In Search of an open science of UFOs and UAPs, not one bound by secrecy

Investigative writer Tim McMillian has written an excellent article in Popular Mechanics magazine (February 2020) “Inside the Pentagon’s Secret UFO Program.” In particular I was drawn to 2 aspects of the piece – the discussion of a 2009 BAAS report and a study review of injury cases involving UFOs or UAPs. They represent an insight into the activities of Robert Bigelow’s BAASS organisation research into the UFO/UAP subject during the period 2000 to 2009. We have seen previews of this in accounts of Bigelow’s forerunner to BAASS, namely NIDS, particularly through Jacques Vallee’s most recent “Forbidden Science” journal publication (“Forbidden Science 4 – the Spring Hill Chronicles – the Journals of Jacques Vallee 1990-1999”) covering the 1990s. Here now we have some insights into the decade that followed. Further insights may come from “Forbidden Science 5” (covering the period from 2000 to 2009). We may yet get some disclosures and releases from Bob Bigelow himself or from others involved in this convoluted saga of secret investigations into the UFO/UAP mystery.

Tim McMillian’s states in his Popular Mechanics article:

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a30916275/government-secret-ufo-program-investigation/

In July 2009, BAASS provided a comprehensive report to the DIA at the conclusion of the first-year option of the AAWSAP contract. The 494-page “Ten Month Report,” as it’s called, is chock full of strategic plans, project summaries, data tables, charts, descriptions of biological field effects, physical characteristics, methods of detection, theoretical capabilities, witness interviews, photographs, and case synopses—each one entirely, explicitly about unexplained aerial phenomena. Throughout the report, “the sponsor” is mentioned, however, the DIA is never explicitly named. The first pages list the names of every contractor working for BAASS with appropriate security clearances to have access to the program. Amongst dozens of credentialed names, some of those listed are very familiar to the UFO community, including Puthoff, Davis, Jacques Vallee, and Colm Kelleher. Regardless of one’s existing opinions of the UFO phenomena, the sheer volume of content in the BAASS Ten Month Report is astounding. Some of the notable content of the 2009 BAASS Ten Month Report includes: ●Overview of the BAASS Physics Division’s efforts to conduct research on advanced aerospace vehicles, including the development of standardization for measurement of physical effects and signatures associated with UAP.
●Overview of BAASS research for measuring and gleaning the effects on biological organisms from UAP.
●Mention of Skinwalker Ranch in Utah as a “possible laboratory for studying other intelligences and possible interdimensional phenomena.”
●Strategic plans to organize a series of intellectual debate forums targeted to broad audiences pertaining to the “potential disclosure of an extraterrestrial presence.”
●Plans to create a “medical physiological UAP effects program.”
●Request for Project Blue Book files that have not been made public.
●Mention of BAASS program dubbed “Project Northern Tier,” which involved securing documents related to instances where dozens of UFOs flew over restricted airspaces of facilities housing nuclear weapons.
● A possible UAP landing reported to BAASS by the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and its STAR Team (rapid response field investigators funded by BAASS in March 2009). ● Project databases of UAP-related materials compiled through various partnerships, and the intent to expand these databases by coordinating with foreign governments. ● Summaries of multiple UAP events both inside the U.S. and in foreign countries.● Photographs of UAPs provided by various sources, including foreign governments.

The UFO field has its historians and excellent researchers who have contributed extensively to many of these points, indeed much of focuses described above are taken from publically available research material. However as all this is now turning up in BAASS generated documents, thus BAASS proprietary and owned, we may not get access to this data, unless Robert Bigelow and BAASS see a benefit in their public release. I would certainly encourage them to do so in the interests of open scientific research into UFOs and UAPs.

BAASS and the AATIP programme were looking for possible disruptive technologies that may have been evident in UFO (UAP or AAV (Advanced Aerial Vehicles) encounters. The BAASS/MUFON STAR Team programme may have yielded just such an incident in the year the arrangement began, namely 2009 and the case: The Port Jervis New York state incident of 25 November 2009.  While the BAASS report described in the Popular Mechanics article was reported as being sent to the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) in July, 2009, it is clear that BAASS were also generating monthly reports and they were focused on UFO data from BAASS activities and material from other sources, such as UFO researchers.

The Port Jervis case was initially reported as an intriguing example of a “car stop” case.  For me, it became even more intriguing when I learnt that it might be a remarkable example of a type of UFO phenomena that I had been studying for some time, namely “solid light.” This aspect was not evident in the initial public MUFON reporting of the case and became a contested part of the case when primary MUFON investigator Chuck Modlin described the event in the Canadian Close Encounters TV series during 2013.  In the show the episode dealing with the case – “Christmas Lights” – included me talking about the phenomenon of “solid lights” in a generic way. I had gone to Toronto to be filmed in a number of specific cases.  My linkage to the Port Jervis case was unknown to me until I saw the early drafts of the episode.  Up until then I merely knew the case to be a striking recent example of a “car-stop” case, often referred to a possible “EM” or “electromagnetic” car-stop case, the latter, because of the sense of a possible mechanism for the apparent stopping of a car.

I have presented this information before, but developments need it to be restated again. Perhaps parties within AATIP, BAASS, MUFON & To the Stars Academy (TTSA) may be able to examined this information and clarify the issues I raise here.

The timing of the AATIP’s funded activities and Robert Bigelow’s involvement had me wondering. With MUFON’s James Carrion, Jan Harzan, Chuck Modlin & John Schuessler meeting with Bigelow in 2008, leading to the short lived BAASS/MUFON marriage and AATIP running from 2007 to 2012, at least in terms of funding, 

I'm wondering if this dynamic at all explains the big disconnect between the public MUFON version of the striking November 2009 Port Jervis close encounter event being a "EM" case and then to have a "hidden" aspect of the case - the possible "solid light" aspect emerge via Chuck Modlin with the Canadian Close Encounters series I was involved with.  I was pushing "solid light cases" with the film group but I was dismayed to have Port Jervis emerge with this aspect, given that up until then it was only viewed as a striking "EM" case. 

I learnt that Bigelow was keen to buy the car involved, but I gather the witness did not want to part with it.  I learnt of some of the MUFON data on this case, but it didn't really give any detail on a "solid light" aspect.  Chuck Modlin pushed the “solid light” aspects, previously unknown, in the CE programme coverage of the incident. I was surprised to find myself being used in this episode as up until then I was not aware of the “solid light” aspects of the Port Jervis case. Neither were my MUFON contacts. So the question that needs to be asked is whether MUFON publically described a limited account of the case to their membership and to the UFO community, and a more detailed version, incorporating details about “solid light” was communicated to Mr. Bigelow’s organization. 

I aired these speculations on my OZ Files blog back on 1 March, 2018, which drew a critique from a MUFON board member, but he has since accepted that there does indeed appear to be a “solid light” aspect to the Port Jervis case, particularly after I highlighted that I had contacted Chuck Modlin soon after the Close Encounter segment came to my attention, namely in December 2013. 

I had written:

You may have seen the preliminary video without the CGI that had you and Richard Lang talking about the 2009 Port Jervis event.  In that piece I am also included but I am talking generally about "solid light" type cases.  

Robert Powell contacted me as I was included in that incomplete segment. I told him that I was not speaking with any knowledge of the Port Jervis case.  Indeed up until I saw the preliminary video I saw it mainly as an excellent recent example of an "EM" style "car stop" case and was not aware of any "solid light" dimension to it.

It was not drawn to my attention while I was in Toronto so I assume it came up later.  I had focused through my coverage of a number of cases (1966 Burkes Flat Australia, 1972 Taize France & 1994 Plauen Germany) rather curious "light" aspects and got into "solid light" phenomena in Toronto.

As background, over the last few years I have been increasing my focus on "solid light" cases worldwide and have received assistance and data from researchers around the world.  Part of my initial motivation was a early 1970s case at Kiama in Australia and a more recent Chinese military case from 1998 which had very striking "solid light" elements.

Here is a link to a piece I did recently which covers some of that background:

http://theozfiles.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/solid-lights-neglected-ufo-science.html

I have also included another similar piece (text only - with photos its a big file) that was published in the new e-magazine "UFO Truth": "Solid light Descending."

Given this background you will understand why I am interested in the focus of the "close Encounter" segment on the Port Jervis event.  The Newroad video implies a discrete "solid light" beam coming down (in a telescope fashion?) impacting on the car in the locality where the high magnetic readings were recorded, as well as you referring to the witness saying the beam stopped 6" from the ground - truncation, another characteristic of solid light cases. 

The only reference I came across in the MUFON database was "When he looked at the lights they seemed very bright but they didn’t illuminate the ground; the witness said he can’t explain this aspect as it doesn’t make any sense to him."   

I have now seen part of the CGI "reconstruction" of the case in the Discovery teaser trailer just released.  It seems to have a very low altitude object and a "solid light" beam coming down onto the "windscreen area."  Is this accurate?

I would be extremely grateful if you are able to tell me as much as possible about this element in the case.  

Was the "solid light" aspect evident from the beginning of the investigation or did it come up later?  

Is there any interview - video/tape - in which the witness describes the detail of the "solid light element?"

As the CGI "recreation" has the beam "impacting" with the windscreen and the voiceover (?) referring to the high Trifield meter readings correlating with the "light beam" impact point - I'm assuming the recreation might not be accurate or incomplete or we haven't seen it all yet.  

How did the witness describe the "beam" appearance, progression", duration, apparent contact location(s) with the car? - was it the windscreen, the bonnet and/or elsewhere?

Was there an actual correlation? I gather the high readings were "full scale" readings, nothing quantitative? 

Was any video taken of the Tri-field meter readings of the car in question and the control vehicle?  I have seen some photos?

If any "beam" contact occurred with the windscreen I am wondering if there was any evaluation of optics/spectral changes in terms of transparency etc referenced with the control vehicle.

Many questions I know, but this "solid light" aspect fascinates me and I am looking for a precise account of it with any witness account of it.

I look forward to hearing from you on this most fascinating case.

Chuck Modlin did respond:

“I remember the event quite well; the beam touched the car from the doors forward. This part of the car became magnetized with the windshield and all parts that were illuminated by the beam. There were a number of strange effects noted; the windshield and the hood of the car seemed to have electrostatic field effect best way I can describe it, feeling like a repulsive field. I did tape the witness remembering what happened, he was going to exit the vehicle opening his door he saw the beam stop 6 inches above the ground. The other effect noted was my instruments which contained metal nickel hydride batteries were drained to zero in about 45 seconds, my Nikon D700 auto-winder pack and the primary battery. My other gauss meters rechargeable battery to. The only meter functioning was my Tri Field meter; it had a Duracell 9 volt battery.

“What was of concerned to me when I tested for an electrostatic field with the Tri Field indicated none present, (I attempted to discharge the vehicle NO effect) my instruments meter reading magnetics’ showed full scale deflection. “I then switched my instrument to read RF no movement of the meter it was indicating zero deflection; which indicated my analog meter movements function was working. Since this case I purchased a gauss meter which is an analog instrument similar to a compass measuring gauss, I also purchased a flat transparent screen with metal filings suspended in oil and a cube with oil and metal filings. These are intended to show a picture of the magnetic flux lines. If you saw the compass readings in the report no matter where we put the compass in the magnetic field it pointed North indicating a possible monopole magnetic, South only; Which is not possible with our current technologies. We can produce one in a lab for a few microseconds. 

“Here are some of my thoughts regarding this case. The video showing the part of the case with the beam going in the window is incorrect it actually illuminated the whole front section of the car to the door posts on both drivers and passenger’s doors. This was one of those cases where I wish I had about 3 more EE's and a like number of PHD physics people at my side trying to explain what we were seeing.

“I hope this gives you some insight to this case it had so much going on it was hard to gather all the facts. I asked the witness to go in and have his oil filter and oil changed at my cost he did not. It sure would have been nice to hand the oil filter to a lab and them explain a monopole oil filter. We have had some Orbs next to other cars which magnetized parts of the vehicles, we now ask to do and oil change and filter change our lab has noted strange changes in the oils chemistry. With changes to the particulates in the filter as well.”

Chuck Modlin has reconfirmed the “solid light” aspect more recently with the MUFON board member who had contacted me. I am hopeful that an updated report will be issued by MUFON on this intriguing case, that will more fully reflect the “solid light” aspects. 

I had written the above (with regard to the Port Jervis case) in July 2018 but we still don’t seem any closer to clarifying the issues raised here.  I look forward to seeing a detailed report on the 2009 Port Jervis case that fully elaborates both the “car stop” aspects and the alleged “solid light” aspect. Maybe the BAASS report elaborates on this.

Another interesting aspect of the Popular Mechanics story is the release of the 2009 review paper prepared by Dr. Christopher “Kit” Green, which examined events in which people may have incurred injuries in relation to exposure with UFOs or UAPs. 

I recollect that Dr. Green contacted me several years after the 2005 publication of my book “Hair of the Alien” which focused on the Peter Khoury case.  I had assumed he was interested in the DNA work I had described in the book. At that time, I was really only aware of his past CIA connections, the so-called “Aviary” story and some of Jacques Vallee’s recollections about him in his early “Forbidden Science” journals.  I was not keen to put the research of the Peter Khoury case too deeply into a possible clandestine orbit, so I advised Dr. Green that the main details on the case and the research were in my book and on my blogs and that should he be interested in any further details, to let me know.  I never heard from him again on this matter.

Given the timing of his review report on injury cases, I pondered whether he may have had an interest in altogether closer “alien” biological exposures, injuries and effects. In my book “Hair of the Alien” I described adverse symptoms that Peter Khoury had in his 1992 encounter, during which he may have ingested possible “alien” flesh. I made a comparison of this experience with that of the Zulu sangoma Credo Mutwa, where he describes the ingestion of “alien flesh” and what seemed to be a form of anaphylactic shock – a bizarre element, but I suggest you read the detail described on pgs. 166-168 of my book.  The details are a little graphic, so I will not share them here, besides detailed context is needed before one can take these elements potentially seriously.

With regard to Dr. Green’s review, my colleague Keith Basterfield highlighted that the only Australian cases (and there were only 3) did not seem to qualify as human injury cases related to UFO/UAP encounters.  Indeed, I had carefully investigated one of the cases, and spoken with the witnesses – a Finnish couple who experienced a UFO/UAP event back in 1971 near Gladstone, Queensland, one involving apparent “missing time”, and an “interrupted journey” which may have involved possible teleportation. The car had been affected with possible related paint damage. See my 1996 book “The OZ Files – the Australian UFO story.”

THE INTERRUPTED JOURNEY

On the night of 1 August 1971 a Finnish couple, Ben and Helen, were returning home after visiting friends. The couple left Gladstone soon after 11.35 p.m. Having found no petrol stations open, they were very low on fuel but decided to risk the trip to Rockhampton, hoping to find an open petrol station in one of the small centres on the way, before their tank ran dry. The night was foggy and dark. By midnight, they had arrived at the Calliope River Bridge. After passing over it, and beginning to travel along the straight stretch of road that followed, they saw a Caltex station on the left side of the road, north of Mount Larcom, some 30 kilometres beyond the Calliope River Bridge.The station was closed but, after driving a bit past it, Ben became aware that he could see ‘a green light at the level of the treetops’ in the rear view mirror. His wife confirmed the presence of two green lights.

Then, Ben said, ‘Suddenly we had a feeling that we had been driving straight forward all the time. The road seemed straight, foggy, and surrounded by trees [in this area the roads are usually winding]. And we had a feeling that we were repeating the same words over and over again. We thought we should have been arriving at Mount Larcom.’

Suddenly, the couple saw a light to their left and, above them, a circle of lights, similar to those on a merry-go-round or carousel. The next thing they saw was the Port Alma road sign, some 60 kilometres north of Calliope River. Immediately after this observation, the couple found themselves at a railroad crossing outside Rockhampton, about 30 kilometres from Mount Morgan. Ben said, ‘We wondered how we had managed to get so far and why we had not seen any villages on the way. We should have seen at least four of them. We felt that something strange had happened to us. We were afraid. I took a rifle out of the trunk and loaded it. We drove to Rockhampton with the rifle on my knees. Our dog, Candy, who usually sleeps on the back seat, was afraid and wanted to come to the front seat.’

In the middle of Rockhampton, the couple found an open petrol station. It was there that the bizarre nature of the trip really struck home. They were shocked to find that the time was only 15 minutes past midnight. Only 40 minutes had passed since they had left Gladstone. At the average speed which the couple estimated they were driving at, some 65 kph, the trip time should have been over an hour, probably closer to two hours. It seemed that the couple covered the distance in almost half the required time and, on top of that, had no conscious recollection of passing through any villages. They only remembered the Caltex station and the Port Alma road sign.

The service station attendant in Rockhampton became very interested in that. Then peculiar things were discovered on the car. The 1971 Valiant sedan was covered with a very thin film of odourless oil. The attendant could not identify it but suggested it would be used on ‘very fine machinery unknown to him’. In the comers of the oil-covered bonnet, four round marks, two in each rear comer, were noticed. All were identical, being one eighth of an inch deep and nine inches in diameter. In the middle of each circle there was a spot—a one inch solid circle. Oil traces ran in two stripes from the circles towards the nose of the car. A defect in the duco, described as being burnt, was found on the right- hand-side front of the bonnet, above the headlight.

The mystery deepened as the number of people gathering around the car, in curiosity, grew. Ben said, ‘After a while another driver came to the station. He said he had passed us before the Calliope River. He couldn’t understand how we could have arrived at Rockhampton before him. Finally, we went to the police station and told our story to a young officer there. After examining the oil and marks on the bonnet, all he could say was, ‘I have often fallen asleep at the steering wheel and woken up after 200-300 miles.’

The couple wanted to contact the local newspaper but, at that hour, it was closed. They drove around Rockhampton for a while, with their car drawing stares wherever they stopped. In an effort to reconcile events, Ben says, ‘Slowly it dawned on us what happened. As we were so concerned about the petrol station, UFOs lifted us from Calliope River, past Mount Larcom, to the Caltex Service Station, and from there, during a second lift, via Port Alma Junction, to the railway crossing a couple of miles from Rockhampton. We continued our trip around three o’clock and had 300 miles of foggy driving ahead of us. We were wishing that UFOs would come and help us again, but that didn’t eventuate. During the following day we did inspect our car more carefully and thought that the paint work had burned, lifting off in flakes. This wasn’t the case; as the oil, mixed with dust, had started to dry up, it produced this flaking. We tried and found out the mixture of oil and dust was water soluble.’

The experience changed the couple’s lives to a degree. They subsequently saw a number of UFOs and Helen had several possibly related experiences of telepathy. An analysis was done on the ‘burnt’ spot on the bonnet by Finnish UFO researchers and it was concluded that the site came in contact with extreme heat.

Hypnotic regression was also attempted on the couple, but nothing further was elicited. Each time hypnosis was induced, and recall of that evening was attempted, both would begin to shake violently. The hypnotist gave up the attempt. Subsequent ‘recollections’ suggest memories of a strange entity and a strange environment. I have spoken with the couple more recently. They remain puzzled by the experience.

As for Australian cases of a more compelling kind that appear to involve “injuries” in relation to a UFO/UAP encounter I could have supplied him with some more relevant case data.  For example, the following case:

Three men - Bob L., "Yo Yo" W., and Brian K. - experienced such an encounter on the outskirts of Cooktown, Queensland, on May 17th, 1959.  They were crocodile hunting by boat in a swamp area.  By 4.30 am, they had shot 3 or 4 crocs, when their attention was attracted to a piercing humming.  A huge circular object suddenly came into view.  It hovered at about tree top level some 100yards away.  The object, estimated to be about 50 yards across, appeared to be football shaped with a band of half moon shaped windows.  It seemed to be issuing some sort of vapour.  The sighting lasted some 20 minutes, during which time the men mostly lay hidden in long grass.  Brian K. and W. stood up during the sighting.  The UFO eventually moved in a semi circle, then rose slowly and disappeared at high speed.  All three men discussed the extraordinary event, but agreed not to talk to anybody about it.  

Bob L. alleges all manner of severe physical effects as a consequence of this experience.  He alleges that Brian K. died shortly after the sighting.  He feels it was due to fact that K. stood up during the incident. He does not know what happened to W.  Bob alleges the encounter led to loss of the use of his legs, severe headaches, sporadic loss of vision, and speech detoriation beyond an existing speech impediment problem.  He has had extensive hospitalisation and some institutionalisation, all of which he links direct and indirectly to his experience in 1959.   I interviewed Bob L. during 1976.  He was still suffering from a severe speech impediment, however the UFO event and post event history was told with some lucidity, albeit with difficulty.   Whether the post event traumas were in anyway connected with the 1959 incident it is now impossible to determine.  Too many complicating circumstances made the determination of any cause and effect relationship untenable.

I have always been an advocate of open scientific research into the UFO/UAP mystery. So I hope that maybe we will eventually get a more transparent UFO/UAP investigation, even from government, private aerospace & science organisations, than the one dominated now by secret and restricted narratives. Getting to the heart of the UFO mystery will be benefited by such an open collaborative approach.  The secretive approach may soon be eclipsed by the sea change in serious open scientific research organisations and individuals, that has been accelerating in recent years, towards a more sensible examination of the UFO mystery.