You'd think that the pattern of UFO cases and witnesses is a random occurrence, but this may not necessarily be so. NAME GAME By JOHN A. KEEL On August 7, 1806, a group of settlers around the odd natural for- mation called Chimney Rock in North Carolina observed an unusual phenomenon. According to the Reverend George ‘Newtown (who published a letter des- cribing the episode in the Raleigh, N.C. Register that month), a large group of luminous objects appeared in the air around the high column of rock. Some of these objects assumed the forms of human beings and their tuminosity was blinding. A similar formation of lights reappeared there in 1811. The local Cherokee Indians have legends about the place dating back hundreds of years, One of the principle witnesses named in the Reverend Newton’s ac- count was Mrs. Patsy Reaves. One hundred and fifty-nine years later a John Reeves became involved in a sensational, widely-publicized flying saucer landing in Florida. The fol- lowing spring, in 1965, a family named Reeves near Salem, Oregon became plagued with strange spheres of light, apparently under intelligent control, which moved about the rooms of their house. Police officers and reporters called to the scene also witnessed the phenomenon. On the surface these incidents ap- pear to be unconnected coincidences. ‘The witnesses involved were un- related and were widely separated by space and time. In December 1967, the Silver Bridge spanning the Ohio river at Point Pleasant, West Virginia col- lapsed, carrying 40 people to their deaths. Point Pleasant had been very much in the news that year because of the almost constant UFO sight- ings. One of the bridge victims was an Air Force officer named Alvie Maddox. ‘Three months later a police officer in Texas named Alvis Maddox was mentioned in the press after allegedly seeing and pursuing a flying saucer in an area where another man, Carroll Watts, was claiming repeated visits from UFOs. Another famous incident revolved around a Californian named Rex Heflin who took a series of contro- versial photographs of a flying saucer in 1965. On April 2, 1971, a Morris Heflin reportedly saw a circular me- tallic flying machine near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Is the repetition of these names meaningless? ‘Over the past 28 years hundreds of thousands of phenomenal events have been described in newspapers, ‘magazines and books, and hundreds of thousands of witnesses have been named in print. When dealing with such a large body of evidence, or pop- ulation, certain laws of probability should surface. We might expect that more Smiths would see more UFOs than anybody else, simply be- ‘cause there are more Smiths around. But in actuality, the name Smith rarely appears in a UFO report. We might also expect the witness populations to conform to the na- tional distributions racially and reli- giously. Thus 10% of all witnesses should be black because 10% of the population is black. Five percent should be Jewish, 20% should be Catholic, and so on. However, it doesn't work out this way. Sightings of flying saucers and related phe- nomena appear to occur ona selected basis. Among the names most frequently noted in UFO reports are Hill, Allen 28 BEYOND REALITYSURNAME ‘Smith Johnson Williams(on) Brown Jones Miller Davis Martin(ez), (son) ‘Anders(on) Wilson Source: U.S. Social Security Administration NO. OF PERSONS, 1,678,815, 4, Smith 1,623,266 2. Johnson 1,079,986 3. Williams '951,320 4. Brown 922,913 5. Jones 807,086 6. Clark 729,371 7. Allen 678,850 8. Hill 589,676 9. Maddox 552,993, 10. Reeve(s) ~ 11. Reaves: 12. Heflin 43. a. Kiehl b. Kiel Keel APPROX. NO. SURNAME NO.OF PAGES “Of EuTaieg 9 4,300 5 2,500 6% 3,120 a 3,840 AY 2,160 2% 1,200 2 960 1 480 0 20 0 13 0 10 0 4 0 3 0 9 0 7 Number of entries of Specific names in the New York (Manhattan) telephone directory. and Clark. Naturally a great many other names also appear. Statistical- ly, if 1,000 random events are re- ported this year, the names and backgrounds of the witnesses should balance out roughly to the distribu- tion of the national population. What are the odds for someone named Reeves seeing a UFO (or a ghost, for that matter) this year? They are approximately 400 million to one. Alongside this article is alist of the ten most common surnames in the United States. These names should dominate the massive sighting data of the past 28 years. They don't. Jones, for example, is number five on the list but rarely appears in UFO reports. The most outstanding case was the low-level sighting of a metal- lic sphere made by Tad Jones over a highwy near Charlestown, W.Va. in January 1967. ‘The New York (Manhattan) tele- phone directory lists approximately 900,000 people. OF these, only 13 are named Reeve(s) and ten spell it Reaves, 23 out of 900,000. (There are nine pages of Smiths.) If a flying saucer should appear in New York City, and if it should be seen by only three people, the odds are far greater that one of those people would be named Smith rather than Reeves. Heflin is an even rarer name. Only four are listed in the phone book. Yet two Heflins have not only been involved in important UFO inci- dents, but they have experienced fol- low-up events as well. Rex Heflin allegedly received visits from bogus Air Force officers after the existence of his photos was revealed. Morris Heflin saw his mysterious UFO a second time, on May 8, 1971. This is like. lightning striking in the same place twice. Another rare name is Kiehl. Only three are listed in the Manhattan di- rectory. Shortly after the author's interest in the UFO phenomenon became publicly known in 1966, one William J. Kiehl surfaced on the West Coast and revealed an incredi- ble sighting which had taken place 50 years earlier in Canada. As a boy he had seen a saucer- shaped object hover over a lake, he said, and little men were visible. His story, remarkably detailed after such a long lapse of time, appears in th ‘opening chapter of Coral Lorenzen’s book The UFO Oceupants. So far as is known, no other Kiehls/Kiels/ Keels have been witnesses to any reported phenomena. This makes William J. KiehI’s account all the more remarkable. ‘The name Clark is number 18 on the Social Security Administration's list. There are at least 385,206 Clarks in the United States. A num- . ber of Clarks are prominent in Ufo- logy. Over the years several Clarks have been named in sighting reports. Hill is another name that seems to pop up frequently, the most famous being the late Barney Hill who sup- posedly underwent an extraordinary contact experience. Incidentally, he was also one of the few blacks to become publicly identified with the phenomenon. Hill ranks as number 32 on the list (there are 289,655 of them, 480 of whom are listed in the Manhattan directory). Another fam- ous contactee, George Adamski, bore an even scarcer name. A mere three are listed in Manhattan, Ina long line of controversial con- tact reports the Ufonauts have iden- (Continued on page 44) BEYOND REALITY 29UFO NAME GAME/continued from page 29 tified themselves with variations of the name Allen, Radio personality “Long John” Nebel has frequently commented on this Allen correla- tion. The surname Allen is number 26 on the Social Security's list, and about 960 Allens are listed in the New York phone book. Like Clark, Allen has appeared frequently in sighting reports and a number of Allens are important in UFO lore— Carlos Allende, Dr. Gordon Allen, the Alyn mentioned by assorted con- tactees, ete. If UFO sightings are completely sporadic and accidental, as most UFO enthusiasts believe, then many of these coincidences would have been next to impossible. Apparently there is a hidden factor here—a factor of selectivity. Either the phe- nomenon itself selects certain wit- nesses because of. some obscure genealogical factor (this was, inci- dentally, one of Adamski's claims) Or, if we care to be more pragmatic, certain strains in certain families suf- fer inherited traits which make them prone to hallucinations or psychic experiences. There is, in fact, in- teresting evidence that psychic ability is inherited. Ralph Blum, the New York writer who authored Beyond Earth: Man’s Contact With UFOs, told me that he, too, is concerned with the strange coincidences involving names. Many of the place names and surnames in UFO reports, he points out, refer to water in various ways. The name Reeves is similar to a French word meaning “river bank”. In English, “reeve” is a nautical term meaning to pass a rope through a hole. In the Flying Saucer Review maga- zine special Beyond Condon, and in my books, I have pointed out that the names adopted by the entities usually have roots in ancient mytho- logy. But I have always been baffled by Woodrow Derenberger's alleged contact (West Virginia, 1966) wit an entity who called himself “Cold This might be explained by John Mitchell's research into ancient leys (The View Over Atlantis, Ballantine Books). He points out (page 10) that the names “Red, White and Black are common [along ley routes]; so are Cold or Cole, Dod, Merry and Ley.” During my wanderings in West Virginia I found traces of leys and it may be that Derenberger’s first en- counter took place at a point along an erased ley. UFO events, like reli- gious events, are often allegorical and contain subtle, hidden clu It would take a computer project to sift and correlate the many thou- sands of names mentioned in the reports of the past 28 years. Statis- tically, as we have already stated, these reports should be dominated by Smiths, Johnsons, Williams, Browns and so on. In actual fact, less widely distributed names tend to dominate the reports. Those who have investigated and reported phe- nomenal occurrences in their own areas might list the names of all the people involved and try to determine their inter-relationship, if any. It is always important to also collect the racial and religious back- grounds of the witnesses. An extra- ordinary number of American wit- nesses are either full-blooded Indians or have some Indian blood in their background. In a recent case now being investigated in Indiana, the only Indian within a 200 mile area has been undergoing a series of re- peated experiences with low-flying UFOs. Flying saucers are not only defying the laws of gravity and inertia, they are also defying the laws of proba- bility in their uncanny selection of witnesses. If UFOs are genuine ul- traterrestrial (inter-dimensional) or extraterrestrial phenomena, then all this is an indication that they know {far more about us as individuals than we can suspect or rationalize. ‘The big question confronting the psychiatrists and psychologists now immersed in UFO studies is: Do the UFOs select their witnesses, or do specific people tend to create UFO experiences from within themselves by some unknown mental process? Why do the Allens, Hills, Reeves and Heflins see more of these things than ‘the Smiths, Johnsons and Browns?