Speaker 1: Strange Arrivals is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and
Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Mackey. For the best experience, listen with headphones.
Speaker 1: The second floor of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence contains
Speaker 1: three sets of apartments appointed with frescoes, tapestries, and artwork
Speaker 1: dating back as far as the Renaissance. Among the group
Speaker 1: of apartments known as the Apartments of the Elements is
Speaker 1: the Hercules Room, and in the Hercules Room is a
Speaker 1: circular portrait of the Madonna and Child and the Infant
Speaker 1: Saint John, whose creation has been attributed to a number
Speaker 1: of artists, including Filipino Lippi. It's about what you'd expect
Speaker 1: from a Renaissance painting. With that title, Mary praised above
Speaker 1: the Infant Jesus, who reaches out to her while being
Speaker 1: held by the Infant Saint John. Strangely, though, an object
Speaker 1: appears to hover in the air in the background above
Speaker 1: Mary's shoulder. A closer look reveals a football shaped entity,
Speaker 1: light gray on top, darker on the bottom, with yellow
Speaker 1: spikes emerging like beams of light. In the background, A
Speaker 1: robed man with a dog looks up at the object.
Speaker 1: What is going on here? I was finishing a book
Speaker 1: on the Catholic doctrine of purgatory, in which it was
Speaker 1: a huge project. I went to archives all over and
Speaker 1: what I was looking at is Catholics used to do
Speaker 1: devotions to souls in purgatory and that all kind of stopped,
Speaker 1: and they don't do those anymore, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: know why. I am Diana Pasolka, and I'm a professor
Speaker 1: at the University of North Carolina and Wilmington, and my
Speaker 1: field has been in Catholic history and Catholic traditions. I
Speaker 1: found the reasons for that, and I wrote a book
Speaker 1: about it. But I also found that Catholics had a
Speaker 1: lot of experiences of aerial phenomena from basically a thousand
Speaker 1: years ago till now. And because the Catholic Church takes
Speaker 1: pretty good notes, they're known for their record keeping. And
Speaker 1: I've been to the Vatican Library and Secret Archive and
Speaker 1: looked at a lot of the documents there. I found
Speaker 1: that there were all of these aerial phenomena incidences, and
Speaker 1: the frameworks for understanding those were basically religious. They see
Speaker 1: something like a disk in the sky, and they'd call
Speaker 1: it an angel, or they call it a demon, or
Speaker 1: they call it a lost soul from burgatory. And at
Speaker 1: this point it never occurred to me that these are
Speaker 1: like kind of like UFOs, but they were. They were
Speaker 1: unidentified objects that then were identified through Catholic frameworks. Normally,
Speaker 1: when someone sees something that they can't explain, they try
Speaker 1: to understand it according to their belief framework. A Renaissance
Speaker 1: Italian sees a desk and uses a Catholic framework to
Speaker 1: perceive it as a demon or angel. People now are
Speaker 1: culturally ready to identify them UFOs visitors from space or
Speaker 1: another dimension. But what happens when the belief in UFOs
Speaker 1: becomes the framework that a person uses to interpret things
Speaker 1: that happen in the world around them. That is what
Speaker 1: happens when you look at strange things that occur in
Speaker 1: people's lives and you interpret them with the assumption that
Speaker 1: the cause is most likely UFOs. This season on Strange Arrivals,
Speaker 1: we will look at people who are not only sure
Speaker 1: that UFOs are from somewhere else, but if put UFOs
Speaker 1: at the center of their worldviews, what happens when they
Speaker 1: become involved in investigating hard to explain events. How does
Speaker 1: their presence affect our perception of the event and even
Speaker 1: the experiencers own understanding of what they've been through. But
Speaker 1: to begin the season, we'll set a baseline by looking
Speaker 1: at a case that didn't attract prominent UFO investigators and
Speaker 1: see how the witnesses understood there counter. I'm Toby Ball
Speaker 1: and this is Strange Arrivals, Episode one, Boyani. On July fifteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine, an Anglican missionary named Father William Gill,
Speaker 1: stationed at the Boyani Mission in Papua New Guinea, wrote
Speaker 1: a letter to Father Norman Cruttwell, who was at the
Speaker 1: Anglican mission in Manapi, also in Papua New Guinea. The
Speaker 1: letter began, Dan, woman, here is a lot of material,
Speaker 1: the kind you've been waiting for, no doubt, but I
Speaker 1: am in some ways sorry that it has to be
Speaker 1: me who supplies it. I just choose at Dagura in
Speaker 1: respected my sanity very greatly, and like all madmen, I
Speaker 1: myself think my gray cells are okay. This was essentially
Speaker 1: a cover letter for a collection of documents that Gil
Speaker 1: had sent to Crutwell. Together, they told the story of
Speaker 1: a week that began when a distant light was cited,
Speaker 1: one that seemingly could not be explained. The week ended
Speaker 1: with an encounter that occurred over three days and was
Speaker 1: witnessed by thirty eight people, including Gill, other personnel at
Speaker 1: the mission, and local Papuans. So you might be wondering
Speaker 1: where is Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea is the
Speaker 1: eastern portion of the island, known as either Papua or
Speaker 1: New Guinea. The western portion is a province of Indonesia,
Speaker 1: while Papua New Guinea is now an independent commonwealth. In
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine, when these events occurred, it was overseen
Speaker 1: by Australia, which is only eighty miles across the era
Speaker 1: for a sea from the southern tip of the island.
Speaker 1: Father Gil and Father Crutwell were two Australian missionaries at
Speaker 1: tiny missionary stations around good Enough Bay, part of the
Speaker 1: peninsula that makes up the easternmost part of the island.
Speaker 1: The Gura, which Gil mentions in his letter, is the
Speaker 1: headquarters of the Anglican diocese in this area. On June
Speaker 1: twenty first, five days before the first Mass sighting, a
Speaker 1: teacher evangelist named Stephen Moy, who was stationed at Boyani
Speaker 1: along with Father Gill, saw light in the early hours
Speaker 1: of the morning. This is Gil from a speech given
Speaker 1: later in nineteen fifty nine in England recounting his conversation
Speaker 1: with Moy after Moy's sighting. Moy is referred to here
Speaker 1: as Stephen moy Gill, one of my head teachers. Teachers
Speaker 1: by the name of Stealen moy Gill, which sound about suspicious.
Speaker 1: Last Sunday night, I saw a rather sing also is no.
Speaker 1: He wrote a report about this event for Gil. It
Speaker 1: began with Moy walking out of his house at one
Speaker 1: in the morning. The text of the report is read
Speaker 1: by an actor. I saw a bright white light silently
Speaker 1: coming out of a sky from a point about a
Speaker 1: quarter a mile out to see slightly west of boy
Speaker 1: Andei Mission station. It descended from what seemed to be
Speaker 1: a great height, and I thought at first it was
Speaker 1: a falling star. He watched for what he estimated to
Speaker 1: be about three minutes as it descended and moved to
Speaker 1: the east along the coast. It settled at what Mooy
Speaker 1: guessed to be about three hundred feet above the sea.
Speaker 1: There it remained stationary for perhaps half a minute and
Speaker 1: gradually decreased in brilliance until the shape of an inverted
Speaker 1: saucer could be discerned, which was tilted backwards with part
Speaker 1: of the base visible. The object then moved upwards and
Speaker 1: disappeared from view into the clouds. Moi also mentioned to
Speaker 1: Gil his first impression upon glimpsing the light at the
Speaker 1: was a light similar to those dropped by planes during
Speaker 1: the war. This would be World War Two. Here's Gill
Speaker 1: again talking about his questions to Moy after the sighting.
Speaker 1: Is an object over the sea, and I ask you
Speaker 1: more kinds of questions about his size and shape. I
Speaker 1: wanted naper sixth and what he lack of place? And
Speaker 1: each time he came there he said, no, it was
Speaker 1: an the nearest thing that I can relate to. In fact,
Speaker 1: this was not the first time unexplained lights had been
Speaker 1: seen in the area. In a strange coincidence, the day
Speaker 1: before he had his first sighting at Boyani, Gill wrote
Speaker 1: a letter to Reverend David Durry, the acting principle of
Speaker 1: Saint Aidan's College in Dagura, an institution for training teacher
Speaker 1: evangelists such as Stephen Moy. There are being quite a
Speaker 1: number of reports over the months from reliable witnesses. The
Speaker 1: peculiar thing about these most recent reports is that the
Speaker 1: UFOs seem to be stationary Boyanni, or to travel from Boyanny.
Speaker 1: I myself saw a stationary white light twice on the
Speaker 1: same night on April ninth. I do not doubt the
Speaker 1: existence of these things, but my simple mind still requires
Speaker 1: scientific evidence before I can accept from outer space theory.
Speaker 1: I am inclined to believe that probably many UFOs are
Speaker 1: more likely some form of electric phenomena, or perhaps something
Speaker 1: broad about by the Aden bomb explosions, etc. Then, addressing
Speaker 1: Moy's sighting four days prior, he wrote that Stephen should
Speaker 1: actually make out a saucer could be the work of
Speaker 1: the unconscious mind, as it is very likely that at
Speaker 1: some time he has seen illustrations of some kind in
Speaker 1: a magazine. It is all too difficult to understand for me.
Speaker 1: You signed off yours doubting. William gil acknowledged that he
Speaker 1: didn't question Moy's version of his sighting. In fact, he
Speaker 1: referenced both his and other a similar experiences, but he
Speaker 1: maintained that he did not think that these lights warranted
Speaker 1: any undue attention. The very next day, June twenty six,
Speaker 1: Gil again wrote to Dry, but this time his attitude
Speaker 1: towards the lights was entirely different. Dear David. Life is strange,
Speaker 1: isn't it. Yesterday I wrote you a letter expressing opinions
Speaker 1: are the UFOs? Now less than twenty four hours later
Speaker 1: I have changed my views somewhat. Last night we are
Speaker 1: Boyani experienced about four hours of UFO activity and there
Speaker 1: is no doubt whatsoever that they are handled by beings
Speaker 1: of some kind. At times it was absolutely breathtaking. Here
Speaker 1: is the report. This time he signed off cheers, convinced
Speaker 1: Bill what had happened to cause this change of heart.
Speaker 1: Father Gill sent a report on the events of that
Speaker 1: night and the two that followed to Father Norman Crutwell.
Speaker 1: We heard the beginning of the cover letter earlier in
Speaker 1: this episode. Father Gill had taken careful notes of what
Speaker 1: he observed during the encounter. Again from his nineteen fifty
Speaker 1: nine speech in England, this is what I think right
Speaker 1: for this is the sort of thing that no believe
Speaker 1: unless I write it down. In fact, I went believe
Speaker 1: it unless I write it down either, because you know
Speaker 1: how it is, especially at the tribe. I didn't have
Speaker 1: any whisky on board, but you never know that people
Speaker 1: might might believe that I wrote this minutes I minutes.
Speaker 1: Whenever anything happened, I put it down, and it was
Speaker 1: just as sit as best I had a write, an
Speaker 1: academic approach to I was not excited, not that I remember, certainly,
Speaker 1: and I had a common enough of mind to be
Speaker 1: able to because the events was having become Crutwell used
Speaker 1: guils report and his own investigation to author a three
Speaker 1: part article that appeared in the November nineteen sixty one
Speaker 1: and January March nineteen sixty two editions of the April Bulletin,
Speaker 1: the newsletter of the prominent at the time Aerial phenomena
Speaker 1: research organization based in the United States. The text of
Speaker 1: this report reads, father Gill that just had his dinner
Speaker 1: and came out of the front door of the mission house.
Speaker 1: There's a small patch of lawn, a few trees, including
Speaker 1: coconut palms, and then a drop of perhaps fifty feet
Speaker 1: to the shingle beach below. He casually glanced at the
Speaker 1: sky and looked for Venus, which was conspicuous at the time.
Speaker 1: In his own words, I saw Venus, but I also
Speaker 1: saw this sparkling object, which to me was peculiar because
Speaker 1: it sparkled, and because it was very very bright, and
Speaker 1: it was above Venus, so that caused me to watch
Speaker 1: it for a while, and then I saw a descent
Speaker 1: towards us. Stephen gil Moy, who joined Father Gill a
Speaker 1: few minutes later, described it as shining with a bright
Speaker 1: white light like at Tilly Lamp. At Tilly Lamp is
Speaker 1: a kerosene lamp, the kind that many people use when camping.
Speaker 1: Stephen remarks that it appeared to wax and wane in brightness,
Speaker 1: as though it was approaching and receding. The object eventually
Speaker 1: came fairly close and maintained that distance. This is Father
Speaker 1: gil relating this sighting many years later in the strange
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven film UFOs Are Here the Dao Diaries.
Speaker 1: There's just hovering, not very far high up maybe two
Speaker 1: or three hundred feet up in the air, and glowing
Speaker 1: and two bipods jutting out from underneath it and sparkling
Speaker 1: all around. In his nineteen fifty nine speech, Gil gave
Speaker 1: further details about the appearance of the craft, an outdone
Speaker 1: of a saucer, a dark portion between it and the
Speaker 1: smartly night, so there's a light outside, darkness and the
Speaker 1: ardent itself that is most Another most little thing is
Speaker 1: the chapter blue electric or light emanating from the top
Speaker 1: of the past up towards it, or an electric blue light,
Speaker 1: but I think I destroyed as a pencil with light.
Speaker 1: Again from the text of Crutwell's report, Father Gill states
Speaker 1: that it changed from a brilliant white light when it
Speaker 1: was far off, to a dull yellow or perhaps pale
Speaker 1: orange when it was close. When asked whether he thought
Speaker 1: it was metallic, he answered, well, with the pigs solid
Speaker 1: certainly not transparent or gaseous, we just assumed that it
Speaker 1: was metallic from our own experience of things that travel
Speaker 1: and carry men. All witnesses agree that it was circular,
Speaker 1: that it had a wide base and a narrower a deck,
Speaker 1: that it had a type of legs beneath it, that
Speaker 1: it produced at times a shaft of blue light which
Speaker 1: shone upwards into the sky at an angle of about
Speaker 1: forty five degrees. So to summarize, Gil and his companion
Speaker 1: saw a late descend to within a fairly close distance
Speaker 1: to where they stood on the shore, at which point
Speaker 1: they could see that it was a craft of some type.
Speaker 1: It was saucer shaped, and let with an additional light
Speaker 1: beam reaching into the sky. There also seemed to be
Speaker 1: a light that is somewhat separate from the craft hovering
Speaker 1: close to it. But this was not all they saw
Speaker 1: after the break. Strange rivals will return in a moment.
Speaker 1: Father William Gill and a group of other missionaries and
Speaker 1: local people had watched a light approach until it came
Speaker 1: close enough to make out that it was a physical
Speaker 1: craft hovering above the ocean. When we think about a
Speaker 1: classic flying saucer or UFO, I think we picture a
Speaker 1: craft that is fully enclosed, like an airplane. But Gil
Speaker 1: reported that this craft had a deck like a boat
Speaker 1: from his nineteen fifty nine speech. Was a thick structure
Speaker 1: the two pass of what I called the body of
Speaker 1: the crowd, and then there was what I interpreted as
Speaker 1: a superstructure on top of that. He was on the case,
Speaker 1: and as reminded us, I think of the craft and
Speaker 1: on this stack, Gil and the assembled crowd sat figures
Speaker 1: from Crutwell's report. As we watched it, men came out
Speaker 1: from this object and appeared on the top of it,
Speaker 1: on what seemed to be a deck on top of
Speaker 1: a huge disk. There were four men in all, occasionally two,
Speaker 1: then one, then three, then four. We noted the various
Speaker 1: times the men appeared, and then later on all those
Speaker 1: witnesses who were quite sure that our records were right,
Speaker 1: and that they agreed with them and saw the men
Speaker 1: at the same time as I did, were able to
Speaker 1: sign their names as witnesses of what we assumed to
Speaker 1: be human activity or beings of some sort on the
Speaker 1: object itself. Gil also remarked about the way the blue
Speaker 1: light reflected on the figures on the craft, in addition
Speaker 1: to a general glow that he said surrounded them but
Speaker 1: didn't actually touched them, that there was some gap between
Speaker 1: them and the lay. He further explained that in his observations,
Speaker 1: the men seemed to be illuminated in two ways by
Speaker 1: reflected light as men seen working high up on a
Speaker 1: building at night, brought by the glare of an oxy
Speaker 1: aceateleine torch, and b by this curious halo which outlined them,
Speaker 1: following every contour of their figures, and yet did not
Speaker 1: touch them. In fact, they seemed to be illuminated themselves
Speaker 1: in the same way as the machine was. Gil was
Speaker 1: asked whether the men might have been wearing some kind
Speaker 1: of space suits. His reply, according to Crutwell's report, was
Speaker 1: I couldn't say that. Maybe so that would seem to
Speaker 1: be a possible explanation of the double outline, but I
Speaker 1: couldn't see any such suits. Crutwell's report continues, I asked
Speaker 1: him whether he could see any detail, such as the
Speaker 1: color of their skins. He replied that they were too
Speaker 1: far away to see such details, but that he would
Speaker 1: say they were probably pile As for the details of
Speaker 1: their bodies, all he could be sure of was that
Speaker 1: they had an outline of normal human beings from the
Speaker 1: waist up. Their legs were hidden by the sides of
Speaker 1: the craft. If we're in clothes, they were very tight fitting.
Speaker 1: In addition to the craft with the figures onboard, there
Speaker 1: were other smaller objects Crutwell uses the word discs that
Speaker 1: moved around more than the larger craft. They're described as
Speaker 1: moving erratically, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, coming closer and then retreating,
Speaker 1: occasionally swinging back and forth like a pendulum. Several witnesses
Speaker 1: later drew pictures of the bigger ship. While there are
Speaker 1: minor differences in things such as the number of legs
Speaker 1: descending from the bottom, they're clearly the same object around disc,
Speaker 1: perhaps fairly thick, with the smaller structure resting on top
Speaker 1: on which the figures walked. There are interesting differences in
Speaker 1: perspective as well, with some drawings depicting the angle at
Speaker 1: which the object was sited and others showing the objects
Speaker 1: straight on, though during the sighting they were always looking
Speaker 1: up at it. At nine thirty that night, after nearly
Speaker 1: three hours, the crafts finally departed, wavering slightly, then taking
Speaker 1: off at great speed. The largest of them eventually receded
Speaker 1: to a distance where it was merely a pin point
Speaker 1: in the sky, and then vanished. And there the encounter
Speaker 1: ended for that night, because at about six o'clock the
Speaker 1: next evening, a Papuan medical assistant named Anne Laurie Barewa
Speaker 1: called to Father Gill that the large UFO had returned.
Speaker 1: Gill arrived on the scene around two minutes after six
Speaker 1: and saw what he thought was the largest of the
Speaker 1: craft from the previous night. It seemed a little smaller,
Speaker 1: but he attributed that to would probably being further away.
Speaker 1: Then Gil called for the others to come to the object.
Speaker 1: He reported to Critewell, although the sun had set, it
Speaker 1: was quite light for the following fifteen minutes, we watched
Speaker 1: figures appear on top four of them. There is no
Speaker 1: doubt that they were human. This is possibly the same
Speaker 1: object that I took to be the Mothership last night.
Speaker 1: Two smaller UFOs were seen at the time, stationary one
Speaker 1: above the hills west and another overhead on the large one.
Speaker 1: Two of the figures seemed to be doing something near
Speaker 1: the center of the deck. They were occasionally bending over
Speaker 1: and raising their arm as though were adjusting or setting
Speaker 1: up something not visible. One figure seemed to be standing
Speaker 1: looking down at us a group of about a dozen.
Speaker 1: This figure stood with his hands on the rail, looking over,
Speaker 1: just as Father Gill said, quote one will look over
Speaker 1: the rails of a ship. At this point, Father Gill
Speaker 1: decided to wave to the figures on the craft to
Speaker 1: see if he could make contact with them. From the
Speaker 1: movie UFOs are here the Dao Diaries, And so we waved,
Speaker 1: wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get this object
Speaker 1: down onto the playing field. And as we waved, wondering
Speaker 1: whether we'd get some recognition and whether perhaps they would
Speaker 1: understand what we wanted, they waved back. Here's Gill as
Speaker 1: told to Crutwell in his report, there seemed to be
Speaker 1: no doubt that our movements were answered. All the mission
Speaker 1: boys made audible gasps of either joy or surprise. Gil
Speaker 1: and his companions proceeded to flash lights on and off
Speaker 1: towards the craft, and perceived that these offerings were acknowledged
Speaker 1: by the craft, which would make a slight dip in reply.
Speaker 1: They then returned to waving, But the figures on the
Speaker 1: craft had returned whatever it was they had been doing,
Speaker 1: And we're more interested in what they were doing on
Speaker 1: the south than in us. This was the impressive week off.
Speaker 1: I think in my report he will say that great ways,
Speaker 1: and then going on with whatever the business was. It
Speaker 1: was six thirty at this point, and Gil and his
Speaker 1: companions left the scene for dinner. After dinner, they saw
Speaker 1: that the big ufo was still there, though it might
Speaker 1: have receded somewhat. They then decided to go ahead with
Speaker 1: the day's evensong, a church service traditionally held near sunset.
Speaker 1: Just prior to the evening service, about seven o'clock, the
Speaker 1: thing was there again. It had arrived about an hour earlier,
Speaker 1: and we all decided to have the normal even song
Speaker 1: that we do have on those nights, because well, the
Speaker 1: thing was out there outside the church anyway, and we
Speaker 1: really wouldn't go away doing the service, and it didn't.
Speaker 1: When he came out, very well was still up in
Speaker 1: the sky, and so for another hour or two we watched,
Speaker 1: and then suddenly it did go, and there was this
Speaker 1: amazingly incredible speed that they hollcraft disappeared to nothing across
Speaker 1: the bay in that of the second or say, this
Speaker 1: was the end of the second night of the encounter,
Speaker 1: and the one that seems to have had the most
Speaker 1: impact on Father Gil. When you listen to him talk
Speaker 1: about these encounters. There is of course the amazement of
Speaker 1: seeing a craft like this descend from the skies and
Speaker 1: hover in view. There is the appearance of four figures
Speaker 1: for one of a better description the crew of the craft.
Speaker 1: But what seems to really stay with him is that he,
Speaker 1: through his wave and their reply, communicated with things that,
Speaker 1: while they looked human, were most likely not another very
Speaker 1: station there without any doubt a pour in my own
Speaker 1: mind in any case, but I saw it is one
Speaker 1: thing which I just coun't count wise pounds of mine.
Speaker 1: That's something June waves. It was a parent response the
Speaker 1: way the way plisibly gay. The third night of the
Speaker 1: encounter was far less dramatic than the first two. In fact,
Speaker 1: in Crotewell's article in the Aprol Bulletin, the third night
Speaker 1: is reduced to a brief timeline starting with six pm,
Speaker 1: when apparently someone looked for a UFO in the sky
Speaker 1: without success. By six forty five one had appeared, though
Speaker 1: it was very high and almost directly overhead. By nine
Speaker 1: there were three arranged in a nearly straight line. At eleven,
Speaker 1: eight UFOs, the largest number seen at one time over
Speaker 1: the course of the nights, were arrayed in the sky.
Speaker 1: One appeared to be fairly low, but there was no
Speaker 1: sign of activity on the deck. And that's the end
Speaker 1: of the report for the third and final night of
Speaker 1: this unusual encounter. In trying to explain what Gil and
Speaker 1: his companion saw over those three nights, there seems to
Speaker 1: me to be two different things going on. One is
Speaker 1: the number of small objects, which are mostly referred to
Speaker 1: as lights. Alan Heinik, who was the best known UFO
Speaker 1: researcher at the time, looked into this encounter, including interviewing
Speaker 1: Gil and other witnesses. He concluded that these smaller objects
Speaker 1: were not entirely surprisingly misidentified bright stars and planets. This
Speaker 1: happens all the time, But Heineck didn't have an explanation
Speaker 1: for the larger object, and that, of course, is why
Speaker 1: this sighting is so interesting, the bigger craft with the
Speaker 1: figures on top. I am not aware of another modern report,
Speaker 1: such as the one from Boyani, with figures actually atop
Speaker 1: a craft while it hovers in the air. Because the
Speaker 1: craft was positioned over the sea. The obvious answer would
Speaker 1: be that they mistook a ship for an aerial craft.
Speaker 1: But how could this be true if dozens of witnesses
Speaker 1: perceived it as being at least a couple hundred feet
Speaker 1: in the air. A likely explanation is a phenomenon called
Speaker 1: the fata morgana, which is a particular kind of mirage
Speaker 1: that occurs just above the horizon. It is caused by
Speaker 1: a temperature inversion when a layer of warm air sits
Speaker 1: above a layer of cool air, resulting in the bending
Speaker 1: of light rays. This kind of mirage will cause objects
Speaker 1: to appear distorted, or possibly in this case, to appear
Speaker 1: above the surface on which they are in fact resting. Thus,
Speaker 1: a ship appears to hover above the sea rather than
Speaker 1: rest in it, and a boat is hinted at. In
Speaker 1: Gill's description the men on top of the craft, he
Speaker 1: describes one of the figures on the craft is standing
Speaker 1: with his hands on the rail, looking over, just as
Speaker 1: one will look over the rails of a ship. If
Speaker 1: in fact this is the case, Gil and his companions
Speaker 1: might have been observing a squid boat. Squid boats are
Speaker 1: strung with lights that hang on beams off to the
Speaker 1: sides of the ship to attract squid to the surface
Speaker 1: where they can be caught. They also sometimes have antenna
Speaker 1: poles that are illuminated by the ship's lights and can
Speaker 1: look like what Gill called a pencil quick line reaching
Speaker 1: towards the sky. Is this a certain identification, No, but
Speaker 1: Gill acknowledged that though we felt this was not the case,
Speaker 1: it was possible that he and the others had seen
Speaker 1: a ship at sea. Absolutely all I can be sure
Speaker 1: about as that I have in my mind what I saw.
Speaker 1: It's hard to picture a squid boat moving away from
Speaker 1: Gil at incredible speeds, but that could be a product
Speaker 1: of the distorting effects of the Fadam morgana or perhaps
Speaker 1: the squid boat shut off some of its lights so
Speaker 1: that it appeared to get smaller, which would have been
Speaker 1: interpreted as it being further away. What's interesting to me
Speaker 1: is that Gill doesn't seem too concerned about convincing people
Speaker 1: about what he saw here. He is from the movie.
Speaker 1: UFOs are here the Dao Diaries, people claiming to see
Speaker 1: things such as I did the thirty eight of Us,
Speaker 1: and we all believe that we saw it. But of
Speaker 1: course we don't expect other people to believe us if
Speaker 1: I don't want to. And it strikes me that Gill
Speaker 1: doesn't try to integrate the story into his religious beliefs
Speaker 1: or philosophical outlook. He's simply see something and reports on it.
Speaker 1: But this is often not the case. Many times, people
Speaker 1: who experience a UFO encounter or simply believed that encounters happen,
Speaker 1: either add UFOs to their existing beliefs and in the
Speaker 1: process alter those beliefs, or they build a belief framework
Speaker 1: around their belief in UFOs. This season, on Strange Arrivals,
Speaker 1: the children came back from school and they had all
Speaker 1: of these stories about this device that had crashed in
Speaker 1: the school grounds. I actually in the trees. I feel
Speaker 1: sure that the children feel that they did see something.
Speaker 1: He had a big tape and street black eyes and
Speaker 1: by these accounts are so vivid and so consistent and
Speaker 1: so credible in the air and flow their cars. I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the top of the stairs and there's this
Speaker 1: little blue alien. It's as if the aliens come through
Speaker 1: a screen. They shatter one reality, and I'm into this reality.
Speaker 1: This was going to be like the revelation to the world.
Speaker 1: Look at this great stuff, this great proof that we have.
Speaker 1: There is a creative intelligence at work here trying to
Speaker 1: reach us, to create some kind of a connection. They
Speaker 1: were transformed by the experience and in touch with spiritual epiphany.
Speaker 1: People assaying that the aliens came toward us, something's going
Speaker 1: to happen. There's something they're just going to happen to this,
Speaker 1: he was deliberately implanting false memories and I lost my
Speaker 1: ability to think critically strange arrivals. As a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky, this episode
Speaker 1: was written and hosted by Toby Ball and produced by
Speaker 1: Rima l Kaali, Jesse Funk, and Naami Griffin, with executive
Speaker 1: producers Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick and Aaron Mankey and supervising
Speaker 1: producer Josh Thane, with voice acting by David Burton, Joshua
Speaker 1: Longhurst and William Clapton. And special thanks to Wendy Connors,
Speaker 1: creator of the Faded Discs archive of UFO related audio
Speaker 1: on archive dot org. Learn more about the show at
Speaker 1: grimminmild dot com, slash Strange Arrivals, and find more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio by visiting the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows