The X Factor - Volume 1 (1996) by silent-realm

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Martin Annable lhadof lditorial: Development Ediror: lenior Rebec€a5t. Johnston [ditor: Brenda Marshall &t tditor: Joe Dear €raig Glenday, tditodal: lain 3eid, Simon Richmond |esig*:SteveHorton, WendyKwok,JayneSwanson

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ACKI{OIVLEDGEMENTS authors: GrahamBirdsall,FergusFleming, Contrbuting Rob lrving, Simon Richmond. lnser: Popperfoto. Times !yndcate. lrontcover: Popular Scrence/[A Pinure Library. rovrr:Deelohnston/l'lC Back (opynghr @ 1993 Highl'lapse Haps creared usiigI'tounrain tYisdo*, lnc. wouldlike to thankall thosewho helpedin the researth

of lhe X Factor. dlvelop.nert Stanford. &lifornia 94309, POBox 5848, Explontion, #,,0{.lcientifc ,iiti@ire.corn Fu 0014155954466. Telool' 41559ll 858 1. liDEs. W'ileto herat P08ox about is interested rn heanng Atwater l, [5A" tharlouesvilh, YAI?906-169

+{ *

:l:..

t't

::: -fo ,-++,:. T '=

Reetric-tedArca : I b qbriJ b rfi. thr. n ffiasih ot tha tr&on bItrUrâ&#x201A;Źre&USd

rdfrctt corri E *.

Wlt s ti. h6{*is rf Dfffitrd fn p.opstt vt.t E*srH[ tAl*l

I 'lo*:r,-ki"

tr Us ci de*ry turcqed***

'3 . 13-

bout 190 km north-west of l-:rs \-egas, in the Nevacla desert, tl.re official map stops. There is plentr. there - roads, creeks, mountains. ,.rr':. buildings and a massive 9.5 km .-"-,- but on paper these things do nor . I: i. as if all human activity has ceased .- .in area the size of Switzerland.

'.,c access to this zone is forbidden. . dcadlv force authorizecl', warn the - . airspace is the most sacred in the -. .. is Nellis Air Force Range and Trst Site, more commonly knorvn -, - - i1 name given for one section of : old government maps).

EN TECHNOTOGY? : 1!]51 as a secretbase in rvhich :rc1 -\ir-craft Corporation could ir,',l)lalres for the Central : \1eno' (CIA), Area 51 is still ::.t ,rf the US's most futuristic

proJects. The Stealth bomber was tested here, along rvith other unconventional aircraft. It has always been shrouded in secrecv- the US Air Force (USAF) onh. acln-rittecl its existencein 199.1- becauseit re presentsthe cutti ng edge of U S mi l i tarv technologl. The onlr tr-otrble,according to recent controvelsial evidence. is that the technolopl is not Arner-ican.Nor are the technicians.Both are from outer space. Ever since,\-ea 51 was established.oeop le have rcporrecl ocl d-l ooki ngobj ecrs i rr the sky above it. These claims were rubbished by the authorities. But denial turned to embarrassment when one of their own men allegecl that not only were there U FOs above A rea 51, brrr rhe U S A F was actively working with alien technology. Robert 'Bob' Lazar, a contract scientist who worked on the base for five months from December 1988, broke the news on television in May 1989. He revealed that

Trespqssershove,.,, been hondcuffud,

- '.

put in leg-irons qnd,.,. strip-seorched for ignoring rhe Arec 5;i worning signs.-Fines ' up ro $6,000 ond even o yeor rn

,...i

prison con be

: enforced.6ome UFO.: witnesses even clcirR,i f9 hove iecei*d deoth threols.

' . '.'1, '

the US government was investigating nine flying Saucers and was trying to adapt alien technology to its own ends. He was fi l med in s hado w , u s i n g the alias 'Dennis', and his voice was electronicallydistorted. Lazar claimed both he and his wife had received death threats. ,, The secrecy did him little good. After the interview the death threats increased and his car was shot at. , In November, to forestall further interference, he came into the open. This time Lazar described the top-secret 'S4' site, r, next to Papoose Lake within Area 51, : where the alien craft were stored. He . revealed how he had been employed in a team of 22 engineers to figure out how the crafts' propulsion systemsoperated. TN S I DE

T o o

According to Lazar, 54 was an underground complex which occupied a whole mountain range. At first he thought he was working with highly-advanced man-made technology. But when he entered one of the discs.he became convinced it was from another world becauseits form and dimensions did not appear to be man-made.

.. s E .9

'It has no physical seams, no rrelds or bolts or rivets,' Lazar said. 'Evervthing has a soft, round edge to it... as if it's made or.rt of wax and heated for a time and ther-r cooled off.' There were portholes, arches and tinv chairs only a foot or so off the gror-rnd.Is propulsion unit was a baseball-sizedobject, which radiated an anti-gravity field through a hollow column that ran verticallv through the centre of the craft. The briefing papers Lazar read confirmed his suspicions.Thev included an astonishing mass of UFO information, among which were pictures of autopsies of little grey beings with large hairless heads. They stated that these aliens rr.erefrom the Zeta Reticuli star system. They also

Areo 513

Groom Loke becomes o hive of octivity in rhe deod of night. Sometimes, stronge crqft ore seen in the sky obove the top-secrel bqse. One such UFO wos photogrophed (inser) by resecrcher Billy Goodmon on 28 Februory 1990.

(

In 54, deod

oliens ore ollegedly stored in conisters (circled ot ?he bock of this picture token from Secrefs of the Black World, o o o

video dorumenfory

.F o

: o E I E o

obout Areo 5I ). This groiny film is the best evidence lhot oliens ore being kept on the lop-secret bose,

i I

.. t,

Sqn F ronc is c o o

NEVADA

rnasters desrees from two prestiuious US universities remains unsubstantiated. He is a bankmpt and has been convictecl of involvement in runnitrg a brothel. Lazar's motirresfor going public are also qr-restionable.He sayshe did it because he thor,rght the secrecy 1'vasan insult to science and US citizens.Yet his drawings of the alien craft have been merchandized in

Los Angeles I

model fbrm and he has sold the rigl'rts fbr a movie based on l-ris storl'. On

the othcr

hand, there is nothing

wrong rvith rraking

rnoney, and a dodgY

record does not nccessarih' make him

Iiar. In fact, the onh proven liar is the US Bet\feen

government.

1982 and

1984,

Lazar says he rvolkecl iit the Los Alarnos o1r the National Laboratorv in \en'\Ierico 'S t a r De f'e n ce Stlategic \ \ 'a r s ' Initiative. This l'as firmlv cLeniccl bl the authorities rr'ho sai(l there \rere no records of l-rise mplo\ Il)ent. l r 'h e n . j o u r . n a l i s t C i e o r g e investigated l're irtrncl ihat

But Knapp

Lazar's name appearecl on the internal phone directorr'at Also,

the

go\rernmellt

l-oi -\lirnros. hrts never

in -\'ea 51, a fact his tax retlun fot' that vear denied

that Lazar l'orkecl

also confirms. More eyidence has silce c,trnc to I n 1 9 9 5 , a ( ] e t 'u r .r n fi l n r

light.

c o m p a n y r e l e a s e d a r i d e o . \ , 1i ,i , r ,fth ? t s l a r k Wo r l d . r v h i c h . r r P l t l i c r l ttt,,t'e A Al fhe heort of

eviderlce to support l,azar's stor-r. It has

Areo 5I's IO,OOO

several witnesses whosc le\lilllolli-

sq km is Groom

l r l o \c that something is going on in ,\-ea :r 1.

Loke, where it is believed olien croft

VIDEO

ore being lested.

Norio Hayakawa of Nippor-r T\-. for.erample,

The closesl people

waited up

cqn get to Groom

glimpse of an object rise frorl -\'e :r 51. He filmed a glowing light oler the urotttrtait-rs

Loke is Highwoy 375 - renomed Extroferrestriol Highwoy in March 1996. Detoils of the eo

oreo's loyoul hove

PROOF? all night

to catch :t fleeting

and saw it skate through the ,skr.-\nalr sis of the film by state-of-the-art colrputcls led to Hayakawa's conclusion that tl.re otr_jectrr-as, 'definitely no con\rentional air-crait'. Many

other

films

shoriecl r-r.rLrchthe

been pieced E i:

_s o o

same thing - a bright objeci rr irich hopped

together by

through

reseorchers who

performed

the skv at incr-eclible speeds and

wont lhe USAF fo

NBC TV cre\\' \ras actlrallr urpproached by

impos-sible nrartoeLtt'res. An

come cleon oboul

one of these objects. Tl'rel came back with

octivities there.

radiation

burns.

Soneone

went further

',.=;,-.,.,::

t,:i_#ilil

_,.*â&#x201A;Ź

l'ot.rr\ffim',f*

DCATH h r98=

Desert&*ttle

*w;--

Gu,,"u1E9g

iffi,ffi."*, ,R;d ,T,::ili:';;:l,1',i:ff f

urrkiig, qrd fesrn one o# rq/sfel

.*-_f

Tlre domoges

tlre csse hos fofi ttre existence of refused fo lqkg,, n{uries ond

:r"'1.,., 1:.1:*.ffi "-""t

,,-

This series of

photogrophs

of rhe

Groom Loke bose v.rithin Areo 5l wqs token from o v on t o g e p o i n t o n Freedom Ridge off-limits to the publi c s i n c e A p r i l 'I 995. The USAF wonls lo ensure +ic|l no more p$<tures ore token o{ th.e top-secrel rqse ond its rrom m o f h

9.5 km

r-nwcry. Experls q,uesl"ion whot

i ,,

kind

e,f <rqft needs sUch c ,o,ntglonding slrip.

still, allegedlv irtsicle Sl, :rnd fihnecl a roomful of cauistersitr lr'hich deacl aliens w e re b e i n g s l o l e d . Sadlv,thottsl-r,catching a UFO on film is not conclusive proof. Secretsot'' the Black

times the speeclof sound. Goodall questions whether srich speecls are possible with human rechnol ogv. An ex-Lockheed worker, interviewed. by Goodall, said, 'We have things flying in the

World also sholr,s videos

Nevada desert,r''.t*oria^";'{; tii;;i

two

allesed

tl::

. ,, l .

,, UFOs - one lookecl like a jet at low altiLucas fdirector of the movie Star Warsf tu d .e ,th e o th e rw a s a b a d I1.m9ntageddrooI' ,A ncl r,r,herrGoodal l askedB enR i ch, sequence of a flying dustbin. former President of Lockheed 44uutr."6 :': -1."1,11 ,: Still, 'something' is certainly happening Development, if UFOs existed he was told, deep in the Nevada desert. 'There are at 'Yes.I am a firm believer in UFos.' l e a s t e i g h t Bl a c k P ro g r ams l l vi ng orrl of Area 51,' saysaviation writer.firn Gooclalt Black Programs are ultra-secret go\-eln\Ianv clismiss such statements aSt-: ment projects, such as the Stealth bornber', go\.ernrreltt-orchestratecl disinformation allegedly eating up $35 billion of public clesisnedto cover-upnhat reallv is going on:. cash a year. They include ttttmantted Lazar said workers at 54 wore badgeJ,:, probes whose speed and rnanoeuvrability printedwith the cocleNtrU. Did this referto' could easily fool people into mistaking Majestic-12, the alleged top-secret flying them for flying saucers. saucer research group set up by Goodall thinks there is more to it than the US president in 1947? that. The craft he is talking about are silent and incredibh'fast. such as the one which flew out of Area 5 1 an d was later tracked by In the next lssze,UFO FILE inaestigatesthe the Federal Aviation Administration Center Maiestic-12documents. Are thel fakesor going in excessof 16,000km/h - around 13 euidence that prouesalienshaueland,ecl?

' "::'-

VISIOI\S

oFTFIE

'.,....]TYIITUONS OF PEOPTEON THE BRINK OF REPORTIEAVING THEIR BODIESAND .'.,,:DEATH

:.,,]'rvlslTlNc orHERwoR[Ds. ls rHlS PROOFOF :l;:,,,;,11.,,,',," "'

IIF E A F T E RD E A T H ,O R J U S TT HE F INAT

xlgoucHTs oF A DYINoeRalN? hen the KGB assassinated Grigorievich Rodonaia, a Georgian dissident, they did it properly. First they ran Q him down in a car then drove over him a second time to finish the iob. His corpse was taken to a morgue ,:ma quick-frozen until time was l1,'r:1.,'':l,',,. .f,ound to do an autopsy. Three days ',111..11',1'.:.i1; Ia ter ,as t he pat ho l o g i s ts l a rte d . cuting i,-,toihe body. Rodonaia's eyesopened. The doctor closed them and carried on cutting. The e1'esopened again. Against all odds, Rodonaia was alive.

Ro do na ia's surviv al was am az ing.

Bu t ev en m or e ex tra o rd i n a rr rt' a s the tale he told when he recor-ered: w hile 'de ad ' he h ad beet t dr ar v n

into a world of light in which the '1b$.of science had no place. He could travel around the world. see through walls,reaclpeople's minds and journey through time.

his heightened perception, he saw that the infant had a broken hip of which the doctors were unaware. T h e fi rst thi ng he di d on regai ni ng the power of speech - three days after the attempted autopsy - was to tell hospital staff about the child. Ordinarily, Rodonaia could not have known of the child's existence, let alone its injury. But X-rays proved him right. To this day the only explanation of this mystery remains Rodonaia's orr'n. BOD Y

E V ID E N C E

Grigorier.ichRodonaia.rtho'clied i n 1 9 7 6 and i s nor' l i ri rtg as a \'Iethodist mirristerin Texas.is among a grorr'ing uuurber rr'ho clairn to have }-rada near.death

Doctors would have scoffed had

During his 'travels', he had heard a new-born baby crf ng in a nearby hospital. Scanning the baby wirh Rodonoiq suffered o 11,,rF.Grigorievich ond snopped spine when skull :t,,fii;**a

i*i1.,k.,*"t

run down by o cor. After three

doys in q morgue fueezer, he recovered

wiih no losting inluries.

S-=s *{=

experience (NDE). Reduced to it*...,j basics,an NDE occurs wh-en:a., . . ",.':, person dies and has visionsof an afterlife before being brought back to life. It has all rhe qualitiJs of a good lie: it's simple, it's unprovaHe and everybody wants 16 gslisys 'ii:, 1 But is it a lie? , , The sheer weight of evidenee.-.. ' suggestsnot. A 1992 survey ',,r,..:.: revealed that 13 million people in the U S al one had undergone som e form of NDE. And studies have unearl hed mi l l i ons of others in counl ri esas di starrras the U K and l ndi a. C hi rra and Zai re. N ota bly. thev all recollltt ntlrch the same kind of expelience. irrespectiveof religion or beliefs. : .,.,,,

IN TO

TH E

tIGH T

:. . ':illl

i, : , : , : . r

Tl re standardN D E begi nsw i t h t he dr i ng persorrl eavi ngthei r bo dy arrd seei ngthe w orl d from a bird's-eyevier.r'. They then dark tunnel, at the end of a bri ght l i ght. H e or she en l i ght and feel sa sensati onof peace, often associatedwith t#,: appearance of a God-lik. nguie..,..,l1, I

(Forsome.*p.ri"n..rr, r;ir;;$l

p o

i s repl acedby depi cti onsof hell. i A fter enteri ng the l i ght..the cxperi encer i s askedquesti o ns:

lat have they learned? \A/hat

i:lone wrong? They are come to the

that, because they still to accomplish, they n to their old body. they obey and return tthere death holds no fear ialism is replaced by a ri ng, s pir it ual at ti tu d e . T he s im ilar it yof th e e x p e ri e n c e s â&#x201A;Źst that something real is h a p pening.B ur lhe q u e s ri o n ains: is this a spiritual tion or merely the result sical changes? ..t .,::a:a

TIYING

BRAIN

Blackmore, a psychologist !,lUniversity of the West of ,' claims that many NDEs explained by the effectsof an insulficienl flow of &',the brain. en the brain is failing,' states,'it will keep ing models o[ rhe world. but they wrll come l-rom the memory and imagination. not from the senses.And if they are anything like and recollections they could be-seen in a bird's-eye view.' more's theories, however,

I hotly debated. Professor tana, from the

) Mony NDEscre reporled ofter life-threotening surgery. Dr Peler Fenwick (inset), o London neurologist, is currently reseorching such cloims. He hos been plocing obiects on high shelves within opercting j

lheolres ond osking potientswho come ouf of surgery reporting on NDE to describewhot they sow. His only commenlso fan,'ll's loo soon lo scy.,

University of Minho, Portugal, points out that, 'in many NDEs, individuals report events which were new to them (notably medical techniques) thar could hardly have been constructed from memory or imagination.' Also, experiments carried out on volunteers support Fontana's argument. \A/hen placed in a chamber with a reduced oxygen supply, the physical and mental abilities of the volunteers became impaired - including the memory. And while some reported hallucinations, none had the clarity of NDEs. 'Anoxia is clearly not rhe only \\iav to indr,rcean NDE,' Blackmore

rt-

Cloims of poronormol vision during NDEsmoy come from o mixfure of invention, exoggerotion qnd guesswork - people desperofely wonf proof of on ofterlife D r S u s o nB l o c k m o r eP , c r c c - . . : -:;:

trEr ,,

o E -oE o

s _.9

claims. 'The ansrier r:r"r -:t in the r e l e a s e o f e n d o r p h i n s . 'T h c : r are morphineJike

substl:rc e s

produced br.the brain al :inres of s t r e s s- t h e s a m e c h e r t : c . - s r n h i ch cause the 'rLtnner': hi:it

::td

prevent us feeling imrrleiiale

pain

when u'e break bl,tre> ir: :icciiertrc.

Therefore. the argunreli i,,rei. when vou are abc,ut to die. rire

endorphins are nature s oillc'rr for t h e 'l o n g

s l e e p '.

vr sr oNS

0F HEr r

The endorphin argur.nenrhas its rreak poi rrts.If the hrai rr i . rr iir r g to cr,tshionus frorn pain it \\ould do so irith pleasantimaqes.Bur not

- \DEs are pleasant: manv ..,,h'ehideous visions. {lrst as with near-deathheavens. r,1r-cleathhells are remarkablv :ritorm. Dr Maurice Malvlings,a .,rcliologist,noted that a number - ]ris heart patients reported sr,rch . .eclfr-rlplaces after their NDEs. I fbund myself lookine down on r operating table,' recalled one - r:is patients. 'Then I wasjerked : . ibll siclewaysinto a clark place , rf grittl', hot air. I lvas terrified. .,d a senseof things watching : - clernonsor monsters maybe. .'.,rl ed v ellins t o b e l e t o u t. T h e n . back in my bodv. I'rn terrified lq' no\{. I even sleep with the ' n. and I ' m ov e r 5 0 .' .H E

RUNNE R' S

H IG H

:i(rrphin argument looks r:i11rr'henvou consider .ler's high'. As Prof'essor 1 :1,)iritsout, \rerv f'ew ' . . ir oer per i e n c eth i s r hiqh. in sports ranging '. -' in:Ltchesto marathons, .::: \DL,s in the course bcen knorvn fcrr 'icf i as lone s ailor s

o r l n o u ri t ai n cl i mbersto rcport \D E -l i k e e pi sodes.the everri tness lcc.r u r ls

\l---5-l pl resl-" tl rat tl re cl tr)e -*'

L,f

their experience \ras more to do I'itl-r the onset of death, not a ' ru n n e r' s hi sh' . Take the caseofjacqui Greaves, a climber who, in 1994,fell in Scotland'sCairngorms and spent 16 hours in an icy quarry. 'I just seemed to get a very, very strange feeling,'Jacqui recalls.'I left my body and was walking through a beautiful blue land. It was wonderful and the colclnessleft me.' The experience also seen-rccl to giveJacqui the ener-E'to build a sno\{ shelter:,u-l-richhelpecl her survive long enough to be rescued. NDEs can also be explained as an hallucination triesered b1'the brain's [eaction to drllgs, or even blood poisoning resulting from kidney failure. Considering the fact that morphine and other such hallucinogenic drugs are administered to alleviate the pain of dying, it seemsa logical step to suggestthat this causesthe effects experienced during an NDE. In most NDE cases,though, drugs plav no part. And according

to Steven Ridenl-rour,a drug user rrho tried to replicate the effects of his \DE u-ith er-er,vpossible illegal snbstance,'none of the drugs rtorked. They couldn't even come cl oseto matchi ng my experi ence. ' In al most everv caseof N DE. the experi er)cers are physi callyand mentally clifferent afterwards. D oubtersmay di smi sstheseclaim s, brrt the evi dencei s hard to i g nor e. MIR A C TE

CURE

.:)'

Li 1982,Mellen-Thomas Benedict, ., a film cameraman, n'as diagnosad ,,,,.. rri th i ncrrrabl ecancer.H e duly ' di ed' and had an N D E n' hi ch Iasted for 90 minutes. During this ri time he experienced the standard . :l N D E effectsbefore returni ng t o

li{e.This episode could be ;1;ttil;;1r,.::,.,1 by for "' - r ' - " '" ""' .- r ' ' "' -l science except .tl'ii::ll'l.',l,l,"xptained -

one detail. \Ahen he came back lo

Ii fe , his ' inc ur able ' c a n c e r h a d co m plet elvv anis h e d . -1'

i,!ll'

X'..iul RESEARCH

:l::',::')':: ,:;::,::',:,i

{li, Ae,*cts recoveryhighlightsthe ::'r::frii:,that,for a supposedlymental "--rr-".--^/ ^----iltii:::::rlr-r:--.i.--.il NDEs can cause i:ti1'.ptta";menon, changes.In two 12",',''physical

) This pointing by Durdono Khon

inaep.ndent research studies, the ..,.,..:'1,..1'.l., conclusions have pointed to a wide :,,r,,:: ,,:;:::.;::'uariety of such after-effects in 80 to "..::,,.".'.:':9A pet cent of respondents, an increase in allergies, lt.::,:tt:l.]nCUai"g blood pressure, and an i| ,r]otvered a::::::,tt:,:::-a:,.).:.... intolerance of Ioud noises.bright chemicals. ,r,li$hts-and household same research also points to ii::::rr,|,rtire ' '. ):,:rlrllli:.lat2;+.;.| oooi ti-,i *, p sensitivity. Respondents electrical ^ " n^ -.r -- t. ' ieport lightbulbs blowing (35 per ;l1y1et$f). computer malfunctions ( 20

(inser) is of on NDE she hod ot the oge of two. Her experience ol such o young oge refufes cloims thot NDEsore foniosies o

bosed on posf memories or ore

o o T

mode up from

knowledge of the

stondord NDE.

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ce nt ) and m any ot h e r s y m p l o ms . i n cl uding walc hess to p p i n g a n d te l ephonesc ult ing o ff. So what is t he t rrrth ?A l l w e kn ow f lor c er t ain is th a t th e a rrs w e r

ai:llL::l:,.::::.1)::a:l:.:'1"':. .: ' - :.tr t

w ill b e revea led o n t he dar r r e die.

Sci enc ec an only e x p l a i n s o m rrc h : drugs and endorphins can :,,:&O,xia, accou nt fo r ma ny e x per ienc es . but cannol expla in the ' par anor m al'

anomalies. For example, how did Grigorievich Rodonaia know about the baby's hip? And what became of Mellen-Thomas Benedict's 'terminal' cancer?Not every case can be explained away neatly. That these experiencesare real is unqr-restionable, but rr'hat conclr.rsioncan \\'e clral'? Elidence suggeststhat uear-death

experi encersal l hal e si rri i ;. , : visions,regardlessof their religious beliefs. Are these experiences,then, the restrlt , ,; the mind letting go of the b,-,chas it approachesdeath? If so. coulc thi s hi gher stateof a\\al en( - - r c our psychic abilities? NEW

V IE W

LIFE

I n h i s b o o k D e a t h a n d f , '7 1 , 1 ,r i 7 4 '5 5 , parapsychologist Dalid H. L'-Lrd suggests that, 'ESP rrorLlci :rt lnore a p p a r e n t w h e n t h e i n i l r l r : r c e,r f

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the brain diminishes .r:td :lcl c e a s e sa l t o g e t l r e r '. 'T I r i - - . l .,r happens during an \DL consciousness torti:. the physical bodr

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. - . r c r i sh t Soperhaps llr. -,,: after all: NDEs nra'. -,'c-, 1.,r:lc r e s u l t o f o l r r b r r t i l t c r - - : : : . B .t: tf th e d y i n g l t r a i r r , r \ r . r k r : . . " . . : . . . Ll ti t a b i l i t i e s . t l t e r t i t . : l r . : : - i - . : ': . experiencer i-ra>a ,{i:lp:.-. :' rl of the afterlife. btrt of ti.ic:' ':ls'.:;lh d o r m a n t p s r c h i c s e l l s e ! . l '; ,.j sr r 'o f t h i r . a l t l t o L r " l r \ D L r i r . . r . ::, 'tl r i r r g concltrsive abolrt life alie: cicetfr.

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II{WKffiffiKffi LEADING RESEARCHER

SrANrOx FRTnoMANSAYSwHY HE BELIEVES GOVERNMENTS .{RE COVERING UP THE TRUTH .{BOUT FLYING SAUCERS onedollorbookboughtin 1959sporkedo youngAmericonnucleorphysicis/s inlrerest in fhe sublectof UFOs.Neorly40 yeorslofier, ''::i::i:E== T.Friedmonhoswritlen Croshat Stronton Corona,with DonBerlinel('thedefinitivestudyof the Rosweff fncidenfl,ond IOP SECRET/MNIC, oboutthe lilojestic| 2 documents ond USgovernment effortsto conceolevidenceof olienspocecroft. In over700 lecturesoroundtheworld he cloimsto hovesilenced oll buto hondfulof hecklers. Now living in Conodo,ond working on science reseorchproiectsos diverseos food irrodiotion ond pollufionconFol,he is on onimoiedspeoker.He hos Jittletime for non-believersin flying soucers,by which he meons'intelligentlycontrolledexhotrerrestriol spocecroff.Evenso, in his 6l yeors, Friedmonhos rrver saeno flying soucerhimself.

*: : g e

So how mqny people do you reckon hqve seen o flying squcer? I ask this at mr'lecrures.The hands go r-rpreluctantly, but they knor'r'I'm not going to laugh. Tvpicallv,it's ten per cent of the audience. Then I ask 'hol' many of you reported it?' I'm lucky if it's ren per cent of the ten per cent. Sightings of flying saucersare common, reports are not.

Whor first sporked your interest in UFOs? I was ordering books by mail and I needed one more so I wouldn't have to pay shipping charges. There was one on UFOs by Air Force Captain Edward Ruppelt who was director of Project Blue Book fthe last official US government i nvesti gati oni nto UFOsI . I figured he ought to know what he was talking about. I read the book, and it was intriguing. I read 15 more books, spent a couple of years looking into lots of information and it really got me rolling. Whqf conclusions hove you come to? The evidence is overwhelming that our planet is being visited by

L ',nsressionalhearings in I968 and at :i re L- nit ed\ at ions i n 1 9 7 8 .

ls being o scientisto help or o hindrqnce in UFO reseqrch? 8 ..:- . 1r r air r edas a s c i e n ti s ti s v e ry '-:.elul. -\ll vour work has to be lerseen. Your bossand his bosshave :' , be satisfiedthat you're being . ,rjectir-e, careful, honest, scientific. .{so. becausevirtually everything I ir'orked on as a scientist was classified, I had a chance to understand how .ecurity works. I wrote classified documents. I had a security clearance. Tl'risrvasgood training for searching golernment archives later.

Your lotest book is qbout rhe Moiestic | 2 (ru-12) documenfs.Whot qre these?

that the vounger gelteration, r,vhichrvasnever alive nhen there rrasn't a spaceprogramme, would push for an immediate r.iervof ourselvesas earthlinss since, from an alien viewpoint, that's lr'hat we are.

Thev could be proof that President Harry Truman set up a supersecret group of extremely important people from the scientific, military and intelligence Wouldn't rhqt be o benefit? fields. Their task was to learn about alien spacecraft. But there's no government on earth that wants its I'r-e been researching for almost 12 years now, and citizens to owe their primary allegiance to the planet. have trawled through 15 government archives looking Fourth, certain religious fundamentalists loudly for proof that the documents are real. Over and over maintain we're the only intelligent life in the a g a in.I f ind lit r le d e ta i l sth a t universe, that UFOs are the work 6 tr' 'F g fl rro-oneon the outside kner'r'.I've @ of the devil. These guys have even collected $1,000 from one political influence and they'd be DespitetheFreedomo-f critic for proving him wrong up the creek rvithout a religious Information Act, papers are about the typeface on one of the padcl l ei f prored urong. Fif t h. beingwithlteld.triorational \IJ-12 documents. It was an the uncertainn'r'youldresult in persbncan claim tltere'sno absurd challenge,since I'd spent economic discombobulation. coaer-up goaernTnent '.ieekssearching through the archivesand he hadn't. It also 'ry #e Whot does thot meon? D\ r.'pifies the intellectual 4f,",# Even i[ there were to be an rankruptcy of the pseudo-scienceof anti-UFOlogy. announcement, carefully done, not to panic people, I'r'e vet to see a good anti MJ-12 argument. not saying aliens are here to slaughter us or eat us, I think that still reasoning people would say,'Hey, Do you believe in olien obductions? these guys are obviously more advanced than we are, Dependsl I'm not a believer.I'm a scientistwho they can get here, lve can't get there easily yet, that ,:hecksout the data. Every abduction story must be means soon there'll be new energy sources,ground ::ken on its own merits. I know a lot of the and air transport, computers and communications.' :tsearchers. I have good faith because of my dealings There goes the stock market, because uncertaingr is ''".::irthem. Yes,some people have been abducted, but the enemy. r --icannot make a blanket statement.

Why do you think informqlion on UFOsis being withheld from the public? I .:.ilk governments have five major reasons for - -i:J this. First they want to figure out how the darn ,,,::-: .aucersu-ork becausethey make wonderful ', .:l:', 'ni clelir-ervand defence systems.Secondly,what -"--t r:remr' figures out how they work before you -: - : Third. if the information was released.I think

So is the public reody to heqr the truth qbout UFOs? Of course we are. There are some people who Would object, just as five per cent of the American public does not believe we've been to the moon. Too bad. Yes,it has to be presented honestly, openly. I certainly don't think we should put technical data about flying saucersout on the table, but our planet is being visited by intelligent aliens. It's time we grew "O F F

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A Antorctico, only discovered in I820, is rhe world's fifth lorgest conlinenf, ond remoins, cccording to experis ot the British Antorctic Expedition, lorgely unexplored. The Flem-Arhs ond o growing number of other reseorchers believe thot buried deep beneoth the ice could be evidence of q civilizotion so odvonced thot it once ruled lhe known world.

t was a beiurtifui liurd, inh:rbitecl bv a s e a fa ri r-rg c i vi l i zati on, l r' i th advanced engineerinu. motttllltett]:rr:]r:rt:t,jr::i tal architecture and a glitterir-ru capital citl'. It was too perfect to lasl. As th e p e o p l e b e c a mc materi al i sti carrd corrupt, the stars shifted around in the heavens and the sun rose from a different angle. Earthquakes tore apart the ground and volcanic eruptions spewed forth torrents of lava. All tvas submerged in a deluge oufwater, wiping the land off the w o rl d ' s d ra p fo r e te rn i t l .

rw !.N .rY :Y E AR Q u.!Sr ..,_.. .....,Such is the myth of Atlantis forged by the Greek philosopher Plato in 4008C. Now, 2,000 years after Plato's storv first tantalized mankind with visions of paradise lost, a Canadiau couple - Rand and Rose FlemAth - have assembledevidence that the cir' ilization could have existed. Their investigation into this ancient mystery lasted tll'o

decades and took them from their" l'rottteriu \tancouver Island. ott the rr'est

Nanaimo,

coast of Canada, to the reacliriq t,rotll of the British Museum, in Lonclort, It was here, in the cradle oi si,rttc of tlle world's most amazing disctx'elic., ihat the Flem-Aths made their orr't'i ltlc.ii.:ltloltgh. By rvedding modern

scicrttific cli.coveries

to ancient manuscripts. Ittil]l\ .ttlcl inllhs, they found evideuce to \rrpl)ot t tlteir radical views. Their

c o n c l t L . i o t r i s t h ti t si u ce

10,000BC1the rer.nains oi Lhc lcrst civilization called Atlantis h:rcl beetr briried b e n e a t h t h e i c c , '1 . L t l . r t , t i t t . l va s -\tlantis around stttic clisaster destroved b! a catacli 9600eC - at least 1.()00 r'ears before the According

P1ato.

currenth' accepteci stalt of ntodern civilization. The Flem--\tl-rs were not the first researchers to make the counectiotr rvitl'r geologic:rl clisaster stories that are pirrt of manv different cultures. Through the legends of native Americatis. the nl'tholrlgl of

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"*+S'i the Orient and the.fudeo-Christian Bible, runs the thread of a similar tale: a land suddenly smothered out of existence by a catastroohic flood.

OLD TH EO RIES DISCARDED The Flem-Aths discarded debunked theories that put Atlantis at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean or in the llediterranean Sea and went in search of other possibilities. Their starting point 'w'asa geolcigical theory first put forward in 1953 bv American academic Charles Hapgood, and su p por t ed by no les sa n a u th o ri q th a rr c e l ebrated physicist Albert Einstein. Hapgood believed that, over time, the growing weight of the polar ice caps tugs the earth's crllst over the globe, like an orange peel slipping round the fruit. He ca l l e d t his ear t h c r u s l d i s p l a c e m e n t.' l fi n d your arguments very impressive and have the impression that your hypothesis is correct,' wrote Einstein to Hapgood in

encouragement. \Arhen Hapgood's book, T'heEarth's Shifting Crust, was published in 1958. Einstein rvrote the foreword. Scientists today call the phenomenon 'continental drift' and 'plate tectonics'. But the accepted timescalefor srich shifting of land massesis no rnore than 16 kn-r evert'million \-ears.Hapgood was suggestrrg '-rrrrrcl _ i rrc ^^-'somcthi -^_^-__^_" ' " __- r rnol e radi cal . H e believecl the earth s crust could shift, as one, sudclenh' anci u,'ith devastating "'iifttt, eflects - errough to make it seem as if entire continents had disappeared

Fr,!*1.!-r.9*,!!-G-tt .9.!9-.u l!.D.._ If there was such an advanced civilization 10,000 years ago, it is possible that it foresaw the disaster and made evacuation plans. Even if it did not, it is still possible that some people survived, escaping to higher grolrnd, above the tidal waves that engulfed their land. Such high-altitude havens include Lake Titicaca in the central

While reseorching,.,cll screen ploy in' 1;'976| :::,.,',:, Rond Flem-Ath' ::::t:'::.' ' " r"o6 q6or;"t Hopgood's Maps oi the Ancient Sea Kings. fhe ideo thot on qncient civilizotion could hqve lived in Antqrciicq took his breofh owoy ond started the Flem-Aths on their quest for Atlontis. The couple corresponded with Hopgood for five yeors before his deoth in 1982 ond did much reseorch for their book When lhe Sky Fellduring lhe four yeors they lived in London. A moior step forword wos when Rond hod his poper on lhe development of world ogriculture published in lhe Anth ropologieql Jou r nal

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Andes, and the highlands of Thailand and E thi opi a - al l pl aces w here rhe earliesr forms of agriculture spontaneously developed around 96008C .The Fl em-A rhswer e intrigued that this was around the same dal e at w hi ch P l ato recorded rhe destr ucti on of A tl anri s.C oul d rhe farmi ng kl r ow'n how have been passedon to other races by the survi ving A tl anteans? q,"i.

MYSTERY

OF THE MAPS

Assuming somb people had survived, is it not also possible that rhey would have brought artefacts from their lost world with them? Such possible fragments could have passed through the hands of Piri Reis, a Turki sh admi ral , i n 1513, as he used anci ent charts l o draw up hi s ow n map . I t was npt until this map turned up on Hapgoocl's desk in 1956 that irs true significance becarie clear. H apgood w ondered how rhe R ei s map coulcl show the eastern coastline of South America, when it had not been fully mapped in 1513.A,nd Antarctica - part of w hi ch w as al so on rhe map - w as not d iscoveredunri l 1820.H e senri r ro experrsin

r : : : : : . lt lr e lf [rhe flefrr-nths]ore Proved correcf - or even porfly correct - they will . hqve chonged our whole vierr of humon history ColinWilson,Author

the US Air Force iUSef), who were just as bew i l dered.C ompari ng the R ei smap w ir h a 1949 geol ogi cal survey o[ A ntarcrica. showing the continent as it was before it was frozen over, the USAF experts found that the tw o w ere al most i denti cal . ' Thi s i ndi caresrhe coastl i ne had bee n mapped before it was covered by the ice cap.' the U S A F reporr concl uded.' The i ce i n thi s regi on i s now abour a mi l e thi ck. :1p We have no idea how the dara on this map can be reconci l ed w i th the stare of ge ographical knowleclgein 1513.' Then H apgood unearthed yer anoth er ' i mpossi bl e map' : that ' of Oronteir s Finaeus, copied in 1531. It showed the w hol e of A ntarcri ca. w i rh remarkably

accurate details, including the location of mo unt ains .plains a n d ri v e rs .A l l th e s e fe a tu res wer e pr es en t i rr A n ta rc ti c aa c c o rd i n g to the 1949 survey.and in Plato's description of 2.000 vears earlier. ? Thes-e maps are genuine. The original charts on which they were based must have been drawn up by a people who had attained a level of technological sophistication previously thought to have been only fu l ly ac hiev ed by M a n th i s c e n tu ry . In orcler for such a civilization to develop it must have been sited on a continent with a te mper at e c lim ate th a t c o u l d s u p p o rt a g rowing populat io n .S h i ft Al ra rc ri c a 3 .2 0 0 km nor r h of t he An ta rc ti c c i rc l e a rtd th e land could have easily supported a seafaring civilization.

cr ro N ggJ,",R"T.JAN''s".-o*ll|.r.! The existence of a technologicallv det-elop.d .iuiliration before t0,00Ogc u"ould help to explain ancient monuments around the world, the construction- of which still defies rational explanation. Th e s e inc lude c iti e s i n S o u th a n d C e n tra l America, built supposedly by the Aztec and Mayan civilizations. Could their achievements have been based on ancient knowledge passedon from survivors of Atlantis? The same theory can be applied to which, after all. is where Plato'sStory Eg.1,pt of Atlantis came from. An ancient civilization may have provided the technology needed to build the pyramids. Recent archeological evidence inclicates the Sphinx to be far older than originally rhought. its weather-beatenface the result

the slors of Orion's

erosiott. possibh sttstaitted or er 10,000 \'ears ago. Horr' cau this be rr'hett the Egvptian cirilization \\'as not thor-tshi tcr

belt (mognified

have begun iintil after 4000eci

A The loyout of lhe pyromids oligns wirh

phoiogroph inset), os il oppeored before IO,45OsC. Such precision ond knowledge of qstronomy is q ctue fhqt q technologicolly odvonced people

of rain

o f t l - r i s E5 p tlies in the lavo'.it , ': :he pyramids. Scientists have discovet'ecl :l.r;rt the pattern duplicates that of ptrr.l ,ri lhe confirmation

Further

Ad$antis connection

Orion star group - ttoi as i1 i5 16,Ce',.blii as to it was in 10,4509c. The star-. trL-rDc.1rmove from year to vear becaltst :jl. earrh does not rotate evenlt'. bttt r', ,1:,ic> I,ililth'

well before currenl

.ll : clcle on itp axis. In fact, the stars lll, "r t h a t t a k e s 2 . 6 0 0 y e a r s t o c u r r r '. : . q

history ollows.

roomed fhe eorth

s**[JjlgJfsAsrER? -'^.. -.'.'ts tlle Eve r r . m a g l r e i - L 'a -t. t:--;gtletic e so thc years or 500,000 ":-it'' field flips, swapping iiie :" ..;. :, , ,; tlrt

This wobble of the glob. shifting

the

magnetic poles. The l.:.: .-",'-:-l-.i:.--:-letred 7 8 0 , 0 0 0 y e a r s a g o . ! ( ) : . - r l l 'r : : : ) l t l i e ',e r i e ' llr. This flip is likelr t,, bc :'-.idcrl. c.,ssiblv causing all mantrer of il;.is:et's. ii','trl tnass

are well overdlte for ilte tli\:

e x t i n c t i o u s o f c o r - r f i r r e d n : i f : 'e t i l l i :p e ci e s t o f r e a k \ r e a t h e r c o t r d i : i , , t t s . T h e r -e i s sp e culation that it n.rigfri ;rlso re>r.ril in Illajor s h i f t s o f t h e e a l r h '. t l t t . t - j r r .r ,r . i r r theorr. -\-e rre itt attr better t}-ran-\tlantis. rr'iped out to sLtrvile position c a t a s tl o - fr z br a frighteninglr.inrilar Hapgood's

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t's never pleasant when a man disintegrates. It's even lessso if you're with him in a i'i,='::::j: cramped, 35-seat aircraft. The feelings of those who flerv rvith a man, who we shall call 'Charles Papin', on that flight from Lake Victoria to Nairobi inJanuar,v l9g0 haven't been recorded. But the swift, horrible death of papin has. It began on lJanuarywhen Papin, a 56-year-oldFrench engineer, I'isited Kitum Cave on \'Iount Elgon in the Kenyan jtrngle. \44rat happened there will ner-er be known, but a week lateq Papin developed a headache.It got \\'orse.He grew feverish and began

ro vontit. His eyeswent red and his f;rce tlrrned yellow, dotted with scar-letspots.The spotserew into brlrises and his features fell strangelvimmobile. He became irritable and confused,as if he had liad a stroke. Baffled, his doctors pllt him on a plane to Nairobi.

B rA cK DF.AIH.

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A The Morburg virus os seen under on elecfron microscope. Morburg offects the body rother like rodiotion sickness, cousing severe hoir loss ond mqssive

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bleeding of internol orgons.

\Iid-flight, Papin began to vomir black blood. His nose srarted bleeding uncontrollably. A virus within him was trying to reach a new host: it had almost finished with the old one. Papin's face sagged as the tissuejoining his skin to bone dissolved. His rnovements

became robotic as parts of his

brain died. He was unaware of this. as he was unaware that his kidneys had l ai l ed and rhat hi s Ii ver w as l i quefyi ng l i ke thar of a corpse. On l andi ng. P api n w as rushe d to hospi ral .There. he col l apsed into a coma, blood pouring from l',..,

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There is a system for grading viruses. It starts at Level One, with the common cold. HIV only makes Level Two. Marburg is at the top at Level Four. \Alhen it first broke out, it created a sensation. In 1967, it devastatedthe workers in a vaccine factory in Marburg, Germany. The factory used cells from monkeys imported from Uganda. One of the monkeys was infected. Somehow - the exact route is not known - the infection spread to its handlers. Doctors were horrified at what they saw The virus seemed to concentrate in grotesque places - inside the eyeballsand in the testicles.Of the 31 people who caught the virus, seven died before the outbreak ran its course. D EA DT Y

O UT B R E AK

Despite its horrific symptoms, Marburg is not the world's most lethal virus. Nine years after Marburg's debut, an even deadlier outbreak occurred in Sudan, central Africa. InJuly L976, a Sudanese businessmanfell ill and died, with MarburgJike symptoms. His co-workers very soon succumbed to the same illness. The diseasespread relentlessly. It reached a town rvhere there was a hospital. This had basic facilities and limited resources- syringes were reused as a matter of course. Before long the hospital looked more like a morgue. This new virus had a kill rate of one in tlvo. Scared for their lives, the local population scattered into the bush. Denied a new source of {

The body of

Dinqroso Belleri, on Itolion nun, is wheeled to the locol cemetery in Zqire in 1995. Belleri wos one 244 victims struck . Jo*., by Ebolo in i:r.rfheoufbreqk during .llltrv 1995.

victims, the virus was starved to death. But barely two months later an even deadlier variant surfaced, 800 km to the west, in the rain, forest of northern Zaire. -Ihe epicentre was Yambuku Hospital, a mission run by Belgian nuns near the Ebola River. The sickness

l !---G The problem with these viruses is thot, in their eqrliest stqges, fhey con look like norhing worse thqn flu. Yet you could be deqd in o week Dr GrohomLloyd,Centre for AppliedMicrobiologyReseorch

,,, spread rapidly. As in Sudan, the Yambuku hospital had few spinges. Five were used each day to i n j e c t hundreds of pati ents. Within days, the virus erupted in 55 nearby villages. The entire zone was contained by road blocks, and the army was given orders to shoot anyone leaving the 'hot zone'. One by one, Yambuku's radio operators stopped signalling, and the area fell silent as the virus continued its deadly course. It was Sudan all over again - but worse. This time only one in ten survived. N A M IN G

TH E

V IR U S

Then suddenly, inexplicably, it stopped. The virus retreated, ieaving human debris in its wake. Doctors were stunned. They had managed to identi$ and name the virus - Ebola Zaire; its less deadly cousin was called Ebola Sudan but otherwise were in the dark. It would be two decades before Ebola's next strike. In March 1995. Gaspar Menga returned home from working in the jungle near Kikwit, Zaire. He felt feverish. Ten days later he had bled to death from a mysterious disease.Next his son died and then his brother and other members of his family.

Within a few weeks the virus had gripped Kikwit and the hospital was overflowing with helpless cate*r As an in ternational team of ::l,,i::::,:ilirj:, specialistswere flown in to local doctors deal with the epidemic. panic gripped Kikwit. People screamed in the streâ&#x201A;Ź$ abandoned their stricke n',,1.' and friends where rhey l-ell. greeting each other, the teaflilt specialistsused the'Kikwitr:rf'rtt::r handshake' ,si mpl y touchi ng to el bow ,thus mi ni mi zi ng co nt ac Doctors soon realized that the religious beliefs of the people',,1 helped spread the virus, funerals involved touching the corpses.From then on thâ&#x201A;Ź::

,,:,!rs1s ,!v13ppedin plastic and dumped in hastilydug massgraves. Dur ing t he t hr e e mo n th s l h a t

n lrom the Cenlers for Disease ,tiol (CDC) in Atlanta, US. f , tris internationally-renowned 1,.'....t'.,' has 7,000 employees r,,::,:laboratory 11.lnda budget of $2 billion per year.

;$:r' .ltrr

These viruses con oftock onyone... they re m i n d u s o f so me th i n g we do our best to f o r g e t : o u r Y u l n e ro b i l i ty Ph.D, PeterRodetsky AuthorIhe lnvisiblelnvoders

: Y.T.?...

N\F of its Epidemic

Intelligence Service are known as

the 'DiseaseCowboys'since they visit and collate data from viral n"l.p__":taround^the gl"bj.. , ln Kikwit. the DiseaseCowboys set up a labor at o ryi n th e j u n g l e i n an effort to locate the source of

the virus. They carefully extracted blood from animals and collected

-.3

insects and plants. As vet, the source has not been found. The CDC's past researchhas helped identifi' other deadly viruses, including Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever,Junin, Kyasanur Forest and \Iachupo. There are 11 more on a growing list, equally exotic sounding and equally frightening. Some are incredibly rare - there has only been three recorded casesof Sabia, a haemorrhagic fever from the Amazon Basin - but this is no cause for compiaceucr'. Hantaviruses, another family of d e a d l v bugs.rrere fi rst encountered in the Korean War w h e n , benveen1951 and 1954,

â&#x201A;Ź E-

A A bleoch-sooked mop wos the only line of defence ogoinsl lhe renr'orseless onslought of the Ebolo virus in Kikwir's hospitol in the Mcy 1995 outbreok.

they infected o\ e: GIs.Of those. l l l " ..: Thi s di starrt.::. . . . zoomed i nto cl ,,.t : - .' S i n N ombre rtr' -,:. : hit New Nlerrcc,.r

t'- :.111

.--';* .

,1-tL\

: . . ue

w i thi nmi nr-rtes,::l detectable s\r]jt'. :l first victin-rs\rer c l-.:

g"JI OF coNTRoL In New \lerit'

. I'

discovered the s ..:' .,' .- a s p e c i e s 0 l 'l r ': : w e r e a b l e t o t . '- : . . B u t e v e r t t h c ( I r 'i ' I i m i t s . '\ \ e L r . conquer irtter:, -.i -. \'- - \-' Dr Darid \,,-, . ... d i r e c t o r . 'T : '. we call coll-: SO \\'e C al l

. . " .

infectiot-t r....: O r - r to i : i : . bodr'. the t'iruses al-e m a u a g e a : ''e Thev ca:r :t killed sr,rr:.'' -r r-rltrirriolet l-::-,1,, r - n o r e s l o r ,l,- , . . t t - r : holrr or irr'o. b',

- .' : ..' .:.r n . '.,. :.1-, i ..':- cr

\ ' '- \.. ''

control or.:._.

:',- :r ,L )

slowly, in an hour or two, by bleach. Left to their own devices, they can survive at room temperature for more than five weeks. In the body, however, they are unstoppable. The respect the CDC has for Level Four viruses is evident in its main laboratory, which is the most secure viral containment unit in the world. It operates under negative air pressure to prevent th e e s c apeof air born e contaminants. Workers wear massivebody protection - medical scrub suits then several layers of

-o o^

rubber gloves and boots, taped at the joins, on top of which goes a biological space suit complete n'ith its own air supplr'. On entering and leaving, staff passthrough a series of chemical showers plus a bath of IJV light. They cannot work alone. Two-man teams are a mandatory minimum, each checking on the other, ready to tape over any splits which might appear in their suits. Their workin g conditions are so tight as to be suffocating. In the laboratories where the { A biologistot fhe Centersfor Diseose Conlrol (CDC)renhrively corries tesl lubes 'hol' with o level four virus. The CDCwos

deadliestvirusesare kept, every crevice - including the gaps,ririiindlr.rlll Y,ritiut.tpri:tiria::a,r at:trt:i,.urit,u:trtt: power points - are taped.,Monilois..,:';:1t.t: trigger alarms if there is the slightest rise in air pressure. ':,:':'L,1,,:;1;;

.,.,,r:,rt,,tr.,ar.r:r,i,..i.:::,:riitt :ri:::a:,::l

As the CDC is aware, the onlt'i:irl::r.l.l11l..,.i:ll: weapons against Level Four ti."sei'i.ut,titt:i.i'.;:;l are containment

and isolationi''r.Ilitll:::::t,:::li::it::

the past these conditions were relatively easy to achieve, trut now. What was once isolated:'b, geography has become, thanks;!d;; air travel and tourism, an itqi!r':,:O every door of the Global Village. .:,1;,;,;,.:;.;1:, ;:,,,,,,:;:;,::l;:;,11

ONE FTIGHT AWAY::'': '''::. HIV is thought to have hitched a plane ride from Africa, proving how easily diseasescan spread,r:: worldwide. Papin, the Marbuig victim of 1980, did not infect ,,,i,,, passengers on his flight to Ntimi

But if he had been on an ii.,,',,,,,,,;,,,,,1,1,,1;1;

international flight, lt could,.,t;.;tt,lli; have been catastrophic.j

estoblished in Atlonto portly becouse Georgio wos once o hol-bed of infeclious diseoses including polio ond syphilis.

l.i',l'.ii'llll:i In the next essua,SCIENCE FRONTIERSLooksat what hap\eni*;.': whenEbola reachedthe US in 198, ;:::::::::,':::, and what is being done tofind. cureg'.,..1:',;' f ortheworld'sdeadliestdiseases;..'.:',:,:.."':':'::.':::.'.

i::i

. lti'it,t::t:]l lltltlt,:ia,t]:l

llrV Documents releosed under the Freedom of

hen

.,] f tllt

the former

commissioner

Califbrnia

police gir,en Pat Price r'vas a

series of map co-ordinates ancl askecl

Infsrmotion Act

I t ro

reveol fhe findings of

lvith a five-page report.

if they meallt anvthing,

he repliecl

He described

the US governmenf's

landscape in question

reseorch info Soviet

rvhich

poropsychology.

providing

The conclusions led

further still, detailing the equipmcnt

stood

there.

and the builclinq. He

r'r,ent firr-the r.

a tour of each builciing. Hc r'criin e.1rlr

to o number of lop-secrel CIA proiecls

psychicpowersfor

usmilirory ond intelligencepurposes.

''""*.,'.'''

dffi)

ffiuru*rr,*ou, - -";;+:l'{:r'.ti'i-:!.:.

{rffi} ,ty '

ncEilet G[f*.$s!i*]=:{i,r-r{;gift{:5

. ...:rrc: on desks. It rvas onlv his ..1 - :. . . . r. i or-clsthal seemed out of plirce : '( . : : . , . . F , , l r l b a l l . E i g h t b a l l . S i d e p o cke t.' H, ' -,- r'crclins thc code-trames of files in a . ,- r: r ll>inet in one of the offices. -r H r ciichr'tknow it, but Price hacl clescliberl ., :i ,ll-iccr-etNational Securih'.\g'eilcr

\-\ \ a 1 , n i n l u n i c a t i o u s c e t r t r e 2 1 0 k r tt ,,.i i .1 1 1 g \\-ls1'rington.He had never becn tlLcr. l i r . . , r r t d h a d r t r i t t t 'n h i s r e p , , r r ' , r l : i c l e o f t h e c o n t i n e n t i n C a l i f , r 'r :..,

i. l - .,*-**

oimed ot hornessing

the

offT**D*-Yirq:;H

Research lnstitutc

questioners lvere shaken. -\ttci -, N S A . Wh e n t h e v h e a r c l o f h . . r - r quickly ordered a secru'itl tcr .', F o r t h e n e x l l \ \ 'o \ c l r . . . '

'L*l-'

r n o s t e x t r a o r d i n i r t 'r ' n r i L i l . , : ' moderrr times. Pr,1, , \. "r...-",...

C o - o r d i n a t e ) r l a s : t s t 'r . . . trials

desigrre,i

.,- ' .. : l l l r i e r t t t r e l l . . L l t r r '. , , : Perceptiorr,FSP

$fffi*#tr-*gt-.$*ffiii*,:

\R l '..

1975, Price stood at the ltc.,r

il ' ifffii.. W

Stanford

tLttl c l L.l tc tl

L,l t ti tt

- ( - :- :

lll) .:-cl

-:.t

ii. .

.9 o _9 o

.9 o

-o A Potrick H. Price (centre) celebroles o successfulqftempt ol remole viewing with Dr Hol Puthof (right) of the Stonford ReseorchInsfitute ond Dr Christopher

own pendulum swingers who .were producins much better r.rg11s. , Ttie. ; Germans were dismayed, particularly as,,thdy..,,, rrere l osi ng many U -B oatsal that l i me. It was in the Colcl War, howevei;t,@,,,,,, psychic spFng really took off. Propaganda:i4..::.1. those years makes it hard to separatn,1.:fr'..ii,,.,,1 fiom fiction, but the Communist Bloc,1y,ry.r::, undoubtedly ahead of the West. It poriiedr.:,. thousands - some say millions - of doll"irt',,,,,, i nto mi nd-pow erprogrammes. .... D E A D TY E X P E R IME N TS

The spending produced some unpleasaq!.: results, such as the ability to kill frogs by ',,,,,r,:r',,:;1 mentalh, stopping their hearts - thb,, l specialit-vof a St Petersburg psychic, Nint.1f ; Kulagina. The r.rltimategoal, according to nr :'it:tll: Mi l an R yzl . a C zech bi ochemi st who defected to the US in 1967, and who had- , visited Soviet psychic laboratories,,wa$1il:i:;1

Green of the ClA. The results of the CIA-sponsoredlests rvere impressive o

â&#x201A;Ź o

-n I !

enough for other ogencies to secretly pump funds into the psychicspy progromme.

they had succeededin breaking a personls,,, . spi ne by psychotroni cenerg).

The use of parapsychologyfor espionage has a respected,if controversial,pedigree. In the OId Testament,Elishaused his prophetic abilities to saveIsrael from military def'eat. Joan of Arc did much the same for France in its battles againstEngland. During World \Aiar I, the Czech army successfullyused dowsersto detect mines (as did the US armv during the Vietnam war). TH E

NA Z I

CO N N EC T IO N

World War II unleashed a torrent of cl a i r v oy anc e. I n 1 9 4 1 , Sta l i n ' s p s y c h i c advisor,Wolf Messing,foretold the death of Hitler and the defeat of Germany (Hitler promptly put a price on his head). In Berlin, where Nazi High Command was obsessed with astrology and the paranormal, a Pendulum Institute was set up to detect enemy shipping by pendulum dowsing. \{rhen news of this reached London, a young Naval Intelligence Commander named Ian Fleming - later to createJames Bond - leaked a storv that Britain had its

a.a.,:

lil :.|:)at :,:':

=-:t=

..'-:â&#x201A;Źg*

I :l:rll:rrrarrl::I i t.r::':l::rrrl:l:,:i:rl:tr,

:l:r:i,:t::i.r.::.r:.r.:r

= $ g A One - of the first rtrrgefs for Proiecr psychics ':o crqshed Soviet The CIA to the wreckoge qnd obtoin its top secref conlenls before

ir wqs found

by the Soviets. Knowing only thot rhe bomber hod crqshed in Nodh Africo, the nemote

I E ]*

W hether or not such stories were true, the US \fas not prepared to clismiss psvchicpower. in 1971,APollo 11 asfonaut EclgarMitchell attempted ESP from space- unsuccessfullytrying to make telepathic contact with a ground-based psychic. The following year, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) were intrigued enough to begin developing a machine to help astronauts communicate telepathically. The idea proved unworkable, but the scientists hired for the project, Harold Puthof and Russell Targ of the SRI in California, continued with the line of research, and NASA continued to partially fund it. In those days, 70 per cent of SRI's budget came through $90 million g o v e rn me n t c o n tra c t s. In 1972,Targ and Puthof, both quantum physicistsspecializing in laser and microwave technology, were approached by the New York psychic and modernist painter, Ingo Swann. As part of a research team at the American Society of Psychical Research

(ASPR), Swann was involved irt the sttrdr. of remote viewing - a method of r.ierr'ir.rg locations psychically. Targ and Puthof realized the potential of this abilin' aud set about developing a team of 'super psvchics' headed by Srvannand the retired Burbank police commissioner,Pat Price. Bv their o\\'n accounts,Targ and Puthofs And it was espedments \rere a great success. not long before the intelligence community became interested irr their findings. In October l 9;:. d secret meet ing was arranged betri eetr P uthof and an anonvmolls 'scientist. -\ccordittg to Ingo Swann, the resr-rltria: a 550.000 grant to 'find one repeatable phettonrertoll that might have intelligetrceapplicatrotts.' TOP .S E C R E T

FU N D IN G

This new sponsortvasonlr- ever referred to as the 'East Coast Challenger'. blrt it rr'as common knowledge that it rr'as tl.re CL\. They gave SRI eight months to cierise a method of ps,vchic spving. artd Targ ar.rd Puthof began rt'orkirtsort Project Scanate. ByJul.v1973,aftel ntonths of erperinlenLs and trials, the SRI team finalil found a 'repeatable phenomenor-r'that rr'ould satisfi' the CL\. Pnthof met \\'ith the 'East Coast

.:,!i1:'. 'iri'

REMOTEVIEWING *-*reqor

coined ilre term 'remote viewing' (RV) fo describe the process of psychicolly viewing distont locolions. Right ore two exomples of remotety viewed

;;T;;;;;;.;J;

Army remote viewer. In both exomples, on unknown governmenl qgency Provided rhe psyrhic with q photogroph of on ogent ond told him lo 'look'for lhe ogenl somewhere in the US. In both cqses, lhe psychic wos oble to occurolelY drqw the lorget's locqfion.

rt l. As imoges enler fhe psychic's mind, he slorlt drowing ond moking facility... nousz bb-ffie l-slrlolpd admin;

.:: ogent uros the odministrotion building of Lowrence Livermore Loborotories, on otomic reseqrch cenhâ&#x201A;Ź in Cqlifornio.

y'Dy:iy*-*

ite"

*r,l$rf"iii*t=-t--";:* #ri'F:ffi,J â&#x201A;Ź

tffir

* E ]

ffi*S#:

z t c

a Sincerhe eorly l98os, sroriesqbour Pentogonpsychics hove been leoking to the presso l rh o u ghm qny one unlrue. An executive order possedin April l995by PresidenrBill Clinton,however, hos mode il eosier for reseorchersto occessinlormolion lfroll woS ilrO wos oonce nCe clossified.

ryF-u rrr't-

-::1

;

Challenger' and presented the research 5 findings. Within a week, Ingo Swann received his first set of coordinates from the intelligence agency. The psychic spying programme was underway. THE

C O V ER -U P

BE GIN S

Supporters of remote viewing now had less trouble persuading sceptical pentagon budgetmanagersofitsmilitarypotentiat.,As reports of successmultiplied, however, so too did the secrecy surrounding the project. Then, in 197b, with the death of pat price, came the announcement that the psychic spFng programme had come to an end. At least, le a st fh ic was .^ r r " the r h a official line. l :-^ \/^. At yet a ^ this ^ fc-:^r q?R qrrrr/A\/ eh^-,^.t l|. I1978 1 / rro ,survey showed that ^r 14 US para^,,+ of ^a out psychology r4uD, labs, rrvE five udu had been uccrl approacned approached for information

by the government.

And in

January 19g0, when Iran was Americans hostage, ,t. gou.r;;-_. ' I turned to sRI rurned sRI for help. help. Despite the denials, the US- ei

continued to finance psychicai 1977, a new venture - prolect provided US military and in agencies with their own team of spies. A remote-viewing station was at Fort Meade, Maryland, and trained psychicsfrom the army's,i and Securiry Command (I

OPERATION

STARGAT

Grillflame officially ceased actually continued secretly simply transferred to rhe . budget. The codename also ch to Centerlane then Sunstreak thel Stargate - and the project was the Defense Intelligence Agency,,( the objectivesremained the same. The authorities were impressed results. Major General Edmund then the US Army's AssistantChie

__E: ''i

'*w

Monuel hos fwice ,begnl,,lha:rorger f or

:iial:i:alai.al :i:lil:l,tllti'

l;.;,,:;:;..'.;,.' :.:a::.) .

,U3,,Arrhy,' psychics first in | 983, when rernole viewers were osked lo

provide detoils on his illicit orms deols, a:i:;ii::ti.

iid,ggcin

before in 19 89 .

fbr Intelligence, described how he was convinced that remote viewing was real: 'We weren't so much interestedin explaining it as in determining whether there was any practical use to it.' Although details remain highly classified, it is known that the Grillflame psychics saw active service around the world. Successful projects included: searching for secret tunnels between North and South Korea; locating a Sovietbomber which had crashed in Africa; the assassinationof President Park in South Korea; nuclear testins in China; capturing a Russian spy in China; producing detailed descriptions of Middle Eastern training sites used by the Hezbollah terrorists; and advising stratesistson the whereabouts of Libyan General Mu'ammar Gaddafi during the US's airstrike on Tripoli. Successfulor not, the public remained sceptical about psychic spying, and a review was conducted of the Pentagon's shadier programmes. \Arhat it concluded of Fort Meade's operations remains classified,but in 1986 Project Stargate was effectively doused Or was it? In 1995 came the official announcement that Fort Meade rvas closing - an odd thing to sayabout a place that supposedlyceasedfunctioning nine years earlier. Given the past validity

-.*L

o[ such \tatements'it seems

Iikely that the military are still interesteclin plrr-"psychology.Certainly the priratc .r ' After Fort Meade's 'official' c.' . - f --f of its star pupils, Army Major Eci tt.. :ra.. icl up a company called Psi-Techi, '- t_:,t-.ic the flow of psychic infornr..:, tf -.:l e . ,rt l boasted an impressive clier:c r -'a whom was the US gor,ernrner:. F',however. Psi-Tech went the \f.1'. , ,: l-'::-.: ;:r-.e. Tbday, Dames teaches renr, '.c-'"-:','--r.a:ll Beverly Hills, California.

\ : : , 't l . r : : his ,:r :L -ihe projects is finding the mr.u-cit':':1r-,1:infamous O.J. Simpsolr c.r!c.

CIRCTE OF DECEIPT Could

t h e p s v c h i c >p \ l l r , , ! r . u l m e

hale

arrived full circle. a,i:iil r,per;rtec1bv t1-re private sector?Joseph \Ic\lneagle,

the frrsr

Army Intelligence Oiticer to be trainecl for' Crillflame, thinks nr,rt: 'I can tell vou botlt from a ps1'chic st:urdpoir.rtalld as a member of the proeranrme. thzrt Grillflame is closecl and

en.rphaticalh rlill

goverlllnent

not

l-ras ue\rer

re-open. The used

col)tr.tct

psvchics ancl rron't in the future, prir.r.rarilr b e c a u s e t h e v c a n 't c o n t r o l t h e m . Th i : r .a : otre of the reasons for creating the pr-r-rjrct i rr rl re fi rqt rce' "' nl r -*- .-'

But perhaps the final word shoulcilie r'irl.r Stanfield Tumer, former Director- oi the CLA..\41-renquestioned in 199r abr-,tuthe government' scottti nuedttseof P .rr lr ir . . ir e stated: 'No intelligence offrcel rioLrlclerer totally turn their back on rr'hatcoLrld be a valuable sollrce of infor matiorr.' ,.st

.'i