extraordinary%20encounters

object was ascending and shooting beams of
light toward the girls.
The following evening Lapp drove home to
tell his parents, who responded with skepticism,
about his sighting. He also informed his
girlfriend, who was similarly unreceptive. He
did not discuss the incident with Cornell and
soon lost contact with her. In the years ahead,
he had dreams about being onboard the UFO
and developed an interest in mysticism and
religion. In 1978 he discussed his experience
with Webb, then an astronomer employed by
Boston’s Hayden Planetarium.
Subsequently, Webb traced Cornell to Atlanta.
She confirmed the sighting though all
she could recall of it was that a “big light” had
approached them, they had fallen down, and
some sort of mental block had ensued. Webb
had refrained from sharing the details Lapp
provided him; still, Cornell’s account matched
Lapp’s to the extent that her memory allowed.
Separately placed under hypnosis, the two
recounted an abduction experience. Lapp
“re m e m b e re d” standing on the deck with
one of the humanoids looking into space and
o b s e rving Earth, Moon, stars, and the cigarshaped
craft. Cornell was stretched on a table
in the lower level as two aliens conducted
what seemed to be a physical examination on
h e r. Lapp was put on a table next to hers and
lost consciousness. On re c overing, he found
that the ship had entered a hangar that was
inside yet a larger one. He and an alien companion
sailed on a beam of light through a
wall. An elevator took them to an enormous
domed room occupied by many humanoids,
who we re watching something out of Lapp’s
line of vision. Taken into another room, he
had a vision of an unknown landscape occupied
by distraught, weeping human beings.
He passed out. When he awoke, he seemed
to be falling through space, while a globe full
of television screens with his picture on each
a p p e a red in front of him. He stepped
t h rough one of the screens, and on the other
side of it, he and Cornell we re back on the
d o c k .
Bunians 53
Cornell’s story was less detailed than
Lapp’s. She remembered being suddenly
aboard the UFO and described the entities
nearly exactly as her companion had. Her “recall”
of the vehicle’s interior matched Lapp’s.
Webb devoted five years to the investigation
in an effort to substantiate anything that
could be substantiated. To his disappointment,
he found no one, who had been at the
camp in August 1968, who could corroborate
the UFO sighting. Background checks and
psychological tests attested to Lapp’s and Cornell’s
sincerity and honesty.
See Also: Abductions by UFOs
Further Reading
Webb, Walter N., 1994. Encounter at Buff Ledge: A
UFO Case History. Chicago: J. Allen Hynek Center
for UFO Studies.
Bunians
Ahmad Jamaludin, a ufologist and veterinary
surgeon who lives in Malaysia, says that nothing
precisely like the abduction phenomenon
known to his Western colleagues seems to be
occurring in his country, but there are traditions
of kidnappings by what are called the
“Bunian people.” The Bunians are the
Malaysian version of fairies. Like fairies elsewhere,
the Bunians exist not only in oral tradition,
but also in what are alleged to be actual
experiences.
One such incident is said to have taken
place in June 1982. A twelve-year-old girl,
Maswati Pilus, had gone one morning to the
river behind her house, intending to wash
clothes there. She encountered a small female
being whose sudden appearance had a strange
effect on the girl’s consciousness. She felt as if
only she and the being existed. There were no
other sounds or sights. The being offered to
take her to another land, and Maswati, who
felt no fear, found herself looking at a bright,
beautiful landscape. She sensed that time was
passing, but the events that occurred during
her experience were blurred and vague in her
memory.