Something Very Strange Yet Credible: The 1967 Yvan Guindon UFO Encounter

While at home looking after his two younger sisters one evening in the summer of 1967, teenager, Yvan Guindon found himself in the middle of events that were not only disturbingly out of the ordinary but would leave him with lingering consequences of the close encounter. What’s more, despite his young age, Yvan was widely regarded as a very credible witness, perhaps not least as apparent evidence of the speculative otherworldly craft’s presence was discovered exactly where he said it had appeared.

What’s more, as news of the encounter spread, further witnesses came forward stating they too had witnessed almost identical objects in the same area, some going back several months previously, which only added further credibility to the whole affair. Of further interest, although there are no signs of alien abduction, Yvan did have the feeling that the object intentionally brought out a fear in him, as well as making him feel decidedly unwell – as if it sensed he was watching it.

Just what the youngster witnessed that evening and why it caused such a reaction in him remains a complete mystery. The sighting, however, is still of interest to UFO researchers and enthusiasts alike, and is just one of many, many reports that mustn’t be allowed to slip into the obscurity of time.

A Quiet Uneventful Night Takes A Drastic Turn

On the evening of August 29^th, 1967 in Oka, a town just under 40 miles outside of Montreal in Quebec, Canada, Maurice Guindon and his wife were heading out to dinner, leaving their 13-year-old son, Yvan, to look after his two younger sisters, Diane and Denise. Despite his young age, he was a responsible boy, and very much could be trusted to be left home alone.

Despite his two younger siblings looking to avoid their bedtime, the evening was largely uneventful for Yvan, who spent most of his time doing homework. Then, at a little after 11 pm, that all changed. Out of nowhere, a sudden loud noise from outside forced Yvan to stop what he was doing and make his way to the bedroom window. He later described the noise as being similar to a “whirring sound”, similar to a transformer or a generator.

To begin with, he suspected his sisters were awake after all. However, after finding them asleep, he then began to wonder if the noise was coming from the television downstairs, which his sisters had likely left on when he forced them to come to bed around half an hour earlier. He made his way downstairs and began to feel a sense of uneasiness as he discovered the television set was not on.

Then, the sound of their pet dog’s barks came from the yard outside – and these barks were not normal, excited barks he was used to hearing. These barks were much more frantic and agitated as if it had suddenly become very much alert to something. He listened for several moments to the dog’s anxious barks before his attention was drawn to a bright light seemingly coming from the bathroom window. Slowly, he made his way back upstairs.

Something Otherworldly Hovering Over The Trees

As he made his way toward the bathroom, Yvan now began to contemplate if someone was trying to get inside the house. With this in mind, he was more than relieved to find the bathroom empty when he arrived there. That relief, however, was only very temporary, as he noticed a bright glow pushing through the window from outside. Again, very cautiously, he made his way towards the window in order to look outside.

To his utter shock, hovering just above the trees approximately 20 feet above the ground and a short distance from the house was a brightly colored disc-shaped object. As he watched the bizarre events unfold, he heard what he later recalled as the sounds of “branches breaking”, as if the object was causing damage to the trees only several feet below it.

The object then heads closer to the house, albeit slowly, but heading towards him nonetheless. At the same time, he feels a sudden weakness overcome him, as well as feeling a general feeling of sickness. He backed away slightly from the window, still keeping the object in sight, but certain that the sudden unwell feeling he was experiencing was a consequence of the strange craft’s presence.

At this point, his sisters had both woken up and called out to him. Yvan called back, telling both to hide in their bedroom and stay there. Each did exactly as he said. With the object still approaching, Yvan began to feel increasingly concerned for his well-being and that of his sisters.

As he continued to watch, he witnessed a bizarre, straight laser beam of light emerge from the object and project straight down toward the ground. This light moved with purpose as if it were looking for something. Then, without warning, it shined directly at Yvan, blinding him and causing an instant, intense headache. He fell to the floor of the bathroom and covered his eyes in pain.

Enveloped In A Strange Curtain Of Light

After several moments, Yvan’s sight returned but he remained disorientated. In fact, it took him a minute or two to fully come to his senses following the light striking him in the face. When he did, now even more cautiously than before, he made his way back to the bathroom window and looked outside once more.

The object was now hovering directly outside the house. Now, though, it was enveloped in a strange umbrella or bell-jar-shaped “curtain of light”. It is not clear if this light-curtain was some kind of protective field around the object, or something similar to weather phenomena, St. Elmo’s Fire, perhaps due to an increase in electromagnetic energy or charged ions in the immediate atmosphere. Whatever it was, it remained, encasing the object for several moments.

Then, as Yvan continued to watch from the bathroom window, this light curtain disappeared and the object began spinning faster, as it preparing for something. At the same time, the whirring sound increased, sounding similar to multiple jet engines and growing so loud, that Yvan was forced to cover his ears.

He watched as the object continued to spin before shooting off into the distance, disappearing in an instant. Both he and his two younger sisters, remained terrified until their parents returned a short time later. When Yvan told them what he saw, he was insistent that what he had seen was not an airplane or a helicopter. In the days that followed the encounter, Yvan’s eyes were extremely sore and red, almost certainly a consequence of the strange light from the object.

A Stubbornly Credible Account

A local UFO investigative group soon learned of Yvan’s encounter. And despite many people being skeptical due to him being the only witness (his sisters didn’t see the object itself), they found the young boy to be a very credible witness.

Furthermore, as well as the irritation to his eyes, the investigative team discovered damage to the trees where Yvan had seen the UFO hovering (we might recall that he believed he could hear the sound of snapping branches at the time of the incident). Furthermore, the more people who learned of the incident, the more people came forward, offering their own reports of strange, glowing objects in and around the same location.

Yvan Guindon

What Yvan and his family didn’t know was that another local Oka resident witnessed what would appear to be the same object at the same time as Yvan. According to a report that would surface in the October 1^st 1967 edition of the Montreal Le Petit Journal ^[1] a local man witnessed a “round object with pulsating, multicolored lights around the circumference and a white light on top”.

He further recalled that the object was moving just above the treetops, slowly and purposely before hovering in place for several moments. Then, a strange “light beam resembling a searchlight” emerged from the underside of the object, moving as if it were looking for something on the ground.

Following this, a “cylinder emerged from the top of the object” which then proceeded to “deploy a transparent sheath around itself and the object”. He then recalled hearing a noise “like waves” before the object seemed to “retrace its path” before it “suddenly ascended”.

These details offered by this “other witness” are remarkably similar to Yvan’s, right down to the position of the object, the way it moved, and the way it disappeared in an instant.

A Complete Mystery That Remains Of Interest To Researchers

It would appear, then, that there is ample reason to believe Yvan Guindon’s version of events as to what happened that summer evening in 1967. Despite his young age and being the only one to have seen the strange events unfold, he was vouched for by several people as being a responsible young man who could be trusted and not prone to fabrication of any sort.

Furthermore, he had the irritation of the eyes as a result of his encounter (something he almost certainly couldn’t have faked so well), as well as the discovery of the broken branches near where he claimed the object had been hovering – both details which further suggest that we should take him and his account that much more seriously, not to mention the other indirectly corroborating witnesses.

What is also of interest in this particular sighting is the fact that Yvan felt certain the UFO – or the occupants in charge of it – somehow elicited a response of fear within him, perhaps also in the family’s pet dog, who we might recall was barking agitatedly throughout the incident. Furthermore, Yvan recalled feeling unwell during the incident, and he was, of course, temporarily blinded upon being struck by the laser beam that came from the object.

Were these intentional moves on the UFO’s part, or were these responses by Yvan simply coincidence? If the former is true, then we might consider that the occupants of this strange craft utilized some kind of technology that evoked such an emotional response, as well as leaving Yvan disorientated and confused. We might also keep in mind that militaries around the world are experimenting, and even using such technology today, leading us to consider that the idea of some kind of advanced technology being used on Yvan is not that much of a stretch of the imagination.

Ultimately, it remains to be seen if any further information ever surfaces regarding this case, or if another case presents details that resonate with this one. For now, it is but one of many reports from across the decades that surely must have some kind of a connection.

The video below looks at this fascinating encounter a little further. Although the narration is in French, it does give a good idea of how these events played out.

Expert Opinion

The central claim concerns a 1967 incident near Montreal, where teenage witness, Yvan, reported observing a brightly lit UFO hovering above treetops. Allegedly struck by a beam of light, he experienced eye irritation and distress. Alongside physical damage to surrounding trees, other local residents shared comparable sightings, solidifying the story’s credibility. Researchers view this encounter as especially intriguing due to consistent testimonies and noteworthy physiological aftereffects.

Nevertheless, questions linger about misidentified technology, group psychology, or plain hoaxes. While red, irritated eyes and broken branches hint at tangible impacts, skeptics could argue that intense lighting effects or a private test craft might explain the evidence. Matching descriptions from multiple observers do reinforce authenticity, but absent indisputable physical proof, the broader UFO debate remains unresolved, leaving this case open-ended.

Verdict: Inconclusive
Physical evidence and matching witness accounts appear credible, but without definitive proof, the mystery remains unsolved.

Marcus Lowth is an expert on this topic and has over 20 years experience studying and reporting in these fields. Marcus has written several books and appeared on TV shows as an expert investigator discussing these topics.