John Mack and I were at the Ariel School, a small elementary school outside Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, listening to Elsa (not her real name) describe her encounter last September 16 [1994] with an “alien” being. In all, sixty children, ages six through twelve, reported seeing one large and several smaller “spaceships” land – hover, really – over the scrubby bushland adjoining their playground.

The twelve children we interviewed over the course of two days all described the same event with a steady consistency of detail. In addition to the “spaceships”, the children had seen two “strange beings,” one sitting on one of the spaceships and the other running back and forth in the grass, “bouncing as if he were on the moon, but not quite so much.” The beings were described as black with long heads, “eyes as big as rugby balls,” with thin arms and legs. The event took place during the children’s morning recess while teachers were in a staff meeting. Many of the younger children were very scared and cried. “At first I thought it was a gardener,” one fourth-grader told us. “Then I realized it was an alien.” The event lasted about fifteen minutes, the children said, before the spaceships faded from view. But even in their state of fear, many of the children reported also being curious and fascinated by the strange beings they saw, whose eyes in particular commanded an intense attention. Elsa told us that she thought the beings wanted to tell us something about our future, about how “the world is going to end, maybe because we don’t look after our planet or the air.” She said she felt horrible inside when she got home that day. “Like all the trees will go down and there will be no air. People will be dying. Those thoughts came from the man – the man’s eyes.” Isabelle, a composed and articulate ten-year-old, echoed Elsa’s feelings. “He was just staring. He was scary. We were trying not to look at him ’cause he was scary. My eyes and feelings went with him.” What came through her “conscience” as she looked at the being was, “We are doing harm to the Earth.” The Ariel School sighting is one of the most significant in recent UFO history. It is the first time such a large group of people have reported witnessing the simultaneous appearance of spaceships and alien beings. After receiving a call in September from a BBC reporter telling us that a flight of strange objects and ships had glided across Zimbabwean skies for two nights prior to September 16 culminating in the dramatic sighting at the Ariel School, we decided to investigate firsthand.