Stella Lansing’s UFOs, Occupants, and Other Anomalies — New Jersey & Massachusetts, 1967–1973

Stella Lansing was a Massachusetts UFO contactee who photographed and filmed a number of alleged UFOs, anomalous lights, and unusual figures during the 1960s and 1970s. Psychiatrist Berthold Eric Schwarz investigated her cases and published several of the images in Flying Saucer Review. These included the Occupants, an alleged UFOnaut, "Pete the Ghost," The Monk, recurring clocklike formations, anomalous lights, and other unusual figures and images.

• On February 18, 1967, Lansing filmed unusual lights near Palmer, Massachusetts, with an 8mm movie camera. She described several yellow-orange lights near the road and power lines, along with a bluish-white light and another bright object she called the “Red Bug.”
• The four figures later known as the Occupants were not visible to Lansing while she was filming. They were found only after the film had been developed and examined more closely. By April 1968, while viewing the footage at a slower speed, Lansing identified four human-looking figures together in the sequence.
• Schwarz later published four frames from the film, covering roughly four and a half seconds of footage.

Schwarz described the images as "infra-red motion pictures of UFOs" and noted that the horizontal line visible across the frames was believed not to be an artifact. The same group of films also produced the image later called "Pete the Ghost." In 1972, Lansing’s films repeatedly showed bright objects arranged like a clock face, usually with around eight to eleven disc-like objects. In surviving film sequences, the same formations can be followed across successive frames, with the positions of the lights continuing from one frame to the next. Lansing said many were not visible while filming and were only noticed after the film was developed.

The same group of films also produced the image later called "Haunted Chandelier." One developed sequence showed what Schwarz described as a bright ray suddenly shooting from an allegedly "haunted chandelier." The image was reproduced in Flying Saucer Review as Figure 18, "Haunted Chandelier." It came from the same group of films that also produced the image later called "Pete the Ghost." Another figure in Lansing’s films became known as "The Monk." Schwarz described it as a "chin-bearded, cowled monk-like figure" with what appeared to be a flute-like object or reed in its hands. The surviving full-frame reproduction shows the figure occupying much of the scene, while later enlargements isolate the head and upper body.

Lansing and Schwarz later showed the film to Joseph Dunninger in New Jersey in June 1973. Dunninger had no explanation for the image and compared it to an anomalous photograph from his own collection. A later Spanish analysis claimed that the Mr. C. films had actually been shot from a television screen, and interpreted the bearded face and other figures as distorted television imagery rather than objects present in the room. Another sequence shows Lansing with a large glowing anomaly appearing behind her. Across the photographs, the luminous form changes in appearance and position around her.

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