UFO-Aktuellt issue 2, 2006

Article by Clas Svahn, about a famous picture (included in the article) taken in June 1945 in Burbank, California by one “Jack LeMonde”. Ufologists John Lererau and Jérôme Beau have done some investigative work, and less than a year ago the latter managed to find new clues in the picture making it more or less obvious that the UFO is in fact a street-lamp (a picture of which is also included in the article).

Chairman Svahn devotes this issue’s editorial to talk about the internet and its pros and cons. It can be a great source of information, we all know that, but it can also easily mislead, and thus one has to be extra careful with information found online. Svahn offers one example from as far away as India, where The Tribune in December 2005 had an article mentioning how an unknown Swedish laboratory had confirmed the existence of an extraterrestrial object. Svahn had never heard of this before and thus wrote an e-mail to the editors. Not surprisingly he never received a reply, and he urges his readers to always remain skeptical and never blindly trust all those things they might find online.

In June 2004, Svahn visited parapsychologist Martin Johnson in his home outside Lund, Sweden, to talk about his life and long career researching the various phenomena found within the field of parapsychology. Johnson was born in 1930 in northern Sweden and realized at an early age that his life was to be devoted to learning. In 1973 he became professor of parapsychology at a university in Holland, and throughout his long career he got several opportunities to work with various famous scientists and mediums. He always remained skeptical though, and over time built up a reputation for being willing to try new things and approaches, while never abolishing the scientific methodology and it’s probably quite safe to say that professor Johnson in many ways must be considered to be the ultimate scientist; open to new things yet always careful and thorough.

The third part of the section Swedish Mysteries (initiated in issue #4, 2005). This time it’s Clas Svahn who has written the text, and he tells the story of three mysterious events that took place during the largest UFO wave Sweden has ever seen, which happened in 1946. During this year over one thousand reports came in regarding the so-called Ghost Rockets, the name which the mysterious flying phenomena came to be known under. This is, obviously, not the first time UFO Sweden has written about the Ghost Rockets and the early years of Swedish UFO phenomena, and it’s quite safe to say that it won’t be the last.

C. Göran Norlén gives a review of news clippings from Swedish media, this time from the end of December 2005 up until the middle of April 2006. As always, there have been both very good and very bad things said in Swedish media about the UFO phenomenon, and as always, Norlén isn’t afraid to speak his mind. In this issue he devotes a few paragraphs about the necessity of a serious organization such as UFO Sweden (and others around the world), a topic that’s always discussing.

A few ads about material produced by various members of UFO Sweden, all available in Swedish only, unfortunately.

Article by Svahn, about the notorious movie released by Ray Santilli that allegedly showed a genuine autopsy of a real extraterrestrial. Well, so much for that, because now even more evidence about the movie being one big hoax has surfaced (even though many skeptics around the world didn’t believe in the movie to begin with). In early April this year, British sculptor John Humphreys revealed to the media how he had been the one sculpting the fake ET for the movie, and not only that, he had also starred as the “surgeon” performing the alleged autopsy. If people still choose to believe the whole thing is authentic after these last revelations; then I guess those people have to be really devoted believers…

Two short stories, both by Anders Persson, the first about astronomy in general and Saturn in particular, and the other about a freelancing extreme photographer, whose camera flashes can produce quite amazing lights in the sky (which in turn probably will result in quite a few UFO reports).

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 not about a single animal or creature, though. Instead Svensson talks about several different ones: the ferocious Emela-ntouka (a creature in Congo that bears much resemblance to the more famous one Mokele-mbembe); the allusive Mawai or Mawas (Malaysia’s own version of the North American Bigfoot); the ever so popular Nessie (which Scottish paleontologist Neil Clark claims might in fact be, in some reports anyway, a swimming elephant); and a rodent from Laos known as Laonastes aenigmamus (another animal who has undergone the Lazarus-effect, that is, an animal thought to have been extinct for aeons only to suddenly appear alive and well for the world to see).

Stefan Roslund has fourteen short news about the international UFO, and forteana, scene. Among other things, Roslund mentions British Bufora’s new publication “New Bufora Journal”, a mayor in Puerto Rico who seriously considers building a landing strip for extraterrestrials since such a thing would help local tourism, an alien abduction from China, and co-operation taking place among various European ufologists, and so on.

Article by Svahn, about Sandra Lindström, a 28-year old woman who on 3 April this year became responsible for UFO reports at the Swedish Defense Research Institute. UFO Sweden has had a long and quite beneficial relationship to her predecessors (who have all been men), and just like the ones that came before her, Lindström will have to devote her spare time to the UFO phenomenon, since there are no official grants to use for this. In the article she tells Svahn how she’s very new to the UFO phenomenon, but at the same time quite eager to learn, and one can only guess that if she qualifies for work at the Research Institute she isn’t very likely to have any difficulties continuing the work done by the ones before her. UFO Sweden wishes her the best of luck and look forward to a continuing cooperation with this Institute.

Article by Svahn, where he meets Karsten Jöred, who was responsible for UFO matters at the Swedish Defense Research Institute for six years before Sandra Lindström took over in April this year. Jöred had a strong interest in astronomy to begin with, and as he looks back over the years he’s quite pleased with what he experienced, the things he learned, and the people he met. Like Lindström he didn’t know anything about UFO history before he began, but over the years he learned quite a lot and realized, as we all do, that this particular part of history is quite complex indeed.

Advertisement for the annual UFO Expo, which this year took place in the city of Karlstad on 27 May.

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 Jenny Ståhl and Svahn presents two cases, from 1982 and 1992.

Advertisement for the popular course for field investigators, both beginners and pros, that UFO Sweden arrange every year.

Two short articles, one of the about the humorous news from March this year when British media told the story of British Rail and their interest in constructing saucer-shaped means of conveyance.

Short article by Svahn accompanied by a large color photograph. The photograph was taken on 20 October 1967 over the Swedish city of Sölvesborg, and what’s so special about it is that a reporter who, after the photograph had been all over the media, contacted the Defense Institute was told that it actually depicted a testing of a new defense system called Red Eye that the army was in then considering buying.