Canada's Most Documented UFO Case | Falcon Lake

Summary

The Why Files: Operation Podcast

Episode: Canada’s Most Documented UFO Case | Falcon Lake

Release Date: June 19, 2026
Host: AJ Hackwith
Co-host/Sidekick: Hacklefish

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the famous Falcon Lake UFO encounter, Canada’s most documented and perplexing UFO case. The story centers on Stefan Michalak, a Polish immigrant and amateur geologist, who in 1967 reported a close encounter with a strange, disc-shaped craft in the Manitoba wilderness. The incident left him with severe burns, mysterious symptoms, and a trail of government investigations, skepticism, and lingering mysteries. AJ Hackwith and co-host Hacklefish dissect the reported event, the investigation, competing theories (including skepticism), and what this case tells us about belief, truth, and how society treats extraordinary claims.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Stefan Michalak’s Encounter

[00:01 – 03:19]

• The Incident: On May 20, 1967, Stefan Michalak was prospecting for silver near Falcon Lake, Manitoba, when he observed two glowing, cigar-shaped objects descend from the sky. They became disc-shaped as they approached, with one landing close by.
• Description of Craft: The craft was described as about 40 feet wide, dome-topped, and metallic (aluminum or stainless steel). It radiated heat and sat silently, seemingly without visible means of support.
• Stefan’s Reaction: Stefan initially observed from a distance, sketching the scene. “He wasn’t frightened… it was inconvenient.” (AJ Hackwith, 02:36)

2. Close Encounter and Physical Effects

[03:19 – 12:59]

• Approach: After approximately 30 minutes, a door opened on the craft, emitting an unidentifiable bright blue-purple light. Stefan put on welding goggles and gloves for protection and approached the object.
• Craft Interior: Described as being filled with blinking colored lights and a low hum. No seats, controls, or visible crew, but Stefan heard what sounded like human voices behind the door.
• Communication Attempts: Stefan tried to communicate in multiple languages (English, Russian, German, Italian, French, Ukrainian)—all to no avail. (10:33)
• Physical Encounter: When he touched the craft, his gloves melted. The door slammed shut, the craft rotated, and a hot blast issued from a vent—burning his chest in a neatly patterned grid, setting his clothes on fire, and causing him to vomit repeatedly.
• Notable Moment: “When his fingers touched the metal, he felt the gloves go soft. He heard a sizzle as the rubber melted onto his fingers. The door snapped shut. The craft started to rotate… Then the blast—hot gas shot out of the grid and hit him square in the chest.” (AJ Hackwith, 11:29)

3. Aftermath: Physical and Medical Evidence

[13:00 – 17:25]

• Immediate Aftereffects: Stefan walked out of the forest, flagging down a police officer who refused assistance. He went home, where his nine-year-old son noticed the “reek of sulfur and burnt electronics… coming out of his father’s skin.” (AJ Hackwith, 13:18; 15:05)
• Medical Findings:
  • Stefan lost 22 pounds in a week (from 180 to 158 lbs).
  • Burn patterns matched the vent grid on his skin and undershirt.
  • Blood tests showed drops in lymphocytes, indicative of brief, high-level radiation exposure. "A radiologist… said this was typical of whole-body radiation exposure… [at] between 100 and 200 roentgens. A longer dose, and you die." (AJ Hackwith, 15:40)
  • Burns recurred in exact intervals (every 112 days).
  • Mayo Clinic found no evidence of mental illness; Stefan was not delusional or hallucinating.

4. The Investigation: RCMP, Military, and Official Response

[18:46 – 21:14]

• Multiple Canadian and US agencies opened files; the Air Force, RCMP, and even parliament got involved.
• Despite Stefan’s detailed sketches and directions, initial search teams failed to find the landing site.
• Military skepticism led to tests (e.g., trying to get Stefan drunk to expose supposed unreliability) but failed to debunk his character.
• One month later, Stefan led investigators himself to the site, which displayed scorched earth and unusual radiation readings: “There was radium 226 in the soil… [it] was a serious health hazard.” (AJ Hackwith, 21:14)
• The case file grew to 300 pages, with chief investigator Squadron Leader Paul Bisky eventually forced to admit the case included genuine unexplained phenomena: Stefan’s illness, burns, and the landing circle (“unexplainable”).

5. Physical Samples and Lasting Mysteries

[21:14 – 23:15]

• A year after the event, Stefan found two silver bars in a crack on the landing site; they tested as high-grade silver coated with uranium, and were radioactive.
• The site had been exhaustively searched previously, raising questions of timing or deliberate deception.
• Even skeptics admitted, “Should this be a hoax, someone is going to considerable effort to perpetrate same.” (Paul Bisky via AJ Hackwith, 23:09)

6. Government Secrecy and Public Legacy

[23:15 – 25:13]

• The government resisted transparency; files were redacted, some never released.
• The story was later commemorated with a Canadian silver coin (that glows in the dark)—a surprising cultural endorsement.
• Stefan never profited; his booklet lost money, and he sought only a diagnosis, not fame.

7. Skepticism and Debunking Attempts

[25:13 – 26:34]

• Some burns may have been self-inflicted (“factitious”)—skeptical doctors suggested.
• Natural uranium in the area could explain the radiation.
• The “silver bars” matched commercial sterling and could have been planted.
• Fire watcher in a nearby tower saw nothing; no other witnesses.
• Leading skeptics labeled it a “badly executed hoax”—but couldn’t explain all facts.

8. Unexplained Core and Broader Meaning

[26:34 – 29:18]

• Despite discrepancies, many facts remained unexplainable: extreme weight loss, the original burns, the lack of profit motive, and the persistent suffering Stefan endured.
• The Condon Committee and the Canadian Department of National Defense both filed the case as "unexplained"—with the Condon Report noting “If the encounter was real, it would show the existence of alien flying vehicles in our environment.”
• Stefan never changed his story: “He died in 1999 at 83. And he never recanted, never embellished, never changed a word.” (AJ Hackwith, 24:00)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Stefan’s character:

  “Not much can rattle a man who lived through a Nazi death camp. … He wasn’t frightened. … it was inconvenient.” (AJ Hackwith, 02:36)

• On communicating with the craft:

  “A lifetime of war and exile gave him six ways to say the same thing: I can help.” (AJ Hackwith, 10:56)

• On the burns returning:

  “Over the months they learned the sores returned every 112 days, right on schedule.” (AJ Hackwith, 16:56)

• On government secrecy:

  “They said full release would not be in the public interest.” (AJ Hackwith, 23:15)

• On the official verdict:

  “The air force’s chief skeptic put three things on the record: Stefan’s illness, Stefan’s burns, the circle in the rock. And he used one word for all three: unexplainable.” (AJ Hackwith, 21:14)

• On belief:

  “Falcon Lake is about a man who told the truth as he knew it… and he got a door slammed in his face every single time.” (AJ Hackwith, 28:26)

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Structure & Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamps | Summary | |----------------------------------|---------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Introduction/Teaser | 00:01–00:46 | The mystery and skepticism following Stefan’s claim. | | Michalak’s Encounter | 02:36–05:42 | Sighting of UFOs, approach, first sketching, then close investigation and physical effects. | | Inside the Craft/Burn Incident | 07:11–12:59 | Description of the craft, Stefan’s exploration, encounter with light, voices, sudden injury, and his retreat from the woods. | | Aftermath and Medical Effects | 15:05–17:25 | Stefan’s symptoms, diagnosis pursuits, repeating burns, and bafflement of doctors. | | Search and Investigation | 18:46–21:14 | Multi-agency case development, failure to find site, discovery of radioactive circle. | | Physical Evidence & Legacy | 21:14–23:15 | Discovery of silver bars, government attitude; cultural legacy (commemorative coin). | | Skeptics and Counterarguments | 25:13–26:34 | ‘Factitious’ burns, possible planted evidence, faltering skeptics, and unresolved anomalies. | | Broader Message & Conclusion | 26:34–29:18 | Regardless of UFO reality, the story is about being believed. The importance of helping those who carry hard-to-believe stories.|

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Themes & Tone

• Empathetic and investigative: The podcast treats the witness with empathy while rigorously testing his story.
• Balanced skepticism: The case is scrutinized for hoax potential but never dismisses that some details are truly unexplained.
• Playful banter: Co-host Hacklefish adds humor and lightness to mitigate the darkness of Stefan’s ordeal.

  “Burning a game of Connect Four into your belly… Now that’s how you commit to a bit.” (Co-host/Sidekick, 25:16)

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Final Reflection

The Falcon Lake case is an enduring mystery, unresolved despite decades of investigation, skepticism, and analysis. The hosts highlight the importance of listening and believing people who come forward with impossible-sounding stories—not because every claim is true, but because every injured, desperate person deserves help.

“You don’t have to believe the story, but you should try to believe the person standing in front of you, hurt, begging for help. …You have only one option. You stop the car.” (AJ Hackwith, 29:12)

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Transcript

[AJ Hackwith]

On a May afternoon in 1967, a man stumbled out of the Manitoba woods and flagged down a police car. His shirt was gone. His chest was burned. He threw up in the ditch while he waited. When the officer stepped toward him, the man waved him back. He said he was burned by a flying saucer and might be radioactive. The officer didn't believe him. Nobody did. Then the scars came back and kept coming back. For 30 years, he never said the word aliens. Not once in all that time. He just wanted someone to believe him. The government finally took him seriously. And maybe we all should.

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[AJ Hackwith]

Stefan Mihalik hid behind a rock and sketched what he saw. Half a football field away, a disc shaped craft sat on a rocky clearing it was 40ft across and 15ft high with a dome on top. It looked like it was made out of aluminum or brushed stainless steel. Whatever it was, Stefan wasn't going near it. So here he was in the middle of the woods, sketching a flying saucer. He wasn't frightened. He was a 51 year old Polish immigrant who survived a Nazi death camp during World War II. Not much can rattle a man who lives through that. Sure, the object was weird, but it wasn't scary. It was inconvenient. After a half hour of hiding, Stefan wanted to get back to hunting rocks.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

We are using the word hunt way too liberally these days. House hunt, rock hunt. Helen Hunt. Where's the danger?

[AJ Hackwith]

Well, Twister was pretty dangerous for the cows.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

You know the scariest hunt of all? What, Mike?

[AJ Hackwith]

Ugh. 90 miles east of Winnipeg is the White Shell, a stretch of Canadian wilderness about the S size of Rhode island. And in 1967, it was silver country. Stefan knew that country well. He found white quartz running through the rock. And where there's quartz, there's silver. He was an industrial mechanic by trade, but his real passion was silver. So on weekends, he hiked the woods with a hammer and chisel, looking for treasure. On Friday, May 19, he traveled to Falcon Lake and checked into a motel. The next morning, he found a vein of quartz and went to work. The woods were quiet except for the sound of tapping metal. But at 12:15, the geese went crazy. A whole flock flew up off the water at once. Stefan looked up to see what spooked them. Two objects came down out of the sky, glowing red, shaped like cigars. As they dropped lower, they flattened into disks. One of the objects stopped. It hovered over the trees for a few seconds. Then it shot back up into the sky and was gone. The other object kept coming straight down and slowly settled onto a clearing about 160ft away. The red glow faded to orange, then to gray, like stainless steel. Hot metal does. This steel comes out of a forge, glowing red, and as it cools, it runs through orange on its way back to gray. So whatever just landed on that rock was very, very hot. Stefan stayed hidden behind a rock and just waited and waited. Nothing happened. So he grabbed a pad and pencil and sketched the thing like it was a broken engine he'd been called in to fix. He got down. The shape, the color, the way the air around it bent and shimmered with heat. For a half hour, he drew. Then a door slid open on the side of the craft and light poured out. A color that doesn't even exist on earth.

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[AJ Hackwith]

The light came from a doorway near the top of the craft. It was hard to describe, not quite blue and not quite purple somewhere in between. And it was bright, brighter than the daylight around it. Stefan was done hiding. He had to get a closer look. The first thing he noticed was it didn't have legs or wheels. It just balanced there on the bare rock like it weighed nothing. He couldn't see an engine, but the object hummed. A low frequency hum that he felt more than heard. There were no markings on the object, no flag, no insignia of any kind. And it didn't look like an aircraft at all. Completely round with no wings, no rudder, no cockpit. At least none that he could see. The metal was polished, so bright and clean he could see his reflection. What he couldn't see was how the thing was built. There were no seams or rivets, no weld lines. That bothered him more than the lights. He spent his whole life working metal. This was the best metal work he'd ever seen. The walls looked about a foot and a half thick, but they weren't solid. The metal was worked in A hollow grid pattern. It looked like a steel honeycomb. When Stefan reached the door, the light was blinding. But he had protection.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

Yeah, smart. Probe it before it can probe you.

[AJ Hackwith]

Not that kind of protection.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

Are you sure? You just spent five minutes telling us how this guy likes to hammer stuff. Alone in the woods,

[AJ Hackwith]

he put his welding goggles on. He brought them to protect his eyes from chipping metal. But they also had a tinted visor. With his shades on, he leaned in through the doorway. Inside, he saw a wall of lights. Beams ran in horizontal and diagonal patterns. Banks of different color lights blinked in sequences that never repeated. He looked for a button or a switch or anything familiar, but he found nothing. And no pilot seat. No controls. The room was empty. Just the lights and that low hum. Then the smell hit him. Sulfur. Ozone burning electronics. This was the first time Stefan was afraid. Not of the object, of the air he might be breathing.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

It was time to go.

[AJ Hackwith]

Then, from somewhere inside the craft, he heard something familiar. Voices. The voices sounded human. There were two of them. One pitched higher than the other. Muffled the way conversations sound through a closed door. He couldn't make out the words, but voices meant a crew, and a crew meant somebody built this thing. Stefan was pretty sure he knew who, and it wasn't aliens. He knew about UFOs from sci fi magazines, but he didn't think this was a spaceship. He figured it was something classified. An experimental aircraft from the US Air Force. The US and the Soviets were in

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

the middle of a race for space

[AJ Hackwith]

and both wanted to land on the moon first.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

The race to the moon. Also known as the Sprint to Stanley sound stage in Burbank.

[AJ Hackwith]

Anyway, when something weird falls out of the sky, your first thought is, the

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Americans are up to something.

[AJ Hackwith]

But it was almost an hour since the craft came down. Maybe there was a mechanical failure.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Maybe someone was hurt.

[AJ Hackwith]

So he called out to see if they needed any help. He yelled, okay, Yankee boys having trouble?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

No reply.

[AJ Hackwith]

Maybe they weren't American. He called out again, this time in Russian, Then German, Italian, French, Ukrainian, then back to English one more time. A lifetime of war and exile gave him six ways to say the same thing.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

I can help.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

Hey, hey, hey. How do you know how many Germans it takes to change a light bulb?

[AJ Hackwith]

Uh, nine.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

What?

[AJ Hackwith]

No, that's what I said.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

You said nine.

[AJ Hackwith]

Exactly. No, nine Germans.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

Are you messing with me, human?

[AJ Hackwith]

Yeah, well, never mind. How many Germans does it take to change a light bulb?

[Co-host/Sidekick]

It was engineered properly the first time and does not require changing.

[AJ Hackwith]

So I was right. Nein.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

Uh, one of us is having a stroke right now, but I can't tell which one of us.

[AJ Hackwith]

After Stefan ran through his languages, the voices stopped. And then the thing came alive. A whine started up like an engine and got louder. And the heat came back. Stefan felt like he was in an oven. He still had his heavy welding gloves on, so he reached out to see how hot it really was. And that was a mistake. When his fingers touched the metal, he felt the gloves go soft. He heard a sizzle as the rubber melted onto his fingers. The door snapped shut. The craft started to rotate. And as it turned, Stefan saw a panel, a grid, a small vent, maybe 9 inches by 6, drilled full of tiny round holes in neat rows. Then the blast hot gas shot out of the grid and hit him square in the chest. Then he realized he was on fire. He tore off his shirt and stamped out the flames. And when he looked up, the craft was already off the rock. It rose without a sound. A minute ago, the thing was loud as hell, and now it was dead silent. He felt a rush of air as it climbed. And then it was gone. Stefan was alone in the clearing. His chest was scorched raw. He had a splitting headache. Then he felt his stomach turn over. He dropped to his knees and threw up. He got up and started walking. The burns on his chest started to swell into a pattern. He vomited his way out of the forest.

[Guest/Performer]

He.

[AJ Hackwith]

He walked, stopped, retched and walked again. And the headache came in waves. When he finally made it to the highway, he flagged down a police officer. He told the officer a story. Then the officer said, sorry, but I have other duties to perform, got back

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

in his car and drove away.

[AJ Hackwith]

Stefon got himself home to Winnipeg that night. When his nine year old son walked into the bedroom, the first thing the boy noticed wasn't the birds. It was the smell. Summer always changes the way I dress.

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[AJ Hackwith]

The smell hit Stan before anything else.

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He was nine years old.

[AJ Hackwith]

He walked into his parents bedroom and the room reeked style smell like sulfur and burnt electronics. It wasn't the burns and it wasn't his clothes. The smell was coming out of his father's skin and it lasted for weeks. Stefan was sure he was radioactive. He couldn't keep food down. He weighed 180 pounds on the morning of the encounter, and one week later he weighed 158. 22 pounds gone in seven days. And he kept fainting. He had headaches and blackouts with huge gaps in his memory. His doctor found reddish raised sores across his upper stomach and singed hair in his hairline. The pattern on his skin matched the grid on the vent. The undershirt he wore that day had charred holes in the same spots in the same pattern. And Stefan's blood was affected. His lymphocyte count dropped far below normal. Lymphocytes are a kind of white blood cell, a part of your immune system. Doctors knew a drop like that could come from radiation. A radiologist in the United States said this was typical of whole body radiation exposure. He put the dose at between 100 and 200 reentgens. A Reentian is a measure of radiation and at 400 you usually die. The radiologist wrote that the exposure must have lasted only seconds. Any longer and it would have killed it. And the burns kept coming back. They healed and returned, healed again and then came back again. Doctors tried medication after medication, but nothing worked. Over the months they learned the sores returned every 112 days, right on schedule. More than a dozen doctors examined him in Canada and the United States, and not one of them knew what was wrong. Stefan paid his own way to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, one of the Best hospitals on Earth. They ran every test they had, and they came up empty, too. But they ruled one thing out, and it matters. The Mayo psychiatric report said Stefan Mihalik showed no delusion, no hallucination, no mental illness of any kind. Whatever happened to him, he was not making it up. And while doctors mapped his symptoms, the Royal Canadian Air Force ran into a problem of its own.

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[AJ Hackwith]

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[AJ Hackwith]

What landed at Falcon Lake pulled in almost everybody. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police opened a file. So did the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Department of Health, and the Department of National defense. A civilian UFO group sent an investigator who photographed Stevens Burns three days after the event. And the U.S. air Force came, too. And before it was over. The Falcon Lake case was about 300 pages thick. Five days after the encounter, the Air Force sent its first search party into the white shell. They had Stefan's sketch, his marks on an aerial photo. But they found nothing. So they escalated. They put Stefan in a helicopter and on the ground, close enough to find rocks he chipped with his own hammer.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

The site never appeared.

[AJ Hackwith]

One investigator's whole job was to make it go away. Squadron Leader Paul Bisky of the Royal Canadian Air Force. He didn't believe a word of the story. The saucer was nonsense, and the witness was a drunk who hallucinated the Whole thing. And Bisky came to prove it. And Bisky had one lead. Stephan swore he didn't drink at Falcon Lake, but the motel bartender said he served him five or six beers the night before. So Stephon lied about drinking. Now Bisky needed to prove the man couldn't say no to a drink. So he ran a test. He took Stephon back to that same bar and offered him a beer. Stephon said no. Bisky offered him a rye and ginger. Stefan said yes. And he drank a few of those. And he loosened up, and out came the stories. That was all Bisky needed. He wrote up his report. Stefan threw himself a private party the night before, and 10 hours later, still drunk or hungover, he hallucinated a flying saucer. Bisky floated a second theory. Stefan got drunk and fell on a hot barbecue grill. His source was a woman who never came forward. She spent that weekend at Falcon Lake with a man who wasn't her husband, so she preferred to keep quiet. That was the case against Stefan the holic. A bar tab, a cheating spouse, and a hunch.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

A bar jab, a cheating spouse and a hunch. That's not a federal case, human. That's a country sewer.

[AJ Hackwith]

Then, on June 25, the skeptics hit a wrinkle. Stefan found the site himself.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

He led the search party straight to

[AJ Hackwith]

it, 50 yards from where the search teams had already looked.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

There it was. Everything was still there.

[AJ Hackwith]

The ring of dirt and pine needles around the rim. The investigators collected soil, rock, and vegetation from the area, and the samples went to the RCMP crime lab in Ottawa. When the results came back, the tone of the file changed. There was radium 226 in the soil. That's the stuff that made old watch dials glow in the dark. There was so much radium, the lab called it a serious health hazard, and they recommended closing the whole area. Down. Down. So Bisky's hunch fell apart. When he finally wrote his report, the air force's chief skeptic put three things on the record he couldn't make go away. Stefan's illness, Stefan's burns, the circle in the rock. And he used one word for all three. Unexplainable. But in a crack in that same rock, two inches under moss, was some evidence, some very important evidence that everybody seemed to miss. One year later, almost to the day, Stefan Mihalik went back to the rock. He worked along the landing circle, and in a fissure under the moss, he found two bars of metal. The lab took them apart. One bar was 93% silver, the other 96. And both were covered in crushed uranium. They were radioactive. Remember, this was the most searched patch of rock in Canada. Police, military, radiation officers, civilians, all of them combed that circle for a year and found nothing. Either the bars appeared sometime that year, or every search team in two countries walked right over them. Even Bisky, the man who first thought it was a hoax, had to admit that this was strange. He sent a teletype to headquarters. Should this be a hoax, someone is going to considerable effort to perpetrate saying

[Co-host/Sidekick]

a translation from the Bunkeries. I came here to call him a liar and now I need a drink.

[AJ Hackwith]

While the labs worked, the government closed ranks. When Manitoba MP Edward Schreier raised Falcon Lake in the House of Commons, the speaker cut him off. And when Parliament finally let one mpc, the file pages had already been pulled. They said full release would not be in the public interest. That silenced MP went on to become Governor General of Canada. The government's own representative once asked his government about Falcon Lake. And his government refused to answer. Stefan didn't care what the craft was. He just wanted a diagnosis. Months after Mayo, he still had no results. And he carried the case the rest of his life. The burns came back for years. The scars stayed under his skin for decades. He died in 1999 at 83. And he never recanted, never embellished, never changed a word. And in 2018, the same government that sealed his file put the Falcon Lake UFO incident on a coin. Silver, of course. And it glows in the dark. Stefan Mihalik walked into the white shell looking for silver. And 50 years later, his government minted his story in it. So that's Falcon Lake. A mechanic walked into the woods, came out burned and carried marks no doctor could explain. Great story, but did it really happen this way? We'll start with the famous burns. The neat grid of dots from the photos shows up in January 1968, eight months after the encounter. The doctor who saw him the day after describes something else. Irregular, blotchy, unevenly spaced burns. And when the grid finally did appear, a Mayo psychiatrist called it obviously factitial.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

What does that mean?

[AJ Hackwith]

Fake? The burns were self inflicted.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

Burning a Game of Connect 4 into your belly every few months. Now that's how you commit to a bit.

[AJ Hackwith]

The radiation has an explanation too. The white shell is naturally rich in uranium. And the soil's radium could have come

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

from a natural vein.

[AJ Hackwith]

The silver bars make the story worse. Their makeup matches commercial sterling, not raw silver. Right down to the copper and cadmium that make up the alloy and they were coated in foundry sand. They surfaced a full year later at a site dozens of people could reach. After the pros had searched it and found nothing, Investigators are pretty sure that metal was placed there. Then the awkward details. A fire watchtower overlooked the area and the ranger on duty saw nothing. The leading skeptics of the day day called Falcon Lake a badly executed hoax. Case closed. Except for everything else. He really did lose 22 pounds in a week. That's almost impossible unless you're really sick. The burns were real and no one ever disputed that. A doctor documented first degree burns the day after. A charred undershirt that matched the wounds. You can still see the shirt. It's on display at the University of Manitoba.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

The Louvers get the Mona Lisa. The Manitoba's got a burnt undershirt checks out.

[AJ Hackwith]

If he faked the grid in 1968, nobody ever explained the Burns of 1967. Well then follow the money. Well, you can't because there isn't any, uh.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

Oh, he didn't write a book.

[AJ Hackwith]

He wrote a booklet.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

There's always a booklet.

[AJ Hackwith]

Yeah, but the booklet lost money.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

It was something he gave to people for free.

[AJ Hackwith]

He gave it to them who wanted to hear his story. He was so sick of telling it,

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

he would just give him the booklet

[AJ Hackwith]

and say, read this. And the Mayo Clinic, he paid for that himself. And that's not cheap. Bisky. The man who wanted him to be a liar called the whole case unexplainable. The Department of National Defense admitted it was unable to provide evidence which would dispute Mihalik's story. And then the Condon Committee, a US study built to close UFO cases, they filed Falcon Lake as unexplained. They even added a line you almost never see in an official report. If the encounter was real, it would show the existence of alien flying vehicles in our environment. If Falcon Lake was a hoax. A 51 year old mechanic burned his own chest. Starved off 22 pounds. Fooled a dozen doctors and a Mayo psychiatrist. Look, if it was real, something landed on that rock that we still can't name. The case is still unsolved. But here's the part that bothers me. Strip away the saucer and. Falcon Lake is about a man who told the truth as he knew it. To the military, to doctors, to the government. And he got a door slammed in his face every single time. The first human being he met after the worst hour of his life listened to his story, heard his story and drove away. And that wasn't just a civilian that was an RCMP officer trained and sworn to help people he refused to help. Stefan never asked anyone to believe in flying saucers. He only asked people to believe him. And that's one of the hardest, bravest things you can do. Tell the truth, no matter what it costs, and refuse to take it back. Most of us will never meet a man burned from a flying saucer. But all of us will meet somebody someday carrying a story that sounds impossible. And maybe they're wrong. Maybe they're confused, maybe not. Maybe they're on the highway like Stefan was asking you to stop. You don't have to believe the story, but you should try to believe the person standing in front of you, hurt, begging for help. And when that happens, you. You have only one option. You stop the car. Thank you so much for hanging out today. My name is aj. That's hacklefish.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

Good navig man.

[AJ Hackwith]

This has been the Y Files. If you had fun or learned something, I'd really appreciate it if you could like subscribe, comment, share and that stuff really helps. Helps the fish. And like most topics we cover on the channel, today's recommended by you. So if there's a story you'd like to see or learn more about, go to the y files.com tips send a message on Discord, Email us, catch us in chat. There's a lot of ways to get

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

a hold of us.

[AJ Hackwith]

We're always looking for new stories.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

And if you enjoy the stories I

[AJ Hackwith]

tell on the why Files, check out my other show on the channel. It's called the Basement. It's a conversation show where I chat with interesting people behind the episodes. Some of them you know, some you don't.

[Guest/Performer]

But.

[AJ Hackwith]

But all of them are really interesting. Experts on fun topics like the Knights Templar, the moon landing hoax, lots of quantum physics, different dimensions, warp speed travel, jfk conspiracy stuff. I mean, it's random, but it's fun. And if there's someone you'd like to see on the show, let me know. I'm always looking for good guests. Remember, the Wildfiles is also a podcast. You can take us on the road, upload at least twice a week. Episodes, campfire stories, interviews. It's called the Y Files Operation Podcast and it's available everywhere you get your podcasts and if you are listening on an audio platform, if you can click the thumbs up, the like the follow all those buttons, they really help so much. Now if you need more Wild Files in your life, check out our Discord. There are over a hundred thousand people there, so 24, 7. There's somebody there talking about all kinds of weird stuff.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

It's an amazing community, it's really supportive,

[AJ Hackwith]

it's a lot of fun, and it's free to join. And speaking of 24. 7, check out our 24. 7 live stream of the Wildfiles backstage. Over there. We run episodes back to back with some fun unique content in between. And actually, the live chat is more entertaining than the videos. And here's a secret I'm not supposed to tell all the members only videos

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

on the main channel. I usually post over there for everybody to see.

[AJ Hackwith]

Don't tell anyone that. Special thanks to our patrons who make this channel possible. Every episode of the WI Files is

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

dedicated to our Patreon members. I couldn't have done any of this without you and still couldn't do this without your support.

[AJ Hackwith]

So thank you. And if you'd like to support the channel, keep us going and join our community. Become a member on Patreon for as little as three bucks a month to get access to perks like seeing videos early with no commercials, exclusive merch, and

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

two private live streams every week just for you.

[AJ Hackwith]

And the whole Watt BA team is on the stream.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

And you can turn on your camera,

[AJ Hackwith]

jump up on stage, ask a question if you want to talk more about a topic, recommended topic, tell a joke, or just chat. It's a good way to get to know us as people and I think it's the best perk there is. Another great way to support the channel is grab something from the wifi store.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

Can I grab a heck of a T shirt? And what are these fist of a Duffy likes? You can stick your fist in your alien fist, your German fist. What? Whatever fish you want to put in there. Put a French fist up in there. It's nothing I can say. Oh, yeah, okay. One of these hoodies set my face on it. Look at what? He's adorable species. Oh, I taste my hot sake when I see it. Adorable stick.

[AJ Hackwith]

But if you're gonna buy merch, make sure you become a member on YouTube.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

YouTube members get 10% off everything in the Wi Fi store forever.

[AJ Hackwith]

And it's only $3. So if you're going to spend 40 bucks on the store on fistable mugs or T shirts or. I was going to say crab cat whiskey. I don't know if you could discount on those.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

I'll look into that.

[AJ Hackwith]

Oh, you didn't know there was a whiskey? I don't think I was supposed to say. Well, I'm leaving you then. Anyway, if you're going to spend 440 bucks at the store, become a member on YouTube. It pays for itself. And if you want to cancel after you get your discount, that's cool. The code is not there to make me money, it's there to save you money.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Besides, I don't keep that revenue anyway.

[AJ Hackwith]

Goes all to the team.

[Co-host/Sidekick]

Keep that secret question Door Sapina.

[AJ Hackwith]

Those are the plugs. I think I missed a few. I'll get them next time. Speaking of, until next time, be safe, be kind and know that you are appreciated.

[Guest/Performer]

I play Poly Scenario 51 a secret code inside the Bible said I would I love my UFOs and paranormal fun as well as music so I'm singing like I should but then another conspiracy theory becomes the truth my friends and it never ends no, it never ends. I feel the crap cat and got stuck inside Mel's home with mkultra of being only 2 aware did Stanley Kubrick fake the moon landing alone on a film set or were the shadow people there the raps well aliens just f the smiling man I'm told and his name was cold But I can't believe I'm dancing with the fishes had no fish on Thursday night Wednesday J2 and W. On repeat all through the night. The madman sidings and the solar storm still come to a God the secret city underground mysterious number stations Planet circle to project Stargate and what the dark watchers found. Me so I can't believe I'm dancing with the f Kendra fish on Thursday night Swing and the weapons are b on to the night all everyone. Fish on Thursday nights When they change you and. Yeah girly love to dance on the dance floor because she is a camel and camels love to dance when the feeling is right Always in time.