News show episode · Reality Check · 15 October 2026
Reality Check Rewind: Rony Vernet's instrumented station with the Yawanawá in Acre
A Reality Check Rewind, reposted 15 October 2026, of Ross Coulthart's mid-2025 interview with Brazilian engineer Rony Vernet after several nights with the Yawanawá in Acre. Vernet describes orbs at treetop height, a sphere that his drone camera could not see from 1-2 m away, a luminous 'hand' of fog, a boy paralysed for a minute, electronics failures and a 1.6 GHz signal. He sets it against the officially investigated light-beam attacks in Acre in 2014-16.
Overview
- Named, firsthand (Vernet): orbs going west; a sphere invisible to the drone camera; the luminous hand; the paralysed boy; 1.6 GHz; a camera off for exactly one minute.
- Village witnesses on video: about 20 Yawanawá interviews; objects come and go toward the samaúma tree.
- Background: the 2014-16 Acre light-beam reports investigated by FUNAI, the Federal Police and the MPF.
Notes
- Rewind repost of 15 Oct 2026; original air date mid 2025 (to confirm).
- Coulthart's NHI Research Institute part-funds Vernet's work (Coulthart's own statement in the episode).
Timeline
On the recordWitness testimonyAlleged / one person's word
The claims, checked
Witness testimony (10)
Orange and yellow orbs about 1-2 m across appeared at treetop height between about 6:30 and 8 pm, blinking strongly, and always went in and out of the forest in one direction, west.firsthandRony Vernet (electronics and computer engineer, UAP Brazil)Lights of the samaúma: Vernet's station with the Yawanawá in Acre (Brazil, 2025)
A red-orange sphere hovered less than 1 m off the ground about 5 m behind him and two Yawanawá youths on a ladder, then left; within 15 seconds he had his DJI drone up and parked it 1-2 m from the object, which he and the boys saw plainly but which did not appear on the drone camera at all.Two youths present, not named on air.firsthandRony Vernet (electronics and computer engineer, UAP Brazil)Lights of the samaúma: Vernet's station with the Yawanawá in Acre (Brazil, 2025)
A dense, white, luminous 'fog' formed a hand-like shape pointing west; a boy watching through binoculars was paralysed for about a minute ('I feel inflated'), while phones failed, flashlights drained and lights flickered.firsthandRony Vernet (electronics and computer engineer, UAP Brazil)Lights of the samaúma: Vernet's station with the Yawanawá in Acre (Brazil, 2025)
During the event he picked up a 1.6 GHz signal, the band reported at Skinwalker Ranch; his other sensors were not yet logging.firsthandRony Vernet (electronics and computer engineer, UAP Brazil)Lights of the samaúma: Vernet's station with the Yawanawá in Acre (Brazil, 2025)
On zoom, two discs or spheres appeared inside a pulsing orange light.firsthandRony Vernet (electronics and computer engineer, UAP Brazil)Lights of the samaúma: Vernet's station with the Yawanawá in Acre (Brazil, 2025)
On another night one camera, the one with the best view, switched off for exactly the minute an object passed below it.firsthandRony Vernet (electronics and computer engineer, UAP Brazil)Lights of the samaúma: Vernet's station with the Yawanawá in Acre (Brazil, 2025)
At an abandoned house near the station he heard metal scraping and footsteps and felt an extreme, frightening cold.firsthandRony Vernet (electronics and computer engineer, UAP Brazil)Lights of the samaúma: Vernet's station with the Yawanawá in Acre (Brazil, 2025)
About 20 Yawanawá interviews, on video, describe fireballs over their roofs that leave when someone thinks of pointing at them, and discs or spinning cylinders 1-2 m across, coming and going in the direction of the samaúma, the sacred tree the Yawanawá see as a portal for forest beings.secondhandYawanawá villagers (interviewed on video by Rony Vernet)Yawanawá villagers → Rony Vernet → told itLights of the samaúma: Vernet's station with the Yawanawá in Acre (Brazil, 2025)
His station has five cameras (all-sky, zoom, thermal), directional GHz antennas, a cosmic-ray counter, infrasound, magnetometer and environmental sensors, streaming over Starlink to Rio; he has since filmed a UAP remotely from Rio and intends to publish the data.firsthandRony Vernet (electronics and computer engineer, UAP Brazil)Lights of the samaúma: Vernet's station with the Yawanawá in Acre (Brazil, 2025)
In 2013-14 lights over a village in Acre fired beams at people (24 July 2014) and FUNAI, the Federal Police and the armed forces investigated; in 2015 the Federal Public Ministry opened an inquiry after anthropologist Carolina Comandulli's encounter; in 2016 a Kampa man fired a shotgun at a light, was hit by a beam and hospitalised. Vernet's 2023 work led the government to release about 120 pages and 20 minutes of video.Checked against the documents Vernet posted at uapbrazil.com (see case/acre-indigenous-beams-2014); the documents were posted in 2021.analysisRony Vernet (electronics and computer engineer, UAP Brazil)Rony Vernet → Ross Coulthart → told itLight beams over Ashaninka villages: the Acre files (Brazil, 2014-2016)