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.
The press was now paying attention and many more sightings and encounters followed. The two types of craft most often reported were, “soucoupes volantes” and “cigar volantes” which translate to flying saucers and flying cigars respectively. The cigar volantes were sometimes called, “Churchills” due to the constant presence of a cigar in the mouth of the famous British Prime Minister. In addition to the craft there were many reports of small humanoid occupants in “diving suits”, hairy dwarves, electrical and mechanical malfunctions mostly involving stalled cars, and more paralysis inducing rays of light. According to Vallée, “The ‘flying saucer’ began to lose its academic character and entered the experience of daily life. It completely monopolized the press and general conversation.”
Because of all the press coverage, people started seeing saucers and little creatures everywhere. Researcher and publisher, James Moseley wrote in an edition of Nexus that in the village of Walshied, a report of creatures in a local garden caused a panic. Villagers armed with guns and other weapons marched on the garden to find that the reported creatures were, in fact, large chrysanthemums. Moseley also wrote about a case reported in the French publication, Radar that almost turned deadly. M. Pierre Langlois, of the Cher Valley district, was walking home in the rain when he came upon what he perceived to be a spaceman in a luminous suit with a metal claw coming out of his sleeve, mounting a ray gun on his spaceship. Langlois quickly went home, got his shotgun, came back and fired at the creature. A few minutes later, a motorist passing by stopped and gave assistance to M. Andre Lacoste, in a white raincoat, who had buckshot in his ribs and arms. The spaceship was a Renault, the ray gun a carburetor and the metallic claw was a monkey wrench.
Despite the more farcical episodes, there were cases to be taken seriously that were reported by what were called in French, “digne de foi” or what we would term, “credible witnesses.” On October 18th, in Gelles, police officer M. Bachelard reported he was driving a police van, making his rounds. At 5:30 PM, he came upon a cigar shaped object that was approximately ten meters long and two to three meters high. His van started misfiring and he experienced feelings of semi-paralysis. He then found himself entering the village of Coheix, which was not part of his route, with no recollection of how he got there.
In the midst of all the press, there was no shortage of opinions regarding the cause of all the sightings. In the October 25, 1954 edition of Time, famed psychaitrist, Carl Jung, posited that the sightings were either hallucinations brought on by cold war fears or actual alien craft. In the October 24, 1954 American Weekly, Professor Hermann Oberth was far more definite and declared, “It is my thesis that flying saucers are real and that they are space ships from another solar system.”
American researchers were divided. The Air Force traditionally discounted reports involving humanoids and this had influenced consultant J. Allen Hynek’s thinking. Hynek would later become more open to such reports after investigating the April 24, 1964 incident in Socorro, New Mexico. Donald Keyhoe of National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena had also avoided such reports and preferred to focus on sightings corroborated by radar. However, one American group of researchers, Civilian Saucer Investigators, was not only open to humanoid reports, they also had a relationship with Aimé Michel, having translated his book, “Lueurs Sur Les Soucoupes Volantes” (The Truth About Flying Saucers) into English. This openess would lead CSI researcher, Isabel Davis to investigate the Kelly-Hopkinsville Incident, which involved goblin-like creatures frightening a family in Kentucky in 1955.
Aimé Michel’s book was published in 1954, just before the onslaught of French reports, and he found himself in the position of being that nation’s flying saucer “expert.” Out of thousands of reports, Michel investigated and collected data on nearly 300 reports that he felt were credible. While doing so, he developed a theory he called “orthoteny” based on his observation that sightings occurred along straight lines that would change daily. To him, this proved the sightings were real and that there was intelligence behind the objects being seen. He noted that from September 23rd to October 10th, the sightings folowed this pattern and then deviated. He speculated that the objects were alien craft that were part of a survey and that the emerging randomness was due to a follow up survey with seperate areas of focus. Michel published his findings in his 1958 book, “Mystérieux Objects Célestes” which CSI also translated and it was published in America as “Flying Saucers and the Straight Line Mystery.”
Jaques Vallée was a 19 year-old college student when he read “Mystérieux Objects Célestes.” He was impressed enough by the book that he wrote Michel a letter praising it but argued against an idea Michel presented that there was an unbridgeable evolutionary gap between ourselves and the visitors. He closed his letter saying that Michel’s book “gives us a reason to face the problem. It enables us to begin valuable research quietly. Serious work can start at last because of you.” Vallée’s passion was most likely spawned by his own sighting, along with his mother in 1955, of a classic disk with a bubble dome hovering above a church near his house.
Vallée and Michel both contributed to the 1969 book, “The Humanoids” which has become a classic in UFO literature. The 1954 sightings stuck with Vallée and the small humanoids reported then reminded Vallée of small humanoid reports throughout human history. He set about comparing them and developed a theory that what was being seen, whether fairies, leprecauns, elves or aliens, were all manifestations of an intelligence that coexists with us and is deceptive. He published his ideas in his 1993 book, “Passport to Magonia” and was an influential contributor to the “Interdimensional Hypothesis.” Aimé Michel came to similar conclusions but the idea that we were interacting with something unknowable bothered him enough to abandon his investigation in 1980. He died in 1992.
A lasting result of the 1954 flap is a law, still on the books. The Mayor of the town of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Lucien Young, issued the decree that “Any aircraft, known as flying saucer or flying cigar, which should land on the territory of the community will be immediately held in custody.” That’s quite a responsibility for a small-town gendarme.
Note: A major source for this blog was, “The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse UFOs: