CLASSIC: The Ariel School UFO Encounter

You may have you may be listening now, and you may think I vaguely recall hearing something about something like a specific incident, But too often we lose the details, and too often we as a civilization forget to investigate the actual nuts and bolts, the specifics that timelines. Yeah, the what happened and when.

something like what we're going to discuss today. And we have someone very special on the show today who is currently directing and producing an entire film, a documentary about one particular UFO siding and encounter. His name is Randall Nickerson. Welcome to the show, sir.

one had approached the playground. There were other witnesses also adults that we had witnessed either the object itself in the sky. There was a lot of anomalies at the time also, but the main incident seemed to be this school in Zimbabwe.

the head master. But after that they had gone home to their parents and shared the story with their parents with their appropriate emotional impact and all that the head master had had them come come back and draw what they saw. So there were sixty drawings made, but through the research and meeting a lot of these people, there were quite a few more than that.

the parents, to the whole event. So it was difficult for the for the witnesses, which often I think after meeting a lot of other witnesses from other incidents around the world that involved you know, uh UFOs or unidentified aerial phenomena, you know, they're it's they're not. It's hard for people to find a place where they can actually share their experience.

Harvard psychiatrist. He had won the Pulitzer Prize. He had spent twenty years as a child psychiatrist psychoanalyst, and so he had a lot of experience with children and he was he went traveled to Zimbabwe uh To to investigate this this incident and was very interested in, you know, seeing seeing what it's legitimacy was, if it was legitimate,

and what that meant. You know, he was looking into at that time UFO reports and witnesses, and he at that point was starting to look globally, you know, not just about incidents in the United States, but incidents in South America, Africa, European countries to see how widespread the

phenomenon was. Because doctor mac had started to take it seriously after he had met some I think about ten witnesses that he was introduced to and his he when doctor Mac first approached this, he thought that this was some kind of psychiatric phenomena, some kind of psychiatry that it was coming from the person, not an external actual reality.

But when he started to meet people that and that he put through psychological psychological screening tests, he found that they were telling the story that was had all the earmarks of real experience. I think, you know this, this whole phenomena is I think generally the public is not highly educated about you know, things that are normal, you know,

astronomical events. And the reason I'm bringing that up is because there are a lot of reports that are just you know, everyday objects that astronomers know or other people are aware of, you know that that specialize in those fields.

But there's a lot that we we don't know. There's been many studies about the unidentified aerial phenomena, uh that show, like, you know, out of all the reports, probably five percent are legitimate mysteries because largely the general public is not educated in a way to know, you know, what what

what occurs normally in the sky. Astronomers know, people that spend a lot of time out at you know, in in in the environments at night, or educated in that department to know when if it's venus rising on the horizon or or setting on the horizon, and or some other objects, fireballs, or space debris. There's there's so many different things that can be misidentified and be be a shock to somebody who's never seen them or that isn't aware of st you know, the iss the space station

when it crosses over, it's a pretty amazing site. So I just wanted to bring that up because I think it's important that you know that there are reports that you know, a lot of them that are just can be relegated to things that are just normal, you know, things that just happened. But then there's that five percent, which is what interests anybody looking into this, that are truly legitimate.

game out of it. In particular, these children are these are well spoken kids. You got your hands on the documentary, all of the footage, basically the news footage, and you're using it to craft your documentary. Can you talk to us a little bit about just what these kids sound like, what it's you know, they sound credible just to me sitting here watching a trailer for the aerial phenomena, But talk to me about being immersed in that just for as long as you have been. What are these kids like?

their students. Being immersed in it and meeting these children as adults, it's been Yeah, it's been a really beautiful experience just on a personal level, like getting you know, meeting meeting just another person, but they actually happened to have a story that I'm interested in and seeing I

guess part of it. Uh, you know, people say, well, why you know, yeah, these kids may have made something up or I just find that really difficult to believe because I have all the archival of you know, they've been interviewed half a dozen times by you know, several different news outlets and reporters, you know, when it happened, immediately after it happened, and the consistency in those reports

is just riveting. It's just it's fascinating just on that level, the consistency that children that young can tell the same story from their own perspectives that you know, corroborates every other one. And they're not like getting together. I've never I haven't seen that we're getting together and you know, coming up with something or you know that doesn't seem to be that way. And as adults, they're still they still think of that day out of any day in

their life, what happened on that day. It's it's it's fresh to them. So I went through my own struggle of like, well, did this happen or did this not happen? What are the other possible explanations for this? And but I've over time become pretty convinced that something really occurred there.

That these comes through small details, small details that even as some of the adults remember that they don't even know about the archival that I have, but they'll mention something, you know, as a as adults, now that they don't even know about that I have in the archival from some other child who mentions that detail. It's it's just it's that kind of thing where there's a there's a

lot of corroborating evidence. I guess you could say that's what that would be the word that speaks to the validity that that this occurred, and it's not It wasn't like a normal event, you know. It wasn't like a typical UFO thing that they could have read out of a book. It was very, very different than the standard you know, or I don't know if there's a standard encounter, but you know what, what others have run into is very unique encounter with whatever this intelligence is.

children's details. I love how you point out that the details are one of the things that really set you on a path of discovery here, because we can always as human beings, misremember things or get things wrong. But if multiple people are having these same accounts, and if they have come to these accounts through their own experiences, you know they are not, as you said, getting together off camera or something and making sure their stories match.

If they are all reporting from their own perspective a similar or identical event, then it builds a much stronger case.

And an additional thing that I know all of us out in the audience are wondering, is something that came about as we were exploring the communication with the children or should we say the former children who were involved, because they are now as you said, they are adults, right in their twenties or thirties, and now that there's this time that has passed, I feel like there's part of the story we also need to explore here, which is your part? Randall? How did you you become involved

in this investigation? How did you become the documentarian who is exploring this event and bringing it to the world.

listening in the world, unity, personal relationships, therapeutic relationships. And I had showed it to a friend of doctor John Max, and she had asked me if I was interested in making a film about this Zimbabwe case, and I said sure, And I was very fascinated with just seeing me children being interviewed. I'm like, my first impression, I think everybody sees that is that they're telling the truth what they

saw or whatever. I didn't know at the time, like exactly what that truth was, but they were telling the truth. They felt honest and truthful, and you know, I was originally supposed to make a thirty minute DVD for the John mac Institute, and I just I felt like that John Max material was very good, but I felt like it there was there had to be more to the story.

I wanted to know more. I wanted to know more about well, were there other sources that I can compare his interviews to, you know, to see where he was coming from or where the kids were the story was consistent. So I found the school back in two thousand and eight.

And as soon as I found it, and then that came to a reporter in South Africa, I immediately went there and discovered a whole bunch of different things that the that the BBC was there, and then there was a big hunt to find that reporter and to get his uh archival footage and of and and and I continued to do this for years to find all the

archival because that that to me was important. If I could compare doctor max footage with that with all the other people that had interviewed these children, that would convince myself, you know more so and be more of a convincing story if the consistency was there, which it was, And so that's that kind of led me to thinking of it like this is such an important story, not only about the fact that this happened alone, that that some school in rural Africa had this full encounter, but the

story of this Harvard psychiatrist going over there, and then the the repercussions he got for for dealing with the phenomena at all, So that it's a very which you know, at some point I read, I reached the point like this is this is a feature documentary. There's this You can't tell this in a short form or in a small way. This is a really big story. And you know, I would say, and other people have said it before. I know, is just you know, these incidents happening all

over the globe. Every single country has reports, and if just one of those reports is true, it changes everything. And there's been tens and thousands of reports going back, you know, to the sixties, even before that, fifties and sixties. So I think that's part of the drive that I've had. It's like, well, this, this is a very important story as a whole for us, you know, as a as a species on this planet too understand that or to to start looking at, well, maybe there's something to all

this stuff. You know that that if and if there is, we really should be paying attention to that because that means that there's a higher order species, something with a higher level of technology than us, that is interacting with us. And then the The real concern for me is, well, that means that something else could potentially decide our fate. That concerns me, you know, And that's why I feel

like we should know as much as possible. And I hope this subject begins to be taken seriously because it's important. It's not just important. It's not the wow wow ufo you know, aliens who can I don't even care about that. I care about the fact that there is an intelligent species that's more evolved than us potentially, uh, that that could have a huge effect on our direction as a as as us as human beings.

I don't know how it was. They didn't know how to explain how it was communicated, but you know, in in you and I would know that as telepathy, you know, something that was transferred mind to mind. And the message was about our own environment. And several not not not the majority of the witnesses, but several of them, at least a half a dozen, maybe more, because a lot of them in the present day are are are not

They feel a little uh nervous to share that. But the message was about what we're what we were doing to our planet or what what what our direction was with our own environment. I don't know. I wonder about wonder about that a little bit. Underwell, as somebody sees something traumatic, you tend to think about, you know, particularly something from out out of this world that might be

a response to to a trent. I mean, you may think about your own place more I'm just thinking of alternative reasons why that would come out or it really happened, you know, or it was really communicated to these kids, And then the question is why.

agreed on some of these things. We've also heard some reports that there were some small differences in children's accounts. But what set this apart in your mind from the typical again I hesitate to use the phrase typical, but the super familiar, stereotypical UFO encounter story, like what really stood out?

find really interesting. The the other thing that's unique is that they were all wearing black, like a black skin tight suit, these creatures, And there's only I think three times in the history of of this phenomena that uh that's been reported, So that was unique. The message part

is not. I mean some of the research I've done with other cases, that's not terribly uncommon that people that have had encounters with these things get some kind of message about our own environment and our own direction as a species. So I think, yeah, I mean, those are the two big things that stand out for me are are where it took place, how it took place, and what they were particularly wearing it made it unique. And of course the message transmission and all that also.

of some sort. There was one teacher perhaps outside that was manning basically a snack stand kind of thing.

that that. This is none. I mean, I've interviewed all the teachers. I have all the teachers interviewed in at the time. There's just no way I can even see that as a possibility. It's just not there because it because mainly because the teachers were shocked. I mean they were they didn't believe the kids. They you know, not all of them, but many of the teachers initially did not believe that the kids until the kid's parents started showing up and saying, look, something happened to my kids.

What happened? You know? And then then it got uh you know, taken more seriously by the staff, and they head master and and they they were they became really convinced that something had occurred. You know, It's it's tough subject. I mean, they were all of a sudden, they're all the teachers were were put in a position of, Okay, these children are reporting this, but we don't believe this, and you know, it goes to so I don't I don't find any validity to that argument at all. I've

found nothing there. And I've looked at that, I've looked at hoaxes, you know, and you have to I got to say, I don't think enough people do this us in the UFO field or the unidentified aero phenomena field. Uh,

you know, you got to look at everything. You know, you can't take a report as just the way it is, you know, like I looked at everything, like what was going on with the teachers, what was going on in the country with their military, with you know, what was going on in space at the time you got and what were what where was the sun rising that day? What was the you know at night, what was the

where was venus? I mean, you all these questions you need to ask to do a thorough to get a thorough take on something too, And I think it's really important. I don't think enough people do that. And the other thing, you know, like with the teachers, this these children coming to the teachers. Uh, the teachers had a certain worldview and this is a lot of things John mac talked about and others like that. And this is what really this whole phenomena is about, really is that, you know,

is our worldview. You know that these things aren't supposed to exist, so we just they're not they they're not real, they're not they don't exist. So the most of the teachers were in that worldview, and they were approached by the children and being challenged in a in a big way from them by saying, no, this is what we saw.

But the worldview, like for all of us is you know, we most of us have this worldview that that you know, there's nothing more than intelligent than us, and we like to keep that worldview because it makes us feel good, makes us continue to want to do things. Uh, But there's different world views, like in Africa, people in the native populations, that's that's not they don't have the same

world view. They are open to understanding that yeah, we're we're the you know, dominant species here, or we think we are, and but there are other other species out in this vast ocean that we look at at night love stars. So I just think that the world, our world views is what's being challenged with this whole phenomena, Like it's something we really don't want to look at because it challenges our our ego really well.

at least yes, correct. For to have someone like this look into this whole phenomena, this one event, and then to have that group seek you out to produce a documentary on this subject, it's just it lends such credibility to it. I don't know. I think that's one of the main reasons why I personally am so excited about this documentary, not just the resources, but because there is this this man who then kind of became an institution.

Can you tell us a little bit about how like you you mentioned something about repercussions with John eMac for his beliefs and kind of what we've been talking about here, What happened? What were those repercussions?

And I think he was looking at different models of psychotherapy to explore the unconscious, the unconscious and he then he had dealt with people who had near death experiences and witnesses to UFOs or aliens, and and being such a high level person and he started the Cambridge Hospital. He was, you know, uh a psychiatrist on at the Harvard Medical School, a professor, and he started to get flack from the university for his looking into these these

cases and the repercussions. They really went after him. They were threatening to take away his tenure and basically fire him, which is never in the history of Harvard University been done. There's never been a person threatened like that the whole entire history of Harvard, and that goes back to the late sixteen hundreds. So it was really that was very unique.

And they you know, it was a whole not a trial, but essentially one behind closed doors, and you know, their concern was that he was you know, that these patients actually had psychological illnesses yet they displayed none of them. But that was their angle, that the concern for patients, and which is understandably I could totally understand their angle. But honestly, my take on it now as I felt like they were really trying to tarnish his reputation.

So it's quite a hero's journey in a way. I mean it was the man, a man who was had a conviction that these people are are telling the truth. You know, different people that are reported, including these children in Africa, they're telling the truth, and what does that mean? Asking the question of what does that mean? If this is the truth and this is not something psychological, what does that mean for us as a species?

ground interviews, through the work that you are doing. But all of it leads us to again the question you just positive, which is what does this mean? What does this mean for the future? What will humanity overall discover

from this event? And you know, we haven't even we haven't touched on the the other events across the world that you have mentioned that you alluded to that have some of the same threads running through them, right, So this is a question that we at least I don't know if you've got something up your sleeve, mat but This is a question that we don't have the answer to, Yetta, at least us.

is what always strikes me. There are people that have I mean, they come to me and they say, don't tell anybody, because I haven't told anybody, or they've only told their immediate family, and they share these stories that nobody knows about. They're just they keep it to themselves. They're afraid of ridicule, They're afraid of you know, Uh, they're afraid of a lot of things to uh to be to for it somehow to go public, afraid of

losing their friends, all kinds of fears. Yet their stories are you know, they sound and their feelings express something really happened. I just find that heartbreaking in a way that we there's this whole culture out there that is not being heard, that you don't see at UFO conferences,

that you don't see anywhere. They've just had these experiences and they're keeping it to themselves and that and if if it's just considering the number that I've run into and just doing the math of how many people there has to be like that, uh, is just it's a lot of It's a lot of people that could be helping us solve this mystery, and there just doesn't seem to be enough of a drive from us or our media or our culture to really want to find out

what's going on here. Because I think it's pretty important that we that we do try to understand it and try to find out more Because as far as I want to personally, I want to know what's going on. I want to know what situation humanity's in, like, I want to know that if there's something out there, I really want to know about it. I want to know how it can impact me. I want to know what I should be afraid of or a need to be afraid of. I don't know, I just I or not,

but I would like as much information as possible. I know about all the wildlife that live in the forest that I'm in, and I'm very curious, you know, to find out a lot about them. If there's something else out there, it's it's another form of wildlife just happens to be smarter than us. I want to know it's my much as possible, particularly because it's smarter than me.

So I don't know, I just it just strikes me that I, you know, I'll be glad when the day comes, and it will come when universities have programs that are really doing intense research about this, you know, and eliminating the Charlatans and whatever the BS stories that are out there and getting to the real stories and piecing this puzzle together because we need to know.

and we're working toward a final. You can check it out at Aerial Phenomenon dot com. We have a trailer there, and we have a trailer where Dan Aykroyd plugs the film and he's very aware of this case and he was just wonderful supporting the just trying to get this the word about this film out there. But you can see quite quite a bit of information on the site. We're still taking donations because it's been you know, it's been a project from the heart kind of thing, and

it's been up and down. You know. We get funding and then the funding stops, and then I go back to work to pay for more filmmaking, more editing. It's it's been hard to uh, you know, when you don't have the funding right there and you have to play all these roles to uh to keep it moving, and sometimes the production stops and then get we move ahead again, and then it stops again. Because anyway, it's been a challenge for sure. But so yeah, we're looking at for

being at a final within three months. So it's coming. It's coming soon. And I think the reaction because the other thing, this is not really a film about UFOs in a sense. I mean, it is a film about this incident, but it's it's a lot also about what happens to people, you know, what people go through when they have reported something like this and and how it sticks with them, and that's it's kind of a lot of different things. But it's not your traditional by any

sense UFO film at all. It's very mainstream as far as a story, and there's really a lot about the people, you know, not so much about the aliens or the wu woo stuff about UFOs, and I kind of think that's where the conversation needs to go, is in us getting out out sort of out of the wu Woo flash like aliens, aliens, alien stage two? Okay, well, you know what are we looking at?

with the military was absolutely fascinating. I don't know if you guys aware of that.

And you know, one thing that one thing that I think everyone listening should absolutely take away from this episode is a point that you brought up, Randle, that there are so many people that you have met who feel that they have experienced something that would that they are unable to communicate with the world because of fear of

social repercussions, right or social stigma. With that, and the most one of the most important things to remember here is that if you were listening and you feel that some sort of event has happened to you, if you feel that you do not have a voice regarding this, or that you do not have the ability to share it, the good news is we exist. Well, the good news is that you are. You know that you are not

existing in isolation. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people around the globe who have experienced something that they feel they may not be able to explain, and it is very important to remember that no person exists in isolation. And depending on depending on what people may ultimately find out about the aerial finace coming on and other sightings of this kind, perhaps our species also is not an island and does not exist in isolation. I'm

waxing a little poetic. I apologize, I apologize.

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