In this mind-stretching book, the authors sample UFO reports—including those allegedly involving humanoids—and describe the patterns that have been perceived in the behavior of the phenomenon.

They also establish a framework for the further study of the UFO phenomenon. Where might such study lead? What can be studied, and how? What is the real nature of the UFO phenomenon? Does it originate with the actions of other intelligences in the universe? Does the UFO phenomenon have a purely physical explanation, or is there a vaster, hidden realm that holds the solution?

J. Allen Hynek is Professor of Astronomy at Northwestern University. For years, he was astronomical consultant to the U.S. Air Force. Over the years, as Dr. Hynek focused on the UFO reports that appeared unsolvable, he began to believe that there is something most unusual going on.

Jacques Vallee is the author of several classic UFO books. After obtaining his doctorate in computer sciences from Northwestern University, he joined the Computer Laboratory at Stanford University.

The Sightings in New Guinea and the Worldwide Efforts to Understand UFOs

They Just Waved Back at Us . . .”

The public expects a constant supply of exciting stories from the press and the media. Sightings of UFOs are caught in this cycle of social excitement; new cases appear, occasionally become front-page material overnight, and are dropped forever a few days later. Yet for those who do research in this area, some of the older cases remain just as exciting as the hot news of today. The sightings at Boianai, New Guinea, made in 1959, retain all their mystery after many investigations and many attempts at explanation. The case is exceptional in the quality of the witnesses, the number and clarity of the descriptions, and the “communication” it implies between human witnesses and the occupants of a UFO. Let us quote from the account published by Reverend Norman Cruttwell of one of the early sightings in the series1:

The Sighting at Boianai

Boianai is a village on a small tongue of land made by the Mase River where it flows out of a deep gorge of the Owen Stanleys. It is on the south side of Goodenough Bay, some twenty miles across from Menapi. About four miles behind it the mountains rise sheer to culminate in two peaks which overhang the gorge on either side, Mount Nuanua and Mount Pudi. They are about 4,000 feet high. Behind them rise ridge upon ridge, up to Mount Simpson, nearly 10,000 feet, which caps the range.

Right on the beach is the Mission Station of All Saints, Boianai, with a coral cement church and various mission buildings. It faces northwards, the beach running northwest to southeast. It looks across to the low hills of Giwa and Menapi on the Cape Vogel Peninsula.

The Missionary-in-Charge, Rev. William Booth Gill, is an old friend of mine. He came out to Papua with me in 1946, and I know him very well. On April 9, 1959, he was on his little 16-foot launch about a mile off shore, coming home from visiting an outstation. It was 6:50 P.M., and just about dark. The weather was clear overhead, but there were clouds and rain squalls about. The mountains were a dark silhouette against the still glowing sky.

He suddenly noticed a bright white light “like a Tilley lamp,” apparently high up on the flank of Mount Pudi, not far from the summit. He estimates that the light was about 500 feet from the top. It was quite stationary, and he immediately thought, “Oh, there must be someone up there with a Tilley lamp.” The Papuans with him all noticed the light. He was puzzled about the light, but not unduly so, and looked away, continuing to read his book. Five minutes later he looked up again, but the mountain was in darkness. The light had disappeared. This again seemed odd, but he took no notice, and went on reading. After another five minutes he was aware of the light again, shining out from the mountainside, but to his surprise it was shining from a completely new position on the opposite side of the mountain. It had moved a good mile to the east, quite impossible if a man had been carrying it.

However, Father Gill did not realize the significance of what he had seen, and looked away again. Next time he looked back, the light had gone, and did not reappear. The next morning he examined the mountain by daylight, and realized that there was no house or village or even any track up there, but only the precipitous mountainside. It was not until he got a letter from me about the later sighting from Giwa that it occurred to him that it might have been a UFO.

Father Gill was again a witness in a later observation that took place on June 26, 1959. This time there were thirty-eight witnesses in all, and their descriptions of the UFO and its occupants have become classic. Following is an extract from a report of the event by Rev. Cruttwell:

Father Gill had just had his dinner and came out of the front door of the Mission House. There is a small patch of lawn, a few trees, including coconut palms, and then a drop of perhaps fifty feet to the shingle beach below.

He casually glanced at the sky and looked for Venus, which was conspicuous at the time. In his own words: “I saw Venus, but I also saw this sparkling object which to me was peculiar because it sparkled, and because it was very, very bright, and it was above Venus and so that caused me to watch it for a while, then I saw it descend towards us.”

Stephen Gill Moi [a native teacher in the mission], who joined Father Gill a few minutes later, described it as “shining with a bright white light, like a Tilley lamp.” Ananias [a native worker] used exactly the same expression. Stephen remarks that it appeared to wax and wane in brightness, as though it were approaching and receding. Eventually it came quite close and hovered at a height which Father Gill estimated between 300 and 400 feet, though he admits that it was very hard to judge the altitude at night, not knowing the size of the object. He estimates its apparent diameter as about five inches at arm’s length. Stephen said that if he put his hand out closed it would cover about half of it.

Father Gill states that it changed from a brilliant white light, when it was far off, to a dull yellow, or perhaps pale orange, when it was close. When asked whether he thought it was metallic, he answered: “Well, it appeared solid, certainly not transparent or porous; we just assume that it was metallic from our experience of things that travel and carry men.”

All witnesses agree that it was circular, that it had a wide base and a narrower upper deck, that it had a type of legs beneath it, that it produced at times a shaft of blue light which shone upwards into the sky at an angle of about forty-five degrees and that four “human figures” appeared on top.

Two of the witnesses state that they saw about four portholes or windows in the side, which they have indicated in their drawings. These are not indicated in Father Gill’s drawing. Commenting on this he said: “I saw what appeared to be panels in the side of the object which glowed somewhat brighter than the rest, but I did not interpret them as portholes. I did not indicate them in my rough drawing.”

Discussing the appearance of the object and its occupants, the report by Rev. Cruttwell goes on: There was a certain discrepancy in the witnesses’ estimate of the number of legs, though all agreed that they were in two groups. Father Gill is emphatic that there were four legs, tapering, two at each end, somewhat divergent.

I have reproduced Father Gill’s drawing and the drawings of three of the witnesses for comparison (Figure 13) together with my own composite drawing (Figure 14) which appears to embody the true appearance of the object from the description of the witnesses.

Here are Father Gill’s comments on the “men”:

“As we watched it [the object] men came out from this object, and appeared on the top of it, on what seemed to be a deck on top of the huge disc. There were four men in all, occasionally two, then one, then three, then four; we noted the various times the men appeared. And then later on all those witnesses who were quite sure that our records were right, and that they agreed with them, and saw the men at the same time as I did—were able to sign their names as witnesses of what we assume to be human activity or beings of some sort on the object itself.

Another peculiar thing was this shaft of blue light, which emanated from what appeared to be the center of the deck. The men appeared to be illuminated not only by this light reflected on them, but also by a sort of glow which completely surrounded them as well as the craft. The glow did not touch them, but there appeared to be a little space between their outline and the light. I have tried to indicate this in the drawing. They seemed to be illuminated in two ways: (a) by reflected light, as men seen working high up on a building at night caught by the glare of an oxy-acetylene torch, and (b) by this curious halo which outlined them, following every contour of their figures and yet did not touch them. In fact they seemed to be illuminated themselves in the same way as the machine was.”

This is indicated in Father Gill’s diagram. When asked whether he thought they were wearing space suits he replied, “I couldn’t say. It may be so; that would seem to be a possible explanation of the double outline, but I could not see any such suits.”

I asked him whether he could see any details, such as the color of their skins. He replied that they were too far away to see such details, but that he would say they were probably pale. As for the details of their bodies, all he could be sure of was that they had the outline of normal human beings from the waist up. Their legs were hidden by the sides of the craft. If wearing clothes, they were very tight fitting.

The Second Night

The object came back the next evening and repeated its performance. An American astronomer, Dr. Menzel, has claimed that the object all the witnesses were excitedly watching was the planet Venus!

This hypothesis can be rejected on astronomical grounds, let alone others. On June 27, the sun set, local time, at 6:15 P.M.; hence the sky would still be quite bright at 6:02 P.M., when, according to Father Gill’s notes, he was alerted to come see an object sufficiently prominent in the sky to cause consternation among the natives. Venus simply would not have been that prominent in a still blue sky.6:02 P.M., when, according to Father Gill’s notes, he was alerted to come see an object sufficiently prominent in the sky to cause consternation among the natives. Venus simply would not have been that prominent in a still blue sky.

Reverend Cruttwell, who is familiar with the mountainous terrain at Boianai, independently confirms this:

At six o’clock the sun would have only just gone behind the mountains, and the sky would have still been bright until half-past six. It would not have been really dark until at least 6:45 P.M. This rules out any possibility of the object having been a planet, such as Venus, which would not have been at all bright at such an early hour. Here is Father Gill’s report of the happenings of Saturday, June 27:

“A large UFO was first sighted by Annie Laurie Borewa, a Papuan medical assistant, in apparently the same position as last night. The time was about six o’clock.”

She called Father Gill, who came out at about 6:02 P.M., and saw the object for himself. It had the same appearance as last night’s object, but seemed a little smaller, probably due to increased distance. Father Gill continues:

“I called Ananias and several others, and we stood in the open to watch. Although the sun had set behind the mountain, it was quite light for the following fifteen minutes. We watched figures appear on top—four of them—there is no doubt that they were human. This is possibly the same object that I took to be the ‘mother ship’ last night. Two smaller UFOs were seen at the same time, stationary, one above the hills, west, and another overhead.

“On the large one, two of the figures seemed to be doing something near the centre of the deck—they were occasionally bending over and raising their arms as though adjusting or ‘setting up’ something not visible. One figure seemed to be standing, looking down at us (a group of about a dozen).”

Father Gill, describing this later to Rev. Cruttwell, told him that the “man” was standing with his hands on the “rail” looking over, “just as one will look over the rails of a ship.” Father Gill’s report continues:

“I stretched my arm above my head and waved. To our surprise the figure did the same. Ananias waved both arms over his head, then the two outside figures did the same. Ananias and self began waving our arms and all four seemed to wave back. There seemed to be no doubt that our movements were answered. All the mission boys made audible gasps (of either joy or surprise, perhaps both).

“As dark was beginning to close in, I sent Kodawa for a torch and directed a series of long dashes towards the UFO. After a minute or two of this, the UFO apparently acknowledged by making several wavering motions back and forth (in a side-direction, like a pendulum).

“Waving by us was repeated, and this was followed by more flashes of the torch, then the UFO began slowly to become bigger, apparently coming in our direction. It ceased after perhaps half a minute and came no further.

“After a further two or three minutes the figures apparently lost interest in us, for they disappeared below deck."

“At 6:25 P.M. two figures reappeared to carry on with whatever they were doing before the interruption. The blue spotlight came on for a few seconds, twice in succession.”

The Repeaters

The Father Gill case raises a new kind of problem. The UFO phenomenon appears to be worldwide in scope, appearing preferentially first in one area of the world and then in another. How can we explain the fact that some areas, at certain times, are specially “favored” by an abundance of sightings? This constituted a topic of recent discussion during a two-day “brainstorming” session at the home of Jacques Vallee, in which Dr. Arthur Hastings again participated.

HASTINGS: Is there any reliable sort of evidence that for some sightings, at least, the UFOs have displayed intentionality?

VALLEE: There are situations that can be interpreted as intentionality on the part of the UFOs, especially in cases where they seem to manifest repeatedly with respect to persons and with respect to places. There are people and areas (like Boianai) that seem to be “repeaters.” But, in some cases, there are also recurrent events, leaving ground traces, even when there are no people around to watch the objects themselves.

HYNEK: The repeaters and the “hot areas” are not just statistical fluctuation; it’s way, way beyond that. That is, one naturally expects some bunching, some deviation from strict uniform distribution, but the observed repeating or bunching is definitely beyond the bounds of chance. And that’s another fact we will have to explain.

HASTINGS: How could you analyze the New Guinea case and other close-encounter cases scientifically?

HYNEK: That’s one of the questions: Is it a scientific problem? Can it be approached scientifically? Certainly the UFO itself can’t be brought into the laboratory. True, photographs can be analyzed, ground samples can be analyzed, tree branches can be looked at in biological labs, and we can see whether or not we can grow things in the soil. Also, the radar traces and photos can be analyzed. To some limited extent the subject has been brought into the laboratory. There are certain aspects that can be brought in. Now one can say that if UFOs were a perfectly natural phenomenon, such as, let us say, the northern lights, or even ball lightning (which is pretty mysterious, but no physicist would regard it as anything but natural), it certainly could be studied scientifically. Then science has a certain approach: gathering data, analyzing it according to well-known principles, formulating some hypothesis about it. If, however, you are dealing with a phenomenon that is intelligently controlled, as the objects in New Guinea seemed to be, then the ordinary methods, the kitchen-tested methods of science don’t quite apply, because you have a game-theory aspect coming into it. As Peter Ustinov said in that play, “You mean they know that we know that they know that we know?” It becomes an interplay of wills, and so you have to apply a somewhat different method. Now then, if it is that, one must be on the lookout for more complications. You have to look out for the fact that deception may be practiced. Is there any evidence that would lead us to think that it’s a feint, that they do one thing but mean something else? There are some elements of this in the Father Gill case.

HASTINGS: Let’s follow that up for a moment. What sort of things suggest that there’s some kind of a deception or there’s some gamesmanship going on?

A Festival of Absurdities

HYNEK: Well, all right. I’ll have Jacques follow up on this, but one fact is apparent, what Aimé Michel calls “the Festival of Absurdities,” the things seem to make so little sense to us! Why would they frighten animals, stop cars, douse headlights, unless it is a purely secondary effect and it wasn’t intentional? Why did they just wave casually to Father Gill?

VALLEE: Another example of this fact is that, in many cases of UFOs on the ground, the witness seems to be there precisely at the right moment when the UFO is on the road being repaired. There are many cases on record where people driving suddenly find a UFO on the road, with occupants pretending to be repairing it—which makes no sense at all. First, why would it be on the road? The best explanation we have thought of so far is that somebody is systematically exposing human witnesses to certain scenes, carefully designed to convey certain images.

HYNEK: That’s something important.

VALLEE: The naive UFO investigators say that’s evidence that we are being visited. According to them, these space beings come here in their craft and they have to repair their equipment! They come here, and we can see them breaking branches and picking up stones. That’s evidence, according to these people, that we’re being visited by space explorers, because when we go to the moon we pick up stones too, and we bring them back, and now they do the same thing. But why would they be doing it again, and again, and again? For twenty-five years!

HYNEK: Perhaps they are trying to tell us something symbolically; on the other hand, if they are so smart, why don’t they tell it to us directly? Why didn’t they land in Boianai? Maybe it isn’t transmittable in terms of language. They seem to give you a little bit of an idea and then give you reasons against it or give you something contrary, to change your belief structure.

VALLEE: The inoculation technique?

HYNEK: The inoculation technique. So maybe this is cosmic inoculation.

HASTINGS: If people believe they are overhearing something inadvertently, they are more likely to believe that information and accept it than if a person is telling them the same thing directly. If you come up on someone on the highway, with the hood of his car up, you’re more likely to pick him up than if he is just standing there holding up a thumb. So, one of the aspects of a scientific study really depends upon how you can interpret what you think you study. The hypothesis very subtly influences the method. The only way you can avoid that is by not becoming too attached to how you see what you see. You accept it within brackets, perhaps.

VALLEE: One point to bring up is that the appearance of UFOs has been verified in all countries, and that different cultures react differently. We have discussed New Guinea, but I think we should also say something about UFOs in China. People traveling in Red China are asked by Chinese people whether UFOs are just a Chinese phenomenon! I know a man from Hong Kong who has traveled widely in Red China, and he confirms that they have waves of UFO sightings there. I have it also from another man, an Australian businessman, that even in very, very small communes in the south of China where they don’t even know what’s going on in Peking, people have come up to him and said, “What are those things we see in the sky? Do you see them in other parts of the world too? Or is it just us?” The same thing in the Soviet Union. I spent several weeks there, spoke to people, and found they had as much of an awareness of UFOs as we do in this country. It isn’t an awareness through Keyhoe’s or Menzel’s books; it’s an awareness of things that are personally heard, from people they know who have seen the objects, although there is no center in Russia where people are instructed to report this. They would not call the newspapers or the police or anything like that, but they are aware of it. The different cultures reacted differently to this. The French started scientific investigations very early; in 1961 I was involved in the creation of a private group for the investigation of UFOs. It was not seeking support or funding but was simply a loose network of scientists spending their personal time and money on investigation. That can be done on a French scale because France is a small country. With ten people who know what they are doing you can get all the important information; you can do a lot of good investigative work, covering the French territory. In the U.S. ten people couldn’t even cover California! There are different cultural reactions to something that is essentially the same phenomenon.

HYNEK: This hits me more than anything else—this Chinese peasant asking the traveler, “Do you see these things in your country too?” That really is strong.

Hynek Goes to New Guinea

VALLEE: Do you want to talk about anything from your travels in New Guinea, when you investigated the Father Gill Case? What was it like to be there?

HYNEK: I did find Annie Laurie, who had been among the witnesses. I met with her through an interpreter, and I found four or five other witnesses from the Father Gill case—Ananias, Dulcie . . . . They showed me how the UFO approached and where they looked and so forth.

HASTINGS: What made you decide to make a special trip?

HYNEK: Two reasons. First, it is really one of the great “classics” in UFO history. And second, I had had a long correspondence with Donald Menzel, who thought he could explain the sightings by natural causes, and I wanted to check his theories.

HASTINGS: Where were you coming from?

HYNEK: I took a little trip from Port Moresby to Rabaraba and then from there this little inboard boat took me over to Boianai, and there wasn’t a port or anything there, just beach. There are no white men there anymore—just Blacks. I had Father Cruttwell with me. It was a funny thing as we got there, all these natives on the shoreline looking at me and I at them. Finally they got one outrigger out and that didn’t work, so about fifteen minutes later they got a larger outrigger out, but that couldn’t make shore, so finally they carried me in bodily. The only thing was that the natives were quite suspicious; they thought I was an official police officer of some sort! At first they didn’t want to talk; they thought they were going to get in trouble by it. Cruttwell finally got them to talk to me.

One of the things that Menzel suggests with the Father Gill case was that, well, after all, he was the “Great White Father” and these natives would do anything he said. When I told that to Father Gill, he just laughed! He explained that the reason he was sent there was that the mission had fallen into a bit of trouble—there was rebellion on the part of the natives and the last thing the natives were willing to do was to believe anything that the White Father said to them! They were in open rebellion. “How could Menzel say that?” he asked.

VALLEE: Who is their national authority? Local authority?

HYNEK: Well, now it’s undoubtedly the black priest, but. . . .

VALLEE: They have a native priest?

HYNEK: Yes, Anglican. He’s a product of the mission.

VALLEE: Do they have something like local sorcery or something equivalent?

HYNEK: Yes, they most certainly do, because I learned about some special stones that Father Cruttwell told me were evil stones; they are used in instances where in another culture they would get maybe voodoo dolls and stick pins in. Anyhow, these stones have some magic property and you either pray to them or think about a person or touch a person with it.

VALLEE: After they saw the thing and waved at the men on the deck of that big craft, since Father Gill didn’t have any explanation, did they go to a local sorcerer or wizard of some kind to get an interpretation?

HYNEK: I don’t know. At that point they may very well have, because if there’s one thing the Anglican Church has been trying to stamp out it is the medicine man’s power.

When Father Gill described it, I said, “How is it possible that you were able to go in to dinner when that kind of thing was still going on?” He said, “It was no stranger to me than if the Air Force had been demonstrating a new type of device. I thought it was some new device of the Americans.” It was interesting; odd, but he had the same reaction I had when I photographed my UFO.2

Here I was, in a commercial aircraft at 33,000 feet, suddenly seeing a strange object that I could not immediately identify. Oddly enough, I didn’t think of it as a “UFO.” I had my camera in my bag, under the forward seat, and I thought, “Here is a good chance to practice in case I ever see a UFO!” And so I tore out the camera, focused, and shot two pictures, and timed myself. Even though it appeared strange, I never thought of it at the moment as anything but man-made—perhaps a new test device of some sort. I didn’t pause to ask myself, “What’s it doing up here at 33,000 feet?” The fact that it was seen in bright daylight prevented much of any feeling of mystery. Naturally, I wondered what it was, but that it might be a truly alien object just didn’t occur to me at the time. It wasn’t until later that I said to myself, “Well, gee, I can’t explain this thing!” Father Gill had that same reaction. It was an interesting thing, maybe some new American device!

The Progress of Research

HASTINGS: Given what you said about UFO observations worldwide, and interest in the subject in Western Europe, China, and Russia, what can you say about the progress of research in other countries?

VALLEE: I think few people realize the amount of work that is going on in other countries, especially in Europe. In France there are now several groups that are doing much more than mere investigations. Most people in the U.S. seem to think that working on UFOs consists of taking a tape recorder, driving to the country, and talking to witnesses. Well, it doesn’t stop there; it only begins there! After you’ve got a report from a witness, what do you do with it? That’s only the beginning, that’s not the end of the study! In France there are several groups that have been conducting analyses for many years. They have gone as far as establishing networks of photographic stations, and magnetic detecting stations. Those have had a surprising rate of success in detecting peculiar phenomena. People have installed those detectors in their houses: If the detector goes off they go out and sometimes actually observe an object. Those are people who have been told what to do if they do see a UFO—trained to recognize the weather pattern, note the temperature, remember the direction the object came from, the exact time, the day, and they centralize all that.

HASTINGS: I’ve heard of those detectors that work on magnetic principles.

VALLEE: Yes. Most of those are like a modified compass; it has been observed very often that the needle of the compass deviates when a UFO is nearby. So they build a device that has a stop on either side of North, such as ten degrees on either side, and as soon as the needle touches that, it goes off, it rings. Some of them are automatic in the sense that they keep a record of the time when this went off, so that even if nobody is around you can still see how often the device has detected something. There may be natural things that happen to make it go off—a truck going by, for example—but when you go out and see something in the sky it’s another matter! 

In France, for the last two years, the Gendarmerie (which is the local police force, somewhat similar to the National Guard) has officially been given the task of thoroughly investigating UFO cases, in particular the landings. Now the Gendarmerie is a very unimaginative, very bureaucratic, but very thorough type of police force; if a landing has been reported, there might be fifty Gendarmes spending the night at the site on the chance it may happen again or some clue may be found.

As far as we know, there are studies of UFOs going on in the Soviet Union.3 In Spain there are several private groups that have done research and there is a series of publications from them.

HYNEK: The work that is being done about the problem in those countries is pointing up the fact that the U.S. isn’t doing anything. Other countries are ahead of us in researching this phenomenon. This is something people in the U.S. don’t realize. That’s why we started the Center for UFO Studies.

VALLEE: In March of 1974 the French Minister of Defense, Mr. Robert Galley, gave a twenty-minute statement on UFOs while he was interviewed on the French radio. He said that it was essential to keep a completely open mind4: the Gendarmes had been studying UFOs for over two years5 and their evidence was consistent with that from military radars and the French Air Force. He said there was just too much consistency in those reports to brush aside the question of the existence of UFOs. On that basis, he essentially said, we have to conclude the phenomenon is real and scientists should be investigating it. It is the first time that a cabinet member of one of the major powers has made a positive statement on the subject.

HYNEK: When I was in Canberra I talked to the chief of the Royal Australian Air Force Intelligence, and his chief lieutenant or aide got me aside and said that he was flying a Sea Fury one night, and noticed that there was this bright illuminated thing off his left wing. “I wasn’t going to call in because I didn’t want them to think I was crazy or something, and I was watching it for awhile. Then another one showed up off my right wing and I was getting pretty damn nervous. I decided to call the tower.” In calling in the most unexcited, calm way he could, he merely inquired whether they had any other traffic in his area and they came back, “Yes, two others. In fact, you are the middle blip,” and he looked at me, grinned, and said, “You know, I could have kissed those radar guys!” It’s things like that—personal stories and anecdotes that build up one’s knowledge of this phenomenon.

Radar Confirmations

HASTINGS: Another question that does come up is the combination of radar and visual sightings. People are not yet aware that so many have been made in all countries.

VALLEE: One thing has always seemed interesting to me; namely that congressmen were told that there were no unidentified radar cases in the air force file.

HYNEK: We should bring that out.

VALLEE: This was not under oath.

HYNEK: No, but the next thing to it. I mean, after all, it was a Congressional hearing and here he was, the head of Project Blue Book, saying there were no radar cases that were unexplained. I almost felt like getting up and saying, “You lie!” but this was Congress and I didn’t.

VALLEE: There are at least half a dozen good officially unexplained radar cases in this country alone. There was also a case in Italy in November, 1973, involving a private plane that was going to land on the main runway at Torino Airport and was practically told by the tower, “Don’t land, there’s a UFO on the runway.” There was an object hovering, a large egg-shaped glowing object that was directly above the runway. This was seen by several airline pilots and by the crew of an airplane that was going to Rome, and it was picked up on radar by the military airport where the commander got out and saw it visually, confirmed to the press that he had seen it, and that it had been on radar. It followed that airplane for about forty miles.

HYNEK: Here we’re dealing with the real world. These are real men of authority, intelligence men in Australia, military officers in Italy, the French defense minister. The real people who’re doing these investigations, like the Gendarmerie in France, they’ve got their feet on the ground.

VALLEE: Well, the Gendarmes have no imagination whatsoever, they just do whatever they are told to do—only the facts, and they get them no matter what. They just go in there with their equipment and do what they are told to do. And if they are told to spend the night outside watching for UFOs, they’ll do that and nothing else. They ask no questions, just do it. They’ll fill out the form in triplicate, no matter what happened, and that’s exactly the kind of an investigation you want.

Psychic, Natural or Technological ?

HASTINGS: Okay, I have a point right here that was triggered by this conversation. The public seems to put the UFOs, ESP, Uri Geller, all that together on the occult shelf at the local bookstore. People I know whose tastes run that way have linked all these phenomena together without any kind of objective discrimination.

VALLEE: I think that it is important for us to accept that these are unexplained phenomena, and certainly there is a strong case here for psychic aspects of UFOs. But just saying that UFOs belong to the realm of psychic phenomena doesn’t explain them. Uri Geller doesn’t explain UFOs and UFOs don’t explain Geller. It’s a cop-out, and it should be labeled as such! It is simply a way of saving you the trouble of going there and investigating the cases one by one. If it’s a purely psychic phenomenon, why did it land in Kansas? Why did it destroy a wheat field? Why did it leave this substance on a farm in Nebraska? The work that needs to be done is for us to gather that kind of information and investigate it and correlate it and understand how it works, whatever it is!

HASTINGS: There are two senses in which people think UFOs are psychic—one view is that they are created by mental or unconscious projections; in other words, they are not real in the nuts and bolts sense. A second way is to assume that they are parapsychological, in which case they may very well be real, but they are conforming to a different set of laws. In the first case it would be unlikely that they would leave residues, and in the second case they could very well leave residues, although the purpose of leaving them would still not be clear.

VALLEE: Suppose you were in late seventeenth century France and attending a gathering of French aristocrats. It was very fashionable in those days to experiment with static electricity. Everybody had his little machine with a glass plate and you would wind it up, the ladies would touch it and there would be a spark, the ladies would scream and everybody would be amazed. Well, that was just amusement, but scientists could well have said this was all magic: it didn’t conform to any of the laws they knew. Here was something that would make sparks fly through the air. Sometimes the machine would attract a piece of paper, but if you used the fur of a cat, then it would repel paper. It would produce the opposite effect for no apparent reason at all!

HASTINGS: When were the beginnings of what we could really call electricity?

HYNEK: Shortly after Benjamin Franklin.

VALLEE: Yes, in 1750, or so, people were already experimenting.

HASTINGS: I would dispute that they would call that magic.

HYNEK: I think you would call these electrical experiments interesting natural phenomena; unexplained, but natural.

HASTINGS: They didn’t even call mesmerizing magic, and that was far weirder.

VALLEE: Mesmerizing has been called magic. There were several books written against Mesmer, saying his experiments were all the work of the devil.

HASTINGS: Well, I don’t know—it’s reproducible on demand.

VALLEE: So is the devil!

HYNEK: One of the main differences is that UFOs seem to be under some sort of intelligent control, and natural phenomena are not under intelligent control.

HASTINGS: Give me an example of intelligent control. Other than the occupants.

HYNEK: Well, they apparently exhibit what would be called theatrics, as in the Boianai sightings. Or a light seems to be examining something, moving around an object as though it were examining it—also the trajectories are not random, discs will hover and then take off rapidly. Upon discovery, in the cases of humanoids, the tendency is just the opposite to contact. The reaction seems to be to run away. These cases do not bespeak a natural phenomenon.

Notes

1 “Flying Saucers over Papua,” Rev. Norman E. G. Cruttwell, Flying Saucer Review, Special Issue No. 4, August, 1971.

2 Published in this book in insert

3 See Appendix C.

4 “There has been an extremely impressive increase in the number of visual sightings of luminous phenomena, sometimes spherical, sometimes ovoid, travelling at extraordinarily high speeds . . . my own profound belief is that it is necessary to adopt an extremely open-minded attitude towards these phenomena. Man has made progress because he has sought to explain the inexplicable . . .” Robert Galley, French Defense Minister, France-Inter broadcast, February 21, 1974—interviewed by J. C. Bourret.

5 “What can we do, as Gendarmes, when we face this problem (i.e. the UFO). Let us attempt to propose an answer here. The Gendarmerie Nationale is in an appropriate position to bring valuable help in the search for the truth in this field: because of its decentralized organization that reaches into every rural town and village; because of its knowledge of the country and especially of the population; because of the intellectual integrity and unquestioned honesty that characterizes its personnel; and also because of its capability for intervention at the site.

“How can this search be conducted? By being attentive to reports, by a sympathetic attitude towards bona fide researchers who investigate on behalf of serious, recognized organizations, by questioning witnesses carefully, and without preconceived ideas; by describing carefully the state of landing traces. By doing all this we can contribute to the solution of one of the greatest mysteries of all time.”

Gendarmerie Nationale, No. 87, 1971, [translated by Vallee].

Source: https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=yLwwDAAAAEAJ&pg=GBS.PA60

CE-III, 25 Witnesses, New Guinea, June 26-27, 1959 

Summary: William B. Gill, an Anglican priest with a mission in Bosinai, Papas New Guinea, observed craft-like UFOs -- one with Humanoid figures on top -- on two consecutive evenings, June 26-27, 1959. About twenty-five natives, including teachers and medical technicians, also observed the phenomena. They "signaled" the humanoids and received an apparent response. This was one of sixty UFO sightings within a few weeks in the New Guinea area.

William B. Gill, an Anglican priest with a mission in Bosinai, Papas New Guinea, observed craft-like UFOs -- one with Humanoid figures on top -- on two consecutive evenings, June 26-27, 1959. About twenty-five natives, including teachers and medical technicians, also observed the phenomena. They "signaled" the humanoids and received an apparent response. This was one of sixty UFO sightings within a few weeks in the New Guinea area. 

An approximate chronology of the complex series of sightings follows (based on Father Gill's log of events and a summary report by his colleague, the Reverend Norman Cruttwell): 

June 26--6:45 P.M. Large sparkling light seen by Father Gill in western sky. Called natives who also saw it. 

6:55--7:04 P.M. Up to four illuminated humanoid figures seen on top of object off and on. 

7:10--7:20 P.M. Sky now overcast at about 2,000 feet. Humanoid figures seen again, and a "thin electric blue spotlight" upward from the UFO, hovering below the overcast. UFO disappears in clouds. 

8 :28--8:35 P.M. Skies clear again; UFO visible, appearing to descend and increase in size. Second object seen over sea, "hovering at times," and another over village. 

8:50--9:30 P.M. Clouds forming again. Large UFO stationary, others (about three) like disks coming and going through clouds, casting a light halo on the clouds. Large UFO moves away rapidly across sea toward Giwa. 

9:46--10:30 P.M. UFO reappears overhead. Hovering. 

10:50--P.M. Heavy overcast; no sign of UFO. 

11:04 P.M. Heavy rain. 

June 27--6-7 P.M. Large UFO seen again. First sighted by medical technician at hospital, before dark. Closest sighting yet: seen clearly, bright and sparkling. Humanoid figures seen on top. Father Gill and about twelve others in group waved at humanoids and one of figures appeared to wave back. One member of the group waved both arms, and figures apparently responded by waving both arms. Two smaller objects remained visible, stationary at a higher altitude. 

7:45 P.M. Sky overcast; no UFOs visible. 

On the first night, Father Gill stepped out the front door of the mission house after dinner, about 6:45 P.M., and glanced at the western sky looking for Venus, which was conspicuous at the time. "I saw Venus," he said. "but I also saw this sparkling object, which to me was peculiar because it sparkled and because it was very, very bright. and it was above Venus and so that caused me to watch it for a while, then I saw it descend towards us.'' 

Father Gill estimated the object's angular diameter as about five inches at arm's Length. Stephen Gill Moi. a teacher, who joined Father GilI a few minutes latter, said that if he put his hand out closed, it would cover about half of the object. 

In a signed statement, the witnesses agreed that the object was circular, had a wide base and a narrower upper "deck," had something like legs beneath it, at times produced a shaft of blue light which shone upward into the sky at an angle of about 45 degrees, an that four humanoid figures appeared on top. Some of the witnesses described seeing about four portholes or windows on the side. Father Gill saw what appeared to be bright panels on the side but did not interpret them as portholes. 

"As we watched it," Father Gill said, "men came out from this object and appeared on top of it, on what seemed to be a deck on top of the huge disk. There were four men in all, occasionally two, then one, then three, then four; we noted the various times the men appeared . . . . 

"Another peculiar thing was this shaft of blue light. which emanated from what appeared to be the center of the deck. The men appeared to be illuminated not only by this light reflected on them, but also by a sort of glow which completely surrounded them as well as the craft. The glow did not touch them, but there appeared to be a little space between their outline and the light.. . . '' 

Father Gill described the movements of the objects, especially the smaller disks, as very erratic. They sometimes moved rapidly, sometimes slowly, approaching and receding, changing direction, and at times swinging back and forth like a pendulum. One object moved away and appeared to descend toward Wadobuna village, and everyone thought it was going to land. The Papuana ran down on the beach, but the object swooped up and away over the mountains, turning red as it disappeared. 

When the large object disappeared at 9:30 P.M., Father Gill said it made a slight wavering motion, then suddenly shot away at tremendous speed, changing color to red and blue-green, and disappeared across the bay, vanishing. No sound was heard throughout. 

The next evening, about 6 P.M., the same or a similar object reappeared while the sky was still bright, first seen by Annie Laura Borews, a Papuan medical assistant at the hospital. She called Father Gill, who in turn called Ananias and several other to watch. "We watched figures appear on top.'' Father Gill said. "Four of them. There is no doubt that they were human. This is possibly the same object that I took to be the 'mother ship' last night. Two smaller UFOs were seen at the same time, stationary, one above the hills, west, and another overhead." 

Two of the figures seemed to be doing something, occasionally bending over and raising their arm as if "adjusting or setting up something [not visible]. One figure seemed to be standing, looking down on us (a group of about a dozen).'' This figure, he explained later, was standing with his hands on the "rail" looking over, "just as one will look over the rails of a ship." 

"I stretched my arm above my head and waved. To our surprise the figure did the same. Ananias waved both arms over his head, then the two outside figures did the same. Ananias and self began waving our arms and all four seemed to wave back. There seemed to be no doubt that our movements wee answered. All the Mission boys made audible gasps (of either joy or surprise, perhaps both)." 

As darkness began to settle in, Father Gill sent one of the natives for a flashlight and directed a series of signals (''long dashes") toward the UFO. After a minute or two, the UFO wavered back and forth like a pendulum, in apparent acknowledgment. They waved and flashed signals again, and the UFO appeared to Descend toward them, but stopped and came no closer. After two or three more minutes, the figures disappeared. Then, at 6:45 P.M., two figures resumed their activity, and the blue spotlight came on for a few seconds twice in succession. By 7:45 P.M. the sky was totally overcast and no UFOs were visible. Thus ended the sightings. 

In his evaluation of the incidents, Dr. Donald H. MENZEL, a Harvard University astronomer who wrote three UFO debunking books, refers to the natives as 'uneducated" and to Father Grill as being their "great leader,'' to them "a holy man'' (implying that they were influenced in their testimony). He attributed the sightings to the plant Venus viewed myopically by Father Gill. Venus, he noted, was very conspicuous in the west setting about three hours after the sun. "I think it significant that, despite the brilliance of Venus, none of the sightings by Father Gill and the mission group refers to that planet." 

Menzel then openly assumed that Father Gill was myopic and without glasses at the time, that he ''probably" had appreciable astigmatism as well (causing him to see a distorted image of Venus), plus blood cells on the retina producing illusory motion. He concluded. "Since a very simple hypothesis accounts, without any strain, for the reported observations. I shall henceforth consider the Father Gill case as solved. Moreover, 1 feel the same phenomena are responsible for some of the more spectacular unsolved cases in the Air Force files." (See HYNEK, J. A., The UFO experience, 1972.) 

Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the former Air Force UFO consultant, notes in rebuttal that Father Gill was wearing properly corrected glasses at the time and that "Venus was pointed out separately by Gill." 

Although any prolonged series of UFO sightings with excited witnesses may be "contaminated'' by coincidental sightings of aircraft, meteors, or stars and planets glimpsed through moving cloud, the report of a large structured object (with humanoid figures) below a low overcast is not easily explainable.

Richard Hall

Source: http://www.nicap.dabsol.co.uk/gill.htm