HAIR of the ALIEN - DNA paradigm, teleportation & "Elle-maids"?

HAIR of the ALIEN - DNA paradigm, teleportation & "Elle-maids"?

The extraordinary encounter Peter Khoury had with two strange female entities in his Sydney Australia home back in July 1992 provided my APEG team with a strange hair sample which ultimately yielded striking DNA results suggestive of advanced cloning & DNA techniques. This incredible case is a potent touchstone for the primary focus of my new book "HAIR of the ALIEN - DNA and other Forensic Evidence of Alien Abduction". The nature of the DNA evidence in this case supports the claims of Peter Khoury that he had a confronting encounter with a blonde female being, which seemed to involve bizarre behavioural elements. In an attempt to stop the claustrophobic and overpowering nature of the entity's actions - forcing him to her breast - Khoury bit her! He began to cough in apparent reaction. The strange pair are suddenly gone, in just as mysterious circumstances as their arrival in side what was thought to be a secure house. "There is important evidence of the women's presence to be recovered and a story to be told."

The hair sample and the intriguing DNA data that emerged from it anchor Peter Khoury's experience in reality. It is not the stuff of hoaxing, delusion, hallucination or other prosaic factors.

How did these strange women arrive and leave so suddenly? - a phenomenon often reported in UFO abduction experiences. The initial strange perception of the women by Peter Khoury (like he was seeing himself through a transparent version of himself) was rapidly replaced by the certainty for Peter Khoury that these women were really present. The hair sample recovered and the DNA results attest to that reality. Without that evidence it would have been tempting to view the encounter in rather more non-concrete terms - a vision, an apparition or a hallucination? Given the evidence perhaps the visitors arrival was facilitated by some phenomena such as what we might speculate as being "teleportation".

During an open line segment on a ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) radio programme on March 24 1975 a caller identifying himself as Mr. Campbell described a "teleportation" (Star Trek style "beam up") experience he claimed he witnessed at his home not far from the US base in north western Australia at North West Cape. After observing a UFO passing low over the sea, Campbell claimed that later that evening at his home, while trying to recall details of the event, he felt "a telepathic presence in the room." Campbell said he felt this presence seemed to move closer as if engaged in watching him. He looked around and saw nothing, but somehow got the impression that the "presence" was about 5 feet 6 inches tall. Campbell claimed he tired of this situation and turned around and looked at the invisible "presence" at what would have been eye level and said, "Good day, mate." Campbell professed to not be prepared for what happened next, neither it seemed was the "presence". Campbell said he could see the shimmer of a form taking place. A feeling of coldness pervaded the room as a figure formed by striated horizontal bands of blue and yellow light began to appear. Even Campbell likened it to the TV show Star Trek "beam up" effect. Then just as quickly as it had appeared this manifestation started to reverse itself and then there was nothing, save a seemingly mental "telepathic concept" communicated to Campbell, to the effect of "clever" or "smart". Campbell surmised that when he turned around and said "hello", the "presence" must have thought it was visible, and began a process to rectify the apparent situation. Immediately realising it was becoming visible, Campbell thought, the "presence" reversed the process again, projecting the thought to Campbell that he was being "clever" or "smart". Two further "presences" appeared in his bedroom, one apparently amid the wooden bed structure. Campbell's wife began to wake up. He "suggested" to the "presences" they leave. With that, they apparently did and Campbell claimed there was an associated loud clicking noise as though some reforming process was occuring in the wooden bed structure in the wake of the "presences" departure. While the account is antecdotal it still captures some of the realities claimed by others who report encounters with "teleporting" UFO entities.

Dr. David Darling (author of "The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia", "The Universal Book of Mathematics" and "Life Everywhere - the Maverick Science of Astrobiology") has just had a book published entitled "Teleportation - the Impossible Leap". He was quoted at www.space.com saying, "Any strange comings and goings are candidates for teleportation, although you would obviously have to eliminate all mundane explanations first... According to reports, some UFOs do appear and disappear quite abruptly, which would fit in with the basic idea of teleportation. " The same can be suggested for many accounts of alleged encounters with aliens here on Earth. Darling speculated, "We might expect advanced aliens to be occassionally beaming in to check on our progress as a species."

While aspects of the 1992 encounter (such as the recovered hair sample and its intriguing DNA, and the unknown nature of the arrival and departure of the strange women) resonate powerfully with the idea that we might be dealing with some bizarre form of interaction with an advanced alien presence intruding into our world, the events also resonate with other strange, but perhaps rather more nebulous aspects of our past.

Sydney researcher Steve Walters drew my attention to the following strange tale from Scandanavian folklore which is striking in its similarities with Peter Khoury's encounter with the "Nordic" blonde female entity. Thomas Keightley records the story of the "Elle-maid" in his classic 1880 study "The Fairy mythology" (republished as "The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves and other Little People").

"A farmer's boy was keeping cows not far from Ebeltoft (a village in North Jutland, current Denmark). There came to him a very fair and pretty girl, and she asked him if he was hungry or thirsty. But when he perceived that she guarded with the greatest solicitude against his getting a sight of her back, he immediately suspected that she must be an Elle-maid, for the Elle-people (Elf people) are hollow behind. He accordingly would give no heed to her, and endeavoured to get away from her; but when she perceived this, she offered him her breast that he should suck her. And so great was the enchantment that accompanied this action, that he was unable to resist it. But when he had done as she desired him, he had no longer any command of himself, so that she had now no difficulty in enticing him with her. He was three days away .... (Upon his return) He slept for many days as the enchantment had lasted ..."

While the Khoury sample DNA evidence invited some strange speculations that nudged the often discussed similiarities between alien abduction experiences and the fairy lore tradition, it is fair to say that there are more differences between fairy lore accounts and alien abduction accounts than there are similarities. Therein lies the quandary - a connection or a damaging distraction?

Hacking the real or the unreal - the ultimate secret?

Hacking the real or the unreal - the ultimate secret?

Cao Xueqin (c.1760) had other things in mind when he wrote:

"Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true;
Real becomes not-real when the unreal's real"

(Translation by David Hawkes, Penguin Classics, 1973)

Cao was writing about entering "The Land of Illusion" in his epic Chinese literary classic "The Dream of the Red Chamber". I used this arresting quote to open my new book "HAIR of the ALIEN".

But in the context of "UFO secrets" Churchill's wartime maxim on counterintelligence & deception is perhaps equally relevant:

"Truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."

Such thoughts and a bit of nostalga entered my thoughts learning of Jon Ronson's interview with Gary McKinnon in the Guardian (July 9, 2005). Ronson (of the gonzo romps "THEM - Adventures with Extremists" (2001) and "The Men who stare at Goats" (2004) talked with McKinnon about the latters addled hacking adventures, which it was suggested might get him 70 years in a US jail. McKinnon said he was inspired by the hopes of getting at the US government's UFO secrets. Seems apart from some material related to "non-terrestrial officers" viewed apparently while he was stoned at a computer, little solid UFO material was accessed by McKinnon.

THis reminded me of a phone call I received a few years ago. Somebody was telling me that they had hacked into some ultra secret government UFO documents they were willing to share. A bit of probing revealed a tale tissue thin - the so called ultra secret documents were nothing more than Bill Cooper's wild and demented offerings accessed by my underwhelming caller via an internet enquiry anyone could have made.

Such tales of hacking treasures in the secret UFO vaults need to be challenged. If they survive a critical gauntlet then maybe, only maybe, they might be worth examining. Today the internet and other outlets are full of dubious material and researchers need to expose the fallacies where they can. Hopefully tales about the ultimate secret might eventually yield something of merit.

Back in 1988 in the heyday of the MJ12 controversy I sat down with Tony Jones (then of ABC TV "Four Corners", now of "Lateline") and Greg Hunter (then senior editor of Australian Penthouse, and more recently biographer of Ian Thorpe) at my place. Both were interested in trying to nail down the saga of the great UFO secrets! Tony never got Four Corners to do a UFO show, and Greg stunned by the convoluted complexity of the story asked me instead to write the article. That was back in the days where you could almost justify the pretense of reading "Australian Penthouse" for the articles rather than the pictures ....

I took up the challenge interviewing Bill Moore, Linda Moulton Howe and Robert Emenegger along the way. The result was an article "UFOs - the Ultimate Secret" - in the December 1988 issue that attracted an editorial compliment - an "impressive investigation" - and even clandestine responses of its own - you know, the stuff of "cloak & dagger" rendezvous in various places to be told "secret" tales.

I concluded my article then with the following:

"Ultimately, there is no absolute proof of any of this. It is impossible to say with any certainty just what is going on. We could be dealing with:
* real extra-terrestrial contact - a cosmic watergate - in which Churchill's wartime maxim of counterintelligence may rule ...
* one of the biggest hoaxes in history;
* a Space Age technological expression of the urban legend syndrome ...
* some sort of extraordinary clandestine intelligence gambit - an excercise in disinformation and deception.
It is possible we could be seeing a combination of these possibilities. Or maybe the answer lies in some other direction. As they say in the news flashes, we await further developments."

I've thought about revisiting the saga, now even far more convoluted and complex, in a follow-up piece, but "Australian Penthouse" is now not the magazine it once was, where perhaps an in-depth article might find a place - perhaps some other forum ...

Even now, more than 15 years down the track, with offerings like the Woods Majestic documents investigation controversy, "Case MJ-12" from Kevin Randle, "Project Beta - the story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the creation of a Modern UFO Myth" by Greg Bishop, Robert Collins & Richard Doty's offering "Exempt from Disclosure: The Disturbing case about the UFO Coverup", and even Nick Redfern's "Body Snatchers in the Desert - the horrible truth at the heart of the Roswell saga", the game is clearly still afoot (apologies to Sherlock Holmes).

Bill Chalker

HAIR of the ALIEN - the CCR5 deletion factor

HAIR of the ALIEN - the CCR5 deletion factor

In my new book "HAIR of the ALIEN" I describe a range of intriguing DNA properties that were found in the hair sample recovered from the strange encounter Peter Khoury had in Sydney Australia in 1992. One of the more provocative results was the suggestion that the strange hair, that apparently came from a tall Nordic type female entity, had the CCR5 deletion factor, which has been implicated in conferring viral resistance in some humans to conditions such as HIV/AIDS and possibly smallpox. In the book I describe the results we found in the "alien" hair sample.

I cautiously used conservative data about the CCR5 deletion mutation in the human genome, which suggested recent origin (perhaps about 5,000 years ago) and rare occurence amongst the planetary human population, being mainly found at a low percentage among peoples of north east European descent.

The implication that this unusual genetic mutation was present in the the hair sample, which had already yielded unusual results, perhaps had some significance, given that many witnesses reported aliens interacting with our environment, without any apparent concerns or precautions with regard to human or other earthly illnesses.

The CCR5 deletion factor has been under intensive scientific examination to determine the nature of its origin and its possible utility in fighting diseases. While mutations often have negative results, none seem to have been highlighted to date in this case.

Alison Galvani and John Novembre report in "The evolutionary history of the CCR5-delta 32 HIV-resistance mutation" (Microbes and Infection 7 (2005) 301-308) , "intriguingly, this allele is young in evolutionary time, yet it has reached relatively high frequencies in Europe. These properties indicate that the mutation has been under intense positive selection. HIV-1 has not exerted selection for long enough on the human population to drive the CCR5-delta32 allele to current frequencies, fuelling debate regarding the selective pressures responsible for rise of the allele." Galvani & Novembre, extending earlier research ( for example Galvani & Slatkin, "Evaluating plague and smallpox as historical selective pressures for the CCR5-delta 32 HIV-resistance allele", PNAS, December 9, 2003, Vol. 100, No. 25) argue for smallpox rather than the consensus view of the plague. The plagues occurrence was too intense, restricted in occurrence both in time and place, and of too recent impact to be the main factor in the origin of the CCR5 deletion factor. Smallpox has been around far longer and according to Galvani & Novembre is a more likely candidate. Controversy continues about the mutations age and origin.

Given the arguments of population, geographical and temporal pressures on evolutionary selection for the mutation, it seems to be that the smallpox argument still has its problems, given that its origins are generally thought to be in Africa, then spreading through India and China, before reaching Europe and later America. Despite this the CCR5 deletion mutation is conspicuous in its absence in the populations of Africa, India and China, according to existing data. Thus the argument of Darwinian selection pressure seems wanting. Obviously mainstream science is not openly contemplating alternatives, such as directed panspermia or non-Darwinian intelligent intervention at some point in our past. Maybe some radical thinking might be in order. Meanwhile the pace of genetic research is revealing fascinating evidence for consideration in the area of unusual mutatations, polymorphisms and other genetic anomalies.

Bill Chalker

ALIEN CHIC? Beaming in on Kerri-Anne

ALIEN CHIC? Beaming in on Kerri-Anne

With Steven Spielberg's Wellsian aliens on tripods unleashed in War of the Worlds there is yet again an inevitable bout of ALIEN CHIC - the cultural embrace of all things alien. Across the planet media are busy with inundating us with their take on aliens. Such is the allure of the alien and the influence of the myriad forms, expressions and mechanisms that drive popular culture.

The Australian national TV Channel 9 network offered one such offering on June 29th with an "alien" theme on the popular Mornings with Kerri-Anne. I agreed to participate in the show with little expectation of anything in depth being covered. What eventuated was certainly not in depth, but inevitably it was light entertainment that delivered a range of perspectives on aliens.

The mandatory phone poll provided the interactive option delivering a result of 83 % of respondents reporting they believe there is life in outer space. While such polls are questionable Kerri-Anne highlighted that the result mirrored an 84% result of the Australian Reader's Digest (RD) survey published in their July 2005 edition. Well, maybe close. The 84% figure in Reader's Digest was the figure for "believers" who "think aliens will be friendly". 81% of the RD poll (750 adults polled Australia wide on April 14 & 15, 2005) apparently thought there were "other forms of intelligent life in the Universe". Note that the RD question related to "intelligent" life, whereas the Channel 9 poll asked only about life, without any qualification. Of those who expressed a belief in aliens way out there 83% felt some of it may have visited here, or "67% (of the total) reckon aliens have visited Earth" (see Australian Reader's Digest July 2005 for details). Such figures are open to debate. In my book "The OZ Files - the Australian UFO Story" (1996) I referred to a 1988 Saulwick Poll (Sydney Morning Herald, 11 July 1988) that reported that 42 % of Australian respondents believed in UFOs.

The Mornings with Kerri-Anne programme delivered a "light & easy" Alien Chic montage. Astronomer Fred Watson, author of "Stargazer - The life and Times of the Telescope", gave us the mainstream scientific view - maybe aliens are out there but we have no real evidence of them yet. I beamed in (sort of, via blue screen manipulation - well, someone thought it seemed like a cute idea at the time - "He is talking about "alien evidence" that really is out there.") and I very briefly talked about alien abductions, aliens, and Roswell, but predictably the nature of the questions and the format dictated the "light & easy" format. Well at least my new book "Hair of the Alien" got a brief plug. Wilson da Silva, editor of the new Australian science magazine COSMOS, suggested that the whole concept of aliens or extraterrestrials had recieved some sense of legitimacy in recent times particularly with the discovery of how tenacious life on Earth can be in very extreme environments, and the discovery of extra-solar planets.

This unlikely conjunction of astronomer, science writer and UFO researcher made for some interesting discussions in the guest room before the programme, particularly as I was able to throw a copy of my book into the mix. I pointed out to Wilson da Silva that the whole subject of astrobiology was particularly volatile and fascinating given the contributions of people like Dr. David Darling (author of "The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia - an alphabetical reference to all life in the Universe" (2000) and "Life Everywhere - The Maverick Science of Astrobiology" (2001)) and Dr. Simon Conway Morris Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology at the University of Cambridge.

From my book "HAIR of the ALIEN" (pg. 247):

... Simon Conway Morris ... in Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe (using) our best evidence for life, our own on planet Earth, (argues) against the prevailing scientific evolutionary paradigm, he states that because of the ubiquity of evolutionary convergence, not only does life have an extraordinary propensity for navigating multiple pathways to precise biological solutions, but that it repeatedly reprises the same evolutionary solution, mediated powerfully by "the weirdest molecule in the Universe" - DNA. In short, Morris contends that on suitable planets out there the genetic tape of life will play out into more "inevitable humans." But, contends Morris, the rarity of Earth-like planets means that we are most likely living in a lonely universe. Others argue, however, that life is everywhere, driven by a "life principle" that favors the spread of life through the universe.

It would have been nice if the programme went into such issues, but that would have been unrealistic given the style of the show, and that it was a show focusing on the Alien Chic mix mediated by the new War of the Worlds film. Also tossed into the programme brew was a psychologist extending generic advice to "alien fears", and Jeff Wayne the creator of the War of the Worlds musical.

Those wanting to pursue the issue of aliens in culture can consult references like "Alien Chic - Posthumanism and the other Within" by Neil Badmington (2004), "Aliens in America" by Jodi Dean (1998), and "Aliens - Why they are here" by Bryan Appleyard (2005).
Bill Chalker