"Solid Light" review

Here is an extract from my lengthy “Solid Light Cases” entry in the mammoth 2 volume 4th edition of “The UFO Encyclopedia – The Phenomenon from the beginning” by Jerome Clarke with Brad Sparks, with further contributions by Thomas Bullard, Douglas Dean Johnson, Theo Pajimans, Thiago Luiz Ticchetti, Thomas Tulien, and myself.

I strongly recommend this major work to all who are interested in the UFO/UAP subject.  It is a rich and vast resource of information coming in at near 1700 pages.

“Solid light” cases describe a significant range of UFO/UAP events that have worldwide occurrence, across the full history of the phenomenon. They involve events in which UFOs appear to manipulate light beams or possible exotic analogues of what we understand as light beams, but do so so in ways that appear to be beyond our current capabilities and understanding.   These “light beams” have some intriguing characteristics.  Unlike light beams as we know them many of these UFO light beams are seemingly truncated, having a “sawed-off” appearance or a finite end. They often seemed to be projected in unusual ways, particularly demonstrating “slow progression”. Instead of immediate projection these beams often slowly project.  They are often non-divergent, with many reports of what appear to be solid light tubes.  They seem to be used in a variety of ways as transport or for picking up things like people or UFO entities – an alien variant of the tractor beam – a staple of science fiction - but they seem light years beyond the limited achievements we have made in this area. They are often involved in vehicle immobilisation events, which in UFO parlance have been referred to as EM car stop events, the EM referring to the proposition of a possible electromagnetic mechanism.  These cases represent a fascinating, but somewhat neglected body of remarkable international case data, which may provide some fascinating breakthroughs in how we can ultimately manipulate and utilise light in ways that seem like science fiction. 

The term solid light is possibly inappropriate as many cases implied that the strange light beams may not be solid in the way we judge phases of matter.  Indeed, it also seems in some cases what appears to be phase change occurs, seemingly like from possible analogues of what we view as solid, liquid and gas. The close study of these sorts of cases could add to science and maybe lead to breakthrough advances in technology. Maybe mainstream science is slowly catching up.  Bosen Einstein condensates and other newly developed states of matter, along with experimentation in a wide range of areas, have been helping us to manipulate light as we know it, in diverse ways, such as slowing light. These are like baby steps compared to what is reported in the range of UFO/UAP light beam reports that come under the tentative nomenclature of solid light. (for example see Clegg, 2001; Perkowitz, 2011)

The SOBEPS solid light catalogue

A preliminary catalogue of solid light cases by Claude Bourtembourg and Alice Ashton of the Belgium group SOBEPS, dated May 1976, listed 128 reports, but it was best viewed as a starting point, as its focus was broad (“straight beams (not dispersive)”, “beams described as if issuing from a powerful projector”, “a pennant hills historygroup of simple beams”, “docked” or “solid light” beams, “probing” beams, “beams assisting in certain humanoid activities”, “luminous projections of diverse forms” and “special cases” (in which UFOs seemed to affect our own light technology) and the listing contained errors.  The latter category of special cases, for example, had 3 different listings of the same Australian event – the famous bent headlight beam case from Victoria (Burkes Flat), which, while a striking event, was not an explicit example of UFO solid light, but it may still provide some data for assisting interpreting such cases. (Bourtembourg & Ashton, 1976) 

THE BUCHER SOLID LIGHT STUDY

Dr. Walter Bucher, went significantly beyond the SOBEPS listing, producing a German language 225 paged survey, publishing in a European MUFON-CES conference volume in 1978, but still included a rather broad range of case references, with the apparent intention of more accurately calibrating the solid light experience, and attempting some explanations involving such things as particle beams, and/or microwave and ultrasound beams. However, Bucher concluded, “It seems very probable that the solid light phenomena are based on physical principles still completely unknown to us.” He described the core phenomenon, “A solid light looks like a compact cylinder or cone radiating much more light to the slides than an ordinary light beam.  Frequently a solid light has an abrupt end and the length of the beam can be varied.” (Bucher, in Brand, 1978)

THE HEERING SOLID LIGHT STUDIES

Considerable debate and controversy, particularly among European researchers, of case data associated with the loose term of solid light, was focused on surveys undertaken by Dutch researcher Jan Heering, who undertook “a comparative analysis of 62 “solid light” beam cases” published in 1978. Heering’s abstract noted, “witnesses of UFO related events have repeatedly mentioned the fact that the anomalous objects observed by them emitted one or several solid looking, slowly propagating light beams (‘solid light’ beams). (The analysis showed) the characteristics of ‘solid light’ beams are remarkably constant: uniform luminosity; sharply defined edges; low propagation velocity; conical or cylindrical shape; and (sometimes) propagation along a curved path.”  

Heering concluded, “there is no lack of unsolved problems in connection with ‘solid light’ beams and it is no exaggeration to say that, except for certain phenomenological aspects, nothing definitive is known about them.”

However, doubts about some cases started to undermine Heering’s confidence and he started to carefully re-examine his solid light case collection.  He had already highlighted 4 cases (La-Roche-en-Brenil, France, 1954; Mendoza, Argentina, 1968; Olavarria, Argentina, 1969; and Tandil, Argentina, 1974) as unreliable. Despite some interesting theoretical exchanges in 1979 with SOBEP’s Auguste Meesen, a professor of physics, on the possible utility of proton beams to facilitate some of the characteristics of reported solid light cases, it seemed Heering was more concerned that more cases were unreliable, such as a dubious colour photo on the cover of LDLN No.138 – allegedly taken in France on March 23, 1974.  The dubious nature of the photo’s discovery should have already been concerning enough.  

NON-EVENTS?

In September 1980 Heering met with Ernest Berger (real name Alexander G. Keul), a Vienna based researcher, who had published on solid light cases in the Traunstein Austria area (featuring reports of objects emitting straight and curved “feelers of light”).  Despite being somewhat tangential or atypical of many solid light cases, Heering had considered them to be of significance.  Berger (Keul) was now informing him they were the result of “a naïve and unexperienced amateur” and that they were of little value, and that generally “UFO sightings had a psychopathological background.” This led Heering to deleting all cases from Berger. Heering felt uncertain about the remaining. 

HEERING’S EXIT

Writing in a letter in February 1985 to the editor of SVLT newsletter Wim van Utrecht, Jan Heering recollected his 1980 thinking, “How many of these hundred cases are reliable? Ten? Twenty? So many that the conclusions I have based on them are incorrect? Is there anything such as “solid light”? I think so. That’s about all I venture to say about it.” Over a period of 5 years Heering had focused on the physical aspects of the UFO phenomenon, concentrating on solid light reports, but would eventually destroy his UFO archives and end his UFO research.  (Heering, 1985)

CHALKER’S SOLID LIGHT REVIEW

Despite this somewhat mixed and bleak overview of some of the earlier research into so-called solid light, Australian researcher Bill Chalker began to try to systematically review the literature on such cases and to apply his scientific and vocational quality control background to carefully reassessing the available solid light case data. Through the assistance of many researchers around the world he concluded after extensive review, study and research, that there still was a significant body of well documented case material that supported his long held hypothesis that they represent a body of potentially remarkable data. It is an ongoing (perhaps unending) review with many issues and difficulties that are being addressed as best as resources allow. Chalker suspected they could provide some fascinating breakthroughs in how we can ultimately manipulate and utilise light in ways that seem like science fiction. The solid light UFO cases appear to suggest that the UFO/UAP reality is demonstrating that, whatever is behind them, UFOs have been doing many extraordinary things with light or its exotic analogues.

The possibility of breakthrough technologies, or perhaps more accurately, in terms of national security perspectives, disruptive breakthrough technologies are a critical pivot point in the long and circuitous pathway that the “national security” narrative has taken over more than 50 years of often myopic and toxic embraces from mainstream media, politics, the military, the intelligence world, and science. 

The 2012 book “UFOs and Government – A Historical Inquiry” by the UFO History Group, with primary authors Dr. Michael Swords and Robert Powell, provides detailed information on the long historical perspectives and the litany of lost opportunities of identifying and launching deep scientific investigations of potential breakthrough technologies, or indeed ones of the disruptive kind.

THE RED BLUFF USA CASE

In “UFOs and Government” Dr. Swords, a retired science professor of 30 years standing at Western Michigan University, highlighted a striking example of an impressive police witnessed encounter on the night of August 13 and 14, 1960 at Red Bluff, in California, which also featured possible solid light, but that detail was missing in its official investigation.

THE RED BLUFF SOLID LIGHT REVEALED

Michael Swords described “one very strange feature of the case” – the hidden aspect of solid light. “The light beam projected by the object seemed like what would be described today, as a big, fat laser beam. That is, it did not spread out or diffuse “properly.” But worse than that, the beam seemed to have an “end” to it. Even Carson, who was much the more verbal of the two officers, did not talk about this in the earlier reports. However, in a 1966 interview with McDonald, he had become comfortable enough that he said: “Its beam seemed to extend out a distance in the air, and then to end in some curious manner that [I] did not understand then or now.” McDonald, though a sympathetic interviewer, thought that this was probably impossible and tried to rationalize it on the basis of a limited area of dust in the air. But today 

there are dozens of other sightings mentioning this peculiar sawed-off light.”

The US Air Force investigators with Project Bluebook did not put in a serious, objective attempt at a focused scientific investigation.  Instead the police witnesses had to endure a myopic debunking exercise. Official attitudes caused the main witness, a highway patrol officer, to not describe the “light beam” to the USAF.  James McDonald, a noted atmospheric physicist, managed to draw out this remarkable detail, because he was actually interested in what the witnesses reported. But, unfortunately at the time he did not pursue this aspect.

However, genuine scientific skepticism, driven by a desire to question and carefully investigate an experience, at least captured this detail.  Michael Swords indicated in an end note in the book “UFOs and Government” that “sawed-off light” cases are “a peculiar feature of a smallish set of “high strangeness” UFO encounters.  As these encounters are widely spread across the world, this feature is surprising and difficult to explain on sociological grounds.” He indicated he had some 44 cases in his own files. (Swords, in Swords & Powell, 2012)

Bill Chalker, the author of the Australian chapter in “UFOs and Government” contacted Dr. Swords, highlighting he had already been conducting a detailed study of a larger collection of such cases, and requested a copy of his listing and any further solid light accounts he may have.  Swords subsequently expanded on his initial review arguing that “slow light” might be a better term for much as this case material. (Swords, 2012)

THE KIAMA AUSTRALIA SOLID LIGHT AFFAIR

A significant impetus for Chalker’s re-focusing on solid light claims developed from his ongoing investigations of a particular case.  In both of his books “The OZ Files” (1996) and “Hair of the Alien” (2005) Chalker refer to solid light cases (including a dubious case – the Gundiah, Queensland case of 4 October 2001, where he showed that “a forensic approach can draw some metaphorical blood” (Chalker, 2005)) and described an Australian case from Kiama, southern New South Wales from the early 1970s.  He had been looking into the case since learning of it in the 1990s and conducted a very detailed site investigation (mainly in 2012 & 2013) to determine if the observations reported by the primary witness were possible and to see if further information could be found.  Graham, the primary witness, has closely guarded his privacy and Chalker only had one face to face meeting with him, as well as many phone conversations, written statements and emails.  

Chalker’s investigations indicated the most likely date of the Kiama beach “solid light” case was 22 November 1970. He and his family were staying with his parents in law at a house on a headland that overlooks a prominent beach in the Kiama area. During the night his sleep was disturbed by light coming into the room. On the second occasion he saw a flying craft which projected at an angle “a light beam (“like a perfect cylinder of solid light”, about 30 feet long and about 2 and a half feet diameter) white in colour with a blue fluorescent tinge evaporating from it” and detached moving in a downward axis impacting with a caravan. “Upon impact the light behaved like water, pouring over the caravan, … and like fluorescent paint from an electro, airless spray gun… the caravan illuminated completely for about three seconds then the light faded away.” The craft now slightly to the left of its original position projects another “beam of light” which moves again in an axis at a very slow pace (3 feet per second), this time impacting on an amenities block at the beach camping site, in the same way as the caravan impact. A third light beam much longer in length detaches from the unidentified flying craft and is projected at about a 45-degree axis towards the beach briefly illuminating an area of sand 40 feet at its widest.  

Bill Chalker & the Kiama area beach event

Four people are present on the beach in this area – 2 men standing motionless looking up at the craft, a young woman who jumps up from a small beach fire and joins the 2 men, and another young woman running backwards “trying to brush the light off her arms and body.” She then stood separately from the other 3 people staring up at the craft. The light goes out and the beach is then in darkness. 

The witness apparently falls asleep standing, then awakens again, this time seeing the unidentified craft now above the headland street very near to the house, overlooking the beach. The witness blacks out. When he comes to, the witness sees that the craft is still in close proximity to the house. The witness sees through a window shape on the side of the craft and also sees a man enter the room in view via the “window.” He is joined by another man. The witness is then suddenly frightened when he sees the 2 men inside the craft are looking directly at him and smiling. He drops to the floor calling out to the others in the house, saying: "Everybody keep down. Stay out of the light." 

Pandemonium sets in with great noise and severe vibration of the fridge and washing machine.  He calls out, "Quickly get under the doorways, the house is going to fall." For the witness it seems like “the craft overhead sucked the electricity out of the house, then took off.”

This strange affair has several defined stages, but the evident discontinuities in awareness, argue both for a surreal, dream like quality and also reflect the paradoxical reality of some of the stranger elements of the UFO phenomenon.  The extraordinary behaviour of the "light beams" behaving as both solid and liquid has been reported elsewhere in Australia and overseas.  The apparent surreal display quality to parts of this experience (such as the UFO and its occupants displaying themselves up close to the reporting witness in the house on the beach headland) is reflected in many cases.  There seems to have been a number of gaps in the time sequence.   

FOLLOW UP ON THE KIAMA CASE

The main witness recontacted Chalker in 2012. He confirmed an aspect Chalker had long suspected as part of the experience, which he only originally hinted at in the vaguest possible way - an abduction recollection that was consciously recollected at the time, but he was extremely reluctant to share these details during the original discussions years before.   He recollects sitting in a curved hallway in a strange environment.  He heard a voice and turned to fine a woman.  She asked him, “Do you remember what happened in there?”  “No,” he replied. “Do you?” he asked. “Put it this way, I won’t be telling my husband.”  He doesn’t recollect much more, or he volunteered little further detail about this aspect of the Kiama encounter.  However, he did say he started to attend some UFO group meetings with the express purpose of seeing if he could find the woman he had encountered in the Kiama experience.  At one meeting he saw a woman who looked like the woman encountered in the strange environment, presumably on board the UFO.  When he started to talk to her he felt she was not the right person and did not persist with the conversation. (Chalker, 1996, 2005, 2019 & 2022)

RE-EXAMING CLASSIC CASES

The lessons of earlier investigations and research into these intriguing but controversial cases emphasise the need for careful reassessment and where possible re-investigations, with quality control of the data being a primary objective.  Sometimes such cases are difficult to identify and fully document, depending on the milieu they emerge from. 

Two cases, deemed classics of the solid light case type, required detailed reviews, as the data on each is rich, diverse, and sometimes conflicting – Trancas, Argentina (1963) and Taize, France (1972). Both cases are seen as either strong evidence for UFO solid light type events, or as explained in prosaic terms.  Chalker has examined data from both sides, in each case, and feels that each side of the debate deserves careful airing, which is beyond the scope of this limited review of solid light cases.  Each case has intriguing data that might suggest they are legitimate cases, but the explanatory models in each case inject a need for cautious evaluation. 

Some possible "solid light" events

TRANCAS ARGENTINA (1963)

The Trancas case, which is described as featuring objects (or a single object) near, or on, a rail line deploying solid light beams at the occupants of a farm house, and the appearance of an object in much closer proximity to the farm house. Some people from the house investigate and report encountering strange beams of light.  The case is best known through the work of Oscar Galindez (Galindez, 1971), but Roberto Banchs conducted a detailed retrospective investigation in the 1980s. Chalker examined the original investigations, the Galindez investigation in the 1970s and other data, as well as the Banchs investigation, which put forward an explanation involving military deployment of arc searchlights. Others argue that such military involvement has not been verified, and that many other elements of the claimed event are not explained. 

TAIZE FRANCE (1972)

The Taize case apparently involved people attending a religious retreat, who describe a large object with pillars of solid light projected downward, as well as encountering a mass that seemed to bend a torch light beam.  A weakness of the case, maybe, is that most of this information came from one witness. (Tyrode, J., 1973) Others present have not come forward.  The main reporting witness reports that the main object moved away and travelled some distance, seemingly landing at a more remote location, in which possible related ground traces were found. The explanation put forward revolved around a distant house, which had an outdoor home movie projection setup.  Data provided to Chalker by Gildas Bourdais from France seems to cast some doubt on this explanation, but as the case is largely based on only one of member of the group that was present, it remains inconclusive, despite its compelling content. (Chalker, 2013)

LIMA PERU (1958)

US researcher Tom Tulien drew to Chalker’s attention to a 1958 case, with some of the apparent known characteristics of solid light events from Lima, Peru, investigated in 1967-68 by Richard Greenwell for the APRO (Aerial Phenomena Research Organization), and provided him a copy of the investigation file from which the details are quoted:

“Witnesses to this observation are Eduardo Moll … and Juana Moll, his wife …. (Moll)

“Observation took place on February 1st, 1958.  Witness A (Eduardo) and Witness B (Juana) were still engaged.  Witness A was driving a 1953 Ford along a highway known as the Avenida Costanera, which runs north of the sea-front in the city of Lima … towards area known as La Perla, where witness B lived.  Time was approximately 9.20 p.m., and it was totally dark.  The area through which this highway passed was totally deserted.  At a certain point, witness A and witness B observed a red-orange light at low level at some distance ahead of them (… maybe 200 to 300 metres)

“Before long, the witnesses found themselves about 100 metres from the light source.  They realized that it was not any commercial advertisement.  It appeared to be a ball of fire, of red-orange colour, underneath of which was a bright white light.  Witness A continued driving at a slower rate until they came abreast of the light source and then turned off the ignition of the car and the headlights. Object was now being observed to their extreme right while it hovered at a distance and at an altitude of about 10 metres.  The object appeared to be also about 10 metres long (or circular?) and about 1.5 metres thick.  To their left, to the west, lay a cliff and the Pacific Ocean. To their right, to the east, over which the object hovered was an abandoned brick factory.  Several small adobe walls lay about…

Underneath the object, around its central area, a beam of light fell to earth.  

“This beam of light helped in determining the altitude of the object. The beam (totally white) was narrow at the top and widened out at the bottom.  Its edge was sharply defined and fell strictly on the area where it fell without illuminating the surrounding area.  … (no) perceivable noise coming from this object.

“After observing the object for a few minutes (perhaps 10 minutes), Witness A decided to get closer.  He stepped out of the car and walked towards the object.  To do this he had to step over the first small adobe wall on the edge of the highway.  When he was approximately 8 metres from the area where the beam of light fell, same “went out.”  Witness B says that the beam was “sucked up” into the object.  Witness A says this was not so, that the light simply “went out” and it would anyway be impossible for light to be “sucked up” in that manner.  This is the only point in which the witnesses do not entirely agree.”

  

Eduardo began to move closer, but the object began moving slowly east, away from the witness, and silently and vertically, and faster than the witness’ walking pace. It rose at about the speed of a slow moving car, at about a 15-degree elevation.  Eduardo return to the car, but as he was trying to drive into the area, “the object disappeared on the horizon.” (Chalker, from Tulien, 2013)

BOYUP BROOK AUSTRALIA (1967)

Here is a remarkable case that comes from official Australian government files. It took place near Boyup Brook in Western Australia on 30 October 1967. A Western Australian Police Department report on the incident, describes what took place:

“Report of: Leonard Johnson, Constable 2514

I have to report that at approximately 9.35pm on Monday the 30th October, 1967, Alexander Roy SPARGO, 37 years, shearing contractor of Great Southern Co….  called at this station and reported having sighted an unidentified flying object on the Kojonup-Mayanup Road, Kulikup approximately 10 miles from Mayanup at about 9.20pm 30th October 1967.

Spargo stated he was driving his 1967 Valiant Utility… , towards Boyup Brook from Kojonup at approximately 60-65 mph with headlights on high beam.

“When approximately 10 miles from Mayanup the car suddenly stopped - motor stopped - headlights went out - and became stationary without any sensation of braking or deceleration.

A tube of light descended close to the windscreen. The tube was about 2 feet in diameter. He looked up the tube and could not see anything but felt he was being observed.

The tube of light had descended from object shaped like a football, iridescent blue colour (lightning colour but stationary), with a pulsating glow appearance, and approximately 30 feet in diameter.

“Spargo stated he just sat looking at the tube of light and object for approximately 5 minutes. He felt no personal effect other than surprise and not being able to believe his eyes. He heard no noise.

“The object then moved off very quickly and disappeared in a 'flash.' When it had gone Spargo found his motor running, lights on, and again travelling at 60 to 65 mph (previous speed). He felt no sensation of acceleration.

“He stopped the vehicle and got out and inspected same but could find nothing unusual. He then continued on to Boyup Brook and called at the Police Station and made his report.

He stated he employed 60 men shearers and if they learned of his report he would be ridiculed.

“Prior to this sighting he had read of other people's sightings and he had regarded those people as 'cranks.'

“He travelled to Boyup Brook and stayed overnight at Bill Inglis' farm where he had a team of shearers working and returned to Kojonup on the 31st October. There had been a fairly severe electrical storm on Sunday evening the 29th with a great deal of lightning and thunder but little rain. On Monday evening the 30th the sky had become overcast and some lighting seen around 7pm.” (Basterfield, 2017)

A STRIKING CONFIRMATION OF THE BOYUP BROOK CASE

This primary source account of a credible example of a UFO deploying solid light and seemingly controlling a car, has a very striking confirmation that emerged from a book that was written focusing on bizarre events that mainly played out 10 years earlier. In 1957 the area experienced a sensational milieu of alleged poltergeist events in the form of falling stones, accompanied by reports of strange Min Min like lights (the generic term given to floating mystery lights around Australia) and other curious phenomena.  The events were described in Helen Hack’s book “The Mystery of the Mayanup Poltergeist.” As she had close family members involved in the affair, she also became aware of an event that would have otherwise might have never been shared. 

On the same night as the 1967 Boyup Brook event, on a property in nearby Mayanup, Grayden Pascoe, a local farmer, experienced a bizarre encounter with what may have been another example of solid light.  At his property on Whistler Road, Mr. Pascoe had been disturbed by terrible noise from farm animals. His enormous kangaroo dog cowered on the verandah. When Pascoe stepped onto the verandah he was blinded by an intense light. Instinctively putting up his hands to shield his shut eyes, Pascoe observed that the strange light was so intense it seemed to shine right through his hands and closed eyelids. Opening his eyes, Pascoe saw that his hand seemed to be transparent, with the veins showing up “in a blue network beneath the skin.” He stood for 5 or 6 minutes, trying unsuccessfully to determine where the light was coming from. During this period of time Pascoe indicated he was unable to move because of the blinding light. Then suddenly without any sound the light disappeared. (Hack, 2000)

DR. HYNEK’S BLUEBOOK CASE – NEWTON USA (1967)

Allen Hynek described investigating a case of this type in the dying days of the USAF study programme, in his 1977 book “The Hynek UFO Report” – his review of Project Bluebook. Just as the University of Colorado’s USAF commissioned Condon Committee study was being released, concluding there was nothing of scientific merit in studying UFO reports, Dr. Hynek was concluding otherwise. Bluebook case 12567 dated 23 November, 1968 and located at Newton, Georgia, had the following features: “Witness saw a brilliant light directly above the road about 200 feet ahead of him and 50 to 75 feet off the ground, as he rounded a bend in the road in his 1967 Ford. The area was sparsely settled.  There was no definite object, just light.  The car radio faded into static.  The light itself emitted a beam downward that illuminated the nearby trees.  Light was then retracted as if the beam were a ladder; it was five to six feet wide and well defined.  The main light was fuzzy on the edges.   Now the engine cut out as did the radio … Light then disappeared after a few seconds, going straight up.  Engine started by itself and the car had been left in drive gear.  Conclusion: Unidentified.” (Hynek, 1977)

THE IMPOSSIBLE PEARL – GAOYAU CHINA (SONG DYNASTY – 11th CENTURY)

The long history of Chinese UFO/UAP events provides a striking juxtaposition of possible ancient and modern solid light reports. One of Joseph Needham’s key historical sources for his monumental multi-volume series “Science and Civilisation in China” was Shen Kua, a Song (Sung) Dynasty scholar. In his fascinating example of the pi-chi form of Chinese literature – “Brush talks from Dream Brook” Shen Kua records “inside information” about a “strange occurrence” involving an extraordinary “pearl” that frequented the air above a number of lakes around Yangzhou in Jiangsu province in China, which at least on one occasion projected a strange form of fantastic light. 

Accurate translations of the story of the flying pearl of Gaoyau suggests it may describe an 11th century account of a UFO projecting solid light.  

Gaoyau or “West Lake” of Shen Kua’s account is more accurately referred to as “Slender West Lake” (aka Fanliang Lake) just north of Yangzhou. It should not be confused with the much better known tourist location to the south at Hangzhou, also known as West Lake, which I have also established has its own more mythic sky dragon/elusive pearl folktale.  

Two translations by esteemed US Chinese scholars describe “light shot out from the crack like a golden ray,” (Richard Bodman) and “a bright light emerged from its “shell”, like a single ray of golden thread” (James Hargett, who even suggested there may be many more UFOs to be found particularly in “pi-chi” (informative reporting style) essays that include anomalies). (Chalker, 2019)

Quoting Richard Bodman’s translation, which he titled “On a UFO”, in Victor Mair’s “The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature”:

“In the Chia-yu period, a pearl appeared in Yang-chou. It was very large and frequently appeared at night.  At first it emerged from the swamps of T’ien-ch’ang county. Later it moved to Pi-she Lake; and finally it was at Hsin-k’ai Lake.  For more than ten years, residents and travellers would constantly see it.

“My friend had a study by the lakeside and one night saw that the “pearl” was very near. At first it opened its door very slowly and light shot out from the crack, like a golden ray.  After a moment, it opened wider to the space of half a mat; within there was a white light like silver. The “pearl” was as big as a fist and so bright you couldn’t look at it directly. For over ten tricents, the trees cast shadows, exactly as when the sun has just come up. In the distance you saw only a sky reddened as if by a forest fire. All of a sudden it went far off, moving as if in flight, floating over the waves, shining like the sun.

“In recent years, it hasn’t appeared again; no one knows where it has gone. Fan-liang-chen is where the “pearl” used to appear, and when travellers reach there, they usually tie up their boats for a few nights to watch for its appearance. The pavilion there is called “The Playful Pearl.” (Mair, 1996)

CANGZHOU CHINA (1998)

On October 19, 1998, scientists and military personnel were gathered at a Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) missile base in Cangzhou, in Hebei province, testing China’s first “supersonic” drone, based on a modified J-711 fighter. A famous Chinese Defence scientist, Major General Zhao Xu, the “father” of China’s UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), was also present.  He and other scientists and military personnel witnessed a striking UFO encounter. The incident was verified by radar and PLAAF F-6 pursuit aircraft pilots. The base commander General Li, focusing on the testimony of his own pilots (Captains Liu Ming and Wu Shao Hun), and addressing their observation of the projection of two beams of strange light from the UFO, stated, “Surprisingly these two light beams of light were not as we normally see light beams, as has been according to the distance and spread, but as two light-emitting entities, sticking out from the bottom of the UFO ending on a certain length. At least today we have not got control of this sort of light technology.” (Chalker, 2019 & 2022)

Shen Kua, can be viewed as a proto-scientist and even an early Fortean researcher (a collector and chronicler of strange anomalies like Charles Fort), provided some “brush strokes” or “brush talk” that Chalker and other solid light researchers have built on into the modern age of flying saucers, UFOs, and UAPs.  

- Bill Chalker

Basterfield, Keith, Police report on the Boyup Brook encounter, uncovered, https://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com 29 August, 2017

Bourtembourg, Claude & Ashton, Alice, SOBEPS – Research and Analysis – UFO Phenomenon – Solid Light Cases, Brussels, Belgium: SOBEPS, 1976

Bucher, Walter, Solid light, in edited conference volume by I. Brand, MUFON-CES Tagungsband (Conference Volume), Feldkirchen-Westerham, Germany: MUFON-CES, 1978

Chalker, Bill, The OZ Files – the Australian UFO story, Sydney: Duffy & Snellgrove, 1996.

Chalker, Bill, Hair of the Alien, New York: Paraview/Pocket Books, 2005

Chalker, Bill, personal communications from Gildas Bourdias, 2013

Chalker, Bill, from Tulien, Tom, Special report on the Eduardo Moll case – Lima – Peru, 2013

Chalker, Bill, UFOs & the Solid Light Enigma, Melbourne: New Dawn Special Issue, Vol.13 No.1, pp.17-2, 2019

Chalker, Bill, Solid Light & the UFO/UAP mystery, Cottenham, UK: Out There – Newsletter of the International Mensa UFO SIG (Special Interest Group) No.5, 12-26, June, 2022   

Clegg, Brian, “Light Years – an exploration of mankind’s enduring fascination with light, London,: Piatkus, 2001)

Hack, Helen, The Mystery of the Mayanup Poltergeist, Carlisle, Western Australia: Hesperian Press, 2000

Heering, Jan, A Comparative Analysis of 62 “Solid Light” beam cases, UFO Phenomena, Vol. II, No.1, Editics, Bologna, Italy, pp. 11-50, 1978

Heering, Jan, Letter to the editor (Wim van Utrecht), SVLT, 3, 12, III-IV, 1985

Hynek, J. Allen, The Hynek UFO Report, New York: Dell, 1977

Mair, Victor, The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, New York: Columbia University Press, 1996

Perkowitz, Sidney, Slow Light – Invisibility, teleportation, and other mysteries of light, London: Imperial College Press, 2011

Shipp, Martin, UFO-Car chase near Frome, The Probe Report, Vol. 4 Issue 2, October, 1983 

Swords, Michael, in Swords, Michael & Powell, Robert (primary authors), UFOs and Government – A Historical Enquiry, San Antonio, Texas: Anomalist Books, 2012 

Swords, Michael, “Slow light & UFOs”, http://thebiggeststudy.blogspot.com/2012/10/slow-light-ufos.html , 2012

Tyrode, J., Taize: A case right out of the ordinary, Flying Saucer Review (FSR), Vol. 19, No. 4, 16-21, July-August, 1973

The “Scattered Castles” of Forbidden Science - examining the "material references" (continuing)

The publication of “Forbidden Science 6 - Scattered Castles – The Journals of Jacques Valllee 2010-2019” (Anomalist Books, January 2025) apparently draws to a close, more than 6 decades of Jacques Vallee’s journey through the labyrinths of mysteries, forbidden science and life. He writes, “these journals may represent the only on-the spot, continuously curated record of the results achieved among brave people on the swampy fringes of Academe … (giving) some idea of the day-today process of innovative research, stumbling through bureaucracies, shredding obsolete beliefs, and harnessing the high technology rush that lit up this decade to define the future.” (FS6, 8) The subtitle “Scattered Castles” was inspired by “a federal system (of the same name) … a wonderful code name for the newest database of classified access”, upon which Vallee logs his personal data. (FS6, 19) The title also resonates with the diverse locations in which he records his activities.

 

Beginning in 1992, through to 2007 in various editions, with Volume 1, covering the period 1957 to 1969, then 2008 with Volume 2 (1970 to 1979), by 2016 with Volume 3 (1980 to 1989), by 2016 Volume 4 (1990 to 1999), in 2023 Volume 5 (2000 to 2009) and now with this apparent final outing, Vallee shares more than 6 decades of life experience engaging with the mystery of UFOs (UAPs) and the paranormal.  

 

From his May 1955 witnessed observation (at age 15) of “a gray, metallic disk with a clear bubble on top” hovering over a local church, in his home village in France, the thrall and continuing deep embrace with the UFO/UAP controversy and attending mysteries, to the sobering reality checks and debates engendered by the suite of material samples, ostensibly from these strange aerial things, he had brought together for examination and analyses by scientists such as Larry Lemke and Garry Nolan by 2019, Vallee’s journals gives us a fascinating and extraordinary narrative of one of the greatest and most alluring mysteries of our times, all from his own particular perspectives, often embolden with his own direct involvement with key event

 

The decade (2010-2019) begins with the BAASS (Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies)/AAWSAP (the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program) officially ending by December 2010.  Efforts to re-establish themselves, such as “Kona Blue” within the Department of Homeland Security, failed to take shape, with ultimately a more informal science group collective, given the joke name “Lone Stars” with European funding from familiar connections, carrying on with the likes of Kit Green, Eric W. Davis, Hal Puthoff, John Schuessler, George Hathaway, Colm Kelleher, Bob Bigelow, and later with Dr. Garry Nolan. Vallee is a witness, or direct participant, to much of this, but he is increasingly disenchanted with programs with military intelligence and/or commercial business links (particularly with his database warehouse initiative CAPELLA), and starts to return to his own independent research efforts, which include research visits, with his old friend Bill Calvert, to Brazil and Argentina (the former highlighting concerns and uncertainties with earlier BAASS/AAWSAP enquiries in Brazil, and the latter, in Argentina, allowing him to revisit a striking 1978 case, and participating in an excellent documentary on the affair - a potent expression of the "psychic" or "transpersonal" impact of the UFO experience is seen in "Witness of Another World" a documentary film by Alan Stivelman (2018, with a wider release in 2019 - a really wonderful film). Jacques Vallee investigated this 1978 Argentine close encounter during 1980.  A "strange fog" features in this episode - rather than "the fog of war" it is "the fog of close encounters" to be penetrated here in the transformative journey of young Juan Perez to the man he became.  

Earlier in 1978 I was trying to penetrate my own "fog of close encounters" so richly reflected in what I referred to as the Bakers Creek Falls encounter.  1978 was a memorable year for UFO activity in Australia. Activity had been building up all year. The year got off to a spectacular start with the vivid and prolonged close encounter at Bakers Creek Falls, near Armidale, NSW.  I covered these and other matters in a lecture I gave in November 2019: “UFOs and the Paranormal in focus today – Murmurations of the UFO Phenomenon” and include a few of the relevant slide images. In the image below I have included the first page of my investigation report of the case and a montage of photos showing me pointing out the Falls and the witness drawing of the UFO he saw coming out of yet another "mysterious fog."

There are many events described in this volume that I am drawn to, which I hope to address in detail in later commentaries, but as I am a chemist by training I am strongly drawn to a continuing strong narrative - “the devil in the detail” only hinted at in the limited information drops on those UFO/UAP samples Vallee describes in FS6. These are intriguing, fascinating and full of conflicting and beguiling information, but to date we only have limited expansive data on the 1977 Council Bluffs sample, per the Progress in Aerospace Sciences journal 2022 paper “Improved instrumental techniques, including isotopic analysis, applicable to the characterization of unusual materials with potential relevance to aerospace forensics,” by Garry P. Nolan, Jacques F. Vallee, Sizun Jiang, and Larry G. Lemke. 

Much more of this sort of detail please.  

Council Bluff analysis via Garry Nolan of samples provided by George Knapp et al 

report Investigation Alien November 2024

(I plan to further scrutinise the journal further to try to draw together the essential details of the material references, but for now this is a preliminary sweep – a work in progress – Because of the possible incomplete nature of these references, it is difficult to be certain about the full range of material. That awaits a more complete and formal reporting from Vallee, Nolan, Lemeke, et.al. - BC)

 

For now, apart from glimpses of material data in the SOL Foundation conference outings, and other media presentations (such as Ubatuba data), we have at least the FS6 extracts of information, informing or hinting of possible things to come, such as:

 

21 August 2014:

Vallee from Stanford University takes "the stack of plastic boxes that contain our seven most relevant UFO samples (the slag from Council Bluffs, the aluminium from Bogota, the three magnesium samples from Brazil that Peter Sturrock had given me, and some others)" to the NanoSIMIS facility meeting with Mike Angelo, spending the day running them through the CAMECA elemental and isotopic microanalysis unit, after preparing them with 10 nanometers gold coating, with the support of Dr. Hitzman, the laboratory director.

A material study colleague in the material study had just advised Vallee that the hardware tested by Lockheed had been able to measure and observe "the highly unique nano-structures inside ‘recovered’ samples", with its nanostructure convincing the Lockheed analysts "the samples were … not from here."  They were "bits, pieces, and chunks of recovered items" via a ‘client’ request for "analysis and exploitation".  Those efforts were unsuccessful, apparently due shortcomings in replication using circa 1980s human technology (FS6, 263)

8 November 2014:

Repeating his CNES presentation in Austin, the isotope ratios (via Angelo at Stanford) of the "pieces of metal, slag, aluminium, magnesium" were to date indicating "terrestrial elements". (FS6, 278)

 

5 July 2016:

Via an  Internet link Garry Nolan revealed to Vallee his weekend analyses on the (non-radiative) "Saint Augustin sample", on the new prototype MITI machine: "the strange knitting pattern of wires", the thickness of 1/5th a human hair., with around 210 atomic mass, possibly containing (non-natural form) polonium, and bismuth, (and rather incongruously, given its unstable nature -B.C.) astatine. The presence of yttrium, zirconium, and strontium was suspected by Nolan. There seemed to be significant presence of aluminium and nickel, with silicium and calcium as possible contaminants, as "the stuff" had apparently been embedded for years in the desert dirt.  Vallee suggested writing all this up and consulting again with Frederico (Faggin).” (FS6, 364,365)

(I presume here with the spelling of “silicium” versus silicon, the reference maybe to the biomedical form of silicon, that is Silicon in the form of Monomethylsilanetriol (MMST) microencapsulated in acacia gum for superior absorption and bioavailability. If so, its an unusual contaminant. “Silicium” was Davy’s original term for what became known as silicon – BC)

 

 8 July 2016:

While Vallee went on ahead to see Faggin in Los Altos, Garry Nolan went home to pick up “the honeycomb" (FS6, 365)

(There is no elaboration on the proposed “honeycomb” discussion with Federico Faggin during that day’s entry – BC)

19 July 2016:

Vallee indicates he hears from Nolan that he just recovered "some strange material during a New Mexico trip” which was footnoted that after Garry showed him the material Kit Green found a man-made solution after surveying about 5,000 images over a science library terminal, apparently a failed radar reflecting fabric project around 2010 from two Copenhagen companies which went bankrupt (FS6, 367).  Vallee wondered how the "crash" material had ended up in New Mexico - an "Artifact" (A "fibre fabric?" "with its white fibres, grey knots, and cross-latched chemical microscopy ... pristine, high ordered." 

25 August 2016:

Dr. Nolan shows Vallee the Plains of St. Augustine analysis details on his laptop, "especially the ‘wires,’ made up of aluminium and silicon, apparently doped with titanium and other organics.  The resin substrate is of the same composition.” (FS6, 371, 372)

3 June 2018:

Vallee reports no progress on "the (Nolan) analysis of our 20-odd UFO samples loaded on the plate" as the Stanford mass spectrometer is still broken (FS6, 454)

18 June 2018:

Vallee reports good news that Nolan's “clever students" have been able to repair  "the device", so the analysis was run back around 11 June. (FS6, 455)

13 November 2018:

After 6 months, Vallee is writing, “There’s never been anything like Dr. Garry Nolan." Meeting with  Federico Faggin, he shows him "the new binder with our records of 31 samples" Meanwhile Nolan is continuing plans for his "Atomscope, a device that will image the tiniest bit of molecules and could enable science to comprehend protein structures that have eluded medical research.” (FS6, 473)

14 November 2018:

Dr. Peter Sturrock entrusts Vallee with his Sierra case (Fe and Ti containing) samples, plus a paper that detailing the chain of evidence. (FS6, 473)

13 February 2019:

Nolan sends "encrypted videos of honeycomb microscopic details" to Vallee in France. (FS6, 483)

29 October 2019:

Larry Lemke, well informed of technology history, after examining the past record for "analogies to the unusual structures we’ve found, particularly the now-famous honeycomb recovered in New Mexico" told the team that "such hexagon structures came into the aviation factories about 1938, the first being experimented by Martin in 1945.  Later Hexcel, formed at UC Berkeley, offered the first viable product", including his laptop shots of "the weaving and knots of those mysterious ‘wires” that so perplexed" the team. Vallee commenting on the obvious in Lemke's findings: "What we are looking at is not extraordinary material from Alpha Centauri, only human hardware, exploded.  But that’s not all.  It’s unlikely that the honeycomb technology with the nylon thread fixing the epoxy would have been in common use before the 1950s.  Who planted it at the 1947 crash site? Garry will have some questions for Tyler. The next step must be a full review of our recent run through our entire collection.” (FS, 508)   

 

Given that “Tyler D” (TT) took Dr. Diana Pasulka and Dr. Garry Nolan to the fabulous or notorious “gifting field” blindfolded and provided the specially calibrated metal detectors to aid their search, that led to the discovery of the material, a lot more transparency, critical thinking and research may well be needed.  A more credible detailing in explicit and factual terms of its actual chain of custody might help the processes and deliberations along a bit.  Likewise, for the rest of the collection of materials.

 

Hopefully that “full review” mentioned by Jacques Vallee in October 2019, included a wider, more open, collegial sharing of data on “the now-famous honeycomb” (2019) (and indeed the other material), particularly where decades earlier practical lessons were learnt on other “alien honeycomb” (such as back in the 1980s, down under in the land of Oz – Australia that is).  I will leave it to Jacques Vallee, Garry Nolan and the others involved to determine if the Australian “honeycomb” story is of any relevance to their study.  I would certainly like to have their collegial feedback.  

Scenes from James Fox's "The Phenomenon" documentary

showing Dr. Nolan, his equipment and Jacques Vallee's samples

The study of such material is complex, controversial and challenging. Widening the information pool and broadening the collegial discussion will assist this process.

 

From my blog “The OZ Files”, June 25, 2023, in a post entitled “The Ultimate Secret and the Australian experience” I quote my experience with “alien honeycomb”: 

http://theozfiles.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-ultimate-secret-and-australian.html

 

“The “Alien Honeycomb” affair - “Not so alien honeycomb”

The "honeycomb" samples siting on the cover of Pinkney's book are from my sample collection 

to show the cross section of material recovered from Greenbank

“The “alien honeycomb” story was one of my earlier collisions with Australian “crashed UFO” tales.  But, this was one that would ultimately illuminate a cautionary tale for our current hunt for mysterious alloys, meta-materials and UFO “ejecta.” Given the current controversies and intrigues about mysterious “alloys”, “meta-materials” and such, in the custody of the likes of the Pentagon, Robert Bigelow and others, and “the Artifact” – a centrepiece in Diana Pasulka’s book from Oxford University Press “American Cosmic – UFOs, Religion, Technology”, being examined by people like Garry Nolan, Jacques Vallee and Hal Puthoff & Luis Elizondo of TTSA, and others, it is worthwhile to retell this cautionary tale. In the absence of detailed analytical data, prosaic possibilities need to be carefully considered before “alien” associations are obsessed with.  Should the results merit extraordinary claims, lets see the detailed data, contexts and analyses? What follows is what happens if caution is not followed along with attempts at verification and peer review.

 

“John Pinkney (1934 - 2018), journalist, writer (including the vampire novel “Thirst” which was the basis of the 1979 film of the same name), puzzle-maker and co-founder of the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society with Peter Norris & Kevin Arnett back in 1957, had a long career in journalism. His October 1978 headline media story on the Valentich story drew a lot of attention. He started writing paranormal and unexplained mystery columns that appeared in magazines like Pix-People. Through those he would get a lot of stories from readers and these would provide content for his many later books (such as “Haunted” (2011), “Great Australian Mysteries” (2003), “A Paranormal File: An Australian Investigator’s casebook” (2000) and “Alien Airships over old America: Plus 18 other tantalizing mysteries” (2011)). But it was his first UFO book in 1980 “Alien Honeycomb – the first solid evidence of UFOs” that really caught my attention.

 

“As an industrial chemist it quickly became evident to me that a prosaic answer seemed likely for the “Alien Honeycomb.”  Pinkney and I undertook a debate on the topic within the pages of the magazine he then wrote a column for (Pix-People) – “the Great UFO Debate” – the editor’s title to our exchanges over 2 issues, although I had concluded that the material had nothing to do with UFOs – a position that put John and I in conflict at the time. 

 

“If only John had considered a fascinating and sobering anecdote in R.V. Jones remarkable book “Most Secret War”. During the Swedish “ghost rocket” flap of 1945-46, as then Director of British Scientific Intelligence, Jones stated, “since there had been allegedly hundreds of (ghost-rocket) sorties, there ought to be at least several crashed bombs already in Sweden, and yet nobody had ever picked up a fragment.  I therefore said that I would not accept the theory that the apparitions were flying bombs from Russia until someone brought a piece into my office ….”  It turned out that the Swedes had several pieces of a “bomb.” “When I asked whether it had actually crashed, the answer was that it had not, but that various pieces had fallen off it,” Jones wrote.

 

“These fragments were forwarded to British Intelligence.  Among them was “a lump 2 to 3 inches across that was hard, shiny, grey and porous.” Although Jones knew what it was, he sent it to the Chemical Analysis Section at Farnborough.  Many people in intelligence believed in the reality of the Russian flying bombs, and jumped upon the resultant analyses of one of the fragments: “… one of the lumps consist of more than 98 percent of an unknown element!”

 

“Jones got in contact with the head of chemistry at Farnborough, who confirmed the startling result.  “I then asked him whether he had taken a good look at the lump, and whether it had not struck him as being remarkably like an ordinary piece of coke.  There was a gasp from the other end of the telephone as the penny dropped.  No one had stopped to look at the material, in an effort to get the analysis made quickly, and they failed to test for carbon. The other lumps had similarly innocent explanations.”

 

“"Alien Honeycomb - the first solid evidence for UFOs" by John Pinkney and Leonard Ryzman was published during 1980.  It professed to tell the story of a UFO explosion near Greenbank, Queensland, which led the authors to recovering some of the debris.  They claimed it contained "unknown elements and configurations".  The book revealed no details about chemical analyses and the authors resisted any attempt at confirmatory, independent analysis.  They were only prepared to have their material examined by the United Nations.   The story that allegedly connects the debris to a UFO is fragmentary and dubious.  In fact, not enough information was given to verify a clear correlation.  Subsequent investigation indicated the original discovery of the material by locals was covered by the Brisbane Telegraph on November 13th, 1970.  The authors tried to link the debris with a sighting of a "flare" like "UFO" back in about 1966.

 

“Pinkney and Ryzman indicated that most of the material was retrieved by RAAF officers, and then clandestinely dispatched to Pentagon testing laboratories.  They presented absolutely no evidence to back that statement up. The only reference to "Alien Honeycomb" I found in the RAAF files were internal memoranda from 1980. DEFAIR CANBERRA wrote to HQOC - SOINT on August 1st, 1980, regarding "Confirmation of Data in Book 'Alien Honeycomb'":

"The text of the book is sufficiently vague to make tracing information from service records a very tiring and difficult task.  A check of files held at Air Force Office has proven negative.

"Unfortunately, a 'no comment' or 'no information' response from the RAAF is only going to encourage this type of journalism. Accordingly, it is requested that HQOC initiate a check of records (including those of HQ AMB (Amberley - B.C.) for data which could relate to this matter". 

A telex dated September 5, 1980, and categorised as "unclassified/routine", from HQOC to DEFAIR Canberra, stated:

"Further to ref A the following is retrans of info received from HQ AMB. Quote:

"1.  Summaries of unidentified aerial sightings prepared by Dept of Air between mid 1968 and mid 1969 have been checked for mention of the case.  No mention of that particular sighting appears in the summaries.

"2. This is unusual because it is our understanding that the summaries were comprehensive and not edited lists of reported sightings.

"3. Unless requested by command the HQ does not propose to take this matter further".

 

“I didn't see any evidence of a dark, pervasive cover up there.   Other RAAF files refer to retrieval of mundane debris, but none refer to the Greenbank "alien honeycomb".  More likely the key to this affair is languishing, not in a UFO or UAS file, but in aircraft accident files. Greenbank is not far from Amberley RAAF Base).

 

“As an industrial chemist and someone who was promoting serious research into possible physical evidence for UFOs, I was interested in finding out more when the book first appeared. The authors did not assist independent research into their material.  Based on visual assessments, I had felt it was most likely of man-made manufacture, but I couldn’t quite place it.  So I contacted a fellow industrial chemist from Ciba Geigy, who helped me out.  From information and discussion, I concluded the material was probably AEROWEB high strength honeycomb, some of which is made from fiberglass - a clearly human-sourced material.  Soon other researchers, such as Paul Hebron, of UFO Research (Queensland) (to who I owe the heading “Not so alien honeycomb”), had acquired samples of the material from the site in question.  A researcher working for sceptic Dick Smith received some of the "alien honeycomb" from the same person who provided the “Alien Honeycomb” authors with their material.  A clear relationship was established between this material and the material held by Pinkney and Ryzman.  Dick Smith financed an analysis through Unisearch laboratories, and not surprisingly confirmed that the "alien honeycomb" was not so alien - it was fiberglass!  So much for "the first solid evidence of UFOs."  More compelling examples of unusual debris or material related to UFO events have been documented.  However, in this case it was clear that the material had nothing to do with UFOs.”  

See Chris Fowler's comments on UFO Updates quoted in the comments below.  I've included imagery from those comments here as my comments section would not include the photo:

UFOs & UAP – the way forward, anchored in science and history

What an extraordinary year.

We have had US Congressional hearings again on the subject of UFOs, UAP and the claims of UFO crash retrieval programs. And now we are seeing out 2024 with the mystery drone saga, which has so many historical resonances, to the extent that anyone navigating this fascinating subject should do themselves a favour and immerse themselves in the rich history of UFOs and more recently its UAP iteration. So much of what people have been “discovering”, has all been discovered in the long past history of UFOs.

While Luis Elizondo’s book “Imminent – Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs” captured the headlines, Robert Powell’s excellent book “UFOs – A scientist explains what we know (and don’t know)” was, for me at least, a far more interesting book – indeed it was a primer for where we should be heading towards – an open and transparent multidisciplinary science based enquiry, something I have been advocating for decades.  

Fortunately, we have many manifestations of this trajectory – the Society for UAP Studies (SUAPS), for which I am an advisor, the SOL Foundation, the Galileo Project, the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) and International Coalition for Extraterrestrial Research (ICER), to name but a few of these excellent initiatives.

We have had a lot of documentaries and series, of which “The Program” by James Fox and “Investigation Alien” with George Knapp are recent examples, that are very worthwhile embracing.   Each in their own way are contributing to the growing awareness and recognition of the UFO & UAP experience. 

Rather than focus on US developments, which are getting extensive coverage, here I will concentrate on events and issues that I had some involvement in. 

For much of the year I have been involved in an effort to digitally scan my paper files spanning more than 50 years.  As my files have been what I call “active” files, that is they are accessed frequently, often daily, but again, often those files got a bit chaotic.  The new organisation NHIR (Non Human Intelligence Research) based in Perth, found by Dr. Anton Uvarov, with Ross Coulthart co-ordinating potential research programs, supported me in organising my files, with a view to make them available to general research. Ultimately I organised my archive into 14 categories, plus general guides, articles, talks & profiles:

BC01 UFO/UAP physical evidence

BC02 Physical trace cases

BC03 Australian & regional UFO/UAP case material

BC04 Historical pre 1947 material including key events (1868 Parramatta & 1927 Fernvale) BC05 Australian official UFO (UAS) files 

BC06 Harry Turner/Michael Duggin files 

BC07 “solid light” cases

BC08 pilot cases,

BC09 photo cases 

BC10 “crash retrieval” files 

BC 11 UFO/UAP science 

BC 12 Historical perspectives 

BC 13 Abduction/contact case material 

BC 14 Asian UFO/UAP experience particularly Chinese UFO/UAP experience 

22 archive boxes were made available for professional business scanning, which was completed in December 2024.  Subject to a necessary review for redaction of private details in some files, we hope to complete this exercise early in the new year.

A number of active investigation projects emerged focusing on some close encounter type cases that seemed to intensively focus on at least one individual and a few associates in a remote & isolated location.  Some of these encounters appeared to involved videos and photos that may show anomalous objects and possible “entities”.  I have sighted some of the images and they are intriguing, but require a lot more investigation.  As the experiences apparently involved considerable impacts on the primary witness, the welfare of the individual and his privacy is paramount.  A lot further research, investigations and more direct interactions with the witness are needed but these are contingent on the welfare and privacy of the main witness.  This has been a long drawn out process, but we hope to progress this seemingly fascinating UFO/UAP contact encounter milieu, and possibly report on the situation in coming months.

Further removed from current case investigations are historical investigations of pre-1947 event.  One of these certainly became a central focus for me during 2024, when some primary source documentation emerged on an historical case that has fascinated since I first learnt of it way back in 1975.  This was the case of Frederick William Birmingham from the 19th century.  I reported extensively on this fascinating affair as “Frederick William Birmingham – a 19th century UFO/UAP witness & early aviation visionary” in UFO Truth Issue 68 July/August 2024 & my blog site.

I concluded, “Despite the limited and fragmented nature of Herbert Rumsey’s archive of “Birmingham’s papers” and that Rumsey presented a somewhat flawed view of their contents in his 1911 letter, the material in the University of Sydney rare materials collection offers researchers much food for thought for interpretations of Birmingham’s strange account of “a machine to go through the air” in Victorian times. Having researched this saga since 1975,

I find it a fascinating insight into a Victorian era Irish-Australian who may have been a 19th UFO witness. He certainly seemed to be a 19th century early aviation visionary, even if materials and technology had not caught up. Back in 1933, Frederick Cox, mayor of Parramatta in 1884, reminiscing about old Parramatta, remarked,

“Did I ever tell you about Birmingham?” 

“Birmingham was an alderman of Parramatta Council, and an engineer, and at his house in Duck-lane ... “he built a flying machine...” In so many strange and wonderful ways Frederick Birmingham seemed adrift and ahead of his times.”

I also got involved in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) podcast that focused on the classic 1966 Tully UFO affair. Danielle O'Neal and Piia Wirsu of the ABC Expanse podcast series have focused on the famous Tully UFO milieu in Series 4 over 5 episodes - UNCROPPED.  They have done an excellent job in presenting the general essence of the story, while largely focusing on the human side of this fascinating saga.

The series was introduced as follows: 

“In 1966 a salt of the earth banana farmer in far north Queensland saw something he couldn't explain. It looked like a flying saucer and it left behind a circular mark in some reeds, which he called a 'saucer nest'.

That moment became the inspiration for an international alien hoax, it subjected him to intense ridicule, and it exposed him to the whole chaotic debate about UFOs.

Host Danielle O'Neal goes from a mosquito-laden lagoon in far north Queensland to the Australian government's classified UFO files, to the US Congress as she seeks to understand what happened, its legacy and why believable people say seemingly unbelievable things.

The Expanse podcast explores big stories from across Australia — a vast continent where anything can happen.”

This podcast series provided an excellent accounting of the Tully “saucer nest” saga, and through some further ABC media reporting broaden the story into a deeper exploration of the UFO subject.  I was involved in both aspects of this coverage.  The focus was on the impact of the daylight UFO sighting by banana farmer George Pedley’s January 1966 daylight close encounter sighting at Horseshoe Lagoon near Tully in northern Queensland, in particular on Albert Pennisi and his son Shane, with an emphasis on the human impact.  I recommend the Expanse 5-part podcast series “Uncropped”.

From the series transcript I had some cameos:

 

So, in the early 70s when this young, slightly ragged, surfy-looking dude in T-shirt and cut-off jeans turned up, Albert was cautious.

Bill Chalker: It was a bit of a hot day, storm clouds looking as though it was going to beat a path to the door.  

Danielle O'Neal VO: Bill Chalker had a beaten-up old backpack slung over his shoulder, scuffed from being dragged in and out of apple carts and ute trays on the great post-school surf trip.

Albert walked up to the gate to intercept him, machete stuffed into his belt at his side.

Bill Chalker: A lot of people thought he was a bit intimidating.  

Danielle O'Neal VO: In this gruff voice Albert called out;

Bill Chalker: 'Whatchya doing here, mate?’. 

Danielle O'Neal VO: Bill introduced himself.

Bill Chalker: I'm just this weird guy that had this long-term interest in UFOs and I'm really interested in what really happened rather than how the media reported it. So, uh, he liked that, I think. 

Danielle O'Neal VO: Albert opened up his doors and invited Bill in. 

This tanned and long haired surfer, not your stereotypical UFO-guy. 

But Bill had been fascinated by what had happened in Tully. 

Bill Chalker: By then it had, was almost legendary; Horseshoe Lagoon. Particularly amongst the UFO community.  

Danielle O'Neal VO: Albert introduced Bill to his sons, including Shane, and took him on the grand tour of the lagoon.

Bill Chalker: It was sort of, uh, pretty brackish at that stage. I was already up to my neck, one of Albert's sons that said, ‘Oh, better be careful there because we've got taipan snakes’.  

I launched myself out like a missile or a UFO coming outta the water.  

I said to him, ‘You could have, you could've told me about that before I went in!’. 

Danielle O'Neal VO: The taipans didn’t dull Bill’s enthusiasm for investigating. He never really stopped looking into unexplained aerial sightings and physical trace cases.

And there were a lot more sightings about to land. What had started in Tully was about to go global.

And Bill wanted eyes on what the government had. The secret UFO files.

That young, tanned surfer-looking guy on the failed road trip, Bill Chalker? He was diving deep, down the UFO rabbit hole. 

By the 80s he was well on the way to becoming one of Australia’s chief UFO researchers.

Like Keith, Bill was just - how about some science?

Bill Chalker: Science should be about focusing and doing a careful examination of things, you know, open, open inquiry. 

Danielle O’Neal VO: But, he knew all about the ‘UFO eyeroll’. 

Bill Chalker: During the seventies, I found out about a UFO sighting that occurred back in 1970. We went into this area and found a classic burnt area about 30 feet wide. 

It was a very clear-cut correlation with where this UFO had seemed to land. 

Danielle O’Neal VO: Bill reached out to a scientist, explaining the intricacies of the case. 

Bill Chalker: He said, it sounded like a classic case but you don't want to make that public.  

You're better off saying that you're interested in witchcraft than flying saucers. 

He knew that within the mainstream of the scientific research area, if you start to make yourself the focus of UFO enquiries then it doesn't bode well for your ongoing scientific career path.  

This aspect got a bit confused in promos for the show, so I issued a clarification:

The latest (22 December 2024) short clip promo of the ABC Expanse podcast Uncropped requires some context to explain some comments I've made. It has me saying about interest in UFOs, "You're better off saying that you're interested in witchcraft. It doesn't bode well for your ongoing scientific career path." I clearly don't accept that and my own participation in UFO UAP research confirms why those statements don't sit well with me. Here is the real context in the form of a quote from the introduction to my 1996 book "The OZ Files - the Australian UFO Story": 

"In 1973 I was a third-year science student majoring in chemistry and mathematics, also engaged in ‘forbidden science’. I was experiencing some difficulties in analysing soil samples from a possible UFO landing site at Emerald Beach, near Woolgoolga, on the north coast of New South Wales. Someone suggested I approach Dr Keith Bigg, then Deputy Director of Radiophysics at the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation. Dr Bigg was helpful in his advice. He was most intrigued about my descriptions of the Emerald Beach incident and the fact that ‘circles’ had been found. ‘Seems quite a classic case,’ he wrote. But his parting advice had a twist to it. ‘Never admit that your interest is in UFOs or you’ll get nowhere. You’re more likely to get cooperation in hunting witches. Think up a “scientific” reason [for your interest in a particular phenomenon]’, he wrote. These closing remarks were—and are—a sad reflection on the prevailing, myopic, view of mainstream science. The English visionary, William Blake, referred to such narrowness of perception as ‘Newton’s sleep’."

From further transcripts of the podcast:

Danielle O’Neal VO: It seems like the pop culture UFO depictions have majorly affected how the entire field is viewed. Or dismissed. 

Something I've realised is that when I talk to people about UFOs, everyone has their own idea of what that acronym means.

Like UFOS - flying saucers full of little green men.

Or, like UFO as in literally unidentified flying object. Which, again, not that wild a concept. There's probably stuff out there we can't explain. 

But things like E.T., or the X Files often mean that if we drop the clanger 'UFO' people fill in all these blanks with whatever cultural knowledge they have to hand. 

Bill Chalker: Therein lies part of the problem. Unfortunately, a lot of it gets kind of minimalised and trashed by casual media engagement. 

There's something worthwhile that's been recurring, that would benefit from serious scientific engagement. 

Danielle O’Neal VO: But with people reluctant to put their name to anything with a whiff of paranormal, people like Bill stepped in to try to conduct whatever inquiry they could. 

But 1981 found him bedbound, recovering from appendicitis, so Bill decided he could use the time to see if he could get access to the collection of all official UFO reported sightings in Australia. 

The government's UFO files. 

Bill thought;

Bill Chalker: What the hell, I'll start doing a ringing campaign to the Department of Defence and keep it up until I got a response.  

It took literally over a year of a bit of, I get a letter back eventually saying, yes, you can have access to the files. 

I think they were just expecting me to turn up, have a look at the files for an hour or two and go back home happy. 

Danielle O’Neal VO: That's not what happened.

Bill Chalker: Got there promptly at 9am at the Russell offices. A very austere, concrete looking building,  

Danielle O’Neal VO: Bill had dressed for the occasion. Gone were the cut off shorts and long blonde hair of a decade earlier.

Bill Chalker: I was there trying to ensure that I didn't come across as a, as a wild eyed kind of whatever, off the street kind of thing. Trying to convey that this was a serious investigation of the files. Short hair, a bit of a beard, tie. 

I was shown through and given the vacant office of the Director of Public Relations of the Department of Defence. He was on Christmas holidays.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: The secretary showing him in pointed out the photocopier if he needed it, then left Bill to settle in. 

Bill Chalker: While I sat there waiting in comes the secretary and a couple of people dragging along these large postal sacks full of files.  

And I thought, ‘Well, that's pretty unusual way of conveying files’.  

But then I got them all out, organized them all on the desk, started to systematically go through them, basic details down to try and get an idea of what were they.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: Then Bill heard these hurried footsteps coming.

The Secretary turned up and I was told that these files hadn't been declassified yet. 

I shouldn't be looking at them.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: Oops.

I mean I know it was the Christmas holidays, but doesn't someone check that stuff?

Bill Chalker: So they went off and some poor harried person had to spend the next hour or two hurriedly stamping every single page ‘declassified’ with an autograph and I just thought, you've got to be kidding.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: The files eventually made their way back into the office. Declassified this time. 

Sitting there sorting it all out for a week in this austere room, some of the files seemed pretty significant to Bill. 

Bill Chalker: A file that referred to a report that was written in 1954 by a Melbourne based nuclear physicist, who had a security clearance, concluded that a residue of the data represented evidence of extraterrestrial craft.  

And that was in a secret report to Air Force Intelligence in 1954. 

Bill Chalker: I was able to establish on that first visit that I was probably examining about a third of the Department of Defence's UFO files.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: What the hell was in the rest?

Bill wanted to find out exactly that. Armed with the information he had teased out of those postal sacks;

Bill Chalker: That allowed me to make very concrete requests for other specific files and over the space of two years, I documented in very fine detail what I found.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: He knew there were things he wanted to get to the bottom of as he dug around in all these files. There was a case he was already aware of.

Bill Chalker: The North West Cape case from 1973.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: North West Cape, a US military communications base.

All very top secret and hush hush. So much so that when he finally got access to those UFO files... this one was missing.

Luckily before that, he’d read this report from the deputy commander of the base.

Bill Chalker: Who was driving between the support to the base itself and he observes what appeared to be an object hovering over the mountains, that seemed to take off at extraordinary speed.  

There was a separate report from an Australian fire captain working on the base. And he was just checking facilities and then he observes a dish shaped object with a sort of a disc around the bottom, like a satin ring-shaped around the bottom.  

And it seemed to be hovering there for a while, and then it seemed to take off at extraordinary speed. 

The reports were fairly close to each other in terms of timing. So we had two separate witnesses to what appears to be the same event. 

It seemed to be unexplained to them. 

Danielle O’Neal VO: Then the penny dropped. 

Bill Chalker: The date of the sighting was on the same day as that base was used to issue a full nuclear alert to American forces within the Indian Pacific and Pacific region. 

Danielle O’Neal VO: There is no way for me to tell if these things are linked. But it does seem like a coincidence. 

Something unknown in the sky, in the middle of the Cold War mind you, and on the same day a nuclear alert is issued. 

But all this information had been squirrelled away and seemingly forgotten.

Which seems odd. A nuclear alert is kinda a big deal. 

These transcripts from the podcast series “Uncropped” are only a sample of a fascinating and compelling coverage of the focused UFO experience that occurs in the show.  Many different views are given, but ultimately the series supported the reality and impact of the Tully UFO milieu.  Danielle O’Neal, host and producer and her supervising producer Piia Wirsu, even appeared on George Knapp and Jeremy Corbell’s Weaponized podcast Episode #63 “Mystery Drones & Saucer Nests” in December 2024.  The show is well worth checking out.  Check out in particular just after the first hour.

Continuing the Tully 1966 coverage I was interviewed on Rhys Dalton-Morgan’s new podcast venture “The UFOzzie” – the 2nd episode: “What Are UFOs: With Australian Scientist Bill Chalker” (available on YouTube).  

We also focused on the remarkable Rosedale UFO landing case of 1980 and the intense localised UFO flap centred on the little community of Tyringham in New England, northern New South Wales, Australia – my “baptism of ‘UFO fire’” during my university days.  I recommend that interview, and the first episode of “The UFOzzie” podcast which focuses on Rhy’s grandfather – “The Real Top Gun” – WW2, Nukes & UFOs.  I featured that story in my piece “‘Tommy Leader’: Tom Dalton-Morgan and the 3% UFO solution” (See also UFO Truth issue 67 May/June 2024.

So once again, this past year has been a remarkable one for so many different reasons.