Rubem Hellwig's two encounters near Santa Maria, Brazil, on consecutive days in March 1954.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP & ENTITY ENCOUNTER REPORT
1954: The Hellwig Encounters — Santa Maria, Brazil
Rice planter Rubem Hellwig ran into the same rugby-ball-shaped craft twice in two days near Santa Maria, Brazil — first meeting a lone man who needed directions to a drugstore for ammonia, then, the next day, an entirely different crew who invited him to look inside and told him, in a musical fifteen-letter language backed by telepathy, that they came from a world called Arion, “far beyond the farthest star known to our world.” Hellwig would later say he began experiencing mental effects afterward that medicine was never able to explain.
Date: March 1954, two consecutive days
Sighting Time: 17:00 (Day 1); daytime (Day 2, shortly after starting his drive)
Day/Night: Day
Location: Near Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (roadside, on a highway)
Urban or Rural: Rural
No. of Entity(‘s): 2 on Day 1; 3 on Day 2
Entity Type: Humanoid, claiming extraterrestrial origin
Entity Description: Day 1: two slender men, about 1.60 m (5’3″) tall, dark/brownish complexion, no helmets. Day 2: a tall, fair-complexioned man and two women with slanting eyes and long black hair, all three dressed alike in one-piece brown, suede-like garments with zipper closures.
Hynek Classification: CE-III (Close Encounter, Third Kind — entity present, direct communication, no abduction)
Duration: Brief on Day 1; an extensive conversation on Day 2
No. of Object(s): 1 (the same or a similar craft on both days)
Description of the Object(s): Described on Day 1 as roughly the size of a Volkswagen, shaped like a rugby football; on Day 2, described as “an inverted casserole,” less than 10 ft long, transparent at the front
Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Rugby-ball/inverted-casserole shape; small (Volkswagen-sized or smaller); on departure (Day 1) surrounded by a circle of bluish-yellow luminosity giving it a rounder appearance
Distance to Object(s): Approximately 50 m (Day 1); directly roadside, close enough to be invited to view the interior (Day 2)
Height & Speed: Departed instantly (Day 1) after four 3-inch tubes on its sides emitted yellowish flame; departed with only a slight breeze and no sound (Day 2)
Number of Witnesses: 1 (Rubem Hellwig, on both days)
Special Features/Characteristics: On Day 1, one entity approached Hellwig carrying a bottle of reddish liquid and asked, in an unknown tongue Hellwig nonetheless understood, for directions to purchase ammonia; on Day 2, the entities communicated using a language of no more than 15 letters, described as musical in sound, combined with telepathy, and identified their home world as “Arion,” said to lie far beyond the farthest star known from Earth and to be ruled by a monarchy; Hellwig was given a detailed explanation of the craft’s construction and propulsion; some time after the encounter, Hellwig reported experiencing ongoing mental effects that medicine was unable to explain or treat
Case Status: Unresolved — a detailed, named single-witness account across two consecutive days, with an unexplained personal aftereffect reported by the witness himself
Source: Flying Saucer Review, Vol. 12 #6
Summary/Description: Rice planter Rubem Hellwig, driving home near Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil in March 1954, spotted a small, rugby-ball-shaped craft about 50 m away, roughly the size of a Volkswagen. One slender, dark-complexioned occupant approached carrying a bottle of reddish liquid and asked, in an unfamiliar but somehow comprehensible language, for directions to buy ammonia; Hellwig pointed him to a nearby drugstore, and the craft departed in a burst of yellowish flame from four small tubes. The next day, starting his drive, Hellwig encountered the same or a similar craft roadside, this time occupied by a tall, fair man and two dark-haired women with slanted eyes, all dressed alike in brown, suede-like garments. They engaged him in an extended conversation using a musical, 15-letter language combined with telepathy, invited him to view the small, transparent-fronted craft, and explained they came from a world called “Arion,” ruled by a monarchy and located far beyond the known stars. The craft departed silently. Hellwig later reported ongoing, medically unexplained mental effects following the encounter.
Related Cases: None known
Detailed Report
Rubem Hellwig’s account unfolds over two consecutive days near Santa Maria, in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state, in March 1954. On the first day, at five in the evening, Hellwig — a rice planter driving home — noticed something odd about fifty meters off the road: a small object, roughly the size of a Volkswagen, shaped unmistakably like a rugby football.
One occupant was seated inside; a second stood outside, picking capon grass and handing it in to his companion. This second man broke off and approached Hellwig directly, carrying a bottle of reddish liquid, and asked — in a language Hellwig didn’t recognize but somehow understood regardless — where he might find a small quantity of ammonia. Hellwig, unfazed enough to simply answer a practical question, directed him to the drugstore in a nearby town. The man thanked him and returned to the craft. A circle of bluish-yellow light appeared around the object, rounding out its silhouette, and four short tubes along its sides released a burst of yellowish flame as it vanished instantly.
The following day, shortly after setting out on his drive, Hellwig came upon what he took to be the same craft — or one very like it — sitting on the highway itself. This time it held three occupants: a tall man with fair skin, and two women with slanting eyes and long black hair, all three dressed identically in one-piece garments of brown, suede-like material closed with zippers.
They called out to him, and what followed was an extensive exchange — the beings speaking in a language of no more than fifteen letters, musical in sound, layered with telepathic communication that let Hellwig follow along despite the barrier. He was invited to view the craft itself: less than ten feet long, transparent at the front. He was given, by his own account, a detailed explanation of how it was built and how it moved. His hosts told him they came from a world called Arion — a monarchy, they said, located far beyond the farthest star visible from Earth. When the craft eventually departed, it did so almost silently, disturbing nothing more than a slight breeze.
Some time after this second encounter, Hellwig began experiencing what he described as ongoing mental effects — symptoms that, in his own words, medicine had so far proven unable either to explain or to treat.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
Santa Maria — 1954 and Two Encounters, Two Different Crews
- An oddly mundane first encounter: A request for directions to buy ammonia is about as unglamorous a first-contact scenario as this archive has recorded — closer in spirit to the Racine, Wisconsin “men in green” case from December 1953 than to a typical cosmic-message narrative, and just as hard to explain as an invented detail serving any obvious purpose.
- Two distinct crews at the same location: Whether these were two different visits by the same overall group or genuinely separate encounters isn’t resolved by the source material — this archive notes the ambiguity rather than assuming either explanation.
- A named home world with specific cosmological framing: “Arion,” described as a monarchy beyond the known stars, sits alongside this archive’s other named-origin claims (Kraspedon’s Ganymede, Van Tassel’s unnamed mother-ship civilization) as part of a broader pattern of increasingly specific contactee cosmologies emerging through the mid-1950s.
- A reported personal aftereffect: Hellwig’s own claim of lasting, medically unexplained mental effects is a detail this archive preserves as reported without speculating on its cause — it’s presented by the source as the witness’s own account of his health, not verified by any named physician.
- Single witness across both days: Despite the richness of detail, no second witness corroborates either encounter — the case rests entirely on Hellwig’s own account, consistent across two consecutive days but never independently confirmed.
This two-day account combines an unusually mundane opening (a request for directions) with a much more elaborate second encounter and a named cosmology — an internal escalation pattern this archive has now seen in several other multi-visit cases. It remains a single-witness account with no independent corroboration, and Hellwig’s own reported aftereffects are noted here exactly as he described them, without further diagnosis or explanation.
“Those people come from a planet ‘Arion’ which is ‘far beyond the farthest star known to our world,’ and is ruled by a monarchy.”
— Flying Saucer Review, Vol. 12 #6, on Rubem Hellwig’s account
