Southern Africa Unexplained

Case No 40 · UFO Afrinews No 7, January 1993

In an Altered State of Consciousness: Jack van der Merwe at Durban harbour

1969 · Durban harbour, wool shed on the docks, South Africa

What was reported

Jack van der Merwe of Cape Town, interviewed by Pamela Puxley, recalled that in 1969, working night shifts in Durban harbour, he sometimes heard a voice in his head telling him to relax. One night it told him to go somewhere quiet, that he would not be missed. In a shed of wool bales he suddenly felt he was standing in or under water, in mist, surrounded by beautiful dark people in white flowing garments who gave him advice and warnings he cannot recall. He felt calm, then heard the dock noises again and returned to his office. Having noted the time, he found about two hours had passed, yet the foreman had not missed him. Hind flags the missing time as a classic feature, citing the Hills' lost hour and a half.

What Hind made of it

Hind lists missing time as a common factor of UAP reports, noting John Spencer's report that the 1989 London conference agreed it should arise spontaneously from the witness.

In their words

  • The next moment it seemed as if I was standing in water, almost as if under water, though there was no water there.

    Jack van der Merwe, spread 19

  • I was amazed to find I had been away about two hours. I just couldn't believe it!

    Jack van der Merwe, spread 19

Cross references

  • Barney and Betty Hill 1961
  • John Spencer, The UFO Encyclopedia
  • UFO Afrinews No 4 (water)

Connected

  • Abduction report from Janet: South AfricaCase fileSame window

    Both dated 1969 in Durban: Janet's abduction from a central Durban flat and Jack van der Merwe's two hours of missing time on night shift in Durban harbour, about 6 km apart. No month or day for either. Independent channels: Janet wrote to Hind in confidence; Jack was interviewed by Pamela Puxley in Cape Town about 1992. Both reported roughly twenty years after the fact.

  • Abduction report from Janet: South AfricaCase fileSame behaviour

    Shared features: a summons heard without a speaker ('Come, come' with mouth unmoving; a voice in the head telling him to relax and go somewhere quiet), paralysis or trance, figures seen, amnesia for the core, about two hours unaccounted for. Both fit hypnagogic or dissociative episodes (insomnia in bed; alone on night shift in a wool shed) as well as the abduction template Hind later adopted.

  • The Empty Water TankCase fileSame behaviour

    A thematic link made by Hind herself, not an evidential one: Jack's sensation of standing in or under water in mist, and the Thousand Hills water tank emptied overnight, are both filed under her 'Water and UFOs' theme (Afrinews 4, March 1991). Different decades, 35 km apart, no witness overlap.

  • Jack van der Merwe: orange glowing object on Table MountainCase fileSame witness

    07-19-2 (Table Mountain, undated) and 07-19-3 (a Cape road, c.1975) are outside this cluster: the same Jack van der Merwe, a repeat experiencer with an orange egg-shaped object and a vanishing giant ant. Hind bundles all three as Case No 40. A serial witness, so the harbour episode is not an isolated anomaly in his life.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 7 (January 1993), spread 19-20

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