FLYING SAUCERY, COSMIC BETHLEHEM , AND MIDWICH CUCKOOS

from the "Empire News" 17-7-60
(courtesy of Jenny Randles)

THE CYNTHIA APPLETON CONTACTS (1957-1959)

Possible sexual activity, genetic experimentation, and "hybrid" or "transgenic" beings have become dominant issues in the alien abduction controversy in more recent years. It is intriguing to note that there were other intriguing alien events, beyond the well known experience of Antonio Villas-Boas, that seemingly featured those elements as early as the late 1950s.
Two such events are the strange story of English housewife Cynthia Appleton, which spans the years 1957 to 1959, and the bizarre alien claims of Credo Mutwa, an Africa shaman, that apparently occurred in either 1958 or 1959, which include what seemed to be a horrific variation of the Villas-Boas abduction and "seduction" story.
I researched both of these situations in detail while examining different aspects for my forthcoming book "Hair of the Alien - DNA and other forensic evidence of Alien Abduction." Ultimately it was felt the Appleton story diluted the forensic and scientific focus of the book and the section on it was deleted from the final book.
Still the Appleton milieu is fascinating for a whole lot of reasons. Andy Roberts who helped me out with some details has recently had a piece published on the affair in Fortean Times ("The Space Baby", FT191, November 2004) and this should be read along with my (article) ... to get two different and largely independent takes on this curious affair. The Credo Mutwa saga however is described in some detail in my book.
I was specifically interested in the Appleton story because of its similarity to an Australian contact drama, which strikingly prefigures key aspects of the abduction drama not revealed until Budd Hopkins' book "Intruders" emerged in 1987 - such as "hybrid baby presentations" and the idea that a genetic breeding programme was at the heart of the abduction saga. This intriguing Australian story is also detailed in my new book.
Both Cynthia Appleton and Credo Mutwa's stories have aspects that strain credibility. They assault our commonsense and one's inclination is to perhaps dismiss them. Despite their apparent shortcomings each reveal dynamics that resonate potently with aspects of my current research. They can be perhaps viewed as uncertain grist for the mind mill. One thing is certain. I suspect that had these bizarre events been subjected to the kind of general forensic approach, particularly using DNA techniques, that I have been advocating and using, we would be much more certain of their credibility or lack of it. Unfortunately the era and environs they occurred in precluded this happening.
......
Was there a cosmic inspired Bethlehem visited upon an ordinary English housewife in an ordinary Birmingham suburb? Was this just a most exotic cover story for some fling? Or was it some suburban housewife's fantasy or over-stressed burnout response inspired by a mix of flying saucer tales, Sputnik maddness and Midwich Cuckoos. We may never know for sure, but if credible connected evidence such as a piece of alien skin (or even DNA related evidence of a "space baby" or "star child" which were claimed features of the saga) ever surfaced ... then maybe we could have a crack at where the answer really lay.

- from my article "Flying Saucery, Cosmic Bethlehem, and Midwich Cuckoos" which appears in 2 parts beginning in the current issue of the "Australasian Ufologist" magazine (Vol.9 No.1 2005), available through Australian newsagencies, or from Earthlink Publishing, PO Box 738, Beaudesert Qld 4285 Australia. See also the web link:
http://www.theaustralasianufologistmagazine.blogspot.com/
Bill Chalker