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The ‘Sheep Truck’ Incident The Gisborne ‘UFO Flap’ of the late 70s. East Coast, North Island, New Zealand, August 1978. By Suzanne Hansen In 1978, we were living on the East Coast north of Gisborne. Our house was situated on a road a couple of hundred meters back from the sea. Between our house and the small settlement there were several large paddocks, with hills beyond. On this occasion, following a normal evening at home, we went to bed and fell asleep. At some time during the night, I suddenly awoke. When I say ‘suddenly’, I mean instantly and completely awake and alert. There was no slow drowsy awakening or half awake / half asleep state. All was quiet. For a moment I stared into the darkness (there was no moon) and wondered what had woken me up. I turned the lamp on briefly to see what the time was – it was 1.25 am. I noticed a sudden slight vibration of the objects on my dressing table next to the bed and the lid of my china jewelry box began to tinkle and annoy me. I reached out and straightened it. These familiar signs immediately explained to me why I had woken up (or so I thought at that moment). Earthquakes ranging from small shudders to prolonged and pronounced quakes were a reasonably common occurrence in the East Coast area, and I expected that one was about to occur. Within seconds, I noticed that objects right throughout the house were rattling, and I was surprised that my husband was still sleeping through it. I waited, half expecting to hear the rumbling noise that sometimes preceded a big, rolling quake, and sure enough, there was a faint humming sound coming from an easterly direction beyond the township. The vibrating noises in the house increased in intensity, but I couldn’t understand why objects were not actually falling off the shelves. It was creepy and I tried to wake my husband, but without success. He continued sleeping like a log despite the fact that I shook him and spoke to him as well. This alone was very unusual and unsettled me. I think that the next few seconds will be imprinted on my mind forever. With a rising sense of panic and confusion, I realized that this was not the usual rumbling noise accompanying some earthquakes. The humming sound had increased, or been over-ridden by an electronic-type, fast frequency, penetrating buzz. The vibrations seemed to be running through everything - the bed, the walls, the sheets and blankets, my arms, legs, my entire body. It was as if every atom was dancing and humming in every object. This was not an earthquake. Listening intently, I realized that the buzzing noise was actually airborne and approaching our house over the paddocks. I was very frightened and terrible thoughts of an aircraft crashing into our house flashed through my mind as I searched for an explanation. The impulse to leap out of bed and look out the window vanished with the shocking realization that I could no longer move. Try as I may, I could not move any part of my body except my eyes and my head. Nor could I utter a sound. I wanted desperately to call out to my husband, but was incapable of doing so. The ‘buzzing’ noise had increased so much in intensity that it was unbearable and I thought my head would burst. Whatever ‘it’ was, it was now directly over the house, and making a noise now resembling a metallic grinding sound. With it came the light – the brightest light imaginable glaring through the edges of the curtains, and shining through every fibre of the fabric. I managed to turn my head away from the window in the direction of the hall. Great shafts of light were shining in all directions from the uncovered windows in the laundry and kitchen. I was terrified at the thought that there was a UFO out there (the only explanation that seemed feasible in those seconds of time), but then, quite suddenly from that point, I have absolutely no memory of what happened next. At some stage I recall lying in bed feeling a bit confused. I thought that I must have just woken up. Slowly it dawned on me that there was light outside and the chilling memory of that blinding light and the overpowering noise came flooding back and I was immediately thrown into terror again. I tried to turn over to wake my husband, who seemed to be in a deep sleep, and (re)discovered that I could not move! The unusual thought sprang into my mind that I ‘must not move or make any sound’. If I moved then ‘they’ would know (who were ‘they’?). ‘Their’ instruments would sense the movement (where did this knowledge originate from?). I could see light (nowhere near as bright as before, and there was now no noise) filtering through the curtains, so ‘they’ must still be there! I do not know how long I lay there in absolute anguish, waiting and fearing that ‘something’ might happen, but not really knowing what. The thought never crossed my mind that ‘something’ may have already happened. Finally I regained movement in my limbs. However, it was still several minutes before I could summon enough courage to override the absolute fear of moving my whole body. At last I threw myself at my husband, shaking him and sobbing, until much to my relief, he finally woke up. What must have sounded like a very garbled explanation poured out of me. I was frightened by the light outside and I insisted he look out of all the windows and go out onto the porch to scan above the house as well. I was sure that there was a UFO (craft) either above our house, or landed in the paddock next door. My husband commented later, that had he not seen my face, he might have just laughed and thought it was all a joke. However, when he saw my absolute terror, he thought he had better sit up and take notice. I was shocked when he told me that it was after daybreak (6.30-7.00 am), and that the sun was coming up. I couldn’t believe it! Where had the hours of night gone since I looked at my clock at 1.25 am? Following my first awakening at 1.25 am and the arrival of a blinding light and unbearable buzzing noise, there was a huge blank in my memory, preceding a second ‘awakening’ with the same paralysis and fear, what must have been some hours later. After these traumatic incidents I felt jittery and shaken. I suffered extraordinary fatigue for several days, with super sensitive hearing, and a severe nose bleed. My mouth dried up and my hands perspired every time I thought about the experience (Post Traumatic Stress?). We discussed what might have caused the incidents. My husband felt it must have been an earthquake, but he could not account for the accompanying bright light and noise. I was afraid it was a UFO (‘craft’), but could not imagine why one would hover over our house! My husband just didn’t want to even entertain that idea. After talking to friends and locals throughout the day, and after listening to radio and TV and not hearing any reference to an earthquake anywhere around New Zealand, it became obvious that this was an incident for the ‘too hard box’. Possible logical explanations, ranging from thunder over the hills to bad dreams, just simply did not match up with the full details of what I had experienced. In the end, my husband came up with the idea I had heard a sheep truck rumble its way along the airstrip road near our house in the early hours of the morning, and that was what had woken me. I pointed out that sheep trucks are not airborne; do not shine brilliant lights through windows on all sides of a house at once; do not make unbearably loud buzzing noises above houses; do not paralyze people etc. But he was adamant and wanted an explanation that he could ‘deal with’. There was little point in pursuing the discussion and I was left feeling alone, afraid and helpless. This experience had a dramatic effect on my life. I felt sure that something had happened to me during a time span that I could not recall. After all, why would anyone just go back to sleep in the middle of a strange and frightening experience? Some years later I read about ‘missing time’ as applied by author/researcher Budd Hopkins to alien abduction or close encounter contact experiences, and ‘the Oz factor’, an apparent altered state of consciousness sometimes accompanied by bodily paralysis and other symptoms often experienced prior to an abduction or alien encounter, as described by author/researcher Jenny Randle. These were the first explanations I had come across that matched perfectly, what I had experienced. Some researchers and psychologists attempt to explain incidents of paralysis associated with alien abduction experiences as a phenomenon called ‘sleep paralysis’. This condition is characterized by temporary paralysis of the body shortly after waking up, or less often, before falling asleep. Sleep paralysis occurs when the brain awakes from an REM state into a normal awake state, but the bodily paralysis is still occurring. The person is unable to speak or move, and may experience auditory, tactile or visual hallucinations. However, sleep paralysis fails to account for the many abduction cases involving the ‘Oz factor’ and associated paralysis, which occur in cars, out on the farm, in the daytime, etc. In the case of my experience, sleep paralysis does not apply. I was fully awake within a split second, but at that time, I was able to move – put on the lamp, attempt to wake my husband etc. I was not initially afraid, so the onset of paralysis was not caused by shock from a trauma. The paralysis began as the penetrating buzzing noise increased in intensity, and I believe that this was an EM frequency of some kind emitted by technology on a craft, that affects the subject physiologically and serves to render the intended subject incapable of resistance; unconscious or in an altered state of consciousness that does not allow recall of following events. It may involve technology specific to intended ‘targets’. Other people in close proximity to the intended subject are often ‘switched off’ by similar technology or effects. Abductees/experiencers often report that people accompanying them either do not wake, or are rendered immobile and unaware just prior to the abduction occurring. The sound or frequency may not be audible to others at a distance from the ‘target’. In 1978, this kind of technology would have been unheard of other than in sci-fi movies. However in 2001/02, researchers developed technology that can project a beam of sound so narrow that only one person can hear it. Nicknamed ‘ventriloquist’ technology, inventors say it could add a new dimension to music and entertainment, with endless applications. The military is investigating using it to confuse opponents or even to incapacitate by inflicting pain (audibly). Such ‘specific target technology’ with music applications called ‘Audio Spotlight’ was developed by Joseph Pompei, a PhD student at the MIT Media Lab, while working at the audio company Bose, USA. Over the years, my research has led me to interview a number of witnesses who also experienced sightings and/or abduction incidents in the Gisborne area at the time of the UFO ‘flap’. Two witnesses described an occasion when they were in the Waimata Valley (where a number of unusual UFO and humanoid sightings took place) at night. The end of this valley is only a few kilometres as the crow flies, from where I was living at the time. They described hearing a humming sound approaching. At first they thought it was a sheep truck making its way up the winding valley road, but they wondered why they were not hearing the familiar and distinct sound of the many gear changes that a sheep truck would normally make as it rounded the corners. They could see a glow of light approaching behind the low hillocks which they assumed to be the headlights (but all the while thinking that the light was unusually bright and widespread). To their shock, a metallic cylindrical-shaped craft surrounded by an intense glow, emerged slowly from behind a hill and continued down the valley until out of sight behind hill ridges. The light emitted around the craft lit up a considerable area. It passed them by low and in close proximity (several hundred metres), causing the hair on their bodies to stand on end (electro-magnetic field?). This sighting was corroborated by a member of a farming family, who I have also interviewed, who lived on the opposite side of the valley. He saw the craft from his bedroom window on the same night, same time. Given this corroborative evidence of similar details, it is entirely possible that the same or similar craft in that area caused my frightening experience. It also stands to reason that my husband, although in a ‘switched off’ state, subconsciously remembered the sound of a craft approaching, and the accompanying buzzing sounds, and therefore his insistence that it was a ‘sheep truck’ is understandable. Reference: |