Do you believe in UFO's?

[Harry]

A scientist's view of UFO's. Pretty humorous at times.

http://www.wimp.com/believeufos/

[1bigsteve]

I think there are "forces of nature" that we know nothing about that are partly to blame for these sightings. Demonic spirit creatures could also be pulling our strings. The rest I feel are wishful thinking, trick photography, too much alcohol and silver frisbees. Ever wonder why the photos and films are always out of focus?

I have never seen a UFO, Nessie or a Bigfoot. But then I don't drink.

-1bigsteve (o:

[stargazer]

I believe that aliens who spy on us don't necessarily need a vehicle. I am open minded, and I also believe that many UFO sightings are fake. The alien abduction experiences are fascinating.

Some researchers believe that genetics play a role in the "wide awake" sleep paralysis visions experienced by many. Right now, as I type, I am experiencing a particular kind of reality, waking consciousness. Last night, I had dreaming consciousness. I have no doubt that there are many ways of experiencing reality.

[kssunflower]

I believe that sleep paralysis or "old hag syndrome" is responsible for some people's claims of ufo sightings, abductions, and encounters with apparitions and demons. I've had this occur a couple times and saw terrifying things.

I do also believe in the existence of extraterrestrials in some form. My Dad is a retired science teacher and he got me interested at an early age. I remember reading a lot about the Betty and Barney Hill case.

[SallyG]

My reasoning on UFO's is this:

There are billions of stars out there in our universe. Those stars have planets revolving around them. That makes billions of planets with the possibility that life exists on them, as it does on our planet.

That is just in our one galaxy. How many other galaxies are out there in space? They say space goes on forever, so I would imagine the number of other galaxies is pretty impressive.

I gotta think that in all that, at least one life form managed to develop the intelligence and technology to travel wherever they please in space.

[Constantine]

I doubt that there is intelligent life anywhere else in the universe. (If it never evolved here, why should we assume it ever evolved anywhere else?)

Just kidding. With all the gazillions of stars there are out there, I'm sure there is reasonably intelligent life elsewhere. I'm also sure that it would be impossible for there to be any direct contact between ourselves and any creatures from other worlds.

The nearest star to us is Alpha Centauri, which is four light years away. That means that, even traveling at the speed of light (which seems to be the absolute limit) it would take four years to travel between earth and any planet orbiting AC.

Imagine the logistics of supplying enough food and drink to sustain even one creature for a trip of that length.

Someone (I forget who) has described this as "God's quarantine."

One night many years ago when I was staying over at my grandmother's house in Washington Heights, I looked out the bedroom window and saw an "unidentified flying object" flying over downtown New York. It was a nearly circular light divided into three parts that seemed to be suspended in front of me. I knew that if I saw it, many others also must have. Yet the next day, I heard nothing about it. I dismissed it, figuring that there must be some rational explanation.

There was: Several years later, I saw a helicopter flying past me at night. This time I got a side view and realized that that was what I had seen that other night.

[FairhavenGuy]

It's not likely that any living thing is going to be able to travel at speeds approaching the speed of light, so the four-year journey Constantine suggests is most like far too short a travel time. It would take one vehicle a long time getting here.

SallyG proposes that there's got to be life on one of those billions of planets someplace out there, but what are the chances of a vehicle traveling from one of those billions successfully landing in New Hampshire and abducting Barney Hill?

I think the best reason to dispute that UFOs are alien vehicles is that there are just too darned many of them. If it's a one-in-a-gazillion chance that an intelligent being from one of those millions of planets finds Earth, then, gosh, how are they arriving in such droves? Lots of different descriptions. Nobody's photos matching anybody else's photos.

And they travel all that distance for all those years and then they land and take off again before anybody has a chance to get close? When we went to the moon, our own next door neighbor, we stayed there for more than a few minutes. We were there for days at a time--walking around, driving a little buggy, shooting golf balls.

I hope when one does get here, instead of a silver saucer with cute little three-foot-high munchkins in it, the vehicle thing is around the size of, say, Detroit, and the things that climb out are sixty-seven feet tall, and they say--in perfect English accents, of course--"All tis time traveling and there's nothing on this bloody place but insects."

[1bigsteve]

Joan Rivers does a funny skit on these people who "see" UFOs on her record. Very funny!

-1bigsteve (o:

[SarahJay]

Funny that i stumble across this thread right now - i've just listened to a podcast interview from 'Paranormal Underground presents'... with Stanton Friedman about UFO's et al. I'd never heard of him before but apparently he is quite well known in the field.

He seems to be the guy the US military send people to when they have sightings or experience encounters and abductions.
The interview is really quite interesting - you should check it out. It's for free on iTunes.
Stanton also mentioned The Battle Of Los Angeles in 1942 (?) which i had vaguely known about but really want to read up on now. Anyone know much about it?

And for all you lovers of alien abduction stories, he does briefly mention the Hills and his work with them.

[Kat]

"The Battle of Los Angles"

[Kat]

1942 con't

[Kat]

1942 L.A.

[Kat]

hope you can read it

[Kat]

Here's the most famous picture. Some outlets enhanced the "object" in the spotlights to look like a saucer, but this original news item did not.
Some residents were actually killed in the chaos.

Edit here:(BTW this site link claims the photo was retouched. I've seen different versions of the photo and this one from the original newspaper looks least like that was done...
But you can read more about it at:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/battle-of-los-angeles. )

[Kat]

Sorry, guess the type is not legible
I was using 3 different computers, but still not able to read the type. Oh well, it can be googled.

[Kat]

Sorry, guess the type is not legible
I was using 3 different computers, but still not able to read the type. Oh well, it can be googled.

Wow! I hadn't realized there was a real original radio broadcast included in that link! Cool!

[Kat]

The Shatner show The Unexplained at least explained how this picture was made. There supposedly were multiple searchlights (*in an undisclosed location* in So.Cal. L.A. area) and the newspaper did manipulate the nighttime photo to show the origins of several searchlight beams—to me, seemingly going overboard and also *enhancing* the target, sensationalizing the incident into a battle against a UFO. Lots of shrapnel rained down upon the citizens causing damage to property and persons. A target was sighted but was never explained.
I don’t know why the pic is upside down but will right itself if you click on it.

IMG_1317.jpeg