UFOnauts: The Abducted

SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Kazan province, Russia
Date: 1752
Time: daytime
A small boy (servant) named Yashka regularly visited the forest in order to collect berries. During one of his visits, he encountered a strange man that suddenly appeared in front of him out of nowhere. The strange man was dressed in white clothing. He took the curious boy into a large “copper cauldron or boiler” (bell-shaped flying vehicle, broader on the lower section and narrower on top and vertically elongated) and sat him on a chair. The alien man sat near the boy on another chair, and both ascended to the sky to an unknown location. Soon they arrived in “another planet” where the boy lived for a year and a half (!) (In his own perception) in a house that remotely resembled the wooden house he lived on earth. At the same time quite a bit of time passed on earth. The alien presented the boy some mysterious “coins” to cure him from an illness and returned him to the very same place he was taken from amid the forest. The alien man then told the boy to convey his “fatherly instructions” to the newly christened villagers in the settlement to “pray better”. (?)

Source: Synodic Archive, Kazan University, 1752 # 635/135 1909 Vol. XXV, issue 5 and Vadim Chernobrov

Lonmora, Sweden
Date: September 16, 1759
The following handwritten text is recorded in the parish book of Ramsberg, Sweden: 187
“In the evening of 16 September 1759, the crofter Jacob Jacobsson ‘s eldest son Jacob, 22 years old, had crossed the lake, Vastra Kiolsjon, to the crofter Anders Nilson at Lonmora, to deliver the food packet for him and his father for the following day’s work in the Woods. Coming back across the lake, as he pulled the boat upon the shore, something strange happened to him. “A large and broad road appeared before him. He followed it and soon reached a large red mansion, in his own words, ‘with grander buildings than Gamlebo.’ Soon he found himself seated on a bench by the door in a big chamber. He saw a chubby little man with a red cap on his head, sitting at the end of a table, and crowds of little people running back and forth. They were in every way like ordinary men, but of short stature. A bit taller than the rest was a fine-looking maiden, who offered him food and drink. He said, ‘No, thank you.’ The Little people asked him whether he wanted to stay with them, and he answered, ‘God, help me back home to my father and mother!’ Then the man with the red cap said, ‘Throw him out, he has such an ugly mouth!’ In the next instant he was back by the lake shore, and from there he returned home. His parents greeted him with pleasure. They had been very worried; together with the neighbors they had searched the woods and the lake for him. Four days and nights had passed without a trace of him. When he finally came back on Thursday evening he had not eaten or slept for four days, yet he had no desire for food or drink. He thought he had been away only for a little while. The following day everything was normal except for an uneasy feeling in his body and mind. “Jacob made this statement to me in the presence of his parents on St. Michael’s Day 1759. This boy has quite a simple, pious, meek and gentle character. He is praised by everyone; all his life he has been known to take pleasure in reading and contemplating God’s words whenever he has some spare time. “

Source: Ramsberg sockens kyrkobok, El: 1, 1786-1774, handwritten entry by Reverend Vigelius. The book is kept at Landsarkivet, Uppsala, Sweden. Translation by Clas Svahm
 
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SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Don Region, Russia
Date: March 1796
Time: morning
The inhabitants of a Russian village in the region were surprised to find a large metal ball in one of their fields. It was ten feet in diameter. People from everywhere flocked to see it, and they wondered where it had come from. It could have fallen from the sky, they thought, but there was no crater. Except for a regular pattern of circles etched into it the surface of the ball was as smooth as marble. The village folk tried to move the object but their effort was useless, it would not budge an inch. Then the local drunkard, a man named Pouchkine arrived, he was known as a gambler, even a heretic, and everyone looked down on his ways. But despite his faults, he was known to be very courageous. He was led to the spot. Pouchkine cursed at the object and struck it with his sable several times. Suddenly the crowd around him began to howl with terror; one of the circles on the ball had opened up, revealing a single inhuman eye. Pouchkine sneered and carried on with his blows against the object. He struck it so hard, in fact that the blade snapped off. The peasants fled in fear. Behind them they saw the drunkard and his steed were both becoming transparent and then finally disappear into the air. They could still faintly hear his voice, however, as his angry cursing faded away. Two days passed and nothing was seen or heard of Pouchkine. Then to everyone’s surprise both he and his trusty horse staggered back into the village as if drunk. He seemed calm enough, but he soon “flew into a great rage and began to howl” that he was going to put an end to the unholy globe and set fire to it and the woods and everything around it. Everybody trailed along after him to enjoy the spectacle. But much to Pouchkine’s mortification, the ball was no longer there.

Source: Chris Aubeck, Return to Magonia
 

SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Colonsay Island, Inner Hebrides, Scotland
Date: 1800(exact date not given)
Time: daytime
A local woman named Rhona was sitting in her garden knitting when she heard a rustling of the leaves. Thinking of her sweetheart she pretended not to have heard. Then came a tiny laugh and a tinkling sound from her rose arbor.Looking up she spied six handsome little men dressed in green from head to toe, except, that is for a red feather in their caps. Rhona extended her hand to the group and each in turn alighted on her offered palm. Becoming totally delighted with them she favored the six with every courtesy.
Suddenly and without warning one of the fairies touched his fingers to her eyes, plunging her into darkness. In this state of total blackness she experienced herself moving through what could only be time and space, But this was more than a three-dimensional flight. Rhona’s flight had taken her through a fourth dimension. After what seemed like only a few moments, Rhona felt her feet touch the ground. Opening her eyes she found herself in the most beautiful and wondrous place she had ever seen. Into her vision came lush trees, brilliantly colored song birds, flower gardens and castle of every description shining forth in gold and silver. Each castle in turn shimmered with diamonds, garnets, pearls and emeralds. Along the streets were magnificently clad little people promenading, resting, dancing and indulging in favorite pastimes. Now, Rhona who noted that she was clad in the same fine manner as everyone else had also become the same size as everyone else. She immediately thought that she could stay there forever but all at once Rhona was once again plunged into darkness, whisked through the air and dropped safely onto the floor of her rose arbor, where a group of people had gathered concerned over her absence.
It is said that for the rest of her life, Rhona was guarded by the fairies that nourished her with fairy food. At one point local authorities imprisoned Rhona and refused to feed her, but this did not effect Rhona at all, for she was fed daily by the fairies during her enclosure.

Source: Virginia Martin August 12, 2002
 

SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Meklong, Thailand
Date. September 1810
Time: night
Awoken by an unknown force one night, a local Siamese woman was surprised to hear that the surrounding area was devoid of the usual animal noises. Looking out the window, the woman beheld a strange humanoid in her backyard. She claimed that the humanoid had only one eye and was dressed in a suit, which seemed to be made out of metal. The episode ended with the woman claiming to have been abducted to a “palace of lights.”

Source: Ahmad Jamaluddin
 
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SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Taganrog, Russia
Date: November 19, 1825
Time: night
Feyodor, the old gardener of the estate belonging to the Russian Tsar (Emperor) Alexander the First (1777-1825) was returning home from the christening of his granddaughter. The night was cold and windy. The witness later was to allege on his deathbed that he was “completely sober” explaining that he couldn’t use alcohol since birth because of a distinct allergy to it. The closer Feyodor got to the garden the stormier it seemed to become. The wind was literally knocking him down when suddenly everything became quiet. The gardener was amazed by the sudden change in the weather and looked around. And then unexpectedly the whole garden was lit up by an unbelievably bright “diabolic” light. Feyodor raised his head to the sky and saw a huge bluish sphere or globe “as if made out of fire”. The garden became illuminated just like broad daylight as a result of the light. The old man’s knees became weak as he then lay down next to a bush to observe what occurred next. The scene he beheld was spectacular. The globe-shaped fiery object descended lower and lower straight down onto the garden. Near the ground three narrow shiny landing props jutted out of the object. And at the same time the verandah’s door was flung open, and Tsar Alexander the First and his wife Elizabeth appeared, both casually dressed for a night’s walk. Amazingly, as appeared to the witness the incredibly sight did not seem to bother them or affect them in any way. The Emperor then turned to his wife and kissed her on her forehead; he then sharply turned and began walking along the garden path towards the fiery globe. The Empress remained standing in place and covered her face with her palms. The elderly witness then saw Alexander approach the fiery globe. The Emperor was then levitated into the air and seemed to melt into the fiery globe. The next second Feyodor lost consciousness and blacked out. Later he woke up feeling a strong icy wind all around him. In the morning of November 19 1825 at 0900A the death of the Emperor was publicly announced. The empress testified about the fact. The body in the closed coffin was never examined to establish the fact that it was really that of Alexander the first. Feyodor only confessed about the incident on his deathbed and died in complete belief that the Tsar was taken to God and the skies alive because “of his good deeds”.

Source: “Sekretnye Isslendovaniya” (Secret Research) Dnepropetrovsk Ukraine # 11, 2005
 

SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
North of Wingen, Australia
Date: March 1828
Time: unknown
The Australasian Post reported that a large silvery cigar shaped object had landed at the Burning Mountain Nature Reserve setting fire to all the vegetation and killing nearby cattle. “The noise was dreadful and there was a serious of loud bangs.” Tall man-like strangers later appeared in the town. They never said a word but always pointed to the things they wanted. Around the same time several locals and domesticated animals disappeared.

Source: Strange Nation
 

SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Spences Bridge, British Columbia, Canada
Date: August 5, 1863
Time: unknown
Disappearance Reported encounter with inhuman beings involving teleportation. Nocturnal lights were reported.

Source: Eberhart, George M. A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980
 

SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Parramatta New South Wales, Australia
Date: July 25, 1868
Time: unknown
Frederick Birmingham was standing on his cottage verandah when he saw a “vision” of heads floating by him. He then saw an “ark” flying overhead. A voice told him that it was a flying machine. A man-like figure then appeared and invited the witness to board the object, which had landed on a nearby park. The witness was led into a room where he was shown a paper with an equation written on it. The witness then fell asleep and then awoke the next morning in his house.

Source: Mark Moravec, Psiufo Phenomena
 

SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Vetluga, Nizhniy Novgorod region, Russia
Date: August 1876
Time: about midnight
A local beautiful bourgeois woman named Marfa Popova saw off her husband to the “burlaks” (barge haulers) to the Volga River. Once at the end of summer, around midnight her bedroom became lighted by a “wonderful” light, emanating from an unknown source, she then saw an unknown entity or a weird “man” standing near her bed. The entity somehow looked very much like her husband Finogen. Later in the early morning the man vanished the same way he had appeared. At the same time residents of this small village located amid the forests in the northern part of Nizhniy Novgorod region, had seen a strange cloud, which emitted light, flying over the town at night. The cloud was the shape of a snake, which stopped and hovered in midair over Marfa’s house, and emitted sparkles. Relatives then began demanding explanations from the poor woman and she finally confessed that she had “concealed sin” with the “sky snake” that had taken the image of her husband. After her penances and admonitions by local Orthodox archpriest Mahrovskiy, flights of the strange cloud and visits from the stranger stopped.

Source: Gennadiy Nikolaev, “Anomalnye Novosti” (Anomalous News) Saint Petersburg Russia # 14 2005
 

SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Yuma, California
Date: Mid 1878
Time: unknown
Three German prospectors were camping at sundown when huge sailing ship approached in air. one prospector carried away, found dead of thirst, naked in desert 8 days later.

Source: Bullard, Thomas E. UFO Abductions: The Measure of a Mystery. Volume 1: Comparative Study of Abduction Reports FUFOR, Bloomington, 1987
 

SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Song-Zi Xian County, China
Date: May 8, 1880
Time: 8 pm
A farmer named Ju Tan in Song-Zi Xian Couny, China came upon a misty white light in some bushes around 8:00 p.m. He then felt a tingling paralysis, and heard a humming or rushing noise. He was levitated upwards and lost consciousness. His next recollection was finding himself, in a dazed state, in Guizhou province, which was 300 miles away from his home. The time was two weeks later.

Randles, Jenny Time Storms: Amazing Evidence for Time Warps, Space Rifts, and Time Travel Berkley Books, New York, 2002
 

SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Tiskavilla near Davenport, Iowa
Date: July 15, 1885
Time: early morning
A man named Richardson lived on a small farm near this village. He was industrious and well liked by his neighbors. On Wednesday of last week his youngest child, a daughter, ran screaming to a neighbor’s before daylight, saying that a huge man, all covered with fire, had come into the house and carried off all but her. It was supposed that the house was on fire, and aid was quickly afforded, but the house was found to be all right. Nothing at all was disturbed, but no one was about. The horse and buggy remained in the stable. The clothing left off by members of the family on going to bed was found where it had been left. The vicinity was thoroughly searched, but without avail. No train had stopped, and no water was near. It seemed as if the ground had opened and swallowed the family up. A neighbor’s family moved into the house to take care of the things and the child and was nearly scared to death the first night. They assert that suddenly the house was filled with a strange white light and the voice of Richardson was heard calling his daughter. She responded and instantly the light disappeared and a great shower of small stones fell upon the roof. The same scene has been enacted nightly since and the whole community is aroused. The child does not appear to be in the least alarmed at the voices.

Source:
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Valentich Disappearance - 1978

the-frederick-valentich-incident-photo-u1.jpg

The Valentich disappearance refers to the unexplained disappearance at around 7:12 pm on 21 October 1978 of 20-year-old Frederick Valentich while piloting a Cessna 182 light aircraft over Bass Strait in Australia. He intended to land at King Island and return to Moorabbin Airport.

During the 127-mile (235 km) flight, Valentich advised Melbourne air traffic control that he was being accompanied by an aircraft about 1,000 feet (300 m) above him. He described some unusual actions and features of the aircraft, saying that his engine had begun running roughly, and finally reported that the "strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again. It is hovering and it's not an aircraft."

Valentich and his aircraft were never recovered (though wreckage with matching partial serial numbers was spotted in the Bass Strait five years later), and an Australian Department of Transport investigation concluded that the reason for the disappearance could not be determined.

Belated reports of a UFO sighting in Australia on the night of the disappearance led Ken Williams, a spokesman for the Department of Transport, to tell Associated Press that "it's funny all these people ringing up with UFO reports well after Valentich's disappearance."


Frederick Valentich

Frederick Valentich was born on 9 June 1958 in Melbourne. He lived at home with his parents and three siblings in Avondale Heights and at the time of his disappearance was a shop assistant at an army disposals store at Moonee Ponds. Frederick attended Keilor Heights High School in East Keilor up until year 10, then he continued his studies at a private college.

He had twice applied to enlist in the Royal Australian Air Force but was rejected because of inadequate educational qualifications. He was a member of the Air Training Corps, determined to have a career in aviation. His student pilot licence was issued 24 February 1977 and his private pilot licence the following September. Valentich was studying part-time to become a commercial pilot but had a poor achievement record, having twice failed all five commercial licence examination subjects, and as recent as the previous month had failed three more commercial licence subjects. He had been involved in flying incidents, straying into a controlled zone in Sydney (for which he received a warning) and twice deliberately flying into cloud (for which prosecution was being considered).

According to Guido Valentich, Frederick's father, Frederick was a "firm believer in UFOs", and, prior to his disappearance, he had "worried about attacks from UFOs".


Details

Valentich had a Class Four instrument rating and 150 hours flight experience, when he filed a flight plan at Moorabbin Airport, Melbourne, on 21 October 1978. His stated intention was to fly to King Island in Bass Strait via Cape Otway, to pick up passengers, and return to Moorabbin. However, he had told his family, girlfriend and acquaintances that he intended to pick up crayfish. During the accident investigations it was learned there were no passengers waiting to be picked up at King Island, he had not ordered crayfish and could not have done so because crayfish were not available anyway.

He was flying a Cessna 182-L, with a cruising speed of around 256 km/h (160 mph), and visibility was good and winds were light. He departed Moorabbin at 18:19, contacted the Melbourne Flight Service Unit to inform them of his presence, and reported reaching Cape Otway at 19:00.

At 19:06, Valentich asked Melbourne Flight Service Officer Steve Robey for information on other aircraft below (5000 ft, 1524 m) and was told there was no known traffic at that level. Valentich said he could see a large unknown aircraft which appeared to be illuminated by four bright landing lights. He was unable to confirm its type, but said it had passed about 1,000 feet (300 m) overhead and was moving at high speed. Valentich then reported that the aircraft was approaching him from the east and said the other pilot might be purposely toying with him.

At 19:09 Robey asked Valentich to confirm his altitude and that he was unable to identify the aircraft. Valentich gave his altitude as 4500 ft and said the aircraft was "long", but it was traveling too fast for him to describe it in more detail. Valentich stopped transmitting for about 30 seconds, during which time Robey asked for an estimate of the aircraft's size. Valentich said the aircraft was "orbiting" above him and that it had a shiny metal surface and a green light on it.

This was followed by 28 seconds silence before Valentich reported that the aircraft had vanished. There was a further 25-second break in communications before Valentich reported that it was now approaching from the southwest. Twenty-nine seconds later, at 19:12:09 Valentich reported that he was experiencing engine problems and was going to proceed to King Island. There was brief silence until he said "it is hovering and it's not an aircraft". This was followed by 17 seconds of unidentified noise, described as being "metallic, scraping sounds", then all contact was lost.

Search and rescueA search and rescue alert was given at 19:12. Valentich failed to arrive at King Island by 19:33, and a sea and air search was undertaken, and two RAAF P-3 Orion aircraft searched over a seven-day period. Search efforts continued until 25 October 1978. Analysis of a fuel slick found roughly near where Valentich had last radioed Robey proved that it was not aviation fuel, and no trace of the aircraft was found.

The aircraft was equipped with four life jackets and an emergency radio beacon, and was designed to stay afloat for several minutes. However, Australian researcher Keith Basterfield, who reviewed the "lost" 315-page government report, found that "parts of aircraft wreckage with partial matching serial numbers [to Valentich's Cessna] were found in the Bass Strait five years after the disappearance."


Official findings

A two-week long Department of Transport (DOT) investigation into Valentich's disappearance was unable to determine the cause, but that it was "presumed fatal" for Valentich. A report published on 27 April 1982, summarised the radio conversations on the evening of 21 October 1978 between Valentich and Robey.

Unexplained soundsDuring Valentich's final recorded transmission to the Melbourne Service Unit, seventeen seconds of unexplained noise, described as being "metallic, scraping sounds", were recorded by DOT Air Traffic Control audio tape.

Researchers Paul Norman and John W. Auchettl received an edited copy of the original voice tape from the DOT. Auchettl had a copy analysed by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and another was taken to the United States by Norman for analysis by Dr. Richard F. Haines, a former researcher with NASA-Ames and Associate Professor of Psychology at San Jose State University.

Haines described the sounds as "Thirty-six separate bursts with fairly constant start and stop pulses bounding each one," and said that there were "no discernible patterns in time or frequency." The significance of the sounds, if any, has remained undetermined.


The Manifold photographs

Shortly before Valentich's last reported contact with Robey, plumber Roy Manifold set up a time lapse camera and tripod on the shoreline in order to photograph the sun setting over the water. When his pictures were developed they appeared to show a fast moving object exiting the water near Cape Otway lighthouse. Manifold gave the time that the pictures were taken as being approximately 6:47 pm (18:47 hrs), or 20 minutes before Valentich reported having difficulties.

The pictures were later examined by Phoenix, Arizona- based UFO group Ground Saucer Watch (GSW) and by a number of independent experts. Though the pictures were not clear enough to identify the object, UFO groups argue that the distance that the object moved between frames, relative to clouds in the background, indicate a speed of roughly 200 mph.

Dr. Haines wrote of the photographs: "Based on the computerized data of the pictures, it is the consensus of the GSW technicians that the images represent a bona fide unknown flying object, of moderate dimensions, apparently surrounded by a cloud-like vapor/exhaust residue." The suggestion that the objects are solid has been dismissed by UFO skeptics who believe the object to be a cloud formation. No skeptical explanation has been given to account for the object's speed.


UFO sighting reports

After news of Valentich's disappearance became public, a number of individuals reported witnessing unusual activity in the area. Some people claimed to have seen "an erratically moving green light in the sky" and in one instance witnesses, located about 2 km west of Apollo Bay, Victoria, stated that they saw a green light trailing or shadowing Valentich's plane, and that he was in a steep dive at the time. Ufologists said these accounts were significant as most were recorded several years prior to the 1982 release of transcripts in which Valentich had described the object above him as having a green light.

Comments from Valentich's fatherAccording to an Associated Press report, Guido Valentich, the father of the missing pilot, said "he hoped his son had been taken by a UFO and had not crashed. 'The fact that they have found no trace of him presents a possibility that UFOs could have been there.'"; Guido Valentich also told the AP that "his son used to study UFOs as a hobby using information he had obtained from the air force. He was not the kind of person who would make up stories. Everything had to be very correct and positive for him.'"


Conventional explanations


Several explanations have been put forward for Valentich's disappearance:

  • The possibility remains that Valentich staged his own disappearance: even taking into account a trip of between 30 and 45 minutes to Cape Otway, the aircraft still had enough fuel to fly 800 kilometres; despite ideal conditions, at no time was the aircraft plotted on radar, casting doubts as to whether it was ever near Cape Otway; and Melbourne Police received reports of a light aircraft making a mysterious landing not far from Cape Otway at the same time as Valentich's disappearance.
  • Another proposed explanation is that Valentich became disoriented and was flying upside down. What he thought he saw, if this were the case, would be his own aircraft's lights reflected in the water. He would then have crashed into the water. This was ruled out by aviation authorities, as the Cessna 182 has a high wing with a gravity fed fuel system, making prolonged inverted flight impossible in this model.
  • In 2000 a private investigation of the incident concluded that Valentich had become disoriented and experienced engine and radio problems that caused him to crash into the sea. It further suggested that the Bass Strait's strong prevailing currents might have carried his relatively light aircraft a long distance before it finally sank.
  • Another proposed possibility is suicide, although it has been suggested that he had a content lifestyle.
  • Brian Dunning, in a recent episode of the Skeptoid podcast has speculated that Valentich became disorientated while attempting to replicate the second of the opening sequences from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind noting similarities in the Valentich ATC transcript and the air traffic control dialog from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
  • A 2013 review of the radio transcripts and other data by astronomer and retired U.S. Air Force pilot James McGaha and author Joe Nickell proposes that the inexperienced Valentich was deceived by the illusion of a tilted horizon for which he attempted to compensate and inadvertently put his plane into a downward, so-called "graveyard" spiral which he initially mistook for simple orbiting of the plane. According to the authors, the G-forces of a tightening spiral would decrease fuel flow, resulting in the "rough idling" reported by the pilot. McGaha and Nickell also propose that the apparently stationary, overhead lights that Valentich reported were likely the planets Venus, Mars, and Mercury along with the bright star Antares which would have behaved consistent with the pilots description.
 

Gambeir

Celestial
Rome, Italy
Date: 1526
Time: unknown
The Italian inquisitor Paulus Grillandus, whose Tractatus de Hereticis et Sortilegiis had almost as much impact as the Malleus Maleficarum, wrote that a countryman in Rome saw his wife take all her clothes off and go out of the house. The next morning he asked his wife where she had been all night. At first she refusal to tell him, but when he started to become more aggressive she told him she went to a witch gathering. He demanded that she take him with her the next time, and not long after this they were both “transported” by two he-goats. However, she warned her husband not to pronounce the word “God” during his time with the demons, to which he agreed. The man saw many famous people at the meeting, all of whom declared their devotion to the Devil in a ceremony.
There was a dance and a banquet. The man noticed that the food on the table lacked salt. Of course, salt has purifying qualities associated with warding off evil spirits and was therefore shunned by demons and fairies alike. The man was unaware of this fact, much to his misfortune. He asked for the salt and, when he thought he had it in his hand, exclaimed, “Thank God, the salt has come!”
Suddenly, everything disappeared before his eyes. Men, women, tables and dishes evaporated and everything went dark. He found himself naked in the countryside, in the cold night. At dawn he met some shepherds who informed him he was near Benevento, some 100 miles from Rome. They gave him something to eat and clothes to wear, and eventually he found his way home, begging for money on the way. When he reached Rome, starving and exhausted, the first thing he did was to report his wife, who was forced to confess and promptly burnt at the stake.

Source: Malleus Maleficarum: The Classic Study of Witchcraft, Part I, Question I, 7, trar Montague Summers (London: Bracken Books, 1996).

Wonderful story. Nathaniel Hawthorne (Nathaniel Hawthorne) seems to have read quite a lot of these works. The story of Young Goodman Brown bears a striking resemblance.
Young Goodman Brown - Wikipedia
 

Gambeir

Celestial
Edinburgh, Scotland
Date: 1648(exact date not given)
Time: unknown
In the spring of 1670, Captain of the Town Guard and highly respected preacher Major Thomas Weir (ca. 1596-1670) and his sister Jane Weir confessed to a series of terrible offenses. Thomas’ confession began with a detailed summary of his sex crimes which was horrible enough in the eyes of the city officials in Edinburgh. But it was when he admitted to being a witch and a sorcerer that the authorities became truly anxious. Weir said that he and his sister had had dealings with demons and fairies, to whom they had duly sold their immortal souls. The Devil appeared to Jane in the guise of a midget-like woman. Both she and her brother had been carried off by strange entities on several occasions. They said that in 1648 they were transported between Edinburgh to Musselburgh in a fiery “coach,” and they had also been taken for a ride in a similarly fiery “chariot” from their house in the West Bow (a z-shaped street near Edinburgh Castle) to Dalkeith. It is interesting that Thomas Weir was driven to coming clean about his private life because of the guilt he felt from having consorted with devils. Major Weir was an active member of a strict Protestant sect. Betraying God was, for him, his least forgivable crime. However, he was old and sick and he had been an important figure in society for as long as people could remember, so at the beginning he had trouble persuading the courts to arrest him. When at last he and his sister were remanded in custody she alone was convicted of witchcraft, while he was “only” found guilty of fornication, incest and bestiality (!).
Jane Weir was hanged and burnt at the stake at Grass Market on April 12th, 1670, and her brother the day before. Tradition holds that both refused to repent on the scaffold, crying out that they wished to die as shamefully as they deserved. When requested to pray on the eve of his execution, Major Weir answered, screaming, “Torment me no more-I am tormented enough already!” This gives the impression that he was convinced of the physical nature of his acts and of his contact with malign spirits, as does his reply on the scaffold when asked to beg God for mercy: “Let me alone – I will not – I have lived as a beast, and I must die as a beast!” Jane Weir’s final words were along the same lines.

Source: Charles McKay, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841)

Good Lord, seriously, he's convicted of having sex with dogs and goats, but she's burned at the stake with her brother?
Nothing going on there huh? Love how it's the women whom are repeatedly blamed in some of these stories.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
UFO ENCOUNTER AND ABDUCTION ON MASSANUTTEN MOUNTAIN, VA

Date: 26 November 1993

Bruce Cornet, M.S., Ph.D.

My family and I spent Thanksgiving with my wife's mother, Lynn Huff, in Massanutten, Virginia, a ski resort located in the Blue Ridge mountains near Harrisonburg. I discovered while there a past history of abductions in that community, one of which resulted in the death of my wife's brother Bobby in 1980 by doctors administering a tranquilizer following his Travis Walton-type abduction (He had a fatal allergic reaction to the drug).

Ironically, Lynn lives on Hopkins Lane. I was preoccupied with going to skytop overlook at the top of the ridge overlooking the ski resort and valley to the east. I wanted to go there around 8:00 pm and look for unusual lights in the sky. My wife, Pat, wanted to come along. We drove our van up the switchback road to the parking lot near the top of the ridge, and parked at the opposite end of the parking lot from the entrance, looking out over the valley below.

There was one vehicle parked there. I set up my camera and tripod in front of the van near the guard rail. A security patrol car (Chevy caprice) arrived shortly after we arrived and then returned back down to the valley. The vehicle that was there when wearrived soon left also. I took a two minute exposure of the lights in the valley.

The time was 8:18 pm.

ufova.JPG

Drawing of what we saw leaving after the abduction.

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SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Good Lord, seriously, he's convicted of having sex with dogs and goats, but she's burned at the stake with her brother?
Nothing going on there huh? Love how it's the women whom are repeatedly blamed in some of these stories.
in 1648 a lot of kooky ideas were floating around...
 
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