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 Tribute
to Ellen Crystall, Ph.D.,
Although the Pine Bush area hosted UFO
activity as far back as at least the 1950s, it was Ellen Crystall who put
the town on the map as a UFO hotspot. In early 1980 she journeyed from
her North New Jersey home to meet Omni writer Harry Lebelson in the fields
adjacent to the town of Pine Bush to investigate a couple’s claims of
nightly UFO activity, and thus began her adventure that resulted in, among
other things, the book
Silent Invasion, published in 1991. Her book is fantastic in the
true sense of the word; it contains descriptions of her experiences that
makes the Pine Bush area out to be a wonderland of the elusive UFO
phenomenon, a Disneyland of paranormal activity. She talked about
repeatedly observing in very close proximity unconventional crafts flying
in remarkable manners, landing in fields, and seemingly defying physics
time and again. She also claimed to have taken hundreds of photos of this
activity, repeatedly documenting what previously has only fleetingly been
able to be caught on film.
The publishing of her book brought about polarized reactions and
responses. There was a sizable amount of UFO buffs in the Northeast who
were immediately captured by the concept that the UFO phenomenon was so
concentrated in one small area. But others didn’t react so favorably to
Silent Invasion. Certainly the publisher’s presentation of the
book was geared towards sales rather than giving the impression of
legitimacy. The publisher used a dramatic illustration of the
now-familiar "grey" alien in front of a landed craft, an image that wasn’t
as much a part of pop culture back then as it is now, and which still
looks striking. The publisher also printed Ellen’s photos in black and
white, further obscuring the images that were difficult to reprint as
color to begin with. Many in the UFO community immediately wrote the book
off as fantasy or outright fiction, an updated version of the tales woven
by the 1950s contactees like George Adamski. However, some noticed that
Ellen’s tale did not conclude in the familiar fashion that the fictional
Contactee tales did, as it did not give a firm resolution to the story and
thus no emotional payoff. It was also noticed that a number of local and
media people were involved in the story which would be risky for an author
to do if the story wasn’t truthful in nature. Also, Ellen referred to the
works of Harley Rutledge and Thomas Bearden, two of the most
forward-thinking authors on the UFO subject at the time, as a basis for
how to proceed with her investigation of the Pine Bush area which
suggested a seriousness to her claims.
The publishing of
Silent Invasion
resulted in a surge of interest in people to travel to the Pine Bush
area to see if they could see what Ellen described. The negative aspect
of this was that it created at times a party atmosphere along the roads
where people lined their parked cars, which in turn angered the residents
along those roads. But the most fruitful aspect of the interest that
Silent Invasion produced was an increasing group of people who found
themselves sensitive to the mysterious stimulus in the Pine Bush area, and
who then became dedicated to observing, chasing, and documenting the UFO
activity in and near Crawford Township. Indeed a small community
developed who could vouch for the existence of the phenomena that Ellen
described in
Silent Invasion, seemingly an ideal result of the book’s
publishing. However, Ellen was increasingly disturbed by the crowds that
came to Pine Bush to line West Searsville Road on the weekends. Incidents
of drinking and littering suggested that many were not really interested
in being there to experience the UFO phenomenon. A very confident person
who firmly stood by her controversial beliefs in the nature of the Pine
Bush phenomenon, Ellen also found herself with different opinions and
beliefs than many of the devoted local people who were now nightly
pursuing observing the phenomenon, and greatly lessened her interaction
with the local UFO community from the mid-nineties on.
Towards the end of 1996, the UFO activity in and around the Pine Bush area
greatly decreased, and the crowds eventually went away to leave only the
faithful local community to sky watch each night. In 1997, a developer
planning on building on West Searsville Road, once the primary location
for observing the UFO phenomenon, made it known not so subtly that
sky watchers were no longer welcome to park along the street, and
eventually the Montgomery police enforced the law that to park on the
street all tires must be off of the road which was near impossible now
that developing began. Houses went up, skywatchers found different
locations, and Ellen, who for years traveled up to Pine Bush the majority
of nights during the week found herself only occasionally visiting the
area to look for the now-sparse UFO activity. She continued to
occasionally give lectures on her Pine Bush experiences, which she did
from the late eighties on, and she finished publishing a newsletter that
she named "Contactee", which stands as a vital document to her experiences
beyond what was covered in Silent Invasion. During the
mid-nineties she also earned a Ph.D. in music composition from New York
University, and continued to develop her interest in electronic music and
synthesis.
Tragically, Ellen developed pancreatic cancer during 1999 and fought the
disease vigorously for more than two and a half years, never giving up
hope that she could overcome it. Many from the Pine Bush UFO community
contacted her during her battle, and found that despite being in great
pain she still displayed her confident personality and unique outlook.
She sadly succumbed to the disease December 16, 2002. She was 52 years
old.
To this day people are still discovering
Silent Invasion, and intrigued by Ellen’s story they journey to
the Pine Bush area to attend the monthly open discussion meetings on the
UFO subject, and to sit along one of the roads in hope of seeing what
Ellen saw. There exists a large group of people who can vouch for the
existence of the UFO activity that Ellen wrote and talked about, and
although some have differing ideas and opinions on the subject, they feel
that Ellen’s book was a truthful account of her experiences in the fields
of the Pine Bush area. The mysterious activity remains sparse in the
area, and one wonders if the changes in the area could possibly effect the
phenomenon’s manifestation, but occasionally a dramatic sighting is made
that renews interest in the area’s UFO history that was first documented
in the writings of Ellen Crystall.
Dedication to Ellen Crystal was proudly written by
C.B.
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