Maureen Puddy's Unusual Close Encounter
Maureen had three odd experiences, all in 1972 and documented faithfully by VUFORS, but unfortunately not always by others.
Her story starts with a visit to the Royal Childrens' Hospital in Melbourne, where her son had been taken after an accident at school when a cupboard had fallen on him and broken his leg. He had been taken to the hospital by the Angel of Mercy Helicopter Air Ambulance Service.
While driving home from a visit to the boy on the July 5th, 1972, she called in at her mother's home for a cup of tea and a chat, leaving there at about 9.15 p.m., taking the shortcut along the Mooraduc Road from Frankston.
On this occasion, she saw a blue light reflected down over the car and thought it was the helicopter flying overhead, and may be trying to get a message to her, although how they could tell her car in the dark had not occurred to her, so thought she had better stop and see what they wanted.
She had not bargained on what confronted her.
A large circular object, like two saucers placed together, with one upside down, the usual saucer shape. The object was possibly, in her estimating, two telephone poles high, and would have spanned the strip of road 24' wide, also taking in the nature strip on either side of the road, making the saucer approximately 100' across.
Having already alighted from the car, she leaned back against it, took a long look at the object and wondered what it was she was seeing. The object's surface was smooth with no joins, welds, seams or rivets, no doors, windows or portholes and no wheels. The huge object was radiating a brilliant blue light all around, an intense glow, there was no movement, no wobbling or rotating, but a faint humming could be heard.
She must have noted all these things while wondering what sort of aircraft it was and before fear took over, at which time she quickly got back into her car and drove off as fast as she could, only to find the object was maintaining its position just above and behind the car. No matter how fast she travelled, the object seemed to remain at the same distance.
Aware that the blue light was no longer with her, and seeing a very bright light streaking off in the opposite direction, Mrs. Puddy realised the chase must be over. It had followed her for about 8 miles.
Maureen reported her sighting to the Police at Dromana, some family members and also some friends, who considered it all a bit of a joke, so she decided to say no more about it, until about three weeks later.
On Tuesday July 25th, 1972, after having visited her son again, she followed a similar routine, a cuppa with her mother enroute home, and left at almost the same time, about 9:15 p.m.
Maureen arrived at the Mooraduc Road, travelled on a short distance of about one mile, when the blue light appeared over her car once more.
She thought: Oh no. Not again, This time I'm not going to stop.
She grabbed the steering wheel more determinedly and put her foot flat to the floor, but the car just drifted to a stop on the side of the road. No matter what she did the Holden would not reply to her demands. She was wondering where do I go from here. Terrified, she gripped the wheel and looked out the windscreen to see the object hanging silently in the air above her car, the countryside bathed in blue light. Then a voice spoke to her, not audibly but in her head she said, as if words had been put into a computer and come out in the most beautifully modulated voice and perfect English she had ever heard. During this time she experienced a most unusual sensation. She said that if you could be in a vacuum, then she had been. Perfectly silent and still.
The message was: Don't be afraid, we mean you no harm, your tests will be negative, tell the Media - longer pause - you are now in control.
At that moment the car started up again as if she had turned the key. She sat there for a moment or two, then drove off as fast as she could.
She stopped at the same police station only to find it closed, then went to the next, still on her way home.
She told the officer: I want to make a report of a sighting of a flying saucer.
Oh yes, Madam, came the reply. She insisted, in fear and frustration, so the policeman humoured her and she had it recorded.
Next morning she phoned Laverton R.A.A.F. Station to ask if they could offer any explanation of what she had seen, to which they replied that it could not have been an aircraft or balloon as neither would have been in the area at the time; but don't say anything as it could cause panic. They would send her a questionnaire to complete.
Later, when asked about the questionnaire, she said: You'd have to be an astronaut to understand it.
Maureen was questioned about her experience in the car. What did the messages mean?
She said she had not had any recent tests done, but some about six months ago proved negative. There was no use telling her not to be afraid, she was terrified.
As for telling the media, she phoned three of the four T.V. stations. One was mildly interested since they were showing Chariots of the Gods. Two made light of her news, so she did not bother to contact the fourth.
At this stage, Maureen had only been spoken to in a one hour phone interview, not in person.
When Maureen was asked to speak at a UFOlogy meeting, she agreed, and kept the full house spell bound for almost two hours. The hall was crowded, there were even people in the lobby listening through the speaker system, thoroughly fascinated.
During the question period that night, Mrs. Puddy was really put through her paces.
Did she think what she saw was a psychic phenomenon?
Did she suffer any burns or after effects?
To both these questions she answered No.
Did she think there were any other witnesses?
She thought there must have been one at least, because as she was approaching a railway crossing, she saw a man with a torch, leading a cow up one of the side roads. Surely the UFO must have passed very close to him, but would have been going in the same direction. Later the man's wife contacted her and also a lady living on a ridge, not far from the highway, both had seen the light.
The third experience, which was purely psychic, occurred about six months later.
One Wednesday, a rather agitated Maureen Puddy, telephoned this same UFOlogy group. Her story goes:
For some days she had been hearing a voice calling to her to return to the meeting place.
Believing she heard someone calling her name at the front door, she went to open it and her husband, who was an invalid in a wheel-chair, asked who it was, but there was no-one there.
When she went shopping, she heard: Maureen, Maureen, return to the meeting place,
And she looked around to find there was no one near. She felt she had to go to the meeting place but she was too scared to go alone, 2 UFO investigators offered to accompany her for the meeting, and with very little persuasion she agreed to go that Wednesday evening.
That evening while one investigator fuelled his car, the second prepared a hot drink and some supper, for we didn't know whether or not we would be just sitting for most of the night and we would require some fuel to keep us warm even though it was supposed to be summer.
Maureen was informed on the description of the 2 investigators car, as wellas a meeting place, opposite the electricity sub-station, where the road widens, at about 8:30 ~ 9:00 p.m.
The investigators were early and it was not yet dark so they could see Maureen's Holden station wagon when she arrived. She got out of her car and ran towards us saying she nearly went off the road back there.
Maureen explained what had happened while the 3 drove to the meeting place.
Before going further It should be known, that as 1 investigator entered Maureens car, the investigator had the odd feeling that something was amiss, by experiencing a tingling sensation, like that of a mild electric shock, which passed off quite quickly. Maureen then mentioned that in the center of the front seat, between where the investigator and Maureen sat, had appeared an entity completely clad in a type of gold foil suit. As Maureen turned to look in its direction, she was so startled she almost ran off the road, It was quite obvious she was quite shocked by the eventful drive.
By this time, the trio had reached the meeting place which was somewhat hidden from passing traffic by a few trees.
They came to a stop and the 2nd investigator sat in the back seat of the station wagon while the main investigator remained in the front with Maureen.
We were talking about the latest incident along the road, when suddenly, Maureen grabbed the first investigators arm and pointed across her car, exclaiming: There he is. Can't you see him?
And she shook my arm saying that the investigator must be able to, the investigator tried to explain to her that it was like closed circuit television, from him to her.
She said he was coming closer to the car, in fact, so close that if the first investigator put her arm out, she could possibly touch the entity. It was now standing almost beside the front headlight, so the first investigator asked the second investigator to take a little walk around the car.
As he came to where the entity was standing, the entity moved back to allow him to pass between the entity and the car.
At this point the entity beckoned to Maureen to follow him, but she adamantly declared that she would not.
The first investigator told Maureen that she would go with her and tried to gently ease her out the car door, but she hung onto the steering wheel and would not budge.
The entity then became impatient when she would not follow and she became a trifle upset,
He apparently disappeared behind bushes and Maureen suddenly commenced describing the interior of the UFO. She told both investigators that the entity was standing there pointing to a large mushroom like object in the center of a large circular room.
The center object, which was taller than an average person, was a little like jelly, moving all the time, there were lines like those of Roman numerals around the lower portion. The top of the mushroom had lines on it and the whole thing seemed fixed to the floor. Maureen was apparently looking around the room and became very agitated at this point, crying: I can't get out. There are no doors or windows. I can't get out.
The main investigator put her arm around Maureens' shoulders in an attempt to calm her, and could feel tears on the investigators hand. Maureen was really upset and as the investigator clearly visualised what Maureen was describing, She decided to direct the first investigators thoughts to the entity, nothing to lose and maybe something to gain, the first investigator was very concerned about Maureen's state, She felt Maureen may have had a nervous collapse or even a stroke. The first investigator silently requested it take pity on the poor girl and suddenly Maureen said: He wants me to close my eyes. The first investigator replied that Maureen should do so and almost immediately the investigator felt Maureen relax as if in a trance.
Again Maureen began to describe the interior of the object and once again became agitated when she could see no way out of the vehicle. After a brief period Maureen regained her composure, and the investigators switched on the car's interior lights and asked if she would care for a cup of tea from their thermos flask. They had just handed Maureen her cup when she said: Oh, I'm back in there again, and repeated the description, but this time somewhat more calmly, before stating, it's gone. This time it's really gone. I can tell. It feels different.
She now seemed quite normal, so we went on with our supper, discussing the mushroom and trying to identify it. The first investigator asked if it could have been a gyroscope, but Maureen was not apparently familiar with that term so compass" was suggested. She picked off a little gadget from the dashboard of her car and to both investigators amazement it was exactly what the investigators had envisaged from her description of the mushroom. A small compass on a suction cup. The main investigator had not seen one before or since.
The investigators did not dare let her drive home alone, nor did she wish it, in case of a return visit from our friend, or nerves on her part.
It was between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. when the 3 arrived at her home which was quite some distance away. We did not take particular note of the time, but it was fairly late.