Sasha Kearly’s mother was one of several witnesses to a UFO hovering above Montreal’s Hotel Bonaventure on Nov. 7, 1990.
Nearly 30 people on the hotel’s rooftop and surrounding sidewalks, including police, saw lights hovering over the hotel for almost three hours.
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Kearly, who lives in St. John’s, has since become a UFO investigator with MUFON – Mutual UFO Network.
Formed at the end of the 1960s, MUFON is an organization that investigates UFO sightings and promotes research and education on the phenomena.
Most of the investigations are carried out by people like Kearly, who run testimonies and evidence, often video, through a rigorous analysis process.
This process will either identify these sightings as something ordinary, such as a plane or a star, or as exactly what the name suggests – something unidentified.
Figuring it out
Kearly was inspired to join MUFON after having experiences of her own with UFOs, starting in 2016.
“I would just sit in the dark and watch the sky for hours every single night of the week…unless it was cloudy, and even then I would watch,” Kearly said.
MUFON assigns Kearly cases from across the country to investigate, though she has prompted locals to send the organization their stories.
She will cross reference the description, date, and time of the event with weather data, flight paths, and other external factors.
That’s just a small sample of the investigative process. The MUFON Field Investigator Manual is hundreds of pages long and covers phenomena ranging from strange lights in the sky to full-blown abductions and reality transformations.
Kearly says debunking claims is one of the most important parts of investigating paranormal phenomena.
“Once you’re able to debunk something and you understand the process of when it is unable to be debunked…it’s a true unknown, so it’s special,” Kearly said.
Finding an explanation
André Morin is the national director emeritus of MUFON Canada. Among his duties are encouraging would-be investigators to study the manual, write the exam, and hopefully pass it.
He says the organization, and others like it, are important in reducing stigma for speaking out about curious, unexplainable experiences.
“To try and find a scientific, logical explanation to it,» he explains.
«Not to ridicule them, not to laugh at them, not to say they’re liars or they’re hallucinating or anything like that…but to try to find the truth behind all this.»
Morin’s seen many different kinds of people join the organization, from scientists and mathematicians to astronomers and medical scientists.
“It gets people together…people of all walks of life that are great contributors to finding the anwer and the truth behind the mystery,” he said.
Island hostpots
Lee Tizzard was an investigator with MUFON from 1995 to 1997, but has since chosen to conduct his research and engage with the community on his own time.
During his time investigating with MUFON, he veered away from the usual lights-in-the-sky cases, finding them too ambiguous.
He preferred cases where people would see phenomena at a fairly close range, preferably with multiple witnesses to back up the claims.
“I got tons of reports from people of the strangest things…all over the island,” he said.
According to Tizzard, the island has multiple hotspots.
He’s investigated multiple reports from the Burin Peninsula and the Conception Bay North area, which he refers to as hotspots for the phenomena.
Sightings
Tizzard’s introduction to UFOs has an eerie similarity to Kearly’s.
In 1956, some time before he was born, Tizzard’s mother was out on her veranda in Corner Brook smoking a cigarette when she saw a cigar-shaped object fly towards and hover over the paper mill, before reversing its direction and flying out of sight.
“My mom was not a person who would exaggerate or tell stories or anything like that,” he said.
Among the many interviews he’s conducted over the years is Jim Blackwood, a retired Mountie who witnessed an object hover over the ocean off the coast of Clarenville in October 1978.
“I have the ultimate respect for Jim because he always stuck to his guns,” Tizzard said.
Another explanation?
Tizzard has moved away from the extra-terrestrial hypothesis of alien humanoids from outer space.
These days, he leans the ultra-terrestrial hypotheses of famed ufologists John Keel, author of ‘The Mothman Prophecies,’ and Jacques Fabrice Vallée. They believe UFOs, ghosts, fairies, and all manner of paranormal entities are part of some as-of-yet unexplained intelligence interacting with the planet’s population.
Being abducted by a UFO on a long, dark highway may not be so different than being taken by the fairies your grandmother warned you about.
Recent congressional hearings about UFOs has Tizzard cautiously optimistic, as he and fellow researchers question the US government’s motives regarding the subject.
Still, he says, it’s a step in the right direction.
“It’s really about the rights of the public to be aware of past and current information.”
Contrary to what you might think, Kearly has been skipping most of the disclosure-related news events. Investigating real experiences from real people, whatever may have transpired, is where her passion lays.
“Some people need an explanation for absolutely everything. I think the unexplainable is fascinating…what I like the most is that I don’t know.”
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