Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 10/10/2020
Last Updated: 11/10/2020
In August 2020 I got in touch with Joe via our Facebook community page after coming across a conversation by him about his contact experiences. A number of years ago he got in touch with another UFO group and provided them with a testimonial statement, but this is the first time that his experiences have been written up in depth.
The incidents all occurred between 1983 and 1984 when he was 9-10 years old. For many years he had forgotten all about them. They would have probably remained unknown if it wasn’t for the conversation which he had in 2007 with his stepson’s girlfriend Racheal. Joe and his partner at the time had invited them over for some drinks. During the evening the conversation turned to paranormal activity. Racheal described a number of ghost encounters she had witnessed. She then asked Joe whether anything strange had ever happened to him. At first he simply said that he had never seen anything. But Racheal pressed him, getting him to really give it some thought.
Joe thought hard back to his childhood, and suddenly an incident which had occurred near to his home came to his mind. Then within a moment everything came flooding back! He recalled experience after experience, all of which took place around the same period of time in his life. In this report these incidents will be covered in depth.
The Old Lady
Back in 1983 Joe lived in a house on Mulberry Road in Wistaston, Crewe. Although later in his life he moved away from the address, his parents retained ownership of the property.
Joe was 9 years old at the time. It was the summer holidays and he would regularly head out on his bicycle and ride around the local area. He believes the incident took place on a Sunday in August, but does not know the exact date. He decided to ride to some local woods referred to by nearby residents as Bluebell Wood. The woods were just South of Mulberry Road and easy accessible via a gulley.
It was a clear, dry and sunny morning. As he entered the woods via a path he reached the Scout hut. A dirt covered path lead around the left hand side of the building to continue deeper into the woods. As he turned the corner, he stared along the path through the trees. About 30 yards further along the path there was an adjoining side path.
Suddenly he saw a strange figure emerge into view from the side path. It looked like a short 4 foot high elderly lady. She was wearing a dark brown coloured blanket over her head which hung right down to the calves of her legs. Joe cannot recall what other clothing she was wearing, his view was fixated on the blanket. He could not clearly make out her face due to the angle he was viewing her and the distance. Her legs looked oddly thin. He could not see them directly because of the blanket, but the shape of them was visible behind it, and they looked almost non-existent, so must have been really slender.
Another strange aspect was how the lady moved. As she walked her torso moved in a circular motion, like she was shuffling rather than walking as normal. There was something distinctly not right about her.
The lady reached the centre of the main path and then stopped moving. She did not turn and look at Joe but he felt that she was aware of his presence. He stared at her for about 10 seconds. After this point Joe became frightened of the situation. He jumped off his bike, span it around, jumped back on and began to ride back along the path.
About 6 seconds later he suddenly heard the sound of a deafening scream. It sounded twice as high pitched as a normal human scream. The noise came from behind him, and he was convinced that it had come from the old lady. This frightened him even more and he quickly made his way out of the woods and rode back home.
When he arrived he informed his mother of what he’d seen. However she just believed that the old lady he had seen was human and nothing to be afraid of. While it is possible that this was the case there were a number of odd aspects including her short height, thin legs and unusual walking motion. Although Joe does not wish to jump to conclusions regarding this incident, there is the possibility that the lady was a Grey using a screen memory to mask its true identity.
Landed UFO
Between 3-5 weeks after seeing the old lady, Joe went out to play with his friend Steve, who lived across the road from him. It was early afternoon, around 1pm, when they met outside their houses and headed out. It was another still and warm summer’s day. They walked to an area of open grass-covered fields just beyond Bluebell Wood which they would sometimes play at.
They arrived at the field around 1.10pm. As they walked across the field they approached the Northern edge of a copse of trees. Joe entered the woodland first, at this point Steve was about 20 feet behind him messing around with some sticks he’d found. Joe stared through the trees ahead of him towards a clearing in the copse. He was amazed to see that there was an object present there, about 40 feet away from his location.
Hovering motionless about 4 feet off the ground there was a black coloured flattened diamond shaped object. It appeared to be about 4.5 feet across and about 1 foot tall at its central point. The surface of the object was dull rather than shiny, and there were no markings visible on it.
Joe sensed an immediate connection with the object. Initially he tried to rationalize what he was looking at. An unusual inflatable of some kind would not have looked so structured and would have drifted rather than remained still. A remote controlled flying model would have made sound and again would have drifted. All he could hear was a light breeze whistling through the trees. Later on in life he even considered whether the object was a couple of ravens mating and positioned in an unusual manner, but there was no movement to it whatsoever. Joe instinctively knew that this thing was from somewhere else. He was not frightened by the object, more fascinated by it. He smiled in amazement and continued to stare at it.
About 10 seconds later Steve arrived to his right side, about 10 feet away from him. He then noticed the object himself. Unlike Joe, Steve was immediately frightened of it. He loudly exclaimed “Quick, run!” But Joe wanted to do the opposite, he wanted to get closer to the object. He said “Let’s go and have a look!” Steve continued to insist that they get away from it. When he saw that Joe was not going to go willingly he threatened to hit him. At this point Joe gave in and they both turned and began running away from the copse.
Once they were half way across the field they slowed down a bit to a walking pace. Suddenly Joe heard a voice speak his name inside his head. The voice sounded female, almost like it had been uttered by someone standing right next to him. Initially thinking it must have been Steve, Joe asked “What did you say?” Steve replied “Nothing.” Confused, Joe asked “Can’t you hear that?” Steve simply said “No.”
Then the voice spoke a second time. It was a request, crystal clear in his mind – “Come back.” It sounded kind rather than commanding. At this point Joe realised it was linked with the black object in the woods behind them. He said out loud “I will come back!” Steve asked “Who are you talking to?” Because of how he had reacted to the object, Joe did not mention the voice, instead he just replied “Oh, no-one.” Steve exclaimed “You’re weird you are!”
They continued to walk across the field. As they reached a bank at the edge of Bluebell Wood they happened to bump into Joe’s father Nigel who was out on a walk. Joe said to him “We've just see the weirdest thing across those woods over there”. Richard did not ask exactly what they’d seen but replied "Go home and I’ll go and check it out" He then headed off in the direction of the copse.
Once they arrived back outside their respective houses Joe said goodbye to Steve and then headed inside. However he had no intention of staying put. He waited a few minutes to give Steve enough time to go back into his house. He then went out into the back garden and scaled the fence to next door. This gave him more stealthy access to the gulley at the end of the road.
He raced back to the copse as fast as he could. As he ran across the field he felt deep down that the object would surely no longer be there. He reached the edge off the trees and with disappointment realised that he was correct in this assumption. The object was no longer present in the clearing. However he was not going to give up just yet. He walked to the clearing and shouted out “I’ve come back!” as loud as he could. There was no response.
Joe waited staring up into the sky through the tree tops, desperately hoping that the object would return. A number of minutes passed by and there was still no sign of it, despite him again calling out a number of times. He then decided to sit down on a patch of grass and began to think about what might have taken place. Suddenly he felt himself black out almost instantaneously. He remembers falling sideways towards the ground.
The next thing he became aware of was that he was no longer sitting down. Instead he was standing up and holding onto a low branch of one of the trees with both hands extremely tightly. He was about 15 feet from where he had sat down. His whole body felt extremely heavy. The feeling was so strong that he felt almost paralyzed by it.
He immediately became aware that the sky was now a lot darker than it had been a moment ago. When he had arrived at the clearing it was bright daylight, but now it appeared that the sun was starting to go down. This realization greatly frightened him, especially considering the fact he was on his own.
He needed to get away from the clearing and head back home to where he would feel safe. But the sensation in his body meant that he could barely move. He decided that the best idea would be to voluntarily let go of the branch and fall to the ground. But his hands had a vice-like grip. With a concerted effort he managed to move his fingers a bit and pry them off the branch. He then fell sideways onto the ground. He was now staring deeper into the trees, the edge of the woods was behind him. He slowly managed to roll over.
By now the feeling of paralysis had reduced slightly and he was able to slowly crawl along the ground. After he had moved a short distance and began to leave the clearing he heard in the distance the sound of Nigel shouting out his name. With great relief, Joe tried calling back to him. At first the words would not even come out of his mouth, but he tried again and managed to make enough noise that his father heard. He came running over to him.
As Richard helped Joe to his feet he asked him “What happened?” Joe immediately thought that his father would not understand if he told him about why he had returned to the clearing so simply said “I must have fallen.” Richard continued to ask questions, asking “Where have you been?” Joe said “I’ve been right here where you’ve found me” Richard said “You couldn’t have been, we checked over here.”
Now that Joe was on his feet he felt the sensation of movement come back to his limbs. He was still limping a bit as he and his father made their way back across the field. Richard no doubt thought this was due to an injury he had incurred. They reached Bluebell Wood and Steve came running over to them. He had a concerned look on his face. He asked Joe “Where have you been?” Not wanting to tell Steve that he had purposely returned to the copse he just replied “Over there”, pointing towards the field. Steve said “We’ve been looking for you for ages!” Disapprovingly, Richard simply said to him “I told you not to go back there.”
Not much more was said between the three of them as they made their way back to Mulberry Drive. Joe did not ask how long he had been missing for, but judging by the amount of light in the sky he thinks it must have been a couple of hours. He recalls having a conversation with his mother when they arrived home, but other than that not much was ever said about the incident again.
This is a truly fascinating series of events. It seems probable that the black object the boys had initially witnessed was indeed a small craft of some kind. Due to its small size, it is very likely that it was being flown remotely. Joe appeared to have received a telepathic message from a being in some way connected with that craft, openly asking him to approach it.
A number of years ago Joe’s partner bought a lampshade which had some small plastic diamond shapes hanging off it. They immediately reminded him of the shape of the UFO he’d seen. Without telling her, he broke one of them off the lampshade and coloured it in black with a pen to retain as a keepsake:
When Joe returned to the clearing he was seemingly put to sleep. He was not feeling in any way tired, and it was still late afternoon at that time. I have spoken with many contactees who have reported something very similar to this. It is likely that after this occurred he was then abducted and removed from the clearing for a period of time, otherwise his father and friend would have found him when they searched for him. Many people also experience paralysis during contact experiences, this again fits in with what Joe experienced. It could well have been a residual effect which slowly dissipated in the minutes after his return.
Awakening in the Woods
Around the same time as these experiences, there was another incident which occurred where Joe awoke in the middle of the night to find himself standing in the woods South of his house. He was wearing his pyjamas and socks, the clothing he went to bed in. It was a cool but clear night and the stars were visible through gaps in the trees. He was familiar with the layout of the trees and was able to work out where he was from the shape of these gaps.
At first for an unknown reason he thought that he was out there with his younger sister Nicky and that they were playing a game. This amused him and he laughed to himself. He called out her name several times, but of course she didn’t answer.
When he realised he was alone Joe then began to feel that there was another presence there watching him. He decided to begin walking home. He made his way through the trees and soon reached the barbed wire fence which ran across one edge of the field that lay between his location and road. There was no gate anywhere near to his location, so he instead carefully crawled through it.
After this he has no further recollection of what happened. He does not recall walking back the remainder of the journey to his house. His next memory was of waking up in his bed in the morning. He does not recall telling his family about what had happened during the night.
Another memory that Joe has was of his mother mentioning finding mud on his socks and querying him about it. Joe cannot be certain that this was the same morning, but it seems extremely likely that it was.
The most obvious explanation to consider is that Joe sleep walked out to the wood. However he has a number of issues with this possibility. His family never informed him that they had found him sleep walking on any other occasions. The location he found himself at was about 250 yards from his house, quite a distance to walk. If he had gone there directly this would have involved navigating across a field covered in cow manure, and climbed through a barbed wire fence in his sleep. Joe says that if he had instead used the gate to get past the fence, this would have made his journey twice as long.
If he did not sleep walk then we have to look at alternatives. Taking his previous experiences into account, could Joe have been abducted and then returned to that location in the wood rather than his own house, and had the memories of this completely removed from his mind? There are many cases on record where people have not been put back exactly the same place they were taken from. If so then this could perhaps explain the presence that Joe felt while out in the woods. Perhaps there was a craft or beings still in the vicinity and Joe could sense this.
The Girl in the Dark
In his childhood Joe’s younger sister Tracey would sometimes come into his room during the night to either speak with him or be comforted if she was upset. One night around the same time as his other experiences, he awoke to find a figure standing alongside his bed. As this was where Traceywould usually stand he initially assumed it was her. However he soon became aware that something was amiss. On the far side of his room there was a window which let some light into the room through the closed curtains. This meant that he although he could make out some details such as the type of clothing, he could not clearly see facial features.
The figure looked like a little girl, the shape of her hair was wrong. Joe could see that this girl has curled hair, whereas his sister’s hair was straight. Even though Joe knew this was not his sister, he decided not to say anything to her, but instead rolled over to face the wall in the hopes that the figure would go away.
However he next felt the figure lie down behind him. Sometimes his sister would do this when she needed comforting. But when the girl draped her arm around his body the clothing she was wearing felt unusual. It seemed to be more like a netted fabric rather than the material his sister’s night clothes were made out of. He also quickly realised that the arm was freezing cold in temperature, once again confirming that whatever this was, it was not his sister.
Joe lay there silently not knowing what to do. He did not want to anger whatever it was so he went along with it, and did not call out to his parents. He dropped off to sleep soon after. This was the only time that he encountered this mysterious figure.
What could have been there in his room? I asked Joe if he could have been mistaken, and whether the girl could have been his sister all along, but he said there were just too many differences. He was clearly able to move freely at the time so she could not have been a hallucination brought on by sleep paralysis.
There is the possibility that the figure was a humanoid ET or a being using a screen memory to mask its true identity, appearing as and acting in the same manner as his younger sister intentionally. I have investigated other cases where beings have lay down alongside contactees. There is also a chance that the figure was some kind of ghostly apparition, however if so then it had the power to manifest in a physical way as Joe felt the arm draped over him.
A Pause In Time
On another occasion in the same summer Joe and Steve were once again playing at the fields South of their homes. They were messing around near to the barbed wire fence. Steve had one foot up on the fence. Joe was standing a short distance away from him.
Suddenly everything became really quiet. Usually there would be background sounds such as birds singing and the wind whistling through nearby trees, but now Joe could hear none of that. He stared towards Steve, who appeared rooted to the spot. He was just staring into the distance like he was in a trance.
Joe slowly backed away from him wondering what was going on. Suddenly as quickly as it had started things went back to normal. Steve started to move normally again. He looked round at Joe and asked where he was going. Joe simply said “Nowhere” and returned to his side. He did not tell him about what had just taken place because of how he had acted on the previous occasion with the black UFO.
Sledging Incident
In late 1983 / early 1984 there was a snowfall for several days. Joe and his friend Neil decided to go sledging out to a banked field to the East of Bluebell Wood. They set off from the house about 7pm. Due to the time of year it was already dark.
When they arrived at the slope they found two other boys from the neighbourhood already there. They did not know them very well but did recognise them so decided to play with them. The four boys began sledging down the slope again and again.
After about 45 minutes one of the other boys said he was getting tired and was going to go to sleep in his sledge. He walked over to the edge of the field, got into and lay down in the sledge. Joe did not know whether he was just mucking around or was really intending on sleeping a while, but he decided to play along and said he was going to do the same thing. A short distance away from Neil and the other boy he got into and lay down in his sledge. He assumes Neil and the other boy may have done the same.
The next thing he became aware of he was waking back up in his sledge and realised he must have actually dropped off. He sat up and looked around. This was when he realised he was no longer at the top of the slope. He was down near the base of the slope close to a small cluster of trees! He then heard Neil and the other boys calling out for him.
Not knowing what was going on Joe called out “Come and find me!” He then heard them run down the slope in the dark towards him. Neil asked “Where have you been?” Puzzled by this, Joe responded “What do you mean?” Neil said “Have you been hiding?” “No…what do you mean?” “We have been looking for you.” “I was here.” “No you weren’t.”
Joe asked him how long it had been and Neil informed him an hour had gone by with them actively searching for him at the top and base of the slope. He said that they almost considered phoning the police! Joe was shocked by this revelation. Neil asked him if he was alright and he responded saying “I’m not sure.”
They continued to chat about what had happened for about 5 minutes. Suddenly there was a bright flash of white light all around them, almost like a camera flash in the dark. There was nothing anywhere nearby which could have caused this flash, and the boys were frightened by it. They all ran back up the slope as fast as they could. At the top they kept going and ran all the way back to their houses.
This is a bizarre series of events. It would theoretically have been possible for Joe to have dropped off in the sledge and then it start to slide under momentum and slip right down to the bottom of the slope while everyone else lay down in their own sledges. However there are many issues with this. Firstly the slope at top of the field was gradual, it seems unlikely that if the sledge was not starting to slide immediately when Joe got in it that it would after a period of time start to do so. Could Joe really have remained asleep in it as it slid down the snow-covered slope? Surely the vibrations and sound of this would have woke him up? Also Neil and the other boys searched for him for an hour. It was dark but on the white-coloured snow he should have been easy to spot.
Could Joe have been abducted lying down in his sledge without the knowledge of his friends nearby? In many contact cases the ETs appear to shut down the surrounding area when abducting an individual, so it would be possible for this to have taken place. There are other cases on record where objects in close proximity to the individual have been taken along with them, for example seats they are sitting in, or sometimes entire road vehicles. Perhaps Joe was abducted, and then returned an hour later with the memories completely removed from his mind.
If so, was the flash of light from a craft still in the vicinity of the boys? It is clear that there are no roads anywhere near to the location so the light could not have come from a nearby car. It was not stormy weather so a lightning strike also seems improbable. We will likely never know for sure what actually took place.
Abduction Memories
Years later when Joe started to read into the contact phenomenon, he had a sudden flashback of being aboard a craft. The flashback was seemingly separated into two memories, probably fragmented parts of the same experience. Initially when it came back to him he assumed it was nothing more than a dream brought on by his interest, but the more he thought about it the more he began to relate to it as an actual memory. He now feels that in reading about the subject his memory of this event was triggered. He relates it to the missing time involving the black UFO, but cannot be certain. However in the memory he was seemingly the correct age for this to be the case, and also believes he was wearing the clothing he wore on that day.
In his first memory Joe remembers finding himself lying down on a flattened bench of some kind raised at an angle of about 30 degrees. He was lying on his left side. The bench felt like it was covered in leather-like material. There were no detectable odours. At first his vision was hazy and he could not clearly see his surroundings. Despite the odd-ness of the situation he initially felt safe.
There was a depression across the top end of the bench, presumably made for a human head to rest in comfortably if lying face up. Because he was on his left side his head was lolling sideways into this depression which felt uncomfortable. He shuffled himself down the bench a bit so his head was no longer in it.
He then rolled over onto his back. As he wiped his eyes and his vision became clearer he immediately realised there were a number of Greys standing around him (obviously at the time he would not have recognised them as such, he only knew this due to the books he had been reading prior to having the recollection). He did not pay much attention to the location he was in, but does not recall seeing any furnishings.
One of the Greys was standing at the foot end of the bench, and it was this one which he initially saw clearly. It was about 3 feet in height. It was unclothed and had dark grey coloured skin. The skin was smooth with no visible wrinkles. Its body was slender with a slightly over-sized head. Its eyes were slanted and almond-shaped, and about 50% bigger than human. They were very dark in colour, but it was still possible to make out irises and pupils. It had an unpronounced nose with small nostrils, no visible ears and a slit-like mouth.
The being had a look of sympathetic kindness to its face, as if to say “Hi, how are you doing?” It was not smiling, but the sides of its mouth were slightly up-turned. Joe then looked around at the other beings. He realised that some of them were much taller than others, about 5.5 to 6 feet in height. To the left of the bench there was one taller being and two other shorter ones, and to the right of it there were two of each.
In seeing all these figures around him Joe began to get frightened and started to cry. He looked back at the smaller being at his feet. It seemingly noticed he was upset and the expression on its face dropped. As Joe’s fear increased, he raised his hands up to shield his face and exclaimed out loud “Don’t hurt me! Don’t hurt me!” He then lay back down on his left side and closed his eyes.
A moment later he felt two of the beings put their hands on his front and move them across his body. They pushed him on the right shoulder, suggesting they wished him to roll over onto his back, which he did. With one of the beings pressing its hand on his left hip, a wire or thin tube was inserted into his penis. He felt it being pushed through him and down into his scrotum. It was not painful, but there was enough sensation to know what was taking place.
This lasted a few seconds only, after which he felt it being removed. He then rolled back onto his left side again. Next he felt a hand being placed onto the top of his head. A voice came from behind him, asking “Can we keep him?” It appeared to have been spoken out loud, and sounded like a girl’s voice. In response to this he heard a woman’s voice say “No we can’t, he has to go back.” Joe assumes that this voice came from the being who had its hand on his head.
This voice gave the courage to try and communicate with the beings. In a gesture of good will he stretched out his right hand without opening his eyes. His hand met another, one with long fingers and coarse rough skin. Moving his hand away, Joe then pointed past it, indicating that he wished to leave this place and go back home. He then recalls the surroundings going completely silent, even general ambient noise was swallowed up. Joe wonders whether the beings did this telepathically to let him know they were there. This is where his first memory ends.
In the second memory he remembers looking down at the floor of the location he was in. There was a low condensation-like mist covering the floor, largely obscuring his view of it. He then got down off the bench. He cannot remember whether he jumped off it himself or whether he was helped down. He was then lead over to a window by two of the taller Greys and one of the shorter ones. They were there around him but were standing back from him a bit so he could only see them in his peripheral vision.
The window was rectangular, and about 8 foot wide by 4 foot high. It was made of a clear glass-like material. Looking through it Joe was astounded to see planet Earth surrounded by darkness. Immediately he thought to himself “That’s Earth, I’m in a spaceship!” This fact amazed and excited him and a big smile came across his face. His last recollection is of saying “Thank you” to the beings in his mind. He does not remember whether he received a response to this or not.
As these memories came back while he was reading about contact Joe remains cautious about them. However he says that they feel real to him, like any other memory from his past would. He thinks that for whatever reason the beings expressed an interest in him.
Conclusion
The manner in which Joe had initially forgotten about his childhood experiences is common with contact. It is sometimes possible that a memory block has been put in place and the individual or individuals involved have no knowledge of what has occured until something triggers these memories at a later point in time. For Joe, the conversation with his stepson's girlfriend was that trigger. Once he had recalled the first event, recollection of the others then followed automatically.
Joe has had some fascinating experiences, and the fact they all took place within months of each other is very intriguing. He had never had anything unusual happen before, and since them to his knowledge nothing else has taken place. Contact can sometimes occur regularly for a period of time and then stop. This certainly may have occurred here.
Many of his experiences involve potential missing time, and this has often been verified by other independent witnesses.
Obviously Joe has very specific abduction-related memories which appear linked to one of his experiences, but it would be very interesting to have Joe hypnotically regressed to see if any further details can be remembered. This is something he is interested in, but due to the current situation regarding Covid-19 it is unlikely to happen immediately. If this regression goes ahead at a later date any information discovered will be added to this report.
Copyright © Dave Hodrien 2020
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