Billy Meier
Swiss farmer Eduard (Billy) Meier
who has several hundred beautiful colour photos and a few home
movies of what he claims are crafts from the Pleiades, some 500
light-years away. Despite the vast distance, Meier says it takes
his friends only several hours to make the trip. Meier says his
extraterrestrial friends often take him aboard their craft, which
can travel backward or forward in time.
This, Meier claims, has enabled him to speak with Jesus, to
photograph the eye of God, and to photograph the futuristic ruins
of San Francisco after an earthquake. Nearly 8 years ago,
MUFON, the nation's largest group of UFO believers, published a
report which characterised Meier's claims and his flying-saucer
photos as "The Most Infamous Hoax in UFOlogy." Rarely does a
pro-UFO group publicly admit a hoax, let alone use such harsh
criticism.
Gary Kinder, who authored this book, said he was warned about
the Meier case by almost every UFOlogist he interviewed during his
early research several years ago. But after three visits to
Switzerland and the 13 weeks he spent there "investigating" Meier's
tales, it was the beautiful colour photos of saucer-shaped objects
that Kinder found so convincing. Although one Meier UFO photo also
shows a Swiss fighter aircraft, its pilot seemingly never noticed
the nearby UFO.
Not until Page 225 of the 266-page book does Kinder inform his
readers that Meier admitted carving a small model flying saucer
which he used for some of his photos. The admission came after
less-convincing photos Meier thought had been destroyed found their
way into the possession of a one-time admirer via Meier's
disgruntled wife. But just because some of Meier's UFO photos were
hoaxes didn't prove that all of them were of the same genre, at
least to Kinder.
When one of Meier's (former) admirers chanced to recognise that
the picture of a devastated San Francisco was identical to an
artist's painting of what San Francisco might look like after an
earthquake, which had been published in GEO Magazine, Meier had a
ready explanation: His Pleiadian friends had "simply placed in the
artist's mind an accurate picture" of how they knew San Francisco
would look after it was destroyed.
Kinder said he finds it hard to accept some of Meier's
"outlandish claims." But, again, just because Meier tells some
spurious tales, that doesn't prove that all of his tales are
concocted, at least in Kinder's view. It is not clear whether the
author accepts reports of Meier's ability to de-materialise himself
and later reappear. Or Meier's claim that the Pleiadians gave him a
"laser gun" that he never shows anyone but whose existence is
evidenced by burn-marks on the brush in the woods.
While hoax photographs of UFOs are remarkably easy to make, movies
are much more difficult, especially for Meier, who lost his lower
left arm in an accident nearly 20 years ago. Kinder doubts that
Meier's many friends include a film-making accomplice, but the
author does not report any rigorous effort to unearth one.
The author quotes a film maker experienced in making "Star
Trek"-type movies as saying it would cost many thousands of dollars
and a large crew to re-create Meier's UFO movies-clearly beyond the
Swiss farmer's modest means.
But a more sceptical analyst, Kinder reports, observed that when
one moving UFO tried to stop, it would swing back and forth like a
pendulum, as if it were suspended by a thin thread from a fishing
pole.
The Meier story seems again to be one of UFOlogies great Hoax stories in a simialr
vein as that of George Adamski.