The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters

by Story, Ronald

  I then decided to have a look in the attached garage, to see how the door could have been opened. While I was in there, looking behind old mattresses and boxes, I suddenly began to feel as if my skin was on fire. I thought to myself, “I’ve got to get out of here right now!” As I reached the open pedestrian door, I was stopped in my tracks by a “bolt from the blue.” The only way I can describe what I felt is to say I felt as if I had been hit in the chest by lightning. I immediately thought to myself, “I’m dead! This is what it feels like to be dead!” Every muscle in my body vibrated and I felt as if I were on fire with this bright light tearing through my chest. I couldn’t see a thing because the light was so bright, and even when my eyes were closed, the light was still so bright that it hurt my eyes.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the brightness of the light faded, the vibrating stopped and I felt a heavy numbness sweep over me. I then realized that I was paralyzed. My eyes were still having trouble focusing; all I could see were a few vague shadows moving in front of me. I then felt a tug at my right shoulder and felt a piercing pain in my right ear.

  My next memory is of being about ten feet outside the doorway from where all this had started. To my left, I could see the silhouette of an eggshaped craft, approximately twelve feet tall and ten feet wide at its greatest width. I could see six small, bullet-shaped figures moving diagonally in front of me toward this craft. I could see a soft white ball of light about ten feet in front of me. It was about five feet off the ground, and it moved slowly down and then back up again to where it had started. I recalled someone telling me that it was unfortunate that I had to have felt pain, but that it was now over.

  The next memory I had was of walking up the sidewalk to the kitchen door, speaking to my mother, and then going back to my neighbor’s house to bring her back to my house to swim. (I had decided to swim instead of sew.) I had no memory of what had happened to me in the yard that night until a couple of days later, when I first saw the mark the craft had left in our yard.

  That mark was to remain there for nearly five years and after I saw it for the first time, a dozen memories came flooding back to me of events that had happened over much of my life.

  POSITION STATEMENT: UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) exist. There are many different explanations for them, some very rational and prosaic, others not so clear. I don’t think there is any question as to their existence. Of the ones not so easily explained away, we should be asking, “What are they, where are they from, and why are they here?”

  I have had so many different types of experiences with so many different aspects of this field that I am somewhat mixed as to what I think they are and where they come from. I have seen the hard evidence that debunkers claim does not exist. I have also experienced the psychological and physical effects, as well as the spiritual awakening of a close encounter. I am also smart enough to realize how powerful the human mind can be when faced with something that it cannot comprehend. All I have ever been able to do was report what I saw and let everyone else sort it all out.

  Deep in my heart, I cannot help but think that all paranormal phenomena is somehow connected and that our visitors may be a part of our past as well as our future. I don’t think the time traveler theory is out of the question. But that’s just my opinion. I have tried to stay away from theories to avoid contaminating the facts.

  Over the past sixteen years, I have found many people who could tell me what I didn’t see, or what didn’t happen, but no one has been able to tell me what did happen. There is still a great deal that I don’t remember about some of my experiences. I have resigned myself to the fact that I probably never will know the “rest of the story.”

  But one thing I am certain of—something extraordinary happened to me that night back in 1983. Something that would change me and my life forever. Now, if that isn’t something the whole world should know about, I don’t know what is.

  —DEBBIE JORDAN-KAUBLE

  References

  Hopkins, Budd. Intruders: The Incredible Visitations at Copley Woods (Random House, 1987).

  Jordan, Debbie, and Mitchell, Kathy. Abducted! The Story of the Intruders Continues… (Carroll & Graf, 1994).

  Jung, Carl Gustav (1875-1961). C. G. Jung, world-famous psychiatrist (and philosopher-psychologist), is perhaps best-known for some of the terms he coined, such as “complex,” “introvert,” and “extrovert”; but he made his mark in UFO research as well. His little book Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies (1958) has had a lasting influence on virtually every UFOlogist who has ever considered the psychological and sociological aspects of the UFO phenomenon.

  C.G.Jung

  Dr. Jung was born in Kesswil, Thurgau, Switzerland, on July 26, 1875, and died at Kusnacht, Zilrich, on June 6, 1961. He earned his medical degree from the University of Basle in 1900, and took a position shortly thereafter at the University of Ziffich Psychiatric Clinic. His collaboration with Sigmund Freud lasted from 1907 to 1914, at which time Jung established his own school of thought, called Analytical Psychology (later renamed Complex Psychology). The year 1921 saw the publication of Jung’s classic book, Psychological Types, wherein the terms “introvert” and “extrovert” were first introduced.

  According to Jungian theory, the human psyche is embroiled in a battle of opposites: extroversion versus introversion; the ego (center of consciousness) versus the integrated conscious and unconscious Self (or God-image); the persona (or social mask) versus the shadow (unconscious natural self); thinking and feeling (rational functions) versus sensation and intuition (irrational forces). The dominant component is that which determines the individual’s psychological type. The unifying elements are the archetypes or “primordial images,” according to which we all think. The archetypes are manifested symbolically in myths, dreams, and psychoses. Certain of these symbols are common to every human psyche as part of what Jung called the “collective unconscious.” He once said, “the archetypes of the unconscious can be shown empirically to be the equivalents of religious dogmas.”

  Some classic archetypes are the “wise old man,” the “great mother,” the “trickster,” the “child-god,” “Christ” (or the ideal Self—with a capital “S”), and the mandala (a Sanskrit word meaning “magic circle”), which Jung thought of as representing UFOs (as well as the God-image).

  The mandala is one of the oldest religious symbols found throughout the world. Frieda Fordham wrote in her biography of Jung (An Introduction to Jung’s Psychology, 1953): “Historically, the mandala served as a symbol representing the nature of the deity, both in order to clarify it philosophically, and for the purpose of adoration. Jung found the mandala symbolism occurring spontaneously in the dreams and visions of many of his patients. Its appearance was incomprehensible to them, but it was usually accompanied by a strong feeling of harmony or of peace.” Jung himself later wrote (in Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth):

  “In so far as the mandala encompasses, protects, and defends the psychic totality against outside influences and seeks to unite the inner opposites, it is at the same time a distinct individuation symbol and was known as such even to medieval alchemy. The soul was supposed to have the form of a sphere, on the analogy of Plato’s world-soul, and we meet the same symbol in modern dreams. By reason of its antiquity, this symbol leads us to the heavenly spheres, to Plato’s “supra-celestial place,” where the “Ideas” of all things are stored up. Hence there would be nothing against the naive interpretation of the UFOs as “souls.” Naturally they do not represent our modern conception of the soul, but rather an involuntary archetypal or mythological conception of an unconscious content, a rotundum, as the alchemists called it, that expresses the totality of the individual….

  “If the round shining objects that appear in the sky be regarded as visions, we can hardly avoid interpreting them as archetypal images. They would then be involuntary, automatic projections based on instinct, and as little as any other psychic manifestations or sympto
ms can they be dismissed as meaningless and merely fortuitous. Anyone with the requisite historical and psychological knowledge knows that circular symbols have played an important role in every age; in our own sphere of culture, for instance, they were not only soul symbols but “God-images.” There is an old saying that ‘God is a circle whose center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.’ God in his omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence is a totality symbol par excellence, something round, complete, and perfect. Epiphanies of this sort are, in the tradition, often associated with fire and light. On the antique level, therefore, the UFOs could easily be conceived as “gods.” If these things [UFOs] are real—and by all human standards it hardly seems possible to doubt this any longer—then we are left with only two hypotheses: that of their weightlessness on the one hand and of their psychic nature on the other.”

  What occurred to Jung was that thoughts and dreams are also “weightless,” and this he considered a clue to the psychic nature of UFOs, which might mean that they are purely mental and have no existence outside the mind of the observer. He regarded the UFO phenomenon as a visionary rumor and as a psychological projection of man’s hopes and fears in an uncertain world. Although not denying the possible physical reality of the phenomenon, Jung saw UFOs as the new mythology—the Gods of the age of science.

  —RONALD D. STORY

  References

  Fordham, Frieda. An Introduction to Jung’s Psychology (Penguin Books, 1953).

  Jung, C. G. Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies (Routledge & Kegan Paul/Harcourt, Brace & Co. 1959; Signet/NAL, 1969; Princeton University Press, 1978). (Original German language edition published in 1958.)

  _______. Mandala Symbolism (Princeton University Press, 1959, 1969).

  K

  Kecksberg (Pennsylvania) incident The Kecksberg event occurred on December 9, 1965, about 40 miles from Pittsburgh in a rural area of western Pennsylvania. At the time many people saw a brilliant object moving across the sky. The news media focused on a young boy, who while playing outside, said he saw an object fall from the sky into some nearby woods. The media pursued his story since there were numerous accounts from others, that an aerial object was seen over a large area including many reports from the greater Pittsburgh area.

  Besides the police authorities, various newspapers, and radio and TV stations around Pittsburgh, had their phone lines jammed with calls about the object in the sky. Coincidentally, author Frank Edwards, who had written some popular books on UFOs, was a guest on a KDKA radio talk show in Pittsburgh that evening, hosted by the late Mike Levine.

  During my years of investigation into the matter, other witnesses who saw the object go down into the woods that day have been located. It has been stated that moments after the object fell, blue smoke rose up among the trees, but dissipated quickly. Many people say that the military. including members of the Army and Air Force, began to arrive in the area around the village of Kecksburg within a few hours after the reported landing. During the evening, reporters from numerous media sources went to Kecksburg to investigate the event.

  The area around the alleged impact site was cordoned off, and a search for the object was conducted in the woods. Neither civilians nor reporters were able to get near the spot where the object had reportedly fallen. Hundreds of spectators looked on from a narrow county road which circled around the area, unaware that the object appears to have fallen on the opposite side of the woods.

  As time passed that evening, many people left disappointed that they couldn’t see the object. A few curious folks tried to sneak down into the woods, and later told me that they were turned back by the military. Late that night, others say they observed a military flatbed tractor-trailer truck, carrying a large tarpaulin covered object, leaving the area at a high rate of speed. Reporters are among the many witnesses who verify that they saw military personnel in the Kecksburg area that night. The front page of the Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Tribune-Review county edition dated December 10, 1965, ran the headlines “Unidentified Flying Object Falls Near Kecksburg” and “Army Ropes Off Area.” The city edition of the same paper however, on the same day ran the headline “Searchers Fail To Find Object.”

  Officially, no object was found in the woods by searchers. It was suggested that the most likely explanation was that the brilliant object in the sky was a meteor. But word that something was removed from the site by the military that night, quickly circulated around the county. The Kecksburg incident remained a topic for area radio talk shows for years as it does today. As the years passed, I would receive various accounts from sources who claimed knowledge of the event. Many of those involved with the incident even today, wish to remain anonymous. Others have gone public and stand by their accounts. Some have faced personal attacks and ridicule. Many important witnesses have passed away.

  What we now know is that there are individuals who say that they went down into the woods that December day in 1965, before the military arrived, and came across upon a large metallic acorn-shaped object partially buried in the ground. The device was large enough for a man to stand inside of it. The object was a bronze-gold color, and appeared to be one solid piece of metal, displaying no rivets or seams. At the back of the acorn shape was what witness Jim Romansky calls the bumper area.

  Artist’s conception of the object some claim to have seen (Drawing by C.M. Hanna)

  Upon this area were unusual markings that Romansky says looked similar to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Romansky who has been a machinist for many years, says the object itself, looked as though it had been made from liquid metal and poured into a big mold. Since the object was impacted in the ground, the bottom portion was not visible, but what could be seen appeared well intact. The late John Murphy, was the new director of WHJB radio in Greensburg at the time, and is believed to have been the first reporter on the scene. His former wife says that she was in radio contact with him from the site that day, and that he told her that he went down into the woods and saw the object. Various informants have approached me with information. Some of these were people who had military or government affiliation and wish not to be identified at this time. Some information is expected to be revealed in the future, when these sources feel that they are safe to disclose what they know.

  I have also received anonymous tips that pointed me in the right direction which helped to uncover other details. Before “Unsolved Mysteries” broadcast their story about Kecksburg in 1990, I was contacted by a former Air Force security policeman who told me that he was among the unit that guarded the object when it arrived from Pennsylvania in the early morning hours of December 10, 1965 at Lockbourne Air Force near Columbus, Ohio. He remembers extreme security measures at the time, and says that the object was only a the base for a short time, and then continued on to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.

  We later learned that the object was allegedly sealed up inside a building at that base. After years of searching for government documents relating to this event, the only official record located was in the Air Force Project Blue Book files. Included in the report it was stated “A further call was made to the Oakdale Radar site in Pennsylvania. A three-man team has been dispatched to Acme [Some residents not far from the site have an Acme mailing address] to investigate and pick up an object that started a fire.” While the report shows a lot of interest from various agencies concerning the aerial object, the report also indicates that the search found nothing. I have learned a lot about the Kecksburg case over the years, yet there remain many unanswered questions. I surely don’t have all of the answers.

  Based on the accounts of multitudes of eyewitnesses which I have interviewed, I am convinced that an object did fall from the sky and apparently was removed by the military. Other witnesses say they saw NASA personnel at the scene that night also involved in the search. Many have asked me what I believe that the object was, and my reply still is “I don’t know.” As I have stated in the past, the two most l
ikely possibilities are (1) a highly advanced manmade space probe with some reentry control capability (2) an extraterrestrial spacecraft. It has been confirmed that a faulty Soviet Venus probe identified as Kosmos 96, reentered in Canada on the same date, but at about 3:18 A.M. The sightings around Kecksburg occurred at about 4:47 P.M. many hours later. The Russian’s have told me that Kosmos 96 was not the source of what fell that day.

  Other researchers have provided me with interesting but unverifiable information, that they have talked with former NASA sources who claimed to have examined the object which fell in Pennsylvania, and determined it to be Soviet in origin. I have also talked with two former military men who are unknown to each other, that told me that during different years, and at different installations, they saw the recovery report on the Kecksburg object, and both said the report indicated that the object was extraterrestrial. From what the observers tell us, the object whatever it was, appeared to be slowing down a few miles before it impacted. During it’s flight, it appears to have made some turns, and those who saw the object drop from the sky, say it was moving quite slowly as it moved towards the woods. This might account for the good condition of the object itself, and the little damage at the impact site, except for trees which were reportedly knocked down.

  One question we must ask is what was it that fell which was so important that it caused the military to act the way they did at the scene?

  Various witnesses have now gone public confirming that armed soldiers were around the village, and were preventing anyone from trespassing near the crash site. Jerry Betters, a popular jazz musician from Pittsburgh, has gone public and told his story that soldiers aimed rifles at him and his friends, ordering them from a back road, as an Army flat bed tractor-trailer with an acorn-shaped object on board, was making it’s way up from a field.