The most documented and most disputed alien-contact case in history: half a century of photos, films, metal samples, prophecies and a UFO religion. We gather all of it — what is claimed and what skeptical science answered, with the source in plain sight.
Eduard Albert Meier, nicknamed "Billy", was born on 3 February 1937 in Bülach (canton of Zürich, Switzerland). The nickname came from an American friend who thought his cowboy dress recalled Billy the Kid. In 1965 he lost his left arm in a bus accident in Turkey. Since the 1970s he has lived on an old farm in Schmidrüti that he and his followers turned into the "Semjase Silver Star Center," seat of his FIGU organization.
On that biography — a one-armed Swiss farmer with no formal schooling — stands what his followers call the greatest body of alien-contact evidence ever assembled, and what most scientists, skeptics and ufologists consider the most famous hoax in ufology. Both readings sit on top of every piece of the case.
The contacts
What is claimedMeier claims contact with beings from other worlds since age five (1942), when an old man named Sfath instructed him. After him came Asket (1953–1964), whom he describes as from another universe. And on 28 January 1975 the "official" phase began: face-to-face contacts with the Plejaren, above all Semjase (presented as Sfath's granddaughter), plus Ptaah and Quetzal. From those conversations come the "Contact Reports" (Kontaktberichte): thousands of pages he says he transcribes on the visitors' own instruction.
Skeptical viewNone of the supernatural side of the story is independently verifiable: by definition, the contacts are Meier's claims. The chronology, names and dates come from his own organization. The most testable details — photos and films of the craft — are where the case could be examined, and that is where it breaks (see below).
Semjase and the Plejaren
What is claimedMeier insists his visitors are "Plejaren," not "Pleiadians." Per his account, they come not from the visible Pleiades cluster — too young, he says, to host life — but from the system Plejares, set "a fraction of a second away in space and time," in an adjacent dimension. Their administrative planet would be Erra, in the Taygeta system. They form a Federation of human peoples related to earthly humanity by an ancient common origin. Meier frames the name change as a deliberate trap: the Plejaren let the term "Pleiadian" spread so that imitators would adopt it and expose themselves.
Skeptical viewAll this cosmology — distances, dimensions, the Federation, the parallel "DAL" universe Asket supposedly comes from — comes only from Meier/FIGU sources. The "Plejaren vs. Pleiadian" distinction is backed by no independent source; it is part of the narrative, not a datum. Read it as case doctrine, not astronomical fact.
The photos and films
This is the heart of the case. FIGU holds that between 1964 and 1979 Meier captured 1,476 photographs and 34 films of "beamships" (Strahlschiffe), plus sound recordings. The most famous series are those at Hasenböl-Langenberg (1976) — the craft beside the tree, in broad daylight — and the so-called "Wedding Cake" beamship, photographed in the early 1980s (sources date the most famous series to 1981).
What is claimedDefenders — led by ufologist Wendelle Stevens and publisher Genesis III (Brit and Lee Elders) — argue the photos were taken in a pre-Photoshop era, by a one-armed man without technical means, and that a "computer analysis" (attributed to Jim Dilettoso) proved they showed large, real objects, not models.
Skeptical viewThe weight of evidence points to a hoax. In 1977 Ground Saucer Watch analyzed 25 photos and called them "crude and grandiose" fakes. The famous "computer analysis" collapsed: De Anza Systems never authenticated anything — its staff stated Dilettoso was the one who asked to add the "telltale" colors — and the academic credentials Dilettoso claimed could not be confirmed. Meier's ex-wife, Kalliope, said in 1997 the craft were models made from trash-can lids, carpet tacks and household objects; and Meier himself admitted to author Gary Kinder that he used models "to recreate scenes."
What is claimedMeier says Semjase gave him metal samples. In 1979, sent by Wendelle Stevens, they were examined by Marcel Vogel, an IBM scientist. In a recorded session Vogel described structures "within structures," the presence of the rare element thulium, and a material that was "metal and crystal at once," ending with the line defenders repeat: "with any technology I know of, we could not achieve this on this planet."
Skeptical viewThree problems. First, Vogel was a chemist with an honorary doctorate, not a metallurgist with a PhD, and spent his final years on "crystal healing"; the analysis was arranged by the case's own promoter. Second, the favorable sample vanished before any independent re-analysis — both sides agree on that fact — so no material remains to verify. Third, the skeptic group IIG reproduced the "exotic findings" with ordinary terrestrial materials: the supposed thulium matches common aluminum, and the "impossible spectrum" is a known instrument artifact (Bremsstrahlung continuum).
The prophecies
What is claimedThe best-known prophetic material is the "Henoch Prophecies," dated by Meier to 1987 and widely circulated in 2003: they announce a Third World War, uprisings, "888 days of hell" and collapse. Defenders add alleged scientific anticipations: Jupiter's rings and Io's volcanism "before" Voyager (1979), Saturn storms, the asteroid Apophis…
Skeptical viewThe problem running through all of it is dating: the "predictions" are measured against the date the group itself assigns to the contact, almost never against an independent, datable publication. The scientific anticipations repackage already-available knowledge (the Pioneer 10/11 probes of 1973–74; Saturn storms' known ~30-year cycle) or are vague enough to fit afterward. The Third World War announced for the turn of the century did not happen, and the clause that "humanity can change it" makes the prophecies impossible to refute. Researchers have also noted parallels with earlier prophecies (Anton Johansson, St. Malachy).
FIGU and the doctrine
Around the contacts, Meier founded around 1975 the FIGU (Free Community of Interests for the Border and Spiritual Sciences and Ufological Studies), seated at the Semjase Silver Star Center with national groups worldwide. In scholarly terms it is a UFO religion / new religious movement centered on a spiritual teaching.
What is claimedThe doctrine (Geisteslehre, "teaching of the spirit") centers on an impersonal "Creation" governed by natural laws — not a God to be worshipped — the reincarnation of an immortal "spirit-form," and personal responsibility, with overpopulation a central concern. Its texts include the "Goblet of Truth" (Kelch der Wahrheit) and the "Talmud Jmmanuel," where Meier claims Jesus's true name was "Jmmanuel."
Skeptical viewThe provenance of the "Talmud Jmmanuel" — Aramaic scrolls supposedly found in 1963 with a priest, Isa Rashid — has never been verified. And from within: between 2014 and 2016 some 11 core members resigned, several alleging cult-like dynamics. Treat these criticisms with the same source caution as the rest.
The controversy
Two episodes mark the case. The most damaging: the photos of the "aliens" Asket and Nera turned out to show dancers from the Dean Martin Show (the "Golddiggers"). Meier published them as genuine until skeptic Kal Korff exposed the match; in 1998 Meier changed his explanation: the "men in black" had faked the images to discredit him — a defense critics consider impossible to refute.
The second: Wendelle Stevens, the case's chief investigator and promoter, was imprisoned from 1983 to 1988 after pleading guilty to child abuse — a fact partisan sources tend to frame as a "conspiracy." Worth keeping in view when weighing his work.
An ethical note, for honesty: researchers have flagged antisemitic components in some of Meier's prophecies. We record it as what it is — a documented criticism — without amplifying or hiding it.
Skeptical viewThe mainstream consensus — science, skeptics and almost all ufology — is that the photos, films and samples are a hoax. A core of defenders (FIGU, Michael Horn / theyfly) still holds otherwise, arguing no one has reproduced the entire body of evidence under the same conditions. Some skeptic "retractions" in circulation come only from partisan sources and are unconfirmed.
The cultural footprint
Beyond the debate, Meier's imagery seeped into pop culture. The most concrete, documented case: the iconic "I Want to Believe" poster on Mulder's office wall in The X-Files used a photo of a Meier beamship, without permission. A lawsuit forced the show to change the background from the fourth season on. The original photos were eventually auctioned at Sotheby's.
Why it is here. The Meier case is the perfect example of what Nodriza does differently: we neither sell it as proof nor dismiss it with mockery. We place what is claimed next to what skeptical science answered, cite the source of each, and let you decide with the evidence in front of you. Here nothing is invented.
