Colonel X

by IIG

June 2008 — That is… or rather was the pseudonym for Ben Woods who has come to us with one hell of a UFO claim. "[Y]our experts will be able to film and photograph the saucer from directly underneath it," claims Woods. Our own Derek Bartholomaus asked for one important clarification:

"The object is permanently, or semi-permanently, hovering in the air in one location [?]"

Woods responds:

"The answer is no. The saucer can only be seen when I predict it will appear over Las Vegas."

Prompting more questions from us:

"Does the object only appear when you predict it or does it also appear at other times whether you predict it or not?… Can you please clarify what you mean when you say that the saucer can only be seen when [you] predict it will appear…"

Wood’s answers:

"The saucer can only be seen when I predict it will be available after a channeling experience. This is part of the basis of my claim."

Woods then expands upon this point:

"[E]ver since I was a child I have always had a "special" sense for things. I could bet the races when I was real young and had channeling experiences while sleeping."

"When I moved to Nevada about 2 years ago I knew something was happening to me… [ellipses his] a psychic metamorphosis where I began having channeling experiences with Extraterrestrials (Usually about 5-6 days before the saucer‛s appearance). Do you remember the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind? After Richard Dreyfuss had seen the mothership he began having a "channeling" experience where he constructed the Wyoming mountain in his living room. Do you remember that? This is what I do."

In our correspondence with Woods, we have been asking some basic information, like how soon after he begins channeling can we expect to see the UFO, and how will we see the object. Telescope? Naked eye? Woods promised to "work on the answers to your questions."

A few weeks go by, and a reporter from a Las Vegas newspaper asks us to confirm a press release from Woods claiming that "Colonel X, featured in Ufo [sic] Magazine as ufologists' Holy Grail, has been accepted into the IIG $50,000 Paranormal challenge," and furthermore, that "[t]o date no-one has been able to provide the IIG with proof that they have psychic ability." While that second sentence is definitely correct, the fact is that Ben Woods. has not been "accepted" as an applicant, as we still in discussion over protocols.

In August, Woods sent us an e-mail inviting us to a "sighting" in Las Vegas, promising us that KVBC news would be there, along some UFO "researchers." We asked Woods to get us in touch with the KVBC representatives, and the two fellow researchers. Woods never responded, and the case has not been worked on since.