Intruders Foundation Seminar Series Announcement

Saturday, April 2, 2005
UFOs & ABDUCTIONS -- THEN AND NOW:
BUDD HOPKINS & TED BLOECHER DIALOGUE

TED BLOECHER's interest in the subject of UFOs began in 1947, the very first year of the modern UFO wave, when, as a teenager, he became fascinated by newspaper and radio reports of "flying saucers." Within a few years he became a charter member and investigator in one of the earliest and most important UFO groups, Civilian Saucer Intelligence, or C.S.I. He eventually began a long and successful career in the musical theater, and as he traveled to dozens of cities in shows like "My Fair Lady," "Oliver" and "Half A Sixpence," he visited area libraries and began to collect articles on 1947 UFO sightings from the local newspapers. His painstaking work resulted in an extremely important and unique survey of UFO reports from that crucial year, and was published by the author in 1967.

Bloecher's friendships included Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Betty Hill, Dr. James McDonald, Richard Hall, Isabel Davis, Donald Keyhoe and virtually all of the major researchers of those seminal years.

As early as 1956 Bloecher had become intrigued by the growing number of UFO occupant reports, and, along with researcher David Webb, began work on HUMCAT, a collection of early humanoid sightings.

Hopkins friendship with Ted Bloecher began in the late fall of 1975, when he contacted Ted for help in the investigation of the recent George O'Barski UFO landing and humanoid case in North Hudson Park, NJ. The investigations these two men conducted eventually led to a few abduction cases, including the very important but little-known Kent, CN incident of 1973, which ultimately was shown to have involved some twelve witnesses.

The IF seminar will offer an informal dialogue between Bloecher and Hopkins about their productive colleagueship, and will feature a discussion of a number of early landmark cases, as well as Bloecher's fascinating personal reminiscences of the personalities and pivotal moments in the history of UFO research. Both researchers will also comment on ABC’s recent airing of Peter Jennings Special Report concerning the subject.

For anyone interested in the UFO phenomenon and the early years of its unfolding, this is an event not to be missed. And as usual, a generous period of time will be set aside for audience questions