This article was a collaborative effort by Sean Casteel and John Weigle.

Dr. Roger Leir is well known in Ufology as a pioneer in the study of alien implants, the mysterious little devices often left behind in the bodies of abductees after an encounter. Since sometime in the mid-1990s, Leir has conducted over a dozen surgeries to remove the tiny implants and then turned the devices over to various labs for further study.

Leir has recently been suffering from a debilitating case of shingles, which led to serious infections in his leg and foot, all of which were further complicated by diabetes. In order to help Leir pay his sizable medical bills, the Los Angeles chapter of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) devoted a meeting on July 21, 2012, to pay tribute to Leir and his many years of dedicated work in the field. Another meeting with the same lineup of speakers was hosted the next day by the Orange County chapter of MUFON in Costa Mesa, California.

The LA meeting began with some words from Steve Murillo, the state section director for MUFON Los Angeles. He said that the LA chapter receives new UFO reports daily, and some days can bring in two reports, with the Burbank area being especially active. The situation had come to a point where “we’re almost too busy,” Murillo said. The reports are often of lights that move quickly and assume strange shapes. Even so, he estimated that only about five percent of all sightings are reported.

“It’s nice to know that the community comes together when someone needs help,” Murillo said, meaning the UFO community’s events for Leir. “We have guests from as far away as Florida.”

Murillo then introduced hypnotherapist Yvonne Smith, who has worked with alien abductees for 21 years alongside such famous names as the late Budd Hopkins, the late Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John Mack, Roger Leir himself and others.

At the meeting, she primarily discussed her friendship with Leir. They met at a 1992 gathering of the Ventura-Santa Barbara MUFON chapter in Thousand Oaks. Smith had formed the Close Encounters Resource Organization (CERO) and took six abductees to the Thousands Oaks meeting, where they shared their experiences. Smith began to work with Leir and his colleague, Alice Leavy, who was at the time the assistant director of the Ventura-Santa Barbara group, on a documentary with well-known author and abductee Whitley Strieber called “Alien Intent.” The film has since aired a few times on television.

Smith said she is currently working on a multiple-persons abduction case. “Honestly, they do happen,” she said. She discussed a case involving three 9-year-old boys who were camping in a field near their homes and remember seeing a bright object above them but no more. The case happened several years ago, but Smith had recently made contact with all three of the experiencers and is working with Leir and Mexican UFO investigator and TV personality Jaime Maussan to further investigate what happened.

Smith showed a film clip of Ron Noel, one of the abductees, who now remembers something being inserted into his left arm. In the clip, Noel said he remembers that the three were “floating like balloons” after seeing the light. They were taken to a “place” where he could see that the “ground’s going farther and farther away.” He realizes he’s in a room but can’t see much; he has a feeling it’s a “really, really big room.”

“I feel comfortable,” Noel said, when asked if it was hot or cold. “I see a silhouette.” He felt something clammy touching his arms. “I can’t do what I want. I’m being held against my will and I don’t like it.”
One of the beings said, “Don’t be afraid, child. We are here to help you.” They put something in his arm, Noel continued. It didn’t hurt and there was no blood. They told him not to worry.

The object was removed and analyzed by a team of experts that included Steve Colbern, another speaker at the Leir fundraiser. One of those who examined the implant said it was so hard that even diamond tools could not cut it and a high-powered laser was required to do the job. Yvonne Smith thanked Leir for putting his “life and reputation” on the line by going public with his work.

The next speaker was filmmaker Jose Escamilla, who discussed his most recent film, “Celestial,” about purported artificial structures on the moon, photos of which have, he said, been tampered with by NASA. Escamilla also stated that full color photos taken by the space probe Clementine in 1994 give the observer an entirely different impression of the moon than the more familiar black and white photos we’re used to.

Photos taken of the Lobachevsky crater reveal a triangular object and what looks like construction work by some unknown entity, he said. He said another photo shows an object he likened to a crashed spaceship. Escamilla believes that Japan, India and China are also covering up similar discoveries on the moon.

The aforementioned Steven Colbern, a nanotechnologist, discussed the results of the various implant analyses. Colbern has been working with Leir since 1998, and it has been “an incredible experience” for him.

Colbern said the implants are nanotech objects that function as nano-electronic devices. The nano-tubes inside the implants are thousands of times stronger that any material we have today and are “proof positive that someone is coming here.”

Generally, the implants have a metallic core and can be found with simple stud finders as a start. If the stud finder indicates there is something there, then additional tests are needed, to include X-rays, although implants don’t always show up on X-rays. A Gauss meter is also useful in detecting implants. Sometimes the implants emit radio frequencies, and it is assumed that they all have this capability.

Many of the implants contain common metals but with unusual isotopic ratios. Carbon nano-tube structures and atypical nano-crystals are common. The inner metallic core is surrounded by a membrane, and nerve cells grow into the membrane to connect the devices to the subject’s nervous system. The implants don’t prompt a response from a person’s immune system and are, therefore, impervious to the body’s natural tendency to reject a foreign object.

One of the objects Dr. Leir removed transmitted at a frequency used by our satellites, making Colbern wonder if the aliens are sharing information with the military. It is difficult to conceive of a way to make the implants with today’s technology, he said. Meanwhile, abductee Ron Noel seemed to go into a state of depression when his implant was removed but he has since pulled out of it. It’s not clear what effects might develop from removing implants.

Jordan Maxell, an expert in Biblical and occult symbolism, was the next scheduled speaker, but because the program was running long, he was limited to introducing Whitley Strieber, the keynote speaker for evening. Maxwell said that Dr. Leir had helped so many people in the past and that all of the money collected at the door would go to help Leir with his medical expenses.

Then Strieber took the stage. He said he and Dr. Leir go back to 1996, and that Leir was “looking remarkably well tonight.” In 1985, Strieber began, he had a CE III that is still affecting him and his thoughts. Strieber was referring to the December 26 experience of that year that led him to discover his own abduction history and write the bestselling book Communion. He went on to describe an experience that took place on May 2, 1995, around 11:30 p.m. or midnight. He heard the crunching of gravel in the driveway of his cabin, he said. Over the years, he has “learned that nobody who calls you after midnight is someone you want to talk to,” so he turned on the outdoor lights. The cabin had extensive security because of his earlier experiences, and [since the 1985 experience] “I slept like a nervous dog.”

Strieber saw two people at the foot of his bed and heard a male voice say, “Condition red.” His first thought, he said, was about the shotgun underneath his bed. He next saw that there was a woman there, who appeared to be about 5 feet, 4-5 inches tall and aged 25-35 with thin lips and a grave expression. There was also a man with a long beard who appeared to be redheaded. He felt pressure in his ear, Strieber said. The woman was speaking gently. Hypnosis very quickly becomes difficult to use in such cases because it’s difficult to know what the mind is just filling in from previous knowledge, so he didn’t use it to try to learn more about this event. When the waves of pressure stopped, he continued, he jumped up, flipped on the lights and heard something running through the woods. The security system was on and armed, and he checked the house and found no doors or windows open. The system covered all possible entrances. He did not enter the garage, which proved to be significant later. “Was it a nightmare?” he wondered. “What the hell happened?”

When Strieber’s wife, Anne, awoke that morning, she said she hadn’t heard anything the night before. Strieber went to the garage to get his car and make his daily trip to pick up the newspaper at a store down the road from their cabin. He found the garage door wide open. It wasn’t possible, Strieber said, for the alarm system to still be armed and for the garage door to be open because opening the door would have set off the alarm. He backed up the car a few feet and felt so much static electricity that he jumped out, fearing an explosion.

Strieber phoned the person who had sold him the alarm system and asked him to check out the problem. He found a powerful magnetic field around alarm switch, Strieber said, that was all out of proportion to the magnets used on the doors. He finally replaced the magnets and everything was fine. That afternoon, Strieber’s left ear began to hurt, but there was no visible entry point, scar or blood. Still, he could feel something in the ear. About the same time, Strieber continued, he began to hear about a California doctor [Dr. Leir] who “had gone completely insane” because he had gone public about removing alien implants. He almost lost his license because of his work.

Strieber said that there is “extraordinary knowledge waiting for us to pick up and use” if we would study the implants with an open mind. Many are encased in skin, which is why they don’t trigger immune system reactions. But we know that skin cannot grow in deep muscle tissue, so it’s a mystery how an implant survives. If we could understand how this process works, “medical science could advance significantly.”

There is an enormous cultural bias against the study of abductions and the implants that are so often part of the experience. Even Leslie Kean, the bestselling author of UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record, whose work is excellent, Strieber said, wouldn’t mention abductions. “This is something that is penetrating right into us,” Strieber said.

Returning to the subject of his 1995 implant, after a week or two his left ear began to turn bright red. He would hear a screeching sound and had a metallic taste in his mouth, which he now thinks could have been a fear reaction. At times, he thought about cutting his ear off altogether. Soon after, Strieber and Dr. Leir began to correspond. Leir’s primary concern is always the well-being of his patients and he refused to do some operations that a less careful doctor might have performed. Strieber decided at that point not to have the object removed. Later, after he and his wife had relocated to Texas, he decided to have a more local doctor try to remove the object, leaving Dr. Leir a bit miffed. The Texas doctor took X-rays, marked the site and made an incision. The doctor said the object looked like a white disc, and when he touched it, it moved. The doctor was only able to retrieve a small piece of the object and decided to terminate the procedure. The object at that point had moved to Strieber’s ear lobe. Two days later, the ear began to burn painfully and the implant moved back to its original location at the top of the ear.
The doctor told Strieber that the pathologist who examined the fragment said in a phone call that the piece of the implant was the strangest thing he had ever seen. Living cilia were attached to it. Strieber was left wondering if the object had moved for its own safety or for his. Strieber’s wife feels the implant should not be removed and is serving some useful purpose.

Still, Strieber had some good news for Dr. Leir. Dr. Bill Mallow, the chief of materials science at the Southwest Research Institute, contacted Strieber and asked about other implant reports. He called Leir and told him Mallow wanted to work with them, Strieber said. As a result, they had completely free and open access to millions of dollars worth of equipment.

Strieber and the others learned that the objects were of a metallic composition similar to some pieces that were sent to Art Bell when he was the regular host of “Coast To Coast AM” that were alleged to be part of the Roswell debris. One of the Bell pieces consisted of layers bismuth and magnesium with no apparent means holding them together. Another object Strieber and Leir’s team had analyzed was made from glass created in a rare industrial process and not likely to be picked up by anyone who wasn’t working in the factory where it was made. Another implant transmitted FM radio signals, while still another remained impervious to X-rays for a full 36 hours. The X-rays simply passed through it as though it wasn’t there.

There are numerous physical objects that can’t be explained, Strieber said. “This is knowledge lying on the ground, ready to be picked up and used. I find it outrageous that it’s not being seriously investigated.” Strieber went on to list some of the disappointments suffered along the way, such as offers of money and support that never came through. The Southwest Research Institute began to send back reports on blank paper, not risking using paper with its own letterheads. When Dr. Bill Mallow left his job at the Institute, the new director told the team that the CIA “took a dim view” of UFO research. There has been some excellent research by Steve Colbern, Strieber said, “but he won’t be published in peer-reviewed journals.”

In any case, Strieber said, Dr. Leir “is a true pioneer, a genuine pioneer of the first order.” When all this comes into focus, Dr. Leir should be someone students will read about in their history books.

In a Q and A session after his lecture, Strieber was asked if he feels the alien implants have had any effects on his health. “I’m not sure,” Strieber answered, “but for several years I’ve had nothing but some colds. I have seen no ill effects. My wife thinks I can do things with my ‘third eye’ because of the implant. My thought is that maybe when I’m 70 I’ll have it taken out.”

After a few more questions, Dr. Roger Leir himself came to the podium. “What I just heard this evening,” Leir said, “almost leaves me speechless and in a very emotional state. Thanks to the team that has helped our research and to those of you attending tonight. “The road for me has not been an easy one over the last several months,” Leir continued. He came down with shingles, the severity of which has increased considerably in the last several years. Now one in every six Americans is expected to come down with it. The chicken pox virus is being blamed for shingles, but they’re not really related, Leir said. It can attack all parts of the body, including the eyes. It’s a terrible disease, and he has become more and more debilitated. His spread to his foot with a serious infection.

Leir next spoke of a recent invitation he received from one of his patients to visit Yuma, Colorado, where he learned of cattle mutilations that dated back to the early 1900s, which negates the theory that the government is doing the mutilations to look for traces of radioactivity in livestock.

So for Dr. Roger Leir, his UFO research continues to be open to new discoveries and new ways of interpreting the data gleaned from his many implant removal surgeries. And the meetings hosted by the Los Angeles and Orange County chapters of MUFON demonstrate that the UFO community does indeed look out for its own and perhaps add a new shade of meaning to the saying, “We are not alone.”