The story was personally shared with Evans-Wentz by a colleague at England’s Jesus College at Oxford University – a university which Evans-Wentz studied at as a young man. The story told to Evans-Wentz was as bizarre as it was undeniably sensational. The man in question was Irish and a former resident of County Kerry, one who had chosen Oxford University as his place of education. According to the curious story told to Evans-Wentz, it was in the first week of December 1910 that the man and a friend were heading home from a night out in the Irish city of Limerick. Given that it was a fair distance away, and darkness was already on the land when they went out – never mind during their return – they chose to travel on horseback, something which would make the journey to Limerick, and home again, an easy one. It turned out, however, that fate had other things in store for the two twenty-three-year-olds. Very strange and unforgettable things.

It was as they approached Listowel – a 14^th century market town in County Kerry – that the pair couldn’t fail to see a powerful, brilliant light at a distance of around half a mile from them.  Suddenly, the light was joined by another one that was practically identical in appearance, and also in size, which was somewhere in the order of around six feet in height. As the two men sat on their horses, and stared in amazement at these curious displays of light, they saw something incredible happen: within the flames that were contained within the two lights, they could see a pair of what were described as radiant beings with “human form;” the flames having transformed into the entities. The lights then moved towards each other and unified as one. The figures within, Evans-Wentz was told, then strode out of the lights and towards the two men. Incredibly, they seemed to be glowing. In other words, the brilliance they gave off was not a reflection from the balls of light that surrounded them. No, they were radiating the glowing eeriness themselves.

Such was the brightness, the two friends were unable to make out if their visitors of the night were male or female, or one of each. But, they were clearly humanoid and had noticeable halos around their heads. Not surprisingly, they quickly headed home, their galloping horses getting them there in a timely fashion.

Now, we get to the next part of the story: note that the two witnesses saw a pair of lights that transformed into radiant beings with “human form.” This issue is very similar – if not practically identical – to a story told by Contactee Orfeo Angelucci in the 1950s. It was the night of May 23, 1952 and as he drove home from work, not long after midnight something very strange happened. As he drove down Victory Boulevard, Angelucci was shocked and amazed to see “slightly above my line of vision,” a red, glowing, oval-shaped object that was “about five times as large as the red portion of a traffic light.” It seemed to carefully maintain its distance from Angelucci’s car, as if beckoning him to follow – which he did. He drove across a bridge spanning the Los Angeles River, and looked on, mesmerized, as the object came to a halt, hovering over the intersection at a “lonely, deserted stretch of road called Forest Lawn Drive.”

Without warning, the red-colored ball suddenly shot away at high speed – but not before two, smaller, fluorescent green objects, about three-feet in diameter, flew out of it and headed directly for Angelucci. They hung, magically, only a few feet above his car for a few minutes, after which something dramatic allegedly occurred. Emanating, apparently, from between the two green balls of light, said Angelucci, was the sound of “a masculine voice in strong, well-modulated tones and speaking perfect English.” Stressing that he should not be afraid, the disembodied voice explained to a shocked Angelucci that he was in direct communication with “friends from another world.” Angelucci was also told: “Man believes himself civilized, but often his thoughts are barbaric and his emotions lethal. We do not say this as criticism, but state it only as fact. Thus it is best to approach all planetary visitors with friendly, welcoming thoughts.” Angelucci went on to have other encounters of the Contactee variety and became a well-known figure in 1950s-era Ufology.

There is no doubt that there are notable parallels between both stories. Some might say that the two events – 42 years apart – were caused by the very same phenomenon. But, there is another connection that just might get to the heart of the matter. Just like W.Y. Evans-Wentz, Orfeo Angelucci was born in Trenton, New Jersey. In light of this, I have to wonder if Angelucci may have taken a deep interest in the writings of someone who just happened to be a local author (namely, W.Y. Evans-Wentz) and, subconsciously, weaved parts of the Evans-Wentz saga into his own. At the very least, it’s a theory to ponder on…

With all our science experiments, big machines, and monumental discoveries, it’s easy to forget that we, as a species, are still pretty dumb.  Not in a “we were so focused on if we could, we never stopped to think if we should!” type of way (though that’s probably true as well), just in terms of sheer metrics: cold, dispassionate, void-of-opinion numbers. Here’s a quote from Dr Mauro Raggi, from Sapienza University in Rome, that illustrates the numerical quality of our dumbness pretty nicely:

“At the moment, we don’t know what more than 90% of the universe is made of.”

Yep. All the math we have to explain how the universe works does so quite nicely, except for one little, teeny-tiny, problem. The math only accounts for 4% of the universe. The other 96% of the observable universe is just sort of invisible. It’s referred to as the “dark sector” of the universe, and that’s what Dr Raggi and other scientists at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics are trying to observe. The dark sector is made up of dark matter and dark energy, and it’s referred to as “dark” because it’s never actually been detected, it’s only been predicted by equations which have, so far, been pretty spot-on.

Yep, no idea what most of that nonsense is up there.

According to the Guardian, scientists at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics are about to flip the on-switch of a machine that will hopefully give a glimpse into the illusive and, as of yet, only mathematically predicted “dark sector” that makes up 96% of the universe. The machine is called PADME, an acronym for Positron Annihilation into Dark Matter Experiment, which is such a great name that they should have foregone the acronym entirely.

If successful, this experiment would change modern physics and our understanding of the universe. According to Dr Raggi:

“If we find this force it will completely change the paradigm we have now. It would open up a new world and help us to understand the particles and forces that compose the dark sector.”

Along with proving the existence of dark matter, they say there’s a chance, albeit a remote chance, that such experiments could find a fifth fundamental force of the universe which dictates how dark matter behaves. It’s called the “dark force,” because for every of a name like Photon Annihilation into Dark Matter Experiment there’s a real stinker to balance it out.

So far we know of four fundamental forces of nature: the electromagnetic force, gravity, the strong force, and the weak force. The electromagnetic force refers to electrons behave and, consequently, magnetism and electricity. The strong force binds the nucleus of atoms together, weak force is observed in radiation, and gravity is slowly crushing us all. The dark force would add another to that list, but it’s complete speculation whether it’s even a reasonable thing to look for.

PADME will blast a stream of positrons—a form of antimatter—at a sheet of diamond. When the positrons hit the diamond sheet they will immediately collide with electrons and explode in a faint flash of light. If the team is correct, the amount of energy released will occasionally be lower than normal, this would be due to “dark photons” being created by the hypothesized “dark force.”

Bryan McKinnon, a research fellow at Glasgow University is part of a separate team searching for the mysterious dark sector. He says:

“It would definitely be a huge thing in physics if some evidence of a dark sector was found. Right now, it’s labelled as such because it’s the stuff we don’t understand. If a door can be opened, what will come out? That’s guesswork right now.”

The dark photon, if it exists, is effectively a portal. It lets us peer into the dark sector to see what is happening. It won’t open the floodgates, but it will allow us to have a little look.”

You know it’s a good time when the portal-talk starts.

It’s a good time for the weird side of the universe. Last week scientists successfully induced chemical changes in antimatter for the first time, and now people are about to start shooting antimatter beams at diamonds hoping to open portals to a dark sector. Things are getting weird, and at this rate, there’s a non-trivial probability that we all ascend as cosmic god-sorcerers in the not-so-distant future. There’s a better chance that we’ll just do some new and improved math, though.

As a follow-up article to my previous one on how we might go about finding proof of what happened outside of Roswell, New Mexico in the summer of 1947, I thought about sharing with you another possible scenario. It is, however, a scenario that most ufologists will not want to hear or even consider. In fact, a case can easily be made that it would be Ufology’s worst nightmare. And what might that worst nightmare be? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s the possibility (or the theory) that the Roswell evidence (bodies, wreckage, top secret files, and photos) no longer exists. In that scenario, all that is left is institutional memory. Barely that, even. Not a scrap of paper, not a section from an autopsy report, not a piece of the legendary “memory metal” said to have been found at the Foster Ranch. But, how could such a thing happen? Well, the answer to that question is this: it depends on what actually happened on the old ranch.

It goes without saying that if an alien spacecraft really did crash in New Mexico in early July 1947, then the recovered, material evidence would have been potentially priceless. It would have been preserved and studied not just for years, but for decades. Arguably, it would still be studied to this very day – albeit at a top secret level. If the bodies were of alien creatures, then at least some of them would have been autopsied, while others may have been purposefully left intact. No doubt, those same autopsies would have been photographed and filmed. On the other hand, let’s say it was suspected that the bodies fell more into what, today, we would term “Artificial Intelligence.” There would be equally good reasons for preserving the bodies. The time would likely come when we could finally understand and grasp the likes of extraterrestrial A.I. The advances in A.I.-based research would have been incredible, providing, of course, we could understand the technology. But, of one thing we can say for sure: A.I. entities would be preserved, as would be the almost-certainly-voluminous files on the studies of the bodies. The same goes for the likes of the aforementioned “memory metal,” for “power-plants,” for “drive-systems,” and much more. What all of this boils down to is the following: if aliens crashed near Roswell 71 years ago, somewhere there has to be a massive body of material, files, photos and more hidden away from everyone.

Now, we come to the far more controversial theory of all: that there is no evidence, no wreckage, no bodies, nothing. That there is absolutely zero to find. It’s all gone, destroyed, burned, and shredded. Such a thing is not at all impossible. That is, if you are open to the possibility that, yes, something came down on the Foster Ranch, but it wasn’t extraterrestrial.

Just about everyone in Ufology knows that in early July 1947 a press-release was prepared stating that personnel from the old Roswell Army Air Field had recovered a “flying disc.” A day later, it was all seen to be a big mistake: just a weather-balloon; nothing to get excited about. While I certainly don’t think the weather-balloon theory is valid, the fact is that if it was a case of a big mistake, and a major embarrassment, there would have been no reason to preserve the materials after the mistake was shown.  After all, why keep the remains of a weather-balloon? Not only that: in all probability, there would be little paperwork generated for a quite-literally overnight sensation that was quickly snuffed out.

The same goes for the U.S. Air Force’s theory that a Mogul balloon – which were designed to monitor for early Soviet atomic detonations high in the atmosphere – was the culprit. Mogul balloons were nothing unique, at all. They were huge arrays of regular, balloon-based technology. Again, there would have been no need to save the remains of a huge Mogul balloon. And, the fact that the whole affair was caused by a domestic device would have meant that, yet again, any and all generated documentation might have been scant. Now, we come to the matter of a highly controversial scenario for Roswell; one in which bodies and wreckage were found and documentation was created, but that, today, no longer exists – at all.

In 2005, I wrote a book titled Body Snatchers in the Desert. It was a study of the claims of a number of elderly people – including whistle-blowers – who claimed to know what they said was the truth of the Roswell controversy. Namely, a series of top secret flights that took place in New Mexico in the summer of 1947. They were, I was told, high-altitude-based experiments that involved huge balloon-arrays, lifting-body-type aircraft, rocketry, and – the most controversial aspect of all – human “test-subject” used against their will; people taken from asylums, hospitals and other facilities – none of who would be missed. People attached to the controversial Paperclip program (that brought huge numbers of Nazi scientists to the United States) worked on the project, as did Japanese scientists. It’s a theory that was expanded on significantly in my 2017 book, The Roswell UFO Conspiracy.

All the people I interviewed told the story from their own perspectives: some claimed to have seen the mangled bodies of handicapped people used in the experiments. Others said they had read files on what amounted to a series of ill-fated flights, one of which came down on the Foster Ranch, Lincoln County, New Mexico in July 1947 and led to the legends of the crashed UFO and the alien bodies. When certain figures in government learned what was afoot, and that the line had been crossed to just about the worst degree possible, the program was hastily shut down. More important from the perspective of this particular article, the people I spoke with maintained that all of the files were destroyed – chiefly because the program failed and because of the illegality of certain operations. For the most part, I was told, the files were specifically burned to protect the guilty and to prevent the story from reaching the media. And, after the wrecked devices/arrays were studied to see what went wrong, they too were destroyed. When snippets of the story did reach the public and the press, the whole thing was covered up under a mass of fabricated tales of crashed UFOs and deceased extraterrestrials.

Now, it’s important to note that while I don’t think I was fed disinformation or outright lied to by my various sources, I can’t prove it; I have to remain open-minded. But, I will say this: the scenario presented in my two Roswell books is the only one which allows for (a) a significant event having occurred; (b) the recovery of bodies and wreckage from the ranch; (c) a huge cover-up of the facts; and (d the complete destruction of any and all documentation that told the truth of Roswell.

Basically, it all comes down to this: if the Roswell affair had extraterrestrial origins, everything is ordered to be preserved. If the Roswell incident was a dark and disturbing military experiment, everything is ordered to be destroyed. I doubt that most ufologists will sit well thinking that, just possibly, the only things left from Roswell might be old memories and nothing else at all. But, that just might be where things really stand.