Page 57 of Flying Saucers Magazine - May 1959

A SAUCER - TWO MEN

and LITTLE CREATURES

(Reprinted from A.P.R.O. BULLETIN)

The following report is derived from news items appearing in Halsingborg, Dagblad, Svenks Dagbladet, Stockholms Tidningen, Dagen Nybeter and the Swedish magazine Se. The material was collected and translated by our special representative for Sweden-Mr. K. Gosta Rehn

Sighters: Merchant Hans Gustavsson, 25, and student Stig Rydberg, 30, both buddies and living together at Rydberg's mother's house, Langvinkelgatan, 26, Halsingborg, where the mother is engaged in a laundry business, Gustavsson helping as a driver. Photos show them as rather good-looking, well-groomed chaps.

Place of Sighting: Domsten near Halsingborg and near the straits of Cresund, dividing Denmark from Sweden.

Story: "We had been at a dance and drove home from Hoganas. Near Domsten in an opening in the pine woods, we suddenly saw a peculiar sight. We thought it came from some practice of the fire department. This was 2:55 a.m. on December 20th, 1958. Our curiosity aroused. we climbed out of the car to take a look walking some 10 meters toward the light, we both stopped aghast at the sight of what we both assumed was a "flying saucer," for we had seen some fancy drawings of them in the papers. The object's diameter was about 5 meters (about 16 feet), its height was about close to 1 meter (about 3 feet, 3 inches). It rested on three sort of legs. The craft was selfilluminating, but the glare was neither blinding nor warming. In the center of the light we thought we could distinguish a darker core.

"All of a sudden we were attacked by four lead-gray creatures, about 1.3 meters tall (a little over 4 feet) and about 40 centimeters broad (13 and 3/ inches). They seemed to lack extremities, looking sort of like scones or skittles, but when they attacked us we felt that they had a respectable grasping ability. They clutched firmly on to us and wanted to drag us towards the craft and we had to mobilize every resource to free ourselves. It was difficult to defend oneself, because one got no real hold on the jellylike creatures. "My right arm," says Rydberg, "sank as far as to the elbow deep into one of them, when I tried to box myself loose. When the creatures got near to you, they smelled like stale marsh."

Gustavsson continues: "At a time all four were on me. It is difficult to explain now in plain words, but T got the impression that the creatures read my thoughts. The second before I had time to get a coupling on them they parried the holds I was planning. Their raw strength was not particularly great, but they were tremendously technical. Luckily enough there was a pole with a camping sign on it just near where I was standing and I clutched my arms around the pole. This was my rescue."

Rydberg continues: "We have estimated that the struggle lasted 4-7 minutes. The creatures concentrated their efforts on Hans and suddenly I found myself free. They just ignored me. I took the opportunity and ran to the car in order to alarm people with the signal horn. Having my hand on the horn, I watched through the wind shield how Hans clutched firmly to the pole and how the lead-gray loaf-men teared at him so that he was spread horizontally in the air. But as soon as the blow of the horn sounded through the night, they released him so that he fell plump to the ground. I rushed to him. When I approached him the saucer rose. The light got more intense at its start and a smell that reminded us of ether and of burned sausages filled the air. But the most remarkable of all the things was the sound. It was a thin, high, intensive sound that you rather felt than heard. When the craft took off we were shaken by powerful extremely rapid vibrations that quite paralyzed us. The craft disappeared from our sight. It seemed to me that it rose straight up in the sky, but Hans claims that it disappeared out in an arch over the waters.

"Then we reeled back to the car. We felt thoroughly dazed. Our reasoning powers felt paralyzed and our tars were just streaming down. We just sat there in the car. About 15 minutes later we were clear enough in our heads that we could drive into Halsingborg City. Not until we came into the inner part of the city did we dare to talk to each other. The first thing we said was: "This we won't tell to anybody; they will laugh us down."

They kept this promise at first but when their relatives reacted to their strange looks, they got the explanation. When the neighbors were told and laughed also, the men thought it wise to contact the Defense and the papers to show that this was a serious adventure.

Gustavsson and Rydberg at first had a tendency to tell the story rather sketchily feeling that the details would make it seem all the more ridiculous. The above account is the final complete form. The observers stated that they had previously laughed at the idea of flying saucers but; now they say, "Now that we have experienced it, we look at it in another way, of course. No one could wish more fervently than we for a natural explanation of the happenings. Therefore, we place ourselves at the disposal of any kind of investigation that is suggested, no matter if this concerns ourselves as individuals or as participants in the strange adventure."

A physician named Ingeborg Kjellin (MD) examined the men on January 8th. He signed a sanity testimonial for them. (The explanation that the men had seen a herring boat and its crew which had run aground at Domsten was at first widely accepted. When it was discovered that the boat had freed itself and left on 18 December, this explanation was necessarily abandoned.)

The excitement around the occurrence rose. January 10th papers reported a new testing of the men by Lars Erick Rssen and Kilhelm Hellsten, both M.D.s of Halsingborg. They applied a so-called hypnoanalysis on the men. The physicians state: "At times it was a cross-examination that certainly was as sharp as any conducted by the military or by the police-but both of them responded quite softly to the test, which fact also is characteristic of the method. Dr. Essen tested them particularly as to eventual hallucinations but the test disclosed that they had gotten their experience directly from the outside and that they could also coordinate quite clearly as to other experiences outside those in issue.

It also developed with all the distinctness desirable that they have been right in the occurrence described. The only wrong impression they might have gotten concerned those shapes of little men; however, that is quite understandable. Thus, any clues as to contact with these odd specimens failed. On the other hand it is beyond doubt that the men happened to encounter a field of force of enormous strength, which accounts for their impression of little men who pulled them in.

The account that was given on this occasion was largely the same as the previous one and to which they had stuck. Just in a few detailed perceptions it deviated. This fact strengthens the view that the experiences related during this later test was more true and credible. The reason for this is that their earlier accounts contained small ex post facto constructions, done not only subconsciously during the innumerable times of recounting their stories for interview or examination purposes-thus influencing each other. Now was left the pure and real experience which in all essentials was the same for both of them.

Dr. Essen says, "It may be added that the boys' attitude was of a very sober kind. They do not want to put any frills on any feature, stuff it out, or to interpret their experiences; they want only to communicate them." He also said, "They were both very receptive to this form of analysis and I hold as a matter of result that it was one of the most successful analyses I ever made."

By this time the Swedish Defense organization had rallied. They arranged a police and military examination of the young men. On January 18th, Svenska Dagbladet revealed that the military psychologist Dr. Michael Wachter conducted most of the hearings which lasted 12 hours. The following is summary of the findings of this hearing:

"It developed that Rydberg was freed from military service because of agoraphobia (a morbid fear of being in an open space) in 1948. Both men have not got any real training for any trade. Rydberg appeared to be the leader. He is more talkative than Gustavsson. Rydberg makes a nervous impression. He shifts his position according to what he deems to be most favorable to support his trustworthiness. He seems somewhat afraid and tries to guard himself. When he gets pressed, his constant resort is to refer to his experience and state that he cannot help that he has experienced it.

"That the scuffle or fight was kept secret for some time the investigators find peculiar (sic). His statements lack stringency, they are diffuse, sometimes directly unreasonable or also proven incorrect. He exploits to a certain extent his situation, aiming at the fact that he has voluntarily put himself at the disposal of the cross-examiners and he seems also to utilize the delicate position of the examiners with regard to the interest of the press and other circles in the matter.

"Gustavsson is not so talkative," says Dr. Wachter. "He often replies as if he rattles off a lesson. He refers to what he has said earlier and does not intend to say anything else. Somebody might have told Gustavsson to slick to his story and not to deviate a bit from it. Gustavsson is a fit victim for suggestive influence. As to Rydberg, it is not unreasonable to hold that the spiritualistic interests of his mother might have given him considerable impulses toward his world of conceptions.

"Summing up: The credibility of both men ought to be strongly put in question. They are to be deemed as possessing a lesser reliability. Both seem to be convinced of the truth of their experiences. The possibility that the issue here is of a direct invention cannot be excluded. Most probably is that Rydberg is a victim of autosuggestion and that he in his turn has influenced Gustavsson. Irrespective of their subjective conviction there are weighty reasons present to seriously question the trustworthiness of both men as witnesses in this matter." (End of hearing summation.)

Here we have a good indication that the ridicule technique is being understudied in Sweden now. Gustavsson and Rydberg, however, are not through. Concerning the Defense staff report (above) they had this to say: (1) The representatives of the defense staff were very skeptical and the investigation done by them was hum-drum, routine and nonchalant. (2) The psychologist was German-born and they could only partially understand him. (3) No earth specimens were taken for examination at Domsten although defense staff men ran around the area with a tape measure (?!) for a couple of hours - the only other equipment they brought with them was a tape recorder which was out of order.

(Editor's note: This is not the first instance to come to our attention involving a supposed "force field" which held a binding attraction for the men involved. CSI Los Angeles (now out of business since 1954) a group made up primarily of qualified technical people, carried an article by an anonymous individual in their Winter, 1954 magazine (Vol. 1, No. 4). It described the close sighting of an object which caused the observer to feel "a growing desire to. join himself to the thing." He said it was somewhat like hypnosis from what he had observed-although he had never been a successful subject for hypnosis. This individual consulted a competent physicist for an answer to this specific mystery. The Doctor said that "it had long been recognized that sudden and great exposure to gamma rays had an effect such as he had tried to describe.")