Strange As It Seems Lights in the sky: The Utah Airship Mystery
Oct 31, 2024
Richard Spence, a former university professor and researcher, dives into the bizarre Utah Airship mystery involving mysterious lights and cults during WWI. He unravels the origins of the tales, connecting them to earlier airship reports and local religious contexts, including ties to Mormonism. The discussion touches on government investigations, anti-gravity claims, and the impact of wartime paranoia. Spence ponders whether these sightings were genuine phenomena, mass hysteria, or clever hoaxes, all while revealing the intricate web of beliefs and motives that fueled the mystery.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Primary Source Frames The Mystery
- The core documentary source is a 1917–1918 Bureau of Investigation file of ~400 pages tracking reports and correspondence about Utah lights in the sky.
- The file reveals investigators' debates but no definitive physical explanation for the lights.
1917 Cases Echo Earlier Airship Wave
- The 1917 Utah reports echo the 1896–97 airship wave but with smaller, more disc-like descriptions by 1917.
- Contemporary technology made larger 1897 airships plausible, but the 1917 lights remained unexplained.
Cult Claims: The Adept And Rotating Discs
- Van Valkenburg and friends claimed they received anti-gravity rotating-disc technology from an 'adept' named Nels Olsen.
- They described small craft and a larger mothership allegedly stabilised above Utah.
