John Pinkney – UFOs, “Alien Honeycomb” & the Australian Lord “Flying Saucerer” – some timely lessons from the past?

I only recently learnt of the passing of John Pinkney (He passed away peacefully on 28 August 2018 aged 84) and the following article is a look at part of his long and colourful part in the UFO story in Australia.  It begins with the “alien honeycomb” story – surely a cautionary tale for our current hunt for mysterious alloys, meta-materials and UFO “ejecta.” Following that by way of a tribute is a fascinating story of John’s encounter with the Australian Lord “Flying Saucerer” - Governor General Lord Richard Casey. 

Given the current controversies and intrigues about mysterious “alloys”, “meta-materials” and such, in the custody of the likes of the Pentagon, Robert Bigelow and others, and “the Artifact” – a center-piece in Diana Pasulka’s new book from Oxford University Press “American Cosmic – UFOs, Religion, Technology”, being examined by people like Gary Nolan, Jacques Vallee and Hal Puthoff & Luis Elizondo of TTSA, and others, it is worthwhile to retell this cautionary tale. In the absence of detailed analytical data prosaic possibilities need to be carefully considered before “alien” associations are obsessed with.  Should the results merit extraordinary claims lets see the detailed data. What follows is what happens if caution is not followed along with attempts at verification and peer review.

John Pinkney (1934 to 2018), journalist, writer (including the vampire novel “Thirst” which was the basis of the 1979 film of the same name), puzzle-maker and co-founder of the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society with Peter Norris & Kevin Arnett back in 1957.

John had a long career in journalism. His October 1978 headline story on the Valentich story in the Australian newspaper drew a lot of attention. He started writing paranormal and unexplained mystery columns that appeared in the magazines like Pix-People. Through those he would get a lot of stories from readers and these would provide content for his many later books (such as “Haunted” (2011), “Great Australian Mysteries” (2003), “A Paranormal File: An Australian Investigator’s casebook” (2000) and “Alien Airships over old America: Plus 18 other tantalizing mysteries” 2011)). But it was his first UFO book in 1980 “Alien Honeycomb – the first solid evidence of UFOs” that really caught my attention.

As an industrial chemist it quickly became evident to me that a prosaic answer was likely.  In fact, he and I undertook a debate on the topic within the pages of the magazine he then wrote a column for – “the Great UFO Debate” – the editor’s title to our exchanges over 2 issues, although I had concluded that the material had nothing to do with UFOs – a position that put John and I in conflict at the time. 

If only John had considered a fascinating and sobering anecdote in R.V. Jones remarkable book “Most Secret War”. During the Swedish “ghost rocket” flap of 1945-46, then Director of British Scientific Intelligence, stated, “since there had been allegedly hundreds of (ghost-rocket) sorties, there ought to be at least several crashed bombs already in Sweden, and yet nobody had ever picked up a fragment.  I therefore said that I would not accept the theory that the apparitions were flying bombs from Russia until someone brought a piece into my office ….”  It turned out that the Swedes had several pieces of a “bomb.” “When I asked whether it had actually crashed, the answer was that it had not, but that various pieces had fallen off it,” Jones wrote.

These fragments were forwarded to British Intelligence.  Among them was “a lump 2 to 3 inches across that was hard, shiny, grey and porous.” Although Jones knew what it was, he sent it to the Chemical Analysis Section at Farnborough.  Many people in intelligence believed in the reality of the Russian flying bombs, and jumped upon the resultant analyses of one of the fragments: “… one of the lumps consist of more than 98 percent of an unknown element!”

Jones got in contact with the head of chemistry at Farnborough, who confirmed the startling result.  “I then asked him whether he had taken a good look at the lump, and whether it had not struck him as being remarkably like an ordinary piece of coke.  There was a gasp from the other end of the telephone as the penny dropped.  No one had stopped to look at the material, in an effort to get the analysis made quickly, and they failed to test for carbon. The other lumps had similarly innocent explanations.”

"NOT SO 'ALIEN HONEYCOMB'"

(a title I owe to Queensland researcher Paul Hebron)

"Alien Honeycomb - the first solid evidence for UFOs" by John Pinkney and Leonard Ryzman was published during 1980.  It professed to tell the story of a UFO explosion near Greenbank, Queensland, which led the authors to recovering some of the debris.  They claimed it contained "unknown elements and configurations".  The book revealed no details about chemical analyses and the authors resisted any attempt at confirmatory, independent analysis.  They were only prepared to have their material examined by the United Nations.   The story that allegedly connects the debris to a UFO is fragmentary and dubious.  In fact not enough information was given to verify a clear correlation.  Subsequent investigation indicated the original discovery of the material by locals was covered by the Brisbane Telegraph on November 13th, 1970.  The authors tried to link the debris with a sighting of a "flare" like "UFO" back in about 1966.

Pinkney and Ryzman indicated that most of the material was retrieved by RAAF officers, and then clandestinely dispatched to Pentagon testing laboratories.  They presented absolutely no evidence to back that statement up. The only reference to "Alien Honeycomb" I found in the RAAF files were internal memoranda from 1980. DEFAIR CANBERRA wrote to HQOC - SOINT on August 1st, 1980, regarding "Confirmation of Data in Book 'Alien Honeycomb'":

"The text of the book is sufficiently vague to make tracing information from service records a very tiring and difficult task.  A check of files held at Air Force Office has proven negative.

"Unfortunately, a 'no comment' or 'no information' response from the RAAF is only going to encourage this type of journalism. Accordingly, it is requested that HQOC initiate a check of records (including those of HQ AMB (Amberley - B.C.)for data which could relate to this matter". 

A telex dated September 5, 1980, and categorised as "unclassified/routine", from HQOC to DEFAIR Canberra, stated:

"Further to ref A the following is retrans of info received from HQ AMB. Quote:

"1.  Summaries of unidentified aerial sightings prepared by Dept of Air between mid 1968 and mid 1969 have been checked for mention of the case.  No mention of that particular sighting appears in the summaries.

"2. This is unusual because it is our understanding that the summaries were comprehensive and not edited lists of reported sightings.

"3. Unless requested by command the HQ does not propose to take this matter further".

I didn't see any evidence of a dark, pervasive coverup there.   Other RAAF files refer to retrieval of mundane debri, but none refer to the Greenbank "alien honeycomb".  More likely the key to this affair is languishing, not in a UFO or UAS file, but in aircraft accident files.

As an industrial chemist and someone who was promoting serious research into possible physical evidence for UFOs, I was interested in finding out more when the book first appeared. The authors did not assist independent research into their material.  Based on visual assessments I had concluded the material was AEROWEB high strength honeycomb, some of which is made from fibreglass - a clearly human-sourced material.  Soon other researchers, such as Paul Hebron, of UFO Research (Queensland) (to who I owe the heading “Not so alien honeycomb”), had acquired samples of the material from the site in question.  A researcher working for sceptic Dick Smith received some of the "alien honeycomb" from the same person who provided the authors with their material.  A clear relationship was established between this material and the material held by Pinkney and Ryzman.  Dick Smith financed an analysis through Unisearch laboratories, and not surprisingly confirmed that the "alien honeycomb" was not so alien - it was fibreglass!  So much for "the first solid evidence of UFOs."  More compelling examples of unusual debris or material related to UFO events have been documented.  However, in this case it was clear that the material had nothing to do with UFOs.  

From my personal collection of Greenbank "Alien Honeycomb"

And now John Pinkney’s encounter with our Lord “Flying Saucerer” and some of John’s more erudite journalism. I sought John Pinkney out to verify this fascinating story. 

“Guess What? UFO Men have been talking with our Leaders”

In 1972 there would be potent echoes of Lord Casey’s high level deep engagement with the UFO enigma.  It would be the 82-year-old political warrior’s last tilt at the alien UFO sirens that had ensnared him in their toxic and bewildering embrace since the 1950s.  One of the last great Anglo-Australians, Richard Casey, an Australian federal minister for External Affairs (now Foreign Affairs) (and minister in charge of the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and ultimately Governor General of the country), had developed a passion for flying saucers during the 1950s.  He used his highly prominent position to get answers – answers that came to him via his Australian embassy appointees around the world, through scientists from the CSIRO and from his connections with the clandestine intelligence world in both Australia and Britain.

The Australian Lord "Flying Saucerer"

Richard Casey

Here before him was a startling story in one of Australia’s leading newspapers of record, the Melbourne Age. Using his connections Lord Casey knew he would simply have to find out if the article had any substance.

The article in question dated Saturday 7 October 1972 was headlined “Guess What? UFO Men have been talking with our Leaders”and was by John Pinkney, a piece for his regular column “Pinkney Place.”  It began eruditely enough, for John Pinkney was an accomplished wordsmith. The “charabancs” he refers to here were an early form of bus, used typically for pleasure trips, but John is using the term as a cosmic pleasure machine of transport :

“UFOs, the cosmic charabancs of inscrutable star-beasts are becoming as commonplace as rice pudding.

“For so long have these celestial soar-abouts been tracked on radar at 25,000 mph and up, photographed, watched by awestruck crowds, and goggled at by pilots and passengers, that their novelty is swiftly wearing off.

“Man has begun to itch for some fresh trick – such as a landing and disembarkation in Bourke Street.  The mystery is becoming an irritant.

“According, however, to Hoyle (namely Dr. Fred, the English astrophysicist) the saucer enigma is no mystery to Earth’s major Governments.

“At a special press conference, Hoyle claimed that the island universe folk, who had sped here in their careening kayaks, had been keeping man under benign surveillance for millennia.

“And that they had already introduced themselves to Nixon, Heath, Chou En-Lai and their ilk.

“Whether Mr. McMahon scored even a small, chipped saucer, Hoyle did not record.

“Administrations, alleged the scientist, were keeping quiet about the star creatures’ presence, for fear of drowning their populations in waves of cultural shock ….”

The article had a point to make:

“When the white men swarmed like a grey virus among the Aborigines, they smashed tribal modes which had survived for tens of thousands of years.

Awed, the black man gazed up at the monumental peaks of the invaders’ technology, and was lost … just as were the Red Indians and Maoris.

“And that’s what could happen to us if flying saucers landed.

“But ultimately, everything floats in the black, interstellar gulfs of conjecture.”

“With solicitor Peter Norris (now head of the UFO Research Group) I toured Victoria for two years, tape-recording the experiencers of saucer-sighters.

“Not all of our approximately 1000 interviewees found Hoyle’s alien galaxy denizens kindly.”

John Pinkney described a Fern Tree Gully schoolteacher being paralysed with fear as “a milky, road-spanning light, which, as she stood, turned bright yellow.”  Then there was the New Guinea missionary and natives who saw a UFO and “clearly recognizable men emerged” and waved at them – of course a reference to the famous Father Gill sightings.  Several of Norris and Pinkney’s “screened 1000” experienced electrical car failure.  Pinkney concluded, “I have spoken to too many witnesses (who can’t all be neurotic liars) to entertain the faintest doubt that UFOs do exist.”  He then pondered the origin of the visitors – from space or “the fearsome fruits of a fifth dimension.”

Casey, who had in the 1950s and 1960s, been one of the political elite and “their ilk,” immediately dispatched personal letters to his brother Dermont Armstrong Casey, an archaeologist, and to Lieutenant Colonel E.H.B. (Ted) Neill, chairman of Directors of the Age newspaper.  

Of his brother he asked, “What’s all this about? I’ve asked Ted Neill if it’s a leg-pull or what. Does it ring any sort of a bell with you?” Dermont Casey responded in a letter dated 12 October, “Dear Dick, I really have no idea at all as to why the Age publishes such silly rubbish … But from some of the rather strained school-boy humour in it – I can only think that it is supposed to be frightfully funny and ‘clever.’ He then ridicules “a quite stupid book published recently that has received a good bit of notice and publicity – called The Chariots of the Gods.  It is about the doings of extraterrestrial beings who are supposed to have been on the Earth in the past.” As an archaeologist he saw it as having “not a scrap of real evidence” that things like the Easter Island figures and the Pyramids were made by them.  Casey’s brother did write he hadn’t actually read the book, just some notices on it.

Lt. Col. Ted Neill’s letter of 13 October followed, assuring Lord Casey that the piece was not a “leg-pull” and that while he often wrote in “a highly imaginative way,” John Pinkney was formerly on the Age staff, but by then freelanced as a regular contributor, with 2 TV columns, his Saturday column and a daily puzzle feature “Murgatroyd’s Mind Stretcher” which Pinkney prepared in conjunction with some university scientists and mathematicians. Neill then quoted the 10 May 1971 Hoyle press conference details that informed Pinkney’s column.

Hoyle was knighted in 1972 for his work in theoretical physics and the study of the Universe.  Apparently his 1971 press conference didn’t weigh against him with British government and royalty.  He was President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1971 to 1973. In his popular 1983 book “The Intelligent Universe – a new view of creation and evolution” which argued for an extraterrestrial origin of life on Earth via panspermia, he no longer endorsed his alien UFO relevations.  He wrote, “If there were any truth to the UFO stories something of a drastic consequence would have emerged unequivocally by now.  Although vastly more romantic and exuberant, I fear that UFO stories are just as misplaced as the (ghostly) medium stories of my boyhood.”  There seems a big disconnection between his 1971 statements and the 1983 book quote.

Sir Fred Hoyle had stated on 10 May 1971, “The only reason I called this press conference is that no Government in the world would release this information.  They fear panic among the people, and think that if the people know that some intelligent force is controlling them, they will no longer listen to them.”

“They (the aliens) are so different from what we know that to try and describe them in language that everyone would understand would be impossible.

“They seem to be totally free of any physical restrictions such as bodies.  They are like pure thought and can be anywhere at any time they please. The weirdest thing about it is that at times they actually appear in physical forms.  In this way they have been responsible for almost all the legends in different countries, which are scoffed at today.”

Neill wrote, “At the end of his press conference he said that his scientific colleagues agreed that enough of this information must be divulged to the public to soften the shock when the full revelations came, and that “A little at a time, more facts will be released (by us) until everyone has access to all the information.”

Neill added that Hoyle clarified the nature of the aliens, quoting, “It is not an alien intelligence from another planet.  It is actually from another universe which entered ours at the very beginning and has been controlling all that happened since.”

Beyond Neill’s briefing of Lord Casey were further rather astonishing statements by Dr. Hoyle at the same press conference:

“Human beings are simply pawns in a great game, being played by alien minds, which control mankind’s every move…

“These alien minds come from another universe, one with five dimensions…”

“These super-intelligent entities are so different from us that to apprehend them or to describe them in human terms, is impossible…”

“They have been here for countless eons and they have probably controlled the evolution of Homo-sapiens. All of what man has built and become was accomplished because of the ‘tinkering’ of these intelligent forces.”

Casey replied to his brother Dermont writing, “…I’m afraid I don’t agree with you about the Pinkney article … his quotation from Hoyle, I believe, has unusual sense.  I’ve since looked again at Harlow Shapley’s book (“Of Stars and Men”) who is the American equivalent of Hoyle (at Harvard) who in effect says the same thing as Pinkney quotes Hoyle as saying – i.e. in addition. “that there is some element yet to be found and formulated in our human assessment of what makes things work – i.e. in addition to the accepted four (Space, Time, Matter and Energy). He (Harlow Shapley) says “that a fifth entity exists we can’t scarcely doubt.  It must be a cosmic force and not merely human or earth bound.”  I suppose you might use the word “supernatural” for this fifth sense, although I don’t think either Hoyle or Harlow Shapley used it. When you get Hoyle and Harlow Shapely saying practically the same thing, you can’t laugh it off.  There are, each of them, the accepted tops of scientific thinking in the world, particularly in this field.”

Dermott responded, “It seems to me that what Hoyle has said is not very different from what many people think about God….” Then cautioned his brother Dick, However, it seems to me that this conception is only an hypothesis which trys to provide an explanation of things in an absence of any real concrete evidence.  But all this is all a very long way from Pinkney’s statement, that extra terrestrial beings have been operating on Earth and that they have been in communication with men.”

Casey had a meeting arranged to talk with John Pinkney at the Melbourne Club for 5pm Tuesday 24 October. He described some of that meeting in a letter written the next day to his brother Dermont:

“The only peculiar thing about him is that he has very long hair, so I had him on the verandah of the Club so that sight of him wouldn’t offend some of the more orthodox members!  His main interest is clearly in U.F.O. on which he is inclined to concentrate.  Of this I’ll ask the Defence Department if I can meet (in Melbourne) one of the R.A.A.F. Committee on investigation of U.F.O. and hear what he has to say.

“One mildly interesting thing that Pinkney had to say when I asked him what his plans and expectations were as regards U.F.O. – was “I don’t really suppose I’ll ever know more than I know at present” – which was a modest and sensible thing for him to say.”

Lord Casey was advised that Squadron Leader R.R. Roddy, Command Intelligence Officer for H.Q. Support Command, RAAF, Victoria Barracks, St. Kilda Road, Melbourne (which covered responsibilities in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and parts of New South Wales) had been requested by his superior in Canberra to arrange to talk with him about UFOs.  Roddy dealt with counterintelligence and security – an interesting skill set for someone briefing  a person of Casey’s stature. Casey agreed to a meeting on 31 October 1972.

Squadron Leader Roddy gave Lord Casey a briefing including the standard description of Australia’s official involvement in UFO investigations:

“The investigation of reports of U.F.O.s in Australia is carried out by the Royal Australian Air Force, Directorate of Air Force Intelligence, at the Department of Air in Canberra.  A considerable amount of effort is spent in investigating each report and the majority of observers are interviewed by selected by selected RAAF personnel. 

“Between 23^rdJanuary and 30^thDecember 1971, the RAAF received 595 U.F.O. reports. Department of Air has assessed that 93 percent were explainable by present scientific knowledge.  Six percent of the reports did not provide sufficient information to permit proper analysis and evaluation.  One percent of the reports were attributed to unknown causes.”

The situation in the United Kingdom and the USA, mediated by the Condon Report, revealed similar statistics. The briefing also stated, “U.S. and Soviet space exploration has found no evidence to support the theory of life on planets in our solar system.  It seems that the Mariner series of space exploration to Mars has proved it a ‘dead’ planet.  The only other source of extra-terrestrial life, then, would have to be in another ‘solar system’.  It would seem, therefore, that whilst it may be possible for extra-terrestrial life forms to visit Earth, it is improbable.”

Roddy gave Lord Casey three summaries of U.F.O. sightings occurring in Australia between January 1960 and December 1971. The Department of Air used the more neutral term Unusual Aerial Sightings (UAS) for UFOs or flying saucer sightings.  In a letter to Sqd. Ldr. Roddy dated 6^thNovember 1972, Casey thanked him “for being good enough to come see me to talk about U.F.O’s – and for your frankness in telling me about them.  It is (as you will know better than I do) a matter of quite considerable public interest, as is reflected in the prominence given to it in the Press by “so-called” sightings.  However you personally leave one in no doubt that you can find no reason to indulge in fanciful (non-material) explanations.”

With that, in his twilight years, Casey’s decades long journey through the mystery, that is the allure of the UFO, came full circle.

In the end, the ebbing flying saucer interest of Casey himself was enriched by the vision of an extraordinary woman (Maie Casey had a UFO sighting of her own in September 1967 – she saw a “bullet-shaped” object flying near her Berwick home), who Australian Prime Minister According to Diane Langmore “Glittering Surfaces – A life of Maie Casey” (1997) Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies once described as “Lady Macbeth”, because of her driving ambition for her famous husband – Lord Richard Casey. Lord Casey died on 17 June 1976.

Lord Casey’s 1972 UFO redux is documented in the National Archives of Australia (NAA) File series M1148, barcode 31415782, under Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) with the file title of “Department of Air: unusual aerial sightings: summary 3, January 1970-December 1971; correspondents include Lieutenant-Colonel E H B Neill.”

I reviewed my account of John Pinkney’s meeting with the Australian Lord “Flying Saucerer” Casey with John several years ago in a round of cordial conversations although the passing of time had dimmed his recollections.  He was pleased to hear that I was researching this curious piece of Australian UFO history. John’s embrace with the UFO and alien sirens was long, colourful, controversial and entertaining. John Pinkney could always tell a good story and write a great yarn. It was the dance with facts that made our paths cross, but even that was entertaining.     

UFOs and the solid light enigma

by Bill Chalker

Light. Light in all its extraordinary manifestations pervades modern society through a huge range of ways.  Natural, man-made and truly exotic forms of light and their interactions with us, has always fascinated me.  

The variety of UFO interaction with our forms of light and the deployment of what seems to be alien analogues of light or some much more unusual, are astonishing. This array of manifestations has been a world-wide and frequent feature of UFO encounters.  

I have been focusing on how UFOs manipulate light or what seemed to be projections of their own “light beams.” These “light beams” have some intriguing characteristics.  Unlike light beams as we know them many of UFO “light beams” are seemingly truncated – a “sawed-off” appearance.  In other words they have 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 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 achievement 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.  The so-called “solid light” cases represent a fascinating, but somewhat neglected body of international case data. Through the assistance of many researchers around the world I have been able to confirm my long held hypothesis that they represent a potent body of potentially remarkable data. I feel they can provide some fascinating breakthroughs in how we can ultimately manipulate and utilize light in ways that seem like science fiction. The “solid light” UFO cases suggest that the UFO reality is demonstrating that, whatever is behind them, UFOs have been doing many extraordinary things with light or its exotic analogues. 

In a remarkable juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern consider the following possible linkage of “solid light” stretching out over centuries in China. 

THE HIDDEN CHINESE BREAKTHROUGH “SOLID LIGHT” CONNECTION 

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. From this “impossible pearl” a bright fantastic light would emerge “like a single ray of golden thread” – “a golden ray of light.” Perhaps this was an early example of a UFO using “solid light”?  

Accurate translations of Song (or Sung) dynasty “pre-­‐scientist” Shen Kua’s story the flying “pearl” of Gaoyau support it may describe an 11^thcentury 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, for 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,” (James Hargett) and “a bright light emerged from its “shell”, like a single ray of golden thread” (Richard Bodman).  Quoting Richard Bodman’s translation in Victor Mair’s “The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature.”  Boldman titles the extract “On a UFO”:

“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.” 

In 1998 scientists and military personnel were gathered at a Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) missile base in the Badain Jaran desert in Lanzhou province. They were testing China’s first “supersonic” drone, based on a modified J-711 fighter. At the base a famous Chinese Defence scientist, Major General Zhao Xu, the “father” of China’s UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), witnessed a striking UFO encounter, with other scientists and military people. 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 Liuming and Wu Shao Hun), and addressing 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."  

Did Chinese science, not limited by narrow mindedness and debunking, seize upon this event and achieve a possible scientific breakthrough?Chinese scientists have taken the first tentative steps to realize a dream of science fiction fans around the world a functioning “tractor beam” – utilizing in part the Bessel beam principle, to not only nudge a particle, but to apparently pick it up. Is this mankind’s first baby steps to a technology seemingly evident in UFO sightings for decades – what has for want of a better term been referred to as “solid light”?

Open science has been playing with Bose-Einstein condensates et.al to manipulate light in diverse ways - our crude opening gambit in a direction that might show us "solid light" effects that have been reported for decades in a diverse range of international UFO case material.  

A remarkable encounter 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.

This primary source account of a striking example of a UFO deploying “solid light” and seemingly controlling a car, becomes all the more stranger, when one considers the location.  Only a decade before area had become the focus of a sensational milieu of poltergeist events in the form of falling stones, strange Min Min like lights and other curious phenomena.  Most interestingly for the matter of “solid light” 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.” His story was recorded in Helen Hack’s book “The Mystery of the Mayanup Poltergeist.”

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. 

In the“UFOs and Government – A Historical Inquiry”by the UFO History Group, one the book’s primary authors - Dr. Michael Swords – highlighted a striking “solid light” example -  the fascinating 1960 Red Bluff California case where official attitudes caused a UFO witness, a highway patrol officer, to not describe 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.”Here was a remarkable example of what many researchers have called “solid light” in action.  Michael Swords touched upon a critical issue, that Dr. James McDonald did manage to draw out this remarkable detail, because he was actually interested in what the witnesses reported, rather than conducting a myopic debunking exercise.  Genuine scientific skepticism, driven by a desire to question and carefully investigate an experience, can potentially yield much scientific breakthroughs. We now know that there are many such cases of “this peculiar sawed-off light.” Indeed Dr. Sword’s indicated in an end note in “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.

In his blog “The Big Study” - thebiggeststudy.blogspot.com Mike Swords wrote a post entitled” “SLOW LIGHT & UFOs” in which he mentions: “Bill Chalker wrote the other day. He's contemplating making a review of so-called "solid light" UFO cases, and I welcome that. Bill's a hard-science-trained UFOlogist and might just be able to make some sense of a real puzzlement in this field. He asked me if I'd scour my files for such cases [since I'd foolishly admitted to having around 44 of such things], and so I did, making a list for him to pursue and build his analysis more robustly [Bill already had a bigger bunch than that].”

Mike further stated, “In my understanding the term "solid light" came from witness testimony--- the light beam seemed "solid"; it was as if the beam extended like a solid tube, etc. This phrase stuck but is probably a bad one. The light effects that we're witnessing in these cases behave not like solids but like "regular" light which is abnormally "contained" somehow. Things don't seem to be "impacted" by these beams, only illuminated by them. The things [generally] seem to be more like spatially-constrained lasers [admittedly of wide diameter] than anything solid, and might well be more like tubes [i.e. hollow] than "full" beams. 

I have been studying this aspect of the UFO mystery for many years. In both of my books “The OZ Files” and “Hair of the Alien” I refer to solid light cases and describe an Australian case from Kiama, southern NSW from the early 1970s.  I have been looking into the case since learning of it in the 1990s and recently conducted a very detailed site investigation to determine if the observations reported by the primary witness were possible and to see if further information could be found.  The case is rather complicated and also has entity and abduction aspects.  The primary witness has closely guarded his privacy and I have only had one face to face meeting with him, as well as many phone conversations, written statements and emails. 

Having talked to Graham a number of times over the years I have found him to be a compelling witness, but one who has struggled mightily with the ontological status of the events.  Indeed he was originally much more comfortable casting the event as a strange dream.  While the recent investigations seem to caste the stranger aspects as being witnessed by Graham only with marginal supporting cast in the form of his ex wife and ex father and mother in law, as well as possibly some neighbours, who may have interpreted the event in different ways, this seems to be a strange "display" event, so frequently reported in many close encounter type cases, particularly those with high strangeness elements, such as this one.  In many of these sorts of cases there often seems to be selective perceptions of the events, sometimes so acute that often people near to each other have a very different experience, as if a central witness is the only intended viewer?

My investigations have indicated that the most likely date of the Kiama beach “solid light” case is 22 November 1970.

My ongoing Kiama investigations have continued to energise my interest in solid light cases. I welcome input of cases to my email billozfiles@tpg.com.au

I was approached by the reporting witness Graham about this bizarre episode on the south coast at Kiama. 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.  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, and 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.    

The main witness recontacted me a while ago. He confirmed an aspect I had long suspected as part of the experience, which he only original hinted at in the vaguest possible way.  He has an abduction recollection that was consciously recollected at the time, but he was extremely reluctant to share these details during our original discussions years ago.

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 frequent some UFO group meetings with the express purpose of seeing if he could fine 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 onboard the UFO.  When he started to talk to her he felt she was not the right person and did not persist with the conversation. 

By way of homage to the venerable Shen Kua, who I view as a proto-scientist and even an early Fortean researcher (a collector and chronicler of strange anomalies like Charles Fort), I feel I’m at least providing some “brush strokes” or “brush talk” that may yet yield valuable insights into such things as breakthrough advances in our understanding, manipulation and use of light.  The Chinese connection I’ve described here might suggest that.  It does seem that there are efforts by various government intelligence and defence agencies to develop breakthrough technologies that are often encountered in the long and enduring history of UFO encounters that seem to display what seem disruptive technologies “light years” ahead of us. The recent revelations of a secret Pentagon UFO program –  the AATIP programme and Robert Bigelow’s BAASS group were focusing on possible disruptive breakthrough technologies that may be involved with UFO or AAV (Advanced Aerial Vehicle) encounters. I encountered a possible linkage to these developments while trying to investigate whether a 2006 MUFON investigation of a classic style EM (“electromagnetic”) “car stop” case had an “solid light” aspect. Readers can read of the state of play on this strange story on my OZ Files blog: 

http://theozfiles.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-old-and-new.html

http://theozfiles.blogspot.com/2018/03/aatip-baass-aavs-uaps-ufos-tipping-point.html

It is clear that the investigation of UFOs and the curious “solid light” enigma have a lot to reveal.  I hope to contribute further to document this fascinating mystery and I welcome reader’s comments and information about possible “solid light” UFO experiences. Please contact me via my email billozfiles@tpg.com.auor my postal address: Bill Chalker, P.O. Box 42, West Pennant Hills, NSW, 2125, Australia

"Project Blue Book" - the History channel's exponential descent into fiction inspired by a bit of fact & real history

 The History channel's fiction

Dr. Allen Hynek and me at his Chicago home in 1984

Holy Cow! This is not a bad piece of reporting. 
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6675625/J-Allen-Hynek-UFOs-investigations-Close-Encounters-Kind-Steven-Spielberg-new-TV-show.html?fbclid=IwAR10R_nYdxi7JnLHELMtizBsQmJFKV8rC4zdSDWIizbzCE19cUXJXqRvlVM
It puts the TV show in a proper perspective - entertainment inspired by some real history. Having watched the first five episodes the descent in fiction somewhat inspired by fact and real history has been exponential. Understand that means a little bit a fact has inspired a whole of entertaining historical dramatic fiction. Read Mark O'Connell's excellent biography "The Close Encounters Man" to get the real story.
The History Channel's new show "Project Bluebook" "inspired" by Dr. Allen Hynek's research and investigations of "flying saucers" and UFOs is essentially fragmented and often invented "history" in the service of driving a historical drama. While you might be entertained by the drama of the series it seems like a game of spot the "facts", get use to the inventions of dramatic flourishes and let the show just serve to entertain. At least the history channel are putting up summaries of the real facts on the individual cases chosen each episode to shape the drama narrative. The first 3 episodes were based very loosely on the Fargo aerial "dog fight', the Flatwoods encounter and the Lubbock Lights. Check out the fact sheets the History channel are putting up for each case featured in the episodes. The UFO historian in me then suggests you check out the facts and do your own research. In particular read Mark O'Connell's excellent biography of Allen Hynek: "The Close Encounters Man", Allen Hynek's books of the subject "The UFO Experience", "The Edge of Reality - a progress report on UFOs" (co-authored with Jacques Vallee and Hynek's own take on Bluebook "The Hynek UFO Report". and Jerome Clark's 2 volume "The UFO Encyclopedia" (which I contributed to) just recently re-emerging in its 3rd edition. 
If the show helps draw attention to Allen Hynek's real contribution to a UFO science it might make up for its disconnection from the real history. 
Why invent history when the real story should be what is told? Allen Hynek's real history needs to be shown rather than the promotion of pseudo-history, but we live in strange times, where invented history dramas are apparently needed to get people interested. 
Do yourself a favour and go beyond the History channel's dramatic fictionalisation of Allen Hynek's fascinating life. 
Here is a link to my review of Mark O'Connell's biography of Allen Hynek's real story - a good start to exploring the facts rather than limiting yourself to fake historical dramatic narratives:
https://theozfiles.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-extraordinary-legacy-of-dr-j-allen_25.html?fbclid=IwAR1t-BfFa4CbNxD-u8ENpekJXVjxPx7-N1yn_d9Lbb_BV8GQxtPMLPEl37o

"UFOs & the Solid Light Enigma" & "The Untold Story of Australian Ufology - An interview with Australia's leading UFO researcher Bill Chalker" & a lot more in New Dawn special UFO issue

https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/…/new-dawn-special-issue-vo…
Just out is this new UFO special issue from New Dawn magazine which features Robbie Graham's interview with me under the title of "The Untold Story of Australian Ufology - An interview with Australia's leading UFO researcher Bill Chalker" plus an article by me - "UFOs & the Solid Light Enigma". Click on the link and there is a 2nd image that gives the contents of the special which also includes Suzy Hansen's fascinating piece "Alien Technology Transfers?" and Ben Hurle's "UFO Encounters - Victoria, Australia". Lots to digest and consider. Enjoy.
My examination of 2 famous UFO cases - the 1966 Westall incident and the 1978 disappearance of Frederick Valentich will appear in the March-April issue of the New Dawn magazine according to the editor.

Jerome Clark's magisterial 2 volume work "The UFO Encyclopedia"

I highly recommend Jerome Clark's massive 2 volume work - "The UFO Encyclopedia".  I am biased to a degree as I am a contributor to all 3 editions:
First edition - Volume 1 :UFOs in the 1980s - "Australian Ufology" (1990), Volume 2: "The Emergence of a Phenomenon: UFOs from the Beginning through 1959" - "UFOs in Australia and New Zealand through 1959" (1992) & Volume 3 "High Strangeness: UFOs from 1960 through 1979"
Second Edition - Volume 1: A-K 7 & Volume 2: L-Z: "Airship Sightings in New Zealand and Australia," "Cressy Sighting," "Drury Film," "Jarrold Affair," "Tully and other UFO nests," and "Valentich Disappearance." 
Third Edition - Volume 1: A-M & N-Z: "Airship Sightings in New Zealand/Australia," "Cressy Sighting," "Drury Film," "Fernvale Episode," "Jarrold Affair," "Khoury case," "Tully and other UFO nests," and "Valentich Disappearance." 
I got a contributors copy which came to Australia via Austria, courtesy of a geographically impaired mail person at the US publisher Omnigraphics. Despite its wayward trip it is well worth the wait. I recommend it to all serious UFO researchers and libraries.
Contributors to the 3rd edition only had a very short amount of time to contribute only new material, with the possibility that contributions to the previous editions might also be used. Given these constraints in what really was a very short time frame only a limited number of my contributions could be completed in the format required, which involved detailed referencing. Most of my time was spent on trying to complete a broad overview of Australian ufology, which in the end couldn't be used because much of the referencing needed to be reconciled with the total encyclopedia. So in the end, in terms of new material I managed to get in "Airship sightings in New Zealand/Australia" (which include 1868 Parramatta), "Fernvale Episode (1927), and "Khoury case" (1988 & 1992). 
While the Westall '66 case has recently risen in prominence it was not covered in this edition, but was covered in some detail in Volume 3 of the first edition ("High Strangeness" (1996). Parts of previous editions contributions that made it into the 3rd edition included "Tully and other UFO nests", "Valentich Disappearance". Other cases include Gill CE3", "Cressy Sighting", "Drury Film". These are specific entries. References to other case material appear in non specific entries. Just remember this is not an encyclopedia of Australian UFOs. 
More contributions might have made it if there was not such an insanely short period to get new material together. But still there is a lot of new material. My Brazilian friend Thiago Luis Ticchetti managed to get a lot of Brazilian representation into the 3rd edition, including a 20 page coverage of Operation Prato (Plate), Brazil had not been that well represented in previous edition. One big disappointment I have is not having enough time to get an Asian/Chinese presence in the 3rd edition. If all the contributors had been given more notice a lot more material could have made the deadline. 
To get a fuller picture of UFOs in Australia all 3 editions need to be looked at. Any reader, researcher, experiencer, witness & investigation would get a lot out of getting all 3 editions. Its been an extraordinary effort from Jerry Clark.
The Third edition has a huge amount of new material and updated entries. I have enjoyed trawling through this excellent publication. The page count for the entries alone is 1462.. While Jerome Clark has done the biggest part of the encyclopedia extensive contributions come from Dr.Thomas (Eddie) Bullard (such as the 38 paged "Abduction Phenomenon" entry which opens the huge number of entries, Brad Sparks (such as "Sensor Networks to Track UFOs in the Vietnam War" (discovered by Australian researcher & friend Paul Dean), Thiago Luiz Ticchetti (who brings a wealth of Brazilian material to the new edition, including a 20 page entry on Operation Prato (Plate), Thomas Tulien (includes a 16 page entry on the extraordinary 1968 Minot Air Force base radar/radar visual case) and myself (as stated above include detailed entries on the 1868 Birmingham affair ("Airship Sightings in New Zealand/Australia"), "Fernvale Episode" (the 1927 prophecy of the 1967 Mothman affair) and "Khoury Case" (a 4 page overview of the Khoury DNA investigations and research). Well worth your reading.
The founding editor of "Fortean Times" Bob Rickard (who escorted me on a very pleasant and enjoyable Fortean bookshop tour in London back in 2002) reviews the 3rd edition in the December 2018 issue indicating, "Few books on ufology are more valuable than this massive enterprise from ufology's foremost historian .... UFOE3 is magisterial in its scope, content, execution and trustworthiness.  It has no rivals and is unlikely to be improved upon in a long time." Bob recommended to readers they get out to their nearest library or university and "insist (nicely) that it is absolutely vital - especially in this age of fake news and conspiracy-mongering - that they have a copy and make it available to all."

There is a whole lot of UFO knowledge packed away in this cross section of UFO encyclopedias - general & specific. In the horizontal the 7 volumes contained in the 3 editions of Jerome Clark's extraordinary accomplishment - the UFO Encyclopedia series. I have had the honour and pleasure of contributing to all 3 editions. The edition with the yellow spine is the latest.