Billy Meier

Billy Meier’s story begins in his childhood in Switzerland. Born on February 3, 1937, in Bülach, he later traveled through the Middle East and southern Asia before losing his left arm in an accident in 1965. He returned to Switzerland in 1970. According to his account, his contacts with extraterrestrial beings started when he was five years old. On June 2, 1942, while with his father behind their house in Bülach, he reportedly saw a large metallic disc. Later that year, in November, he claimed to have encountered a pear-shaped craft and met an elderly man named Sfath. Sfath is said to have maintained contact with him from 1942 until 1953. This was followed by contact with Asket from the DAL Universe between 1953 and 1964. After a period with no further contacts, the next phase began on January 28, 1975, with Semjase from the planet Erra.

Meier and FIGU describe the Plejaren as human-looking beings whose home system lies roughly eighty light-years beyond the visible Pleiades, reached through a space-time configuration shifted from ours by a fraction of a second and accessible through a dimension gate. Semjase’s home planet, Erra, is described as slightly smaller than Earth with a population of around 500 million. The wider Plejaren Federation is said to have a total population of approximately 120 billion. After Semjase, other Plejaren figures named in the contacts include Ptaah, Quetzal, Pleija, Talida, and Menara. Official contacts are reported to have ended in the early hours of February 3, 1995, while private and unofficial contacts are said to have continued afterward.

The evidence presented includes photographs of five different variations of beamships, ranging in size from about 3.5 to 7 meters. From the 1960s to the early 1980s, Meier is said to have taken 1,476 photographs and 34 films, of which around 600 photos and 9 films involved UFOs. Specific well-known images from 1975 were taken in Schmidrüti on March 18 and in Berg Rumlikon on June 14, with some captured around 1:16 and 1:20 p.m. Additional claimed evidence includes a twenty-minute beamship sound recording audible more than four kilometers away, landing tracks showing one or three circular impressions with grass pressed in a counterclockwise direction, and more than 120 witnesses to various aspects of the contacts or related evidence. Physical samples are also said to include four metal specimens, one biological sample, and nine mineral and crystal samples.

Meier’s following developed around the Semjase Silver Star Center in Hinterschmidrüti, which became the central headquarters of FIGU, the organization he founded. The area around Schmidrüti already had a military presence during the Cold War in the form of a Bloodhound surface-to-air missile site known as “Stellung ZH,” which operated as part of Switzerland’s national air defense system until it was decommissioned in 1999. This installation was located in the immediate vicinity of Meier’s home. Some researchers have suggested that the military may have been keeping an eye on Meier’s activities

The contact reports are said to cover a wide range of subjects, including Creation, Earth history, astronomy, reincarnation, genetic engineering, religions, human evolution, telepathy, overpopulation, the environment, and government and military matters. One notable early event described in the reports is the “Great Journey” of July 17, 1975, during which Meier was reportedly taken on a space journey with Semjase, Ptaah, Asket, and Nera.

Beyond the contacts themselves, Meier’s photographs gained wider cultural recognition. One image was used as the basis for the original “I Want to Believe” poster in the television series The X-Files. In 2025, a documentary titled I Want to Believe was reported to be in development, focusing on Meier and the legacy of his photographs. Through FIGU and the Semjase Silver Star Center, the case developed into an ongoing body of teachings and publications that continues to attract interest.