Earth (5 page)

In 2010, Leo's only surviving daughter, Frances Dworshak Hankinson, provided a testimonial to this event for me:

“The only experience that I have had with UFOs is when Dad took me, my two sisters, and two of their friends over to Sappington Junction. It was late evening. He told us there was something he wanted us to see. He parked out in the middle of nowhere, and had us watch the sky for lights. It was getting late and darker and we wanted to go home. When we spotted lights
in the sky—to the best of my recollection the lights were auburn, green, and yellow—the lights were flashing but stationary. Dad flicked the headlights in their direction, and they repeated the same pattern back at him. He did this several times, then it was gone. I have never seen anything like it since.”
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One summer's evening in 1963, Leo was driving from Ennis to Sappington Junction when he spotted a craft in the process of landing in the foothills about six or seven miles off the main highway. He stopped the car to watch. Another car drew up and a couple got out and confirmed what Leo was seeing. He then asked the man to follow him, planning to drive as close as they could, then walk the remaining distance to the ship. The man refused, explaining that he'd experienced a close encounter with a craft in California which had alarmed him.

While driving through the same area on the evening of October 21, 1963, Leo decided to try to initiate another contact. At around 20:15, he parked his car and set off on what he guessed would be a very long walk to the landing site. Arriving in the vicinity, he could see the ship, parked down a rugged slope. “When I was about halfway down, I noticed the area around the spaceship was lit up with the soft, indirect light I remembered so well. I could see about six people moving about on the ground. As I came closer, I saw two of them were moving my way….”

The men greeted Leo enthusiastically in the same manner as before. They confirmed that they had monitored him, for instance, during his experience with the couple in the car. “You should have known, after all these years,” they said, “that most people will not believe you. But this time was different. This man knew of our existence. He had seen us before [but] had allowed his fear to convince him that we are a threat….”

On board the craft, sitting in the extraordinary chairs, a lengthy discussion ensued. Part of the information on board referred to attempts by our military to capture one of the aliens' ships.

“Your science and technology have advanced enough to pose a threat to our ships, as well as to the entire planet. If your military leaders continue their efforts to damage our ships, we will be forced to defend ourselves…. Our actions to protect and defend ourselves are governed by a simple principle: Anything that is thrown at us will be thrown back to its source.”

In this connection, Leo related to me that when he owned some petrol
stations in 1974, a man was filling up his car when another customer asked him about UFOs. Leo joined in the ensuing conversation, relating some of his own experiences. The customer—a recently retired Army colonel—revealed an incident that had occurred in the U.S. Southwest. “We had 240 guys out in the desert and we tried to shoot down a craft,” he said. “But they returned every shell back into the guns.”

“This man had just retired,” Leo told me. “He would not talk dates.” The colonel advised Leo not to reveal what he had said.
16

Barry Potter independently confirmed this story, adding that “the rounds fired reversed direction in flight and returned to the guns they were fired from, where apparently they exploded, killing troops on the ground.”
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Those soldiers had no choice; they were simply obeying orders. If true—and assuming this was the same group which contacted Leo—such an egregious retaliation would seem contrary to their declared ethics. Barry, however, emphasized that this was not quite the case. “Leo always maintained that the aliens' concern was with protecting and preserving the planet Earth,
not
mankind,” he told me. “He often hinted darkly that the aliens would not hesitate to sacrifice human life to defend their activities or to assure the survival of life on Earth.”
18

I should mention here that since the 1940s, a number of craft—evidently of different origin from those encountered by Leo—have successfully been shot down, resulting in the destruction of a large number of our aircraft by alien craft, as reported in my previous book.
19
“After we left the ship,” Leo continues in his book, “we sat on the ground for a while, all seven of us, looking up at the stars [and] talking about different things for perhaps another two hours.”

“I hope we will see you again,” said one of the men, as they bade Leo farewell. “It will be quite a while, though, because we are traveling back to our own galaxy. There will be another one of our spaceships traveling about your world, but they will make far fewer landings than we have. They will be more interested in what man is doing in outer space….”

“We separated then with very deep feelings,” wrote Leo, “and I started back for my car. Light was provided for me all the way back. I was about half a mile from the ship when I began to notice how warm the area around me seemed to be, although it had grown quite cold out. As I approached my car, I heard the motor running. I never understood how or why they
had started my car [but] it was nice and warm as I climbed into it….”

 

Leo Dworshak died in April 2007, aged eighty-six years.

In my meetings with him in Helena, Montana, and in subsequent communications, Leo came across as genuine—a “no-nonsense” man. I also learned that he was very well connected.

In his business dealings, Leo proved to be a formidable opponent, Barry Potter told me. “I consider being a rough opponent a positive character trait. His competitors saw this primarily in his behavior while estimating, bidding, and completing jobs, for which he often served as what we call a general contractor, overseeing several sub-contractors involved in the overall job. Leo did no advertising, relying upon word-of-mouth recommendations from his customers … his philosophy was to do many jobs with a lower profit margin rather than fewer jobs with a high margin, as was common among his competitors.”
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There is a wealth of additional information in Leo Dworshak's book. To conclude this chapter, the following is excerpted from the last two pages:

“If their intent is to eliminate humanity, I have no doubt the easiest course would be to step back and allow us to destroy ourselves. Yet they continue to return, year after year, century after century, and work very hard while they are here. We never saw them in the winter months when insects and plant life are dormant…. I think part of their work here was related to the study of how we were poisoning the environment in those times. I think they were analyzing the grasshoppers, which eat a large amount of foliage, for chemical poisons in our environment.

“I know they are very concerned about our nuclear and chemical weapons and our warlike nature. What a problem we must be for them, always threatening the health and safety of this beautiful planet, which is their responsibility to protect. The picture that comes to mind is a crowd of unruly children fighting and playing in a carefully tended garden with no regard for the problems they are causing for the gardener….”

Galactic
Guardians

N
ineteen-year-old Pierre Monnet lived in Orange (Vaucluse), France,
at the time of his first encounter with extraterrestrials. This occurred in the small hours one night in July 1951 while cycling home after a visit to his fiancée, who lived in the little village of Courthézon, eight kilometers from Orange—a fifteen- to twenty-minute journey he made twice a week, on the same days.

Monnet had the habit of checking the town clocks before leaving and on arrival, to compare his journey time. “That night was no exception,” he pointed out, “and after the normal check I got on my bike.” It was 01:30. But this time, something different happened—something that was to become increasingly common in abduction scenarios reported years later.

“I was astonished to find myself instantly transported five kilometers further on, at the entrance of a large, deep pit of sand and gravel, 10–15 meters from the side of the road. Between the road and the pit were a thick hedge, high undergrowth, and bushes.

“My mind felt blank. I was dazed. Then, like an automaton and as though I was being directed by an irresistible force, I followed the large gravel slope which led down to the right and further into the pit. I don't know why, but I got off my bike and continued on foot. I felt very tired and had the impression that my feet weren't touching the ground; but that was
only an impression. I was very calm and relaxed. Little by little, a kind of peace came over me.

“The further I went on, the more I had the feeling that one has when getting into water for the first time, up to one's shoulders; a gentle pressure on the lungs … and I was short of breath. Then, at a bend in the pit where I moved as though I knew exactly where I was going, I saw a luminescent light about sixty meters in front of me, behind a mound of earth.

“I kept on and then saw in front of me, fifteen meters away, floating between fifty and eighty centimeters above the ground, a disc fifteen to twenty meters in diameter, topped with a central bulge in the form of a dome. From top to bottom the machine must have been about three meters high. The disc pulsated with a white-silver-blueish light, clearly illuminating the walls of the pit ten meters away. This radiation seemed to radiate from the ‘soul' of the ‘metal' of which this strange machine was made, with a fascinating beauty [and] the metal seemed at the same time to be both material and ethereal, with constant inner movement—almost alive.

“As I came closer, I noticed that the surrounding noises had dimmed. When I was about six meters from the disc, I could no longer hear the noise of traffic [even at that time of night, there was still traffic, owing to the Festival]. As I approached, total silence fell. I could no longer hear the crickets or even the sound of my footsteps on the gravel. It was impressive. I felt great, amazed at what I was seeing….”

I should point out at this juncture that Monnet had no recourse to the Dworshak brothers' experiences, which were not published until 2003.

The Four Extraterrestrials

“Probably because I was so fascinated by the machine,” Monnet continued, “I had not noticed, in front of it and a little to the side as it still hovered above the ground, four extraterrestrial human beings in tight-fitting catsuits of shiny silver-gray metal which lit up an area of five meters around them. I was no more than a few meters away from them and I went calmly toward them. I was no longer aware of my body.

“Arriving three meters in front of these beings, I stopped and looked at them. They were barefoot. They were tall; they must have measured at least 1.85 meters [over six feet]. They were perfectly proportioned and
identical in build. Their hair was blond-white and reached almost to their shoulders. Their faces were beautiful and very refined. They had a light, frank, and gentle expression which I have never seen in Earth people. They were so beautiful, but at that moment I was not sure if they were men or women, since they did not have breasts. But after a brief while there was no doubt—they were certainly men. They gave an impression of great strength and they were built like athletes. Despite that, they were smiling and radiated calmness, gentleness, and goodness….

“They then raised their arms in my direction, almost horizontally, the palms of their hands turned upwards. They made this movement almost in unison, and in silence. I made a gentle movement backward: I wanted to escape, and shivered from head to toe. They made themselves clear to me without opening their mouths: I heard their thoughts very clearly in my head. It was extraordinarily precise and clear. Moreover, while admitting that in our language we have precise words capable of translating perfectly what was said during this contact—which I now describe as telepathic—the quantity of what was said to me in such a short time (I estimated about half an hour) could not be expressed in our language if we were to speak for eight hours a day for a year or two….”

The Message

“Given to me were not words but coded thoughts in the form of impulses, for which I could find no words of translation at the time, apart from a few isolated phrases that I could translate instantly,” claimed Monnet. “The realization of the concepts which were given to me that night did not become apparent to me until two years after my contact. Here are a few scattered phrases that I could understand immediately as they were ‘pronounced.'

“‘We want the best for all living beings, especially if they are not aggressive…. Do not come any closer to our vehicle. It is dangerous for human beings not in tune with its wavelength: the vibrations it emits would destroy the cells of your body.

“‘This meeting will cause you troubles which will affect your health; you will have nervous problems for a certain time, then that will pass. Later, our conversation will become clear and you will be able to let the people
of your planet know what we have told you … but take care not to allow your own concepts to interfere….

“‘You are not the only person on your planet to have spoken with us. Unfortunately, most people do not want to speak about us and the others are not believed…. Your life would not be long enough: for this reason, we propose to regenerate the cells of your body so that you will live the value of 120 human years…. We will carry out this regeneration inside our vehicle after our meeting, and forgive us that we think it necessary for you not to remember the operation.'

“Then,” said Monnet, “the beings stopped emitting their thoughts. I was so intent on receiving these that I hadn't noticed that an opening had appeared in front of the dome, wide enough to allow two men to enter. Inside was a white-orange light almost unbearable to look at. The four beings were there. Then—silence.

“Without saying good-bye, I turned, picked up my bike, and wheeled it back up the slope to the main road. Instantly, I was transported to the outskirts of Orange. I looked at my watch and was amazed to see that it was still 1.30
a.m.
I went to compare the time with the town hall clock, which read 1.35
a.m.
My watch also read 1.35
a.m.
For me, it was incredible. But what was more, I could not remember the journey of eight kilometers [five miles]: it seemed as if I had not traveled at all. Also, unusually, I was not tired or out of breath because of the journey. I hadn't noticed anything; not the headlights of passing cars, nor the passing countryside….”

Missing Time

“I had to rationalize it.
Time could not have passed
. Time had stopped during the journey and the meeting—which I thought had lasted about twenty minutes. If you take into account that normally I took twenty minutes to cover the whole distance, theoretically that made forty minutes unaccounted for. The thing seemed so fantastic that during the long days and sleepless nights that followed, I tried to work out what had really happened and posed myself all sorts of questions and proceeded to check it out from the beginning.

“First, checking the time of the two clocks and my watch, I made another
return journey between Orange and Courthézon. I noticed that the time on the three was exactly the same—the clock at Orange, the clock at Courthézon, and my watch. Not one of the three had stopped, gained, or lost time.

“Objectively, I thought that all this could have been a particularly vivid dream. To be certain that I did not dream again, that night I woke up my mother, inventing some excuse, in the hope that she would reprimand me. The following morning I was reprimanded. Now I had the proof that I had not been dreaming. In any case, I know the difference between a dream and reality….”

Monnet also rejected the hypotheses that he may have fallen asleep at some stage of the bicycle journey, or suffered from amnesia. Was his experience entirely subjective? Had the four aliens actually been there, in an objective sense? “To this question, I always reply that the four beings were certainly there in front of me, as large as life,” he insisted. “But on reflection, taking into account the fantastic scientific lead I know they have, my contact could have been only a perfect three-dimensional projection. This hypothesis is frightening and must bring home to us the psychic and scientific potential which they possess….

“Although I don't exactly remember exactly getting into the craft … after they had performed their ‘cellular regeneration' on me I did not feel at all different. Only this one thing raises a shadow of a doubt. But despite the fantastic aspect of this regenerating operation, certain details lead me to think they told the truth. For example, at the start of the telepathic contact, the craft had no opening; however, at the end of the contact, a large opening was there, on the right of the dome. While I was ‘listening' to their thoughts, I was perfectly aware of what I could see around me. I didn't see this opening appear, though through it shone a whitish-orange light which was unbearable to look at. Not one of the four extraterrestrials was absent during the contact … but the telepathic contact had stopped.

“Logically, all this would imply that I had momentarily lost consciousness; the opening appeared; I was transported inside and protected by some method or other against the deadly vibrations of the machine; the regeneration was carried out, and I regained consciousness in the same place where I had been before losing consciousness….”
1

According to investigator Jean-Pierre Troadec, a few years after this
encounter a man claimed to have seen the same, or a similar, craft, a few kilometers away. He did not know Monnet—who also told no one about his experience until 1962.
2

Monnet provided further information from the communications received during this initial contact. The aliens said they had the technology to travel faster than light in both galactic and intergalactic space. Their declared agenda: “To profit from the scientific discoveries they had made, with a view to perfecting their knowledge; to look after and protect those civilizations which had lost all wisdom and in so doing had released on their respective planets processes that are sometimes irreversible and which impact on other extraterrestrial civilizations; to educate developing worlds and assist them technologically.”
3

Subsequent Claims

After this adventure, Monnet went on to claim further experiences, including the sighting of a flying disc during his military service in Indo-China. And in France in June 1974, while paying for gas at a service station, he recognized two men filling their car (a new, metallic gray Renault 16) as either his original contacts or their doubles. The men imbued him with a sense of “exceptional well-being,” radiating “tranquility, power, peace, and love”—identical to that recounted by those involved in the Amicizia saga (Chapter 13). They gave him a penetrating look, transmitted a telepathic message, then departed.
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As with “follow-up” experiences asserted by many contactees, we run into apparent absurdities and contradictions. To his credit, however, Monnet acknowledged as much himself, and sought explanations.

While I was performing with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Orange Festival in July 1978, I interviewed Monnet at his home in Sorgues, together with my friend Ben Cruft (also a violinist with the orchestra). Monnet spoke with conviction about his earlier contact experience. A manuscript with which he presented me—subsequently incorporated into his first book—provides some interesting information.

Monnet claimed that the group that contacted him originated from “the star you call Vega [which] has fourteen planets, of which nine are inhabited.” He was informed that they had numerous bases within our solar
system—on Mars, our moon, on one of Jupiter's and on one of Saturn's moons—and a number of bases on Earth.

While my skepticism regarding much of the information later provided to Monnet endures, I am including the following, supposedly transmitted telepathically to him in July 1977, against the possibility that some important data may be contained therein. We must bear in mind that Monnet, a factory worker with but a scant knowledge of scientific matters, may well have misinterpreted some of the technical data:

“The surface bases we have introduced on your planet are protected from sight by a powerful magnetic field acting on the molecules of a layer of surrounding air covering the places where the bases are constructed. The principle of this magnetic process is based on bending the molecules of air and taking the form of prisms to avoid the source of light. This process renders invisible every object which isn't naturally compatible with the place, and renders it invisible in the range of this magnetic field. In parallel with that, we give out a wavelength acting on a precise part of the brain of the occasional person who approaches our installations. Our bases on your planet cannot be seen even from a height, remaining unnoticed by your aerial photographers….”
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