Malibu Canyon, Malibu, California Brilliant White Light And Followed For A Period Of Time

Posted: February 21, 2008

Date: June 16, 1988
Time: 1:05 a.m.

Location of Sighting: Malibu Canyon, Malibu, California.
Number of witnesses: 2
Number of objects: 1
Shape of objects: Light, Brilliant White, Constant, Followed for 5 Min.

HBCC UFO Research Note: If anyone has had an experience like the couple had in the below report, would you please, please contact me, Brian Vike at HBCC UFO Research. hbccufo@telus.net as I would really appreciate it alot.

Full Description of event/sighting: Strange Occurrence in Malibu Canyon July 88'

I was never a very good writer so please excuse my grammar mistakes or composition skills. It was summertime, and we were typical teenagers in love. My girlfriend and I decided to go to Zuma Beach in California just north of Malibu late one evening. She had a recent model Pontiac 6000 LE 6Cyl, White 4 Door with a cloth gray interior. She borrowed the car from her step mother for the evening. She had a curfew and we decided we should start heading back from the beach toward home in the West San Fernando Valley. We left Zuma at a quarter to 1:00AM. She drove and we took PCH (Highway 1) for approx. a few minutes to Malibu Canyon Rd. Turned left onto Malibu Cyn towards the 101 freeway and the SFV. There was no one around that intersection prior to turning onto Malibu Canyon. I noticed that there were no other cars on the road behind us or in front of us at that moment, and I had a clear view as we began to crest the first part of Malibu Canyon Rd as it elevated from the ocean for about a mile ahead as we began to twist and turn on the sinuous canyon road. It was a clear evening. Excellent visibility.

We past by the Hughes Research Lab where they test satellites for aerospace. No noticeable activity that evening. Sometimes the huge box which is cammo colored would be open and they would have something they would be testing and would look kind of like a telescope observatory when they were using it for testing. It was quite obvious to anyone driving though during the daytime. Not this night though, and the observatory doors were in darkness and closed. We had a cassette tape playing in the stereo, it was the kind of in-dash stock tape player that would change sides automatically. I wanted to make special note of these things as I begin describing the actual event that late night.

The event began as we neared the tunnel. I looked out the passenger seat window to my right into the darkness of the canyon and I felt like I saw something out of the corner of my eye only to be staring into darkness. The Canyon is wide to my right and the cliff sheer drop off as the road runs parallel. My feeling was that there was something there though which made no sense to me at the time. It felt wholly uncomfortable staring into the darkness in the window when I looked, like a fear of heights although I do not normally have fear of heights. I didn't see anything at this point. I shrugged it off quickly and let her concentrate of driving the car. I didn't want to alert her to something that was only a feeling. We went through the tunnel, and emerged from the other side. That is when I began to notice a "brightness" from behind our car develop, as if there was someone behind us who was going to need to pass us soon since they were coming at a good rate of speed. I turned to look at my girlfriend and she was getting upset that someone would want to race pass her this late at night and said something like "oh here comes some idiot up the road behind us, I'll try to let it pass and slow down". It was a weeknight and nobody usually would be on this road on a Friday weeknight anyway. Maybe someone racing someone else in the canyon?

The light grew to the point where she squinted her eyes, and flipped the mirror. I remember the bright reflection across her eyes at this point from the rear view mirror was still a very bright reflection across her face even though she had flipped it to decease its brilliance, and she had to then move her head to avoid being blinded from that point on. The light was from behind the our car, it did not "flood the compartment", but what the light touched it appeared almost perfectly while, perhaps like a sodium light or probably a flash from a camera except a constant incredible blinding brightness. She began to accelerate at this point. The mood changed quickly from being upset to being worried that some jerk was trying to run us off the road or chase us through the canyon.

That is when I turned around to give this jerk the universal hand signal to back off. As I turned around to look at the person driving, I had to squint as if I was looking at the sun. I thought I saw something that looked a large station wagon, except the lights went all the horizontally across the grill of the car following us. The lights went all the way across the front of the what I call a grill. They were square and they were not quite like lights with light bulbs that cars have. They were more like flood lamps for a football stadium. They were slightly larger. I turned around quickly as to not be blinded by the light, and saw a permanent ghost shadow of that large rectangle of lights on my retina that was scintillating, and it hurt. I turned to look at my girlfriend and she was becoming panicked. I told her to go as fast as possible.

She got the car up to 75-85MPH and back down on the turns. I remember the tires were screaming on the turns. Even the slightest straight away she would bring it back up to around 80MPH. I turned around again, and the light had not changed distance to our car. It had remained approx: less than 10 feet off of her rear bumper. It was impossible to shake them. The second time I turned around, I did not see a station wagon. I saw a grill of lights. There was no glare from a chrome bumper like you would find on a station wagon. The light would burn like if you were sitting in front of a TV set too close for too long, like a very powerful tanning booth on full blast. My girlfriend was starting to under compensate her steering, and I told her take her foot off the gas. She refused and she began screaming at this point. I put my hand on her leg and told her to use the whole road, both lanes or we were going to die. Anyone in front of us would see the light and have to pull over. The next thing that happened was very strange. The light was gone. It simply ended. I turned around, saw that
it was gone. I looked really hard to see if it had turned off, or if there was a shadow under the street lights and there was nothing. It was completely gone. My girlfriend was shaking. I told her to pull the car over to the side of the road.

She refused. She didn't speak a word for the rest of the trip. She looked oddly frozen and determined in her post traumatic state. I tried my best to tell her everything was alright, and that it was gone, whatever it was. I flipped her rear view mirror visor back down. I kept an eye on her for the rest of the drive back into town. She was different, and I was very worried at this point about something and I didn't know what it was. Something was wrong. For the rest of the drive I just let her drive the car, and she drove straight back to her parents house in Tarzana, way at the top of Vanalden, south of the Ventura Blvd. The drive for the rest of the drive felt odd to me personally, yet very calm and relaxed, I was not "freaked-out" by what happened as she appeared to be. Like waking after a nightmare after you are done being frightened half to death.

She parked, and sat there for a minute before turning the engine off looking straight ahead. I noticed two things at this point as she just sat there almost in shock. The tape player had stopped playing the tape. The tape was completely done on one side as I ejected it. It didn't flip or changed sides automatically like it would have normally and I put the tape back in, and it changed to the other side automatically that it normally would have. I then ejected it and put it in my pocket. I looked at the clock. It took a full ten seconds to wrap my brain around what it said. It said 1:12AM. My mind went back to Zuma and it was 15 minutes to 1:00AM. We entered the Canyon at least 12:55, and somehow we traveled all that way to her house in 13-15 minutes, which is impossible.

I asked her about it the next day, and she vaguely remembered it. After summer she went home, out of state, where her real family was living. We had lost contact with each other. I wrote her but she never wrote me back. I came up to visit her a couple of months later, and she wouldn't talk to me the whole time. I only would talk with her brother who was also a good friend of mine. We didn't have a nasty breakup. There was no reason for her acting this way, that I would have been aware of. I tried to think back to whatever it could have been. I asked her brother to ask her about the incident in the canyon, and if that was the reason, because that was the only thing bad that ever happened. She told him she didn't remember anything happening in Malibu Canyon. He said it was like she blocked out the entire summertime we spent together out of her mind.

I was horribly heartbroken by this, and I returned home to LA. This incident happened in 88'. Years later when I grew into adulthood I had a few nice cars. Eventually I got a sport car. I still try to attempt to beat that record time I did in the canyon. The fastest I can make it from PCH and Malibu Canyon to the valley is 22 minutes. That is hauling and screaming the tires the whole way, not just part of the way. I even got a ticket for it once by the Malibu Sheriff in all my years of reliving that drive. My only speeding ticket in my life, ha.

She eventually grew up to be a burn patient specialist and married someone from her church. I have heard about stories of people who had "lost time". Somehow, I gained time or "froze" time going through the canyon in that car that night that I still can not explain why to the best of all my ability. For a while I thought I wanted to attribute what happened to the Hughes Research Lab that is located inside that canyon, the only facility. I don't know why, just my own intuition. I can't say I saw a UFO. I never saw it leave the ground. I never saw anything land from above. I felt like there was something just prior to entering the tunnel and it would have been floating approx 500+ feet above the canyon gully next to the road we were on.

Perhaps what followed us could have been the Sheriff or some kid in a V8 muscle car. I didn't hear it make any noise above the sound of the Pontiac's V6 motor. Whatever it was, was not car in my opinion. It did not have KC headlights. They were larger and square and not incandescence lights. They were the most perfectly white lights I have ever seen in my whole life, and they wrapped around the entire front of whatever you want to call it. I just call it the "grill" of the front of whatever it was. A rectangle entirely made up many large rectangular lights. Approx 16 of them. That part bothers me. I haven't found anything that has that kind of light configuration on any type of vehicle up to this day. It could have been a practical joke, maybe some teenagers were waiting for someone like us to be coming thought he canyon late on a Friday late weeknight.

Whatever followed us that night, came up fast, and stayed perfectly on the bumper of the Pontiac and stayed perfectly behind us on ever turn, and matched our speed perfectly for at least 5-15 heart-racing minutes (it is hard to nail down exactly how long the episode happened as I remember being frightened and worried about being run off the road). As soon as we saw the lights of the city ahead then it was gone like someone turning off a switch. It didn't have tires that screamed. I was still very bothered by what happened, until I investigated later on in my life the whole occurrence in Malibu Canyon myself. I have waited until now to post this hoping somehow after all these years I would have some way of explaining it, after all my research, and I do not unfortunately. I will admit that I'm a huge fan of Sci-fi books. And I'm a big nerd into systems engineering and that is what I do for a living. Yes, I'm a big nerd today too. There is something weird about the time we gained that night. I'm no longer bothered by what happened. It happens so long ago now, and I actually enjoy driving that same road at night sometimes, hoping whatever it was would return.

Kind of. Sorta. Maybe not. I have seen some strange lights over the Hughes Labs since the occurrence. I have told just a few close friends this story. My only witness, my girlfriend can not recall this happening. Her brother remembers my conversation with him about asking her, but that is all. I'm left alone with this memory today. I wanted to share it here in case someone else has had a similar incident in Malibu Canyon or frozen time. That's all I have. Thank you. You may edit this to however you wish for brevity but I wanted to put as much detail as I can still remember and feeling for the moment and also with my own conclusion. I'm a UCSC grad, and I own my own company and have a house in Venice Beach, California.

Facts about the road: To travel Malibu Canyon length it is approx: 10 miles of twisting and turning, normally at a 45MPH or 50MPH with good control and handling in a car. It takes approx 15 minutes to make the stretch from the PCH to the 101 freeway on-ramp on the other side of the Canyon road.

There are two intersections of interest. There is Piuma Rd (A road after the tunnel and before we were followed/chased through the Canyon) and Mulholland Drive another road we had intersected while still being pursued by the light(s). Shortly after intersecting Mulholland Drive the object disappeared in the process of a turn in the road. It is now the boarder of Calabasus today and Malibu. The road changes name at this point and is called Las Virgenes as you make the rest of the drive towards the 101 on ramp eastbound. The fastest I have been able to make it through that canyon in a sports car is 13 minutes. That is at a high rate of speed about twice the speed limit of that canyon and also with much experience of the layout of the road. I do not recommend doing this what-so-ever. The Malibu Judge at the courthouse is very strict about people speeding in his city limits. It is 600 dollar fine for first offense. From the on ramp to my old ex girlfriend's parents house is an additional 15 minutes or 10 miles at a steady high rate of speed.

Around 75Mph. Overall the fastest time I have been able to reproduce for comparison is 25-30 minutes drive time all together. Mapquest is not 100% reliable for comparison of exactly the time and length of the journey from the PCH to her parents old house in Tarzana. It seems slightly longer, if that makes sense due to all the twists and conditions of the old canyon road at times. We had no traffic the whole way to her house that night either. We never passed anyone the whole trip. We had the entire road to ourselves. Today it is different, and housing has developed in the area to the point where many people use this alternative route from driving back from Los Angeles to Ventura County homes during evening rush hour and late at night. It only very late at night can this be reproduced in a car without any traffic on that canyon road.

Later on in life I interviewed someone who worked at the Lab in that canyon, on a chance meeting in Malibu at the Coffee Bean and Tea leaf coffee shop. My friend and I asked him what they test in the cammo box on the hillside of that canyon. After a crazy look from the guy, and after explaining to him we were just curious college students interested in physics, he kindly explained that they put top secret military satellites in there and would bounce a signal from the opposite side of the canyon on a "out-of-view" antenna receiver. They would normally test microwave signals on newer satellites. He said something about the canyon was known to be very special in determining signal strength with regular predictability of weather phenomenon, and these atmospheric conditions had a special variance they need to test during special ocean conditions, or fog-like conditions.

All very interesting to me, but I think probably irrelevant to what happened with the light that had followed us in the canyon. The only other time I saw a light in that canyon that was odd, and it was above the Lab at night during the fog and it was a green light glowing upwards in the fog. It looked man made. The light we saw that pursued us through the canyon that one time, that night I have never seen again in 20 years in all my travels and experience. It was like the flash from a camera except it was constant, not flickering, and very brilliant looking. Perfectly white.

1. I consider myself a skeptic of UFOs, but I do have an open mind due to my experiences in the canyon that night. I'm not religious. I have no scars or implants. I have no fears of driving at night or through that canyon again. People know me to be a very straight forward, scientific minded person. I am a native Californian, and I will continue to look for a rational explanation for what happened to us in the canyon that night. My life is very different from when I was at that age, and it is probably the most unexplained out of the ordinary occurrence in my entire life that I can remember as clearly as I continue to presently today. The only hint left I have to give anyone still interested in my story, was the tape from that night. I took the tape out of my pocket at the end of the night and put it in my tape collection when I got home.

Years later I took the tape out to play it, and I remembered that it was the same tape from that night. The tape is 90 minutes long. Each side is 45 minutes. I put the tape in the cassette player just as we entered the canyon that night from the beginning, and it was already at halfway point to flip over to side B by the time I noticed it stopped at her house and "waiting" to automatically flip over. The stereo in her car if I remember was on, yet it refused to flip the tape over until I ejected it and then put it back inside the in-dash cassette stereo. At least 35 minutes of time elapsed on the tape while we were in that canyon that I was not aware of at the time we were chased through the canyon.

There was never enough time during the whole drive of 15 minutes for 45 minutes of tape to have been played either. When I start to think about this it really starts to get very confusing. I do purposely avoid thinking about that part of the story, and I kept this part secret from everyone I know today. It is my own personal prove of how odd the whole situation was, and her kind-of forgetting ever dating me that summertime in 88. If it was a UFO or we were abducted, I have no evidence of it. I have evidence of something strange regarding the time due to tape player and the clock in the car. We never measured actual time after getting out of the car. I forgot to do that one last important step. We were exhausted and relived just to be somewhere familiar again and to not be driving in that car. She never borrowed the Pontiac again after that night.

I do not wish to be interviewed on this subject, and I only wanted to put this out here for anyone else who has experienced this light, or being chased in a car by this kind of light and a confusing issue regarding time in relation to distance traveled. This really happened to me, and I wanted to share that with anyone who wanted to know if this has happened before to someone else. This is all I know of occurrence in Malibu canyon that night. The only medical condition I have that could possibly relate to the light we saw that night is the scintillating aural migraines I get occasionally that remind me of when I had the image of that brilliant looking white grill of lights on my retina. I did not have these kinds of migraines prior to this event either. This is all I have to tell anyone, and I wish I had more to add. I would like to read anyone's else's interpretation they have to offer on this occurrence in Malibu Cyn, as well. This story is entered into Public Domain and you can use it as you wish as long as it is unaltered, if however edited for brevity or mistakes with grammar or composition.

Thank you for respecting my wishes on that one detail. Other than that I hope this story helps someone who has had something do to with missing time, or wanted to know if someone else has had this happen to them, and that they are not alone with their confusion or situation of such an event.

Thank you to the witness for a very, very interesting story of what he and his girlfriend experienced.

Brian Vike, Director HBCC UFO Research and host of the Vike Report UFO Eyewitness radio show. email: hbccufo@telus.net Website: http://www.hbccufo.org http://www.brianvike.com, http://www.hbccufo.com, http://www.hbccufo.net HBCC UFO Research International: http://www.hbccufointernational.org/

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