There are things that happen which are not yet explained by science. I've not seen a UFO, but have seen the "Marfa Lights", in distant west Texas. They come out at night and drift across the desert, winking on and off. Reported for over 100 years, and possibly known to the native Americans before then. I wanted to get out of the car and hike to get a closer view, but my companion was afraid to go, and more afraid for me to leave her alone in the car.
Have you ever had an encounter with a UFO?
by free2beme 69 Replies latest jw friends
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uk humanist
I have had an encounter with a UFO as a child. It was a bright light apparently absolutely motionless in the sky, during the evening but the sun was still up. I didn't think it could be a plane's fog lamp because it did not appear to be changing in size. For about half an hour it was very spooky. Eventually it flew overhead, it was just a plane with it's fog lamp on.
What I don't get about this thread is the implicit idea that a UFO is an alien spacecraft.
If you see something in the sky that you cannot explain, then you have seen something in the sky that you cannot explain. Given that there a large number of more likely explanations that alien spacecraft, I would not consider that as a possible explanation unless a window opened and alien popped it's head out and waved at me. Even at that point it would be more likely I was hallucinating, so would need to find third party corroboration.
Aliens and ghosts seem to be applied in a similar way. It's as though people walk around with a default explanation of aliens/ghosts in their head, and if they ever see something they can't explain (as if they are an automatic expert in all related disciplines), this default explanation is applied.
To quote Carl Sagan, who was involved with the SETI project:
I would be very happy if flying saucer advocates and alien abduction propenents were right and real evidence of extraterrestrial life were here for us to examine. They do not ask us, though, to believe on faith. They ask us to believe on the strength of their evidence. Surely it is our duty to scrutinize the purported evidence at least as closely and skeptically as radio astronomers do who are searching for alien radio signals.
No anecdotal claim - no matter how sincere, no matter how deeply felt, no matter how exemplary the lives of the attesting citizens - carries much weight on so important a question. As in older UFO cases, anecdotal accounts are subject to irreducible error. This is not a personal criticism of those who say they've been abducted or those who interrogate them. It is not tantamount to contempt for purported witnesses (they cannot be called, simply, witnesses - because whether they have witnesses anything (or at least, anything in the outside world) is often the very point at issue). It is not - or should not be - arrogant dismissal of sincere and affecting testimony. It is merely a reluctant response to human fallibility.
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So in the world of UFOs and alien abductions, it is fair to ask: Where is the evidence - the real, unambiguous physical evidence, the data that would convince a jury that hasn't already made up it's mind?
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Keeping an open mind is a virtue - but, as the space engineer James Oberg once said, not so open your brains fall out. Of course we must be willing to change our minds when warranted by new evidence. But the evidence must be strong. Not all claims to knowledge have equal merit. The standard of evidence in most of the [flying saucer sightings] is roughly what is found in cases of the apparition of the Virgin Mary in medieval Spain.
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Of those who accept such testimony at face value, [Carl Gustav Jung] remarked
"These people are lacking not only in criticism but in the most elementary knowledge of psychology. At bottom they do not want to be taught any better, but merely to go on believing - surely the naivest of presumptions in view of our human failings."
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jaguarbass
Have you ever had an encounter with a UFO?
No. But I have met lots of aliens in my life.
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Lady Liberty
Dear Free2beme,
Wow! That was an amazing encounter!! I would have been really freaked out! And how madening that you got counciled on telling what happened.
We had a strange thing happen to us. My husband, my sister and I, were all coming home from an assembly. It was not quite completely dark out, but almost. We were on a main road, passing a Catholic cemetary. We saw a strange red light hovering right by the road. As we got closer, we rolled down the windows, and went real slow. There was no sound, and becausethe light was so low, about the height of two telephone poles high, we knew it was not a helicopter. It just hovered there. There was no light pole, or tower there, so we knew that wasn't it, and it certainly wasn't a lazer light.
We slowly drove by, and because it was so weird, we decided to turn around and drive back by. When we did and came back, it was completely gone!! Talk about freeky! Up until then I believed that people who saw such things were under the influence of alcohol and drugs and the demons were playing with them. But we were on the way home from an assembly! Obviously my previous "theory" went down the tubes!
Every time we pass there we think about that evening. It was definatly strange. So I don't doubt at all what you experienced.
Sincerely,
Lady Liberty
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serendipity
I saw a silent, metallic silver cylindrical object in the sky as a kid, as did my playmates. It made no sound, wasn't a plane, helicopter or like anything else I have ever seen. It was several few hundred feet in the sky. It hovered over us for nearly half a minute or so and then moved on.
My parents, who didn't see it, said it was a weather balloon. I've googled images of weather balloons, and didn't see any that matched what I saw. I can't imagine a balloon hovering for so long either.
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proplog2
I had an experience that I reported in the following thread:
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lowden
Hello F2bm
I can't believe i'm responding to this, cos i'm a hugely skeptical guy on this subject.
I was in Sweden visiting my brother 2 yrs ago and my niece related a story (she's as honest and true as the day is long) about when her and her boyfriend went for a twilight walk in the forest.
Whilst in a clearing in the trees, my niece looked up at the twilight sky to see a black circle, sort of 'in the sky' but not if you get my meaning. A circle as black as black can be. They stood looking at it.... and each other......WTF?
Then it started to move towards them, enlarging as it came.
They ran as fast as their Swedish legs could carry them.
There ends the sighting but begins the mystery.
Peace
Lowden
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katiekitten
But in fairness Lowden, that Swedish mushroom fondue was probably so delicious they had second helpings before they went out to walk it off.
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Justice-One
Here is my take on this. For one, if WE are the only life in the universe, it is a terrible waste of space. So I tend to believe that there IS life out there, and reason would tend to make me believe that it is probably far in advance of ours. So they might be visiting. But since I'm a believer in "Occam's Razor," I think something else might be going on.
I went to an air show at McDill AFB once. They had a fly-by done by the B2 "flying wing" bomber. I tell you what...this thing when it is coming right at you, looks EXACTLY like your average saucer type UFO. I have photos that make it look like something from outerspace. Also, when it is coming straight at you, (because of the size of the thing,) it looked like it was just hanging in the air for awhile.
Now, how long did the government have this aircraft before it made it public knowledge? How many secret flights did it make, where people saw it, and (like my Dad) thought they saw a UFO?
And this is just one example. Who knows what kind of "Buck Rogers" stuff our governments have.