UFO-Aktuellt issue 4, 2005

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

Page 2: A Fake or the Real Thing?

Article by Clas Svahn, about a debate over one of the most famous of all UFO photographs: the one taken at McMinnville, Oregon, in 1950. Another photograph, published in Flying Saucer Review May-June, 1957, very much resembles this famous photograph, and a debate is currently going on whether or not the latter photograph is simply a modified version of the photo from 1950. Both photos are included in the article.

Chairman Svahn devotes this issue’s editorial to talk about how much he enjoys lecturing, and how important it is for investigator to go out there and meet “real” people from time to time. Not all research can be done behind a desk, and since UFO Sweden is devoted to open-minded honest research, we have no choice but to make ourselves available to the public now and then. But it’s not really an effort though, since the experience of lecturing can be as interesting as it is funny. And Svahn is keen to point out that more people should follow his example.

On 5 February, 1971, Edgar Mitchell became the sixth person to ever have walked the Moon, and that was a journey that changed his life forever. Svahn met Mitchell in the town of Interlaken in Switzerland, and they had a long talk about everything from UFOs and MJ-12 to Mitchell’s own ideas about the paranormal and unexplainable. Mitchell himself has never seen a UFO, and he’s always been more of a scientist than a believer. However, he has talked to people who, for example, experienced the Roswell incident personally, and because of that he’s certain that something extraterrestrial went down there. In the interview, Mitchell also talks about, among other things, his work with Uri Geller and Mitchell’s own research institute Noetic Science.

Article by UFO-Sweden’s webmaster Mikael Sjöberg, about Gary McKinnon, a British hacker who is facing 70 years in prison due to his repeated hacking of various military top secret databases. McKinnon started his hacking-career way back in 1995, after having seen the blockbuster movie Wargames from 1983, the movie that made the hacking-phenomenon known to a larger audience. McKinnon says he found numerous files with such esoteric names as Non-Terrestrial Officers and Fleet-to-fleet Transfers, all pointing to extraterrestrial influences on Earth, but he never saved any information that he found, and he is unable to proof any of his claims.

Short article by Bevan Berthelsen, chairman of UFO Sweden from 1976 to 1978, about a sighting of an unusual ball of lighting that he had back in 1944. The article ends with a call to all readers who have seen similar things to report to UFO Sweden.

Ads for books for sale by UFO Sweden.

Article by Andreas Ohlsson, accompanied by a picture, of something that the witnesses thought was a comet, but which turned out to be a trail from a passing airplane. That in itself isn’t a very unusual sighting, however, the interesting thing about the article is that when the major Swedish newspaper that initially was interested in the story was told of the results the interest quickly faded away. As Ohlsson points out, the fact that an identified flying object isn’t interesting to a major magazine but only to one devoted to UFO phenomena is quite fascinating. The page also has three short articles about, among other things, the fact that “UFO” isn’t allowed to have on a Swedish license plate.

Article by Jennifer Forss and Clas Svahn, about Bob White, a 74-year old American who has invested $60.000 in his own UFO museum. Forss met White in Reeds Spring, Missouri, where he told her of his sighting in 1985 that led to his recovery of what some people believe to be a metallic piece with extraterrestrial origin. White, author of the book UFO Hard Evidence opened his Museum of the Unexplained in August 2000.

Article by Anders Persson and Clas Svahn, accompanied by a picture, about a sighting in October 2005, which was reported in a local paper. After careful investigation by UFO Sweden the most likely explanation is that it was simply an SAS airplane, which due to special circumstances looked like a flying cigar.

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 the strange land known as Atlantis. Most people know at least a thing or two about this place, and over the years numerous locations have been said to be the original Atlantis. Even Sweden, actually. During the 1600s, Swedish academian Olof Rubbeck wrote a large treatise in three volumes, discussing how our land made out the remains of Atlantis and thus the cradle of civilization. Needless to say, however, he’s not the only one who has claimed to have solved the riddle of Atlantis, and Svensson’s article mentions some of the more important claims done over the years.

Three sightings in Sweden during 2005 reported by Jenny Stål. The page also has three short articles about miscellaneous paranormal matters.

C Göran Norlén gives a review of news clippings from Swedish media, this time from the end of August up until the end of October 2005. 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.

Two books reviewed this time, Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens (Susan A. Clancy) by Stefan Isaksson, and How to Photograph the Paranormal (Leonore Sweet, Ph.D) by Svahn. Isaksson thinks the book he reviewed is one of the best he’s ever read about alien abductions, while Svahn on the other hand thinks his book is one of the worst he’s ever laid eyes on.

Article by Norwegian ufologist Arnulf Löken (translated by Jörgen Granlie) accompanied by several color photographs. Back in 1997 UFO Norway investigated a large rock of about 60 tons that apparently had been moved several meters, and not only that, strange prints in the ground was also found surrounding it. At the end of July 2004 Löken returned to the site to see if anything had changed since his last visit. Obviously nature had had its course, and the site wasn’t identical to what it had been seven years later. However, the whole thing is still one big riddle. What really did happen?

Stefan Roslund has fifteen short news about the international UFO, and forteana, scene. Among other things, Roslund mentions a Norwegian book about crop circles, the Mothman, a sighting in North Corea, and so on.

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 presents several sightings that took place in the vicinity of a lake in October 2005. The article is also accompanied by two pictures, and page 29 has a short article by Svahn accompanied by a beautiful picture of a vapor trail.

A new section of UFO Aktuellt is introduced here: Swedish Mysteries, focusing (surprise, surprise) on mysterious events that have happened in Sweden and still lack any satisfying explanation. First out is Håkan Fenander, who tells the story of how a German bomber crashed in Sweden in 1945 and how its crew was never found. Parts from the airplane can still be found at the crash site, and the article is accompanied by several pictures, both old and new.

Article by Lars Rindeskär, accompanied by an illustration, about a Swedish sighting at the end of the 1970s where a large UFO blocked a road, causing several cars to come to a halt in fear of crashing into it.