When UFOs Arrive

The U.S. and other world governments already have detailed secret plans for first contact.

When UFOs land, a series of plans created to deal with nuclear emergencies and biological attacks will be activated.

Within the scientific community, the question is no longer whether extraterrestrial life exists, but if ET is smart enough to do long division. Scientists are of two minds regarding the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Skeptics acknowledge simple life-forms might be found on other planets, but insist that intelligent life is unique to Earth. Their belief is based on the assumption that Earth possesses unique physical attributes, including a magnetic field that deflects cosmic rays and a moon that absorbs asteroids. Together, these protective features make Earth a rare safe harbor--one that nurtured the evolution of primitive life-forms into intelligent beings. The opposing camp sees the prospect for discovering alien life in more mathematical terms. Its touchstone is the Drake Equation, which links the probability of discovering extraterrestrial intelligence to factors such as the size of the universe and the number of stars with earthlike planets. With the discovery of each new planet beyond Earth's solar system--there are now more than 100--the odds of encountering intelligent alien life increase. Governments and international organizations around the world have taken notice of the changing odds. No governmental official has gone on record claiming that UFOs are real, let alone a threat. Yet with little public fanfare, they have begun preparing for the single most important event in human history: first contact. That is, the moment earthlings discover incontrovertible proof that they are not alone.

Early Warning
Unless ET materializes from another dimension in the middle of the Super Bowl, humans most likely will have some advance warning of its arrival. How much time we get to straighten up for extraterrestrial company depends upon who spots ET first.

The privately funded SETI Institute uses radio telescopes owned by observatories around the world to sweep the sky for signals broadcast by advanced civilizations. If ET has read Emily Post, or her intergalactic equivalent, and calls ahead, we could have years, even decades, to prepare for first contact. Unfortunately, the current SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project can afford to look at only small swatches of the sky, so any extraterrestrial courtesy calls probably will be missed.

A more likely scenario is that the U.S. Air Force would spot ET's spacecraft as it traverses the void between the Earth and the moon. Using powerful radar and optical telescopes in Hawaii, Greenland, Florida and the Indian Ocean, the Air Force Space Command tracks satellites, monitors missile launches, and spots baseball- and larger-size bits of orbiting debris with the hope of preventing it from perforating a space shuttle or the International Space Station. If ET turns up on Space Command's radar, it would mean the alien visitors are only hours or minutes away.

The International Academy of Astronautics in Paris maintains a list of volunteers willing to help world governments if ET arrives. Most are astronomers. Here is the team that PM would prefer to see on the job. Shown counterclockwise from the center are: Sen. John Glenn, American Representative. As the first American to orbit the Earth and an elected political leader, the senator is the obvious choice to lead the American delegation. Frank Drake, Science Officer. Creator of the Drake Equation and a driving force behind the SETI project, Drake would represent the world's scientific community. Hal Puthoff, Powerplant Engineering. An expert on zero-point energy, a means of extracting limitless power from the quantum vacuum without violating the known laws of physics, Puthoff would understand how ET powers its craft.

Sheila E. Widnall, Weapons Systems. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who served as Secretary of the Air Force in the 1990s, Widnall would be able to assess ET's weapons. Ning Li, Propulsion Systems. A former NASA scientist, Li devised the theory that explains how the electromagnetic force that we use every day might also be harnessed to manipulate gravity. Perhaps ET uses similar technology. K. Eric Drexler, Structural Systems. A trailblazer in the now fast-growing field of nanotechnology--building materials atom by atom--Drexler pioneered the idea of smart materials, which ET would doubtlessly also use in its craft. Jane Goodall, Communications Officer. Having devoted her life to the study of chimpanzees, primatologist Goodall has proved her ability to communicate with intelligent nonhumans.

Countdown To Contact
The broad-brush outline for Earth's response to the first alien encounter is set out in an international agreement called the "Declaration of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence." Written by a committee of scientists organized by the SETI Institute, the declaration spells out what astronomers should do, and what they should avoid doing, immediately after first contact.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the agreement is that astronomers who sign on to the declaration agree to keep the news of an imminent contact under their hat until the astronomy community and authorities have been notified.

The declaration also establishes fairly specific guidelines regarding the protection of the radio frequencies that alien civilizations might use to communicate with Earth. As soon as a radio signal is confirmed as originating from an extraterrestrial source, the International Telecommunications Union would ask governments around the world to forbid use of that portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is hoped that ET will have sufficiently studied human habits to understand that calling earthlings on the frequencies used for microwave ovens and garage door openers will be interpreted as a belligerent act.

Close Encounter
Around 1999 the first contact protocols were put to the test. For 12 hours, SETI astronomers marveled at the prospect that their golden moment had arrived. A signal that repeated in an organized pattern was detected beaming straight at the Earth from 1 million miles in space.

The first priority was to alert radio astronomers around the world to redirect their telescopes. The signal from the distant stationary object quickly faded as the relentless rotation of the Earth swept it out of the telescope's listening range. Douglas Vakoch, the SETI Institute's social scientist responsible for preparing Earth's reply to an extraterrestrial message, tells POPULAR MECHANICS what happened next: "At this point, all of our discussions were internal to our team. We didn't want to cry wolf. Then, in the midst of the process, we get a call from The New York Times." So much for the secrecy provision of the SETI protocol. Within hours, the story evaporated. The SETI team identified the mystery signal as a data transmission from SOHO, a sun-watching observatory on an almost-stationary orbit about 1 million miles from Earth.

Vakoch says he was not surprised that the story of the possible alien contact leaked so quickly. "These guidelines have no legal force. They have been drafted in the hope of getting broader discussion."

As far as the U.S. government is concerned, that discussion started and ended more than 40 years ago. Regardless of how the world's astronomy community might want to handle first contact, Uncle Sam has ideas of his own. And they rest on the assumption that ET is first and foremost an illegal alien.

Presumed Dangerous
The question of how humanity might react to its first contact with intelligent aliens was officially raised in the late 1950s by the then newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Curious as to how discoveries about the origin of the universe might affect society as a whole, NASA contracted with the Brookings Institution, a leading think tank, to research the question. Only a small part of its 100-page answer, which came to be known as "The Brookings Report," dealt with alien encounter. But it contained a stern warning. "Anthropological files contain many examples of societies, sure of their place in the universe, which have disintegrated when they had to associate with previously unfamiliar societies espousing different ideas and different life ways; others that survived such an experience usually did so by paying the price of changes in values and attitudes and behavior."

In 1972, as engineers prepared the first space mission that would travel outside of Earth's solar system, NASA decided to ignore warnings in the 1960 "Brookings Report" about the dangers inherent in contact with an advanced alien race. Instead, the space agency sent an invitation for extraterrestrials to visit Earth. A gold-anodized aluminum plaque engraved with a map showing the location of Earth was attached to the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. When it sent its last message, in January 2003, it was more than 7 billion miles along on a trip that will take it to the star Aldebaran.

State Of Emergency
If ET turns up at NASA's doorstep bearing that invitation, it is in for a surprise. Instead of getting a handshake from the head of NASA, it will be handcuffed by an FBI agent dressed in a Biosafety Level 4 suit. Instead of sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House, the alien will be whisked away to the Department of Agriculture's Animal Disease Center on Plum Island, off the coast of New York's Long Island. Here it will be poked and probed by doctors from the National Institutes of Health. A Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) will tow away its spacecraft.

Unfriendly as this welcome may seem, it is the chain of events that most likely will follow the visitor's arrival. Unique as the appearance of an alien-piloted spacecraft may be, the event incorporates elements of three situations familiar to federal emergency response workers: a plane crash, the release of radioactive material, and the capture of an animal suspected of harboring a contagious disease. Responsibilities in these situations are spelled out in Presidential Executive Orders.

Unless it is spewing exhaust, the craft would be assumed to be nuclear powered. This determination would put NEST technicians in charge of securing the craft and moving it to a DOE facility, most likely in New Mexico, where it would be in close proximity to the Sandia and Los Alamos nuclear laboratories and the White Sands Missile Range. International agreements also put NEST on call if the craft lands out of the United States, as happened in 1978 when a Soviet satellite leaking nuclear fuel landed in the Canadian wilderness.

NEST, however, would operate in the background. In a nuclear emergency, the FBI is put in charge of public safety, public health and public information. Those, at least, are the plans. How things might actually turn out is anyone's guess.

Skeptics often ask why UFO sightings seem to take place only in remote locations instead of on busy city streets. Perhaps ET knows what earthlings have in mind when it lands.

We frequently say someone or something is #1 or the best or there is nothing like it, but of course we mean in THIS world or planet, though we don't go around saying that all the time. If somewhere, in the 119th planet in the Aldebaran systems, something better may exist, what is that to US?

Yes, YES, of COURSE we are monotheistic, there is just one YHWH who terraformed this world and made us to inhabit it.
You could no more just suddenly decide on your own to start worshipping the god of that 119th planet, than you could just suddenly decide to pay your taxes to Uganda because you are tired of paying the IRS. We are the sheep of THIS pasture, owned by THIS god or celestial. Each man is responsible to his own master, not some other.

UFO PING LIST.

ANYONE wanting on or off the list, please let me know.

THANKS.

Great to have the whole article instead of the earlier summary.

Am sleepy and going for a nap or I'd respond to some of these interesting posts.

Blessings,

Quix,

I posted the summary of the Popular Mechanics article on or about January 6. This is the photo of the cover that I attached to the original thread.

Note: my name and address pulled off for obvious reasons.)

I've lived in two haunted houses.

The previous house I lived in was haunted for sure. My roommates and I often heard tapping by the windows at night and when we'd go up to investigate we'd find no footprints or handprints.

We'd also hear footsteps subtly creeping about coming from the ceiling or attic area. When the new landlord took over, they quickly moved out of the house when they also discovered it was haunted. Funny thing about that house is whatever it was, it seemed to like me cause I never felt concerned for my safety.

The other house I lived in was over 150 years old. I also worked in a club that was over 100 years old and when I often went down to the basement, which used to be a hideout speakeasy joint during the times of prohibition, I felt very very uneasy being down there alone. I'd take care of bar business and run like hell up the stairs.

What I do remember is the yellow light beaming down on me and I could not move or speak. Then it let me go. I do not remember being in any spaceship or them doing anything to me or inserting anything in me.

Who is Bud Hopkins?

The very thing you remember, of being paralyzed and unable to move in the presence of a strange object or being, is the number one question asked by abduction researchers such as [the most famous two] Dr John Mack of Harvard, and the artist and author Budd Hopkins of New York City. Google for them.

Of all questions it is the one that best predicts abduction and implantation. I believe in their form questionnaire it is worded "Have you ever, EVEN IN CHILDHOOD, had a dream or waking experience in which you were PARALYZED AND UNABLE TO MOVE with a strange object or being in your room?"

I often listen to Art Bell.

But if somebody is abducted how would they know that for sure? I just remember the dream very well. And I remember that I knew what these things were I was watching outside my window but I was not embracing them with open arms like some people do. I ran to hide from them. If anything I felt, they were testing my faith.

You may even be able to find a quiz on the internet, asking that question and others, to see how likely it is that you have been abducted.

Budd Hopkins is the author of the book Witnessed, and the book Missing Time, and the book Intruders. John Mack is the author of the book Abduction, and of others since that IIRC. These can be bought used, or seen in many libraries.

That is amazing. I'll check out Hopkins but I don't trust our government and would prefer to not be tinkered with by them. Most gifted people that I have heard of are being used by our government for very wrong reasons.

Many people have been driven by recurrent dreams and nightmares to have themselves hypnotised to see if they can recall any abduction experience or other abnormal event whether or not related to UFOs.

If you are not in any physical or mental distress, you might just let it go and consider yourself one of the millions of humans who MAY or may NOT have been abducted and/or implanted.

The books I mentioned are good reads, just as human interest stories of what happened to those people, and many many people have read them who were AFAIK not abductees or implantees.

PS many others DID recall all or much of their experience withOUT having to resort to hypnosis.

And some who DID resort to hypnosis, learned but little more than what they remembered consciously, and of course some found no evidence of abduction even by means of the hypnosis...

Support groups for abductees exist in most major cities.

I am not in any mental or physical distress. I am fortunate to still be here but it sure is a scary thought to know you can be abducted right in your sleep. It's almost like I should wear a cross to bed to ward whatever that is off.

Interestingly enough, seriously religious people are very rarely abducted. I mean REALLY religious, not just people who go to church...

In the last 20 years, 90% or more of abductees have been female. As you might suppose, persons living or visiting in remote campsites, farms, hiking in parks or wilderness, etc. are more likely to be taken than persons who live in and stay in big cities, but the book Witnessed for example, has a woman taken out of the 14th floor IIRC of a high rise in Manhattan, beamed right through the window without breaking it, etc.

Most abductees are first taken when between the ages of 8 and 18, but once taken, chances are they will be taken from time to time for life. Fairly often one person is taken, and a spouse or signif other in the same bed is unwakable and is not taken. Two children in a family, often one is taken and the other not.

Yes, YES, of COURSE we are monotheistic, there is just one YHWH who terraformed this world and made us to inhabit it. You could no more just suddenly decide on your own to start worshipping the god of that 119th planet, than you could just suddenly decide to pay your taxes to Uganda because you are tired of paying the IRS. We are the sheep of THIS pasture, owned by THIS god or celestial. Each man is responsible to his own master, not some other.

Hmmm, while I don't agree, because I do not see scripture supporting such a position, I can at least agree that you have what I consider a reasonably "consistant philosophy".

Not entirely just a philosophy, que lastima.

I often tell people whose position differs from mine on these matters we are brushing against, that I WISH I HAD THE LUXURY of not believing what I do, or of disbelieving as a skeptic as they do... etc.

I am very scripturally literate, but I can no longer find passages that really contradict where I am compelled to be "philosophically," as you put it... especially if I look at the Hebrew, not the English. Those ancients were no naifs, they had been through some of what we are going through [again]...

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