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in outlandish places. UFO contactees report this same kind of phenome- non shortly after they receive their first visit from the entities. The controversial contactee Truman Bethurum soberly cited an inci- dent in which the beautiful female captain of a flying saucer, Aura Rhanes, asked him to hold a plastic flashlight on his open palm. She stared at it intently, and it vanished instantaneously, without a trace. This, she told him, was what would happen if we tried to attack “‘them.’’ We would simply disappear. Demonstrations of this type have been staged since the beginning, as in the case of the prophet Hermas and his magical book which vanished after he had read it. Bethurum’s story is a classic in ufology. He said he was sleeping on a truck on Mormon Mesa, outside Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sunday, July 27, 1952, when he awoke to find himself surrounded by eight or ten men, all under 5 feet in height. They looked like Latins or Italians, he reported, with dark olive skins, jet-black hair trimmed short, and tight-fitting blue-gray jackets and trousers. They spoke to one another in an unknown language but addressed him in perfect English. He was led to a hovering saucer and was introduced to Aura Rhanes. He saw a good deal of Captain Rhanes after that. She even materialized suddenly in his bedroom on a number of occasions, somewhat to the consternation of his wife, who later divorced him. In the UFO name game, ‘‘Aura Rhanes”’ might well have meant the aura reigns. Truman Bethurum died on May 21, 1969. Bedroom visitants and poltergeist activity are a common factor in the contactee syndrome. And these poltergeists are not only thieves and mischiefinakers, they are also proven arsonists. In hundreds of cases the haunted houses suffer mysterious fires. As soon as one fire is extinguished in one part of the house, another breaks out elsewhere. Witnesses such as doctors, policemen and firemen have been present and have actually seen the fires suddenly burst out in corners of rooms, curtains, waste baskets, and furniture. There seems to be no earthly explanation for these sudden ne. res conflagrations. When I was visiting Hyderabad in central India, I heard stories of a haunted hut on the outskirts of the city that had been plagued by an arson-bent poltergeist. The local police chief had gone to investigate, and while he was in the hut, his trousers suddenly caught fire. That did it! He ordered the hut vacated and sealed up. It is traditional that haunted houses eventually burn to the ground. UFO witnesses, researchers and contactees have this same problem, as I pointed out earlier. Soon after researcher Stephen Yankee acquired a 212 / Operation Trojan Horse