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Peter Horsley Interview with an alien

JasonChapman

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I have finally got hold of a copy of Peter Horsley’s book, Sounds From Another Room. I have often read the tale of Horsley’s encounter with a man named Mr Janus who he claimed was an alien. But most reports have been sensationalised, in paranormal magazines or on TV documentaries. So I was ecstatic to get my hands on the book, and finally read Horsley’s firsthand account of his encounter with Janus.

First off Horsley claims he made the acquaintance of someone called General Martin, no first or second name, through a man called Sir Arthur Barrat, former Air Chief Marshal. Horsley described General Martin as an old friend of Barrat. Martin then contacted Horsley to arrange a meeting in a flat in Smith Street, Chelsea, London.

It was whilst visiting this flat that Horsley encountered a woman called Mrs Markham, again no first name. Mrs Markham showed Horsley through to a dimly lit room, where Mr Janus was waiting for him. Horsley states ‘It was difficult to describe him with any accuracy, the room was poorly lit by two standard lamps and for most of the time Janus Sat in a deep chair by the side of a not very generous fire’
After introductions were made, Horsley claimed that Mr Janus wasted no time in asking him how much he knew about flying saucers. Janus listened to what Horsley had to say before being asked what his interest was, to which Janus simply asked back. ‘I would like to meet the Duke of Edinburgh.
Horsley replied that this would be difficult as to the nature of the man he wanted to meet.

Both men then went on to talk about flying saucers and the distances they would have to travel in order to get here. Mr Janus explains that science available to us at the time i.e. the 1950s would not make it possible for interstellar travel. However in a century maybe man would have developed the technology to travel within his own solar system. Janus also goes into detail about travelling at speeds close to the speed of light, it does get a bit over complicated, considering scientists have just claimed they have broken the light barrier.

60 years since this interview and we’re still no closer going back to the moon, let alone manned exploration of the solar system.

Mr Janus then goes into great detail about our place in the universe, and our belief in a god, and that this is something embedded in the DNA of all species, Janus explores the notion that god is universal, not some kind of all powerful being as how many cultures on Earth view him.

Both men also go on to the subject of life elsewhere in our galaxy, to which Janus claims that there are thousands of planets which have life, some primitive, some way more advanced than life on earth.

Horsley’s account is very detailed, too much for this post maybe, but it has solved a few riddles concerning the encounter which has been told many times over.

Horsley claims he tried to go back to the flat a few nights earlier for a second meeting, but there was no sign of Janus, Mrs Markham, and even this General Martin vanished off the face of the earth. It does raise the question of not just one alien encounter but three. Horsley claims that Janus stated that it is very easy for an alien species to walk among us humans.

I do have a few problems with his account, one of which is the speculation of thousands of different life forms in our galaxy. If you look back on our way of thinking sixty years ago then a scientist speculating life on other worlds would have probably said the same thing, given the level of technology at their disposal back then. The telescopes used back then were nowhere near as powerful as they are now. The belief now is that there are billions of planets in our own galaxy alone capable of supporting life.

As for whether or not I believe Horsley, well let’s just say he writes a very interesting story.
 
Very interesting first post there Jason, I've always wanted to read this account but never got round to tracking the book down.

Oddly enough I never considered that Horsley may have been making it up, instead I always thought it was some sort of practical joke set up by those who knew of his interests.

As for Mr Janus I can't believe that there was anything genuine about him, not least because I can't believe that a highly intelligent interplanetary being would want to meet the Duke of Edinburgh.
 
Thanks for the reply.

It is quite a long chapter that Horsley included in his book. Whether or not he wrote the account purely as a space filler we’ll never know. I have read his account a good few dozen times over, and every time I have read it I distance myself from the belief that Horsley is telling the truth.

This man he spoke to, Mr Janus seems to have limited knowledge of the universe, compared to what our scientists know today, not a very well travelled Alien if you ask me.

On the flip side Horsley does point at the idea that there are high ranking military figures within the MoD who are very interested in the UFO phenomenon, however your average Ufologist knows this anyway.

So all in all I’d have to say yes, this Mr Janus is probably fictional.

I brought Horsley’s book for research on a fictional novel I am writing (no plug intended) loosely based on the Flying saucer Working Party of the 1950s. Horsley’s story has definitely given me a few plot ideas.
 
JasonChapman said:
On the flip side Horsley does point at the idea that there are high ranking military figures within the MoD who are very interested in the UFO phenomenon, however your average Ufologist knows this anyway.

Then again, all it illustrates is that (like everyone else) high ranking military figures have interests outside of their job. It would be premature for any ufologists to infer that such interests actually amount to anything at all in an official military capacity (any more than their other interests - golf perhaps - would).
 
Interesting to have a first hand evaluation from someone whose read the book, rather than relying as I have done on second hand sources.

I am a bit disappointed that it looks like Horsley made it all up rather than being the object of a prank, something which always appealed to me for some reason, as did the notion of a well bred Alien hanging around in a flat in Chelsea.

What does still interest me is the fact that even in contemporary UFO documentaries Horsley is still held up as a compelling witness, after all they say he was Equirary to the Duke of Edinburgh. Dotty.
 
Was Mr Janus's first name Hugh? Ahem, sorry, anyway this sounds like it belongs with the classic contactee literature of its day, it's a great story among many (Adamski, King, etc), but hard to swallow in the larger scheme of things now the world has, in a way, moved on from those accounts. I dread to think what Phil the Greek would say to an actual person not of this Earth.
 
gncxx said:
I dread to think what Phil the Greek would say to an actual person not of this Earth.

"It seems to me that it's the best way of wasting money that I know of. I don't think investments on the moon pay a very high dividend."
or
"Well, you'll never fly in it, you're too fat to be an astronaut."
 
gncxx said:
Was Mr Janus's first name Hugh? Ahem, sorry, anyway this sounds like it belongs with the classic contactee literature of its day, it's a great story among many (Adamski, King, etc), but hard to swallow in the larger scheme of things now the world has, in a way, moved on from those accounts. I dread to think what Phil the Greek would say to an actual person not of this Earth.

It’s funny you should mention George Adamski, the UFO contactee if that’s who you mean, because Horsley claims to have met him and Desmond Leslie. He claims that they were both associates of ‘Boy Browning’ which I believe to be Sir Frederick Browning a general in the British army. Browning also worked at Buckingham Palace with Horsley

Anyone familiar with Horsley’s story will have only focused their attention on the meeting with Janus. After more digging I discovered that Desmond Leslie was the son of Sir John Leslie who was first cousin to Winston Churchill. Whether this is relevant is unclear, but it does make me think about the UFO memo Churchill wrote in the summer of 1952

Anyway Horsley states that he was unimpressed with both Adamski and Leslie and claims of meeting alien beings from other worlds. He advised ‘Boy Browning’ to steer clear of both men. Did Adamski and Leslie give Horsley the idea of Janus, we will never know.

I have to admit I have only read the chapter about Mr Janus, so today at work I will sit down and read the whole book. It might give me more insight as to why Horsley would include such a fantastic story.
 
Let us know what he says, it'll be interesting to have some more context.
 
Janus didn't seem to have much more scientific knowledge that the average 1950s human. Despite coming from a civilization capable of inter-galactic travel he didn't seem to have got any further with the notion of God.
Isn't it strange that, even though he came fom somewhere light years away ( can't be more specific because somehow Janus omitted to mention where he was actually from !), he just so happened to look exactly like a human ?
I suspect this was the security services scamming Horsley to see whether he was too much of a crackpot to be allowed to work directly for the D of E.
 
Bigfoot73 said:
Janus didn't seem to have much more scientific knowledge that the average 1950s human. Despite coming from a civilization capable of inter-galactic travel he didn't seem to have got any further with the notion of God.
Isn't it strange that, even though he came fom somewhere light years away ( can't be more specific because somehow Janus omitted to mention where he was actually from !), he just so happened to look exactly like a human ?

Yep, all standard 1950s contactee stuff.
 
Ok I have more or less finished Horsley’s book.

I think the most significant event in his life was when he was shot down during the war and spent nearly four says drifting in the English Channel. At the end of his ordeal he describes what only be described as an out of body experience. This was just before he was rescued. He also goes onto claim that he had one ghostly encounter which was witnessed by other people including a vicar.

Horsley also claims that he used to suffer terrible attacks and nightmares at night, which points to Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Anyhow, after the war his life in quite uneventful, he joins the royal household working for Prince Phillip, during which his fascination for UFOs had began.

He did mention one thing I found interesting, he flew the plane which carried German officials who signed the surrender which ended WW2. Whilst waiting for the German’s to board the plane, Horsley recalls that the airfield was a hive of activity, planes leaving carry men dressed in long black leather coats. Horsley speculated that they were escaping Nazis.

Other than that and the incident involving Janus it’s a standard Autobiography.
 
I remember reading Horsley's autobiography a few years ago - aside from the Mr Janus chapter, it seemed reasonably level-headed enough.

As for Mr Janus's apparently bizarre interest in meeting the Duke of Edinburgh, interestingly the late Gordon Creighton claimed that the Duke had a long standing subscription to the Flying Saucer Review. (The claim is even repeated on the landing page of their current website - http://www.fsr.org.uk/ ).

Obviously one suspects Mr Janus to be all too human - reading the story again, with it's vanishing players and disappearing rooms, reminds me rather of Jacques Vallee's tale of the Teesdale Inheritance and his baffling encounter with the wonderfully Dickensian-sounding firm of lawyers, Theard, Theard, Smith and Theard. There's a summary here, which is pretty much lifted straight from Vallee's rather intriguing book, Revelations:

http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/foru ... tance.html
 
Just came across this extract about Horsley over on another site;

In his autobiography, Sounds From Another Room, Horsley says that he was accelerating to about 60 miles an hour when the car began to react strangely. He saw a grey Volvo closing up quickly behind him and as he was about to wave it past, his BMW spun sharply to the left, the brakes screeching, and then sharply to the right and back again. This is remarkably similar to what happened to the Mercedes before it struck the 13th pillar. Horsley was by now desperately trying to maintain control and he went on: “Out of the corner of my eye I saw the grey Volvo accelerating past me at high speed. My car had now developed a mind of its own as it swung broadside and skidded down the road. With a lurch it hit the central reservation, mounted the grass verge separating the two• lanes of the highway and crossed over into the opposite carriageway. I had just time to see a small car approaching from the opposite direction. I hit it sideways on with tremendous force. In a split-second the driver’s horror-stricken face was visible and I heard his hoarse scream.”

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread120028/pg1

Assassination attempt or clown driving too fast with one hand on the wheel? Difficult to say.
 
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