The Trancas File: The Argentinean Air Force Document that Reopens the Tucumán UFO mystery (2026)

 Source: PipolNews

Date: Nov 2, 2026

By the PipolNews Team

The Trancas File: The Air Force document that reopens the Tucumán UFO mystery

Satellite photos and military testimonies reopen the Trancas case—an Argentine UFO file declassified by the Air Force in 2026.

What is the "Trancas case," and why was it never fully closed?

Contents of the file: satellite imagery and testimonies

The file—a dossier containing satellite photographs and statements from Argentinean Air Force personnel regarding sightings in Trancas, Tucumán—began circulating among researchers and specialized journalists in 2026.

Background: The original case dates back to a wave of sightings in 1995 in the northern part of Tucumán province—one of the most well-documented episodes in the history of Argentinean ufology.

Official response: The Commission for the Study of Aerospace Phenomena (CEFAE) has neither confirmed nor denied the full authenticity of the document, leaving the technical and journalistic debate wide open.

A dossier spanning over sixty pages, bearing a "classified" stamp and the official letterhead of the Argentinean Air Force, began circulating within circles of UFO researchers and specialized journalists in early 2026. It has become known as the "Trancas file," named after the department in Tucumán where, three decades ago, dozens of local residents—along with at least one group of military personnel—reported anomalous lights that defied conventional explanation. The document includes low-resolution satellite imagery, transcripts of radio communications, and testimonies signed by non-commissioned officers who were stationed in the region during the 1990s.

The resurfacing of this case is no coincidence. Along with Capilla del Monte and the Somuncurá Plateau, Trancas forms a triangle of locations that, according to Argentinean ufology, has the highest density of historical reports. Unlike those other cases, however, there had previously been no official, letterheaded document directly linking the Air Force to a systematic monitoring of the phenomenon in that specific area.

Between July and September 1995, residents of the towns of Trancas, La Cocha, and San Pedro de Colalao reported to the local police station that they had repeatedly observed high-intensity lights moving silently over the Aconquija mountains. These reports reached the then-Intelligence Directorate of the Air Force, which—according to sources consulted for this article—dispatched an investigative team to the Tucumán base, a facility under the jurisdiction of the Córdoba Materiel Area (Área Material Córdoba).

This phenomenon coincided with one of the peaks in UFO activity most frequently cited in specialized Argentinean literature—documented by researchers such as Fabio Zerpa and later revisited by the Center for the Study of Aerospace Phenomenology (Centro de Estudios de Fenomenología Aeroespacial). For years, however, the corresponding administrative file remained—as alleged by various civil organizations—either "lost" or deemed "not subject to declassification" for reasons of operational security; the latter was a common designation used in military archives of that era.

The material circulating in 2026 includes three black-and-white satellite photographs, dated between August and September 1995. These are attributed to a cooperation agreement with tracking stations that, at the time, operated under joint civilian-military supervision in northern Argentina. Two of the images show a luminous point above the course of the Tacanas River; the third, which is of lower resolution, displays an elongated shape whose nature—as noted in a handwritten marginal comment—was never determined by the original analysts. In addition to these images, there are four signed witness statements from personnel who were serving at the Tucumán garrison at the time of the events. While the names have been redacted in the copies that have surfaced, the ranks—one “suboficial mayor” (senior non-commissioned officer) and three “suboficiales principals” (principal non-commissioned officers)—remain legible. All four accounts describe an object emitting an "intense white light with peripheral red flashes" that remained stationary for approximately twelve minutes before moving off "at a speed incompatible with the conventional aircraft of that era."

None of the testimonies mention any confirmed radar contact—a point highlighted as a weakness by the more skeptical members of the scientific community who were consulted.

A chronological reconstruction of the case helps explain why it took three decades for the document to be made public, as well as the role played by the establishment of official bodies to study the phenomenon, beginning in 2011.

One aspect that particularly caught the attention of the researchers consulted is the consistency in the descriptions provided across all four testimonies—even though, as noted in the file itself, they were recorded on different dates and by different officers. This alignment can be interpreted in two ways: as an indication that the original event was genuine, given that the accounts show no evident signs of cross-contamination,, or perhaps the result of a narrative that had already crystallized within the collective memory of the garrison before being committed to writing—a phenomenon frequently documented in the psychology of eyewitness testimony, particularly in cases involving high emotional impact.

Specialists in military archival methodology consulted for this report further note that the absence of official receipt stamps on certain pages of the file, combined with the lack of a complete reference number, makes it impossible to establish with absolute certainty the document’s chain of custody from 1995 until its public emergence in 2026.

When contacted by this outlet, CEFAE—the body that, since 2011, has centralized the analysis of anomalous aerospace phenomena reported by pilots, air traffic controllers, and military personnel in Argentina—did not provide an official confirmation regarding the full authenticity of the "Trancas" file. However, it did not rule out the possibility that some of the material might originate from genuine 1990s-era records that have yet to be definitively classified. This institutional ambiguity—a recurring feature in such cases, both in Argentina and in the United States (as seen in reports from the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO)—fuels both journalistic interest and methodological skepticism within the scientific community.

Astronomers consulted point out that the Aconquija region—due to its specific topography and its location along regional flight paths—frequently sees reports of unexplained lights. In the past, such sightings have been attributed to atmospheric phenomena, reflections from aeronautical beacons, or satellites re-entering the atmosphere. None of these hypotheses, however, has been conclusively applied to the specific photographic material contained in the 1995 file, which has yet to undergo an independent, public technical assessment. While the debate regarding the authenticity and true scope of the file continues, the Trancas case joins a list of Argentinean episodes—alongside the 1986 incident in Capilla del Monte and various reports from the Patagonian plateau—that combine human testimony, partial technical records, and institutional opacity. Far from resolving questions, this combination is precisely what sustains public and academic interest in a phenomenon that, thirty years later, still lacks a consensus explanation.

What alternative explanations does the scientific community offer?

Astronomers consulted point to atmospheric phenomena linked to the specific topography of the Aconquija range, reflections from aeronautical beacons, or the passage of satellites during atmospheric reentry as plausible hypotheses—though none have been conclusively applied to the specific photographic material contained in the file.

Why is the Trancas case compared to the reports from AARO in the United States?

Because both organizations—CEFAE in Argentina and AARO in the United States—exhibit a pattern of institutional ambiguity regarding historical files: they neither fully confirm their authenticity nor dismiss them entirely. This keeps the public debate alive and fuels sustained journalistic interest in both countries.

(The “Trancas” cases in this dossier are different from the classic Trancas Case of 1963, covered by Flying Saucer Review, Brad Steiger’s “Strangers from the Skies” and other sources. For more information on that classic incident, please visit Inexplicata’s article at: https://inexplicata.blogspot.com/2011/06/argentina-1963-trancas-case-revisited.html -- SC)

[Translation ©2026 Inexplicata with thanks to Gloria Raquel]

Chile: An Unusual Luminous Phenomenon (2026)

 Chile: An Unusual Luminous Phenomenon
Source: Central Noticia
Date: October 26, 2026
An Article by Alejandra Castellano

An unusual luminous phenomenon associated with a supposed UFO in Chile surprised hundreds of witnesses during the night of October 24-25. The event lasted only a few minutes, but generated numerous audiovisual recordings that quickly went viral on digital platforms.

Several observers captured an intense, bright formation that appeared to slowly expand in the darkness of the sky. The simultaneous reports and the different angles recorded by citizens transformed the episode into a nationwide sighting.

The areas where the supposed UFO was reported in Chile

The videos shared online revealed the wide territorial reach of this aerial anomaly. Residents of the central and southern regions of the country shared the same description of the luminous trail that crossed the night sky.

Among the main towns and cities where residents documented the object's passage are the following locations:

Valparaíso Region: San Antonio, Concón, and Hijuelas.

Ñuble Region: Chillán.

Biobío Region: Talcahuano.

Los Lagos Region: Osorno.

A large portion of these citizen-submitted videos were compiled by the TikTok profile known as Tío OVNI (Uncle UFO), an account dedicated to tracking unusual aerial phenomena. In a nearly ten-minute compilation, the creator gathered clips submitted by his community to compare how the object appeared from different regions.

The space hypothesis behind the strange light in the sky

Although many users immediately linked the images to an anomalous object, specialists are working to determine the exact origin of the glow. So far, one of the leading hypotheses points to the launch of the Chinese Long March 8A rocket, which took off on October 24th.

However, a direct link between this Asian aerospace mission and the lights sighted within the country still requires definitive technical confirmation. In Chile, the official analysis of such reports typically falls under the purview of the CEFAA (Section for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena), an agency that operates under the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC).

It should be noted that the term "UFO" (or *OVNI* in Spanish) refers strictly to an unidentified flying object whose nature has yet to be determined, even on a preliminary basis. Therefore, the discussion surrounding this recent UFO sighting in Chile does not necessarily imply an extraterrestrial origin; rather, it awaits a substantiated scientific or astronomical explanation.

VIDEO AT: https://tinyurl.com/58jfej7h

Fabio Zerpa: The Dionisio Llanca Case (28-Oct-1973)

 

The Llanca Case (Operation Bordeau): A Fourth-Kind Encounter (Abduction)

Location: 19 km from Bahía Blanca (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Date: October 28, 1973

Time: Between 1:30 a.m. and 2:45 a.m.

Investigation: Fabio Zerpa and an ONIFE medical team (Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires)

 Fate granted me the great fortune of being part of an investigative panel looking into an encounter with extraterrestrial beings. Eight medical professionals, specializing in various branches of psychiatry, set out to investigate this contact—a case that the doctors dubbed "Operation Bordeau." It involved Mr. Dionisio Llanca and took place on October 28, 1973; we began our inquiry alongside five physicians from the city of Bahía Blanca. Dr. Ricardo Smirnoff, a forensic pathologist, became the first police-affiliated physician in any country to participate in the investigation of an encounter with extraterrestrial beings.

Following 40 days of investigation in the Bahía Blanca region—in the southern part of the Argentine Republic—the witness was transferred to the care of the ONIFE central team in Buenos Aires. This team included Dr. Agustín Antonio Luccisano (from the Department of Toxicology at the University of La Plata), Dr. Juan Antonio Pérez del Cerro (president of the Association of Ontoanalysis), and Dr. Héctor A. Solari (a bionologist and psychologist). Eight medical professionals and I—an independent investigator—examined Mr. Dionisio Llanca, a 25-year-old truck driver. He reported that while changing a tire on the rear-right side of his vehicle along Route 3—between Bahía Blanca and Río Gallegos, in the southern part of the continent—he came into contact with three beings who were presumably extraterrestrial. It all begins on Sunday, October 28, 1973, when Dionisio was tasked with transporting construction materials by truck between Bahía Blanca and Río Gallegos, in the southern part of the American continent. At the time, he was living temporarily in the city of Bahía Blanca, in the province of Buenos Aires, at the home of his uncle-in-law, Mr. Enrique Ruiz. On Saturday, October 27, he turned on the television to watch a police drama. At 12:30 a.m., he turned off the set and headed to the outskirts of Bahía Blanca to retrieve his Dodge truck—already loaded with the construction materials destined for Río Gallegos—and stopped to refuel with diesel at his usual service station. While there, he noticed that his rear right tire was low on air, and he decided to change it later, while on the road.

This circumstance led the truck driver to come into contact with three beings classified as "Type 3" extraterrestrials. At 1:30 a.m., he pulled over by the side of the road, 19.5 km from Bahía, and began changing the tire. Suddenly, he looked to his left—back toward Bahía Blanca—and spotted a yellowish light about 2,000 meters away. Assuming it was a Peugeot about to overtake him (at that distance, the two headlights of a Peugeot appear as a single light), he watched as the yellowish light came to a stop behind him, hovering above the trees at his back. An intense, brilliant light left the truck driver paralyzed, until he felt someone grab the back of his shirt. He stood up and found himself standing just a short distance from three individuals—"Type 3" extraterrestrial beings. There were two men and one woman; One of the men makes an incision on his right hand—specifically on the thumb and index finger—using what the truck driver initially took to be a razor blade; the marks from this incision are still visible on his thumb and index finger today. He loses his memory, becoming completely amnesic, and wakes up 48 hours later at the Municipal Hospital in Bahía Blanca.

Once the media frenzy had subsided, we began a scientific investigation. The first stage involved hypnosis: eight sessions conducted by three physicians. Mr. Dionisio Llanca was hypnotized by Dr. Eladio Santos—a specialist in hypnosis—at his office, in the presence of Dr. Roberto García del Cerro (psychoanalyst), Dr. Eduardo Mata (psychiatrist), Dr. Ricardo Smirnoff (forensic physician), and Dr. Nora Milano (psychologist). Dr. Eladio Santos began to probe Dionisio’s subconscious and his mind while in an unconscious state; in his conscious state, he could recall nothing beyond what he had already recounted.

Under hypnosis, he recalled that, at a certain point, the extraterrestrial beings produced a compact, coherent beam of light—resembling a solid slab of luminous concrete—down which they descended. The woman led the way, and they approached Dionisio to make contact, at which point they performed the incision on his right hand, on his thumb and index finger. Hypnosis revealed that the instrument was not a razor blade, as the truck driver had initially claimed, but rather a biopsy scalpel that happens to resemble one. When Dr. Milano showed him the biopsy scalpel, he identified it as being very similar to the one carried by the extraterrestrial beings. The biopsy scalpel functions like a tissue punch, excising a small... ...a portion of skin from his body for a genetic study. The two extraterrestrial beings take the truck driver by the armpits and, led by the woman, move into the lower section of the UFO.

Inside the flying saucer, Dionisio sees the woman to his right, using medical-style instruments; there is a pilot positioned in front of this aeronautical/astronautical equipment, holding a black lever in his left hand. Another humanoid, to the left of Llanca, is looking out through a large viewing screen that reveals a starry sky. Llanca sees that same starry sky on two color television monitors located to his left. Minutes pass, and the UFO’s hatches open once again. Flexible cables or hoses emerge from the underside; one makes contact with the small stream running next to Dionisio’s truck, while other cables or hoses draw electricity from a high-voltage utility pole that appears to be broken at the scene.

After a few minutes, the woman removes an orange glove from her right hand and puts on a black one—featuring what look like five pointed prongs on the palm—and makes an incision on the right parietal area of ​​Llanca’s scalp. Earlier, perhaps by accident, she had also nicked his left brow ridge, which showed a hematoma during the initial days of the investigation.

This is where we encounter what we hypothesized to be an "amnesia within an amnesia," as approximately 20 to 25 minutes were "erased" from his memory. Subsequently, the truck driver sees the UFO’s hatches open again; he is then pushed into a horizontal beam of light, descending very slowly until he reaches the ground near the town of Bordeau, 9.5 kilometers from Bahía Blanca. This means that, from the point where he was taken up into the UFO, he traveled 10 km inside the object, ending up in the rural locality of Bordeau—next to some old railway carriages—where Llanca regained consciousness.

The truck driver was suffering from total amnesia; he did not know his own name or where he was. Seeing a long stretch of railway tracks, he failed to realize that the lights in the distance were those of Bahía Blanca. In a state of desperation and deep distress, he began to run until he reached a gas station. The employee there provided a crucial time marker: 2:45 or 2:50 a.m. This implies that between 1:30 a.m.—the moment of the encounter—and this time, the truck driver had spent over an hour inside the flying saucer.

He continued running until he reached the urban area of ​​Bahía Blanca, leaving Route 3 to take Route 35 into the city, arriving at approximately 4:30 a.m. Still disoriented—not knowing his own name or his location—he was picked up by someone in a Fiat 1600 and taken to the nearest police station.

An officer confirmed that Dionisio was at the station at approximately 4:30 a.m. Unfortunately, four different police stations dismissed him, assuming he was merely a common drunk—a typical reaction from police forces in many parts of the world. Dionisio’s ordeal—marked by intense anguish and hours spent wandering the streets of Bahía Blanca in tears—finally ended at the Spanish Hospital (Hospital Español). In the waiting room, he was attended to by Dr. Mabel Rosa Altaparro, who recalled that Dr. Ricardo Smirnoff was on duty as the forensic physician. At 9:00 a.m., Ricardo arrives; like Dr. Altaparro, he observes the large hematoma on Dionisio’s left brow ridge. Since there are no available beds at the Hospital Español, Smirnoff takes him to the emergency ward of the Municipal Hospital to complete the 48-hour period of his amnesia. The truck driver does not remember a nurse who had attentively assisted him during the first hours of his hospitalization, nor does he recall the various interviews conducted by journalists from around the world.

This concludes the first stage of the scientific investigation. Dionisio Llanca became the first person in the world to undergo a "truth serum" procedure—narcoanalysis. Dr. Smirnoff administered intravenous Pentothal into the truck driver’s forearm, and he repeated—much like a broken record—the same account he had given during his hypnosis sessions. One evening, Dr. Eladio Santos had him relive, with his eyes open, the experiences he had inside the flying saucer. Using a pencil, he drew everything he was "seeing" within the craft. Among these drawings, what struck us most was seeing him depict two television sets to his left, inside of which he placed stars and galaxies.

This provided evidence that Llanca had been inside an interplanetary craft. Additionally, we subjected the witness to psychological testing: four tests were administered in Bahía Blanca by Dr. Nora Milano, followed by two more in Buenos Aires conducted by Dr. Héctor Solari—including the Rorschach, the Phillipson, the Bender Gestalt, and the Raven’s Progressive Matrices... In this way, we were able to attest to a capacity - a very limited psychological capacity—insufficient to have invented such an elaborate story about a flying saucer and three presumably extraterrestrial beings. To substantiate the findings of this study, we assembled a team of eight medical professionals—arguably the best medical investigative panel in the world to date—comprising one psychiatrist, two psychologists, one psychoanalyst, one ontoanalyst, one toxicologist, one forensic expert, and one hypnologist. In my capacity as a private investigator, I identified four behavioral patterns associated with the UFO phenomenon at the scene—patterns we have encountered repeatedly in various other cases: a body of water located near the road; a wooded area, which serves to conceal these beings—who clearly wish to avoid contact with our contemporary civilization; and a narrow-gauge railway line, which these craft appear to use with some frequency. The fourth behavioral pattern may well provide the definitive truth regarding this case: engineers from DEBA (the Energy Directorate of the Province of Buenos Aires, Bahía Blanca branch)—who routinely monitor electrical consumption across various cities in the province—reported an inexplicable spike in electricity usage in that city between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 28, 1973. This coincides precisely with the time that Dionisio—while under hypnosis and narcoanalysis—claimed to have witnessed a flying saucer drawing electricity from a high-voltage power line.

(From Fabio Zerpa’s “Ellos –Los Seres Extraterrestres” - Illustration by Norman Drake for APRO Bulletin]

1973 UFO Flap: The Maricao State Forest CE-1

A CE-1 at Maricao State Forest 

While the mainland U.S.bore the brunt of the 1973 UFO Wave, Puerto Rico was not found wanting for strange experiences of its own. On October 26 that year, two engineers working on communications in the island's mountainous interior would join the ranks of UFO experiencers.
Guillermo Bonet, a communications engineer, in the company of Jorge Silvestri, a technician, stared in amazement at a UFO for between twenty minutes and half an hour in the skies over Monte del Estado. This  summit in the Cordillera Central housed radio broadcast transmitters, repeaters and antennae. Even more curious is the fact that the summit's location - the Maricao State Forest - was a known magnetic anomaly notorious for UFO sightings, studied by Ralph Sierra, also an engineer and prominent UFO researcher of that time. 
At 11:00 a.m. Silvestri and Bonet were testing radio systems when  they became aware of a blinding, white source of energy. The object, self-luminous, remained motionless for three or four minutes while the witnesses exchanged opinions about it nature. The object then "began to descend and rise abruptly" as it headed westward at a leisurely pace. Its apparent size was 'twice that of a house'. 

1973 UFO Flap - The William Rosario Photo

 

Source: El NUEVO DIA (San Juan Puerto Rico)

Date: Friday, 26 October 1973

An Article by Carlos M. Morales, El Nuevo Día

THE SAUCERS HAVE ARRIVED!

A professional photographer living in Mayaguez was able to capture, this Wednesday, a strange object whose characteristics appear to coincide with those of the so-called flying saucers. The swift flying object startled photographer William Rosario as he took some photos on the campus of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez.

Mr. Rosario was in the company of Mr. Miguel González, also a photographer, and who was able to corroborate the appearance of the strange flying craft.

The time was around nine o'clock in the morning on a very clear day (Wednesday) and while Rosario readied himself to take a snapshot of one of the college's buildings, a craft traveling swiftly from north to south appeared suddenly in space. Rosario pointed his camera quickly at the object, with barely any time to properly focus the instrument, managing to take two shots before the craft vanished into the horizon.

"I'd never seen anything like in my life!" Rosario explained when interviewed by El Nuevo Día. Aside from Rosario and González, university employees Elizabeth Nieto and Nancy Velez also confirmed the strange aerial manifestation. Both young women were somewhat taken aback by the strange craft and the photographers assuaged their fears by saying the object was likely a new aircraft prototype belonging to the U.S. Air Force. Nonetheless, the photographers were as uncertain as the young women regarding the nature of the strange craft.

"It was a round object that flew quickly, but made no sound whatsoever," said Rosario. "It executed a sudden 45 degree turn and disappeared as quickly as it appeared. It flew at the same height as large commercial aircraft, but it was very different from anything I've seen in my life. I never believed in the flying saucer business, and can't say that I'm a believer now, but I can't explain that strange vehicle," Rosario concluded.

Moreover, Frank Gaud, a reporter with The Associated Press in Mayaguez, reported that several witnesses in the Cabo Rojo coastal area ascertained that they had been witnessing luminous objects in the sky "for some months now", and that they "appeared and disappeared' in space.

The final word on strange objects in space was offered by María and Nelson Morales, residents in the El Combate sector of Cabo Rojo's Barrio Llanos Costras.

They explained that on Wednesday evening they were able to see a rather large object projecting a powerful light. After it passed over their homes, it went to hover above what is known as 'the black buoy' a mile offshore. The Cabo Rojo couple was unable to identify the object, stating that it was "strange."

[NOTE: The files of Noel Rigau on this subject add some interesting supplementary information:The camera used at the time  was a Rolleiflex75mm, and the photograph was taken in f/16  at l/250th  of a sec ond  on Kodak Tri -X ( 400 ASA)  film . It was  developed  on Kodak D-76  in the proportion 1:1.   The photograph was declared authentic by a report on October 26th  in "El Nuevo Dia". ] 

[Translation ©2026 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Willie Durand Urbina, Argus PR]

Unwelcome Guardians: Watchers from Above

 

UNWELCOME GUARDIANS: WATCHERS FROM ABOVE

By Scott Corrales ©2000

Music video enthusiasts might fondly remember a 1987 clip by British rocker David Bowie which portrayed angels filming all details of human existence--even the most sordid ones--with suitably "angelic" white-painted cameras. The concept of God's minions looking upon our every act is central to many religions, along with a belief in the existence of angels.

In the 1960's and '70s, a number of researchers and theorists began to examine the possibility that the UFO and attendant phenomena were merely a new or "retooled" version of the same old story mankind had been living since the caves. Although their findings were initially well received, the field became increasingly polarized between advocates of extraterrestrial technological intervention and believers in mundane solutions to the riddle. Suggestions that angels or non-physical beings could be involved in the UFO question were brushed aside by more material-minded investigators.

 But when we put our own religious (and scientific) beliefs aside and consider the question dispassionately, we begin to consider if such beings could actually exist, their motivations, and the reason for their outright interference in human affairs, whether as mediators between humans and the Deity or merely invisible entities who have influenced humanity since the beginning of time.

      The Hindu Devas

The Persian Empire under the Achaemenid Dynasty was one of the largest land empires of antiquity. Stretching from Macedonia to the Punjab and from Uzbekistan to Egypt, the Persians managed a far-flung realm that included most of the civilized world of its time. Between 486 and 465 B.C.E., one of its rulers, Xerxes--better known to posterity as biblical King Ahasuerus in Ezra 4:6 and in the book of Esther--contended with a number of wars and uprisings throughout his kingship and left detailed records of his response to each of these crises. One of them is particularly interesting:

"Speaks Xerxes the king: When I became king there were among these lands which are written above [some which rebelled]...by Ahuramazda's will such lands I defeated, and to their place I restored them. And among those lands were some where previously the Daivas were worshipped. Then by Ahuramazda's will of such temples of the Daivas I sapped the foundations, and I ordained: the Daivas shall not be worshipped. Where the Daivas had been worshipped before, there I worshipped Ahuramazda with Arta the exalted..."

If the Persian Daivas can be identified with the Indian Devas, perhaps the words of Xerxes predate the angel's admonition to Saint John about not worshipping such divine messengers: "I am thy fellow servant...and of thy brethren," which appears in the book of Revelation and has been quoted by other researchers on the subject.

Vedic mythology gives us the supernatural and beneficent Devas, whose existence is invisible to humans yet share the human characteristics of being doomed to an endless cycle of birth, maturation, death and reincarnation. The word to describe these entities comes from the Sanskrit term which means "beings of light" or "glowing ones". Living in a dimension adjacent to our own, the purpose of these etheric presences is to keep the physical universe which we inhabit running smoothly--roughly akin to a maintenance department, out of sight but ever present. The Devas are assigned to three distinct environments: the heavens, the upper atmosphere and the earth, and have control over the lesser nature spirits which exist in everything from clouds to trees to rocks.

Persian Zoroastrianism did not share such a sanguine view of these entities. The Devas became known as Daivas and were associated with the forces of evil--the semi divine creatures that chose the path of druj (untruth) over the path of asha (truth). Zoroastrian teachings and the Vedas agree that this order of non-human creatures is often at war with another order of beings, and that their struggles often spill over into the mortal world.

These clearly non-human yet humanoid-looking entities have appeared before startled onlookers in guise of sylphs, undines and dozens of creatures of medieval and ancient legend. While trolling through folklore for evidence is hazardous work at best, we can readily find a number of traditions (Native American, Middle Eastern, Asian) in which a human mates with one of these "more than human" quantities and has offspring, or like the unfortunate hunter who spied on the goddess Artemis as she bathed, meets his or her doom.

 

     Fascination with Mortal Love

Salvador Freixedo's La Granja Humana (Posada, 1989) presents the high-strangeness story of a young Mexican named Jose Luis and his bizarre friendship with a small child/man known only as "Fair" due to his blond hair.

Jose Luis told Freixedo that he had first encountered his odd friend during a camping trip: a group of schoolboys had pitched their tents in the woods and encountered another boy their age (or so they thought) who led them to his own "tent" -- a rectangular, shiny affair resembling an excursion bus. From that moment on, "Fair" became a fixture in the lives of Jose Luis and his friends, visiting them at school to fill their heads with tales of space travel and the future, and making it a point of visiting Jose Luis at home on his birthday year after year. The strange little visitor earned the affection of Jose Luis' parents "because of the good advice he always imparted" to their son and his companions. In a manner worthy of an Outer Limits episode, people noticed that "Fair" never seemed to age with each subsequent birthday visit, but said nothing either out of fear or due to a belief that the small figure may be suffering from a glandular disorder. But his enigmatic visitor's apparent lack of development was the least of Jose Luis's problems.

"Fair’s role in the Mexican youngster's life seemed to be, suggests Freixedo, to groom him for future greatness (whether this greatness has been achieved remains unclear) by clearing any and all obstacles. When Jose Luis took a humble job in an important corporation, a number of managers supposedly died of a variety of symptoms until Jose Luis found himself in a powerful position--all of this after consultation with "Fair". Something similar occurred when Jose Luis remarked that he was in love with a married woman:

The fact is that one day, when Jose Luis was feeling particularly depressed, "Fair" told him: "You're sad and I know why."

     J  Jose Luis tried to deny that he was particularly sad about anything...but "Fair" insisted: "You're in love with a young woman who can't correspond your affections because she's married. You're saddened to see that achieving your wishes seems impossible [...] Don't worry. Within a year, when I come back to visit you, you'll not only be married to the young lady, but you'll also have a child by her--no matter how impossible it may seem." (Freixedo, p.210)

 

 And so it was. The method used to remove Jose Luis' "rival" from the picture isn't mentioned.

 Freixedo elaborates further about the experiences of Jose Luis and his mysterious friend, but the above will suffice for our purposes. Did the diminutive and ageless "Fair" belong, as the author suggests, to the order of intermediary beings between humans and angels known in the Islamic world as the Djinn? Citing Gordon Creighton's work on this order of non-humans, whose reality is accepted in religious courts throughout the Middle East and North Africa, Freixedo discusses their capricious behavior toward humans, often selecting one of us as a protégé or even as a pet, and manifesting a fascination for human reproduction and human affairs (much like the abducting "Greys" our own time).

 How far does this interest extend on the part of this powerful yet far from divine order of beings? Anthony Roberts suggests that the large-eyed, black-haired and pointed-faced Mesopotamian love goddess Ishtar was of their number (said physical traits being common to ultra terrestrials, in his opinion) along with other similar entities. Ancient myth had it that no mortal--understandably--was immune to the goddess of love. But what about today?

 Some twenty years ago, a curious little book entitled UFO Encounters of the Fourth Kind (Zebra Books, 1978) explored the carnal obsessions evinced throughout history by these beings who appeared to us now in as "space people".  Author Art Gatti made reference to a 1969 epidemic in Morocco having to do with "Aycha Kenaycha", described as a "dark demoness" or succubus who appeared to drug users undergoing astral experiences by summoning each of them in their mothers' voice. The drugged-out astral traveler would find himself facing an astral form capable of stealing their souls, not just their astral selves. Gatti states that the nationwide epidemic which filled insane asylums and jails to capacity ended in the 1970's, and that its end was brought about by the Islamic equivalent of exorcism rites...or a drastic reduction in hashish consumption.

 

     Wars on Earth Below

That the Gods choose sides in mortal conflicts is hardly a new idea. A quick glance at the Iliad shows us the Olympian deities backing human contestants much like a human might favor a sports team, and even lending assistance to support their favorites. But when examples of supernatural intervention appear in our own wars, both in antiquity and in the recent past, this gives us reason to pause. Are warring human factions supported by non-human parties, or is this just a belief fostered by belligerent to hearten their own troops with the notion that "God is on our side"?

During the second Egyptian campaign lead by the Syrian monarch Antiochus; his troops were encouraged by an aerial display of "armed horsemen in golden armor" who charged at each other in the sky. Almost a thousand years later, beleaguered Spanish knights would be equally heartened by the apparition of the Virgin of Covadonga, spurring them on to win a major battle which marks the beginning of the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors. The entities in this particular conflict didn't mind playing both ends against the middle--during the battle of Alarcos in 1195, the forces of Alfonso VIII claimed seeing a fully armed St. James on a white steed flying overhead, leading them into the melee, while Muslim chronicles tell us that the Moorish forces, who eventually won the encounter, saw above their numbers none other than Mohammed himself, astride his magical steed al-Borak.

The reader can dismiss all of the foregoing as little more than charming folklore that has percolated down to our times. But supernatural forces continued aiding and abetting different factions in conflict, especially during the European conquest of the Americas. Chronicler Pedro Cieza de León, whose writings describe the conquest of Peru and the Pacific coast of South America in general, mentions an odd situation experienced by conquistadores: when the Incas turned against Pizarro's invaders in the mountain city of Cuzco, the European forces numbered little over 180 horse and foot, while Manco Inca (sic) had more than two hundred thousand warriors at his command. But native sources told Cieza that the Inca defeat was attributable to a "heavenly figure" who appeared during battles and "caused the natives great harm" (Cieza, Ch.119).

Pedro de Valdivia, who conquered modern day Chile, wrote a letter to Charles V of Spain informing him of a strange event which occurred during a conflict with the natives in 1541, while Araucanian warriors besieged his makeshift fort: "[...] the native Indians say that the day they came to our fort, at the very same time that our horsemen rushed forth against them, an old man riding a white horse fell among their numbers, urging them: Flee, for these Christians shall slay thee! Such was their fright that they turned about and fled."

Valdivia's letter notes that three days earlier, a "beautiful lady clad in white" had appeared among the natives and given them as similar warning.

The Spanish conquistadores were bold, brutal and vain. While attributing their success to divine intervention might ingratiate them with Church authorities, it also showed the direness of their predicament--something they would have normally been loath to admit. Again, the reader might chalk all of this up to the rantings of a soldier far from home, trying to make a good impression on his superiors.

But what can we say when this "divine intervention", for want of a better term, occurs during our own century?

 On August 26, 1914, the survivors of the British Expeditionary Force were retreating from the battle of Mons with the German cavalry in hot pursuit. Unable to make it to safety, the bedraggled force turned around to face the attackers and make a last stand. To the astonishment of the British "Tommies", a line of ghostly cavalry stood as a buffer between their position and the onrushing Germans. Contenders on both sides insisted that the spectral army had indeed been an angelic host, although official reports only indicate that the Germans refused to attack the retreating British due to the presence of a large body of troops in the area.

 

Wars in the Heavens Above

It has long been suggested that our earthly conflicts mirror the struggles of our planet's unseen "overlords". "It looks as if a long war has been fought in the immediate vicinity of this planet, and that this war is far from over," observes Anthony Roberts in his book The Dark Gods, further cautioning that "the purpose now must be to see this long war in its more universal application...to reconcile the cosmic connection with the cosmic battleground in which the whole saga of existence takes place."

Roberts posits that these battles rage on the physical and spiritual levels much like a human war might take place on land and sea simultaneously. The spiritual dimension of the conflict, as suggested by Roberts, bears a resemblance to the premises of certain works of heroic fantasy in which the opposing sides are the forces of Law and Chaos, always striving to overcome each other.

The author cites the beliefs of certain religious traditions concerning Man's role as a tool or plaything in the hands of these vast forces, going as far as to cite the Theosophical belief that the lost continent of Atlantis was destroyed by the excesses of its black magicians (another idea brilliantly portrayed in fictional form by J.R.R. Tolkien). At this point a slight digression may be in order: While scholars may be outraged by this notion, epigraphers working on deciphering Brazil's controversial Ingá Stone -- an intricately carved structure of dark stone located in northeastern Brazil -- claim to have deciphered a curious name. Epigrapher Francis Schauspelier has suggested that the word su-me which appears repeatedly on the Ingá Stone translates as "black hand" in certain Indo European languages. Could the Sume have been one of these Atlantean black magicians?

 Leaving Atlantis to rest in its watery grave, let us retake the thrust of our argument.

In the early 20th century, Charles Fort turned his keen intellect to the concept of struggles taking place at a level far beyond mortal ken. In his inimitable prose style, he suggested that a "vast, black, brooding vampire" large enough to "obscure a star or shove a comet" held sway over this world and perhaps others; perhaps even defending its fiefdom against other entities--space-scavengers who may have picked off entire terrestrial civilizations like that of the Mayas. "Something now has a legal right to us," wrote Fort. "by force or by having paid out analogues of beads to the former, more primitive owners of us..."

Decades later, his line of thought would be expanded by those who saw a similar relationship arising in the Scriptures. Was the biblical "war in heaven" merely the retelling of an event in which mighty non-humans fought for possession of our world, perhaps even our universe? Were the figures of Yahweh and Azazel mentioned in the Pentateuch simply the names of each ultraterrestrial or semi-divine faction? Which one was in control first? Again, Salvador Freixedo explores this issue in his book Defendámonos de los Dioses

(Quintá, 1985), suggesting that these ethereal forces struggled for the Earth with one party defeating the other, which has ever since struggled to reassert itself. While for all our external differences, notes Freixedo, we are all equally human. The same cannot be said for these non-human creatures, which do not appear to belong to a common order of beings, and are not even aware of other non-humans they may have encountered during incursions into our own reality. "The struggle which according to theology erupted between the angels before the creation of the world...is ongoing and the rivalry among spirits is not over, given their jealousy of rank and prerogatives." (Freixedo, p.21).

     This is all well and good, the reader may think, but what are they fighting over?

A number of authors have dared to suggest that these improbable beings are fighting over us -- lowly humans who are largely at their whim. But much like an actor needs an audience or a politician needs voters, these beings need the energy we appear to feed them through human wars, suffering, mass worship and other group activities. Freixedo, Keel, Creighton, Roberts and David Tansley all seem to be in agreement on this point, which echoes Charles Fort's only partially humorous assertion that these superbeings wanted us for "our greasy, shiny brains."