2015 Conference Summary
"The Media - MIBs - and Orbs"
Rick Hilberg Receives MUFON of Ohio
"Lifetime Achievement" Award at 2015 Conference
Rick Hillberg
Our 2015 conference began with the presentation of a lifetime achievment award to Rick Hilberg for his outstanding contributions to the field of ufology.
Here's a brief bio of Rick...
Rick Hilberg attended his first organized UFO meeting in December of 1958 and instantly became
fascinated with the mystery of the "flying saucers" as they were then called. He became active in
several small groups in the years after that and eventually decided to edit and publish his own
newsletter on the subject in 1962. That little publication, first done on a spirit duplicator,
would turn into his "original" "UFO Magazine" which was professionally printed and considered one
of the best UFO publications during the 1960s. "UFO Magazine" ran articles by many of the leading
ufologists of the time, and covered the full spectrum of the UFO scene for its many readers.
In 1970 Hilberg sold his interests in "UFO Magazine" to Allan Manak and Ron Pelger of "Flying
Saucer Digest" and joined the staff of FSD as an associate editor. Hilberg became a co-editor
of the publication in 1990 when its then long time editor Robert S. Easley stepped down. Upon
founding editor Allan Manak's untimely death in 1999, Hilberg took over the editorship of FSD and
continues to publish it on a quarterly basis. FSD remains one of the last traditional print
"ufozines" still in existence. FSD is now in its 208th issue, and still going strong after its
initial founding in 1967.
Rick has also published several other newsletters over the years including "UFO Magazine News
Bulletin" and "Weirdology" magazine to name but two. Since 1997 Hilberg has issued at least one
booklet addressing a specific aspect of the UFO or fortean mystery, the latest of which has just
been released; his "Rick Hilberg's Book of Weirdology".
He is proud to have been one of the
founders of the Congress of Scientific Ufologists ( which later became called the National UFO
Conference ) back in 1964. This was the first serious attempt to hold annual conventions that
stressed rational and objective UFO claims and theories.
Rick is a board member of MUFON of Ohio and serves as its Historian. We are proud to have Rick as the first recipient of the MUFON of Ohio Lifetime Achievement award.
Speaker summaries...
Terry Ray
Terry Ray’s talk
centered on his research
into the proliferation of
orange orbs on the world.
He gave a brief
introduction explaining that
he first saw the orange
orbs in 2013 in Ocean
City, Maryland. His
research showed that they were NOT Chinese sky lanterns, and convinced
MUFON to create a panel called “Project Orange”,
which Terry heads up, to study the phenomena.
After Terry gave a brief introduction, he began
his presentation with “questions and answers” in
the beginning instead of at the end of the talk. The
audience asked great questions in which many
revelations about the orbs were revealed.
Following is an itemized list of the disclosures, not
necessarily in the chronological order that the
questions were asked.
Orange orbs are a new phenomenon in the UFO
world. They are seen “all over the world, like
mosquitos.” They have been observed alone, in
threes, or eight or nine. The most ever seen at one
time was several hundred.
Orange orbs look identical to the setting sun;
there are no sharp edges. They are different sizes
and colors. More specifically, they are big, ranging
from 50 to 300 feet. While mostly orange, they have
been seen to turn different colors (white, yellow,
green and rainbow).
They do all kinds of maneuvers and blink on or
off. They’ve been seen to make a “big dipper”.
A number of ‘vehicles’ can reside within an orange
orb. They have been seen to both split and merge
together. They frequently discharge glittering
orange stuff.
They are inhabited by two types of entities. There
are the muscular, eight-to-nine feet tall people,
wearing tight fitting suits, and have normal eyes.
Then there are the three foot tall people with larger
heads.” (The descriptions of the smaller ones are
similar to those of the “Grays”.) These two types
are sometimes seen together. When seen
together, the taller ones stand around while the
smaller ones are noted to be “playing”. It’s almost
like adults and children. No one has heard them
speak. Some witnesses have felt like they were
communicating with them.
The orbs have been observed to shoot a blue
beam down for transporting people. However, they
do not appear to abduct people (outside of maybe a
cow or two). They are not known for this.
However, there have been a few incidents
purported. Some hunters saw two tall people around an uncloaked orb/vehicle trying to fix it. The
hunters decided to leave, but “they” pulled them
into the craft. The hunters said disgusting things
were done to them. Then they were let out.
There are red orbs which are grapefruit size and
noted to be associated with the larger orange orbs.
These are probes. These have been witnessed to
go through walls. The red orbs can go into houses.
These tend to show up when a group of people are
standing outside. They get very close to the
people, sometimes within six inches, and scan
them up and down.
The orange orbs have underwater bases. In the
United States there are four. Two are off the coast
of Florida (Sarasota and Miami areas), one off the
Coast of California (Los Angeles area), and one in
eastern Lake Erie (Presque Isle area). Most orbs
are seen in Ohio, Florida, and California. (Not
surprising.) They appear to come out at 8:30 pm in
the evening and return to base by 10:30 pm. They
seem to have a traffic pattern. (For example, Miami
orbs fly north up the east coast, and Terry saw
them returning south at 10:30 pm.) They are
frequently seen flying into thunderstorms.
The orbs have been seen to attach themselves to
the perimeter of big black triangular craft. Terry
thinks the entities may board the triangular craft for
recreational purposes.
The orbs are growing in number and touching
down more often. There’s been at least a 10-fold
increase in 10 years. More people (entities) are
coming out of them. Terry said they deliberately
want to be seen. They are conditioning us not be
afraid of them. More and more will be observed.
“They are not stealthy.” This is a ‘phased contact’
happening. There’s actually going to be physical
contact in the not too distant future. They are
coming in peace, and definitely want avoid
confrontation. You will see them cluster around big
cities. But they avoid Washington D.C., probably
because of all the security cover such as surface to
air missiles, etc. Their disclosure is obviously to
people, but not to a government. The beings are
both concerned and cautious about religions and
do not want to crush the culture.
Watch for them on the 4th of July after the Grand
Finale of fireworks displays. Stay awhile and they will come out. They know you will be looking up to
see them.
We were given instructions on how to
differentiate between Chinese sky lanterns and
orbs. Chinese lanterns go with the wind, do not
look like an orb, don’t move around each other, and
make no turns. The orbs can go against the wind,
look different, can move around each other, and
make turns.
Terry ended his talk by discussing the MUFON
“Project Orange” endeavor. He said we know
where the bases are. He wants to stake them out
and get a dive team to go down during the day.
Hopefully he will have the funding to do this. Any
volunteers? (Editor’s comment.)
He included a short you tube video of what was reported as orange orbs being seen from a boat on a lake for over 15 minutes.
Terry is a professional tap dancer and had a show scheduled in Pennsylvania the afternoon of our conference and had to leave early so was not able to participate in the panel discussion at the end of the days activities.
"The Complete Story of the Worldwide
Invasion of the Orange Orbs" is his book on the subject
James Fox
James Fox’s
presentation was a
personal trip down
memory lane
concerning his
experience in the
media, especially
dealing with UFOs.
We were treated to a very entertaining and
fascinating story of his journey. He expressed his
feeling of “obligation” to present the true facts on
the UFO phenomena. He said people have a right
to know the most significant event happening to the
human race. His personal feeling regarding the
media is: if they can’t deny it, they ridicule it.
James was close to his father Charles Fox who
wrote for newspapers and magazines. His father
was struck with Multiple Sclerosis when James was
three years old. In later years he assisted his
father as he traveled to locations for interviews for
news stories. So it was a natural that he acquired
his father’s skills for interviewing and got into the
film making profession.
When James told his father he wanted to make
a UFO documentary, Charles was skeptical. His
father was a non-believer. His dad’s turning point
was when James interviewed astronaut Gordon
Cooper about his sightings. His reasoning was that if an astronaut witnessed UFO events and talked
about it in public, it must be true.
There were antidotes of interviews with famous
people which included video clips and photographs.
These were very amusing and interesting. They
follow.
In his interview with the famous Steven
Hawking, James was questioning him on the
“String Theory”. James patiently waited for
Hawking to type his answer which took a very long
time as he pecked out one letter at a time with his
“machine”. When he had finished, James excitedly
took the note in great anticipation of an earthshattering reply. It read “I thought this meeting was
to talk about computers, not God.”
James decided he wanted to get Jimmy Carter
to say on tape that he saw a UFO. Carter was at a
book signing. He set up an “ambush” using his
father. He bought five to seven books. He then
wired a microphone on his father. A camera was
setup on the backside of a table. His father, in the
wheelchair, was rolled up to Carter, loaded with
books to sign. His father said, “Can you tell us
what happened to the UFO issue?” Carter said, “I
saw one but it disappeared.” He said there was an
investigation, and not much came out of it. We saw
the clip.
Another interview involved Governor Fife
Symington of Arizona on the Phoenix sighting in
1997. Symington said, “I saw that thing too. I was
a witness. I knew right away that this wasn’t from
this world.” He said that he made many inquiries
about it. Symington’s wife said after the event, “He
was white as a ghost.”
Symington almost got James an interview with
Bill Clinton. It seems Clinton owed Fife a favor. He
saved Bill from drowning in college days. He
dragged Clinton out of the “drink” by pulling on his
long hair. At any rate, Hillary was running for
senator at the time of the request. So the interview
didn’t happen.
He then discussed his projects and productions.
We saw interesting clips selected from some of
these.
James decided to do a National Press Club
event in 2007 in Washington D.C. He organized a
unique gathering of the most credible witnesses
from several countries, such as air force generals,
astronauts, military personnel, commercial pilots
and government officials. He had to raise $100,000
to bring them all in. We saw video clips from this
event.
Documentaries such as the well-known and
accurate “Out of the Blue” were produced in 2002.
He was strapped for money in this documentary.
He interviewed celebrity witnesses such as
President Gerald Ford and Gorden Cooper. “Out of
the Blue” was aired on TV’s Sci Fi Channel.
“I Know What I Saw” was produced as a film in
2009. James wanted to get this one into theaters.
He wanted a wider audience than shows like
“Hanger 1” which he said just “preach to the choir”.
There were lots of worries and obstacles. In the
end production standards did not suffice for a film.
So when it was finished, he sold it to the History
Channel for TV. However, the airing of this
production did two good things.
The first was Larry King sent Steven Spielberg a
note, which resulted in a private showing of the
production at Spielberg’s house. On July 6, 2009,
Spielberg sent King a letter about it, in which the
first sentence said “With great curiosity, I watched
the documentary you sent over and found it
compelling.” Later on in the letter he expressed a
wish for “disclosure”. James was excited about the
letter because he considered the word “compelling”
an endorsement. However he was not permitted to
release the contents of the letter by Larry King’s
staff. Recent inquiries to the staff were not
answered so he went public with it. We were
shown a slide of the letter.
Tracy Torme (movie producer and screenwriter,
as well as the famous “Velvet Frog” singer’s son
Mel Torme), also saw “I Know What I Saw” and
liked it. Torme wanted to do a documentary UFO
feature film with “everything accurate” although
actors would take some parts. This led to James’
new project “701”, which is in progress. He has
raised enough money to do 90% of the shooting. It
was named “701” because that’s the number of
cases that remained unexplained in the Project
Bluebook files (out of 12,618 cases). The Bluebook cases range from the years 1947 to 1969. This will
be a feature film. They will also do a four hour
mini-series for TV and the National Geographic
Channel. Then there’s the offer of a $100,000
reward for proof of an ET craft.
We were teased with clips of interviews from
“701”. There was the Kenneth Arnold sighting by
Mt. Rainier Washington in 1947. Then there were
three CE3 entity encounter events which include:
the Zimbabwe Incident witnessed by school
children (1992”); Lonnie Zamora’s UFO landing in
Socorro, NM (1964); and the Varginha, Brazil entity
incident witnessed by children (1996).
During questions and answers, James related
that he believes that UFOs are not dangerous. He
mentioned the best witness he ever met (Ricky
Sorrells) who was a deer hunter and metal worker.
He is a big man with a very pleasant personality.
James went to Stevensville, Texas after that event.
The witness observed a large UFO the size of two
department stores. He even stood under it. There
was no air disturbance. And, it took off “in a blink”.
Being religious, he was having a hard time with his
faith. He was harassed by helicopters constantly
going over his property. He called the military base
to have them stop. The reply was, “You stop
talking about your UFO.”
When James was finished he drew the symbol
Lonnie Zamora saw on the craft that landed in
Soccoro, New Mexico
UPDATE: The 701 Project later morphed into the documentary, "Phenomenon", now in public release.
Nick Redfern
Nick Redfern is a prolific writer on the subject of
UFOs and the paranormal.
We were treated to a
presentation of information
from his latest book “True
Stories of the Real Men in
Black”. This presentation
covered the history of the
Men-in-Black (MIB)
phenomenon.
He gave some of his background on how he
became interested in UFOs. His father, in the
Royal Air Force, was a “radar mechanic” in the
NATO exercise “Main Brace” held in the UK. UFOs
with unheard of maneuvers were observed. He
later told Nick about the incident. This piqued
Nick’s interest in UFOs. This eventually led to him
taking interest in MIBs.
Nick started with MIB history. About 1950,
Albert Bender was the first to attract international
attention in his writings about UFOs. He was a
strange individual. He lived in Bridgeport,
Connecticut and was also interested in the
paranormal and Edger Allen Poe. He converted his
attic into a chamber of horrors with occult creepy
stuff, which included spiders. He set up the IFSB
(International Flying Saucer Bureau). Then he
strangely appeared to be suddenly silenced. He
dissolved IFSB, and did not write about UFOs for
the next 10 years.
The story Bender tells on his estrangement from
the subject goes as follows, as indicated in his book
“Flying Saucers and the Three Men”. He would
walk to the movies every night. There would be
characters in black standing in the shadows
watching him, and in the theaters too. He said no
one else could see them. They had white
shimmering eyes, fedora hats and black ties. They
could materialize and dematerialize. The more he
delved into UFOs, the more he saw them.
In late 1953 in his bedroom, he smelled sulfur
and brimstone, and three figures showed up.
Through telepathic communication they told him to
get out of the UFO subject. He did not. They
appeared again to him and issued another warning.
He became paranoid, intimidated and frightened.
So in 1953 he walked away from the UFO subject.
Then Gray Barker took over where Bender left
off. He wrote about MIBs in “They Knew Too Much
about Flying Saucers”. Barker got to know Bender.
Bender became even more paranoid after this
book. He got back into the subject briefly. Then
Bender and Barker coauthored a book “Flying
Saucers and the Three Men”. Bender did a
promotion for the book, and then was never seen
again.
In the 1960s the second wave of investigations
began with Brad Steiger. He became interested
when a friend told him he was being followed in
London. They described weird, vampire type
people.
Tim Beckley became interested when UFO
investigators Jack and Mary Robinson told him that
they were intimidated by MIBs standing and
watching them. He called Jim Moseley, and he and
Jim drove over to Jack and Mary’s apartment in
Jersey City. They saw a man in a long black coat
and hat, and Jim snapped a picture. They stopped
the car, turned around, and he was gone.
Later in the 1960s John Keel came into the
picture. He wrote about Moth Man in Pt. Pleasant,
WV an area also known for its UFO sightings.
MIBs appeared to intimidate any witnesses.
Women in Black (WIB) began appearing at this
time. They come into houses posing as census
takers etc. In 1967 the Silver Bridge collapsed and
46 people were killed. Keel thought that Moth Man
appearances just before the collapse was a
warning of the pending event. The MIBs fit Bender
and Steiger’s descriptions.
Keel felt they were multi-dimensional, and
possibly represented a multi-dimensional police
force. This is also Nick’s opinion “they pop in and
out”. They are from another realm.
Nick brought up an association of MIBs with
Loch Ness monster sightings. The monster
sightings date back at least 1,500 years. Every
year, Ted Holiday would take three weeks of
vacation and go to the site in an attempt to get a photograph of the monster. In the 1970s Ted
Holiday was trying to photograph a possible
monster sighting, and the camera kept jamming.
He got the feeling someone was looking at him. He
turned around and saw a MIB (with a helmet and
‘oozing’ evil) watching him. A year later he had a
heart attack at the site where he saw the MIB. He
died young. His theory was that the MIB is a
sophisticated 3D program inserted into our world to
do a specific task. The MIBs typically appear at the
doorstep. All they do is attempt to silence people.
In the 1990s “Marie” created a group with
abduction experiences. Then weird things began
happening. She saw MIBs on her property, and
received strange calls. There were three types of
calls: electronic voice; strange sounds; dead
phone. The group disbanded because of these
events and the problems stopped.
Nick then focused his talk on “Who are MIBs”?
1) Government Theory: A few (not all) may be from
a “shadow agency” hiding truth by big business and
world individuals. The regular government doesn’t
know what’s going on. They dress up like real
MIBs to intimidate. Nick noted that the
government, FBI and military issued documents
which suggested they were all baffled by MIBs.
2) Time Traveler Theory: Nick thinks MIBs are not
primarily from the government. They look out-oftune. The clothing is 1950s. That is, they wear
fedoras, old clothing styles, drive 1950s cars. He
offered a theory. “What if they are time travelers?”
“What if a disaster occurs in 40-50 years with all
records destroyed, and the only things left are a
few records from the 1950s. Therefore, they might
come back to our time dressed like the 50s. In
many cases they ask, “What time is it?”
3) Demon Theory: A theory offered by a priest (Ray
Shane), and former Nebraska MUFON state
director, suggests they are demons masquerading
as ETs. His ‘disciples’ believed they were being
visited by demonic entities.
Nick mentioned that MIBs have visited people
tampering with Ouija boards. There is no UFO
component.
He noted that there appears to be vampire
parallels to the MIBs. He listed the commonalities
such as: vampires have to be invited in; usually
they turn up at night, they don’t come in unless
invited; when they do come in they threaten, then
leave, shuffling in a single file. People become ill
as they are being threatened, and feel the MIBs
were sucking energy when they looked at them.
There are paranormal aspects to it. Nick
advised not to get involved in the study unless you
can handle it.
He finished his presentation with a warning. If
you encounter MIBs “Don’t answer the door!
Don’t let anyone in!”
Nick Redfern is the author of more than 30 books on UFOs,
Bigfoot, lake monsters, the Abominable Snowman, and
Hollywood scandals.and has appeared on more than 70 TV shows.
Originally from the UK, Nick lives on the fringes of
Dallas, Texas.
He can be contacted at his blog:
http://nickredfernfortean.blogspot.com
Some pictures from this year's conference...
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