FIELDWORK IN SOUTHERN
ENGLAND JULY 1997
Joseph
Burkes MD Copyright 1997 edited 2009
INTRODUCTION
This
report is an account of fieldwork carried out in Southern England during the
nights of July 16 through July 18, 1997 by two UFO North America investigators.
Dr. Joseph Burkes, author of this report, served as Working Group Coordinator
for CSETI in Los Angeles from 1992 to 1998. In the summer of 1997 he traveled
with his son to Great Britain. The other
participant will be referred to as Tracy Travis,( a pseudonym). In the spring of 1997, she emailed Doctor Burkes
about her UFO encounters on the shores of Lake Ontario.
This
joint investigation took place outside of the Tracy's hometown of Maidenhead
England. It is located on the Thames, some 40 miles west of London. In 1997 it
had approximately 20,000 inhabitants and could hardly be described as a hot bed
of UFO activity. Nevertheless it was the locale of numerous sightings during
three nights of consecutive field investigations.
Dr. Burkes’ Narrative
During
the summer of 1997 Tracy Travis and her teenage daughter traveled from Canada
to visit her family in Southern England. During the spring of that year I had
read about her amazing UFO investigations. On numerous occasions she had managed to videotape what were described
as orange orbs over Lake Ontario. Though we had never met, as fellow contact
workers and as parents of two young adults, I figured we might have a lot in
common. I called her from Los Angeles and suggested that we might team up in England
and visit the crop circle region together. Having grown up in Southern England,
Tracy knew the area quite well. It turned out that she was traveling to England
with her daughter around the same time as I was going there with my then
twenty-one-year old son Jonathan.
Tracy
agreed to carry out a joint investigation and was so very kind as to allow
Jonathan and me to spend a few days at a rental cottage owned by her parents.
It was located in the town of Maidenhead about a half an hour from London by
rail. After meeting her family, Tracy showed me her videos of UFOs flying over
the waters of Lake Ontario. The clips were truly remarkable. While sailboats
gracefully moved in front of the camera, orange orbs slowly passed them by. In
one spectacular sequence a large glowing golden disc hovered just over the
surface of the lake at a distant shore. The object appeared to be at least one
hundred feet across.
THE FIRST NIGHT: Tracy locates our research
site.
On
July 15, Tracy learned from her mother that a friend Mrs. J.... had a UFO
sighting the night before while strolling with her son. Mrs. J noted a disc
like object with multicolored lights. It was seen silently floating above a
hill belonging to the farm next door. They walked home to get binoculars and on
returning to the site they noted that the object was still hovering above the
farm. It had no wings and no discernible engine. It was totally silent. The
encounter lasted for approximately 30 minutes.
A
seasoned UFO investigator, Tracy took the initiative. She advised me to prepare
to do fieldwork the following night. I
packed my warm clothing, rain gear and signal lantern. We drove to Mrs. J's
home and Tracy took a detailed sighting report. I requested that Tracy be
designated the team leader and I would serve as her assistant. Tracy proposed
that we do research right there in Mrs. J's neighborhood. We located a public
footpath that lead up to the very same hill above which the disc had been seen.
Our
research site was located adjacent to a pasture that formed the crest of a
hill. The public footpath ran along a grove of trees, which provided us with
partial cover in case we used powerful lights to signal at craft. Barbed wire
and an electrified fence kept us from entering a large field that contained livestock.
The River Thames was about 500 hundred yards to the west, but the crest of he
hill blocked our view of the river. From our vantage point we looked out
towards the west and saw a long valley. It spread out from the southwest,
sweeping all the way to the northwest. In this valley an enormous expanse of
towns and fields were visible. Behind us to the east the view was blocked by
tree covered hills.
On
the night of the 16th the sky was partially overcast. There was a
cool breeze. The first sighting occurred at approximately 8:30 PM. A strange
flying object suddenly became visible in the southeast. It appeared as a
brilliant multicolored strobing light that silently and rapidly approached our
position. As it drew closer I noted a tightly bunched array of lights in the
forward part of the craft. Red yellow and white lights strobed on and off in
unison. The object hovered just a few hundred yards away at tree top level. As
I flashed my torch at it, Tracy became concerned.
With
some alarm she said, "Joseph, that might be an emergency rescue
helicopter. Do you want them to waste their time checking us out?" I chose
to differ with the opinion expressed. In my view this object was no ordinarily
helicopter. As it rapidly approached, we soon both realized this. Less than 250
yards away, no engine sound could be heard.
Following
CSETI protocol, I signaled at it several times, hoping to get a response.
Instead of signaling back however the craft skillfully turned at a right angles
to our position and sped over a line of trees. It then proceeded to fly back
and forth over the line of trees retracing its path repeatedly. I estimated the distance between the forward
and rear lights of the object to be no more than 25 feet. The anterior
multicolored lights were tightly bunched. Together they produced a powerful
beam, not unlike that of searchlights. Thus the craft illuminated the treetops
as it darted back and forth over the grove of trees to the south. On turning, a
blinking red taillight became visible on the posterior tip of this unknown. As
the small red taillight flashed on, the more powerful forward array of lights
went off. When the forward lights flared on, the red taillight winked out.
By
themselves the multicolored lights in the nose of the craft appeared rather
bizarre, unlike any light array I had ever seen. Coordinating its rapid flashes
with the red taillight, it all seemed doubly weird. The craft changed its
direction so nimbly that it had an almost insectoid quality to its maneuvers.
Tracy dubbed our strange guest the "busy bee." It merrily raced back
and forth over the treetops as if they were a field of flowers. I noted another
highly anomalous feature of this object, the absence of any discernible
superstructure.
Even
though the moon had not yet risen, the research site had a modicum of ambient
light. The environs were illuminated by a multitude of lights shining from
adjacent towns as well the M4 superhighway located to the west. Conventional
objects like helicopters or planes when seen at this location could be readily
identified by their darkened silhouettes against the dimly lit sky. This silent
flying UFO was clearly different. Between the forward and rear flashing lights,
no structure was visible. The small space between the craft's lights had the
exact hue as the background of sky. The absence of any engine sound was
particularly noteworthy.
All
other conventional craft sighted at our research site were clearly audible
despite being located at greater distances. Like a giant flying insect, the
object continued to race back and forth over the same line of trees.
We
repeatedly stated that we wanted it to approach us, but it moved no closer. But
then again neither did it fly away. As the forward lights turned in our
direction I decided to try a different approach. Perhaps a more emotional
appeal might sweeten the pie. Several times as I flashed at it, I sent the
mental message. "I love you. "Please come closer." Nothing
doing, each time I flashed at it, the object quickly turned away. I shared my
efforts to communicate via telepathy with Tracy. "Perhaps they simply
don't like you." she quipped. After 4 or 5 minutes, this strange first
encounter came to a close. The object silently moved off to the southeast and
disappeared.
Later
at about 8:50 PM in the southwest sky there appeared small circular lights.
They were gold in color and repeatedly flashed on and off. They appeared at different elevations,
hovering above the hills that were located several miles away. At times they
flashed on in pairs. The widely separated twins often appeared at the same
altitude, each light was separated from its "buddy" by what I
estimated was several thousand feet. I observed no triplets. They did not
respond to our signaling. These unknowns had no associated strobes,
conventional wing lights, or superstructure suggesting they might be
planes. They were all totally silent as
they hovered in the sky. Each sighting of the golden globes lasted from a few
seconds to perhaps half a minute. As suddenly as they appeared, they winked out
in the sky. After about an hour these sightings ceased. Tracy and I left the
field site. We were elated at the prospect of having possibly made contact with
ET intelligence.
The
next morning at breakfast Tracy told me that she had difficulty sleeping the
previous night. She reported subjectively acquiring the information that we
should not signal at suspected ET craft with our lights. According to Tracy
this information was obtained at the level of knowledge, in other words she as
a psi experience, Dr. Greer had advised my Los Angeles CSETI contact team how
important psi is while doing fieldwork. Thus I had no difficulty accepting
Tracy’s guidance concerning our not using signal lights during the second night
of fieldwork. Besides she was team leader and I deferred to her judgment. She
was a British national operating on her home territory and we from the first
night in the field we were getting interesting results.
Returning
to the same location on July 17th, the merit of her advice became clear. Adjacent to our research
site was a large country manor. I had not properly inspected the site the first
night and had not seen the house. Using powerful lights to signal at craft
would have likely caused the owners to investigate. The public access footpath
on which we had camped was on their property. Thus site security would have
been compromised by the using the torch. I thanked Tracy for warning me and
thanked my "lucky stars" for providing me with such a perceptive
coworker.
THE SECOND NIGHT: Loud Munching in the
Adjacent Field
The
second night was relatively quiet. The sky was overcast. We experienced a light
drizzle with little wind. Across the electrified barbed wire, just 30 feet
away, two beautiful horses munched loudly on the moist grass. They were large
and powerful, one black, one white. To the north on a hillside an amber light
repeatedly went on and off. It burned brightly for about a minute and then
extinguished. Tracy thought it was probably the security light of large estate
on the hill. That area was heavily wooded. It seemed reasonable that a country
manor might be situated behind the trees. Several solitary golden globes were
seen to the south. Each moved about silently in the sky for a while and then
winked out.
Tracy
did not meditate during our fieldwork. I made several attempts to carry out
solo Coherent Thought Sequencing (CTS) while Tracy stood about forty feet away
watching the sky. At about 12:30 AM I gave up. We packed up our gear and hiked
down to Tracy's rented car parked by the side of the road.
THE THIRD NIGHT: We witness a CE-5 with
highly anomalous imitation “fireworks” and then someone or something follows us
back to the cottage.
Fieldwork
started at 8 PM. The sky was clear with scattered clouds. A number of single and paired golden globes
winked on to the southwest. They extinguished their lights after less than a
minute. Soon after our arrival at the site I noticed something seemed different
about the valley to the south. On both
of the hillsides and across the valley floor, a dozen or so very bright amber
lights were noted. I did not recall seeing them on previous nights. The lights
were stationary and at first I assumed they had to be ground lights. Their
yellow color certainly did seem to match the sodium vapor lights along the A4
located about 4 miles away. Despite this similarity there was something quite
different about them.
First
of all it was their intensity. Many times brighter than ordinary highway
lights, they did not seem to lose much brilliance even when situated at what
appeared to be up to 7 miles away. This was in marked contrast to the highway
lights that not unexpectedly lost their brilliance as the road trailed off in
the distance. These strange amber lights also appeared much larger than the
highway lights, perhaps three or four times larger. Their positions seemed odd
as well. The highway lights and the white street lights were arranged in
symmetrical patterns evenly spaced following roads and housing. These brilliant
amber lights were haphazardly placed with no relation to visible structures.
At
the limit of our vision some 10 miles away to the south, at the end of the
valley was the strangest yellow light of all. . It was perched motionlessly
right on the ridgeline. The light was pale amber, circular and had to be quite
large to be visible at all. I guessed it
was twenty to fifty feet across, but it might have been even much larger given
the distance of its apparent location. The object had a very distinct shape
with sharp edges that formed a perfect circle. Throughout the third night of
fieldwork it just sat there motionlessly.
To
the west, just beyond the river bank some kind of summer fireworks display
started around 9:30 PM. Less than half a mile away, we watched as pale rockets
slowly climbed and then exploded into globe like displays of blue light. And
then something truly bizarre happened.
One
or two miles away to the south golden lights suddenly flared up out of the
darkness. One after another they broke apart into a dozen pieces forming
enormous golden unispheres. Each yellow fragment was equidistant from the
center of the circle. Unlike the conventional fireworks that were exploding
along the river, these bursts of pale gold held their shapes for over 15
seconds while they floated around for a bit. In clusters of 2 and 3 these
spectacular lights appeared to be imitating the rather ordinary display of
terrestrial fireworks. There was no associated rocket launch associated with
these anomalous displays and the deep golden color was like no fireworks I have
ever seen. It was an apparent CE-5 in response to the terrestrial pyrotechnics.
It was delightful! Tracy and I laughed with joy.
The
golden globes like the ones we had seen the first night, were out in force this
evening as well. One after another they appeared at different altitudes and
directions. About midnight Tracy suggested we leave. I asked if it would be OK
if I signaled a few times with her torch. After such a marvelous display of
anomalous lights, I wanted to send the globes a grateful fond farewell. Tracy acquiesced and as she packed up her
video equipment, I signaled twice with the torch. I recall how the white light
from the flashlight reflected off the leaves of the tree that had sheltered us
during our fieldwork. I believe that particular hue (white light) from the
halogen bulb has particular significance. Subsequent bizarre events that
transpired later that night involved another white light that signaled at us
when we got back to the cottage.
Loaded
up with gear we hiked down through several pastures to Tracy's vehicle. We were
elated. There was little doubt in our minds that we had made contact with some
kind of non-human intelligence. We presumed it was an Extraterrestrial
intelligence that was responsible for the anomalous light show that we had just
witnessed. As we drove the short distance to the cottage we joked about our
being the recipients of the "Golden Globes Award."
Back
in the cottage as I unpacked my gear I heard a strangely familiar sound. At first
soft in the distance, then increasingly loud, was the unmistakable noise of an
approaching helicopter. As the chopper closed in on the house, I noted that it
was less than 500 feet up in the air. At that proximity to the ground the roar
of its engine was tremendous.
In
Southern California commercial helicopters are required to stay above 1000 feet
when traveling over towns and cities. Living in crime-ridden Los Angeles, I had become quite familiar with the
maneuvers of police helicopters that can fly considerably lower. This craft was
clearly different. The rumble of its engine was lower in timber compared to the
Bell 500 series that I was accustomed to. This British chopper was larger and
more powerful. Everything about it said "military." From its underside
was draped a large sack. Some 15 feet in length it sagged in the middle
indicating that it certainly contained some kind of heavy cargo. Crop circle
investigators had told us that such equipment sashes were frequently seen on
military helicopters that buzzed them back in 1991 and 1992. It was presumed
that these bags contained sophisticated electronic equipment used to
investigate the crop circles. Perhaps they were being used to study the unknown
technology of the intelligence that had created the bona fide crop circles.
For
about 5 minutes the helicopter circled Tracy’s parents’ house in a tight
pattern. Then it took up a kind of sentry position in the dark sky above the
back of the cottage. There in a fixed position some 500 feet up, it hovered for
the next 45 minutes. Tracy appeared to be quite disturbed by its presence. She
moved quickly around to the back of the house checking the helicopter's
position hovering above us. We both suspected that its thundering roar must
have awakened the entire neighborhood.
The
chopper's location was almost directly above
Less
than a minute later another beam of white light flashed at us. This second
burst of white light came through the trees from a different position on other
end side of the garden. Whatever was the source of light it apparently had just
moved through the sky below the thundering helicopter perched overhead.
I
recalled how just 2 days before I had discussed with Tracy's brother the
apparent consciousness link between CSETI team members and the Extraterrestrial
intelligence that we are attempting to contact. I described the recurring
pattern of personal sightings that CSETI researchers have, once they start
investigation. Strange as it may seem, many of the sightings occur at times
other than during regular fieldwork. I even divulged to her brother that some
of the sightings had even taken place in the sky above the homes of the CSETI
researchers. As the helicopter hovered above us in the village called
Maidenhead, it seemed to me that this pattern of contact was continuing in
England as well.
Tracy
seemed quite upset by the helicopter and the strange light that was signaling
in our direction. She kept pacing back and forth around the back of the house.
"What the hell is going on?" she demanded to know. In a matter of
fact way I told her my assessment. "You may not want to accept this,” I
told her, "but the most likely explanation is that some kind of ET probe
has probably followed us back to the cottage. In fact I think it just signaled
at us through the trees." I went on to explain that although the military
craft was positioned directly above us, we were not a likely target of its
interest. My assessment was that the chopper was probably investigating our
"friends" (presumably the ETs) and not a pair of middle aged North
American UFO investigators.
I
was really tired and I must have delivered my verdict dead pan. I suppose this
was not the explanation that she was expecting because she immediately fired
back with, "Did you hear what you just said. That is the most outrageous
thing I've ever heard."
I
then detailed the reasons for my assessment. The military type helicopter had
suddenly appeared over a quiet suburban neighborhood and was hovering in a
fixed position right above her parent’s cottage. This occurred after we had
just witnessed anomalous lights of presumed ET nature while in doing fieldwork.
Most importantly the copter’s behavior was inconsistent with routine police
tactics. The chopper was not using a searchlight to pinpoint criminals. Powerful
searchlights are routinely employed by police helicopters to facilitate ground
forces that are pursuing suspects. It did appear to budge from a position
almost directly above the cottage. Obviously it was not in hot pursuit of say a
car thief.
A
second object capable of flying through the sky had apparently signaled at us
from 2 different positions. The color of the white light that hit us at the
back of the cottage approximated the hue of the halogen lantern that we had
employed out at the research site. "Remember Tracy, you gave me permission
to signal at those golden globes. Well it looks like they followed us home and
gave us the same kind of signal in a kind of fond farewell or 'adios'."
Tracy
listened to my discourse in disbelief. She nervously paced back and forth as
the rumble of helicopter droned on. "We have to go out and investigate
this!" she demanded. We must go
outside and check the situation out right now. "
I
equivocated, "It's late Tracy, it's past 1 AM. What other logical
explanation is there. Besides helicopters usually only carry about 45 minutes
worth of fuel. It will be gone in awhile." After three nights of
fieldwork, plus my residual jet lag from my flight from California, I was
exhausted.
But
there was no discouraging her. Tracy was determined.
She
said, “If you care to just sit around while that thing is overhead, suit
yourself. Stay inside! I'm going out! “
Well
what could I say? The contact movement is not one for armchair philosophers. I
had asked her to be the team leader and she had just issued her orders. I chose
to follow her lead. I was dead tired, but as much as I wanted to go to sleep, I
couldn't just let her investigate all alone. I might miss all the fun.
We
piled into her rented car and I slowly drove around the block. The dark streets
were totally deserted. Despite the deafening roar of the chopper hovering above
the neighborhood, we apparently were the only civilians who had ventured
outside. I turned the corner and less than 200 feet away we encountered two police
cars. They were parked close together by the side of the road with lights off.
The two officers seated in the first squad car did not appear to even notice us
at first. They were seated in the vehicle gazing up through the windshield at
the helicopter perched over Tracy’s parents’ rental cottage. (If an ET probe
was the chopper’s target, perhaps the officers were staring at more than just
the helicopter.) Tracy and I only saw the helicopter and there was no sign of
another object in the sky.
We
drove towards the cop cars. When we were just a few yards away, a policewoman
in the passenger seat suddenly turned towards us. Like an animal caught in the
headlights of a car, her face registered surprise that seemed to say,
"What are you doing here?" Instead of checking us out however, her
driver put the car into gear and quickly pulled away leaving the second police
car at the curb.
This
was definitely getting very strange. This wasn't area 51. I was in a small town
in England. Somehow I was not ready for this. I wasn't prepared to play cat and mouse with surveillance types like the
ones that my team had encountered while doing research in the Californian high
desert. This was supposed to be jolly old England. You know, safe, conservative
and respectable. Yes the sightings had been great fun, but this was getting to
be too much. All very thrilling of course, but freaky and I began to wish that
I were safely home in bed.
Shaking
ever so slightly, from fatigue, fear or a combination of the two, I carefully drove
by the second squad car and turned the corner. We then circled the block,
circumnavigating below the chopper's position. It still was hovering directly
above the cottage. The dark desolate streets were lined with empty parked
vehicles belonging to rows of cottages. No additional police were seen, no
flashing lights, no plainclothes detectives in hot pursuit of some likely
criminal. All the while the chopper as if stuck up in the dark sky, didn't
budge from its initial position.
Back
in the house we discussed what we had just seen. Tracy now seemed a bit more
receptive to my radical assessment. The big military helicopter was probably
stalking a UFO. After flying overhead for about 45 minutes the chopper
departed. It returned within 20 minutes." I guess they went for more
fuel." I surmised. Tracy nodded in agreement. After hovering over the
cottage for an additional 10 minutes the copter roared off into the distance.
Whatever it was that had attracted the chopper during the first sortie, must
have left.
The
next day I stopped at the local supermarket for supplies. The clerks and
customers were all talking with excitement about the helicopter that had awoken
them the night before. This was apparently a very unusual event for Maidenhead.
Once
again Tracy took the initiative, this time to make inquiries of the police.
Speaking with a most polite British accent, she first called the local police
station. There a female voice with authority proclaimed, "We don't use
helicopters!” Tracy was not to be dissuaded. She called a regional police
office where she heard a totally different explanation. This second
spokesperson blandly asserted that indeed there was a helicopter out over
Maidenhead, but that it was, "chasing car thieves." With a mischievous
smile on her face Tracy pressed on, "Did you catch them? " She
inquired. "No. No unfortunately we did not." was the official reply.
Tracy slammed the receiver down in triumph and said. "They’re lying!"
During
my 1997 visit to England I spent about a week with Tracy. We drove her daughter
and my son to a rock festival where for three days they camped out in the mud
and listened to the kind of loud music that young people enjoy all over the
world . After Tracy and I separated I traveled south to Weymouth to give a workshop
hosted by David Livingston. Later while doing fieldwork in the crop circle
region with Dr. Greer and Shari Adamiak, I briefly ran into Tracy. She reported
that she had additional UFOs sightings while touring the English east coast.
I
knew I had done well teaming up with Tracy. Her pattern of frequent UFO
sightings were highly consistent with her being a contactee. By associating
with this kind of UFO experiencer, once again I had been privileged to have
some amazing adventures. Unlike Dr. Greer, Misha and other prime contactees
with whom I worked over the years, Tracy apparently had no regular meditation
practice. From the time I spent with her in England, I got the impression that
she was a hard working, middle class homemaker, health conscious, concerned
about her children, with a kind of matter of fact approach to the contact work.
She clearly had no need for the elaborate contact procedures used by CSETI or
Mission Rama to facilitate encounters.
Nevertheless
the consciousness link between her and the non-human intelligence was
particularly strong. After we got to know one another better she shared with me
how she obtained some of her best daytime UFO videos at Lake Ontario. According
to Tracy it was her custom to drive out to a local shoreline campsite during
the afternoon. In broad daylight she
placed her camera on a tripod, pointed it towards the lake and started
recording. To my utter amazement she then lay down on the ground and quickly
went to sleep. Some of her most spectacular sequences apparently were filmed at
the campsite. It seemed to me that the UFOs had merrily paraded in front of her
camera without her having to do anything more than set up the camera and go to
sleep! She denied having any kind of direct telepathic instructions from non-human
intelligence to facilitate the filming process. Nevertheless the consciousness
link between her, and what I presume is Extraterrestrial intelligence, must
have been very strong.
Tracy’s
ability to obtain video documentation in this manner as well my three nights of
amazing sightings while working with her in England, in my judgment are
powerful examples of the intimate relationship between contactees and the
intelligence behind the UFO phenomena. I am grateful for having the opportunity
to work with such remarkable individuals who are an important part of the
worldwide contact drama unfolding all around us.
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