Frank D. Drake 1930 – 2022

 SETI Institute News https://www.seti.org/frank-d-drake-1930-2022

Frank Donald Drake, an astronomer who pioneered the field of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) died on September 2 at the age of 92. 

Born in Chicago, Drake showed an early interest in chemistry and electronics.  He entered Cornell University as an undergraduate and a participant in the Navy’s Reserve Office Training Corps.  Upon graduation, he was assigned to the U.S.S. Albany and put in charge of the ship’s electronics.  He followed this interest upon entering Harvard University as a graduate student in radio astronomy.

After earning his PhD, Drake took a position with the newly constituted National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia.  In 1958, the fledgling Observatory purchased a radio telescope “kit” from the Blaw-Knox Corporation in order to quickly have a research-grade instrument until a planned, larger antenna could be built.  A year later, the assembled telescope, with its 85 foot reflector, was outfitted for observations and dedicated to Howard Tatel, an engineer who designed its novel mount.  This prompted the NRAO director, to suggest to Drake that he come up with a research program to use the telescope. 

Drake decided to follow another of his long-standing interests, and do a search, at microwave frequencies, for extraterrestrial transmissions.  The idea that intelligent beings elsewhere might be using radio as a communication mode was already old – both Guglielmo Marconi and Nikola Tesla had attempted to pick up signals from Mars that they could attribute to beings on the Red Planet.  With the greater astronomical sophistication that had developed by the 1950s, Drake opted to point the Tatel telescope in the direction of two nearby stars, Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani, each at about a dozen light-years’ distance.  For several weeks Drake alternately pointed the telescope at these stars.  The receiver was a commercial receiver designed for shortwave listening, and he used a simple motor drive to sweep its tuning up and down the dial.  He chose to look at frequencies adjacent to the radio emission line (1420 MHz) of neutral hydrogen, on the grounds that this naturally produced line would be known to any technically proficient civilization, and therefore would serve as a marker for the guidance of societies who might wish to make contact.  Drake was unaware of a paper published in 1959 by two Cornell University physicists who were arguing for just such experiments, pointing out that anyone with technology that was at least as advanced as our own could send detectable radio signals.

Drake named this first, modern SETI experiment Project Ozma, a reference to the princess in Frank Baum’s books, as she was in a world “both wonderful and far away.”

Although Project Ozma didn’t detect any extraterrestrial transmissions, it nonetheless attracted world-wide attention. As a consequence, the National Academy of Sciences suggested that Drake organize a small conference to discuss the nature and potential of trying to find evidence of intelligence in the cosmos.  In response, a group of about a dozen prominent scientists and engineers met during the summer of 1961 in Green Bank.  As an agenda for this gathering, Drake wrote a simple equation, consisting of seven concatenated terms whose product would be the estimated number of galactic societies who were producing signals that we, at least in principle, could discover. This formulation has become known as the Drake Equation, and is cited as the second most-famous equation in science (after Einstein’s E=mc2). 

Drake eventually worked at both Cornell, at the Arecibo radio telescope, and at the University of California, Santa Cruz.  He became president of the SETI Institute after its founding in 1984.  He continued to promote SETI even after his official retirement in 2010 at the age of eighty.  As he said at the time, “I’m never going to retire from SETI.”

Frank Drake was a man of extensive influence, inspiring many of today’s SETI practitioners who, as students, were informed by his efforts. A book published in 1992 and co-authored with Dava Sobel, “Is Anyone Out There?”, describes his career in detail.  He was a soft-spoken person of perpetual good humor and astounding patience.  When asked whether his tranquil demeanor was due to dealing with his children, he smiled and responded “No.  It was students.”

It is a rare scientific discipline for which the pioneer can live to see an idea and experiment become a continuing research endeavor, one that fascinates not just researchers, but the public at large.  But that was the flowering of SETI, an effort that promises to someday deliver profoundly important news; namely, that Earth is not the only world to have spawned life able to seek out and find other worlds that have done the same.

Drake leaves behind his wife, Amahl, and two daughters, as well as three children from a previous marriage.

 

1957 Great Harwood, Accrington, Lancashire. UK

       

Ghosts Over Britain, Moss, Peter  Sphere Books, London, 1979: pp. 88-89

 

 

During 1957 that the Wood family were living in Great Harwood, near Accrington, Lancashire.   Well after Midnight one October morning, the usually sound-sleeping Stephen (a young lad at the time) woke up and looked about the dimly lit room –the only source of illumination being Moonlight coming through the window.  Stephen could not believe his eyes ; five silhouetted figures were moving silently about the room without, it seemed, moving their limbs.  These figures moved to the fireplace close to his head and to the wall at the opposite end of the room.

    The figures were described as about 3 feet (90 cms) tall, no clothes were distinguishable though they did appear solid.  There was no sign of hair on what must have been their heads.  Stephen stated that, were it possible for black to glow then these figures did so.

above: visualisation

    As these figures moved slowly and then quickly to the wall beyond his feet, Stephen saw a sixth, also featureless, figure who appeared to be wearing some form of headgear. This sixth figure appeared raised above the floor and as each of the smaller ones reached it they offered or gave something to it.  Stephen was unsure what –possibly a jug?  Each figure then repeated its journey.  Despite calling out to, or trying to, his sister, Stephen found that she slept soundly.

    Then, ”suddenly”, all the figures faded or were gone.

    In this report you can see the various components of an abduction / household visitation scenario.  The figures –shorter entities with the oft familiar taller “leader”— were, perhaps, collecting something from the youth or even his sister : a sister who could not be woken by his calls, another familiar aspect of UFO abduction cases.  Even the vague silhouette description of seemingly “solid” entities is nothing new.        

   Neither for that matter is the “fading” out or disappearance of the entities : an aspect that seems a little confused –did Stephen pass out?

 

above: Great Harwood

    We might say that he saw ghostly servants offering a tribute to a king or some religious figure.  A third scenario, had the percipient been so inclined, could involve the event as a religious vision of some sort.

    To try to get to the bottom of all this I wrote to the publisher.  I wrote to the author care of the publisher.  Nothing.  The thing is that we are told nothing about Stephen : was this a one-off event ?  Had he experienced other phenomena?  We do not even know whether he had been ill, what the family circumstances were or even how old he was.

    What Moss does tell us is that Stephen thinks this a one-off event.  That’s it –a

“ghostly event” but with no background checks to see if previous tenants had experienced anything we are left with -what?  These pot-boiler books are not really interested in case histories just the basic “main event”.  

    I have already mentioned hypnagogic states – Hypnagogic or hypnopompic hallucinations are visual, tactile, auditory, or other sensory events, that are usually brief but occasionally prolonged.  They occur at the transition from wakefulness to sleep  (hypnagogic) or from sleep to wakefulness (hypnopompic).  

    Remember that he tried to call out to his sister this seems to indicate that he did / could not.

    I think that Stephen , like many others, had a hypnopompic hallucination and this is why he can’t recall the exact method of the figures vanishing.  This is what some ufologists would leap on as a “bedroom visitation”.

Oct 1980 Missing Time At the Scottish Borders

BUFORA

 Date: October 1980

 Location: Scottish Borders                  

 Time:1600 hrs

 The following incident is a preliminary report with a full report to follow in due course.

 Stephanie (pseudonym) reported the following strange experience, which dates back over thirty years.

 In October of 1980 Stephanie, her parents and her children were on a car journey from Banbury to Fife. While crossing the border around Jedburgh on their way to Edinburgh they observed a strange object and it appears that their journey took seven hours from the Scottish Borders to Edinburgh.  Below is Stephanie’s written account of the events...

 Written Account by Stephanie:

 "Driving from Banbury Oxon to Anstruther Fife, my parents, father aged sixty-two, driver, mother aged 56, front seat passenger, myself aged thirty-two and my daughter twelve, son ten and son eight in the back seat.

 

 Map showing the area from Jedburgh, Scottish Borders, to Edinburgh

We drove across the Borders on the road to Abbotsford; this is a B road, quiet and picturesque. As we crossed the border around 4pm we decided to stop at the next town for coffee. I was in the middle of the back seat with my daughter on my right and sons on my left. On my right was the south lane of the road and bordering that a narrow band of trees. I saw an object rise through the trees, it was completely horizontal as it rose, matt black with no windows, no sign of manufacture (as in bolts or panels); it was in one piece seamless. I would say it stayed at treetop height, the tree tops did not move, there was no wind. We were travelling around 45mph, the object paced us, my father slowed to a crawl and turned around in his seat, the object moved at our speed throughout. My father suggested stopping the car but my mother and I were afraid and persuaded him not to.

Above: Visual

The object was less than twenty feet from the car and less than twenty feet off the ground. It was triangular with a bulge where the cockpit would have been, about ten feet wingtip to tip and ten feet front to back... my father told me to take a picture, the camera was on the back window ledge but as I reached for it I was overcome by a terror. I felt that forty minutes had elapsed, but we had not gone far. I realised that my children were getting scared and I diverted their attention to a story book and continued to read.

The craft flew off behind the car at an amazing speed; it immediately reappeared about half a mile down the road for a few minutes before flying off at great speed. No cars passed during this time. When we arrived in the border town (I think it was Jedburgh) all the shops were closed, so we continued on to Edinburgh  and my next memory of the journey was after 11pm driving round the ring road at Edinburgh. Everyone was stressed and my father and I had a shouting match; the one and only of our lives.  He was stressed about the time, couldn't understand why we were running so late. I know it was around 4pm when we were on the border when we saw the object. We stopped at Jedburgh and used the public toilets; everywhere was closed and it was well past midnight when we arrived at Anstruther. I don't know the distance but am sure that is not 9 or ten hours travelling. I'm not sure of the distance from the Borders to Edinburgh but doubt if it is more than 100 miles. Yet it took us 7 hours". (Note: Approximate distance from Jedburgh to Edinburgh is 48 miles)  

Further Observations from Stephanie in the form of email dialogue and telephone conversations:

When they reached the Scottish Borders it was about 4pm and still daylight, and they wanted to stop for a coffee and a break with the children...however for some reason there was nothing open in Jedburgh and she felt a sense of uneasiness as to why everywhere was closed.

There was some very unusual behaviour between her father and herself, as they reached Edinburgh about 11.00pm and they had a vociferous argument, which was very, very unusual.   Stephanie explains this in her own words...’As we reached Edinburgh around 11.30 pm my father and I had the only 'row' of our lives, shouting at each other, I feel this must have been caused by some unacknowledged stress’

Stephanie goes on to describe further anomalies after the events;

"I did not talk to the children about the object; we had a holiday in Fife and, my parents travelled on to Aberdeenshire. They collected us after ten days and we drove back to Banbury. After a few days I called each of the children separately into a room and asked them to draw the object and describe what had happened; their accounts and drawings were identical with mine. I have never again discussed the details of this event with them.

I had bad sunburn the following week, on the east coast of Scotland in October!  My periods stopped for 4 months although there was no chance of pregnancy. Over the years I found I could read Tarot and had 'gut' feelings which usually came true. Fourteen  months later an object appeared between the roofs of two houses as the children and I were walking home, it was five houses down from ours, the object was not visible but three lights flashed side, centre and middle, we watched for several minutes until the children grew afraid and I rushed them off home, I looked out of  the window when I got in, and watched the lights cross the bottom of my garden and move sedately over the field and out of sight. It seemed the same shape and size as the one we had seen before".

Stephanie also told me that she has problems with electrics in that she appears to affect electrical gadgets around her, such as lights, computers etc. She explains...

"I could not wear a watch for many years as they would gain time and would not work properly. We had exploding light bulbs in our house that continued until about five years ago (but by then not very frequently.) One day as my daughter and I sat on the sofa, the record player behind us began to play. It was not plugged into the wall. Most of the electrical appliances broke over many years; I was buying electric kettles every two months until it became a joke amongst our friends".

About two years after the incident Stephanie had the urge to write everything down that had occurred and still has this document in an envelope that she has never opened. I had asked her if she could possibly locate this, but so far she has not been successful in finding this account of her experiences.

Recently she sought the services of a hypnotherapist as she felt she wanted to find a way to recall what happened as everything seemed to be a blank from trying to find a place for the family to have coffee and then reaching Edinburgh seven hours later.  She remembered a lady in BUFORA (Jenny Randles) had spoken on the problems with hypnosis and the BUFORA NIC (National Investigations Committee) had banned its use as a method of investigation into high strangeness experiences.

I explained to her the very real problems of hypnosis and that this would not elicit an objective truth of her experience and that hypnosis can be fantasy prone and very inaccurate in uncovering an unbiased and objective truth that is associated with experiences like this. There can also be dangers in exploring these experiences with the use of hypnosis.  It appears that the hypnotherapist Stephanie used has conducted himself in a way that is responsible and there has been no new information forthcoming.

Stephanie told me that she has experienced many unusual incidents during her life of a paranormal nature.  She states.... ‘I found that I was very sensitive to atmospheres, and picked up nuances in speech and so on, I often 'knew' what was going to happen’,

Life has been a constant of small strange events. I have never knowingly seen a ghost. Never created a vision, they 'come' to me. I learned to read Tarot and found I was really gifted, tremendously accurate.

Stephanie agreed for BUFORA AI, Tony Eccles, to follow up her report with an interview and Tony spoke with Stephanie at her home last October 2011.  Tony will be documenting his interview with Stephanie in due course.

 

Above: Gloria Dixon of BUFORA

FOOTNOTE:

It is significant that high strangeness narratives such as this one have become more prevalent within the last two years and they reflect some of the complex high strangeness cases that were reported to BUFORA during the nineties and at one time comprised eight per cent of reports to BUFORA...  There could be many reasons for the increase of these  reports  and certainly there has been an escalation in the media’s interest in the UFO subject during the last year, in addition to the thousands of websites and articles devoted to addressing the  many and varied issues that surround these curious reports.

BUFORA will focus on these strange and compelling cases in future articles addressing some of the core theories and possibilities as to the nature of these extraordinary human experiences.

Further information on electrical anomalies such as those experienced by Stephanie can be read under ‘Strange Places’ on the BUFORA website.  The article is entitled ‘Night Shift’.

Gloria Heather Dixon

March 2012

Note: This was forwarded to me by BUFORA and when I asked about the update that was promised on this case I was told "I think that's it".

I do not believe that banning the use of hypnosis in certain cases helps. If there is some mental or physical -or both- trauma surrounding an event then a hypnotherapist, not Ufologist, should be involved but not one involved in UFO work. Hypnotherapy is just what it says and not "Let's dig into your brain about UFOs". BUFORAs stance as explained is not a good one. A hypnotherapist would be trained in helping people with problems so suggesting not consulting a hypnotherapist is doing the percipient a disservice.

Winter 1976/1977? Wealdstone-Harrow, Middlesex

The big problem in Ufology is that often there are people with agendas or, as with Arthur Shuttlewood and Warminster, dates and other necessary details are omitted.

Peter Paget  UFOs The Welsh Triangle, Panther, London, 1979: p.48

“In February, 1977, Vera Partington, of Harrow, Middlesex had reported to me an encounter with a very similar figure (to one seen at Ripperston Farm, Wales –THS) on the road between Wealdstone and Harrow, one winter’s evening at 10.30.  She was driving from Harrow Weald to her home at Harrow-on-the-Hill, along the darkened road, when her car’s headlights picked out a huge silversuited (sic) man.

Above: one of a number of illoes used to show what the Ripperston Farm entity looked like.

“She vividly remembers: ‘He was walking down the centre of the footpath, going in our direction, wearing what looked like a silver, all-in-one wet suit or diver’s suit.  He was about 6 ft tall and on the top of his helmet was what appeared to be an aerial about 8 in high.  His walk seemed to be a sort of dogged plodding, with his arms swinging about a foot away from his body.  I turned round quickly to catch a glimpse of his front, but too late, we were round the bend of the road and out of sight.’

“The drawing that she supplied of her ‘spaceman’ showed that he had a helmet coming down to his shoulders, encasing his head, in exactly the same manner as the figures in Wales.”

Note by THS: It is assumed, as this is the focus of this book, that “Winter” refers to that of 1976/1977 as no specific month is given.

No images are contained in what is a hodge-podege pot-boiler somewhat in the style of Arthur Shuttlewood's Warminster books.

“Our direction” and “we” use seems to indicate that someone else was with the witness.  Therefore this would be an incident involving at least two people.

12  10  18 a response from Peter Paget.

It took a while but I eventually received a response from Peter Paget. Here is my email to him and his far from helpful response.

 Hello, Mr Paget.

I am currently updating the UK CE3K and entity reports catalogue and wondered whether you might still have details passed on to you by Vera Partington? You wrote "Winter" and I wondered whether an exact month was given?

Also, she writes "We" and "our" so can you confirm Ms Partington was not alone in the car?

My final question is whether you still have a copy of the drawing she made of the entity she saw?

Apologies for all the questions. My thanks in advance.

Hi Terry,

Do you mean Mrs Bowles?  See may books for all the data you need. It is all there, nothing missed out. That is all I have. Original material was destroyed in one of the 'raids' .......     "Of no defence significance....!!!"   Ha  !

Retired now. The Trilogy of updated books are all done and published. Not writing any more. No more data and not collecting any more. Presentations on line and on Kerry's site and some on Mile's Bases 48 etc. Now getting to be 73. Done enough.

Kindest Regards,

 Peter.

Since I stated quite clearly the case I was interested in, and it was NOT the Bowles case, I can only assume either he could not be bothered reading the email or...he was just being unhelpful since he was promoting the reprinting of his books I guess he was not interested in cooperating -in fact he makes that clear.

Was this a genuine report? If by any chance it was and if by a million to one shot Ms Partington ever reads this...please get in touch.

As an end note I ought to make it clear that I do not believe any official raid took place to snatch research work since other than the pot-boiler books I am unaware of Paget having carried out any real UFO research and he was certainly not interested in the 1980s.

JULY 8, 1978, LEMPDES, PUY-DE-DOME, FRANCE

 

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

Probably based on the newspaper article in La Montagne, ufologists noted that in the night from July 8 to 9, 1978, an unnamed motorist approaching of Lempdes in the Puy-of-Dome saw a sharp white gleam at some 300 meters of him on the road.

He first thought it was a road accident, with lights of police cars or ambulances.

 

When he arrived on the spot, in a turn of the road, he saw that the gleam came from a mass of approximately five meters in height, with a rounded top, surmounted by a white light almost dazzling, with the base hidden by the rise of ground just at the edge of the road.

 

The motorist then did not know anymore what that could be, and while passing by at slow pace, at the level of this mass, he saw silhouettes of normal human shape, helmeted and wearing tight-fitted clothing he compared to astronauts outfits. The figures were inside the mass, visible through a transparent wall.

When he looked back little further, there was nothing to see anymore.

He arrived home, and his wife and his mother told him that they had seen two mysterious luminous points in the sky close to their home. One was orange red, the other green, and they disappeared after ten seconds at an amazing speed, separating after several sudden zigzag.

It was at this time that the motorist thought that what he had seen at the edge of the road was perhaps a "UFO".

The next day, he went back on the place of the sighting with his family, and at the entry of a dirt track, on a slope, he found the high grass lying as under the effect of a violent wind blow, the grass or the bushes not being burned nor broken. On the ground, there was a deep mark of triangular form of 60 to 70 cm on side, like that of a triangular support which would have been hollow in its center.

According to the traces, the craft must have measured approximately three meters in diameter, and had been right under a power line.

The radar sets of the nearby airfield had recorded nothing special.

There was an investigation by the ufology group GEOVNI; which concluded that the case was "non-identified."

 

Narratives:

 

[Ref. it1:] I. TAHON:

1985 Bagshot Heath UFO Incident Abduction and Multiple witness Event?

 

  

 According to the UFO Insight web page:

      “UFO researcher, Omar Fowler would investigate the incident, publishing

      many of his finding in Flying Saucer Review magazine. He would ultimately

      state he had “no doubt the report was genuine”. Perhaps it is unfortunate, then,

      that the incident has not received the attention it most likely deserves. Just why

      did such an apparently strong and credible case almost disappear from the UFO

      radar? Might this even be a purposeful and engineered approach?”

 

   I would like to take this opportunity to explain why and the first reason is that the United States is seen as the “prime source” for UFO incidents and, sadly, unless it is something special that fits in with current crazes a report will not get much coverage because most American Ufologists have no interest in reports from beyond the United States.  Secondly, the incident took place in 1985 and most current Ufologists were not even born then. Put those together and you have two reasons why the report is not better known.  The third major reason could be what came out of the “investigation” itself.

   Around 22:00 hrs on the 15^th September, 1985,  David and Susan McMurray, along with their two young children, Paul and Katie, 5 and 18 months respectively (asleep in the back of the car), were driving home to Farnborough in Hampshire and their journey took them through Bagshot Heath in nearby Surrey.  As the McMurrays’ car  drove along a particularly lonely country road a strange object came into view.  David  stated (“Our UFO Terror”, Sunday Mirror 29^th  September 1985):

     “I saw something hovering above the road in front of us. I could not believe

      my eyes. It was a huge saucer-like craft, about 50 feet long with brilliants lights

      coming from portholes around the centre. Then, it suddenly took off. The whole

      family were weak and trembling for days afterward!”

   A second identical object then appeared in the same spot and this one moved alongside their moving car. After heading towards a new housing estate in the distance David decided to stop the car and get out and investigate with the two children (as noted) asleep in the back of the vehicle and Susan remained where she was in the passenger seat refusing to get out. David noticed that the UFO had also stopped and it was hovering just above trees on the opposite side of the road. He would later tell investigators that he had the distinct feeling that the object, or whoever might be inside it, was “watching him”. This, of course is subjective. It was at this point that he became aware of a humming noise similar to “an electric sewing machine” starting up; red and green glow was visible on the underside of the craft.

 

   David and Susan would continue to watch for around a minute before the object suddenly took off into the night sky with acceleration unlike anything either of them had ever seen. It should be noted that another car (a white Volvo) had pulled up behind the McMurray car and the man inside was also watching the object. Once the object had gone David noticed the car occupant had his interior car light on. However, astonishingly, because it seems to be the first thing that comes into most UFO observers minds, David did not approach this car to talk to the occupants.  That might have solicited witness names as well as extra observations. It is also worth pointing out that David was the only person to exit a vehicle and this could be important later.  On their way home, David stopped at the local police station to report the incident.

   The same edition of the Sunday Mirror, 24-year-old Lyn Brookes reported having seen a similar (“almost identical”) object from her location in Wokingham, Berkshire. She stated that: “…It hovered in one spot for about five minutes. I was really frightened. It was as if it was watching me!” This does not, however, mean that it was one of the two objects observed at Bagshot but there seemed to be a strong attempt that these reports –as well as those from others that night- ‘were’ connected.

   We get quotes such as “What the McMurray family would realize over the coming days, particularly, David” when the two youngsters, Paul and Katie were 5 and 18 months respectively and as they were asleep I very much doubt they “realised” anything. In some instances their ages are not given (probably to give a false impression that all the family were witnesses.  Some accounts do not even mention the second car. So, in fact, David and Sue –and David appears to be the main focus who does all the talking- thought that there was a certain window of time that they could not account for.  In fact, David suspected that some form of telepathic communication had taken place between him and the occupants of this “strange craft.”

   Normally the couple were out of bed by 05:45 hrs but the morning after the incident they did not wake until after 09:30 hrs and as for the two children; “each remained sleeping soundly when their parents burst into their bedroom.”  Nice bit of drama there. People do occasionally oversleep and if there are youngsters who sleep on there is nothing to disturb a lie-in.

   But then, shock! Horror! David attempted to start his car but found that the battery was completely dead but a nearby garage helped to jump-start the engine for him. After this we read that; “However, the strange incidents were just beginning.” Car batteries can go flat and all that was needed was a jump-start and this is far from uncommon. I doubt that anyone finding their car battery “flat” will look around and ask; “Was I abducted by aliens last night?”

Above: David McMunny

   That same day David developed a headache centred at the top of his head so severe that he would find himself seeing his doctor and then ended up at the local hospital for immediate tests. All of his results for blood pressure and such all came back as they should, he would remain “unwell” for several days; he would have constant dizziness and “shaky legs” as well as an on-off feeling of “hollowness” in his stomach.  It seemed that as one set of symptoms disappeared others would replace them.  After a week or so David began suffering memory lapses as well as severely disturbed sleep. Then, without explanation, he developed a strange red rash all over the right side of his body; these red circular marks would only last a few hours, but as soon as they faded another would replace it.

 

Above: Omar Fowler

   Omar Fowler of SIGAP (Surrey Investigation Group into Aerial Phenomena) would discover several reports of a strange “humming” had been made by residents in the local area but while many of the sounds were dismissed as coming from the military bases nearby, their occurrence at 03:00 hrs made it unlikely that any type of military exercises was responsible.  Added to the strange humming sound were several UFO sightings from the area.

 

   When investigators returned to speak with the couple in November, 1985, they stated that it was obvious David was “still suffering from various lasting effects of the incident.”  Although the rash on the right-hand side of his body had disappeared a very similar rash was now on his left-hand side.

   There was one development but this seemed to affect only David; without realizing how or why he was doing it he would have a sudden understanding of the mechanical functions and procedures of all manner of electrical equipment and devices. This would seemingly expand to include his car and the complete ins-and-outs of the engine system. Again, people pick things up over the years and I have known people who claimed no knowledge of heating systems get one that had broken down to work again…and then looked stumped as to how they knew what to do. It turns out that in most cases some had watched engineers at work on boilers in their homes and subconsciously stored all the information. Others had looked up faults but “could not understand a word of it” –but something clicked in later bringing out that knowledge. There are far too many attempts at trying to build up this report and whether that was by Fowler or FSR or both is open to conjecture.

   One thing is for certain and that is the fact that FSR editor Gordon Creighton got very excited over the fact that David would experience sudden out-of-body episodes; waking on two occasions to find himself staring down at both his own body and that  of his sleeping wife. He would then return to his body “with a bump”. When asked about this David claimed to have no history of such ability or instances in the past. Again, Creighton leapt at this citing the fact that he had always believed that entity encounters never happened on the physical plane.

   The term out-of-body experience was introduced in 1943 by G. N. M. Tyrrell in his book Apparitions (Gerald Duckworth and Co. Ltd, London, 1943, pp. 149) and this was later adopted by researchers such as Celia Green (Out-of-the-body Experiences. 1968, Hamish Hamilton) and Robert Monroe (Journeys Out of the Body) as an alternative to belief-centric labels that were being used such as "astral projection" or "spirit walking".  The Out-of-the-Body Experiences (OBEs) can be induced by traumatic brain injuries, sensory deprivation, near-death experiences, dissociative and psychedelic drugs, dehydration, sleep disorders, dreaming, and electrical stimulation of the brain among causes. An OBE can also be deliberately induced by some and one in ten people has an OBE once, more commonly, several times in their life times. We know that David was under stress as well as sleeping badly and there is also the question as to the cause of the severe headaches he suffered and whether they may have been a side effect of another problem which also caused the OBEs.

   Cited as “Perhaps strangest of all, though, was the bizarre “message” that was constantly running through his head and had been since the strange night of 15th September” and this was “Epsylon 44L – 47L.”  Neither David nor anyone researching the case appears to have any idea what the code or instructions are or mean.

   Then came the inevitable –the hypnosis sessions.

   David eventually underwent several sessions of hypnotic regression the first of these sessions would take place in the private office at the home of Dr. Leonard Wilder in Stanmore, London on the afternoon of 12^th January 1986. Several witnesses were present to the sessions, including Fowler, Creighton and “other interested parties” which makes it sound as if this was “an event.”

   Once David was under he was instantly back behind the wheel of his car on the quiet country road in Bagshot Heath. Dr. Wilder encouraged him to talk about what was happening and David would tell of “something bright in the road, above the car”, which, seemingly, kept vanishing from his sight.  He would note how this object was following their car and the “brilliant brightness” from the object’s “windows”. When Wilder then asked David to describe the size and shape of the object he suddenly proclaimed; “Guardians…The Guardians…They are the Guardians!” At this point

Wilder left his line of questioning and immediately asked where the “guardians” came from and to this question David replied; “Epsilon 44L…47L” before elaborating that their world was “far away.”

   David claimed that he did not know why these entities were communicating with him but that they did so through his mind. He also claimed he was not at all frightened during the experience. However, he would become visibly distressed about not fully understanding why the words “Epsilon 44L 47L” were continuously running through his mind.  At this point Wilder decided to return to having David describe the craft and David would again begin by stating that it was big and bright but then stopped and stated that “The light’s gone”.

   The session lasted “several hours” including discussions before the hypnosis was begun.  Omar Fowler recalled that there was “an atmosphere in the room” and things “became tense” during the session itself. It appeared, to everyone present, that David was literally reliving the experience in real time. However, what caused “stunned silence” was David’s certain and repeated claims of “The Guardians”

   On the evening of the 26^th January, some two weeks after the hypnotic regression sessions, David was driving with his wife and their two children and as they approached the location of the previous sighting an intense pain suddenly burst into David’s head; so intense that he had to immediately bring the car to a halt at the side of the road.  The pain eventually subsided and although still in discomfort, David restarted the car and completed the journey home. Once home he immediately searched the house for a piece of paper and something to write with. Susan would later describe his behaviour “as though he was in some type of daze” as he proceeded to write down a message “given to him during the intense pain in his head.” Once he had completed this task he read the note and showed it to Susan. We are told that “not only didn’t they understand what he had written, the handwriting was clearly not his own and his use of words was unlike him also.”

   Quite obviously if David wrote the note and was seen writing the note then it was his handwriting but just not one he normally used and this in conjunction with his head pain could indicate a neurological problem - the two most common reasons for a change in a person’s handwriting are essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease; an essential tremor is a neurological condition that causes a rhythmic, involuntary, trembling of the hands, head, voice, legs or body. When it comes to essential tremors it is eight times more common than Parkinson’s disease affecting an estimated 10 million Americans according to 2018 statistics given by Camilla Kilbane, MD. On the University Hospitals web site.

   David’s message read:

      “Epsolom…Planet location 12th quadrant. Primary function guardians of

      planets. Watching Earth since 12 BC…Man’s development up to early

     19th century almost nil. Key people located on Earth  early 1900…development

     up to date, increasing by 50%…still have not basic meotcail(?)…Warlike

     which will not be tolerated…still divided on the idea of one supreme ruler…will  

     continue to watch and instruct key people onto the rate of

     advancement…Recommended that the advancement be reassessed as to

     the nature of their planet. And that they are allowed to continue at the 50%  

     rate rather than to give them full co-operation!”

 

   There was even a signature that read “Asmiz.”

   Of course, Creighton and others jumped at this since the claims lean heavily towards an alien presence on Earth going back thousands of years and that this presence is apparently for the benefit of humanity. On the UFO Insight page we read; “As bizarre as it might sound, might “the guardians” be another reference for the apparent “Watchers” of antiquity.”   Might this “supreme ruler”, we are asked, not be “God”, or even “a god” but rather the Universe itself which rules everything and obeys its own laws only. When it came to the part about imparting knowledge to key selected people on Earth I almost groaned at the bracketed comment in FSRs article –“(Einstein, etc.??)”

   UFO Insight refers to this episode involving the headache as a second encounter. It was not –no object was seen at the time and this constant adding to and removing bits and pieces from accounts is why Ufology is in the mess it is. David’s initial symptoms lasted 8-9 days but there seems to be little mention of the fact that in the last three days of his going through this that his wife also started suffering from shaky legs and a hollow stomach feeling.

   Oddly, Susan did not undergo hypnosis because it almost seems that those investigators involved saw David as the most important as he was the one involved in telepathic contact. At no point were follow-up medical checks carried out and I suspect that the skin rashes could have been psychosomatic and I have seen this type of symptom in others over the years –some quite scary looking. When David had the initial severe pain “on the crown of his head” he was sent to the hospital and his blood pressure was normal as was the ECG he was given.

   This all brings us to the ECG (electrocardiogram) and the fact that this was negative appears, in Ufologists minds, to show that the “message” was real and that David had been imbued with fantastic (not really) technical knowledge. However, an ECG is a medical test that detects cardiac (heart) abnormalities by means of measuring the electrical activity generated by the heart as it contracts and the machine that records the patient's ECG is called an electrocardiograph. These days severe head pain is more likely to involve an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Image) scan; (MRI) got up and running clinically around 1980 and the unit at Royal Brompton opened in 1984. So this would not have been a “standard check” at the time of the incident.

   Regarding Susan’s symptoms which only lasted three days; these could have been psychosomatic.  Remember that she remained in the car so was probably shielded from anything external –the object described could well have been a natural phenomenon and records show that these can give off radiation, etc.. So what about other sightings that night?

   At 20:45 hrs, Mr & Mrs Webb were driving along the M4 toward Wokingham when they saw a bright red, glowing object fly across the sky from the direction of Bagshot (approximately 12 miles away). According to Mrs Webb; “I am sure it was not n aircraft.  It made me think it could have been a so-called ‘UFO’.”   It has to be said that this is both circumstantial and insufficient at best and far too early to be involved in the McMurray incident of 22:00 hrs.

   Then we have the Lyn Brookes incident.  She was with her boyfriend at 23:45 hrs, in Wokingham, Berkshire, when they observed an undescribed object with flashing red and white light for around five minutes. The object appeared to dip down behind some trees and “I was really frightened, it was as if it was watching me.” Her Great Dane dog was “disturbed and whining” –we have no description of the object and nothing regarding distance. Not just circumstantial but, again, insufficient in details (and, yes, I tried to find out more from Creighton and Fowler but they seemed unable or unwilling to offer more details).

   What we find when looking at this report is that this is far from a “strong multiple witness UFO event”. Someone reported “something” in one area 1 hour 15 minutes before the McMurray incident and then another report, from another area, over 1 hour 45 minutes later.  We have David who appears to do all the talking and gets all of the attention when it is quite clear that he was having some form of neurological problem which I shall return to further on. There was, allegedly, another witness in a white Volvo car just behind the McMurrays and who was not approached. We go from “multiple witnesses” to three witnesses to just two and only one of those is the main focus.

   Headaches are by far one of the most common neurological disorders and there are a variety of different kinds of headaches, such as migraines, cluster headaches, and tension headaches. The causes of these can be strokes, seizures, Parkinson’s disease and dementia, etc. and one might argue that the entire incident never happened and that it was all in David’s mind and Susan, being a loyal wife (remember that she noted his strange behaviour at the time of writing “the message”) backed him up –and that is known and recorded in many instances that do not involve UFOs.

   I certainly could not track down the McMurrays and rather like Mr. X in the Bridge Abduction case, David would now be around 70 years of age. Just what Fowler’s or FSRs files contained we have no idea. Certainly nothing else appears to have been published and no follow-ups to see whether David did develop any illness that might have accounted for what happened.

   The other alternative is that the UFO incident was genuine and that there was a third witness who never came forward and was totally unaware of the claim by the McMurrays. If genuine then, as noted earlier, this need not have been a constructed craft of some kind; there is the possibility but no evidence what-so-ever to prove that. In either case, natural phenomenon or “craft”, we do know that both have been recorded as giving out radiation of various kinds and creating physiological illness in close observers.

   In this scenario David’s curiosity got the better of him and he got too close and received a dosage of something while his wife, children and the other witness were all safely shielded inside their vehicles.

   This case was used by FSR mainly because it seemed to offer support for some of Creighton’ odd theories and with no available recordings of the “discussions” before the hypnosis sessions, the sessions themselves and follow-ups we are left with just another UFO sighting. It is because of these type of situations that the CE3K/Alien Entity Study Project exists because we have lost so many reports and those existing often fall into the “Insufficient” category.

 

 

1. Fowler, Omar, “Close Encounter On Bagshot Heath”, Flying Saucer Review 

      Vol. 31 no. 2, January, 1986

2. Creighton, Gordon, “The Bagshot Heath Case In The British Press”, Flying

Saucer Review volume 31 no. 2, January, 1986

3. Fowler, Omar, “Follow-up On The Bagshot Heath Close Encounter: Hypnosis

     Session With David McMurray”, Flying Saucer Review volume 31 no. 6,

     October, 1986

UK May, 1976 Scarborough, Yorkshire

John Hanson & Dawn Holloway   Haunted Skies vol. 6.  pp. 77-78

 

Jan Molloy and her friend, Alison, were walking along the beach front, towards the pier after finishing work.  She told John hanson:

“It was dark, at the time. We were chatting together, when we heard a deafening, whirring, noise coming from directly above our heads. Looking upwards, we saw a cone-shaped object, about the size of a small aircraft, with a flashing bank of lights beneath it, illuminating the ground as it approached us.

 

“We thought it was going to crash, so we started running towards the Pier, noticing that although the noise was behind us, the lights had been extinguished.

The next thing that happened was we found ourselves frunning through an ancient churchyard as irf, somehow, we had been transported back into time. I vividly remember looking at the gravestones, which had an aged look about them.  I couldn’t understand what was happening.

“The locality was so unfamiliar to me.  As we ran along, I looked down and saw we were both wearing crinoline dresses, which made a ‘swishing’ noise as we moved along the path.  I could smell burning and had an impression that whatever it was that had been following us had landed nearby.

“I could hear Alison screaming and was aware of those coloured lights appearing through a swirling mist forming around us, before finding ourselves back on the beach wearing our normal clothes.  The next thing I heard was Alison screaming out to me, ‘There’s something beside you’.

“When I looked, there was nothing to be seen.  Although the whole episode had lasted for only ten to fifteen seconds, we were shocked to discover that three hours had elapsed during the experience –something we found very difficult to believe”.

Alison later told Hanson that she had seen a person in the churchyard “approximately six feet tall, thinly built, with a large head and three fingers on one hand”.

 

THS –it would be interesting to know whether Jan or Alison have recalled other aspects of the experience since Hanson interviewed them.

 

Up-dated 14^th November 2018

Although this report yells out “possible UFO abduction” and it is extremely tempting to try to uncover what the percipient can recall without hypnosis in more detail, I have discussed the matter with John Hanson who was willing to approach the percipient and introduce me to here and proceed from there I have decided against this.

It took a great deal of soul searching because there are certain aspects that pique my interest. However, the second witness is not discussing the incident and if the percipient has had not problems –flash-backs or psychological regarding the event the question is: should I re-open a bad memory for her that might actually result in her facing stress?  

The event happened and she and, hopefully her friend, got on with their lives –no further incidents.  To open up possible bad memories or create stimuli that awakens buried memories for the percipient would be morally wrong. We would have a possible record of a one off event filed away while the percipient would have to struggle to come to terms with anything new revealed.

I will ask and see if the secondary percipient be named or contacted but tentatively list this case as puzzling but closed.

Storrington, UK: 15th November 1967

 16^th November 1967  Storrington, W Sussex

Storrington (FSR vol. 14 no. 2, 1968: Charles Bowen and Gordon Creighton  “The Storrington Reports”.

Haunted Skies Vol. 2  John Hanson

 

   To make this brief, at 18:45 hrs on Sunday, 29^th October, 1967, Paul Quick (21)              saw an oval-shaped UFO flying over woods near the West Sussex village of Storrington. Quick watched amazed as the craft headed for the ground on the Sussex Downs. The object was also observed by his mother and sister despite a search of the area by police, no sign of the UFO was found. This was the first of a number of sightings in the county that were investigated by the late Omar Fowler. The main incident of relevance here took place on the afternoon of Thursday, 16^th November involving Mrs Quick (Paul’s mother).

     “…I happened to be walking towards the Downs as the sun was setting

    in the West. I had stopped to admire the view, when I spotted an obstacle

    on the horizon which struck me at first as looking rather like a steam-roller.

    So, thinking it would be more than a strange to see a steam-roller on the

    Downs, I decided to go home and collect my opera glasses –all I had to aid

    me in the sighting.

 

    “I now learned that it was a different thing altogether, so I stood watching a

    most strange performance. The shape was very unusual –trumpet-shape at

    what appeared to be the front.  The centre was dome-shaped, with two tails

    from the right-hand side. I would say that length was about 25 to 30 ft. It

    swivelled several times before disappearing over the Downs for at least ten

    minutes, only to reappear and continue the same movement.

 

    “After the sun had set behind the Downs, a light appeared in front of the

   craft. It flickered from very bright to a smaller light, then an extremely deep

   red (blood red) glow showed from the object. It changed from light red to

   a deeper red glow.  It changed its position once or twice at great speed, and

   then finally took off at an incredible speed towards the sea, possibly in the

   Worthing direction.

 

    “Ten minutes later, it reappeared, but disappeared again behind a clump of

    trees. After that we saw no more.

    “I had a witness –someone who had been shopping and had seen me looking

    towards the Downs with the glasses—  so naturally she was interested and asked

    me what I was looking at.  She also looked through the glasses, also seeing

    exactly the same object, behaviour, lights, and departure.  By this time she was

    convinced that this was no ordinary event, and so nervously decided to return

    home to inform her son.

    “I noticed a dark figure approaching the craft at one moment, possibly gliding.

    It looked slightly larger than a human as we know them. It disappeared suddenly.”

Above: how Paul Quick described the object (top) and Mrs. Quick (below) Brighton Evening Argus 30^th October, 1967

 

Above: object sighted on 16^th November Omar Fowler’s redrawing of Mrs. Quick’s sketch.

   Bowen and Creighton wrote:

   “As for the vaguely-described “creature” figure, it seems that Mrs. Quick

   suggested it was 8 to 10ft. tall, and appearing to float rather than walk,

   before it disappeared. Mr. Fowler also remarks that after the incident, the

   witness, who lives alone with one of her daughters, had a feeling that

   someone was outside the house, a feeling she shared with her daughter…the

   second incident in particular has features which bear a degree of resemblance

   to descriptions we have come across on many occasions. In this connection

   our thoughts range to Saltwood, and even Casa Blanca, to quote extreme cases.”

 

   It should be noted that the Saltwood case started as a ghost sighting and then became a UFO incident and both based on a misidentification which, in 1967 both Bowen and Creighton knew; John Hanson is Haunted Skies (volume 2) covered the incident quite thoroughly. Mrs. Quick did not describe bat-wings and why the writers decided to use the word “creature” when there is only a tall humanoid figure described I have no idea –perhaps it was to try to make the story more sensational for its readers; and not for the first time. The 1955, Casa Blanca, California case involved an entity roughly the size of a 4 year old child so that comment loses me in this context.

   So what happened to this case –I asked Charles Bowen who referred me to the FSR issue in question because it seems that was where their interest ended. Omar Fowler told me that he did not think that there was much more to it as Mrs. Quick had already reported a UFO once and he couldn’t find any of his papers on the case. Remember; in those days if you saw two objects you could not identify and so made two UFO reports you were a crank. A UFO sighting (with other persons present) and then another with a second observer and an entity was seen you were a loon. Omar could not recall talking to the second witness.