Sunday, June 29, 2025

VICTOR ZAKRUZNY AND THE 1966 WESTALL UFO – a tribute




I was shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of Victor Zakruzny, when I saw Shane Ryan’s moving tribute on the “Westall Flying Saucer Incident” site posted on 26 June 2025 (my birthday of all things – sad news).

 

Rosie Jones, director of the documentary “Westall ’66 – a suburban UFO mystery” (2010) at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1966westallflyingsaucerincident

wrote, “Thank you, Shane for your heartfelt tribute to Victor. He was a lovely, warm and generous person and a great contributor to the Westall documentary. I’m very sad to hear of his passing. Sincere condolences to his friends and family. RIP Victor.”

 

I have quoted Shane’s tribute here:

“VALÉ VICTOR ZAKRUZNY. I am sad to report that Westall High School witness Victor Zakruzny has passed away. Victor was in Form 2 in 1966 and featured in Rosie Jones’ documentary “Westall ’66: A Suburban UFO Mystery”, and his story was re-created in the Discovery Channel Canada’s “Close Encounters” series’ episode on Westall. (The segment was called “School’s Out” – Shane and I were in Toronto Canada for filming of that episode – B.C.) 

“His daughter Jade informed me of his passing and gave me permission for me to post about it here. Victor had two sisters Anna and Maria who were Westall students but they were both home sick on the day of the incident, and his brother Peter was at another school.

“Victor’s sighting stood out for his stated proximity to two of the UFOs as they hovered above the paddock over the western fence of Westall High School. His story was that he jumped the fence and approached the UFOs, getting close enough to one to feel the heat coming off it, and then watched as they ascended and flew away in the direction of The Grange. Years later, when doing a walk-through at the school re-tracing the events of that day, he confided that he had later been called up to the headmaster’s office and warned about talking about what he had seen, with the headmaster saying that the Army had a way of finding out about things, and that they could destroy his plans to become an artist. 

“Victor did pursue his interests in art, and he kindly drew a picture of one of the UFOs he saw that day for Rosie’s documentary, from the side and from below, and UFO researcher Bill Chalker later created a picture of the same scene Victor witnessed after meeting with him in more recent years.

“It has sometimes been pointed out that no other witnesses have yet come forward to corroborate the scene Victor described, and that is true, despite my best efforts to record the accounts of other witnesses from Victor’s class and form. It is true to say, however, that I have been in contact with five other witnesses who do recall circles or marks in the grass in the paddock Victor described, two of whom also recalled actually seeing a UFO in that paddock, one from their nearby workplace and one from their front garden, and another who heard at the time that a UFO had landed there and that she could clearly see the circle in the grass where it had landed from her front garden as well.

“Whatever happened that day, it had moved Victor deeply, and stayed with him for the rest of his life. I am grateful to him for having the courage to come forward and share his story. Rest in peace Vic. Condolences to Jade, Anna, Maria and their families.”


I have adapted my blog post that featured my comments about Victor’s experience and my attempt to create a “forensic drawing” of his “close encounter of the second kind” (Dr. Allen Hynek’s term). The link to that fuller piece is: https://theozfiles.blogspot.com/search?q=Victor

 

Given that I had a long time focus on physical trace (UFO landing) accounts I was pleased to be able to eventually interview VictorZakruzny who described witnessing, as a Westall school student, 2 identical objects, like Joy did, but strikingly initially at ground level, that were connected directly with ground traces.  The reports of ground traces did not get the careful attention they deserved at the time.  There are accounts of clandestine attention, but nothing has surfaced, other than witness descriptions and a Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society photo of a grassed area suggestive of a trace, but also may have been due to prosaic factors.  We just don’t have certainty in that area, but there are plenty of speculations.

 

On 5 July 2008 I was able to undertake an on site detailed investigation and interview at Westall in Melbourne with Victor Zakruzny.  I videoed the interview and got him to do a rough layout map of the events he witnessed.  His account was consistent with a number of interviews he had given to others and to me.


Victor Zakruzny with his rough on site sketches 

during our 2008 meeting at Westall

(Photo: Bill Chalker)

Victor indicated he was able to walk up close to one of the objects, while 3 other students stood around in close proximity to the other object. A teacher and at least a dozen other students crowded along the high fence to get a view. Victor contemplated touching the object but thought better of it.  The two objects suddenly rose up from the grass and took off, one to the west, the other flew up and orbited a small plane before flying down to the south west Grange reserve area, with students in pursuit.   The UFOs were described as about 1.5 metres in height and approximately 5.4 metres in width. They left behind two circles of burnt grass.

Victor went home for lunch straight after this extraordinary experience which swept up much of the rest of his school. This initially to me seemed a strange thing to do given the unfolding events, but he explained that at the time he felt he didn’t need to see any more that day (6 April 1966) because he had seen the exact same object a few years earlier.  He was trying to take a wooden pallet from a factory site near the Westall Grange area during the early hours of the morning (to build a “billy-cart” – B.C.) His escapade was interrupted when a UFO flew over. It was the same looking object he would see during daylight at Westall in 1966 along with many in his school, but it was flying on edge – an appearance captured in the polaroid photo taken at the nearby suburb of Balwyn only 4 days before the Westall incident.  There were other similar encounters during this period of the 1960s in the area around Westall and neighbouring isolated suburbs of Melbourne, which in those days was the outer edge of the city. Pockets of this area still have something of an isolated, almost country, feel to them.

The Balwyn UFO - 2 April 1966

(Photo: courtesy of James Kibel)

Victor also impressed me as a compelling witness giving consistent testimony.  While like Joy, he spoke of seeing 2 objects, Victor saw them at ground level and then watched them take off and go off in different directions.  Like Joy he described one of them flying faster than a light plane.  Indeed, he described it as orbiting the plane, then taking off and apparently heading down to the Grange area. 

Victor later told me that he had a meeting with the school headmaster, who encouraged him not to talk of the event because it might hurt his future chances of a career in art.  The headmaster gave him that advice because he himself had witnessed something similar during the war and he had experienced the pressure of being told not to talk about such things.  Victor followed the headmaster’s advice, but with the growing tide of witnesses coming forward since 2006 he now felt more comfortable with reporting his own experience.  His artistic abilities also provided us with some striking drawings of the objects he saw.

Victor Zakruzny's drawings of the UFO 

he had an extremely close encounter with

His drawings and our site interview and reconstruction of the scene allowed me to generate a “forensic” style drawing of his experience.

My "forensic" drawing of Victor Zakruzny's recollection

 of his 1966 Westall UFO encounter, 

based on our onsite reconstruction during 2008

(drawing: Bill Chalker)

While Victor’s story has only been revealed recently he still impressed me as a witness telling a consistent story. 

I don’t think the evidence that witnesses like Victor share with us, should be diminished simply because they were described decades after the original event. Instead, when they are told with apparent compelling conviction of witnesses like Victor and Joy, we should accept them for what they seemed to be – genuine attempts at recollections of past events - and try to see how they fit into the daunting jig-saw puzzle that the large body of testimony of Westall ’66 testimony represents.  

 

Back in 1996 I concluded in my account of the events in my book "The OZ Files - the Australian UFO Story""There is little doubt that something of an extraordinary nature was seen over the Westall school area and that at least one (UFO) appears to have landed and apparently left behind some physical traces. Numerous witnesses confirm these basic details. Other more exotic details vary in credibility ..."

DVDs of the excellent documentary

"Westall '66 - a suburban UFO mystery"

(Rosie Jones (director) & Carmel McAloon (producer))

http://www.westall66ufo.com.au/westall66ufo/

 

Skeptical and debunking players may uncritically embrace a HIBAL explanation for the Westall mystery but the impressive nature of much of the Westall testimony deserves far better.  I don’t think the answer for Westall ’66 is blowing in the wind.  I suspect it may be providing us with an extraordinary insight into the impact and nature of the UFO mystery if we have the skills, determination and insights to go beyond the curtains of the UFO theatre and reveal the real UFO mystery being played out in our little place in the cosmos.

 

My sincere condolences to Victor's family and friends.

Monday, June 23, 2025

UFO UAP encounters of the library kind

Libraries of all kinds hold a special fascination for me. Ah, yes, books … I’ll avoid a history of general literary delights, and here focus on some personal encounters of the library and book kind with UFOs and their current linguistic iteration – the UAP. While I am always motivated to do field investigations and direct enquiries into UFO UAP phenomena, I have encountered a lot of striking encounters of the library book kind.

 

It seems libraries and books have haunted my life, and continue to do so in fascinating, striking and delightful ways. 

 

For me personally one of my most amazing library discoveries was when I was apparently the first person to have examined in detail the “F.W. Birmingham Papers” in the University of Sydney Rare Books and Special Collections of Fisher Library on 2 August 2024, which had writing drawings and newspaper clippings gathered by 19thcentury local surveyor, engineer and Parramatta council officer, Frederick William Birmingham, elaborating on the strange and remarkable experiences, I had first been alerted to way back in 1975. Birmingham had described seeing a mysterious flying “ark” landing in Parramatta Park, going inside the “machine to go through the air” with the apparent “ark” pilot – a “spirit” – being “like a neutral tint shade and the shape of a man in his usual frock dress”.  Further events followed, including an event seemingly described as actual day time witnessed observation of strange clouds with a strange aerial object in March, 1873. Other strange events like poltergeist and prophetic type incidents, were described, leading Birmingham to an obsession to learn the secret of “the aerial machine.”  It was an extraordinary moment for me to hold and examine Birmingham’s drawing of “the Rover”, his plan for a “flying machine” inspired by his “UFO vision” of 1868.  See my detailed account at 

https://theozfiles.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-birmingham-ufo-vision-manuscript.html

and UFO Truth e-magazine Issue 68 July/August 2024

 

Yet another wild UFO library momentum – “On the steps of a “magnificent obsession” – UFOs, UAP and the Mitchell Library” – “Here on the steps of a wonderful "magnificent obsession" is this group of people, many of whom have their own "magnificent obsession" with the UFO (UAP) subject.  The steps are the north western steps of the Mitchell Library in Sydney, located just to the right of the red arrow ("Mitchell Building entrance") on the State Library of NSW map. The date: Saturday 28 October 2023. In 2007 Brian Fletcher provide an excellent account of the story of the Mitchell Library, which was entitled "Magnificent Obsession."

“The group assembled on the Mitchell steps, had been there with a full house for the booked out Close Encounters Australia sponsored lecture event with Ross Coulthart, author of "In Plain Sight - An Investigation into UFOs and impossible science", now in a revised and updated edition (2 new chapters - "Lock your doors!" and "The Biggest Story Ever ...").

See my detailed account at

http://theozfiles.blogspot.com/2023/11/on-steps-of-magnificent-obsession-ufos.html

 


“This most recent excellent UFO event at the Mitchell reminded me of past visits to the Mitchell and NSW State Library. Back in 1996 1954 Sea Fury pilot/UFO witness joined me and supported my book launch of "The OZ Files" on "a dark and stormy night" at the Metcalf Auditorium at the Mitchell/State Library - one of the worse storms to hit Sydney for a while - a wild launch indeed. While spending long hours in the Mitchell reading old newspapers and micro film searching for historical UFO/UAP reports, I met a fellow Fortean researcher Paul Cropper and we became friends from that point on.  I did a lot of research into the 1868 Parramatta "UFO vision" of Frederick William Birmingham after confirming at the Mitchell he was a real resident of historical Parramatta and they had some of his survey maps. There were many other UFO related threads and plus the hard copy availability of material on my first Australian ancestor William Chalker led me to the Mitchell/State Library. 

“Many magnificent obsessions have been nourished at the Mitchell/State Library.” 

 

The Society for UAP Studies, for which I am an advisor, has begun community reading circles, focusing on “a careful reading of current UAP Studies works in conjunction with more traditional academic and scientific work that can put the texts in UAP Studies in proper context. As the science and scholarship on the subject of UAP and related phenomena increases in appeal and acceptance, it is important to keep grounded in works that help foster a wider critical - and historical - perspective.” While time zone differences are often a difficulty for me, I recommend this ongoing book calibration activity. 

See: https://www.societyforuapstudies.org/community-reading-circle

 

I was pleased to see Bryce Zabel and Chrissy Newton started “a morning-show-style book club made for readers who want to explore the unknown with a hot drink in hand and curiosity on full blast” on 28 May 2025 with the 2021 book “The Believer – Alien Encounters, Hard Science and the Passion of John Mack” by Ralph Blumenthal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ORwjCiaL-Y

 

Back in 2021 I wrote about “The Believer” from personal, general and fascinated perspectives in a brief piece on my blog “The OZ Files” and in more detail in UFO Truth (48: March/April 2021 entitled “The Believer: a tale of 2 books & me”, stating: 

“Its unusual when 2 books come out about the same time, each with the same title, particularly when, in part, they share similar themes. In this case, we have: 

"The Believer - Encounters with love, death & faith" by Sarah Krasnostein (Scribe, Melbourne, Australia, 2021)


"The Believer - Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the passion of John Mack" by Ralph Blumenthal (High Road Books, an imprint of the University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, USA, 2021)

 


I wrote, “What are the chances?” visiting American UFOand Roswell researcher Don Schmitt was sayingto my friend George Simpson, a Melbourne based UFO researcher. George was on the way to Westall, in Melbourne with author Sarah Krasnostein along for the ride, the conversation and content for a book she was researching. George gives his passengers (Don and Sarah) the Westall ’66 UFO tour and story, describing the April 1966 Westall school UFO event. What drew Don Schmitt’s response, was what George was also telling him what Sarah Krasnostein would describe in her 2021 book "The Believer - Encounters with love, death & faith" as “one of the best stories I have ever heard.” See pages 225–229 of her book“The Believer.” It’s a very strange story involvinga possible bizarre scenario that may have played out in the October 1978 disappearance of Frederick Valentich, while he was flying over Bass Strait. A South Australian farmer visiting Coonabarabran in NSW, who apparently had brought a property in the area, told a hardware store owner, that at his SA property back in October 1978 he had witnessed a UFO which had an apparently intact Cessna light aircraft Cessna attached to its side. 

 

“The story had the farmer scratching down thecall sign of the plane on his tractor. It allegedly matched the call sign of the Cessna Valentich was flying. Sarah Krasnostein quotes me in her bookas calling the account “extraordinarily bizarreand unbelievable.” Frustratingly, the SA farmer’s account lacked a name, so no confirmation was possible. Unstated in “The Believers”, my research, assisted by George Simpson, found yet another farmer, who had an even more elaborate account, but one that was suppose to have happened onhis property in southern New South Wales. Similar elements were featured, making us wonder if he had somehow heard the original tale and made it his own. Yet another, ultimately frustrating story. 

 

“I described the story under the title “Strange days, strange tales – a Valentich connection?” in my UFO Truth column in the 3rd issue (September/October, 2013) and on my OZ Files site: https:// theozfiles.blogspot.com/search?q=Coonabarabran

 

Sarah Kranostein’s book had a much broader canvas than just UFOs and UAP. I wrote in 2021, “There is a broad brush of human experience - dying a good death, ghost investigations, creationists, a woman who murdered her abusive husband, a religious "cult" choir and UFOs. With the UFO aspect, Westall, the Valentich disappearance, Roswell and UFO believers are included.” 

 

Of Ralph Blumenthal’s “The Believer”, I wrote back in 2021, “In what could be seen as another “What are the chances?” moment”, another book with the same title by Ralph (co-author of the December 2017 New York Times UAP/UFO breakout story) came out in the United Statesin a similar time frame: "The Believer - Alien encounters, hard science, and the passion of John Mack". I also have a small cameo in that book. Peter Khoury (the main subject of my 2005 book “Hair of the Alien”) and I got to know John personally and professionally during his visits to Australia. My My tribute to John Mack written in September 2004 - “John Mack’s Transpersonal Journey Continues” got into the question of seeking physical evidence:

“Like all of us I found the news of John Mack’s untimely passing very saddening.

While some of us might not have agreed with some of the directions John was taking the subject in, I think the field has been enriched by his involvement. When he was in Australia I supported his research into indigenous aboriginal abduction & UFO experiences — an area we both had a strong interest in, particularly its shamanic dimensions. On the hurdles he often encountered, particularly from mainstream academia, he once told me what he felt. Maybe his response was coloured by spending too much time in Australia, but clearly he enjoyed his time down down under. His response: “Fuck ‘em”. I smiled and wished him well. He was always a courageous and wonderful researcher. Full speed John on the rest of your transpersonal journey.”

 

My interest in UFOs developed as a young teenager growing up in the mid sixties with a strong interest in science and unexplained phenomena.  January 1966, saw my hometown, Grafton, in northern New South Wales, become the focus of widely reported UFO activity.  Many people, including local police, reported sightings. 

 

The afternoon Sydney “Sun” newspaper of June 5, 1966 carried the story:

“FOLLOW THAT SAUCER! 2 police in Grafton chase …”

“Two police constables “chased” a flying saucer around Grafton last night.  The object, which they said changed its colour from white to red, led the two men in a police vehicle all over the district for about two hours.  It then disappeared southwest of the city.

“Constables E. Mercer and P. Woodman were sitting in Grafton police Station at 8 p.m. when a man called, saying there was a “funny looking” thing in the sky.  The two policemen went outside and saw the bright object hoveringover Grafton.  They trained binoculars on the object, which had begun moving to the south of the city at slow speed.  By this stage, the police switchboard was jammed with calls from people who said they had seen the object.  The constables got into a police car and began following it across the city.  As it moved about 1500 ft above the ground its colour changed from white to red and then back to white.

“The policemen described the object as “just a large light without any apparent centre.”  They called their station and reported that they would keep on the mystery objects trail in case it landed.  After two hours, the object moved off at high speed and disappeared.  Constable K. Crossingham said today a similar object had been seen off Harwood Island, about 30 miles north-east of Grafton, last week.”

 

I can recollect that there was a great deal of excitement and interest locally.  Alas I was not among the witnesses, but the events did encourage more interest.  Long duration night time sightings often turned out to have some sort of astronomical explanation but in this case the usual suspects Venus, Jupiter and Sirius were not present in the night sky at the times and directions described.  The extent of the movements described, also seem to preclude an astronomical explanation.  Other possibilities such as balloons and other prosaic identifications also are difficult fits.  So it seems it was a mystery.  Other police in areas like Lismore and Casino figured in nocturnal UFO chases in the weeks and months that followed during what seemed an intense localized UFO flap.

 

My town had borne witness to the UFO mystery.  Through deepening research, I was just starting to learn of the scale of the UFO mystery.  

 

Within a few years I seemed to be bearing witness to a funeral – the death of the UFO mystery.  Looming towards that destination, I was devouring everything I could find on the UFO subject.  

 

I had found intriguing sources of UFO information in my high school library.  One day Mrs. Colleen Haigh, the Grafton High School librarian, noting my growing reading obsession, asked me what I was focusing on. I showed her that I was particularly reading through all the “Science & Mechanics” magazine articles that were running UFO and flying saucer articles many by writer Lloyd Mallan.  Much of this material was brought together in a 1968 paperback book “The Official Guide to UFOs”.  Within days, Mrs. Haigh called me over to her librarian desk. She gave me a book to keep, her own hardback copy of “Flying Saucers have Landed” by Desmond Leslie and George Adamski.  I was not much impressed by George Adamski’s tales of meeting spacemen, but Desmond Leslie’s eccentric accounts of flying saucers in centuries past intrigued me. I just had to check the original sources for his contribution to UFO history before 1947 and his embroidered ancient alien and flying saucer stories. I still have the school librarian’s gift in my own library.  During 2010 in a class of 1970 reunion visit to Grafton High School, former students were given a nostalgic tour, by the retiring principal and some current school students.  In the new library I was pleasantly surprised to find a copy of my 1996 book “The OZ Files – the Australian UFO story.” I was photographed with the principal signing my own book, to perhaps increase its readership among current students. 

 

During the late 1960s and the beginning of the the 1970s, the Grafton town library was often my second home. It was there in 1969 that I encountered a hard back book copy of the “tombstone” of the UFO “funeral” – “The Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects” – the notorious Condon committee report.  I read through it many times, cover to cover.  Instead of finding a massive ode to a funeral for the UFO mystery, I was stunned to find that the body of case data and the conclusions seemed remarkably inconsistent.  About a third of the cases studied by the Condon committee were unexplained.  That didn’t stop the project’s director Dr. Edward Condon from concluding that there was nothing of scientific merit in the UFO problem.  Dr. Condon even argued for discouraging students from studying the subject.

 



I was by then a UFO student, developing a growing passion for science, who concluded the Condon report was bad science.  Some good data, but some troubling, skewed conclusions. Instead of discouraging me, it made me want to engage with the UFO subject more deeply.  I wanted to try to understand the extraordinary disconnection between massive worldwide human experience and this manifestation of mainstream science declaring that the UFO mystery had no merit. 

 

What I was starting to understand through all this early literature and case research was that this was no funeral I was witnessing.  Rather, this was a massive suppression of worldwide human experience of something extraordinary.

 

Given all this library and book interactions it is hardly surprising that I have developed a rather large library of my own, with a significant part of it being taken up by the mystery of UFOs and related matters.  I prefer the presence of actual books, rather than the digital book, but when space, availability and budgetary issues intrude, I’ve accumulated a large digital library.

 

I was asked to do a podcast interview for a local Sydney person James Caulfield during this month of June 2025.  His new developing podcast – The Caulfield - was not focused on UFOs, but seems to be like the average guy tracking down folks who are singularly focused on specific interests his first 2 guests were covering different things: 

Professor Geraint Lewis is a Cosmologist at The University of Sydneydiscussing stuff beyond Earth, but was of the “Rare Earth” school, namely we on Earth are it, in terms of intelligent life in the universe, a position I don’t agree with.  The idea that we are the most intelligent life form in the universe is problematic and somewhat depressing.

Professor Gigi Foster is an award winning economist, author, and outspoken public intellectual known for her work in behavioural economics and her commentary on public policy, education, and COVID-19 responses. The interview dives into her views on lockdowns, vaccines, society, and the role of critical thinking in public debate.

I gather our interview will be up during July 2025. Worth a look for diverse subject matters and different view points.

https://www.youtube.com/@TheCaulfieldPod

 

To get an idea of his format I watched the first interviews, which I found interesting.  I thought, to drive our interview along, I would bring along a small focused part of my library.  Take a look at that mini-view of my library and where the interview goes.  I had fun.

 

The library book thing reared it head again, providing a good resource when I was finding it difficult to get a full copy of the special UAP (UFO) issue of the journal Progress in Aerospace Sciences 2025, Volume 156 – off to Macquarie University and their relatively new Waranara Library.  Despite not being directly affiliated, the library enabled my direct digital access to the whole journal, wading my way through what is a great “shot across the bow” to mainstream research – hey guys and girls, here is a scientific problem worth you focus, that you have largely ignored or marginalised.  Here-in are a huge array of sources to enable some serious catching up – a serious turning point in mainstream science and the need to really focus on the UFO UAP problem.  Time to get serious. I’ve been suggesting that now for 5 decades – what took you so long. The journal Progress in Aerospace Sciences 2025, Volume 156

Here are just 2 articles from of that UAP dedicated special issue:

“The New science of Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena (UAP)” by Kevin Knuth et.al (meaning there are a lot of authors and a huge resource in data and digital referencing)

 

“Estimates of radiative energy values in ground-level observations of an unidentified aerial phenomenon: New physical data”Jacques F. Vallée, Luc Dini, Geoffrey Mestchersky They have re-examined a case from the Condon Report.  Here is the abstract: 

"An exceptional observation of an anomalous object, recorded as ‘unidentified’ by the US Air Force and in the1969 final report of the University of Colorado (“Condon”) study of UAPs, has been re-examined by a Franco-American scientific team.

The observation took place on the evening of December 30, 1966, on an isolated highway traversing a forest near Haynesville, Louisiana. Early in 1967 the main witness, a professor of atomic physics named Louie A. Galloway, reported the case to Project Blue Book of the USAF. Pro-active investigation by one of the authors (JV) brought it to the attention of Professor Edward Condon, himself a noted atomist who had worked under Project Manhattan. Dr. Condon and his team had just begun an official re-examination of UFO (UAP) phenomena under funding of the US Air Force.

The case, which centered on a well-defined luminous object at ground level, led to energy estimates from 500 to 1400 MW, in the range of a small modern nuclear power plant. Significantly, it was one of a number of cases carried as ‘Unidentified’ in Dr. Condon's final report to the National Academy of Sciences in 1969.

Subsequent to that Academy report, significant work was continued at the site by civilian investigators who confirmed the data, augmented by night photography flights. The team returned to the area with the primary witness, located the exact place of observation and gathered new data, notably about the nature of burns evidenced on the trees, which had not been available to Dr. Condon and his assistants.

Samples of the burned and intact bark were obtained by our own team, and they were preserved until it became possible to properly analyze the material.

The burn analysis data presented here was obtained at the laboratories of the French Atomic Energy Commission in Saclay, France. We present our results with the understanding that the study will benefit from further discussion within the larger scientific community."

 

Ah, a UFO (UAP) physical trace case from 1966 – the year for UFO landings, such as Tully, Westall and Burkes Flat, and these are just some of the good ones from Australia – a focus I had been documenting and publicising for many decades. Good to see that mainstream science might actually be catching up.  The journal Progress in Aerospace Sciences 2025, Volume 156 special UAP issue will be a game changer, I think.

Thursday, May 29, 2025

"Solid Light" review

Here is an extract from my lengthy “Solid Light Cases” entry in the mammoth 2 volume 4th edition of “The UFO Encyclopedia – The Phenomenon from the beginning” by Jerome Clarke with Brad Sparks, with further contributions by Thomas Bullard, Douglas Dean Johnson, Theo Pajimans, Thiago Luiz Ticchetti, Thomas Tulien, and myself.
I strongly recommend this major work to all who are interested in the UFO/UAP subject.  It is a rich and vast resource of information coming in at near 1700 pages.


“Solid light” cases describe a significant range of UFO/UAP events that have worldwide occurrence, across the full history of the phenomenon. They involve events in which UFOs appear to manipulate light beams or possible exotic analogues of what we understand as light beams, but do so so in ways that appear to be beyond our current capabilities and understanding.   These “light beams” have some intriguing characteristics.  Unlike light beams as we know them many of these UFO light beams are seemingly truncated, having a “sawed-off” appearance or a finite end. They often seemed to be projected in unusual ways, particularly demonstrating “slow progression”. Instead of immediate projection these beams often slowly project.  They are often non-divergent, with many reports of what appear to be solid light tubes.  They seem to be used in a variety of ways as transport or for picking up things like people or UFO entities – an alien variant of the tractor beam – a staple of science fiction - but they seem light years beyond the limited achievements we have made in this area. They are often involved in vehicle immobilisation events, which in UFO parlance have been referred to as EM car stop events, the EM referring to the proposition of a possible electromagnetic mechanism.  These cases represent a fascinating, but somewhat neglected body of remarkable international case data, which may provide some fascinating breakthroughs in how we can ultimately manipulate and utilise light in ways that seem like science fiction. 

The term solid light is possibly inappropriate as many cases implied that the strange light beams may not be solid in the way we judge phases of matter.  Indeed, it also seems in some cases what appears to be phase change occurs, seemingly like from possible analogues of what we view as solid, liquid and gas. The close study of these sorts of cases could add to science and maybe lead to breakthrough advances in technology. Maybe mainstream science is slowly catching up.  Bosen Einstein condensates and other newly developed states of matter, along with experimentation in a wide range of areas, have been helping us to manipulate light as we know it, in diverse ways, such as slowing light. These are like baby steps compared to what is reported in the range of UFO/UAP light beam reports that come under the tentative nomenclature of solid light. (for example see Clegg, 2001; Perkowitz, 2011)

The SOBEPS solid light catalogue
A preliminary catalogue of solid light cases by Claude Bourtembourg and Alice Ashton of the Belgium group SOBEPS, dated May 1976, listed 128 reports, but it was best viewed as a starting point, as its focus was broad (“straight beams (not dispersive)”, “beams described as if issuing from a powerful projector”, “a pennant hills historygroup of simple beams”, “docked” or “solid light” beams, “probing” beams, “beams assisting in certain humanoid activities”, “luminous projections of diverse forms” and “special cases” (in which UFOs seemed to affect our own light technology) and the listing contained errors.  The latter category of special cases, for example, had 3 different listings of the same Australian event – the famous bent headlight beam case from Victoria (Burkes Flat), which, while a striking event, was not an explicit example of UFO solid light, but it may still provide some data for assisting interpreting such cases. (Bourtembourg & Ashton, 1976) 

THE BUCHER SOLID LIGHT STUDY
Dr. Walter Bucher, went significantly beyond the SOBEPS listing, producing a German language 225 paged survey, publishing in a European MUFON-CES conference volume in 1978, but still included a rather broad range of case references, with the apparent intention of more accurately calibrating the solid light experience, and attempting some explanations involving such things as particle beams, and/or microwave and ultrasound beams. However, Bucher concluded, “It seems very probable that the solid light phenomena are based on physical principles still completely unknown to us.” He described the core phenomenon, “A solid light looks like a compact cylinder or cone radiating much more light to the slides than an ordinary light beam.  Frequently a solid light has an abrupt end and the length of the beam can be varied.” (Bucher, in Brand, 1978)

THE HEERING SOLID LIGHT STUDIES
Considerable debate and controversy, particularly among European researchers, of case data associated with the loose term of solid light, was focused on surveys undertaken by Dutch researcher Jan Heering, who undertook “a comparative analysis of 62 “solid light” beam cases” published in 1978. Heering’s abstract noted, “witnesses of UFO related events have repeatedly mentioned the fact that the anomalous objects observed by them emitted one or several solid looking, slowly propagating light beams (‘solid light’ beams). (The analysis showed) the characteristics of ‘solid light’ beams are remarkably constant: uniform luminosity; sharply defined edges; low propagation velocity; conical or cylindrical shape; and (sometimes) propagation along a curved path.”  

Heering concluded, “there is no lack of unsolved problems in connection with ‘solid light’ beams and it is no exaggeration to say that, except for certain phenomenological aspects, nothing definitive is known about them.”

However, doubts about some cases started to undermine Heering’s confidence and he started to carefully re-examine his solid light case collection.  He had already highlighted 4 cases (La-Roche-en-Brenil, France, 1954; Mendoza, Argentina, 1968; Olavarria, Argentina, 1969; and Tandil, Argentina, 1974) as unreliable. Despite some interesting theoretical exchanges in 1979 with SOBEP’s Auguste Meesen, a professor of physics, on the possible utility of proton beams to facilitate some of the characteristics of reported solid light cases, it seemed Heering was more concerned that more cases were unreliable, such as a dubious colour photo on the cover of LDLN No.138 – allegedly taken in France on March 23, 1974.  The dubious nature of the photo’s discovery should have already been concerning enough.  

NON-EVENTS?
In September 1980 Heering met with Ernest Berger (real name Alexander G. Keul), a Vienna based researcher, who had published on solid light cases in the Traunstein Austria area (featuring reports of objects emitting straight and curved “feelers of light”).  Despite being somewhat tangential or atypical of many solid light cases, Heering had considered them to be of significance.  Berger (Keul) was now informing him they were the result of “a naïve and unexperienced amateur” and that they were of little value, and that generally “UFO sightings had a psychopathological background.” This led Heering to deleting all cases from Berger. Heering felt uncertain about the remaining. 

HEERING’S EXIT
Writing in a letter in February 1985 to the editor of SVLT newsletter Wim van Utrecht, Jan Heering recollected his 1980 thinking, “How many of these hundred cases are reliable? Ten? Twenty? So many that the conclusions I have based on them are incorrect? Is there anything such as “solid light”? I think so. That’s about all I venture to say about it.” Over a period of 5 years Heering had focused on the physical aspects of the UFO phenomenon, concentrating on solid light reports, but would eventually destroy his UFO archives and end his UFO research.  (Heering, 1985)

CHALKER’S SOLID LIGHT REVIEW
Despite this somewhat mixed and bleak overview of some of the earlier research into so-called solid light, Australian researcher Bill Chalker began to try to systematically review the literature on such cases and to apply his scientific and vocational quality control background to carefully reassessing the available solid light case data. Through the assistance of many researchers around the world he concluded after extensive review, study and research, that there still was a significant body of well documented case material that supported his long held hypothesis that they represent a body of potentially remarkable data. It is an ongoing (perhaps unending) review with many issues and difficulties that are being addressed as best as resources allow. Chalker suspected they could provide some fascinating breakthroughs in how we can ultimately manipulate and utilise light in ways that seem like science fiction. The solid light UFO cases appear to suggest that the UFO/UAP reality is demonstrating that, whatever is behind them, UFOs have been doing many extraordinary things with light or its exotic analogues.

The possibility of breakthrough technologies, or perhaps more accurately, in terms of national security perspectives, disruptive breakthrough technologies are a critical pivot point in the long and circuitous pathway that the “national security” narrative has taken over more than 50 years of often myopic and toxic embraces from mainstream media, politics, the military, the intelligence world, and science. 

The 2012 book “UFOs and Government – A Historical Inquiry” by the UFO History Group, with primary authors Dr. Michael Swords and Robert Powell, provides detailed information on the long historical perspectives and the litany of lost opportunities of identifying and launching deep scientific investigations of potential breakthrough technologies, or indeed ones of the disruptive kind.

THE RED BLUFF USA CASE
In “UFOs and Government” Dr. Swords, a retired science professor of 30 years standing at Western Michigan University, highlighted a striking example of an impressive police witnessed encounter on the night of August 13 and 14, 1960 at Red Bluff, in California, which also featured possible solid light, but that detail was missing in its official investigation.

THE RED BLUFF SOLID LIGHT REVEALED
Michael Swords described “one very strange feature of the case” – the hidden aspect of solid light. “The light beam projected by the object seemed like what would be described today, as a big, fat laser beam. That is, it did not spread out or diffuse “properly.” But worse than that, the beam seemed to have an “end” to it. Even Carson, who was much the more verbal of the two officers, did not talk about this in the earlier reports. However, in a 1966 interview with McDonald, he had become comfortable enough that he said: “Its beam seemed to extend out a distance in the air, and then to end in some curious manner that [I] did not understand then or now.” McDonald, though a sympathetic interviewer, thought that this was probably impossible and tried to rationalize it on the basis of a limited area of dust in the air. But today 
there are dozens of other sightings mentioning this peculiar sawed-off light.”

The US Air Force investigators with Project Bluebook did not put in a serious, objective attempt at a focused scientific investigation.  Instead the police witnesses had to endure a myopic debunking exercise. Official attitudes caused the main witness, a highway patrol officer, to not describe the “light beam” to the USAF.  James McDonald, a noted atmospheric physicist, managed to draw out this remarkable detail, because he was actually interested in what the witnesses reported. But, unfortunately at the time he did not pursue this aspect.

However, genuine scientific skepticism, driven by a desire to question and carefully investigate an experience, at least captured this detail.  Michael Swords indicated in an end note in the book “UFOs and Government” that “sawed-off light” cases are “a peculiar feature of a smallish set of “high strangeness” UFO encounters.  As these encounters are widely spread across the world, this feature is surprising and difficult to explain on sociological grounds.” He indicated he had some 44 cases in his own files. (Swords, in Swords & Powell, 2012)

Bill Chalker, the author of the Australian chapter in “UFOs and Government” contacted Dr. Swords, highlighting he had already been conducting a detailed study of a larger collection of such cases, and requested a copy of his listing and any further solid light accounts he may have.  Swords subsequently expanded on his initial review arguing that “slow light” might be a better term for much as this case material. (Swords, 2012)

THE KIAMA AUSTRALIA SOLID LIGHT AFFAIR
A significant impetus for Chalker’s re-focusing on solid light claims developed from his ongoing investigations of a particular case.  In both of his books “The OZ Files” (1996) and “Hair of the Alien” (2005) Chalker refer to solid light cases (including a dubious case – the Gundiah, Queensland case of 4 October 2001, where he showed that “a forensic approach can draw some metaphorical blood” (Chalker, 2005)) and described an Australian case from Kiama, southern New South Wales from the early 1970s.  He had been looking into the case since learning of it in the 1990s and conducted a very detailed site investigation (mainly in 2012 & 2013) to determine if the observations reported by the primary witness were possible and to see if further information could be found.  Graham, the primary witness, has closely guarded his privacy and Chalker only had one face to face meeting with him, as well as many phone conversations, written statements and emails.  

Chalker’s investigations indicated the most likely date of the Kiama beach “solid light” case was 22 November 1970. He and his family were staying with his parents in law at a house on a headland that overlooks a prominent beach in the Kiama area. During the night his sleep was disturbed by light coming into the room. On the second occasion he saw a flying craft which projected at an angle “a light beam (“like a perfect cylinder of solid light”, about 30 feet long and about 2 and a half feet diameter) white in colour with a blue fluorescent tinge evaporating from it” and detached moving in a downward axis impacting with a caravan. “Upon impact the light behaved like water, pouring over the caravan, … and like fluorescent paint from an electro, airless spray gun… the caravan illuminated completely for about three seconds then the light faded away.” The craft now slightly to the left of its original position projects another “beam of light” which moves again in an axis at a very slow pace (3 feet per second), this time impacting on an amenities block at the beach camping site, in the same way as the caravan impact. A third light beam much longer in length detaches from the unidentified flying craft and is projected at about a 45-degree axis towards the beach briefly illuminating an area of sand 40 feet at its widest.  

Bill Chalker & the Kiama area beach event

Four people are present on the beach in this area – 2 men standing motionless looking up at the craft, a young woman who jumps up from a small beach fire and joins the 2 men, and another young woman running backwards “trying to brush the light off her arms and body.” She then stood separately from the other 3 people staring up at the craft. The light goes out and the beach is then in darkness. 

The witness apparently falls asleep standing, then awakens again, this time seeing the unidentified craft now above the headland street very near to the house, overlooking the beach. The witness blacks out. When he comes to, the witness sees that the craft is still in close proximity to the house. The witness sees through a window shape on the side of the craft and also sees a man enter the room in view via the “window.” He is joined by another man. The witness is then suddenly frightened when he sees the 2 men inside the craft are looking directly at him and smiling. He drops to the floor calling out to the others in the house, saying: "Everybody keep down. Stay out of the light." 

Pandemonium sets in with great noise and severe vibration of the fridge and washing machine.  He calls out, "Quickly get under the doorways, the house is going to fall." For the witness it seems like “the craft overhead sucked the electricity out of the house, then took off.”

This strange affair has several defined stages, but the evident discontinuities in awareness, argue both for a surreal, dream like quality and also reflect the paradoxical reality of some of the stranger elements of the UFO phenomenon.  The extraordinary behaviour of the "light beams" behaving as both solid and liquid has been reported elsewhere in Australia and overseas.  The apparent surreal display quality to parts of this experience (such as the UFO and its occupants displaying themselves up close to the reporting witness in the house on the beach headland) is reflected in many cases.  There seems to have been a number of gaps in the time sequence.   

FOLLOW UP ON THE KIAMA CASE
The main witness recontacted Chalker in 2012. He confirmed an aspect Chalker had long suspected as part of the experience, which he only originally hinted at in the vaguest possible way - an abduction recollection that was consciously recollected at the time, but he was extremely reluctant to share these details during the original discussions years before.   He recollects sitting in a curved hallway in a strange environment.  He heard a voice and turned to fine a woman.  She asked him, “Do you remember what happened in there?”  “No,” he replied. “Do you?” he asked. “Put it this way, I won’t be telling my husband.”  He doesn’t recollect much more, or he volunteered little further detail about this aspect of the Kiama encounter.  However, he did say he started to attend some UFO group meetings with the express purpose of seeing if he could find the woman he had encountered in the Kiama experience.  At one meeting he saw a woman who looked like the woman encountered in the strange environment, presumably on board the UFO.  When he started to talk to her he felt she was not the right person and did not persist with the conversation. (Chalker, 1996, 2005, 2019 & 2022)

RE-EXAMING CLASSIC CASES
The lessons of earlier investigations and research into these intriguing but controversial cases emphasise the need for careful reassessment and where possible re-investigations, with quality control of the data being a primary objective.  Sometimes such cases are difficult to identify and fully document, depending on the milieu they emerge from. 

Two cases, deemed classics of the solid light case type, required detailed reviews, as the data on each is rich, diverse, and sometimes conflicting – Trancas, Argentina (1963) and Taize, France (1972). Both cases are seen as either strong evidence for UFO solid light type events, or as explained in prosaic terms.  Chalker has examined data from both sides, in each case, and feels that each side of the debate deserves careful airing, which is beyond the scope of this limited review of solid light cases.  Each case has intriguing data that might suggest they are legitimate cases, but the explanatory models in each case inject a need for cautious evaluation. 
Some possible "solid light" events

TRANCAS ARGENTINA (1963)
The Trancas case, which is described as featuring objects (or a single object) near, or on, a rail line deploying solid light beams at the occupants of a farm house, and the appearance of an object in much closer proximity to the farm house. Some people from the house investigate and report encountering strange beams of light.  The case is best known through the work of Oscar Galindez (Galindez, 1971), but Roberto Banchs conducted a detailed retrospective investigation in the 1980s. Chalker examined the original investigations, the Galindez investigation in the 1970s and other data, as well as the Banchs investigation, which put forward an explanation involving military deployment of arc searchlights. Others argue that such military involvement has not been verified, and that many other elements of the claimed event are not explained. 

TAIZE FRANCE (1972)
The Taize case apparently involved people attending a religious retreat, who describe a large object with pillars of solid light projected downward, as well as encountering a mass that seemed to bend a torch light beam.  A weakness of the case, maybe, is that most of this information came from one witness. (Tyrode, J., 1973) Others present have not come forward.  The main reporting witness reports that the main object moved away and travelled some distance, seemingly landing at a more remote location, in which possible related ground traces were found. The explanation put forward revolved around a distant house, which had an outdoor home movie projection setup.  Data provided to Chalker by Gildas Bourdais from France seems to cast some doubt on this explanation, but as the case is largely based on only one of member of the group that was present, it remains inconclusive, despite its compelling content. (Chalker, 2013)

LIMA PERU (1958)
US researcher Tom Tulien drew to Chalker’s attention to a 1958 case, with some of the apparent known characteristics of solid light events from Lima, Peru, investigated in 1967-68 by Richard Greenwell for the APRO (Aerial Phenomena Research Organization), and provided him a copy of the investigation file from which the details are quoted:
“Witnesses to this observation are Eduardo Moll … and Juana Moll, his wife …. (Moll)

“Observation took place on February 1st, 1958.  Witness A (Eduardo) and Witness B (Juana) were still engaged.  Witness A was driving a 1953 Ford along a highway known as the Avenida Costanera, which runs north of the sea-front in the city of Lima … towards area known as La Perla, where witness B lived.  Time was approximately 9.20 p.m., and it was totally dark.  The area through which this highway passed was totally deserted.  At a certain point, witness A and witness B observed a red-orange light at low level at some distance ahead of them (… maybe 200 to 300 metres)

“Before long, the witnesses found themselves about 100 metres from the light source.  They realized that it was not any commercial advertisement.  It appeared to be a ball of fire, of red-orange colour, underneath of which was a bright white light.  Witness A continued driving at a slower rate until they came abreast of the light source and then turned off the ignition of the car and the headlights. Object was now being observed to their extreme right while it hovered at a distance and at an altitude of about 10 metres.  The object appeared to be also about 10 metres long (or circular?) and about 1.5 metres thick.  To their left, to the west, lay a cliff and the Pacific Ocean. To their right, to the east, over which the object hovered was an abandoned brick factory.  Several small adobe walls lay about…

Underneath the object, around its central area, a beam of light fell to earth.  

“This beam of light helped in determining the altitude of the object. The beam (totally white) was narrow at the top and widened out at the bottom.  Its edge was sharply defined and fell strictly on the area where it fell without illuminating the surrounding area.  … (no) perceivable noise coming from this object.

“After observing the object for a few minutes (perhaps 10 minutes), Witness A decided to get closer.  He stepped out of the car and walked towards the object.  To do this he had to step over the first small adobe wall on the edge of the highway.  When he was approximately 8 metres from the area where the beam of light fell, same “went out.”  Witness B says that the beam was “sucked up” into the object.  Witness A says this was not so, that the light simply “went out” and it would anyway be impossible for light to be “sucked up” in that manner.  This is the only point in which the witnesses do not entirely agree.”
  
Eduardo began to move closer, but the object began moving slowly east, away from the witness, and silently and vertically, and faster than the witness’ walking pace. It rose at about the speed of a slow moving car, at about a 15-degree elevation.  Eduardo return to the car, but as he was trying to drive into the area, “the object disappeared on the horizon.” (Chalker, from Tulien, 2013)

BOYUP BROOK AUSTRALIA (1967)
Here is a remarkable case that comes from official Australian government files. It took place near Boyup Brook in Western Australia on 30 October 1967. A Western Australian Police Department report on the incident, describes what took place:
“Report of: Leonard Johnson, Constable 2514
I have to report that at approximately 9.35pm on Monday the 30th October, 1967, Alexander Roy SPARGO, 37 years, shearing contractor of Great Southern Co….  called at this station and reported having sighted an unidentified flying object on the Kojonup-Mayanup Road, Kulikup approximately 10 miles from Mayanup at about 9.20pm 30th October 1967.
Spargo stated he was driving his 1967 Valiant Utility… , towards Boyup Brook from Kojonup at approximately 60-65 mph with headlights on high beam.

“When approximately 10 miles from Mayanup the car suddenly stopped - motor stopped - headlights went out - and became stationary without any sensation of braking or deceleration.
A tube of light descended close to the windscreen. The tube was about 2 feet in diameter. He looked up the tube and could not see anything but felt he was being observed.
The tube of light had descended from object shaped like a football, iridescent blue colour (lightning colour but stationary), with a pulsating glow appearance, and approximately 30 feet in diameter.

“Spargo stated he just sat looking at the tube of light and object for approximately 5 minutes. He felt no personal effect other than surprise and not being able to believe his eyes. He heard no noise.

“The object then moved off very quickly and disappeared in a 'flash.' When it had gone Spargo found his motor running, lights on, and again travelling at 60 to 65 mph (previous speed). He felt no sensation of acceleration.

“He stopped the vehicle and got out and inspected same but could find nothing unusual. He then continued on to Boyup Brook and called at the Police Station and made his report.
He stated he employed 60 men shearers and if they learned of his report he would be ridiculed.

“Prior to this sighting he had read of other people's sightings and he had regarded those people as 'cranks.'

“He travelled to Boyup Brook and stayed overnight at Bill Inglis' farm where he had a team of shearers working and returned to Kojonup on the 31st October. There had been a fairly severe electrical storm on Sunday evening the 29th with a great deal of lightning and thunder but little rain. On Monday evening the 30th the sky had become overcast and some lighting seen around 7pm.” (Basterfield, 2017)

A STRIKING CONFIRMATION OF THE BOYUP BROOK CASE
This primary source account of a credible example of a UFO deploying solid light and seemingly controlling a car, has a very striking confirmation that emerged from a book that was written focusing on bizarre events that mainly played out 10 years earlier. In 1957 the area experienced a sensational milieu of alleged poltergeist events in the form of falling stones, accompanied by reports of strange Min Min like lights (the generic term given to floating mystery lights around Australia) and other curious phenomena.  The events were described in Helen Hack’s book “The Mystery of the Mayanup Poltergeist.” As she had close family members involved in the affair, she also became aware of an event that would have otherwise might have never been shared. 

On the same night as the 1967 Boyup Brook event, on a property in nearby Mayanup, Grayden Pascoe, a local farmer, experienced a bizarre encounter with what may have been another example of solid light.  At his property on Whistler Road, Mr. Pascoe had been disturbed by terrible noise from farm animals. His enormous kangaroo dog cowered on the verandah. When Pascoe stepped onto the verandah he was blinded by an intense light. Instinctively putting up his hands to shield his shut eyes, Pascoe observed that the strange light was so intense it seemed to shine right through his hands and closed eyelids. Opening his eyes, Pascoe saw that his hand seemed to be transparent, with the veins showing up “in a blue network beneath the skin.” He stood for 5 or 6 minutes, trying unsuccessfully to determine where the light was coming from. During this period of time Pascoe indicated he was unable to move because of the blinding light. Then suddenly without any sound the light disappeared. (Hack, 2000)

DR. HYNEK’S BLUEBOOK CASE – NEWTON USA (1967)
Allen Hynek described investigating a case of this type in the dying days of the USAF study programme, in his 1977 book “The Hynek UFO Report” – his review of Project Bluebook. Just as the University of Colorado’s USAF commissioned Condon Committee study was being released, concluding there was nothing of scientific merit in studying UFO reports, Dr. Hynek was concluding otherwise. Bluebook case 12567 dated 23 November, 1968 and located at Newton, Georgia, had the following features: “Witness saw a brilliant light directly above the road about 200 feet ahead of him and 50 to 75 feet off the ground, as he rounded a bend in the road in his 1967 Ford. The area was sparsely settled.  There was no definite object, just light.  The car radio faded into static.  The light itself emitted a beam downward that illuminated the nearby trees.  Light was then retracted as if the beam were a ladder; it was five to six feet wide and well defined.  The main light was fuzzy on the edges.   Now the engine cut out as did the radio … Light then disappeared after a few seconds, going straight up.  Engine started by itself and the car had been left in drive gear.  Conclusion: Unidentified.” (Hynek, 1977)

THE IMPOSSIBLE PEARL – GAOYAU CHINA (SONG DYNASTY – 11th CENTURY)
The long history of Chinese UFO/UAP events provides a striking juxtaposition of possible ancient and modern solid light reports. One of Joseph Needham’s key historical sources for his monumental multi-volume series “Science and Civilisation in China” was Shen Kua, a Song (Sung) Dynasty scholar. In his fascinating example of the pi-chi form of Chinese literature – “Brush talks from Dream Brook” Shen Kua records “inside information” about a “strange occurrence” involving an extraordinary “pearl” that frequented the air above a number of lakes around Yangzhou in Jiangsu province in China, which at least on one occasion projected a strange form of fantastic light. 

Accurate translations of the story of the flying pearl of Gaoyau suggests it may describe an 11th century account of a UFO projecting solid light.  

Gaoyau or “West Lake” of Shen Kua’s account is more accurately referred to as “Slender West Lake” (aka Fanliang Lake) just north of Yangzhou. It should not be confused with the much better known tourist location to the south at Hangzhou, also known as West Lake, which I have also established has its own more mythic sky dragon/elusive pearl folktale.  

Two translations by esteemed US Chinese scholars describe “light shot out from the crack like a golden ray,” (Richard Bodman) and “a bright light emerged from its “shell”, like a single ray of golden thread” (James Hargett, who even suggested there may be many more UFOs to be found particularly in “pi-chi” (informative reporting style) essays that include anomalies). (Chalker, 2019)

Quoting Richard Bodman’s translation, which he titled “On a UFO”, in Victor Mair’s “The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature”:
“In the Chia-yu period, a pearl appeared in Yang-chou. It was very large and frequently appeared at night.  At first it emerged from the swamps of T’ien-ch’ang county. Later it moved to Pi-she Lake; and finally it was at Hsin-k’ai Lake.  For more than ten years, residents and travellers would constantly see it.

“My friend had a study by the lakeside and one night saw that the “pearl” was very near. At first it opened its door very slowly and light shot out from the crack, like a golden ray.  After a moment, it opened wider to the space of half a mat; within there was a white light like silver. The “pearl” was as big as a fist and so bright you couldn’t look at it directly. For over ten tricents, the trees cast shadows, exactly as when the sun has just come up. In the distance you saw only a sky reddened as if by a forest fire. All of a sudden it went far off, moving as if in flight, floating over the waves, shining like the sun.

“In recent years, it hasn’t appeared again; no one knows where it has gone. Fan-liang-chen is where the “pearl” used to appear, and when travellers reach there, they usually tie up their boats for a few nights to watch for its appearance. The pavilion there is called “The Playful Pearl.” (Mair, 1996)

CANGZHOU CHINA (1998)
On October 19, 1998, scientists and military personnel were gathered at a Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) missile base in Cangzhou, in Hebei province, testing China’s first “supersonic” drone, based on a modified J-711 fighter. A famous Chinese Defence scientist, Major General Zhao Xu, the “father” of China’s UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), was also present.  He and other scientists and military personnel witnessed a striking UFO encounter. The incident was verified by radar and PLAAF F-6 pursuit aircraft pilots. The base commander General Li, focusing on the testimony of his own pilots (Captains Liu Ming and Wu Shao Hun), and addressing their observation of the projection of two beams of strange light from the UFO, stated, “Surprisingly these two light beams of light were not as we normally see light beams, as has been according to the distance and spread, but as two light-emitting entities, sticking out from the bottom of the UFO ending on a certain length. At least today we have not got control of this sort of light technology.” (Chalker, 2019 & 2022)

Shen Kua, can be viewed as a proto-scientist and even an early Fortean researcher (a collector and chronicler of strange anomalies like Charles Fort), provided some “brush strokes” or “brush talk” that Chalker and other solid light researchers have built on into the modern age of flying saucers, UFOs, and UAPs.  

- Bill Chalker

Basterfield, Keith, Police report on the Boyup Brook encounter, uncovered, https://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com 29 August, 2017
Bourtembourg, Claude & Ashton, Alice, SOBEPS – Research and Analysis – UFO Phenomenon – Solid Light Cases, Brussels, Belgium: SOBEPS, 1976
Bucher, Walter, Solid light, in edited conference volume by I. Brand, MUFON-CES Tagungsband (Conference Volume), Feldkirchen-Westerham, Germany: MUFON-CES, 1978
Chalker, Bill, The OZ Files – the Australian UFO story, Sydney: Duffy & Snellgrove, 1996.
Chalker, Bill, Hair of the Alien, New York: Paraview/Pocket Books, 2005
Chalker, Bill, personal communications from Gildas Bourdias, 2013
Chalker, Bill, from Tulien, Tom, Special report on the Eduardo Moll case – Lima – Peru, 2013
Chalker, Bill, UFOs & the Solid Light Enigma, Melbourne: New Dawn Special Issue, Vol.13 No.1, pp.17-2, 2019
Chalker, Bill, Solid Light & the UFO/UAP mystery, Cottenham, UK: Out There – Newsletter of the International Mensa UFO SIG (Special Interest Group) No.5, 12-26, June, 2022   
Clegg, Brian, “Light Years – an exploration of mankind’s enduring fascination with light, London,: Piatkus, 2001)
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Heering, Jan, A Comparative Analysis of 62 “Solid Light” beam cases, UFO Phenomena, Vol. II, No.1, Editics, Bologna, Italy, pp. 11-50, 1978
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Hynek, J. Allen, The Hynek UFO Report, New York: Dell, 1977
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Perkowitz, Sidney, Slow Light – Invisibility, teleportation, and other mysteries of light, London: Imperial College Press, 2011
Shipp, Martin, UFO-Car chase near Frome, The Probe Report, Vol. 4 Issue 2, October, 1983 
Swords, Michael, in Swords, Michael & Powell, Robert (primary authors), UFOs and Government – A Historical Enquiry, San Antonio, Texas: Anomalist Books, 2012 
Swords, Michael, “Slow light & UFOs”, http://thebiggeststudy.blogspot.com/2012/10/slow-light-ufos.html , 2012
Tyrode, J., Taize: A case right out of the ordinary, Flying Saucer Review (FSR), Vol. 19, No. 4, 16-21, July-August, 1973