Antônio Vilas-Boas (1934–1991) was a Brazilian

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

(later a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

) who claimed to have been abducted by

extraterrestrial Extraterrestrial may refer to: Science * Extraterrestrial life, life that occurs outside of Earth and that probably did not originate from Earth Media * ''Extraterrestrial'' (TV program), a program on the National Geographic Channel * '' Extrate ...

s in 1957. Though similar stories had circulated for years beforehand, Vilas-Boas' claims were among the first

alien abduction Alien abduction (also called abduction phenomenon, alien abduction syndrome, or UFO abduction) refers to the phenomenon of people reporting what they assure to be the real experience of being kidnapped by extraterrestrial beings and subje ...

stories to receive wide attention. Some skeptics today consider the abduction story to be little more than a

hoax A hoax (plural: hoaxes) is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false and often astonishing information, with the either malicious or humorous intent of causing shock and interest in as many people as possible. S ...

, although Boas nonetheless reportedly stuck to his account throughout his life.

Early life

Antônio Vilas-Boas is the son of Jerônimo Pedro Vilas-Boas (1887–1963) and Enésia Cândida de Oliveira (1897–1963), born

São Francisco de Sales São Francisco de Sales is a municipality in the west of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. As of 2020 the population was 6,274 in a total area of 1,129 km2. It became a municipality in 1962. Geography São Francisco de Sales belongs to ...

Vilas-Boas' story

The existence of Vilas-Boas's testimony was made possible via Dr. Olavo Teixeira who performed a detailed interview and medical review in 1958. At the time of his alleged abduction, Antônio Vilas-Boas was a 23-year-old

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian

who was working at night to avoid the hot temperatures of the day. On October 15, 1957, he was ploughing fields near São Francisco de Sales when he saw what he described as a "red star" in the night sky. According to his story, this "star" approached his position, growing in size until it became recognizable as a roughly circular or egg-shaped aerial craft, with a red light at its front and a rotating

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

on top. The craft began descending to land in the field, extending three "legs" as it did so. At that point, Boas decided to run from the scene. According to Boas, he first attempted to leave the scene on his tractor, but when its lights and engine died after traveling only a short distance, he decided to continue on foot. However, he was seized by a

humanoid A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and '' -oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. By the 20th century, the term came to describe fossils which were morphologically similar, but not identical, to those of ...

, who was wearing grey coveralls and a helmet. Its eyes were small and blue, and instead of speech it made noises like barks or yelps. Three similar beings then joined the first in subduing Boas, and they dragged him inside their craft. Once inside the craft, Boas said that he was stripped of his clothes and covered from head-to-toe with a strange

gel A gel is a semi-solid that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute cross-linked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady state, although the liquid phase may still d ...

. He was then led into a large semicircular room, through a doorway that had strange red symbols written over it. (Boas claimed that he was able to memorize these symbols and later reproduced them for investigators.) In this room the beings took samples of Boas' blood from his chin. After this he was then taken to a third room and left alone for around half an hour. During this time, some kind of

gas Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as ...

was pumped into the room, which made Boas become violently ill. Shortly after this, Boas claimed that he was joined in the room by another humanoid. This one, however, was female, very attractive, and naked. She was the same height as the other beings he had encountered, with a small, pointed chin and large, blue catlike eyes. The hair on her head was long and white (somewhat like

platinum blond Blond () or blonde (), also referred to as fair hair, is a human hair color characterized by low levels of eumelanin, the dark pigment. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can be ...

e) but her underarm and pubic hair were bright red. Boas said he was strongly attracted to the woman, and the two had

sexual intercourse Sexual intercourse (also coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion of the Erection, erect male Human penis, penis inside the female vagina and followed by Pelvic thrust, thrusting motions for sexual pleasure ...

. During this act, Boas noted that the female did not kiss him but instead nipped him on the chin. When it was all over, the female smiled at Boas, rubbing her belly and gestured upwards. Boas took this to mean that she was going to raise their child in space. The female seemed relieved that their "task" was over, and Boas himself said that he felt angered by the situation, because he felt as though he had been little more than "a good stallion" for the humanoids. Boas said that he was then given back his clothing and taken on a tour of the ship by the humanoids. During this tour he said that he attempted to take a clock-like device as proof of his encounter, but was caught by the humanoids and prevented from doing so. He was then escorted off the ship and watched as it took off, glowing brightly. When Boas returned home, he discovered that four hours had passed. He later became a lawyer, married and had four children. He stuck to the story of his alleged abduction for his entire life. Though some sources say he died in 1992, he died on January 17, 1991.

Investigation

Following this alleged event, Boas claimed to have suffered from nausea and weakness, as well as headaches and

lesions A lesion is any damage or abnormal change in the tissue of an organism, usually caused by injury or diseases. The term ''Lesion'' is derived from the Latin meaning "injury". Lesions may occur in both plants and animals. Types There is no de ...

on the skin which appeared without any kind of light bruising. Eventually, he contacted journalist José Martins, who had placed an ad in a newspaper looking for people who had had experiences with

UFOs An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes ...

. Upon hearing Boas' story, Martins contacted Olavo Fontes of the National School of Medicine of Brazil; Fontes was also in contact with the American UFO research group APRO. Fontes examined the farmer and concluded that he had been exposed to a large dose of

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

from some source and was now suffering from mild

radiation sickness Acute radiation syndrome (ARS), also known as radiation sickness or radiation poisoning, is a collection of health effects that are caused by being exposed to high amounts of ionizing radiation in a short period of time. Symptoms can start wit ...

. Writer Terry Melanson states: :Among oas'ssymptoms were 'pains throughout the body, nausea, headaches, loss of appetite, ceaselessly burning sensations in the eyes, cutaneous lesions at the slightest of light bruising...which went on appearing for months, looking like small reddish nodules, harder than the skin around them and protuberant, painful when touched, each with a small central orifice yielding a yellowish thin waterish discharge.' The skin surrounding the wounds presented 'a hyperchromatic violet-tinged area.' According to Researcher Peter Rogerson, the story first came to light in February, 1958, and the earliest definite print reference to Boas' story was from the April–June 1962 issue of the Brazilian UFO periodical ''SBESDV Bulletin''. Rogerson notes that the story had definitely circulated between 1958 and 1962, and was probably recorded in print, but that details are uncertain. Boas was able to recall every detail of his purported experience without the need for

hypnotic regression Age regression in therapy is a psycho-therapeutic process that aims to facilitate access to childhood memories, thoughts, and feelings. Age regression can be induced by hypnotherapy, which is a process where patients move their focus to memorie ...

. Further, Boas' experience occurred in 1957, which was still several years before the famous Hill abduction which made the concept of alien abduction famous and opened the door to many other reports of similar experiences. Researcher Peter Rogerson, however, doubts the veracity of Boas' story. He notes that several months before Boas first related his claims, a similar story was printed in the November 1957 issue of the periodical ''O Cruzeiro'', and suggests that Boas borrowed details of this earlier account, along with elements of the

contactee Contactees are persons who claim to have experienced contact with extraterrestrials. Some claimed ongoing encounters, while others claimed to have had as few as a single encounter. Evidence is anecdotal in all cases. As a cultural phenomenon, con ...

stories of

George Adamski George Adamski (17 April 1891 – 23 April 1965) was a Polish people, Polish-Americans, American author who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he displayed numerous photographs in the 1940s and ...

. Rogerson also argues: :One reason why the oasstory gained credibility was the prejudiced assumption that any farmer in the Brazilian interior had to be an illiterate peasant who 'couldn't make this up'. As Eddie Bullard pointed out to me, the fact that the Vilas-Boas family possessed a tractor put them well above the peasant class ... We now know that AVB was a determinedly upwardly mobile young man, studying a correspondence course and eventually becoming a lawyer (at which news the ufologists who had considered him too much the rural simpleton to have made the story up now argued that he was too respectable and

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...

to have done so).''Notes towards a revisionist history of abductions – Part One''
by Peter Rogerson (''Magonia'' #46, June 1993); URL accessed November 08, 2006

Notes

Related media

Flávio Cavalcanti (

TV Tupi Rede Tupi (; in English, Tupi Network) was a Brazilian commercial terrestrial television network. Its flagship station, located in the city of São Paulo, was the first TV station to operate in the country, being inaugurated on 18 September 1 ...

) interviews (audio only)

References