We flew in from the east
One of the most difficult and controversial parts of ufology is the contact cases. Here too, one must try to use the ideological basis of UFO-Sweden – the ufology of the third way. After more than fifty years of investigations and studies of contact cases, I can state that most of them are about inner experiences with a probable psychological explanation. But some cases in my archive are of a completely different caliber, encounters with physical and concrete “strangers”, who obviously live among us.
In the book Strangers on our Earth. Ufokontakter i Sverige (pp. 108-11), there is a short account of the case of “Anna”. An English version in two parts can also be read on my blog. Since “Anna” was a person who moved in so-called high society circles, I promised not to reveal her real name as long as she lived. But after her death in 2018, I consider it ethically defensible to present my entire documentation of the case today with all the names involved.
Anna's real name was Jade Ekström and she was born in Stockholm in 1920. She spent a large part of her life abroad in countries such as the USA, England and France. For several years Jade lived in Mexico with her then husband, the German-born Frank Gebhart. He was the manager of the American company Combustion Engineering in Mexico. They married in 1958. Jade lived much of an upper-class life with diplomats, kings, presidents and movie stars as friends. A good friend during the Mexican period was the movie star Dolores del Rio. They met at a party with the Mexican president. Dolores del Rio and her husband were very interested in UFOs and Jade was invited to their residence in Mexico City. There she met several people who told about their own UFO experiences.
After returning to Stockholm in 1966, she worked for Prince Sigvard Bernadotte, which also included bridge evenings with Sigvard and his third wife Marianne. Jade was a member of The American Club of Sweden for five decades. The 1970s and onwards saw an increased interest in various new age ideas, which resulted in a small spiritual seeker group in Stockholm called Liljorna. During the 1980s, Jade became the Swedish representative for the organization Planetary Initiative for the World We Choose and participated in the conference in Toronto 17-21 June 1983. During the last years of her life, she published the book Who am I within me (2011).
Jade often gave lectures in various contexts and was also open about her interests in paranormal phenomena, which emerged in an interview in Hemmets Veckotidind no. 22, 1975. But it was a series of experiences she never spoke about publicly and which I promised not to mention her involvement in until after she left this world. However, Jade appreciated the short summary I published in Strangers on Our Earth. In a letter dated July 26, 2009, she writes: “I am glad that you have written it to open people to the different dimensions we now live in from the bottom to the top.”
Through my good friend Christian Bratt I came into contact with Jade Ekström and did a longer taped interview, probably in 1982. Unfortunately I forgot to note the date of the interview. To make the presentation more vivid I will let Jade herself tell the story with quotes from the interview. These are two experiences with a very special connection. To understand the context, here is the first UFO incident on Vindö in the Stockholm archipelago sometime in 1947-48.
Jade: We had guests, there were about twelve of us who saw this. It was in the late 1940s. I only know that it was in August. It wasn't 1949 at least. It could have been 1948 or 1947. It was very strange. I went out to get something from our basement and suddenly I saw a light coming over Kanholmsfjärden. It was coming from the west. We were on Vindö. I wasn't sure what it was and rushed in and said, you have to come out. Everyone rushed out and then they looked at this amazing thing and we said it must be a flying saucer.
Håkan: You already said that then?
Jade: Yes, we said that and I thought it was crazy exciting but somehow I felt scared that time too. I don't know why but I can only say that that was the experience I had. My husband he was definitely going to go down to the dock and take a closer look at it. It wasn't exactly over our house but it was... It just came straight at me like you see a cannonball and then it stopped down there by the bay. Then I got scared and said, no you can't do that and it ended up disappearing straight up at that angle. As we saw it it seemed straight up but it didn't come from above but straight in front. Then it stopped and then it stuck straight up.
Håkan: Didn't you see any details or shape?
Jade: No, it wasn't close enough. It was just up there in the air. We saw it above the treetops. We had fruit trees between the villa and our dock. It was too high for us to say it was a flying saucer. We assumed it was a flying saucer. It was a white light, it was dusk but it was still quite bright. It was almost like a star coming flying. It was so dark that you could definitely see the light. Then we went inside and there was a wild discussion about what we had seen. I was filled with this.
Jade moved to Mexico in 1966 where she married her second husband, engineer Frank Gebhart, in 1958. He looked so much like actor Danny Kaye that people stopped him on the street to ask for an autograph. During a conference in Guatemala through his work, Frank Gebhart met an interesting colleague, Ben Austin, to whom Jade and Frank were invited in November 1958. They were picked up in Mexico City by Austin's servants and taken to a location in Guatemala.
Jade: It was pure jungle. We drove as long as there were roads, then we switched to a jeep and eventually we got there. So there were no proper roads.
Håkan: When did the incident occur?
Jade: I met my husband in 1957 and we got married in 1958 and my boy was born in 1959. It must have been 1958 after we got married. We got married in October so November 1958 this happened. It was a good two hour drive on the highway and then the rest was by jeep.
Håkan: From Guatemala City?
Jade: Yes, it was. I must admit that I don't remember at all which direction we went. I know that it was in November because it was a French diplomat's wife who was supposed to look after our children, that is, my children from a previous marriage.
Håkan: But you were stationed in Mexico City?
Jade: Yes, we were.
Håkan: Where your husband worked?
Jade: Yes, exactly that and he came to my house one day and said he had met an amazing, super intelligent, incredibly sharp man and you have to meet him at some point. And I said, well that would be fun. Why don't you invite him over? Well, but he's not here, he lives in Guatemala. So I said maybe we could go and visit him at some point. Then quite soon afterwards there was an opportunity and my husband was actually out on business and he was going to take the opportunity to meet this guy but we met other businessmen too. When we got there he called the hotel because somehow my husband had gotten a message to him and we were going to come at this time so he called the hotel and invited us and my husband said it would be great fun. Then we went in that car and then the jeep and then we had dinner there and it was after dinner that he suddenly says this: you're interested in UFOs.
Håkan: He tells you that?
Jade: Yes, and then I said no, I'm not. Well, you certainly are.
Håkan: He spoke English?
Jade: Yes, that's right and he spoke a very strange English. He spoke some kind of Scottish-English. I denied it but then he said you've even seen a UFO. No, not in Mexico as far as I know, I said. So he said, no that's right because it was in your home country and we flew in from the east to your country house in the Stockholm archipelago. That's exactly what he said.
Håkan: How did you react then?
Jade: I was completely frozen with fear. I was scared, I was really scared. I found it so uncomfortable, especially when I had never talked about this to my second husband, because my experience was with my first husband. So my husband had no idea about this. So he couldn't have talked to this person about this and I think out of consideration for husband number two, you shouldn't keep talking about it earlier. It's a complete consideration and I was upset in many ways because he was completely straight to the point, just firmly saying it. Then my husband ended up saying, is it really true. Then I said, it's true.
Yes, I hadn't mentioned all this to my second husband and so we're sitting with this man in Guatemala who claims to have seen a flying saucer. Then he suddenly says: would you like to take a trip around Venus?
Håkan: He says Venus?
Jade: Yes, and then I said I don't want to because I have my children in another country where no one else speaks their language and I don't want anything to happen to them without taking a raincheck. Then he turns to my husband and says, imagine your wife is so hairy. Wouldn't you like to come along? He says yes. No, I say straight away, we're both staying. I couldn't get my husband to agree but he absolutely had to come along.
Håkan: He wasn't interested in UFOs?
Jade: No idea, but he was technically curious like all men are so he was eager to go along. It turned out that I had to go back to the hotel and then I got a promise that my husband would be back at the hotel at six in the morning in Guatemala City. Then I started to wonder. I could have at least said that I wanted to see the craft but now I'm sitting here regretting it and I just felt uncomfortable and I couldn't sleep much. Just as the clock strikes six my husband comes in and he's completely pale. He had absolutely no color in his face and he looked completely staring. Of course I was excited and said tell me, tell me. He said, it was incredible, it was absolutely incredible. Something that was really interesting, he said, can you imagine this started on something as small as this piece of sugar. They apparently had some kind of starter motor. After the moment of starting there was no engine sound at all.
Håkan: Did he describe the craft?
Jade: Yes, it was round, it was small and there were windows all around. So not all the way around but a little here and there but there were windows everywhere, east and west. Then I said, did you really go around Venus? Then he looked at me and said, don't you think so. And I had a really hard time believing it so I said, maybe you didn't? Well, if you don't believe it then I'm not going to say a single word more and so he got really angry and just went to bed and slept. Then I tried to get him to tell me. But he said, you don't believe it so he never told me about it ever since. I never got a sound out of him. But what was strange was his behavior pattern, it was so completely different. He became threatening and it was unpleasant.
Håkan: Did it come right afterwards?
Jade: Yes, it did. That exact thing of turning around and he didn't say a word and his manner then lasted throughout our marriage. The strange thing is that I met the man after the divorce and now he's the same as before but he was very brutal and strange, wife abuse and so on. I thought for a while that he was possessed. I didn't understand anything. Then I started to wonder if maybe he had never been in a flying saucer but had been hypnotized and that's why he's so strange. I still don't know to this day if he was outside his garage, that guy down there. I can only tell you how it happened. I absolutely can't guarantee that my husband has been in outer space. He became harder as a person and we became afraid of him. The same feeling I felt about this other man. It was so awful. He went from extremes and then he became himself sometimes. Now he seems to be himself constantly but he wasn't then. Since then I've only met him to discuss our son.
Håkan: Did Ben Austin work for the same company?
Jade: No, not at all and what would a man like that be sitting out in the bush doing? He said he was out to see what humanity was up to. I think he had this as some kind of station, some kind of base. He was small, smaller than me. I'm 5'6". He might have been 5'5", short and stocky with a very rough appearance. He didn't look nice. He wasn't fat but muscular. But he was polite and nice so you couldn't dislike him. Dark hair but more brown than black, no beard, indeterminate eyes but he definitely wasn't brown-eyed.
Håkan: What nationality could he belong to?
Jade: Yes, I asked him about nationality and then he didn't answer it but said, I have a Scottish passport. How did you get it? Well, he said, if we can build flying saucers, we can also fix such a small detail. Why did you choose Scotland, I said. Then he said, I have language difficulties and there are so many Scottish dialects that no one can really hear. We check what people are doing so that you don't set this planet on fire or other stupid things. It might bother us. I don't know why I felt that fear. My whole inside felt that something was wrong here.
Håkan: You said he wasn't handsome. Did he have any direct defects?
Jade: No, he was wearing a white shirt. You know, even in the tropics, when they invite people to dinner, they wear a tie. He didn't have a long neck, not long hair, but he had pretty nice, well-shaped ears. Well-groomed, but not handsome. His skin color was a little dark. Not at all that blond type. Not as dark as the Guatemalan Indians, but like a tanned, white person. But it wasn't like that because the tan always looks so fresh, but he didn't look fresh. A little gray under the brown color. He wasn't fresh. In his manner, he was just like any ordinary Scotsman.
Håkan: How did he live? How did he seem to live socially?
Jade: He had no family and was completely alone there. He had servants but he sent them away so we were alone all evening. The servants were ordinary natives and they had no relation to him in any way. There were books, there was everything. But now I can't say it was his home. He could have rented this. It was just like any ordinary house, neither beautiful nor not beautiful, bungalow type.
Håkan: There was no village there?
Jade: No, there was nothing. I'm used to walking in the jungles down there and you can walk for as long as you want without meeting a person. The servants came and picked us up in his jeep. There was a coffee plantation nearby. There were also large areas of corn fields. My husband told me that the craft was just standing there in the back, surrounded by some bushes and trees, so it was almost impossible to see it. It looked like a regular flying saucer. It was just that it seemed smaller than you would think it should be. I remember he said that you went into it from below. It stood on high feet. Higher than my husband because he could walk straight under. He also said that those feet could be extended and shortened so it didn't matter what the ground looked like. It wasn't really built for that little guy. He mentioned that the time they flew in over Kanholmsfjärden there were a lot of them in the craft because he said we. The strange thing is that these are the only two times in my life when I have been afraid. I wasn't even that scared during an earthquake in Mexico. I have never been scared in a storm. I am a Capricorn and no one can believe that. Unusual things like this always etch themselves very strongly into a person's consciousness, especially when you have been scared. When we were in the country and sat and ate, this was just a funny interlude, but as far as I know I was the only one who felt afraid then. I think I was 38 at the second incident. I can only say that he claimed to be one of these space people. I cannot guarantee the truth of what he has said, but I can only say that this is how I experienced it.
After the interview, I kept in regular contact with Jade Ekström for most of her life. Every now and then she would tell me more details about the events. Her husband in Mexico was kicked out of the company in 1975 after twenty years. Probably because of his hot temper. He then ran a commercial garden and continued to live in the half-million dollar villa in Mexico City. They only met once after the divorce in 1966. It was in 1998 at the funeral of their son Frank. After the UFO incident in 1958, her husband's eyes turned black-gray, but at the funeral they were blue again. He said then that the incident in 1958 ruined his life. He wanted to forget that part of his life.
Regarding the saucer, her husband had said that the starter motor was pyramid-shaped and the size of a small sugar cube. A faint sound was heard from the craft at start-up but then completely silent. There was only room for two people. Frank Gebhart himself believed that such craft would be manufactured on Earth.
Jade regretted many times that she didn't look behind the house to see the saucer for herself before the trip back to the hotel. She has sometimes wondered if the plan was that she would actually be the one to go with the saucer, since there was only room for two. Jade assumes that her husband has somehow been psychologically affected by Ben Austin. She wonders if these individuals are somehow vampirizing us.
Because of my promise to Jade, I didn't dig into the case much during her lifetime. However, I checked with the Stockholm City Archives to make sure various personal details matched. Today, it would require extensive international detective work to possibly make any progress.
(Published in Rapport-Nytt no. 4, 2022).
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