by Charles Lear
In 1973, there was a worldwide wave of UFO associated humanoid encounters. Arguably, the most famous of these was the alleged abduction in Pascagoula, Mississippi, of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker. They reported being forcibly taken aboard a craft by three, approximately five-foot-tall, robot-like, elephant-skinned creatures with crab claw-like hands, no eyes, a slit for a mouth and cone-shaped protrusions where the nose and ears would be on an earthly creature. While the creatures described by Hickson and Parker are unique in UFO literature, what is common to the 1973 humanoid wave is that most of the creatures described were unique. One report that stands out came from the city of Vilvoorde in Belgium. It was investigated by the Societé Belge d’Etude des Phénomènes Spatiaux, and an article describing the reported encounter written by Jean-Luc Vertongen appears in the SOBEPS journal, Inforespace No. 18, 1974. It was translated by Gordon Creighton and included in Flying Saucer Review, Vol. 20, No. 6.
In the world of UFOlogy, some stories continue on, even after they’ve been convincingly debunked. This is often due to a particular story’s entertainment value and, it should be remembered, many UFO stories exist in an area between fiction and fact. If we were to assign this area a genera name, perhaps “true science fiction” might be appropriate. The idea that a fantastic story could be true, makes the story that much more interesting and suspension of disbelief is something everyone engages in when they want to be entertained. One such story, a biographical tale under the byline, Fred Reagan, appeared in the May 1953 issue of Action magazine. It could be held up as an example of what many paranormal enthusiasts call, “high strangeness.” However, it seems to be what folklorists call, “a tall tale.”
He found himself inside a dimly lit room surrounded by strange beings. They were around three feet tall and resembled “huge stalks of metallic asparagus.” He lost consciousness. When he came to, a metallic voice spoke to him through a speaker. Using broken English, the voice apologized for the collision, saying it had been an accident. It explained they were here to observe our primitive civilization and that their mission was peaceful. The voice further told him that they’d examined him and found a cancerous tumor, which they “adjusted.” He was instructed not to talk about the incident, as no one would believe him.