I recently lectured for the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas-based branch of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). After the lecture and as we ate dinner in a nearby restaurant, one of the people in attendance asked me if studies had been undertaken to determine the extent to which UFO encounters could be considered life-changing events. “That’s a good question,” I replied.

And it set me thinking: How many people’s lives have taken radically different courses than they could previously—and possibly—have imagined, in the wake of some form of UFO encounter? My guess is a large number. And none more so than a good friend of mine, and a fellow-Brit, named Tracie Austin-Peters, who had her own encounter with a mysterious aerial object in 1996.

Tracie was born in England in 1965, and having studied at Cauldon College of Further Education in 1984, relocated to London a year later to teach in various schools and study at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, as a concert pianist.

It was during this period that Tracie first began to take an interest in the UFO mystery. In 1989, Tracie moved back to her hometown of Staffordshire and seven years later had a UFO sighting that went on to have a profound and life-changing effect on her.

“It was about 3 o’clock in the afternoon on May 14, 1996,” states Tracie today, “and it was quite a clear and sunny day. I’d got about an hour and a half free before I had to be back at work, and decided that because it was so nice, I would drive up to the woods nearby with a book and read for a while.

Tracie Austin-Peters

“I headed for the local shop and pulled up on the car park, as I was going to get a few items to take with me. But as I got out of the car, I got an immediate urge to look up. It was just like something had told me to look up, although I didn’t hear a voice. It was more like an impulse.

I knew directly where to look, too. And as I looked up, I saw a really unusually shaped object that looked like a boomerang or a V-shaped craft. It was silent, it was black, and as I stood watching it, I thought to myself: I need to get a grip on this. What am I looking at?”

Tracie continues, “I’m quite a logical person, and I wondered at first if it was a large bird of some kind, but it wasn’t. The wings were just stretched out and it wasn’t moving like a bird. It was sort of turning anti-clockwise. And it certainly wasn’t an airplane or a hang-glider. I knew I had to grab someone to see if they could see it, too.

“There was a woman near me getting her child out of her car and I said to her, “Excuse me, I hope you don’t think I’m being silly, but can you see what I can see in the sky?” She replied, ‘You mean that black thing?’ I said, ‘Yes,’ and we both stood and watched it. But I got a very strong feeling, like it was giving off a thought, saying: ‘Have a good look at me because what you are seeing is real.’ ”

At that point, something truly strange occurred. “I watched it and then it did the most bizarre thing. It shrunk itself into a black sphere but continued to move anti-clockwise. But the strange thing was that the lady who was with me didn’t see it change shape. I thought this was ridiculous, and ran across the car park to grab someone else. He saw it, too, but didn’t know what it was. But as I watched, the object then transformed back to its original shape and then an appendage came out of the middle, which made it look like an arrowhead.

“It then headed off in what I thought was the direction of the woods. So, I jumped in the car and headed off there, too. I scanned the sky but didn’t see it again, unfortunately. Well, I was due to start work again about 4.30 p.m., so I went home and telephoned Irene Bott of the Staffordshire UFO Group and told her what had happened. Irene told me to write it all down and draw a picture of the object–which I did. I also phoned a local UFO group in my area, too, and they said they would look into it.

“Suddenly, at that point, I got this feeling again to look up in the sky and was amazed to see this same object flying directly over my house. It was so strange; I wasn’t frightened—just surprised and excited. And the whole thing took on such a magical atmosphere. And again, I got the feeling that the object wanted to be seen. I’m not too brilliant at heights, but it was much lower than your average aircraft. Again, it was moving in an anti-clockwise way and I watched it until it vanished.”

The story was not quite over, however. “Three days later, the UFO group phoned me back to say that they had had a call from a guy who didn’t want to leave his name but who lived about four miles from me. They told me that he said he’d seen three black boomerang-shaped objects flying over his house, and I just couldn’t believe it.”

To this day, Tracie says, the extraordinary events of May 14, 1996 remain firmly fixed in her mind and she is certain that something truly out-of-this-world took place.

Shortly after Tracie’s encounter, the British television channel BBC Digital was made aware of her sighting, and during the making of a TV documentary, “Over the Moon,” Tracie told her story and re-enacted her sighting. Galvanized by this, in June of 1996 she hosted her first UFO conference, which became a major success. Radio appearances followed, as did articles in local newspapers and invitations to speak on the subject at various organizations. A second conference followed in 1998. But it was in 1999 that Tracie’s life changed radically. It was that year, after we traveled together to the annual LAPIS UFO conference in northern England, that Tracie met UFO and “rods” researcher Jim Peters, who was delivering a presentation at the conference with Jose Escamilla. Romance quickly blossomed and two years later Jim and Tracie were married and living just outside of Los Angeles.

Today, Tracie is both the host and producer of her own public access talk show based in Santa Clarita, California, titled “Let’s Talk … Paranormal,” that regularly discusses a whole range of UFO-related topics and airs in the region on Monday evenings on Channel 20 at 10 p.m. She recently became a finalist in the 24th Annual Telly Awards and is now networking her show as far afield as Tucson, Arizona, where her show airs every Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m. on Channel 73, and is currently arranging for her show to be aired nationally.

Would Tracie now be living in sunny California with her own TV show if wasn’t for that chance encounter? Who knows? But her experiences do serve to amply demonstrate that when we immerse ourselves in the world of the UFO, both weird and wonderful life-changing experiences do follow. Those wanting to learn more about Tracie Austin-Peters can do so at www.tracieaustin.com

Nick Redfern lives in Dallas, Texas. His most recent book is Three Men Seeking Monsters: Six Weeks In Pursuit Of Werewolves, Lake Monsters, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs, And Ape-Men (Paraview-Pocket Books, March, 2004). He can be contacted at www.nickredfern.com