UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

‘Alien’ Image Raises Questions of the Terrestrial Kind

There has been a lot of buzz in recent weeks about what are being called “the Roswell slides,” a series of Kodachrome images recovered by a group of UFO researchers that include Don Schmitt, Tom Carey and Adam Dew. The images purportedly show an extraterrestrial biological entity, and there are some insinuations (well, several) that the creature is also somehow related to the Roswell Incident of 1947, and that the film stock matches the same period.

Among the recent announcements about this strange affair is that a press conference will be held in May that will feature the images publicly, along with more details about their backstory and possible implications.

Even more recently, however, one of the purported images has now appeared online, as my colleague Nick Redfern had pointed out in an article featured here at MU, where he offered only this on the matter:

“Of course, now, and as of a couple of days ago, you can see one of the images right here. What it shows, I don’t know. Many who have looked at it are underwhelmed. From what I see too, I can’t say I’m particularly excited either.”

I certainly don’t mean to be unfairly critical of the matter, since I don’t have the full back story on it at present, and few of us in the research community will have that story, apart from those directly involved with the purported “find”, at least until later this year.

However, if I had to base my expectations on the history of claims very similar to these–and their obvious dubious nature–I would have to agree with Nick that this is not particularly exciting. If anything, I would say that if the photo linked above (in Nick’s excerpt) is indeed one of the slides the group will be showcasing in May, then I am already beyond skeptical.

Now let me explain why.

The comments thread on the post Nick links to (which takes us to the UFO Conjecture(s) blog) also includes a link to a German language forum, which includes the original photo from which the “alien” image was taken. That image is a still capture from a trailer that had already been circulating the web, which actually depicts one of the slides in question as it is being examined (that image also presents a better context for the otherwise blurry image of the supposed “alien”, and I recommend viewing it here if you haven’t seen it already).

Looking at the image, the first thing I thought of (despite the blurriness of the picture) had been that the body of the purported “alien” bears strong resemblance to a child born with hydrocephalus, an abnormal condition where the amount of cerebrospinal fluid flowing to the brain increases, either due to the brain producing too much of it, or perhaps due to a blockage, or an absorption problem with the blood vessels in the region of the body. This often leads to swelling of the brain, and thus, an enlarged cranium with the infants in question (although the condition is not exclusive to infancy).

An undated photograph (described only as “very old”) from the archives of the University of Rochester shows a more extreme example of the condition in an infant, as depicted at the Wikipedia entry for Hydrocephalus:

An online image search will offer even more extreme examples of the condition than what we’ve featured above, but for illustrative purposes this image does give readers an idea of the physical appearance of an infant afflicted with the condition.

One thing we know about the purported “Roswell slides”, as written about by researcher Kevin Randle, is that there are still questions about who took the photos, and where… but that, at very least, the names of the individuals who had owned the images are indeed well known. Randle notes:

Tom (Carey) says something that I’m not sure he is going to be able to retreat from and I’m surprised that it was in the video clip. He said, “…We don’t know where the picture was taken. It’s taken indoors [so Ray or whoever, didn’t stumble across the body in the desert]… We don’t know exactly what circumstances the photographer was being a part of to take those pictures.”

They don’t know who took the pictures, only that they were found as a house was being prepared for an estate sale. The house had been owned by Bernerd and Hilda Ray and was in a collection of slides from the late 1940s and 1950s. They don’t seem to know who took the pictures or when they were taken or how Ray ended up with them and with that, the trail grows cold.

Coming back to the article at the UFO Conjecture(s) blog that features the photo, another commenter on the thread below the image notes something that is very interesting, although little background data is presented to support it. Nonetheless, I feel it is relevant to the present controversy, and submit it now for the reader’s consideration:

Hi, this is a photograph taken at a local museum in Colombia. The Rays were great travelers. We see the leg and the bottom of the skirt of a woman in the reflection of the glass. The arms of the creature are short, it is probably a child. It is well known that the EBE arms are long and come up to the knees. It is also possible that these two photographs have never been discovered in the trunk in the attic, but adds after. Moreover if we removed the idea that these two photographs were hidden in the lining of the chest, it completely changes the interest of this story. These are just pictures of the trip.

Colombia is cited as the (very general) location here, due to the belief that Bernard and Hilda Ray, whose former home had been the source of the discovery of these slides, had been travelers who might have visited a museum in that country, or perhaps some other country in Latin America, during the 1940s or 50s. Similar discussions about this possible connection have been brought up in commentaries that appear at the Paracast Forums, as well as an update that appeared on Tuesday, again at Kevin Randle’s blog. In that post, Randle features comparisons with a small human body provided to him by Gilles Fernandez, which “shows a small body that looks similar to that in the slide.”

Honestly, the image we have of the purported “alien” which researchers Schmitt, Carey and others are touting as final “proof” of an extraterrestrial body found at Roswell appears to be anything but. There is no need for harsh criticism here, although in the opinion of this researcher, a few questions that follow philosophical logic are warranted:

1) How can anything appearing solely in a series of photographs, without a physical specimen to match, offer “proof” that would meet the requirements of science? No biologist, chemist, or physicist would look at a photograph–blurry or not–as being representative of good, physical evidence.

2) Much like the argument with regard to the “Atacama Humanoid” featured in Stephen Greer’s documentary Sirius, how would anything that was discovered on Earth, let alone something so obviously resembling mummified human remains, offer “proof” of extraterrestrials? What evidence can conclusively present any connection between the two? At least with “Ata,” we had a physical specimen (Note that, as many reading this will already be aware, the Atacama humanoid was proven, despite apparent anomalies, to be human.)

3) When confronted with extraordinary claims of “alien life,” logic would further dictate, rather than making un-objective guesses that exert a bias equivalent to wish fulfillment, that prosaic explanations would be offered instead, and, if deemed necessary, either accepted or ruled out before leaping to otherwise illogical presumptions (Example: in likelihood, this image shows a case of hydrocephalus, rather than an alien being for which we can account for no known organism (i.e. an alien) against which we can make such an illogical comparison).

The problems here are indeed many, and in likelihood, from what we’re seeing already, the Roswell slides probably aren’t going to present that “smoking gun” that many in the UFO community have been long hoping for.

TAGS: alien, Kevin Randle, Roswell Slides, ufo

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Roswell Slides and the “Ant People”

Last week, I revealed here at Mysterious Universe that back in 2012, I was given the extensive files, notes, correspondence and archives of the late UFO researcher Kathy Kasten. I also noted that, as Kathy’s files show, much of her research was focused upon studying claims that one of the people who was brought in to study the mysterious bodies reportedly found outside of Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947, was William Randolph Lovelace II – a man with a prestigious background and who worked with both the U.S. military and NASA.

But, there is something else about those fascinating files I inherited: repeated references (specifically in relation to the curious corpses found on the Foster Ranch, Lincoln County) to legends concerning the legendary “Ant People.” And, if you’re not aware of the controversy, you’ll likely say: “Huh? Ant People?” Okay, let me explain.

The story of the Ant People is an integral part of the legend, history, and mythology of the Hopi Indians of northern Arizona. Hopi lore tells of how, in times long, long gone, the Earth underwent a series of terrible cataclysms (or cycles) that manifested in the forms of Ice Ages, massive floods, and possibly even calamitous polar tilts.

So the story goes, the Hopi might well have been exterminated when the world was in massive flux, were it not for assistance given to them by a race of diminutive, mysterious, humanoid beings. They were said to live deep underground, in certain parts of the American southwest. They were, of course, the Ant People.

According to the legends, for the most part the Ant People kept away from the Human Race – which was largely oblivious to the existence of the strange world deep below them. On occasion, however, the Ant People would surface, and also on occasion, offer help to people. Thus, bit by bit, the Ant People became known and the legends duly began.

It’s important to note that they weren’t called the Ant People just because they lived underground, in extensive, deep, winding tunnels. No. It was also because despite being humanoid, they somewhat physically resembled ants and particularly so in terms of their faces and their spindly limbs. Of course, one doesn’t have to be a genius to know that some of the so-called “Grays” of alien abduction lore superficially look insect-like. You have probably already surmised where I am going with all this.

Let’s backtrack: thanks to a number of “interesting” sources, Kathy Kasten was hot on the trail of the William Randolph Lovelace/Roswell bodies connection. At some point in her research (and, as far as I can tell, it was no earlier than 2002) Kathy’s sources provided data which led her to focus much of her work on the legends of the Ant People – in specific connection to the possibility that while Roswell may well have been an event involving non-human entities, they weren’t necessarily extraterrestrials.

In that sense, what Lovelace and others might have been exposed to were not aliens from a faraway world, but a race of ancient entities from right here, on Earth, albeit ones that lived almost exclusively underground, in deliberate stealth. Aside from when they made secret and brief excursions to the surface. And possibly even to the skies, using sturdy dirigible-like craft – one of which may have exploded and rained down strange foil-like material and a number of dead, dwarfish entities onto the desert floor, and which were quickly recovered by utterly shocked U.S. military forces. Thus, the enduring legend of Roswell’s “crashed UFO” was born.

It may sound like the perfect plot for the new and upcoming series of The X-Files. But, it’s worth noting that this is a scenario that has surfaced on a number of previous occasions. In 2010, Anomalist Books published the final title from the late Mac Tonnies: The Cryptoterrestrials. Highly thought-provoking and deeply controversial in equal measures, the book focused on the idea that UFOs are not the products of alien races, but of very ancient, terrestrial people that dwell deep underground and who masquerade as extraterrestrials to camouflage their true identity.

Tonnies speculated that the Cryptoterrestrials are likely very impoverished, but utilize subterfuge, hologram-style technology, and staged-events to suggest otherwise to us. He even theorized they may have made use of large, balloon-style craft, too. And on this very matter – of the Cryptoterrestrials using balloons in covert missions – Tonnies said:

“The device that crashed near Roswell in the summer of 1947, whatever it was, featured properties at least superficially like the high-altitude balloon trains ultimately cited as an explanation by the Air Force. Debunkers have, of course, seized on the lack of revealingly ‘high-tech’ components found among the debris to dismiss the possibility that the crash was anything but a case of misidentification; not even Maj. Jesse Marcel. the intelligence officer who advocated an ET origin for the unusual foil and structural beams, mentioned anything remotely resembling an engine or power-plant.”

Mac continued, in a fashion that emphasized the cryptoterrestrials may not be as scientifically and technologically advanced as they might prefer us to think they are: “The cryptoterrestrial hypothesis offers a speculative alternative: maybe the Roswell device wasn’t high-tech. It could indeed have been a balloon-borne surveillance device brought down in a storm, but it doesn’t logically follow that is was one of our own.”

As he also noted: “Maybe the Roswell device wasn’t high tech. It could indeed have been a balloon-borne surveillance device brought down in a storm, but it doesn’t logically follow that it was one of our own. Upon happening across such a troubling find, the Air Force’s excessive secrecy begins to make sense.”

Walter Bosley

Just perhaps, Tonnies’ Cryptoterrestrials and the Ant People of the Hopi that Kathy Kasten was pursuing were/are one and the same. And then there’s the story of Walter Bosley. Formerly of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Bosley has revealed an interesting and notable story told to him by his very own father, also of the USAF, and someone who worked on issues connected to the United States’ space-program.

According to the account related to Walter, yes, a very significant and highly anomalous event did occur some miles from the New Mexico town of Roswell. Not only did the crash have nothing to do with literal extraterrestrials, said Walter’s father, but it had nothing to do with us, either.

In a briefing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Walter’s father was told, essentially, the same thing upon which Mac Tonnies theorized – namely, that Roswell represented the crash of a device piloted by ancient humanoids that lived within the Earth, deep in hidden, cavernous abodes. Only occasionally did they ever surface, usually taking careful and stealthy steps to mask their presence – that is, until one of their fairly simple devices crashed outside of Roswell and revealed them for what they are.

And, finally, all of this brings me to the matter of what, without doubt, has been the most controversial issue in Ufology of the last 18 months or so: the so-called “Roswell slides.” Now, I don’t know what the slides show: an alien, a mummy, a deformed human, or a model. But, one thing that does intrigue me is the face of the humanoid. Take a look at it, in light of all the above. It does look somewhat ant-like and it has a spindly body.

Playing Devil’s advocate, I ask: does the secrecy surrounding Roswell really stem from the U.S. military’s discovery of dead aliens, back in 1947? Or, could it be that the secrecy exists because of something even more controversial and, in many ways, downright chilling? Namely, that something ancient, non-human and highly intelligent lurks way below us, and, in July 1947, its cover was finally blown?

TAGS: Ant People, Hopi Indians, Kathy Kasten, Roswell Slides

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }