The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters

by Story, Ronald

  Ghost rocket-type UFOs are still being reported around the world, and they remain one of the most spectacular and mystifying of unidentified aerial phenomena. In summation, it should be stated that while the American wave of 1947 heralded the “flying saucer” craze, the European “ghost rocket” flap of 1946 truly marked the beginning of the modern era of large-scale UFO activity.

  —LOREN E. GROSS

  Gill sighting William B. Gill, an Anglican priest with a mission in Boainai, Papua, New Guinea, observed craft-like UFOs—one with humanoid figures on top—on two consecutive evenings, June 26-27, 1959. About twenty-five natives, including teachers and medical technicians, also witnessed the phenomena. They “signaled” the humanoids and received an apparent response. This was one of sixty UFO sightings within a few weeks in the New Guinea area.

  An approximate chronology of the complex series of sightings follows (based on Father Gill’s log of events and a summary report by his colleague, the Reverend Norman Cruttwell):

  June 26th

  6:45 P.M. Large sparkling light seen by Father Gill in western sky. Called natives who also saw it.

  6:55-7:04 P.M. Up to four illuminated humanoid figures seen on top of object, off and on.

  7:10-7:20 P.M. Sky now overcast at about 2,000 feet. Humanoid figures seen again, and a “thin electric blue spotlight” upward from the UFO, hovering below the overcast. UFO disappears in clouds.

  8:28-8:35 P.M. Skies clear again; UFO visible, appearing to descend and increase in size. Second object seen over sea, “hovering at times,” and another over village.

  8:50-9:30 P.M. Clouds forming again. Large UFO stationary, others (about three) like disks coming and going through clouds, casting a light halo on the clouds. Large UFO moves away rapidly across sea toward Giwa.

  9.46-10:30 P.M. UFO reappears overhead, hovering.

  10:50 P.M. Heavy overcast; no sign of UFO.

  11:04 P.M. Heavy rain.

  June 27th

  6-7 P.M. Large UFO seen again, first sighted by medical technician at hospital, before dark. Closest sighting yet; seen clearly, bright and sparkling. Humanoid figures seen on top. Father Gill and about twelve others in group waved at humanoids, and one of figures appeared to wave back. One member of the group waved both arms, and figures apparently responded by waving both arms. Two smaller objects remained visible, stationary at a higher altitude.

  7:45 P.M. Sky overcast; no UFOs visible.

  On the first night, Father Gill stepped out the front door of the mission house after dinner, about 6:45 P.M., and glanced at the western sky looking for Venus, which was conspicuous at the time. “I saw Venus,” he said, “but I also saw this sparkling object, which to me was peculiar because it sparkled and because it was very, very bright, and it was above Venus and so that caused me to watch it for a while; then I saw it descend towards us.”

  Father Gill estimated the object’s angular diameter as about five inches at arm’s length. Stephen Gill Moi, a teacher, who joined Father Gill a few minutes later, said that if he put his hand out closed, it would cover about half of the object.

  In a signed statement, the witnesses agreed that the object was circular, had a wide base and a narrower upper “deck,” had something like legs beneath it, at times produced a shaft of blue light which shone upward into the sky at an angle of about 45 degrees, and that four humanoid figures appeared on top. Some of the witnesses described seeing about four portholes or windows on the side. Father Gill saw what appeared to be bright panels on the side of the craft, but did not interpret them as portholes.

  “As we watched it,” Father Gill said, “men came out from this object and appeared on top of it, on what seemed to be a deck on top of the huge disk. There were four men in all, occasionally two, then one, then three, then four; we noted the various times the men appeared….

  “Another peculiar thing was this shaft of blue light, which emanated from what appeared to be the center of the deck. The men appeared to be illuminated not only by this light reflected on them, but also by a sort of glow which completely surrounded them as well as the craft. The glow did not touch them, but there appeared to be a little space between their outline and the light….”

  Father Gill described the movements of the objects, especially the smaller disks, as very erratic. They sometimes moved rapidly, sometimes slowly, approaching and receding, changing direction, and at times swinging back and forth like a pendulum. One object moved away and appeared to descend toward Wadobuna village, and everyone thought it was going to land. The Papuans ran down on the beach, but the object swooped up and away over the mountains, turning red as it disappeared.

  When the large object disappeared at 9.30 P.M., Father Gill said it made a slight wavering motion, then suddenly shot away at tremendous speed across the bay in the direction of Giwa, diminishing to a pinpoint and vanishing. No sound was heard throughout.

  The next evening, about 6 P.M., the same or a similar object reappeared while the sky was still bright, first seen by Annie Laurie Borewa, a Papuan medical assistant at the hospital. She called Father Gill, who in turn called Ananias and several others to watch. “We watched figures appear on top,” Father Gill said. “Four of them. There is no doubt that they were human. This is possibly the same object that I took to be the ‘mother ship’ last night. Two smaller UFOs were seen at the same time, stationary, one above the hills, and another overhead.”

  Two of the figures seemed to be doing something, occasionally bending over and raising their arm as if “adjusting or setting up something. One figure seemed to be standing, looking down on us (a group of about a dozen).” This figure, he explained later, was standing with his hands on the “rail” looking over, “just as one will look over the rails of a ship.”

  Eyewitness sketch by Reverend William B. Gill

  “I stretched my arm above my head and waved. To our surprise the figure did the same. Ananias waved both arms over his head, then the two outside figures did the same. Then both of us began waving our arms and all four seemed to wave back. There seemed to be no doubt that our movements were answered. All the Mission boys made audible gasps.”

  As darkness began to settle in, Father Gill sent one of the natives for a flashlight and directed a series of signals (“long dashes”) toward the UFO. After a minute or two, the UFO wavered back and forth like a pendulum, in apparent acknowledgment. They waved and flashed signals again, and the UFO appeared to descend toward them, but stopped and came no closer. After two or three more minutes, the figures disappeared. Then, at 6:25 P.M., two figures resumed their activity, and the blue spotlight came on for a few seconds twice in succession. By 7:45 P.M. the sky was totally overcast and no UFOs were visible. This ended the sightings.

  In his evaluation of the incidents, Dr. Donald H. Menzel, a Harvard University astronomer who wrote three UFO-debunking books, refers to the natives as “uneducated” and to Father Gill as being their “great leader,” to them “a holy man” (implying that they were influenced in their testimony). He attributed the sightings to the planet Venus viewed myopically by Father Gill. Venus, he noted, was very conspicuous in the west, setting about three hours after the sun.

  Menzel then openly assumed that Father Gill was myopic and without glasses at the time, that he “probably” had appreciable astigmatism as well (causing him to see a distorted image of Venus), plus blood cells on the retina producing illusory motion. He concluded: “Since a very simple hypothesis accounts, without any strain, for the reported observations, I shall henceforth consider the Father Gill case as solved. Moreover, I feel the same phenomena are responsible for some of the more spectacular, unsolved cases in the Air Force files.”

  Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the former Air Force UFO consultant, notes in rebuttal that Father Gill was wearing properly corrected glasses at the time and that “Venus was pointed out separately by Gill.”

  Although any prolonged series of UFO sightings with excited witnesses may be “contaminated” by coincidental
sightings of aircraft, meteors, or stars and planets glimpsed through moving clouds, the report of a large structured object (with moving humanoid figures) below a low overcast is not easily explainable.

  —RICHARD HALL

  References

  Hynek, J. Allen. The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry (Henry Regnery, 1972).

  Hall, Richard. “Gill sighting” in Story, Ronald D., ed. The Encyclopedia of UFOs (Doubleday/New English Library, 1980).

  Story, Ronald D. UFOs and the Limits of Science (William Morrow/New English Library, 1981).

  God Drives a Flying Saucer (Bantam, 1969). Connecticut schoolteacher R.L. Dione writes that UFOs are God’s messengers, responsible for the prophecies, scriptures, and miracles of the Christian religion. Even Jesus Christ accomplished his miracles by channeling energy beamed to him by extraterrestrial spacecraft, according to this view, and persons who were incarcerated throughout history, perhaps including even Adolf Hitler, were subjected to programing signals beamed at them by UFOs to produce “divinely inspired writing.”

  —RANDALL FITZGERALD

  Gods of Eden, The (Avon Books, 1989). William Bramley proposes the ultimate conspiracy theory of history—that we humans are a species of slaves owned by extraterrestrial visitors who used our ancestors to mine the planet for minerals. To keep humans divided, confused and in turmoil, these visitors or keepers, called the “Custodians,” inspired the creation of competing religions. A secret society called “The Brotherhood” has been used by the Custodians, through its various branches such as the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians, to foment terror, revolution, and warfare among humans.

  —RANDALL FITZGERALD

  Gods or Spacemen? (Amherst Press, 1964; reprinted in the U.K. by Sphere Books, in 1977, as Messengers from the Stars). In this, the first of his five books on the ancient astronaut theme, W. Raymond Drake scans the myths of numerous ancient and modern cultures and civilizations to find similarities in the way they portray visits from sky-dwelling beings who revealed cosmic mysteries to leaders chosen from among the humans.

  From witch doctors in Africa to the shamans of Siberia and the Celtic Druids, Drake finds “fragments of a very high theology” that once existed worldwide and inspired construction of the megaliths, the Nazca lines in Peru, and the Egyptian and Mayan pyramids.

  —RANDALL FITZGERALD

  Good, Timothy (b. 1942). Timothy Good first became interested in UFOs in 1955, when his passion for aviation and space travel led him to read a book by Major Donald Keyhoe which described sightings by military and civilian pilots. Now regarded as a top authority, he has researched the subject worldwide, interviewing key witnesses and amassing a wealth of evidence, including several thousands of intelligence documents. He has conducted extensive investigations in the United States for many years.

  Born in London, Timothy Good completed his formal education at the King’s School, Canterbury, then gained a violin scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he won prizes for solo, chamber and orchestral playing. His professional career began in earnest in 1963 when he toured the U.S. and Canada with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1964 to 1978 he played with the London Symphony Orchestra. He has also played with many other orchestras, and has worked for many great conductors and composers, including Leonard Bemstein, Benjamin Brit ten, Otto Klemperer, Leopold Stokowski, Igor Stravinsky and Sir William Walton.

  Since 1978 Timothy Good has been involved in freelance session work for television dramas, commercials, feature films, and recordings with pop musicians. Those he has recorded for include Phil Collins, George Harrison, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand, and U2. Recent films include The Fifth Element, The Man in the Iron Mask, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Wings of the Dove.

  Timothy Good

  Timothy Good is known to millions worldwide through his numerous television appearances, and has acted as associate producer for several documentaries on the UFO subject. He has given lectures worldwide at universities, schools, and to many organizations, including the House of Lords All-Party UFO Study Group, IBM, the Institute of Medical Laboratory Sciences, the Royal Canadian Military Institute, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Naval Air Reserve Branch, and the Oxford and Cambridge Union Societies. He liaises with a number of retired intelligence officers, and in 1998 was invited to discuss the subject at the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office in the Pentagon.

  Timothy Good’s bestselling books include: Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO CoverUp (1987); retitled Beyond Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Security Threat (1996) in its revised edition; Alien Contact: TopSecret UFO Files Revealed (1993); Alien Update (1995), and Unearthly Disclosure (2001).

  Address:

  247 High Street

  Beckenham

  Kent, BR3 1AB

  U.K.

  POSITION STATEMENT: It is my conviction that we are being visited by several different groups of extraterrestrials, and that while some may not be well disposed toward us, the majority are essentially benevolent. All share a common “foreign” policy of avoiding open contact with earth, which to me seems entirely logical. From my own investigations throughout the world, however, I am convinced that selective contacts have been made with hundreds of individuals. The visitors have no need to establish open contact, nor do they want the majority of us to know what they are doing here.

  —TIMOTHY GOOD

  (Position statement was adapted from Timothy Good’s first book, Above Top Secret: The Wordwide UFO Coverup, 1987.)

  Grays The image of the alien in UFO culture has generally been dominated by a fetus-like entity with a large, bald head (more pear-shaped than round). Usually the being is small compared to humans. Often the limbs are described as thinner or more slender, but the more closely universal rule is that such aliens are never fat or obese. Current convention labels approximations to this stereotypical UFOnaut with the term “Grays.” Ostensibly this is because of grayish skin tones usually being associated with this body type. In practice, absence of this defining trait does not inhibit use of the label so long as a big bald head appears somewhere in the description.

  The project of assembling a history of this alien stereotype with a view to understanding its origins and rise to dominance is a daunting one, because there are special hazards. There are no maps to guide us. Therefore, this encyclopedia entry should be regarded as a pioneering effort, not as the final word.

  We will start this history by offering the proposition that the idea underlying the Grays was constructed in the 19th century.

  Collection of typical “Grays” drawn by forensic artist William Louis McDonald

  Images that fit loosely the definition of Grays can be found here and there in art and myths long predating the modern era. Finding them is an easy and pleasant diversion. Take the Greco-Egyptian painting of mortuary house 21 at Tuna-Gebel. It has an entity with a large smooth head and very slender build that includes a pencil-neck. Few would quarrel that the look matches that of the Grays. The fact that the being is the shadow of the deceased represented symbolically as a black emaciated corpse makes it questionable that the look carries the modern idea. (Baines and Melek, 1990)

  Dr. Gregory Little has found a description of the watchman at the gates of Sheol in the Hebrew Book of Enoch as gray in color, short like a child, and taking on a somewhat human appearance that he says left him stunned. (Little, 1994) I’ve described elsewhere items from ancient Denmark and the Congo whose facial features mimic the exotic facets of Whitley Strieber’s “visitor.” (Kottmeyer, 1995)

  Such images are quite scattered and could be random outcomes of the immense creativity of artists exploring hundreds of permutations. There is no evidence of deeper linkages between them and current UFO beliefs, and no hint of historical connections. As a parallel example, ponder how some short bald fairies ended up in Star Trek, Next Generation Starfleet uniforms, even though the painting was done 1880 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s father. (Philpotts, 19
78) One may not be able to rule out some swirly spacetime anomaly causing such things, but coincidence has to be the favored judgement.

  The trait of big-headedness can be found associated with aliens inhabiting the sun in Pierre Boitard’s Mussee des familles (1838), but the beings possess hair and otherwise seem completely human. This seems a simple way of representing higher intelligence in such beings. I consider it slightly outside the definition of a Gray. (Pinvidic, 1993)

  The idea underlying the Grays did not and could not exist before the idea of evolution. Christian theology held that God created life in the first week of creation. Each species was designed optimally for its niche in the hierarchy of nature, and, presumably, given all the fuss over the Ark, would never be recreated. Transformation of form or future improvement on present design held no place in such a worldview. Evolution was heretical and rarely considered at length prior to the 19th century. It is to one of the proponents of an early version of evolution, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, that we will turn to for an important element of out history.

  Lamarck was an early opponent of the ideas of special creation and catastrophism. Nature did everything little by little and successively. Where earlier thinkers spoke of a great chain of being with each species created specifically for its place, Lamarck felt that varying environmental pressures created new needs and increased the use of certain organs to make them more perfect while adding to the organism’s complexity. Conversely, “…the permanent disuse of an organ, arising from a change of habits, causes a gradual shrinkage and ultimately the disappearance and even extinction of that organ.” (Lamarck, 1809;1963)