Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind: UFO symposium set to land in Strathcona County

If you see some strange lights descending over Strathcona County on Saturday night, don’t freak out. The alien guests have been invited.

Among the true-believer set, it’s called a Close Encounter of the Fifth Kind, or CE-5 for short. We’ve all heard stories about people who have seen UFOs, and late-night TV is filled with stories about people being abducted by little grey beings. But a CE-5 is where, and take this with all the grains of salt you need, contact between aliens and humans are initiated by us.

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Derryn Donaghey, who has a fantastical UFO encounter story of his own, is organizing the conference, to be held near Cooking Lake, about 42 km southeast of Edmonton. He was part of a similar gathering a couple of years ago. The attendees all form a circle, looking up. This gives the group a 360-degree view of the sky. There is mental focus on attracting alien attention, and sounds are played that are supposedly signals to extra-terrestrials that “hey, we’ve set up a sort of interstellar bus stop, here.” In Douglas Adams’ famed The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, travellers can  stick out a beacon called an “electronic thumb” that attracts alien ships. So, it’s sort of like that, and nothing like that at the same time.

Donaghey claims that at the previous gathering, the group saw 52 “ships” in just a 10-minute period.

“And no one was scared,” he said. “They were just euphoric. Really, the truth is out there, we should see if we can find it in our lifetime. If there is truly life out there, I think they are more active now because they have seen what a gong show is happening here.”

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Donaghey said that recent moves by the American government to declassify military files and video of UFO encounters has helped push his research into the mainstream.

“I’ve never seen little green men, but I have seen things that I can’t explain, ” said Donaghey.

Donaghey was in the military police back in 1987. He was part of group of military personnel who were out training near Redwater, roughly 60 km north of Edmonton. This is what he recalls: In the middle of nowhere, their compasses stopped working. Their flashlights went dead. And soon, in a clearing, they saw a large ship, like nothing they’d ever seen.

“It was so close, you could have hit it with a slingshot,” he said.

But, when they returned to base, only three of the dozen military personnel remembered the ship at all.  The memories of most of the soldiers had gone full Manchurian Candidate. Then, it was just Donaghey and his superior officer.  Dongahey said he tried to report it, and was told by superior officers to keep his mouth shut, instead.

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He stayed quiet for years.

“You don’t want to talk about it, because you sound crazy.”

98 per cent of sightings can be explained

Nathan Zieber is a dual American/Canadian citizen who spent years working as an investigator for MUFON, the civilian-led, non-profit group that investigates UFO sightings around the world. He is known as the “Paranormal Pastor.” He will be speaking at Saturday’s event.

He said that 98 per cent of his investigations can be explained: Aircraft, drones, balloons, comets and other natural phenomena. He said that his goal as a UFO researcher is not to prove the existence of extraterrestrials, but to simply eliminate the easy-to-come-by explanations.

“My job isn’t to prove what it is, but to prove what it can’t be, that it can’t be these other things,” he said. “The truth is left out there.”

He became interested in UFO investigations because of his American grandfather, who served in the Vietnam War. He said that his grandfather saw many of what the military called “foo fighters” during his time in Asia.

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The most compelling investigation Zieber has been on? In the UFO community, Alberta is well-known for cattle mutilations. As in, cows found dead in the pasture, drained of all blood.

He was called to one near the hamlet of Madden, about 240 km south of Edmonton, where some cows were drained, the eyeballs removed. He said there was no rational explanation on how cows could be slain like that. He said there were traces of radioactivity in the area and that nearby trees showed signs of charring. It’s one that is still in the unsolved file.

Even amongst those we might call UFO enthusiasts, there are no easy explanations. Donaghey said that’s why Saturday’s symposium is all about sharing ideas, and nothing is off limits. He’s heard it all, from alien visitation to government false-flag operations to that all of this reported heightened activity in the sky is a sign of the Rapture.

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“Anyone who claims to have all the answers is someone to avoid,” said Donaghey.

Donaghey understands that a lot of people see him as a nut, or someone who has seen things that can be scientifically explained. But he said that attendees to these events often include the likes of police officers, nurses and doctors.

“We’re not a bunch of wackos.”

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