On May 19, 1967 mechanic and amateur geologist Stephen Mickalak had decided to travel to the Whiteshell Provincial Park. His objective was to follow out some of the quartz veins in the area in hopes of discovering some of the silver that resides in conjunction with the crystal. He spent the morning following a quartz vein along a brook near Falcon Lake, enjoying his hobby and the fine partly cloudy spring day.

Shortly after lunch Mr. Michalak heard a flock of geese passing overhead and stopped digging to watch them. Instead he saw the shocking sight of two glowing red, cigar-shaped objects descending through the clouds. Closer to the ground they took on a more disk-like shape. One of the craft stopped and hovered in the sky as the other descended and landed about 150 feet from the astonished witness. The other then began to ascend back through the clouds, changing color from red to orange then grey. The disk on the ground matched the changes.

Fortunately Mr. Mickalak was still wearing his protective goggles, as they seemed to protect his vision from some intensely bright purple light shining through openings in the craft. He sat for a half-hour watching the craft and sketched a picture in his notebook. Eventually what appeared to be a door opened in the side and he could see the brightly-lit interior. Curiosity overcame his fear and he approached the craft. At one point he heard "voices" inside and looking in saw several panels of colored lights blinking but no occupants.

Suddenly the door slammed shut and as he touched the surface of the craft was shocked to see his glove melting. A vent, approximately six inches across opened and began to vent heat directly onto Mr. Mickalak. His shirt caught fire and as he fell back in pain the craft launched itself back into the air. Now requiring medical attention he began the slow trek back to civilization. Along the way he suffered nausea and a severe headache.

Finally reaching a doctor, he was treated for his head and stomach problems and the pattern of sixteen grid-like burns on his chest. Debunkers tried to claim they came from a barbecue grill although no one could discover a model shaped like Mr. Mickalak's burn marks. He would ultimately see a half dozen doctors in both Canada and the United States before they healed.

Not only the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Air Force but also several civilian UFO groups and the American Condon Committee investigated the location of his sighting. There was never a conclusive explanation for what had burned him so severely and in such a distinctive manner.

In an attempt to fit various types of UFO/alien experiences into some categorized listing, the astronomer and ufologist J. Allen Hynek created a classification system. He first introduced this terminology to the world in his book, "The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry" in 1972. His determination was that UFO/alien encounters could be broken down into three basic types.

It is accepted that a close encounter must occur within a 500 foot range to avoid the misidentification of conventional terrestrial aircraft or other natural phenomena. Beyond that range objects are considered to be either "nocturnal lights", "daylight disks", or " visual and radar reports".

According to Hynek's classification system a close encounter of the first kind is the near sighting (500 foot or less away) of an unidentified flying object, odd lights or an aerial object that is maneuvering or otherwise displaying characteristics that are not possible with terrestrial technology.

A close encounter of the second kind is the sighting of a UFO that leaves some physical trace of its presence. These can take the form of either measurable heat or radiation damage on the observer or damage to the immediate terrain and its flora and fauna. Incidences of human paralysis or inexplicable frightened or agitated animals as well as interference of radio and television reception fall into this category. The phenomena of "lost time" associated with a UFO sighting is also a second kind encounter.

Due to Steven Spielberg's famous movie, close encounters of the third kind are most well known. This encounter scenario is where the witness observes "animate beings" in associated with the sighted UFO. Hynek himself did not wish to use the term "alien" as there was no was to rule out the possibility that the beings seen were actually humans as opposed to automatically assuming they were of extraterrestrial origin.

Others have added extra classifications to this list although not all ufologists universally accept them. Ted Bloecher added seven more potential categories although they are mostly subsets of the major classifications and three do not particularly pertain to UFO's or aliens at all. Of the most accepted of these additional classifications is added the close encounters of the fourth kind. In the fourth close encounter category is the actual abduction of a human by alien beings.

The close encounters of the fifth kind classification was proposed by Steven M. Greer, the founder of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence. These encounters are one's mutually arrived at with a conscious and deliberate purpose by both the humans and the aliens for the purposes of communication. These "contactee" encounters were considered to have begun sometime in the 1950's and supposedly continue, along with the less planned encounters, to this day.