Luminous being near Como

149. OCTOBER 20. In Parravicino d’Erba, near Como (Italy), a man had just put his car In the garage when he saw a strange being about 1.30 metres in height covered with a luminous suit, standing near a tree. Upon seeing him, this individual aimed a beam at him from a sort of flashlight he was holding (see case no. 80); the witness was paralysed until a motion he made when clenching his fist holding the garage keys seemed to free him, and he rushed to attack the stranger. The intruder then rose from the ground and fled. A soft whirring sound was heard. The witness was 37 years of age, and known as trustworthy. He arrived home in a state of great shock and had to go to bed as If running a high fever. Other interesting details are as follows: the ‘visitor’ had the lower-half portion of his body inside a kind of funnel at the bottom of which was a disc having the same diameter as a bicycle wheel. On the ground an oily dark spot re­mained for some time and was photographed by police.

150. OCTOBER 20. M. Schoubrenner, of Sarrebourg, was driving in the vicinity of Turquenstein when he saw a fairly bright light in the distance. The time was about s 8.30, and as he kept driving, be found his road blocked by a large object as the engine sud­denly died. At the same time he found himself paralysed: ‘my hands were as though glued to the wheel’. However, he was able to apply the brakes. The craft looked like an inverted cone, with the lower part phosphorescent, the middle flat in colour, the top luminous with a yellow or orange point, like an antenna.

151. OCTOBER 21. Pons: An egg-shaped object, about 5 or 6 metres in diameter, hovered and landed near the road. Two small beings, about 1.25 metres in height, emerged from it, went backiInside almost immediately, and the craft took off vertically, leaving a red trail.

152. OCTOBER 21. Criteul-la-Madeleine: A large ball of fire stopped the car of a bricklayer, M. Fillonneau, and the witness felt a violent air displacement. ‘The car battery was dead and the bulbs of the headlights were burnt out.’ The police made a

thorough investigation.

153. OCTOBER. 25. Pouzou: a man from Cherbonnieres who had his 3 1/2 year-old child in the car with him suddenly felt painful prickings similar to electric shocks. They grew more and more painful as the car continued; suddenly the engine died and the headlights went off and the child started crying. They were blinded by a strong red light which turned orange, and which came from an object hovering over the road. The object soon flew away.

154. OCTOBER 23. In Saint-Hilaire-des-Loges, Mme Bcnuf, who was coming out of the farmhouse, saw a luminous disc in the sky and called her husband and children. All saw the disc come closer and, in fear, locked all doors and spent a night of terror in the living-room, not daring to go to sleep. They did not come out until the next morning when neighbours, alarmed by the strange silence of the farm, came to investigate.

155. October 24. On the beach at Ain-el-Turck (near Oran, Algeria) a small man with glowing eyes was seen.

156. OCTOBER 24. In Sainte-Catherine (Rhone, ‘Les Egots’) a child saw a man who emerged from a craft. He was ‘dressed in red, his clothes looked like iron. He walked with his legs stiff, had long hair and a hairy face, His eyes were large like those of the cows.’

157. OCTOBER 24. Between Effiat and Blozat, on the road from Clermont-Ferrand to Vichy, the engine of a motor scooter stalled as an egg-shaped object took off from the side of the road and rose without noise, leaving a bright trail.

158. OCTOBER 25. M. Treussard and a friend were almost blinded by a bright disc which landed in a pasture near Plemet (Cotes-du-Nord).

159. OCTOBER 25. In Arraye-et-Han, near Nancy, a ‘phosphorescent craft’ shaped like a brooder was seen, about 2 metres in diameter and 1 metre in height, which rose vertically from the road, leaving a luminous trail.

160. OCTOBER 26. Early in the morning, on the road Paris- Angouleme, about 18 kilometres from Angouleme, a sort of huge cauldron the size of a truck (6 to 8 metres) was seen at 50 metres distance and took off without noise, leaving a white trail.

Another twin-beam light ray

161. OCTOBER 26. In the evening, a 47-year-old farmer at La Madiere was suddenly confronted with an individual of normal height wearing a sort of diving suit with a pale green light on either side of the helmet. This individual aimed the beam of two blue lights atthe witness, who was thrown backwards. No flying craft described.

162. OCTOBER 26. In Les Metaires, a cluster of farms near Saint-Quinn (Moselle), twofarmers and their mother observed an orange craft 6 metres in diameter and 3 metres in height, which flew over them as the tractor engine died. The lights also went out. The battery of the tractor was found dead (see case no.

163. OCTOBER 26. Two witnesses in Heiteren, near Colmar, saw a flying object come from the west and land 1 kilometre away from them.

164. OCTOBER 27. In Linzeux, a very bright object flying very low stopped the engine and turned off the lights of a car driven by a shop-owner, while the driver and his employee felt an electric shock.

165. OCTOBER27. At dawn, policeman in Mezieres saw a craft which took off.

166. OCTOBER 27. In Les-Jonquerets-de-Livet (Eure) a farmer saw an elongated object with one light at each end, which had landed in a pasture, but he did not dare to investigate. Two hours later, a young man fell from his motorcycle when it suddenly stalled. The men in the village took lights and went back to the pasture to investigate, found the object had moved slightly. Going closer, two of the men saw two individuals about 1 metre in height who were very stiff when they walked and wore clothes as bright as armour. The craft took off without noise.

167. October 27. In Moussey (Vosges) a craft was seen on the ground by a schoolboy and by his school director. Triangular traces reported.

168. OCTOBER 27. In Oye-Plage, a very bright cigar-shaped object was seen flying very low, following the turns of the road at 20 metres altitude. It was seen for fifteen minutes, then turned at right angles from the road and flew away.

169. OCTOBER. 29. In Mesples, near Montlucon, a disc standing on edge and spinning rapidly came swiftly towards the ground. There were two witnesses as it suddenly vanished in mid-air. The time was 7.50 a.m.

170. OCTOBER 31. In Long (Somme) at a place called ‘Corrompu’, an oval orange object was seen on the ground by three people. The lights of a tractor went out when it took off emitting a very bright light, comparable to a welder’s torch. Diameter 4 to 5 metres. It came back, then turned and flew to the south-west. Noise compared to that of bees in a beehive.

171. NOVEMBER 1. In Poggi-d’Ambra, near Arezzo (Italy), an object shaped like a hemisphere was seen, about 2 or 3 metres in height. Two dwarfs were seen close by, who had human faces and small teeth, and spoke an unknown language.

172. NOVEMBER 3. The paper Maroc-Presse reports that one of its employees, the driver of a delivery truck, ‘a man of sane judge­ment and of excellent eyesight’, has seen an unusual flying object in Oued Beth, near Meknes at 7 a.m. ‘I saw it flying over the valley of the Beth river. I am positive it was not an aircraft or any known machine, but a circular, flat craft which had the appearance of copper. It flew normally for some time, then it suddenly flipped over. Therefore I was able to see the whole disc, and was amazed when it came down into a field where it landed on edge, very gently. Almost immediately, it rose into the sky at great speed, resumed a horizontal position and was quickly lost to sight.’

173. NOVEMBER 4. At night, a Brazilian fisherman saw a luminous object land close to his position, near Pontal. Three small men dressed in white, wearing caps of sorts, emergedfrom a door. They seemed to have dark skin, gathered leaves and grass, took some water in a tube, and the craft flew away.

174. NOVEMBER 5. Near La Coruna (Spain), a man who had stopped his car saw, 150 metres away from him, a large shining disc which rose with a slight noise like an explosion, and flew away at fantastic speed.

Armed entities?

175. NOVEMBER 5. Near La-Roche-en-Brenil, a craft which made a noise like a large transformer and gave off an orange light was seen in a pasture. Three men dressed in dark coveralls were standing near it. One was holding a sort of box ‘which emitted a beam of light 3 metres long’. The other two were holding objects which looked like weapons. One of the witnesses fled, after feeling prlcklings on his face. Four photographs of the scene were allegedly taken by the other witness hidden in the bushes.

176. NOVEMBER 7. In Monte Ortobene, near Nuoro, island of Sardinia, Italy, a man fell from his motorcycle (see case no. 166) when he saw a disc-shaped machine land near the road. A taxi driver stopped and walked towards the object, which gave off a soft whirring sound, and soon took off. Farmers on the other side of the mountain saw it fly away. Diameter: about 15 metres. The disc was made of a metal described as rough and silvery. It supported a dome with a kind of porthole. Some elliptical ports were also visible on the lower portion of the object; they were covered with a grating similar to that of a motor-car radiator.

One hundred and fifty Monza witnesses

177. NOVEMBER 8. In Monza (Italy) a man saw a light in a stadium and soon a crowd of 150 people gathered, destroyed the barriers and rushed to have a closer look. They saw a disc set on three legs, emitting a blinding white light. Figures dressed in light colours and wearing transparent helmets were standing close by. They seemed to communicate with ‘guttural sounds’. One of them had a dark face and a sort of trunk or hose, coming up to his face. The craft flew away without noise.

178. NOVEMBER 8. In Voussac, near Doulouvre, reliable persons have reported seeing a luminous sphere which landed at the edge of the forest and became dark. The next morning, investigation disclosed that an area 4 or 5 metres in diameter had no leaves, while the ground elsewhere was covered with them. The ground seemed to have been dug up. No noise had been heard.

179. NOVEMBER 8. In La-Tessoualle, near Cholet, at dusk, a man who was returning home saw a blue disc in the sky, while his engine stopped and his lights failed. The disc came closer and the witness, who was surrounded with an intense blue light, was unable to move for several minutes, could not articulate a word, and felt pricklings in his hands ‘in spite of his gloves’. As soon as the blue light was turned off, he was able to move and to start his engine, but the light reappeared 200 metres away and he decided to approach it: as he did so the object became dark again and flew away with a soft whistling. It was a cone, about 5 or 6 metres in size, rose vertically, then flew horizontally to the North.

180. NOVEMBER 10. Near Porto Alegre (Brazil) an agricultural engineer and his family saw a disc from which two men, normal in height, having long hair and dressed in coveralls emerged. They came towards the car with their arms raised, but the frightened witnesses sped away.

181. NOVEMBER 13. Near the local airport in Berck (France) a craft shaped like a round hut was seen to take off, about 300 metres away from the witnesses. No noise was heard,

182. NOVEMBER 13. Near Buchy, a luminous craft took off while witnesses were paralysed and felt pricklings (see case no. 179). The engine of the car slowed down, but did not stall.

183. NOVEMBER. 13. Near Curitiba (Brazil) a 1ens~shaped object was seen on the railroad tracks. Three dwarfs wearing tight-fitting suits were looking at the tracks with a light. When witnesses approached the machine, it took off very fast.

184. NOVEMBER 14. Between Wasmes and Audemets (Belgium) a gardener saw a craft which had landed near the road at night, and gave off a very bright light. His clothing was partially burnt when he went close to it.

185. NOVEMBER 14. In Forli (Italy) a strange beam of red light apparently emitted by some flying machine, was reported sweeping the countryside. As it illuminated two tractors, one of them stalled, but the other, a diesel, continued. The beam was seen for about one hour by a large number of persons.

Dwarfs investigate rabbits

186. NOVEMBER 14. In Isola (near La Spezia, Northern Italy), a farmer saw a bright cigar-shaped craft land near him, and hid himself. From the machine came three dwarfs dressed in metallic diving suits, who centred their attention on the rabbits in their cages while speaking among themselves in an unknown tongue. Thinking they planned to steal the animals, the farmer slipped away, returned with his rifle, and aimed at the dwarfs. Then two things happened: first the rifle failed, and at the same time it became so heavy that the farmer had to drop it. He also found that he was unable to move or speak, while the intruders took the rabbits and left, their craft leaving a bright trail. As they departed the farmer was able to move again: he picked up his gun and fired, but it was too late. He told his story to his close family only, but it soon spread. The witness is known as sober and reliable.

187. NOVEMBER 22. In Santa Maria (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), a radio operator at .the air base saw a huge dark object, about 30 metres in diameter, hovering at tree height. With four other persons, he saw it for several hours, sometimes softly glowing, sometimes coming down almost to the ground.

188. NOVEMBER 28. Two truck drivers found their road blocked between Caracas and Petare (Venezuela) by a luminous sphere over 3 metres in diameter, hovering 2 metres above ground. Coming out of the truck they met a small creature with claws and glowing eyes coming towards them. One of the witnesses, named Gonzales, grabbed the being, found it surprisingly light (about 35 pounds) and observed its body was very hard and covered with fur. The creature pushed him back with one hand in spite of its small weight. The second truck driver rushed to the police. Two more creatures emerged from the brush and leaped into the sphere, carrying stones and other samples while the first individual attacked Gonzales again. Now terrified, he tried to defend himself with a knife, but the blow did no harm to the hard skin of the entity. Then one of the dwarfs in the sphere blinded Gonzales with a light while the others re-entered the craft, which took off.

Gunfire to no avail

189. EARLY IN DECEMBER. The director of the Barquisimeto (Venezuela) College was chased by a luminous disc as he was driving near Guanare. He fired at the object with his revolver, to no effect, then stopped another car containing a lawyer and two policemen. All four saw the machine fly away.

190. DECEMBER 1. In Bassoues (Gers) an oval light, very bright, illuminated the countryside early in the morning hours. After some maneuvering and oscillations in mid-air it landed for a couple of minutes, about 2.5 kilometres away from the witness, then flew away to the east.

191. DECEMBER. 4. Twelve workers in Zuaga, near Badajoz (Spain), saw what they described as a square machine, 10 metres in size, which landed and took off at great speed, flying towards the south.

192. DECEMBER 9. A farmer in Linha da Vista, near Venancio Aires (Brazil), observed a stranger standing near a machine which was almost on the ground, shaped ‘like a tropical helmet’, cream coloured and surrounded by haze, making a noise like a sewing machine. Another individual was looking at the fence, while a third one was inside the craft with his head and arms visible. As the witness dropped his fork, one of the men picked it up and handed it back after examination. They went back inside the machine, motioning the witness not to come close, and took off. They were of average height, had broad shoulders, long hair, very white skin arid slanted eyes. They wore brown coveralls ending with shoes which had no heels.

193. DECEMBER 10. A doctor from Caracas who was driving with his father near Floresta (Venezuela) stopped his car as two little men were seen running into the bushes. Soon thereafter a luminous disc rose from the side of the road with a sizzling sound, and flew away.

Violence in Venezuela

194. DECEMBER 10. Having seen a bright object land near the Trans-Andean Highway near Chico (Venezuela), two young men approached it, found it was shaped like two bowls glued together, about 3 metres in diameter, and the underside ‘was a source of fiery light. Four small beings attacked them, apparently in’ an effort to kidnap one of them. His companion bit the attackers with his rifle, but broke it. The dwarfs were extremely strong, and their bodies were covered with hair. As the witnesses resisted, the intruders fled into the machine, which took off. An official investigation was made.

195. DECEMBER 11. In Linha Bela Vista, near the site of observation 192, two beings, human in appearance and dressed in a sort of ‘yellow bags’, took a plant of tobacco and a chicken, then flew away, leaving the farmer amazed.

Bellicose dwarf

196. DECEMBER 16. In San Carlos (Venezuela), three young men saw a small being, which attacked one of them before fleeing into a disc-shaped machine which took off immediately. The witness -suffered wounds attributed to the creature’s claws and was treated in the hospital (Gonzales, in case no. 188, had suffered similar wounds).

197. DECEMBER 17. A woodcraftsman who saw a very bright light on the road between Bersaillin and Colonne (France) first thought it was an American car with its headlights on, but soon observed it was produced by a dark object about 8o metres away: the light became brighter, the witness felt an intense heat wave and thought he was going to die. But the light at last went away.

198. December 29. In Valencia (Venezuela) a jockey saw six small creatures loading stones into a disc-shaped machine. He tried to turn round and run away but was paralysed by a violet beam of light aimed by one of the little men, while the others entered the craft, which took off.

199. DECEMBER 20. The same night, shortly after midnight, in the same town, an employee at the sanatorium saw an object on the ground but did not report his sighting. Another employee saw the craft three hours later. It was luminous and took off soon afterwards.

200. DECEMBER 29. At 21.00, a man who was going to Gardonne (France) saw in the vicinity of Bru an oval, red object 50 metres away from him. When he tried to approach it, he found he was unable to move. When this ‘paralysis’ subsided he ran to the house where his brothers lived, 300 metres away, and came back with them. When they approached, the object became white, then red, rose and flew away towards the east. It had been on the ground for fifteen minutes at least. Strange traces were found at the site, as if the ground had been dug up, and small trees near the river were found cut; apparently with a knife.

An avenue of research

This article is intended as a compact presentation of reference material for use by specialists, and certainly not as light reading. But we are not unaware that the above enumeration tends to­wards tedium, and at this point we would do well to pause and reflect upon the character of the observations before we attempt to develop a method of analysis; for it promises to be a most formidable task, and many will give it up as a futile and hopeless endeavour. Nor do we believe that these observations are in themselves convincing: the natural feeling is certainly one of shock and disbelief at first, and it does not seem possible to introduce any semblance of order in events so far out of the ordinary. Two comments, however, will open an avenue of discussion:

(i) While reading the above reports we observe that the main series of events started with a clear, sudden burst of activity in September, and tended to subside early in November. At the same time, we notice that the centre of this activity shifted geographically during the second half of October, with the most remarkable reports coming from Italy and South America rather than France: this is the first hint that this activity, strange as it may appear, may be linked to some real, physical or psycho­logical reality which can thus be studied with profit. At the same time, we are led to consider with caution the fact that a majority of reports come from France: quite possibly sightings were made with equal density in other countries, but they may not have received equal attention.

(ii) Then, an obvious explanation comes to mind: the cause of the reports (the ‘stimulus’) is indeed real: it is psychological in nature. In other words, all the victims were victims of their imagination. This theory was formalised by Professor Heuyer in a celebrated communication to the French Academy of Medicine: people are the victims of a ‘flying saucer psychosis’: the stories they read in the newspapers have a strong effect on their imagi­nation: under this influence, feeble-minded individuals start generating rumours which spread from building to building and from one area of the city to another. Such rumours, of course, are typical of the tensions of modem, over-crowded population centres,

In the present chapter, we shall give conclusive evidence of the falsity of this theory. We shall show that there is indeed order in the sightings, and that what seemed an inorganised mass of rumours is in reality correlated very strongly with phenomena which are undoubtedly of a physical, rather than psychological, nature.

The above considerations, general as they are, define very clearly the plan of this article: we shall first exhibit negative correlations with all the factors upon which the psychological theory could be based. Then, we shall consider the laws of the phenomenon: we shall find them of great coherence, and con­sistent with the hypothesis that the great majority of the re­ported incidents were real. This conclusion will open the way to some interesting speculations, and we hope these, in turn, will contribute to eliminate some of the obscurities which have been hanging over the UFO mystery for nearly twenty years.

The First Negative Law: population density

The ‘flying saucer psychosis’, as described by Heuyer, would obey very strict rules, because psychoses are not erratic, random phenomena: they are observed only in those areas where con­ditions favourable to their development are gathered. In the fall of 1954, the conditions for such a craze would have been found in the Paris agglomeration, where rumours circulate very quickly and are easily amplified, where political and social conditions were in a poor state, and where a public existed for science-fiction ideas. To a lesser degree, the crowded areas of Marseille, Bordeaux and Lille and the heavily industrialised regions of the east would have been vast reservoirs of potential Heuyeritis victims.

Now, we have plotted on figure 1 all the French landings of 1954. Not only is there no heavy concentration around Paris: the six departments of: Seine, Seine-et-Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Marne, Meuse, Loiret and Loir-et-Cher, which should have given Dr Heuyer the greatest contribution in terms of psychotic ele­ments, and include nearly one-third of the total French popula­tion, did not contribute a single report. Such a graph clearly puts an end to the discussion, because the other densely populated regions (with the single exception of the Lille area) are similarly ‘avoided’ by the phenomenon, in direct contradiction with Heuyer’s theory. This allows us to state our first law:

THE GEOGRAPHIC REPARTITION OF THE LANDING SITES IN 1954 IS INVERSELY CORRELATED WITH POPULATION DENSITY.

8. 200 Separate Cases (Valle) Part 2 | Contents | 10. 200 Separate Cases (Valle) Part 4