Somewhere in the Skies - The Imjärvi Imp: Finland’s Most Bizarre UFO Encounter

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

In 1970, two Finnish skiers paused in a quiet winter glade near Imjärvi when a buzzing sound, a descending fog-wrapped light, and a ten-foot disc-shaped craft changed their lives forever. What followed was one of the strangest UFO encounters ever recorded: a glowing three-foot imp-like being emerging from a fiery circle of light, a mist smelling of sulfur, physical paralysis, burns, illness, and years of surreal follow-up contact experiences. Zelia Edgar breaks down the full case in vivid detail, exploring the creature’s folkloric features, the symbolic role of mists, lights, crossroads, and mushrooms in anomalous lore, and how the Imjärvi incident blurs the line between UFOs and ancient myth. Subscribe to Just Another Tin Foil Hat on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JustAnotherTinFoilHat Please take a moment to rate and review us on Spotify and Apple. Book Ryan on CAMEO at: https://bit.ly/3kwz3DO Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/somewhereskies ByMeACoffee: http://www.buymeacoffee.com/UFxzyzHOaQ PayPal: [e-mail] All Socials and Books: https://linktr.ee/somewhereskiespod Email: [e-mail] SpectreVision Radio: https://www.spectrevision.com/podcasts Opening Theme Song by Septembryo Copyright © 2025 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved. #UFOs #Imjarvi #Finland #Paranormal #HighStrangeness #AlienEncounter #Folklore #ZeliaEdgar #SomewhereInTheSkies Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Lately, though, the shop's been quiet. So Hank decides to bring back the $1 slice. He asks Copilot in Microsoft Excel to look at his sales and costs to help him see if he can afford it. Co-pilot shows Hank where the money's going and which little extras make the dollar slice work. Now, Hanks has a line out the door. Hank makes the pizza.

Co-Pilot handles the spreadsheets. Learn more at M365Copilot.com slash work. It was beginning to fall, a scattering of stars beginning to appear in the skies overhead, when two skiers stopped in a glade for a quick rest. Suddenly they heard a strange buzzing noise, which was coming closer and closer, which was soon joined by a bizarre object enveloped in the cloud, which began to descend right near them. Welcome to just another tinfoil hat with your host, Zilia Edgar.

Join Zilia as she walks us through some of the most bizarre UFO cases and incidents of high strangeness. Today, we will be discussing the fascinating case of the Imjavee Inth. This case occurred January 7th, 1970, at around 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and involved two men, forest worker Arno-Haninen and farm worker Escovillio. Both were regular skiers, and that is exactly what they were doing on this cold winter's day in the woods outside of Inim Jarve, Finland. They had just skied down a small hill to pause in a glade, which was apparently their kind

typical resting point. It was already sunset at this point. A few stars were starting to come out in the sky when they heard a strange buzzing noise. This sound came closer and closer, and all at once they saw this bright light in the sky covered in what they described as a luminous fog. This thing moved across the sky, and then they claimed that it changed course, descending into the glade near the witnesses. As it came closer, they saw that it was actually this round, light gray object, about 10 feet in diameter, kind of disk-shaped with a flat bottom. On the underside of this object were three half-s spheres spaced equidistant from one another, and in the very center of this object, they claimed that there was this like tube or ring,

which was emitting a weak light and a red-gray mist, which they said smelled like sulfur. At this stage, both men felt paralyzed or stupefied, unable to move or speak. Suddenly, a very bright ball of light came from the center of the object, And it was around this time that Hainanen claimed that he felt as though something kind of grabbed him and pulled him back. So he stepped back away as this ball of light kind of went down to the snow, spreading out to form a three-foot-wide circle, the color of fire, and surrounded by a black ring or outline. Inside of this circle of light stood a bizarre creature. They each described this creature as standing about three feet tall, very spindly, with a very pale face and a long crooked nose. They said that it looked like it was wearing overalls or coveralls, the light green, with a conical helmet, which shone like metal.

They said that the whole creature seemed to kind of be glowing as though, quote, it was made out of phosphor. They claimed that this being held a black box in its hands, which they described the hands as bent and kind of claw-like, and wearing white gauntlets. Now, there appeared to be an opening in the box, which contained this pulsating, very bright, nearly blinding light, which this being then turned toward Hainan. The mist returned and obscured the creature and also began emitting sparks of various colors. They said that it seemed like these sparks were so big and so close that they were surprised that they couldn't feel them.

As Vileo described it, the light beam trembled like a flame and then kind of retracted back up into the object. The surrounding mist was, quote, thrown apart, and then when it cleared, the air was completely empty. I mean, the object, the light, the strange creature, everything was just gone. The two men stood there for two or three minutes, trying to make sense of what they had seen, when Hananen began to feel that his right side was going numb. When he tried to walk, his right leg kind of lost strength.

They said that it crumpled beneath him. Villio had to actually help drag him back to Hanan's home, located about two kilometers away from the scene. Hanan's mother was home when they arrived and claimed that when she answered the door, she found them in just quite a state. They were nearly incoherent. Villio's face was red and swollen, almost like he'd been. burnt, and Hainanin was completely ill. They were each seen by a doctor who said that they were in shock from something and gave them each two sleeping pills. Although Vilios' face was severely

burnt, Hainan actually experienced more long-term effects, unable to work for more than three days for the remainder of the season. In spring, he improved somewhat, but still dealt with feelings of weakness. Both men claimed that in the immediate aftermath. They couldn't really remember many details of the experience, but that as time went on, they kind of pyrus. picked up more of what they could remember. It was like the memories were sort of re-emerging, just a piece at a time. Now, the physical effects were not the only lasting part of this experience for Hainanin. In the ensuing years, he claimed a series of contacts with a pretty Finnish-speaking space girl, who gave him the typical contactee jargon. She and her people

were their friends from outer space. They were from the other side of the Milky Way. There were three different types of humanoids. She was 180 years old. Over each time, she appeared to him at a crossroads. As for the initial experience that both he and Villia shared, on that same day, two other people came forward to say that they too had seen strange light phenomenon at a roughly the same time as the encounter near Em Yarvi. Now, truth be told, this is a trippy case for a variety of reasons. Of course, we see two of my all-time favorite aspects of many of these strange encounters, and that is what appears to be the initial priming of the witnesses with sound and light phenomenon. This buzzing noise is the first experience they have in this encounter, followed shortly

thereafter by the lights. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I find it very interesting when you have these extremely detailed accounts of high strangeness, often with high degrees of contact between the witness and whatever the other is, which begin with a noise, typically this kind of long, droning, humming, or buzzing noise. I truly wonder if this is something which sets the tone quite literally for the rest of the encounter. if it does somehow prime or prepare the witness, maybe on a physiological level, even, maybe on mental, emotional, psychological level, who knows? In this case as well, you have the very interesting concept of lights kind of wrapped in fog or cloud.

Clouds, mists, fogs, you name it. These are yet another one of those cross-genre, cross-field aspects of so many anomalous encounters, as well as a very strong tenet of various world mythologies where deities kind of present themselves enveloped in a cloud. It seems to be just kind of symbolic of obscurity, of being able to see, but not completely see or completely grasp the image that's being presented. Strange mists are also, of course, a staple of ghost encounters where phantoms appear filmy or nebulous or cloud-like or appear to be obscured behind a mist fog or even, you know, sometimes a screen in cases of the banshee, a veil. True to form, too, there are a number of cryptid sightings where the creature spotted is accompanied by or surrounded by a mizabeth. mist or it even looks like the mist is kind of part of the creature. A strong example of these

also ties into the paralysis or stupefication angle. A great example of that is the van meter visitor, this winged being spotted in Van Meter Iowa at the turn of the last century, which was said to emit a mist and light which stupefied witnesses, much like in this case that description of the stupefying luminous mist. On the topic of this bizarre mist, they claimed that it smelled like sulfur, a definite call-out to encounters or cases which people have termed demonic or believed to be demonic. Although in his fantastic book, The Brimstone Deceit, Joshua Cutchin makes the point that this sulfuric odor kind of belongs to all sorts of creepy happenings, from UFOs to cryptids to ghosts, just all across the board or perhaps Ouija board, I should say. However, on the topic of the underworld, we see that in Hainan's later encounters, he meets with this pretty huge. female at crossroads, the traditional haunting ground of demons and hellhounds.

However, for, again, a less demonic approach, we see that crossroads, as with many other such liminal or transitional places, really are the happy home of tons of anomalies, creatures of all sorts, ghosts, fairies, in modern times, UFOs, and cryptids, if there really has to be any distinction at all. Now, as dreamlike or maybe nightmarish is the better term, as this encounter was, or at least appears to be. Both skiers came away with their own physical souvenirs all over themselves. The doctor who examined them felt that they may have encountered some sort of electrical phenomenon. I mean, as good a guess as any. But just imagine having this experience, which

seems absolutely unbelievable. You know, borderline silly, you're talking about this little bizarre, imp-like being underneath a UFO, and coming away from it with facial burns, with light sensitivity, nausea, joint pain, consistent headaches, which is what these two people experienced. You know, I have to wonder, although both had lasting physical effects, Hananen came away with longer lasting effects as well as these ongoing contacts, if there is some significance to the being turning the lighted box towards him. He was also closer to the object. Now, the interesting thing is that that's not even the full extent of what he experienced. Hanan also came to, quote, fear his friend Villio. He claimed that he had these recurring dreams

where Villio appeared small and old, almost like the being that they saw. saw, this as well as the gradual reemergence of memories of the event, seems truly indicative of some sort of trauma. Now the being itself is definitely worth a look. The image of it really looks like a little elf or imp, I mean right down to the crooked nose and the pointed hat, which is not uncommon in all of these, you know, UFO encounters. These so-called UFO occupants seem to very commonly bear a very striking resemblance to folkloric entities. Now this whole encounter in particular of two men stopping in a glade, seeing this cloud

with lights kind of descend on them, and then a small being dressed in green with a pointy hat, which shows this box of light to one of them who then goes on to have further experiences. I mean, it truly reads like some old fairy tale. Swap out the UFO occupant with imp, black box with treasure chest, and honestly track your beam UFO with mushroom. And you have, instead of a UFO sighting, a folktale. On that tangent, and I, I just have to cover this because I've thought about it before. The classic UFO and tractor beam silhouette is so close to a mushroom, and I actually find a bit of significance to that.

It might sound silly, but in the current mechanical belief system of UFOs, why do they crop up so often as mushroom-shaped, egg-shaped, these kind of organic motifs when we're expecting tin cans from outer space? Mushrooms, along with other psychoactive plants and substances, are a truly important aspect of religious and cultural practice. practices worldwide. And they have been for a very, very long time. I mean, some of the oldest petroglyphs at Ticilinus, dating back to the Neolithic period are thought to portray figures identified as shamans just absolutely covered in mushrooms. Now, it's just amazing to me, you know,

yes, again, I recognize it might sound silly like, oh yeah, UFO and Tractor Beam looks like a mushroom. And I'm not saying per se that that is what it represents in a concrete way. However, what is intriguing to me is that so often the strong symbology of a novel's encounters tends to come back to some intrinsically human iconography. Finally, yet again, we have the concept of perfect timing. I have to wonder, what, you know, would have happened? Would that event have occurred in that glade if Hainanen and Vileo didn't stop to rest? I mean, time and time again, these encounters just so happen to occur right as people are in the right or very wrong, depending on how you look at it, place at that exact moment. So often you'll see these encounters where people just happen to stop at that point,

whether they're on the road or whether they're looking out a window. And that, for some crazy reason, is when the object or the creature or the phantasm or whatever just so happens to be there. Now, in my opinion, personally, it shows that the phenomenon, I believe, is dependent on the observer, not as an exclusive external event actually occurring in space or time, but something that kind of rests right over the boundary between objectivity and subjectivity, capable of, yes, performing kind of objective things like leaving trace evidence or being seen by multiple people, yet again dependent on the witness observing it. For today, I am Zilia Edgar, signing on. This has been just another tinfoil hat with Zelia Edgar. Be sure to rate and

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