Today there are not many ufologists left of the
first pioneers from the 1950s. Recently the AFU board members were informed
that one of Sweden´s real oldboys in our movement, Sven Schalin died on October
13, 2017. It is unfortunate the this sad message didn´t reach us until now as
we stilll don´t know if Schalin´s UFO archive has been saved. Many years ago we
were allowed to copy some of his material but as for all the original reports,
photos, correspondence etc. we fear it has ended up in the local dump. The
tragic fate of many rare and unique ufo archives.
Sven Schalin in 2014
Perhaps even more frustrating was the information
that Sven Schalin in his will donated around four million SEK to the Swedish
Anthroposophical movement. Schalin had for many years been an AFU supporter and
we had of course hoped he would remember AFU in his will. With four million SEK
we could have realized our old dream of having one large archive facility
instead of the present 14 premises, scattered in different buildings. But we
have been around since 1973 so we just keep on hoping that someone on this
little planet find our work and efforts worthy of a major donation or remember
us in his or her will.
Sven Schalin was born i Gothenburg 1925. He studied aerospace
engineering at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg and in 1954 moved
to Linköping, working for SAAB, the Swedish aerospace and defense company,
founded in 1937. During his engineering career at SAAB, Schalin worked in
developing famous Swedish fighter aircraft Saab J 35 Draken, Saab 37 Viggen and Saab JAS 39 Gripen. He
retired in 1990.
Sven Schalin lecturing at the UFO-Sweden annual conference, Jönköping 1974.
It was during his work at SAAB that Schalin first
heard of flying saucers. In 1956 a colleague at SAAB asked if he had read
Flying Saucers From Outer Space by Donald Keyhoe. Schalin read the book and became deeply fascinated by the subject. Even more so when a man from British
Intelligence visited SAAB and related further information. This man later sent
a list of UFO literature to Schalin who read all he could find on the subject
and also became a member of NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial
Phenomena), headed by Donald Keyhoe.
The first major UFO case investigated by Schalin was
the Domsten close encounter. On the evening of December 19, 1958, two young men,
Stig Rydberg and Hans Gustafsson claimed to have encountered a landed saucer
outside Domsten in southern Sweden. They were attacked by three or four
formless creatures who try to drag them into the saucer. After a fierce fight
the boys escaped, the creatures entered the craft and it took off. This
sensational story was printed in several newspapers and was even investigated
by the Swedish police and military. Sven Schalin interviewed the boys assisted
by Dr. Ingeborg Kjellin (MD) but although skeptical they found no natural
explanation. But in 1989 my AFU colleagues Anders Liljegren and Clas Svahn
disclosed, after years of in-depth
research and detective work, that the case was a simple hoax inspired by the
Tom Trick science fiction series published in a Swedish magazine.
Sven Schalin (left) and Ingeborg Kjellin interviewing Stig Rydberg and Hans Gustafsson
Much because of articles in the magazine Se, 1959 and Såningsmannen 1960,
Sven Schalin became a well known figure in Swedish ufology, resulting in public
lectures and many contacts with UFO witnesses. In 1959 he also began working
together with Edith Nicolaisen, founder of the Parthenon publishing house and
for a few years was also a board member of Parthenon. Nicolaisen published
several of the classic contactee books on the 1950s and 60s. She was a
demanding and hard working woman, not easy to get along with as she expected
co-workers to be totally devoted to the Parthenon spiritual mission. This,
coupled with different opinions on the UFO problem, made Schalin leave the
Parthenon board in 1963.
Part of article in Såningsmannen no 4, 1960.
The close co-operation with Dr. Ingeborg Kjellin,
during the Domsten investigation, also influenced Schalin in another respect.
Kjellin was a theosophist and inspired Schalin to study theosophical classics,
Blavatsky etc. for a few years. Influenced by a working colleague at SAAB he
soon changed his interest to Rudolf Steiner´s Anthroposophy which led to a
break with Kjellin. Schalin became of member of the Anthroposophical Society, and
would conintue to advocate the Steiner worldview all his life. In a letter to
Edith Nicolaisen July 4, 1962, he tried to explain his shifting position
regarding UFOs and spirituality:
”I am still very much interested in the UFO/IFO
issue but I don´t share the same views as previously. My assessment has changed
and I am rather confused regarding the implications of the UFO phenomena and
contact stories. I don´t believe that the basic human problems and our relation
to Christ involves UFOs. No such phenomena are required in understanding
spiritual values and what is important in our life. This has been clearly
evinced by Rudolf Steiner. Forgive me if I am wrong but I simply cannot view things
as Miss Nicolaisen. Maybe I am not spiritually mature. My interest in spiritual
matters has developed rather all at once, probably because too much has
happened which has been difficult to digest. Then it is necessary to seek solid
ground beneath the feet or your life will be a total chaos. And for me Anthroposophy
is that solid ground. I also hope that via this teaching come to a better
understand of UFOs and what they imply.”
The influence of Anthroposophy on the UFO movement
has been quite extensive but so far very little documented. A list of
ufologists more or less influenced by Rudolf Steiner would include Allen Hynek,
Gordon Creighton, Trevor James Constable, Gordon Allen, Dan and Eileen Lloyd.
Personally I find it rather surprising that so many leading ufologists have
been inspired by the rather odd mixture of Christian mysticism and esotericism
advocated by Rudolf Steiner. The Ahriman-Lucifer demonology of Anthroposophy is
reminiscent of ideas presented by fundamental Christian groups where UFOs are
usually interpreted as demonic. If these ufologists had instead followed the
more balanced approach, interpreting UFOs from the core Esoteric Tradition
(Blavatsky, Bailey, Laurency) as exemplified by Desmond Leslie, Meade Layne and
Riley Crabb the result would have been different.
Sven Schalin did not personally investigate many UFO
incidents but one case he found of great interest was the Kolmården close encounter
August 23, 1967. In the small community Kolmården, close to Norrköping, two
teenagers observed strange lights and a small, skinny figure carrying some sort
of instrument. Schalin never revealed the identity of the witnesses but some
time ago investigators from UFO-Sweden found and interviewed the woman involved, who confirmed the incident.
On June 8, 1992 Anders Liljegren and I interviewed
Sven Schalin at his home in Linköping. Here a few quotes from this interview:
Håkan Blomqvist (HB): How would you summarize your
view of the UFO problem today?
Sven Schalin (SS): In the beginning I believed it was
space ships. Further on I became more suspicious when reports of objects formed
and dissolved appeared. There were many such cases and then I realized this was
something different.
HB: But you didn´t interpret these cases as
manipulations of a higher technology?
SS: I became convinced there is a spiritual world
and from this world entities can manifest. I began to suspect they are
deceiving us. I believe there are both negative and positive forces involved in all this. Today I favor the theory of materialisations.
HB: Why did you end your active involvement in
ufology?
SS: When you realize that there are very treacherous
things involved you want to study the spiritual aspect more. I didn´t want to
dig deeper into ufology but chose to study Anthroposophy instead. But I am very
confused about all this talk of crashed saucers. Where do they come from?
HB: Anthroposophists generally have a very negative
view of UFOs?
SS: I had expected to get some answers to the UFO enigma through Anthroposophy but I didn´t. There is a man called Hans Mändl, a leading anthroposophist. He meditated on this enigma and I received a very brief answer. He implied that this were some form of cosmic jokers. That is all the information I got this way. Anthroposophists are reluctant to have anything to do with UFOs.
Sven Schalin wrote very few UFO-articles during his active years. He did present a summary of his views in the magazine UFO-Information no 8, 1971, Ännu gäckar de oss (They still elude us). Schalin advocated continued serious research also involving the non-material aspects. I admire his courage to publicly stand up for UFO reality in 1959, especially with regard to his position as engineer at SAAB. He was once ordered to come to the then technical director at SAAB, Hans Brising. Schalin feared a reprimand because of his UFO interest but instead Brising told of his serious interest in the subject but didn´t want this information to be made public. Sven Schalin was a brave pioneer in the Swedish UFO movement.
