浩瀚萬象（ONENESS）

◄第七章 ▲回目錄▲ 第九章►

EIGHT

第八章 昴宿星人的超光速驅動

一

As a boy, Tom Welch remembered watching his father circle tough FBI cases, some of them involving attempted Communist infiltration of unions in Chicago and Tucson. His father had probed and thought, gathered his information, and assessed it. Welch's fascination with his father's work influenced his own curiosity about how things are, as opposed to how they seem to be. "My interests have always run along the lines of investigation," said Welch, "of digging behind mysteries. Even when I was young, I remember distinctly a number of cases of my dad's where things so elaborately obvious turned out to be so different in reality. And how that was dug up just fascinated me."

維奇（Tom Welch）記得童年時父親時常被聯邦調查局棘手的案件圍繞，面對案件，他父親總會多方面地研究與深思，搜集相關的資料再去評估它們。維奇對他父親的工作非常感興趣，也因此使他對於事情是如何發生的（而不是事情看起來是如何的）很有好奇心。維奇說：“是我的興趣一直引導我調查這些特異的現象，發掘神秘事情的背後。我記得在我年輕的時候，許多原本看起來是這個樣子的案子，在父親細微的觀察與思索之後卻發現完全不是那麼回事，而他的發掘過程更令我感到刺激。”

Ten years younger than Lee Elders, Welch was six feet tall and thin, with a narrow brown beard and mustache outlining his jaw and upper lip. A Roman Catholic, Welch had been educated by priests of the Jesuit Order, which perhaps explained his demeanor. Whereas Elders visibly simmered, quick to exude charm or release a formidable temper, the soft-spoken and articulate Welch remained detached, composed, and analytical. The two men greatly complemented one another.

比李（Lee Elders）年輕 10 歲的維奇是一位身高 6 英尺（約 183 公分）、瘦長且留著一撮棕色鬍鬚的人，這鬍鬚使他的下顎及上唇輪廓顯得特別突出。他是一位羅馬天主教教徒，曾接受過神職人員的教育及訓練，由此可以說明他那良好的品行及儀表。李顯然是比較暴躁的，容易情緒激動，有時難以自我克制；而隨和及表達力強的維奇則是中立、沉著冷靜且分析力強的，他們兩人真可說是各有所長，相輔相成。

Welch was the only one in the group who had yet to visit the Meier farm, to speak with Meier and the witnesses, to observe at least the countryside where Meier had taken his photographs and shot his movie footage. Welch knew Lee Elders well, and through him had spent time with Wendelle Stevens. He respected their opinions, but until he experienced for himself the feel of the place, the demeanor of the people, and had the opportunity to test some of his own hypotheses, he reserved judgment on the case.

在這個團體中，維奇是唯一一位尚未拜訪過邁爾農場，尚未與邁爾及目擊者面談的人，他也未曾在邁爾拍攝相片或攝影的地點觀看過。維奇對李非常瞭解，並已透過他而與史蒂芬相處了很長的一段時間。雖然他很尊重他們的意見，但是在他親身訪問過農場、觀察當地居民言行舉止，及有機會去驗證他自己的假設之前，他是不願意對這個案子作任何判斷的。

The Honeywell Symposium in Phoenix had been an international conference attended by representatives of government agencies, the banking industry, and the military of various countries; and Honeywell had presented Tom Welch as an expert in electronics communications protection. Already, another international client had called from outside London, requesting the services of Intercep. Elders and Welch continued to sweep corporate offices and search for leaks in corporate telecommunications systems. But their curiosity over Meier and his story was growing, and as it did, Intercep slowly received less and less attention. Welch ceased making his frequent speeches at service club luncheons, and the firm no longer solicited business through private contacts.

在鳳凰城舉行的漢尼威（Honeywell）研討會是一場國際會議，與會者有政府官員、銀行界及各國軍事要員，而漢尼威公司曾以電子通信保密專家的身分邀請維奇出席。早先曾有一個國際顧客從英國倫敦打電話來要求監聽公司提供服務，雖然李和維奇仍繼續協助客戶找尋辦公室電子通信系統是否有漏洞，但由於他們對邁爾及其故事的好奇不斷增加，使得他們對公司業務付出的心力越來越少了，維奇不再經常為俱樂部的午餐會作演講，公司也不再接受靠私人關係介紹來的業務了。

"We were still doing a lot of work for Intercep," said Elders. "Steve was working on Meier. But we reached a point where we finally had to just put Intercep on the shelf because we didn't have time for it."

李說：“監聽公司的業務蒸蒸日上，但史蒂芬傾全力專注於邁爾的案子，而我們也已經到了必須把公司的事暫時擱至一旁的地步，因為我們沒有多餘的時間去做它了。”

At the end of July, a large financial institution, eighty miles outside London, contacted Intercept through the Honeywell Corporation. Fearing that a competitor had tapped into their telephone system, the directors of the company wanted an immediate sweep of the entire office building. Elders and Welch blocked out a full two weeks on their slowly shrinking Intercep schedule and told Stevens to meet them in Switzerland after they had concluded their work in London. Now warm and dry in the hills southeast of Zurich, they finally could walk and measure the sites where Meier had taken his photographs.

七月底，一個離倫敦 80 英里遠的金融機構，經由漢尼威公司的介紹來找監聽公司。由於擔心競爭對手已經侵入他們的電話系統，因此該公司的老闆希望立刻清查整個辦公大樓。於是李和維奇便挪出整整兩週的時間去處理他們已逐漸疏遠的監聽工作，並且告訴史蒂芬等他們完成倫敦的工作後相約在瑞士見面。當時在蘇黎世東南方的山區已是既溫暖又乾燥的氣候了，他們終於很快就可以散步在邁爾曾經拍照的現場，並可以進行測量工作。

Elders and Welch flew to London and, after several long days of work, solved their client's problem. Then, they boarded the train for Zurich where Stevens was to pick them up in a rental car and drive them to the farm. With better than a week to investigate Meier, the people, and the sites, and to pursue the theories they had formulated back in Phoenix, Welch figured they would leave Switzerland with answers. But by now, Elders had seen and heard much with his own eyes and ears, and he was beginning to sense the difficulty of Meier having fabricated the entire story and all of the evidence. No education, no accomplices, no resources. It was becoming easier to believe that perhaps part of Meier's story was true.

李和維奇在倫敦工作一段時間並解決了顧客的問題之後，就搭乘火車到了蘇黎世。到那裡後史蒂芬租了一輛汽車載他們去農場。由於有一週的時間可以調查邁爾這個人、當地的人及事件的發生地，並且驗證他們在鳳凰城就歸納出的理論，所以維奇預計他們應該可以在離開瑞士時帶著答案離去。但是到目前為止李已親眼看過、親耳聽到很多事情，他已開始查覺到邁爾幾乎是不可能杜撰整個故事和所有的證據的。沒有受過太多教育又沒有同謀，也沒有資源，使得李很容易相信邁爾的部分故事可能是真的。

Still, some things seemed not to fit, others simply were too outlandish to believe, and nothing definitive had yet been done with the photographs. It even appeared that the metal sample was anything but extraordinary. Though Elders admitted confusion, Meier's evidence had to pass several more tests before he would concede there might be some degree of truth in what the man claimed.

但是仍然有些事似乎不太合理，有些事實在是怪異得令人無法相信，而且那些相片也還沒有明確的結論。甚至有人認為那些金屬樣本並沒有什麼特別。雖然李也承認陷入了迷惘之中，但在邁爾的證據通過更多查驗之前，他還是不能肯定邁爾所說的話有多少可信度。

As planned, Stevens met them at the train station in Zurich and drove through Winterthur to the small village of Dussnang, over the hills and about fifteen minutes by car east of the farm. They checked in at the Gasthaus Brückenwaage, where the Elders had stayed the previous spring, a three-story guesthouse with green shutters bordering many windows, each still now bursting with bright red geraniums.

按照計畫，史蒂芬在蘇黎世火車站和他們碰面後即驅車經溫特圖爾（Winterthur）到達山中小村杜斯南（Dussnang），再穿過山區走大約 15 分鐘的車程到達農場。他們住進布肯文（Gasthaus Brückenwaage）旅社，那是李去年春天停留的地方，這是一個三層樓高，有綠色百葉窗的旅社，有很多窗戶，每一個窗臺如今都已長滿了綻開的紅色天竺葵。

Though they had had little sleep on the night train to Zurich, it was a sunny morning in Switzerland, and Elders and Welch wanted to get to the farm as soon as possible. After they had unloaded the car and carried their things up to the room, the three of them drove over the hills, through the farms and pear orchards, to Schmidruti. Welch sat in the backseat, observing the countryside and thinking about the information he wanted to collect at the sites, from the configuration of the forests surrounding the landing track sites to the distances between objects in the photos. But he kept reminding himself not to overlook the less obvious.

雖然他們坐夜車在車上幾乎沒怎麼睡，但是他們並不想休息，因為此時瑞士是陽光普照的早晨，李和維奇希望能夠儘快到達農場。當他們取下車上的行李送入房間之後，就立刻驅車越過山區，經過農場和梨子園到達西密魯提。維奇坐在後座，一面觀賞鄉間風景，一面思考到目的地時要搜集的資料，譬如圍繞在著陸痕跡四周的樹林、邁爾照片中各個實物彼此之間的距離等，但他也不斷地提醒自己不要忽略一些小細節。

"I wanted to get a feeling as much as I wanted to get facts," he said. "I wanted to get an insight into the people there as much as I wanted to get measurements and other things that we had scheduled out."

他說：“我希望獲得一種感覺，就像我希望獲得事實真相一樣。”又說：“我希望能對那裡的人作深入詳細的瞭解，就像我希望按照計畫完成測量評估及其它工作一樣。”

As when Stevens had arrived at the farm late the previous fall, and again when the Elders had been there in early spring, young people from all over Europe had come on motorcycles and by foot to Hinterschmidruti, and pitched their tents in various places around the farm, some in the large grassy field below the duck pond. As it was midsummer, the weather had turned mild and warm, and the number of those camped there had greatly increased. Others, many of them older, had driven there, and of these many slept in the tiny, simple rooms at the Freihof along the cobblestone row in Schmidruti. Verena Furrer, the Freihof's cherub-faced proprietress, said that in summer the people who came to see Meier accounted for 25 percent of her business. "A few French," she explained, "but most are German, some are Austrian, Americans, a lot of Swedes, some Dutch."

就像史蒂芬在前一個秋末到達農場時一樣，也像後來的李在春天來臨時造訪一樣，農場上都有一些從歐洲各地騎摩托車或走路到西密魯提的年輕人，他們在農場附近搭起帳篷，有些人則在鴨池塘旁的一整片大草地上搭起他們帶來的帳篷。由於正值夏季中旬，天氣變得比較溫和，來露營的人數也增多了。更有些年紀較大的開車前來，他們大多住在西密魯提鵝卵石街邊佛瑞荷福（Freihof）旅舍那狹小簡陋的房間裡。薇瑞拉．富爾（Verena Furrer）有著圓圓可愛的臉蛋，是佛瑞荷福的經營者，她指出：“夏天來看邁爾的人相當多，是該店全年收入的四分之一。”“法國人很少，”她解釋，“大多為德國人，有一些奧地利人和美國人，很多瑞典人，也有荷蘭人。”

Meier was waiting for them in front of the farmhouse when they arrived. He now had a full beard, reddish in spots and beginning to curl. As they shook hands, Welch looked into his eyes as Elders had done before, but he saw and felt nothing familiar, no magnetism, and no déjà vu. Welch saw only an "earthly man wishing for a simpler life."

他們到達時邁爾正在農場前的屋外等他們。邁爾當時滿臉鬍鬚，鬍子稍帶紅棕色並略為捲曲。當他們互相握手時，維奇和李一樣也仔細地審視著邁爾的眼神，但他未看到及感覺到任何熟悉的東西，彼此之間沒有任何吸引，也沒有似曾相識的感覺，維奇好像只是看到了一位“希望單純過日子的普通人”。

"He looked to be in the middle of something not under his control," said Welch, "something he was learning from."

維奇說：“我覺得他似乎正陷入一些他無法掌控的事情中，那是他學習的東西。”

Welch noted immediately that Meier was not an "eager" man. Although he acted cordially toward Welch, he seemed at the same time almost indifferent to his presence. Welch soon discovered this indifference pervaded the farm.

維奇立刻就感覺到邁爾不是一位熱心的人。雖然他對維奇的舉止很誠懇，但他似乎又不太在乎維奇的存在。維奇很快就發現農場似乎到處充滿了漠不關心的感覺。

"I expected either to have a story laid on me - in other words, people making an effort to explain things out of enthusiasm or some ulterior motive - or the reverse, people trying to hide something. Instead, it was as though we weren't even there. They would answer any questions that we had, and they related to us one-to-one, but they had no reaction one way or the other to what we were doing."

“我原以為會有人向我解釋一段精彩的故事，也就是說有人會很熱心地試圖要說明一些事情，或者相反地，他會試圖隱藏一些事情，但是結果卻好像我們根本就不存在，他們會回答我們的任何問題，把我們介紹給所有的人，但是他們對於我們所做的每一件事情卻沒有任何反應。”

From left to right: Lee Elders, Wendelle Stevens, Eduard Meier, and Tom Welch on a hill overlooking the Meier farm.

由左到右：李、史蒂芬、邁爾與維奇，他們一起到邁爾去過的山丘上查看。

Though Welch had many questions for Meier, he had already decided that little of substance could be learned from the man himself; the story lay in the eyes of the witnesses and the terrain of the contact sites. Meier served only as a focus for the story; not someone to question, but someone to question others about. Welch was more interested in walking the sites and talking to the Swiss weather bureau than in chatting with Meier.

維奇雖然有很多問題要問邁爾，但他卻發現似乎只有極少數的問題能夠由邁爾本人來回答，實際上必須由其它眾多目擊者及接觸地點的地形來證實。邁爾只是整個事件的焦點，所以不應該向他提出問題，反而應該向其它人詢問有關他的問題。令維奇比較有興趣的是能親身走在發生事件的土地上，與瑞士氣象局的人員談話，而不是與邁爾閒談。

The procedure they had devised for assessing the contact sites was to take each 3 X 5 print in the series photographed at the site, locate the exact point from which the photographs had to be taken, and begin measuring. "Measure distances, measure heights, measure the width of trees, even the height of blades of grass," said Welch. "Looking for that kind of detail is the way we walked onto each site."

他們準備檢驗接觸現場的程式是：在當地拍下 3 X 5 的一系列照片，再與原來的照片比對，找出當時拍照的確實位置，然後再開始測量。維奇說：“要測量距離、高度、樹木的寬度，甚至草的高度，我們造訪每一個地點就是要瞭解這一類的細節。”

Beginning that afternoon and continuing for the next several days, they visited four of the alleged contact sites, accompanied by Meier. Just driving to the sites, Welch perceived problems with the theories they had formulated back in Phoenix: some of the sites were up steep grades, passable in summer, but a strain for the car to climb. Yet Meier had taken many of his photos on these sites in late winter or very early spring, when snow covered the paths or melted and turned them to mud.

他們從那一天下午開始，持續好幾天拜訪了四個所謂的接觸地點，邁爾亦伴隨著前往。當驅車到達地點時，維奇就發現他們在鳳凰城推論出來的理論是有問題的。例如；有一些地點是向上急陡的斜坡，在夏天時還可以通行，但是卻幾乎無法開車上去。令人無法理解的是邁爾的許多照片都是在冬末或春初，那時正是白雪覆蓋的道路因雪溶而變得泥濘時。

Welch remembered, "That's where the theories started disappearing."

維奇記得：“那就是我們的理論開始失效的時候。”

They had been at the first site only briefly when Welch noticed another similar problem, one of many experiences he soon labeled "gross consistencies." A gross consistency was usually a simple observation that in some small way corroborated Meier's story. Singly, each added little weight; collectively, they made a curious story seem even more mysterious.

他們只在第一現場短暫停留了一會兒，因為維奇發現了另外一個類似的問題，這是他後來稱的“明顯的一致性”的一個例子。所謂明顯的一致性通常是指以簡單觀察法從小處去驗證邁爾故事的每一個小地方，並逐漸增加重量。當所有資料放在一起時，使得原本很奇妙的故事變得更加神秘了。

What Welch noted at the first site and every one thereafter was that from the time they got out of the car, looked over the site, and began taking measurements, no more than twenty minutes would pass before someone came up and asked them who they were, or what they were doing, or why they were there. Or, they would simply stand and watch. Once, Welch walked onto a site, expecting it to be secluded, only to find a farmhouse not more than a hundred yards from where Meier had taken his photographs.

維奇在第一個現場以及在之後的每一個現場所注意到的事情是：從他們走出車外仔細觀察並開始測量現場開始，在不到 20 分鐘的時間內就會有一個人走過來問他們是什麼人，在那裡做什麼，或他們為什麼到這裡來；或者這些人就乾脆站在那裡注視著他們的一舉一動。有一次維奇進入一個現場，他原以為那是一個比較隱密隔離的地方，但他卻發現此一邁爾曾拍攝照片的現場一百碼內便有一戶農舍。

Driving to the site near that farmhouse along a side road, Elders, Welch, and Stevens had encountered another car traveling in the opposite direction. Moments later, when Meier directed Stevens to pull off onto a narrow path leading to the site, the other car had turned around, followed them, and parked. Then, the occupants had watched them walk around the area measuring trees and distances for most of the time they were on the site.

當駕車在該現場旁的一條小路上時，李、維奇和史蒂芬曾與另一輛迎面而來的車子相遇。過了一會兒，邁爾指揮史蒂芬轉入一條狹小的路再開向現場，此時那一部車也迅速繞轉過來，尾隨他們，並把車停在附近。然後這些人注視著他們在現場來回地走動及花大部分的時間在測量樹木及距離。

"Essentially, we thought we were dealing with remote sites," Welch said later, "where you could fairly well do anything you wanted unseen and uninterrupted for a lengthy period of time. And that you could get to that site without being observed. This was another factor just blown out the window."

維奇後來說：“起先我們以為我們是在一個人跡罕至的地方，你可以在那裡做任何你想做的事情，而且會有很長的一段時間不會有旁觀者在現場觀看並造成干擾，而且你可以在不被人發現的情況下走入那一個現場，但事實完全不是這樣。這是另外一個意料之外的現象。”

Welch obtained weather reports, thinking he could use them to confirm or invalidate the background of the pictures taken at each site. For example, he offered, August 8, 1975. Was that actually a cloudy day? "Wouldn't it be funny," he said, "to learn that the shot here with the deep ruffled clouds in the background, storm clouds, could not have been shot in 1975 in August?" Although he found no inconsistencies, Welch discovered that often the weather reports themselves could be misleading. The sites lay mostly in the foothills where the weather could change in minutes. And having experienced these radical changes at the sites, Welch could then listen to the nearest weather source reporting mild temperatures and consistent skies during that same period.

維奇獲得了氣象報告，並思索如何利用這些資料來對每一現場（也就是照片背景）予以實證。他以 1975 年 8 月 8 日為例，那天真的是一個烏雲密佈的日子嗎？他說：“如果照片中暴風雨前夕的烏雲密佈是不可能在 1975 年 8 月拍攝到，那不是一件很好玩的事嗎？”雖然如此，他還是沒有發現不一致的地方。但維奇後來發現當地的氣象報告都可能是不正確的。由於現場極靠近氣候急劇變化的山丘，因此當地氣候常有急劇變化的可能．維奇後來發現，他親身經歷的那些惡劣天氣，當地氣象報告竟說是無風無雨、氣候穩定。

"The weather impressed me to no end," said Welch. "Particularly Hasenbol. You can stand there for an hour, and in some cases, nothing will happen; it'll be a beautiful sunny day. At other times, you'll go from beautiful sunny to deep clouds and a little mist and rain and fog to what seems like it's definitely going to snow and get cool and then hefty breezes pop up all of a sudden. It was like standing in one place and going to three or four different climates and not moving an inch. And that presented another angle we hadn't thought about - the further difficulty of faking anything on those sites because of the weather. And you can't just visit those sites for five minutes to learn this; you have to spend some time at them."

維奇說：“天氣帶給我很深刻的印象，特別是在黑森堡（Hasenbol）。有時你可能在那裡站上整整一個小時都沒有任何天氣變化狀況發生，它可能是一個美麗晴朗的天候；有時又可能突然由美好的晴天轉變為烏雲密佈，有點霧和雨，甚至看起來像要下雪的樣子，等一下又突然刮起風，那就像你固定站在一個位置上，卻會遭遇三或四種不同的氣候變化。因此，那又彰顯出另一個我們未曾考慮到的問題：在這種天氣多變的狀況下就更難偽造任何東西了。這不是你只在這些現場停留五分鐘就能夠瞭解的，你必須要在那裡花費一些時間。”

One thing Welch had starred in his notes was to view the drop behind the tree in the Hasenbol photos. He had formulated various theories on how Meier could have rigged these photos of a beamship that appears to be almost in the branches of the tall leafless tree. Late on a sunny afternoon, they climbed the steep, rutted path to the site, where Welch found a grassy bluff facing into the setting sun and in the distance a succession of jagged peaks as far as he could see. When he walked to the tree at the edge of the bluff and saw the land drop sharply away, roll down and down across a wide valley, his theories simply "dissipated in the wind."

有一件維奇特別記載的事是：在黑森堡相片中那棵樹的後方觀察斜坡落差。他原先對邁爾偽造這張照片（即太空船停留在高大的樹枝頭）的方法存有許多幻想。在一個晴朗的午後，他們攀登上一個陡坡，並且沿著以前的痕跡到達現場，維奇發現那是個綠草如茵的斷崖，而且在他目力所及的範圍內，遠方是一排連續的山峰。當他們走到斷崖邊的樹旁，可以看到崖邊突然斜削下去，向下延伸至一個深谷中，此時懷疑邁爾偽造人空船的想法幾乎立刻在風中消失無蹤。

The tree was fifty-two yards from where Meier had taken the picture. By measuring the trunk of the tree as it stood, and as it appeared in the photo, basic triangulation gave him the size of the beamship.

那棵樹與邁爾拍照的地方相距 52 碼遠，接著再測量樹幹的位置與長度，對照它在相片中的相關位置與大小，再由基本的三角測量法就可推算出太空船的大小。

"That's often a simple mistake people make when they're hoaxing," explained Welch. "The ship they film just couldn't be the size they say it is when compared to the other known objects in the photograph."

維奇解釋道：“當相片中的太空船與相片中的其它真實物體相比時，幾乎很容易就可看出太空船的大小與邁爾他們所說的是否相符。而這通常是在偽造太空船相片時人們最常犯的錯誤。”

According to their measurements, the beamship at the edge of the tree over Hasenbol had to be approximately twenty-one feet in diameter, as Meier had always said.

依據他們的測量，在黑森堡樹邊的太空船直徑大約有 21 英尺，與邁爾曾說的相符。

"We had developed some possible theories by that time that we wanted to apply to the circumstances," said Welch, "taking a real strong look at the sites and doing some measuring. But you go to one of those sites, and you compare the photographs right there, and you see the perspective for yourself. Just eyeballing it, you know you're not dealing with something that is easily rigged by amateurs because of the nature of the terrain, the topography, the wind, and even the laws and regulations of Switzerland. The country is so small, and jets run down those valleys sometimes no higher than two, three hundred feet, and you'll see them doing barrel rolls, loops, and dogfights at that height. So there were a lot of little technical things that kind of blew out the perception of this being an easily explained circumstance.

維奇說：“我們原先就發現了一些可能的破綻要到現場實地驗證，我們要審驗現場及作一些測量。但是當你到達現場，並且比對照片時，你就會將所有疑慮一掃而空，你只需在現場看一下，就可以知道那不是業餘人士可以輕易偽造的，因為不論是當地的地形、地勢、風勢，甚至於瑞士的法律規定，都不可能偽造；何況這個鄉村又很小，又時常有一些噴射機以不高於二、三百英尺的高度飛過山谷，你可以目視它們在那種高度作滾桶轉、回繞及纏鬥，因此在這裡有很多毋需任何特殊技巧就能輕易拆穿偽造的環境因素。”

"Now... here's the conditions under which these photographs were taken at Hasenbol. You have severe cold, you have high winds, you have a good amount of snow on the ground. We were there in summer, and you could barely get up the hill because it was too muddy and slippery. What we're talking about here is passing that farmer's house on a very wintry late afternoon. Anybody out in that kind of weather is a little unusual and the people there are nosy as hell. Now, here comes a man on a moped, all right, and he's going to go up through this farmer's land, up this bluff, in this weather... and it's not snowplowed up there... he's going to go up there in the wind and the weather, and he's going to deal with all the technical factors in the midst of all that."

“如今的問題是這些照片是在何種情況下在黑森堡拍攝到的？當時的氣候很酷寒，風很強，地面積了很多雪。我們是在夏天來到這裡，即使如此也由於土地太泥濘及濕滑而使我們幾乎無法攀登上去。可見當時的情況有多糟，那一定是個寒冷的傍晚，更何況還要越過農舍才能到達現場。任何人在此種天氣外出都是一件極不尋常，且會引起當地居民極端關注與談論的事。而今卻有這麼一個人，騎著摩托車穿過農場，在這種天氣攀登陡壁…，而且那裡的雪並沒有剷除，而邁爾卻要在這種風勢和氣候中爬到那上面去，還要在這種環境中處理所有的技術問題。”

Always present, yet far more subtle than the difficult terrain or the curiosity of stranger, one thing that would have made the hoaxing of the photographs virtually impossible occurred to Welch only slowly as he stood at site after site. Finally, he focused on what he had been feeling in the air - moisture - heavy, constantly changing, and invisible, except to a camera lens. For all its beauty, perhaps largely responsible for that beauty, Switzerland is a damp country. A large object posing independently could be photographed several times in a matter of seconds, and the atmosphere would remain constant throughout the series. A model of any size would require setting up and repositioning, a procedure that could consume an hour or more. In that time, the background might change.

除了地形上的複雜與當地陌生人好奇的關注之外，還有一個因素使維奇在看過一個又一個的現場之後更加認為偽造那些照片是不可能的，這個因素就是他在空氣中所感受到的濕度，那裡的濕氣很大，而且瞬息萬變，這種濕度除了照相機的鏡頭能感應之外，肉眼是看不見的。一個真實存在的太空船隻有在數秒鐘之內被連續拍攝數張照片，四周的氣候也才能保持不變：如果是模型拍出來的照片就需要調整其模型位置，而整個過程至少要花費一個小時以上，而此時相片背景的天氣定會隨時有所改變的。

"You have weather so inconsistent," remembered Welch, "that in fifteen minutes you can go from literally zip, clear sharp air to very thick air, actual mist. That alone would drive a technician crazy trying to fake photos. It would cause too much bluing.

“天氣是如此的多變，”維奇記得，“只 15 分鐘就可能從微明、很清晰、到空氣混濁，再變為迷茫。在這種環境下試著去偽造相片，在技術上幾乎是不可能。”

"Also," said Welch, "you need time. Because if it's a model, you've got to throw it five times before you get your shot, or hang it and run it and play with it a bit. This would drive you crazy with the wind, the moisture; there are probably a dozen factors. If you're going to fake this, you need time. The one thing you can see that Meier did not have a lot of at any of these sites, whether he's faking them or taking them, is time."

“同時，”維奇說，“你還需要時間。因為如果它是模型，在拍攝前你至少需要投擲五次以上，或以懸掛的方式移動它來拍照。那裡的風勢、濕氣，甚至一打以上的因素都會使偽造照片的人發瘋。如果你要偽造這些照片你就需要時間，而你會發現不論邁爾是否偽造了照片，他在這些現場所沒有的一樣東西就是時間。”

［中文編輯者註：以下影片由 FIGU 官方發布，內容是在 1978 年（當年邁爾 41 歲）由來自美國的：史蒂芬、愛德夫婦（李與佈雷特）、維奇四人組成的「調查小組」，針對邁爾的“接觸事件”展開有系統的調查，影片記錄了整個經過（片長 1 小時 38 分鐘）。］

Contact（接觸）（英文發音，無字幕）

二

By the mid 1950s, a coterie of men claimed not only to have seen remarkable spacecraft, but to have flown in them and to have talked at length with the occupants. They were known as contactees, and their stories so captured the public imagination that they completely thwarted Air Force efforts to downplay flying saucers. They also undermined the work of private UFO organizations searching seriously for answers.

50 年代中期，有一群人聲稱不僅看到非比尋常的太空船，同時還曾搭乘過太空船，並與船上的人交談甚久。這些人被稱為接觸者，而他們的故事也引起了大眾的注意，這就迫使美國空軍企圖將飛碟的存在予以輕描淡寫，同時蔑視積極尋求答案的民間 UFO 組織的研究工作。

The contactees, most notably George Adamski, Truman Bethurum, Orfeo Angelucci, Daniel Fry, and Howard Menger, each claimed to have been contacted by "space brothers" who gave him a "mission" to save the world from greed, corruption, and the atomic bomb. The space brothers took them aboard a Venusian, Saturnian, Jupiterian, or Martian spaceship, where they saw beautiful women and received further instruction from Orthon, Aura, A-lan, or Neptune, and heard of idyllic conditions on their home planets, a situation to which the people of Earth could aspire. National interest in the contactees was so great that over a hundred fifty flying saucer clubs sprang up dedicated just to them. In 1954, contactee George Van Tassel sponsored the first Giant Rock Convention in Yucca Valley, California, a carnival affair with contactees giving lectures on their experiences and selling souvenirs from booths. Over five thousand people came.

最著名的接觸者是喬治．亞當斯基（George Adamski）、杜魯門．比斯魯（Truman Bethurum）、歐非．安吉露西（Orfeo Angelucci）、丹尼爾．福瑞（Daniel Fry）及郝華．門奇（Howard Menger），他們每個人都宣稱曾與“太空來的兄弟”接觸，並獲得指示要從貪婪腐敗及原子彈的陰影中解救世人。那些太空來的兄弟帶他們登上前往金星、土星、木星或海王星的太空船，他們在那裡看到美麗的女士，並且從歐桑（Orthon）、奧拉（Aura）、愛倫（A-lan）或海王星（Neptune）接受更進一步的指示，及傾聽他們談論他們在家鄉的行星上所過的猶如田園般的優閑生活，那是一種生在地球上的人們最嚮往的生活。由於全國民眾都對這些接觸者產生極大的興趣，使得美國出現了 150 個研究飛碟的俱樂部。1954 年，接觸者喬治．凡．達斯（George Van Tassel）在加州猶卡山谷（Yucca Valley）發起了第一屆巨石集會（Giant Rock Convention），那是一個由接觸者提供經驗的演講會，也是一個有攤位銷售紀念品的園遊會，參加人數超過五千人。

In the fall of 1956, the thirty-four-year-old Menger, a pipe-smoking sign painter with black wavy hair and a long thin neck, appeared with his story on the Tonight show with Steve Allen. Journalist Jules B. St. Germain described the scene in the November 1957 Argosy: "The audience's original reaction, which ranged from snickering to outright laughter when it learned that Menger claimed to have ridden on a 'flying saucer,' changed to a mood of perplexed wonderment and keen interest shortly after he started speaking. Amusement soon became interested silence." Menger told the audience that earlier that year, the space beings had taught him to communicate through telepathy and had flown him to Venus where he saw "beautiful domed buildings."

1956 年秋天，34 歲的門奇（Menger），一位油漆匠，有黑色的濃髮及細長的頸部，受邀在《今夜》節目中擔任來賓，同時出現在節目中的尚有史蒂夫．阿倫（Steve Allen）。一開始記者朱利斯．聖傑門（Jules B. St. Germain）在節日中描述 1955 年 11 月發現太空船的那一幕，觀眾們原先的反應有的是不屑一顧，有的則是譁然大笑，但是當門奇開始敘述自己的經驗，特別是聽到門奇聲稱自己曾經乘過飛碟時，整個氣氛變得充滿了困惑的驚奇，並且引起了大家的興趣。原來是一件可笑的事情卻變成了充滿興趣的屏氣凝神。門奇告訴觀眾，那年初，外太空人曾經教導他如何經由心靈感應來溝通，並且帶他飛到金星，他在那裡看到了美麗的圓頂建築物。

"I rode through space in a Venusian scout ship," he said. "It is a difficult feeling to describe, a feeling of no motion, of suspension in space. I was shown, through some means of tele-projection, a view of life in a city on Venus. It was not too different from ours. More orderly, quiet, much more beautiful.

他說：“我乘金星偵查船穿越太空，那種感覺很難描述，好像無重力地懸浮在太空中。透過某種電訊投射，我看到了一個金星上的城市，他們的生活方式和我們沒有太大區別，只是更有秩序、更平靜及更美麗。”

He also had traveled to the Moon, where he could breathe the air with little difficulty.

他也曾到月球旅行。在那裡，他只有一點呼吸困難，但是仍還可以呼吸。

"Most of the people who have contacted me," he said, "have been from the planet Venus, although I have seen others from Mars and Saturn. Some live on our Earth among us."

他說；“大多數和我接觸過的人是來自金星，但是我也看過來自火星及土星的人，甚至還有一些就在地球上與我們生活在一起。”

After Menger's radio and television appearances, so many thousands of people came to his home in Highgate, New Jersey, that at one point, the police had to be called in to unravel a traffic jam in front of the house. St. Germain, visiting in late fall 1956, found three hundred people there on a single afternoon.

當門奇的陳述出觀在收音機及電視上後，有好幾千人特地到他紐澤西州高閘（Highgate）的家拜訪他，員警也曾一度被召請過來處理他家門前擁塞的交通。聖傑門在 1956 年秋末來此訪問他，發現僅僅一個下午就有三百多人到這裡看他。

The public demanded little proof, seemingly content with a contactee's "sincerity." As evidence of his contacts, the father of contacteeism, Adamski, showed skeptics eighteen photographs, some of spots and shadows, and some of a murky, bell-shaped object with what appeared to be wheels on the bottom. He also had one Venusian footprint cast in plaster of paris and containing a coded message. Other contactees had less to show. Bethurum offered a note written in French. A contactee named Buck Nelson sold $5 packets of hair from a Venusian St. Bernard he said weighed 385 pounds. Angelucci and Fry had only their word.

大眾並不要求很多證據，只要他們覺得接觸者很誠懇他們就很高興了。為了證明接觸的確發生，接觸派的創始者亞當斯基曾展示了 18 張令人懷疑的相片，其中有些相片有斑點和影子，有些又比較陰暗，照片的主角都是底部有輪子的鐘形物體。亞當斯基還擁有一個用石膏打成的火星人足跡模型，上面還有一些密碼及暗號。其它的一些所謂接觸者都曾提出過相關的證據；比斯魯提出的是一個用法文寫的短語，另一位名叫巴克．尼爾森（Buck Nelson）的，曾賣過一束 5 元的金星上聖伯納犬的毛（重約 385 磅）；安吉露西及福瑞則沒有任何證據。

Like Adamski, Menger had photographs, five of them, one of a black mummy shape standing before a glaring rounded object - a Venusian in front of his scout ship, said Menger. Menger also cut a commercial record called "The Song from Saturn," "actual music that came from another planet." He once wrote to one of the UFO organizations, "We are tired of mysteries, hearsay, and ugly rumors circulating about saucer researchers and contactees. Incidentally," he added, "we have a scientist who is working on the qualitative analysis of the vegetables brought back from the Moon."

和亞當斯基一樣，門奇也有 5 張相片，其中有一張是一個黑色木乃伊形狀的東西站在一個會發光的圓形物體前面，門奇說這是一位金星人站在偵查船前。同時，門奇還出了一張唱片叫《土星之歌》—— 真正來自另外一個星球的音樂；他有一次寫信給 UFO 組織的人說：“我們厭倦了神秘、道聽塗說的有關飛碟的傳聞，及有關太空接觸的醜陋謠言。”他接著又說，“我們請了一位科學家對我從月球帶回來的植物進行成分分析。”

三

In January 1957, Major Donald Keyhoe, a graduate of Annapolis, retired Marine Corps pilot, and former aide to Charles Lindbergh, became head of a privately organized group called the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. Formed only several months earlier, NICAP eventually boasted a membership of 12,000, including many politicians, scientists, and high-ranking military officers. Keyhoe established NICAP headquarters in Washington, D.C., and appointed prominent people to its board of governors, one of whom was Vice Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, a Naval Academy classmate of Keyhoe's and the first director of the CIA in 1947. Intent on pushing UFOs into the political arena, Keyhoe and other NICAP members appeared on television and radio nine hundred times from 1957 to 1966.

1957 年 1 月，一位畢業於美國海軍官校的退休陸戰隊飛行員唐納．凱何（Donald Keyhoe）少校（曾是查爾斯．林白（Charles Lindbergh）的助理），成為一個民間團體空中現象全國研究委員會的負責人，此團體剛成立幾個月，就快速擴張到 1200 名會員，其中包括很多政治家、科學家及高階軍官。凱何建立的空中研究會總部設在華盛頓市，並聘請一些有聲望的知名人士為理事，其中的一位就是海軍中將羅斯科．希倫科特（Roscoe Hillenkoetter），他是凱何在海軍官校的同學，也曾是中央情報局在 1947 年的第一任局長。凱何及其它理事們致力於把飛碟事件推上政治舞臺，因此在 1957 年到 1966 年間，凱何及其它空中研究會會員在電視及收音機中出現的次數超過 900 次。

唐納．凱何（Donald Keyhoe）

Because of close and reliable contacts within the military, Keyhoe had been privy to much of the early (and secret) information concerning the Air Force's confusion over flying saucers. He knew that many sightings had been made by impeccable witnesses who had reported fantastic things and that lacking feasible alternatives, many intelligence analysts had leaned toward "interplanetary" as an explanation. Based on this information, Keyhoe had written many of the early articles and books on the subject. In 1950, he had concluded that the Air Force knew the origin of these splendid and mysterious craft and that official statements, "contradictory as they appear," were simply "part of an intricate program to prepare America - and the world - for the secret of the disks." Seven years later, if the Air Force had a secret, they still were keeping it.

由於凱何與軍中建立了密切且可靠的關係，所以凱何也曾暗中知悉很多早期（而且是機密的）空軍被飛碟所困擾的消息。他知道的很多見聞都有很可靠的目擊者，他們向軍方報告了一些令人訝異的事情，但是由於缺乏適當的解釋，所以許多情報分析家都以“太陽系內行星之間的現象”作為解釋。基於這些資訊，凱何曾以此為題寫過很多這方面的書和文章。1950 年，他曾指出：空軍早就知道這些華麗又神秘的太空船是從哪裡來的，而官方的說法卻是：“不可能有這種東西出現，它只是一個複雜計畫的一部分，這個計畫是要讓美國及全世界準備接受飛碟的神秘。”即使是在七年以後，如果空軍確有任何發現的話，他們仍然會守口如瓶的。

As head of NICAP, Keyhoe opened war on two fronts: one with the Air Force for keeping UFOs classified, and the other with the "lunatic fringe" for tainting the study of UFOs by legitimate investigators. Too many people constantly confused NICAP with the crazies who had flown to Venus and eaten "space potatoes." Though he was convinced UFOs were of extraterrestrial origin, he refused membership to anyone who claimed contact with the occupants.

身為空中研究會（NICAP）負責人的凱何開始向兩個方面挑戰：一是要求空軍將 UFO 檔解密；其二則是希望讓合法的調查員參與 UFO 的調查工作，因為很多人會把空中研究會的成員與那些曾飛到金星及吃過“太空馬鈴薯”的“瘋子”混為一談。事實上，雖然凱何也認為飛碟是由外星球來的，但他卻拒絕任何自稱曾與外太空人有過接觸的人加入該會成為他們的會員。

One of many letters he wrote to contactees went to Howard Menger. "We have been informed," he said, "that during your lectures and upon other occasions, you have stated that this Committee endorses your claims and views, including your claims to have met and talked with space people and to have visited the moon. This is to inform you that this Committee does not in any way endorse such claims by you or anyone else."

他曾寫過許多信給接觸者，其中的一封信是寫給門奇的，信上說：“有人通知本會，在你的演講及其它場合中，你曾說過本委員會承認你所宣稱的事情及看法（包括你宣稱自己與外星人見面交談，並且拜訪過月球），在此，本委員會要鄭重地告訴你，本委員會絕不會為你或者任何人所宣稱的事情‘背書’。”

While battling to avoid the stigma of the contactees, Keyhoe also fought the military on Capitol Hill by pushing for congressional hearings on UFOs. He wrote letters, made speeches, and provided current information to congressmen, impressing many with the quality and quantity of the facts he presented. But each time his lobbying efforts persuaded a House or Senate subcommittee to consider an open hearing on UFOs, the Air Force would somehow convince one or two of the members that the whole matter of UFOs perpetuated itself only because the public had an insatiable appetite for the fantastic. Congressional hearings, they said, "would merely give dignity to the subject out of all proportion to which it is entitled." Whatever they were, said the Air Force, UFOs were harmless, at the most, perhaps, curious. The country was safe.

凱何一方面要避開與接觸者之間的不名譽傳聞，同時又要在國會山莊中繼續與軍方爭辯，希望能夠舉行一次有關 UFO 事件的國會聽證會。他寫信、演講並提供國會議員各種最新的消息，許多人都對他能夠提出那麼多的事實與那麼好的報告留下深刻的印象。但是每當他遊說眾議院或參議院的任何一個次級委員會考慮舉行聽證會時，空軍就會以“整個有關於 UFO 的事件只不過是因為大眾追求稀奇古怪事情的心態所致”為由，說服委員會中的一、兩名委員，而使聽證會辦不起來。空軍認為：“舉行國會聽證會只不過是給了 UFO 這個主題一些名聲而已。”但無論 UFO 為何，UFO 至少未曾傷害過人們，這才是最重要的，所以美國仍然是安全無慮的。

Keyhoe, however, felt he had abundant proof that something, indeed, was happening and that the Air Force not only had been inept in its efforts to solve the problem but had made "contradictory, misleading, and untrue statements" to congressmen and the public. So strongly did Keyhoe believe the Air Force was concealing what his editor had called "the biggest story since the birth of Christ" that he proposed a showdown: before the House Subcommittee on Space Problems and Life Sciences, NICAP and the Air Force would present evidence on the existence of "superior" craft piloted, or otherwise controlled, by extraterrestrial beings. Then, NICAP would answer Air Force questions, and the Air Force would answer NICAP questions. If the subcommittee agreed with NICAP, Keyhoe wanted an end to the secrecy. If Keyhoe's proof failed to convince the subcommittee, he would dismantle the entire NICAP organization.

但凱何覺得他有足夠的證據可以有效地證明事情的確有蹊蹺，空軍不但在解決問題上毫無能力，更對國會議員及民眾作了“矛盾的、令人誤解的及不實的敘述”。凱何堅信美國空軍隱藏了凱何編輯的所謂“耶穌誕生以來最重大的故事”，所以他建議此時應該是攤牌的時候了，他要求在眾議院太空問題及生活科學委員會中，空軍將它是“超級”飛行器或是被外星人所操控的證據展現出來，同時空中研究會可以回答空軍所提的問題，而空軍亦可回答空中研究會所提的問題，雙方答詢後如果眾議院同意空中研究會的說法，則凱何希望此機密事件從此解密；如果凱何無法證明並說服眾議院，則他將解散整個空中研究會。

But before the scheduled pre-hearing, one member of the subcommittee spoke with Blue Book personnel privately and concluded there was no need even to consider the hearings. The head of the subcommittee then attacked Keyhoe for his "malicious intent toward a great branch of the military." He called Keyhoe's proposal "a cheap scheme to discredit the Air Force."

但是在聽證會即將舉行前夕，有一位眾議院的委員私下和「藍皮書專案」工作人員談話，結果使該委員認為沒有必要考慮召開聽證會，於是該委員會的主席便攻擊凱何是“惡意譭謗軍方主要部門”，他認為凱何的提議是“一項卑賤的計畫，企圖使空軍喪失信用”。

But the Air Force's own special advisor to Project Blue Book, Dr. Allen Hynek, had secretly and consistently suggested that the Air Force delve deeper into the UFO phenomenon. Although he could explain most of the 15,000 sightings that had come to his attention, he wrote in The Saturday Evening Post in 1966 that "several hundred are puzzling, and some of the puzzling incidents, perhaps one in 25, are bewildering."

但是空軍藍皮書計畫的特別顧問艾倫．海尼克（Allen Hynek）博士本人便曾私下一再向空軍建議，應該更深入地調查 UFO 現象。雖然他能夠解釋將近 1.5 萬件引起他注意的現象，但是他也在 1966 年《週六晚報》上寫著：“仍有上百件令人困惑的事件，而其中約百分之四更是令人不知所措。”

As Keyhoe waged his war in the halls of Congress during the late fifties and early sixties, the public sighted fewer and fewer mysterious objects flying in the sky. Constituents lessened the pressure on congressmen for answers, and reports coming into Blue Book decreased so markedly that Hynek himself thought the phenomenon might go away. Then, one night in March 1966, eighty-seven coeds at Hillsdale College in Michigan watched a glow of red, yellow, and green lights rise from a swamp only a few hundred yards from their dormitory.

50 年代末到 60 年代初之間，凱何仍然繼續在國會中努力奔走，而一般大眾看到的天上神秘物也越來越少，這使得大眾要求國會給予答案的壓力也逐漸減小，再加上送到藍皮書計畫的報告也大幅減少，使海尼克博士自己都認為該現象似乎將逐漸消失。但是在 1966 年 3 月的一個晚上，密西根希爾斯代爾（Hillsdale）學院 87 位學生看到一道紅、黃及綠色的光線從沼澤地升起，且距離他們的宿舍僅二、三百碼。

Roughly "football-shaped," the glow seemed suddenly to fly at the dormitory. Then, it stopped. Then, it flew back to the swamp where it hovered. The county civil defense director watched the glowing object through binoculars for three hours. The following night, sixty-three miles away, a dozen people in Dexter, Michigan, several of them police officers, watched another glowing object rise from a marshy area on a farm. At about a thousand feet, the object stopped, hovered for a few minutes, and then flew away. A farmer and his son had approached to within five hundred yards of the object and heard it take off with the sound of a ricocheting bullet.

這道亮光大致像一個橄欖球的形狀，突然那道光芒飛向宿舍，停下來，又飛回到它翱翔的沼澤地，鎮上的民防主任也用望遠鏡看著這個發光物體，看了三個小時。第二天晚上，在 63 英里外有 12 個人（其中也有幾位員警）在密西根達斯特鎮（Dexter），看到了另外—個發光體從農莊旁的濕地升了起來，它在差不多一千英尺高的地方停住，翱翔在空中數分鐘，最後又飛走了。有一位農夫和他兒子曾經在五百碼內接近該物體，並聽到它迅速起飛時發出類似子彈飛出的聲音。

The two sightings sent reporters into a frenzy, and the Air Force dispatched Hynek to investigate. But when he arrived at the Hillsdale campus, he could hardly get to the witnesses. Journalists looking for answers had swarmed the campus and the farm, and emotions ran so high that even the police now saw flying saucers everywhere. The head of Blue Book called Hynek in Michigan and told him to stand up before a crowd of reporters in this near hysterical community and issue a statement on the cause of the sightings. But Hynek had nothing to say. He had no idea what could have caused the lights.

這兩次見聞讓新聞記者又狂熱了起來，所以空軍馬上派海尼克來調查此事。但是當他到達希爾斯代爾校園時，卻幾乎無法找到任何目擊者，來採訪的新聞記者聚集在校園內及農莊上，當地人們的情緒高漲，甚至於連員警都開始說看到飛碟了。藍皮書計畫的負責人打電話給在密西根的海尼克，告訴他一定要從擠在這個幾近歇斯底里小鎮上的新聞記者群中站出來，並且發表一個說明來解釋這些見聞的起因。但是海尼克沒有什麼可說的，因為他並不瞭解為什麼會有亮光產生。

"Searching for a justifiable explanation of the sightings," he wrote in the 1966 Saturday Evening Post article, "I remembered a phone call from a botanist at the University of Michigan, who called to my attention the phenomenon of burning 'swamp gas.'"

“為了要找出一個可以合理解釋這些現象的理由，”海尼克在 1966 年發表在《週六晚報》的一篇文章中談到，“記得曾有一位密西根大學的植物學家打電話給我，他特別提醒我這可能是‘沼氣燃燒’的現象。”

Three days after he began his investigation, in the midst of being pulled in one direction by TV cameramen and in another by news reporters at the largest press conference in the history of the Detroit Press Club, Hynek uttered the words "swamp gas." He had only meant to say that this rare gas, known to burst into tiny flames that sometimes floated above the ground, was a "possible" cause of the sightings, but no sooner had the words slipped out of his mouth than the press conference erupted in a clamor of reporters rushing to the phone.

就在海尼克開始調查的第三天，有一大群電視攝影人員及新聞工作者參加了底特律有史以來最大的一次記者招待會，海尼克當時說出了“沼氣”兩個字。他原本只是想要說明這種稀有的沼氣會燃燒成小的火焰，有時候會浮在地面上，它有可能就是發生這些現象的原因。但是正當他說出“沼氣”這兩個字時，招待會上的記者們都已經迫不及待地跑向電話亭去報回報社及電視臺了。

The Air Force and Hynek both looked foolish. Not one of the hundred-plus people who had witnessed the lights accepted the explanation. The civil defense director said that the pulsating lights he had watched through binoculars for three hours that night unquestionably came "from some kind of vehicle."

空軍及海尼克看起來都像是傻子，超過一百位的目擊者沒有一位能夠接受這種解釋。那位民防主任說他曾經用雙筒望遠鏡持續觀察了三個小時，他肯定那亮光毫無疑問是來自某種載具。

House minority leader Gerald R. Ford castigated the Air Force for their "flippant answer," to the Michigan sightings and called for a "full-blown" congressional investigation into UFOs. Two and a half weeks later, for the first time in the nineteen-year history of the phenomenon, the House Armed Services Committee held open hearings on UFOs.

眾議院少數黨領導人傑拉爾德．福特（Gerald R. Ford）特別斥責空軍對密西根見聞的輕率回應，因而要求國會全面調查 UFO 事件。兩週半後，UFO 現象在歷時 19 年之久，眾議院軍事服務委員會終於第一次舉行了公開聽證會。

"At that point," said Hynek in an OMNI magazine interview in 1985, "I had to ask myself when I would become scientifically honest and say that I just didn't know what the sightings were and that they deserved further investigation."

1985 年海尼克在接受《全球雜誌》（OMNI magazine）訪問時說道：“當時我捫心自問，我何時才能以科學的誠實態度來說明我的確不知道這些現像是什麼，而且說它們實在有必要更深入地調查。”

四

During the congressional hearings of April 5, 1966, Secretary of the Air Force Harold D. Brown revealed that an ad hoc group of scientists called the O'Brien Panel had secretly convened only six months earlier to review the UFO problem. The panel had concluded that UFO sightings had potential scientific value and recommended that the Air Force supplement Blue Book with science teams from selected universities who could mobilize quickly, gather data while fresh, and evaluate that data thoroughly. But with few sightings being reported and public interest on the wane, the Air Force had felt no pressure to implement the panel's recommendations so it had done nothing. Now, with press coverage of the recent Michigan sightings firing public interest and Congress pressuring the Air Force to find answers, Secretary Brown told the House Armed Services Committee that the Air Force would immediately begin a search outside the military for teams of scientists to study the UFO problem.

1966 年 4 月 5 日國會舉行聽證會時，空軍參謀長哈羅德．布朗（Harold D. Brown）就指出，由一群科學家組成的、特別的“奧賓小組”（O'Brien Panel），六個月前開始秘密集會審閱 UFO 的案子。該小組曾作出結論認為飛碟的見聞有科學上的潛在意義，並建議空軍繼續支持藍皮書計畫，由大學中找尋能夠迅速動員的研究小組支持，搜集一些剛發生的證據，再嚴謹地予以評估。但是由於相關見聞的報導不多，以及大眾興趣的衰退，空軍覺得不必急著去執行該小組的建議，所以空軍並沒有採取任何行動。如今，由於最近媒體報導的密西根見聞又激起了大眾的興趣，再加上國會施壓希望空軍找出答案，所以參謀長布朗告訴眾議院的軍事服務委員會，空軍將會立刻開始找尋一個軍事小組以外的科學家小組，致力於研究 UFO 問題。

The subject embodied so much misunderstanding and sensation, however, that several universities, including Harvard, MIT, University of North Carolina, and University of California, refused to participate. After months of searching, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research finally offered a $313,000 grant to Dr. Edward Uhler Condon at the University of Colorado to conduct the entire study with the help of special consultants and a staff of twelve, half of whom were scientists or psychologists. What became known as the Condon Committee remains the most controversial episode in forty years of UFO history.

然而，由於這個主題包含了太多的誤解又太轟動了，因此包括哈佛、麻省理工學院、北卡羅來納及加州大學在內的一些知名大學，都拒絕參與這項工作。經過幾個月的尋訪之後，空軍科學研究辦公室最後選擇了科羅拉多大學的愛德華．烏勒．康登（Edward Uhler Condon）博士，並提供 31.3 萬美元的補助金，由康登博士指揮一些特別顧問及由 12 位科學家、心理學家組成的工作小組，負責整個研究計畫。這個所謂的“康登委員會”（Condon Committee）便在 UFO 的 45 年歷史中留下了一段最受爭議的插曲。

Condon, sixty-four, a noted physicist and former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, had once served as deputy director of the highly secret Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, where he provided several pieces to the A-bomb puzzle. He also had been instrumental in the development of radar. His stature as a scientist satisfied both the Air Force and the science community, and his reputation for bucking governmental authority (he was one of the few to checkmate young Richard Nixon and the House Un-American Activities Committee) seemed to assure that UFOs would receive a fair hearing.

64 歲的康登是一位著名的物理學家，也是美國高等科學聯合會的前任主席，他曾是洛斯阿拉莫斯曼哈頓計畫（Manhattan Project at Los Alamos）的副指揮官，當時他曾對原子彈計畫提供了很多重要的建議；他也是雷達研發過程中的重要人物。他的科學家身分能夠同時滿足空軍及科學團體的要求，使得 UFO 的調查似乎將會獲得一個公平的視聽。

But in September 1966, two weeks prior to the first meeting of the committee, Hynek had dinner with Condon. Later, in the OMNI interview, Hynek recalled that the renowned scientist was "quite clearly negative" toward the subject of UFOs. When Hynek then visited the project offices, he found the project coordinator, Bob Low, already writing on a blackboard the chapter headings and conclusions for a report that as yet had not been researched and would not be complete for another two years. Hynek's early experiences with the two men running the project would prove prophetic.

但是在 1966 年 9 月，第一次康登委員會開會前兩週，海尼克和康登一起吃晚餐。稍後海尼克在接受《全球雜誌》訪問時表示：“這位有名望的科學家對飛碟的存在是持反對態度的。”後來當海尼克走訪該計畫的辦公室時，他發現計畫協調人包伯．勞（Bob Low）已將尚未開始研究且至少需要兩年以上時間都不易完成的報告各章名稱與“結論”寫在黑板上了。從這兩件事海尼克就可以預知將來會有什麼樣的結果了。

Though the Air Force, at the behest of Congress, had established the Condon Committee to settle the UFO controversy, within months the committee itself was adding to the confusion. In January 1967, Condon addressed an honorary scientific fraternity, telling them, "It is my inclination right now to recommend that the Government get out of this business. My attitude right now is that there's nothing to it." Then, according to the Star-Gazette in Elmira, New York, he smiled and added, "But I'm not supposed to reach a conclusion for another year."

雖然空軍在國會的指示下成立了康登委員會，專門處理有關 UFO 的爭辯，但是在幾個月之後，委員會卻把事情搞得更複雜了。1967 年 1 月，康登在一次榮譽科學同學會中演講，並告訴他們：“我現在是傾向於建議政府退出，並且不要插手這件事，我認為這一切都是無中生有的事。”然後，根據紐約州愛莫拉（Elmira）鎮《星球公報》（Star-Gazette）的記載，他又微笑地說：“我認為即使在一年以後，我也不可能獲得任何結論。”

A mesmerizing storyteller, Condon loved to spin a good yarn and kept many audiences in near hysterics with material provided him by the lunatic fringe with which he came in contact during his tenure as head of the committee. For instance, a well-dressed gentleman in his fifties arrived at committee headquarters one day in a chauffeured Cadillac, announced himself as "Sir Salvador," agent of the Third Universe (the Second Universe was populated by bears), and demanded three billion dollars to build a spaceport to accommodate ships from the Third Universe trying to land on earth.

康登是一位善於說故事讓很多聽眾產生興趣的人，而他故事的內容多半是取材於當他被任命為委員會負責人時，所獲得的一些瘋狂且令人困惑的故事。譬如說，一位穿著高尚年約五十歲的紳士，有一天坐著凱迪拉克豪華禮車來到委員會總部，向大眾宣稱他是薩爾瓦多爵士（Sir Salvador），是所謂第三宇宙代表人（第二宇宙是由熊所組成的），他要求該委員會提供 30 億美元來建造一個太空站，以容納第三宇宙登陸地球的太空船。

According to UFOs? YES!, a book published in 1969 by Condon Committee psychologist Dr. David Saunders, Condon actually researched the "case" and found that Sir Salvador had recently been released from a mental institution. Nevertheless, Condon soberly reported his findings to Washington. When an Ontario, California man gave a specific date and time for an imminent on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Condon notified the Governor of Utah and dispatched an investigator who waited for two hours in vain next to members of the Utah Highway Patrol and a brass band. In September 1967, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver quoted Condon as saying, "The 21st century may die laughing when it looks back on many things we have done. This [the UFO study] may be one."

根據 1969 年由康登委員會心理學家大衛．桑德斯（David Saunders）博士所著的《飛碟，是的！》一書指出，康登確實研究過前面所說的案子，而所謂的薩爾瓦多爵士則是一位最近剛從精神病院出來的人；但是無淪如何，康登還是把他的發現向華盛頓當局報告了。所以後來當有一位來自加州的人指出某一特定時間在布尼威鹽田（Bonneville Salt Flats）會有外星人登陸時，康登立刻就通知了猶他州州長，並且調派了一位調查員跟著猶他州高速公路巡邏隊及當地管樂隊足足白等了兩個小時。

1967 年 9 月，丹佛市《洛磯山新聞報》有一篇專欄提到康登的話：“到了21世紀，當人們開始回顧過去時，一定會發現很多很可笑的事情，而飛碟問題必定是其中的一項。”

Condon himself investigated few, if any, of the truly perplexing cases and rarely discussed the progress of serious research with his staff. In fact, his staff saw little of him. And Low, who ran the project in Condon's absence, refused to investigate potentially important cases suggested by the staff; at the same time, he occupied himself with what other members considered irrelevant research. On one trip to Europe, ostensibly to research UFOs, Low spent much of his time in Scotland studying the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster. According to Saunders's book, Low "explained later that this was relevant to UFOs because neither one exists and it was important to see how they were studying something that does not exist."

康登自己只調查了幾件真正棘手的案子，而且重要的研究他也很少和部屬討論進展。事實上，他的部屬幾乎都看不到他。勞是康登執行計畫的職務代理人，他也拒絕去調查部屬建議極具調查價值的案子，而經常忙於研究一些其它會員認為不太相關的研究。他有一次旅行到歐洲，表面上是去研究 UFO，但他卻花了很多時間到蘇格蘭去研究“尼斯水怪”（Loch Ness Monster）。根據桑德斯書中所述，“勞事後解釋研究尼斯水怪與研究 UFO 是互相有關聯的，因為這兩件事都是不存在的，重要的是我們要能瞭解人們是如何研究這些並不存在的東西。”

Because of his own experiences as a scientist, Hynek anticipated that the committee would find UFOs "of importance to the national interest," and that the committee would recommend that Congress establish a commission for studying "the many truly scientifically challenging cases." In a letter to Condon in January 1967, he wrote, "There are so many scientists who have now expressed a 'subterranean' interest in UFOs that I am moved to organize, as loosely as possible, an 'Invisible College of Interested Scientists.'"

海尼克以他自己的體驗認為，此委員會應該會發現 UFO“對國家利益非常重要”，並認為委員會將建議國會成立一個委員會去探討“這類科學上極具挑戰性的案子”。他於 1967 年 1 月寫給康登的一封信中寫道：“現在很多科學家都表示對 UFO‘很感興趣’，我很容易就可以將他們組織起來，就如同這兒有一個隱形的大學，而裡面都是一些有興趣的科學家。”

But as months passed, Hynek and others who addressed the committee noticed both Condon's and Low's disturbing preoccupation with the obviously explainable reports. Condon continued to make jokes in public about contactees, giving the impression that such stories formed the bulk of UFO facts. And Low was too quick to point out how easily most cases proved to be some sort of astronomical phenomena or a misidentification of a known object. UFO researchers had known this for years; they wanted an explanation for the difficult cases.

經過了幾個月，海尼克及其它曾在委員會中演講的人發現，康登和勞對一些明顯可以解釋的報告都有一些破壞性的成見。康登還是繼續在大眾前面譏笑那些與外星人接觸過的人，給人的感覺好像就是這些故事才把 UFO 事件越弄越大的；而勞也太倉促就指出很多案子很容易以天文學的現象來解釋，或說那些都是誤辨已知物體而造成的。他還說研究 UFO 的人早就明白這一點了，他們只是勉強要為一些困難的案子找出解釋。

Then, in the summer of 1967, one of the scientists on the staff discovered a memorandum written by Low in August 1966, just before the university signed the contract with the Air Force. Low had titled the memo "Some Thoughts on the UFO Project," and addressed it to university officials. In the memo, he noted that several of the scientists at the university wanted to avoid the project because the study would have to be objective, and that meant admitting the possibility that UFOs exist. Low capsulized their feelings by saying, "It is not respectable to give serious consideration to such a possibility." But Low had an answer. He wrote, "The trick would be, I think, to describe the project so that, to the public, it would appear a totally objective study but, to the scientific community, would present the image of a group of nonbelievers trying their best to be objective but having an almost zero expectation of finding a saucer." One way to achieve this, he suggested, would be to stress the investigation of the psychological makeup of people who claimed to see UFOs and to downplay the physical evidence.

在 1967 年夏天，工作人員中的一位科學家發現了勞在 1966 年 8 月所寫的一個備忘錄，此時正在空軍與大學簽定合約之前，勞給備忘錄取的名稱是“UFO 計畫的一些看法”，並且還向學校的教職員作過演說，在備忘錄中他指出很多在大學裡的科學家避免承接此計畫，因為這個研究必須很客觀，也就是說他們必須承認飛碟的確有可能存在。勞摘錄這些拒絕研究 UFO 科學家的想法是：“這種事情的可能性根本就不值得費心思去思考。”而勞的回答是這樣的：“我認為這中間的奧秘就在於，你的報告在大眾面前，它看起來是一份完全客觀的研究；但對科學界而言，它讓人覺得那是一群不相信 UFO 的人盡力做到客觀的立場。”他認為有一個方法可以做到這一步，就是積極從心理學的角度去對那些聲稱自己曾經看過飛碟的人進行調查，再將他們所提供的具體證明予以輕描淡寫就可以了。

Low's memo so offended Saunders and Dr. Norman Levine, an electrical engineer on the staff, that they sent it to Donald Keyhoe, who tuned it over to a prominent scientist outside the committee. Condon countered by firing Saunders and Levine for "incompetence." Two weeks later, February 15, 1968, Mary Louise Armstrong, Low's administrative assistant, resigned, stating in her letter of resignation that there was "an almost unanimous lack of confidence" in Low and that Low "had indicated little interest in talking to those who carried out the investigations or in reading their reports." She could not understand how most of the scientists had "arrived at such radically different conclusions" from Low's and noted there was "a fairly good consensus among the team members that there is enough data in the UFO question to warrant further study....

勞的備忘錄觸怒了桑德斯和諾曼．李文（Norman Levine）博士（委員會的一位電子工程師），他們將這一份備忘錄送交給唐納．凱何（Donald Keyhoe），而他又轉交給委員會以外的一位著名科學家，而康登以“無能”為由指責桑德斯及李文。兩週後，也就是 1968 年 2 月 15 日，勞的行政助理瑪麗．路易士．阿姆斯壯（Mary Louise Armstrong）要求辭職，並在她的辭職信中指出：“這裡幾乎是一致地對勞缺乏信心。”而勞則反駁說：“他並無太大的興趣要與這些執行調查的人談論，或者去閱讀他們的報告。”她無法瞭解為何大多數科學家與勞的結論相去這麼遠，她同時也指出：“小組成員都有一個共識，認為 UFO 問題已經有足夠的資料可以進行更進一步的研究了。”

"To say in our final report," she continued, "as I believe Bob would like to, that although we can't prove 'ETI' does not exist, we can say that there isn't much evidence to suggest it does, would not be correct. I do not understand how he can make such a statement when those who have done the work of digging into the sighting information do not think this is true... I do not think it is an unfair conclusion on our part to say that Bob is misrepresenting us."

“關於我們的結論報告，”她繼續說， “我想勞一定會說：‘雖然我們不能證明外星人不存在，但是我們能說沒有足夠的證據可以支援它是存在的。’但我卻成為這是不正確的。我無法瞭解的是當那麼多人正致力於案子的研究時，他又怎麼能提出這樣的聲明呢？站在我們的立場，我認為如果說勞誤導了我們，這句話對他是公正的。”

Other staff members quit, too, and an article in Look, May 14, 1968, publicly exposed the problems within the Condon Committee, promoting a new congressional investigation. On July 29, 1968, as the Condon Committee began winding down its operation and writing its final report, Hynek, Dr. Carl Sagan, and four other scientists, including Dr. James McDonald, testified before the House Committee on Space and Astronautics.

其它的委員會同僚也相繼離職，1968 年 5 月 14 日《期待》（Look）雜誌的一篇報導就公然指出康登委員會的問題，並且要求提出一項新的國會調查工作。1968 年 7 月 29 日，當康登委員會漸漸了結其工作並著手撰寫結案報告時，海尼克、卡爾．薩根（Carl Sagan）博士及其它四位科學家（包括詹姆士．麥道（James McDonald）博士），在眾議院的太空及航空委員會前作證。

詹姆士．麥道（James McDonald）博士

In only a few years, Jim McDonald had become the most articulate proponent of UFO study. Tall, lean, dynamic, and with a photographic memory, he was far more vocal than Hynek. David Michael Jacobs, in The Controversy over Unidentified Flying Objects in America, reported that at the first meeting between McDonald and Hynek in 1967, McDonald had walked into Hynek's office, pounded on his desk, and exclaimed, "How could you sit on this information for so many years without alerting the scientific community!"

僅僅幾年的時間，麥道就成了研究 UFO 最主要的擁護者。他的個子很高，體型略瘦，充滿活力，記憶力非常強，比海尼克更善於言辭。大衛．麥可．傑卡布（David Michael Jacobs）在《不明飛行物在美國的爭辯》報導中指出，麥道與海尼克在 1967 年的第一次見面時，麥道曾進入海尼克的辦公室，敲他的桌子並大吼：“你怎麼能坐擁這麼多的資訊這麼多年，卻都沒有向科學團體提出警告呢！”

Holder of a master's degree from MIT and a doctor of philosophy from Iowa State University, McDonald headed the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona. Highly respected, he had done extensive research on cloud seeding, hurricane reduction, and ozone problems caused by SST emissions. Though he had discovered UFOs much later than Hynek, he called the study of UFOs "the most important scientific problem of our time." Adding that "we do not know what they are because we have laughed them out of court."

在麻省理工學院獲得碩士學位，及愛荷華州立大學獲得哲學博士後，麥道曾主持亞利桑那大學大氣科學研究所。他是一位極受尊敬的人，他曾對雲的產生、颶風的變形及由廢氣造成的臭氧問題作過深入的研究。雖然他研究 UFO 比海尼克晚很多，但他卻把研究 UFO 稱為是“我們這一代最重要的科學問題”，他認為：“我們不知道 UFO 是什麼，完全是因為我們只會在旁邊不斷地嘲笑與諷刺。”

"My own present opinion, based on two years of careful study," he told the House Committee on Space and Aeronautics, "is that UFOs are probably extraterrestrial devices engaged in something that might be very tentatively termed 'surveillance.' Indeed," he added, "I have to state, for the record, that I believe no other problem within your jurisdiction is of comparable scientific and national importance. These are strong words, and I intend them to be."

他告訴眾議院太空及航空委員會說；“依據我兩年來仔細的研究，我目前的看法是：飛碟可能是來自外星球的，並且從事於一些試驗性質的‘監視’工作。事實上我必須指出，到目前為止，我相信在你們的管轄範圍內，還沒有其它問題比這件事更具科學性和對國家安全的重要性，這些話聽起來是有點危言聳聽，但我認為事實就是如此。”

Hynek told the committee that only two things kept scientists away from UFOs: One was lack of hard data (the Air Force, interested only in national security, had failed to collect sufficient scientific data); the other was the sensationalizing of UFOs by contactees and pulp magazines. Between the two, said Hynek, the science community's misconception of UFO information was "powerful and all-encompassing."

海尼克告訴該委員會使科學家不願研究 UFO 的原因只有兩個：第一件是沒有一些確實的資料（空軍只對國家的安全感興趣，而不願意去收集足夠的科學資料）；另一件則是有些自稱與外太空人接觸過的人及一些廉價的低水準雜誌都煽動大眾及對 UFO 大作文章。海尼克說就因為一直都無法澄清這兩件事，所以造成科學團體對 UFO 的誤解也“越來越多且越來越廣”。

Each of the experts to testify before the committee recommended the subject be given further scientific study. Then, the committee adjourned and everyone awaited the Condon Committee's final report.

這兩位在聽證會前作證的專家都建議應該對這個主題作更深入的科學研究。聽證會結束後，大家就一直在等待康登委員會的最後報告．

On November 15, 1968, the Condon Committee released a document 1,485 pages long. The committee had examined ninety-one cases, each listed in one of five categories: astronaut sightings, optical and radar sightings, old cases, new cases, and photographic evidence.

1968 年 11 月 15 日，康登委員會發表了一份 1485 頁長的文件資料（也就是著名的「康登報告」），一共檢查了 91 個案子，每一個案子都歸納在下面五個不同分類中；外太空人見聞、光學及雷達見聞、舊案子，新案子及照片證據。

「康登報告」（Condon Report）

Astronomer and professor of astrogeophysics, Dr. Franklin Roach, wrote the chapter entitled "Visual Observations Made by U.S. Astronauts." A consultant to NASA, Roach had briefed and debriefed the astronauts on their experiences in space aboard Mercury and Gemini flights. After examining ten of the more intriguing sightings, Roach could explain only seven of them. He wrote that, "The three unexplained sightings, which have been gleaned from a great mass of reports, are a challenge to the analyst. Especially puzzling is the first one of the list, the daytime sighting of an object showing details such as arms (antennas?) protruding from a body having a noticeable angular extension. If the NORAD listing of objects near the GT-4 spacecraft at the time of the sighting is complete as it presumably is, we shall have to find a rational explanation or, alternatively, keep it on our list of unidentifieds."

天文學家兼天文物理學教授佛蘭克林．羅沙（Franklin Roach）博士寫了一篇文章叫《美國太空人的視覺觀察》（Visual Observations Made by U.S. Astronauts）。他是美國航空及太空總署的諮詢顧問，他曾就太空人在登陸水星及雙子星的太空航程作過行前指示及回程報告。他檢查的十個令人非常感興趣的目擊事件中，只能解釋其中的 7 件。他這樣寫著，“這 3 件無法解釋的現像是從非常多的報告中搜集出來的，對於分析家而言，這是一項挑戰。其中有一項特別令人不解的是一個發生在白天的現象：那是一個細部均相當清楚的物體（譬如有一個手臂從主體內以一個很明顯的角度向外伸出）。如果現象發生時，北美空防系統能指出所看見的物體是在靠近 GT-4 太空船的附近，那我們也就可以找到一個合理的解釋了，不然的話，我們就只能把它列在不明飛行物的名單上。”

Physicist Gordon Thayer wrote the chapter "Optical and Radar Sightings" and concluded that one case, which occurred in Lakenheath, England in August 1965, was "the most puzzling and unusual case in the radar-visual files. The apparently rational, intelligent behavior of the UFO suggests a mechanical device of unknown origin as the most probable explanation of this sighting."

物理學家喬登．泰耶（Gordon Thayer）寫了一篇名為《光學與雷達的目擊事件》（Optical and Radar Sightings）的文章，文中對 1965 年 8 月發生在英格蘭雷肯立斯（Lakenheath）的一個案子作了以下的結論：“此一事件是雷達顯示檔案中最困惑與不尋常的事件，由 UFO 明智高明的行為可以看出，該不明飛行物具備某種高超的機械設備，這應該是這件事件最可能的解釋了。”

One of the photographic cases examined by astronomer and photo analyst, Dr. William K. Hartmann, involved two photographs taken by a farmer in McMinnville, Oregon in 1950. Hartmann and his staff not only analyzed the original negatives but found and interviewed the farmer. Hartmann concluded: "This is one of the few UFO reports in which all factors investigated ... appear to be consistent with the assertion that an extraordinary flying object, silvery, metallic, disk-shaped, tens of meters in diameter, and evidently artificial, flew within sight of two witnesses.

由天文學及照相學家威廉．哈特曼（William K. Hartmann）博士所審驗的 UFO 相片案子中，有一件是關於 1950 年由奧勒崗州馬明威（McMinnville）的一位農夫所拍的兩張相片。哈特曼和他的同僚不僅分析了原始的底片，並找到這位農夫與他面談。哈特曼的結淪是：“這是極少數作過詳細調查的飛碟報告之一。此事件中所有的各項因素都很一致，因此可以確定是有一架銀色的、金屬制的、碟形的，直徑有幾十米，明顯不是由人類所建造的不尋常飛行物，該飛行物被兩位目擊者目睹到。”

"It cannot be said that the evidence positively rules out a fabrication," he added, "although there are some physical factors such as the accuracy of certain photometric measures of the original negatives which argue against a fabrication."

他補充說道：“我們不能完全否定偽造的可能性，但事實上這個案子確實是有實質的證據（如原始底片中物體所測量的準確性）是不能騙人的，可是也不能說完全不能偽造。”

Hartmann noted that about two percent of cases involving photographic evidence "appear to represent well recorded but unidentified or unidentifiable objects that are airborne - ie. UFOs." This, wrote Hartmann, "is not inconsistent with the hypothesis that unknown and extraordinary aircraft have penetrated the airspace of the Unites States."

哈特曼指出，約有百分之二有照片為證的案子“看起來都記錄得很完整，但卻仍未辨認出，也無法辨認出其為空中會飛的 —— 飛碟”。哈特曼是這樣寫的：“這件事與他們所假設的有不明而且不尋常的太空船穿越美國上空是互相一致的。”

Many of the case reports contained conclusions like this: "If the report is accurate [it was made by six Air Force officers and confirmed by ground and airborne radar] it describes an unusual, intriguing, and puzzling phenomenon which, in the absence of additional information, must be listed as unidentified." And this: "Taking into consideration the high credibility of information and the cohesiveness and continuity of accounts, combined with a high degree of 'strangeness,' it is also certainly one of the most disturbing UFO incidents known today." Or: "In conclusion, although conventional or natural explanations certainly cannot be ruled out, the probability of such seems low in this case and the probability that at least one genuine UFO was involved appears to be fairly high."

很多類似案件的綜合報告都是這樣結論的：“如果報告是正確的（由 6 位空軍軍官撰寫，並且經過地面及空中雷達確認），則它描述的是一個極不尋常且令人疑惑的現象，由於缺乏更進一步的資料，因此必須被列為‘未證實物’。由於資料的高可信度，加上事件重複持續地發生，以及一個高度‘奇怪’的特性，它也必定是目前所知最受爭議的 UFO 事件之一。”或者，可以將結論說為：“雖然的確無法排除傳統或自然的解釋，但是用它們來解釋這件案子的可行性卻也似乎很低，至少其中有一個真實的飛碟出現的可能性應該是很高的。”

Condon, who investigated few if any of the cases and talked rarely with his staff about their research, wrote the conclusion for the report.

康登曾調查過極少數的案子，他很少和部屬談論他們的研究即自行撰寫了他的結論，他的結論敘述如下：

"No direct evidence whatever of a convincing nature now exists for the claim that any UFOs represent spacecraft visiting Earth from another civilization," he claimed. Furthermore, "nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the last twenty years that has added to scientific knowledge." And finally, "Careful consideration of the record, as it is available to us, leads us to conclude that further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified in the expectation that science will be advanced thereby."

“不論從哪一方面來看，都沒有直接的證據可以證明 UFO 是另外一個文明星球來訪問地球的太空船的說法是正確的，”他甚至說，“在過去 20 年的 UFO 研究中並沒有任何可以增加人類科學知識的研究成果。”最後他說，“審慎地思考過現有的各項相關紀錄使我們認為，未來對 UFO 再作更深入的研究也不太可能在科學上有任何更進一步的發展。”

In the OMNI interview eighteen years later, Hynek said, "It almost seemed to me as if Dr. Condon had not read his own report. The report itself presented real mysteries."

18 年後在一次《全球》雜誌的訪問中，海尼克說：“我覺得康登博士似乎並沒有讀過他自己的報告，因為那份報告本身就是一個謎。”

An eleven-member panel from the National Academy of Sciences reviewed the Condon Report and approved its conclusions. "On the basis of present knowledge," noted the panel, "the least likely explanation of UFOs is the hypothesis of extraterrestrial visitations by intelligent beings." They agreed with Condon: UFOs did not warrant further scientific study.

由國家科學院 11 位委員組成的小組檢閱了康登的報告，並且同意他的結論：“在目前的知識基礎上，對 UFO 最不可能的解釋就是假設是外星來的有智慧的訪客。”他們與康登意見一致的是：“研究 UFO 並不能保證會有更先進的科學成果。”

In a press conference, January 11, 1969, Keyhoe complained that the committee had examined only fifty cases from 1947 to 1967, and those were hardly typical of the "reliable, unexplained" reports. NICAP had ten to fifteen thousand such cases in its files.

在 1969 年 1 月 11 日的記者招待會上，凱何抱怨說委員會在 1947 年到 1967 年間只檢查了 50 個案子，而且那些案子幾乎都不是典型的“可靠但無法解釋”的報告。空中研究會本身就有 1 萬到 1 萬 5 千個這樣的案子。

Hynek wrote in his review that he would never have wasted his time on nearly two-thirds of the cases studied by the committee. The Air Force consultant also noted that members of the committee sometimes stretched so far to explain a sighting they came up with solutions like this: "This unusual sighting should therefore be assigned to the category of some almost certainly natural phenomenon which is so rare that it apparently has never been reported before or since."

海尼克在他的評論中寫道，委員會調查過的案子中，有三分之二的案子他絕不會浪費時間去調查。這位空軍顧問也注意到委員會的委員常常會解釋得太過頭，他們會想出像這樣的解答：“這種不尋常的現象應該被歸類為所謂的自然現象，而這些自然現象又因為非常罕見，所以在那之前甚至於之後都沒有被報導過。”

Dr. Peter Sturrock, professor of astrophysics and space science at Stanford, wrote a lengthy evaluation of the Condon Report for the Institute of Plasma Research. Sturrock concluded, "It is my opinion that the substance of the Condon Report presents a persuasive case for the view that there is some phenomenological fire hidden behind the smoke of UFO reports and that the Report, therefore, supports the proposition that further scientific study of UFOs is in order."

斯坦福大學天文物理和太空科學教授彼得．斯迪羅克（Peter Sturrock）博士，曾經替“電漿研究機構”寫了一篇很長的康登評估報告，其結論為：“我認為在康登的報告中存在一些有說服力的案子，這些案子顯示在 UFO 事件的背後隱藏著一些未知的現象，所以本報告支持更深入地進行 UFO 科學研究的看法。”

On May 16, 1969, Roach, who had been responsible for the section on astronaut sightings, wrote to Hynek that he had attended a recent Condon lecture entitled "UFOs I Have Loved and Lost." "He was amusing, hilarious at times, but did not touch on the serious part of the investigation," said Roach. "The listeners must have gone away with the erroneous impression that his encounters with psychopaths or retardeds represented the essence of the investigation rather than a peripheral aspect of the matter." Roach referred to "all the errors and comedies of the investigation," and ended with, "The fallibility of scientists has been revealed which is important, and the public may now enter a new era of confusion."

在 1969 年 5 月 16 日康登報告中負責“外太空人見聞”部分的羅沙（Roach），曾寫了一封信給海尼克說他最近曾出席一次康登的演講會，演講的主題為《我曾經熱愛過的飛碟》，他寫道：“康登很幽默也很好笑，但沒有談到調查過程中比較嚴肅的部分，而聽眾也一定會產生一個錯誤的印象，認為他所接觸到的精神不正常或智慧不足的人便是他調查的本質，而不是一個全面性的探討。”羅沙把此稱為：“調查工作中所有的錯誤與笑話。”他在信尾提到：“事情已經告訴這些容易受騙的科學家什麼才是重要的，而一般不知道情況的大眾如今則可能又陷入了另外一個迷惑之中。”

Two years after the Condon Report, in November of 1970, a subcommittee on UFOs sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics found that many of Condon's conclusions were his own, not based on research in the report. Nor was there "a basis in the report for his prediction that nothing of scientific value will come of further studies." The subcommittee recommended increased study, finding it "difficult to ignore the small residue of well-documented but unexplainable cases which form the hard core of the UFO controversy."

在 1970 年 11 月，也就是「康登報告」（Condon Report）的兩年之後，由美國航空及太空協會贊助的“飛碟小組委員會”發現，很多康登的結論都是他自己的想法而不是根據調查研究的結果。同時，該報告中對於康登認為“即使作深入的研究也不會具有科學價值”的臆測，發現完全沒有理論根據。因此，該小組委員會建議繼續進行研究，“因為很難忽視一些檔中無法解釋但又是飛碟爭辯重要核心的因素。”

"Nevertheless," Hynek recalled, "when the Condon Report came out in 1968, it was the kiss of death."

“無論如何，”海尼克回憶道，“當康登的報告在 1968 年出現後，它就成了‘死亡之吻’了。”

五

The Condon Report recommended that the Air Force's efforts at Project Blue Book be discontinued. One year later, December 17, 1969, the Secretary of the Air Force announced that the Air Force's twenty-two-year study of UFOs would be terminated. The Air Force "got out of the UFO business," folded Project Blue Book, and declassified all files: forty-two cubic feet of paper, over 80,000 pages. In twenty-two years, the Air Force had investigated 12,618 reported sightings, only 701 of which remained unsolved. The rest, the Air Force attributed to balloons, satellites, aircraft, lighting, reflections, stars, planets, the sun, the moon, weather conditions, or outright fabrications. Using the figures provided by the Air Force, once every eleven days for twenty-two years, someone in the United States sighted a flying object that no one could explain.

康登的報告建議空軍應中止藍皮書計畫。一年以後，也就是 1969 年 12 月 17 日，空軍參謀長宣佈空軍 22 年來的 UFO 研究工作將要終止。空軍將不再參與 UFO 的研究工作，要將藍皮書計畫封存起來，並將所有的機密檔案（42 立方英尺，共計超過 8 萬頁的檔）解密。在空軍 22 年的調查工作中，有 1 萬 2,618 份的見聞報告經過調查，而其中只有 701 件尚未結案，其它的案件空軍均歸因於氣球、衛星、飛船、照明、折射、星星、行星、太陽、月球、氣象所造成。根據空軍所提供的說法，22 年來，在美國每 11 天就會有人看到沒有人能夠解釋的飛行物體。

But many people in the field had felt for some time that the Air Force and its Project Blue Book served only as a publicity front, that in fact, the real investigation had been conducted by another agency or agencies. Bill Spaulding of Ground Saucer Watch examined the newly declassified Air Force files in the early seventies and came away feeling something was missing.

但是與此相關的許多人曾經一度認為美國空軍及他們的藍皮書計畫只是表面的擋箭牌，事實上，實際的調在正由另一個或者另外一些機構進行。地面飛碟觀察組織的畢爾．斯保丁（Bill Spaulding）在檢閱空軍最近解密的 70 年代初檔檔案時，感覺好像有一些資料已經遺失了。

"It's always been our contention," said Spaulding, "that there was another agency or entity involved. In other words, the Air Force is not the bad guy. If you look at it logically, you'll see that the Air Force projects consisted of about five people, including some secretaries, very miniscule, who did nothing. The Air Force went around and gathered information. But after reviewing all the Project Blue Book files, we came across none of the cases that people had given to us. Where were they? What we found out was that another agency was involved, so we said, 'To heck with this. Let's go after the CIA.'"

斯保丁說：“我們一直認為另外還有一個機構或團體一直介入這件事情．換句話說，空軍並不是真正的黑臉．如果你能以合理的態度去看待這件事情，你會發現空軍的計畫一直只有大約 5 個人參與，其中包括幾個參謀，編組很小，他們什麼事也沒有做。空軍只是想辦法從各方面獲得相關的資料，但是在看過所有的藍皮書計畫檔案後，我們已找不到任何有用的案例了。它們究竟到哪去了？我們發現有另外一個機構介入，所以我們認為要探究這些，就讓我們去找中央情報局（CIA）吧。”

六

In 1975, under the newly revised Freedom of Information Act, Ground Saucer Watch filed a request with the CIA for one copy of the 1953 Robertson Panel Report. Responding to the request, the CIA declassified the controversial report but stated that the CIA's only involvement with UFOs was the Robertson Panel.

在 1975 年新修訂的《資訊自由法案》中，“地面飛碟體觀察組織”曾向中央情報局索取一份 1953 年「羅伯遜小組」（Robertson Panel）的報告，為了回應他們的要求，中央情報局解密了一些頗受爭議的報告，但是中央情報局指出它只參與過羅伯遜小組的 UFO 研究工作。

"At no time prior to the formation of the Robertson Panel and subsequent to the issuance of the panel's report," read the reply, "has the CIA engaged in the study of the UFO phenomenon. The Robertson Panel Report is summation of the Agency's interest and involvement in this matter."

“在羅伯遜小組成立之前和專家小組報告發佈之前，中央情報局從未參與過 UFO 現象的研究。羅伯遜小組的報告總結了原子能機構對此事的興趣和參與。”

Three and a half years later, after extended litigation, the CIA was forced to admit to Ground Saucer Watch that it not only investigated the phenomenon before and long after the convening of the Robertson Panel but that it possessed 412 UFO-related documents that had originated within the CIA and another 199 documents that had originated with other government agencies. The CIA relinquished 900 pages of UFO sightings and internal policy on UFOs.

經過三年半的持續爭辯，中央情報局被迫向地面飛碟體觀察組織承認他們不僅在羅伯遜小組成立以前就開始調查 UFO 現象，而且之後也一直在進行調查，同時，中情局也擁有 412 份由該局自行取得的 UFO 相關檔，而另外有 199 件則是由其它政府機構所取得的。中央情報局曾撤回 900 頁的 UFO 目擊事件及對 UFO 處理政策相關的資料。

While the litigation between GSW and the CIA progressed through the legal system, an independent UFO researcher filed another Freedom of Information request, this one with the super-secret National Security Agency. He received this reply: "Regarding your inquiry about UFOs, please be advised that NSA does not have any interest in UFOs in any manner [emphasis in original]." But during it suit against the CIA, GSW learned that some of the CIA documents they sought had originated with NSA. After a new and again protracted legal battle, NSA released only two of its admitted 239 documents relating to UFOs, a decision upheld by the courts for reasons of national security.

當地面飛碟體觀察組織與中央情報局經由法律程式來進行爭辯與訴訟時，另外有一位 UFO 研究者也依照資訊自由法案而提出請求，這一次的物件則是最機密的美國國家安全局，而他收到的訊息則是；“有關於你所詢問關於 UFO 的事情，本局特此聲明，本局對於 UFO 事件無論在‘任何’情況下都沒有‘任何’興趣（原文中特別強調）。”但是當地面飛碟體觀察組織與中央情報局進行訴訟時，卻發現一些中央情報局的檔是來自於美國國家安全局的。在經過一段持續的爭辯之後，美國國家安全局只發佈了其所承認的 239 件關於 UFO 的檔中的兩件，而法院之所以如此裁決則是基於國家安全因素的考慮。

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, UFO groups and independent researchers, utilizing the Freedom of Information Act, prompted the release of 3,000 pages of previously classified material concerning UFOs-reports, correspondence, minutes, and memoranda-all pieces of a historical puzzle that, when put together, revealed over thirty years of interest in UFOs by the State Department, Army, Navy, Air Force, FBI, CIA, NSA, and Defense Intelligence Agency.

70 年代末到 80 年代初，UFO 團體及一些個別的研究者利用資訊自由法案，使得政府機構發佈了三千頁先前列為機密的 UFO 資料（其中包括報告、信件、會議記錄及備忘錄），所有的這些資料都是具有爭議性的歷史事件，由此便可看出包括美國政府、陸軍、海軍、空軍、聯邦調查局、中央情報局、國家安全局及國防情報局等相關機構在內的政府機構，三十年來都對飛碟的研究保持著興趣。

Among the thousands of pages of UFO-related documents, researchers found many old and revealing memoranda such as this one concealed in CIA files since 1950. On November 21 of that year, an engineer named Wilbert B. Smith in the Canadian Department of Transport wrote a proposal for a study of the earth's magnetic field as a possible energy source. In the secret memo, he stated, "I made discreet enquiries through the Canadian Embassy staff in Washington who were able to obtain for me the following information:

在數千頁與 UFO 相關的檔中，研究者發現很多舊的具有啟發性的備忘錄都被存在中央情報局的檔案中。其中有一份是在 1950 年就被存在中央情報局的，那一年的 11 月 21 日，一位名叫韋伯．史密斯（Wilbert B. Smith）的加拿大運輸部工程師，寫了一份要求研究“地球磁場可能是能源之源”的研究建議，在這份機密的備忘錄中史密斯提到，我謹慎地要求加拿大駐華盛頓大使館的人員為我取得以下的資料：

韋伯．史密斯（Wilbert B. Smith）

a. The matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States Government, rating higher even than the H-bomb. b. Flying saucers exist. c. Their modus operandi is unknown but concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed by Doctor Vannevar Bush. d. The entire matter is considered by the United States authorities to be of tremendous significance."

一、這件事被美國政府列為最高機密，甚至高於氫彈的機密等級。

二、飛碟是存在的。

三、尚不明白它們的運作方式，目前萬尼瓦爾．布希（Vannevar Bush）博士領導的小組正集中心力在研究中。

四、這整個事件被美國的權威人士認為極重要。

萬尼瓦爾．布希（Vannevar Bush）博士

七

Since no one had ever uncovered a photo lab or darkroom where Eduard Meier might have developed and possibly fabricated his photographs, Elders and Welch wanted to know who processed his film. Perhaps that person could offer clues or even answers, making the testing of the photographs unnecessary. They discovered that Meier had all of his film developed at a small photography and video shop in Wetzikon called Bär Photo, part of a downtown shopping strip about thirty or forty minutes from the farm. Bär Photo was owned by a couple in their mid-thirties, Beatrice and Willy Bär, each of whom during the interview appeared to be bright and well-traveled, far more cosmopolitan than most of the people they had met at the farm. Each spoke English well.

由於沒有任何人曾發現邁爾擁有光學實驗室或暗房來偽造他的相片，因此李和維奇希望能瞭解是誰幫他沖洗相片的，希望這個人能提供一些線索或答案，如此可使他們不需要對邁爾的相片進行測試。他們發現邁爾將所有的膠捲都送到維特日肯（Wetzikon）市的一家鮑爾相館（Bär Photo）沖洗，該店位於距農場約 30 到 40 分鐘車程的商業區內。鮑爾相館的主人是一對約三十多歲的夫妻彼得絲和魏利．鮑爾（Beatrice and Willy Bär），當和他們個別交談時會覺得他們很聰明，並且旅行過許多地方，比他們在農場中遇到的大多數人都要具有世界觀，英文也說得很好。

When Meier had first brought in rolls of black-and-white film to be developed, Bär himself had done much of the processing.

當邁爾第一次帶著黑白膠捲去沖洗時，大多都是鮑爾親自處理的。

"I never saw anything suspicious in the black-and-white film I developed," said Bär, "nor was I ever told to manipulate anything. A lot of people have suspected I did that but no. When someone brings you pictures like this, your first reaction automatically is, 'This is a lot of crap.' But he aroused my curiosity."

鮑爾說：“我沖洗的黑白相片從來沒有什麼值得懷疑的地方，他也沒有要我做一些特別的處理。雖然很多人懷疑我動過手腳，但我的確沒有加過工。當有人帶著這種相片來找你時，你的第一個反應是：‘這真是一場豪賭呀’，但這也激發了我的好奇心。”

Meier had even invited Bär several times to accompany him on a contact to photograph the beamships if he desired, but Bär had declined. At the time, he did not believe strongly in Meier's story, nor did he have time to drive and walk with Meier through the Swiss countryside late at night. He had been curious but not curious enough.

邁爾曾好幾次邀請鮑爾陪他一起去與太空船接觸並拍照，但他辭謝了。那時他並不太相信邁爾的故事，同時他也沒有時間與邁爾在三更半夜驅車或散步於瑞士的鄉間。他雖然好奇但並不是那麼好奇。

When Meier had first brought his exposed film to Bär, the shop owner had studied the photographs closely with a magnifying glass. He was certain he would be able to recognize a double exposure because the portion exposed twice always appears "stronger." But he never saw any evidence that Meier had tinkered with the photographs.

當邁爾第一次帶著拍完的底片去找鮑爾時，鮑爾曾用放大鏡仔細研究過相片。他確信如果相片是重複曝光的，他一定可以看得出來，因為重複曝光的部分一定會比較明顯，但是他從未看到過邁爾有修補相片的任何證據。

Bär said, "My personal opinion was always, 'I don't know about UFOs, but the pictures are real.' You could drag me before a court of law and I would say the same thing I have told you."

鮑爾說：“我並不懂 UFO，但是相片卻是真實的。你可以到法院去控告我，但我仍會告訴你我說的是實話。”

During the interview, Bär said he had always sold Meier equipment he could handle with one hand. That was the major selling point. Meier would come into the store and experiment for hours with every model until he found one that would be the easiest for him to use. Bär had once sold Meier an old 8mm camera made by Alcom that had been sitting around his shop for years; nobody wanted to buy it, but it was by far the easiest movie camera to use with one hand.

在面談時，鮑爾說他曾多次賣給邁爾一些可以單手操作的裝備，那才是真正的賣點。邁爾買東西時會在店裡花很多時間試用各種不同機型的產品，一直到他找到一種他最容易操作的機型。鮑爾曾賣給邁爾一個已在店中放了好多年的愛康牌（Alcom）舊 8 釐米攝影機，雖然沒有人願意買它，但是它卻是目前為止最容易單手使用的攝影機。

"If he had an accomplice," Bär pointed out, "he would not have to try out all the models to see what could be used with one hand."

鮑爾指出：“如果他有共犯，他就不需要試用這麼多機型來挑選單手可以操作的機種了。”

Beatrice Bär also knew Meier and often had spoken with him in the shop. Unknown to Meier she, too, had studied his photos.

彼得絲也認識邁爾，而且常在店中與他聊天，但邁爾並不知道她也研究過他的相片。

"I don't believe in the same thing he does," she said. "But I always wondered just how he could do that because the pictures looked real; they didn't look faked. As a rule, if you have a double exposure or any reproduction, you can see the outline, but with his pictures, you could see nothing."

她說：“我並不相信他所做的事情，但是我一直奇怪他是怎麼做到的，因為相片看起來太真實了，絕不像偽造的。照理說，如果有重複曝光或任何複製，你可以從輪廓看得出來，但是在他的相片中你什麼也看不到。”

She and her husband often had talked about Meier, but neither understood how the man could create such authentic-looking photography. Beatrice herself had decided that Meier fabricated everything, but she couldn't see how he was doing it. Nor could she understand, with so many people traveling to the farm to visit Meier, and now so many actually living with the Meiers, how some of them could not know or even be involved in the hoax. She wondered how Meier could keep all of them quiet, especially the children.

"Children always talk," she said.

她和她的丈夫經常談到邁爾，但是他們都無法瞭解此人是如何創造這些看起來那麼真實的相片。彼得絲本人曾經認為邁爾偽造了一切，但是她不能解釋他是如何做到的。她也無法瞭解為什麼有這麼多人到農場去拜訪邁爾，而現在又有這麼多人與邁爾住在一起，他們怎麼都不懷疑這究竟是不是騙局。她也奇怪邁爾是如何能讓這些人保持沉默的，特別是孩子們。她說：“孩子們經常是喜歡說話的。”

Both Willy and Beatrice Bär had learned nearly everything they knew about photography and developing from a younger man who, several years before, had been employed at the shop when it had a different owner and who had encouraged the Bärs to buy the shop when it came up for sale in 1970. Fritz Kindliman, who recently turned thirty-one, had now worked there for ten years. He knew Meier better than anyone in the store, had handled and inspected hundreds of his photographs, and often had talked with him since Meier began bringing his film to Bär for processing in 1973.

鮑爾和彼得絲兩人曾經跟著一位年輕人學習所有與攝影相關的知識，這位年輕人是多年前受雇于前任店主的，當該店在 1970 年頂讓時，也是他鼓勵鮑爾買下這家店的。這位青年名字叫佛雷茲．肯得利曼（Fritz Kindliman），現年 31 歲，並且已經在那家店裡工作了十年，他比店裡的任何人都瞭解邁爾，他曾經手並審閱過數百張邁爾的相片，從 1973 年邁爾開始將他的相片送到鮑爾相館處理時，他就時常與邁爾談話。

Kindliman had been taking pictures since he was a small boy. When he turned sixteen and, under the Swiss educational system, had to select a profession for study and apprenticeship, he chose video and television. Whenever new equipment came out on the market, he bought it so he could study how it worked. He now owned and could dismantle and reassemble many cameras, video, and 35mm.

肯得利曼從小就攝影，16 歲時根據瑞士的教育制度，他必須選擇一項專業作為他的專攻科目與實習訓練，於是他選擇了攝影及電視。每當有新的器材在市場上出現時，他就會購置一台並研究如何使用它。如今，他已經能熟練地拆散及重組很多種相機、錄影機及 35 釐米的攝影機。

Quiet, somewhat disheveled, with hair sticking up in the back, and appearing almost lost when out of the lab or not behind a camera, Kindliman met one morning with Elders and Welch in a small pastry shop a few doors down from Bär Photo. At first, the conversation was of congenial things - Kindliman's interest in cameras, his years of experience at the Bär shop. Then, speaking through an interpreter, Elders asked Kindliman, "Did Mr. Meier ever ask you about darkroom techniques or film developing?"

Kindliman shook his head.

肯得利曼這個人很安靜，頭髮散亂地向後披著，不太注重儀表，他與李及維奇有一天早上在鮑爾相館附近的一間小麵包店相遇，起初都是談論一些家常，如肯得利曼對相機的興趣，以及他多年來在鮑爾相館的經驗，然後透過翻譯李問肯得利曼：“邁爾是否曾經問過有關沖洗相片及暗房技巧的問題？”肯得利曼搖搖頭。

"Never?" said Elders.

李說：“從來沒有？”

Kindliman turned to the interpreter and said that Meier never asked any questions about such things. "Of course I must admit," he added, "in the beginning, I was very critical when he came in with these pictures. But he kept bringing them in. Today, I am convinced this is the real thing."

肯得利曼把頭轉向翻譯說，邁爾從未問過任何這方面的問題。他繼續說：“當然我必須承認，剛開始我也曾對他帶來的相片嚴厲批評過，但是他不斷地帶這種照片來沖洗，而今，我已經不得不承認這些是真實的了。”

The photographer seemed equally positive that Meier had no color photo lab of his own hidden away somewhere. The processing and equipment were far too expensive and complex to be owned and operated by a single individual. Bär Photo itself had no such sophisticated laboratory. Every roll of film Meier brought to the shop, and often there were as many as four or five a week, Bär sent to one of three places: slides to Lausanne Kodak, Ektachrome to Studio 13 in Zurich, prints to Wädenswil Labor Pro-Cine.

這位照相師也很肯定認為邁爾絕沒有秘密彩色照相實驗室，因為處理成本及器材都非常昂貴，而且複雜得幾乎是不可能一個人就能單獨操作的。就連鮑爾相館也沒有如此複雜的實驗室。邁爾每星期都會送四到五卷底片到店裡來，而鮑爾再轉送下面三個地方去沖洗；幻燈片送盧山尼（Lausanne）柯達店；印曬片送威登斯威的普羅辛（Pro-Cine）實驗室；彩色相片沖洗送蘇黎世的工作室。

Since Meier used both print and slide film, his negatives had to be sent to all three Swiss laboratories. Kindliman's job included scanning random pictures when they came back from the developing labs, checking through the packets to ensure the quality of the photos and slides they returned to their customers. He had examined many of Meier's photographs before Meier himself had seen them. And, he was certain there had never been any of what he called "manipulation" of the photos.

Welch asked him why. "Warum?"

由於邁爾有幻燈片也有沖曬片，所以他的底片必須送到這三家處理。肯得利曼的工作包括隨機抽查由顯像實驗室送回來的相片，檢查所有送回的相片以確保相片及幻燈片的品質。他曾經多次在邁爾拿到相片前就先看過相片。所以他很確信從來沒有所謂的“加工”相片的處理。維奇問他“為什麼（Warum；德語）？”

On the table in front of them lay a picture of Meier's they had brought to the interview: two beamships close up, one below the crest of a hill and one just above. Kindliman picked it up and immediately began to talk.

在他們面前的桌子上有一張是他們特地帶去給肯得利曼看的邁爾相片，裡面有兩架太空船在空中，一架在山丘頂端的下方，而另一架則在該太空船的上方，肯得利曼拿起相片並開始說話。

"If you wanted to superimpose those two UFOs on the landscape, you would have to practice for a long time to get the upper one without any shadows on it. You must understand when you bring in a whole strip of film there are many pictures on that strip. If this shot had been manipulated, you would assume that on that strip of film you would have several shots of the same scene but of different quality because he's experimenting with that scene.

“如果你要將這兩個飛碟重疊處理在同一個佈景上，你必須處理很久才能使上面的那一架太空船上面沒有任何影子。你也必須瞭解，當你拿一卷底片來沖洗時，裡面會有很多張相片，如果這一張照片是加過工的，那麼在那一卷底片裡面就應該會有許多張同樣畫面但拍攝品質不同的照片了，因為他是在拿那一個畫面動手腳。”

"Now if Herr Meier had come into the store just to order one picture and, on the strip to the left and to the right there were the same scene with different lighting techniques, then I would have immediately noticed these pictures had been manipulated. But I never had the slightest suspicion the pictures had been manipulated. I exclude such a possibility. Whenever he brought in negatives to have prints made, the negatives were always in strips, not cut up."

“如果邁爾只是要沖洗一張照片，或者是一卷底片中的左邊或右邊的照片，我就立刻可以察覺到這些照片是加工過的，但是我從來沒有懷疑過他的照片是偽造的．我排除這個可能性，因為當他送底片來沖洗時，都是送一整卷的底片，從來沒有切割過。”

Welch asked Kindliman if there was any way Meier could have manipulated some of these pictures without his being able to detect it. Kindliman became indignant.

"I can't imagine that," he said. "Absolutely not!"

維奇問肯得利曼邁爾是否可能加工任何照片而他無法偵測出來？肯得利曼變得憤怒並激動地說；“我無法相信，也絕不可能！”

Kindliman also said they had told Meier again and again to take better care of his negatives because he would bring them in scratched and smudged.

肯得利曼說他們曾一再提醒邁爾要好好照顧他的底片，因為他的底片常常會有刮傷和汙點。

Elders and Welch had surmised that when they got to Bär Photo, they would discover that Meier frequently had been in, asking about darkroom techniques. But according to the man in the shop who had spent the greatest amount of time with him, he never asked such questions. Kindliman told them that most of Meier's film was in slides and that if Meier had wanted to fake pictures of that size, he would have needed specialized macro equipment, but Meier didn't have any.

李和維奇原以為到鮑爾相館會發現邁爾曾經常探聽一些有關暗房的技術，但是根據店裡和他相處時間最多的人的說法，邁爾從未問過此類問題。肯得利曼還告訴他們邁爾大部分的膠捲都是幻燈片，如果邁爾想偽造這種尺寸的相片，他必須要有特殊的放大器材，但是邁爾什麼也沒有。

"Had he ever asked me questions about macro technique or how to light macro shots, then I would have become suspicious," said Kindliman. "Had he asked me pointed questions, I might have studied those photos more carefully, but he never gave me reason to disbelieve him."

肯得利曼說：“如果他曾經詢問有關於放大技術或如何放大攝影的問題就會使我懷疑了，如果他問過特定的問題，我就會特別注意他的照片了，但是他從來沒有給過我使我不相信他的理由。”

Perhaps the single thing that impressed Kindliman was Meier's 8mm films of the beamships - Meier's footage of the beamship that appears to cut in front of a tall pine causing it to sway, of the ship coming to a stop over Hasenbol, and of the craft that begins to dematerialize above a hillside and seems to be reappearing down below in the same frame.

也許邁爾所拍攝的 8 釐米太空船影片是最讓肯得利曼印象深刻的了：邁爾影片中的太空船在一株高大的松樹前橫過，因而造成樹木的搖動，太空船在黑森堡上空停留以及太空船在山腰上消失又重新出現在相同畫面的下方。

Video and movie film had become Kindliman's specialty. He told Elders and Welch, "When I saw these shots they looked real to me."

拍攝影片也是肯得利曼的專長，而他卻告訴李和維奇：“當我看到這些影片時，我覺得實在是很真實。”

八

Even on warm summer evenings, the large Meier kitchen with its many chairs continued to be the place for everyone to gather. After a dinner of boiled potatoes from the garden, with perhaps some cheese and a loaf of bread out of the oven, most everyone simply remained at the table, especially if there were guests. Chairs got rearranged, people tilted back or leaned on the table, and the conversation went on until the evening light showing through the kitchen windows first had softened to gray, and then finally turned black.

即使是在較熱的夏天晚上，邁爾那擁有很多椅子的大廚房裡仍然聚集了一堆人。在用完自己種的馬鈴薯、加上一些乳酪和自製的麵包為主的晚餐之後，大多數的人都會留在廚房，尤其是有客人時。他們會把椅子重新排列，他們將椅背傾斜或靠著桌子一直談話到夜晚，而由廚房的窗戶可以看到外面的天色慢慢轉為灰色，然後變為黑色。

"We had many such evenings," recalled Welch. "On one that I'll always remember, we talked about the Pleiadians, what Meier had been told, their knowledge of their past, tracing it from Lyra, how they for the first time came in contact with Earth. I think we sat there spellbound for about two hours. And the way it came out of him was more than interesting. He found it interesting, and so he would highlight points that were interesting to him or somehow had surprised him, as a couple of things had.

維奇回憶道：“我們曾經有很多這樣的夜晚，我記得很清楚，有一天我們談論的是昴宿星人，他們告訴了邁爾他們對於自己過去的瞭解，他們從天琴座而來，以及他們如何初次與地球接觸。我想我們當時是茫茫然地坐了大約兩個小時，而邁爾說話的方式反而更加有趣，他對於認為有趣的事情或者是令他訝異的事情會特別強調出來。”

"I looked at all of it in a dual sense: The question whether it was too far out to believe, I felt we'd find the answer to later so that wasn't important to me. At that time, I was more interested in experiencing, watching, and hearing all of it, and I enjoyed the experience. And what was impressing me to no end was that a lot of what was coming out of Meier... was not Meier. It was alien to the man and to his style of describing things. He was explaining something he'd been told by somebody else. Whoever was the source of all this description was very, very intelligent, very, very good at communicating a fact or an event. And very philosophical at times in an alien way or highly, technically accurate in a way that Meier didn't even seem to be aware of."

“我是從兩方面來看這些事情的：他所說的事情是不是離奇到難以相信，我覺得並不是很重要，因為我早晚會得到答案的，此時我比較有興趣的是去體驗、觀察和聆聽這一切，我也很喜歡這些經驗。令我印象非常深刻的是邁爾表現出來的… 並不是和邁爾本人有關，而是和他敘述事情的方式有關，他一直在說明某人告訴他的事情，無論這些事情的來源是誰，他一定是非常有智慧，非常善於溝通一個事實或一件事件的人，而且是非常具有哲理的（有時候以很不同的方式表現），而且他在技術上是非常精確的，這種精確性連邁爾本身似乎都未察覺。”

"We are the Pleiadians," Meier was explaining to the people at the table. "We came from a cross between the Pleiadians and the human beings from the earth."

邁爾向桌子四周的人解釋道：“我們都是昴宿星人，我們是昴宿星人與地球人混合產生的。”

"Why don't we live as long as they do?" asked Welch.

維奇問：“為什麼我們不能像他們一樣活得那麼久？”

"We have to build up our age," said Meier, "like they had to do on their planets some millions or billion years ago. The age of a living form, especially of a human being, will evolve very slowly, like his wisdom and knowledge, and his technology. You can see here in Europe, some twenty-five years ago, we had an average age for the European people of seventy-two years. And now, it's up to seventy-five years."

邁爾說：“我們必須自己延長我們的壽命，就像他們在數百萬或數十億年前在他們的星球上所做的一樣，生命形態（特別是地球人）的壽命進化得相當緩慢，就像是他的智慧、知識及技能一樣。在歐洲，25 年前的平均壽命是 72 歲，而現在已上升到 75 歲。”

"What does Erra look like?" asked Elders.

李問：“Erra 星像什麼？”

Meier said he had never traveled there. "But it looks nearly like earth," he explained. "It's a little bit smaller than earth, and the buildings there are round. The vehicles have no wheels, they hover, and the work is done by robots and androids. The androids are half mechanical and half organic, and they are able to think by themselves, but humans oversee everything that's done. Each family is not more than five persons, the parents and a maximum of three children."

邁爾說他從未到過那裡，“但是它看起來很像地球，略小於地球，那裡的建築物都是圓的；車輛沒有輪子，可以翱翔；工作都是交由機械手臂和機器人來做。機器人一半是由機械一半是由器官所組成，他們具有思考能力，但是仍由人類在監督所有的事情。每一個家庭成員都不超過 5 個人，雙親以外最多只有 3 個小孩。”

Meier told them that about three thousand ships from other star systems in the galaxy visit the earth each year.

邁爾告訴他們每年大約有三千艘從銀河系其它星系來訪問地球的太空船。

"There's eight different human races that have stations here on earth," he claimed. "They are here exploring, they are here studying, they are here watching."

他指出：“有 8 種不同的外星人在地球有基地，他們是來探險、學習和觀察的。”

"Are any of them here to try to destroy us?" asked Elders.

李問：“他們是否想摧毀我們呢？”

"No," said Meier. "If a human race can cross a very, very great distance, maybe light years of space, they will not be coming here to make trouble or start a war. The earth human is a fighting creature - his whole life is based on fighting - so he thinks if there is a human race on another planet, those creatures will be exactly the same as he is. But, that isn't true.

邁爾回答：“不，一個能夠旅行這麼遠距離（可能要好幾光年）的人類是不會來這裡製造動亂或發動戰爭的。地球人的天性就是戰爭，他們整個生命都是為戰爭而活的，所以他們認為其它星球的人也和他們一樣，但是這是錯誤的。”

If they so desired, the Pleiadians could destroy the earth in a mater of minutes, said Meier; they could have enslaved all earthlings thousands of years ago. Meier admitted that some of the other ships had picked up humans against their will, but he compared the situation to earth scientists and anthropologists who, upon discovering a primitive people still on earth, dispatch teams to study them and return them to the lab.

邁爾說如果昴宿星人有此野心，他們可以在數分鐘之內就毀滅地球，而且在幾千年以前就可以奴役地球人了。邁爾承認有一些其它的太空船曾經勉強帶走某些地球人，他把這和許多地球科學家及人類學家在發現早期人類時會派遣研究小組研究那些原始人，然後再將他們帶回實驗室的行為相比較。

"Humans are humans," said Meier.

邁爾說：“人類就是人類。”

If the Pleiadians or other entities abducted earth humans, it served only to satisfy their legitimate curiosity. Occasionally, a mistake might be made, and an abducted human would die, much as earth doctors made mistakes causing people to die. But, human life was never taken purposely.

如果昴宿星人或其它外星人想要綁架地球人，那只是為了要滿足他們的好奇心。但偶爾確實會發生錯誤而使被綁架的人死亡，正如同地球的醫師會失誤而造成病人死亡一樣。但是他們卻從未故意取走地球上的生命。

Meier was certain that World War III would take place.

邁爾確信第三次世界大戰將會發生。

"That will be for sure," he said.
"When will it happen?" asked Welch.
"That's a good question," said Meier.
"Very soon?"
"It's not so far," replied Meier. "They know the exact dates, but it's not so good to know them."

“這是肯定的。”他說。
“甚麼時候會發生？”維奇問。
“這是個好問題。”邁爾說。
“不會太久”他回答“他們知道確切的日期，但知道這些並不太好。”

［編譯者註：有關第三次世界大戰的預言，詳見《第 215 次接觸報告》（接觸日期：1987 年 2 月 28 日）內的記載；也就是所謂的「以諾預言」（The Henoch Prophecies）。］

"Won't the Pleiadians try to stop it?" asked Welch.

“昴宿星人會嘗試阻止它發生嗎？”維奇問道。

"It is impossible," said Meier. He told the people at the table that the Pleiadians are not allowed to interfere with the development of earth. "It is absolutely impossible to stop all these things. Some two thousand years ago, World War III was called by several prophets. Nobody heard them for two thousand years. And now it's really too late."

Such a holocaust could be prevented only by change, and change could be effected in only two ways: One was by teaching, by showing earth humans how to advance spiritually from within, which the Pleiadians desired to do; the other was to use force, which the Pleiadians forbid. They would not step in to prevent war unless our earth war threatened civilizations elsewhere. Though they possessed the power to stop the ultimate conflagration, they would stand idly by and watch us destroy ourselves if we chose to do so, even if a crazy man reached for the button. The Pleiadians attempted only to effect small changes in people of clear head and heart, by teaching and allowing the person to grow from the inside.

“不可能”邁爾回答並告訴四周的人說，昴宿星人是不被允許干涉地球事物的發展。“絕無可能全部阻止這些事的發生。早在兩千年前，就已經有幾位預言家提出警告，但沒人理會，目前真的為時已晚。”如此的大災難只有靠某些改變去防止；改變有兩種方式：第一種就是靠教導，靠展示給地球人明瞭，如何提升精神層次，這也是昴宿星人想要做的事。第二種就是靠外力介入，但這是他們目前不被允許的。除非地球的戰爭已經嚴重威脅到整個文明的進展，這種強行介入的方式不會採用。雖然他們擁有阻止毀滅性災難的力量，但仍寧願先觀察，看看是否真的會有喪心病狂之徒去引發全人類的毀滅。昴宿星人目前只會先用教導與啟發的方式，引導那些心智比較清晰的地球人，以逐漸發揮改變的力量。

"If you travel into space," said Meier, "you will find humans wherever you go. And when they start to think, they need a teacher. If they have never seen a flower before, never heard anything about a flower, the one who knows the flower can teach them. And this is the way over the whole universe. The photographs are only to make people think, to show them something; people shall come for these pictures, but they shall study the teachings, and they shall come to know."

“如果人類要到太空旅行，”邁爾說道“無論他們到何處去，或思考如何去，他們都需要一位導師。如果你從沒見過甚至聽過花朵，知道的人會告訴你，這就是宇宙進展的法則。這些照片只是引發人們去思考，去展現某些事物的跡象。人們會因為這些照片而來，但他們更應該聽聽這些教導，進而了解整個事情的全貌。”

九

Meier told Welch of many things that had been explained to him by the Pleiadians, one of the most intriguing and controversial being perhaps the most fundamental to the Pleiadian presence on Earth.

邁爾告訴維奇很多昴宿星人教他的事情．其中最怪異又最有爭議性的一件，可能是有關昴宿星人出現在地球上的事。

With the Pleiades nearly five hundred light years from Earth, conventional Earth physics dictated that traveling at the greatest speed conceivable, the speed of light, a trip from the Pleiades to Earth and back again would require one thousand years. Yet, Meier maintained that the Pleiadian propulsion system was capable of speeds many millions of times faster than light and that Semjase frequently traveled back and forth between her home planet Erra and Earth. The Pleiadians, said Meier, made the trip in seven hours.

昴宿星距離地球大約有五百光年，傳統的地球物理學指出以人類所能理解最快的速度（光速）來回一趟地球與昴宿星之間需要一千年。但是邁爾認為昴宿星人的推進系統能夠比光速還要快上幾百萬倍，而 Semjase 就經常由她的家鄉 Erra 星到地球之間來回旅遊，邁爾說昴宿星人走一趟只要 7 個小時。

During the fourth contact and again in the eighth, Semjase had explained to Meier aspects of the propulsion system that enabled the Pleiadian beamships to transcend distance and the passage of time.

在第 4 次接觸及第 8 次接觸時，Semjase 曾向邁爾解釋使昴宿星人的太空船能夠超越距離與時間的原因。

"For traveling through cosmic space," she said, "a drive is necessary which surpasses the speed of light many times over. But this propulsion can come into action only when the speed of light is already attained. This means, then, that a beamship needs at least two drives - a normal drive which provides acceleration up to the speed of light and a second hyper-drive, as you would call it. With this, we are able to paralyze time and space simultaneously," explained Semjase. "They collapse into null time and null space. And only when time and space have ceased to exist are we capable of traveling through distances of light years in a tiny particle of a second. This is done so quickly that living forms are not aware of it.

她說：“要穿越宇宙空間必須以超越光速好幾倍的方式驅使。但是這種推進只有在已經到達光速時方能產生動作。因此，太空船至少需要兩個推進系統：一個是正常的推進系統，它能提供加速度一直到達光速；另外一個則是我們所稱的「超光速驅動」（hyper-drive），它能夠同時超越時間與空間。”Semjase 解釋，“在超越時間與空間時，它們便折疊為「無效時間」（null time）和「無效空間」（null space），只有在時間及空間停止存在時，我們才能在極小的微秒時間中通過以光年計算的距離。這種事情發生得太快，以至於一般的生命都無法察覺到。”

"The reason we need seven hours to reach Earth is because first we must fly far into space before we can convert to hyper-speed. We then come back out of the hyper-space condition far outside of your solar system and fly to here once more in normal drive.

“我們之所以需要 7 個小時才能到達地球是因為在轉換為超速度前，我們必須先飛到太空中，然後再到你們太陽系外的「超時空」（hyper-space）環境中，再以正常驅使的方式飛到這裡。”

"I am not allowed to give you any further details. But I can tell you that your advanced scientific circles are already working on systems known as light-emitting drives and 'tachyon' drives. The elemental principles are already known to them. The light-emitting drive serves as the normal propulsion system to move the ships to the limits of space and time. Once there, the tachyon drive is brought into action. This is the hyper-propulsion system, which is able to force space and time into hyper-space. We use other names, but the principles are exactly the same."

“我不可以告訴你更多的細節，但是我可以告訴你你們先進的科學領域，已經在所謂的「光放射」（light-emitting）驅動及「速子」（tachyon）驅動上有所進展了。他們早已經知道了一些基本原理。光放射驅動就是一般的推進系統，可以使太空船移動到時空的極限，到了那種狀態之後，速子驅動便開始運作。這是一種「超推進系統」（hyper-propulsion system），它能強迫時間及空間進入「超時空」。我們用的是其它的名稱，但是原理是一樣的。”

Before Stevens's first trip to Switzerland in 1977, Lou Zinsstag had sent him the contact notes pertaining to the Pleiadian propulsion system. But Stevens had never heard the term "tachyon." Nor had the Elders or Welch.

在 1977 年史蒂芬第一次去瑞士前，辛斯塔曾寄給他有關昴宿星人推進系統的接觸筆記。但史蒂芬從未聽過“速子”這個術語，李和維奇也沒有聽說過。

After Welch had read in the contact notes Semjase's explanation of Pleiadian propulsion to Meier, he questioned the man often about the concept. Welch came away thinking that Meier knew more than he should, both for his station in life and for the dearth of information on the subject in all but the most sophisticated scientific circles.

當維奇看到Semjase 向邁爾解釋昴宿星人推進系統的接觸筆記之後，他經常向邁爾詢問這方面的問題。維奇認為邁爾知道的應該比他知道的要多，這不僅是因為他的生命狀態，同時也因為除了最高深的科學界之外，這方面的資訊確實是很難獲得。

"He wrote down in the notes what he had been told," said Welch, "and then he elaborated on what he understood of the concept as a method of space travel. I saw those notes in '78. We did learn later that, for some period of time, specialists either connected with NASA or with companies like General Dynamics had been quietly working on that as a propulsion concept. What's interesting is that the man who wrote the notes has a formal education equivalent to the fifth or sixth grade. He does not live near major libraries, he does not live near major scientific centers, he doesn't have immediate contacts in those fields. At the time, we didn't know what 'tachyon' meant. Most physicists didn't know what a tachyon was. And to apply the concept of theoretical tachyon to space propulsion is a huge step to make. There was no evidence that we could dig up that he had collaborated with anybody on this.

維奇說：“他將外星人告訴他的事情都記下來了，然後他再詳細整合其所瞭解的觀念，從而成為上述他認為的太空旅行的方式。我是在 1978 年看到這些筆記的，後來我才知道有一段時間確實有一些專家與航空太空總署（NASA），或與通用動力（General Dynamics）這一類的公司聯繫，且默默地致力於推進系統的觀念研究工作。有趣的是寫這些筆記的人只有相當於五到六年基礎教育的程度，他不是住在大圖書館附近，也不住在大科學中心附近，他更與這些機構沒有直接的接觸。那時候．我們並不知道“速子”是什麼東西，大多數的物理學家也不知道速子是什麼，而將速子理論觀念應用到太空推進確實是有待突破的重要工作。也沒有任何證據可以顯示邁爾曾與他人共同合作而獲得這些相關的資料。

"But the thing that was startling to me was that, as soon as we started to dig into that, all of a sudden something else would pop up, in the notes or through Billy, that was equally sophisticated, unique, and advanced in a different field. In the notes, there were conversations about the universe and celestial mechanics, about healing methods and advanced medical equipment that just did not make sense coming from a man out in the remote countryside of Switzerland. Most of it, though, I noticed in the way he carried himself in conversations - the way he dealt with knowledge. It all seemed out of context with his personality. It seemed as if the man had a tutor in various fields who was one incredible tutor."

“令我吃驚的是當我們開始深入研究時，在筆記中或在邁爾所說的話中，會突然出現一些很複雜、很特別，而且在其它領域也很先進的事情。在筆記中有一些有關宇宙及太空機械的知識，治療方法及先進醫療設備的對話，對於一個住在遙遠瑞士鄉間的人而言，這些都不可能是他編造出來的，這些大多都是我從他與人交談時，從他處理知識的方式中注意到的，這些似乎與他的背景不相符，唯一的可能就是他在各個領域都有一位非常傑出的家庭教師隨侍在旁。”

十

"After my first trip in the summer of '78," said Welch, "we got together and decided there was a tremendous amount of information here, a tremendous number of unanswered questions. We were intrigued; we were hooked at this point. Witnesses we had met seemed quite sincere, as well as changed. That was the thing. They seemed changed. There was a sense of change in the area all around the Meier farmhouse, something that you couldn't put your finger on, just something you sensed. I can give you an analogy. Some of the people we met reflected the same kind of change you would detect in someone who's been on an operating table and has been termed technically dead for two or three minutes and then comes back. I had talked to two people like that, so I knew the difference. They have a light airiness about them, a sense of harmony about their lives that envelops you when you talk to them. I sensed that in some of the witnesses.

維奇說：“1978 年夏天我的第一次旅遊結束之後，我們聚在一起討論，大家都認為邁爾談話裡仍有很多的資訊，以及很多尚未獲得解答的問題，我們的興趣都被挑起來了，我們都被吸引住了。我們以前曾遇到的一些目擊者似乎也變得比較誠懇了，整個事件及這些人似乎都在改變。我們也感覺到圍繞在邁爾農場四周的氣氛也改變了，而這些都是你只能感覺到卻又插不上手的。我可以描述的就是，我們所碰到的一些人都有類似的改變，你會發現這些人好像是在手術臺上技術性地死亡了二到三分鐘後又重新回到人間一樣。我曾和兩位這種人談過，所以我知道其間的差異。他們生活平淡融洽，當你與他們談話時他們都不願意多談。這也是我在一些目擊者身上感受到的相同感覺。”

"When I left after that trip, I had the feeling, 'I don't know what it is, but something is going on. Something here is going on.' And I wouldn't have been satisfied if Meier himself all of a sudden had stood up in front of everybody and shocked them by saying, 'I faked everything!' I wouldn't have believed that because he couldn't have known how."

“當我完成旅遊離開時，我有一種感覺：‘我不知道這到底是怎麼回事，但又的確是發生了某些事情，而且有些事情仍在持續發生中。’如果邁爾突然在大家面前站起來，並震撼地宣佈：‘我捏造了一切。’我是不會欣然接受的，我不相信他捏造了任何事情，因為他不可能知道如何去捏造作假。”

（第八章 結束）

◄第七章 ▲回目錄▲ 第九章►