Topic
Encounter and abduction accounts, and the researchers who studied them. 88 events, newest first.
Close encounters1955
London cab driver George King founded the Aetherius Society in 1955, saying he had made contact with alien beings who passed on guidance for humanity. The group still reports thousands of members, with centers in London, Los Angeles and Auckland.
Photo: Hjamesberglen, CC0
Close encounters29 Nov 1954
Delivery men Gustavo Gonzalez and Jose Ponce told Caracas police that in Petare they met a small, hairy, very strong being and that Gonzalez grappled with it; later retellings add several beings and a glowing craft. It became a noted episode of the 1954 Venezuela wave, with no physical evidence.
Photo: Andres Gerlotti agerlotti, CC0
Close encounters1954
Ernest and Ruth Norman started Unarius in southern California in 1954, teaching past-life therapy and channeled messages from extraterrestrial 'Space Brothers'. Later based in El Cajon, the group predicted a fleet landing in 2001 that did not occur; scholars study it as a UFO religion.
Close encounters20 Nov 1952
George Adamski claimed he met a man from Venus beside a landed scout ship near Desert Center, California, after leaving six companions down the road. His 1953 book with Desmond Leslie told the story and sold widely; Blue Book chief Ruppelt recounted it with open skepticism.
Photo: Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0
Close encounters12 Sep 1952
Boys playing football in Flatwoods saw a fiery object come down on a hill. A group including local beautician Kathleen May went to look and reported a pungent odor and a tall figure with a spade-shaped head before fleeing. Investigators later found little beyond trampled grass.
Photo: Don Woods, CC BY-SA 4.0
Close encounters19 Aug 1952
Florida scoutmaster Sonny DesVergers said a hovering craft engulfed him in a red mist, singeing his arms and cap, while three scouts waited in his car. Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt wrote it off as the best hoax in UFO history, though investigators never proved how it was done.
Close encounters1952
Coral Lorenzen founded the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization at the start of 1952; the Condon Report calls it the first civilian UFO study group to work on a national scale. Its first mimeographed bulletin went to 52 members that July, and by 1968 it claimed 8,000 members.
Close encountersAug 1947
Weeks after Kenneth Arnold's report, a Gallup poll released in August 1947 found that about 90 percent of Americans had heard of flying saucers. Asked what they were, the largest groups gave no answer or called them illusions; others guessed U.S. secret weapons or hoaxes.
