Incoming: The Cosmic Cue Balls

Incoming: The Cosmic Cue Balls
By Scott Corrales
© 2010

We call the heavens “the firmament” for good reason. It’s the one thing about the physical universe that is supposedly immovable and unchangeable – the dark tapestry against which all existence is set, like precious jewels on a velvet background. We then reminded about universal harmony and order, how galaxies appear to radiate from a central point of origin, how stars move away at certain distances, planets obediently circling them like courtiers in a 16th century dance. But there are those who say that the universe is not quite so harmonious – galaxies crash into each other, offering the telescope astounding visuals; stars go nova and supernova, and there may be “orphan” stars and planets wandering the universe.

It is this latter, wayward group that interests us here.

My personal interest in these subjects comes from a deep-rooted interest in science fiction since very early childhood. Classic space opera gives us the notion of dark planets employed as lairs by galactic villains, or entire worlds hurled against the enemy as weapons of war. But pride of place in the displacement of celestial orbs goes to the Gerry Anderson TV series “Space:1999”, set on our very own and familiar Moon, only this time ripped away from Earth by explosions in nuclear waste dumps on the satellite’s dark side. This wandering moon encounters other itinerant worlds (the giant planet Arra among them, from the Collision Course episode, 1975) as part of its highly fanciful but no less entertaining intersterllar adventures.

Arthur C. Clarke’s wonderful books gave us the mysterious asteroid Rama, entering our solar system only as a refueling point before continuing its journey to parts unknown; others authors have speculated about “neutron stars” entering our solar system and causing planetary mayhem. H.G. wells had a comet strike our world and snatch entire segments of our population into space, giving them a tour of the outer planets.

Rogue planets – the easiest “handle” to give these worlds – were best articulated to science fiction opus “When Worlds Collide” (1951), presenting an Earth destroyed by not one, but two wandering planets: Bronson Alpha and Bronson Beta. Luckily for our species, a group of humans manage to escape the second of these aboard a classic, needle-nosed rocket ship (the book offers a bonus: ruins of a native civilzation are found on Bronson Beta, so the space refugees can move right in). The actual blasting off to the new world occupies only a few minutes of screen time – the rest of the film concentrates on the more pressing question of who would be allowed to be among the lucky few to leave our dying world. Fritz Leiber delighted science fiction readers with “The Wanderer” (1964) a complex, multiple point-of-view space opera about a rogue planet that materializes in our solar system and pulverizes our moon for fuel, just as a larger world appears out of nowhere: a “law enforcement” planet chasing the miscreant denizens of the “Wanderer” across the galaxy.In more recent years, big-screen thrillfests like “Armageddon” and “Deep Impact” delighted and terrified thousands of viewers all over the world.

Thrilling stuff for sure, to be enjoyed in book form or on the silver screen, but is it really possible that planet-sized intruders could disrupt our solar system? What are we to make of the psychics and paranormalists who have forecast spatial events that are every bit as chilling as those featured in works of fiction?

Rack ‘em Up!

An interesting and eminently factbook compiled by David Wallace and David Wallechinsky (“The People’s Almanac”, 1975) included a prophecy by the notorious T.V. psychic Criswell that proved less-than-accurate: in the year 1982, according to the seer, a dying rogue planet known as Bullanon would enter our solar system and come so close to our planet that it would “affect Earth’s gravity, shifting the poles.” This would in turn result in the rising of a lost continent that would serve as a bridge between the hump of Africa and southeastern South America. The price to be paid for this sudden acquisition of real estate would be earthquakes that would level cities on hemisphere, volcanic eruptions galore and tidal waves. “It will also cause a 40-day snowstorm with ice, resulting in a ‘white death’,” said Criswell. Humanity, brought to its knees by the unexpected cosmic phenomenon, would find no respite from cosmic peril, for on October 18, 1988, a meteor would slam into London, nearly leveling the city.

The temptation to sneer Criswell’s predictions is overpowering (after all, this is the same man who played the Voice of Doom in “Plan 9 From Outer Space”) but his prediction of planetary chaos is hardly the only one. The predictions of others have also featured rogue planets – especially those issued by the discarnate entity known only as “Ramatis”.

South American psychic Hermilio Maes channeled Ramatis extensively during the 1950s. Maes and his discarnate source managed to pen a number of books – chronicling the channeled sessions on a variety of subjects, mostly religion, morality and metaphysics – that garnered a considerable following in Latin America and Brazilian contactee and spiritualist circles (one of these works, O Sublime Peregrinho, concerning the life of Jesus, is still in print). After Maes died, “Ramatis” continued to appear in other trance-medium sessions.

Ramatis has a more colorful backstory than the traditional “space commanders” that populate contactee lore, and occultists hasten to explain that Ramatis is no run-of-the-mill spirit: he was born in Indochina in the 10th century B.C. and, through a series of reincarnations, played a critical role at key moments for humanity, serving as an instructor in many centers of esoteric learning in India, despite having died (or “become disembodied”, in esoteric parlance) at an early age. Centuries earlier, this teacher and healer had played a role in the events portrayed in the Ramayana, the great Indian epic, and serving the tradition put forth by the hero Rama.

Later--claim his chroniclers--he joined a team of spiritual workers in outer space whose duty is to remain in the Western World as disembodied instructors to transmit the “knowledge of the East” to those willing to hear. His full name in the “spiritual hierarchy” is Swami Sri Rama-Tis, but we can call him Ramatis for short.

Quit Talkin’ and Start Chalkin’

Armed with this pedigree and centuries of teachings behind him, the spirit dictated the message about the rogue planet through Hermilio Maes in the 1950’s, stating the following:

“More or less between 1960 and 1962, Earth scientists shall detect certain alterations of the sidereal routes (sic) which shall represent the first external signs of the approach of the “intruder star” as well as the end times. The star in question shall not be visible; it shall be only the perception of signs of a conjectural nature, since this manifestation shall become more notable toward the end of the century.

“The function of this “intruder star” shall be to choose in space, under the discipline of “judging the quick and dead”. In other words, those who are in the Beyond and here on Earth, identified by the effervescence of their negative magnetism [and therefore] attuned to the intruder star. This star, as we have already told you, is the barometer […]. Its purpose is to attract all discarnate spirits from the lower astral planes using its low vibration, as occurs with iron filings when attracted by a magnet.

“Be mindful that all prophecies present two revelations – one which can be described literally and understood at the time that predictions are made, and other – cabalistic – which demands the familiar knowledge of the Initiates to be properly understood, because it only adjusts to unknown forms yet to come […].

The spirit was not averse to providing a fuller description of the “intruder star”, either:

Verily, the intruder star is greater than Earth in its rigid nucleus or cooled mass, but there is no arithmetical correspondence between the nuclei and auras of both. The etheric volume of the first is more extensive or expansive because it is more radioactive […].

As to why the “intruder star” could not be seen by earthly telescopes, Ramatis explained:

“Countless times has your astronomical science been mistaken with its appreciations of what goes on in the heavens. How many times, after having identified very near stars, such as the case of Alpha, found in the vicinity of the Southern Cross, did you discover even closer bodies, such as the ones found in the constellation of the Centaur and the Virgin? Is it not strange that in the same space you should discover nearer stars, after having discovered the farther ones first?

Ramatis shows off his knowledge of Biblical prophecy as well as the writings of Michel de Notre Dame (Nostradamus), suggesting that Isaiah 34:20 indicates that the earth’s axis shall be sharpened by the passage of this rogue star – a change that cannot be corrected. Nostradamus, claims the disembodied instructor, allegedly wrote a letter to Henry II of France, stating that “a great transformation” would occur at the “appointed time” and that many would believe “that the earth was out of its orbit.” The 16th century visionary’s forty-first quatrain, says Ramatis, manifests the appearance of the intruder star when it says that “a great star” shall appear for a week, scorching the Earth, and that “two suns shall be visible in the sky, a great comet to the North.”

Hercolubus – Eight Ball Deluxe

The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the fountains of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died of the water, because it was made bitter. “
-- John of Pathmos, The Book of Revelation

In later years, mystical authors like Rodolfo Benavides made mention of Ramatis and his “intruder star” in their works. Benavides’ landmark “Dramáticas Profecías de la Gran Pirámide” (Shocking Prophecies of the Great Pyramid) sought to establish a link between his theory of pyramidal measurements and their correspondence to key dates in human history, suggesting that a period of 6,666 years appearing in the Piramid of Gizeh’s so-called “Queen’s Chamber” corresponded to the 6,666-year orbit of the “intruder star”, now mentioned under the ominous name of Hercolubus, as it orbited a distant star named Tyla or Tylar – an orbit that brought it in periodic contact with Earth, resulting in cataclysms. Benavides stressed the fact that Hercolubus was a “cold star” or otherwise frozen heavenly body and that its last transit through our solar system, cutting through the plane of the ecliptic, had caused the disasters leading to the sinking of legendary Atlantis.

It is difficult to ascertain where the names Hercolubus and Tylar came from, but it is almost a sure thing that they were channeled during a séance whether with Ramatis or another entity. Like a snowball gathering mass as it rolls downhill, the “Hercolubus Mythos”, for lack of a better term, grew and added new information from occult sources: the Tylar star system, for example, acquired a number of planets with faux Latin names; other sources indicated that it would take 25,000 years for the souls taken away by the super giant rogue planet to “evolve”; an attempt was made to link the intruder star with celestial bodies known to modern astronomy, stating that Tylar was in fact Barnard’s Star (5.92 light years from Earth) and that its large companion, a gas giant, was Hercolubus. However, when this gas giant has shown no inclination to break away from its primary and hurtle toward Earth, believers in the channeled wisdom of the discarnate entities argued that Barnard’s Star was in fact heading straight toward our solar system.

While it is tempting to simply dismiss this as uninformed mystical twaddle, an interesting point of fact emerges here: Astronomers in the 1970’s considered the possibility that there could be “stray” planets not orbiting stars. These worldlets would have condensed from the very same cloud of interstellar dust that allowed the formation of the inner solar system. The smallness of their mass would have kept some of them from blazing into stars, so they remained orphan planets, not dependent on a larger star. The same astronomers speculated that the orphans would be comparable to the planetary gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus) in size and the nearest of them would be some three parsecs away, orbiting Sol at that tremendous distance. Could any of these worlds be the Tylar or the Hercolubus of Benavides and the elusive Ramatis?

Further adding to the mystery of celestial bodies moving through interstellar space, the astronomer A.T. Lawton, F.R.A.S., suggested that “the possible widely varying masses of stray planets, coupled with their long lifetimes, could be conducted to the appearance and development of living matter.” Not even the distinguished scientist speculated on what kind of life would emerge on these lightless worlds.

But in 1990, Scientific American magazine (October 1990) published the work of the astronomer Richard Muller and his team regarding the possibility that our sun had a “dark companion” named Nemesis, orbiting Sol every thirty-two million years, Hercolubus believers suddenly felt vindicated. Nemesis, according to the astronomers who postulated its existence, would move through the interstellar void periodically disturbing the comets in the Oort Cloud, the outer cometary nebula surrounding our solar system. One such comet could have been the celestial dart that caused the annihilation of the dinosaurs.

Like a movie set being hastily redressed for another scene, the champions of the “intruder star” hastily transferred Tylar from Barnard’s Star and turned it into Nemesis; Hercolubus, they argued, was not the comet the astronomical community had theorized, but the predicted massive, single planet that would fulfill the predictions of Ramatis.

As a side note, the late Pedro Romaniuk, an Argentinean ufologist-turned-contactee, predicted the arrival of another cosmic cue ball named "Amon-Ra" -- seven times larger than the planet Venus and approaching Earth from the "south" (coming at us from the southern celestial hemisphere, invisible from North America, Europe and Asia).

Giant Planet-Comets(!?)

Chilean UFO researcher Liliana Núñez mentions the curious fact that an astronomer with an international reputation actually threw his hat into the Hercolubus ring in a statement appearing in the August 22 1993 issue of Santiago de Chile’s “La Tercera” newspaper.

From his observatory in Villa Alemana, Chile, Carlos Muñoz Ferrada unequivocally told journalists that “a gigantic planet-comet approaching Earth is the source of climatological alterations, abnormal geological activity and volcanic explosions” which were taking place at the time. No believer in the mystical, Muñoz’s calculations indicated that the rogue “planet-comet” was approaching our solar system from “above” the plane of the ecliptic, heading toward the North Pole from the vicinity of the Ursa Minor constellation. The intruder’s size was predicted at 35 times greater than Earth and it “was charged with cosmic energy and a vast electromagnetic field. Its presence causes geophysical anomalies in all other heavenly bodies.” Some of the anomalies, according to Muñoz, were the strange flashes of light seen on the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and – allegedly – the greater luminosity of Halley’s Comet when it transited through our solar system in 1986.

Most astronomers would have challenged Muñoz on an elementary point – was his predicted intruder a planet or a comet? To this, the scientist said that he chose to define the object as a planet-comet because “it has the mass of the former and the orbital path of the latter,” adding that the intruder took 13,333.3 years to orbit our sun, implying that its last visit to the inner solar system had occurred in the days of Atlantis.

But Muñoz’s calculations were completely off when it came to predicting the rogue planet’s arrival: August 11, 1999 had been predicted as the date on which a spectacular conjunction between the Sun, the new Moon, Earth and the planet-comet would occur, with cataclysmic effects on our world. When nothing occurred on the date predicted, the astronomer made himself scarce. Perhaps he should've stuck around: a flurry of interest in "Planet X"'s inevitable collision against our world in 2003 set the UFO late-night radio community abuzz. But here we are, and who remembers that frisson of unrest?

Would current instruments easily detect a rogue planet so massive? What about Nemesis? It would appear that Richard Muller and his colleagues continued their search for Sol’s “dark companion”, developing the software required to scan over three thousand star fields which they believe would contain “possible red dwarf candidates” in the northern hemisphere. ("New Developments Regarding the KT Event and Other Catastrophes in Earth History", Houston Univ., p19-20). Their success will surely add not only a milestone to astronomy, but also a further chapter in the story of Hercolubus, which – if the mystics are correct – is inexorably approaching our planet for a rendezvous from which there is no escape.

[Note: A version of this article appeared in PARANOIA Magazine (#40)]

Mexico’s Passion for UFOs – A Book Review by Salvador Mora

Mexico’s Passion for UFOs – A Book Review by Salvador Mora

Our colleague Salvador Mora of Mexico’s La Esfera Azul (http://www.laesferaazul.com.mx) has just alerted us to his latest site update, and we encourage all readers of INEXPLICATA to pay him a visit.

Among the many research items featured, one caught our attention: Salvador has written a thoughtful review of Laura Castellanos's book on the UFO phenomenon in Mexico, entitled Historia y Pasiones de los Avistamientos OVNI en Mexico (History and Passion of Mexico’s UFO Sightings)

He extracts the following quote from Ms. Castellanos: “Extraterrestrials are more welcome in Mexico. They aren’t a source of fear and form part of everyday life. The country is a sort of alien paradise, because we have a culture that’s very rooted in the mystical and spiritual. Mexicans have a great need to believe that there is something beyond.”

This is one of the conclusions – writes Salvador Mora – reached y the author, nourished by the voices of a variety of scholars, scientists and ufologists after venturing into the controversial subject of unidentified flying objects in her latest book, published by Grijalbo.

The author remarks that she chose to overlook the indignation of her colleagues when they learned about the subject of her research, and ventured into “a territory of ridicule, steeped in disrepute” in order to turn into a “joyful narrative exercise” that gave her “intellectual breathing space” and was “fun”

“It’s not far from my journalistic trajectory, because I like iconoclastic subjects that depart from the norm. The book is a journalistic narrative exercise. I do not mock the subject, but I narrated it in a humorous manner, and bring to the fore a variety of voices [arguing] whether there is or isn’t life outside the planet, and if we are visited by aliens or not,” she adds.

Castellans points out that her book was inspired on a profile written last October for Gatopardo magazine. “It was translated into Italian and French, and when I saw the interest and controversy it stirred, I thought to approach the subject as an important part of popular culture, which has taken it over.”

No one else has experienced a true “Saucer Psychosis” like Mexicans have, she notes, such as the one in 1965 when an alien parade from La Villa [outside Mexico City] to the [statue of] the Angel of Independence was summoned, and the public was seriously asked to join in a farewell to the Venusians. “Nearly a thousand articles were published between April and November of that year in the national press, and in the 1970s, DUDA magazine reached a circulation of 250,000 issues.”

“A highly recommendable book to reflect on what UFO research has been in Mexico during the first decade of the 21st century.

(Translation (c) 2010, S. Corrales, IHU)

Fabio Zerpa: “In the ‘70s, There Were UFOs Removing Uranium from Frías”

Source: El Liberal (Argentina)
Date: 01.27.2010

Fabio Zerpa: “In the ‘70s, There Were UFOs Removing Uranium from Frías”

Ufologist recalls a “spaceship” extracting uranium from the vicinity of Frías in the 1970s.

[The community of] Santiago del Estero was graced yet again by a new sighting of an unidentified flying object (UFO) framed against the sun, an identical copy to the phenomenon photographed and filmed by a resident of the city of Loreto last Sunday. On this occasion, the sighting occurred in La Banda and was recorded by an 11-year-old using his cellphone.

In this state of affairs, and with a repetition of sightings of objects against the light of the sun, EL LIBERAL contaced Fabio Zerpa – an acknolweledged scholar of extraterrestrial phenomena – over the phone. While he was unable to speak as to the authenticity of these sighitngs, Zerpa reported that Santiago del Estero is an area of UFO sightings.

He recalled at this point that “sightings have been reported in Santiago del Estero since the 1970s, such as the notorious case involving the green UFOs that extracted urnaium from the Frías region, as seams of this mineral can be found in the mineralogy maps of the area. Moreover, Zerpa added: “Contacts with alien objects are all of the first kind (CE-1), but there is no information regarding landings.”
Dealing specifically with the flying objects seen yesterday and Sunday in two different parts of the province, Zerpa noted: “This must be thoroughly researched, as we could be dealing with Russian or American rocketry debris orbiting the Earth before falling [to the ground]. There’s a junkyard of such satellite elements in space.”

As to the films and photos obtained by residents of Loreto and La Banda, the specialist noted: “The problem is that digital photo equiment isn’t always exact. In order to ascertain the truth of the photo, we would need a negative, which cannot be found in digital [cameras].”

He added, however: “In such cases, we must rely on eyewitness accounts, although it would be necessary to interrogate them to determine the circumstances under which these photos were taken, as we receive photos showing strange phenomena almost daily from various parts of the country.” He stressed: “We must have faith in that the witnesses photographed a UFO. But we must also consider that extraterrestrial artifacts come in 164 different shapes. Therefore, we must analyze the photos taken in Santiago to have a better idea of what’s going on.”

Yesterday’s alleged photos of UFO in La Banda were taken by Victor Agustin Vazquez, 11, a 7th grade student at the No.677 Gral. San Martin school of the neighborhood bearing the same name. The minor told El LIBERAL that he is passionate about natural phenomena, and recalls: “In 2008 I took some photos of a powerful storm, and when I enlarged it, I saw dark outlines resembling a craft.” Yesterday’s photo was taken at 13:30 hours by Victor Augustin himself, but from the roof of his uncle Fernando Vazquez’s home in Barrio Virgen de Lourdes.

Five hours later, Fernando photographed the sun again and a dark, oval figure was reproduced.

(Translation (c) 2010, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez)

Luis Burgos: Lights in the Argentinean Lakes

[Readers of FATE Magazine will remember my article on Haunted Lakes in 2007. This article by our friend Luis Burgos of the Fundacion Argentina de Ovnilogia tackles the same subject in depth and focusing on phenomena in his native Argentina. I urge you to read this article with Google Earth at hand to enhance the experience! – SC]

Lights in the Argentinean Lakes
By Luis Burgos, FAO
www.ciencia-ovni.blogspot.com

The goal I set for myself in July 1969, when I set out on the long road of field investigation was to PUBLICIZE everything I’d done without concealing anything or covering up projects or cases. In this order of affairs, some thirty-five years later, I can calmly say that I accomplished my mission: research, methodology, statistics and hypotheses were disclosed, and continue to be disclosed, by the main broadcast media. It is precisely these, the hypotheses that unleash long and lasting polemics. The decimal hypothesis, the “laurel” hypothesis, the “windmill” hypothesis, the “isolated Argentina” hypothesis, the “landing print hotspot area” hypothesis, the “terrestrial UFO” hypothesis, the “window area” hypothesis, the “luminous train” hypothesis and the “phantom UFO” hypothesis are among the best known and most discussed. Others will come to light shortly. But today’s is disquieting and worthy of research: “Lights in the Lakes” – which shows us that the phenomenon perhaps dwells much closer to us than we believe. It is important to pay great attention to this, as there is a close tie between UFOs and Water at a time in which our country experiences massive pollution of its hydrous resources, even though this may be upsetting to many, whether they are ignorant, politicians, journalists, scientists or complacent members of the current administration. Finally, who controls our waters? Are there winners and losers? Is experimentation being conducted at unsuspected levels? Is the same happening in the lakes and lagoons of Chile, Mexico or Spain, to mention a few countries with considerable UFO activity.

In the first decades of global ufology, around the 1950s and ‘60s, countless episodes had lakes, reservoirs, dams and lagoons around the planet as their center stage. The most important cases are reflected in various books that circulate, hand to hand, among those who feel passionate about this subject, whether he/she is a researcher, journalist or reader. The same occurred in Argentina. Dozens of events that make up the national case history of 4000 cases (1947-2004) were unleashed in these watery surfaces. At the time, alleged UFO “bases” were associated with the sea and mountains, a habitat that would conceal these devices along with the infamous motherships. Truth be told, very few ufologists theorized about the likelihood of lakes and lagoons making ideal hideouts. But the answer was there and within reach. The database, transferred to our country’s geography, gave us a resounding answer: Beyond the alleged undersea bases at Bahia Sanborombón, the Gulf of San Matías, the San Jose and Nuevo Gulfs in the marvelous Valdez Peninsula, the Gulf of San Jorge, Bahia Grande in southern Santa Cruz and Bahia San Sebastian in Tierra del Fuego, and beyond the acknowledged standards of behavior, or poles of attraction, lakes and lagoons are directly connected with UFO activity in certain areas, even if only a small body of water is involved.

If we take an imaginary journey from the southerly reaches of the continent, ufology feeds itself on a Fuegian case history between Ushuaia and Rio Grande that is endowed with a suspicious permanent element – Lake Fagnano, with a military presence associated, in the opinion of southern ufologists.

In the territory of Santa Cruz, were the National Parks begin, Lakes Viedma and Argentino report movements of unidentified nocturnal lights, although the latter is known to many as the scene where the second landing of humanoids “supposedly” occurred on March 18, 1950, as witnessed by cattleman Wilfredo Arevalo, who was never located after the incident.

The lands of Chubut give us Lake Puelo, to the north of Esquel and south of El Bolson, as one of the places where UFOs are most frequently seen in Patagonia. To a lesser extent, it is followed by neighboring lakes Mascardi and Epuyén. To the east and near Comodoro Rivadavia, Lake Colgué-Huapi and nearby Lake Musters have reported significant sightings of “unidentifieds”

The province of Rio Negro welcomes us with no less than the delights of Bariloche, surrounded by sources of water, where famous Lake Nahuel Huapi occupies pride of place, becoming a key component of Argentinean ufology, especially since the 1960s. Nor must we forget the majestic complex of El Chocón, a key source of energy for our country.

Following the same lake route, we find ourselves at Lake Lácar in Neuquén and near the imposing San Martin de los Andes. This is one of the lakes most frequently visited by flying machines, as well as adjacent Lake Traful. In Neuquén we also find Lake Pellegrini, which commanded the attention of ufologists and saucer hunters in recent decades.

Southern Mendoza places the region of Nihuil and its reservoir, near the Pampan northeast, as “essential” to UFO incursions. These have been investigated for a while by researchers attached to CEUFO (La Pampa) and CEFU-Hemisferios (Buenos Aires). Even in the midst of Santa Rosa, the Don Tomas Lagoon is a site for frequent apparitions, among them the important Flores Case of 1986 (a CE-3) and previous to that, in 1980, the controversial and dramatic Sayago case (another CE-3). In the same Pampan regions, the Utracán Lagoon has been a source of UFO alerts on more than one occasion.

Cordoba, with its enormous Mar Chiquita Lagoon, was the scene for the manifestation of an enormous mothership on November 16, 1967, witnessed by former Luftwaffe pilot Rolf Zikovsken aboard a Cessna 206, and the San Roque Lagoon at Villa Carlos Paz, frequented by tourists, must also be taken into consideration.
The lake at the San Roque Dam, in the Punilla Valley, is also the location of important cases in Argentinean ufology. San Luis, with very few lagoons, nonetheless has numerous UFO sightings near its capital, and the majestic La Florida Reservoir, a nocturnal enigma, still remembers the 1978 close encounter involving fishermen [and the unknown].

Heading toward the Argentinean north and northwest, the geography does not contain bodies of water suitable to our study, with the exception of some reservoirs and dams such as Cabra Corral to the south of Salta, in the midst of Valle de Lerma or Las Lomitas, southwest of the capital city of Salta. On the other hand, the coastal provinces offer us intriguing liquid masses. Let’s see: the province of Chaco’s mysterious Laguna La Leonesa, and the Iberá marshlands of Corrientes give us a long history of UFO flyovers, researched by regional ufologists Osvaldo Sanchez and Pablo Omastott.

In Entre Rios, from the intensification of activity in Victoria in 1991, there was a notorious activation of Laguna del Pescado and Laguna Grande. The same occurred at Laguna Setubal in Santa Fe, which took first place in the early ‘90s, coinciding with [the UFO activity] in Victoria. But to the south, Laguna Melincue surprises us every so often, such as the mini-flap that occurred around it in 1999 – events we were able to research “in situ”...or sighting in neighboring La Picasa Lagoon, whose waters flood the surrounding fields.

Now in the vast province of Buenos Aires, laden with bodies of water, we find Laguna De Gomez to the north near Junin, where the best Argentinean UFO sighting ever recorded occurred in 1987, and which I researched personally. Lake Epecuen in Western Buenos Aires, in Carhue and the fringe of lakes toward Guaminí are rich in UFO reports since the 1978 UFO wave (the second most important one in the country). Reports received from lagoon such as Cochicó, El Pincén, Chasicó, etc. etc. are well known. To the east, two lagoons acquired importance in different decades: Chascomús, which received media attention in the late 1960s, and Lobos, which had its own wave in 1994. The Atlantic littoral gives us three lagoons that are highly enigmatic when it comes to luminous nocturnal manifestations: Mar Chiquita and Los Padres, both near ever-present Mar del Plata. The third in contention is Sauce Grande, located between Monte Hermoso and Bahia Blanca.

Other lakes and lagoons in the provinces perhaps contain notable events that remain unknown, but their main witnesses make them known to a friend or relative. I’m referring to none other than “fishermen”. What is real and factual is that the aforementioned bodies of water harbor “amphibian” UFOs, and therefore acquire great importance during regional flaps, right under our noses.

Perhaps a few lacustrine locales are missing, but over time these shall gain better position in this virtual trip that I though I’d share with you as part of this “hydric tour” of my country, marvelous places I visited during over three decades of chasing a phenomenon...

(Translation (c) 2010, Scott Corrales, IHU)

Argentina: UFO in the Ravine - The Omar Gonza Case

INEXPLICATA contributing editor Guillermo Gimenez has kindly been sending us reports from Argentina’s “Gaceta OVNI” which showcase incidents that occurred in the 1990s or earlier but are no less impressive by the amount of time that separates us from them. What shines through these reports is the simplicity and honesty of the inhabitants of rural Argentina, who simply report what they are seeing without further embellishment. This new “old” report should be of great interest to our readers – SC

Argentina: The Omar Gonza Case – A UFO Floats Over The Ravine
From Gaceta OVNI

This young man’s case impressed us greatly, not only due to the characteristics of the sighting but the way in which it marked his life. Given that this was a recent event, he still shows signs of the ordeal during the conversation we held at his home, in the company of his parents and some friends. Omar was willing to retell [his story], but not without showing signs of being affected by his recollections. At one point, he was on the verge of breaking into tears, but he held back. It is important to note that in a society like that of the Valles [region], manful behavior and bravery are still important. Discussing UFOs isn’t easy due to a fear of mockery, and much less to weep when remembering the experience.

It’s evident that this experience marked him greatly. For this reason we prefer to transcribe the interview and abide by his simple descriptions. A second person could not be interviewed: although he was not a direct witness to the event, he would have been able to contribute valuable information, but we must set this aside for another time, as we are separated by a distance of nearly 1600 km.

As a narration, the event is solid and without contradictions. What underlies the story is the difficulty in describing a truly strange thing, and as we always say, we must understand that we're talking about ordinary people facing extraordinary events.

Eyewitness Interview

Omar: It was before the festival. I was still working at the confitería (confectioner’s shop) – a bar owned by Martin Oliver – and I went to sleep at my girlfriend’s house. The time was 01:00 hours. I spoke with her and then we went to bed. But around 02:00 hours a little dog belonging to the household started barking, something it never does. It barked at the door until I got up and took it outside.
Gaceta: Where was the dog?
Omar: I have a room there, but there’s another that still has to be completed – it connects to the street and is covered by a board that acts like a door, covering the entrance to half-height. The dog was there. I left room and tossed him outside – through the open upper section – because the door isn’t finished yet. Then I went back to bed. The dog barked again and scratched the door, I didn’t know why.
Gaceta: He was restless?
Omar: Yes, and I asked my girlfriend what was going on for the dog to act this way. I got out of bed again, went to the door, put him back inside and scolded him. I took him outside, shut the other door (street) and went back to bed. Then the dog started pestering us again for the third time, crying even stronger and scratching the wood. I got up thinking that the dog must want something-- that something’s happening...I got dressed and went outside. Opened the door to see the little dog with [eyes full of tears], as if telling me “come see this, what’s over here”, so I went outside, removed the board (that covers the unfinished opening) and the dog went out ahead of me as if leading me. I followed him, looking at the ground, watching him walk. We reached the ravine, I raised my eyes (suddenly) and there it was...it was impressive, I don’t know...I was speechless and couldn’t move. I was completely frozen.”
Gaceta: Can you describe what you saw?
Omar: Yes, I saw red and green lights.
Gaceta: Several?
Omar: A single thing that had those lights. It couldn’t be clearly seen because it was nighttime, and I stayed like this (paralyzed); it was large, was seven meters in diameter more or less, I don’t know...
Gaceta: Where was the object, specifically?
Omar: It hovered over the ravine. It wasn’t resting there – it was floating, and when I saw it, I wanted to turn around to go tell my girlfriend and...I couldn’t. It was like keeping still. I didn’t move even though I strained to move. I reacted, I wanted to force myself and I could [make myself move] slowly, slowly but straining a lot. Tears filled my eyes...and I wanted to run but I couldn’t. It was something grabbing me (against my will) and holding me there. I could only look...then it let me go, and I nearly fell down, but I supported my hand (against the ground) and ran away to report it, to have everyone come and see what I had seen. Well, they couldn’t believe it. When I went out with my girlfriend it wasn’t there. It vanished completely, I don’t know...”
Gaceta: Did you feel you couldn’t move out of fear, or was something keeping you from moving?
Omar: “Something” kept me from moving, because I strained and it felt as if I was being held...
Gaceta: How did your body feel?
Omar: I felt something like shivers. I felt fear. There was a knot in my throat, I was actually speechless...I couldn’t scream...
Gaceta: Do you remember if it was cold?
Omar: I felt cold, but it was a warm night. It was two days before the festival, Thursday and it was very hot.
Gaceta: When you tried to move, did you feel pain, or just felt rigid?
Omar: I could move if I tried, but something held me down. I wanted to move, but moved slowly...
Gaceta: Were you looking at the object meanwhile?
Omar: When I wanted to turn around, in slow motion, so to speak, I could see it, observe it. It was a thing there, floating, but made no noise. The silence was absolute.
Gaceta: Did it shed light?
Omar: No. It had a powerful reflection, but I could see it. It didn’t cast any light.
Gaceta: Did you notice any change in the light during your paralysis?
Omar: No, everything remained the same. There was no change. That thing (the object) wanted to hold onto me, I don’t know...
Gaceta: Could you make out any shapes?
Omar: I could see lights that could be like this (makes a circle with his hands), half rounded, not very tall, some 7 meters in diameter, but it couldn’t be more than 5 meters
Gaceta: Oval?
Omar: Yes. Some 2 meters off the ground, a meter and a half. I was some 14, 15 meters away.
Gaceta: How long did the sensation of being paralyzed last?
Omar: 20 or 25 seconds. When I saw it I wanted to should but couldn’t. Then I struggled to warn others, so they would see it, but my girlfriend says she didn’t see me.

We should highlight that the window to the home, through which the young woman was peering, faces the exact position from which Omar could see the object. Even so, she claimed not being able to see it, something impossible at a distance no greater than 15 meters, since behind this – some 100 meters away – is a row of houses and streetlights that make it even easier to see a person standing where Omar happened to be. The witness’s position was at an overhang facing a ravine that causes the terrain to plunge some 10 meters. This is the place over which the UFO was stationed. It was possible that its height made it invisible, but the young man never descended into the ravine.

Gaceta: Your girlfriend couldn’t see the object?
Omar: No, because it was in the ravine, which is below and beside the street. She told me that when I went out I was following the dog and I got [to that point]. Later she lost sight of me. She was seated in bed, looking through the window, and I came back shouting for her to come and see. She ran outside in her nightgown.
Gaceta: When you began to feel the paralysis: you were standing still and then felt it, or did it happened as you walked.
Omar: It happened as I raised my eyes. When the dog stopped I saw some lights ahead of me and that’s where I stopped. I barely looked at it.
Gaceta: How did your experience unfold?
Omar: I struggled and ran back to warn her, and then when we returned to the ravine there was nothing – no sign of anything.
Gaceta: And then?
Omar: Well...we returned to the room, and I swear to you that there was something in my mind that...I was scared, I couldn’t stop crying. I spent the night crying. I dreamed that I appeared here, in the town, and that many showed up, 10 or 20. I dreamed that they came down at Cachi’s main square. And yesterday, when Antonio told me that you [the UFO researchers] were coming, I had a dream again last night. Every time I remember or am asked something, I get a headache.
Gaceta: After seeing that, did you get a headache? Did you feel nausea?
Omar: No, only headache.
Gaceta: You weren’t able to overcome it?
Omar: At first I said no, I don’t believe in that stuff. Well, seeing is believing, and I saw it by surprise.
Gaceta: What were the lights doing?
Omar: Turned on and off. The green one went off and the red one turned on. Beacon-type.
Gaceta: How long did the sensation of cold last?
Omar: When I strained it went away, but the fear stayed here, at the nape of my neck. And I felt a knot in my throat.
Gaceta: Did you ever feel anything similar in your life?
Omar: No, never. Never felt it before.
Gaceta: Any further symptoms, pain, physical maladies...could you move properly after what happened?
Omar: No, just the headache.
Gaceta: What did the dog do?
Omar: When I looked up, I lost sight of him. Didn’t see him until the next day. He was fine.
Gaceta: Is it possible that the dog led you there?
Omar: Yes, that’s how it was, as if telling me to go, let’s go see what’s out there. He scratched the door and cried until I went.
Gaceta: Are you fond of the dog?
Omar: No, not much. He’s my girlfriend’s dog. The first time he did something similar was that night.
Gaceta: What made you go out at 2 in the morning?
Omar: My dad told me that dogs can foretell things such as earthquakes. When the dog scratched the door, I remembered it and went out to see what happened. I thought something weird was going on. I think the dog wanted to lead me [there].
Gaceta: What did he do specifically?
Omar: First he looked at me with tearful eyes, and then he went straight for the ravine and went down a little. After I saw [the object] I lost track of [the dog].
Gaceta: Could the lights be clearly seen?
Omar: yes, some turned on and others went off. All around.
Gaceta: Like lighted advertisements?
Omar: Yes, but there were no other colors. Red and green. The were clearly visible although weren’t strong. It’s as though they were lighting something, but could be seen clearly.

The witness believes that what impressed him most was that such an object made no noise at all.

(Translation (c) 2010 S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez and Gaceta OVNI)

Mexico: Airbus A-320 Flies Near UFO

Source: www.analuisacid.com
Date: 01.21.2010

Mexico: Airbus A-320 Flies Near UFO
A Report from Prof. Ana Luisa Cid

On Monday, January 18, 2010, a Mexicana de Aviaciaon Airbus-A320 flew close to a UFO as it went over Xochimilco, according to Alfonso Salazar (UFO researcher and aviation technician)

This occurred as the airliner made its climbing maneuvers to achieve an appropriate altitude for a straight and level flight. The time was 11:55 a.m.

The Mexican airliner flew some 200 meters form a spherical, seemingly metallic object that changed colors (from aluminum gray to brilliant red). The aircraft was heading east of Mexico City while the object headed south.

According to unofficial data, and under excellent meteorological conditions, the UFO was detected visually as it flew at an approximate altitude of 10,000 meters.

Personnel from MCIA (Mexico City International Airport) had access to the information. It is worth noting that this area, particularly the one near Xochimilco, has become known for its reports of similar objects: metallic spheres that fly over the water, nearly touching the canal's surface.

UFOs were recorded on previous days (January 16 and 17) in the air corridor near the Airport: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUKX6ryqQ_U

(Translation (c) 2010 S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Ana Luisa Cid)

Argentina: The 1972 Dugour-Berlingieri Abduction

Argentina: The 1972 Dugour-Berlingieri Abduction
By Oscar A. Uriondo
From “Gaceta OVNI” 1101
Translated by S. Corrales, IHU

The details of this case – involving two high-level officials with a prominent Argentinean banking institution – were made known by this author over two decades ago in a specialized Spanish publication. Nonetheless, we found it interesting to republish it now, but from a different perspective, according to the knowledge on the UFO phenomenon that has been accepted since then and which provide us with a more sophisticated view of the case.

Let us recall, then, that on an unspecified day in May 1972, Messrs. Ivo Dugour and Nestor Berlingeri, who at the time were managers of the Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, headquartered in Capital Federal, headed from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata along National Highway 2. These trips to the interior of the country were done frequently due to banking activities.

We learned of this case through Mr. Ruben Luzuriaga, a colleague and friend of the aforementioned parties. It was thanks to their intercession that we managed to speak with the parties, overcoming their initial reticence about discussing an event that was perhaps too fantastic for conventional understanding. Thus, we were able to interview them separately and collect their respective versions of the shared experience.

Dugour’s Account

They had left Mar del Plata around 12:30 a.m. after a frugal repast during which no alcohol was consumed. Berlingeri was driving the car – a Ford Falcon – while Dugour nodded off in the passenger’s seat.

Suddenly, after some 30 minutes of driving time, the driver stated that he was overcome with sleep, pulled over and parked. Before falling asleep, Berlingeri closed the windows and lowered the safety locks on both doors. He turned off the engine and tucked the keys into his pants’ pocket. After this, Dugour remembers nothing more.
He was suddenly awakened by his companion’s screams, saying: “The engine’s off!” He then saw that the car was coasting slowly down the middle of the road. They tested the lights, which operated normally. Then, recalling that his friend had placed the keys in his pocket, reminded him. [Berlingeri] was then able to start the car.

It was only then that both men realized that the car had been traveling at a speed of some 20-30 kmh without the engine running. The fact was much more surprising by the fact that no parking brake had been applied – they were in a perfectly flat area with no noticeable grade. When they reached [the town] of Dolores, an excited Berlingeri told what had just happened to a gas station attendant. To the contrary, Dugour was extremely calm and sleepy.

After setting in motion once more, this time with Dugour doing the driving, this witness started to feel a very strange and unpleasant sensation in his head: a tingling similar to that of a leg that has fallen asleep. He remained that way for a long time, and was forced to drive very slowly.

Berlingeri’s Account

His story coincides with that of Dugour until the moment in which he pulls over to the curb and parks the car. On the other hand, he does not remember closing the windows or safety locks, or even putting the keys away.

He fell asleep instantly and when he woke up, found himself holding the steering wheel with both hands as the Ford Falcon moved down the highway, which was utterly deserted at that time. Berlingeri figures that they slept about two hours, judging by the time it took them to reach Dolores. Neither Berlingeri nor Dugour have been able to specify the place where they parked, perhaps because they were too confused to have a precise idea of their location. They only believe that they may have been parked some 30 km from Maipú. Nor were they able to judge the distance covered by the car during the period in which they were asleep. It is interesting to note that the sleepiness that overcame the witnesses was very intense and unusual, as both men are accustomed to such nocturnal journeys.

Finally, at no point did Dugour or Berlingeri see unexplained luminous phenomena or strange noises. It should be noted that the narrated incident, at first blush, does not show any clear links to the UFO phenomenon in its broadest and most familiar manifestations to the media and the public at large.

Credibility

There is no valid reason to question the truthfulness of both protagonists in this strange case. At no time did they try to publicize their experience; on the contrary, it was not made known to any media outlet. Only a few people – friends of the parties involved—ever got to hear about it. Even the witnesses were reluctant to discuss the episode with colleagues for obvious reasons.

Whether the experience can be explained as dream-like or hallucinatory experience, it is highly improbable that this would occur to two people simultaneously, and in a coinciding and even complementary manner.

The hierarchy of credibility of Messrs. Dugour and Berlingeri seems unquestionable due to the aforementioned circumstances, and the direct contact that the author had with them.

Conclusions

In the initial article in which this case was made known, we suggested that the production of unusual effects tied to the incident could have been related to some kind of force field, exercised deliberately or as an involuntary effect of the UFO’s propulsion system (bearing in mind that none were seen in this case). However, we now believe that this explanation is decidedly lacking and skirts the main problem. If the autonomous motion of the car suggests the action of some external force, the anomalous core persists: What happened during the two hours in which both men were asleep? What caused both men to fall into a deep sleep, so quickly and without a reasonable explanation?

We believe that the answer to such questions leads to a serious consideration of a less common and surprising possibility: that Dugour and Berlingeri had an abduction experience.

The author did not invoke such a hypothesis at the time, but the subject of abductions was not as widespread then as it is today, when it has achieved abusive (and obsessive) levels. Remember that up to the 1980s, the matter of abductions had gone overlooked and with the exception of the Villas Boas case -- made known by Flying Saucer Review in October 1964, and the [Betty and Barney] Hill case, published by Fuller, J.C. in The Interrupted Journey, 1966 – was almost ignored at the popular level.

In honor to the truth, it is not possible to slant the existence of certain data suggesting on the one hand the similarity of the reactions of the witnesses with physiological effects that are customarily tied to UFO manifestations, such as: temporary loss of consciousness, lethargy, tingling in the head and unspecified organic malaise. On the other hand, they bolster the hypothesis of a true abduction experience.

For example, during classic abduction events, the initial moment tends to come about during a car trip along empty roads between midnight and 5 a.m. The Dugour-Berlingeri case shares these same strictures. The amnesia that often affects abduction experiencers – the so-called “missing time” – also befell the protagonists of the incident under consideration. The atypical aspect would be the absence of any light stimulus.

Finally, did an abduction really take place? Available data only allows us to sketch out this hypothesis. Unfortunately, the possibility did not exist at the time to recover the “missing time” episode through hypnosis, as is done in current research. Therefore, if that was the right approach to secure a reliable answer, we will never know for certain what happened to Dugour and Berlingeri in the two hours of their fantastic interrupted journey.

Zone of Silence: Wish You Were Here

In May 2003, members of Mexico's now-defunct Fundación Cosmos A.C. journeyed from their base in the state of Nuevo León to Ceballos, Durango and its vicinity to conduct research within the Zone of Silence. As a souvenir of their visit, they shot a video highlighting some areas of interest.

Readers of INEXPLICATA will get a better feel for the area through these two minutes of footage than by viewing dozens of stills. Members of the Fundación Cosmos A. C.expedition to the Zona del Silencio, Mina la Ojuela en Mapimí Durango, Hacienda Divición del Norte, Chihuahua included: Ing. Alfonos Palomo M., David Marcos Marcos, Ing. Juna Pablo Mtz., Ing. René Longoria Loredo, and Ing. Marco A. Reynoso B.

The Zone of Silence: Unmuted

The Zone of Silence: Unmuted
By Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology
(c) 2010


The Zone of Silence is one of those subjects that cause scientists to lose their patience with believers in UFOs and the supernatural. It is surely one of our planet’s natural wonders, and far from being in some obscure part of the world, it is some four hundred miles from the U.S. border and even marked on the AAA road maps (although drug trafficking concerns would make the trip unadvisable). Its owes its suggestive name – which even inspired a horror movie called La Zona del Silencio directed by Rodolfo de Anda in 2004 – to the fact that magnetic aberrations make radio communications impossible in certain parts of the area, which is formally known as the Vertice de Trino: the place where the borders of the Mexican states of Durango, Chihuahua and Coahuila join between the twenty-sixth and the twenty-eighth parallel.

In an effort to discourage any paranormal chatter, scientists often stress the fascinating biological abnormalities found by researchers: strange reptiles and vegetation that is unique to the area, which aeons ago was underwater, as evidenced by the fossilized marine life that can be found scattered throughout the location. It is interesting to note that some official websites do not eschew mentioning the supernatural legend that has grown around the Zone of Silence, such as the belief that a region having similar characteristics must exist somewhere on the other side of the world, lost in Central Asia, a place where “earth energies” are concentrated.

Even though famed Mexican aviator Francisco Sarabia first reported radio trouble while flying over the area in the 1930s, the “Zone” would probably have been another expanse of desert had it not been for engineer Harry de la Peña, an organic chemist who visited the area in 1966 on what was meant to be a photographic survey, and suddenly found himself unable to contact other members of his team on handheld radios: these devices would emit little but faint whispering sounds when cranked to full volume. Television and cell phone reception is likewise hampered as far as Ceballos, Durango – some twenty-five miles distant -- and the outlying desert settlements. Contrary to rumor, verbal communication is not at all impeded by the forces at work in the area.

Full awareness of the Zone of Silence as an anomaly emerged in the early 1970s. Mexican journalist and educator Santiago García, a resident of Torreón in the state of Coahuila, decided to visit this bizarre location that was basically in his back yard (some 60 miles distant) and compile one of the first reports available to the unspecialized reader. Prof. García, quoting the research available at the time, mentioned that a senior NASA official – Dr. W. Richard Downs – noted that maps of the Ceballos region were marked with an “X” due to the fact that Earth’s planetary motion produced “an electronic tornado that impeded the free transmission of Hertz waves” in places like the Zone of Silence, while attracting metallic particles of extraterrestrial origin, as attested by the nearly constant falls of small metallic balls in the area, known locally as “guíjolas” in the area. Hence its importance to researchers. These minute orbs are collected by locals and visitors alike, and treated with great reverence (a visitor to one of the desert communities near Ceballos reports that these are often placed on altars, along with votive candles and religious imagery)

Larger objects have also felt the inexplicable lure of the Zone of Silence. In the early morning hours of the eighth day of February, 1969, the desert night was turned into blinding radiance as a huge meteorite hurtled toward the hamlet of Pueblito de Allende. Locals compared the actinic whiteness of the burning meteorite as “staring into a flashbulb”. The object’s impact caused a massive shock wave that produced the single loudest sound heard in the area since modern humans have occupied it. The Allende Meteorite, as it has become known, is the largest of the “particles” attracted to this part of the world.

UFOs in the Desert

Some of the earliest reports of UFOs in the area can be traced to eyewitness reports of incidents that occurred during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1921). One such report, collected in Prof. Santiago Garcia’s Los Ovnis en Mexico (Posada, 1972) comes from a peasant named Matías López, 79 at the time of the writing, who recalled seeing fireballs in the heaven over San Pedro, Coahuila when he was only fifteen years old. His elders said that the fireballs “were the fires of the end of the world” which would consume our planet completely, in step with some religious beliefs. Similar bolides have been reported elsewhere in Mexico, even by the military, as can be attested by the 1967 incident involving the warship Guanajuato.

“But as it so happened, the world didn’t end,” the old desert farmer told García, and the balls of light kept appearing. I became very familiar with ‘em, ‘cause I’d see them at night when I was rounding up the cows and putting them in their pens. Others would cross themselves, and some would run into their houses, but I stayed nice and still in the field, to watch those things that were pretty to see, in parts.”

As to the size of the objects, Mr. Lopez indicated an apparent size of twelve meters, red in color and changing to yellow, and emitting “spurts” of sparks everywhere. “They moved up and down, risin’ and fallin’, and they made a ton of noise. Fine whistling sounds and then loud reports, like lightning.”

In October 1970, Professor García interviewed Guadalupe Becerra, a young witness to the local high strangeness, in the town of La Goma, Durango. The twelve-year-old told him that luminous phenomena were still to be found in the area: “I saw a bright light in the sky, looking like a wheel. It came down little by little toward the mountain they call La Ballena (the Whale) and the light was so strong that I shut my eyes because it was setting me on fire. That thing came down little by little over the mountain and stayed there for a while.”

The object increased its brilliance and rose rapidly into the sky, becoming smaller “like a star, and then I never saw it again.” A phenomenon similar to what was described by Ms. Becerra occurred thirty-seven years later in Maxala, Guerrero, thousands of miles distant.

A truly spectacular UFO sighting was reported one evening in September 1976 around 8:59 p.m. when residents of Ceballos noticed the overwhelming presence of a giant object on the outskirts of their community. At least two dozen residents gathered on Ceballos’s main street to watch the “craft” hanging in mid-air, as if waiting for its cue. The baleful machine, if machine it was, was estimated at some 300 meters long and with an overall rectangular shape. Lights surrounded the object, changing from green to blue to white, pulsating to a dull, humming sound coming from deep within its recesses. The eerie situation was made worse by all the dogs in the town suddenly howling and barking in unison.

Jose Madero, an elderly and decidedly valiant local, thought the intruder might be a balloon or dirigible of some sort, and approached it. He described it as being silvery in color when seen at close range, almost like steel. Eventually, the object rose into the air and headed toward the Zone of Silence.

People are Strange When You’re a Stranger

Strangeness is not restricted to the objects that are seen in the sky by cattlemen and desert ranchers: Sometime in 1975, an enterprising couple drove into the Zone of Silence in a brand new Ford pickup to gather unusual rocks and fossils, which can be found in great abundance. As they busied themselves in their activity, they noticed that a desert rainstorm was heading toward them. Hoping to avoid getting caught in a flash flood, they wisely packed their vehicle up and sped off, but not fast enough to avoid the relentless rain: the track ahead of them turned into a swamp: the pickup was quickly trapped, and began to sink into the soft terrain.

While the couple struggled to keep their vehicle from sinking, two figures approached them, waving amid the torrential rain. Two extremely tall men in yellow raincoats and caps, with unusual but by no means alarming features, offered their assistance to help them get underway again. The men instructed the totally drenched couple to get inside the pickup again while they pushed. Before the couple realized, their vehicle had popped out of the hole and on to firmer ground.

When the husband got out of the pickup once more to thank the two men, he realized they were gone. There were no footprints in evidence or any surface feature that could have concealed their departure.

People who cross the zone regularly report seeing strange lights or fireballs maneuvering at night, changing colors, hanging motionless and then taking off at great speed. Two ranchers heading back from a festivity witnessed how a shining light floated down from the dark sky and disgorged humanoid occupants, who glowed with the same eerie light and were walking toward them. The ranchers broke into a frantic run.

Physical traces of these nocturnal visits can be found. One witness returned one morning to the site where he had seen the mysterious lights cavorting the previous night, and found that the scrub vegetation "had been set on fire". Dozens of similar reports emerge from the zone, told by reliable witnesses.

The growing skeptical trend in UFO research tends to overlook these interesting cases in favor of others that show a clearly military or governmental bent. The Zone of Silence can offer that as well: in the summer of 1970, an Athena rocket blasted off from the U.S. Air Force facility at Green River, headed toward the White Sands missile range in the state of New Mexico. The initially uneventful launch soon became cause for alarm as the projectile suddenly veered off course as if drawn by an external force, prompting the missile’s controllers to abort the mission in mid-flight, hoping the errant rocket would plunge into the desert on the U.S. side of the border. The command to “kill” the stages of the projectile should’ve worked, but the final stage, carrying the payload, activated itself on its own for a four-second burn, taking it straight into the Zone of Silence.

A state of alarm ensued and a recovery mission was ordered, perhaps with more alacrity than usual, as the Athena carried an unusual and controversial payload. In later years it was disclosed that the nose cone had been filled with cobalt, ostensibly to test atmospheric reentry conditions. Initial concern centered around the possibility that an unfriendly radio signal had deliberately steered the rocket off-course, but no such interference was ever discovered. The possibility that the six-ton rocket and its radioactive payload could have impacted a major population in the U.S. or Mexico was too horrible to contemplate.

Assisted by local horsemen and ranchers, an Air Force recovery team from White Sands entered the Zone of Silence to recover the object. Given the Zone’s terrain and its overall strangeness, the wayward payload was finally located from the air: low-flying aircraft equipped with radiation scanners finally discovered it near the promontory known as Cerro San Ignacio.

It was precisely this high radiation reading in the area that prompted an even stranger incident: the Mexican government demanded that the Air Force remove all traces of debris, down to the very sand of the impact crater. Hauling away tons of irradiated sand with trucks was utterly unfeasible, so more extreme measures were taken: a dedicated railroad line was constructed to the crash site, where heavy front loaders could fill railcars with ease. Other sources claim that the sand was actually poured into thousands of fifty-five gallon drums which now sit somewhere on U.S. territory, either forgotten or more than likely associated with an unlikely “flying saucer recovery” story.

Chile: UFOs Return to Tierra del Fuego

Source: NOUFA and Diario El Pinguino
Date: 01.16.10

Chile: UFOs Return to Tierra del Fuego

Due to the length of its national territory, Chile has areas where UFO case histories have an unbroken tradition. Some areas are often ignored due to their remoteness, including other debatable analytical factors.

In June 2009, ufologist Eugenio Bahamonde, a resident of Punta Arenas and with a wide background of UFO sightings and experiences in that region, was advised of a powerful flash seen in the night on a given weekend over the Darwin Range. The witnesses to this incident were attorney Juan Jose Arcos and cameraman Danilo Brescovic.

"We took photos of the objects because they were unusual, although we didn't associate them to anything out of the ordinary. But at night we saw a light to the right of the San Valentin airfield, which made any thoughts that it may land impossible." The witnesses made these statements to the local El Pinguino newspaper, which covered the story. Arcos added that the object changed colors from red to yellow and green. The sighting area is on the way to Almirantazgo Bay, which can be accessed by two roads: one that runs along the María Inlet, and the other being a coastal road that reaches the glaciers.

When researcher Bahamonde was consulted at the time, he told the newspaper that he was not surprised by these events, as there had been a notorious increase in such sightings in recent weeks (June 2009) and even stated that he had received a photo of circular impressions on the ground, which he attributed to an alleged "landing" of these lights.

Faced with the statements made by arctic researcher Eugenio Bahamonde, and the recent and continuous sightings luminous spheres and other "unidentified objects" in other parts of the country, and which extend to other nations as well, it can lead us to think that we are facing another cyclical "wave" occurring periodically and which should be subjected to more detailed analysis by the interested parties.

(Translation (c) 2010 S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Raul Núñez and Diario El Pinguino

Earthquakes and the Unknown

Earthquakes and the Unknown
by Scott Corrales


During an exchange of internet communications in the hours shortly following the massive 7.0 earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital city, Port-au-Prince, which left death and destruction in its wake, mention was made of the “far out” theories that have emerged in the 2000s to account for such disasters: scalar weaponry, alien craft concealed as passing asteroids, HAARP and other culprits that have gone on to become the “usual suspects” on paranormal radio and Web discussions. Let there be no mistake – the Haitian disaster is not a matter for idle speculation as people lay dying or desperately waiting for help that may not arrive. But for the record, there was a time when strange lights would be reported in connection with earthquakes, leading many to assume that they were triggered by unearthly forces or monitored by benign creatures from beyond.


The early morning hours of August 28, 1973 should not have been memorable to anyone in Mexico City. The pre-dawn darkness was disturbed only by the sound of a few cars speeding along Insurgentes Sur avenue – the great north/south artery that bisects the city – and the only people awake at the time would have been the cleaning staffs of the various office buildings that dotted the avenue and the odd reveler coming from a late dinner or night spent with friends. The previous day had been sunny despite the persistent smog and remarkably warm for the season. But that was all about to change.

At 3:51 a.m., something happened deep under the earth, unmindful of the sleeping souls above. The forces that make of Mexico a land of volcanoes and towering mountain ranges made themselves felt under the borders of the states of Puebla and Veracruz, unleashing an earthquake that would cause chaos and terror in the cities of Cd. Serdan and Orizaba, leaving a total of 500 dead and many more injured. By the time the seismic wave reached Mexico City, the tall apartment buildings rocked, waking up their occupants and sending a bleary-eyed population for the dubious shelter of the door frames, popularly believed to be the safest place to be during an earthquake. The awe-inspiring sound of creaking girders and the cracking of plaster added to the fear, even among the tenants of buildings supposed to be resistant to tremors.

Out on the street there were screams as occupants took to the streets, fleeing older structures that were known to be less than impervious to the rolling earth. Then everything stopped – there was silence but for the fearsome, roaring sound of what must have been a transformer shorting out in the darkness, echoing down the avenue. Within the apartments there were tears of relief and the knowledge that going back to sleep was virtually impossible at this point. In one of those buildings, a boy peered out of a curtain at the avenue, only to see strange red lights in the sky, dancing a secret dance over the heads of the crowd that had taken refuge right in the avenue’s median, where they felt they would be safe from any toppling structures.

The boy was this author, and I remember the lights.

In the early days of the UFO phenomenon, and even up to the present time among certain contactee circles, there was the moderately generalized belief that if UFOs were manifesting themselves during earthquakes or volcanic eruptions (such as the spectacular Decepción Island eruption of 1965, resulting in a now-famous photo of an unknown object), it must be because alien scientists must be reconnoitering our planet and studying its geological processes as part of a survey of not only our world, but perhaps our entire solar system. On the other hand, were the same UFOs perhaps collecting as much information as they could before our planet destroyed itself or underwent a sudden transformation? Psychics and those who professed being in touch with the space brothers were quick to reassure a worried populace that there were entire armadas of UFOs on standby for an evacuation to a better place, and yes, there would be seats aboard the spaceships for everyone, even the family pets. There was even the more reasonable suggestion that the UFO mission was a preventive one, as they allegedly de-fused greater disasters

In later years, the matter of “lights seen after earthquakes” was addressed by the more reasonable Tectonic Strain Theory, involving the piezoelectric effect and energy released by the pressure of rock and static electricity. But the relationship between UFOs and disasters is still present in many minds. In January 2006, airline pilots of the TACA company, flying over the Pacific Ocean, reported a veritable wall of water—eighty kilometers long and between fifteen and twenty meters tall -- heading inexorably toward the shores of Central America, specifically El Salvador and the Gulf of Fonseca, triggering understandable alarm among civilian and military authorities only a year after the Great Sumatra Earthquake. The tidal wave failed to materialize, but it coincided with the sightings of UFOs in Costa Rica and more specifically, the daytime sighting of a brilliant object on January 14, 2006 at noon over San José, that nation’s capital city.

Had the “space brothers” (or benevolent nonhumans, at the very least) stepped in to keep the disaster from happening by dispersing Poseidon’s might? If so, it was merely another day’s work to them, as the phenomenon appears to have been attracted to the tectonic activity of the Americas for centuries.

In June 2005, the eruption of Mexico’s Volcán de Fuego, located on the borders of the states of Colima and Jalisco, 300 miles from Mexico City, began a phase of activity that caused the country’s CENAPRED agency to mandate an evacuation of the surrounding communities. Internet sources mentioned that there was a certain strangeness about the volcanic earthquakes that being felt in the area, as they were “harmonic and regular”, leading some seismologists to suggest that the activity had been set in motion by artificial means. One possibility, according to the ubiquitous India Daily, was that “the volcano’s hot spot had been disturbed by some extraterrestrial experiments [...]

Following a strong earthquake in the town of Quintero, Chile on November 23, 1822, diarist Maria Graham, would make the following entry in her journal: “The earthquakes diminished in their intensity and frequency during the night and the early hours of the day. Only one was felt before 4 pm, and between this hour and 10 in the morning there were four. The weather was cloudy but pleasant. More news has come in from neighboring towns. Local fishermen and those from the beaches close at hand say that on the evening of the 19th they had seen a light at a great distance over the sea; it moved swiftly toward the coast, split in two, and then vanished. The credulous populace has turned the light to [an apparition] of the Virgin who has come to save the country. A holy woman predicted the catastrophe in Santiago the previous day. People prayed and the city escaped almost completely unharmed. They sent a courier to Valparaíso to spread the alarm, but he arrived to late, despite having worn out two horses to make the journey.” (Graham, M. Diario de Mi Residencia en Chile, Santiago, 1953).

Nor would the year 1861 be particularly kind to South America as a whole. Earthquakes were plentiful that year in Paraguay, Chile and Argentina, with the northern city of Mendoza being among the hardest locations to be hit. The burgeoning community of twelve thousand souls was turned to dust after a mighty earthquake which was followed by a nearly a month’s worth of aftershocks. The population scattered into the hills and desert, seeking shelter where they could, hearts freezing whenever they heard the rumbling noise that came from the ground under their feet. On May 11, 1861, chroniclers reported that a “luminous body” had crossed the skies over Mendoza from north to south, shining and clearly visible despite the brilliance of the sun (the recorded time of the sighting was 11:30 a.m.). “Travelers from the nearby province of San Juan to the north of Mendoza also reported seeing the light in those lands.” The official report also mentions the loud report that accompanied the object. Could there be a prosaic answer to this phenomenon, worthy of notice amid the calamity of the earthquakes and their aftermath? A meteorite burning up in the planet’s atmosphere would be the likeliest choice, but there’s the matter of the object’s luminosity being clearly visible at such an early hour. The “loud report” suggests a sort of sonic boom not characteristic of meteorites, but proper to aircraft...or perhaps even spacecraft.

Sightings of strange objects over Mendoza were not circumscribed to the 19th century, either: in 1957, residents of the Puente del Inca region of Mendoza reportedly saw numerous UFOs prior to the seismic activity that unleashed catastrophic landslides. In July 1968, the objects reappeared over Mendoza as another earthquake caused its inhabitants to flee their buildings for the imaginary safety of the streets.

Brazil is not a country readily associated with earthquakes, of all natural disasters, but Pereiro, a small community in the state of Ceará (northeastern Brazil) has repeatedly experienced earthquakes throughout the 20th century produced by the collapse of vast limestone caves that exist under the town, formed by the activity of subterranean water flows. From 1968 onward, seismic events were accompanied by the manifestation of immense greenish-blue bolides twice the size of the moon, described by local residents as being as bright as very large automobile headlights. Other descriptions classified them as being conical in shape and blindingly bright, moving silently over buildings or the countryside. Argentinean UFO researcher Roberto Banchs, writing in Las Evidencias del Fenómeno Ovni (Buenos Aires: Cogtal, 1976) notes that the strange lights of Pereiro were at one point seen on a regular basis and landing in the spiky, inaccessible “caatinga” vegetation that surrounds the area.

A reputable eyewitness – a local councilman – was riding his horse at night through the area in July 1968 when he encountered a green light that he first believed to be a truck, only to find it was an object hovering over the treetops. Other reports soon emerged of an enormous solid object accompanied by lesser ones, projecting a beam against the ground “like a giant spotlight”. This prompted representative Ernesto Valente to say: “Many UFOs have appeared over the skies of Ceará in recent months. The government should send observers to conduct an in-depth study to find out if UFOs are indeed related to earthquakes.”

According to Banchs, word was received from Pereiro a month later, stating that the manifestations of these luminous objects indeed precede seismic activity by a matter of hours, causing townspeople to remark that “the objects appeared to know when and where the earthquakes were going to come about.”


While at first blush the following may appear to have nothing to do with strange lights in the sky, it is connected, in a strange way, with the belief expressed by many theorists on the subject of UFOs that the presences behind the phenomenon feed off the energy released by human suffering – whether as a consequence of war, disaster or other tragedies. If we follow this line of thought, first articulated by Spanish paranormal researcher Salvador Freixedo, could we go as far as to say that these are somehow involved in bringing an end to the unimaginable destruction caused by the seismic activity in exchange for a single life?

On May 22, 1960 the Pacific coastline of Chile and Perú was devastated by a series of earthquakes and aftershocks which rank among the strongest ever recorded on instruments: a mind-numbing 9.6 on the modified Richter scale (7.25 on the original). Rivers abandoned their beds, new lakes appeared coastal cities like Valdivia were reduced to rubble, dropping to three meters below sea level in parts, and the hills themselves had shifted, proof of the unimaginably vast forces at work. Five thousand died and two million were left homeless; a tsunami lashed the ruins, causing even further destruction,

A total of nine separate quakes occurred over the following two weeks as the the rest of the world looked on in horror and amazement. There was no question, in the minds of the terrified population, that they were living through the last days of the world.

The Mapuche Indians offered prayers to their traditional deities, sacrificing all of their flocks to appease the anger of their tutelary gods. Ritual fires could be seen all along the coast, morning and evening, as the reek of burned offerings filled the dusty air. Yet the earthquakes continued, unmindful of the sacrifices and orisons of even the most devout.

It was then that a local seeress (machi, in the Mapuche tongue) received a revelation: sacrificing dumb beasts would not suffice – it would be necessary to offer the precious gift of a child, as in the long-ago time when the twin serpents Cai Cai and Treng Treng had respectively destroyed and rescued humankind. Treng Treng’s species-saving assistance had been procured at the cost of human sacrifice.

According to newspaper reports, the human sacrifice took place at eight o’clock at night on June 5, 1960 near Colliileufú. Most astonishing of all is that the crushing seismic activity ended on the following day. In discussing this case, anthropologist Myriam Rios states : "What occurred was part of their ancestral religion, emerging in exactly the same context. From the Mapuche perspective, it is nothing but the culture expressed in its purest belief--the origin myth."

The five people involved in the sacrifice were arrested and two of them eventually imprisoned for murder, although eventually released. The judge who tried the case, far from believing in the supernatural, ruled that the murder had taken place not out of devotion for the gods, but out of fear for the clairvoyant’s supernatural powers.

Argentina: Bibiana Bryson's UFO Photograph

The newspaper article from 24CON takes a rather dismissive tone about "some woman who took a photo of an airliner from her terrace" when the photographer was in fact Bibiana Bryson, who has a distinguished trajectory as a UFO researcher.

Ms. Bryson is a commentator on matters both scientific and esoteric, a radio and magazine editorialist and a member of Argentina's CEFORA organization, which has set itself a one million signature goal to obtain the declassification of that country's massive UFO files.

Credit were credit is due.

Argentina: Warm Weather Brings Out UFOs?

Source: 24CON and Grupo G.A.B.I.E
Date: 01.06.10
http://www.24con.com/conurbano/nota/34144-Parece-que-los-Ovnis-se-asoman-m%E1s-con-el-calorcito/

Argentina: Warm Weather Brings Out UFOs?

The existence or non-existence of UFOs is a captivating subject for anyone. Some claim having seen them in the skies, up close and personal. Others claim having taken chance photographs during any time of the year. However, experts claim that summer is more prone to reports of sightings, and therefore, more cases could occur.

One such expert explained how the phenomenon comes about to 24Con. The first sighting of the year was in Vicente López.

This confirmation comes from Luis Burgos, director of the Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía (FAO): “We make evaluations every year and we forecast what may occur statistically, according to past performance,” he said, adding that the phenomenon changed over time, as a greater number of cases were reported in the ‘60s and ‘70s, although this was corrected in recent times.

437 reports were recorded in 2009, although according to Burgos, not all of these were “positive” –- “We noticed that the numbers went down as of October. Then we get ourselves together and start alerting people for a re-emergence from January to March,” he said.

There is an explanation for the greater visibility of UFOs during this time of the year. “It could be that there’s increasingly more tourism in regions that were previously undeveloped, and that people have greater technological means, such as digital and video cameras, which generates a greater number of sightings. It’s proportional.”

It should be noted that many such apparitions are known as “phantom UFOs”, as they are taken by people who had no intention to seek them out. In other words, objects appear in the sky by chance once the image has been developed.

While we are only six days into the year, Argentina has allegedly had its first sighting. It was taken by a woman in [the town] of Vicente Lopez, who was taking photos of an airliner from a terrace in her home and was startled to see a UFO appearing at the side of the craft. Either believe it, or bust.

(Translation (c) 2010, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Grupo G.A.B.I.E)