BUFORA Bulletin2 No.14 Oct Nov 1999

28 Pages·1999·6.8 MB·English

BC.*FERA
BUItETEN
Journal of the Ilritish [IF0 llesear.ch Association
In This Issue
:
UIi'Os - The Photographic [vitlence
I{ypnogogia
No:
14 Oct,t'lov 1999
British UFO Research Association
Officers and Council Menrbers 1999-2000
Tl'c Bririrh UFO Rcscnrch Associ'rtion (Bt,FORA Ltil, b) cuarrnicd Iin,rxlc(l lt6,t ltcsislcrcd
,nlicu l6 $rxLwrv. Il,ngcss IIill, Sl|sscx, l?lll5 95l. l{cgistt-rc(l i'r t,, (lt) {)t2U492,t. lrrcorl)o|lrli g
dle Ilri(ish Itlro Associatioo (foundcd 1962) & (hc l-ondon Ulro ltescarch Organisalion (forndcd I959)
cotrNcrL
T'ESEAIICII &
INVES'TIGATION
Stephen Camble (Chairrnan)
\'lanfred Cassirer Robert Digby Director of Investigations :
Tony Eccles Nlichael Hudson Gloria Dixon
Brian James Robin Lindsey (Addless as Central Olfice)
N,Ialcolm Robinson John Spencer Email : [email protected]
Kate Tavlor Arnold West ., Phone . [phone]
Director of Research :
John Spencer
BUFORA CENTRAL OFFICE
(Address as Central OIfice)
l6 Southway, Burgess Hill,
Email : [email protected]
Sussex, RHl5 9ST
(No personal vlsits) Postal Training Corrrse :
Phone. [phone] Dave Pointon
Email : [email protected] 5, Chapel Street
Web : http;//www.bufora.org.uk Mount Pleasant, Mow Cop
Stoke-On-Trent.
OTHER OFFICERS Sta{Is, ST7 4NP
President (No personal visits)
Vice-Presidents Lionel Beer, FRAS Phone. O1182 522620
Arnold West Enrail : [email protected]
Membership Press OlTicer
James Danby
lvebsite
Richard Conway
UFOCall
Jenny Randles
Nelvscuttings MichaelHudson
BUFORA Bullctin is tlle .cgular publication of lhe British UnidcDtified I;l! ing Obiect Ressrch Asso-
ciation. Vie\ys e\Fresscd in subtnittcd contributitus do not rcprcscnt thc \]c$s or frlicies ofllUF( )RA,
thc Edibrial board, thc Cotrncil or otlrcr ollicers. e\ccpl $here spccificalh identilicd as such. All rights
rescncd. Ihis prrblicali(n fiay nol bc s{orcd or duplicatetl in anr'$al r ithoul the e\press $rillel con-
scut of thc publisher.
Page 2 n(tFOR,I Itullcti,t
CONTENTS EDITORIAL
Editorial Science and UFOs
ln the lew days before I wdte this both
Here & There the newspapers and the lnternet have
been full of reports and replies made
by astronomer Dr Jacqueline Mitton at
The SETI@HOME Projecr a recent scientific meeting. The gist of
Steve Gamble her statement seems to have been that
govemments have been slow to fund
NIC Meeting the search for extraterrestrial lile partly
because of the public's obsession with
UFOS.
Media and the Paranormal
Tony Eccles There was much debate over what
exactly she had said and if a cerlain
amounl of licence had been applied in
Hypnagogia & Lucid Dreaming I7 some of the reponing, but never the
Kate Taylor Iess it raises an important point.
Visual Evidence 23 In the UK a large proponion of 'pure'
Brian James scientific research (as opposed to that
mainly carried out by companies
directed towards a product) is funded
Lectures 28 by the government. Research
proposals are assessed and rat€d
excellent. good and not good.
However in most years more than 50o%
of excellent proposals have to be
turned away because oflack offunds.
In this climate funds are givel to those
projects that llave the most likelihood
of producing successful results. Many
I ilr intcrcstud in purchasing olcl ol rhe scientists involved in the few.
I.Jlr() ho,rhr and rnagazirrcs. i\nv often privately funded, SEl'l
reasonrrhlc oficr'eolsidqrcd. programmes think there is littlc
llel,li(.r t('i Ilr: lUikc lludson possibility ol success. And any study
(l/o: l'O ltox .17 t of UFOs has sinrilar likelihood. Any
( nnl( rl) u rj thoughts of ollcially sponsored firnded
licnt ( ll l(;ll. research must l'ade into the distance
l)lge.i
I.-ROM III'RE AND spent sonre tinrc ser erelv ill in hospital
.I-HERE 1-he gooci nelvs is that he is now re-
covering We send hinr our best
u,ishes for a speedl recoven'
Ncw Council Members BtIFORA Website
Wc welcome Kate Taylor and Brian Richard Conrvay and Jav Loring have
Jarnes to the BUFORA Council. They been working iard on redesigning the
are both well known to many members Bt rFOR{ uebsite This is now begin-
as contributo.s to the Bulletin and as ning to take shape Sections about
active members of both the Research meetings and pans of the research
and lnvestigation sections pages are up and running The web-
site is at
:
Near Miss
wrwv bulora.org.uk
The CAA has just released a report on
a near miss of an Oslo bound aircralt Bulletin \Yrtiers Panel
on l2th June 1998. The pilots re-
poned that a small metallic object ln order to help in the running and
passed within 20 Get of their aircraft. compilation of the Bulletin, a writers
The captain first reported a flare. then panel has been assembled. Invites
said it looked like a srnall fighter, the have been issued to several people.
co-pilot reported just a bright light. We are pleased to be able to report
Air traffic control recorded nothing on that Gloria Dixon. Brian James and
radar Following their year long inves- Kate l aylor hare-joined
tigation. the CAA were unable to iden-
1ift/ the object. Strange Daze Website
.lin Keith
Following on fronr the announcement
in issue l2 that Gloria Diron had be-
We regret to report the death of con- come editor of Strange Daze maga-
spiracv researcher and aulhor Jim zine. we can no\r report that Strange
Keith on 8th September 1999. Re- Daze norr has its oun \vebsite. This
pons are that Mr Keith died of compli- can be tbund at
:
cations during surgury to repair a danr,
aged knee.
\ ,-\\,1v strangedaze ic24.net
Philip Mantle
Fornrer Council member Philip Mantle
has been in the wars again and has
Page 4
The SETI@HOME
Project NIC MEETING
CAMBRIDGE
Steve Gamble 23rd October 1999
gArso uapnn ooufn BceUdF inO RthAe lmasetm Bbuelrles tihna;v ea bI rpidlagne t oo nho 2ld3 ardn NOIcCto mbeeer,t inwgh iinc hC awmil-l
been working on the SETI@HOME begin at 2pm and finish at 6pm The
Project. This is a large multinational
venue will be rhe Family Room. Uni-
perxotrjeactet rrteos tlroiaolk cfiovirl ispaotsiosnibsle isnig nrasd oiof corn Public House, Church Lane.
Trumpington, Cambridge
transmissions.
I hope that as many provisional and
About five years ago NASA started a accredited investigators as possible
project to look for radio transmissions
can attend this meeting where there
fiom exlraterrestrials using some of will be discussion and debate on the
the largest radio telescopes in the issues of BUFORA's moratorium on
world. Unfbrtunately, after a couple hypnosis, the postal training course
of years budget cutbacks meant that
and a general look at the way UFO
the project was axed The projecr sci- investigation is conducted and the
entists did not just give up, but ser problems that are emerging in several
about trying to raise funding for the areas panicularly with regard to UFO
project from private sources. This video footage and photographs I
they managed to achieve, and so Proj- look tbrward to seeing you all in
ect Serendipity was born. I believe the
Cambridge.
current project is smaller than the one
originally planned, but nonerheless ir is Gloria Heather Dixon
going ahead. This uses observing time
using some of the largest radio tele-
scopes in the world to look for intelli-
gent signals across a srnall pan ol the
spectrum To do this they target re- scope at Arecebo This means that
gions of the sky where there are starts their equipment has to point at that re-
gion of the sky that lhe nrain expcri-
similar to our Sun
nlent wanls to observe, but the believe
As a parallel project,. that over a two to three year period
SE II@ttOME project seeks ro ma.tph ea they will be able to record all ol'the
uhole band of the sky ar high resolu- band they are interested in at least
tion twice.
l'hey are doing this by piggy
backing their equipment on other ex-
perinrents using the large radio tele- l'hc SETII@flOMll projccr has less
tirnding than Project SelcndipiLl'. al,
I)uge 5
thouqh several large conrpanies lrave lonrr thenr
nrade substanlial donations
(( onrputer manufacturer Sun Micro- The scientific team involved in the
slstens is one that springs to mind as project have said that there is only a
harinu donated probably several hun- very slinr possibilirv thar the project
dred thousand dollars of contputer will find any evidence of extraterrest.i-
eqLripment. ) als. But if you don't look the you
definitely won't find any evidence
However, due to their lack of funds
thev have developed a novel way of By the 20th September the BUFORA
analysing the data they collect. They team had processed over 300 packets
have developed a program which runs of data and contributed collectively
on a computer instead ol the normal over one year of computer processing
screen saver. This means that when time.
the computer would normally be idle it
can be doing useful work. There are lhose who will say "Why is
BUFORA gelling involved in looking
They have recruited approaching I 2 for extraterrestrials?" Well, although
nillion people from around the world, over 40 theories have been put flor-
in over 200 countries or states to run ward to explain UFOs. one of lhose is
this program. When the program the possibility that UFOS are exlrater-
starts to run it downloads a packet ol restrial. And since BUFORA is sup-
raw d613 4s1q55 the internet Then the posed to investigate all possible theo-
computer can disconnect lrom the ries, it is legitimate to look for ET.
internet Next time the screen saver
activates, the computer starts process- It is the opinion of this writer that
ing the data How long it takes to there is no hard evidence of ETs visit-
complete work on an individual packet ing our planet, but if evidence is found
ol data depends on what type ol com- from space that ETs exist. this possi-
puter is being used and how fast the bility must move up the pecking order.
is
processor When all the work on a
gilen packet of data is completed, a (New recruits to the BLFORA team
message asks pennission to connect to would be welcomed)
the internet. The results are sent back
to SETI@HOME and a new packet of
dala is downloaded. The downloading
process lakes less than five minutes.
At SETI@HOME all the results are
The BUFORA rvebsite can
correiated and if sonrebody finds a sig-
nal worthy ol' further study be accessed at :
www.bufora.org.uk
SE II?HOME send an email ro in-
Page 6
The Good, the Bad and chines.
the Downright Ugly - a Despite the fhct that some had appre-
look at the how the media ciated these early science fiction nov-
portrays the subjects of els, the ideas that humans would one
day go into space were not really ac-
UFOs and the paranor- cepted as people were using steam,
mal. gas and plimirive inrernal corrrbubtion
engines as a means ol travel alongside
Part Two
horse and caniage. ln 1898 a German
Anthony Eccles
produced car called the Cannstatt
The idea of this anicle is ro examine Daimler could travel at a top speed of
how the media has treated the subject 25 mph. On Dec. 17, 1903, two
of the paranormal over time. I have American bicycle nranufacturers, Or-
specifically focused on the subject of ville and Wilbur Wright, made the tirst
aeroplane flights in history, near Kitty
UFOs.
Hawk, in Nonh Carolina. Orville flew
ln Part One I explored how unusual their wood, wire, and cloth aeroplane
aerial craft had been reported and por- 37 metres at a speed of 48 kph. ln
trayed in the newspapers, especially 1900, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
with the multitude of'scareship' sight- flew his first airship, the LZ-I. lt was
ings that were observed in the US and 128 metres long and could reach a top
Europe in the latter pan of the nine- speed ofabout 27 kilometres per hour.
teenth century. These mysterious air- Fantastic speeds and altitudes were lhr
ships lhat were noted as travelling from being obtained. But few had rec-
great distances in such shon time ognised that the human ability to cre-
spans. These machines seemed to go ate first in the imaginations ofthe nrind
slightly beyond the capabilities oi the would eventually one day beconre a
airships being created at tlut time. physical reality.
Obviously. the idea about flying ma- Like anything else rhat is created, in-
chines was not new. Sometimes an ar- ventions and their moditications were
ray of new spangled machines became a time consuming aflair, they become
the focus for fantastic voyages into rapidly improved during periods of
unconquered territories such as outer warthre. Therefbre, space travel, at the
space. Jules Verne had wrilten a book beginning ol the twentieth century,
about a journey lo the Moon during was not seen as a realistic concept ex-
the later years of the nineteenth cen- ccpt. perhaps, with the passirrg ol'a
1ury, where the human spacemen had great length oltime At a linre when
encountered Moon beings. H.G.Wells pcople were witnessing nrysteriuus air-
wrote, irr 1897, about rhe Earth being ships and their unusral pil()ts. real air-
inraded by Ma ians that wreaked ship and aeroplane teclrnology was
haioc in large tripod walking nra- vcr.r- linrited. 'lhe invcrrtions rvc have
I)age 7
c:realed lbr today be-uan as nrere erents reach the pavei rrf thc newspa-
lhoughls in the imarrinations of crea- persn If so. uould lher have received
tive peofle, such as authors. just over Arnrv Intellieence backins that stated
a hundred years ago that these things uere being seen lor
real and that they did not know what
This ties in nicely with observations was responsible for them? My answer
about exotic IJFO sightings in that the to that would be no
UFOS take on the appearance of
shapes that later become the shapes of The Second World War had ended by
our own advanced technological air- plunging the world into a new era, the
craft. Atomic Age This vias the beginning
-Ihe of a v€ry tense period of politics that
first half of the century was a fas-
was known as the Cold War. This was
cinating era for tjre observations of
a significant time as the observation of
strange anomalies and experiences. unidentified flying objects by credible
The popular texts lend to cover UFO
witnesses had increased, especially as
sightings from the Ninete€n Forties,
the public became more aware of what
and particularly fron] the US, more Alomic science could accomplish, such
lhan anywhere else in the world This
as exploring into space.
can be possibly explained due to the
fact that there is more information t would like to draw the reader's at-
available reearding US sighlings Typi- tention to a wave of sightings that
cal of this was a fascinating event that really began in the Thirties, but re-
was seen in the press and was known ceived recognition again in 1946, and
as Foo Fighlers These were seen dur- had appeared over the skies of Scandi-
ing the Second World War and were navia, especially Sweden.
reported seriously by the newspapers
in the belief that they were unique se- Up until this time the press had always
cret weapons being built by Germany been curious about the subject of
UFOs and have been willing enough to
'fhe
slories of pilots \rere sometimes tell people's experiences as they were
supported by statements made by the reported to have happened without un-
Arnry Intelligence who were obviously necessary ridicule or scepticism. Dur-
interested inlo looking closely at such ing this period, the Swedish 'ghost
a weapon. Surprisingly, at the close of aeroplane' phenomena took the Euro-
rhe War the Allies had discovered that pean press by storm, it appeared to not
the Axis forces had come across these only sppsxl lo the public s curiosity
strange fireballs too, calling them Feu- but it also carried with a number of se-
erball. One ol my arguments was that rious implications for the Srvedish
ilthe Allies had known that these were authorities and about the nature of the
not secret weapons and that they could subject itself
not identiS the source of such a phe-
nornenon, would the reports of such The sightings had consisted of huge
Page 8 t t, tRt th chn
muhi engines craft that hovered and craft being tlown over Sweden!
f.lerv over a number of cities making a
thunderous noise. One such exanrple Such visual experielces had described
had even occurred over New York on a variety of crati. but all ol them ap-
the 26 December 1933 The New peared with no markings ol tlreir
York Times had reported the incident body ln l-cbruary lOl4 tlrcse siBlrrings
describrng the mysrerious object as cir- were rapidly increasing This alened
cling over New York with such a tre- the Swedish governrncnt. For the first
mendous noise and tlying during a ter- tinle the joint def'ence ministries of
rible bhzzard At 930 in rhe rnorning Sweden. Norway and Finland decided
the aeroplane had been visible than to carry out an investigation, in an at-
ranished only to return nearer three in tempt to recognise the origins of these
the atlernoon. persisting llying in mysterious aircrali.
weather nor suited to any flying at all.
All airflelds had cancelled their flights Description details, conveyed by pub-
throughout rhe time ofthe blizzard, no lic and rnilitary observers, were very
emergency landings had been made, no sinrilar. The 'ghost aeroplanes' were
aeroplarres were reported as missing, Iarger than anlthing that had been en-
lo aircraft had been logged as flying countered, even by the standards of
fbr that day! aircraft being developed in Europe.
They could fly in all weather condi-
In Pite6, Nonhern Sweden, on the 22 tions and ovcr dangerous mountarn
January 1934 a clergynran of Lang- terrain The combinat;on of govern-
trask had reponed that during the pre- ment eftbds came lo a blank, they
vious two years he had seen strange could not find thc country ot origin,
craR in the sky rimc and time again bases fbr the aircrat'r to fly liom and
'lwelve of which had flown over his ground guide lbr the weather condi-
parish in the summer of 1933, one af- tions.
ter the other and always in tlre same
A
direction soulh-west to nonh-east. press release was made by the
Each ofthese weirdly shaped craft had Swedish Major-General Reulersward,
flown at a very low altitude with no wlrich said,
markings or national insignia. One on ''It
i.s ohyious.fntn u co tp.u.i.\on ol
occasion they had flown so low that tlk.\t' tL'lln't:i th,t rllcg ,u tnll t:
wthheract aappppeeaarcreJd t oto b cb elh raee c lonctnkpuitl:! iAn tuking pluce ()\,et .)tr milii(u), tc-
striking detail was that the machines
had only one wing on either side A Ilot), report.\ huve hccn ret tit,td fion
detail that occurs in aircrail during the n:liubla par.xtnl tho lwvL cLttt'll oh-
late thi ies and early fblties suclr as scrwd /htse nystariotls fltu.s. Atrl thc
aircrali lionr the Second Wollcl Warl .strtrtc rth.ser*tti0rt i.t nale rtlrtrtcdl-1'.
lliiJ Ilrc cl(tgvl aD scrrr iu.h Arr irrr. lht ntrluttc.s pot.tt.t.sttl tk) ttu/r()n4l
Itr.te ',
,/t\igniu (n idulific.tli(rt Dtdrk.\. Jt i\ Back to S\\ed!.n ard a decade later.
tnrJro.t.\thl( tu) c\l)luin e|'o)' lhr vhol. aller a de\astalins \\orld War. the
lrlrctrrn(Don o.\ inqgi otion. lhe huge ghosl aeropianes rrere suddenly
qtk'sli(nt i.\, vho qt'e thev oLl v'h)' replaced bl phantonr rockets or'ghost
hova tlrcy penatroted our uir,space? " rockets . This uould be a good exam-
ple of any apparent paranormal attach-
Between 1934 and 1936 the phenome- ment to these sightings illusrraring that
non seemed to disappear. Well lor a the phenomenon appears to stay one
shon while anyway, but the sightings step ahead of our own technological
returned in 1936. The objects had inventions. A decade later tbese'ghost
llown funher nonh this time. passing rockets'would appear at a time when
in a soulherly direction over the top weapon scientists were working on the
half of Norway, then diagonally into development of rocket and missile ca-
Sweden and then back again. pabilities. A method of either deliver-
ing an atomic bomb to an enemy na-
To deviate slightly, it would be worth tion or take hunrans to the stars.
mentioning that in this year a film hit
the cinema screens in 1936 which Concern in Scandinavia was shown in
starred Raymond Massey It was based the way large numbers of biplanes
on a novel by H G. Wells called The were deployed by the Swedish Air
Shape ofThings to Come, the film was Force to intercept these 'ghost rock-
called Things to Come. Briefly, the ets'. Media coverage of these events
film depicted the Earth after a terrible was not only extensive, it had also
rvar. A plague ensues wiping out most consisted of a number of rare photo-
of the population The few survivors graphs that had captured the phenom-
begin a new life and rebuild society. ena in flight
The; invest their few resources in
technology, but they are unable to sus- These 'ghost rockets' had closely re-
tain life on Farth for very short time sembled the Cerman V-2 rocket
What is created, with this technology, bombs that were used by Hitler to tar-
is a single rocket ship which is de- get civilian centres in England and
signed to send a selected lew to a dis- France. Rockets had actually been wit-
tant but fertile planet lhat could sup- nessed crashing into lakesl Further-
port human life. Maybe I could sug- more they seemed to be busy crashing
gest a tenuous link between science into lakes than the land itself.
tlction and real experiences on a sub
conscious level. If we had film lootage However, by 1946, rvho rvas still using
of these ghost aeroplanes from 1936 these rockel hombsn Were the Ameri-
would we todav recognise the basic cans and Soviets experimenting with
shape as a B-52 bornber, for example, V-2 lechnology or er Scandinavian air-
the kind that were used in Vietnam? space? lfthis was tlle case then the US
Government had not mentioned any-
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