In 1947, businessman Kenneth Arnold observed a group of
crescent shaped object flying over Mount
Rainier, Washington
state. He described their movement as being
akin to a saucer skipped across water.
The press coined the term “flying saucer”
for many, this was the “birth of UFOs.”
However, on the 24th January, 1878, farmer John
Martin, living a few miles north of Dennison, Texas, described the object he saw
approaching his position and moving overhead as “the size of a large
saucer.” The brightness from the object
slightly blinded Martin – in the same way as looking at a powerful light or the
sun does. All it would have taken was
for some newspaperman to write Martin had seen a “flying saucer”!
There are those who claim that UFOs –a term coined by the
United States Air Force to define a sighting of an “unidentified object”- were
around long before that. The likes of
Erich von Daniken have made a great deal of money out of books, articles and TV
shows about “Ancient Astronauts.”
The good thing is that if you are so minded you can call
anything “proof of ancient visitations by extra-terrestrials” –you don’t really
need proof. Stone Henge built by aliens?
Of course it was –why look at all the archaeological discoveries of the last 15
years? Pyramids built by aliens –because
humans just could not lift the stones used –of course. It just needs our
ignoring the many, many years of archaeological discovery work. Around 3100 B.C., the Pharaoh Narmer crashed
his chariot into a landed flying saucer.
Prove he did not.
Who is going to argue with you? Historians and
archaeologists? Well, we all ‘know’ they are part of the cover-up, don’t we?
Ancient and Medieval and other accounts of “flaming
chariots”, “shields of bright flame” and so on are probably down to meteorites
since we know these were common names.
“Writhing serpents in the sky” were undoubtedly aurora. Accounts of aliens emerging from crashed UFOs
and actual UFO sightings in the 18th and 19th century
suddenly vanish when you go to the actual source quoted.
It was during World War II that Allied and Axis pilots
observed “Foo-fighters” (“foo” from the French for fire –“le Feu”),
“Kraut-balls” and, amongst other names the Luftwaffe gave them was “Feuerbälle“
(fire balls). All sorts of theories have
been given over the years from static electricity to actual alien craft. Although those in charge at British Technical
Intelligence dismissed these incidents, intelligence officers in the field
still recorded and reported sightings.
The Germans did like-wise. Each
side suspected a secret weapon from was involved.
Then there were the so called “Scandinavian Ghost Rockets“
of 1946-1948. In fact, reports came from
Europe, North Africa and even the Soviet Union. Royal Air Force Intelligence was greatly
interested in reports of cylindrical objects because of the V1 and V2 rockets
of WW II –the possibility of the Soviets having captive German scientists building
rockets for them was scary. Even Field
Marshal Smuts warned about the “rockets.”
There are interesting reports from the period but many were
not thoroughly investigated though official reports were, incredibly, destroyed
after a few years because these reports might be scientifically interesting but
had no real defence significance. This practice continued for many years with
some reports only surviving because they were hidden in other files by
personnel who thought they ought not be burnt.
In the early 1950s there was a rise in alleged Contactees.
These were women and men who claimed to have come across a flying saucer
that had landed, or one of its occupants.
There were trips into space on board flying saucers and one of the
biggest hoaxsters, who achieved international notoriety, George Adamski even
claimed to have photographs taken of him and aliens looking out through
portholes.
Venusians, Martians, Neptunians and others of the
“interplanetary brotherhood” were here to observe and guide Earth. Messages extolling peace abounded. The fact that these planets could not support
humanoid life often received the response that our space brothers lived in
cities under the ground or at a “different time-phase” to us. Dumb explanations
that proved profitable on the tour circuit or amongst New Age publishers.
While all this was going on groups of interested people set
up groups to look into and discuss the phenomena. In the UK the Flying Saucer Club was the
first such group which later merge with the British Flying Saucer Bureau in
1952. Manchester Flying Saucer Research
set up by, amongst others, David Cowdy followed.
And while the bogus contactees drew everyones attention and
made it far too easy for scientists to scoff much more was going on. Dr. J. Allen Hynek was the United States Air
Force scientific consultant and noted astronomer. While he played off every UFO as marsh gas,
ball lightning and misidentification, he was well aware that there were sightings
that could not be explained –in 1978 he gave several TV and press interviews
declaring that he could do little else: even if he could not explain away a
sighting, if it was labelled “unidentified” his USAF bosses expected him to do
so.
Hynek later went on to set up the Centre for UFO Studies in Illinois.
But are UFOs real?
Well, they are real in the sense that observers cannot explain what they
see. However, there are a number of
reports of objects of unknown type being sighted by unconnected multiple
witnesses and where there has been damage caused to trees, houses, people and
the ground. When combined with radar
returns from local airfields those UFOs are
real but just what they are we have no idea.
Civilian pilots see these objects but usually only report
them if they think that there is a danger to air traffic but there is no
regulation demanding they report UFOs.
In the case of military pilots there are a few regulations and if you
are flying the latest fighter and something runs rings round your aircraft and
shoots off at incredible speed well, yes, you need to report that.
Reports of abductions by aliens began to rise during the
1950s, though few realised they had been abducted until much later when they
realised that their sighting of a flying saucer landing and occupants getting out,
walking about and then returning before the craft took off did not last just
“two or three minutes”. On getting home
these people found that an hour or two had simply gone missing from their
memory.
What suddenly made investigators and others take these
accounts of what, in 1977, I termed Time Lapse cases, was the hypnotic
regression of Betty and Barney Hill who
encountered a UFO close-up in New
Hampshire in 1961.
The Hills were confronted with all sorts of problems both physically and
mental stress-wise. Under hyptnosis the
Hills revealed that they had been involuntarily taken aboard the craft they had
seen. There followed a medical type exam
–a common theme in these cases- aqnd a certain degree of communication with the
crew. From her memory, Betty Hill later
drew a “star map” she had seen on the craft –the actual star system in question
was not discovered until many years later.
All sorts of theories abound as to what UFOs are. Time-travellers, inter-dimensional
intelligences and, naturally, extraterrestrials. These theories are good if you are dealing
with alleged craft that obviously have to be constructed, however, no matter
how big the strange light seen it is still just that –a big light that cannot
be labelled a “craft”.
In the “old days” we used to test new investigators by
showing them photographs of alleged UFOs.
The good ones were those who could spot the fakes straight away:
“cut-out stuck on a window frame,” “a model” or even a light from inside the
room pointed at the window and then photographed. Today we have computers and photo-shop and
the number of fakes (some quite glaringly obvious) photographs and video
footage on You Tube is a nuisance if you seriously investigate these things. It also acts as a deterrent –investigators
not wanting to be caught up in hoaxes ignore these things and so genuine
footage of a UFO gets ignored.
But there are many out there who still persist in the
investigation to get to the truth. For many months those “in the know” stated
that 2011 was the UFO Disclosure year.
The year when the U.S.
government finally revealed all it knows about UFOS: it was the year to make
history. Now, in 2012, the time for this
disclosure has been given a little more time.
I seriously doubt that there will be any major governmental
disclosure on UFOs in 2012 and, even if there was, there would be many still
calling it part of a cover-up.
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