Monday 28 December 2020
Robin Cole, Circular Forum and the 1995 Bridge Abduction Case
Note: If Robin Cole or anyone who knows him could ask him to contact me I would appreciate it.
The full report and images will be published in AOP Journal no. 5 as well as Beyond UFO Contact in January 2021
In 1996 I was in touch with Robin Cole who headed the Circular Forum group based in Gloucestershire and that in turn led to my involvement in the Gotherington Gargoyle case (The Case of the Gotherington Gargoyle, in Some Things Strange & Sinister). Knowing of my interest in CE3K reports, Cole asked whether I would be interested in looking at an abduction report they had on file. Obviously, my answer was “yes.”
What I received was slightly shocking because, despite my reputation, I would not have expected to find the address, telephone number and percipient’s name unredacted. As it happens it may just be that I am the only person who now has the full report.
In-keeping with the report in the group magazine I identify the percipient as “Mr. X”.
At around 21:40 hrs on the 15th February, 1995, Mr. X was driving along the M50 and heading home from work when he noticed a bright object travelling at speed over the countryside. The object was heading in his direction but he lost sight of it as the road cuts through a hill at that point in his journey and a bridge blocked his view. Once he had driven under the bridge he was confronted by the object which was approximately 80 feet above the road but then descended to around 50 feet as he continued 250 yards from the bridge.
As Mr. X strained to see just what the object was he describes himself as suddenly becoming “docile”. Then “a voice from within” told him to pull over to get a better look and he did so. His next recollection was being in the middle lane in third gear and travelling at around 50 mph and a voice was telling him to “Keep going, there is no traffic, keep going.” Not much further along was the junction he would normally take but he pulled off of the road and got out of the car. He was unsure whether he had been involved in an accident of some kind but on checking his car was undamaged.
On checking, he found that some 40 minutes had passed and he had no recollection of anything during that period. His journey home normally took twenty minutes but on this night it had taken just over an hour and on getting home told his son about the experience. That was the end of an odd event until he started having vivid flashbacks and odd things upset him. While treating his wooden fence two slanted black knots in the timber frightened him and yet he could not understand why. He was equally shaken by the motif of two black, slanted wings on his son’s motorbike.
By 1996, Mr. X decided that he needed to contact someone which is when he contacted Cole. According to Cole; “We now have over forty pages relating to this case” yet the “full report” I was sent has only 15 pages which is 25 pages short of what Cole claimed. He did state that the late Tony Dodd had seen the report and a copy had been sent to Professor John Mack for his analysis and, at the time of the Circular Forum article a copy was in the hands of Nick Pope. However, as only 15 pages are available we are lucky that this includes Mr. X’s original account which adds much more to the report and I have left the spelling etc. intact:
“…I left work at exactly 9.30 p.m. in the evening to go home…the journey
which I take home is about 9.25 miles. I have been travelling this road for 7
years. The same route every day. This journey should take no more than 15
minutes maximum. It consists of 1.8 mile bypass to M50 at Ross-on-Wye,
3.75 miles motorway M50 and 4 miles on the Newent/Gorsley B4221. I
arrived at the roundabout at the M50 Travellers Rest end at approximately 9.40
p.m. It was dark but clear. I looked across the valley through a gap in the hedge
towards Ponts Hill. On the far horizon about 10-12 miles, low down was a large
bright light in an otherwise star less night sky.”
The account now gets a little confusing as the continuation of Mr. X’s account refers to a previous sighting but then jumps slightly. I assume that the next part takes up the narrative from after Mr. X had lost sight of the object due to the bridge and then saw it above the road:
“I don’t know whether this was a hole in the underside of the craft. There was
no noise (not helicopter or plane). The light as bin the first sighting completely
enveloped the craft. It appeared flurescent a bit like aqn aura around the outside
of the craft. But it shimmered when you looked at5 it. I only had a few seconds
to see this and estimated that it was about 80 ft. above me and about 2 bus
lengths wide (diameter). I am now fidgeting about in the car as the light is
bothering me. All of a sudden I hear a voice in my head saying “Pull over and
you can get a better look!”
“I went from worrying about the light and being agitated to totally docile
looking straight ahead not at all concerned about the encroaching light that
was descending on me. I looked along the hard shoulder for a safe place to
stop as I had been told. At this point the hard shoulder4 disappears and a small
road runs underneath the motorway. A barrier with warning posts appears in
front of me. A voice warns “Unsafe! Unsafe!” as I start to pull over. I straighten
up the car taking notice of the voice. I am sure these voices are some sort of
telepathy. It’s as if they can see through my eyes everything that is going on,
and are guiding me. I am under some form of hypnotic control. I can see
everything that is going on but I have to obey the voice.
“From the bridge to this point it takes about 20-25 seconds everything is
happening very quickly. The craft has to descend between two rock faces
and position itself above my car as well as fitting between the four lanes
carriagway. It is large but has fantastic control. It is at this point I think I
was abducted. It was as if I blinked my eyes and I was back again. The only
thing I can compare this with is if you are watching a very good film and it
jumps a frame. You notice something but because you are engrossed in the
story it appeares continues.”
I believe in that last line Mr. X meant “continuous” and I should also note here that a bus length is around 30-35 feet depending on the model so the object seen by Mr. X was approximately 60-70 feet in diameter. In the 1994 Silbury Hill case Paul and Sonya also believed that entities were “using” their eyes to see things. Mr. X continues:
“I am now looking straight ahead on the same bit of road. The car is in gear
now (5th) I am doing about 50 m.p.h. I am still not bothered about the light.
Everything appears normal and another voice says; ‘Don’t stop now! Keep
going. There is no traffic either side of the motorway. Keep going.’
“I estimate it was between 5-10 seconds after this that I came out of the
hypnotic state and the craft had gone. They had released my mind. I
exclaimed aloud ‘Where’s the light. Where’s the light.’ Not realising it was
all over. They had gone. I continued driving as I was told but I was now
completely conscious and in control. I noted there was no traffic what so ever
as I had been told and I kept going. When I reached the slip road at the
Gorsley turn off (B4221) I stopped before turning on to the B4221 for Newent.
I put the hazard lights on and got out of my car looked across the motorway
at a small wood opposite. I saw lights going down beyond the wood but could
not swear that they were the same lights that had plagued me earlier. Still no
traffic. I got back into my car. Put the hazard lights off put my seat belt on and
then noticed my digital clock was reading 10-22 p.m. that meant that a 3.5 mile
journey which would normally take 3-4 minutes took 40 minutes. I remember
feeling pleased when I saw the lights of a car coming from the Gorsley Golf
Club. The first car I had seen since entering M50. As the car passed I pulled
out behind it but it turned right onto the motorway to Ross-on-Wye.
“I continued home arriving at about 10-35 p.m. still wondering what had
happened. The light still haunting me. Which it does to this day. I checked
the car over and myself to see if I had been involved in any form of accident.
No damage to the car and no marks on my body.
“The only explanation to the lack of traffic on the motorway and loss of
Time would be if I had been taken when there was a lull in the traffic and put
back there was a lull in the traffic 40 minutes being lost inside the craft for
what purpose I do not know. My conclusion is I was taken by a F.F.O. similar
or the same as described in my earlier sightings with its outer lights on. This
light acting as a type of strobe giving it a shimmering or pulsing effect, thus
hypnotizing me, while taking the car and myself up into its hull and then up
into the sky and out of sight for 40 minutes to do whatever they had to do to
me and then bringing me back to exactly the same spot on the motorway to
continue my journey.
“I think that U.F.O.’s are using motorways as easy access for abductions and
now that the American Air-Force has gone its left the gate wide open for them
to do what they want. Up until 1993 my first sighting where I saw two craft, I
had never seen anything in 47 years of my life.
“When I arrived home at about 10-35 p.m. my wife was in bed asleep so was
my youngest son Stephen in his bed asleep. Andrew my eldest son was out
with friends, Richard my mid son was laying on the settee watching T.V.
(football) after the news had finished at 10-30 p.m. he was wearing his blue
towling dressing gown. I hung my jacket up put my work bag down and went
into the T.V. room to tell him about my incident with the light. He was
watching an action replay shot and asked me to be quite until he had seen it.
I then told him about this bright light and was bewildered at this time as to
what it was. He can verify the time I got home about 10-35 p.m..
“At no time do I remember stopping the car during the incident it
appeared continues. Apart from the problem with the light (U.F.O.).”
The interesting aspects of this account are what Ufologists tend to leave out because we read here what Mr. X was thinking at the time but also it shows that he was not “vague” afterwards. He notes that his wife and one son were asleep and that another was out with friends –he obviously checked this so he was “thinking straight”. He noted that Richard was watching a football replay on TV following the 22:00 hrs news and that he was wearing a blue dressing gown. He had also checked the car and himself for any damage or injuries. Mr. X even managed to write out a sequence of events for the evening of 15th February:
1) Clock out 9.30 p.m.
2) Walk to car park (2 mins)
3) Drive to M.50 using by-pass (5 min 30 secs)
4) Entre M. 50 9.40 p.m. approximately
5) First gap in hedge light on far horizon
6) Second gap light streaking across valley
7) I go under first motorway bridge
8) Craft descends on me
9) Open window of car and look up at craft
10) Voice tells me to “Pull over and you can get a better look’
11) Voice warning “Unsafe. Unsafe” as I go to pull over. Barrier in way
12) Voice again “Don’t stop now. Keep going. There’s no traffic either side of the motorway keep going”
13) Drive to slip road and junction B4221 at Gorsley 10.22 p.m.
14) Drive home to Newent arrive 10.35 p.m.
One morning at 04:00 hrs in 1993, Mr. X had looked across the yard (from where he worked?) and seen the Moon as well as two “flying saucers” although this appears to0 have been just a sighting with no missing time. With regards to the flash-backs of the 1995 incident Mr. X recalled being observed by entities but also of being in a laying down position in a white room –oddly enough, for no known reason he eventually repainted the interior of the house white.
The remark about the US Air Force no longer present refers to local bases used by them closing down or being used as “stop over” airfields. As I found out in the 1980s in conversations with USAF personnel there their presence had never seemingly been of any concern to “UFOs” locally.
It would be nice to know what the “40 pages” contained especially since it was stated that; “At one point we became very concerned for the “abductees” health and safety, as it seemed he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder directly as a result of his experience.”
Without the necessary details it is difficult to gauge whether this was incident was a psychological or physical event. Circular Forum suddenly became defunct and it was impossible to track Cole down though I did come across him on a ghost forum in which the “ghost hunter” Elliott O’Donnell was discussed. I was told Nick Pope had the full report but when I contacted him he was unsure -“I get sent so many things” which sort of ended my attempts to find out more.
Mr X was 50 years of age in 1996 and would now (in 2020) be 74 years of age if still alive. Unless someone has a copy of the full report Cole indicates went to Tony Dodd (deceased), John Mack (deceased) or Nick Pope this is another case we have lost.