The following is a rough draft excerpt from my forthcoming book Black Swan Ghosts: a sociologist’s encounters with witnesses of unidentified aerial craft, strange beings, and the other elements of our multiverse (Mount Baldy Press, inc., August 2017, ISBN 0-9715863-7-3) Enjoy!
Chapter 4—Peter: witness to flying disc, occupant and the mysterious UFO organization
During the course of my visits to the U.K. for crop circle research, I happened to come across a man named Peter in one of the pubs near Beckhampton, a short distance from the market town of Marlborough in Wiltshire. This pub is so old that Charles Dickens is said to have visited it many times on his way from London to the old Roman town of Bath in the Southwest of Britain.
Peter is a jockey, small in stature but big in spirit. I don’t remember when I first heard his story, but we used to visit this pub on a crop circle tour led by Ron Russell: one time Peter was there sitting at the bar and our group got started talking to him. He told us the most riveting story of his night-time encounter with an unexplained object and unidentified being in the mid-1970’s.
I’ve heard Peter tell this story many times now and he’s allowed me to video and tape record him talking about it. It’s been the exact same story for about twenty years that he’s talked about. I can tell you that Peter believes it.
Here’s how Peter tells it:
Peter and a friend were walking over the downs in Surrey carrying a gold-embossed bust of a Native American to put in storage. Peter had always had an interest in Native American culture since he was young. It was past midnight and completely dark. They had decided to take a shortcut.
As they crossed the deserted fields Peter says he saw a bluish light getting closer and closer. Then it started a vertical descent to the hill closest to them about a hundred yards away. As it got closer to the ground there was a blight blue flash every few seconds that illuminated the shape of a disc outlined in the darkness.
It landed and after a few minutes a door opened on the side. Peter and his friend were frozen in their tracks with excitement and fear. Peter having had some UFO sitings as a kid in his town was excited and fascinated. His friend was petrified.
It turns out that in the 1960’s Peter had seen an object hovering over his town as had many other residents. He said it had windows and the occupants were waving at him. He had always felt they were friendly.
Now, he felt like they were returning for him, right at this moment, to take him to the stars.
The door on the side of the craft opened and a tall being in a skin tight suit, about 6 foot high, emerged and started walking towards him and his friend. It had small red light in it’s left hand.
Peter wanted to walk towards the being but his friend had a panic attack and was trying to frantically pull Peter away from the being and object. The friend wet his pants and kept pulling on Peter.
Peter says that he was sure these were the same type of being he had observed in the sky as a kid and he really wanted to make contact right then and there. But as his friend became more panicky, so did Peter. They inadvertently dropped the Indian bust and started to run.
The being turned around and walked back up the hill and into the craft. It lifted off and hovered over the ground with the stroboscopic blue light pulsing every few seconds silhouetting the craft. After it was a distance over the ground it shot off over the horizon in an instant.
Peter and his friend kept up running until they came to a road and waived down the first car that approached. It turned out to be some of their friends. They quickly explained what had just happened. Their friends were incredulous and thought they must be drunk. Peter insisted they be taken to a police station to report the siting. In those days, Peter explained, there were official UFO reporting forms at local police stations.
Peter said they got to the nearest station at 1 AM and there was stereotypical bobby (British term for policeman) drinking a cup of tea sitting at the front desk. The bobby asked them what was going on. They explained and he said “Here, fill out this form.”
Peter filled out the form which he said asked for all sorts of detail about what had been observed. (Back in the 1970’s the Ministry of Defense did indeed have official UFO reporting forms at police stations for witnesses to fill out.)
Peter having to work the next day, then went back to Manchester later that day, a few hours drive away. According to Peter his friend was so scared by the event he locked himself in his room, and barred the door with furniture, for two weeks and only opened the door to let his Mom bring him food and use the bathroom.
Peter went back to look for the Indian bust in the place they had dropped it, but it was not there.
Later the next day, Peter received a phone call at work back in Manchester. He asked who was calling.
“Never mind who we are. We want to know what you saw.”
Peter says he explained the whole event from beginning to end. He said they want to know every detail, “the position of every blade of grass.” Peter explained everything to man on the phone.
Peter finished his story. The voice on the other end of the line then said: “ What you saw was a weather balloon.”
Peter protested and said again “Who is this?” The person on the other end of the line hung up.
The next day, at work again, Peter received a letter. It purported to be from a local UFO research organization. Now Peter explained to me that in those days of the early 1970’s it took local mail a few days to get across town. But this letter was there just a day after his sighting. He regrets not saving this letter, he told me.
The letter said there was going to be a UFO conference the next week in his town and he was invited. He had get permission from his boss to go and he did.
On the appointed date, Peter made his way across Manchester to the address given in the letter. It turned out to be a pub curiously enough. He asked the pub owner if there was UFO meeting taking place there. The pub owner said: ”I don’t know about that but there are group of men downstairs.”
Peter went downstairs and opened the door to a large room. As he described it, about fifteen men were seated around a table, all wearing the same type of uniform, like a lab coat. Peter said that every nationality was represented there, from every continent. “It was like a meeting of the United Nations.”
Peter sat down and asked if this was the UFO conference. The leader of the group responded: “We want to hear about your sighting, Peter.” Peter was a bit disappointed but proceeded to tell the story about the object and the tall being that walked towards him. The men periodically asked him questions, very specific ones. Peter said: ”they wanted to know about every blade of grass, every detail.”
This went on for a few hours. And at the end the leader of the group finally said : “What you saw was a weather balloon.” He was then dismissed from the room. Everyone else stayed.
That was the last he heard about the event. It never appeared in the local newspaper. And no one ever contacted him again.
I’ve heard Peter tell this story, with the same emotion and tension, about ten times and it’s been consistent each time. I have no doubt he completely believes in the account he’s told me and others.