lpetrich
Contributor
Reinhold O. Schmidt (1897 - 1974) was a UFO contactee, someone who claimed that he had had close encounters of the friendly kind with extraterrestrial visitors. Contactees must be distinguished from abductees, who do not have such a friendly aspects in their encounters.the claimed ufocontacts of Reinhold Schmidt describes his claimed adventures in detail.
Carl Sagan discussed him in his book Intelligent Life in the Universe : Carl Sagan : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (1966). In 1961, ROS was put on trial for fraudulent business dealings, and the prosecution called CS as an expert witness to discuss the plausibility of ROS's claims. He described ROS under the pseudonym of Helmut Winckler in the section "Extraterrestrial intelligence as a psychological projective test". This was likely CS's first public appearance.
ROS had first encountered his ET friends on a road near Kearney, Nebraska, and he discovered that they look human, that they speak English and German, and that they come from planet Saturn. They gave him several rides, on one occasion taking his car with him. His alleged ET friends showed some underwater Russian missile bases, and they also fixed the Earth's spin-axis tilt after it had gone off by a dangerous 6 degrees. CS noted that such a discrepancy would be very apparent to astronomers, who aim their telescopes by assuming that they know where the Earth's spin axis points. ROS claimed that he was only relaying information. ROS also described going to the Great Pyramid of Egypt, and visiting some subterranean rooms there. In them was a small flying saucer, a big wooden cross, and a crown of thorns. All from a visit by one of the ET's some 2000 years ago.
The ET's claimed to have discovered deposits of gold, platinum, and uranium ore, though they never told ROS where they were. They did tell ROS about the location of a special kind of quartz, a kind that cures cancer. But it was in a mine that was owned by someone else, a mine that was actively producing quartz. It also turned out that ROS had visited that mine some years before.
He promoted that special quartz, and he was supported by elderly, wealthy widows and the like. But a combination of money borrowed and not repaid, and affection promised but not delivered, is what provoked the criminal charges against him and the trial of him.
The Assistant District Attorney introduced CS as a surprise witness, and he cross-examined CS about conditions on Saturn. The visible parts are very cold and the planet's atmosphere is not very breathable for us. Then the defense attorney cross-examined him. Might the planet be warmer further down? Could well be, CS conceded. Might there be molecular oxygen (dioxygen) further down? CS noted chemical equilibrium: hydrogen and oxygen have a tendency to react with each other. The DA noted that these are indirect arguments and asked how we know that there is no free oxygen at Saturn. CS conceded that indirect evidence is what we must work with.
ROS was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to prison for some years.
But the people in the court got to see a movie that ROS had made about his adventures with his alleged ET friends. Also, during court recesses, CS discussed those adventures with ROS, and CS was not sure whether ROS sincerely believed them or whether ROS was consciously faking them.
CS then concluded that UFO contactism was a sort of latter-day religion with the ET contacts the deities.