George Van Tassel
The colorful “Sage of Giant Rock” was a popular media personality. He appeared as guest on over 400 radio and television shows during his life and gave nearly 300 lectures in the United States and Canada. Besides I Rode a F7ying Saucer, his books include: Into This World and Out Again, The Council of Seven Lights, Religion and Science Merged, and When Stars Look Down.
George Van Tassel was married and had three daughters. The hospitality of Giant Rock was legendary among UFO buffs who made the trek to the remote desert airport to meet the “Grand Old Man” of the contactee world. His extensive friendships, lectures, mailings, and above all the Giant Rock Space Convention made him a pivotal figure to that world—one whose presence did much to give it coherence and vitality. He was an American individualist of strong character in the classic mold of the weathered pioneer, the aviator of the “barnstorming” era, and the tinkering backyard inventor, to which was added the newer mystiques of space and other worlds. With him, a UFO epoch also passed.
—ROBERT S. ELLWOOD, JR.
Varginha (Brazil) encounters of 1996 On January 20, 1996, at 0100 hrs., a farmer outside the prosperous Brazilian city of Varginha was startled to observe a strange vehicle about the size of a small bus hovering some sixteen feet above the ground. The silent, darkened craft appeared to have sustained damage to its fuselage and spewed smoke as it moved away slowly toward Varginha.
At 0830 hrs., the Varginha Fire Department received an anonymous phone call regarding the presence of a “bizarre creature” in the Jardim Andere neighborhood. Suspecting a prank, the firemen nonetheless responded to the call and were surprised to find a group of adults and children already hot in pursuit of the “creature,” which was hiding in a gully within a small wooded area. The firemen managed to capture the creature by means of a net, and dragged it out. The civilian onlookers would later inform investigators that the being offered no resistance to its captors, and was placed in a wooden box which was driven away by a truck belonging to the Brazilian Army.
Apparently there was more than one nonhuman creature on the loose, and a mopup operation had been ordered by the military. Residents of Jardim Andere claimed to have seen platoons in combat gear scouring the area, punctuating their actions with occasional bursts of automatic fire. Two more beings, unceremoniously dumped into bags, were allegedly taken away by the military.
At 1530 hrs. that same day, the Da Silva sisters, Valquiria and Liliana (ages 14 and 16 respectively) and their friend Katia Xavier, 22, were returning home from work and decided to cut across a field along a street not far from where the Varginha firemen had captured the first creature. As the threesome crossed the field, they suddenly noticed a “man” with bulging blood-red eyes, greasy brown skin, and a bald head with noticeable veins and strange osseous protuberances. The strange mannikin was huddling in fear next to a brick wall, its hands between its legs. Astonishment soon gave way to fear, and the young women broke into a mad dash to reach the safety of their homes.
Exactly twenty-four hours after the presumably crippled UFO hovered over a farm on Varginha’s outskirts, the Brazilian military was in possession of at least three extraterrestrial biological entities (EBEs). At 0130 hrs., under cover of darkness, Army trucks moved their prized catch to Humanitas Hospital, apparently until the fate of the alien creatures had been determined. UFOlogists on the scene believe the creatures were subjected to a battery of medical tests, and that at least one of them died at the hospital.
On January 22, 1996, the alien bodies were transferred to the refrigerated lab section of the University of Campiñas, where a number of distinguished pathologists would have had access to them. By all accounts, there was a considerable military presence on the campus.
The military’s coverup unraveled when an Army officer was interviewed on Brazilian television, discussing his role in the operations involving the transfer of the putative aliens to the hospital, where the initial tests were conducted.
But the Varginha story continued long after the initial events: On the evening of April 21, 1996, Teresa Clepf had gone out to dinner at a restaurant located within the confines of the Varginha Zoo. Mrs. Clepf had stepped out onto the restaurant’s covered porch to smoke a cigarette when she noticed a figure moving in the darkness, lighting its way with blood-red eyes. She then returned into the restaurant to collect her thoughts before going out again: the creature was still there, staring back at her.
According to UFOlogist Claudeir Covo, a number of zoo animals died shortly after the creature was reported. Veterinarians at the Varginha Zoo diagnosed the strange deaths as “caustic intoxication,” and discouraged any speculation that the animals may have been infected by an alien disease borne by the creature.
—SCOTT CORRALES
Villas Boas abduction Many researchers and writers agree that if UFOlogy could be summed up by a single case, it would be the one involving the experiences of Brazilian farmer Antonio Villas Boas.
Villas Boas, twenty-three years old at the time of the ordeal, was a farmer by profession. He lived on a fazenda on the outskirts of São Francisco de Sales, Minas Gerais, where it was customary to work day and night shifts during the planting season, he himself being responsible for nocturnal planting.
On October 5, 1957, Villas Boas went to bed at 11:00 P.M. following a party at the farmhouse. He and his younger brother Joáo were witnesses to a strange nocturnal light which lit up the entire room.
Ten days later—on the night of October 15—Antonio Villas Boas would have his historic experience. While driving his tractor, he noticed a shining star that increased in brightness, as if descending to earth. The light turned into a very shiny oval object headed straight for him. He tried to escape by speeding up the tractor, but the object had already landed some 10 to 15 meters ahead: It resembled a large, elongated egg with three spurs in front.
Seized by terror, Antonio jumped off the tractor in hopes of eluding his pursuers, but the furrowed terrain made a speedy getaway impossible. He was then seized by a small figure wearing a “strange outfit” and a helmet. The farmer managed to knock it to the ground, but three more similarly-dressed figures overpowered him and bore him off to the waiting craft.
Villas Boas struggled and hurled insults at his helmeted captors even as the humanoids dragged him into the craft, where he was stripped naked and subjected to several indignities. His captors drew a blood sample from his chin using a chalice-like device, and after slathering him with a strange liquid over his entire body, he was taken to a room—unfurnished but for a couch—where he was left alone for some twenty minutes, by his account. At this point, a mixture of fear, nausea and coldness, coupled with the stench of a strange gas that was pumped into the room, led him to vomit in one of the corners.
“After a long time,” Villas Boas said, “a noise at the door startled me. I turned in that direction and was shocked to see that it was now open and a woman was entering the room, walking toward me. She was approaching slowly, perhaps amused at the astonishment that must have been visible on my face. My jaw had dropped and with good reason. This woman was completely naked, as was I, and barefoot. She was also pretty, although different from the women I’d known. Her hair was an almost whitish shade of blonde, as if peroxided, straight and not very abundant, neck-length and with the ends curled inward. Her eyes were blue and large, more narrow than round and slanted outward—like the pencil-painted eyes of those girls who fancy themselves Arabian princesses and make their eyes look slanted; that’s what they were like. Only it was a completely natural effect, since there was no paint at all involved.”
The strange liquid which had been spread over his body, apparently some sort of aphrodisiac, began to work as Antonio felt less tense as the small woman began to caress him, ultimately seducing him. “It sounds incredible,” he confessed to Fontes and Martins during the interview, “given the situation I was in. I believe that the liquid they rubbed on me was the cause of it. All I know is that I fel
t an uncontrollable sexual excitement, which had never happened to me before. I forgot about everything and held the woman, returning her caresses with my own. We ended up on the couch, where we had sexual relations for the first time. It was a normal act and she responded like any woman. Then came a period of more caressing followed by more sexual relations. In the end, she was tired and breathing quickly. I was still excited, but she now refused and tried to get away. When I noticed that, I cooled down too. That was what they wanted from me, a good stallion to improve their stock.”
The door opened once more and two of the “crewmen” appeared, summoning the woman away. Before leaving, she turned to the farmer and pointed at her belly, then pointing at him, and finally at the heavens. Curiously, Villas Boas took this to mean that “she would return to take me to where it was she came.”
Artist’s rendering of a scene inside the space ship, as described by Villas Boas (Drawing by Gloria Alderson)
After having served as breeding stock, Antonio was unceremoniously led off the vehicle, which took off immediately. Returning to his tractor, Villas Boas learned that the time was now five thirty in the morning. Estimating that it had been around 1:15 a.m. when he was abducted, his entire experience had lasted some four hours and fifteen minutes.
After his traumatic experience, Villas-Boas withdrew from public life to pursue his studies, earning a law degree and becoming a practicing attorney in the city of Formosa, Goias, while running a small business on the side. He died in late 1992 in the city of Uberaba, in Brazil’s Triángulo Minero.
In June 1993, the late Dr. Walter K. Buhler, president of Brazil’s SBDEDV organization, revealed that between 1962-63 his organization had received an anonymous letter from the U.S., inviting Villas Boas to visit this country in order to examine a recovered flying saucer in the possession of the American military. Villas Boas’s son advised Buhler that his father had indeed visited the United States to inspect the object, but had kept silent about the visit for the rest of his life.
—SCOTT CORRALES
Von Däniken, Erich (b. 1935). Born in Zofingen, Switzerland, Erich von Däniken was educated at the College of Saint-Michel, in Fribourg, where even as a student he occupied his time with the study of ancient holy writings. While managing director of a Swiss five-star hotel, he wrote his first book, Chariots of the Gods? (1968), which quickly became an international bestseller.
Von Däniken has since written twenty-five more books; his most recent being Odyssey of the Gods: The Alien History of Ancient Greece (2000). He is internationally known as the leading popular spokesman for the ancient astronaut theory. In fact, with sales approaching 58 million copies (translated into 28 different languages), he must be considered one of the most successful authors of all time.
In the United States, von Däniken won instant fame as a result of the television special In Search of Ancient Astronauts in 1970. In 1993, the German television station SAT-1 ran a twenty-five part TV series with von Däniken entitled Aug den Spuren der All-Mächtigen (“Pathways of the Gods”). Since then, von Däniken has done other film work with both American and German TV companies, which is ongoing.
Address:
Chalet Aelpli CH-3803 Beatenberg Switzerland
E-mail:
[email protected]
Web site:
www.Daniken.com
POSITION STATEMENT: Unfortunately, I have never had the chance to see a UFO with my own eyes. Among UFO believers you find a great number of hysteric, credulous, intimidated, hoping, and good honest people. Real scientists are rather scarce among them.
Erich von Däniken
Some reports on UFOs which I have followed-up personally have made me startled. Take this Pascagoula case. I have had a lengthy discussion at the time with Charlie Hickson. Today I am of the opinion that there does in fact exist something which we call “unidentified flying objects.” I am convinced that from time to time strange things are happening around us for which at the moment we have no reasonable explanation. But don’t ask me what UFOs are. I simply don’t know. Extraterrestrial visitors? Extraterrestrial technical probes? Objects of another dimension? Physical phenomena which will only be explained by the future? Again, I do not know. Considering that the UFO problem has taken grip of such a huge number of people, I feel that it should be investigated scientifically. Regardless of whether there are, in fact, UFOs or not. Perhaps the answer is to be found in psychology or somewhere in the human brain.
My critics have said that the ancient astronaut theory is dangerous, because its followers can no longer see the actual problems in our life and instead would hope for some sort of “salvation from space.” This is real nonsense!
Religious people, regardless what faith they belong to, hope for “salvation from above.” The greater part of the UFO followers do exactly the same. The Ancient Astronaut movement, however, sees the problem from the opposite side.
The extraterrestrials were here thousands of years ago. They have left behind rules and regulations but also a promise to return in the remote future (time dilation). Considering that the “Gods” of ancient times did not always treat mankind gently and quite often became angry and punished brutally, a “hope from above” is not realistic. Rather the contrary! Mankind should be prepared technically and also morally for the return of the “Gods.”
—ERICH VON DÄNIKEN
W
walk-in This term describes a process of interdimensional, interplanetary soul exchange, as well as the individuals who experience it. In this process, a soul from an older ET or angelic civilization (or a more evolved Earth soul) enters the voluntarily surrendered body and personality-system of a human being, to better serve humanity and Earth. Interestingly, some Walkins don’t consider themselves ET souls and have little interest in such matters. In my view, however, most so-called Walkins are actually Wanderers, as I believe that genuine Walkins are far more rare than people imagine.
—SCOTT MANDELKER
Walton abduction This case was the subject of a National Inquirer headline and cover story, three books, numerous magazine accounts, and a major motion picture. It made a tidy sum of money for its claimant, Travis Walton, and is considered a “classic” by the UFO community. The case was supported by the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO), but considered a probable hoax by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). Thanks to the leading skeptical UFO investigator, Philip Klass, the probable truth about the incident was uncovered and reported by NICAP as follows:
A summary of the incident as it was presented by the news media is included for your information.
On the evening of Nov. 5, 1975, at approximately 6:15 P.M. MST, a crew of seven young woodcutters, headed by Michael Rogers was returning home. Rogers (age 28) was under contract to the U.S. Forest Service to thin out 1,277 acres of National Forest land near Turkey Springs. According to the story later told by Rogers, and other members of his crew (ages 17-25), they saw a UFO hovering nearby. They claim that Travis Walton jumped out the moving car and walked/ran und the UFO, that he was “zapped” by, intense glowing beam from the UFO and that the rest of the crew panicked and drove off , leaving their friend behind. A short time later, they claim they returned to the spot to seek Travis but that he had disappeared—seemingly carried off by the UFO. It was not until more than two hours later that Rogers and his crew decided to report the incident to UnderSheriff L. C. Ellison in nearby Heber, Arizona.
While Travis was missing, Rogers and the other five young men took a polygraph test, on Nov. 10, administered by C. E. Gilson of the Arizol Department of Public Safety of Phoenix. Five of the young men “passed” the examination but the results for one (Allen M. Dalis) were “inconclusive,” according to Gilson. The reported test results have been widely interpreted endorsing the authenticity of the alleged UFO abduction.
Shortly after midnight on Nov. 11, Travis telephoned his sister, Mrs. Grant Neff, of Taylor, Arizona (near Snowflake), from a phone booth in
Heber, about 30 miles away. Mr. Neff and Travis’ older brother Duane, who had come to Snowflake from his home in Phoenix shortly after the alleged UFO incident, both drove to Heber to pick up Travis. They reported finding him crumpled on the floor of the phone booth, and in a very “confused” mental state. A short time after returning Travis to his mother’s home in Snowflake, Duane decided to drive Travis to Phoenix, reportedly to obtain medical assistance. Later that same day he was examined by two physicians at the request of APRO.
On Feb. 7, 1976, almost three months after Travis’ return, he and Duane took polygraph tests administered by George J. Pfeifer, then employed by Tom Ezell & Associates of Phoenix. According to published reports, both men passed the exam which involved many questions dealing with Travis’ claim of having been abducted by a UFO. The widely publicized results of these tests seemed to confirm that such an incident actually occurred.
In evaluating the authenticity of such a case, UFO researchers must concentrate on the validity of available data. After reading the reports published by other organizations and national newspapers, one would think that the Walton case was a very strong one for the following reasons:
It was reported that:
1. Walton passed the polygraph examination.
2. There were six other witnesses. Five of the six passed the polygraph examination.
3. Walton is of high character.
4. Walton and his family had very little prior interest in UFOs. Therefore, it would be unlikely that he would concoct a story relating to U FOs.
5. None of the other six witnesses had any motivation to participate in a hoax.
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters Page 115