1986 08 00 OMNI - Celebrity sightings

Magazine Overview

This is the August 1986 issue of OMNI magazine, featuring a cover story titled "FUTURE UNIVERSE: THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE OVER THE NEXT ONE HUNDRED BILLION YEARS." The cover art depicts a crystalline pyramid with a glowing core against a cosmic backdrop, suggesting themes of scientific speculation and the vastness of time and space. The issue is priced at $2.50 and has the ISSN number 02484.

UFO Update: Anti-Matter

The "UFO UPDATE" section, under the banner "ANTI MATTER," focuses on celebrity encounters with UFOs and the belief in extraterrestrial life. It highlights several well-known figures who have reported unusual aerial phenomena.

Phoebe Snow's Experience

Singer Phoebe Snow recounts an experience in 1975 where she and friends used a Ouija board. They claimed to hear voices of "Laactiped" and "Oresi," described as alien beings from an "inter-galactic civilization with stations in the inner earth and the Bermuda Triangle." Initially thrilled by what Snow called "cosmic fireworks," the experience became frightening when the aliens allegedly began calling on the telephone with "tiny, screaming voices." After five months, Snow and her friends, terrified, contacted ufologist J. Allen Hynek and subsequently burned the Ouija board.

Other Celebrity Sightings

The article lists other celebrities who have reported possible visitations from stars:

• John Lennon: Reported seeing a glowing object over his Manhattan apartment in the mid-Seventies, which he identified as a UFO, stating it "definitely wasn't an airplane."
• Muhammad Ali: Has reported "strange, bright lights that take off across the sky and disappear."
• Sheila MacRae: Watched "two dark brown things, as big as dirigibles," soar through the sky over Las Vegas in the early Sixties.
• Meredith MacRae: Saw "four yellow-white, oval-shaped craft flying in formation overhead" above her California home.
• Ray Walston: While on break from filming "My Favorite Martian," he observed an "aluminumlike sphere about three times the size of a beach ball" hover near his pool before departing.
• Orson Bean: Saw a UFO over Patchogue, Long Island, in 1968, stating "It couldn't have been anything else."

Characteristics of Reported Craft

Almost universally, the celebrities described craft with the ability to hover and take off at "lightning speed," defying standard explanations like weather balloons, reflections, experimental aircraft, or astronomical debris. Sheila MacRae expressed a belief in intelligent life beyond Earth, stating, "In this vast universe, with all we're still discovering, I don't think we're the only intelligent creatures around."

Skepticism and Speculation

Despite the accounts, the article notes that skeptics remain. Muhammad Ali, as a Moslem, does not believe in aliens but admits he might be frightened if confronted by them. Actor Ray Walston, despite his role as a Martian, views the search for extraterrestrials as a waste of time, believing "something certainly would have materialized by now" if they existed. However, Walston humorously adds that if given the chance, he would want to be made "into a thirty-year-old with my choice of height and weight, in the greatest of health, never to deteriorate," before returning to Earth.

The article is attributed to A.J.S. Rayl.

Recurring Themes and Editorial Stance

The recurring themes in this issue are the exploration of the future of the universe, the evolution of life, and the intersection of science fiction with reported phenomena. The "UFO UPDATE" section, in particular, leans into the fascination with UFOs and extraterrestrial life, using celebrity endorsements to lend credibility and popular appeal to the subject. The editorial stance appears to be one that entertains speculative science and unexplained phenomena, presenting anecdotal evidence from well-known figures to engage readers in these topics.