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

On the evening of November 21, 1957, businessman Frank Dickenson and two of his friends, Frank Hutton and Fred Taylor, were driving through dark moorland just outside of the tiny town of Silpho, in the Scarborough district of the county of North Yorkshire, England. It was a routine drive, and there wasn’t much to see over those moors, but the monotony was broken by a bright slash of light across the sky, which seemed to come down nearby. The men at first thought is was a meteor that had come down, and went to investigate, but this would be far more bizarre than that. This would begin a weird odyssey of the little UFO that fell to earth, only to disappear and show up in a museum years later

When they got to the place where the glowing object had come down, they could see that this was no meteor, but rather what they described as a “copper-bottomed flying saucer,” looking to be out of commission but in relatively one piece considering it had just plummeted from the heavens. The disc measured just 17 inches across and weighed 33 pounds, and although here were no noticeable seams or opening, the whole of it was covered with cryptic symbols that were etched across its side, similar in appearance to Egyptian hieroglyphics. The men knew they had found something strange, and they went about handing it over to some UFO researchers by the names of Frank Dickenson, Anthony Parker and Philip Longbottom.

They went about trying to pry it open to see what was inside. They finally succeeded, and allegedly found within the saucer 17 thin copper sheets engraved with more of the same glyphs that were on the outside. Of any occupant there was no sign, leading them to believe it was some sort of unmanned craft for purposes unknown. After this the object was apparently cut into several pieces and sent off to be studied by different institutions, with the findings differing depending on who looked at it. Scientists at the Natural History Museum noted that it did not seem to have ever been in space, as it showed no signs of the extreme temperature changes it would have been subjected to in that environment, leading them to believe that it was terrestrial in origin and likely a hoax. However, Manchester University found that the metal of the object was of an unusually high purity and that its shell had been “radiation-proofed,” and when an Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding of the Royal Air Force examined it he came away convinced that it definitely had to be of extraterrestrial origins. That seems to be about as far as anyone got at the time, and the various pieces of what is now called the “Silpho UFO” sort of disappeared, being filed away in backrooms to gather dust or just vanishing altogether. After this, the whole incident and this diminutive UFO were just sort of forgotten about.

It would not be until 2018 that an old cigarette tin was found sitting hidden and forgotten in a store room by archivists at London’s Science Museum, containing 5 envelopes with some odd metal fragments and pieces of foil within it, all of it labelled “Victoria and Albert Museum- alleged UFO bits.” The box had been sitting there in the dark collecting dust since 1963, and they realized that this discovery in their collection might have cultural significance. It was turned over to a journalism lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University by the name of Dr. David Clarke, who was at the time giving a lecture on UFOs. Clarke would say of it all:

One of the museum staff tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was aware that ‘bits of a flying saucer’ had been kept in a cigarette tin for decades. I thought it must be a joke, or the pieces of metal would be worthless. They were stored off-site, so I arranged for the files to be sent to London for examination early in the New Year. I was absolutely amazed when later we opened the tin box and saw the wreckage. It was obvious these were the remains of the missing Silpho Saucer that some have claimed as Britain’s answer to the famous Roswell incident. It’s incredible to hear that pieces of this mystery object have been sitting in a museum archive for more than half a century.

Some contents of the box

Pieces said to be from the wreckage of the Silpho UFO found in 1957.

( Dr. David Clarke/Sheffield Hallam University )

Clarke was able to track the fragments back to an expert on meteorites and explosives by the name of Gordon Claringbull, Keeper of Mineralogy at the Natural History Museum, who had forwarded them the Science Museum in 1963, after which they had just been sort of thrown into storage and swept away. Interestingly, not long after this rediscovery of the lost wreckage, Longbottom one of the ones who allegedly originally pried the UFO open, claimed that he had become obsessed with the meaning of those glyphs, and after intensively studying them for years he claimed to have translated a portion, which he said was written by an alien calling itself “Ullo,” and gave the rather ominous message of “You will improve or disappear,” as well as various passages warning mankind not to tinker with nuclear weapons. This seems as if it surely must be a hoax based off of the reemergence of the Silpho UFO into the news, but it certainly puts a bizarre spin on things.

The Science Museum said it was likely the items in their collections were from Silpho Moor.

The Science Museum said it was likely the items in their collections were from Silpho Moor.

( David Clarke )

The object itself is widely believed to have been merely an elaborate hoax enacted by the men who found it, but there are plenty of people who have discussed it in forums and in other articles as being the real deal. Of course, there are also conspiracies that abound, such as that the wreckage found in the museum wasn’t the real UFO or that the findings were covered up. Was it real, and if so what was it? Was this some unmanned probe sent here with a message that only one guy has ever figured out? Or is this perhaps a piece of hoaxing history? This is in the end probably a hoax, but it is still an interesting little piece of UFO lore that seems to have been mostly forgotten. It is pretty amazing that it managed to fade away into the shadows and be buried in a museum’s archives for so long, and even if it is not real, it raises the question of if this has ever happened to a real piece of a UFO. Is there maybe some fragment of an alien craft relegated to some dank basement forgotten, just waiting for the right person to stumble on to it? Perhaps time will tell.

The remaining parts of the Silpho UFO, found in 1957, were rumoured by the UFO community to have ended up on a scrap heap or even on display in a local fish and chip shop.

The remaining parts of the Silpho UFO, found in 1957, were rumoured by the UFO community to have ended up on a scrap heap or even on display in a local fish and chip shop.

( Dr. David Clarke/Sheffield Hallam )

Strange encounters with UFOs and their often enigmatic occupants have happened all over the world, from every corner of the globe. While those that happen in the United States and the U.K. seem to be the most well-known of oft-covered, this is certainly not the extent of this phenomenon. Perhaps it is the language barrier, but there are many cases that seem to have fallen through the cracks in other countries, and some remarkable ones that don’t seem to get much coverage are a series of very bizarre encounters with what seem to be alien entities in the far eastern country of Japan.

One very weird alien encounter that also happens to have so-called photographic proof supposedly occurred in April of 1975, in the city of Kawanoe, on Japan’s Shikoku Island. On the night of March 24th, 1975, a local resident by the name of Giichi Shiota was at a city landfill when he says he saw something very bizarre indeed. There amongst the rubble he spied a luminous figure in some sort of metallic suit hovering around 7 feet off of the ground, which he would describe as an “alien cosmonaut.” The being itself was said to be about 6 feet tall, and it then smoothly descended to about a foot off of the ground before floating towards the startled witness, who says he then began to develop a sharp headache that increased with intensity the closer it came. This headache apparently became absolutely agonizing, sending him on his way.

Shiota then became determined to go back to the scene of his strange encounter, this time taking with him three cameras for the purpose of possibly capturing something strange on film. He would visit that landfill night after night for a whole week hoping to catch another glimpse of the otherworldly, and then on March 31 his patience apparently paid off. He would claim that that familiar head splitting headache had descended upon him once again, at which point he knew that he was no longer alone their huddling in the darkness. Looking about him, he could then make out what appeared to be a bluish, cloud-like light hovering around 300 feet away, which he described as an “electrical disturbance,” and as he peered through the gloom at it the humanoid emerged from its center. One again it glided towards him, and this time Shiota claimed that he had taken a series of photographs of the strange entity. As if realizing that it was being photographed, the creature then veered off at great speed and vanished into thin air.

Alleged photograph of the “alien cosmonaut”

What did he catch on film? The photos are inconclusive to say the least. Is this a hoax or is there anything more to it? Interestingly, on February 23, 1975, of that same year two 7-year-old boys named Masato Kawano and Katsuhiro Yamahata, were out roller skating in the early evening hours in Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, when they claim that they saw in the sky a pair of luminous orange lights that flickered and made a strange “ticking sound.” As they looked on in amazement, one of the lights apparently moved off towards the distant mountains, while the other started to descend towards the ground nearby. The boys claimed that they went off to investigate, and saw the strange craft come down to rest in a small vineyard behind an old, abandoned estate. The craft was described as being a domed disc around 15 feet in diameter and 7 feet high, which rested upon three ball-shaped legs. The surface of the strange object was silver-colored, and appeared to have characters or letters of some sort etched upon it. The loud ticking sound of the craft was very pronounced as they drew closer, sounding somewhat reminiscent of a Geiger counter. As the two boys pondered what they were seeing, a hatch purportedly opened on the side out of nowhere and a ladder extended towards the ground, after which a strange looking being climbed out.

The creature stood around 4 feet tall, and was wearing a reflective silver suit of some sort. The being’s skin was allegedly a dark brown in color, and it was covered with thick wrinkles that were so pronounced as to make most of its facial features indiscernible, save for two pointed ears and prominent and intimidating 2-inch long silver fangs that jutted out from the folds of where its mouth might be. In its hands it held some sort of device whose purpose could not be fathomed, but which looked somewhat like “a rifle.” Another of the creatures could be seen sitting within the craft huddled over some sort of flickering control panel. Whatever it was seemed to have completely ignored the two young boys standing there gawking at it as it proceeded to carefully examine the surrounding terrain. After a few moments of this it suddenly seemed to become aware of the boys, after which it approached them and patted one of them, Yamahata, twice on the shoulder while issuing a sound that sounded like “a tape recorder running backwards.”

Upon being tapped, Yamahata allegedly slumped to the ground and was unable to move, paralyzed by some inscrutable force. This pushed Kawano into action, and he quickly scooped his friend up onto his shoulders and ran from the area as fast as his legs could carry him. When he got home, Yamahata came to, and they supposedly told their parents what had happened, who would grudgingly follow the boys out to the estate outside to see the strange orange light climbing up into the sky for themselves. The light would then emit a burst of blinding light and vanish. Later, school officials would descend upon the area in daylight to examine the site, and would allegedly find two sturdy concrete posts that had been pushed over by some powerful force, as well as a ring pattern etched into the ground nearby. Authorities of the Civil Aviation Bureau of Transportation Ministry would later get wind of the story and dismiss the lights as merely from normal aircraft in the area. No word on what they thought the fanged humanoid could have been, or if it had anything to do with what Shiota would witness a month later.

A few years later, in 1978 we have another very outlandish encounter, this time in the area of Sayama City. In October of that year, the city had been going through a spate of intense UFO activity, and on the evening of October 3 things would take a turn for the truly bizarre. On this night, 29-year-old Hideichi Amano was out testing out some HAM radio equipment on a hill overlooking the city. It was a hobby of his, and on this occasion he was using the radio to talk with other HAM enthusiasts throughout the area. He didn’t stay long, as his young daughter was waiting for him in the car, but as he got ready to leave something remarkable would purportedly happen.

As he prepared to start the vehicle, the entire interior was bathed in a bright light, its source a complete mystery as they had been out there completely alone. Amano looked outside but could see nothing that could account for the light, and when he looked back to his 2-year-old daughter she was in some sort of daze and foaming at the mouth. As he panicked and wondered what to do, an orange beam of light pierced in from out of the night to land upon his stomach, and he felt himself feeling woozy and faint. There was then the sensation of something pressing into the side of his head, and when he turned to look there was allegedly a humanoid entity with a round head, no neck, and glowing blue eyes standing there outside the car with a “pipe-like” instrument pushed up to his head, which was producing “voiceless high-pitched noises” that seemed to penetrate directly into his mind.

The panicked witness desperately tried to start his car, but nothing worked, and he seemed to be without any power at all. Indeed, moving his limbs felt like moving through a thick liquid, giving him the sense that he was partially paralyzed. He started to get the impression that that rapidly fluctuating droning in his head was giving him a message, although he had no idea what it could be. This apparently went on for about 5 minutes, after which that bizarre entity pulled away his instrument and vanished into the night. There was a beat of utter silence, and then the car roared to life, scaring Amano nearly as badly as that creature had. To his great relief, his young daughter now seemed to be OK, acting as if nothing had happened at all.

Amano would frantically contact police to tell them of what had happened, but they didn’t take it seriously at all. Through all of this his head was becoming increasingly painful, overcome with a relentless headache. After several nights of terrible nightmares, he would seek out hypnotic regression, which would turn up some curiosities. Amano related how the creature had given him a future date, time, and location to meet again, and how the entity had given him a bracelet of some sort, claimed to be some sort of communications device. Even more eerily still was his insistence that something had been placed within his head and was influencing his mind, and the whole story was so sensational that it made the rounds on Japanese television for a while before fading into obscurity. What was going on here? Who knows?

These cases for the most part seem to be pretty obscure and forgotten, relegated to the back catalog of alien encounters, despite their spectacular natures. There seems to have been very little follow-up done on them and little further information on them, leaving us to wonder what could be going on here. Were these aliens, interdimensional interlopers of some sort, the ravings of the imagination, or something more? Whatever the case may be, they remain some of the strangest that Japan has to offer.

In the minutes leading up to 2019, someone witnessed fiery orange lights flying soundlessly at a low altitude over San Antonio.

And that was just the beginning of numerous reports of unidentified flying objects spotted in Texas skies last year.

Three months into the year, there have been at least 24 reported unidentified flying objects reported throughout the state, according to the National UFO Reporting Center. The reports range from seeing strange lights to crafts hovering above people's cars and houses.

Note: Actual sightings are not pictured below.