CONTENTS

Prince of Darkness?

God and the Bible

Haunted Nation

Our Night of Terror

Conspiracies - Alien Evidence Review

Apollo 11: The Untold Story

The Alien: Friend or Foe?

Why Is Earth So Special?

Was I Abducted By Aliens?

The 10,000BC Enigma

The Rendlesham Forest Incident

UFO Files - China's Roswell

UFO Files:

China's Roswell

History Channel, 6th August, 2006

UFO Files: China's Roswell explores one of the most controversial aspects of ufology – the Dropa Stones. Yet again using the Roswell analogy, the programme attempts to link the two, very different stories because both contain crashed spacecraft, alien survivors and governmental cover-ups, albeit thousands of years apart (except for the government cover-up).

The story of the discovery of the Dropa Stones begins in 1938, when a Chinese professor of archaeology, Chi Pu Tei, sets off to explore a cave system in the mountains of Bayan-Kara-Ula, close to the China-Tibet border. The story goes that in these caves, Chi found rows of small skeletons with large heads. Nearby there were 716 stone discs, each with strange markings and spiral grooves. The stones were taken back to Beijing and were not seen again until the late 1950s.

Dr Tsum Um Nui found the discs and began examining them, finding that the markings were an unknown form of hieroglyphic writing. Somehow he deciphered the symbols and claimed they told of a race of aliens, known as the Dropa, which crash-landed on Earth 12,000 years previously. Obviously, the professor had trouble publishing his findings. He became so frustrated that he emigrated to Japan.

The first the outside world heard of the Dropa was in the early Sixties, when a Russian magazine called Sputnik released the story. Soon afterwards, a German publication, Vegetarian Universe, also ran the story. With the Chinese Cultural revolution of the early 1960s, travel to the country became difficult and the tale of the Dropa Stones was soon forgotten to many. The location of the caves in which they were found has also been lost.

What was discovered by researchers was that there was an oral tradition from the Bayan-Kara-Ula region of ‘small people’ that crash-landed from the sky. The legends say that the Dropa came from the star, Sirius. This coincides with many other myths from around the world, such as the Egyptian Isis and the Dogon story of the Nommu.

Matthew Hurley, author of The Alien Chronicles and founder of the UFOartwork .com website, claimed that all through history, ancient man may have been leaving behind representations of alien beings in the forms of cave paintings, pictographs, sculptures and other forms of art. If aliens landed and interacted with our ancestors, it is entirely possible that they may have ended up being worshipped as gods.

Matthew admits that there are three explanations for what is often depicted in ancient pictograms:

• The depictions are real and do record ancient man’s interactions with alien beings and their craft.
• The drawings come from the ancient artists’ imaginations
• They represent ritual ceremonies with priests or shaman wearing masks or ritual headgear.

Only two photographs of the Dropa Stones exist. Matthew believes that what was photographed were either hoaxes created to perpetuate the story or jade Bi discs. The Dropa Stones closely resemble the well-known Bi discs, which were buried with the well-to-do ancient Chinese.

What of the strange hieroglyphics?

If the writing on the discs is 12,000 years old, as alleged by Dr Tsum Um Nui, then how did he translate them? Doing so would have been a greater achievement than Champollion’s deciphering of the Egyptian Rosetta Stone. He took years translating the hieroglyphics, despite two other languages, Demotic and Greek, being present on the stone to help him. How could Tsum Um Nui have translated the markings on the Dropa Stones without a similar frame of reference?

Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine agrees that Tsum Um Nui could not know the difference between an ancient human language and an ancient alien one. As far as he is concerned it means nothing and is just a story.

In the late 1960s, it is said that Russian scientists were allowed to examine the Dropa Stones. They found that they had peculiar properties. Thinking that the spiral grooves on the discs’ surfaces resembled the grooves on a long-playing record, the Soviets placed them on a turntable and began rotating. They found that when this was done, a distinct electrical charge was detected. The conclusion was that the discs had once been inside a very strong, electrical field.

It has been suggested that the spiral grooves were a form of vibrational message, designed to be transmitted back home, much like the squat alien in Steven Spielberg’s movie, ET: The Extra-Terrestrial.

Peter Lu, of Harvard University, explained that spiral forms are very common in nature, from sea shells to plants to hurricanes. The same applies to ancient man. Spiral patterns have been found at ancient sites in Ireland, China and Egypt. In fact, they are found all over the world.

The way the story of the Dropa Stones has grown has been compared with how the legend of the Roswell Incident developed. Michael Shermer took up the story at this point. Largely unheard of for decades, the Roswell story began to gain momentum after a television documentary was released in 1978. Afterwards, books and magazine articles appeared, followed by films and more documentaries, and then the eyewitnesses began to come out of the woodwork. That, he said, was when the Roswell Incident really began.

Sensationalist news stories in publications such as The National Enquirer seriously damaged any credibility the Roswell Incident. The same applied to the Dropa Stones. The early articles in Sputnik, Vegetarian Universe and a Belgian UFO magazine had a sensationalistic style and immediately dissuaded serious research into the mystery.

Another way in which the Roswell Incident and the Dropa story converge is in the rumours of government conspiracy. It has been said that both the US and Chinese governments have recovered alien technology and are covering it up.

The region of the Bayan-Kara-Ula Mountains is vast and not easily accessible. The mountains are up to 20,000 feet in height and only one major road traverses the area. The local people are mostly farmers and herdsmen, living simple lives with little contact with the outside world. Legends abound in the region of a tribe of dwarves.

German researcher, Hartwig Hausdorf, believes that a tribe of human-alien hybrids may live in a Chinese village called Huilong. He suggests that survivors from the crash 12,000 years ago interbred with local people and their descendants today live in Huilong.

The Chinese government claimed that the dwarfism in Huilong was caused by contaminants in the water. The Chinese Academy of Science published a report that confirmed this and measures were taken to clean up the pollution. According to media reports in 1997, no new cases of dwarfism have occurred.

The Dropa waters were further muddied in 1978, when a book entitled, Sungods in Exile: Secrets of the Dzopa of Tibet, was released. It was alleged to have been written by a British explorer called Karyl Robin-Evans and edited by David Agamon. According to the book, Dr Robin-Evans travelled to the Dropa region in 1947 and encountered a tribe of dwarves. They told him that their ancestors came from the stars.

It came to light years later that David Agamon had fabricated the story himself and that Karyl Robin-Evans never existed. He revealed in Fortean Times that the book, Sungods in Exile, was a hoax.

UFO researcher, David Sereda, believes that footage from NASA cameras in orbit have captured alien spacecraft that resemble the Dropa Stones. He claimed that the famous ‘tether’ footage from STS-75 reveals these spacecraft. Professor of Astronomy, Stephen Walton, from California State University, stated that the objects in the footage are nothing but small pieces of debris from the broken tether. Their shape is nothing but an optical effect from the camera itself. The objects are so far out of focus that they appear as round ‘discs’. Sereda is not convinced and maintained that the objects cannot be simple debris.

In 1974, an Austrian engineer called Ernst Wegerer saw two discs in a case in a museum in Xian. He asked the curator what they were and she told him that they were ‘cultural relics’. Wegerer took two photographs of the discs and these are the only solid evidence for their existence that remains.

Unfortunately, the Polaroid images do not show any of the grooves or hieroglyphic markings that were reported on the Dropa Stones.

In 1994, Hartwig Hausdorf visited China and found the museum where Wegerer had taken his photos. He asked the curator about the discs and he was told that only a few days after the Austrian had taken his photographs, the then curator and the discs disappeared. Hausdorf believed that a cover-up was underway.

Michael Shermer claimed that conspiracy theories are the easy way out for people who have no proof for their own stories.

The mystery is compounded because all of the key players in the story cannot be found. The paper supposedly written by Dr Tsum Um Nui also cannot be located. The discs themselves are nowhere to be found.

Hausdorf believed that the stones were lost or destroyed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, when Mao rose to power. In those turbulent days, many of China’s irreplaceable artworks were destroyed by the revolutionaries in their effort to eradicate the excesses and decadence of China’s imperial past.

After Mao died, the Communists still held power (and still do), but eventually, China opened up a little and western influences began to trickle into the country. UFO stories began to emerge and groups were formed all over the nation. Nowadays, more UFOs are reported in China than anywhere else in the world. The most popular UFO-based magazine sells over 400,000 copies and there are more UFO clubs than any other country.

But what of the story of the Dropa Stones? Is it China’s Roswell? UFO researcher, Richard Dolan, is of the opinion that the story is not true and is, basically, a hoax. Michael Shermer stated that it is a nonsense, mythical story. Hartwig Hausdorf thinks that there is some truth to the story.

Perhaps the only way to know one way or the other would be to locate the caves in the Bayan-Kara-Ula Mountains and see if those tiny skeletons or, perhaps, more stone discs could be found.

UFO Files: China’s Roswell was another excellent programme in the series. It was interesting, informative and allowed all viewpoints to be heard. Did the Dropa Stones exist? Who knows? The photos by Ernst Wegerer don’t particularly match the descriptions given. To me, they look more like the other Bi discs we have seen. The connection with NASA footage is also spurious, in my opinion, and I agree with Professor Walton when he says that the ‘UFOs’ are nothing more than optical effects.

Despite all the negativity, however, we must remember that legends from the Bayan-Kara-Ula region do speak of tribes of small, large-headed, long before modern pollution was blamed for any deformities. That is, if we are to believe that the legend is true. Perhaps it is time a modern expedition to the region was undertaken to find out the truth behind the Dropa Stones.

All images are the property of their respective copyright holders and are used her for review purposes only.

© Steve Johnson - 2006

Apollo 11:

The Untold Story

The story of humanity’s first landing on the Moon is an oft-told tale of heroism, technological wizardry and a nation at the peak of its power. Of course, there is more to every story than you might think and the story of Apollo 11 is no different.

On Monday, 24^th July, 2006, thirty-seven years and four days after that historic touchdown, Channel 5 (UK) aired Apollo 11: The Untold Story. This documentary not only celebrated the astonishing achievements of NASA’s ground crews and astronauts, but also revealed that the mission almost ended in disaster, with some details released to the public for the very first time. This was the story told by those involved with the mission.

Oh, and there was a UFO too, but more about that later…

On July 16^th, 1969, disaster almost struck from the start, only hours before blast-off. A fuel valve on the 364-ft (111m) Saturn V rocket developed a leak. Unaware of the danger, the astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin and Michael Collins, continued their preparations for the mission. The countdown continued and NASA engineers managed to fix the leak with a ‘special monkey wrench’!

The mission was given a go for launch and the astronauts waited patiently in their module as the seconds ticked down. Aldrin remarked that he felt they had a 99% chance of survival during launch.

What he didn’t know at the time was that NASA had lied to them. They had been told that if one of the Saturn V’s engines failed to ignite, their module would be jettisoned and parachute to safety. The truth was that no such safety precautions had been implemented, as the technology did not exist to separate the module quickly enough in the event of a catastrophic incident with the 5.6 million pounds (2.5 million kg) of fuel.

Thankfully, the sixth launch of a Saturn V went as planned (in all, there were thirteen launches of this type of rocket, all successful).

The launch was controlled from the ground at Mission Control in Houston. We have all seen the rows of technical-looking consoles with monitors and flashing lights. This array of gizmos, though, is not as complex as you might first think. The flashing lights merely told the operators which switches in the spacecraft were being used. The computer screens were not computer screens, they were television screens with the data printed onto slides and then filmed and transmitted onto the screens. All this was controlled by the mainframe computers that filled an entire floor of the building. Jack Garman, one of Apollo 11’s computer engineers, explained that the entire computing power of the Houston mainframe was probably equal to a modern laptop. The computers aboard the spacecraft were, he said, between a digital watch and a cell phone, but probably closer to the watch.

As Apollo 11 prepared to leave Earth orbit, it jettisoned the final stage of the Saturn V, the S-IVB, after a six minute burn to achieve Trans Lunar Injection (TLI). Man was on his way to the Moon.

As they zipped through space, constant communication was maintained with Mission Control. The babble of chatter was so intense that to the untrained ear, it sounds like gibberish. Apollo 11 Flight Director, Gene Kranz, said that, with practice, you learn to listen for the important stuff.

One communication, however, has become legendary in UFO folklore. For the first time, those who were present described what happened.

This part of the story occurred as Apollo 11 neared the Moon, three days into their voyage. The astronauts saw something outside and asked Mission Control:

“Do you have any idea where the S-IVB is with respect to us?”

Aldrin explained that something was close enough to their ship to be observed and they had no idea what it was. Collins viewed the object through the telescope and reported that in one position, the UFO (for that is what it was, an Unidentified Flying Object) consisted of a series of ellipses, while in another position, it appeared L-shaped.

Dr David Baker, a senior Apollo 11 scientist, told us very frankly that UFOs were not an uncommon sight by NASA astronauts. Several flights had reported unexplained objects both in Earth orbit and beyond.

Aldrin remembered that they decided not to tell Mission Control that they had an unknown object travelling alongside them, because civilians on the ground would pick up the signal and ‘demand that the mission turn back because of aliens’! Instead they decided to cautiously ask the location of the S-IVB. The answer came back that it was six thousand nautical miles behind them. Obviously what they were looking at was not a part of their own launch vehicle!

After watching the object for some time, the astronauts decided to go to sleep and not to discuss what they had seen until after the mission and they were debriefed on the ground.

Dr Baker rounded off this segment by telling us that the possibility of encountering aliens on space missions had to be approached in a ‘very sensitive and positive and realistic way’. He said that there were a lot of people in the Apollo program that later became convinced that UFOs existed. That caused concern at NASA, who ordered that such things were not discussed publicly for fear of ridicule.

The crew of Apollo 11 were in for another surprise. Aldrin began seeing flashes inside the module and feared that something had penetrated the skin of the spacecraft. He asked Armstrong if he had seen anything and the reply came that the commander had seen about a hundred of them. The crew only reported what they had seen on returning to Earth and the conclusion was that the flashes were caused by high-Z particles passing through the spacecraft and its crew. Z-particles are heavy cosmic particles that can cause damage to living nerve cells if exposed for a prolonged period of time. Even today, though, little is known about these mysterious effects from cosmic rays.

The time came for the most dangerous part of the mission – the descent to the lunar surface.

With the spacecraft orbiting 80 miles above the surface of the Moon, Armstrong and Aldrin entered the Lunar Module (LM). The skin of the LM was extremely thin, in places, as flimsy as two layers of aluminium foil. This design aided in reducing the overall weight of the module. It also meant that a sharp object in the wrong place could spell disaster and the end of the mission.

There were other concerns with the LM, however, and the major one was with the engines. In testing, NASA used two prototypes to test landing the LM, the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV) and the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV). The LLRV was suspended by wires and had no engines and was completely safe, but the LLTV flew under its own power and was extremely unstable. Armstrong had almost lost his life flying the LLTV, ejecting to safety seconds before the craft flipped over and crashed to the ground. Paradoxically, it was this disaster that probably made Armstrong a shoe-in for the Mission Commander’s role on Apollo 11, due to his quick reactions in the accident.

As soon as the LM appeared from behind the Moon, Mission Control began receiving telemetry, telling them that the module was on the wrong trajectory. Then all communications with the module failed. It came back online, but as Gene Kranz asked his ground staff for a ‘Go No-Go’ reading for the descent phase, communications went down again. Eventually, he decided to tell his teams that they should refer back to their last complete set of data and give him the ‘Go No-Go’ readings.

The LM was given a Go for descent and it began its journey down to the lunar surface. The landing radar switched on, telling the astronauts and the computer how fast they were going and how far the ground was. Unfortunately, the on-board computer controlling the landing radar overloaded and failed. They had no idea how fast they were falling or how far above the surface they were. All they had on their display was the code ‘1202’.

Jack Garman was the only technician at Mission Control who knew what this code meant. He had encountered it once before during a training exercise and had noted down the correct course of action to deal with it. He advised that if the alarm did not occur again, they could continue with the landing.

Of course, it happened again!

With the mission in danger of plunging into chaos, Armstrong decided to override the computer and switch to manual control. By this time, the LM was way off course and the surface was rushing up to meet them. To make matters worse, the descent engine’s fuel tanks were running low.

As Armstrong controlled the throttle, he tried to locate a suitable landing spot. Back in Mission Control, the only thing that could be heard was a countdown of fuel remaining in seconds.

At a hundred feet, a large, boulder-strewn crater loomed before the LM. Armstrong had to use more fuel to allow them to glide over the crater. Time was running out. In the simulations, it had been decided that if only thirty seconds of fuel remained, then the mission was aborted. This was not a simulation, though!

Armstrong set the ‘Eagle’ Lunar Module down in the Sea of Tranquillity with only fifteen seconds of fuel remaining.

The official order of business once on the surface was for the astronauts to sleep, but with adrenalin running high, Armstrong and Aldrin decided to immediately go outside. They donned their bulky spacesuits and tried to open the hatch. Unfortunately, it was stuck fast. The atmospheric pressure inside the LM was still too high to allow the hatch to open. Aldrin explained that when they equalise the pressures, not all of the internal atmosphere is vented. Aldrin was forced the slightly bend the hatch to allow it to open! 

What happened next is perhaps the single most historic event in human history. Armstrong descended the ladder, stepped onto the surface of the Moon and uttered the immortal words:

“This is one small step for… man. One giant leap for mankind.”

Aldrin followed him a few minutes later and their mission continued. As Armstrong set about collecting Moon rocks and dust samples, set up seismic monitors and other tasks, Aldrin was seen skipping and running about aimlessly, having a great time. It turned out he was experimenting with lunar locomotion. He found that the best way to get around was to ‘bunny hop’.

Aldrin’s gallivanting was interrupted by the most famous long-distance call in history. President Richard Nixon called them from the Oval Office of the White House, congratulating them for their staggering achievement.

Unknown to the two astronauts, however, was that the politicians in Washington DC had drafted a speech for Nixon in the event that they never returned to Earth. They may have landed on the Moon, but danger and disaster still loomed.

The ascent engine of the LM had caused problems all through testing. It had only worked fifty percent of the time, so Armstrong and Aldrin only had a one-in-two chance of ever leaving the lunar surface!

Things got worse when the men returned to the module. After removing their suits, Aldrin noticed something on the floor that should not have been there. It was the circuit breaker switch that controlled the firing of the ascent engine! Of all the things that could break, what were the odds of that particular switch snapping?

Aldrin still treasures the object that saved their lives – a plastic pen. He jammed the writing implement into the circuit breaker and hoped for the best. Armstrong fired the ascent engine and, thankfully, they rocketed into the sky, leaving the lower section of the LM far below.

After redocking with the orbiting Command Module, the crew began their three-day journey home.

As they module entered the Earth’s atmosphere, the intense fireball that surrounded it caused a four-minute communications blackout (this is quite normal). Then the parachutes opened. Aldrin made a curious statement then:

“At somewhere, I guess, below ten thousand feet, we could smell salt air. That was quite a ‘welcome home’ sensation.”

They could smell salt air? They were in a sealed spacecraft weren’t they?

Anyway, they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean and the mission had been a resounding success. NASA felt invincible. They had achieved the impossible.

With thirty years of hindsight, many of the Apollo team members feel, though, that they were extremely lucky to have accomplished their goals without losing a mission. Harold Loden, Apollo 11 Mission Controller, said that if they were to approach somebody today and propose that they execute their missions in the same way, they would be laughed at and told that there were not enough safety precautions in place. David Baker agrees and suggests that if they had continued the Apollo missions after Apollo 17, lives would definitely have been lost.

Aldrin, on the other hand, puts down the successes of the Apollo Project to the bold decisions they made and the dedicated people behind the astronauts.

Apollo 11: The Untold Story was a terrific programme that showed how close to disaster that first landing on the Moon came. What fascinates us at UFOData, though, is the frankness with which the encounter with an unidentified object was described. There was not a hint of levity in the descriptions given and Aldrin told it like it was – an object that sometimes appeared to be made up of ellipses and sometimes appeared L-shaped. What the heck was it?

It was not their own S-IVB booster, as that was far, far behind them. Could it have been an S-IVB from Apollo 10, which orbited the Moon, but didn’t land? Or perhaps it really was an alien spacecraft watching as mankind took its first steps off-planet! Who knows?

The images used are the property of the copyright holders and are only used here for review purposes.

© Steve Johnson - 2006

CONSPIRACIES

ALIEN EVIDENCE

Sky One – Wednesday 26^th October 2005

Oh, dearie, dearie me! A programme that started off with such promise ended up leaving such a sour taste in my mouth that I felt like drinking a cup of battery acid to ease the pain.

Sky One’s Conspiracies series may not be the zenith of investigative journalism (it is Sky after all), but last night’s programme about the alleged alien cover up since 1947 somehow managed to reach a staggering nadir in the aforementioned field.

It all started off so well, sort of, with a jokey segment in which presenter, Danny Wallace, stops passers-by in Camden to ask if they believe in aliens. Most of the people he questioned expressed an opinion that aliens do exist and that it is possible that they visit our planet from time to time.

Nick Pope, former MOD UFO officer and, as Wallace smirked, Britain’s Fox Mulder, explained that if the public could see some of the UK’s real X-Files, they would be astounded by the evidence for extra-terrestrial intrusions into our island’s airspace.

It was time for a history lesson. Wallace jetted across the Atlantic and told us all about the famous 1947 sighting by pilot, Kenneth Arnold (cue the first of many excerpts from cheesy B-movies). Historian, Richard Dolan, recited Arnold’s description of the ‘flying saucers’ as travelling at about 1700mph, an incredible rate of speed back then. The USA, he said, became gripped by the possibility that aliens were visiting the Land of the Free (cue the showing of several newsreel clips of slightly odd people describing their ET encounters).

UFO researcher, Dave Clarke, told us that at that time, the world was on the brink of World War III as the superpowers of the USA and the USSR rattled their respective sabres from across the globe. It was thought that the western powers were being spied upon from the air by the Soviet Union and that the UFO sightings were some kind of advanced reconnaissance aircraft.

Then Roswell happened.

Roswell researcher, Dave Thomas, declared that Roswell became the new Mecca for UFO aficionados. Wallace picked up the story that we all know about Mac Brazel (which he constantly pronounced as ‘Bray-zel’) finding the famous debris and Roswell Army Air Field’s (RAAF) intelligence officer, Major Jesse Marcel, ordering that the base press officer issue a press release stating that a flying saucer had been found (even though it was the base commander, Colonel Blanchard, that gave the order). The debris was removed to Wright Field and we were told that it was nothing more than a weather balloon, much to Marcel’s embarrassment. Roswell slipped off the radar for thirty years.

The next segment covered the infamous ‘Men-In-Black’ (MIBs). Nick Redfern explained that many UFO witnesses had received visits from these sinister agents and had been warned off, even given threats against their lives. It was noted, though, that many witnesses were credible, military people.

1952 saw Washington DC at the centre of a huge UFO flap. Radar picked up seemingly solid objects over the US capital and jets were scrambled, only to find nothing. Local residents saw lights in the sky and panic gripped the streets. A major press conference calmed public fears and the subject died down once more.

Project Blue Book was created to dispel the myths about UFOs, but in reality it was more of a public relations exercise than a serious investigative unit. It closed in 1969 and the powers-that-be hoped that that would be the end of the UFO ‘problem’.

Jenny Randles, famous UFO researcher, told us about the Rendlesham Forest Incident of December 1980, when a group of US airmen from the twin bases of RAF Woodbridge/Bentwaters ventured into the trees and saw inexplicable lights. We were treated to the actual audio of the event recorded by the deputy base commander, Lt. Colonel Charles Halt. He wrote a memo of the event and it was filed away by the USAF and the MOD.

The Ministry of Defence ignored Jenny Randle’s requests to see the memo for two years, until she decided to retrieve a copy via the USAF, using the American Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The memo created a media sensation, but the MOD refused to comment and still do to this day.

Wallace made the cryptic remark that the intelligence agencies wanted to control the UFO movement from within – and then we went to a break…

In 1978, nuclear physicist and researcher, Stanton Friedman, resurrected the Roswell case by a chance meeting with Jesse Marcel Sr. The result was a best-selling book (note that Wallace mentions the ‘best-selling’ bit. It’s important for later…) and Friedman’s catapulting into the role of the ‘high priest of ufology’. Wallace caught up with Friedman at a lecture and admitted that he was out of his depth with Stanton’s talk.

Friedman explained that during his meeting with Major Marcel, he found out that the wreckage from the ‘weather balloon’ was not of this earth. The resulting ‘best-selling’ book put Roswell on the map and researchers descended upon the New Mexico town. Suddenly, tales of retrieved saucers, live and dead aliens and a huge government cover-up ensued.

The alien avalanche became big business for Roswell and Wallace demonstrated this by purchasing various ET-themed items from Roswell’s many alien stores. He chatted with the town’s mayor, who was not really impressed with the whole alien ‘thing’, and gave him a ‘lifesize, biologically accurate representation of a large, blue, inflatable alien’.

In 1994, the USAF released their ‘final report’ on Roswell in which they put it down to the infamous Mogul balloon project, experiments with test dummies dropped from planes and balloons, V2 rocket tests, hapless monkeys sacrificed in the name of science, the list goes on. They even used the Viking space probe test footage from the 1970s!

That’s that, then. It was all nothing more than a combination of top secret projects that happened to all be found at the same time and mistaken for flying saucers and live and dead aliens! The UFO mystery was all a handy smokescreen for the intelligence agencies to get up to their cloak and dagger escapades without fear of being discovered.

Wallace then made the remarkable statement that since the end of the Cold War, there has been a sharp dip in reported UFO sightings. “I guess that we’re just not testing as much stuff as we used to,” he mused. Of course, we know this is all nonsense and that UFO sightings actually increased during the nineties and continue to do so to this day!

It was up to Richard Dolan to defend ufology by explaining that not all UFO sightings can be of U2’s etc., given the flight characteristics described by incredibly reliable witnesses.

The final segment was the real icing on the cake.

Wallace (aided by Dave Clarke) propounded the notion that being a UFO researcher is a nice money-spinner. Researchers make their fortunes through books, videos and those extremely lucrative lectures. They’re all rolling in money, while sceptics such as Dave Thomas are so poor because nobody wants to listen to them. Awwwww! Pass me a hankie!

Wallace made the astonishing claim that ufologists keep the ‘conspiracy’ going to keep the money rolling in. If it all came out in the open, he suggested, UFO researchers would be the biggest losers, as their ‘careers’ would go up in smoke and all that lovely lolly that they had been raking in would evaporate!

Perhaps somebody should explain to Messrs Wallace and Clarke that the vast majority of UFO researchers make no money out of their work and many end up out of pocket, especially on the lecture circuit.

Once again a UFO documentary has scored a massive own goal by dismissing the subject in spite of the vast amounts of evidence they broadcast (and ultimately ignore). Constantly, we are given the opportunity to see and hear first hand accounts from the people that were there, credible people like Charles Halt, but time and again, these programmes dismiss their testimony in favour of ‘towing the line’ and declaring that there is nothing to the subject.

When will they wake up and see that the UFO enigma is not going to go away? It is a real phenomenon and millions of eyewitnesses around the world are testament to that fact.

© Steven Johnson – 2005

All images are the property of Sky Television and Redback Productions and are reproduced here solely for review purposes

Prince of Darkness?

by Steve Johnson

Before I start, I want to categorically state that I am in no way a Satanist, diabolist, devil-worshipper or anything else for that matter. All the views stated here are my own personal observations and I have no wish to insult or demean the established church in any way.

From the very beginnings of Judaism over five thousand years ago, Satan has been portrayed as the true epitome of evil. A being of such immense ignoble power that he has been likened to a negative version of Jehovah himself. This belief has been carried over into the Christian faith, where Satan even had dealings with Jesus, the alleged son of God.

However, if you read the Bible it soon becomes clear that Satan plays a relatively minor role in the book. Sure, he tempted several people (Eve, Jesus etc.), but did he actually do anything that could be classed as pure evil?

In my view, no.

Satan makes his first appearance in the Garden of Eden, where he allegedly has Eve eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Actually, the Devil's name is not mentioned in this passage. It was the serpent, "the most cautious of  all the wild beasts of the field that Jehovah God had made", that tempted Eve to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. Even after his misdemeanour is exposed and Jehovah confronts him, the serpent is still not recognised as Satan. Clearly, this story is simply a mythical part of the creation fable. People needed to know how evil had come about, so the priests decided to lay the blame squarely on the slim shoulders of the snake.

Now, Bible scholars will say that Satan, the Devil used the serpent as a mouthpiece, an act of ventriloquism, so to speak. If that was the case, then why did Jehovah punish the serpent to forever crawl the earth on its belly?

Satan keeps something of a low profile until Job catches his eye. Job was a very wealthy man with a large and prosperous family. He was also blameless and worshipped Jehovah vehemently. Satan voiced his concern to Jehovah that Job only worshipped Him because of the good life that Jehovah had allowed him. "Not so," replied Jehovah and to prove it, he gave Satan the power to destroy this poor man's life (was it not in Satan's power to do this anyway?). The two spirit beings spat and shook, sealing the bet and off Satan went to wreak havoc on the family of Job.

The Devil goes on to wipe out not only Job's wealth and holdings, but also kills his entire family! All of this with Jehovah's approval! Unfortunately for Satan, Job continues to worship God and he loses the bet. Jehovah rewards Job with a new family and renewed wealth. Fair enough, but it does little for the poor people that were murdered by Satan!
This one act is the single most violent thing that Satan does in the whole of the Bible and it is still only a story, a fable concocted to prove that Jehovah rewards loyalty and punishes disobedience. It also shows that God might punish you even if you have done nothing to offend Him.

Remember, Jehovah GAVE Satan the power to destroy Job's family and chattels.

Satan's next appearances occur in the Christian Greek Scriptures (The New Testament), but as most of this book was written to facilitate the divinity of the Nazarene Christ, much of it can be discounted. Jesus was NOT the Son Of God and was only elevated to this position when the Roman emperor Constantine The Great was converted to Christianity. The divine ruler of the Roman Empire could not worship a mere man. That man would have to be divine also. Thus huge chunks of the scriptures were re-written placing Jesus firmly in the bosom of Jehovah. In fact, Constantine was only a Christian in name only, as he remained a worshipper of Sol Invictus.

Jesus would have been horrified at this. He was not called the Nazarene because he was raised in Nazareth. If that was the case, he would have been dubbed Nazarite. The Nazarene were a fundamentalist Jewish sect obsessed with forcing the Romans from Judea. They were not averse to using violent means to get their views across and this can be seen when Jesus ejects the so-called money changers from the temple in Jerusalem. In actual fact, the money changers were doing something that had been approved by the high priests for centuries. When the Jews began to live more in the cities than in the countryside, it became difficult for them to offer livestock for sacrifice at the temple, as dictated by the scriptures. With the blessings of the high priests, enterprising business men set up stalls selling livestock to people who wished to offer sacrifices at the altar. As time passed, the livestock salesmen were replaced by temple employees who accepted monies as the sacrificial offering instead of livestock.

Jesus, being a fundamentalist wanted a return to the old days of live sacrificial offerings. The sight of people essentially giving money to God enraged him and he kicked up a bit of a stink.

This has nothing to do with Satan, but it is an interesting historical aside and insight into the mind-set of people living in biblical times. Even today, the collection plate is passed around church. A modern echo of those bygone days. What would Christ think of that?

The Christian Greek Scriptures tell of how Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness. he offered Christ the whole world if he renounced Jehovah and followed him. Needless to say Jesus refused and Satan went away, obviously unable to exact vengeance on the "divine" Son Of God.   THIS DID NOT HAPPEN. It is simply another myth that arose to give Jesus this air of divine goodness.

That's about it for Satan's appearances in the Bible. The rest of his mentions are references to how bad he is and how he will be cast into Gehenna on Judgement Day. Stuff about him, but not actually involving him at the time of writing.
Right, onto the good stuff. Evidence. We have already seen that Jehovah does a lot of stuff off his own back. I mean, millions had been killed in his name in the first few books of the Bible. he even wiped out all life on Earth with the Flood at one point. Hardly the actions of " a god of loving-kindness, slow to anger". Even Satan's demolition of Job was done with Jehovah's blessing.

Jehovah created Satan as a perfect spirit being, an angel. If he was so perfect, why did he turn against Jehovah? Only when he turned against God did he become Satan. The word means "resister" and "adversary". God wiped out millions of humans at the drop of a hat, why did he not destroy Satan when the angel rebelled against him? Was he unable to?

Early in the Bible, references are made to the Nephilim. These were apparently the offspring of divine beings that descended to Earth and mated with the daughters of men. What happened to them is unclear, but it is suggested that they existed on Earth until the Flood, when they were wiped out in that terrible cataclysm. The Bible says that Jehovah brought the Flood because of man's evil, it is strange that the powerful Nephilim also walked the Earth at the same time and were "mighty ones" and "men of fame". "Men of fame" NOT "Men of infamy".

Another name for Satan is Lucifer. This is from the Latin "Lux Fare" which means "Light bringer". Strange how the so-called Prince Of Darkness could be called a light bringer.

Another god that was around during the time of the Hebrew Scriptures (The Old Testament) was Baal. He/it was a deity of some importance and is mentioned often in the Bible. Baal is often associated with Satan and more properly with Baal'zebub (Beelzebub), one of Satan's lieutenants. You see, Satan had quite a following amongst Jehovah's angels, so it is apparent that the Host is far from perfect as the Bible would have us believe.

Interestingly, the Hebrew word "Baal" can mean, among other things, "Owner of arrows", "false gods" and most bizarrely "Jehovah".

If Jehovah was the all-powerful, omnipotent deity that the scriptures lead us to believe, then how could he allow a large number of His own angels to act against Him. Surely, He would have known what they were plotting.

I know what a lot of you are thinking - Jehovah gave all of His creations free will, so that they could act independently of one another and God, if they wished. But we are not talking about a minor rebellion here, Satan had supposedly avowed himself to the destruction of all that Jehovah had created. Why, then, was he still allowed into the presence of Jehovah, as when the wager with Job took place?

It seems obvious to me that Satan was (and still is, if either beings actually DO exist) in the employ of the Almighty. It was Satan's task  to test Jehovah's creations, a bit like a Quality Control inspector. God gave us all free will, but He wanted us to use it sparingly. It was Satan's job (no pun intended) to weed out those who overused their sense of individuality.
Satan would tempt and bait the poor mortals that inhabited this little blue-green world. He would try and get them to follow him or some of the other false gods (that were wholly condoned by Jehovah). If they succumbed, Jehovah knew that these people were not worthy of salvation and will not be resurrected  when His New Kingdom begins (if you take the Scriptures literally).

If Satan was working against Jehovah, why would He allow him to continue his existence?

Why was Satan allowed into the presence of Jehovah and the other, righteous angels when he was supposed to be an outcast, a liar and deceiver?

If God does work in mysterious ways, then they don't come more mysterious than the way He has treated His arch-nemesis, Satan.

© 2000 Steven Johnson

God and the Bible

by

Steve Johnson

Why in the early books of the Bible are God and his angels depicted as solid, physical beings? Only after the Israelites enslavement in Babylon did God become a non-corporeal entity.

I have scoured through the Bible (the definitive version of God's word) and found many instances that, in my view, prove that God or Jehovah was once a living, breathing, humanoid life-form.

All of the extracts are taken from the 'New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures', the bible of Jehovah's witnesses and generally regarded as the most accurate and user-friendly version of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures.

Genesis 2:8

Further Jehovah planted a garden in Eden, toward the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

God 'planted' the garden. He didn't make it appear magically. He didn't will it into being. God physically planted the garden of Eden.

Genesis 2:21

Hence Jehovah had a deep sleep fall upon the man and, while he was sleeping, he took one of his ribs and then closed up the flesh over its place.

Why did God have to give Adam a general anaesthetic? Why did he have to physically open up the man's chest? Surely an omnipotent Jehovah could have taken the rib without the need for surgery. Why did he require one of Adam's ribs to make Eve in the first place? Was Adam's DNA necessary to create a female clone of the newly engineered human race?

Genesis 3:8

Later they heard the voice of Jehovah walking in the garden about the breezy part of the day, and the man and his wife went into hiding from the face of Jehovah in between the trees of the garden.

Jehovah was walking in the garden. He was physically placing one foot in front of the other! You might say that it only states the 'voice of Jehovah' was walking in the garden, but Adam and Eve went on to hide from the face of Jehovah. How could they hide from God's view if he wasn't actually there?

Genesis 3:9

And Jehovah kept calling to the man and saying to him: "Where are you?"

God is all-seeing. Surely he would have known where the man and woman were concealing themselves.

When Cain Kills Abel in Genesis 4:8, the following verse reads:

Later on Jehovah said to Cain: "Where is Abel your brother?" and he said: "I do not know. Am I my brother's guardian?"

Why didn't God know that Cain had killed Abel? Why didn't he know where Abel was? It is possible that Jehovah was testing Cain, to see if he would admit to the murder himself. That does not seem to be true, because later the bible states that Abel's blood called out from the ground. Did Jehovah have some form of scanner that detected Abel's remains after Cain had buried him?

Why does man only start worshipping Jehovah as a god from Genesis 4:26 onwards?

...At that time a start was made of calling on the name of Jehovah.

Was Jehovah not viewed upon as a deity before this time? If not, why not?

Enoch fathered Methuselah at the age of sixty-five. Then the Bible goes on to say in Genesis 5:22-24:

And after his fathering Methuselah Enoch went on walking with the [true] God three hundred years. Meanwhile, he became father to sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch amounted to three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch kept walking with the [true] God. Then he was no more, for God took him.

Enoch 'walked' with the '[true] God'. The term [true] God comes from the Hebrew ha-'El, which literally means 'true God'. Surely at this early stage of history (if you take the biblical accounts of history as the truth), with only a relative (sic) handful of people on the planet, there were no other deities apart from Jehovah. Not any to force the scripture writers to refer to him as the 'true God'. Or were there?

Enoch 'walked' with Jehovah for three hundred years after the birth of Methuselah. Does this mean that he worshipped God only after the birth of his son? Why? Did he die after Methuselah was born and spiritually walk with God? Apparently not, because the Bible states that Enoch had other children and lived for a total of three hundred and sixty-five years. Actually, did Enoch die at all?

In Genesis chapter 5, the lives of nine men are briefly detailed. They are Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah and Lamech. All of these men died, according to the scripture - except for Enoch. The others lived well into their nine-hundreds (except Lamech who was seven hundred and seventy-seven when he died), while Jehovah took Enoch at the spritely age of three hundred and sixty-five.

Of this nonet, only Enoch 'walked' with Jehovah.

I suggest that he physically travelled with God for three hundred years, returning now and again to father his other sons and daughters for his clan. Then, when he was deemed ready by Jehovah, he was taken into his full-time employ. Enoch never returned to his family, so , as far as they were concerned, his life had ended when he was three hundred and sixty-five when God 'took' him.

Genesis chapter 11 proclaims the building of the Tower of Babel in the land of Shinar. Verse 4 relates:

They now said: "Come on! Let us build ourselves a city and also a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a celebrated name for ourselves, for fear we may be scattered over the surface of the earth."

Verses 5 and 6 describe Jehovah's awe! He proclaims that man can do anything he sets his mind to. So what does he do? Instead of fatherly pride, Jehovah displays despotic resentment. He feels that his godhood is threatened by his creations' technological prowess and takes steps against the Shinarites.

As the humans had foreseen in verse 4, Jehovah scatters them across the face of the earth and confuses their languages so that they cannot speak to one another.

If you read deeper into this story, take a little time and think. Read between the lines. It appeared that humanity had reached an incredibly sophisticated level of technology. They decided to build a tower that would enable them to reach the heavens. Today, we build towers that can reach the heavens - rockets.

If, as many people believe, God was an alien, then he and his kind may have seen humankind's rapid technical progression as a threat to their plans for our planet (whatever they were or are!). Was an air strike called in to destroy the Shinarites 'tower'? Was a pogrom begun to eradicate the suddenly dangerous barbarians? The subjugation of our race may have been so great that we survived only in small isolated pockets, unable to communicate with other survivors. Was humanity's greatest experiment of antiquity also our greatest blunder? It clearly says in the Bible that man knew the consequences of the Babel project. He was aware that Jehovah might retaliate. But the chance to touch the stars and be equal to God was too great a temptation for the ambitious people of Shinar - our ancestors. Were they at the same technological level that we are at now? What does this mean for us?

It does not say in the Bible how long it took for Jehovah to spread the population to the four corners of the world. If, as I believe is likely, mankind resisted Jehovah's onslaught, then it could have taken years before they were crushed completely by the massively more powerful Jehovan forces.

Would we be able to put up much of a fight if threatened by an alien colonial force? The footage from STS-48 suggests that we may well be very capable of defending ourselves.

In Genesis chapter 17, Jehovah appears to Abram. Presumably, he came down from the sky, because, when he had finished speaking to the now renamed Abraham, Jehovah went up from him (verse 22).

This entire chapter is concerned with Jehovah's order to Abraham that all males of his house should be circumcised, even the slaves bought with money were to be circumcised too. Why would God wish men to do this to themselves? According to the Bible it was simply a sign of the covenant between Jehovah and Abraham.

SURELY THERE WAS AN EASIER WAY OF ILLUSTRATING THAT YOU WERE OF THE HOUSE OF ABRAHAM!

Or did God need the excised skin to be used as genetic markers? Markers used to keep track of Abraham's people. Remember, it wasn't too long after the scattering of humanity. Jehovah may have thought that a new group of humans were ready to receive his counsel and benevolent (!) care.

Genesis chapter 18 contains another of Jehovah's physical appearances. He appeared to Abraham whilst the man was reclining under a tree.

The Lord had two angels acting as escorts. Verse 2 says that Abraham looked up and saw three men standing some distance away from him. Three men? These were the mighty Lord God and two of his divine messengers! However, Abraham recognised Jehovah and offered the trio food, water and foot-baths. Am I losing the plot here? We're talking about the supreme being!! I would have thought a bite to eat and soaking his feet was not at the top of his agenda. Nevertheless, Jehovah eats, drinks and has his feet bathed.

Later, Abraham walked with the three visitors to view the nearby city of Sodom. Yet another instance of God physically walking. Jehovah decided to send his angels to see what was going on in that infamous town. They set off, leaving Jehovah standing with Abraham.

Jehovah and the angels appeared to Abraham during the heat of the day, i.e. around noon. They ate and chatted for a while, then the angels set off for Sodom. They arrived at the city in the evening time. This suggests that they walked to the city as it was the height of the day when they began their journey and Sodom was clearly visible from Abraham's dwelling.

Why would angels have to walk for hours to a nearby city if they were not physical entities? Another clue that it had taken the angels a long time to reach Sodom is illustrated in Genesis 19:3. Lot met them at the city gate and took them to his house where gave them something to eat. Their long walk must have given them an appetite because they ate with Abraham remember. Verse 2 also suggests that angels sleep at night:

And he (Lot) proceeded to say: "Please, now, my lords, turn aside, please, into the house of YOUR servant and stay overnight and have YOUR feet washed. Then YOU must get up early and travel on YOUR way..."

It stands to reason that if they were to get up early, then they must have slept before getting up.

Angels must also be fragile. Genesis 19:4-11 relates how Lot attempts to protect his divine visitors from a lustful mob. He even offers his daughters to the drooling crowd and begs them not to hurt his angelic guests. They refuse the offer and begin to break down the door. The angels (described in verse 10 as men) strike the mob blind thus saving themselves.

Telling Lot that they (verse 13) were going to destroy the city, the angels urge Lot and his family to leave. The next morning, Lot dithers and the messengers of the Lord are forced to drag the man, his wife and his two daughters physically from the town.

Obviously, the angels waited for quite a while before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, because Lot and his family reached the safety of the city of Zoar and night had fallen when the fireworks began.

Unfortunately, Zoar was not quite far enough for Lot's wife. She was transformed into a pillar of salt when she looked at the distant conflagration.

Genesis 32:24-30 recounts an extraordinary wrestling match:

Finally Jacob was left by himself. Then a man began to grapple with him until the dawn ascended. When he got to see that he had not prevailed over him, then he touched the socket of Jacob's thigh joint; and the socket of Jacob's thigh joint got out of place during his grappling with him. After that he said: "Let me go, for the dawn has ascended." To this he said: "I am not going to let you go until you first bless me." So he said to him: "What is your name?" to which he said: "Jacob." Then he said: "Your name will no longer be called Jacob but Israel, for you have contended with God and with men so that you at last prevailed. In turn Jacob inquired and said: "Tell me, please, your name." However he said: "Why is it that you inquire for my name?" With that he blessed him there. Hence Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, because, to quote him, "I have seen God face to face and yet my soul was delivered."

An incredible tale! Was Jacob in a physical fight with God? My source material is taken from the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, regarded by many as the most accurate and straight forward translation of the scriptures. The heading above this story says that 'Jacob is lamed by an angel'. Jacob is quoted as saying that he has seen God face to face - not his angel.

Why would Jehovah wish to fight with someone and then commit the unsportsmanlike act of divinely injuring Jacob's thigh socket when he was losing? God cheated and it's right there in the Bible!!!

In Exodus chapter 3 Moses is impressed by the fact that an angel of Jehovah appears in the form of a burning thornbush. However, he is unimpressed with the angel and more concerned with the fact the the bush is not burned to the ground. Moses begins to inspect the bush and this obviously worries Jehovah. He could not have a mere mortal human inspecting his work too closely, so he orders Moses to remove his sandals and stay away from the bush.

Exodus 4:24-26 reads:

Now it came about on the road at the lodging place that Jehovah got to meet him and kept looking for a way to put him to death. Finally Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and caused it to touch his feet and said: "It is because you are a bridegroom of blood to me." Consequently he let go of him. At that time she said : "A bridegroom of blood", because of the circumcision.

This passage baffles me!!! Jehovah has chosen Moses as his messenger to the Pharaoh and he has set off with his wife, Zipporah, and his sons back to Egypt.

If he is to do God's will, then why is Jehovah trying to kill him? Why would touching Moses' feet with the severed, bleeding foreskin of his son save him from God's unexplained wrath? Why would God be so angry that he would execute Moses simply because he neglected to have his son circumcised? I thought that Jehovah was a God of love and compassion!

Exodus chapter 12 tells of the Passover, when Jehovah travelled throughout Egypt killing the firstborn of each house. The Israelites were ordered to paint the doorframes of their dwellings with ram's blood so that the Lord would know not to enter there.

Surely Jehovah knew where his chosen people were living? He can look into the hearts of men and see if they worship him or not. There were hundreds of thousands of Israelites in Egypt. Why was it necessary to slaughter thousands of male sheep and goats so that Jehovah would know where not to go with his wrathful gaze?

Anyway, God's terrible belligerence did the trick. Pharaoh released the Israelites and they headed into the desert.

Exodus 13:21-22:

And Jehovah was going ahead of them in the daytime in a pillar of cloud to lead them by the way, and in the nighttime in a pillar of fire to give them light to go in the daytime and nighttime. The pillar of cloud would not move away from before the people in the daytime nor the pillar of fire in the nighttime.

This is regarded as probably the first description of a UFO in the Bible and I agree. UFOs today have been described as cloud-like or concealing themselves in cloud formations of their own design. Hundreds of nighttime sightings report dazzling multi-coloured lights which could have been interpreted as fire in the sky in biblical times.

Another of Jehovah's ungodlike acts occurs in Exodus chapter 14. When the Israelites were well on their way, Pharaoh and the Egyptians expected them to be lost in the wilderness. Verse 4:

So I shall indeed let Pharaoh's heart become obstinate, and he will certainly chase after them and I shall get glory for myself by means of Pharaoh and all his military forces... (my emphasis)

Why would the almighty Jehovah wish glory for himself? Yes, the sight of Jehovah wiping out thousands of Egyptian soldiers would impress the Israelites, but was it really necessary to provoke Pharaoh into pursuing them in the first place? (see also Exodus 14:18)

Exodus 14:24-25:

And it came about during the morning watch that Jehovah began to look out upon the camp of the Egyptians from within the pillar of fire and cloud, and he went throwing the camp of the Egyptians into confusion. And he kept taking wheels off their chariots so that they were driving them with difficulty; and the Egyptians began to say: "Let us flee from any contact with Israel, because Jehovah certainly fights for them against the Egyptians. (My emphasis)

Jehovah was looking out from within the pillar of cloud and fire? I had always been led to believe that God was everywhere. Why did he restrict himself to simply removing the chariot wheels of the Egyptians? Surely he could have really impressed the Israelites by making the entire Egyptian army wink out of existence.

I propose that at this time, Jehovah was not widely seen as a mighty god. He had to perform some extraordinary feats to win over the Israelites. The plagues against Egypt are a good example of this. The final, decisive act against Pharaoh's army, when the Red Sea closed over them, killing them beneath millions of tons of water, terrified the Israelites and they began to fear him. (Exodus 14:31)

Did Jehovah display any mercy to the Egyptians who managed to scramble to safety after the Red Sea closed over them? Exodus 14:27:

...All the while the Egyptians were fleeing from encountering it (the Red Sea), but Jehovah shook the Egyptians off into the midst of the sea.

With this terrifying display of power, Jehovah brutally allowed thousands of men to die horribly. Those who sought the safety of the shore were thrown back in a cruel fashion. Yes, they were probably wicked men, but Jehovah had no need to act so viciously. Those who would have dragged themselves, choking and spluttering, from the sea were no threat to the Israelites, who were safely on the far shore when the waters consumed their pursuers.

In an interesting footnote, the Aid to Bible Understanding (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania) declares that when Jehovah parted the Red Sea, he did so by making the waters congeal, i.e. to turn into jelly. Many UFO abductees and experiencers have noticed that some alien entities use water aboard their crafts, but that the water they employ is strangely jelly-like. Having solid water would be a great advantage over the liquid form. A craft executing severe manoeuvring exercises would be less stable if it had large, partly-filled tanks of water sloshing around inside it. The volume of water moving around would make the craft more difficult to control. If the water could be congealed or solidified, then it would not move around and the flight capabilities of the craft would be unimpaired.

Did God the alien use his technology to jellify the Red Sea, then parting it somehow and allowing the Israelites to cross, only to reliquify it once the far shore had been reached.

Exodus 15:3:

Jehovah is a manly person of war. Jehovah is his name.

Exodus 16:16:

...Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

God liked a good fight by the look of it!

Exodus 19:16-19:

And on the third day when it became morning it came about that thunders and lightnings (sic) began occurring, and a heavy cloud upon the mountain and a very loud sound of a horn, so that all the people who were in the camp began to tremble. Moses now brought the people out of the camp to meet the [true] God, and they went taking their stand at the base of the mountain. And Mount Sinai smoked all over, due to the fact that Jehovah came down upon it in fire; and its smoke kept ascending like the smoke of a kiln (see also Genesis 19:28), and the whole mountain was trembling very much. When the sound of the horn became continually louder, Moses began to speak, and the [true] God began to answer him with a voice.

Why did Jehovah have to descend onto Mount Sinai pluming fire, lightning and dense, dark clouds? If it was some sort of flying machine or spacecraft descending to earth, then that would explain the phenomenon - exhaust fumes billowing around the vessel. As for the sound of the horn, that would indeed grow louder as the craft descended. Could the horn be representative of the whine of vast engines or could it depict a public address system being switched on and whistling with feedback? Whatever caused the fire, smoke and noise, Jehovah's descent onto Sinai was pretty impressive. See the arrival of the mothership at the end of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' for what must have been a similar event. How much did Spielberg borrow from the Scriptures?

In Exodus chapter 21, Jehovah sets down some pretty draconian laws:

>He condones slavery, i.e. the selling of people, but only for six years. After that the slave must be set free. Fair enough, not too bad.

>If you strike a man and he dies, you are to be put to death.

>If you plot to and then kill a man, you are to be put to death.

>If you strike your mother or father, you are to be put to death.

>Kidnapping is punishable by death.

>Speaking evilly to your parents is a capital offence.

>Killing a slave is punishable by death, unless the slave does not die for a day or two (!!!??)

>If you attack a pregnant woman and kill her, the same attack is to be performed upon you. If you do not die as a result of it, then that's good for you!!!

>If you own a bull that is in the habit of attacking people, and you have been warned about it, and the bull kills somebody, then both you and the bull are to be stoned to death.

>Sorceresses are to be killed. Period.

>Bestiality is punishable by death.

>Sacrificing to 'false gods' is punishable by death.

These are very serious crimes and there are more in the same chapter, but why would Jehovah want men to be put to death in his name? If the person who committed the crime shows genuine remorse (Jehovah would know), then why not show mercy?

No! The God of the Hebrew Scriptures was a hard, vengeful deity who DEMANDED complete and total loyalty from his flock.

Yet another sign that Jehovah was a physical being is described in Exodus 24:9-11:

And Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the older men of Israel proceeded to go up, and they got to see the God of Israel. And under his feet there was what seemed like a work of sapphire flagstones and like the very heavens for purity. And he did not put out his hand against distinguished men of the sons of Israel, but they got a vision of the [true] God and ate and drank. (my emphasis)

Jehovah's vessel must have been huge if seventy-four men could enter it. They saw God standing on 'sapphire flagstones' which were 'like the very heavens for purity'.

Could these have been impeccably cleaned and sterilized blue-white floor tiles or deck plates? Jehovah would not want filthy human germs swarming through his ship, so a sterile meeting area was a most prudent precaution.

Jehovah had a wickedly short temper. In Exodus 32:10, he threatened to destroy the Israelites because they had made a golden calf in his honour. Moses had to talk him out of it! However, by verse 35, Jehovah was plaguing the Israelites again because of their calf idolatry. What form this plaguing took is unclear.

Exodus 33:11 states that Moses spoke to Jehovah face to face, yet in verse 20, God says:

...You are not able to see me and yet live.

Did Moses and all the other men in the Bible see Jehovah or not? They say they spoke with him face to face, yet they did not see his face, because they did not die. Was Jehovah wearing something that concealed his features? A helmet, perhaps, or maybe a full-face oxygen mask?

Exodus 34:14:

...because Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, he is a jealous God.

God is jealous? What does he have to fear from the other 'false gods' if they ever did exist? Or were there others like Jehovah at large on Earth at that time?

Remember, Jehovah's face was covered from sight. He stated that nobody saw him and lived. When Moses returned from Mount Sinai with the second set of 'stone tablets' (which were carved by Moses, but written upon by God) his face was described as having rays coming out of it. He was so incredible to look at, that people feared him and he was forced to wear a veil thus hiding his features. Many have speculated that Moses was subjected to a light dose of radiation during his communion with Jehovah, resulting in his glowing skin and white hair. Jehovah may have equipped him with a protective headcovering for future meetings and to protect his kinsmen from his affliction.

Leviticus 10:1-3 relates the peculiar tale of an unauthorised offering:

Later on Aaron's Nadab and Abihu took up and brought each one his fire holder and put fire in them and placed incense upon it, and they began offering before Jehovah illegitimate fire, which he had not prescribed for them. At this a fire came out from before Jehovah and consumed them, so that they died before Jehovah. Then Moses said to Aaron :"This is what Jehovah has spoken, saying, "Among those near to me let me be sanctified, and before the face of all the people let me be glorified." And Aaron kept silent.

Why would Jehovah kill two men making an innocent offering to their beloved God? Sure, they made a mistake - the fire was the wrong type. How can you have a wrong type of fire? Why did merciful Jehovah have to kill them for one unfortunate error? I believe that the answer lies in Leviticus 16:3-4 and 23-24. Jehovah God tells Moses that Aaron can only enter the presence of the Ark of the Covenant if he wears a specific type of clothing: 1> a holy linen robe. 2> linen drawers and a linen sash. 3> A linen turban upon his head. Before dressing in these clothes, he must wash his body. Back in chapter 10 verse 6 Moses tells Aaron that the garments must not be torn or death will ensue. After he leaves the presence of the Ark, he must remove the linen garments and bathe in holy water.

These instructions sound to me like the precautions taken when handling radio-active material. Could it be that whatever was inside the Ark of the Covenant was highly charged with lethal radiation? Certainly Nadab and Abihu would not have known of the danger they were placing themselves in. Perhaps they had donned their radiation suits improperly and the lethal energy killed them instantly.

Exodus chapter 26 tells us that the entire tent that contained the Ark (the tabernacle) was to be made of the same linen as the suits. The tent also had what was termed a tent of meeting. This was where Aaron was to take off his suit upon leaving the presence of the Ark (presumably, he donned the suit here as well). Before he left, he was ordered to wash, ensuring he carried no radiation outside.

The tent of meeting sounds to me like an airlock, a safety precaution common in nuclear power stations today.

How did Moses survive bringing the radio-active tablets down from Mount Sinai? Remember, his face was emitting rays and he was forced to wear a veil when in the presence of his people. Moses lived for another forty years, so Jehovah must have afforded him some protection against the otherwise instantly lethal radiation.

Numbers 11:21-22 tells of the Israelites crying out for meat. Moses tells Jehovah that he had promised meat yet had not delivered. Numbers 11:23:

At this Jehovah said to Moses: "The hand of Jehovah is cut short, is it? Now you will see whether what I say befalls you or not."

Jehovah sounded a bit miffed didn't he? He later causes quails to fall around the camp. In their hunger, many Israelites gather up the quails and eat them immediately.

Numbers 11:33:

The meat was yet between their teeth, before it could be chewed, when Jehovah's anger blazed against the people, and Jehovah began striking at the people with a very great slaughter.

No mercy, no remorse. The people were hungry for meat. They had been stuck in the wilderness for years, promised salvation by Moses and Jehovah. When Jehovah supplied the quails, he could have sent instructions that they were not to have been eaten immediately. He did not. Jehovah simply wipes them out without warning. The God of Love? The God of Forgiveness?

Numbers 12:4-5:

Then Jehovah suddenly said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam: "Go out, the three of YOU, to the tent of meeting." So the three of them went out. After that Jehovah came down in the pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam. At this both of them went out. (my emphasis)

Prior to this, Aaron and Miriam had asked why Jehovah spoke only to Moses. God obviously decided to show himself to them and explain himself. He explains that to the prophets he speaks in dreams and visions. Verse 7 continues:

"Not so my servant Moses! He is being entrusted with all my house. Mouth to mouth I speak to him, and not by riddles; and the appearance of Jehovah is what he beholds. Why, then did YOU not fear to speak against my servant, against Moses?"

Before they have time to respond, Jehovah strikes Miriam down with 'leprosy'! Moses and Aaron plead with God to cure her, but he simply tells them to quarantine her for seven days. Was Miriam struck down with radiation poisoning?

Jehovah had told them to go to the tent of meeting. Remember, this was where Aaron had to don his special clothes before entering the tent of the Ark. Moses had been conditioned against the radio-activity (advanced drugs, perhaps?) by Jehovah. This makes sense to me. Moses is virtually immune to the radiation emitted from Jehovah, Aaron would have donned his radiation suit inside the tent of meeting by force of habit, but Miriam, being a woman and not a member of the priesthood, would have been open to the deadly energy pouring from the unearthly visitor.

She was to be quarantined for seven days before being allowed back into the camp. The period of quarantine was obviously inadequate, because she died shortly afterwards.

A point of interest which I believe to be related to this story is told in Numbers chapter 4. This chapter relates how Moses is ordered by Jehovah to register all those who serve in the tent of meeting, including their families. Altogether, 8580 people are noted. A lot of people were connected with the tent of meeting! Why did they all have to be registered?

Perhaps the answer lies in Chapter 5. Immediately after ordering the register, Jehovah tells Moses that all leprous persons are to be quarantined outside the camp. This order also includes people with a running discharge or people who have been in contact with a dead body.

These precautions could have been enforced in case anybody contracted radiation poisoning. Sever cases would appear like leprosy, with loss of hair, bleeding gums and orifices and fluid discharges. Anybody directly handling the corpse of a radiation victim would themselves become contaminated.. Therefore, they were to join their unfortunate countrymen outside the camp.

In Numbers chapter 14, the Israelites begin to speak against Moses and Aaron. They suggest returning to Egypt. In verse 11, Jehovah threatens to strike them all with pestilence because they show him no respect. Moses is forced to beg for mercy with Jehovah once again. It seems that Moses spent half of his life rescuing his people from the wrath of God!

Moses makes a remarkable statement in verses 17-18:

And now, please, let your power be great, O Jehovah, just as you have spoken, saying, "Jehovah, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, pardoning error and transgression..."

Slow to anger? Abundant in loving-kindness? Pardoning error? I am only four books into the Bible and the merciful Jehovah has already slaughtered millions!

Despite Moses' pleas. Jehovah went on to destroy 15000 people! (Numbers 16:49)

Numbers 21:14 refers to the mysterious 'Book of the Wars of Jehovah'. What is this book? Does it refer to the battles fought by Jehovah himself or by men in Jehovah's name? Nobody is certain.

In Numbers 22:20, God tells Balaam to go with the princes of Balak, a neighbouring ruler. The very next verse relates how Jehovah became enraged because Balaam had gone. He sends an angel to block his path with orders to kill Balaam if he succeeds in getting by.

They say that God works in mysterious ways, but they don't get much more mysterious than that!

Jehovah kills another 24000 Israelites in Numbers 25:1-9 because they had committed immoral acts with the women of Moab and began praying to false gods.

Everybody who has read the Bible thinks that the Pharaoh who ordered the deaths of all newborn babies to be a cruel, evil man. The same applies to Herod who issued a similar order. What about Moses, the meek servant of Jehovah?

Numbers chapter 31 relates the grisly tale of twelve thousand Israelite warriors plundering the cities of Midian. They killed all the men and took the women and children captive. When Moses saw what they had done, he grew angry. This is what he said in Numbers 31:17:

"And now kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has had intercourse with man by lying with a male."

An act of divinely approved genocide! Of the entire Midian people only virgin females were spared. Even infant males were slaughtered!

Another reference to Jehovah's military might is found in Deuteronomy 33:2:

And he proceeded to say:

"Jehovah - from Sinai he came.

And he flashed forth from Seir upon them.

He beamed forth from the mountainous region of Paran.

And with him were holy myriads.

At his right hand warriors belonging to them."

'Holy myriads' was one of many terms used to describe angels, or Jehovah's messengers. Look at the last line: "At his right hand warriors belonging to them." Warriors belonging to Jehovah's angels? Was there a military wing (no pun intended) to the Host?

Far from being a god of love, Jehovah seems, so far at any rate, to be a militaristic dictator with little regard for his minions. Even his own angels are sent on missions with little regard for their own safety. The pair at Sodom and Gomorrah were almost overpowered by a lustful mob.

Deuteronomy states in chapter 34 that Moses went into the mountains to meet Jehovah. God showed him all the land and then he died:

After that Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab at the order of Jehovah. And he proceeded to bury him in the valley in the land of Maab in front of Beth-peor, and nobody has come to know his grave down to this day.

If Moses was alone and Jehovah himself buried him, how are we to be sure that Moses died at all? Nobody knows to this day where his grave is, despite the Bible telling us exactly where it is! Perhaps he could have been taken into the service of Jehovah, as Enoch had been many years earlier.

The book of Joshua relates the Israelites' destruction of Jericho. Before reaching that city, the masses of Israel must cross the Jordan River. Jehovah orders Joshua to take the Ark of the Covenant into the river and the waters will part, allowing his people to cross. Joshua 3:3-4:

"...As soon as you see the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah YOUR God and the priests, the Levites, carrying it, then YOU yourselves will pull away from YOUR place, and YOU must follow it, - only let there pove to be a distance between YOU and it of about two thousand cubits by measure; do not get near it - in order that YOU may know the way by which YOU should go, for YOU have not passed over that way before."

The waters of the Jordan must have parted a long way. The people of Israel had to cross the river, passing the priests who held the Ark, but were ordered not to get closer to the Ark than two thousand cubits. This distance is equivalent to about 890 metres or 2917 feet. This could have been due to the radiation flowing from the holy chest. No doubt, the priests were wearing their protective, holy garments.

Joshua 5:13-15 explains how Joshua met a strange man bearing a sword. Joshua walks towards the stranger and asks if he is a friend or foe. The stranger replies that he is neither:

"...I - as prince of the army of Jehovah I have now come."

At this, Joshua prostrates himself before the mystery visitor and is told to remove his sandals because this place is now holy.

What is a 'prince of the army of Jehovah'? The 'Aid to Bible Understanding' claims that the visitor is an angel of the Lord. Why did he say that he was neither for Joshua or his enemies? I suggest that he was merely an observer, sent by Jehovah to watch the Israelites destroy Jericho. Declaring the place where he stood holy ground would have kept the anxious and adrenaline-filled humans away from the angel, thus ensuring his safety in the ensuing battle.

Everybody knows what happened next. The Israelite army marched around the city, carrying the Ark and blowing trumpets. After they had marched around Jericho for the seventh time, a shout went up from the warriors and the walls fell. (Note: Frank Herbert's semi-religious Dune also had the Muad'Dib killing word.) Jehovah then ordered the army into the city and told them to destroy every living thing, except for one family who had given shelter to two Israelite spies earlier. Curiously, the only things that were to be saved were objects of gold, silver, copper and iron. These things were to be placed into the 'treasure of Jehovah'. What did Jehovah want with plundered booty? Gold, silver, copper and iron. Spare parts for Jehovah's fleet?

Jehovah shows a certain amount of greed when Achan, an Israelite soldier keeps some of the loot for himself (one gold bar, some silver and a fine garment. Not a lot after an entire city has been ransacked.). Angrily, God orders Joshua to locate the thief and have him put to death upon recovering the stolen articles. Jehovah's wrath was only satiated when Achan and his family were stoned to death and burned!

By the way, Jericho translates as Moon City.

Next on Jehovah's hitlist was the city of Ai. On God's command, all the people of that doomed city, twelve thousand in all, were killed. The city was totally destroyed. Ai translates as 'heap of ruins', thus I propose that it was given this name after its destruction by the Israelites.

Does Joshua 10:11 tell the story of an extraordinary meteorite storm?

And it came about that while they (the warriors of Gibeon) were fleeing from before Israel and were on the descent of Beth-horon, Jehovah hurled great stones from the heavens upon them them as far as Azekah, so that they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword.( my emphasis)

Immediately after, the sun and the moon stayed motionless in the sky for a whole day. Could this be an exaggerated account of meteorite shower during a total solar eclipse? Or Perhaps the aftermath of a massive volcanic eruption and the darkening skies that follow many such occurrences.

Afterwards, the great military campaign continued and a total of 31 kings were defeated and their cities and people destroyed; the whole land subjugated under Joshua.

Judges chapter 4 tells of the victory of the Israelites over the chief, Sisera. The Israelites were greatly outnumbered and less well equipped. Jehovah intervened to help them and all of Sisera's army was destroyed. Judges 5:20:

From heaven did the stars fight.

From their orbits they fought against Sisera.

Did Jehovah send an airborne force against the enemy of the Israelites?

Judges 5:23:

"Curse Meroz," said the angel of Jehovah.

"Curse its inhabitants incessantly,

For they did not come to the assistance of Jehovah,

To the assistance of Jehovah with the mighty ones."

Where was Meroz? Nobody knows. Why would the angel expect them to assist Jehovah? Were they a powerful race allied with the God of the Israelites? Were the 'mighty ones' with Jehovah, or does the last line mean that the allies from Meroz should have brought the 'mighty ones' to assist Jehovah? They must have been impressive if Jehovah classed them as mighty. Finally, why would Jehovah require assistance in the first place? Did the well-armed troops of Sisera fight back harder than God expected, so he needed back-up?

Not long after, Jehovah fell out with Israel and allowed it to be defeated and enslaved by the Midianites.

Judges 6:11-16:

Later Jehovah's angel came and sat under the big tree that was in Ophrah... while Gideon... was beating out wheat in the wine press so as to get it quickly out of the sight of Midian.

Then Jehovah's angel appeared to him and said to him: "Jehovah is with you, you valiant mighty one. At this Gideon said to him: "Excuse me, my lord, but if Jehovah is with us, then why has all this come upon us, and where are all his wonderful acts that our fathers related to us, saying, "Was it not out of Egypt that Jehovah brought us up?" And now Jehovah had deserted us, and he gives us into the palm of Midian. Upon that Jehovah faced him and said: "Go in this power of yours, and you will certainly save Israel out of Midians palm. Do I not send you?" In turn he said to him: "Excuse me, Jehovah. With what shall I save Israel? Look! My thousand is the least in Manasseh, and I am the smallest in my father's house" But Jehovah said to him: "Because I shall prove to be with you, and you will certainly strike down Midian as if one man."

First, Jehovah's angel appears to Gideon, calmly sitting under a tree no less. Then, halfway through the passage, the angel turns out to be Jehovah himself. This is another example of God physically showing himself to men. Only a corporeal entity could sit on the ground or turn to face someone. Jehovah was a real person, not some will'o'the'wisp.

In the first book of Samuel, the Ark of the Covenant is stolen by the Philistines. Almost immediately, they are struck with piles. We think of piles as being a painful anal disorder, but not exactly life-threatening, but the Hebrew translation says that they were tumours or plague-boils. Obviously the Philistines did not wear the proper protective clothing before the Ark and its deadly rays consumed them. Needless to say, the Philistines returned the Ark to the nearest Hebrews, the Bethshemites. Unfortunately, they had no protective clothes, either and fifty thousand of them died before the Ark could be sent to be stored safely at Kiriath-jearim.

1 Samuel chapter 15 tells how Jehovah orders King Saul's army to destroy the Amalekites, killing every man, woman,child and animal in their city. The Israelites felt pity for Agag, the ruler of the Amalekites and spared his life. They also saved the best livestock to act as sacrifices to Jehovah. Was Jehovah pleased by his subjects' acts of compassion?

No! He strips Saul of his kingship and has Samuel hack Agag to pieces!

2 Samuel 6:6-7 says that Uzzah grabbed hold of the Ark of the Covenant because he was afraid that it would be overturned by some cattle. Guess what? yep, Uzzah was killed as soon as he touched the Ark. Verse 8 says:

And David became angry over the fact that Jehovah had broken through in a rupture against Uzzah...

Had Uzzah's radiation suit become torn? Seeing the danger that the Ark represented, David had it removed to the house of Obededom the Gittite for three months. Only when David had acquired a suitable linen suit did he take the Ark back into his possession.

2 Samuel 7:2:

...then the king said to Nathan the prophet: "See, now, I am dwelling in a house of cedars while the ark of the [true] God is dwelling in the middle of tent cloths."

The Ark was so radio-active that it still had to be contained in the radiation proof fabrics even when brought into a city of cedar wood buildings.

In 2 Samuel chapter 12, David sins against Jehovah. Does God punish the king himself? No, Jehovah kills David's innocent son!

The 'Song of Praise of David' in 2 Samuel chapter 22:7-15 describes a dramatic arrival by Jehovah:

In my distress I kept calling upon Jehovah,

And to my God I kept calling.

Then out of his temple he heard my voice,

With my cry for help in his ears.

And back and forth the earth began to shake and to rock;

The foundations of the heavens themselves became agitated,

And they kept shaking back and forth because he had been angered.

Smoke went up at his nostrils, and fire itself from his mouth kept devouring;

Coals themselves blazed up from him.

And he proceeded to bend the heavens down and to descend;

And thick gloom was beneath his feet.

And he came riding upon a cherub and came flying;

And he was visible upon the wings of a spirit.

Then he put a darkness around him as booths,

Dark waters, thick clouds.

From the brightness in front of him burning coals of fire blazed up.

From heaven Jehovah began to thunder,

And the Most High himself began to give forth his voice.

And he kept sending out arrows, that he might scatter them;

Lightning, that he might throw them into confusion.

Wow! This passage demonstrates, to me, the arrival of God in a physical craft of some kind. I interpret it as an entry into the atmosphere: first, the blazing conflagration of re-entry itself ( 'fire itself from his mouth kept devouring; coals...blazed up from him.'); a description of the vast size of the mothership, its shadow darkening the land ('And thick gloom was beneath his feet'); some sort of smaller, atmospheric craft is ejected ('And he came riding upon a cherub and came flying,'); the mothership activates its cloud-like cloaking system (Then he put a darkness around him as booths, Dark waters, thick clouds.'); the smaller craft swoops down and scatters David's enemies with high technology weapons fire - missiles and tracer fire ('arrows') or some sort of directed energy weapon ('lightning')

Imagine 'Independence Day' during the times of the ancients and what a movie that would make!

Jehovah was a god of war. 2 Samuel 22:35:

He is teaching my hands for warfare.

2 Samuel 22:48:

The [true] God is the Giver of acts of vengeance to me

And the One bringing the peoples down under me,

The Ark of the Covenant is described in the Bible as being a device to communicate with God. Obviously, there would be no power supply on Earth, so it would have to have some sort of long term energy source built into its design.

A nuclear energy source would be the logical choice for an advanced technology, as we have already discovered.

In 1 Kings 20:29-30, Jehovah delivers the Syrian army into the hands of the sons of Israel. One hundred and twenty-seven thousand Syrians are slaughtered.

Then 2 Kings relates how Jehovah offered air support to the prophet Elijah. He was sent to Samaria to meet with the chiefs there. Upon a signal from the prophet, Jehovah (or his angels) caused 'fire' to descend from the heavens to consume the chiefs and their men.

2 Kings chapter 2 tells how Elijah parted the River Jordan much as Moses had parted the Red Sea. Then a fiery war chariot drawn by fiery horses took the prophet up into the heavens in a windstorm.

2 Kings 4:32-34 says that Elisha raised a boy from the dead by putting his mouth upon the boy's mouth. This was seen as being a miracle! Jehovah must have taught Elisha the technique of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

In 2 Kings 17:16-18, the Israelites turn against Jehovah and begin worshipping Baal:

... and they began to bow down to all the army of the heavens and to serve Baal...

Jehovah was so enraged by the Israelites' disloyalty that he wiped them all out except for the tribe of Judah.

Ancient documents discovered at Ras Shamra in modern Syria describe Baal as 'Lord of the Earth' and the 'Rider of the Clouds'.

Curiously, the Hebrew word for Baal can also mean 'owners of the nations' (note the plural - owners), 'owner of the two horns' (?), 'Jehovah' or 'false gods'. How can the same word mean both 'Jehovah' and 'false gods'? Was Jehovah the name of a race of beings? Could some of these beings be enemies to others of their kind? They would both be Jehovah, but the enemies of Israel would be 'false Jehovans'.

Later, Jehovah tells the various nations of the region not to fear the other gods, but to fear him. He does not say that the others gods do not exist. Somehow (it is not explained what happened exactly) these nations came to fear Jehovah, but continued to serve their own gods.

If these other gods really existed, why did Jehovah not eliminate them? He seemed to take great pleasure in wiping out thousands of humans at a single stroke. Were the other gods a more substantial foe? If he was the most powerful of the gods, then why were the others permitted to be worshipped?

In 2 Kings 19:35, an angel of Jehovah wipes out 185000 Assyrian soldiers in one night.

In 1 Chronicles 21:14-18, Jehovah sends an angel to destroy Jerusalem. As the angel goes about its destructive act, Jehovah begins to regret his actions and tells the angel to stop. Verse 16 describes how David saw the angel 'standing between the earth and the heavens with his drawn sword in his hand extended towards Jerusalem.'

I propose that what David saw was some kind of flying machine hovering outside the city, its impressive array of weapons trained on its terrified denizens. All that was required was a word from Jehovah and the town would be blasted from the face of the Earth. Only when David begged for mercy and humiliated himself, prostrating on the floor before the angel did Jehovah order the craft to power down its weapons systems.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 1, Solomon wishes to speak with God. Does he kneel down and pray, like the rest of us? No, he travels to Gibeon, 6 miles away from Jerusalem (not exactly round the corner in those days), where the Ark of the Covenant is kept in its special linen tent. Only there will Jehovah speak with the king.

When Solomon builds the great temple at Jerusalem and moves the Ark there, tens of thousands of cattle and hundreds of thousands of sheep are sacrificed to Jehovah. Why so many?

It states in the Bible that the offerings were consumed by a fire from heaven. After the fire had gone, all sign of the offerings had vanished. Teleportation?

Jehovah's preoccupation with livestock sacrifices troubles me (grain and precious metals were also offered, but in far lower quantities) . If Jehovah was an alien being, then could the sacrifices serve the same purpose as animal mutilations do today?

2 Chronicles 12:9 reports that the Egyptian pharaoh Shishak takes everything from the House of Jehovah i.e. the Temple where the Ark is stored. Everything is taken. Even the Ark? This has ramifications that we will discuss shortly.

It is here that the Ark of the Covenant fades from history. The most precious relic in history vanishes without a trace. Did Shishak take it? Nobody is certain. What is apparent, though, is that Jehovah fell silent after Jerusalem was plundered by the Egyptian king.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 21, Jehoram becomes king in Jerusalem. Immediately, he kills all of his brothers and even some of the princes of Israel to guarantee his throne. The Bible states that Jehovah did nothing, despite being saddened by Jehoram's actions. A few years earlier, Jehovah would have slaughtered an entire race that even mildly displeased him! I say that Jehovah was not around to do anything about Jehoram's wickedness.

After the disappearance of the Ark of the Covenant, all of Jehovah's messages to mankind were voiced through prophets, self-proclaimed visionaries who received God's Word (they say) in dreams and portents.

Even though the Ark was gone, the Temple at Jerusalem must still have been awash with radiation. In 2 Chronicles 26:16-20, King Uzziah decides to burn some incense in the temple by himself. Immediately, eighty-one priests burst in and reprimand the king for doing what was only permitted by the priesthood. Uzziah becomes enraged and declares that he is king and can do whatever he desires. Instantly, he is struck down with leprosy.

You can bet that the priests were all wearing their protective garments, but Uzziah, not being privy to the knowledge of the temple, was struck down by the harmful energy still pervading the fabric of the building.

In 2 Chronicles 32:21, Jehovah sends an angel to strike down the Assyrian army. Unlike earlier divine attacks, this passage does not go into detail as to the nature of the assault. Thus, I believe that the angel was a fictional one and the Assyrians were defeated by conventional means in the name of Jehovah.

Curiously, after the disappearance of the Ark, the Bible refers to those who worship Jehovah as 'searching for Jehovah' or 'searching for the [true] God'. This is another clue that points to the fact that without the Ark, direct communication with Jehovah was impossible. Were the Hebrews actively seeking out the location of the now Lost Ark of the Covenant?

Jehovah's next major appearance in the Bible is in The Book Of Job. This book recounts the tale of a businessman called Job. He was a very successful businessman and very wealthy. He was also a devout worshipper of Jehovah.

One day (that is how the book is told - like a fairy story), Jehovah and Satan had a little bet. Satan declared that Job only worshipped Jehovah because God has given him all of his groovy belongings. God denied this and said that Job's love for him was pure.

"Prove it," said Satan.

So, over the course of the book, Job was made penniless, his family were killed, he was struck with numerous ghastly afflictions, but he continued to worship Jehovah, much to Satan's disdain.

Although I believe that this story is pure fiction, it demonstrates how the ancients viewed Jehovah, the mighty Creator of Everything. To prove a point to one of his angels (Satan), he subjects poor Job to all sorts of hardships, without a thought for the unfortunate mortal's well-being.

I believe that this story was attached to the Bible to emphasise that loyalty to Jehovah will bring its just rewards. Job was given a new family and more wealth at the end of the story.

The rest of the Bible is devoted mostly to prophecies uttered by various men claiming to be the mouthpieces of Jehovah.

Even the famous Ezekiel encounter (Ezekiel chapter 1) with Jehovah is, in my view, either an out-and-out fabrication or a hallucinatory vision brought about by the consumption of narcotic foodstuffs. Such substances are said to have been common in biblical times.

Perhaps the objects that Ezekiel saw were real, but if that is the case, then why did Jehovah wait for so many years before revealing himself to humanity once more. The Ark of the Covenant vanished from Jerusalem at around the time of the Shishak invasion (993-992 BC) and Ezekiel had his vision in about 617 BC, almost four hundred years later.

I believe that Jehovah never did return and that Ezekiel, like many of the other 'prophets' used his storytelling expertise for his own devices. In those days, storytellers and seers were in high demand. Earning a commission to foretell the future from a king or other wealthy client meant that there was money to be made from telling the right kinds of stories.

Admittedly, some of the prophets told their kings the opposite what they wanted to hear, but who expects good news all of the time?
 

An interesting article, suggesting that the Ark Of The Covenant and The Holy Grail may actually be one and the same object, can be found at The Holy Grail What Is It? website. The authors suggest that the manna received by the Israelites during their 40-year wanderings was actually created by the Ark/Grail and that it was indeed of extra terrestrial origin

© 1999 Steve Johnson

Haunted Nation

by

Steve Johnson

Britain has often been called ‘The Most Haunted Country In The World’. Why this should be so is unclear. Perhaps it is in recognition of these islands’ colourful history, replete with myths and legends stretching back thousands of years. Ghost stories have always been popular and the British Isles seem to have more than their fair share.

The Treasurer’s House in the historic city of York, in northern England, lies a short distance from the city’s beautiful Minster. The Minster is a major tourist attraction and a discovery made there would seem to verify what is possibly one of the world’s most famous true ghost stories.

In 1953, Harry Martindale was installing a new central heating system at the Treasurer’s House. This entailed him going down into the basement and knocking a hole through one of the cellar walls. He set his ladder against the wall and began climbing up to where he intended to work.

Suddenly he heard the faint sound of a horn.

He assumed that it was a radio somewhere else in the building and continued his work. Then he heard the horn again. And again. Each time, the sound of the horn seemed to get closer.

He looked to where the noise seemed to be coming from and was staggered to see a Roman soldier appear from the cellar wall and begin marching across the basement. Immediately following this legionary was a horse drawing a cart, with a Roman soldier steering.

Harry fell from his ladder, shocked and terrified.

In all, about twenty Roman legionaries marched across the cellar of the Treasurer’s House, each one of them looking weary and dishevelled. Harry said that he could hear a low murmuring as though the soldiers were muttering to one another. Each carried a short sword, spear and a large, round shield (it has been suggested that the soldiers may have actually been Roman auxiliary troops, as opposed to genuine legionaries – hence the rounded shields instead of the more familiar rectangular ones). Their footsteps could easily be heard, as could the sound of the horse’s hooves. These did not appear as wispy phantasms, according to Mr Martindale, but looked as solid as you or I.

Amazingly, each of the soldiers was only visible from the knees up!

Once the column had passed through the opposite wall of the cellar, Harry scrambled to his feet and rushed from the basement. The House’s curator met him and noticed his petrified state.

“You’ve seen the Roman soldiers, haven’t you?” he asked and explained how visitors to the cellar had seen them several times before.

Harry’s amazing ghost story was lent a great deal of credence later when excavations beneath York Minster uncovered the remains of a Roman fort. The road from this fort ran directly beneath the Treasurer’s House.

Exactly where Harry had seen the column of legionaries pass by!

Ghosts seem to have a finite existence (according to some researchers) and tend to disappear after about 400 years at the outside. Given that Mr Martindale saw Roman soldiers almost 1500 years after the Legions left our shores could suggest that the spirits he saw beneath the Treasurer’s House are the world’s oldest ghosts.

Chingle Hall in Lancashire, northern England, has been declared ‘The Most Haunted House In Britain’. Over the years, there have been reports of inexplicable noises and actual sightings of ghosts at the old house.

Chingle Hall, built in 1260, is the oldest brick house in Britain. It is said to be the birthplace of John Wall, a catholic martyr who was executed in 1679 and his head buried somewhere in or around the Hall.

Sightings of an eerie monk-like figure have been reported at the house, sometimes looking through windows or praying in the downstairs rooms. He has also been seen passing through the walls of the aptly named Priest’s Room.

It was in the Priest’s Room that a guest at the house heard the sound of bricks being moved. He went to investigate and peered through the ‘Priest’s Hole’ (where priests hid during the time in England’s history when Catholicism was outlawed). In front of him was part of a human hand, moving the bricks and causing the sound he had heard.

On Christmas Day, 1980, Gerald Main and ghosthunter, Terence Whitaker held a vigil near the ‘Priest’s Hole’ and successfully recorded rapping sounds. They also noted a rapid drop in temperature within the house. Mr Whitaker also claimed he saw ‘an indefinable shape’ moving across the floor.

To this day, efforts to capture the ghosts of Chingle Hall on film or tape continue in the hope of unravelling this eerie and fascinating mystery.

Having such a colourful history, you might expect the castle to be haunted by the ghosts of soldiers or those who were involved with the many armed struggles that took place there, but the castle’s most famous ghosts are those of the ‘Grey Lady’ and the ‘Radiant Boy’.

The ‘Grey Lady’ is believed to be the earthbound spirit of Lady Mary Berkeley the wife of Lord Grey of Wark and Chillingham and Earl of Tankerville. The story goes that she is eternally searching Chillingham for her husband, who ran away with her sister. Lady Mary was left alone with her baby and it is said that the rustle of her dress can be heard in the corridors of the castle.

The ‘Radiant Boy’ is another type of spirit altogether. He was supposed to have haunted an area of the castle known as ‘The Pink Room’.As the clock struck midnight, the terrible wails and moans of a child in pain could be heard coming from a wall where a passage led to the adjoining tower. Guests sleeping in the large, four-poster bed in ‘The Pink Room’ would report that as the wailing faded away, they would see figure of a boy dressed in blue and surrounded by an eerie, blue light.

It is said that the bones of a young boy and tattered, blue clothing were found in the wall. Once this discovery had been made, the haunting ceased.

Indeed, Borley’s history is as tragic as Chingle. Whilst still a monastery, it is said that a young monk and a nun fell in love and attempted to elope. Unfortunately they were caught and the monk was hanged. The nun was walled up alive in the building’s masonry.

From the 1920s, people have reported seeing the ghost of a nun in the area. Objects have also been seen to move by themselves and there is a remarkable photograph of a brick that appears to be hanging in mid-air.

In 1930, the Reverend Lionel Foyster and his family moved into the house. After reporting over two thousand separate paranormal incidents, the family fled five years later. They claimed that writing appeared on walls on several occasions and ghostly figures were often seen moving through the grounds at night.

Before the rectory burned down in 1939, the last family to live there was the family of Captain William Gregson. The fire was caused by nothing more paranormal than an oil lamp. It is purported that the ghosts of Borley Rectory have moved across the road to the Borley Church. In 1945, the bones of a woman were found in the rubble of the rectory. It has been suggested that these bones were those of the nun, killed because of her love for the young monk.

One thing is for certain, over the years thousands of sightings of apparitions, moving objects, even photographs of dark figures in the grounds of the rectory support Borley Rectory’s claim of being The Most Haunted House In Britain.

© S Johnson 2001

© 2005 Steven Johnson

Our Night of Terror

© 2000 Steve Johnson

The Alien: Friend or Foe?

by

Steve Johnson

Over the last few years, there has been a definite shift of opinion concerning the possible reasons the Greys might have for visiting our small planet.

Previously, the prevailing thought within the UFO community was that they were a benevolent race merely using their advanced technology to study us and our world. However, as more people have come forward to relate terrifying tales of alien abduction and subsequent invasive medical procedures, the emphasis has been brought to the fore that these small, innocent-looking beings have a more macabre goal.

The two camps cite much evidence to illuminate their particular beliefs:

The side believing that the Greys (and other extra-terrestrial races) are benevolent contend that nobody has been harmed by the aliens', even during the medical examinations that are said to take place aboard their spacecraft. Their vessels have apparently attempted to avoid all contact with our fighter interceptors, zipping away at unbelievable speeds when challenged by our air forces. The downing of planes, such as the one flown by Captain Mantell (left), are put down to tragic accidents caused by the pilots themselves and not by any belligerent act on the part of the ETs. As far as we know, nobody has been deliberately killed by the aliens among us.

The opposing group of researchers believe that the Greys are here for more sinister reasons. They bring forward the horrific tales of alien abduction as proof of their claims. The Greys, it is said, do not consider us to be intelligent life-forms, that we should be treated as lab rats or cattle. They take people from their homes/cars whenever the whim suits them and force their victims to endure terrifying procedures where genetic material is removed for some unknown, or poorly understood, purpose. The traumatized abductee is then dropped back into his/her home/car and left to cope with the consequences of their horrific ordeal. But, then again, imagine how a wild animal feels when we shoot it with a tranquillizer dart, tag it and send it back to the bush. Do we ever wonder what might be going through the beast's mind? No, so why should the Greys feel anything after they have tagged a human being and released it back into its natural habitat?

The proponents of the aggressive Grey theory suggest that the US government was once actually collaborating with the aliens, turning a blind eye to the abduction and cattle mutilation phenomena and even allowing them to set up underground bases in exchange for advanced materials and technology. It has been said that this partnership came to an end in the early 1970s after a fierce gun battle at one of the Grey bases in the Nevada desert concluded with the deaths of numerous US military personnel. Whether or not the ETs still operate facilities within the United States, since the breakdown of trust between our two races, is uncertain.

The one point that the two groups of researchers do agree upon is that the governments of the world (and most prominently the US government) have far more knowledge of the UFO subject and aliens in particular than they are prepared to publicly admit.

This aside, the matter I wish to discuss is concerned with the shifting of opinion that now generally regards the Greys as a manipulative and possibly aggressive race of invaders.

Probably the best gauge of the perception of aliens is reflected in the entertainments industry - television and cinema. During the fifties, the accepted way to depict aliens was as hideous, inhuman invaders. The Oscar-winning War Of The Worlds and Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (which was based on Donald Keyhoe's article Flying Saucers Are Real) are possibly the best two examples of this ideology. Then in the late sixties to the early eighties, it became fashionable to portray aliens as friendly, sage beings with much to teach our child-like race (2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET - The Extra-Terrestrial are prime examples.). Then suddenly, the message from the film studios changed dramatically. Gone were the nice aliens and back were the evil, human-hating creatures of the fifties B-movie fame.

The TV series V was the first major example of this change of tack. We had just got used to ET saying that all he wanted to do was "Go home", when the dastardly, reptilian Visitors blasted onto our television screens with their mission to subvert and eventually conquer the Earth.

Some researchers have said that this series was purposefully produced to subliminally alert the public to the potential threat from space. Intriguingly, the Visitor's motherships in  V and the massive destroyers from the 1996 hit Independence Day are remarkably similar in both their appearance and method of arrival. Both were huge, saucer-shaped craft that arrived suddenly and unexpectedly, placing themselves strategically over the major cities of the world before revealing the true purpose of their mission.

The X-Files is another show that centres around the theory that aliens are among us for less than friendly reasons. Conversely, though, the more dangerous threat is illustrated by the secret government agencies attempting to keep the whole alien issue under wraps.

In a similar vein, Dark Skies explored the UFO topic but from a historical perspective. The series suggested that certain events in the 1960s (JFK's assassination, the Vietnam War, the Great New York Blackout of 1965 etc.) were directly caused by the presence of the Greys. In this scenario, however, the Greys are merely unwilling hosts to malevolent, parasitic life-forms called Ganglions. Despite the high production quality of this series and its apparent popularity amongst fans of the genre, the show was abruptly cancelled at the end of its first season, leaving many of the questions it posed unanswered.

Why did the alien presence on Earth go from bad in the 50s and early 60s to good on the late 60s through the 70s and early 80s and back to bad again in the late 80s and 90s? Historians will tell you that the Cold War paranoia of the post war years influenced the more aggressive alien movies, while the make love not war ethics of the late 60s and early 70s gave rise to more mellow alien encounters. Now, as we approach the new millennium, the old fears of the unknown are resurfacing. Not the unknown enemy, as symbolized by the Soviets in the years following World War II, but the unknown future as man plunges headlong into the 21st century.

These would be the traditionalists views on the genre, but many are of the opinion that very often movies and television express the tenets and policies of governments, albeit in an entertaining format. It is rumoured that Steven Spielberg was told to make Close Encounters by government officials desiring to prepare us for the day when aliens arrived. More recently, it was said that he was also instructed to go into production on Deep Impact, the end-of-the-world disaster epic directed by Mimi Leder. Although these two films handle different themes, they do have one thing in common - something from outer space is heading our way!
 

Personally, I do not believe that the US government has much control over the material released by the major film studios. Why would they be telling us that the aliens are friendly, as in Close Encounters, when just a few years earlier they had been engaged in combat somewhere in the Nevada desert? Then again, why would a high quality TV series like Dark Skies be cancelled after  a single season, while shows with lesser production values (in my opinion) such as Sliders, Hercules and the Highlander shows continue on year after year? Were the producers of  Dark Skies onto something? Was the subject matter too prickly for the US government to handle? Who knows.

If we are being spoon-fed the notion that the Greys are out to destroy us, then I would rather it be out in the open and not disguised behind gung-ho disaster flicks. It may be a terrifying scenario to face, but at least we'd really be prepared and not just think its a cinematic hoot.

© 1998 Steve Johnson

Why Is Earth So Special?

By Steve Johnson

The planet upon which we live is a truly remarkable place. The odds are that there is no other planet in the galaxy quite like it. Compare the Earth with all the other planets in our Solar System:

Mercury (right) is a blistering rock only a little larger than our own Moon. When the sun is at its zenith, the surface attains a temperature hot enough to melt lead. A most unsavoury place.

LIFE? Not a chance.

Our 'sister' world, Venus  (radar map left), is even more inhospitable than Mercury. Its dense carbon-dioxide atmosphere has perpetuated a runaway greenhouse effect and the surface pressure is 92 times that of Earth's. Sulphuric acid clouds rain lethal fire onto a boiling, rocky landscape.

LIFE? No - unless it is very, very hardy. Although it has recently been suggested that microbes could thrive in the uppermost regions of the Venusian atmosphere

The romantic planet of Mars (right) is, even today, the best bet for life to have evolved independently of the Earth. Dry river beds and ancient flood plains clearly show that liquid water once cascaded across the Martian surface. Unfortunately, something happened in the distant past and much of the atmosphere leaked away into space. The surface pressure is now so slight that liquid water cannot exist, however, violent winds recently destroyed a Russian probe on the Red Planet's rugged surface.

Some have suggested that the structures at Cydonia are artificial. If this is the case, then they are massive creations. You could argue that Mars' lower gravity would facilitate the construction of gargantuan edifices. If they are not the products of natural forces, then they were not built recently. The structures are probably hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of years old.

Today, the climate of Mars is very unstable, with violent temperature and pressure variations over relatively small geographical areas.

LIFE? Probably not any more - but we keep our hopes up!

Between Mars and Jupiter lies the main asteroid belt. Some of these chunks of space rock are quite large - Ceres, the largest, is 600 miles in diameter. All of the bodies here are too small to cling on to an atmosphere. Several years ago, however, there were theories bandied about that alien space probes could have been secreted within the belt, there orbits obscured amongst the myriad of planetoids surrounding them. Most unlikely in my opinion. Unlike the densely-packed field in The Empire Strikes Back, our asteroids are very diffusely spread, millions of miles separating many of the rocks.

LIFE? No, unless alien probes do exist there and are a strain of artificial life-form.

Jupiter (right, with it's moon Ganymede), the largest planet in the Solar System, is so enormous that its mass is greater than all the other planets combined. It is a gas giant i.e. it has no solid surface. This means that life, as we know it, cannot exist there. Bacterial organisms could, possibly, float around the warmer regions deep within the atmosphere, but the chances of this being the case are slim.

Jupiter has 16 moons. One in particular has come under extreme scrutiny recently. Europa, it seems, could have liquid water flowing beneath its fractured, icy surface. Could life have evolved in this distant ocean, far from the sun's warmth? Sulphur-eating life-forms do exist on our own sea floor, where the sun's rays cannot penetrate, so it is possible that similar organisms could have evolved on that Jovian satellite. Unlikely as it may seem, Europa has one of the best chances for extra-terrestrial life in our Solar System.

LIFE? Very possibly. Organic compounds ’have“ been detected on this remote moon, however, Jupiter's vast and deadly magnetosphere may be a deciding, negative factor.

With its magnificent system of rings, Saturn (left) is, without doubt, the most beautiful of Sol's planets. Like Jupiter it is a gas giant with its own complement of moons - 22 at the last count and the Cassini probe will probably discover more.

Of these known satellites, Titan is by far the largest. In fact, it is a planet in its own right, with a dense nitrogen/methane atmosphere. Many scientists have described Titan as a primordial Earth in deep-freeze. Life is unlikely, though, due to the extremely low temperatures in that distant region of the Solar System. Most of Saturn's other moons are more traditional rocky, cratered bodies, especially Mimas, which, with its enormous impact crater, resembles the ’Death Star“ from Star Wars.

LIFE? Doubtful, unless the hidden surface of Titan is beyond our wildest expectations

Nearly three billion kilometers from the sun orbits the third gas giant, Uranus (right). It, like Saturn has an extensive ring system. Uranus is peculiar in that its axial tilt is 98 degrees. This means that its polar regions receive more energy from the sun than does its equator. Due to some unknown factor, though, the equatorial region is hotter than the poles. This huge, blue planet has 15 satellites; 10 small, dark moons and 5 larger ones orbiting farther out from Uranus.

LIFE? Not likely.

The last real planet in the Solar System is Neptune (left), the outermost gas giant. It is similar in size and colour to Uranus and is orbited by at least 8 moons and four faint rings. Until 1999, Neptune is the most distant planetary body from the sun and is therefore a very cold, inhospitable place.

LIFE? Virtually no chance whatsoever.

Finally, we encounter Pluto. Until recently, this enigmatic body lay inside the orbit of Neptune and its orbital inclination is also much higher than that of the other planets in the Solar System.

Currently, there is a great deal of debate concerning the nature of Pluto and its companion world, Charon (seen right in a Hubble Space Telescope image). Most orthodox astronomers maintain that Pluto is, in fact, a planetary body, while a growing number of scientists are claiming that it is the largest member of a group of objects which inhabit the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt objects are large asteroidal and cometary bodies that share similar orbits to Pluto. The concensus at the moment, however, is that cold, dark Pluto is, and will likely remain for the foreseeable future, a planet.

LIFE? No, unless the outer reaches of the Solar System are very different to our accepted theories.

So, you can see why the Earth is so special and significant within our sun's family of planets. It is the only world that has an abundance of life. It is warm enough, and stable enough, to allow a multitude of organisms to flourish. It is large enough to hold on to a substantial oxygen atmosphere. Another point of interest concerns our Moon. No other planet (except perhaps Pluto) has a satellite as proportionately large as our Moon is. Every other natural satellite in the Solar System is significantly smaller than its parent.

Pluto and Charon orbit a common centre of gravity and is generally regarded as a twin-planet system. The Earth and Moon also share a common fulcrum, but this centre lies deep within the Earth itself, so it is easier to say that the Moon orbits the Earth.

It is easy to see why alien visitors to our star system would be interested in our planet. With its teeming life-system, it is an exo-biologist's dream. The nearby, larger than is usual satellite (which keeps one hemisphere permanently towards us) is perfectly located for a long-term base of operations. It only took our astronauts three days to get there. A race which has developed interstellar flight could, in all probability, make the same journey in hours or even minutes.

Earth is the only planet from where natural total solar eclipses can be viewed. Peculiar how this occurs on the only life-bearing planet in out tiny portion of the galaxy.

How come the Earth shows only limited signs of meteoric impacts? Scientists tell us that this is due to natural weathering and erosion. Venus has extreme weather conditions, yet its surface is still pockmarked with impact craters. The same can be said of Mars. Dust storms frequently rage across the Red Planet. Even accounting for Mars' lower atmospheric pressure, surely most of the thousands of ancient craters, many of them millions of years old, would have been worn away by now. Faced with this information, geologists fall back on plate tectonics. This is the theory of the movement of the Earth's crust over millions of years.

At the deep ocean faults, magma wells up and solidifies in the cold water, forming new sea-bed material (see diagram below). This new matter pushes the plates on either side of the fault underneath the plates neighbouring them. Over millions of years, this movement can affect landmasses far from the oceanic fault lines.

This may explain why impact craters have been largely erased, but why is the Earth the only planet with plate tectonics in the first place?

If plate tectonics is rare in the universe, then this could explain why extra-terrestrial visitors would come here to study it. It could also be the reason why UFOs are frequently sighted entering the Atlantic Ocean off the Icelandic coast. Iceland rests on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge - an area of high tectonic activity.

So, it is possible to deduce why Earth is such a fascinating world for alien scientists: The vast numbers of wildly differing species (botanical and biological) are being studied by ET naturalists; their geologists are probably fascinated by the Earth's fluid and constantly evolving crust; and finally, our large and conveniently placed neighbour, the Moon, is unlike any other satellite in this star system. Alien astronomers can study the solar corona during our frequent total eclipses. Perhaps this is what happened when large numbers of UFOs were sighted during the Mexican eclipse of 11 July 1991.

The abduction phenomenon is the most sinister of UFO legends. Is mankind part of some vast, alien genetic experiment? Are the so-called ’Greys“ creating human/alien hybrids? If so, then is our planet being prepared for a gradual invasion?

Earth is being closely scrutinized, of that there is no doubt, as is its ecology. Perhaps the Greys are a dying race. Could it be possible that they are ensuring their continued genetic existence by creating human/alien hybrids which can infiltrate our society and pass on Grey DNA through natural procreation? If the hybrids were carefully placed around the globe, then, within a few generations, alien genetic material would be present in all the peoples of the world.

Many say that this is a disturbing scenario ( and I would be the first to agree), but if this is a kind of quiet invasion, by gradually altering the genetic make-up of man, isn't it better than the Greys charging in with guns blazing?

Independence Day it may not be, but at least nobody gets seriously hurt in the process. Collaborator! Yellow belly! I hear you cry.

But do you think that there is anything we can do about it anyway?

© 1998 Steve Johnson

Was I Abducted By Aliens?

Experts on the phenomenon of alien abduction claim that certain forms of recurring dreams and nightmares can be pointers to the possibility that the sufferer has had an extra-terrestrial experience.

Often, the dreamer finds himself in a room surrounded by strange, unearthly figures or peculiar symbolisms. Sometimes the visions are disturbing, sometimes comforting. Often, they are illuminating, revelations about themselves or the world-at-large being disclosed, the Whitley Strieber and Travis Walton incidents being the most notable cases in point.

If the dreams recur year after year (usually starting in childhood), the recipient may choose to visit a therapist, who will try to get to the bottom of the problem by using hypnosis. Hypnosis is generally regarded as being of great therapeutic value. Subjects suffering from various maladies or psychological problems can be helped during sessions conducted by trained hypnotherapists. Hypnosis can also be used to help smokers quit or as pain relief during minor operations.

Unfortunately, hypnotherapists  (such as Bud Hopkins, pictured left) are not required to undergo serious  training to obtain licenses to practise, as medical doctors are. This makes it possible for anybody to set themselves up as professional hypnotherapists. Some have been known to plant suggestive images into the minds of their 'patients' to make them believe that they are recalling an alien abduction. Thankfully, this is not the case with the vast majority of reputable hypnotherapists and we shall assume that our fictional victim has visited one of these genuine practitioners.

Where the process enters the realms of controversy is when it is used in regressive therapy. This is when the subject is placed under the influence of the hypnotist and taken back to a point in the past where memories of that time are excised. Due to the diffuse nature of memory, quite often real memories are merged with the subject's own subconscious imagination. Depending on the questions posed by the hypnotherapist, fantastic stories can be recounted. Whether these recollections are genuine or not is difficult to determine. The danger lies in the mind of the subject - ’they“ certainly believe them to be real memories.

If, during a regression, the subject recalls what he believes is an upsetting abduction experience, he can be seriously disturbed emotionally. What started out as a series of relatively harmless, recurring dreams has become definite knowledge (to him) of a terrifying alien kidnapping.

This has been known to lead to neuroses where the sufferer may be afraid to go out at night, could suffer from insomnia (as most abductions take place while the contactee slumbers) and is in mortal terror of an abduction occurring again

All this caused by a harmless dream, often occurring many years in the subject's past!

As a child, I had a recurring dream. It was neither frightening nor comforting - it just happened and I was swept along with it. The dream began with a view of the interior of a vast room or warehouse. The area was dark, but not pitch-black; girders high above could be seen, as could objects around me.

I was being led through this room, but I couldn't see by whom. I think I was dressed in my pyjamas.

Suddenly the force leading me was gone and I could move freely. I took a few seconds to survey my surroundings. Through the gloom I could see what appeared to be crates or boxes stacked all over the place.

The air was filled with whispers, a quiet cacophony of excited voices. I was of the impression that there were hundreds of people in the room with me, but I could not see any of them. Only my own sense of proximity and their hollow whisperings betraying their presence.

I began to walk forward and found myself beside a low wall or counter. It was only about waist high. I followed the wall until it ended abruptly. A strange voice came from behind the low barrier and I was unable to understand it.

I looked in the direction of the voice and its owner appeared.

A small, greyish figure (riding a tricycle!) came from around the wall. It was tiny, wrinkled and clothed in long, dark robes. It spoke to me again. The language was most peculiar and I could not understand a word of it. It was a humming, nasal form of speech (something like the sound of one's own voice if you stick your fingers in your ears) and I sensed power in its words.

Somehow, I was still completely unafraid.

Suddenly, the room was flooded with light and a mighty cheer went up from my invisible companions. Before I could get a good look at the newly-lit room, the dream ended.

I had this dream several times during my youth and it was exactly the same every time I experienced it.

A dream expert would probably say that the dream signifies a journey from darkness into light. Perhaps I was struggling with something during my childhood that eventually became resolved. If so, then I cannot remember it. I had a reasonably stable, sheltered life as a child with no major traumas that I can recall.

What would an abduction expert make of it? I don't know, as I have never told anybody about the dream until recently.

What would they make of the large, dimly-lit room? The interior of a UFO? Or some secret, government installation? That would explain the plethora of crates strewn all over the place. I would doubt that aliens would use wooden crates for the purposes of storage aboard their spacecraft, but you never know - stranger things have been known to occur in the world of ufology.

What was the invisible hand leading me? Was it a kind of tractor beam or teleportation device? Or could it have been a hypnotic suggestion implanted in my mind that compelled me to go there? Once there, the suggestion obviously evaporated and I was able to move freely once more.

From whom did the echoing whispers come? I had the feeling that there were hundreds of people with me in the room. Could they have been the same as the ugly little dwarf which spoke to me? I do not think so. I got the impression that they were humans. Fellow abductees? Perhaps. Government employees? Maybe. Human/alien hybrids working for the ETs? I get a strange feeling as I write that last question. Could that be the answer?

What did the low wall or counter represent? Beats me. Perhaps it was a representation of the hidden agenda of the aliens. As long as they remained behind their æ°wall', we would be unaware of their presence. But once they step around it...

Why did the ashen elf speak to me before revealing himself? Perhaps he was warning me not to be alarmed by his appearance. I do remember that I was not afraid, even though he was quite hideous to look at. Why was he riding a tricycle? God knows! Maybe that was my own childish psyche adding a familiar image as a sort of mental security blanket.

What about the creature itself? The room was dark, so I could not see him clearly ( I say "him", but I cannot be certain as to gender). Could he have been an alien, possibly one of the so-called Greys? The only resemblance that I could make out was that he ’was“ grey and that he was small in stature - as the Greys are said to be.

The creature was wearing long, dark robes and he was hooded. This has been recognized as a style of clothing favoured by the squat, ugly servants of the Greys, most famously depicted in Whitley Streiber's best-selling book, Communion. Remember, though, I had this dream as a young child in the early 1970s, many years before Strieber had recounted his experiences in novel form. (see my crude drawing on the right!)

What sticks most in my mind about the creature was not his appearance, but his speech. I could not understand a word of it, yet, somehow, in a way I could. His mouth opened and closed as he spoke, so it was proper speech. It was a dreary monotone, humming and nasal. Kind of like Lester Piggott with a really bad cold! What was it saying to me? I have absolutely no idea. Could it have been of importance? Immediately after it had finished speaking, the lights came on. Could this signify that I was told something illuminating? That is a bit of a stretch, I know, but it is the best explanation that I can come up with. The roaring cheer also illustrates something of import to me, but what I do not recall.

Lastly, and possibly most importantly, why does the dream end here? Why am I unable to see the interior of the room properly? Could the lights and cheering represent my journey back to bed? Or are there more memories buried deep in my subconscious?

Before the hypnotherapists start calling or writing to me, I would like to say that I have no intention of undergoing hypnosis or regressive therapy. I have no wish to live out the rest of my days fearing the return of the tricycle-riding dwarf!

If aliens did snatch me from my bed when I was a child, then it did me no physical or mental harm. A hypnosis session might uncover memories that I do no want to recall. Obviously, if they are there, deep in my dusty vaults, then the aliens meant for them to stay there out of harm's way. It could be argued that this is not a positive way to reflect upon my recollections, that I have a duty to try and solve the mystery. I disagree, all the recurring dream represents is a curiosity from my past. I think that I had the dream once as an adult, but that was many years ago, and I have not had it since ( at least I don't remember it if I did).

The experts can debate it until they are blue in the face, but nobody is getting inside my head to search for answers that I definitely do not want.

© 1998 Steven Johnson

The 10,000BC Enigma

by

Steve Johnson

About 12,000 years ago, the last ice age (sometimes called the Great Ice Age) came to an end. Nobody truly knows what caused this period of glaciation in the first place and its demise is just as much of a mystery.

At that time, man was still a primitive hunter/gatherer - or so orthodox historians will have us believe. They tell us that human civilization began about 4-5,000 BC when agriculture was developed in Mesopotamia (now modern Iraq).

There is considerable evidence to suggest that early man reached a reasonably high technological level many thousands of years earlier than previously believed.

Recent discoveries on the Indonesian island of Flores show that ’homo erectus“ lived there over 800,000 years ago, but for him to reach this island would have required a sea crossing of some 12 miles. The previous earliest use of water-borne vessels was believed to be by ’homo sapiens“ about 50,000 years ago.

Not long ago a discovery was made in Morocco that may push back the boundaries of humanity's artistic abilities. The rough, human-like form (pictured right) was found near hand-axes that have been dated to 500,000 to 300,000 years old.

This means that the intellectual abilities of ’homo erectus“ and subsequent human species will have to be radically reconsidered. If humans were building boats almost a million years before previously thought, what other technological breakthroughs occurred during that epoch?

In Brittany stand hundreds of massive menhirs. The Carnac Stones are arranged in long, straight lines and huge stone circles. Archaeologists date the site to around 5,000 BC, but there is a problem with this date. Many of the rows of stones continue into the sea and an entire stone circle exists on the sea-bed. Unless Neolithic man had access to scuba-diving gear, then it seems reasonable to believe that the stones must have been placed there before water swamped the area. The last time that the site was dry land was at the end of the last ice age - around 10,000 BC.

The Egyptian civilization appeared from nowhere with a fully developed language and culture. Paradoxically, their greatest engineering achievements happened at the dawn of their civilization. Historians tell us that the Pyramids of Giza were built about 2,500 BC during the Egyptian Old Kingdom. They say that a hundred thousand men worked for 20 years to build a grand tomb for their king, Cheops. How do they know?

Nowhere, in all the hundreds of ancient sites in Egypt, is there any record of how and why the pyramids were constructed. Remember, our experts told us that it took 20 years to build the Great Pyramid. Radio-carbon studies performed in 1986  have indicated that the base of this edifice is actually one thousand years older than its summit and predate Khufu by at least 200 years and probably by many more. Why would a millennium be spent in creating a tomb for one man who was not even born when construction began?

The real mystery of the pyramids at Giza, though, is their location and orientation. Built at a time when man had a very narrow and limited view of the world, they are perfectly aligned to true-north. Not magnetic north, as might be expected if the Egyptians had stumbled upon a primitive form of compass (as the Chinese had), but true-north.

Did they simply find true north by lining up stars or using well shafts for alignments? Despite what academics and alternative authors may say, it is still a mystery.

Another alignment shows that the three pyramids are a terrestrial representation of the trio of stars in Orion's Belt. They do not exactly match the positions of the stars as they appear today, but as they appeared in the sky 12,000 years ago. Were they built nearly 8,000 years before the rise of Egyptian culture?

The nearby Great Sphinx is a real enigma. Its head is proportionately much smaller than the rest of the body. Also, why does its head seem to be less weathered than the body? Admittedly, tests show that the rest of the structure is carved from softer rock than the head, but, for the majority of its existence, the Sphinx has been buried up to its neck in sand; only the head subject to the buffeting desert winds. Even to the Egyptians of the Middle Kingdom, around 2040 BC - 1786 BC, the Sphinx was a mysterious ancient monument.

One solution to the riddle of the curiously unweathered head could be that it was recarved at some time in the distant past. This would account for its smaller size when compared to the rest of the body as well.

This structure, which had been buried in the desert sands even during the time of the Pharaohs, is covered with deep channels. It has been proved that these vertical grooves could only have been caused by sheets of water cascading over the sides of the statue. The last time that there was ’that “ much water in the Egyptian desert was 12,000 years ago as the Great Ice Age drew to a close.

On the other side of the world, high on the Bolivian Plateau of South America, lies the enigmatic city of Tiahuanaco. Orthodox historians place the construction of this vast and mysterious complex to around 500 AD. However, recent analyses of the positions of statues and monoliths show that they were aligned to various important astronomical bodies. Computer projections dictate that the only time that the sun, moon and stars were perfectly lined up with the structures at Tiahuanaco was 12-13,000 years ago. The city must, logically have been built at that time.

Staying in South America, gold Inca artefacts have been found that depict what are unmistakably elephants. The fossil record proves that elephants have not lived in South America for 12,000 years. There is also a carving at Tiahuanaco, on the famous gateway of the Sun, that bears a striking resemblance to an elephant's head.
 

Click image for larger view
 
In 1513, Piri Reis, a Turkish cartographer, produced a series of maps which were quite remarkable for their accuracy. One of the charts clearly shows a land bridge connecting the tip of South America with the Antarctic Peninsula. The fact that the atlas illustrates Antarctica at all is amazing. That continent was not ’officially“ discovered until  1820. What is absolutely incredible, though, is that surveys of the ocean floor show that there was indeed a land bridge between the two continents. How Reis knew of its existence is a mystery - the bridge vanished beneath the waves 11,000 years ago.

Update: A webpage looking at the projection used and how the Piri Reis map may in fact depict only a distorted view of the east coast of South America and NOT Antarctica can be accessed by clicking here.

Recently Comet Hale-Bopp visited our skies. This unusually large comet caused quite a stir and several cults sprang up as it reached perihelion. The most notorious and tragic of these was the Heaven's Gate cult. Thirty-nine of its members committed mass suicide in San Diego, California, believing that their spirits would be transported to a spaceship which was trailing Hale-Bopp. As its closest approach loomed, many publications recklessly ran "the Earth is doomed" stories - articles sparked by early fears that the comet would pass dangerously close to our planet. As it happened, Hale-Bopp missed us by many millions of miles.

Hale-Bopp has an orbit of about 3,600 years. Reverse arithmetic shows that one of its approaches occurred close to the end of the Great Ice Age.

Ancient languages scholar Zecharia Sitchin discovered that the Sumerians had named a planet "Nibiru" and they believed that it had a 3,600 year orbit. He translated a Babylonian text, which is thought to be based on an earlier, Sumerian account:

"When the sage shall call out: Flooding! It is their god Nibiru. It is the hero, the planet with four heads. The god whose weapon is the flooding storm shall turn back."

Could the Sumerians have known of Hale-Bopp's prehistoric fly-by? If so, then could the comet have been the catalyst that brought about the end of the last ice age, when sea levels rose all around the world? Could it have been a precursor for the Great Flood of the ancient accounts?

A planet described as having four heads could be an ancient's description of a comet's tails. Most comets have two distinct tails - a bright dust tail and a fainter gas tail. Hale-Bopp, though, could have displayed more. Due to its irregular shape, the sun's heat struck its surface unevenly. As the surface material boiled away into space, this could have produced more than the two standard tails as the comet rotated.

Hale-Bopp did show three tails during it's latest visit. This is most unusual, usually there are just two. Perhaps during it's last sojourn through our part of the solar system it displayed four tails.

Could Nibiru, or Hale-Bopp, have caused the cataclysm of the Great Flood? There is documentary evidence to suggest that a global flood did in fact occur at some time in the past. Most of the world's religions and cultures have ancient legends that depict a worldwide deluge. Scientific research has shown that the last time sea levels rose significantly was 12,000 years ago at the end of the Great Ice Age.
 

STOP PRESS!!! It has recently been brought to my attention that Hale-Bopp does not have a 3600 year orbit. Before it's arrival in 1997, it had a 4000-odd year orbit and because of it's interaction with the gravity wells of the inner planets and Jupiter, it now has about a 2500 year orbit. In my view, this does not discount the comet from any Nibiru myth. When we are dealing with legends and timescales that stretch back thousands of years, a few hundreds of years of difference should not be taken too stringently.

Perhaps the most enigmatic flood myth concerns the destruction of the continent of Atlantis. Plato first brought the legend to life in 400 BC when he stated that the land was destroyed by floodwaters in about 9,000 BC. This date is remarkably close to our magical time of 10,000 BC when so many events occurred that appear to have been witnessed by intelligent and advanced men.

Maybe all of these findings are the result of mere coincidence. But, if that is the case, there are an awful lot of them. Consider this:

Early man applied his technological know-how nearly a million years ago when he built boats to sail short distances. We are told that modern civilization began about 7,000 years ago. What happened between those times? The answer is clear - all the evidence points to a time when man reached a sophisticated technological level.

Man had advanced knowledge of astronomy and if the Piri Reis maps are to be believed, then much of the world had been charted thousands of years before European explorers began their voyages of discovery (Reis admitted that his maps were based on older source charts). Men had also developed advanced building techniques that enabled him to raise magnificent structures that still stand proudly today.

The world was a stable, albeit cold, place. Human civilization was flourishing. Then something happened. The great northern glacial sheets melted almost overnight and sea levels peaked dramatically. Undoubtedly, a lot of people died. Civilization slipped back. Humanity had to start again. All traces of man's ancient achievements vanished, save for the most spectacular examples - the pyramids, the Sphinx and Tiahuanaco.

Memories of that glorious past lingered, though, Plato's Atlantis accounts and the Sumerian Nibiru myth to name but two. The global legends of a great flood are another pointer to our tragic prehistoric civilization.

We may just be rediscovering our roots, but some people are suggesting that the dawn of the new millenium will be as significant as the era of 10,000 BC.

How significant this time is to become, we shall see.

© 1998 Steven  Johnson .

THE RENDLESHAM FOREST INCIDENT

Between the twin bases of RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge lies a large area of pine trees known as Rendlesham Forest. The bases held the US Air Force’s 81^st Tactical Fighter Wing as well as a large stockpile of nuclear ordinance under heavy guard. 

It was not the presence of nuclear weapons that brought fame to the bases, though, rather than an incident that occurred over several nights during the Christmas season of 1980. It was an event that would not come to public light for three years and became known as The Rendlesham Forest Incident.

On the night of the 26^th December 1980, an object was spotted in the sky over the forest by a man walking his dog. He watched as it glided overhead, heading in the direction of the airbases. Two guards posted at the east gate of RAF Woodbridge also saw it and at first feared that a plane was about to crash in the woods. When they saw that it gently hovered down amongst the trees, they called for backup. Two more men arrived in a jeep and three of them headed into the forest, leaving the fourth man by the gate. They soon found the UFO.

It was described as cone-shaped and about the size of a small car. The air around the object crackled, as though electrified and a strange mist clung around it. As they approached, the men found that their footfalls became heavier and heavier, as though they were ‘walking through treacle’ and before they could get close enough to touch it, the UFO streaked upwards and out of sight.

The next morning, deputy base commander, Lt. Col. Charles I Halt entered the security station at RAF Bentwaters. He found desk sergeant laughing and was told that some of the guards had been out ‘chasing UFOs’. While being amused by this, Halt told the sergeant to write the report into the desk blotter. He thought nothing more about the unusual report until two nights later when the flight commander for the security police unit rushed into the Christmas party the off-duty men were enjoying and reported that “the UFO is back!”

Halt was ordered to investigate and, after changing into a utility uniform, headed out to the base perimeter. He found a dozen men assembled with large, portable lights known as light-alls. For some reason they could not get them to work. He took half of the men and they ventured into the dark woods.

They found indentations in the ground, presumably caused by the object two nights earlier, and Geiger readings inside the triangular formation found that radiation levels were higher than normal. Halt had brought along a small cassette recorder and was taping what they said and heard as they progressed. Suddenly, they noticed a red light moving through the trees to the east. They knew that the Orford Ness lighthouse was to the southeast, so this object could not be that. The animals of a nearby farm were making a lot of noise, Halt noted.

The group dashed to the fence that delineated the boundaries of the farm and watched in astonishment as the object shot over the adjacent field, appearing to drip what Halt described as ‘molten metal’, before silently exploding into five lights that shot away in different directions. Then they saw three white objects to the north, each with different coloured lights flashing, manoeuvring with sharp, angular movements. Halt had the command post call the radar tower responsible for that sector, but they replied that they had nothing on their scopes.

Then from the south, a glowing object appeared and began beaming down a laser-like light right at the feet of the startled soldiers. Then it rose into the sky and vanished. The men continued to watch the lights in the north as they danced about the sky for an hour before Halt decided to return his men to the base.

The photos that they had taken came out fogged, but Halt had his tape recording and a soil sample from the landing site. He also had his men take plaster casts of the indentations.

On January 13^th 1981, Halt typed out a memo that has become legendary in the field of ufology:

13 Jan 81

Reply to Attn of: CD

Subject: Unexplained Lights

To: RAF/CC

1. Early in the morning of 27 Dec 80 (approximately 0300L), two USAF security police patrolmen saw unusual lights outside the back gate at RAF Woodbridge. Thinking an aircraft might have crashed or been forced down, they called for permission to go outside the gate to investigate. The on-duty flight chief responded and allowed three patrolmen to proceed on foot. The individuals reported seeing a strange glowing object in the forest. The Object was described as being metallic in appearance and triangular in shape, approximately two and three meters across the base and approximately two meters high. It illuminated the entire forest with a white light. The object itself had a pulsing red light on top and a bank(s) of blue lights underneath. The object was hovering or on legs. As the patrolmen approached the object, it manoeuvred though the trees and disappeared. At this time the animals on a nearby farm went into frenzy. The object was briefly sighted approximately an hour later near the back gate.

2. The next day, three depressions 1 1/2" deep and 7" in diameter were found where the object had been sighted on the ground. The following night (29 Dec 80) the area was checked for radiation. Beta/gamma readings of 0.1 milliroentgens were recorded with peak readings in the three depressions and near the center of the triangle formed by the depressions. A nearby tree had moderate (.05 - .07) readings on the side of the tree toward the depressions.

3. Later in the night a red sun-like light was seen though the trees. It moved about and pulsed. At one point it appeared to throw off glowing particles and then broke into five separate white objects and then disappeared. Immediately thereafter, three star-like objects were noticed in the sky, two objects to the north and one to the south, all of which were about 10 degrees off the horizon. The objects moved rapidly in sharp angular movements and displayed red, green and blue lights. The objects to the north appeared to be elliptical through an 8-12 power lens. They then turned to full circles. The objects to the north remained in the sky for an hour or more. The object to the south was visible for two or three hours and beamed down a stream of light from time to time. Numerous individuals, including the undersigned, witnessed the activities in paragraphs 2 and 3.

Charles I. Halt, Lt. Col. USAF

Deputy Base Commander

The USAF and the British Ministry of Defence refused to acknowledge that anything had happened on those nights and still do so, despite the memorandum being acquired through the US Freedom of Information Act in 1983. The incident certainly did not hinder Lt. Col. Halt’s career, as he was promoted to full colonel, was awarded full command of the base in 1984 and eventually retired with honours in 1991.

When Col. Halt’s memo went public, it caused a media sensation, with various newspapers reporting ‘UFO Lands in Suffolk – Official’-type stories.

Despite the strenuous denials of those present, many claimed that what the men saw that night was nothing more than the Orford Ness lighthouse, that the indentations were rabbit scrapings and the increased radiation was normal for an area close to a nuclear power station (although the nearest at Sizewell is about ten miles from RAF Bentwaters).

The men have literally been accused of making up their story or at the very least embellishing an ordinary event.

Did an alien spacecraft land in the pine woods of Suffolk in 1980? Eyewitnesses say that is exactly what happened. Can so many highly-trained servicemen really confuse a distant lighthouse with a red object floating through trees? Can a lighthouse flash laser-like beams at their feet?

No doubt the debate will rage on and on, but for many, the Rendlesham Forest Incident is as important to ufology as Roswell.

© Steve Johnson – 2005

Note:

The complete 18 minutes of Col. Halt’s audio recording can be found here:

http://www.a-galaxy-of-stars.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=getit&lid=2

Thanks to Andrew Fry for allowing me to use his link.