extraordinary%20encounters
extraordinary%20encounters
extraordinary%20encounters
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Xeno<br />
In the early morning hours of January 30,<br />
1965, while walking along a beach near Watsonville,<br />
California, Sid Padrick saw a flying<br />
saucer descend and hover a foot or two above<br />
the sand. A voice speaking from the craft assured<br />
him that he was not in danger. When a<br />
door opened, Padrick entered and soon met a<br />
human-looking figure in a two-piece uniform.<br />
The figure, speaking in unaccented English,<br />
introduced himself as Xeno. He took Padrick<br />
on a tour of the craft, during which he saw<br />
eight other crew members, one a “very pretty”<br />
young woman. They paid little attention to<br />
Padrick, and all his communication was with<br />
Xeno.<br />
Xeno and his companions were lightskinned<br />
and resembled human beings except<br />
for unusually sharp chins and noses. Xeno explained<br />
that the ship and its crew came from a<br />
planet behind a planet visible from Earth.<br />
Their own planet, however, was always hidden<br />
from earthly view. They lived in a communal<br />
society without war, disease, or crime.<br />
They also had a religion that worshipped the<br />
Supreme Deity. During the tour Padrick was<br />
shown a “consultation room” used for worship<br />
and invited to go inside. After he prayed<br />
there, Padrick experienced a kind of religious<br />
awakening.<br />
X<br />
273<br />
During their interaction, he noticed that<br />
whenever he would ask Xeno a question,<br />
Xeno would hesitate for as long as half a<br />
minute before answering. Patrick speculated<br />
that he was getting telepathic instructions on<br />
how to reply. He was shown a photograph of a<br />
city on Xeno’s planet. Through a telescopelike<br />
device he observed a cigar-shaped mother ship<br />
which had brought the smaller craft through<br />
space.<br />
Padrick was told that Xeno’s people were<br />
here only to explore. They had no desire for<br />
contact because of earthlings’ hostility and<br />
generally primitive attitudes. After about two<br />
hours, Padrick left the craft with a promise<br />
that he would meet the space people again<br />
soon.<br />
On February 4, Padrick informed Hamilton<br />
Air Force Base of his experience. A U.S.<br />
Air Force officer, Major D. B. Reeder, interviewed<br />
him four days later, and the two went<br />
to the encounter site. Though the officer interviewed<br />
several locals who said Padrick was<br />
trustworthy, the officer did not believe his testimony<br />
and urged Project Blue Book, the U.S.<br />
Air Force’s UFO-investigative group, to take<br />
no further action.<br />
Nonetheless, after seeing the story in a San<br />
Francisco newspaper, L. D. Cody, the civilian<br />
director of aerospace education at Hamilton,