Thursday, September 30, 2021

"UFO Investigators League Field Manual" (1979) now online

The "UFO Investigators League Field Manual" (1979, by Timothy Green Beckley and Harold Salkin of the UFO Investigators League) is now online. 

The UFO Investigators League was founded by Timothy Green Beckley in the early 1970s.  Tim sadly passed away in May 2021.  A few years ago, Tim kindly gave me permission to upload his out-of-print UFO publications and I have previously uploaded various newsletters he published, including "Inner Light", "Interplanetary New Service", "Searchlight", "UFO Review" and "UFO Sightings".    

This field manual is the latest in a series of publications I have helped get online intended for the training of new UFO investigators (e.g. APRO's Field Investigators Handbook and Robert Moore's "The Ufology Handbook"). This particular manual is one of the briefer manual's for UFO investigators, being only 10 pages long.  It includes advice on the "challenge, hard work and adventure" ahead of those that have decided to become UFO field investigators. The manual suggests that "You will meet interesting people, go to intriguing places, and perhaps even come up with some new evidence that will help solve the ever-expanding mystery of the skies". 

My thanks to Matthew Riot for scanning this item extremely promptly. 




Tuesday, September 28, 2021

"Journal of Vampirology" (USA, 1980s, John Vellutini) now online

John Vellutini has kindly given permission for me to upload searchable scans of his "Journal of Vampirology", with thanks to Anthony Hogg for having provided information that helped me contact John Vellutini.

The "Journal of Vampirology" was intended to address "the broad spectrum of fact, opinion and controversy concerning the phenomenon of vampirism, both in its traditional and contemporary manifestations".

Scans of 10 issues (out of 19 that were published) have been produced so far by the AFU in Sweden.  

I hope to upload further issues shortly (and, of course, would welcome hearing from anyone that has already scanned any of those further issues...).

As some of you know, my personal interest is primarily in UFO publications/material but I don't mind doing a bit of work to help get other Fortean material online.  (The AFU has a collection of material that extends beyond UFOs and has been willing to scan and host material on, for example, crop circles, cryptozoology, folklore, "Earth Mysteries" and other topics - where I have been able to obtain permissions from relevant editors/groups).  

There is frequently a degree of overlap in wider Fortean material with issues relating to UFO reports/discussions. Sometimes that overlap pops up unexpectedly. 

For example, I did not expect the Journal of Vampirology to include any UFO material, but (as John Vellutini helpfully pointed out to me) Volume 2 Number 1 discusses the possibility that vampirism has an extraterrestrial origin, whereas the last page of vol. 1, no. 4 implies that the viscera sucker of SE Asia may have a similar origin.




Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Rare USA, 1960s "Controversial Phenomena Bulletin" and "Probe" UFO magazines (Joseph Ferriere) now online

Joseph Ferriere, an American UFO researcher, edited the "Controversial Phenomena Bulletin" and its continuation under the title "Probe" in the 1960s. 

A friend of Joseph Ferriere, Paul Eno, has commented that Joseph L. Ferriere (1939-2012) "was a respected broadcaster, UFO researcher, writer, publisher and a true gentleman".

In addition to various interesting articles, these magazines included a considerable number of photographs of UFO researchers and witnesses from that era (including material from August C Roberts).

Matthew Riot has commented that "Controversial Phenomena Bulletin" has "some some awesome old art".

I have been trying to contact members of Joseph Ferriere's family for the last two or three years with permission requests to make this material available online. Yesterday, his grand-daughter kindly let me know that I can go ahead.

Matthew Riot has helpfully scanned 5 issues of "Controversial Phenomena Bulletin". That publication is rather rare (with the AFU's huge archive in Sweden only having 2 issues, which it has also kindly scanned). The AFU has also scanned 8 issues of Joseph Ferriere's subsequent "Probe" magazine.  







Saturday, September 18, 2021

More French PDFs - SERPAN newsletters and reports

La SERPAN (the "Societe d'Enquete et de Recherche sur les Phenomenes Aerospatiaux Non-identifies") published a newsletter and several reports in the early 1990s, including a report on the Trans-En-Provence case. 

Patrice Seray, the French UFO researcher, not only provided me with scans of those newsletters and reports but also obtained permission from Eric Maillot and Gilles Musch for me to make the scans available online.

I have now added this material to the France folder on the AFU's website.





"MUFON Medical Committee Newsletter" online

John Schuessler (former International Director of MUFON, probably best known for his work on the Cash-Landrum incident) has kindly given me permission to make the "MUFON Medical Committee Newsletter" freely available online.

This adds to the material that I've helped make available online, or hope to make available in the future, by various UFO researchers in relation to alleged biological effects associated with UFO sightings. That material has included, for example, the NICAP "Special Report" on "Strange Effects from UFOs" which I have previously uploaded with permission of Gordon Lore, thanks to a scan by Barry Greenwood. That contained an early catalogue of UFO cases with alleged physiological effects. Obviously, some of the more recent work by Kit Green, John Schuessler, Richard C Niemtzow and others that I've been looking into during the last few years is more extensive, but I like tracing the history of a research topic.

I'm not sure how many issues existed of the MUFON Medical Committee newsletter. I've only obtained (or seen references to) a single issue.

A scan of that issue has helpfully been provided to me by Matthew Riot. Click on the image below for a link to the relevant folder.

John Schuessler has previously kindly given me permission to upload his "UFO Potpourri" and "Potpourri News" newsletters. I uploaded over 140 issues of those publications in 2016, with thanks to the AFU in Sweden for scanning those publications.

(I may try again to get some further permissions for more MUFON publications soon. Since getting permission from MUFON HQ a couple of years ago to upload MUFON state/specialist newsletters where the relevant entity gives permission, I've helped get online the newsletters of MUFON Arizona, MUFON Colorado, MUFON Georgia, MUFON Massachusetts, MUFON Michigan, MUFON Minnesota, MUFON Missouri, MUFON New Hampshire, MUFON New Jersey, MUFON New Mexico, MUFON New York City, MUFON Ohio, MUFON Pennsylvania, and MUFON Tennessee).





Gaps filled in several rare French UFO newsletters - "Echo du CERPA" and "Vimana"

Patrice Seray, the French UFO researcher, has kindly provided further scans from France, which I have added to the French section I created on the AFU's website.

"Vimana" gaps : Guy Tarade kindly gave me permission to upload his "Vimana" magazine in 2018 (thanks to Edoardo Russo and Bruno Mancusi for their help liaising with Guy). A total of 7 issues were provided at that time by Patrice Seray, Pierre Lagrange and the AFU, which I uploaded in 2018. Patrice Seray has now obtained and scanned a further 5 issues.

"Echo du Cerpa" gaps : I received permission from Bernard Hugues of CERPA Marseille to upload "Echo du Cerpa" in 2018 (along with Univers Ovni and AMA). Gilles Durand of SCEAU kindly provided one issue of "Echo du Cerpa" at that time (which I uploaded in 2018). Patrice Seray has now provided a further issue (Issue No 1).

More French newsletters will follow soon (and, of course, more from other countries...). I also hope to finish a big UFO database project soon that has a large French element.