Comments on: I was almost abducted by aliens

By: jane

jane — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 21:41:35 +0000

Bernie Mooney – The military’s “investigation” was pathetic, perhaps too pathetic. John Michael Greer has cogently argued in a book on the subject that sightings of craft that are plainly not ordinary commercial aircraft, which unquestionably occur, represent not alien spacecraft but secret craft belonging to the black-ops military and similar agencies. The air force’s hamhanded mid-20th-century harassment and worse of UFO-watchers, and sometimes ludicrous dismissals of the best reports, then represent a very well-played Maskirovka: they convinced the public that they were trying to cover up the existence of alien craft, serving their actual objective of covering up the nonexistence of those craft. That would conveniently allow aliens to take the blame if secret high-performance U.S. craft were observed committing illegal acts of war (e.g., the “UFO” that destroyed an Iranian fighter jet).

Fife Symington is absolutely right that unidentified flying machines have been seen above his state, like the impressive Phoenix sighting captured on film. Large triangular UFOs became popular about the same time that large triangular spy planes went into development. People don’t presume the large, quiet thing over Phoenix was a spy plane because it was lit up like a Christmas tree, but a totally superfluous bunch of lights can be added to a spy plane as easily as a spacecraft. Of course, the former hypothesis requires us to assume that our shadow government is to this day manufacturing phony UFO sightings. One wonders why they might do that.

By: Mike McCants

Mike McCants — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 23:54:20 +0000

“What about that other 5%?”
The information is too vague or confused to be analyzed.
We had an accidental sighting here in Austin, TX a couple of weeks ago:
http://weareaustin.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_2502.shtml
Of course these were 3 low level Chinese Lanterns.
The TV reporters botched the original story and did not do very well at all on the follow-up the next night.
I searched a little and found one UFOlogist complaining that it was really hard to tell the “real UFOs” from all the “Chinese Lantern” sightings. 🙂
“they found that 36% of Americans “believe UFO’s exist.””
Slightly fewer than those who believe some god created the universe about 10,000 years ago. Such amazing ignorance.

By: John Roberts

John Roberts — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 01:22:05 +0000

Greg, it sounds like your run-of-the-mill cruise ship was hijacked by Fatah Morgana. You saw that from the air. Cool!

By: Bernie Mooney

Bernie Mooney — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 00:35:38 +0000

I don’t know. The say 95% of all sightings can be explained. What about that other 5%? Greg, I’m sure you know of Leslie Kean’s book. How do you explain the incidents in that book? I believe something weird is out there. I don’t assume it’s ET. I have no clue what it is. The problem is, the events are so fleeting I don’t see how you can investigate it. Remember, the military did investigate these things for years back in the 50s-60s.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:34:11 +0000

My grandfather’s mantle clock stopped about the same time he died. Of course, he had to wind the damn thing every day to keep it working, so maybe that’s why.

By: Daniel J. Andrews

Daniel J. Andrews — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 20:34:14 +0000

I saw a UFO. Probably was a geostationary satellite suddenly catching the sunlight and then the zipping away at high speed and fading was probably the illusion of movement you sometimes get when there are clouds racing through the night sky coupled with your own lack of reference points when you’re staring straight up. But since I don’t know that was it for sure (maybe a weather balloon?), I can call it a UFO.

Incidentally, as a hypothetical point, in a dream if a relative suddenly shows up, chats and tells you they’re now saying good-bye, then you wake up and note the time of the dream and find out a few hours later that relative died at that time.

If that happens once, it is very likely coincidence. How many times does the same thing have to happen to that person–including knowing the time of death and who died–before a explanation other than coincidence is likely? Twice, 3 times, 4?
Assume this person doesn’t dream of dying close friends and relatives and on the rare occasions they do, those dreams aren’t as ‘real’ or as detailed.

By: Ian Kemmish

Ian Kemmish — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:41:28 +0000

This seems like a pons asinorum. The true scientist will be depressed to learn that 64% of Americans don’t know that, until it’s been identified, anything from a chaffinch to the ISS can be a UFO.

By: Wow

Wow — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 11:25:52 +0000

Claim:

“Besides airplane make noise”

Then, immediately afterward, a refutation of that claim’s utility:

“Most anyway.”

By: F

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 08:05:47 +0000

Yes, it was certainly odd experiences combined with the prevailing myths and superstitions of the times which gave us vaccination, the germ theory of disease, and the idea that washing your hand between visiting patients is a good idea. Those things were so prevalent in the culture, except the fact that they weren’t.

Never mind whether vaccination came about because it was discovered and supported through evidence or not. I dare you to show how your statement is historically or culturally accurate and internally consistent.

By: E. Manhattan

E. Manhattan — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 02:21:42 +0000

When I was a little boy I read a kid’s encyclopedia entry about Beowulf. It was accompanied by a picture (I now realize it was a woodcut) of Grendel as a huge four-legged crawling beast with gaping jaws.

For many nights after that, I was certain that I could hear Grendel coming down the hall towards my bedroom, which terrified me. It was very real, and I still have a healthy respect for large mythical creatures. But as my brain matured and I realized that Grendel couldn’t have been coming down the hallway from the living room (the hall was only about three feet wide, the ceiling was only 8 feet high, and Grendel never existed), the memory of my self-induced terror helped keep me safe from other products of my own imagination.