Extraordinary claims. Ordinary investigations.

“On February 28, 1963, over in Arizona, U.S.A., a constellation of seven angels appeared to a man named William Marrion Branham in the form of a ring shaped-Cloud. These seven angels came from the presence of God revealing to him the hidden mysteries that were sealed in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation. This was to inform the people of God of the perfect will of the Father in preparation for the oncoming millenial reign of Jesus Christ upon this earth.” [William Branham.com]

Few times have science, angels and UFOs intersected as in the case of the Cloud of God. As you can read in the excerpt above, the cloud was seen as a divine signal. And it was a real event, witnessed by thousands, with multiple photographic records. It was published not only on Life magazine, it was also the cover story of Science .

And, more surprisingly, it was indeed as a divine cloud. Slightly heathen, however.

The God responsible for it was Thor . A Thor rocket , that is, launched a few hours before from Vandenberg AFB. It malfunctioned and was deliberately destroyed, producing a show not much different from this one by a Minuteman II missile:

The explanation and analysis was published by one meteorologist named James McDonald. Who was one of the main luminaries of the early years of UFO research. If that wasn’t enough, the Thor rocket was carrying a secret military payload, so you can add up Cold War into that mix.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is the case of the Cloud of God. Divine prophets, bizarre cults, pareidolia, nordic gods, UFO researchers and Cold War in space, what else could you ask? Uri Geller wasn’t famous yet. But if you would want aliens, there we have them:

The photo above was sent by Ricardo Fernandes (thank you!), taken in Lajeosa do Dão, Portugal, on August 2005. That’s not a (rocket) god, but probably a nice example of hole-punch clouds.