Alien autopsy

Infobox Paranormalterms


Image_Caption = A single frame from the Santilli video
Usage = Terminology
Name = Alien Autopsy
Origin = Various
Short =
Additional_Names =
Definition = An autopsy carried out on an extra terrestrial.
Characteristics = The conducting of an autopsy or related medical procedure.
Extra_Title = Notes
Extra_Column = Term remains applicable in debunked cases
See_Also = The term alien autopsy is used to refer to a post mortem procedure, typically an autopsy, supposedly carried out on an extraterrestrial being. Belief that alien autopsies have been carried out forms a core component of a number of UFO conspiracy theories, though the term itself is used within UFOlogy, fiction, and in popular culture, regardless of the factual status of the imagery that is being presented.

Film footage, purporting to show an alien autopsy, was promoted during the 1990s by Ray Santilli, a London-based video entrepreneur. However, Santilli announced in 2006 that the film was not entirely genuine. Santilli made this announcement in the TV documentary film "Eamonn Investigates: Alien Autopsy", made by British Sky Broadcasting. In the documentary, Eamonn Holmes repeatedly refers to the film as a "fake", while Santilli patiently insists it is a "restoration", because he maintains that his film is a reconstruction of an actual alien autopsy film that he viewed in the early 1990s but has subsequently been lost. Santilli further claimed that a few of the frames embedded in his video are from the original, although he was unable to identify these with any certainty.

The Santilli film

In 1995, Santilli instigated a wide reaching "alien autopsy" controversy when he claimed to possess footage taken in a tent by a U.S. military official shortly after the 1947 Roswell UFO incident. Santilli first presented his film to an invited audience of media representatives, UFOlogists, and other dignitaries at the Museum of London on 5 May 1995. The footage has subsequently been screened in more than thirty countries worldwide.

Santilli's original footage can be seen on the Laserdisc, VHS, MovieCD and DVD versions of "Alien Autopsy – Fact or Fiction",cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163521|title=Alien Autopsy: (Fact or Fiction?)|work=Internet Movie Database ] a program shown on the Fox television network in 1995. Although the broadcast version did not show the actual "autopsy", those editions have what Santilli claimed is the complete and unedited film, plus previously unreleased footage of a wreckage presented as the remains of the alien craft reported to have crashed in Roswell. The show features interviews with experts on the authenticity of the film.

Santilli's admission

On April 4, 2006, two days prior to the UK release of "Alien Autopsy" (a British comedy feature film on the subject of the footage), British Sky Broadcasting broadcast a documentary, "Eamonn Investigates: Alien Autopsy", presented by Eamonn Holmes. In this program, Ray Santilli and fellow producer Gary Shoefield claimed that their film was only partially real (a "few frames," in their words), while the rest was a reconstruction of twenty-two rolls of film, averaging four minutes in length, which Santilli had viewed in 1992 but which had subsequently degraded from humidity and heat. They said that only a few frames of the original were still intact by the time they had raised enough money to purchase it. "Eamonn Investigates: Alien Autopsy", British Sky Broadcasting. First shown on Sky One, 20:00 BST 4 April 2006 (repeated on Sky Three, 19:00 GMT 18 November 2006).]

Santilli and Shoefield stated that they had "restored" the damaged footage by filming a simulated autopsy on a fabricated alien, based upon what Santilli saw in 1992, and then adding in a few frames of the original film that had not degraded. They have not identified which parts are original footage.

According to Santilli, a set was constructed in the living room of an empty flat in Rochester Square, Camden Town, London. John Humphreys, an artist and sculptor, was employed to construct two dummy alien bodies over a period of three weeks, using casts containing sheep brains set in raspberry jam, chicken entrails and knuckle joints obtained from S.C. Crosby Wholesale Butchers in Smithfield meat market, London. Humphreys also played the role of the chief scientist undertaking the examination, in order to allow him to control the effects being filmed. There were two separate attempts at making the footage. After filming, the team disposed of the "bodies" by cutting them into small pieces and placing them in rubbish bins across London.

Alien objects, supposedly items recovered from the crash site, were depicted in the footage. These included alien symbols and six-finger control panels, which Santilli describes in the Sky documentary as being the result of artistic licence on his part. These artifacts were also created by Humphreys. The footage also showed a man reading a statement "verifying" his identity as the original cameraman and the source of the footage. Santilli and Shoefield admitted in the documentary that they had found an unidentified homeless man on the streets of Los Angeles, persuaded him to play the role of the cameraman, and filmed him in a motel.

"Alien Autopsy", the movie

"Alien Autopsy" is also the title of a 2006 comedy film, starring Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (better-known in the UK as "Ant and Dec"), directed by Jonny Campbell and written by William Davies. It is a humorous reconstruction of the making of the Santilli film. Santilli and Gary Shoefield are credited as executive producers, and appear in a closing scene, at least in the DVD version. They also feature for a few seconds in cameo, as McPartlin and Donnelly push past them in a crowd after the first viewing of the film in London.

Alien Autopsy, 2008

In March 2008, another alien autopsy movie was released onto the internet. With an unknown origin, the video showed up on the popular YouTube website, depicting an alien being examined on the table, before having its chest opened up, similar to a normal autopsy. The video, although assumed to be a hoax, is now being scrutinized by the UFO Community. It can be viewed on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tql_sasHKGc YouTube] .

References

Further reading

* Beyond Roswell: The Alien Autopsy Film, Area 51, & the U.S. Government Coverup of Ufos by Michael Hesemann (Author), Philip Mantle (Author), Bob Shell (Author) Paperback: 303 pages publisher: Marlowe & Company (August 1998) ISBN-10: 1569247099 ISBN-13: 978-1569247099

* Alien Autopsy Inquest by Philip Mantle (Author) Publisher: PublishAmerica (March 5, 2007)ISBN-10: 1424119553 ISBN-13: 978-1424119554

* Joseph A. Bauer, A Surgeon's View: Alien Autopsy's Overwhelming Lack of Credibility, "Skeptical Inquirer", vol 20, #1, Jan. 1996, 23-24. Reprinted in "The UFO Invasion: The Roswell Incident, Alien Abductions, and Government Coverups", edited by Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr, and Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, 1997, ISBN 1-57392-131-9. Also reprinted in "Bizarre Cases: From the Files of Skeptical Inquirer", CSICOP, 2000.

* C. Eugene Emery, Jr, 'Alien Autopsy' Show and Tell: Long on Tell, Short on Show, "Skeptical Inquirer", vol 19, #6, Nov. 1995, 15-16 & 55. Reprinted in "The UFO Invasion: The Roswell Incident, Alien Abductions, and Government Coverups", edited by Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr, and Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, 1997, ISBN 1-57392-131-9.

* cite journal
author = David Park Musella
year = 2006
month = July
title = Alien Autopsy Hoax Revealed — Again
journal = Skeptical Inquirer
volume = 30
issue = 4
pages = pages 9, 11

* Joe Nickell, 'Alien Autopsy' Hoax, "Skeptical Inquirer", vol 19, #6, Nov. 1995, 17-19. Reprinted in "The UFO Invasion: The Roswell Incident, Alien Abductions, and Government Coverups", edited by Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr, and Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, 1997, ISBN 1-57392-131-9.

* Carl Sagan, ""

* Trey Stokes, How to Make an 'Alien' for 'Autopsy', "Skeptical Inquirer", vol 20, #1, Jan. 1996, 19-23. Reprinted in "The UFO Invasion: The Roswell Incident, Alien Abductions, and Government Coverups", edited by Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr, and Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, 1997, ISBN 1-57392-131-9. Also reprinted in "Bizarre Cases: From the Files of Skeptical Inquirer", CSICOP, 2000. SMILIE

See also

* Roswell UFO Incident

External links

* [http://www.alienvideo.net/video-alien-autopsy.php Alien autopsy video]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3245046980782832257] Original footage viewable online
* [http://www.ufo-movies.com ufo-movies.com The Alien UFO footage resource]
* [http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicaut.html The Alien Autopsy]
* [http://www.v-j-enterprises.com/santstry.html MY STORY by Ray Santilli (Insight on Roswell)]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1904513/ Ray Santilli - Filmography on IMDb (Internet Movie Database)]
* [http://www.trudang.com/autopsy/autocont.html Alien Autopsy: Faked or Fiction?]
* [http://www.outtahear.com/beyond_updates/autopsy.html Alien Autopsy Archive]
* [http://www.ufo.it/testi/timeline.htm] Alien Autopsy Film timeline of events.
* [http://www.csicop.org/sb/2006-06/i-files.html Postmortem on 'Alien Autopsy']