In the 3rd quarter 1999, issue of the Australasian Ufologist (Vol.3, No.3, “UFO Abductions & Science: A case study of Strange Evidence”) I described in some detail the strange case of Peter Khoury and his 1992 experience with what appears to be two female entities--one with blue eyes and wispy blonde hair, and the other one with dark hair, dark skin and an Asian appearance. As a result of this encounter, blonde hair samples apparently linked to the blonde entity were recovered and were subsequently examined in the world’s first PCR (Polymerase Chair Reaction) DNA profiling study of biological material implicated in an alien encounter. My forthcoming book Hair of the Alien: DNA and other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions, scheduled to be published by Paraview Pocket Books (a division of Simon & Schuster) in the US during July, 2005, uses the Khoury case as a potent touchstone, and examines evidence in cases from diverse locations, including the United States, South America, Africa, China, and my home country of Australia. The book should become available in Australia later in the year or it can be purchased via outlets like www.amazon.com

The bizarre events that centered on Khoury provided an extraordinary opportunity to assess the reality of abduction experiences. Forensic science was confronting the alien abduction controversy. Could a DNA mediated, forensic approach help determine the reality of the abduction experience? If these bizarre episodes occur at a physical level, at least as we understand it, then a DNA analysis of the hair sample -the “alien hair” would provide us with a unique opportunity to apply some real science to this controversial area. This would be a rigorous test of the credibility of Peter Khoury’s extraordinary claim.

The focused DNA profiling technique we used in the Khoury case goes to the very heart of one of the key claims behind the theorized abduction program: alien/human hybridization. It provides an opportunity for testing the credibility of the claim that aliens are creating hybrids composed of both alien and human genetic material. If such claims are true, there should be some compatibility in the DNA of alleged alien specimens, but some anomalies not readily reconciled with known human DNA variability should also be in evidence. Indeed, our original analysis confirmed the alien hair came from someone who was biologically close to normal human genetics, but of a highly unusual racial type.

Together, two distinct phases of DNA analyses undertaken on the hair sample recovered from Khoury’s bizarre experience provide a striking array of genetic findings. They appear to evince advanced DNA techniques and anomalies of the sort we are only now discovering, or starting to make sense of, in mainstream biotechnology.

The blonde alien hair revealed an extraordinary anomaly. Depending on whether we analyzed the hard hair shaft or the soft root, its mitochondrial DNA appeared to be of two different kinds. From the lower hair shaft we again obtained a rare Chinese mitochondrial DNA substitution. But from soft root tissue, we obtained a novel Basque/Gaelic type mitochondrial DNA, which had a rare substitution for that racial grouping along with several other characteristic substitutions.

This in itself was a stunning result. The testing methodology meant that prosaic explanations such as contamina-tion or laboratory error were ruled out. In any normal human DNA, we should obtain consistent DNA irrespective of where the sample comes from, be it hair, blood, or other tissue. The biochemists could not explain this strange anomaly. There was no evidence of a somewhat rare DNA phenomenon called heteroplasmy (where two different mitochondrial DNAs rarely appear within the same sample, usually a result of coexistence of mutant mitochondrial and “wild type” DNA molecules within a cell or tissue). Heteroplasmy, which is more readily found in human hair than other parts of the body, refers to single base transitions in the mitochondrial DNA. For example, G to A, or C to T. They are not big changes. Environmental exposure and aging can be factors. A research article in Nature Biotechnology in 2000 that described cutting edge hybrid cloning techniques to treat hair loss provided a clue. We may have encountered evidence of an extraordinary alien analogue of these techniques in Khoury’s encounter. Perhaps even more controversially, we also have findings of nuclear DNA suggestive of possible viral resistance to HIV-AIDS for example – referred to as the CCR5 deletion factor. The implications are startling because less than 1 % of the population has this deleted CCR5 factor, which makes the already unusual hair sample even more provocative. And the CCR5 mutation occurred only about 5,000 years ago, further adding to the intrigue. Still, I must note that the limited nuclear DNA results were insufficient to achieve a completely clear result on this matter.

The DNA forensic work has given us an extraordinary level of certainty that the July 1992 encounter actually occurred. All the evidence argues that the experience and the anomalous hair are not consistent with a hoax, a delusion, or other fantasy. The hair sample PCR DNA study was conducted by Ph.D. biochemists, well established in their field, with well regarded peer reviewed publications and research in mainstream biochemistry. Their study was conducted in a professional private biochemistry laboratory. Other DNA studies conducted by the same team on other evidence, such as samples from encounter cases on the midnorth coast of New South Wales and Queensland, an alleged alien claw from California, and the dress worn by Betty Hill during her famous 1961 abduction in New Hampshire, have not uncovered evidence as interesting as that found in the Khoury study. Independent scientists associated with the research on some of this other evidence were confident and impressed with the quality of the biochemists’ work in those studies and the original Khoury research.

Without this physical evidence, it would be tempting to attribute Khoury’s 1992 encounter to the doctor prescribed medication Peter was taking for a head injury. However, the hair evidence, which ultimately yielded unusual DNA re¬sults, supporting rather than conflicting with the reality of the encounter, cannot be ascribed to hallucination. During his extended period of medication Peter only had this strange experience once. Another similar encounter with apparently the same strange women, some nine months earlier, only recently clarified, occurred without the benefit of medication, injury, or stress as possible factors. In this case no physical evidence such as hair was left behind.

There are some remarkable similarities be¬tween the strange blonde haired woman who coupled with Brazilian Antonio Villas Boas in 1957 and Khoury’s blonde interloper, though differ¬ences are also apparent. While Khoury didn’t recall seeing pubic and underarm hair on the woman, DNA profiles that emerged from the shaft and root of the hair yielded the rare Asian Mongoloid DNA (usually associated with dark hair, but found in this blonde hair) and the rare Basque or Gaelic DNA (usually associated with orange or dark hair color, but again revealed in the blonde hair).

The field of genetics may offer UFO research important genetic sign¬posts by providing possible genetic markers of significance to help unravel the reality behind abduction claims. Perhaps Khoury’s two females are the “hybrids” thought by some to be the goal of an alien genetic project. But the concept of hybrids in abduction accounts was until recently difficult to reconcile with our understanding of the limita¬tions of interspecies breeding. Indeed, if we are dealing with a vastly technologically superior species that could be biologically different from us, hybrids of aliens and humans would seem scientifically improbable and logically implausible. On the other hand, if the aliens have mastered space or interdimensional travel, arguably they would have already conquered the biochemical barriers that normally bar interspecies breeding. But the pace of development in the fields of genetics and biochemistry in the last decade has extended the horizon of this debate substantially. Indeed, transgenics, the transfer of foreign genetic material into other genomes, perhaps addresses the logical interspecies barrier argument against human alien hybrid claims.

I certainly would be more comfortable if dozens of samples like that from Khoury’s experience existed and if their testing revealed some consistency of results. But for now we have only this anomalous sample, which has provided us with a strange DNA profile. Meanwhile, our findings will continue to be subjected to review and debate. While the Khoury case confirms the utility of the DNA forensic approach, the real challenge ahead for researchers is to determine if these anomalies are both valid and significant. To do this, abduction researchers should cooperate in a testing program focused on DNA profiling. Testing of a significant number of legitimate samples would allow us to validate or invalidate the apparent anomalies so far documented. Such a strategy could help us determine whether the aliens are a biological reality and if indeed any of them are visiting our planet and abducting humans.
The course I have argued for here is something of a potentially potent DNA paradigm, one with a strange alien perspective. It has its roots firmly in science. In my book “HAIR of the ALIEN - DNA and other Forensic Evidence of Alien Abduction” I focus on this DNA forensic approach to alien abduction evidence. While prominence is given to the Peter Khoury “alien hair” case from Sydney Australia, other cases and experiences from around the world are also examined. While the validity of this evidence will be debated, my primary focus is to promote a forensic scientific approach to examing the alien abduction controversy, concentrating on the DNA approach where compelling biological evidence is available.
Part of this approach involves examining DNA for evidence of “non-Darwinian patterns”, which might reflect extraterrestrial or intelligent influence - a sign of artificial evolution or intervention. The Anomaly Physical Evidence Group (APEG) have been examining this intriguing area focusing in part on unusual mutations, polymorphisms, our “junk” DNA (or perhaps more appropriately “regulatory” DNA) and other aspects. Some intriguing areas are being looked at.

Professor Paul Davies of the Macquarie University based Australian Centre for Astrobiology has speculated that some sort of pattern (along the mathematical type of code described in Carl Sagan’s novel (and the film) “Contact” might be encoded in our “junk DNA”. While this sounds like science fiction, particularly if mathematical or symbolic codes are being sort, the idea is not as wild as it sounds. I briefly discussed this speculation with Paul Davies during a Macquarie University post graduate open day on campus on April 12 2005. He indicated his “junk DNA - ET evidence” speculations were meant to be serious. He felt the idea was no less serious than the idea of seeking out ET “radio signals” (i.e. SETI which he agreed had not delivered any credible evidence so far) so why not try something that is far easier to do and is potentially well within our current technological reach - searching for coded clues within our own DNA. I mentioned to him that this intersected with some work I had been focusing on and he expressed interest in seeing my book. Whether this develops beyond mere tokenism remains to be seen.

Science can help us navigate the bumpy crossroads the UFO subject is now navigating through. Carl Sagan, in one of his last books argued that science could be a candle in the dark “of a demon-haunted world”, Sagan’s take on a world too enamoured with dubious beliefs. However I firmly believe, and the preliminary results certainly support, that science, particularly with a DNA forensic focus can help light the way through this complex and engnimatic subject. Ultimately it will reveal more about ourselves and perhaps a lot about the UFO reality that seems to be intruding into our world.

Bill Chalker and the Anomaly Physical Evidence Group (APEG) - can be contacted at P.O. Box 42 West Pennant Hills, NSW, AUSTRALIA, 2125 or at bill_c@bigpond.com. For updates, commentary and further research you can also visit: http://theozfiles.blogspot.com and www.theozfiles.com