Ever seen a UFO?

First let me say I think most “UFOlogists” are definitely on the wrong side of the line between rationality and lunacy.

However, just because most people who believe something true are crazy does not mean that what they believe is untrue. The obvious analogy is the development of flight, but you could add dozens of other developments. Doubtless those who witnessed Ben Franklin flying his kite in a thunderstorm thought he was whacked out...

As a kid I went with a friend to an 3-day open-air concert in the Isle of White in England. About 200,000 hippies attended.
One night my friend and I were lying on a hill overlooking the stage listening to Jimi Hendrix and we started to notice that some of the “stars” were moving erratically and slowly – we both saw the same movements so it was not an optical illusion. We laughed about it and thought nothing more of it.
However, on reflection we were probably the only two people that night actually looking up in the sky. It then occurred to me that any “extra-terrestrials” might actually be interested in 200,000 people all gathered together on a quiet place like the Isle of White.

I was once on a plane sitting next to a United Airlines pilot. We got talking and I asked him directly if he had ever seen a UFO. He got pretty uncomfortable and basically told me it would be very bad for any pilot’s career to have seen a UFO. To let him off the hook I asked him if he had ever heard of other pilots seeing a UFO. He said something like, “You hear those sort of things a lot…”, and changed the subject.

I believe Project Blue Book established that 95% of the UFO “sightings” the Air Force investigated were explained by weather anomalies, distortions in the atmosphere, hoaxes etc. Of course it does beg the question, “What about the other five percent?”

 

I thought i did once when i lived in Hawaii, turned out it was just a satellite moving across the sky... other than that, nope!

 

Well what I saw i don't think could have bneen satellites as it was like 1968 or 1969. We saw about six different stars moving. They would move then stop then move again. Very strange and I had not, uh, smoked anything that day ...

 

The same as the other 95%...weather anomalies, distortions in the atmosphere, hoaxes, etc. There are plenty of explanations that don't involve little green men.

 

not seen a UFO yet man ... but I'd bet it's not so far away

Zanman ... I took your advice you placed upon me seriously as hell and kept trying and trying, all the tyme knowing something wasn't going quite right ... then i took a step back, peaked at my soul real quick, then reapproached this place ... you're so right man

Zanman is right about this

peace to you man

 

an Unidentified Flying Object...yes
an alien space ship...no

 

what a strange Kandahar we have here ... you seem like you may be lost beyond recognition

come on man, don't be thinking this kynda stuff man ... the little green men play with you like you used to play with your little barbie dolls

 

Well...this sort of qualifies.
Being a major paranormal/supernatural buff and researcher I always have an eye out for anything odd going on around me...so far I haven't seen too many strange lights above me, but once when I was barely into my teens I saw something that would be a UFO by raw definition's sake, if nothing else.

I was going to bed and randomly looked out the window...my gaze was answered by a flash of white light whipping by, which kinda startled me...but then it came back, a little orb of white light whizzing around my window. It wasn't the beam of a flashlight or car headlights as it wasn't actually shining on anything, it was a ball of light hanging a few feet outside my window.
I promptly damn near shat myself, turned my head to call for someone to come look at it, and turned back to see it was gone. The end.

 

lol, that made laugh real hard!

 

I believe there is a natural phenomenon called "ball lightening" that although extremely rare has been documented. How big was this ball ... I believe ball lightening usually is somewhere about one to three feet in diameter.

 

Ball lightning has never been conclusively proven to exist, although it isn't outside the realm of possibility. As of now, I think the only documented evidence of it are the testimonies of a few eyewitnesses...

In my opinion it has no more credibility than UFOlogy.

 

Fair enough, the problem with your argument being that there were several hundred sightings that did NOT have “plenty of explanations”.


Blue Book categorized “Unidentified” as follows:-

“Unidentified (At the time called "unknown"): A report apparently contains all pertinent data necessary to suggest a valid hypothesis concerning the cause or explanation of the report but the description of the object or its motion cannot be correlated with any known object or phenomena.“

"Any known object or phenemona" ... that seems pretty clear to me, and over 300 sightings were classified “Unidentified”.

I think another issue I have with the whole subject is that there seems to have been a cover up in official circles. Perhaps the most famous case is the Roswell incident, where the official explanation was a weather-balloon that somehow left debris scattered for a half a mile - some balloon that. I know for a fact that the British government for a time imposed “D” notices on all media “asking” them not to print or publish anything on UFO’s (a friend of mine who edited a small newspaper told me this). It is only a request of course, to prop up the illusion of a free press, but if you thwart the British government you may not get your annual license renewed.

Finally, anyone who has been to Groom Lake Testing Grounds in Nevada, or Area 51 as it is popularly known, will sense that something extremely secret is going on there. There are signs off the road that warn anyone who wants to get a closer look that “the use of deadly force is authorized”. What are they hiding?

 

Why is it that the UFO highway or whatever it's called happens to run past the worlds top military research locations. Is because a) Aliens despite having interstellar space travel are inherantly stupid. Or b) they have nothing to with aliens and infact are from the top secret military bases. If the idea of ET had never been raised after Roswell then the answer would be b), however just by mentioning the word ET all of a sudden a large number of well meaning but perhaps slightly gullable people jump to a). In the process providing the US Air Force with all the cover they ever need. The way the US government was a masterclass in covering up, they let the ET rumour spread. Now we're at the point where they don't even have to answer questions anymore anyone whos asks can be easily dissmissed as a conspiracy nut. Something amazing did happen as Roswell, the quality of the cover up, the rest of the world swallowed it hook line and sinker. I have my own theories about what goes in area 51 as im sure does everyone else, but until people look critically and objectively we'll never find out.

 

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Gee well if has not been proven to exist I think you need to inform the US Air Force, because ball lightening was the official explanation given by the USAF of the Levelland sightings in November 1957! This "solved" the case as far as Blue Book was concerned.
Seven independent witnesses, including two police officers, claimed to see a large incredibly bright and incredibly fast craft in the shape of a football or dirigable over a period of about 2.5 hours. Why would seven ordinary people, only two of whom knew each other, independently claim to witness the same phenomenon, uh , Ball Lightening - I wouldn't want to contradict the USAF.

 

It is quite probable that Area 51 is a research base for the USAF and that some of the sightings of UFO’s by locals were for example the next class of Stealth fighter. In fact if you look at the F-22 from a distance it is easy to see how you could mistake that thing for a UFO given the right weather conditions. And it would also be appropriate for the USAF to deny its existence.

My problem is the argument pro or con UFO’s easily fails by throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. I am certain that the vast majority of sightings can be explained by hoaxes, weather, birds and so on. But there still remains a great number of cases that cannot be explained; my previous number of 300 was incorrect, there were 701 “Unidentified” sightings when Blue Book was closed down.

And that is where the rub lies - you have only to have ONE indisputable sighting, and you will have many.

 

Yes, I've seen a UFO.

It was a dark and stormy night... okay, well it was dark at least. I was driving home from an unspecified location with my Metallica cranked up, as usual. I looked to the sky and saw a white light. A normal white light, you ask? Oh no, this light was jumping from place to place rapidly. So the entire way home I'm thinking... what the bloody hell is that? I get home, and I go inside to get my mom. As we are walking back outside I'm telling her what I'm seeing and then we open the door... a lousy helicopter with it's search light on. Damn police ruin your day whether you have to talk to them or not.

 

The following are just a handful of the hundreds “Unknown” status of USAF's Project BLUEBOOK investigation into UFO's. They are on file with the National Archives in Washington DC.

Note that these witnesses are pilots and military people, trained observers who know the difference between a bird and a plane. They are not Lenny and Squiggy after a few beers out to have a lark.



Feb 5, 1950; Teaticket, Massachusetts. 5:10 p.m. Witnesses: Marvin Odom, former U.S. Navy fighter pilot, USAF Lt. Philip Foushee, pilot from Otis AFB, and two others. Two thin, illuminated cylinders, one of which dropped a fireball, maneuvered together and then disappeared high and fast after 5 minutes

March 20, 1950; Stuggart, Arkansas. 9:26 p.m. Witnesses: Chicago & Southern Airlines Capt. Jack Adams, First Officer G. W. Anderson, Jr. One 100' circular disc with 9-12 portholes along the lower side emitting a soft purple light, and a light at the top which flashed 3 times in 9 seconds, flew at not less than 1,000 m.p.h. It was seen for 25-35 seconds.

Nov. 18, 1951; Washington, D.C. 3:20 a.m. Witnesses: Crew of Capital Airlines DC-4 Fliqht 610, Andrews AFB Senior air traffic controller Tom Selby. One object with several lights, followed the DC-4 for about 20 minutes and then turned back.

July 18, 1952; Patrick AFB, Florida. 9:45 p.m. Witnesses: three USAF officers and four enlisted men. Over an hour period, a series of hovering and maneuvering red-orange lights were observed moving in a variety of directions.

July 21, 1952; San Marcos AFB, Texas. 10:40 p.m. Witnesses: one Lieutenant, two Staff Sergeants, three airmen. One blue circle with a blue trail was seen to hover and then accelerate to near-sonic speed (700+ m.p.h.) after 1 minute

Aug 5. 1952; Haneda AFB, Japan. 11:30 p.m. Witnesses: USAF F-94 jet interceptor pilots lst Lt. W.R. Holder and lst Lt. A.M. Jones, and Haneda control tower operators. Airborne radar tracked a target for 90 seconds. Control tower operators watched 50-60 minutes while a dark shape with a light flew as fast as 330 kts. (380 m.p.h.), hovered, flew curves and performed a variety of maneuvers.

 

Nevertheless, none of them are evidence of UFOs. Any of them could have been mistaken in what they saw, or lying, or delusional because they WANTED to see a UFO.