The Encounter
Stefan Michalak was born in Poland. He came to Canada in 1949 to avoid the turbulence that was occurring in Poland as a result of the Second World War. After settling in Winnipeg with his wife, two sons, and daughter, he took a job at Inland Cement Company working as a mechanic.
Michalak spent his spare time in eastern Manitoba prospecting for rare minerals. Late spring, after the snow had melted, was the best time for this as the foliage wasn’t thick enough to obscure the view of the ground.
Early morning, at 5:30 am on May 19th, 1967, he left his motel at Falcon, without eating breakfast, and began on his prospecting journey. The sky was blue, with no visible clouds. He headed north, across the Trans Canada Highway and through the woods, trying to find precious minerals.
Near eleven he took a short lunch break. After finishing his lunch Michalak began to chip away at a vein of quartz he had found. It was shortly after 12 now. Suddenly a group of geese gave out a startling cackle.
It was at this moment he saw something he never would have expected.
The following description of Michalak’s encounter is taken from his book, My Encounter With The UFO.
Then I saw them. Two cigar-shaped objects with humps on them about halfway down from the sky. They appeared to be descending and glowing with an intense scarlet glare. As these “objects” came closer to the earth they became more oval-shaped.
The farthest of the two objects – farthest from my point of vision – stopped dead in the air while its companion slipped down closer and closer to the ground and landed squarely on the flat top of a rock about 160 feet away from me.
Michalak then states that the second craft hovered above him for a few minutes and then flew away, changing colour as it did so. The craft that landed also changed colour, from red to grey, while also having a golden glow. He reports that there was an opening near the top of the craft that had purple light pouring from it.
Soon I became aware of wafts of warm air that seemed to come out in waves from the craft, accompanied by the pungent odor of sulfur. I heard a soft murmur, like the whirl of a tiny electric motor running very fast. I also heard a hissing sound as if the air had been sucked into the interior of the craft.
I approached the object closer, coming to within 60 feet of the glowing mass of metal. Then I heard voices. They sounded like humans, although somewhat muffled by the sounds of the motor and the rush of air that was continuously coming out from somewhere inside.
Michalak assumed they were Americans and yelled: “Okay, Yankee boys, having trouble?” He didn’t get a response. He then tried addressing them in Russian, Ukrainian, German, Italian and French. Still, he got no response. He decided to walk closer to the craft, approaching the visible opening.
The inside was a maze of lights. Direct beams running in horizontal and diagonal paths and a series of flashing lights, it seemed to me, were working in a random fashion, with no particular order or sequence.
Michalak then stepped away from the craft, and as he did the opening he was near suddenly closed. Two panels slid over the opening and then a third piece dropped down to completely seal the opening.
I approached the craft once again and touched its side. It was hot to touch. It appeared to be made of a steel-like substance. There were no signs of welding or joints to be seen anywhere. The outer surface was highly polished and looked like coloured glass with light reflecting off it. It formed a spectrum with a silver background as the sunlight hit the sides.
I noticed that I had burned my glove I was wearing at the time, when I touched the side of the craft.
As quickly as Michalak’s encounter with the UFOs started, it ended.
All of a sudden the craft tilted slightly leftward. I turned and felt a scorching pain around my chest; my shirt and my undershirt were afire. A sharp beam of heat had shot from the craft.
When I looked back at the ship I felt a sudden rush of air around me. The craft was rising above the treetops. It began to change colour and shape, following much the same pattern as its sister ship when it had returned to the sky. Soon the craft had disappeared, gone without a trace.
In later accounts of the story, Michalak mentions that he thinks the burns came from radiation emitted from the ship. He also estimated that the encounter lasted for about 45 minutes.
After the UFO left, Michalak then ventured out of the woods, following the Trans Canada Highway back to Falcon. He reported feeling quite sick, having a constant headache, and having to stop to vomit several times. On his way back he encountered an RCMP officer, who did not believe his story.
Turning, I saw an RCMP constable. Briefly, I gave him an account of what had happened – warning him not to come too close to me because I feared the possibility of spreading radiation. I asked about medical aid. “Sorry, but I have duties to perform here,” he said. I stared at him, unbelieving what I had just heard. He, apparently, did not believe a word I told him. Otherwise, he would have acted differently.
Eventually, an investigation into the incident was launched by both the Royal Canadian Police Force and the Royal Canadian Airforce. The final conclusion by both the RCMP and RCAF was that they could not determine what happened to Michalak.
My Theory
After reading two books about Michalak’s UFO experience, I decided to visit the location of his encounter in the hopes that it would help me draw my own conclusion as to what really happened. The site wasn’t huge. It definitely wasn’t as large as I expected. If the landscape hasn’t changed too much, it seemed like there wouldn’t be enough room for Michalak to be standing near the quartz vein and for the UFO to land 60 feet away from him. Either the trees that are currently there couldn’t have existed, or the craft would have been a lot closer to him.
This assumes that a craft did actually land there, which I really doubt that it did. I don’t think Michalak physically saw UFOs. There are a few reasons for this. He stated that it smelt like sulfur. This eliminates the possibility that the UFO was something of extraterrestrial origin. The sulfur would have had to come from something combustible, and any type of combustible aircraft would not be able to make it across our galaxy.
Now it’s possible that it wasn’t extraterrestrial, but instead, a prototype aircraft created by the Americans. There is an issue with this theory too. Near the site of the encounter, there is a forest ranger tower. The tower had a ranger stationed at it during the time of the UFO incident and the ranger reported not seeing anything strange. If there were two aircraft flying around, it is highly unlikely that he would not have seen them. Especially since they were supposedly around for close to an hour.
Michalak reported that when the UFO departed the site, it did so at 255 degrees. The town of Falcon, as well as the golf course, lies in that general direction. You would think that if a UFO did indeed depart and head in this direction, there would have been multiple witnesses from the town or golf course, especially on a Saturday afternoon, but there were no reported witnesses. This really seems to eliminate the possibility of a UFO being physically present.
My next thought was since it wasn’t a physical UFO, then he must have hallucinated it. I asked myself what would have caused his hallucinations? There are psychedelic plants that grow natively in Manitoba that could have caused him to hallucinate the entire encounter.
When I went to visit the site I made sure to inspect the vegetation to see what I could find. Most of it was pretty mundane, birch trees, grass, ferns, etc… However, I did manage to find Calystegia sepium, known by its more common name as Wild Morning Glory. Their seeds contain Lysergic Acid Amide (LSA) which is a chemical compound that causes psychedelic hallucinations similar to LSD. Since this plant was growing right at the location where he saw the UFO, this seemed like a major clue as to what really happened!
Here’s my theory. He sat down for lunch at 11. He put his food on the ground, and some of it became contaminated with Morning Glory seeds. He hadn’t had breakfast, the last time he had ate was the night before. Therefore, it wouldn’t have taken much for him to begin to hallucinate.
Michalak stated that he saw the UFO around 12:30, this would be close to the time that the psychedelic seeds would have taken effect.
Michalak also stated that he felt sick, and vomited after his UFO encounter. He blamed this on radiation sickness. LSA causes all of these symptoms. He also said he had trouble seeing after, which he blamed on the bright lights of the ship. LSA causes dilated pupils, which would also explain this.
What about the burns? The grid-patterned burn marks Michalak had could easily be from a grill. Perhaps when he stopped for lunch, he lit a fire and put a small grill on top for cooking. The temperature on this day wasn’t super warm. It was spring, and the high was 14°c. Michalak stated he had a sausage for lunch. Sausage would taste great grilled!
I propose that he sat there for a while, drifting in and out of consciousness, and hallucinated the UFOs. Eventually, he passed out and fell forward onto his grill-covered fire, causing the unique burn marks. Michalak mentioned that the UFOs disappeared right after he got burnt. This also makes sense since his hallucination would have abruptly ended when the pain from the burns woke him from his drug-caused slumber.
If he did light a fire, why didn’t he mention it? He was so convinced that he saw a UFO, that he didn’t feel it was relevant and he didn’t want to mention anything that would cast doubt on his story. He wanted you to believe his story was real, just as he did!
Final Thoughts
I do not believe that Michalak is a liar. I truly believe that he believed in what he saw, however, just because one believes they saw something, does not mean it was actually there. Reality is funny that way.
Psychiatrist Carl Jung believed that the global UFO sightings can be explained through psychiatry.
He has theorized that after the World Wars ended, people could really see the destruction of their world for the first time. Before this, a technological apocalypse was something no one envisioned. As a result of people realizing the terror that technology could inflict upon the world, they needed an escape. Fantasizing about UFOs and other habitable planets became their escape.
There is a spiritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, called a mandala, that represents the universe. Mandalas have a circular design that symbolizes the concept that life is never-ending and that the universe, and everything in it, are connected. Jung believed that UFOs are like modern mandalas.
Perhaps humankind, in search of a modern mandala, has projected UFOs into existence. They’re not physical phenomena, but a psychic one manifested in dreams and hallucinations, and made available to those who like Mulder in X-Files “want to believe.”
Michalak was aware of UFOs but probably wouldn’t have considered himself a believer in them before his encounter. He was, however, an explorer, someone who wanted to discover. He came to Canada looking for a better life for his family, and for this reason, he was out in the forest on May 19th, 1967. He was out there trying to discover.
If Jung is right that UFOs are humanity’s way of envisioning an escape from life’s chaos, and I am right that Michalak hallucinated this encounter with the help of nature, then it makes perfect sense that what his subconscious created was a UFO.
