GROUP WELCOMES UFO BUFFS.

Byline: Gloria Gonzales Daily News Staff Writer

The membership of the Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties chapter of the Mutual UFO Network ranges from people who merely believe that extraterrestrial life exists to those who believe in alien abduction, implants and a government cover-up at Roswell, N.M.

A member who falls closer to the latter category is Agoura Hills podiatrist Dr. Roger Leir, who believes he may have seen evidence of a UFO while driving along the Ventura Freeway near Parkway Calabasas in October.

Leir says that he has removed alien implants from the hands - and toes - of seven patients in the past two years and the details of his ``implant removal surgeries'' can be observed on a Web site, www.anw.com/first, he maintains.

MUFON chapters across the nation do not discriminate on the basis of fine distinctions of alien beliefs, said Alice Leavy, MUFON Ventura chapter president. All are welcome, and part of the mission is to provide a comfortable place to talk about unusual experiences.

``People want to know,'' Leavy said, sitting in her office surrounded by photographs of local sightings. ``Times are different now than 50 years ago, when a radio show like `War of the Worlds' created hysteria.

``People have their heads out of the sand, and they want to look around - and up - and with that investigating will come the understanding that we are not alone. There is something vast and wonderful out there.''

The MUFON connection brings together people like Leir and Texas hypnotherapist Derrell Sims, who works with people who believe they have been abducted and has referred patients to the podiatrist.

``Sims has been working in this area for 27 years,'' Leir said. ``I started looking at these patients and in some cases the implants were obvious. One woman had two implants in her big toe.''

Leir removed the implants, which look like tiny, metallic black triangles, according to Web site photographs. Leir said he has had the material analyzed, and that it contains metals not known to Earth.

Leir and other MUFON members remain puzzled as to the implants' function and purpose, but they hope to raise funds to continue research in the area.

The Thousand Oaks meetings of area MUFON chapter typically draw between 100 and 300 believers, depending on the popularity of whatever speaker is featured each month.

More than 300 people showed up to hear Whitley Strieber, author of ``Communion,'' speak, and authors like Stanton Friedman, Bud Hopkins and David Jacobs, ufologists all, have also attracted large crowds. In addition to speakers, the members' $30 annual dues buy a monthly newsletter and use of the group's office and library at 3801 Old Conejo Road in Newbury Park.

The exterior of their small office is nondescript, tucked next to an engineering firm in an industrial business park just across from a city park.

A small MUFON decal, featuring a trio of alien heads, is the only outward indication that true believers meet within.

Inside, one wall is lined with books and videotapes on space, space travel, UFOs and abductions. Members' artwork, mostly renditions of the now common, large-headed and big-eyed aliens, fill the walls and shelves. The books range from Carl Sagan's ``Contact'' to Friedman's ``Crash at Corona,'' and belie the range of the group's beliefs.

``We have nonbelievers as well as believers,'' Leavy said. ``Skeptics come to our meetings, and our members hold a range of beliefs. There are those who believe in extraterrestrial life, but when they hear stories of alien abduction, they think, `No way!' ''

``We consider ourselves an educational organization, with a mission of education and research,'' Leavy said, as she sorted through Roswell T-shirts. ``We inform people about sightings all over the world and in our area through our monthly newsletter and our Web site, and we're classified as a nonprofit, educational group - and now with the Thousand Oaks Library as our home base for meetings, it all sort of fits in.''

Like scientists peering at inner mysteries through a microscope, MUFON members try to follow the scientific principles of observation and recording when they do encounter out-of-the-ordinary phenomenon.

``If it appears that it is a real incident, then we send an investigator out to make a report,'' Leavy said. That report is eventually forwarded to the National MUFON office in Seguin, Texas. MUFON members have cataloged a number of incidents in Ventura County in the past months.

In one case, drivers on the Ventura Freeway near Parkway Calabasas reported seeing a great flash of light, bright enough to illuminate the night sky on Oct. 3, 1996, just before midnight.

On Dec. 12, 1996, at about 3:30 p.m., a Simi Valley woman called MUFON and reported seeing a slightly flattened, egg-shaped object traveling overhead in a southwesterly direction at high speed. Two other witnesses contacted MUFON and described similar sightings at the same time and place. The witnesses said the craft was completely silent and left no contrail.

In another case on April 26, 1996, two men, one living in Camarillo and one living in Thousand Oaks, both called MUFON and reported seeing two red orbs suspended over the southern horizon. The orbs then moved in an easterly direction from Camarillo toward Thousand Oaks, the men said. Both men, whom had never met, described seeing the distinctive red orbs at about 8:25 p.m. The orbs disappeared as mysteriously as they had appeared about 10 minutes later.

MUFON members add that they spend as much time debunking as they do investigating. Photographs detailing normal celestial events clutter up as much of the group's small office as photographs of ``real'' UFOs.

``In this case, it's a lens flare,'' Leavy said, displaying a photograph of what looked like a flying saucer beneath an image of a lunar eclipse. ``A man brought this into us to analyze. He was out shooting the eclipse and got this image back on film.''

Several sightings a year - some explainable, members say, and some not - come to MUFON's attention through 911 calls. Callers dial the emergency number, and following protocol, the call is first referred to the National UFO Network, and from there to the local MUFON chapter.

``We'll get a lot of calls when they have launches at Vandenberg,'' said Sgt. Rod Thomas at the Ventura County Sheriff's Department's Communications Center, where all 911 calls except Simi Valley's are routed. ``If we know what it is, we'll tell people. If not, or they insist that it's something else, we give them the Seattle number.''

Dispatchers at the National UFO Network in Seattle refer the caller to the local MUFON chapter, after logging all information the caller can provide into a national database.

``In the summer, when the sky clears up, the calls pick up,'' said Leir. ``We'll get a lot of calls from people experiencing . . . a muscle condition where if you look too long at an object it appears to move. Venus appears close to the horizon in summer and people aren't used to seeing it, then they stare at it and think it moves.''

Even among skeptics, MUFON members on the more doubting end of the spectrum are held in high regard.

``Most MUFON members seem to be serious ufologists, who are normal and interesting folks,'' said Dr. Michael Shermer, president of the Southern California Skeptics Society and author of ``Why People Believe Weird Things.''

``My concern is not that people believe in UFOs, but that they believe in everything else, too. Psychics, channelers, abductions, conspiracies - they buy it all indiscriminately without any rational or critical thought.''

Shermer, an adjunct professor at Occidental College who has studied both the history of science and psychology, does agree with ufologists on one issue - extraterrestrial life looks more and more possible.

But Shermer draws the line at abductions, saying that these stories resemble cultural and religious myths of old more than scientifically observed phenomenon.

``In one generation it was flying witches, now it's aliens,'' Shermer said. ``The myths are made from shared images that come to us from the media. We've all seen the little gray alien, so of course, one story corroborates another. But everybody's seen `E.T.,' it's a shared cultural experience. So when someone says they had no idea what an alien looked like before they were abducted, I say baloney!''

Robert Moheit, a Simi Valley astronomer who teaches children about the stars with his traveling, inflatable planetarium that seats 30, said MUFON meetings provide a unique arena for discussing a variety of interests.

``When we do meet it's a reality check,'' Moheit said. ``It's good to have a place to share your experiences without people responding by saying `He's a nut, or `We've heard it all.' ''

One thing the skeptics and believers agree on is that for all humankind, these are exciting times.

SIGHTINGS BELIEVED TO BE UFOS

Members of the Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties Chapter of MUFON routinely investigate what they believe are UFO sightings. According to MUFON members, recent sightings include:

CALABASAS: Drivers on the Ventura Freeway near Parkway Calabasas reported seeing a great flash of light, bright enough to illuminate the night sky on Oct. 3, 1996 just before midnight. The following day, other MUFON members reported increased military activity near Rocketdyne, Inc. in Simi Valley.

FILLMORE: On Nov. 28, 1996, Thanksgiving Day, a MUFON member was driving east on State Highway 126 east of Fillmore when he noticed a bright, orange-yellow light in his side mirror and thought it must be a brush fire. It was about 6:15 p.m., and several cars had pulled off the side of the road.

The man, who had binoculars in his car, pulled over and looked toward the light, only to see that it was not a fire but an extremely bright orange-yellow ball of light. The man watched the ball of light for about 15 minutes until it blinked out.

SIMI VALLEY: On Dec. 12, 1996, at about 3:30 p.m., a Simi Valley woman called MUFON and reported seeing a slightly flattened, egg-shaped object traveling overhead in a southwesterly direction at high speed.

CAMARILLO: On Nov. 29, 1996, a Camarillo family called the MUFON office and reported a UFO sighting. The family lives in a hilltop horse ranch with good visibility. Family members noticed a bright object about 70 to 80 degrees above the northwestern horizon at about 4:30 p.m. The family expressed surprise because though close to sunset, it was not yet dark enough to see stars.

A MUFON member visited the home over the next three days, as the bright objects disappeared and reappeared, and also appeared to eject smaller bright objects. MUFON member Mary Helen Corrado photographed the UFO, and photographs are posted on the Web site. Over the next few days, the weather deteriorated, and no more sightings were recorded. Photographs of the bright object are displayed in the MUFON office and on the group's Web site.

THOUSAND OAKS/CAMARILLO: On April 26, 1997, two men, one living in Camarillo and one living in Thousand Oaks, called MUFON and reported seeing two red orbs suspended over the southern horizon. Both men, who had never met, described seeing the orbs disappear as mysteriously as they had appeared about 10 minutes later.

ABOUT THE GROUP

The Mutual UFO Network was founded in 1969 as a grass-roots organization to research and investigate unidentified flying objects. Nationwide, more the 5,000 people belong to dozens of chapters. In Southern California, MUFON has active chapters in San Diego, Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Chapters hold monthly meetings and host ever-changing, state-of-the-art Web sites.

MUFON-L.A. meets the third Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. at the Pickwick Center, 1001 Riverside Drive, Burbank. At the Saturday meeting, MUFON members William Hamilton and Pamela Stellhorn, Phoenix residents, will discuss the reported nocturnal flyovers of that city, which have been reported intermittently since March 13. For more information or membership applications, call [phone], or visit the group's Web site at www.mufonla.com.

The Mutual UFO Network of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties meets the fourth Friday of each month at 7:15 p.m. at the Thousand Oaks Library, 1401 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks. This month, the group hosts a panel discussion with self-described UFO abduction experts, including two certified hypnotherapists and a state-licensed psychotherapist. For more information or membership applications, call [phone] or visit the group's Web site at www.jetlink.net/mcorrado.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, 2 Boxes

Photo: (1--Color only in Simi and Conejo editions) Dr. Roger Leir, Mutual UFO Network member, shows some alien-oriented paraphernalia, including a copy of the Roswell Daily Record.

John Lazar/Special to the Daily News

(2) Dr. Roger Leir removes what he says is an alien implant from a woman's toe in this Web image.

(3) A quarter-inch object appears embedded in the toe of a woman who reported contact with a UFO.

Box: (1) SIGHTINGS BELIEVED TO BE UFOS (See text)

(2) ABOUT THE GROUP (See text)