One of the
major themes that runs through the “UFOs
and Government” narrative is the recurring sense of lost opportunities to
engage appropriately with a consistently unexplained phenomena, which if
studied properly could yield fascinating scientific breakthroughs. When the picture presented is of poor
investigation and active debunking with far too little serious in depth
analysis, and yet we have impressive international evidence of a consistent
unexplained phenomenon, there is a vast disconnection from an appropriate
scientific response.
The book “UFOs and Government” alludes to several
lost opportunities to focus on enduring unexplained attributes of the UFO
phenomenon. Unfortunately if your only
insight into the UFO phenomenon was the typical debunking official military
response revealed time and time again by their documents and histories, you
would miss these strange and possibly breakthrough attributes of the UFO
phenomenon.
A striking
example of this is the fascinating 1960 Red Bluff California case where
official attitudes caused a UFO witness, a highway patrol officer, to not initially
describe the “light beam projected by the
object seemed like what would be described today, as a big, fat laser
beam. That is, it did not spread out or
diffuse “properly.” But worse than that, the beam seemed to have an “end" to
it,” wrote Mike Swords. Here was a
remarkable example of what many researchers have called “solid light” in
action. In writing this Dr. Swords
touched upon a critical issue. He
highlighted that Dr. James McDonald did manage to draw out this remarkable
detail, because he was actually interested in what the witnesses reported,
rather than conducting a myopic debunking exercise. Genuine scientific skepticism, driven by a
desire to question and carefully investigate an experience can potentially
yield scientific breakthroughs. We now know that there are many such cases of
“this peculiar sawed-off light” or “solid light.”
Indeed Michael
Sword’s indicated in an endnote in “UFOs and Government” that “sawed-off light”
cases are “a peculiar feature of a
smallish set of “high strangeness” UFO encounters. As these encounters are widely spread across
the world, this feature is suprising and difficult to explain on sociological
grounds.” He indicated he had some 44 cases in his own files.
I had been
studying these sorts of “solid light” cases for decades so I naturally
contacted Mike about his collection.
I emailed Mike
Swords:
“I have been quietly studying for decades this strange
aspect of many worldwide UFO cases and have developed a very disorganised
collection of material on such cases.
“In both "The OZ Files" and "Hair of the
Alien" I refer to solid light cases and describe an Australian case from
Kiama, southern NSW from the early 1970s. I have been looking into the
case since learning of it in the 1990s and earlier this year conducted a very
detailed site investigation to determine if the observations reported by the
primary witness were possible and to see if further information could be found.
The case is rather complicated and also has entity and abduction aspects.
The primary witness has closely guarded his privacy and I have only had
one face to face meeting with him, as well as many phone conversations, written
statements and emails.
“The on site investigations this year took place because the
main witness was more forthcoming with locational details. Some of this
was in my original interview notes and material when we originally talked in
person, however they were not precise enough to undertake an on site
reconstruction. Finally this year these confirmations were forthcoming
and I had sufficient detail to locate the exact viewing locations, lines of
sight, and confirm accurately the Kiama beach location. I stayed there for 2
days gathering information and managed to confirm that his ex parents in law
were still living at the house in question. The ex father in law while
elderly recollected the night, but while he feels he may not remember the event
as the main witness Graham described to me, he is certain that his former
son-in-law would not have invented the story. Bill, the ex-father in law,
recollects that Graham was agitated and focused on the incident, but Bill
cannot recollect that his own involvement was as Graham described it in his
accounts to me.
“Having talked to Graham a number of times over the years I
have found him to be a compelling witness, but one who has struggled mightily
with the ontological status of the events. Indeed he was originally much
more comfortable casting the event as a strange dream. While the recent
investigations seem to caste the stranger aspects as being witnessed by Graham
only with marginal supporting cast in the form of his ex wife and ex father and
mother in law, as well as possibly some neighbours, who may have interpreted
the event in different ways, this seems to be a strange "display"
event, so frequently reported in many CE type cases, particularly those with
high strangeness elements, such as this one. In many of these sorts of
cases there often seems to be selective perceptions of the events, sometimes so
acute that often people near to each other have a very different experience, as
if a central witness is the only intended viewer?
“The ongoing investigation has continued to energise my
interest in solid light cases and I have been attempting to drag all my solid
light cases together with a view to create a catalogue of such cases, building
on the early SOBEPS catalogue of the 1970s.
“I was also intrigued with a UFO film taken by Ray Stanford,
covered in Chris Lambright's recent e-book "X Descending".
Because I had some previous contact with Ray back in the 1970s and early
1980s and talked to him briefly at the 1987 Washington DC MUFON symposium, I
renewed our acquaintance. This lead to some extensive email exchanges in
which he elaborated on the "new film", beyond the "air
spike"/Leik Myrabo connection which Chris has understandably focused on.
“Apart from many other cases I was also drawn towards a
Chinese event I located that occurred in 1998 at a desert Air Force base,
involving a Chinese Air Force F-6 pursuit. The possibly striking
confirmation of Zhao Xu, who is described as a famous Chinese Defence expert in
unmanned aircraft, as one of the various high level witnesses, who mentioned "Surprisingly these two light beams of
light were not as we normally see light beams, as has been according to the
distance and spread, but as two light-emitting entities, sticking out from the
bottom of the UFO ending on a certain length. At least today we have not got
control of this sort of light technology." Radar
detection was also involved. Given this comment was made by a defence
specialist* I suspect some Chinese military science investigation and research
since then.
“Meanwhile open science has been playing with Bose-Einstein
condensates et.al to manipulate light in diverse ways - our crude opening
gambit in a direction that might show us "solid light" effects that
have been reported for decades in a diverse range of international (UFO) case
material. Mainstream science directions in this area have been nicely
summarised with references in Sidney Perkowitz's "Slow Light:
Invisibility, Teleportation, and other mysteries of light" (2011).
“Hence my ongoing deep focus on "solid light"
cases and my long winded way of asking if I can get a copy of your 44
"solid light" case files! A big ask I know, but it would
support an in-depth focus on these cases and perhaps a collaborative workup of
a catalogue of such cases to build on the early and somewhat flawed SOBEPS
catalogue?
“Best wishes in "solid light" anticipation, like don't
keep me in the dark (pun intended),
Bill”
Mike was very helpful and shared his
listing of cases. Indeed he addressed
this research focus in his always interesting blog “The Big Study” - thebiggeststudy.blogspot.com – on
October 19 2012 – with a post entitled” “SLOW LIGHT & UFOs”:
“Bill Chalker wrote the other day. He's
contemplating making a review of so-called "solid light" UFO cases,
and I welcome that. Bill's a hard-science-trained ufologist and might just be
able to make some sense of a real puzzlement in this field. He asked me if I'd
scour my files for such cases [since I'd foolishly admitted to having around 44
of such things], and so I did, making a list for him to pursue and build his
analysis more robustly [Bill already had a bigger bunch than that].”
Mike further stated, “In my understanding the term "solid
light" came from witness testimony--- the light beam seemed
"solid"; it was as if the beam extended like a solid tube, etc. This
phrase stuck but is probably a bad one. The light effects that we're witnessing
in these cases behave not like solids but like "regular" light which
is abnormally "contained" somehow. Things don't seem to be
"impacted" by these beams, only illuminated by them. The things [generally]
seem to be more like spatially-constrained lasers [admittedly of wide diameter]
than anything solid, and might well be more like tubes [i.e. hollow] than
"full" beams.”
I recommend readers read Mike Swords
valuable post on this fascinating group of cases.
I’ve included the core details of the
catalyst for this re-invigorated enquiry into “solid light” cases.
BIZZARE UFO "LIGHT" PHENOMENA
AT KIAMA
…. I was approached by a man who was
troubled by a bizarre episode on the south coast at Kiama, in the early 1970s…. The reporting witness, who I will call
Graham, has pondered the nature of what occurred. He is troubled by it and now feels more
comfortable with it being a dream. The
fragmentary nature of the events and the strange elements of the experience
beckon this interpretation. But there
are startling aspects that fit in with some extraordinary characteristics of
the UFO phenomenon. I have spoken to
Graham on a number of occasions and meet him directly for an extended
interview. I found him to be a compelling
witness who is grappling with the ontological issues that striking episodes
often force us to confront. I have
quoted from his own prepared statement:
"Awoken
by a light coming into the room, I was too drowsy to do anything about it, I
wanted to sleep. It came to mind that
the only way light could come into the window was a light was being shone at
it. I thought it may be an intruder so I
forced myself awake, to step over the baby and my two year old daughter
sleeping on the floor beside me. When I
got to the window I could see nothing unusual outside. Thinking it must have been a dream because I
had remarked on the endless stream of car headlights winding their way along
the old highway towards Sydney. I laid
down again and fell quickly asleep. Again the light came into the room. This time I jumped up quickly, wide awake
again, there was nothing unusual outside.
Suddenly I saw a light beam white in colour with a blue fluorescent
tinge evaporating from it. Because of
the luminescence of the light I was able to make out the shape of a flying
craft from which the beam projected at an angle to the ground of about 75o.
"The
beam was about 30 feet long and about 2 feet six inches diameter, given the
craft was between the headland I was on and the next headland. Suddenly the beam, still only 30 feet long
fell, like a perfect cylinder of solid light.
It did not fall in the direction of gravity, it continued along the path
of its own axis. The cylinder of solid
light hit a caravan. Upon impact the light
behaved like water, pouring over the caravan, over its roof, over its walls,
over every nook and cranny of the van.
Like fluorescent paint from an electro, airless spray gun. The caravan illuminated completely for about
three seconds then the light faded away.
My attention was on the light. I
could not see the craft any more.
"I
rubbed my eyes and looked for the craft.
It appeared slightly to the left of its original position with another
beam of light, descending from it at a very slow speed; say about only 3 feet
per second. When the beam reached a
given length, longer than the first time, it began falling as before. This time it hit an amenities block and the
light covered its surfaces completely illuminating it in the same way as the
caravan. Again the light faded
away.
"From
the same location, the craft let another beam go at an angle of about 45o
to the ground level line. The beam was
much longer than before. It reached the
beach and illuminated approximately an area of sand forty feet at its
widest. Inside the lighted area were two
men standing motionless looking up at the craft. A young woman jumped up from sitting near a
small beach fire and ran to stand with the two men. A second young woman was running backwards
trying to brush the light off her arms and body. Then she too stood separate to the other
three and also stared up at the craft.
The light suddenly went out and I looked for the people. Has it taken the people I thought. Where as I was marvelling at the craft and
light before, I now became angry, thinking it has terrorised that woman. It was not a good thing as I first
thought. Now I could see the fire dimly
glowing. I looked this way and that to
see if any of the people walked in front of the fire, to prove they were still
there. I fell asleep on my feet. When I awoke I was standing on the other side
of the window, one hand on the window.
"I
looked outside the window only feet away.
The craft hovered over the street in front of the house. It manoeuvred very close to the window. I was impressed that it looked like a
spaceship. It had no helicopter noises
or blades. It did not force itself off
the ground. There was no blowing of the
small trees. It was not a hovercraft,
and it had no wings like a plane. The metallic
material it was made of appeared as though it was unpolished Zinc alloy. It had no seams, no rivets, no weld marks, no
plates visible. It was as if it was made
from one piece of metal about 40 feet wide and 10 feet high, which began to
spin in one direction, then it stopped and spun for a shorter time in the
opposite direction. Then it stopped
spinning, hovering in a steady position above the skyline. There were no thoughts it belonged to the
western world. That it was a secret
craft, that got into difficulty. That I
wasn't meant to see. I blacked out.
"When
I came to, the craft was still opposite my window. I thought why was I meant to see that it had
no welds or seams, it seemed to want to show me that. I looked at a window shape about six feet
wide and two feet six inches high with carved corners. The metallic window shield suddenly
disappeared and I could see inside the craft.
I saw no fittings. It had flat
vertical off white walls. I felt very
peaciful. A man walked into the room of the
craft and stood in front of the window.
As he walked in he was looking at a flat object he was holding in his
hands, like a clip board but thicker. He
began to move his arms as though he was working on something at bench height
below the window. Totally absorbed, he
worked away. I felt completely
safe. Another man then entered the room
looking at the other man and what he was doing.
He stood also facing me looking at the bench and pointing like without
words he was helping the other fix something.
"They
had bright silver one piece suits like thin wetsuits on, with no badges or
markings. They carried no weapons or
tools. The craft had no fittings or
anything that looked like a weapon, so I felt safe. And besides, they didn't know I was watching
them. With that thought the last one to
enter the room smiled at the other, then they both smiled directly at me. I had physical fright, my hair stood on end
literally and I knew what it meant to be really scared. I dropped to the floor and said, "Everybody
keep down. Stay out of the light."
I knew that in the light they could control my thinking to feel and
think peacefully. Suddenly great noise
and severe vibration of the house took place.
The laundry light went dim, the fridge began jumping about and there was
great noise above the roof. The washing
machine was bumping about also. I said,
"Quickly get under the doorways, the house is going to fall." It was like the craft overhead sucked the
electricity out of the house, then took off.
"Bill
shouted out, "Shit, what was that?
It took the bloody roof off."
I said, "It was a UFO."
Somebody said what, again I said, it was a UFO. Bill said, "Yes I saw it as it took the
roof off." Bill was trying to
comprehend how come the roof was still there.
"Gordon
__ living behind came out to his back
door and said very explicitly, "What the ...... was that? I thought it took the roof off." He too was greatly concerned with checking
out his roof, reassuring himself it was still there. The lady next door on the seaward side opened
a window and said, "Where did it crash?
Do we have to get out?" She
became very angry saying again, "Do we have to get out?" No you're safe. It's gone.
Relieved, she said, "I am alone with the children tonight, that
bloody pilot should be shot for that."
It was unusual to hear people who I had never heard swear before,
swearing.
"Bill
and Gordon were saying it was a UFO.
Suddenly, __, Bill's wife began to try and quieten everyone down and get
us all inside. We decided that I should
phone the Nowra base. I spoke to the
duty officer. He said he was the only
one on duty. He asked me if I saw any
orange lights. I said,
"Yes." He then quickly said it
was a weather balloon you saw, it was let go at such and such a time from Jambaroo,
it didn't inflate properly and other people reported seeing it as an orange
light over Kiama. In my mind I thought,
he knows what it was, it must be secret.
I've done my duty reporting it, so that was that.
"The
next day (our wives) said two men in dark suits with ID tags came to the door
asking did any one see anything unusual last night. Frightened by the men, they said no and the
men went on. (Our wives) warned me not
to speak about it, they were very frightened that something would happen to me
if I spoke up and also it would make us a laughing stock in the community. The plan was we would forget it, not talk
about it, even to one another. So it
would be distanced from our lives.
"Bill
was reading the paper some days later and said an expensive Navy helicopter
flew from Jambaroo over Kiama. It lost
its electronics and crashed forty kilometres out to sea off Kiama. The navy was reported to be trying to recover
it to find out what happened. The crew
were rescued. I said, "Yeh, I know
about losing power, the same thing happened to the helicopter as what happened
to the fridge and the laundry light. The
UFO took its electricity." Nothing
was said further. We ignored the
event. What I saw holds future
understanding for me, if it was a dream I believe. Possibly it was an active imagination, a
dream and actual occurrences combined."
This strange affair has several defined
stages, but the evident discontinuities in awareness, argue both for a surreal,
dream like quality and also reflect the paradoxical reality of some of the
stranger elements of the UFO phenomenon.
The extraordinary behaviour of the "light beams" behaving as
both "solid" and "liquid" has been reported elsewhere in
Australia and overseas. The apparent
display quality to episodes in the incident is reflected in many cases. There seems to have been a number of gaps in
the time sequence. The apparent plight
of the people on the beach is provocative, and one I am trying to unravel. This is clearly a case that would benefit
from further in depth enquiry.
Fortunately the original witness to the
Kiama case re-contacted me. He has been
very difficult to relocate after my original interviews with him. He is still very guarded about his privacy
and protecting the welfare of his family.
However we were able to have some very extensive discussions and a
detailed interview where I was able to
locate the events much more precisely in the Kiama area and secure more details
about the incident.
He confirmed an aspect I had long suspected
as part of the experience, which he only original hinted at in the vaguest
possible way. He has an abduction recollection that was consciously recollected at the
time, but he was extremely reluctant to share these details during our
original discussions years ago.
He recollects sitting in a curved hallway
in a strange environment. He heard a
voice and turned to find a woman. She
asked him, “Do you remember what happened in there?” “No,” he replied. “Do you?" he asked.
“Put it this way, I won’t be telling my husband.”
He doesn’t recollect much more, or he
volunteered little further detail about this aspect of the Kiama
encounter. However he did say he started
to frequent some UFO group meetings with the express purpose of seeing if he
could find the woman he had encountered in the Kiama experience. At one meeting he saw a woman who looked like
the woman encountered in the “strange environment”, presumably onboard the
UFO. When he started to talk to her he
felt she was not the right person and did not persist with the conversation.
I described some of the results of my 2012 field investigations in the
Kiama area in my email to Mike Swords quoted above. I hope that further research and
investigation will continue to assist the evaluation of this strange case. It will be fascinating if the ongoing enquiries
further validate the affair. "Solid light" cases represent
an intriguing and challenging opportunity to research a potential
"breakthrough" aspect of the UFO phenomenon.
If we can get to the bottom of such extraordinary manipulations of light and other associated UFO light phenomena, then real progress in a UFO science can be made.
Maybe mainstream science is slowly catching up. New Scientist has done a few reports on "tractor beam" development following the Bessel beam principle, including this one:
An earlier New Scientist piece (3 March 2011) highlighted the Chinese connection: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20193-treklike-tractor-beam-is-possible.html
Now Jun Chen of Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and colleagues, have shown that it is possible to create exotic beams that would pull rather than push on an object. For tiny particles with dimensions of a thousandth of a millimetre or so, this would result in the particle being drawn back towards the beam.
If we can get to the bottom of such extraordinary manipulations of light and other associated UFO light phenomena, then real progress in a UFO science can be made.
Maybe mainstream science is slowly catching up. New Scientist has done a few reports on "tractor beam" development following the Bessel beam principle, including this one:
which
was accompanied by this Russell Tate/Getty Imagest image:
(This image accompanied the March 2011 New Scientist article)
Hmm ... I wonder what inspired them? Perhaps the Zhao Xu and General Li 1998 UFO observation?
The wider worldwide picture of “solid
light” type cases appear to suggest that such events are a valid part of the UFO
phenomenon. I look forward to
contributing to the elaboration of our understanding of this fascinating aspect
of the UFO mystery.
If you have information about any cases of
this type please contact me via billozfiles@tpg.com.au
or P.O. Box 42 West Pennant Hills, NSW, 2125, Australia.
