by Charles Lear

Hoaxes have been a part of the flying saucer/UFO mystery from its very beginning. Shortly after Kenneth Arnold’s sighting report on June 24, 1947, people started coming forward with physical disks they claimed to have found in their yards, in fields, or to have actually seen flying through the air in flames and then crash. Claimants ranged from school children to professional adults, and there is even a report from a Catholic priest that received a good deal of press. The priest’s case, as well as others of this sort ended up in FBI files. The disks that were displayed were obviously home made, sometimes quite crudely, but there was the possibility that these could be responsible for valid sightings reports by people who were truly mystified. Read more →

by Charles Lear

From Japan comes a case originally investigated by renowned Japanese researcher Kinichi Arai. This writer was unable to locate any sources other than blogs written about the case many years later, but it’s worth sharing.

According to the account on the site Great Plains Paranormal (reader mode is strongly suggested) at around 3:00 a.m. on April 6, 1974, Hokkaido farmer, Yoshihiro Fujiwara, was awakened by a loud knocking on his door, and the barking and howling of his dog. He opened the door and almost collided with a three-meter-tall creature (another account describes it as being 3 feet tall) wearing a transparent vinyl suit.

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Chapter 7 In Charles Lear’s Book

While 1954 in America was mostly about the saucers, that year in France was more about the occupants, also known as “humanoids.” It was then that French researcher Aimé Michel came to international prominence as he investigated, collected data, and tried to unravel the mystery. A young Jaques Vallée first became interested in flying saucers at this time. He was later inspired by Michel’s work and went on to achieve prominence as a respected and influential figure in the field.

On September 10, 1954, 34-year-old Quarouble resident Marius Dewilde reported an incident to the local police that received extensive press coverage, not only in France, but worldwide. According to Dewilde, at 10:30 p.m. he was sitting in his house, located next to some railroad tracks, when his dog, Kiki, started barking outside. Equipped with a flashlight, he went to investigate.

Outside, he noticed a large object, which he assumed was a harvest cart, six meters from his front door. He then saw two figures on a nearby path that was often used by smugglers. He pointed his flashlight at them, and there was a reflection on what seemed to be a glass helmet with a head inside. He only got a quick look, but the head seemed especially large. He estimated the figures were both about a meter in height. Read more →

by Charles Lear

From Canada comes a case that stands out for the large number of UFO occupants said to have been seen by the witnesses, the amount of time the witnesses reportedly observed them, the trace evidence observed by the investigators, and a visit by two men in black.

The case is described in the November 1974 Mutual UFO Network publication Skylook. The investigators are listed as Jean Roy, P.H. Blaquiere, Marc Leduc, and Wido Holville. The report on which the article, titled “Robot Occupants Report,” was based was written by Holville.

According to the article, at around 1:30 a.m. on June 25, 1974, Mr. L. (the witnesses’ names are withheld) was watching television in his mobile home in St. Cyrille de Wendover, Province Quebec, Canada. He heard a noise like something falling on the ground outside and went to look out a window to see what might have caused it. He lifted a curtain and saw a reddish-orange object hovering over the field to the northeast of his home. It was round and so brightly illuminated that he couldn’t look at it for long.

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by Charles Lear

Capturing a UFO in a photo or video is the goal of many UFO enthusiasts, but wouldn’t it be great to physically capture a UFO and examine it? From Japan comes the story of a group of young boys who claimed to have done just that. According to them, it was a small hat-shaped object that eventually managed to escape from them, but not before they were able to make some detailed drawings of it. The story made international news and is still discussed today. Japanese researcher, Otakupapa, wrote a well-researched six-part series about the case titled, “Amazing Japanese Boys Who Captured a Small UFO in 1972,” and published on his site, otakupapa.net.

The story as told by Otakupapa begins with a report by eighth grade middle school student Michio Seo that at around sunset on August 25, 1972, he had seen a small, strange object flying around a rice field. According to him, it would move instantly from one position to another as if it were teleporting.

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There are many UFO reports that involve injuries to witnesses. A particularly dramatic case from Hobbs, New Mexico, in 1964 involved an eight-year-old boy named Charles who was reportedly burned by a black, top-shaped UFO. While his face swelled up to where his nose reportedly disappeared, he felt no pain. Injury reports come from all over the world, but Brazil seems to have had more than its fair share. Bob Pratt, a UFO investigator who had a long career as a journalist that included a stint as the head of the UFO desk at the National Enquirer, traveled extensively in Brazil and collected UFO and occupant reports that have a common thread of violence to the witnesses.

Pratt wrote a book titled, UFO Danger Zone: Terror and Death in Brazil – Where Next?, that was published in 1996. In his acknowledgements, he thanks the many Brazilian citizens and investigators who helped him. In his introduction, he describes making over ten visits to Brazil between May 1978 and July 1993. He lists the elements peculiarly common in Brazilian reports, including: the sudden appearance of a UFO over a witness’s head followed by “a burst of sunlight” and a subsequent chase by the UFO as the witness runs, attempts to pull the witness up into the UFO using an unseen source and sometimes grappling hooks, and UFO occupants dropping hot liquids on the witnesses to make them let go of whatever they might have grabbed in an attempt to resist being taken away. Read more →

by Charles Lear

Brazil has a unique place in UFO history, not only for the abundance of high-strangeness UFO reports that come from that region, but also for the fact that people have been reportedly injured and have even died as a result of their alleged encounters. One such case comes from the Brazilian city of Varginha. In this case, not only is there a report of a witness dying, there are also reports that one, and maybe more, extraterrestrials ended their days here on Earth.

Bob Pratt, a UFO researcher who manned the National Enquirer’s UFO desk for a period and covered South American UFO reports extensively, presented a narrative summary of the case in his 1996 book, UFO Danger Zone: Terror and Death in Brazil – Where Next? He was in Brazil shortly after the events and his summary is based on witness accounts and reports from the primary investigators. Read more →

Ariel Phenomenon

  Based on the true story of Zimbabwe’s Ariel School UFO sighting, witnessed by over sixty schoolchildren

Directed by Randall Nickerson

Premiering and for purchase at arielphenomenon.com

May 20, 2022 

More information click here: https://podcastufo.com/breaking-news-ariel-phenomenon-movie/

by Charles Lear

In last week’s blog, we took a look at a case from Kofu, Japan, that involved two seven-year-old boys, Masato Kono and Katushiro Yamahata, who reported seeing a saucer-shaped UFO and its occupants in a vineyard in 1975. The creatures were described as having brown heads with pinky-sized, horizontal wrinkles where a face would be; three silver, metallic, two-inch fang-like features where a mouth would be; and two rabbit-like ears with a hole in the middle of each one. One of the creatures confronted the boys and emitted a noise like a sped-up tape recorder in what seemed to be an attempt to communicate. They ran away to Kono’s home where their parents were having dinner and they excitedly told their story. Kono’s mother thought they had made it up as an excuse for being late, but the boys insisted it was true and pleaded with their mothers to go with them and see for themselves. The boys would soon be forgiven for being late and would become the center of attention for many interested parties.

Masako Kono and Hanae Yamahata followed their boys out to a road on the west side of the Hinode Complex where the Konos lived. With them were Hanae’s one-year-old son and four-year-old daughter. From there, they had a view of the vineyard where the boys said they’d seen the saucer and the creatures. Read more →

by Charles Lear

On November 26, 1979, police in the French agglomeration community of Cergy-Pontoise received a strange missing person report from two distressed young men. According to Jean-Pierre Prévost and Salomon N’Diaye, their friend, Franck Fontaine, disappeared after a ball of light that was accompanied by three or four luminous spheres engulfed the car he was in. This resulted in not only an investigation by the police but also GEPAN (Groupe d’Études des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés), the unit of CNES (Centre National D’études Spatiales) tasked with dealing with UFO reports.

According to an article on the case titled L’Affaire de Cergy-Pontoise, posted on rrO.org, Fontaine, 18, Prévost and N’Diaye, both 25, were loading a Ford station wagon with jeans they were going to try and sell at Gisors market. They saw a light heading towards the ground at a “not too fast speed.” Fontaine drove towards where he thought it might have made impact after telling the other two to meet him there. Prévost and N’Diaye went back to their nearby apartments, N’Diaye to get a camera and Prévost to get another load of jeans. Read more →