47017 PM-NE--SpaceAliens AP-RG LOCAL NEWS RUSH 638 02/08 12:18 AM

PM-NE--Space Aliens,0580 (0311l0ne--nr014NY)

with AP Photo AH1 of Feb. 6

Physics Professor Says Space Aliens Are Visiting Earth


jmrstk2

By JOE RUFF

Associated Press Writer

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) _ A physics professor believes space aliens are

visiting Earth and at least one civilization is kidnapping people

and performing medical experiments on them.

The U.S. government covers up evidence of the aliens to avert

panic and news organizations and even scientists avoid the subject

for fear of ridicule, said University of Nebraska at Omaha

professor John Kasher.

Kasher, who holds a doctorate in physics, teaches courses on

supernatural phenomena and space science. He has taught at UNO for

25 years.

Kasher has been interested in unidentified flying objects and

science fiction most of his life, and 20 years ago became involved

with the Mutual UFO Network, an international organization with

about 4,300 members that gathers information on UFOs and publicizes

the information.

Nebraska has about 50 MUFON members, most of them in the eastern

part of the state, said Kasher, who is the state director.

Kasher said he approaches the question of UFOs as a scientist

and that MUFON stresses gathering scientific evidence for UFO

reports.

``I demand that I look at the evidence objectively wherever I

can,'' Kasher said. ``And if there's nothing there, then there's

nothing there.''

But Kasher feels there is something there.

``I personally feel that there are probably several

civilizations here and they may have different agendas,'' Kasher

said.

``Some may be here just on a scientific investigation, and so

they'll just watch quietly. You know, if you want to study an

anthill you don't go in and mess it up, you just watch it,''

Kasher, 54, said in an interview in his office, which includes

pictures of purported flying saucers.

``There is a good deal of evidence to support the fact that at

least one civilization is involved in kidnapping our citizens and

doing medical exams on them and then bringing them back,'' Kasher

said. ``It could very well be that they are doing this on a massive

scale.''

Kasher said the aliens don't appear to be hurting people, and he

hopes they are benevolent.

``I think if they wanted to take over (the planet) they could

have done it a long time ago,'' Kasher said.

At least once a year Kasher gives a talk on campus on UFOs and

he talks often on the subject to rotary and optimist clubs, Kasher

said.

UNO teachers and administrators support him and students are

open to the possibility of extraterrestrial life, Kasher said.

One person in the vice chancellor's office talking about

aviation with a benefactor of the college suggested the benefactor

talk with Kasher after the conversation turned to UFOs, Kasher

said.

Kasher acknowledges that his beliefs are shocking, but he feels

it is important that people know the truth.

``I think it's important for people to realize it's happening

around here,'' Kasher said. ``The abduction thing, I don't know how

much you want to hit that, that's really kind of bizarre stuff. But

boy, if it's happening people should know about it. And that's

happening, apparently, quite a bit in Omaha,'' Kasher said. ``And

then there are saucer sightings here, too.''

There is a support group of about 47 people in Omaha for people

who believe they were abducted or contacted by aliens, Kasher said.

Kasher declined to name any of the people in the group.

The group meets just west of Omaha at the Oakcrest Institute,

said E. Quay Fitch, a 74-year-old retired funeral director who is

in charge of the institute that collects information on paranormal

experiences.

``This is the only place people can go to talk about what

happened to them without being ridiculed,'' Fitch said.

AP-NY-02-08-93 0017EST

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From the Book of Charles Berlitz's "World of Strange Phenomena"

Abducted Cop

The morning of December 3, 1967, turned out to be unlike any other in the life of Ashland, Nebraska, police patrolman Herbert Schirmer. Schirmer's logbook for that day contained this bizarre entry: "Saw a FLYING SAUCER at the junction of Highway 6 and 63. Believe it or not!"

At 2:30 A.M., while on routine patrol, Schirmer had seen what looked like a large football encircled by red flashing lights near the intersection of the two highways on Ashland's outskirts. Alone in his patrol car, the trooper watched in silence as the UFO lifted off the ground, trailing a redorange flame and emitting a shrill siren-like sound.

Filling out his log report thirty minutes later, Schirmer checked the minutes and suddenly stopped short. He was sure no more than ten minutes had elapsed before his sighting of the object, but now his watch showed 3 A.M. Where had the missing twenty minutes gone.

Under hypnosis conducted by Dr. Leo Sprinkle, a University of Wyoming psychologist, Schirmer was able to recall the additional details of his seemingly innocent UFO encounter. The experience began, Schirmer said, when "the craft actually pulled me and my car up the hill." The car stopped, he claimed, and two humanoids emerged from the bottom of the UFO. Dressed in uniforms, they had high foreheads, long noses, gray complexions, and round, catlike eyes.

One alien carried a boxlike instrument that flashed a green light around the patrol car Schirmer said. The other reached in through the open window and touched his neck, inflicting a sharp pain. The humanoid who had touched him asked, "Are you the watchman of this town?" Schirmer replied, "Yes, I am." In a deep voice, without moving his slit of a mouth, the "leader" of the two then intoned, "Watchman, come with me."

Inside the craft, the humanoid showed Schirmer their power source, a spinning contraption that resembled "half of a cocoon, giving off bright colors like the rainbow." He informed Schirmer that the ship employed "reversible electrical-magnetism." They had come to Earth, Schirmer added, "to get electricity."

The guided tour of the craft also included a second level above the power room, where Schirmer saw "all kinds of panels and computers... a map on the wall, and... this large screen." The map portrayed a sun with six circling planets in a nearby galaxy. Said the patrolman, "They were observing us and had been observing us for a long time."

The humanoid leader again said, Watchman, come with me," and Schirmer was led out of the craft. "What you have seen and what you have heard, he was told, "you will not remember."

Schirmer was eventually interviewed by the University of Colorado Condon Committee, then conducting an Air Forcesponsored UFO investigation. The project staff concluded that "the trooper's reported UFO experience was not physically real." But Sprinkle, who hypnotically regressed Schirmer, disagreed. "The trooper," Sprinkle declared, "believed in the reality of the events he described."