“REAL ENCOUNTERS OF COWBOYS AND ALIENS” and More True Extraterrestrial Stories! #WeirdDarkness

Listen to ““REAL ENCOUNTERS OF COWBOYS AND ALIENS” and More True Extraterrestrial Stories! #WeirdDarkness” on Spreaker.

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IN THIS EPISODE: If you have seen the film, Cowboys and Aliens then the idea of spacecraft in the Wild West will not be so, well, alien to you. Although the film, as enjoyable as it is, is one-hundred percent fiction, there are numerous accounts of UFO and alien encounters in the tentative years of the United States. (Real Encounters of Cowboys And Aliens) *** Michael and Janet wouldn’t report their UFO abduction for ten years out of fear of not being believed. But once they told the story, it would set the Ufology community on fire. (The Buff Ledge Abduction) (The Buff Ledge Abduction) *** What is the Bermuda Triangle? What’s going on in this mysterious patch of the Atlantic Ocean where dozens of ships, planes, and people have disappeared without explanation? (Inside the Bermuda Triangle) *** From the “little green men” of rural Kentucky to a string of lights over Arizona spotted by thousands of people, there are several convincing, real UFO sightings that not only remain unexplained, but might even suggest we’re not alone in the universe. (UFO Sightings That Remain Unexplained)

SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM THE EPISODE…
“Real Encounters of Cowboys And Aliens” by Marcus Lowth for UFO Insight: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p9b3f2s
“Inside The Bermuda Triangle” by Kaleena Fraga for All That’s Interesting: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8shfn7
“The Buff Ledge Abduction” by Marcus Lowth for UFO Insight: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p9bwuhf
“UFO Sightings That Remain Unexplained” by Austin Harvey for All That’s Interesting: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8wn67f
Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music Library.
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“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” — John 12:46
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Originally aired: Marcy 25, 2024

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:

DISCLAIMER: Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. *** Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.

INTRODUCTION=====

Although most people credit the term “flying saucer” with an account given by Kenneth Arnold in 1947 for example, in 1878 in Denison, Texas, farmer John Martin witnessed a strange object flying over his land and made a report to Denison Daily News on 25th January 1878.

While out hunting, Martin noticed a dark object in the sky. The strange shape and the speed with which the object appeared to be moving captivated him. He took his eyes off it for a second in order to refocus his gaze. When he locked on it again, it was almost overhead. It was described by Martin as a “large saucer” and although now clear in his vision was still obviously at a great height.

Martin could only compare the object to a (hot air) balloon but accepted that it moved much too fast for this to realistically be the case. The Denison Daily News ended their article on the sighting by John Martin by concluding that the event “deserves the attention of our scientists!”

Martin’s report is just one of many that were made and documented during the 1800s in the United States. The Universal film, “Cowboys and Aliens” is, of course, fiction – but much of the fiction was inspired by elements of the genuine reports made at the time.

I’m Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness.

SHOW OPEN=====

Welcome, Weirdos – (I’m Darren Marlar and) this is Weird Darkness. Here you’ll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained.

Coming up in this episode…

Michael and Janet wouldn’t report their UFO abduction for ten years out of fear of not being believed. But once they told the story, it would set the Ufology community on fire. (The Buff Ledge Abduction)

What is the Bermuda Triangle? What’s going on in this mysterious patch of the Atlantic Ocean where dozens of ships, planes, and people have disappeared without explanation? (Inside the Bermuda Triangle)

From the “little green men” of rural Kentucky to a string of lights over Arizona spotted by thousands of people, there are several convincing, real UFO sightings that not only remain unexplained, but might even suggest we’re not alone in the universe. (UFO Sightings That Remain Unexplained)

But first… if you have seen the film, Cowboys and Aliens then the idea of spacecraft in the Wild West will not be so, well, alien to you. Although the film, as enjoyable as it is, is one-hundred percent fiction, there are numerous accounts of UFO and alien encounters in the tentative years of the United States. We begin there! (Real Encounters of Cowboys And Aliens)

If you’re new here, welcome to the show! While you’re listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, to visit sponsors you hear about during the show, sign up for my newsletter, enter contests, connect with me on social media, listen to my other podcasts, listen to FREE audiobooks I’ve narrated, plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you’re struggling with depression, dark thoughts, or addiction. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com.

Now.. bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness!

STORY: REAL ENCOUNTERS OF COWBOYS AND ALIENS=====

(Continued from introduction…)

Trapper James Lumley stated that he not only witnessed a craft crash into the ground, but he also tracked down the wreckage in 1865 – claims that were printed in several newspapers of the time, including the Missouri Democrat.

Late one evening while trapping in the mountains of Cadotte Pass, Missouri, he saw an object fly across the sky before it separated like “the bursting of a sky rocket in the air!” Seconds later, Lumley heard a huge explosion that made the ground shake and was followed by a rush of air that swept through the forest around him.

The following day, Lumley was witness to the carnage that the craft had left behind as it had crashed to the ground. Trees had been uprooted and a “path” had been cut through them by the object. He followed this path to a “stone” object that had embedded into the mountainside.

Upon closer inspection, Lumley stated that the “stone” had broken into several compartments. Furthermore, there appeared to be shattered glass around it, as well as a dark liquid substance. Perhaps strangest of all is the claim that there were hieroglyphics on some of the compartments.

The newspapers theorized that perhaps the occupants of the craft were from “Mercury or Uranus” and also stated that astronomers had “long held that it is probable the heavenly bodies are inhabited!”

While many cast doubt on the story, the assertion that there were hieroglyphics sighted is of particular interest to those who feel that aliens had a hand in another great civilization – Ancient Egypt.

In Bonham, Texas in 1873, workers in a cotton field noticed an object in the sky above them. Traveling at great speed, the shiny “silvery serpent” (as it appeared to them) caused them all to panic and run for cover from the openness of the cotton field, rushing indoors or hiding under wagons.

The speed of the object was such that it was almost a blur in the broad daylight sky. The object apparently circled the small town twice before speeding off from view.

24 hours after the sighting in Bonham, residents in Fort Scott in Kansas would witness a similar craft. It caused a similar panic as it had done the previous day, causing soldiers to flee the parade ground and seek cover away from the strange machine.

There were numerous sightings made by range workers and cowboys alike across America at the time. Usually involving a “silver bird” flying fast above them that when fired upon, the bullets would bounce off the “creatures” skin.

Perhaps one of the more famous of these was the 1892 sighting in Tombstone, Arizona, when two cowboys claimed to have given chase to and shot at a winged reptile that was up to one hundred and sixty feet long with a wingspan that stretched to over ninety feet.

Winged reptile? Or a flying machine?
In April 1897 in Aurora, Texas, a strange craft came screaming out of the sky. It crashed into a windmill on Judge J. S. Proctor’s estate and exploded into flames upon impact. Many of the local townsfolk would witness the event. And could attest to the destruction of the craft. as well as “the pilot” – who was an extra-terrestrial. A report of the incident appeared in the Dallas Morning News on 19th April. Part of their report concerning the alien pilot reads: “Papers found on his person, evidently the records of his travels, are written in some unknown hieroglyphics and can not be deciphered… The pilot’s funeral will take place at noon tomorrow.”

According to reports, the funeral did indeed take place. And the pilot’s grave was marked with a simple headstone in the Aurora graveyard. It remained there for over seventy years until a journalist from the Dallas Times Herald, Bill Case, took an interest in the account and began to investigate.

He claimed to have located the grave. As well as test results that showed a small coffin that was present under the earth. By the time Case began the process of exhuming the grave, however, the gravestone mysteriously vanished. He would locate the area of the marker. The grave itself, though, was no longer there. And nothing worth examining remained. Case wasted little time is laying the blame for this firmly at the feet of the United States government.

In a further interesting twist to the incident and seemingly long-reaching effects, was the story of Brawley Oates. Oates had purchased the land where the UFO had crashed in 1935. According to locals, they would place the wreckage of the craft in a well near to the crash site. They would then cover it over.

Oates would clean out this wreckage from the well. Soon after, he and his family began to suffer from an array of health problems. All of which he believes have a connection to the otherworldly wreckage.

The Aurora alien encounter ran alongside numerous strange sightings over the skies of the United States in the late 1890s. Whether there is a connection or not is open to debate. As are the reasons regarding the tampering with the gravesite.

Perhaps one of the most bizarre accounts of alien contact is one that would ultimately begin an entire religion in the relatively modern era of the early-1800s. According to the text and account in their own writings, the Mormon Church would tell of an incident that would see a strange “angel” who wore clothes of a “brilliant white” and hailed from a time “long ago” appear to Joseph Smith in the fast-growing city of New York.

The incident in question took place in September 1823 when Smith was but 17 years old. The angel would introduce himself to the teenager as Moroni. He would give Smith instructions to advance into the woodlands on the outskirts of the city. There, he would find a book of “golden plates”. These plates contained ancient texts of happenings thousands and thousands of years previously.

Smith did indeed retrieve these plates. And what’s more, despite it taking 15 years, he set about translating them. Following this, Moroni would visit Smith again and take the golden plates back into his possession. The information they contained, however, would become the foundation of the Mormon religion.

It is an intriguing assertion by the Mormon Church that such accounts are true. And while they themselves use the word angel, Moroni’s appearance as well as claims of living on Earth thousands of years before accepted history, and of existing in another world or realm, leans heavily towards such claims as the ancient astronaut theory. Or even of connections between UFOs and aliens, and time-travel.

Although the Mormon Church accepts such accounts as fact, many outside the organization simply don’t. Perhaps, though, for the sake of argument, we should examine the ancient texts of other major religions. In order to seek out similar hints of extraterrestrial origins.

It isn’t merely “everyday Joes” who would witness these bizarre shining flying machines in the early years of what would become the United States of America. Many future and even sitting presidents also had bizarre and seemingly otherworldly experiences. And what’s more, they would speak and write of them.

Although he wasn’t president at the time of the sighting, in 1800, future president, Thomas Jefferson would describe in a telegram a strange object. One witnessed by a local man (William Dunbar) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. According to the correspondence, the object was “the color of the sun near the horizon”. And was approximately, “the size of a house”. Even more bizarre, wherever it was in the sky, the ground below would bathe in its glow.

Jefferson would go on to describe a “violent rushing noise” which accompanied the aerial anomaly, as well as a “tremendous crash”. To the modern-day reader, he is clearly describing something moving through the sky so quickly that it would break the sound barrier, a concept that was likely, and for want of a better phrase, completely alien to him.

Jefferson isn’t the only one-time president of America to write of such encounters. During his campaigns against the British in the late 1770s, George Washington would claim the assistance of several “green-skinned” entities. According to Washington, they would show him visions of the future. As well as advising him on battleplans and British troop placements.

In short, it would appear that at the very least, the “settlement” of the United States would unfold under the watch of this apparent extraterrestrial presence. And not always from afar.

We should also make note of the numerous Native American tribes that had already called America home for hundreds, if not thousands of years before the arrival of the Spanish from the southern continents and Mexico and the Pilgrims from the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe on the east coast.

Many of their legends, for example, speak of “star people” who would seemingly exist in another realm. Or perhaps on another planet. These star people would teach the ancient tribes all manner of crafts. From crop growing to producing materials and storing food. They also, according to the legends of the tribes, would help their ancestors survive several cataclysmic events throughout history. Usually by leading them to the Inner Earth and teaching them how to survive in such an environment.

Interestingly, the details of these “star people” are remarkably similar to many of the creator gods of what we today call the South American continent. And further still, equally similar to the gods of the Mesopotamian region.

Indeed, the early years of the country we know today as “America” – referred to in the history books as the “wild west” – may prove an interesting link between UFO and alien activity in the old world, and similar encounters in the new one.

BREAK=====

When Weird Darkness returns… Michael and Janet wouldn’t report their UFO abduction for ten years out of fear of not being believed. But once they told the story, it would set the Ufology community on fire. (The Buff Ledge Abduction)

But first… what is the Bermuda Triangle? What’s going on in this mysterious patch of the Atlantic Ocean where dozens of ships, planes, and people have disappeared without explanation? (Inside the Bermuda Triangle) That story is up next!

STORY: INSIDE THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE=====

According to legend, in 1881 a ship called the Ellen Austin was sailing from Liverpool to the United States when it encountered an abandoned vessel. Opting to salvage the ship and its cargo, the captain sent over a small band of men to commandeer it.

But during the night, the ships were separated — and in the morning, the captain found the vessel abandoned anew, with no trace of his men. This was just one of the many strange stories to emerge from the swatch of ocean known as the Bermuda Triangle.

The legend of the Bermuda Triangle has captivated the world since the 1960s, when the term was first coined in Argosy magazine. But its history of puzzling disappearances and other odd phenomena is far older. In fact, even Christopher Columbus reported some unsettling occurrences as he passed through the Bermuda Triangle en route to the Americas.

So what is the Bermuda Triangle, exactly? Is the Bermuda Triangle real and, if so, is it dangerous?

The answer to “what is the Bermuda Triangle” must start with “where is the Bermuda triangle.” But like many things about this strange stretch of ocean, the area’s exact parameters are somewhat murky.

Writer Vincent Gaddis, who coined the term in his article “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle” for Argosy magazine in February 1964, offered the first definition. Gaddis explained that the triangle itself is formed between points in Bermuda, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico — an area covering a sweeping 500,000 square miles in the Atlantic Ocean.

That said, others have described the Bermuda Triangle as being much larger, perhaps encompassing as much as 1.5 million square miles, according to Naval History and Heritage Command.

“This area is by no means isolated,” Gaddis wrote in his 1964 article. “The coasts of Florida and the Carolinas are well populated, as well as the islands involved. Sea distances are relatively short. Day and night, there is traffic over the sea and air lanes. The waters are well patrolled by the Coast Guard, the Navy, and the Air Force. And yet this relatively limited area is the scene of disappearances that total far beyond the laws of chance.”

Gaddis added: “The Bermuda Triangle underlines the fact that despite swift wings and the voice of radio, we still have a world large enough so that men and their machines and ships can disappear without a trace.”

Indeed, within this stretch of sea — whether 500,000 square miles or more — more than 50 ships and 20 airplanes have vanished. Many disappeared under truly bizarre circumstances.

And though Gaddis coined the term “Bermuda Triangle” in the 1960s, the history of odd events in this part of the Atlantic Ocean stretches back as far as Christopher Columbus. The explorer described seeing a strange fireball crash into the sea while he was traveling through the Bermuda Triangle in the 15th century, and wrote in his ship’s log about erratic compass readings in the area.

Since then, scores of people have fared far worse than that. Many have disappeared along with their ships or planes while in the Bermuda Triangle, which according to The New York Times has also come to be known as Devil’s Triangle, Limbo of the Lost, the Twilight Zone, and Hoodoo Sea.

Of all the ships that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle, one has long captured the public imagination: the USS Cyclops, which vanished in 1918.

The Cyclops was traveling between Brazil and the United States with a cargo of 10,800 tons of manganese ore and about 300 passengers and crew. In March 1918, it inexplicably disappeared without sending a distress call or responding to any of the radio messages from nearby vessels.

“The weather in the area which the Cyclops was scheduled to traverse… has not been bad enough to warrant the belief that the collier foundered in a gale,” The New York Times reported. “If caught in a storm radio distress calls could have been sent unless the wireless mast went down suddenly.”

To date, no one knows exactly what happened to the Cyclops. Some have suggested that it was destroyed by a German attack, sunk by a giant octopus, or wrecked during a failed mutiny against the ship’s captain.

The wreck of the Cyclops has never been found.

But it’s not only ships that have disappeared. In December 1945, five Navy planes flew from Fort Lauderdale into the Bermuda Triangle for a training mission known as Flight 19. They promptly vanished. To make things even stranger, one of the rescue planes sent to search for them vanished as well. Bewildered Navy officials reported that it was “as if they had flown to Mars.”

In another haunting case, a schooner called the Caroll A. Deering ran aground in North Carolina in 1921 — without its crew. Eerily, they’d reportedly left behind a fully prepared meal in the galley, as if they’d been about to sit down to eat.

Perhaps one of the strangest disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle happened in 1969, when two keepers at Great Isaac Lighthouse in the Bahamas suddenly vanished without a trace.

Though some have attributed their disappearance to a storm that passed through the area, others think that the supposedly mystical forces of the Bermuda Triangle had something to do with it.

Over the years, many theories have been put forward to explain why so many ships and planes — and even lighthouse keepers — have disappeared in this part of the Atlantic Ocean in the past 500 years.

As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) notes, most tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean pass through the Bermuda Triangle, which makes it a particularly treacherous part of the ocean for ships (especially before modern weather forecasting). What’s more, the volatile Gulf Stream can cause violent changes in weather conditions.

Another theory posits that “rogue waves” — massive swells that can grow up to 100 feet — could have easily swallowed ships like the Cyclops. And as Encyclopedia Britannica reports, storms in the Bermuda Triangle come from multiple directions, which makes these waves even more likely.

Yet another theory suggests that the cause of all the disappearances can be found much deeper in the ocean. The New York Times reported that some scientists believe huge deposits of methane gas could be behind the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon. Eruptions of the gas could displace water, causing ships to sink. And because the gas is flammable, it could even collide with an airplane mid air and cause it to explode.

Then again, the disappearances could be due to something else entirely.

Given the strange number of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, it’s perhaps unsurprising that some have suggested that there may be a supernatural explanation for this phenomenon.

Some believe that aliens might have abducted the missing sailors and pilots. This theory states that aliens have used the Bermuda Triangle as some kind of “portal” to Earth, and that they use the abducted people and ships to better understand humankind. Indeed, a similar theory suggests that this part of the ocean could be some kind of wormhole.

Others have postulated that a sea monster could account for the inexplicable disappearances of ships and planes.

“Usually a wooden bucket or a cork life preserver identified as belonging to a lost ship is picked up after a wreck, but not so with the Cyclops,” Santa Fe magazine reported after the ship’s disappearance, according to HISTORY. “She just disappeared as though some gigantic monster of the sea had grabbed her, men and all, and sent her into the depths of the ocean.”

But perhaps the strangest theory is that the Lost City of Atlantis might have something to do with the Bermuda Triangle. This theory suggests that the sunken city uses “crystal energies” to bring down ships and planes.

Experts, however, have dismissed ideas like these as nonsense.

According to NOAA, there’s nothing supernatural about the Bermuda Triangle. In fact, NOAA points out that the Bermuda Triangle doesn’t officially exist.

“[N]o official maps exist that delineate the boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle,” NOAA explains. “The U. S. Board of Geographic Names does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an official name and does not maintain an official file on the area.”

What’s more, the mysteries of some ships said to have disappeared in the area, like the SS Cotopaxi, have been solved. The wreck of the Cotopaxi was found nearly a century after it mysteriously vanished — outside of the Bermuda Triangle. Experts say it simply sank during a storm. No sea monsters or aliens involved.

So what is the Bermuda Triangle? At the end of the day, it seems to be nothing more than a stretch of sea, no more treacherous than any other.

“The ocean has always been a mysterious place to humans, and when foul weather or poor navigation is involved, it can be a very deadly place,” NOAA explains. “There is no evidence that mysterious disappearances occur with any greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large, well-traveled area of the ocean.”

But we’ll let you decide.

STORY: THE BUFF LEDGE ABDUCTION=====

An apparent case of alien abduction at Buff Ledge, a summer camp for girls in Vermont, in the summer of 1968 went unreported for a decade before one of the witnesses, suffering from intense nightmares of his experience, would enter his version of the account on to the record of the Center for UFO Studies. The report would catch the attention of UFO researcher and investigator, Walter Webb who would conduct extensive and thorough investigations into the incident.

Although there were accusations of a hoax from residents who still reside in the area and “alumni” of the now-closed summer camp, it was the firm opinion of Webb that such a plot simply wasn’t possible. And furthermore, had the two witnesses been a part of such a hoax, they wouldn’t have waited ten years to report it. Nor would they have lost contact with each other almost immediately after. It would appear to Webb, and indeed other researchers who have examined the case since, that the events at Buff Ledge are not only credible but potentially important to the overall UFO and alien question.

On the late afternoon of 7th August 1968, two employees of Buff Ledge summer camp, sixteen-year-old maintenance worker, Michael Lapp, and nineteen-year-old ski instructor, Janet Cornell, were relaxing on the edge of a boat dock watching the slowly setting sun dance on the water. The summer camp sat on the shores of Lake Champlain in Vermont, just north of Burlington which, incidentally, is where most of the campers were this particular evening, attending a swim meet. Hence the entire campsite was almost deserted.

As the sun bid farewell to the day and night took charge, Michael noticed a strange light in the distance. At first, thinking it was a star or even a planet, he sat watching contently. Then, the light suddenly dropped much lower to the ground. And what’s more, it was moving towards the teenagers at an alarming rate.

As the pair watched this otherworldly performance, three separate lights detached from the first, large glow. These three lights would head directly towards the lake, while the larger light seemed to ascend again rather quickly and disappear from sight. The three glowing orbs zig-zagged and danced between themselves over the shimmering waters below, pulling off moves that neither had seen an airplane or helicopter manage. As the two teenagers continued to watch, the three shining objects moved closer still to them.

Then, they formed a triangle shape and remained still for a second before two of them moved away slightly. As they did so, a sound rang out “like a thousand tuning forks” which caused considerable discomfort to the pair. The remaining object suddenly shot upward before diving straight into the lake and vanishing beneath the surface. Then, it reappeared and glided across the water, heading straight for them.

As the object continued its approach, Michael made out a “transparent dome”, seemingly on top of the it. Inside this dome, he could make out “two childlike creatures” with elongated necks and large heads. He also noticed their large eyes which stretched around to the sides of their heads. As it moved closer, rising from the water and hovering directly over the unnerved teenagers, it fired a beam towards them. Michael grabbed Janet out of the way forcing both of them to the ground and away from the strange light.

He would later report he remembered shouting at the object “We don’t want to go!” as fears and stories of alien abduction filled his mind. He would also recall that he could see the bones in his hands as if viewing an X-ray such was the brightness of the light beam. It passed closer to them. Each would recall that it caused a floating sensation. And, even stranger, that the light itself had a “liquid” feel to it.

The next thing either of the teenagers knew, they were sat calmly on the boating dock. The intense light was gone, and the strange object was now much farther in the distance and heading away from them. The sky was now no longer the dark blue of early evening, but completely black, suggesting it was much later. When Michael turned to Janet, she appeared to be in a trance. Both of them felt somewhat disorientated and confused. As the strange object finally vanished from sight, the pair could hear the other campers back from their swim meet.

Michael and Janet would keep the sighting strictly to themselves for the remainder of the summer. And following the end of the camp season, the two witnesses would depart back home and back to their individual plans and lives. However, over the years, Michael began to suffer increasingly intense nightmares. They were always the same – of being abducted and “not wanting to go”. The dreams eventually made him think about the incident at Buff Ledge more and more until eventually, ten years after the encounter, he would contact the Center for UFO Studies to make a report.

UFO researcher, Walter Webb, would take on the case. He would almost immediately suggest hypnotic regression to get to the bottom of the nightmares, and to find out just what happened on the boating dock in the summer of 1968. It would appear those memories were bubbling just below the surface as Michael immediately recalled the incidents as soon as he was regressed.

He would state that the light had seized both of them and lifted them on board the craft. He recalled “streams of approaching colored lights” while also noticing a “loud whine” the nearer to the craft he got.

Once inside the craft, he could see Janet laying on a table and under examination. Several of the small entities performed the procedure. They would shine lights in each of her eyes and take samples of skin, hair, and blood. He viewed the events from some kind of “upper deck” with one of the alien creatures beside him.

As he looked upwards to the transparent dome, he could clearly see the Earth, the Moon, and an everlasting net of stars against the blackness of space. Michael also noticed a huge “cigar-shaped” craft which he assumed was a “mothership”.

He would recall how these creatures all looked exactly the same, and how their bodies had a “damp and clammy” look and feel to them. He estimated them to be around five feet tall with long, thin arms and legs. Their skin was a strange “greenish-blue”, a similar color to the skintight green suits they wore, which made them appear as though they were naked.

He would further recall that each had “three-pointed web-like digits” for their hands. During this, the entity placed a thought into Michael’s mind. Their mission was to “make life like ours…other places”. When pressed on this, the explanation was much clearer. They wished for life on Earth to be like their planet – without violence. He would also recall that the entity was “surprised” that he was alert and asking questions. Perhaps ominously, and correctly, the creature would state that because of this “it would be difficult for him after the experience was over”. Despite the situation, and for reasons he didn’t understand, Michael claimed to have a “great affinity or closeness” with this particular entity.

The creature then led Michael down a set of steps and onto the floor which housed the table upon which Janet lay. Then, the creature led Michael to another table. It tilted slightly to allow him to lean against it before returning to its horizontal position. The last thing he remembered is looking out of the transparent dome, seeing the large cigar-shaped ship now much closer. Then he lost consciousness.

During the investigation Webb had managed to track down and convince Janet, now a married twenty-nine-year-old, to also undergo regression. What she described under hypnosis corroborated Michael’s version of events entirely. She would recall laying on the examination table, which induced a “cold” feeling within her. She also recalled something “pulling (my) hair and pinching (my) neck”. Furthermore, like Michael, she recalled following one particular entity who she referred to as her “guide”. And who was “her only source of comfort” throughout the experience.

Webb would also conduct extensive research with numerous ex-employees of the summer camp. And the guests during the summer of 1968. He discovered that several employees at Buff Ledge had witnessed strange lights and objects over Lake Champlain on the same evening that Michael and Janet claimed to have been abducted.

Furthermore, two other employees would also report to Webb they suspected they too were the victims of abduction. The incident was earlier in the summer, several weeks before the August incident of Michael and Janet. However, it mirrored theirs almost exactly. An incident which began with strange lights over the waters followed by the appearance of a disc-like craft.

Webb would also perform several character evaluations on both Michael and Janet. All in all, they were, according to his research, credible witnesses with no reason to manufacture such a story. Certainly not ten years after the fact with no known contact between the pair since the summer of the incident. Overall Webb would find, the pair had “no opportunity for collusion” and “experienced a real external event of unknown origin”.

BREAK=====

Coming up… From the “little green men” of rural Kentucky to a string of lights over Arizona spotted by thousands of people, there are several convincing, real UFO sightings that not only remain unexplained, but might even suggest we’re not alone in the universe. (UFO Sightings That Remain Unexplained)

STORY: UFO SIGHTINGS THAT REMAIN UNEXPLAINED=====

Ever since something crashed in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, the craze surrounding unidentified flying objects (UFOs) — or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), as the government officially classifies them now — has seemingly never ended. In fact, now more than ever, UFO sightings are being discussed in a truly academic manner, with government officials and military personnel coming forward and confirming there are indeed objects of unknown origin flying about in the sky. What was once considered a fringe, conspiratorial belief has now become the focus of mainstream media attention and governmental consideration. With this newfound resurgence of interest in UFOs, it’s worth looking back at some real UFO sightings throughout history that might actually hold some weight.

***The Phoenix Lights That Hovered Over Arizona For Three Hours

On March 13, 1997, thousands of people across Nevada, Arizona, and northern Mexico spotted a series of UFOs hovering in the night sky above. Witnesses reported several smaller objects that looked like floating orbs and a larger, V-shaped aircraft the size of several football fields over Phoenix, Arizona. This incident is known as the Phoenix Lights, and it is one of the most hotly debated UFO sightings of all time. The UFOs remained in the air for about three hours, from roughly 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., with thousands of civilians staring up at them in awe. Pilots in the region also reported what they were seeing to air traffic controllers — but none of them saw anything out of the ordinary on their radars.

Some estimates claimed the larger UFO was roughly the size of three football fields, but others believed it was more than a mile long.

A 31-year-old man named Dana Valentine saw the Phoenix Lights from his backyard and called his father, an aeronautics engineer, outside to see them. The two watched as the V-shaped craft passed them by, hovering just 500 feet above.

“We could see the outline of a mass behind the lights, but you couldn’t actually see the mass,” Valentine later said. “It was more like a gray distortion of the night sky, wavy. I don’t know exactly what it was, but I know it’s not a technology the public has heard of before.”

Another witness, 54-year-old Tim Ley, claimed he also saw the lights. Like Valentine, Ley said, “You couldn’t actually see the object. All you could see was the outline, as though something was blotting out the stars.”

Despite the high number of witnesses, the U.S. government was quick to try and discredit their testimonies. Officials claimed the orbs were nothing more than flares deployed as part of a military exercise, and then-Arizona governor Fife Symington III initially mocked the public’s concerns, unveiling someone dressed as an alien at a press conference.

However, Symington would later say that he, too, had seen the objects — and believed they were not of this world.

***The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident That Caused Radiation Poisoning In Witnesses

One of the most significant issues regarding the credibility of UFO sightings is often a lack of proof. Photographs and videos are fantastic when available, but skeptics are quick to disregard these as evidence. In the modern age, it is especially easy to fake or alter images, further complicating any claims of authenticity.

However, the Cash-Landrum UFO incident is notable because its evidence could not have been faked. The witnesses had nothing to gain from their story — and much to lose.

The encounter, as retold by Robert Sheaffer in the Skeptical Inquirer, took place on Dec. 29, 1980. Around 9 p.m., Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Landrum’s seven-year-old grandson Colby were driving near Houston, Texas, when they spotted something in the sky above them.

At first, they thought they were seeing a helicopter or perhaps a low-flying plane. After all, there were airfields in the area — but the object didn’t look like anything they had ever seen. For starters, it was massive and shaped like a diamond, and it occasionally sent out flames toward the road below.

Cash felt a mix of fear and fascination as she pulled the car over to the side of the road and exited the vehicle. Suddenly, black helicopters surrounded the UFO.

“They seemed to rush in from all directions,” Cash recalled. “It seemed like they were trying to encircle the thing.”

The flames put out by the UFO were allegedly so hot they made the car impossible to touch — but that’s not all. Almost immediately, the witnesses began to experience severe health complications. All three suffered from nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, burning eyes, and pain similar to a sunburn.

Betty Cash’s symptoms continued to worsen over the next few days. She developed massive blisters, and by the time she went to the hospital on Jan. 3, 1981, the pain was so intense that she could barely walk. Cash was discharged after 12 days but soon returned to the hospital for another two weeks.

All three witnesses eventually recovered, but the incident stuck with them. Initial reports chalked their illness up to “ionizing radiation syndrome,” but experts later claimed that if they had indeed been suffering from radiation poisoning, the dose would have been lethal based on the symptoms they displayed.

Meanwhile, skeptics have pointed to the possibility that the entire event was a case of Munchausen syndrome, a psychiatric condition in which someone fakes a disease. The burn patterns on Betty Cash’s arms, for instance, were distinctly round in a way that radiation burns wouldn’t be.

Her medical records have also never been released. Critics argue that this is to avoid any mention of the term Munchausen syndrome, although that is just as much a theory as the actual UFO sighting itself.

***The Ariel School UFO Phenomenon, When Dozens Of Children Claimed They Met Aliens

On Sept. 16, 1994, dozens of students at the Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, returned home frightened and mystified. When questioned by their parents, the children said they had seen something strange outside: At least one silver craft landed in a nearby field, and odd-looking men with large, dark eyes emerged.

The students claimed the creatures spoke to them telepathically and showed them visions of the devastation Earth could face if humanity continued to damage the environment. They also said the men moved in slow motion and could seemingly teleport.

The incident became known as the Ariel School Phenomenon.

Naturally, their parents were concerned. Whether aliens had indeed landed near the school or not, the children had seen something that scared them. The school began receiving dozens of phone calls, and the news spread like wildfire within days.

It eventually reached the ears of the BBC’s Zimbabwe correspondent, Tim Leach, who sat down with the children for a series of interviews in which they all shared some variation of the same story. The BBC broadcast also garnered the attention of ufologist Cynthia Hind — and eventually Harvard professor of psychiatry John E. Mack.

Mack decided to visit the Ariel School and speak to the children. They told him of the strange men’s message that “pollution mustn’t be.”

To this day, many of the former students have gone on record reaffirming that what they told Leach and Mack nearly 30 years ago was true.

***The Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter That Coined The Term ‘Little Green Men’

On Aug. 21, 1955, Billy Ray Taylor of Pennsylvania was visiting his friend Elmer “Lucky” Sutton at his farmhouse in the small town of Kelly, Kentucky. Taylor stepped outside to gather water from the well when he saw something “real bright, with an exhaust all the colors of the rainbow” hovering in the sky above him.

He ran back inside to tell the others, including his wife and Sutton’s family, that he had just seen a UFO. At first, the others laughed it off — but then the dogs started barking. Someone, or something, was coming toward the house.

The terrified group gathered in the farmhouse and looked outside to find what they described as small, goblin-like creatures with round “oversized” heads and long arms with talons that nearly touched the ground. They said the creatures’ eyes “glowed with a yellowish light,” and their bodies shined like “silver metal.”

The “little silver men,” as they came to be known, continued to approach the farmhouse — and that’s when the men inside started shooting.

After a battle that lasted hours, the Suttons and the Taylors fled the property and made their way to the police station in nearby Hopkinsville. They seemed genuinely frightened when they arrived. One member of the group even had a pulse of 140 beats per minute. As police chief Russell Greenwell noted at the time, “These aren’t the kind of people who normally run to the police for help.”

Investigators never found any evidence of aliens, though. Soon enough, the story spread throughout the small town — and the Suttons were ostracized from the community and forced to abandon their home to escape the ridicule.

Although they were described at the time as little silver men, the term “little green men” was the one that stuck, and it came as a result of the Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter.

***The Westall UFO Incident, Australia’s Most Baffling Extraterrestrial Mystery

On April 6, 1966, more than 300 children and staff at Westall High School in Melbourne, Australia, witnessed a round, silver object about the size of a car hovering near the school.

Per a report from news.com.au, physicist James E. McDonald later interviewed Andrew Greenwood, a science teacher from the school, about the incident. Greenwood explained that five planes surrounded the object as onlookers watched from below.

“He called it the most amazing flying he had ever seen in his life,” McDonald recounted. “The planes were doing everything possible to approach the object and he said how they all avoided collision he will never know.”

As the aircraft tried to approach it, the UFO would accelerate at different rates — sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly — before coming to a complete stop, only to continue its erratic acceleration.

The cat-and-mouse game lasted nearly 20 minutes while around 350 students and staff watched. Then, the UFO suddenly flew off, and the school’s headmaster told everyone to return to class.

McDonald said the headmaster then informed the children they would be “severely punished” if they discussed what they saw. He also threatened the staff, saying they would “lose their jobs if they mentioned it at all.”

Later, several witnesses claimed that men in black suits visited them and warned them against speaking about the incident.

Despite this, Greenwood said he tried to talk to other staff about what they’d seen, but they refused to say anything. One student eventually spoke with Greenwood about it — but a half hour later, when he broached the subject again, she wouldn’t say a word.

***The Maury Island UFO Incident — And Encounters With The Men In Black

On June 27, 1947, Harold Dahl and his son Charles were on a boat near the eastern shore of Maury Island, Washington, in Puget Sound. Suddenly, six donut-shaped objects appeared in the sky above them and dropped a barrage of metallic debris.

Dahl had his camera with him and managed to snap a few photographs of the strange flying craft, but as soon as they appeared, they were gone. When Dahl and his son returned to shore, he showed the photographs to his supervisor, Fred Crisman. Skeptical, Crisman investigated the scene for himself and allegedly also saw one of the flying objects hovering above.

Before he could share the story or photographs, however, Dahl received an unexpected visitor. The next morning, he said a man in a black suit came to him. The man described Dahl’s own experience to him in scarily accurate detail, warning him that if he spoke about what happened, he would suffer the consequences.

Dahl and Crisman would later come out and say that their experience was a hoax, but it was the first time anyone had actually mentioned the eponymous figures known as the “Men in Black,” members of a shadowy, quasi-governmental organization who appear in a number of real sightings of UFOs.

The Men in Black showed up again in the story of Albert K. Bender, a UFO fanatic who published the short-lived magazine Space Review, which covered all manner of strange aerial phenomena.

In one 1953 edition of Space Review, Bender also claimed to have been visited by “three men wearing dark suits” who allegedly demanded that he stop publishing information about UFOs. That same year, Bender shut down his magazine entirely.

He later shared his story with author Gray Barker, who published a collection of stories about the Men in Black in his 1956 book They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. Since then, alleged encounters with the Men in Black have been a staple of real UFO sightings.

***The Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident, Commonly Referred To As ‘Britain’s Roswell’

Around 3 a.m. on Dec. 26, 1980, soldiers stationed at an Air Force base near Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, England, reportedly witnessed a bizarre UFO.

Two security patrolmen near the eastern gate of Royal Air Force Woodbridge saw lights in the forest. The patrolmen requested permission to investigate what they believed to be a downed aircraft, and a third man joined them to search for the plane. That was when they encountered “a strange glowing object” in the forest.

When they approached, they found a metallic, triangular UFO that was about 10 feet across and six feet high. In a report known as the Halt Memo, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt recounted the experience: “It illuminated the entire forest with a white light. The object itself had a pulsing red light on top and a bank(s) of blue lights underneath. The object was hovering or on legs. As the patrolmen approached the object, it maneuvered through the trees and disappeared. At this time the animals on a nearby farm went into a frenzy.”

An hour later, witnesses spotted the craft near the back gate of the base — and then it disappeared, never to be seen again.

The next day, officials returned to the supposed landing site and noticed three clear depressions in the ground where the object had sat. The military called local police to corroborate the findings, and the officers likewise made note of the indentations.

Halt, meanwhile, kept a detailed log of everything on a cassette recorder. A copy of the “Halt Tape” was released in 1984 by Colonel Sam Morgan. In it, Halt described “a red sun-like light” through the forest trees, which “moved about and pulsed” as it emitted glowing particles and broke off into five pieces before disappearing.

The whole account was so shocking that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher allegedly said, “Don’t tell the people.”

The Rendlesham Forest UFO incident now carries the same weight and infamy in England as Roswell does in America.

***The Shag Harbour UFO Encounter, Also Known As ‘Canada’s Roswell’

On Oct. 4, 1967, at roughly 11:20 p.m., witnesses reported seeing something crash into the waters of Shag Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada. About a dozen people saw orange lights hovering above the harbor and heard something whistling “like a bomb” followed by a loud bang.

According to the Municipality of Barrington, witnesses initially believed they had just observed the tragic outcome of an airplane crash. Immediately, they reported the impact to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. RCMP Constable Ron Pound had also happened to see the strange lights as he was driving along Highway 3 toward Shag Harbour.

Like the other witnesses, Pound described seeing four lights attached to a singular flying craft, which he estimated to be around 60 feet long. Constable Pound arrived at the crash site to investigate alongside Police Corporal Victor Werbieki, Constable Ron O’Brien, and several local residents.

In the water where the craft had crashed, Constable Pound and the other witnesses watched as a yellow light moved slowly across the surface, leaving a trail of foam in its wake. The light dipped in and out of the water but was still too far from the shore to clearly make out.

By the time the Coast Guard arrived, the light was gone. The strange, yellowish foam was still present, though, indicating that something may have disappeared into the waters below.

Several theories emerged about the object’s origins, with some claiming it may have been a Russian spacecraft. There were also rumors that the U.S. government conducted a follow-up investigation, but officials never confirmed or denied this.

Divers later explored the waters of Shag Harbour to retrieve the object. They discovered that the UFO had indeed submerged itself and traveled underwater for roughly 25 miles to Government Point, which was located near a submarine detection base.

Witnesses at the base saw the object on sonar, and soon, the Canadian Navy began planning a salvage operation. Then, something strange happened. A second UFO appeared on sonar near the first — and both of them resurfaced and vanished into the sky.

To this day, neither object has ever been identified.

***The Chicago O’Hare International Airport UFO Sighting

In November 2006, pilots, mechanics, and other employees at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, witnessed a “flying saucer-like object” hovering over Concourse C of the United Airlines terminal.

A United ramp worker first spotted it around 4:30 p.m., but others quickly spied the craft as well. Witnesses described the object as dark gray and between six and 24 feet in diameter. Accounts varied as to whether it was spinning like a Frisbee or entirely still, but all agreed it was utterly silent.

Witnesses said the object hovered just below the clouds and then shot off into the sky, leaving behind a circular hole.

The Chicago Tribune reported on the sighting a few weeks later, interviewing staff at the airport about the event. One employee was so emotionally shaken by the sighting that they “experienced some religious issues.”

Workers also expressed frustration that government officials would not conduct a more thorough investigation into the incident. The Federal Aviation Administration dismissed the sighting as a “weather phenomenon,” but those who were there that day stood by what they saw.

“I tend to be scientific by nature, and I don’t understand why aliens would hover over a busy airport,” said one United mechanic. “But I know that what I saw and what a lot of other people saw stood out very clearly, and it definitely was not an [Earth] aircraft.”

Dr. Mark Hammergren, an astronomer at Adler Planetarium, said the incident could have been a “hole-punch cloud.”

“It’s something that occurs when a propeller or jet airplane passes through when you have uniform cloud cover and the temperature is right near the freezing point,” he told the Tribune. “They make liquid water droplets freeze and a hazy disc of ice crystals descends from a hole, and it looks like a perfect hole punched in the cloud.”

Still, others felt that the government should have taken the event more seriously and conducted an investigation.

Mark Rodeghier, scientific director at the Center for UFO Studies, said, “It’s an unknown object over O’Hare, and it’s seen by official personnel, and does United or the FAA take it seriously? Of course not, they have zero interest because UFOs can’t exist. But how can you not worry about something hovering over an airport after 9/11? It doesn’t make sense.”

The incident remains unresolved.

***The Lake Michigan UFO Incident That Was Witnessed By Hundreds Of People

On March 8, 1994, nearly 300 people in Michigan called 911 to report eerie lights hovering in the sky. The bright, multi-colored orbs appeared over the water and were visible as far south as the Indiana state line as they danced erratically in the night sky.

The National Weather Service (NWS) also confirmed the presence of large, unknown objects over Lake Michigan that were clearly not planes. But as quickly as the lights appeared, they vanished. To this day, no one has been able to explain the 1994 Lake Michigan UFO incident.

Sightings were reported from Ludington, Michigan, down to the Indiana state line, 150 miles away. Cindy Pravda of Grand Haven was on the phone when she saw the lights and told her friend, “I got UFOs in the backyard.”

She reported watching the lights for roughly half an hour as they danced about. Similar accounts came in from residents of Holland. Joey Graves told the Detroit Free Press that he saw “six lights out the window above the barn across the street… They were red and white and moving.”

Holland police officer Jeff Velthouse and NWS meteorologist Jack Bushong corroborated these accounts during a phone conversation that has since been made public. On the call, Bushong confirmed that he saw “three and sometimes four blips” on the radar — “and they weren’t planes.”

The lights moved erratically at speeds not possible for any known aircraft. Bushong said, “They were from five to 12,000 feet [in the air] at times, moving all over the place. Three were moving toward Chicago. I never saw anything like it before, not even when I’m doing severe weather.”

The objects appeared to come together and separate repeatedly in a seemingly endless cycle of “hovering, then jumping” and moving “about 20 miles in each jump.”

Bushong said that at their highest, the objects reached 60,000 feet and continued to move in strange patterns until they reached the south end of Lake Michigan — and then, they were gone.

***The 2007 Alderney UFO Sighting Reported By A Veteran Pilot

Ray Bowyer was a 50-year-old pilot with more than 18 years of experience in the cockpit when he spotted a gleaming yellow light directly ahead of his airplane on April 23, 2007. Bowyer was piloting an 18-passenger plane that had just departed from Southampton, England, for a routine flight to the island of Alderney.

Bowyer saw the glow just after 2 p.m. Initially, he thought it was sunlight reflecting off glass greenhouses on the ground below, but it didn’t flicker as a reflection would. He grabbed his binoculars to get a closer look.

As The New Yorker reported, Bowyer then saw that the light was long and thin like a cigar with sharp edges and pointed ends. It wasn’t moving, and although its shine was “difficult to describe,” Bowyer “was able to look at this fantastic light without discomfort.”

A moment later, a second object appeared, moving in formation with the first. By now, others onboard had started to take notice of the “sunlight-colored” objects too.

Bowyer filed a report with Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority along with a sketch of what he had seen. The pilot also estimated that each UFO was about the size of a “reasonably large town.” The news made the rounds in local papers, but the incident largely went unnoticed until known UFO skeptic David Clarke published an audit 10 months later.

In the “Report on Aerial Phenomena Observed Near the Channel Islands, UK, April 23, 2007,” Clarke collaborated with various experts to see if there was any scientific explanation for the objects the Alderney flight passengers saw.

Ultimately, he concluded, “We are unable to explain the UAP sightings satisfactorily.”

SHOW CLOSE=====

Thanks for listening (and be sure to stick around for the bloopers at the end)! If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do! You can email me and follow me on social media through the Weird Darkness website. WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find information on sponsors you heard during the show, listen to FREE audiobooks I’ve narrated, get the email newsletter, find my other podcasts,. Also on the site you can visit the store for Weird Darkness tee-shirts, mugs, and other merchandise… plus, it’s where you can find the Hope in the Darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression, addiction, or thoughts of harming yourself or others. And if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell of your own, you can click on TELL YOUR STORY. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com.

All stories on Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find links to the stories or the authors in the show notes.

“Real Encounters of Cowboys And Aliens” and “The Buff Ledge Abduction” were written by Marcus Lowth for UFO Insight

“Inside The Bermuda Triangle” by Kaleena Fraga for All That’s Interesting

“UFO Sightings That Remain Unexplained” by Austin Harvey, also for All That’s Interesting

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Now that we’re coming out of the dark, I’ll leave you with a little light… Proverbs 5:22-23, “The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.”

And a final thought… “Difficulty is inevitable. Drama is a choice.” — Anita Renfroe

I’m Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.

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