By Nick Redfern
Just a few days ago, I did a radio show that included a 30-minute Q&A, in which the listeners could phone in and ask questions. One of the questions was: “What is your favorite TV show you have appeared in?” Well, there have been quite a few over the years. But, I would have to say it was a show that never actually aired, as strange as that might sound. It all began on a Sunday morning in mid-November 2005… The show in question was on the world’s most famous UFO event of all: the controversial UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico in the summer of 1947. The production company had a huge budget to work with and the filming took place at both Norton Air Force Base at San Bernardino, California, and within the town of Roswell itself. In addition to me, the team was comprised of well-known paranormal investigator and author Joshua P. Warren, ghost-hunter Brian Irish, UFO hunter Ruben Uriarte, psychics Laura Lee and Karyn Reece, unsolved mystery author Heidi Hollis, Native American Richard Hernandez, and bestselling author Jim Marrs. On arriving at the old air base (that now falls under the jurisdiction of the city of San Bernardino), all of us were impressed by the sheer amount of work and planning that had gone into the show: we were each provided with clothing: t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, caps, watches – and even three brand new, all-terrain vehicles.
We were all amazed at the scene before us: a large studio had been built in one of the huge hangars that had been converted into a kind of forensic laboratory. Alien dummies were strewn across recreations of Army crates and gurneys, Bigfoot foot-casts were displayed on shelves, TV and computer screens flashed imagery of a multitude of unexplained phenomena, and countless photographs of ghosts, lake monsters and much more adorned the walls of our lab.Interestingly, it was this same hangar that was utilized by the SyFyChannel to shoot certain scenes for Steven Spielberg’s Taken series of 2002.
The premise of the show was an interesting – and unique – one: since no conventional route of investigation had completely resolved the Roswell enigma to everyone’s satisfaction, why not employ the use of psychics to try and unravel the mystery?
As a result, we flew to Roswell and actually undertook a midnight séance in one of the old hangars at the old, and now radically revamped, base, where it was alleged the bodies found at the crash site back in 1947 had been taken. The purpose: to try and psychically contact the souls of the Roswell entities – whatever their true point of origin – and question them with regard to what really did, or did not, happen on that fateful day in 1947.
But, I’m getting slightly ahead of myself here. The filming began on Monday morning, with each of us giving head-and-shoulder-style interviews about our work and own areas of expertise. That was followed by dinner and a night on the town, another day of filming at San Bernardino, and then the flight to Roswell.
Our first port-of-call in Roswell was the building that stands on what was once the old base hospital. The nurses told us they had seen little, black-eyed, spectral creatures roaming the corridors when darkness had fallen. Until 4.00 a.m. we stalked the ghostly Roswell entities but they failed to put in an appearance.
The next day we were bound for the town’s Roswell UFO Museum, which had also been the site of ghostly activity. Of course, all of this made for excellent television as Josh Warren displayed his impressive array of electronic ghost-hunting equipment for the cameras – and particularly when Josh, one of the nation’s most respected and careful investigators, succeeded in detecting a wide range of anomalous phenomena that impressed everyone.
Friday was the busiest day of all: the morning began with a trip out to one ofthe alleged UFO crash sites. I say one of the sites because numerous locations have been offered where bodies and strange wreckage were supposedly found back in 1947. And so, our convoy of vehicles hit the road and headed out into the wilds of the desert.
That was fine: that is until someone realized after we had got out there that no-one had thought to bring any water. Some of the team had visions of us dying of dehydration at the site and, ironically, becoming the next victims of the Roswell crash. But, we survived, and the film crew got some great footage of us roaming the site where, maybe, aliens from another world bit the dust all those years ago.
Now, it’s time to cut to the chase: the midnight séance in the old hangar back at Roswell, where some distinctly strange things of a truly monstrous nature occurred at the witching hour on that cold, bleak Friday night. It was a very weird experience, to say the least. I kid you not when I say that the temperature was freezing outside – and inside the hangar, too.
The crew set up, someone shouted “Action!” and we all duly entered the hangar and took our seats at a table, atop of which was a multitude of large candles. Karyn Reece began an attempt to try and summon up the long dead of Roswell. And the dead just may have come, too.
The wind began to howl, and the walls of the hangar creaked and groaned loudly. At times, it sounded like footsteps were padding across the hangar roof above us, and an air of high-strangeness overtook the team and crew. Even more so, when one of the cameramen said that he didn’t feel well and promptly collapsed onto the floor. What had begun as an intriguing exercise was becoming something far darker.
But what was undoubtedly the creepiest – albeit exciting, too – aspect of the night’s activities was a startling piece of imagery captured, night-vision-style, by the camera team: namely nothing less than a spectral, snake-like entity that seemed to coil around the team as we sat at the table, holding hands and deep in meditation as we tried to summon up Roswell’s dead.
Indeed, a study of the film footage showed a brief image of what looked like a monstrous life-form that had been conjured up out of a diabolical, Lovecraftian nightmare. The slithering menace positively oozed uneasiness and dread; yet seemingly was not intent on causing us harm and vanished into the darkness above our table.
And then it was all over; the dark atmosphere seemed to lift, and someone said words to the effect of: “It’s a wrap.” We headed back to the hotel, completely unaware at the time of what the cameras had recorded.
There is, however, no doubt in my mind that some form of contact was made on that dark, cold night in the old hangar. Unfortunately, as I said, the show never aired. Yet, I am still hopeful that one day it will, and the ghostly secrets of Roswell will finally be revealed to the world.
