Located out in a small valley in the central part of Norway, in the municipality of Holtålen in Trøndelag county, is the scenic valley of Hessdalen. Surrounded by scenic mountains, it is an isolated, sparsely populated area, the largest settlement being the tiny village of the same name, which has a population of just 150 people. Not much typically goes on here, and the people live a quiet, peaceful life among the picturesque scenery away from the bustle of city life, but beginning in 1981 their serene lives would be interrupted by a spate of sightings of mysterious lights in the sky that have remained unexplained.

Although strange lights had been sporadically seen in the valley since the 1940s, the activity of the phenomenon now known as the Hessdalen lights really picked up and became known in 1981, when villagers in the valley were startled by a myriad of mysterious orbs of light in the sky that would regularly appear at various places throughout the valley both night and day. These lights could be anywhere from the size of a basketball to the size of a car, sometimes even much larger, and had a wide variety of characteristics and behaviors. They would usually be bright white, yellow or red, and depending on the report usually appearing below the horizon but sometimes above the mountains. They would alternately zip away at high speeds to vanish, slowly float about, hover in midair, speed up or slow down, away from side to side, or do aerial acrobatics. They would sometimes merely appear and disappear in a flash, while others were observed floating and zipping about for up to 2 hours, with larger orbs frequently seen to spew out smaller orbs. On occasion, the orbs were said to hover over water or approach or shy away from observers when approached, demonstrating what seemed to be intelligent control, and in some daytime sightings the objects were described as looking metallic. Whatever they were, they were sighted very frequently, in their peak being seen 15 to 20 times a week, frightening locals in the process.

One article in the online science journal Frontiers in Earth Science has described the lights in detail:

In spite of their irregular occurrence—i.e., 15 to 20 times per week from 1981 to 1984 and 10 to 20 times per year nowadays— the Hessdalen lights (HL) have been consistently observed and possess a series of recurring features: (1) they have the appearance of a free-floating light ball with dimensions ranging from decimeters up to 30 m. (2) they are characterized by geometric structures that are often accompanied by small, short-duration pulsating “spikes” in the high frequency and very low frequency radio ranges, (3) they show an absolute luminosity that has been estimated to be 19 kW, and (4) they have a time duration ranging from seconds to hours. HL are also characterized by the formation of light ball clusters and the ejection of mini light balls. They may also show very high velocities. Furthermore, HL are thunderstorm-independent events, as opposed to other rare and poorly understood transient luminous phenomena occurring in the atmosphere (i.e., ball lightings, blue jets, red sprites and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes).

The Hessdalen lights quickly became big news, drawing in droves of all manner of curiosity seekers and UFO researchers, as well as mainstream scientists eager to get to the bottom of the mystery. In the summer of 1983, an ongoing scientific field investigation was launched to study the lights, and by the conclusion of their 1-year investigation there were 53 light observations made. More scientific investigations have been carried out as well, including one in 1985, and another from 1997–1998 which managed to capture footage of the lights in a bizarre pyramid shape that bounced up and down. In 1998, an automated station was installed in the valley, called the Hessdalen Automatic Measurement Station (Hessdalen AMS) to monitor the lights year round, collecting reams of photos of the lights, as well as various readings on scientific equipment, and there have been various peer reviewed papers on the lights published in scientific journals. Indeed, the Hessdalen lights constitute one of the most well researched mysterious phenomenon there is. However, despite all of this study, no one can quite figure out what they actually are.

The number of theories as to what the lights might be is vast. One idea is that some sort of combustion is occurring involving hydrogen, oxygen and sodium, helped along by large deposits of scandium in the area. Another is that they are caused by piezoelectricity, which is an electrical charge that accumulates in certain materials including certain kinds of rock such as quartz, crystals, certain ceramics, and even some biological materials like bone. Considering that the valley has large deposits of crystal rocks, it is speculated that these may build up a charge that is released to form these balls of light. Other theories include plasma balls, ball lightning, meteorites, mirages, igniting gases, and even the idea that the valley itself acts as a sort of battery that generates a current, as well as many other numerous hypotheses and speculations. However, no single explanation can really account for all of the different characteristics reported with the lights. Of course, the lights have been claimed to be ghosts and alien UFOs as well, and UFO researchers have long held keen interest in this place. Yet, as much as this lonely valley has been studied, the secrets of its strange lights have remained evasive, and we still have no idea what they are, keeping them in the realm of mystery and speculation.

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Artificial intelligence is here and two people who are closely connected to it in very different ways agree that it has the potential to eliminate humanity … and the takeover may already be underway. One is James Cameron – the filmmaker and screenwriter responsible for some of the most futuristic and dystopian films of all time, including The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water. Cameron not only made movies about artificial intelligence – he pioneered is usage in the process of film production. The other is Geoffrey Hinton, a British computer scientist known as the "godfather of artificial intelligence" for his work in training multi-layer neural networks used in artificial intelligence. Both were recently interviewed on the subjects of artificial intelligence and artificial general intelligence and both agree that AI has the ability to take over humanity and the process may have already begun. Are we living in a James Cameron movie? Is it Titanic?

“I think A.I. can be great, but also it could literally be the end of the world.”

Appearing recently on the SmartLess podcast, James Cameron was pondering whether an uprising of artificially intelligent machines in The Terminator is possible. Not only does he think it can happen, he says the current state of artificial intelligence makes him “'pretty concerned about the potential for misuse of A.I.” For those not familiar with the film (spoiler alert), The Terminator is a cybernetic android  sent from the future to kill the person whose not yet born son is responsible for eventually stopping an artificially intelligent defense network called Skynet which will become hostile and self-aware and trigger a global nuclear war to exterminate all humans. Needless to say, the recent revelations of conversations with GPT-4 chatbots such as  OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google's PaLM and Microsoft’s Bing AI turning strange, hostile and violent have caused many to equate them to The Terminator and Skynet. Cameron says he understands why.

"You talk to all the AI scientists and every time I put my hand up at one of their seminars they start laughing. The point is that no technology has ever not been weaponized. And do we really want to be fighting something smarter than us that isn't us? On our own world? I don't think so.”

Cameron is, of course, correct in his assessment of the weaponization of technology. However, it is his next comment that is the real cause for concern.

“AI could have taken over the world and already be manipulating it but we just don't know because it would have total control over all the media and everything."

Think about the fears being expressed about ChatGPT and other forms of AI being used to collect news, write news stories and even deliver them in the form of very humanlike – and in this case, ironic – avatars of human newscasters. Could AI have already penetrated the media and be working its way into taking over the world? Is this another Terminator sequel in real life?

"I think it's very reasonable for people to be worrying about these issues now, even though it's not going to happen in the next year or two. People should be thinking about those issues."

In an interview with CBS News, Geoffrey Hinton, the "godfather of artificial intelligence," thinks Cameron is right to be worried about the weaponization of artificial intelligence and a possible takeover of humanity that could lead to its destruction. Hinton knows what he’s talking about. He is the descendent of computer and mathematics royalty – his great-great-grandmother was Mary Everest Boole, who was influential in promoting mathematics education for both boys and girls, and her husband was logician George Boole, whose invention of Boolean algebra and Boolean logic is credited with laying the foundations for modern computer science and the Information Age. Hinton has carried on the tradition of his illustrious ancestors – he was awarded the 2018 Turing Award, with Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun, for their work on deep learning. On the subject of the weaponization of AI, Hinton has been speaking out against it for years – he moved from the U.S. to Canada because he was against the military funding of artificial intelligence, and has regularly spoken out against lethal autonomous weapons. One concern he expressed in the CBS interview was the rapidity of AI development.

"Until quite recently, I thought it was going to be like 20 to 50 years before we have general purpose AI. And now I think it may be 20 years or less.”

He is also worried about one of the very things he helped develop – computers coming up with their own ideas for self-improvement, warning that “We have to think hard about how you control that." When asked about the possibility of one of Cameron’s Terminators being developed with artificial general intelligence that takes it beyond human capabilities to the point of acting on its own and potentially threatening the very existence of humanity, he answered cautiously:

"It's not inconceivable, that's all I'll say,"

Not inconceivable? Or already deliverable?

Not inconceivable! This is from the godfather of artificial intelligence! Why are we not panicking? Why is Hinton not panicking? Or moving farther away than Canada? He explains that on the more conceivable side, things aren’t so bad.

“The phrase ‘artificial general intelligence’ carries with it the implication that this sort of single robot is suddenly going to be smarter than you. I don’t think it’s going to be that. I think more and more of the routine things we do are going to be replaced by AI systems — like the Google Assistant.”

What about ChatGPT?

"We're at this transition point now where ChatGPT is this kind of idiot savant, and it also doesn't really understand about truth."

That is a key problem with ChatGPT – its responses are often far from the truth … but presented as facts as it tries to figure out what it is doing and works towards being truthful, factual and consistent. Hinton’s final warning comes straight out of the Wizard of Oz … we need to be worried about who is doing the development and corking the controls behind the curtain.

"You don't want some big for-profit company deciding what's true."

James Cameron and Godfrey … geniuses in different fields who agree on the potential dangers of artificial general intelligence. Are we going to listen to them or the big for-profit companies?

Or is it too late to decide?

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Born in Poland in 1891, George Adamski – of Flying Saucers Have Landed notoriety - was the ultimate “contactee,” regardless of what you may or may not think of him and his tales. He defined what it meant in the 1950s to have interactions with beings from other worlds; creatures very much like us and who wished us nothing but goodwill. Adamski’s primary visitor from the great beyond was Orthon. Adamski’s forays into the world of the supernatural, however, did not begin when the flying saucer phenomenon was at its height. Adamski had been involved in matters of a metaphysical type for years. For example, in April 1934, the L.A. Times ran a feature on the man himself with a headline that succinctly read as follows: “Shamanistic Order to be Established Here.”  In part, it states: “The 10-foot trumpets of faraway Lhasa, perched among perpetual snows in the Himalayan Mountains in Tibet, will shortly have their echo on the sedate hills of Southern California’s Laguna Beach. Already the Royal Order of Tibet has acquired acreage on the placid hills that bathe their Sunkist feet in the purling Pacific and before long, the walls, temples, turrets and dungeons of a Lama monastery will serrate the skyline. It will be the first Tibetan monastery in America and in course of time, the trained disciples of the cult will filter through its glittering gates to spread ‘the ancient truths’ among all who care to listen. The central figure in the new movement is Prof. George Adamski.” 

It’s important to note that Adamski was never a professor. Of anything. But, he most certainly didn’t mind the suggestion that he was a professor. He told the L.A. Times, in what was an undeniably pompous fashion: “I learned great truths up there on the roof of the world, or rather the trick of applying age-old knowledge to daily life, to cure the body and the mind, and to win mastery over self and soul. I do not bring to Laguna the weird rites and bestial superstition in which the old Lamaism is steeped, but the scientific portions of the religion.” Adam Gorightly and Greg Bishop say in their “A” is for Adamski book that: “During Prohibition, The Royal Order of Tibet secured a special license to produce wine, which some suggest was Adamski’s main motivation for starting his mystical order to begin with.” Old George was definitely well-known for his particular fondness for the grape. Now, it’s time to head to 1952, when Adamski’s involvement in Ufology really took off. Maybe literally. At least, for those who bought, and still buy, into his stories. It was early on the morning of November 20, 1952. Adamski and his faithful secretary Lucy McGinnis drove to Blythe, California. This was not your average road-trip, however. Adamski, when telling the story to whoever would listen, claimed that the reason for hitting the road to Blythe had an astonishing purpose behind it: aliens dearly wanted to meet with the professor-who-wasn’t. The pair soon met up with other characters in 1950s-era Ufology. They included UFO enthusiasts Al and Betty Bailey, and George Hunt Williamson. The latter was a controversial contactee who crossed paths with the FBI on several occasions, most seriously in 1962. That was when Williamson was suspected by the Bureau of smuggling priceless Mexican artifacts of an historic and archaeological significance into the United States. 

After refueling their vehicles and their stomachs, the gang then headed out to Parker, Arizona – where, Adamski said, he was absolutely sure that aliens were soon to put in an appearance. So the tale goes, that’s exactly what happened. A huge, “cigar”-shaped UFO loomed into view, high in the skies above Parker. The amazed crew hit a dirt-road in hot pursuit of the mighty craft. Adamski and co. were, apparently, not the only ones who were looking for a close encounter. Adamski claimed that a squadron of U.S. Air Force planes were also after the aliens. The people from the stars almost effortlessly made a quick escape from the pursuing pilots. It wasn’t long before a much smaller flying saucer made its appearance before the astonished group. In an almost Old Testament-style fashion, the gleaming craft landed on a nearby mountain, awaiting the disciple-like Adamski to come forward and meet his superior. He somehow knew that the aliens had come for him. Adamski approached the craft, while the rest – their mouths no doubt agape – looked on. An extremely-human-looking extraterrestrial exited the futuristic craft, just as Michael Rennie’s character of Klaatu did in the classic 1951 movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Unlike Klaatu, though, Adamski’s alien – who announced himself as Orthon – had long hair of the kind that just about any and every 1980s-era “hair-metal” rock band would have been proud to sport.

Orthon announced to Adamski that he came from Venus - and that he came in peace, too. In no time at all, Orthon began lecturing Adamski on why we, the human race, needed to ditch our atomic weapons. If we didn’t, the only outcome would be overwhelming, worldwide destruction. Not only that, Orthon wanted Adamski to be one of the key figures in the plan to save the Earth and its people. In an instant, Adamski was up for the challenge. Orthon, seemingly happy with the outcome, returned to his flying saucer and shot off into the skies. An alien had come and gone, and for Adamski a new life had just begun. I decided to share with you the early days of Adamski, as a means to show how his "career" continued into the 1960s. With that said, let's now look at the really weird story. Today's article is a classic counter-style event that is made all the more controversial by the possibility that it may actually have had nothing to do with UFOs, after all. It might have been a staged event, one in which the witness was led to believe he had a UFO sighting. If that has caught your attention, read on.

The story revolves around a man named Ernest Arthur Bryant, a resident of an old village in the English county of Devon called Scoriton. Or, as some prefer to spell it, Scorriton. As for Devon, it's an ancient and mysterious land, and which is made famous by the fact that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle set his classic Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles in Devon's Dartmoor National Park. On April 24, 1965, Bryant (who served with the British Commandos in World War Two) saw something amazing hovering over a field close to his home: a flying saucer. Bryant stared, shocked and amazed for a few moments, and then made his cautious way to the field. As he did so, and seemingly in response to his actions, the circular-shaped craft gently touched to the ground. As Bryant arrived, a group of three, human-like beings attired in shiny, silver suits motioned him not to come any closer. He did as he was told. Bryant looked on, stunned, and noticed that the beings had overly long foreheads, seemed to have problems breathing in the Earth's atmosphere, and, somewhat oddly, had no thumbs. One of the beings then moved towards Bryant and reeled off typical, absurd, Space Brother-themed spiel.

The entity claimed his name was "Yamski" and that he and his comrades hailed from Venus, no less.The alien then made a comment along the lines of, "If only Des were here." Or, suggested Bryant, it may have been "Les," rather than "Des." This, along with the "Yamski" name is all very interesting, since only one day before the encounter, the world's most famous Contactee, George Adamski, died. Plus, Adamski's co-author on his Flying Saucers Have Landed book was Desmond Leslie. As Bryant arrived, a group of three, human-like beings attired in shiny, silver suits motioned him not to come any closer. He did as he was told. Bryant looked on, stunned, and noticed that the beings had overly long foreheads, seemed to have problems breathing in the Earth's atmosphere, and, somewhat oddly, had no thumbs. One of the beings then moved towards Bryant and reeled off typical, absurd, Space Brother-themed spiel. The entity claimed his name was "Yamski" and that he and his comrades hailed from Venus, no less.The alien then made a comment along the lines of, "If only Des were here." Or, suggested Bryant, it may have been "Les," rather than "Des." This, along with the "Yamski" name is all very interesting, since only one day before the encounter, the world's most famous Contactee, George Adamski, died. Plus, Adamski's co-author on his Flying Saucers Have Landed book was Desmond Leslie.

Also in typical Contactee/Space Brother style, Bryant was given a "tour" of the UFO - which was, allegedly, split into three sections. The aliens then made a cryptic statement suggesting they would contact Bryant again. As Bryant watched from a safe distance, the UFO then rose into the sky and vanished from sight. Also in typical Contactee/Space Brother style, Bryant was given a "tour" of the UFO - which was, allegedly, split into three sections. The aliens then made a cryptic statement suggesting they would contact Bryant again. As Bryant watched from a safe distance, the UFO then rose into the sky and vanished from sight. Although Bryant was determined to keep the incident under wraps, it didn't stay like that for long: both the local media and UFO researchers were soon on the case. Flying Saucer investigator Norman Oliver looked into the matter deeply and, in 1967, Eileen Buckle penned an entire book on the affair, The Scoriton Mystery. Bryant's story would, in all likelihood, have remained as just another Contactee case were it not for one, notable and very strange thing. In the late 1970s, UFO researcher Rich Reynolds was contacted by a man named Bosco Nedelcovic, who suggested that Bryant's encounter had very little to do with aliens, and much more to do with secret experimentation of a very down to earth nature. Nedelcovic (who worked for the U.S. Department of State's Agency for International Development, and who also had ties to the CIA) claimed that Bryant was the victim of a form of sophisticated mind-control, somewhat akin to the kind of work undertaken by the CIA's MKUltra program.

Nedelcovic told Reynolds of a number of bogus "UFO episodes" in both the US and the UK, in which individuals were led to believe they had UFO encounters when, in fact, they experienced something very different. Nedelcovic alluded to how these events involved "visual displays, radar displacement, and atifact droppings." One of those events, said Nedelcovic, was the Bryant case. Nedelcovic also revealed how the operation proceeded, and which involved "experimental drugs used to induce specific hallucinatory material" as well as "microwave transmissions." On this latter point, Reynolds was told by Nedelcovic that "the injudicious use of microwave technology" led to a disastrous outcome for Bryant. As history has shown, Bryant died in 1967, from the effects of a brain tumor. Interestingly, in his 1969 book, UFO: Flying Saucers Over Britain? author Robert Chapman noted: "There remains a possibility" that Bryant "might have had the UFO sighting planted in his mind through hypnotism." Chapman noted that there was "no evidence" to warrant such a belief, yet it is interesting that he even chose to bring up the matter in the first place - given that this was pretty much exactly what Bosco Nedelcovic was asserting a decade or so later. All of the above suggests there is far more to the UFO encounter and tragic death of Bryant than meets the eye. And, with the 50th anniversary of the incident now fast-approaching, it would be the ideal time for someone to (A) readdress the Bryant case and the claims of Bosco Nedelcovic, and (B) undertake a new, in-depth study of this tragic, controversial, and fatal affair. The truth just might be even stranger than an alien visitation.

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