UFO-Aktuellt issue 2, 2004

A short summary in English, by Stefan Isaksson, of the contents in UFO-Sweden's quarterly magazine.

Page 2: Picture sent to UFO Sweden

Short article by Clas Svahn about a photograph that was sent to Leif Persson at UFO-Sweden’s report central. The picture was taken on 28 April, 2004, in Gislaved, Sweden. A ball-shaped object can be seen in the sky, and the photographer did not, as it often happens, notice anything unusual while the picture was taken. However, the resolution is rather low, which makes it difficult to make out any details. The case is still under investigation, and the article is accompanied by the photograph in question, together with an enlargement of the object in the sky.

Page 3: Editorial

Chairman Clas Svahn devotes this issue’s editorial to reminding his readers of the hard, costly, and time-consuming (but also very interesting and rewarding) work done by the most devoted members of UFO-Sweden. As any other non-profit organization, UFO-Sweden relies on its devoted members for its existence, and even though there are many long-time members willing to devote much of their spare time for the organization, more people are still needed. UFO Sweden has ambitions to become ever greater, improve the Swedish and English websites, make an even better paper, improve the investigations being made, present more material to media, and much more. There is so much that could, and should, be done, but more participants are always needed. Men, women, old, young; everyone are welcome to join what has become one of the best organized UFO organizations in the world.

Page 4-5: The Mexican Footage

Article by Svahn, about the incident on 5 March, 2004, when a Mexican reconnaissance airplane looking for drug dealers over the Yucatan peninsula spotted a group of eleven UFOs on the airplane radar. However, the object were not visible to the naked eye, but could only be seen on radar. The sighting lasted for about thirty minutes, and the UFOs had been as close as three kilometers from the airplane. The UFOs changed course drastically, and made sudden changes in their speed. The crew were said to be sure the objects were real and not illusions, and two weeks after the incident the Ministry of Defense contacted Jamie Maussan, a TV journalist known for several programs about the UFO phenomena and a devoted adherent to the extraterrestrial hypothesis. However, several international ufologists point out strange things about the footage, and some even say the transfer of the material to Maussan might have been an attempt to cover up the real story behind it. For instance, if it in fact was a violation of Mexican territory by another nation, then the public would be deceived when the footage was given to a well-known proponent of the extraterrestrial hypothesis.

Pages 6-7: The Martebo Lights Still Going Strong

Inga-Lill Wallin, a field investigator of UFO-Sweden, has for the last ten years been investigating the strange lights at Martebo, on the island of Gotland, outside the eastern coastline of Sweden. According to local folklore a strange light can sometimes be seen in the woods, and Wallin has visited the sight on several occasions, and even written a book (in Swedish) about it. In the article she tells the story of when she visited the sight for the first time, what she has experienced in the dark woods, and how different explanations are offered by local inhabitants. One very possible explanation for the lights is that they simply are headlights from passing cars, but many people refuse to believe such a “boring” explanation.

Page 7: Strieber’s Day After Tomorrow

Article by Svahn, where he makes the readers aware of the fact that the blockbuster movie The Day After Tomorrow is based on the book The Coming Global Superstorm by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber. Svahn met with Strieber in October 1988 after his bestseller Communion had been released. Svahn offers a short story of Strieber’s different claims, and tell of how he reviewed Bell’s and Strieber’s book in UFO Aktuellt four years ago. When it was published not many people cared, but perhaps that will change now when a major Hollywood production had been made on the topic.

Pages 8-9: When UFOs Become Political Matters

Andreas Ohlsson, historian and one of UFO-Sweden’s more prominent younger members, has written a very interesting article about how the UFO enigma sometimes has been debated (and ignored) in the world of international politics. Sweden had its share of strange sightings in 1933-1934 and 1936-1937, and Ohlsson has written a master’s thesis in history at Stockholm University about the notorious Ghost Rockets. In the 1960s the UFO enigma was sometimes discussed in the UN, and on 27 November, 1978, J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallée spoke about the matter in front of the Special Political Committee. Ohlsson also mentions president Carter’s famous UFO sighting (which turned out to be good old Venus) and the recently departed Ronald Reagan’s’ famous words about an alien invasion.

Pages 10-11: More Politics

Article by Svahn, about Anders Gernandt, a Swedish politician of the Centre Party, who in the middle of the 1970s became famous to the Swedish public when he declared how he “believed in flying saucers”. He also brought the issue to the Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, and during Svahn’s interview he tells of the many fascinating and exciting things he did during his life. Gernandt, a former fighter pilot, investigated both UFOs and ghosts, visited the Pyramids of Egypt, participated in various spiritualistic séances, and much more. All in all a very interesting man who has lived a very interesting life.

Pages 12-13: Book Reviews

Five books reviewed by this time, two by Stefan Isaksson and three by Svahn. Isaksson reviews both fiction and non-fiction, and the former is Nighteyes by Garfield Reeves-Stevens, a book about alien abduction and evil government agents. The book gained much attention when it was published, since Budd Hopkins famous case of Linda Napolitano closely resembles an incident in the book. Isaksson’s other review is UFO Religions, edited by Christopher Partridge, a book Isaksson says is a great alternative to the more expensive The Encyclopedic Sourcebook of UFO Religions, which he reviewed in #1, 2004. Svahn’s books are all Scandinavian contributions, one in Danish and two in Swedish, the Danish one being published by Scandinavian UFO Information.

Pages 14-15: International Ufology

Stefan Roslund has nine short news about the international UFO, and forteana, scene. Among other things, Roslund mentions a possible future DNA test of the stains on the dress worn by Betty Hill during her alleged abduction, a statement from Skeptical Inquirer’s Robert Scheaffer about the decreasing worldwide interest in ufology, Roger Leir and his surgical removal of alien implants, a popular American talk-show about the paranormal, and a UFO conference in Poland.

Page 15: Revealing that which is a Secret

Short article by Svahn, about a technique developed by a graduate student called Claire Whelan at Dublin City University, which might make it possible to reveal what’s written underneath all the infamous black ink that has been used over the years to hide certain parts of declassified UFO documents. The technique is known as Eurocrypt, and works on separate words but not on longer sentences.

Pages 16-18: Interview with James Randi

Long and thorough article by Svahn, about a meeting he had with 75-year old James Randi, famous magician and devoted skeptic. Randi is famous for having written several books about his battles with pseudo scientific ideas, and he has offered a reward at one million dollars to anyone who can demonstrate a genuine paranormal phenomena under control conditions. So far no one has been able to collect the money. Randi tells of how he at a young age realized he was an extraordinary child, and at the age of ten he was already mastering advanced mathematical equations. Randi understands how most people have a “need” to believe certain things, but he also wants to enlighten people and make sure that charlatans and other immoral people are stopped from destroying peoples’ lives financially and emotionally, which has happe ned numerous times over the years. He says UFO investigations are both important and interesting, but he has very little belief in alien abductions, dismissing it as fantasies by bored people with nothing better to do.

Pages 19-21: When Dragons Roamed the Earth

UFO-Sweden’s expert on fortean phenomena, Richard Svensson, writes (and as always, draws beautiful pictures) about bizarre things, not necessarily UFO related. This time it’s all about dragons, the mythological beast often fought by brave knights in search of fame and glory. Svensson gives a chronological description of ancient stories about the dreaded beasts, of how they appeared as early as in the Sumerian civilization about 7000 years ago. He also talks about a possible origin of the dragon-myth, for instance how early finds of dinosaur bones might have inspired the myths of fearsome beasts controlling the skies.

Page 22: Quarantine for ET

Short article by Svahn, where he mentions an article in the February issue of Popular Mechanics, in which it is discussed what would happen if ET one day came knocking on Earth’s door. The magazine has even put together a welcome committee, in which one can find some interesting figures, especially famous anthropologist Jane Goodall. On page 22 there is also an advertisement for the upcoming course for field investigators held by UFO Sweden in the fall.

Pages 23-24: Media Watch

C Göran Norléngives a review of news clippings from Swedish media, this time from the middle of February 2004 up until the middle of May 2004. As always, there have been both very good and very bad things said in Swedish media about the UFO phenomenon, and Norlén complains about how certain journalists approach the issue. He is, however, pleased to see that Swedish TV broadcasted the lectures held at the recent annual UFO Expo held in Gothenburg.

Page 25: Various short articles

Three short articles by Svahn, about a pilot crashing his plane as the result of a UFO encounter, an airplane with a flying saucer design that is being developed, and strange circles in the sand in Namibia.

Pages 26-27: Advertisements

On page 26 a full-page advertisement about older issues of UFO Aktuellt, which are sold at reduced prices to anyone interested, and on page 27 advertisements about two different books and t-shirts sold with UFO-Sweden’s logo on them.

Pages 28-29: News from the Report Central

Strange things are indeed taking place in the skies. The Report Central run by UFO-Sweden receive several hundred reports annually, and in this issue of UFO-Aktuellt Pelle Persson presents four of them, taking place in 1974, 1992, 1994, and 2004. The article is also accompanied by six different photographs sent to the Report Central of odd things seen in the skies.

Pages 30-31: The Annual UFO Expo

Article about the UFO Expo held recently in Gothenburg, Sweden. The article talks about what happened and who were there, and is accompanied about various nice photographs of members of UFO-Sweden. As mentioned earlier, Swedish TV was there and filmed the lectures, and all in all it was a great time for the members, even though fewer people attended the event than expected.

Back page: Halo Phenomenon

Short article by Svahn about so-called halo phenomenon created by the Sun and the Moon, where he explains how it works and what it is. Two photographs of the phenomenon accompany the article.