Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 01/12/2021
Last Updated: 02/12/2021
Neil Atenbury first got in touch with me in early September 2021 via phone to discuss some unusual experiences he has had throughout his life, starting in childhood. These experiences cover a wide range of phenomena including sightings of UFOs (some of which he has managed to capture on video), possible abductions, encounters with ghostly apparitions, premonitions and other paranormal events.
This report contains many maps, witness drawings and analysis of the video footage, and provides a detailed overview of his experiences.
An Early Visitation?
Neil has an interesting memory from very early in his childhood. He thinks he must have been 3-4 years old at the time and sleeping in a cot. At the time he lived with his parents on Elm Road, Altrincham.
He recalls something waking him up during the night, some kind of energy in the room. He also recollects seeing two very slender stick-like figures standing in the room, visible between the bars of his cot. It was too dark to see the figures clearly, they were just silhouettes. He does not remember them interacting with him directly in any way.
While he was very young and this could of course have merely been a dream, there is the possibility that this was an early childhood visitation by two Greys.
Around 2011 he was chatting with his father Michael while out driving and he mentioned to Neil that on a number of occasions they found that he had somehow managed to get out of his cot in the night. He would grab food products from the kitchen like flour and eggs and drop them all over the floor. In the end his father decided to put a cover over the cot at night to prevent him from getting out. It is likely that he was able to clamber out of the cot himself as opposed to this being linked to contact, but I have included it for interest.
Mother Calling
In 1977 at the age of 8 Neil and his family moved to a house on Leigh Road. It was a Victorian house with no central heating.
One day he was downstairs. He could hear splashing coming from the bathroom and assumed his mother was taking a bath. He started to walk up the stairs. As he got near the top he heard his mother shouted out from the bathroom “Don’t come any further. You’re not to come in.”
Thinking she was in some kind of trouble Neil went and opened the bathroom door. When he did so he found out there was no-one there and there was no water in the bath! A moment later his mother walked out from one of the other rooms, and did not speak with him or act in any way surprised! He does not recall telling her about what had just happened.
This incident would be the first of a number of unusual experiences of a paranormal nature that Neil has had throughout his life. It is very common for contactees to experience paranormal activity within their vicinity.
Gentleman’s Ghost
Three years later the family moved again to Acacia Avenue. The house had a rear garden with adjoining garage.
One day soon after moving in Neil found himself alone in the kitchen. It was a cloudy but dry day outside. He looked out through the kitchen window. About 20 feet away from him across at the far side of the garden he immediately noticed something strange. There was a semi-transparent figure of a man standing there. It appeared to be made up of smoke, and although colours could not really be seen, it was clear to see details. The man was wearing a suit with a waistcoat, pocket watch and top hat. He looked quite stout.
Neil could barely believe what he was looking at! He glanced away a moment and looked back, but the figure was still there. As he watched, the entity began waddling slowly across the garden until it vanished into the solid wall of the garage out of sight.
In total he had watched the figure for about 15 seconds. He recalls telling his parents about what he had seen, but cannot remember how they reacted.
Although Neil was staring at the figure through a pane of glass it seems unlikely it was just a reflection in the window due to the length of time that he observed it for, as well as the fact that it moved across the garden yet its appearance remained consistent. Also, this was not to be the only time which Neil would see such an apparition.
Dreams & Premonitions
Between the age of 17-20 Neil would experience flying dreams extremely regularly. These dreams were very vivid, to the point that he was aware he was dreaming. He found himself hovering in the air outside his house. He enjoyed them at first, but on some occasions he found it hard to wake from them, which frightened him a little. Sometimes when he woke from the dreams he found he was paralyzed for a short period of time, which again was frightening.
On several occasions Neil believes that he had premonitions of future events. As an example, on one night he saw himself at a distance riding along a road on his bike and wearing a particular set of clothes. A number of weeks later he found himself actually in that location, wearing exactly the same clothing. As he rode along he realised he had dreamed it previously. It was very different to what is known as Deja Vu.
Towards the end of him experiencing these dreams Neil started to explore more and flew right up into the clouds. However soon afterwards they ceased and have rarely happened since. As with paranormal activity, it is common for contactees to express one or more psychic abilities. Premonitions are often reported, either of specific incidents or just of random events as mentioned here.
Barn Door
In June 1987 Neil spent a month helping out on a farm owned by the parents of one of his friends, Martin. The farm was called Calvadnack Lodge and it was situated just West of Carmmenelis, Cornwall.
On the farm was a barn with a chained up door. Literally on the first night he was there, everyone awoke to a loud bang sound in the middle of the night. Heading outside, Martin’s father found the doors of the barn had been blasted wide open! There was no explanation for what had occurred. There was nobody around, and no sign of any devices which might have been used to break open the doors. Nor was there anything inside the barn at the time. It was a still night so the doors could not have blown open in the wind.
A possible explanation is that someone had come to the farm in the night and broken into the barn expecting it to have contained something worth stealing. Finding the barn empty, they could then have then easily ran away and hid by the time the farmer had managed to get outside.
Silver Disc
A couple of weeks after the barn door incident, Neil had his first UFO sighting. Martin owned an air rifle at the time, and they would sometimes head to the farm fields to shoot makeshift targets.
One sunny and still day they were at the fields with the gun. They were close to some megalithic standing stones which are on an area of open ground South West of the farm buildings.
Aerial map showing Calvadnack Farm (A) and the megalithic stones (B):
Neil looked through the scope of the rifle to the North. It was now that he noticed something up in the sky. In the distance on the far side of the valley he saw what appeared to be a matt silver coloured disc-shaped object. It was hovering about 4000 feet up. Neil estimated it was about a mile away from their position and about 50 foot in diameter. It was moving on a straight and level course to the West. It seemed to be travelling about 70-100 mph.
He nudged Martin pointing out the UFO and asked “Do you see that?” Martin confirmed that he did. The boys watched the object for about 15-20 seconds until it had vanished from sight into the West. Neither of the boys had a camera on them.
A couple of minutes went by then suddenly the witnesses heard the loud roar of jet engines. They watched as two fighter jets flew along the valley at the same height and direction that the UFO had been travelling in!
As it was distant, there is the possibility that the UFO had a mundane explanation, such as an inflatable of some kind. However it does seem to have been too large and moving too fast for this to have been the case, and its movement seemed very controlled.
Another possibility is that it was a normal aircraft and the wings/tail could not be seen due to how far away it was, however it certainly looked unusual to the witnesses, and if this were the case then surely the jets which were seen soon afterwards would have also appeared the same and have been reported as two other discs.
If it was a genuine sighting of a craft, then it is entirely possible that the two jets which the witnesses then saw had been sent out to intercept it. Neil is unsure of where the jets may have taken off from, as there are no airfields in the nearby vicinity. He confirmed to me that he did not see or hear any other jets for the remainder of the time he was at the farm.
Back in 2013 Neil spoke with Martin about the incident and he recalled the incident. Since then he has lost touch with him. However he does know his cousin who lives locally. He has informed me that he will try to get in touch with him via her so that I can ask him for a witness statement. If Neil is successful in this, Martin's statement will be added to this report.
Haunted Hotel
In 1990 Neil took a job in the Outer Hebrides working as a night porter at Lochalsh Hotel in Kyle of Lochalsh. The hotel had quite a nice atmosphere after dark, it was not particularly foreboding. There was a small room just off the hotel foyer which always seemed to have a sweet odour to it, even though it was largely empty. However he was not particularly bothered by this.
On his night’s at the hotel he would man the front desk on his own. At 1, 3 and 5 am he would get up and walk around to perform a security check.
One night he was sitting on one of the sofas in the foyer of the hotel. It was between 1-3am and he was feeling quite sleepy. He knew he couldn’t drop off to sleep as he had the 3am security check to perform, but he decided just to close his eyes a minute.
When he opened them he was shocked at what he saw. Sitting in front of him on the opposite seating were two figures. Their appearance was similar to the apparition of the portly gentleman he had seen years ago - like swirling smoke, but clear enough to make out specific details. One of the figures was male, the other female. They looked really ancient like cave people. Both of them were very thin looking with sunken facial features. They were wearing clothing made from animal furs. The male had short hair and what appeared to be a stone necklace around his neck. The female had long fine-looking hair. Both of the figures were staring intently at him with a disturbing grin on their faces.
Neil only looked at them for a few seconds, just long enough to register what was taking place. He then jumped up and briskly moved away from the area. He got a drink of water and then paced around the hotel a while. He went to a different floor in the elevator trying to calm down. Seeing the two apparitions had understandably un-nerved him greatly. After a while he had to return to the front desk. The figures were no longer present.
He could not settle for the remainder of the shift. When the receptionist turned up in the morning to relieve him of his duties he did not tell her about what had taken place.
The Police & The Humanoid
On 21st June 1992 was visiting his friend Steven in Hale, Manchester. Steven lived on Langham Road. It was a warm summer’s evening around 8-9pm. They were sitting on a wall at the top of the road and chatting.
Suddenly a police car drove past them really fast. For some reason Neil thought something was going to happen and said to Steve “You know what? I bet they’re coming back.” Sure enough several minutes later several police cars and a van pulled up next to them. Several officers got out and approached them.
They began by asking them formal questions such as their name and address and what they were up to. They then continued to ask them question after question. It seemed to go on forever! Eventually they frisked them and asked them to empty out their pockets. Upon finding nothing, Neil asked them what was going on. One of the officers informed him they were looking for someone wearing a black baseball cap like he had on. Then they gave them a pink paper copy of the report they had written up. They informed them that they may well be stopped again on the way home and if they were to show them the report copy. After this they jumped back in their cars and drove away.
Steven was really anxious about what had just happened and Neil agreed that it had seemed really odd. They decided it would be best to head back to Hale Road where they lived. However because of what the police officers had said they decided it would be a good idea to avoid the main roads by cutting across the playing field of Alchrincham Grammar School on Marlborough Road. They walked across the entrance area of the school to where the edge of the playing fields lay.
As it was now 10-11pm it was quite dark, with only the light of nearby streetlights lighting up the area. As they began to walk across the gras they suddenly noticed a figure standing ahead and off to their right. It was about 4-5 foot tall, was wearing hooded clothing and was holding a strong light in its hand. It seemed to be intensely focused on the ground and did not appear to have noticed them.
Neil only observed it for a couple of seconds before turning and running away, already disturbed by what had happened previously. Steven shortly followed after him.
Back on Marlborough Road the witnesses discussed what they’d just seen. Neil initially thought it might have been a security guard, but it seemed too short. Steven agreed that it looked unusual and did not think the school had night serurity. Despite being initially disturbed by the presence of the figure they felt curious enough to remain in the vicinity and observe it from a distance. They decided to walk along the roads that lead around the edge of the playing field to Heath Road. They knew that along here there was a gate to the far side of the field.
By the time they got there 20 minutes had gone by. The gate was wide open. They looked across the playing field to where the figure had been. It no longer seemed to be present, but in its place was an extremely bright light which appeared to be rotating and changing colour from white to blue. They could see it lighting up the windows of the classroom as it turned.
After about 5 minutes Neil decided to lie down on the grass. Steven remained standing by the gate. They continued to observe the strange light wondering what it could be. Suddenly there was an extremely loud mechanical screeching sound which appeared to have emanated from the direction of the light! The noise was deafening and absolutely terrifying. Steven immediately turned and ran. Neil jumped to his feet and also ran away back up Heath Road. Too much was happening and they’d both had enough of this odd situation!
They ran right back up to the railway crossing on Victoria Road. It was now around 1am. They walked over the crossing towards a takeaway known as the Canadian Charcoal Pit (It has since been replaced with an Italian restaurant). It was now that another police car pulled up next to them. The officer asked what they were running away from and why they were out of breath. Neil did not tell him what had been going on at the playing field because he thought they would think they were making it up to get out of trouble. He just told them that they wanted to reach the takeaway before it shut. He got out the report and handed it over. The officer seemed happy with this, handed it back and drove away.
After the police car had left they both plucked up the courage to once again walk back down to the playing field. They returned to the gate on Heath Road. The rotating light was still visible on the field. After a short while they decided to head for home.
In the days following the series of incidents Steven kept bringing up what had happened and wanted to talk about it constantly. However after a while he became more withdrawn and stopped bringing it up in discussion.
In late 1998 Neil’s parents moved to a farmhouse in Roscommon, Ireland. Neil also moved across there and spent a number of months helping them renovate the property. He initially kept in touch with Steven via occasional phone calls, but after a while lost touch with him.
Many years later in 2007 their paths would happen to cross again. Neil was working as a security guard at a Subway. After standing outside for a number of hours someone suddenly called his name. He was surprised to see it was Steven!
Steven almost immediately brought up the incident, asking him “Do you remember that night on the field?” Neil informed him that he did. Steven then went on to say something which he had never mentioned before. He said to him that when they had heard the loud screeching noise he had seen something large and dark black moving straight towards him. Neil feels that the reason he was keen to discuss the incident was because what he had seen haunted him and he wanted to find out if he had seen it too.
After this brief meeting Neil did not keep in touch with Steven and has not spoken with him in quite a few years, so unfortunately I am unable to contact him about what took place.
Although Neil and Steven found the actions of the police officers that night to be unusual, it is very unlikely that they had anything to do with what was seen on the playing field. The first officers they spoke with informed them they were searching for someone, so were probably on high alert.
While it is possible that the figure witnessed was an alien being, it may well have merely been someone mucking around on the playing field wearing a hooded jacket / hoodie and holding a torch, not necessarily a security guard. The unusual lights which were seen later on were only seen at a distance so there is no way of confirming whether they were coming from some kind of landed object, or were again just lights being held by one or more people.
There is also no way of knowing whether the screeching sound they heard had emenated from the same thing which was causing the lights or whether it was unrelated. Perhaps it was caused by some machinery being utilised nearby, or even a firework being set off out of sight.
Glowing Orbs
The house that Neil’s parents bought, and still live at, is in a rural location on the outskirts of Roscommon. As Neil spent a number of months there helping to renovate, he would sometimes go for drinks at Tom Riley’s in Castlecoote (The pub is now known as Castlecoote Lodge).
Sometimes other regulars in the pub would ask him if he or his parents ever saw faeries around the grounds of the house. They informed him that the previous owners had reported seeing things in the area.
One evening in the summer of 1999 he was at Tom Riley's when Michael came in around 10pm. He had a strange concerned look on his face. When Neil asked him what was wrong his father informed him that he had just witnessed ball lightning, and asked him to come back home with him.
They headed back to the house together. When they got back home Michael went into more detail about what had occurred. He said that the house suddenly seemed to be surrounded in glowing orbs of white light. He said that there were several close to the property and others over in some nearby trees hovering about 10 feet off the ground. He estimated they were about the size of footballs, and hovered in the air for several minutes before vanishing.
On a number of occasions in the months that followed Neil saw these strange lights for himself. There was usually only one at a time. He would see them out of the kitchen window. They would glide slowly and smoothly along towards the river. On some occasions he would see faint glowing white lights over an area of marshland near to the house, usually around dusk.
It seems unlikely that what Michael and Neil saw at the property was ball lighting as on that day, and on subsequent occasions when the other orbs were seen, it was not stormy weather. However it is very possible that they were earth lights, also known as will-o-wisps. These are rare, naturally occurring, glowing lights which can occur over rural areas, often near to bodies of water. As the orbs seen in these instances were small and did not seem to express intelligence it is a reasonable proposition for what was seen.
Red Sky At Night
On another evening in September 1999 Neil was once again out at Tom Riley’s. After having a few drinks he set off on the walk back to his parent’s house. The route he took first led to the East away from the pub. He then turned left and began walking North along a narrow lane with trees on either side. It was after dark and there were no streetlights, but the moon provided some lighting through the gaps between the branches, and he was very familiar with the route.
As he was walking along the lane he suddenly became aware of a bright red beam of light in the sky. It was hard to tell where the source of this beam was, but there were no establishments in the area or events going on which would have been responsible for it.
Puzzled by the glow, Neil stared at it for several seconds before continuing his walk. Initially he thought maybe it was coming from a vehicle, maybe some people who'd been out fishing on the river. But as he walked round some bends in the lane he realised no-one was there. He glanced back behind himself. He could now see three or four red glowing streaks across the sky. The glow seemed to be coming from the area of the Derryhippo River to the West. He got his mobile phone out to call a friend who lived about a mile away from his location. His friend confirmed they could see it too from their home.
As Neil watched the red glow seemed to move across the sky slowly to the East in the direction of River Suck. Soon it faded from sight and the usual darkness of the sky returned. Neil was amazed at what he had just seen and wondered what it could have been.
The following day he rang up a local radio station to tell the story of what had happened. Numerous other people started to ring into the show to report that they had also seen it.
Due to the time of the incident the red light in the sky could not have been caused by the setting sun. From Neil’s description it seems too large and bright to have been caused by reflection on the clouds off a passing aeroplane.
However there is a natural explanation which may be responsible. When oxygen atoms in the upper atmosphere interact with charged particles of the solar wind sometimes this causes a red glow in the sky, a rare type of aurora borealis.
The aurora borealis usuaully occurs over Northern countries such as Iceland and Alaska. However it can also sometimes be seen in Ireland, especially in rural locations with no light pollution. Given the fact this incident took place in a very rural location it is certainly possible that this was the cause of the red light observed although there is no way of confirming this beyond doubt as it took place so long ago. The red lights seen were too spread out to have been emitted from a specific object so I find it unlikely this is a UFO related incident.
Aerial Anomaly
It was a hot sunny day in the summer of either 2001 or 2002. Neil was sitting out in the front garden of his parent’s house relaxing in the sun. There were no clouds and it was a beautiful day. He suddenly noticed a strange glowing light in the sky.
It was to the West at an elevation of 75 degrees and appeared to be at very high altitude, over 30000 feet. It was a curved shape, similar to a Wotsit crisp, and was glowing bright orange-yellow colour. The light was completely stationary.
Neil thought to himself “That’s weird!” He watched the object for a number of minutes. He did not try to capture it on camera as it looked too far away to really show up.
Soon afterwards he was once again outside when he again noticed the same light in the same location. Neil claims that it was present in the sky for a number of weeks, but was only visible on very clear days with no cloud. On one occasion his uncle had come to visit and also witnessed it. On this occasion they actually headed away from the address along the lane to a higher vantage point, but it could no longer be seen.
Due to the length of time the light was present for, and the fact that it was stationary and kept appearing at the same place in the sky I find it very unlikely that it was any kind of craft, or even solid object. It was most likely some kind of natural reflection of sunlight. This explanation would fit with the fact it was only visible on clear cloudless days.
Appearing Livestock
When not assisting his parents with their home renovations, Neil stayed at a bungalow on a lane just off the R366.
While living at the address Neil would wake up in the morning to find various farm animals in the front garden of the property! There would be a mix of sheep, cows and horses. The incidents would sometimes happen numerous times over a relatively short period of time.
The farmer would usually turn up later in the day and collect them. Neil never spoke with him directly, he found the whole situation a little surreal.
There were sheep in the field opposite the bungalow, so it is possible that they were escaping from that and walking across the road to feed on the grass of his lawn. There was a nearby field with horses in however this had an electric fence round it so Neil had no idea how they could be getting out. And he was unaware of any fields with cows in, at least in the local area.
Even though Neil was mystified as to how the animals were escaping from their fields, or why they kept ending up on his front lawn, it is unlikely that anything unusual or paranormal was taking place. The animals may well have also ended up outside other houses in the area too on other occasions without his knowledge, and were probably just aware that there was nice fresh grass to feed off at this location.
Man At The Door
In the spring of either 2002 or 2003 while living at the property Neil had two experiences within weeks of one another which had a lasting impact on him.
One night he went to bed quite late between midnight and 1am. He was woken around 4am by what he was convinced was a loud knock on the front door. He got out of bed, quickly put some clothes on and went to see who was at the door.
When he opened it he was greeted by the sight of a tall man wearing some kind of uniform. The man was standing really straight. He was about 6 foot 5 inches and quite well built. It was quite dark outside as there were no street lights on the lane, but he was still able to see him. The clothing he had on was wearing looked somewhat similar to the post man who would sometimes come to the door, but this figure was much taller. He was wearing a dark coloured jacket with buttons down the front, and a hat.
The man was holding a strange metallic device. He handed the device to Neil. For an unknown reason Neil knew that the device had to be constructed, and also he felt excited to do this. He placed the device down on the floor and began assembling it. It ended up looking like a strange tripod-like object with three spiked legs. Neil had no idea what it was for, but was amazed that he had managed to put it together without instructions. This is where his memory of events ended.
The next thing he became aware of was of waking up at 7am, earlier than he would usually wake up. He immediately remembered what had happened and felt excited to go and find the constructed device. His heart was racing, as what had taken place felt so real, far more vivid than a dream. It took him a minute to realise that the device may not actually be there. Sure enough, when he checked for it, it was nowhere to be found.
Neil says that the memories of this incident have remained with him to a great level of clarity. It felt far more than just a strange dream, and he wonders if this figure at the door was actually an ET, potentially masking its true appearance.
A known aspect of contact experiences is screen memories – where the beings or their craft appear differently to the individual in recollected events. Sometimes they seem to appear in forms familiar to the individual. Neil wonders if this was a being which was intentionally making itself look like his postman, as he would be one of the only people to regularly come to the front door. This is an interesting possibility, especially considering what took place next.
Abduction Memories
Within a month of the previous incident, Neil had another experience, this time even more vivid. He thinks that on the night it took place there had been a power cut. The lights had started flickering around 8pm and some point around midnight they had gone off entirely. This was not an unusual occurrence, this had happened a number of times before, but essentially with no light to see anymore there was nothing much to do except go to bed.
Neil recalls coming round at some point during the night to find he was no longer in his room. He was in a completely white room and sitting at a white coloured oval-shaped table. The surfaces seemed luminescent. Everything was very sparse and clinical. There were no visible panels, buttons or lights and no other furnishings besides the table. It was impossible to see where the walls stopped and the ceiling or floor began.
There were three beings sitting alongside him at the table, with a fourth facing away from him on the far side. The one right next to him looked female, whereas the other three looked male. They were humanoid but had larger heads, longer foreheads and very thin long necks and arms. They were completely hairless. Their skin was a dark olive colour and they were wearing white coloured robes. They were sitting down but Neil estimated that they were 7-8 feet in height. The beings all had beautiful chiselled features, and looked almost angelic. Their mouths were barely visible and were expressionless.
Neil was particularly transfixed by the female being alongside him, so his focus was mostly on her. She was sitting extremely closely, only a few inches away from him. It was almost like she wanted him to examine her.
He suddenly heard a voice inside his head speaking to him. He was certain the voice was coming from the female being, but it was directly inside his mind rather than audible. She said “We don’t get down here to you too often, we don’t have the opportunity to get here too frequently.” She then went on to explain that there was another species/type who do not land but remain above us in the sky.
This other type of being has malicious intent and are transmitting information and enslaving humanity through technology. They don’t know what love or compassion is and don’t directly possess emotions. There is a certain energy which we have which they want, and through technology they are able to manipulate us. The telepathic message Neil received appeared to be a warning about the use of technology. He is unsure if it was meant solely for him or for the whole of humanity.
After this he was led through to another room through an open doorway by the female being. At least one of the male beings also came with them. Ahead of them on the far side of this adjoining room was a huge oval-shaped window, about 50-60 feet across. Through it Neil could see what he assumed was our sun.
He was fascinated by this view and started to walk across the room towards the window. The beings remained further back behind him. He got to about 4 feet away from it and stared out at the sun. It was very bright but not blinding. It is possible that the window was filtering out some of the light. He could see huge solar flares ejecting from the surface. This was the end of his recollection
When he came round he found it was morning time and he was back in his bed. Unlike before it was around 9.30am, the normal time he would wake up at. Immediately the memories came flooding back to him in vivid detail. He was absolutely blown away with what had taken place, and was visibly shaking.
He looked around for a cigarette. Finding that he had none left he got dressed and drove down to the local shop to pick up a pack. Inside the shop he couldn’t contain himself and told the shopkeeper the entire story of what had happened during the night. He seemed fascinated by what Neil had to say.
Could Neil really have been taken aboard a craft and then flown to a point in the solar system much closer to the sun? While this may seem hard to believe I feel that this incident could well have been an abduction experience, either one which took place during the night, or a flashback to a previous incident. There are a lot of details which match other cases on record. Many contactees have reported finding themselves in white glowing rooms devoid of furnishings.
The beings are very interesting and not one of the commonly reported types/species. There are numerous other cases on record of Nordic (humanoid) beings having olive-coloured skin and wearing white robes. However in most cases these beings tend to have blond or pale coloured hair. The beings Neil met seemed to have Grey-like aspects to them such as the oversized heads and slender frames. There is the possibility they were some kind of hybrid being with aspects of numerous species/types.
Neil found the experience positive rather than frightening, possibly due to the fact that he was not paralyzed and the fact that the beings actually spoke with him. The details shared with him are interesting. There are many other cases where people have been given similar warnings of an environmental nature about the dangers of technology, including the incredible Ariel School landing incident in Zimbabwe. This is another aspect which leads me to believe that this may have actually taken place.
Unidentified Lights
By 2020 Neil was living in Belfast. On the evening of 24th January he was walking home along Lagan Towpath alongside the River Lagan. It was overcast but dry and not particularly cold. Earlier in the day it had been quite busy, but now at 6.10pm there were not many other pedestrians around. Due to the time of year it was already fully dark.
A new bridge was being constructed near to the Coffee Box Boat Club. As he walked past the semi-constructed bridge he noticed that the crows in the trees on the other side of the river were making a lot more noise than they would usually make. He had walked past the location many times but had never heard them act like this. He stopped at the bridge intrigued at what was disturbing them.
After watching for a short while, Neil started to walk South along the Towpath. Suddenly about 50 yards ahead of him further along the path he caught the sight of three to five extremely bright lights in a staggered formation quite close to the ground. He thought it must be a vehicle of some kind and expected them to move towards him, but there was no sound coming from them. After a few seconds the lights vanished before he had a chance to grab his mobile phone and photograph or video them. He remained still to see if anything else would take place.
About a minute later suddenly noticed another orb of light. He started to film the light on his phone and watched them on the phone screen as he did. After a moment the orb seemed to turn a bright green colour. It remained like this for a number of seconds before changing back to white. Soon a second light also briefly appeared and seemed to briskly move towards the initial one. This one seemed to have a red tinge to it. Both orbs then quickly vanished from sight. Neil waited a while to see if they would re-appear but they did not.
Below is the footage Neil managed to take of the orbs:
As you can see at first there is a single point of light which initially appears white. Below is a zoomed view of the orb:
After a few seconds the focus is lost on the orb by the camera and at the same time it appears to change to a bright green colour:
This is a known camera artefact and does not mean the orb has actually changed colour. Sometimes when filming a bright light on a dark background the camera does not know what colour to set so will choose one. It can be seen that once the focus returns the orb changes back to a white colour again, which supports this explanation. After 12 seconds another orb appeared slightly above and off to the right of it. Like the first, this generally appears white. The light flickers on and off for a moment, possibly hidden behind vegetation. It then moves swiftly to the left. As it moves the reddish tinge reported by the witness can briefly be made out:
It moves slightly past the initial orb, seems to curve back round towards it then vanishes. A second later the initial orb also disappears.
Due to the distance and lack of other details in the footage it is hard to say what the orbs may or may not have been. Neil was mystified because they appeared to be coming from further along the path a short distance off the ground, yet when he reached the position he believed they had been at there was nobody there.
It is possible that they were caused by lights or mobile phone being held by two people who had walked off by the time Neil arrived. However the lights do move somewhat strangely, especially the speed at which the second orb approaches the initial one.
Triangular Lights
In late July 2020 Neil was once again walking North along Lagan Towpath late in the evening, around 11pm. It was a still and pleasant evening. He was talking to a friend on speaker phone as he walked.
About a quarter of a mile ahead of him he saw some lights close to a bench. He assumed it was a couple of cyclists. As he got closer the lights suddenly vanished without trace. Standing at the location he happened to glance across the river at the thick vegetation on the far side.
Suddenly within this area two red lights projecting what looked like triangles of blue coloured light appeared (Neil has called them pyramids in his drawing below but they were flat shapes not three dimensional glowing objects). The triangles appeared to be about 13 foot in height. They were motionless and there was no sound coming from them. As he was on the phone call at the time he was unable to film them, and within seconds the two lights vanished.
Neil was mystified as to what they could have been. He wondered if it was some kids camping over there in the trees, but the vegetation was so thick this did not really make much sense. He remained at the location for about an hour waiting to see if they would reappear but they did not.
He began to continue to walk home, still chatting with his friend on the phone. As he did so the phone suddenly shut down. Being in the valley he would sometimes lose signal, but this seemed unusual as he was convinced he still had plenty of battery left. He rebooted the phone and sure enough it said 40% battery life. He rang his friend back up, but again the phone shut down. When he rebooted it again it now said it had 23% battery left.
At the top of the valley he once again tried calling and the same thing happened. When he switched it back on again it now said the battery was only at 3%. This was the only time he had experienced this with his phone, and since that evening it was worked fine. Neil wonders if it was in some way linked with what he had seen.
While the white lights seen along the path could easily have been caused by other walkers, potentially lights from their mobile phones, the red and blue light configurations seen are harder to explain away, especially due to the dense trees where they were seemingly situated. The sighting location photograph was taken in the winter and the vegetation looks thick, so you can imagine how thick it gets in the summer.
As there was no direct interation between these lights and Neil I find it improbable that what happened to his phone battery was related. I have had false readings on my mobile before where the battery life initially looked quite good but then seemed to drain really fast.
Green Formations
It was 11pm on Saturday 11th September 2021. By now construction of the new bridge across the river was completed. Neil was standing on the Lagan tow path checking it out. Suddenly overhead up in the clouds he saw a formation of around 5 green triangular shaped lights fly across the sky extremely fast. The shapes were clearly defined with sharp edges.
Over the following 20 seconds three similar formations also appeared, travelling in the same direction to the North East. The lights were so fast that he did not have enough time to grab his smartphone and capture them on camera. There was no sound whatsoever. He continued on his way home, keeping an eye out, but nothing else took place.
Neil wondered if they had been some kind of light display, however he was confused as to why they had not gone on longer if this was the case. He said that the lights looked like they were flying through the lower cloud layer.
I feel that there is a very high likelihood that the lights were a green laser projection hitting the base of the clouds. There were actually two music events on this date, Belsonic and Planetlove.
Belsonic is a yearly rock and Britpop music festival which was taking place at Ormeau Park, 1 mile North North East of the location of the new bridge. It was quite a sizeable event with a large main stage.
Planetlove is a multi-stage yearly dance festival which was taking place at Boucher Road Playing Fields 1 mile to the North West.
As you can see from the below flyers, the final DJs on each state actually ended at 11pm:
The below video is from the Billy Gillies set, the last DJ to play on the Subculture stage. As you can see lasers are being used and are hitting the cloud layer in the distance making quick darting patterns as Neil reported. These may be the exact beams which Neil observed.
I reached out to the companies behind both festivals via their Facebook pages to request further information but sadly never got a response from them. However given the fact that lasers were being shone from Planet Love around the same time as the sighting it seems very probable that this was the reason for the lights seen.
Light in the Clouds
On the evening of 25th September 2021 Neil sat on a bench on the Lagan tow path before making his way home. He noticed in the distance a glowing area of light on the clouds in the distance. It was a long bar-like shape and was moving backwards and forwards.
Neil grabbed his mobile phone and took the following video footage:
As you can see, Neil only managed to capture one sweep of the light before it vanished. However due to its appearance it is extremely likely that this was a search light being shone up from the ground, a point which Neil audibly wonders about while filming.
The first day of AVA dance music festival took place on this date at Boucher Road Playing Fields.
I have attempted to find out if any search lights were used at the event, but like before have not had any response. However, as with the green triangles, it extremely likely that this was the explanation for the light due to the panning manoeuvres it was performing.
Darting Lights
Early on the evening of Sunday 7th November 2021 Neil was walking home across Lagan Meadow. There was nobody else around at the time. He sat down on on of the benches positioned at intervals along the snaking path for a rest, and decided to give his friend a call.
It was 6.15pm and due to the time of year the sun had already fully set. The weather was clear and dry, with very little cloud cover. In the distance to the South he suddenly saw a white glowing oval-shaped object fly across the sky. The object was low down in the sky at an elevation of 10 degrees. It travelled from his right to his left towards the East and moved on a perfectly straight course. It took about 7-8 seconds to cross the sky and seemed to be travelling much faster than a distant aircraft. There was no sound heard whatsoever although this could have been due to the distance.
The object had a bright glowing aura of light behind it. The exact shape was hard to tell, it is possible it was stretched out into an elongated shape because of the speed it was travelling at. Because he was on the phone at the time he was not able to get a photograph or video. He described what he had just seen to his friend.
The area lies within the flight path for Belfast Airport. About 15 minutes later Neil watched a passsenger aircraft heading Eastward and making its descent. Suddenly a bright orb of white light seemed to appear behind it, shoot away from it to the right and then vanish. It was only visible for a second before it had gone.
Neil was amazed that he had seen two unidentified lights within the same period of time. He wishes he had managed to get them on camera but the sightings were both too brief.
The initial object which was seen is interesting as it sounds too fast to be an aircraft or lit inflatable, yet too slow to be a meteorite. Also the fact it was travelling on a level course instead of descending as it moved seems to point away from this as the explanation. There is the possibility it was a drone with bright white lights on and was closer than it seemed to be.
The second light which was seen could easily have been a meteorite due to the fact it was travelling very fast and only visible for a brief moment. While it cannot be conclusively proven that it was this, it seems like the most likely explanation.
Conclusion
As you can see, Neil has had some very interesting experiences over the years. Although some of his sightings may have mundane explanations, some earlier incidents are harder to explain. The vivid dreams he had back in 2002 or 2003 could well have been recollections of a visitation and abduction. Another sign pointing towards contact is of course his early recollection of thin figures standing in his bedroom.
Contactees regularly report experiencing paranormal activity in their vicinity or seem to possess psychic abilities. Neil has had some fascinating sightings of ghostly apparitions, and seems to have had premonitions of future events too.
As Neil’s experiences have continued to the present day, there is a good chance he will have further experiences moving forward. If he decides to keep in touch details of these events will be added to this report.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2021