Classic Mysteries
All that glitters is not gray
by: Albert S. Rosales
Anyone not familiar with UFO history and its ‘beginnings’ pictures a typical alien as a short gray emaciated creature with a large bulbous head, large black oval-shaped eyes, very thin and long extremities and probably not wearing any clothing. In their minds, that’s a typical ‘alien’ and rightly so, as most modern Hollywood movies and television series picture exactly that type of alien, even television commercials show the ‘typical gray’ humanoid or alien. And, not familiar with UFO history and the different types of aliens reported through the years, the casual UFO student accepts this, no questions asked, and points out that ‘little grays’ were recovered at the alleged Roswell UFO site, that Betty and Barney Hill were abducted by grays (as the Hollywood version of the event shows) and that even Travis Walton, was abducted by even weirder gray little creatures like those displayed by the movie “Fire in the sky”. Of course they don’t know that the Hill’s actually encountered taller gray colored and uniformed humanoids, closer to humans than to grays and that Walton might have indeed encountered short gray (clothed) humanoids but also a different type of humanoid known in modern UFO parlance as “Nordics” or blonds, wearing tight fitting blue coveralls, a man and woman.
As a UFO historian and investigator, I would like to point to some facts about the myriad of supposed alien visitors to our lonely planet. First I would like to disagree with Hollywood and possibly some researchers, and point out that not all our ‘visitors’ are ‘grays’. While analyzing the French UFO wave of 1954 and Vallee’s classic “Passport to Magonia,” I failed to find nary a single report describing a ufonaut or humanoid which resembled the modern day gray alien. The following is a typical report of the time:
On October 6 1954, around 2330, near the village of Cozes, Charente Maritime, a woman riding a bicycle saw in a field an object shaped like a turtle, surmounted by a cupola. It emitted first an orange light, then green, dimming and brightening alternately. Two human forms appeared nearby, one of which carried a shaft or rod and seemed to be looking for something. A violet light from the object illuminated the beings and the woman was able to make out two small human-like faces behind the faceplates in their helmets. But instead of noses, she could see only two small holes just above the mouth; and instead of the two usual eyes, she saw a single eye in the middle of the forehead. Letting out a scream she pedaled furiously from the area. The object (and the two beings, presumably), disappeared, emitting a slight hum. (Mesnard & Bigorne). This is indeed a very untypical UFO related alien or occupant, one that curiously has been reported in more modern times. A few days later, on the evening of October 12 1954, in Montlucon, a railroad employee saw a 12-foot metallic ‘torpedo’ resting beside a diesel oil tank. Nearby was a man “either covered with hair or wearing a long, hairy overcoat.” The witness (a man named Laugere) approached the ‘man’ and asked what he wanted; the reply was not understood, but he thought he heard the word ‘gasohol’ (!). Laugere went to report to the stationmaster, but before he had gone 100 yards the machine took off. (Vallee, Passport to Magonia). There is even a case on October 13 1954, at Montimont, in which the witness (Mr. Sadi Levy) encountered in a field near this city two small beings encased in a green phosphorescence, with big eyes, and a small tail. (One of the earliest references to “little green men”). (Kottmeyer Anomalist # 10). Most if not all of the remainder entity reports distributed among France, Italy, United Kingdom, and some others countries described human-like occupants, small dwarfs with proportional features, small hairy dwarfs and even a report of a winged flying entity in Greece. (Thanassis Vembos).
During the sixties and even early to middle 80’s, the “grays” were not yet your stereotypical ‘aliens.’ Sure many of the encounters reported were with short humanoid-type creatures, but that was the only resemblance to the Hollywood portrayed gray alien. A very un-gray type encounter and perhaps even less untypical encounter was reported by a witness years later in the August 2007 ‘Your True Tales” column of “About.com/Paranormal Phenomena”.
It took place sometime in 1964, in Rio Bravo Tamaulipas, Mexico. One afternoon, while a group of friends were skipping school, they heard a loud noise and saw a very large metallic sphere coming over a hill. The sphere had a clear window in the front and inside was a being that was apparently ‘driving the sphere.’ The boys could not really describe the being as human and according to some of the witnesses the being was ape-like and not wearing any clothing. Sounds more like a Bigfoot type creature operating a UFO! The 1965 UFO/humanoid wave in South America so aptly described by Bowen/Hanlon/Creighton in the excellent work “The Humanoids” described a mix of humanoids of all sorts. Giants, man-like, and of course lots of little men reports but none that resembled our modern grays. In his classic work “Passport to Magonia” Jacques Vallee includes a summary of hundreds of close encounters and humanoid encounters worldwide, and all sorts of supposed aliens were again described and yes, some were short and man-like, but not at all like the grays. It seems to me that actual reports describing short gray aliens began in the United States in the middle of the 70’s, like the previously mentioned Walton abduction, the Sgt Moody abduction in August of 1975 depicts short gray aliens resembling ‘fetuses’, perhaps your true gray alien. In 1979, perhaps not a coincidence that the blockbuster movie “Close Encounters” was in 1978, actual reports describing short gray aliens began to emerge.
Of course, Hopkins books “Missing Time” and “Incident at Copley Woods” in which the main witness remembered most of her encounters via hypnotic regression, describing alleged events that occurred years before, opened up the door for the gray invasion. A series of authors after that focused mainly on such a type of alien, Streiber, Jacobs, etc. However, Streiber describes different types of aliens in conjunction with the gray visitors. Jacobs even theorized that there was only one type of alien involved, the short grays, and also tall grays which became even more common in the 90’s and the 2000’s and that all other type of humanoids reported were just holographic images by the mighty gray overlords. Of course, most authors and investigators tend to discard and ignore evidence that does not jibe with their theories. And studying and correlating hundreds of humanoid reports from worldwide sources I have noticed that most of the abductees reporting early abductions (40’s, 50’s etc) that include gray type aliens are memories gleaned from hypnotic regressions by investigators with their own agenda. I am not saying that there are no such beings or aliens visiting us (visiting? Maybe is more complicated than that), but they were definitely a “Johnny come lately” alien species. An in-depth study of entities reported in the former Soviet Union, from 1988 through 2005 (Rosales) show very few cases in which the witnesses described a typical alien ‘like the Hollywood movies’ that’s a verbatim quote from witnesses in that region, mostly from 2000 on. A typical report from the 1988-2000 period was like this one:
Sometime during May-June 1989, in the evening, near the village of Ortachala, south of Tbilisi Georgia (USSR) several witnesses, including 9-year-old Evgeniy Nikolaevich Gigauri and an older friend observed the flight of a round silvery object near this hamlet. When the object approached their position it appeared to be a silver oval-shaped craft that was semi-transparent in the center. They could see a humanoid entity inside. The entity resembled an elderly man wearing silvery clothing, which emitted a faint light. The man was in a sitting position, but visibly he appeared not to be operating any controls--his immovable hands were positioned on his knees or on some panel that was only faintly visible. No other details of the object’s interior could be seen. The UFO then turned slowly and flew towards the mountains south of Tbilisi. (Vadim A. Chernobrov “Chronicles of UFO Visits,” Moscow 2003).
Of course, most researchers are more familiar with the landings and encounters at Voronezh during that same period in which independent witnesses reported encountering giant aliens and robots. I must point out that there were at least 20 entity encounters in and around Voronezh from August 1989 to January 1990 and not just 3 to 4 as is popularly known.
As researchers we should all keep an open mind when dealing with purported encounters with strange entities and beings. I would say that we should be more aware of those claiming to have been abducted by ‘grays’ than someone reporting a tall human-like creature wearing a helmet and hovering above a street on a sort of hovering platform. The latter is probably more plausible.
Albert S. Rosales: Biography