Undoubtedly, Billy Meier and Bob Lazar are among the most controversial and compelling figures in UFO history. Their stories have become that of legends. Could they have encountered the same technology in the 1970s and 80s? According to rare Lazar footage, we're going to say that is a possibility.

On March 18th, 1975, Billy Meier took this now-famous photo of a UFO in a hilly forested area of Schmidrüti, Switzerland. Meier’s original image was used for the iconic “I Want To Believe” poster from The X-Files tv show in the early 1990s. The poster hung prominently in Fox Mulder’s office. Meier’s image was used only for the first three seasons of the show since permission was never obtained from Meier to use the image. Nonetheless, it has been cemented into UFO pop culture and has become Billy Meier's most famous photograph.

A lot of six similar images (including this one) taken by Meier sold at auction in 2019 for $16,250 (USD). Much like any UFO photo, the authenticity of Meier’s imagery has been long debated for decades. Throughout his life, he made several claims of regular communication with extraterrestrial civilizations. He also presented many photos to prove it. An auction listing for Meier’s original images states, “from the 1960s to the early 1980s, Meier took 1,476 photos and 34 films, of which about 600 photos and 9 films were of UFOs.”

Did Billy Meier and Bob Lazar encounter the same craft?

In the 1990s, Bob Lazar was asked in a rare interview to describe the craft he worked on, a craft he fittingly named ‘The Sport Model.’ He described a sleek, thin-looking object. Most notably, though, he made comparisons to Billy Meier’s imagery. Lazar even said that the crafts were “astonishingly similar.” A short clip of that interview can be seen here.

If Bob Lazar’s story is true, does that mean Billy Meier’s images are authentic? Or vice versa?

Could it be true?

Although it may be difficult for some to fathom, both stories seem to be rooted in some sense of reality. Meier and Lazar came forward with their stories in the 1970s and 80s. The world was much less accepting of the possibility of extraterrestrial life and technology. UFOs and alien spaceships were most commonly the subject of ridicule and disbelief. It is unlikely that their stories were simply fabricated out of thin air as there was possibly nothing to gain.

Background on Billy Meier and Bob Lazar

Who was Billy Meier?

Billy Meier was an alleged alien contactee and UFO photographer. He lived in Switzerland and claimed to have had regular communication with UFOs. Though they are often debated, his images are among the most famous in Ufology. 

Who is Bob Lazar?

Bob Lazar is a physicist who claims to have worked for the U.S. government in the late 1980s to reverse engineer an alien spacecraft. He came forward with his story to the world in 1989 to KLAS-TV reporter George Knapp.

Bob Lazar and Billy Meier from SAUCER on Vimeo.