Birmingham UFO Group Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 07/01/2015
Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used for most witnesses
Introduction
Brian first got in touch with me in July 2014. In his initial E-Mail he shared with me details of several incredible sounding UFO related incidents. Over the following months I discussed these and other incidents with him in detail. It became clear that Brian has not only had numerous close encounters with UFOs and beings throughout his life, but may also be a contactee. In late 2014 and early 2015 I was able to speak with other family members via both phone and E-Mail who have provided their own testimonies of these events.
Invisible UFO Landing
Back when Brian was 18 he and his younger brother Peter were in the Royal Marines. Brian had provided me with a great amount of information about his military service, however it has been omitted on request for confidentiality reasons.
It was 4th January 1959 and Brian and Peter’s two week period of leave happened to overlap by a week (Peter’s leave commencing one week prior to Brian’s). Brian’s younger brother Steve travelled to Portsmouth by motorbike to take Peter back to his barracks. Brian took Peter’s railway warrant and travelled to Southsea Railway Station to meet with both of his brothers. It was his intention to say goodbye to Peter before returning home with Steve.
Brian arrived at the station but found that his brothers were not there. It was quite a while before Steve finally turned up alone on the bike. He informed Brian that the bike had incurred a front tyre puncture. Unfortunately because of the delay to the journey Peter had continued on his way to the barracks as it was already very late, so Brian never got to say goodbye to him.
By the time Steve and Brian set off for home it was past midnight. They left Portsmouth riding along the A3. It was a bitter cold night and Brian clung to the back of Steve to shield himself from the blast of freezing cold air. At the time he was only wearing a lightweight summer jacket because other than his uniform he possessed few civilian clothes. He sat in silence thinking about his own return to his barracks due to take place a week later. Steve would not have been able to hear him anyway because of the speed they were going.
The whole route was clear of other road traffic. Eventually they rode around the perimeter of “The Devil’s Punchbowl”. This is a rounded valley on the outskirts of Hindhead. The old A3 used to circle one side of it, but has since been replaced with a tunnel.
As they began to drive around the edge of the “Devil’s Punchbowl”, a valley on the outskirts of Hindhead, Steve brought the bike to a halt on the grass verge. Brian asked him “Problem?” his brother responded saying that “it was a good place to take a breather and spend a penny!” They stood there overlooking the deep bowl-shaped valley stretching away below them. It was a welcome respite from the cold of travelling on the motorbike.
Modern photograph of the Devil’s Punchbowl:
It was at this time that they noticed a strange sound emanating from down in the Punchbowl itself. It was almost musical to the ears. The sound rose and fell in a strange manner and was like nothing they had heard before. It sounded a bit like the sonar of a submarine, but at the same time very different. Both puzzled and curious as to where the sound was coming from they decided to make their way down into the Punchbowl to discover the source of the mysterious noise.
There was an initial steep slope of about 30 feet that they had to descend sitting down. Then with Steve leading the way they were able to continue down the barely discernible track. They headed quite far away from the road, all the time the sound becoming louder and louder. As they drew closer to it they both developed a growing sense of unease.
Modern aerial map of the Devil’s Punchbowl indicating the approximate location where the witnesses descended the slope. This stretch of the A3 now passes through a tunnel, but the old road is still visible:
Abruptly Steve stopped. He turned to Brian and said that he had a bad feeling and that they should turn back. Looking back up the slope they found that they were now uncomfortably far from the road. In hushed tones Brian agreed with his brother.
At that exact moment even before they had turned around the sound abruptly stopped and there came a sudden momentary silence. This was replaced with another sound almost like “displaced air”. This new sound rose vertically into the air very close to where they stood. They both instinctively dropped to the ground in an effort to see whatever it was silhouetted against the backdrop of stars. But there was nothing, even though they were able to follow the path of travel by the sound it was emitting. It seemed to travel away to their right before swooping back around and heading towards them.
Then without warning there was a deafening crash as whatever it was struck the ground. It was so loud that Brian was sure it must have been heard in the surrounding area, perhaps even 11 miles away in Guildford. This loud noise was followed by the sound of scrub being flattened as it slid along and then finally came to a stop possibly 20-30 feet in front of their location. They stood staring at the bushes from where the sound had come. The volume of the noise indicated that whatever it was, visible or not, was very large.
Almost immediately Brian’s attention was drawn to something approaching them from the direction the sound had emanated from. At first it was just movement of the vegetation in front of them. But then it emerged into clear sight. A towering figure between 8-12 feet in height. It appeared to be floating about two feet off the ground. The body seemed composed of a black material with lengthwise concertina-like folds in it similar to a skirt. The head was encased in an elongated glass-like helmet and around where the eyes should be there was a single round green coloured light, similar to a large LED. No other facial features were visible through the visor.
The figure glided towards them until it was only a few feet in front of them. As it approached Brian noticed a sickly odour coming from it. His mind struggled to comprehend what was happening. He was paralysed with fear and adrenalin. He stood there transfixed, unable to move. Then a second figure, identical to the first, approached from the same direction and stood to the left of the first one. Brian was overwhelmed with sheer terror. A particular thought came to him “Those in government would not believe what is happening to me right now, they are fast asleep in their beds and not here with me, seeing what I am seeing!” Brain also recalls smelling a sickly odour which he assumed was coming from the beings.
His next thought was that he wanted to look at another human being. In slow motion he managed to turn his head to the left. However he was well aware that Steve was not on his left but on his right. Brian has no idea why he turned his head to the left initially. Utilising all his concentration he slowly managed to turn his head back to the right. He was now shocked to discover that his brother was no longer there next to him.
The shock of this realisation seemed to spur him into action. He turned and ran, not daring to look behind him. He felt if he did look back he would not escape. The next moments were terrifying as he kept on feeling that he was going to be suddenly grabbed from behind. He had no sense of direction; he just wanted to get away as fast as possible. As he ran he heard high pitched screaming noises. These seemed to be away from him, but he cannot be certain that they were not coming from him. All he remembers was panicking and running.
He somehow managed to find his way back to the base of the steep slope where they had descended into the Punchbowl. There ahead of him scrambling up the slope was his brother. In later years Steve informed him that he had ran away and reached the higher ridge. He had looked back expecting to see his brother there with him, but instead was horrified to see him standing still with the two strange beings in front of him. By the time he had scaled the incline Brian had somehow managed to catch him up.
The brothers clambered up the steep incline, their feet continuously slipping as they climbed. Eventually they reached the summit. Steve jumped onto his motorbike and started the engine. Brian leapt on the back, and they rode away from the location at great haste. Even as they headed away Brian expected to be seized off the bike by the strange beings he had witnessed.
Eleven miles on as they reached the edge of Guildford, Steve finally pulled over and stopped the bike. Alongside the road was a long and tall ash fence. They stepped off the bike and leant against this fence, both extremely shocked at what had taken place. All Brian recalls thinking was “What in God’s name was it?” as he squatted down next to the fence. This is his last memory of what took place. Thinking back to the incident he cannot remember arriving home, or even the rest of his remaining leave, his return to the barracks and the intense training which followed.
Brian has never fully forgiven his brother for deserting him down in the punchbowl. For three years after the incident he had no contact with him at all. However one day in 1963 he learnt that Steve was in an isolation hospital at Feltham where he lived and that he was in a “serious condition”. He had caught Hepatitis C and had almost died. When Brian went to visit him he was shocked by the state of his brother, and this greatly reduced his anger towards him.
Years later Steve explained to Brian that he had thought he had been alongside him when he ran away. It was only on reaching higher ground that he turned to look back and realised he was not with him. His only thought at the time was to escape and to report what had happened. However this was not all Brian learnt from his brother. While talking about what had taken place Steve stated “It was those small creatures with red eyes that had almost formed a circle around you. I never thought I would see you again!” Brian assumes that the reason he did not see these other shorter beings at the time was because they were behind him and he was transfixed staring at the two tall beings in front of him. However when he turned and ran he still did not see them, so perhaps they chose to keep themselves hidden from him at that time.
Sadly I am unable to speak to Steve regarding this incident due to poor health. This means that for this experience at least we only have Brian’s testimony to go on. However he has been very forthcoming in answering my questions regarding the incident, and I have no reason to suspect him of fabricating it. Regarding the authenticity of the story, Brian says the following:
“Whether you believe my true narrative or otherwise, I leave with you. I can but sincerely express that it happened as I have recorded it. As a reluctant ufologist I have written of this 'alien encounter' quite some time ago. I wrote it out of sincere interest and possibly in the hope of eliciting a similar experience from others who maybe experienced an extra-terrestrial identical to the horrors my brother and I saw. They were definitely not Greys.”
Brian has returned to the location where the incident took place numerous times since. On one of these occasions in 1970 he went to the location with his brother Raymond. He took with him a tape recorder just in case he had another encounter with the invisible UFO he had heard 11 years before. They parked the car at a car park half a mile further along the A3. Intially Brian suggested that they go for a walk around the area on the other side of the road, where a lone memorial known as the “Sailors Stone” is situated.
Recent photograph of Brian’s son Andrew next to the Sailors Stone. The old A3 can be seen in the background. The slope at the far left is where Brian and Steve descended the slope:
While standing by the stone, they suddenly heard the same eerie sound that had been heard back in 1959! It seemed to pass over their heads at about 20 feet above them. Brian dropped to his knees in shock. He had his shotgun with him inside a case in several separate components, and with trembling hands he began to connect it to use in self defence. Upon hearing the sound Raymond exclaimed “Brian I have never doubted your story, but hearing that sound for myself, well it is certainly not of this world!”
Unfortunately as the tape recorder had been left back in the car Brian suggested that they return, have a coffee to steady their nerves and then head back to the Punch Bowl with the tape recorder to attempt to capture the sound. Raymond agreed, so they made their way back to the car.
They arrived at the car park. Brian put the shotgun in the boot of the car and then and they then sat in the car to drink their coffee. A minute later bright lights lit up the car from behind. Then a police officer knocked on the window. Brian wound down the window. The police officer asked “What are you doing here?” Brian was a little irritated by the policeman’s suspicion and told him it was a free country and to go away. The policeman asked them to pop the boot of the car.
Unfortunately he then discovered the shotgun. Despite Brian’s insistence that it was for rabbit hunting, this did not go down too well. The officer called a second police car and they were both handcuffed and taken to Godalming Police Station! Brian did not tell the police what they had really been doing at the location as he was sure they would not believe him anyway. They were released the following morning without charge.
Aerial map showing the Devil’s Punchbowl (A) and Godalming (B):
Could the fact that Brian and Raymond heard the noise again mean that the same invisible object as before was back there? If so does this mean that it is present in the area on a permanent/semi-permanent basis? Or had it returned there on purpose at that time as it was aware Brian was in the area? An alternative possibility is that the noise was unrelated to the rest of the 1959 incident and was caused by air currents passing through the Punchbowl in a certain manner.
Unfortunately Brian does not have Raymond’s direct number as he is quite a private individual. However when he is next contacted by him he says he will pass on my details. If I manage to speak with Raymond about the 1970 incident further details will be added to this section of the report as necessary.
Brian’s son Andrew has confirmed to me that his father has informed him this and other incidents, and discussed them with him from about 5 years old. He says he has accepted these events really took place both while growing up and as an adult. He has a keen interest in UFOs and the paranormal, which he says is more than likely because of what his father has told him over the years.
Below is a general written statement from Andrew regarding this incident:
“My father has told me many times over the years about what happened to him (and my uncle) at the Punchbowl. About the weird ‘musical’ sound they both heard after getting off of the motorbike for a few minutes rest. My father has said to me that they both made their way down the steep slope to get closer to the sound. That whatever was making the sound (which was louder by then) was invisible to them. The two beings that emerged from the bushes, towering above them. My father explained to me that ‘they’ wore some kind of helmets. A sickly odour could be smelled.”
Footsteps
A couple of months after the experience with the invisible UFO and beings at the Punchbowl, Brian was in Kent on battle training. He was stationed at a Royal Marines training site named Freedown. Brian cannot remember the exact location of this site. He says that the IRA were known to raid the site for rifles, so it was not shown on any maps.
One night he and another marine were patrolling in trenches dug into the ground called “bevvies”. Unfortunately for him, he had been paired up with someone who he had punched during a previous argument, so neither he nor the other marine were particularly happy with the situation.
The patrol area was a short distance from the training site. It was a lengthy track with the latrines at one end, and petrol and water waggons at the other. The other marine set off to patrol the path to the waggons, leaving Brian with the path to the latrines. Their guard duty ran from midnight to 2am.
It was a dry and clear night. At around 1am Brian was walking slowly along the track. Alongside him were dense 7 foot high bushes. Suddenly he heard what sounded like very heavy footfalls on the other side of the bushes. They were quite slow, almost like an elephant walking on two legs. Whatever it was, it sounded very large in size. Brian hesitated, concerned by the noises. But he told himself “You’re a Royal Marine, you have to do your duty!”
He began to quietly follow the sound of the foot falls, knowing that 100 yards on there was a large gap in the bushes where he would be in plain sight of whatever it was. As he got closer to the gap he became more and more nervous with anticipation. He reached it and leapt round to the other side of the bushes hoping to catch whatever it was by surprise. He shouted out “Halt, who goes there?” But he was met with the sight of an open moonlit field. There was nothing there. The sounds had stopped at that exact moment!
He felt the hairs on his neck standing up as he crept along the other side of the bushes. But after about 100 yards he realised he was not going to find anything. He hastily retreated back to the track and made his way to the latrines where he stood for the remaining hour of his patrol duty.
Brian is convinced that the sounds he heard that night were not echoes coming from elsewhere. They were quite pronounced and certainly appeared to be coming from the other side of the hedge.
Red Eyes
A number of years later while Brian was still in his 20’s he was out driving on Dartmoor in Devonshire one summer evening in his Ford Consul with his brother Larry, and Larry’s teenage son Timothy and daughter Ruth. Like Brian, Larry had also had many paranormal experiences over the years. They were out on the moors specifically to look for UFOs or ghostly activity.
It was between 9-10pm, quite dark but a clear evening. They were travelling along a narrow service road utilised by the Royal Marines which led across the northern moor South from Okehampton. The suddenly noticed a strange arc of brilliant white light coming from behind East Mill Tor to the South West of their location. At first Brian thought it was a military exercise of some kind. However it looked too bright to be caused by flood lights, and both he and Larry were extremely puzzled by it. They decided that they would go and take a closer look, and continued to drive South along the service road.
Aerial map of Dartmoor showing the estimated location of the witnesses when they first spotted the white light (A) and East Mill Tor (B):
The road which led to that area of the moor was very narrow and had upward slopes on either side, making it extremely difficult to turn around. However Brian was aware of a small roundabout several miles on which they could utilise. As they got closer to the tor they realised there were no other side roads which would lead directly to it. Brian began to feel very apprehensive, he felt like they were in danger. Larry soon suggested turning around, it was clear that he too was feeling concerned.
Photograph of East Mill Tor:
It was now that Brian spotted something extremely unusual. Spilling out around both sides of the tor appeared to be what looked like hundreds of pairs of red eyes. They were down low to the ground, about 2 to 2.5 feet, which Brian perceived to be a sizeable group of short creatures. They appeared to be moving rapidly in their direction, far too fast for the eyes to belong to livestock. They disappeared and reappeared as they were partially covered by ground vegetation and the slopes of the land. Brian was amazed at how fast they were able to cover the boulder-strewn terrain in near total darkness. He instinctively felt that these eyes belonged to the same beings that Steve had described seeing encircle him back in 1959. He felt sick with fright and confusion. It appeared that Larry, Timothy and Ruth had not noticed the approaching eyes as they did not react to them at all. To avoid causing panic Brian did not mention what was taking place ahead of them.
Again Larry expressed his concerns about continuing down the road. It was much too dark to reverse all the way back along the road. They were trapped, and had no choice but to continue in the direction they were heading until they reached the roundabout. However this would mean driving past the tor -and whatever those red eyes belonged to!
With rising panic and frustration Brian angrily shouted out “Where can I bloody hell turn off the road without dropping the car on its chassis?” Larry calmly responded saying “Stop the car, I’ll get out and take a look!” Brian stopped the car and Larry got out and began walking slowly along the verge looking for somewhere to turn around. Brian slowly kept pace behind the wheel. Larry soon called out “Here Bri, you can back off here!” Brian looked at where Larry was pointing. The verge at the edge of the road dropped away. Brian expressed his doubts and said “You sure Larry?” Larry assured Brian that it was ok.
By this time the swarm of eyes had seemingly split into two groups. One group passed across the road while the other remained on the right side. Both groups then turned and began moving in their direction almost as if to surround them.
Larry got back into the car. Trusting Larry’s observation, Brian reverse turned off the side of the road at the spot which he had indicated. There was a sudden loud thud as the back wheels dropped down off the edge of the road. The slope had been more significant than Larry had thought. When Brian tried the accelerator the back wheels just span in mid-air. The car was going nowhere. Larry got back out of the car and tried to lift the car back onto the road, but did not have much success.
Brian was terrified as he sat there in the front of the car watching the pairs of eyes draw ever nearer. He thought for a moment about abandoning the car and running all the way back to Okehampton. However he was sure that the creatures would out-run him if he tried. Also it would be wrong of him to leave his brother, nephew and niece behind.
Aerial map indicating East Mill Tor (A) and Okehampton (B):
The eyes were very close indeed. Even now it was impossible to make out any shapes against the darkness. It was now that Ruth finally spotted them. She screamed out loudly “What are those? What are those?” Brian is not certain, but he believes that it was this scream which alerted Larry to what was taking place. Suddenly Brian felt the rear of the car being lifted upward. It was clear that Larry had spotted the approaching creatures and had used all his adrenalin-fuelled strength to lift the car back onto the road. He slung it round so the wheels once more touched solid ground.
A moment later Larry leapt into the passenger seat. Brian stepped on the accelerator and they drove away from the location as fast as possible, barely looking back behind them. They could barely believe their lucky escape from whatever those red eyes belonged to.
Upon reaching the top of a hill about a mile further along the road Brian stopped the car with the engine still running. Both he and Larry got out of the car and stared back down the road into the darkness. They were both astounded by what had happened. At first there was nothing visible. But after a minute or so the vast swarms of eyes came once more into view. They appeared to be pursuing them!
The men hurried back into the car and continued their journey. Every time they reached the top of a hill they would stop and look back to see if the eyes were still visible. Each time they would wait a short while and then would once more see them emerging from the darkness.
Eventually they reached the top of a hill where the lights of Okehampton were visible in the distance. This time when they looked back into the distance the eyes did not appear. It was clear that the creatures had finally ceased their pursuit of the car. They got back in and drove the remainder of their journey. Everyone was understandably shocked by what had taken place.
The witnesses did not report what had taken place to anyone in Okehampton. The road they had been on was a little used service road so they were not particularly concerned that other drivers would travel out onto the moor that night. And Brian felt it was unlikely anyone would actually believe them anyway even if they did try to warn them.
They did not return to the location the following morning or indeed at any point later on, so we have no way of knowing if the eyes belonged to short creatures as Brian believes they did, and if so whether they had left any footprints or other signs of being there. Brian says that due to the time of year the ground was not particularly muddy so he feels they would have left noticeable tracks anyway.
Brian does not feel that the beings were there for him that night. He believes that they were out on the moor for a specific reason and it was just sheer chance that they were witnessed by himself and his relatives. It seems clear that the beings wanted to interact with them in some way, but we will never truly know whether or not they had hostile intentions.
There were seemingly no other witnesses to this bizarre and somewhat unsettling incident, at least none which have come forward yet. Dartmoor is an extremely remote area and the road which the witnesses were on at the time is rarely used by the general public, especially after dark. While the moor is used by the military for exercises this only takes place occasionally rather than regularly. As there were no other reports, we can assume that these creatures, whatever they were, did not remain in the area for an extensive period of time.
Brian was able to put me in touch with Ruth, and I discussed the incident with her in depth on 31st December 2014 over the phone. While a lot of the details of the experience do match, there are some specific aspects which Ruth remembers differently.
Ruth remembers the incident taking place at Cranmore Pool on Dartmoor. This is much further South on the moor to where East Mill Tor is, where Brian says the incident occurred. However Brian says that she must be confused as they were planning to travel to Cranmore Pool but never reached it because of what happened. Ruth recalls that initially when they saw the light in the distance they had got out of the car, but then retreated to it when they became un-nerved. However Brian says that they would not have got out of the car at that time as the terrain would have been dangerous to walk on after dark.
One of the main differences between Ruth’s testimony and Brian’s is that she recalls there being swirling white and blue-ish lights up in the sky, and other lights down near the ground which included red but also other colours. She does not recall seeing the lights near the ground as pairs of red eyes, but does admit that there was definitely something unusual going on down near the ground as well as up in the sky. She says that as the lights on the ground got nearer the swirling lights in the sky were also getting closer. Brian cannot recall seeing these lights up in the sky at all, although this may be because he was focused on the eyes getting nearer and nearer. He is adamant that they were pairs of glowing red eyes rather than indiscriminate glowing points of coloured light. Ruth’s recollection also suggests that she saw the lights while they were still quite a way off, instead of just when they had almost reached the car. Brian wonders whether she has blocked out some of the experience because of how frightening it was.
It is very common for multiple witnesses to remember events slightly differently to one another. The incident happened many years ago, and we should also consider the fact that Ruth was only 12 at the time. However it is clear that something highly unusual took place on Dartmoor that evening.
Unfortunately Larry has since passed away. Brian got in touch with Timothy via E-Mail to ask whether he would speak with me regarding the incident, below is the response he received:
“Hi Bri, thanks for your message. Got to be honest though, not sure I'd be comfortable recounting something to anyone outside the family. Especially as my memory of it is very brief and not clear. Still sure I'm recalling two separate times mixed up. Was an awful long time ago. Ruth seems to have a better recollection of it than me Bri. Hope you're not too disappointed!”
Below is a written statement from Andrew, who, although was not a direct witness, has often heard his father speak of this incident:
“The red eyes that my uncle saw that were swarming round my father in a horseshoe type formation. Over the years, my father has told me this and the details remain the same. I believe this encounter to be true.”
Apparition & Abduction
In the summer of 1966 Brian and his brothers Steve and Peter, Peter’s wife, his girlfriend Paula and her friend Kerry all headed to Brighton on a diving holiday. They stayed at the Sheepcote Valley Camp Site near to Black Rock. They chose this location due to the visibility of the water caused by the chalk cliffs which extend into the sea.
Aerial map showing the current location of Sheepcote Valley Campsite just East of Brighton (it has moved numerous times since the 1960s):
1960s photograph of Sheepcote Valley Campsite:
Unfortunately on the first day at the camp site an argument developed which resulted in Peter and his wife leaving. Despite this set back Brian was determined not to leave so remained at the campsite with Steve, Paula and Kerry.
That night around midnight Brian decided to go for a walk to clear his head. He was quickly joined by the others. They walked along the cliff tops for a distance, then descended some steep steps down to the beach. Brian, Paula and Kerry sat down on a bench, while Steve wandered off to explore the sea wall. After a while he returned to them and asked Brian to come and have a look at something by the sea wall. Brian was talking with Paula at the time but Steve insisted several times.
Photograph of the stretch of cliffs which the witnesses walked along:
In the end Brian walked over to Steve to see what he wanted. He said to Brian “Look along the sea wall.” Brian couldn't see anything so just responded “Huh?” Steve said “Look up a bit higher.” Brian looked up, and then saw what Steve was talking about. He almost choked with fright. There at the end of the sea wall suspended in the air was what appeared to be a huge apparition. It appeared to be about 30 feet in height and looked like a man draped in a black robe. The eyes of the figure glared right at him and an immediate chill of terror swept through his body.
They were now joined by the two girls who also spotted the apparition. They screamed in fright and then all the witnesses fled the beach. As they ran Brian looked back and realised that the apparition appeared to be maintaining the same distance from them, as if attached to them. They kept running until they nearly bumped into two other couples walking along the cliff tops. The other people stared at them, no doubt wondering what they were fleeing from. They looked round and found that the apparition had now vanished without trace.
They sat a while on a nearby lit seat, too afraid to wander off into the darkness. In the end they had no choice but to walk back to the camp site. Exhausted and frightened, they got into the one remaining 4 berth tent hoping that the apparition would not make reappearance. They had no blankets as Peter had taken them with him, so they slept fully clothed.
Brian awoke at around 5am to what he thought was a violent earthquake. He could feel the ground beneath him violently shaking. He had his arms outstretched with his hands down to steady himself. After a short while he realised it was him who was shaking not the ground under him. He looked round at Steve, Paula and Kerry and saw that they were still fast asleep. Confused he sat up and unzipped the tent entrance. Looking out at the Sussex Downs something stirred within him. Suddenly he felt like he had just arrived at the tent and that he had come by way of those hills.
He got up, grabbed his wash bag, slipped quietly outside and made his way to the camp site shower block. At around 6am he returned to the tent. Everyone was still asleep. He lay back down between them and closed his eyes. As he began to drop off, he was suddenly hit by a vivid memory of something awful. He was immediately shocked back into full waking consciousness. He tried his best to return to a state in which he could remember whatever had bothered him so much, but he could not.
It was five years before he was finally able to recollect what had taken place. It came to him as an extremely vivid dream. In this dream, he found himself back at the camp site. He was outside the tent but was in a lying down position and hovering about 3 feet off the ground as if he was on an invisible stretcher. Behind him he could sense the presence of two short beings, although he did not see them directly. He could not move his head round to look at them. He was being propelled feet first by these beings, which were standing at each of his shoulders. They appeared to be in an extreme hurry and were moving him along very fast. They crashed through shrubbery as they swiftly moved across the Sussex Downs.
Finally they arrived at a clearing. There hovering a few feet off the ground was a massive UFO. He then found himself on board this craft. He was no longer lying down or floating but was standing in a corridor. He had just vacated from a room in which he was certain something traumatic had just taken place. He was in a severe state of shock, but had a vague recollection of fearful looking beings. He wandered in a daze along the corridor and entered a circular room which reminded him of a cockpit. He saw in this room a long panel about three feet high covered in buttons and lights. Above this was a convex window split into two sections, almost like looking out of the cockpit window of an airliner. He wandered over to the right side of the window and peered out. Through it he could see only darkness.
At looking through the window, he heard a voice inside his head tell him that “Home is that direction!” At this he was overcome with a feeling of utter despair and loneliness. In the middle of this despair he opened his eyes and found himself back in his bed. He was extremely relieved to be awake. He clearly remembered everything he had just dreamt and knew inside that it had been more than a dream. He felt that his subconscious had finally revealed to him at least part of what he had gone through that night at the camp site.
Many years later Brian and Steve both took up hypnotherapy. This was partially based on Brian’s interest in trying to find out more about what happened to him. He intended for his brother to hypnotise him and record the sessions on tape. However in the end he was too frightened by what may be uncovered. He has toyed with the idea for many years, but so far has not taken the plunge. However Brian says that he is considering visiting his brother in Hastings for the regression sessions in 2015. If he proceeds with this and sends me the details of these sessions then they will be added to this report.
While some may argue that the shaking that Brian experienced in the tent was related to sleep paralysis or hypnogogia, and the recollection he had five years later was nothing more than a dream, Brian believes otherwise. He is convinced that the dream was a recollection of what took place during the early hours of the morning and that when he woke up shaking in the tent he had literally just been returned.
We will never know if the huge apparition which Brian, Steve, Paula and Kerry saw that night was related in some way to what later happened to Brian. If they were not related then this does seem a remarkable coincidence. Could the apparition have been an extra-terrestrial presence which was making itself known prior to an abduction experience? Numerous other contact cases I have investigated have involved encounters with tall shadow-like beings, although they are generally much shorter than the height reported by here.
Unfortunately Brian left Paula many years ago and has not stayed in touch with either her or Kerry. As previously mentioned Steve is in poor health, so sadly I am not able to speak to any of the other witnesses.
Red Orb
In the summer of 1967 Brian and Paula drove to Brighton for a day out. Around 10pm they were at the seafront at Black Rock close to where the cliffs began. The area has now been converted into a marina. It was a warm and dry evening.
Aerial map of Black Rock:
They were just planning to set off for home when they noticed a red pulsating orb of light in the sky to the East of their location at several hundred feet in the air. They were initially looking at it at an angle of about 70 degrees. The orb was moving in a circular arc. Suddenly it shifted and moved to a different part of the sky extremely fast before instantly coming to a halt and beginning another circling motion. They were amazed as it had moved much too rapidly and controlled to have been a helicopter or lit drifting object.
They continued to watch the object, and noted that other people nearby were also looking at it. The object continued to make circular patterns and darting manoeuvres. Brian says it looked like it was searching for something or mapping the area.
After watching the UFO for about 15 minutes. Brian cannot remember whether the object then vanished or whether they just decided to stop watching it, but they went and got into their car without speaking to the other witnesses and headed for home.
They were travelling along the A23 North out of Brighton. It was quite quiet at the time, and certainly there were no other vehicles following along behind them on the road. Several miles into the countryside they suddenly noticed the orb for a second time. It was up in the sky to the West of them off to the left of the car. It appeared to be following them. It maintained the same distance and positioning to the car as they drove along the road!
Aerial map showing the approximate stretch of the A23 where Brian and Paula first noticed the UFO following their car:
Photograph of the stretch of the A23:
To Brian’s recollection the UFO followed them for about 25 miles along the A23. He did not try slowing down or stopping the car during this time as they were quite unnerved by the presence of the object.
Eventually they came to a sharp bend in the road. When they made the turn Brian expected the red orb to also turn with them and continue to give chase, but thankfully it did not. Both Brian and Paula were quite relieved that it was no longer following them. The rest of the journey went by without incident. Neither I nor Brian have managed to locate the sharp bend in the road where they finally lost sight of the object. However the road has changed somewhat since the 1960’s and sections have been re-built.
This is a fascinating sighting for a number of reasons. The movements the object was performing while over Brighton sound very impressive and certainly suggest something highly unusual. The darting manoeuvres observed were much too rapid to have been a normal aircraft, remote controlled model or lit balloon. Nor could it have been a laser light off a nearby nightclub as these did not exist back in the 1960s. The movements suggested the object was under controlled flight, as did the fact that it appeared to follow Brian’s car for quite a distance. Brian feels sure that the red light seen from the car was the same object and not a reflection in the window. There was nothing with red lights on inside the car itself, and it could not have been a reflection of another vehicles brake light as the road was clear of traffic at the time.
I have dealt with a number of cases where UFOs have been seen to follow vehicles. Sometimes this has led to close encounters or even abduction experiences. On other occasions such as this one the UFO will simply stop following after a period of time.
UFOs Out To Sea
In July 1969 for his 30th birthday Brian received a fishing rod. He was living in Kingston at the time, but soon afterwards decided to travel 50 miles South to go sea fishing at Brighton. He headed down to the pebble beach at Black Rock to fish through the night (as this was the best time to catch fish). Paula was with him at the time and slept in the car. The stretch of beach he was on was close to where he and Paula had seen the red orb in 1967.
The rod was actually designed for boat fishing so was not ideal. By dawn break at 5am Brian had had just a single bite which he had lost. He was feeling cold, hungry and annoyed.
It was a rather grey morning and a heavy sea mist had formed above the water just off the coast. The mist covered two distinct areas, one to the West and one to the East, with a gap of about 50-100 feet providing a clear view between them. Suddenly a huge domed-disc shaped object emerged from the right edge of the mist to the West. It was a gun metal colour and had a row of windows around the main disc-shaped section. It looked absolutely massive in size, Brian estimates about the size of an aircraft carrier. It appeared to be floating at least 10 feet off the surface of the water, with no visible disturbance below it.
The UFO hovered silently across the gap between the banks of mist. It began to disappear into the bank of mist to the East. But before it was fully hidden from sight, a second identical object began to emerge from the West bank of mist. There was clearly not one object but two! Brian could barely believe what he was witnessing. The second object followed the first in the same speed and direction as the first. Within a number of seconds both objects had vanished from sight into the Eastern mist.
After watching for a number of minutes more to ensure the objects did not reappear, Brian made his way back to the car. He woke up Paula and blurted out what he had just seen. She listened attentively. Once he was back home Brian also informed his family of the experience. In later years he returned to the area on a number of occasions for sea fishing, but the UFOs he had seen never made a re-occurrence.
One explanation for this experience which should be considered is that the UFOs seen were actually two large boats sailing in the fog which Brian mistook for craft. He had after all been awake all night and was quite tired. Perhaps this state and the misty morning conditions could have caused him to interpret something mundane as something more unusual. However the gap between the banks of mist was wide enough for him to see the majority of the objects. Also Brian's description of the objects is quite detailed, so he seems to have got a good look at them. He is convinced that they were saucer-shaped and were hovering above the water’s surface rather than floating.
Light Beams
In winter 1973 while on a hunting trip in Australia, Brian and his nephew Lee (who was 15 at the time) experienced what they believe was a UFO. They were camped in YouYangs Regional Park about 40 miles out of Melbourne. Despite the time of year it was warm and dry.
Aerial map of You Yangs Regional Park:
At about 6pm they set out rabbit hunting, rifles in hand. So as not to lose their way back to the camping spot they followed a nearby dried up river bed. After following the river bed for about three hours darkness had fallen and they contemplated returning to camp.
Suddenly Lee quietly asked “Hey Bri, did you see those lights?” Brian responded saying he had seen nothing. Then without warning two brilliant beams of white light appeared from an un-seen object ahead of them in the sky. The beams appeared to be coming from about 100 feet high in the air, about 50-75 metres ahead of them. Many wild birds in the area began to call out, agitated by the presence of the lights.
The twin beams began to turn in a circular motion around one another, as if scanning the ground for something. Then after a few seconds they moved together into a single beam. Instinctively Brian felt that it was about to focus on them. This is precisely what took place! The beam sped across the intervening ground towards them.
Panicking, Brian and Lee both ran for the cover of the bushes on their right. They continued running, trying to make a U-turn as they did so they would not lose the way back to the path which had led them to the location.
Suddenly the ground gave way beneath Brian and he plunged down the edge of a large crater. The fall knocked the wind out him, and he had a pain in his chest. He lay in agony as he listened to Lee’s concerned voice calling out for him. Soon Lee had found him and helped him to his feet. They continued moving in an arc until they found their way back to the path alongside the dry river bed.
Luckily whatever had made the beams of light had not followed them. Brian was convinced that it had been something highly unusual. The fact that it was both silent and possessed twin beams of light which span around one another means it could not have been a helicopter. Brian felt sure that if they had been caught in those beams they would have not got away.
Glad to have escaped from whatever it was, Brian and Lee made their way back to the tent. Needless to say they did not sleep too well that night for fear of the object reappearing. In the morning Brian discovered that due to his fall his rifle had sand inside it and was broken beyond repair.
Brian is going to try to get in touch with Lee and ask him if I can speak with him about this incident to hear about what he remembers. He has not spoken with him in many years but occasionally speaks with his wife so may be able to contact him in due course.
The Footsteps Return
The beams of light were not the only unusual experience which Brian and Lee would have while on their hunting trip in Australia.
It was a warm and still evening and the stars were visible in the sky. They settled down to sleep in their tent about 10.30pm. During the night Brian recalls suddenly waking up on full alert. Something didn't feel right. He checked his watch and found that it was 1.30am. He then turned to look at Lee and realised that he too was wide awake staring at him. Then some distance away from the tent they heard the unmistakeable sound of footsteps moving in their direction. They were heavy and ponderous, exactly like the ones he had heard all those years before in Kent. They sounded like an elephant walking on two legs.
The footsteps grew louder and louder as they approached the front of the tent. Brian grabbed his .22 rifle in one hand and his sheath-knife in the other. Both he and Lee lay there barely daring to breathe. Three times the footsteps walked around the outside of the tent. And then they began to move away in the direction they had come from. They listened until they could no longer be heard, and eventually dropped back off to sleep. Steve arrived the following morning to take them back to Williamstown where Lee and his family lived and where Brian was staying.
Brian is convinced that the footsteps were not those of a large animal such as a mountain lion, or an intruder sneaking around outside of the tent. He says they were far too heavy and ponderous. The only thing he could liken them to was the footsteps he had heard in Kent back in 1959. He wonders if the footsteps were those of a “Yowie”, a Bigfoot-like creature rumoured to live in the Australian wilderness.
Unidentified Men
On another occasion in 1992/93 Brian and Andrew were re-visiting the Punchbowl for a night sky watch. They were close to the car park on the far side of the Punchbowl. There were some steep steps down from the car park which led to an area with an uninterrupted view.
When they walked down these steps they noticed another man there of slender build wearing a dark coloured suit. He was openly staring at them both. After this had gone on a short while, Brian got annoyed and approached the man to ask what he was looking at. As he got near he realised that the man’s face looked horribly disfigured like he had been in some kind of accident. His anger turned to pity and he walked past the man without confronting him. He stopped and stared at the view. Soon Andrew walked over to join him.
Next a woman walked on by pushing a pram. She passed extremely close to the man in the suit and paid him absolutely no attention. Nor did she look at either Brian or Andrew It felt like she hadn't even seen any of them.
A short while later a second man turned up. He looked like a construction worker and appeared quite strong. He walked right up to the man in the suit, who was about 15-20 feet away from them. Then both men suddenly began “conversing”. But they weren't talking normally, they began screaming at each other almost like two animals. Both Brian and Andrew were stunned by what was taking place. The men continued to scream at one another and gesticulate with their hands. Then abruptly they stopped. The man in the suit walked towards the steps, while the other man headed towards some tall bushes.
Brian was intrigued by these two men, so he asked Andrew to follow the man in the suit up the steps, while he followed after the other man who had disappeared into the bushes. The bushes were extremely thick, seemingly too overgrown to even walk through. It was like the man had completely vanished! He ran around the edge of the bushes to see if the man was walking up onto the A3 but there was no sign of him. It was a complete mystery.
He returned to Andrew to tell him about what had happened. Andrew informed him that exactly the same thing had happened to him. He had only been a short distance behind the man on the steps but when he reached the top he was nowhere in sight, despite the wide open car park. It was absolutely bizarre.
Later on after dark Brian and Andrew were sitting in their car when they suddenly began to feel extremely uneasy. They decided to get out of there before the strange men made an unwelcome reappearance!
Below is Andrew’s written statement regarding this incident:
“Though I can’t remember the exact date, the year would have been 1993/4. My father and I drove to the Devils Punchbowl (Hindhead). It was a nice day. We parked at the large car park, with the intention of going to the smaller car park that was accessible from the A3 via a small track/dirt road, later in the evening.
We got out the car and walked over to the edge of the Bowl. It was quite busy round the car park area, with people, families, children. To get to the edge, you had to walk down some steps that were nothing more than small planks of wood, driven into the earth. I have included a photo that shows where my father and I were standing when we were approached by the two men:
Though I only saw one of them up close (the other remained a little way away) I noticed just how out of place they were. One was smartly dressed in dark black trousers and shirt and looked like he worked in an office and was of a slim build; while the other one (the one that came very close to us) was stocky in build, unshaven and had dirty looking work mans clothes, like he had just come from a building site. At one point, my father walked up to the smartly dressed office worker to see ‘what his problem was’. This must have been before the other scruffy one turned up. My father explained to me that the office worker looked like he had been in some kind of accident, as his face was disfigured; that the skin had been stretched on one side of his face.
When the scruffy one approached us (my father was standing with me, to my left) both my father and I felt uneasy. This may seem weird, but a young woman pushing a push chair, walked by, but somehow it was like she couldn’t see what was going on? It was almost like my father and I and these two men were somehow out of phase with the rest of the world. Does that make sense?
The scruffy man walked right up behind us and my father spun round to confront him. The man seemed surprised and walked away, over to the office worker. The two of them started talking and it was this that really was the icing on the cake. They didn’t sound like they were talking a human language. Swedish, German, French are human languages, this however was more like animalistic. It sounded like a couple of Hyenas! Weird noises. Then they walked away from each other. The smart office worker slowly walked up the steps towards the car park and I followed him. I was only 10 seconds or so behind him, yet when I got to the top of the steps, there was no sign of him. Like he had just vanished into thin air. I met up with my father and he told me the same thing. The scruffy man walked towards some bushes and seemed to ‘melt’ (for want of a better word) into the bush.
Later that evening, we went to the other car park (something we often did for some star gazing/UFO watching). Though nothing happened, we both felt very uneasy.”
As you can see Andrew’s recollection of events is near identical to Brian’s. It is certainly an odd experience. There is of course the possibility that they were nothing but other visitors to the Punchbowl. None of them looked inhuman in any way. Perhaps the two men knew each other and had fallen out, or the second man was specifically searching for the first. Maybe the animal-like noises were just the men shouting angrily at each other in an unusual foreign language. The woman pushing the pram could possibly have just wanted to keep to herself so didn't glance at anyone else present. And perhaps the men had moved off quickly after temporarily disappearing from view, giving the appearance that they had both vanished.
However it is interesting that so many odd things all took place at once. It certainly sounds like the men were not shouting in a normal manner, and that there was nowhere they could have been hidden from sight in such a short space of time. If the men really did vanish then what were they? Could they have been two ghostly apparitions? This may explain why the lady with the pram did not seem to react to the man in the suit. Or perhaps they were even ETs in human form. These explanations cannot be fully put out of the question, especially considering what had happened at the location on previous occasions.
Conclusions
The incidents mentioned in this report are very impressive indeed and clearly seem to involve advanced craft and highly unusual beings. Some of the things which Brian has reported here are so dramatic that they may be hard to accept. However Brian has been extremely forthcoming in providing me whatever information I have asked for. Where he is unsure of certain facts, such as the exact locations where certain incidents took place, he has always provided me with an adequate explanation for why this is the case. He has written about his experiences in extremely good detail and certainly appears to be recollecting real incidents.
The majority of the incidents have multiple witnesses, and although I am not able to speak directly with everyone, the testimonies of those I have spoken with back up everything Brian has mentioned.
If Brian’s abduction experience took place as he recalled, then this means he is not only an observer but is also a contactee. Many contactees experience a great number of paranormal events throughout their life, so it is possible that this contact is what has led to some of the other incidents taking place.
I find the incident with the invisible UFO and beings at the Punchbowl especially interesting. The beings which Brian experienced at close proximity are as far as I am aware completely unique. I have not come across any other contact cases involving entities of this description, although that is not to say that there aren't any.
I would like to thank both Brian and his family for coming forward with details of these astounding incidents, and allowing me to share them with the public via this report. If you have any further information regarding any of these incidents please get in touch.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2015