Wilbert B Smith - from Sceptic to Contactee

"Truth needs no justification - it stands alone."

This is a reposting of an article I wrote for the 2013 Exopolitics conference. For a version with links, see here: https://www.checktheevidence.com/wordpress/2013/07/14/wilbert-b-smith-from-sceptic-to-contactee/

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Andrew Johnson, ad.johnson@ntlworld.com, July 2013

http://www.checktheevidence.com/

"The human race in the form of man extends throughout the universe, and is incredibly ancient." These were the words of a certain Canadian Radio Engineer in a Speech he recorded on March 31, 1958 at his home in Ottawa Ontario Canada.

I discovered these words, some time in 2003, thanks to the wonderful website of another contributor to this magazine, the extremely knowledgeable Grant Cameron. That website is www.presidentialufo.com – and it contains a great deal of useful and compelling information and evidence pertaining to the Government and US Presidential knowledge of the UFO/ET cover up. Cameron, who became interested in this subject following his personal UFO/ET related-experiences in the 1970's, had been collecting information on Wilbert Smith for about 25 years and he had posted a small selection of it on his website. Other researchers, such as Arthur Bray have also collected and preserved Smith materials and prevented their untimely removal by government employees. Back in 2003, I obtained a CD copy of Grant Cameron's collection of Smith related files. When I "opened" this treasure trove of information, it became clear to me that a lot more was known about UFO's/Flying Saucers in the 1950's than I ever realised.

Wilbert Brockhouse Smith is not a name which normally comes to mind for most people when they are discussing the evidence pertaining to UFO's and extra-terrestrial intelligence. Indeed, most people tend to confuse Wilbert Smith with Wilbur Smith - the author of numerous historical fiction novels. Wilbert Brockhouse Smith was himself a writer, though his main work "A New Science" was never finished nor widely published.

Wilbert Smith was a rare individual indeed – naturally inquisitive, kind-hearted, methodical, analytical, thorough, resourceful - yet open-minded. Some of his writings read like those of a spiritual leader, whilst remaining grounded, straightforward and accessible.

When I first came across Wilbert Smith, I strongly identified with his writings and conclusions – perhaps  because we have both worked in engineering disciplines – which are all about solving problems.

Unusually, for someone like Smith, through the 1940's and 1950's, he rose to a high position in the Canadian Government and eventually became the Superintendent of Radio Regulations. He was a contemporary of people such as Major Donald Keyhoe, George Adamski and the legendary Frank Edwards, who all played a significant role in developing our knowledge of "The Boys Topside", as Wilbert Smith came to call them. His research and experience encompassed most areas of the UFO field – sightings, contacts, inspection of UFO-related artefacts and even the viewing of alien bodies.

Wilbert Smith was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada in 1910 and he graduated from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 1933 with a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. Following this, he obtained his MSc  (Masters Degree) in 1934 also at UBC. In 1934/5, he became chief engineer for radio station - CJOR - in Vancouver. In the years following, at certain times, he acted as a consultant to the Government and in 1939 he joined the federal Department of Transport.

Smith was engaged in the engineering of Canada's war-time radio monitoring service and following this, in 1947, he was put in charge of establishing a network of ionospheric measurement stations, several of which were in isolated parts of Northern Canada. He eventually became Superintendent of Radio Regulations Engineering with the Department of Transport [DOT] His technical research was in Radio Wave Propagation, where he came across such topics as auroras, cosmic radiation, atmospheric radio-activity and geo-magnetism (the Earth's Magnetic Field). It was likely this area of science which made him more interested in the Flying Saucer Phenomenon (he rarely called them UFO's – as that term was not coined until 1952, by Edward J Ruppelt).

He continued to work for Department of Transport until his death in 1962 (he died of Cancer of the Lower Bowel). At the time of his death, he held 37 patents. He was married, to Murl and they had 3 children.

His interest in "flying saucers" probably was triggered by a magazine article. Initially an extreme skeptic, he began to investigate "saucer" cases himself, developing questionnaires for witnesses and contactees and carrying out methodical study to gather and analyse data about the phenomenon.

In 10 years of research, Smith's understanding developed and he began to see "the bigger picture". He realised the key role that awareness and consciousness played in the phenomena that he was investigating. Over 50 years later, there is much more general discussion in the Alternative Research Community of the topic of consciousness in relation to ET's and UFO's. Smith had a more analytical approach than most and his writings are much more concise and focused than most of the wide range of material that is now available.

The "Top Secret Memo" and "Project Magnet"

If Wilbert Smith's name comes up in UFO research, it is usually in relation to the "Top Secret Memo" which he wrote to the Canadian Dept. of Transport in 1950. A draft copy of this document was declassified by the Canadian government in 1979. In this vital document, discovered by Nick Balaskas in the University of Ottawa Archives, Smith discloses the secrecy classification on the study of the "saucer" phenomenon.  Smith wrote:

"a. The matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States Government, rating higher even than the H-bomb.

b. Flying saucers exist.

c. Their modus operandi is unknown but concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed by Doctor Vannevar Bush.

d. The entire matter is considered by the United States authorities to be of tremendous significance."

When you really "get down to it," and understand that this was a real document, written by a gifted radio engineer, you have to consider the question "Who gave Smith this information?" Further research, in 1983, by Nuclear Physicist and veteran UFO investigator Stanton Friedman, revealed that the information about the classification of the UFO subject appears to have been given to Smith by Dr Robert Sarbacher - a Physicist. Sarbacher,  who worked as a consultant to the DOD (Dept. of Defense) would later go on to create the Washington Institute of Technology.

Of equal or even greater interest, however, is what Smith wrote in the next paragraph

"I was further informed that the United States authorities are investigating along quite a number of lines which might possibly be related to the saucers such as mental phenomena and I gather that they are not doing too well since they indicated that if Canada is doing anything at all in geo-magnetics they would welcome a discussion with suitably accredited Canadians."

As I understand things, it is not clear who gave Smith the information about "mental phenomena" – it wasn't Sarbacher. It is rare to see these sorts of concepts brought up in de-classified government documents. Smith, like any good engineer, was curious to find out more – in the hope that he could use any findings to solve problems.  So, Smith proposed setting up a project to investigate Saucer Phenomena:

"It is therefore recommended that a PROJECT be set up within the frame work of this Section to study this problem and that the work be carried on a part time basis until such time as sufficient tangible results can be seen to warrant more definitive action. Cost of the program in its initial stages are expected to be less than a few hundred dollars and can be carried by our Radio Standards Lab appropriation."

The "Project" became known as Project Magnet. Though officially, Smith's Flying Saucer interest was private, in reality he used his knowledge and government position to instigate a semi-official study of the Saucer Phenomena. The proposal was accepted and a "station" was set up at Shirley Bay, about 20 miles outside Ottawa (where the Department of Transport's Communication's monitoring facility was situated). This Area was later to be used by the Department of Defence. 

The project ran for about 3 or 4 years, with the aim of gathering information about magnetic phenomena. It was meant to be classified in case the results yielded a new insight into magnetic phenomena which might be exploited. Contrary to some descriptions, it was never officially called a "Saucer Detection Station" and its existence was only reluctantly acknowledged during Smith's life time.

As the story goes, on August 8th, 1954, at 3:01 P.M, after 8 months of watching flat lines on graph paper, the equipment appeared to detect something significant. At the time, almost predictably, the area was completely fogged in (an unusual time of day and year for fog!). However, word of this "got out" and made headline news, as Smith later discussed in a lecture he gave. This resulted in both the Shirley Bay Observatory and Project Magnet being shut down on August 10, 1954.

After Smith's death, the strength of denials about the project seemed to increase. A statement prepared for the Minister of Transport to be presented in the House of Commons in the 1950s, for example said, "This entire program . . . is being carried on . . . with official approval and authority to make use of existing facilities." 

Months after Smith died in late 1962, Mr. Dupuis, Minister of the Department of Transport, made his final positive statement in the House of Commons,  "Between December 1950 and August 1954 a small program of investigation in the field of geomagnetics was carried out by the then communications division of the Department of Transport with a view to obtaining, if possible, some physical information or facts which might help to explain the phenomena which was generally referred to as unidentified flying objects. Mr. W.B. Smith was the engineer in charge of this program."

However, it was 2 years later in 1964 that an Ottawa UFO researcher Arthur Bray, wrote to request information about Project Magnet. Bray received a letter that started the denial,  ". . . at no time has this Department carried out research in the field of unidentified flying objects . . .The department did not take part in any of his (Smith's) research work nor did Mr. Smith provide the Department with any useful information arising out of his work." Arthur Bray later became a custodian of many of Smith's files and kept them safe for about 20 years.

By 1968 the denial was completed. Dr. Peter Millman, a UFO sceptic at the Dominion Observatory, wrote  the statement that would forever be provided for inquiries related to Smith and Project Magnet. Millman wrote, "The project was a personal one carried out by Mr. Smith with the knowledge of his department, but without any official sponsorship." 

Frances Swan, Affa and Ponar

The Wilbert Smith story is one that encompasses several areas of the UFO/ET field. Another interesting chapter relates Smith's association with Contactees. More than one of these contactees claimed to be in communication with two ET's that were in spacecraft near to the earth. Smith met a woman called Frances Swan in 1954, through Rear Admiral Herbert B. Knowles, USN (Ret.). Knowles held important submarine commands in World War II and he was active in encouraging witnesses to report sightings to the NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena - Major Donald E Keyhoe was also a member of this committee.) Frances Swan, who lived near Knowles, was apparently "channelling" messages from 2 entities named Affa and Ponar who were flying 2 ships M4-M4 and L11 respectively. Knowles had become concerned about 2 mysterious "satellites" which orbited the Earth in 1953 and 1954 (one of which reportedly came in and hovered over the Pentagon at 90,000 feet.) Several newspapers of the time reported the discovery of these satellites. Of course, this was 3/4 years before the launch of Sputnik 1.

In relation to the satellites, Vice Admiral Knowles asked Swan technical questions, which she was able to answer. This convinced Knowles she had genuine knowledge. Perhaps it is unsurprising that Swan was later investigated by the FBI.

Another account on Grant's Website, written by Jay Gourley and originally published in May 1979 in "Second Look Magazine"  tells of when Swan tried to arrange a meeting between Affa, Smith, Government officials at 2 p.m. July 6, 1959, in a secret government office concealed on the top story of a garage at 5th and K St., N.W., Washington, D.C. At the meeting, the officials, including Robert Friend, an Air Force major, asked Swan some technical questions and she wrote out the answers given to her by Affa. They then asked that Swan's contact prove that he existed. After instructions were given to look out of a nearby window, Robert Friend witnessed saucer-shaped object fly past. Not surprisingly, the documents about this meeting were originally classified!

Swan stated that, on many occasions she was in contact with Affa, over a period of several years. In Grant Cameron's collection of Smith-related files, there are over 100 typed pages of messages channelled by Swan from Affa. One interesting coincidence is that Frances Swan lived quite close to Betty and Barney Hill, in Eliot Maine.

Binding Meter and Caduceus Coil

As part of Project Magnet Smith, conducted some experiments in which he showed it was possible to extract energy from the Earth's magnetic field. He thought this is what Saucers used for both propulsion and as an energy source. He described this device as a magnetic "sink" (which energy would "flow into").

After a time, Smith seemed to have established a line of communication with "The Boys Topside," as he sometimes called them. He actually built several items of simple experimental hardware according to instructions given to him by "The Boys Topside". In a lecture in 1958, he said he thought it was "absolutely regrettable" that his group (in Ottawa) was the only one turning the information into real Hardware.

Being an Engineer who designed and built radio equipment, Smith and those he worked with were quite capable of building these items. The first item was a "binding meter" – it basically consisted of a wire and a spring connected, in a particular way, to a dial which could be used to measure "binding force" in the local area. The scale reading should normally be static even with variations of temperature and pressure – and Smith tested this before giving a few of the meters out and testing them in different areas, and they did indeed give different readings.

Smith said he was told that materials were subject to "binding forces" and, for example, objects coming close to the saucers could be affected because the binding forces were altered by the craft's operational field. In a 1958 lecture, Smith stated he thought that Thomas Mantell's plane broke up because it got too close to the craft and the altered binding force caused the plane to "fall apart". Current physics does not acknowledge this type of force – but, I can certainly see, in the research of Canadian Experimental Researcher, John Hutchison and in what we witnessed in the destruction of the World Trade Centre on 9/11 (as analysed by Dr Judy Wood in her book "Where Did the Towers Go"), could very well be the result of an alteration of the "binding forces" in the materials which are affected.

Another item, which Smith made and was quite proud of, was a special type of coil (as used in AM radios, transformers, car engines and other electrical apparatus). It is prepared and wound in a very particular way. Smith found that when he tested it with his radio equipment, it would completely absorb radio wave energy of a certain frequency. This appears to violate the accepted laws of Electro-magnetism. (That if radio energy goes into a coil, it should come out as other radio energy, a magnetic force, electricity or light, heat or mechanical energy - vibration.) When he set his experiment going and found this result, he was told by the Boys Topside that he had successfully generated "tensor energy" – which they used for "just about everything."

Gravity Control  (Antigravity)

Another area that Smith spent a long time investigating was experiments with a rotating disk. Due to his investigation of the Saucer Phenomenon, Smith postulated (in simple terms) that the force of Gravity was actually the result of interacting magnetic fields that objects themselves generated, rather than it being a separate force, as traditional physics suggested. He determined that the speed rotation of an object can be used to influence gravity and he and his team designed experiments to test this. In 1959, during one of Smith's Gravity Control Experiments in his lab, they were rotating a copper plate at 15,000 –18,000 rpm.  The phone rang and another of Smith's contacts, a Telex Operator in Ottawa reported he had had a message from Affa saying the experiment needed "shielding". They built a brick wall around the experiment which did, indeed "blow up" on the next run!

Saucer Hardware and Alien Bodies

Smith corresponded with several people stating he had handled a number of pieces of Saucer hardware (said to be from crashes or military encounters) and he had been involved in their analysis.  Art Bridge, one of Smith's associates stated that they were also involved in analysis of "a lot" of hardware. Wilbert's son Jim Smith also handled one or more of these pieces. In March 2002 James Smith was a guest on the Toronto CFRB radio Talkshow "Strange Days... Indeed", where he described the UFO hardware which was sent to his father from the United States. James Smith described that, probably when he was in his teens, he handled a small piece of the hardware that his father received for analysis. The piece was fairly heavy, about the size of brick, semi-circular in shape, very smooth, apart from where it had been broken off from whatever it was connected to. James Smith did not know what happened to any written reports about the analysis of these pieces of hardware.

In the same interview James Smith, he was asked about his father viewing alien bodies. James stated that he had been told about the bodies as his father was near death. The viewing probably happened on one of Smith's many trips to the USA. Correspondence from the Canadian Embassy in Washington during 1951 indicates that during that period Smith was dealing, at least indirectly, with Vannevar Bush at the Research and Development Board in Washington, D.C. Bush, being the head of the U.S. flying saucer effort would have been able to give Smith access to craft and bodies. James Smith did not remember the use of the term "greys" in his father's statement described the aliens as "small humanoid" and "like descriptions of the time." These descriptions were in agreement with those made by many other people having alien encounters in the fifties. They would also agree with Smith's notion that aliens were not much different to us and might even be our "distant relatives".

"No Point in Investigating…"

Smith's feeling about the phenomenon evolved over time. He knew, from his own experience, that he was dealing with something that was real. In a letter to a Mr McClelland dated 20 Aug 1958, Smith expressed that he felt there was little point in trying to establish the reality of the phenomena, or "plowing and re-plowing the same field". He pointed out there was more than enough evidence available to prove the reality of the ET's/UFOs. He had become more interested in finding out more about the meaning of the phenomena – which he said lay in the field of metaphysics. Some of the concepts he had come to understand were discussed in an address he recorded in 1958.

1958 – The Ottawa Address

The opening sentence of this article came from the 1958 Ottawa address which Smith recorded on 31 Mar 1958.  When I first heard this in 2003, a lot of what Smith said resonated strongly with me. It is worth listening to this address, which runs for about 18 minutes – Smith covers a lot of ground, in his usual concise and focused manner. He describes his general approach to research and how his initial findings were "exactly parallel with other investigators" and he states clearly that he understands he is dealing with real accounts about real things that people have seen and experienced. He discusses the case of Thomas Mantell in 1947 (which was one of the first UFO cases I'd ever heard of - when I was 10 years old). He then discusses his conclusions about being in contact with aliens, through quite a number of people. He stated "While we were able to establish that these people from outside all told the same story, was that story true?" Having considered this question carefully, Smith stated, "I began for the first time in my life to realize the basic one-ness of the Universe and all that is in it – science, philosophy, religion, substance and energy are all facets of the same jewel, and before one facet can be appreciated, the form of the jewel itself must be perceived." Following on from his statement about humans being spread throughout the Cosmos, he stated, "Our civilization here on earth now is only one of many that have come and gone. The planet has been colonized many times by people from elsewhere, and our present human races are blood brothers of these people. Is it any wonder that they are interested in us?" There are several other components of this address which succinctly tie together several "dimensions" of the UFO/ET/Consciousness phenomenon in a profoundly meaningful way –in a way which is more relevant now than ever before in our history.

New Science

Perhaps because of the conclusions Smith came to, and summarised in the Ottawa Address, in the last few years of his life, Smith turned his attention to the task of trying to rewrite the whole idea of scientific thinking from the ground up, based on what he had learned from his experience and his experiments and from "The Boys Topside". At the beginning of his unfinished book The New Science, Smith writes: "Assembled by W. B. Smith from data obtained from beings more advanced than we are." The work is available on the Internet, and deals more in "Metaphysics" initially, rather than Science, describing concepts of "nothingness", "awareness", "reality", "space" - which he shows are necessary to define properly to develop a new understanding of the Cosmos around us and our place within it.

Audio Recordings

Grant Cameron and others have also preserved several hours of compelling audio recordings of Smith and his associates. These recordings, even today, jolt our grey matter in surprising directions.       There are very few people who had the experience and knowledge to state what Smith states in the way he stated it.

Wilbert Smith wrote in answer to those who challenged the truth of what he said by saying "I make no attempt to 'prove' anything, and have no intention of doing so. It is up to each and every one to search out the truth and decide for themselves just what is truth. Truth needs no justification; it stands alone."

Wilbert Smith left us an extremely valuable legacy – preserved by Arthur Bray, Grant Cameron, Nick Balaskas and others. I truly hope we can use it effectively.