“IT was a clear, dry night. It was really crisp and frosty — just beautiful. You could have read a book with the light off the night sky, but I wasn’t drawn by the light of the stars or the moon but by a bright, surgical, white light coming from the other end of the boreen.”
These are the words of County Limerick man Gerry Battles in the final moments leading up to what he is convinced was an alien abduction near his family home in Pallaskenry on December 26, 2001.
The 61-year-old retired carpenter told the Limerick Post this week that he had been returning home from The Seven Sisters Pubs in Kildimo around 8pm, after having two Christmas drinks with a friend.
“I was only minutes away from my house but it was such a clear and beautiful night that I stopped to gaze at the stars,” he explains.
After being drawn by a bright, otherworldly, white light at the end of the laneway, the next thing he remembers is finding himself aboard a spacecraft with about 40 others — all in a subdued state, standing motionless like statues.
“They were all male, of different age groups, all standing shoulder to shoulder like mannequins. I remember one man next to me wearing a Columbo-style coat and hat. We were all in a state of paralysis, I could only move my eyes, so I couldn’t see much,” Gerry tells me.
“The next thing I remember floating into another bigger chamber with a 360 degree viewing deck. It was then I saw the extraterrestrial. I couldn’t tell how big he was or even if he had arms or legs, all I remember is his big cone head and his beautiful, ginormous eyes. They were jet black, almost like mirrors.
“He spoke to me through telepathy and said: “you are not terrified like the others”.
“No, I am not. Should I be?” Gerry asked.
The alien then quizzed the Limerick grandfather about what he would like to see.
“The North Pole”, came his instant reply.
“The next thing the extraterrestrial gave a command, and in an instant we were at the North Pole. I was in awe. I remember thinking of that line from ‘Star Trek’: “warp speed Mr Sulu”. It was like driving through a snowstorm at 500 miles an hour.”
Gerry admits that anyone he has revealed this fantastical story to thinks he is mad. He laughs when I ask if he has any history of mental illness.
“No, not at all,” he assures me.
This quiet-natured gentleman is adamant that the message relayed to him by the creature he encountered is an important one for all mankind to hear. He feels those who laugh at his tale of alien abduction are “naïve and have small imaginations”, and urges them to open their minds.
The message relayed to Mr Battles on Stephen’s Night 2001 by his alien abductor warned of Planet Earth’s pending doom and predicted that mankind could go the same way as the dinosaurs.
“You have come a long way in such a short space of time but your time is running out,” Gerry was told.
“In 850 years from now, a giant asteroid the size of Munster is going to obliterate your planet. The asteroid will approach your planet from the 35th Quadrant.
We are four million light years more advanced than you are. We have been observing you for Millennia. In all that time you have only excelled at two things — global warfare and lying to your own species.
“You must use the force. Be one with the force. Harness the force,” the alien advised.
Surprisingly, the following part of the intergalactic message sounds more likely to have been relayed by anti-austerity campaigners than Jedi-powered Martians.
“He told me that every one of our governments have been lying to us from day one and not to trust them. He also warned not to trust the banks as they have been lying as well and have a hidden agenda.
“He also forewarned the impending global financial crisis and told me that if we do not change our ways we are going to end up like the dinosaurs.”
Mr Battles has no recollection of how long the abduction lasted and had no memory of it afterwards until the coat he was wearing that night turned up in a most unlikely location.
“A contractor working at the Regional Hospital found the coat up on the hospital roof a few weeks later. I have no idea how it got there. It was only after having the coat returned to me that the events of December 26, 2001, started to come back to me.”
He believes aliens use ‘dark matter’ or ‘dark energy’, an invisible cloaking device, to keep their universe hidden from our own. He is hopeful his story will reach the world’s scientific community and prove useful in helping to finally uncover these distant galaxies.
“The truth is definitely out there,” he insists.
