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Disney does UFOs by Charles Lear.
UFO documentaries and television specials play a big

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part in introducing people to the subject. Sometimes they're well researched and made with

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care by creators with a passionate interest
in the subject, and sometimes they're made

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mostly for the sake of making money. In the case of a television special

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made by the Walt Disney Company titled
Alien Encounters from New Tomorrowland that was aired

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in five US cities in February March
of nineteen ninety five, it was created

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as a means to promote a new
ride at Walt Disney World Resort. While

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fairly typical of the UFO related television
presentations of its day, the manner of

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fact statements by narrator Robert Yuick to
the effect that aliens are visiting Earth in

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spaceships and abducting human inhabitants, and
that there are government documents that prove this

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cost some to speculate that the documentary
was made in partnership with US government officials

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as part of a disclosure process.
This sort of speculation also came about in

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the case of a movie that was
released under two titles, first in nineteen

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seventy four is UFOs Past, Present
and Future, and then in nineteen seventy

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six and nineteen seventy nine as UFOs
It Has Begun. It was written primarily

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by Robert Emmeninginger, who also produced
it along with Alan Sandler. It has

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Rod Serling as its main narrator,
and there are appearances by Burgess, Meredith,

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Jose Ferrare, Jacques Vallet, and
j Allen heinek Emmeneger Is told the

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story of the film's production on several
occasions, including as recently as two thousand

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and eight on video shot outside of
the X Conference. His stories as follows.

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Ian Sandler had originally set out to
produce a series of films about advanced

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military technology, but were diverted by
an intriguing piece of information offered by their

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military contact, Paul Shardele, with
whom they were working at Norton Air Force

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Base. Chardle, security manager and
chief of requirements for the audio visual program

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at the base, said he had
seen a film of an alien craft landing

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at Holloman Air Force Base three years
previous. As discussions about possible projects continued,

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the idea that one of them be
about UFOs came up and was encouraged

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by military officials who offered the producers
the use of the footage. Emmenegger and

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Sandler decided to go ahead with the
UFO documentary. According to Emmenegger, Ian

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Sandler visited the Pentagon repeatedly and never
signed in, which had also been the

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case at Norton. He speculates that
this was for the purpose of plausible deniability.

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He says they met with Colonel William
Coleman, who okayed the use of

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the film and told them that the
Air Force would sponsor the documentary. Emmenegger

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explains that this was for the purpose
of improving public relations with a military in

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the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
According to Emmeneger, after a long wait,

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Coleman told the producers that the climate
created by the Watergate scandal made it

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an inappropriate time to release the Holman
footage in its place at the end of

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the film as an illustrated sequence showing
a craft landing in an Air Force base

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and a meeting between alien beings and
US military officials. According to Emmeneger,

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this was based on the film footage
that was promised by the Air Force.

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Speculation on whether or not the Air
Force really had the footage described or was

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engaged in a disinformation operation continues to
this day. Eineteen eighty four, Michael

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Eisner became Disney CEO and started looking
for ways to revitalize the parks. They

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had success with an attraction based on
Star Wars before becoming owners of the franchise

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called Star Tours, and Eisner got
the idea to create something based on Alien.

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Col Gariak posted an article on March
twenty third, twenty seventeen, headlined

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Disney Extinct Attractions Extra Terror Estriel Alien
Encounter on the Laughing Place website. According

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to Geriak, older imagineers convinced Eisner
that an attraction based on the film would

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be too scary and that its R
rating made it inappropriate for the park.

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However, Eisner liked the idea of
a ride involving a malevolent alien and had

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the imagineers come up with an original
story. What came about was Extra Terror

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Estrial Alien Encounter, which, in
Gariak's words, softly opened on December sixteenth,

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nineteen ninety four. Someone managed to
video the full experience offered by the

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attraction and it can be seen on
YouTube. The visitors are introduced to an

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alien run off Earth company called Excess
Tech and its latest teleportation technology, and

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then ushered into a theater where shoulder
restraints lower over them, locking them into

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their seats. A demonstration of the
teleportation device goes wrong, and instead of

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the Excess Tech company chairman being teleported
to Earth, a malevolent, carnivorous,

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winged creature ends up in the clear
plastic receiving tube. The creature breaks through

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the tube and there is a blackout
as it supposedly stalks through the room.

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Lights flash occasionally in a technician sent
to fix the electricity is heard being eaten

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while screaming. Michel Debchek described the
work of the imagineers that created the sensation

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that there was a real creature in
the room in her article posted April twenty

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fifth, two thousand nineteen on the
Mental flo Loss website head lined Alien Encounter

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the life and death of all Disney
World's scariest ride ever. Through strategically placed

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speakers and four D devices, riders
heard repulsive slurping and crunching noises, then

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were sprayed in the face with warm
water, making them think they had been

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splattered with fresh blood. At one
point, harnesses pressed down onto the rider's

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shoulders to make it feel as if
the monster was crouching on top of them.

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Warm air and water released from the
seats replicated what it might feel like

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if the creature was slobbering down the
back of each audience member's neck. According

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to Debzak, who links to a
June fourth, two thousand Palm Beach post

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articles a reference, children often left
in tears, and the attraction was closed

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in two thousand three, though Disney
gave no reason for it. The documentary

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made to promote the attraction is classic
nineteen nineties euphology, with claims of recovered

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crashed saucers and alien bodies, and
the existence of secret government documents that proved.

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Ever, a good ten minutes is
given over to Bud Hopkins and people

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with claims of being abducted. Mark
Pilkington wrote an article titled Mickey Mouse Conquers

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the Martians, which is posted on
headweb dot com. The documentary was written

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and produced by Andy Thomas, described
by Pilkington as a UFO believer. According

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to Pilkington, this was after a
UFO's summit held in Disney World that was

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organized by Don Ecker and included Bud
Hopkins, Clifford Stone, and George Knapp

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as the special leads up to the
promotion for the ride, Urick says,

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something that would make any conspiracy theorist
perk up here at New Tomorrowland. At

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Disney World, scientists and engineers have
brought to life a possible scenario that helps

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acclimate the public to their inevitable alien
encounter. In the article written by bou

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Portner headlined Disney Encounter lifts UFO believers, published in the May third, nineteen

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ninety five or Land Sentinel, he
quotes the Land, Florida resident Don Zangi,

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who felt that the government was involved
with a special. According to Zangi,

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who is described as a counselor of
UFO abductees, we believe the purpose

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of it is that the government is
doing a controlled release of information, and

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the best way to do it is
through Disney appreciation. Is due to Patrick

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Gross, who examines the Disney special
in the Stupidity section of its well researched

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and informative website UFOs at Close Site. Charles Lear is the author of The

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Flying Saucer Investigators, available at Amazon
dot com.