What Happened to Their Planet?

     Don't believe anything until it is confirmed, but don't throw away any information. That is the philosophy of this blog, and the reason I use it to rescue items which might otherwise be overlooked. Whether it is the paranormal, or something mundane, like an accusation of spousal infidelity, in day to day life we tend to balance the credibility of the witness with the probability of the story. If a story is really fantastic, we tend to reject it, even if the reporter would otherwise be considered reliable.
     But there is a catch. Occasionally, the really fantastic happens to be part of a rare, but genuine phenomenon. If we throw away the stories every time we hear them, the data will never accumulate, and we will never discover that they form a pattern. So, even the fantastic deserves its day in court. Put it in your file. If the story is false, it will lie there, and eventually die of loneliness. But if it happens to be true, bit by bit, its relatives will drift in to keep it company.
     And nowhere is this more important than with alien abductions, where high strangeness is par for the course, but there are legitimate concerns that the data is contaminated with confabulations.
    I myself discovered this, when I went back over old copies of Flying Saucer Review, and discovered patterns I had not noticed before: such as repeated references to beings walking through walls, and accounts of apparent journeys to other worlds. The point was, the stories were so fantastic that I had put them out of my mind as soon as I read them, and only on revision discovered how relatively common they were. And, of course, when folklorist, Thomas Bullard examined alien abduction stories, he noted patterns, such as "door amnesia", which had eluded even the ufologists. With this in mind, let me introduce two startling reports, published decades apart, but containing similar themes.

England, 1974

     The event involved a couple referred to as John and Elaine Avis, and their three children, in the region of the village of Aveley in Essex, only 13 miles from the City of London. Their drive commenced at 9.50 pm on Sunday, 27 October 1974. The roads at that time and place should have been subject to considerable traffic, and on this occasion, they were empty - an unexplained circumstance not unknown in other abduction cases. They saw a UFO - a nocturnal light - apparently pacing them, and then they entered a mysterious green fog, momentarily appearing to lose control of the car. A few minutes later, they were out, and arrived home. Only then did they discover that the 9 mile, 22 minute drive had actually lasted three hours.
     That is another point that needs to be made. Whatever reservations one might legitimately have about hypnotic regression, sceptics are some day going to have to address the fact that many people definitely experience missing time.
     Three years later, the case was investigated. The couple had dreams of the experience, sometimes of the same thing, and conscious memories began to filter back. John received three hypnotic regressions, with Elaine being present during the last, and she also began to fill in the details of the event with conscious memories.
      What had happened? Both accounts contain a vast amount of detail, which deserves to be read in its entirety. The car was levitated into a flying saucer on a beam of light, and the couple found themselves in the presence of human-shaped aliens 6 ft 6 in to 6ft 8in in height, with pink irises, and possibly three fingers. They were clad in single form-fitting body suits, with a hood over their heads, and possibly a mask, because the witnesses could not remember any nose or mouth. And they communicated with them telepathically.
     After that, John and Elaine were separated, and underwent similar, but not identical experiences. Their son, Kevin was also taken, but his memories were not explored. First they were medically scanned by examiners of a different species: beings 4 feet high, with "two large, slanted, triangular-shaped eyes, a light brown nose or 'beak', a slit for a mouth, and pointed, slanted-back ears." Long white coats covered their bodies which, from the appearance of the head and neck, and the four-fingered, taloned hands which protruded from the garments, must have been covered with thick hair. Unlike the tall humanoids in charge, they were not telepathic, but communicated in guttural chirps. The tall entities told John and Elaine that they were called "Sebeteen". At least, that was how the word appeared to be pronounced, but for some reason, both of them gained the impression it was written, "Seφtne". This is one of the many unexplainable features of the experience - but at least now you know the name of at least one alien species.
     Both were then taken separately on a tour of the craft. In particular, they were individually shown a shown a series of rapid images on a screen. This, of course, has been well documented in later decades by Dr David Jacobs, but it was practically unknown at the time. They both remember, among hundreds of pictures, star maps, charts, and images of the solar system, especially Saturn. Elaine particularly remembered 11 planets being depicted, rather than the 9 known - something of significance now, with the subsequent discovery of the dwarf planets.
     Of special significance is that John was then taken to a section of the control room, and shown a tangible hologram.

     As he watches the hologram John in told that this was what their own Planet looked like in its last years, after it had been ruined by pollution, and other natural problems. They had lost their two suns and one of their moons through misuse. They do not explain how they had misused them.
      The hologram shows a complex of pointed grey metallic-like cones protruding from the ground (possibly a city) behind which are mountains or hills. The sky is layered in various colours and appears to be very dense and low. There are shades of red, yellow, blue and green. In front of the scene and very close to them is a figure of medium height dressed in a hooded robe. It has full facial details, albeit pink eyes, and appears to be very old. The figure is holding a round object that glows red and yellow. John is asked to touch the ball, which he does, and he feels a strange sensation travel up his arm. (He cannot remember being given any explanation for the figure or the meaning of the ball, but has the feeling that it signifies their - the Planet's - energy being taken away. John says that he feels he was privileged to have seen this as he thinks that they treat it like a shrine. He is sure he got the impression that there was a disagreement between the three as to whether they should let him see it.)

     As for Elaine, she watched John and Kevin touch the ball, and was asked to do the same.

She thinks they said "this is where we come from" or "came from," and that they said, regarding the hologram: "This is the seed of life, our past and your future, our whole existence. Accept this from us to yourself, your children and your fellow kind."

Reference: Andrew Collins (1978) 'The Aveley Abduction.' Parts 1 and 2. Flying Saucer Review (FSR) 23(6): pp 13- 25.
Part 3. FSR 24(1): pp 5-15
Brent Raynes has also provided a detailed summary of the case here (Part 1) and here (Part 2).

South Australia, 1969 or 1970

     In 1990, one of Australia's leading ufologists, Keith Basterfield was introduced to a lady he called "Susan", who had fragmentary memories of repeated abductions by small aliens under the command of tall aliens. The small ones were not the hairy Sebeteen; they were bald, bulbous headed dwarfs, 4 foot high, with huge black eyes, and minuscule noses and mouths - classic "greys", in other words. Their leaders, on the other hand, were 7 foot tall, of moderate build, with normal noses, and wore "something like a suit and cape with a hood over the head."
     She remembered being abducted from a beach at age 12, from a town house at age 19, and being taken to another planet at age 16 or 17. From the age of 14, she had suffered rape at the hands of the tall aliens, and in her mind this merged with memories of sexual molestation by a family member up to the age of 18.
     But the episode which stuck in her mind, which emerged the following morning, and continued as nightmares until she was 20, concerned the time her family moved to Adelaide in 1969 or 1970, when she was 10 or 11 years old. She was so convinced "they" were going to come for her, that she persuaded her younger sister, Rachael to swap beds with her. But a group of little men, accompanied by a tall entity, did find her. She received a medical examination and an educative film. When interviewed, Rachael remembered it well. She saw a ball of light come down the hallway to the bedroom, where she hid under the bedclothes. It was decided, therefore, to explore the episode with Susan under hypnosis.
     She recalled the aliens being initially confused by the bed-swap. But they levitated her out of bed, and put in her hand a small ball of light. Together, she and they walked through the wall, and up into the sky on "invisible steps" into a brilliant light. The tall entity medically examined her and, among other things, showed her what looked like a movie.

     The movie showed a planet in space and a city with close-ups of trees, parks, and people. The people were of the same type as the tall beings involved in the abduction.
     Some form of disaster, possibly an earthquake, occurred, and people were shown dying. What appeared to be a spacecraft took off with survivors. The tall being with Susan told her that he was a descendant of the survivors and that his people used to live on the earth. He said they were a form of interdimensional being.

Reference:  Keith Basterfield (1991) 'An Australian Abduction' International UFO Reporter 16(2): pp 4-6

What to Make of It?

     Let me make two observations. The first is that experience has shown it is virtually impossible to make stone age tribesmen understand the complexities of Western civilisation. Even if language is no barrier, they lack the background to grasp what is being told them. The result is that many Westerners choose to simplify for them, or even play games with them. "Tell the ignorant savage anything," is their motto.

     The point is that, in the presence of a highly advanced interstellar civilisation, and non-human species, we are in the same position as those tribesmen. So, before we accept at face value any alleged alien communication, it is important to consider:

• the truthfulness of the witness;
• any difficulties in communication;
• the witness's limited comprehension; and
• the truthfulness of the aliens.

     Some of these communications have been, to say the least, enigmatic. During the Aveley abduction, for example, a tall alien demonstrated to John the use of a visor over the eyes which shone a blue light downwards at an angle of 45 degrees.

     John is told: "It changes the impression that the static units on your planet see of us. Static units are linear inhabitants of your planet".

     This makes no sense to John.

     It doesn't make much sense to me, either.

     Some of these communications are definitely false. Such, for instance, is the statement allegedly made to Orlando Ferraudi: "The five races that populate this planet are not native to Earth; they are merely the vestiges of civilizations from other worlds. Earth has long been known as the solar system's zoo."

     In fact, there is not the slightest doubt that Homo sapiens is related to every other life form on this planet.

    

     My second comment is that I do not share many people's pessimism about the future of this planet. I find it hard to believe that any advanced civilisation could destroy their home world. Global warming, overpopulation, and pollution would not do the trick. They could cause immense problems, but the worst case scenario is that they would reach a stage where we would have to take action. This is defect of these eco-apocalyptic scenarios: economics and sheer inconvenience must kick in long before total disaster arrives.

     Nevertheless, we are here presented with two totally independent accounts, decades apart, and from opposite sides of the globe, of tall aliens - arguable the same species - describing how their home planet was destroyed. What does it all mean?

     Investigating alien abductions is like peeling an onion: you never get to the centre of the onion; all you get are loose onion peels. They stink and they make you want to cry.

     But I often wonder what happened to their planet.