UFO ROUNDUP Volume 8 Number 40
Volume 8
Number 40
October 22, 2003
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
STRANGE HAPPENINGS REPORTED IN ARIZONA
On Saturday, October 11, 2003, at 4 p.m., eyewitness B.H. reported, "My daughter had just stepped out the back door" of their home in Prescott Valley, Arizona (population 23,535) "and came running back in, yelling at me to come quick. As I stepped out, she was pointing almost directly overhead."
"I looked up to see a perfectly round dark cloud spinning very slowly like a pinwheel. As it turned, it was drawing in tiny puffy white clouds. The rest of the sky was basically clear. There was no sound nor wind of any kind."
"It was approximately a quarter-mile (0.4 kilometers) in diameter. We sat on our patio and watched it for approximately 10 minutes. Then the cloud broke up all of a sudden, going every which way."
"Approximately 7 to 8 minutes later, two jet fighters came out of the east and turned just before coming over town and went north."
"At approximately 11 a.m. the next morning (Sunday, October 12, 2003), we saw four black helicopters flying low across town."
"The next day (Monday, October 13, 2003) there was a huge camouflaged helicopter flying over town." Later "the same day, as we were getting gas at Albertson's, we pulled up to see a big white van with black tinted windows with the words Area 51 on the front (license) plate. There were dishes, antennas and other strange contraptions all over the top of it. Your Web address was on the window in black letters."
(Editor's Note: There it is again--the elusive UFO Roundup van! For five years now, this strange-looking white van has been seen all around the USA, several times in Arizona. However, it is neither owned nor operated by Joseph Trainor and John Hayes of UFO Roundup.)
"I spoke with the tall, gray-haired and bearded gentleman and told him about our sighting. He said, 'That wasn't a cloud, was it?' with a grin. He said he was usually up north but had been here for a while, and that Prescott Valley had had quite a few sightings. And that he was going back north but would be down here again shortly."
(Editor's Note: This time, the driver seems to be about 20 to 25 years older than the male driver of the van's previous appearances.)
"When I mentioned the black helicopters, he said, 'Don't they always show up a day late and a dollar short?'"
"He was dressed eccentrically, but I had the feeling he was here in an official capacity. I asked a lot of questions, but he was very careful not to directly answer any of them."
On Wednesday, October 8, 2003, at 6 a.m., Curtis Fields was at his home in Paulden, Arizona, a town on Highway 89 about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north-northwest of Prescott Valley, when he "saw a UFO go from south to north. It was a bright object with lights shining in the back. It would travel for a few seconds and then stop. It would reverse direction and come to a stop. And then it made square moves. It was brighter than a star and it was pulsating. It seemed to return to the same spot. It did not depart. It was getting too bright to see the object at around 7 a.m."
Prescott Valley, Ariz. is on Highway 89 about 90 miles (144 kilometers) north of Phoenix. (Email Form Reports)
TEACHER CONFIRMS UFO SIGHTING IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
Last week's report of multiple UFOs in formation over the McDonough Elementary School in Manchester, New Hampshire (population 107,006) has been confirmed by a teacher who was in the schoolyard at the time.
The incident took place on Friday, October 3, 2003 at 1 p.m. The teacher reported, "I am a very logical person and have never witnessed anything like what I witnessed on October 3 while doing recess duty. That Friday evening, I found myself repeating tasks around the house that I'd already done--pouring water, watering plants, feeding the dog (he didn't mind.), loading the dishwasher, etc. All I could do was think about what I saw and how dumb I was not to find a camera or something to record what my brain couldn't believe it was registering."
At 1 p.m., the teacher "was standing on a playground looking up at the 12 objects with blue lights, and they seemed as high as a kite that was half way to its destination, but my mind was having a hard time making a correct distance and measurement judgement because I couldn't understand why there was a mist around them that shielded their exact shapes. The sky everywhere else was blue and totally cloudless. They (the UFOs) were the size of a hula hoop when I looked at them in their floating position and the size of a quarter (USA 25-cent coin-- J.T.) when they were in their silver-white swirling formation mode."
"After 20 minutes, the floating blue-lighted objects disappeared without a sound. Then I saw the silver-white round objects racing through the sky in tight formation... perfect alignment in swirling patterns, but it looked as though I was missing a visual frame as they moved. Kind of like if you were to view cartoon animation stills and every fifth picture was missing. That's how they looked as they were moving high in the sky."
"I had to bring the 150 Fourth Grade students back into the building because the recess bell rang. The objects were still whirling around when I went inside," the teacher added, "The other two adult witnesses, the principal and my assistant, are choosing to believe it must have been weather balloons and a lost flock of birds that they saw that day. However, I'm choosing to continue to question what I saw and that it was out of the world I'm familiar with." (Many thanks to Canadian ufologist Brian Vike for this report. For more on the Manchester, N.H. encounter, see UFO Roundup, volume 8, number 39 for October 15, 2003, "UFO hovers over a New Hampshire school," page 6.)
TWO WOMEN TRAIL A RED UFO IN WEST CUMBRIA, UK
On Tuesday, October 14, 2003, at 12:20 a.m., Sarah Fenwick and a woman friend spotted a red UFO in West Cumbria, UK.
"When I first saw the object, it appeared to be a continuous red light," Sarah reported, "It was unusual because it was stationary, and it wasn't on the usual flight path. As we approached the object over a distance of about a mile (1.6 kilometers) it didn't seem to move at all. When we got close to where it was, it came down quite low to the ground."
"My friend got my binoculars out and was going to look through them to see if she could make anything out. As she did this, she leant onto the switch that opens the windows on my car. At this time, the object came much lower. I would say about 300 to 400 feet (90 to 120 meters) off the ground, and the red light grew much stronger and brighter."
"All of a sudden, a greenish-blue light shone out of the left-hand side (of the UFO--J.T.) So there was red shining from one side and green from the other. In the middle, there seemed to be a disk, but it could just have been shadows from the lights. Then it shot off in a northwesterly direction at a tremendous speed. The car window had been open all this time, and we didn't hear a sound. So what was it?" (Email Form Report)
HOVERING ORANGE UFO SEEN IN NEW SOUTH WALES
On Sunday night, October 12, 2003, David K. and his wife were outdoors, looking at Mount Panorama near Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, when they spotted an orange UFO.
"Hovering very high above the mountain we saw what appeared to be a very large and bright glowing orange flare," David reported, "Then an orange glowing oval- shaped light with glowing leg-like projections from the rear and base of the object."
The UFO "accelerated to faster than jet speed towards the west, if not slightly south of west until no longer visible. We expected to see flashing (navigation) lights as per helicopter or aeroplane. None visible. We expected some sort of sound, but nothing."
"Before the sighting, my wife and I went to view the mountain because we noticed radio silence and an electrical blackout on the mountain. As soon as we had a proper view, we looked up and watched the 'orange flare.'"
"This is the second time since childhood I've seen an unexplainable object. As a child, I saw a massive light explosion and a sudden direction change and acceleration. Tonight was not similar. It was more like the movement of a Harrier jump-jet. My wife and I were quite moved by the experience. It felt strange to watch. It was like nothing we've ever seen before."
Bathurst, N.S.W. is about 250 kilometers (150 miles) west of Sydney. (Email Form Report)
UFO SIGHTED IN NEW ZEALAND
Eyewitness Roy Whitehead reported, "I saw an unexplained light at 12 a.m. on the night of (Thursday) October 16 (2003) in the night sky of Wellington, New Zealand. It was so far up in the sky and stationary, directly above me."
"It was flashing red, yellow and silver-white flashes randomly. It didn't get closer or move away."
"I went inside to get a second opinion from my mate. He came out and had a look. We concluded it wasn't a helicopter. It was too high. And it wasn't a plane as it didn't move away. We watched for a further two minutes or so. Then it disappeared." (Email Form Report)
ARAB VIDEOTAPES A UFO IN BAHRAIN
"People from around the country have reported seeing an Unidentified Flying Object in the skies of Bahrain, emitting strange lights for about a minute around 11 p.m. on Friday," October 10, 2003.
"Mohammed Jaffer al-Hajer was sitting with six of his friends outside his home in Qurrayah village, near Budaiya, when they noticed the UFO in the distant skies. Al-Hajer 'caught' the strange object on his digital video camera as the lights appeared twice--once when the UFO emitted a bright yellow light and the second time when it split into two before disappearing."
"'We first noticed the strange light appear to the left of the Batelco tower in our village,' he said, 'We saw it again just above the tower when I reached for my camera and began to videotape it.'"
"Al-Hajer videotaped the object for about 40 seconds before it disappeared."
"People in Manama also reported seeing the UFO at the same time and placed it between Manama and Muharraq, in the same vicinity as Al-Hajer claimed."
"However, sources at Bahrain International Airport told the Tribune that the radars there did not register any abnormal activity during that time." (See the Bahrain Tribune for October 15, 2003, "UFO seen in Bahrain skies." Many thanks to Jim Hickman and Ayesha al-Khatabi for this newspaper article.)
MORE PHANTOM PANTHERS ARE SIGHTED IN UK
"Frank Speare has managed to take the latest footage of what could be an ABC (alien big cat, also known as phantom panther here in the USA--J.T.) near Horncastle," Lincolnshire, UK, where "the Wolds have recently had sightings of big cats."
"A large black cat was seen recently in Edlington, described by Muriel Brooks as about four feet (1.3 meters) long and around 2 feet (0.6 meters) tall--but this latest one appears to be white."
"Frank was eating his breakfast" at his home in Minting "when he saw the creature, which he first assumed to be a calf until he noted the way it moved--unlike a calf and more like a cat."
"Grabbing his video camera. Frank rushed outside and managed to get a few seconds' video footage before the creature disappeared into the trees."
"Frank describes the cat as quite slender but far bigger than a domestic feline, as the ground slopes down towards the trees, and a domestic cat would have been impossible to see. He reckons it was easily the size of an Alsatian dog."
"Also near the trees he found an area where it looked like a huge animal had been lying and several mauled birds."
"Speare said, 'I have been told by a lady in the village that another sighting in the same field was reported 18 months ago and experts were called in, including the police, who confirmed large cat-like prints in the snow. I was told that the person who made the sighting was very frightened.'"
Elsewhere in UK, "a large cat, described by one witness as a black panther, was spotted in Telscombe Cliffs this week."
"A woman called police Wednesday lunchtime (October 15, 2003) when she saw a panther-like beast about 100 yards (90 meters) away in a field north of Telscombe Cliffs Way."
"Police searched the area and found no traces. However, officers called on Trevor Weeks, of East Sussex Wildlife Research Ambulance Service, for his expert advice."
"While on the trail of the cat, a shocked Mr. Weeks also spotted a creature as he approached Telscombe Village. He said: 'I saw something across a field which appeared to be larger than a fox or badger. It was jet black in colour and disappeared into shrubs. I am completely baffled as to what it was.'"
"Peter Harwood, a resident of Telscombe Village, was able to shed more light on the mystery. He told the Express a puma-like creature had been seen during the past couple of years and had gone in front of his car."
"He said: 'I would describe it as a puma (cougar or mountain lion in the USA--J.T.). It was a massive blacky- brown coloured cat, about the same size as a large collie (dog).'"
"His mother had also spotted the cat in the village while dog-walking." (See Lewes Today for September 19, 2003. Also BBC News for October 13, 2003. Many thanks to Robert Fischer, UFO Roundup's phantom panther expert, for these news reports.)
AN UNUSUAL PHENOMENON IN YELLOWSTONE PARK
Eyewitness K.C. reported, "I was drivng west on U.S. 20 approximately 10 miles east of" West Yellowstone, Montana (population 1,177), "the western entrance to Yellowstone National Park. My wife was in the front passenger seat. The time was 8:35 p.m. on Friday, September 29, 2003. The sun had already set, so it was quite dark. This is a wilderness area that we were in, no lights whatsoever for miles. No other vehicles were in the area. The sky was clear. One could practically reach up and touch the stars."
(Editor's Note: The couple was very close to a volcanic feature known as Fountain Paint Pots, pools of silty water heated by volcanic vents close to the surface.)
"We were traveling about 30 miles per hour with the windows rolled down so we could hear the elk bugling in the not-so-far distance. Suddenly, and without warning, approximately 3 feet (0.9 meters) off the ground and 30 feet (9 meters) in front of me, a red sphere darted across the road from left to right (south to north--K.C.) The color was that of a lit (automobile) tail light lens, but not bright as if the brakes were being applied. The completely circular object, about 6 inches (15 centimeters) in diameter, flew straight for the short duration that we saw it. Sighting was lost as it entered the trees."
"Nothing was said to each other until I stopped at a pull-off a couple of miles down the road. We then looked at each other, and I asked my wife, 'Did you see that back there?'"
"Her reply was, 'I wasn't going to say anything until you did. What was that red ball?'"
"We compared notes. We indeed did see a 6-inch red ball flying from left to right about 3 feet off the ground. No sound was noted."
Yellowstone National Park is located in the northwestern corner of the USA's state of Wyoming. (Many thanks to Jim Hickman for forwarding this report.)
(Editor's Comment: The red sphere sounds more like a rare display of ball lightning than a UFO. Its proximity to the volcanically-active Fountain Paint Pots is extremely interesting. It's possible that the glowing sphere could be a piezoelectric display related to geological processes nearby.)
From the UFO Files...
1884: ONE HOT NUMBER
Anybody who's seen the movie Moulin Rouge is familiar with Nicole Kidman's character Satine. But did you know there was a woman like that in the entourage of Madame Blavatsky? Today she's sort of considered the black sheep of Theosophy, and there's a reason for that...as we shall see.
Her name was Yuliana Dmitrievna Glinka, and she was born in 1844. Her family was very prominent in Orel, located 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Moscow.
There's a tenuous connection between Yuliana's family and Adam Weishaupt's Illuminati and their successors in the Russia of the 1790s--the Martinists.
Following the abortive December revolution of 1825, the Tsar appointed a Commission of Enquiry, under Prince N.A. Galitzine, to investigate Russia's Masonic lodges to see what role they played, if any, in the uprising. The commission soon zeroed in on Colonel Feodor Nikolaevich Glinka (1786-1880) as the leader of "a secret society of mystics." During his testimony before the commission, Feodor Tolstoy admitted Col. Glinka's mystic ties but swore that he was "a loyal officer of the Empire."
The Decembrist revolt didn't wreck Col. Glinka's career. Nor that of his nephew, Mihail Ivanovich Glinka (1803-1857), a famous composer. Nor that of his son, Dmitri Feodorovich, who became a general and joined Russia's diplomatic service.
As an ambassador's daughter, Yuliana spent a lot of time globetrotting. Her father was Russia's ambassador to both Portugal and Brazil. And it was most likely in Brazil that Yuliana first became interested in spiritualism.
Yuliana lived in Rio de Janeiro (then capital of Brazil--J.T.) and at Petropolis, in the Serra da Orgao, home of Emperor Pedro II. She, her sisters and her father also traveled with Dom Pedro to the state of Minas Gerais, visiting Ouro Preto and Diamantina, both very old cities with a mystical past.
(Editor's Notes: Brazil was an empire from 1822 until Dom Pedro was overthrown by Marshal Fonseca in 1889. Diamantina was the home of the sorceress Xica da Silva in the Eighteenth Century. Ouro Preto, too, has an occult past. It was the site of the Inconfidencia Mineira, the first Illuminati uprising in the Americas. And just outside of town is Itacolomi (Tupi-Guarani for Rock and Papoose--J.T.), a weirdly shaped mountain alleged to have ties to the lost continent of Atlantis.)
It was in Brazil, perhaps during one of Dom Pedro's tours of Bahia, that Yuliana first became acquainted with Candomble, a Brazilian version of Caribbean Santeria. She also read about the Fox sisters and their encounters with "the Spirit World" in the USA's northern New York state.
In 1857, the family returned to Russia, and Yuliana's older sister married Vsevolod Soloviev, the brother of Russian philosopher Vladimir Soloviev. But the honeymoon didn't last. In no time at all, the wannabe-writer Soloviev succeeded in seducing Yuliana, the 13-year-old sister of his bride.
Family connections got Yuliana a gig as lady-in- waiting to Tsaritza (Empress) Maria Alexandrovna. But Yuliana rarely showed her face at Tsarskoe Selo, home of the Romanovs. She spent most of her time in Paris, living among the "jet set" of Napoleon II's Second Empire.
Like Catherine Theot 70 years earlier, Yuliana became a star of the Parisian occult underground, attending seances and consorting with the disciples of occult leader Eliphas Levi (birth name: Alphonse Constant--J.T.).
In the 1870s, through the influence of her grandfather's friend, General Orzheyevsky, Yuliana became a secret agent of the Okhrana (Tsarist secret police-- J.T.) According to Soloviev, "she was continually surrounded by 'phenomena' and miracles of all sorts; her marvelous stories of what happened to her at every step were enough to make one's head swim. She did not live in Russia and had lodgings in Paris; but she was continually vanishing, no one knew where, and was absorbed in some complicated and intricate affairs of her own."
"In Paris in 1881-2 she tried her hand at the game which (Okhrana spymaster Pyotr) Rachkovsky was to play so brilliantly shortly afterwards--watching and denouncing the Russian terrorists in exile. General Orzheyevsky, who was a prominent figure in the (Russian) secret police and ended as Assistant Minister for Internal Affairs, had befriended her ever since her childhood. But she was not really gifted for the (spy) work, feuded constantly with the Russian ambassador and ended by being unmasked in the (French) left-wing newspaper Le Radical.
Soloviev was a frequent visitor to Paris, where he and Yuliana lived as common-law spouses. Yuliana often used the alias of "Justine."
(Editor's Comment: I wonder if Madame de Soloviev had any idea that her husband's French mistress, Justine, was actually her own kid sister.)
In April 1884, Yuliana heard through the grapevine that "the First Lady of Occultism" was coming to Paris. None other than Elena Petrovna von Hahn Blavatsky, author of Isis Unveiled. The Duchesse de Pomar put up Madame Blavatsky in an opulent apartment at No. 46 Rue Notre- Dame-des-Champs, and Yuliana was one of the first to wangle an invitation.
"During the month of May, Helena (Blavatsky) saw a good deal of Soloviev and his woman friend, Justine Glinka. Aside from intelligence-gathering, Justine Glinka's chief interest was occultism, and when the occasion presented itself, she liked to combine the two. As a member of the Theosophical Society and a sincere admirer of the foundress, she had been greatly distressed to hear another (Russian) maid of honor, Olga Smirnoff, casually remark that the Tiflis Police Court (in Transcaucasia) had convicted Madame Blavatsky of 'theft, cheating and deceit.'"
Olga, who apparently had the dirt on every noble family in Russia, told Yuliana that "for more than 30 years, she (HPB) has not dared to show herself in the Caucasus, knowing that she would be immediately arrested, put into prison and deported to Siberia."
Madame Blavatsky responded by calling Olga "a withered old maid subject to hysteria and hallucinations" and "an old hag spitting venom." But it was Yuliana who saved the day, and earned HPB's undying friendship, by using her own considerable fortune to finance a media blitz in defense of Madame Blavatsky.
Now part of the Theosophical inner circle, Yuliana followed Madame Blavatsky to Germany, where she witnessed the unveiling of her guru's most precious possessions, "two great draped portraits of (HPB's) Mahatmas Morya and Koot Hoomi, painted in oils by Schmiechen."
Madame Blavatsky claimed that her Mahatmas (Hindi for Great Souls--J.T.) were "Hidden Masters" from the Himalayas, directing the evolution of the human race. Bored with spirit trumpets, disembodied voices and apports falling from the ceiling, Yuliana longed to meet one of HPB's Masters.
In June 1884, she got her wish.
Shortly after midnight, Yuliana was asleep in her room at Rugmer's Hotel in Wurzburg, Germany, when the rustling of the drapery woke her up. Blinking sleepy eyes, she tottered out of bed and came face-to-face with a dark-skinned man with a bristling full beard, who was wearing Indian robes and a white puggaree (turban).
With an approving glance at Yuliana's corset-style negligee and movie-star figure, the stranger introduced himself in fluent Russian as "the Master Morya" and said, "We have need of a 'little beetle' like you."
(Editor's Comment: I'm also wondering how and where Morya learned that 'little beetle' was General Glinka's babyhood nickname for his daughter.)
Like Madame Blavatsky, Yuliana had become a chela (Hindi for disciple) of the Hidden Masters.
Her boyfriend Soloviev did not welcome this news. He "described the encounter as an hallucination induced by staring too long at the portraits." Later, he turned against Madame Blavatsky and in 1892 wrote an expose of her entitled A Modern Priestess of Isis.
To her delight, Yuliana received a personal note from Morya on his trademark blue paper, which read, "Certainly I was there; but who can open the eyes of him who will not see?"
After Madame Blavatsky's death in 1891, other disciples came to the fore in Theosophy--Annie W. Besant and Katherine Tingley, to name two. Yuliana dropped out of sight.
Two years later, she surfaced again, now in possession of a curious document entitled Tayna Yevreystva (Translated: The Secret of the Jews--J.T.) When the Russian nobles she approached heard that this document had been "dictated by the dead," they wanted nothing to do with it.
Three years passed. Yuliana tried again in 1895. No mention of the dearly departed this time. She claimed that it had come from "the secret capital of the Jews in Nice (!!!)." It was sort of Secret 2.0.
This time, however, she had some takers--Alexei Sukhotin, a family friend from Orel; Filip Stepanov; and Sergei Nilus, a Russian mystic she had met at Biarritz in France. The public was suddenly a little more receptive. What made the difference? Answer: L'affaire Dreyfus, the 1894 court case involving French Army captain Alfred Dreyfus. This case put "the Jewish Question" on front pages throughout Europe. It also influenced Austrian journalist Theodore Herzl to found the Zionist movement.
In 1902, Yuliana tried to market it yet again. Now it was called The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. (Think Secret 3.0--J.T.) Russian journalist M. Menshikov "reported how a lady of fashion (Yuliana) had invited him to her house to see a document of vast importance. Seated in an elegant apartment and speaking perfect French, the lady informed him that she was in direct contact with the world beyond the grave and proceeded to induct him into the mysteries of Theosophy... Finally, she initiated him into the mysteries of the Protocols."
A year later, in August 1903, the newspaper Znamya (Russian for The Banner) published Yuliana's strange little document, thereby launching The Protocols on its worldwide odyssey.
As for Yuliana, she died in Paris in 1918 at the age of 74, having lived through most of the apocalyptic war her master Morya had predicted thirty years earlier. On her deathbed, she must have thought the Apocalypse had surely come. Paris was under siege, regularly getting hit by the Germans' big rail guns and Zeppelin air raids. The French Army had mutinied. Her Tsar had been overthrown, and Russia was engulfed in revolution. The world had become a terrifying place for "the little beetle."
In 1919, the Times of London revealed uncanny similarities between The Protocols and an 1864 satire by a French lawyer named Maurice Joly. It's possible that Yuliana read the original Joly pamphlet as a young woman during her first trip to Paris and later used it to concoct her "revelation."
Having read The Protocols many times, your editor believes that the document has the same didactic, repetitive prose and otherworldly "feel" of Newbrough's Oahspe and other "spirit scriptures" of the Nineteenth Century. If I had to guess, I'd say The Protocols is about 30 percent Joly, 60 percent "Spirit World" and maybe 10 percent Morya.
And thereby hangs the tale. Did Yuliana Glinka make up The Protocols herself, marketing them with fanatic determination? Or did she promote them with such ardor because they were "a revelation" from her Himalayan masters? Clearly, more research into The Protocols' murky origins needs to be done. (See the books HPB: The Extraordinary Life of Helena Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement by Sylvia Cranston, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, N.Y., 1993, pages 288 through 292 , Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind the Myth by Marion Meade, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, N.Y., 1980, pages 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 314, 354, 355 and 367; Warrant for Genocide by Norman Cohn, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, N.Y., 1967, pages 100, 101, 102 and 106; and The Tolstoys by Nikolai Tolstoy, William Morrow and Co., New York, N.Y., 1983, page 161.)
That's it for this week. Join us next time for more UFO, Fortean and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you in seven days.
