Monday, August 30, 2010

Mexico: Chupacabras in Puebla and Guanajuato?













Source: www.analuisacid.com and Argonmexico.com
Date: 20 August 2010
Reported by: Pedro Morales


Mexico: The Chupacabras in Puebla and Guanajuato

Over 300 goats decapitated.

Shepherds from various communities in Puebla State are frightened by the attacks to their herds. They suspect the presence of natural predator, a nahual (shapeshifter) or the Chupacabras. Authorities have combed the area.

Shepherds from Colonia San Martín, Los Reyes Metzontla and Cañada Ancha in Puebla State are frightened by the attacks on their flocks by either the Chupacabras, wild dogs or some other wild creature that they’ve been unable to hunt down, and which has caused the deaths of over 300 goats for some 50 days now.

Felix Martinez Hernández, president of Colonia San Martin, said that on August 14th at around 7:00 a.m., over 36 goats were found butchered in the Colonia San Martin strip, located 18 km south of the municipality. The presence of a predator, nahual or the Chupacabras is suspected.

People who live in the community explained that the phenomenon increased after the rains, and this led them to seek support from the authorities in dispelling the mystery, which has people frightened due to the cruel way in which the goats were dispatched.

Anacleto Enrique Montiel Barbosa spoke of his concerns, acknowledging his fear over what is occurring in Zapotitlán: In this community, in the southern reaches of the state, most families owning this sort of livestock have been affected.

According to Anacleto, he first heard gunshots originating on his terrain, where he kept over 120 goats in a pen, “supposedly secure”. Upon reaching the site, he saw his fellow shepherd, Alvaro Mendoza, firing a rifle against some “dogs” that were fleeing the area.

Other residents arrived to see what was going on. They found that over 36 animals had been beheaded in a strange way and furthermore, without a single drop of blood in evidence.

Local authorities under commander Leonardo García Sánchez combed the area in order to find the goat slayers, but only managed to catch two dogs. The locals killed the dogs, opened them up and found that they did not contain any traces of goat blood or flesh. This caused them to recall the legend of the nahual.

SAGARAPA Turns Decective

The Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fishing and Food (SAGARAPA, in Spanish) has not received any reports on the goat deaths. However, in coming days, the Animal Development and Health Committee may look into the matter.

The sudden appearance of these animals displaying signs of violence has given rise to speculation. In the next few days, experts may determine the cause of the deaths. They will look for substances in the flesh or the blood, says Ignacio Carrasco Sandoval, the federal regional district head: “While the agency only intervenes in cases involving death by illness, what the peasants have stated up to now [appears to involve] feline attacks. If so, the agency would have no further involvement as such.”

The Hunt Begins

Concern among the locals increased. Since Monday, bands of peasants were formed to monitor the communities.

Last weekend, a peasant reported the presence of some tigers, or something similar. He advised the authorities and the town to conduct watches during the night and the morning hours. Locals were also urged to look after their families, advising them to refrain from going outside after 8:00 p.m., when natural light fades in the rural areas. Local watches commenced in the rancherías of San Martin, Los Reyes Mazontla, La Meza and others. Their members state their unwillingness to lose more cattle, and are willing to face down the nahuales, or whatever is involved.

Animals of the Night

According to legend, the nahual changes its human form for a given time to acquire the form a chosen animal. The nahual can only transmogrify at night, attacking our children with infernal spells.

In the area of Los Tuxtlas there is a long-held belief in nahuales. It is said that some people can turn into birds and are endowed with the power of flight. The nahual can have several protecting spirits, much like North American natives. To this time, there is no scientific evidence of the existence of nahuales.

The Chupacabras in Puebla?

Felix Martínez Hernández reported that the attacks cause concern among locals by affecting their livelihood. He indicates that the affected shepherds are calling for an investigation to trap the animals that have caused the goats’ deaths, and that officialdom should compensate them for their losses. “There are no signs of robbery during the attacks, no cases involving revenge, and therefore that can be discarded. We want this to stop, because people don’t want any more losses.”

Moreover, Eliseo Barragán Guevara, who has suffered the loss of 62 goats, all with bites to the neck, explained: “They were killed at night, because I arrived in the morning and they were all scattered, with bite marks, and 10 goats had head injuries. It looks like dogs were involved, but not normal ones. Perhaps wild ones or something, because judging by the wounds inflicted, they had long fangs.”

Chupacabras in Guanajuato?

Cattle attacks were also reported in another Mexican state, this time in March 2010. In Yuriria, Guanajuato, shepherds discussed their experiences on television: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g3kwujzpFM

(Translation (c) 2010 S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Prof. Ana Luisa Cid)

Spain: An Interview with J.J. Benítez









Source: EFE News Agency
Date: 29 August 2010
Reported by: Alfredo Valenzuela (Seville, Spain)


Spain: An Interview with J.J. Benítez. “UFOs Exist and There’s Proof by the Millions”

J.J. Benítez, a scholar of the UFO phenomenon and the life of Jesus of Nazareth, author of best sellers such as “Caballo de Troya” is the source of the phrase “If you knew the truth, you wouldn’t believe me” and having ties to Andalusia since childhood, he has now settled near Seville.

What led you to move to Andalusia?

An old dream. My father and a considerable part of my family come from Barbate. I would spend summers in Barbate. A very happy time. That’s why I wanted to retire to these lands. Dreams almost always come true.
And why did you buy a house so close to Seville?>
A twist of fate.
Are the skies of Seville conducive to UFOs?
As far as I know, as good as the rest.
Do you still leave a red rose at the feet of the Cristo del Amor in Seville?
It’s been a long time since I’ve come by El Salvador. Before, in fact, I would leave a rose at the feet of the statue of the Cristo del Amor, but it was always a white rose. I’m still indebted to Him. I would leave the white rose out of sheer love.
The former director of the Seville Archaeological Museum recalls that it was you who penned the “false” report of the mutilation of Roman statues in the museum. What was that all about?
One day, in the company of photographer Alberto Schommer, we learned that Cardinal Segura had castrated the Roman statues in the Seville Archaeological Museum. And Schommer photographed the Cardinal’s “doings”. We published it in El Pais later on. What’s incredible is that the marble penises remain in a box at the museum. Labeled, of course.
What’s the worst trick that’s ever been played on you?
No one tricks anyone. It’s all written.
So no one has managed to fool you at times?
Some have, of course. It’s all part of the game.
Are you unable to tell a lie, or can you lie like most people?
I find it hard to lie. I suppose it’s readily apparent.
Did you try Ayahuasca?
I tried it once. I had several astonishing experiences but I won’t try it again. It is the most potent of alkaloids. You can fly like Superman, walk through walls or see the future.
Is it harder to believe in God or space aliens?
Much harder. The aliens are there. They’re detected on radars, they’re photographed and much more. It’s possible to feel God, but that’s it.
Do you believe in miracles?
I don’t think God tampers with the natural order of things. It’s an entirely different matter that we cannot understand how to turn water into wine. Future science is magic to us, but it will still be science.
You [celebrate Christmas] on August 21. Why?
I observe Christmas on August 21st for 27 years now. I understand that it was Jesus of Nazareth’s date of birth. The Church manipulated the subject to suit its interests. In December, the weather in the hills of Bethlehem is so extreme that no shepherd leads his flock there.
Your friend Ignacio Darnaude stated that he’d been phoned by extraterrestrials. How close have they come to you?
I had a close encounter at around five or six in the mountains of Navarre. I’ve seen craft on other missions.
Do UFOs sell as well as they did before?
When a new UFO flap is recorded, and it will happen, the media will take an interest in the subject once again.
Why does everyone believe in penicillin and not in UFOs?
It’s a matter of being informed. One doesn’t believe or disbelieve UFOs. UFOs exist. There’s proof by the millions.
Have you ever had a book rejected by not being commercially viable?
Yes, once. It was called “Caballo de Troya”. The editor wanted me to cut 400 pages. I refused, of course.
Will you ever publish your poetry?
I hope never. Poetry is part of a human being’s intimacy.
Did you leave journalism out of futility?
No, I left journalism because it’s not possible to shoot two bows at once. I was either a journalist or a UFO researcher and writer. I opted for the latter. But I still see life as a journalist would. In fact, being a journalist has been useful when it came to writing one hundred and fifty books.
A few years ago, your death was falsely reported. Who did it and why?
People tend to kill me off on the Internet every so often. You’re referring to the story that appeared in “El Pais”. The responsible parties were members of a cult.

(Translation (c) 2010, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to J.M. García Bautista)

Puerto Rico: The Gargoyle vs. The Chupacabras















[Contributing Editor Lucy Guzmán sends us a report concerning manifestations of a strange new creature in Southwestern Puerto Rico that is being referred to as “The Gargoyle” – SC]

Source: El Nuevo Dia - Puerto Rico Hoy section
Date : 29 August 2010
Reported by: Pedro Bosque Pérez


The Gargoyle vs. The Chupacabras

A strange creature with wings resembling those of a bat and which has been dubbed “the Gargoyle” has attacked several animals and even a human, according to reports issued by residents of Guánica.

Attacks by the “Gargoyle” resemble those of the mythic Chupacabras to a certain extent, given that it operates under cover of darkness and allegedly exsanguinates its victims.

Some people have identified it with the Chupacabras, yet others believe it is a differnt, elusive and sinister entity whose lair is in Barrio Ensenada, amid the ruins and tunnels of the Guanica Sugar Mill, where the skeletons of its victims can be found.

The Gargoyle’s exploits have gone on for many years, mostly in Guánica, but in Lajas and San Germán as well.

The creature has been seen by people who have opted to avoid making formal complaints to the Police, fearing they’ll be considered mentally disturbed or subjected to scorn. With the exception of one policeman and a schoolteacher who researchers strange phenomena, the other parties involved refused authorization to disclose their names.

A gargoyle is a mythic entity, a mixture of human and bird, represented by stone statues. These are placed on the cornises of cathedrals and other buildings.

A Human Is Attacked

“He was injured in his stomach, his [abdominal] fat could be seen,” noted a witness, describing the injuries suffered by a man on his belly and back, caused as if by “an animal’s claws.”

The witness soberly expalined that the wounded man lifted the t-shirt he put on after the attack, saying that a “large winged” animal took him by surprise in his back yard and attacked him.

The injured party, surnamed Valdo, also spoke to policemen patrolling the area where the attack took place, near Guánica Lagoon, in the mid-1990s.

Police officer Miguel Negrón states that he has not seen what is popularly referred to as the gargoyle, but two months ago, while patrolling the area with another officer near the old Guánica Sugar Mill, he heard the beating of powerful wings, as if something was propelling itself off the zinc roof of one of the mill’s cranes.

Agent Negrón indicated that some describe the gargoyle as a very large bird, emitting a sulfuric or rotten odor. It feeds on live animals like dogs, cats and horses, draining their blood and leaving them dry.

The creature goes forth at night or in the early morning hours, and for this reason there are few sightings. There are no photos or videos of the phenomenon, which attacks healthy animals, unlike a predator that seeks out sick or feeble animals.

(Translation (c) 2010, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Lucy Guzmán, OvniNet)

Friday, August 27, 2010

Argentina: UFO Over La Hélice










[A well-deserved vacation away from the coldest winter South America has ever experienced has not kept Contributing Editor Guillermo Gimenez from his appointed rounds! From the hundred-degree heat of the Spanish Mediterranean, he has kept a watchful eyes on UFO events in Argentina. Here's the latest -- SC]

Source: Diario de Necochea (www.diarionecochea.com)
Date: 08.25.10


Argentina: UFO Hunter Takes a Photo

A UFO hunter took this picture on 08.19.2010 at 9:24:28 a.m. in the vicinity of La Helice.

Surnamed Bordolli, he used a JVC GR-D890 to take this photograph.

This is a true Unidentified Flying Object. As of this writing, the exact nature of this device is unknown.

"My hands shook," he says. "I was barely able to press the shutter. It was gone in a minute or two, heading off toward the sea." Excitedly, he told all his relatives about the sighting. "I just couldn't believe it."


(Translation (c) 2010, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez)

Chile: UFOs in Quilpue and Villa Alemana

Date: August 26, 20
Source: http://diarioelobservador.cl/3176


Chile: Local Residents Claim Seeing 10 UFOs in Quilpue and Villa Alemana over the Past Year

MARGA-MARGA.- It was 13 years ago that the life of Dario Fajardo Gonzalez took a turn. It was a night in 1987 when this psychologist witnessed an enormous, multicolored sphere, and nothing was ever the same again.

It was seen by many people and the episode is remembered to this very day, but the phenomenon stirred in him a great curiosity for the subject of unidentified flying objects (UFOs).Fajardo, who is also a systems analyst, stated that Quilpue and Villa Alemana are “transition areas”, which means they are territories with a greater share of sightings, although not quite as frequent as Limache and Olmue, which are the most “visited” areas.In spite of this difference, the difference in sightings between the “city of the sun” and the "city of windmills" is significant, with a ratio of ten to one in favor of the latter.

It was in 2009 that Villa Alemana reported ten spheres crossing the local skies, and for which no scientific explanation was ever found. He said there were reports which, like this one, were also investigated, but it was ascertained that these were logical cases that turned out to be aerostat balloons or atmospheric phenomena.

Furthermore, the expert detailed that many of the sightings in Quilpue are the same that have been recorded in Valparaiso, due to their greater proximity to the coastline.However, the ufologist stated that both communes have a greater propensity toward having UFO sightings due to their proximity to the La Campana mountain, which is one of the most enigmatic locations involving the UFO phenomenon. It is believed that the site contains “portals” through which these flying objects may enter and depart.

However, the expert theorized that the sightings must be more numerous than those which have actually become known, since many times people either don’t notice (because they don’t tend to look skyward) or lack equipment with which to record them.

A Strange Coincidence

Despite the fact that very few cases have been made known in both communes, Dario Fajardo states that a considerable increase in sightings has occurred lately.“Although they’ve always been there, more cases have occurred since 2006 in the Quilpue and Villa Alemana cluster.

The most seen objects are “foo fighters”, which aren’t large, and which would be sent out for research purposes,” explained the expert, who hosts the Ovnis: El futuro en el presente radio show on Radio La Calera on Thursdays at 23:00 hours (available at www.observador.cl)However, when it came to discussing the latest sightings in both communes, he gets a shiver, as he says that three UFOs were seen over the area on the day of the February 27th (2010) earthquake.

“According to information gathered in Villa Alemana, one was seen the day before the earthquake and another two the following day. This is rather strange. While this area was not the epicenter, perhaps the movement of tectonic plates may draw their attention,” suggests the expert.

(Translation (c) 2010, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Sunday, August 22, 2010

UFOs in the 1950s: The Caribbean Crisis



















UFOs in the 1950s: The Caribbean Crisis
By Scott Corrales- INEXPLICATA

A great deal of UFO scholarship is concentrated on the time period that spans the Truman and Eisenhower administrations – the period known as “The Fifties”, even when its cultural borders do not exactly match the chronological ones. A culture of large cars, fear of juvenile delinquency, terrified by the Red Menace and disquieted by flying saucers. Interestingly enough, the cultural construct of the “The Fifties” does not truly exist beyond the U.S.A and perhaps Canada. The decade of abundance and rock and roll meant little to a Europe slowly emerging from the ravages of a world war; Central and South America went on much the same as they had a decade earlier. No sock-hops there, either. But the presence of “flying saucers” became a common denominator worldwide as a citizenry pushed unwillingly into the Nuclear Age -- and beguiled by the promise of the incipient Space Age -- began to show interest in the strange things happening in the skies overhead.

Reports of unusual objects in the sky were not unknown in the Spanish-speaking Americas. As has been written elsewhere, the first “UFO flap” can be dated back to the Aztec era in Mexico, and South America and The Caribbean had filed away sightings of oddities as prodigios (prodigies or miracles) contained in sea captain’s logs and the formal reports made by government ministers to higher-ups. Religious significance was attached to some of them, especially if the sighting coincided with a religious holiday. Early on, nocturnal lights had been considered a welcome phenomenon, as they reputedly marked the location of buried treasure, thus sending locals on digging sprees. In the 1970s, few UFO books could go by without mentioning the objects seen “against the disk of the sun” by astronomer José Bonilla in Mexico a century earlier.

But the mid-20th century was different. Science fiction had already made inroads on the popular imagination and thoughts of venusinos and marcianos –whether courtesy of comic books or Flash Gordon serials dubbed into Spanish – raised the intriguing possibility that sentient beings, either much like ourselves or wholly monstrous, occupied these distant yet somehow familiar orbs. The platillo volador even became commonplace in movies, particularly comedies. World politics served to further rarify the atmosphere, as nuke-toting superpowers glared at each other from opposing hemispheres. Thoughts of benevolent space aliens bent on keeping humanity from annihilation filled the minds of many.

Puerto Rico, for instance, had emerged from over half a century of post-colonial mismanagement, natural disasters and starvation to become a self-governing commonwealth under the U.S. flag in 1952. That very same year, the old Borinquen Army Air Field in the island’s northwestern tip welcomed the arrival of the Strategic Air Command’s 72nd Bombardment Wing and its B-36’s, placing the island in harm’s way in the extent of any East-West hostilities. The jitters probably got worse when Statofortresses were stationed at the end of the decade (the reader will allow a brief digression at this point: the Borinquen Air Field was renamed Ramey Air Force Base in honor of Gen. Howard Ramey, a casualty of World War II, and not after Brig. Gen Roger Ramey of the 8th Army Air Force – one of the main players in the Roswell controversy). The wish for a saucer-enforced Pax Intergalactica in those troubled times tinted the messages of the active contactee communities of the period.

Puerto Rico’s Saucer Scenario

UFO activity over the Puerto Rico was commonplace in 1952. Cases were being reported from one part of the island to another, mentioning specific locations that would become familiar “hot spots” later in the century. The turbulent waters of the Mona Passage, separating Puerto Rico from the island of Hispaniola, were a particularly rich source of sightings. On May 13, 1952 at seven o’clock in the evening, prominent politician Miguel Angel Garcia was spending time with his family at their home in the city of Mayaguez, commanding a view of the city and its bay from a considerable elevation. García, his wife, daughter and son-in-law interrupted their conversation to look at two orange disks—one larger than the other-- flying high over the Mona Passage. The politician promptly went inside for his field glasses and returned to study the unusual objects. The larger of the disks had “the apparent size of the sun, according to Garcia, and was static while the smaller one maneuvered around, switching positions with each other. García’s daughter Fredita managed to photograph the strange aerial ballet between the orange disks but nothing appeared on the film due to shortcomings in the Verichrome film employed. Other residents of Mayaguez also saw the disks, but believed them to be military devices undergoing flight tests out of Ramey AFB – in an age of technical wonders, it seemed like a perfectly reasonable possibility.

On August 3rd of that year, guests and staff at San Juan’s Caribe Hilton hotel reportedly saw a pair of saucer-shaped objects flying at a considerable height over the ocean. The staff members – Dominic Tutela and Ramón Rodriguez – said that they had looked out over one the ballroom terraces facing the sea at 7:45 that evening and saw the two discs, flying in a north-northeast direction high above the water. The Hilton experience is not without humor, as one of the guests who shared the sighting with the hotel workers believed the objects to be “giant butterflies with extremely bright bodies,” and had to be reassured that there were no giant butterflies to be found on the island. On August 8th , Robert Daly, a weights-and-measures inspector, reported seeing two disks over San Juan at four thirty in the morning.

Naysayers abounded, following the lead of Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg’s rebuttal of the existence of flying saucers. Dr. F. Bueso, chair of Natural Sciences of the University of Puerto Rico, told the press that “all that has been said about flying saucers amounts to lies and tall-tales. It would not be surprising if someone should suddenly report seeing brightly colored macaws singing La Borinqueña (Puerto Rico’s national anthem).” (El Mundo, 09.05.52)

Dr. Bueso’s brightly colored macaws may have been practicing their scales even as a new sighting occurred. On October 6, 1952, photographer Frank McFerran and his wife beheld a brilliant light near Mayaguez as they drove along the road in the early evening. The object began changing colors and casting reflections on the sea surface. The McFerrans parked their vehicle at Punta Guanajibo and believed the object to be near the Cabo Rojo lighthouse. After twenty minutes of changing colors, the object vanished, prompting the witnesses to speculate that it had plunged into the ocean.

A few days later, reports of strange lights would come from Puerto Rico’s mountainous interior: Jaime Báez, a local merchant, was stunned by an object described as “a flying saucer of considerable size and unexpected brightness.” So bright, in fact, that another witness, schoolteacher Aida Reyes, had to close her eyes, comparing its brilliance with that of the sun.

Writing in his landmark book Manifiesto Ovni, Sebastián Robiou mentions cases involving multiple witnesses in the suburbs of San Juan. A circular, yellowish orb of light that was believed at first to be a balloon stunned residents of the Santa Rita urbanization with its repeated orbits of their development. The object had the apparent size of a dime, and Robiou provides the witnesses’ names, all living on the same street.

The last case of this early Fifties saucer wave over Puerto Rico also occurred over an urban area: a “flying saucer” flew so low over the Floral Park area of Hato Rey that people were able to hear what they took to be its engine, causing confusion. Between seven and eight in the evening on October 23rd, Mr. Buenaventura Quiñones and his wife Sylvia reported a glowing disk that made a buzzing sound similar to that of an electric motor. It would later turn out that their neighbors had seen the same object on previous evenings and at the same time of night.

At this point, it is interesting to note that the late Morris K. Jessup, tragic protagonist of the legendary “Varo Papers” incident, published a supplement to his The Case for the UFO which bore the title “The UFO Reporter”. This six-page document mentions a mini-flap taking place in Florida, specifically centered around Miami.

“South Florida and the neighboring oceanic areas of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean Region of the Bahamas have long been a theatre of mystery, particularly with regard to such phenomena as have been attributed to UFO in The Case for the UFO,” writes Jessup in his addendum. “When the UFO were plaguing Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1952, there was a veritable rash of UFO phenomena centered around Miami, Florida!”

Jessup enumerates thirty-one entries in which objects resembling parallelograms, yellow-orange objects, moon-like phenomena and balls of fire are reported between July and September 1952, with some later dates added in. Entry #25 reads: “There were many reports from Cuba during this period. They are well documented in the Spanish-language press of Havana.” Dr. Jessup was not exaggerating, and we shall see some of these cases later on.

Another writer of the times, Harold T. Wilkins, was moved to say the following about these years in the pages of his Flying Saucers on the Attack (NY: Ace, 1954): “...some types of the flying saucers follow a curious pattern in flight. These objects rise slowly and vertically from the surface of the earth, then move for a short way in a horizontal line, again rise vertically, and in a series of steps, reach the desired altitude, and finally accelerate in a tremendous burst of speed.” The vertical ascents and rapid accelerations were clearly present in the Caribbean cases.

Aviation and Explosions

A four-year hiatus ensued after this early wave of sightings in Puerto Rico. Perhaps the unknown objects had learned all there was to know about humanity, or had else despaired from imposing peace upon bellicose mankind.

On March 11, 1957 Pan Am Airlines Flight 257 from New York to San Juan, Puerto Rico, had a brush with the unknown: at four thirty in the morning, while passengers slept or engaged in quiet conversation with each other, the pilot, Captain Matthew Van Winkle, was forced to make a violent evasive maneuver to avoid a collision with a strange bolide that was heading right toward the airliner. Passengers and flight attendants – except for those who had wisely never unfastened their seatbelts – flew out of their seats and crashed into the bulkheads. According to reports, the pilot had seen an object described as having "a shiny greenish core and an outer ring that reflected the inner glow." Frantically executing an evasive maneuver, Van Winkle climbed 1500 feet above the object in a matter of seconds. According to San Juan’s El Mundo newspaper, Van Winkle’s initial impression was that he was seeing the burning exhaust gases of a rocket airplane, followed by a glowing light. Pilots from other airlines two to three hundred miles away, flying the same route toward Puerto Rico, reportedly saw the same object. John Walsh, a pilot with TransCaribbean Airways, very much doubted that “he’d seen a meteorite.”

Airplanes had always been a source of curiosity to the unknown objects along the decade, and Captain Van Winkle was hardly an exception. A few months after his experience, a Brazilian pilot would have a similar encounter on the Rio-to-Victoria route: after following the airliner at a distance, a round object emitting light from its upper and lower sections entered a cloud formation, enabling the plane’s passengers and crew to make out “illuminated portholes or windows” on the object’s structure. When the intruder exited the cloud, it no longer showed any lights, vanishing in the general vicinity of Guaraparí.

The summer of ’57 would bring more UFO activity to the Caribbean Basin and beyond. On June 4th at around seven o’clock in the morning, a tremendous luminous object crossed the skies over Venezuela, flying over the Sierra de Coro before the eyes of many witnesses as the local airport. An hour later, a deafening explosion caused by a luminous, Sun-sized orb shook the ground near Arapuey, prompting many to wonder if the nuclear holocaust had already begun, engulfing their unimportant mountain hamlets. Venezuela would continue to report significant activity for weeks, ranging from gigantic disks hovering over cement factories, cigarette-shaped craft speeding by at remarkable speeds, and even more explosions of unknown origin (EUOs?) like the ones that shook the city of Carora on June 3-4, 1957, felt over a thousand-kilometer radius.

The Cuban Cases

Information has emerged in recent years on Cuba’s UFO sightings in the 1950s. One would think that with all the excitement on the ground in pre-Revolutionary days, few would be inclined to look up. And in fact, the earliest UFO report from the largest island in the Caribbean comes not from terrestrial onlookers but from a pilot: On March 16, 1950, Captain Miguel Murciano of the Compañía de Aviación Cubana reported having timed the progress of an unknown object over Antilla airport on the island’s eastern edge. The strange object, he said, was traveling at extraordinary speeds at an altitude in excess of five thousand feet “covering eight degrees in sixteen minutes” – a measurement aided by a theodolite. According to Captain Murciano, he first saw the object at ten fifteen a.m. during a routine flight from Santiago de Cuba to Antilla. All crewmembers and passengers saw the object due to the excellent visual conditions, agreeing that whatever it was, it wasn’t an airplane.

Dr. Sergio Cervera of the Comisión Investigadora de Fenómenos Aéreos (CIFA) compiled a list of significant UFO-related cases in Cuba going as far back as the 1930s. Dr. Cervera’s notes for the year 1952 include a sighting by some fifty witnesses in the village of Candonga, Palma Soriano Municipality, in Oriente Province. A very bright light appeared over the community, remained suspended, and then began zigzagging, engaging in a “cosmic ballet” that mesmerized onlookers for nearly an hour.

In 1953, Mr. Waldo Martinez, a former lieutenant in the Cuban army, was driving a military jeep toward a hospital in the city of Trinidad when his vehicle’s engine shut down after taking a hairpin curve. It was then he noticed a powerful green light flying past his jeep, landing some 200 meters away. According to the Cervera archives, the object’s lights dimmed as the jeep regained its power and Mr. Martinez and his passengers resumed their journey. This CE-2 included the discovery of a burned circle on the ground, measuring some sixty feet across.

Researcher Orestes Girbau mentions an unusual event that took place on July 5, 1959 in the Bay of Matanzas on the island of Cuba. A group of Boy Scouts and their troop leaders had gone out on a hike along the coast, setting out from the Versalles district of the city. The time was nine thirty in the morning under clear, sunny skies. The thirty or so people involved had no idea that they would soon be going down in history as part of one of the Caribbean’s most intriguing cases of that decade.

“Unexpectedly,” writes Girbau in Nuestros Foráneos, “shouts were heard from the scoutmasters, saying: look at that! as the entire formation broke ranks and ran toward the beach. Impressed, they watched an object which, according to the first of that number to see it, had emerged from the sea and was balancing gently only a few meters over the surface. The object was oval-shaped, although some insisted it was shaped like a top and yet others described it as a disk. Seconds later, the glowing disk leveled off, parallel with the sea, and rose straight up at an astonishing rate of speed, vanishing into the blue in less than 15 seconds.”

Once settled down, the witnesses agreed that the object was metallic in appearance and silver in color. Corroboration for the large group’s experience came from a nearby boat with two fishermen who bemusedly watched the phenomenon. The device, writes Girbau, was wingless and between 20 and 26 feet in diameter, noiseless and lacking any manner of exhaust.

On July 6, 1959, the Adelante newspaper ran a headline reading: “Strange Machine in the Bay of Matanzas”, claiming that the exact nature of the object remained unclear “in spite of the investigations conducted...with the inevitable speculation as to whether it was a flying saucer or another of object of the kind that flies through space.”

The fishermen who witnessed the Bay of Matanzas incident were not the only ones treated to a UFO sighting. Also in 1959, but with no specific date given, Pablo Rodriguez had been fishing off the Havana coast early in the morning, accompanied by a friend. All of a sudden, the waters near the fishing boat began to bubble intensely as a massive silvery disk emerged from the depths, hanging in mid-air and dripping seawater before taking off at great speed. As if that experience had not been shocking enough, Rodriguez claimed seeing “some figures clad in black, like undersea fishermen” swimming only a few meters from his boat. A USO and CE-3 event, all in one.

This Cuban mini-flap continued into the early years of the following decade. In 1960, Henry R. Gallart reported a UFO over the Sierra Maestra late one evening in January as he spoke to a group of soldiers on his property. In mid-discussion, they were interrupted by the arrival of a large fireball that passed silently overhead at less than a thousand feet over their heads. According to Gallart, visibility was optimal in the starry, tropical night. The UFO left a wake of multicolored sparks before vanishing. In early May 1961, Gallart would also be treated to a second sighting over the Texaco Oil Refinery at the edge of the Bay of Santiago, this time at 10:45 a.m. – the object resembled a rugby ball, by his own description (although other texts have described it as a “metallic sphere”) and engaged in a “falling leaf” motion. The sighting was corroborated by other office and field workers at the refinery.

The 1959-60 saucer wave spilled over into English-speaking Jamaica. The late Antonio Ribera included an interesting early case in his OVNIS en Iberoamerica y España (Barcelona: Plaza y Janés, 1980). On August 12, 1960, writes Ribera, Karl Rhoden, a provisional court clerk reported seeing two brilliant objects resembling inverted “letter Ys” flying single file and around 20 miles an hour over the Halfmoon Hotel. The objects were headed seaward from land, and suddenly the first object, at an estimated ten miles over the ground, increased its speed and vanished. The second object appeared to be engaged in some kind of reconnoitering activity and stayed behind before following suit. Mr. Rhoden told the Daily Gleaner newspaper that he believed the objects not to be terrestrial, but rather mechanical devices. He added that other local residents saw them as well. (Daily Gleaner, 08.16.60)

Hispaniola

For information on 1950s “saucer activity” over Hispaniola, we must turn again to Sebastián Robiou, who went to great lengths to document activity on the second largest of the Greater Antilles.

On November 3, 1957, Santo Domingo’s El Caribe newspaper ran a story concerning the remarkable sighting of four unknown objects “resembling flying saucers” over the city over the Barahona coffee factory. According to journalist Julio Lembert, “the strange and unexpected apparition of the strange devices, which came within 100 meters of the facility, caused tremendous surprise among the factory workers who saw them at 6:30 in the morning yesterday (Nov. 1). According to statements made by Messrs. Amador Ponds and Negro Reyes, the first to see the strange craft, these approached at low altitude and remained motionless when they reached a concrete structure used to dry out the coffee. They remained there for two minutes.”

One might be tempted to believe, half-humorously, that alien pilots needed a coffee-break as much a trucker might. But Lembert’s narrative continues: “Eyewitnesses to the odd manifestations say that the objects were round and had a sort of gyrating dome at the in the middle. They flew in tight formation, imitating a “letter Y” (the reader will recall the Jamaican case) and their low altitude enabled the factory workers to get a good look. While we were unable to see any portholes or occupants—they said—we understand that the height of domes would allow a man of normal height to sit within them. In Ponds and Reyes’s opinion, as well as that of other employees, the size of the objects was about six feet in diameter. After remaining over the factory for the indicated period of time, the four objects headed east at dizzying speed, without making the least sound, vanishing from sight in seconds.”

El Caribe’s edition for the following day understandably remarks that the unexpected visit from the inquisitive objects has become “the talk of the town” and that locals are suffering from neck strain from looking up at the sky so much. Other workers – whose names are given in the newspaper – stepped forward to add their names to the original witnesses. Weeks later, an “elongated, grayish object with an intense glow in its forward section” was seen after midnight on November 15 in Baní, witnessed by Francisco Fuertes, a deputy Municipal union worker. The object vanished behind a cloud and did not emerge again.

UFOs took an interest in the Dominican Republic’s hydroelectric works during this period. A strange blue glow, as bright as a welder’s arc, emerged from an unknown object that flew over the Jimenoa Hydroelectric Plant on November 16 and 17th in the early evening. Witnesses Manuel Crune and Luis Padilla described it as resembling a very bright Christmas ornament, moving slowly fron south to north.

Conclusion

Activity in the Caribbean Basin may not have been as spectacular as elsewhere on the continent, but these cases provide signs of a progression toward conceivably more important events, such as the landings and close encounters that characterized the ‘60s and ‘70s in the region. No substantial literature emerged at this time beyond newspaper reports and the inevitable denials by officialdom. A number of contactee tracts circulated at the time, colored by doses of Kardecian spiritism, providing dire warnings about the end of the world and of course, the deus ex machina of salvation by the ever watchful saucerians.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Argentina: The Pros and Cons of Alien Visitation

















[Dr. Roque Mecoli penned this article a long time ago for INEXPLICATA and we are pleased to share it with our readers - SC]


The Pros and Cons of Alien Visitation
by Dr. Roque Mecoli

Regardless of whether we are being visited or not by entities from outer space and/or other dimensions (a caveat I make out of respect for the beliefs of others, "yea" sayers and naysayers alike, since I have stated elsewhere that I have the impression that the polarities in this and many other aspects [of the UFO phenomenon] have existed for years, and I honestly do not want to engage in a debate because we are unlikely to reach a satisfactory conclusion for all the perspectives), there is a highly interesting which I have never seen mentioned in any bibliography or copious reports on the subject.

When we speak of the intentions of the E.T.'s who are supposedly visiting us, there are certain matters to be taken into consideration.

Allow me for a moment, in the guise of a working hypothesis only, to accept beyond any doubt whatsoever that our world has been visited for centuries by nonhuman entities, hailing from cosmic space, hailing from other dimensions, or from wherever...What do we actually know about them? Quite a bit, and nothing to sneeze at. Let's see...

• If we take reports that discuss their behavior to be valid documents, it is plainly shown that to date, they have no intention to manifest themselves publicly and clearly to mankind as a whole. If they have the means and/or the technology to get here, it is absurd to suppose that they would not know how to do so or be unable to do so, since even by means of crude "radio" technology, emitting primitive signals that betray the existence of an intelligent pattern behind them, would suffice to begin an exchange.

• If we take the reports of cases in which vehicles and/or occupants have been taken by surprise by humans as true, their behavior has generally resulted in escape or avoidance, sidelining the abduction issue due to its polemical nature and to keep this analysis from becoming overly complex (Please note I said "taken by surprise").

• The luminous manifestations that would theoretically be identified as their craft and/or conveyances in our world, cannot to this day be satisfactorily explained by science, int the sense that many reports hint at a technology or handling of underlying physical laws which our own scientific development has not yet attained, at least to the level necessary to understand them (regardless of what said "lights" actually may be).

• The foregoing point, in turn, gives rise to this one: that any person having a knowledge of physics and other related sciences is aware that space travel per se is a matter of the utmost complexity. Things do not occur as they do in the movies, or in Star Trek, where building-sized vehicles move with the same ease as car. There is nothing more hostile, horrible and inhospitable than deep space, and it is necessary to possess advanced knowledge to cover sidereal distances, aside from having, of course, the scientific background to bring it into being in the first place. If we add to this cocktail the subject of interdimensional travel, then the degree of complexity increases exponentially and shockingly.

• In spite of the countless UFO reports in existence, showing the most diverse configurations imaginable (many of them perhaps fraudulent, others representing genuine enigmas), these entities have proven to be, to date, sufficiently intelligent as to not leave any tangible proof of their existence--some device, mechanism or even a screw left behind one night somewhere...enough to analyze in our laboratories and discover, at the very least, an alloy not of this Earth (we only have photographs and film clips which are largely useless).

• This point is likewise derived from the foregoing: the ability to avoid making mistakes of this nature renders the belief that their vehicles could come crashing to the ground as sheer foolishness; as if said vehicles were piloted by student drivers. If they have been able to overcome the bleakness of space and are not prone to minor errors as stated before, this agrees perfectly with a coherent set of suppositions, and I repeat, indicates concomitant intelligence and/or advanced knowledge. Therefore, my friends, I do not believe in the ubiquitous saucer crashes, one of them which has been highly touted.

• There are persons dubbed "Contactees", allegedly having the ability to make contact with these intelligences (or perhaps more aptly, they have the ability to reach Contactees!) through a variety of means, with the common denominator in this cases being some sort of teaching and/or advice and/or lessons given by these entities to mankind. There are also, it would seem, isolated individuals or groups who are in contact with these intelligences under certain circumstances.

To avoid overly extending this article, I will stop with the ones we have listed up to here in an effort to see if certain deductions can be made from them...although my sole interest is in articulating the following question: What inferences can be made concerning their intentions? This is the question I would like to address--one which has been a matter of exchange between researchers and enthusiasts for a long time now.


First, may I remind the reader that these are completely a priori
suppositions, and should not be construed as my taking a stance on them. I only wish to reach, through simple logical reasoning, at least a single port having a certain degree of validity. To do this, my working method accepts and holds true many things which I am perfectly aware are not shared by others, but, I repeat, it is only a focusing point, whose foundations are perhaps incorrect (to some). With a bit of luck, we shall see if we can determine the point at which "there are errors in the hypothesis", since this would in itself imply a humble degree of progress in the subject.

Furthermore, throughout this entire analysis, I have stationed myself on a kind of "middle of the road" that is as logical and natural as possible, but I am fully aware that in doing so I'm putting aside numerous factors--perhaps some of them highly important.

My very personal, and perhaps debatable, manner of approaching an issue of this nature is to try and adopt the mindset or perspective of my opponent, and try to reach some possible solutions by this method. But, isn't it reckless or nonsensical to adopt the stance of an ET, of whom we know next to nothing aside from contactee-provided information? I don't think so, if we bear certain details in mind.

While it is true that we don't known any life forms comparable to humanity at the level of development analogous to the development of a substantial culture or civilization, terrestrial science can fortunately assist us with a healthy dose of common sense.

Thus, through information provided by radio telescopes from distant and perilous places in the cosmos, we know that the molecules and atoms discovered so far prove that "there is nothing new under the sun". It is of no concern that the Orion Nebula has oxygen existing as a positive ion in its natural state, due to the formidable conditions reigning there, and which cause it to lose electrons--a fact which could only be duplicated on Earth under special laboratory conditions.

What matters is that oxygen is there and continues to be oxygen, even many light-years away. Furthermore, more complex molecules have been found, such as the simplest alcohols, cyanohydrin, and perhaps most interestingly, the precursors of the aminoacids, among others. To a chemist like myself, the observation of such molecules allows me to infer their bonds, energy, etc.--matters which are commonly known to modern chemistry. To summarize the chemical aspect, I will state that I'm convinced that regardless of the planets or places these life forms may hail from, they will be the product of the logical adaptation of their lives to their specific worlds, but will be unable to escape the laws of chemistry. Therefore, I do not believe at all (and this statement is just one example) that in any part of the Universe there could be complex silicon-based lifeforms, for the simple reason that the silicon atom's size, linked to its electronegativity, forbids the creation of long and stable atomic chains (as carbon is able to do) both here and in the most distant galaxy, in conditions which are analogous to our own.

I will brook no debate on this question, and any arguments to the contrary belong squarely in the realm of science fiction, for the moment. In any case, radiotelescope data serves to confirm my ideas, and that is why I mention it. My impression is therefore that an attempt must be made to understand the mental mechanisms of hypothetical creatures, very possibly different to us and having internal differences that agree to the external ones (the absence of a heart, or a heart having four ventricles, or anything you can imagine), but basically constituted by chemical parameters which could under no circumstances be opposite to our own. In this sense, I'm surprised-- and even suspicious, why not? -- that the entities described to now, which have been seen or allegedly seen, resemble us so closely...there is talk of the Chupacabras, etc., and even the notorious "Greys" having a decidedly humanoid appearance. Of course, I accept that someone can sustain the hypothesis that Life, as a universal phenomenon, may be almost identical throughout the universe as regards its appearance (a very respectable position, in fact), but I think its a flimsy hypothesis to uphold, aware as we are of the extraordinary complexity and diversity in the Cosmos. To summarize this item: these life-forms cannot have nightmarishly different thought processes from our own, despite having two heads and five arms, if you like. It is quite logical to suppose, based on their probable chemical framework, and on information which we already have, that they cannot be substantially different from us.

It is therefore that I risk putting myself in their position in an effort to answer the question stated earlier. At this purely scientific point of the matter I reiterate my strong-headedness, and will only accept strictly scientific rebuttals. I will accept, however, any theories different to my own or opposite to them, as well as the corresponding rebuttals.

To summarize from another perspective:

a) If they are very similar to us based on the idea that Life in the Universe follows similar patterns, regardless of any other factors, then this is a point in favor of the contactees, and it is neither difficult nor reckless to guess their thought patterns.

b) If on the contrary, this is not the case, there are weighty reasons to suspect that their basic chemistry cannot be so wildly diverging from our own--what is more, it should be almost identical (by this I don't mean metabolic or chemical processes, or anything similar) and only differences in structure and function by adaptation factors would be observable. They could have chloroplasts instead of mitochondria, or their aminoacids could be dextrogyrous and/or levogyrous, they could be anaerobic or aerobic, oviparous rather than mammals, etc. But the essence rests upon what its chemically known to us, and therefore, I don't believe their minds would consider it prudent to point their spaceships toward the core a nearby star to acquire a suntan for beauty purposes (?) in an act of cosmic madness (or would cosmic "incineration" be more appropriate?).

I don't wish to dwell on this point excessively, but I insist that chemistry could be of great help to us in this analysis. While I cannot continue abounding on this for reasons of time as so as not to abuse my readers' patience, it is still possible to pursue this analysis from a chemical perspective, approaching other aspects and details. This means that we can reach the same conclusion on different paths: they must have something (or enough) in common with us to try and speculate on their possible intentions, using our own brains as tools. But what if they're beings from other dimensions? What if their worlds are located in other dimensions? What if they are beings of raw energy? What if their spaceships or their travels are interdimensional?

I will discard nothing. What is more, I have heard the above from many contactees....Ahhhh!! Wait a minute....because in this case we have already detected a contradiction or at least a matter that is difficult to explain. Because if this is the point, then I don't understand what they would find of interest to them in the "physical" world (our own planet, of course). Why appear thousands of times in their shiny vessels if they could do the very same thing from a higher dimension, in principle, without being noticed, since dimensions are interpenetrating (from the physical and mystical standpoint alike) Why descend from their vehicles at night and engage in unfathomable motions and actions? This is utterly ridiculous!

Furthermore, haven't contactees themselves told us that their communications are almost 100% mental, telepathic, etc.? Or does a contactee have to board a saucer to receive instruction? I've never heard such a tale from any contactee...The moral here is that they are either not interdimensional, nor do they travel through other dimensions, or all the reports compiled to date are frauds, hoaxes or errors, or obey some hitherto unknown natural phenomenon having nothing to do with aliens, saucers, etc.

Under no circumstances can I believe that beings having such scientific and/or technological development would have the need to scorch some fields on lonely nights, nor mutilate cattle for God-knows-what reason. Such silliness eludes all logical thinking and does not deserve the slightest analysis, so one would have to choose to believe one thing or another, but I fear that it's impossible to believe both at the same time.

Furthermore, the alternative of the hypothetical interdimensional origin of the ETs with their constant public appearances in the world in which we live is incompatible or irreconcilable with the concept of Energy, which has been well studied by the science known as physics. It is evident for anyone who handles the most basic rudiments of this discipline that a fundamental question arises: regardless of the methods employed, nor the energy sources to which they have access, nor their advancement relative to our own...if a saucer, for example, must traverse the vast distances of outer space, this would imply a truly massive consumption of energy, as any astrophysicist, physicist or astronomer very well knows, and which can even be calculated according to the circumstances. If rather than travelling through space, we imagine travel across dimensions, jumps from one dimension to another, etc. (with all the materializations and dematerializations involved) and the plethora of fantastic statements which I have heard, according to what we known about the structure of matter and some of its laws, this would involve a far greater energy expenditure than conventional travel.

Therefore, unless ET's are certifiably insane (which I doubt), it is unreasonable to choose (even if they had the wherewithal to do so), a process involving greater energy consumption over one that involves less. These processes are truly exorbitant. Things are not handled this way in the Universe...nor can two-headed, five-armed creatures do it, as I stated earlier (unless they have a screw loose, lost in some field at night...)

Any thinking beings, regardless of their galaxy, having to abide by such choices, is condemned beforehand by supine idiocy to never reach space even in a primitive capsule, as we did. In fact, I believe they would never even manage to develop a moderately advanced civilization. These points having been cleared, let us return to our main goal.

To avoid writing countless additional reasoning, it will be most expedient, I think to move on to the matter that interests us most: whether these beings have good or bad intentions toward us. It is not an easy question to address, of course, but we'll give it a shot...

• What could be going through the minds of these beings that flutter around our world?
• Why do they do it, or have chosen to do it since the past, regardless of what point in the past?
• What could be so interesting and important about Earth to them?

To judge by the available information, we can observe an attitude of investigation: they want to know our world, our cities, our soil, our atmosphere, our traits...things that are natural and reasonable in my view. If we someday manage to travel great distances and stumble across a planet inhabited by beings having certain sophistication, we would probably behave in much the same way. It is obvious that "they" would have realized that we are not only underdeveloped, not only technologically, but that we are unfortunately a race unable to overcome its warlike nature and a series of "bad habits" that makes us worthy of being kept at arms'length. This crucial point enables us to make a deduction from both the technological and temporal standpoints--given the extensive amount of time they have spent among us, they have had the occasion and the means to conquer us and/or enslave us. If they haven't done so it's because the have chosen not to...or because they don't exist...it's just that simple (at least for the time being).

What I really don't understand are the arguments wielded by so many people in the sense that it is illogical that after the tremendous effort involved to reach us, in energy alone, they should not show themselves openly and boldly.

Friends...if I was an ET and reached a planet having characteristics like our own, I might behave exactly the same way. I would carry out my assigned tasks (most likely of a scientific nature) and would have nothing at all to do with the planet's occupants, or would at least try not to. At most, I would try to take some random specimens for a more detailed study (abductions? kidnapping? Hmm. Rather interesting variables...)

Up to this point everything would appear to run smoothly in our line of reasoning, but there are certain matters that interfere with this line of thought. Firstly, Contactees tell us of the existence of supposedly telepathic channels that exist between themselves and the aliens. By means of said exchange, we now have enough information concerning their thought processes, intentions, purpose on Earth, etc. Are such exchanges at all feasible?

I would think so (since it has nothing to do with the subject of interdimensional travel or similar absurdities), since I don't have any elements that let me discard, ipso facto, a mental resonance between a human being, in this case, and an ET aboard a spacecraft circulating in our own atmosphere. I am well aware that this is a highly controversial subject, since telepathy is not scientifically proven in the lest...I am employing a rather unscientific argument which feels satisfactory to me. A case in point: I've lost count of the times that for various reasons I've thought of my beloved cat Ro-Ro (an animal!) only to have her, don't ask me how, pick up my thoughts and respond to them. If this isn't a mental link between myself and her, then somebody please explain to me what it is! (my apologies for such a simple example, but i have no inclination to steer from this subject and have to write many additional pages).

In any case--I repeat and I stress--my intention is not to unleash an argument on this point. I'm merely expressing my opinion freely, accepting that there are ideas diametrically opposed to mine.

Retaking the path of our analysis, I think that there is a vital key concealed herein to answer our initial question.

• It is indispensable to create interdisciplinary scientific teams to engage in a serious, rigorous and unprejudiced study of the Contactee phenomenon.

Said teams, after detecting and discarding hoaxers and impostors (of which I am not sure) must probe to the fullest extent possible, after a arduous, difficult and prolonged process, these people and the messages they receive. It is obvious that three conclusions will we reached, among others:

a. That it is impossible to draw any definitive conclusions (which I doubt).
b. That reasonable conclusions can be drawn which frame, within a reazonable percentage of certainty, that we are being visited by aliens.
c. That conclusions can be drawn as to the whole thing being explainable through alternative mechanisms, and that it is almost a certainty that there are no aliens to speak of.

It is almost childish to hint at the importance of these conclusions, regardless of alternative "b" or "c" being the winner.

Since I cannot constitute on my own, or insanely take on the faculties of an entire high-pressure work team in action, it becomes obvious that I lack the elements to judge the contents of the messages as being true. Doing so is meaningless in the context of being unable to support them by facts or serious studies made in this regard. I further understand that all of this exposition has
left many loose ends, which I myself have left untied. But the fact remains that it is a very complex matter and tying them up would mean retracing my steps and writing a whole lot more...an activity for which I unfortunately lack the time.

I can neither confirm nor deny that there are ETs spinning around out there, but if so, I tend toward believing that their activities are not unwholesome toward us. At least, as far as we can tell or guess at now, whether because their moral fiber is such...or because there are simply no ETs at all out there. All is relative, and it could be that the facts will prove me wrong tomorrow...I don't know...in fact, I have no reason to know...the progress of the events shall ultimately be the factor that determines the ultimate truth of the matter.

Salvador Freixedo - Reflections on the State of Ufology (2001)

[While researching material for another article I came across an old series of reflections by Salvador Freixedo that appeared in the 11th issue of the old INEXPLICATA journal. I thought to share these with you again, nine years after they first appeared. It is my belief that his conclusions have withstood the test of time--SC]

Reflections on the Current State of Ufology--May 2001
by Salvador Freixedo

- There are extra-human, intelligent (non-corporeal?) beings on our planet.

- For those without prejudice, the increasingly greater presence of UFOS in our skies and the mysterious and marvelous crop circles seen in so many countries are proof of this.

- We must put aside being surprised at their incomprehensible behavior.

- The presentation of new cases contributes to a fuller understanding, but it is of secondary importance. The phenomenon must today be considered from a sociological and psychological standpoint, related with the evolution of the human race.

- It is logical to lack a thorough understanding of them, since they hail from another dimension or plane of existence (in the same way that animals are only able to comprehend some of our actions).

- They have been on this world for millions of years, and have been here before we appeared.

- There exists the impression that some of them are arriving from beyond the planet.

- The reason they have not openly presented themselves is that they prefer to keep us believing that we own this planet and act with complete freedom. Along these lines, the reader shall discover other reasons for their secrecy.

- As is the case with humans, there are some among these beings who are evolved and beneficial to mankind, while there are other who are malevolent and only want to use us or toy with us.

- They make use of us in different ways (just like humans make use of animals in different ways) and we are unaware of being used.

- It would seem that they employ the subtle energy produced by our brain and our psyche as a whole (emotions, fears, hatred, pain, joy).

- It would seem that the presence of malevolent ones is felt with greater strength than that of the good ones. The latter appear to obey some cosmic law which consists of non-interference. The former do not abide by this law and their presence among us is much greater and noticeable.

- It is a great mistake to believe that since they are more technically advanced than we (to judge by the devices they use to move through our atmosphere) that they are also ethically evolved. Their actions tell us that this is not the case, although it may be thet their ethics are different from our own.

- Their means of traveling the Cosmos transcends our knowledge and the laws of physics, as noted by great physicists and mathematicians (i.e., Fred Hoyle and Perkins), and as the aliens themselves have said on many occasions. The "dogma" of nothing being able to exceed the speed of light is false, as accepted by experimental physicists.

- These superhuman intelligences created the different races of Man throughout the millennia using apes as stock (Curiously, DNA tests have shown that none of the current human races has any connection to the Neanderthal man). To judge by abundant fossil remains, our planet has been the home of many different human races (some of them giants) who have existed and vanished over the course of many millions of years, contrary to the beliefs stated by archaeologists and paleontologists.

- The intelligent non-human creatures among us are very diverse and have diverse origins. While some appear to hail from physical worlds similar to our own, others appear to come from other dimensions or planes of existence which are hard to locate in a physical realm, and very hard to envision in our minds, which are locked in a three-dimensional world. Nonetheless, these beings, while in our world, act according to our physical laws.

- Their purposes are also different and we are aware of rivalries and struggles among them.

- Some of these beings have the capacity to adopt completely human shapes, which enable them to live with us without being detected.

- Human religions have been invented by these beings as a strategy to control our minds. To implement them throughout the millennia, they have made use of humans who have been trained in a special way (Of course, I'm referring to the founders of all the great religions).

- All religions serve a specific purpose of the non-humans, although humans do not exactly know what this purpose may be. It probably has to do with the mental, emotional and social climate generated by each religion in the long run.

- The authentic miracles which come about in all religions are directly or indirectly the work of these beings and are aimed at binding the minds of the faithful.

- These non-human intelligences shave the capacity to influence the human mind at will. They normally do not do so individually, but have done it on a collective scale, influencing the course of human history. To do this, they have availed themselves of the leaders of many nations, who have unconsciously followed their indications. In many cases, these beings (often taken for gods) indicated their will through dreams, apparitions, inspirations or by using soothsayers and diviners who were consulted by kings and leaders.

- However, there is also the direct and individual influence of these beings on humans. In ufology, these individuals are known as "contactees". There are hundreds of thousands of them in all continents and social levels, although the majority of them keep it secret out of a fear of being considered insane. Some--the minority--have benefitted from contact. However, most of them have been negatively affected and their minds have been left disarrayed and confused. The fact is that the majority of these beings have a tendency to lie and toy with the contactee. We are to them what animals are to us: we love or hate animals, we can benefit them or hunt them down, but in the end, we always make use of them.

- Contact may be purely mental (as the contactee hears a voice within his head) or visual (apparently physical), as the contactee sees the object or the person communicating with him.

- The content of the message received by the contactee terms to be eschatological or cosmogonical in nature, heralding major changes and catastrophes due to the abuses we are inflicting upon the planet, or regarding the history of the Earth and the solar system. The being may present itself as a deity or higher being who urges the contactee to disclose the news and converts the site into a place of pilgrimage or worship where the masses may gather. These messages tend to combine some truths with many untruths.

- These beings, much like their vehicles, are normally invisible to the human eye, although they may become visible at will. On many occasions only small groups of people have seen them, but photo cameras, radar and underwater sonar have captured them an infinite number of times. In recent years there have been waves of UFOs seen by thousands of people (for example, in Mexico, Peru, Chile and Belgium) and in the 1950's, they were seen for an entire week over the U.S. Capitol. There are thousands of photographs and videos of these objects.

- The world's powers are not only in contact with one group or another of these beings, but have been collaborating with them for some fifty years on largely military projects involving a mechanical, psychic and biological technology completely unknown to the official scientific community. Some of these technologies were deployed during the Gulf War.

- The Great Powers deny such contact exists and have expended huge sums of money to keep humankind from knowing this. In their zeal to achieve this, they have bypassed constitutions and legal codes. But there is an infinity of proof to the contrary. The mass media has been bought off, deceived or gagged to keep the truth from being known. One of the most common ways to keep the masses from finding this out is to ridicule researchers, making them seem insane or anti-scientific, but on many occasions they have gone as far as to kill scientists and important persons who might divulge the truth.

- The SETI project, as well as Project Blue Book, the Condon, Robertson, and Sturrock Reports, and various Air Force statements are deceits perpetrated by the U.S. authorities to make people believe that serious study is being conducted on the subject.

- At this time, ufology's main task should be try to find to what extent the secret masters of the planet (among which the military is prevalent and not necessarily those who appear in the newspapers) are conniving with these alien intelligences and what are their ultimate aims.

- These great world leaders are contactee in their own way, and it is likely that they are being deceived like the majority of normal contactee. In this case, humanity is being led to the edge of a precipice.

- To judge by the enormous environmental deterioration (which has become a manifest change in the world's climate) and the state of social, mental and spiritual agitation throughout the planet, one cannot help but believe that we are being led to global catastrophe.

- There is the impression that ideologies, customs, technologies, amusements and economic systems which are suicidal to humanity are being imposed on us through the mass media, mainly television. World leaders, who are largely dishonest, corrupt and addicted to power, are blind to the serious problems facing humanity and are clumsily and unconsciously following the orders of something that wants to destroy humanity or enslave it.

- The majority of ufologists are upset that the great powers will not admit to the presence of these beings among us, while others believe that the time is approaching when they will have no choice but to make such an admission. But I wonder: when they speak to us, will they tell us the whole truth? And what will we do when they say it? Will we then become concerned over what the intentions of these cosmic beings or visitors may be?

- If they are among us, if they are more intelligent than us, and if they have spent so much time among us, it is only logical to believe that we have been manipulated and still manipulate us in some way, just as more evolved humans have manipulated and used less-evolved cultures in a thousand ways). Therefore, wouldn't it be convenient to start to find out what their intentions are, to channel them to our benefit or to defend against them should they prove harmful? I think that this is more important than presenting new cases, remain startled by their erratic behavior or express our discontent at officialdom's silence.

- If humanity finally becomes aware that it has been deceived and used for millennia, would this not be a great piece of news to stir us up and make us forsake false values we have hitherto considered basic or sacred (nations, races, religions, languages) but which in the long run have only promotes war, injustice and divisions, and began to change the horrors of human history into a more rational and just one? Have these "sacred values" been a ploy by these intelligences to keep us distracted and not realizing that we are slaves?

What is the ultimate purpose of these non-human intelligences? Discovering it should be ufology's avowed task. Are they invading us in some way, although we are unaware of it?

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

That Which Glistens: Paranormal Treasure
















That Which Glistens: Paranormal Treasure
By Scott Corrales

From Smaug the Dragon resting upon the hoarded wealth of the dwarves, to Conan the Barbarian finding the Treasure of Tranicos, lost hoards have been one of the key plot devices of heroic fantasy. Their equivalents in real life are no less inspiring, as there are few thins that can grip the human mind as much as the allure of a lost treasure-trove: gold and silver coins, precious jewels and adornments, exquisitely wrought decorations and other objects that bespeak the wealth of forgotten monarchs and lost kingdoms. From a child's dream of peg-legged pirates buying oak chests filled with doubloons and pieces of eight on some lonely island to exhaustive searches by scholars and adventurers, the search for the concealed wealth of yore has been the source of poems, books and motion pictures.

The siren-call intensifies, however, when a curse is said to rest upon the treasure...

From the Viceroyalties of the Spanish Main

One of Latin America's fabled treasure hoards is the one belonging to the Marquis of Yaví y Tojo, which had to be hauled away by forty mules burdened with gold and silver.

In 1679, Juan José Campero de Herrera a noble member of the knightly order of Calatrava (created from the remains of the Knights Templar), had the good fortune to marry well: his bride, Juana Bernardes de Obando, was the great-granddaughter of the famous General Zárate, who had been given enormous land-grands and money by the Spanish viceroy for having established a town in the Andean valley of Jujuy (modern Argentina). The Obando family's fiefdom extended from the vicinity of Humahuaca to the city of Tarija (modern Bolivia), giving the reader a fair idea of the extent of this land-grant. The knight of Calatrava therefore acquired, through marriage, a territory the size of Switzerland and Serbia combined, as well as the title of Marqués de Yaví y Tojo. After being pronounced man and wife, Campero de Herrera had acquired wealth, nobility and power in a single stroke.

Far from what one would expect after such unexpected bounty, Campero de Herrera did not sit back to enjoy his good fortune, but rather devoted himself to making improvements to his domain, building dams to control the flow of a nearby river, flour mills to feed the vast nations of natives under his sway, and installed facilities to retrieve abundant placer gold from the rivers. But even the best fairy tales have their down side: his wealthy bride proved barren and hopes of perpetuating the family name were dashed. Ever pious, Campero de Herrera built two churches to seek divine intervention in the vicissitudes of biology.

Modern historians have found church documents attesting to the wealth of the childless marquis: a business contract makes mention of three hundred and thirty quintales of silver (an old unit of measure equivalent to 100 kilograms) being mined at Cochinoca -- sixteen thousand kilograms of silver ore.

The marquis dug tunnels underneath his country house--Alicate--as a way to reach the mine workings and perhaps as exit routes in case of an attack by hostile natives. Perhaps Campero de Herrera could see the clouds gathering in the horizon; his excessive wealth and good fortune had led him to believe that it was possible to separate his fiefdom from the viceroyalty and run it as an independent domain. The plan failed, Campero de Herrera was forced to set all of his business documents and books to the torch. But there would be no impoverished exile for the knight of Calatrava--he loaded his fortune onto the backs of forty mules and vanished, along with his wife and retainers, in 1696, never to be seen again.

After this lengthy prologue, it is here that the "legend of the lost treasure of the Marqués de Yaví y Tojo" begins. Tradition holds that the marquis, unable to cross the Andes with such a fabulous burden, decided to bury his kingly wealth in a place from which it could be recovered at a later date. In order to avoid any problems involving faulty recall or geographical changes, the marquis drew symbols marking the site. These can be seen in a canyon overlooking the Yaví River and resemble odd hieroglyphics showing what appears to be a sea anchor and a feline figure. The locals are adamant that the scrawls are not native petroglyphs but marks made by the marquis to show the location of the treasure.

Relived of his burden, states the legend, the fugitive nobleman reached a wilderness known as Siete Corrales. There, it is said, Campero de Herrera and his wife were slain by natives who took the forty mules which still carried considerable quantities of food and valuables.

There are native structures in the La Mendieta mountain range which surrounds the area. Could these hold the marquis' lost silver treasure? Local ranchers believe that it would be possible to find the leather bags carried on muleback by dredging the Yuruma Creek, the body of water along which the ambush took place. This lost treasure awaits the brave souls willing to claim it.

But the Marquis of Yaví y Tojo's lost treasure isn't Argentina's only lost treasure trove: according to retired school principal Christina Coccari, the oral traditions of her country's Tuy region (a Guaraní word meaning "soft mud"), which includes the towns of Lavalle, Madariaga and Villa Gesell. In 1820, the fledgling Argentinean government built a series of forts to keep the nomadic tribes at bay. Wagons filled with bricks for this construction effort reached the area from Chascomús and three forts were erected--Juancho Viejo, Invernadas and La Porteña. The government then entrusted a military man, General Alzaga, with the task of colonizing the region and dispersing the Pampas tribesmen, who were known for their raids and for abducting the colonists' women and children. Ten years later, one such raid by the Pampean chieftain "Arbolito" (Little Tree) destroyed the forts and killed the settlers, except for one young woman who had survived along with a leather chest filled with silver and gold coins, buried at the foot of a tree marked by a hanging Rosary.

The young survivor told the tragic story to a priest, Father Castañeda, who ordered that the treasure chest be located. Despite their best efforts, this was never accomplished, for a local child had found the Rosary dangling from the tree and taken it to her mother.

Contemporary belief holds that the treasure chest is located in the "El Rosario" lagoon, but that the hoard is "accursed" due to the blood that was spilled over it, and will therefore represent a source of misfortune for anyone who comes across it.

In the Mexican Desert

Mexico reputedly holds a number of undiscovered treasures that are waiting to be claimed by an intrepid adventurer. One of them is the so-called "Tesoro del Fraile" (the Friar's Treasure) buried somewhere in the northern state of Coahuila. During the gold and silver boom times that pervaded throughout the Mexican viceregal area, a number of treasure troves were stolen and concealed. This particular one, according to historian Rubén Dávila Farías, involves a series of letters written by Fray Pedro de Noyola, a priest who left Mexico during the country's War of Independence. In one missive, dated January 20, 1811, the priest asks Cipriano Lozoya, a resident of port of Veracruz, to go north to Coahuila to find a buried treasure: "It will not be possible for me to return to that country in which I lived so joyfully...but perhaps chance may lead you, my friend to a happy and wild region known as the Bolsón de Mapimi, where you shall find a hill known as La Bufa. On that hill, with its face toward the rising sun in the month of May, you can see a [mountain] range that dominates that height and two smaller hills not too far away. The point of reference I must give you is known as Antiguo Mineral de Mapimí..." the priest goes on to explain that in a cave halfway up the small western hill, known as Guadalupe, there is a cave. The treasure hunter was to walk a distance of "twenty rods" from the cave entrance and dig "three rods down" to find four strongboxes containing gold and silvery jewelry belonging to the Church, plus an alleged 200 boxes of gold and silver coins "minted with the effigy" of King Charles V.

A further, grislier find would also be the bones of the 4 mules used to haul this amazing wealth.Elena González, a resident of Torreón in the State of Coahuila, told television journalist Nino Canún in 1993 that she possessed the "gift of voices" and that one such voice had guided her and her friends to a series of caves where she found a "little bag of cloth containing sixteen silver pieces". Had Ms. González been given a foretaste of the greater wealth of the Friar's Treasure?

Nostradamus Sees Treasure

Michel de Nostradamus, born in 1503 in the village of Saint Remy, in Provence, has been considered by many as the most important post-Biblical prophet for the enigmatic and verses known as the Centuries. Michel was the great-grandson of Pierre de Nostradamus, a court physician who attended the kings and dukes of France. Born into a family of mathematicians and philosophers, Nostradamus's work has been interpreted and re-interpreted to suit all manner of interests. Many have overlooked some of the lesser quatrains utterly unrelated to eschatology--and one of them has to do with lost treasure.
The 27th Quatrain (XXVII) reads thus:
Dessous de chaine Guien du Ciel frappé.
Non loing da lá est caché le tresor,
Qui par long siecles avoir esté grappé,
Trouver mourra, l'oeil crevé de ressor.
("Under the mountains of Guyana by heaven punished
Not far away there is treasure concealed,
Having for long ages being sealed
Death to he who finds it, eyes by springs pierced")


The 27th quatrain, a prophecy having nothing to do with the rise or fall of kings or great wars, has been ignored, as have been others, such as the 10th -- interpreted by some as foretelling the rise of cinematography as an art ("serpents sealed in cages of iron"). The revelation of a hidden treasure trove in the Guyana Highlands is certainly fascinating, and no one has ever made an effort to find it. The treasure, says Nostradamus, will remain inviolate and the curse upon the first one to lay eyes upon it shall remain in force. The "eyes by springs pierced" suggest some ingenious booby trap set by the filibuster or pirate who was forced to leave his wealth in this remote, inhospitable location. Such devices, reminiscent of the harrowing experiences of the fictional Indiana Jones in the opening moments of Raiders of the Lost Ark, are known to have existed. It is believed that the tomb of Shi Huangdi, the legendary Yellow Emperor, is still defended by arrows set on hair-triggers.

A Succession of Spirit Guardians

It isn't enough for a hoard to be accursed by its previous owner or due to the violence that has characterized efforts at seeking its possession: sometimes supernatural guardians are appointed to guard the treasure, and perform their task with chilling efficiency. Among the considerable holdings of the Cleveland Public Library we come across two fascinating occult tomes, the Libellus Magicus and the Praxis Magica. These volumes, which apparently formed part of the collection of A.E. Waite, the renowned occultist. The Libellus, also known as The True Magical Work of the Jesuits, contains a variety of conjurations and spells, among them "St. Cyprian's Invocation of Angels and his Conjuration of the Spirits Guarding Hidden Treasure" -- a means by which a treasure hunter may adjure the paranormal forces to relinquish the treasures entrusted to their care. Such supernatural aids would probably come in handy to the brave souls willing to dare some lost hoards, such as the one allegedly contained within the Khabriat Douma cave system in the mountains of Lebanon. Important due to its strategic value, the town of Douma attracted the attention of conquerors throughout the ages until it was finally burned down by the Ottoman Turks in the 17th century. According to local legends, a vast treasure of unknown origin can be found beneath the rocky outcropping known as Mar Nohra, and that there are inscriptions and carvings nearby that are clues to its location. The intricate cave system, according to experts, was used in ancient times for military purposes and is linked to the fortress of Al-Hossein. Lebanese tradition holds that a princess hid her wealth in boxes inside this cave system, hence its name, "Cave of Boxes"; it is further believed that the ancient hoard is protected by a type of local magic known as rasad, which punishes treasure hunters by ruining their businesses, possessions and families. Other Middle Eastern hoards are protected by more fearsome guardians, such as the efreeti.

Similar supernatural protectors are not unknown in the Americas, either: the cave known as La Malinche in the state of Veracruz is believed to contain a hidden treasure--whether Aztec or Spanish is unknown--that is protected by the ghost of La Malinche herself, the woman who aided the conquistador Hernán Cortes as a translator. Legend holds that the beautiful revenant offers the treasure to anyone unlucky enough to pass her way, warning them that if they are unable to extract the hoard, they will be trapped forever within the caves.

In Britain's Cornwall, tradition holds that the odd and still unexplained structures known as fogous play a role in supernatural treasure. These Celtic structures appear to have played a role in local folklore and were considered to contain evil spirits assigned to protecting a particular trove. Modern adventurers entering these structures have been treated to a host of paranormal events, ranging from hearing voices to encountering apparitions of what may be the reputed "guardians" of lost treasure.

American Spiritualist Emma Hardinge discussed the 19th century belief surrounding the discovery of gold or treasure: Spirits were able to lead mortals to uncover treasure troves or even lesser bounties like misplaced deeds or wills (Modern American Spiritualism, 439). If the treasure hunter placed his or her trust in spirit guides and treasure was indeed found, "it proved the belief in spirits by its fruits." Hardinge adds the interesting side note that American folklore had associated treasure with discarnate entities before the mid-19th century boom in such beliefs. It was believed that "Indian or pirate spirits" were the protected hidden wealth against unworthy seekers.

Treasures of Brazil

To the north of the Brazilian capital city of Brasilia lies the State of Tocantíns, which holds huge semi-desertic regions crossed by the Balsas and Sono Rivers -- not the image that comes to most people's minds when thinking about Brazil. This scarcely populated and seldom traversed region of the country is considered to be accursed: truck drivers on their way to make deliveries claim to have seen "beautiful women" emerge from nowhere, lights dancing among the sand dunes, and others lights that engage in vehicle chases. The region's reputation as an unholy location was only heightened in 1994 when, according to journalist Pablo Villarubia, a tractor-trailer suffered a mechanical breakdown in the middle of the desert. Twenty days later, the driver's corpse--half eaten by vultures--was found, clutching a stick with which he had tried to keep the carrion birds away.It is only fitting that an area such as this should have a "lost" source of wealth: the legendary Los Martirios gold mine.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the bandeirantes or expeditioners who cut their way into the forbidding Brazilian heartland were looking for that country's version of El Dorado: a lagoon filled with gold, silver and emeralds, crowned by a city whose inhabitants lived like kings. The Colonial explorers set out to find them and even established a number of towns to serve as bases for forays. While no city was found, the adventurers came across the Paraupava River and its gold deposits. A village named Araés was established and mineral wealth was exploited, but as it became increasingly harder to extract gold, the settlers became dispirited and the village was abandoned to the elements. In the mid-20th century, explorer and historian Manoel Rodrigues Ferreira was able to ascertain that the "lost" Los Martirios gold mine had been found--over the centuries, the river had undergone a name change to Araguaia and the village of Araés had vanished from the maps.

Conclusion

Aside from the thrill of acquiring sudden wealth--a constant in almost every culture on earth--the notion of finding buried treasure, much like a child's fabled discovery of "pirate treasure" lying under a large black "X" on a tattered map, has led many adventurers to expend both capital and human lives on such endeavors, with the legendary "Money Pit" of Oak Island being one of the most memorable examples. The belief that the gold of dead kings is tantalizingly within our reach will be with us forever, even if said riches are protected by forces beyond our imagination.