Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Argentina: “Strange Presences” in the Islands of Entre Rios



Source: Diario La Voz (online)
Date: 08.19.2014


Argentina: “Strange Presences” in the Islands of Entre Rios
*** Man tells local television about disembodied beings in the La Jaula wilderness***

A local resident identified as Rubén Lell claims having witnessed the manifestations of beings “with heads, but without bodies” while crossing the islands near the La Jaula wilderness in the Province of Entre Rios.

Lell states that he headed for the river, pushed along by “a black-colored being” of great strength, to the point of being thrown into the water, according to ElOnce.com


“I even looked for my flashlight. It [the figure] had gone into the river or simply vanished,” says the man.

He later added that out on the river, he saw two human heads that accompanied him at the front of the boat and which “were motionless and appeared to lack bodies”, as he told the TT6 program broadcasted on Channel 6 in the city of Crespo.

[Transcript of minutes 10:00-12:14 of the video]

Interviewer: Did you ever hear any similar story, or seen something in particular on that island?
Lell: No, never. Never. It isn’t the first time that I’ve fished for capinchos or gone out at night. Not on that island, no. But on others I have.
Interviewer: You’ve seen strange things.
Lell: Yes, yes I’ve seen them. Even by daylight.
Interviewer: Something similar to this, or…?
Lell: No, other things have happened to me while fishing for capinchos, other things have happened, but there you go. I’ve been told I shouldn’t fish them, but they’re so tasty [laughs]
Interviewer: So the things that have happened to you are on another island. Something similar, involving heads or….
Lell: Well, apparitions and things one realizes aren’t [real]. There are things that happen on the islands that we discuss among ourselves.
Interviewer: So you think there are things going on, but people won’t dare talk about them?
Lell: No, we islanders discuss it among ourselves, look, this and that happened to me, but that’s where it ends. One mustn’t be too curious and try to find things out.
Interviewer: Do you always go out to that place with dogs or alone?
Lell: If I need to, I bring dogs, but otherwise alone. On horseback, or whatever.
Interviewer: You say the dog warns you if there are weird things out there.
Lell: So does the horse. Horses have their own sense of foreboding.
Interviewer: Rubén, did you return to the island?
Lell: Yes, I did. I went back to see if I could find traces of something, but no, no…all was normal.

VIDEO at: http://youtu.be/dQOQMQFqsFY

[Translation and transcription (c) 2014, S. Corrales, IHU, with thanks to Guillermo Giménez]

Monday, August 18, 2014

Chile: Regional Businessman Photographs UFO During World Cup Games



Source: Planeta UFO and Diario El Día (Chile)
Date: 08.12.14


Chile: Regional Businessman Photographs UFO During World Cup Games
By Cristian Riffo

Photo taken by businessman Carlos Ruiz showing the city of Ouro Preto and a self-luminous disk-shaped object in the sky.

Thousands of compatriots traveled to Brazil to see Chile playing in the most recent World Cup games. One of them was Carlos Ruiz, a local businessman and former Assistant Dean of the University of Aconcagua.

Aside from attending all of Team Chile's games, his goal was to enjoy the beauty of Brazil's cities. Thus, following the Chilean team's defeat in the games, he headed for the city of Ouro Preto in Minas Gerais.

"When Chile lost in Belo Horizonte, I went off to a city that was recommended to me. It is an old city, a world heritage site, with a Portuguese flavor, used in several Brazilian TV series. I toured the streets, taking photos and visiting museums. This happened before my return trip home on July 1," states Ruiz.

During his entire stay in Brazil - for over 30 days - the businessman employed a Nikon P510 camera.

"In the evening, at 18:15 hours, I was taking my last photos before heading off to the bus station, and that's when I saw something appear. I was holding the camera, and thinking quickly, fired off two photos. Then it vanished. I saw something unknown to me appear out of nowhere, and it drew my attention," he noted.

Two Photos

Thus, Carlos Ruiz managed to capture the object in two photographs with a distance of less than 2 seconds between each. According to his report, there were no other witnesses or people photographing the UFO from that area.

"After it vanished, I went away to see if I could spot it elsewhere, but it was gone. I kept taking pictures. I've had the good fortune to travel a lot, but this the first time I've seen anything like it, except perhaps in Chile, when I saw something strange when traveling to Candelaria, but I didn't get to take any pictures.

The images - plus the local businessman's account - will be analyzed by UFO researchers gathered at a meeting on Thursday, August 14. Meanwhile, ufologists will hold a series of lectures on August 15 & 16 at an anniversary in the city of La Serena (Chile).

Carlos Ruiz also authorized the photos taken in Brazil to be seen by people visiting the Puerta Mall in La Serena between August 14 and 17, where Expo OVNI 2014 will be held. A sample of historic UFO cases will be on display there, including the alleged crash of a strange device in Paihuano on 7 October 1998.

[Translation (c) 2014 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO]

Argentina: Uproar in Valle Fertil over Alleged UFO


Source: Tiempo de San Juan (Argentina) and Planeta UFO
Date: 08.18.2014


Argentina: Uproar in Valle Fertil over Alleged UFO

*** Residents of Valle Fertil claim that an Unidentified Flying Object flew over the region ***
*** Valle Fertil journalist claims having seen the UFO ***


Residents of the department of Valle Fertil report seeing a UFO flying over the area on Thursday afternoon. It vanished two hours later.

Photos have appeared on social media showing a light in the sky, and local residents affirm that it is the unidentified flying object.

Furthermore, minutes before the alleged UFO's manifestation, there was a slight tremor that frightened the locals, who related it to the subsequent envent.

According to what some of the locals published, the UFO remained motionless for a long period of time, generating a silvery light.

VIDEO: (audio interview and still photo) at http://youtu.be/ti3y9zk1Arw

[Translation (c) 2014 S. Corrales, IHU. Thanks to Guillermo Gimenez and Tiempo de San Juan)

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Argentina: Phantom Humanoids in the Cordillera (1981)



Argentina: Phantom Humanoids in the Cordillera (1981)
By Carlos Daniel Ferguson
(appearing in UFO Press #24, November 1986)


17 February 1981, Manzano Amargo, Neuquén
Phantom Humanoids in the Cordillera?

During the year 1981, at least in Argentina and without confirming greater variation over successive years, reports on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (according to the Hynek classification) have not been abundant. Nor were there many “on site” surveys on such cases published in this magazine since that time. Carlos Ferguson, the author of this article, made known an original report of his investigation in the magazine he previously worked for – the esotericist monthly “Cuarta Dimensión”. Dissatisfied with that initial version of the facts, which lacked basic information (such as the story of José Albornoz himself, the main protagonist of the event), Ferguson now gives us this second version, which replaces the earlier one and gives us a more detailed notion about the strange incident at Manzano Amargo, a town located on the Andean Range, 3700 meters above sea level. With this article, Carlos Ferguson becomes part of our publication’s regular staff.

Introduction

The results of the investigation presented below stem from the information collected following a visit to the town of Manzano Amargo shortly after (some 20 days later) the event that gave rise to our interest.

It was necessary to take on a challenge, since practically the only prior information in existence was a newspaper clipping that read:

GENERAL ROCA (C.) – The “Rio Negro” daily of this locality informed its readers yesterday that reports from the Manzano Amargo wilderness suggest that a UFO landed in the area, and that two tall beings descended from it, inviting local inhabitants and a girl to board their flying saucer before taking off upon hearing the child’s screams. The UFO had colored lights…” (sic)

It is not my intention to bore the readers with the background of the investigation. It should suffice to note that nothing pointed to an easy investigation: the area was inaccessible, with a lack of suitable transportation which led to hitchhiking or horseback riding. On the other hand, the first news items of the event became known through the radio and a simple and sensationalist newsclipping that afforded little certainty.



The fact is that it did not turn out to be a heroic feat (many researchers would have done a similar study) but an ardous journey was involved to reach the place where the events transpired aboard a pickup truck that very nearly went over the steep cliffs of the Cordillera, a horse that went up and down trails as wide as a fist and other details not worth mentioning, as the last thing the author wants is to become a “UFO martyr” while still alive.
Before sharing the most complete version published heretofore regarding the Manzano Amargo episode with readers of UFO PRESS, I would like to give thanks for the assistance provided by the Intendent of Chos-Malal, the police and gendarmerie of that community, and the countless residents of Zapala, Vavardo and Chos-Malal who made this work possible by granting us lodging in schools and commissariats, and not precisely under the auspices of the organization I represented at that time.

The Witness and His Environment

The town of Manzano Amargo is 526 kilometers to the northwest of the Province of Neuquén, basically on the border with Chile and at an elevation of 3,700 meters in the middle of the Andean Range. Several UFO sightings took place in 1980 in this region, involving two significant witnesses, such as the former Indentent of Chos-Malal, Mr. Stanley Izaguirre, who cordially welcomed me to his office to tell me about the event he witnessed along with dozens of witnesses. They beheld a UFO that dazzled them with its lights and illuminated the Cordillera as if it were daytime.

One of the most interesting interviews, without question, was the one with teacher Luis Recia of Escuela 253, in the town of Manzano Amargo, which provides inestimable asstance to the humble residents of the region. It can be said of Luis Recia that he is the confidant of the local population, which includes the main witness himself, José Fermin Albornoz. The schoolteacher was the first person to hear Albornoz’s strange story. The questions answered by Recia to this interviewer suggested an intimate knowledge of Albornoz. His opinion of the case was an unequivocal assertion:

“What José is saying is based on actual fact, as people –at least people around here, in general – don’t have an intellect that’s sufficiently developed to imagine such things.” I was fully able to corroborate the rural schoolmaster’s statement, not only because Albornoz was not benefitting from making his story known, but because he was, in fact, a person of very limited education. A plain, humble rural man practically free from the contaminating effects of the communication media.

José Fermín Albornoz (age 43, information he only found out when visiting the registrar of births for his identification papers) is a cattleman, married, has seven children and knows no lands beyond Neuquén. The humble cattleman’s story was confirmed others who know him well, as well as the Police and the rural Gendarmerie and the aforementioned Intendant Izaguirre: “You can be fully certain that what Albornoz said was the truth.”


According to this interviewer, José repeats his story time and again without contradicting himself.

I admit that I was highly mistrustful, but was unable to detect any incoherences or gaps in his story. At all times, he answered my questions and had no objections in accompanying me to the sighting location, a stretch that links Manzano Amargo to a “step” in the Cordilleras, an hour and half distant from town on horseback.

Albornoz was startled to learn that the news had transcended the borders of his county. He expected no visitors. It is, in fact, a firsthand report.

The Events

On the evening of February 17, 1981, José Albornoz was on his way to La Veraneada, a step in the Cordillera where he looked after a herd of sheep, fenced in a pen, with the aid of two companions. After a quick dinner past nightfall, the three men decided to go to sleep. For this purpose there is a sort of shelter that is almost exposed to the elements near the pen. It is built out of wood and roofed with straw and mud. Around four o’clock in the morning on Wednesday, 18 February, José woke up alarmed by a sudden disturbance along the animals (the penned-in sheep were joined by horses and some dogs). At no time was a girl present in the group, as was incorrectly reported.

José propped himself up on his right hadn and was able to make out a circular sky-blue light some 20 meters away from his location. The luminous circle had an estimated size of 2 or 3 meters in circumference and was suspended some 40 centimeters over the ground. Albornoz then summoned his companion, who did not pay much attention to José’s exlamations and chose to hide by covering himself under some blankets. Albornoz says it was during these first moments that he felt a loud buzzing sound over his head. “It came from above,” he asserts. While the noise appeared to overwhelm everything, José Fermin had “the impression that the ground shook.” At that moment, all of a sudden, two humanoid figures appeared before him, standing more or less 1.10 meters tall.

These entities remained motionless for a few seconds barely two meters away from the shelter, nearly at Albornoz’s feet. They said “something” in an incomprehensible language before vanishing as quickly as they had appeared. José Fermín explains that his only thoughts at the moment were of his family, given the shock produced by the vision: “Dear Lord, it’s the end of the world and I’m not with my family,” he reportedly exclaimed upon witnessing the phenomenon before him.

His pulse quickened, he felt himself growing weak and falling to his side, recovering in a matter of seconds only to see his friend (who did not see the humanoids) watching the luminous sphere vanishing into the west while the animals kept making noise. José’s companion could not be interviewed by the author (it was said in the town that he had suffered such a severe emotional shock that he was unwilling to discuss his experience with anyone).

Specific Details

• The luminous sphere irradiated slight heat and did not split at the ends.
• The figures had a corpulent physical build despite their short stature. They were two large-headed humanoid silhouettes, their heads out of proportion with the rest of their bodies, with broad shoulders. They remained completely motionless at all time.
• Albornoz did not see any facial features (perhaps due to the entities being backlighted?)
• He did not notice any details about their hands or feet, but he did say “they had something on their heads, like a sort of helmet.”
• The little men wore full-length divers’ suits, form-fitting and dark blue.
• The buzzing he felt at the start of the event was similar to that of a motor in operation.
• Albornoz calculates the total duration of his experience in a minute or slightly less.
• Despite the scarcity of details provided by Albornoz, there are no contradictions between what he told the police and this interviewer.

Albornoz’s Story

This is the first time that Albornoz’s brief but enlightening story has been published, lifted verbatim from the report made by this author. This segment of the interview took place without any interference by the interviwer, as José expressed himself freely, without assistance, in his own words and disclosing the details which may be the most important ones of the case:
“I’d gone to bed early that night. At around one in the morning I looked in on my horse, and then went to bed once more. Shortly after, I heard the cows mooing and the horses whinnying, and no sooner did I uncover myself…did I see that light…nearby. When I saw that light I called out to the other fellow, saying: “Hey, what’s going on…” [but] he screamed and covered his head under the blanket…hiding behind me. There was a strange buzzing sound coming from above, and two people appeared…just like that…all of a sudden! (he makes a gesture that could be illustrated by the appearance of an image on a TV screen). I don’t know where they came from, they just did it…they appeared…I didn’t understand what they told me, but they did speak to me…and when they spoke, that’s when I told them: “Dear Lord, the world’s ending and I’m not with my family and my children.” And that’s when I lost control and was out of courage…I wanted to run off to where the others were, but my heart was beating too fast…I passed out from fear…they (the beings) were smallish and their outfits were dark blue…they stood side by side, next to each other. I wasn’t able to make out their faces, I’m not sure if it was because I wasn’t brave enough or because…I was shaking from fear. The light was a lovely light…bluish, clear. A beautiful light. I don’t know what it was because I don’t study. I don’t know how to read, so I don’t know what these things might be. Could you tell me what it was I saw?”

Interviewer’s Opinion

In my humble opinion, the only thing that can be argued to invalidate this case is a confusion with a known phenomenon, since the possibility of the witness having concocted a fantastic story has been dismissed, as he lacked the essential information, something that would also apply in the case of a hoax, for which he lacks any true motives. However, the details provided by the witness serve not to validate a conventional explanation, as its strangeness is such that it cannot be compared with any known phenomenon whatsoever.

It should be noted that it was Albornoz himself who replied that no physical evidence of the sighting was left behind.


The case meets several interesting characteristics, from my perspective: emotional effects in the witness, unusual nervousness in the animals, a protagonist who enjoyed a good reputation and was a “virgin” – if I may say so – when it came to external influences and information. Moreover, I think that the data collected are a significant find, and obtained in a timely manner: Albornoz told me he had received a visit prior to mine: “The newspapermen told me that when those people spoke to me, they were inviting me to come aboard the light, but I didn’t understand.” Adding to the chaos that the press could have caused, we can add the usual errors of information, such as the presence of a girl who was never there, the changing sizes of the humanoids (sometimes “very tall”, sometimes “60 centimeters) aside from the information being fed to the witness.

On a separate issue, I have compared the humanoid images observed by Albornoz with those of the “Barrancas Case” (Santa Fe, 19 June 1980), the “Las Salinas Case” (Tucumán, 10 October 1978) and the “Faimallá Case” (Tucumán, 7 October 1978) and not only do they coincide in their appearance, but in 3 out of 4 cases, the disappearance of the entities is spontaneous. The small figures have appeared assiduously during this last decade, to the contrary of what happened in the 1960s.

This, at least, is what we glean from the statistics obtained by CEFU, an effort aimed at continuing the work pioneered by Dr. Oscar Galíndez and Oscar Uriondo. Another loose end regarding animal behavior should be noted: Albornoz and his co-workers too three days to round up all the animals that escaped that night.

With regard to the behavior of the beings, they might coincide with the “B” category according to Henry Durrant and Pierre Ensía. Regarding the entities’ manifestation, Antonio Ribera believes that it was “an insubstantial tele-projection or hologram from a technology unknown to us.” There are several cases with these characteristics, such as the famous Almonaster La Real case in Spain.



It isn’t easy to prove that José Fermín Albornoz’s experience was “real” in the empirical sense, but it cannot be said that the lack of prints places the case in negative territory. Should it be positive, as I believe it is, this would be the first Close Encounter of the Third Kind to occur at such a high elevation.

Prof. Oscar Uriondo has also ventured his opinion on a number of “projections” in certain UFO cases: “I can objectively say that the anthropomorphic beings linked to UFO manifestations are sometimes goverened (in a small percentage of the sightings in this sub-category) by standards of behavior that are equal or analogous to those of ghostly images.”

[Translation (c) 2014 Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology, with thanks to Carlos Ferguson]

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Transient Visitors: Strange Humanoid Encounters



Transient Visitors: Strange Humanoid Encounters
By Scott Corrales, © 2014

At some point in the 1990s I had a conversation with Dr. Rafael A. Lara Palmeros, director of research for Mexico’s C.E.F.P organization regarding the motives of individuals who develop an unhealthy attraction to UFO and paranormal phenomena. Dr. Lara mentioned a case involving a certain gentleman from Central Mexico who openly expressed his wish to be “contacted by aliens”, as that would be the solution to all his problems, real or imagined. He went as far as to offer money – not small amounts, ether – to any researcher, contactee or psychic who could make his wish come true.
This wish was not granted, as far as I know. Indeed, the gentleman should have been admonished about being careful about what he hoped for – the time honored admonition. In fact, some people would gladly trade away their negative experiences for free.

Some cases involving humanoid encounters appear to go unnoticed in the vast rush to publish stories in magazines or make them known to TV production companies. One of these unsullied gems was researched by Ramón Nava-Osorio of Spain’s IIEE organization (readers of INEXPLICATA will often see mention being made of the IIEE’s branch in Chile) while looked into the experiences of Juan Soler, a Spanish experiencer of the kind referred to in the 1970s as a “repeater”, a person who has multiple brushes with the unknown over a lifetime.

The “Michelin Men” of Lérida

In the spring of 1977, Soler had gone to a farm which his brother-in-law had just purchased at Binéfar, in the Spanish Province of Huesca, hoping to lend him a hand with plumbing and sundry duties. Once the chores were complete, both men boarded their respective cars and drove away. Soler, however, had trouble with his ignition and made a wrong turn down a country road that lead him to an open field. The road came to an abrupt end, marked by a large toolshed surrounded by farm implements, and it was at that inopportune moment that the engine died.
Things were about to get markedly worse.

According to Soler, who was struggling with the ignition, he noticed a strange figure appear out of nowhere – an entity with a shocking physical appearance. This is how he described it to Ramón Nava –Osorio: “It had no neck and its big round head was directly joined to the body. Its head was enormous and ended in a green-colored crest that resembled a fin. This fin seemed to have something like a corkscrew halfway down. The body was covered in large scales, some 3 centimeters in diameter, green and darker than the rest of the skin. Stunned as I was, I then saw a second and third figure appear, all of them having similar characteristics. The third figure walked to the middle, and all three turned to look at me. They all came from the same place and walked like regular people. I was able to see their eyes, which looked like a horse’s eyes - round, bulging, black and white – and they showed anger. There was considerable distance between the eyes, they had no noses and small mouths, carrying something in their hands that I couldn’t see clearly.”

“I felt invaded by a sense of terror,” continued Soler, “it was a hellish nightmare. As I kept looking at them, I continued to turn the key over in the ignition until the engine started. I put the car in reverse without looking and got out of there the best I could. I normally tend to revisit places where I’ve had experiences, but I’ve never gone back there.”

The last few words of Soler’s testimony are important. Since his earliest experience with non-human entities, he has felt compelled to learn more about the phenomenon with an intensity that researcher Nava-Osorio compares to that of the Roy Neary chacaracter in Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. These experiences went back to his early childhood, but none was as vivid as his encounter in September 1966 on the banks of the Marganell River.

At that time, Juan Soler had taken his then-girlfriend on a picnic to a highly wooded area frequented by families from the Manresa area. Around 1400 hours, Soler went off to a spring to bring back water, but something caught his eye: a metallic structure he took at first for a motorcycle’s sidecar, but as he approached, he realized that the object was a long white cylinder standing some 60 centimeters over the ground, “looking like a small submarine” – relatively speaking, as the witness placed its length at some five meters and its width at 120 cm, featuring portholes through which brown seats could be seen.



Nava-Osorio notes that Soler was at least ten meters distant from the object at this point. It was then that he saw two humanoid figures who must have descended from the sub-shaped structure shortly before the experiencer’s arrival.

Soler described the occupants as follows: “They were two beings, dressed in white, wearing helmets similar to those worn by motorcyclists. They were dressed in segmented outfits whose rings made them look like the Michelin Man (a reference to Bibendum, the logo of the Michelin tire company, whose image has been used as a descriptor in many CE-3 cases), although their segments were much thinner than those of the advertising character. The vehicle and the occupants’ clothing was the same color. I couldn’t make out their faces clearly due to the fear I felt and the swiftness with which it all occurred. But they seemed Nordic, although I had the impression they’d gotten suntanned, given the look of their skin. Their suits ended where the helmet started – it had no support or collar. They walked ponderously, wearing short-leg boots and gloves. They looked at me in surprise.”

This is where the “Marganell CE-3” - as we might well call it - took a detour into high strangeness.

Gripped by fear, Juan Soler felt the urge to flee, which is understandable in such a situation, but rather than escaping back to the picnic and his waiting girlfriend, he ran *toward* the humanoids, charging between both figures, brushing against one of them. Even more startling was the fact that the owner of the property containing the spring – described as an older man dressed in blue and wearing a cap – was standing there as if witnessing the proceedings. “He shouted an order, and the two humanoids hurriedly boarded their craft. Once aboard, the managed to touch me at the with the sharp end of the vehicle. I also felt something in my head. I turned around a little and told them: Go ahead, go ahead, I’m not about to do anything to you. When the vehicle had reached the height of my own head, I was gripped by excruciating pain. I felt as though my hair was on fire and the pain spread down my arms to my legs. Fully turning around to look, I saw the portholes [on the vehicle] were closed. They both looked at me from their seats and took off uphill […] The pain was similar to an electric shock, like something I’d experienced in the factory I worked for.”
Nava-Osorio did not press the witness for a better explanation of the events. The description as to the vehicle “going uphill” is unsatisfactory, and no mention is made of Soler returning to his girlfriend’s side.

“I showed up late for work on Monday morning,” Soler added. “Rather than reporting at 0500 I showed up at 0900. In the afternoon I went to see the doctor, but he didn’t put me on leave. He did on the following day, and I was on leave for fifteen days. I told the story to a number of people: friends, contemporaries and people at the factory, all of them serious, well-informed people, but no one believed me.”

There was an added detail to the story. Soler’s description of the entities as resembling Bibendum the Michelin Man was ironic in view of the fact that he worked at the Pirelli tire factory for many years, and his buddies began calling him “Gagarin” after the history-making Soviet astronaut.

Soler made efforts over the years to speak to the landowner who had fearlessly barked at the non-humans, prompting their departure. On one occasion, he went to the man’s home to discuss the bizarre experience, only to be slapped by the old man’s fiery tempered daughter. “The man died in later years, and I never had the pleasure of talking to him. In 1994, the daughter’s husband agreed to speak to me, but he had nothing new to say. His father-in-law died nearly at age 90 at the farmhouse.” An effort to discuss the subject with the parish priest also earned Soler a slap in the face.

“A long time after the incident,” Soler reminisced, “and while I was in the town of Peralta de la Sal, I got to speak to José Rami, the community’s jack-of-all-trades. He described an incident very similar to my own. He was a kilometer outside the town of Peralta with some mules and their tackle when he saw a white vehicle with two pilots. He was so frightened that he covered his eyes for a while, allowing the mules to lead him into town.”

The fact that Juan Soler would later drift into contactee circles would only cause serious researchers and journalists to overlook his experiences. Scientists are tired of telling us that the odds of finding human-looking intelligent beings somewhere in the universe is impossible, citing a number of evolutionary and genetic factors. But one researcher, Edward Ashpole, allows a loophole that will be of interest to those interested in humanoid CE-3s and which many will find vindicating. “This line of thinking,” writes Ashpole in his book The UFO Phenomena: A Scientific Look at the Evidence for Extraterrestrial Contacts (London: Headline Books, 1995), leads us to the conclusion that creatures with some kind of primate form, though not like us, might emerge from flying saucers, should flying saucers have a physical reality with biological beings inside them.” He then adds the important cautionary sentence: “But no ET could be like the beautiful people reported by many contactees and abductees, unless they were specially bred from human stock.”

Sidestepping any pro-ETH pathway for a moment, could the answer to the humanoid riddle lie in manipulation of the human race not by “ancient astronauts” but by advanced “next door neighbors” from another dimension, who have meddled with humanity since the earliest days of recorded history, and certainly before that? After all, the Sons of God looked upon the daughters of Men, and found them fair…

Humanoids from a Parallel Universe?

Science fiction enthusiasts, or perhaps more specifically, devotees of the oeuvre of Gerry and Silvia Anderson (UFO, Space:1999 and the supermarionation classics Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and others) surely recall their motion picture Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, whose plot involves the discovery of a planet similar to Earth occupying the same orbit, always concealed by the fiery bulk of the sun. A mission is launched from our planet and promptly crashes on the alien world, where the protagonist, American astronaut Glenn Ross, portrayed by Ray Thinnes (The Invaders), finds himself on a world that mirrors our own in every way. In a way, the movie explores the ages-old legend of “the land on the other side of the looking glass” for a contemporary audience.


It’s very likely that Miguel Herrero, a resident of Alcalá de Henares on the outskirts of Madrid, had never seen Journey to the Far Side of the Sun when fate catapulted him into the pages of UFO history in the early hours of 18 December 1977. An avid fisherman, Herrero had borrowed the company truck to visit a favorite fishing spot, the Buendía Reservoir. Well on his way around six o’clock in the morning, the fisherman’s borrowed vehicle suddenly died on the road (National Hwy 320), and despite Herrera’s best efforts, he found himself unable to restart it. He pushed the truck to the curb and waited for daylight and the possibility of assistance.

He suddenly heard a voice calling out in the morning gloom, and suspecting it might be another stricken motorist, proceeded to go off into the distance to render assistance. He found that the source of the voice was a man wearing a white outfit, asking him to follow him. Thinking it might be a mechanic, Herrera fell in behind the figure.

To his astonishment, he found himself being led to a “hat-shaped object” that projected a metal cylinder to the ground, and a door opened. Herrera would alter tell Madrid’s “El Diario” newspaper: “I found it foolish to think about running at the time. If they wanted to hurt me, they would have done so already.”

The cylinder – described as “metallic and icy cold” – contained an elevator that led them to a large control room. Herrero suffered a brief blackout after his first view of the craft’s interior, subsequently being able to write detailed notes as to what he remembered seeing. The crew, from his notes, were all dressed in white overalls, except for one who bore a red circle on the upper left side. The character introduced himself as “Major Martins”, advising Herrero that the vehicle was able to materialize and dematerialize upon command. Unusually talkative, the humanoid described the crafts operation and other intricacies. Herrero was told that the non-humans “had come to our world by chance. They had calculated a given speed at which to travel, found a void, and reached our dimension two thousand years ago.”

But this Jules Verne-like presentation of technological wonders to an unsuspecting Earthling soon took an ominous turn. Herrero was at first shocked, then frightened, when he saw a man looking exactly like him seated at one of the stations. “My first reaction was to approach him, not to strike him, but to see someone who looked just like me up close.” He was prevented from doing so, advised that he could not come into contact with his doppelgänger, or “his negative”, as Herrero put it. “He was exactly like me, except that the scar which I bear on my left cheek was on his left.” He adds that his double was asked to leave the room, and was not seen again.

It should be noted that a more detailed version of the above appeared in The Journal of Scientific Exploration (Vol 8, No.1, 1994) in a report by Vicente Juan Ballester Olmos. This version includes photographs of the hypnotic regression session performed on Miguel Herrero Sierra and other cases (dismissed as hoaxes by the author) in which the subject of doppelgängers also plays a part. One such event is the 1985 Vallgorguina Incident, in which Xavier C., a young man, develops a roll of film taken after a visit to a megalithic site. The developed images show claws and “monstrous green faces”. Under hypnosis, Xavier C. claims that strange creatures manufactured “a double” of him which he would later see getting onto a bus in Barcelona.

More Encounters

Rodrigo Andujar of the Zona Ovni podcast reported a humanoid case of the 1950s involving "little men from a strange artifact" seen in the province of Cuenca (1 July 1953 Villar del Sainz). Maximo Munoz, the protagonist, was described as an illiterate shepherd who heard a sharp whistling sound - common on these cases - that prompted him to turn around. To his amazement, he found a tank-shaped object on four legs projecting a powerful light. Intrigued, Muñoz approached the device, and a "door" opened in its upper section. Two diminutive figures, referred to as "tietes" (little guys) by the witness, emerged from the structure. The "little guys" were described as 60 centimeters tall, with dark features and slanted eyes. They surrounded the young shepherd, who at no point felt any fear, by his own admission, only as sense of curiosity. He described the creatures' language as "very odd". Apparently losing interest in the human, both entities looked at the landscape before boarding their "tank", which "took of quickly" according to the witness.

Despite his protestations of fearlessness, young Maximo returned home in tears and deeply shaken, according to his parents. The father would eventually return to the scene of the alleged humanoid encounter in the company of the Guardia Civil (state police) captain, being able to ascertain the presence of "many footprints as if from children" on the ground, as well as four square impressions supposedly made by the unknown artifact.

The thoughts of the late John A. Keel on the matter bear repeating in this case: “One basic fact should be obvious from the foregoing – these entities and things are not necessarily from some other planet. They are actually closely tied to the human race, are a part of our immediate environment in some unfathomable fashion, and to a very large extent are primarily concerned with misleading us, misinforming us, and playing games with us.”