by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
Reports of people suffering physical effects after being zapped by UFOs appears often enough in UFO literature that an author could devote an entire book to them. In 1980, there was such a report out of Foxboro, Massachusetts, that was looked into by local investigators. A detailed account and analysis of the case by Ed Fogg and Joe Nyman appears in the January 1981 New England UFO Newsletter, put out by the New England UFO Study Group, under the front-page headline, “Light-Beam Paralysis, Possible Communication, and Physical Effects in Foxboro, Ma. Close Encounter.”
In a preface to the report, it is explained that while the witness, a 13-year-old boy, and his parents had given permission to have their names made public, the investigators chose to keep them anonymous to avoid “unthinking publicity” and “inquiry bordering on harassment” they’d seen with other cases.
In the “Editor’s Comment,” it is noted that had the investigators come upon the case a month later, they might have dismissed it due to the age of the witness and the facts that he had an interest in astronomy, had started a UFO club, and was well-read on the subject. However, because they got to the scene within 2 ½ hours after the reported incident, they were able to see evidence first-hand that would have faded over time and hear testimony from the witness about his experience, parts of which his mother later reported were being repressed.
According to the investigators, Ray Fowler got a call at around 6:45 p.m. from a couple he knew from work whose son had claimed to have seen a UFO at around 6:35 p.m. At around 7:00 p.m., Fowler called Joe Nyman, an investigator he knew who lived closest to the couple’s residence.
Nyman called the residence and spoke with the boy’s mother who said her son had been in the backyard for about 5-10 minutes checking the hardness of the ground in anticipation of dirt-bike racing the next day. He then came in white-faced saying he’d seen a UFO and had been hit in the chest by a beam of light from it that briefly paralyzed him. He said the light diminished, he was able to move again, and run towards the backstairs of the house. When he turned around, the UFO, in the investigators’ words, “shrunk to a red ball, and was now making right-angle turns.”
According to the investigators, the mother tried to convince her son that he had seen a police helicopter on patrol looking for “housebreakers,” which was something that had been seen before. The boy became angry and went to his stepfather. He told him his story and drew a picture of what he said he’d seen, which included a step and rectangles to indicate its movement.
The boy’s parents sent him off to his scheduled Boy Scout meeting and called Fowler.
After getting the call from Fowler, Nyman called Fogg, who lived in Foxboro, and the two went to the house. When they got there, they found that the boy had just gotten back with his Scoutmaster and had not been told they were coming.
According to the investigators, the first account the boy gave them was cursory, and the questioning turned to the behavior of the family dog. The boy reported that while the dog had gone to a spot in the living room at 6:00 p.m. where it usually went to sulk after being yelled at, he didn’t think this was unusual because the dog got upset easily.
It is noted that the boy hadn’t told anyone at the Scout meeting about the incident and had only asked his Scoutmaster and others in the car if they believed in UFOs or had ever seen one. The Scoutmaster confirmed this. The boy had also asked his mother not to say anything because he was afraid people might think he was “bananas.” The investigators felt that these factors seemed “to rule out a hoax for lack of a motive.”
The boy retold his story after becoming more relaxed. According to him, he was in the backyard when he heard a high-pitched humming that sounded like someone “rubbing the top of a wine glass.” Then, the object was “just there, like someone turning a light on.”
The object came towards him, and as it did, the noise got louder, and its pitch got lower. A light came on that hit him directly without having to search, he felt a tingling sensation, and found he couldn’t move.
In his mind, he started hearing “weird noises” like someone was talking to him. He said “it was like a mumbling,” and that “they were talking all squeaky” going “low, high, all different ways.” He said, “they were doing all different things like a two-year-old would do… but they sounded educated.”
The noise and the light diminished, and he was able to run towards the backstairs of the house. As he did so, he felt the light was still on him, and he turned around. The light diminished, as did the tingling sensation, and he was able to run faster.
When he got to the back porch, he turned around again and saw the object shrink into a red ball, possibly because it was moving away, and it then started to make right-angle turns.
According to the investigators, at 10:30 p.m., one of them asked the boy to check himself for any unusual marks. He and his father went into a bedroom, and when they came out, the boy was shirtless, and the investigators could clearly see a red mark on his chest. Nyman ran his finger along it and assured himself it wasn’t the result of an “applied coloring agent.” It was also felt that due to the uniform color, the mark wasn’t made by scratching. A picture of the boy’s chest is included in the report.
The investigators list a number of “physiological/psychological effects” which include the boy complaining of stomach pains and feeling warm during the questioning. According to them, on a form he filled out listing a variety of “effects,” he put checkmarks indicating he was blinded, felt a burning sensation, was paralyzed, and experienced involuntary movement as well as a personality change.
After the investigators left, the case took a turn. The boy didn’t want to sleep alone and slept with his stepfather. He began talking in his sleep, and his mother recorded it. A transcript is included, and it seems like the boy was dreaming about being abducted. When the investigators continued with the case, the family reported incidents that made it seem as if there was a poltergeist in the picture as well.
Next week: High strangeness.