The following UFO encounter is rarely discussed but I do remember reading the witness' account a few years after it occurred.
On April 8, 1993, the local paper Braunschweiger Zeitung carried a report that a local artist, the 72-year-old Herr Erwin Lohre, had a very unusual experience with a UFO.
Two years later Dr. Peter Hattwig managed to interview Herr Lohre. Here is Dr. Hattwig's account of the interview:
Lohre: "It was during the night of 8th to 9th March, 1993. My wife and I had gone to bed at 10.30 pm and had at once both fallen asleep.
"A few minutes before 0.30 in the early hours I was awakened by a stabbing pain in the area of the spine. I at once took a painkilling tablet and lay down again. Meanwhile, my wife had also awakened, simultaneously. "Suddenly we heard a clear humming sound coming from the sky. After three or four seconds this noise, which seemed "metallic", as though produced by a centrifugal force, grew louder, and then, through the bedroom window, we saw a bright round shining object stationary at a height of some 10 metres or so above the birch trees to the east."
(Herr Lohre showed me the spot. The birch tree below the UFO had been burnt in the episode, and indeed has not yet fully recovered today, as its leaves are turning curly and falling already, although it is still summer.)
Lohre: "There was a full Moon at the time. But despite that, our bedroom and the terrace outside was lit by something even more powerful than the moonlight, — a bluish-white colour like neon-lighting. At the same time we both felt a strange metallic sort of taste on our tongues.
"Up till then I had scarcely even given a moment's thought to UFOs, but it was now immediately quite clear to me that 1 was looking at an unknown flying object, and I said to my wife: "Look! See what it is ! They are going to land here!"
"Being a former fighter pilot myself wanted of course to see what was going on. But when 1 tried to stand up, I found that I couldn't move, and with my wife it was just the same. We were both totally paralyzed. "Also our two kittens, which sleep on the foot of the bed, were both sitting there, bolt upright, and looking as though turned to stone. Meanwhile, our bedroom window was being bathed, on and off, in a bright yellow beam of light apparently coming down from above."
Hattwig: "What were your feelings? Were you scared?"
Lohre: "I didn't get frightened because I was so completely spellbound by the event. Indeed, if anything my feeling was rather one of annoyance because I was immobilized and unable to get to the window. But my wife was more scared. And afterwards she had a thorough fit of the shakes.
"The eerie apparition lasted altogether about 40 seconds or so, and then the vivid light ended abruptly. Then, some 30 or 40 seconds later, we saw the UFO fly over our bedroom window in a westerly direction and vanish.
"Simultaneously the paralysis ended for both of us. My wife was too upset to be able to sleep any more, and so was I. Then, about half an hour later, we heard the same sound again, coming from the other direction. Our bedroom has windows on the two sides, and so we got a full view of the UFO for the first time. From a distance of about 300 metres we watched it flying straight towards us. Again we heard the same sounds as before, and for about six seconds or so we could see its shape absolutely clearly. Then, just as the disc — which I estimated to be about 10 metres wide — was nearly right over us, something quite unbelievable happened, it simply dissolved into thin air — between one-tenth of a second and another— and it was gone, without any transition! "I sat down straight away and made a few sketches."
(Herr Lohre showed me the view from the bedroom window and I photographed it so as to be able to make a photomontage later with my main sketch).
Dr. Hattwig: "Do you know whether anyone else besides you and your wife saw the UFO?".
Lohre: "After the newspaper had published the report on it, 25 people contacted me, including one whole bowling team who had been travelling home at the time. Unfortunately none of them were prepared to go public as eyewitnesses."
Dr. Hattwig: "Did you have the impression that the UFO was seeking you personally?"
Lohre: "Absolutely! For it was hovering there right beside my bedroom window, as though they knew exactly where I was. It is true that my wife and I were both paralysed, but unlike me she felt no pain in the spine."
Dr. Hattwig: "How do you explain that pain?"
Lohre: "Well now, I'll tell you something else! Next day, at 4.00pm., my wife and my daughter and I — who were all in different rooms at the time — saw a light like a photo-flash in front of our TV sets, accompanied by a crackling sound. Then, an hour later, phenomenal discharges came from the T.V. sets downstairs. Furthermore, we found that our computer had packed up. We never found any reason for that, and it has never happened again since. Then, at about 10.00 pm suddenly a tremendous banging started up inside our wardrobe, as though somebody was shut in there. But despite all our efforts and our searching, we could find absolutely no reason for the noise. And every time that we opened the wardrobe, the din stopped. On and off the eerie happenings went on for a further eight weeks, and disturbed us badly. "
(While Herr Lohre and I were chatting, the wife and daughter arrived and they both confirmed his statement on all the happenings).
Lohre: "After the encounter I had constant pain in the spine, and, a week later, using a mirror, I discovered on my spine, at the level of the buttocks, two red marks, about 2cms apart. I went to see a doctor, who then found two black spots below the skin. He applied an ointment, and he referred me for a CAT scan (Computer tomography), but before I was able to go there two little black lens-shaped things came out of my back. I put them away very carefully, to show them to the doctor, but by the second day following they had simply evaporated."
Dr. Hattwig: "What's your explanation for the little black things?"
Lohre: "I can't say."
Dr. Hattwig: "Have you ever heard anything about UFO abductions?"
(Herr Lohre eyed me with an unbelieving look. As he was to admit to me later, such an idea was utterly new to him, and up till then he had never heard of anything of the sort).
Lohre: "I did indeed read about it later on, and I did play around for a while with the idea of undergoing hypnosis, but so far I haven't taken that step." - Dr. Peter Hattwig, German UFO Investigation Group DEGUFO, in FSR, Winter, 1996
Coming Clean On Ufos & Extraterrestrials Part 2
UFOs IN THE HEADLINES: Real Reporting on a Real Phenomenon
Connecting the Dots...: Making Sense of the UFO Phenomenon
