Many a time you have read in this column of our long tradition of folklore regarding the sightings of UFOs here on Catalina Island.
Ever since the “Golden Age” of UFO sightings that began in the late 1940s, all manner of reports have come in of “strange lights” in the channel or in the hills or on the backside.
Many a time you have read in this column of our long tradition of folklore regarding the sightings of UFOs here on Catalina Island.
Ever since the “Golden Age” of UFO sightings that began in the late 1940s, all manner of reports have come in of “strange lights” in the channel or in the hills or on the backside.
Some of the most famous UFO footage ever taken, in fact, was filmed by a U.S. Navy photographer in broad daylight at Blackjack Peak in 1966 (footage which the author of “2001: A Space Odyssey” Arthur C. Clarke believed was just a small Piper aircraft).
And I bet in perusing these various stories you have wondered to yourself why there are no stories of that subset of UFO sightings known as “alien abductions.”
Well, wonder no longer, Dear Reader, for this week I have just such a tale for you, the only such UFO encounter I have come across in the annals of Catalina’s history.
It was in 1967 that a 12-year-old by the pseudonym of Paul Nelson was hanging out on his parents’ yacht here on Catalina when something odd happened. Nelson and his best friend Michael were down below decks evidently reading comic books (about alien abductions?) when they both experienced an episode of missing time.
In fact, time for the two went “missing” for nearly a day, and the next thing young Paul and his friend remembered was waking up the next morning.
Evidently, nothing outrageous had happened during this missing time since Paul’s parents thought nothing amiss and, in fact, found Paul’s story amusing at best.
Because of this incident, Paul developed an interest in UFOs and assorted things paranormal, especially after another incident at his home in Reseda only weeks after the Catalina episode in which he claimed to see a “shadow person” running down the hall.
Life went on as usual—for a while. But, as you know is often the case with such tales, the truth sooner or later comes out about what really happens during these interludes.
Fast forward now to “many years later,” according to Paul’s account. Married with children now, and a doctor no less, Dr. Paul Nelson had a UFO sighting of a “distant object” in the daytime sky.
This renewed his interest in such matters, which led him to discover other people’s accounts of “missing time” and their supposed relation to alien abductions.
This so piqued his interest, in fact, that he underwent hypnosis to get to the bottom of all this.
During regression, he learned that during the missing time episode on Catalina, he had … well, I’ll let him tell you in his own words: “I was taken to a round-walled room,” he said. “It seemed to me more underground than it did onboard a (alien) ship.
“The walls had a kind of rock-like facet to them … rather than metallic craft-type walls,” he said.
He was under the impression, he said, that he was in a “cavern.”
His friend Michael was there, too, and they were both being “examined” by a number of creatures that were of the “praying-mantis” type.
“The eyes were slightly bigger than what is seen in the typical small ‘grey’,” he said. (For those of you now in the know, the term “grey” is UFO-speak for the stereotypical small alien with the big cute eyes that you see in so often in popular culture). These creatures, he said, were donning tight-fitting uniforms with one of them wearing a tunic of some sort.
Paul also marveled at what he took to be machinery in the room. Rather than the ultra-high tech type of equipment one would expect, he was surprised to see it appeared to be primitive.
“The machines looked like typical military-type computer consoles rather than alien-looking machines,” he recalled. The machines had lights and what he took to be buttons or at least “areas that seemed to be for pushing.”
The exam, he said, was short and uneventful. Nothing frightening happened and never did he feel any fear.
Is this tale the result of a real experience or the result of childhood imagination stretched into adulthood?
Don’t look at me. I report, you deride.
Jim Watson is the author of “Mysterious Island: Catalina,” available on Amazon, Kindle and in stores all over Avalon.
