Billy Meier's Pleiadian Beamships

Eduard Albert "Billy" Meier was born in Bülach, Canton Zurich, on 3 February 1937. He says human-looking visitors have contacted him since childhood. They call themselves Plejaren. English sources usually say Pleiadians.

Tuesday, 28 January 1975. Meier set out at 13:00. At 14:15, in the Frecht nature reserve near Hinwil, he took his first photograph.

The object "came shooting out of the clouds, rapidly slowed down its speed and slowly curved towards me from the forest about 350 metres away." He heard a "very soft buzzing in the air." The whirring stopped abruptly. The craft "finally touched down gently on the meadow bottom of the clearing, completely silently."

He called it a "discus-shaped thing with a semicircular superstructure and base." Red raised rectangles lined the superstructure. Windows. Size of the object: 7 metres. Its pilot, he said, was a woman named Semjase, from the Pleiades. They talked until 15:58.

The photo sessions came fast. 18 March, Winkelriet, a hospital under construction in the background. 14 June, Berg-Rumlikon, where his film shows the ship blink out and jump position. 9 July, a ship circling a 14 m tree. By the end of 1975 there were 142 or more photos and 4 film sequences. In time the total passed a thousand.

Others came forward. On 20 April 1975 uninvited witnesses stood nearby at Jakobsberg. On 20 June 1976 Olga Walder photographed two disc-shaped craft from an aeroplane over the Alps. "When she lowered the camera the ships were gone." About fifteen witnesses were reportedly present for a sound recording on 7 July 1980.

There was no Swiss government or military inquiry. Every study was private. Wendelle C. Stevens visited in October 1977 and became lead investigator. Nippon Television interviewed Meier in 1979, and supporters say its analysis of his film found no evidence of hoaxing. IBM research chemist Marcel Vogel examined metal samples. Supporters say he found an aluminium-based alloy containing thulium. Journalist Gary Kinder spent three years and 120 interviews on Light Years.

Kal K. Korff called the craft small models, some hung on string. Kinder recorded that Meier admitted using models to recreate scenes after his wife showed photos of incomplete models. In 1997 Kalliope Meier said the craft were made from "trash can lids, carpet tacks and other household objects." His photos of the visitors Asket and Nera matched Michelle DellaFave and Susan Lund of The Golddiggers on The Dean Martin Show.

The Independent Investigations Group matched the 1981 Wedding Cake UFO to a garbage-can lid and Christmas-tree light bulbs. In 2012 Ivan Alvarado argued the thulium signal was aluminium. Supporters have answered most of these points.

FIGU's Semjase Silver Star Center stands at Hinterschmidrüti. A 45th-anniversary edition of the Elders' book appeared in 2024. A Meier photo sat behind the "I Want to Believe" poster in Mulder's office on The X-Files. In 2025 Variety announced a documentary with the same name. The photographs remain. So does the question of what they show.