Cases #16-20 in the log are from 1956. There are several things of interest. Lakewood CA is a rare thing in UFOlogy with completely independent witnesses, and thereby solid UFOlogy. But it's CE2p element is of the most mundane sort---temporary blindness due to the brightness of the source. The object was a red roundish thing with "feelers" hanging down from its edge. People in different locations saw it. There is the controversial Night Watchman case, wherein he attempted to get compensation for injury by the craft [and I think did]. At Clackamas OR two policemen saw a bright light which blinded one of them. My favorite is the Gjersonjoen Denmark encounter wherein we have a "stalker" which blocks the road. Witnesses feel "prickling" on faces and subsequently cannot stomach food. The event seems to have both stopped a watch and altered the paint color of the car.
Cases #21-25 bring us to the beginning of 1957. I cannot with intellectual honesty claim any great cases here. Four of the five cases are "animal effects" cases, mostly affecting dogs. I must mention, though, that two of these five come from someone whom I view as a special person. This is L.Taylor Hansen. She [this is a lady despite what some people have thought] was a rather brilliant writer of science columns, and columns about esoteric archaeological knowledge for AMAZING STORIES magazine in the thirties and forties. Her stuff is, to me, very good and challenging. She, in the mid-fifties, became interested in the UFO phenomenon, particularly through some incidents that she herself or relatives or friends had witnessed. Because my experience of her writing gives me confidence in her as an honest scholar/researcher I trust the three cases she published---two of which had CE2p elements and are noted here. But, despite being biased by her lovely mind, I cannot say that any of these five CE2ps is worth shouting about.
Cases #26-30 [the last for today] bring us up to the "Great CE2em Incision" of [mainly] early November 1957. More of this will come with the next page entry whenever I get it up. This set of five has some mind-bogglers and one great case. Milford PA is a CE3 old-style, with an occupant in a transparent dome. I have it in my CE2p file for the exact opposite reason that things should be there. Although the 20-foot diameter, whirring along as it went, came very close to the farm's chicken coop, the poultry showed NO RESPONSE to the thing at all. This was viewed by the witness as utterly impossible. We have another "stalker" case causing eye irritation, which my hunch is a good one; and another "paralysis" case, which is also probably quite stronger than the "3" that my file can give it.
The great case is the James Stokes case of Orogrande NM happening in the wake of Levelland. This is a vehicle-stop and a "sunburn". In fact it is probably the Case which inspired the Roy Neary sunburn in Spielberg's movie. But the greatness of the case comes from its smooth sequence of reporting, witnessing-of-Stokes' "burn", and "testing/quizzing" by the military. In fact, I've rarely been so impressed as to how this story fits together [from the seeing of Stokes by the Lorenzens, the local newswriter, the base personnel, the AF investigator who tries to write him off, etc right down the line]. I give Orogrande a "5" but am tempted to a "6".
Far wilder and more difficult to grasp is the famous Fort Itaipu case from Brazil. A spectacular blasting of the Fort with heat waves causing hospitalizable burns to the guards and heavy electromagnetic effects to base equipment. This case makes almost all the books writing about the wild and wooly side of UFOlogy. I grudgingly go along with its hyped image, just due to the weight of writers before me [most of whom would give it higher rates than my "4".] Why do I hesitate on this one??
My view of Brazilian UFOlogy is that it had a terrifically good and interesting early period, due to the combination of the three great researchers [Simoes, Faria, &Perriera] plus the interest of a few key personnel in the Brazilian Air Force. We lucked out then, and the foundationstone cases of Isla Trindade and Gravatai AFB were revealed. At the latter stages of that period, a young MD met the big three and began his legendary UFO career---Olavo Fontes. The big three always wondered about Fontes [he seemed a bit "enthusiastic" for their harder analytical tastes], but they liked him personally.
After these early "solid" UFOlogical years, the big three got out of the game, leaving Brazil to Fontes and much worse, like fiction-writing newsmen and the standards-less Walter Buhler. From that point forward, I have really no way of assessing the goodness of anything which came out of that area of the world. MANY times cases have been shown to have been just made up there, or heavily embellished. Without better confidence in the investigators and the sources, I can't rate anything very highly. Ft.Itaipu is just on the cusp of my failed confidence---so I give it some nervous benefit of the doubt.
Until we meet again....may all your encounters be pleasant ones.
"My view of Brazilian UFOlogy is that it had a terrifically good and interesting early period"
ReplyDeleteHow about the Antonio Villa Boas case that happened at early period of Brazil UFOLOGY ? There's pretty complete reference on AVB case in FSR including interviews.
I do not find the AVB case to be researched in a way which gives me similar confidence as the research done on the Hills case, for instance. If I can not personally gain the same level of confidence in the credibility area, then I {whether the case is solidly real or not to some people's knowledge] cannot rate it very high. This is the problem that I have with many worldwide cases where I have no good means of assessing credibility.
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