Saturday, October 8, 2022

PDF: "Sequel to Scoriton" (by Norman Oliver, 1968) - Extremely rare booklet casting doubt on "notorious" and "(in)famous" UFO claim

Eileen Buckle's book "The Scoriton Mystery" (1967) detailed an investigation into the claims of Ernest Arthur Bryant to have met an Venusians in April 1965 in Scoriton, Devon (UK). One of the aliens Bryant claimed to have met allegedly gave its name as "Yamski" and implied it was the reincarnation of contactee George Adamski.

Jerome Clark, author of the impressive "UFO Encyclopedia", has referred to the Scoriton episode as "notorious" [on the UFO Updates email discussion list, on 14 February 2008]. An article on Rich Reynold's "UFO Conjecture(s)" blog in 2007 referred to the Scoriton "mystery" as "(In)famous"

The year after publication of that book, further investigations by Norman Oliver of BUFORA were detailed in his booklet, "Sequel to Scoriton". Summarising the position in the light of his father's further investigations, Norman Oliver's son recently commented that "There was little doubt that it was a fabrication and one perpetrated by individuals (whom he could not name without conclusive evidence) who should have known better, for reasons it is difficult to fathom".
 
Norman Oliver recently passed away. Norman Oliver's son came across some copies when sorting through his things and donated them to the AFU in Sweden. He mentioned to me that his father "spent much time and effort (as well as money!) investigating ... indeed it dominated his spare time over a considerable period".

His father apparently "upset the publishers of the book he and the late Eileen Buckle published on the story, not to mention Eileen herself, by insisting that the truth had to be told and self-publishing the sequel".

With the permission of Norman Oliver's son, this very rare booklet has now been scanned by the AFU in Sweden and I have uploaded a searchable copy to the online archive.

Given more recent debates regarding injuries possibly caused by UFO encounters, it is interesting to read in this booklet differing views as to cause and effect (if any) in relation to a brain tumour that Bryant had. Norman Oliver considered that the events were a fabrication by Bryant, and expressed the view that "worry" about being caught "caused the tumour to become active at this particular time". John Cleary-Baker (then editor of BUFORA's journal) asked "was the tumour responsible for the UFO or the UFO for the tumour?". Captain Ivan Mackay (then BUFORAs' chairman) suggested that Bryant may have had "a near sighting which may well have either caused a tumour or accelerated the growth of an incipient one".




No comments:

Post a Comment