AREA52 - DEBRIEFED With Chris Ramsay - This Alien Photo Might be REAL - Ilkley Moor Incident | DEBRIEFED ep. 63

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

The Ilkley Moor incident centers on Philip Spencer, a former police officer who said he crossed the moor early one morning in 1987 and saw a small figure on the hillside. He managed to take one photograph before the figure moved away and a craft rose into the fog. Spencer later realized he had lost time and that his compass was suddenly pointing in the wrong direction. Under regression he described being taken aboard the craft and shown scenes of Earth, which became part of the case. The photo, the missing time, the compass change, and the abduction account are the core elements of what is now known as the Ilkley Moor encounter.

It isn't every day that we see a photo of an actual real alien being. Well, in December of 1987, a police officer known only by the pseudonym Philip Spencer. Crossed Ilkley Moore, a wide stretch of cold, isolated English countryside known for mist, silence, and the occasional strange light. He carried a small 35-millimeter camera, and he wasn't hunting UFOs. He was just taking photos of the landscape along the way to visit his family. But halfway across the moor, he saw something impossible.

A small figure, pale, humanoid, moving against the wind. Instinctively, he raised his camera and took a single photograph. Moments later, he watched a silent metallic craft lift from the valley and vanish into the clouds. When the light faded, he found himself elsewhere on the moor, confused with nearly two hours of missing time. The compass he carried now pointed south instead of north. And the photograph he brought back has since become one of the most debated images in UFO history. Some call it a hoax, a trick of light, a case of misidentification. But others argue it may be one of the clearest photographs ever taken of a non-human being.

But here's where it gets even stranger, folks. Despite the images fame, there are no known interviews, recorded podcasts, television appearances, radio spots, nothing, not even decades later. His identity was hidden behind a pseudonym likely to protect his livelihood as a police officer. And so he quietly faded into obscurity. But today, his story survives only through written accounts by the researchers who spoke to him privately. So what exactly did he see on that December morning? And why did he, the man behind the most famous photograph of an alien being, decide to remain anonymous?

Let's take a closer look. I was out walking with my dogs and their wife at the park on 10 p.m. I was going to tilt at my head back. And whenever I did, it's my eyes directly over my head. Headed north. I've been watching all choppers and it wasn't any of those planes in the military. I know what those. Folks, welcome back to another episode of debriefed.

My name is Chris Ramsey. And today we are going to be taking a pretty deep dive into the case of the being photographed at Ilkley Moore. As I mentioned, this gained worldwide popularity, and you can find a lot about it online. There are many, many articles written about the Ilkley Moore incident. Today, we are going to be looking at one written in the UFO Universe magazine Winter Edition of 1989. So two years after this incident happened, here is a widespread write-up in this edition of this magazine. Before we get into reading this, folks, if you don't mind, leave a like. subscribe, hit that notification bell so you don't miss a video. And if you want, if you would like to

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This is the definitive sort of article written by Peter Howe, I believe it's pronounced. And the subheadline reads, it is very rare that the occupants of a UFO photograph. This may be the only photo of its kind known to exist. And underneath it says alien, in quotes, abduction on Ilkley Moore, a scientific inquiry. So this gentleman that goes by the name Philip Spencer, potentially a pseudonym, not only allows himself to be looked into, but also I think does a subsequent hypnotic regression. And out of that regression, I think some of the juiciest details of this case emerge. But let's begin our read-through.

Ooh, I love this type of stuff. This is it. Fired up. Dude, what time is it? It's 8.15 in the morning. I got here like 7.30. I'm fired up. I couldn't wait for this episode. All right, here we go. This thing happened to me early on December 1, 1987. It was still dark and overcast when I set off from home around quarter past 7 in the morning to cross the moors of East Morton. The village where my father-in-law lives. I carried my camera and compass with me. I was hoping to take some shots of Oakley, looking down to the town from the moor tops. The compass was a safeguard. Even though I had made the five-mile journey several times, it's surprisingly easy to get disoriented and lost up there, especially if the weather is bad.

Rather than follow the established path, I took the shorter, though more arduous route, up the front of the steep hillside. As the ground started to level out, I picked up a path which ran alongside a stand of trees. I was vaguely aware of a humming sound, but I thought this was due to an aircraft hidden by the overcast sky.

Then, something caught my eye. I stopped and turned. Looking into the huge hollow, scooped out of the top of the hill. About 30 feet away, I saw what I can only describe as a small green creature moving quickly away from me. I thought, what's that? And shouted, hey. When it was about 40 to 50 feet away, it turned and seemed to be waving me off.

I quickly brought up my camera and took it. a photograph. Then, I don't know why exactly. I jumped down the embankment and chased after it. Well, okay. I like the cut of his jib. I'll be honest. Instinctively takes a photo. Most people would be too shell-shocked or, you know, you hear a lot of accounts of like, I didn't even think about grabbing my camera. This guy did. And not only that, he's like, get back here. I like the idea also of the alien just waving him off being like, no, no, no, no, stop, go away. Maybe he was up to no good, who knows. It didn't walk as much as shambled, but nevertheless moved much more quickly than a person would. I followed it around an outcropping where it had

disappeared. There was a deeper hollow and an even bigger surprise. I saw what I can only describe is a large object, just like two silver saucers stuck together edge to edge. Some sort of a box sticking out of the top was descending into the object. The humming sound I had previously heard became quite loud, and the saucer shot straight up into the clouds. I was too nervous to continue, and came back down off the Moors and back to Ilkley. I couldn't understand it. The shops were open and the town hall clock said it was 10 o'clock. It should only have been about 8.15. That's wild. It is currently... It's 820. We started reading this at 815. How wild?

Don't... That clock's still an hour behind, so... Don't mind that. Or an hour ahead. Was I going mad? Then I remembered the photograph. There was a place in Cayley, which operated a one-hour developing service. I caught the next bus and walked the short distance to the shop, taking a couple shots as I went. I suppose I felt guilty at wasting so much film until I realized the few...

utility of it. I returned to the shop later and there it was. The quality was poor, but there was no doubt I had captured on film what I had seen with my own eyes. Incredible. Folks, this is what a story. As a photographer, I've got my own little Nikon here. I just started doing film photography. I got a little FM2, bought it in Japan. And I totally understand the need to want to fill up a role because you do, like, why would you have? a role developed if it wasn't finished. You know, sometimes you just, you got three, four photos left, you snap them off, whatever it is. Some could turn out to be gold. So I get that from a photography standpoint. It's a fun detail. And here we go. The above account compiled from letters and recorded

interviews was made by a former police officer. Without doubt, in some quarters, the story will raise a few chuckles and no wonder why. The UFO problem nearly always receives bad press. This is not surprising either. The subject attracts more than its fair share of fantasy-prone individuals who want to believe in invaders from outer space and organize cultists who see every aircraft landing light and bright star as a spaceship from Venus or Alpha Centauri. These people are fodder to the journalists for the naive space invaders headlines. You know, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The UFO subject is not like that.

Let me tell you how it is. When the reports have been sifted and 90% of them have been identified as either hoaxes, misidentified weather balloons, aircraft landing lights, or bright celestial bodies, there remains a residue of reports for which there is no known mundane cause. Within the residue, there is a growing body of experiences, very similar to the one narrated above. This type of close encounter has surfaced all. all over the world from many different cultures involving

percipients from all walks of life, including housewives, writers, police officers, professors, psychologists, farmers, and many more. Most of these people are highly embarrassed and anxious that their true identities not be released to the general public, although some have risked the disbelief and ridicule and come out into the open. The man whose story we are concerned with here hopes to rejoin the police force at some future date, So as chairman of the Manchester UFO Research Association, Muphora, I respected his plea for anonymity. Because of this, I shall call him Philip Spencer.

Okay, so it is a pseudonym. And you know what's so interesting is that there are so many police officers. You know, I can think of Herbert Shermer being one. I can also think of, I read a UFO magazine. I mean, Lonnie Zamora is another one, There was a UFO magazine that had like, I think, up to 20 on the record, police officers that had sightings with either UFOs or beings. Even the metalman, this is another famous UFO picture that will eventually dive down into. You know, at first it might seem like a guy in a hazmat suit or something of the like, but he swears that he chased this thing down in his police car at 35 miles an hour and couldn't keep up with it.

But regardless, that man was also a police officer. So maybe something about police officers either attracting the phenomenon or something about the bravery of these police officers and the idea that their words can be sort of taken more seriously allows them to come forward. So how many people are not coming forward with these stories is the question. I digress. There was much more to Philip Spencer's story than the mere sighting of some distant object. Philip offered us some tangible evidence to back up his claims, and the story itself proved to be much more comprehensive than his initial account indicated. What makes Philip's story so different to other close encounter witnesses is that Philip has a photograph which allegedly shows the green creature he met on Ilkley Moore. British researchers have long postulated that close encounter experiences were totally subjective,

some kind of hitherto undetected mechanism of the mind. But here, we had a hallucination, which could be photographed, or did we? Was the entire affair a hoax? We first received notification of the incident when the witness wrote to paranormal researcher and reports coordinator for Muphora, Jenny Randalls, who is also UK editor for UFO Universe. The letter was dated December 3rd, just two days after the alleged experience. In a very matter-of-fact way, the writer recorded what he had seen and mentioned the taking of a photograph, and that his compass was now totally inaccurate.

Jenny's address had been discovered in the back of a book, and even though he had signed the letter with his correct name, the address was a box number in Bristol, the town where his parents lived. At that point, he was wary of disclosing his full identity. maybe, but encouraged Jenny to reply for further information. At a meeting, we advised her to write up for further information, but the letter itself caused hardly a ripple amongst our members. Letters like this have been received in the past, promising photographic evidence. Almost always, these photographs turn out to be, in the case of UFOs, pictures of birds or aircraft seen at an unusual angle. Or just crude hoaxes. Nevertheless, Jenny replied over the next few days,

but was to wait a while before an answer. And as a researcher, I can sympathize with that. The amount of DMs I get with, whether it's today, now it's, you know, many of it is rocket launches, Starlink satellites. Venus is still pretty popular, especially this month and next month. Folks forewarned, expect a surge of sightings, but don't be fooled if a bright light during the day sort of hangs loomingly in the sky. It might very well be ween-weens? All right. It might very well be Venus.

I think we call it weanus from now on if it's misattributed to a UFO. We'll just say that's weenus. Don't worry about it. Already, it seemed, Philip was regretting his decision for clandestine approach to his true whereabouts. He wanted to report the incident to people who investigated this type of phenomena, especially as his wife found trouble in reconciling her husband's honesty with such bizarre claims. It was just too incredible to be true, wasn't it? At the library, he consulted the directory of associations and there discovered the name of Arthur Tomlinson,

a man who has studied the phenomenon for nearly 30 years. Philip phoned Arthur sometime towards the end of December, and he went across to Ilkley right away with flying saucer enthusiast, Steve Ballon. The three men went up on the moor in the darkness armed with flashlights to visit the location. At Balin's request, Philip had no qualms in handing over not just the print, but also the negative depicting the alleged green creature. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Wonder where that negative is today. Probably still with some UFO researcher. If you have access to that negative, I would love to get, you know, know, a print done, that would be, I'll reach out to me.

Just a few days later, Arthur phoned me and began telling me about the case. I stopped in part way through as I realized it was the same witness who had originally written to Jenny Randalls a few weeks before. Apart from the photograph, there was also the compass, which Arthur informed me now was totally reversed in its polarity. Instead of pointing north, the needle pointed south. I went up to Ilkley with the two men on January 3rd, and this is no... You know, this is something that comes up time and time again as well due to perhaps the electromagnetic or electrogravityics that is used by the craft, creating some type of geomagnetic distortion in the area.

Even time dilations happen, perhaps what happened in this case as well. Set off, I studied the color print made from the Coda Color VR 400 ASA film, Spencer had been used. using that day. I was both intrigued and disappointed. The picture did indeed show a small green figure standing in a large hollow, but it was grainy and lacking fine detail. However, it was possible to see it had a long body, short thin legs, and protuberances at the side of the head, which could have been large ears. The arms too were thin, but one of them, at least, was exceedingly long because it rested on the ground. while the right one was crooked, tying in with Philip's claim that it was waving him off.

The compass was another matter. It did indeed appear to be exactly reversed. Although there was no sign of tampering, we did speculate on the possibility of an optical illusion of polarity reversal being brought about by simply painting the south-seeking pole red. However, if this was the case, then it could only have been done at the manufacturing stage of the instrument. When we arrived the house, Philip and Susan, his wife, made us very welcome. Susan took their youngsters out of the room while she made tea and coffee for us. Philip Spencer, about five foot nine, had a stout build and piercing eyes above a thin mustache. He was relaxed and friendly. Even so, I was prepared to ask some hard questions. I settled on the carpet in front of him and switched on my tape recorder.

My first question referred to the photograph and the initial visit made by Arthur Tomlinson and Steve Ballon. I commented that he had been very trusting to hand over not only the print, but also the negative strip to two complete strangers. He just shrugged. He said, I trusted them because they said they wanted to carry out some tests on it. Although it's true, I would have been annoyed if anything had happened to the negative or the compass. I would like to keep them as mementos of what had happened. Philip seemed very laid back about his weird experience, as if we were discussing something which had happened to a third person. He almost seem to view the entire affair with a degree of amusement. At this stage, there did not seem to be

any emotional tie-in. I knew there were two ways to look at this behavior. Many of the witnesses I've interviewed over the last 13 years seem to have an underplayed emotional reaction to what they have allegedly experienced, as if this has been purposely suppressed, perhaps, to protect that person's sanity. The other supposition to explain the strange behavior was that, for unknown reasons, the case was a fraud. I tackled him directly on this point. What would you say to someone, Philip, who said, come on, you've made the story up, built a dummy, taking it up to the Moors and photographed it? He replied instantly, and without animosity. I'm not particularly interested in what other people think. I know what I saw, and if people don't believe me, that's up to them. I've got nothing to gain by doing

that. I don't see the sense. I've got better things to do with my time. The four of us went up to the site that Sunday afternoon. There was a chill in the air, and it was very windy. Above black storm clouds buffeted one another for room in the overcrowded sky. This, the birthplace of such English classics as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, seen the perfect location for the type of bizarre experience Philip Spencer was claiming. I wondered what the Bront Sisters would have made of it all. No idea who the Bront Sisters are.

I'm going to look that up. Who are the Brant Sisters? The Bronx sisters? No, no, the Bront, B-R-O-N-T-E. Ah, got it. The Bronte sisters are actually pretty famous in the literary world. They were three sisters from the 19th century, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte, who wrote some of the most enduring novels of English literature.

You might have heard of Jane Eyre by Charlotte, Wuthering Heights by Emily, and the Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne. They all wrote under... I see. Okay. I'm not much of the literary type, apparently. Unless you're talking about UFO or science fiction. The 20-minute walk from where we had parked the car was a very arduous one, for me at least. The ground was muddy in places, and on several occasions the wind threatened to blow me off the side of the steep uncompromising slopes.

At last, we were there. Philip went through the experience with us while we took photographs and measurements. The distance from the camera to the small figure was 39 feet. We followed Philip down the slope along the path. which led around the spur of land where the creature had disappeared. There, hidden from sight at the position from where the photograph had been taken, was a much deeper indentation in the ground. This measured at its widest point 31 feet.

Here, according to Philip Spencer, had hovered a disc-shaped object with some sort of box sticking at the top. During this time, his first visit back to the location since the incident, Philip showed no fear of concern. He vacated the hilltop with a rainy storm hot on our heels to begin our inquiries in earnest. The camera was an old 35-millimeter Dixon's own brand model called a Prince Mastermatic.

It was a very basic lightweight instrument without a focusing screen nor SLR facilities, a single lens reflex camera, a system of mirrors, which shows the user the image precisely as the lens renders it. It had a 45,000, millimeter lens and although possessed an integral light meter, this had not worked for a number of years due to the camera being dropped at some stage.

Composed largely of plastic, neither the camera nor the film had been affected in any way by its proximity to the silver disc. The exposure featuring the small figure was number 10 on a roll of 24. There were only two shots taken after this one, one of some cars on the road and the other of Kaley Bus Station. As already mentioned, these last two were taken because Philip felt guilty at wasting the rest of the film. The remaining 12 frames are all unused. I find that to be the most, like, endearing detail of this entire story. I could just imagine him almost shaking, knowing what he has in his possession on this camera. You're just like, oh my God, I can't believe this.

But I still got a half roll left. And you're like, no, I've got to get it to the shop, but maybe if I just, and he just starts snapping away at these random things. He's like, what am I doing? I have an alien on this camera. Way more important. A fun detail, indeed. Considering the very basic camera design, plus the fact the integral light meter no longer works,

I was surprised when Philip showed me the other prints off the roll. Most of them were clear, well-composed, scenic shots taken on previous occasions. By far the worst shot was the most important one of all. This was dark and very grainy. Why was this? According to Philip, he had preset the camera for the sort of low light conditions he expected on the moor. Either the Monday night or just before he left that morning. The speed was either a 30th or a 60th of a second with an aperture setting of 2.8, the camera's widest aperture, or 4.

although Philip was not absolutely precise. Several months later, which of these settings it was. Generally, he had set the camera with a wide aperture and a low speed, together with a 400 ASA film he was using. Probably ISO nowadays. Philip should have taken a very good shot indeed. In fact, as we shall see later, if anything, the resultant picture would have been overexposed rather than the other way around. Had the settings been altered accidentally or without his knowledge? Perhaps he was a resultant picture. Perhaps he was a resultant picture. meant to take a poor quality picture. Certainly the hoax hypothesis does not fit here, as Philip would have no reason to claim he had preset the camera at all. Just that he was taken by surprise and snapped the creature without obviously taking the time or the nerves to check the instrument first. Now, as someone who shoots film, that is definitely something I fear, that if a UFO pops up

overhead that I'm sitting there adjusting, you know, for exposure, et cetera. You don't have like a digital monitor to see what the shot looks like. You kind of have to go with a light meter. And so, yeah, that would be tremendously stressful. And, you know, even getting a role developed today, I'm still unsure of what that's going to look like. If I over or under exposed something, if something's in or out of focus. But developing a picture of an alien, man, no matter what, like, for sure his heart sank when he saw the photo.

There is another anomaly, too. Although Philip believes the photograph was taken out approximately 7.45 a.m., the sky above the horizon is light. At that time, on December 1st, the sky would still be very dark. A possible explanation was forthcoming at a later date. But there was even more to the photograph than was at first apparent, even though Philip did not seem to notice it. To the right of the creature is a box-like image situated above the outcropping, and in exactly the right place to coincide exactly where Philip allegedly came across the silver disc. Hold on. Really? I had no idea.

On January 11th, Jenny Randalls and I took the print in negative to Tony Marshall and Sheffey. field, a professional wildlife photographer. Tony has traveled the world taking shots for glossy calendars and books. He was not too impressed by the poor quality and commented quite fairly that too many photographs of alleged anomalous phenomena are blurred and indistinct. He placed a negative in a light box and studied it under magnification. He found a small scratch in the area where the box appeared on the print. During the printing process, he speculated, light could be diffused by the scratch and cause the image to appear. Was this a partial explanation for the strange images on the photograph?

That's an interesting take to think that that's some type of light anomaly that we're looking at. Mysterious strangers appear. Folks, this is where it gets, where high strangeness interjects, as you would expect. On Friday evening, January 15th, my telephone rang at 9.40 p.m. It was Philip Spencer. The normally placid ex-policeman sounded very distressed. He claimed that just 50 minutes earlier, two middle-aged business-suited men had arrived at the house. They showed him identity cards with the letters MOD printed across the top. So Ministry of Defense. Underneath were photographs of the men then beneath this their names. Philip can clearly remember one of them, David Jefferson. But the other one he remembers just as Davies. Davies was very quiet, while his colleague did most of the time. They wanted to interview him about his UFO experience, Jefferson explained. If Philip was so stunned, he never asked them where they had found out about his experience.

Although Mrs. Spencer was aware of the men's arrival, she took no part in the conversation as she was busy seeing to her children. Philip related the incident to them, but without mentioning the photograph. However, when he had finished his narration, Jefferson asked if indeed any photographs had been taken. Philip admitted that there had. But when the man asked to examine it, Philip said that the material was with a friend. Strangely, the men did not pursue the matter and left. The time was 9.20 p.m.

When he spoke to me 20 minutes later, he was worried that things were getting out of hand. He saw a situation where the sensationalist media would get a hold of the story, or his negative might become, quote-unquote, lost. And he would have no proof then of what he saw. reassured him that the negative was in safe hands and he calmed down. This was to be short-lived, however. How had the men found out about his experience as the four of us involved had sworn to preserve his identity? Were the men really from the MOD?

I wrote the Ministry of Defense on April 6th, asking some very pointed questions concerning the visit, but so far have received no response. Of course, some people may have doubt that the visit had even accomplished. occurred at all. But I've spoken to Mrs. Spencer on two specific occasions regarding the visit, and she has verified it both times. Mrs. Spencer seems a very sincere lady, and I have no reason to doubt her word. Visited by smartly dressed officials have occurred many times to precipients of the UFO phenomenon. In 1976, a girl in Bolton was interrogated by two such men, while her Abnomally pacified parents looked on and did nothing.

Harassment, too, has been conducted many times over the telephone. At 8.55 a.m. the following morning, Philip called again. Now, he was even more upset and did a highly excitable state. I've just had a phone call from someone claiming to represent mirror group newspapers, he said. They knew my name and knew about the sighting. When they asked for more details, I put the phone down on them. I asked him what he did next. I phoned the Mirror Group in London, and they didn't know anything about it.

In any case, they said, if it had been one of their reporters, he would have given his name first. I want to know who's leaked the story and given my ex-directory phone number to the press. I don't want this kind of publicity, you know that. There are only four of you who have this information. One of you must be responsible. This time, Philip would not be placated. He demanded the return of his compass and negative, with an end to our involvement. in the case. After putting down the phone, I immediately contacted Jenny Randalls, who agreed to

check out Philip's story, as I had an urgent appointment elsewhere. Both of us were suspicious about all this. It all seemed very timely. Only the night before, Philip had been speculating about the media finding out. Then, just the following morning, he receives a call from a national newspaper. I got back to Jenny later that morning. She checked with the mirror offices, both in London and Manchester. They denied having called anyone about a UFO story. In fact, their Manchester spokesman commented that even if one was put in their lap, they would have done nothing about it. UFOs were not newsworthy that week.

But perhaps even more damning, none of the staff could recall having received a call from a member of the public making a complaint that morning. Jenny had put all this to Philip, but he was still adamant that it had all happened. She managed to convince him that it was as much in his interest as ours, to allow us to proceed with the various lines of research we had planned. We could be forgiven for taking such a critical look at Philip Spencer's claims. This was a most extraordinary case, even more so because of the unique photograph. There are literally thousands of pictures depicting UFOs, nearly all of which are either misidentifications or hoaxes,

but only a handful claiming to show entities. There are certain groups who have in the past deliberately ceded false cases in order to discredit investigative. at a later date and thus discredit the subject in general. You don't say, I find this very interesting as well, the fact that like right the next day he gets a call, you know, him declaring his sort of worry about this going mainstream into some news organization and then the very next day receiving a phone call from one of the largest news outlets, allegedly. I guess the only explanation here would be that the MOD would be tapping his phone at that time and then, you know, proceeded to maybe discourage him from coming forward

after witnessing his reluctance to do so in person the night before. Philip just did not fit the bill of a lone hoaxer. He would not allow himself to be photographed. The last thing he wanted was his name in lights. Even less did he want money from the case. In fact, he did not seem to attach any. value at all to the photograph, except as a record of his experience. I told him point blank, that fake or genuine, the picture and story could be sold for thousands of pounds to certain

national newspapers, but although he was not obviously financially well off, he just shrugged his shoulders, as if he did not care. I've seen that reaction many times before in witnesses. The experience seems to affect them in a very personal manner, and it never occurs to them to cash in on it. I love that. I think that's definitely noteworthy. The compass is examined. Dr. Raymond Leonard, head of the Total Technology Department at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UMIST, arranged an appointment for us on January 19th with a Dr. Spooner. Dr. Spooner heads the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics at UMIST and had agreed to examine the compass. It was to prove a very interesting morning. In fact, we did not use Philips.

compass for the tests. There was no need. Arthur Tomlinson had brought with him another compass, which was also reversed. Apparently, while discussing the problem with a colleague at work, the man admitted that he too had a compass that pointed south instead of north. This compass had functioned correctly when he bought it, but it had been kept in his car. One day, he just realized it had become inaccurate. He freely gave the compass to Arthur, hoping we could find a way of correcting it. To Dr. Spooner, it was a very interesting problem. Just how could the polarity of a compass be reversed? Expert, though he was, at that stage, he had no ready answer. He began very simply by exposing the compass to some very strong magnets, but although they deflected the needle,

the effect ceased as soon as the magnets were moved away. A steady magnetic field had no permanent effect. Dr. Spooner and his assistant then experimented with a rapidly applied or pulsed magnetic field. Eventually, it was found that this indeed would reverse the needle and back again under laboratory controlled conditions. This was fine, but could the reversal be brought about without recourse to such expensive and complex equipment? Dr. Spooner showed it could, albeit with a certain risk of life and property. A piece of wire was coiled around one hand, then the compass was placed within it. The ends were then connected to the main electricity supply.

And a switch was thrown. There was a bang, but yes, the polarity was changed. North to south. This, of course, could be done in the house, although at the very least, fuses would be blown, and there was also the more serious prospect of creating an electrical fire. Also, would Philip Spencer know how to carry out this dangerous process, when Dr. Spooner, an expert in his field,

did not. Dr. Spooner prepared a report for me, which in part said, it appears to be a relatively simple matter to bring about the reversal without the need for any special equipment and may be accomplished in the average home or garage. The intensity required is not great by some standards. In fact, we could not produce a field sufficiently low as not to reverse the polarity of the needle. The minimum field we applied had a flux density of about 0.1 Tesla.

This is still about 2,000 times greater than the Earth's field. Therefore, the required intensity is very large by other standards to leave detectable magnetization in samples of rock. Dr. Spooner went on to say that perhaps one way of determining evidence for or against the claim would be to carry out a magnetic survey of the surrounding rocks. If we accept the story at its face value that some sort of powerful magnetic field associated with the craft had affected the compass, then it would assuredly also have affected the surrounding area. This made sense. And it was another line of research we wished to follow up. But then,

we were presuming that the compass had been affected near the ground. Later events indicated otherwise, thus making the necessity for a magnetic survey almost redundant. Photographic analysis. Later that day, I traveled up to Rockdale to visit a firm screen printer. with a very well-stocked dark room. They'd agreed to add their professional opinion to the subject of the photograph. The director studied the negative and prints skeptically.

He thought the print was too grainy, even for a 400 ASA film. He entertained the possibility that what we were examining was not the original. That, in fact, it was a photograph of a photograph. There was some slight flaring along the bottom of the print and partially up either side,

which he speculated, could be indicative of a badly placed source of lighting. He also noted that the print was slightly out of focus. Some hoaxers have deliberately employed these techniques to hide details, which might give the game away. I asked what he made of the box-like image. Now he was puzzled. He examined the negative under magnification in a lightbox,

but in his opinion, he could find no mundane reason for it to be there. I wonder what it is they're referring to. I'm going to take a look at that photo a little more. I can see this photo here. I just don't understand which box it is referring to. A comparison with recent photographs taken at the site, using the same camera, show that there is nothing in the natural formation of the ground to account for this image. By making comparative measurements between the original photograph and the one subsequently taken from the same vantage point,

we were able to determine that the figure is between four and four and a half feet tall. Peter Suthurst at Kodak has given us his expert advice on several UFO photographs in the past, so we were keen to solicit his opinion on this one too. I spoke with Peter on the telephone at some length, and he seemed quite enthusiastic. He asked to examine the negative and talked of the possibility of computer image enhancement. I received his report dated February 1st, which in part was disappointing. Here is an extract. Any emphasis is mine.

It, the exposure, is under-exposed by at least two stops. It is usual for these films to produce grainy pictures when under-exposed. The negative shows a degree of camera shake, making it difficult to decide what the small figure might be. Identification is made even more of a problem because of under-exposure. I would not care to commit myself to any observation beyond saying that the film had not been interfered with after processing. The blob you mentioned could be some reflection either in the lens system or in the field of view. Is he saying the blob being like the being with a head, legs, and arms? According to Peter, this was not a photograph of a photograph,

and the slight flaring was due to poor quality of film processing. The figure, whatever it was, was actually there at the site where it was photographed. Okay, so he's saying the blob might be the box, I guess. Square blob was interesting too. As Philip Spencer was shooting to the west with the sun directly behind him, then it would appear that something must have been there to cause the reflection. Even if it was in the lens system, something had to reflect light, and the blob is in accordance to the box.

Philip claims he saw disappearing on the top of the object. With reference to possible image enhancement, Peter, had this disappointing news to convey. I don't think that's so disappointing. I mean, the guy at Kodak is saying that whatever is there is there. This is a physical thing that you have taken a picture of. So we completely rule out any lens distortion or light play, what have you, to account for this alleged being.

Here's a photo, by the way. Image enhancement is a costly exercise, and I have, have some doubt about the benefits in this case. The size, distance of the object, camera movement, and under exposure mean that there's insufficient detail available to enhance. Oh, that's what he was disappointed about, I suppose. Now, the thing is today, you can run it through AI, and I will do that, but AI seems to add its own artifacts, and it doesn't really help. Image enhancing should be like smootening. It shouldn't be filling in the gaps.

So I don't think AI would be much, much of a tool in this case because it'll just misinterpret the image, you know. I don't think AI in this case would benefit the enhancement. Maybe I'll try it out and we'll see what happens. I'll put it up here. Here we go, folks. We're getting in the craft.

What does this thing look like on the inside? Very excited about this. this far. I don't know anything about this. This is my first time reading this as well. Inside the craft. Even though hypnosis has been used extensively in American UFO cases where there appears to be a missing slice of time, in order to explore what may have occurred during this amnesia, we decided, in this unique British case, to follow up all the other loose threads first. Hypnosis, we conjectured, could be a final resort. If there were any hidden memories, then perhaps they might surface naturally.

Hypnotic regression as a be-all and end-all of a case investigation could easily be construed as a gimmick. I agree with this assessment. Hypnosis is at the mercy of, you know, the subject and the person performing the regression. There's so many variables that can get in between the truth and, you know, the subjective truth of the patient. And so always proceed with caution and never take it as gospel when it comes to these regressions, but definitely still do it because I find it very interesting. However, a few weeks after Kodak's photographic analysis, Philip called and asked about the possibility of hypnosis, as he had developed a feeling that this would enhance his memory of the missing one hour and three quarters.

He had recently experienced a vivid dream where he was staring, at a pattern of stars in the sky. Steve Ballin contacted student journalist Matthew Hill, who put us in touch with Dr. Jim Singleton, a clinical psychologist. Dr. Singleton had no knowledge of the phenomenon apart from the dubious matter he had picked up from the popular media.

When he mentioned our request to two of his colleagues, one of them said something similar had happened to a close friend of his, and the other claimed something strange had once happened to him. Dr. Singleton first carried out an interview with Philip at the home of Arthur Tomlinson on Wednesday evening, March 16th. There, he put the witness at ease over what hypnosis entailed. The hypnosis session was planned for later that week during Saturday afternoon at the same venue. Although neither Jim Singleton nor Philip Spencer objected to our tape recording of the session, Dr. Singleton,

would not countenance any of us being in the room while this was happening. However, a compromise was reached when Matthew Hill was allowed to stay in order. to operate the three tape recorders. The session began at 3.18 p.m. Here is a full transcript. Jim Singleton has abbreviated, has been abbreviated to J.S. and Philip Spencer to PS. Doctor, David, David, doctor.

There'll be none of that, all right, just for those of you wondering. I want you now to cast your mind back to the 1st of December last year when you set off across the moor. I want you to clear your mind back to that. I want you to re-experience that. I want you to tell me what you experienced. I'm walking along the moor.

Oh, it's quite windy. There are a lot of clouds. Walking up toward the trees, I see this little something. Can't tell, but he's green. It's moving towards me. Oh, I can't move. I'm stuck.

He's still coming towards me. I still can't move. I'm stuck and everything's gone fuzzy. I'm floating along in the air. I want to get down. And this green thing's walking ahead of me. I don't like it. I still can't move.

Going around the corner and this green thing's in front of me and, oh God, I want to get down. Long pause, breathing faster. There's a big silver saucer thing and there's a door in it. And I don't want to go in there. Worried sound in his voice, a sigh. Everything's gone black now. You say everything's gone black?

Hmm. I can't see anything like I'm asleep. Can't hear anything. There's a bright light now. Can't see where it's coming from. I'm in a funny sort of room. I can hear this voice saying, Don't be afraid.

I don't feel afraid anymore. I can still see this green thing. But I'm not frightened of it now. I'm being put onto a table. I can move now if I want to, but I don't feel frightened. And there's a beam like a pole. It's above me. It's moving up towards me.

It's got to lighten it. Like a fluorescent tube. It's coming up from my feet. I can hear that voice again saying, We don't mean to harm you and don't be afraid. Makes me feel warm as it's moving up me. It's coming up over my stomach. towards my head.

Close my eyes. I don't want to look at it in case it hurts my eyes. It's gone. There's something. My nose feels uncomfortable. That's gone as well. I'm standing up now.

I don't know how I got stood up. I can see a door. There's one of these green creatures motioning for me to come with him. Don't really want to go with him. I'd rather stay here. I don't feel afraid in here. Can you tell me what's happening now?

I'm walking towards the door. There's still a bright light. I can't see where it's coming from. There's light all around. Want to know where the light is. It's just bright. It's just light. Walking down a corridor, there's a window.

Oh, God! Sounds shocked. Is that real? Deep sigh, pause, and sounds afraid. Don't want to be up here. I want to be down there. I can hear that voice again saying You've got nothing to fear

It's pretty tough Didn't realize it looks so pretty I've gone past the window now I'm walking down a corridor What's happening now Come to the end of the corridor There's a hole opened in it so I can walk through I'm in a big room

A big round room I'm on a raised platform against the wall My camera and my compass are trying to get away from me, going towards the ball. It's difficult to pull them back down again. And this ball's moving around with things around it. Looks strange. It's got some blocks on it. He says we can't stay in here long. He wants us to go out again. The hole's closed in the wall. It's gone strange. He says I've got nothing to fear, but I'd like to go home. It's got such big hands. What's happening now? Going down the corridor again. It's very bright still. I wish I knew

where the light was coming from. And there's another door. Going through a door, it's an empty room. Two of those green creatures have come with me. There's a picture. It's starting to move on the wall. I wonder how they get the pictures. Can you tell me what's happening at this point? I'm looking at the pictures on the wall. Pictures on the wall. Hmm. Creatures seem concerned at the damage that it's doing. Picture is changing now. There's another picture. Another film.

He's asking me a question. He says, do you understand? And I said, yes. It's time to go. Everything's gone black. I'm walking up the moor again now. I'm walking up near some trees. Some movement.

I can see something. A green creature. I've shouted to it. It's turned around. I don't. know what it is? I'll photograph it. It's turned around now. It's moving quick. Want to know what it is. I'm running after it. It's gone around a corner. I can't see it now. There's a saucer. Big silver saucer. It's disappeared.

I'm walking on down, gone past the trees. What's happening now? I'm going home. It's 10 o'clock on the town hall. Can't really understand. It was only 8 o'clock. You mentioned some green creatures. Would you try to describe them to me? It's quite small. He's got big pointed ears. It's got big eyes. They're quite dark.

He hasn't got a nose. He's only got a little mouth. And his hands are enormous. And his arms are long. He's got funny feet. Funny feet? They're like a V shape. Like two big toes.

Must be difficult to walk like that. He shuffles rather than walks. I don't feel afraid of him, although he looks odd. You mentioned big hands. Can you say anything more about the hands? It's got three big fingers like sausages. Big sausages. They're just very big, bigger than my hands. About how tall would you say these creatures are, roughly?

It's about four foot. Comes to the lump of my stomach, and he's about as high as my... Just a bit bigger than my stomach is. Okay, now I wonder if I can ask you another question. You mentioned watching a film? There were two films. Two films? One was lots of scenes of destruction, like on the news.

Can see lots of waste going into the river and people like Ethiopians who were starving. It's not very good. It's not very nice. Want to say anything more about that film? It's much of the same thing, only different. What about the other film then? Do you want to tell me about that? I'm not supposed to.

I'll leave that up to you entirely. Do you want to say anything about that? I'm not supposed to tell anybody about the other film. It's not for them to know. Okay. Now, is there anything else you would like to add to what you've already told me? I don't think so. At the end of the session, Matthew Hill appeared, looking quite shocked.

It was a very moving experience, he said. However, the details of the hypnosis were nothing new to the rest of us. The basic elements of the abduction, small entities, bench in the middle of the room, physical examination, light which passed over the body, ecological warning, bright white room with no obvious source of illumination, all these surfaced time and time again in dozens of cases from around the world. But how did Dr. Singleton feel about Philip Strange narration? We started off by asking him,

what sort of subject Philip had turned out to be. A good hypnotic subject, perhaps slightly better than normal. But was he definitely hypnotized? I think he was definitely under hypnosis. That's my opinion. To have faked it convincingly, Philip would have had to have studied hours of videotaped sessions. Then he would have to be a very good actor to have carried it off. I think the hypnosis was genuine. He was certainly recounting the incident as something which it actually happened. happened. He described things typically as one would recall a past event. He compares very well with other non-UFO subjects. All right, just a little pause here. As mentioned by the author, this is pretty standard stuff when it comes to regression. Not only the rooms being lit

and the abductee or the contactee being confused at trying to point out where the light source is, that happens time and time again, don't know where the light's coming from. Even recently, Jesus Hofremia, who we interviewed had said the same thing, like the walls were just emanating light, but there was no like source of it. So one thing that wasn't mentioned by the author here is the round round, room, room without any apparent corners or where the walls meet the floor seamlessly. All of these things are very, very common. And again, as mentioned by the clinical psychiatrist here, he would not have only had to study, according to him, hypnotic regression tapes. He would have had to

been a good actor, but also he would have had to study UFO lore. And I think any, any, slight sort of clue to him being a fanatic of the UFO stuff would have probably come up in any of the conversations that the researchers had with him and his wife. So I think that to be quite interesting. Again, is this part of the system? Are they all creatures that come here who are tampering with humans simply putting them through the same sort of look at this image, this is bad, you're bad, don't forget, don't do this, you know, and sort of appearing benevolent in this act, appearing like we are the bad guys harming our planet, and that allows them to get away with, you know, whatever tests they have to undergo. I don't know. Interesting stuff, though. But of course, hypnosis is no truth drug. Although the police have used it successfully to ascertain details of car number plates and physical descriptions of assailants. Dr. Singleton agreed.

Experimental studies suggest that people can modify or vary their recall, so obviously there is no certainty that what is recalled under hypnosis is 100%. However, here I think I've helped Philip to recover memories that were hidden more deeply in the mind. But why were the memories hidden in the first place? In terms of my clinical work, if people experience things which are unusual, traumatic, or frightening, the mind protects itself by pushing them deep into the subconscious. People that way don't recall them immediately. Hypnosis seems to lower the threshold of this barrier.

How then did Dr. Singleton view the photograph? This was the pivotal point of the entire case. The speculations of UFO abductions being purely an internal phenomenon did not hold up if the picture was genuine. It was either genuine, in which case we were dealing with a real physical, physical phenomenon, or it was fake, which meant we had all been wasting our time. Dr. Singleton had no doubts. It seems there again very consistent. I suppose the good thing about the photograph

is it helps Philip face up to the very unusual experience. With the photograph, he has some material evidence to back up what he knows his memory. During the questioning of Dr. Singleton, Philip sat at the back of the room, very quiet and introspective. I had never seen. seen him like this before. The psychologist had allowed, if Philip wished, for him to retain a full conscious recollection of the hypnotic narrative. We now asked him a few pertinent questions, just how vivid was your recollection? It was very clear. I have no trouble remembering what I saw. From his hypnotic testimony, it would seem that the photograph was taken at the end of the experience. This, of course, explained the missing time and the lightness of the sky. It would also

seem, if we take his story at face value, that the compass was altered somewhere else, away from the location. We were interested in the paralysis which had stopped him from feeling. I was quite conscious of the fact that I couldn't move, conscious of where I was going and the creature in front of me. I was floating, still standing upright. and felt much like a bear on the end of a piece of invisible rope. Although Philip would remember seeing a door open in the object, he could not actually recollect going through it, just the onset of blackness followed by an awareness of being in a white room.

Of the bench, Philip remarked, I felt a lot more relaxed when I lay on it. But we were also intrigued by his passing reference to the view through the window, which Dr. Singleton had not picked up on. When we asked the witness to elaborate, he looked decidedly embarrassed. It was the sort of view astronauts have during space missions. I could see the Earth. It was beautiful.

Quickly, he added, it's just as well all this story sounds ridiculous. When he was pushed on the innuendo that he was orbiting from space, Philip just shrugged his shoulders. I don't know that. It could have just been a picture on an outside wall, although it didn't look like it. In an effort to explore audio impressions, I asked him if he remembered hearing his footsteps on the floor of the corridor. He did not recollect any sounds except a humming in the background. He knew that the first film depicted a warning of ecological disaster, but what about the second film which Jim Singleton failed to get him to elaborate on under hypnosis?

Still, Philip would not discuss this, except to say it was of a very personal nature. I have met Philip since the hypnotic regression experiment when I traveled down with Liz Kelly from the Radiological Protection Service based at the University of Manchester on April 19th. Philip had applied to rejoin the police force, and by way of an independent character assessment showed me a private letter from a serving officer, police officer, who had known him for eight years. The letter spoke of Philip's good character and honesty. Liz carried out a radiation survey of the location and took away grass and soil samples for further analysis. Some witnesses of close encounter experiences have exhibited all the symptoms of radiation exposure. In this case, though, only normal background radiation was detected.

Since the hypnotic regression, Philip had supplied me with further material regarding his abduction. This surfacing of further details is not uncommon. The creatures seemed part of a team. They were acting as individuals, but more like bees, as if they were doing what they were programmed to do. Many other abductees have likened their abductor behaviors to robots, ants, or bees. But Philip also received this impression. I had a feeling of goodness about these creatures. I don't think they would harm anybody.

I would go so far, in retrospect, to say, I actually liked them. I certainly felt no threat from them after the onset of the meeting. If Philip Spencer's claims are genuine, then we should all take a good, hard look at the world and wonder just what the hell is going on. Perhaps we should let clinical psychologist, Dr. Singleton, have the final word. I think that if people make unusual claims, we should at least listen to them and listen carefully.

We don't know all the answers to everything. If we are going to be even remotely scientific, we've got to entertain these different ideas, thoughts, and depressions. Well, said Dr. Singleton, and oh my God, what a fascinating case. I had no idea that there was so much more to the illly more abduction case. It makes me want to get my hands on this photo so bad. It could, let me know what you think.

All right, I'll give you my conviction level. I don't like to, as you know, we suspend our disbelief here at Area 52. I don't like to give you a binary yes, no, I believe, I don't believe. I think that's harmful. I think it prevents data collection. But I will give you my conviction level on thinking this is true. I'm about, I mean, I'll analyze the photo even more, but I think initially, initially I was probably, I don't know, 30%, low conviction, 20, 30%. I'm looking at a photo, this could be anything, could be a dummy, could be whatever.

But after hearing all the testimony, after hearing the regression, after hearing the person at Kodak and all the other sort of photographic experts weigh in on this. after hearing the testimony about his character from the other police officer, hearing that the wife as well, it was to be trusted, the visit from the MOD. I'm up at around 70% at this point. And that's pretty high for me. It would be a lot higher if he came forward and I was able to look at him as he told the story. And I was able to assess his character for myself. I think that would maybe raise it to 80 or 90%, depending on, you know,

how that went. Let me know what you think. If you were to give me a percentage of conviction, what would your percentage be? Would it be 99%? Would it be 7%? Let me know and let me know why you gave it that number. I would really appreciate that and it would actually help me gauge where the audience is at right now in terms of your conviction on this specific case and and abductions in general. Folks, thank you so much for sticking through this read-through with me. This is one of the best read-throughs that I've ever done.

Shout out to the author here. A great article, indeed. If you have any further information on the Ilkleymore or what happened to the photo or any of the likes, or if you yourself had an encounter in Ilkleymore, let me know in the comments as well or write me in the Discord. channel. You can find me over there. We've got a whole bunch of categories where you can share your

stories and we go through them as a collective community to try to get to the bottom of it. Folks, thanks for watching. We'll see you on the next episode. Peace and love.