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M U T U A L U F O N E T W O R KU FO JOURNALA N T I I AD\7 1 1"~O -


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M U F O N U F O J O U R N A LO F F I C A L P U B L I C A T I O N O F T H E M U T U A L U F O N E T W O R K S I N C E 1 9 6 7

JANUARY 1993 N U M B E R 297E D I T O R I A L Dennis Stacy 3T I M E T R A V E L E R S V in ce Johnson 4A B D U C T I O N N O T ES John Carpenter 6E D W A L T E R S, T H E M O D E L & T O M M Y S M I T H A rt Hufford 9M U F O N ' S C O N C L U S I O N S O N T H E W A L T E R S C A S E W a l t A n d r u s 12T H E U F O PRESS Dennis Stacy 14M U F O N F O R U M 1 7L A R R Y B R Y A N T , N E W D I R E C T O R 2 1T H E F E B R U A R Y N I G H T SK Y Walter N . Webb 22R E A D E R S ' C L A S S I F I E D S 2 3D I R E C T O R ' S M E S S A G E W a lt er A n d r u s 24

E D I T O RDennis W . StacyA S SO C I A T E E D I T O RWalter H . Andrus , Jr .

C O L U M N I S T SWalter N . W e b bJohn S. CarpenterA R T D I R E C T O RVince Johnson

M U F O N U F O J O U R N A L(USPS 002-970)(ISSN 0270-6822)103 Oldtowne Rd.Seguin, T X 78155-4099Telephone: (210) 379-9216

Copyright 1993 by the M u t u a l U F O N etwork .A ll R i g h t Reserved.No part of this document may be reproduced in any form without th e written per-mission of the Copyright Owners. Permission is hereby granted to quote up to20 0 words of any one article, provided the au thor is credited, and the statement,"Copyright 1993 by the Mutual UFO N etw ork , 103 Oldtowne Rd., Seguin, Texas78155," is included.The contents of the MUFON U FO Journal are determined by the editors and donot necessarily reflect the official position of the Mutual UFO Network. Opinionsexpressed a re solely those of the individual authors.T he Mu t u a l U FO Network, Inc. is ex em pt f rom Federal Incom e T ax underSection 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. M UFO N is a publicly support-ed organization of the type described in Section 509 (a) (2). Donors may deductcontributions from their Federal Income Tax. Bequests, legacies, devises, trans-fers or gifts ar e also deductible fo r estate an d g i f t purposes, provided they meetth e app l i cab l e p rov i s ions of Sect ions 2055 , 2106 an d 2522 of the I n t e r n a lRevenue Code.

The MU FON UFO JOURN AL is publ ished month ly by the Mutua l UFONetwork, Inc. , Seguin, Texas. Me mbership /Subscrip tion rates: $25 per year in theU.S.A.; $30 foreign in U.S. funds. Second class postage paid at Seguin, TX.POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 to advise change of address to:M UFO N , 103 Oldtowne Rd., Seguin, TX 78155-4099


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The Status of the Journal: AnEditorial Updateby Dennis StacyLast yea r was a good one for M U F O N and theJournal. Our membership no w stands right at 4300,and we are currently printing some 4500 copies ofeach issue. In addi t i on , w e in i t ia ted a new sect ion ofReaders' Classified ads which has been well-received byreaders and members alike. To the best of my knowledge,we remain the only mon thly UFO pub lication in the world.We could rest on our laurels, but we won't. In fact,you'll find some ne w changes in this issue, beginning withou r cover redesign by Vince Johnson of Hous t on . M r.Johnson, a graphics art ist and member of H U F O N , th eHouston U FO Network, is the Journal's new Art Director,and we look forward to working with him in the improve-

ment of the Journal's overall appearance in future issues.Also new is John Carpenter's column on abduction research,which will become a regular feature, probably on a bi-monthly basis. We welcome bo th M r. John son and M r.Carpenter to the MUFON Journal staff and masthead.Last year we also initiated a $100 award to the author ofthe feature article judged the best of the preceding calendaryear. Our first win ner was M ichael Chorost. Votes for 1992- please use a post card are nowdue, and we urge you tocast yours. By voting, you not only reward ou r hardworking,unpaid contributors for their labors, you also help the editorsdetermine the contents of future issues. W e should point ou tthat our reg ular colum nists are also eligible.Exchange Copies

If there is a downside to the Journal's continuing growth itis th e fact that every other UFO publication on the plan-et now wants to exchange issues with us. As a m atter of pro-fessional courtesy, and as a means of keeping ourselvesinformed of worldwide developments, M UF ON is only toohappy to engage in such exchanges. However, the matter isgetting slightly out of hand. For one thing, we publish 12issues a year, wh ereas our colleagues gene rally pub lish onlyfour to six copies during the same period. When postagecosts are factored in, it doesn't take a roc ket scien tist to seethat MUFON has the short end of the exchange stick. In thepast, Walt Andrus ha s tried to keep me supplied with X eroxcopies of var io us publ ica t ion s rece ived at M U F O N inSeguin, bu t this is no longer feasible because of the volumeof pub l ica t ions rece ived, inc luding the added time andpostage involved in mak ing copies an d forwarding same.In th e future, then, in order to maintain your Journalexchang e subsc ription, the editors or pu blis her s of otherU FO publications wil l need to make tw o copies of theirjournal available to M U F O N . One copy should continu e to

go to Walt Andrus at 103 Oldtowne Road, Seguin, TX ,78155-4099; the second should be sent to Dennis Stacy, Box12434, San Antonio, TX 78212. If necessary, in order tosave on postage, both copies may be sent to a single address.This policy is effective imm ediately, and those publi-ca t i ons w hi ch fa i l to re spond w i l l be dropped f romMUFON's exchange list. In such an event, regular sub-scriptions to the Journal are available for $25 a year, $30overseas, surface.

Class ified A d sReaders an d members are again advised to take advan -tage of our classified ad s section as means of reaching awide audience. Notices are limited to 50 words or less,and cost $15 for each issue of the Journal in which theyappear. Acceptance is at the discretion of the Journal edi-tors, an d publicat ion in no way implies endorsement byMUFON or the MUFON Board of Directors. Caveat emp-

tor! Classified ads are a public service, charged at a ratewhich covers processing and bookkeeping expenses. In thecase of a physical product, we ask that a hard copy of samebe sent to one of the editors simply to verify that such aproduct exists before acceptance.Editorial Pol icy

This is also the time of year to reiterate our editorialpolicy. A s much as MUFON would l ike to guaranteethe authe nticity of every w ord pu blished , such a practice liesoutside practical reality. The o pinion s expressed, then, aresolely those of the author(s) and should not necessarily beconstrued as those of the editors, MUFON or the Board ofDirectors, u nless expressly stated as such. When feasible,individuals mentioned in a particular article are offered theopportunity of response in the same issue. U nfortun ately,due to our mo nthly schedule, this cannot alwa ys be thecase. By the same token, because we do publish monthly,any "offended" parties are usually granted the right of aprompt rely.Publication of material subm itted to the Journal is sole-ly at the editors' discretion. The contents of any particu larissue are subject to a variety of factors, not the least ofwhich are space and timeliness. While any and all submis-sions and letters of com ment are w elcome, p ublica tion is notnecessarily guaran teed, nor is a personal reply alway s pos-sible. Remember, there are only two of us, and more than4300 of you! As MU FON grows, so , too, do the logistics ofputting out the Journal every m onth. And w hile we appre-ciate your contributions, we appreciate your patience evenmore.In th e meant ime, we look forward to serving you foranother year, by producing the best and most timely UFOjournal money ca n buy.

M U F O N U F O J O U R N A L No. 297 January 1993


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Time Travelers:An Alternative to the ET Hypothesis

By Vince JohnsonThe following hypothesis is based on these assumptions: A percentage of UFO reports are true. A percentage of "alien abduction" accounts are true. D esp i t e over 40 year s of UFO reports, we haveacquired little hard data on the nature of UFOs and theiroccupants. UFOs are a material, technical phenomenon, not meta-physical or supernatural events.

As someone famili ar with the gam ut of Ufology, I havealways been struck by the sensational nature of UFOreports, combined with the paucity of hard data on the phe-nomenon. Unfortunately, the luminaries of Ufology seem toknow little more about the actual nature of the phenomenonthan the casual reader of supermarket tabloids. After a gen-eration of sightings, close encounters, an d research bycadres of dedicated Ufologists, we are still no closer to thetruth.The most vexing aspect of the UFO phenomenon isthe secrecy. Most researchers suspect that the U.S. gov-ernment knows much more than they're telling. But if this istrue, how can one explain the success that th e governmenthas had in keeping this historic story under a veil of secre-cy for over 40 years? Most cover-ups are u l t i m a t e l yexposed, but the UFO cover-up shows little sign of everbeing revealed.An incoming President and his new appointees wouldno t suffer political embarrassment due to the coverups oftheir predecessors, especially if they were of differentpolitical parties. Someone in high office would have beenbriefed at some point on this phenomenon, and surely notall could be expected to suppress this story. One couldsurmise that either U FO information is compartmental-ized even from the President and his cabinet (in the wordsof Ollie North "...an independent off-the-shelf operation,"free from scrutiny or oversight by our elected officials) orelse nobody in the government has any idea what's goingon regarding UFOs.To me, the information blackout surrounding UFOscould only be achieved with the acquiescence, if not theactive participation, of our Visitors.We've all read the abduct ion accounts where theVisitors can materialize through solid walls, induce para-hypnotic states in abductees and witnesses, and create falsescreen memories of the event. It could very well be th at ourVisitors actually prevent any revelation of U FO inform ationthrough fear and intimidation of just a few well-placed

political, military,or intelligence personnel, or be deletingthe knowledge of Visitor activity through some sophisti-cated psycho-neural te chniq ue, possibly in vol vin g theimplants reported so often by abductees. Whatever th emethod, it is likely that this story could not be successfullycontained without the active participation of our Visitors.Why would our Visitors feel the need for secrecy? Ifabduction accounts are to be believed, they can come and goat will, and do whatever they want to whomever they want,whenever they want. It is possible that the UFO phenome-non represents a metaphysical process that we as organic,material beings are incapable of understanding, and thatou r government is just as mystified as the rest of us. But Ithink there is a theory that could go far in explaining manyof the puzzling aspects of the phenomenon.The Visitors could be humans (or their robot/cyborgagents) from a distant future.The two primary reasons that I think this may be aviable explanation are the apparent harvesting of humangenetic samples (and hybrid fetuses ) dur ing abdu ctionevents, and the Visitors' apparent desire fo r secrecy.N ature has always been a cruel but efficient monitor ofhuman evolution, promoting constant, m inute ly incre-menta l improvements in the species. Individu als wi thdefects or mutations that detracted from their survivabilitydid not live to reproduce those changes. Individuals whosemutat ions enhanced their survivabili ty reproduced an dpassed those changes along to the gene pool. A s medicaltechnology improves, natural selection becomes less of anevolutionary factor. It is easy to imagine that after a fewthousands years of breeding without th e quali ty-controlmechanism of natural selection that a species, includingHom o sap iens, could lose its genetic via bilit y.Eugenics (or selective breeding to strengthen certaingenetic traits) has long been practiced by farmers and cattleranchers, but has been reviled when considered for use inthe human species an d generally equated with the atrocitiesof Nazi extermination camps. Considering the revulsionthat the subject currently engenders, it may be that ou rVisitors waited until it was too late for a se lective breedingprogram an d have had to begin a more radical program toacquire viable genetic material - from their past.Interestingly, the scale of the Visitors' efforts may pro-vide a clue to their true motivations. The num ber of genet-ic specimens taken by our Visitors would seem too large fora purely academic study of the huma n organism. The hugenumber of abduction cases (up to 2% of the populatio n byVince Johnson, the Journal's new Art Director, is notonly a graphics art ist of exceeding skill , but anaccomplished wri ter as well, as evidenced by thea b o v e art icle, reprinted with th e pe rmi ss i on o fHUFON Report, the newsletter of the Houston UFONetwork.

MUFON U F O J O U R N A L No. 297 January 1993


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some estimates) could indicate that a planet-wide geneticengineering project is underway somewhere, or sometime.If the Visitors are time travelers from the future, itcould explain their apparent need for secrecy.Time-travel paradoxes are a staple of science fiction.Y ou go back in time, accidentally cause some small changeto come about in the past, and that sma ll change affects thefuture with unpredictable and possibly cataclysmic results.Changes that could cause time-paradox effects w ould be ofthree types; in terventio n, artifacts, and inform ation . Beingabducted from one's bed at night and returned with no con-scious memory of the event is an interv entio n, but if there isno valid information received, possible time-paradox effectscould be m inim al. If an artifact were recovered from a timetraveling UFO from the future, it would not necessarily bethe artifact itself, but the information gleaned from it , thatcould disrupt the linear flow of time.

T he Visitois have been very successful in limiting theamount of hard data that we are able to acquire aboutthem. The descriptions of UFOs (size, shape, color, etc.) areabout as diverse as the witnesses who observe them. Theresulting inconsistencies of reports may be by design. It isobvious to anyone fami liar with UFO contactee accountsthat the Visitors seem to go out of their way to further con-fuse the issue. The myriad descriptions of the entities them-selves, and the bogus pl atitud es, prophesies, purposes, andplaces of origin that they reportedly communicate to con-tactees hinder any attempt to correlate the data.The Visitors could be deliberately adding so much"noise" that the "signal" is lost.Many abductees/contactees h ave described the Visitorsas being "robot like." Perhaps this is true. Using robots tointeract with hum an subjects could be much safer for them.Should any of these entities ever be captured, they could beprogrammed to reveal no information, and to even self-destruct into a protoplasmic goo before any analyses couldbe begun on a specimen.Anecdotal accounts of UFOs and their occupants maytantalize and intrigue us, but we (as private researchers)have not yet acquired any sign ificant confirmable, scientif-ically validated informa tion about the events. Ag ain, mu chnoise, no signal. If this hypothesis is correct, our Visitorsmust maint ain a total inform ation blackout to protect theirpresent (our future) from unpredictable and possibly cata-clysmic changes. There could be a direct correlationbetween how much we actually know about the Visitors andthe probability of time-paradox effects.This hypothesis addresses some of the fundamentalmysteries of the UFO phenomenon, however, there ar eseveral questio ns left unanswered:1. If the Visitors ar e capable of time travel, why takegenetic samples at this stage of human cultural/technicaldevelopment? If secrecy needs to be preserved, why not

take samples from modem Homo sapiens during the pre-historic era? After all , modern mass communica t ionsmake the possibility of public awareness of the Visitors'activity much more likely today than during the StoneAge. Could the current state of human development rep-resent a balance between genetic vigor an d domesticity?2. Why would the possessors of such super technologynot be able to simply genetically alter any organisms atwill? Could they need some metaphysical or sp i r i tua lquality no t obtainable through synthetic genetic engineer-ing?3 . Since we are able to obtain limited anecdotal informa-tion about th e Visitors, could this mean there is somethreshold of information that we can acquire w ithou t trig-gering time-paradox effects?4. Reports of UFO crash retrievals such as the Roswellinc ident would tend to conf l i c t w i th the t ime- t r ave lhypothes is . On the other hand, while the eyewitnessreports and the Army's initial press release are fairly con-vincing, there is still no hard, irrefutable evidence avail-able (at least to non-governmental investigators) that theRoswell crash ever occurred.D o I believe the time travel hypothesis? Not necessarilyI haven't got a clue as to answers for the questionslisted above. All I have tried to do is construct a theorybased on what little we do know of the UFO phenomenonOne fact seems irrefutable, however; whether UFO occu-pants are time travelers, extraterrestrials, or some type ofincomprehensible metaphysical/interdimensional entities,they clearly want to lim it the amou nt of information we canglean about them. By overwhelming the "signal" with"noise," they have been all too successful in that regard.I don't accept the theories that the visitors are here toconquer us, enslave us, use us for food, etc. These objectiveswould be simple for any species with the super technologyexhibited by our Visitors. So far, they apparently want toaccomplish their mission with as little interaction with us aspossible. The time-travel scenario is at least a rationalexplanation for the inconsistencies in the data concerningthe UFO phenomenon, the events described by abducteesand the apparent information blackout by our governm entand the Visitors themselves.Then again, what is rational for our Visitors may betotal nonsense to us.

Copyright 1992 Th e Houston UFO Network

M U F O N U FO J O U R N A L No. 297 January 1993


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"Therapeutic Ideas for Coping"A s a hypnotherapist working with many fine peoplew ho find themselves recalling abduction experi-ences, it wou ld seem helpful to share several of thetechniques that ar e helping these people to cope better.Alth ough not fre qu ently stated, it should also be noted thata number of people are aware of abduction experienceswho feel neither a strong need to pursu e further inform ationnor any sense of t rauma which would require therapeuticrelief. These people have privately foun d ways to cope ontheir own and have been able to work through an y sense ofvict imizat ion.Everybody copes a little differently; not everyone needsto uncover details to feel okay and move forward. Many ofthese folks do not get referred for help; we hear from thosewho are sleepless, confused, hurting, an d needing relief. Itis important to remind readers of this so that it wil l not beassumed that al l participants in this phenomenon require thefollowing suggestions. W e mu st respect each person's abil-ities for coping and assist each one in findi ng a comfortablepace in which to deal with these bizarre matters.A s researchers we must remember that an y eagernessfor data is secondary to the necessary adjustment and heal-ing in each human life. If a participant in this pheno men ondecides to only have a session once every six months, thentheir request is upheld with great respect. Any need formore data from th e researcher's perspective si m ply mu stwait. Fo r some researchers the notion that the "lab rats" cancall the shots will indeed be frustrating. Let us rememberthat our fellow h um ans are asking for help. Their emotion-al needs shall effect ou r course of action unti l their satis-faction is met. In the excitement over the fascin ating data,this can be easily forgotten.The process of coping can be a long journey with manyhighs an d lows emotionally. The initial clinical picture isdescriptive of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: insomnia,anxiety, phobic or paranoid responses to seemingly harmlessenvironmental cues, hypervigilance, irritability, nightm ares,and flashbacks. Many feel that they must be going crazy andare fearful of letting anyone know - let alone have a pro-fessional validate their supposed insanity . Others say theywo uld ac tually prefer psyc hiatric diagnosis because thenthere could be a prescribed treatm ent and a greater l ikeli-hood for relief.Assu ming for the moment that there are no psyc hiatriccauses for these feelings, these individuals simply need asensitive, caring, open-m inded person wi th whom to sharetheir "crazy thoughts" w hich have a persistent , nagg ingqual i ty to them. Unloading these peculiar feelings in an

atmosphere of acceptance is essential. Just listen! It is bestno t to have a theory or any speculative "explanation" ready;they must eventua l ly decide for themselves what theybelieve. Feeding them information from outside of theirexperiences may color, distort, or con fuse the ir efforts toprocess, understand, an d cope effectively.Many people have told me that they ha d held-in manyof their feelings and unne rving memories for years becausethey simply did not know whom they could trust not tolaugh at them. In a number of families it has become a"family secret" that nobody would share with each otheruntil perhaps years later!The final decision for when or if to use hypnotic regres-sion fo r periods of "missing t ime" related to UFO eventsmust remain with th e client ; hypnosis is most effectivewhen the abductee is ready and wants to proceed. Oftenanother family member, friend, or even researcher pushesfor hypnosis, and it is often too soon and too frightening yetfo r this professional and personal intru sion . Block ing ordenial may occur, mislea ding others to believe that no expe-rience actua lly occurred. Greater anxiety may develop ifsuch a prem ature push creates unexpected conflict or tensionwithin their emotions.

T he hypnotherapist needs to assert some professionalcaution to those who view hypnosis as a "magic door-way to all answers" and are overly eager to explore any andall peculiar dreams or poten tially unrelated bu t similar inci-dents in their lives. These sessions could be ripe for con-fabulatory data to occur, especially if there are no clinicalsymptoms such as anxiety or insomnia to resolve and theindividual is s imply cur ious an d eager fo r some kind ofanswers. The hypnotherapist must help the client understandthese cautions and facilitate wise decisions based on theconsiderations of each case. Fo r example, a strang er calledme last week, claim ing that he had had an odd dream andwanted to schedule hypnosis with me to find out what itmeant. This is clearly when an educatio n is needed regard-ing the need for and uses of hypnosis.The hypno tic sessions which tend to produce the moresuccessful and beneficial results are those which focuseither on emotion ally charged memory fragm ents or anxietyproducing blocks of memory for specific periods of time.The emotion s are bub bling up to the surface in these situa -tions and are usually easier an d more beneficial to retrievealong with th e specific content connected with th e feel-ings. Partic ipants in this bizarre UFO abduction scenario aremost bothered by: ( 1 ) a sense of unexp ected , uninvited, orunwanted intrusion, (2) anxie ty from being out of control ,(3 ) feeling helpless and powerless, (4) bewilderment andfrustration over the usual lack of explanation provided fo rM U F O N U FO J O U R N A L No. 297 January 1993


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the events, and (5) anger over the inability to stop furtherintrusions.During hypno therapy there are op portu nities for theuse of cathartic and abreactive techniques which can safelyrelease a great deal of the emotional tension much in thesame manner pressure is released from a pressure cooker.The state of hypnosis can be a powerful tool in enhancingthis process. For example, there are points at which th eabductee is overwhelmed with feelings of anger or fear.A t these moment s th e hypno therap i s t can "freeze th eaction," stop th e progression of events artif icially , an ddirectly request the abductee to envision some sort of immo-bilization of the beings perhaps trapped behind glass, a"force field," or under some type of paralysis where theabductee can at least believe temporarily that the roles havereversed. Now the abductee can safely ven t his feelings ofanger an d confusion onto the magically-restrained aliens,stating feelings, shouting, or cursing the intruders if he sochooses. Although both the hypnotherapist and client knowthat this is a created, artificial scene, it nevertheless is high-ly effective in releasing pent-up feelings by util izing thepower of suggestion and the vivid qu ality of the hypnoticstate of min d. Simi larly , if we were to dream of beating upan old nemesis, we will likely awaken feeling refreshed,smugly content, and energized as if we had actuallygained revenge against an old foe despite our consciousknowledge that nothing of the sort has actually happened.If direct visual confrontation is too difficul t for theclient, one can use powerful metaphoric imagery to createsymbolic scenarios an d significan t emotional release. Fo rexample, one could be told that all of the strange beings arecontained inside of a large leather bag and cannot escape.One can; then take a large club and beat the squishy bag untilit is as flat as a pancake or pulv erized into small particlesthat one could simply blow away with a breath of air or suckup into a vacuum cleaner easily. The subject's mind wil lknow what feels right and is satisfying via fantasy.U sually one can reassure and remind the abductee that nodeliberate hostility or harm has been imparted, andthat he/she is a survivor with many strengths. Most confu-sion or fear does dimin ish with the a cq uisit ion of moreinformation which slowly transforms the unknown into theknown which we can begin to sort an d process.After hypnotherapy another technique is to actuallywrite a letter to the beings. This provides another safe out-let for expression of suppressed feelings without publ icdisplay or disclosure. The tone could range from an angryblast to one of sincere inquiry listing many of those naggin gquestions such as , "Why me?," "Are yo u returning again?,"and "What do you need me for?" Although the abducteedoes no t receive answers (usually!) , it helps one to processan d organize his/her thoughts an d release them to paperwhere they ca n remain .An ongoing journal is qu i t e helpful fo r contin ued pro-

After the initial acceptance there often occurswhat I call the "second trauma," when theabductee finds himself alone in a w orld that doesnot accept th e original trauma as a real eventcessing and working through a type of gr ieving. This"grief," I believe, is over the loss of one's former sense ofreality and the forced adjustment to a new view of one'sentire existence and purpose. Committing these feelingsto a letter or journal helps clear th e client's mind an d for-mulate some organization of the experiential componentsT he stages of den ial, anger, depression, ba rgain ing, an dacceptance out l ined by El izabeth Ku bler -R oss in herresearch on death and dyin g are indeed relevant to w hat theabductee finds himself working through.

A fter an initial and private acceptance of the abdu ctionphenomenon, there often occurs what I shall term the"second trauma." This involves th e abductee finding him-self alone in a world that does not accept the idea of the first rauma as a real event. There can be cruel teasing an dinsensitive jokes springing from the disbelief of best friendsfamily members, bosses, and coworkers. A terrible sense ofaloneness an d depression can occur. This can turn into displaced anger toward th e researcher. No matter how caringthe researcher or therapist can be, the client seems to reapgreater assistance an d comfor t f rom hear ing anotherabductee at this sensitive and lonely point in the process.Unfortunately, in many areas of the country there ajeabsolutely no support groups. A phone network ha s produced incredible satisfaction an d sign ifican t relief as thetherapist an d researcher work as a team to connect struggling newcomers with other participan ts who ha ve alreadyworked through many phases of the coping process an dare able to assume a strong helping role as emot ional lysupportive persons. The emphasis is not on the swapping ofstories, bu t rather on the ways to move forward an d fi t thibizarre scenario into an already disrupted daily routineThe integration of these opposing realities is not an easytask, but the best suggestions seem to come from thosewho have found various ways to cope effectively. The significant success of such phone calls and letter sharing is animportant indication that these traumas are as real as a rapeor death. People would not be able to connect so well an dgain so muc h relief if these events were merely delusionaor fantasized. Despite vast differences in backgrounds an dinterests, abduction participants come together emotionallyas well as any other diverse group of humans who findthemselves sharing a common trauma.Eventually, enough ab duction participants may comforth in a given locale to begin a support group in thaarea. The most important function of such a gro up is to beable to gather together and feel "normal" again, socializin g



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with others in an accepting atmosphere and realizing thatothers ca n t ruly have the same exact fears, frustrations,and confusion and yet be "normal" and perhaps even funpeople with which to have stimulating conversations andpleasant relaxing evenings.The main caution for such groups concerns that com-mon yet devastating debate over whether the beings haveeither good or evil intentions. Everybody has a right tohis/her feelings and own opinions; there is noth ing gainedfrom trying to convince someone that their feelings arewrong or misperceived. This only creates a great deal ofhurt and resentment. The same results notoriously occurwith religious or political debates; there are no absoluteright answers, just strong and very emotional opinions.In my own research I have noted that the same basiccomponents and descriptions repeat without a great deal ofvariance. An individual's reaction seems more related to hisor her personality rather than to something of any appre-ciable difference in the recalled events themselves. Fo rexample, if you sent 50 individuals to see the same movieat a theater, you would find a variety of reactions to theexact same sti mu li; each person w ill focus on differentaspects, remember different things, an d form opinionsbased on his/her way of perceiving the data in the movie.Each is likely to respond differently in accordance withthe range of l i f e experiences already collected and inte-grated into each respective personality.Therefore, I suggest that the differences in the beliefsare largely a product of the individual's perceptual mindsetand emotional predisposition rather than an actual vari-ance of any significance in the experience itself. In otherwords, it seems there is a wider range of personal reactionsthan actual variance in the reported details of the abductionscenario. Support groups should remain supportive an dsocially healthy not forums fo r heated an d hurtfuldebates. Please give these considerations some carefulthought. I look forward to sharing more therapeutic ideaswith our readers in future columns. Please feel free to writeand share your ow n suggestions and creative techniques.John Carpenter is a licensed clinical social worker an dhypnotherapist serving MUFON's Director of AbductionResearch. This is the first of what will be a regular columnon a bi-monthly basis. He can be reached in writing at 4033S. Belvedere, Springfield, MO 65807.

UFOS, MJ-12 AND THE GOVERNMENT:A Report on Government Involvement inthe UFOCrash Retrievals (113 pages)by Grant Cameron and T.Scott Crain

Price: $19 plus $1.50 for postage and handling.Order From: MUFON, 103 Oldtowne Rd., Seguin, TX 78155-4099

On December 26 , 1992, Thomas P. S tu l t s(Stelle , IL), State Director for Ill inois, q u i e t l ypassed away after suffering from emphysema forthe past few years. Tom and his wife Judy wereh o s t c h a i r p e r s o n s for the M U F O N 1 9 9 1In t e rna t iona l U FO Sympos ium in Chicago. Inspite of his deteriorating health at that time, Tomand Judy were instrumental in conducting a high-ly s u c c e s s f u l s y m p o s i u m . M r . S t u l t s j o i n e dMUFON in December 1983 and was promoted toState Director in August 1988. Under his guidanceand leadership , the member ship in Ill in ois hasmore than doubled.In addi t ion to his wife , Jud i th ( Judy) , Tomleaves three daughters and two grandchildren. Thefuneral was performed by Toom Funeral Home inDowners Grove, Illinois, on December 29 , 1992.T he fami ly requested that f lowers not be sent,however they have set up a memorial fund in thenam e of Thom as P. Stu lts, at the Herscher Ban k.Herscher, I ll inois 60941, which wil l be given tothree charitable organizations.Speaking for everyone in MUFON that knewTom personally, we are going to miss his conge-nial personality and enthus ias t ic approach toUfology and the Mutual UFO Network. Judy hasbeen an extremely strong lady during Tom's illnessand is grateful that his suffering has been termin-ated. Ou r prayers have been extended to Judy andTom's family as they endeavor to carry on withouttheir beloved husband and father.

MUFON U F O J O U R N A L No. 297 J a n u a r y 1993


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Ed Walters, The Model andTommy SmithB yAr tHu f f ord

MUFON State Section Director forEscambia/Santa Rosa Counties, FloridaIntroductionO n June 10, 1990, the Pensacola News Journal rana story announ cing that a UFO model had beenfound in the attic of Ed W alters' former residence.One week later, ,the newspaper announced that a GulfBreeze teenager, later identified as Tommy Smith, ha dhelped Walters hoax the UFO photos. On June 19, CharlesFlannigan, M UF ON State Director fo r Florida, announcedM U F O N was reopening the Walters' case to investigatethese new alle gation s. He assigned then State Section D irec-tors, Rex and Carol Salisberry, to assist him in this investi-gation.When the Salisberrys failed to deliver a complete reporton the allegations (as outlined by M UF ON 's Deputy Direc-tor of Investigations, Dan Wright), th e MUFON Chief In-vestigator for Escambia an d Santa Rosa Counties, GaryWatson, was assigned to the task. Watson com pleted his in-vestigation an d submitted hi s report on May 23, 1991; hisreport was 29 pages long with 27 attachments. The follow-ing paragraphs summarize the central facts brought out inWatson's investigation.T he Model

In late December 1988, Ed Walters mo ved to a newhome to escape the atte ntio n of curio sity seekers. Theresidence he had occupied at 612 Silverthom Road was putup fo r sale. The home remained vacant fo r 10 months, unti lit was purchased by Mr. Robert E. Menzer. In March 1990,Menzer was trying to find a shutoff valve on the watersupply to his kitchen, so he could hook up a new ice maker.This search led him into the attic, where he found a UFOmodel under insulation an d next to the water line to thekitchen.On June 4, 1990, a Pensacola News Journal reporter,Craig M yers, interviewed Menzer an d asked a number ofquestions, including: "Did you find any models of UFOs,anything like that?" Menzer showed Myers the model,which Myers borrowed an d from which he published th estory.Conclusions on Model

Watson 's investigation concluded th e model was notconstructed before Septem ber 1989, at least 8.5 months after

Walters had moved out of the home. Furthermore, closeexam ination of the model an d Walters' photographs did notshow an y exact match of markings, height/width ratios, etc.Watson's final conclusion: The Model w as built and plantedby persons unknown in an attempt to discredit Ed WaltersThe follow ing chronological events ar e significant: November 11 ,1987 - M ay 1,1988: W alters takes his UFOphotos. Late December 1988: Walters moves to a new home. September 6-7, 1989: Walters designs a custom home foM r. and Mrs. Lynn C. Thomas. Thehome is to be buil t on thecorner of Shoreline Drive an d Jamestown Drive in GulfBreeze. The home is to have 1740 sq. ft. of living area, witha 2393 sq. ft. slab. Walters recommends brick exterior fothe hom e and estimate s the const ructio n cost based on brickThe Thomases consider using white Sinergy (stucco) in-stead of brick to reduce the cost. The Thomases take a smalsketch of the house plan with them back to their home inMichigan. Mid-September 1989: Walters has completed construction drawings of the house and has had them blueprintedwhen the Thomases call to cancel plans to build the homeInstead, they pu t down $2,000 on another house Walters ha salready built. Once it is clear that the house will not be builtW alters discards the custom plans. October/November 1989: The former W alters residence isold and the Menzers move in. March 1990: Mr. M enzer discovers the UFO model. Thmodel was made out of plastic foam plates and a strip ofblueprint paper. The inside surface of the paper strip suggests it was once a part of a plot plan for a home. Thefollowing words an d numbers were printed within thisection of the drawing; the letters in parentheses are addedguesses as to what was probably a part of the originadrawing.

(LIVI)NG A. 1740(SLA)B 2393(LOT _, B)LOCK D(WILLIAMSBU)RG ESTATES(unknown information) JAM ESTOWN DR.(S)INGLE FAMILYBRICK1740 L. ARE A2393 SLAB

Along the edges of some of the lines drawn on the paperare the fol lowing numbers:22', 9', 13:0", 25:8 (or 25:5)

MUFON U F O JOU RN AL No. 297 Janua ry 199


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By his own admission, Ed W alters recognized th e hand-writing as being his own, sugg esting the original blue printwas from a home Walters had designed. (Walters is asuccessful hom ebuild er in Gu lf Breeze.) How ever, a searchof floor plans of homes W alters had built failed to locate onewith the same 1740 sq. ft. l iving area and 2393 sq. ft. slab.Walters then remembered designing a home for a Michigancouple, Mr. and Mrs. Lynn C. Thomas, but it was a home thatwas never built . Subsequent checks with the Thomasesrevealed they still had the prelimin ary sketch of the floorplan, with notations that th e l iving area wou ld be 1740 sq. ft.an d slab 2393 sq. ft. A copy of the sketch and a note from M r.Thomas was included in Watson's reports.Thus, it became apparent that the Thom as house plansdiscarded in September 1989 were used to construct themodel. By using plans designed by Walters, the personsresponsible hoped to link Walters to the model, bu t wereundone by the September 1989 design date. Detractors havetried to argue that the model w as built from plan s for a homeWalters buil t for the Folkers family at 71 2 Jamestown Drive.However, those plans show a l iving area of 1696 sq. ft. anda slab of 2178 sq. ft. Not only do these square feet no t matchup, but neither do any of the floor plan lines match thosefound within the model. Since no known copies of thedetailed Thomas plans exist, we can not make such a directcomparison with th e model.

Tommy SmithOn June 15, 1990, Tommy Smith was interviewed bytelephone by Gulf Breeze Mayor, Ed Gray; Gulf Breeze

Police Chief, Jerry Brown; Pensacola News Journal re -porter, Craig Myers; an d Channel 3 T V reporter, MarkCurtis. The interview and unsworn testimony was tran-scribed by Court Reporter, Chris Morrow. This interviewwas the basis for the News Journal story pub lished two dayslater on June 17.In this interview, Smith offers explan ations fo r many ofthe photographs and events surrounding Ed Walters. Heclaims Walters talked to him about th e stunt an d answeredSmith's questio ns on how vario us photos were taken.However, on closer exam ination, Tommy Sm ith's state-ments do not satis factorily exp lain anyt hing . He also ap-

pears to contradict himself in one impo rtant area. When al lth e evidence was examined, it was concluded that: "TommySmith's statements do not add up!" The basis fo r thisconclusion is documented in the following paragraphs.

"E d Said" StatementsVirtual ly everything Tommy Smith had to say wasbased on what "Ed told me." Smith states he was not presentwhen any of Ed's publish ed photographs were taken. He

states he did witness some UFO hoaxing sessions, but noneof the photos from these sessions were ever published. Thefol lowing are examples of w hat Smith says Ed told him :1. The "blue beam" photos were made by slow ly peelingback the back of the film and exposing it to light. (Photoanalysts an d film manufacturers all say this is an impossibleexplanation.)2. The circle of dead grass found in the school soccer fieldbehind Walters ' home w as made by Ed tur nin g a trampo lineupside down an d jumping on it for several h ours. (Expertssay this would be an impossible method for creating thecircle in which grass would no t grow fo r 18 months.)3. Ed had no idea how the tree limb blocked part of theUFO in photo #1. "He was just stunned by it." (Pho-toanalysts have tried unsuccessfully to duplicate this featwith color Polaroid film, an d believe it is impossible withoutsophisticated equipment.)4. The N imsl o Camera photos (#25-34 in the book) weretaken by holdin g the camera sideways and photograph ing anairplane at nigh t. (These photos actually show three rows ofhorizontal lights with a short vertical l i g h t bar on one end.We are unaware of any airplane w ith a l ight pattern similarto the N im slo photos. Secondly, tur nin g the camera side-ways would no t f i t unless the plane were in a nose dive.)5. The video tape of the UFO was made by attaching theUFO on the end of a long piece of PVC pipe painted black.A flashlight was shone up through th e pipe to i l luminate th eUFO. (Analysis of the video tape shows no evidence ofanything blocking the view of the illuminated base of theUFO, w hich was also rotating at 7.5 rpm .)

I could go on and one wit h these "Ed Said"statements,bu t space l imitations and your interest do not permit. Thefact is that most of the 35 pages of this transcriptedinterviewdescribe t hin gs that Ed suppo sedly said in Smith's presenceor in answer to his questions. We also find it hard to believethat Ed wou ld be that trus ting of a teenager who was not aclose friend or acq uaintance to anyone in the W alters family.Tommy Smith's U F O Photographs

Tommy Smith had in his possession a series of UFOphotographs, supposedly taken on his own camera by EdWalters. Tom my claim s he witnessed Walters take one rollof photos using a double exposure techn ique. How ever,Smith claims these photos did not turn out and Ed suppos-edly burned them. Smith claims he left hi s camera with Ed,who took another set of UFO photos, which Smith haddeveloped at University Mall. When Smith supposedly



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changed hi s min d about taking them to the Sentinel newspa-per, Smith claims Ed allow ed him to keep the photos and thenegatives. In cidentally, Smith's photos have been analyzedby photo analysts, and they find no proof of double expo-sures, suggesting these m ay also be auth enti c photos of aUFO.An interesting sidenote is that Smith talks in lengthduring his June 15 interview about how Ed supposedly tookdouble exposures, using a small Kodak Instamatic type ofcamera. However, with the exception of the 35 mm Nimslocamera supplied by MU FON , Walters took all of his UFOphotos with Polaroid cameras. The only UFO photos takenon Instamatic 110 film were the six UFO photos in TommySm ith's possession. Tomm y apparently felt it was importantto establish an exp lana tion for his UFO photos. Incidentally,neither Tom my Smith, nor any of the debunkers, have evercome up with an explanation of how Walters could takedouble exposures using the Sun 600 Polaroid cameras,which he used in all of the self-referencing , stereo photos.Tommy Smith Contradiction on the "R oad Shot"

Another damaging piece of evidence against TommySmith comes from a possible con tradictio n in his statementsabout the "Road Shot" (photo #1 9 in Ed Walters' book). Letme first quote from the transcripts (note: at the t ime of thisinterview, Tommy Smith's identity was protected by usingthe pseudonym, Chris):Mark Curtis: "Chris (i.e., Tommy Smith), do you know... probab ly the m ost fam ous shot of all, this is that one outover the road on Sound Side Drive. Do you know how thatpicture was done?"Smith: "Yes, Ed said he had a lot of trouble with that one.He jus t fabricated it like all the other ones... double expo-sure."Curtis: "Do you know how he i l luminated the road-way?"Smith: "Illuminated th e roadway? Okay, I would haveto see the photograph, to be sure."Curtis: "If I can refresh your memory a little bit, it wasthe one over the road on Sou nd Side Driv e, and not on ly wasthe object there, but there was a bright lig ht reflectin g ontothe middle of the roadway."Ed Gray: "And the light looked like it was emanatingfrom the object th at's hoverin g over the road."Smith: "No, I don't think I could help you there, forsure.

Curtis: "Do you know if Ed had help on that pictur e, ordid he do that on e alone?"Smith: "I co uldn 't answer that honestly either."Thus, from the above testimony on June 15, 1990,Tommy Smith first acknowledges he is familiar with the"Road Shot." However, as soon as the question ing gets intodetails, such as the illumination, Sm ith starts backpedallingan d indicates he knows little or nothing at all about thisphoto. However, in an interview published in the Augus t 9,1990 Sentinel, Sm ith seems to be very familiar with thisshot. In this article, Smith claim s "Ed told me" that he hadfound the perfect place, that "he said he was gonna go dow nthere, pul l his truck off to one side, jerk it back onto the roadand head back down there. It (the UFO) was supposed toland in front of him and that was going to be the finalencounter." For one who knew so little about this photo onJun e 15, Sm ith seems to have a lot to say a few weeks later.W as Smith just un able to understand whic h photo was beingdiscussed on June 15 , or had he not done his homew ork wellenough to have an answer ready on Photo 19? Y ou can drawyour own conclusion.W hy W ou ld Tommy Smith M ak e This A l l U p ?M any people have asked this question, and lackin g agood answer, have assumed Smith must be telling the truth.W e have no way to investigate Smith's motives .. . onlyTomm y Sm ith can answer that, and he is not available forquestion ing. W e know that he did have in his possessionphotos an d negatives showing a UFO similar to Ed Walters'photographs. We know, too, that in December 1987, EdWalters told M UF ON Investigators Charles Flann igan andDon W are that a youn g acquaintan ce had also taken photosof a sim ilar UFO. W alters said this youn g person wou ld nottake his photos to the Sentinel because he was concernedabout his fathe r's reaction. Iron ically , W alters protected th eidentity of this young person (Tommy Smith ) until Smithmade hi s charges public . W e also know that one of TommySmith's young friends told Investigator Gary Watson that"Tommy Smith told him in 1987 that he (Smith) ha d takenphotographs of a UFO."We also recognize that all of Smit h's statemen ts regard-ing W alters' publish ed photographs are just hearsay ("Edtold me"); wh en those statements do not add up, Smith canalways ju st claim: "I'm no t lying, that is just what Ed toldme." W e know Walters ha s taken an d passed four Poly-graph/PSE tests, administered by three different polygraphoperators. If we could just lock up all the players in thisdrama in a room f u l l of polyg raph experts, we could proba-bly get answ ers to our qu estions, but that is not to be.(Tommy Smith refuses to face Ed Walters and the primeinvestigators.)



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Final Conclusions on the Ed Walters CaseGary Watson's reinvestigationof the Ed Walters casealso dealt with some of the other issues surrounding this

case, but time and your interest do not permit going anyfurther. Watson's reinv estiga tion found no basis for reject-ing the original MUFON conclusion ... that Ed Walters istelling the truth.Since Watson 's report was pub lish ed, there have beenadditional photo analyses done by William Hzyer and JeffSainio. Altho ugh Hzyer has excellen t equ ipmen t and exper-tise, he was hampered in his work by never having access toany of the original Walters photos. On the other hand, JeffSainio not only had excellent equipment and expertise, buthe also ha d access to the original photos, which Hyzer didnot. Althou gh Sainio originally set out to prove Walters'photographs were fake, he soon encountered evidence thatEd Walters could not have generated his photographs withhi s equipment and the double exposure techniques sug-gested by debunkers. If you missed Sainio's presenta tion atthe 1992 MUFON UFO Symposium, be sure to read hispaper in the Sympo sium Proceedings. It is excellen t workand clearly rejects the explanations offered by debunkersan d Tommy Smith.Thus, it is still my conclusion, as the current StateSection Director for the Walters case, that "Ed Walters'UF O photographs, and his accompanying story, must stillbe accepted as the truth."CONCLUSION BY MU FO N ON THE

REOPENING OF THE WALTER S CASEby Walter H . Andrus, Jr., InternationalDirectorD ue to the importance of the Ed Walters' case (N.W.FL case number 15), the MUFON Board of Direc-tors at their annual corporate meeting on July 12,1992, in Albuquerque,New Mexico, felt that it was impera-tive that a condensed final report be publ ished in the MUFONUFO Journal on the reopening of the case aft er the disclo-sure of the model and the public allegations by Tommy

Smith in 1990.At the recommendation of C harles D. Flannigan, Flor-ida State Director, to the MU FON Internatio nal Director, aprivate meeting was held in Pensacola, FL on July 5, 1990,in which Rex and Carol Salisberry accepted th e assignmentan d responsibility to investigatethe validity of the recentnews media public allegations whi ch cast serious doubtsupon the integrity of Ed Walters. M r. Salisberry agreed toaccept this assignment only on the condition that Walt

Andrus would be willing to accept the case as a hoaxprovided that Salisberry's evidence supported that conclu-sion. After receiving an affirm ative reply to this stipulation,it was agreed by Mr. Salisberry and Mr. Flannigan that nopublic statements would be issued until a final report wassubmitted to the International Director.Despite the "gentlemen's agreement" on the confiden-tiality of the final report, Rex Salisberry released his ownnegative prelim inary report to the Pensacola News-Journaland Gulf Breeze Sentinel within tw o months. However, hedid no t submit hi s actual final report until nearly tw o yearslater. After Mr. Salisberry's preliminary report was pub-lished in the Pensacola New s-Journal, it was evident that hewas attem ptin g to imp ly that the Walters case w as a possiblehoax. I made repeated requests to Rex Salisberry over theyear to complete and subm it his final report. W hen it becameapparent to Mr. Flannigan and myself that M r. Salisberrymight no t f u l f i l l hi s obligation, Charles Flannigan requestedthat Gary Watson,Chief Investigatorfor Pensacola-MUFON,conduct an independent and concurrent investigation. Garysubmitted hi s detailed final report promptly to Mr. Andrusat the Chicago MUFON UFO Symposium on July 5, 1991.

The length of both Mr. Watson's and Mr. Salisberry'sfinal reports rival a monograph or book and thus could notbe published in their entirety in the Journal. Since RexSalisberry ha s already distributed hi s preliminaryand finalreports to people he th ough t woul d be sym path etic to hishoax hypothesis, there are no plans to publish his paperunless he should decide to w rite a condensed version as ArtHufford has done.We h ave been publishing articles about the Ed Walte rs'experiences and photos in the MUFON UFO Journal sinceJanuary 1988 after my first visit to Gulf Breeze. Dr . BruceMaccabee first published a major renditio nof his evaluationin the MUFON 1988 International UFO SymposiumProceedings with numerous subsequent follow-ups in boththe Journal and the 1990 Proceedings. The book The GulfBreeze Sightings by Ed and Frances W alters is an exce llentreference book dep icting the events in their lives starting onNovember 11, 1987, and continuing through May 1, 1988.Jeff Sainio will continue photo analyses on Ed's pictures an dshare his evaluations in both the Journal and the 1993Symposium Proceedings.After a f u l l five years, it is imperative that an officialstatement should be publish ed regarding the authenticity ofthe Ed Walters' case based upon the investigationof theMutual UFO Network. No other case in recent UFO historyha s polemicized the UFO community an y more than thisone, both vehem ently positive and negative. On the onehand there are uninformed people who place th e Walters 'case in the same category as George Adamski and Edward"Billy" Meier, whereas others who have been directly in -volved in the investigation an d have the facts an d evidenceare very comfor table in proc laim ing it as one of the strongest



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are very com fortable in proclaiming it as one of the strongestUFO cases in recent times.I am f u l l y cognizant that there may be one or moremembers on the MUFON Board of Directors who haveserious reservation s about the Walters' Gulf Breeze case,thus a statement from the Board is obviouslyno t unanimous.We respect the right of these distinguished members todissent or "to agree to disagree." To be fair to Journalreaders and our members, we have been pub lishin g vario usviewpoints on this controversial case, provided that theywere constructive evaluations and not slanderous. The besttalents within the Mutual UFO Network were brought tobear u pon the resolution of this project. A t the same time, thedebunkers and those who thought "it was too good to betrue" garnered their forces to challenge the integ rity andtruthfulness of Ed W alters. The latter have failed to achievetheir mission.With all respect to Rex Salisberry and his fine pastrecord as an investigator, his final report on the Walters-Gulf Breeze Case was very detailed, but posed more qu es-tions than it answered. It is interesting that tw o differentinvestigators could interview the same people, but rendercontradictory impressions. May I express the appreciationof MUFON to both Rex Salisberry and Gary Watson fortheir very comprehensive reports and also to Art Hufford forthe condensed narration of Mr. Watson's reports.Numerous still photographs and nearly tw o hours ofvideotape se gments have been m ade in the Gulf Breeze areaduring the past four years of unusual lights behaving invarious unique ways which investigators have been unableto identify. Mr. Salisberry does not question these latterevents since mu ltiple witnesses were present d urin g eachsighting.The issue being addressed is the au the ntic ity of thephotographs made by Ed Walters and the truthfulnessandintegrity of Mr. Walters and his family. First, the reopeningof the investigation was performed to determine if the modelfound in his former home in March 1990 by the currentowners was used as a model to hoax his Polaroid photo-graphs made during the period of November 1 1 , 1987 toMay 1, 1988; and second, to evaluate the statements madeto the press and electronic media by the teenager, TommySmith, in which he elaborated upon what Ed Walters wassupposed to have told him about how each photo was made.

An examination of the paper strip used to construct thepaper plate model was a portion of a house p lan diagramdraw n September 7 or 8, 1989, by Ed Walters for the Ly nnThomas family. The house plan was drawn nearly tw o yearsafter the first photos Ed made on November 1 1 , 1 9 8 7 ,therefore this model could no t have been the object allege dlyused to fake his photos. The recorded testim ony of TommySmith wherein he related wha t he claimed Ed had told himabout how each photograph was made f e l l apart un der closescrutiny of the facts and obvious contradictions in his own

story. In defense of his absurd allegations, Tommy Smithsaid "Ed will take his story to the grave." If Ed Walters wasplanning "the ultimate trick" as his detractors claim , shar ingthis with a local teenager (Tommy Smith) would be bothutterly absurd an d clearly ridiculous. Tom my Smith ha srefused to confront Ed Walters in the presence of MUFONinvestigators in an attempt to substantiate his claims. WhyTommy Smith, the son of a respected Gulf Breeze couplewould be mo tivated to fabricate such a story is un kn ow n(Tommy called the Ma yor of Gulf Breeze, Ed Gray, and thePolice Chief, Jerry Brown , since he knew he would find areceptive audience.)Based upon the investigations made by competent investigators and researchers within the Mutual UFO Network, the evidence and the accumulated testimony of EdWa lters for his UFO experiences, are s till val id. If evide nceis ever revealed that is contrary to the MU FON conclusionstated, it will be announced in the Journal. May I personallythank all of the people who have worked so diligen tly ovethe past few years on this very significant case.

FIRE IN THE SKYA full-length Paramount Pictures film "Fire in theSky" will open in theaters nationwide on Friday, March12, 1993. It is best kn own to U folog ists as the T ravisWalton abd uctio n case or the paperba ck book title d"The Walton Experience." The lead actors are RobertPatrick (from T erminator II), D.B. Sweeney, and JamesGarner (veteran star of motion pictures and televi-sion). Directed by Rob Lieberman, Tracy Torme is thescreen writer and one of the co-producers, along withRobert Strauss. The producers are Joe Wizan and ToddBlack.Filmed in Oregon in an area that closely resemblesth e Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, th e motionpicture depicts the experiences of Travis Walton andhis lumbe rjack colleagues. Tracy Torme was the co-screen writer for the outstanding CBS-TV miniseriestitled "Intruders" that was televised on May 17 and 19,1992.Steve Carducci, a public relations person forParamount Pictures, i s coordinat ing a plan wi thMU FON for advance showing of "Fire in the Sky" inselect theaters across th e country fo r media publicityand MU FON di scu ss ion groups . Deta i l s wi l l beannounced in the February Journal with individualletters mailed to the directors in the appropriate citiesin the near future.



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Dennis StacyUFO R esearch in Australiaand New Zealand

A "Dig i ta l Book" From Down UnderThis is an idea whose time has come. Instead of "wasting"paper or more speci fically , trees w hy no t simply"print" books directly on computer floppy disks? Unfortu-nately, the execution of the idea f a l l s jus t a little short of whatit could have been, given the immense power of mostmodern desktop computers nowadays, leaving on e slightlyfrustrated and longing for more.First, the good news. UFO R esearch consists of some90.000 words culled from the files of the UFO ResearchAustralia Newsletter, edited by Vlad imi r Godic of UFO-RA. Too many individual contributors are represented toname them all,but a few of the more recognizab le Australianauthors w ould surely include Keith Basterfield, Bill Chalkeran d Mark Moravec. Pony Godic has collated an d edited thematerial that appears in the final book.It's a fairly complete compendium of local UFO loreand research, too, datin g back to aboriginal folklore about"sky beings" and a few interesting 19th century cases,before finally arriving in modern times. The more familiarcases, such as the Knowles "car chase," and the disappear-ance of pilot Frederick Valentich, are discussed in depth.Sections are devoted to several photographic cases and theUFO files of the Royal Australian Air Force, along withobligatory topics like entities, abductions, electromagneticeffects, ghost lights, Will 'O the Wisps, and so on . All inall,there a total of 804 individual screens, or "pages."The book itself comes on both a 5.25 -inch floppy and a3.5-inch diskette, along with a small, 12-page booklet con-taining color photographs, maps an d several b& w drawings.The files are compressed, but putting them on your harddrive is a simple matter of inserting one of the disks in a diskdrive and typing "Install." The program a utom atically cre-ates a directory on your hard drive called "UFOBOOK."After decompression, it occupies a mere 600 kilobytes or soof disk space. From the UFO BOOK directory, merely typeUFO, and you're off and running more or less.To read the book from the beginning, you can scrollthrough its pages in numerical sequence by hit t ing the PageDown key on your keyboard. To go back, hit Page Up. Pagescan also be printed out at will. To "thumb" ahead, the bookprovides a Search function. Type in the topic you want tofind, and the program jum ps to that page. A nd here are wherethe technical limitations of the program used to put together

the digital book start to pop up. First, it helps to know whereyou're going before you get there, so to speak. In otherwords, the book should open with a table of contents orsubject choices, but it doesn't. Failing that, the Searchscreen should list a menu of choices or topics, but it doesn'tdo that, either.Instead, yo u have to type in the subject yo u want tosearch for, and hope the w ord (or words) occur somewherein the text. There's a way to outwit the program, bu t i t 's no tvery satisfying. Sim ply search for anything and the programwill scroll a table of conten ts. Y ou can then use the Pause keyto select a screen at a time. I f you see something you like, youcan then go back and search for it and jump to that section.The Print function suffers similar limitations. Y ou canprint ou t pages, bu t only one at a time by using the PrintScreen function of you r computer. Ideally, yo u would beable to type in a page spread, say, pages 19-23, and havethem all print out at once, or at least consecutiv ely, but youcan't.These limitations, while frustrating, are hardly fatal tothe cause. Eventually you'll be able to access the informa-tion at will, either by reading the book straight thro ugh fromthe start, or by ultimately learning where it is you want to go.Still, it would have been more useful to have a morepowerful program "engine" at your disposal.More disappointing, to my surprise, is the fact that the

maps, drawing and color photographs are included only inthe booklet. I'd also expected them to be included in thedigital book as well, as GIF graph ic files, so that they, too,could be viewed on screen or printed out at wil l , bu t thiswasn' t the case, an d surely represents a missed oppo rtunity.Even if copyright restrictions prevented the reproduction ofsome ma teria l, there must be many U FO charts, diagramsand photos around somewhere that could be scanned in asGIF graphics. Again, th e computer technology is readilyavailable, so why not take advantage of it? If you're goingto do a dig ital book, then really do one.That grousing aside, UF O Research in Australia a ndNen- Zealand is a step in the right direction. If you want tocatch up on current events down under and save a fewprecious trees in the process this digital book is the wayto go. UFO Research is published by Dynamo House PtyLtd, P.O. Box 110, Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia.Telephone: 03-427-0955, Fax: 03-429-8036 (InternationalPrefix 61-3) . The cost is $30.00 Australian, plus $4.90Australian for air mail postage to the U.S.

M U F O N U F O J O U R N A L N o . 29 7 January 1993


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International U FO Reporter, editor Jerome Clark.IU R is published bimonthly by the J. Allen Hynek Centerfo r U FO Studies, popularly known as CUFOS. EditorClark, a CUFOS Vice-President, probably needs no intro-duction here. What is amazing is that Jerry can turn out anew 3-volume UFO encyclopedia, with another on the wayabout anom alies in general, contribute a monthly UFO col-umn to Fate Magazine, and still have time left over to bothedit and w rite for this highly regarded journal.Maybe the man sim ply doesn't sleep. If so, it doesn'tnoticeably show. The contents of the IUR, beginning withClark's typica lly lengthy editorials, are consistently enter-taining, and the most current issue, NovVDec. 1992, Vol. 17,No. 6, is no exception. This time around, Clark takes onwhat he calls "Cryptosnobbery," the tendency of somecryptozoologists to defend their ow n science at ufology'sexpense, mainly by distancing themselves from the latter. Asusual, Clark doesn't run low on personal opinions or a wi ll-ingness to express them in print.Michael D. Swords, a professor of natural sciences atWestern Michiga n University, Kalamazoo, and the editor ofthe Journal of UFO Studies, is on hand with a delightfulfirst-person account of a recent three-day visit to theClarksburg-Harrison Coun ty Public Library in Clarksburg,West Virginia, to peruse the personal library, files and cor-respondence of the late Gray Barker. No, the Grays them-selves aren't named after Barker, but they might as well be,given his pervasive infl uen ce on the shape of early ufolog y.Without Barker's They Knew Too Much About FlyingSaucers (1956), fo r example, would we ever have evenheard of the infamous Men in Black? I won't spoil your funby revealing more about Barker's speckled career, butSwords' article alone is worth the price of admission.Dr. Richard F. H aines, a contribu ting editor, chips in apiece about a CE2 case in the eastern Ural Mountains of theformer Soviet Union, and there is a lengthy article by OleJonny Braenne reviewing what is now known about thealleged crash of a flying disk on the island of Spitsbergen inthe Barents Sea, several hundred miles north of Norway. Aselection of letters wraps up this particu lar issue. The IU R iswell recommended. Subscriptions, including associate mem-bership in CUFOS, are available for $25, from 2457 WestPeterson Ave., Chicago, IL 60659.Magonia , editor John RimmerI don' t have the history of this persistently provocativejournal on hand, but it sprang up sometime in the wake ofJacques Vallee's classic Passport to Magonia (1969) ,Ma gonia b eing an imag inal coun try of the mi nd , andrem ains t rue to its roots. If there is suc h a thin g as litera ryufology, and why not, this is it. Just don't expect to findany bug-eyed aliens and physical spaceships in its pages.

Magonia remains committed to the notion that UFOs aremainly th e stuff of modem my th, both collective an d indi-vidual.The w riting, although from a relative ly limited stable ofauthors, is consistently entertaining and generally a cut incaliber above what you might expect from the average"dry" UFO journal. With Magonia #44 (October 1992),the layout and overall production qual ity show substa ntialimprovement over past issues, although still plagued byan inordinate number of typos. Each issue runs to 24 pages,and I think is published four times a year. American sub-scriptions are $10, and should be submitted in US (or UK)notes only, due to the high cost of cashing checks inEngland.The meat of the latest issue consis ts of three feature arti-cles by Martin Kottmeyer, Dr. Eddie Bullard (on folkloreand abductions), and your ow n humble reviewer (also onabductions). Kottmeyer, in the first of a three-part series,looks at flying saucers of the Fifties in terms of their per-ceived hos tility (and hum anity 's collective hypochondria).My ow n article, "Alien A bortions, A venging Angels," com-pares the number an d content of contemporary abductionreports with the number and contents of the abortion expe-rience and its aftermath, an d suggests the two might beintimately related. Several pages of book reviews and com-mentary round out the issue. U sua lly there is an invigorat-ing exchange of letters as well.If the cultural aspects of the UFO phenomenon, includ-ing the impact of culture on UFO reports as well as theimpact of UFOs on culture, is your cup of tea, then send $10today to John R immer, John Dee Cottage, 5 James TerraceMortlake Churchyard, London, SW14 8HB, England. Y ouwon ' t be disappointed. Y ou migh t even improve yourvocabulary in the process.The Right to Know Forum, editor Hal MacKenzie.Volume 1 , No. 4 of this 8-page newsletter, scheduled tobe published ten times a year, is dated Sept/Oct 1992. Thenewsletter is an outgrowth of Operation Right to Know("End U FO Secrecy!") and is available for $15 fromsame, at Box 2911, Hyattsville, M D, 20784.I look for the scope of contents and number of contrib-utors to this nicely put-together bulletin to grow as morepeople become inv olve d. Currently, the contents are abouwhat you would expect from an activist organization - haldeal with the political nature of the problem, i.e., UFOs, andhalf with the phenomenon itself. Most of the items ar eshort , interesting and to the proverbial point. ElaineDouglass, for example, breaks down the implications ofthe Roper Report "abduction poll" numbers an d comes upwith the "factoid" th at 47 abductions take place every hourI personally doubt the Roper Report numbers are what theypurport to be, but they do make for interesting speculation. If politics is your bag, vote with a subscription.



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CURRENT CASESDonald M . Ware ^The fol low ing sum m arizes some reports recent lyreceived from Donald M. Ware, Eastern RegionalDirector. Unless noted, no sound, vibration or odorw as detected. All times are local.

L og #920401E: On December 10, 1991 at 4:15 a.m., alady observed a blimp-shaped object from her bedroomwindow fo r 10-15 m inutes near Raleigh, NC; investigator,John Patterson. It appeared flat on the bottom and on bothends. It hovered , and it glowed red-orange so that stru ctur ecould not be seen. When she woke her husband it movedaway so he only got a brief sighting. Both ha d seen asaucer-shaped object about 1963 and again about 1984.L og #920402E: On March 11 , 1992 at 3:52 a.m., apolice officer near Haines City, FL had a close encounterwith a green-glowing object that stopped his engine; inves-tigator, Fearon L. Hicks. The object followed his car, mov-ing from on e side to the other; an d then it moved in front,nearly fi l l ing th e wind shield. Green light from th e objectmade hi s blue uniform appear purple. It was about 15 feetacross and 3 feet high in the center with a white light on top.He reported the sighting. When he pulled the car to theside of the road, th e engine, l ights, an d radio ceased tofunction; although the desk sergeant could hear the mikebeing keyed. A bright white light was shown into th e vehi-

cle, and he got out with the UFO only 20 feet away. Henoticed the air around him had chilled so much he could seehis breath fog. Three minutes after sighting the object, itsped away at tree-top level. Within two more minutes,another officer arrived an d found hi m speechless, shakingand crying.L og #921103E: On August 20 , 1992 about 10 p.m.,several people observed strange lights near Pittsford, NYand called a MU FON investig ator, who w ent to the sceneand photographed them; investigator, George K . Ho enig. Anobject described as a "stack of dishes" rotated slo wl y as itrose an d tumbled across th e sky. The layers seemed to

alternate in color from whitish-gray to pinkish-gray. Thisobject was surrounded by faint, short streaks of light thatdarted about. The Kodak 1600 film showed the streaks to bebrighter than seen by the nak ed eye because o f the f ilm'sincreased sensitivity to infrared radia t ion.They appearedred, sometimes changed direction rapidly, an d pulsed at upto 420 Hz. George's F-stop of 8 and 1/30-second shutterspeed avoided wha t wo uld have been severe o verexposure.This display was observed for over an hour an d 15 minutesby the investigator.

Log #921201E: On September 30, 1992 at 9:05 p.m., a36 -year-old lady, w ith 10 years of Army experience andpsychological operations training, observed a UFO for 22minutes mo ving east between 1-95 and R aeford, NC; inves-tigator, W ayne Laporte. The grayish object was shaped likea rectangle with the comers clipped, and it had six lights onthe bottom . She got out of the car and wa tched. It appearedabout 20 times the size of the f u l l moon and was estimatedto be about 1500 feet away as it passed overhead. Trailingthe object w ere abou t 20 round or oval b luish -wh ite lights.Both the object and each detached light had its own vapormist behind it that stayed the same brightness and length. Asit started to pass over her, the air became cold.L og #921202E: On September 30, 1992 at 9:10 p.m., a45-year-old electrician in Gaston ia, NC saw a cigar or ovalshaped object with a bluish corona slowly heading 120 atabout 2500 feet before it changed direction and rap idlyaccelerated to the east; investigator, George Fawcett. Theobject was estimated to be about the size of a house and wasobserved fo r about 25 seconds. There was a small disk,both fore an d aft, each i l luminated by a very intense flood-light from the large object. This inciden t apparently tookplace at the same time that a UFO was being observednear Raeford, NC, 120 miles to the east.L og # 921203E: On March 20, 1992 at 7:30 a.m., a fam-ily of six discovered a dark circle standing out boldlyagainst the ice in a pasture on their horse farm , near Dundee,OH; investigators; Ted Spickler and Greg Kn ight (fromWest Virginia). Three hours earlier the wife heard the dogsbarking, but did not investigate. No U FO was seen. Thesheriff was not interested. The sky was 15,000 feet scat-tered, 25,000 feet overcast, and the temperature was 21F.The circle was 27 to 30 feet in diameter, with a foot-widel ight-brown band around the edge. Most of the grass onewould have expected in the circle is gone, with no evi-dence of it ever hav ing grown there; ye t scattered random-ly th roughout th e circle are a few c l u mp s of n o r ma l l y

healthy grass. The darke r color of the soil, compared w iththe surrounding soil, comes from an irregularly scatteredpattern of black paniculate matter finely embedded in thesoil. This matter looks like carbon and is being analyzed.About 30 feet north is a slender, jagged, three-foot "scar" onthe pastu re of sim ilar appearance. On e fo ot west of the cir-cle is a cur ious "post" hole about a foot deep with someloose soil at the bottom, but no other soil laying around it .The farmer was surprised at the sudden app earance of thesestrange things: He noticed his horses refused to go anywherenear the circle fo r five days after it my steriously appeared.

MUFON U F O J O U R N A L No. 297 January 1993


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M U F O N FORUMLetters to Mufon UFO Journal Armen Victorian

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulateMU FON for pub lishi ng such a "factual" account of thecase concerned ("Confessions of a Crop Circle Spy,"Nov., 1992), written by a professional "journalist," Mr.James Schnabel, and "Introduced" by an experiencedEditor, your good self. I should perhaps also ad d"Sceptical Enq uirer" ( sic) eat your heart ou t. After previ-ously being accused of working with a number of agen-cies like CIA, KG B, M l 5 and Ml6,1guess our learnedfriends have run out of agencies, now they explore theirchances with various countries, like Iran, Iraq, Libya,Armenia. There are still several other countries withwhich they can try their luck. Not forgetting, that fo r theirown benefits, always half of the story about my orchidcase is repeatedly published . I guess that is what my crit-ics prefer. I do not intend to ruin my chances of intriguefo r the future publications and the pub licity they give me.Shall I also add, that I enjoyed readin g this article somuch that as in previous occasions, I can only ask you todo m e a small favour; Could you please p ubl ish it againin you r next issue?My other colleagues who are asked to respond will nodoubt comply with your request. In the meantime, Iwould continue my work.Y ou may obtain the forthcoming issue of the "UFOMagazine," published by Q uest Internation al for a m oredetailed account of my conversations w ith Mr. Schnabel.Tapes of these conversations too are also available forsale through Quest International catalogue.I hope MUFON Journal wo uld go from strength tostrength by pub lishin g such high calibre satiric materials,and I wish ou r American colleagues in MUFON all thebest in fulfill ing this goal. - Armen Vic tor ianNottingham, England

Quest InternationalI would be grateful if you w ould allow me the oppor-

tunity to respond to the James S chnabel article wh ichappeared in Mufon UFO Journal No. 295, November1992, both in my capacity as editor of "UFO M agazine,"the bi-m onth ly journ al of Quest In ternat iona l, and as aDirector of our company, Quest Publications InternationalLimited.I will restrict my comm ents to those matters whichconcern our company, which sponsored the eleventhannual U K conference of Quest International,an d whereM r. Armen Victorian was an invited speaker.Not on e sing le press release perta ining to the confer-

ence referred to Mr. Schnabel, or his so-called "Plan."Armen Victorian (a name carried on his passport) haswritten a number of articles for our journal, "UFOMagazine." I strongly refute the claim by M r. Schnabelthat Mr. Victorian is "one of the leading lights of Quest."He is merely one of many contributors to our magazineand has no official capacity whatsoever within our com-pany or organization.As editor of "UFO Magazine," 1 have pub lished sev-eral articles from M r. Victorian, some of which havedealt wit h intelligence and disinform ation agencies atwork within the U FO field. The fact that M r. Victorianchooses to use a pseudonym in pursuit of in form ation is amatter fo r him. That MUFON chose to pub licly detail anindividual 's crim inal record in its Journal, is, I believe,very questionable to say the least.As the so-called "Master of Ceremonies" at our con-ference, given the title of "T" by Mr. Schnabel in his arti-cle (I am not a prison officer, nor have I ever been), Iwish to address certain points raised by him :I did receive a tape recording from M r. Schnabel inth e post shortly before ou r conference. Quite properlyand correctly, I handed it to Mr. Victorian on the eve ofthe conference itself. It was for M r. Victo rian to pass anycomm ent on its contents dur ing delivery of his speech,not we, the organizers.As far as Quest International was concerned, M r.Schnabel was a you ng American who had participated inth e hoax circle competition in Buckinghamshire ,England, on the weekend of July 12-13. We knew thatM r. Victorian was convinced M r. Schnabel had activelyparticipated in some form of disinfo rmatio n, and were askeen as anyone else to learn more via our conference.If "The Plan" was ultimately designed to ridiculeindividuals such as M r. Victorian, or further damage theCrop Circle subject, then the participants achieved somelimited success. If it was ultim ately designed to illustrateth e "paranoia" that exists between ufology and theinvolvement of intelligence agencies, then I beg to differ."Paranoia" is , according to the Oxford dictionary, a"m ental disease, wit h delusio ns of fame, gran deur, perse-cution." If we take that to its extreme, does MUFON sup-port M r. Schnabel in his assertion that there is no suchthing as intellig ence invo lvem ent in crop circle studies? Ineed hardly remin d you r readers there is ample docu-mentation from the C.I.A. which proves conclusively theagency maintains a healthy interest in the subject.However, Den nis Stacy is quite right to po int out inhis leader article that "The events .. . don't particularlyredound to anyone's credit." I wish to stress that the lec-ture given by Mr. Victorian, contained only a brief men-

M U F O N UFOJ O U R N A L No. 297 January 199


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tion of the Schnabel/Irving affair, and was easily over-shadowed by his revelations pertaining to other matters,such as the "Aviary," "Majestic Twelve" an d otherEuropean intelligenc e affairs. Doubtless, because of Mr.Schnabel's article, M r. Victorian will respond throughthese columns.I can inform your readership, that until M r. Schnabelstood up and announced his presence to all and sundrylate at the conference, none of us had a clue as to his evenbeing there. M r. Schnabel's friends were quite right to tellhim he was imagin ing things when he first arrived.Paranoia?At the outset of question time, I made it clear that peo-ple would be restricted to one question. M r. Schnabelstood up, I pointed to him, an d asked him for his question.And what a question it was... "Are you, Dr . Victorian, infact Henry Azadehdel, th e convicted criminal?"One might be forgiven fo r think ing that was no ques-tion, but a deliberate attempt to incr iminatean d damageM r. Victorian's reputation without just cause. It wasgrossly insensitive to say the least.M r. Victorian chose to answer is his own manner, an dthen I moved on to the nex t questioner. M r. Schnabel wasallowed to remain in the theatre audience, and was furtherallowed unrestricted access to those people who wishedto question him at length about hi s revelations at the endof conference.Our organiza tion tota lly rejects the assertion by Mr.Schnabel that th e Leeds conference resembled th e"Spanish Inquisit ion ... the Salem W itch Trials ... theStalin purges [or] Senator McCarthy's Un-AmericanActivities Committee."W e take great exception to those scurrilous remarks.It is an insult to our honesty and integrity, and that of ourguest speakers, who included Anthony Dodd, a formerpolice officer of 25 years outs tand ing service; ColinAndrews, one of the world's lead ing experts on CropCircle phenomenon; Robert Dean, a MUFON Director ;an d myself, who first began investigating the UFO sub-ject in 1967.How can one equate M r. Schnabel's da mn ing cri t i-cism of our conference with the opinion expressed byMUFON's Robert Dean, who said of it: "It was one of themost enjoyable conferences I have ever experienced."

We had an excellent conference, heard and saw manynew breakthroughs and developments in the respectivefields of Ufology an d Crop Circles. No petty-minded gen-eralization centered on the fun and games begun bySchna bel and his associates s hou ld deflect from that fact.That M r. Schnabel ha s been allow ed to attack M r.Victorian at the expense of Europe's largest independentUFO organization, as well as castigate ou r other respect-ed speakers within the pages of the MUFON Journal, isnothing short of a disgrace. It does little to enhance inter-national cooperation, demeans Ufology, and high l igh ts

the need for MUFON to adopt greater tactful diplomacywhen dealing with matters of this kind in the future - likeapproaching others for their view s before public ation forinstance? - Graham W. BirdsallEditor, U FO MagazineLeeds, EnglandSchnabel Replies

Let me first make it clear that alth oug h my article pokedfun at the readiness of some cereologists to accuse theirideological opponents of espionage, I did not wish tor idicule th e notion that governments may take a covertinterest in strange phenomena. I am a little doubtful thatany government would be too interested in crop circles,since I know ho w easy they are to make with a plank orgarden roller; but on the subject of current governmentinterest in UFOs, I mus t plead ignoranc e.As for Birdsall's letter, the antidote to most of it is myarticle itself, which Birdsall appears not to have read verycarefully. For example, he claims that I assert a resem-blance between th e Leeds Conference and the SpanishInquisition, etc. But see in the article how well I qualify(perhaps over qualify) that resemblance.Birdsall implies that Quest issued no press releasespertaining to The Plan. But I spoke to the reporter whowrote the newspaper piece I excerpted in the MUFON arti-cle; the piece, he told me, was based on a press release thathad come from Quest, and clearly refers to The Plan (e.g.our attempt to "recruit" Victorian, and our "links" with"the milita ry intelligence agencies of several nations").

Birdsall implies that "Armen Victorian" is his green-thumbed colleague's real name, because he holds a pass-port in that name. I have no wish to dig further intoVictorian's personal history, bu t presumably Birdsallknows that Victorian holds two other passports, in twoother names, and was prosecuted under th e name "HenryAzadehdel." (My friends and I noted that at the LeedsConference, B irdsall addressed Victorian at one po int as"Henry".)Birdsall also says th at, contrary to a paren theticalremark I made in the article, he is not a prison officer.Two B ritish ufolog ists told me that he was, and Birdsall 'sown remarks at the Leeds Conference seemed to confirmthat; but if he is not, I offer him my apologies.I suspect, however, that neither I nor anyone else willreceive an apology fo r Birdsall 's behavior in promisingth e Britis h press and the Leeds Conference audience sen-sational revelations of cereological espionage; in permit -ting Victorian to tell his slanderous sp y story despitepowerful evidence to the contrary which I had alreadyprovided h im; and in perm itt ing Armen Victorian after-wards to sell the spy story via Quest Publications, despiteth e evide nt conversion of Birdsall himself to the view thati t was all a hoax. Birdsall has the gall to suggest that



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notwithstanding my honest efforts to prevent him andothers from mak ing fools of themselves, "The Plan" wasa grandly devious attempt to ridicule the paranoia of cere-ologists. I had no quarrel wi th Birdsall or any of the othercharacters in the story (or with their ufological views,many of which I share), and the article would never havebeen written had he and others not wilfully ignored theevidence I gave them.I suspect that Birdsall (who complains that my articleinsults his "honesty and integrity") also will fail to apolo-gize for the other hoax which he presented that day inLeeds: a 1954 BB C newsreel film of UFOs, whose canis-ter cover sheet, marked RESTRICTED , Bird sall dis-played as evidence for a government cover-up. AsBirdsall (and Victorian) knew well, the RESTRICTEDstamp had been placed there recently by one of theirfriends purely as a joke, and as noted last su mm er in a let-ter to the editor of Quest's UFO Magazine (i.e., Birdsa ll),the film is freely available at the VISNEWS film libraryin London.Birdsall seems most disturbed that my article waspublished in a ufology journal. He in vokes internati onalcooperation and ufological solidarity as principles accord-ing to which articles critical of his actions should be cen-sored. But can ufology have any hope of acceptance byorthodox science if it becomes the private playpen ofBirdsalls, Victorians, and their like-minded colleagues,with no alternative views allowed? - JimSchnabelOxford, England

The Editor's Two CentsI'm afraid I must apologize to many of our readers forhaving opened this particular can of worms in the pagesof the Journal! Obviously, what I had in mind

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