Five Good Reasons To Believe in UFOs

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Image by Kirill Sinani

As most credible UFOlogists readily admit, proving that extraterrestrial spacecraft have visited our planet is a maddeningly difficult chore.

“The hassle over the word 'proof' boils down to one question: What constitutes proof?” Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed the U.S Air Force’s secret investigation of UFOs in the early 1950s, once wrote. “Does a UFO have to land at the River Entrance to the Pentagon, near the Joint Chiefs of Staff offices? Or is it proof when a ground radar station detects a UFO, sends a jet to intercept it, the jet pilot sees it, and locks on with his radar, only to have the UFO streak away at a phenomenal speed? Is it proof when a jet pilot fires at a UFO and sticks to his story even under the threat of court-martial? Does this constitute proof?”

More recently, Investigative journalist Leslie Keen, author of the 2011 book “UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record,” has noted that in roughly 90 to 95 percent of UFO sightings, observers turn out actually to have seen weather balloons, ball lightning, flares, aircraft, and other mundane phenomena. But another five to 10 percent of sightings are not so easily explainable, but that’s not the same as demonstrating that they are extraterrestrial in origin. Nevertheless, she argues, the hypothesis that UFOs are visitors from other worlds “is a rational one, and must be taken into account, given the data that we have.”

Here is some of the most compelling reasons that UFOs may be more than simple misidentifications of natural phenomena or terrestrial aircraft:

• The long, documented history of sightings. UFOs were around, in fact, long before humans themselves took to the air. The first account of a UFO sighting in America was back in 1639, when Massachusetts colony governor John Winthrop noted in his journal that one James Everell, “a sober, discreet man,” and two other witnesses watched a luminous object fly up and down the Muddy River near Charlestown for two to three hours. There are documented sightings of what were then called “airships” during the 1800s as well, such as the July 1884 sighting of a Saturn-shaped UFO (a ball surrounded by a ring) in Norwood, NY, and a fast-moving object that briefly hovered over the startled townspeople of Everest, KS in 1897.

• Numerous modern sightings by credible, well-trained professional observers. In Ruppelt’s 1955 book , “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects,” he documented numerous instances of military service members, military and civilian pilots, scientists and other credible professionals who had observed UFOs. In one instance, Ruppelt describes the experience of a pilot of an Air Force F-86 fighter jet, who was scrambled to track a UFO and got to within 1,000 yards of a saucer-shaped object that abruptly flew away from him in a burst of speed after he fired upon it. He also mentions a 1948 UFO encounter in which two airline pilots got to within 700 feet of a UFO and saw two rows of windows with bright lights.

• Consistencies in the descriptions of purported alien ships. Over the decades, witnesses who’ve seen UFOs have shown remarkable consistency in the shapes and other characteristics of the objects they’ve described. In 1949, the authors of the report for Project Sign, one of the early military investigations of UFOs, identified four main groups of objects—flying disks or saucers, cigar or torpedo-shaped craft without wings or fins, spherical or balloon-shaped objects that were capable of hovering or flying at high speed, and balls of light with no apparent physical form that were similarly maneuverable. Nearly a quarter-century later, a French government investigation headed by Claude Poher of the National Center for Space Research found similar patterns in more than 1,000 reports from France and various countries. One caveat is that in recent years, reports of wedge-shaped UFOs—which bear a similarity to the latest terrestrial military aircraft—have begun to supplant some of the traditional shapes.

• Possible physical evidence of encounters with alien spacecraft. The 1968 University of Colorado report, compiled by a team headed by James Condon, documented numerous instances of areas where soil, grass, and other vegetation had been claimed by witnesses to have been flattened, burned, broken off, or blown away by a UFO. A report by Stanford University astrophysicist Peter Sturrock, who led a scientific study of physical evidence of UFOs in the late 1990s, describes samples of plants taken from a purported UFO landing site in France in 1981. French researchers found that the leaves had undergone unusual chemical changes of the sort that could have been caused by powerful microwave radiation—which was even more difficult to explain, considering that they found no trace of radioactivity at the site.

• Physiological effects on UFO witnesses. The Sturrock report describes in detail various symptoms reported by individuals who had encountered UFOS, ranging from burns and temporary deafness to persistent nausea and memory loss. Among the most vivid examples: Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and Landrum’s young grandson Colby, who reportedly happened upon a “large, diamond-shaped object” hovering over a Texas road in December 1980. All three became ill afterward; Cash, for example, developed large water blisters on her face and swelling that closed her eyes, in addition to severe nausea and diarrhea. The effects persisted for years, and she was hospitalized more than two dozen times.

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Tom Grovenstein

The issue that continues to keep me in the "not a believer" category is the fact that there would, by definition, be enough evidence found by non military individuals for at least some real and verifiable alien craft. While the simple fact that most sightings would be by those who spend the most time in the air -ie: those who would be most likely to agree to make the story 'fit' are those who most likely would be in the right place at the right time. I would assume that - if an alien race did 'appear' - then it would be peaceful, for the fact that any race with advanced capabilities would not have been capable to reach that level if they were hostile, since they would have destroyed themselves long before they would have made it to 'us'.

I believe that the possibility of long duration and long distance (multiple light year travel) has become more believable since the discovery of string theory, IF string theory is shown to be viable. Otherwise, I believe that this type of travel is simply not possible in a way that would allow those from a distant star to come here. Yes, there is much we don't know, but physics and laws of nature are not confined to earth, they are ever present and the laws don't 'cheat'.

Perhaps I will be shown to be wrong. If so, then I will look up with renewed interest and wonder at the changes "they" will bring. Will God be rendered "unnecessary"? For now, I will await real and verifiable truth.

Tom Grovenstein

Philippe Barbaux

: SI demain vous découvrez une vérité incroyable par vous même et dans le même temps qu'un de vos amis en a eu l'information ... _ au point d'en arriver à échanger _ il est peu probable que votre 'ami ' vous remonte 'l'information ' .. mais vous sauriez pour l'avoir vécu _ cette 'vérité ' .. vous seriez probablement en dehors des modes de communications conventionnelles pour aller de l'avant ! .. <

K. Lam

5 reasons NOT to believe in UFOs ( Of Alien origin)

1)" UFOs were around, in fact, long before humans themselves took to the air."..... well Patrick what does this say about what people saw in the sky back then......that they must be alien flown space ships?.......or could it just be that the witnesses saw natural phenomena which often catches out modern day sky watchers let alone witnesses from 500 years ago!

2) "sightings by credible, well-trained professional observers."........ sure but even military pilots aren't familiar with all the natural phenomena in the skies.......and they probably won't be aware of any secret military projects.

3)" Consistencies in the descriptions of purported alien ships"....... well lots of people reported seeing "saucer" shaped craft after Kenneth Arnold reported seeing objects that moved liked "saucers skipping on water" even though he described the objects as crescent shapes not "discs or saucers", but the term "flying saucer" was adopted by the media........this tells us more about how media can shape human perceptions and indeed fears.

As for "cigar" shaped UFOs........well air ships & blimps are "cigar shaped" and blimps are even today being misidentified as being "alien" spaceships. Missiles and rockets are also "cigar shaped" so its probable that many "cigar" shaped sightings are merely test rockets or missiles

4) "Possible physical evidence of encounters with alien spacecraft".........this evidence is scant and not well documented, but even if it were genuine.......why would it have to involve "aliens".......... any secret military projects may just as readily produce this type of "evidence".

5) " Physiological effects on UFO witnesses" ......in the Landrum case that you refer to it was determined that exposure to radiation was most likely the cause of the sickness........but again why come to the conclusion that it was due to "aliens" rather than secret military projects?

So Patrick, to conclude, I don't think any of your 5 points are all that "compelling" as all can be explained by simple terrestrial based explanations albeit some might be "secret" to the public........or indeed just plain old natural phenomena which to this day is still being discovered and learnt about. UFOs of the "alien kind need not be involved in any of your 5 points I am afraid.

James Letang

So why do the Aliens always breathe oxygen in these reports? Not once have I heard a report of them having breathing devices or for that matter, the "victims" having something to breathe through?

Wow, what a huge coincidence. But, I guess they're that advanced.

There's also a side that says for hundreds of years people have encountered sleep paralysis and night terrors in dreams. In the past they were of the devil or some demonic being, documented in many sources. The new take on this is people believing it's Aliens instead of Satan's creatures, the new phobia of our culture.

I've experienced sleep paralysis first hand, and found it to be very disturbing and frightening, at the time. I've even woken shortly afterwards and questioned if something was still in the room. But I've always woken up the next day, unscathed with no implants, that I could find.

As for reports of witness accounts being the same, they've all read the same books, watched the same youtube videos, how hard is it to fake hypnosis? Hell, isn't the credibility of that still in question.

Bottom line; I do believe that Alien's have been here and that there are a handful of credible accounts, witnesses, and evidence.

What pisses me off are the 95% of people who just write crap about this to make money, or make crappy tv shows about it.

it's harmful and a disservice to the truth. Anything that has commercials should not be trusted. If some filmmaker finds funding and actually puts out a documentary with private funding, that might be credible.

Nat Geo, has sold out.

I'm sure I'll be sensored and locked out after this post, if it even gets posted.