Monsters and Myths

Recent reports of UFOs spotted in Ohio’s skies may remind us of past incidents over the years in that state.

For example, the 35th anniversary of the so-called “Coyne incident” over Mansfield, in central-northeastern Ohio, recently passed without much notice.

In that Oct. 18, 1973, case, four members of the Army Reserve were in their military helicopter flying from Columbus to Cleveland when a UFO flew in very close proximity to their chopper.
At one critical point, the pilot, fearing a collision, quickly positioned the chopper’s controls for a quick descent. Interestingly, the chopper’s altimeter showed that it was actually gaining altitude.

This is a very well-documented case and crew members actually completed a formal report for the Army Reserve.

The crew included pilot and aircraft commander Capt. Lawrence J. Coyne, a 19-year veteran of the Army Reserve. The co-pilot was Lt. Arrigo Jezzi. The others onboard were crew chief Specialist 5 Robert Yanacek and flight medic Sgt. John Healey.

The “Trumbull County incident” occurred Dec. 14, 1994, in northeastern Ohio. In that case, peace officers from multiple regional law enforcement and public safety agencies pursued a large object that intermittently emitted bright lights of various colors.

This case was made into a TV documentary segment and police radio transmissions have provided good documentation of the incident.

An earlier northeast Ohio UFO case gained public attention in the movies. It has been reported that the police chase of UFOs in the 1977 movie CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND was based on an incident on April 17, 1966, in Portage County. In this pursuit, officers from various police agencies followed a UFO into Pennsylvania.

In addition, reports of UFOs spotted over Lake Erie, on Ohio´s northern border, have sparked curiosity and theories.

Ohio is also home to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, in the southwestern area of the state. “Wright-Patt” has long been rumored to be the location where crash debris, and possibly extraterrestrial bodies, were taken after the “Roswell incident.”

RECENT OHIO REPORTS

Emmy Award-winning TV producer, investigative reporter and author Linda Moulton Howe has recently been reporting on more eastern Ohio incidents on her Web site Earthfiles.com.

Howe recently reported an account by truck driver Tim Comstock that was accompanied by photos from his cell phone camera.

Near the town of Empire, Ohio, Oct. 23, 2008, at 3:45 a.m., Comstock noticed several cars pulled over to the side of the road, drivers looking at something nearby.

Comstock says he first saw a brightly lit object the size of a large pickup truck apparently slowly rising above a tree line. Then, he spotted a much larger dark object that included three bluish lights in a triangular pattern. The bright object appeared to be rising toward the larger object.

He said that larger object was “about the size of a large shopping mall and parking lot.”

Comstock said he took photos with his cell phone camera that caught both the brightly-lit object and the three bluish lights in the triangular formation. These were posted by Howe on Earthfiles.com.

 
While the huge triangular craft seemed solid, Comstock told Howe that the brightly lit object “didn’t look like anything mechanical by any means. To me, it looked like a cocoon.”

“When I saw it, I was trying to take everything in and that’s immediately what I thought when I saw it – that it was organic. That’s the feeling that I got. I didn’t think it could be anything else. It just came across as something organic,” Comstock told Howe.

Subsequent to this report, Howe learned of other witnesses. A security officer, “Sarah,” was reportedly on duty approximately three-tenths of a mile north of Comstock´s location that morning.

Sarah told Howe she saw lights in a triangular configuration. Below these lights, she spotted an “orange-yellow, glowing object” that she termed a “pod.”

Sarah said she first started seeing the triangular-shaped lights in the region in early August 2008.

Yet another witness contacted Howe with a similar sighting. This time the incident was due west of the Empire area in the town of Midvale, in eastern Ohio’s Tuscarawas County, at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2008.

Midvale resident “Joy” told Howe that she glanced out her window and saw a “very large, orange-yellow-white-colored ‘orb.’”
Joy claimed, “The orb didn’t seem to keep one shape. I saw it at the edge of the tree line behind my house.” She said the brightly-lit object reminded her of an amoeba under a microscope. She also stated she saw three lights in a triangular pattern above the orb.

THEORIES AND SPECULATION

Of course, the “usual suspects” to explain these kinds of events include secret advanced U.S. aircraft or spacecraft related to extraterrestrial visitors.

Other possibilities blend these two theories. Unidentified secret U.S. craft could be using extraterrestrial technology or actual ET craft, but are piloted by U.S. personnel. Or, U.S. personnel could be flying in joint operations with ET visitors with whom we have working relationships.

Some objects could be unmanned devices of some kinds, perhaps for reconnaissance or some other unknown purposes.

UFOs that seem to be glowing lights or energy, rather than solid metallic-like craft offer other possibilities. Could they themselves be forms of life? Could they be forms of consciousness – extraterrestrial, extra-dimensional or human?

As responsible researchers, journalists and average people continue to inquire about these encounters, we seem to get more pieces of the puzzle.

The most recent incidents in Ohio are more examples of anomalous and currently unidentified (at least to the public) flying objects that apparently have visited Ohio and many other places.

Is Ohio more prone to UFO sightings than other areas of the U.S. and the world? Probably not. Unusual objects in the skies have been reported all over the nation and the planet.

Ohioans who have had these kinds of close encounters join many other people on Earth who wonder about what might be going on.

americanchronicle.com/articles/85270

Recent reports of UFOs spotted in Ohio’s skies may remind us of past incidents over the years in that state.

For example, the 35th anniversary of the so-called “Coyne incident” over Mansfield, in central-northeastern Ohio, recently passed without much notice.

In that Oct. 18, 1973, case, four members of the Army Reserve were in their military helicopter flying from Columbus to Cleveland when a UFO flew in very close proximity to their chopper.

At one critical point, the pilot, fearing a collision, quickly positioned the chopper’s controls for a quick descent. Interestingly, the chopper’s altimeter showed that it was actually gaining altitude.

This is a very well-documented case and crew members actually completed a formal report for the Army Reserve.

The crew included pilot and aircraft commander Capt. Lawrence J. Coyne, a 19-year veteran of the Army Reserve. The co-pilot was Lt. Arrigo Jezzi. The others onboard were crew chief Specialist 5 Robert Yanacek and flight medic Sgt. John Healey.

The “Trumbull County incident” occurred Dec. 14, 1994, in northeastern Ohio. In that case, peace officers from multiple regional law enforcement and public safety agencies pursued a large object that intermittently emitted bright lights of various colors.

This case was made into a TV documentary segment and police radio transmissions have provided good documentation of the incident.

An earlier northeast Ohio UFO case gained public attention in the movies. It has been reported that the police chase of UFOs in the 1977 movie CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND was based on an incident on April 17, 1966, in Portage County. In this pursuit, officers from various police agencies followed a UFO into Pennsylvania.

In addition, reports of UFOs spotted over Lake Erie, on Ohio´s northern border, have sparked curiosity and theories.

Ohio is also home to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, in the southwestern area of the state. “Wright-Patt” has long been rumored to be the location where crash debris, and possibly extraterrestrial bodies, were taken after the “Roswell incident.”

RECENT OHIO REPORTS

Emmy Award-winning TV producer, investigative reporter and author Linda Moulton Howe has recently been reporting on more eastern Ohio incidents on her Web site Earthfiles.com.

Howe recently reported an account by truck driver Tim Comstock that was accompanied by photos from his cell phone camera.

Near the town of Empire, Ohio, Oct. 23, 2008, at 3:45 a.m., Comstock noticed several cars pulled over to the side of the road, drivers looking at something nearby.

Comstock says he first saw a brightly lit object the size of a large pickup truck apparently slowly rising above a tree line. Then, he spotted a much larger dark object that included three bluish lights in a triangular pattern. The bright object appeared to be rising toward the larger object.

He said that larger object was “about the size of a large shopping mall and parking lot.”

Comstock said he took photos with his cell phone camera that caught both the brightly-lit object and the three bluish lights in the triangular formation. These were posted by Howe on Earthfiles.com.

While the huge triangular craft seemed solid, Comstock told Howe that the brightly lit object “didn’t look like anything mechanical by any means. To me, it looked like a cocoon.”

“When I saw it, I was trying to take everything in and that’s immediately what I thought when I saw it – that it was organic. That’s the feeling that I got. I didn’t think it could be anything else. It just came across as something organic,” Comstock told Howe.

Subsequent to this report, Howe learned of other witnesses. A security officer, “Sarah,” was reportedly on duty approximately three-tenths of a mile north of Comstock´s location that morning.

Sarah told Howe she saw lights in a triangular configuration. Below these lights, she spotted an “orange-yellow, glowing object” that she termed a “pod.”

Sarah said she first started seeing the triangular-shaped lights in the region in early August 2008.

Yet another witness contacted Howe with a similar sighting. This time the incident was due west of the Empire area in the town of Midvale, in eastern Ohio’s Tuscarawas County, at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2008.

Midvale resident “Joy” told Howe that she glanced out her window and saw a “very large, orange-yellow-white-colored ‘orb.’”

Joy claimed, “The orb didn’t seem to keep one shape. I saw it at the edge of the tree line behind my house.” She said the brightly-lit object reminded her of an amoeba under a microscope. She also stated she saw three lights in a triangular pattern above the orb.

THEORIES AND SPECULATION

Of course, the “usual suspects” to explain these kinds of events include secret advanced U.S. aircraft or spacecraft related to extraterrestrial visitors.

Other possibilities blend these two theories. Unidentified secret U.S. craft could be using extraterrestrial technology or actual ET craft, but are piloted by U.S. personnel. Or, U.S. personnel could be flying in joint operations with ET visitors with whom we have working relationships.

Some objects could be unmanned devices of some kinds, perhaps for reconnaissance or some other unknown purposes.

UFOs that seem to be glowing lights or energy, rather than solid metallic-like craft offer other possibilities. Could they themselves be forms of life? Could they be forms of consciousness – extraterrestrial, extra-dimensional or human?

As responsible researchers, journalists and average people continue to inquire about these encounters, we seem to get more pieces of the puzzle.

The most recent incidents in Ohio are more examples of anomalous and currently unidentified (at least to the public) flying objects that apparently have visited Ohio and many other places.

Is Ohio more prone to UFO sightings than other areas of the U.S. and the world? Probably not. Unusual objects in the skies have been reported all over the nation and the planet.

Ohioans who have had these kinds of close encounters join many other people on Earth who wonder about what might be going on.

americanchronicle.com/articles/85270

The prehistoric megaliths that arise throughout Western Europe, between Portugal and the North Sea, have always caused the curiosity and the questions of all those who have studied them. In recent decades, however, the archaeologists with his latest discoveries has even more entangled the mystery by finding megaliths similar to those Europeans also in the south of Egypt, in the Sahara, and on the seabed in front of the Israeli coast, in the submerged town of Atlit-Yam. But what discovered among this ruins could perhaps shed a little more light about the origin and the function of the ancient megaliths.

If the most famous megalithic monument, Stonehenge in southern England, keeps still today many mysteries about, for example, its original architecture, the methods of its construction and its real purpose, many of those stone monuments displaced by the Iberian Peninsula to the islands above Scotland leave still without clear answers the archaeologists and the researchers of the prehistoric Europe.

Both the countless vertical stones (or menhirs), or the circles of stones (or cromlech) suggest us that they are the product of an unique culture (or people), socially and hierarchically organized under a religious authority capable of directing the construction of these monumental works too complex and imposing, whose raw material, the heavy granite boulders of several tens of tons, often had to be extracted with rudimentary tools and transported to several kilometers away from the caves. The astronomical knowledges of these religious leaders should then be no doubt of all respect for those times, because - as is well known - many monuments show precise alignments with the solstices and moon phases as Stonehenge certainly, but also for example in the circles of stones of the Hebrides (Callanish, Isle of Lewis), Scotland, Brittany, Galicia, and so on. But for what purpose ?

The researchers generally think that many of these monuments, especially the circles of stones - or cromlech - like Stonehenge, was calendars for use by various agricultural seasons: benchmarks set in the stone forever in order to hand down to the future generations the best time to start sowing, the harvest and perhaps other habits of vital importance for the survival of those archaic society at the edge of subsistence that still did not know writing. But a conclusion like this certainly does not exhaust all the doubts and the questions that put these monuments. For example, until recently it was believed that the megalithic culture came from the eastern areas and then reached the West with the peoples in possession of agricultural techniques (or even by gradual learning).

But more careful studies by radiocarbon analysis have shown that the truth is exactly the opposite: the oldest European sites are those in the French region of Brittany and in the Spanish Galicia, which from the west then spread to est, inside the European continent. The most ancient megaliths seem to be those closest to the Atlantic coasts and dates back at least to the sixth millennium B. C. However, it is not ruled out the possibility that the origin of the same megalithic culture is even older and coming from different geographical area. This also because until now the absolutely oldest megaliths are not located nor in Western Europe or on the land, but in the submerged city of Atlit-Yam in Israel.

We have already met this city in the article about the devastating tsunami provoked by Etna around 6000 B. C. (see “The fury of the sea’s god : the tsunami provoked by Etna 8000 years ago and the submerged city of Atlit-Yam” in this site). The Israeli divers, that coordinated by Ehud Galili have plunged since the 80s in the sea at the foot of Mount Carmel (northern Israel), have been able to observe the ruins of a Neolithic settlement with a type of mixed economy: hunting, rudimentary agriculture, and especially fishing. Just looking at the large quantity of fish still stored, the archaeologists have concluded that the town was abandoned suddenly, most likely due to the unforeseen invasion of the waves generated by the collapse of the east flank of the Etna, before that the next growing of the sea level, because of the glacial thaw, submerged the uninhabited settlement.

Among the rests of houses, walls, circular buildings and stone-paved areas (roads or probably squares), divers have found two other types of ruins, which are very important not only for their absolute antiquity but also because they cast a significant light about the events of this city now submerged. The first is a well for water, the oldest example found at present in the world. Until to a certain point in the history of Atlit-Yam it provided fresh water to people, animals and perhaps even to community gardens. But at a unspecified time its function drained and, as discovered underwater archaeologists analyzing its content, it was used as disposal pit. In the opinion of the researchers the advancing sea polluted with brackish water the underground stream feeding the well itself, therefore making it unusable. Then where the inhabitants found the fresh water for their use? The Israeli researchers are convinced that inside the settlement likely flowed a source comes from above Mount Carmel.

There were found the ruins of seven vertical monoliths, real menhirs, arranged in the shape of semicircle open to the north-west. Their base was shaped and colored by the water current, that of a real stream at a time when Atlit-Yam was on dry land. Near these, flat stone slabs are also found lying horizontally, with other oval monoliths showing engravings of schematic anthropomorphic figures: the archaeologists have suggested that the place was used as a ceremonial center. The inhabitants apparently elevated the source to religious and ritual area as to protect it magically by the threatening advancing of the sea. This very close correlation between the megaliths and the water – both the threatening of the sea as that vital of the stream - may be the key to shed more light about the mysteries of the European megaliths.

In the French region of Brittany, the island of Er Lannic, in the Gulf of Morbihan, contains the ruins of two circles of stones one of which completely submerged by water, the other only half in the surface. The place was at least 5000 years ago the top of a hill, and then, after the construction of the two megalithic complexes, was invaded by the lifting of the sea. Certainly it should not be an isolated case. Recent satellite observations suggest that even in the bottom of the north seas might lie the ruins of other oldest megalithic constructions, built before or during the end of last ice age, before the waters submerged the lands on which stood. Until the VIII - VII millennium B. C. European geography was very different. The coasts were more extensive, Ireland was joined to England and this to the continent.

If in the long period of melting of the ice, from 9000 to 6000 B. C., many lands of Northern Europe were freed from ice blanket and were opened to the colonization of the groups of nomadic hunters, many other lands near the sea gradually ended underwater, threatening those human settlements along the coast living mainly of fishing, which in those days was still the livelihood activity more convenient and profitable. The groups of nomadic hunters of the inland certainly led a hard and precarious life: perpetually in motion following the herds of wild cattle, in a territory with a climate still so cold to turn out difficult for agriculture and always under the threat of dangerous animals, wolves, bears, etc.

The coastal groups instead could more easily afford of living in settlements, stable and of a certain size until to reach the size of real cities, just as Atlit-Yam in the Mediterranean, largely thanks to the generousness of the sea, that providing moreover sought shells and the precious salt, also allowed to make profitable trade with the groups of hunters of the inland or with the settlements along the nearby coasts. We can therefore understand how those “fishermen-citizen” were very reluctant to leave their comfortable source of livelihood, the blue, although threatening, lying of the sea, to retire in inland areas and to resign to a tough and precarious live of hunters . But despite that, the advance of the sea forced many groups of fishers to move along the western coast of the Europe, to the south, in the Iberian peninsula, and to the north, in today’s British and French zones. It was then in that continual emergency situation that the shamans, or someone with the mind more acute, perhaps had to notice something that is fundamentally our assumptions as a solution to the mystery of the megaliths.

Even in periods of calm the sea was not moving inflexibility and steadily: now rose and now retreated, although when he returned back flowed always some less, and so ended in the long period to advance. The fisherman of the Neolithic had certainly learned to live with the phenomenon of the tides that along the Atlantic coast and in North Europe are much more pronounced and showy, as are well aware tourists who visit for example the famous island of Mont St. Michel, between Brittany and Normandy. The prehistoric settlements then certainly arose at a safe distance from the coastline, until the ice melting did not force those poor groups of fishermen to move frequently their villages because of the growth of the high tide. The shamans interrogated by their fellow citizens were forced to think and raising their eyes to the sky had to notice the connection between the phases of the moon and the tides, and the different levels of high tide according to the different seasons of the year: more pronounced in winter, from the winter solstice on, because, of course, of the closer of the earth orbit to the sun and therefore of greater gravitational attraction. But 9000 years before Galileo and Newton the man of the Neolithic could not understand the principles of celestial mechanics nor the concept of universal gravitation. So the mental relationship that he established between the stars and the tide was of magical-religious kind, and according to this same logic was also the solution that the shamans had to suggest: to build complexes of stone

monuments that had multiple functions: to calculate or report the season and the moon phase of greater (or lesser) height of the tide, the seasonally measures of the level of the water, and certainly also to magically implore the favor of heaven with ceremonies and sacrifices (perhaps even humans) in order to prevent the advance of the sea.
So probably were not agricultural reason to push for the construction of these real stone calendars, but the need to predict the timing with which the sea invading, month after month and year after year, lands and coastal villages, and with this logic, therefore, may be explained even the archeoastronomical alignments of the stone circles both with the moon phases, of full moon and new moon, than the solstices, periods, that is, where the “influence” of the stars on the sea is stronger (or even less, as in summer, period more reassuring for the Neolithic fishermen). Several megalithic complexes certainly ended submerged under the advancing waves devouring the earth.

Then around the sixth millennium B. C. the sea level was stabilized and the European coast took the current geography, so the descendants of those men fleeing the coasts, took a sigh of relief and certainly think that the gods of the sun and the moon had finally appreciated the invocations, the ceremonies and the same megalithic architecture, although crude, handed down by their ancestors. To avert further dangers - the tidal cycle was always there “to warn” - was consolidated so a real kind of heavenly religion, which acknowledged as the supreme deities the sun and the moon, which certainly must take the place of existing cults related to the hunting, the animals and the natural fertility, that certainly survived among the groups of the internal regions.

In the Anatolian city of Catal-Huyuk (VIII - V millennium B. C.), for example, were found frescoes with herds of cattle showing an identical style to that of European caves of previous millenniums. And even clay heads of bulls that adorned the houses, and statues of nude female with prosperous forms (the so-called “Paleolithic Venuses”, true icons of the cult of the natural “Big Mother”, fertile and generating, also found in other parts of Europe).

Over the centuries and of the generations the close correlation between the megalithic complexes and their astronomical significance surely began to ease and even the monuments of stone were built for only ceremonial and funeral functions. Even the archeoastronomical alignments were often missing or had only a secondary function (of religious value). According to several researchers just the cults originally linked to this type of megaliths were handed down the millenniums and were at the origin of the religion of the Druids after the arrival of the Celts.

Some archaeologists and researchers are indeed of the opinion that the dating of the European megalithic construction is one of many evidences (linguistics, archaeological, etc.) of the presence of the Celtic culture in Europe from early Paleolithic era, before the end of the last glaciation (see Alinei-Benozzo in Bibliography). Assuming that this is true, it should take into account that the ruins of several ancient megaliths in Britain and in the Spanish region of Galicia should be the work of people fleeing - to the north and south - the advancing tide in depth along the low coasts of the Gulf of Biscay. So the place of origin of this supposed Celtic-megalithic culture, for the truth, should be sought on the Atlantic seabed in front of the French and Spanish coasts.

Unfortunately, despite all these considerations is not yet possible to fully reconstruct the puzzle about the monuments of stone. Just think that if the submerged menhirs of Atlit-Yam apparently could seem a curious phenomenon isolated and distant from megalithic context of Western Europe, unlike other findings lead to further broaden the geographical area of megalithic of “European” type. In southern Egypt, in the Saharan desert, at Nabta Playa, 100 kilometers at west of Abu Simbel, were found the remains of five rows of menhirs, two of which are aligned according to the cardinal points. Close to these is also a circle of stones very similar to Stonehenge although smaller, and as the English equivalent is also orientated to the summer solstice (and according to some researchers including the Egyptologist Robert Bauval, which recently studied the location, even with the constellation of Orion).

What is most striking, however, is the age of Egyptian “cromlech”: it was built around 5000 B. C. by people from outside who resumed possession of those places - in those days regularly wet from the rain - after they were abandoned because of a long period of drought. In an article published in the journal “Nature” in April 1998, Fred Wendorf, J. McKim Malville, Romuald Schild and Ali al Mazar, the archaeologists who have studied the megaliths, have concluded that the calendar of stone used to signal the arrival of the monsoon season, and then the precious rain. A confirmation of what, has been observed that the stone structures arise over those that once were the shores of an ancient lake, and that some of the menhirs had to lie submerged in the water, perhaps with the task of assessing the level: the size of the lake ranged in fact with the change of the precipitations, even drying up completely. Obviously is not excluded that the megalithic complex was mainly a sacred place associated to a cult of the water.

The megalithic complexes of Nabta Playa arose not so much later of the submerged menhirs of Atlit-Yam, and how they were too closely related to the water: in the mind of the Neolithic man the periodic cycles - monthly or yearly – of any type of water, beneficial or dangerous, of the rain, of the rivers, of the tides, were together and were certainly more and more religiously associated with the magical power of the stars. It seems, it was an important cultural development of peoples of the Old Continent, because - as I said – they developed astronomical-astrological knowledges and religious beliefs, which in many parts took the place of the existing natural cults (or “ctonii,” according to the terms of the ethnology) without eliminating it altogether.

How to determine whether the megalithic culture was born in Atlantic and then spread to East, or whether it was the exact opposite, may depend only by future archaeological finds. Nobody can say in fact how many cities and megalithic monuments still hide in the sands of the deserts and in the bottom of the seas (Mediterranean included), but we have the feeling that should really be so many!

cataniacultura.com/121megaliti-e.HTM

DAWN OF THE SECRET PROGRAM

A sharp increase in UFO activity in 1977-1978 (especially, the Petrozavodsk Case) had forced appropriate departments within the USSR Academy of Sciences to agree to a research program for anomalous atmospheric phenomena. The code name for this program was SETKA-AN (Akademii Nauk Set´–Academy of Sciences Net, or AS-NET.)

The Soviet Ministry of Defense embarked on a similar program, dubbed SETKA-MO (Ministerstva Oboroni Set´).

Reportedly, it was the Military-Industrial Commission that had ordered this research. The powerful Military-Industrial Commission decided to create two UFO research centers, one in the USSR Academy of Sciences, the other in the USSR Defense Ministry. Both centers aided each other´s research and exchanged information. But we are not completely certain; there have been reports from Russia that Yuri Andropov, the chairman of the KGB from 1967 to 1982, and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1982 to 1984, was extremely interested in the UFO phenomenon (specifically, in one case investigated by SETKA researchers). He had enough power to give impetus to the creation of the secret program.

And so, at the end of 1978, anomalous phenomena research in the USSR Academy of Sciences became the subject of a special scientific research program designated as SETKA-AN. Its functions were distributed among different departments, and a number of Soviet research institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences received tasks to research various aspects of the anomalous phenomenon issue.

On the 18th of October 1978, a meeting took place in the Academy of Sciences, USSR. Those present included Vladimir Vasilyevich Migulin, Georgiy Stepanovich Narimanov, Rem Gennadiyevich Varlamov, Victor Petrovich Balashov, Vladimir Ivanovich Volga, A. N. Makarov, Inna Evgraphovna Petrenko, Evgeniy Pavlovich Chigin, Dmitry Aleksandrovich Men´kov, Zaytsev (a colonel of the Soviet anti-aircraft forces), Lev Mironovich Gindilis, Inna Gennadyevna Petrovskaya, and Yury Victorovich Platov.

By the way, according to Dr. Fomenko, a famous Russian UFO researcher, a group of 10 or 15 researchers who later formed the SETKA core, regularly met outside their work to discuss the UFO phenomenon.

In 1981, the SETKA research program was given another name, Galaktika (MO and AN designations), and in 1986, the name was changed to Gorizont MO and AN. After the program ended (right after the failed Communist, anti-Gorbachev attempted coup in 1991, although Colonel Kolchin, a noted Russian UFO researcher, mentioned the year of 1990), a group of experts remained in the Department of General Physics and Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences where they analyzed incoming reports until 1996.

THE PLAYERS

We know today that at the historic meeting Migulin and Platov represented the Izmiran (the Academy of Sciences USSR Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism and Diffusion of Radio Waves). Narimanov and Petrovskaya represented the Academy of Sciences USSR Institute for Space Studies. Varlamov represented the Moscow Technological Institute. Balashov and Volga represented the secret military unit 67947. Makarov represented the Department of General Physics and Astronomy of the Academy of Sciences USSR. Gindilis represented the Shternberg State Astronomical Institute. We are not sure who the other participants represented at the meeting. This was the genesis of the SETKA programs, a fundamental research of anomalous phenomena in the Soviet Union. The main agency of the research was to be the Izmiran. Platov was to be the chief executive at the Izmiran for the SETKA-AN. We cannot quote the complete document here, but we need to mention several crucial points. The Ministry of Defense was worried about the effects of anomalous phenomena; such effects interfered with its work. Balashov mentioned that the priority of research should go to the periodically generated phenomena. He later said that there was no confirmation of sightings by either Soviet or American cosmonauts or astronauts (they observed containers, he added; meaning that the objects they saw were not UFOs). Discussions about the organizational details were, too, very interesting (an HQ is needed at the Academy of Sciences; Platov, the CEO, was to provide it; Migulin promised to “organize” rooms in Moscow; Gindilis mentioned the central archives and the catalogue in one central place). Varlamov mentioned that there are 3000 reports coming in each year from general population. Migulin was against Gindilis´s idea of a central storage place of the data. Volga stated that the sources of primary information included the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of the Interior Affairs, and TASS.

According to Dr. Fomenko, Migulin was chosen to lead the program while he was absent…no one else wanted to touch the dangerous subject.

In 1978, it was K. Ivanov, the deputy chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Navy (and chief of the Naval Intelligence) who was ordered to research the UFO phenomenon.

THERE ARE NO UFOS…

One of the first acts of the SETKA-AN (according to Yuri Striganov, well-known Russian researcher) resulted in official sanction of “anomalous atmospheric phenomena” as a descriptive term instead of the forbidden “UFO.” The censorship chains on the UFO subject were removed in 1989.

The well-planned tasks of the SETKA programs had a terrifyingly effective impact. According to Stroganov, the “Academic Commission” did its best to prove there are no UFOs, only errors in observation of rocket launches, or at the very least, ball lightning.

SETKA-AN served as a powerful cover, creating a distraction away from the workings of the Ministry of Defense, whose SETKA-MO is said to have been, or is, more serious in its investigations than the academic group. Despite the SETKA’s nonchalance there had been occasions when “anomalous phenomena” had led to the unauthorized launches of mobile missiles, and on other occasions, the appearance of UFOs during military training exercises had resulted in the breakdown of radio communications and equipment malfunctions.

There had also been reports from military personnel including senior officers, about the strange conduct of UFOs over Soviet missile bases and cosmodromes.

Scientific arguments regarding the nature of UFOs had been the least of the military researchers’ concerns; they did, however, pay close attention to the hypothesis that UFOs are manifestations of an ET civilization. Most of all, they have been concerned with UFOs’ impact on military technology and on personnel; such impact could be quite unpredictable.

INSTRUCTIONS AND APPEALS

The Guidelines for the Soviet Navy had been dated March 7, 1980, and signed by Deputy Commander of the Main HQ of the Navy, Vice Admiral Saakyan. A well-known Russian ufologist, Valdimir Ajaja, who at the time had problems with the Communist ideologues and officials because of his UFO research, was given protection and work by his friends in the Navy; he helped with the writing of the Instruction.

Instructions regarding the procedures to collect information about anomalous phenomena data collection in the atmosphere and space were sent to various Soviet departments and organizations. The order came from the Department of General Physics and Astronomy of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Nedelya newspaper published an appeal by V. Migulin and Y. Platov to those who have sighted unusual phenomena to first determine on site whether the observed object was not an astronomical or another familiar object. If it was not conventional in nature, then to describe the object thoroughly, and send the report to the Department of General Physics and Astronomy of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

As Y. Platov and B. Sokolov state in their History of State-directed UFO Research in the USSR, a decision was made to keep the programs secret. The justification was a necessity to ensure “abatement of public response”. There were three reasons for that, according to both apologists for this Inquisition-like approach to UFO phenomena research:

Programs formally belonged to activities pertaining defense-related subjects; initial assumption that there is a high probability of military-technical origin of the observed strange phenomena; and possibilities that in case of successful completion of the raised tasks some of the UFO characteristics could be used for military purposes.

CONTROVERSY

We do not believe that Platov and Sokolov´s publication is truthful. For example, look at their insistence that there were virtually no reports of anomalous phenomena from military objects at or next to secret testing areas and ranges. This is simply not true, for Soviet UFO researchers reported a number of such sightings. Y. Platov and B. Sokolov (the latter had somewhat different opinions when he discussed his work with George Knapp, a noted American journalist in 1993) were official participants and leaders of the programs. Also, both authors admit that because scarce funding was available for their programs, and necessary equipment to research such phenomena as large-sized plasma structures in the atmosphere was not available, their methods could not be foolproof.

Basically, information was collected, and analyzed, and some physical models of observed phenomena were developed. But even this assertion seems to be untrue. Their publication was criticized by Russian and Ukrainian ufologists, and applauded by seasoned debunkers. There is obviously an agenda to denigrate independent UFO research, and not some “secret KGB files”, as the authors state in the publication. It would be very decent on their part to inform Russian and other former Soviet ufologists as to where their archives are located (if there are any left), so that perhaps a joint commission could be formed, and reports researched again. We are not asking that a foreign representation be included, for there may be defense secrets in the archives of reports that spanned over 13 years. But we do not think that Platov and Sokolov should be allowed to dismiss Soviet and CIS UFO phenomenon with their publication. Actually, such prominent participants in the programs as Colonel A. A. Plaksin (liaison between the military and the academic programs) have recently confirmed the UFO incident in 1982 (when a nuclear war was almost triggered because the launch codes for the Soviet ICBMs had been bafflingly enabled just as the gigantic UFO appeared over the secret ICBM base in Ukraine). Although Boris Sokolov for years reported the same, he has later changed his story. We believe it is A. A. Plaksin who should be the authority in the cases investigated by the military SETKA program; or the head of the program, General Balashov. By the way, Colonel Plaksin nowadays is the leading paranormal phenomena expert of the Russian Defense Ministry.

REVELATIONS OF COLONEL PLAKSIN

And he is quite outspoken about the SETKA program (September 8 and 15, 2000, REN-TV program titled Voyennaya Tayna or Military Secret). A most curious article was published in Komsomol’skaya Prvada newspaper on 31st May 2002. The author was Andrey Pavlov, and its title is UFOs helped Americans create super weapons. Aleksandr Plaksin, who was interviewed, is called a military geophysicist. In the article Plaksin “reveals” several interesting developments.

1. Many recent achievements of the American military-industrial complex have been generated in the labs dedicated to the research of paranormal phenomena.

2. “Aliens” have nothing to do with American advanced technology (i.e., Stealth).

3. In his 15 years of UFO research A. Plaksin had never obtained direct proof that there are alien civilizations active on our planet.

4. Americans have researched UFOs since 1954 (U.S. Air Force), and since 1974 they have operated a secret scientific research center to study anomalous phenomena and UFOs through the use of a special Earth-based station. Hence, they (the Americans) were able to create a super weapon.
(A. Plaksin goes into terrifying details, but basically his aim is to denigrate American HAARP, future U.S. policies, etc.)

5. A. Plaksin describes the creation of the Soviet program(s) to study the anomalous phenomena from 1978 on.

6. A. Plaksin goes into fascinating details; the information after all, came from Soviet military branches, the Navy, the border guards, anti-aircraft units, etc. Some of the information revealed in the interview in Komsomol’skaya Pravda contains fascinating details of a sighting from the Borisoglebsk airfield (the immobile black cloud). This case is described below.

This is of great interest; there have been other very strange “clouds” over the former USSR and Russia; such cases are mentioned throughout Mysterious Sky: Soviet UFO Phenomenon (2006).

7. A. Plaksin mentions the infamous and very dangerous 1982 case (and gives the correct date; it was the 4th of October, not the 5th; and nothing other than a UFO almost triggered a nuclear war).

8. A. Plaksin states that there were no UFO crashes in Kazakhstan in 1978; no secret storage for UFO fragments in Mitische (Moscow area), no super secret storage in Novaya Zemlya.

A. Plaksin also mentions that the laboratory he worked with after 1978 was created at the military scientific research institute TSNII-22. He started there as a junior scientist in 1979, and gradually became its supervisor, until 1991, when the program was disbanded due to the lack of funds. It would be great to compare his information to that provided by such respectable former Soviet military officers as Gherman Kolchin, Lev Ovsischer, and others. Gershtein, Subbotin, Chernobrov should also be heard, for their research skills are diverse and vast.

9. A. Plaksin is of the opinion that the unidentified objects (”20 percent”, according to him) are of physical origin that is still unknown to us. Our laws of physics cannot explain such objects. The rest of the cases have to do with UFOs that are of the plasma formation, quite natural in origin. The methodology used by Soviet military scientists allowed them to juxtapose Sun´s condition and the timing of UFO appearances. They had determined that under certain conditions a stream of solar radiation penetrates the Earth protective magnetic field and assumes very diverse forms, causing influence on measuring devices and people. He mentions two fascinating episodes (1977 and 1981).

10. Although A. Plaksin states that most likely there are no aliens on Earth, he also mentions that because of military secrecy he cannot reveal everything he knows.

11. Among other projects carried out by the military UFO research lab A. Plaksin worked in was the creation of the USSR anomalous zones map. There have been dozens of such zones. The most important ones were in the Ust´-Koksin area of the Altai Mountainous Autonomous region; the Zarevshan area; the Borisoglebsk area; the Plesetsk area of the Arkhangelsk region; the Dzerdzhinsky area of the Nizhegorodsk region; the Shatursky area near Moscow.

12. The military institute authorized to study UFOs had cooperated with other institutes of the Russian Science Academy to create a number of super sensitive equipment for UFO research. The equipment allowed them to estimate the size of UFOs, density, and their speeds. According to A. Plaksin, the Soviet military scientists also learned to predict UFO waves.

13. They never worked with any contactees. They were only interested in the official reports from Soviet military units; the reports were to be measured by military technological equipment. Plaksin, obviously, is revealing more information, piecemeal. There is more to be learned from him, we hope, in the future.

Scientists in the Novosibirsk “Akademgorodok”, a powerful science center in Siberia, conducted the first data processing of UFO sightings by Soviet computers. The actual calculations were performed in the Institute of Mathematics of the Siberian Branch of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. They used EVM ES 1022 computers. This was done in the framework of the SETKA-AN. Mikhail Gershtein has a copy of this historic attempt to study UFO data; the report consists of 45 pages of graphs and formulas.

Plaksin never discussed the mysterious “Arkhangelsk Dust” in his interviews, but he knew about it, as does V. Fomenko. Soviet scientists from the SETKA, as well as Novosibirsk came to Arkhangelsk to study the phenomenon. Arkhangelsk Region is situated in the North-West of the European part of Russia. Its shores, three thousand kilometers long, are washed by cold waters of three Arctic seas: the White, Barents and Kara Sea. We could not get more details of the mysterious event. We do know from Mikhail Gershtein´s interview with V. Fomenko that Plaksin gave the elderly researcher some notes and information he had kept in his apartment

Overall, Russian ufologists are not certain what had actually been “caught” by the SETKA-MO. The Instructions signed by Saakyan mention two military units where the most serious UFO data collected was to be telegraphed to immediately: Unit 67947 (Mitischi city, Moscow region), and Unit 62728 (Leningrad). “Serious” data concerned the following: physical traces of anomalous phenomena, death of military personnel (as a result of contacts with the anomalous phenomena), and breakdown of technology.

We are not certain about the fate of the Krasny Kut unidentified phenomena secret archives of the Ministry of Defense that (according to retired Colonel Gherman Kolchin, a respected UFO researcher and author) were kept at the secret testing site in the Saratov region. According to Kolchin, Colonel Sokolov had burned those reports that were not sold (400 most intriguing cases) to the American ufologists who visited Moscow in 1993.

Also, according to Kolchin, back in 1997, one of the scientists involved with the program had confirmed that Migulin´s commission virtually stopped its activities. The same situation was in the Ministry of Defense.

And yet, Russia of 2007 is very different from Russia of 1997. President Putin and his government may have a radically different view of the UFO phenomenon and its effects on the Armed Forces. Perhaps, some day we will find out whether other programs are active now. Nikolay Subbotin, an active Russian UFO researcher from the RUFORS organization, mentioned that in the summer of 2002 he discussed the subject with a captain from the strategic rocket forces. Captain Murtazin mentioned that in 2001 he had seen a special registration log for anomalous atmospheric phenomena (the same one that the SETKA had introduced in the late 1970s). That log contained recent entries, and the watch officer very efficiently sent the reports to a special military center that only he had information about….That means that the research program was either revived…or was never really terminated.

americanchronicle.com/articles/84809

A little more than one in three Americans (34%) are convinced that ghosts exist and that unidentified flying objects sometimes cross the sky, according to an IPSOS survey for Associated Press.

According to this investigation, 23% of Americans say they have seen a ghost or felt its presence. 48% of the Americans are convinced of the existence of extrasensory perceptions, telepathy or clairvoyance. 34% believe in the existence of UFOs (14% say they’ve seen them) and 19% are afraid of witchcraft.

One in five Americans are superstitious, a believe most often held in poor, young urban people; for them, finding a four-leaf clover is the surest sign of good luck.

To avoid bad luck, they avoid passing under the ladders, men refuse to see their future brides in their dresses before the ceremony and some fear black cats, broken mirrors or opening umbrellas inside.

trendhunter.com/trends/do-you-believe-in-ghosts-paranormal-things

THE truth isn’t just out there - it’s apparently right near the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Shocked Daily Telegraph reader Steve Jolliffe spotted what appears to be a flying saucer hovering directly above Millers Point while checking out Google Maps. See it below or click here to go to Google.

“I live in the street on the corner and it has a beautiful view of the harbour. I was just trying to get a look on Google when I saw it,” Mr Jolliffe said.

“It just caught my eye - I couldn’t get back to bed. I thought it was a UFO straight away.”

The bizarre discovery comes at the tail end of a bumper year for close enounters of the third kind with strange craft seen all over NSW, Australia and Britain.

And Apollo 14 astronaut Dr Edgar Mitchell - who knows his stuff as co-holder of the record for longest-ever moon walk - caused a storm when he insisted extra-terrestrials had paid repeated visits to our planet but the encounters were kept secret by government agencies.

Then a Turkish security guard took a series of photographs which experts insist are the “most important images of a UFO ever caught on camera”, showing a saucer-like craft flying in the night sky which under scrutiny even apparently reveal alien beings inside.

Careful study of the Google picture isn’t quite as enlightening. Photograph experts warned it could be a distortion - but Google didn’t deny it was an alien craft.

A spokesman joked: “The interplanetary internet project is clearly gaining momentum quicker than we thought!”

He added: “Of course, as with human-owned vehicles in Google street view, the licence plates on this UFO are not identifiable.”

news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24785075-5001021,00.html

A UFO expert hopes to convince sceptics the truth really is out there.

Paranormal enthusiast Richard D Hall will stage a show featuring footage of flying saucers and video interviews with witnesses said to have had close encounters with visitors from other planets.

He said he is holding the presentation, his first in Hartlepool, to spread the word about UFOs he believes are being covered up by the American and UK governments.

The truth is out there: More UFO stories

Richard, 41, who writes a weekly UFO column in the Mail, said: “The aim of the show is about trying to convince people by presenting the most compelling evidence there is. I don’t believe the mainstream national media report these subjects fully, especially information from witnesses and I am trying to redress the balance.

“I believe the presentation will convince all but the most ardent of sceptics.”

Richard added the presentation will explain how UFOs fly and include a video claiming to show an alien said to have been smuggled out of a secret US base in the mid 1990s.

He will also hold a question and answer session with the audience.

Last year the qualified electrical engineer and IT consultant, from Sunnyside, near Gateshead, launched the website richplanet.net to increase public awareness.

He has also appeared on a number of radio shows all over the UK and recorded a six-part TV series screened on Sky channel Edge Media TV.

“The more digging you do the more believable the whole thing becomes,” he added.

Aliens and UFOs takes place at Hartlepool Town Hall Theatre, Raby Road, on Wednesday, December 17, at 7.30pm.
hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/UFO-close-encounter.4774648.jp

A SHOTTON man is baffled after witnessing SIX UFOs in one night.

Town councillor William Barton saw the strange spectacle in the town’s skies last Friday evening at about 7.44pm.

He rushed to grab his binoculars and called on neighbours to show them the phenomenon.

Coun Barton, of Mill View, said: “They seemed to come from the Ewloe area and float towards Shotton. There were about six of them and they appeared and then vanished for a while.

“They were bowl-shaped, orange blobs, with a glow of light around them.”

Coun Barton says the objects appeared to be flying higher than 1,500ft, which means they would have been breaking air traffic regulations.

The councillor is keeping an open mind on the origins of the UFOs.

He said: “If this has been a prank, it is very irresponsible, it could have caused a terrible aircraft accident.

“I thought these objects may have been created by a glider towing fireworks, but there was no smoke.

“It is very alarming to think what they could be.”

A spokesman for Air Traffic Control at Liverpool John Lennon Airport said: “Nothing out of the ordinary was seen at this time.”

dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2008/12/05/

councillor-i-watched-six-ufos-over-north-wales-55578-22409099

Throughout London’s dark history and ghost lore, the case of the Enfield poltergeist remains one of the most bizarre and astonishing. Between 1977 and 1979 this haunting was investigated by one Maurice Grosse who, two years previous had lost his daughter in a crash. He felt that the Enfield mystery was meant for him, but little did he realise just how potent and everlasting the story would remain.

The three-bedroom semi-detached house was was run by single parent Peggy Hodgson, and inhabited by her four children. Eleven-year old Janet was the first to recognise strange utterings in the form of odd knocking noises but such disturbances were considerably minor in comparison to what was about to occur.

Larger objects in the house began to be pushed around, doors slammed, windows opened, loud banging noises reverberated around the home, alarming the children more and more as they intensified. Then, the unknown shifter of objects dealt a violent blow to one of the young children, a small boy, and WPC Caroline Heaps visited the house, and was shocked to see a chair floating in the middle of a room. Then, things became extremely serious as children, particularly young Janet, were attacked in their beds, strangulation was attempted, bed sheets were strewn and Peggy’s nine-year old son Billy had a lucky escape when an iron grate crashed onto his bed as he slept, thrown by an invisible assailant.

Despite the serious nature of incidents, many locals believed the ‘ghost’ to be nothing more than a hoax perpetrated by the family, but the Society of Psychical Research, and leading member Maurice Grosse, suggested something unknown to blame. When Janet, and her sister Margaret began speaking in demonic tongue, the case took a disturbing turn. Pools of water began appearing throughout the house, and in the end more than fifteen separate cases were witnessed by many people.

Why Janet was singled out we’ll never know, but investigators believed that it was the spirit of an old man who died in the house which may have caused the torment. His name, a Bill Hobbs from Durant’s Park graveyard. Unfortunately for Peggy Hodgson, she had to put up with the awful phenomenon until one day it ceased, never to return, making the Enfield poltergeist one of London’s most fascinating yet eerie events.

londonist.com/2008/12/the_saturday_strangeness_25.php