UFO Encounters: Sightings, Visitations, and Investigations – TESTIMONY OF A SCIENTIST

THE ULTIMATE SECRET – TESTIMONY OF A SCIENTIST A remarkable interview occurred in Washington, D.C., on September 15, 1950, but the content did not leak out until the early 1980s, when Canadian ufologist Arthur Bray found a memo by one of the participants, radio engineer Wilbert B. Smith of Canada’s Department of Transport. The memo … Read more

UFO Encounters: Sightings, Visitations, and Investigations – SAUCER, SICKNESS, SECRECY

THE ULTIMATE SECRET – SAUCER, SICKNESS, SECRECY A UFO sighting on the evening of December 29, 1980, changed the lives of three Texans forever—and not for the good. While driving through the southern tip of the east Texas piney woods, north of Houston, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Vickie’s seven-year-old grandson Colby came upon a … Read more

UFO Encounters: Sightings, Visitations, and Investigations – RUMORS OF THE INCREDIBLE

THE ULTIMATE SECRET – RUMORS OF THE INCREDIBLE The stories began to circulate in the late 1940s. They were so fantastic that even those willing to seriously consider the possibility of extraterrestrial visitation responded with incredulity. In fact, no more than a couple of weeks after Kenneth Arnold’s sighting ushered in the UFO age, the … Read more

UFO Encounters, Sightings, Visitations, and Investigations: THE DARK SIDE

THE DARK SIDE While contactees offer a rosy picture of the UFO phenomenon, other, darker visions have obsessed some saucer enthusiasts. In fact, even contactees agree that all is not well. Sinister forces oppose the Space Brothers’ benevolent mission. Some of these are extraterrestrial and others terrestrial, and they work together to thwart the emergence … Read more

UFO Encounters: Sightings, Visitations, and Investigations – TO THE MOON, OTIS!

TO THE MOON, OTIS! To hear him tell it, Otis T. Carr was the smartest man since Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Nikola Tesla. Not only that but Tesla, the great electrical genius and Thomas Edison contemporary, had confided some of his deepest secrets to Carr when the latter worked as a young hotel clerk … Read more

UFO Encounters: Sightings, Visitations, and Investigations – SALVATION FROM SPACE

SALVATION FROM SPACE Every summer contactees—people who believe they have communicated with god¬ like space people—flock to the Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation, held on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie. All these people have remarkable stories to tell: stories of personal transformation that sound like classic religious experiences in Space Age guise. … Read more

UFO Encounters, Sightings, Visitations, and Investigations: SPACESHIP CRASH IN 1884?

SPACESHIP CRASH IN 1884? On June 6, 1884, as a band of cowboys rounded up cattle in remote Dundy County, Nebraska, a blazing object streaked out of the sky and crashed some distance from them, leaving (according to a contemporary newspaper account) “fragments of cog-wheels and other pieces of machinery . . . glowing with … Read more

UFO Encounters, Sightings, Visitations, and Investigations: FROM OUTER SPACE TO YOUR WALLET

FROM OUTER SPACE TO YOUR WALLET Consider the case of George Adamski. Born in Poland in 1891, Adamski came to America in his infancy. He received a spotty education and developed an early interest in occultism. By the 1930s Adamski had established a niche as a low- rent guru in Southern California’s mystical scene. He … Read more

UFO Encounters: Sightings, Visitations, and Investigations – THE STATE DEPARTMENT AND THE YENESIANS

THE STATE DEPARTMENT AND THE YENESIANS George Adamski was one of the most famous—or notorious—figures on the flying-saucer scene from 1952 until his death in 1965. In books and lectures he recounted his meetings with friendly Venusians, Martians, and Saturnians. He also claimed that high government officials—themselves in contact with “Space Brothers”—secretly knew he was … Read more

UFO Encounters, Sightings, Visitations, and Investigations: THE DIRTIEST HOAX OF ALL

INTO THE WILD RLUE – THE DIRTIEST HOAX OF ALL From the beginning the urge to spin yarns proved irresistible to some. Like weeds in saucerdom’s fertile ground, hoaxes, tall tales, rumors, and other silliness sprouted and spread. One of the most notorious—and successful— liars, the late Fred L. Crisman, actually bridged the gap between … Read more