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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
Speaker: supernatural incidents, UFOs are real
 John P. Timmerman, a spokesman for the National Center for UFO Studies and retired Lima businessman, reads a recent newspaper column on government secrecy in regards to unidentified flying objects. Timmerman presented Tuesday to residents of the Otterbein-Cridersville Retirement Living Community. (Staff photo/ Annie Zelm)
By ANNIE ZELM
Staff Writer
Flying saucers, men in black who use intimidation tactics and aliens monitoring life from another dimension may sound like the substance of science fiction movies — but they are a real phenomenon and perhaps the government’s best-kept secret, an area speaker says.
Many people have observed unidentified flying objects or other unusual sights but kept quiet about the experience for years because they fear mockery or rejection.
Others who spoke publicly about such occurrences were dismissed as crazy or warned to forget about what they saw, the man says.
“I had the pleasure of
being curious, and that curiosity led me into this room,” National Center for UFO Studies representative John P. Timmerman said Tuesday as he addressed a group of approximately 30 residents at the Otterbein-Cridersville Retirement Living Community. “I want to know what you want to know — I’m looking for information that’s been hidden under your pillow since it happened. It’s still not too late to report a UFO.”
The nationally-known speaker, former treasurer and board member for the center said he became interested in reports of UFOs in 1947, after returning from a term of service as a rifleman in World War II.
He graduated from Cornell University and became active in the Chicago-based center years later, after selling his business in Lima and receiving an invitation to join from astronomer J. Allen Hynek, a U.S. Air Force consultant and founder of the center.
Timmerman and his son, Martin, spent 12 years traveling throughout the world and interviewing people who claimed to have seen UFOs.
His notes became the basis for the book, “Grassroots UFO-Case Reports from the Timmerman Files,” by Western Michigan University natural science professor Michael Swords.
Many of the alleged sightings have striking similarities, Timmerman said, such as a metallic disc with flashing red and white lights, a triangular-shaped object or simply a glowing orange ball which hovered briefly and seemed to disappear almost as quickly as it came.
He played two tape-recorded conversations of area residents who attested to suspicious activity — one Wapakoneta man who reported seeing a metallic disc glide above the truck plaza just south of U.S. 33 during a thunderstorm in 1972.
The second recording was of two women near New Hampshire who said they saw an object shaped like a boxcar surrounded by a green halo of light land along the side of the road in the 1960s.
Timmerman said each of the reported sightings included in his book had at least two credible witnesses who gave matching accounts when interviewed separately, and some had photographs of the images.
Steve Neeley, a resident of Roundhead and retired employee of the Ford Motor Co., showed photographs of a glowing object he said appeared to follow him home from work at night for nearly five months between 1994 and 1995.
He said he believes UFOs pose no danger to the public and may be linked to a spiritual realm.
“I believe in reincarnation, and I think UFOs might be a kind of soul recycling center,” Neeley said.
Citing information contained in an e-mail from a source with ties to the United Nations, Timmerman said the government appears to have a countdown underway and will likely provide more disclosure on UFOs and their significance between the years 2013 and 2014.
“It seems the government wants to release this information slowly through an acclimation process that is expected to accelerate over the next five years,” Timmerman said. “If this is true, it’s likely we’ll see more UFO sightings, coverage from more prominent media outlets and disclosures of secret technologies withheld over more than 50 years.”
Significant efforts have been made to censor the media and prevent classified information from being revealed too early, he said.
He cited a Cato Institute scholar who was dismissed by the institute for statements he made in a newspaper column regarding UFOs and government secrecy and the case of Angelia Joiner, an Empire-Tribune reporter in Stephenville, Texas, who covered recent sightings in the area but was terminated last month after her reports began to gain international media attention.
Otterbein-Cridersville resident Pat Smith said she first met Timmerman while he was teaching a course through the Lima branch of The Ohio State University Office of Continuing Education and wanted to see him speak on the subject again.
“It’s real,” Smith said of his reports of UFO sightings. “I believe we’re being monitored.”
Resident Fred Fisher said he found some aspects of the presentation difficult to believe but fascinating nonetheless.
“I probably won’t sleep a wink tonight,” Fisher said. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 March 2008 )
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