The mystical fog. Finland

Witness drawings of the face of the creature, and of the black box from which emanated the pulsating light which had been aimed at Heinonen. (credit: FSR)

Artist’s impression of the Imjarvi incident. (UFO-Nyt; credit: Evans and Spencer, 1987)

Aarno Heinonen (left) and Esko Viljo return to the site of their encounter. (credit: FSR)

‘I was standing completely still. Suddenly I felt as if somebody had seized my waist from behind and pulled me backwards. I think I took a step backwards, and in the same second I caught sight of the creature. It was standing in the middle of the light beam with a black box in its hands. Out of a round opening in the box there came a yellow light, which was pulsating…’

The time was 4.45 pm on Wednesday 7 January 1970, the place was lmjarvi, 15 km NW of Heinola in southern Finland. Woodman Aarno Heinonen, 36, and farmer Esko Viljo, 38, both active competition skiers, were out skiing. They came down from a little hill to a glade where they usually take a pause. It was sunset, and a few stars were visible in the unclouded sky. It was very cold (-17 Celsius) and windless.

They had been standing in the glade for about 5 minutes when they heard a buzzing sound, and caught sight of a very strong light moving through the sky. It approached from the north, made a wide sweep, and came at them from the south, descending as it came. The faint buzzing sound became louder. The light halted, and then they could see that a luminous red-grey mist was swirling round it. Puffs of smoke were thrown up from the top of the cloud.

The two men stood quite still staring into the air, saying nothing. The cloud was soon down as low as 15 m, and they could see what was inside it: a round object, flat at the bottom, metallic in appearance and about 3 m in diameter.

Heinonen’s account, as reported by GICOFF (the Goteberg UFO information centre) runs: ‘The round craft hovered awhile completely motionless above us while the buzzing sound could still be heard, quite low. Then the huge disc began to descend along with the red-grey fog which became more thin and transparent It stopped at a height of 3-4 m, so near I could have touched it if 1 had reached with my ski-stick.

‘The craft was completely round. When it came down obliquely towards us we saw it had a dome on the upper side. Along the lower edge was a kind of raised part on which were three spheres or domes spaced equidistantly, From the centre of the bottom projected a tube, approximately 25 cm in diameter, from which suddenly there came an intense beam of light.

‘I don’t think we said anything to each other at all. We were completely amazed. We saw the light move a couple of times before stopping and intensely illuminating a patch of snow about a metre in diameter, with round it a dark edge, almost coal-black and 1 cm wide.

‘I was standing completely still. Suddenly I felt as if somebody had seized my waist from behind and pulled me backwards. I think I took a step backwards, and in the same second I caught sight of the creature. It was standing in the middle of the light beam with a black box in its hands. Out of a round opening in the box there came a yellow light, pulsating. The creature was about 90 cm tall, with very thin arms and legs. Its face was pale like wax. I didn’t notice the eyes, but the nose was very strange, it was a hook rather than a nose. The ears were very small and narrowed towards the head. The creature wore some kind of overall in a light green material. On its feet were boots of a darker green colour, which stretched above the knees. There were also white gauntlets going up to the elbows, and the fingers were bent like claws around the black box.’

Viljo: ‘The creature stood in the middle of the bright light and was luminous like phosphorus, but its face was very pale. Its shoulders were very thin and slanting, with thin arms like a child’s. I did not think of the clothes, only noticing that they were greenish in colour. On its head was a conical helmet shining like metal. The creature was less than 1 m tall.’

Suddenly it turned and directed the opening of the box towards Heinonen: The pulsating light was very bright, almost blinding. It was very silent in the forest. Suddenly a red-grey mist came flowing down from the object and large sparks started to fly from the illuminated circle of snow. The sparks were like tapers, about 10 cm long, red, green and violet. They floated out in long curves, rather slowly; many of them hit me, but though I expected them to burn me, I did not feel anything.’

Viljo: ‘The sparks were shining in several colours. It was very beautiful. At the same time the red mist became thicker and hid the creature. Suddenly it was so dense that I could not see Aarno even though I knew he was standing only a few metres away from me.”

Heinonen: ‘I could only just see Esko. The mist was very thick and I could no longer see the creature.’

Viljo: ‘I saw the being for perhaps 15-20 seconds, no longer. Suddenly the beam melted, flew up like a flickering flame, and was sucked into the gap in the craft. After that it was as if the fog curtain was torn to pieces. The air above us was empty! I don’t think you can say we were afraid. We were laughing and talking about this light. But at the same time we felt a little uneasy.”

They stayed there for perhaps three minutes, Gradually Heinonen became aware of a numbness in his right side. When he stepped forward on his skis, his right leg wouldn’t support him and he fell in the snow. ‘My right leg had been nearest the light. The whole leg was stiff and aching. My foot was as if anaesthetised.’

Viljo: It was growing dark. I asked Aarno if we should be on our way. I thought he was joking when he sat down in the snow. But then I saw he couldn’t get up though he tried over and over again.’

SYMPTOMS

Viljo had to half-carry, half-drag his friend to his home, some 3 km distant. ‘When they got home,’ said Heinonen’s mother, ‘it was dark outside. They knocked on the door, which they don’t usually do, When I opened the door Aarno was outside leaning against Esko. I helped them in. Neither seemed frightened, but I could see Esko’s face was red and swollen. We got Aarno over to a sofa.”

Heinonen: ‘I felt ill. My back was aching and all my joints were painful. My head ached and after a while I had to vomit. When I went to pee the urine was nearly black, it was like pouring black coffee onto the snow. This continued for a couple of months.’

Viljo: ‘I hurried to the nearest neighbour, who lived some 600 m away; he has a telephone. The first two doctors I called couldn’t come, but Dr Kajanoja said he would meet us at Heinola clinic in an hour’s time. The neighbour drove us there.’

To the doctor, Heinonen complained about his aching joints and his headache. The doctor prescribed sleeping pills, and next day sedatives, telling him the symptoms would be gone in 10 days. But they continued, and Heinonen was unable to work, in May he reported he was still ill, with pains in head and neck; the least effort tired him. The numbness in his right leg had gone, but he still had trouble with his balance. His memory was so bad that if be left home he had to say where he was going so that he could be picked up if he didn’t return. A visit to the site of the incident made him feel worse. Several people who had visited the site, said Viljo, had felt sick for some days afterwards; he wondered if the place was infected in some way. He too suffered after-effects, including headaches and eye troubles. Dr Pauli Kajanoja reports: ‘l think the men have suffered a great shock. Viljo was very red in the face and seemed a little swollen. Both seemed absent-minded. They talked quickly and incoherently. I could not find anything clinically wrong with Heinonen. He did not feel well, but that could have been his stomach reacting to the shock. The symptoms he described are like those after being exposed to radioactivity. Unfortunately I had no instrument to measure that. As to the black urine, it seems inexplicable. Possibly it could have been blood in it, but this cannot go on for several months. If blood samples had been taken they might have revealed changes in his blood.

‘Both men seemed sincere, and I don’t think they had made the thing up. I’m sure they were in a state of shock when they came to me; something must have frightened them.’

A strange thing happened in June 1970 when the two witnesses revisited the site together with a Swedish journalist, a photographer and an interpreter; the hands of the three strangers suddenly became red, and Heinonen had to leave the site with a powerful headache.

CONFIRMATIONS

On the same day and at the same time as the skiers had their experience, two other people saw a bright light in the sky. A farmer’s wife, Elna Siitari, in Paistjarvi, about 15 km from Imjarvi, was on her way to the cow-house when she saw a strange light in the direction of Imjarvi. In Paaso, 10 km north of Imjarvi, the son of a household had gone out for firewood when he observed a light phenomenon; it was then 4.45 pm.

STATEMENTS FROM EXPERTS

Matti Tuuri, professor in electro-physics at Helsinki University, was very interested in the incident: ‘We can’t exclude the possibility that the injuries could have been caused by electrical radiation. But both state that the light was blinding and white, so it can’t have been ultraviolet radiation, which is always bluish, Besides, it does not penetrate clothing, if the radiation penetrated Heinonen’s clothing, it must have been a short-wave radiation such as X-rays; an overdose of these would cause symptoms such as those he reported…

‘There is much in electro-physics which has yet to be explored. One has only to mention ball lightning; we know it exists, but the physical laws defining its existence have yet to be established. According to the known laws of physics, ball lightning should blow up immediately – but it doesn’t! The incident at Heinola seems likely to be an abnormal electrical phenomenon.’

The Institute for High Voltage Research at (Jp-psala (University told GICOFF they did not think the phenomenon was related to any kind of atmospheric electricity.

Soil, vegetation and snow samples from the site were sent to Chalmers Institute of Technology for radiation tests, but revealed no more than normal background radiation.

SINCE 1970

To complicate a situation which already defies explanation, we have to consider Heinonen’s claim that between the time of the incident and August 1972 he had no less than 23 further UFO sightings. As if that were not enough, he has become a contactee; on two occasions he met an ‘extremely beautiful’ spacewoman, after a loud female voice had directed him to a secluded rendezvous.

At the first encounter he also saw a man, standing about 60 m behind the woman. She was wearing a yellow trouser suit which rustled when she moved; she was 1.5 m tall, with shoulder-length hair and blue eyes – a description recalling Adamski’s Venusian, She didn’t walk like a human but ‘floated’ or ‘hovered’. Though she looked about 20 she told him she was 180, as Menger’s Venusian did. In her hand she held a silvery ball with three aerials pointing at Heinonen.

Fortunately she spoke Finnish, and began her conversation with “Hyvaa paivaa” ( = How do you do?); she told him she came from a green and pleasant land. Three different species of humanoids had visited Imjarvi, she said, some smaller than her, some of her height (140 cm) and some about 2 m high. She said that the January incident had lasted 3 minutes, not just a few seconds as the two witnesses thought.

At their second meeting Heinonen again asked where she came from. She told him to hurry home and he would see the beautiful craft she had come in. And indeed when he got home he saw an object some 5-7 m in diameter in the sky.

On each occasion Heinonen spoke with the spacewoman for five minutes, but can recall surprisingly little of what was said. On another occasion both he and Viljo saw a being in Viljo’s home: a being a little more than 1.5 m, wearing a grey suit with white stripes, suddenly stepped out of the wall and remained standing in the middle of the floor; the two men gaped at it for 30 seconds, after which it vanished.

Swedish ufologist Liljegren has drawn attention to the failure of Heinonen and Viljo to offer anything by way of concrete evidence. On one occasion Heinonen received a green pen from the space beings, but he lent it to a researcher and never saw it again: he was given a stone but made to throw it away; when he tried to photograph the spacewoman both she and his camera disappeared! Viljo too tried to take a photograph of a mysterious light, but the camera was knocked out of his hand and the film was burned to ashes. All in all, Liljegren concludes, their accounts are more likes sagas and myths than a logical contact attempt by an intergalactic civilisation.

Without question, these later accounts undermine the credibility of the witnesses and throw a dubious light on their original story. As in the Dewilde case in France, the Hill case in the United States, and many more, what seems at first to be an interesting and serious incident is made to seem doubtful by subsequent events.

Is it that the real UFO experience causes the witnesses to subsequently have imaginary experiences? Or was the first, like those that followed, the symptom of some psychic state, triggered by some unknown cause to bring about a UFO ‘sighting’? (In this connection it is perhaps significant that, according to Anders Liljegren, this was not Heinonen’s first UFO sighting; he had had one six years previously!)

Or is there yet a third explanation?

A CURIOUS POSTSCRIPT

In February 1969 a 16-year-old boy, Matti Kontulainen, had a strange experience only 100 m or so from the slope where Heinonen and Viljo had their encounter:

‘It was a cloudy winter evening about 11 pm. I was skiing home through the forest after visiting a friend. It was dark but suddenly the forest was lit up by an intense light which rushed just above the treetops at so low an altitude that I threw myself down in the snow. It was like a huge welding flame, and it disappeared in no time. 1 have never seen such an intense light; it was like staring at the sun! It was coming from the south and heading north. I heard no sound, so I’m sure it wasn’t an airplane.’

Matti Haapaniemi, 46, is a farmer in Imjarvi and a member of Heinola rural district council; his farm is only 1 km distant from Heinonen’s home. He says: ‘Many people in this neighbourhood have laughed at this story. But I don’t think it’s anything to joke about I’ve known both Aarno and Esko since they were little boys. Both are quiet, rational fellows, and moreover they are abstainers. I’m sure their story is true!’

REFERENCES

1 – UFO-NYT no 5, 1970
2 – Flying Saucer Review vol. 16 nos 3,4 & 5; vol 26 nos 3 & 5
3 – GiCOFF Informntion No. 4 1978
4 – Personal correspondence Ilkka Serra/Kim Moller Hansen, September 1985.

ARTICLE 2

Incredible Claims

Why do Ufologists judge some reports of alien encounters to be more credible than others? Usually, the perceived integrity of the witness is the key factor in deciding whether or not to take a CE3 report seriously. But what if an apparently credible witness starts to make incredible claims? That was precisely the situation arising in the Heinonen case, which was first accepted, and then rejected by the Ufological community.

The Saucer in the Mist

Forester Aarno Heinonen and farmer Esko Viljo were both keen cross-country skiers who participated in national competitions. On the evening of Jan 7, 1970, they were practising their sport in forest land near Imjarvi, Southern Finland, when they decided to rest in a glade and watch the sunset.

Soon afterwards, they heard a loud buzzing sound and saw a luminous red mist moving through the sky towards them. The mist entered the glade and hovered above the treetops. At its centre was a metallic disc-shaped object, 10 feet in diameter.

“The disc began to descend along with the red-grey fog, which became more thin and transparent,” said Heinonen. “It stopped at a height of 3-4 metres, so near I could have touched it with my ski-stick.”

“We saw it had a dome on the upper side. Along the lower edge was a kind of raised part on which were three spheres or domes spaced equidistantly. From the centre of the bottom projected a tube approximately 25cm in diameter, from which there suddenly came an intense beam of light.”

The Little Green Gnome

“Suddenly I felt as if somebody had pulled me backwards. In the same second, I saw the creature. It was standing in the middle of the light beam with a black box in its hands. From around the opening in the box there came a yellow light, pulsating.”

“The creature was about 90cm tall, with very thin arms and legs. Its face was like pale wax. The nose was very strange – it was a hook rather than a nose. The ears were very small and narrowed towards the head.”

“The creature wore some kind of coverall in a light green material. On its feet were boots of a darker green colour, which stretched above the knee. There were also white gauntlets going up to the elbows, and the fingers were bent like claws around the black box.”

The Beam of Light

The entity aimed the black box at Heinonen and fired a pulsating ray of yellow light straight at him. A red mist descended from the hovering saucer, shooting red, green and purple sparks into the snow. Then the beam – along with the entity standing inside it – was “sucked up” into the craft.

“After that it was as if the fog curtain was torn to pieces,” said Viljo. “The air above us was empty!”

After Effects

Heinonen found himself completely paralysed down his right side. His companion had to virtually carry him home. Both men suffered from headaches and aching joints, but Heinonen’s symptoms were more pronounced, and he also experienced persistent short-term memory loss.

Dr Pauli Kajanoja, who examined both men, stated that “they were in a state of shock when they came to me”. He speculated that their symptoms were “like those after being exposed to radioactivity”.

Professor Matt Tuuri, an electro-physicist at Helsinki University, investigated the case and concluded that the men’s injuries could have been caused by an overdose of X-rays or by “an abnormal electrical phenomenon”.

Saucers and Spacewomen

After the incident, Heinonen claimed he was unable to continue working. He reported no fewer than 23 subsequent UFO sightings as well as several encounters with a gorgeous 180-year-old blonde spacewoman from “the other side of the Milky Way”. On one occasion he tried to photograph her, but she promptly disappeared into thin air along with his camera!

These bizarre claims irrevocably damaged Heinonen’s credibility as a witness. Ufologists who had previously championed his case now dismissed him as an inveterate fantasist.

However, in light of recent theories that UFO encounters may be caused by highly-charged balls of plasma that affect the temporal lobes of the percipient, perhaps Heinonen’s subsequent experiences were hallucinations arising from temporal lobe damage he had sustained during his initial UFO sighting.

____________________

Śnieżne krajobrazy Finlandii w 1970 roku, stały się areną dla intrygującej historii, która wciąż zastanawia zarówno entuzjastów UFO, jak i sceptyków tego tematu. Dwóch fińskich narciarzy nie tylko natknęło się tam na niezidentyfikowane obiekty latające, ale nawet doświadczyło spotkania potencjalnymi istotami spoza naszego świata.

W zimowy wieczór w styczniu 1970 roku Aarno Heinonen, pracownik leśny, i jego przyjaciel Esco Viljo wybrali się na wycieczkę narciarską do lasów południowo-wschodniej Finlandii. Gdy zapadła noc, usłyszeli dziwny brzęczący dźwięk i zobaczyli jasne światło zstępujące z nieba. Światło to ujawniło metaliczny obiekt unoszący się nad nimi, emitujący silny promień, który oświetlał śnieg. Obiekt o średnicy około 3 metrów, unosił się tuż nad nimi, emitując silną wiązkę światła, która tworzyła jasno oświetlony krąg na śniegu poniżej.

Mężczyźni czuli, że coś uniemożliwia im ruch. W końcu, po upływie kilku sekund kilka sekund, obaj mężczyźni widzieli istotę ubraną w jasnozielony kombinezon ochronny, trzymającą w rękach czarne urządzenie. Istota stała centralnie wewnątrz świetlistego kręgu i nie zwracała na nich wogóle uwagi.  W wywiadzie przeprowadzonym przez dziennikarza Eero Porka w 1971 roku Aarno Heinonen opowiadał że stwór „Miał stosunkowo dużą głowę i małe, okrągłe ciało”. Według niego kombinezon stwora był fluorescencyjny i wyraźnie świecił w ciemności. 

Nagłówek gazety ufologicznej, omawiającej incydent z Imjärvi 

Oto dokładna treść jego wypowiedzi w tłumaczeniu ze strony ufoevidence.org:

"Stałem zupełnie nieruchomo. Nagle poczułem, jakby ktoś złapał mnie w talii od tyłu i pociągnął do tyłu. Wydaje mi się, że zrobiłem krok do tyłu i w tej samej sekundzie zobaczyłem to stworzenie. Stało pośrodku wiązki światła z czarnym pudełkiem w rękach. Z okrągłego otworu w pudełku wydobywało się pulsujące żółte światło. Istota miała około 90 cm wzrostu, bardzo chude ręce i nogi. Jego twarz była blada jak wosk. Nie zauważyłem oczu, ale jego nos był bardzo dziwny, to był raczej haczyk niż nos. Uszy były bardzo małe i zwężały się w kierunku głowy. Istota miała na sobie coś w rodzaju kombinezonu z jasnozielonego materiału. Na nogach miała buty w ciemniejszym zielonym kolorze, które sięgały powyżej kolan. Były też białe rękawice sięgające do łokci, a palce były wygięte jak szpony wokół czarnego pudełka".

A oto co o dziwnym stworzeniu opowiedział drugi świadek obserwacji:

"Stworzenie stało pośrodku jasnego światła i świeciło jak fosfor, ale jego twarz była bardzo blada. Jego ramiona były bardzo chude i pochylone, a ręce cienkie jak u dziecka. Nie zastanawiałem się nad ubraniem, zauważając jedynie, że miało zielonkawy kolor. Na głowie miał stożkowaty hełm lśniący jak metal. Istota miała mniej niż 1 m wzrostu. Nagle odwróciło się i skierowało otwór skrzyni w stronę Heinonena: Pulsujące światło było bardzo jasne, niemal oślepiające. W lesie było bardzo cicho. Nagle z obiektu spłynęła czerwono-szara mgła, a z oświetlonego kręgu śniegu zaczęły lecieć duże iskry. Iskry przypominały stożki, długie na około 10 cm, czerwone, zielone i fioletowe. Unosiły się długimi łukami, raczej powoli; wiele z nich uderzyło mnie, ale chociaż spodziewałem się, że mnie spalą, nic nie poczułem".

Chwilę później, obydwu narciarzy, otoczyła gęsta mgła. Która rozwiała się po kilkunastu sekundach, razem z nią znikł też stwór i tajemniczy pojazd. Cały incydent miał trwać zaledwie dziesięć sekund. Incydent ten przyciągnął uwagę zarówno fińskich mediów, jak i opinii publicznej. Jednak pomimo szeroko zakrojonych dochodzeń prowadzonych przez władze, w tym Fińskie Siły Powietrzne, nigdy nie podano ostatecznego wyjaśnienia tej obserwacji.

Obaj świadkowie obserwacji, przez długie lata doświadczali niezwykłych dolegliwości. Krótko po spotkaniu Aarno czuł mdłości, nawracające bóle głowy i zaczął mieć problemy z nerkami. Esco doświadczył drętwienia i obrzęku kończyn ale ostatecznie wrócił do normalnego życia. Aarno Heinonen nie miał tyle szczęścia i pomimo zasięgnięcia pomocy medycznej, jego objawy utrzymywały się przez kolejne lata.

Aarno Heinonen i Esco Viljo

Późniejsze śledztwo ujawniło, że tego samego dnia i w tym samym czasie, co spotkanie narciarzy z UFO, dwie inne osoby widziały jasne światło na niebie. Żona rolnika, Elna Siitari, w Paistjarvi, dostrzegła je z około 15 km od Imjarvi, gdy kierowała się w stronę obory. Na własne oczy, widziała ona dziwne światło, zmierzające w kierunku Imjarvi. Nieco dalej w miasteczku Paaso, 10 km na północ od Imjarvi, syn innego rolnika wyszedł po drewno na opał, gdy również zaobserwował bardzo podobne zjawisko świetlne. Do obydwu obserwacji doszło w okolicach godziny 16.45.

Incydent w Imjärvi rodzi pytania zarówno dla sceptyków, jak i osób przekonanych do istnienia UFO. Objawy fizyczne odnotowane u mężczyzn sugerują, że bez wątpienia  w ich życiu wydarzyło się coś niezwykłego. Aby skomplikować sytuację, która już i tak wymyka się wyjaśnieniu, musimy wziąć pod uwagę twierdzenia Heinonena, że od czasu incydentu do sierpnia 1972 r. miał nie mniej niż 23 kolejne obserwacje UFO. Dwukrotnie spotkał "niezwykle piękną" kosmitkę, po tym jak głośny kobiecy głos skierował go na ustronne spotkanie. Za każdym razem Heinonen rozmawiał z kosmitką przez około pięć minut, ale nie pamiętał praktycznie nic z treści rozmowy. Innym razem, zarówno on, jak i Viljo widzieli istotę w jego domu. Stwór miał mierzyć nieco ponad 1,5 metra i nagle wyjść ze ściany budynku. Obaj mężczyźni wpatrywali się w nią przez 30 sekund, po czym zniknęła ona bez śladu.

Trudno jest się więc dziwić, że świadome tego kontekstu osoby, wątpią w autentyczność tej obserwacji. Bez wątpienia późniejsze relacje podważają wiarygodność świadków i rzucają wątpliwe światło na ich pierwotną historię. Co uważacie na ten temat? Czy pierwsze i wszelkie późniejsze doświadczenia Heinonena i Viljo, były objawem jakiegoś stanu psychicznego, wywołanego przez nieznany czynnik, czy może byli oni intensywnie nawiedzani przez istoty UFO? A może to właśnie stres związany z autentyczną obserwacją wzbudził w nich stany z pogranicza psychozy? Historia zna podobne przykłady i nie trzeba patrzeć dalej niż słynne UFO z Góry Świętej Anny. Zapraszam was do wyrażania własnej opinii na ten temat.

_______________________

Source: Kim Hansen, in Evans and Spencer (1987)

'I was standing completely still. Suddenly I felt as if somebody had seized my waist from behind and pulled me backwards. I think I took a step backwards, and in the same second I caught sight of the creature. It was standing in the middle of the light beam with a black box in its hands. Out of a round opening in the box there came a yellow light, which was pulsating...'

The time was 4.45 pm on Wednesday 7 January 1970, the place was lmjarvi, 15 km NW of Heinola in southern Finland. Woodman Aarno Heinonen, 36, and farmer Esko Viljo, 38, both active competition skiers, were out skiing. They came down from a little hill to a glade where they usually take a pause. It was sunset, and a few stars were visible in the unclouded sky. It was very cold (-17 Celsius) and windless.

They had been standing in the glade for about 5 minutes when they heard a buzzing sound, and caught sight of a very strong light moving through the sky. It approached from the north, made a wide sweep, and came at them from the south, descending as it came. The faint buzzing sound became louder. The light halted, and then they could see that a luminous red-grey mist was swirling round it. Puffs of smoke were thrown up from the top of the cloud.

The two men stood quite still staring into the air, saying nothing. The cloud was soon down as low as 15 m, and they could see what was inside it: a round object, flat at the bottom, metallic in appearance and about 3 m in diameter.

Heinonen's account, as reported by GICOFF (the Goteberg UFO information centre) runs: 'The round craft hovered awhile completely motionless above us while the buzzing sound could still be heard, quite low. Then the huge disc began to descend along with the red-grey fog which became more thin and transparent It stopped at a height of 3-4 m, so near I could have touched it if 1 had reached with my ski-stick.

'The craft was completely round. When it came down obliquely towards us we saw it had a dome on the upper side. Along the lower edge was a kind of raised part on which were three spheres or domes spaced equidistantly, From the centre of the bottom projected a tube, approximately 25 cm in diameter, from which suddenly there came an intense beam of light.

'I don't think we said anything to each other at all. We were completely amazed. We saw the light move a couple of times before stopping and intensely illuminating a patch of snow about a metre in diameter, with round it a dark edge, almost coal-black and 1 cm wide.

'I was standing completely still. Suddenly I felt as if somebody had seized my waist from behind and pulled me backwards. I think I took a step backwards, and in the same second I caught sight of the creature. It was standing in the middle of the light beam with a black box in its hands. Out of a round opening in the box there came a yellow light, pulsating. The creature was about 90 cm tall, with very thin arms and legs. Its face was pale like wax. I didn't notice the eyes, but the nose was very strange, it was a hook rather than a nose. The ears were very small and narrowed towards the head. The creature wore some kind of overall in a light green material. On its feet were boots of a darker green colour, which stretched above the knees. There were also white gauntlets going up to the elbows, and the fingers were bent like claws around the black box.'

Viljo: 'The creature stood in the middle of the bright light and was luminous like phosphorus, but its face was very pale. Its shoulders were very thin and slanting, with thin arms like a child's. I did not think of the clothes, only noticing that they were greenish in colour. On its head was a conical helmet shining like metal. The creature was less than 1 m tall.'

Suddenly it turned and directed the opening of the box towards Heinonen: The pulsating light was very bright, almost blinding. It was very silent in the forest. Suddenly a red-grey mist came flowing down from the object and large sparks started to fly from the illuminated circle of snow. The sparks were like tapers, about 10 cm long, red, green and violet. They floated out in long curves, rather slowly; many of them hit me, but though I expected them to burn me, I did not feel anything.'

Viljo: 'The sparks were shining in several colours. It was very beautiful. At the same time the red mist became thicker and hid the creature. Suddenly it was so dense that I could not see Aarno even though I knew he was standing only a few metres away from me."

Heinonen: 'I could only just see Esko. The mist was very thick and I could no longer see the creature.'

Viljo: 'I saw the being for perhaps 15-20 seconds, no longer. Suddenly the beam melted, flew up like a flickering flame, and was sucked into the gap in the craft. After that it was as if the fog curtain was torn to pieces. The air above us was empty! I don't think you can say we were afraid. We were laughing and talking about this light. But at the same time we felt a little uneasy."

They stayed there for perhaps three minutes, Gradually Heinonen became aware of a numbness in his right side. When he stepped forward on his skis, his right leg wouldn't support him and he fell in the snow. 'My right leg had been nearest the light. The whole leg was stiff and aching. My foot was as if anaesthetised.'

Viljo: It was growing dark. I asked Aarno if we should be on our way. I thought he was joking when he sat down in the snow. But then I saw he couldn't get up though he tried over and over again.'

SYMPTOMS

Viljo had to half-carry, half-drag his friend to his home, some 3 km distant. 'When they got home,' said Heinonen's mother, 'it was dark outside. They knocked on the door, which they don't usually do, When I opened the door Aarno was outside leaning against Esko. I helped them in. Neither seemed frightened, but I could see Esko's face was red and swollen. We got Aarno over to a sofa."

Heinonen: 'I felt ill. My back was aching and all my joints were painful. My head ached and after a while I had to vomit. When I went to pee the urine was nearly black, it was like pouring black coffee onto the snow. This continued for a couple of months.'

Viljo: 'I hurried to the nearest neighbour, who lived some 600 m away; he has a telephone. The first two doctors I called couldn't come, but Dr Kajanoja said he would meet us at Heinola clinic in an hour's time. The neighbour drove us there.'

To the doctor, Heinonen complained about his aching joints and his headache. The doctor prescribed sleeping pills, and next day sedatives, telling him the symptoms would be gone in 10 days. But they continued, and Heinonen was unable to work, in May he reported he was still ill, with pains in head and neck; the least effort tired him. The numbness in his right leg had gone, but he still had trouble with his balance. His memory was so bad that if be left home he had to say where he was going so that he could be picked up if he didn't return. A visit to the site of the incident made him feel worse. Several people who had visited the site, said Viljo, had felt sick for some days afterwards; he wondered if the place was infected in some way. He too suffered after-effects, including headaches and eye troubles. Dr Pauli Kajanoja reports: 'l think the men have suffered a great shock. Viljo was very red in the face and seemed a little swollen. Both seemed absent-minded. They talked quickly and incoherently. I could not find anything clinically wrong with Heinonen. He did not feel well, but that could have been his stomach reacting to the shock. The symptoms he described are like those after being exposed to radioactivity. Unfortunately I had no instrument to measure that. As to the black urine, it seems inexplicable. Possibly it could have been blood in it, but this cannot go on for several months. If blood samples had been taken they might have revealed changes in his blood.

'Both men seemed sincere, and I don't think they had made the thing up. I'm sure they were in a state of shock when they came to me; something must have frightened them.'

A strange thing happened in June 1970 when the two witnesses revisited the site together with a Swedish journalist, a photographer and an interpreter; the hands of the three strangers suddenly became red, and Heinonen had to leave the site with a powerful headache.

CONFIRMATIONS

On the same day and at the same time as the skiers had their experience, two other people saw a bright light in the sky. A farmer's wife, Elna Siitari, in Paistjarvi, about 15 km from Imjarvi, was on her way to the cow-house when she saw a strange light in the direction of Imjarvi. In Paaso, 10 km north of Imjarvi, the son of a household had gone out for firewood when he observed a light phenomenon; it was then 4.45 pm.

STATEMENTS FROM EXPERTS

Matti Tuuri, professor in electro-physics at Helsinki University, was very interested in the incident: 'We can't exclude the possibility that the injuries could have been caused by electrical radiation. But both state that the light was blinding and white, so it can't have been ultraviolet radiation, which is always bluish, Besides, it does not penetrate clothing, if the radiation penetrated Heinonen's clothing, it must have been a short-wave radiation such as X-rays; an overdose of these would cause symptoms such as those he reported...

'There is much in electro-physics which has yet to be explored. One has only to mention ball lightning; we know it exists, but the physical laws defining its existence have yet to be established. According to the known laws of physics, ball lightning should blow up immediately - but it doesn't! The incident at Heinola seems likely to be an abnormal electrical phenomenon.'

The Institute for High Voltage Research at (Jp-psala (University told GICOFF they did not think the phenomenon was related to any kind of atmospheric electricity.

Soil, vegetation and snow samples from the site were sent to Chalmers Institute of Technology for radiation tests, but revealed no more than normal background radiation.

SINCE 1970

To complicate a situation which already defies explanation, we have to consider Heinonen's claim that between the time of the incident and August 1972 he had no less than 23 further UFO sightings. As if that were not enough, he has become a contactee; on two occasions he met an 'extremely beautiful' spacewoman, after a loud female voice had directed him to a secluded rendezvous.

At the first encounter he also saw a man, standing about 60 m behind the woman. She was wearing a yellow trouser suit which rustled when she moved; she was 1.5 m tall, with shoulder-length hair and blue eyes - a description recalling Adamski's Venusian, She didn't walk like a human but 'floated' or 'hovered'. Though she looked about 20 she told him she was 180, as Menger's Venusian did. In her hand she held a silvery ball with three aerials pointing at Heinonen.

Fortunately she spoke Finnish, and began her conversation with "Hyvaa paivaa" ( = How do you do?); she told him she came from a green and pleasant land. Three different species of humanoids had visited Imjarvi, she said, some smaller than her, some of her height (140 cm) and some about 2 m high. She said that the January incident had lasted 3 minutes, not just a few seconds as the two witnesses thought.

At their second meeting Heinonen again asked where she came from. She told him to hurry home and he would see the beautiful craft she had come in. And indeed when he got home he saw an object some 5-7 m in diameter in the sky.

On each occasion Heinonen spoke with the spacewoman for five minutes, but can recall surprisingly little of what was said. On another occasion both he and Viljo saw a being in Viljo's home: a being a little more than 1.5 m, wearing a grey suit with white stripes, suddenly stepped out of the wall and remained standing in the middle of the floor; the two men gaped at it for 30 seconds, after which it vanished.

Swedish ufologist Liljegren has drawn attention to the failure of Heinonen and Viljo to offer anything by way of concrete evidence. On one occasion Heinonen received a green pen from the space beings, but he lent it to a researcher and never saw it again: he was given a stone but made to throw it away; when he tried to photograph the spacewoman both she and his camera disappeared! Viljo too tried to take a photograph of a mysterious light, but the camera was knocked out of his hand and the film was burned to ashes. All in all, Liljegren concludes, their accounts are more likes sagas and myths than a logical contact attempt by an intergalactic civilisation.

Without question, these later accounts undermine the credibility of the witnesses and throw a dubious light on their original story. As in the Dewilde case in France, the Hill case in the United States, and many more, what seems at first to be an interesting and serious incident is made to seem doubtful by subsequent events.

Is it that the real UFO experience causes the witnesses to subsequently have imaginary experiences? Or was the first, like those that followed, the symptom of some psychic state, triggered by some unknown cause to bring about a UFO 'sighting'? (In this connection it is perhaps significant that, according to Anders Liljegren, this was not Heinonen's first UFO sighting; he had had one six years previously!)

Or is there yet a third explanation?

A CURIOUS POSTSCRIPT

In February 1969 a 16-year-old boy, Matti Kontulainen, had a strange experience only 100 m or so from the slope where Heinonen and Viljo had their encounter:

'It was a cloudy winter evening about 11 pm. I was skiing home through the forest after visiting a friend. It was dark but suddenly the forest was lit up by an intense light which rushed just above the treetops at so low an altitude that I threw myself down in the snow. It was like a huge welding flame, and it disappeared in no time. 1 have never seen such an intense light; it was like staring at the sun! It was coming from the south and heading north. I heard no sound, so I'm sure it wasn't an airplane.'

Matti Haapaniemi, 46, is a farmer in Imjarvi and a member of Heinola rural district council; his farm is only 1 km distant from Heinonen's home. He says: 'Many people in this neighbourhood have laughed at this story. But I don't think it's anything to joke about I've known both Aarno and Esko since they were little boys. Both are quiet, rational fellows, and moreover they are abstainers. I'm sure their story is true!'