Hinterschmidrüti — Billy Meier and the 'beamships'

OVERVIEW

Eduard Albert 'Billy' Meier (born 1937 in Bülach) is a Swiss farmer and author who says he is in regular contact with extraterrestrials he calls the Plejaren. In 1975 he founded FIGU, the 'Free Community of Interests for the Border and Spiritual Sciences and Ufological Studies', based at the Semjase Silver Star Center in Hinterschmidrüti in the Zürcher Oberland.

HISTORY

Meier claims his first contacts at the age of five in 1942, regular contacts until 1964, and, after an eleven-year pause, encounters with an extraterrestrial woman from 28 January 1975. He says the Plejaren let him photograph and film their 'beamships' over the Swiss countryside; he also presented metal samples, sound recordings and twelve volumes of 'contact reports', and claims to be the seventh reincarnation of a line of prophets.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Meier is widely characterised as a fraud by skeptics, scientists and most ufologists, who say his photographs and films are hoaxes made with models. In interviews with the author Gary Kinder he admitted using models to recreate scenes, after his wife showed photographs of incomplete models he thought he had burned. His prophecies repeatedly blame Jews for future atrocities. Filed UNVETTED.

VISITING

The pin marks Hinterschmidrüti, the seat of FIGU — a private centre.