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The UFO Community Still Believes—And Science Is Starting To Listen

Wreckless

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The UFO community still believes — and science is starting to listen
by Chabeli Herrera, Orlando Sentinel, Updated: March 21, 2019

ORLANDO, Fla. — He appeared as if a hologram at first — then solid — suddenly there and clear as you or I, at the edge of the forest behind Trish Bishop’s home in Kissimmee.

It was a Thursday in March 2013, the glow of the afternoon tucking in for the day behind the trees. He stood tall, at least 6-foot-3, perhaps 220 pounds and certainly muscular, wearing a formfitting tan colored uniform, boots, and gloves. He lingered by the crape myrtle tree in the middle of the backyard.
When he turned around, it was his face, she remembers, that stopped her.
Bulging eyes jutting so far out of the sockets that Bishop wondered whether he could close them. Skin white as chalk. And a jaw so large, it dispelled any notions the government worker had of the visitor being human.

“If you compare a human jawbone to his, we would be a Chihuahua to a pit bull,” Bishop said.
Paralyzed with fear, she watched as what she believed to be an alien appeared to climb invisible steps, stopping often to snatch glances at her from where she sat on her back porch, fumbling with her phone to appear as though she couldn’t see him.
Her finger was pressed on the number “9” to dial for help.
When he was about 10 feet off the ground, he turned his back to her and pulled himself up — “into a UFO?” she thought — and was gone.

Bishop sat stunned. “I’ve got a freaking alien in my backyard,” she thought.
It would be four years before she told anyone her story, before she’d discover the Mutual Unidentified Flying Objects Network, a nationwide organization 50 years old, and file her report under case number 84886 with the local Florida chapter.
But she worried: Who would believe her?
These days, more people than you’d think.

https://www.philly.com/news/nation-...fied-flying-objects-outer-space-20190322.html
 
Who or what is "science"? (One thing it is not is a collective body that decides for all scientists.) The headline is misleading. The article is too.

The writer has assumed far too much. If you read the stuff coming out about the "secret" US organizations, the "scientists" involved, and the actual evidence they have, it's nothing new and hardly impressive. It's also several of the same people reappearing over and over again. Just because they worked for NASA, or have a PhD, that may appear more credible but it's really not. How does that give them info into alien sightings? People believe all kinds of things, no matter what profession.

I just finished Pasulka's American Cosmic and it was pretty awful. She's a professor of religion who seems really credulous and wants to connect UFOs + technology to religion; she seems to be star-struck by Vallee and two insiders who deeply believe. I think there were some interesting ideas to explore but she dropped the ball. She failed to justify any of the science work going on, she just accepted it as amazing (but we can't know details because it's secret). As more of it does come out, it's been disappointing, almost comically so.
 
That article mentions Silvano Colombano of NASA, and implies that Columbano has been attempting to get his employers to take UFOs seriously. In fact that is a misrepresentation of Columbano's intent.
From here
https://www.livescience.com/64237-nasa-aliens-fox-news.html
The document accompanied a talk he gave in which he suggested that perhaps the notion of aliens visiting Earth isn't quite as ridiculous as most scientists believe, and that SETI might devote some resources to systematically hunting through UFO reports and other data for evidence that this has happened — to hunt for a faint, unlikely signal in a lot of messy noise.
In other words, it was a speculative piece of writing intended to persuade other scientists to spend their resources on a long-shot project — not an argument about whether or not aliens have actually visited Earth. Colombano's position is that it's possible, but not necessarily likely.
It is quite likely that alien explorers have visited Earth many times in the last 4.5 billion years; but there does not seem to be any concrete evidence of this. No artefacts remain that can be analysed, no genetic traces to be examined, no tracks in the dust to trace. On the other hand the robots we have placed on the Moon and Mars will remain there for millions of years. Earth destroys such traces (and so does Venus- the Venera landers will disappear in that hot corrosive atmosphere quite quickly). It's always worth while to look for this stuff- but don't expect to find anything.
 
It's the sort of long shot where enthusiasts could enjoy themselves thoroughly - and if it paid off.......
 
A typical 'high strangeness' tale of 'aliens'. The kind I used to enjoy reading about in Dr Vallee or John Keel's books. Weird 'aliens' have weird contacts with various people for no apparent logical reason. Let's travel light years (or even inter-dimensionally) if you are inclined to that hypothesis simply to freak out unsuspecting humans while they sit in their yards.
Does it represent a legitimate space alien? Probably not...and one needs to ask a lot of questions about these weird events. The most obvious is; why would any self respecting intelligent space faring alien appear in someone's backyard simply to scare the person then vanish up into their 'ufo'?
The idea that these are 'entities' from somewhere other than earth or even another reality is intriguing but we simply have nothing to support either claim other than some neat ideas. To me...and I have read a fair amount over the years on this very subject...is that this says a lot more about the strangeness of human consciousness than about aliens.
 
A typical 'high strangeness' tale of 'aliens'. The kind I used to enjoy reading about in Dr Vallee or John Keel's books. Weird 'aliens' have weird contacts with various people for no apparent logical reason. Let's travel light years (or even inter-dimensionally) if you are inclined to that hypothesis simply to freak out unsuspecting humans while they sit in their yards.
Does it represent a legitimate space alien? Probably not...and one needs to ask a lot of questions about these weird events. The most obvious is; why would any self respecting intelligent space faring alien appear in someone's backyard simply to scare the person then vanish up into their 'ufo'?
The idea that these are 'entities' from somewhere other than earth or even another reality is intriguing but we simply have nothing to support either claim other than some neat ideas. To me...and I have read a fair amount over the years on this very subject...is that this says a lot more about the strangeness of human consciousness than about aliens.

I'm right there with you on that but what if... what if we can't understand the mind of god aliens or whatever they are? What if these entities are beyond our current comprehension? What if some of us can't perceive it but others can? What if they really are f***ing with us? The aliens idea always seemed silly to me for the reasons you mentioned. But, I'm not going to say for sure we humans have the time-space thing all figured out.
 
From light beings to hive minds - your probably on the right track with your thinking.

Besides, if we landed on a planet and met another being, we would probably talk to them too (if we could).
 
I'm right there with you on that but what if... what if we can't understand the mind of god aliens or whatever they are? What if these entities are beyond our current comprehension? What if some of us can't perceive it but others can? What if they really are f***ing with us? The aliens idea always seemed silly to me for the reasons you mentioned. But, I'm not going to say for sure we humans have the time-space thing all figured out.
I've talked about this very thing many times before.....if it is outer space aliens then imho they would probably have things in common with us on many different levels of science, math etc...they would act in some intelligent logical manner imho no matter how far ahead of us they might be.
... why would intelligent beings do things that are incomprehensible? To what purpose? If they are from another reality completely then yes they might not think or act in ways we would consider normal. But even then some of these actions simply are absurd to the point of being ridiculous.
Space-time is not the issue here but actions by the beings in space- time.
It simply doesn't add up imho. If they are trying to talk to us or communicate then they are doing a piss poor job and that is not encouraging at all.
 
From light beings to hive minds - your probably on the right track with your thinking.

Besides, if we landed on a planet and met another being, we would probably talk to them too (if we could).
Communication yes.......and we would try to do that in some scientific and logical manner.....absurd behavior no .
 
If we remove the odd behavior of these 'visitors' from the equation it still boils down to if' they exist at all', where do they come from, and how do they do this 'here then not here' thing. What are the mechanics ?

You can put all the contactee stuff to one side and still have a thoroughly scientific discussion on this business of mechanics.

We may be making an assumption that the laws of physics are universal. Or maybe they are, but we may have missed something vital. Something the ufo use to come and go. If we could work this out then we have a better chance of knowing where they come from.
 
If we remove the odd behavior of these 'visitors' from the equation it still boils down to if' they exist at all', where do they come from, and how do they do this 'here then not here' thing. What are the mechanics ?

You can put all the contactee stuff to one side and still have a thoroughly scientific discussion on this business of mechanics.

We may be making an assumption that the laws of physics are universal. Or maybe they are, but we may have missed something vital. Something the ufo use to come and go. If we could work this out then we have a better chance of knowing where they come from.
Some good points in there but sadly, as Dr Vallee pointed out many times in the past, science for the most part just doesn't seem interested in getting at any truths that might be found in studying the UFO enigma.
 
I've talked about this very thing many times before.....if it is outer space aliens then imho they would probably have things in common with us on many different levels of science, math etc...they would act in some intelligent logical manner imho no matter how far ahead of us they might be.
... why would intelligent beings do things that are incomprehensible?

Once again, why presume we would understand them? I'd assume we wouldn't. If they are aliens, they don't know humans very well. We don't even do a good job communicating with insects or fish - they don't have the same sensory capacities as we do.

Some good points in there but sadly, as Dr Vallee pointed out many times in the past, science for the most part just doesn't seem interested in getting at any truths that might be found in studying the UFO enigma.

Hmm. Disagree. Science has looked at flying objects and at abduction experiences and found - not aliens, nothing else particularly paranormal. I'm not saying the ufo ideas aren't interesting and there are certainly things worth looking into, but Vallee keeps going around the same paranormal block now. He sounds like he wants things to be spooky and remain unfalsifiable. I, OTOH, remain unimpressed by his off-base use of historical texts and ultraterrestrial hand waving. As I said, it's the same guys with the same sell over decades now. They've got nothing new worth chewing on and I notice a lot of star-struck hero worship happening instead of developing new ideas.
 
All the potential for new ideas appears to be blocked as everything now falls back to either 'we build them' or 'we back engineered some alien craft. then we build them' But non of that accounts for the weird reported behavior.

There are sightings like Stevensville, but no one can get anywhere with them. It always hits a wall.
 
Once again, why presume we would understand them? I'd assume we wouldn't. If they are aliens, they don't know humans very well. We don't even do a good job communicating with insects or fish - they don't have the same sensory capacities as we do.



Hmm. Disagree. Science has looked at flying objects and at abduction experiences and found - not aliens, nothing else particularly paranormal. I'm not saying the ufo ideas aren't interesting and there are certainly things worth looking into, but Vallee keeps going around the same paranormal block now. He sounds like he wants things to be spooky and remain unfalsifiable. I, OTOH, remain unimpressed by his off-base use of historical texts and ultraterrestrial hand waving. As I said, it's the same guys with the same sell over decades now. They've got nothing new worth chewing on and I notice a lot of star-struck hero worship happening instead of developing new ideas.

Can you cite or quote any true scientific studies done on the nature of the ufo enigma over the last 50 years, Because I actually know of only one that was done (and it was more of an eval of collected data)...can you name it or the scientist? The fact is that science has not spent any serious time or money on the enigma...read Dr Vallee to see this. Try Dimensions or Confrontations. He has said for decades that science has missed an opportunity to do some good science when it comes to ufos because it has never rolled up it's sleeves and really investigated it. And Dr Vallee knows far more about the enigma than anyone as far as I now.
I totally disagree with your communication statement...you are comparing apples and oranges. Most exobiologists believe that aliens would be similar to us in a 'humanoid' manner due to various evolutionary ideas, etc...if they will be able to develop space travel....and to do this they would have to pass through the same math and science since these are universal constants...hydrogen is hydrogen everywhere. This idea that they would be so alien we would have no common ground is simply a myth imho. Any truly advanced alien species should be able to figure out a way to communicate with any intelligent species including us.....floating on air and then vanishing into the sky is not communication...it's more of a stunt...or a magic show.
btw...fish and insects don't have science or sentience..we do.....big big difference and not a good analogy imho.
 
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Can you cite or quote any true scientific studies done on the nature of the ufo enigma over the last 50 years, Because I actually know of only one that was done (and it was more of an eval of collected data)...can you name it or the scientist? The fact is that science has not spent any serious time or money on the enigma...read Dr Vallee to see this. Try Dimensions or Confrontations. He has said for decades that science has missed an opportunity to do some good science when it comes to ufos because it has never rolled up it's sleeves and really investigated it. And Dr Vallee knows far more about the enigma than anyone as far as I know.

In terms of scientific studies of ufos, there have actually been a fair few, but not many get much publicity. I noticed this study in the wiki page:
Odors from UFOs. <Link
It is interesting and pertinent, as it may also link into the noxious odor of the "skunk ape" aka Bigfoot etc.
The wikipedia page agrees with your statement that there hasn't been much serious science dedicated to the problem, but that isn't the same as none. The scientific community seems to have decided that UFOs aren't worth investigating, most likely due to the number of amateurs who are heavily committed to the issue. Of course we can't be sure how many UFOs are actually experimental aircraft, how many are episodes of hallucinations brought on by environmental toxins, and how many are legitimately unexplained phenomena as a result of science's disinterest.

I totally disagree with your communication statement...you are comparing apples and oranges. Most exobiologists believe that aliens would be similar to us in a 'humanoid' manner due to various evolutionary ideas, etc...if they will be able to develop space travel....and to do this they would have to pass through the same math and science since these are universal constants...hydrogen is hydrogen everywhere. This idea that they would be so alien we would have no common ground is simply a myth imho. Any truly advanced alien species should be able to figure out a way to communicate with any intelligent species including us.....floating on air and then vanishing into the sky is not communication...it's more of a stunt...or a magic show. ]btw...fish and insects don't have science or sentience..we do.....big big difference and not a good analogy imho.

While it is unequivocally true that as far as we know, humans are the most sentient creatures that we know about, we are also seeing some very interesting adaptations occurring to human activity in the animal world that are synonymous with the science fiction notion of UPLIFT (link). We see examples such as the Law of the Tongue (link) amongst killer whales, and a surprising level of tool use among avians Tool use by animals. In fact apparently crows appear to conduct funerals: Crow funeral link. This is before we get into the brainpower of squids and octopi, let alone elephants. There are a lot of very smart marine mammals, and we have no idea why they need to be intelligent, given that sharks seem to perpetuate their own existence brilliantly with only a fraction of the mental ability of a bottlenose dolphin or orca. We similarly have no idea of what life forms are possible given other atmospheres and the alternative chemistry involved. I am not dismissing the idea that if we meet aliens, they may well look a lot like us, to the point of being essentially "Star Trek guy in odd suit with mask" level of familiarity. On the other hand, we might well meeting something a lot more Lovecraftian looking.

One thing I will suggest is that technology use seems to go hand-in-hand with incapacity. Humans couldn't outrun a deer in a chase, so they invented traps, and bows, then domesticated horses, and each new discovery made fresh opportunities present themselves. On the other hand, if humans weren't essentially physically weaker, slower, with worse senses, and less agile than other animals, there would have been no need for us to develop tool use. For example, a sentient supright rhino with "hands" is unlikely to develop clothes, as they have no need for them, given their tough hide. The sentient rhino may well not develop housing for the same reason. The more biologically adapted advantages a creature has, the less need it has for tools, and so the less biological incentive to develop them. We know that human had a near extinction event, presently known as the Toba Catastrophe Theory: Population Bottleneck-Toba Catastrophe link. That seems to have driven the evolution of human intelligence quite hard.

I will therefore submit the notion that the wimpier aliens are physically, the smarter they are likely to be. Now looking at the standard "Grey Alien", they are a pretty good candidate. Few to no aliens are going to be adapted to life in space, for as far as we know, all sentient life develops on planets. On the other hand, the large black eyes of greys do indicate low light adaptation that would be valuable in space travel. In fact, the greys could quite easily be "humans" from our species' future evolution coming back to check on us via time travel. Naturally this is all just hypothetical, but you raised interesting points so I thought I would chime in. :)
 
Whether alien visitors should be expected to act rationally or not may simply depend on how advanced their technology is.

Suppose we developed a technology that enabled us to instantaneously visit other worlds then return home again. Suppose this technology was affordable for the average person to access.

Now imagine the number of pranksters who would delight in visiting alien planets simply to play tricks on the inhabitants.

It seems highly unlikely, since our present understanding is that interstellar travel inevitably requires significant expenditure of resources and energy.

But who knows what discoveries lie around the corner? Pretty much all new technologies start out as being expensive and out of the range of most people, then become increasingly cheaper and more accessible over time. Which makes them increasingly likely to fall into the hands of buffoons!
 
In terms of scientific studies of ufos, there have actually been a fair few, but not many get much publicity. I noticed this study in the wiki page:
Odors from UFOs. <Link
It is interesting and pertinent, as it may also link into the noxious odor of the "skunk ape" aka Bigfoot etc.
The wikipedia page agrees with your statement that there hasn't been much serious science dedicated to the problem, but that isn't the same as none. The scientific community seems to have decided that UFOs aren't worth investigating, most likely due to the number of amateurs who are heavily committed to the issue. Of course we can't be sure how many UFOs are actually experimental aircraft, how many are episodes of hallucinations brought on by environmental toxins, and how many are legitimately unexplained phenomena as a result of science's disinterest.



While it is unequivocally true that as far as we know, humans are the most sentient creatures that we know about, we are also seeing some very interesting adaptations occurring to human activity in the animal world that are synonymous with the science fiction notion of UPLIFT (link). We see examples such as the Law of the Tongue (link) amongst killer whales, and a surprising level of tool use among avians Tool use by animals. In fact apparently crows appear to conduct funerals: Crow funeral link. This is before we get into the brainpower of squids and octopi, let alone elephants. There are a lot of very smart marine mammals, and we have no idea why they need to be intelligent, given that sharks seem to perpetuate their own existence brilliantly with only a fraction of the mental ability of a bottlenose dolphin or orca. We similarly have no idea of what life forms are possible given other atmospheres and the alternative chemistry involved. I am not dismissing the idea that if we meet aliens, they may well look a lot like us, to the point of being essentially "Star Trek guy in odd suit with mask" level of familiarity. On the other hand, we might well meeting something a lot more Lovecraftian looking.

One thing I will suggest is that technology use seems to go hand-in-hand with incapacity. Humans couldn't outrun a deer in a chase, so they invented traps, and bows, then domesticated horses, and each new discovery made fresh opportunities present themselves. On the other hand, if humans weren't essentially physically weaker, slower, with worse senses, and less agile than other animals, there would have been no need for us to develop tool use. For example, a sentient supright rhino with "hands" is unlikely to develop clothes, as they have no need for them, given their tough hide. The sentient rhino may well not develop housing for the same reason. The more biologically adapted advantages a creature has, the less need it has for tools, and so the less biological incentive to develop them. We know that human had a near extinction event, presently known as the Toba Catastrophe Theory: Population Bottleneck-Toba Catastrophe link. That seems to have driven the evolution of human intelligence quite hard.

I will therefore submit the notion that the wimpier aliens are physically, the smarter they are likely to be. Now looking at the standard "Grey Alien", they are a pretty good candidate. Few to no aliens are going to be adapted to life in space, for as far as we know, all sentient life develops on planets. On the other hand, the large black eyes of greys do indicate low light adaptation that would be valuable in space travel. In fact, the greys could quite easily be "humans" from our species' future evolution coming back to check on us via time travel. Naturally this is all just hypothetical, but you raised interesting points so I thought I would chime in. :)
Heh there...
There have been some who have looked at data ..the one I was referring to was Peter Sturrock, an actual scientist, who did review much of the ufo data and came to the conclusion many years back that the UFO Enigma was definitely worth doing a scientific study. There was also some work done through the Rockefeller family in the 70's I think where Dr Vallee was involved in looking at various aspects of the phenom but there has been no concerted effort to do a true scientific study like one might do on earthquakes or lightning for instance.
It seems to be a career killer so scientists shy away from it.
While sentience could certainly be possible in many different biological forms , we don't see any technology (at any meaningful level) at our level except for humans on this planet. Most exo-biologists believe that (and there are plenty of web sites about this) humanoid or at least a grasping form of biological sentience would be required to create space ravel or similar tech. And imho such beings no matter how alien their language or culture would have many things in common with us on that tech level...again as far as we know the laws of physics are the same in out Galaxy at least...bets might be different in another Galaxy or Universe. Any sufficiently advanced space faring race would be able to communicate with us on some scientific level at least and probably could figure out our language also. When one looks at many of the so-called high strangeness cases where 'aliens' allegedly are tying to talk to us they are absurd. Aerial objects are another matter entirely.
The grey aliens are a possibility...I'm not saying they couldn't be true aliens...but so many of the other cases are patently absurd imho.
 
Heh there...
There have been some who have looked at data ..the one I was referring to was Peter Sturrock, an actual scientist, who did review much of the ufo data and came to the conclusion many years back that the UFO Enigma was definitely worth doing a scientific study. There was also some work done through the Rockefeller family in the 70's I think where Dr Vallee was involved in looking at various aspects of the phenom but there has been no concerted effort to do a true scientific study like one might do on earthquakes or lightning for instance.

There have been a smattering of studies by scientists on different parts of the issue

It seems to be a career killer so scientists shy away from it.

So we might well ask who exactly made investigating UFOs a career killer for scientists and why? It doesn't make sense to quasi-ban a field of potential research, and when things make no sense, a wise man should suspect corruption is hiding.

Any sufficiently advanced space faring race would be able to communicate with us on some scientific level at least and probably could figure out our language also. When one looks at many of the so-called high strangeness cases where 'aliens' allegedly are tying to talk to us they are absurd. Aerial objects are another matter entirely.The grey aliens are a possibility...I'm not saying they couldn't be true aliens...but so many of the other cases are patently absurd imho.

IDK if A=B on this issue. To assume that space travel necessitates a universal translator is fair, but a universal translator will take a lot of compiled data to create, and you cannot get that data without meeting alien species. It stands to reason that a space faring species who haven't met many (or even any) aliens will not yet have the tech to speak to them. If the modes of communication are sufficiently different, efforts to comunicate might well start off pretty badly.
 
There have been a smattering of studies by scientists on different parts of the issue



So we might well ask who exactly made investigating UFOs a career killer for scientists and why? It doesn't make sense to quasi-ban a field of potential research, and when things make no sense, a wise man should suspect corruption is hiding.



IDK if A=B on this issue. To assume that space travel necessitates a universal translator is fair, but a universal translator will take a lot of compiled data to create, and you cannot get that data without meeting alien species. It stands to reason that a space faring species who haven't met many (or even any) aliens will not yet have the tech to speak to them. If the modes of communication are sufficiently different, efforts to comunicate might well start off pretty badly.
'A smattering of studies' is being generous...imho.
I think it's a career killer simply because it's not accepted by mainstream science...I honestly don't believe there is any conspiracy here though I can understand why some who are conspiracy minded might feel that way. ;)
I don't know about Universal Translators but I do feel that any sentience species capable of interstellar travel would have some basic scientific principles in common with us so there would be some common ground to find. As I said 'inter-dimensional' beings might be truly alien in ways that might prohibit easy understanding.
 
One aspect of the ufo situation that is often missed when people suggest that they (the occupants) may be very different to us is that is the machines are in anyway mechanical, then they had to be built. This would suggest that the things that built them would probably have a technology similar, if more advanced, than our own.

The idea of some amorphous blob controlling the object somehow does not fit in with this requirement.
 
Was just there contemplating what do with my copious, UFO archive materiel, acquired over many years interest and research... came across this.

Painted by a friend in the US, has book cover illustrations for notable sci-fi novels in '70s/'80s.

This was a unique commission, from someone who wished to document an experience in their life.

From conversations with artist, background was explained and the commission originated from a senior and well known lawyer, who was concerned about the ridicule which might damage his career and hence, never went public about the experience.

201946_194929246.jpg
 
A good piece outlining some history.

UFOs Won’t Go Away
BY KEITH KLOOR

A community of believers in extraterrestrial visitations continues to push its story, and the media and Pentagon continue to listen. Who benefits from these tales of close encounters?
https://issues.org/ufos-wont-go-away/

And the "whitewash" as some wish to think of the Condon report was also reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences. This, to me, constitutes a scientific report, not a sham.
 
Was just there contemplating what do with my copious, UFO archive materiel, acquired over many years interest and research... came across this.

Painted by a friend in the US, has book cover illustrations for notable sci-fi novels in '70s/'80s.

This was a unique commission, from someone who wished to document an experience in their life.

From conversations with artist, background was explained and the commission originated from a senior and well known lawyer, who was concerned about the ridicule which might damage his career and hence, never went public about the experience.

View attachment 16123
i remenber this one, a UFO with cooling tubes in its underside, definitely not something real alien explorers would do
 
So cooling tubes are old hat when it comes to interstellar/dimensional craft these days? I'll remember that when it comes to buying a new one.
its just not something you would expect to see in a BT
the cosmic trickster and his old ways i guess
 
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