UFOs and Electromagnetic Effects Part 2

Introduction And Editor's Note

 This is part two of three parts of an article concerning UFOs and their allegedly being the source of "electromagnetic effects". Part One may be found HERE.

Gaines M. Crook was a registered Professional Engineer licensed to practice electrical engineering in the State of California. He was an engineering expert on electromagnetics and electromagnetic effects having spent the better part of his career designing, building, and testing scientific experiments and devices which used, manipulated, or suppressed the effects of magnetic fields.. This paper reflects his "professional opinion" in regards to the claims that UFOs or UAPs use "electromagnetics" to achieve the effects reported by witnesses.

This second part is the classification of observed / reported effects which were originally reported in "Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports involving Vehicle Interference: A Catalogue and Data Analysis", Evanston, IL: Center For UFO Studies, 1981" as well as other cases which the author felt were "significant".

This was originally written in 1990 and is presented as a "historical document". Therefore no effort has been made to update or correct subsequent discoveries, research, or investigations.

I have renumbered the original references and made them "Part specific" for ease of reference. I have also made slight changes to the way that some of the information is presented and added additional notes for clarity.

The original title was:

"Some Thoughts on Electromagnetic Effects"

Introduction

The plan of this paper in the examination of reported effects is as follows. I have gone over Rodeghier's report [1] and cross classified 425 reported incidents into 15 classifications depending on what was reported by the percipient and have added three more classifications from other sources. Some incidents fall into more than one classification. I have analyzed the content of each category and discussed the reasons for calling the category electromagnetic or as "other".

There are some events that may or may not be electromagnetic and there is no way to tell with the information we have. These will be discussed on an individual basis. I left out one category which appeared to be obviously not electromagnetic. This was audible sounds from the UFO itself.

1. Automobile Engine Stalls or Would Not Start

In the early years of the UFO era a UFO flew over a farm field where two tractors were plowing. One was a gasoline tractor, and its engine was stopped. The other was a diesel tractor, which was not stalled [2]. Since that day, many other cases have been reported and it has been commonly assumed that the mechanism for stalling cars is by interference with the electrical ignition system of the vehicle, since the diesel engine does not depend upon an electrical source for ignition.

 On the other hand the UFO intelligence may have decided not to interfere with the diesel tractor. More recently, however, it has been reported that diesel engines have also been stopped by UFOs. At least some of the newer diesel vehicles have electronic controlled fuel injection, so that it is possible that if more information was available on these events, the reported stoppage of diesels may also depend upon electrical interruption. We simply do not have enough information to make this determination.

This phenomena is one of the most common occurrences attributed to "electromagnetic effects". I counted 170 cases in Rodeghier's report [1]. It is also covered at length in Chapter 4, Indirect Physical Evidence of the Condon Report [3]. The Condon Commission sponsored tests to determine if a magnetic field could have been responsible for the stalling of one vehicle.

 It concluded that it did not since even though an ignition coil could be disabled by core saturation under the influence of a 16 to 20 kilogauss magnetic field, the outside metal of a vehicle which was stalled showed no evidence of having experienced this level of magnetic field.

Even if it had not been established that the body metal magnetic condition was undisturbed, I would have my doubts about the efficacy of a magnetic field in these cases. Magnetic fields have been known to be associated with UFOs but a dipole magnetic field attenuates as 1/r3 where r is the radius[4]. The same kind of effects have been described at 20 feet and 2000 feet away from the UFO. Assuming a magnetic dipole source of constant value, scaling at 1/r3 shows the field at 2000 feet to be only one millionth of the field at 20 feet.

Stalling of internal combustion engines has been blamed on the magnetic field by some and the electric field by others. Let's look at two reported cases of engine failure. Rodeghier[1] describes an incident unrelated to a UFO in which the percipient's car engine stalled coincidentally with a lightning stroke which struck about a kilometer away.

Rodeghier tries to tie the effect to the magnetic field but uses the wrong approach in evaluating the magnitude of the field at the position of the car. He is not encouraged by the result. Even then the field he calculated was high by a factor of over 400. The current of the lightning stroke should have been used as the source rather than the assumed magnetic field near to the stroke.

If the stroke hit 1 KM away and assuming a reflecting earth, and a current of 18 KA (this is the mean value of lightning stroke current, Tsurumi et al [5]), the resulting field would be 0.226 gauss at one kilometer distant, This is only about one half of the Earth's field; certainly too small to be of concern. On the other hand, the electric field could have been 20 to 40 kilovolts per meter. Could the electric field have been the cause?

Let us look at another case. Stringfield [6] reported that in 1945 he was aboard a C-46 aircraft near Iwo Jima when three UFOs approached. One engine malfunctioned and the aircraft dropped suddenly. The passengers were told to prepare for a ditching. The UFOs left and the engine restarted. This restart was normal because the propeller was turning the crankshaft of the engine).

Now here is a case that cannot be caused by electrostatic interaction with the ignition because the complete ignition systems of all WW-2 aircraft were shielded by a double layered brass shield from the magneto to the sparkplugs. This stalling was certainly not caused by the electric field. In the light of this, it seems that we cannot even blame the stalling of the car by the lightning stroke mentioned by Rodeghier on either the electric or the magnetic field.

Did electromagnetics enter into it at all? Perhaps, perhaps not. Through all of this we must keep in mind that the understanding of the nature of some areas of physics does not necessarily yield to "common sense" or "proofs" in the ordinary sense.

It seems more reasonable in the "car stopping" cases, as well as in cases where the headlights went out, to believe that the nearby UFO subjected the car to some influence of an unknown nature that simply stopped the electric current from flowing in the car's electrical system. There is no influence known to today's physics that can be remotely applied to ordinary electrical conductors (without a built-in controller) to inhibit the flow of current in them.

On the other hand we leave ourselves open to being fooled if we ignore the possibility that it might exist. We are not studying nature but a highly sophisticated and intelligent phenomenon which loves to play the joker. Stopping an internal combustion engine is not judged to be an "electromagnetic effect" within our present understanding of electromagnetics. It is "other".

2. Vehicle Engine Restarts By Itself After Being Stalled By UFO

One of the most disturbing allegations associated with the stalling of cars by UFOs is that in some cases, it is reported that after the UFO leaves the scene, the engine of the vehicle starts up all by itself. Rodeghier lists seven such cases and it was also reported by Salisbury [7], and others. Has anyone ever witnessed a single instance of an Otto cycle engine starting by itself after it is stopped? I have never heard of a substantiated case of an internal combustion engine starting by itself. Only in connection with UFO events do we hear of this. There is a good reason for this. The ignition is timed to fire before top dead center and unless the crankshaft is rotating forward to get it over top dead center, it will never start, it will kick backwards instead. Now the most disturbing thing is, how do vehicles self start after a UFO encounter? This is most definitely something which is beyond electromagnetism.

McCambell [8] tries to show how it can be done, but I do not agree. Those of us who have read the literature understand that seldom, if ever was there an encounter with a UFO where the percipient was in a normal state of consciousness. It may be that the drivers of these vehicles restarted their vehicles without realizing that they had done so. I have been in several automobile accidents where I had apparently done things immediately after the accident during the very stressful moments that I did not remember doing. I do not say categorically that this was the reason and that there could not have been a technical reason for the restarts, but this may account for the phenomena. Whatever the reason, it was not electromagnetic.

3. Headlights Failed or Dimmed

We have no conclusive evidence of what causes either the failure of an engine or lights, but if UFOs have a process to interrupt the current to a vehicle ignition system, it can certainly be interrupted to a headlamp. Whatever it is, it does not appear that we can blame it on electromagnetism.

4. Car Radio Went Dead (no static)

This category may be attributed to one of two things (and perhaps more). It is obvious that if the UFO has the ability to interrupt electrical power and it could (and perhaps does) interrupt the power to the radio receiver. The other mechanism is rather common and is known as receiver blocking. It is caused when a very strong radio frequency carrier is present near a receiver. It doesn't matter what frequency the carrier is on, if its amplitude is too high for the receiver to handle it will block the receiver.

This is the reason why military and other users of multiple simultaneously operating radio communication links must have a separate receiver site located some distance away from the transmitter site. The reports do not mention it but a blocked receiver usually emits a distinct low "carrier hum". It probably was there but was not noticed because of the circumstances. If the receiver was disabled by remote interruption of electric power, the effect is of unknown cause. If the effect was receiver blocking then it is truly electromagnetic.

The organization of the UFO seems to include plasma phenomena. I do not mean that the UFO is a natural plasma body (a la Phil Klass) but that there are certain operational properties which appear to be plasma like. Radio frequency fields are almost always associated with plasmas. Plasmas are matter in a disassociated state in which charges of both polarities are moving at high velocities.

This gives rise to certain resonances which cause the plasma to oscillate at critical frequencies related to the kinetic temperature and density of the plasma as well as any magnetic or electric fields present. Electromagnetic emission from an oscillating plasma could very well overwhelm a receiver.

I would like to point out that a stable stand-alone plasma at atmospheric pressure has so far been impossible for mankind to generate. Ball lightning is thought to be such a plasma but it has never been adequately explained or duplicated by man.

5. Car Radio Produces Static And Other Sounds

Radio frequency energy is brought into being when electrical currents flow and are varied or interrupted. There have been many references to radios and TVs being interfered with in the presence of a UFO. The generation of radio frequency energy by UFOs could be from any number of causes. It could be the result of some process associated with the organization of the UFO. It could be generated as a diversion or "cover" for their mission, as a confusion factor or simply the result of interaction of the UFO with the plasma environment that may accompany the UFO.

There are so many electromagnetic signals in the environment until if one looks at all of the signals normally present with a spectrum analyzer, it would be apparent that signals generated by a UFO would normally go unnoticed in the usual order of things unless they are very large, very close, or of a very peculiar spectral composition.

The sounds coming from an operating radio receiver are almost certainly transmitted by electromagnetic means. Other sounds have been reported coming from radios, sometimes even when it is turned off. I have given considerable thought to this problem. Within the limits of our present knowledge, this is a difficult one.

With the radio turned off, the voice coil of the speaker is connected either to a transformer secondary or an output transistor. It is possible that a very strong carrier of moderate frequency, modulated with the sounds could be induced into the wiring and detected by rectification in either the junction of an unenergized transistor in the radio or a corroded connection and be heard from the speaker.

I have on several occasions found corroded mechanical connections which act like semiconductor rectifiers and cause harmonics of a nearby transmitter to be generated. During one period, this was such a troublesome source of electromagnetic interference for ships in the U.S. Navy that all ships underwent refurbishing to correct it.

The variability of all of the circumstances which combine to allow this scenario make the results so remote and uncertain until I doubt that this is the cause. From a philosophical point of view, for an intelligence that is reputedly able to put voices within a person's head, it would seem easier to put the sounds into the mind of the percipient. The sounds purportedly coming from an inactive radio receiver were probably not of electromagnetic origin.

6. Car Occupants Feel Prickling in Skin or Electric Shock 

It is possible for a person to feel the effects of electric fields as a prickling of the skin. This sensation has been described by persons in the open during thunderstorm weather. I have never heard of the sensation increasing until an actual shock was felt, however it is possible that this could be true. In order for the field to be felt by the percipient, the field would have to be either a DC field or of a fairly low frequency since as the frequency increases above about 100 kilohertz, the current flows only on the surface of the skin, not causing shock. This is a true effect of electric fields and so is considered an "EM" effect.

7. Car Occupants Paralyzed

We know of no electromagnetic interaction that can cause a person to be paralyzed at a distance. This is not electromagnetic.

8. Car Occupant Feels Heat

Infrared rays (an electromagnetic wave) produce the sensation of heat but then other effects can also. Electromagnetism probably was involved but in order to make a definite determination much more information would be needed. At least it is feasible. This could be electromagnetic.

9. Battery Was Dead After UFO Incident (in one case the battery was melted.)

It is possible that the induction of a very high radio frequency current into the battery could discharge or destroy it as was the case in some of these instances. If this is true the radio frequency current was coupled into the battery through the battery wiring. The energy coupled into a circuit depends on the frequency, the degree of shielding, the area enclosed by the loop of conductor and the intensity of the field.

Since the wiring of a vehicle is pretty well shielded (at higher frequencies) and current loop area is relatively small the field would have to have been enormous in order for this to be the cause. This seems to have happened in a relatively small number of cases in comparison to the number of engine interference cases. Tentatively it will be called electromagnetic.

10. Car Dome Lights Energized Without Being Turned On

This one is surely electromagnetic. Radio frequency energy from the RF wave is being coupled into the bulb through the car wiring. Once in 1948 while I was working at a commercial radio broadcast station transmitter, we had an on-site water well and a pump house located about 100 yards from the transmitter building. There was a 60 watt light bulb in the pump house which would stay illuminated all the time, if the light socket switch was on, whether there was commercial power on the wire or not.

This is a common electromagnetic effect when radio frequency current can be coupled into an incandescent bulb circuit. At the same transmitter building, a ceiling fluorescent lamp near a phasing network cabinet would glow when the network was active to produce the phase shift necessary to produce the directional antenna characteristics used at night. The fluorescent lamp is a high impedance device and operates on voltage whereas the incandescent lamp is a low impedance device and operates on current.

11. Violent Rocking of Car

The reports do not give enough information to make a determination of what caused the rocking. It could have been a magnetic interaction but since magnetic effects can only attract and not repel a soft magnetic body like a car, the probability is remote.

12. Doors Wouldn't Open

The reports do not give enough information to make a determination of what kept the doors from opening. I can't imagine how electromagnetics could do it without some device to help.

13. Road Sign Vibration

It is hard to say for certain what made the road sign vibrate, but it could have been a low frequency magnetic field. It would have to have been a tremendous field. It is a shame that someone did not check the sign to see if it had any remnant magnetism. Indeterminate but could have been magnetic.

14 Commercial AC Power Failed

Here we have just a few instances of commercial power interruption which were observed during vehicle interference. This has been reported many times in connection with UFOs. Again we encounter the uncanny apparent ability of the UFO to remotely interrupt electric power. If this occurs at one house or a few houses everything goes back to normal after the UFO leaves, but if a major power line is involved in an interruption then it can spell disaster.

The flow of power within a power grid having many power plants as sources and containing many loads is a complex and potentially unstable network. The magnitude of energy flowing through a major high voltage power line is incredible. If power is interrupted, even for a moment the result could be disastrous. I cannot think of any mechanism, electromagnetic or not, by which the UFO could remotely interrupt the power flowing in a power line.

15. Remote Manipulation of Objects. 

Now let us consider the possibility of the remote manipulation of objects. Magnetism can cause two pieces of ferromagnetic material to attract or repel one another. A conducting non magnetic ring restrained above a solenoidal coil energized with alternating current will be repelled by the coil and float in the air. The latter effect depends on the same principles of induced currents and induced opposing field that operate the AC induction motor.

Magnetism is a very weak interaction as far as physical forces go. There is no way that magnetism, or in a broader sense, electromagnetism, can be used to manipulate objects remotely as do the "tractor beams" of science fiction. If this is indeed happening, it is not the result of "electromagnetics" but something of which our current physics has no knowledge.

There are at least two reports which I will discuss relative to this. Many other similar cases have been reported. The first is the Rhodesian case reported by Faill [9] wherein a couple in a car were apparently lifted by a UFO and carried from near Umvuma, Rhodesia nearly 200 miles to the South African border. The car engine was apparently not running since only about a quart of fuel was used for the trip.

Based upon the narration of the story by the percipients, there seems to have been nothing which would indicate that electromagnetics was involved in this case as the primary mode. Even the radio was playing during the trip. The percipients were in an apparent trance-like state during he occurrence. There is just no known electromagnetic interaction which allows for this kind of "lift-and-carry" technique.

The second case that I wanted to mention is that of Ed Walters [10] and the blue beam. Ed Walters related that in several instances he was subjected to a blue beam from a UFO which was described as having similar characteristics to the science fiction "tractor beam". It allegedly tried to grab him like a hand and in one instance pinned down his foot to the ground. If the blue beam is a light beam, it, of itself is electromagnetic, but that is as far as it goes.

There is no known electromagnetic interaction that has the capacity to perform these kinds of maneuvers. I find this event hard to believe. If so many weird occurrences had not been reported relating to UFO events, I would relegate this kind to the trash can. We know that a stage magician/hypnotist can tell a person that a hand or a foot is immobilized and he will be frozen to the spot. With the ability to communicate directly to the mind of the percipient the UFO intelligence may be able to do the same thing. Remote hypnotism is about as far out as remote manipulation. We can't do either.

16.  Headlights Beam Bent Sharply to the Right

The theory of general relativity tells us that when light passes through a gravity field it is deflected but this effect is ever so slight. This is the result of the equivalence of energy with mass. The photons of the light have equivalent mass due to their energy, and are actually attracted by gravity. As a test of the theory, Sir Arthur Eddington went to South Africa in 1919 and measured the deflection of the light of a star as it passed the limb of the sun during a total eclipse of the sun. The measured deflection was 1.74 seconds of arc. Glasstone [11]. The light beam was said to have been bent 90° in the UFO case. 90° is 186,207 times the bending that the gravity of the sun can bend light as it passes the sun. This is not electromagnetic or gravitational and I cannot imagine what it would be unless it was an illusion.

17.  UFO Emulates a High Power Ground Radar

The RB47 case cited by McDonald [12] is interesting because the UFO, flying sometimes at faster than the speed of sound apparently produced signals which mimicked a ground search radar. The RB47 was on an electronic warfare training mission over the south central United States when the UFO produced signals which "appeared to be similar to those of a CPS-6 radar."

The frequency was stated to be about 3000 megahertz, the pulse width was 2 microseconds and PRF was 600 hertz. If I remember correctly, a CPS-6 is a 6 megawatt S band ground search radar with 30 db of antenna gain. This means that it's effective radiated peak pulse power (including the 30 db of antenna gain) is six billion watts; not a weak power source. In this case the signals observed seemed to be intended to generate confusion. It was definitely electromagnetic and the receiver displays were photographed by the crew of the RB47.

18. Reports of Beeps Coming From The Rear of the Car

Betty and Barney Hill remembered beeps coming from the rear of their car while being chased by the UFO before their abduction[13]. This is a rough one. It is remotely possible that it was electromagnetic. It might be possible that a beam of VHF energy, amplitude modulated with the beeps and aimed at the rear of the car could have been detected by rectification in rusty joints in the metal and have been directly manifested as a buzzing of the metal of the car but the chances of this happening are almost nil. This one is as remote as some of the scenarios presented by debunkers! For an intelligence that is reputed to be able to communicate directly with the human mind it would certainly be easier to put the beeps directly into the victim's minds!

Our disadvantage is that when we think of a particular kind of electromagnetic interaction we think in terms of the equipment that it would to take for us to generate it. I feel quite certain that UFOs do not use anything that would be recognizable as being equipment to us. Perhaps nothing they do would be recognizable to us! They may not even have a concept of "equipment".

References:

[1] Mark Rodeghier, "UFO Reports involving Vehicle Interference: A Catalogue and Data Analysis", Evanston, IL: Center For UFO Studies, 1981.

[2] Richard Hall, Ed. "The UFO Evidence", Washington,D.C.: NICAP, 1964

[3]  Edward U. Condon, Ed. "Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects", New York: New York Times, 1969

[4] Dipole, Classification, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipole#Classification

[5] Sakuro Tsurumi, Katsuhiro Kinoshita and Giichi Ikeda, Chapter IV-4 "Some Results on Lightning Stroke Current Measurements in Japan"; Vol. 1, "Planetary Electrodynamics", Samuel Coroniti and James Hughes,Eds., New York, London, Paris: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, 1969

[6] Leonard Stringfield, "Situation Red: The UFO Siege", New York: Doubleday, 1977, also personal communication, 12-6-90.

[7] Frank B. Salisbury, "The Utah UFO Display: A Biologist's Report", Old Greenwich, CT.: Devin Adair Co., 1974

[8]  James M. McCampbell, "UFO Interference with Vehicles and Self Starting Engines" MUFON Symposium Proceedings, 1983

[9] Bill Faill, "UFO Car-napping in Rhodesia", Fate  Magazine, Jan.,  1977, Also appeared in "Alien Abductions", D. Scott  Rogo, Ed., New York: Signet, 1980 3. Bill Faill, "UFO Car-napping in Rhodesia", Fate  Magazine, Jan.,  1977, Also appeared in "Alien Abductions", D. Scott  Rogo, Ed., New York: Signet, 1980

[10]  Ed Waters, Gulfbreeze Florida UFOs http://www.ufocasebook.com/gulfbreeze.html

[11] Samuel  Glasstone, "Sourcebook On The Space  Sciences",  New York: Van Nostrand, 1965

[12] James E. McDonald, "Science In Default: Twenty Two Years Of Inadequate UFO Investigations", Section 5, "UFOs, A Scientific Debate"

[13]  John Fuller, "The Interrupted Journey"  New  York:  Dial Press, 1966