- The search for UFOs now leads to a strip mall in the
Ken Caryl area. The Mutual UFO Network, which claims 4,000 members worldwide,
is located between a liquor store and an optometrist, across the parking
lot from a bar and grill.
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- John Schuessler, the international director of the network,
which investigates reports of sightings or contacts with unidentified flying
objects, says he feels right at home.
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- "I'm surprised at how cordial everyone is,"
said Schuessler. "I didn't expect this kind of reception."
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- 1 'Book' closes, 1 opens
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- MUFON, a nonprofit corporation, moved into its new digs
on Oct. 29, relocating from Seguin, Texas, a suburb of San Antonio. The
office in the Market Place at Ken Caryl, which is just off Kipling Parkway
and Chatfield Avenue, is filled with books, magazines and reports on UFOs
and aliens.
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- Among Schuessler's collection are items sent to the network
by people who claim to have seen or been contacted by aliens. A miniature
flying saucer flashes red lights. Also on display is a small "alien"
pickled in a jar filled with lime-green liquid.
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- "We enjoy it, too," Schuessler said. "You
have to live in the real world, and the real world has fun as well as the
serious side."
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- The network was formed in 1969 after the Air Force closed
its project "Blue Book," which investigated UFO reports, said
Schuessler, who was among MUFON's founding members.
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- "There was nowhere to report, and UFO sightings
sure continued, so we filled the gap," said Schuessler.
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- The recent move, however, was not prompted by Colorado's
status as a hotbed for sightings. The San Luis Valley generates a number
of UFO reports, and a few decades ago, there were widely reported accounts
of cattle mutilations by aliens on the state's Eastern Plains.
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- Worked at Space Center
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- Schuessler and his wife, Kathy, moved to the area to
be near their daughter's family, including two new grandchildren, and the
organization moved with them.
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- Denver's weather, of course, is a plus.
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- "We wanted to get out of Houston," said Schuessler
with a smile. "We had enough of the heat, humidity and bugs."
From 1962 until 1998, when he retired, Schuessler worked as an engineer
with aerospace firms, including a stint at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space
Center in Houston on the Mercury space program, he said.
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- Reports from all over
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- Schuessler said his organization regularly receives UFO
reports from around the world, either by telephone, e-mail or on its Web
site, www.mufon.com.
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- "If we get a report and someone says, "I saw
something go across the sky, and it took 20 seconds,' we can't do anything
about that. We don't know what it was," said Schuessler. But MUFON
will record the information and file it, he said. Perhaps there will be
similar reports from the same area, and patterns could begin to emerge.
"We're in the business of collecting data," he said. But when
the network, which has members and field offices in every state and several
foreign countries, receives what it believes to be valid reports of UFO
contacts or abductions, it sends investigators to the scene.
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- Bodies with evidence
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- Schuessler said some people who report "close encounters"
- of which the network has investigated hundreds over the past three decades
- bear physical abnormalities to support such claims, such as burned skin
and injured eyes from exposure to the alleged UFO.
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- "It tells us there are things that are physically
real that affect the environment and affect people that we can't explain,"
he said.
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- "I call them unconventional flying objects. They
do exist. Not necessarily extraterrestrial, but I won't rule that out."
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- Copyright 2000 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.
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