Eduard ‘Billy’ Meier is one of the last of the old-style contactees, and his story emerged in 1975. Although stories of benevolent contacts were still being made ( and they have never completely disappeared), increasing numbers of abductions were being reported by; the time Meier came forward, and the contactees were old news. Despite, or perhaps because of this, Meier’s case is one of the most controversial, and has aroused strong passions among believer and sceptics alike.

Meier is a Swiss farmer, whose story centres around his alleged contacts with aliens from the Pleiades and his production of literally hundreds of relatively clear, colour photos of UFOs. Many ufologists regard these photos as simply too good to be true, and believe them to be fakes. The sceptics, point to numerous inconsistencies in his story, and say that the case is the biggest hoax of all time. But Meier had strong support from ufologist Wendelle Stevens and from a group of militant believers who collectively styled themselves as Genesis 3.