{{Short description|New Zealand writer (1930–2013)}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=December 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Bruce Cathie | image = Bruce Cathie.png | caption = Cathie in 1977 | birth_name = Bruce Leonard Cathie | birth_date = {{Birth date|1930|02|11|df=yes}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|2013|06|02|1930|02|11|df=yes}} | death_place = Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand | occupation = Airline pilot and author }}
'''Bruce Leonard Cathie''' (11 February 1930 – 2 June 2013) was a New Zealand airline captain, author, and self-styled ufologist best known for developing a theory that sought to explain the flight paths of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Trained as an engineer and later serving with the Royal New Zealand Air Force, he flew for the New Zealand National Airways Corporation from the 1950s onward. He became prominent after a widely publicised 1952 sighting over Manukau Harbour. Cathie went on to publish six books between 1968 and 1994, addressing subjects such as harmonic mathematics, anti-gravity, and nuclear testing. His work was circulated in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where it attracted both scepticism and support.
==Life and career== Cathie was raised in Onehunga and Otahuhu.<ref name="Tapaleao Cathie" /> He remained a long time Auckland resident.<ref name="Yarwood Cathie 1997" /> He worked as an airline pilot for the New Zealand National Airways Corporation (NAC), later Air New Zealand.<ref name="Yarwood Cathie 1997" /> Alongside his aviation career, he pursued technical study and was a trained engineer.<ref name="Huff Cathie SF 1978">{{Cite web|date=5 April 1978|title=A Mind-Boggling Theory on UFOs|last1=Huff|first1=Claire|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1222996847/?match=1&terms=Bruce%20Cathie|url-status=live|website=San Francisco Chronicle|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250829224155/https://www.newspapers.com/image/1222996847/?match=1&terms=Bruce%20Cathie|archive-date=29 August 2025}}</ref> In 1967, press accounts described him as a "respected amateur mathematician".<ref name="Temm Cathie 1967-12-06">{{Cite web|date=6 December 1967|title=Pilot Finds Pattern in UFO Sightings|last1=Temm|first1=Peter N.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/967795249/?terms=Cathie&match=1|url-status=live|website=Copley Press|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250904160246/https://www.newspapers.com/image/967795249/?terms=Cathie&match=1|archive-date=4 September 2025|page=42}}</ref> A 1978 report in the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' noted that he had served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force.<ref name="Huff Cathie SF 1978" />
Cathie married Wendy in the 1950s, having met her during his career as an airline pilot when she was employed as a flight attendant. The couple had two sons, Mark and Stephen.<ref name="Tapaleao Cathie" /> Beyond aviation, he was noted for writing poetry, and contemporary accounts described the pair as "great dancers".<ref name="Tapaleao Cathie" />
He died in Takapuna in 2013 at the age of 83.<ref name="Tapaleao Cathie">{{Cite web|date=|title=Captain Cathie dies at 83|last1=Tapaleao |first1=Vaimoana |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/captain-cathie-dies-at-83/ZCGIWIHRY7APLH3GQWTAA36CKA/|url-status=live|website=New Zealand Herald|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211015356/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/captain-cathie-dies-at-83/ZCGIWIHRY7APLH3GQWTAA36CKA/|archive-date=11 February 2021}}</ref> At his funeral, it was remarked that he had often been a subject of interest and a target for scientific skeptics.<ref name="Tapaleao Cathie" />
==UFO sightings and research==
===Early sightings=== In 1952, Cathie and six other pilots reported seeing an unidentified flying object (UFO) over Manukau Harbour, observed from New Zealand's Ardmore Airport in Manurewa.<ref name="Harvey Metro Cathie 2022-03-13">{{Cite web|date=13 March 2022|author-link1=Robert Anster Harvey|title=Alien Nation|last1=Harvey|first1=Bob|url=https://www.metromag.co.nz/city-life/city-life-travel/alien-nation|url-status=live|website=Metro|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220518234501/https://www.metromag.co.nz/city-life/city-life-travel/alien-nation|archive-date=18 May 2022}}</ref><ref>[http://www.astrosciences.info/Matrix3.htm The Harmonic Conquest of Space by Bruce Cathie] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090123123456/http://www.astrosciences.info/Matrix3.htm |date=23 January 2009 }}, ''Nexus Magazine'' October 1994</ref> Four years later, in 1956, Cathie reported another UFO, and in 1965 he additionally reported an unidentified submerged object (USO).<ref name="Record Cathie 1967-12-15">{{Cite web|date=15 December 1967|title=Observer Links UFOs and Giant Power Grid|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/845375912/?match=1&terms=Bruce%20Cathie|url-status=live|website=The Record|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250829223323/https://www.newspapers.com/image/845375912/?match=1&terms=Bruce%20Cathie|archive-date=29 August 2025}}</ref> These reports, covering a period from 1952 through 1965, were described in coverage as part of the series of experiences Cathie accumulated during his career as an airline captain. In the same year of 1965, Cathie reported another UFO sighting while flying a Fokker F27 Friendship from Auckland International Airport at Whenuapai to Kaitaia.<ref name="Harvey Metro Cathie 2022-03-13" /><ref name="Yarwood Cathie 1997" />
===Mapping and theoretical development=== Following these events in the 1950s and 1960s, Cathie began recording details of reported national UFO sightings. As both a pilot and a trained engineer he maintained written records and plotted them on a gridded map across New Zealand.<ref name="Record Cathie 1967-12-15" /><ref name="Harvey Metro Cathie 2022-03-13" /> The mapping exercise included sites across the Tāmaki Isthmus, Rangitoto, Waiheke, and Māngere.<ref name="Harvey Metro Cathie 2022-03-13" /> Accounts described this as an attempt to create a systematic archive of sightings as they were reported. Cathie became convinced the 1965 UFO was "neither natural nor the work of human hands", according to Vaughan Yarwood in ''New Zealand Geographic''.<ref name="Yarwood Cathie 1997">{{Cite web|date=April–June 1997|title=Crowded Skies|last1=Yarwood|first1=Vaughan|url=https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/crowded-skies-the-ufo-experience-in-new-zealand/|url-status=live|website=New Zealand Geographic|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224175919/https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/crowded-skies-the-ufo-experience-in-new-zealand/|archive-date=24 February 2021}}</ref>
===Eltanin antenna controversy=== thumbnail|USNS ''Eltanin'' photo, 1964. A year earlier, in 1964, the USNS Eltanin, operating off of Cape Horn, recorded undersea structures. Cathie believed that this material was related to his developing theory, according to Mark Pilkington in ''The Guardian''.<ref name="Pilkington Cathie 2005-06-30">{{Cite web|date=30 June 2005|title=Flight of fancy|last1=Pilkington|first1=Mark|author-link1=Mark Pilkington (writer)|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/jun/30/farout|url-status=live|website=The Guardian|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829055031/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/jun/30/farout|archive-date=29 August 2013}}</ref> The object later known as the Eltanin Antenna was identified as a ''Chondrocladia concrescens'' in 1971.<ref name="Pilkington Cathie 2005-06-30" /> Cathie reportedly described the Eltanin Antenna as a "bit of ironmongery" prior to its identification.<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" /> He maintained until his death that there were acknowledged visual similarities between the Eltanin Antenna and ''Chondrocladia concrescens'', but that the comparison was an attempted "cover-up", according to ''Vice''.<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" /> Reports also stated that Cathie nevertheless appeared on radio programs and on UFO-related lecture circuits as a speaker and commentator.<ref name="Yarwood Cathie 1997" /> Pilkington observed that Cathie had studied the works of French ufologist Aimé Michel.<ref name="Pilkington Cathie 2005-06-30" /> Yarwood wrote that Cathie's work was "disparaged and ridiculed", and noted that publishers were unwilling to work with him at the time.<ref name="Yarwood Cathie 1997" /> ''Vice'' identified Cathie's works on UFOs as "fringe".<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" />
===Mathematical theories and nuclear testing=== Later accounts recorded that Cathie claimed to have developed mathematical theories which, in his view, could be used to predict the behavior of UFOs and to link them with certain nuclear-related incidents.<ref name="Tapaleao Cathie" /><ref name="Record Cathie 1967-12-15" /> In 1967, Copley Press in the ''Anaheim Bulletin'' reported that several UFO sightings in the area of Hawke's Bay on the North Island appeared to align with his calculations.<ref name="Temm Cathie 1967-12-06"/> The ''New Zealand Herald'' noted that Cathie's theories referred to connections between UFOs and nuclear weapons testing or other nuclear-related incidents.<ref name="Tapaleao Cathie" /> The natural nuclear fission reactor at the Oklo Mines, near Franceville in the Haut-Ogooué Province of Gabon, was of particular interest to Cathie.<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" />
In related coverage, Cathie was reported to have expressed the view that anti-gravity was possible and that his research was relevant to it.<ref name="Huff Cathie 1978-06-04">{{Cite web|date=4 June 1978|title=Scientists assisting UFOs?|last1=Huff|first1=Claire|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/176152089/?match=1&terms=Bruce%20Cathie%20UFO|url-status=live|website=The Philadelphia Inquirer|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250829225444/https://www.newspapers.com/image/176152089/?match=1&terms=Bruce%20Cathie%20UFO|archive-date=29 August 2025}}</ref> Cathie had leveraged portions of his research against data obtained from New Zealand Scientific and Space Research, described as a Kiwi UFO organization.<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" /> According to Cathie, they had assembled a repository of UFO-related data on sightings from "25 different countries over the course of a 12-year period", and that the organization invited him to research against it.<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" /> Of that data, Cathie alleged the most frequent timing for New Zealand-based UFO sightings was 9:45 PM NZST.<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" />
Also in 1967, ''The Record'' reported that Cathie had placed copies of his works in bank vaults in six nations, with instructions for access in the event of his death.<ref name="Record Cathie 1967-12-15" /> In 1968, the New Zealand government engaged Cathie to provide research material related to nuclear testing by France at the island of Moruroa in the Pacific Ocean.<ref name="Huff Cathie SF 1978" /> The Royal Aeronautical Society in Auckland invited Cathie to present his claims in 1968.<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" /> ''Vice'' stated that Cathie was invited to join the society's president and secretary at dinner, where they challenged him to demonstrate with his formulas to forecast the date of a French nuclear weapons test.<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" /> Cathie reportedly predicted 24 August at the event to his hosts based upon his maths at the table, and then on 24 August 1968, France detonated a nuclear weapon in Opération Canopus.<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" />
In 1978, Cathie stated that he had kept the government informed of his findings over the years. He said that he had expected to be "dismissed as a crank" or "told to discontinue his activities".<ref name="Huff Cathie SF 1978" /> He also reported that he was encouraged to continue his research and to publish his results.<ref name="Huff Cathie SF 1978" /> The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' stated that Cathie had exchanged correspondence related to his UFO research with members of the New Zealand Parliament in Wellington, including the 26th Prime Minister of New Zealand Sir Keith Holyoake.<ref name="Huff Cathie SF 1978" /> Yarwood reported that Cathie spent 27 years on this project.<ref name="Yarwood Cathie 1997" /> ''Vice'' later noted that over the years "scientists across disciplines have corroborated pieces of Cathie’s grid puzzle, albeit with some refreshed math".<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" /> Some members of academic mathematical communities, however, were reported to consider his work a series of "mathematical quirks".<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" />
===Later work and collaborations=== Sir Robert Anster Harvey, writing in ''Metro magazine'' in Auckland, described Cathie's investigations of UFOs.<ref name="Harvey Metro Cathie 2022-03-13" /> Harvey called Cathie a "serious researcher and not regarded as part of a lunatic fringe of UFO spotters".<ref name="Harvey Metro Cathie 2022-03-13" /> In later years, Cathie cooperated with mathematician Rod Maupin in developing software, known as Gridpoint Atlas, which was used to plot the proposed grid lines on Google Earth.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gridpoint Atlas Software Manual |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/78066740/Grid-Point-Atlas-Manual | author=Wavepoint Studios |access-date=9 August 2025}}</ref> According to Yarwood, Cathie's initial calculations were based on a series of UFO reports from one night in March 1965, when multiple sightings were reported nationwide.<ref name="Yarwood Cathie 1997" /> Harvey further recorded that Cathie supported UFO theories that included undersea or water-based phenomena, and that he focused his attention on Lake Pupuke.<ref name="Harvey Metro Cathie 2022-03-13" /> Harvey also reported that Cathie associated the "North Shore Hum" with UFOs.<ref name="Harvey Metro Cathie 2022-03-13" /> Of his research, Cathie stated that "a number of people who knew me professionally and otherwise considered the possibility that my mind had become unhinged".<ref name="Huff Cathie SF 1978" /> He reported that this line of work had placed his career as a pilot at risk.<ref name="Huff Cathie SF 1978" /> The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' quoted him as saying, "After all, what passenger would want to be flown by a pilot suspected of having lost his faculties?"<ref name="Huff Cathie SF 1978" />
In 2021, ''Vice'' observed similarities between Cathie's theories to a 1973 research paper from the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union journal Chemistry and Life, entitled "Is The Earth a Large Crystal?"<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07">{{Cite web|date=7 October 2024|title=Is the Earth a Giant Crystal?|last1=Campion|first1=Thobey|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/is-the-earth-a-g-crystal/|url-status=live|website=Vice|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007072643/https://www.vice.com/en/article/is-the-earth-a-g-crystal/|archive-date=7 October 2024}}</ref> ''Vice'' summarized the research paper as proposing that the planet originated as a crystalline structure in the form of a pentadodecahedron, which later weathered into a sphere, but remained crystalline and geometric within, allegedly influencing planetary surface conditions related to gravity and magnetic anomalies.<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" /> The article presented Cathie's "world energy grid" as a parallel attempt to describe global geodynamic patterns.<ref name="Campion Cathie 2024-10-07" />
==UFO related books== His first book, ''Harmonic 33'', was published in New Zealand in 1968<ref>[http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2598662 National library of Australia]</ref> and reprinted in the United Kingdom by Sphere Books in 1980.<ref>{{cite book | title=Harmonic 33 |url=http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2930341 | publisher=Sphere Books | author=Cathie, Bruce | year=1980 | location=London | pages=204 | isbn=0-7221-2278-0}}</ref> Over the course of his career, Cathie published six books on UFOs and harmonic theories.<ref name="Tapaleao Cathie" /> They include:
* ''Harmonic 33'' (1968), first published by A. H. & A. W. Reed, Wellington (NZ), {{ISBN| 1-539-79723-6}} * ''Harmonic 695 – The UFO and Anti-Gravity'' (1971), first published by A. H. & A. W. Reed, Wellington (NZ), {{ISBN| 0-589-00661-4}} * ''Harmonic 288 – The Pulse of the Universe'' (1977), first published by A. H. & A. W. Reed, Wellington (NZ), {{ISBN| 1-976-21787-3}} * ''Harmonic 371244 – The Bridge to Infinity'' (1989), first published by America West Publishers & Distributors, Tehachapi, California (US), {{ISBN| 0-922356-00-9}} * ''The Energy Grid'' (1990), first published by America West Publishers & Distributors, Tehachapi, California (US), {{ISBN| 0-932813-44-5}} * ''The Harmonic Conquest of Space'' (1994), first published by Nexus Magazine, Mapleton, Queensland (AU), {{ISBN| 0-646-21679-1}}
==Documentary== * ''The Harmonic Code – The Harmonics of Reality'' (2007)
==See also== *UFO sightings in New Zealand
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.antigravitymovie.com/cathie.htm Official site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206012355/http://www.antigravitymovie.com/cathie.htm |date=6 February 2015 }} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20091018094322/http://www.brucecathie.com/ 2009 archive of brucecathie.com.] * [https://archive.today/20250904155112/https://web.archive.org/web/20090502041704/http://www.whale.to/m/cathie.html "The Harmonic Conquest of Space"], by Bruce Cathie, 1994. * [http://www.worldgrid.net/ Gridpoint Atlas] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200712083225/http://www.worldgrid.net/ |date=12 July 2020 }} * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRc4vKwf3WA "Bruce Cathie Calculating an Atomic Bomb Test"], on YouTube.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cathie, Bruce}} Category:1930 births Category:2013 deaths Category:20th-century New Zealand male writers Category:21st-century New Zealand male writers Category:Commercial aviators Category:New Zealand aviators Category:Ufologists