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indicated that they would like him to step aboard. He spoke to them in French, English, Italian and Portuguese, but they didn’t seem to under- stand any of these languages. Because they didn’t seem hostile, and because he was overcome with curiosity, he accepted their unspoken invitation, climbed up a long ladder mounted outside the craft, and with the help of the two men, stepped into the object. The ladder was retracted and the door eased shut. The professor remained in a small compartment next to a window. He could not say later how many compartments there were in the craft. As the machine lifted into the air, he was surprised to see water splashing against the portholes. “Ts it raining?” he asked. He claims that he received a silent reply—he felt it was some kind of telepathy, although he admitted knowing nothing about such matters. Somehow his hosts told him that the water was caused by the rotation of the craft. For the next forty minutes or so (he said his watch stopped during the flight) the now identified (to him) flying object flitted about in the starlit upper atmosphere. During the trip he noted that he felt pain and cold in his genitals. He tried to ask the men where they were from, but they did not answer. One of them showed him a chart, something like a zodiac, he said, and he had the feeling that they were trying to explain when they would return, and that they wanted him to meet them again. Finally they delivered him back to the spot where they had picked him up, and six months later he told the story to a friend, Dr. Lincoln Feliciano, who contacted a Brazilian journalist. Professor Guimaraes quickly became a celebrity of sorts in Brazil and was, he confessed, amazed by the grave respect his story was accorded. In John Fuller’s account of the bizarre UFO contact of Barney and Betty Hill, Interrupted Journey, Barney Hill recalled under hypnosis that he was placed on a table aboard a flying saucer and that he felt something cold being lowered over his genitals. The Hills’ watches also stopped during their alleged experience. The most famous contactee of 1956-57 was a New Jersey sign painter named Howard Menger. He was “‘discovered’’ by Long John Nebel, a New York radio personality who conducted an all-night talk show over station WOR, before moving to NBC. Long John had just begun his career in radio, and he was looking for an angle. He found it in flying saucers and built a huge following with his offbeat interviews with contactees, mystics and assorted weirdos. Somehow he has managed to remain detached and claims to this day that he doesn’t buy most of what his guests tell him. In any case, Menger’s initial appearances on Long John’s show “You Are Endangering the Balance of the Universe!" / 181