Professor tells all about 1988 ‘friendly’ alien encounter
By John R. Salter, Jr.
When I think, as I so frequently do, of that night of March 20, 1988--the strange night of the UFO encounter of my then 22-year-old graduate student son, John III, and myself--I have only positive feelings (as does he) about the not-so-different from us people from afar whom we met and with whom we spent well over an hour.
Still recalling images and sequences, which have come to both of us, slowly and persistently through the fabric of induced (but obviously only intentionally temporary) amnesia, point to good motives and beneficial actions. The physiological changes, more than a dozen, which have occurred in me--beginning since the encounter and still continuing--are witness to this.
Salter says aliens abducted and experimented on him and his son while they were driving through Wisconsin in March 1988.
The recall is seeing things with our eyes--precisely as we saw them that night in Wisconsin. Although this process is still continuing, steadily and deliberately, enough has come thus far to establish the context, the basic components and participants, the points of primary focus and the ethos. Here is the basic linear progress of our March 20 encounter:
As the four-lane ended and total amnesia (but not unconsciousness) enveloped us, we are gently but firmly forced off the highway onto a very narrow and extremely rough road. We determined, on the basis of recall and contemporary observation, that this is the Pier Spring Road. We parked the pickup near the far end of this winding, timbered road.
Then we are standing, John III and I, not far from the passenger side of the pickup, which is parked on the level stretch of the Pier Spring Road, under some trees. It is almost dark. Completely at ease, I can see two or three small humanoid figures climbing up on the back bumper, looking at our gear in the back of the truck.
Up closer, they are four to four and one-half feet tall, thin bodies and thin limbs--but comparatively large heads and conspicuously large, quasi-slanted eyes. There are several of these small people--perhaps six or seven--and a taller humanoid figure, almost as tall as I (six feet) and not as proportionately thin as the others. His features are more, as we would use the term, “human”–and he may well be a mixed-blood. Whatever clothing type they’re wearing, it’s tightly fitting and, to us at this point in recall, non-descript.
Our communication with them is more than thought-impressionistic; it’s telepathically specific. John III sits down. Three of the small humanoids gather around, viewing him with as much fascination as he does them. Everyone is very pleasant. The tall humanoid is attached to us in a special fashion and is obviously our key liaison.
Now we are walking through the darkening woods, up a ravine and over a small ridge, to the UFO, which is in a rather secluded clearing some distance from the pickup. I stumble and fall backward but am immediately cushioned by a (telekinetic?) force. Very, very gently, several of the humanoids reach for me and pull me to my feet.
Throughout this recall process is the clear, persistent, definite sense of a brightly lit room--a kind of white light--and a deep-blue glowing panel. An implant is placed very carefully up into my right nostril and well beyond.
There is now an injection into my neck, at the thyroid area; and then an injection into my upper, central chest (thymus gland). John III’s face is scanned very thoroughly with a “flash-light” type instrument; special attention is given to his chin and jaw area.
Then we are out in the open again. The feeling is downright powerful that the meeting has gone very well indeed from everyone’s standpoint. Our tall humanoid friend walks with me back through the woods to the pickup. He is carrying some sort of light, obviously for our benefit. John III is slightly ahead of us. I believe the smaller humanoids have remained with the UFO.
John III goes into the passenger side of the pickup, closing the door. I feel an extremely strong, poignant sense of farewell toward the tall figure, sensing equally strong reciprocity. (His emotional and intellectual reactions are like ours: sharp intelligence, good-natured, smiled a great deal, eager, very interested in things and sad at parting. Basically, I think all of this holds true for the smaller people.)
The tall figure and I tell each other that we will see one another again in another place, in another time. Now, John III and I are by ourselves in the pickup. We wait. Very shortly from his window, John III watches the UFO rise and, brightly lit, move diagonally up into the dark clouds and beyond.
Salter taught sociology at the University of North Dakota.
The still continuing results of my implant and injections began to emerge in some cases as early as May, 1988. My head hair, fingernails, and toenails are growing two to three times their normal rate; eyebrows have become very thick; and fine body hair has developed all over my previously almost hairless arms, legs, stomach and chest. Cuts and scratches clot immediately and heal very, very rapidly.
For the first time in my life, my beard is very heavy, very thick, and quite dark.
In the last several years, a number of people who have had UFO encounter experiences have painted a bleak and oft-frightening picture of “alien motivations”--raising the possibility of genetic experiments and the like. Other people who have had this experience, such as myself and John III and Betty Hill, and a number of other researchers, take a friendly and positive view of all of this.
As I’ve said, almost to the point of redundancy, we see all of this as being very friendly. I do have several basic, concluding thoughts: I believe the number of direct physical encounters with the “alien” humanoids is not nearly as great as some people are presently saying. I see these as rare but not super-rare. I believe these encounters are specifically selective (anything except random) and, as such, necessitate among other things a good deal of careful planning and maneuvering by the humanoids.
I believe these are extra-terrestrial persons similar to us and perhaps even related in some intriguing fashion or at least the results of a parallel evolutionary course. They are solid and physical and tangible entities, sharply intelligent, and their range of emotions is comparable to ours. I categorically do not see them as angels/devils/psychic manifestations.
Their actions are quite positive. While I think it’s possible that there may be some “experimentation” involved, I think this is ethically and honorably done, and to good ends. However, I believe the basic thrusts focus on helping some of us “keep on keeping on” in the business of edging humanity closer and closer to the Sun--figuratively speaking--and sensitizing humanity with respect to the relatively nearby presence of other forms of intelligent life.
I do very strongly believe, and now I’m drawing on cogent impression existing above and below the water levels of my mind, that the people from afar that John III and I met have good motives, very good ones, and the unfolding results of all of this--individually if our people can keep an open mind, and certainly with respect to the long-term perspective and future of human society--are and will be deeply beneficial through the many, many ages to come.