Jacques Vallee - Dimensions - A Casebook of Alien

Page 52 of 151

Page 52 of 151
Jacques Vallee - Dimensions - A Casebook of Alien

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the negative reactions of scientists to his analysis of the French sightings. They argued that such fantastic stories could only come from deranged minds. "What would these scientists have said," he remarked, "if I had published all the data!" Among the cases that deserve close examination, but which were swept under the rug by UFO believers themselves, is the sighting at Nouatre, France, on September 30, 1954. About 4:30 P.M. Georges Gatay, head of a team of eight construction workers, found himself walking away from the others. He felt a "peculiar drowsiness" and suddenly wondered where he was going. Then, without warning, he faced the strangest apparition. Less than thirty feet away, above him on the slope, was a man. His head was covered by an opaque glass helmet with a visor coming down to his chest. He wore gray coveralls and short boots. In his hand he held an elongated object: "It could have been a pistol, or it could have been a metal rod." On his chest was a light projector. The strange man was standing in front of a large shining dome, which "floated" about three feet above the ground. Above the cupola of the machine were objects like rotating wings or blades. Then, suddenly, the strange man vanished, and I couldn't explain how he did, since he did not disappear from my field of vision by walking away, but vanished like an image one erases suddenly. Then I heard a strong whistling sound which drowned the noise of our excavators; the saucer rose by successive jerks, in a vertical direction, and then it too was erased in a sort of blue haze, as if by miracle. Gatay tried to run, but he found himself helplessly nailed to the spot. He was thus "paralyzed" during the whole observation. So were seven coworkers, in a unique case of collective physiological reaction. None of them had previously believed in the reality of the so-called saucers. As soon as he was able to move again, Gatay rushed back to his men and cried, "Have you seen something?" Mr. Beurrois told him: "Yes — a flying saucer!" And the man who was the driver of the excavator, arord : 44040 we aad 1" c seu a ae Sechet, Villeneuve, Rougier, and Amiraut, a truck driver — confirmed the details of the sighting. It must be pointed out that the incident took place in a remote rural region. At the time the wave of French reports was just beginning. But Gatay, who fought during the war with the Resistance and was wounded in Luxembourg, stated that he was not used to flights of fancy. Following the incident, he suffered from insomnia, strong headaches, and loss of appetite for a week. Ironically, the eight men are still not convinced that the flying saucers were alien. They feel sure they are a secret development by a terrestrial nation — probably France. In Jalapa, Mexico, early in September 1965, a hovering object was seen with luminous slits in its circumference and a black-clad being, with eyes gleaming like cat's eyes, holding a shining metal rod. The entity vanished suddenly while under observation in a Jalapa street by a local reporter, two taxi drivers, and a bullfighter. In the Carazinho, Brazil, case of July 26, 1965, five dwarfs dressed in dark uniforms and small boots were seen. We are told that "one of them had in his right hand a brilliantly luminous object oo a like a wand." There was a sudden flash of lightning about 1:45 P.M. on January 28, 1967, on Studham Common, near Whipsnade Park Zoo, an isolated spot in the Chiltern Hills in England. Rain was falling and the atmosphere was heavy, reports English researcher R. H. B. Winder, who investigated this case for The Flying Saucer Review. Seven boys were on their way to school in the vicinity of the Dell — a shallow valley and an ideal spot for playing hide-and-seek. Alex Butler, age ten, was looking south over the Dell when he saw clearly, in the open, "a little blue man with a tall hat and a beard." Alex called his friend, and they ran toward the figure. They were about twenty yards away when it "disappeared in a puff of smoke." The boys were very much surprised, naturally, but nothing in the attitude of the strange figure had inspired fear or suggested threat, so they kept looking for the "little blue man" and saw him again on the opposite side of the bushes from where he was first standing. They went toward him. He vanished once more, reappearing at the bottom of the Dell. This time, Mr. Lubanovic, added: "There was a man dressed like a diver in front of it." Four others — Messrs.