A farmer born in the town of Bulach in the Swiss Lowlands, Eduard "Billy" Meier'

s claimed his first extraterrestrial contacts occurred in 1942 at the age of fiv
e with an elderly extraterrestrial human man named Sfath.[1] Contacts with Sfath
lasted until 1953. From 1953 to 1964 Meier's contacts continued with an extrate
rrestrial human woman named Asket.[2] Meier says that after an eleven year break
, contacts resumed again (beginning on January 28, 1975) with an extraterrestria
l human woman named Semjase[3] the granddaughter of Sfath.
In his teens, Meier joined the French Foreign Legion but says he soon left and r
eturned home. He traveled extensively around the world pursuing spiritual explor
ation, covering some forty-two countries over twelve years. In 1965 he lost his
left arm in a bus accident in Turkey. In 1966 he met and married a Greek woman,
Kalliope, with whom he has three children. The nickname "Billy" came by way of a
n American friend who thought Meier's cowboy style of dress reminded her of "Bil
ly the Kid". This anecdote was told by Meier himself in an interview with Bob Za
notti of Swiss Radio International in June, 1982. (BZ, 1/08).
Meier has accumulated a large collection of controversial photographs showing al
leged spaceships (called beamships) as well as alleged extraterrestrials (humano
ids called the Plejaren). Meier says that the Plejaren gave him permission to ph
otograph [4] and film their beamships in order to produce some of the evidence f
or extraterrestrial visitation.[5] Meier's claims are disputed by UFO skeptics a
s well as some UFO enthusiasts.[6][7][8]
Many Meier proponents and believers exist among UFO enthusiasts, and his evidenc
e has seen increased exposure through the efforts of an American representative,
Michael Horn,[9] who has appeared on popular late-night paranormal programs suc
h as Coast to Coast AM.
[edit] Contact
Beginning in 1975, Meier says he began his official contacts ("official" in that
evidence was to be provided publicly, unlike earlier contacts), communicating b
oth directly (face-to-face) and by telepathy with a core group of the Pleiadians
/Plejaren, or Errans as he also refers to them (Erra being their home planet), w
ho gave their names as Ptaah, Semjase[1],[10] Quetzal, and Pleja[2],[11] among n
umerous others. According to Meier himself in the video documentary 'Contact', h
e says that his first contact with extraterrestrials began on January 28, 1975.[
12]
These visitors reportedly hail from the Plejares star system which is beyond the
Pleiades and in a dimension that is a fraction of a second in the future from o
ur own (an alternate timeline). These Plejaren have allegedly afforded Meier a m
ore interesting sampling of evidence than that derived from most such encounters
, including highly detailed photography, videos, multi-toned sound recordings, t
he temporary use of a weapon which he employed for trial on a nearby tree, and m
etal alloy samples.[13]
Meier claimed the visitors charged him with certain informational and consciousn
ess-raising tasks.[14] As he undertook this mission, he met with a great deal of
scorn and derision in addition to (according to his center) twenty-one assassin
ation attempts. Some of these were allegedly initiated by hostile extraterrestri
al entities and subsequently defeated largely through the intervention of his Pl
ejaren friends.[15] Meier was uncomfortable with the megalomaniacal associations
some would attach to his role as a representative (such as use of the term "pro
phet", e.g.) but he undertook the effort nonetheless.
In 1975 Meier established the Freie Interessengemeinschaft f¨¹r Grenz- und Geisteswi
ssenschaften und Ufologiestudien ("Free Community of Interests for the Fringe an
d Spiritual Sciences and UFOlogical Studies") , or FIGU, a non-profit organizati
on for the benefit of researchers into this field, and headquartered it at the S
emjase Silver Star Center.