Posted on 06/28/2012 2:26:39 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
The below is from: channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/chasing-ufos/ New Series premiere: Friday, June 29, 9 PM
A team of trained investigators sets out to uncover the truth about UFOs. But they’re not just looking for more stories on extraterrestrial activity—they want answers. Risking it all, this team of scientists and UFO researchers investigate and dissect some of the most mysterious sightings on the planet to unearth stunning new evidence. The data they collect on these adventures paints an entirely new picture of what we know about these strange lights in the sky.
Five Good Reasons To Believe in UFOs By: Patrick J. Kiger
As most credible UFOlogists readily admit, proving that extraterrestrial spacecraft have visited our planet is a maddeningly difficult chore.
“The hassle over the word "proof" boils down to one question: What constitutes proof?” Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed the U.S Air Force’s secret investigation of UFOs in the early 1950s, once wrote. “Does a UFO have to land at the River Entrance to the Pentagon, near the Joint Chiefs of Staff offices? Or is it proof when a ground radar station detects a UFO, sends a jet to intercept it, the jet pilot sees it, and locks on with his radar, only to have the UFO streak away at a phenomenal speed? Is it proof when a jet pilot fires at a UFO and sticks to his story even under the threat of court-martial? Does this constitute proof?”
More recently, Investigative journalist Leslie Keen, author of the 2011 book “UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record,” has noted that in roughly 90 to 95 percent of UFO sightings, observers turn out actually to have seen weather balloons, ball lightning, flares, aircraft, and other mundane phenomena. But another five to 10 percent of sightings are not so easily explainable, but that’s not the same as demonstrating that they are extraterrestrial in origin. Nevertheless, she argues, the hypothesis that UFOs are visitors from other worlds “is a rational one, and must be taken into account, given the data that we have.”
Here is some of the most compelling evidence for that hypothesis:
• The long, documented history of sightings. UFOs were around, in fact, long before humans themselves took to the air. The first account of a UFO sighting in America was back in 1639, when Massachusetts colony governor John Winthrop noted in his journal that one James Everell, “a sober, discreet man,” and two other witnesses watched a luminous object fly up and down the Muddy River near Charlestown for two to three hours. There are documented sightings of sightings of what were then called “airships” during the 1800s as well, such as the July 1884 sighting of a Saturn-shaped UFO (a ball surrounded by a ring) in Norwood, NY, and a fast-moving object that briefly hovered over the startled townspeople of Everest, KS in 1897.
• Numerous modern sightings by credible, well-trained professional observers. In Ruppelt’s 1955 book , “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects,” he documented numerous instances of military service members, military and civilian pilots, scientists and other credible professionals who had observed UFOs. In one instance, Ruppelt describes the experience of a pilot of an Air Force F-86 fighter jet, who was scrambled to track a UFO and got to within 1,000 yards of a saucer-shaped object that abruptly flew away from him in a burst of speed after he fired upon it. He also mentions a 1948 UFO encounter in which two airline pilots got to within 700 feet of a UFO and saw two rows of windows with bright lights.
• Consistencies in the descriptions of purported alien ships. Over the decades, witnesses who’ve seen UFOs have shown remarkable consistency in the shapes and other characteristics of the objects they’ve described. In 1949, the authors of the report for Project Sign, one of the early military investigations of UFOs, identified four main groups of objects—flying disks or saucers, cigar or torpedo-shaped craft without wings or fins, spherical or balloon-shaped objects that were capable of hovering or flying at high speed, and balls of light with no apparent physical form that were similarly maneuverable. Nearly a quarter-century later, a French government investigation headed by Claude Poher of the National Center for Space Research found similar patterns in more than 1,000 reports from France and various countries. One caveat is that in recent years, reports of wedge-shaped UFOs—which bear a similarity to the latest terrestrial military aircraft—have begun to supplant some of the traditional shapes.
• Possible physical evidence of encounters with alien spacecraft. The 1968 University of Colorado report, compiled by a team headed by James Condon, documented numerous instances of areas where soil, grass, and other vegetation apparently had been flattened, burned, broken off, or blown away by a UFO. A report by Stanford University astrophysicist Peter Sturrock, who led a scientific study of physical evidence of UFOs in the late 1990s, describes samples of plants taken from a purported UFO landing site in France in 1981. French researchers found that the leaves had undergone unusual chemical changes of the sort that could have been caused by powerful microwave radiation—which was even more difficult to explain, considering that they found no trace of radioactivity at the site.
• Documented physiological effects on UFO witnesses. The Sturrock report describes in detail various symptoms experienced by individuals who had encountered UFOS, ranging from burns and temporary deafness to persistent nausea and memory loss. Among the most vivid examples: Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and Landrum’s young grandson Colby, who reportedly happened upon a “large, diamond-shaped object” hovering over a Texas road in December 1980. All three became ill afterward; Cash, for example, developed large water blisters on her face and swelling that closed her eyes, in addition to severe nausea and diarrhea. The effects persisted for years, and she was hospitalized more than two dozen times.
Actually, the reverse may also be true.
When you consider that the number of abductees consists of those people who either consciously remember being abducted or those who, after having PTSD or other problems, decided to undergo regression hypnosis and then discovered their abduction, there may be many, many more who are abductees but are unaware of it.
Many people, perhaps most people, would be afraid to undergo regression hypnosis for what they might learn. I count myself among that number.
You’re only commenting on abductions, not UFO sightings. The violent nature of abductions by unusual creatures would produced those feelings. I can only imagine how and alien would view it, if nazis had gone to another world. But that wouldn’t make the nazis demons, only evil.
As for demonic actions, like the sexual reports. Many believers view other religions as demonically influenced, which would include evil behavior such as sexual abductions. Alien religions, if any, would not likely be based on Christ, and therefore likely a form of devil worship. What’s kind of behavior do you expect from alien sinners?
And there are reports in sightings of more than one race. Some have been seen as fairly benign, and only the more aggressive and curious would risk and physical encounter. Whatever they are, judging the actions of one group to represent them all is risky.
Most sightings are mistaken events, easily explained away. Some are hoaxes. But many are buy reputable people. I’m certain and air force or airline pilot can recognize a ship. And most of what is going on doesn’t resemble biblical demonic activity. That usually involved posession, not abduction.
I would suggested looking at Medieval accounts be done with a grain of salt. Everything they didn’t understand was deamed demonic and embellished in stories.
I am only commenting on abductions (though abductions usually involve a craft or what would be described as a UFO).
And you are again correct in that some "aliens" are described as benign (and they might indeed be benign...or those describing them might have developed Stockholm syndrome).
Actual benign sightings are simply ones where someone describes seeing and alien, with minimal or no interaction.
Any abduction would automatically be a hostile act in any sane mindset. As for their intentions? Ultimately, who knows. I’m not a big believer in passive ETs. Life is too hostile for that to work.
I don’t know how much stock to put into alien sightings. Those are much more rare. but UFO are much harder to dismiss. Their source is a mystery, but something is flying around.
Silly me. There must be at least that many and many more, else how did Obama get elected?
Something a pastor one said. He didn’t believe in ET, but he knew how he would respond if he met one.
Point at alien. “you need to repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Ghost.”
Hey, if there are aliens, they may be the new evangelism.
lol...yep.
Thanks for the ping. This year is the 60th anniversary of the swarm of UFOs over Washington, DC.
Jacques Vallee -- His best guess is some kind of technology that transmits a hologram with mass. But he doesn't know and doesn't claim to know. He looks at the evidence and there is a hell of a lot of evidence that the skeptics dismiss with a joke. The skeptics haven't report the witness report and also the physical evidence. Saying that it's simply delusion or insanity is in itself delusional and insane. Look at the evidence that is out there.
“Point at alien. “you need to repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Ghost.”
I just hope the alien is not the ones front Signs, or the baptism is going to be and act of faith.
Waters burned them like acid in that’s movie, if you didn’t know.
No.
The coming attractions look like one of those insipid ghost chasing shows, running around at night filmed in UV, screaming in fright.
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