When UFOs Arrive

www.popularmechanics.com ^ | February 2004 | BY JIM WILSON

[Momaw Nadon]

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.

A Proposed Welcoming Committee

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.

[Chris Talk]

Needless to say, I am sure the Feds know all about tunneldom, and the cages, the vats, the breeding programs, the abductions, the imprisoned ones who will never see the light of day...

They know far more than you or I would ever know, or WANT to know, if we met a hundred escapees like this one.
They have allowed it and co-operated with it, though I suppose a case could be made that they had no choice, so might as well milk the aliens for technology, since they were going to do what they were going to do, anyway.

I do not think there is anything NEW about this. The aliens may be the truth behind rumors of fairies, elves, dwarves, trolls [not INTERNET trolls, of course] --sprites, leprechauns, aluxes, duendes, ...Hundreds of words.

Why is it, that if even our Indo European tongue is traced back to its roots when it had just a thousand or so words, we find that these words describing intelligent but non-human beings are among the very OLDEST words in the lexicon. Why would our primitive forbears have made up all these words for something they had never seen or had to deal with?

We now know that the religious and truly moral are not often taken, and that the beings dwell deep in dark cavities of Earth [Ps 74:20'...

So be good children, now, or the gobble-uns will GET you, if you don't watch OUT!

[Chris Talk]

The "Sons of God" who came in unto the daughters of men, taking advantage of them because they were fair to look upon...hardly seem angelic, or even good HUMANS, for that matter.

Clearly, the human "daughters of earthlings" [batot h'adam] are being contrasted with some other race that is not of earthly origin, who are Nephilim ["those who descended, those who came down"] which the Bible sometimes translates as "giants."

[realpatriot71]

About the boy who was in the underground cages--

Honestly, I do not doubt this story. It is quite apparent to anyone who spends enough time on the subject that something is happening to people. The next question in my mind is who do people, believers in the God of Bible, place this within the proper context, considering many factors such as Biblical translation, history, theology.

The best lies are 99% truth, yes? I think that jumping on the "alien bandwagon" is too hasty considering how the Devil, the god of this world, could use such a ploy to fool believers.

[Quix]

I've had relatively littel to do with my being a "bird of rare plumage" in spite of my mother's protestations.

God has made clear a lot of different times in a lot of different ways that

HE MADE ME EXCEEDINGLY UNIQUE FOR HIS PURPOSES

and that I'd best just accept it and get on with His program for me.

Once he told me through a dear sister:

"Rejoice not in the fact that I made you very different. Rejoice in my capacity TO HOLD YOU IN A HARD PLACE."

Boy has that been the case--been held very firmly in a long list of hard places regardless of what I did or didn't do.

But, HE DOES ALL THINGS WELL whether I think, feel or can see so at the time, or not.

I don't doubt that my comments are askew from what you are used to.

However, I've had abundant experience with those who respond as you do.

I get weary with folks who get deluded into majoring in minors and minoring in majors spiritually.

LOVING GOD WHOLLY, NEIGHBOR AS SELF AND DOING UNTO OTHERS under the Lordship of Jesus The Christ by the grace and enabling and direction of His Holy Spirit . . . those are my priorities.

I deeply cherish the Word--the written text. But He meant it when HE said MY SHEEP KNOW MY *VOICE*.

The coming dreadful times will require His written Word to be hidden deeply in our hearts and minds AND THAT WE FOLLOW HIS STILL SMALL VOICE CAREFULLY AND INTENTLY. People's lives here and eternally will depend on it.

I feel/suspect that you are mostly an earnest believer making your own spiritual walk as best as you can see fit. And I have a lot of respect for and want to support that.

I have increasingly less patience for any attitude, stance, belief, habit, practice which comes across as much more RELIGIOUS in a kind of rigid, rote, knee jerk, mindless, custom, tradition, man's doctrine, private interpretation etc. way. Jesus did not have any patience for such in HIS dusty pathed days and I have found such to be deadly in my life and era.

I'm dismayed to see that the best churches here are plagued with such mentalities, habits, customs. I KNOW God IS going to shake all such up. But the process will be painful. We'd do much better to cleanse ourselves and our churches of such used Kotex, as Scripture calls such, at our earliest opportunities ahead of THE LORD'S SHAKING.

It may surprise you to know that a big percentage of your stances, attitudes, tone, style and religious statements etc. were part and parcel of my very strident presentation of myself and my flavor of Christianity for probably the first 25-35 years of my life.

And, we are not the first. ST Paul and Peter thought they had the religious realities all mapped out very well. Paul found out differently on the Damascus road and later in the wilderness.

It appears that you have not been stripped to the bone marrow--at all, much less repeatedly--such that you surrendered all that you were, all that you knew, all that you had rather wholesale. And, patiently or helplessly waited for God to build you back more to His more preferred pattern and structure. One doesn't survive such a process without major change if one is at all alive and the least bit attentive.

Certainly one's flesh driven pet doctrines don't survive no matter how Biblical they may seem, appear or feel.

I don't know how to explain all that. I have virtually no hope that you will understand it if you truly have not been through such a process. If one has been through such a process, usually, little to no explanation is needed.

Anyway--dialogue is good. Happy for that.

[Chris Talk]

Oh BTW it is my understanding that as few as 400 persons per year are abducted into the cages and vats underground, mostly petite, blond young women from some 15 to 24, usually from the North or West, southerners not often.

I am not saying she IS down there, but the North Dakota case this winter is SO, SOooo, typical. Pretty little secular blond Nordic from way up north disappears for no reason, no body ever found. What is the poor girl's name, Sjojin or something?

[Quix]

VERY WELL SAID.

In this field, when one spits out the bones, often, there's very little left. And discerning valid puzzle pieces from wholesale disinformation, ignorance, stupid bias, lies from the pit etc. . . . not small task indeed.

I understand very well the important point you make.

[Chris Talk]

Yeah, stripped to the marrow, not once but several times. I can relate to THAT...

Good post. I could practically have written it, but am less introspective maybe than you.

[Quix]

Quite understandable.

You are a better man than I. I am so intensely curious about so many things. Especially in this subject area.

But, I have learned to be more patient to some degree, and to even accept not knowing a LOT more than I used to.

[Quix]

Astute observations, as usual.

[biblewonk]

My first comment is that I notice you speak in lists, strings, groups of examples.

Second, let me refresh my mind as to our original debate. It is true in your exhaustive study of the scriptures and knowledge of God that you see no reason not to believe in ET's and that you find fault with anyone that believes himself to know the Lord and disagree?

[Chris Talk]

Many of us have had no choice in the matter!

If an ET is kicking you in the (deleted) and sticking his cold probe up your (not mentioned), what choice do you have to not believe in him?

Post above seems to say that somehow we WANT to believe in these things, and that like Santa Claus or the tooth fairy, one has a choice of whether or not to believe.

When Squanto was abducted by the unknown English captain and taken to Gravesend, England, and returned 3 or 5 years later to the New England coast, I can imagine the scoffing he took from his fellow Indians... What, BELIEVE in Englishmen? BELIEVE in England, or Europe? Claiming to have seen a FLOATING HOUSE? Brave smoke wrong leaves in pipe!

But He was Right and They were Wrong! And his unusual "beliefs" were not "beliefs" at ALL, but KNOWINGS. He had been where they had not. He had had no choice but to see the world he saw. The same is true of myself and others here.

[Quix]

The old EVERYTHING UFO/ET related is 100% totally and only demons EXPLANATION just ceased to fit a long time ago.

There's too much technology and other stuff involved. SOME UFO 'craft' MAY be demons materializing to appear as craft. And SOME craft may be some sort of alive something. But it is very difficult to believe that all of them are.

I don't have any difficulty at all believing that demons/fallen angels are ET's, in cahoots with ET's filling bioengineered ET bodies--all or any combination of the above. And I don't think laymen at our level of understanding with what facts, pseudo facts, clues, etc. we think we have available . . . I don't think we have near enough data to conclusively assert anything about such very emphatically.

And, I believe Scripture means it when it says ALL CREATION GROANS EXPECTANTLY, WAITING EAGERLY FOR THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD. ALL CREATION has been burdened with sin more than we are likely to conceive of well. Scripture is tooooo cryptic about that for us to go building castles of doctrine on it. But it is easy for me to construe it as covering ALL CREATION.

I don't have any trouble at all construing that as referring, in part, to countless other planets, races, critters in need of the full measure of redemption and salvation bought on The Cross.

For one, sometimes God can spend even people seemingly like water. But for there to be NO other inhabited planets etc. would seem like an uncharacteristic wastefulness of space on God's part.

And, He seems to be thoroughly . . . given to RELATIONSHIP with intelligent creatures made to some degree in His image. AND HE SEEMS TO THOROUGHLY ENJOY VARIETY AND DIVERSITY. That also seems to fit.

[Quix]

NO WONDER I feel such a kinship with you in my spirit!

Didn't think it was all the UFO interest thing.

[Chris Talk]

Yeah, that is a good one. Castles of doctrine built on almost no text at all.

I have said that many of my "religious" critics

(a) Just have not been where I have BEEN!

(b) Are belaboring me with doctrines with either little or NO scriptural foundation, are really just ideas they have held since childhood, but not really in fact Christian doctrine at all, much less foundational or important.

(c) Or what you said, mountains of doctrine based on a molehill of Scripture.

[realpatriot71]

hardly seem angelic, or even good HUMANS, for that matter

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Intermarrige between those who worshiped correctly and those who did not, lead to corruption. You see evidence for this time and time again through history. How did corruption begin in the Jewish nation, hmmmm?

Clearly, the human "daughters of earthlings" [batot h'adam] are being contrasted with some other race that is not of earthly origin, who are Nephilim ["those who descended, those who came down"] which the Bible sometimes translates as "giants."

"Giants" can also mean "mighty men" (for a giant is a mighty man, no?). Mighty "men" before God refers to those men who rose to power in first human governments - check out how Nimrod is described - establishing their own human laws and practice on the people through a government. What exactly does eschatological prophesy seem to indicate? What?! A man made government replacing God's laws with it's own human constructs.

"The Pattern" repeats! Nothing "new" under the son my friend.

[Quix]

This part:

and that you find fault with anyone that believes himself to know the Lord and disagree?

is not true.

I get weary, wary and sometimes overly . . . annoyed with what SOUNDS, FEELS, SEEMS, APPEARS to be a certain kind of rigid closed mindedness that is based much more to totally on emotional, psychological, sociological factors instead of on the Solid Word of God.

Life is soooooooo incredibly complex. Even Biblical, genuine Christianity is incredibly complex in practice in many cases. I think the basic principles are simple. But living them out requires constant dialogue with Holy Spirit to get it anywhere near right. IMHO.

And I have learned the hard way, the very hard way, that MOST, if not all, tidy little personal boxed Christianity is much closer to the pharisee sorts of things Jesus was most punitive toward than near any kind of viable Godliness. And I have been there and done that in spades and still have to be watchful about myself over such.

I also am 100% convinced that tons of what goes for even modern Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity is fossilized man's doctrine stuff at least somewhat deadly to the Spirit and LIFE OF CHRIST manifested daily in individual lives AS HE DESIRES.

The SCRIPTURES declare that THE LETTER OF THE LAW KILLS and THE SPIRIT BRINGS LIFE, LIBERTY.

I have just found that abundantly and persistently so. And that relatively few Christians seem to realize which side of that--that they are on--on any given day or issue. Again. I've been there, done that in spades and still have to guard against it.

I also KNOW DEEPLY IN MY BONE MARROW that GOD REALLY IS GOING TO SHAKE ALL THAT CAN BE SHAKEN. Some believe serious shaking will begin this year along with dramatic miracles. If the Taipei church thing is any clue--I believe such will be this year. God is thoroughly fed up with the sickness in His Body. HE WILL HAVE A SPOTLESS BRIDE and only HE can clean us up suitable for such. But we have to cooperate as best we can.

Man has a virtually obsessive natural, fleshy tendency to take even solid doctrine and build a fossilized structure--thought/philosophical and organizational structure--which is almost immediately deadly. In my experience, any Christian group older than about a year and a half quickly begins to be convinced that THEY HAVE A FIRM, CLEAR, RIGID, LOFTY, HOLY CORNER ON TRUTH AND SPIRITUAL REALITY which everyone else will suffer greatly for not having.

Freud's old IN-GROUP/OUT-GROUP STUFF wherein he declared that even a religion of love would be unloving to those not members of it. We have sadly been proving him too right for centuries. God is fed up with that.

Denominations have been somewhat useful in articulating specific corners of neglected truth in many cases. But mostly God is horrified and fed up with the satanic divisions within Christianity.

That won't mean a homoginization to the lowest common denominator. I don't know how He will do it. I just know the walls are coming down for those who truly Love Jesus and want a relationship with The Father. I know that in some mission field areas I labored in, loving the sinner into the Kingdom was much more important than doctrinal details on relatively petty issues.

People are going to hell in handbaskets and by the train fulls. Pissing in the wind and getting into petty pissing contests over minor issues will not cut it in terms of God's priorities.

Unity of heart and purpose in the brotherhood of Christ's Blood before The Cross led of His Spirit will be sufficient. Getting fussed up about something God is not calling us to make a stand on will not be tolerated in the times ahead.

I don't know how to talk about this better. Words quickly become inadequate at some point.

BTW, Chris, have you had any impressions or thoughts on any of this aspect of reality?

[biblewonk]

I'm speechless. Have a nice day.

[Quix]

Have a day blessed in His Spirit, yourself.

[Quix]

YUP.

THANKS.

Sigh.

[realpatriot71]

There's too much technology and other stuff involved. SOME UFO 'craft' MAY be demons materializing to appear as craft. And SOME craft may be some sort of alive something. But it is very difficult to believe that all of them are.

Stuff? Difficult to believe, why?

I don't have any difficulty at all believing that demons/fallen angels are ET's, in cahoots with ET's filling bioengineered ET bodies--all or any combination of the above

Good. Perhaps there is still room for discourse on the subject.

I don't have any trouble at all construing that as referring, in part, to countless other planets, races, critters in need of the full measure of redemption and salvation bought on The Cross.

The problem here being, (1) that God died as a Human, (2) the Bible is silent in regards to other created races/beings, and (3) if God died for the sins of all creation, he died for the angels too.

But for there to be NO other inhabited planets etc. would seem like an uncharacteristic wastefulness of space on God's part. And, He seems to be thoroughly . . . given to RELATIONSHIP with intelligent creatures made to some degree in His image. AND HE SEEMS TO THOROUGHLY ENJOY VARIETY AND DIVERSITY. That also seems to fit.

Agreed. The God that reefers to Himself as the Creator, probably has created other races - we know He created the angels, for instance. However, there is NO Biblical evidence that the Prideful corruption of Satan spread to anyone other than 1/3 of the angels. Furthermore, since we're talking about the "chartacter" of God, why would He allow such a spread of corruption to other world(s) and then not expound upon such a point(s) in His Word to this world, especially considering the exact discussion we happen to be having here - God's Gospel is God's guide to salvation. God is CLEAR in His word. He is not mysterious. Anything done in secret, is not of God. The cognitive dissonance as it applies to ET's comes in trying to describe ET's within any context that doesn't assume they are evil. The position that some ET's/aliens are "good" creates more questions, than it answers.

The best deception is 99% truth.