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been observed, although there seem to be a few basic types such as the 'mother ships’ or carrier craft (which are generally cylindrical or cigar-shaped), circular ‘scout ships' (flying saucers), and small remote controlled devices. An increasing number of well-attested cases arc brought to notice in which landings and the occupants were seen. The saucer people vary a great deal in size and superficial characteristics but with very few exceptions they are reported as human or humanoid in appearance. These sightings confirm Adamski on that point at least, for with the great variety of types of craft and the differences in their personnel we are obviously being visited not only by the people of one planet but several different planets, even allowing for racial differences such as we have on our own world. If Adamski is right and some of these people arrive from systems beyond our own, then it is probable that they have mastered properties of space of which we have no knowledge. Even if we could attain the speed of light, the time taken to reach our nearest stellar neighbour would be four and a third years. Unless our visitors have an extremely long lifespan it seems unlikely that they would travel many years to pay us a casual visit. There is a prediction of the theory of relativity which states that for a moving observer time moves slower than for an observer at rest. Controversy reigns amongst physicists on this. Some postulate that the effect would be counteracted during periods of acceleration and deceleration, so that a space traveller would not return to his own planet to find his fellows more aged than himself. If time dilation docs occur, then visits from the inhabitants of distant solar systems would be not only feasible but probable. And how can we be sure that the speed of light cannot be surpassed? There can be no doubt that many alleged contactees were inspired by Adamski and invented stories based upon bis. It is not surprising that a number of researchers tend to look with favour only on reports of encounters with space beings who behaved with apparent indifference or, in a few cases, hostility. The orthodox contact, the kind in which conversations on religious, scientific or philosophical matters are alleged to have taken place and where the contactee seeks to publicise his story, is dismissed. Nevertheless, there are quite a few well-attested borderline cases involving ordinary people when they were quite unprepared for a contact; in these cases the witnesses do not seek publicity, indeed, they frequently try to avoid it. Their reaction is often one of annoyance or puzzlement. Take the following example, reported by three separate witnesses, none of whom wanted to give their names. It occurred on 20 July, 1956, in Panorama City, California, near Los Angeles. The first was a housewife who saw a tremendous object shaped like a ball land near her house. Three occupants emerged. Each was about six foot eight inches in height, wearing a tight green suit and with long blonde hair hanging down to the shoulders. They told her they were from Venus and would not harm her, but she thought it was some kind of stunt for a movie company and told them to get off her property. Only a few minutes later, in nearby Van Nuys, a telephone lineman was startled by an enormous ball landing only about a foot from the pole on which he was working ... '| was so scared that | felt like getting on top of the pole, but instead | got down and started to inspect the huge ball. Just then three guys walked right through the ball and came toward me.' The men were very friendly and shook his hand. They seemed to be holding some kind of mental communication among themselves,' he continued, ‘but they spoke with their mouths to me.' Yet another witness was startled when the UFO landed on his front lawn and the three occupants started toward him. The dogs kept barking so loudly that they apparently became frightened and left. They just got in the ball and vanished." ke To the delight of his protagonists, Adamski's description of outer space was apparently verified by the observations of astronauts as they orbited the Earth. In Inside the 93 ANGELS IN STARSHIPS www.cosmic-people.com