Do you believe in flying saucers? Are there craft from other worlds entering our atmosphere? Are there secret explanations behind sightings that remain classified as Unidentified Flying Objects?

For the present it is a matter of each individual’s belief, says this science writer who has spent months of research to prepare a series of articles which will appear each Monday in The Journal.

Perhaps his efforts will help you decide.


Saucer Men And Brains

Studies Indicate They Seem To Go Together
But Also That Visitors Are Calloused Types

BY CLIFFORD D. SIMAK
Minneapolis Star Science Writer

The Edmonton Journal
Monday, December 19, 1966


Fourteen years of study has convinced the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) that intelligences are associated with unidentified flying objects.

The organization believes that although the intelligences are not hostile, they are indifferent to human welfare.

Reports of persons being Injured by the UFOs are not common, but there are a few of them.

One of the most notable is the case of James Flynn, 45, a rancher at East Fort Meyers, Fla. APRO has investigated this case and is convinced that the facts as given by Flynn and the physician who treated him are true.

Flynn related that on the morning of March 15, 1965, while on a hunting trip, he sighted what appeared to be a landed UFO. Approaching to within a few feet of the object, he was struck by what appeared to be a beam of light and was knocked unconscious.

When he sought medical aid, it was found that his eyes had been so badly damaged that he may lose his sight. The physician who treated him attested to the injury.

APRO’s investigation convinced it that Flynn is an emotionally stable man, unlikely to have imagined what he saw and certainly unlikely to have undertaken a hoax which would have been both difficult and senseless.

If the UFOs are spacecraft operated by aliens, the noted indifference to individual human welfare is what might be expected. The crew of a spacecraft from earth, surveying another planet, might not willingly harm any of the planet’s native life but would have not hesitated to protect themselves and their craft against interference by the natives.

APRO was founded in 1952 by Mr. and Mrs. L. J. Lorenzen. It is the oldest private UFO research organization in the world; its scope is worldwide, and it is operated on a nonprofit basis. It has, at the moment, about 1,000 members.

The annual membership fee is $3.50, which provides it a yearly budget of about $3,500. Because the Lorenzens carry on the work of the organization at their home at 3910 East Kelindale Road in Tucson, Ariz., and charge no rent, the budget usually is sufficient. All work is volunteer.

A second private UFO research group is the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) founded in 1956, with headquarters at 1536 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. Several similar groups are located in other countries. None has achieved the scope of operation of APRO or NICAP.

Substantially more than 100 UFO “societies” at one time existed in the United States. Basically, these were “fan” clubs. In some instances, serious research into the aerial phenomena may have been carried out, but the clubs, by and large, did little more than enable persons interested in UFOs to get together, either personally or by letter, to discuss sightings. Many of the groups published and circulated newsletters among their members.

Today there are fewer UFO groups. The first excitement may have worn off; the repetitious sightings may have become monotonous. It is hard to maintain a “gee whiz” attitude for 20 years. To keep up interest, more than idle speculation was necessary; research and some hard thinking were called for. APRO and NICAP have supplied these.

NICAP has a membership of about 10,000; its annual membership fee of $5 giving it an operating budget of about $50,000 a year. The operation however, sometimes runs in the red. It has a fulltime staff of six and engages in extensive mailing.

Twenty - five regional subcommittees assist NICAP in its UFO investigation. Many members voluntarily assist in keeping track of UFO developments by submitting newspaper clippings, first-hand reports and other information.

NICAP has a two–fold purpose, to investigate and correlate UFO data and to bring about a congressional hearing on the Air Force’s handling of its UFO investigation. Its director is Donald Keyhoe, retired U.S. Marine Corps major. NICAP reflects his philosophy in carrying on a running dispute, if not a feud, with the Air Force.

The Air Force for its part disclaims any knowledge of a feud. It feuds, it says, with no one.

While NICAP does not preclude the possibility of some other explanation, its basic assumption is that the UFOs are spacecraft from somewhere other than the earth. Its sighting reports over the time of the committee’s existence total about 10,000, the same figure reported by the Air Force. Of these, about 2,000 remain unexplained.

The attempt to bring about a full-scale congressional hearing of the UFO situation so far has been unsuccessful. A hearing before the House Committee on Armed Services, held last April 5, lasted only 80 minutes and did little more than allow the Air Force once again to state its position and conclusions.

APRO, which also seems committed to the spacecraft theory, has a membership top-heavy with technicians, engineers and educators. As is the case with NICAP, the membership sends in information on new sightings. In many cases, this is in the form of newspaper clippings. Both NICAP and APRO have, in their membership, what is probably the world’s best clipping service.

When a report comes in to APRO, the member who is the closest to the area where the sighting occurred is notified and asked to investigate and report back. If the sighting is within a few hundred miles of Tucson, the Lorenzens may drive there to help with the investigation.

The membership includes some attorneys. As might be expected, they are among the best investigators. Another member is a former U.S. army intelligence officer, and still another a former British intelligence officer. One member who has performed exceptional service as an investigator is a symphony musician.

Lorenzen is an engineer in the space division of the Kitt Peak National Observatory at Tucson, although he points out that Kitt Peak is in no way involved with his UFO organization. Mrs. Lorenzen is a former newspaper writer and a free - lance writer.

A continuous process of checking reports is carried on in an attempt to determine similarities and correlations that may establish characteristics and patterns typical of UFO behavior.

APRO believes that it has pinned down some characteristics which are typical. They are that:

Three types of configurations seem to be the most common — disc, the globe and the cigar - shaped objects.

Three sounds appear to be characteristic of UFOs. While many UFOs are silent, the three sounds that have been noted are a whine like the sound of an electric motor running at high speed, a buzz like the noise of a hive of bees and a roar that is associated only with egg – shaped craft operating at low altitude.

Most UFOs have a tendency to glow or are equipped with flashing lights.

Rotating rims have been observed on many of the disc-shaped objects.

Reports of UFOs which have landed have as much validity, APRO contends, as reports of flying or hovering UFOs. In the APRO files are a dozen or so reports of landed saucers. They include records of landing marks, and, in some instances, residue.

The demonstrated hoaxes, most in the early era of interest in the UFOs, described beings which disembarked from the vehicles and cast a pall of suspicion over any report of UFO occupants. Some of the early hoaxers told of being taken aboard the craft or having made trips aboard them to other planets, either real or mythical. Such reports still pop up now and then but not many.

NICAP seems to have shied away from occupant reports. There is nothing which can make a UFO investigator look sillier than to be taken in by an occupant hoax. NICAP, with the hope of some day bringing about a congressional investigation, understandably is reluctant to become involved with this kind of sighting.

APRO, devoted solely to a study of the UFOs on as sound an observational basis as possible and not concerned with any political considerations, has not hesitated to investigate reports on UFO occupants.

The files of the organization contain 29 occupant reports from the United States and 36 from South America. The Lorenzens have been informed, on what appears good authority, that 200 occupant sightings were made in France in one year — 1954.

This is a puzzling situation. Some of the reports, perhaps a number of them, may not be valid. Even so, that is a high proportion of such sightings from one country, compared with the number of similar reports from elsewhere in the world.

It is conjectured that France may have been a favorite landing terrain and that the dense population of the country resulted in more of the occupants being seen.

All occupants so far reported have been described as humanoid — manlike with two legs, two arms and a head.

As many as three types of humanoids have been described. One type is said to be slightly smaller than we are, perhaps an average of 4 feet in height. There is some doubt about the facial characteristics.

Another type is described as being about 3 feet tall, with a more human look about it than its larger fellow. Its facial characteristics are human; it has eyes, nose and mouth. But, the nostrils often are reported as mere slits, the mouth a straight gash and the eyes wider apart and larger than ours and extending around the curve of the face, perhaps to give a wider field of vision.

The third type might be called hairy dwarfs, smaller than the second type, squatty and apparently very strong.

In almost every instance, strange as it may seem, the hairy dwarfs have been said to collect material from the ground, as though gathering specimens.

In some instances, the occupants have been reported as wearing what seemed to be a space helmet.

APRO, after a long, hard look, is inclined to credit many of the occupant reports as valid. The very fact that the reports are so consistent that types of creatures can be determined argues some validity.

The unquestioned personal Integrity of some of the witnesses — a clergyman in one instance — would seem to carry considerable weight.

HOMEPAGE COLLISON COLLECTION

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