Large silver sphere pays personal visit to UFO Hunter's apartment balcony

  This report was just submitted to the MUFON CMS files today, June 6, 2009. It has to be the most sensational and frightening close encounter case in Tennessee so far to come to my attention as State MUFON Director. This case is especially important because it should serve as a warning to all would be "UFO Hunters" who want to make contact with the phenomenon. What might well begin for them as an exhilirating adventure could turn into a nightmare at their doorstep.

  Gary Mansfield the man who just filed this report is a MUFON Field Investigator out of Nashville, Tennessee. He is one of the most meticulous FI's we have in the State. His MUFON "boots on the ground" work and excellent photo-ananlytic skills definitively solved a case where a man thought he had a real "smoking gun" photo of an UFO disc hovering over downtown Nashville at night. And, in fact, it had looked so much like the real thing that it caused some excitement all the way back at MUFON Headquarters. Gary was able to convincingly show that it was just a large vapor light on top of a tall poll that in daylight could be seen to exactly match the shape and location of the supposed UFO in the photograph [the complete story of this outstanding piece of detective work will be told in a future article].

  I think it's important to give you some background on the witness in this case because it shows that even the most dedicated UFO investigator can be temporarily knocked off track when the phenomenon he is seeking to document and understand becomes nerve rackingly interactive.

  It all started back last October when Gary, who had always been an avid sky-watcher, began to notice some anomalous lights in the night sky form his apartment balcony near downtown Nashville. Shortly after this, he filed his first MUFON report about what he had been seeing. At this point I became aquainted with him as I had assigned myself to his case. We continued to converse by phone fairly often over the ensuing months as he continued to see and photograph these mysterious lights in the sky. Once he had a sighting in broad daylight of a silver, highly reflective cylindrical UFO, practically standing still in the sky, about a half-mile off from his balcony. He called me almost breathless not more than five minutes after witnessing this to tell me all about it. I have to admit his excitement was contagious. I told him to file another report to MUFON. Then maybe it was three minutes after we hung up that he called back to tell me a black, unmarked helicopter was circling in the area where the unknown object had just been.

  As Gary's UFO sightings gradually got more and more frequent, his interest in documenting them became very intense. By then I was able to talk him into joining MUFON and shortly afterwards into becoming a Field Investigator. And he subsequently proved to be one of the best we've ever had. [You can read an account of Gary's sightings in the MUFON CMS Files under "Search UFO Data Base."]

  After three or four months of competently handling and completing the Tennessee MUFON cases assigned to him AND documenting more anomalous lights in the night sky, Gary decided to move into the next phase of his UFO search for 'the truth that's out there.' He wanted to see if he could initiate some interaction with the strange lights he kept seeing. He even tried to send the telepathic message to show him a sign. It was around the middle of last May that he began to use a powerful flashlight to signal some of these things. And then it happened. They signaled him back! The first time he directed his flashlight at one of these traveling lights, it stopped dead in its tracks and shot a bright, white beam of light right back in his face. He was shook-up a bit by this but also elated at his success and continued sending out his cosmic "hello."  A couple of more times that night he seemed to trigger an immediate response. One time after he had signaled the UFO, it "lit-up like a Roman Candle" and then faded out to invisibility. A day or two later Gary called me to let me know the exciting news. He seemed more gung-ho than ever about UFO Hunting.

 [Please tune-in for the rest of the story tomorow on June 7, 2009]