Elisabeth Klarer Encounter (1956)

Elizabeth Klarer was a South African woman whose 1956 encounter became one of the more detailed contact cases. Born Elizabeth Woollatt on July 1, 1910, at Mooi River in Natal, she maintained that her experiences with non-human intelligence began earlier in life, though the most significant events unfolded in the 1950s.

Accounts of her early life describe a blend of academic achievement and practical skills that lent credibility to her later observational claims. She attended St. Anne’s Diocesan College in Pietermaritzburg, pursued studies in art and music in Florence, Italy, and earned a four-year diploma in meteorology at Girton College, Cambridge. She learned to fly light aircraft, participated in one of South Africa’s first recorded women’s polo teams, and worked as a music teacher. During World War II, she held a responsible position in RAF Intelligence. These experiences are frequently cited as grounding her familiarity with the skies and her disciplined approach to describing aerial phenomena.

Klarer stated that her encounters began in childhood. At around age seven, while outside the family farmhouse with her sister, she described seeing a silvery disc guiding a large orange-red planetoid across the sky, an event that a local Zulu farm manager interpreted through traditional “lightning bird”. She later reported a 1937 aerial sighting during a flight from Durban, and a more defined encounter on December 27, 1954, at her sister’s farm near Whyteleafe. There she observed a disc with a rotating outer hull and a stationary central dome, along with a tall, fair-haired humanoid figure she would later identify as Akon, though a heat barrier prevented closer approach.

The central event occurred on April 7, 1956, at a hill near Cathkin Peak in the Drakensberg region, later known as Flying Saucer Hill. Following repeated local reports of a luminous aerial presence from Zulu workers, Klarer returned to the site alone. A disc-shaped scout craft descended silently, approximately 60 feet (18 meters) in diameter and emitting only a soft, resonant hum. After a heat-like barrier lifted, she was invited aboard by Akon, who introduced himself as an astrophysicist and botanist from the planet Meton in the Alpha Centauri system.

He was accompanied by another crew member named Sheron, described as stockier and darker-skinned. Inside the scout craft, Klarer described curved walls, soft ambient lighting, and an atmosphere enriched with oxygen that left her feeling invigorated. She reported no sensation of acceleration or motion as the vessel moved. The experience expanded when she was transferred to a much larger, cigar-shaped mother ship whose interior featured expansive garden-like environments, lakes, and park-like spaces arranged in harmonious ecological balance.

Communication was primarily telepathic, though Akon also spoke fluent English. Klarer was told that these beings originated from an ancient Venusian civilization that had migrated to the stable triple-star system of Alpha Centauri. She further learned of her own reincarnated connection to their lineage, described in her accounts as a Venusian ancestral link and a soulmate relationship with Akon.

Additional observations followed the April encounter. On April 30, 1956, multiple witnesses reported a sustained red glow on the hillside from 17:45 until 2:00 a.m., with no trace of fire or human activity found afterward. On July 17, 1956, shortly before the family farm changed hands, Klarer returned with a simple Brownie box camera and claimed to capture seven photographs of the disc-shaped craft. She described vivid flashes of light coalescing into a gray disc enveloped in a shimmering heat-like distortion, maneuvering silently and rapidly over the terrain before departing.

Her account continued with claims of ongoing contact that extended into the early 1960s. She described a deepening personal relationship with Akon, including a physical union in 1958 on the heights of Cathkin Peak, where he gave her a silver ring to strengthen their telepathic bond. In 1959 she was taken on a journey to Meton itself, remaining there for approximately four months of Earth time—though subjectively longer due to differences in time perception. During this stay she claimed to have given birth naturally and painlessly to their son, named Ayling, who remained on Meton because his physiology was incompatible with Earth’s environment.

She was returned reluctantly, her own heart strained by the higher vibrational frequencies of the planet, though Akon and their son continued periodic visits. Klarer documented her experiences in her 1980 autobiography Beyond the Light Barrier: The Autobiography of Elizabeth Klarer, which provides a detailed personal account of her childhood sightings, the 1956 encounter, her romantic and physical relationship with Akon, the journey to Meton, the birth of their son Ayling, and the advanced society she claimed to have experienced there. She also worked on a second, unfinished manuscript titled The Gravity File, which focused on electro-gravity propulsion concepts and broader scientific implications drawn from Akon’s explanations. Her public presence developed later than sometimes reported. In 1975, she was invited by Hermann Oberth to serve as guest of honor at the 11th International Congress of UFO Research Groups in Wiesbaden, Germany, where she delivered an address that reportedly received a standing ovation from scientists representing multiple nations. She also gave talks in later years, including a 1992 presentation in Pietermaritzburg. The Klarer encounter is often noted for its remarkable level of detail, particularly in descriptions of craft interiors, propulsion methods, communication techniques, and the extended personal interaction with named non-human figures. It reflects the broader pattern of 1950s contactee narratives while standing out for its continuity, emotional depth, technical specificity, and the personal scope of the experiences she described across nearly a decade.