April 20, 2023 • 43 mins
The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence can be dated all the way back to the late 1800s, but people have been asking if we are alone in the universe for much longer than that. John Shepherd began his mission to "contact aliens" in the spring of 1972.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
High Strange is released weekly every Thursday, brought to you
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plus subscribers. You'll also get exclusive bonus episodes throughout the season.
For more information, check out the show notes. Enjoy the episode.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
The heart of Projects Strat is the broadcast operation. There
are sixty thousand volts running through his basement, powering a
signal that's been straight out into space. The possibility that
something out there might hear and perhaps respond, keeps John going.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Sending out a signal, trying out a lure, trying to
get more information by luring the men close enough to
get accurate electronic measurements. Contacted our local sheriffs department. They
(01:05):
sent out a deputy. I showed them on the soil
skull screen what was coming on? There shouldn't be that
other frequency in there.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
That's not part of it.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Something caused that amount of energy.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I think something was attractive.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Welcome the High Strange.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
There is nothing wrong with your television sector. You are
about to participate in a great adventure. You are about
to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the
inner mind to the outer limits.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
The series of the Outer Limits back in sixty five
sixty seven, the pilot episode called the Galaxy Being This
the most incredible episode to spark your imagination. Top ten
tunes brought to you by your boy buddy two oh
on your radio dial. The guy worked at the radio
station as at Tech. There's a transmitter shed back of
(02:15):
the station.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
My name is Alan Maxwell.
Speaker 7 (02:18):
I am transmitting from a station on the third planet
in the Solar System.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
He had to set up to send signals through the
galaxy in the deep space.
Speaker 7 (02:28):
I am scanning the microwaves coming from somewhere beyond the
constellation of Vegasus.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
And had this big glass chamber.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
You'd see these a psiloscope images and then you'd start
to hear a voice come.
Speaker 6 (02:41):
Through planets beyond said pools.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Its ghostly being with spots all over it that would
appear inside this glass chamber.
Speaker 8 (02:51):
You must explore, you must reach out.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
I thought, what a great idea.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Is the power of a radio station to reach out
beyond the Earth in.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
The space to see if there's something out there.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
We now returned control of your television set to you
until next week. At the same time when the control
voice will take you to the outer limits.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
It was all science fiction up that point in time,
but that really set my mind a blaze. I was
working as a kid in a camera shop, and they
couldn't resist going to military surplus places in Detroit and
getting parts to build things. Learn how to look circuits
together and meters and get lights of flash and things
(03:38):
like that. I'd love to electronics. I love building big systems,
making it all work, figuring out how to solve the
technical problems to make these things work.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
What were you building, did you know or were you
just going to explore.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Or trying to duplicate that transmitter? I think in my
back of my mind wasn't long before I was building
more sophisticated equipment machines that could do something right. Around
seventy three, in northern Michigan, there's starting to be UFO reports,
all kinds of unidentified lights in the sky, objects, things
(04:14):
coming down and hovering.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
It was really weird.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I got to see some of the sheriff's supports in
the Antre County Sheriff's Department, and they were interesting. I
heard a tape interview they did with a fellow and
was pretty intense.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
The thing came.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Down hovered right over the roadway between Shandy Creek and
Shush Mountain. It caused his electrical systemized truck to fail.
During that time, I started thinking more about building some
equipment to could send signals out into space. It wasn't
long before I built the first transmitter. It was a
(04:50):
high boldage output had a vertical direction so it would
point up into the sky. Started in my bedroom and
then it filled that Flora Saly started building bigger equipment,
much larger and much more power.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
It got pretty big.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Four hundred pound transformers and big converters and bullege regulators
to story high one hundred and fifty thousand banks at
power amps to produce the power the frequency of audio.
To get a signal out for a greater distance, throwing
out a lure seven to a signal, try and attract
(05:27):
the intelligences behind these aerial craft, trying to lower them
in to get a closer look at them.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
That signal may be picked up.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
There's a possibility that they could detect it, and that
possibility is there, It's worth trying trying to get more
information by luring the men close enough to get accurate
electronic measurements, some hard data, something on instruments, data to learn.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
That's what projects travels.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Inspired by science fiction, John Shepper was determined to send
a signal into the universe and make contact with alien life.
John showed me an old photo album of all of
his enormous machines. By the way, you could tell, the
process he went through to build it all was truly
a massive undertaking literally hundreds of switches, knobs and cables,
(06:23):
different screens measuring signals. It looked like a Steven Spielberg
movie set, except it was all real. He named the
operation Project Strat, and when the neighbors caught win of
his colossal homemade laboratory, the local news that has bought
light piece on him. Everyone around him, like me today,
was fascinated by it all.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
The heart of Project Stratt is the broadcast operation. There
are sixty thousand volts running through his basement, powering a
signal that's being straight out into space. Every day, John
beams two signals out into space, one a digital pulset
cook and the other a live radio show.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Project STRAT, which stamps for Special Gelemetry Research and Tracking,
which is an acronym for the technology and what we
were trying to do. I took music and put it
through huge power amps, very clean power amps that have
a lot of power, eight to twelve hours a day
of music broadcast, sending out something of our culture to
see if it would attract them closer to where I
(07:25):
was doing.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
This from.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
John's broadcast operation bore a striking resemblance to Nicola Tesla
in eighteen ninety six. Tesla, one of history's most famous inventors,
also where Elon got the name from, was doing his
own high voltage experiments in the late eighteen hundreds. He
made large power transmission towers that could produce artificial lightning
and monitored signals in space. Tesla once wrote in his diary, quote,
(07:54):
my first observations positively terrified me, as there was present
in them something mysterious. The feeling is constantly growing on
me that I've been the first to hear the greeting
from one planet to another. He firmly believed that he
made contact of his own with something else out there
in the universe. In nineteen seventy two, at the height
(08:16):
of John's operation in rural Michigan, all of a sudden,
there was a series of strange sightings in the sky
throughout the entire state. Reports were piling in to local
police departments of flying saucers. Simultaneously, John's machine began picking
up frequencies that were not normal at all.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
They were getting reports at that time of objects in
the area detected electromagnetic sturbances coming in over the power
lines that were never there before. Contacted our local sheriff's department.
They signed out a deputy. I showed him on the
Soell scope screen what was coming on. Kind have a
(08:57):
sixty per frequency there, and then you have something like
one twenty fading in and fading out over the top
of that. It shouldn't be getting one hundred and twenty
one hundred and seventy hertz that strong when you're running
a sixty artz system. There shouldn't be that other frequency
in there. That's not part of it, doesn't belong there,
(09:19):
simple as that. Something had to cause it, because it's
normally not there. It just doesn't appear out of nowhere.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
So what theoretically could be causing that.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
The thing I thought it might have been was UFOs
in the area of one or two of whatever.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
I don't know how many were there the.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Magnetic fields emitted by these craft moving over power lines
inducing that magnetic field, and the instruments were picking it up.
Had to be something that caused that amount of energy.
It was circumstantial. Sure, can't prove it, but it was
occurring simultaneously of objects in there. So we add two
(10:01):
and two together, maybe you get four. I think something
was attractive.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Did John really attract some aliens that night? Did he
finally accomplish his goal? John himself seems to think so.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Humans they are great explorers the curiosity. You want to
explore what's below the ocean, what's up in the sky,
what's at the top of that mountain over there. You
have to keep an open mind. We propagate the species, propagate.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Look at the Earth. How many forms of life there are?
It's infinite.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
That infinity in the size of the universe, and the
galaxy is in it, and all the worlds that are
in there. The possibility life, some kind of life astronomical,
the possibility is there.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Keep an open mind here.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
If we think we're the only things in this whole
huge galaxy or universe, oh it's a big waste of space.
It would seem kind of strange. We can't be the
only ones, and the more you search, you may end
up with more questions and answers. But what answers you
do get are going to open your horizons of knowledge,
(11:29):
and knowledge is an important.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
Thing for us.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
All the whole time we were talking with John, we
were surrounded by all kinds of fun synthesizers and different
musical instruments. So I asked if you could show us
around a bit and maybe play something for us.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
It's amazing what you can do with synthesizers.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
That's all kinds of effects.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Space music. The sound seem to come from all around
us in the room.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
That is a real dream machine for creating totally exotic sounds.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
And you want to go exotic, you work with one
of those.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
As I'm hearing this strange music, I can see shelves
upon shelves of books about aliens, old pictures of John,
and magazines. Not to mention, the speakers themselves also looked
like aliens.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Sound cells is the name I gave them, But they're
handmade and they're made with two by ten wood, but
inside I put high power, really good quality ten inch wolfers.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
He played us some of his original music which he
has uploaded to band camp. You can check it out
yourself at John Scott Shephard dot bandcamp dot com. I
also put the link in the episode description, Oh my
husband's home high honey sound band, I think in here
where we're here nerding out over?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Oh, it's been so much fun, the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Unfortunately, for financial reasons, John eventually had to dismantle his operation,
putting most of his old equipment in storage. But five
years later, in nineteen seventy seven, someone else received the
same puzzling frequencies that John did. The Ohio State University
Radio Observatory, also known as Big EAR, received a strange
signal of their own. One day, an astronomer was reviewing
(13:28):
the computer printouts when they noticed a loud two minute
transmission that was extremely powerful, So powerful that he circled
the readout in red pen and wrote wow. And it's
now known as the Wow signal. Nice. Ohio State University
ultimately determined the signal was not from a satellite, any
military craft, commercial aircraft, or broadcast stations, just a weird,
(13:52):
loud signal from deep space that remains unexplained to this day.
The UFO topic has clearly attracted a wide array of
interesting people over the years because it sits right on
the friends of real world science and flat out conspiracy theory.
(14:15):
The range of eclectic characters you get with this subject
is absolutely fascinating. After a meeting with John Shephard, I
felt compelled to go down this road a little further
and explore the lives of other interesting people in this realm.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Just how weird does it get?
Speaker 6 (14:37):
You?
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Guys? Tell me if he bites me? Okay?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (14:41):
Why?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
That is a big ass alligator and that is not
a sound effect.
Speaker 9 (14:49):
People think alligators are dumb, but they're actually one of
the smartest animals.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
It's actually the same alligator from the Adam Sandler movie
Happy Gilmour, the one that bit Chubb's handoff.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
I peach ups.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
You could actually come in here and pet him and
he wouldn't mind.
Speaker 9 (15:05):
But he remembers the days when I used to catch
him to move.
Speaker 10 (15:08):
Him around or at a cold.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
I am a con him in eight years. But he
holds a drout.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
You remember Scota go boy?
Speaker 8 (15:17):
Yeah you.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Oh boy?
Speaker 6 (15:21):
Yeah, as you are.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
If you were to drop me here randomly with no context,
I would never in a million years think that I
was here to talk about UFOs.
Speaker 9 (15:36):
We are in the mystic San Luis Valley.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
This is Jay Young, the one who tricked me into
getting way too close to that alligator.
Speaker 9 (15:43):
The San Luis Valley is eight thousand square miles, which
is roughly the size of Massachusetts. This place is known
as Colorado Gator's Reptile Park. It was begun in nineteen
seventy seven as a tilapia farm by my parents are
Winning then Young. What makes it possible is access to
geothermal water. We got some alligators to be garbage disposals
(16:04):
for the fish in nineteen eighty seven. They got big.
People wanted to see them. So now we're a tourist
attraction that does animal education.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
And animal rescue.
Speaker 9 (16:12):
Surrounded by fourteen thousand foot peaks, it is the largest
alpine valley in the world, and it is now known
as the Mystic Sandlos Valley because it's a mystic place.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I'm here in southern Colorado because for literally thousands of
years there have been more reports of unidentified flying objects
than almost any other place in the country.
Speaker 9 (16:34):
This valley has had so many sidings, there's been books
written about it, and I've had half a dozen unexplained sidings,
or more myself. All the experiences I've had have been different.
Strange things happen and I can't explain them.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
For whatever reason, this seems to be a UFO hotspot.
Maybe it's the good weed out here, or maybe the
sky's just more open and you can actually see th.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
I was a big skeptic. I didn't believe much.
Speaker 9 (17:05):
It was always easily explained. Until I was about twenty
five years old, there was no earthly explanation for what
we saw. Cliff and I were driving to Alamosa from
the Alligator Farm off to the west, over the San
Juan Mountains. There we saw these strange silver objects, giant
(17:25):
silver needles, floating in the sky, parallel to each other,
but not perpendicular to the earth. You see right there,
see those mountains. That peak is over seven thousand feet
taller than where we are. These silver objects were almost
as tall as the mountains, so they were about five
thousand feet tall, and as the sun went down, they
(17:47):
descended down, and had they been made out of metal,
they would have hit the mountain and stopped and fallen
over or something like that. They just disappeared into the mountain.
It was like some weird refraction of light to another
dimension or something.
Speaker 8 (18:02):
I don't know.
Speaker 9 (18:03):
I never even heard of anything like that before. After that,
I was more open to believing things and not being
as much of a skeptic.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
It opened up the.
Speaker 9 (18:13):
Possibility that there's a lot out there that we don't understand.
You just have to take it with a grain of salt.
You weren't there, you didn't experience it. You might not
believe me because you didn't see what I saw.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
I know what I saw.
Speaker 9 (18:27):
The older you get, the more you realize that you
didn't know anything, and now you know less than nothing.
We know more about the surface of the Moon than
we do the bottom of the ocean. We're finding new
species of animals all the time. We know so little
about our own planet. It's just inconceivable to think that
(18:51):
we know what's out there beyond our planet. It's just
ludicrous to think that we're the only intelligence species in
the universe. Did we even consider ourselves intelligent? I try
to keep an open mind. I'm a skeptic, I guess
even now, but I know there's things I've seen that
(19:13):
are not explainable through any conventional means. Most sightings are explainable,
but not all of them are. This valley has had
so many sightings Judy built a UFO watchtower here.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
The real reason I came all the way out to
the Mystic Valley of Colorado is to visit their world
famous UFO watchtower. This is the UFO Watchtower, about a
five minutes drive down the street. Is a metal, two
story structure made simply for viewing the sky. The watchtower
(20:01):
has a complete three sixty view of the valley. If
you followed my other podcasts, you might remember I came
here for a brief moment in twenty nineteen during Up
and Vanas season two, Crystal Anne Risinger went missing from
the small town of Crestone, about fifteen minutes from here.
Speaker 11 (20:17):
We've had sightings during the day as well as at night.
Everybody thinks it has to be at night, and it doesn't.
If you look up, you're going to see something bizarre.
It's just that simple. My name is Judy mess Line.
I moved to the valley to raise cattle and horses,
(20:38):
but from the time we had moved here, all we
heard were UFO stories from the locals. They've had documented
sightings in this valley since the fifteen hundreds. One of
the farmers was in one day and he said, you
know what, Judy, you need to put up that UFO watchtower.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
You've giggled about it.
Speaker 11 (21:00):
You'd have fun. Well, I've had twenty two years worth
of fun.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
I mean it is fun.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
The size of the sky compared to the watchtower in
this valley, surrounded by fourteen thousand foot mountains, really puts
some perspective how small we are.
Speaker 11 (21:19):
The best idea I had in this world was putting
this up because I've gotten to meet so many neat people,
and most of the folks who come in here are
open minded.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Can you recall your first UFO sighting?
Speaker 11 (21:37):
Yes, it was between here and the mountains in part
way down I called a cigar shaped. It was narrow
and really long, and it went zip like that. That
was eleven o'clock at night. We had over a dozen
people here. Everybody saw it.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
What was it?
Speaker 11 (21:57):
That's what we keep saying, What the heck was it?
I myself have seen thirty There's some people you know
that are really skeptical.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
I don't blame them.
Speaker 11 (22:08):
I mean, unless you've seen something yourself, it's hard to
believe that something is going on. There's people who think.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
That we are it.
Speaker 11 (22:20):
Well, if we are, that's a sad state of affairs.
We can't just be it. There has to be life
someplace else. It says in the Bible that God made
the heavens and the earth. Well, if he made us,
he definitely made them. After having this open for a
(22:42):
month and hardly anybody came, and you know, I'd done
over two hundred and fifty radio interviews before opening, expecting
the cars to be lined up to come in here,
well they weren't. So I got out front here one
day and I just yelled, all all right, you guys,
this was your big idea. I need help. I need
(23:05):
at least one hundred dollars a day. From that day forward,
I did one hundred a day. When the Psyche started coming,
they said that we needed to put in the garden
for a place for people to go sit, relax and meditate.
(23:25):
Then folks started heading to it, and now we've got
thousands of things out there.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
So what kinds of things do people lead in this garden?
Whatever is in their car?
Speaker 11 (23:39):
I can't believe what people pull out of their cars,
Like that stove door from you see it there it's
an antique off of.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
A wood burning stove.
Speaker 11 (23:52):
You know, there's stories with some of this stuff. Some
young people who came in and said, our mother totally
believed in UFOs and aliens. She was killed in a
motorcycle accident. We're leaving a motorcycle helmet in the garden.
I've got another guy. He was in yesterday or day before, anyway,
(24:14):
he left the ashes from his dog. Lots of folks
come and leave ashes from their loved ones. There's been
so many people who have benefited from this garden, and
I have people who come just to ask for help here.
There was a fellow that I knew over in Colorado Springs.
(24:36):
He called me and he said, do you remember this
Hispanic lady coming there with her family. I remembered. They
helped her get out of the car. She could hardly
even walk, and they took her out here and put
her on the bench over here, and they were there
for a long time, and it was like they were praying,
(24:56):
you know. And he said, well, she swears to God
that your garden healed her cancer. And I said, Hallelujah,
praise the Lord, because I certainly hope that's what happened.
People believe in this garden, they really do, and they
most of them take it serious, you know, which is good.
(25:20):
I'm glad. The extraterrestrials as a whole have some healing powers.
If people would just open themselves up with love, they'd
find out them.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Love is the whole key.
Speaker 11 (25:35):
And when you see a UFO, you should send love
and light to them to let them know that they
are welcome. They say that it's a portal to a
parallel universe and it's full of energy, and these are
energy for Texas. We've got two of them out front here.
So if you need any type of help in your life,
(25:56):
you're to go in the garden and ask for it.
The psychics told me that the Palladians are here to
protect the entrances to the vortexas the Pladians, they'll help,
and they're extraterrestrial, and they say that this whole place
here is protected by the Pladians. I believe that. I
(26:19):
totally believe it because we haven't had anything really bad
happen here. I've had some statues stolen, but that's kids.
So I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
Have you ever seen an alien.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Now just didn't.
Speaker 11 (26:39):
In my head, I kind of picture what it looked like. Yeah,
you know, I do believe that they are here. I
really do. And we can't see them there in another dimension,
but I feel that they are here protecting good. I
need protection.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
So if I wanted to walk into the garden today
and ask for some sort of healing, how would I
do that?
Speaker 11 (27:09):
You just go in there and ask. It's just that simple.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
All right, Let's see what this garden can do.
Speaker 11 (27:18):
People leave things out here to get their energy here
as well, because they are energy vortex as. I even
have folks who come and lay down in the garden
to soak up the energy. And it's funny. In one
area over here, when you lay down, it feels like
you're getting pulled down, kind of crazy. That's right over here.
(27:43):
That's where the compass goes nuts. You can stand here
and the compass says that north is where north is
supposed to be, and you move over there and north
goes east.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
I regret to admit that unfortunately I do not own
a compass, but my iPhone as one. Maybe it's not
the most scientifically accurate way to measure this, but let's
just entertain.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
It for a second.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Okay, compass app is open. It's like, this is north,
which seems to be correct.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
I pulled out the compass apps walker, stood still and
turned slowly until it.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Locked into North. Still says North. As I crept.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Forward in a straight line, keeping the compass aligned with North,
the arrow would start spinning around.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
North is like shifting.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
I reset and did it several times until I found
the precise point where it seemed to all go haywire.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
I've not moved my phone at all, and it's saying
North is this way.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
For whatever reason, when you stepped into this specific spot
would start spinning around.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
It's right and here weird.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
I'll be honest, I have no clue what this means,
but it was a fun little experiment.
Speaker 12 (29:13):
There's just this range of attitudes towards this. I think
you're going to always have that. I think there are
people that will never believe it because they don't want
to believe it no matter what.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
You tell them. Here's investigative journalist Leslie Kane.
Speaker 12 (29:29):
There's all kinds of reasons that people will not believe it.
And then there's all these true believers who have been
believing things for seventy years that we have no way
of proving just absolute true believers on the opposite side
of the spectrum who just want to believe everything be
nice if there was this sort of steady center, which
we have more of now than we did before twenty seventeen,
(29:49):
for sure, And I think the more that comes out,
the more people will be drawn to that because they'll
be willing to accept official scientific data. There are plenty
of people that don't. I mean, there are people that
don't accept data, such as who won the election. You know,
people can just choose what they want to believe and
don't believe. I'm not a psychologist, but I think fear,
(30:09):
perhaps if they're really really frightened of what this might mean,
it's too much of a threat to their psychology or
their religion or their way of looking at the world.
Probably that's what underlies it all, is some kind of
fear of it. People's belief systems, their whole identity is
tied up with their belief system.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
In a world already so polarized, how is anyone going
to be convinced what's true and what's not anymore? And
I mean, seriously, what does it actually take a part
of me honestly feels like at this point, an actual,
literal alien spaceship could land on the White House lawn,
little green men stepping out and shaking their President's hand
on live national television, and that still wouldn't do it
(30:53):
For some people. And I'm not even saying they're wrong
in thinking that way. That would be a little suspicious.
But my point is, even if something that insane happened,
as a society, we'd probably still be split on it,
those who believe that what they're seeing is real and
true and those who think it's all part of some
bigger conspiracy. For some of us out there, even when
(31:15):
shown the evidence of anything, it still isn't enough. The
only way to really convince anybody of anything in twenty
twenty three is to experience something firsthand yourself.
Speaker 8 (31:28):
People have belief systems when it comes to usos.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Here's Politico journalist Brian Bender.
Speaker 8 (31:35):
Very difficult to change their minds. I found that when
I went to Roswell, I had never been to Roswell,
and it's like going to like a religious festival. It's
not religion in the way we think that people innately
believe certain things, and no matter how much you'd say, well, hey,
what about this, keep an open mind. It's like, now
the government has alien bodies and they're in Area fifty one,
(31:56):
and you can't tell me otherwise.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
I'm innately curious about the world around us.
Speaker 8 (32:02):
I mean, we've been exploring our own planet pretty much
since the beginning. It's only natural that we started thinking about, well,
what else is out there? It's our DNA. It is
that thing that we see in the night that we
can't explain, maybe from some other place. And I think
our popular culture reflects our DNA, but then also takes
it up a level. A lot of us are conditioned
(32:23):
to believe things that aren't really objectively provable, yet we
believe them anyway.
Speaker 5 (32:29):
But that's true of religion too, right.
Speaker 8 (32:32):
I mean, a lot of people are religious and they
believe in things that you can't see or feel or understand. Necessarily.
This problem that I think exists in the world, but
it exists in the UFO world even more, which is,
for lack of a better term, Charlatan's who purposely put
out misleading, fake stuff.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Just to get a rise, just to get clicks.
Speaker 8 (32:53):
A lot of them are just out to sort of
make a buck, and they don't really care about the
facts what's true. That just makes it all that much
harder for the people that really want to try and
get some answers. What is a good case, what is not,
what's made up? What's maybe half true but the other
half is kind of taken on a life of a tone.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
The topic of UFOs is so nuanced today, more so
than ever, we have the tendency to boil it down
to something so black and white. I believe or I
don't believe, And until any of us have an experience
of our own that challenges what we know, understand, or
believe in, it's going to be hard for a lot
of us to get there. Trying to siphon the credible
(33:33):
stories from the deep muddy waters of the UFO subject
is incredibly hard, and trust me, I've been doing it
myself now for over a year and it hasn't gotten
any easier. You don't have to go far on the
Internet to find people who claim they've seen aliens up
close in person in the sky or on the side
of the road, usually at night, in a.
Speaker 5 (33:53):
Grainy, flip foam video.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Even though it's twenty twenty three and it would be
stupid to just blindly believe everything you see and read
all the time, right, But for the ones that have
the most evidence of something truly strange happening, accounts from
otherwise seemingly ordinary people, you can't just immediately shoot those
down either. For me, one of the general rules of
(34:15):
thumb is the amount of people who saw it who
weren't on drugs, leaving a grateful dead concert. A large
group of people who actually saw the same exact thing
as a journalist, to me, that's a story. It's something
to investigate. Do their eyewitness accounts add up? Is the
timing the same? Do they have physical proof of what
they saw? Imagine a valley full of people all seeing
(34:38):
a huge spacecraft flying over Phoenix, Arizona, their phones and
cameras all capturing the same thing, A bright, colossal craft
just floating there in the sky. Sometimes fact is stranger
than fiction. The Phoenix Light this is nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 8 (34:58):
Over the course of much of the day, thousands and thousands.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
Of people claimed to have seen the same thing.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Witnesses first part of the craft in Nevada at seven
to fifty five pm that night, Then twenty minutes later,
a former police officer reported seeing it over two hundred
miles southeast and from there the calls around Phoenix started
rolling in.
Speaker 8 (35:22):
A lot of the testimony is similar at very dark,
triangular shaped craft with lights along it, very large, totally quiet,
made no noise, and no seeming engines or propulsion system.
The governor of Arizona saw it and was willing to
talk about it.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
The Governor of Arizona held a press conference about it.
He actually brought out one of his aids in an
alien costume, making light of the situation. But a decade
later even he said on CNN that he actually believes
it was quote some form of alien spacecraft. Something strange
happened in the sky over Arizona that still hasn't been
fully explained, and in reality, we may never know exactly
(36:05):
what happened that night.
Speaker 8 (36:06):
America West pilots flying into Phoenix Airport, Man, nothing is huge.
What the hell is that I could land on it?
Speaker 1 (36:12):
There's these lights, six lights and the shape of a
triangle right over the airport.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
The actor Kurt Russell.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
According to him, he was about a half mile from
landing his plane when his son asked him what these
strange lights were in the sky. Russell looked over and
saw six bright lights in a V shape coming his direction.
He called the tower to report it, and they responded
saying they saw nothing on their radar.
Speaker 8 (36:39):
Evidence is not proof, right, It's just more data, it's
more facts. But I think the more they pile up
and the more they match. I think the question of
evidence is at the heart of all of this audio video.
Talking about it in national security terms, not talking about
it in science fiction terms. As a journalist, I'm always
(37:01):
interested in what did they say the day they saw it.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
One of the most credible accounts of a UFO siding
I found actually happened in more recent history. This particular
incident was recorded live as it was happening in December
of nineteen ninety four. The accounts of dozens of witnesses,
most of which police officers, were captured on tape at
(37:34):
the nine one one Dispatch Center in Trumbull County, Ohio.
Through Fouer requests, I've been able to obtain the actual
tape from that night.
Speaker 11 (37:42):
Can I dispatched my health?
Speaker 6 (37:44):
Okay?
Speaker 9 (37:44):
Who she is?
Speaker 7 (37:45):
I mean?
Speaker 5 (37:45):
I got a first view where I'm asked. I just
can't quite make it astromize an ocular. I came down
it just duped over it with a big glowing object.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Roy Anne Randolph was working as the nine one one
dispatcher that night.
Speaker 13 (38:00):
We started getting a couple of phone calls about people
who were seeing a light in the sky. Then the
calls became more and more frequent.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
For hours, she was fielding chaotic calls from residents and
police officers throughout the entire county.
Speaker 13 (38:15):
I where a guy orror called in on an unidentified
object ever liberty or.
Speaker 11 (38:20):
Call I for all on an unidentified flying objecting basketball.
Speaker 5 (38:24):
Gas fucker has not moved.
Speaker 10 (38:26):
He could find like up in the air, falling and
getting hurt their way from me, I couldee a red
glow up the guy.
Speaker 11 (38:32):
With huge I heard about ten other people were to
go swearing up and now they hat UFO.
Speaker 8 (38:39):
Thought there I watched it. That haven't gone any direction
since I.
Speaker 13 (38:43):
Haven't watched it, And all of a sudden other police
units in the general vicinity start seeing it.
Speaker 5 (38:52):
Well, watching it right through the pasty field.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
You're kis turned to But what did you really think
it was?
Speaker 9 (38:58):
I don't know any AIRMENY came a convict he whatever
hate the pig, and I could pet.
Speaker 7 (39:05):
I put the avenue on the other pride.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
I couldn't like.
Speaker 5 (39:08):
Fop in that air.
Speaker 13 (39:10):
These are seasoned police officers, fifteen year officers, people who
have great credibility, and now they're seeing some things. I
would like to think it could have been something from
the air base.
Speaker 4 (39:22):
Do you know if anything that should be in our
air bake at times of.
Speaker 6 (39:25):
The ground Look at the fred belt, But no, I
go like from my own diameter or a young knocking out.
Speaker 5 (39:32):
There oat O create through mis on oscular but I
can't quite make it out. His favorite color from white,
the red, the green. There's colors of plants, pile fuck
that has not loved.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
One officer in particular was dispatched to be first on
the scene.
Speaker 10 (39:52):
As I was en wrapped, five or six calls start
coming in.
Speaker 14 (39:55):
By a huge light in the sky. I was at
a stop sign. A big beam of light came upon
my vehicle.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
All at once.
Speaker 14 (40:09):
My car, shut off, my computer, my radio. I saw
a huge light in the sky just hit in my car.
I had no idea what it was. I slammed my
car in the park, got out of the car.
Speaker 10 (40:31):
There was no sound. I couldn't hear anything. It lit
this whole street up, discovering there no sound.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
Oh my god, I hope that's Applian for you.
Speaker 10 (40:48):
Oh Gie, I please you Appliant Hall, please find You're ready.
Speaker 8 (40:51):
For this ship.
Speaker 5 (40:54):
Space Wait, that's your name? Inhabitat lit smoke Weed play,
did take a lean It she been on g This
is a bean bag. I've been going Gene because a
cool right now. She was over penning up.
Speaker 9 (41:14):
I've been talking Yo Japan in the bends of super
T shirt sleeve, budding top turn of vert riding.
Speaker 5 (41:19):
Then you whether you gotta bend down and saying the parapet.
We's been a doncom and good sweaters. John Na and
nine helped. It was boom out of guys, we are
not a devil.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
High Strange is an eight part series released weekly for
free every Thursday, But if you'd like to bene the
whole series right now, you can subscribe to Tenderfoot plus
on Apple Podcasts to get all the episodes right now.
Follow the show on TikTok and Instagram at high Strange,
and you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at
Payne Lindsay. If you have your own UFO story, email
(41:53):
us at tips at high strange dot com.
Speaker 5 (41:58):
High Strange.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
It's a production by Tenderfoot TV in association with Cadence thirteen, created,
hosted and edited by myself, Payne Lindsay. Executive producers are
myself and Donald Albright. Editing by Mike Rooney, Cooper Skinner
and myself. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set, Sound design,
mixing and mastering by Cooper Skinner. Additional production by Mike Rooney,
(42:22):
Dylan Harrington, Eric Quintana, Sean Nurney, Meredith Stedman, and Sidney Evans.
Speaker 5 (42:28):
Our cover art is by Polygon.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
This episode features the song space Cadet by metro Booman
featuring Gunna, written by Wesley tyre Glass, Sergio Kitchens, Leland Tyler,
Wayne Alan Ritter, and Jack Queis Webster, performed by metro
Booman featuring Gunna courtesy of Republic Records under license from
Universal Music Enterprises for metro Booman in three hundred Entertainment
for Gunna. Special thanks to Orrin Rosenbaum and the whole
(42:53):
team at UTA, the Nord Group, Station sixteen, Beck Media
and Marketing, as well as Chris Corcoran and the team
at Cadence thirteen. Check out the show's website at Highstrange
dot com and if you're enjoying the show, please help
us out by rating and reviewing the podcast and share
it with your friends.
Speaker 5 (43:12):
Thanks for listening.
High Strange is released weekly every Thursday, brought to you
absolutely free, but if you want to bene the whole season,
it's available right now on Apple Podcasts for all Tenderfoot
plus subscribers. You'll also get exclusive bonus episodes throughout the season.
For more information, check out the show notes. Enjoy the episode.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
The heart of Projects Strat is the broadcast operation. There
are sixty thousand volts running through his basement, powering a
signal that's been straight out into space. The possibility that
something out there might hear and perhaps respond, keeps John going.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Sending out a signal, trying out a lure, trying to
get more information by luring the men close enough to
get accurate electronic measurements. Contacted our local sheriffs department. They
(01:05):
sent out a deputy. I showed them on the soil
skull screen what was coming on? There shouldn't be that
other frequency in there.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
That's not part of it.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Something caused that amount of energy.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I think something was attractive.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Welcome the High Strange.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
There is nothing wrong with your television sector. You are
about to participate in a great adventure. You are about
to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the
inner mind to the outer limits.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
The series of the Outer Limits back in sixty five
sixty seven, the pilot episode called the Galaxy Being This
the most incredible episode to spark your imagination. Top ten
tunes brought to you by your boy buddy two oh
on your radio dial. The guy worked at the radio
station as at Tech. There's a transmitter shed back of
(02:15):
the station.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
My name is Alan Maxwell.
Speaker 7 (02:18):
I am transmitting from a station on the third planet
in the Solar System.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
He had to set up to send signals through the
galaxy in the deep space.
Speaker 7 (02:28):
I am scanning the microwaves coming from somewhere beyond the
constellation of Vegasus.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
And had this big glass chamber.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
You'd see these a psiloscope images and then you'd start
to hear a voice come.
Speaker 6 (02:41):
Through planets beyond said pools.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Its ghostly being with spots all over it that would
appear inside this glass chamber.
Speaker 8 (02:51):
You must explore, you must reach out.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
I thought, what a great idea.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Is the power of a radio station to reach out
beyond the Earth in.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
The space to see if there's something out there.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
We now returned control of your television set to you
until next week. At the same time when the control
voice will take you to the outer limits.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
It was all science fiction up that point in time,
but that really set my mind a blaze. I was
working as a kid in a camera shop, and they
couldn't resist going to military surplus places in Detroit and
getting parts to build things. Learn how to look circuits
together and meters and get lights of flash and things
(03:38):
like that. I'd love to electronics. I love building big systems,
making it all work, figuring out how to solve the
technical problems to make these things work.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
What were you building, did you know or were you
just going to explore.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Or trying to duplicate that transmitter? I think in my
back of my mind wasn't long before I was building
more sophisticated equipment machines that could do something right. Around
seventy three, in northern Michigan, there's starting to be UFO reports,
all kinds of unidentified lights in the sky, objects, things
(04:14):
coming down and hovering.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
It was really weird.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I got to see some of the sheriff's supports in
the Antre County Sheriff's Department, and they were interesting. I
heard a tape interview they did with a fellow and
was pretty intense.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
The thing came.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Down hovered right over the roadway between Shandy Creek and
Shush Mountain. It caused his electrical systemized truck to fail.
During that time, I started thinking more about building some
equipment to could send signals out into space. It wasn't
long before I built the first transmitter. It was a
(04:50):
high boldage output had a vertical direction so it would
point up into the sky. Started in my bedroom and
then it filled that Flora Saly started building bigger equipment,
much larger and much more power.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
It got pretty big.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Four hundred pound transformers and big converters and bullege regulators
to story high one hundred and fifty thousand banks at
power amps to produce the power the frequency of audio.
To get a signal out for a greater distance, throwing
out a lure seven to a signal, try and attract
(05:27):
the intelligences behind these aerial craft, trying to lower them
in to get a closer look at them.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
That signal may be picked up.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
There's a possibility that they could detect it, and that
possibility is there, It's worth trying trying to get more
information by luring the men close enough to get accurate
electronic measurements, some hard data, something on instruments, data to learn.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
That's what projects travels.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Inspired by science fiction, John Shepper was determined to send
a signal into the universe and make contact with alien life.
John showed me an old photo album of all of
his enormous machines. By the way, you could tell, the
process he went through to build it all was truly
a massive undertaking literally hundreds of switches, knobs and cables,
(06:23):
different screens measuring signals. It looked like a Steven Spielberg
movie set, except it was all real. He named the
operation Project Strat, and when the neighbors caught win of
his colossal homemade laboratory, the local news that has bought
light piece on him. Everyone around him, like me today,
was fascinated by it all.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
The heart of Project Stratt is the broadcast operation. There
are sixty thousand volts running through his basement, powering a
signal that's being straight out into space. Every day, John
beams two signals out into space, one a digital pulset
cook and the other a live radio show.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Project STRAT, which stamps for Special Gelemetry Research and Tracking,
which is an acronym for the technology and what we
were trying to do. I took music and put it
through huge power amps, very clean power amps that have
a lot of power, eight to twelve hours a day
of music broadcast, sending out something of our culture to
see if it would attract them closer to where I
(07:25):
was doing.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
This from.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
John's broadcast operation bore a striking resemblance to Nicola Tesla
in eighteen ninety six. Tesla, one of history's most famous inventors,
also where Elon got the name from, was doing his
own high voltage experiments in the late eighteen hundreds. He
made large power transmission towers that could produce artificial lightning
and monitored signals in space. Tesla once wrote in his diary, quote,
(07:54):
my first observations positively terrified me, as there was present
in them something mysterious. The feeling is constantly growing on
me that I've been the first to hear the greeting
from one planet to another. He firmly believed that he
made contact of his own with something else out there
in the universe. In nineteen seventy two, at the height
(08:16):
of John's operation in rural Michigan, all of a sudden,
there was a series of strange sightings in the sky
throughout the entire state. Reports were piling in to local
police departments of flying saucers. Simultaneously, John's machine began picking
up frequencies that were not normal at all.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
They were getting reports at that time of objects in
the area detected electromagnetic sturbances coming in over the power
lines that were never there before. Contacted our local sheriff's department.
They signed out a deputy. I showed him on the
Soell scope screen what was coming on. Kind have a
(08:57):
sixty per frequency there, and then you have something like
one twenty fading in and fading out over the top
of that. It shouldn't be getting one hundred and twenty
one hundred and seventy hertz that strong when you're running
a sixty artz system. There shouldn't be that other frequency
in there. That's not part of it, doesn't belong there,
(09:19):
simple as that. Something had to cause it, because it's
normally not there. It just doesn't appear out of nowhere.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
So what theoretically could be causing that.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
The thing I thought it might have been was UFOs
in the area of one or two of whatever.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
I don't know how many were there the.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Magnetic fields emitted by these craft moving over power lines
inducing that magnetic field, and the instruments were picking it up.
Had to be something that caused that amount of energy.
It was circumstantial. Sure, can't prove it, but it was
occurring simultaneously of objects in there. So we add two
(10:01):
and two together, maybe you get four. I think something
was attractive.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Did John really attract some aliens that night? Did he
finally accomplish his goal? John himself seems to think so.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Humans they are great explorers the curiosity. You want to
explore what's below the ocean, what's up in the sky,
what's at the top of that mountain over there. You
have to keep an open mind. We propagate the species, propagate.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Look at the Earth. How many forms of life there are?
It's infinite.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
That infinity in the size of the universe, and the
galaxy is in it, and all the worlds that are
in there. The possibility life, some kind of life astronomical,
the possibility is there.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Keep an open mind here.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
If we think we're the only things in this whole
huge galaxy or universe, oh it's a big waste of space.
It would seem kind of strange. We can't be the
only ones, and the more you search, you may end
up with more questions and answers. But what answers you
do get are going to open your horizons of knowledge,
(11:29):
and knowledge is an important.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
Thing for us.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
All the whole time we were talking with John, we
were surrounded by all kinds of fun synthesizers and different
musical instruments. So I asked if you could show us
around a bit and maybe play something for us.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
It's amazing what you can do with synthesizers.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
That's all kinds of effects.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Space music. The sound seem to come from all around
us in the room.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
That is a real dream machine for creating totally exotic sounds.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
And you want to go exotic, you work with one
of those.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
As I'm hearing this strange music, I can see shelves
upon shelves of books about aliens, old pictures of John,
and magazines. Not to mention, the speakers themselves also looked
like aliens.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Sound cells is the name I gave them, But they're
handmade and they're made with two by ten wood, but
inside I put high power, really good quality ten inch wolfers.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
He played us some of his original music which he
has uploaded to band camp. You can check it out
yourself at John Scott Shephard dot bandcamp dot com. I
also put the link in the episode description, Oh my
husband's home high honey sound band, I think in here
where we're here nerding out over?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Oh, it's been so much fun, the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Unfortunately, for financial reasons, John eventually had to dismantle his operation,
putting most of his old equipment in storage. But five
years later, in nineteen seventy seven, someone else received the
same puzzling frequencies that John did. The Ohio State University
Radio Observatory, also known as Big EAR, received a strange
signal of their own. One day, an astronomer was reviewing
(13:28):
the computer printouts when they noticed a loud two minute
transmission that was extremely powerful, So powerful that he circled
the readout in red pen and wrote wow. And it's
now known as the Wow signal. Nice. Ohio State University
ultimately determined the signal was not from a satellite, any
military craft, commercial aircraft, or broadcast stations, just a weird,
(13:52):
loud signal from deep space that remains unexplained to this day.
The UFO topic has clearly attracted a wide array of
interesting people over the years because it sits right on
the friends of real world science and flat out conspiracy theory.
(14:15):
The range of eclectic characters you get with this subject
is absolutely fascinating. After a meeting with John Shephard, I
felt compelled to go down this road a little further
and explore the lives of other interesting people in this realm.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Just how weird does it get?
Speaker 6 (14:37):
You?
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Guys? Tell me if he bites me? Okay?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (14:41):
Why?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
That is a big ass alligator and that is not
a sound effect.
Speaker 9 (14:49):
People think alligators are dumb, but they're actually one of
the smartest animals.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
It's actually the same alligator from the Adam Sandler movie
Happy Gilmour, the one that bit Chubb's handoff.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
I peach ups.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
You could actually come in here and pet him and
he wouldn't mind.
Speaker 9 (15:05):
But he remembers the days when I used to catch
him to move.
Speaker 10 (15:08):
Him around or at a cold.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
I am a con him in eight years. But he
holds a drout.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
You remember Scota go boy?
Speaker 8 (15:17):
Yeah you.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Oh boy?
Speaker 6 (15:21):
Yeah, as you are.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
If you were to drop me here randomly with no context,
I would never in a million years think that I
was here to talk about UFOs.
Speaker 9 (15:36):
We are in the mystic San Luis Valley.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
This is Jay Young, the one who tricked me into
getting way too close to that alligator.
Speaker 9 (15:43):
The San Luis Valley is eight thousand square miles, which
is roughly the size of Massachusetts. This place is known
as Colorado Gator's Reptile Park. It was begun in nineteen
seventy seven as a tilapia farm by my parents are
Winning then Young. What makes it possible is access to
geothermal water. We got some alligators to be garbage disposals
(16:04):
for the fish in nineteen eighty seven. They got big.
People wanted to see them. So now we're a tourist
attraction that does animal education.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
And animal rescue.
Speaker 9 (16:12):
Surrounded by fourteen thousand foot peaks, it is the largest
alpine valley in the world, and it is now known
as the Mystic Sandlos Valley because it's a mystic place.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I'm here in southern Colorado because for literally thousands of
years there have been more reports of unidentified flying objects
than almost any other place in the country.
Speaker 9 (16:34):
This valley has had so many sidings, there's been books
written about it, and I've had half a dozen unexplained sidings,
or more myself. All the experiences I've had have been different.
Strange things happen and I can't explain them.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
For whatever reason, this seems to be a UFO hotspot.
Maybe it's the good weed out here, or maybe the
sky's just more open and you can actually see th.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
I was a big skeptic. I didn't believe much.
Speaker 9 (17:05):
It was always easily explained. Until I was about twenty
five years old, there was no earthly explanation for what
we saw. Cliff and I were driving to Alamosa from
the Alligator Farm off to the west, over the San
Juan Mountains. There we saw these strange silver objects, giant
(17:25):
silver needles, floating in the sky, parallel to each other,
but not perpendicular to the earth. You see right there,
see those mountains. That peak is over seven thousand feet
taller than where we are. These silver objects were almost
as tall as the mountains, so they were about five
thousand feet tall, and as the sun went down, they
(17:47):
descended down, and had they been made out of metal,
they would have hit the mountain and stopped and fallen
over or something like that. They just disappeared into the mountain.
It was like some weird refraction of light to another
dimension or something.
Speaker 8 (18:02):
I don't know.
Speaker 9 (18:03):
I never even heard of anything like that before. After that,
I was more open to believing things and not being
as much of a skeptic.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
It opened up the.
Speaker 9 (18:13):
Possibility that there's a lot out there that we don't understand.
You just have to take it with a grain of salt.
You weren't there, you didn't experience it. You might not
believe me because you didn't see what I saw.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
I know what I saw.
Speaker 9 (18:27):
The older you get, the more you realize that you
didn't know anything, and now you know less than nothing.
We know more about the surface of the Moon than
we do the bottom of the ocean. We're finding new
species of animals all the time. We know so little
about our own planet. It's just inconceivable to think that
(18:51):
we know what's out there beyond our planet. It's just
ludicrous to think that we're the only intelligence species in
the universe. Did we even consider ourselves intelligent? I try
to keep an open mind. I'm a skeptic, I guess
even now, but I know there's things I've seen that
(19:13):
are not explainable through any conventional means. Most sightings are explainable,
but not all of them are. This valley has had
so many sightings Judy built a UFO watchtower here.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
The real reason I came all the way out to
the Mystic Valley of Colorado is to visit their world
famous UFO watchtower. This is the UFO Watchtower, about a
five minutes drive down the street. Is a metal, two
story structure made simply for viewing the sky. The watchtower
(20:01):
has a complete three sixty view of the valley. If
you followed my other podcasts, you might remember I came
here for a brief moment in twenty nineteen during Up
and Vanas season two, Crystal Anne Risinger went missing from
the small town of Crestone, about fifteen minutes from here.
Speaker 11 (20:17):
We've had sightings during the day as well as at night.
Everybody thinks it has to be at night, and it doesn't.
If you look up, you're going to see something bizarre.
It's just that simple. My name is Judy mess Line.
I moved to the valley to raise cattle and horses,
(20:38):
but from the time we had moved here, all we
heard were UFO stories from the locals. They've had documented
sightings in this valley since the fifteen hundreds. One of
the farmers was in one day and he said, you
know what, Judy, you need to put up that UFO watchtower.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
You've giggled about it.
Speaker 11 (21:00):
You'd have fun. Well, I've had twenty two years worth
of fun.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
I mean it is fun.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
The size of the sky compared to the watchtower in
this valley, surrounded by fourteen thousand foot mountains, really puts
some perspective how small we are.
Speaker 11 (21:19):
The best idea I had in this world was putting
this up because I've gotten to meet so many neat people,
and most of the folks who come in here are
open minded.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Can you recall your first UFO sighting?
Speaker 11 (21:37):
Yes, it was between here and the mountains in part
way down I called a cigar shaped. It was narrow
and really long, and it went zip like that. That
was eleven o'clock at night. We had over a dozen
people here. Everybody saw it.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
What was it?
Speaker 11 (21:57):
That's what we keep saying, What the heck was it?
I myself have seen thirty There's some people you know
that are really skeptical.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
I don't blame them.
Speaker 11 (22:08):
I mean, unless you've seen something yourself, it's hard to
believe that something is going on. There's people who think.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
That we are it.
Speaker 11 (22:20):
Well, if we are, that's a sad state of affairs.
We can't just be it. There has to be life
someplace else. It says in the Bible that God made
the heavens and the earth. Well, if he made us,
he definitely made them. After having this open for a
(22:42):
month and hardly anybody came, and you know, I'd done
over two hundred and fifty radio interviews before opening, expecting
the cars to be lined up to come in here,
well they weren't. So I got out front here one
day and I just yelled, all all right, you guys,
this was your big idea. I need help. I need
(23:05):
at least one hundred dollars a day. From that day forward,
I did one hundred a day. When the Psyche started coming,
they said that we needed to put in the garden
for a place for people to go sit, relax and meditate.
(23:25):
Then folks started heading to it, and now we've got
thousands of things out there.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
So what kinds of things do people lead in this garden?
Whatever is in their car?
Speaker 11 (23:39):
I can't believe what people pull out of their cars,
Like that stove door from you see it there it's
an antique off of.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
A wood burning stove.
Speaker 11 (23:52):
You know, there's stories with some of this stuff. Some
young people who came in and said, our mother totally
believed in UFOs and aliens. She was killed in a
motorcycle accident. We're leaving a motorcycle helmet in the garden.
I've got another guy. He was in yesterday or day before, anyway,
(24:14):
he left the ashes from his dog. Lots of folks
come and leave ashes from their loved ones. There's been
so many people who have benefited from this garden, and
I have people who come just to ask for help here.
There was a fellow that I knew over in Colorado Springs.
(24:36):
He called me and he said, do you remember this
Hispanic lady coming there with her family. I remembered. They
helped her get out of the car. She could hardly
even walk, and they took her out here and put
her on the bench over here, and they were there
for a long time, and it was like they were praying,
(24:56):
you know. And he said, well, she swears to God
that your garden healed her cancer. And I said, Hallelujah,
praise the Lord, because I certainly hope that's what happened.
People believe in this garden, they really do, and they
most of them take it serious, you know, which is good.
(25:20):
I'm glad. The extraterrestrials as a whole have some healing powers.
If people would just open themselves up with love, they'd
find out them.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Love is the whole key.
Speaker 11 (25:35):
And when you see a UFO, you should send love
and light to them to let them know that they
are welcome. They say that it's a portal to a
parallel universe and it's full of energy, and these are
energy for Texas. We've got two of them out front here.
So if you need any type of help in your life,
(25:56):
you're to go in the garden and ask for it.
The psychics told me that the Palladians are here to
protect the entrances to the vortexas the Pladians, they'll help,
and they're extraterrestrial, and they say that this whole place
here is protected by the Pladians. I believe that. I
(26:19):
totally believe it because we haven't had anything really bad
happen here. I've had some statues stolen, but that's kids.
So I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
Have you ever seen an alien.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Now just didn't.
Speaker 11 (26:39):
In my head, I kind of picture what it looked like. Yeah,
you know, I do believe that they are here. I
really do. And we can't see them there in another dimension,
but I feel that they are here protecting good. I
need protection.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
So if I wanted to walk into the garden today
and ask for some sort of healing, how would I
do that?
Speaker 11 (27:09):
You just go in there and ask. It's just that simple.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
All right, Let's see what this garden can do.
Speaker 11 (27:18):
People leave things out here to get their energy here
as well, because they are energy vortex as. I even
have folks who come and lay down in the garden
to soak up the energy. And it's funny. In one
area over here, when you lay down, it feels like
you're getting pulled down, kind of crazy. That's right over here.
(27:43):
That's where the compass goes nuts. You can stand here
and the compass says that north is where north is
supposed to be, and you move over there and north
goes east.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
I regret to admit that unfortunately I do not own
a compass, but my iPhone as one. Maybe it's not
the most scientifically accurate way to measure this, but let's
just entertain.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
It for a second.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Okay, compass app is open. It's like, this is north,
which seems to be correct.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
I pulled out the compass apps walker, stood still and
turned slowly until it.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Locked into North. Still says North. As I crept.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Forward in a straight line, keeping the compass aligned with North,
the arrow would start spinning around.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
North is like shifting.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
I reset and did it several times until I found
the precise point where it seemed to all go haywire.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
I've not moved my phone at all, and it's saying
North is this way.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
For whatever reason, when you stepped into this specific spot
would start spinning around.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
It's right and here weird.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
I'll be honest, I have no clue what this means,
but it was a fun little experiment.
Speaker 12 (29:13):
There's just this range of attitudes towards this. I think
you're going to always have that. I think there are
people that will never believe it because they don't want
to believe it no matter what.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
You tell them. Here's investigative journalist Leslie Kane.
Speaker 12 (29:29):
There's all kinds of reasons that people will not believe it.
And then there's all these true believers who have been
believing things for seventy years that we have no way
of proving just absolute true believers on the opposite side
of the spectrum who just want to believe everything be
nice if there was this sort of steady center, which
we have more of now than we did before twenty seventeen,
(29:49):
for sure, And I think the more that comes out,
the more people will be drawn to that because they'll
be willing to accept official scientific data. There are plenty
of people that don't. I mean, there are people that
don't accept data, such as who won the election. You know,
people can just choose what they want to believe and
don't believe. I'm not a psychologist, but I think fear,
(30:09):
perhaps if they're really really frightened of what this might mean,
it's too much of a threat to their psychology or
their religion or their way of looking at the world.
Probably that's what underlies it all, is some kind of
fear of it. People's belief systems, their whole identity is
tied up with their belief system.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
In a world already so polarized, how is anyone going
to be convinced what's true and what's not anymore? And
I mean, seriously, what does it actually take a part
of me honestly feels like at this point, an actual,
literal alien spaceship could land on the White House lawn,
little green men stepping out and shaking their President's hand
on live national television, and that still wouldn't do it
(30:53):
For some people. And I'm not even saying they're wrong
in thinking that way. That would be a little suspicious.
But my point is, even if something that insane happened,
as a society, we'd probably still be split on it,
those who believe that what they're seeing is real and
true and those who think it's all part of some
bigger conspiracy. For some of us out there, even when
(31:15):
shown the evidence of anything, it still isn't enough. The
only way to really convince anybody of anything in twenty
twenty three is to experience something firsthand yourself.
Speaker 8 (31:28):
People have belief systems when it comes to usos.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Here's Politico journalist Brian Bender.
Speaker 8 (31:35):
Very difficult to change their minds. I found that when
I went to Roswell, I had never been to Roswell,
and it's like going to like a religious festival. It's
not religion in the way we think that people innately
believe certain things, and no matter how much you'd say, well, hey,
what about this, keep an open mind. It's like, now
the government has alien bodies and they're in Area fifty one,
(31:56):
and you can't tell me otherwise.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
I'm innately curious about the world around us.
Speaker 8 (32:02):
I mean, we've been exploring our own planet pretty much
since the beginning. It's only natural that we started thinking about, well,
what else is out there? It's our DNA. It is
that thing that we see in the night that we
can't explain, maybe from some other place. And I think
our popular culture reflects our DNA, but then also takes
it up a level. A lot of us are conditioned
(32:23):
to believe things that aren't really objectively provable, yet we
believe them anyway.
Speaker 5 (32:29):
But that's true of religion too, right.
Speaker 8 (32:32):
I mean, a lot of people are religious and they
believe in things that you can't see or feel or understand. Necessarily.
This problem that I think exists in the world, but
it exists in the UFO world even more, which is,
for lack of a better term, Charlatan's who purposely put
out misleading, fake stuff.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Just to get a rise, just to get clicks.
Speaker 8 (32:53):
A lot of them are just out to sort of
make a buck, and they don't really care about the
facts what's true. That just makes it all that much
harder for the people that really want to try and
get some answers. What is a good case, what is not,
what's made up? What's maybe half true but the other
half is kind of taken on a life of a tone.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
The topic of UFOs is so nuanced today, more so
than ever, we have the tendency to boil it down
to something so black and white. I believe or I
don't believe, And until any of us have an experience
of our own that challenges what we know, understand, or
believe in, it's going to be hard for a lot
of us to get there. Trying to siphon the credible
(33:33):
stories from the deep muddy waters of the UFO subject
is incredibly hard, and trust me, I've been doing it
myself now for over a year and it hasn't gotten
any easier. You don't have to go far on the
Internet to find people who claim they've seen aliens up
close in person in the sky or on the side
of the road, usually at night, in a.
Speaker 5 (33:53):
Grainy, flip foam video.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Even though it's twenty twenty three and it would be
stupid to just blindly believe everything you see and read
all the time, right, But for the ones that have
the most evidence of something truly strange happening, accounts from
otherwise seemingly ordinary people, you can't just immediately shoot those
down either. For me, one of the general rules of
(34:15):
thumb is the amount of people who saw it who
weren't on drugs, leaving a grateful dead concert. A large
group of people who actually saw the same exact thing
as a journalist, to me, that's a story. It's something
to investigate. Do their eyewitness accounts add up? Is the
timing the same? Do they have physical proof of what
they saw? Imagine a valley full of people all seeing
(34:38):
a huge spacecraft flying over Phoenix, Arizona, their phones and
cameras all capturing the same thing, A bright, colossal craft
just floating there in the sky. Sometimes fact is stranger
than fiction. The Phoenix Light this is nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 8 (34:58):
Over the course of much of the day, thousands and thousands.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
Of people claimed to have seen the same thing.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Witnesses first part of the craft in Nevada at seven
to fifty five pm that night, Then twenty minutes later,
a former police officer reported seeing it over two hundred
miles southeast and from there the calls around Phoenix started
rolling in.
Speaker 8 (35:22):
A lot of the testimony is similar at very dark,
triangular shaped craft with lights along it, very large, totally quiet,
made no noise, and no seeming engines or propulsion system.
The governor of Arizona saw it and was willing to
talk about it.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
The Governor of Arizona held a press conference about it.
He actually brought out one of his aids in an
alien costume, making light of the situation. But a decade
later even he said on CNN that he actually believes
it was quote some form of alien spacecraft. Something strange
happened in the sky over Arizona that still hasn't been
fully explained, and in reality, we may never know exactly
(36:05):
what happened that night.
Speaker 8 (36:06):
America West pilots flying into Phoenix Airport, Man, nothing is huge.
What the hell is that I could land on it?
Speaker 1 (36:12):
There's these lights, six lights and the shape of a
triangle right over the airport.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
The actor Kurt Russell.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
According to him, he was about a half mile from
landing his plane when his son asked him what these
strange lights were in the sky. Russell looked over and
saw six bright lights in a V shape coming his direction.
He called the tower to report it, and they responded
saying they saw nothing on their radar.
Speaker 8 (36:39):
Evidence is not proof, right, It's just more data, it's
more facts. But I think the more they pile up
and the more they match. I think the question of
evidence is at the heart of all of this audio video.
Talking about it in national security terms, not talking about
it in science fiction terms. As a journalist, I'm always
(37:01):
interested in what did they say the day they saw it.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
One of the most credible accounts of a UFO siding
I found actually happened in more recent history. This particular
incident was recorded live as it was happening in December
of nineteen ninety four. The accounts of dozens of witnesses,
most of which police officers, were captured on tape at
(37:34):
the nine one one Dispatch Center in Trumbull County, Ohio.
Through Fouer requests, I've been able to obtain the actual
tape from that night.
Speaker 11 (37:42):
Can I dispatched my health?
Speaker 6 (37:44):
Okay?
Speaker 9 (37:44):
Who she is?
Speaker 7 (37:45):
I mean?
Speaker 5 (37:45):
I got a first view where I'm asked. I just
can't quite make it astromize an ocular. I came down
it just duped over it with a big glowing object.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Roy Anne Randolph was working as the nine one one
dispatcher that night.
Speaker 13 (38:00):
We started getting a couple of phone calls about people
who were seeing a light in the sky. Then the
calls became more and more frequent.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
For hours, she was fielding chaotic calls from residents and
police officers throughout the entire county.
Speaker 13 (38:15):
I where a guy orror called in on an unidentified
object ever liberty or.
Speaker 11 (38:20):
Call I for all on an unidentified flying objecting basketball.
Speaker 5 (38:24):
Gas fucker has not moved.
Speaker 10 (38:26):
He could find like up in the air, falling and
getting hurt their way from me, I couldee a red
glow up the guy.
Speaker 11 (38:32):
With huge I heard about ten other people were to
go swearing up and now they hat UFO.
Speaker 8 (38:39):
Thought there I watched it. That haven't gone any direction
since I.
Speaker 13 (38:43):
Haven't watched it, And all of a sudden other police
units in the general vicinity start seeing it.
Speaker 5 (38:52):
Well, watching it right through the pasty field.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
You're kis turned to But what did you really think
it was?
Speaker 9 (38:58):
I don't know any AIRMENY came a convict he whatever
hate the pig, and I could pet.
Speaker 7 (39:05):
I put the avenue on the other pride.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
I couldn't like.
Speaker 5 (39:08):
Fop in that air.
Speaker 13 (39:10):
These are seasoned police officers, fifteen year officers, people who
have great credibility, and now they're seeing some things. I
would like to think it could have been something from
the air base.
Speaker 4 (39:22):
Do you know if anything that should be in our
air bake at times of.
Speaker 6 (39:25):
The ground Look at the fred belt, But no, I
go like from my own diameter or a young knocking out.
Speaker 5 (39:32):
There oat O create through mis on oscular but I
can't quite make it out. His favorite color from white,
the red, the green. There's colors of plants, pile fuck
that has not loved.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
One officer in particular was dispatched to be first on
the scene.
Speaker 10 (39:52):
As I was en wrapped, five or six calls start
coming in.
Speaker 14 (39:55):
By a huge light in the sky. I was at
a stop sign. A big beam of light came upon
my vehicle.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
All at once.
Speaker 14 (40:09):
My car, shut off, my computer, my radio. I saw
a huge light in the sky just hit in my car.
I had no idea what it was. I slammed my
car in the park, got out of the car.
Speaker 10 (40:31):
There was no sound. I couldn't hear anything. It lit
this whole street up, discovering there no sound.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
Oh my god, I hope that's Applian for you.
Speaker 10 (40:48):
Oh Gie, I please you Appliant Hall, please find You're ready.
Speaker 8 (40:51):
For this ship.
Speaker 5 (40:54):
Space Wait, that's your name? Inhabitat lit smoke Weed play,
did take a lean It she been on g This
is a bean bag. I've been going Gene because a
cool right now. She was over penning up.
Speaker 9 (41:14):
I've been talking Yo Japan in the bends of super
T shirt sleeve, budding top turn of vert riding.
Speaker 5 (41:19):
Then you whether you gotta bend down and saying the parapet.
We's been a doncom and good sweaters. John Na and
nine helped. It was boom out of guys, we are
not a devil.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
High Strange is an eight part series released weekly for
free every Thursday, But if you'd like to bene the
whole series right now, you can subscribe to Tenderfoot plus
on Apple Podcasts to get all the episodes right now.
Follow the show on TikTok and Instagram at high Strange,
and you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at
Payne Lindsay. If you have your own UFO story, email
(41:53):
us at tips at high strange dot com.
Speaker 5 (41:58):
High Strange.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
It's a production by Tenderfoot TV in association with Cadence thirteen, created,
hosted and edited by myself, Payne Lindsay. Executive producers are
myself and Donald Albright. Editing by Mike Rooney, Cooper Skinner
and myself. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set, Sound design,
mixing and mastering by Cooper Skinner. Additional production by Mike Rooney,
(42:22):
Dylan Harrington, Eric Quintana, Sean Nurney, Meredith Stedman, and Sidney Evans.
Speaker 5 (42:28):
Our cover art is by Polygon.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
This episode features the song space Cadet by metro Booman
featuring Gunna, written by Wesley tyre Glass, Sergio Kitchens, Leland Tyler,
Wayne Alan Ritter, and Jack Queis Webster, performed by metro
Booman featuring Gunna courtesy of Republic Records under license from
Universal Music Enterprises for metro Booman in three hundred Entertainment
for Gunna. Special thanks to Orrin Rosenbaum and the whole
(42:53):
team at UTA, the Nord Group, Station sixteen, Beck Media
and Marketing, as well as Chris Corcoran and the team
at Cadence thirteen. Check out the show's website at Highstrange
dot com and if you're enjoying the show, please help
us out by rating and reviewing the podcast and share
it with your friends.
Speaker 5 (43:12):
Thanks for listening.
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