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Reality Checking—Alternate Perceptions Magazine, March 2022



Dangerous UFOs and then those that heal!

by: Brent Raynes








UFO photos from the Island of Colares, Brazil, 1977.

Brazil has a whopping big history of high strange UFO encounters. Journalist Bob Pratt, who once was a big UFO skeptic, soon changed his mind after being assigned the UFO desk for the National Enquirer back in 1975. He was sent on assignments all over the world - Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Peru, Uruguay and Puerto Rico - but it was Brazil that became his favorite hunting ground for these phenomena. It was there too that he came across the most frightening and deadly sounding encounters. It was right after his fourteenth trip to that country in May 2003 that he shared with me some background on what he had uncovered.

“Some people were paralyzed during encounters, unable to move or resist,” Bob told me. “Some were burned by UFOs as they tried to run away. Others hid wherever they could as UFOs tried to find them. Still others found themselves in the grip of a powerful, invisible force as UFOs tried to pull them up into the craft. And sometimes people were taken away.” “UFO occupants have used hooks to snatch victims from the ground in Brazil, they have dropped scalding liquids on others, apparently trying to make them let go of a tree or bush that they were clinging to, and in one case a UFO dropped a slimy substance on a farmer as he tried to hide. Still another UFO dropped a glowing bubble about a meter and a half wide that exploded silently in the faces of a man and his wife riding on a motorcycle.”

“Sometimes people weren’t safe even in their own homes because beams of light from UFOs would pierce tile roofs as if they didn’t exist and burn someone inside.” “Most of these people recovered from their injuries, but several were permanently impaired. I have also investigated a few cases in which victims died during or after an encounter.”

I reviewed a number of such cases in the September 2020 issue of this magazine, under Classic Mysteries, for anyone who might like to read more detailed information on this matter. And, of course, there’s Bob’s thought-provoking book, UFO Danger Zone: Terror and Death in Brazil – Where Next? (1996) One of the strangest UFO waves had occurred on the island of Colares, at the mouth of the Amazon River. Bob had visited this small, isolated island four times, and like Dr. Jacques Vallee, as described in his book Confrontations: A Scientist’s Search for Alien Contact (1990), interviewed Dr. Wellaide Cecim Corvalho de Oliveira, who during the massive UFO wave there beginning in 1977, that lasted more than a year, treated approximately 40 patients, ages 18 to 50, who all had the same bizarre story. They would report being struck by a white light beam, about 3 inches in diameter, that would strike their neck and torso areas, leaving skin burns that felt “almost as hot as a cigarette burn” to the witnesses. Afterwards, the light beam would gradually retract and disappear from sight. The victim’s burns were like a bad sunburn, and in the center of those burns there were often two small puncture like marks. These people would be suffering headaches, be trembling, experiencing dizziness, and their red blood cell levels would drop. After about seven days they usually would return to normal again. However, in the case of one woman, she died of a heart attack about 8 hours after the doctor had treated large burns on her chest. In another case, a fisherman died the same day he was burned. At the time, because of the activity, a strong military presence (along with journalists) was on the island observing what was happening. For some reason, the Brazilian Air Force would not allow an autopsy to be done of the man.

“The Colares area flap began around September 1977 and lasted well into 1978, but the Air Force didn’t begin looking into it until mid-October and then only because the mayors of several villages under siege by the UFOs begged the Air Force to come help them,” Bob explained to me. The team from the Brazilian Air Force that initially arrived on the island then, according to Jacques Vallee, consisted of two officers and a dozen men who included engineers, geologists, and a biologist, that later expanded into a 40 man team who, in all, reportedly got some 300 photographs and several motion picture reels of the activity.

Initially the Colares physician was skeptical of the reported attacks, suspecting that the claims were inspired by local superstitions over what the population called “chupas,” a supernatural presence that supposedly steals one’s energy and blood. However, as the patients continued to visit her with their anomalous complaints and the reports of UFOs mounted, with a military presence visiting the island community to observe, film, and document what was taking place, she realized that what was happening was more serious than she had first thought. Then one evening in November 1977, around 6 p.m., Dr. Carvalho saw one of the objects herself. She described it as a metallic cylindrical shaped object. Her secretary fainted upon seeing it but the doctor was mesmerized by it. She watched it for more than 10 minutes, walking down the street watching it as it seemed to dance in the sky, at a distance estimated at 40 meters. ‘People were shouting at me to run, but I didn’t,” she told Bob Pratt. “I was too fascinated.”

The situation in Brazil was so bizarre that Vallee found himself speculating: “Was someone testing an exotic weapon over the vast Interior of Brazil, where communications are almost nil and where chances of observation are small?” But then, while acknowledging how that hypothesis might explain some cases, Vallee noted how one soon ran into a “logical contradiction.” For example, he cited the account of a prospector named Manuel, described as a rugged outdoorsman of Parnarama, age 40, who one night back in 1982 informed his family he was going out to hunt. His wife tried to talk him out of it as a man just down the street from them had died people thought of a chupa encounter. But the man laughed it off, saying he didn’t believe in such things. But around 10 p.m. two UFOs appeared above him and began shining a bright beam of light at him. He fired at the lights but there was no effect and so he began running. From 10 p.m. till 5 a.m. the UFO engaged in hot pursuit of Manuel. Each time the light would find him and he’d be hit by the beam he would feel weak and fall, and there was a horrible foul odor too that had he not ripped off a piece of his clothing to cover his nose, he felt he would have been overwhelmed. Vallee continued to wonder: “What kind of sophisticated weapons system would need to chase an easy target like Manuel for seven hours through the underbrush without once getting a clean shot? We already have helicopters that give off no light and make no sound, and we have many Rambo types who would have nailed Manuel between the eyes with one bullet from a rifle with an infrared scope before he had made a single move to leave his hammock.” The Brazilian journalists as well took numerous and excellent photographs of the UFO activity. However, Vallee pointed out that while the newspaper archives from that period can still be examined, that all of the negatives produced from those newspaper photographers were purchased from the publishers by some unnamed American firm. “Somebody in the United States owns a collection of records that contains proof of the reality of the phenomenon,” Vallee added.

But then there was the case of Bernadete Justiniano Gomes where, as Denise Uchoa Slater told me, “a UFO gave back life, and that really puzzled Bob Pratt. He was just overtaken by it. It was a huge thing in the press at the time.”

I was introduced to Denise Uchoe Slater, the granddaughter of General Alfredo Moacyr Uchoa, back in December 2005 at a UFO conference sponsored by the Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Cynthia Newby Luce, who had a master’s degree in experimental psychology and anthropology, and had been living in Brazil herself for many years, provided our introduction. She had also served at times as Bob Pratt’s assistant and Portuguese translator on a number of his investigations in that country. Bob was planning to attend the conference and reunite with Jacques Vallee [who had written the Foreward to his book UFO Danger Zone] and again with Cynthia, and Denise was looking forward to meeting Bob for the first time as he had sent her five audio tapes of an interview he had done with her famous grandfather on one of Bob’s many trips to Brazil, all done in English, which was a real treasure to her as now her two daughters could hear their great-grandfather’s story too. It was even the first time that Denise had heard her grandfather speak in English. Denise had always wanted to meet Vallee as well. [Thanks to Denise and her father, General Paulo Roberto Uchoa, that audio interview was made available to me to share with you my readers, and anyone interested can visit the December 2020 issue of this magazine to listen to it]

Sadly though, Bob passed unexpectedly on November 21st, just a couple weeks prior to the conference. I was looking forward to meeting Bob again myself. He had investigated so many extraordinary cases and was always so willing to share information and ideas; a very trustworthy, capable investigator who always seemed very helpful, friendly and outgoing. General Alfredo Uchoa had served as a professor at the Brazilian Army Military Academy where he had taught mathematics and physics for twenty years. He was also a parapsychologist who had a vast knowledge of Theosophy and ufology. He was also a UFO experiencer who had had a number of extraordinary UFO encounters. He would also receive telepathic impressions from the beings he was in touch with, Denise explained, and how he described how the earth was being visited by different groups of ETs and how not all of them were friendly towards us. Shortly after our meeting, Denise Slater shared with me one of General Uchoe's most remarkable UFO cases – one that involved healing! It’s one of those cases that whenever we reconnect and converse on the UFO subject, it comes up again and again.

As she first explained to me in 2006: “Now there’s one story of him that really fascinates me. I had told Bob Pratt and he did not know what to do with it. In Bob’s book he wrote about the deaths in Brazil caused by the UFOs. But in the story I am about to tell you is how a UFO gave back life. It was a very big thing in Brazil at the time. It was in all the news everywhere. It was a huge thing in the press at the time that it happened.

“Basically, my grandfather and my grandmother took into their care this poor girl, who became their maid. But they loved her so much. In Brazil this is a common thing. There’s a lot of poor people. You just bring them into your home and you give them a job, like to do light housekeeping, and you give them everything. Room and board, shelter, clothing, health care. The person becomes a part of the family and just works in the house. And there was this girl, called Bernadete, and she was my grandmother’s cook. She was with them since she was very young. [Born June 5, 1952, Bernadete became a housekeeper for the Uchoa’s in 1968, was diagnosed with Chagas in 1971, and was hospitalized for four months in 1973 – editor]. Unfortunately, she had contracted, at a very early age, a disease that is very common in Brazil, in the rural area where she was from, in the state of Goias. It is called “disease of Chagas.” Around Brasilia there is so much poverty in the countryside. People built their homes out of clay, like little shacks, and there’s this beetle that lives in the cracks of that clay. This beetle walks around at night and bites people, and when they bite people they contract the disease, called the disease of Chagas. It takes a few years but it kills them. It enlarges their heart. The heart becomes enlarged in the chest, and because of course you have the bones your heart gets strangled inside yourself and you die. It bursts your heart. Until today there’s no cure for it. It’s very rare. It’s only transmitted by this beetle. Very poor people from those areas are the only ones who contract it. Of course, Brazil is not a rich country. There’s not a lot of money for scientific research to take care of that one disease in particular, even though there are several universities that carry on research about this disease. “So Bernadete came to my grandparents house and she had that disease. We all loved her. She was dying from it. She was in and out of the hospital all of the time. Then she was on her death bed in the military hospital, HFA. My grandfather just got so upset because he was going to UFO sighting after UFO sighting, seeing these spectacular phenomena, but he couldn’t heal her. Nothing could heal her, so he decides to challenge these aliens, saying ‘Okay, I can see that you’re very sophisticated, that you can show yourselves with light, beams and transport yourselves in extraordinary manners, but can you heal? As far as I know the only person that can heal is Jesus Christ.’ My grandfather was also a healer. He tried to heal her, but he couldn’t heal her… He sent them a telepathic message with a challenge: ‘I want to see if you’re capable of healing.’ He went on, ‘I have this one person, who is dying in the hospital, can you heal her?’ And you know what answer came also in a telepathic manner? ‘Yes! Bring her here!’ So he did …To make the long story short: he went to the hospital and against the advice (of course) of all of the doctors he gets Bernadete out of there…She was dying. He got her out of the hospital.”

On August 17, 2010, Denise and her father General Paulo Uchoa gave an excellent presentation on the work of General Alfredo Moacyr Uchoa and the Bernadete case to the MUFON LA group in California. Here’s a YouTube video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T42_hqu-FNw&sns=em

After meeting Denise at the ARE UFO Conference, Cynthia Newby Luce soon became aware of the Bernadete case, finding it quite fascinating, and asked whether medical records had been secured. Denise didn’t know if the files still existed. Cynthia insisted she wanted to meet Bernadete, and so in June 2006 she and Denise flew down to Brasilia and interviewed Bernadete at Denise’s parents’ home there. Luckily, in April 2010, Denise’s father accompanied Bernadete to the Armed Forces Hospital (HFA) in Brasilia and she was able to sign for the release of the complete medical records to be given into her possession, 37 years later, which she immediately handed over to General Paulo Roberto Uchoa for safe keeping.




Photo of Bernadete Justiniano Gomes, Denise Slater, and Cynthia Newby Luce (L to R), June 2006, Brasilia, Brazil.


A description of what happened that healed Bernadete should come from her. Here are excerpts of what Bernadete described in a June 2006 interview Cynthia, Denise and General Paulo Uchoa recorded with her. At the MUFON LA conference they played a video where Bernadete described to them back then in Portuguese what she remembered happened, and during which time Denise at the California conference followed along with it, translating it into English for the audience.

Bernadete was very familiar with General Alfredo Uchoa’s active involvement with UFOs. He took her to an isolated location where the UFO was to come to help her. “He took me there and told me that I was very sick,” she recalled. “He brought me a small stool and I sat there on that little stool and then he told me a light will come down and there is no reason for you to be afraid. He left me there all by myself. It was nighttime. Then all of a sudden a blue light came.”

She said that there was a voice from the blue light that spoke to her and instructed her to raise her left arm. Next it felt like she had gotten an injection in her left arm and on the left side of her neck. It was painful she said. “It hurt so much that my heart hurt too,” she explained. General Paulo Uchoa asked, “So it hurt your heart?” “Yes, in my heart, as if the shot was given straight on my heart,” she said. “Then it told me, just like that, ‘You will live many years. You will heal.’ …I saw nobody. Just that light talking to me. ‘You will heal. You will live many years.’ Then it said, ‘You can go now.’ So I went to where the General was. When I got there everyone wanted to know what had happened. [There was a small group of people – editor] Then I told them… With the flashlight they could see the round redness on my arm and the red circle on my neck.”

“After that I started to improve. Then I went to the doctor. Then I came back to the hospital to be hospitalized again on a Tuesday. The doctor had told me to come back to remove the water from my heart because the heart was surrounded by water…I rested.

“On Wednesday they took me to the surgery room to remove the water…but they did not find the water. It was dry. They could not explain it. Then one doctor looked at the other doctor and the other doctor looked at the other doctor and they talked and then they said, ‘Let’s take her back to the room and let’s repeat all the tests.’ Then I went back to the room and on the next day they did an electrocardiogram and the other tests but there was no more water. The heart was normal. Then four days later they released me. …I went back home. The doctor had told the General that I did not have ….the Chagas disease… and still (they) do not have a cure.”

Asked if she was afraid, Bernadete replied: “No, I was not afraid. I was so sick, so weak, that I was no longer afraid of anything. I was afraid of nothing. I think I was not even afraid of death. I never believed in death.”

Asked if General Uchoa and the others had seen the light, she replied: “He was the one making the contact. He was the one who saw the blue light and told me I could go there where the light was approaching…Then I went by myself. They stayed far away. …They all saw the light, and when he saw the light approaching he said, ‘Go where the light is.’ I went there. I was surrounded by the blue light.”

Next asked how long this experience lasted, she said that “it lasted about 15 minutes.” Then asked about the mark on her arm and neck, if a hole or puncture was left, she said there wasn’t any. Just the marking.



------------------------------------------------- What happened next?

“It was not something, at the time, that was shared only with the UFO research community, or the people that study UFOs,” Denise told me. “It was national news. You know how movie theaters show short movies before a feature presentation?”

“Previews?” I remarked.

Denise replied: “Previews! Right. I remember that for a long time every time I went to see a movie, in the movie theaters, the only preview that showed was Bernadete, my grandfather, and my father was there too, giving interviews about her case. It was a national phenomenon. It was open in the press for everybody to see and I’m sure that national archives of movies in Brasilia will have that.”

“I have another friend at the University of Brasilia who is a biologist also and his dissertation thesis for his master’s was the disease of Chagas, and to this date there is no cure for it.”



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Here is a website that Denise created to honor and provide information about her grandfather: http://www.general-alfredo-moacyr-uchoa.com/

Sadly, Bernadete passed away back in 2021. “She was 69 when she died in a tragic car accident on June 11,” Denise wrote me. “Her second husband was driving. It was nighttime, on a country road. The two cars had a front collision. She was taking some of her birthday cake to someone she knew. I was here two days before her birthday on June 9. I was in Brasilia visiting my parents. My father tried calling her all day on her birthday. It was always hard getting in touch with her by phone as she and her husband lived on a farm with no internet or phone. She normally would have to go to a neighbor’s house to call my dad. He was finally able to speak to her on her birthday. And he passed the phone to me. I was able to hear that sweet and kind voice I always loved from my childhood. Two days later came the very tragic news, one of her sons called my father. They both served in the Army and they always looked up to my dad. Very sad. My dad was devastated.”

I recently discovered in reading Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (2021) by James T. Lacatski, D.Eng., Colm A. Kelleher, Ph.D., and George Knapp, how the Bigelow Aerospace Advance Space Studies (BAASS) had sent two separate investigative teams to Brazil to look into the UFO activity that had gone on there, and how General Paulo Roberto Uchoa had briefed them on the Brazilian Air Force’s report Operation Plate regarding the Colares incidents of 1977-78. Also was mentioned how General Uchoa was then working to interview and obtain “medical records of a woman who was allegedly cured of chagas disease after a UFO encounter.”

And, as you’ve just read, that was only a small part of this huge and incredible saga.


Friday, March 29, 2024