UFO Sightings

[Kerry]

Just for fun and discussion - do you believe in UFOs? I am sitting here watching UFO Files on the History channel and they have been playing tape after tape of commercial airline and military pilots talking with ATC about UFO sightings. And these aren't old reports. Many have just been obtained through freedom of information act and are recent.

I personally belive in UFOs. I don't think they are from space but someone has some kind of technology that aren't telling us about. I don't belive Joe Sixpack was probed while returning from a fishing trip but I do believe an American West pilot and an F-114 pilot when they see a 400 ft object pass by their aircraft.

What do you guys think?

[rxis]

I don't know, Kerry. I just don't know. hehe

When i was a kid I heard stories from an old air force guy about mysterious occurences that may be UFO related. He gave me a copy of a book he wrote that had a section about it but i'm not sure if it ever got published.

If it was a UFO I don't think it is from this galaxy. Don't ask why. its physics..hah

[BDP]

I think most of the otherworld stuff is BS, but, like you, I am sure that there is technology that is kept from us that is observed by some on the ground and in the air. We definitely know that when a new technology is introduced that it didn't come out of nowhere and had been tested in secret for years. You almost have to assume that the technology we know is available to us now is at least 20 years old, at least in theory, and we have no idea what they tried along the way that could have been seen.

However, given the amount of coverage in our available surveillance, both public and private, it would be extremely hard to completely cover up confirmed visitations. I guess it's possible, but if we knew for a fact that we were being visited by extra terrestrial technology, I can't see that being kept secret for so long. I'd say the best we know is that we don't know. If something is showing up we don't know what it is or how it works. I do, however, think the UFO as alien myth is embraced by covert government actions and actually helps them conceal tests in plain site.

There is always the possibility that what's happening and what's being reported sometimes is simply beyond our understanding of physics. In addition, our tendency to place romantic fantasies on the unknown may only serve to hinders our ability to grasp and understand what may actually be happening. These things could be manifestations from parallel universes that appear when membranes in the 11th dimension collide. I'm not saying that's what I believe, but it has as much credence as the idea that little green men are taking joy rides in our general cosmic location.

In any event, I do find the whole phenomena interesting, even if just for the psychology and cultural perception that surrounds it and allows it to persist.

[bombermwc]

Well i think that its obsurd to think that in all the planets in all the solary systems in all the galaxies, that there isn't another life out there. That only our little planet has life....please.

That being said, i don't know what to say about "visitors". I think a lot of what people see is explainable with atmospheric phenomena and experimental or secret craft. How many people thought the F117 was a UFO until it was unclassified....or the B2? We just can't know the details on everything, but I'm also not prepared to relent to the government explanations on some things. I would love to sit down and have a conversation with E.T. some day...talk about the galaxy and whatnot....but somehow i doubt he's interested in anal probing me or whatever. I don't think they would come 90 million light years to stick a metal probe up my bum....personally i dont think my rear is worth the trip..LOL!

[BailJumper]

I'm not saying there can't be/isn't life on other planets. I would think at least some very simple lifeforms must exist somewhere as evidence of water has been found elsewhere. BUT, I absolutely do not believe our planet is or has been visited by some advanced race in space ships.

As for 'UFO's', by definition, anything we cannot conclusively identify is a UFO.

[bombermwc]

Agreed. Lots of things can be a UFO....doesn't mean it's a little green man.

[BDP]

Well i think that its obsurd to think that in all the planets in all the solary systems in all the galaxies, that there isn't another life out there. That only our little planet has life....please.

Who said that? There's a huge difference between the idea of life on other planets and the idea of there being life forms that have developed technology to transport themselves across the universe and are using that technology to visit Earth. Skepticism towards the idea that extra terrestrial technology is visiting Earth and is being reported as UFOs is in no way skepticism towards the idea that life exists elsewhere. Those are independent ideas. It’s absurd to suggest otherwise.

However, neither has been substantiated in any way at this point and is simply speculation. Just because we have a hard time grasping the idea that molecules may not have evolved into life as we consider it anywhere else but here, does not mean that it has happened. Personally, I can’t imagine that life doesn’t exist elsewhere, but my inability to intellectually process nothingness doesn’t make it any more or less real.

[traxx]

I hate to be the thread police, but shouldn't this topic be under another forum?

[Kerry]

Maybe - but with everyone snowed/iced in and very little news activity - what the heck.

[Curt]

I totally beleive in them

[Kerry]

I totally beleive in them

Do you mean for outer space or military origin?

[Curt]

Do you mean for outer space or military origin?

Both

[michelle138]

i know someone that is a high ranked person in the military and long story short, he knows stuff but is not allowed to discuss. they are real. the governtment cant tell the general public this though.

[TheImmortal]

Yeah, one of my family members dated someone who used to work at Area 51, said the same things basically. Claimed that if he told her the truth about everything her mind would be warped, he claimed the public could not "handle the truth" But who knows.

[dismayed]

You know, I have an open mind and do find some of the stories very interesting, but I tend to think most if not all of the UFO sightings are explainable. If you look at what people were reporting in the 1950's, everything was about saucers. Low and behold a few years ago we find out that the US government was experimenting with secret saucer-shaped aircraft at that time, like the "Flying Pancake" aircraft. Then during the 80's and 90's we have another UFO wave, this time everyone says they are seeing gigantic black triangles quietly moving around the desert southwest. Then later we find out that's a pretty great description of a stealth bomber. People stake-out military bases where secret aircraft are tested and, surprise, see mysterious lights zooming around over them. To me this all seems pretty clear-cut.

Also, on several TV shows the government has in not so many words admitted that they used to deliberately fuel UFO paranoia for Cold War propaganda reasons, and to provide a cover story for their aircraft experiments. So I think most of this is explainable.

But you know, anything is possible I suppose. If there is life out there somewhere, who's to say they haven't invented a "warp drive" or something like that by now.

[BailJumper]

I love the "I know someone who knows someone" mentality. It allows you to think you have credability while still allowing you to be so vague as to be pointless.

I find it amazing that as we develop into a global society where virtually everyone has a video recording device (phone, camcorder, security cam, etc) the actual sightings of things like UFO's, BigFoot, etc. actually decline.

I don't know your experience, but I can't get anyone to keep a secret - let alone do I believe that if we actually had evidence of aliens visitors (well besides the ones packed into min van on I-40) that someone would not have revealed it.

[kmf563]

You know, I have an open mind and do find some of the stories very interesting, but I tend to think most if not all of the UFO sightings are explainable. If you look at what people were reporting in the 1950's, everything was about saucers. Low and behold a few years ago we find out that the US government was experimenting with secret saucer-shaped aircraft at that time, like the "Flying Pancake" aircraft. Then during the 80's and 90's we have another UFO wave, this time everyone says they are seeing gigantic black triangles quietly moving around the desert southwest. Then later we find out that's a pretty great description of a stealth bomber. People stake-out military bases where secret aircraft are tested and, surprise, see mysterious lights zooming around over them. To me this all seems pretty clear-cut.

Also, on several TV shows the government has in not so many words admitted that they used to deliberately fuel UFO paranoia for Cold War propaganda reasons, and to provide a cover story for their aircraft experiments. So I think most of this is explainable.

But you know, anything is possible I suppose. If there is life out there somewhere, who's to say they haven't invented a "warp drive" or something like that by now.

Have you ever thought about that from a different approach? Isn't it a little too coincidental that these things are seen in the skies for years and then the government comes out with the new aircraft? Wouldn't you think that if the government was testing these things for years they would be able to cover it up a little better without Joe Farmer seeing it? What if their ideas weren't so original and they were based off the knowledge they gained from actual 'UFO' aircraft? I'm just thinking outside the box here, I'm not saying I believe or don't believe. Just exploring all thoughts and possibilities.

[dismayed]

Have you ever thought about that from a different approach? Isn't it a little too coincidental that these things are seen in the skies for years and then the government comes out with the new aircraft? Wouldn't you think that if the government was testing these things for years they would be able to cover it up a little better without Joe Farmer seeing it? What if their ideas weren't so original and they were based off the knowledge they gained from actual 'UFO' aircraft? I'm just thinking outside the box here, I'm not saying I believe or don't believe. Just exploring all thoughts and possibilities.

You can only do so much to cover up an airplane in the sky. Moving out to the middle of the desert is pretty reasonable. Most of the planes we know about today started their development cycle in the 1970's or earlier, so the fact that they were secret for so long doesn't really strike me as odd.

As far as capturing alien technology... if someone from out there can actually make it here, it's going to be based on a completely different propulsion system than anything we have ever seen before, and would likely run off of a fuel source we don't have access to here either because it isn't available in our neighborhood or because we don't have the technology to create/harvest/etc. it yet. It isn't reasonable to me that such technology would make it into an airplane. I mean even if we're just talking about humans here, space technology is very different than aerospace technology. So I guess I just don't see it.