| ID | #1605019725 |
| Added | Tue, 10/11/2020 |
| Author | July N. |
| Sources | |
| Phenomena | |
| Status | Research
|
Initial data
Article by MUFON chief investigator Joseph Nyman.
There are many local cases that have been reported, forgotten, or simply ignored over the years of UFO investigations. In many cases, this is justified. Sometimes this neglect is due to insufficient dissemination or knowledge that the case exists at all, although there is a lot of interesting material to think about and remember.
This is the situation with the case I was investigating in April 1979. The only public reference to it that I know of is a brief paragraph on page 144 of ray Fowler's book the UFO Explorer's Story.
Now, looking back, twenty years after the case report disappeared in the MUFON files without further notice, the events of this case can be viewed in a broader light, although not everything can be agreed on the spot. You should write about it now.
The case came to ray Fowler's attention because of his connections with the state police. Apparently, they received a message from the local police on Martha's vineyard, where the surveillance took place. Since MUFON had no representation in Duke County, no one in the district Boston didn't want to waste time and money on interviewing a witness, that is, until I volunteered, as I did on the Vineyard ferry on April 7, 1979.
March 27, 1979 ed brown (alias) (age 19), driving North to oak bluffs on a narrow Edgartown-oak bluffs road at about 50 mph. It was about 22 o'clock and he was listening to WRKO (680 kHz) when he noticed a green glow behind the sand dunes to his right.
"It must be people on the beach using light sticks!" he thought.
As he continued, the glow increased, and his radio began to pick up a "low-frequency hum." He came to a point where his view was clear of the dunes. Apparently, the glowing green cylinder with rounded ends that was in contact with the water was located at a distance that we later estimated at about 200 feet (60 m).
Ed stopped the car with the engine running and the lights on. The object immediately began to rise slowly, and ed saw the movement of the water as if the object were in the water. As he continued to watch, the object rose to a height where its view was blocked by the roof of the car. Then ed got out of the car and stood on the driver's side with the door open and the interior light on.
The beach and water were now illuminated by the object's light. The witness continued to watch the object rise at an increasing speed for several seconds, and decided to get into the car for a 12-volt quartz lamp that his father used to check out uninhabited cottages in the off-season.
Ed intended to direct this light at the rising object, but couldn't turn it on because he suddenly found that he couldn't move anything but his head. Was this the paralysis caused by oneself or caused from the outside? Ed couldn't decide. Then he watched the object disappear from view.
By replaying events at the scene, we were able to track the time of the entire incident in less than two minutes from the initial glow to the object's disappearance. The object itself was in view for less than a minute.
It seemed to ed that it took a little longer. He estimated the time to be about six minutes. He immediately went to the oak bluffs police station, where I found that his report was registered at 22: 30.
The duty officer remembered ed as unusually agitated and possibly scared; unusual because ed was known to the police as an auxiliary police officer. What he said was definitely out of character.
Even though it took ed about 10 minutes to get to the police station, there was still a gap between his appearance at 22:00 and the report in the log at 22:30.
The next day, ed noticed that his calendar clock showed the correct day of the month (28). At the time of the incident, he was reading fast for three days (30!) and working steadily fast. Ed didn't fix it because of the amount of time it took to adjust. He would have to push it forward 29 days with a daily 24-hour increment to set it correctly. At least for the next month, the clock showed the exact time, rather than running fast. During the study, the watch did not act on the compass, which was held close to it.
Then I assumed that there might not have been enough time for the meeting. I have since learned that this is not necessarily the case. There are some meetings that happen instantly! I will not elaborate on this statement here, but it is based on data from my case obtained in other situations.
The most mysterious aspect of this case then and still is the problem of correcting the clock. Since the fix was noticed the next morning, I suspect the possibility of a meeting after ed retires for the night. But this is only a rough guess, which does not explain anything about the correction mechanism. It was an inexpensive Timex watch with manual winding. If anyone reading this has any idea how a similar date fix could have happened, let us know!
Original news
There are many local cases that, over the years of UFO investigation, have been filed, forgotten or just plain ignored. Many times that is justified. Sometimes that neglect is due to lack of circulation or knowledge that the case even exists even though there is much interesting material to think about and remember.
That’s the situation with a case I investigated in April, 1979. Its only public mention that I know of is a brief paragraph on page 144 of Ray Fowler’s “Casebook of a UFO Investigator”. Now, in retrospect, twenty years after the case report has disappeared into the MUFON files without further notice, the case events can be seen in an increased light of understanding, although not everything can be fit coherently in place. It’s worth writing about now.
The case came to Ray Fowler’s attention through his state police connections. Apparently, they had received the report from the local police on Martha’s Vineyard where the sighting occurred. Since MUFON had no representation in Duke’s County, no one in the Boston area wanted to take the time and expense to interview the witness; that is, until I volunteered and so was on the Vineyard ferry on April 7, 1979.
On March 27, 1979, Ed Brown (pseudonym), age 19, was traveling north to Oak Bluffs along the narrow Edgartown-Oak Bluffs Road at about 50 mph, It was about 10 p.m. and he was listening to WRKO (680KHZ) when he noticed a green glow behind the sand dunes on his right (see accompanying map). “It must be people on the beach using ‘light sticks’!”, he thought.
As he proceeded, the glow brightened and his radio began to pick up a “low frequency hum”. He reached a point where his view was unobstructed by dunes. Apparently in contact with the water, was a luminous green cylinder with rounded ends at a distance which we later estimated at about 200 feet.
Ed stopped his car with the engine still running and the headlights on. The object immediately began to rise slowly and Ed could see water motion as if the object had been in the water. As he continued to watch, the object rose to a height where sight of it was blocked by the car’s roof. Ed then got out of the car and stood by the driver’s side with the door open and the car’s interior light on.
The beach and water were now illuminated by the glow from the object. The witness continued watching the object rise with increasing speed for a few seconds and decided to reach into the car for a 12-volt quartz light which his father used for checking unoccupied cottages in the off season.
Ed intended to shine this light at the rising object but couldn’t turn it on for he suddenly found himself unable to move except for his head. Was this self induced paralysis or induced externally? Ed couldn’t decide. He then watched as the object rose out of sight.
Reenacting events at the site, we were able to time the entire incident as less then two minutes from the initial glow until the object disappeared. The object itself was in view for less than a minute.
To Ed, it seemed that things had taken quite a bit longer. He estimated six minutes. He immediately headed for the Oak Bluffs police station where I found his report logged at 10:30 p.m.. The officer on duty remembered Ed as unusually excited and possibly scared; unusual because Ed was known to the police as an auxiliary policeman. What he was saying was definitely out of character.
Even considering that it took Ed about 10 minutes to get to the police station, there still seemed to be a gap in time between his 10 p.m. sighting and his log report at 10:30 p.m..
The next day Ed noticed that his calendar watch was indicating the correct day of the month (28). At the time of the incident it was reading three days fast (30!) and had been running consistently fast. Ed had not corrected it because of the amount of time it took to adjust. He would have had to move it ahead 29 days in daily 24-hour increments to have it read correctly. For at least the next month, the watch kept accurate time instead of running fast. At the time of investigation the watch did not effect a compass held close to it.
I assumed then that there couldn’t have been enough time for an encounter to have taken place. I have since learned that this isn’t necessarily the case. There are some encounters that seem to take place instantaneously! I will not elaborate on that statement here, but it’s based on my case data developed in other situations.
The most puzzling aspect of this case then and still now is the watch correction issue. Since the correction was noticed the next morning, I suspect the possibility of an encounter after Ed retired for the night. But that is only rough conjecture and explains nothing about the correction mechanism. The watch was an inexpensive manually wound Timex. If anyone reading this has an idea of how a date correction like this could have happened, let us know!
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