Somewhere in the Skies - The Close Encounters of the Christmas Kind

Episode Date: December 24, 2024

On this bonus holiday episode, we celebrate with a sleigh ride through the history of UFO cases during Christmas time! From flying saucers zipping through the snowy villages of Norwich, England, to st...range lights hovering over a serviceman during the Vietnam war. From the bizarre close encounter case of a Nebraska police officer to the strange wave of triangular UFOs haunting the skies over Belgium. And don't forget the carolers that sang to their alien saviors who were coming to save them from a Christmas doomsday, You've all made the "Nice List" this year so it's a present of cosmic proportions left under the tree for you. Enjoy and keep looking up. You never know who... or what... you'll see up there!  Special thanks to our voiceover talents: Christopher Soucy: https://twitter.com/ChrisSoucyStory Vinnie Adams: https://twitter.com/disclosureteam_  Book Ryan on CAMEO at: https://bit.ly/3kwz3DO Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/somewhereskies ByMeACoffee: http://www.buymeacoffee.com/UFxzyzHOaQ PayPal: Sprague51@hotmail.com Discord: https://discord.gg/NTkmuwyB4F Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ryansprague.bsky.social Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomewhereSkies Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somewhereskiespod/ Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/Sprague51/ Order Ryan’s new book: https://a.co/d/4KNQnM4 Order Ryan’s older book: https://amzn.to/3PmydYC Store: http://tee.pub/lic/ULZAy7IY12U Read Ryan’s articles at: https://medium.com/@ryan-sprague51 Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte Produced by LIONSGATE Copyright © 2024 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:01 Hey guys, Ryan here, welcome to our special Christmas episode of Somewhere in the Skies, where we'll be exploring UFO cases from around the world that happened during the holiday season. But the festivities don't end here. Head on over to Patreon to hear the bizarre events that came to be known as the Warminster Thing. To listen or to join, visit patreon.com slash summer skies. I hope you enjoy. and happy holidays. Generally speaking, UFO and alien encounters are the last thing on anyone's mind when the holidays roll around. A lot of us are either shopping, taking part in family traditions, and of course, traveling. But during this holiday season, I thought it'd be fun to explore those events where someone or something traveled themselves, perhaps across the light years of time, to also partake in our various merry festivities.
Starting point is 00:01:11 So today, we explore the close encounters of the Christmas kind. This is Somewhere in the Skies of Bryant's War. In past episodes of Somewhere in the Skies, we explored two major cases that happened during the month of December. More precisely, right around the holidays in the latter half of the month. These were the 1980 Rendezumphor. forest UFO incident in England and the 1985 abduction of Whitley Streber in upstate New York. But there are countless lesser-known incidents that could perhaps show that we, as a planet, may never truly be alone during the holiday season.
Starting point is 00:02:31 Our first story comes from investigative journalist and UFO researcher Cheryl Costa. She presented the following account on the Central New York News site, the Syracuse New Times. It's from a Vietnam veteran who had a UFO encounter when he was 19 years old. He stated the following. It was Christmas Eve, 1971.
Starting point is 00:02:54 I was an airman first class assigned to the 1881st Communication Squadron at the huge U.S. Air Force Base at Comran Bay, Vietnam. It was about 11.30 p.m. when I was walking west on the lane that would take me to the base chapel for midnight mass. The sky was crystal clear.
Starting point is 00:03:11 Common Bay was only a couple of degrees of latitude north of the equator. For a kid who grew up in upstate New York, it was a bit discomforting because we were far too south to see common constellations like Ursa Major, aka the Big Dipper, in the northern sky. As I looked into the western sky, I could see the constellation Perseus, and above that, Taurus. High in the sky above them was the constellation Orion, with its left-shoulder star of Beetlejuice bright as ever.
Starting point is 00:03:37 Suddenly I saw a bright star-like object zooming from the north across the west, western sky just below Taurus. My first impression was, oh, it's a meteor, or perhaps some kind of fighter jet. Then the object just stopped. It hovered there below Taurus for perhaps a minute or two. Then it seemed to dance or dart around before it dashed off toward the south at tremendous speed
Starting point is 00:03:58 until it just winked out. I was 19 years old. I didn't know what to think. About all I could say was, wow. During midnight mass, I was not with the program at all. I was replaying what I saw over and over again in my head. Fearing my Air Force peers would think I was intoxicated or worse, crazy. I kept deciding to myself for many years.
Starting point is 00:04:18 Until I shared it about 15 years ago to a couple of Native American folks I used to know. Now I've shared it with you as a holiday gift. Our next story is the curious tale of Olaf Davy of Tunstead Norwich, which was reported in the April 1971 edition of the Companion Journal to Flying Saucer Review case histories. This Christmas incident was only one of Mr. Davy's otherworldly experiences. It was Christmas Day of 1957, and Davy and his friend were cycling home after a party. A nine-mile ride that took them through the village of Shotsam, five miles southeast of Norwich. This was his account.
Starting point is 00:05:06 On our way home, we'd gone through Shotsam when all of a sudden my mate called out, Hey, what's that up there? Is that an airplane? It was coming towards us. A long thing like an airship, but not so big. Now there were various lights on it, and however they were fixed, they were either going round, or there was something going round the lights. It was a dark night, and it came so close to us that we dived off our bicycles into a ditch. As near as I can remember, the back light was red, the next was green, and then there was a blue light. Then there was a white light. It went past us and then disappeared. But this wasn't Mr Davy's only sighting. Only a few days earlier, at his home in Tunstead, he was cycling to Roxham Station to catch a train into Norwich to his workplace. Halfway to the station, he noticed something unusual in the sky. I was attracted by a bright light from the heavens. I hopped off my bicycle and there was something coming to Earth.
Starting point is 00:06:04 It seemed to be getting bigger. Then, all of a sudden, it came through the cloud. Then the light went dim. It was still coming down and I stood hugging a tree. I was all tensed up and was waiting for the bang. This thing came down. Then it stopped and for a minute I was eased. It was round like a plate.
Starting point is 00:06:21 It looked as wide as the road. Mr. Davy watched this saucer-shaped object hover for a few minutes. All of a sudden there was a noise like a dynamo singing. Then it would stop and there'd be a sort of throb. Now this is the uncanny thing about it. I felt as though I was in a magnetic field. I believe if it had stopped there, I wouldn't have survived. It seemed to be zapping the strength from me.
Starting point is 00:06:45 It seemed fluorescent-like when I first saw it, and then it turned a dull cementy color. It then tipped to the side and went straight up and disappeared. In 1976, Herbert Shermer, 23 years old, had just started working for the Ashland Police Department in Nebraska. On December 3rd of that year, he had been with the force for only seven months, and on this evening he went out on his regular patrol, as usual,
Starting point is 00:07:15 going out along Highway 63, for what was normally a pretty quiet beat. There was no reason to think that this evening would be any different, but that would all change as he headed down the dark highway. It was around 2.30 a.m. when Shermer rounded a bend near the intersection of Highway 6 and 63. In there, he saw before him what he had first thought to be the lights of an oncoming vehicle, two blinking red lights atop what he took to be a large white truck.
Starting point is 00:07:47 But he soon realized that whatever it was, it wasn't moving. Thinking it may have been someone who had broken down and was perhaps in a bit of trouble, he decided to stop his patrol car and shine a spotlight out towards what he still thought was a truck. When the spotlight hit the object, it became very apparent that this was. snow truck. The red lights seemed to be emanating from two port holes on the side of a silver, disc-shaped metallic object that was like polished aluminum, and it was hovering in mid-air about eight feet off the surface of the road. Around the mysterious object, Schumer could see what looked like some sort of catwalk encircling it, and on its bottom was what looked like
Starting point is 00:08:32 some sort of landing gear. As he stared in awe trying to to process what he was seeing, the object then passed directly overhead and belched forth flames to shoot up into the sky at great speed, leaving Schumer there alone in the dark, wondering if he should report this incident or not. Shermer made his way back to the police station, and he quickly realized that a whole hour had passed, even though it had only felt like ten minutes. He then would find a red welt spring up on his neck, and he was overcome with an excruciating headache, nausea, and a weird buzzing in his head. He made a note of a sighting in a report.
Starting point is 00:09:19 I sat there at the table, and I lit a cigarette, and I said, wow, what the hell happened? Something happened to me. Did I really see a flying saucer? Did this really happen to me? I looked at my report log, and I remembered through all the training and everything I went through, that regardless of the nature or what it was, put it in your report book because you just might need it. So I looked at my report book and I got my pen out and I wrote
Starting point is 00:09:49 at 2.30 a.m., December 3rd, 1967, I saw a UFO at junction 6 and 63, believe it or not. And then, that was that. But then, three months later, a UFO research group from the United States Air Force, funded by the University of Colorado, known as the Condon Committee, came knocking. The organization was mostly about looking into UFO sightings and trying to debunk, discredit, or explain them away.
Starting point is 00:10:26 And they went about inviting Shermer to come out to Boulder, Colorado, for questioning, which he accepted. He would then undergo regressive hypnosis. administered by psychologist Dr. Leo Sprinkle of the University of Wyoming, and his story would just become even stranger. Under hypnosis, Schumer was able to have many hidden memories from that fateful night come floating up to the surface. He claimed that his car's engine had cut out, and the radio had died. Soon he would see several humanoid beings, about four feet tall, emerge from this enigmatic craft. They were dressed in silver-grey uniforms and helmets with antenna on them. They had slanted cat-like eyes, white-gray skin, long, sharp heads, flat noses, and slit-like mouths.
Starting point is 00:11:23 On the front of their uniforms were emblems, featuring a winged serpent of some sort. Shermer recalled having tried to draw his pistol, but found that he was somehow unable to do so, as if paralyzed. These humanoids revealed themselves to be friendly, speaking to him telepathically, and asking him if he was the watchman of this town. They would then bring him aboard their ship. Once there, he would say that they had shown him around and explained various things about themselves, such as that they drew power from their ship from power lines and had a base in the planet Venus. And they also told him that they would visit him again.
Starting point is 00:12:06 and that he would see the universe. This whole report was rather detailed, with Schumer describing each of what he said were three levels of the ship. In the aftermath of all of this, Schumer would return to Nebraska to scathing ridicule and personal attacks on his reputation. He was relentlessly taunted, and there was even a bullet-riddled effigy of him
Starting point is 00:12:34 hung up at Ashland's cemetery. He would eventually step down from his job at the Ashland Police Department, suffer from psychological problems and depression, and it was even reported that the whole thing had caused his marriage to disintegrate, his wife unable to handle it all and eventually leaving him. Amazingly, though, throughout this, Schumer would stick to his story, eventually moving to Omaha and keeping a low profile to disappear from the public eye. Here is Herbert Schumer, many years later, reflecting on the December event.
Starting point is 00:13:13 I went to my father and I said, Dad, I said, I know you have 20-something years in the Air Force. But I asked my father point blank. I said, Dad, what do you think of? UFOs? My father never said no. And he never said yes. He just said, son, if you're telling the truth, stick with it. And so I stuck with it. In late 1978, New Zealand had a small flap of UFO sightings, primarily off the coast of the South Island.
Starting point is 00:13:49 These sightings initially began on December 21st, when the crew of a safe air LTD cargo plane observed strange lighted objects around their Argosy aircraft. The lights, ranging in size to that of a house, tracked them for several minutes before disappearing and reappearing. elsewhere. They appeared on Wellington ATC radar on the aircraft radar and were cited by hundreds of people. Nine days later, in the late evening of December 31st, more extraordinary events took place off the coast. Another Argosy freight plane, this time carrying an Australian television crew, became involved in a series of UFO sightings that made headlines worldwide. What was extraordinary about these sightings is that not only were they filmed by the film crew on the plane and witnessed by all of them on the plane, but they were also tracked again by radar in the Wellington and Christchurch plane control centers.
Starting point is 00:14:56 On board the Argosy that morning was the pilot, Captain Bill's startup, and first officer Bob Gard. Also on board and in direct response to the first lot of UFO sightings was this small, film crew. Mainly, they were there due to the current Australian interest in UFOs, solely as a result of the disappearance of Frederick Valentich in October of 1978, a pilot whose Cessna Light aircraft disappeared over the Bass Strait. So when the news reached the ears of the Australian press, they contacted a well-known reporter by the name of Quentin Fogarty, who worked for Melbourne Television. Fogarty was ordered to cover the story during the holidays, so he and a small film crew, comprising of a freelance cameraman by the name of Davy Crockett, and his wife, a freelance
Starting point is 00:15:51 sound recordist. Dennis Grant, a New Zealand television journalist, joined them as well. All managed to get on board in Argosy that was traveling the exact same route in the same hours as the first lot of sightings. What was recorded on that flight is widely regarded as one of the world's top ten most credible UFO sightings caught on film, and would irrevocably change the lives of those involved, both in the air and on the ground. Here is the crew talking about the event.
Starting point is 00:16:27 I thought the job would be interesting. It was a good story. We were following up a strong UFO sighting. I had an interest in that, but I didn't for one second even begin to imagine that we would get involved in something ourselves. I guess I was quite skeptical about the whole thing, but then I got the call from Quinn and Fogarty to say, can I go and do a job? He'd like to go up on the Argosy the following weekend, do the same route that Vern Powell had done, and so am I interested?
Starting point is 00:17:03 And I said, oh yeah, I'll do it, I'll do it. We just completed the first take, and I think it was Bill who put his head down the hatch and said, you guys better get up here quickly, so I wanted to get up the stairs, but David wanted to take two, and if the cameraman wants take two, then we do take two, so we did take two,
Starting point is 00:17:22 and then went up the stairs. It's a beautiful clear night outside, and naturally we'll be looking out for anything unusual. Well David started off on this seat here and Quentin was to the left of him at that stage and I was just crouched down on the floor behind the seat we sort of moved around the whole time as David was filming out of different windows to catch the lights
Starting point is 00:17:50 went up, leaned over the co-pilot to try and see this object that the radar station from Wellington was telling us was behind it and then coming up alongside us and so just press the button of the camera and let it run. The very first thing we saw is these sort of walls of light that would just appear in the sky. And it was really just looking through small windows at a very, very black sky
Starting point is 00:18:18 and seeing pulsating lights. That started usually as a very, very small pinprick of light and then would glow into a great globe of light. It was all right at the beginning. It was quite exciting that suddenly there were lights, but I had never seen anything as bright as that. And they were like bright lights, and then they would just dip away
Starting point is 00:19:02 and then come back somewhere else over a little bit further. But they definitely did not look like a reflection of a light. They were too, it was like they were too solid or too... and they weren't the same shape, they weren't the same size. You know, there was like one big light and there was like, you know, a couple of smaller lights. 14,000 feet we were up, beautiful clear night, no turbulence whatsoever, zoomed in and out of this object.
Starting point is 00:19:37 And I thought it was fairly close to the Argosy because it seemed to be so bright. People who know me and I myself know that there was quite a degree of strain in that commentary. To people who don't know me, it may have sounded calm and collected, but to me and to my friends and family, I sounded like I was under some jurist. We've just heard from Wellington radar that we've got an object about a mile behind us and it's following us. Let's hope they're friendly. The 1980s were rife with UFO sightings, especially at the high.
Starting point is 00:20:16 height of the Cold War, and several took place during Christmas of 1984. Although the exact date is unclear, a report of a cigar-shaped UFO in Hexham, Australia, is particularly intriguing. The incident investigated and reported by a New South Wales UFO group would take place at around 2.30 a.m. on the morning in question, when one Mr. and Mrs. L. were camping at Ponderosa Caravine Park. From their tent, each would see a huge cigar-shaped object with a brilliant white light, as what they assumed was the front of the craft, at what they assumed was the front of the craft. In fact, it was so bright that the entire park was awash with its glow. The witnesses would further describe the object as being bigger than a bus with windows on the side.
Starting point is 00:21:11 They would watch the bizarre scene unfold for several minutes before witnessing the arrival of three disc-shaped objects. The smaller craft would travel at a much faster pace, described by the witnesses as being like lightning. They would eventually join the cigar-shaped craft, following it in formation closely. Mr. L. would even claim to have seen an occupant inside one of the dis-shaped objects. The pair would watch this fleet, as it eventually disappeared into the disc-shaped.
Starting point is 00:21:45 ultimately leaving them with more questions than answers during the Christmas time of 1984. Other Christmastime events did happen in 1984 as well. For example, only a week previously in Canberra in Australia, a pilot would witness a missile-like object traveling across the sky. Despite the obvious size and speed of this missile-like object, there was no sound heard at all. On Christmas Eve in Leeds in the United Kingdom, what appeared to be a red airship with a flashing red light was observed over the Kirkstall Museum. The following day, just outside of Paris, at around 7.30 p.m.,
Starting point is 00:22:30 a local resident would report seeing a large object with a domed top hovering close to the ground. From the underside was a brilliant white light. On December 27th, along the Capricorn coast, in Australia at around 9 p.m., witnesses would report a bright red object moving at supersonic speeds during a tropical storm. Even stranger, it made no noise whatsoever. It remained visible for around 10 minutes before fading from sight. On Christmas Eve 2013, over Belgium, several residents would witness multiple orange glowing lights. One witness would even manage to film several minutes
Starting point is 00:23:14 footage of the sighting. The objects appeared to remain in formation and appear to remain completely silent throughout this entire encounter. Incidentally, and similar to the Capricorn coasts sighting, almost 30 years earlier, the region was subject to substantial storms in the days before the sighting. The witnesses would debate between themselves as to whether the object might be a meteor or possibly even a military drone. However, due to the relative slow speed, moved, they would dismiss each suggestion as unlikely. It is certainly possible the lights could have been lantern set off to celebrate the festive period. However, despite almost half a million views online, the sighting and the footage remain unexplained.
Starting point is 00:24:04 But this isn't the only Belgian UFO incident to happen around Christmas time. For that, we have to rewind to one of the most historic waves in modern UFO history. The Belgian Flap of 1989. Hey guys, Ryan here, wishing you a very happy holiday season. Are you infamously known to be a last-minute holiday shopper? Well, fear not, because I have the perfect unique gift. You can give that special person during the holidays. Jen Gardner is a graphic designer who wanted to create a fun and unique way
Starting point is 00:24:44 to have your photos stand out when you post them on social media. That's why she started Silly Goose Photography. She takes candid photos and makes them fun, evoking creativity and imagination. Instead of your children or loved ones generically posing in front of a statue, why not have them floating through space on a rocket on their way to Mars, or even in front of the gates of Area 51. Jen creates unique scenarios according to your imagination. She'll send you a digital proof, and you'll sign off.
Starting point is 00:25:19 on it, simple, efficient, and super fast turnaround. You'll receive your high-res image within days, making it a truly fun and creative conversation piece for any time of the year. And right now, she's offering 50% off for someone this guy's listeners. So head on over to the silly goose photography Facebook page and use the promo code, Somewhere 50, to get 50% off your first order today. Make this holiday season truly special and fun with Silly Goose Photography. A link to Jen's Facebook store is in the show notes or just search for Silly Goose Photography on Facebook. The events of November 29, 1989, would be documented by no less than 30 different groups of witnesses and three separate groups of police officers. All of the reports described a large object flying at
Starting point is 00:26:24 low altitude. The craft was a flat, triangular shape with lights underneath. This giant craft made no sound as it slowly moved across the landscape of Belgium. During this, there was free sharing of information as the Belgian populace tracked this craft as it moved from the town of Leege to the border of the Netherlands and Germany. This first startling sighting would evolve into a wave over the next several months. On two occasions, a pair of F-16 fighters chased the mysterious object, but to no avail. On March 30, 1990, a frantic call came to the military headquarters from a Belgian national police captain. The police captain marveled at a giant triangle passing over, and simultaneously two ground radar stations were reporting an object of unknown
Starting point is 00:27:21 origin on their screens. One of these bases was NATO controlled near the city of Glantz, southeast of Brussels. After contacting other radar facilities, they learned that at least four other stations were also reporting the object on their screens. The object was moving across their screen slowly and failed to send a transponder signal to identify itself. Again, two F-16 fighter jets were ordered to introduce. intercept and identify this phenomenon, and one of the jet's radars locked on the object.
Starting point is 00:27:59 It appeared as a small diamond on the pilot's screen. The pilot reported that only a few seconds after locking on the target, the object began to pick up speed, quickly moving out of range of the radar. An hour-long chase ensued, during which time the F-16s picked up the strange craft signal two additional times, only to see it fade out of view again. The triangular craft seemed to be playing a cat and mouse game, and finally was lost in the nightlights of Brussels. The pilots of the fighters reported that the UFO had made maneuvers at speeds
Starting point is 00:28:40 beyond the capability of their own technology, and once the radar showed the craft drop from 10,000 to 500 feet in five seconds. These extraordinary sightings continued for months as the triangular invader was witnessed more than a thousand times, both day and night. The object dipped low enough to easily be seen with the naked eye, and the event became one of the biggest stories in the Belgian media. The Belgian UFO wave has obtained classic status in UFO lore, with over a thousand witnesses confirmed radar sighted. plane radar lock-ins, and military confirmations, the fact that an unknown craft moved across the country of Belgium cannot be denied. Even one of the most high-ranking colonels in the Belgian Air Force,
Starting point is 00:29:36 Colonel Wilfred de Brower, would comment on the events publicly. Initially, we thought that some of these observations were caused by atmospheric interference, such as weather conditions or electromagnetic interference. But later on we found out that at certain moments, indeed, we could relate one visual observation with one observation on the radar. And of course, then we said, well, to have a confirmation, it may be very useful to have an additional observation from an aircraft. We had an observation on the radar and in addition, a visual observation on the ground confirmed by the police.
Starting point is 00:30:30 We decided to send two airplanes in the air around midnight detected was well outside the normal flying envelope of an airplane. Sometimes they had what we call lock-ons which gave a... parameters varying from speeds between 150 knots till 990 knots, an acceleration which occurred in a few seconds. These speeds would be impossible to tolerate for a human being. That's a first point. The second point is the visual observations always describe a system, a machine, a machine, which hangs and hovers above the surface, at quite a low altitude, without making any noise. Now, with the current technology, that would be impossible.
Starting point is 00:31:36 So while there are UFO sightings and close encounters that have taken place during the holiday season, there's also no shortage of UFO doomsday cults during Christmas as well. On Christmas Eve, December 24th, 1954, around a dozen people gathered on the front lawn of a house to sing Christmas carols. But they weren't singing for other people. They were singing Christmas carols to UFOs that they believed were coming down to save them from the end of the world. The seekers were a group formed in Chicago by a woman named Dorothy Martin, who claimed, that she was a messenger for an alien race known as the Guardians,
Starting point is 00:32:22 who predicted a catastrophic flood that would kill billions on Earth. Martin first believed that she could communicate with her late father by clearing her mind and holding a pen to paper to allow him to write through her. These claims were dismissed by her mother and husband, but Martin's beliefs only grew stronger. The then-54-year-old worked to develop, her alleged gift, but said her father's voice was soon replaced by another who named himself only as elder brother. Elder brother first said that he was aiding her father to speak to her,
Starting point is 00:33:02 but soon altered his tone and accused Martin's dad of being too consumed with earthly things. Elder brother took over the conversation, and Martin's dad soon disappeared. The voice of elder brother was also taken over by a being named Sanada, who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Sinada, Martin said, was from the guardians, who had chosen her as a messenger as they plan to bring cosmic intelligence to the rest of the planet. At first, Sinada's messages were vague and gave no cause for concern. But then, the messages began to turn dark as Martin earned.
Starting point is 00:33:47 herself more followers. It was at a new age type event that Martin came to the attention of Dr. Charles A. Lockhead, who then worked on the student health staff of Michigan State University and had an extreme interest in UFOs and flying saucers. As Dr. Charles became a follower of Martins and started to recruit others, Sinada's messages began to speak of the Guardian's arrival on Earth. and how it would bring about a time of warfare that much of humanity would not survive. Again, Martin felt that the lack of an exact date for this war prompted no need for worry, until, in July of 1954, the messages became more certain. Sinada began to say that on August 1st, a spaceship would land at an airbase that would mark the coming invasion.
Starting point is 00:34:44 Martin. Martin had wanted to keep the information to herself, but Dr. Charles spread the word to the followers, who by this point had become known as the seekers. When they visited the air base, the seekers picked a spot to wait, but nothing happened. Yet, as the group went home disappointed, Martin then claimed that a man they had met close to the airbase was Sinada in disguise. The messages she received began to get more serious, with Martin claiming that an ancient civilization was to emerge from the ocean and kill millions. Yet she said that the seekers would be saved by the guardians. Again, Martin didn't want to risk failure by sharing the message, but Dr. Charles was the one to try to tell the entire world.
Starting point is 00:35:40 As Martin tried to stay out of the spotlight, more people heard about her message. and school children began to come to her door, asking if she was the woman who believed in aliens. When the parents of these children began to call the police, Martin knew she was on notice, but Dr. Charles continued his quest to tell as many people as possible. That was until he was asked to leave his job after the calls to the police had become more insular, allowing no new people to join the seekers. At this point, Martin became paranoid and began to refuse to leave her home. It was also at this point that her husband finally became concerned
Starting point is 00:36:24 as her followers began to leave their jobs and families in order to ready themselves for the UFOs, bringing them to safety. The seekers were now convinced that the guardians were set to arrive on December 22nd. However, on December 17th, Martin received a phone call. call from a, quote, captain video that told them to go out into the lawn to wait at midnight. While the call was likely a prank, the group emerged to wait and, when nothing happened, convinced themselves that Sonata had carried out a drill to prepare them for the real deal in the five days to come.
Starting point is 00:37:08 Martin readied the seekers for the moment of truth at the strike of midnight on December 22nd. By now, Dr. Charles' efforts to get attention to their salvation had mounted serious media attention, and the press was on hand to watch the coming ascension. The group of a dozen followers waited until 3 a.m. in the cold, and waited, and waited, and nothing happened. Once again, they were disappointed and would give up. However, they were once again convinced by Martin that the end of the world was still coming,
Starting point is 00:37:49 and that the aliens would save them, this time on Christmas Eve. While the press had again given up interest, leaving Martin despondent that the Guardian had not given her enough time to rally people together, she managed to encourage the followers remaining that singing was the key to entice their saviors. As night fell on Christmas Eve, they emerged to wait once more, this time singing Christmas carols to the heavens.
Starting point is 00:38:20 When a crowd of up to 200 people gathered to watch the commotion, the police were called once more, and after only 20 minutes, the seekers gave up hope. Shortly afterward, Martin's husband was warned that there was a warrant out for her arrest over the crowd that had gathered outside the home. Martin would flee to Arizona. It's unclear if Martin's husband went with her, but the cult soon disbanded. Martin's followers fell to the wayside, yet Dr. Charles still continued to push the belief at UFO conferences across the United States.
Starting point is 00:39:02 While Martin's premonition did not come to fruition, the seekers contributed to one of the most important psychological breakthroughs in years. The term cognitive dissonance was coined after a study was published by researchers who had infiltrated this group to explore how the followers had convinced themselves to continue, even when they were presented with evidence that Martin's statements were false. Researchers also believed that Martin was not lying and truly thought she was a messenger. In Arizona, Martin went on to found the Order of Sonata. continuing her work and hoping that perhaps another Christmas in the near future
Starting point is 00:39:47 would bring about the ascension she truly believed was on the wintry horizon. It's clear that UFOs love to make stops around the holidays. So, be sure to keep your eyes skyboard this Christmas. It would appear the chances of seeing something quite extraordinary are rather high. And even if you don't see a UFO, There's always a chance. You'll see you know who. Oh, oh!
Starting point is 00:40:19 Merry Christmas, everybody! Happy holidays. And remember, keep your feet on the ground, but never stop searching. Somewhere in the Skies. The Somewhere in the Skies podcast is part of the Lionsgate Sound Network. Please take a moment to rate and review the show
Starting point is 00:41:09 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever possible. Thank you for listening. listening.

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