John A. Keel WHY UFOS

moving around—in the trees behind our house at night.But something keeps me from going near them."No one around Owatonna reported any of the extensiveUFO sightings to the Air Force. "We're all disgusted withthe government," Mrs. Butler declared. "We know they'djust tell us it was all swamp gas."There were airship sightings in Owatonna in 1897. Andin 1880, the home of a Mr. Dimant was plagued withpoltergeist-like activity. Explosions of undeterminedorigin took place in his house, the doorbell rang frequentlywhen no one was there, and so on. So perhaps this isolatedlittle community of 14,000 is of some special interest to themysterious ultraterrestrials.,Mrs. Butler's story may sound bizarre, but I have heardthe same things too many times in too many differentplaces to dismiss them lightly. In case after case, I haveheard about strange men who paid pointless visits andsometimes posed as Air Force officers. The descriptionsare always the same—slight of stature, dark olive skins,sharp pointed features. And most of these scatteredwitnesses specifically noticed that these men were dressedin clothes that seemed brand-new. Even the soles of theirshoes appear to be unwalked on. If they have occasion topull out a wallet or notebook, that also is brand-new.(Most men, even Air Force officers, carry beat-up oldwallets.) I have carefully kept many of these small details tomyself and have never published them or discussed them.They provide a yardstick by which I can measure thevalidity of new stories.The sudden, blinding headaches described by Mrs.Butler are also very common among percipients who havebeen involved in close sightings or actual contacts.Finally, there is the curious experience of her friend whowas seized by some kind of trance and parroted someoneelse's words. This, too, has happened far more frequentlythan one might imagine. But such stories rarely go very farbecause they are so weird and unbelievable. The phrase"What is your time cycle?" had special meaning to me. Ihad heard it before, from other percipients.In December, 1967, Tom Monteleone, a young student,a psychology major in Adelphi, Maryland, allegedly had acontact with a grounded UFO and conversed with a man in"shiny coveralls" who identified himself as "Vadig." A fewweeks later this same Vadig appeared in a Washingtonrestaurant, where the student was working as a waiter. This