Boianai

dating back as far as the Renaissance. Among the group of apartments known as the Apartments of the Elements is the Hercules Room, and in the Hercules Room is a circular portrait of the Madonna and Child and the Infant Saint John, whose creation has been attributed to a number of artists, including Filipino Lippi. It's about what you'd expect from a Renaissance painting. With that title, Mary praised above the Infant Jesus, who reaches out to her while being

held by the Infant Saint John. Strangely, though, an object appears to hover in the air in the background above Mary's shoulder. A closer look reveals a football shaped entity, light gray on top, darker on the bottom, with yellow spikes emerging like beams of light. In the background, A robed man with a dog looks up at the object. What is going on here? I was finishing a book on the Catholic doctrine of purgatory, in which it was

a huge project. I went to archives all over and what I was looking at is Catholics used to do devotions to souls in purgatory and that all kind of stopped, and they don't do those anymore, and I wanted to know why. I am Diana Pasolka, and I'm a professor at the University of North Carolina and Wilmington, and my field has been in Catholic history and Catholic traditions. I found the reasons for that, and I wrote a book

about it. But I also found that Catholics had a lot of experiences of aerial phenomena from basically a thousand years ago till now. And because the Catholic Church takes pretty good notes, they're known for their record keeping. And I've been to the Vatican Library and Secret Archive and looked at a lot of the documents there. I found that there were all of these aerial phenomena incidences, and

the frameworks for understanding those were basically religious. They see something like a disk in the sky, and they'd call it an angel, or they call it a demon, or they call it a lost soul from burgatory. And at this point it never occurred to me that these are like kind of like UFOs, but they were. They were unidentified objects that then were identified through Catholic frameworks. Normally, when someone sees something that they can't explain, they try

to understand it according to their belief framework. A Renaissance Italian sees a desk and uses a Catholic framework to perceive it as a demon or angel. People now are culturally ready to identify them UFOs visitors from space or another dimension. But what happens when the belief in UFOs becomes the framework that a person uses to interpret things

that happen in the world around them. That is what happens when you look at strange things that occur in people's lives and you interpret them with the assumption that the cause is most likely UFOs. This season on Strange Arrivals, we will look at people who are not only sure that UFOs are from somewhere else, but if put UFOs at the center of their worldviews, what happens when they

become involved in investigating hard to explain events. How does their presence affect our perception of the event and even the experiencers own understanding of what they've been through. But to begin the season, we'll set a baseline by looking at a case that didn't attract prominent UFO investigators and see how the witnesses understood there counter. I'm Toby Ball

and this is Strange Arrivals, Episode one, Boyani. On July fifteenth, nineteen fifty nine, an Anglican missionary named Father William Gill, stationed at the Boyani Mission in Papua New Guinea, wrote a letter to Father Norman Cruttwell, who was at the Anglican mission in Manapi, also in Papua New Guinea. The letter began, Dan, woman, here is a lot of material, the kind you've been waiting for, no doubt, but I am in some ways sorry that it has to be

me who supplies it. I just choose at Dagura in respected my sanity very greatly, and like all madmen, I myself think my gray cells are okay. This was essentially a cover letter for a collection of documents that Gil had sent to Crutwell. Together, they told the story of a week that began when a distant light was cited,

one that seemingly could not be explained. The week ended with an encounter that occurred over three days and was witnessed by thirty eight people, including Gill, other personnel at the mission, and local Papuans. So you might be wondering where is Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea is the eastern portion of the island, known as either Papua or New Guinea. The western portion is a province of Indonesia,

while Papua New Guinea is now an independent commonwealth. In nineteen fifty nine, when these events occurred, it was overseen by Australia, which is only eighty miles across the era for a sea from the southern tip of the island. Father Gil and Father Crutwell were two Australian missionaries at tiny missionary stations around good Enough Bay, part of the peninsula that makes up the easternmost part of the island. The Gura, which Gil mentions in his letter, is the

headquarters of the Anglican diocese in this area. On June twenty first, five days before the first Mass sighting, a teacher evangelist named Stephen Moy, who was stationed at Boyani along with Father Gill, saw light in the early hours of the morning. This is Gil from a speech given later in nineteen fifty nine in England recounting his conversation with Moy after Moy's sighting. Moy is referred to here

as Stephen moy Gill, one of my head teachers. Teachers by the name of Stealen moy Gill, which sound about suspicious. Last Sunday night, I saw a rather sing also is no. He wrote a report about this event for Gil. It began with Moy walking out of his house at one in the morning. The text of the report is read by an actor. I saw a bright white light silently coming out of a sky from a point about a quarter a mile out to see slightly west of boy

Andei Mission station. It descended from what seemed to be a great height, and I thought at first it was a falling star. He watched for what he estimated to be about three minutes as it descended and moved to the east along the coast. It settled at what Mooy guessed to be about three hundred feet above the sea. There it remained stationary for perhaps half a minute and gradually decreased in brilliance until the shape of an inverted saucer could be discerned, which was tilted backwards with part

of the base visible. The object then moved upwards and disappeared from view into the clouds. Moi also mentioned to Gil his first impression upon glimpsing the light at the was a light similar to those dropped by planes during the war. This would be World War Two. Here's Gill again talking about his questions to Moy after the sighting. Is an object over the sea, and I ask you more kinds of questions about his size and shape. I

wanted naper sixth and what he lack of place? And each time he came there he said, no, it was an the nearest thing that I can relate to. In fact, this was not the first time unexplained lights had been seen in the area. In a strange coincidence, the day before he had his first sighting at Boyani, Gill wrote a letter to Reverend David Durry, the acting principle of Saint Aidan's College in Dagura, an institution for training teacher evangelists such as Stephen Moy. There are being quite a

number of reports over the months from reliable witnesses. The peculiar thing about these most recent reports is that the UFOs seem to be stationary Boyanni, or to travel from Boyanny. I myself saw a stationary white light twice on the same night on April ninth. I do not doubt the existence of these things, but my simple mind still requires scientific evidence before I can accept from outer space theory.

I am inclined to believe that probably many UFOs are more likely some form of electric phenomena, or perhaps something broad about by the Aden bomb explosions, etc. Then, addressing Moy's sighting four days prior, he wrote that Stephen should actually make out a saucer could be the work of the unconscious mind, as it is very likely that at some time he has seen illustrations of some kind in a magazine. It is all too difficult to understand for me.

You signed off yours doubting. William gil acknowledged that he didn't question Moy's version of his sighting. In fact, he referenced both his and other a similar experiences, but he maintained that he did not think that these lights warranted any undue attention. The very next day, June twenty six, Gil again wrote to Dry, but this time his attitude towards the lights was entirely different. Dear David. Life is strange, isn't it. Yesterday I wrote you a letter expressing opinions

are the UFOs? Now less than twenty four hours later I have changed my views somewhat. Last night we are Boyani experienced about four hours of UFO activity and there is no doubt whatsoever that they are handled by beings of some kind. At times it was absolutely breathtaking. Here is the report. This time he signed off cheers, convinced Bill what had happened to cause this change of heart. Father Gill sent a report on the events of that night and the two that followed to Father Norman Crutwell.

We heard the beginning of the cover letter earlier in this episode. Father Gill had taken careful notes of what he observed during the encounter. Again from his nineteen fifty nine speech in England, this is what I think right for this is the sort of thing that no believe unless I write it down. In fact, I went believe it unless I write it down either, because you know

how it is, especially at the tribe. I didn't have any whisky on board, but you never know that people might might believe that I wrote this minutes I minutes.

Whenever anything happened, I put it down, and it was just as sit as best I had a write, an academic approach to I was not excited, not that I remember, certainly, and I had a common enough of mind to be able to because the events was having become Crutwell used guils report and his own investigation to author a three part article that appeared in the November nineteen sixty one and January March nineteen sixty two editions of the April Bulletin,

the newsletter of the prominent at the time Aerial phenomena research organization based in the United States. The text of this report reads, father Gill that just had his dinner and came out of the front door of the mission house. There's a small patch of lawn, a few trees, including coconut palms, and then a drop of perhaps fifty feet to the shingle beach below. He casually glanced at the sky and looked for Venus, which was conspicuous at the time.

In his own words, I saw Venus, but I also saw this sparkling object, which to me was peculiar because it sparkled, and because it was very very bright, and it was above Venus, so that caused me to watch it for a while, and then I saw a descent towards us. Stephen gil Moy, who joined Father Gill a few minutes later, described it as shining with a bright white light like at Tilly Lamp. At Tilly Lamp is a kerosene lamp, the kind that many people use when camping.

Stephen remarks that it appeared to wax and wane in brightness, as though it was approaching and receding. The object eventually came fairly close and maintained that distance. This is Father gil relating this sighting many years later in the strange nineteen seventy seven film UFOs Are Here the Dao Diaries. There's just hovering, not very far high up maybe two or three hundred feet up in the air, and glowing and two bipods jutting out from underneath it and sparkling

all around. In his nineteen fifty nine speech, Gil gave further details about the appearance of the craft, an outdone of a saucer, a dark portion between it and the smartly night, so there's a light outside, darkness and the ardent itself that is most Another most little thing is the chapter blue electric or light emanating from the top of the past up towards it, or an electric blue light, but I think I destroyed as a pencil with light.

Again from the text of Crutwell's report, Father Gill states that it changed from a brilliant white light when it was far off, to a dull yellow or perhaps pale orange when it was close. When asked whether he thought it was metallic, he answered, well, with the pigs solid certainly not transparent or gaseous, we just assumed that it was metallic from our own experience of things that travel

and carry men. All witnesses agree that it was circular, that it had a wide base and a narrower a deck, that it had a type of legs beneath it, that it produced at times a shaft of blue light which shone upwards into the sky at an angle of about forty five degrees. So to summarize, Gil and his companion saw a late descend to within a fairly close distance to where they stood on the shore, at which point they could see that it was a craft of some type.

It was saucer shaped, and let with an additional light beam reaching into the sky. There also seemed to be a light that is somewhat separate from the craft hovering close to it. But this was not all they saw after the break. Strange rivals will return in a moment. Father William Gill and a group of other missionaries and local people had watched a light approach until it came close enough to make out that it was a physical

craft hovering above the ocean. When we think about a classic flying saucer or UFO, I think we picture a craft that is fully enclosed, like an airplane. But Gil reported that this craft had a deck like a boat from his nineteen fifty nine speech. Was a thick structure the two pass of what I called the body of the crowd, and then there was what I interpreted as

a superstructure on top of that. He was on the case, and as reminded us, I think of the craft and on this stack, Gil and the assembled crowd sat figures from Crutwell's report. As we watched it, men came out from this object and appeared on the top of it, on what seemed to be a deck on top of a huge disk. There were four men in all, occasionally two,

then one, then three, then four. We noted the various times the men appeared, and then later on all those witnesses who were quite sure that our records were right, and that they agreed with them and saw the men at the same time as I did, were able to sign their names as witnesses of what we assumed to be human activity or beings of some sort on the

object itself. Gil also remarked about the way the blue light reflected on the figures on the craft, in addition to a general glow that he said surrounded them but didn't actually touched them, that there was some gap between

them and the lay. He further explained that in his observations, the men seemed to be illuminated in two ways by reflected light as men seen working high up on a building at night, brought by the glare of an oxy aceateleine torch, and b by this curious halo which outlined them, following every contour of their figures, and yet did not touch them. In fact, they seemed to be illuminated themselves in the same way as the machine was. Gil was asked whether the men might have been wearing some kind

of space suits. His reply, according to Crutwell's report, was I couldn't say that. Maybe so that would seem to be a possible explanation of the double outline, but I couldn't see any such suits. Crutwell's report continues, I asked him whether he could see any detail, such as the

color of their skins. He replied that they were too far away to see such details, but that he would say they were probably pile As for the details of their bodies, all he could be sure of was that they had an outline of normal human beings from the waist up. Their legs were hidden by the sides of the craft. If we're in clothes, they were very tight fitting. In addition to the craft with the figures onboard, there were other smaller objects Crutwell uses the word discs that

moved around more than the larger craft. They're described as moving erratically, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, coming closer and then retreating, occasionally swinging back and forth like a pendulum. Several witnesses later drew pictures of the bigger ship. While there are minor differences in things such as the number of legs descending from the bottom, they're clearly the same object around disc, perhaps fairly thick, with the smaller structure resting on top

on which the figures walked. There are interesting differences in perspective as well, with some drawings depicting the angle at which the object was sited and others showing the objects straight on, though during the sighting they were always looking up at it. At nine thirty that night, after nearly three hours, the crafts finally departed, wavering slightly, then taking off at great speed. The largest of them eventually receded to a distance where it was merely a pin point

in the sky, and then vanished. And there the encounter ended for that night, because at about six o'clock the next evening, a Papuan medical assistant named Anne Laurie Barewa called to Father Gill that the large UFO had returned. Gill arrived on the scene around two minutes after six and saw what he thought was the largest of the craft from the previous night. It seemed a little smaller, but he attributed that to would probably being further away.

Then Gil called for the others to come to the object. He reported to Critewell, although the sun had set, it was quite light for the following fifteen minutes, we watched figures appear on top four of them. There is no doubt that they were human. This is possibly the same object that I took to be the Mothership last night. Two smaller UFOs were seen at the time, stationary one above the hills west and another overhead on the large one. Two of the figures seemed to be doing something near

the center of the deck. They were occasionally bending over and raising their arm as though were adjusting or setting up something not visible. One figure seemed to be standing looking down at us a group of about a dozen. This figure stood with his hands on the rail, looking over, just as Father Gill said, quote one will look over the rails of a ship. At this point, Father Gill decided to wave to the figures on the craft to

see if he could make contact with them. From the movie UFOs are here the Dao Diaries, And so we waved, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get this object down onto the playing field. And as we waved, wondering whether we'd get some recognition and whether perhaps they would understand what we wanted, they waved back. Here's Gill as told to Crutwell in his report, there seemed to be no doubt that our movements were answered. All the mission

boys made audible gasps of either joy or surprise. Gil and his companions proceeded to flash lights on and off towards the craft, and perceived that these offerings were acknowledged by the craft, which would make a slight dip in reply. They then returned to waving, But the figures on the craft had returned whatever it was they had been doing, And we're more interested in what they were doing on the south than in us. This was the impressive week off.

I think in my report he will say that great ways, and then going on with whatever the business was. It was six thirty at this point, and Gil and his companions left the scene for dinner. After dinner, they saw that the big ufo was still there, though it might have receded somewhat. They then decided to go ahead with the day's evensong, a church service traditionally held near sunset. Just prior to the evening service, about seven o'clock, the

thing was there again. It had arrived about an hour earlier, and we all decided to have the normal even song that we do have on those nights, because well, the thing was out there outside the church anyway, and we really wouldn't go away doing the service, and it didn't.

When he came out, very well was still up in the sky, and so for another hour or two we watched, and then suddenly it did go, and there was this amazingly incredible speed that they hollcraft disappeared to nothing across the bay in that of the second or say, this was the end of the second night of the encounter, and the one that seems to have had the most impact on Father Gil. When you listen to him talk

about these encounters. There is of course the amazement of seeing a craft like this descend from the skies and hover in view. There is the appearance of four figures for one of a better description the crew of the craft.

But what seems to really stay with him is that he, through his wave and their reply, communicated with things that, while they looked human, were most likely not another very station there without any doubt a pour in my own mind in any case, but I saw it is one thing which I just coun't count wise pounds of mine. That's something June waves. It was a parent response the way the way plisibly gay. The third night of the

encounter was far less dramatic than the first two. In fact, in Crotewell's article in the Aprol Bulletin, the third night is reduced to a brief timeline starting with six pm, when apparently someone looked for a UFO in the sky without success. By six forty five one had appeared, though it was very high and almost directly overhead. By nine

there were three arranged in a nearly straight line. At eleven, eight UFOs, the largest number seen at one time over the course of the nights, were arrayed in the sky. One appeared to be fairly low, but there was no sign of activity on the deck. And that's the end of the report for the third and final night of this unusual encounter. In trying to explain what Gil and his companion saw over those three nights, there seems to

me to be two different things going on. One is the number of small objects, which are mostly referred to as lights. Alan Heinik, who was the best known UFO researcher at the time, looked into this encounter, including interviewing Gil and other witnesses. He concluded that these smaller objects

were not entirely surprisingly misidentified bright stars and planets. This happens all the time, But Heineck didn't have an explanation for the larger object, and that, of course, is why this sighting is so interesting, the bigger craft with the figures on top. I am not aware of another modern report, such as the one from Boyani, with figures actually atop a craft while it hovers in the air. Because the

craft was positioned over the sea. The obvious answer would be that they mistook a ship for an aerial craft. But how could this be true if dozens of witnesses perceived it as being at least a couple hundred feet in the air. A likely explanation is a phenomenon called the fata morgana, which is a particular kind of mirage that occurs just above the horizon. It is caused by a temperature inversion when a layer of warm air sits above a layer of cool air, resulting in the bending

of light rays. This kind of mirage will cause objects to appear distorted, or possibly in this case, to appear above the surface on which they are in fact resting. Thus, a ship appears to hover above the sea rather than rest in it, and a boat is hinted at. In Gill's description the men on top of the craft, he describes one of the figures on the craft is standing with his hands on the rail, looking over, just as

one will look over the rails of a ship. If in fact this is the case, Gil and his companions might have been observing a squid boat. Squid boats are strung with lights that hang on beams off to the sides of the ship to attract squid to the surface where they can be caught. They also sometimes have antenna poles that are illuminated by the ship's lights and can look like what Gill called a pencil quick line reaching

towards the sky. Is this a certain identification, No, but Gill acknowledged that though we felt this was not the case, it was possible that he and the others had seen a ship at sea. Absolutely all I can be sure about as that I have in my mind what I saw.

It's hard to picture a squid boat moving away from Gil at incredible speeds, but that could be a product of the distorting effects of the Fadam morgana or perhaps the squid boat shut off some of its lights so that it appeared to get smaller, which would have been interpreted as it being further away. What's interesting to me is that Gill doesn't seem too concerned about convincing people about what he saw here. He is from the movie.

UFOs are here the Dao Diaries, people claiming to see things such as I did the thirty eight of Us, and we all believe that we saw it. But of course we don't expect other people to believe us if I don't want to. And it strikes me that Gill doesn't try to integrate the story into his religious beliefs or philosophical outlook. He's simply see something and reports on it.

But this is often not the case. Many times, people who experience a UFO encounter or simply believed that encounters happen, either add UFOs to their existing beliefs and in the process alter those beliefs, or they build a belief framework around their belief in UFOs. This season, on Strange Arrivals, the children came back from school and they had all of these stories about this device that had crashed in

the school grounds. I actually in the trees. I feel sure that the children feel that they did see something. He had a big tape and street black eyes and by these accounts are so vivid and so consistent and so credible in the air and flow their cars. I'm looking at the top of the stairs and there's this little blue alien. It's as if the aliens come through a screen. They shatter one reality, and I'm into this reality. This was going to be like the revelation to the world.

Look at this great stuff, this great proof that we have. There is a creative intelligence at work here trying to reach us, to create some kind of a connection. They were transformed by the experience and in touch with spiritual epiphany. People assaying that the aliens came toward us, something's going to happen. There's something they're just going to happen to this, he was deliberately implanting false memories and I lost my

ability to think critically strange arrivals. As a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky, this episode was written and hosted by Toby Ball and produced by Rima l Kaali, Jesse Funk, and Naami Griffin, with executive producers Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick and Aaron Mankey and supervising producer Josh Thane, with voice acting by David Burton, Joshua

Longhurst and William Clapton. And special thanks to Wendy Connors, creator of the Faded Discs archive of UFO related audio on archive dot org. Learn more about the show at grimminmild dot com, slash Strange Arrivals, and find more podcasts from iHeartRadio by visiting the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows