I was quite sure that in one of my books I dealt with the 1947 "CAV" CE3K incident from South America.
It seems that I did not. I did mention it in Some Things Strange & Sinister and produced a line drawing to help visualise what was described
_____________________________________________
Near Lima, Peru. Night time, 1947 Investigators: A.P.R.O.
Mr “CAV” came upon a grounded, shiny disc-like object on a highway outside of Lima. Stopping his car, “CAV” approached the object on foot only to be approached by “…two incredible amoeba-like” AEs that “looked like bananas joined together. Their skin was sandy-coloured with a towel-like texture”. In height the AEs stood at around 5 feet 5 inches (approx. 1.6 m).
A voice, in English “…as if from a speaker” (and which he understood) suddenly broke the silence and told him that they (AEs) were sexless and to demonstrate this they divided themselves like amoeba. “CAV” was taken on a tour of the rather barren-looking interior of the craft. He was then escorted out and watched as the craft departed.
The witness suffered loss of volition and appetite as well as total exhaustion.
This is all we know of the incident. Although investigated by representatives of James and Coral Lorenzen’s Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (A.P.R.O.), this case never appeared in their ground-breaking 1967 book, Flying Saucer Occupants or their 1969 book UFOs: The Whole Story.
Even Gordon W. Creighton’s chapter on Latin American encounters in the book The Humanoids (1968) does not list this case. Back in the 1970s James Lorenzen did confirm the case was dealt with by A.P.R.O but that was as far as I got.
Is it possible that the case was just too weird for the more conservative Ufologists to handle or put their name behind? Most people will be familiar with the case from the book by John A. Keel, Strange Creatures From Time And Space –an author not too concerned with the weirdness of his subject matter.
Today, of course, “CAV” would be taken to a hypnotherapist or “abduction specialist” and undergo hypnotic regression. However, in 1947, hypnosis was a thing of horror movies. It is doubtful “CAV” is even alive today if he was in his twenties in 1947 he could now be in his eighties.
What is so striking is the fact that AE encounters in association with UFOs was unheard of in the 1940s and I cannot find any popular movies from that period in which AEs of this type appear from which “CAV” could have been influenced. The description has not, as far as I am aware, been repeated since. The description of the interior of the craft looking barren seems to be in-keeping with the appearance of the AEs.
This case really does need further research and I am hoping that somewhere there exist A.P.R.O. records with a full case report.
For High Strangeness this case deserves a 3 rating (5 being the highest possible).
The reason why this case may not be better known is down to the later Richard Greenwell, at the time a South American investigator for APRO. Greenwell spoke fluent Spanish and so, even though the interview was twenty years later, he had the opportunity to get more details.
When you interview an observer/percipient you do tend to ask trick questions or leading questions to see whether they are lying or fantasy prone. Greenwell, if his account is accurate, did this but was almost a little insulting towards CAV -although the latter seems to have taken it all in his stride and even emphasised that he did not know the answer to some questions asked. Usually someone fantasy prone will add to their account. CAV did not.
One thing that is striking is that CAV was very clear that he had no idea and was not claiming that what happened was real. Nor was he claiming that it was an hallucination -however, he stated a number of times that for the peace of his mind he hoped it was an hallucination as that he could live with.
Greenwell did not hide the fact that he thought it was all in CAVs head -re-iterated in a follow-up in Flying Saucer Review. You can be sceptical in an investigation but when you let your own personal opinion cloud your conclusion -which Greenwell did- then things go wrong. To prove that the event was an hallucination or was real, CAV offered to pay his own travel and hotel expenses to be put under investigation by APRO specialists. Greenwell made it very clear that APRO should reject the case. For their own reasons (not wanting to upset Greenwell or because the case was too weird the Lorenzens followed Greenwell's advice.
The outcome must have been a blow to CAV who, let's face it, had his story recorded and put in the collection and was then dumped as his story did not fit in.
No comments:
Post a Comment