The Ariel School Phenomenon: The Most Extraordinary Story You Have Never Heard Of
One of the most unique cases of UFO phenomena occurred in 1994 at the Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe. On the morning of September 16th, 62 school children between the ages of six and twelve were outside enjoying their break time while the teachers remained inside to conduct a faculty meeting. What happened next would go on to be known in UFO literature as the “Ariel School Phenomena”. During their time of leisure, the children witnessed one to three silver, saucer-shaped crafts in the sky. One then descended and landed in a field roughly 300 feet from the school. The children ran towards the location to gain a better view. A small, black humanoid figure wearing a tight-fitting suit abruptly appeared, standing on top of the craft and watching them. The descriptions of this being varied amongst the children but most agreed this figure was thin, with elongated arms and legs, and had dark eyes the shape of rugby balls. The younger children thought this was a “Tokolshe” which is an evil spirit in local folklore. The older children felt that this was something entirely different in nature from anything they had ever come across. A second being then appeared outside of the craft, which sent multiple students back to the building screaming in terror. The ones who stayed back in amazement claimed to have received a series of tormenting telepathic messages from the beings - warnings of humanity’s destruction in the future through pollution and lack of care for the Earth. Some claimed these messages even came with clear imagery of a dystopian planet. After a few minutes passed, the beings returned to the object, and it shot away at great speed. The whole event was reported to have lasted around 15 minutes.
The UFO Researcher, The Psychiatrist, and The BBC
The next day, a number of the children were interviewed by local UFO researcher, Cynthia Hind. Hind found it fascinating that the students, who came from diverse backgrounds, described the event so similarly, despite interpreting the phenomenon differently based on their own upbringing. Some of these children assumed these beings were Zvikwambo (spirits of humans, raised by magic) or Tokoloshe (evil goblin creatures of Shona and Ndebele folklore). Hind believed these different interpretations of the event actually gave additional credibility to the witnesses' stories.
The next person who interviewed the children was Pulitzer Prize winner and Harvard professor of psychiatry, John Mack. Mack was accompanied by a filmmaker whose footage The BBC used to cover the story as well. Mack asked Ariel’s headmaster, Colin Mackie, what he thought had happened.
“Do you think it’s possible that one imaginative child had a story and kind of stirred the rest of them?” Mack said. “I don’t believe that, I don’t believe,” Colin Mackie said. “I honestly believe they saw something, but for me to actually draw a conclusion as to what it is, I don’t think I could do that at this point in time.” The staff of the school had mixed opinions on the matter. One teacher assumed the children made up the story through hearing local news reports of speculated meteorites in the sky within the same month. Two other teachers claimed to believe the children for the abrupt and universal panic that erupted the day it happened, and the drawings the kids had made of the incident. “So many of the drawings were similar. And also when they wrote their stories in their story books, they definitely seemed genuine, because I mean they all wrote completely different stories but they had seen the same thing. And I think that’s what convinced me because I think I was as skeptical as everybody else, " said the teacher. Mack spoke with students about the telepathic messages they received from the beings. “I remember seeing big black eyes. And I don't know if it was telepathic, I don't know. But the message I was receiving and the message I remember was that we were harming the planet,“ said a student.
Mock drawings created by the students that witnessed the event:
The cameraman who accompanied John Mack was BBC Reporter, Tim Leach. Leach called Mack for assistance because he had trouble reconciling the event, even as a skeptic originally. “I could handle war zones, but I could not handle this UFO thing,” Leach said. Leach obtained 40 Non-Student sources including:
Multiple commercial pilots who saw the oval-shaped craft while flying to the Zimbabwe airport near Ruwa.
Air Traffic Control representatives who picked up the objects on their radars.
Farmers and other citizens who were near the Ariel School when the event took place.
Although Leach obtained 40 sources after being told he needed only three sources for BBC to air the story on its main channel, he was fired from BBC after providing corroborating sources to the Ariel School event.
Objections:
According to the popular debunking site Skeptoid, Hind’s claim that the children would not have alien creatures displayed within their pop culture is false. Ruwa was a small community but was still familiar with the nearby metropolis of Harare. Since the children came from families of considerable social status, they would have proper access to popular media (although in the documentary one student even notes she had never known what a UFO was prior to the event).
John Mack arrived too late to talk to the children. It is significant that witnesses should be interviewed separately and as soon after an event as possible to avoid any cross-contamination in their stories. Mack apparently did the opposite, giving the students roughly two months to discuss the story amongst themselves, which could have led to further fabrication of the details of the event. When comparing the details, the students gave to Cynthia Hind with details given to John Mack, the theme of a telepathic message about humans destroying the earth was not found in the stories collected by Hind at all. This could be due to Mack suggesting it to the children as factual details. Mack was an anti-nuclear and environmental activist, which could have heavily influenced the children.
My thoughts:
We touch on the topic of aliens and Christianity in our first piece Jesus and Aliens: Coexist or Contradict? and essentially believe the two things can coexist. Overall, The Ariel School encounter is an incredibly fascinating story especially considering how little-known it is outside of the realm of Ufology or even Zimbabwe. At the very least I believe that the witnesses believe in what they saw and do not think this is some kind of mass lie. To this day, multiple of the children have come forward and stuck by their story that they experienced something so fantastical that it lacks natural explanation. A documentary about the event was made in recent years (Ariel Phenomenon [2022]) and features a handful of the original witnesses standing by what they experienced. Some of them also went on other public platforms telling their stories. After watching the documentary, what really hit home for me was the trauma some of them have carried from the event throughout their lives since 1994. If they have no incentive or gain to not only lie as children, but individually hold on to the lie throughout their life (which came with harsh criticism and mockery), why would they stick to it? There was a high amount of UFO sightings in the area leading up to the event as well. From a Christian lens, I do not believe this was an angel, demon, or some kind of spiritual entity, but something entirely different. As far as where this being was from? Not the slightest clue. Could be from another planet, dimensions, etc. Nonetheless, there are a good number of unique stories out there similar to The Ariel School Encounter, touching on firsthand encounters with these non-human intelligent or alien beings. Such a high volume of stories that it almost does not make sense for every single one to have some kind of natural explanation or a mere lie. Furthermore, even some of the witnesses of the Ariel event maintain a theistic worldview and wholeheartedly accept the idea that we are not the only intelligent life forms in the cosmos. Not even their experience of the event influenced their religious views. Lastly, I am extremely curious to see where we see this topic going in the future because I believe that the topic is only going to be discussed more and more in-depth. Reality may truly be stranger than fiction.
Additional photos of some of the witnesses today discussing their experience
