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Hello Down There (1959; Boianai, Papua New Guinea)

GNC

King-Sized Canary
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Anyone remember the story of the waving aliens? There was a missionary and his friends somewhere in the Third World who saw a saucer fly overhead. There were figures on the top of it, and when the missionary waved at them, they waved back!

Sorry this is a bit vague, I read it years ago, but I like the story, it's not often you hear of aliens being friendly. Or do you?
 
Oh Lord, can't remember the details, but this is a really well known case. I believe it was the pastor (or whatever) of a small mission church. He described seeing waving figures atop a disk hovering over the sea.

Don't know much else; I think someone tried to debunk it with comments about his bad eyesight.

Interesting choice of thread title, which immediately reminds me of "Wake up down there!" from Mothman Prophecies.
 
I remember this one too. Wasn't he at a garden party or something, and the figures looked like they were repairing some part of their "craft" (or whatever)? Can't remember which book it was in...
 
Yeah, it was something like that. I typed "waving aliens" into Google, but it didn't get me very far.
 
Ah, you should have typed "ufo waving craft hovering" :D

pgrsel.100megs13.com/htm/papua59report.htm
Link is dead. See later post for info on recovered content.
 
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I remember a great picture from one of those 'Unexplained' type books that showed the same thing. I'm sure it was in the USA though?
 
Excellent, Desperado, thanks very much. Fascinating story.
 
More please!!

I love these cases.

All the glory of the nuts 'n' bolts tales of yesteryear and real aliens without a hint of abduction bollocks. These are some of the best types of UFO encounters.

Reliable witnesses, mysterious flying craft with interactive occupants...marvellous!

Here's another one which rarely sees the light of day:

Canadian Nurses' sighting, 1970

Edit: Better link

I'd like to see more details about this sighting but could only find these brief accounts on the web. Although there's a bit more in the first UFO book I ever got/read - "Investigating UFOs" by the superbly named Larry Kettlekamp.

Anybody got any more?
 
Here's one:

1914: 8 witness saw strange craft on surface of sea and entities manipulating hose in water. They saw witnesses and all but one went inside, who stayed on as it took off (Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada).
 
GNC,
Here's the one that I remember with the waving missionary.

The Boianai Visitants of 1959
Link is dead. See later post for info on recovered content.


That one really struck me when I was a kid.
 
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That's very interesting, Particle Man. Sounds as if Reverend Gill was half expecting to see something. I wonder if the UFOs would have appeared if there had been no one there to see them at all?
 
Ah, you should have typed "ufo waving craft hovering" :D
pgrsel.100megs13.com/htm/papua59report.htm
Link is dead. See later post for info on recovered content.

The linked webpage is long dead. An archived version can be accessed via the Wayback Machine. Here's the MIA webpage's content ...
A case in Papua - New Guinea, 1959:

How many times did I hear that UFOS appear only in "America?" Well this is not correct. Here is one of the many cases which did not occur in "America."

Moreover, this case is much more than "some lights in the night sky."


TABLE OF CONTENT:
  • The account of the events.
  • bullet.jpg
    The detailed report of the event.
  • The letters by father Gill.
  • Debunking by Dr. Menzel.
  • Article by Michael Jordan.
  • References.
DETAILED REPORT:
According to renowned UFO investigator, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, one of the most well-documented "close encounters of the third kind" occurred in the Anglican mission village at Boianai, Papua, New Guinea, which was, at the time of the incident, still a territory of Australia. The Australian Anglican Church was very involved in missionary work, and ardent in sending it's heralds to the island nation. One of these was the Father William Booth Gill. Gill was highly thought of by his co-hearts, and all those who knew him. As far as the occurrence of extraordinary events was concerned, Gill was skeptical, to say the least, especially being a devoted Church worker.

The first hint of the events to come, began on April 5, 1959, when Gill saw a light on the uninhabited Mount Pudi. This light, Gill stated, moved faster than anything he had ever seen. A month or so later, his assistant, Stephen Moi, saw an "inverted saucer-shaped object" in the sky above the mission. Gill dismissed these sightings as some sort of electrical or atmospheric phenomena. Little did he know, that these events, whatever they were, had drawn their attention to the sky above them, and soon William Gill would have one of the most celebrated UFO sightings to ever be documented, which was collaborated by a whole group of additional witnesses.

This extraordinary event would take place at 6:45 P.M., June 26, 1959. Father Gill saw what he described as a bright white light to the Northwest. Word of the sight spread quickly, and within a few moments, Gill was joined by no less than thirty-eight additional witnesses, including Steven Moi, Ananias Rarata, and Mrs Nessle Moi. According to sworn statements, these thirty-plus individuals watched a four-legged, disc-shaped object approximately the size of 5 full moons lined up end to end. This unbelievable craft was hovering over the mission! To their utter surprise, they saw four human-like figures that seemed to be performing a kind of task. Now and then one of the figures would disappear, only to reappear in a moment or two. A blue light would shine up from the craft at what seemed to be regular intervals. The witness watched the craft and it's activities for a full forty-five minutes, until the shining ship rose into the sky, and disappeared at 7:30 P.M. Glued to the sky, the witnesses would see several smaller objects appear at 8:30, and twenty minutes later, the first craft reappeared. This phenomenal occurrence would last an incredible four hours, until cloud cover obscured the view at 10:50. Father Gill prepared a full written report of this event, and 25 other observers signed the document.

This first sighting, a once in a lifetime occurrence, would incredibly be followed by another sighting the very next night. At 6:00 P.M., the larger object appeared again, with it's occupants. It was shadowed by two of the smaller objects. In William Gill's own words; "On the large one, two of the figures seemed to be doing something near the center of the deck. They were occasionally bending over and raising their arms as though adjusting or "setting up" something. One figure seemed to be standing, looking down at us."

In a moment of anticipation, Gill raised his arms and waved to the figure.

"To our surprise the figure did the same. Ananias waved both arms over his head; then the two outside figures did the same. Ananias and myself began waving our arms, and all four seemed to wave back. There seemed no doubt that our movements were answered..."​
Gill and Ananias continued to occasionally wave, and their waves were returned. Another witness, Eric Kodawara, waved a torch, and there were acknowledgments from the craft. Gill went inside to eat, but when he came back, the craft was still there, only farther away (smaller). After a Church service, at 7:45, Gill again came outside to look for the craft, but clouds had appeared, and there was no sight of the object. The very next evening, the shining craft would make one more appearance. Gill counted eight of them at 6:45. At 11:20, Gill heard a loud bang on the roof of the mission. Going outside to see what had happened, he spied four UFOs in a circle around the building. These four craft were extremely high in the sky. The roof was checked for damage the next morning, but none was found.

The aftermath of the event would bring unsubstantiated explanations. The noted UFO debunker Dr. Donald H. Menzel offered his explanation thus: He claims that Father Gill, who suffered from myopia (nearsightedness), had "probably" not been wearing his corrective lenses, and misidentified the planet Venus, which was prevalent in the evening skies during this period. This was NOT true; Gill WAS wearing his glasses, and in either event, what about the other witnesses to the event. Menzel also asserted that the Papuans were ignorant, native people who worshiped Gill, and believed anything he told them. This was a surefire way to debunk the 30+ witnesses.

As to the Venus connection, Gill knew where Venus was during this sighting, and had even pointed it out separately to the unknown craft. Gill would be criticized for "leaving such an extraordinary sight" to go eat dinner, but his response is that he did not think of the craft as extraterrestrial at the time. He believed that it was an American or Australian craft, and that if it did land, that ordinary human beings would emerge. Gill was scheduled to return to Australia soon, and it afforded an excellent opportunity to get his documentation of the case to the appropriate authorities. All investigators found Gill to be an intelligent, impressive individual. One of the most respected civilian groups, the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society stated: "Gill's reports constitute the most remarkable testimony of intensive UFO activity ever reported to civilian investigators. They were unique because for the first time credible witnesses had reported the presence of humanoid beings associated with UFOs."

The sighting at Papua brought about an unlikely allegiance among UFO research groups in Australia. The groups distributed copies of Reverend Gill's report to all of the members of the House of Representatives of Australia's Federal Parliament. An accompanying letter urged the leaders of government to request the Minister for Air to issue an opinion on the subject, not being satisfied with their initial, negative reaction. This letter did exact a reply. On November 24, 1959, E.D. Cash, who was a Liberal member of Parliament, asked the Minister for Air, F.M. Osborne, if they had even investigated the sightings at Papua. Osborne's response was that they were still waiting for more evidence before making an "official" report. In his own words; "Most sightings of UFOs are explained and only a very small percentage-something like 3 per cent--of reported sightings of flying objects cannot be explained."

The response of the Australian Minister for Air was to be taken lightly, considering the fact that they had not even interview Gill, until the Minister of Defense requested an investigation into the matter. The RAAF finally interviewed Gill in December 1959, some six months after the sightings. Gill related that the interview consisted of two officers who talked about stars and planets, and then left. He heard no more from the two. The RAAF finally released an opinion on the case..and a negative one at that. Squadron leader, F.A. Lang stated: "Although the Reverend Gill could be regarded as a reliable observer, it is felt that the June/July incidents could have been nothing more than natural phenomena coloured by past events and subconscious influences of UFO enthusiasts. During the period of the report the weather was cloudy and unsettled with light thunder storm. Although it is not possible to draw firm conclusions, an analysis of rough bearings and angles above the horizon does suggest that at least some of the lights observed were the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars."

Since the unusual events of 1959, there have been many "explanations" of the event, all by individuals who had not witnessed the event. Most of these are, as you would expect, panaceas for the general reports of sightings. Among these are hoax, planets, stars, astronomical misidentification, Gill's myopia, etc. None of these really address the event as it happened. Dr. J. Allen Hynek investigated the sighting at great length, and gave his usual well thought out conclusions. His "Center For UFO Studies" research included well-respected Allen Hendry, who was, at the time, the Center's top investigator. Their conclusions were as follows:

"Though the smaller UFOs seen by Gill could be attributable to bright stars and planets, the primary object COULD NOT. "It's size and absence of movement over three hours ruled out an astronomical explanation."​
The inclusion of the Boianai case in the well-known Australian book of fiction, Randolph Stow's 1979, "Visitants," would become a double-edged sword. Although it brought the details of the case to a larger audience, it's inclusion in pure fiction lessened the appeal of the events as being REAL. Stow was a cadet patrol-officer in Papua, New Guinea, and an assistant to the Government Anthropologist. His novel begins with this sentence, "On 26 June 1959, at Boianai in Papua, visitants appeared to the Reverend William Booth Gill, himself a visitant of thirteen years standing, and to thirty-seven witnesses of another colour."

Then the case fell into oblivion.

SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE: https://web.archive.org/web/20030612174638/http://pgrsel.100megs13.com/htm/papua59report.htm#report

NOTE: The additionally linked pages associated with the MIA webpage are accessible via clicking on the links in this main page.
 
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GNC,
Here's the one that I remember with the waving missionary.

The Boianai Visitants of 1959
Link is dead. See later post for info on recovered content.


That one really struck me when I was a kid.

The linked webpage is long dead. An archived version can be accessed via the Wayback Machine, from which the text below was salvaged.
The text is too long to be inserted into a single post. Here's Part 1 ...

THE BOIANAI VISITANTS OF 1959

from "The Oz Files" by Bill Chalker

In 1959 Papua New Guinea was still a territory of Australia. June of that year saw the spectacular sightings by Father William Gill, an Australian Anglican missionary, and 37 members of his Boianai mission. Gill made notes about the experience, which the media obtained. Stories appeared in August, causing a sen- sation. I have had two extended interviews with Reverend Gill and was impressed with his quiet and certain manner in relating the events. What follows comes from his own account of the affair.

Only the day before the sighting, Gill had composed a letter to the Reverend David Durie, Acting Principal of Saint Aidan's College at Dogura, to accompany a report regarding a UFO sight- ing made by Stephen Moi, an assistant teacher at Gill's mission.
'Dear David, Have a look at this extraordinary data. I am almost convinced about the "visitation" theory. There have been quite a number of reports over the months, from reliable witnesses. The peculiar thing about these most recent reports is that the UFOs seem to be stationary at Boianai or to travel from Boianai. The Mount Pudi vicinity seems to be the hovering area. I myself saw a sta- tionary white light twice on the same night on 9 April, but in a different place each time. I believe your students have also sighted one over Boianai. The Assistant District Officer, Bob Smith and Mr Glover have all seen it, or similar ones on different occa- sions - again, over Boianai, although I think the Baniara people said they watched it travel across the sky from our direction. I should think that this is the first time that the "saucer" has been identified as such.

'I do not doubt the existence of these "things" (indeed I can- not, now that I have seen one for myself) but my simple mind still requires scientific evidence before I can accept the from- outer-space theory. I am inclined to believe that probably many UFOs are more likely some form of electric phenomena--or perhaps something brought about by the atom bomb explosions, etc. That Stephen should actually make out a saucer could be the work of the unconscious mind as it is very likely that at some time he has seen illustrations of some kind in a magazine, or it is very possible that saucers do exist, but it is only a 50/50 chance that they are not earth made, still less that they should carry men (more likely radio controlled), and it is still unproven that they are solids.

'It is all too difficult to understand for me; I prefer to wait for some bright boy to catch one to be exhibited in Martin Square.

'Please return this report as I have no copy and I want Nor, (Rev. Norman Crutwell) to have it.

Yours,
Doubting William
Anglican Mission,
Boianai.
27/6/59'
The events of the next day converted the Doubting William, as the next letter graphically indicates.
'Dear David,
Life is strange, isn't it? Yesterday I wrote you a letter, (which I still intend sending you) expressing opinions re the UFOs. Now, less than twenty-four hours later I have changed my views some- what. Last night we at Boianai experienced about four hours of UFO activity, and there is no doubt whatsoever that they are handled by beings of some kind. At times it was absolutely breath- taking. Here is the report. Please pass it round, but great care must be taken as I have no other, and this, like the one I made out re. Stephen, will be sent to Nor. I would appreciate it if you could send the lot back as soon as poss.

Cheers,
Convinced Bill'

As indicated by his notes, Gill saw a bright white light in the north western sky. It appeared to be approaching the mission and hovering about 100 metres up. Eventually 38 people, including Gill, teachers Steven Gill Moi and Ananias Rarata, and Mrs Nessle Moi, gathered to watch the main UFO, which looked like a large, disc-shaped object. It was apparently solid and cir- cular with a wide base and narrower upper deck. The object appeared to have four 'legs' underneath it. There also appeared to be about four 'panels' or 'portholes' on the side of the object, which seemed to glow a little brighter than the rest. At a number of intervals the object produced a shaft of blue light which shone upwards into the sky at an angle of about 45 degrees.

What looked like 'men' came out of the object, onto what seemed to be a deck on top of it. There were four men in all, occasionally two, then one, then three, then four. The shaft of blue light and the 'men' disappeared. The object then moved through some clouds. There were other UFO sightings during the night. Gill described the weather as variable sky--scattered clouds to clear at first, becoming overcast after. He estimated the height of the clouds at about 600 meters. The first sighting over the sea, according to Rev. Gill, seemed to be about 150 metres above the water all times. The main UFO was clearly vis- ible and seemed mostly stationary during the twenty-five minutes of observation.

Astonishingly, the aerial visitor put in a repeat performance the following night, 27 June. Gill prepared another statement.
'Large UFO first sighted by Annie Laurie at 6 p.m. in appar- ently same position as last night (26/6/59) only seemed a little smaller, when W.B.G. saw it at 6.02 p.m. I called Ananias and several others and we stood in the open to watch it. Although the sun had set it was still quite light for the following fifteen min- utes. We watched figures appear on top-four of them--no doubt that they are human. Possibly the same object that I took to be the "Mother" ship last night. Two smaller UFOs were seen at the same time, stationary.

One above the hills west, another over- head. On the large one two of the figures seemed to be doing something near the centre of the deck--were occasionally bend- ing over and raising their arms as though adjusting or "setting up" something (not visible). One figure seemed to be standing looking down at us (a group of about a dozen). I stretched my arm above my head and waved. To our surprise the figure did the same. Ananias waved both arms over his head then the two outside figures did the same. Ananias and self began waving our arms and all four now seemed to wave back. There seemed to be no doubt that our movements were answered. All mission boys made audible gasps (of either joy or surprise, perhaps both).

'As dark was beginning to close in, I sent Eric Kodawara for a torch and directed a series of long dashes towards the UFO. After a minute or two of this, the UFO apparently acknowledged by making several wavering motions back and forth. Waving by us was repeated and this followed by more flashes of torch, then the UFO began slowly to become bigger, apparently coming in our direction. It ceased after perhaps half a minute and came no further. After a further two or three minutes the figures appar- ently lost interest in us for they disappeared "below" deck. At 6.25 p.m. two figures re-appeared to carry on with whatever they were doing before the interruption. The blue spotlight came on for a few seconds twice in succession.'

SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE:
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Here's the second part of the "Boianai Visitants" text ...

Gill has described how he and the mission people called out to the men, even shouting at them, and beckoned them to de- scend, but there was no response beyond what has already been noted. Two smaller UFOs higher up remained stationary. By 6.30 p.m. the scene had remained largely unchanged, and Gill records that he went to dinner. Subsequently critics were to question this--why would someone walk away from such an extraordinary sight? 'I'm always asked this question,' Gill has said, 'either in puzzlement or with a sneer.

Having had about four hours of this sight on Friday night, we were not nearly so interested when it returned on Saturday night, especially after we were unable to persuade it to land. You must also keep in mind that there was nothing eerie or other-worldly about any of this. It was all so ordinary, as ordinary as a Ford car. It looked a perfectly normal sort of object, an earth-made object. I realised, of course, that some people might think of this as a flying saucer but I took it to be some kind of hovercraft the Americans or even the Australians had built.

The figures inside looked perfectly human. In fact, I thought they were human, that if we got them to land we would find the pilots to be ordinary earthmen in military uniforms and we would have dinner with them.

At 7.00 p.m. the 'No. 1 UFO' was still present, although it appeared somewhat smaller. The group of observers went to church for evensong. After evensong, visibility was very limited with the sky covered in cloud. Nothing else was seen that evening. At 10.40 p.m., a very penetrating, 'ear-splitting' explosion woke up people on the station. It sounded like it had come from just outside the window of the mission house. Gill felt it did not sound like a thunderclap. Nothing had been seen, but the whole sky was overcast. Other less compelling activity occurred the fol- lowing night. Then it seemed the Boianai visitants had gone. But the controversy had just begun.

Reverend Gill was at the time of his sightings already sched- uled to return to Australia. This presented civilian groups with an excellent opportunity to assess the credibility of the reports.

All investigators found Gill to be very impressive. This led one of the leading civilian groups, the Victorian Flying Saucer Re- search Society, to view the Gill reports as constituting the most remarkable testimony of intensive UFO activity ever reported to civilian investigators. They were unique because for the first time credible witnesses had reported the presence of humanoid beings associated with UFOs. The major civilian groups of the day, in a spirit of new-found cooperation inspired by the significance of the Boianai observations, distributed copies of Gill's sighting report to all members of the House of Representatives of Australia's federal parliament. A letter accompanied the report, signed by the presidents of the participating civilian UFO groups, urging members of parliament to press the Minister for Air for a statement about the attitude Air Force Intelligence had to the New Guinea reports.

On 24 November 1959 in federal parliament E.D. Cash, a Liberal member from Western Australia, asked the Minister for Air, F.M. Osborne, whether his department (specifically Air Force Intelligence) had investigated the reports. The minister's reply did not address this question, but instead focused on the general situation, indicating that most sightings of UFOs were explained and 'that only a very small percentage-something like 3 per cent--of reported sightings of flying objects cannot be explained'. A representative of one UFO group was advised by the Directo- rate of Air Force Intelligence that the Department was awaiting 'depth of evidence' on the New Guinea sightings.

However, the department had not even interviewed Gill. Finally the Minister for Defence requested a report and the RAAF interviewed Gill on 29 December 1959, some six months after the sighting. Gill's recollection of the visit is that the two officers from Canberra talked about stars and planets and then left. He heard no more from them.

As one might expect, Gill's account was dismissed by the RAAF despite its extraordinary nature and the number of witnesses. The senior interviewing officer, Squadron Leader F.A. Lang, concluded:

'Although the Reverend Gill could be regarded as a reliable observer, it is felt that the June/July incidents could have been nothing more than natural phenomena coloured by past events and subconscious influences of UFO enthusiasts. During the period of the report the weather was cloudy and unsettled with light thunder storm. Although it is not possible to draw firm conelusions, an analysis of rough bearings and angles above the horizon does suggest that at least some of the lights observed were the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.

Light refraction, the changing position of the planet relative to the observer and cloud movement would give the impression of size and rapid movement. In addition varying cloud densities could account for the human shapes and their sudden appearance and disappearance'.

My own close analysis of the reports suggests that the RAAF 'explanation' of either known planets seen through fast moving cloud, or natural phenomena' does not bear up.

Over the years there have been a number of 'explanations' put forward to account for the Boianai sightings, including as- tronomical misidentification, hoax, cargo cult effects, and that Gill had myopia and astigmatism. (In fact at the time he was wearing correctly prescribed glasses). None of these satisfacto- rily address the evidence. Dr Alien Hynek, and staff at his Center for UFO Studies, went to great lengths to investigate and re- search the affair.

Hynek and Alien Hendry, the the centre's chief investigator, concluded the 'lesser UFOs' seen by Gill were at- tributable to bright stars and planets, but not the primary object. Its size and absence of movement over three hours ruled out an astronomical explanation. My own discussions with Gill led me to the same conclusion.

Most recently there was an attempt at explaining the whole affair away by suggesting that Gill and the other witnesses were confused by a false horizon, and that all they had been watching was a brightly lit squid-boat and crew too busy to do more than just wave at the people on shore. This idea is not tenable when one realises that Gill was certain that the object he saw was at a 30 degree elevation in the sky. A more radical attempt to dispose of the Gill case came from UFO sceptic Daniel Cohen in his book Myths of the Space Age.

The Boianai visitations are enshrined in a classic piece oTAus- tralian fiction. Novelist Randolph Stow's 1979 book "Visitants", which has the Boianai visitations as a backdrop to a striking story of confrontation and disintegration, emerged from Stow's expe- rience as a cadet patrol-officer in Papua-New Guinea. He was an assistant to the Government Anthropologist. His novel opens with this sentence: 'On 26 June 1959, at Boianai in Papua, visi- tants appeared to the Reverend William Booth Gill, himself a visitant of thirteen years standing, and to thirty-seven witnesses of another colour.'

The Boianai 'visitants' still stand as remarkable evidence for an impressive aerial anomaly and are regarded as some of the best entity reports on record. At the time of writing I spoke again with Gill. He still remains puzzled by what he saw and was pleased that an authority like Dr Hynek had independently inter- viewed him and some of the other witnesses and travelled to the site. While he accepts that the sightings remain unexplained, he questioned my characterisation of some attempts to explain them as 'silly'. He felt that these 'explanations' were serious attempts to bring understanding to the events. I think that attitude encap- sulate the integrity of Gill and the reality of the affair.

In 1973 Alien Hynek visited Australia and Papua New Guinea nd found six of the witnesses to the Boianai events. They all upported Gill's version of what had happened.

.....based on Reverend Gill's own written statement prepared on
location in 1959 and interviews with Gill I undertook, in
particular in 1978; See also "Papua/Father Gill revisited",
International UFO Reporter, November and December 1977 (CUFOS)
and Jerome Clark, "Close Encounters: History's Best Case.",
Fate, February 1978.
VISITANTS AT BLENHEIM: Dykes 1981, 34-38; Stott 1984, 123-126;
Chalker 1992, 349-350

- - - - - - - end quotes from "The Oz Files - - - - - - - - - -

(A rough sketch taken from p 97 can be found at the Cyberkitty BBS
on Oz (070) 976 801 in the UFO area. (51 of course!) It is on line
8 pm - 7 am AEST Fri, Sat and Mon. More paranormal images not
available elsewhere will be progressively placed at this site.)

Quoted Directly from Bill Chalker "The Oz Files"
Duffy & Snellgrove Sydney 1996 ISBN 1 875989 04 8.
pages 91 - 98 and 232.

SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE:
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I remember reading about that case...many years ago. One of the 'high strangeness' ones imho......I mean would advanced aliens really wave out the window/ or from a platform at humans below..?? Really..?
;)
 
I remember reading about that case...many years ago. One of the 'high strangeness' ones imho......I mean would advanced aliens really wave out the window/ or from a platform at humans below..?? Really..?
;)
Why not?
 
Does advancement mean that they wouldn't echo what people on the ground were doing? :p
 
Ok...give me a logical reason why an advanced alien would do that...just to be friendly?
I'm sorry...I ain't buying it.

;)
Scientific research?
If we wave to the humans, will they wave back?
 
Ok...give me a logical reason why an advanced alien would do that...just to be friendly?
I'm sorry...I ain't buying it. ...

This is a good point. Waving "hello" is a particularly human gesture. Why would one assume aliens - even bipedal humanoid aliens - would happen to use the same gesture with the same implied meaning or connotation?
 
This is a good point. Waving "hello" is a particularly human gesture. Why would one assume aliens - even bipedal humanoid aliens - would happen to use the same gesture with the same implied meaning or connotation?
We ape monkeys:bmonk:. Though I guess in that example we could question who the more advanced species is.
 
There are other gestures the aliens could have made that would be ten times worse.
 
This has fascinated me ever since I saw Father Gill interviewed on t.v when I was young.
Below is an audio lecture by Father Gill about the encounter. Goes for roughly 44 minutes and not the best sound quality, but it's direct from the horses mouth and you can't get better than that:
 
What I always wondered about this case is, why, as an obvious sea faring people, did no one get out a boat and paddle across to where this object was ?

If they could see 'people' waving, and didn't seem perturbed by it, one would have expected someone to be curious enough to go have a close look.

INT21.
 
This is a good point. Waving "hello" is a particularly human gesture. Why would one assume aliens - even bipedal humanoid aliens - would happen to use the same gesture with the same implied meaning or connotation?
Gestures are part of human language. I would hope and expect any alien who learnt our language would also learn the accompanying body language as part of the process.

There may be many alien species out there, and some of them might communicate only using gestures. Or, indeed, via the medium of dance.
 
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