The Finnish case
Despite the time that has elapsed since the day the Finnish Case occurred, we believe the detailed disclosure of the events will be interesting for our readers, for two obvious reasons. The first, because the survey was carried out in a very dignified way by the university student in Physical Sciences, Sven Olof Fredriksson, a research member of the GICOFF group in Gothenburg (Sweden), who, in addition to the personal interviews, maintained a long correspondence with the witnesses and other qualified investigators, until squeezing all the possibilities of the Case. Second, because it is a UFO classifiable as Type 1, with a long chain of effects, some of them determining important pathologies in both witnesses.
We owe the data that we are going to provide to direct translations of Mr. Fredrickson’s work, as well as to the interpreted versions of what was published by F.S.R. and APRO Bulletin (1970). It only remains for us to add that despite a series of highly strangeness guidelines, which exceed the limits of our understanding, the case of Imjärvi is supported by indices of the highest credibility, being contrasted and endorsed by official bodies and qualified persons who in their day analyzed the strangeness corresponding to its various disciplines.
Chronological relationship of events
The events occurred on January 7 (Wednesday), 1970. Time, 4:45 pm local time. The place, a forest on the outskirts of the village of Imjärvi, 16 km N. of the city of Heinola and 130 km NE. from Helsinki.
The sky is clear, only clouded by thin clouds. The Sun goes down at times, beginning to see some stars. Absolute calm, no wind. Temperature of 17 ° Celsius below zero.
The witnesses are two natural men from the region, Mr. Aarno Heinonen, a 36-year-old ranger, and Mr. Esko Viljo, a 38-year-old farmer. They are both good friends and good athletes. They ski regularly and although they do not compete except in local tournaments, their great love of snow sports and athletics leads them to cultivate their training on a daily basis. They are absolutely abstemious and do not smoke.
The two men follow a normal path down the slope of a hill, in the middle of the coniferous forest, reaching a clearing where they usually stop for a few minutes to rest. It is 16 hours 45 minutes. They remain standing still and without saying a word.
Suddenly the silence is disturbed by a buzzing, which grows in intensity, they raise their eyes to the sky and see a very strong light, which moves in the area of the open space.
It looks like a luminous cloud. It comes from the North…, it describes a wide circle and approaches them from the South, losing height as the distance between them shortens. The buzzing, with the proximity gets louder. The cloud suddenly stops, giving the sensation that it is turning slowly in a whirlwind. It’s … like a red-gray mist (sic).
The two men are stunned at the contemplation of the phenomenon. No one dares to break the silence. Meanwhile, the cloud descends vertically to a height of about 15 meters. It is then that the witnesses see for the first time, that there is something inside the cloud. They perfectly distinguish a round, metallic and shiny object, approximately 3 meters in diameter. From their privileged position, under the object, they perceive as three spheres, equal in size, placed equidistant close to the outer edge of the object. In the center of it they distinguish a tube-shaped projection, which protrudes from the device about 2 cm. and has a diameter of 25 cm.
The apparatus remains completely immobile on their heads. The buzzing continues … and suddenly it begins a new descent with extreme slowness. During this maneuver, the red-greyish cloud becomes increasingly tenuous, allowing the flying device to be seen perfectly, which when it reaches 3 or 4 meters from the ground, stops. The buzzing has stopped and everything is in complete silence.
Aarno Heinonen, will later say that the device was so close that he could have touched it just by lengthening the ski poles.
Suddenly a very strong light appears emanating from the 25cm tube. The light beam moves a couple of times in circles before stopping on the same axis of the apparatus. A red circle about a meter in diameter has formed on the white snow. On the perimeter of this luminous circle, it appears to form like a black ring one centimeter wide. When the light beam passes through the red-gray fog, it becomes solid. Heinonen and Viljo have been so shocked that they have lost the power to react. They are on the very edge of the luminous circle, still and afraid. The colored mist envelops them.
The seconds fall slowly …, 4, 5. … 8 …, suddenly the circle on the ground seems to contract, starting the shrinking process at the black edge. It rises slowly and gradually, being reduced to a mass of 20 cm. Finally it only seems like a simple flare, which rises … and rises. And that’s when they distinguish a small 15 cm disk. in diameter, standing first under the device, although after hearing an intermittent noise, the small disk disappears through the tube. This whole last phase has lasted only a few seconds.
Manifests Ranger Heinonen, who suddenly felt as if someone was pushing him backwards by grabbing him by the waist. The point is, he took a step back… and that’s when the absurd became reality.
The beam of light is there again, concentrating in the same place as before, but this time in the middle of the luminous jet and in contact with the ground, the figure of a strange being appears, holding a black box in its hands. The visible part of this box has a hole from which a pulsating yellowish light comes out.
Heinonen tells us of this being, that it measured 90 cm. tall and extremely slim in his arms and legs. His face looked like wax.
I did not notice his eyes — she adds — but his nose was extremely strange, like a hook. His ears were very small and close to the skull. He was dressed in a kind of jumpsuit made of a light greenish material. He wore dark green boots that reached to his knees. He also wore white mittens that reached his elbows. The entity’s fingers looked more like hooks holding the black box. We also transcribe the appreciation of Esko Viljo.
The being is in the middle of the beam of light and shines as if it were a phosphor. His face is very pale, his shoulders are slumped, his arms are like a child’s. I didn’t notice the clothes; she just know that she was greenish. On her head she wears a conical helmet. like metal. The individual measures a scant meter and seems very thin.
The strange being has remained motionless, but after a few seconds it moves slightly, focusing the box at Heinonen. The light coming out of the hole is so strong that it is blinding.
Meanwhile, from the strange luminous circle on the snow, sparks begin to fly like glowing rods of about 10 cm. long and red, green and purple. They leap out, crossing the boundary of the black zone, describing a slow-running arc outside the circle of light. The sparks undoubtedly touch the two men, but apparently it neither burns them nor produces any effect on them, since their effects are not detected by them.
The fog has grown so thick that the two friends cease to see each other despite being within a few meters of each other. The permanence of the stranger being lasts from 15 to 20 seconds. Without transition of any kind, the being inexplicably ceases to be seen.
Soon, the light beam also begins an ascent with a rocking movement, until it disappears completely within the central tube. From this moment it seems as if the fog is splitting (sic) and on the witnesses only silence remains. Neither of the two men has been aware of the moment of the disappearance of the device over their heads. Three minutes pass and nobody or nothing moves …, everything is in the most complete calm. Terror seals the lips of the two protagonists of the sighting.
It seems that Heinonen, when he first saw the humanoid, took it for his friend Viljo to the extent that he seemed to distinguish even the ski poles. Later he sees that it is not about him, because of his particular attributes. There comes a time when he feels sick and scared and looks away. When after a moment he looks again, the strange being is no longer before his gaze, and his friend Viljo is.
Pathological effects
The first somatic and even psychic ailments observed in the witnesses of Imjärvi’s observation, seem to lead to a common denominator, exposure to the effects of an unknown ionizing radiation. Despite the almost traumatic parallelism, there is no doubt that due to causes that we must consider attributable to proximity and personal sensitivity, the onset of the syndromes in both men had an evident temporal displacement, while a greater virulence in the witness that denoted greater receptivity.
On the part of Aarno Heinonen, two minutes after the fog lifted, he began to feel like he was losing touch in the right part of the body, the area that had been the most exposed to the proximity of the light beam. His numbness was so noticeable that when he tried to take a step forward after the minutes of immobility caused by the presence of the phenomenon, his right foot did not respond, he got stuck with the ski, and he fell awkwardly to the ground.
His partner Viljo assists and helps him, in view of Heinonen’s repeated attempts to stand up.
`` The whole right part of my body hurts a lot, ‘’ he laments, `` especially
his leg; I notice his foot asleep. He also distinguishes a certain stiffness in his limbs, also suffering from certain difficulties in breathing (dyspnea).
Viljo removes his skis, which he leaves behind, and serves as his guide and support on the way home.
One hour it takes them to travel the 2 km that separates them from the house.
Heinonen arrives in very bad shape. You have severe headaches and back pain. Complains greatly of joint pain. Once arrived and cared for, nausea and vomiting begin. You will continue to vomit intermittently for up to a month and a half later. Their urine is also highly alarming, since it evacuates a blackish liquid like coffee, a fact that will last for two more weeks.
Esko Viljo, on the other hand, resists the ordeal of accompanying his friend without any symptoms. Only when he arrived home he was surprised to notice that his face was slightly swollen and had an unusual reddish hue. He also realizes, alarmed, that to keep his balance he must lean very firmly on his legs. His way of walking, hesitant and with his legs more spread than normal clearly betrays his insecurity.
From these moments the ordeal of annoyances for the two friends begins. Aarno Heinonen, accompanied by a neighbor, went that same night to the Heinola Hospital (at 8 pm). Dr. Pauli Kajanoja recognizes him. Aarno only tells him that he is very ill, that his head and joints hurt a lot, without going into detail about the events he experienced. He takes his blood pressure, showing significant hypotension, which according to Dr. Kajanoja denotes a state of violent shock. He prescribes her some sleeping pills. Esko Viljo also went to Dr. Kajanoja’s office at the same time, receiving a sedative-based treatment. The therapy is practically nil, since the next day he notices that his balance is even more precarious, feeling light and insecure, especially in his arms and legs. His chest and arms also become red and severe headaches begin, while his hands turn blue. One of the new complaints that begins with the new day is a strong heat in the lower extremities.
The following day, January 8, Heinonen returned to the doctor’s office in search of a remedy for his growing alarm. The doctor assured him that his symptoms will disappear in 8 or 10 days, thus trying to calm his anguish. But during the day Heinonen also complains of balance disorders, complaining of being cold, despite not having any fever. On the 14th of the same month, Heinonen returns to visit Dr. Kajanoja, visibly upset by the insistence of his pathological picture. This time he receives a drug to regulate his blood pressure, as well as new sedatives. Heinonen’s alarm is more than justified, as he is powerless to carry out any type of work, and begins to suffer from stomach discomfort, which he explains … “as if he had hot water running around him continuously.” He eats very little. and he is getting thinner in a patent way.
In mid-May he replied to a letter from the Swedish researcher Mr. Fredrickson, in which he comments …
“… I still feel a lot of headaches, neck and back. My stomach problems persist …; my right hand feels very heavy, as if it were asleep. And I have nightmares at night that leave me bathed in sweat. He explains … that he sees his friend Esko, old and small, emanating a strong light. He is afraid of him and shuns his company. He is tormented by the obsession that Viljo is looking for him and chasing him to harm him. Curiously, this phobia persists in even in wakefulness, even despite fighting her.
He also explains to Fredrikson that he thinks he is losing some of his vision in both eyes. “
For his part, Esko Viljo is also going from bad to worse.
On January 9 he sees Dr. Kajanoja again, because his headaches are unbearable. On the 12th of the same month, he went to an eye doctor in Lathis, as his eyes had become very sensitive to light. His eyelids are swollen and he has visible signs of conjunctivitis. The specialist prescribes some decongestant drops. On date 14 he returns to Heinola’s doctor, seeking relief for an increasing hypotension. Specific drugs are prescribed.
On January 17th, a blood test was performed and he was thoroughly recognized, not showing anything to explain his strange pathological state. And yet his unique picture not only does not suffer from recession, but is on the rise. A truly acute phase of nervous-type discomfort has begun. There is also evidence of a series of peripheral circulation discomforts, such as cramps in the left foot, and when bathing in a sauna, the skin prickles, which inexplicably reddens. In a letter to the GICOF F pollster, he comments that they spent a day with Heinorien and some journalists at the scene of the sighting and that they had to leave quickly because of a sudden resurgence of all their annoyances. But the most curious thing about the case is that the people accompanying you, journalist, photographer, etc., also suffered various disorders.
Authorized opinions
The case of Imjärvi is the classic event that has acquired an important resonance, because of the investigative zeal of a person who has applied will and intelligence in the treatment. Sven Olof Fredrikson within his means exhaustively used all the opportunities that chance offered him to claim the case, eagerly seeking the authoritative opinion of technicians in disciplines that he did not master. He interviewed Dr. Pauli Kajanoja, requesting his professional opinion on the possible reasons for the pathologies offered by Heinonen and Viljo. Even from Sweden he continued in contact with the aforementioned Dr., always looking for possible clues that would lead to definitive consequences.
“I think the two men have received a very strong shock. The picture it presents is very real and it is beyond doubt that it is not a conscientious fraud. Viljo’s face is red and puffy. Heinonen suffers from a very complex syndrome and not exactly of a psychological type only…, although some symptoms can obviously be hysterical in nature. However, they are not hysterical subjects. Their traumatization is overwhelmingly evident… they are absent, empty. During the first visit made on January 7, they spoke brokenly, with a manifest nervousness, almost meaningless ”. “The real existence of the event provoking the shock is unquestionable. Now there are countless symptoms that can be explained simply as caused by shock; for example, the same decrease in blood pressure, or their headaches, vomiting, etc … even this vague feeling of “feeling bad” “without our checking means giving a specific and determined pathology. It is very curious that the two individuals have a completely parallel picture of symptoms and that it also looks so much like the classic picture of a strong exposure to a source of radioactivity. I could not measure it due to the lack of accountants in the hospital, but I doubt very much that the problem is simply a radioactive overdose, because the pathological picture that can be triggered in this eventuality is never generated so suddenly. The same dark-colored urine is somewhat disconcerting and difficult to explain, unless we admit that it was blood, which on the other hand should be due to lesions that I have not found in my scans.”
“The reality is that it is very difficult to diagnose with any certainty the type of ailment that the two men suffered. So much so that I preferred not to prescribe anything special to avoid major ills. I thought the best thing to do was to focus on tranquilizers, as the most effective therapy for her mental state. “
Sven Olof Fredriksson obtained from Chalmers High School in Gothenburg, an official opinion on the analyzes on soil samples from the site of the UFO observation. The document he received read like this …;
Atomic Chemistry Department
Investigation in three samples of traces of bioactivity
1st Test
With EMI — Monitor
No reaction of type
No reaction of type
2nd Test
Metan ratio count (2-pi)
Negative result
3rd Test
Made on a sample of water from melted snow from the place of observation
Negative result.
There are some opinions of Matti Tuuri professor of electronics at the University of Helsinki. After studying the case dossier, he opined:
“The possibility that Heinonen and Viljo were exposed to an electric shock cannot be ruled out. The two men agree that the light was white and dazzling, so it must be ruled out that it is ultraviolet radiation, which always has a bluish tinge. On the other hand, this type of radiation does not pass through clothing. If the radiation absorbed by the witnesses has passed through it, it must have been a shorter and higher frequency type of wave, such as Ravos X. In addition, the symptoms presented by Heinonen and Viljo are classic of an “overdose” .
These opinions were disseminated through the press, who tried to explain the Imjärvi case, misrepresenting its criteria and providing ready-made solutions. What seems to have deserved the most favor and attention was… “that it was surely a high voltage load”.
The High Voltage Institute of the University of Uppsala was contacted, receiving the following communication, formulated by Professor Stig Lundquist.
“According to our studies, the phenomenon that occurred in Imjärvi has nothing to do with ball lightning or any other type of electrostatic charge in the atmosphere. We are not aware of any natural phenomenon that can produce the effects indicated in the documentation submitted.
Other testimonies of the observation
The observation of Heinonen and Viljo is supported by the testimony of two more people, who from different points of the area were able to observe strange phenomena over the Imjärvi forest.
She is the wife of a farmer who lives in Paistjärvi, 15 km from Imjärvi. Ms. Alna Siitari stated that on the same day and at the same time, when she was going to the stable to examine her cattle, she saw a strange light in the aforementioned direction.
Also from the small village of Paaso, 10 km north of Imjärvi, the son of a family of lumberjacks, who at that time had left his house for domestic work, observed a rare luminous phenomenon towards the South. The observation was dated January 7, 4:45 p.m.
We want to mention the judgment of honesty that both Heinonen and Viljo have in the town where they reside, transcribing the words of a farmer, Matti Haapaniemi, 46, a resident of the town and a member of the Town Council.
“Many people have laughed at this story,” he said, “but I think that one should not laugh. I’ve known Aarno and Esko since they were boys and I believe in them. They are both calm and also abstemious. I am completely sure that your story is true.
We have one last observation to highlight, although it occurred a year earlier. Exactly in February 1969 and around eleven at night.
Matti Komtulainer, 16, resident of Imjärvi, experienced a remarkable case in his own words, about 100 meters from the place where the events occurred in the January 1970 observation. Matti says:
“I had been visiting a friend’s house and was coming back skiing through the forest. It was a dark night, with clouds. Suddenly the forest was illuminated and a very strong light crossed over the top of the trees, penetrating the forest. The fright was so great that I threw myself on the snow thinking that something was thrown at me. It disappeared very quickly and without the slightest noise. Nothing like this had ever happened to me. The light was so intense that it was like looking at the sun. It was heading from south to north. The strange light looked like a giant welding flame.”
Summary
The Imjärvi case is undoubtedly “a beautiful Case”, where the appreciation of a number of classic strangeness of the UFO phenomenon has been combined with a neat treatment by the pollsters. We could only wish that instead of chance having chosen a lumberjack and a farmer for this event, it had been someone with scientific knowledge.
Perhaps an analyst and scientist from the Stanling Project with a sufficiently technological piece of equipment in the trunk of the car and the fortitude to manipulate all the detection equipment correctly.
However, I am very much afraid, and I speak with knowledge of the facts, that the scope achieved by our technology can offer us little more than enlightening, other than more or less well-argued conjectures. An electromagnetic record of a signal with coding overtones, apart from being a valid testimony only for those of us who already believe in the UFO, hardly serves for anything other than to stimulate us to find prompt answers. And in the end, it is as valid as the testimony of some individuals who, between traumatized and excited, tell us the details of an unusual encounter on a winter sunset. Because the cold register of a glisando of frequencies can clarify little to us, if we do not know with a certain depth the essence and nature of the phenomenon we are dealing with.
It is really depressing not knowing how to interpret, for example, the fact that a specific light with the appearance of a solid materialization, turns into a flickering flame …, or that this luminous jet serves as a support for the exit and escape of an anthropomorphic being that it volatilizes before the astonished gaze of the witnesses.
We know that this case, like many … or like all, is loaded with subjectivities, engendered by the unusual, the traumatization and the lack of words to define the indefinable, but nevertheless we also know that the UFO has crossed the threshold of the chimera, to show itself as something coherent with itself and according to a level of intelligence of the observer. The pathology engendered in young Finns is something more than the footprint left in the snow by the “abominable” or the fleeting glow of the lake monster’s wet back, the experience, luck would have chosen a Physics teacher with a team from the Nees. It is the proof that something floats over our world, and that from meeting to meeting it shapes our awareness of its unquestionable presence. On the other hand, at the heart of the Imjärvi case we recognize patterns that are familiar to us over time, and that despite their strangeness, we have to accept them as an inherent fact of the phenomenon.
What to say, for example, of the obsession of Heinonen, who is afraid of meeting his dear friend Viljo to whom he attributes a bellicose attitude towards him? We believe that there is a certain parallelism between this fear, and the obsessive resonance of Javier Bosque (case of June 1972 -Logroño — SPAIN) who suffers from the affective concern of “MEASURE TIME”, while the sound instruction of the UFO, on its transistor. Or in the bellicose ferments of the sleeping mountaineers of the case of ‘’ Coma de Vaca ”(November 1967- Catalonia — Spain) who wake up from their physiological sleep with an inexplicable frenzy and irrational aggressiveness.
What to say about the impression of the beam of light, which comes to appear to the witnesses as “something solid”, such are its characteristics? Let us remember the impression of Santos Nicolás, Guijo de Granadilla’s teacher, in the sighting of the Gabriel y Galán Swamp, that his first impression when he saw the UFO stopped two hundred meters from the ground, believes that the rays of light released by the low structure of the mill, they are solid appendages in contact with the ground. (September 1970 Cáceres — SPAIN). And so many other cases recorded across our globe, in which witnesses report the enormous resemblance of specific beams of light, as something consistent of a corporeal nature.
What can we say about the psychosomatic picture that Heinonen and Viljo adduce, puzzling the doctors who visited them? Or what to think of a clear syndrome of exposure to radiation of nuclear origin, while on the other hand our devices are unable to detect any ionizing particle? Faced with such patent evidence, we have to be inclined to think that it is our technology and our devices that are insufficient to detect a type of energy, unusual in our known world. Because in addition to recognizing in good logic, that the residual energies that emanate from the UFO are similar to those obtained by man in his search in the field of the forces of nature, we know that something important escapes us, since we know the behavior of these powers in freedom, and we are aware that radiation requires a long time to manifest itself and create a pathogenic picture, as it needs after long periods to be decontaminated.
Would it be fair to disparage the testimony of two simple people, for the simple fact that they tell us “incredible things”, ignoring a wide range of certainties, and the unanimous opinion of their fellow citizens who assure faultless conduct and honesty tested on Aarno Heinonen and Esko Viljo?
!! Obviously, if we did, we would not be fair !!
Sabadell, June 20, 1980 Alberto Adell Sabatés STENDEK nº42
The Swedish UFO community compares current ufology to the ideals of the 1970s
Current UFOlogy and 70s Ideals Here I want to share a very good text written by Sven-Olof Fredriksson, who was president of GICOFF (Gothenburg Information Center for Unidentified Flying Objects), during the years 1970–78, this little note was read in his own brief ‘Gicoff Information’, №2–77. The text is so good because it really describes a true ufologist’s sincere desire to work and network.
This wise and insightful text was written by Sven-Olof in 77, and many years have passed since then, but his questions remain as relevant to ambitious and serious ufologists today as they were then. Unfortunately, the UFO mystery doesn’t seem to have come to a particularly much closer solution despite Fredriksson’s appeal 43 years ago, so everything is more or less equally in question, both in Sweden and abroad.
To my knowledge, not many attempts have been made in Sweden to come close to scientific solutions or attempts to collaborate with scientists, or to make the matter interesting to the current authorities and establishments. “
Source, Swedish UFO Society, November 2020:
