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ARCHIVES FOR UFO RESEARCH |
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UFO-Aktuellt issue 4/2003
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Page 3: Editorial
Chairman Clas Svahn devotes this issue's editorial to the fact that
the UFO phenomenon doesn't attract as much attention in
media as it used to, at least not in Sweden. It was different before,
especially back in the 1970s when the debate between Swedish
saucerians and skeptics was both loud and intense. Still, Svahn
emphasizes the fact that for the last 15 years, UFO-Sweden
has focused on scientific work and investigations, instead of
looking for juicy material to please proponents for the
extraterrestrial hypothesis, and this is without a doubt a reason why the
Swedish ET debate has faded over the years. But
UFO-Sweden works closely together with different Swedish
media, and over all the organization is met with both respect
and interest. However, the real debate is missing, and thus Svahn urges
his readers to ventilate, to write letters to the
editor, and do other things to get a discussion going.
Pages 4-7: Sixteen years with Gösta
Carlsson
A long article by Svahn, accompanied by several photographs, about the most
famous of Swedish contactees: Gösta Carlsson .
Carlsson passed away on 24 September, 2003, at an age of 84. Svahn and Carlsson
met for the first time on 6 August, 1987, after Svahn
had decided to pursue a thorough investigation
of the close encounter Carlsson claimed to have had on 18 May,
1946. Their work resulted in book published in 1995; "Mötet i Gläntan"
(English approximately "The meeting in the Clearing").
Having sold nearly 3.000 copies, the book is the first
thorough investigation of a Swedish contactee, and one of few
(?) maybe even the only (??) book in the contactee genre written together with
the contactee himself. Svahn offers an open and very personal
insight in who Carlsson was and what he was like, and he is without a
doubt one of the strongest glowing stars in the Swedish
UFO history.
Pages 8-9: The Story of Gösta Carlsson
Another article by Svahn, taken directly from his book about the
Carlsson case. Carlsson was more than just a
contactee. Born in 1918 outside Ängelholm (where he later was
to have his close encounter), Carlsson went from being a poor
child to become a successful inventor of nature-cure medicine based
on pollen, an industry that would in time
make him a millionaire. The meeting in 1946 was the main reason why he chose to
pursue his ambitions in medicine. He earned the nickname
"The Pollen King", and besides his successful
medications Carlsson worked hard (and spent much money) on
supporting the local ice-hockey team, which gained some success in the 1960's.
Carlsson was a man with strong beliefs, and he never stopped believing that he
in his late twenties met visitors from another world.
Page 10: Book Reviews
Four books reviewed by this time, all of them by Svahn. Three of
them are in Swedish, and they're all for juveniles. The fourth
book is Journal of UFO Studies Volume 8, edited by Stuart Apelle ,
a compilation Svahn is very pleased with, indeed, since it
contains "several good investigations by competent ufologists".
Page 11: The Martebo Lights Featured in Detective Story
The chairman of the local group in Stockholm, Inga-Lill Wallin
, published three years ago her book about the
mysterious Martebo Lights, a strange light that has been seen
in Gotland, Sweden, for many centuries. Now the lights have appeared
in another book, this time a fictive detective story written by Anna
Jansson . In the book, Jansson's sixth, two of the main
characters can be found discussing the strange lights. The article, written by
Svahn, also offers a short history of the lights.
Pages 12-14: The Secrets of the Moth
Man
Article by John Sherwood , and translated by Stefan
Roslund . The article tells the story of Gray Barker , by
many known as one of the more infamous characters in the history of
ufology and paranormal research. Barker, who wrote among other
things the classic "They Knew Too Much About Flying
Saucers" which introduces the notorious Men in Black, passed
away in 1984 at the age of 59, and was a friend of Sherwood's. According
to the latter, Baker was a man who deliberately
promoted hoaxes, co-operated in other people's frauds, and
manipulated the belief systems of his surroundings. John Keel
, another strong name in paranormal research , had a long-time
feud with Baker, one of the reasons
being both men's interest in the Mothman mystery. However, Sherwood
paints a picture where Baker was in it for the money and the sheer fun of
fooling others, while Keel was more of a serious researcher. It's
hard for an outsider to really get the full picture
of who the bad guy was, but Sherwood still offers much evidence to why Baker
wasn't quite the ufologist many thinks he was.
Pages 15-17: Invisible Forces
UFO-Sweden's expert on fortean phenomena, Richard Svensson , writes
(and as always, draws beautiful pictures) about bizarre things, not necessarily
UFO related. This time it's strange, unknown, and strong forces in nature
that comes under examination. Old tales tell of people
entering into parts of the land that was under fairy- or
troll-control, and as a result of that they became paralyzed. Trolls and similar
mythological creatures were known to have the ability to
paralyze, and one can easily find parallels to contemporary ufology,
where stories of cars suddenly dying when a UFO or extraterrestrial
is near, or people becoming immobile when encountering
other-worldly beings.
Pages 18-19: International ufology
Stefan Roslund has thirteen short news about the
international UFO, and forteana, scene. Among other
things, Roslund mentions how a retired American
soldier who used to serve at Rendlesham claims to
be the man behind the, in his eyes very mundane, famous incident in 1980,
an alleged alien abduction in Brazil that Linda
Moulton Howe has investigated, a research trips to Lake Champlain and Loch
Ness that for the former resulted in some curious underwater sounds, and crop
circles in Arkansas.
Pages 20-21: Media Watch
C Göran Norlén gives a review of news clippings from
Swedish media, this time from August 2003 up until and including
October 2003. Norlén sort of continues the discussion Svahn had in his
editorial, but adds a little more negativity to it. But not too much,
though. As usual, there have been both very good and very
bad things said in Swedish media about the
UFO phenomenon.
Pages 22-23: The World According to Strieber
Article by Andreas Ohlsson
, where he tells the story of Whitley Strieber , the horror
writer who allegedly was abducted by extraterrestrials on 26
December, 1985. Ohlsson gives an update to what Strieber
is up to these days, how he has continued writing books and how his wife
Anne Strieber is handling Strieber's own website:
Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country. Apparently Strieber
is still convinced that extraterrestrials do exist, and that they
have indeed abducted him once. Ohlsson quotes him saying "The
visitors are entirely real and they are here taking
sexual material and tissues from human beings". The
article is accompanied by a photograph taken by Svahn of Strieber when he
visited Sweden in 1988.
Pages 24-25: Book Advertisements
Two pages with ads for books and
booklets offered and produced by UFO-Sweden.
Pages 26-27: The Hessdalen Phenomenon
Article by UFO Norway's Arnulf Løken , and
translated by Jörgen Granlie . Løken has met with
Bjarne Lillevold , a Norwegian who have
lived in Hessdalen for forty years. The valley of Hessdalen is famous throughout
the ufological world for its mysterious lights, which have shown
themselves on numerous occasions. In the article
Lillevold tells of some of his more interesting sightings. The article
first appeared in UFO-Norway's magazine UFO, no.3-4 2002.
Pages 28-29: Empty Promises From UFO Religions
Article by Stefan Isaksson , where he
talks about some of the promises offered over the years by different
New Religious UFO Movements. Isaksson mentions among other
things Unarius, Heaven's Gate, and above all the Raëlian
Religion. The latter has gained much publicity from its leader, His Holiness
Raël , who is a strong cloning-proponent. But, as is the case with all
the other religions, the Raëlians have yet
to come up with real evidence for their claims.
Pages 30-31: A Car Full of Books
Article by Svahn, where he tells the story of when he and UFO
Aktuellt's editor Håkan Ekstrand went to
England in October, 2003, to pick up donations in
the form of books and other UFO material from both Gordon
Creighton's son Philip. The two spend many hours at
the house of the late Gordon Creighton gathering books, and the next day
they went to see Hilary Evans and his Mary Evans
Picture Library, where additional material was picked up. But Svahn
and Ekstrand didn't just receive material, they also donated several
Swedish magazines from the late 19th and
early 20th century. When the trip was over the two had collected
more than 500 books and a couple of thousand periodicals in many different
languages; material that will be available at the
Archives for UFO Research.
Back page: UFO Photograph Taken With Cellphone
Article by Svahn and Jimmy Sassi , about the first
Swedish UFO photograph taken with a cellphone equipped with a
digital camera. The photograph was taken 12 October, 2003,
in northern Sweden, and shows a strong light against a
dark background. UFO-Sweden's field investigators suspects that it might
be a photograph of a helicopter with its headlights on, but the case is
still under investigation.
