by Rigorous Intuition » Fri Jun 17, 2005 11:18 pm
<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>A pretty good account <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.ltvnews.com/viewarticle.php?id=1869" target="top">published today</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> of Steve Michalak's 1967 encounter near Winnipeg. Especially interesting are the reminiscences of his son.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>May 20th, 1967 started out as a very average day for 52year old, Steven Michalak. It certainly would turn into an extraordinary one, before it was over. An amateur prospector, he ventured into the bush at the Whiteshell Forest Reserve, to do a little prospecting near Falcon Lake.<br><br>After a morning of tramping through the woods and finding little of interest other than some geese, Steve paused for lunch. Around 12:15 he noticed the geese had become agitated and detected two scarlet lights in the sky. As the lights came close enough, he determined their shapes to be disc like with one landing about 130 feet from him. The second hovered for a short time before taking off at what he described as incredible speed. As he observed the stationary disc, it changed from red to gray and then a silver colour, as if it were cooling down.<br><br>The craft remained on the rocky outcrop long enough for Michalak to make a rough sketch. As an industrial mechanic, he could appreciate the craftsmanship of the disk that seemed to be milled out of a single block of stainless steel. There were no joints, no rivets; just narrow slits in the dome that topped the disc. A vibrant light was coming from these slits, which forced Michalak to put on the dark green goggles he had brought with him to protect his eyes from rock chips while he pursued his geological hobby. He examined the craft without fear; he was, in fact fascinated by this vehicle he assumed had to be an experimental craft from the United States. <br><br>According to his story, a rectangular opening in the craft allowed him to hear noises and what sounded like voices, from within. As he peered into the opening, he saw many lights and determined the thickness of the walls to be 20 inches. As he placed his gloved hand on the metal, the rubberized glove melted, and at almost the same time, heat, exhausted from a vent set his shirt on fire and knocked him off his feet. As he lay there, the ship rose into the air and sped away, leaving the frightened and burned Mr. Michalak behind. The exhaust, which ignited his shirt, left an unexplained grid pattern burned into the skin of his abdomen.<br><br>Two hours later, with a throbbing head and vomiting to contend with, he made it back to his motel. He returned to Winnipeg. When his son picked him up and saw his condition, he rushed him to the Hospital. Treatment would go on for a year and a half, as symptoms would reoccur from time to time. After seeing 27 doctors and getting no real answer to his condition, Steven approached the Mayo Clinic. After determining he had a chemical impurity in his blood, they treated him with medication to restore his health. He never learned what the impurity was. There was speculation that the burns were created by super-heated chemical vapours ejected at high speed. All other possibilities were examined and discounted. His psychological assessment showed him to be a stable individual; not delusional or prone to psychoses. His experiences as a soldier in World War Two Poland, his home country, had steeled him against the worst possible horrors, had given him a resolve to approach potentially dangerous situations without fear but they had never prepared him for this. <br><br>He was not the only one to report seeing something strange that day on Falcon Lake, as two other witnesses also reported the strange craft. During a period of four weeks, 20 sightings were reported in the Winnipeg area including Steve's encounter.<br><br>...<br><br>In researching this story, I was fortunate to speak with Michalak's youngest son, Stan, who indicated that three things stand out most in his mind about that weekend in 1967 and the months and years which followed. "<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>I recall the awful smell that came from Dad. It was as if it was coming form his pores; the smell of sulphur and ozone. It lasted for weeks. As a young boy I was afraid.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> My father had been injured and, because I had always been given clear, rational answers to any of my serious questions, the fact that this could not be explained terrified me," says Stan. "The media circus that began after Dad told his story to a local reporter turned our lives upside down. Reporters camped on our lawn, phone calls from every imaginable TV and radio network came at all hours of the day and night and I became the object of constant teasing. Years later, well meaning people began telling me they believed, as though my father had been witness to the second coming."<br><br>Over the years following this event, Stan often discussed what had happened with his father and, "at no time did the story change." According to Stan, "No detail was forgotten and nothing new came forward to provide any clues."<br><br>His father never claimed that it was an Alien ship and in fact whenever asked what it was, He replied simply, "I don't know."<br><br>Stan summed things up by adding, "Not knowing what had injured my father was the worst. Years later when we reviewed the case and evidence that had been gathered, we concluded that the investigators of the day were ill equipped, incompetent and, in their bumbling, unearthed more questions than answers. If they had done a thorough, criminal style police investigation, even with the simpler tools of that time, they could have proved that there was no way for Dad to have hoaxed his experience. That, at least would have brought some peace to the family. After all that he had been through in his life, to be branded crazy, or worse, a liar made us all wish he had stayed home that weekend."<br><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.ltvnews.com/newsphotos/1550.jpg" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.ltvnews.com/viewarticle.php?id=1869" target="top">www.ltvnews.com/viewarticle.php?id=1869</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p097.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=rigorousintuition>Rigorous Intuition</A> at: 6/17/05 9:19 pm<br></i>
