Podcast UFO

By Charles Lear

Occasionally, a good, solid, interesting UFO case will slip away from memory only to be rediscovered, years later by an alert researcher.  A 1967 case involving a New York woman, Emma Funk, is a perfect example.  This case was found recently by New York based researcher and author, Linda Zimmermann, and discussed on the Hudson River Radio show she hosts, “UFO Headquarters.”  The Hudson River Valley of New York has long been an active area for UFO sightings and is particularly well known for a wave in the 1980s involving low flying, silent, black triangles, some the size of a football field.  The incident involving Funk occurred in Millerton, NY, which is just east of the Hudson River Valley near the Connecticut border.  It involved a collision with an object while driving and was remarkably similar to a case familiar to many, the “Val Johnson Incident”, that happened 12 years later.

On Tuesday morning, July 18, 1967, Emma Funk reported an incident to local police. Village patrolman Lewis Lindsay described the report for an article, which appeared in the July 19th edition of the Poughkeepsie Journal.  According to the article, Funk was driving home after work on Monday at 11:25 PM.  She was heading north on route 22, when an object the size of a softball hit her windshield.  At that moment, her headlights went out, her car stalled and the inside of the car was filled with a bright light.  Funk was dazed and when she regained her composure and got the car back in motion, she realized she was driving south, in the opposite direction.  Lindsay checked the car, saw that there was a crack in the windshield and noted that he couldn’t make a determination as to its cause.  The article mentions that there had been “recurring reports of unidentified flying objects in Northeast Dutchess County.”  Lindsay said that there was a search planned in the area to try to locate “the sphere” but wouldn’t speculate whether the incident had any connection with the reported UFOs.

A follow up article in the August 5th edition of the same paper describes a meeting at LaGrange Town Office hosted by Aerial Investigations Research Corps Inc. where Funk’s windshield was on display.  The object is described in this article as baseball sized and black with an orange glow.  A.I.R.’s president, William Donovan, announced at the meeting that the windshield would be sent to the physics department of Syracuse University for “chemical and ballistics tests” and that pictures of it would be sent to the Condon committee.  The Condon committee was a group at the University of Colorado that was studying the UFO phenomenon on behalf of the Air Force.

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by Charles Lear

When it comes to popular culture, the Japanese people seem to have as much of an appetite for science fiction and the paranormal as the people in the United States.  With stories ranging from ghosts to Godzilla to aliens, Japanese media from film to comic book has not only entertained Japanese people, but people worldwide.  Despite the popularity of otherworldly subjects in that country, the Japanese government and its people have a history of being conservative regarding the subject of UFOs. According to journalist and television producer Michi Saito, “to most of the Japanese, they’re accepted as more like a mysterious fantasy.”  Japanese officials have only recently acknowledged a need to have some sort of official UFO policy.  This comes in the aftermath of the U.S. Department of Defense’s recent release of official UFO videos. That’s not to say there haven’t been believers within official circles or that there have been no significant cases in the country.  Japan’s UFO history goes back well before the 20th century and there are enough Japanese believers, researchers and enthusiasts to keep that history alive.

There are alleged reports from as early as 1015 that have been passed from author to author and all around the internet.  They’re interesting but they lack any reference to an original source from the period, or at least, one that can be found by a shameless armchair researcher.  One report, however, does come with an original source citation, and an explanation as wonderfully ridiculous as some of those offered by our modern debunkers. From the book, “Azuma Agami” a chronicle covering the years 1180 to 1266, comes a UFO report that was investigated by what could loosely be called, “scientific consultants.”  On October 2, 1235, Shogun, Yoritsune Suketoshi, reported that strange lights had been seen in the southwest, swinging and circling.  He ordered his astrology consultants, who had a good knowledge of astronomy, to investigate.  After consideration, they reported that the cause of the strange light activity was the wind causing the stars to sway.

Another ancient episode brought up by UFOlogists is known as the “Utsuro-bune” incident, which, according to legend, took place on February 22, 1803.  Utsuru-bune translates to “hollow boat” and it refers to a vessel that washed up on a beach in Hitachi province.  Inside was a woman with red hair who spoke a strange language.  No one was able to communicate with her so she was returned to the sea.  The description of the boat mentions wood and tree resin, which seems to make it a poor candidate for a spaceship. Read more →

Abstract: Nearly 25% of the universe is composed of a mysterious substance known as dark matter (while 70% of the cosmos is something called “dark energy”) making it the height of hubris to think that we know all there is to know about physics and astronomy today. This talk will review the strong evidence behind the existence of dark matter, such as gravitational lensing, then discuss how it might lead to naturally occurring anomalies not involving craft piloted by intelligent beings at all. Next, I will cover the possibility for its use as fuel for interstellar flight, one that can be gathered in transit, given its natural abundance being 5x that of interstellar hydrogen.

by Charles Lear

  Every so often, there are concentrations of UFO sightings reports, known as flaps or waves that receive a substantial amount of press coverage.  This occurred in the U.S. in the early years of the modern UFO era and the press generated by one flap in 1952, which included sightings over the Capital, caused a great deal of concern in Washington.  In 1954, there was a flap that was worldwide that involved reports of not only flying saucers, but also of landed saucers and humanoid occupants.  There are reports on record from South America to Africa and the Middle East but the heaviest concentration was over France.  It was there 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 and was inspired by Michel’s work to go on to even greater prominence as a respected and influential figure in the field.

On September 10, 1954, an incident was reported to police by a 34 year-old man in Quarouble that went on to be covered by the press extensively, not only in France, but worldwide.  Marius Dewilde told police that at 10:30 PM, he was sitting in his house by the railroad tracks, when his dog, Kiki, started barking outside.  Dewilde went to investigate, bringing his flashlight, as it was dark.  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 shined his flashlight at them and it reflected off of what he perceived was a helmet on one of the figures, both of which he estimated to be about a meter in height.  At that moment, a door opened up on the side of the object, a blinding light came out and Dewilde said he was paralyzed by fear.  He closed his eyes and when he opened them, the object had risen ten meters in the air and it then shot off to the west like “lightning.” Later, indentations were found in railroad ties that were thought to have possibly come from the object’s landing gear.  As the story made its way from newspaper to newspaper, Dewilde’s being paralyzed by fear turned into Dewilde being paralyzed by a beam of light.

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Just published for Den of Geek, Alejandro Rojas sat down with army veteran Colonel John Alexander and author Robert Powell to break down the Department of Defense’s recently declassified UFO videos, now formerly released by the Pentagon

By Charles Lear

 It often occurs among UFO enthusiasts that people will form a belief in a case and find it difficult to let go of that belief in spite of evidence that the case was more than likely a hoax.  The alleged 1948 crash and retrieval of a flying disk near Aztec, New Mexico is a classic example.  This case has spawned the well-known 1950 book by Frank Scully, “Behind the Flying Saucers”, two books that gave it new life, one in 1986 and one in 2011, and two extraordinary articles in True magazine that should serve as a model for investigative journalism.

Things got rolling on March 8, 1950 with a lecture at the University of Denver on the subject of flying saucers.  The lecturer spoke before a large group of students and remained anonymous for alleged security reasons.  He was originally chosen to provide a Basic Science class studying critical thinking something to work with but the word got out and, due to popular demand, it was necessary to move the lecture to a larger hall.  The man started with some background history, speculated that the craft were operated using magnetic propulsion and then mentioned that there had been four crashes and retrievals in America and a fifth in Africa.  A local paper wrote an article about the lecture and the hunt was on for the lecturer’s identity.  It was eventually discovered that the man in question was Silas P. Newton, who represented himself as a prominent geophysicist and businessman in the oil industry.  He happened to be a friend of Frank Scully, who was a writer for Variety, and Scully realized that he had a good story on his hands.  He talked with Newton who introduced him to a colleague who would be referred to only as “Dr. Gee” by Scully and the result was “Behind the Flying Saucers” published in September of that year.  It was in this book that details of the Aztec crash and retrieval were made public to a wide audience and a case was born that refuses to die in spite of evidence that the event in question never happened.

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