For decades, UFO reports have been tossed aside as fiction. Despite how many people corroborate a story and provide video evidence, there’s another side to the story that always casts doubt on what is reported, saying what was seen was a weather balloon, drone, or some sort of weather phenomenon. Thus, it’s always up to the audience to try and decide what’s fact and what’s fiction.
One of the most vivid and notorious UFO reports happened in September 1994 at Ariel School in Zimbabwe, Africa. At Ariel, more than 60 children reportedly saw a UFO come down from the sky with figures stepping out of the spaceship and telepathically communicating with them.
Since the incident, investigations have been done and, even recently, the witnesses were interviewed and asked if what they saw was really true or did they lie about it.
The Incident
On the Friday morning of September 16, 1994, teachers at Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, were holding a staff meeting while children were playing outside. That’s when 62 children reportedly heard a noise, with some saying it sounded like a swarm of electric bees while others claimed it had the audio of a loud whistle that resembled a flute.
As the children walked toward the noise, they claimed to see something silver and shiny coming down from above. The spacecraft, as reported, opened with one or two small figures, about four feet tall, coming out wearing black body suits and having plastic-like skin. One of the students described them as “bouncy” as if they were on the moon and moving in slow motion.
“It was running in slow motion diagonally down the field,” one of the students recalled. “And then suddenly, it would reappear in the corner where it started and do the same thing. And then it would reappear and do the same thing. And that was frightening — more frightening than seeing what these things actually were.”
“I could see the little man was dressed in a black, shiny suit; that he had long black hair, and his eyes, which seemed lower on the cheek than our eyes, were large and elongated,” another student said.
The figures reportedly stopped in front of the children. The children said the eyes were enormous and they had an evil look about them. They also communicated with them telepathically without speaking, evoking some kind of feeling and thought inside the children’s heads.
“It didn’t touch me physically, but it felt like with that stare, it touched every ounce of my body,” one student said. “‘We need clean air, beautiful plants, and clean soil to be able to live and thrive’ it communicated to me.”
The Investigation
After the incident, the students returned home and told their teachers. Disturbed by what they heard, it immediately surfaced to the administration and they released the children to go home. When at home, the children then told their parents. That’s when ZBC news radio (a UFO station) stepped in, where Cynthia Hind, along with BBC war correspondent Tim Leach, began investigating deeper into it.
During most investigations when multiple people claim they saw something of this magnitude, they diverge to tell different stories. However, much of the testimony matched among the children willing to speak about the incident. Even the drawings they made were extremely similar, leading some teachers to believe that the children were telling the truth.
Later that year, a documentary by Harvard psychologist John Mack was conducted. Mack, who was renowned in the ‘90s for questioning people who claimed to have seen UFOs, was assisted by Leach. The two immediately investigated the report following its release, and afterward, Mack concluded that the children should be believed.
“The children we talked with clearly were talking about a phenomenon that occurred in physical reality,” Mack said. “In other words, their stories were consistent, and the way they talked about it left virtually no question in our minds that what happened was just about what they said happened.”
Many of the children who were initially interviewed were re-approached years later with the same story, not denying that it was made up at all.
They have experienced backlash from some for their stories, with many calling them psychopaths or storytellers. People have tried to tell them what they saw was not real, that they saw a plane, not a spaceship, and that the creatures were people trying to fool them by wearing costumes.
The Aftermath
The Zimbabwe UFO incident is considered one of the most significant and famous UFO cases in the world. For believers, this was further proof that UFOs are really out there, while skeptics point to the fact these were children, and children are prone to tell fairy tales or fall victim to pranks. Some even claim they saw a dust devil.
Documentaries have been done and have only led to more confusion. One called “Encounters” interviewed a child who went by the name “Dallyn,” a witness to the event. Dallyn changed his story many years later, saying that he told the children a “shiny rock” was a UFO and the students believed him.
Like so many UFO reports, the Zimbabwe incident got lost in the shuffle and forgotten about. However, John Mack’s documentary, Ariel Phenomenon, has brought the story back to the forefront with detailed stories and incredible testimony from not just those who witnessed it, but those who knew the children.
“Dr. Mack’s story is integral and is featured extensively in Ariel Phenomenon; without him, the encounter may have dropped off the radar like so many other unexplained sightings,” filmmaker Randall Nickerson said.
Some believe Ariel Phenonemon is biased and doctored since Nickerson himself claims to be a victim of abduction, per his interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Additionally, Hind reported that there were many lights in the sky in the days leading up to the Ariel incident and that this could be tied to the encounter. However, the lights were later confirmed to be from the Zenit-2 rocket which was re-entering Earth.
Also, Hind interviewed students in groups of two to six, not all at once, and some believe the students could have picked up cues and followed the other in what they saw. By the time Mack came in and interviewed them, the students had their set stories.
But others take a different approach, especially after hearing the teachers’ testimony where they believe the children. Everybody wants proof, and unfortunately, with UFO sightings such as this one, it comes down to just testimony and whether to believe it.
References
Rogan, Tom. “A New Documentary Considers the 1994 Ariel School UFO Incident.” Washington Examiner. 23 May 2022. Web.
Harvey, Austin. “The Ariel School Phenomenon, When Dozens Of Schoolchildren In Zimbabwe Claimed They Met Aliens.” AllThatsInteresting.com. 11 Mar 2023. Web.
Tung, Liz. “Documentary Explores the UFO Sighting That Changed the Course of 62 Children’s Lives.” Whyy.org. 23 Oct 2023. Web.
