A Strange Case of a Psychic A̳l̳i̳e̳n̳ Entity in Australia
Among all of the reports of U̳F̳O̳s and a̳l̳i̳e̳n̳s out there, some stand out as particularly odd. Some acounts hold strange details and features that push them truly into a bizarre realm of their own, defying all attempts to understand them. One such case comes to us from the wilds of Australia, and involves U̳F̳O̳s and an enigmetic psychic being that is really hard to categorize.
On the night of July 5, 1972, 27-year-old Maureen Puddy was driving along a lonely stretch of rural road called Alooraduc Road, near Frankston, in Victoria, Australia. That evening she had just visited her son, who had recently been seriously injured by a falling cupboard, at the Royal Children’s’ Hospital in Melbourne, after which she had had tea at her mother’s house and now she was heading to her home, taking a shortcut along a very dark and secluded area. As she looked out into the night with weary eyes, fighting off sleep, her attention was drawn by a blue light that was shining from above down onto her car and the road. Her first thought was that this was a helicopter flying over, although there was no noise, and she decided to stop the car and see what was going on.
When Maureen pulled over and got out of her vehicle, she was shocked to see that this was no helicopter, but rather a “large circular object, like two saucers placed together, with one upside down” and radiating a brilliant blue light all around. The mysterious object was massive, estimated as being around 100 feet across and 24 feet high, and seemed to be composed of a uniform smooth metal that had no discernible joints, rivets, seams, and no windows or openings anywhere on it. It was hovering there motionlessly and emitting a low, almost imperceptible hum. It was not doing anything particularly menacing, but considering what an odd sight it was, Maureen was frightened, getting into her car and driving off.
As she drove along, she noticed that the intense blue light that was illuminating everything almost as if it were daytime did not fade. She looked behind her and was startled to see that the enigmatic object seemed to be following her, pacing her to remain the same distance away no matter how fast she went. It followed her for around 8 miles before abruptly rising and shooting off into the distance in a streak of light, to leave her there stunned and not a little scared. She would report her sighting to the Police at Dromana, who did not take it very seriously at all, and that was that.
Three weeks later, on Tuesday, July 25th, 1972, she visited her son in the hospital again, had tea with her mother as usual, and then headed off home along the same route. By now she had tried to put the memory of that surreal U̳F̳O̳ encounter behind her, but it does not seem to have been over just yet. Once again the blue light appeared over her car, and once again that enormous disk-like object was inscrutably hanging in the air. This time she did not stop her car, rather tearing away as fast as the vehicle would go, but she then found that she was losing control of it. The car began to drift, the steering wheel ignoring her panicked efforts to wrest back control of it. As this was going on, the accelerator also stopped responding, and the vehicle just sort of lost power to careen to the side of the road and roll to a stop, refusing to start again. As Maureen frantically tried to restart the car, all while keeping an eye on the brilliant blue object, she heard a voice in her head, loud and clear as if the one uttering it were standing right next to her, and it gave her the cryptic message “if you could be in a vacuum, then I have been in one.” This voice sounded off-kilter and modulated, as though it were coming from a computer, and it then said to her, “Don’t be afraid … we mean you no harm…..your tests will be negative … tell the media you are now in control,” The object then sped off, the blue light receded, and the car sprang back to life.
Once again she reported the incident to the police, and again they mostly scoffed at it. She then decided to call Laverton R.A.A.F., hoping that they could tell her if it was some sort of aircraft they had been testing. The base told her that there had been no aircraft or balloons in the area at the time, and urged her not to talk about what she had seen. This only added to the oddness of what had happened, leaving her baffled and perplexed. What had happened to her and what did the messages in her head mean? U̳F̳O̳ researcher Judith Magee, of the Victorian U.F.O. Research Society (VU̳F̳O̳RS), who would interview Maureen in later years, would write of it:
Naturally, we questioned Maureen regarding her experience in the car. What did the messages mean? She said she had not had any recent tests done, but some about six months ago proved negative. There was no use telling her not to be afraid, she was terrified! As for telling the media: she ‘phoned three of the four T.V. stations. One was mildly interested since they were showing “Chariots of the Gods”. Two made light of her news, so she did not bother to contact the fourth. I heard through a radio talk-back program, which in desperation, she had contacted, because the U̳F̳O̳nauts had said to contact the media and she did not want to see them again!!
When I invited her to address one of our meetings at the National Mutual Theatrette, she agreed, and kept the full-house spellbound for about two hours. The hall was crowded, there were even people in the lobby listening through the speaker system – thoroughly fascinated! During the question period that night, Mrs. Puddy was really ‘put through her paces’. “Did she think what she saw was a psychic phenomenon?” “Did she suffer any burns or after effects?” To both these questions she answered “No”. “Did she think there were any other witnesses?” She thought there must have been one at least, because as she was approaching a railway crossing, she saw a man with a torch, leading a cow up one of the side roads. Surely the U̳F̳O̳ must have passed very close to him, but would have been going in the same direction. Later the man’s wife contacted her and also a lady living on a ridge, not far from the highway, – both had seen the light!”
Six months later, Maureen began to hear voices in her head again, this time constantly telling her to “go back to the meeting place.” She tried to ignore the voice at first, but it became so insistent, pestering her night and day, that she could barely concentrate on anything. On one occasion she heard a voice calling her name from outside the front door, but she opened it to find no one there, and this voice would follow her around wherever she went, commanding her to go back to the meeting place, which she assumed was that road she had seen the object on. Afraid to go alone, she asked Magee for help, and so a researcher named Paul Norman and herself would accompany her. Oddly, when they entered Maureen’s vehicle Magee felt a slight tingling sensation, and things would get even weirder from there. She would say of it:
Before going further I should perhaps add, that as I entered her car, I had the odd feeling that something was amiss, I was experiencing a tingling sensation (like that of a mild electric shock), which passed off quite quickly. Maureen then told me that in the center of the front seat, between where the two of us sat, had appeared an entity completely clad in a type of gold foil suit. As she turned to look in his direction, she was so startled she almost ran off the road, it was quite obvious she was quite shocked by the eventful drive. By this time, we had reached the ‘meeting place which was somewhat hidden from passing traffic by a few trees. We drew to a stop and Paul came to sit in the back seat of the station wagon while I stayed in the front with Maureen.
We were talking about the latest incident along the road, when suddenly, she grabbed my arm and pointed across her car, exclaiming: “There he is! Can’t you see him?” and she shook my arm saying that I must be able to – I tried to explain to her that it was like closed circuit television – from him to her. She said he was coming closer to the car, in fact, so close that if I put my arm out I could possibly touch him. He was now standing almost beside the front headlight, so I asked Paul to take a little walk around the car. As he came to where the entity was standing, the entity moved back to allow Paul to pass between him and the car. At this point the entity beckoned to Maureen to follow him, but she adamantly declared that she would not. I told her I’d go with her and tried to gently ease her out the car door, but she hung onto the steering wheel and would not budge.
Maureen then went into a trance of some kind and told them that she was receiving a vision of the interior of the entity’s ship. She said that she saw a vast circular room, devoid of any furniture but with a large, mushroom-shaped object in the center. This object apparently wiggled slightly as if made of jelly, and was adorned with “lines like those of Roman numerals around the lower portion.” Maureen told the researchers that she was now walking around the room circling this center object, but she then suddenly went into some sort of panic attack or seizure, of which Magee would say of what transpired next:
She was apparently looking around the room and became very agitated at this point, crying, “I can’t get out! There are no doors or windows. I can’t get out!” I put my arm around her shoulders in an attempt to calm her, and could feel tears on my hand. She was really upset and as I clearly visualized what Maureen was describing, I decided to direct my thoughts to the entity; nothing to lose and maybe something to gain – as I was very concerned about Maureen’s state, I felt she may have had a nervous collapse or even a stroke. I silently requested he take pity on the poor girl and suddenly she said, “he wants me to close my eyes”. I replied that she should do so and almost immediately I felt her relax as if in a trance.
Again she began to describe the interior of the object and once again became agitated when she could see no way out of the vehicle. After a brief period, she “came back to us” and we switched on the car’s interior lights and asked if she would care for a cup of tea from our thermos flask. I had just handed Maureen her cup when she said, “Oh, I’m back in there again”, and repeated the description, but this time somewhat more calmly, before stating, “he’s gone. This time he’s really gone. I can tell. It feels different.
After this, Maureen seemed much calmer and more normal, but she didn\’t really understand what had happened to her. Magee herself likened the entity to a hypnotist, exerting some sort of mind-control over Maureen through psychic powers and verbal cues. She says of this:
Have you ever watched a “fun” hypnotist at work? “When I snap my fingers, you will go into a deeper trance” etc. Was the second meeting (July 25th 1972) about which Maureen stated that while she was sitting in her car, just prior to the voice speaking to her, “that if you could be in a vacuum, then I have been in one” – such an incident? There was no sound, nothing moved, all was calm and quiet, then the voice delivered the message. Was this third incident due to the ‘snapping of the fingers’ when they urged her to act? If this is so, how many people can they hypnotize, perhaps even in their sleep, so we react when “they” wish, whenever “they” ‘snap’ their fingers? I find this a very sobering thought.
Indeed it is a sobering thought, and one wonders just what mysterious forces were at wotk here. What was this entity and what sort of power did it hold over this poor woman? What did it want and where did it come from? Was it ever even real at all, or just a figment of the imagination? There is no way to really know, and the bizarre case of Maureen Puddy remains unexplained.
