UFOs: Caught in a We b of Deception This paper was originally presented at the Gulf Breeze UFO Conference, Gulf Breeze Florida, February 12, 1994 R. W. Boeche, 1994, Revised 2021, 2022. All Rights Reserved Note: This work was first presented as an address to a conference, and so is not exhaustively footnoted. Those endnotes which appear were inserted after many requests were received for a printed copy version of this presentation. The orig- inal text is unchanged except for minor corrections of typos and necessary up- dating of the mention of certain events, such as the Heavens Gate mass suicide which occurred after the original presentation. In this paper I will address the phenomenon of UFOs generally, by addressing an often ridiculed, little explored, subset of the UFO phenomenon. This area, known as the Men-in-Black or MIB phenomenon contains some of the strangest and most bizarre events in the annals of UFO research. And before anyone asks, I dont mean the Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones movies. What are UFOs? Some 8595% of sightings have mundane explanations. Planes, birds, meteors, space junk, astronomical bodies, etc., observed under unusual conditions explain most events. Hoaxes explain a few more. But what about that 515% of reports which defy explanation? Are they extraterrestrial in origin? Results of secret military development projects? Or something else altogether. Lets look and see what we find. The Men-in-Black phenomenon has been part of UFO research since 1953. Thats when an early re- searcher, Albert Bender, disbanded the International Flying Saucer Bureau after having been threatened by three men in black who allegedly explained to him the horrible secret behind the saucers. At roughly this same time, Edgar Jarrold, an Australian researcher was silenced, as were New Zealand researchers Harold Fulton, John Stuart, and Doreen Wilkinson, and Canadian researcher Laimon Mitris. Not only were these researchers visited by men ostensibly from a secret government agency, but they and their families suffered a barrage of poltergeist-like activity, which included in at least two of the cases physical attacks by invisible entities, and even an alleged rape. The MIB enigma, is first and foremost, a subject about which many would prefer to forget. In this group of those who would like to invoke selective amnesia, one could include those serious investigators who feel embarrassed about these reports, and the way in which they seem to reflect poorly on their attempts to legitimize the bastard science of Ufology. One would also need to include in this group, those serious in- vestigators who have experienced the phenomenon firsthand. A group of men and women who would much rather have lived out their days without adding an MIB encounter to their catalogue of lifeexperi- Many relegate the MIB question to some dusty mental shelf where they like to hide all the oddball data, they would rather not have to deal with in developing theories regarding the UFO phenomena. This is the shelf where they think they can safely put all the objectionably bizarre events. What is considered objec- tionably bizarre has changed over time. Once, such things as UFO landings and sightings of UFO occupants were ignored by the serious investi- gators for years. And then there is the problem of the contactees : those chosen few who beginning in the late 1940s believe they were visited by our benevolent space brothers and encouraged to remake society. UFO abductions were once considered solely as fantasy or psychological pathology. And this MIB topic must be hallucinations, or pathetic cries for attention. . . MIBs dont seem to have much of anything to do with the real issue (many serious investigators conclude) UFOs are from another planet and are here doing terrible things to us (or very good things for us, depending on your point of view)! I have been privileged to have many colleagues names who would be known to most of you reading this who have felt confident enough to confide in me their MIB experiences. I believe that if you knew who these individuals were, and were able to question them, they would deny their experiences. I wouldnt blame them. The MIB experience is something that is extremely disturbing at the time it occurs, something that is very difficult to discuss with anyone, and something that continues to haunt the victim for the rest of their lives. To d a y, I want to talk about the absolute reality of these experiences. They are, most emphatically, not hal- lucinations, and except for a few instances, not hoaxes. The MIB event is long overdue for serious study. I want to discuss very briefly, the history of the MIB phenomena, several MIB encounters of prominent investigators, who will remain anonymous, and a look at how ignoring the oddball data, especially MIB reports, may have diverted us from a study of the real nature of the UFO phenomena, and left us, as it were, on the sidewalk, admiring the window dressing. Traditional accounts of the devil, from the folklore of many societies, have obvious connections with the Men in Black. Reginald Scot, in The Discoverie of Witchcraft, published in 1584, described the Devil as being repugnant in appearance, ugly, and with black skin. Charles Wa l l , in his 1902 book Devils, 11th century Greek manuscript in which the Devil appears human-like, and black. The Devil also tradition- ally must possess some defect when appearing as a human, much like the MIB who walk awkwardly, or display some other obvious and usually blatant defect. In The Devil in Massachusetts, historian Marion Starkey relates Cotton Mathers experience with a polter- geist-like devil, the black man, who as Mather said was, damnably dangerous and eternally a nuisance. . . Native American tradition speaks of the Trickster, a figure which has close ties to descriptions of the MIB, and a figure whom Carl Jung described in his hierarchy of archetypes, as possessing a compensatory rela- tionship to the saint. There are ties to the Eastern mystical traditions enigmatic Brothers of the Shadow, whom Michael Ta l b o t describes as . . . cunning and evil; intent upon keeping the student of the occult from finding out the proverbial answer. The Brothers of the Shadow, like the MIB, are known for threaten- ing students whenever they get too close to [the truth]. Several mysterious visitors who seem to fit the description of our modern day MIBs were active across the United States during the great mystery airship wave of 18961898.These strangers usually appeared to collect some artifact left (either intentionally or accidentally) by the airship and its crew. The Welsh airship flap of 1909 resulted in many MIB-like encounters, the mysterious visitors usually re- ported to have been speaking in some strange, unknown language. An event from four years earlier, in 1905, may be even more interesting. During the spring of that year, Wales was inundated with sightings of mysterious aerial lights. On March 30, 1905, the Barmouth Advertiser carried this item: In the neighbor- hood dwells an exceptionally intelligent young woman of the peasant stock, whose bedroom has been vis- ited three nights in succession by a man dressed in black. This figure has delivered a message to the girl which she is too frightened to relate. It is interesting to note that this event comes during the great We l s h Christian revival of 190405. A researcher whose name would be recognized by everyone in this auditorium has been plagued at various times by MIB incidents. This mans story begins in 1969, when, after investigating several incidents which included low level UFO sightings, occupant sightings, and even one apparent UFO attack of sorts on a witness, this researcher began to receive a series of harassing telephone calls. Many times, there would be nothing on the line. Often a strange, metallic whistling sound, mixed with what he could only describe as electronic noise would be present. Sometimes a garbled voice speaking in an unintelligible language would be heard. Sometimes threats against himself, or his family would be made by a voice which sounded vaguely unhuman. Changing his telephone number didnt seem to help. The telephone company could find no tap on his line and was never able to locate the perpetrator of the calls. His mail began to be tampered with. Letters to other researchers would go astray, as would letters to him from others. Ta p e recordings vanished in the mail, samples of angel hair (a fine filament-type substance of unknown origin, observed being dispersed from UFOs as they fly overhead) being sent to a laboratory for analysis disappeared en route, important letters of a non-UFO nature would fail to arrive, and much mail would arrive having obviously been opened and tampered with. He received numerous threats through the mail, and many documents which consisted of odd hieroglyphlike symbols with no explana- On three different occasions, the office located in his home was ransacked, files rifled, and in two instances, research material of significance to current cases disappeared. This was made even more mysterious since his home was protected by an elaborate electronic security system connected directly to the police depart- ment. The alarm system was never triggered. This man and his family experienced many bouts of very intense poltergeist-like activity. Objects would fly across rooms, doors open and shut by themselves, strange sulphureous smells would plague them, shapes and shadows would be seen fliting around corners, or in a few instances, rushing through well-lit rooms towards some hapless person, who would usually scream, expecting some sort of physical contact, but nothing would happen. Lack of physical contact didnt last long enough, however. On six different occasions, the researchers wife, in the presence of at least two other people, and on one occasion, in the presence of six others, was attacked by an invisible entity. The woman was slapped, clawed, bitten, punched, and thrown across rooms by something that was invisible, yet possessed enough substance to raise welts on her face, gouge her arms, and leave animal-like teeth marks on her breasts, back and legs. Four of these attacks were followed almost immediately by telephone calls warning the researcher to, in the words of the caller, leave the flying saucers alone. This researcher on three different occasions was approached by a proto-typical MIB type figure, described as about 66 tall, thin, and cadaverous in appearance, who made threats against the researcher. He expe- rienced one visit at his home, one at work, and one at a restaurant while waiting for his wife to return from the rest room. This man, who describes his state at the time this occurred as one of abj e c t terror. . . I thought I was losing my mind, and I was afraid that my wife might be killed, left research for an extended period. This is still an extremely painful subject for him to discuss, and one which his wife cannot discuss without breaking into near-hysterical weeping. These events are all in the past. Is MIB activity continuing? Emphatically, yes! I am aware of a handful of researchers who have, collectively, almost one hundred current MIB cases under investigation, an escala- tion from about 30 cases some three years ago. Almost all of them involve so-called abductees. Id like to present an interview transcript from an MIB case I was investigating at the time of writing this paper. The victim, a typical abductee, described her abduction and MIB experiences during this inter- view, and was tape recorded. I attempted to forward a copy of this tape to another researcher, and he dis- covered that the interview had been erased, leaving nothing but a vague sort of electronic noise. Subsequent examination of the original master tape revealed that it, too, had suffered some sort of unexplained eras- ure, subsequent to the copy having been made. Here is an excerpt from the transcription of this interview. Note: Interview with SW, on November 18, 1992. Interview was to discuss details of MIB experiences which occurred after what is believed to have been the first of 2 abduction episodes uncovered now. Date of the first abduction was 102889, approximately 11:00 pm, south and west of Princeton, NE. Second abduction oc- curred from SWs bedroom, at her home in Lincoln, on 81392. She is 29 years old, single, 2 years of commu- nity college, and works as a secretary/clerk for an insurance company in Lincoln. No prior interest or knowledge of UFOs. Verbal colloquialisms have been maintained in this transcript. The abduction events were routine, in that they followed the typical pattern of abduction, medical examination, and return. No indica- tion in testimony to this point in time (11193) of breeding activity. RB: So, tell me what happened over the next couple of weeks following this first abduction event. SW: We l l , its like, you know I only really remembered seeing this strange light that seemed to land off on the side of the highway, you know, but something just felt real funny about the whole thing. RB: What do you mean by funny? SW: We l l , I just seemed to know that more had happened out there that night than what I was able to remember, and, uh, I was just kinda spooked by the whole thing it just gave me the creeps thinkin about it, more than maybe it really should have. RB: Did it disturb you a lot? I mean, were you able to go to work and do the things you normally do, or did it bother you enough that you couldnt function? SW: No, I was able to be. . . I could do all the normal stuff I was supposed to, its just when I started to think about it a lot, I knew somethin just wasnt right. RB: OK, tell me about the stranger that came to visit you. SW: We l l , there was that guy that called first. . . RB: Thats right, tell me about the phone call first. SW: It was about two days after Id seen the light come down by the road, and I hadnt really told anybody much about it, I maybe mentioned it to somebody at work, like, you know, I maybe saw this UFO kinda thing, but I hadnt really told anybody about it like it was important or anything. And my. . . I picked up my phone at work to make a call, and I punched onto an outside line, and then this voice says Sharon, we have a message for you. And it sounded all hollow-like, and lots of squeaky-squealy electronic like noises in the background, and so I figured it was somebody on a cellular phone, you know how they sound sorta like a tin can sometimes? RB: Uh-huh. SW: And so they says, We have a message for you, and so I said, May I ask whos calling?, and this voice says, We speak for the searchers who carried you. I said, Excuse me? And the voice says, It would be wise not to discuss your travels. It would be safest if no one knew, and then there was like this high-pitched whistle, and the line went dead. RB: Did this mean anything to you? I mean, at this point all you knew was that you had seen something kind of strange, in a place that you had no reason to drive to, except for some kind of inexplainable urge, and that you had about an hour that somehow you couldnt account for, and a funny wound on your back that had bled. SW: No, it didnt really mean anything at all. I think the only reason I can remember it so clear, is that the voice sounded so strange, and then all the funny noise and stuff in the background. RB: What do you mean the voice sounded so strange? SW: We l l , it was, like, uh, you know, like it was human but a machine too it was a very strange sounding voice, the. . . kind of a monotone, flat thing, and buzzy and tinny. RB: What happened next? SW: We l l , it was that same night, I went to bed about 10:30 or so, and I had this terrible dream about these little things with great big heads and huge black eyes carrying me out of my car, and toward this light. It was really scary, and I sorta woke up with kind of a jerk, you know, and was so. . . I was so scared I was actually crying, and then I see this big black shape standing right next to my bed. It was like I thought it was a man, I guess, but I couldnt really see. . . just a darker spot in the dark of my bedroom. The light from the apartment building parking lot shines in through my window, so its not like totally dark, you know. And then seeing this thing scared me even more I didnt know whether. . . I mean, you know, was it some guy going to rape me, or something? I tried to scream, but I couldnt, it was like I couldnt even breathe. I tried to reach over and turn on the light on my night table, and then this big black shape sort of leaned toward me, and the next thing I remember, I woke up and it was, the black thing was gone, then I seen. . . I mean, everything was knocked off the nightstand the lamp, and my glasses and a picture thats RB: What time was it when you woke up? SW: About 2:30 I was still awful scared, but the black thing wasnt there anymore, and I calmed down in about an hour or so, and tried to go back to sleep, but I had to spend the rest of the night with the light on. I slept the next two nights I think with the bedroom light on. RB: Did the nightmare you had mean anything to you? SW: We l l , it was the next day, when I started to really think about what. . . I, like well, you know, I started to wonder if maybe the light I seen, and why did I drive way out where I didnt even know where I was going, and then the, well, the little guys in my dream, and that spot on my back that bled, and stuff, I think that was when I started to thinking that maybe something I didnt understand happened that night. RB: So, after the dream, what was the next strange thing to happen? SW: We l l , the next night after work, I was walking to the lot where I park, and when I get toward where my car is, I see this guy next to my car. So, I figured first, hes tryin to get into his car next to mine. But then when I, well when I get closer, he doesnt look right. RB: What do you mean: he doesnt look right? SW: We l l , hes like, its . . . sort of. . . Oh, this sounds like Im nuts! RB: No, it doesnt at all. What was so strange about the man? SW: We l l , he was real tall and skinny, and he looked like. . . it was like, you know, he looked like he was made of wax. Real pale, and you know, waxy lookin. Like maybe he was dead or somethin. RB: How tall was he? SW: We l l , my boyfriends six feet even, and this guy woulda been 4 or 5 inches taller than him, I guess. RB: What happened when you got to your car? SW: We l l , thats when I saw the guy was, you know, he was just there, not gettin into another car or any- thing, and so I just, you know, I just walked up and unlocked my car and started to get in, and he was lookin at me all the time, and I thought, What a creep this guy is!, then when Id got into the car, and was shuttin the door, he says to me, Do not discuss your travels. It is not safe. RB: What did you do? SW: I wasnt sure I had heard him right so I say, Pardon me?, and he says again, Do not discuss your travels. It is not safe. Real precise sort of, but in a funny flat voice, like, um, you know, no emotion or somethin. RB: So, this man was about six foot 4 o