Aliens or Angels? The Clarke Sisters’ UFO Encounter

Show Transcript

You know, you think you know what nuns do at eleven thirty p.m., right? But for the two sisters in Dubuque, Iowa, no matter what we can try and guess, high chances your answer might be wrong. The crazy part is that monks, nuns, priests, and those in the clergy have been seeing and documenting their UFO sightings for centuries. I'm Christina Gomez, and we'll be covering all of that and more on this episode of UFO Case Studies.

Hello and welcome. I'm happy that everyone is catching this live. I'm very excited for this episode. We're going to be covering a lot with the main focus being on the Clark sisters because there is some very interesting stuff to it. And this story came and left. It was published in an article and then it got buried.

On August 18, 1965, at 11:30 p.m., it started like any other day in Dubuque, Iowa. Sister Mary Justa was preparing her nightly routine at the Clark Church when an unusual light caught her attention through the window.

Sister Mary Xavier, chairman of the college's speech and drama department, joined her colleague at the window saying, "Hey, did you see that strange thing?" and the sister said, "Yeah, that's so weird, what is going on?"

They did something that you probably wouldn't imagine - they didn't pray immediately. Instead, they immediately grabbed their binoculars to see what was going on. These binoculars were just casually sitting on the nightstand.

Through these binoculars, they observed something strange hovering in the night sky at 11:30 p.m. According to them, the object displayed a distinctive "banana or cigar-like shape" (in their words). But what captured their attention was the unusual pink light emanating from the end, which was reminiscent of a torch's flame.

To gauge the size, because these women are smart, they compared it to a familiar reference point, which is the red warning light on a radio tower. They tried to figure out how big this thing was or how far away it was. The comparison suggested that this merely wasn't a distant light, but something of considerable size.

The object's behavior defied conventional explanation. For five minutes, it remained perfectly still right next to the radio tower. Then without warning, it began what the sisters described as "dancing about the sky" or "dancing in the sky," executing movements that no known aircraft of 1965 could achieve. The entire encounter lasted thirty minutes before the object gradually moved westward and disappeared from view.

What makes this sighting particularly compelling was the environmental context. The sky hung heavy with clouds following an earlier rain shower - conditions that should have limited the visibility of conventional aircraft or even celestial bodies like Venus. Yet both sisters maintained a clear view of the object throughout their observation.

Perhaps most intriguing was the fact that there was a local reaction of animals. While this was happening at eleven thirty at night, the animals were going crazy, very specifically the dogs. As the object hovered overhead, dogs throughout the entire neighborhood became increasingly agitated - a phenomenon repeatedly documented in UFO encounters across the decades.

The sisters' professional standing at Clark College, combined with their measured and detailed observations, set their sighting apart from some other UFO reports of the era. These weren't individuals seeking attention or prone to flights of fancy - they're nuns. If anything, they want to be left in the background. And notice their immediate thought was not, "Oh my gosh, it is a message from an angel. Let's start praying." That wasn't their mentality at all in 1965. They were skeptical and grabbed the binoculars first before making any conclusions.

If I were in their shoes, what would be going through my mind with the background of an education but also faith? Here are some questions I thought of:

What is our duty as nuns in response to this? The sisters might have reflected on their responsibility to their religious community and their students. Should they report the sighting to the church, share it with others, or keep it completely private? They told their report to the Telegraph, which suggests they wrestled with this thought of balancing faith and the need to document the event.

Is this a test of our faith or a call to trust God more deeply? Catholic teachings encourage us that when facing something unknown, to either talk to God about it or to rationalize it amongst themselves. The sisters might have asked if the UFO was a challenge to their beliefs, testing their trust in God, or an invitation to see it as part of a divine mystery that they weren't meant to fully grasp.

The only data that we have about the UFO sighting is this newspaper clipping, which is a bummer. It's really strange that nobody wanted to touch the case after it happened. There are many times when these UFO reports are mentioned to the world, and there are those that are very eager to either be the first to drop the story or to research the encounter. But this was a one-and-done deal. This one article came out, and it's hard to find extra information online. There have not been any books that I've come across that document this case.

However, the Clark College incident was not an isolated event, but rather part of a larger pattern emerging across Iowa and neighboring states. Just two weeks before the sisters' encounter, law enforcement officers in Coralville, about seventy miles south of where this took place, reported similar unexplained lights maneuvering in ways that defied conventional aviation capabilities.

Here's where it gets wild: Sister Xavier had mentioned that the objects she saw exactly matched the description of another UFO sighting earlier that summer by a student at the University of Kansas. Sister Xavier was taking courses at that university at the time, but said that she felt that when the student had had that UFO sighting in the summer, "that boy was just imagining things." She was at Kansas University when a student had a UFO sighting, and the first thing she thought was that boy's imagining things.

Why is this relevant? If we look at this from a religious perspective, where people are always trying to find meanings in everything and messages from God, couldn't that be interpreted as a message of "Why did you not believe the poor child? You will now suffer the same fate." After this article was released, she was also ridiculed - "How could you have seen a UFO? You're crazy. You're out of your mind. You're drinking too much of that holy wine."

Other Religious UFO Sightings Through History

St. Albans Abbey (January 1254)

In January of 1254 at the St. Albans Abbey, according to the report by a monk, under an eight-day-old moon, he documented a large ship elegantly shaped and of marvelous color floating above the abbey. This wasn't a casual observation. Medieval monks served as the scientific observers of their time. They were educated. They could read, which was huge in 1254 specifically. So not only were they teaching the word of God, but they were also teaching basic education as well. These guys were deemed very smart, very trustworthy, and very honest.

This was also during the time when they had to look at the sky at all times, recording astronomical events. In this case, the report from 1254 described a "large ship that was elegantly shaped" with beautiful colors.

Buddhist Monk Shu Yun (1884)

Six centuries later, in 1884, Chan Buddhist monk Shu Yun witnessed an extraordinary aerial display at the Daolu Peak in China. In his autobiography, "Empty Cloud," he talks about his UFO sighting, which he described as a large ball of light that split into ten smaller orbs. These lights moved with apparent intelligence, some rising and falling while others crossed between mountain peaks. He referred to these lights in his book as the "wisdom lamps."

Shu Yun lived to be about 120 years old. In the 1800s, these monks held a very similar status as they did in the 1200s. They were not only teaching Buddhist teachings but were also educated people who could read. His two-night observation eliminated common misidentification possibilities. It didn't just happen once - it happened twice.

The Fatima Incident (October 13, 1917)

On October 13, 1917, in Fatima, Portugal, about 50,000-70,000 people gathered to witness what has become known as the "miracle of the sun." The crowd reported seeing the sun transform into a silver disk emitting multicolored lights and moving in a zigzag pattern across the sky. Father Ignacio also observed the phenomenon from twelve miles away, confirming the event's scope.

The Fatima incident produced physical effects. Witnesses reported their rain-soaked clothes (it had rained just before this incident) and the muddy ground dried instantly. The Catholic Church declared this event worthy of belief in 1930.

For this particular case, it was seen as a religious event. Three children claimed they were visited by a light and were told to come back a few weeks later for a miracle. The apparition instructed them to pray the rosary every single day. The children told everyone, claiming they saw what they believed was the Virgin Mary. Initially, no one believed these children, but they kept telling the same consistent story.

On October 13, thousands of people gathered at the location. It started raining, leaving everyone drenched and cold. Then suddenly, a beautiful bright light appeared from a hilltop. The entity told the children she was the "Goddess of Rosary" and wanted a chapel built where she was standing. Thousands witnessed this, and afterward, their clothes were completely dry despite having been soaked by rain moments before. The Catholic Church declared this a miracle.

Father William Booth Gill (June 26, 1959)

Father William Booth Gill's case from Papua New Guinea is intense and significant in UFO history. On June 26, 1959, at 6:45 p.m., Father Gill, a respected Anglican minister and Brisbane University graduate, observed a disc-shaped object with a wide base and a dome top.

Father Gill and 37 other witnesses observed human-like figures on the craft's deck. Shortly after, they saw an electric blue spotlight emanating from the object, and the craft ascended to approximately 300-500 feet - close enough for clear observation. Father Gill waved at the figures, and these beings waved back. This interaction was witnessed by dozens, including mission staff and local villagers.

The encounter continued the following evening, with a nurse first spotting the craft at 6 p.m. Father Gill documented everything in an eleven-page, single-spaced report signed by over 25 witnesses.

Dr. J. Allen Hynek interviewed Father Gill fifteen years later and found him very credible. This case was part of a larger UFO wave across the Pacific that summer. Just two weeks later, a Pan Am Airways crew reported a similar craft 900 miles northeast of Hawaii, while witnesses in New Zealand and Australia reported comparable sightings.

The British Air Ministry attempted to dismiss the case as "just a reflection of clouds." Dr. Donald Menzel suggested Father Gill saw Venus because he wasn't wearing his glasses. However, Father Gill had documented in his report that Venus was visible at the same time as the craft, effectively refuting this explanation.

Buddhist Temple in China (2015)

In 2015, at a Buddhist temple in China, a CCTV camera captured something interesting during a rainstorm. The security footage showed a shape-shifting object that triggered the building's burglar alarm at around 11 p.m.

Abbot Shi Xingkong and fellow monks discovered the footage during a routine security review. The object displayed characteristics that parallel historical religious UFO encounters. It morphed between multiple forms, changing shape from a flying saucer to an apple and even resembling a sitting Buddha.

There have been reports of UFOs shape-shifting, potentially appearing differently to different observers. At a Buddhist temple, it makes sense they might perceive a sitting Buddha rather than a Christian figure. According to the monks who saw the CCTV footage, they observed the object transforming between a flying saucer, an apple, and a sitting Buddha.

Not only did this object shape-shift, but it reportedly entered the temple hall for approximately ten seconds before departing.

An interesting pattern emerges: both the Clark sisters' sighting and the 2015 Buddhist temple incident happened around 11 p.m. and after a thunderstorm. The Fatima miracle in 1917 also occurred after a thunderstorm, though during daytime.

One theory suggests that these entities, whatever they might be, manifest better after storms due to the electrons in the air. It's only a theory, but worth considering.

These encounters span diverse faiths - Christianity, Buddhism, and beyond - suggesting that whatever these phenomena are, they're not confined to any single religious framework. Whether witnessed by medieval monks or modern surveillance systems, the core characteristics remain consistent: objects that defy conventional physics, display intelligent behavior, and interact with religious spaces in unexplained ways.

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