29 September 2004 - The Passing of Dr John Mack

It is with great sorrow that we have to relate the untimely passing of Dr John Mack on Monday 27th September, and in such tragic circumstances.

Dr Mack was in the UK to speak at the T E Lawrence Symposium in Oxford.  T E Lawrence - British officer Lawrence of Arabia  - was just one of Dr Mack's interests, and he had been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his 1977 biography of T E Lawrence, A Prince of Our Disorder.

Dr Mack had given two well-received presentations at the Oxford Symposium on Sunday.  He had returned to London to stay with  friends, and had been out to dinner on Monday evening.  As he was walking to the home where he was staying, he was struck on the pavement by a car driven by an intoxicated driver, suffering fatal injuries, and he tragically died at the scene.  Dr Mack  leaves a sister, three sons and two grandchildren.  We send our condolences to them at this time.

John Mack was one of the few members from science and academia to cross the boundary into Ufology and aliens, with his the study of the spiritual or transformational affects of alleged alien encounter experiences - a courageous move for which he received peer criticism and even censure.  Mack made a massive impact on Ufological research with his study, and the publication of his first book on the subject, Abduction, in 1994, and the influence of this study is still felt today.  Mack published his second and last book on the subject, Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters, in 1999.

Others have continued with the ideas and theories on the reality of the alleged abduction experience, and we hope that this work will continue in his memory, as we strive to understand the wider worlds that have yet to comprehend.

For more details on Dr John Mack and his work, please visit the website of

The John Mack Institute - www.johnemackinstitute.org

Photo of Dr John Mack © the John Mack Institute

September 2004 - Are We Still Alone...?

I guess one of the biggest stories to erupt in the last few days is the alleged 'signal' detected by the Arecibo radio telescope, as part of the SETI@Home project to follow up on possible targets identified by earlier skysweeps. Oddly enough this story wasn't confined to the hype and fodder of conspiracy websites, but reached mainstream news agencies. While the story blew up (if it were true, arguably THE biggest story in the history of mankind) in the popular media at the start of September (and was denied on on the one day), the background goes back to February 2004.

As part of the SETI@Home project, results from the past 15 year's worth of data that passed the various filter algorithms to eradicate obvious natural sources and background noise, were identified as worth another look and to verify the possible signal - this was to be 150 of the more intriguing and unnatural radio transmissions that have reached Earth, and which have been picked up by the still relatively limited sweeps. If any signal was deteced again, then other radio telescopes round the world would also have been used to verify and corroborate any data.

Rumours started on conspiracy websites in April that 'government agents' (MIB, NSA, FBI or whatever) had raided both the SETI@Home project and Berkeley University - you know, MIB-types denying workers access to their offices, officials forced to stay silent etc. However, this thread gets very silly with claims from alleged insiders that the message is coming from Alpha Centauri, and the message was in English! For those that don't know, the Alpha Centauri system is the closest neighbour to our own star Sol, and a mere 4.3 LY away - if any signal was coming from Alpha Centauri we'd have picked it up long before now!

All went quiet until 2 September, when news agencies (and serious science journals such as New Scientist) reported the news that the SETI project had found a signal from within the ecliptic plane, from a point in space between the constellations of Pisces and Aries. The BBC must have had a bit of a dilemma, the news bulletins on Radio 1 at least ran the report each hour, but the BBC TV news I saw declined to make any mention - then again they also declined to run the "Mexican AF UFO Video" story in May! Various UK radio stations were keen for comments from 'UFO' types, both BBC Radio Oxford and 2 Counties radio contacted APRA, but neither seemed interested when we declined to promote a 'belief' that "little green men" had beeen found.

Invariably the media put the "has ET phoned?" spin on this whole Arecibo/SETI story. The claims of a message were then refuted with indecent haste by various parties, including the SETI project - these denials have only given the conspiracy buffs material for the next 20 years at least! Whatever the reason for this vehement denial of any search or signal, there is no doubt that no message has been received. The recent search appears to have now confirmed three times a previous detection of a non-natural signal, but it's hardly the stuff that got Ellie Arroway excited in Carl Sagan's Contact...

As I write the only bit of internet tattle that appears to be missing is connecting the 2001 Chilbolton crop formation to this message - oops, now I've started the rumour ;-)

14 August 2004 - Laser Show May Prompt UFO Reports

After the washout of the previous night, I took the chance to have another look for Perseids on Saturday night.  There was some cloud - annoyingly heavy in the north-eastern sky - but it was fairly clear.  I still didn't see many Perseids while I was out (I only saw 4 that night), but at 11.00pm my attention was taken by moving beams of light to the south, as these were sweeping round the sky, but then they stopped and swept back the other way - this was a laser display.  The beams swept round every 30 seconds in amongst the As/Ac clouds being illuminated by the sky glow from Newbury/Thatcham.  Although I wasn't able to capture this display on camera, the adjacent image illustrates how they looked.  Given the direction from my location, the source for this laser show must have been in the region of Thatcham, or possibly even further south at Kingsclere.   Thatcham is around 16km away, so this gives some idea of the area where misinterpretations might occur, and indeed might also cover motorists on the busy M4 and A34.

A curious footnote in this was a Puma helicopter coming out of RAF Benson at 11.55pm, which flew off in the direction of the lightshow.  It is unusual for flights out of Benson at that time of night on a weekend, and equally the Thames Valley police helicopter would have been deployed had this display been unauthorised - given that it was being directed up into the Golf 1 flight path to/from Heathrow etc, this would have been a serious breach of regulations.

We can assume that the display was authorised, and indeed it was still following the same 30 second 'show cycle'  at 1.00am on Sunday morning when I finally ended my skywatching and went to bed!

We wait to see if any spurious UFO reports are generated by this display.

13 August 2004 - Skywatch Washout!

Oh well, the best laid plans and all that...  The planned skywatch on Friday night fell foul of the front that came south over the country on Friday.  The sky was still largely clear as we assembled at The Hare public house at West Hendred, but very dark and heavy cloud was on the northern horizon as the front approached.  By 9.00pm it was well and truly raining!  None of the skywatch party felt that keen to go and sit out in the rain, so a good evening's chat was had in the drier surroundings of the pub.

What is so frustrating is that the Thursday night was fairly clear, as was Saturday night...

June 2004 - More Big Cats?

Since the 19 May Puma encounter detailed below, we have now had reports of yet more sightings:

• Wheatley - A large puma-like cat bounded across the road in front of another motorist.

• Wittenham - Not actually a sighting, but a 'hearing' of loud cat-like snarling in the woods by the river below Wittenham Clumps.

Perhaps I should have expected a strange coincidence, since I was driving to a photographic workshop at a private big cat collection at Welwyn in Hertfordshire. I was heading towards the B4004/M40 junction, and was between Watlington and Chinnor, when around 50m ahead of the car, a large dark cat bounded from the left verge and across the road into the verge and trees on the right and presumably off into the fields - it took 5-6 bounds to cross the road. I stopped the car at the side of the road to have a listen for anything (again, being somewhat wary of getting out of the car, just in case...)

The overhanging trees provided dappled light, but at 9.00am on a sunny May morning, it was light enough to see well, and I could tell the cat was dark brown rather than the outright black of a black (melanistic) leopard - please don't call this a 'black panther' there is no such creature!

As I was up close to various leopard species for 7 hours that day, I had ample opportunity to study the movement and indeed look of snow and Persian leopards, black leopards, and a puma - I can only conclude that the cat I saw on the road was most likely a dark-coloured puma, though as I noted at the cat collection, the apparent colour of the puma's coat changed drastically according to the ambient light.

Regardless whether my sighting was a puma or leopard, this is now 3 sightings of a large cat within a 10km area of rural Oxfordshire within 12 months.  That said, if a cat (or more) are in the area, I can't wonder why it isn't seen more.

Photo of puma at Santago © Brian P James

9 May 2004 - Mexico UFO Footage

Most of the UFO community seemed to get pretty excited about the press release on 9 May by the Mexican Air Force, who released details, photos and video footage of UFOs seen from a Fairchild C26A Merlin aircraft (Why do these things always break when I'm on holiday, away from email, web or even teletext!!!) Apparently this press release made the national TV news on the morning of the 11th, but as it happened, I was watching BBC Breakfast from 6.00am to 9.00am, and they didn't think the event was worthy of coverage - good job I'm not a conspiracy believer! I didn't see details or photos until the story made the national papers on the 12th. Interestingly, none of the papers I saw accurately covered the video footage, so many people would probably have believed that these images were that of a conventional radar screen, confirming visual sightings.

The reality is of course somewhat different, although the case is certainly still curious.

The C26A Merlin was on a routine anti drug smuggling flight, in the region of of Ciudad del Carmen. The Mexican AF C26A was equipped with an array of sensor equipment, including Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) and radar for detecting in normal and infrared mode. The crew were qualified and experienced in this form of patrol flying, which often involves using only IR and night vision, so as not to use radar to alert sophisticated drug-running aircraft which may be fitted with radar detecting equipment. The aircraft is not designed or fitted for interception or combat. The crew was Major Magdaleno Jasso Núñez (Pilot), Lt. Mario Adrián Vázquez (FLIR Operator) and Lt. German Ramirez (Radar Operator) - all of 501 Sqdn.

At aproximately 17:00 hrs the Merlin C26A detected unknown traffic at 10,500 feet over Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche airspace. Pilot Major Núñez followed normal procedure, and made a manoeuvre to approach the unidentified traffic to get a close look and record the target, also reporting to the base that a possible suspect was detected, requesting the interceptor planes to be in alert condition. Both the FLIR and radar operators had targets on their scopes, but as the C26A manoeuvred the unknown traffic flew away at tremendous speed. At this stage no visual sighting had been made.A few moments later further unknown targets appeared behind the C26A (the reports state that again they were detected on both FLIR and radar - how did targets behind the aircraft appear on forward looking IR sensors?) and now two distinct targets were tracking the C26A, with the crew still trying to make visual identification of this traffic. After a period of further manoeuvres by the C26A pilot, the crew were worried to find they now had up to 11 possibly hostile unknowns tracking them (remember they were on a mission to catch drug-runners), and Major Núñez was requesting assistance from their base. The 11 unknowns then proceeded to literally encircle the C26A - as seen by FLIR and radar, as still there was no visual sighting. After some minutes, the unknown targets flew off, leaving a by now very stressed crew to record and document the event.

The photos that received worldwide coverage were of course not of UFOs seen by the crew, but the IR scope image of the unknown targets. Remember, at no time did the crew make any visual sighting, so this is not a radar-visual case. However, the evidence from two sensor systems is curious.

In the strictest sense the flight crew did not visually witness UFOs in the vicinity of their aircraft. The reports so far have not indicated any confirmation of the unknown targets by ground radar, but two independent sensor systems on the aircraft did detect and confirm unknown targets flying at high speed and manoeuvring in an organised manner. This suggests relatively dense and reflective objects. The high IR signature suggests a hot object, or some sort of exhaust. Indeed, some researchers have already begun to debunk the case, on the basis the targets may have been the burn-off from sea-borne oil rigs, some of which were on the heading indicated. However, it is difficult to see how oil rigs could circle the aircraft - another case of an attempt at debunking avoiding the data!

At this stage, the case is still open...

 February 2004 - Mysterious Markings

A strange case of body marks was first reported to APRA in January 2004.

The witness - "Peter" (pseudonym) - has often experienced encounter situations/poltergeist-like events (entities, lights, noises, apports etc.) during the night, but in January 2004 things took a new twist. On waking in the early hours of the morning, Peter found curious 'imprint' markings on his arms, and initially assumed they must simply be common imprints from bedclothes, but he did note that among the imprints were quite clear glyph-like markings or writing. At this stage Peter thought no more. The following week Peter found more markings, with yet more glyphs, but this time with more obvious Roman letters, and also a more cuneiform-like 'script'. On this occasion Peter attempted to photograph the markings, but admits that in the early hours of the morning he didn't get ideal shots - an image is reproduced here for the reader to make up their own mind.

Over the course of the next 6 weeks, Peter was to experience similar markings at least once a week. However, after one further attempt to photographically record these glyph markings, on each occasion he was then 'compelled' not to photograph them further. This form of psychic compulsion has been experienced before by Peter, so in this case we should not consider it overly significant, although it does frustratingly limit the amount of evidence that has been recorded.

On the basis of the photographs we have, it is hard to decipher the glyphs - though the obvious Arabic-style 'M' is plainly visible, or is it the Roman number 1000? From what Peter described, the cuneiform-style script ran all round his arm, and was something of a cross between cuneiform writing and the block-segment style of a digital display. As yet I have not been able to identify the 'language' of the glyphs, so therefore I have no means of translating - and this is of course assuming these really are scripts and are messages of some kind.

These are not the first occasions on which Peter has experienced markings, but it is the first time they have appeared as apparent writing. The more common form of marking has been rectilinear imprints, not unlike those made by metal watch straps, but in Peter's case, often these have encircled large parts of his arm or leg. While it might still be easy to dismiss the glyph imprints as nothing more than imprints from bedclothes, it is very hard to conceive how bedding could regularly 'accidentally' form regular rectilinear patterns - and no, Peter does not have any Witney-style blanket with its woven panel pattern.

These recent glyph markings stopped in February, and they have yet to return, but I wonder if they have gone for good? Instinct suggests not...