It was around 11:00 p.m. on September 26, 1994, when a small, twin-tailed aircraft crash-landed onto the lengthy runway at Boscombe Down; it is situated in the English county of Wiltshire and only 6.2 miles from none other than Stonehenge. At around the time of the incident, a number of aviation enthusiasts were listening in on air-band radios and were aware that something untoward had taken place. The following day, several of those same enthusiasts drove to the installation – which is near to the A303 road and not at all far from the famous Stonehenge – and were apprehended by local police who had set up road-blocks to keep away prying eyes. Before being ushered away, however, a number of people succeeded in catching sight of a disabled aircraft. It was situated at the end of the runway and, aside from its twin-tail fins, was completely covered over by tarpaulins. Air Force Monthly magazine was soon on the trail of the truth. In the November 1994 issue of the magazine, investigative writers noted that in the wake of the crash both a Boeing 757 and a C-5 Galaxy arrived at Boscombe Down. The story continued that the secret plane was loaded aboard the Galaxy and flown to “Air Force plant 42 at Palmdale, California.” Air Force Monthly suggested that the aircraft “…was a TR-3A, the existence of which the U.S. Government has yet to officially acknowledge.” The subsonic, stealth TR-3A – also referred to as the Black Manta – remains an enigma, since its existence has never been officially confirmed. Now, let’s take a look at the connection between Stonehenge and the Men in Black.

Only hours after briefly seeing a cigar-shaped UFO hovering near Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England on December 25, 1985, Sandra Green – who was driving home, in the early hours, after a late night Christmas Eve party in the English city of Bath – had a bizarre dream. In it, three Men in Black warned Sandra to keep her nose out of UFOs. They were – as they usually are – cadaverous “slightly dead”-looking MIB. As for the warning, it was one of those “or else”-type threats that the MIB are so skilled at making. The dream was so graphic it led Sandra to believe that the MIB had the ability to literally get inside her dreams, manipulate those very same dreams, and issue a bone-chilling warning – one which she has still not forgotten. Sandra shared the story with me on the evening of September 9, 2014 – the facts of the affair still firmly fixed in her mind and her memory after close to thirty years. And, I have to say, it wasn’t just the facts that were fixed in Sandra’s mind: it was cold fear, too. Even across a transatlantic telephone call I could sense that all was not well. I messaged Sandra a few days later, in an effort to clarify a couple of things she mentioned to me. She did not reply. She still hasn’t. A sign of something? I hoped not.

Nick Redfern at legendary Stonehenge

Just twenty-four miles from Stonehenge is another enticing location filled with ancient, standing stones: the village of Avebury. It was at Avebury, one night in the early 1960s, that something very weird happened – and, for the person, terrifying. The witness to this particularly weird case was a middle-aged lady who had lived in the small village of Avebury, England all of her adult life and who was fascinated by archaeological history. She would often stroll among Avebury’s famous stones at night, marveling at their creation and musing upon their history. It was on the night in question that she had been out walking at around 10:30 p.m. when she was both startled and amazed to see a small ball of light, perhaps two-feet in diameter, gliding slowly through the stones – a definitive UFO. Transfixed and rooted to the spot, she watched as it closed in on her at a height of about twelve feet. The ball then stopped fifteen feet or so from her, and small amounts of what looked like liquid metal slowly and silently dripped from it to the ground. Then, in an instant, the ball exploded in a bright, white flash. For a moment she was blinded by its intensity and instinctively fell to her knees. When her eyes cleared, however, she was faced with a horrific sight. The ball of light had gone, but on the ground in front of her was what she could only describe as a monstrous, writhing worm. The woman did not wait to see what might have happened next.

One of the mystery-filled stones of Avebury, Wiltshire, England

(Nick Redfern)

Now, let’s leave the Earth behind and head off to Mars, so to speak. September 24, 2015, was the date when the United Kingdom’s Express newspaper splashed a feature titled: “Has Stonehenge been found on Mars? Ancient ‘alien’ stone circle discovered on Red Planet.” It’s hardly surprising the story caught the attention of many people. “Mr. Enigma,” the person who revealed the mystery at his YouTube channel, said that what could be seen in one of NASA’s very own photos was “…a perfectly circular platform with a strange cluster of stones emerging from it.” He added: “I know the formation is not an exact match, nor am I saying it is, indeed, a Stonehenge set up. I am just saying there is something strange about this area and it looks very much like the mysterious ancient stone circle of Stonehenge. Could the builders of Stonehenge have visited Mars and did they build the same thing there? Or did we have visitors who taught us how to build these things and do the same for long-lost beings on Mars as well? Or is this just another face on Mars illusion?”

The stone circle (pictured) was spotted on an apparently raised hummock in images of the Martian surface captured by the HiRise camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

It was in the late-1970s when the FBI released into the public domain its UFO files. And, it was thanks to the provisions of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Around 1,700 pages of documentation were made freely available. Today, all of those documents (and, now, more) can be accessed at the Bureau’s website, The Vault. Here’s the specific link. Contained within those files is one document that has largely been ignored or overlooked. Maybe, even, forgotten. It’s important, though, and dates from the latter part of 1957. Its title: “Reports of Flying Disks Foreign Miscellaneous.” It was prepared by a Legal Attaché at Havana, Cuba. And, almost inevitably, it wasn’t long before the story reached the media of Cuba. The FBI recorded the following: “The Havana daily newspaper ‘Diario de la Marina,’ November 12, 1957, carried a dispatch datelined November 11, 1957, at Pinar del Rio, Cuba, reporting that two witnesses who had just arrived in that town from the Matahambre Mines in Pinar del Rio Province, claimed that they had seen a flying disc in the shape of a man’s hat hovering over the general area of Matahmbre for several minutes. They claimed that this disc was larger than ordinary airplanes normally seen in that area and that it was completely silent in its flight. They said that it disappeared at a very high speed toward the sea. There was no further descriptive information furnished in this newspaper article. It is noted that Matahambre is located 90 miles west of Havana.”

Of course, as anyone with a knowledge of the UFO phenomenon will know, Flying Saucers were all over the place in the 1950s. This case is slightly different, however. A copy of the document was forwarded onto none other than the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). As for the reason, it was because some CIA analysts were concerned that what had been seen was not a UFO but a U-2 spy-plane of the CIA, whose pilot was taking photos of Cuba. It was in 1955 – specifically in July of that year – that the legendary U-2 spy-plane flew at the Nevada Test and Training Range at Area 51’s huge runway at Groom Lake, thus cementing the range’s undeniable role in aviation history.

Richard M. Bissell, Jr., was a Central Intelligence Agency officer who, from 1961 to 1962, held down the job of the first co-director of the super-secret National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which operates much of the United States’ satellite-based surveillance technology. Back in the early 1950s, and before his NRO career began in earnest, Bissell astutely realized that there was a deeply pressing need to keep careful watch on what the Soviets were doing, specifically in terms of constructing new military bases, atomic facilities, and aircraft that might pose distinct, serious threats to the security of the United States. So, a top secret plan was initiated to develop a fleet of aircraft – reconnaissance planes designed to fly very fast and extremely high – that could secretly spy on the Soviets, by penetrating their airspace and securing high-resolution photography of whatever it was that the Reds were up to. The aircraft was the aforementioned Lockheed U-2 and the operation was code-named Project Aquatone.

So, what does this have to do with UFOs? Well, let’s see. We have to turn our attention to a CIA paper written by Gerald Haines and titled “CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90.” When, in 1997, Haines’ report became public, the media took a great deal of interest in its contents. For example, the U.K.’s Independent newspaper ran an article with the title of “US hid spy plane projects behind UFO hysteria.” In part, it stated: “Mr Haines, a historian at the National Reconnaissance Office, based his article on a review of CIA documents from the late 1940s to 1990. He described how the air force sought to deflect attention from development of its high-altitude experimental aircraft, the U-2 and SR-71. Early U-2s were silver and reflected the sun’s rays and often appeared as fiery objects to people below, Mr Haines said. They were later painted black. Air force investigators, ‘aware of the secret U-2 flights, tried to explain away such sightings by linking them to natural phenomena such as ice crystals and temperature inversions.’ By 1956 the air force internally had clear explanations for 96 per cent of UFO sightings, Mr Haines wrote, referring to the experimental aircraft. ‘They were careful, however, not to reveal the true cause of the sighting to the public.'”

SR-71

Not only did the report state that 96 per cent  of UFO sightings had been solved; it also stated that a significant number of incidents could be applied to sightings of spy-planes, such as the U-2. When the report was released, some Ufologists scoffed. It has to be said, though, we know for sure that the CIA was informed of the UFO sighting over Cuba in 1957. Not only that: in the Project Aquatone files there is a brief reference to the newspaper story I mentioned in the first paragraph of this article. That would suggest the CIA really did, at times, use the UFO subject as a means to camouflage the activities of its high-flying spy-planes.

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For decades people have been fascinated by the Crop Circle phenomenon. There is, however, something equally as fascinating as the formations. It’s the weird things that have been seen inside them. I’ll begin with a relatively simple Crop Circle creation that was found, in the summer of 2006, adjacent to an old structure in central England: Chartley Castle. The BritainIrelandCastles.com website state of this particular construction: “Chartley Castle is located north of the village of Stowe-by-Chartley in Staffordshire (between Stafford and Uttoxeter). The motte and bailey castle is in ruins, but substantial remains stand including an unusual cylindrical keep, a curtain wall flanked by two D-shaped towers, a twin-towered gatehouse and an angled tower. The motte and bailey castle was built by one of the early Earls of Chester around 1100. It was rebuilt in 1220 by Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester, and a curtain wall was added. It passed by marriage to William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby and remained in the Ferrers family until 1453, when it passed to Walter Devereux through his wife, Elizabeth Ferrers. Walter was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The castle was then abandoned as a residence and Chartley Manor was built nearby.”

I was over in the U.K. at the time and had the opportunity to see the formation – and to get a few photos, too. Intriguing, however, is the fact that contained within the Crop Circle were a number of peacock feathers. They had been carefully placed in the center. Someone I spoke to claimed to know the answer to the riddle. Jane Adams is a devotee of Wicca and someone who I first met in a Wiltshire Crop Circle back in August 1997. She has an intriguing theory to account for the presence of those very out of place feathers. Jane is of the opinion that the presence of the feathers at Chartley Castle is evidence that “certain, dangerous people” (as she worded it) were guilty of creating the Circle and also of placing the feathers within it. She adds that the mysterious group use the peacock’s “Evil Eye” in what she describes as “black ceremonies.” In the photo below, you can see me holding one of the feathers. Several other people had stopped their cars and took photos of the Circle, too. Like me, they took with them a memento: a feather, of course.

Nick Redfern holding one of the aforementioned peacock feathers

(Nick Redfern, 2006)

Now, let’s move onto the controversial issue of “Alien Big Cats” in the U.K. In the summer of 2007, I spoke with Marcus Matthews, a researcher of mysterious big-cats in the U.K., who told me that he was then currently investigating a case involving a person who had seen a “huge black cat” sitting inside the confines of a Wiltshire Crop Circle. So, how do we define and explain such rogue reports as these? The answer, admittedly, and right now, is that we can’t. All I can say is this: if you ever find yourself deep in the heart of a huge Crop Circle, then keep a careful watch. There may be something dangerous keeping its eyes on you, getting ready to pounce. Still on the subject of strange creatures, check out the following: Circle-maker Matthew Williams is a veritable fountain of knowledge as it relates to tales of weird creatures that have been seen in, or at least in the direct vicinity of, complex Crop Circle formations. One such case is truly strange. Matthew advised me that the story in question concerned a man who had felt curiously compelled to drive late at night to a certain field in Wiltshire many years ago.

On doing so, the man parked his car and duly, and carefully, began his walk into the depths of the crop. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a large, black, human-like figure appeared in the air over the field. “It reminded me a little bit of the Mothman sightings when I heard this story,” said Matthew, not without a high degree of justification. Matthew continued that the source of the story could only stand and stare in awe, while suddenly gaining the distinct impression that the hovering entity was the source of at least some of the Crop Circle formations that were appearing in Wiltshire. At that precise moment, a simple Crop Circle suddenly appeared on the ground immediately below the black figure – after which the creature vanished from the skies and the man was left utterly alone in the field, and with no real option other than to make his shocked way back to his vehicle and drive home, baffled and bewildered by both the weird, aerial entity and what it was that had directed him to the field.

Now, what about strange balls of light (also known as orbs)? Numerous such things have been seen flying (and hovering) over Crop Circles. Amazingly, several were seen back in the 1990s in a formation that Crop Circle maker Matthew Williams had himself made.  Matt told me: “There was one time, I’d rather not say when or where exactly, as I could get into trouble for admitting I trespassed on the farmer’s land and made the Crop Circle formation. Plus, I had a friend named Paul helping me with this one. We were making this circle when we noticed these three bright lights – small balls of lights coming towards the field. We watched them; we were fascinated. But they split up and each of them went to a corner of the field – and which only left one corner for us to leave by without getting too close to these things. That was a bit unsettling. We didn’t know what these balls were; so we raced out of the open corner of the field. We looked back as we ran and could see the balls heading towards us: gliding very gracefully just above the top of the crop. It was like they were on a railway track, just moving very smoothly, but it left us sort of disturbed too: like they were almost ghostly and alive.” Maybe they were.

And, we’ll close with what has become known as “the Mowing Devil.” Mercurius Politicus say of this strange affair: “The Mowing-Devil is a quarto pamphlet printed in 1678. It tells the story of a farmer whose field of oats was destroyed by the devil, after the farmer rejected the price asked by a mower and said that the devil could mow it instead. The pamphlet is often prayed in aid by crop circle enthusiasts as an example of crop circles being a pre-modern phenomenon. The Wikipedia article on the pamphlet puts this forward as a possibility, as do a number of crop circle websites. One, Swirled News, has carried out lengthy research into the provenance of the pamphlet, examining a copy in the British Library and discovering that there are a number of subtly different modern recreations of the woodcut illustration. At a quick glance it certainly does bear a resemblance to a crop circle – it looks like there are concentric rings of crops being pressed down by the devil.”

In light of all the above – and should you, one day, find yourself in a Crop Circle – it might be wise to not just admire the creation, but to have a good look at what might be inside it. You may be surprised.

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The UFO field is peppered with the accounts of those who have supposedly come face to face with these alien forces from beyond our world and indeed our very comprehension. These mysterious individuals are known as “contactees” within the field, and there is no shortage of those who would claim to have experienced the UFO phenomenon up close and first hand. Some of these people have managed to go on to become quite well known for their claims and exploits, and surely one of the more well-known and indeed more outlandish accounts comes from a contactee who had a mysterious encounter out in the desert of New Mexico and would weave this into a cultish organization and into the very fabric of contactee lore.

As Fry walked along that dusty trail, he noticed in the sky what he would describe as a “strangely behaving star” that seemed to be approaching and getting closer. As it seemed to come in for a landing not far away it was very obvious that this was no star, but rather some sort of craft, described as an “oblate spheroid” measuring 10feet in diameter and about 16 feet high. He would say of what was going through his mind during the outlandish situation:

What should I do next? Should I return to the base and report the advent of the craft? This, at first, seemed the logical thing to do, but then another thought intervened. It would take at least three quarters of an hour for me to get back to the base, find someone in authority, and return with other observers. What if the craft took off in the meantime? There would be nothing but a crumpled patch of brush to substantiate my story. Who would believe me? If anyone did believe, who would dare to admit it? I had read enough of the ridicule heaped upon those who had been incautious enough to admit having seen some unexplained objects flying in the air. How much worse would be the lot of one who claimed to have seen one land and to have been close enough to touch it, yet had no proof except a flattened patch of brush!

As he stood there in awed shock wondering what to do, he says that he was contacted telepathically by an entity calling itself “Alan,” who invited him to approach and come aboard. When Fry entered the craft, he would claim that the entire floor became transparent, as if he were standing on a pane of glass, and “Alan,” who seemed to be invisible and would not reveal itself, explained some of the technical aspects of the ship and how it worked, as it began to rise and travel at vast speeds of an estimated 8,000 miles per hour. Fry would say that the ship shot out over the landscape to reach New York, after which it would fly back to New Mexico, a round trip which took an estimated 30 minutes, all as Alan explained the finer points of physics and the prehistory of Earth. At no point did Fry actually ever see Alan, and he was told that the ship was in fact remotely controlled by the being from a larger mother ship.

Fry was dropped back off where he had started, but this would not be his last encounter with the mysterious “Alan.” He would claim to be contacted several more times between the years of 1950 and 1954, and during these meetings he learned more about Alan’s people and their purpose on Earth. According to Alan, they were descendants of the original race of the lost continent of Lemuria, which the entity claimed had actually been destroyed in an ancient nuclear war and which had left them homeless and adrift. Luckily, they had mastered space travel, and so a handful of them were able to escape aboard their ships, flying out to Mars to start over. There on the Red Planet they would rebuild their society and use it as a launching pad to other star systems and planets, fashioning a sort of empire across the stars that it called “Galactic Confederation,” and according to Alan they had even mastered space and time itself.  Alan gave vague messages about how they were there to help humanity, to save us from destroying ourselves, and that they should not be afraid of their presence on Earth. Fry claimed that Alan told him:

The political tensions which now exist between your nations must be eased. If either of the two dominant nations of earth were to achieve conclusive scientific superiority over the other, under present conditions, a war of extermination would be certain to follow. We are not here to assist any nation in making war but to stimulate a degree of progress which will eliminate the reasons for war on Earth, even as we, some thousands of years ago eliminated the reasons for conflict among our own people.

Fry would write a book about the whole wild story called The White Sands Incident in 1954, and would go on to create a sort of quasi-religious organization called “Understanding Inc.” in El Monte, California in 1955, based on what he had learned from the aliens, its mission statement being “’bringing about a greater degree of understanding among all the peoples of the earth and preparing them for their eventual inevitable meetings with other races in space.” For a time, the group spread rapidly, with newsletters and numerous lectures and seminars, and they even had a sprawling compound near Tonopah, Arizona. There was a lot of talk at the time that it was a freaky UFO cult, but Fry would always deny this, saying:

The group is not mystic, and is not a flying saucer watching organization although some members hold definite beliefs and interests in both areas. Understanding Inc. which is a non-profit, tax exempt corporation, works on the principles that there is nothing that members are required to believe or accept or do.

Daniel Fry (right) along with other notable UFO contactee George Adamski

Fry became very involved with the alien contactee scene at the time, travelling around the country to attend various UFO events, and would write several other books, including Atoms, Galaxies and Understanding, To Men of Earth, Steps to the Stars, Curve of Development, Can God Fill Teeth? and Verse and Worse. However, Universal Inc. would start to dwindle in the mid-1970s, and by 1979 they were in steep decline and disappeared. In the years since, there has been much skepticism aimed at both him and his supposed UFO encounters, with a few damning strikes against him. For one, he famously failed a lie detector test about his experiences on national television, and although that is not a completely reliable condemnation, other points are. For instance, photos that he took of the supposed craft were analyzed and found to have likely been faked, and his claimed educational credentials as a “doctor” turned out to be a doctorate in “cosmism” issued by a mail-order organization called “St. Andrews College” in London, England, from which it seems pretty much anyone can buy a degree for a price. Another odd detail is that some of his story changed over time, such as the date of his first incident being moved from 1949 to 1950, and just about the only thing we can be sure of is that Fry did indeed work at White Sands as an engineer in some capacity.

We are left to wonder, as we are in a great many supposed UFO contactee situations, just how much of the story is true, and how much has been fabricated or twisted and warped over time. Is Daniel Fry for real, or is this just delusions and a hoaxer trying to get fame off of his books and movement? What really happened out there in the wilds of White Sands? There will probably never be any concrete answer, but whatever you believe, Daniel Fry and his mysterious experiences have managed to remain entrenched in UFO lore, among the many stories from people like him.

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Over the past few days I’ve highlighted how a number of significant figures in the UFO field (and related fields) have changed their views on the nature of the phenomenon. You may be surprised by the sheer number of people whose beliefs have changed over the years. While I won’t bombard you with dozens of cases, I will share with you the fascinating stories of two people as perfect, and very intriguing, examples. Today’s article is focused on a good friend of mine, Matthew Williams. He’s a key figure in the Crop Circle phenomenon. Matt got involved in the subject in the early 1990s – and in doing he so his views on the subject began to alter massively. Matt told me: “In 1992, when I got involved in Crop Circle research, there were a lot of people who believed that Crop Circles could only be made by otherworldly forces. Admittedly, I didn’t know very much about Crop Circles back then; and hearing some of the arguments of ‘bent nodes’ and ‘blown expulsion cavities’ coupled with UFO sightings, made the whole subject seem extraordinary. Without researching the subject for myself, I was inclined to believe the so-called experts and their seemingly plausible theories about aliens making Crop Circles.” A change was soon coming, though, for Matt. He explains:

““Many researchers I knew believed that the Crop Circles were alien in origin and felt there was nothing to be gained in trying to police human Circle-makers, as, in the opinion of the researchers, there were very few Crop Circles created by people anyway; and the researchers I knew were sure that they could tell the difference between a man-made Crop Circle and an alien-made Crop Circle. It wasn’t until about 1994 that I decided to seek out the human Crop Circle makers. What subsequently happened could be termed the ‘other side’ of the story. By this time, I had a good idea that many Crop Circles were made by humans; but was unsure if there was a level of disinformation being spread. It was then I met [Crop Circle researcher, maker, and personality] Rob Irving and heard his immortal quote, which I still use to illustrate the simplicity of the Crop Circle argument: ‘You’ll never be sure until you actually make one.’ What I learned next was totally unexpected, as the Crop Circle makers I spoke to did not debunk the theories that paranormal events take place in Crop Circles, even if they are man-made. Indeed, there was much talk of strange lights and events happening to the Crop Circle makers while they made Crop Circles at night.”

It was at this point that Matt’s views began to change to a very significant degree: “I was given countless tales of UFO activity and even strange synchronicities which took place in the man-made Crop Circles, and which made the Crop Circle makers wonder if they were being influenced by a higher, guiding hand – perhaps at the design stage, or out in the field. I believe that the human Crop Circle makers may be guided by a connection to a higher intelligence, a gestalt or group mind; and the symbols that are put down are deep-routed subconscious expressions. This would explain why some telepaths or psychics claim to have seen Crop Circle designs before they appear – because we are all dialed into the same group-mind ‘internet.’

“The synchronistic events which happen each year in the unfolding designs that the Crop Circle makers come out with are often remarked as being too much of a coincidence. Crop Circle designs have been repeated in different parts of the country by teams who didn’t share designs beforehand. There have even been teams who have gone out on the same night to the same field, made designs, not knowing the other team was present, and their designs have had similarities. The chances of this happening, without planning, are slim; so it would appear that something paranormal is working for the Crop Circle makers. Why do Crop Circles have power? I know that crop is a living medium. Unlike any other type of canvas that an artist may use, crop has a life-force energy which, when used on such a large scale, makes crops blend natural Earth-energy magic with human-energy magic. What Crop Circle-makers may have rediscovered is the ancient art of natural magic – working with large emblems as part of the energy system of the Earth. Take sacred sites such as stone-circles: these were erected as temples for people to visit, perhaps as part of a sacred quest seeking answers. Today, Crop Circles fill a similar role, attracting people who ask questions and putting visitors closer to paranormal sources.”

There’s no doubt that Matt made an amazing, and very thought-provoking, change in his beliefs concerning Crop Circles. In doing so he went down a path that is almost certainly the correct one. Forget nuts-and-bolts UFOs and black-eyed aliens. Crop Circles are much stranger – and life-changing, too.

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In March of 1978, a fisherman was out by a river in in the state of Maranhão, Brazil, when his concentration was broken by screams from the nearby jungle. Alarmed, the fisherman stopped what he was doing and ventured into the thick, murky underbrush towards the desperate cries, until he came to a teenaged boy lying there upon the ground. The boy seemed to be unable to move, and even when asked who he was he could only respond with gurgled cries of pain. Whoever the boy was, he seemed to be in a sort of spaced-out daze, and considering there was blood coming from his mouth the fisherman assumed that he had been attacked by someone. When authorities arrived, the boy was taken to the hospital, and it was found that he had four missing teeth, with other teeth jagged and broken, patches of hair that appeared to have been singed off, some kind of red marks like sunburn around his ears, and by the time doctors looked at him he was in some sort of unresponsive, catatonic state. He was moved to a more modern medical facility, and only after a few days did he begin to come out of his mysterious stupor. When he did, he had quite a bizarre tale to tell, and so would begin one of the weirdest alien abduction accounts Brazil has ever seen.

It started as a normal day for 16-year old Luis Carlos Serra, who in March of 1978 was out in the wilds near his home in village of Penalva, collecting guava fruit for his family. The area was covered in thick jungle, but he had been out here many times before, and for Luis it was all rather mundane, that is until the day began to take a turn for the strange, starting with a loud noise like a siren that boomed out to reverberate among the trees. This was not a normal sound of the jungle, obviously not natural, and at first Luis thought it might be from an aircraft overhead, but when he looked up it would prove to be no normal airplane.

When Luis peered up through the canopy of trees stretching above, he felt nearly blinded by an intensely bright light. What was causing the light he could not see, but it was so brilliant it lit up the jungle floor, and as he stood there, frightened and wondering what could possible produce such a light, he suddenly found that he could not move his body. Luis would claim that something had paralyzed him, and he fell to the ground unable to move or even cry out. As he lay there helpless, the light began to sort of congeal around him, until he was enveloped by it, and that was when he felt his body lift off the forest floor into the air, as it something were pulling him upwards.

The now terrified boy continued his ascent, right up through the branches of the canopy and above the sea of jungle green, and that’s when he finally saw the source of the light. According to Luis, hovering over the jungle was a large round object with a domed top and lined by windows along its side, and it was towards this inscrutable craft that he found himself floating. He would claim that he was pulled towards the mysterious sphere, and right through one of the windows, until he was inside of it. He was then allegedly gently lowered to the floor, from which Luis looked up to see three humanoid beings in metallic suits and visors standing around him speaking in some unknown language. As he tried to comprehend what was going on, the craft began to move, and things would get even stranger still. Although his memory of the even would remain somewhat murky, he says the craft went to a place that was dark and devoid of mountains, sky, stars, and trees; just a vast expanse of some sort of strange tall grass. He was levitated back out of the craft and set down upon a clearing, and he would say of what happened:

I was taken to a strange land with no trees and only with tall grass. I do not know how long it took to get there. I went out the window just as I came in, with nothing supporting my back. I was still paralyzed. It was a strange place I did not know. It seemed like a field, but no birds or sides. The grass was very high, about one meter. I did not see any house or building. I could not see the sky, there were no trees or stars. It was very dark. I was still paralyzed. So those people approached me and put a tube in my nose. It did not hurt. Then they put a transparent ball in my mouth, and a liquid down my throat too fast. I fell asleep and did not know what happened later, I woke up in the bush.

It would not be until three days later that he would be found there by that fisherman, but it would turn out that there had been an intensive search effort to locate the boy carried out by the villagers. The incident would capture the attention of UFO researcher and journalist Bob Pratt, who would go to the region to interview Luis and other locals about what had happened, also finding out that there had been several other sightings of UFOs in the area at the time. Pratt would also interview medical personnel who had examined the boy, including a neurologist and two psychiatrists, and he even spoke with the town’s mayor, none of which had any rational explanation for his condition when found. Rather curiously, according to researcher Albert Rosales, in August of 1978 there was a sighting of three glowing humanoids in silver coveralls and round, translucent helmets in a field near Penalva, although what connection this had to Luis’ case remains unknown.

It is hard to know what to make of this bizarre case. Investigators who have looked into it deem Luis to be a perfectly rational and calm witness who has never deviated from his core story. There is nothing about him that suggests he would simply fabricate such an otherworldly tale, and no reason to suspect he ever gained anything from it. There are also the corroborating reports of other strangeness in the area, so what are we to think of all of this? Is this just tall tales mixed with local superstition and maybe a dose of minor hysteria, or is there something more to it all? For now, the strange case of Luis Carlos Serra remains an intriguing mystery that sees no concrete conclusion in sight, and it is left to the realm of speculation.

Lying out in rural Adams County, Ohio, in the United States, upon a plateau overlooking Bush Creek, is a curious mound of earth jutting out of the land, winding about in the unmistakable image of a snake for a full 1348 feet and averaging 3.9 to 4.9 feet in height, and it comes complete with an open-mouthed head and coiled tail, earning it its nickname “The Serpent Mound.” It is what is called an “effigy mound,” a type of earthen mound created in the shape of an animal, and it is the largest known such mound in the world, made all the more mysterious in that it curiously lies along the impact crater of some ancient meteor strike. First excavated in the late 1800s, we know no more about it now than we did then, its origins and purpose unclear, and so the Serpent Mound has managed to attract many mysterious stories to it, one of these being all of the giant skeletons that have apparently been found there.

While the exact origins and age of the mound are somewhat shrouded in mystery, the Serpent Mound is generally accepted to have been built by what is now called the Early Woodland Adena culture, which existed in the area from between 500 B.C. to 200 A.D., with the structure most likely dating to about 300 B.C., but the reasons for its existence have been debated. One idea is that it was created for some sort of mortuary purposes, as although the mound itself does not contain any remains, there are numerous smaller burial mounds peppering the area around it. It is thought that the serpent might have been constructed as a sort of protector of the graves or a beacon to guide lost spirits. This makes sense, as serpents and snakes were often depicted by the Native peoples as having magical or supernatural powers, and were seen as revered animals. Another idea is that it was for some sort of cosmological or astrological use, supported by the fact that the head and the tail of the serpent just happen to align very well with the summer solstice sunset and the winter solstice sunrise, as well as to yearly equinoxes. Another idea put forward by researcher Ross Hamilton in his book Star Mounds: Legacy of a Native American Mystery is that the Serpent Mound is merely one part of a larger “terrestrial zodiac,” linking together with other mounds across the country. However, no one is sure, and the mound remains quite a mystery.

The Serpent Mound

Adding to this is that the location on an impact crater has turned up various gravitational and magnetic anomalies in the area, leading to speculation that the construction was intentionally made here for this reason, and there have long been stories of freak weather patterns and anomalous lights in the area. The Serpent Mound has gone on to be known for UFO sightings and other weirdness, but perhaps the strangest thing here are the instances in which the remains of what appear to be actual giants, individuals allegedly measuring between 7 and 9 feet tall. One such report appears in 1872 in Historical Collections of Noble County Ohio, in which there were stumbled across some strange remains, which would be described:

The remains of three skeletons whose size would indicate they measured in life at least eight feet in height. The remarkable feature of these remains was they had double teeth in front, as well as in back of the mouth and in both upper and lower jaws. Upon exposure to the atmosphere the skeletons crumbled back to mother earth.

This is far from the only such report made from the vicinity of the Serpent Mound, and another was given in 1891 by American anthropologist and professor Frederic Ward Putnam, who was doing a study and excavation of one of the outlying burial mounds when he came across a skeleton of a relatively smaller size, standing at only 6 feet, but this would have been towering in ancient times, and it was also remarkable for its bizarre dental structure, which seems to have featured a double row of teeth. Putnam would write:

Several peculiarities of this skeleton are worthy of notice. It was that of a well-developed man…and probably about 25 or 30 years of age, he never had any wisdom teeth, and a search in the maxillary bone of one side showed that there was no wisdom tooth forming in the jaw. With this exception, he had a fine set of teeth, and still embedded in the premaxillary bone is a partly formed left incisor tooth. No corresponding formation can be seen on the opposite side of the suture, and this is probably a super-numerary tooth, although the small size of the lateral incisors is suggestive of their being persistent first teeth. As is often the case in skulls of this race, the crowns of the incisors are distinctly folded.

Putnam would surmise that this had been merely an adolescent, and that it would have achieved far greater size if it had not died. Putnam would allegedly discover several other skeletons in the area measuring 7 feet tall or taller, and with skulls that were “twice the usual thickness.” In 1894 a local farmer by the name of Warren Cowen also happened across some unusual graves, and an article at the time in The New York Times says of this:

Farmer Warren Cowen of Hilsborough, Ohio, while fox hunting recently discovered several ancient graves. They were situated upon a high point of land in Highland County, Ohio, about a mile from the famous Serpent Mound, where Prof. Putnam of Harvard made interesting discoveries. As soon as the weather permitted, Cowen excavated several of these graves. The graves were made of large limestone slabs, two and a half to three feet in length and a foot wide. These were set on edge about a foot apart. Similar slabs covered the graves. A single one somewhat larger was at the head and another at the foot. The top of the grave was two feet below the present surface.

Upon opening one of the graves a skeleton of upwards of six feet was brought to light. There were a number of stone hatchets, beads, and ornaments of peculiar workmanship near the right arm. Several large flint spear and arrow heads among the ribs gave evidence that the warrior had died in battle. In another grave was the skeleton of a man equally large… Several pipes and pendants were near the shoulders. In other graves, Cowen made equally interesting finds. It seems that the region was populated by a fairly intelligent people, and that the serpent mound was an object of worship. Near the graves is a large field in which broken implements, fragments of pottery, and burned stones give evidence of a prehistoric village.

There would apparently be made at least 17 reports listed in Smithsonian ethnology reports of outsized remains of 7 feet and over found in mounds surrounding Serpent Mound, and it has led to speculation that some race of giant individuals may have called this place at home and been closely in league with the Natives of the area. What are we to think of all of this? It is all certainly a mysterious place, but are there mysteries here that are even stranger than most? What are are we to make of the reports of giant-sized people living here, and is there anything to such reports at all? The mystery remains, and the Serpent Mound of Ohio is certainly an inscrutable feature of the landscape here.

There are some strange and supernatural creatures lurking in our midst that I think are interconnected. How and why, I have to admit, I don’t know. But, as I see it, there’s no denying the links. Today, I’ll be addressing the appearances of these paranormal entities. And tomorrow I’ll be focusing on their strange abilities. So, let’s begin. There is one thing that stands out when it comes to such things as the Men in Black, the Women in Black, and the Black Eyed Children. It’s the color of their skin. In many cases it’s deathly white. In fact, in some cases it’s almost as if they have something somewhat similar to albinism. Maybe, they do. And, with that said, let’s have a look at this particular condition. Healthline says: “Albinism is a rare group of genetic disorders that cause the skin, hair, or eyes to have little or no color. Albinism is also associated with vision problems. According to the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation, about 1 in 18,000 to 20,000 people in the United States have a form of albinism.” The U.K.’s National Health Service state: “Albinism affects the production of melanin, the pigment that colours skin, hair and eyes. It’s a lifelong condition, but it doesn’t get worse over time. People with albinism have a reduced amount of melanin, or no melanin at all. This can affect their colouring and their eyesight. Albinism is caused by faulty genes that a child inherits from their parents.”

Black-eyed peacock

eSight provides the following: “Ocular albinism is an inherited condition that affects a person’s eyes. People with ocular albinism lack melanin, which gives eyes their blue, green, brown, or hazel color. Melanin also acts like sunscreen to protect the eyes from the sun’s harmful UV rays. It can cause vision problems, such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. Ocular albinism affects the retina, which is the light-sensitive tissue lining the inside of the eye, and the optic nerve that sends signals about what the person sees to the brain. The condition prevents the retina from developing properly, which causes things to look blurry.” eSight also provides this: “Options and support include vision correction, support groups, and low vision aids. Vision correction with glasses can sharpen vision somewhat. Sunglasses, transition lenses, or special filter glasses can relieve hypersensitivity to light, although they may reduce visual acuity when worn indoors.” As for the matter of the Sun and albinism, the Mayo Clinic staff give us this information: “People with albinism have skin that is very sensitive to light and sun exposure. Sunburn is one of the most serious complications associated with albinism because it can increase the risk of developing skin cancer and sun damage-related thickening of the skin.”

With that all said, it’s worth noting that those aforementioned strange creatures – the Men in Black, the Women in Black and the Black Eyed Children – appear to exhibit aspects of something not too far removed from albinism. For the most part, all three groups avoid the Sun: nighttime is when they are usually about. Yes, there are some cases in which the BEC, the WIB and the MIB descend on the homes of their targets (or “victims” might be a better word to use) during the day. Interestingly, though, in the daylight-based incidents the W.I.B. almost always wear long wigs (in a “bangs” style) and large, wrap around sunglasses. The MIB sport Fedoras. The sunglasses, too. Sometimes both the men and the women even wear gloves. As for the BEC, they almost always wear hoodies, and with the hood pulled down just about as far as possible. In other words, the clothing and the headgear are almost certainly not forms of fashion. Taking into consideration all of the above – the hats, the hoods, the wigs, the gloves and the glasses – their “fashions” may actually be essential items of vital protection.

Could it be there is an albino-like connection to all of the aforementioned groups? Granted, it’s nothing more than a theory. It is, however, a theory that makes some sense.

Out in the remote wilds near the village of Tsarichina, in the western region of Kostinbrod, Bulgaria, lies a strange little circular formation that almost looks like a cave that has been filled in with concrete. There isn’t much to it, really, and a lot of people might pass right on by it without even noticing it is there at all. Yet, this nondescript little piece of land is steeped in mystery, and is ground zero for all manner of strange tales of secret operations, UFOs, aliens, and unexplained paranormal phenomena. They call it the Tsarichina Hole, and its story is very bizarre indeed.

The story goes that On 6 December, 1990, the Bulgarian military moved into the region and began excavations on the site, supposedly called “Operation Lightbeam.” Whatever was going on was top secret, as armed men turned curiosity seekers away and trespassers were allegedly dealt with harshly, and the whole place was crawling with military personnel. The rumor at the time was that they were looking for an ancient treasure said to be buried there, the purported hidden treasure of King Samuil. However, according to stories that would eventually leak out, they found something altogether more bizarre down there in the bowels of the earth.

According to supposedly leaked information from a Colonel Tzvetko Kanev, the team’s dig reached a strange spiral tunnel and a mysterious rectangular slab made of an unknown material that could not be explained. Apparently a remote viewer by the name of Eli Loginova was brought in to help them assess the tunnel and the object, and she told them that the slab of stone was a “biological protection slab,” and that it was covered in dangerous bacteria and should not be disturbed. Another psychic called Baba Vanga also claimed that there was a skeleton down in the hole that was “neither man, nor woman,” and both of these psychics claimed that there was something down there in the darkness sending out telepathic messages.

The military apparently nevertheless went into that tunnel to try and excavate the object, and along the way they discovered other anomalies down there, such as a slab in the shape of a concave lens, a depiction in the stone of a humanoid figure of a height dwarfing that of a human, and another tunnel with completely smooth walls, a silvery floor, and walls covered in some sort of hieroglyphics. When they actually tried to approach the slab that they had come from, it was reported that they were repelled by a bright beam of light, and what seemed to be some kind of invisible force field that kept them from getting too close to it. The psychic Vanga warned that the cave was protected, and that whatever was down there was not yet ready to be discovered by humans, that it would defend itself with violent force, if necessary. Other psychics corroborated this, and the clairvoyant Gina Demirova would warn of this:

When excavations in Tsarichina were held, the aliens told me that the research must stop. Do not dig, it’s not your time! There is the center of the Earth – at a depth of 2000 km, there is a finding such as crystals. It is big as the sun when it rises. Do not touch! People will not reach it, but they will disturb the atmosphere. This is a big crystal, which is dangerous and will stay there as long as the Earth. It controls its movement. Stop digging because the earth will perish. Hard days will come for your people. There will be new, many terrible diseases, if you dig in Tsarichina. In the hole, there is underworld, but this is not hell. There are live people like you down there, but their origin is different. There is also space device that is found there. It was sent by an extraterrestrial civilization. There are cosmonauts down there. Thousands of years ago, when your country did not exist, a civilization from another planet sent a spaceship with three astronauts on Earth. They were not humans but robots. They were sent to explore life on Earth. They suffered damage and the space-ship crashed in Tsarichina. With every meter of digging down there, higher and higher radiation will be emitted. Do not dig into Tsarichina hole, it is not your time now!

Alright, then, get all of that? Regardless of this warning they kept digging, and as this excavation was going on there would supposedly be quite a lot of strangeness reported from the surrounding countryside as well. Scared locals were seeing UFOs in the area, ghostly apparitions, and some of them even claimed that they were receiving thoughts beamed into their heads that were not their own. In the meantime, during the full 2 years that this excavation would go on, the remote seer Loginova would claim to be in constant telepathic contact with the entities from the tunnel, who were channeling messages through her. She would allegedly eventually transcribe over 1,000 pages of these massages, and she says they were received in codes that she would decipher. She explained in an interview:

The codes are my cipher letters. More than 1000 pages, which I started receiving during the Tsarichina excavations. The texts are incredible. This is a compilation of ancient writings, which tell about the story of the human creation. How it was created, how it was brought to Earth, how it must survive, what we must do to keep the Earth alive. The Earth is a part of the common planetary synchronicity. This cosmic collactorium wants the Earth to survive. The synchronicity must not be broken, because chaos will ensue. This information is contained in the codes or the ciphered letter received on Tsarichina. They tell about the so-called energy humans. They are marked by them, and through the energy humans they keep the synchronicity on Earth. They choose to come into contact with, in order for this information to be received, because it is very heavy and not every brain can handle that amount of information. I know what the truth is.

Apparently, this was a little too much for other psychics who were purportedly brought in to handle, as one allegedly quit, and another remote viewer Marina Naplatanova committed suicide during the dig. Then, on November 19, 1992, the military suddenly packed up is operation, sealed the hole with concrete, and left. There was no explanation given for why they had abandoned the project, and indeed no official reason for why they had ever been there in the first place. All of the supposed evidence that had been collected for anything found down there in the bowels of the earth was whisked away, labelled as classified, and buried. Loginova would lament:

All the notebooks mysteriously vanished along with all the journals that we composed in Tsarichina. The film, which we shot before the dismissal of the project, also mysteriously vanished. I don’t have any evidence left to certify our work. I can use only my words and hope that people believe me.

Over the years since the excavation stopped there have been numerous rumors and wild tales devoted to the Tsarichina hole. Depending on the story the military found an interdimensional portal down there, alien skeletons, giant power crystals, plans for alien technology, or the secrets of the lost continent of Atlantis. There are also stories that they whisked of a triangular spaceship, leading it to be called the “Area 51 of Bulgaria.” With a story this surrounded by mystery and with this little evidence to back it up, you could come up with whatever theory you want and it would be just as viable as anything else being floated about. Although the story of the Tsarichina Hole has become rather well-known in Bulgaria, it is a mystery that remains rather convoluted, unclear, and without much to show that any of this happened at all. Whatever was going on here, if anything, has been lost to time, possibly covered up, and we may never really know for sure.

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