My first teacher or mentor in the strange and
sometimes whacky underground world of the UFO movement was Swedish contactee
Sten Lindgren. A gentle soul, mystic, esotericist and idealist who told of both
physical and telepathic contacts with the space people. Being a naive teenager I was immensely
fascinated by his claims and in 1970 became a member of his group of eager students and
activists, the Intergalactical Federation (IGF). But after a couple of years in
this very special social milieu I began asking critical question which
eventually led to the founding of AFU.
One of the first meetings with Sten Lindgren at my home January 2, 1971. From left Kjell Jonsson, Sten Lindgren, Bjarne Håkansson (IGF co-worker)
Still I was deeply intrigued by the many contact
claims of Sten Lindgren and decided to gather as much data as possible to
determine what was reality and fantasy in the world of Sweden´s most famous
contactee. I kept on turning every stone and after several years had acquired quite
an extensive file on IGF and its members. Years of research and investigation later made it clear that many of the
observations and contact experiences that Sten Lindgren referred to had mundane
explanations. I never found any concrete evidence that Sten was in physical contact
with an alien group. There were a few UFO observations with group members that
are a bit puzzling, but not of great interest. Still I can to this day wonder
whether Sten Lindgren was, in spite of all misinterpretations and wild stories,
during his early years really involved in some hidden activity with a
benevolent alien group? The reason I still keep an open mind on this
issue is the story of the enigmatic woman referred to as BEA.
Sten Lindgren (right) at his home 1971. To the left Roland von Malmborg
In the annals of UFO history there are few issues
that have created more debate, derision and enmity in the UFO community than
the classic contactee cases of the 1950s. The situation is not very much
different today. Few ufologists appear to be able to handle these and similar cases
today with an open and investigating spirit. The believers believe too much and
the skeptics often dismiss empirical data without investigation. Finding weak
points in the claims of the true believer is usually not very difficult, but
when dealing with complicated contactee cases it is equally important to be
critical of the critic and skeptical of the skeptic.
In many interviews, lectures and his book Dialog med
kosmisk kultur (Dialogue with A Cosmic Culture) Sten Lindgren narrates the
story of his physical and telepathic contacts and cooperation with a group of
alien visitors he refer to as CBH, the Cosmic Brotherhood. As a young man he
was deeply puzzled by why he so often observed UFOs, cigar-shaped and bell-shaped
craft: ”I began reflecting over my luck, having made seven or eight observations
of different types of craft since 1957. I thought this was unusual and began
wondering why this happened. Who was I?” (p. 18).
Sten Lindgren´s father was an amateur astronomer and
because of their common astonomy interest Sten and his father met with ufologist
Eric Nordquist, chairman of the Swedish Ifologiska sällskapet (Ifological
Society) in the beginning of the 1960s. Sten Lindgren started reading UFO
literature and joined the Ifological Society. In 1963-1964 he began receiving
telepathic messages, sometimes before a UFO observation. Late one evening in
1964 Sten observe a cigar-shaped craft not far from his home outside Stockholm.
There are illuminated windows on the craft which is hovering over some buildings: ”Suddenly
I was aware of something. I heard a distinct male voice, perhaps of 30 years
age, with a metallic, echoing voice in normal Swedish language say: ”Sten
Lindgren, we will contact you in the future.” This communication I perceived as
inside my head, hearing. It was a very powerful voice, like someone talking to
me from one meters distance. Nothing more was said and the craft disappeared
after the communication. Later I was briefed on the technique that had been used,
especially for this transmission. They had used a device that with a sort of
electrical beam modulated the auditory nerve.” (p. 20) Sten was later told that
he had been under observation by the alien group for several years as a
preparation for open contact.
Beginning in 1965 Sten Lindgren for the first time
encounter the woman who he always referred to as BEA (not her real name). The
first meeting was probably, according to Sten, at the Ifological Society in
Stockholm: ”From the beginning I didn´t know who BEA was. I found that out
eventually. The contact with BEA was intensified and I came to realize that she
was in direct contact with an extraterrestrial group. I received a lot of
information. She confirmed that the contactees George Adamski, Howard Menger
and Daniel Fry were authentic and that they were in contact with the same group
she represented.” (pp. 21, 23) Sten Lindgren´s contact with BEA lasted only a
few years during the late 1960s and then she left the country and he never
heard from her again.
Sten Lindgren visiting my home August 8, 1971
So who was this mysterious woman that Sten Lindgren
claimed was either belonging to a group of alien visitors or in liaison with
this group? I have spent many years trying to follow up every lead in this
puzzle, interviewing all individuals who met BEA. She was not a figment of
Sten´s imagination as several witnesses who met her can testify, but who was
this enigmatic woman? From my extensive
files on this case I will present some relevant quotes that may shed some light
on this enigma.
I have interviewed four people in Sweden who met and
talked to BEA. Unfortunately I have not been able to interview Eva Jarring,
daughter of former Swedish ambassador Gunnar Jarring. According to one of the
four witnesses, Maj-Britt Gustavsson, Eva Jarring met BEA and received a
jewellery from her in the form of a Saturn symbol with a golden chain.
Maj-Britt has seen and held the jewellery in her hand. (Interview March 11,
1991). I have tried to contact Eva Jarring to get a confirmation of this
statement but has received no answer.
Maj-Britt Gustavsson was for a while a member of
Sten Lindgren´s group. Sten hade secretly photographed BEA and kept the photo
in a metal box. According to Sten this photo mysteriously disappeared. The
space people did not, for security reasons, wish to be photographed. Maj-Britt
had seen the photo. She remember her as good-looking woman in her thirties.
Blond, slender, nordic type. Probably singel. She had a car and foreign
correspondence. BEA had a strange kind of watch that somehow was connected with
her ”vibrations”. Maj-Britt regarded the messages from BEA to Sten as very much
common sense viewpoints. Maj-Britt tried many times to get more information
from Sten about BEA but he was very secretive regarding her identity and work. (Interview
March 19, 1985).
Sten Lindgren at his home in Stockholm December 25, 1984
Another member of Sten Lindgren´s group who also met
and talked to BEA was a good friend of mine who wish anonymity, partly because
his involvement in some work for an unnamed Intelligence organization (no
connection to his UFO interest). Sten used three alias for this man, Bertil,
Roger and Besic. During his lectures Sten always referred to Bertil as a contactee,
a liason man with CBH, which he vehemently denied to me and I have found no
evidence indicating such a contact. In 2010 I published an interview with
Bertil which may be of interest to Swedish readers. Bertil met BEA together
with Sten once in Stockholm. It was a short meeting and not much was said. BEA
had friendly brown eyes, slender and about 28-30 years old She spoke excellent
Swedish. Dressed in ordinary clothes and carrying a brown attache case in her
left hand. (Interviews January 2, 1987, April 27, 1990).
The third person to have met BEA is Christer Janson,
who together with Sten Lindgren founded the Intergalactical Federation in 1965.
He met BEA a couple of times and once fixed her car. Together with Sten he
visited her apartment in Stockholm but Christer has very few memories of what
transpired and is doubtful whether she was an alien visitor: ”Well, of course
the girl in the dairy can also be a marsian, that´s possible. She was very kind
and very pretty, but as for an extraterrestrial I must confess there are others
more likely.” (Interview August 11, 1986).
The last person to have met BEA is Jan Sannerstam.
He only remember her as a rather ordinary, reticent woman. (Interview January
31, 2012).
August 15, 1985. Sten Lindgren showing where he once observed a landed craft
To get an idea of Sten Lindgren´s claims regarding
BEA here is a summary of a few quotes from the many interviews and phone
conversations I have had with Sten.
Bea knew the American ambassador and did work
connected with the American Embassy. She had a very unusual special electronic camera and took pictures of Sten but he was never allowed to study the camera.
BEA once demonstrated that she could bend her
fingers as much forwards as backwards. This is a very unusual and specific
statement which I have not found in the classic contactee literature. But it
must have been mentioned in early contactee circles as this feat is described
in Cosmic Top Secret, published 1991 by William Hamilton: ”The human-like, or
Nordic, aliens bear specific differences from our own species. Several
contactees have mentioned that Nordics have very symmetrical features; their
skin is clear and almost translucent… their fingers are flexible in the
backward as well as forward direction suggesting more pliable bone tissue…” (p.
38). This reminds me of a comment by American contactee Paul Vest when meeting and
shaking hands with the alien visitor ”Bill” in 1953: ”We shook hands and I
recall being aware of the peculiar feel of his hand-as though it were without
any underlying bone structure... I recalled how odd his hand had felt in my
grasp. Looking at his hands, I noticed that his fingers were long and tapering
and so smooth that they seemed to be without joints or underlying bone
structure.” (Paul Vest, Venusians Walk Our Streets, Mystic Magazine, August
1954, no. 5).
There is a UFO base used by the alien group about
twenty Swedish miles from Stockholm. It is rather small and can harbour two or
three craft.
Bea confirmed that George Adamski and Howard Menger
were authentic contacts. She once browsed in Menger´s book From Outer Space to
You and commented that there were two levels in the book. The Moon pictures
were not authentic. Bea also once made underlinings of what was important in
George Adamski´s Inside the Space Ships.
Sten Lindgren lecturing
Sten Lindgren is convinced that he in 1964, together
with his friend Bertil, was taken aboard a bell-shaped craft and flown to a
carrier ship. In the autumn of 1964 Sten Lindgren and Bertil went by car to a
mine called Yxkullsgruvan in Västmanland, Sweden. The reason for this excursion
was to find Lapis Lingua, sometimes called the psychic stone. The mine was
closed and they didn´t find any Lapis Lingua but on their way home a cigarshaped
mothership and several small bell-shaped craft appear over the car. One of the
small craft makes a landing close to the road and Sten and Bertil are led
aboard and are then taken to the mothership. Here they meet a group of five or
six people, among them two women and a man dressed in a suit. The spacepeople
ask Sten if they are allowed to erase his memory of this visit. He believes he
was somehow programmed on this occasion. Sten and Bertil are then led back to
the car and continue the trip to Stockholm. According to Sten there were
several hours missing in their journey. They came home very late. This is
corroborated by Bertil. but he has no memory of any UFO observation or contact.
Sten was later put under hypnosis by an unknown physician and then became aware
of what had happened during the missing hours.
Sten Lindgren interviewed in the Swedish daily Västmanlands Läns tidning March 17, 1994
Looking back today on my two years involvement with
Sten Lindgren and the Intergalactical Federation I feel priviliged for this life
experience. To have been a member of a very unique contactee group, sharing the
members mindset and activities have been an invaluable asset in understanding
contactee cases. It was also an excellent lesson in what esotericists would
call discrimination or development of the critical faculty. What Sten told me in
interviews and personal conversations was often different from what he claimed
in his lectures, writings TV- and radio appearances. His activities and statements were sometimes fantastic and without
foundation. In 1985 Sten told me during a private conversation that he felt disappointed, abandoned and used by the space people. After BEA had left Sweden he received no information and planned to end his UFO activity.
So what was the real truth behind the enigmatic BEA? I have no definite answer. It was either a result of Sten´s ability to project fantasies on ordinary people and events or perhaps he really was involved in a psychological contact experiment initiated by a benevolent alien group? Sten Lindgren was, and is, a gentle soul, a mystic, idealist and a man of true goodwill. Even if his contact claims were fantasies his philosophy was a worthy mixture of contactee philosophy and esotericism. He was a deep inspiration for my contactee research and involvement in the UFO movement. Whatever the truth of his stories he was a positive catalyst in my life. In his own special way a guide and mentor that put me on a quest that still continue. For this I will be forever grateful.