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Alternate Perceptions Magazine, March 2021


The Force Field in The Sky

by: Joseph Ule, with Further Remarks by John A. Keel





Reprinted from CAPER NEWS [Ramona Clark, editor]; reposted in Saucer Scoop, June 1969.

[Editor’s Note: Ramona Clark and I became very good friends and colleagues after we met in Mayport, Florida, back in 1973. I was in the U.S. Navy at the time and my ship [USS Paul, DE-1080] became homeported at the Mayport Naval Station. Shortly before I joined the Navy in 1972 I had briefly corresponded with Ramona, a serious researcher and someone who was also an experiencer herself, who, along with her 13 year old son and husband had had a very close encounter back in July 1967 with a domed disc right near the Mayport base. Within just a few days their home erupted with poltergeist activity and then a little later, always around 3 a.m., balls of light and apparitional humanoid figures would appear in their bedrooms.

Ramona had corresponded with John Keel on this article that had appeared in her Caper News, as well as Dr. Berthold Eric Schwarz, an imminent psychiatrist up in Montclair, New Jersey, who for years had been delving into psychic phenomena, and who around 1968 became acquainted with John Keel who convinced the good doctor to study the UFO cases too, as they were loaded with psychic phenomena. And so Dr. Schwarz did, and later wrote a two volume book entitled UFO Dynamics [1983], which even included a case I worked on up in Maine. Much of the material in this book [including my chapter] had previously appeared in England’s Flying Saucer Review, which many noted authors, including Keel, were contributing a lot of interesting material. FSR was open to high quality contributions from the global ufological community in those days.

Following Ramona’s article on what became known as the Key West Incident, John Keel submitted a follow-up report in Saucer Scoop, which will be included right after Ramona’s report. As he repeated the Caper News description of the initial January 1, 1969 incident verbatim I will leave that out and focus on the additional follow-up remarks that Keel made. – Brent Raynes, Editor]

The night of January 2, 1969, three very excited people came to our home. The mother of the young man, Mrs. De Witt Roberts, the young man, Manuel Lopex; and his girl companion, Miss Kay Russell. As my wife met them at the door, I was immediately struck by the pale and nervous appearance of the two young people. After preliminary introductions, the over-excited youngsters and I removed to one side of the livingroom while my wife and Mrs. Roberts entered into a discussion.

Young Manuel Lopex began in a broken and at first wandering fashion, to relate an astounding experience he and Kay had the night before while parked near Manuel’s home, in the rear area behind Food Fair Supermarket. At about 11:15 p.m. as they sat in the front seat of Manuel’s stationwagon, they were suddenly startled by a hollow, deep, penetrating sound from topside – as though it came through a vast, long tunnel. It was the type of sound associated with horror movies, they both said.

This caused them to look up and at the same time – came down a RAIN of apparently concentrated HAIL of slow-moving small needle-like pieces which hit a compact area of the windshield and front portion of the roof of the car. Then the awesome part of their experience began.

They both started to feel a sense of sudden warmth and the sensation of complete weightlessness as they felt an uncontrollable force tug at their solar plexus and travel upwards through their chests and into their heads to the top of their brains. They could not move. Tingling warm electric shudders and waves coursed throughout their whole bodies and an enormous sense of complete blankness came over them, as their eyes were guided upwards without any apparent volition of their own – and riveted upon a brilliant, silver-hued object, way out in the immensity of space. They had by then lost all sense of volition. They both related to me, as they looked upward they had the distinct feeling of penetrating millions of miles into the outer distances and the source of the silver light made it possible to look right through what appeared to be a dense cloud.

They felt as if they were looking through a force field which made it possible for them to penetrate space with their new power of vision. Their feelings were eerie, uncanny, but in no way harmful. They could not, or rather had no desire to fight this force field and actually they could not judge how long they were riveted by its powerful force.

They recalled a tapering funnel-like stream of light issuing from the silvery object to encompass the immediate area of the car. During the suspended state they once more heard the hollow deep tunnel, cryptic sound – and instantly the force field, ray and beam with its powerful despotic effect upon them disappeared.

They at once clasped hands and felt a ‘deep freeze’ chill – like dry ice, and the inability to let go, just as intensely cold objects will glue to the skin and resist all efforts toward removal without tearing the skin. When this condition vanished, they bolted out of the car, looked all around, and neither saw or heard anything.

In recalling the experience, Manuel said that upon the first notice of the deep hollow sound, he attempted to start the car and it refused to turn over. An inspection of the stationwagon showed small pittings on the windshield and the front portion of the roof caused by the ‘hail.’ Both Manuel’s hands and Kay’s hands showed the effects of their attempt to unclasp their hands. On Manuel’s right thumb tip and Kay’s left thumb, were cuts that bled.

In an interview with Kay’s aunt she expressed that the day after all this happened, Kay was in an “out of this world” state. It took some time to snap her out of the pale, concentrated-trancelike state. It was as though the horror of it all had her hypnotized.

Lt. Terry Jones of the Sheriff’s Department called to see if the objects Kay and Manuel had recalled during questioning, had been told to Mr. Ule. Kay recalled four “grayish” objects on the roof of a nearby dime store, but when she returned to the spot a half hour later after the incident, only two such objects could be spotted. Manuel also recalled four “fireplug looking” objects, about two and a half foot high – two of which had a helmet-like upper portion and a flared pyramid base. Apparently, these objects were gone when Joseph visited the area with the young couple on January 5. Manuel parked the stationwagon in the exact spot where he thought it was parked on the night of the strange happening. Joseph reports, “I noted that the feed wires leading to the shopping center were about 20 feet to the right and the high tension lines at a much greater distance. The large transformers directly behind the store were about 100 feet away.”

Strange phenomena concerning space objects are numerous in UFO reports, but they always concern the immediate vicinity and close contact with wires. This occurrence differs radically from all the bizarre and strange occurrences connected with this type of experience I have ever encountered. I do think these young people, Kay and Manuel, truthfully experienced an “out of this world” condition.

NOTE: We wish to express our appreciation to Pat Parks of the Key West Citizen for her help and cooperation in obtaining this report from Mr. Joseph Ule. The first publication of this unusual happening was written by Pat in her column for the Key West (Fla.) Citizen. Mr. Ule reports to us that on three occasions his neighbors witnessed UFOIs over his house. He was asleep at the time. “I think, rather humorously, that they were studying one of the most unusual homes on the Keys, seven round rooms topped by seven domes.”

The Key West Incident, January 1, 1969 “Further Remarks” by John A. Keel

ScoopNote: Mr. Keel prepared this follow up report to the incident reported in June Scoop. The initial credit goes to Ramona Clark, Editor – CAPER NEWS, who did the first investigation and research analysis. Scoop feels that the psychological implications in this case bear intense watching.

Witness: Names withheld for the usual reasons. They are on file to serious researchers. Adverse publicity in their local area caused them to request the above.

This incident was first mentioned in the Key West Citizen. No date available. The following report by Mr. A [Joseph Ule – B. Raynes, Editor] was later published in CAPER NEWS, April 1969. I wrote to Mr. A and asked him to revisit the witnesses for a follow-up report. That report is included here.

[As stated at the very beginning of this feature, I’m leaving off here the part from Ule’s description of the main incident as it’s a repetition of what had previously been in Ramona Clark’s Caper News. The only difference was where Keel had “altered the sequence of the report to place events in chronological order,” and where Keel had created pseudonyms for witnesses Manuel and Kay as George and Jane, and the investigator Joseph Ule as Mr. A. Below I returned them to their original designations. - Brent Raynes, Editor]

THE FOLLOW-UP: On Saturday, May 3, 1969, Mr. Ule revisited Manuel. “He did not appear too willing to talk and he had a sort of knowing and far away look in his eyes. He was very restless and something seemed to be crowding him. Upon casually questioning him I discovered that he had done much, much better in school and was especially interested in electronics and math. In fact, his mother had already told me that he had been recommended for a scholarship. He told me he was highly elated about Kay. She had never been more than an E and F student and that now she was receiving A’s and B’s. He impressed me as still being slightly stunned and that since the incident his relations with his family have definitely disintegrated. This is due primarily because his family is solidly against him marrying Kay. His mother told me that a few weeks ago Manuel packed up in a huff and left home but he returned after a week. Where he stayed in the interim they don’t know. Manuel stated Kay has changed for much the better since the incident. She shows definite scholastic improvement and has become more sociable and likeable. She is a much more interesting and companionable person than before the experience. Manuel has had an unprecedented fear of the dark ever since his experience. Kay, too, is now afraid of being alone in the night, and afraid of darkness. “Manuel was pleased that Kay has become more middle-class and conventional since the episode.”

“I have gone to interview the girl on three different occasions. Her aunt and husband are known to have been at home at the time but they refused to answer the doorbell.”

ADDENDUM TO KEY WEST, FLA. INCIDENT: Investigator Ule writes (May 11, 1969) that he was visited by Manuel and his mother, father and elderly aunt on the afternoon of May 10th. Mr. Ule asked Manuel if he had had any further experiences of an unusual nature. “Manuel appeared in a sort of mild daze,” Mr. Ule reports, “and said no, except that he was very afraid to be alone anywhere in the dark. He had a nervous and a pervasive fear of something. His mother cut in and said, “You can say that again! He crawled into bed with me the other night because he was afraid of something.”

Further on, Mr. Ule states in his report: “Manuel’s mother said she was at a local doctor’s office recently and he had poo poohed the whole experience and said, ‘Impossible.’ A middle-aged man and his wife (names available) spoke up and said , ‘Doctor, it is true. We were on Fleming Key at the precise time the paper said this thing occurred.’ The location is about two and a half miles directly due north of the Food Fair store in question. ‘We were very startled to see the hazy beam out of space directed to the area where this supermarket is located. The beam was hazy and the source of it was brilliant and it seemed to broaden slightly as it rayed earthwards. Also, Doctor, there were two civilian employees of the Navy with us; they did not like this and some of the other things they had observed at night on this lonely and uninhabited big Key. They said they were going to ask the Navy officials to transfer them to another job.’ The doctor looked puzzled and worried and did not comment. This testimony came out of a clear sky and without any coercive effort on anyone’s part.”

The above possible corroboration of this incident must stand as hearsay until we can locate and interview the couple mentioned. The two employees of the Navy are watchmen for the Ammunition dump on Fleming Key.

Editor’s Note: After reading these intriguing reports I wrote Keel myself for more information. On May 27, 1970, he replied to me: “There has been no additional information on the Key West incident. The investigator, Joseph Ule, had a narrow escape last spring when a bolt of lightning destroyed his study as he was typing a report to me. I haven’t heard from him since.” Ramona and I had a number of discussions about this fascinating case. Sadly she had no further information either. It certainly sounded like a very significant case and it most certainly deserved further follow-up. [Brent Raynes, editor]

The Force Field Keel letter

Here is a copy of Keel’s letter. I circled the part about the Key West incident. For those reading the rest of the letter, his reference in the second paragraph from the top to SSR was my mimeographed newsletter that I was putting out back then entitled Scientific Sauceritis Review. The reference to “Contactee Kills Highway Worker,” for anyone who may be curious, I’ll explain with this quote taken directly from my newsletter:

Mr. Daniel Collins, 23, of Reedsport, Maine, who told a psychiatrist that he was a being from another planet, was on trial in Superior Court in Machias for the murder of Benjamin Flaherty, who was a state highway worker shot to death in September 1969, at his home in Columbia Falls. A Columbia Falls psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Kiel, said that Collins was “out of touch with reality” and that he had told him that he is “not an individual of this planet.” He said he was from “Madail, a galaxy of Andromeda.” Next the testimony of Dr. Allan Saunders of Augusta State Hospital was listened to. He was a rebuttal witness, presented by the state. He told the court that Collins was NOT insane at the time of murder, but that was only an opinion. Saunders is also a psychiatrist and he quoted Collins as saying that his entire tale of being from another world was just a hoax. This hearing took place on Monday, April 27, 1970. Collins never took the witness stand that day, but his case was expected to go back to court Tuesday, the next day. Unfortunately, no further details have been obtained.


Thursday, March 28, 2024