New book explores military activity at Rendlesham Forest by Tony Eccles

The Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident occurred 40 years ago, and it’s back in the public eye with yet another book on the subject.  This is Nick Redfern’s Rendlesham Forest UFO Conspiracy: A Close Encounter Exposed as a Top Secret Government Experiment, which was published early 2020 by Lisa Hagan Books.  

Clearly, Redfern’s latest offering is not concerned with extraterrestrial contact but is focused on a more disturbing reality: government military experiments on its personnel, with maybe a few unsuspecting civilians thrown in for good measure.  If Redfern’s allegations are correct then Rendlesham appears to be an authorised experiment conducted on British civilian soil!  Redfern’s book was an enjoyable read.  I found the bait on his hook very appealing, however, all is not what it seems.

One might remember the origins of the Rendlesham mystery as a series of investigative articles that led to the intriguing 1984 publication Sky Crash: A Cosmic Conspiracy.  In late December 1980, key American and British military establishments, such as RAF Bentwaters in Suffolk, were involved in a sequence of bizarre events which remain shrouded in mystery, obfuscated by military intelligence bureaucracy and which has been exposed as a cover-up by both US and British governments.  Despite many given plausible explanations, Rendlesham Forest has become synonymous with the story of an alleged UFO landing and communication with visiting aliens.  It’s unfortunate, or perhaps a beneficial distraction to some, that Rendlesham has been labelled “Britain’s Roswell”.

In those four decades, much has been written on the subject, mostly positing an extraterrestrial perspective.  I find it curious that when extraterrestrials allegedly visit our world, they seem to be breaking down, even crashing with uncanny regularity!  So much for advanced cultures and their incredible technologies!  On the other hand, some researchers have presented more interesting discussions, including Dr. David Clark’s recent debunking of the alleged revenge-prank by SAS soldiers.  Others contend that it was a military experiment.  Yet such down to earth explanations have rarely gone beyond a short discussion in a book chapter, a blog entry or a newspaper article.  Why is that?

 Dr. Jacques Vallee’s 1991 book Revelations: Alien Contact and Human Deception, for example, claims that the alleged UFO crash was deliberately planted in the public’s mind by the military from the outset.  Vallee wasn’t convinced by the crashed spaceship narrative but instead offered the following

“To me the most plausible theory is that the U.S. military has developed a device or a collection of devices that look like flying saucers, that they are primarily intended for psychological warfare, and that they are being actively tested on military personnel...

When such mechanical devices are combined with optical and electronic displays, the results can be even more astonishing.” (Chapter 6: Special Effects pp.153-176)

Vallee sadly didn’t elaborate on the theme of psychological warfare and its suspected technologies.  His conviction I suspect was due to his awareness of the technological capabilities of the time.  Other examples include Jenny Randles’ UFO Crash Landing: Friend of Foe (1998), in which she suggested that Rendlesham could possibly be the result of a crashed stealth aircraft or a Soviet satellite.  Randles also considers specialised equipment used for the purpose of  psychotronic warfare.  In fact, Sky Crash authors Brenda Butler, Jenny Randles and Dot Street cited in their book the important and unresolved Cash-Landrum encounter near Huffman, Texas as an example of secret military testing.  This event took place in the same December month as Rendlesham and seriously affected the health of three innocent US citizens who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  These three people were the only witnesses to a UFO, which can best be described as a giant flying engine-type, escorted by military helicopters.  Of course, the reality of that event has been officially denied by US authorities!

In discussing these events, Redfern’s book is the first solely dedicated to the Military Experiment Hypothesis.  I know there are those enthusiasts who are going to quickly dismiss this idea.  However, I would advise against this.  It’s a fact that military activity is a common cause of UFO reports, especially in and around top secret facilities.  Therefore, if Redfern’s assertions are accurate, then the public at large should be very concerned about what our leaders and the infinitely-resourced military industrial complex are up to in the name of ‘liberal democracy’.  After all, shouldn’t we be asking who watches the watchmen?  With no known system of accountability, it seems that no one with a moral compass, nor a professional code of ethics, is serving in this role.  Redfern is not just offering the reader an explanation for what went on at Rendlesham Forest, but he’s also questioning the ethics of government and the military establishment under which it serves.  This is all, of course, conveniently shielded by the need for national security.

In this new Rendlesham book important questions are asked.  How was such an experiment conducted on unsuspecting personnel just outside an important Cold War installation?  More importantly, why was it done?  According to the original investigations, base personnel were asked not to take weapons into the area they were supposedly investigating, this is not a normal request in an emergency situation, but it’s ideal for test conditions.

Experiments are conducted to answer fundamental questions, the answers normally then lead to a development of some kind.  With Rendlesham, and possibly similar weird events rumoured to have taken place at other military locations, Redfern wonders if these psychological experiments were conducted to simply determine how military personnel would react to unusual, even extreme, circumstances.  Tests to see if experimental technologies working side-by-side like holography, tapped natural energies and airborne mind-altering drugs could be employed as weapons against future enemies.  Redfern’s assertion sounds like the US and British establishments have access to weapons that were conceived of in Tesla’s imagination.  In a way this makes Redfern’s thesis sounds a bit too incredible, but on the other hand it shows us how generally ignorant we are as a public, largely unaware of the type of scientific advancements being made by a generously resourced military – to the extent that some believe governments have made pacts with visiting ETs!  However, we should also question if such experiments have been covertly practised on the public.  These are experiments intended to create UFO sightings and to test public responses to them, and there is a strong case to be made for this elsewhere.

So, what makes this latest offering such a fascinating read?  It’s certainly hard to put down.  Redfern’s writing is easy to access, it’s obviously written for an American audience.  Chapters are short and there’s enough food for thought in each one that they are page turners.  Bibliographic references are plentiful, with many of them available online, which means the reader can easily locate and peruse them at one’s leisure.  There’s no index, however, and this for me is a big no-no, especially as I wanted to go back over certain passages to check information.  

Redfern gently lures the reader into the alleged famous UFO events just outside RAF Bentwaters in Suffolk.  Following this, readers are presented with fascinating sciences and lesser known facts which are brought together for one to evaluate.  One could be quite shocked to learn of how many government installations, like the now defunct Bawdsey Manor Radar, are located within Suffolk, all within a few miles of RAF Bentwaters.  The history of these locations, and their connections to documented experiments on British soil, makes Redfern’s thesis easier to accept as a possible solution.  The Rendlesham Incident should not be considered a unique event, but one of a series that have occurred.  There are so many unknowns as to what type of experiments have been conducted before, Redfern names the ones he’s been made aware of.  This makes for alarming reading.

After discussing the historic military use of hallucinogens and their results, Redfern rightly assesses the American and British fascination with the UFO subject and their concern with the technological means to exploit, control and weaponize nature’s energies.  Ball lightning is specifically mentioned but there will be others.  Redfern’s thesis opens up the idea that central elements to the Rendlesham Forest Incident could be reproduced, not by a misperceived local lighthouse, but by a sophisticated array of holographic and energy-creating equipment supported by airborne hallucinogens.  Does this theory sound far-fetched?  Or do alien visitors seem more likely an answer?  Despite my own personal ufological experience, I’m inclined to agree with a sceptical Redfern and others who have written on this very subject. Rendlesham has a rational but strange explanation.  Military experimentation as the proposed solution should not be ignored but studied further.

If these alleged weapons exist and have the ability to tap into natural energies then why haven’t we heard reports of them being employed in theatres of conflict such as Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq?  Or perhaps these effects have been employed in far flung parts of the world little touched by our media?  Surely, these weapons are not being hoarded in an underground facility to be used when World War Three breaks out?  Or are they secretly functioning as a form of deterrent?  Or are these weapons frightening because they are made to look real but exist in our imagination?  Whatever the truth I want to see proof.  There is a reality to lasers soon being employed by the US military, so what are the holographic capabilities today?  Do military scientists know how to control and weaponize ball lightning or plasma?  Something in this reminds me of the fictional TV show Stranger Things.

To me, these fantastic weapons are just as elusive as alleged extraterrestrials and their amazingly faulty technologies.  Instinctively, the answer to Rendlesham is likely to be a tad more normal.  After all, the best illusions work because the deception is caused by sleight of hand.  They are perceived in a way that makes magic real – this is how government and the military intelligence want to function – for the public to be looking elsewhere, and therefore in Rendlesham we have aliens.  It is utterly insidious.

From the beginning, Redfern makes it clear that although he doesn’t have all the answers, he’s simply trying to uncover the truth of what actually happened in that forest.  Through his research, and in discussions with the late Georgina Bruni, Redfern demonstrates the advantage of mutual co-operation between UFO researchers, as this has led to a number of breakthroughs.  This is an important lesson for others to follow, e.g. look at what was accomplished by the Sky Crash authors et al. 

It is Redfern’s hope that by publishing this book those in the know will be encouraged to come out of the shadows and provide him with the answers.  According to the author this is already happening.  The problem here is being able to discern the wheat from the chaff.  As we know, the good and the bad lurk in those shadows and I wish Nick Redfern the very best in this endeavour.  This, however, is the main issue for me, because the book lacks this very element, which would have made a superb final chapter – the explanation to show how Operation Rendlesham Forest was planned and implemented.  All, apparently, will be revealed in the near future.

After finishing Redfern’s book, it wouldn’t surprise me if readers wanted to explore the Rendlesham Forest UFO subject further by reading those books written by Bruni, Halt, Pope and Randles, even the scandal-tarnished Left at East Gate by Robbins and Warren is a worthy read. I know Redfern has written plenty of UFO books, but this is definitely one for the UFO library.  The reader is certainly presented with an extremely interesting viewpoint which is backed by decent research and hard work.  

But then again you might feel inclined to believe that the events at Rendlesham Forest is simply old hooey caused by a lighthouse and over-active imaginations!