Santa Bárbara d’Oeste is a small city located in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, about 160 kilometers from the city capital of São Paulo.
The city is recognized for its sugar, alcohol, machinery and textile industries. But in 1995 it became recognized for something completely unexpected and quite bizarre… Close Encounters with Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
More than 30 cases were reported from July until September that year around the small town.
The most famous and incredible UFO encounter during that period of time in Santa Bárbara d’Oeste was that of the 29 year old businessman Edson Roberto Marcelo.
On September 24, 1995, at around one AM, Edson Roberto Marcelo was driving down highway SP 306, which connects the cities of Santa Bárbara d’Oeste and Capivari.
It was a routine drive, he was returning from some business in Capivari to his city of Santa Bárbara d’Oeste, something which he had done hundreds of times.
But on this occasion, he saw something of unusual brilliance approaching him from the right side of the road, and this was anything but routine.
As the businessman watched the approach of the light get closer, the interior of his car, a blue Chevy Caravan, lit up as if it was daylight inside it. And then suddenly, Edson felt intense heat surrounding him inside the car.
His mind raced to find an explanation as to what was happening to him at that moment, but before it could, he blacked out and his car continued down SP 306, heading for a certain and terrible disaster as he lay unconscious in it.
When Edson regained consciousness from his encounter with the brightly lit and hot light, the first thing he saw was a truck speeding towards him and his car with its headlights blinking frantically for him to get out of the way.
Without thinking, Edson instinctively grabbed the steering wheel and swerved out of the way of the oncoming truck, avoiding a horrible crash.
Once out of harm’s way, Edson regained his composure and control of his car, looked around at his surroundings and encountered a new problem.
He was not in the same location where he had passed out in the car. He was eight kilometers farther down the road and 40 minutes had gone by since he had passed out. And to make matters even worse, he had no memory how he got there.
Edson’s mind flew into overdrive, trying to come up with an explanation of how he was able to travel eight kilometers down a narrow two-lane highway, filled with curves, while unconscious without any damage to him or the car.
He also wondered how travelling eight kilometres could take 40 minutes when it usually to him only five.
In a matter of seconds, the businessman from Santa Bárbara d’Oeste realized that there was something terribly wrong.
Forty minutes were missing from his life and he could not remember what had happened to him during that time.
And if that wasn’t enough, he also could not remember what he had done several hours previous to his encounter with the bright light. Edson was frightened and confused.
As Santa Bárbara d’Oeste was in frenzy over the UFO encounters that had been taking place since July of that year, the UFO research group CEPEX (Centro de Estudos e Pesquisas Exológicas – Center of Exobiology Studies and Research) had a constant presence in the area, conducting research and interviewing witnesses to UFO encounters there.
When Edson got back to Santa Bárbara d’Oeste and recounted his story to family and friends, his family immediately contacted CEPEX.
The CEPEX team of investigators met with Edson in Santa Bárbara d’Oeste and found him in a terribly frightened state of being, plus his eyes were extremely irritated.
On examining Edson, the CEPEX researchers also noted that Edson had two circular marks on his left wrist, a red mark on his face near his right eye, which remains until today, puffiness around his eyes, which were extremely sensitive to light, a strong buzzing sound in his right ear and some protrusions behind his ears which caused him pain.
As for Edson’s car, specialists noted that the rubber steering wheel cover on the steering wheel had greatly expanded, probably due to the intense heat from the mysterious hot light, and several lights on the Caravan were burnt out, which the electrician could find no motive for it.
For the next several days, Edson, who was in a state of shock, stayed inside his home under sedation. He felt physically and mentally ill. His mind was constantly trying to find an answer for what happened to him on September 24, 1995. But over the days, no answer came.
Desperate to discover the truth of his encounter with the burning light on highway SP 306, Edson sought help from Dr. José Antonio Oliveira, a psychiatrist from the city of Campinas.
As Edson began treatment with Dr. Oliveira in November of 1995, it looked as if the mentally tortured businessman would now get answers to his questions about his bizarre encounter with the other-worldly light. His missing time would now be accounted for, or so Edson thought.
The first session with Dr. Oliveira began with great expectations of finding answers for Edson’s missing time, but ended without giving any fruit at all.
It was a frustrating experience for the businessman from Santa Barbara d’Oeste, but he continued on.
The second session brought more of the same as the first session, no answers, as would the third and fourth sessions.
All Edson was left with after seeking Dr. Oliveira’s help was a feeling of frustration and a dark spot in his memory. Not at all what he had hoped for. But as frustrated and dejected as Edson was at that point, his hunger to find an answer to his missing time was much more powerful and he continued with his sessions.
The breakthrough finally came in the fifth session towards the end of 1995. Edson was in a deep trance when he began to describe the sensation of being taken through the interior of a chamber by two humanoid figures. He described seeing a bright orange half-moon shaped control panel.
Dr. Oliveira reported that during Edson’s hypnosis session there was no indication that the businessman had suffered any kind of hostilities toward him by the humanoid creatures.
Quite the contrary, his abductor’s seemed to try a communicate with him. And Edson mumbled words back to his captors which sounded like ‘querer‘ and ‘saber‘, which translated into English means ‘to want’ and ‘to know’.
After mumbled out these words, he spontaneously came out of the hypnotic trance. “This type of psychic block is natural in those who’ve lived through what are considered supernatural experiences,” says Dr. Oliveira.
After Edson’s fifth session with Dr. Oliveira, the answers he sought to his missing time on SP 306 began to appear, which brought a sense of relief to his mind about his other-worldly missing time encounter on September 24, 1995.
