The Glowing Car of Rendlesham Forest

Reading Brent Swancer's excellent new article - Speed Demons: Tales of Possessed Cars - made me think of a much under-appreciated aspect of the famous Rendlesham Forest UFO affair of December 1980. There is a story concerning the incident that isn't focused on a possessed car, but on one that glowed. Okay, the two angles are significantly different. But the sheer weirdness linked to England's most famous UFO encounter, and the direct tie-in with a very curious car, has prompted me to write this article.

The man we have to thank for bringing this matter to our attention is Larry Warren. He is one of the key players in the Rendlesham case and (with Peter Robbins) the author of Left at East Gate. It's vital reading for anyone interested in what went down in the woods, and on those fateful nights, thirty-five years ago.

While there are various opinions and ideas relative to the Rendlesham Forest timeline, all of those who have studied the case - including the witnesses - conclude that there was not just one night of activity, but several. Things began on December 26 and continued on. It's one of these latter encounters we have to now focus our attention on.

As I note in my book, Keep Out!, "As the evening unfolded, rumors flew around the base about the nature of the UFO encounters of the previous two nights. Military personnel – possessed of sophisticated scientific equipment and hardware - were reportedly swarming around the dense, dark woods, seemingly deeply anticipating the return of the UFOs. Wild animals, such as deer and rabbits, were seen fleeing the forest in unbridled terror, clearly spooked to their collective cores by something menacingly unknown in their midst. And, at the height of these extraordinary events, Warren and a number of his colleagues and friends were ordered to head into the very heart of those spooky woods. As for why: well, they were just about to find out."

When the group arrived at a clearing, they could see that the immediate vicinity was lit up by an eerie mist. Tensions were high. Dozens of people were swarming around, some with camera equipment, and others with Geiger-counters. Something weird was going down. Something very weird. Out of the blue, a small ball of light headed towards the mist, then came to a sudden halt, hanging directly over it. In seconds, and amid a powerful flash, the light was gone. In its place was a not particularly large object that was pyramid-like in shape.

It wasn't long before something incredible happened: a large ball of gold/blue light surfaced from the side of the craft, maneuvered slowly, and came to a halt about three or so meters before the military personnel. Contained within the ball were a trio of small creatures. They were clearly not human. That much was made obvious by their large heads and cat-like eyes. Warren recalls some kind of dialog occurring between the entities and a military officer - following which Warren and his comrades were told to return to the truck in which they had arrived. All of which brings us to the matter of the glowing car.

Early on the following evening, Warren - on-base but off-duty at the time - received a phone call. The caller ordered Warren to head down to the dorm parking area, and to be there in 20 minutes. Warren was additionally told to keep a look out for a dark sedan. Puzzled, Warren did exactly as he was told. And, sure enough, there was the car. So, Warren walked over to it. With hindsight, that may not have been a good idea.

Two men in black suits - classic MIB, one might be justified in saying - directed him to one of the rear doors of the car. Warren followed their orders and got in the vehicle. At that point, things got even weirder. A strange, green glow dominated the interior of the sedan. It wasn't just illuminated: it was glowing. On top of that, Warren began to feel strange, as if he had been suddenly drugged.

From there, Warren recalls being groggily taken to an underground portion of the base - possibly one that was extremely deep - and where he encountered, from one side of a Plexiglas window, what may very well have been something unearthly. In Warren's own words, as presented in Left at East Gate: "I stepped into the confined area and felt as if I was no longer on Earth. I found myself looking into a gigantic, dark cavernous space. It reminded me of the interior of the Houston Astrodome in a strange way. Beads of humidity rolled down the other side of the seamless glass.”

A shadowy, small figure was vaguely seen behind the glass, and a strange and brief "conversation" occurred. It was one in which Warren visualized words and pictures in his mind. The entity appeared to know much of Warren's life and indicated it came from a realm which he would never be able to understand. Warren later found himself wandering the base, as his mind finally began to return to normal.

What makes this story particularly intriguing is that I have three additional reports on-file of people who were abducted by Men in Black and who described sitting in cars that had glowing interiors. Two described illumination akin to regular light bulbs - in terms of color - but coming directly from the dashboard. The other claimed to have been dazzled by an orange light - but, oddly, couldn't figure out where it was coming from. And, like Warren, one of them was drugged.

Also intriguing: in all three cases the MIB were not of the military type. Rather, they were of the skinny, short, pale, and anemic-looking MIB that lurked in and around Point Pleasant, West Virginia in the 1960s, when Mothman was appearing before terrified witnesses.

Were real Men in Black - rather than military or intelligence personnel who just happened to be dressed in black - somehow implicated in the Rendlesham Forest affair? It's a question that is admittedly speculative, since we don't have enough data to say for sure. At least, not yet we don't. If this angle can be taken any further, however, we just might see some startling revelations on the horizon. Maybe we'll see a few MIB on the horizon, too.