UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

Is it possible that some UFO encounters might not be what they initially appear to be – namely face to face confrontations with extraterrestrials from faraway worlds? Might they actually be carefully stage-managed, manipulated events? Perhaps our presumed aliens are, in reality, shapeshifters from our world; entities that toy with our minds and assume the roles and even the appearances of ETs. Today, when people ponder on the matter of extraterrestrial encounters, they typically think of so-called alien abductions and the Grays, those diminutive, large-headed entities with eerie, black eyes that are near-hypnotic in nature. Back in the latter part of the 1940s and the early 1950s, however, things were very different. Infinitely different, even. Back then, the Grays were in the sights of precisely no-one at all. That’s not to say people weren’t encountering aliens, however. They most assuredly were. Back then, however, they were known as the Space Brothers.

They were very human-looking aliens – sometimes slightly shorter in stature than us, and occasionally reaching heights of around seven feet. They wore long robes, or silver-outfits similar to the clothing worn by fighter-pilots. And their message was always the same: they were deeply concerned by our growing nuclear arsenals and wished us to lay down our weapons and live in peace and harmony with one another – some chance of that happening any time soon. Among the more well-known of all the Contactees were George Adamski (whose 1952 book, Flying Saucers Have Landed, became a huge hit with not just UFO devotees but with the public, too), George Van Tassel (who attracted significant FBI attention as a result of his UFO claims), and Frank Stranges, who maintained that human-like ETs had infiltrated the Pentagon. And then there were the lesser known Contactees, one of whom is central to the story that this particular article is focused on. His name was Orfeo Angelucci.

George Van Tassel’s legendary Integratron (Nick Redfern)

Although a fairly minor cog in the Contactee wheel, Angelucci wrote a number of well-received books, even though they failed to sell in large quantities. They included The Secret of the Saucers and Son of the Sun. The nature of Angelucci’s experiences will soon become very familiar to you. According to the man himself – who was born in 1912 and who worked for a New Jersey-based flooring company – it was in 1946 that his experiences of the other world variety began, something which Angelucci reveals in Son of the Sun. Angelucci had a big interest in science and aviation and, in August 1946, launched a large balloon array into the skies of Trenton, New Jersey. They were balloons filled with different kinds of mold – the reason being to determine if mold was affected by exposure to different altitudes, temperatures, and air pressure. Angelucci further maintained that it was this experience which caught the attention of the Space Brothers, and who specifically chose him to further their agenda on our planet.

Although Angelucci claimed numerous encounters with the cosmic brothers (and sisters, too), it was not so much the encounters, themselves, that were overly significant, but the means by which the entities from the stars manifested before him. It’s important to note that although Angelucci stressed it was in the summer of 1946 that aliens first took note of his work with high-altitude balloons, it was not until 1952 that the cosmic ones met with him, face to face. By this time, Angelucci had moved to California; specifically to Los Angeles. May 23, 1952 was the day – or, rather, the night – on which everything changed for Angelucci. It started out as a strange day – even before the ETs arrived on the scene. From the moment he woke up, Angelucci felt agitated, worried, and had a strange sense that the day was going to turn out very weird. He was right on target.

At the time, Angelucci was employed by the Lockheed Corporation – which, interestingly enough, George Van Tassel had also been employed at, albeit in the 1940s – and was working a night-shift. It was shortly after midnight on the evening in question that Angelucci got in his car and drove home. He didn’t know it then, but he was about to have a detour, and an experience, of a very weird kind. It was as Angelucci crossed a bridge over the Los Angeles River – a bridge that was eerily empty of any other vehicles, at the time – that he caught sight of a large, blue-colored ball of light that was clearly shadowing him. The beach-ball sized circle of light took a sudden turn, appearing directly in front of Angelucci’s car. Shocked to the core, Angelucci slowed his car to practically walking pace, and watched, amazed, as two small, green balls of light emerged from the larger one and floated towards him.

Via telepathy a booming voice informed Angelucci that he had indeed been watched ever since the day of that fateful balloon launch back in 1946. Angelucci was about to ask a question when the two balls closed in on each other, and eventually merging into one, larger, green light. In mere seconds, the ball changed into the disembodied images of a man and a woman – or, as Angelucci came to learn – the floating heads of a pair of aliens who could pass for you or I. Like so many of the Contactees, Angelucci was asked – in a noticeable and slightly bullying and patronizing fashion – to spread the word of the supposedly utterly benevolent ETs. “We’ll be back,” they said, when all was over, and in slightly Arnold Schwarzenegger-fashion. The ball of light raced into the sky and Angelucci, a nervous character at the best of times, raced home.

The aliens were good to their word and arranged a following meeting – again late at night – under Los Angeles’ Hyperion Avenue Freeway Bridge. As Angelucci patiently waited, he finally noticed a pair of small balls of green light approaching through the darkness. They were coming. The lights transformed into one single light, described by the man of the hour as something resembling a huge “soap bubble” that gave off a “pale glow.” A chummy chat about the Universe, destiny, life, death, and even the afterlife followed – although the chat was a strange one, given that Angelucci found himself speaking to a ball of light that spoke back to him. Then, suddenly, the light was gone and Angelucci was left to do nothing stranger than head back home.

Three weeks later, and undercover of overwhelming darkness, Angelucci was back at the bridge – as were the two green lights. On this time, however, they shapeshifted into the forms of a man and a woman, whose appearance, said Angelucci, put them both at around the age of thirty-five. The male, entity – named Neptune – warned Angelucci that our solar-system had been the home to numerous, earlier civilizations that had destroyed themselves, and that unless we changed our dangerous ways, we would surely be next on the long and sorry list of casualties. It was for that very reason, Neptune said, that Angelucci should write books on his experiences and get the word out to the public – which he duly and faithfully did, right up until his death in 1993, at the age of eighty-one.

The sandworms on the planet Arrakis are considered by many to be the real stars of the Dune novels of Frank Herbert. Reaching anywhere from 400 meters (1,300 ft) to a reported “half a league” (1.5 miles (2.4 km)) in length and 40 meters (130 ft) in diameter, they’re responsible for the treasured drug melange and featured in many action sequences because of their rideability and aversion to intruders.

Fortunately, these sandworms are fictional, but a smaller and equally vicious version does exist right here on Earth in the form of the Bobbitt worm (Eunice aphroditois) – a 10-foot-long bristle worm that burrows in the soft sediment of the ocean floor, waiting to ambush its prey by exploding out of the sand, grabbing their catch in vise jaws and dragging them back into the sediment for consumption. (Photos and videos here.) Fortunately, their favorite prey is fish and their larvae don’t excrete melange or any other spices. However, they don’t appear to have any natural enemies, which explains why they’ve lived nearly unchanged for 20 million years, according to a new study in the journal Scientific Reports.

A modern Bobbit worm hunts on the sea floor with just its head exposed. Researchers have found fossils suggesting they were terrorizing the ocean the same way 20 million years ago.

(Chutinun Mora)

The fossil burrow opening, left, is compared to a modern Bobbit worm burrow opening. The researchers found that the fossil and modern burrows were similar.

(Paleoenvironntal Sediment Laboratory/National Taiwan University, Chutinun Mora)

An animation shows how the trace fossil would have formed.

(Yu Yen Pan)

The top part of the fossil burrow, seen from the side, is funnel shaped, with feathery lines from the disturbance of the soil that's thought to be caused by the worm pulling prey into the burrow.

(Paleoenvironntal Sediment Laboratory/National Taiwan University)

The study coauthors included, from left, Shahin Dashtgard, Ludvig Lowemark, Yu Yen Pan and Masakazu Nara, standing on right.

(Paleoenvironmental Sediment Laboratory/National Taiwan University)

This is an artistic reconstruction of Websteroprion armstrongi, a Bobbit worm that lived 400 million years ago in Ontario. Its fossil jaws were discovered and reported by a team of researchers that included David Rudkin at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

(James Ormiston)

“This trace fossil consists of an up to 2 m long, 2–3 cm in diameter, L-shaped burrow with distinct feather-like structures around the upper shaft. A comparison of Pennichnus to biological analogs strongly suggests that this new ichnogenus is associated with ambush-predatory worms that lived about 20 million years ago.”

How big?

Because they were squishy worms, no skeletal fossils of this species exist, but researchers led by National Taiwan University sedimentologist Ludvig Löwemark found trace fossils – burrows, prints and squiggles made by something on the floor of the ocean near Taiwan. By eliminating the traces being made by shrimp or snails – their burrows are longer and two-way – the researchers concluded they’d discovered the burrows of the ancestor of the modern Bobbitt worm.

We know what you’re dying to ask – yes, they’re named for Lorena Bobbitt, who in 1993 sliced off her sleeping husband’s penis after years of abuse. The nickname came from divers who witnessed the worms slicing fish in half with their jaws.

The 319 trace fossils discovered at two sites pointed to an ancient Bobbitt worm for a number of reasons. They were high in iron, which came from the mucous they used to stabilize the burrows. The tunnels were L-shaped, which is typical for soft worms that can’t dig too far down before hitting hard dirt and going horizontal. Finally, they look very much like the burrows of modern Bobbitt worms.

If that’s not your hand on my leg …

Despite not providing melange or being large enough to ride, Löwemark and his team plan to search for more trace fossils of the ancient worms, now that they know what to look for. They’ve named the trace fossils Pennichnus formosae, meaning “beautiful feather trace,” which refers to the feathery patterns left when the worm re-enters the burrow with its prey.

Ancient Bobbitt worm (Ubi vermis antiquis bobbitt) is far easier to remember.