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Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 08/12/2020 Last Updated: 09/12/2020 In November 2020 UFO witness Russel Newland mentioned his sightings on the UK UFO Sightings Facebook group. Intrigued by his comments, I decided to get in touch to discuss them in more depth. Russel has had three very different experiences over the years, all of which have been in the presence of other witnesses. Autumn 1983 – Flying Triangle Sighting Back in 1983 Russel was 22 years old. He used to spend time with his friend Matthew, who lived on Green Lane in Hazlemere. Just South of Green Road is a recreation ground with flood-lit tennis courts. Russell and Matthew would regularly walk across this as it lay between Green Road and the main town centre. One evening in the autumn around 8pm they were making their way across the ground heading towards the town. Due to the time of year the sun was starting to set. It was also misty and drizzly that evening, but there was some light coming from the nearby flood lights so it was bright enough to see the surroundings. They were talking amongst themselves and about half way across the ground. Suddenly there was a loud whooshing sound similar to a fast jet of water. They both stopped walking, wondering where the sound was coming from. Looking around and over their heads they could not see anything. All of a sudden a massive black triangular shaped object flew right past them from right to left, no more than 20 feet away from their location! Russel estimates it was about 30 feet across. It was so close they could feel the rush of air currents coming from it. The object was only a few feet off the ground and flew on a straight and level course. It was only seen for a second as it went by so fast, but both witnesses observed it. Russel says that it appeared to have depth to it and was equilateral in shape. There were no markings or lighting observed on it. Both witnesses stood there in shock and disbelief at what had just happened. They then quickly ran across the remainder of the ground to reach Amersham Road as fast as possible. That evening they ended up going to a local pub and sat there discussing what they had witnessed. The following day Russel went to the library to see if he could find out anything particular about the recreation ground, for example something which had been built there in the past, but was not able to find anything of interest. The shape and colour of the object seen fits in with it being a Flying Triangle, one of the more commonly reported ET craft. Due to its large size and speed of movement it is very unlikely to have been something mundane such as a kite or novelty-shaped balloon, and it was quite clearly present as it was witnessed by both of the men. One of the fascinating aspects of this sighting is how close the UFO was to the ground considering it was on the move. Usually when craft descend to this sort of altitude this is done for the purpose of landing. Unfortunately Russel has not kept in touch with David and has no current way of getting hold of him, so I am unable to speak with him regarding the incident. Spring 2005/06 – Glowing Sphere Sighting By 2005 Russel had now moved to Watford, London and worked as a gardener. He lived quite close to the Warner Bros Studios. One day in either April or May of 2005 or 2006 he was on his way home in his van at about 3pm. It was a bright sunny day with a clear blue sky. He came off the M25 motorway at Junction 19 and travelled along the slip road heading towards the roundabout which would enable him to get on to the A41. As he drove he noticed a bright glowing light hovering in the sky to the North East seemingly over the Studios. As he approached the roundabout he saw that there were a couple of cars stopped there. He pulled up behind them and got out. One of the other drivers was standing next to his car and looking up at the sky, clearly also observing the light. He said to Russel “Look!” and pointed up at the object. Now that he was stopped he could get a better look at it. The object appeared to be spherical in shape and glowing extremely brightly. It was at an angle of 50 degrees in the sky from their position, and appeared to be at quite high altitude, perhaps a mile up. If it was indeed at this height then Russel estimates it was about 30 feet in diameter. “Yeah I see it. What is it?” Russel asked the other driver. He responded “I don’t know.” He then confirmed that he had been looking at it for about 2 minutes. Another car pulled up behind them. There were now four witnesses all looking at the UFO. After about a minute without warning the object suddenly massively accelerated and shot vertically up into the sky out of sight! Russel and the other man were amazed at what they’d just witnessed. There was nothing more they could do than just shrug at each other, get back in their vehicles and continue on their way. Russel says that about a week after the incident there was an article in the Watford Post which said that about 20 other people had also witnessed the object. 11th March 2020 – Unexplained Lights Russel now lives on Chadwick Street in High Wycombe. He used to work in a charity shop. Occasionally people would hand things in which they were not allowed to sell on for safety reasons. Someone had handed in a laser pen and Russel had kept it. Around 11pm on 11th March 2020 he was just saying goodbye to the house cleaner. Before leaving the cleaner mentioned seeing some coloured lights reflected on the fire place wall. She assumed that this must have been from a fibre optic lamp which Rusell owns. However he was in the process of packing up his belongings at the time and had this already boxed up, a fact which she realised at the front door. The laser pen then came up in conversation and Russel got it out of the drawer to show them how I worked. He stepped outside on to the front drive and shone the laser at a fence on the far side of the road. He then turned to his left and shone it into the sky in the distance to the South East. Immediately the laser went off. He tried to switch it on again but it didn’t come back on. Then the house cleaner noticed some strange lights seemingly coming from inside or behind the clouds in the direction Russel had shone the laser in. She exclaimed “Oh my god what’s that?” which drew Russel's attention to them. The lights were green, mauve and orange colours. They didn’t appear static but seemed to blend and with one another. From their position they were at an angle of about 35 degrees in the sky. They were moving slowly in a straight line to the North East in the direction of Amersham. There was no sound heard, although they were of course distant. Both Russel and the cleaner attempted to take pictures of the lights on their phones. Russel says his photograph did not come out well so he did not keep it. Below is the photograph the cleaner took: As you can see this is not really show anything definite, but according to Russel the dark blue colours seen towards the lower centre of the image are linked with it. The witnesses watched the lights for about 40 seconds as they slowly moved across the sky. They then entered an area of denser cloud and were lost from sight. When Russel went back inside the house the laser pen started working again. He returned outside a second time and again it went off. He went back in and it again was fine. Russel got in touch with the house cleaner and asked her to get in touch with me. She provided the following written statement about the incident: "I was visiting with Mr Newland on the evening of 11th March 2020 to drop off some shopping. While talking I noticed flashing lights of various colours behind him on the wall (opposite the front room window). I initially thought it was an ornamental display that had been there previously. I was rather taken/distracted by the colours and mentioned it at the time (he was packing up to move at the time, all of the display had been packed away in boxes so no ornaments were present). As this was rather a strange thing we joked about it and I left. As I left the property we noticed in the sky above, just to the left a UV blue/purple haze hovering. Quick to react Russ grabbed a green lazer pen from just inside the door, and joked and waved it at the hazey light. Both lights flickered, the green lazer pen then stopped working and the UV haze started to move away and dim. The lazer light then resumed the beam. Spooked at what was once a bit of fun, I took a picture of it before it faded then I left and went home." It's worth noting that there are a few discrepancies between her recollections and Russel's. Firstly she describes the lights as being purple and blue in colour, as opposed to the green, mauve and orange lights that Russel remembers. Also the cleaner suggests that Russel grabbed the lazer pen to shine at the lights on purpose, as opposed to him shining it randomly at the sky before noticing the lights. I queried Russel on these discrepancies and he confirms that her recollection of events is a little different to his own. This can often happen in multiple witness cases and is nothing to be concerned about. It is clear that both witnesses are describing the same event and that it took place. But what could be the explanation? Sometimes glowing areas of light seen in the sky can be the result of British Rail detector trains which shine a light upwards after dark to look for damage on electrical wires. The light is always electric blue in colour, similar to the colour recollected by the house cleaner. However the section of railway line around High Wycombe is not electrified. Also the lights were moving to the North East whereas the railway line runs in a South East East direction. These points mean that a detector train is unlikely to be responsible. Another explanation in some cases for lights seen on clouds are light displays from night clubs. However Russel has confirmed that there is no night club with lights like that in High Wycombe. Also this took place at the start of the first Covid-19 lock down, so therefore any night clubs would have been closed at the time. With these two explanations both very improbable, the cause of the lights remains a mystery. It is unlikely that the laser pen switching off had anything to do with them, due to the distance. It is possible there was some local interference at the time which was causing this to occur, or it may just have been coincidental and due to a fault. Conclusion As you can see, Russel has had three very different experiences, two of which clearly involved physical objects displaying incredible movement capabilities. It is great that all of his sightings were witnessed by others, as this goes some way towards confirming that they took place. Unfortunately as previously mentioned I am unable to speak with the second witness of the Flying Triangle as Russel lost touch with him, and he did not take any contact details down of the other drivers who witnessed the glowing sphere over Watford. I have asked to speak with the house cleaner who also witnessed the coloured lights but so far she has not got back in touch. If she does then a statement from her will be added to this report. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

Oval UFO The next instance of a UFO-type sighting happened when Caspian was once again being driven to his aunt and uncle's house in Fishbourne. It was about midday, and they had just crossed the bridge over Centurion Way, driving up Old Broyle Road on the B2178. Suddenly, Caspian noticed an oval-shaped object fly over the road ahead of them and disappear behind the trees to his left as they sped past them. Its underside was dark, while the top of the object was a light silver-grey. He asked his grandmother if she'd also seen it, but she was completely focused on driving and hadn't been paying attention to what was passing by overhead; she'd only registered it as being some sort of plane. Caspian added that the object was “car-sized”, and that it looked like it was travelling at about the same speed as they were (so possibly about 30mph). The thing that stood out to him the most was how brazen its presence in broad daylight had been – he says it's as though its operators didn't care about being seen! Owl Dream and Hand Markings By the end of 2018 Caspian was back at work with his uncle and sleeping better as a result of having had no further bedroom visitations from the floppy-eared beings, though he did experience a couple more dreams of note. He reported the first of them to me as follows: “I also remembered another dream I forgot to mention yesterday, the final part of my experiences involving owls – I had it sometime in mid-late 2018. I can't remember much about the dream, except that at the end of it there was a reddish saw-whet owl standing in front of me, and it reached forward with one of its feet and pricked my right hand and wrist with its talons. I was jolted out of sleep and went to the bathroom. When I turned on the light, I noticed four red dots on my hand and wrist that were exactly where I'd seen the owl's talons prick against me. I took a photo of the marks to show to mum [he reports that he did indeed send it to her], but unfortunately I deleted the photo the next morning, thinking there was no point in keeping it on my phone. After I woke up again later that morning, I applied Doublebase Gel to the marks, and they had all practically disappeared by the end of the day. The most remarkable thing about it all was that at the time there were renovation works going on at the office building me and my uncle worked at, and that morning I noticed that they had bought in a barn owl doorstop to keep the door to the staircase up to our office open while they were working. When I got home later that day, I also found my grandmother's Christmas owl ornament hanging on one of the plants in my bedroom, and when I asked her about it she said that she just thought I'd want it in my room when she found it while tidying in the bedroom beside mine, because she knew I've always liked owls!” Caspian says that he still has that ornament hanging on the door handle in his bedroom, since the plant his grandmother originally hung it on grew too large and had to be moved downstairs. The ornament is also reddish in colour, just like the owl he'd seen in his dream. Suspension Tank His second notable dream occurred sometime in autumn of that year. It began with him thinking he was underwater – then he became aware that he was suspended in a tank filled with a sort of blue, gel-like liquid, much like the cooling gel he rubs into his chest wall to try and help ease the pain of his chest condition. There was a rosy-pink light shining down above him. His eyes were wide open, and he could breathe normally; he could also move, though he says it was like moving through honey. He didn't feel panicked at all. The walls around him were solid, though he couldn't make out their composition or texture. The next thing he remembers is not being able to move, laying with his arms and legs pinned together and against his sides – he was effectively paralyzed. His head was propped up, and all down the length of the underside of his body was a cool, refreshing sensation which he thinks was a layer of the same gel he'd been floating in before. He seemed to be on some sort of bed, being moved down a corridor. Its walls and ceiling appeared to be of a single-piece design, smoothly curved and pale grey in colour (like the interior of the craft he used to be abducted into as a child), though a pair of light fittings ran down the full length of the ceiling above him which were light blue in colour. Two beings that Caspian couldn't see much of were walking in silence ahead of him, and he says that they also passed by a tall, grey-skinned being of a kind that he'd never seen before: it had a long neck and long fingers, and was wearing a blue outfit similar to that which is worn by the floppy-eared beings. Its arms were folded in front of its chest in a similar fashion to the limbs of a praying mantis; Caspian also likened it to the way that a spider's legs are held close to its body when it curls up in defence. As it passed by, Caspian recalls that the being gave him a friendly greeting telepathically, although he can't remember what word/s it used. He suddenly came out into a big circular, open room. In the middle of it was a raised platform with a throne, upon which was seated an entity that Caspian describes as being a “pecan-headed being”. It had a head shaped like a pecan nut and was completely brown in colour, with small eyes, a slit nose and a little, thin mouth. It was dressed in a red and golden robe that had a long train coming down in front of the throne onto the floor. Standing on either side of it were weird entities dressed in the same blue outfits as the others, with long necks that hooked over at the top, terminating in hammer-shaped heads. Caspian says that these entities didn't feel alive to him – they just seemed like they were scanning the room, alert to everything that was happening in it and waiting to see if he was going to be aggressive. Around the edges of the room were panels with static lights of different colours (creamy-yellow, green and blue) on them, standing in front of which were several different types of being, including ones which Caspian thinks were Greys. One variant was taller than he expected they would be [about 5ft in height]. Their skin was the same colour as the floppy-eared beings. The bed that Caspian was on lifted up and tipped forwards, and he was moved into a standing position as it moved away behind him. He found that he could move freely and breathe normally again. He felt that he was supposed to approach the being on the throne on front of him, but he looked back to see the bed he had been laying on, which looked like it was made of stone or cast iron. The two figures that had been walking in front of him, which he could now see were the floppy-eared beings, stepped back and stood at either side of the entrance into the room as the bed floated past them and down the corridor by itself. He felt that the being on the throne was becoming impatient as Caspian watched all of this occur, waiting for Caspian to engage with him. He looked back at it, but can't remember much of the conversation that they had together at first. Strangely, he does remember asking it why it had made him forget about his childhood abductions! The being telepathically responded that it hadn't caused him to forget – Caspian had chosen that for himself, asking them to keep what had happened from him. Caspian didn't buy this and replied that he didn't know why he'd ever ask them to do that. He also challenged the being about why it had then violated his wishes by restoring the memories that he now had to him, after all that time. The being simply replied that Caspian had chosen to have them given back, though he hadn't chosen the date on which they'd returned them to him. Caspian says that much of the conversation wasn't making a lot of sense to him. The being seemed to contradict itself at several points. Nevertheless, it came across as being like “an impatient but kindly grandfather”, almost paternal. The pecan-headed being seemed to be waiting for Caspian to ask the right questions – like he was there for a reason, so he should do what he came there to do. However, each time Caspian tried to take time to think about something that had been said, it would bark at him to respond faster. Caspian asked about the symbols that he had touched on the screen when his memories had been returned to him, trying to find out from the being how it all worked. He was told that they normally use other symbols when conveying messages to humans, but they really like our occult symbology and language because it best represents concepts they try to communicate with us about, allowing us and them to meet on common ground. Caspian agrees that its usage of the word “occult” was surprising, but he thinks that the being was simply searching for words to use that he could relate to. While he is deeply interested in esoteric topics, Caspian reports that he had never seen any of the symbols which had been present on that screen before. As Caspian stood there, the being was impressing into his mind new symbols that looked like right angles and inverted v-shapes. He said that these were special symbols which they used to communicate with people, and that the ones which had been on the screen were simply symbols that they normally used between themselves. He didn't receive an explanation about what any of them meant, and says, “I have no idea how any of them would translate to human symbols, numbers or letters, or if they even could. All of their symbols are different configurations of circles, triangles and straight, angled or curved lines, and dots. I've personally ascribed names to symbols I've most commonly seen, like 'the bee hive', 'the Hindu symbol' and 'Magnemite' (after the Pokémon), but I don't know what the ufonauts call them.” It seemed that the beings weren't endorsing occult activities, but rather expressing that our usual languages and alphabets were more difficult for them to use effectively. This is the last thing that Caspian can remember them discussing. At the end of the encounter, the being told Caspian to go forwards and stand right at the base of where his train was. His next memory is of waking up on his pillows, staring up at his ceiling, and then going back to sleep; the next time he awoke, it was later that morning. He has no recollection of how he got back to his bed from wherever it was that he had been. Throughout the entirety of the following day he felt confused and bemused, not knowing what to think about what he'd been told by the pecan-headed entity. He passionately believes that the beings he encountered were not human, but although they give every indication of coming from space he wasn't sure at the time if they did – he just knew that “they are; they exist”. Night Lights Unusually for Caspian, up until May of 2019 the only thing that he has reported experiencing were the night lights which he says still pass over Rumbolds Close to this day [the most recent sighting being 11th August, 2020]. While they continued to be mostly minty-green and white in colour, they occasionally appeared golden or orange, or a combination of those colours. The true shape inside those lights would often become visible as they passed overhead, and in an email to me he described them as follows: “Most of the time they look like oval-shaped objects, but sometimes a bulge or dome-like shape can be seen on top, slightly off-centre from the main body of the object.” He was hoping that things would continue to remain relatively quiet. This has not been the case in New Zealand, where he reports that his family continues to experience the same, strange phenomena that they have become familiar with over the years. Synchronicity Caspian feels that whatever the truth is about all of the different things he's experienced, there is definitely “something” that manipulates people and events at a certain level behind-the-scenes. He says that he has experienced synchronicity-type events throughout his life, but they've happened so often that he's simply forgotten most of them, only remembering the fact that they happened. Anne, Grace and Peter also notice a weird synchronicity with number patterns, though he acknowledges cognitive bias as a possible explanation for this. He doesn't believe that all of what they've seen can be satisfactorily explained naturalistically, however; it would strain credulity. While he doesn't think he would undo the experiences he has had over the course of his life if it were possible, because he considers them to have helped him understand the nature of reality and the Universe better than if he had never had them at all, on the other hand he also wishes that he'd never experienced any of it simply because it may have resulted in him having a more normal life. Above all else, he is concerned about the effect on the people he loves outside of his mother and siblings if this stuff does continue. Blurred Entity Between mid 2019 to early 2020 Caspian sent me a number of E-Mails describing further incidents. In his initial E-Mail he discussed an unusual entity which he witnessed at close proximity. “I woke up a few nights after I sent my last email to you (at 10:48pm on the 9th May) to see a fuzzy (similar to the buzzing static on TV screens, but with the vibrating shapes being much finer and smaller) blob with blurry edges around 4-5ft tall present beside my bed, that seemingly consisted of thick darkness; I'd been brought out of sleep by my phone vibrating beside me as mum was calling me on Facebook. I did my best to remain calm, and quietly asked it out loud who or what it was, to which I had no reply. All I could feel was a heavy, sharp, foggy sensation across my forehead and above my eyes, somewhat comparable to the experience of ‘brain fog’ or ‘fibro fog’ that you get as part of CFS, but a lot more uncomfortable. I didn't feel any particular emotions from it or as a result of seeing it, other than surprise at its being there and an initial 'deer in the headlights, fight-or-flight' wariness about whether it was going to do anything to me. It was like a thick, short sausage in shape, with its top half leaning forward over the edge of my bed. I turned away to pick up my phone so that I could call mum back with the intention of pointing my camera at the blob to check if it was visible to her as well, but as I was calling her I looked back at it and watched as it faded out of sight, accompanied by a flash of bright red at the foot of my bed (and later on during our conversation, two white flashes closer to the ceiling in the same place, between the foot of my bed and my TV/PlayStation and book/DVD shelves – the second flash was larger and more intense than the first, and lasted a little longer than it, though both were only briefly visible). I told mum immediately what I'd seen. I don't know what the nature of the phenomena I witnessed that night was, but they may have merely been visual hallucinations as a result of being fatigued and jolted out of the state of sleep I'd been in.” Moving Light Video In late July 2019 Caspian managed to record a video of an anomalous light over his road. “Last night [23rd July 2019] I managed to get a video of one of the objects that occasionally fly over Rumbolds Close! I apologise for the shakiness of the video, I didn't have time to try and prop up my phone on anything – the twinkling stationary light in the background is a star, whereas the moving light seemed to be silent, unlike the other commercial flights (with normal configurations of flashing lights and colours) which had been flying over all evening. You can hear the sound of the jet planes' flight follow them after they've visibly passed over, but no sound followed or accompanied that white light, that I could hear. While the commercial flights were all going in a south-north direction, the object was flying on their usual west-east route. It's difficult to make out in the video I took, but while it started out flying in a straight line, as the object was coming over the house it began to move in a snake-like fashion. I didn't notice the slight pulse or flickering effect that appears in the video; to my eyes it looked like a constant, whiteish light. I've also included a video of a commercial jet flying over to show the distinction between the appearance of the object and other flights that were going over that night. I did see a satellite pass over a couple of hours later, which moved in their usual, gentle straight-lined way as a tiny point of light among the stars, but it was too faint for me to catch on video as a comparison." "Though I wasn't quick enough to get videos of them, two more objects also appeared a few minutes after the one I caught – they were the same as the first in terms of size and brightness, except one of them was a pale gold-yellow colour. Both faded out of sight as I was getting up from my bed, opening the camera app and selecting the video function (I was on call with my fiancée at the time, doing digital art work with her on my laptop). One of the objects flew west-north (the gold-yellow one), while the other flew west-east. The gold-yellow one seemed to dim into invisibility against the night sky, while the whitish one seemed to 'turn off' its light suddenly. The sighting was also followed by an odd dream. The earliest part of it I still remember is there being a young man and a young woman in my bedroom in front of the wall next to my opened door. The young woman bid to me, 'Come, dance with us,' and took my hand in hers to lead me downstairs. Her voice was breath-like, and had a faded, hazy or dream-like quality. I remember that their skin was smooth and soft, and slightly cool to the touch, rather than being warm like my hand. I was hesitant at first, but the next thing I recall I was going through our opened garden gate out into the Close, and being overcome and swept away in this sort of child-like state of peacefulness and ecstatic happiness as I saw four more of them (three women and a man) dancing in a circle around the cherry bush in the front garden – there were six of them in total. All of them were dressed the same (in loose-fitting, elegant white garments: like dresses on the four women, and like tunics and above-the-knee shorts on the two men; they were all barefoot, as well), and their appearance was fair, young (if they were human, in their 20's-30's) and ethereal, like they were spirits, elves or wingless faeries. Their bodies were self-illuminated in the dark night, casting a gentle light on my own body (I didn't have any clothes on, as I'd slept naked that night due to its mugginess). All of the women had pale blonde hair, while only one of the men had hair that was the same colour as them – the other man (who had been in my bedroom before) had darker hair. None of them were much taller than me, and only two of the women were slightly shorter (including the one who took my hand to lead me downstairs earlier). They were all laughing and holding hands as we danced together in a ring around the cherry bush. The women were saying, ‘Dance around the cherry tree! Come on! Yes, dance! Dance together! Spin, spin!’ and I started laughing with them, feeling a sense of lightness, release, wonder and joyfulness. I didn't feel at all exhausted from our dancing, and I was enraptured with looking at the beings who were dancing with me, who only occasionally looked at each other; most of the time their gaze and soft smiles were fixed on me. Soon the pale blonde-haired man said, ‘The Queen is coming to dance tonight.’ ‘You'll dance together!’ added one of the women excitedly. ‘Oh... I'd love to! That's such an honour!’ I replied with a beaming smile. ‘The King of the night! And the Queen!’ said the darker-haired man. ‘We'll watch you dance!’ We continued to laugh and circle around the bush, then paired up to spin with each other. To my memory the Queen never arrived; but we were going at a constant speed, carried away in the motions of our dancing, and that blur of movement was only broken when I looked up at the stars and the moon as I span with the woman who had led me downstairs, and said, ‘Isn't the Moon fine tonight?’ ‘So very fine!’ she responded, and as I looked back down at her I saw she was looking right in my eyes. Another of the women said in a sad and whimsical way, ‘Isn't it beautiful? Oh, but it's so far away...’ to which the darker-haired man (who was the only one of them spinning alone) said, ‘Shall we bring it closer?’ ‘Yes, let's!’ said another of the women, and as I looked back up at the Moon I noticed that it was slowly coming closer to the Earth and growing larger in the sky, and it continued to do so until it was like one of those sunsets in a nature documentary in which the sun appears enormously large. At that point I suddenly had a pang of concern and said, ‘If it comes any closer, its influence will disrupt the tides.’ The men and women all seemed to dismiss that worry, with one of the women simply replying gleefully, ‘It's getting closer now!’ ‘We'll touch it,’ another of them added with a giggle. ‘We'll dance there, too!’ It was at that moment that I began to look at the Close around me, and I thought to myself, ‘We'll surely wake everyone up... people will see us dancing here, and they'll see the Moon!’ The woman I was spinning with looked horrified and said oddly, ‘No! You mustn't go!’ I tried to slow myself down so that I could stop dancing, but the woman I was partnered with still had a hold on my hands and refused to let me. All of them were looking at me desperately as one of the women said, ‘Home is where the heart is!’ ‘And that– isn't –home!’ added the woman I was with, trying to keep my eyes locked on hers. Suddenly the pale-haired man grabbed my right wrist with a firm and powerful grip, saying, ‘Come home with us, stay here–DON'T GO!’ I suddenly found myself standing in front of the cherry bush, which was surrounded by a circle of six wisp-like white orbs, all of which seemed to be making a horrific noise as though they were both screaming and crying; it was a distorted, whiny, semi-human sound. I felt surprise at seeing them, and a sense of desperate empathy for what sounded like their suffering, but I also felt my fight-or-flight response kicking in and I couldn't decide whether I wanted to reach out to one of them in compassion or run away. The next thing I remember, I was standing alone at my bedroom window, looking out at a typical night view of Chichester. I noticed a dark, hunched figure on the roof of the house nearest to the Close across the railway, which turned to look directly at me with a pair of red, piercing round eyes. Then I had a more normal dream involving steam engines and model trains, and lots of different breeds of dogs that were around me and my fiancée's puppy wanting to be petted, which is the last thing I remember before waking up. I can remember the scenes I've written above from the dream involving those men and women vividly.” Orb & Brown-Skinned Being In early November Caspian sent me another Email in which he described seeing an orb and brown-skinned being. “I just wanted to update you on a number of things that have happened recently, particularly after something that's happened to me last night. I'd been on call with my fiancée, which lasted until almost midnight when she wished me Happy Birthday for the following day and we hung up. After putting my phone down and laying on my back, I noticed a pale grey blob with fuzzy gold edges fade in and out of view above the bottom of my bed, just below the ceiling. I fell asleep pretty quickly, and had a fairly normal, silly and colourful dream which involved a lion eating my birthday cake because it was fond of lemon drizzle, and me and my family trying to work out who we could possibly call to come and take it away before it decided it wanted more than just cake! However, just as I was opening our front door in my dream to welcome in a lion collector (specifically lions) from Marwell Zoo, I suddenly awoke – I could absolutely tell that I was definitely awake; I was jolted into awareness, my room was icy cold and smelt musty, and I briefly experienced a sharp, fizzing headache from waking up so fast that went down into my nose and made me wince.” Author's Note: Marwell Zoo is a real zoo in Winchester, Hampshire, but it does not have any lions. “Almost immediately I noticed that there was a brown-skinned figure standing by my bed, wearing dark greyish blue monk's robes with the hood pulled up. I could see the being's face, which was akin to a fantasy elf with oval shaped black eyes, a slit-hole nose and a lipless mouth like a Grey. His head was turned a little, and his eyes were looking down at mine. I don't think he could have been more than 5' 6” in height. His left side was illuminated by some sort of light coming from my window (I'd left my curtains open, as I often do at night), which I took to be moonlight. The only unusual thing about the room despite his presence (which seemed wholly physical) was how chilly it was; it felt like my windows were open and letting the cold air from outside in, but none of them looked as though they were. I was simply staring up at him, not moving a muscle (I didn't feel paralysed), when he silently lifted a finger to his lips then pulled out a long, thin, needle-like implement from his pocket and proceeded to lean over me a little, pushing it into my bottom lip. It felt cold, but not uncomfortably so; I barely felt any hint of pain, but I could feel it pushing into the muscle. I felt him saying to me telepathically (it felt the same as it always does) that he was from some sort of ancient order, and he was simply there to check up on me. I got the sense from him that he really was just there to carry out that task; I also felt like he had some respect for me. I mentally asked who had sent him, and whether he knew the pecan-headed being I'd seen before because it had also had brown skin, but he just advised me to remain still. He added in reply to my sudden thought that the pin-prick on my lip might be visible that the wound would be bloodless, then he began to pull the needle's tip out of my lip. I suddenly felt a sense of panic, accompanied by the thought that he wanted to do something with the implement to my teeth that would hurt, and I thrashed around on my bed and yelled out, ‘Stop! Enough!’ pushing him away. He simply stood beside my bed looking down at me and said, ‘Foolish.’ I could feel that whatever respect he'd had for me in the beginning had been replaced with disappointment as a result of me behaving in that way. The next thing I knew, I was waking up later this morning. I asked my grandmother and grandfather if either of them had heard me crying out earlier in the morning, apologising if they had, but granddad said he'd been asleep and had heard nothing. My grandmother heard me calling out something, but she hadn't been able to tell what it was; she thought I'd just been yelling out in my sleep, or because I'd woken up from a nightmare. Though my bottom lip had felt numb since I woke up, I noticed that I had a lump on it while I was eating breakfast with them downstairs. I did notice granddad glancing down at my lip a few times while I was downstairs drinking my coffee, but he said nothing. After I came back upstairs and got ready to have a shower, I took a couple of photos of the lump; it had shrunk a bit by then, but it's in the exact place where I felt the implement push in earlier this morning.” I Emailed Caspian with this question: “How is your lip now? I do need to ask whether it could have been a cold sore? Do you get those?” He responded “By the end of the day the lump had disappeared entirely! I'd thought of it being a cold sore, though I haven't had many of those in my life; I do get ulcers on my tongue and on the inside of my cheeks, and acne above my lips, but I've never had lumps actually on my lips outside of when I have an allergic reaction to dairy. I hadn't knowingly ingested anything containing dairy products beforehand – I would also have experienced a number of other accompanying symptoms if it had indeed been an allergic reaction, and there would have been more than a single lump on my lips in that case. From what I can tell from looking up cold sores online, they also last far longer than the lump did (an initial outbreak can last up to two weeks, while ones that appear after that may not remain for longer than a week).” Author's Note: Most cold sores do last several days. Also, if Caspian had not had cold sores specifically before, it is not likely to have been one. I followed this up with another question about the nature of his experience. I went back to him, asking “Is it possible, for example, that the content of your dream was influenced by your unconscious awareness of a cold sore developing on your lip?” “You're right, if it was a cold sore my mind could have dreamt something around the sensation of it forming. I definitely felt as though I was jolted suddenly out of sleep and completely awake when I saw that entity standing beside my bed, though dreams can be lucid and vivid. It's an issue inherent with all experiences at night-time, when you've previously been asleep. If it wasn't a dream, then I'm left as usual with more questions than answers: How did that entity get into, and out of my room? Why did I wake up when I did? Can I trust a word it said? Why did it avoid answering the question of who had sent it, when it was willing to answer my other questions? What exactly was it ‘checking up on’ regarding me, and why did it need to pierce my lip? Why was I afraid it was going to do something painful to my teeth? Admittedly, if I had to put money on whether I'm personally convinced that that particular experience was a dream, I'd bet against it having been one; but as always I'm open to the possibility that all was not as it seemed... at the very least, whatever happened it resulted in me crying out audibly enough that my grandmother heard it! Household Disturbances In his November Email Caspian described some unexplained activity around his home. “There's been some instances in which me and my grandmother have heard footsteps on the upstairs landing and in the bedroom next to mine when nobody else was in the house with us, which my grandmother has preferred to dismiss because she ‘doesn't like mysteries’. I also noticed my bedroom door beginning to close itself behind me a couple of weeks ago when I was alone in the house and laying on my bed, turning on my PlayStation; there were no windows open anywhere in the house, and it was closing slowly with the handle moving as though someone were pulling it down. It didn't close completely but was almost shut. I remained on my bed watching it without moving for a few seconds, then I got up and went to my door and opened it, checking to see if it would close itself again. After that I went round and checked all the windows upstairs and downstairs.” Flying Triangle Dream The November E-Mail also referenced a number of unusual dreams Caspian had experienced, the first of which involved a Flying Triangle craft. “The most recent of the odd dreams I've had was a few nights ago [the first week in November 2019]. In it, I was standing by the road on Kingsham Avenue watching a triangle-shaped object performing silent, pattern-less banking and swooping manoeuvres above St. Mary's Church (next to the scouts' building) off Whyke Road. The UFO was black in colour, with hazy, large red lights on its underside and a pair of wing-like protrusions on top of it, at the back of the craft; it was about the size of a Spitfire plane. The last part of the dream that I can remember was it tilting back so that its underside was visible to me, then dropping down suddenly in front of St. Mary's as though it was blocking me from getting to it. Mr Trilby “The other dream, which I had just over a week before the one involving the black triangle, felt much more lucid and involved me walking barefoot in my pyjamas up East Street, toward the Cross and the Cathedral. The ground felt cold beneath my feet, and I was shivering and chattering my teeth due to how chilly the air was. There was no-one else around up town, and I walked all the way up West Street to Westgate Road, and then to Mount Lane toward the College. I felt almost as though I was walking on autopilot. There were only a few cars on the A286, and it seemed like it was early morning, perhaps an hour before sunrise. As I was walking down Mount Lane, feeling exhausted but like I needed to keep walking, a man with a face like KFC's Colonel Sanders, dressed in a white trilby hat and a smart pale-grey and white outfit (very like the cricket outfit worn by the Fifth Doctor, in the TV show Doctor Who), stepped out from the foliage by the path and said, ‘Keep on moving!’ with a smile. I looked back briefly at him as I continued to walk with a weak smile, feeling too tired to summon much more of a response when I noticed that he was suddenly in front of me. He told me to look up, and I saw that above me was a spinning vortex in the clouds, filled with silver sparkles that were drifting around it and twinkling. The man told me that I should always keep my head up to notice what was happening above me. I asked him who he was, and he replied, ‘Oh, I'm Mr. Trilby! I'm a friend of the family, don't you know.’ I thought that was a strange response, but decided to simply ask why he was dressed the way he was; his reply was that he was headed for Goodwood to watch the horse races, then he bid me a good morning and walked past me down Mount Lane, back toward Westgate Road. I looked up again and noticed that the portal in the clouds had disappeared, and the sky was normal again. When I turned back I couldn't see him anymore, so I kept on walking down to the College, then down Swieqi Road back toward the A286. I crossed the road and walked past the stone wall of the Bishop's Palace Garden, intending to enter it through the back gate if it was open. I noticed that next to the back gate, in what should otherwise have been a car park, was a building I'd never seen before; its entrance was open, so I decided to go inside to take a look around. The whole shop was filled with clocks, most of them antique, and had display cases full of wristwatches and alarm clocks toward the back. Behind the counter stood Mr. Trilby, who smiled at me as I walked down the store toward him; there were a number of other people in the shop as well, but they all seemed blurry and faded, like shadows. The next thing I remember, I was laying on a hospital bed next to the display cases at the back of the store, with Mr. Trilby standing beside me. I felt too exhausted to move as he leaned in and repeated, ‘I'm a friend of the family, don't you know!’ I suddenly felt like I was rushing backward at high speed, even though I didn't seem to actually be moving, and as I lay on my back I watched beams of pale orange light sweep across the ceiling of the store as a sound like the whistle of a steam engine and a girl screaming seemed to intensify in the air around me. That's the last I can remember of that dream, and the next day I told Mum about it on a Facebook call – she confirmed that she didn't know anyone by the name of Mr. Trilby!” I asked Caspian for more details about this “Mr Trilby” dream: “With regard to “Mr Trilby”, did he have an accent at all?” “He didn't have the voice of anyone I know, but his accent sounded like it would fit right in among the folk of West Sussex. The only other thing I could say about it was that it sounded too youthful for his apparent age, in a way that was a little off-putting. While it wasn't nasty or mocking, it sounded like he was simply humouring me, and that he was slightly amused by our interaction on Mount Lane (even though it was an interaction he'd initiated).” “Were there any Goodwood races on at the time you had this dream?” “The last of the Midweek Races at Goodwood was on the 23rd September (there was possibly another one on the 25th September, but I'm not sure), so his claim to be off to Goodwood to watch the horse racing – especially at such an early time in the morning, when races usually begin in the afternoon! – was entirely untrue, unless he had been planning on walking the whole way there.” Author's Note: I looked up the date of the last Goodwood events for 2019 and they were on Wednesday, 25th September and on Sunday, 13th October, which were several weeks before Caspian reports having this dream. Usually the gates would open at 11:30am and the first race would be at about 2:00pm. It seems the last day's races (13th October) were cancelled, because of the poor weather. There were showers and the going was “heavy” on the course. Goodwood is also about 5 miles away from where Caspian lives. All of this would suggest that the “Mr Trilby” figure was not likely to be on his way there at the time of the dream. “Would his clothes be appropriate to wear at the races?” “I don't think his outfit would have been all that out-of-place at the races, based on the couple of times I've gone to them. You would definitely notice the stark whiteness of it all, but you'd just as quickly forget about him in the sea of other white and pale grey-outfitted gentlemen. I would have just walked right on by him if he'd said nothing to me.” Author's note: Caspian's comment about laying on a hospital bed with this “Mr Trilby” leaning over him is interesting. The subsequent whistle/screaming sounds are also often reported with UFO encounters. I asked a further question about this part of the dream: “The hospital bed you thought you were laying on in the dream – could you have been waking up at that point and included your own-bed experience in the dream?” “I could well have been, and I did think of that when I was talking to Mum about it afterwards. The only thing that gives me pause in that suggestion is that I woke up in a different position to how I'd been laying on the hospital bed: I found myself laying on my side facing my bedroom wall without any pillows under me, and with my duvet partially covering me. In the dream, I was laying on the hospital bed on my back looking up at the ceiling, with my head propped up against a pillow and no sheets over me, with my fingers against a cool frame or railing on either side of the bed. Those details may be irrelevant however, since it might just be that positions you dream of being in don't have to parallel exactly your actual position and state. I would say as well, that the sudden transition to being on the hospital bed was the only 'jump in scene' I can recall in the entire dream, with everything else (besides the sudden appearance and disappearance of Mr. Trilby, and that portal in the clouds) having been a seemingly continuous series of events.” Orb Photographs In an Email from the end of 2019 Caspian described witnessing and photographing another orb of light pass over his house. “I managed to take some more photographs of a similar object to the one that passed over the house before, which I sent you pictures of. To the naked eye it appeared as a gold and green-rayed ball of light, which then became somewhat more crescent shaped as it passed over the trees on the other side of our front garden. I had my window open and its flight overhead wasn't accompanied by any noise, nor were there any flashing lights on its underside like you'd see on a plane or helicopter, so I decided to take as many photos as I could. The shape behind the light was difficult to make out, but in the photos it initially appears like a fuzzy white blob (you can barely make out a gold halo of light above it and a green halo underneath it) then becomes a little more clear, though it's still too small to make out as much detail as I wish I could. My phone wasn't giving me the option to record a video for some reason, so I took a couple of burst photos just as it was about to fly above the house. The last one records it just as it suddenly did a warp speed blip out of sight – it's literally there in one moment and gone the next. When I showed it to Mum, she remarked on how its sudden acceleration and disappearance was just like the ones we'd watched flying over this house on New Years' Eve, 2012. I'll attach the photos I took of it to another email. Even if despite the size of the object in the photos it can be identified as something man-made or mundane, it's still worth recording what passes over this house just in case!” The photographs Caspian took all look near identical to one another and show a white orb of light: In August 2020 Caspian managed to take some further photographs of a similar object. “I recently had another sighting of one of the lights that passes over the Close that I was able to capture in a couple of photographs, though one of them didn't focus well. I wish I'd been able to take it sooner since it passed over quite low and was a beautiful radiant gold-minty green mix of colours, but by the time I'd scrambled to grab my phone and rush to my window and open it to take a picture it was going off toward the town and it's come out in the photographs as very small. As always, no sound accompanied it.” Below are the two photographs which Caspian sent to me. Besides a few sightings of those lights, which have all occurred between the hours of 10:30pm and 2:30am whenever I've been awake to see them, not much else of note has happened here” Family Experiences I asked Caspian questions about experiences that other members of his family have had. He responded saying “I sadly doubt that any of my family members here will be open to talking to you about anything they've experienced, but I don't think Mum will mind talking about it. My little sister has social anxiety so she won't be able to talk with you directly, but you can ask her questions through mum. How open my little brother would be to participating in this, I'm not sure.” After speaking with his mother he got back to me with the information she had shared with him. Anne's Experiences “Mum remembers how one night when she was about three years old she woke up and heard the voice of a little girl saying to her, ‘Come outside and play in the garden with me!” She looked up to see the girl standing by her bed. Mum had a strong feeling that she wasn't to go with her, and that it wasn't safe to do so, so she replied, ‘No, I'm not allowed! It's night-time.’ ‘Oh, just come and play with me, down at the bottom of the garden!’ The house had a brick garden path that terminated at a high brick wall with another garden beyond it, so mum tried to interpret what the little girl had said as ‘at the end of the garden’ because ‘gardens have no bottoms’ (unless it's under the ground!) Mum repeated that her ‘mommy and daddy would be very angry and will smack me,’ at which the little girl exclaimed, ‘Ugh!’ and stamped her foot, then pulled mum's hair viciously. Mum screamed out because it hurt, and my grandmother and grandfather came rushing into her room to ask what was going on. Mum told them, ‘It was the little girl; she pulled my hair because I wouldn't go out to play with her!’ Mum remembers that she was holding the right-hand side of her head where she'd felt her hair being pulled. My grandmother told her, ‘Don't be silly, there's nobody here!’ She then looked under her bed, which mum said she thought at the time was ‘a very silly thing to do’ – even at that age mum understood that she was simply humouring her, in order to get her to quieten down and go back to sleep. The following morning, when mum awoke and climbed out of bed, she saw a clump of her hair on the floor right underneath where she'd been laying. After my great-grandmother passed away, my mum, her brother, my grandmother and my grandfather all moved from their cottage next to the White House to a bungalow in Orchard Lane; while they were living there, my grandfather sadly passed away. A couple of days later mum was sitting on her bed reading, in an attempt to distract herself from her grief and sadness at her situation now that her dad was gone, when she saw ‘a ball of silver, sparkling lights’ appear above her sink-mirror that slowly moved away from the mirror across the wall, then hovered over her bedroom doorway. The lights then came and hovered in front of mum's wardrobe at the foot of her bed. She jumped off her bed and ran out of her room to look for my grandmother (who was in the bathroom). She told her ‘Mum, mum, dad's in my room!’ (Mum recalls that she ‘just knew’ it was her dad), but my grandmother replied angrily ‘Don't tell lies! Your dad is not in your room! Why would he visit you, when he hasn't visited me? It's me he would want to see, not you!’ Mum went back to bed and hid herself under her blankets, pretending to be asleep. A moment later she distinctly felt someone ‘adult-sized’ sit down on her bed; she could hear them breathing as though they were right next to her. She peeped out over the top of her blanket, and though she couldn't see anyone there, there was ‘a rounded indent’ in her bed where someone invisible was sitting down on the sheets. Mum was very frightened, so she said the Lord's Prayer in her head, and she thinks the entity eventually went away because she wouldn't talk to it. That week at school mum's friend Marie, whose mother was a Spiritualist, told her that her mother Cynthia was upset because my grandfather's spirit kept visiting her every night, as he was worried about mum and needed to know that she was alright! Mum said that since she'd never known anything but paranormal activity all her life she thought that such things were normal, especially since Marie and her mum had also experienced similar things all their lives as well, so she told Marie about seeing the sparkling lights. The next day Marie's mum said to her ‘When your dad comes back again, tell him that you're alright and he'll go away; he just wants to know that you're alright.’ Very shortly thereafter, mum was once again reading in her room when she felt very strongly that there was ‘a presence’ at the foot of her bed. She started to feel very frightened and ‘just knew inside’ – an inner knowing – that she was going to see something manifest there. She also knew that it was her dad. Just as she saw a cloudy shape starting to form at the foot of her bed that was brown-grey in colour, she called out ‘Dad, dad, is that you? Dad, you're frightening me! I'm alright, so you can go now.’ The cloudy shape disappeared immediately. Mum also recalled a time when Marie came round and they went out into the fields and woodland at Woodlands Avenue to play together, going all the way round the track to the Bourne. She and Marie were standing by the metal fence there when Marie suddenly told mum to stand back away from it because an ‘angry, misty shape’ was standing on the other side that wanted her to step back. Mum insisted that she wasn't scared of it and that she wanted to climb over the fence to prove it, but Marie refused to let her, saying that the entity would ‘have her’ if she dared to do so. Mum's teacher didn't believe Marie's claim about what she saw, but later that Autumn as mum and Marie were walking with some of their other classmates through the woodland on the other side of the fence they heard ‘bom, bom’ sounds as though stones were being thrown at them and hitting the leaves on the ground. The other kids shouted for everyone to run so nobody would be hit by whoever was throwing the stones, but mum was belligerent about wanting to see who or what the culprit was. Marie insisted that she shouldn't be so foolhardy and that they had to run because ‘it was coming’. As they both ran together, one of their classmates fell into a square hole that had been dug in the road but climbed out and carried on running; he'd been quite a distance ahead of them. Mum tripped and fell into the same hole after him, and went in it up to her waist. Marie was horrified and tried to help her climb out, saying that they had to get away from the woods as swiftly as possible. Marie managed to help get mum up out of the hole, and they all ran back through the estate to Marie's cottage, bypassing the fields. When mum was older, while she continued to walk through those fields and cross the railway line there to go to school, she never went into those woods again. I mentioned before that prior to our spending time in the hostel in Chichester, after which we moved to Churchmead Close in Lavant, I recalled that mum and my birth-father briefly lived in an apartment above a department store – apparently a lot of poltergeist-type activity occurred there, and had been happening even before mum and my birth-father moved in. She felt like whatever resided at the apartment didn't like anyone else being there. Mum particularly remembers an instance when she was in the apartment's bathroom and was startled by the sudden appearance of a man ‘wearing a big, brown felt hat with long feathers in it and sporting brown, curly-wavy hair that went down to his shoulders’ in the mirror behind her. By the time she'd whipped round to ask him who he was and why he was dressed like that, the entity had disappeared. She did some research and discovered that the building had been built on the site of a civil war battle between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads (it had been a Cavalier stronghold at the time), and that the way the man had been dressed was in the attire of a Cavalier soldier.” Uncle's Experience “When mum's brother was little and they were still living next to the White House, he told mum and my grandmother that he'd been lying in bed when he saw a legion of Roman soldiers wearing leather tunics with ‘some sort of helmets’ on their heads march through his room out of thin air. The ones at the front were carrying flags, and some were on horseback. He watched as they came through his bedroom door and the wall beside it, proceeded past his bed and walked through the wall on the other side of his room into the White House. He told mum that it really had an impact on him seeing something so incredible and unbelievable, like a window into the past. He said that he could hear the horse's hooves and the snorting of their breath, as well as the feet of the soldiers marching, which was accompanied by a ‘sort of clinking sound’ as they walked. My grandmother also related a similar account to me while we were eating lunch at Sainsbury's, but she didn't mention my uncle; in her version of the event, the first thing that could be seen was a group of lights coming up the road outside the cottages, which revealed themselves as they came closer to be torches or lamps held by numerous Roman foot-soldiers and ones on horseback. She said that the sound of their footsteps and shouts were very noisy as they marched by. They disappeared seemingly into thin air as they went past the cottages, until the last of them had passed through some invisible veil and the night was once again still and silent.” Grandmother's Experiences “Mum remembered my grandmother telling her about something that happened to her when she stayed the night at the White House, just after mum was born and when my great-grandfather was still alive: next to the bedroom that my great-grandfather had given her was a bathroom solely for my grandmother's use. When she went to go into the bathroom that night however, she couldn't turn the handle of the door, until suddenly it came loose and she was able to enter the bathroom. When she tried to leave the bathroom again the door refused to open; it was like ‘a force was pushing against the door or holding it shut’. As she tried to turn the door handle, she could feel it being pulled in the opposite direction! She became very frightened and called out to my great-granddad to help her, and just as she heard footsteps coming up the stairs the door ‘flew out of her hand and banged back against the wall’, causing her to jump out of her skin. She remembers that there were certain rooms in the White House that were always ‘icy cold’, no matter what the temperature was outside or in the rest of the house, and that she never wanted to go into them." Grandfather's Experiences “Back when mum was living next to the White House in Emsworth, she recalls that one night her dad awoke to hear a policeman calling up the stairs to see if anyone was home. He'd been on patrol around the area when he noticed the front door to their house was wide open and he could hear the sound of a piano being played inside, even though it was night-time so such an act constituted indecent noise pollution. He was perplexed and pale at the fact that when he entered the house to ask whoever was playing to kindly stop, he witnessed the piano keys playing themselves with no-one seated there! Granddad explained that he was certain he'd closed and locked the front door that night, and that nobody would have been downstairs playing the piano at that time. The policeman apparently just wished him a good night and left! On another night, granddad wasn't feeling well and he was sat downstairs in his rocking chair in the middle of the living room with his eyes closed and his head lowered, when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He thought that it was mum going to the toilet (the only one in the house was behind the kitchen downstairs), so he called out to ask if she was alright; he didn't get an answer. He opened his eyes and looked up to see a little girl in a Victorian dress standing right in front of him. She simply stood there looking at him, then proceeded to walk right through him and through the wall behind him into the adjacent cottage, which belonged to mum's grandmother (who lived there alone – she lived in cottage number 1, while mum lived in cottage number 2). Granddad told mum about the experience he had the first time he died from an asthma attack, in which he found himself ‘floating on a cloud of beautiful scent of honey and flowers’ in a peaceful place where a being ‘made of white light” was standing before him which he believed to be God. The being told him that it wasn't yet his time to permanently leave his life and that he would be given six more months to live so that he could conclude all of his remaining business on earth before he died again – indeed, he passed away from another asthma attack a second (and final) time not only six months to the very day he met that being, but even in the very same hour! He was apparently at peace in the weeks leading up to his death, believing that what he had experienced before was what awaited him on the other side, since he had been a Christian all his days and he felt sure that his failings and mistakes in life had been forgiven. The night that granddad died a second time, mum was staying at her neighbour's house (a woman who had cared deeply about granddad) with her daughter in their room, when she suddenly woke up and sat bolt upright, exclaiming that her dad had just died. Her neighbour's daughter, who never liked mum, dismissed what she said as patent nonsense because she couldn't possibly know if he was dead, but not long after that there was a knock at the front door and her neighbour opened it to find a policeman standing there to deliver the news that her dad had just passed away. Mum asked when it had happened, and learned that it was at the same time as she'd woken up and known inside that he was dead.” Great-Grandmother's Experience “Mum remembers how very often they'd go to visit her grandmother in the White House next door, only to hear her talking to someone in the living room – when they'd open the door there'd be no-one there but her, sitting in her chair. One time she asked my great-grandmother ‘Grandma, aren't you lonely living here by yourself?’ (Her husband had died), and she replied ‘Oh no, dear! There's a little girl who always comes to visit me and talks to me so I'm never lonely.’ Mum said that upstairs in her grandmother's house and especially down the corridor beyond her bedroom door ‘the atmosphere felt so scary and creepy’ that she ‘couldn't physically step any further into the house’. Mum couldn't even go into her grandmothers' bedroom because it frightened her; it had a ‘funny atmosphere’ that mum could sense when she was little, and she felt intimidated by the huge, black wooden cross that hung over her grandmother's bed.” Aunt's Experience “I asked my auntie (mum's half-sister) what she could recall about her 'dream' she had when she was little, and she said that when she was between the ages of two and four (so sometime in 1986-1988, since she's about six and a half years older than me) she woke up one night to see a ‘little person’ with ‘an ugly face’ (or ‘an ugly look on his face’ – she was doing things in the kitchen at the time she was talking to me, and I couldn't quite make that part out) drop down onto her bed from her open window. She said that it was ‘like something out of Rupert Bear’ and that it ‘pricked her heel with a needle’ before clambering back up and out of her window and disappearing into the night. She said she's never had another dream like that since then (she believes that the whole experience was a nightmare, just a product of her imagination as a child). She was living in my grandmother's house here on Rumbolds Close in Chichester at the time, in the bedroom across the landing from my own.” Little Cousin's Experience “Interestingly, I'd forgotten that last year one of my little cousins (my auntie's daughter) told me she believed she'd been visited by faeries one night because she'd seen ‘little shadows’ while lying in bed and heard whispered voices coming from the upstairs landing outside her room. She concluded that it must have been the helpers of the Tooth Fairy, even though it had been two weeks before that night that she'd placed a tooth under her pillow and already had it exchanged for a pound coin. While I personally believe she may very well have had an experience involving small humanoid entities, playing sceptic it's also possible that my auntie and uncle were on the stairs quietly talking to each other at the time, hence why the shadows appeared so short. She didn't mention anything about wings, which surprisingly didn't register with her as an odd detail at the time, since like almost all children in recent decades her mental image of fairies is of tiny, winged people. Because she still believes in things like unicorns and Santa Claus one could easily dismiss her experience as something imaginary, but like my auntie she's incredibly honest and down-to-earth, and isn't prone to making up stories. She's not mentioned having any other similar experiences since then. She lives in my auntie and uncle's current house in Fishbourne, close to the Roman archaeological site there.” Birth-Father's Feelings “Though mum can't remember my birth-father ever mentioning having had any experiences of a paranormal nature while they were together, she recalled that he was ‘spooked’ about the fact that the property in Churchmead Close had been built on land (especially church property) which formerly belonged to a graveyard because he believed that it was a bad thing to move graves, or to build anything of a non-sacred nature on top of them. He was concerned that if anyone had been buried underneath the house it would result in ‘spiritual repercussions’. His personal faith was a combination of Church of England Christian and Spiritualist, so he firmly believed in a form of conscious existence after death.” Conclusions Caspian’s Conclusion Caspian is sincerely adamant that he has encountered many different types of beings over the course of his lifetime, but he adds that he has always seen them using the same sorts of symbols, which he thinks is the form their language takes. Similarly, their technology has always looked much the same to him: lots of corridors, rooms, seats and screens. Though there have been differences in colour or configuration, he likens this to iPhones and Android phones – the same sort of device, simply developed by a different company. Author's Note: Most of these figures are like human beings in many respects. They have 2 arms, 2 legs, a body, a face, the equivalent of eyes to see with, the equivalent of hands to grasp things with. He has also reflected on how the different beings have treated him over the years. While the women he met when he was being abducted as a child understood him better than he understood himself, and were the most empathetic and caring beings he has ever encountered in his life, other entities such as the floppy eared ones seemed to care little about him and to have no comprehension of the pain that they caused him to experience in his chest wall. Unlike the patient women of his childhood, the pecan-headed being was impatient; the being with the insect-like arms that passed by Caspian in the corridor of its craft was openly friendly, but the ones which had been standing on either side of the throne in the room beyond had felt almost like machines. Even though the being which removed the object from Caspian's hand in 2013 hadn't talked to him, it had still felt alive to him “in the same way as a lion, or cat, or a person does.” Caspian thinks that all of these differences between the beings are really bizarre. He doesn't know if they all believe in the same things, or what their religion is; nor could he say for sure if they were in fact all ultimately working together. For him, everything that has happened constitutes a confusing mixture of signals. I asked Caspian for his overall thoughts on the unusual dreams and experiences he has had over the years. “I do contemplate my experiences and theologically ponder on elements of them, but I wouldn't say I worry about them – there's nothing I can do about them, really; if they're just dreams, they'll come as dreams do, and if they're anything more than dreams then such things will simply occur whenever they occur. I realise that might seem like a bit of an odd resignation considering what else I've experienced in life, but at the end of the day... I'm sure you'll understand what I mean when I'd simply shrug and say that I've got family to care for, in the sense that life goes on regardless of it all! As long as things aren't happening to my fiancée and her children as well, and they aren't negatively affecting the rest of my family negatively or interacting with them in a harmful way, I've grown used to just carrying on whenever the out-of-the-ordinary occurs. As for the objects themselves... I still have so many questions about them. I can only presume they're coming from the southeast coast, perhaps even from France, but it's just as puzzling where they go. They're air traffic, so unless they just dematerialize into the aether or they're simply undetectable to radar, there's got to be someone tracking them or observing them elsewhere along their routes, and they've got to be making efforts to avoid collisions with other aircraft. If they come from the waters of the channel, there's got to be someone who is detecting the movements of underwater objects that has data on them. If they're coming in from space, again, there's surely got to be someone tracking that. Do they just "spring out of holes in the ground" (to quote Gimli from the Lord of the Rings)? Does every flight have a mission, do they go to other people? Do I just happen to see them occasionally because the house I'm in is situated where they can be seen on their route - or do they intend for me to see them, and maybe others as well? It seems there could well be spiritual and psychical reasons why phenomena manifest in people's lives at times, but I'm not convinced that's the whole picture. I don't believe the ufonauts are all just demons of different sorts, and while it's worth shelving as a possibility in terms of the whole "ultraterrestrial intelligence" notion, I'm not sold on the idea that all paranormal and ufological phenomena are wholly deceptive or evil; and I can't square up all of my experiences with the view that UFOs are just trying to lead people away from Christianity specifically. To be honest... it comes across to me as a reactionary attempt to fit a square peg into a round hole; to resolve an incompatibility between a predominant theological understanding and things that exist in the world which often give every impression of being outside of that sphere, and have knowledge or perspectives which contradict it. It seems to likewise be tied in to fear of a rapidly and radically technologically changing world, and a theological objection to progressivism and liberalism - UFOs are just seen as symptomatic of a far larger problem that threatens what many believe to be the right way of living, and viewing the Universe. It's easy to just dismiss anyone who disagrees as a pawn of deceiving entities and to double down with conspiracy upon conspiracy about their agenda, to demonise anything that isn't like you and that you don't understand (I was once guilty of it too, with respect to some of the ufonauts, though I'm still not sure all of them understand human beings very well); but in the end I think it's not helpful to be that way, nor is it offering an answer that can satisfactorily explain and accurately represent all aspects of the phenomena that occur. I asked Caspian how he thought about being hypnotically regressed to see if any further details could be recollected. This thoughts on this are as follows. “I don't know how comfortable I feel about it, both because I'm afraid of potentially recovering any more memories of events that have left me with a phobia and also because I don't like the idea of being put into such a vulnerable state by another person I don't know. If I underwent it, it would have to be with someone that was highly professional and wouldn't attempt to insert false suggestions or abuse my being in a state of hypnosis. I don't want to come away from it with false or altered memories. But I realise that if I don't ever remember more, I may never know what actually happened. I'm also not helping to contribute any potentially useful data if I'm too afraid to try. Recent round my auntie’s house I saw a bathtub submarine that my littlest cousin owns, and found it difficult to even look at it without feeling a slight sense of panic at its appearance; it's absurd that I should react that way. My biggest problem really would be getting to someone who could perform hypnotic regression in the first place. I think it's better to be brave even if we don't get anything out of it in the end that's in any way helpful. I can at least say that I tried it. And, indeed, I remember that you have the same concerns about it as I do.” Author’s Conclusion Caspian has had an impressive number of varied fascinating experiences and has provided a lot of information about them, with some corroborating evidence from his mother. Inevitably it is difficult to explain what has been going on with this family over the last 25+ years, or why they have been subjected to it. Caspian has certainly experienced most of the different phenomena, both here and in New Zealand, especially regarding the UFOs, abductions and strange dreams. However, other members of his family have experienced some of the paranormal events when he has not been with them. It is not clear whether there is one individual who is the focus for the phenomena – Caspian – or perhaps it includes his mother is as well, given her history of such experiences before Caspian was born. Caspian reports that over the last 12 months or so he has experienced fewer incidents. Mostly he still observes UFOs in the sky near their house. His mother and family members in New Zealand have continued to have paranormal incidents happen to them. He does not know what the various beings he has described were, or what they wanted with him, but he is keen to find out more. If a hypnotic regression session can be arranged, there may be updates to this case report. References Intersect: A Former NASA Astronomer Breaks his Silence about UFOs, by Marian Rudnyk, published by Spacetiki Publications, 2019. ISBN – 978-0-9910474-2-0 Available from Amazon. Sharpless, Brian A.; Barber, Jacques P. (October 2011). "Lifetime Prevalence Rates of Sleep Paralysis: A Systematic Review". Sleep Medicine Reviews. 15 (5): 311–315. doi:10.1016/j.smrv.2011.01.007. ISSN 1087-0792. PMC 3156892. PMID 21571556. Copyright © Ian Jones 2020

Return to England At the start of 2011, Anne suggested that Caspian should try spending some time back in England, since he was feeling homesick for his mother's family there and she suspected that his health would have a better chance of improving if he was in a more familiar environment and away from his stepfather. They arranged with their family for him to return to Chichester for a few months from August 2011 - January 2012. During that time, he stayed at his grandmother's house on Rumbolds Close. Unmarked Helicopter All was fine for the first 24 hours after Caspian arrived, but the following day when he was able to stand out in the garden for a little while he saw a helicopter flying over the industrial area on Quarry Lane and Gravel Lane, across the railway tracks next to the house. It ultimately came to a stop over his grandmother's back garden, hovering there for 20 minutes! Caspian reports that it was jet-black, with darkened windows and no visible markings, and that it had a spotlight underneath it; it made the sound of a normal helicopter. He doesn't know what model it was. He waved at it, and shortly after doing so the strange aircraft begun to move away, flying toward Cleveland Road. Though she had noticed it at first, his grandmother tried to ignore the helicopter and didn't want to talk about it when Caspian asked her why she thought it might have been hovering above their garden for so long. Silver UFOs A few months later, at about 3pm he noticed a plain, silver-coloured object slowly coming from the Southwest over Gravel Lane, glistening in the sunlight. It was tipping from side-to-side in a wobbling fashion as it repeatedly moved in a figure-of-eight pattern at about 500ft. It was wedge-shaped, with a raised, triangular-shaped area on top and a fat antenna protruding out of the back. The windows he was watching it out of were closed, so he couldn't hear any sound coming from the object. He estimates that it was about as big as a single-seater private plane. Eventually it turned and went away, gliding slowly toward Quarry Lake. A few weeks later, Caspian saw another strange object which he describes as having been like a small jet plane with forward-pointing wings and no tailfin that silently flew high above the back garden, gliding speedily in the direction of either Del Quay or Bosham. Like the wedge-shaped object, he judges it to have been about the size of a small passenger plane. He doesn't understand how it was possibly able to fly, considering the orientation of its wings. Unsettling Atmosphere Anne, Grace and Peter all flew back to England for a Christmas visit at the end of 2011, planning on accompanying Caspian on his return flight back to New Zealand. They had agreed on Damian's insistence that they would stay overnight at his mother's house on Christmas Eve, though she had never been nice to them. While they were at her residence in Portsmouth, the family all remember experiencing a mild earthquake that caused the tops of the streetlamps outside to sway. They felt as though they were being invisibly watched the entire time, and while Caspian's siblings were downstairs with their grandmother he and Anne kept themselves confined to the living room on the second floor, setting up bedding for themselves in that room despite several bedrooms in the house being available. They all hated the atmosphere on the third floor and in the downstairs bathroom and adjacent food storage room, and couldn't bear to be in either place for long. Caspian reports “We were only there for one night, but I visited the house many times when we'd been living in England prior to 2008 and always felt like something was in the house that couldn't be seen, but which was always watching me and my step-cousins. Mum believed it was the ghost of my step-grandfather, though I wasn't sure of that since he was always nice to me when he was alive and whatever was in the house felt heavy and negative. The feeling was worst in the bedroom and adjacent toilet that used to belong to my stepfather and his brothers.” Anne added, “All I can say is that the property in question was at least 400 years old and had a very unsettling atmosphere. The nicest room was on the first floor. It was all painted white and its shape reminded me of being in the captain's quarters on HMS Victory. The rest of the house seemed very dark, both physically and spiritually. The worst area was my husband's old bedroom and the adjoining cloakroom. It was the only toilet on that floor, and having to use it at night was a very unnerving experience. You were constantly aware that you were being watched. The children wouldn't go in there unless I went with them because they felt too scared to go alone.” New Year's Eve UFOs By New Year's Eve the family were back in Chichester, and during the last few minutes leading up to midnight Anne, Peter and Caspian were upstairs, looking out of his bedroom windows at the fireworks and Chinese lanterns that were drifting by. Alongside these celebratory displays were four odd, fuzzy circular objects that they spotted moving around in the night sky. One of them passed behind the spire of the Cathedral, another two disappeared behind a tree to the west, and the fourth moved slowly in a north-easterly direction above the houses across from them. Anne managed to take several photos of the fourth object, which at the time came out quite clearly; Caspian has made a drawing of one of the photographs she took: The objects glided smoothly and silently over the city, having a deep red colour with either an orange or golden coloured centre. Unlike the lanterns, their light didn't flicker or wobble. The last one that was visible to them smoothly changed its course and began to fly in a south-easterly direction, when it suddenly accelerated and zipped away in the blink of an eye, “at warp speed”. They rushed out of Caspian's room and across the upstairs landing to the bedroom that Grace was staying in, to look out of its windows and see if they could spot the object speeding away, but other than some distant fireworks nothing was visible. Throughout the course of these events, Grace had been on her own in that bedroom, and though she hadn't seen many fireworks she told Anne that she'd been watching what at first she'd thought was a streetlamp or a bright, pale yellowish-white star, which suddenly began to move upwards into the sky on a diagonal trajectory. As it ascended, the luminous object split apart into three smaller ones, all of which were of the same appearance, then re-combined back into a single object, split apart into three smaller ones again, came back together, and finally accelerated upwards into the night sky and disappeared. She thought that the lights must have been a military test of some sort, and Caspian agreed, telling her about the objects the rest of them had been watching from his bedroom windows. They discussed what they'd seen the night before the family was scheduled to return to New Zealand. Anne was a bit shaken by the whole series of events and was sure that what they'd seen hadn't been Chinese lanterns at all. Caspian reports that on that night, his mum's character seemed to change; she became cold and distant, insisting that Caspian had to return to New Zealand and couldn't extend his stay. She added that if he didn't return, he shouldn't expect to be welcomed back in Dunedin with open arms. Caspian had been planning to reschedule his return flight until a few months into the new year, but he was now worried about losing his mother's love if he chose to do so. His aunt Belle helped him pack his suitcase so that he would be able to go with Anne and his siblings to the airport early the following morning, and though she tried to talk to Anne about how worried her behaviour had made Caspian, she said it was as though she had become a different person and couldn't be reasoned with – she simply deflected everything Belle said and accused her of manipulating Caspian into wanting to stay, threatening to never speak to her again if she didn't let him go back with them to New Zealand! In August 2020, Caspian’s mum wrote: “My only experience with UFOs was in the UK was when we were all together at my mother’s house on New Year’s Eve. There I saw a red object that appeared to be moving very slowly and steadily that suddenly shot off at what I can only describe as ‘warp speed’. I’ve never seen anything move like that before – it was astonishing.” Anomalous Orange Light Caspian managed one last walk around Churchmead Close before going to sleep that night, getting as far as St. George's Church across the road before turning and walking back to his grandmother's house. As he passed by the railway crossing near the Close, he saw something fly over the tracks that his mind simply dismissed as being an illuminated helicopter, even though it was completely silent and had no rotor blades, looking more like an orange blob. He later wondered why his brain had treated it as something mundane and unimportant when it hadn't looked or sounded like a real helicopter at all. He reports that his mother's behaviour changed once again when they were approaching San Francisco airport on their return flight: while she had been stand-offish that entire morning, she suddenly seemed to not only return to her normal self but also had no memory whatsoever of anything that had happened the night before! She apologised to Caspian for what she'd said to him and Belle, but still felt it was for the best that he was coming back with them to New Zealand. Grey Faces Shortly before they returned to Dunedin, Damian found new work in Canterbury and began to live away from the family home in a rented property in Methven, which Anne, Caspian and his siblings travelled to and from on weekend stays. Sometime in August of 2012 Caspian was in the small bathroom of Damian's apartment, sitting on the toilet facing the door, which was not able to be locked. Suddenly he saw three faces manifest in front of the door, staring at him without moving. They had thin mouths and large, black eyes with dark grey pupils. He was frightened and screamed, and Anne rushed in from outside to see what was wrong. The bathroom door had apparently locked itself and couldn't be opened! She called in through the door while trying to unjam it to ask what was going on, but Caspian wasn't able to make any sounds in reply. He didn't know what to do. One of the faces grinned slightly at him, then all of them disappeared at once. The bathroom door suddenly unlocked itself and his mum was able to open it, finding Caspian pale and tearful. At the time he didn't know what Greys were, and he doesn't recall ever seeing anything like them before in any of his previous experiences, so his mind simply classified them as some form of malevolent spirit. Further Dunedin Experiences UFOs On Drive Home The family were driving back from a visit to Rakaia Gorge on Sunday evening, planning to pass through Methven and carry on back to Dunedin, when Elise noticed that a couple of the stars in the evening sky above them seemed to be moving. James looked out of her window and spotted them as well, one orange and the other white. Damian began to tense up upon hearing this, so Anne changed the subject until they got back into Methven and dropped him off at his apartment, continuing back home along the Inland Scenic Route 72. They were singing along to music when Caspian once again noticed the two stars out of his passenger's-side window, keeping pace with them high above the countryside as they drove toward Mayfield. They debated whether it was a perspective illusion or if the stars were in fact satellites, until the two lights veered off in a smooth turn to the right and passed above the car, drifting out over a large field. They noticed what at first looked to all of them like a massive plane hovering above the open farmland against the backdrop of the Ashburton mountains, which Caspian discerned to be a black rectangle with 4 white, illuminated squares along its side – an identification which Grace agreed with, while Peter could only make out white and red lights. Caspian says there was indeed a single red light at each end of the rectangular object, flashing or brightly pulsing about once a second. The orange and white stars seemed to be flying toward it. Further up the road on Bridge Street, after they had crossed over the Rangitata River, Caspian saw another flat, box-shaped dark object with a single red light on each corner in the direction of Mt Peel, from which they were about 7 miles away. He lost sight of it when they went past some trees. After getting back to Dunedin, as they drove down Southern Highway 1 at about 10:30 pm, Caspian noticed a silver, oval-shaped object surrounded by a misty or foggy green halo over the car park in the St Claire beach area. From his perspective it was about the size of the cars he could see over the ridge. Anne and Grace saw it as well when he pointed it out to them, while Peter was asleep at the time. None of the family saw anything else after they continued downhill and Caspian's line of sight of St Claire beach was interrupted by a row of trees alongside the road. He wondered at the time if the strange things they'd seen that night were all military aircraft. Cylindrical UFO Though he can't remember what month it occurred in, Caspian reports that one evening, approaching dusk, he and his mum were driving to the PAK'n’SAVE supermarket along Andersons Bay Rd in South Dunedin, which is close to the Andersons Bay inlet, and had stopped at the traffic lights next to Staples and the Warehouse when he noticed a single long, pen-shaped object with three segments in the middle in the sky above the car dealerships. It was silver in colour and had a single white light on each end, both of which were constantly illuminated. Caspian describes how it was making a “drifting round, banking in one place” motion, simply “sat in the same place, turning”. It glinted as it rotated. The traffic light turned green and they had to turn in to the Warehouse car park, causing Caspian to lose sight of the object. Coloured Lights Anne, Caspian and his siblings also noticed strange objects in the evening and night skies above their family home in Dunedin. They would often go out onto the deck which overlooks their back garden and look up at the stars together, and on one night they noticed a particularly large, bright red star which they thought was a planet, until it began to drift away down over the horizon. On other nights, Caspian and his family saw what looked like “big, moving stars” which could come in different colours: red, orange, yellow, green, white or blue. The family enjoyed discussing what they might be, since they didn't seem to appear or behave like satellites. The thought that the objects could have been extra-terrestrial in origin never crossed their mind, since they didn't believe in alien life at the time, instead considering all UFO-related phenomena to be either demonic in nature or man-made. Damian also noticed these objects on occasion, simply putting them down to satellites or orbital debris. Caspian says that he remembers them just drifting off into the distance, often dimming or fading into invisibility against the night sky, or making gentle curves, but Anne says she saw them making a series of Z-shapes.In almost every instance the strange lights seemed to be heading out toward the Peninsula or the ocean, even though the only landmass beyond it is Antarctica. Sometimes the lights appeared to flash at each other as they drifted past, or would flare up and then dim again as though they were indeed orbiting objects catching the sunlight. Angelic Being Caspian reports that in early 2012 he had a vivid dream in which he was shown a building in a part of Dunedin that he'd never been to before, which he learned was owned by a Pentecostal church. He was instructed by a humanoid being with olive-brown coloured skin, dressed in a brilliant white outfit and with “Russian features,” to go there and attend one of its evening services on a particular night. Caspian was assured that he would be warmly welcomed and that he would find “many friends and a home” there. As a sign that he could trust the being's word, Caspian was told the name of the church's student pastor at the time, and was given three specific things that she would say and do during the course of that evening's service. When he woke up later that morning, Caspian told Anne about his dream and she was determined that they should drive to that part of the city and see if any of what he had dreamt about was actually there. After driving around for a few minutes, they managed to find the church on Harrow Street, and were convinced that what Caspian had experienced the previous night had been more than just a dream when they noticed that its logo contained a stylized palm tree, which is something that Caspian had been shown by the strange being (which he had taken to be an angel). The only discrepancy between the dream and reality was that Caspian had been told the name of the church was “Oasis”, when in fact its name was “Elim”. Two weeks later, they returned on the night that Caspian had been told to attend, and he plucked up the courage to go inside and see what would happen. He says that during the course of the evening service all the signs that he had been given came to pass, the last of which was that during a time of worship the student pastor went up onto the stage to lead the congregation in prayer and said that she “felt from the Holy Spirit” that someone had been led to the church that night as a result of a dream, asking them to raise their hand if that was true. Caspian was the only person to raise his hand out of the almost 200 people who were present that night. He told her and several of the other congregants about what he had experienced when they came to greet him at the end of the service. He received such a friendly reception from many of the students there that he decided to stay, becoming baptised a few months later and entering into an internship with that church the following year, after successfully applying to its ministry training college in East Auckland. Caspian says he loved his time there, and that he spent a happy 12 months studying at the college and befriending the other students in his year group. He left home to begin flatting and went on to study theology and philosophy at Otago University the following year, though he wasn't able to complete several of the courses he took due to his health sharply declining halfway through 2014. Though he was able to sit two of his examinations (Ethics of Christianity and Interpreting the Old Testament), both of which he passed, he wasn't able to take the remaining four exams, and due to that –as well as his ill health– he wasn't allowed to return to the University. He had accrued a significant amount of debt from the studies he had already done as well, so he wasn't inclined to return and add to that. Notwithstanding this setback, he still feels that he learned a great deal during his time studying those courses, and it was supplemented by his flatmates and friends allowing him to study their course materials in neuroscience and psychology, as well as in other areas – all of which he thoroughly enjoyed. He had also gained a Certificate in Christian Ministry in 2013, so he didn't feel as though he'd come away from his studies with nothing to show for it. He reports that Anne was more disappointed than he was at the way things had turned out, since she'd had a dream when Caspian was 9 years old in which she saw him standing on stone steps outside a cathedral, having just graduated from University. She had always been confident that her dream had been a vision of the future, and became entirely convinced of it when she saw that the steps outside of the Anglican Cathedral in Dunedin were exactly the same as the ones she'd seen in that dream. Both Anne and Caspian wondered at why it hadn't ended up coming to pass. Caspian continued to try and serve in various capacities at Elim church until mid-2015, when his condition became so bad that he was told to take some time off. He says that he is still passionate about becoming a pastor. Craft Dreams Caspian reports that he had three weird dreams involving UFOs in October and November of 2013. In the first dream, he was looking out over open water towards a Polynesian island with a volcano, when a huge golden-yellow, domed saucer with stud-like protrusions around its rim descended from the clouds above and flew over the volcano. Just as it was disappearing from Caspian's sight behind the island, he woke up. Caspian believes it was three weeks later when he had a similar dream – this time, he felt it was set somewhere in Canada, likely in Banff National Park. He was sitting on a lake bank, looking at ragged, snow-streaked mountains across the water, when a dark grey UFO came down from the cloud cover above the lake: a thin, eye-shaped craft with windows and rotating lights in a pattern of different colours (blue-green, blue, red and yellow) underneath it. There were three blue-green lights in a triangular formation in the middle of the underside of the craft. He woke up just as it began to fly toward the mountains. Four weeks later, Caspian had a third dream featuring a UFO: he was back in England, standing in his grandmother's back garden at night-time, when a dark grey, drawing pin-shaped craft glided silently over the adjacent gardens to his left. It came to a stop above some trees just before it passed over Rumboldswyke School, emitting a thin red beam which it then whipped around and shone into Caspian's eyes, blinding him. Implant Removal The following month, close to Christmas, Caspian woke up unusually early in the morning (approaching sunrise) and was alarmed to see four figures standing quietly in his bedroom, looking down at him on his air bed. Three of the beings were about 4ft tall and were dressed in royal blue pullovers with collars and cuffs, all made of some sort of smooth, snug material. They had elephant grey, tree frog-like skin and rounded heads that tapered to a shallow peak or sagittal crest, with beady black eyes, flaps of skin on either side of their head like floppy ears, and wrinkle like folds where a human's nose and mouth would be expected to be. One of these bizarre entities was positioned in front of the wall to Caspian's right, while the other two were standing together at the back of his room, in front of the bedroom's windows. The fourth entity, which Caspian calls the “Pterodactyl Ghost” (after the monster from Scooby-Doo), was about 6ft tall and had a head shaped somewhat like a rock pick, with swampy-green skin and three large wrinkles on what was presumably its forehead. It had no visible eyes, but rather two bulges or ridges sticking out from either side of its head. The rest of its body was humanoid, with a lanky frame, and it was wearing a pullover which was the same colour and material as those which were being worn by the smaller entities, albeit with silver-coloured bands around its wrists in place of the cuffs. Behind the “Pterodactyl Ghost” was an eerie red glow, though Caspian couldn't see what was emitting it. This taller being was holding a pen-like surgical instrument with a triangular head, adorned with two metallic blades in an inverted “v” formation and a small hole between them, out of which extended a thin needle. This being either knelt or crouched down beside Caspian, who was unable to move any part of himself other than his head (which was propped up on his pillows), and somehow caused Caspian's left hand to levitate upwards and revolve so that his palm was facing it. It then pushed the blades of its implement into Caspian's palm and used them to tease away a small, triangular flap of skin, before gently pulling out the implement and then using its needle to remove a tiny, black, rice grain-shaped object from the flesh inside his hand. He says that the object it pulled out appeared smooth and had a “tortoiseshell” pattern on it, made up of hexagons of different sizes. Caspian can't recall feeling any pain or discomfort throughout the course of this procedure; emotionally, he felt a mixture of terror and curiosity toward the beings, and fascination at whatever it was that the taller one was doing. After removing the object from Caspian's hand, the being stood back up and he fell asleep. When he woke up later that morning, just before 10:30am, his hand ached painfully and the site around the v-shaped incision in his palm was red and sore. He was puzzled at the presence of the mark at first, since he couldn't work out how he'd managed to injure himself in that way. It wasn't until halfway through the day, while he was setting up the auditorium at Elim Church for an evening service, that he suddenly remembered what had happened earlier that morning. The size of the mark is about 6-7mm on each side and is toward the bottom of his palm, between the index and second fingers. It can be seen in these photographs: The following day, he showed the incision mark to one of the staff at the Otago University student's clinic and was advised to simply let it heal on its own, after it was cleaned with a small lemon-scented antiseptic swab. While it healed up as normal, leaving behind no more than a pale scar, and the apparent inflammation had died down by the end of that day, he later noticed a small, faint line about ½cm long that extended from the top of the incision. He thinks a record of his visit to the student's clinic may well be in his New Zealand medical records. Author’s note: Some people experience sleep paralysis. This is when they partially wake up in REM atonia, a state in which they are partially paralyzed and cannot move their limbs. When in sleep paralysis, people may also experience three common types of hallucinations: an intruder in the room with you, a crushing feeling on your chest or back, and a feeling of flying or levitating. Sleep paralysis is relatively uncommon, with about 7.6% of the general population having experienced it at least once. Although these hallucinations cannot cause physical damage, they may still be frightening. Given Caspian’s incision mark, it is not easy to label this as a case of sleep paralysis. Personal Changes Following this experience, Caspian reports that he felt different, both mentally and spiritually. His faith as a Christian changed, because for him the fundamentalist framework which had been instilled into him during his internship and ministry training had been shaken to its core. Though he was still disinterested in the subject of UFOs for the most part, he started to consider that there were other things “out there” beyond angels and God. He couldn't square up his experiences with any of the descriptions of demonic activity in biblical texts, nor could he deny what had happened to him simply to ease his cognitive dissonance. He found himself adopting a more laid back and accepting approach toward life, the sort of media he enjoyed, and people of other faiths, which was noticed by many at the church he attended and was generally looked upon very unfavourably indeed. Over the course of the following year, during his time studying theology and philosophy, his faith gradually became more progressive and liberal in form until certain of his theological stances were no longer reconcilable with those of his church peers. As a result, he began to lose many of the friends he'd made, and worried that his ministry training wouldn't go well. Author’s note: Following the reported removal of implants, some people do state that their personality/outlook on life changes and they develop new skills. Besides these changes, another significant one was that Caspian became known as a bit of a “seer” among those he still had favour with. Caspian says that he repeatedly got things right about people when he prayed for them, feeling “impressions” of information about people's health and situations that were going in their lives which he couldn't ordinarily have known about. He assumed that he was getting these insights from God. Certain members of the life group he was part of at the time considered his abilities to be demonic in origin because of his previous experiences, though Caspian also feels that some of them were simply jealous because they didn't experience the things he did themselves. He also began to experience dreams with apparent biblical symbolism in them. He didn't always understand their interpretation, but took the dreams he was unsure about to his senior pastor because he felt they were important. In several cases he was informed that what he'd dreamed about related to teachings which were espoused in apocryphal works, which Caspian had steered clear of reading because it had been strongly discouraged by the rest of the leadership at his church, who considered them to be full of outright falsehoods. However, his senior pastor felt that it would be a good idea for Caspian to read some of them, to enlighten him about some of the things he was being shown. He wasn't sure what to make of all that Caspian experienced because it was contrary to some of his own theological positions, but he reassured him by saying that he knew of others who had prophetic dreams and saw visions of angels. People would often ask for prayers to be spoken over them about pains and other health issues at Caspian's church, and whenever he was called up to assist the ministry team or had the opportunity to sit with someone in need, he would hold his hand out over them and try to “feel” what the problem was in their body. He felt different things against the palm of his hand: sometimes cool sensations, other times “spiky” ones, or “crackling” feelings where the problem was in a person's body, such as a stomach ulcer. In such an instance, he would say to the person he was with, “I feel God's telling me you've got a stomach ulcer; maybe you should go and get it checked out.” Sometimes that person would express surprise because they'd already been to see medical professionals who had informed them that they did indeed have that particular condition. At other times, they would go and see their doctor afterwards and come back to tell Caspian that the information he'd given them was correct. While he reckons that he achieved perhaps as much as 80% - 90% success with identifying issues in the people he prayed over, there were times when Caspian would identify the part of the body an issue was in correctly, but get the condition a person was suffering with wrong. Some people even said they sensed he had healed them a bit, though it was most often only temporary. One case of healing that Caspian claims occurred at his church involved a student on crutches who had been invited to one of the evening services so that he could be prayed over. Caspian recalls that he had one leg which was about 7” or 8” shorter than the other. The young man explained that his condition had worsened over the course of his life, although Caspian can't remember the name that he gave it. One of the church's other members, called Johnny, was well known for his passion in praying for others to be healed, and he had his hands over the student during a time of prayer ministry. Caspian approached them and held out his right hand toward the man, standing behind Johnny, as they prayed. Johnny suddenly laughed in glee and amazement, and the young man was looking down in shock at the fact that his legs were now the same length. This was witnessed by those who were present that night and was talked about a lot by both the student and senior pastors. Caspian thinks that the healing happened as a result of his ability, but he told no-one about it and let Johnny take the credit for being the vessel through which he believes God performed the healing. Author’s note: Caspian has been unable to offer any evidence that this “miracle” occurred, and I have not been able to discover any to support it. While there may be mention of it in a church newsletter from the time, Caspian says that the local Dunedin paper does not take such things seriously. Caspian wonders if maybe all people have innate abilities through which God works. If so, could we harness them in medical fields and revolutionise them? He remembers another person he prayed over, with whom he could see two figures that he took to be angels, who told him that they were always following that person and protecting them from harm. He describes that information coming to him as soundless words. The person he was praying with said that they did feel as though they'd been preserved from harm a few times, when things had happened that could have resulted in their serious injury or worse. Caspian mentioned that at the time, abilities such as these weren't something he could just “switch on and off, like a tap”. They would also occur with some people but not others, without any obvious reason. He ruefully reports that he can't perform any acts of healing on himself! He would like to be able to do that, to relieve the severe chest pains he suffers from. He reflected recently on when he was little and taken aboard a craft (see Craft Abductions in Part 1), during which one of the women on-board would teach him to hold out his hands to sense things. This is what he was doing when he performed those acts of healing or information-gathering, without even thinking about it: just holding out his hand toward a person. Author’s Note: This is an interesting comment, because it seems to combine his earliest abduction experiences with those which followed after the experiences he had later in his life. Flying Triangle Caspian was ill for 12 months during 2014 and 2015, and spent most of that time unhappily confined to his bed as a result. Due to his lack of income and inability to get government assistance, since his particular conditions weren't listed among those it would provide assistance for, he had to rely on an allowance and occasional groceries from Anne, and eventually also from Damian, who insisted that the money he gave him would one day have to be paid back with interest. During that time, Caspian struggled with deciding whether to pay rent or buy food. He reports that it was during this time that things “kicked up a notch” – something which he says always used to happen whenever he was most ill. In February 2015, Anne drove him to the house of his former next-door neighbours, where several of his old flatmates had gone to spend a night together playing video games and sharing food. Caspian wanted to try and have a night of normality. Anne couldn't drive him back home the following evening, so he had to walk back to his new address. It was just up the road, but it still took him about 20 minutes to get there due to the amount of times he had to stop and rest. As he was passing by the houses just across the road from the Botanical Gardens, he noticed the silhouette of a triangular shape with curved edges, which he says reminded him of a flying guitar pick, fly low and silently overhead toward the Gardens. He says that it was going “at an average plane speed”. Its underside had a single blue light at the front, a red light at each corner, and a white light in the middle. As far as he could remember at the time, he hadn't seen anything in that sort of triangle shape since 2002 (see Black Triangles and Humanoid Interaction in Part 1). He simply looked at it passing by overhead in front of him, and almost took it as being something perfectly mundane – in his mind, it must have been a stealth aircraft which belonged to the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Symbol-Covered UFO Dream Shortly after this, he had another dream involving a UFO, which he described to me as follows: “It had a doughnut-shaped underside that was illuminated and gold in colour, while its mid-section was adorned with symbols similar to ones I've seen the ufonauts using. I can't remember the exact appearance of the symbols on the dream UFO. I remember that in the dream I was standing at the side of the road on the Scenic Route between Methven and Dunedin at night, barefoot in only my onesie (which I had been wearing that night), and that I could see that UFO hovering at an angle in the sky across the road. Two beings attempted to grab my arms and drag me across the road from behind, but I struggled and forced myself out of their grip and ran away. That's all I can remember happening in the dream.” Silver Cigar A few months later (he can't remember exactly which month, since he was ill throughout practically all of 2015 and his sense of time became poor), Anne drove Caspian to KFC in southern Dunedin for lunch as a treat, before they went to visit St Kilda beach. She was just helping him out of his seat when she noticed a silver cigar-shaped object above the PAK'n’SAVE supermarket area. It appeared to be segmented in the middle, as if you could unscrew it and it would come apart into two smaller craft. As Caspian turned his head to look at it, he noticed four little orange blobs drifting away from what they presumed to be the front of the object. The blobs arranged themselves into a sort of formation, with three of them in front and one behind. They weren't illuminated or glowing, but a dull orange colour with a golden core, almost spherical in shape. They suddenly whizzed off at unbelievable speed, after which the silver craft disappeared in the blink of an eye! Star-Shaped UFO Later that year, sometime in autumn, there was an apparent lightning strike that hit the power station awfully close to where Caspian's flat was, which was accompanied by an enormous banging-booming sound and a bright flash. Caspian reports that he and his flatmates jumped out of their skin when it happened, and one of his flatmates screamed. The lightning strike was followed by a second bright flash, which he describes as being a sort of golden colour. Caspian went to the doorway with another of his flatmates, and they looked out the door to see what had happened. They noticed what appeared to be a four-rayed star shape in the sky, once again orange in colour with a golden core. It was above the roofs of the houses across the road from them, stationary but pulsing regularly. Caspian reports that it appeared to suddenly “suck itself in, like the way a galaxy curves,” and drifted away smoothly over the adjacent houses. His flatmate thought it must have been a firework and went back indoors. The rain that had previously been falling that night had now stopped. Caspian's flatmates all wondered whether the second golden flash had been another lightning strike, though they hadn't heard an accompanying thunderclap. He thinks that the flash had something to do with the orange light that he and his flatmate saw. He reports that the power station had been affected by the lightning strike and needed some repair work done to it, but he can't recall any further details. Night Visitation Three weeks later, he woke up sometime during the night and noticed three entities, each about 3-4ft tall, standing between the foot of his bed and the wooden desk which was attached to the back wall. Though he describes them as being “pudgy-looking shapes”, they otherwise appeared exactly like the shorter entities he'd seen in his bedroom back in 2013. They were simply standing in the shadows of his room, staring at him and making squeaking sounds, which Caspian described as being “like when you rub two shoes together”. “Hello? Who are you?” he asked. But all he heard in response was more squeaks, which struck him as being funny (although he didn't laugh out loud). He didn't feel afraid, or experience any anxiety at the presence of the entities – instead, he simply decided that he wanted to go back to sleep! He can't remember seeing the three beings disappear before he did so. While Caspian says he has woken up and then fallen back asleep while dreaming before, this felt different; however, he admits that it could possibly have all been a dream of some sort. Still, a possible confirmation of his experience came from one of his flatmates, who questioned him later that morning about whether he had been out on the landing between their bedrooms earlier in the night. He stated that he hadn't, suggesting that it may have been another of the residents who lived on the ground floor, when she responded that she'd seen two torchlights on the landing outside Caspian's room and had called out to ask whoever it was to be quiet, because she could hear them moving around. She thought that the light had come from a mobile phone. When she and Caspian asked the other students, who were living with them, about whether any of them had been up that night, all of them denied it. Caspian says that if any of them had been awake, they would have switched on the normal room lights and tried to be as quiet as possible. Nobody in that residence was prone to sleepwalking, to his knowledge. The only discrepancy between what his flatmate had seen and what he had experienced, was that he hadn't seen any lights in his room when he woke up to see the three figures standing there. Red Orb Another UFO was seen by Caspian and several of his flatmates toward the end of 2015. They were all outside watching the tail end of a fireworks display that had been put on by one of the nearby student flats, when they noticed a red orb silently drifting up into view from behind the roofs of the buildings across the road. None of them said anything as it reached the place marked in the image below, then simply faded out of sight. They all went back inside shortly thereafter, and none of them wanted to discuss what they had seen. There was a palpably thick silence between them, until one of Caspian's flatmates broke the ice by asking if they fancied getting chicken and chips from the Willowbank Convenience Store down the road, which they all loved. At that point they all returned to being warm and cheerful, as they usually were with each other. Serpentine Woman Dream The last odd thing to happen to Caspian in 2015 occurred on December 8th, just before his family had invited him to return to England to stay with them. In his dream that night, which was unusually vivid and intense, he was walking through a little trail in a very ancient looking wood [which he likens to Sherwood Forest]. There was a low fog present, as well as a sort of “clingy dampness” that he could tangibly feel. Dew had settled on the grass and leaves around him. At the end of the trail was a circular clearing, in which the grass –which was just above his ankles in height– was also very wet. He says that he was walking as though he were in a daze, on auto-pilot, proceeding forward without really having any idea about where he was going. In the midst of the clearing was a very ancient, broken and weathered stone pillar, which looked as though it could originally have been an obelisk. As Caspian approached it, a female figure rose up either from behind or within the pillar: from her head down to her waist she was human, naked and with long black hair, while the lower half of her body was a long, serpentine tail, dark forest green in colour with scales a bit like those on a rat snake. Their eyes met and she opened her arms. Caspian walked forward into her embrace, still on a sort of auto-pilot – he says he didn't feel any emotions about what was happening. However, he remarks that she did seem familiar to him in some way, even though he hadn't seen anything like her before. She embraced him and they had intercourse, the experience of which he can't remember, after which she opened her arms again and released him, before drifting backwards into the mist and disappearing. Caspian simply turned around and proceeded to walk back out of the clearing down the same path he had approached it from before, hearing an owl hoot as he did so. He looked up and saw a beautiful barn owl sitting on one of the branches in front of him. It swooped down low over his head, then flew upwards through a clearing in the leaves above him. As Caspian watched it doing so, he woke up and found that everything was normal: his feet were dry, etc. Nothing of this nature has happened to him before, or since. He told Anne about some of what had happened in the dream, and she was concerned that the snake element signified that the female entity had been something evil. Caspian says that she hadn't felt sinister or malevolent to him at all, however; nor had she felt loving – just strangely familiar. Later that day they went to get a coffee at Starbucks, and Caspian noticed that the logo is a mermaid with a double tail, which seemed to him to be an interesting coincidence. Further Paranormal Activity Caspian returned to Chichester a second time in December 2015, after being offered a job by his uncle to work for him as his administrative assistant. His family accompanied him on his flight back to England, remaining there with him until a few weeks after Christmas, at which point they had to return to New Zealand. During that time, nothing of a paranormal or UFO-related nature occurred around Caspian or any of his family members; the entire holiday period was peaceful. However, when Anne, Grace and Peter returned to their house in Dunedin, almost immediately the same sort of phenomena that had previously been occurring started up again: bright flashes of white and ice-blue lights (ranging in size from mere “pinpricks” to “the size of an orange”), appearances and disappearances of the same, odd “jelly-like” shapes in the living room, dining room and kitchen threshold, and unsettling doppelgänger phenomena (such as Damian seeming to audibly return home when he was still out of the house, or sounding like he was running a bath and then splashing about in it for over an hour, only for the bathroom to be found empty after one of the family would knock on its door to call him for dinner or to inform him of a phone call). Grace would also be woken up by the sound of Anne's voice calling her name, or what for all senses and purposes seemed to be Anne – dressed in clothing that belonged to her – either at Grace's bedroom door or already in her room, offering to make her a cup of tea, when in fact Anne was still asleep at the other end of the house. In August 2020, Caspian reported that such things are still continuing to happen there; his family have reached a point of resignation toward these happenings, and see no point in trying to move to a new house in the hope of escaping from them since they are sure that the phenomena will simply follow them again. They haven't sought outside help, though they would probably look to one of their local churches for this if they felt that they needed it. Meanwhile, Caspian remained in England and worked for his uncle, which he was pleased that he was able to do. He reports that while his health didn't improve after he moved back to Chichester, it also didn't get any worse than it had been. He became involved with a life group at the nearby Revelation Family Church, and began to attend its Sunday night services. He says that his life was more normal than it has ever been during this time. Since his family's Christmas holiday, he lived in his old “second bedroom” at his grandparent's house in Rumbolds Close, a few minutes’ walk from his former residence on Bognor Road. Planetary Cataclysm Dream In April or May of 2016 Casian had another very unusual dream. “All I can remember from it is that I was standing in some sort of open, desert landscape like you'd see in a Salvador Dali painting, and a barefoot man dressed in a pure white robe was there. I remember that I could hear the sound of wind quietly whooshing over the large, flat dusty plain we were standing in. I took him as being someone who was sent from God to speak with me, and I asked when I would be able to go home to Heaven since I didn't feel like I belonged in this world and I wasn't enjoying my life since it was so full of pain, and answers always had to be sought out rather than being apparent. The man told me that it wasn't yet time for me to go, and that I shouldn't be asking such questions when there were ones that were far more pertinent to the here and now. I felt I wanted to ask him why God chose Earth as the place for humans to be, even though I loved the beauty of its natural environment and the Moon and its animals and plants, as opposed to anywhere else in the universe. He replied by silently lifting and making a quarter-circle motion with his hand, and I found myself floating in a dark space where I saw a white star and five planets. I heard the voice of the man who had been standing in the desert with me say that the inhabitants of our solar system originally had their home on the fourth planet, but the fifth (and largest) planet, which was like a sort of super-Earth, “died” “a long time ago”, making an evacuation to the third planet necessary, and that we either descended from or were created by those who colonised it; either way, we're apparently related to them. He showed me a large craft that used to be perpetually locked in orbit with the star, facing it and drawing energy from it, while its opposite side (which was slightly curved inward) was perpetually cold and shadowed . I saw two different variants of huge, cigar-shaped grey craft leaving the fourth planet to take evacuees to the third. I replied that the story seemed improbable as I'd heard of the theory that a planet between Mars and Jupiter had exploded before, and so far as I was aware it was a disproven idea; I also said that we'd have seen such a large, dish shaped object with our telescopes before if one side of it was constantly illuminated from facing the sun." "I added that it all seemed like a modern creation myth, and I wasn't sure why I should believe it over any other. I asked why humans weren't aware of such a history if we had come from what was presumably Mars, and I can't remember what answer I was given. I do remember that I asked why the evacuees hadn't gone to the second planet, which I assume was Venus, but I was told that it was too much like the Inferno-esque concept of Hell for us to endure there. I know that other things were shown to me during the course of the dream, but I can't remember any of the rest of what happened.” Oval UFOs In early January of 2017, strange phenomena started manifesting again in Caspian's life. On some nights, from around 9:30 pm through to 3:30 am, white or minty-green orbs of light could become visible in the sky beneath the cloud cover, drifting above the Close; when they got closer and began to pass overhead, Caspian could discern within the lights grey or silver-coloured objects, like “cod liver oil tablets” in shape. Caspian says that he tried to take photos of them at the time, but the resulting images (in which the objects were very small) would either become corrupted data when he tried to transfer them to his laptop, or would eventually just delete themselves off his phone or computer without his input; the only images that he would typically be left with were of such poor quality that they were worthless. Crescent-Shaped UFO Around New Years' time, Caspian was being driven by his grandmother to Fishbourne along the B2178 to visit his aunt and uncle's house, when he noticed what at first he thought was the moon on its side, visible through the gaps between the branches of the trees. He continued to watch it for a couple of minutes until the thin, crescent line expanded downwards and became more of a croissant shape, then expanded outwards, contracted back inwards and faded away. When it expanded, he noticed an “empty space” in front of it which consisted of pitch-black darkness against the starry night sky; there were also three lighter areas underneath it, but they didn't seem to be actual lights. Golden Lights Caspian's next UFO-type sighting happened when he had to take some time off work because of coming down with the flu and losing his voice. He was standing at the window of his bedroom at dusk, looking out at the vivid sunset, when he noticed a cross-shape of four little golden lights emerge from behind and above the trees across the railway line to the left of Rumbolds Close, flying toward his position from the direction of Portsmouth. At first he thought that what he was seeing were possibly the lights of a plane, but as the cluster approached he could see a turquoise-blue fan shape surrounding it, rather than the contrails which he'd been observing behind commercial aircraft, which were coloured by the setting sun. Two of the golden lights were on either side of the cluster, and these faded out as it passed high over the Close; the remaining two lights retained the turquoise corona around them. Caspian tried to take a photo of them, but it came out simply as a transparent blue streak – he says you couldn't make anything out at all. Triangular Shadow Caspian made an online friend in late March who lived in Swindon, and who also experienced various paranormal-type phenomena at her house. Shortly before she and Caspian fell out in August, one afternoon she had a sighting of the shadow of a triangular object cast on the clouds above her when she went shopping, only for it to be invisible when it exited them; the shadow then re-appeared again when it began to fly through another cloud. She described it as looking like it belonged to a “stealth bomber”. Caspian reports that she wasn't especially interested in the subject of UFOs, and was cynical and sceptical toward those who claimed to have experienced abductions (it was a topic they'd barely discussed as a result); she'd never seen anything of a UFO-type nature before. She was sure that the shadow she'd observed was being cast by a military aircraft, utilising some sort of cloaking device. Sleep Paralysis & Huddled Shapes Not long after his sighting of the golden lights, Caspian reports that he had a night of sleep paralysis: he woke up and felt an uncomfortable weight on his chest, which dissipated when he finally managed to get a “yelp” out, also waking up his grandparents. He then went back to sleep. He woke up again some nights after that experience and noticed several small shapes (he estimates them to have been at most about 4ft in height) all huddled together by his bedroom's light switch. The best description he can give as to how they appeared is to compare them with carpet moss, which has a fuzzy look to it, but they were also shadowy in form. He felt an awful, screeching whine pierce through his forehead, accompanied by an intense, “crackling” sort of feeling – he says this was less something that he was hearing from outside his head, and more something that was inside of it. His head was turned on his pillows to face these things, and his gaze was transfixed on them until his eyes closed themselves and he went back to sleep. Following that strange encounter, there were many nights when Caspian kept waking up and seeing the wrinkly-faced, floppy-eared things which he had first seen in Dunedin just standing by his bed, silently looking at him. There was a weight on his chest, as in sleep paralysis, which made him feel panicky because he was worried that the pain involved might trigger his chest condition. He couldn't speak, but mentally tried to ask the small beings to stop whatever it was that they were doing because it was hurting him; they just kept on staring at him however, showing no sign of acknowledgement. Caspian thinks that they either don't understand human anatomy, human emotion and human suffering, or they simply don't care about inflicting pain; they just stand and watch. He can't imagine what their reason was for visiting him so often, since they didn't seem to be accomplishing anything of scientific importance. Their behaviour altered only slightly on one night, when one of them reached out and grabbed Caspian's left shin. He felt something like a horrible electric shock shoot up his leg, and he says that he was screaming out loud for them to go away and to please stop hurting him, but there was no affirmative reaction from any of the entities. He is adamant that this experience wasn't simply a nightmare – that he was fully awake and experiencing real pain in his chest wall and left leg. What was also disturbing to Caspian was that when he got up one morning after having had such an experience, his granddad asked him the same question as his flatmates in Dunedin had asked: whether he'd gotten up to go to the toilet during the night, because his granddad had seen a light on the upstairs landing outside of Caspian's bedroom door which proceeded to move toward the stairs and then seemingly accompany someone as they went quietly down them. Not only does Caspian always go to the upstairs toilet, never needing to use any lights since its door is right next to his bedroom, he hadn't gotten up to use it at any time throughout that entire night. His grandmother would also repeatedly chastise him about being awake in the early hours of the morning on his laptop, because approximately twice a week she saw light inside his bedroom through the little rectangular window above his door; in truth, Caspian had been asleep for hours on those nights. Occurrences such as these continued until September. Caspian says that it got to the point that he was dreading falling asleep, and his health was suffering for it as well: his chest was constantly hurting, he was tired, and it was impacting on his work – he was having to price up works of various sorts for M&S stores and make detailed survey reports with pictures and measurements, and while this was already hard for him (since he reports that he has dyscalculia), these additional problems made accomplishing those tasks extremely difficult. Since the nature of his uncle's work was very competitive and required consistent, reliable uploads of accurately completed tasks, he began telling Caspian to take periods of unpaid time off work, as his state made him more of a hinderance than a help. Caspian's feeling of shame at this, and his frustration at his declining state of health made him abjectly miserable. He tried praying for the night-time visitations to stop and for his health to improve, but these requests didn't seem to be answered in any substantial, noticeable way. When he'd wake up to find the little entities standing by his bed, a few times Caspian also tried mentally commanding them to go away in the name of Jesus, but this was likewise to no avail. Dream of Floating In November, Caspian had a bizarre dream in which he was somewhere above the countryside of what he thinks was the north of England, with the lights of a small village visible in the distance. There were many rolling hills, but no animals could be seen on them. He was floating naked in the air with “little things” in a semi-circle around him. They were all going upwards, and he was being pulled up with them against his will. For some time he was pulled around in all directions in the cold night sky; throughout the dream he could feel everything that was happening to him, as though he were wide awake. When he woke up the next morning, he was laying on his back on top of his bed with his underwear on, but he was sure that he'd gone to bed with a vest and a top on as well. He can't remember getting up during the night at all, and it was a cold time of year anyway, so he was not likely to have undressed or to have gone outside anywhere. Square Room Dream Either at the end of 2017 or in the early months of 2018, Caspian had another dream which he feels was significant. In his initial description of it to me, he recalled: “I was in a square, pale-brown room, which was empty besides a pale grey 'holographic screen' (that's the best analogy I can think of to try and describe it) against the far wall opposite the entrance and a 'console' of sorts (dark grey, with a bumpy-looking texture similar to cast iron) on the left-hand wall, with their symbols (smooth black in appearance) on it but no dials, lights, or levers. It was controlled by rotating embedded balls (like the sort you'd find on the bottom of some computer mice) that were transparent like glass, ice or crystal; there were also hand-shaped depressions and grooves that were activated through finger movements. The entities that were on the craft with me explained that I couldn't operate its interfaces with my hands in the same way as they could, and I couldn't utilise a function that was like 'linking' or 'sharing' my consciousness with the console either, because I lacked something they possessed that would give me the ability to do it. (I think the reason why UFOs sometimes feel 'alive' or like they themselves are observing us is because their pilots are consciously 'one' with those craft and their interfaces and controls.) I was instructed to reach out and touch the symbols (which were a light cream colour) that appeared on the screen. Under my fingers the symbols felt like they were solid objects, as though they were being rendered or held in suspension amidst the screen, but they were part of it. I couldn't feel the screen itself other than a very faint tingling, like pins and needles (it was like a current was running through it). As I touched and ran my fingers over the symbols my mind 'spiked' with bursts of memories of my abduction experiences when I was little, and I trembled and cried as I wondered how I'd possibly been able to forget what happened to me; since then, I've been able to remember all that I've related to you about those experiences. The reason they gave as to why they wanted to help me remember was because it would help me “understand them [the beings] better”. I also began getting 'shots' of epiphanic elation accompanying revelations and answers to metaphysical questions I've had for many years. I was told that was just a consequence of my interacting with the symbols, but they added that I wouldn't be “allowed” to remember the answers I received (indeed, I only remember that it happened, not what any of the answers were; which I find agonisingly frustrating because now I know that answers exists and that they weren't entirely or at all what I'd thought they were at the time, but outside of that fact I can't recall anything else about them!)” At least four of the entities that were there with Caspian were of the same sort as the wrinkly-faced, floppy-eared beings which had previously been visiting him, three of which were wearing what he describes as a cross between Saxon helmets and motorcycle helmets on their heads; there were visors over their eyes. Two of them were wearing black helmets, while another was wearing a helmet which was chrome-silver in appearance. One of the black-helmeted beings was guarding the opening that led into the room, while the other one was standing next to the chrome-helmeted being in one of the corners. The fourth entity, which wasn't wearing a helmet, stood in front of what looked like a control panel. Though they had four or five fingers, the panel was built for something with a larger hand that had three. Standing next to Caspian was the only entity that he recalls talking to him throughout the entire duration of the dream, but he can't remember for sure whether or not it was one of the floppy-eared ones. He asked that being if he could have a go at working the panel, but it told him that it was solely for the use of the other entities which were in the room; as it was, Caspian was advised that he lacked something (an ability, or a technology) that would enable him to interface with it. The being's description of how the panel was used suggested that their minds went into it somehow and that they told it what to do that way, rather than by simply manipulating its physically-interactable parts. The being invited Caspian to go forwards and to put his hand on the floating screen, then to tell it what he felt as a result of doing so. Caspian did as he was instructed, and reported a faint, static-like tingling feeling against his fingertips. “OK, good,” it responded. The entity which was standing in front of the console put its hands on the three-fingered depression, not inside the grooves but up against them, and Caspian was told that the screen was ready for him to touch again. Symbols had now become visible on it, and as he reached out to touch them, he says that he almost instinctively knew where to put his fingers. He continued to feel the tingling sensation at first, but then in his head it was like he was suddenly “being slammed,” as though he were in a car which had collided into a wall. Many of the memories which he had forgotten from when he was younger –about what had happened to him when he was living in Lavant and being regularly abducted– began returning to him in flashes of recollection, like still shots and video clips. He started crying, not knowing how he could have possibly forgotten all of that? He turned to the entity beside him and asked, “Where is she? [Meaning the blonde woman who had been on board the abduction craft when he was little.] Can I see her? Please, can I see her?” He felt that he needed the comfort of his childhood friend, who he now realised he'd been missing all those years; he says that the two women who were present during those abduction experiences had been to his younger self like his “spaceship angels.” He can't remember what the being (which Caspian thinks was a he) replied, only that it didn't show any sort of emotion. He says that it wasn't like it was bored, but rather that it seemed unmoved, like it wasn't thinking of anything other than the task at hand. After its response, it requested that Caspian place his fingers back on the letters. Despite how highly emotional Caspian was feeling at that point, he once again did as he was asked. This time, lots of other information began to flood into his head – information that only the beings knew. Every question he'd ever had about God and both the origin and the history of the Universe was being answered, presumably their version of it all. He was also getting information about how their craft worked, and even how the entities themselves worked! He says that he had all the answers to everything he could ever have wanted to know. He turned to the being beside him with a smile on his face, because he felt so good about possessing all that knowledge; it made him feel powerful. He said to it, “I can change the world.” “You won't be allowed to remember any of that,” it replied. “It's just a consequence of you touching [the symbols]; you can't tell anybody.” Caspian protested, “You can't do that! I want to remember this!” Nevertheless, the being seemed to say in response that they couldn't allow him to. Indeed, Caspian can't remember any of the remarkable knowledge that he briefly experienced being in possession of. On the one hand he finds this frustrating, not only because he now knows that the answers to major philosophical questions do exist and can be comprehended, but also because he says that while he enjoys studying comparative religions, spiritual texts and philosophy, he'd never heard anything like the answers which he was getting from touching those symbols. On the other hand, Caspian feels that it may be a good thing he doesn't remember anything more than what he does, because when that knowledge was being imparted to him it was changing him, and he didn't like what he was becoming. Caspian didn't feel any sort of connection with the being that talked to him, nor does he think that any of the entities which were in the room with him had ever been at his bedside. It was like the whole situation was routine for them, and the talkative being was just there to oversee Caspian's interactions with the screen. Despite the reason that the being offered when Caspian asked why he was being given back those memories from his childhood, he doesn't think that he understands the beings involved in that “dream” any better as a result of their doing that for him; rather, he just feels frustrated with them for hurting and frightening him at times, then turning around and helping him at others, without providing any explanation as to why they do such things. He doesn't know for sure what the true nature of this experience was, but since having it Caspian has considered a number of possibilities: 1. It was indeed all a dream. 2. It was something akin to an astral projection. 3. It was an abduction-type experience. 4. It was memories from an abduction-type experience. The thing that makes him suspect it was not all just a pure conjuration and operation of his own mind is that he recovered memories from his childhood as a result of it. He also says that he doesn't think he could have come up with the answers he was being given as a result of touching the symbols on the screen, because it wasn't maths or science as we know them: it was something else in the beings' own language, following their own system of thinking and way of doing things. Still, it wasn't so much alien to him as it was transcendent – information that he feels his human mind wasn't capable of inventing, especially on the basis of the limited knowledge and experience that he had at the time. A little while after that dream, Caspian woke up and was met by the sight of a being leaning across his bed looking at him, but in a weird way: it was almost horizontal, as though it were floating above his bed, looking directly into his eyes. He doesn't remember anything else from that night. V-Shaped UFO It wasn't until the late spring/early summertime of 2018 that Caspian would have any more sightings of anomalous aerial phenomena. In the first instance, as he and his grandparents were coming back from Pagham Beach in the early evening and had just entered the car park across the road from the Pagham Beach Café (this is about 4km west of Bognor Regis – Author), they noticed a strange aircraft approaching them from the direction of Aldwick Beach (from the West – Author). Caspian reports that his grandfather spotted it first, and shielded the sunlight with one of his hands under his cap to get a better look at it while asking, “What's that?” Caspian and his grandmother looked up to see what he was talking about, and they observed a thin, elongated, V-shaped aircraft which had propellers but no tail. The propellers were static – they didn't seem to be rotating, and it was completely silent in its flight overhead. They speculated among themselves that perhaps the object was some sort of glider (though it was a warm, still evening, so there was no wind) or a solar-powered plane, based on how silent it was. The object had something which Caspian describes as being like an “airflow” around it, contoured to its shape: a transparent field, shimmering like a heatwave rising off a road. (Continued in Part 4 - click here) Copyright © Ian Jones 2020

Wispy Tendrils Two weeks after the black triangles incident, Caspian and his mum were sitting in their living room one night watching Most Haunted when they noticed that the room was filling up with the paranormal mist. It was also getting strangely cold, and they felt a prickling sensation on the back of their necks. However, they thought that this could have simply been a psychological response to watching the TV programme. Then the TV and lights switched off, leaving them in darkness and thinking that there must have been a power cut. As they were about to go upstairs and get ready for bed, two red lights appeared in the middle of the living room. Caspian says that this was all his mum saw, while for him there appeared two amorphous, dark blobs attached to the lights. They became a humanoid shape: a head, neck, shoulders and torso, with no arms. From lower to the ground, in the mist, there rose “wispy tendrils” which Caspian described as being similar in appearance to steam swirling up from a kettle. The red lights had become like torches shining up from the top of the humanoids' heads, casting a circle of red light on the ceiling of the room. The two entities proceeded to telepathically explain this wonky thing that they expected Anne and Caspian to swallow: that they use crystals to open portals to get from one location to another. They didn't claim to be aliens, or provide any specific identity for themselves – they simply claimed that it had just so happened that their portal had opened up in Anne and Caspian's living room, of all places, and that they'd exited into it from goodness knows where! According to the two entities, the portals that they used were invisible to the naked eye and senses. Neither Anne nor Caspian can remember much of the rest of what the beings said as they stood there in front of them, but their communication remained completely telepathic. (Anne recalls that she didn't hear a lot of what they were saying as it was, since for her it was muffled; she only heard when they 'shouted', which caused her to jump out of her skin!) Caspian reports that he was trying to ask them questions, such as, “Who are you? Why are you here? Where did you come from? Crystals, portals... what are you on about?” but they barked “NO” in response, evidently quite agitated with him daring to ask things when they wanted to talk. Towards the end of this bizarre discourse, they seemed to become more amiable and said as a parting gift, “We would like you to go and get a writing device and a parchment, and we'd like you to write an alphabet of symbols. And we want you to examine these symbols and memorise them, and then dispose of the parchment.” Caspian assumed that a "writing device" must mean a pencil, so he went and got one along with a piece of paper as his "parchment". As the symbols they wanted him to write came into his mind, he drew them on the paper. The symbols were bizarre – just a bunch of triangles, circles and right-angled lines. He had his eyes closed, so his drawings were scribbled and going everywhere on the page. Nevertheless, the entities seemed to be satisfied with what he was doing. Once he had opened his eyes again and looked at the symbols, trying to memorise them as best he could, they wanted him to remember to dispose of the paper that he had drawn them on. So, Anne and Caspian went to burn the result of the strange exercise in the kitchen sink. They then threw the ashes out into the back garden. After doing what the entities had told them to do, they went back into their living room and found that both beings were gone. They couldn't get the lights or the TV to switch back on again until the following morning. Caspian admits that this all sounds crazy, but he thinks that people who have not experienced such things are lucky, since they have the freedom to be sceptical. He and his family have had all of this stuff chucked in their faces and can't ignore it; he says that if he could go back in time, he would choose not to have had any of it happen. Author’s Note: Again, a possibly paranormal incident that seems incredibly weird and not seemingly linked to the other events that happen to the family. USO Encounter About four weeks after the two entities had appeared in his living room, Caspian had another significant incident involving a USO (Unidentified Submerged Object). While he can't remember everything which happened on that particular night, he reports that his first memory was of laying in his bed upstairs, and that he went to sleep; the next thing he knew however, he was above his house. Everything around him was see-through, almost transparent, so he couldn't make out what sort of place he was in very well. It felt to him like he was sitting on a cast iron metal park bench. At some point, whatever he was in took off. He seemed to be flying at “a pretty decent speed”, and he could see where he was going. He went higher and could see all of Chichester below him, with all the roads he recognised. He remembers that he was flown to Bognor Regis, about nine miles southeast of Chichester. By car this would have taken about twenty minutes. As they flew out over the water beyond Bognor Regis Beach, above the English Channel, it was between midnight and early morning and the moon was illuminating the seawater. Caspian noticed a dark shape, like a submarine, sitting on the water's surface; there was a round opening in the top of it that the craft he was seated in descended vertically down into. The next thing he remembers is being outside of the submarine-like thing under the water! There was a big, bright white light (like a torch) shining out in front of it, illuminating the silty, dirty and brown water. He says that he was “absolutely terrified” because he couldn't understand why he wasn't drowning. The last thing he recalls is being seated back on the 'park bench' high above his house on Bognor Road, with its roof approaching him. He woke up in his bed the next morning. There were no marks on him, and he didn't have a headache or any other obvious problems resulting from this experience. He does not recall seeing any beings (whether human or otherwise) in any of the memories he has regained of what happened that night. Again, as with his earlier abduction experiences, he does not remember how he was moved from his bed onto the craft, or how he was returned from the craft back into his bed. There is a significant missing time element to this event. Author’s Note: Was this an abduction in the usual sense of that term? Caspian has no memory of seeing aliens and the way he was transported to the “submarine” was not one typical of being in a UFO. His previous and future descriptions of being in UFOs are more typical of such craft. However, as he describes below, the after-effects of this event have been long-lasting and distressing. Anxiety Attack A week and a half after that experience, Caspian was off school due to problems with his asthma; he was kept at home for about four weeks as a result of going through a cycle of slight improvements and regressions in his condition – he reports that he usually had to miss about two-thirds of each school year through poor health. On the first weekend off school, when his health seemed to have improved a little and the weather forecast was good, his family decided to go to Portsmouth, to the Gosport Royal Navy Submarine Museum, for a trip out. Anne says that she wanted to get Caspian out of the house, which he'd been confined to as a result of his condition, and give him something to look forward to: there was a submarine [possibly the HMS Alliance] docked at the museum for people to visit, and Caspian was really excited because he wanted to see what it was like on board; at the time, he couldn't consciously remember the abduction experience he'd had less than two weeks before. They wandered around the Portsmouth Naval Museum, looking at the HMS Mary Rose and as many exhibits as they could before moving on to the Submarine Museum, and Caspian always had his asthma medication to hand in a school bag on his back. After going through a market area, they turned a corner and saw the old submarine docked there, with people ascending a gangplank and going on board. At the sight of the black submersible Caspian says he absolutely lost it with sheer terror. He crumpled to the floor facing away from the submarine, petrified and overwhelmed by a panic attack, which triggered a bad asthma attack. He was pawing the ground and crying out, “Take me away from it, take me away, please!” Anne remembers him screaming, “I don't want to go inside, don't take me inside! Don't take me on board down there!” While some people simply passed by with concerned glances, or attempted to ignore what was going on, others stopped to ask if an ambulance needed to be called. Anne declined their offer, saying that she would take care of him, though she allowed two kind gentlemen to help him up off the ground. Anne took Caspian away from where he could see the submarine, back round the corner into the market area, and helped him to take his blue inhaler through a spacer while holding onto Grace, who she says was becoming distressed by Caspian's state. Damian was annoyed by what was happening and insisted that they hadn't come all this way to not even see inside the ship; if Caspian wasn't going to go on board, he would. Anne took Caspian back to their car while he did so, and after comforting Grace and strapping her into her booster seat did her best to help him get his asthma back under control. It took over an hour to calm him down and to get him into a stable condition, after which his mum was adamant that they should take him to the Portsmouth Regional Hospital to make sure he'd be ok, despite Damian's protests that they'd be going back to Chichester in bad traffic if they took any longer. He repeatedly stated how Caspian had missed out on seeing the inside of the submarine, and how he'd thought it was really interesting and couldn't understand what Caspian had been so upset over, after his being so excited to see it before. Anne recalls that Caspian couldn't get the sight of the submarine out of his head for almost two weeks afterwards and kept crying each time he had flashbacks of it, even after returning to school. For many years the rusting hulks of decommissioned submarines were also present at the Harry Pounds Scrapyard, visible on the drive into Portsmouth (which Caspian would go on at least once a week, to visit his stepdad's family in Old Portsmouth); Caspian had to turn his head away each time they passed by them, as he was frightened to look at them. Caspian thinks that just seeing the black submarine shape at the museum triggered the panic attack he had, and that he was somehow remembering whatever it was that had happened when he was taken on board the submersible craft in the English Channel. He found what he'd cried out interesting, because the Portsmouth submarine had a gangplank to get on board – you didn't have to go “down” anywhere. Both the submersible object involved in his experience and the submarine at the museum were similar, but not identical. The biggest difference was that the Portsmouth submarine had a tall, thin part on the top, like a sail that goes above water, which I suggested (and Caspian agreed) was the conning tower. The object he was taken into in the water off Bognor Regis was a long, black torpedo shape, with a semi-hemispherical head on each end and a slightly raised round opening on top (no hatch was visible, and as a result he doesn't know how the thing didn't fill with water). It also had a big, white light on the front of it, which the Portsmouth submarine didn't have, though both craft were about the same size in his estimation. Caspian says he cannot even look at pictures of submarines now, and still can't go near them because he's petrified of them. He has never had any dreams associated with these submarine experiences. He says he finds the process of telling all this cathartic, although he feels isolated and lonely and wants to know about others who have been through similar experiences. In recent years he's started to read about UFOs and paranormal phenomena, in order to try and understand the sorts of things he's experienced. In August 2020, Caspian’s mum wrote: “I don’t remember when it was that we visited the submarine. I do recall that Damian himself was very keen to go onboard a real submarine and thought that Caspian would probably find it interesting too. I didn’t know why Caspian was so scared of the submarine. He had really enjoyed going to see the Victory and the Mary Rose so there was no reason to think that he wouldn’t enjoy seeing around this too. For want of a better explanation I had to put his fear down to claustrophobia. I know it’s quite common for people to have a fear of small enclosed spaces.” Chevron UFO When he was 14 years old, Caspian went on a day trip to Bosham (which is to the west of Chichester, near the coast) with his mum and grandmother. After eating lunch and walking around Bosham's inlet they were in the public car park, ready to go home. His mum and gran were chatting together when Caspian noticed a dark shape emerge from behind the trees and boat masts at the bottom of the car park. It was a perfect black chevron shape, just drifting along at a pace comparable to a personal airplane – but then it suddenly vanished, appearing to whizz away at high speed without making any sound at all. It didn't seem to Caspian to have been flying very high. Anne says that she thought she saw a black plane, but she wasn't really looking closely at it; Caspian's gran missed seeing it altogether, since she was facing away from it. Emily Appears Other, more paranormal, activity continued to happen at home. Some years after Caspian's abduction experience, when Grace was off sick from school for the first time, she said that Emily appeared at her bedroom door and asked her to come and play in the garden, saying that they would have fun. She was confused about Grace being sick, and Grace had to explain how she had a sore throat. That was the last time Emily would appear to her during the daytime. Grace described Emily as sounding old-fashioned, a “prim and proper” girl; they all thought she was possibly Victorian, though neither Anne nor Caspian ever asked Grace where Emily came from, in terms of place or time. They don't know who lived in the house before them and say that they still have no idea whether she was a ghost. Sailing Doppelgänger Caspian used to take sailing lessons in Dell Quay sailing club, in the village of Apuldram by Chichester Harbour, with Damian. He would often sail in his Mirror boat but had also learned how to sail other daysailers such as Toppers, and had completed both the Beginner and Intermediate level course tests. He was due to take the course test that would advance him from Intermediate to Advanced level, but was forced to miss out on it as a result of coming down with the flu. However, when he returned to the club the following week the other students in his sailing group asked him if he was feeling ok – not because he'd been sick, but because they insisted he'd been behaving strangely the week before when they'd taken the test! They pressed Caspian on how he hadn't talked to anyone, even when they'd called out to him. They also challenged him indignantly on the fact that he hadn't gone with his own sailing group, instead getting into a boat with Advanced-level students and sailing across the waters of Chichester Harbour as though he was at their level! His boat had apparently sped ahead of everyone else's, baffling everyone at the club with his skill. He'd eaten the picnic with them all after reaching the other side of the harbour, but still hadn't said a word to anyone, seeming to ignore even his own friends. At the end of the session, after sailing back across the water with the same group of advanced-level sailors, he'd silently dried off without undressing and walked off the premises, going round the corner to the Crown & Anchor pub restaurant and then disappearing from everyone's sight. Nobody had seen him get picked up by either of his parents, or walk up the lane to Sophie's Boatyard where his family's mirror was stored. Caspian says that after hearing all of this and being told he was in the latest newsletter, he went to find it and saw that there was indeed a group photograph with a person resembling him in it, wearing the red, black and green swimsuit which his friends had said he'd been dressed in, which in reality Caspian didn't own – his was yellow and blue! I asked Caspian the following question: “I know that providing corroborating evidence for your experiences is difficult, but there may be one occasion where it is possible. That is the incident at the Dell Quay Sailing Club. You said there was a group photograph, which included your doppelganger, which was printed in the newsletter. A copy of that would be helpful, if you could ask the club for one. Are their newsletters accessible online?” He responded with: “Having looked around online, I can't find any records of Dell Quay's old newsletters past the early 90's, but when I'm next in Fishbourne and I'm able to walk down to the club I'll inquire there if they have any copies of the newsletter; in the meantime, Mum's sending me a photocopy of the one we kept in the post (she doesn't want to risk the original getting lost).” On 10th January 2020, Caspian followed this up with: “Mum's photocopies of the pages from the Dell Quay sailing club newsletter have arrived. The newsletter is dated September 2006, while on page 4 it notes that the event took place on Saturday, 19th August, returning on Sunday morning (20th August) – which adds helpful clarity to when it occurred! The photograph featuring my doppelganger is on page 5, and while its resolution is pretty much as you'd expect for a newsletter in 2006, it's still clearly something which looks so uncannily exactly like me in every detail (face, hair, height, build) – with the only detail being its wetsuit and boots, which weren't the ones I actually owned – that gazing at it makes me feel uncomfortable and nauseous. It's a weird sensation when you're seeing something that looks just like you, yet you know it isn't you. It's not like looking at a photograph of yourself, or seeing yourself in the mirror; you know it's an imposter, and it gives you a chill and makes you feel slightly angry at the same time. What is worse, it's standing practically in the middle of the image, right in front of one of the sailing instructors. It's also being looked down at by an older member of the sailing club, while my three friends there are standing to the left of it – we'd have wanted to stand together, if not for the fact that my doppelganger was part of the 'adults' rounders team (likely because I was only just older at the time than my friends, so I'd have only just made the cut for the 'adult' team in order to bolster out their numbers in the game). On page 4, my friends are shown sailing in their boat in the bottom image, which I would have been in if I were there; instead, my doppelganger apparently sailed with the older sailors Harriet, Charlotte and Matt (none of whom I ever really interacted with, otherwise). Interestingly, page 4 notes that 'Whilst beating up toward East Head the safety boats had to tell us to slow down because we were getting too far ahead of the others', which accords with what I was told afterwards that my doppelganger had been sailing remarkably well considering my actual level of ability! There's no other particular mention of my doppelganger after that point, so there's no way to tell from the letter that it hadn't been talking much to anyone, or that it had barely paid any attention to my friends.” On 2nd June 2020, Caspian was able to add the following photos of the newsletter after receiving the original copy in the post from his mum: Pages 4 and 5 of the newsletter, with the photograph showing Caspian's doppelgänger in the bottom right. The photo showing Caspian's doppelgänger is at the top, while the bottom two photos are comparisons that Caspian has provided of other photographs of himself at similar ages (left: 11 years old, right: 13 years old). In August 2020, Caspian’s mum wrote: “Both Caspian and I have been victims of doppelgangers whilst in the UK. Both incidences were quite extraordinary. For Caspian, it was something impersonating him on a sailing trip at Dell Quay. Caspian had been signed up for this activity, but in the end he couldn’t go as he wasn’t well. On the day in question he was at home with me, tucked up in bed because he was feeling so poorly. When we saw the article mentioning him in the sailing club’s newsletter, and the photo of ‘him’ with the instructor and some of the other children it was very unsettling. People were convinced he had been with them that day, albeit behaving oddly and when we tried to explain that Caspian hadn’t actually been there they said we must have got our dates mixed up because there was no doubt he was there, that they had even spoken to him.” School Doppelgänger Not long after the incident at the Dell Quay sailing club, Caspian was once again off school – but a doppelgänger of him was reported to have been present at his school all day, going to the wrong classes! The doppelgänger didn't seem to know where it was going, wandering aimlessly around the school and never talking to any of the teachers. When it talked to any of the other students, it was about things Caspian would never talk about: TV shows he didn't watch, and facts about computers and other topics he didn't know about, or wasn't interested in. The doppelgänger wasn't seen eating lunch anywhere on the premises at all, and other students in Caspian's class had said that he didn't go down to the cafeteria to get food that day. It had completely ignored Caspian's girlfriend at the time, which had upset and confused her. Anne's Doppelgänger Re-Appears At around the same time, a doppelgänger of Anne was seen by her mother and sister shopping at the Waitrose supermarket in Chichester, which she never went to (she only shopped at Sainsbury's and Tesco). It had looked over at them when Anne's sister called to it, before pushing its trolley round the corner to the next aisle and promptly disappearing out of their sight. They'd been confused at why Anne hadn't acknowledged them, but waited patiently for her to arrive at the check-out area before looking around the store to see where she was, and what was taking her so long. She had seemingly disappeared, along with the empty trolley she was pushing around the store! Disembodied Noises Caspian reports that alongside appearances of doppelgängers and the usual paranormal activity that occurred in their home, as 2006 drew on the whole family was beginning to experience other unsettling phenomena. One increasingly common occurrence was hearing the sound of someone parking up behind their garage, opening and closing its door and shuffling around inside, or opening the kitchen door and walking around the bottom of the house, only for nobody to be there when one of the family went to check who had returned home, or greet whoever had come round to visit. They would also come back to the house and hear what sounded like Damian in the bath, when in fact he wasn't home and the bathroom was found to be empty. Anne reports that she would invite her mother round and a minute or so later they'd hear the sounds of her tapping on the door with her keys and calling out Anne's name, only for her to not be there when the door was opened. Though he doesn't remember much about it now, Caspian says that there were also two appearances of the apparent ghost of his birth-father in the house at around this time (he had died when Caspian was 12 years old). Doppelgänger Meetings Caspian says that quite a few times he had people come up to him in the streets up town, swearing that his name was Archie and that they'd seen him around the Chichester College grounds and adjacent skate park! Though they knew details they shouldn't have –such as Anne's name, Grace's name and other facts about his family– they also expressed surprise that Caspian wasn't smoking, since Archie was known by them to be a heavy smoker. Damian was having problems, as well: people were calling him up from work and asking him about phone conversations he'd never actually had with them, nor with any other staff members. At first he thought that his colleagues were simply messing him about, but after a while its persistent reoccurrence began to deeply unsettle him. Anne reports that a few times while she was shopping she also had total strangers come up to her and hug her, insisting that they'd met her before and likewise possessing intimate knowledge about her family that she'd never shared with them. At times they would pour their hearts out to her, talking about personal matters in their lives out of the surety that she was someone they could trust – they seemed to have had prior experience confiding in someone they thought was Anne, without being judged or given unhelpful advice. Even people Anne knew would begin chatting with her about events they'd attended with her, or places they'd seen her in, when she hadn't actually been there. Anne says she “learnt quite quickly to just go along with it, as people don't like to be told 'it wasn't me' when they are convinced it was!” Shared Nightmares Throughout this time Caspian was having bizarre dreams, as was Anne. Both of them would wake up at nights and notice that their bedrooms were “warping” around them, and that they were either spinning “like water in a plughole” or that the room itself was spinning; they would then begin to rise upwards, passing right through their respective ceilings without hitting them. Caspian says that he can vividly remember the feel of being soaked by moisture as he rushed upwards through the clouds. In these dreams, each of them would approach a grey or silvery, rotating tornado-like tunnel, with sparkles of silver or white light moving in the walls and other people flying past them at high speed in both directions. They can't remember what was at the end of the tunnel, but they kept on going to it and coming back again. One night Anne woke Damian up because her dream ended with her falling back down into her room, slamming down heavily onto her mattress. Other strange dreams Caspian had at this time included one in which he woke up and was like a third-person observer inside of some sort of medical facility. He was in a single-storey, flat-roofed grey and brown building with a chain-link fence surrounding it; there were black-suited people armed with automatic rifles guarding the facility in the courtyard outside. It seemed to be out in the middle of a large, flat desert environment. There were human medical practitioners inside the building: brown and black-haired men and women, wearing medical outfits. Caspian can't remember seeing any badges, etc. on anyone at the facility. He recalls that they had ratite birds –emus, rheas and ostriches– laying on tables in several rooms, and that they were removing their heads and necks and surgically affixing black boxes onto the sides of their bodies, with wires coming out of them. They were then sticking blunt implements into the birds where their necks had been, and shocking them to see if there was any response. Caspian can't remember much of what happened during the course of the dream, but at one point they shocked one of the birds which had been positioned upright and it spasmed, suddenly bringing its saw-like neck implement down and hacking it into the shoulder of one of the medical workers, who had been knelt down in front of it doing something with the wires on its body. There were shouts of surprise and warning from nearby rooms as doctors began fleeing out of them, followed by the augmented birds who were suddenly running amok. They raced down the corridors and burst through the main entrance doors, making an apparent effort to escape across the courtyard before being gunned down at the gates by the black-suited guards. Memory-Like Flashes Caspian also had dreams that felt more to him like memories, of a location with pine and fir tree forests, a cell phone tower, a little iced-over lake and a valley between two rocky, snow-covered mountains. He had never been anywhere like that, so it was strange to him that he was dreaming of such a place so often. In conjunction with those dreams, he experienced weird 'flashes' of memories and almost overwhelming emotions from them, which could hit him when he saw particular scenes (such as driving past the former garden centre further up Bognor Road, where a cell phone tower stands against a row of conifer trees). It could also occur when he listened to parts of certain songs e.g. the intro to Kylie Minogue's On a Night Like This. Canadian Woman In 2007, while asleep at nights Caspian began encountering a girl around his age with pale blonde hair and green eyes, often barefoot and dressed in light blue pyjamas with dull-dark blue polka-dots. He reports that conversing with her felt starkly different from even the most vivid of dreams he had, as though she were flesh-and-blood: “more real than real”. When she was around, Caspian says that it was as though two minds were simultaneously inhabiting the same space; it wasn't like talking to himself. She acted fluidly, like a real person, with the way she spoke and reacted to things being unpredictable. The first time Caspian encountered her, she appeared to be just as surprised at his appearance in her dream-space as he was to have interrupted it! She had a Canadian accent, which Caspian didn't recognise at first because he'd never heard one quite like it – he wondered if she was European or from the United States, though her voice wasn't like that of anyone he had ever heard from either place. It wasn't until many years later that Caspian thought to look up Canadian slang, and he recognised several of her verbal mannerisms. Over the course of almost a decade of intermittent encounters, they gradually conveyed personal information about themselves to each other. While at first it was difficult for each of them to make out certain things that the other was saying, she eventually managed to tell him what her name was, as well as details about her family, her childhood and where she lived. They would talk together about everyday happenings in each other’s lives. Caspian says that the things she told him about where she lived proved accurate when he looked them up online, such as how big her church was, and its colour; what the houses there looked like; what the nearby river was like; what the distances were to certain places, etc. Caspian says that at the time, he could not have known any of the information that she told him because he'd never had any particular interest in Canada, nor had he ever been there. They would sometimes encounter each other in blank, empty dreamscapes, or he would find himself in her dreams, or she would appear in his. When they were in each other's dreams, they were able to 'step back' out of them and observe that what seemed like a series of events was in fact two-dimensional light and darkness, like a series of still frames compressed into long, thin bands or strips, with only certain elements 'rendered in focus' in each scene (as though dreams were all tunnel-vision). At first he would encounter her on random nights, at least once every fortnight or month, though his meetings with her inexplicably died down for a while halfway through 2007. He says that their meetings were completely bizarre – it wasn't something that either of them proved able to arrange or force into happening. She was very poor, and Caspian says that his family was not well-off either, but they wanted to find a way to fly somewhere so they could meet each other. They reasoned that if each of them was truly real, they would actually meet up at the designated time and place – but they were never able to get around to affording it, especially since Anne insisted that she would have to accompany Caspian for safety's sake, and they would have to bring his little siblings as well. As they grew older, Caspian started having fewer dreams featuring her; he reports that she was 23 years old when he last saw her. She had become increasingly depressed and revealed to Caspian that she had decided to commit suicide. During the last dream that they had together, she took his hands and apologised for not being able to meet in person, saying that she had to do what she was doing. She then placed one of her hands against his cheek and told him to find someone else like her, or better than her, before her other hand slipped out of his and she was gone. A month later, a few days after his birthday in November 2016, Caspian had a weird dream of being out in the snow in the middle of a dark forest at night-time, and experienced himself dying from exposure. He knew inside that he'd experienced his friend's death, since that was what she'd said she was going to do: she wanted to die surrounded by nature, where she felt she truly belonged. Caspian had been informed of the passing of his birth-father from cancer at his twelfth birthday party, so November was now associated for him with two deaths. He grieved her loss, crazy though he realises it sounds, since she had been his closest friend for a long time, as real to him as anybody. He is certain that if he ever went to where she'd lived that he would be able to find a grave belonging to her there. I recently asked Caspian “Where in Canada did you think your dream woman lived?” He responded “The only details I can remember most clearly now, since they've often circulated in my head over the years, are Laura (initially I couldn't make out whether she was saying "Lara" or "Laura"), "Amy-Wells" (I can't remember what this refers to now, unfortunately), and "MacKenzie" (the river she lived by, in the Northwest Territories of Canada). Her father hadn't been around for most of her life: a detail we shared in common was that he'd disappeared from their lives when she was young; however, I can't remember if he simply left them, or died. Where she was, there weren't many others around her age, and to my memory there was no-one else that she got along with in terms of friends; she spent most of her life lonely, describing her existence as ‘not that exciting’. She was more at home in the subarctic, forested and grassy environment of her part of Canada than around people, besides certain members of her family. She didn't mind the cold, but told me that during the winter temperatures could sometimes drop so low that it was better to stay inside. She considered herself more spiritual than religious; I can't remember if she attended church herself. Nevertheless, she described a local church with a white, wooden exterior and a turquoise-green roof, with a spire above the entrance. One interesting thing she told me about, was a time when she was walking down a trail near to where she lived one summer, when she saw a silver light - like a cloud with mirror-like sparkles in appearance - floating just ahead of her. She tripped and fell over while approaching it, and when she picked herself back up the light had disappeared. She'd never heard of the artists I love listening to, such as Adam Young and Taylor Swift. She thought that the former sounded like lovely music however, and when I described to her what sort of music the latter made, she commented, ‘it sounds like she mixes a country beat with a keyboard,’ adding with a smile, ‘we live in a strange time, don't we?’ Mum remembers that over a decade ago I actually started making some drawings and descriptions about her and the dreams we shared, including quotes of things she'd said, in a little writing journal with a dark blue cover, but she hasn't been able to find it in Damian's office or in my storage container. I remember distinctly what she looked like, and I've tried to find photos of her online after searching a number of years ago, but unfortunately I couldn't source any records of her - I imagine I'll have to actually go to Canada one day and search for information myself, asking around and looking in public records." Below are two photographs which Caspian found online which remind him of the lady: Author’s Note: I have not heard of these sort of intense dream-like experiences; the nearest equivalent may be a type of conscious/lucid dreaming. Many people have spontaneously had the experience of finding themselves conscious in a dream. In other words, they are aware that it is a dream and not consensual reality that they are experiencing. Sometimes they have found that, with practice, they could also seem to direct and control at least some of the events in the dream. Being conscious of being in a dream as it is occurring and even being able, to some extent, to control it has been called lucid dreaming. However, this description does not seem to be what Caspian describes. He/they had no control over when these dream-like meetings happened, they randomly seemed to “meet” together and they were able to have complex conversations and experience physical contact. He learned facts about where she lived. None of these things have been discussed as being possible in lucid dreaming research that I have found so far. Paranormal Violence The paranormal activity at the house began to intensify in 2007. Books and other items would fall off shelves, or seem to be thrown across the dining room. If any of the family were standing outside, every now and again little bits of the garden wall would hit the backs of their heads, and random bricks would be tossed into their garden from the direction of adjacent gardens, striking their plant pots or hitting the ground alarmingly close to them. Caspian reports that he would wake up in the morning with bruises on his body, and in one instance while he was standing in one of the bedrooms at his grandmother's house he was punched hard in the face by something invisible! Upon hearing him cry out in surprise and pain, Anne rushed into the room and saw him trembling, with blood in his mouth and streaming from his nose. When Grace was 8 years old, a message also appeared in her bedroom while the family were out, made from her magnetic letters and other toys. It very threateningly told them to get out of the house! The sudden shift to apparent malevolence made it clear that whatever was in the residence with them now wanted them gone. Caspian was also suffering terribly with his health and from vicious bullying at his secondary school, with two students attempting to take his life, treating his only friend there so awfully that he became suicidal, and committing acts of vandalism and theft against his family (such as slashing their car tyres and stealing Damian's bike, leaving it outside of a nearby Tesco Express without its wheels or handle grips). Though they informed the police, they seemed disinterested in looking into anything that had happened; Caspian's school likewise did nothing to help him or his friend. Together, these events inspired the family to move elsewhere: just over 3 ½ months later, on January 15th, 2008, they emigrated to New Zealand's North Island, intending to start a new life there and hopefully leave all of the troubling and strange events they'd experienced in England behind them. Damian had family in the part of the North Island that they were moving to, which made their transition easier. Disappearing Evidence I asked Caspian if he has kept any sort of record of any of these events. He replied that he has tried to, but each time he and his mum would attempt to make diaries, take photographs or type up documents about their experiences prior to 2019, such items would end up inexplicably disappearing, or delete themselves off the family's desktop computer and laptops. Even attempting to make back-ups of digital files proved useless, as Caspian reports that they've tried saving documents and photos onto external storage, but in every instance files would either somehow become corrupted or once again simply disappear without a trace. The only items that he and Anne have been able to retain are his little sketchbook of drawings, their copy of the Dell Quay newsletter, and several recent photos and a short video of the night lights that pass over where Caspian now lives. While he recognises that some people would understandably consider such disappearances to be suspiciously convenient, for them its constant occurrence is both frustrating and demoralizing. He has expressed concern that the drawings and documents he has sent to me would also disappear, though they have not yet done so. Devonport Experiences Caspian explains that they initially went out to New Zealand on a 6-month holiday visa while waiting for their residency visas to process, during which they rented a house in Hanlon Crescent after briefly staying with Damian's family on Burgess Road, in Devonport, Auckland. It was peaceful there. In August 2020 Anne recalls seeing flashes of blue light in the kitchen, although Caspian doesn't recall anything of a paranormal or ufological nature happening throughout those six months, and from the moment that he arrived in the country he felt at home. He got on well with many of the local people, and felt like Auckland was where he belonged – somewhere he wished he'd grown up in. During this time, Damian spent a few months back in England, fulfilling his job contract and sorting out any remaining affairs in the country. Caspian attended the nearby Takapuna Grammar School along with his step-cousins, and though he found adapting to a new school system difficult and couldn't resonate with the non-religious worldview and materialistic, partying lifestyle of many of its students, he was able to make a couple of friends there and even entered into a relationship with a girl in his year. She was very sceptical of certain aspects of what Caspian believed in, believing his passing mentions of past experiences to be stories he'd made up, since she'd never had any such experiences herself and didn't consider them compatible with her Anglican faith. He decided that it was best not to broach the topic with her again so it wouldn't affect their relationship, and was careful to only talk about other aspects of his time in England whenever she'd ask him about what his life had been like there. Shadowy Figures Appear After being granted their residency visas, the family moved into a better-sized rented property on Abbotsford Terrace, which was a recently built one-storey house just up the road from the NZDF Defence Technology Agency and Naval Supply Depot. To their dismay, paranormal activity started up again after the move. One night, as Damian was walking back home from the local yacht club, he told Anne that he was looking at his reflection as he passed by the windows of cars parked along the roadside when he saw a shadow-like form following behind him. He began walking faster, but it seemed to be keeping pace with him. When he turned around to confront it, it had disappeared. He woke up in bed later that night and saw a hooded, robed figure at the foot of his bed, which distressed him as he was worried that it was something Satanic. He accused Anne and Caspian of somehow bringing it with them to New Zealand, or of drawing the attention of some sort of sinister cult to their family as a result of Anne's brief usage of the crystal pendulum she had been given back in England. After this, he began to become increasingly anxious, paranoid and angry at the very mention or appearance of any strange phenomena and was convinced that the hooded being he'd seen had come for his soul. Caspian admits that Damian has sleep paralysis a lot. Following Damian's experiences, Anne and Caspian began to see moving shadows (not always full-bodied, most often being simply lower or upper parts of an indistinct, human-like shape) in the living room, kitchen and hallway of their new home, even during the daytime; they also spotted them several times while walking along Victoria Road. They would disappear whenever any of the family tried to look at them directly. Grace was scared because she saw hooded, shadowy figures in the bedroom which she shared with her younger brother, Peter. The entities that she saw would typically stand silently at the doorway to their room, or between the children's beds. They would either fade into invisibility shortly after being noticed, or Grace would hide under her duvet until they went away. She described them as being as tall as Damian (approx. 5' 9”) and said that sometimes they had glowing white eyes which “flashed.” Caspian's step-cousin Amy also noticed the shadowy figures on a few occasions, usually only for a moment or at the periphery of her vision, whenever Caspian's family was present, or she was visiting their home. Her older brother Harry likewise mentioned having seen “something” at the house to Anne and Damian, but he didn't want to talk about it any further, or go into any detail about whatever it was that he had seen. Damian was very upset that his brother's family was noticing these things as well, and said that he'd learned from a private conversation with Harry that he was more consternated by it all than he'd outwardly shown, since he didn't otherwise believe in such things. Caspian says that while Damian is a professing Christian, Harry and Amy come from a family of Humanists/Atheists and as such have no interest in anything paranormal. Damian made it clear to Anne that he didn't want them becoming interested or involved in such things either, as a result of what he insisted she and Caspian had brought into the house, because he was certain that it would destroy any chance of success his niece and nephew might have in life. Orbs and Warm Spots Auckland is a subtropical environment with warm, humid weather throughout most of its spring and summer, so hot temperatures are to be expected indoors at those times of year; however, despite having the air conditioning on high and many fans circulating cool air throughout the house, there were anomalous warm spots in the living room (particularly in front of the TV), the kitchen and two of the bedrooms. In certain corners of those rooms it would be baking hot even in autumn and winter, with the radiators in the house turned off! One part of the kitchen would get so unbearably hot at times that a corner of the wooden top on its island began to warp, and ice in the freezer would repeatedly melt, causing the food inside to thaw. These warm spots would suddenly move to other random parts of the house, leaving areas that just moments before had been too hot to bear standing or sitting in for long, at a more comfortable or expected temperature. Around the same time as these warm spots began to manifest around the house, orb-like phenomena also returned, this time being the size of tennis balls and “jelly-glassy” or semi-transparent in appearance, either white or pale mint green in colour. Much like the orbs that the family had seen while living on Bognor Road, these would appear slowly at the edges of certain rooms in the house and then whizz across or around them, ultimately disappearing into thin air. Usually they made no noise, but sometimes there was a faint, hissing whine that accompanied them, similar to the sound that some kettles make when they start to boil. This sound grew louder as the orbs got closer, and they would sometimes pass right by members of the family or disappear within inches of their faces! Anne, Caspian and his little siblings weren't scared by them, nor were any other intense or unusual emotions triggered in them from seeing or being close to these orbs. The orbs weren't confined to their house this time, since Caspian reports that they could also manifest in motels that the family stayed in while travelling around; there was also an instance in which they were seen following the family's car for a short distance after it had left their driveway, fading out of sight before they reached the turn-off onto Victoria Road. Author’s Note: It is unusual for orbs to be reported as following a car, even for a short distance, or for them to appear in motels where the family stays just overnight. Perhaps the orbs are in some way linked to a person, rather than a particular place. It may be that it is Caspian’s mum that is the focus for the orbs, rather than Caspian, given the events in New Zealand that are described later in this report. Damian's response to everything that was going on was quite different to that of Anne, Caspian and his siblings, as Caspian explains: “He tried to ignore the orbs, though we could see that everything which was manifesting in the house was causing him considerable anxiety, to the point that he was spending increasing amounts of time away on sailing trips with my step uncle or out drinking at the local yacht club. He became obsessed with having absolute control and authority over everything that went on in his household, only allowing the rest of us to do whatever he gave us permission to, and making it clear that nothing was to happen outside of his knowledge or we wouldn't like the consequences. Part of that was because he blamed me and my mum for what was going on, and he thought that by 'keeping us in line' weird things would stop occurring – which of course, they didn't, because we weren't really summoning or controlling anything. Over successive months, his behaviour continued to deteriorate until he was treating me, my mum and my little brother even more aggressively, impatiently and manipulatively than he had done back in England. His moments of erratic and unsettling behaviour in public returned, such as whimpering and jumping up and down in the middle of the street or pacing back and forth while burping and farting at anyone who talked to him, which embarrassed mum; and despite his family's stance on blood-relative loyalty my step-uncle and step-cousins had to step in to defend me and her on several occasions when his outbursts and intimidation got out-of-hand.” Electrical Interferences During the 6-7 months that the family was living on Abbotsford Terrace, Caspian did voluntary work at his little siblings' primary school, St. Leo's, as a teacher's assistant. During break-time one morning, the unlocked classroom door suddenly slammed shut and Caspian got an electric shock from the handle when he went to open it again. He saw a strange shape reflected in the glass panel of the door, which seemed to move sideways into the room. Just before this happened, Damian had once again begun to notice street lights turning on or off whenever he would walk underneath them. Anne also recalls that he firmly believed he'd caused his brother's house to experience a power cut one afternoon, simply from being there. The reception on the family's TV set was repeatedly bad, with the picture and audio often turning to static when Anne or Caspian were close to it. CD players in the house would act oddly during playback as well, skipping and getting stuck on loops even when replacement discs and CD players were purchased. Author’s Note: This is a repeat of earlier incidents of electrical interference that the family have also experienced in the UK. Mediumship Training While living in England, Caspian had undertaken a period of work experience as an assistant to the family's priest in Lavant, because of feeling an internal calling to serve in Christian ministry. This conviction remained in him after his family moved to New Zealand, though he was unable to find any priests in Devonport who were willing to take him under their wing. He had been advised that the sort of things he and his family experienced were incompatible with certain doctrines of the Church, but both he and Anne perceived that to be a failing on Christianity's part. Despite repeatedly coming up against a taboo toward any mention of the paranormal or ufological in churches they visited, they wanted to find a way to marry their faith and experiences together, so they signed up with a small group near Albany who were offering training in psychic mediumship at a time when Damian wouldn't be home to find out. The course lasted for several months, and though neither of them felt that they learned much which was new or particularly useful from its sessions, they were at least able to discuss many of the experiences they'd had with other people who were open-minded to them. Both the session leader and several of the group members were convinced that Anne and Caspian had clairvoyant ability and that they showed promise in mediumship, but when the global financial crisis occurred in 2008 the family could no longer afford to live in Auckland, so they had to stop attending those training sessions. Dunedin Experiences Caspian's family chose to move down from the North Island to the South Island, to the city of Dunedin, in February 2009. The property that Damian had chosen which they moved into initially was not of a good standard, and Anne in particular hated it, bursting into tears shortly after they arrived; after it was determined that necessary repairs to the property would cost more than they could possibly afford, none of them wanted to remain there. They managed to sell the house and moved to a better one on Manchester Street, in the Bradford valley. After doing so, much of the paranormal activity that they had been experiencing in Devonport begun manifesting again, though at first it was only experienced by Caspian and his mother. Doppelgängers Return Anne had found work at a local primary school as a teacher aide, but only a few months after starting that job she had to be off work for an entire week as a result of coming down with a bad illness and losing her voice. While she was recovering at home, the principal phoned her to ask why she'd been on-site that day, and expressed confusion at why she'd gone into the school office and asked for a pay rise in a perfectly healthy voice, then walked out before the receptionist could reply! Meanwhile, Caspian attended a Catholic secondary school, Kavanagh College, for 6 months to complete Year 12. He looks back on his time there positively, saying that it was the first school he'd ever felt happy and valued in; not only did his grades greatly improve, but he made many friends there as well. He hoped that he would be able to finish his schooling there, but by the end of 2009 his health had deteriorated, forcing him to miss out on his last school year after only being able to attend the first week of Year 13. He was virtually bed-ridden for 18 months, with extreme fatigue and in near-constant pain from his chest condition, spending most of the time with the blinds in his bedroom semi-closed so that the sunlight wouldn't trigger his migraines. Though he was barely able to make it out of bed, unable to make it down the hallway to the toilet or even eat without assistance on most days, one of his friends called to ask why he had come round his house to play on his PlayStation, only to run off upon being invited inside! When Caspian explained how it couldn't possibly have been him, his friend didn't believe him and remarked that ever since his condition had worsened, he had become “no fun anymore”. Caspian hadn't seen him in several months, so he didn't understand what he was talking about – but for his friend enough was enough; he never called Caspian again, saying that he was fed up with him “messing around and acting weird.” His last comment was that if Caspian was healthy enough to run, then he should be at school. Not long after this, the family once again began hearing what sounded like Damian or other family members in the house when only Caspian and/or Anne was there. Even stranger, at random times during the day and night the chimes of Big Ben would ring out through the house. Its occurrences unsettled them. While this may have been produced by a small box above the fridge that Anne speculated could have been linked to an old doorbell button by the front door, none of them could work out how or why it was activating and playing those tones, especially since the bell was broken and hadn't been working for quite some time before they moved into the property. Caspian reports that the rest of the phenomena in the house were only being experienced by other members of his family, since he was confined to his bedroom at the opposite end of the property (above its garage, which they used to store piles of wood for the house's log burner) and was asleep for much of the time. The only thing he remembers noticing on most nights was the strange paranormal mist which his family hadn't seen since they were living on Bognor Road, as well as a few manifestations out in the hallway behind his bedroom of shadowy forms which simply consisted of a featureless head, neck and shoulder, or an arm and torso; he says that any legs always appeared “jelly-like”. In August 2020, Anne gave the following description of the strange events that were occurring during this time: “It was quite common to hear footsteps in parts of the house where nobody was and on occasion, we heard footsteps walking in the attic above us. The house is detached so it is not possible for the attic to be accessed from adjoining properties. Another frequent occurrence is hearing keys turning in the lock of the front door and the sounds of someone entering the property, but there would be nobody there. We have also had incidences when we've been sitting down to dinner and there'd be a loud knocking at the front door. Someone would go to see who was there, but there would be no one there at all.” During this time Caspian had become agnostic to the existence of God, though he converted back to his childhood faith on 22nd January 2010, after hearing three knocking sounds on doors of the house each night for two weeks. Anne reminded him of a verse in the book of Revelation in which Jesus says he will “stand at the door and knock”, and Caspian reasoned that the knocks he'd been hearing were a divine message for him to figuratively open the doors of his heart and mind. Curiously, after he prayed and vowed to re-commit his life to serving God as a pastor, the knocking ceased. Reptilian Visitations Halfway through 2010, Caspian's health slowly started to improve. However, one night he woke up and saw a 6fttall dark shape standing at the end of his bed, making a heavy, hissy, grunting breathing sound. Caspian tried to call out, since while his chest was hurting, he wasn't experiencing any paralysis, and he eventually managed to succeed in shouting “Go away!” When he did so, the shape disappeared along with the sound of its breathing, leaving the room in silence. The next night Caspian awoke again to see what he describes as a 6-foot reptilian, with thick, black scales of differing sizes on its body and greenish-yellow eyes. It reached out one of its arms toward him, opening its taloned hand, and started to move round the side of his bed. He once again shouted out, “Go away!” but it simply grinned and reached out for his face before disappearing, fading away into the darkness of his bedroom. Later in life, Caspian would compare the appearance of the entity's hand reaching toward him to that of the hybrid Indoraptor dinosaur in the movie Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which came out in June 2018. Though Caspian has always loved reptiles of all sorts, he was petrified of the entity that visited him on those two nights – he says that nothing else of a paranormal nature he's ever experienced in his life has felt so sinister. After the second time it appeared in his room, he slept at the other side of the house in the living room for 3 months. (Continued in Part 3 - click here) Copyright © Ian Jones 2020

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Ian Jones Release Date: 15/09/2020 Last Updated: 15/10/2020 Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used for some witnesses. Introduction Caspian is a 28-year-old male who has had a wide range of experiences, both paranormal and highly strange in nature, in this country and when he and his family emigrated to New Zealand in 2008. He has twice returned to England since then, and each time has had ongoing incidents. His family, particularly his mother (Anne) and younger sister (Grace), have also continued to experience incidents in New Zealand. He returned to England and lives in Chichester, a county town in West Sussex not far from the south coast. It’s about 20 miles from Portsmouth and 50 miles from Southampton. He reports that: “I'm 28 years old, as of 9th November 2019; I was born in 1991. My little sister is 19 years old, and my little brother [Peter] is 17 years old.” Regarding his health, Caspian says: “Chronic fatigue and chest pain is the best way to sum up my health conditions, I've found – wherever it may be relevant, asthma would also be worth noting. The only medication I use are my blue [Ventolin] and purple [Seretide] inhalers (for asthma), antihistamine (for hay fever and animal and food allergies), lidocaine patches (my doctor and I are testing them on me to see if they help ease my chest condition a little) and an EpiPen [Jext] (for anaphylaxis reaction to nuts), which I keep for emergencies.” “A chronic pain specialist I went to see for an assessment in February 2020 agrees that my CFS likely developed as a result of the strain that my chest condition put on my body back in late 2009-mid 2011; throughout that time my health was the worst it's ever been – I was bedridden almost 24/7 in constant pain, was barely able to move around for more than 30 seconds on most days, struggled to take care of myself without assistance, and had to spend much time in a darkened environment because of migraines. I don't recall experiencing CFS symptoms prior to September 2009 (just the sort of exhaustion or tiredness that's usual for many people).” Over more than eighteen months we remained in contact via Skype and emails, which has amounted to several hours of discussion. Caspian has also provided me with copious documentation detailing his experiences, alongside drawings and photographs of the phenomena he has witnessed. Lavant Experiences In December 1994, when he was 3 years old, Caspian's family moved to Churchmead Close in Lavant, a small downland village in West Sussex, on the northern outskirts of Chichester, near to England's southeast coast. Caspian spent most of the time that he was living there solely with his mother, as his birth-father had left the family home about eight or nine months prior to his first strange experience at that address; he reports that his mum has been experiencing paranormal phenomena herself since she was little (see Anne's Experiences). At the time, Caspian and his mother were High Anglo-Catholic and Spiritualist in faith and attended both St. Mary's and St. Nicholas C. of E. Church and Sunday School, as well as regular choir practices. The nearest of those two parishes to their house, St. Nicholas Church, is situated next to the A286 Chichester to Midhurst road. It was built mainly in the 12th and 13th centuries, but it is believed that an older church existed on the site in Saxon times. The church was restored considerably in the 19th century when the north aisle and south porch were added, and the nave lengthened. The chancel, built in the 13th century, was also altered significantly in the 19th and 20th centuries. There was further building work done in the 1980's, both internally and externally. Caspian's house was a social housing, rented property behind St. Nicholas Church. There were several houses on their side of the Close, built next to land that is sanctified as the church's graveyard – its border was just behind the bottom of their back garden. Caspian reports that their garden was also apparently part of the church's graveyard plot at one point, but their priest didn't know whether anyone had actually been buried specifically where their house was built. It would be difficult to determine this for certain, since there have been no burials on that site since the 1720's, and no grave markers remain on the land which now belongs to the Close. As far as Caspian knows, there were no reports of unusual phenomena in the area prior to his experiences; I have likewise been unable to find references to anything paranormal relating to Lavant's churches, or anywhere nearby. Shadow on the Stairs Caspian's first paranormal experience happened when he was 4 years old, in either April or May of 1996, after he had been living in Lavant for about 18 months. He recalls that it was a warm and sunny day, with blue sky visible outside their front door, which his mum had left slightly ajar. It was in the morning, before lunch, and Caspian reports that he was standing at the bottom of their stairs in the entrance hallway, opposite the doorway to the kitchen, when he saw a “disembodied shadow” cast against the wall there. This shadow appeared to move upwards, as though someone were walking silently up the stairs. It disappeared when it reached the landing, blending into the natural shadows there. He describes the shadow as looking like it belonged to an adult male, about the same height as his mum (5ft 6 inches). He did not experience any other impressions from it – no sensory effects or emotional impact, other than confused curiosity at what he had seen! Caspian went and told Anne, who was busy in the kitchen and therefore hadn't noticed anything. He thinks that because of her own, earlier paranormal experiences she categorised the thing as a ghost, which at that time she believed in. Paranormal Activity In the next few weeks following his initial experience, Caspian reports that – usually starting from about 16:30 to 17:30 and always before sunset, continuing into the evening and the early hours of the morning– the following phenomena began to occur in the house: A. Paranormal “mist” – a “greyish-dark, obscuring, fuzzy effect” that would manifest in particular rooms, often filling them from floor to ceiling, but at times rising no higher than a few feet off the floor. B. Pale, semi-transparent, jelly-like orbs, which would whizz across the living room and appear in the downstairs and upstairs hallways. They varied in size, from blueberry to golf ball, and larger. They appeared and disappeared into thin air, sometimes travelling in a straight line and at other times suddenly curving round; Anne recalls that they would “circle in loops” on occasion. Most of the time they were out of reach, but they occasionally came close enough to the observers that they would have been able to touch them. Caspian thinks that they disappeared before they met any solid surfaces, but Anne recalls that they seemed to “phase through” objects (e.g. chairs, walls) at times, passing through them as if they weren't even there. C. Between one and three small, electric blue, green or red lights that zipped, weaved and bobbed in their back garden, living room, entrance hallway and upstairs landing hallway. D. Flickering light bulbs. E. Other electrical interferences that affected their TV, cassette tape player and Caspian's GameBoy. F. Cold spots and strange smells (ozone and cigarette smoke), which manifested throughout much of the house. However, nothing paranormal seemed to occur in the downstairs kitchen, or in Anne's bedroom upstairs (with the exception of one possible instance; see The Coat Ghost Incidents later). There were never any sounds associated with the mists/orbs. Sometimes those phenomena appeared in conjunction with the electrical interference effects, but not always. Usually only Caspian and his mum were present to witness these phenomena, but neighbours and other family members visiting the house at the aforementioned times also noticed them. He thinks that it was his grandmother who commented that she felt the house had “something” in it, which made her feel uncomfortable. One of their neighbours, when visiting, called out to Caspian and his mum from their living room while both of them were in the kitchen, to ask if they'd also seen the “bobbing blue lights” in their back garden. The sun was starting to set then. Anne remembered other things they experienced at that address, including a ball of circling, coloured lights that Caspian once looked up and noticed outside his open bedroom door, floating along the upstairs landing away from it and towards her room. On another occasion, when she was in the upstairs bathroom Anne saw the shadow of a medium-sized dog (she thinks it was about 18 inches tall) move across one of the walls and exit through the slightly open bathroom door onto the landing, where it disappeared. Sometimes she heard what sounded like adult footsteps going up and down the stairs, even when she was standing right next to them, but there was never anyone visible there. Anne also recalled the bizarre fact that they used to have clusters of butterflies that seemingly manifested out of nowhere while they were out of the house! They settled high on the walls upstairs, out of reach. Anne and Caspian used to look around to see if they were laying any eggs, but they could never find any. The butterflies would eventually flutter out of the house of their own accord when all of the windows and doors were opened for them. Caspian and his mum had no idea how the butterflies got into the house each time, as they'd make sure that all of its doors and windows were closed before they went out. Author’s Note: This may be a natural event. Some butterflies (and moths) do sneak into houses, garages or sheds during late summer/early autumn, when it is still warm outside and our houses appear to provide suitably cool, sheltered conditions. They become dormant and cling to the upper walls. If the house becomes too warm for them, usually through the heating being on in the winter, they awaken and fly around. In the spring they naturally become active with the increase in outside temperature and try to fly away. I have had this experience in my garage and was puzzled by it too. Additionally, Anne recalls that one Christmas Eve they were sitting in their living room when it felt to them as though the building shook, and pictures which had been mounted on the walls either fell off them or tilted sideways. Their next-door neighbour had also felt the shaking at the time, but neighbours further away hadn't. That neighbour had mentioned to Caspian's mum before that strange things happened in her house as well, such as knocking sounds and door handles moving seemingly of their own accord. Caspian says that he wasn't scared by these phenomena, but rather just accepted them since “a fear of the otherworldly had never been instilled in me, just a respect and acknowledgement of its existence and presence.” When he was older, Caspian and his mum talked about these events and concurred in their thoughts that the various phenomena were different manifestations of the same thing. Their supposition was that “spirits” would somehow arrive in their back garden each evening, because they thought that there might have been a spirit path leading from the graveyard behind their house, through the back garden, into the living room, through the hallway and up the stairs to Caspian's bedroom door. Author’s Note: The electrical interference effects are not unusual in cases where people report strange phenomena happening, but without having a comprehensive history of the house, it’s surroundings and underground status, it is not possible to try and explain these events, or why the “spirits” would travel along such an odd path, which would seem to lead nowhere of any significance. There were/are no power lines near to the house which could have caused any of these strange events. In August 2020, Caspian’s mum wrote about these phenomena: “These things did seem to happen quite regularly. Caspian had told me that he had seen coloured lights in his bedroom and outside in the upstairs hallway. I think he associated them with the ‘coat ghost’, that he had seen on a number of occasions. I also saw these coloured lights one time as I came out of my bedroom and saw them dancing in a circular pattern about a metre above the ground outside of Caspian’s bedroom door. I do remember the mists in the house and there would be times when a drop in temperature occurred at the same time and it felt cold enough to make me shiver. Another strange thing also happened twice on New Year’s Eve. Between 11 pm and midnight both times, I felt a wind blow through the house from the hallway downstairs to the living room. As it blew through the hallway, the pictures I had on the wall opposite the stairs would shake and sway.” Pyramidal UFOs When he was 5–6 years old, Caspian reports that he had no fear of the dark. He often used to look out of his bedroom window at night, observing the moon, stars and occasional aircraft flying over the area, as well as looking at the roofs of houses nearby in the Close. Caspian’s mum wrote in August 2020: “I do know that he liked to look out of the little window in his bedroom at night, as he loved to see the moon and the stars." On one occasion Caspian saw an orange light drifting over the countryside to the left of the Close, from the direction of Goodwood. He reports that as it came closer, he became able to tell that its shape was not that of the normal aircraft he was used to seeing. He thought that it might be a hot air balloon, though it looked more like a pyramid, and no basket was visible hanging down underneath it. It had lines of a slightly darker colour across each side of its body section, as though it was tiered, with a softly fluorescent orange, glowing, dome-shaped ‘cap’ on top. It drifted smoothly and slowly over Lavant in a manner that Caspian thought similar to the way "an air hockey puck glides across a low-friction table, absent the speed". It remained visible behind and above the roofs opposite their house until it disappeared behind a number of trees to his right, in the direction of Chichester. Then, another similar object which was blue in colour drifted up from behind one of the roofs of the houses opposite his own and followed the same trajectory as the initial, orange-coloured shape, but at a different angle. This allowed him to see that the base was triangular in shape – therefore, he says that the objects were tetrahedrons (triangular pyramids). The tetrahedrons had a taller body than the width of their base, with a “cap” on top which was smooth and curved like a dome, and lighter in colour than the main body and base of the objects. Their colours were about as intense as dull neon signs: not uncomfortable to look at, and not too bright. There was no flickering effect; the illumination was at a constant level. The objects moved slower than conventional aircraft. Caspian says that “whoever was flying them was going at a relaxed pace”! Their casual drift across the sky was part of what influenced his thought that they were some form of hot air balloon. If they had been in a car driving underneath them and trying to match their speed, he thinks that they would have been rolling forward at under 10mph. Just before the blue one disappeared behind the same cluster of trees, three small, white lights in a triangular formation flashed/blinked briefly in and out of view. One was above the blue shape, and the other two were at either side of its base. He could not tell if they were separate from the blue object, or part of it. Below is a map showing the estimated paths of the orange and blue UFOs with a purple line indicating the house. The green line relates to another UFO discussed in the Craft Abductions section. Caspian cautions that “the curve of the orange line may go out a bit too far, and I've also assumed that the abduction craft flew in a straight line toward the Close each night”. He saw nothing else of interest after the blue object went out of sight, but stayed up to see if either of the pyramids would return until he became too tired to remain standing at his window, and went to bed. Clearly, he was not disturbed by what he saw. Author’s Note: The description of the orange and blue objects as being triangular pyramids/tetrahedrons is unusual. I have come across only one other case where this description is used, which is referred to in a book – Intersect, by Marian Rudnyk. He took a photo of what he describes as a “new” never-before-seen (to the best of my knowledge) UFO: an incredible looking pyramidal tetrahedron”, which was appearing and hovering regularly over his house in southern California, on 28th February 2019. That’s about 22 years after Caspian saw his objects. Strange “Dream” Caspian estimates that it was two and a half weeks after that UFO sighting, probably in early summer, that he had a strange “dream”. He had been in bed asleep, but got up in the early hours of the morning and decided that he wanted to go for a walk. He was wearing pyjamas and was barefoot. He crept downstairs and found that the front door was unlocked, so he went outside and walked down to the path at the back of Churchmead Close, on Warble Heath Close. This leads to a bridge tunnel under the A286. He had always felt afraid of this tunnel without knowing why, so he had never walked under it alone before (nor would he do so, even after this); that night however, he walked under it with no qualms, continuing down Centurion Lane. Caspian explains: “The path leading up to it is Warble Heath Close, directly behind Churchmead Close. The walk down Centurion Way is very peaceful and pretty, but the bridge itself has always made me feel uneasy; something about it just never 'felt right' to me, as though there was something invisible there.” Centurion Way is part of the South Downs National Park. It is a 5.5-mile (9km) gravel and tarmac path, with flat, wide paths and minor slopes, that runs between Chichester, Lavant and West Dean. It follows the dismantled Chichester to Midhurst Railway, which closed in 1991; the last of the tracks were removed in 1993. The name “Centurion Way” was suggested by a local schoolboy because the path crosses the course of an ancient Roman road. Caspian says that he felt like he was wide awake as he continued down Centurion Lane, into an open area adjacent to Hunters Race. There are metal sculptures of diggers visible beside the path there, which he stood and looked at in the moonlight before turning to walk back home. However, at this point he reports that it was like he suddenly “woke up” (like snapping out of a trance) and realised where he was and what he had done in leaving the house and walking so far away without asking his mother first! He became terrified and called out for her as he stumbled back up Centurion Way, now very distressed. He felt like he was being watched, but looking behind him he couldn't see anyone. Realising that she was probably still in bed, Caspian stopped shouting for his mum, but felt even more strongly that he was being watched. This time, when he turned round, he saw two very tall, slim beings standing down the path behind him, like elongated humans in shape but made of dusky, pale, white light. For some reason he felt comforted and calm upon seeing them, and these beings followed him as he walked the rest of the way home. As he approached the bridge tunnel, they went ahead of him and stood at either side of it. One of them nodded gently at him, raising a hand in a farewell action, then both entities seemed to fade out of sight. He noticed that it was sunrise and continued to his house, now not feeling afraid at all. He entered through their front door (which he had left partly open), went upstairs to his room, climbed into bed and went back to sleep. When he got out of bed later that morning, he noticed that the soles of his feet were a bit dirty, but there were no footprints on the stairs carpet leading from the front door. On telling his mother all this, she checked the front door and found it locked, and agreed that it was probably a dream. The total distance he would have walked is probably over three-quarters of a mile; he thinks it would have taken at least 32 minutes to walk there and back (16 minutes each way). Caspian reports that he was not prone to sleepwalking. In August 2020, Caspian’s mum wrote: “He did tell me about the time when he left the house at night and went for a walk down Centurion Way. I was horrified by this as it was such a dangerous thing to do in the middle of the night. I had to put it down to sleepwalking (his father had done this on occasion) and from then on I was extra vigilant to listen out for him at night and to check in on him so that it wouldn’t happen again.” Anne reports remembering Caspian waking her up one night when he was 6 years old, insisting that he'd just heard a train rumbling past outside; of course, this was not possible, because the local railway line had been decommissioned in the same year that he was born. The Coat Ghost Incidents Caspian isn't sure whether the encounters he had with what he dubbed the “coat ghost” were nightmares or waking experiences, but to this day he has retained some apprehension about clothing that is hung up on hooks on the back of doors. His first experience involving that entity began when he woke up one night and noticed that the bottom and sleeves of his dressing gown were moving slightly, as though caught in a draft of air. His dressing gown then unhooked itself from his bedroom door and levitated towards him across the room, its arms swinging back and forth as if it were being worn by something invisible! On reaching the side of his bed it leaned over him, which frightened him. His response was to roll over, hide under the duvet, squeeze his eyes shut, try to mask his breathing and will himself back to sleep – but Caspian admits that when he thinks about this now, it doesn't seem to make much sense that he could get back to sleep under those circumstances. The same thing happened three times over the course of a couple of weeks. He can't remember anything else happening on those nights. After those repeated instances, one night he woke up to see it already standing by the side of his bed. Upon seeing that Caspian was awake, the entity moved away towards his bedroom door. This then opened of its own accord, and the entity went out onto the landing hallway, gliding towards his mother's bedroom. Caspian felt that he had to follow it, so he did so. Looking back on his willingness to do so now, he reflects, “Though I ascribe that to a combination of bravery and feeling worried about mum (since it was headed in the direction of her room), the fact that I got up and followed it still doesn't make much sense – what child follows the monster under their bed when they see it crawl out and leave their room?!” He went through his mum's open bedroom door and saw his dressing gown sitting on the end of her bed; Anne was fast asleep. It gestured to him with one of its arms to sit beside it, which he did. He then heard the entity talk to him out loud, saying that he should look after his mother because she loved him very much! The voice sounded male and was husky, but not old, and not one he recognised. It spoke quietly, but not in a whisper. Caspian says that the way it spoke sounded like the way a parent would say, “Watch over my little one, keep them safe.” His dressing gown then collapsed slowly, and Caspian took it back to his bedroom, dropping it on the floor beside his bed before climbing back under his duvet and falling asleep – again, it's interesting that it was so easy for him to do that. He says now that he thought if he left the dressing gown lying on the floor, it would lose its ability to be possessed again, because his child's reasoning reckoned it had to be hung up on his bedroom door for the "ghost" to be able to wear it. Caspian told his mum about what had happened the morning after. He reports that Anne said she thought it was just a strange nightmare – he thinks she was trying to prevent him from being afraid if she gave any indication that she thought the entity was real, and that what he'd remembered from the night before had actually happened. She was mystified however about what it had meant when it told him to look after her; Caspian says that his mum has always had bad health in some way, but he doesn't know what specific problem/s she might have been having at the time. Anne got rid of Caspian's first dressing gown after that night because he was still scared of it (in fact, he wouldn't let her hang anything on the back of his bedroom door for years afterwards). She bought him a new dressing gown a couple of weeks later because she wanted to ensure that he was warmer at night than he would have been if he'd only worn pyjamas out of fear, but Caspian only wore his new dressing gown when he was around her. Since then Caspian has not encountered that entity again, nor has it featured in any other nightmares which he's had over the years. Author’s Note: Caspian does seem to have been affected for a long time because of these “nightmares”, which is unusual. Even nightmares are usually forgotten within a few days, or weeks at most. They do not continue to cause such apprehension as Caspian reports over 20 years later. Initial Doppelgänger Appearance Before moving on to a job with the Wiley publishing company, where she would meet Caspian's soon-to-be stepdad Damian, Anne had worked at the Body Shop headquarters in Chichester. One day, she called in sick – however, later in that same day she received a call from work because she had been seen there! Apparently a doppelgänger had turned up – in a skirt-dress that from their description Anne didn't actually own – ignored all of her work colleagues, took some of that morning's mail or documents and disappeared while ascending the stairwell. People on the ground floor saw it go up the stairs, but nobody upstairs saw it arrive there. The staff at the Body Shop HQ were unsettled and deeply alarmed when Anne insisted that she hadn't come in earlier. She was also shocked and alarmed at the thought of someone impersonating her! This incident happened at around the same time as Caspian saw the disembodied shadow on the stairs at home. In August 2020, Caspian’s mum wrote: “I tried to tell them that they must have been mistaken; that I had been at home that day and was only wearing jeans, not a suit. However, they said that at least 15 people had seen me that morning and that I must have changed my mind and come into work instead. After all, how could 15 people be wrong?” MIB Encounter Between 1995 and 1998 Caspian attended the now-closed St. Margaret's Catholic Primary School in Midhurst, which was attached to a convent of the Sisters of Mercy. One afternoon, a man was seen getting out of a black van and pacing back and forth on the pavement outside of the front gate to the school for about an hour. The nuns went out to talk to him, and he initially went back to his van until Caspian's class came out and crossed the road, to take a class in one of the buildings on the other side. As they were doing so, this same man and another who was similarly dressed got out of the front of the van and stared at Caspian intently. Then the first man made a beeline for Caspian when he was half-way across the road! Sister Joseph-Claire stood in his way and warned him that the school would call the police if he didn't leave immediately. At that, the two men silently got back into their van and drove away. Caspian was ushered away and told not to look at them. He recalls that the man who tried to reach him had a very penetrating, intense gaze, and an almost angry expression on his face. Caspian reports that both males were white skinned, with no facial hair, but were not identical individuals. They were each dressed in a dark grey, mid-length coat and outfit, with a black fedora on their heads. He told his mum about what had happened, and his aunt also said that she had heard about the first man being there outside the school gate earlier in that day. Anne recalls that the school was even more security conscious afterwards, requiring parents to visibly pick up their children rather than allowing them to leave the premises alone and walk to a nearby parking spot. In August 2020, Caspian’s mum wrote: “That was a shocking incident and I was very shaken by it. I don’t remember the school saying much about it to me, I heard more information from Caspian and his aunt than from the staff. I couldn’t understand why these men would be targeting my son in particular. Knowing that they tried to kidnap my son was awful – the realisation that if they had succeeded I might never have seen him again. Obviously my big concern then was that if they had tried once, they might do so again. However, as far as I am aware they never returned to the school and certainly never came to our home.” Craft Abductions Caspian thinks that it was sometime during 1998, when he was 6 or 7 years old, that he started having night-time abductions. They lasted for about a year or two, until 1999-2000. At first, over the course of about a year, a few times a month, he saw silvery beams appear at his bedroom window at night-time. They would rapidly fade away just as he was waking up, or before he could reach his window, as though they were being "switched off". He would look outside to see if the moon was their source, but it would either be in the wrong position in the sky to have cast the beams, or it would not be visible at all. Then, one night he saw a UFO drifting to a stop above the close, having come from the direction of Chichester. It looked like a softly glowing orange square/diamond, with a green light on its underside at each corner (This was definitely not the same shape as the blue and orange tetrahedron-shaped UFOs he'd seen previously). On some nights it had a white luminous appearance, though its four green lights were always visible; on clear nights they appeared to “wobble”, like gas rings on a cooker top, while on overcast nights he could simply see the image of the craft glowing through the cloud cover. It shone down the same silvery beam that he had been seeing from underneath it, either from the front or the middle of the craft, all the way to his bedroom floor (he doesn't recall if he ever saw it shine down onto the ground). The beam seemed to be a cluster of straight-edged rays, reminiscent of –but more solid or thicker than– dusky moonlight. When the beam was at his window, it illuminated his room like moonlight would. Looking at, or directly into the beam wasn't blinding, but his eyes did become dry if he stared into it for too long. When he closed his eyes there were no after-images as you would have from looking at a bright light, or from staring at the sun; he could just see the silvery colour faintly through his eyelids. He saw the same UFO every few nights, or at least once a fortnight. He reports that if he fell asleep before it arrived, sometimes he woke up –or was woken up, potentially– just in time to watch it coming to a stop in the sky where he could see it, where it would hover until he was ready to go back to sleep. He felt that its pilots knew when he was awake or asleep, or at his window, and that they were watching over him. He reports that he looked forward to its appearance, and that he felt happy each time he saw it; he always felt a sense of peace and safety wash over him whenever it shone down its beam onto his body. Caspian reports that assuming it flew in a relative straight line each time it may have come from the direction of the South Downs National Park on some nights, while on other nights it may have flown over from the Goodwood Aerodrome and Tangmere, possibly from the direction of Littlehampton or Rustington. Alternatively, it could have flown over from Selsey or Pagham up through Chichester (refer to the map above, showing the possible paths he mentions). Initially, Caspian thought that the UFO was some sort of plane. He cannot remember when he was first taken on board the craft, or how he was moved there from his bedroom, but one of the occupants –a blonde woman– told him that it was in fact a spaceship. He felt awed and excited about that. He remembers that the interior of the craft was clean, plain, smooth and very light grey, without any sharp edges: all of the architecture was curved. He describes it as being reminiscent of the casing on some Apple products. There were long, thin amber light fittings in the walls of the corridors and the two circular rooms that he was allowed to visit, though they didn't seem to illuminate the craft: he thinks that the wall, floor and ceiling surfaces did so. These were all the same material, like a single-piece construction rather than a modular one – there were no seams anywhere. The air was fresh, and Caspian's bad asthma was not triggered at all, even though at that time he was effectively living off a nebuliser. He does not remember if he smelt anything. Voices did not echo, and it was quiet on the craft. He added that it never felt like they passed through any turbulence – there was no vibration through the floor and walls, or any sense of acceleration or deceleration. Later he discovered that there were between one and four other children on the craft with him each time. The children were not given a tour of the ship beyond the corridors and rooms that they were always guided along and into. No-one explained to them how the craft worked. He doesn't know whether they left Earth's atmosphere at any time while they were on board; if they did, they weren't aware of it. Caspian thinks that they were probably on board for a few hours each time. There were always two women in the craft with them, both of which he estimates to have been about 5ft to 6ft in height. Both women wore a white suit of some sort, but he does not recall whether they had any footwear on. He describes these women as follows: “One had light blonde hair, and a gentle, fair, ethereal appearance. Her skin colour most resembled that of a Caucasian. She had a soft smile and voice, loving eyes full of care and life, and was incredibly empathetic and kind. She could also be firm and strict however, in a motherly way. She spoke using her mouth, not just using telepathy. When she wrote, she used a strange set of symbols rather than English letters.” These symbols were similar to ones which Caspian says he saw a few times later in his life, in other experiences. Author’s Note: I have searched for other examples of alien symbols, but these do not match any of them. Indeed, there does not seem to be any similarity between symbols from different cases, so that is not helpful. The other woman had eyes like a barn owl, dark hair that terminated just under her cheeks and above her chin, a large forehead, and amphibian-like skin that was somewhat like jellyfish flesh in colouration, without being see-through. Caspian didn't feel afraid of her at all; he was simply fascinated by her appearance. He doesn't remember her showing any expressions of emotion to them, but she didn't feel cold or act unkindly, either. He thought that both women were wonderful, since they took such gentle care of them and seemed to appreciate them so much. The woman with the owl eyes seemed to be there to assist the blonde woman, and they appeared to communicate with each other using telepathy that was only between themselves, so Caspian and the other children could not hear them. Caspian did not recognise any of the other children which were always on board the craft with him. As far as he is aware, he has not met any of them at any other time in his life. Two of them, a boy and a girl, each had pale skin and ginger hair, and looked like they were twins or siblings; they never spoke or interacted with Caspian. One of the other boys had dark hair and did interact with him. The fourth child sometimes interacted with Caspian and the dark-haired boy in group playtime, during which they could use toy-like objects that the two women gave to them. However, Caspian reports that most often they were separated and led by the blonde woman into a circular room at the end of one of the corridors to interact with one of the objects by themselves, with only her present. The objects that they were given were like toys of geometric shapes and vehicles –somewhat like trucks and trains– all made of a semi-transparent, seamless material, similar in colour and appearance to the craft itself. They could be configured in many ways, and the test the blonde woman asked Caspian to perform with them was to try and intuitively feel the different ways to open, lift, or manipulate parts of the objects. He wasn't allowed to use trial and error play using his hands, as most children would do, but instead had to use his mind to receive impressions and images of what could be done with them. This included simple motions, like raising wheels from a vertical to a horizontal orientation. Other ways of articulating the objects were bizarre and outside of anything discoverable through normal play, to the point that they would completely change the shape of the object (like a Transformer morphing into a car, but much more complex). After the test was finished, they could either take the toys back to the main room to play with them until they were delivered back home, or the blonde woman would converse with them one-on-one, or in their respective groups. Sometimes they were given a lesson on a white screen in the main room, with the two women present. Caspian says it was like sitting down for a primary school lesson. He can remember that their symbols and numerous moving scenes were displayed on the screen, but not what the scenes were. He doesn't think that the lessons were anything complicated – just basic education in whatever things the women deemed important for the children to know. Another of the tests that they were given involved other objects, such as cubes, which were made of the same material as the toys; however, in these cases Caspian often felt like there was something inside of them. It was as if the cube were a box or container that he couldn't see into. Two of the other children (not the twins/siblings) were also given these objects. They were encouraged to hold out their hand/s over the objects, or to stretch their palm/s facing towards them, or to just be near them if they wished. They had to see what they could feel from the objects: thoughts, emotions, or other details such as their age. Sometimes he could feel nothing from the objects, but the children were still encouraged with smiles and words of approval and affirmation for having tried. Caspian reports that he was able to “feel” nature and living things, as though even flowing water and stones were conscious or alive in their own way. He thinks that he could discern and understand the thoughts and feelings of animals and plants. This interested the blonde woman greatly. Another test was trying to feel what the blonde woman was thinking by holding either one, or both of her hands. Caspian says that he was not good at this, and that any success he had was likely a result of luck rather than telepathy. However, he was told that he was the second-most adept of the group in the other two tests they were given. The dark-haired boy was the most talented out of them all, in all three of the tests. He does not recall being subjected to any other tests or medical examinations while on board the craft. The two women seemed to be able to “read” all that they needed to from the children telepathically, and the blonde woman was aware of what they were thinking and how they were always feeling. She would correct Caspian and the other children if they didn't tell the truth about how they were feeling exactly, honestly and fully. Describing how it felt when his thoughts were being “read” telepathically by the women, Caspian says “it was like cool water washing through/expanding across your forehead, filling your mind in a way that's soothing; sometimes it felt like it was ‘trickling down’ into my mind through the top of my head. When we're around other people on a mundane, everyday basis, we feel like our thoughts are internalised to ourselves: private, contained within the ‘wall’ of our skull that no-one else can penetrate; but with them there was no wall. Conversation flowed freely between our minds like voices travel through air, and we could hear each other as we thought things, in whatever tone and style we ascribed to our mental voice. On my end that was awkward, because the blonde woman seemed to able to come up with what she wanted to say fluidly and flawlessly, translating it to spoken sound instantaneously, while I stumbled through multiple ways of potentially putting together sentences in my mind before deciding on the one I wanted to ‘submit’ as what I wanted to say! She thought that was humorous and cute, but she would advise or correct me if she saw my mind trying to avoid admitting what I really thought, or felt, by masking it through the words I would have chosen to say out loud. Later abductions involving telepathic communication with other entities felt invasive simply because when telepathic communication stops being so regular that you aren't used to it anymore and you've fallen back into living in that illusion of mind-spaces being individual and self-contained, you feel violated when you suddenly find another entity sharing your mind-space and reading your thoughts and feelings like a book – faster than you've decided on what they are, or that you're aware of them being. It doesn't feel like someone's pushing in or pulling out – more that the ‘wall’ disappears, and everything's just open-air space between minds. You remember what it's like to engage in that mode of communication and stop worrying about awkwardness after a minute or so, and return to that state where you accept as an unavoidable ‘fact of life’ that no thoughts or feelings are ever private unless you know how to make them so (it's a psychologically and emotionally uncomfortable feeling when someone tries to read things you don't want them to be able to) I've barely ever been able to read anything from human minds, but the ufonauts' minds are easier to communicate with when they open that channel for you (rather than you opening it on your end, which I think is part of what the blonde woman was encouraging us to try and do when we held her hands: she wanted us to transition from needing the comfort of additional verbal communication to talking purely using our minds, and being able to open that channel for ourselves without help). At times, though, it's not easy to ‘hear’ what they're mentally saying; it's like their words are fighting through the static reception filter of a sort of mental fog. Sometimes it's accompanied by a tingling sensation in your forehead, or a thick pressure on your head, and you can only pick up on bits and pieces of words, like a conversation over a radio signal that's breaking up.” I asked Caspian about how he got back to his bed after these abductions, but he didn't know. He would just wake up either under, or on top of, his duvet the next morning, with no recollection of what had happened between being on board the UFO and waking up in his room; similarly, he doesn't remember how he got taken into the craft from his bedroom. Caspian thinks these abduction experiences ended sometime when he was 8 years old, in either 1999 or 2000; it was certainly before his little sister was born (in March 2000). His recollection of them gradually faded from his memory, a state which continued for over a decade, but he retained vivid memories of the previous experiences he had in Lavant. Author’s Note: Amnesia following abduction is commonly reported, but the extent to which an individual is affected varies enormously. Most abduction reports come from adults and only a few people can remember everything that happened to them. Many can recall little, or nothing and can only wonder about the missing time they are aware of. It is unusual for memories to fade as Caspian describes. He does not report having dreams about the abductions during this 10 year period as some abductees have done. However, he was still young at the time, so his relative mental immaturity might be a contributing factor. Snowy Owl Sighting When he was 8 years old, Caspian was out with his aunt on the sports playing area by the River Lavant, off Churchmead Close, with some other local children at about 7.30 pm. They noticed a snowy owl pass silently overhead. They didn't report this sighting to anyone. While Caspian acknowledges that it was probably out of its natural habitat area, he has always loved owls – especially snowy owls– so he was certain that he had identified it correctly. He even had a hot water bottle cover in the shape of one, which he endearingly called “Snowy”. Anne's Views Caspian has been discussing his recollection of these incidents with his mother since the beginning of January 2019. While Anne initially confirmed distinctly remembering 90% of the incidents referred to above, she feels that her mind is gradually blocking certain things out over time; as such, she no longer (as of June 2020) remembers Caspian mentioning anything to do with his abductions at the time they were occurring. At first however, she had stated that she recalled him at least telling her about what the place he was taken to during his abductions looked like. Her view is that she thought those experiences so potentially alarming in their nature and implication, and so strange, that she had to conclude that they were only dreams. She felt the alternative was hard to contemplate, when you hear your young son talking about being taken outside of your knowledge and control –with other children– to a place you can't reach, to interact with bizarre strangers. She now believes that all such experiences are inter-dimensional and demonic in nature. Chichester Experiences Orbs Return The family – Caspian, his mum Anne and his new stepdad Damian, along with his younger sister Grace – moved to a new address in 2000, at Bognor Road on the A259, a few miles (five minutes' drive) from their previous residence in Churchmead Close. Anne had recently married Damian, who had grown up in nearby Portsmouth and experienced paranormal events almost all his life, similar to those which both she and Caspian had experienced. Caspian reports that they had hoped all the strange events which they'd experienced in Lavant would be left behind there, but this was not the case – they seemingly followed them and manifested in their next house, along with some new occurrences. At the time, Caspian didn't realise that the sorts of things he had experienced weren't normal occurrences for other people. When he told his teachers and classmates at his primary school about it, they gave him nicknames like “Casper” and “Ghost Boy”. He was also bullied when he went to secondary school, so he learned to keep his mouth shut and never discuss such happenings with anyone else, besides his mum. One night Caspian and his mum both kept noticing that an orb appeared and disappeared repeatedly in front of the door to their new dining room (mostly in the same spot, but at least once zipping across in front of the door), which they had closed while they were in the room watching TV. After they opened the door, they saw the orb one more time in the hallway outside the dining room, passing in front of the living room door and fading out of sight as they were about to go upstairs to bed. The orbs were regularly seen by Caspian after he'd got home from school, from about 4.30 – 5.30 pm, but Anne was at home earlier and said that they appeared at around 2.30 pm. They usually showed up in the dining room at dinner time, or when they were in the living room watching shows on their larger, main household TV, but could also appear in the entrance hallway or on the stairs. Anne and Caspian both decided that the nearest thing they could think of to compare the colour of the orbs with is a plasma ball. A plasma ball is a sealed glass globe containing an inert gas inside. The gas most used is neon, sometimes combined with other inert gases such as argon, xenon, and krypton. The gas inside the globe is typically at a pressure close to atmospheric pressure. This gas is highly energized, using electricity, which causes it to become a plasma state. This plasma appears to us as a colourful display of filaments moving around inside the glass globe. The light emitted by the highly energized gas depends on the type of gas used. The type of filaments created, whether more lightning-like, or fuzzy streamer-like, also depend on the type of gas used. The high voltage causes the gas to break down and conduct electricity, and the high frequency enables the current (flow of electrons) to pass through the glass and into the surrounding air. The electrons, which carry a negative charge, are attracted to the earth, which has a neutral charge. If you touch the globe with your hand, you are creating an easier pathway for the electrons to travel, which is why the filaments move to the location of your hand, as this provides an easier path for the electrons to reach the earth (by passing through your body). Caspian says that they were not able to touch the orbs at all. This experience carried on for a couple of years after they moved there. His aunt also used to say that there was always a strong smell of rotten eggs everywhere in the house, but particularly in the kitchen, downstairs bathroom and toilet. However, no-one else besides her could smell it. Pig in the Bathroom Wall Another odd occurrence which was experienced at the house was when Caspian entered the downstairs bathroom (which was adjacent to the garden) and saw the hindquarters of a pig protruding through the wall! He called for his mum to come see it, and when she entered the bathroom they watched as the pig proceeded to walk forward, passing through the wall as if it wasn't there. They went outside to see if the pig was now in their garden, but it had completely disappeared. Some years later they discovered that the land their house was built on had previously been the site of a sizeable pig farm. Girl in a Red Dress In 2002, when Grace was 2 years old, she first began to mention (what the family initially took to be) an imaginary companion called Emily, who she talked to and played with in her bedroom at night after she had been tucked into bed. From Grace's description she was an older girl, about six or seven years of age, who had blonde hair and wore a red dress. Emily treated Grace kindly, talked to her sweetly and would jump up onto her cot bed. At first Grace only saw her at night, and often Caspian's mum and stepdad would be woken up by laughter coming from Grace's bedroom; Caspian says that it could last for about half an hour. Damian would hear the distinct sounds of two girls laughing and go into her bedroom, but find only Grace there, laughing loudly. That spooked him. When there was no-one in the room, things like toys, pictures, etc. would move. It got to the point that Emily would tell Grace that she was going to do something, and they would come back to the house to find that it had happened. On one occasion, Anne and Caspian came home when there should have been no-one else in the house, but they heard a noise upstairs and called up “Hello?” They heard a little girl's voice respond, “Hello!” They thought it sounded like Grace, but when they went upstairs there was no-one there. In August Caspian’s mum wrote: “Yes, she did have an imaginary friend there. It was a little ‘Victorian’ girl in a red dress. I realised that she wasn’t so imaginary when Caspian also saw her sitting on the stairs. The house itself was Victorian in age. Unfortunately I have no way of knowing whether any phenomena was experienced in the property before we moved there. I had lived in old houses before and as I had experienced ‘haunting’ activity both in places I had lived and had visited ever since I was a child, I had come to regard this as being relatively ‘normal’.” Author’s Note: It is interesting that the house was Victorian and the imaginary friend was also thought to be from the same time period. They invited their parish priest, David Parker, in to bless every room in the house with holy water, but it had no effect. There were some gaps of up to a month when Emily didn't appear, but the girl nevertheless stayed in Grace's life, playing with her for the remainder of the nearly nine years that Caspian's family were living on Bognor Road. Crystal Pendulum Incident Caspian reports that they used to have a family friend, called Brian, who was a shaman. He gave Anne a crystal pendulum (fashioned in a teardrop shape, attached to a chain) and said that she should try to use it: they should ask it Yes/No type questions, and it was supposed to spin round one way for “Yes”, the other way for “No”. They did so a few times, but nothing happened, until one evening when Anne's hand wasn't moving at all but the pendulum started spinning in a circle violently, then flew out of her hand across the room. Caspian thinks that they were asking it questions about the little girl Grace kept seeing. They decided not to use it again for a number of years after that, bringing it out only once more in 2008 to see if it could provide them with answers about certain dreams Caspian had been having (see Canadian Woman section). It didn't yield any useful information, with its only apparent answers being contradictory at best; sometimes it wouldn't even move at all. Anne ultimately put it away for good after her faith changed in 2010. Black Triangles and Humanoid Interaction Caspian thinks that he was 10 years old when he had his first UFO experience while living on Bognor Road, and that it was probably sometime during August of 2002. While Caspian recalls it having been around 2.30 am when the events occurred, his mum says it was earlier, at 1.15 am. Caspian woke up early in the morning and noticed silvery beams shining through his bedroom window blinds. At this time he did not recall his earlier abduction experiences in Lavant at all, so he looked outside to see if the moon was especially large or bright that night; instead, he was met with the sight of a monstrous black triangle hovering above the Blackberry Lane allotments behind their house, with two other objects of the same appearance at different heights above and behind it! The triangles had a single, circular red light at each corner, and three or four rows of rectangular lights between the red ones. He thought that he was seeing military aircraft from the nearby RAF Tangmere station, which his great-grandfather (a former RAF mechanic) had told him about – he wasn't aware at the time that it’s runways had been closed since 1970. He opened his bedroom window and could hear a very faint electrical hum, exactly like standing next to an electrical sub-station. There was no breeze, but the branches of the trees which were under the large object were moving as if buffeted by a sort of gentle wind. There were no other noises at all: no cars, animals or birds. There was no discernible smell coming from the craft. Caspian estimates that the lowest triangle was slightly larger than a twelve-seater passenger plane, or about two-thirds of the length of a football field. All three triangles just hovered there, but he says they set him on edge – they felt malevolent, and very unsettling. As he watched the lowest object, a cluster of about five red, self-contained beams (i.e. not spreading out like a torch beam) shone down from the middle of it to the ground. The beams pierced the darkness rather than illuminating it, in a similar manner to the lights on the underside of the craft which were not casting light on anything besides themselves. At the bottom of the beams appeared three figures in what looked like gas masks, adorned with shoulder pads and weird armoured suits, all crimson-red coloured – the same colour as the beams were. They were deployed in a triangle formation: Two were positioned behind, and one was standing in front. The nearest figure to Caspian raised its head and looked directly at him, then all three of them turned in unison and went towards the allotment gates. Caspian says that though he doesn't know why he was so eager, he wanted to meet the pilots, so he hurried out of his bedroom as quietly as he could and went downstairs. He says that the weird, misty obscuring effect which they often saw in the house was present in the hallway and the dining room, outside of the living room doors and into the kitchen; however, since this would usually manifest whenever any paranormal stuff was happening in the house itself, it didn't seem that unusual to him. Finding the back door unlocked, he went outside hoping to catch up with the three pilots, only to find that they were already standing in his back garden! One of them was three-quarters of the way down the garden by one of his stepfather's flower beds, holding a spade and a wooden box with silver-coloured engravings on it, as in the drawings below: Another of the armoured figures was on the path by the stone wall at the end of their garden, holding a long, smooth, crimson gun-shaped object which Caspian describes as having been like a shotgun without any trigger, loading or grooves. He seemed to be standing guard there, looking back and forth between the garden and Blackberry Lane. The third man, which Caspian thinks was the one who had looked directly up at him before, was standing by their garden path in front of him holding another of the strange, weapon-like objects. Caspian says he felt a bit intimidated by him, but nevertheless walked up to him and said: “Hi; who are you, and why are you parked over our allotment? Why are you in our garden?” The figure responded out loud – there was no telepathy involved. It sounded like he was talking through a gas mask, which matched his appearance. Caspian says that the figure had an accent typical of the West Sussex/southeast coast area, possibly a male in his thirties or forties. It didn't sound out of place to him. He told Caspian that it was just a routine visit on their part; he shouldn't be worried. He then asked Caspian what his name was, and Caspian was just about to reply when the figure said “Caspian, isn't it?” Though he was feeling a bit uneasy about everything that was happening, Caspian straightened and replied in the way that he'd been taught to respond to questions issued by those of military standing: “Yes sir.” The figure said, “Good.” He then turned around and looked at the pilot with the shovel and said, “We've got to bury something here, in your garden. It's to protect your household and this area, to keep you safe. Is it ok if we do that?” Caspian's curiosity was piqued; he wanted to ask what was in the box, but he simply said, “OK.” The figure by the flower bed started digging, making a little hole. As he did so, Caspian looked up at the black, triangular thing that was still sitting there, making its low electrical hum, and asked the figure in front of him, “What is that? What kind of aircraft is that?” “You don't need to worry about that,” the man replied. “That's not something you need to be concerned about.” Caspian was still interested in the craft however, so thinking his questions innocent he continued asking, “How do you fly it? Is it like a helicopter? Why is it just sitting there?” But the figure completely dismissed all his questions, saying, “It's not a concern; you shouldn't be thinking about this.” Meanwhile, the other figure casually dug a hole, lay the box in it and gingerly put the soil back on top, padding it down. Caspian says that he took his time doing this; he was standing out there dressed only in his pyjamas, and it was getting cold. When the somewhat drawn-out digging and burial process was finished, Caspian said, “Do you mind if I go back inside? I've got to go and get mum and bring her out here and tell her that you're here.” The figure said, “Of course, yes – go in and fetch your mother.” Just as Caspian went to do so however, the figure put a hand on his shoulder and said, “They're here, duck, run!” Caspian said in a flurry of panic, “Who's here?” before lowering his body and rushing for the back door. The figure lifted the weapon-like thing he was holding, which made sucking, whooshing sounds as it started firing projectiles which looked like large, metal stakes! These disappeared when they went in front of the dining room window, as if they'd been absorbed by something invisible. Caspian hurried into the kitchen and hid down behind the units next to his goldfish bowl. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in his bed later that morning at 7.30, as usual. He immediately went into his mum's room and said, “Mum, you won't believe what happened last night!” She was already awake, and replied, “You won't believe the weird dream I had last night.” Caspian asked her what her dream had been. Anne said that in her dream, she woke up because she'd heard a little electrical buzzing sound in her room. She got out of bed and went downstairs, noticing that in the entrance hallway –around the living room and dining room doors– there was a dense paranormal mist rising from the floor. She walked through it and into the kitchen, where she turned around and saw a big face that seemed to be made from fog, or perhaps the mist itself (which was now surrounding it). The face was dark, with an ugly expression, and it rushed at her out of the mist, smacked her dead centre in the chest and knocked her back into the kitchen units, winding her. She collapsed to the kitchen floor. The last thing she remembered after that was waking up in her bed later that morning, as if nothing had happened. After Caspian told her in turn about what he'd experienced that same night, they went outside to see if any of the metal stakes were lodged in the wall surrounding the dining room window, but there was nothing there. When they went to look at the flower bed they found some disturbed earth and a pile of soil exactly where Caspian had seen the figure with the spade bury the box, but they couldn't find anything when they took their trowels and dug into it. Anne thought that the figure Caspian had talked to had probably been firing at the thing that knocked her backwards in the kitchen, but Caspian was sure that they were firing in the direction of the dining room window – this was across from the kitchen in a different area of the house, so he is not able to reconcile this difference. His mum agreed that the humming sound she'd heard that night was just like standing next to a power station, though she'd heard it inside her bedroom whereas Caspian had heard it coming from the lowest black triangle, outside the house. Caspian reports that the morning after his encounter with the pilots he had a rash on his upper left arm, a bit like a sunburn, but it wasn't hot, didn't itch, and creams didn't have any effect on it. It faded after a week. His mum had a pain in her back afterwards, as though she really had been thrown back against the kitchen units, but there were no visible marks at all. In August 2020, Caspian’s mum wrote: “I remember thinking I was dreaming when Caspian came and asked me to come downstairs because he needed to show me something in the garden. I got up and followed him downstairs. I noticed it was very misty at the bottom of the stairs in front of the front door, but I had to walk through this to go through the hallway to the kitchen, so that I could follow Caspian out to the garden. As I got to the kitchen I felt as if I wasn’t alone and that I was being watched. I turned back to look towards the front door and saw that the mist was turning thicker and black. All of a sudden, out of the mist came a black shape that ran towards me at great speed. It hit me with incredible force in the chest and I went flying backwards into the kitchen cabinets on the far wall. It actually lifted me off the ground and threw me at speed into the hanging cabinets up on the wall. I was physically winded and felt very frightened. I couldn’t tell what the shape was and didn’t know where it had gone to. For a while I felt like I couldn’t move. I decided to just wait until the mist cleared in the hallway before I felt I could make a run for it and go back to my bedroom. I wasn’t able to follow Caspian outside. The next thing I remember is waking up and telling Caspian about my ‘dream’, and being astonished to hear what had happened to him that night also. At that point, I began to doubt that it had been just a dream. Whatever that black shape had been, it was undoubtedly malevolent – as it had rushed at me I could feel its intense anger and hatred of me and it had hit me with such force I was completely powerless against it. I can still remember how it felt to this day. I don't know whether what Caspian saw and experienced that night had any connection to what happened to me, but it was odd to say the least that both of us should experience these things at the same time, and that they should appear to 'overlap'.” Author’s Note: This was clearly a significant event for Caspian and his mum. It is unusual to have a report of such an incident. The fact that they both confirm elements of what happened, although from different points of view, and each reports physical effects afterwards, gives it an extra level of credibility. It seemed to involve what could have been humans initially, because they conversed with Caspian easily and knew his name. Were they conducting a military exercise of some sort, using unfamiliar technology, as in a MILAB scenario, or were they from the future? Then there is an armed response to some sort of unseen, but imminent threat. The traces of anything that happened were minimal the following day, compared with what Caspian and his mum could have expected, which is confusing. Was some sort of mind-altering technology involved? After this event, his stepfather noticed that he would walk under street lamps and they would suddenly turn off, or on. Even if he stopped walking and waited before going under the next street lamp, the effect would only occur as he went under it. He'd also come home from work and upon entering the house the hallway light, or lights throughout the house, would suddenly and inexplicably go out. Caspian and his mum experienced a similar phenomenon, finding that they would only have to touch something electrical and it could either suddenly switch off, or turn on. Also, they got shocks from many objects: car doors, shopping trolleys, plastic bags, and even from hugging each other! After two weeks this effect ceased, and it hasn't happened in such regularity and intensity to Anne or Caspian since. It wasn't until six years later that his stepdad once again started having street lamps turn off as he walked under them. I recently asked Caspian “Was your step dad - Damian - in the house when you and your mum had the black triangle and humanoids encounter in 2002 in Bognor Road? What was his reaction to it?” His response was “To answer your question - he was indeed in the house at the time; he and mum have always shared a bedroom together. He was sleeping in their bed next to her that night. He wasn't in mum's room later that morning, when I went in to tell her about my dream; I can't remember what part of the house he was in at the time, or whether he'd gone out somewhere. What I can remember is that later that afternoon, when mum and Damian were both in the kitchen and I was in the dining room, she asked him if he was aware of her waking up the night before and leaving their bedroom at any time, but he said that he'd slept soundly throughout the whole night and hadn't noticed anything. He inquired as to why she'd asked that, and mum simply told him that we'd both had very similar, strange nightmares that night. He came into the dining room and rubbed my hair a bit painfully, commenting in a patronising way about what I watched on TV (by which he meant Most Haunted) and staying up too late, after which he left the room and went upstairs. He didn't really acknowledge the fact that mum had experienced something that night as well. I don't recall if either of us have ever talked to him about that night, since then.” Author’s Note: This electrical interference with street lights, etc, is not uncommon and is almost like the individual is temporarily surrounded by an energy field which interferes with nearby electrical objects, but the effect fades over time. It suggests that something did happen to cause this effect. It is interesting that it affected Caspian’s stepfather, who was also in the house during the incident, but slept through it so was not actively involved in the incident and didn’t know anything about it. For a long time, Caspian thought that what happened that night must have been a military event of some sort; he reports that he was disinterested in the topics of extra-terrestrial life and UFOs when he was younger, recalling, “I certainly didn't go looking for books on the subject when I was little. The only time I can recall seeing an image of a UFO when I was growing up (outside of their depiction in cartoons) was an old, black and white printed photograph of a flying saucer in a DK book in the children's section of the Chichester library. To be honest, when I was a child it was like there was a mental-emotional wall that prevented me from wanting to think about the subject (outside of science fiction, anyway – though I hadn't been allowed to watch shows like Doctor Who or X-Files prior to 2005). It was only years later that he thought that what he saw could have been a UFO." With this event, the interactions Caspian had with UFO occupants changed from being friendly and loving in Lavant to something that was a bit more stand-offish, unsettling and sinister in Bognor Road. It was a sudden, puzzling transition. Caspian says that he didn't want to think about it much at the time, since he was scared of what had happened. Even today thinking about it still gives him the chills, though he does not know why. (Continued in Part 2 - click here) Copyright © Ian Jones 2020

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

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 29/08/2020 Last Updated: 31/08/2020 Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used In May 2020 I was contacted by a gentleman named Nathan from Virginia, USA who wanted to discuss his numerous contact and UFO experiences which have taken place since childhood. As part of our discussion he informed me of his military career as part of aircraft maintenance on a number of Air Force bases. Of particular interest was the fact that he was one of the many witnesses of the Phoenix Lights incident - one of the most impressive UFO related events to have ever taken place! Due to the significance of this sighting I have seperated it out from his other experiences. There is a link to the case report covering his other experiences towards the end of this one. This report will focus specifically on Nathan's part in the events of 13th March 1997. The Phoenix Lights I will assume that many people viewing this report will already have a good knowledge of the incident, but if you do not, here is a brief summary of what took place. At 6.55pm on the evening of the 13th March 1997 a man from Henderson in Nevada reported seeing a large V-shaped object with six lights on its leading edge travelling in a South Easterly direction. At around 8.15pm a police officer saw five reddish-coloured lights travelling South as he drove away from his house. Soon after this sighting reports began coming in from the area of Prescott. Some of these sightings reported that it was a singular solid object as it blocked out the stars as it passed over. The first sighting from Phoenix occurred while the UFO was still over Prescott Valley. A family noticed the lights in the distance, thinking at first they were a formation of separate objects. As the lights got closer over the next ten minutes the witnesses realised they were attached to a huge V-shaped object. This passed overhead and travelled off in the direction of Phoenix Sky Harbour International Airport. As the object flew over Phoenix many other witnesses would watch in awe as the incredible sight. It was seen from the ground by many residents and police officers, and from the air by numerous pilots. Many people have come forward in the years following the incident to describe what they witnessed. One such person was the governor of Arizona, Fyfe Symington, who famously brushed off the incident while in his position, but years later came out to say he had also observed it and that he believed it to have been alien in origin. Fyfe Symington, the governor of Arizona at the time of the incident: After the UFO had left the area of Phoenix it continued on a South-Easterly course towards Tuscon. Some of the last reported sightings of it came in from the North Western outskirts of the city. Map showing the locations of various witness reports: Hours later at around 10pm a curved line of glowing lights was observed and video-taped by numerous witnesses. This caused much confusion and some witnesses attributed the lights to the same object which had passed over the city earlier in the evening. It was later proposed, and widely accepted, that these lights were caused by military flares which were dropped by four A-10 Warthogs during a training exercise going on behind a nearby mountain range. Some feel that the flares were dropped on purpose to aid in the cover up of the initial incident. Unfortunately there are very few videos or photographs reporting to show the UFO which had passed over Phoenix hours earlier, most likely because people were awestruck watching it. Nathan’s Sighting Between February 1997 and June 1999 Nathan worked as an Airbourne Intelligence Analyst at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, five miles South East of Tuscon. He and his wife moved to the city before he began his active service on the base. In the run up to the incident he happened to have taken a week off, and on the 13th March he and Gemma had been out shopping in Phoenix. In the evening they began the drive back home to Tuscon along Highway 10, the main road that leads between the two cities. It was very dark as there were no streetlights. There were quite a few other vehicles on both sides of the road. On either side was flat open desert, with some low hills to the North East. Initially Nathan put on some music, but after a while switched to radio. It was between 8.30 and 9pm when he and Gemma started to hear talk of the lights which had been seen over Phoenix. Intrigued by what they were hearing, Nathan decided to pull over the car on the hard shoulder and get out to see if he could spot anything in the sky. Gemma remained in the passenger seat. It was pitch black but also clear, with the stars visible overhead. At first he could not see anything. But then in the distance to the North East he suddenly noticed a star disappear in the sky. As he watched another star then disappeared a little further to his right. He began to make out a huge black shape travelling in a South Easterly direction. It looked like a wide and flattened V-shaped wedge. As it moved it blocked out the stars as it went, which is the way in which it was visible against the night sky. On the leading edge of the object he thought he could see numerous white star-like lights. When asked to describe the object, Nathan said it looked like “a black knife or sliver moving against a black background. It had a V shape cut out of the back, so not a perfect triangle. On the edge you are wondering if you can see lights or stars. It looked like one solid object from my angle. No sound, just the sound of the highway. The bottom had a rippling effect like waves which made it really hard to see against the dark sky.” Nathan was stunned at the sheer size of the object. It looked about 1.5 times the size of a football pitch, although it was hard to judge this accurately from his location. He thought to himself “This can’t be one of ours!” He felt that it would almost certainly be classified, and because of his military background he felt uneasy about mentioning the fact he could see it to Gemma. He just kept his mouth shut and did not tell her. He watched the object drift slowly across the sky for about 5 minutes. Gemma was also looking out for the object but from inside the car. Perhaps due to the car window or he reduced viewing area she could not see it. In the end Gemma exclaimed “Let’s go, I don’t see it!” At this point Nathan decided to get back in the car. He did not tell her that he had witnessed the object as he felt it was something which would be classified top secret. He continued the remainder of the journey home without further incident. In the following days Nathan looked into what had occurred. He rang up a number of his friends on the base and found out that many people around Phoenix had witnessed the object. One of his contacts confirmed to him that there had been no military aircraft in the air at that time which could have accounted for what was seen. Nathan knew from that moment that what he had seen was not human in origin. He says the size of it was just too large, there would be no reason for us to build something so massive. He has been fascinated by the Phoenix Lights incident ever since, and still seeks answers regarding what exactly was observed that night. Sighting Analysis Even though he did not see the object fly right overhead it is clear that what Nathan witnessed was the UFO which had previously flown over Phoenix. The direction it was heading in puts it right on the flight path which has been mapped out from many other sighting reports, and the huge size of the object matches many of the other testimonies. Strangely some of the sightings reported a formation of separate glowing lights rather than a single object, however there are far more which report the later. It is possible these particular witnesses were observing a formation of jets sent up to intercept it, confused by the flare dropped which occurred later, or were simply mistaken. Because of his background of working on numerous air force bases, Nathan knew that this was not a normal aircraft of any kind. While observing it he distinctly felt that this was something he was not supposed to be witnessing, which lead to him not informing his wife about what he could see. Conclusion Nathan is just one of hundreds of witnesses who have testified to the Phoenix Lights incident. His views on what the object was echo my own – It is very likely that this was a huge and intelligently controlled craft. It was far too large to be a top secret military craft, and even if it had been there would have been no reason to fly it over a city in plain sight of so many people. Therefore it was most likely of extra-terrestrial origin. Nathan’s testimony now joins the many sightings already on the record regarding this compelling, on-going mystery. It is fascinating that Nathan witnessed this event, seemingly by being in the right place at the right time, but has also had numerous other previous sightings and contact-related experiences. Could this merely be a coincidence, or was Nathan in some way lead to be on the main road between Phoenix and Tuscon that night? His other experiences have been written up in a separate case report. Click here to go to this report. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 31/07/2020 Last Updated: 19/08/2020 In late July 2020 I was contacted by a gentleman named Shomari. He informed me that he had discovered a video on his mobile phone which had links with an incident that had occurred months before, and which he had no explanation for. This report covers his claims, analysis of the footage which took place and eventual conclusions which were reached regarding it. As you will see, evidence points towards this not being a flying object at all, although there are still unexplained aspects relating to it. Incident Details The witness claims that on the evening of the 3rd April 2020 he stepped outside the back door of his house on Talbot Street, Winston Green for a cigarette. It was around 8pm and the sun had already set due to the time of year. Shomari says that the weather conditions were normal, it was not raining or windy. He then claims that he recollects seeing something up in the sky, but dismissing it, and that he has no other memories of what may or may not have taken place. Shomari informed me that he was checking through his Android mobile phone’s taken photographs and recorded videos when he came across a video taken after dark which he did not recognise. The video seemed to show some unusual lights hovering up in the sky near to his back garden. In the footage he reacted to the lights exclaiming “What the fuck is that?” The video lasted for 27 seconds before suddenly stopping. It had quite clearly been taken by him, yet according to him he had no recollection of filming it! Video Analysis Below is the video footage which was found on Shomari’s phone: At the start of the footage some blurred red and magenta coloured lights can be seen: Once the camera focuses better, a number of red coloured lights and an unusual rectangular-shape made up of shimmering white and magenta coloured light can be seen. At the base of the screen is the top of the witness’s garden fence: There are five red lights which are seen that fade in and out at various points of the video. These do not vary in distance from one another so appear to be attached to a singular object, the exact shape of which cannot be made out. At 11 seconds in the camera pans to the right a bit and a sixth red light can be seen for a brief moment: It is clear from the footage that the lights are not static but are slowly moving in different directions at certain points. The white and purple rectangular-shaped seems to be highly reflective and have areas of brightness and shadow which change throughout the footage. In the below video the lights themselves have been tracked to keep them still, and this movement within the rectangle of light is clearer: Here is a close up of three of the red lights and lit rectangle, taken from 10 seconds into the footage: Below is the same zoomed image with edge find, high pass and negative colour filters: Below is a zoomed view of the main lights and additional red light which is only briefly seen: When certain stills of the lights are sharpened the bar of white/magenta light looks similar to oriental script. This may be purely coincidental or could offer a clue as to what it is: Apart from the obvious exclamation from the witness the sound of the video is rather quiet. However behind the breathing there is a constant low whirring noise. This might be just background noise, this is inconclusive at present. Location Analysis In many UFO videos there is no clear point of reference, however luckily in this instance the top of the garden fence can clearly be seen. I visited the witness at his house and was able to ascertain the direction and angle it was taken at. I assumed at the time that the video was taken from outside the back door of his house where he claimed to usually stand when popping outside for a cigarette. As you will see later in this report this is very likely not to be the case. Close to the back door of his house is the garden gate. The video has been taken looking upward at a diagonal angle at the top right of the gate. The below images show stills from the footage, and daylight comparison photographs: Using patterns in the woodwork the precise direction and angle of the video can be confirmed. This makes it clear that the lights are positioned over open sky. So even though there is housing, street lights and aerials nearby these can all be completely discounted as an explanation. Video Authenticity Analysis All recorded videos have automatic data stored behind them which can be used to verify many different things, including whether the footage is original or whether it has been modified using computer editing software. I asked the witness to send me a daylight video of his garden to use as a control. Below is the metadata of both videos arranged alongside one another. On the left is the metadata for the UFO video, on the right is the metadata for the control video. Key pieces of information are highlighted in yellow: As you can see the metadata for the two videos is near identical. While it is possible to manipulate metadata, the degree to which this would have had to have been done is extreme due to the number of tags. Even in the unlikely event that the witness knew about metadata, and how to cover his tracks the footage by copying metadata from another video on his phone (which I don’t suspect is the case at all), there are issues with doing so. Due to the number of tags, the most probable way of replicating tags entirely would be to utilise a computer application. The most widely used and respected tool for this purpose is known as ExifTool. However when I attempted to use this to copy tags onto the video it failed. There are many forums online reporting issues with this process when attempting to copy tags to MP4 video files including missing tags and other discrepancies. Therefore in reality it is extremely difficult, nigh on impossible to completely make a hoaxed video file look like a standard one. The fact that the footage video is essentially identical to a control video taken by the witness and requested by myself proves beyond reasonable doubt that the footage is not CGI. The Create Date under Compatiblebrands section (Repeated as Creation Time under the Format section) shows that the footage was taken on 3rd April 2020 at 8.09pm. Note that the Modify Date shown is the exact date and time the video files were E-Mailed to me by the witness so are not significant, it looks like when the file has been E-Mailed as an attachment it has automatically changed this tag when this was done. The Com.Android.Version tag under Format shows that both videos were recorded on an Android mobile phone. It should be noted that the linked YouTube video of the footage in this report is at 360p quality, while the metadata says that the resolution is 420p. This is due to compression on upload. For whatever reason it is slightly dropping the quality of the footage on upload. I confirmed this by uploading the control video, this too has a maximum quality setting of 360p. Therefore this discrepancy can be ruled out and is in no way suspicious. Discounted Possibilities As the footage is very likely to be genuine, initially it was assumed that the lights were attached to either one or two objects hovering in the air at an unknown distance from the sighting location. They were clearly not a helicopter due to the colours of the lighting, their positioning to one another and the lack of the sound of helicopter rotor blades. The lights did appear to be hovering so could not have be an aeroplane or microlight. A lit inflatable seemed very unlikely given the number of lights and movement pattern seen in the footage. While night flying remote controlled advertising blimps do exist, their shape can clearly be seen after dark even at distance. But the lighting did not appear to correspond to a readable advertisement, and you’d expect such an object to be flown over a city centre where it would be observed by lots of people, not over a quiet residential street. Below is a video of a blimp of this kind for comparison: Drone Possibility Analysis Due to the arrangement of the main cluster of lights and the slow drifting back and forth it was initially assumed that it might be a drone of some kind. Drones are usually quite loud, and emit a clear whirring noise even at distance. They also generally have both red and green lights which sometimes strobe as shown by the below videos: Despite these discrepancies I felt it was worth exploring this possibility further. I posted on a popular drone forum and invited forum members to view the footage and provide their thoughts on it. Numerous people came back to me, giving their opinions on what it may or may not show: "I agree it is genuine footage. My Mavic Pro Platinum would look similar, having forward red lights with an aftermarket attached LED. Strange color though. I haven’t seen magenta on a drone. Also it would have to be very close to the camera to appear this size. And even though very quiet compared to most drones you would hear it. Even a larger drone like a DJI Inspire or Yuneec Typhoon would be very audible at the range required to make it appear this large. Very interesting." "As usual it’s difficult if not impossible to get a respective of size or distance for something in the air. Although I find it interesting I have no definite idea what it could be. I can say it doesn't look like a Mavic, the lighting is wrong, although it could still possibly be a drone." "Looks like a UFO to me. It moves like a drone, but I've never seen anything that large." "I looked at them, but do not believe I can ID what it is." As you can see, none of the statements categorically explained the footage as a drone. The UK police force utilise drones in order to track criminal activity. I wondered whether the drones they were using were quieter than normal commercial drones or had different lighting configurations. Below are some videos of police drones in action: I contacted the drones department of West Midlands Police to enquire about the footage and ask whether I would be able to obtain the drone log for 3rd April to confirm whether one or multiple drones were in the area at the time. I was asked to raise a Freedom Of Information request to obtain this information. I received the response to the request on 10th August 2020 via E-Mail. It reads as follows: REQUEST Location: Talbot Street, Winson Green, Birmingham, 8.09pm on 3rd April. I would like to request access to the police drone log for the evening of 3rd April to confirm whether or not a police drone was being flown at the relevant location, date & time. RESPONSE I can confirm that the Force Support Unit did not have a drone above Birmingham at 20:09 hours on the 3rd April 2020. In addition however, with regard to the COVERT use of Drones / Unmanned Aerial Surveillance (UAS), West Midlands Police neither confirms nor denies that it holds any other information relevant to this request by virtue of the following exemptions: Section 23(5) - Information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters Section 24(2) - National security Section 31(3) - Law enforcement Section 23 is an absolute class-based exemption and there is no requirement to conduct a harm or public interest test. Sections 24, and 31 are prejudice based qualified exemptions and there is a requirement to articulate the harm that would be caused in confirming or denying that any other information is held as well as carrying out a public interest test. Ufologist Feedback I shared the footage with a number of other renowned Ufologists. Here are their comments on the video: Tony Buck (East Anglia UFO Group) "We have no definitive conclusions, however, the following points as slightly possibly a drone. 01: Don’t know what the extra red light on the right hand off the screen, but it seems in some way connected. 02: There seems to be what sounds like a water feature or stream running by. What can be heard is what sounds mildly like a prop sound in the background. 03: After the voice if you turn up the volume, you can hear what sounds like drone props or possibly a helicopter in the background. 04: We discounted a V-22 Osprey as they show a green light at the end of the props. 05: The lighting does not seem like a normal aircraft. We lean toward drone, but if we were to say that, the extra red light seems to counter that. In all honestly we don’t know." Alan Foster "From looking at the photographs, it's not immediately apparent what it could be. It doesn't seem to conform to commercially available drone lighting, but it's not to say there isn't something in development we're not aware of. I understand its flight characteristics rule out conventional aeroplanes. It will be interesting to see how the investigations develop." Gary Hesltine “Genuine footage, too short a clip to make any real determination. I think it could be a collection of spheres. Colours very unusual. However based on what you said he doesn't remember taking the footage? If that is the case that is very odd. Yes there is the possibility of a mind wipe having been abducted but it’s a long stretch for me.” Tim Pennington "I believe this video is a real video of an anomalous phenomena. It produces the same kinds of images as the Marfa, Texas and other so called Ghost Lights by my analysis. I found some independent movement of the white horizontal object relative to the camera. I plotted what I found and attached a photo of the chart. Basically, the white object moved up slightly from 11 seconds to 16 seconds and the camera really stayed about the same distance from the fence without moving much at all away from or toward the fence." Probable Video Explanation As you can see, after speaking with numerous people with expertise in a variety of subjects, no obvious explanation for the lights could be found. However one of the drone forum who provided feedback on the video claimed to have 20 years experience as a Visual FX Producer. He believed the video to be CGI, partially due to a number of optical anomalies he found with the footage: “In my opinion this video is not showing a real UFO and is probably manipulated, but it seems interesting at first watch. The video is extremely low quality, it is stated that the video was shot in 2020 but what phone or camera device is that that will shoot video at this quality in 2020? It’s not impossible but this is very unusual. Modern phones are recording video minimum at 1080p. I think that the video is probably CGI manipulated because there are a few optical things that doesn't match. The motion blur of the UFO doesn't match with the fence below. There are a few frames where the direction of the motion blur is completely off compared to this, while the camera is moving up the motion blur of the UFO is moving horizontal. Also the out of focus size of the UFO doesn't match with the rest of the objects and the depth at which it seems to be... it looks like the UFO is very close to the camera, maybe at the same distance where the fence is and even closer which makes it impossible to be or this is very small object in front of the fence. It happens from time to time to get confused and to mismatch a real thing to a badly composed shot so I completely understand that I could be wrong. I can't tell with sure that the video is fake but all the things I noticed are making me think that there is high probability that it actually is a faked one.” I feel the metadata proves that the footage is not CGI (as discussed earlier). Also the control video the witness sent to me was at the same quality as the footage of the lights, so therefore can be put down to the phone’s settings. However the optical anomalies mentioned here are interesting. As part of the video analysis I created a stabilized version of the footage. This locked to a key point on the fence, and enabled the movements of both the lights and the camera to be seen more clearly: While visiting the witness’s house to take photographs of the yard and work out where the lights were situated I noted that there was a window alongside the back door of the house. In the below photograph the window and the garden gate are both marked: I did not query the witness about the possibility of the video being filmed from inside through this window at the time, as this would have directly contradicted his statement and insinuated he wasn’t telling the truth. However in watching this footage closely it became apparent that the lights were often moving at the same times as the camera in roughly the same directions. This can be easily seen in the following video which shows specific sections of the video slowed down 3 times: If the lights were attached to one or more physical objects hovering up in the air then the movement of the camera would logically have no bearing on them. What I believe this very likely proves is that the video was taken from inside, looking to the right through the window and zoomed in on the top right of the garden gate, and that the lights are a reflection of lights from somewhere behind or around the lens. I also feel that this is what has led to the optical discrepancies highlighted by the VFX Producer who examined the footage. I contacted him and he confirmed that this makes sense and agreed with this as the explanation. I next got in touch with the witness to discuss this possibility with them. There was no sign that they had attempted a known hoax regarding the footage. They did not seem in any way flustered when I suggested that this was the explanation, but instead seemed genuinely confused by this possibility. They mentioned that they would have had the lights on inside the house, but in the footage no standard light sources are seen. This is correct – the lights would have had to have been off in the room at the time. However this does not stop the fact that this is very likely what the footage shows. If they genuinely cannot recollect taking the video, then it remains a mystery as to why they would have filmed this in the first place under these specific conditions. Conclusion It has been quite a challenge to get to where we are with this particular case. At first glance the video footage of the lights was extremely unusual. There were numerous possibilities for what it showed, and it took a substantial amount of investigation to either prove or disprove these to a reasonable level. While you may feel that the facts point towards an intentional hoax, and that the witness recorded the video knowingly and then fabricated a back story for it, there is currently no evidence which definitely confirms this. As the video was recorded months ago it is possible that he noticed the reflection and not realising it was from something inside the house recorded it, then forgot he had done so, and that in thinking back to the incident he assumed he must have been standing outside at the time. Whether this is the case or not is unknown at present. Unfortunately it is not possible to determine exactly what has been reflected in the glass to create the lights seen in the footage, and the witness claims to have no knowledge of this either. Therefore this aspect continues to be a mystery, at least for now. If you believe you may know what object has caused the reflection please get in touch. If any further information regarding this footage comes to light I will of course add it to this report. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 29/07/2020 Photograph Details Just after midnight on Saturday 18th March 2020 Fred Paul decided to take some extended exposure photographs from his balcony in central Birmingham. Months later when he checked back through the photos he’d taken that night he noticed an anomaly on one of them. Although he had not seen anything at the time, one of the photographs appeared to show a triangle of bright blue tinged lights surrounded in a oval shaped pale blue glow. Copy of the photograph, with the lights ringed in red: Zoomed view of the lights: Zoomed view with edge find and zoomed view with negative colours: Photograph Analysis First of all the photograph is definitely genuine rather than one modified on computer. The witness was able to send me the raw image file off his camera, which is impossible to modify without re-saving to a different image type. Below is the start of the metadata of this raw image: From this it can be seen that the photograph was taken on a Canon EOS450D camera at 12:02 am on 18th March 2020 with a 16 second exposure time. Although it is possible for the camera date and time to be set incorrectly, the witness has informed me that this date and time is correct. After examining the photograph and testimonial evidence I feel that the most probable explanation for the lights is lens flare caused by a bright light source not visible within the frame of the image. There are other lens flares visible elsewhere in the sky on the photograph, as shown below: I have also examined very similar photographs before which have been caused by lens flare, and this would also explain why the witness did not see anything with his own eyes at the time. Fred entertained this notion himself in his initial E-Mail to me, however due to the long exposure this meant that it must have been present for 16 seconds without moving. This could imply a fixed stationary light source, however he has tried to recreate the photo under similar lighting conditions, time and location but has not been able to replicate the image. It is of course possible that the light was from a nearby vehicle which was then driven away from the area. Despite my conclusion regarding this image, I would very much like to thank Fred for sending it my way. Although I feel it is likely lens flare, the idea that it is something far more unusual cannot be completely put out of the picture as there is no clearly determined light source within the frame of the image which can be matched to it. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

Birmingham UFO Group Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 01/07/2010 Last Updated: 02/08/2020 For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used Darren lives with his family on The Grove, Hadley, Telford. He has had a number of interesting experiences throughout his life, experiences which could well be linked with UFO contact. His sister has also had numerous experiences which I have fully investigated, and can be read about in a seperate case report (Shard End Contact Case). The Investigation Darren first got in touch with BUFOG on 21st July 2010, after being forwarded our details by one of our contacts. He went over his experiences in brief detail, and mentioned that recently an object was ejected from his right leg which he believed could possibly be an alien implant. I briefly discussed Darren’s experiences with him via E-Mail. At the time of the initial investigation he lived with his parents in West Bromwich. As he lived in the Birmingham area I felt it would be much better to meet up face-to-face. On Monday 26th July 2010 I drove around to his parent's house to speak to him directly. We discussed his experiences in great detail and I also got Darren to do some drawings, which are featured in this report. Darren also passed on to me the possible implant in a small jar. I spoke with a contact of mine about the possibility of getting the object scientifically analysed, however due to its appearance and the circumstances it was found it has not been deemed worthy of analysis at this time. Returned? The most compelling incident linking Darren with ET contact happened to him between the age of 7-10 in 1993-96 (He cannot remember the exact year). It happened during his school holidays so would have been towards the end of summer. On the evening of the incident, Darren settled down to sleep as normal. The next thing he was aware of, he found himself stood near the bottom of his back garden. He was leaning up against a pile of stone slabs, which were there as the garden was being worked on at the time. It was dark and cold, and he was shivering. He only had his boxer shorts on, which is how he had gone to sleep. He looked up and all he could see above him was a very bright white light. It appeared to be low down below the tree line, and he could not see any edges to this light. Old photograph of the garden, indicating the position where Darren found himself standing: He then looked down at his left leg. It had some strange coloured markings along it from the knee down. It looked almost like it was painted on, however Darren cannot be certain that it wasn’t coloured light coming down and striking his leg. The pattern had a number of stripes in and was made up of green, red, black and possibly some yellow. It reminded him almost of a country’s flag. From what he remembers, the central section was green with a black stripe along each side, and then coming out from this at diagonals were four wide red stripes, it was very peculiar. Drawing of the markings seen on Darren's leg: Darren tried to move but found he couldn’t, it felt almost as if there were weights tied to him, though he knew there were not. This is all he can remember. The next thing he was conscious of was being back in his own bed. It was morning time and he felt like he hadn’t slept at all. He briefly checked his leg, but the strange pattern was no longer on it. At the time he put it down to a strange and vivid dream, but now he is not so sure. Soon afterwards he told his sister about what happened, but did not tell his parents as he felt they would not understand. Some of the aspects of what Darren experienced suggest that he may have been abducted. His memories of suddenly being in the garden in the middle of the night could have been from when he had just been returned. The glowing white light low down over his head could have been coming from a craft which had just brought him back after an abduction experience. Could the way in which he found he could not walk be related to this in some way? It is common for contactees to be paralyzed when they are taken. Perhaps his body was still partially shut down. Another aspect which points towards contact is how he felt in the morning – this feeling of extreme tiredness is often reported by contactees following experiences. The strange markings on his leg is a very unusual aspect. Could they have been coloured lights from the craft landing on him? Possibly, but Darren says it looked more solid than just light, almost as if his leg had been painted. It is unlikely it was some kind of substance, because if it was it would still have been present in the morning. Could Darren have just sleep walked out into the garden, and the white light and colours were brought on by his mind not being fully awake? This is a possibility, but Darren says that there were two locked doors he would have had to have got the keys for and then opened in order to get outside. He did not check to see if these doors were still locked in the morning as it did not cross his mind that he could have sleep walked. However he is not prone to sleep walking at all. The other possibility which must be considered is that none of it took place and it was nothing more than a vivid dream. The markings on his leg are a very unusual aspect and it is true that Darren does not remember going back inside the house and getting back into his bed. He has no memories at all of seeing any beings or being aboard a craft, so perhaps the incident was just a dream. I have my suspicions that something took place, but just like Darren I cannot say for sure. The Black Implants The following evening after the incident where he found himself in the garden, Darren was sitting with his father watching TV. He suddenly felt that something was sticking out of his left ankle. His dad said “Let’s have a look”. He got some tweezers and yanked whatever it was out. This left a small gaping hole in his ankle, but strangely it did not hurt at all and did not look sore. Darren asked “Is it a splinter?” His father replied “No, it looks like a strand of metal” He showed Darren the object he had removed. It was a long thin black but metallic-looking strand. Darren was sure he had not been near anything which could have been responsible and stuck into his ankle. His dad put it in some tissue paper and threw it in the bin, and no more was thought about it. Photograph of Darren’s ankle, indicating the position where the black object was removed: Drawing of Darren’s ankle with the black object sticking out: Close up drawing of the black object: A few days later, he once again felt something sticking out from the same place. He looked down and could once again see a black metallic strand. He went and showed it to his father, who was amazed and said “How did that come back? You don’t grow metal hairs!” Once again his dad removed the object with tweezers and threw it away. At the time Darren put the closeness of these strange events down to coincidence and did not relate them to one another. Now he is not so sure, and feels that the strange objects which came out from his ankle were in some way related to the incident in the garden. It is very that these strange objects were found in the days following the garden incident. Could the objects have perhaps been implants that had been put into him for some purpose? If this is true, then this suggests that the first one was put into him on the previous night, and a second implant was put into him after the first one was removed. Implants have been known to be ejected from the body in such a way, though usually they would be discovered as a lump under the skin or on an X-Ray. However implants which have been removed from contactees do not usually take this form. They tend to look like either small metal rounded balls or bars. It is possible that the black metallic strand was either a splinter or waste compounds being ejected from him. Perhaps when his father pulled out the object the first time from his ankle, he only managed to grab half of it with the tweezers and it snapped, and then several days later the other half of the object was expelled. When looking into this subject, it is important to remain rational and look at all possibilities. Multi-Coloured Lights UFO Sighting A number of years ago, Darren’ father was out in the back garden when he spotted a strange object hovering in the sky. He came back inside and called Darren to come and take a look at the object. They both headed back outside onto the patio, and his dad pointed it out to him. Map showing the area the UFO was sighted over: Their view was partially blocked by a nearby tree, however due to the time of year there were very few leaves on it. Behind the tree stationary in the sky was an object with a number of coloured lights along it. Darren believes the lights were red, orange and white in colour (He cannot remember the exact configuration). It was dusk so the object behind the lights could not clearly be made out, although he believes it would have been disc-shaped. It looked a little larger than the size of a car. Photograph from the sighting location in the direction the UFO was seen (There were far fewer leaves on the tree at the time): Witness drawing of the coloured lights: The object wasn’t directly behind the tree but was quite close, within a quarter mile. It was at quite low altitude, about 300 feet in the air. It was completely silent. His dad mentioned how it looked strange and could not be a helicopter. The witnesses stood and watched the object for about 20 minutes, during which time the object did not move at all. However Darren does not remember how the sighting ended, whether the object vanished or they just came back inside the house and left it there. Most contactees report seeing UFOs, sometimes though not always related to contact experiences. It is possible that the UFO that Darren and his father saw was there specifically to observe him. However the fact that Darren was not actually outside at the time and was called out by his father tends to suggest that this was a unrelated sighting. Another Close Encounter? On many occasions UFOs have been known to cause electrical disturbance at close proximity. This is probably due to their method of propulsion. In summer 2009 Darren had a fascinating experience which may suggest that a close encounter with a craft had taken place. His girlfriend lives in Kingstanding, and he was driving home from her house late at night. His usual route would take him along the Chester Road, however on this night the police had the road blocked off. His car had sat nav, so he put in an alternative route. This route led him towards Sutton Coldfield along some country lanes. While he was driving along the lanes, all of a sudden his car completely cut off. The engine stopped, and both the internal and head lights went out. At the same moment his sat nav also switched off. This left him sitting in the car in the darkness. He tried ringing his girlfriend, but found that his mobile phone was not working either, it was displaying a no signal message. He sat there in the car for about 10 minutes not knowing what to do. He did not see anything out of the ordinary, it was just dark and extremely quiet. After this time had passed, suddenly everything turned back on. The car lights and dashboard switched on, the sat nav came back on and so did the mobile phone. Darren was of course very relieved. He immediately rang his girlfriend to tell her about the incident. The fact that the car electrics, the sat nav (which was independently battery powered), and his mobile phone all cut off at the same time is very interesting. It certainly appears that something had taken place. Could it have been some kind of electrical surge? Or could an ET craft have been in the local area which caused everything to shut down? If so, perhaps this craft was there specifically to observe Darren. We will never know for sure, but considering Darren's other experiences this is a possibility which should be considered. Unidentified Being In April 2010 Darren had memories of what he believed was a dream. In this dream he was standing in his bedroom in the middle of the night. It was quite dark but he could see out of the corner of his eye a shadowy being standing next to him to his right and staring at him. He was too frightened to turn round and stare directly at this being. He could see that the being was a little taller than himself, around 7 feet high. This is all he can remember from this incident. It is possible that this was not a dream at all, but memories of a contact experience. Many contactees report seeing shadowy figures in their room at night. Perhaps this incident preceeded or followed an abduction experience. Obviously due to the lack of information regarding this event it is impossible to say for sure. The White Implant On the evening of Sunday 11th July 2010 Darren was sitting in the living room with his parents and watching TV. He had his hand resting on his right knee. All of a sudden he felt something digging into the palm of his hand. He looked closer and could see something sticking out a short distance from just below his right knee. He went and got some tweezers and pulled the object out. It must have been quite deep as a little blood came from the hole left behind. Photograph showing the position on Darren’s leg where the object was found: The object was about 6mm long and 1mm wide. It was an off-white colour. His dad mentioned the black objects which had been removed years ago. Because of his other experiences, Darren wondered if this object was connected to them, and was possibly another alien implant. He decided to keep the object in a small jar. Photograph of the white object in the jar: Close up of the object: Darren’s girlfriend is a nurse, and she decided to look at the object under a microscope. She could not identify the object and said that it appeared strange. She said that it almost looked like an insect larva, however it is hard so is unlikely to be this. At the moment we are not aware of what the object is. It is entirely possible that it is nothing more than a splinter - perhaps a nail or bone fragment. Just as with the black objects, it does not have the usual appearance of an implant. Also it does not appear to be related to any known contact experience, at least to Darren’s current knowledge. Nothing else went on around the time that the object was found which could suggest that contact had taken place. UFO Memories On the evening of 3rd August 2010, Darren stayed up late watching TV. He finally decided to go to bed. He was lying in bed and looked at the clock. It was almost 1am. What seemed like only a few moments later he decided to check the clock again, and now it said 4.25am. He then realised his body felt extremely drained of energy and tender almost like he was bruised all over. It also felt like his body was heavy. Almost straight away a memory came back to him. In this memory he remembered getting up out of bed and having the urge to go and look out of the window in his parent’s bedroom. He went into their room and they were fast asleep. When he looked out of the window he spotted 5 bright white lights in the night sky off to the left above a nearby doctors surgery. Drawing of the five lights: The lights appeared to get closer and then suddenly changed into a disc-shaped craft with a small dome on the top, a “classic” flying saucer shape. Then behind the disc appeared a massive red-orange glowing craft, It was absolutely huge in size, at least as big as several football pitches. Darren described it as being “like a giant floating city”. Both the craft then headed off to the back of the house to the North and were lost from sight. Drawing of the disc-shaped UFO: Drawing of the disc-shaped UFO and the orange large craft showing size comparison: He then saw another huge craft, similar in shape to the previous one but glowing light blue. This followed the same path as the other craft had. Drawing of the light blue large craft: Darren then had a vague memory of being out in the back garden and floating up in the air towards the large orange-red coloured craft. This was all he could remember. He found it very hard to get back off to sleep so stayed awake until it became lighter. He checked his body for any markings but could not find any. The experience was quite frightening for him, and he says it felt more like memories of a real event rather than just a dream. Even though Darren himself admits this could have just been a dream, perhaps brought on by recently speaking with me about his experiences, there are a number of interesting aspects to the incident. He experienced a sudden jump in time without feeling like he had dropped off to sleep at all. Could the incident have really taken place during this time? Perhaps the memories that did come back to him were genuine, and that other memories of what took place had been blocked out. The feelings of tiredness and tenderness tend to suggest that something actually took place, the only other time Darren has felt similar to this was after the garden incident (see earlier). Could this mean that on both occasions he has been taken without his clear knowledge? Many contactees have reported feeling similar things directly after experiences, so this is certainly worth considering. Black UFOs Sighting On the evening of 2nd June 2013, Darren had a sighting of two black coloured UFOs. This sighting only took place because at the time he was looking out of the window to see if he could see anything in the sky, as his sister was reporting seeing some objects over Castle Bromwich via the phone. As the two sightings are connected in this way, I have written a seperate report on them. Dual Visitation By 2018 Darren had moved into a house on The Grove, Hadley, Telford with his wife Laura and their two children. During the night of 12th May 2018 he woke up feeling really nauseous, shaky and breathless. He checked the clock and found it was 2.25am. Laura was fast asleep next to him. He got up and went through to the en suite bathroom. After remaining there a short while and not vomiting he calmed down a bit and went back into the bedroom. He checked the clock again and found it was now 4.30am! He thought to himself "That's a lot of time that has gone by!" He got back into bed but began feeling strangely emotional and worried like something was not right. It took him a while to get back off to sleep but eventually he did. In the morning he felt really drained of energy like he had not been asleep during the night at all. When he spoke with Laura about this she informed him that she felt the same. Then without warning Darren had a vivid flashback. He remembered them both being awake during the night and Rachel saying she didn't feel right. He kissed and comforted her then rolled over to his right to face the wall. He was immediately faced with a very bright white light. For a moment he thought it was the bedside lamp that was on. He reached out with his right arm to try to switch it off but as he did immediately realised it was not this. Standing to the right of the bed were two Greys, one near his shoulders and the other lower down near his waist. He could not see them clearly due to the darkness but recognised their body shape. The one near his shoulders was holding something in one of its hands which was emitting the bright light . With its other hand it quickly reached out and grabbed his wrist. He saw its long grey coloured fingers and its touch felt familiar to him, like cold plasticine. The other Grey grabbed hold of of the bed quilt and pulled it off the bed leaving both him and Laura exposed. He tried to move to look at Laura and call out to her but realised he was paralysed and could do neither. At the same time he heard her shout out "Oh god! Oh god!" This was where the flashback ended. The reality of what had happened during the night hit home. He felt really emotional and burst into tears. Laura held him a while until he had calmed down, after which he got in touch with me to chat about what had happened. Currently Laura does not have any recollection of seeing beings in the room. She just remembers being pinned to the bed and looking upwards at the ceiling finding it hard to breathe. However it is obvious that she has been directly involved with this experience. The experience has all the hallmarks of a visitation, and as the incident involved both him and his girlfriend I feel that sleep paralysis can be dismissed as an explanation. It is extremely unlikely that both he and Laura would undergo sleep paralysis on the same night. The missing time aspect with this incident is very interesting. Darren recalls entering the bathroom at 2.25am and then leaving it at 4.30am. He is quite sure that he did not drop off to sleep in the bathroom, and absolutely certain he did not stay there for 2 hours. It is possible that he had left the bathroom, got back into bed and then undergone what he remembered in the flashback. If so this suggests that they may have been abducted after this point and then had the memories removed. This could accont for the lost time. It is of course nothing more than speculation at present, but worth considering. Silver Sphere On the evening of 1st August 2020 Darren was preparing to go up to bed and had just gone to the kitchen to wash his hands. As he stood by the sink something caught his eye in the sky through the window to the North East. It was a very clear and still evening with no cloud. At an angle of about 40 degrees he noticed what appeared to be a silver coloured spherical object moving slowly across the sky on a straight course. Initially he thought it was an aeroplane catching the sunlight but soon realised it was not. Aerial map of The Grove (A) and estimated area the UFO was over: It was hard to tell exactly how far away the object was as there was no point of reference, but he estimates it was at least a couple of miles away over fields on the outskirts of Telford. He watched it for about 8 seconds. Suddenly the object lit up bright white and then seemed to fold in on itself and vanish without trace! Darren says it is possible that it flew away extremely fast although he did not actually witness this, it just disappeared from sight. Photograph from the sighting location (taken from bedroom window) with the sphere drawn on top: He continued to watch through the window for a period of time to see if it would re-appear but it did not. He then went up to his bedroom and told his wife about what he’d seen, saying “I think I’ve just seen a UFO!” He then continued to watch from his bedroom window a while longer but there was no further sign of the object. It seems improbable that this object was an aircraft. While distant aeroplanes can sometimes lose their definition, they generally still appear cylindrical in shape, or with wings still visible. Helicopters again have a distinct shape to them even when on the horizon. While it is possible it was some kind of silver coloured balloon or inflatable it is unusual how it vanished considering how clear the sky was. If it had just moved out of direct sunlight making it appear invisible due to its distance, you would not expect this to be permanent. Darren continued to look for the object for a while after it vanished but it did not re-appear. Conclusion This is a very interesting case, and the fact that we may have some actual physical evidence is exciting. Darren has had some unusual experiences, and it seems quite clear that he is a repeat contactee. The incident where he found himself in the garden certainly has signs that contact may have taken place. And the fact that straight afterwards the two black metallic objects were removed from his ankle is intriguing and could point to them being related. But Darren currently has no clear memories of being aboard a craft or seeing ET beings, so we must also consider that many of his experiences have been down to strange dreams and that the objects he has found sticking out of him have a natural explanation. The experience in 2018 is quite compelling as it involves both him and his partner. It seems clear that they underwent a visitation on this occassion and potentially were both abducted too. Darren has informed me that he will keep in touch if anything else takes place. I have suggested that for peace of mind he purchases an infra red camera and sets it up in his room or his children's room at night., something he says he will consider going forward. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2010

Details relating to a new sighting of a silver coloured sphere have now been added to the Hadley Contact Case report, which features numerous UFO and contact experiences of a man and his family. Find the case in the blog using the in-built search facility, or click here to access it directly.

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 19/07/2020 Last Updated: 22/07/2020 In July 2020 I was contacted by Amar Hussain from Walsall who wanted to inform me of a recent UFO sighting he had also managed to capture on video. In discussion it also became apparent that he had had a number of earlier sightings too, some of which had also been videoed. This report covers his experiences in depth, including analysis of the footage. Winter 2014 – Green Orb Sighting On a Saturday in the winter of 2014 Amar and his family were in the process of moving house. He and his wife had driven over to Bilston to have a look at a potential property on a new housing development close to the canal (He cannot recollect the exact road name). It was late evening when they arrived at the address. He parked the car and got out for a quick cigarette. There were streetlights on the side of the road where he stood but on the far side of the road it was darker. Suddenly he noticed what appeared to be a dark green glowing orb of light or energy. It was on the far side of the road about 30 feet from his position, and was about 20 feet off the ground. It was drifting along very slowly to the right in front of the houses! It appeared to be about the size of a football. He watched the orb fascinated by it for about 35-40 seconds. Then without warning it split into three smaller orbs. One continued on the same path, the other two began separating off at diagonals. This continued for about 10 seconds and then all three faded out. Amar is a Muslim and wondered if the experience had a religious explanation of some kind, so soon after he spoke with an Islamic scholar about what had happened. The scholar believed it was linked with the Djinn in some way. Followers of Islam believe Djinn (genies) are supernatural mischievous spirits, and the colour green has some significance to them. What Amar saw certainly sounds unusual. It could not have been a lit inflatable of some kind due to the way in which it split into three. Also Amar said that it did not look like a solid sphere. A reflection of a light also seems very improbable as he watched it for a good period of time as it slowly moved along. This fact, combined with the low altitude it was at, also puts a meteorite out of the realms of possibility for the sighting. There is a chance that this was an earth light, however these are quite rare and tend to appear over rural areas not in urbanised locations. 20th May 2020 – White Orb Video At 11.43pm on the evening of 20th May 2020 Amar stepped outside the front door of his house for a smoke. It was a beautiful clear night, with the stars fully visible. Looking up at the sky he suddenly noticed a glowing blue-white orb of light moving slowly towards his location from the North West West. It appeared to be at an altitude of about 100 feet. He immediately got his iPhone out and began recording it as it moved silently towards him. After watching the object for about just under a minute he moved back towards the door. He then continued to film the object for about 10 seconds. He then decided to call his daughter Eshel to come and see the object. By the time she came outside to join him, the orb had passed over the roof of the house and had begun to move away from their location. He stopped filming it at this point and he and Eshel then stood and watched it until it had vanished from sight behind the housing. Below is the video footage which Amar took of the orb: As you can see it shows a brightly glowing orb of white light with a slight tinge of blue to it, which is especially obvious when he tries zooming in on it. Zoomed view of the orb (58 seconds): Same zoomed view with edge find: Zoomed view of the orb (1 minute 9 seconds). The rings of colour seen are down to blurring caused by the camera, they do not show the true shape of the object: Metadata is electronic information automatically stored alongside any recorded videos or photographs. Here is the format metadata for the footage: The metadata shows that it was shot on an iPhone 6, and suggests that it has not been modified using any video software package. It also confirms the date and time that it was taken. While it is possible to manually alter metadata, I have no reason to believe that this video is not genuine. They remained outside a while longer after the UFO had disappeared and continued looking up at the stars together. Amar says they then began to notice roughly half a dozen other moving lights at very high altitude moving in different directions. Some of these lights would stop and change directions. He attempted to record these on his phone too but they did not come out. 20th May is several days before the end of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. According to Islamic law, the last 10 nights of Ramadan are significant, and are supposed to be when angels descend to Earth. Amar wonders if what he and his daughter saw was linked with this in some way. I initially proposed that the orb may have been a lone LED balloon launched to celebrate Ramadan. However I now believe the most likely explanation for the orb is that it was the International Space Station. This appears like a very bright orb of light slowly crossing the sky over a couple of minutes. In checking the ISS Tracker website it can be seen that the ISS was crossing the UK at the time the video was taken. Below are three screen grabs showing the position at 11.43pm, 11.44pm and 11.45pm: At the start of the video the ISS was over Southern Ireland. However due to its distance from Earth it is possible to see it hundreds of miles away, and so it would have been seen to approach from the West, pass over and move away to the East as shown in the footage. Here is another Youtube video of the ISS passing overhead for comparison: I put this possibility to Amar. His thoughts on this were "It is an interesting theory but honestly it was low enough to discount that. It was lower than what you may explain as the ISS. You can just make out my roof and the blue orb not too far above that." Another complication is that Amar says this is not the first time he observed the object. Speaking about this previous sighting he says "If memory serves me correct I noticed the same light anomaly two or three mornings before just before Sehri ends (eating food before fasting commences) which would have been about 3am to 3.20am. It was my wife who talked me out of it that it’s probably nothing, she wanted to get back to bed, so against my better judgement I went back in." When the ISS Tracker is checked for the days leading up to the 20th May at 3.00am the only day on which the ISS Tracker is crossing the UK at around this time is the 15th May at 2.55am. It is possible that Amar is mistaken on it being only a few days before, after all he is not exactly sure of the night of the previous sighting. It is therefore possible he observed the ISS twice. Due to its brightness the ISS can sometimes appear to be much lower down and in the atmosphere rather than out in orbit. I have personally witnessed this one on of our sky watches at Cannock Chase. I therefore continue to lean towards this as the most probable explanation for what was observed and recorded. The distant moving objects observed later on are certainly interesting. As they were changing speed and direction at times they could not have been satellites or meteorites, and very high alitude aircraft or helicopters also seems unlikely. It is sometimes possible for birds to reflect lights after dark and appear as moving points of light in the sky. This remains a possibility, but they are currently unexplained. It is a shame Amar's phone camera did not pick them up. 24th May 2020 - Silver Orb Sighting Four days after the white orb was seen and recorded, at 10.30pm, Amar once again stepped outside the front of his house for a cigarette. It was another beautiful clear night. On the far side of the road lies a railway line surrounded in trees behind a wooden fence. Suddenly a glowing silver coloured orb appeared just over the top of the fence and moving to the left extremely fast in a Southerly direction! The object appeared about the size of a football and appeared to be dripping molten silver or sparks. It shot extremly fast for a brief moment and then vanished within 2-3 seconds. Photograph of the sighting location with the object's path indicated: Amar was gobsmacked at what he had just witnessed. As it was the night of Eid in the Islamic calendar, he took this to be a religious experience of some kind. What could the object have been? It was too low down to be a meteorite, it was clearly quite close as it passed in front of the trees rather than behind them. However due to it being the night of Eid there is definately the possibility that it was some kind of firework. Many fireworks are launched on this night to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Clearly it was not one being set off in the distance, but it is possible that someone was nearby on the other side of the fence and launched one. I feel that given the circumstances this is the most likely explanation, but this of course not conclusive. 11th July 2020 – Flying Triangle Video It was the early hours of the morning of Saturday 11th July 2020. Amar had settled down to bed, but his son Daniel was still up playing video games in his bedroom. He had the blinds to his room half open and happened to glance out of the window towards the East. He noticed what appeared to be a glowing yellow light over the roofs of the houses on Midland Road. He went through to his parents room and woke up Amar saying “Dad, there’s a UFO!” Amar and his wife got up and went through to Daniel’s room to see what he was referring to. The yellow light was still visible. It was moving slowly to the North, too slow to be an aeroplane. Nor did it appear to be a helicopter. They began to lose sight of it so went through to Eshel’s room to see if it was visible through her window. At first it seemed to have vanished, but then it slowly came back up into view. Returning to Daniel’s room, Amar got up on the bed giving him a higher vantage point. He then started to record the light on his iPhone. It was very dark in the direction of the object as there were no streetlights and due to the time of night all the houses had their lights off. On camera Amar was surprised to find that the object appeared to be made up of three points of light in a flattened triangular configuration rather than the single point of light which it looked like to his naked eye. Aerial map of Midland Road, showing the sighting location and possible route of the lights: He recorded the lights for 42 seconds before stopping filming. Shortly after they moved out of sight behind the housing. They appeared to be quite low down, less than 50 feet up and sometimes descending to below 30 feet. Below is the video footage that Amar took: Zoomed view of the lights (13 seconds): Zoomed view with edge find: Zoomed view with negative colours: Video format metadata: Like the orb video, this metadata suggests that the video is genuine and taken on an iPhone 6 at the date and time confirmed my the witness. Although Amar had a hard time sometimes keeping the camera stable, it is obvious that there are three distinct points of light. Two bright yellow lights on the right, and a dimmer (potentially more hidden from view) light to the left. I do not believe this is a single point of light being replicated due to camera blur. This lighting is inconsistent with a helicopter, which would usually have white, red and green lights and a strobing white light. There is clearly no strobing occurring here, and it also seems unlikely that a helicopter would fly at such low altitude at that time of morning, although of course this would be possible. There is a possibility that the three lights are Chinese lanterns which have been launched. While these tend to be more orange in colour, they can sometimes appear yellow like this. There is a slight inconsistency to the brightness of the lights, which could imply flickering flames. This is not substantial enough to confirm. Towards the end of the footage the lower right light vanishes, possibly suggesting that one of them has gone out. However It could have just been hidden from sight due to an obstruction or angle of view. Also lanterns are quite hard to purchases these days due to the fire hazard risk they pose, and it also seems rather late to be launching such things. The configuration remains consistent throughout the footage, which is why I feel that these are more likely to be three lights attached to a single solid object rather than freely drifting. If this is the case, it is too dark to make out any body of this object between the lights, even when using software to enhance and brighten the footage. One of the more commonly reported types of craft are Flying Triangles. These are usually black or very dark in colour, with a light at each corner (and sometimes other lights too). I feel there is a chance that Amar may have managed to capture one of these craft, moving at a slow speed over his neighbourhood. However this is far from conclusive, and unfortunately due to how dark the footage is there is no point of reference to judge distance or speed of movement. Conclusion Amar and his family have had some interesting sightings over recent years. I certainly feel that there is enough evidence to conclude that the white orb was the ISS, however the other two sightings are more mysterious. Whether you feel these incidents have a religious explanation will be down to your own particular beliefs. While none of the sightings are conclusively advanced craft, they are certainly intriguing. It is great that Amar managed to capture two of the objects on video too. If he has any further sightings I hope he will let me know so they can be added to this report. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020