Monday, June 30, 2008

Chile: UFOs in Valparaiso

Source: IIEE Chile
Date: 06.30.08


Chile: UFOs in Valparaiso

On Wednesday, June 25, young Pedro Rivera Sepulveda took a photo of a strange object at 22:13 hours with his digital camera from a sector of Cerro Cordillera.

The "La Estrella" de Valparaiso newspaper published nearly two full pages regarding this photo. The daily also requested the cooperation of ufologist Marcelo Moya, asking him to render a preliminary opinion on the photograph.

Marcelo Moya said: "Every so often we get this sort of UFO photograph, and I use the acronym "UFO" because some people are obviously facing certain photographic anomalies that tend to be uncommon. With regard to the photo taken in Valparaiso, it is customary to see "orbs" appearing when photos are taken during moments of darkness. A mystical or paranomal connotation is usually given to this sort of event, but to my understanding, they could be explained through conventional terms. The explanation involves the actuation of the camera's flash [when a photo is taken]: it lights up small, suspended dust particles that are near the camera..."

Researchers of the IIEE in Santiago de Chile traveled to see the analyses perofrmed by this ufologist. He repeated that the photograph merited detailed study and that there are still a few missing details before a verdict can be emitted.

Marcelo Moya has become known for a detailed and highly elaborate study in Valparaiso and its environs, achiving thrhough his investigations the necesary equilibrium between working alone and cooperating with various research organizations.

(Translation (c) 2008, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Raul Núñez, IIEE Chile)

UFOs and the Interdimensional Hypothesis

UFOs AND THE INTERDIMENSIONAL HYPOTHESIS
By Scott Corrales

In 1994, a number of European UFO researchers and authors met at the Santo Espíritu del Monte monastery in the Andalusian city of Valencia, Spain. Many of them couldn't help feeling like conspirators plotting the overthrow of an unreasonable political regime: they had gathered at this retreat for the purpose of furthering an alternative approach for the study of the UFO phenomenon. Admittedly, this was hardly innovative, but it was their intention to officialize their intention as a declaration, much in the same manner of those patriots who met in Philadelphia in 1776.

The Project Delphos Manifesto, as it would come to be known, hoped to promote among its signatories the adherence to a single line of research aimed at proving that a considerable number of UFO sightings were of an interdimensional or paraphysical nature -- directly the opposite to the tenets of the ETH or Extraterrestrial Hypothesis.

The initiative was spearheaded by French investigator Pierre Delaval, whose group, the Comission d'Etudes Ouranos, has long championed the belief that mankind has long been under the scrutiny of a non-human intelligence from another dimension or level of existence; Spain's Pedro Valverde and Ramón Navía, co-sponsors of the initiative, expressed the belief that "an extraplanetary force interferes in human affairs and with human minds, thwarting natural evolution since the beginning of time."

Project Delphos intended to go farther than any other research initiative ever had before, setting for itself the almost impossible goal of discovering the manner in which non-human intelligences had evolved on their respective dimensions and how it was possible for them to affect our own physical reality. In order to achieve this, a number of multiple fronts would have to be opened -- everything ranging from psychotronics to channeling -- in the hopes that "the invisible might be made visible," as stated by the organizers. But the use of these tried methods (albeit questionable) would not suffice for these purposes. It would be necessary to develop a new generation of technological devices capable of assisting in the detection of all manner of alterations (electromagnetic, thermal, etc.) which would assist in the physical detection of the phenomenon.

Ramón Valverde summarized it thus: "an intelligence that needs a certain mental activity and a support-vehicle-body that isn't necessarily a dense physical structure [...] these intelligent creatures have taken advantage of our need to believe in something greater than ourselves, and our belief in a spiritual level, in order to usurp its functions. If we manage to understand their goals, it may be possible to avoid being manipulated by them."

The Ten Commandments of Project Delphos

1. The UFO phenomenon is partially or wholly alien to the problem of extraterrestrial life, to which it has been associated almost always.
2. Many manifestations of the UFO phenomenon enter the realm of the paraphysical, a level whose highly-subjective nature can elude conventional scientific analysis.
3. Large networks of researchers in both America and Europe have managed to gather enough information to prove that many of the phenomena classified as UFO belong to the realm of the paraphysical.
4. There is a sufficiently abundant case history of phenomena that can be classified today as UFOs, and which constitute a protohistory of the phenomenon within the framework of ancient mythologies and the origin of religions which have become institutionalized in the present.
5. These manifestations are merely one of the multiple facets of a plane of existence or hidden universe, alien to our material world, that is subject to the laws of space-time.
6. Their interference in human affairs must be inserted within the context of a real occult conspiracy, possibly aimed toward a new world order.
7. It can be concluded that the UFO phenomenon and other unexplained manifestations occur within the parameters of a vast plan of deception.
8. It can be concluded that this plot or conspiracy has interfered, and continues to interfere with, humanity's normal evolution and that of our psychic ability by means of trivializing the occult in a strategy essentially aimed at the young.
9. This course of action encompasses psychic manipulation, altered states of consciousness, personality modification, telepathic control, etc.
10. The continued presence of the UFO phenomenon and its interference throughout history is proof positive of an intention and a strategy at the command of a force. The line of action proposed by the members of Project Delphos seeks to counteract this subversive action, which takes place at both the physical and mental levels.

Interdimensionality Examined

For all its lofty goals, many observers of the UFO scene will remain unimpressed by Project Delphos, and will find fault with the items set forth in its manifesto, particularly the a priori judgements of the existence of a global occult conspiracy, the avowedly hostile aim of the phenomenon, etc. which have not been kindly viewed by U.S. researchers and are generally consigned to the vast pile of "crank" literature available on the subject.

But the fact of the matter remains that this initiative by European researchers offers an organized counterweight to the mechanistic nuts-and-bolts alternatives which have come to prevail in ufological debates since the early 1980's. Nevertheless, pursuing such an effort is tantamount to performing a high-wire act, trying to maintain a balance between the status-quo ETH (extraterrestrial hypothesis) and the "UFOs as demons" view espoused by extremist religious groups.

The first order of business is necessarily tackling the concept of "other dimensions" or "planes of existence" -- a relatively simple task for the science fiction author or fantasist, but a considerably harder job when trying to apply such concepts to the physical world.

For purposes of this article, it will be assumed that the reader is aware of the properties of the first, second and third dimensions (the latter which is our own). A dimension can be defined as being the magnitude measured in one direction -- width, length or thickness -- employed to define a position in space. The oft-mentioned fourth dimension is a dimension of time as it applies to length, breadth and thickness in a space-time continuum.

As illustrated charmingly in Edwin Abbott's Flatland, a tale of life a two dimensional universe, it is easy for us to imagine how a two dimensional world would look like and how its inhabitants would react to the incursion of a visitor from our own reality. Conversely, it is hard for us to imagine what the fifth, sixth, seventh or higher dimensions would look like, much less its inhabitants. The late Carl Sagan presented viewers of his Cosmos television program with a lucite representation of the fourth dimension known as a tesseract or hypercube, but even this falls far short of illustrating such a reality.

The interdimensional theory of UFOs asks us to believe in the existence of creatures from these improbable points of origin. This seemingly unreasonable request is somewhat tempered by the global belief in another dimension or level of existence generally known as "heaven" and the less pleasant one known as "hell". Renowned researcher Dr. Greg Little has masterfully identified each of these places as the ultraviolet and infrared ends of the electromagnetic spectrum, respectively.

Ufologist Salvador Freixedo prefers to speak of "planes" or level" since he admits being confused by the thought of dimensions. His layman explanation of the concept remains the most satisfying to the unspecialized reader: he envisions reality as a high-rise apartment building, with each level or dimension being a floor in the building. Occupants may share the structure, but ready access from one level to another is possible only through clearly defined communication paths (elevators, stairwells). It is only upon occasion that occupants of the different levels coincide with one another, such as when they are in the building's lobby or entrance. He argues that certain places on our world, which boast heavy paranormal activity, are precisely those points in common which we share with the denizens of other realities.

Freixedo takes his argument one step further, stating that we could not possibly guess what the nature of the errands of these other dimensional creatures could be. He cleverly invokes the image of a squirrel running along a telephone wire, completely oblivious to its nature and the myriad phone calls it handles every day, the crews which monitor it, etc. The squirrel merely sees is as a convenient means of getting from one place to another. When human eyewitnesses see UFO occupants engaged in strange maneuvers, are we reduced to the role of the unsuspecting squirrel?

Perhaps nothing can sum up this situation as the following quote from another Spanish paranormalist, Juan G. Atienza: " The UFO laughs at all of this, as we would laugh if we could see the desperate two-dimensional figures on the surface of a piece of paper. The UFO heals the sick, creates messiahs, brings messages of peace, removes the contents of skulls, sneers at supersonic aircraft and carries in its belly an entire zoo of beings ranging from Apolloesque, Hyperborean angels dreamed up by a devotee of Aryan philosophies to the elemental chimeras of childrens' tales and hagiographical accounts involving small demons with horns and even spiked tails. Technology? How absurd!"

Greetings from Another Dimension

While the stage of the modern UFO era was set by clearly physical events, such as the Kenneth Arnold sighting and the putative Roswell Crash, subsequent sightings and encounters would indicate that the phenomenon might not be as substantial as it originally seemed. Ufologist Allan Hendry concurred with this position when he enumerated the "alternate mechanisms to the ETH in the realm of the paranormal" ("The UFO Message-Part II", Saga UFO Report, Feb.1980). These events included UFOs and their occupants having the ability to disappear, more akin to ghosts than solid vehicles; reports of transparent, ghostly humanoids; instances of telepathic communication with UFO occupants; psychic experiences arising from UFO sightings or contact with occupants; instances of levitation by UFO occupants and/or their instruments; the ability of UFO occupants to walk through solid matter, and the sudden physical paralysis experienced by UFO witnesses in certain cases. We shall strive to provide a few examples of these in the following paragraphs.

In his book Situation Red - The UFO Siege, the late Leonard Stringfield included a case of a morphing UFO which remains a classic: on September 3, 1975, in Tujunga, California, a couple known as the Cromwells heard a helicopter flying overhead. Mrs. Cromwell took this as a warning that a brush fire had erupted in the area and remained watchful of the developments. Both she and her sister-in-law managed to see the helicopter in question and notice that a bright, circular object appeared to hover over its rotors. Using binoculars, the women were able to distinguish a "light pattern" whose colors were bluish-green at the top and bright red at the bottom. To compound the strangeness of the situation, the object remained motionless in the sky while the helicopter maneuvered below. The object then proceeded to change shapes, from circular to diamond, to chevron and then into a classic "flying saucer" configuration. As it departed, the helicopter followed.

The questions which arise here are obvious: was the helicopter a military aircraft intercepting the UFO? Was it a projection of the UFO, or was it also a cleverly concealed UFO? All three hypotheses have been considered in a number of books and magazine articles, and while we may think along the lines of the clever "cloaking devices" which have become part and parcel of science fiction movies, questions about the solidity of these devices still remain.

Much the same happened in a Swedish case from 1959 told by Anders Liljegren in the UFO-Sweden Newsletter.Gideon Johansson ran out into the night to see if he could ascertain the reason an area-wide power failure in Mariannelund. He witnessed a glowing object making a slow descent through the trees and coming within a few feet of the ground. The startled onlooker was able to see that it was a craft of some sort, having a high transparent dome which revealed the presence of two occupants "with high-crowned heads and big, beautiful eyes." Tge occupants appeared to engage in what Johannson took to be repairs and the object soon disappeared "like a ghost in the night".

Some of these putative vehicles from an intelligent civilization on another planet have a propensity for exhibiting behavior best associated with poltergeist phenomena. Researcher Peter Guttilla mentions the case of one Grace Groswalther of Salyer, CA, who witnessed a "glowing hat-shaped UFO" fly silently over the treetops before losing itself in the direction of another nearby town. According to Groswalther, the effects of the flyover manifested themselves as houselights switching on and off, dead telephone lines, and violent, incessant pounding sounds against her home's walls and roof. Phenomena of this type are often encountered by parapsychologists.

In October 1973, a number of Native American fishermen belonging to Canada's Quamichan tribe on Vancouver Island were witnesses to a strange object a few hundred feet away from their position. According to testimony appearing in the Canadian UFO Report, the object had three red lights rotating on its upper "deck" and intermittent lights moving counterclockwise on its lower surface. A white beam of light, resembling a searchlight, moved up and down the surface of the Cowichan River, terrifying the onlookers. But what truly astounded the Quamichan fishermen was the fact that the discoidal object changed shape into that of an airplane, making the characteristic engine sounds of an aircraft. It flew over the witnesses vanished beyond the treeline.

The Mind-Benders

While morphing UFOs may lead us to question the solidity of the entire phenomenon and its interplanetary nature (disregarding Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law which states that the technology of any sufficiently advanced will be indistinguishable from magic), the occupants which often emerge from these vehicles hardly resemble what human logic would consider to be teams explorers from another planet.

In 1975, during a particularly heavy period of UFO activity in Puerto Rico, Orlando Franceschi, an ambulance driver for a Catholic hospital in the city of Ponce had returned home after 8 p.m. on the evening of April 17 when he realized that "something" was roaming around his back yard. Whatever it was, it caused Franceschi's dog to jump into the air in a furious attempt at jumping over the fence and away from the patio. Thinking that some children may be playing a prank on him, Franceschi went outside to take a closer look, arming himself with a shovel. The curious homeowner was soon faced by a creature he would later describe as a "zombie." The entity allegedly had long, pointed ears, a long nose, lipless mouth and appeared to have grayish, ashen skin. It had black spots for eyes, and a jawline reminiscent of an ape's. It ambled toward the human with a jerky, stiff gait.

Taking no chances whatsoever, Franceschi struck the five foot tall intruder with the shovel. The creature suffered no ill effects from what Franceschi himself considered to have been a terrific blow. It merely backed off, allowing the human to strike it a second time with the garden tool, also without visible effect. When the ambulance driver was about to deliver a third shovel-blow, he felt himself becoming paralyzed and helpless. The zombie-like creature disappeared before his eyes.

This high-strangeness case might cause proponents of the ETH to cry foul, since there was no UFO present during the event. However, its importance lies in showing that whatever the creature was, it was solid enough to resist two blows from a gardening implement and insubstantial enough to disappear before the eyes of its assailant. The following case is almost similar, but throws in a UFO.

On June 4, 1972, a group of young men and women visited Wallacia, in Australia's New South Wales, for a lakeside picnic. At around 6 p.m., when they decided to reenter their vehicle to depart, they found themselves looking at a surprising object, resembling two saucers joined at their edges and with three landing struts, in a stationary position not far from their automobile. The craft pulsated with glowing lights.

Panic seized the four men and two women in the group: some experienced piercing headaches and others heard an increasingly loud hum coming from the object. To worsen the situation, their car's engine erupted in flames, causing them to flee from the scene. But as the frightened picnickers tried to run for safety, they found themselves confronting a large, indistinct figure heading toward them: it had broad shoulders and arms ending in pointed "hands". In a last desperate effort, the humans concealed themselves in the grass as the creature glided past them, vanishing into thin air when it reached their stricken automobile.

Since the late 1980's, researchers into UFO abduction experiences have been challenged by the increase in reports of tall reptilian creatures known by a variety of names such as Reptoids, Dracos or Alligator Men. This order of beings differs from the ubiquitous Greys and more elusive Nordics (the former impersonal and aloof, the latter greatly concerned with abductee welfare) in their outright hostility and highly sexual nature. Certain researchers have tried to establish links between these entities and those which have traditionally contacted by means of black magic in many cultures. Reptoids have been characterized as masters of illusion and disguise, passing themselves off as Nordics, Greys or even human beings, before reverting to their true form. Investigator Eve Francis Lorgen has expressed her belief that such creatures are interdimensional rather than extraplanetary, and further adds that many of the abductees she has dealt with believe that certain Reptoids --clad in black hooded robes or capes--are indeed the hidden controllers behind the abduction phenomenon. This belief has been echoed by other students of the phenomenon who have gone as far as to claim that human evolution has been directed by the Reptoids.

The exploits of these unknown quantities transcends national borders. Mexican ufologist and author Luis Ramírez Reyes, who has had his share of unusual experiences, discusses a case brought to his attention in the early '90's by a colleague who visited the town of Tepoztlán (now a prominent New Age destination) and heard the following story: an elderly woman, Concepción Navarrete, had lost her teenage son to reptilian creatures who traditionally haunt Tepozteco Hill, a forested summit crowned by a small pyramid.

Mrs. Navarrete's son enjoyed running up to the top of the hill since his earliest childhood, particularly when the presence of strange nocturnal lights caused blackouts in Tepoztlan. He finally vanished altogether one day, never to be seen again, and his mother was certain that his disappearance was related to the presence of the strange lights. One morning, she noticed a "very strange being" standing not far from her modest home. It had its back to her, and gave the impression of being "a giant iguana", standing erect and over six feet tall, with green scaly skin.

The reptilian creature made a sudden about face, presenting an entirely different appearance. "He resembled a blond, friendly American" explained Navarrete, who was terrified out of her wits. The shapeshifting Reptoid told her not to be afraid; no harm would come to her and that her son was safe and well-cared for. Navarrete turned to a passing man to cry for help, and when she turned back to look at the shapeshifter, it had disappeared.

Noted ufologist Linda Moulton Howe has gathered information on the interdimensional nature of a possible conflict between these non-human factions. Several of her sources indicate that the hostilities between the Greys and the Nordics have led the latter to seek refuge in "other dimensions inaccessible to the Greys." In a 1989 article appearing in UFO Universe, Dr. Jean Mundy best summarizes the interdimensional nature of these entities: "Some of the many creatures that inhabit the universe are native to the physical dimensions we are familiar with...Other creatures inhabit paraphysical realms, usually alluded to as "etheric". These realms consist of physical matter, but in forms that are less dense, more malleable, and more durable than matter in the chemical universe...These interpenetrating universes have been recognized for millennia world-wide by the esoteric traditions of every major religion and school of thought."

Conclusion

Veteran UFO researcher and author Jacques Vallée suggested the possibility that the UFO phenomenon could have an earthly nature without being related to any human agency, or even extraplanetary without involving the need for any conveyances. This seemingly contradictory notion can be explained through developments in physics which account for the elusive "dimensions" which are the occultist's stock in trade. Vallée cites the work of scientists such as Michio Taku and Jennifer Trainer, who manifest the need that traditional physics requires the existence of five dimensions in order to account for the Big Bang theory. Theoretical physics believes that our universe originally had ten dimensions, six of which collapsed or "curled up", leaving us with the four dimensional one in which we exist. In his book Alien Agenda, author Jim Marrs quotes as statement made by a leading physicist: a number of investigators claim to have found evidence of the existence of what they have come to term the "top quark", providing a model for a ten-dimensional universe in which time travel into the remote past is a possibility and in which holes in very fabric of space enable travel to other parts of the universe. According to the article, the seemingly immovable and eternal visible universe in which we all live may simply be one of many universes existing side by side "like so many soap bubbles in a cosmic froth." Can we even begin to guess at what kind of intelligent life may have developed in any of these parallel dimensions or other universes?

While it is true that our notion of what bona fide interplanetary explorers should behave has been conditioned by the literary genre of science fiction, the entities involved with the UFO phenomenon hardly resemble the ambassadors of an advanced galactic society: their vehicles have radiation leaks that cause damage to their landing sites; the purpose of dentures, clocks or other items appears to elude them; they perform crude operations on terrified abductees with implements that do not match the capabilities that a society capable of crossing the voids of space should rightfully possess.

Perhaps we would do well to heed the admonition--smacking of gallows' humor--offered by Arthur C. Clarke in his book Report on Planet Three and Other Speculations: it's not a flying saucer unless you can see the Mars license plate.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Chile: UFO Over the Ariztia Plant









Chile: UFO Over the Ariztia Plant

A photograph taken by Alejandro Pardo at the Ariztia Plant on May 4, 2008.

Alejandro works for an engineering consulting firm which is engaged in a survey of the pipe network of the plant in question, which is located in the community of Monte. The image correspond to the photographic record of the facilities (taken with a Samsung U-CA 3 camera).

Photo courtesy: Guillermo Aguilera

(Translation (c) 2008, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Ana Luisa Cid)

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Peru: UFO Photographed over Ica











Source: Planeta UFO
Date: 06.22.08

Alex Sender writes: On June 1, 2008, an unidentified flying object was photographed in broad daylight at the center of the city. The photographer saw nothing unusual in the sky at the moment the photo was taken. This case and others can be seen at http://astroufo5.pe.tripod.com/casosica.htm

(Translation (c) 2008, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Alex Sender)

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Venezuela: UFOs Over El Avila





Hector Escalante from http://ovnivenezuelagrupo.blogspot.com/ writes:
Caracas - Venezuela. 06/21/08. On Saturday, June 15 in the afternoon I was able to photograph fortuitously two objects with a strange appearance in the vicinity of Cerro El Avila around San Jose - Cotiza, while attempting to record the wake of an aircraft after it crossed the skies over Caracas.
The vehicle moved in a southeast - northeast direction and viceversa, generating a sort of "gaseous tissue" in the heights, white in color and of broad dimensions, which took approximately 30 minutes to vanish.
The objects were photographed with a Panasonic Lumix digital camera, 6.0 mpix, and maintained a considerable distance with regard to the flight trajectory followed by the aircraft.


(Translation (c) 2008, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Hector Escalante)

Mexico: UFO Photographed During San Marcos Fair








Ana Luisa Cid writes: Mr. Mario Castaneda Marquez took this photo during the San Marcos Fair in the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico. According to his eyewitness account, it was taken during the preparation of the Los Voladores de Papantla ritual in front of the San Marcos Church. The date was April 30, 2008, the time 12:35 hrs., and a DSC P-43 Sony camera was used.

Mexico: Airliner Personnel Report UFOs over MCIA

Source: Ana Luisa Cid and Alfonso Salazar
Date: 06.21.08


Mexico: Airliner Personnel Report UFOs over MCIA

June 9 2008 - Flight Mechanic Octavio Piedras reported five unidentified flying objects during a flight from Cancun to Mexico city between 7:08 and 7:10 a.m.. The event occurred during the descent toward MCIA (Mexico City International Airport).

The witness photographed the objects with his cell phone, and according to his account, the objects emerged from a cloud and were in front of the airplane until they lost themselves in the sky. The weather conditions were sunny and clear.

The crew (commander and first officer) also saw the UFOs, which were spherical and metallic. They described that three objects emerged first, followed by two more. Aircraft: Boeing 737-300, Flight 777.

Note: Mr. Octavio Piedras will not disclose the photograph due to personal and professional concerns.

June 16 2008 - At 7:30 a.m. a spherical, red object was seen suspended at 2000 meters over MCIA. The Airport flew over the area near the control tower and adjacent hangars. This was seen by air traffic personnel (mechanics and ramp personnel) working at that time.

According to this report, the spherical object began rising until it became lost from sight at high speed. For this reason, witnesses rule out the possibility that it could have been a balloon.

(Translation (c) 2008, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Ana Luisa Cid).

Friday, June 13, 2008

Cuba: Aliens in Cuba?

Source: Diario SI
http://www.cubasi.cu/desktopdefault.aspx?spk=160&clk=201645&lk=1&ck=103466&spka=35
Date: 06.12.08


Aliens in Cuba?
By Antonio Santana Pérez

When the presence of an unidentified flying object was reported in the Spring of 1950 in the province of Matanzas, the first case of this nature known in Cuba after the start of the flying saucer age, it marked the beginning of a list of sporadic luminous visions, mostly lacking scientific exploration.

Human beings have always harbored the hope – with the understandable doubt – of sharing their existence with other beings of humanoid appearance and a technology developed elsewhere in our galaxy, regardless of all the convolutions that such an encounter of civilizations could bring about.

Thousands of sightings and strange events in the heavens above, dated in various parts of the world, have lead many to believe that we are being stealthily visited by representatives from faraway planets.

Cuba also appears to forms part of alien curiosity, perhaps with an aim toward renewed tourist purposes, or perhaps to sample the joviality and hardiness of the archipelago’s inhabitants. Several eyewitness accounts recorded throughout our country, offering specific details on swift vehicles, strange lights, irregularly-moving orbs and strangest of all, the presence of ghostly beings involved in abductions and kidnappings, have lead to an appraisal of these events beyond meteorological, physical or paranormal justifications.

In 1954, two objects of outstanding luminosity and surprising maneuverability were seen in various parts of the capital city by a number of people.

In January 1989, residents of La Victoria, La Isabel and Cocodrilo on the Isle of Youth, and the crew of the vessel Yunque de Baracoa, witnessed a strange luminous body with an intense yellowish-white light moving along as it expelled a considerable amount of smoke, but without making any sound. During an interview with a local TV station, the head of the weather office indicated that it was not an atmospheric phenomenon of the kind that habitually takes place, nor of any known object, to judge by the absence of sound and its means of travel.

On December 21, 1993 between seven and seven thirty p.m., four luminous spheres appeared over the town of Matanzas, moving at great speed from north to south, between 30 and 35 degrees over the horizon, making no noise whatsoever. They were seen from various points in the city.

At midnight on Saturday, October 29, 1994 in Nigua, Province of las Tunas, numerous eyewitnesses saw three flying objects which gave off a variety of lights, causing the activation of the Sistema Unico de Vigilancia y Proteccion (Unique Monitoring and Protection System).

The year 1995 was significant due to the occurrence of sightings on various parts of the island. In the early hours of October 19, five persons on duty saw three spherical objects (traveling as a triangle) flying from north to south, and they subsequently turned east toward the city of Sancti Spiritus.

Another case that year took place in the town of Guara, Province of La Habana, where a saucer-shaped object was seen for over twenty minutes as it made irregular movements. There were numerous witnesses to this case, including [personnel] at a basic secondary school in Guines, where two instructors claimed having seen a light with irregular motion that bore no relation to anything known.

However, the most controversial cases involve the abduction or kidnapping of citizens by non-terrestrial visitors. An example of this is the story told by a man in the Pasaje a lo Desconocido television program. He claimed that he was captured at his dwelling place in the center of the island; adding that after a few minutes aboard a spacecraft, he was abandoned in the City of Havana, unhurt. Without any means of attesting to the veracity of her story, a woman said that in the summer of 1990 se became aware of a strange light in her backyard. Running toward her home in fear, she found a “ring of light” that approached her to a distance of 5 meters. She allegedly lost all notion of time and subsequently awoke to find no intruders at all in her surroundings. When subjected to hypnotic regression, she revealed that she was surrounded by equipment “similar to radios” that touched her arms, and felt needles piercing her hands.

But perhaps the most unique case reported in Cuba occurred on Sunday, October 15, 1995 at 9:00 a.m. near the town of Torriente, Province of Matanzas. A 74-year-old farmer named Adolfo Zarate witnessed the descent of an object no larger than a small car, with a cabin, on the premises of his farm. The object remained on the ground for several minutes, and a being of humanoid appearance, dressed in an outfit similar to camouflage and wearing a facemask, emerged from the device, took soil or grass samples, and after an explosion “like air”, took off and headed south, leaving a wake of blue fire. Police confirmed the flattening of grass at the location, suggesting a descent. Members of the Ministry of the Interior investigated the case, but no conclusion was issued after a while.

Two further events add to the shroud of expectation that surrounds this case: a cousin of this farmer vanished without a trace two years earlier, and at the same time and very close to the place where this incident occurred. The case remained unexplained. Furthermore, a strange fog covered the town on the night that the vessel and its occupant made their appearance.

Moviemaker Oscar Cortazar, recently deceased, made a documentary on the UFO phenomenon in Cuba in which the landing site is recorded and note is made of the stunted growth of the local vegetation after the date of the incident.

Up to what point do the imagination, unknown physical laws and bizarre phenomena confabulate to prompt the residents of this planet to dwell on our questionable exclusivity in this galaxy? If we live in a turbulent and unsafe world, what might these alleged, outlandish prowlers think about earthlings?

For the moment, I subscribe to the brilliant wit of U.S. author Isaac Asimov, who said: “The greatest proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life is that it has not wanted to contact us.”

(Translation (c) 2008, Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology (IHU). Special thanks to Guillermo D. Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Peru: Alleged UFOs Photographed in Chachapoyas

Source: Diario Peru
Date: 06.13.08


Peru: Alleged UFOs Photographed in Chachapoyas

Local blogger displayed images taken in that city's skies. The unusual event is not the first of its kind in the region.

Town residents and tourists alike gathered to witness the celebration of the Raymillacta in the city of Chachapoyas and realized they were not alone. Two visitors in the sky went unnoticed, or so they thought.

While video cameras, digital cameras and cell phones moved throughout the Plaza Mayor of the city to capture the best angle of the celebration, an enthusiast recorded images of a different nature.

According to a blog kept by journalist Manuel Cabanas Lopez, Nicolas Ruiz took 8 photographs in the afternoon of June 7, 2008. Three days later, while reviewing them on his computer, his attention was drawn to one of them: it showed two glowing objects that stood out in the skies over Chachapoyas.


Upon enlarging the photo, it was possible to see the presence of two objects that did not agree with the blue heavens that afternoon. The blogger notes that these strange objects could be classified as UFOs as they cannot be identified -- this is due to the fact that the area has no air traffic whatsoever.

This would not be the first case. Approximately one month earlier, Manolo Valdez Santillan photgraphed two strange objects flying over the city. These photos were published in the "Trome" newspaper on May 30 (2008).

Asunta Huaman and hundreds escorting the Virgin in a procession witnessed three objects flying north to south.

On June 6, amid the main ceremony honoring the battle of Higos-Urco, a strange object suspended in the sky for five minutes was seen by the entire population.


http://www.peru21.com/p21online/Html/2008-06-12/onp2portada0906102.html

(Translation (c) 2008, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez)

Chile: Mourning a Ufologist

Dear readers --

Chilean UFO broadcaster and journalist Patricio Varela Silva died yesterday afternoon at the intensive care unit of Chile's Universidad Catolica.

For over 40 years, Mr. Varela was the host of "Mundo Espacial", a radio program that discussed UFO and paranormal subjects. INEXPLICATA readers will remember Mr. Varela's reports on the Chilean Chupacabras manifestations in the year 2000.

The research of the unknown has lost another champion, and the Institute of Hispanic Ufology extends its deepest sympathy to the Varela family and to the Chilean UFO research community as well.

Scott Corrales - IHU

Thursday, June 12, 2008

High Strangeness in High Office: Paranormal Politics











High Strangeness in High Office: Paranormal Politics
By Scott Corrales
(c) 2003


The popular mind has always imagined that kings, dictators and other men and women of great power achieved their status and fame through means not available to most mortals, or if not, that they have availed themselves of the dark arts to remain ensconced in their lofty positions. Our personal vanity cannot conceive, in many cases, that our fellows may have achieved their stations through personal effort and merit, so the thought that they may have had a little assistance in getting there is always suggested.

In Greek legend, King Gyges's superiority was owed to a magic ring that granted him invisibility and thus the ability to detect conspiracies and spy on his adversaries; King Solomon's own ring enabled him to understand the language of birds, and receive messages unknowable to humans; Egyptian pharaohs and Aztec monarchs were surrounded by powerful court wizards. More recently, Napoleon Bonaparte and Charles XII of Sweden were rumored to have similar paranormal aid in furthering their imperial aims. Elected leaders have resorted to dealing with soothsayers, fortune tellers and spiritists, ranging from the séances held by Mexican president Francisco I. Madero to President Reagan's involvement with astrology.

Yet in our age of spaceflight, computers and virtual reality, can we still believe in such things?

The Dictator's Sorceror

An Associated Press story which appeared in August 2003 ("Saddam's Wizard tells of a man obsessed with magic") told the world that Middle Eastern strongman Saddam Hussein, whose twenty year rule over Iraq came to a crashing end in April of this year, had been known to consult a "wizard" on a regular basis -- a practice forbidden by Islam, as is involvement with any type of witchery.

Living in the desert town of Heet, the wizard, who refused to have his name used in the AP story and "would not even pronounce the name of the man he once served" was merely one of apparently thousands of such magic-users in Iraq, and had provided aid not only to the strongman but to his relatives and hangers-on.

Hussein was "a firm believer in magic" in the words of the nameless wizard who went far beyond being the passive client that such political dabblers in the occult tend to be: the Butcher of Baghdad "studied the sands" and was able to summon up genies. Nor was the nameless wizard his sole advisor: the article mentions that Hussein had a considerable "bullpen" of sorcerers living India, Turkey and as far west as Morocco (where a woman described as "a beautiful Jewish witch" offered her expertise). It may be surmised that Hussein was not overly concerned with flouting the strict religious ban on sorcery: after all, didn't the holy Qur'an say that Sulayman (Solomon) had used genies and other spirits on a regular basis to build not only the Temple in Jerusalem but other structures?

At this point in the story the reader may well do a double-take, but the strangeness quotient is still on the rise.

The reason that Allied forces have been unable to capture Saddam Hussein, despite earlier successes with the dictator's sons Uday and Qusay, resides in the fact that the deposed dictator keeps with him two "magic-infused golden statues" and the fact that Hussein has daily conferences with the "king and queen of genies" The belief in genies, and the availability of spellbooks to bind them and gain service from them, is widespread throughout Iraq, where half of its twenty-four million citizens are believed to practice some sort of magic. One magician quoted in the Associated Press story noted that it was more convenient to obtain the services of angels, since genies "lie 75 per cent of the time".

Did such lying genies inform the dictator incorrectly about the outcome of the U.S.-led invasion and the end of his regime? No matter. Saddam has a powerful talisman implant under the skin of his right arm--described as either a potent stone or "the bone of a parrot" to protect him against bullets and inspire feelings of love in others.

Hussein appears not to have limited his interest in the occult to his sorcerous advisors: Baghdad University has a parapsychology department whose creation was ordered by the dictator himself "to help him wage psychological warfare during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and later to mind-read U.N. inspectors searching for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq.

Caribbean Magic and Mystery

Fidel Castro's association with the supernatural has been mentioned in a number of works, both pro and con. An illuminating article entitled Power Games: Fidel Castro and Cuba's Secret Societies by Mexico's Dr. Rafael A. Lara states that Castro was consecrated at an early age to the African deity who saved him from certain death at the age of six. A servant in the Castro household told the ailing Fidel's mother that if she really wanted to save young her son's life, the boy had to be rayado en palo (consecrated to the Palo Mayombe cult). During the course of the child's initiation ceremony, the mother was told that lines on the boy's palm marked him with the destiny of a person who would change the world, and who would not die. Castro was consecrated to Ayaguna, one of the sixteen manifestations of the supreme god Obatalá.

During their stay in Sierra Maestra, Fidel and his brother Raúl were resguardados (magically protected) by means of talismans created out of local plants and products made by the native women known as "serranas." One condition imposed by this sorcerous protection was that after they had triumphed, the talismans had to be given back. Afro-Cuban cults have never been considered troublesome by the Cuban regime--what is more, the figure of Fidel and the Cuban Revolution relied from the start on the "blessing" of the Orishas. The Revolution's victory, on January 1st, 1959 coincided with San Manuel's Day, which is sacred to santeros.

The colors black and red, used by the Movimiento 26 de Julio, are the colors of Eleguá, the God of Destiny whom, according to Santería, opens and closes the gates of happiness and misfortune. When the Revolution triumphed, a white pigeon landed on Castro's shoulder as he was delivering a victory speech. Santeros considered this a clear sign from the gods: Fidel had been chosen to lead Cuba.

It is important to bear in mind that Castro visited Nigeria during the 1970s, where he was initiated by Nigerian leader Sekou Touré. Castro returned to Cuba with a number of prendas (objects of power) from Nigerian shamans. The sacrifice of animals sent from Africa by Sekou Touré for magical purposes was commonplace. When these were not available, Holstein bulls imported from Canada were used to "nourish" Castro's prendas in order to both preserve and augment their power. René Vallejo--Castro's physician and a dedicated spiritualist who became a santero before his death--was a predominant influence on Castro's life. This influence manifested itself in the tolerance of Afro-Cuban cults and protection given to both santeros and "paleros".

The Cuban leader's life appears to revolve around the number 13. No fewer than 10 fundamental events in his life are linked to this number: he was born on a 13th; his entry into politics came about at age 26 (13 + 13); he was born in 1926 (13 + 13); his assault on the Moncada barracks took place on July 26 (13 + 13); his movement was known as the "July 26 (13 + 13) Movement".

What the Witch Doctor said...

Any mention of witch doctors conjures up visions of rather frightening masks available in curio shops and slapstick movies in which the protagonists must elude these magic-users in some jungle. But "witch doctors" exist and in some countries are closely allied to those having political power. In describing the powers wielded by these sorcerers, Jacques Bergier noted that they "have access to medicines unknown to us, such as a product that cures diabetes; an antidote against snakebite,...and the knowledge of very efficient poisons which work on contact".

In his book La guerre secrete de l'occulte (Paris: J'ai Lu, 1978), this French scientist and student of the esoteric relates a conversation he sustained with President Tombalaye of the Saharan republic of Chad. Bergier describes Tombalaye as an elderly professor and a firm rationalist whose belief system began to change shortly after ascending to his country's highest office.

On his first day in the presidency, a committee of witch doctors brought him a strange liquid product which would supposedly heighten the president's telepathic abilities. The wizards' potion was never analyzed, but was believed to be "a mixture of alkaloids with some other mineral product". Tombalaye was pleased to demonstrate to Bergier the liquid's efficacy by reading a document that was contained within a sealed envelope, which was small stuff compared to the ability to ferret out his political adversaries' hiding places. The former academic considered the witch doctors to be an authentic source of political power.

It must be noted, however, that Tombalaye's sorcerous allies weren't quite as good as the other coterie of magicians who overthrew the president's government -- something that for all of his foresight, he had been unable to predict.

Nor should the reader be lulled into thinking that the role of witchcraft in Africa's political scene is diminishing: quite to the contrary, Peter Geschiere, author of The Modernity of Witchcraft ?? Politics and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa (Univ. Press of Virginia, 1997) discovered that politicians in Cameroon were relying even more heavily on the sorcerers known as ngangas than ever before; the knowledge that local strongmen were aided by such supernatural puissance caused a sense of apathy toward the political process among the average man, who realized that there was no way to defeat an oligarchy so well "protected".

But the perception, as this anthropologist would discover, is reciprocated by Cameroonian bureaucrats, who felt that government initiatives were thwarted by village sorcerers displeased with the notion of change, whether in the form of highways or new waterworks.

There are times when the paranormal, rather than merely being at the service of the political, seeks to acquire its powers. In 1960, a Brazilian radio personality by the name Moab Caldas decided to seek the aid of that nation's burgeoning spiritist community in attaining elected office. Thousands of believers in Spiritism gladly gave Caldas their vote, and would have appeared at his swearing-in ceremony wearing the white garb of a practitioner of Umbanda, had he not been sternly admonished not to do so. Caldas became famous for invoking his spirit guides during parliamentary sessions, but even this otherworldly assistance didn't serve him well. Like Tombalaye in Africa, he was removed from office by a military junta.

Rusty Knives and the Executive Branch

When a prominent Brazilian politician visited "the surgeon of the rusty knife" -- Zé Arigó, one of the most astonishing psychic healers of the 19th century -- eschewing the advice of his own physicians, the story spread around the world. Politicians have never been averse to employing the services of faith healers for themselves or their relatives (could there be a more vivid example than that of the Russian monarchy's support of Rasputin?), although some of these accounts are little-known and must be rescued from oblivion.

One of the most startling involved Mexican president Plutarco Elías Calles, who governed our neighbor to the south in the 1920s. There is a curious footnote to the life of this post-Mexican Revolution president: Calles was the son of Elías Calles, one of three camel-drivers recruited by the U.S. Army during its abortive experiment involving the creation of the "U.S. Camel Corps" in the 19th century.

Even more curious than his pedigree would be his involvement with one of Mexico's most revered and powerful faith healers: Fidencio S. Constantino, better known as Niño Fidencio ("the child Fidencio"), venerated as a true saint throughout the southern U.S., Mexico and as far south as Colombia. Readers interested in the life of this healer will find ample sources of material on the Internet.

It was said that President Calles suffered of "a shameful disease" and that the faith healer was his last best hope. On February 8, 1928, the presidential train arrived at the dusty town of Espinazo in the state of Nuevo León, where Niño Fidencio treated hundreds of patients on a daily basis. Although Calles traveled with a small retinue, an ocean of well-wishers awaited him at his destination. Brass bands made up of madmen and lepers--Fidencio's patients--played martial airs while the Mexican flag was waved by others who would more than likely not live to see the next day, but would die contented with having seen their corner of Mexico visited by the president.

After a cordial greeting, the healer and the first citizen vanished into a room. Details of the treatment are still unknown, but all reports of this singular occasion agree that Niño Fidencio walked out of the room, ignoring the presidential retinue, to lose himself among his other patients. Hours passed. The president's chief of staff, Gen. Andrew Almazán, angrily dispatched an aide to find the faith healer and decided to open the door to see exactly what kind of treatment the president had been prescribed.

"The President of the Republic, General Plutarco Elías Calles," writes María Luz Bernal in Mitos y Magos Mexicanos, "was completely nude, sitting on a chair in a corner of the room, and was unrecognizable: his entire body was covered by a dense layer of honey." Almazan's aide and his guards brought Fidencio back, who apologized profusely for having forgotten about his illustrious patient--he had stopped to play with some retarded children.

The treatment prescribed by Niño Fidencio appeared to have been successful. In gratitude, the president ordered the construction of a water line directly to Espinazo from a mountain spring thirty kilometers away and which remains in service to this day. Railcars full of supplies for the faith healer's patients were part of the presidential bounty.

Sufferage and Saucermen

In the Mexico: Special Report 1997 issue of the Samizdat newsletter, Dr. Rafael A. Lara once again delved into the intriguing nexus between politics and the paranormal, but this time from the UFO angle. The senior Mexican political party--the Partido Revolucionario Institucional or PRI--had shown an uncharacteristic interest in the UFO phenomenon and other manifestations of the paranormal, to the extent of hosting its own UFO conferences featuring distinguished ufologist Pedro Ferriz Santacruz as the main lecturer, all the while supporting the PRI's political platform...despite the fact that Ferriz was himself running for political office under the Frente Cardenista de Reconstrucción Nacional for the regencia of Mexico City itself.

Lara notes that the PRI's "Revolutionary Youth Movement" began to sponsor these UFO symposia half a year prior to the critical mid-summer elections of 1997, featuring the country's best and brightest researchers: Rubén Manrique in San Luis Potosí, Oscar Zapién in Puebla, Santiago Yturria in Monterrey and Jaime Maussán in Mexico City. Lara notes that he himself was approached by the party to hold similar lectures in his state of Veracruz, but he turned down the offer.

"All indications," wrote Lara at the time, "point to the fact that this subject is believed to attract younger voters, in hopes of making them participate in the July 6, 1997 elections, in which a governor shall be chosen for Mexico City along with senatorial and congressional races for the rest of the country. One particular case involved Alvaro Mota, who is currently municipal president of the city of Misantla (2 hrs. away from Jalapa, Ver.) and a PRI flag-waver. During the course of his political campaign, he held a number of presentations on paranormal and UFO phenomena, handing out magazines, t-shirts and other largesse [...] However, the most important facet of this political infiltration into the UFO enigma is the participation of its members in small esoteric sects (note that these individuals join after having joined the PRI), as is the case of the "Gnostic Anthropology" group led by Frank Barrios Gómez and the pseudorreligious "Light of the World" sect led by Samuel Joaquín, which has been accused of perversion of minors and sexual abuse (not uncommon in these esoteric sects). A hitherto unknown activity by this cult was promoting extraterrestrial contact with its most affluent members."

It should be noted that the PRI's efforts were in vain: it lost the governorship of Mexico to its rival PAN party, and would later go on to lose nationwide elections for the first time in 70 years.

Sometimes the paranormal does not directly involve a world leader but a close relative: Art Gatti, author of UFO Encounters of the Fourth Kind (NY: Zebra, 1978), mentions an interesting conversation he held with D.W. Hauck, a fellow editor of UFO/paranormal magazines. When discussing the subject of the 1977 Acapulco World UFO Conference, it was suggested that the sister of then Mexican president José López Portillo would deliver a keynote address, but there seemed to be a problem: the rumors circulating at the time suggested that the president's sister had fallen in love with a world-famous psychic whose exploits were the rage at the time, an "it would become likely that the President of Mexico would prohibit any further support by members of his family of anything that smacked of the paranormal or psychic."

The more glaring cases involving political involvement in the occult--Hitler and his sorcerers, ranging from Krafft to the enigmatic "Green-Gloved Man"; Stalin and his involvement with a number of psychics; the notorious Papa Doc Duvalier in Haiti -- merit entire articles of their own, being too complex for a single feature. The paranormal in its many manifestations, from faith healing to astrology to ufology, has proven useful in subverting the political process, keeping opposition parties in line or even killing one's adversaries through spells or charms, in countries where occult beliefs form part and parcel of their cultural identity.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Background Article: Paranormal Dwarves











[The sightings of "little people" in places as remote from each other as Alaska and Argentina -- cases usually met with derision by old and new media alike -- remain nonetheless a disquieting aspect of paranormal research on both continents. Although we draw mainly from folklore and tribal legend to get a better idea of the nature of these diminutive, impish presences, they have also been associated to the UFO phenomenon in the early decades of research. This article seeks to offer readers some background on older cases in Latin America and elsewhere - Editor]



FOR FEAR OF LITTLE MEN: PARANORMAL DWARVES
By Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology
(c) 1997


Since ufology's earliest days, and going even farther back in history, accounts of diminutive intelligent beings have played a crucial role is shaping our perception of the phenomenon. The sizes of these creatures range from a scant twelve inches to a not-so-small four feet in height. They occupy a special position within the study of the unknown, since they straddle the divide that separates folklore from contemporary approaches to enigmatic creatures: every culture on earth has a tradition that involves small beings that can be good or malicious, intelligent or brutish. That accounts of such creatures occur in our highly technological twentieth century, and in relation to the UFO phenomenon, constitutes an enigma in itself.

The European tradition's brownies, pixies, gnomes and dwarves have their equivalents in the Mexican ikhals, chaneques and aluches. As Salvador Freixedo wisely observed, it is extremely odd to find such a variety of names to describe creatures that supposedly do not exist.

Mexico's Unearthly Entities

Do contemporary UFO abduction experiences and bedroom visitations have anything in common with the ages-old tradition of playful dwarves and elves disrupting the nocturnal slumber of humans?

In 1980, Luis Ramírez Reyes, one of Mexico's foremost UFO writers, had an experience of this nature during a stay at his friend Dr. Paco Medina's country house in Moyotepec, Morelos state. He had originally accepted the invitation to the country retreat to investigate a tree on the property that had allegedly been zapped by a passing UFO for no apparent reason. Upon reaching the site, Ramírez was able to confirm the unusual damage to the tree. Since the hour was late, both he and his host turned in for the night. It was to prove one of the most frightening nights in the ufologist's life.

As he drifted off to sleep, a heavy weight dropped beside him in the guest room bed. Ramírez awoke with a start, thinking a snake may have dropped onto the bed from the rafters. Frozen in place, he managed to extend a hand to feel what it was had fallen into the bed. To his complete astonishment, the bed was empty. The following day, he had the opportunity to speak with the children who performed housekeeping duties for his host, and was startled when they calmly told him that dwarves had visited him. "They are like children, but we call them chaneques here," he was informed. "They play with us when we sweep and mop the house."

Unwilling to be the victim of childish pranks, the investigator subjected the youngsters to a cross-examination in Dr. Medina's . They indicated that the entities would chase the children around whenever they arrived; allegedly out of fear of being harmed by adult humans, the entities remained invisible, but could be clearly seen by young humans, who described them as being large-headed, bald, slender, and for modesty's sake, clad in "cloth shorts".

Ramírez's host later informed him that both he and his family had been subjected to the nocturnal antics of these chaneques more than once, to the extent that his wife refused to return to the country house. The creatures could be persuaded to desist by asking them to do so "using kind words."

This experience convinced Ramírez of the interdimensional origin of these and other similar entities, which in spite of their playfulness can be outright frightening.
While the descriptions of the creatures given by the young housekeepers of the Medina estate may be troubling, it must be observed that beings with similar descriptions and wearing similar items of clothing have been reported in a number of cases in Puerto Rico and in the Canary Islands.

Maria Luz Bernal, a Mexican journalist researching her country's magical practices, came across a faith healer known as "cuate Chagala" in the region of Mexico known as Los Tuxtlas. Chagala informed the journalist that he had obtained his healing powers at the age of twelve while fishing for mojarras at a lagoon near his village. His deceased grandfather, who had drowned in the lagoon in years past, allegedly appeared before him to grant him special powers that would turn him into a healer. Chagala believed that his grandfather had been turned into a chaneque, described in this context as a "water gnome/elemental", having been lured to a watery death by similar creatures. When prompted by the reporter, the faith healer explained that when these water gnomes appear at night, their purpose is to ensnare the intended victim to drown them and turn them into water gnomes. When they appear by day, however, they do so to confer "gifts" upon unsuspecting mortals.

While traveling throughout Mexico, paranormal researcher Salvador Freixedo was able to document a similar belief. Interviewing peasant women, he learned that they were terribly afraid of the little creatures -- chaneques --who played restlessly every night in the water basin located on the rear of their property. The dwarves considered it a great sport to rattle the family's pots and pans, placed in the basin to be washed by the children. The women added that the creatures would appear and disappear through the culvert that fed the water basin.

Dwarfish "Peeping Toms"?

Perhaps one of the most unusual stories involving the actions of diminutive creatures in our times involves the series of bizarre events taking place in the ever-mysterious Canary Islands, off western coast of Africa. It was here, on the island of Tenerife, in a town with the ominous name of La Matanza ("the slaying") that diminutive, dark olive-green colored beings were reported in many occasions by visitors to the area, with the added riddle of the seeming complicity among local humans to "keep the lid" such stories.

Nonetheless, locals and visitors alike agree that the dwarves are very real, and are known as "los diablillos" (the imps). Appearing after dark at a beautiful country retreat known as Finca del Duque, it was at first believed that the short-statured creatures were attracted by the activities of couples using this remote area as a lovers' lane. Further cases have shown that any human presence after sundown produces the appearance of the "diablillos."

In November 1992, an anonymous resident of Tenerife drove to the lovers' lane one evening with his girlfriend. From within the car they were able to hear the sound of branches rustling as if being parted by someone. The driver looked out the window and allegedly saw a creature some three feet tall and covered in grayish or black fur all over. The entity carried a staff or rod of some sort in its hand, and was described as having "cat-like eyes". The couple left the area in a hurry, refusing to return even by daylight.

Alberto Dieppa, a young man from the island of Gran Canaria, discussed his 1993 encounter with the beings during an interview with journalist Carmen Machado. According to the story, Dieppa and his friends drove to the remote Finca del Duque simply to enjoy the ride. The group remained within the car with the dome light on, chatting late into the evening, when they suddenly became aware of six or seven presences outside their vehicle, staring at them intently. Dieppa turned on the headlights, and was in for the surprise of his life. "They were like little children with adult faces," he explained. "They appeared to be naked, at least from the waist up. What I did notice was their dark, olive green skin color and their intense red eyes."

The car's occupants remained in stunned, paralyzed silence until one of them began screaming hysterically, causing the driver to set the car in motion and abandon the area as quickly as possible. Dieppa added that at no point did the "diablillos" try to block their way--in fact, they seemed to vanish as soon as he touched the ignition key.

Badly shaken, the friends agreed not to discuss what had occurred at Finca del Duque, not even among themselves. Intrigued by the incredible experience, Dieppa returned alone two weeks later. Although he was unable to see anything on this occasion, he claims to have felt the presence of the creatures surrounding him. The experiencer told the journalist that he believes the imps to be an integral part of the island rather than creatures from another planet, suggesting that there may well be a "portal" of some sort to a dimension producing these creatures.
Abducted by Fairies?

Dr. Raul Rios Centeno is a UFO investigator based in Lima, Peru. His investigative efforts take him to the remote areas of his Andean homeland, where impoverished peasants still speak Quechua rather than Spanish and believe in a hodgepodge of pagan and Christian beliefs. In late 1997, while part of relief efforts aimed at providing assistance to victims of landslides and calamities triggered by "El Niño", Dr. Rios visited the department of Piura in northern Perú, and returned with the most recent case profiled in this article -- the summer 1997 disappearance of a young girl, allegedly at the hands of "fairies".

"I myself never believed in such things, doctor. Even now, I don't know what to think." These were the words with which don Modesto Salas, a Piuran farmer in the town of Catacaos, began telling his story to Dr. Rios. His small farm is located some 2 km SE of Catacaos. He lives off his crops and a few animals he raises. The region's heat and its proximity to the Equator -- only some 220 kilometers away -- causes the well-known algarroba trees, mangroves and banana plants to grow.

Modesto has lived for almost ten years with Ms. Olga Vandilla, with whom he has three children: Manuel José, 9, Olga Luzmila, 7, and the missing Evelyn Rosario, who would have been five years old next April. Despite the strong customs that reign in the Peruvian localities in which the Catholic Church still preserves its predominance, Modesto and Olga never married.

The approximately ten-acre farm has at its center the small house in which the family resides. The two eldest children were baptized as soon as they were born, in step with Catholic tradition, but when it came to Evelyn's term, something unexpected happened: the local priest died. For this reason, a priest from the region of Flores, some 25 kms away, would come to Catacaos every Sunday for the Eucharist and confession.

"I went to talk to him, doctor. I asked, I begged, but the padrecito didn't want to. He told me that all ceremonies had to be done in Flores. He even pointed out to me that a few couples wished to marry, and he had turned them down, saying he'd only been entrusted with the Sunday masses. A new padrecito would soon arrive, and he would be able [to do these things]."

"I wanted to baptize my Evelyn where she was born, because to baptize her in another place where I don't know anyone, and where I have no friends, doesn't seem right to me."

Time went by and the priest never showed up. Evelyn remained unbaptized. "My daughter grew up pretty. She was tall and had grey eyes. At first my friends laughed at me, saying that she wasn't my daughter, and that Olga had certainly deceived me, because how could my daughter have grey eyes, when both me and my wife have brown eyes?"

According to Olga, Evelyn was the most rambunctious of all her children, although she was also the strangest.

"There were times when she would sit on the ground and start talking, even shouting and laughing. Other times she'd climb up the tree and would begin talking alone. My wife told me this wasn't normal and told me to take her to a doctor, because the girl was suddenly going insane!"

"The doctor referred me to a young lady who asked Evelyn to draw pictures -- she showed her little figures. The young lady told me Evelyn was at the age in which kids have imaginary friends, and that it would stop once she went to school. Last June, Evelyn climbed onto one of the carob trees; Olga had seen her climbing up and down the carob tree for a number of days. The girl would stay up there for three hours at a time, talking alone."

"Evelyn told her mother that she had little friends her own size and that she was the only one that could see them. They would show her their toys and even offered her their food."

When Modesto went to speak to the psychologist, he showed her Evelyn's drawings. He told her that some children might see things, but that his girl had counted the three little figures and given them names. "She would tell me about her little friends, and told me that the food they fed her was transparent and sweet, like gelatin. There were times when she would stop playing with her brothers to climb up the blessed tree."

Unlike Olga, Modesto is a strong believer in the occult. On occasion he has consulted seers, sorcerers and shamans. The town shaman told him that when a child remains unbaptized it can communicate with beings from other dimensions, which we commonly know as fairies. Westerners speak of fairy treasures, but in this case Evelyn never discussed treasures, only the food and games and pranks they played. The shaman told Modesto the child must be baptized before they "conquered her."

"He told me that he could baptize her, because otherwise she would be with the demons. God did not make fairies; they are envoys of the Evil One, and can often cause problems for the families to whom they appear."

When Olga learned that her husband wanted the shaman to baptize Evelyn, she retorted that the shaman wasn't a priest, and that their daughter would only be baptized by a man of the cloth.

"I made an agreement with the shaman to come to my house. I would send my wife to visit her mother, and since Evelyn was always up on the tree, I would make her stay."
The shaman reached Modesto's home where, according to him, he could feel the devil's presence. He prayed and chased the enemy off. Everything took place as planned: the shaman baptized Evelyn with a special oil he kept in a bottle.

"He told me he carried holy oil blessed in the Huaringas, and that it not only served to have God bless her, but it would also bring my little angel joy and happiness."

Evelyn was baptized in strict privacy as per the ritual imposed by the shaman, her father being the only witness. The shaman asked Modesto not to wash the girl's head for two days. He agreed and the shaman departed. "After the baptism, Evelyn returned to the tree and cried disconsolately. It seemed as if someone was chastising her and she cried as if when her mother reproved her."

Olga returned that afternoon, and on that very same day, what they call the kidnapping took place."I was on my hammock enjoying the air when I saw little Evelyn climb the tree after my wife got home. Now she was talking and laughing, as if drunk. I though she was playing as usual and didn't pay much attention."

At a given moment, everything went quiet and the sky grew cloudy all of a sudden. It seemed as if a massive rainstorm was about to fall. So since there's usually lighting when it rains that way, I went to the tree where I'd last seen Evelyn, but she was no longer there."

Modesto thought that Evelyn had gone into the house, but he was surprised that he hadn't seen her come down. Upon entering the home, which was some 30 meters away from the tree, he asked his wife about the child. "Olga told me she'd seen her go up the tree and that she should still be on the blessed tree because she hadn't seen her come down."

Modesto returned to the tree, checked the adjacent ones, but could see nothing. Olga ran out, shouting desperately, but it was all in vain. At that moment Olga approached the tree and climbed up to find some trace of her daughter, but only found "something like a cobweb on the trunk, which was slightly burned. It appeared freshly burned due to the smell that emanated from the trunk."

At that moment, they thought they heard a howl coming from the doorway to the house. For one moment they thought it was Evelyn, but upon getting closer and opening the door they found nothing at all. "It was a sound like that of a pututo [Andean flute], but it came from the sky."

Modesto and Olga never found their youngest daughter again. The police was notified, word was sent to radio stations and to a television channel in Piura, but the whereabouts of their daughter were never discovered. "Doctor, I feel the fairies took my little angel. Otherwise, how can I explain her disappearance? Not even the dogs barked. Nothing."

Conclusion

The mystery of the dwarves or imps that appear to inhabit every single egion of our world remains one of the many enigmas that may someday be unraveled by investigators. While the UFO context helps place the mystery in a more modern light, its antiquity must not be forgotten.

Gervase of Canterbury, a medieval monk writing in the year 1138 A.D., left a detailed description of one such dwarfish creature that suddenly materialized in the German abbey of Prüm. According to Gervase's account, the abbey had been in an uproar due to the fact that something was tampering with the large barrels of wine in the building's cellars and spilling the intoxicant all over the floor. The abbot initially reprimanded the cellarer for his ineptitude, until the actual culprit was found: a friar had caught a small black imp, like the ones described in Argentina, drawing wine from the casks.

The creature dwelled in the abbey for a brief spell, but would neither eat nor drink, or even speak. Its presence must have irked the abbot after a while, who summarily decided that the imp "was a devil in human form" who had refrained from harming the monks "by the mercy of God and the merits of the saints," whose relics were kept within the abbey. Gervase reports that the creature "vanished from their hands like smoke.