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{{Infobox person
| name                      = Eduard Albert "Billy" Meier
| image                     = Billy meier.jpg
| alt                       =
| caption                   =
| birth_name                = Eduard Albert Meier
| birth_date                = {{Birth date and age|1937|2|3|mf=y}}
| birth_place               = Bülach/ZH, Switzerland
| ethnicity                 = [[Swiss people|Swiss]]
| nationality               = [[Switzerland]]
| death_date                =
| death_place               =
| residence                 =
| education                 =
| alma_mater                =
| occupation                = Author
| known_for                 = [[Contactee]]
| organization              = ''{{lang|de|Freie Interessengemeinschaft für Grenz- und Geisteswissenschaften und Ufologiestudien}}'' (Free Community of Interests for the Border and Spiritual Sciences and Ufological Studies) (FIGU)
| children                  = 4
| parents                   = {{Plainlist|
* Julius Meier
* Berta (Schwengeler) Meier
}}
| website                   = {{URL|www.figu.org}}
| footnotes                 =
}}
'''Eduard Albert Meier''' (born February 3, 1937) is a Swiss citizen who is the source of many photographs of alleged [[unidentified flying object]]s (UFOs), which he presents in support of his claim that he is in contact with [[extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial]] beings. He also presented other material during the 1970s such as metal samples, sound recordings and film footage. Meier reports regular contacts with extraterrestrials he calls the Plejaren.<ref>[[#Moosbrugger 2004|Moosbrugger 2004]], p. 280</ref>

Meier has been widely characterized as a fraud by skeptics and ufologists, who suggest that he used models to [[hoax]] photos claimed to show alien spacecraft.<ref name="Lewis2002">{{cite book|author=James R. Lewis|title=The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lk8_ARNz-dYC&pg=PA653|year=2002|publisher=Prometheus Books, Publishers|isbn=978-1-61592-738-8|pages=653–}}</ref><ref name="Kurtz">{{cite book|author=Paul Kurtz|title=Skepticism and Humanism: The New Paradigm|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q34zdaoq0xIC&pg=PA57|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-3411-7|pages=57–}}</ref><ref name="Nickell2010">{{cite book|author=Joe Nickell|title=Camera Clues: A Handbook for Photographic Investigation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMCQ7YHw4CgC&pg=PA165|date=29 September 2010|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=0-8131-3828-0|pages=165–}}</ref><ref name="Korff">{{cite book|author=Kal K. Korff|title=Spaceships of the Pleiades: The Billy Meier Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JDszAu42uOwC&pg=PA195|publisher=Prometheus Books, Publishers|isbn=978-1-61592-441-7|pages=195–}}</ref><ref name="Albanese2006">{{cite book|author=Catherine L. Albanese|title=A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nwJqem2oNN8C&pg=PA502|date=1 December 2006|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0-300-13477-0|pages=502–}}</ref>

== Background ==
Born in the town of [[Bülach]] in the [[Zürcher Unterland]], Meier joined the [[French Foreign Legion]] in his teens, but says he soon left and returned home. In 1965, he lost his left arm in a bus accident in [[Turkey]]. In 1966,{{Verify source|date=October 2013|reason=Married the same year they met?}} he met and married a Greek woman, Kalliope Zafiriou, with whom he has three children. The nickname "Billy" came by way of an American friend who thought Meier's cowboy style of dress reminded her of "[[Billy the Kid]]." This anecdote was told by Meier himself in an interview with Bob Zanotti of Swiss Radio International in June, 1982.<ref name="billythekid">{{cite AV media |people=Zanotti, Bob (Interviewer) |date=June 1982 |title=Billy Meier – UFO Contactee |medium=Audio recording |website=Switzerland in Sound |url=http://www.switzerlandinsound.com/audiotext32/ufo.mp3 |accessdate=October 12, 2013 |format = [[MP3]] |time=0:17:35 |publisher=Bob Zanotti |location=Biglen, Switzerland}}</ref>

Meier has accumulated a large collection of photographs<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.figu.org/ch/ufologie/strahlschiffe |title=''Strahlschiffe (UFOs)'' |website=FIGU Switzerland |publisher=FIGU |location=Schmidrüti, Switzerland |accessdate=October 17, 2013}}</ref> showing alleged [[Spacecraft|spaceship]]s that he calls "beamships" as well as alleged Plejaren. Meier says that the Plejaren gave him permission to photograph and film their beamships so that he could produce some evidence for their extraterrestrial visitations. Meier's claims are believed by some UFO enthusiasts and disputed by skeptics and scientists.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nickell |first=Joe |authorlink=Joe Nickell |date=March–April 1996 |title=Spaceships of the Pleiades: The Billy Meier Story |journal=[[Skeptical Inquirer]] |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=48–49 |location=Amherst, NY |publisher=[[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry|Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal]] |type=Book review |issn=0194-6730}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iigwest.com/investigations/meier/ufopix.html |title=Photo Comparison |website=[[Independent Investigations Group]] (IIG) |publisher=[[Center for Inquiry|Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles]] |location=Hollywood, CA |accessdate=October 17, 2013}}</ref>

== Alleged extraterrestrial contacts ==
Meier said his extraterrestrial encounters began in 1942, at the age of five, when he met an elderly Plejaren man named "Sfath".<ref name="Sfath">{{cite web |url=http://www.figu.org/ch/ufologie/die-plejaren/portraits-der-kontaktpersonen |title=''Portraits der Kontaktpersonen'' |website=FIGU Switzerland |publisher=FIGU |location=Schmidrüti, Switzerland |accessdate=October 17, 2013}}</ref>  After Sfath's death in 1953, Meier said, he began communicating with an extraterrestrial woman (though not a Plejaren) called "Asket".  All contacts ceased in 1964, he said, then resumed on January 28, 1975, when he met "Semjase",<ref name="Sfath" /> the granddaughter of Sfath, and shortly thereafter another Plejaren man called "Ptaah".  Other Plejarens, including a woman named "Nera", have since allegedly joined the dialog as well.  Photographs of these two women were later proved to have been faked.<ref name="BMUR">[http://www.billymeieruforesearch.com/photos-and-videos/outer-space-pictures-asket-nera-semjase/outer-space-pictures-asket-nera-semjase-summary/ Outer Space Pictures – Asket-Nera-Semjase – Summary] billymeieruforesearch.com, retrieved March 20, 2017.</ref><ref name="AS">[http://www.alienscientist.com/meier.html Billy Meier] at alienscientist.com, retrieved March 20, 2017.</ref>

=== Photographs and films ===
[[File:Billy Meier UFO 66.jpg|thumb|One of Meier's photographs of "a beamship floating beside a tree".]]

Some of the most important alleged evidence for Meier's claims comes from his large collection of photographs and a few films. These claim to include images of metallic discs floating above the Swiss countryside, pictures of celestial objects from an alleged non-Earthly vantage point, pictures of apparent extraterrestrials, prehistoric Earth scenes, photos of the controversial "Wedding Cake UFO" (WCUFO), and photos of "Energy Ships" changing shape. His films purport to show UFOs disappearing in front of the camera, dancing around a tree and moving its treetop without touching it, and a UFO emitting flashes of light. 

UFO researchers such as [[Stanton T. Friedman]] and [[Jacques Vallée]] dismiss the Meier case.<ref>[[#Sheaffer 1998|Sheaffer 1998]], p. 34</ref> Some critics have provided examples of faked photos similar to those that Meier produced<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iigwest.com/investigations/meier/meier.html |title=Billy Meier 101 |website=Independent Investigations Group (IIG) |publisher=Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles |location=Hollywood, CA |accessdate=October 17, 2013}}</ref> and have pointed out that some of his photos correspond to scenes that were subsequently found in science fiction books, paintings and television programs.<ref>[[#Korff 1995|Korff 1995]], pp. 245–247</ref> Meier claims that some of his photos were [[conspiracy theory|altered by intelligence agencies]] and slipped into his collection in order to discredit his UFO testimony.<ref>[[#Korff 1995|Korff 1995]], pp. 297, 307–309</ref> Kal K. Korff has been particularly active in dismissing the Meier case, pointing to evidence of fakery in his photos, including light-direction and focal discrepancies consistent with cut-and-paste and model techniques.<ref>[[#Korff 1995|Korff 1995]], pp. 169–193, 208–213, 245–247</ref>

Recreations of Meier's images were created by photographic effects specialist and stop-motion animator Alan Friswell for the June 2005 issue of ''[[Fortean Times]]'' magazine.<ref name="Friswell">{{cite journal |last=Friswell |first=Alan |date=June 2005 |title=Faking it... |url=http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/126/faking_ufo_photographs.html |journal=[[Fortean Times]] |location=London |publisher=[[Dennis Publishing]] |issue=197 |pages=38–41, 43 |issn=0308-5899 |accessdate=October 19, 2013}}</ref>{{dead link|date=April 2017}} Friswell had employed techniques used in the pre-digital age of film special effects, as modern processes would, in Friswell's opinion, have been "unsporting." Using "old fashioned" tricks, such as foreground miniatures and photographic cutouts, Friswell crafted copies of Meier's UFO pictures, but claimed that his pictures did not in any way confirm that Meier was a hoaxer, as without personal experience of the events, he had no right to draw conclusive opinions one way or the other.{{cn|date=April 2017}}

Meier's relationship with his wife Kalliope ended acrimoniously, and in 1997 Kalliope stated in an interview that the UFO in the photos looked like models that Meier had made himself with items like trash can lids, carpet tacks and other household objects,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Clingbine|first1=Dr Graham|title=Disclosure: The Future is Now|date=30 October 2015|publisher=Troubador|page=341}}</ref> and that the stories he told of his adventures with the aliens were similarly fictitious. She also said that photos of purported extraterrestrial women "Asket" and "Nera" were really photos of Michelle DellaFave and Susan Lund, members of the singing and dancing troupe [[The Golddiggers]]; it was later confirmed that Meier's claims were faked and that DellaFave and Lund were in fact the women in the photographs.<ref name="BMUR"  \></ref><ref name="AS"  \></ref>

=== Metal samples ===
The [[Independent Investigations Group]] (IIG) analyzed data from Marcel Vogel presented in the 1985 video ''Beamship: The Metal Analysis''.<ref name="deconstructionIIG">{{cite web |url=http://www.iigwest.com/investigations/meier/metal_analysis_deconstruction.html |title=Metal Analysis Deconstruction |date=November 2011 |website=Independent Investigations Group (IIG) |publisher=Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles |location=Hollywood, CA |accessdate=October 17, 2013}} (Updated report.)</ref> The IIG concluded the following: the element found was aluminum and not thulium, the evidence for the presence of all elements in the sample is in fact [[Bremsstrahlung]] radiation with no bearing on element composition, the structure that suggests exotic micro-manipulation can be found on the surface of metals machined by ordinary cutting tools in a machine shop, and the evidence of crystal [[birefringence]] detected using [[Nomarski prism|Nomarski]] and Cross-Polarized microscopy can be reproduced by the topography of a simple metal structure with no birefringence associated to it.<ref name="deconstructionIIG" /> The IIG said it did not find data supporting the presence of rhenium or any other [[rare earth element]].{{cn|date=March 2017}}

== See also ==
* [[List of alleged extraterrestrial beings]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Korff |first=Kal K. |title=Spaceships of the Pleiades: The Billy Meier Story |year=1995 |publisher=[[Prometheus Books]] |location=Amherst, NY |isbn=0-87975-959-3 |oclc=31754990 |lccn=94046992 |ref=Korff 1995}}
* {{cite book |last=Moosbrugger |first=Guido |title=And Still They Fly!: The Henoch Prophecies |edition=2nd paperback |origyear=Originally published 2001 |year=2004 |publisher=Steelmark |location=Tulsa, OK |isbn=0-9711523-1-4 |oclc=55207214 |ref=Moosbrugger 2004}}
* {{cite book |last=Sheaffer |first=Robert |authorlink=Robert Sheaffer |title=UFO Sightings: The Evidence |year=1998 |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Amherst, NY |isbn=1-57392-213-7 |oclc=38738821 |lccn=98006410 |ref=Sheaffer 1998}}

== External links ==
{{external links|date=May 2015}}
* {{Official website|http://www.figu.org|name=FIGU}} – Billy Meier's official website
* [http://www.theyfly.com/ TheyFly.com] – Michael Horn, Billy Meier's "Authorized American Media Representative"
* [http://www.billybooks.org/ Billy Books] – Far East Representative of FIGU Publications
* [http://www.futureofmankind.co.uk/ The Future Of Mankind] – James Moore's Billy Meier wiki, providing English-language translations of FIGU literature including contact reports
* [http://podcast.sjrdesign.net/shownotes_032.php Exposing PseudoAstronomy Episode 32: Interview About the Billy Meier UFO Case with Derek Bartholomaus] - Interview with longtime critic of Billy Meier.
* [http://podcast.sjrdesign.net/shownotes_049.php Exposing PseudoAstronomy Episode 49: Billy Meier, Michael Horn, and Asteroid Apophis]
* [http://podcast.sjrdesign.net/shownotes_090.php Exposing PseudoAstronomy Episode 90: Investigation into Billy Meier's Alleged Foreknowledge About Jupiter and Saturn]
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