Serious UFO poll.

[Jack Sprat]

What best describes your gut feelings about the UFO sightings over the years?

[varkam]

1. None of the above.

I don't think that they are all products of human imagination, but rather I think when people see something that looks out of place they then assume that it must be a UFO when in reality there are perhaps dozens of vastly more plausible explanations for such phenomena. To say that it is a product of the imagination is to imply that the person who saw it was hallucinating - which I don't think is the case with the vast majority of "sightings".

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

6. Wait until you see one up close and personal yourself as I did, along with 6 of my neighbors.

There was no plausible explanation for this huge low flying, slow moving, soundless, lights around its bottom craft. Period. I don't know if it was from out of this planet, or perhaps something our government concocted, but it was certainly not a product of our imaginations.

[gateley]

12. Like everything in life, until it happens to us, we just don't know.

If it was a black triangle, I think the general belief these days is that it's ours, because there have been hundreds of reports. But who knows...

I would have been scared to death -- were you?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

59. It appeared to be rounded in the front. I wasn't scared at all, I stood there with my neighbors, and

we were all fascinated.

[Jack Sprat]

14. The movement of the craft? Did it at any point

accelerate or did it move slowly until it disappeared beyond your horizon? Many people have reported something huge as you have. Like larger than a football field in length?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

62. It never accelerated and continuted to move slowly and yes, it disappeared beyond my viewpoint.

I just posted the following for another person. I found this account, recently on the Internet. This was another sighting of what we saw, and took place about 5 miles from here.

http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/052/S52400.html

Occurred : 9/15/1989 22:30 (Entered as : 09/15/89 22:30)
Reported: 9/8/2006 6:30:19 PM 18:30
Posted: 10/30/2006
Location: Peekskill, NY
Shape: Unknown
Duration:1 minute
Massive, low flying, slowly moving craft that emitted no sound.

While travelling a back road through a wooded residential area, I observed a very large object in the sky that appeared to be just above the tree tops. I slowed my car to a near stop. My impression was that it was massive; football field in size. I could almost sense its mass before seeing it.

It moved extemely slow, there was no sound. There were lights,but I can no longer remember if colored or white nor the configuration. The lights were not exremely bright. Its color was dark and shape unknown because of tree cover.

I could not clearly see its details, only a partial outline and impression of tremendous mass. I was perplexed and frightened.

I was following a friends car. When we reached our destination, her first words to me, unprovoked,were "Did you see that?" We were stunned.

I remain stunned to this day.

[Lorien]

98. I saw something similar in 1985

My ex-fiance and I were leaving home on his motorcycle. As soon as we pulled onto the road we noticed three intensely bright lights low on the horizon in the direction we were to be headed. He was in the air Force at the time, so he was very curious as to what the lights belonged to because they didn't correspond to any aircraft he was familiar with, and they weren't moving. We drove for about half a mile but still, the lights never moved. We finally got to were the craft was stationed; about 100 feet over the parking lot of a deserted department store. The craft was enormous; gunmetal gray, rectangular, with three bright white lights on the "front", two small colored lights on the bottom, and three "observation panels" (that's what they looked like) tilted slightly downward on the "back". It was also roughly the size of a football field. My ex wanted to drive under it, but I was completely against that idea. As we were debating a group of African American teenage boys (ages about 14-17) came running across the road in front of us, their eyes fixed on the craft. They were pointing and yelling, though I couldn't quite make out what they were saying with my helmet on. As they got closer to the area just below the craft it suddenly shot up into the night sky and disappeared. Amazing that something that huge could move so quickly from a stationary position. In hindsight, we should have stayed to talk to the kids and exchanged information about what we had seen, but we continued on.

I've actually had four sightings in my lifetime, though that was the only one with a craft of that description. All four moved in ways that are still impossible for us to replicate with current technology, and all but one of the sightings were experienced with several other people. I don't know what pilots the things, though I think that my mother had the misfortune of coming upon something which may have come from one of those crafts one evening...but that's another story.

[cherokeeprogressive]

18. I'm not doubting that you saw something...

but here's my problem, and a question I have every time I read/hear about UFO's: Why would a civilization that is capable of sending a craft an UNIMAGINEABLE distance need to put lights on it?

[soothsayer]

22. Why do you think lights are peculiar to this planet?

[cherokeeprogressive]

24. Who said I thought that?

[defendandprotect]

32. Presumably so that they can see what's happening on our planet . . .

and see one another ---

Roswell may have been an incident with TWO spaceships hitting one another ---
an electric storm seems to have been involved in their crash....

PLUS there seem to be times when they want to be visible to people on the ground ---

And, if you understand anything about the interactions that have been reported ---
you seem to be "beamed up" -- whether human or cow --- !!!

If you seriously want to understand something about UFO's from scratch --
there's an excellent series called "Taken" by the Canadians a few years ago ---
you can rent it --

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

63. Once again, I will say, I have no idea of its origin. As to lights, perhaps if it was from

another "civilization", they need lights too for their own reason.

[Ghost in the Machine]

28. Was it triangle shaped?? Several of us saw something like that out in the Everglades once...

We were watching for a night launch of the Space Shuttle that was supposed to come over near the Keys. We were outside Florida City, off the main road going to the entrance of Everglades National Park that goes to Flamingo. Way out in the middle of nowhere at the packing house where I worked, and also had a travel trailer set up & living in it. It wasn't long after Hurricane Andrew - - late '92 to April '93.

Anyways, we were watching for the Shuttle and we saw this bright light approaching from a good distance off and we thought it was the Shuttle. It came right over the top of us and it looked almost triangle shaped with a bunch of lights on the bottom. We thought we had seen the Shuttle, even though I thought it was kind of low... and it was silent... dead silent. We never gave it a second thought though.. all of us talking about how cool it was to see the Shuttle and all... until we went into my place where the TV was on... and the news was saying that the Shuttle didn't launch... it had been scrubbed. We all started wondering what the hell we saw....

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

61. No, it wasn't triangular. It was rounded in the front. Elliptical? Did you ever do any research on

net if there are any other account of it?

I did with my sighting and someone mentioned on a blog. They saw it about 5 miles from my home. This was in the late 80s.

http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/052/S52400.html

Occurred : 9/15/1989 22:30 (Entered as : 09/15/89 22:30)
Reported: 9/8/2006 6:30:19 PM 18:30
Posted: 10/30/2006
Location: Peekskill, NY
Shape: Unknown
Duration:1 minute
Massive, low flying, slowly moving craft that emitted no sound.

While travelling a back road through a wooded residential area, I observed a very large object in the sky that appeared to be just above the tree tops. I slowed my car to a near stop. My impression was that it was massive; football field in size. I could almost sense its mass before seeing it.

It moved extemely slow, there was no sound. There were lights,but I can no longer remember if colored or white nor the configuration. The lights were not exremely bright. Its color was dark and shape unknown because of tree cover.

I could not clearly see its details, only a partial outline and impression of tremendous mass. I was perplexed and frightened.

I was following a friends car. When we reached our destination, her first words to me, unprovoked,were "Did you see that?" We were stunned.

I remain stunned to this day.

[varkam]

53. I'm not doubting that you saw something...

only that it was an alien spacecraft from a galaxy far, far away.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

60. Did I say it was? I haven't a clue what its origin was. All I know is that is nothing that

any of us had seen before. Unidentified Flying Object.

There was a famous incident in my area a few years before that. Same sort of UFO flew over a local parkway. Traffic stopped and people got out of their cars to watch.

[Duppers]

58. same here, OSO

there was NO doubt in my or my companion's head about what we saw. It was HUGE and just as you described.

Our sighting was on a Fri. evening when a whole football ball-field of sport fans saw it in addition. The local newspaper reported it as being a weather balloon. A weather balloon with lights??? That disappeared quickly?? uh, no.

We discounted that it could have been a balloon reflecting lights because the lights were geometric with sharp outlined shapes, unlike reflected light.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

64. lol! I love the blanket explanation..weather balloon. In case you haven't read

a couple of other replies of mine. There was another UFO thread at the beginning of the year on DU and I decided to surf the net to see if there was another account of my sighting. I know that it wasn't just isolated to myself and my neighbors as when I tried to call the police afterwards, the phone was constantly busy. It didn't take me too long before I found this. This sighting was a couple of hours after I saw it, and it took place about 5 miles from here.

http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/052/S52400.html

Occurred : 9/15/1989 22:30 (Entered as : 09/15/89 22:30)
Reported: 9/8/2006 6:30:19 PM 18:30
Posted: 10/30/2006
Location: Peekskill, NY
Shape: Unknown
Duration:1 minute
Massive, low flying, slowly moving craft that emitted no sound.

While travelling a back road through a wooded residential area, I observed a very large object in the sky that appeared to be just above the tree tops. I slowed my car to a near stop. My impression was that it was massive; football field in size. I could almost sense its mass before seeing it.

It moved extemely slow, there was no sound. There were lights,but I can no longer remember if colored or white nor the configuration. The lights were not exremely bright. Its color was dark and shape unknown because of tree cover.

I could not clearly see its details, only a partial outline and impression of tremendous mass. I was perplexed and frightened.

I was following a friends car. When we reached our destination, her first words to me, unprovoked,were "Did you see that?" We were stunned.

I remain stunned to this day.

[Orsino]

82. Yeah. Misinterpretation, wishful thinking, hysteria, and the occasional hallcucination...

...can probably account for all sightings. Perhaps these could all be labeled "products of the imagination," but as you say that's misleading.

[gateley]

2. They have long been identified as aliens by our govt.

What gives credence to that (in my mind) is the government cover-ups.

Personally, I'd take out the word "aliens" -- the government may not know who/what they are, but they're hiding something from us.

[Book Lover]

4. Why do you discredit the assertion

that the government is hiding advanced weapon and aircraft development?

[gateley]

10. I'm not sure I understand your question.

On the face of it - no, I wholeheartedly believe the government is hiding advanced weapon and aircraft development. Not sure "hiding" is the word I'd use, though. It's understandable that such development wouldn't be made public.

Am I missing your point?

[Book Lover]

20. Sorry to be unclear. Let me try again.

I understood your post to mean that you believe that reported UFOs are, in reality, spacecraft piloted by alien life forms because the government covers up the stories, corpses, spacecraft, etc. I assert that the coverups you and I both see are in fact advanced weapons and aircraft; designed, created and manufactured right here on Earth - no space aliens involved.

Did I understand you right?

[gateley]

26. No --

That's why I said I'd remove the word "alien". I chose that option because it indicated government knowledge.

All I believe is that the government is knowledgeable of SOMETHING they can't explain. I've read too many reports and seen too many military officials relay incidents to believe they're all our secret weapons/aircraft. For example, if something is happening at a military base and the officers at the base itself are at a loss to explain it, in my mind that eliminates the "it's one of ours" theory.

I agree that many of these sightings are indeed ours (or another country's), but not all. And the older I get the the more I realize the less we know, so who knows? Bottom line is it's not affecting our lives, so it's not a topic I devote a lot of energy to.

[kristopher]

7. I used to work for the "government" and took calls from people who had seen UFOs

I worked in the Command Center. If a civilian called in with a UFO report we took no action, it wasn't even considered worth a log entry. We certainly didn't have the sort of procedures in place that would be there if someone in government cared. If a military truck with radioactive watch dials got into an accident, we had a response procedure (really) but a UFO report? Nothing, nada, zip.

Take that for what it's worth.

[cherokeeprogressive]

23. "used to work for the government... in the Command Center" Where's that? n/t

[kristopher]

55. Albuquerque actually. In the basement right across the street from Sandia Labs.

Had people report ufos, cattle mutilations and an occasional pilotless airplane (lone pilot died of heart attack while on autopilot) but the only one that generated a report was the downward spiral of the dearly deceased aviator.

[CoffeeCat]

8. Agree....

What strikes me as odd is how there is always covering up, minimizing and all sorts of other
shenanigans whenever mass sightings happen.

I'm inclined to believe that UFOs are simply that--unidentified objects.

However, it's pretty obvious when there is an orchestrated effort to cover something up. Who knows. Maybe
the govt really doesn't know either, but they want to control how the information is rolled out. They don't
want to give credibility to theories that these objects are from outer space, even if they do believe so
themselves. They're trying to keep us in the dark.

It's a big ?, I guess.

We've had a lot more sighting lately though.

[napoleon_in_rags]

34. Good point. "Aliens" has a few different meanings.

I always wanted to write a sci-fi about Nazi scientists who discovered the saucer technology and used it to relocate in south america. In underground bases there, they continued the eugenics work to create "the perfect man" and ended up producing the "greys", (the humanoid aliens people report). It fits well with conspiracy lore as the "Nordics" are another class of aliens often met, having the characteristics of the aryan ideals...

[GreenPartyVoter]

37. Well, there is some evidence of Nazis and saucer technology, but rumor is they were brought to

American by our gov't to continue their work.

[napoleon_in_rags]

44. Ah yes, I just remembered that.

That was another novel thought, I remember. It was from the day I saw the wikipedia entry for 1955:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955
Janurary 25th, the Soviet Union declares the end of WWII. It was one of those out of place things that pop up and make you wonder if the world you had been taught, (where WWII ends in 1945,) is actually real. It made me think. What if we actually LOST WWII in some weird way? What if Von Braun and all them coming to America was part of a shadowy deal between high level American and German fascists, and the UFOs that appeared over the whitehouse in 1952 were the first announcement of their power?

I thought it was a compelling idea for a novel. The main thing I wanted to do is still play with the grey alien...As something of a prisoner of circumstance. I wanted to present them as very different humans, though humans all the same who do not come from some enlightened distant world, but from some hellish subterranean military base. Their silence is forced, and they have no answers. I wanted to question those assumptions in the reader of what an alien should be.

[GreenPartyVoter]

46. My idea of "greys" will forever be colored (pardon the pun ) by

[napoleon_in_rags]

49. Its a pretty mature folklore at this point.

That's why its fun to challenge it in different ways.... :)

[GreenPartyVoter]

50. True!

[defendandprotect]

35. Think they were long ago identified as at least 57 varieties . . .

and the inside joke was that it was the "Heinz 57" . . .

I had no idea so many -- I originally thought they identified 12 different types --

Evidently, most are humanoid ---

[Speck Tater]

3. None of the above.

Almost all of them are mis-identified aircraft or other atmospheric phenomenon.
Some very small percentage of them might be alien craft. Or maybe not.
In fact, probably not. But I will not rule out the possibility.

[Breeze54]

5. Unidentified Flying Aircraft.

Unidentified being the key word.

[pbca]

9. If Aliens had the technology

to visit the Earth, assuming they weren't dumb in all other areas of technology, there would be no way the US govt. could prevent them from making contact - just hack a satellite and you're in.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but I've yet to see any real evidence and it doesn't seem logical

[defendandprotect]

36. You're presuming a lot of things . . .

First, that they are "visiting" us and that they aren't part of our world.

Secondly, that they may also be living alongside of us --- simply in a different dimension.

Meanwhile . . .

Obviously, some do "visit" --- but there seems to be such a thing as time travel for them.

You're also presuming that they want to make contact with us ---
Not necessarily ---
Evidently there is such an intelligence gap that it doesn't really work ---
Some of them are a BILLION years ahead of us ---

And some have been on this planet for hundreds of thousands of years ---

I think you need to rethink some of this ---

[pbca]

43. Um..ok but

I don't buy any of that, not even a little, not even maybe

[defendandprotect]

51. See my comments below re Philip Corso . . .

presumably you would suggest that both Corso and Thurmond were hallucinating . . . ?

I doubt you'd be posting here if you weren't somewhat interested in the subject --- ?

[JackORoses]

11. here are the lights seen in Stephenville, Texas earlier this year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPY50FrWGhs

Definitely not one of ours.

[leeman67]

13. how do you really know that though?

[JackORoses]

16. people who saw the lights have confirmed this is what they saw

if you don't believe what they say, then I guess you can never really know.

[leeman67]

91. No that's not what I meant. I understand they saw these

lights. They are obviously "UFO"s in that they are flying and they are unidentified. What I was referring to was that they are obviously not "one of ours" and I was only asking how do we really know that. I'm sure there are all kinds of secret military stuff going on that we don't know about.

[gateley]

15. This is another example of why these sightings

are so hinky.

The observers witnessed fighter jets in pursuit of these, right? The government says "nope - didn't do that". Then later said "we were mistaken -- apparently there were fighters in the area that night".

Again, it's all the government tap dancing that makes me wonder what's up.

[JackORoses]

19. why would our boys be signaling to us in Stephenville,TX?

[gateley]

21. Another good example is the Phoenix Lights.

After leaving office, Governor Fife Symington went public that he'd witnessed the phenomenon. He was an officer and pilot in the Air Force. He said he'd never seen anything like it -- huge, etc., and he found the government's explanations weak.

[Vilis Veritas]

29. Cheap Tricks...?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT2-aFiKWhA&NR=1

This vid looks kind of similar and it is just vid'ing a star in night mode...I have done similar stuff with my camcorder, but I never saved it and tried to pass it off as a sighting...

That all being said...it will remain an UFO until such a time as it can be explained...

Peace

[JackORoses]

31. the key is 'kind of similar'. i.e. not the same.

this video is imitated but not duplicated.

[Vilis Veritas]

39. Watch it again. Let me preface that IMO...

it is striking in its similarities and it looks almost exact in color spectrum at several points. Without doing a fullblown analyses of the two videos...'kind of similar' works for me.

If I analyze this logically with the two vids side by side, I could not rationally come to the conclusion that one was different than the other merely based on duration and the gee whiz effects of the operator zooming out and pretending to lose the 'craft'.

I see two videos. Both have objects that appear to be the SAME. One is purported to be a UFO, the other is known to be a celestial object.

I did grant that until proven otherwise one is UFO, the other is a known object.

The wine is kicking in and I must turn in...this vid kept me up a little later than desired ;-)

Peace.

[Duppers]

56. some one said in the comments at youtube

"google project blue beam"

I think that'd explain this one.

[Mountainman]

17. None of the above. Please someone tell me where I can go to see real verified physical evidence of

travelers from other planets who have visited earth.


WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?

[GoneOffShore]

27. None of the "Believers" will be able to supply it.

You'll wait forever.

[defendandprotect]

38. I have a suggestion . . . find some people who have been abducted . . .

and hang around with them for a while . . .

[Mountainman]

66. I don't believe anyone was abducted.

Here again, if someone was abducted wouldn't they have gone to their doctor to be examined? I know I sure would. If so there would be reports in the news from the medical community. Has there been anything in the Journal of Medicine about patients who have been abducted?

Is there any reports by third parties or third party evidence that anyone was abducted? No!

[defendandprotect]

88. There's a lot of info available if you are interested . . . if not --- ???

Obviously, you don't have much info on what has been happening over decades.
Yes . . . people have gone to their doctors --- and have also used other kinds of therapy
to help them come to terms with their memories. Many have found that they have implants in
their bodies and many of them have had them removed. They have odd qualities as they exist
in the body -- one serving as a transmitter!

For a real beginner, there is the Canadian series -- "Taken" available for rental
And there is a series now on the Discovery Channel which is covering many old events and
theories -- witnesses, investigations, etal.

You might also be interested to know that Harvard Professor John Mack undertook a project such
as you're suggesting more than a dozen years ago --- and there were many efforts to stop John Mack's studies. John Mack was killed by a hit and run driver while visiting England a few years ago. You can read about John Mack and his investigations of these claims on the internet.

If you're truly interested in this subject, there are many books available and films.
There was a group of your men --- I believe four -- who were abducted together in Maine.
There was a young male abducted while his friends watched --
both of these abductions are the subject of film documentaries or movies.
And, I've heard of many more.

Keep in mind that the Journal of Medicine has told us that the Warren Commission Report on the JFK assassination was correct in its conclusions.

[Gman]

25. I saw a UFO when I was maybe 9 years old

This was maybe 1964 or 1965 or so. It was literally, a flying saucer shaped object, it resembled the Astrodome with the large, tall sides but domes on the top and bottom. There were square shaped lights rotating around the sides of the object. I didn't think much of it at the time because I thought it was some kind of publicity stunt. I thought it was interesting, but that was about it. Then a neighbor came running across the street because she had seen it too and was completely freaked out about it. She got my parents out in the yard to look but it was out of sight by then. There was a blurb in the local paper the next day about reports of something unusual in the sky, but that was it. I don't think it really got any closer to us than a couple of miles.

I talked to that neighbor about what we saw a few years ago. She said, "You remember that?" I said, "Of course." and we wondered again just what the hell it was. She died last year and was the only other person that I know of that saw what we saw.

Before all the BRAC'ing in the 80's and 90's there were several military bases in the area including 3 Air Force bases. But I've no reason to think it was something military or not.

[Harry Monroe]

30. Ya ever notice...

...that most people who claim to have been abducted by aliens also claim to have been anally probed?? I mean, why would an advanced civilization travel all those light years across the galaxy just to anally probe us?? Are they trying to look for our brains?? Doesn't make any sense, unless they anally probe George Bush. In which case it would make perfect sense.

[defendandprotect]

40. Ever notice that on this planet, there are yearly tests where people are "anally probed" . . . ???

Obviously, these are physicals ---

and, if you look at the information more closely, you'll also note it's a breeding program.

[Mountainman]

67. I think that is a test for prostate cancer. My doctor does it occasionally.

[defendandprotect]

85. Kind of an important part of the body -- !!!!

[StClone]

33. Best Evidence

http://bestevidence.blogspot.com/

[defendandprotect]

42. Thanks for the links . . I'm not always aware of what's happening...

but very interested --- !!!

[Phoonzang]

41. I've thought about this a long time...I'd say all of the above

I've been interested in UFOs for 21 years now and have devoured everything I can on the subject. I've come to the conclusion that something like 95-98 percent of UFO sightings are misidentification, exaggerations, secret aircraft, or hoaxes. With the vast, vast majority being misidentification and wishful thinking. I don't put much stock in alien abduction stories, with a few exceptions.

However, the are many well-documented cases that defy conventional explaination. I believe this 5-2 percent of cases to be evidence of some kind of visitation. A lot of people say their beings from parallel universes or other dimensions, but I don't see the need to go that far. I hate to paraphrase A.C. Clarke for the 9000th time but any sufficiently advanced technology will seem as magic to a lesser advanced civilization.

One may ask why they don't land on the White House lawn or make contact with the UN, etc. Why do they just flit around at a distance and never hover over a major city in broad daylight (well they have, but that's besides the point). I could give you a bunch of possible reasons, but that would be as pointless as asking why they don't act like we would expect them to. If some UFOs are in fact alien spaceships their motives would be....well...alien. The only thing we can know is that if they didn't want to be seen, they wouldn't be seen.

So to answer the OP's question...my gut feeling is that most UFO sightings are dismissable, but some are indeed alien "craft" here for some unknown purpose. I suspect the government knows much more than they're telling us, but not nearly as much as people think. Do they really look like little men with big heads? It seems illogical, but who knows. We don't have another planet to compare with Earth in an evolutionary sense.

[defendandprotect]

45. It seems like most people whether they believe there is LIFE other than

our own on this planet and other planets or not .... seem to have at least a passing knowledge of the information -- abductions, etal.

I have to agree that it would be rather shocking to see a one mile by ... what was it 2.5 mile
spaceship and have no idea that something like that could exist!!!

[lovuian]

47. Oh I believe they will reveal themselves more and more

and the US government are gonna have to open the X files

[defendandprotect]

48. Just want to add that some people are familiar with Lt. Col Philip Corso's . . .

book - "The Day After Roswell" --- and his TV appearances, telling us what he saw immediately after Roswell and the work he did later on in regard to the "assets" from the crash --

However, I don't think that everyone knows that the hardcover book featured a FOREWORD by
Sen. Strom Thurmond wherein he admitted that he knew about the crash and the aliens ...
and, of course, he considered them enemies and someone to be at war with.

His comments weren't in future copies of the book ---

[charakter]

52. I find it impossible that we are alone in this universe

Our telescope can only capture images of some of the planets in the universe. Even so, some have been said to contain water. Water makes life suitable. Isn't it common sense to believe that some people, or whatever you wanna call those creatures, live in other planets?

[Mountainman]

69. Not being alone in the universe does not mean we have been visited by beings from other planets.

I don't think we are the only life in the universe but I don't believe any life forms are traveling around the universe.

To me it is very much like any other thing humans don't understand. What we don't understand we attribute to something more powerful than we are.

[defendandprotect]

87. It also doesn't mean that we have NOT been visited . . .

"Not being alone in the universe" . . . also doesn't mean that we have not been visited by beings from another planet.

Also ... there is every possibility that these beings have been on this planet for hundreds of thousands of years. Additionally, we also have the possibility of different dimensions on this planet.

When humans begin to see spaceships --- either they are all hallucinating --- and about 1,500 a year are claiming to have been abducted over the past decades -- or there are actual spaceships in our skies.

Obviously, these spaceships are under intelligent control.

If you truly understand that people in huge numbers are seeing spaceships more than a mile wide and two and a half miles long, either you begin to believe eye-witnesses -- and the film which you can also view which the witnesses agree aptly portrays what they saw --- or you begin to
think that a large percentage of citizens need psychiatric care.

That would include, then, TV anchors in Mexico --
Many of our own commercial and military pilots ---
Many professionals ---
Governor Fyfe Symington --
and a number of our presidents -- Reagan and Jimmy Carter ---

So ... which way are you going with that thinking?

[TreasonousBastard]

54. I've seen some strange things in the sky, incuding...

some classic "UFO behavior." Every one of them, however, was easily explained by sky conditions and normal things that simply seemed abnormal at the time. Optical ilusions.

Eastern Long Island was long a hotbed of UFO sightings, but, curiously enough, sightings tended to track the use of Grumman's test airstrip. Amazing, that. Also amazing is that after Grumman left, no more sightings.

Somewhere up around Poughkeepsie, NY there once was a hotbed of UFO sightings on the Hudson River. Maybe still is. Anyway, about 20 years or so ago a NY Times reporter when up there to check it out. After talking to the nightly crew of saucer people he meandered over to a small airport in the area. "Oh, Yeah! We know they're there," said a wizened airport denizen who could easily have been a WWI ace. "Fred over there hangs some lights on his old biplane and gives them a thrill every so often."

So, yeah, I'd like to believe we're being visited (assuming no cookbooks are involved) and I can't make any judgments based on my tiny experiences, but I just can't get all het up about gummint conspiracies about aliens.

And PLEASE don't EVER put me alone in a room with an "abductee."

[ProfessorGAC]

70. Sort Of The Same Here

I saw one a couple summers ago. Not sure if optical illusions explained it, but it might have just been a meteor that broke up and because of the distance and angle looked like it changed speed and direction.

It was weird though. I had the top down, and saw this very bright light moving quite fast up and to the right. After watching it for about 3 or 4 seconds, it suddenly appeared to head closer to parallel to my direction. Could be a piece broke off and it changed angle from the fragementation, but don't know.

But from that distance, a bright light doesn't look like a meteor. It looks like a bright light moving very fast. If i didn't have a science background, i might have been thinking "little green men" first, too.
The Professor

[orleans]

57. where is the don't know category? n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

65. I've never seen one.

I think 99.9999% are just figments of peoples imagination. But I still allow that there maybe or may have been alien space craft that have come to earth.

[lumberjack_jeff]

68. Skills! A three-way oxymoron.

A "Serious" DU poll on UFO's. :applause:

[Bill McBlueState]

71. Here's something in need of an explanation

People who study the sky professionally -- astronomers and meteorologists -- never seem to claim that they've witnessed an alien spacecraft.

I find it interesting that the more one knows about the sky, the less likely one is to invoke aliens as an explanation for an unusual sky phenomenon.

[Mountainman]

73. Ever listen to Coast to Coast AM radio. When they get to talking about UFOs the expert is always

some trumped up scientist selling his latest abduction book. I have never heard a real legitimate scientist from a university or research organization talking about alien beings.

There there is no physical evidence, no medical records, no real scientific data about it at all.

[Occulus]

94. "Real" scientists aren't willing to risk their reputations talking about it.

They don't want to be accused of hackery or ridiculed if there's even the slightest hint in anything serious they have to say on the subject that the subject is in some way legitimate. Shame, that, because it is just barely possible enough that people who are, in the main, somewhat less than scientifically-minded or educated tend to overappreciate all the 'ifs' and 'maybes' of so-called "alien visitation".

I'm going with the most likely option: whatever we're seeing flying about and changing direction and silently floating in the skies was made right here on Earth- yes, including the football-field-size silent floating thing. Some of the exotic research I've come across in the past several years has been very "science-fictionish", but seems backed by math (math far beyond anything I learned, but then, I have no gift for numbers), and gets serious discussion from open-minded members of academia (but then, seemingly only on discussion boards, where their identity can be masked, to an extent). This is a very good thing, because curiosity and experimentation got us where we are today; we now know some very strange things are possible in the field of particle physics, and (thanks, DARPA!) we don't know where all our money is being spent.

For all we know, our own government has created a new form of propulsion not dependent upon the use of a propellant of any sort in order to gain lift and/or thrust. Here are some questions to ask yourself if you're wondering why they might go to great lengths to hide it, and test it, at the same time:

1) What might happen to the oil markets if, of a sudden, oil were no longer commercially viable in the short term as a source of fuel for various forms of locomotion? (cars, airplanes, ships, trains)

2) What are the possible military implications of such a technology?

3) What portion of the population is aware of and follows serious research and discussion of how one might produce such a technology? Be aware that you can also apply that question to very active fields such as molecular biology, materials engineering, and so forth.

[immoderate]

97. Your logic is backwards.

New forms of transport, that doesn't rely on oil, will create new markets. Think of all the new gizmos they can sell us. New (and free) energy and transportation will eliminate the need for military actions, as most aggression is about oil and the things that are transported by oil.

Do you think that scientists could be aware of these technologies and not alert people to the possibilities? That would take a conspiracy that really strains the imagination.

--IMM

[Echo In Light]

75. The same way "professionalism" encourages wholesale denial of criminal conspiracies

Frankly, I've never seen a UFO, and understand how easy it is to poke fun at some hillbilly who makes the claim ... however, I believe NASA, and various astronauts, pilots, etc, have definitely documented seeing and experiencing things that were/are inexplicable/unexplainable.

[Bill McBlueState]

78. sure, it could be denial

I admit, in response to the observation that astronomers and meteorologists rarely claim to have encountered aliens, you can offer two explanations:

1.) A better understanding of sky phenomena reduces the need to invoke extraterrestrial visitors

2.) Astronomers and meterologists are all in on a widespread conspiracy to deny the reality of extraterrestrial visits

Occam's Razor is an appealing tool to distinguish among these choices, but nobody can ever be *compelled* to accept that logic.

[Echo In Light]

90. There's a great deal of 'space' out there - it's ethnocentric to espouse that during our brief span

...of time, or our perception of time, that 'we' somehow can make such bold, self serving claims about potential life forms within an infinite number of galaxies, universes, etc...when realistically, our species hasn't yet learned very much about the human social systems we're all mired in on a regular basis: plenty of manipulation of abstracts without much in depth knowledge and insight.

I'm not sure which side of the equation reveals the greater fallacy:

1) The side which presumes that, given our limited time and windows of perception, that 'we' are it, and nothing else.

Or..

2) The side that perceives, as you put it, "astronomers and meteorologists are all in on a widespread conspiracy to deny the reality of extraterrestrial visits."

Incidentally, I don't camp out on either side, and instead keep an open mind.

Lastly, there are NASA employees, and various astronauts/pilots who've gone on record as seeing/experiencing things that couldn't be rationally explained. Buzz Aldrin included.

[Bill McBlueState]

93. I certainly don't assume "we are it"

Once you understand how big the universe is, it starts to seem very likely that

A) there is life elsewhere in the universe

and

B) that life hasn't managed to visit us

[Ghost in the Machine]

84. How about the word of astronauts Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin?

The following astonishing conversation was picked up by ham radio operators that had their own VHF receiving facilities that bypassed NASA's broadcasting outlets. At this time, the live television broadcast was interrupted for two minutes due to a supposed "overheated camera", but the transmission below was received loud and clear by hundreds of ham radio operators:

According to Otto Binder, who was a member of the NASA space team, when the two moon-walkers, Aldrin and Armstrong were making their rounds some distance from the LEM, Armstrong clutched Aldrin's arm excitedly and exclaimed:

Armstrong: What was it? What the hell was it? That's all I want to know!"

Mission Control: What's there?... malfunction (garble) ... Mission Control calling Apollo 11 ...

Apollo 11: These babies were huge, sir!... Enormous!... Oh, God! You wouldn't believe it! ... I'm telling you there are other space-craft out there ... lined up on the far side of the crater edge! ... They're on the Moon watching us!

Wilson writes (p. 48): "Binder ends his report with this observation: 'There has, understandably, been no confirmation of this incredible report by NASA or any authorities. WE cannot vouch for its authenticity, but if true, one can surmise that mission control went into a dither and then into a huddle, after which they sternly the moonwalkers to 'forget' what they saw and carry on casually and calmly as if nothing had happened. After all, an estimated 600 million people around the world were hanging on every word spoken by the first two men to leave footprints on the Moon."

The book "Celestial Raise" by Richard Watson and ASSK records the following (continuation?) of the above remarkable dialogue of Apollo 11, which was picked up by hundreds of ham radio operators in the USA:

"During the transmission of the Moon landing of Armstrong and Aldrin, who journeyed to the Moon in an American spaceship, two minutes of silence occurred in which the image and sound were interrupted. NASA insisted that this problem was the result of one of the television cameras which had overheated, thus interfering with the reception.

This unexpected problem surprised even the most qualified of viewers who were unable to explain how in such a costly project, one of the most essential elements could break down... Some time after the historic Moon landing, Christopher Craft, director of the base in Houston, made some surprising comments when he left NASA.

The contents of these comments, which is included in the conversations , has been corroborated by hundreds of amateur radio operators who had connected their stations to the same frequency through which the astronauts transmitted. During the two minute interruption - which was not as it seemed, NASA, Armstrong and Aldrin with Cape Kennedy, censored both image and sound. 'I say that there were other spaceships.'

Here is reproduced completely the dialogue between the American astronauts and Control Center:

Armstrong & Aldrin: Those are giant things. No, no, no - this is not an optical illusion. No one is going to believe this!

Houston (Christopher Craft): What ... what ... what? What the hell is happening? What's wrong with you?

Armstrong & Aldrin: They're here under the surface.

Houston: What's there? (muffled noise) Emission interrupted; interference control calling 'Apollo 11'.

Armstrong & Aldrin: We saw some visitors. They were here for a while, observing the instruments.

Houston: Repeat your last information!

Armstrong & Aldrin: I say that there were other spaceships. They're lined up in the other side of the crater!

Houston: Repeat, repeat!

Armstrong & Aldrin: Let us sound this orbita ... in 625 to 5 ... Automatic relay connected ... My hands are shaking so badly I can't do anything. Film it? God, if these damned cameras have picked up anything - what then?

Houston: Have you picked up anything?

Armstrong & Aldrin: I didn't have any film at hand. Three shots of the saucers or whatever they were that were ruining the film

Houston: Control, control here. Are you on your way? What is the uproar with the UFOs over?

Armstrong & Aldrin: They've landed here. There they are and they're watching us.

Houston: The mirrors, the mirrors - have you set them up?

Armstrong & Aldrin: Yes, they're in the right place. But whoever made those spaceships surely can come tomorrow and remove them. Over and out.

http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicphotos.html scroll about halfway down the page to: Apollo 11:
"I say that there were other spaceships!"

[Zynx]

72. Never seen one or anything like one. Maybe they don't come to SE Wisconsin.

[fascisthunter]

74. They are "Unidentified Flying Objects"

all of which have unknown origins or identities. But belief itself usually fills in that "blank" with some of the craziest most fantastic theories.

[spin]

76. They are aliens filming us for their Discovery Channel...

We are at the big turning point in civilization.

We will either overcome our violent impulses or we will destroy ourselves.

If we can all learn to get along, we will be able to gain the technology to explore our solar system and journey to the stars. It's a test a civilization has to pass if it wants to achieve space travel. If we pass, the aliens will welcome us with open arms. If we fail, they'll just shrug their shoulders and say "Oh, well...another one bites the dust."

But somewhere, aliens gather around their super 3D High Def TV's to watch our struggle.

I wonder who they support, Hillary or Obama.

[krispos42]

77. I doubt very much we're being visited by space aliens

For the simple reason that, barring some sort of interstellar space travel that not even the weird world of theoretical physics can come up with, we would see them coming!

We would see the alien starship expending HUGE quantities of energy for MONTHS at a time as it slowed from .999c down to solar system velocities. And it's exhaust would be pointed right at us! We would see it as some form of star, initially, then notice the red-shift in it's spectrum as it slowed down.

It's one thing if it was already here. It's easy to be stealthy. Radar-absorbant material, electromagnetic shielding, venting exhaust products, heat, and radiation away from Earth, etc.

But getting here? Big giant nuclear-fusion or anti-matter flare in the sky for months on end. All kinds of hard radiation hitting us and our astronomical observatories.

Of course, if you allow stuff like warp drive, hyperdrive, superluminal drive, etc., then all that goes out the window. But that stuff is sci-fi fantasy.




I'll admit that perhaps a really cleaver alien race came here using sub-light travel, but maybe they only deccelerated when the Sun was between us and them. I suppose a clever astrogator could figure something out, but it would be a hell of a loop to fly, trying to match their decceleration with our rotation around the Sun!

[Chiloe]

79. Not sure

Ah...I don't know. I don't think there are such things as UFOs but there is certainly a possibility there is life out there in another solar system.

Who knows? Perhaps God (if you believe in him) created life to be only on Earth.

[progressoid]

80. Holy shit

:tinfoilhat: :scared:

[kenny blankenship]

81. They visit earthlings, from time to time, who're in need of some probing

"-gut feeling." heh.

[peabody71]

83. Interesting story...

In Prescott, AZ where I live I've seen two UFOs in two out of three nights.
This was back in summer 2007.
What was strange beyond the sightings was a guy downtown wandering around saying he built toy ufos and handing out business cards.
Well what we saw was not a toy at all. It huvered about 1000ft up for almost an hour before taking off toward Phoenix some 60 miles away. Tell me do you know of any remote capabilities that have that kind of distance other than government survalence spy mini planes?
Plus battery life on any "toy" is pathetically short.

So a guy wanders around saying they are his "toy" UFOs and then they start being seen flying great distances for long periods of time.
BS. I've found the same UFOs on youtube. Red laser like color, round, seemmed like maybe 6ft across. If you blur a video shot of them you can see a parallel line just below the middle of the craft. Positive identified as the same type of craft. The thing freaked me and my friends out a bit when it passed directly over us for a moment. I beleive it is government survailence and a type of mind control that follows when facts are distorted.
We have all learned this type of control with 911 etc.. Or should I say they have?
There is something going on here?...

Oh yeah, know take this with a grain of salt, my wife posted the sightings on Myspace and immediately met a guy from Denver in response. Who was "seeking UFO answers".
She became completely obsessed. She packed up my four kids and moved to Denver in a sort of psychotropic fog.
She spends hours chatting with this guy who rarely comes to visit.
I lost everything and am now fighting for simple visitation of my kids. A chain of events that still has my head spinning.

Did I mention that I was the founder of the group PollWatch.org
Retribution? or crazy wacked out syncronicity. Call me nuts I do not care.
Shit ain't right.

[Wizard777]

86. I've seen ghosts and I've seen a Bigfoot. But I've never seen a UFO.

I did have two incidences in which I thought I might be seeing a UFO. But both revealed themselves to be of earthly origins. The first was and Airplane that had a scrolling message board on it's belly. From a distance the scrolling letters made it look like a saucer shaped craft that was spinning. The second was fireball lighting. That looks like every UFO attack you have ever seen in a movie.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

89. They're usually Elvis on his way to gig in Vegas.

If there is some advanced civilization out there in the great unknown why would they bother about an insignificant planet, circling a pedestrian star, on the outskirts of an ordinary galaxy, in a universe (probably one of trillions) consisting of trillions of other galaxies.

We're only important because we like to tell ourselves we are.

[Blue_In_AK]

92. I don't know what they are

but I've had my own experience with one. There's something going on, but who knows what it is. I wouldn't put it past the government at all to be hiding something.

[Occulus]

95. I'm almost certain they're hiding something new.

The behavior of the craft in question strongly suggests some form of high-powered field propulsion. I posted on this above; it's pretty easy to see why they would want it hidden during R&D and then disguised during testing.

I like the built-on-Earth category because it's the most rational (given our military's history with secret test craft) and thus the most likely.

[Akoto]

96. I'd say the government has long known it's aliens ...

What would be the point of telling us, though? If these beings are as we perceive them, then we have no technology to stop them from doing what they want to do. Certainly no way of keeping them out of our airspace, apparently. Nothing on Earth can do anything to such visitors, so why throw people into a panic?