poem About UFO Skepticism

My latest and probably most controversial poem yet is a dig at die hard UFO skeptics who do not check the evidence available and instead blindy dismiss the entire subject. Set to music by Nine Inch Nails.

I hope that you have enjoyed these videos. If after watching these you feel inspired to create a video or just write a poem on the subject by all means send it to BUFOG and we will include it in the Articles section of the page.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2009

International Irish UFO Conference Review

2009-10-05T12:04:00.001-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 05/10/2009

The sixth annual International Irish UFO Conference was held in the town of Boyle on 3rd-4th October 2009. Boyle is well known as an Irish UFO hot spot so was an apt location for the conference to take place. The town is also the home of Betty Meyler, president of the UFO Society of Ireland, who organised the weekend. Betty kindly offered me the chance to speak at the conference, and it was the first time I would talk on the subject outside of the UK. As you will see I also used the opportunity for another important event – to propose to my girlfriend Kate!

Our journey from Birmingham on Friday 2nd October was in three parts; first a short flight to Dublin airport, followed by a bus journey to the city centre, and then a two and a half hour train journey to arrive at our destination of Boyle. Unbeknown to us, Grant Cameron, another speaker at the conference who had come all the way from Canada, was also on the same train. We met him for the first time at Boyle station, where we were also greeted by a friend of Betty’s, who drove us to Dunwarren House where we would be staying for the weekend.

The house was very nice indeed, with wooden flooring throughout, and was just along the road from the picturesque ruins of Boyle Abbey (unfortunately undergoing renovation work). After dropping off our bags we were then driven down to King House, the venue for the conference, to meet up with Betty and the other speakers. King House is a fantastic stately home nestled alongside Boyle’s shopping centre. The conference was to be held in one of the upstairs rooms, and to get there we had to walk past various halls of paintings and mannequins in period costume which formed part of the guided tours. The conference room itself was spacious with tall curtained windows and rows of chairs laid out for the attendees.

After meeting Betty for the first time, I then got chatting with many of the other speakers of the weekend, including Grant Cameron, Gary Heseltine, Alan Foster, Haktan Akdoman and Joanne Summerscales. We then had to all test our laptops and equipment to make sure everything was going to work as planned! Needless to say, despite doing this there were still some technical hitches throughout the weekend, luckily ones which were resolved. We were then given free reign to enjoy the rest of the evening. Myself and Kate joined some of the other speakers and conference cameraman Miles for a drink and late dinner at the bar in the Royal Hotel, just down the road from King House.

Saturday morning kicked off at 8.30am after a satisfying Irish cooked breakfast. We actually turned up slightly too early and found that the gates of King House were not yet opened! Soon conference attendees started to turn up and fill up the venue.

Betty then stood up and gave a brief introduction, before the first speaker of the day, Gary Heseltine, began his lecture. Gary’s talk was about the infamous Rendlesham Forest incident. Over recent months he has been in direct contact with Colonel Halt, the base commander at the time of the incident back in 1980. He has interviewed Halt numerous times and received some fascinating information about what took place, including the admission that the UFO was seen shooting down beams of light into the base and inspecting the “ordinance”. Gary then provided a very convincing argument that nuclear weapons were being stored at the base and this is what the UFO was checking out. At one point I helped him unravel a printed timeline of the incident to show how many aspects were involved in it. Gary has also been working with Halt on a screenplay for a documentary film on the incident. Considering the importance of the incident this is long overdue, and I hope that they get the go ahead for this to be produced. Gary will be coming to give a similar lecture for the Birmingham UFO Group on Friday 9th October, and I cannot recommend it enough!

After a brief coffee break it was time for my own presentation! I was pleased that I was on so soon because then I could relax and enjoy the rest of the conference without any nerves. In my talk I covered my own recent UFO sighting at Warminster, then some of my most impressive investigations including the ongoing Bletchley case (see Reported UFOs section of site for official reports on these).

Towards the end of the lecture Betty was trying to get me to finish up as the day started late, but I had one last important thing to do. I called my girlfriend Kate to the front to give her opinion on some new UFO footage I had received linked with her own Brecon Beacons sighting when she was 11 years old. This was a big surprise for her as I had given her no prior warning. However the vide was not really UFO footage at all, it was the perfect opportunity for me to propose to her by displaying the famous words. Luckily the technology didn’t let me down where it counted, and everything went according to plan! Not sure if it’s the first UFO lecture proposal ever or not, but we certainly got a great round of applause from the audience, who also apparently really enjoyed my talk.

It was then time for lunch which gave my frayed nerves some time to recover! I would have liked to go for an expensive restaurant meal to celebrate but we couldn’t find any open so had to make do with a nearby take away café. The first speaker of the afternoon was Paul O’Conner, a professional remote viewer. His fascinating lecture went into details of how remote viewing has been used by various groups over the years, including the CIA, police and armed forces. He explained the basics of how it works, and covered some of the most highly skilled remote viewers. Paul actually runs a class teaching others how to remote view, and I have to admit I am quite intrigued by the subject. He came across very well and his lecture was very interesting indeed.

The final speaker of the day was Grant Cameron, who had come all the way from Canada to give his talk. Grant has looked in great depth into the US presidents’ involvement with UFOs and the ongoing cover up of information. His lecture covered this in detail. It included many segments of video footage showing some of the quotes the various presidents have given on the subject over the years. Grant proved that despite being in a position of power, and certainly being aware of the seriousness of UFOs, they continue to dismiss or laugh off the subject whenever they are asked about it. He also believes that many are not aware of the UFO reality and have not been briefed at all, or have only been given a general overview of what is going on. Grant talked about some of the reasons why the cover up is in place and why disclosure will only happen when those who are in control wish to release the information. His lecture was fascinating and gave a great insight into the current UFO situation in the United States.

For the Saturday evening there was a buffet meal with musical accompaniment by Irish folk singer Michael Boston. Coincidentally this was being held in a side bar at the same location we had ended up at on the Friday – The Royal Hotel. This went very well indeed, and myself and Kate spent most of the evening talking with Gary Heseltine and Alan Foster over some drinks. We also talked with a man named Graham who had been to Paul O’Conner’s remote viewing class which was really interesting.

The Sunday again kicked off nice and early, which after the previous evening felt quite tough for some I’m sure! It began with a couple of short documentaries on UFO sightings around Boyle. Both prominently featured Betty, who believes that an inter-dimensional portal exists in a lake close to the town. There have been a number of photographs taken which seem to show a glowing white light over the water, and Betty feels this is a doorway of some kind and the reason why many UFO sightings occur in the local area. Both documentaries were good, although I felt the second was a little condescending, if in good humour. Betty didn’t seem to mind at all and just laughed it off, she truly is a remarkable lady. After the documentaries, Betty then gave a talk about the UFO incidents that have taken place around Boyle, and the numerous personal sightings that she has had.

We were then treated to some very interesting footage from Carl Nally, which showed a triangular formation of three white glowing objects. They turned as if connected, but he believes they were separate as one of them shot a number of thin red beams of light down to the ground. These beams only lasted for a split second but were quite bright and focused. Carl told us that they found no trace markings anywhere on the ground in the direction the lights had been filmed. He also explained that last year some very similar fake footage had been released online (I remember seeing this video), but that this video was the real deal. It was certainly intriguing, though of course was not overly impressive in this day and age of modern visual effects.

The later half of the morning was given to crop formation researcher Alan Foster. I have seen Alan numerous times before and he is always a joy to listen to. He gave a great lecture on formations over the last decade, including new ones which appeared down in Wiltshire this summer which were in the shape of symbolic animals, including a jellyfish and hummingbird. He of course is aware that some of the formations are hoaxed but also believes that there is a genuine reality behind them and that there are tell tale signs where formations are genuine, including the detection of strange energies and magnetic differences within them, and unusual way that the crop is folded or weaved into patterns. He showed a number of orb photographs he had personally taken while standing in formations, and covered the apparent military involvement and interest in the phenomenon. Sadly myself and Kate had to head for home just before the end of Alan’s lecture, but he is coming to give a talk for BUFOG in February 2010.

We unfortunately missed the last two lectures of the conference, but I’m sure they went very well indeed. Firstly was Haktan Akdogan, the renowned UFO researcher from Turkey. He talked about recent Turkish UFO sightings including new video footage by Yalcin Yalman in Kumburgaz, who over the previous two years has taken some impressive footage which seems to show a craft up close hovering over the sea at night-time. He has also taken daylight footage showing glowing orange lights over the water. Haktan informed me that numerous other witnesses had also been present during these recent sightings and that he believes the footage is genuine. He also showed some new footage of his own, which luckily we got to see during one of the morning breaks. The first segment was taken outside a conference in Istanbul where a UFO actually appeared and flew across the sky! Many people headed outside and filmed the object. Later outside his hotel, again he managed to capture footage of a dark round object flying at a fast speed. The third segment of video was taken when Haktan and others visited Yalcin for several days, and shows a glowing white cigar shaped object moving very fast across the sky. Haktan has kindly passed this footage on to me, and I will be showing it at the next group meeting.

The last speaker of the day was Joanne Summerscales, who I was quite disappointed to miss. I had spoken with Joanne throughout the weekend and she is a very friendly and interesting lady. Joanne’s lecture was entitled Changing Paradigms – A perspective of the many layers of the UFO field. In it she pieced together elements of the UFO phenomenon and looked at the mask of our society paradigm, and I’m sure it went very well indeed.

As you can see, the weekend was truly fantastic and everyone had a really great time. I would like to use this opportunity to personally thank Betty for inviting me to speak at the conference; it was wonderful to be given the chance to share my views and investigative work with the attendees. I wish her all the best for the upcoming months and for the UFO Society of Ireland, whose official website is at http://www.ufosocietyireland.com. I will hopefully return to Boyle in the near future.

A Bizarre Anomoly

On one of the photographs that Kate took of me just before my lecture began had a very strange-shaped pinkish coloured orb on it. Check it out below:

Don't know if it's anything or not, could just be something floating past the camera lens. None of the other photos had anything looking remotely like this on.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2009

Steve Bassett Discussion Evening

2009-09-23T16:52:00.001-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 22/09/2009

On Friday 21st September 2009 I was proud to be given the oppurtunity to organise a group discussion with renowned US political lobbyist Steve Bassett. Steve is currently touring Europe and attending a number of different conferences. The discussion was held around my house south of Birmingham. A number of BUFOG members were invited, as well as David Williams, who is involved with the UK Disclosure Project.

Steve Bassett is the director of the Paradigm Research Group, who's website can be found at http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/, and X-PPAC, the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Commitee. He has single handedly created a number of key initiatives to hopefully kickstart disclosure of the UFO reality in the USA. These initiatives include the Million Fax on Washington, where he is asking as many people as possible to send letters to President Obama asking for the extraterrestrial presence on Earth to be made known to the American people. He is convinced that disclosure is just around the corner, and that if the US discloses, other countries around the world will shortly follow.

The talk lasted for over three hours, during which I directly asked Steve a number of questions about the ongoing UFO cover up and possible disclosure, and others present got to ask questions too. It was very interesting indeed. Steve is clearly a highly intelligent individual, who expresses his views clearly and backs them up with hard evidence.

Below are links to an audio recording of the majority of the discussion. It is split into two wav files, each approximately 1 hour 33 minutes long. It is well worth a listen, especially if you have never heard Steve speak before, and if you do I am sure you will come away convinced that disclosure is a very real possibility and may well happen in the near future.

To download each of the files do the following:

- Click on the link
- On the website page that opens up click where it says "Click here to start download..."
- This will open up a file save box. Click the Save button and choose where you would like to download the file to.
- Once downloaded, locate the file and double click it to open it in your default sound playing program.

Steve Bassett Talk Part 1

Steve Bassett Talk Part 2

I would like to use this oppurtunity to thank Steve for his time. It was an absolutely fascinating evening and I wish him all the best with his ongoing efforts and endeavours. And when disclosure in the US does come, remember that Steve will more than likely be one of the key individuals who helped bring it about.

If you wish to be kept up to date with latest developments, visit the website and request to be added to Steve's mailing list.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2009

Weird 09 Conference & Skywatch Review

2009-09-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 31/08/2009

The Weird 09 Paranormal Conference took place at the Athenaeum Theatre in Warminster, Wiltshire, on Saturday 29th- Sunday 30th August 2009.
Warminster is one of the UK’s biggest UFO hot spots, and was made famous by the UFO flap that occurred there in the late 70s – early 80s. Myself and Kate drove down early on the Saturday morning and arrived shortly before the first lecture kicked off. We met up with other BUFOG members Larry & Pam Potter, and after briefly chatting with some of the researchers who would be speaking at the conference it was time to take our seats.

The theatre was a great venue for the lectures, it had two levels of tiered and comfortable seats and was extremely dark. The host of the conference was Ross Hemsworth, the presenter of the Saturday night TV show Now THAT’S Weird and researcher of the paranormal. Ross is a very confident speaker and was an ideal choice to host Weird 09. He gave a brief and amusing introduction before Kevin Goodman took to the stage.

Kevin Goodman is part of UFO Warminster, a group dedicated to keeping Warminster’s flame burning. When he was young he visited Warminster many times for UFO sky watches and has had some stunning UFO sightings in the area, as well as possibly witnessed contact from an extraterrestrial life form channelled through one of his friends. His lecture focused mostly on Arthur Shuttlewood, the lead investigator into the Warminster sightings back in the 1970s. He also covered one of his own UFO sightings where him and his friends saw a silver disc-shaped object in broad daylight. Kevin’s lecture kick-started the conference in great style and featured many interesting photographs. His obvious enthusiasm for his work always shines through and this was no exception. At the end of his talk he provided everyone with details for the planned Saturday evening sky watch, which I was certainly looking forward to.

In the break I took a brief look round the dealer rooms, and met some of the band CEIV, something I have wanted to do for many years! CEIV are one of the only UK bands dedicated to the UFO subject. Their songs cover many different aspects of the phenomena and are well worth checking out. I even got a photo taken with the band mascot Tor - a life-size model Grey adorned in various metal studs and tattoos! We also met up with other BUFOG members Zoe & Ian who had arrived late and unfortunately missed Kevin’s lecture.

The next speaker was ex-MoD UFO investigator Nick Pope. His talk was based around the latest UFO documents to be released by the Ministry of Defence. This has been ongoing for a couple of years now, and in the end Nick says that all UFO-related documents will be in the public domain. The latest reports were a mix of sightings, some more impressive than others. One of the one’s recently released describes a radar sighting of an object over a mile wide! Nick believes that the MoD is not with-holding information and is as mystified by UFOs as everyone else. I am resident to completely believe this, I think in a number of incidents the truth has been bent and information has been covered up, however they are certainly opening up a lot more than they would have several years ago. The question is – is this part of a gradual planned disclosure or not? Nick’s lecture was highly enjoyable and if you missed it, he will be speaking at BUFOG in December.

After grabbing a much needed snack from the Subway across the road, it was time for Hayley Steven’s lecture entitled “Is There Anybody Out There?” This moved away from the subject of UFOs and instead delved into the existence of ghostly phenomena. Hayley is the founder of Wiltshire Phenomena Research. Over the years she has seen some very spooky things, and yet remains sceptical of a lot of the reports that come her way. She has a very rational way of thinking and believes that a lot of the sightings can be disproved.

Part of Hayley’s talk revolved around an experiment that we were all invited to partake in. Everyone was given a pen and paper. We were shown a number of related words for an amount of time on screen, and then had to remember the words we had seen and write them down. The words were all related to different tastes and dessert food items. When she asked us what words we had written down, many of us had put down the word “sweet” even though it was not actually in the words we had been shown. I admit I fell for this. We then tried the experiment a second time. This time the words were all related to feelings of anger. Despite the word “angry” not being in the list, again many people including myself wrote it down. This experiment was done to prove that sometimes our mind can be deceived into remembering things that in fact did not take place. Hayley suggests that this may be the case for some reported paranormal incidents. This seems logical and certainly a possibility, and everyone enjoyed taking part in the experiment.

After heading down the hotel where we were staying at to sign in and grab some lunch, it was time for Brian Allan’s fascinating lecture entitled “The Rosslyn Frequency”. This talk went over the discoveries Brian had made relating to the medieval Rosslyn Chapel. He believes that the chapel holds the key to opening a doorway to another dimension, and that numerous “doorways” of this type exist around the planet. He showed us carvings on the chapel walls which give clues that this is the location for one of these portals. After much research he has discovered that the chapel has been built to resonate with a particular frequency of sound wave. He obtained special permission to test this theory with a number of others present. When this sound was played within the chapel, he says that something unusual happened next to one of the altars, he believes that the doorway was partially opened. Since this incident he has found out that light may also play a part in opening the portal, and hopes that in the future he will be allowed once more to test this at the chapel. His field of research is fascinating and it was a very interesting talk indeed.

The final speaker of the day was Peter McCue, a retired clinical psychologist who is now a member of the Society for Psychical Research. He gave a lecture exploring the link between ghostly phenomena and building renovation work. I had not heard of this apparent link before so it was another very interesting talk. He described numerous examples where renovations on old buildings had apparently caused the appearance of ghostly phenomena such as poltergeists, unexplained sounds and apparitions. Peter believes that some reported paranormal phenomena is probably genuine and should not be dismissed without proper evidence to suggest otherwise.

The first day of the conference finished about five o’clock. We then headed back to our hotel for several hours to await the start of the sky watch. I drove up to Cradle Hill just before 8pm. Kate could not make the sky watch but Larry and Pam were there. Cradle Hill lies just to the North of the town and was only several minutes drive away. Everyone congregated around the area known as the “white gates”. The gates no longer exist but used to be present back in the 1970s-80s. The white gates area lies right next to army-owned land so the organisers of the sky watch had asked informed them we would be there. The area is one of the most popular places for sky watches as there is a fantastic view of the sky in all directions. A road leads up from the white gates to the copse, a small area of trees with a barn, where much unusual activity and sightings have been recorded.

When I first arrived there were already over forty people present including a TV crew with some professional camera equipment. I chatted with a number of people including Kevin Goodman and Malcolm Robinson. Soon afterwards the light began to fade in the sky so I decided to walk up to the copse before it got pitch black so I could take a look at the area. I took some photos on the way up the road which seem to show orbs, although I believe this was probably because of the fast diminishing light conditions. Once I reached the copse I took a look at the barn and found some UFO graffiti someone had drawn. I then went to stand on the far side of the copse with a number of others and watched as the evening light faded to darkness. At this point there was still quite a bit of cloud cover with only patchy areas of clear sky.

At about 10pm I walked back down to the white gates to meet up with the main body of sky watchers. Zoe and Ian finally turned up after a visit to Avebury. As time went by, the sky slowly cleared to reveal a star-filled sky. We could make out numerous satellites on their orbital paths.

It was approximately 11pm, when suddenly we noticed some unusual flashes of light coming from far away to the North North East. They were in the distance but lit up an area of the sky a bright blue/white colour. The flashes were intermittent and lasted for about five seconds. It seemed very unlikely they were caused by lightning as firstly there was no sound of thunder and secondly the weather was very clear and calm. If they were a fireworks display I would have expected to see various colours and also it seemed very late to be having a display. They probably had a rational explanation but are currently unidentified.

About half an hour later there were roughly twenty people still left, everyone else had headed back down to the town. Suddenly someone pointed out an object to our South. It was moving very fast, at first I thought it must be a military jet. But as it got closer we could hear no sound coming from it. I could not make out a shape against the dark sky but it had an unusual dark green-blue coloured light on it. Every three seconds a very bright white light would flare up and then die back down. It was very unusual and the lights seen were not consistent with any known aircraft or helicopter, military or civilian. The object passed to our East and then turned till it was heading in a North East East direction away from us. Even when it had gone out of sight we could still make out the white flaring light for another minute. I did try to record it on video but sadly it was so dark nothing came out. However others may have captured something, and Ian got an audio recording from when we first spotted it. I fully expected someone to be able to tell me what the object had been, but when I walked around and checked everyone present was as mystified as I was! So far this object has not been identified so it is a genuine UFO, the first one I have ever seen. I have written a detailed report on this sighting which can be found in the Reported UFOs section of this website.

It got to roughly midnight when something else caught everyone’s attention. There was a sudden glow of yellow light which moved very fast to the left and then back to the right under the light cloud to the East of Cradle Hill. Before vanishing. I only managed to see the last second of it as I was looking the other direction at the time. We were all discussing it when several minutes later it returned as a stationary light. It then slowly moved left a touch before vanishing again. It continued to reappear and vanish and after several minutes were realised it was a search light coming up from the nearby military base. We assumed that they were doing it on purpose as a joke because they knew the sky watch was in progress!

I left Cradle Hill with Zoe and Ian about 12.15am, and felt very contented at how well the sky watch had gone and that we had seen some unusual activity.

On Sunday morning before the lectures began, people were chatting about what had taken place. Kevin thought that perhaps it was some sort of hoax set up in response to the sky watch, but if it was remote controlled it was moving very fast and also must have had a very long range as the object had vanished into the distance. Currently it remains a valid UFO sighting.

Sunday kicked off with a lecture by Joe McGonagle. It covered discrepancies in the UFO documents released by the Ministry of Defence that may point to a cover up of information. The information given in his talk was valid, although for first thing in the morning the lecture was rather wordy and I think some people found it hard to concentrate. Joe pointed out various mistakes that the MoD had made while writing up sightings of UFOs. He believes that more care and attention to detail should have been made in certain circumstances.

Next up was a fascinating lecture about the Men In Black by well renowned ufologist Nick Redfern, who was specially visiting the UK from Dallas where he now lives. He covered a number of historic cases of the Men In Black and talked about the various possible explanations for them, to coincide with his book “On The Trail Of The Saucer Spies”. Since the US freedom of information act, Nick has been able to retrieve documents which prove that in some cases the MIB have been governmental agents sent to investigate UFO witnesses and contactees. However in other cases, they appear to be far more sinister and could even be extraterrestrial beings. It’s a shame that his lecture did not include any very recent cases as I am sure that visitations by the Men in Black do still take place.

Paul Devereux was next to take to the podium, and gave a talk with a difference. His lecture was entitled Walking With Spirits, and was about the historic spirit paths that pass across the UK and Ireland. These spirit paths are lines which the dead are said to travel along to move between places. Paul provided evidence that ghostly activity has been recorded on these hidden paths. He has also found evidence that stiles were historically used as a location where spirits could be divined and interrogated. It was a really interesting talk and one backed up with some highly believable evidence, Paul had obviously looked into the subject in great depth and was a true expert on it.

Over the Sunday lunch break, I got to see some video screenings of interviews with UFO researchers Dr David Clarke and Steve Dewey. It was great hearing the opinions of other researchers who could not actually be present at the conference. I also took part in an experiment ASUS were running. People partaking in the experiment had to independently watch a short clip of UFO video footage and then answer some questions on what they think they had just seen. The footage seemed to show a dull metallic looking sphere. I was informed afterwards that the footage is actually fake.

The first lecture of the afternoon was my favourite of the entire weekend. It was by contactee Mike Oram and was entitled “From Warminster to Area 51”. Mike discussed in detail a recent highly unusual incident that had happened to him and his wife while out near the gate to Area 51 and the infamous Little A’le’inn. When he took a photograph at the gate, an unidentified truck had driven out of the facility towards them. He got back in his car and drove away but soon realised the truck was tailing them. He then sprung a flat tyre, but all of a sudden the truck had completely vanished. Rather than change the tyre straight away, for an unknown reason he had driven quite a distance to a garage. Here he met two unusual men and a staring young child who also appeared to have turned up from nowhere. Later at the Little A’le’inn Mike saw unidentified lights in the sky and went missing for a period of time.

Later he had decided to go for hypnotic regression to try and find out what happened. The story that unfolded was fascinating. The truck had apparently caught up their car. On the back of it was a strange device which opened up some sort of portal. Mike was lead through this by military personnel and then found himself in a facility (he assumes inside Area 51) where there were both American military and alien beings working together. The two men and child he had met at the garage turned out to be two humanoid beings who he had seen numerous times before through his life, and a small Grey-like being with a large head. The incident was completely fascinating, and Mike presented it in a very open and believable way. I decided to buy his book “Does It Rain In Other Dimensions?” to read more about his life-long experiences.

Many people were quite tired by the time of the final lecture of the conference. It was a good thing then that it was by Malcolm Robinson , who’s passion and liveliness for his work is both obvious and infectious. Malcolm is the director of SPI – Scottish Paranormal Investigations. I have seen him numerous times before and he is a true expert in the paranormal field, with over 30 years experience. His lecture this time was all about photographs reportedly showing ghostly apparitions. These included many famous ones which I had seen before, and a number of newer ones which were really spooky indeed! He also showed some other photos which contained apparent apparitions of the Virgin Mary. He explained how some apparition photographs are merely tricks of the light and what is known as a simulacrum – where we put shapes together to make more sense of what we are looking at. However to counteract this he showed a number of photos which quite clearly appeared to show ghostly figures and faces, and by the end of it the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up! I’m sure many others present had a troubled night’s sleep.

Ross took to the stage at the end of the conference to congratulate the organisers and speakers. It was a fantastic two days and I will certainly be back for Weird 10 next summer.

Me, Kate, Zoe and Ian ended our trip to Warminster with a final drive back up to the white gates for some daylight photographs. The fog had started to roll in, making the copse look especially creepy. I was grateful that we had had such a clear night on the Saturday. With one final glance round the sky, we departed for home, confident that this would not be the last time we would stand upon Cradle Hill on the look out for UFOs…

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2009

Jane McCarthy Lecture Review

2009-06-01T07:08:00.000-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 30/06/2009

In June 2009, the Birmingham UFO Group was treated to a very interesting and varied lecture by “psychic investigator” Jane McCarthy. Her husband Tom who helps with her investigations was also there, as was their highly active pet dog, which apparently has a sixth sense and can detect the presence of ghosts. Tom did not talk during the lecture but was on hand to answer questions.

Jane claims to possess clairvoyant abilities which enable her to receive messages from spirits, and also what she believes to be an extraterrestrial intelligence. She also has the ability to sometimes see apparitions or spirit energy in the form of orbs. She is regularly contacted by people who wish to receive psychic readings, and she is also called out to investigate hauntings.

Before her lecture, Jane openly admitted to being more interested in ghosts than UFOs or aliens. However over the years she and her husband have had a number of fascinating UFO encounters. The first part of Jane’s lecture concentrated on these incidents, and featured many drawings and photographs. It became clear she had had some very interesting sightings indeed, and had even managed to twice photograph what she believes is a huge unidentified craft. This apparently appeared in response to her asking for proof of their existence. Jane has also had a contact experience, and is possibly an abductee, though she does not wish to pry into this too deep as it un-nerves her. She has a tiny scar in each eye which she believes was caused during an abduction. She also recounted a story where she awoke to see an amphibian-type alien being in her room. Her experiences seemed very believeable and she described them in great detail.

During the break I approached Jane to speak with her about her psychic messages. As we were talking, she actually received a message – not for me, but for BUFOG presidents Craig and Mark. Jane and Tom’s pet dog continued excitedly running around the room staring at everyone.

In the second part of her lecture, Jane discussed some of her psychic investigations in more detail, and moved away from the subject of UFOs to discuss spirits and orbs instead. Some of her stories were very creepy indeed, there was at least a couple of moments where I felt the hairs on my neck stand up! In particular, she recounted an investigation into a haunting on a stretch of road. When she visited the location she detected the presence of a young man and even drew a picture of him. Later she would learn that this boy had died in a fatal crash, and a relative even recognised him from her picture. Jane also detected the presence of a monk, which she again drew a picture of. She is not the only one to have seen the monk at that location – she read out a newspaper article about a sighting of the monk by a couple of police officers. While everyone was getting thoroughly spooked by her tale, we suddenly began to hear a strange quiet voice calling out. Then the dog let out a loud bark! Was there a presence in the room that was making itself known to us? Not this time…it was just Craig’s mobile phone which he’d left over by the podium! When speaking about the orb pheonomenon, Jane explained how she believes that they are doorways to another dimension through which spirits can manifest. She displayed some interesting photographs showing close ups of orbs to back up this theory.

Sadly in the end Jane’s lecture had to draw to a close, but everyone agreed it was both highly enjoyable and interesting. She came across as a very confident person who speaks very openly about her experiences. If you missed the lecture, look out for her speaking elsewhere, I cannot reccomend her enough.

Into The Unknown Conference Review

2009-05-31T07:05:00.000-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 01/06/2009

The one day conference “Into The Unknown” took place at Garston Manor, Watford, on Sunday 31st May 2009. Due to the impressive speaker line up, I decided to drive down from Birmingham for the conference along with my girlfriend and another friend. We couldn’t have asked for better weather for the drive, it was one of the brightest days of the year and the roads were nice and clear. We arrived at Garston Manor at 9am.

The chosen venue was absolutely fantastic. The conference took place in an open function room inside the manor with large windows looking out to the grounds outside. This room was just the right size for the number of people who turned up, so never felt overcrowded and everyone got a seat. In another side room there were a few UFO book and magazine dealers, and a third room was a makeshift café with drinks, cake and biscuits up for grabs. As we had arrived with half an hour to spare we went outside to relax on the grass in the morning sunlight. We immediately bumped into the first speaker of the day, Kevin Goodman. He recognised me straight away, as last year he gave a talk for the Birmingham UFO Group.

Kevin’s talk kicked off at 9.30pm. He is a fantastic speaker and is always a joy to listen to. His lecture was essentially the same as what we had heard the previous year, but it was great to hear again. Kevin discussed his and his friends experiences at Warminster from earlier in his life. As you will probably already know, Warminster is one of the UK’s most famous UFO hotspots, especially from the 1970s-80s. After getting interested in the subject of UFOs, Kevin and his friends decided to visit the town on numerous occasions for sky watches on Cradle Hill. After discussing some of the mysterious goings on at Warminster, he described several very impressive UFO sightings that he had personally seen. He also explained how him and his friends became unwilling contactees. Using a method of channelling, his friend Colin would enter a trance like state, during which they seemed to make contact with an extraterrestrial entity. They did this on numerous occasions, but Kevin remains very level headed about this aspect of their experiences. He remains open to the possibility that it was genuine, but also wonders whether it was something else entirely such as ESP between his group of friends. This apparent contact was the subject of most of the questions asked at the end of the lecture.

In the short break, we met up with two other Birmingham UFO Group members Zoe and Ian, who had unfortunately missed most of the first lecture. It was then time for renowned ex-Ministry Of Defence researcher Nick Pope to begin his talk. I have seen Nick several times before and he is always a very interesting speaker due to his background. Nick ran the UFO desk for the MOD for a number of years. He started off as a sceptic but after looking into the reports coming in from the public realised that there was a large amount of evidence that some UFOs were physical craft of an unknown origin. His lecture this time was about the recent release of various UFO reports to the National Archives through the Freedom Of Information Act. Nick believes that at least in the UK, there is no cover up, and that now these reports are being released for public viewing neither the government or the MOD are with-holding any further information on UFOs. He went over some of the most impressive cases that have now been released, including a sighting by a pilot of a hovering craft the size of an aircraft carrier which was also confirmed on radar. Nick’s overall message that he was trying to get across was that the MOD are not the bad guys and that they are just as mystified by UFOs as the general public. A viewpoint which he openly admitted may not be shared by some of the audience!

After Nick’s lecture there was then an hour’s break for lunch. There was a pre-booked meal at the manor, but instead we opted to drive out to a nearby pub. Several other people from the conference also turned up for a quick drink.

It was soon time to return to the manor for the afternoons speakers, beginning with well known speaker Malcolm Topping from Scottish Paranormal Investigations (SPI). Malcolm is a really enthusiastic speaker, you can easily see that he loves his work as an investigator. Over the years he has looked into many things including UFOs, ghosts and the Loch Ness Monster. He has been doing this now for 30 years, which is what his lecture focused on. It was a truly great talk and extremely varied, touching on many different cases he had looked into. The lecture featured many different photos, including his early days with some truly shocking hairstyles on display! He did not go into any one thing in great depth as the lecture was essentially an overview of his investigative career, but this made it very lively and entertaining to listen to. It was certainly one of my favourite lectures of the day.

The next speaker was originally Mike Omram but he unfortunately he had to cancel. Instead we got treated to a fantastic talk by repeat abductee Steve Jones. Steve has had contact experiences since an early age, and up until last year he has been too scared to discuss them openly. However he has realised that in recent years there has been a shift in how UFOs and aliens are perceived by the public, and he now feels he can share his experiences without fear of ridicule. He came across as a very confident speaker and was very believable. We were all enthralled as he recounted his story to us. He explained how as a child he saw an unknown lady appear in his room on numerous occasions who he would speak with. This lead on to numerous abductions by Grey beings during which he was subjected to various examinations. At first he was terrified by what was taking place, but has since come to terms with what is happening to him, and now feels he is more a participant than a victim. He also mentioned that he has a number of implants inside him but unlike some other abductees does not wish them to be removed as they are in there for a positive reason. Steve believes that the beings he has been in contact with are from a different dimension rather than from a different planet, and that they are modifying our DNA in preparation for a “shift” which will occur in the near future and affect the whole human race. Unfortunately he did not have time to elaborate on this further, but I for one will certainly be looking into it in more depth. It was fascinating listening to Steve and he should be applauded for his bravery in being so open about his experiences.

The final speaker of the day was crop formation researcher Alan Turner. Again this was a lecture I had heard before at one of the UFO Data conferences, but this did not make it any less interesting. Given the subject matter, Alan’s lecture was a very visual one, featuring many photographs of impressive crop formations from recent years, some of which were incredibly complicated in design. He began by discussing the various aspects of the formations which he believes is evidence that some of them are created by an unknown force rather than man-made. He covered the unusual energies that are sometimes detected within the formations, and the apparent military interest in them. He explained how numerous witnesses have seen unmarked military helicopters in the vicinity of crop formations, and have even been “buzzed” by them until they have left the area. While it is clear that some of the formations are hoaxed, there does seem to be a number of aspects linking them with UFOs.

The conference ended with a speakers Q&A session. Unfortunately we had to head for home so missed this, but I am sure it was highly interesting and rounded off the day nicely. My only regret is that it was only one day long, I could have easily listened to a second day of speakers! Considering it was the organisers first conference, the whole day went superbly and was highly enjoyable throughout. If it goes ahead, I’ll certainly be back next year.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2009

Philip Mantle Interview

2009-05-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 25/04/2009

Philip Mantle is one of the UK’s most well known and experienced UFO researchers. On 24th April, BUFOG investigator Dave Hodrien interviewed Phil on his research work and beliefs.

Background

How did you first get interested in the subject of UFOs?

I was always interested in the paranormal as far back as I can remember. I used to do talks at school about ghosts and visit the local spiritualist church. In the late 1970’s I read a book, the title of which I cannot remember and was intrigued. A friend and I were in Warminster and we’d heard that UFOs had been seen there on Cradle Hill, so we went and took a look for ourselves and we saw some strange lights. I wrote a few letters to various places asking a few questions thinking I’d get all the answers I needed, but here I am 30 years later still looking for a lot of those answers.

Have you ever seen a UFO / had a contact experience, and if so what are the details of this, and did it increase your interest in the subject?

The only thing that I have seen that I could not identify were two large bright lights over a suburb of Leeds on July 23rd l984 just before 10.00 pm. I was driving home from work when I saw them. Fortunately a lot of others across the north of England that night saw the same thing. Despite a lengthy and intensive investigation we were never able to come up with a satisfactory explanation for these lights.

When and how did you decide to start looking into the subject?

Just after I saw the lights in Warminster I saw a small advertisement in the Yorkshire Evening Post newspaper. It announced a meeting in Leeds about UFOs. I went along out of curiosity. The meeting was organised by Graham & Mark Birdsall who had recently formed the Yorkshire UFO Society. I was hooked. WE had monthly meetings and I just took everything in and soaked it up like a sponge. Slowly but surely I became more interested and more involved.

Your Research

How did you initially become recognised as a UFO researcher/investigator?

I just wanted to find out what the hell was going on. I wasn’t interested in letting other people tell me what they thought. The only way to get the answers I was looking for was to try and investigate the subject myself. I was fortunate as the Yorkshire Dales in the late 70’s and through the 1980’s had a lot of UFO sightings so it was easy to get involved.

When did you become affiliated with UFO Magazine, and how did this come about?

Before it was UFO magazine it was Quest Magazine and before it was Quest Magazine it was the YUFOS JOURNAL. In the early days the YUFOS Journal and Quest Magazine were hand printed at Mark Birdsall’s flat on the 7th floor of a tower block. Graham Birdsall was the editor. So I was involved right from its initial inception as the YUFOS JOURNAL which eventually evolved into UFO MAGAZINE.

How many years have you been researching UFOs for?

Too many (laughs). No really, it’s now been 30 years. Boy that makes me sound really old.

Do you know roughly how many incidents you have looked into?

Not got a clue. There have been a lot I can assure you. I simply could not hazard a guess. Sorry.

What is the most impressive case/sighting you have personally looked into?

In the early 1980’s me and Mark Birdsall investigated the landing of a UFO at Normanton in West Yorkshire. It was in broad daylight and involved one adult and several children. They saw a UFO land in nearby field and went to look at it. Out side of it were 3 tall humanoid beings. They walked to the back of this object, which was silver and shaped like a ‘Mexican hat’ and it took off without making a noise. There is a lot more to this case but it really made an impression on me.

How often do you get recognised by the general public while out and about?

I can think of only 3 occasions when this has happened over the 30 years. It is a very uncomfortable experience for me. I’d have no problem being rich but would never want to be famous and recognized in public.

How does it feel to be one of the most recognised faces of ufology in the UK?

I’d never thought of that at all. I take it as a compliment and count my blessings that I’ve been lucky to be involved in so many different things.

Have you ever had any warnings or threats from any individuals about the information you are releasing?

Never.

What is your favourite aspect of your research work?

When I’ve received a thank you from a witness for taking the time to listen to them without passing judgment.

What has been your best experience working as a UFO researcher?

Perhaps visiting Roswell in 2007. I was recognized here by someone in a café but the whole week there was just great. I was able to visit many of the sites that I had previously only read about and Roswell is a great place in its own right and the desert scenery is quite spectacular.

What has been your worst experience?

Resigning from BUFORA. It’s a long story so I won’t go into it but I still support BUFORA and my resignation and that of others could and should have been avoided. Its history now but it still leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Have you lectured at the world UFO congress or been to it?

If you mean the one in Laughlin, Nevada then yes, just the once. It was a great experience as I was able to meet up with quite a few old friends including Budd Hopkins, John Mack and Roberto Pinotti to name but a few.

Your Viewpoints

Looking at the subject as a whole, what do you believe represents the most compelling evidence for the reality of UFOs?

A very hard question to answer if not impossible. There is some physical evidence that is hard to ignore and I include in that photos and film plus radar. The testimony of certain witnesses is also very compelling, like the landing case in Normanton that I mentioned earlier.

What do you believe are currently the most impressive/important UFO cases?

Again, almost impossible to answer. Top of the list would have to be Project Hessdalen in Norway. If you’ve not heard of this then ‘shame on you’. The landing in Normanton that I personally was involved in. The Rendlesham Forest events still intrigue despite the best efforts of the skeptics to debunk it. These would be my top three.

What are your views on the alien abduction phenomenon?

I think it is something best left to medical professionals to deal with. I have interviewed a number of abductees and I have no doubt they have had a highly unusual experience but whether or not it has any connection to ufology is a different thing. The abduction experience may well be another form of altered state of consciousness yet not understood by science. This does not detract from the experience at all. I left this field of research some years ago as I was way out of my depth and I felt it should be handled by professional people and not UFO researchers.

Do you believe that at least some of the alien implants removed from contactees are real? If so, do you have any theories about what they are for?

They are real in the fact that they are physical objects. If you are asking me if I believe that these are implants put there by beings from another world then I would have to say no I do not. It is an interesting area to study but despite claims by some researchers whom I know and like very much and have met, the implants do not seem to represent any kind of technology. Added to that I do not feel that the abduction experience has anything to do with ET’s therefore any alleged implants cannot be either.

What are your views on the usage of hypnotic regression in regards to recovering hidden memories?

Leave it to the professionals and keep well away. You are messing with people’s minds and you should not get involved. This was something that BUFORA stood up for and something I entirely agree with.

Have you ever witnessed a regression first hand?

Several and I was not impressed.

What are your views on animal mutilations?

They have nothing to do with the UFO subject at all. Period.

Have you ever seen an animal mutilation first hand/investigated a mutilation case?

No. And if I was presented with one I’d tell them politely to bugger off and seek professional help from someone with expertise in the field of animal deaths.

What are your views regarding crop formations?

They are all fakes.

Have you been to the gate of Area 51? Do you believe that UFOs/extraterrestrials are kept there and that craft are being back engineered?

I’ve not been anywhere near Area 51 but I do not believe it houses UFOs or aliens and never has. It is a top secret testing facility and that just about says it all for me.

What are your thoughts on the star child skull?

Fascinating stuff and Lloyd Pye is to be complemented on his investigation and his patience. However, I would bet that it still turns out to be a deformed human. No offence Lloyd, I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it.

Do you believe that NASA are fully aware of the reality of UFOs and cover this up from the general public?

No. NASA is too bog with too many civilians involved to keep the lid on such a secret.

Do you believe that people involved with the SETI project know full well that extaterrestrials are already visiting earth?

No. SETI is a waste of time and money and most of those involved cannot see further than the end of their dish and wouldn’t know anything about UFOs if you asked them.

I know that you played a key part in lifting the lid on the Roswell alien autopsy video. Do you believe that any of it is genuine? If so, which parts do you believe are real?

It is ALL a complete fake made for money and nothing else. It took me 14 years to prove this but I did. Spyros Melaris is the man who led the team that faked the whole thing.

Where do you believe the apparent various species seen actually come from? (Do you believe they are from different star systems, a parallel dimensions, time travellers from our future, bio-engineered on earth or something else entirely?)

The ETH is just one theory to try and explain the UFO subject and one that is not yet proven. I am not convinced that we are dealing with ET’s from anywhere. Instead I feel that the U in UFO still stands for unidentified and although I would not rule out the ETH it might not make my top 3 list of theories if I were to be honest. Top 10 yes, but not top 3.

In regards to the Greys, do you believe they are artificially created to do work for another “alien” species or a biological species in their own right?

See previous question.

After looking into the subject for such a long time, I assume you must have views on what the “alien” agenda is on earth. Can you share these views with us?

See previous question.

Do you feel that UK interest in the subject is waning? What do you think are the reasons for this decline?

No I don’t I just think it has changed. People still report their sightings, UFO groups still exist, and UFO publications are still in print. Today will live in a virtual world and more is done online than anything else.

What, do you believe, are the main reasons for the ongoing UFO cover up?

There is no cover-up as far as I’m concerned. That is if you mean the cover-up of proof that we are being visited by ET’s. Remember, it is the nature of governments to keep secrets but it doesn’t always mean that what is kept secret is of any interest to anyone.

Do you believe that this cover up is global or only present in certain countries?

There is no cover-up.

Do you believe that worldwide disclosure of the UFO reality is necessarily a good thing?

If we ever have 100% proof of an ET visitation you would have politicians running to associated with it and not cover it up. It would be THE most momentous occasion in human history and most world leaders want to cement their own place in history by being associated with it.

Do you believe that disclosure will occur at any time in the near future?

If we ever have a bona fide ET visitation Obama would be on TV now I can assure you.

If you came face-to-face with an alien being, what would be the first thing you would ask?

A good question. I’d probably ask something really dumb but I’d like to ask a really selfish question. I’d ask if they had a cure for heart disease as I had a near fatal heart attack ten years ago and it’s plagued me ever since. Selfish and probably dumb I know but you did ask.

I trust I’ve not upset anyone with my answers. I have a few articles published on my web site at: www.philipmantle.com if you are interested. All I would say is that don’t listen to me find out the answers for yourself. Join a group like BUFOG and get involved.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2009

Tony Dodd Tribute

2009-05-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 31/05/2009

I was sixteen when I went to my first UFO conference. The conference was organised by UFO Magazine and was being held at my home town, Solihull. It was a fantastic day, and it was very interesting hearing the different speakers give their lectures. One speaker in particular stood out for me. A middle aged, grey haired man, who had been a police officer before getting involved with the subject of ufology. His lecture on abductions and animal mutilations was absolutely fascinating. He also discussed his own UFO sighting, a sighting which would open his eyes to the reality of extraterrestrial visitation. The man I speak of was of course Tony Dodd.

This was to be the first of many times that I would listen to Tony speak at conferences. As I got to know the man through his lectures, I built up certain expectations of him. Tony’s lectures would never fail to feature outstanding UFO and alien contact cases from around the world. Cases which included impressive and undeniable evidence. Cases which proved to me that aliens really are visiting this planet and interacting with the human race. I could always rely on Tony to give a truly enthralling talk which would keep the audience transfixed throughout. He had a very open and straightforward way of speaking, and always got across the facts in as clear a way as possible. As you listened you could tell you were in the presence of an expert in the field, a man with a vast amount of knowledge on the subject who had seen and heard incredible things.

Tony’s eyes were opened to the UFO subject back in 1978 when he had a close encounter with a flying disc-shaped craft on the North Yorkshire Dales. He returned to the moor many times and had further UFO sightings, some of which he managed to photograph. The realization that these sightings were real led him to look into the subject in more depth and start to investigate reported sightings. In 1982 he was made director of the Yorkshire UFO Society. As his notoriety grew, he received more and more reports to look into. Over the years he became widely known in the world of ufology, and would often make appearances on television and radio. He was very passionate about his work as a UFO investigator, and you could tell that he enjoyed every minute of it. He was very keen to prove to the public the reality of UFOs, and over the years revealed some truly stunning information. Some of this information was sensitive enough for forces involved with the UFO cover up to intervene. He was threatened on numerous occassions after revealing details of certain cases at various UFO conferences. But despite this he continued, knowing full well the dangers involved. He believed the public had a right to know and was not willing to back down. We should all be extremely thankful for his efforts over the years.

Tony wrote a book of his experiences named Alien Investigator. It is highly recommended, and a review of it can be found in the Reccomended Books section of the site.

I was sad to hear the recent news that Tony had passed away. To myself, and I’m sure many of you, he was one of the true faces of ufology. He was a credit to the UFO community, and he will be greatly missed.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2009

BUFOG Presidents Interview

2009-05-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 07/05/2010

On Wednesday 6th May I met up with BUFOG presidents Craig Lowe and Mark Martin to interview them about the group and their thoughts on the group far. Below is the transcript of this interview. It is an interesting, and sometimes amusing insight into what it’s like to create and run a UFO group.

Early Days

How long have you known each other for?

M: About three years.
C: Yea a few years, not that long.

How did you first meet?

M: Our girlfriends.
C: Yeah, through our girlfriends. We went out quite a few times didn’t we?
M: Hmmm. We’d all go out together.
C: Cause our girlfriends went to school together so we met quite a few times, but neither of us knew we were interested in this subject.
M: No.
C: And it popped up, I’d left a Timothy Good book out.
M: Timothy Good brought us together! (laughs)
C: Yeah Timothy Good. He spotted the book and we started talking.
M: I said “Is that Timothy Good?” “Yeah, yeah, a UFO book.” “Are you into UFOs?” “Yeah!”
C: When you said you knew who Timothy Good was, I thought well if you know Timothy Good then you probably take the subject seriously.
M: Yeah. That was at the end of one night when we were both quite p***ed!
C: If I remember, the next time we met we didn’t talk much about it did we?
M: No.
C: We was waiting for each other to start the subject.
M: After about an hour and then we started talking about it a bit more and then...
C: Bit of a strange night.

How did you first get interested in the subject of UFOs?

C: Mine was quite strange, from as young as I can remember, always been fascinated with space. I always remember drawing pictures of space men even from about the age of 4. Quite a few strange experiences I had in my bedroom from when I was 3-4, of...seeing things.
M: For me Star Wars, 100% Star Wars! Watching Star Wars back in 77, and the possibilities of Star Wars, and thinking about species out there really opened up my mind 100%. George Lucas knows things!
C: Yeah.

BUFOG Creation

When did you first come up with the idea for the group?

C: At a UFORM meeting.
M: Yeah. The last UFORM meeting we went to.
C: We both....Before we knew each other we both wanted to go to UFORM meetings in Stourbridge but we didn’t want to go alone. We got together and said “Shall we go to UFORM?” Went to a couple of lectures didn’t we?
M: Only two.
C: Two lectures.
M: Then the second lecture they announced they were closing. In the car on the way back home from the lecture you spoke about trying to help out.
C: Cause we were planning to approach them and ask if we could help. When we found out they were planning to close we decided to form a new group ourselves.

What were your main motivations for wishing to create BUFOG?

C: I suppose it’s what we’ve read and researched, wanted to prove it to people.
M: It was the next natural step for us. It seemed really natural progression from discussing the subject to actually getting a group together, so we could all discuss it together, and open people’s minds up as best as we could.
C: Well I think our natural path was we’d probably done about 10/11 years of researching it and it was time then to get the info out to people who didn’t know as much about it.
M: So we hoped to start the group, make it as popular as possible, in this area.

Why do you feel Birmingham needs its own UFO group?

C: Heart of England.
M: Yeah. Heart of England, it deserves it!
C: I mean you’ve had big groups up North, then South, and it’s always restricted people – if you’re up North then you can’t go down South, but we are at the heart, it’s the heart.

How did you come up with the group logo and name?

M: I think we more or less came up with BUFOG together. We just thought “Birmingham UFO Group, yeah BUFOG!”
C: We just came up with that name and it seemed to stick.
M: Yeah, Birmingham UFO Group.

What were your main concerns with the creation of the group?

M: That nobody would turn up, on the first night especially.
C: Yeah.
M: That there would be no interest.
C: We’d flop from the off, nobody would pay any interest and we’d fall on our face. I suppose seeing a group like UFORM, which had been going for about twelve years, it was well established. They started when there was no internet so it was the only thing people had to go to was the group.
M: Mm-hmmm.
C: We’ve started when technology’s a part of everyday life.
M: Yeah.
C: Neither of us have done much public speaking or organising events, so it really was a shit in the woods for us wasn’t it? Cause we hadn’t a clue where to start, what to do.
M: Yeah that’s right.

How do you let people know about the existence of the group?

M: Word of mouth, we told UFORM members who passed it on, we advertise it on the website.
C: It was one thing we thought about from the beginning, “How are we going to get people to know about it?” Cause the only contact we had was UFORM members and anybody who contacted us. So far we’ve had 40000 hits on the website so people are obviously finding us.
M: The most important thing for us was to get the website up and running, and out there to the world wide audience, and then obviously we tried to get the word around UFORM as much as we could, and then it was word of mouth after that.

How did you choose the location for the first meeting?

C: Cause we were in here having a drink! That is the answer...
M: You can leave that in (Laughs).
C: No, no, seriously, we wanted it to be in Birmingham. We did look towards the Oldbury area but obviously that’s going outside of Birmingham. Especially this location here, it’s very accessible.
M: The Hagley Road is one of the best known roads in Birmingham.
C: It’s one road from the motorway, so it’s a perfect location.

What were your main concerns with meeting the members for the first time?

C: Shitting ourselves!
M: That there’d be people like you! (laughs)
C: I think out of everything we’ve done, and how far we’ve come, that was the most nervous we’ve ever been, that first night.
M: Yeah sitting in the corner over there.
C: We’ve both said in the past, neither of us have been a very public person, if there’s a bunch of people we tend to step back. So becoming the front of it and the centre was quite un-nerving.

How do you feel the first meeting went?

C: Absolutely fantastic! We expected to get here and there be one person here.
M: Yeah. And we were late getting here.
C: I remember us both bursting through the door, both out of breath...
M: And then there was quite a few people over by the bar.
C: It was a pleasant surprise.
M: We got a drink, sat down and then everyone was sort of looking at us then, as if to say “Say something then.”
C: Maybe if it was a different subject we may not have done it. But probably with the research and background we had we were comfortable with it, we knew what we were talking about.
M: That was the key definitely.

BUFOG Ongoing

What were the reasons for the choice of location for the ongoing meetings and lectures?

C: Well it’s next to the Amber Tavern, it’s a very well known pub isn’t it?
M: Yeah.
C: It’s easy to get to from the motorway, Birmingham. The only thing with the Amber Tavern is they didn’t have a private room, which just would have been perfect, so we had to go with the Midland Red Social Club which is next door to it.

What are your regular activities in regards to keeping the group going?

M: Research, researching articles, definitely trying to get as much information as possible to provide for the group.
C: It’s everything many other groups don’t do.
M: Yeah.
C: Searching through newspapers, website, meetings, video nights...
M: It’s all about information, information is the key to everything. So we research every new sighting we can get our hands on.

How do you go about choosing and setting up lectures?

C: Strangely enough, the first year it was as if it did it itself wasn’t it?
M: In the first year they landed in our lap, second year it’s been a lot more difficult.
C: It’s been a lot harder hasn’t it? The first year it was as if it was fate what happened, it did it to get us set up and established, where as this year it’s been kind of...we’ve had to chase people this year. But the first year it was the other way round, people were coming to us.
M: It was a lot easier. This year it’s been a lot harder getting people here. Nobody backed out in that first year did they? Nobody.
C: For the first year it had all three of us concentrating on the same thing. This second year we’ve got so many different directions...
M: Taking on the magazine as well.
C: There’s a lot more going on.

What were your main reasons for taking on a group investigator?

C: It was time wasn’t it, we just hadn’t got time for it.
M: In between doing the website and looking at things we really hadn’t got time to go out and see anyone.
C: We were having that many requests coming in from people to investigate things.
M: “Can you come and see us, can you come and investigate this” “Well no we can’t”
C: All we was relying on was people send us the reports and we just publish them, we hadn’t got time to follow it up or...
M: That’s all we were doing was reporting sightings. Which is wrong, because we needed to get out there, or get somebody to get out there and do it.

What do you think of the members of the group so far?

C: I think we’ve got a good collection of people.
M: Yeah people from all different backgrounds.
C: Middle aged, older aged, professional people, students. Some people think people into this subject are all going to be anoraks, but we are the complete opposite. That was one thing that surprised us. There’s some really interesting people in the group.

What are your own highlights and lowlights of the first year and a half of BUFOG?

C: Lowlight was the small turnout to some of the lectures we did in the summer. Cause the amount of work you put into it, and then hardly anyone shows up...
M: Yeah I think there was one lecture or film night where we only got 11 people, that was really a kick in the balls basically. Highlight was probably Mary Rodwell, or Ann Andrews, or both of them. Mary coming from Australia, and she wanted to do the lecture, she was lovely.
C: Possibly another big highlight is just sitting down and seeing what we’ve achieved, what we’ve done. We’ve never had a chance to sit back and get big headed about it.
M: No, we ain’t got the time.

How do you feel the Kerrang radio interview went?

C: I enjoyed that!
M: Yeah.
C: It was quite good. I expected it to be kind of a bit of the opposite, kind of ridiculing us but that never happened.
M: I think I said one word right at the end, I said “Cheers!”
C: I think it was good, because I think he had a lot of interest in it which was good. I suppose a lot of people who interview you aren’t really interested in the subject.
M: To be fair we were a bit worried that they were going to ridicule us on air, and I think that was our big fear, but to be fair they didn’t.

How do you feel about having to cancel the planned UFO conference?

M: Ooooo you had to bring that up!
C: Pull that knife from out of my back! (laughs) Errr....both ways with that. One it was gutting to get the line up we agreed, would have been a fantastic line up.
M: I don’t think it was the right time. Even from the start I felt that possibly it wasn’t the right time.
C: I think for the time it was possibly too big for us wasn’t it?
M: Yeah, I think we were trying to do too much in such a short space of time. That first year we were all optimistic, we were like “Come on”.
C: I suppose it was a big statement for us.
M: We wanted to take on the world that first year.
C: I think it possibly could have been our downfall. With speakers that big, if it went wrong it could have damaged our reputation.
M: We want this to be a huge event, and it will be in the future, it will be the UK’s biggest, so that’s something for the future.
C: It was getting harder and harder to sort it out, we were hitting more and more obstacles...
M: Maybe it was a sign that it just wasn’t meant to be.
C: I think everybody took it well. It’s something to look forward to when we do do it so...
M: We still will.

What has been your favourite lecture so far and why?

M: For me it Mary Rodwell, for you it was...
C: Mine was Ann Andrews.
M: Yeah. I think you took more to Ann Andrews probably than I did.
C: Well I got on with Ann Andrews really well. I was looking forward to Mary Rodwell’s as well but I spent so much time trying to get the computers working. I was concentrating more on making sure everything was working than actually the lecture. I think with Ann Andrews I actually got to sit back and enjoy the lecture. So Ann Andrews was the one for me.
M: Mary Rodwell for me definitely. The information, research and the place that she came from, she’d come all the way from Australia, and such a lovely woman as well, she was really nice.
C: I think one of the best and well received lectures was yours. Cause you’ve only been researching for a year and...
M: You had the best turn out!
C: I’ve got to say I thought it was absolutely fantastic. Brilliant lecture.
M: It showed we were being a very professional group.
C: It showed how good some of the cases have been and that some serious research had been done into them.
M: I think before that people may have been thinking that we weren’t doing that much. After that lecture I think people realised exactly what we have been doing.

What do you feel are the advantages to running a group specifically for one city/area?

M: I think people want to know what’s going on in their area. If they’re interested in this subject, and there’s reports coming in from their area which we are providing, it’s an interesting insight into what’s going on out there. We’re from Birmingham, we’re looking into Birmingham sightings generally, it’s nice to know what’s going on in your area.
C: I suppose one thing with it being Birmingham, what with it being Midland based, just think what we’ve got going on around us – airports, air force bases, we’re at a vantage point. The centre of England is Birmingham.

What are your plans for the future of the group?

C: Conquer the world! (laughs)
M: Obviously the conference for the future, we’ll carry on with the meetings, writing the magazine which hopefully will go worldwide.
C: Hopefully one day we’ll become much stronger, the central body for UFO reports in the UK, you never know maybe the central body for the world! The agency between them....and the earthlings.

Are you worried that you may attract the attention of individuals involved with the UFO cover up?

M: I think that’s part and parcel for the subject which we are in.
C: I think we need to attract them.

Final Question

If you met an alien face-to-face, what would be the first question you would ask it?

M: Where did you come from? It’s gotta be.
C: I think I would say “Start from the beginning. Tell me all, I want to know everything.”

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2009

Billy Meier Hoax Research Report

2009-03-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

Original wording by Victor Gibbs
Re-written for publication by Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 21/11/2009

Billy Meier is one of the most famous individuals who has claimed to have made contact with extraterrestrials. He lives in Switzerland, and claims his first ET contact occurred in 1942 when he was just 5 years old and lasted for a number of years. He claims his “official” contact with a group of humanoid extraterrestrials from the Pleiades star system began in 1975. These beings communicated with him both face-to-face and telepathically, and on numerous occasions allowed him to take photographs and video footage of their ships. Meier subsequently released this evidence to the public as proof of his contact experiences. These videos and photos have been studied in depth and are highly controversial. There are many believers and many sceptics alike.

In November 2009 Birmingham UFO Group was contacted by an elderly man named Victor Gibbs via E-Mail. Victor has done some optical research and believes he has discovered evidence that the Billy Meier UFO videos and photographs are hoaxed. Victor has been retired for some years now, but earlier in his life he worked in the gardening industry for 30 years. This included working in all aspects of the profession including maintenance, forestry, plantation, landscaping, farming and tree surgery. He believes that this qualifies him to give an expert opinion on the claims of Billy Meier that some of his photographic evidence shows large trees. Victor has looked at the Billy Meier photographs on the internet, and after his research and experience as a gardener, is in no doubt that Billy Meier used miniature trees in some of his photographs. Indeed the same miniature tree can be clearly observed in several of his UFO films and photographs reported to have been taken at different locations.

Here is one of Meier’s most controversial UFO video clips, known as the Wedding Cake Beam Ship footage because of the unusual shape of the craft:

Below are two stills from this video showing the craft and tree:

Here are some of Meier’s other photographs which appear to show either a very similar or perhaps even the same tree as in the video:

Below is a photograph of Victor standing next to a miniature tree which he believes is roughly the same size of the tree that Meier used several times in the video footage and a number of other photographs. He is actually confident that Meier’s tree was slightly smaller than this tree, and certainly no bigger than it.

Meier claimed that the Wedding Cake Beam Ship video and other photographic stills contained fully sized trees. Victor strongly disagrees with this statement and believes that the trees seen are miniature in size or even models. At the start of the video footage, the visible tree looks tiny, almost a dot on the landscape. Victor claims that a real fully sized tree would appear much bigger and taller, even at a distance. When Meier zooms right in on the tree, it is clear that it has a very thin and small trunk. There are no visible thick branches either. The look and feel of the alleged large tree is completely wrong, and looks a lot more like a small shrub with the characteristics of a Christmas tree, or a miniature model tree intended to fool the naked eye. Victor believes that Meier zoomed in on the tree from a distance to make it look like it was fully sized, but in actual fact in doing so he has revealed that the tree is quite small.

Below is video footage of the miniature tree Victor uses as an example.

Note how the miniature tree looks to be the same size as Meier’s alleged tree. Both have the same characteristics and feel, and both appear to be a mere dot on the landscape. Victor then zooms in as far as the camera will allow (albeit he is only using a mobile phone camera for this footage, but it still proves the point). As you can see the size of the zoomed tree again is similar to that shown in the Meier video. Victor has showed this evidence to several well respected professional gardeners to get their opinion, and they all agreed that Meier’s tree must be miniature in size. One gardener who is also a keen photographer even thought that Meier’s tree was half the size of the miniature tree used in the experiment, and is actually a lot closer to the camera than it is set up to appear.

Here is a video clip of a real large tree filmed at a distance.

Note how different the tree looks compared to the one in the video footage. It has a completely different look and feel about it (obviously taking into account that it is a different type of tree), and even at distance it appears huge in size. Note how thick the trunk appears and how when Victor zooms in from a good distance away, the tree almost fills the screen. Why does Meier’s tree still appear tiny even when at full zoom? Victor feels that this is yet more evidence that Meier’s footage shows a miniature tree.

With regards to the extraterrestrial craft shown in Billy Meier’s videos and photographs, Victor believes they are fundamentally flawed. Victor spent many years in the Royal Air Force, both flying and observing aircraft. He is also an avid photographer. He feels that Meier’s craft are too crisp, clear and in focus to be distant aerial objects, and that they are actually miniatures suspended close to the camera lens. There is no visible atmospheric haze or pressure around the objects or ground reflected light. The alleged UFOs have are very dark on their underside which Victor believes is a tell tale sign that they are very small and close to the camera. In the close up photographs, there are no shadows of the objects visible on the ground. They are, in Victor’s opinion, easily replicated hoaxes.

Antony Wharton, one of Meier's biggest critics, has recreated some of the Meier photographs to show how easy it is to get very similar results. Below is one of Meier's photographs, reporting to show the "Wedding Cake" craft hovering over a van and in close proximity to the camera:

Below are two photographs showing Wharton's model craft and a hoax photo he took which looks very similar to Meier's shot. In the hoax photo, Wharton held the model at the left hand edge which is why it disappears off the side. He believes that in the above Meier photo, he was holding a model from the top and hanging it down in front of the camera view:

The below website link leads to a page where various Meier photographs have been deliberately recreated using nothing more than models and fishing line. This page does not prove that Meier faked his photographs, merely that it is possible to easily fake photographs of sufficient quality. This is why people should always be wary when examining photographic evidence on its own merits:

http://www.iigwest.com/investigations/meier/ufopix.html

Here is another page which contains many clear images of hoaxed UFOs:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thesecretsofthesaucers/show

However, there are many people who believe that Billy Meier's claims are genuine, and have fully researched the various photographs and video footage released, and come up with evidence to suggest they are real. Below are two web pages where you can read a lot of arguments against the miniature tree and model UFO hypothesis.

http://www.tjresearch.info/Wedcake.htm

http://www.tjresearch.info/moretree.htm

Below is a link to a UFO Data forum post where various people have discussed Victor's work:

http://www.ufodata.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6298

To sum up, after examining Billy Meier’s video and photographic evidence and his own research, Victor believes that either the craft being captured on film were tiny in size and piloted by beings only a few inches high, or they were simply created using models and miniature trees. In looking at both of these explanations it is obvious which is the more probable. As with many UFO cases there is evidence both for and against, it is up to you to look at both sides of the coin and make your own mind up as to what you really believe.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2009