By Bob Mcclay
FOUNTAIN HILLS, Ariz. -- The Valley is a Capitol for UFOs this weekend.
No, a flying saucer hasn't landed here. But many people who believe in UFOs, and other interesting things, have.
"We are hosting the 2012 International UFO Congress," says Maureen Ellsbury with Open Minds Productions. "It's actually the largest annual UFO Congress in the world, full of speakers, vendors, and other events."
It's happening now through Sunday at the Fort McDowell Resort and Casino.
Ellsbury says the event features several speakers.
"[Wednesday] we had someone talking about cattle mutilations, crop circles, and abductees," says Ellsbury. "We have a General from Chile coming to talk about their government's official UFO agency."
One of the speakers will be UFO author Stan Romanek. He used to be skeptic about UFO's. That changed in 2001, when he thought a police helicopter shined a light on his truck...in the middle of the afternoon.
"I rolled down my window and looked up and said...wait a minute! There's no helicopter sounds," says Romanek. "And as I drove through the intersection, all of these people had panicked looks on their faces. I look up and there's this huge 40-foot diameter sphere above my car, following me down the road."
"I was in the middle of Lakewood, Colorado, during rush hour, when a UFO beamed my van in front of thousands of people," Romanek says. The UFO disappeared after flying over a park, where several people photographed what happened. Romanek says the pictures gained national attention, and even were shown on the TV show "Entertainment Tonight."
It isn't just UFOs that are being featured at this convention. There were a variety of booths touting exercise equipment, videos and more.
Then we came to the "Share International" booth, where we met Meryl Tihanyi. She is here from New York to talk about something spiritual.
"The Spiritual Hierarchy of this planet is headed by a great teacher who goes by the name Maitreya," says Tahani. "He comes as the world teacher. He's not here to start a world religion, or do anything like that. He's simply here to teach and to guide us."
Tahani claims that Jesus was one of Maitreya's disciples. She says Maitreya lives in London right now, and has done 52 TV interviews without revealing his identity.
She claims we will all meet him soon.
"At some point there will be what's called the Day of Declaration, where Maitreya will come out into the public and everyone will know who he is," says Tihanyi. "There's a very special event that will take place, but there's no date and time for that. That's something that Mitraya will know when that is the right time."
Tahani insists that Maitreya is not the AntiChrist, and she believes that these events will take place within our lifetime.
Stan Romanek doesn't know anything about that. He's at the convention to spread his own beliefs...about UFOs.
"I just want people to understand that this is the real deal," says Romanek. "It's time, and we have the right to know. This is the most important thing in the history of mankind, to know that we are not alone."
