Really? I mean, if you're looking at a starlike object flashing different colours low in the sky, why would you even consider it was a UFO or spaceship and not simply a star or planet? Even after a hour of watching it drop slowly into the west? The really good ones have an image that racks the lens out fully as it tries to focus on infinity, thus creating a "hexagon" shape that is interpreted as an alien mothership.
In many cases, the witness writes on the online form something like: "I know this wasn't just a star or planet," and usually adds: "It must be an orb (or a beamship)."
Oy.
Most of the cases this year seem to be only lights, and that brings up an interesting point, something that I've written about many times: Why lights? Why would an extraterrestrial craft need to have lights? Surely not for DOT navigation compliance.
Grant Cameron once suggested that it was because the lights are caused by the fields or energy that allows the UFOs to hover and fly. That's actually a reasonable hypothesis, but untestable as of yet.
This question was asked recently by a debunker, however, and it raises another issue. Astrophysicist Adam Frank asked it in a blog and noted:
"Why do UFOs need headlights?"
Yeah. Good point. Are the aliens scared of running into a deer?
If they were really planning interstellar black-ops, then they should paint their spacecraft — you know — black and turn off the damn lights. Yes, of course, it might be their engines but a species crossing trillions of kilometers of empty space is not going to be using rockets. Hopefully they have some other kind of "hyperdrive" or something cool. If so, they should be smart enough to stealth its exhaust (does hyperdrive have exhaust?)
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2011/03/25/134855990/highbeams-of-the-gods-do-ufos-need-headlights
Yes, it's a point we've seen noted before. But then he noted this:
The problem, of course, is that any civilization with technology capable of spanning light-years ought to be able to hide themselves well enough to avoid detection from hairy apes with jet-planes like us.
And that is a problem.
It's a problem because the lovable debunker Phil Plait has argued that astronomers should be the ones to see UFOs (read: incoming alien space ships) because they're the ones scanning the skies more often than laymen.
But, if fellow skeptic Adam Frank is correct, then astronomers wouldn't be able to detect UFOs because a really decent alien civilization would be cloaking its arrival.
So, which skeptic is right? Will alien spaceships be detectable or not?
(Oh, BTW, this argument has nothing to do with sightings of UFOs reported and recorded in databases. I only deal with what's actually reported.)
Thanks. I agree it is an interesting question. Its actually a cool question. Plus it is correct to question it.
ReplyDeleteThe only logical answer seems to be because they WANT to be seen. One can make a joke about "them" not needing collision avoidance lights, en al...but given the history of this subject (UFOs)and possible air accidents on record, one might wonder if it is simply for OUR benefit.
They know how fast they can move compared to us, so perhaps they make sure they can be seen to minimize accidents with humans?
Plus, they are dazzling...so the slight of hand explanation could fit the picture.
What IS that left hand doing, anyway?
I think it's one of those questions that needs further data. Until then it's all speculations and who's credibility is more colourful than the next.
ReplyDeleteDr Haines simply says, 'To be seen.' This could be the most reasonable explanation even as it lacks details. The follow-up question could be; 'to be seen by whom?'
I've seen two true UFOs, both lights. One of them, a red point-light, zig-zagged across the night sky, from south coast to France, in around 4 seconds. Whilst it's possible that this incident was a 'control system' in action or somehow raised our 'vibrational frequencies' towards new dimensions, it seemed more like something unknown passing overhead from A to B.
I guess without knowing exactly what UFOs are or represent, the presence of lights, or otherwise, isn't the most immediate question. When some people rule out the UFO phenomena by incredulity that 'they' use lights, it reduces their credibility...not the mystery.
You guys are way too sane and civil. There are people on youtube who, daily, post videos of delineated airplanes and claim they are actually spaceships that have morphed into plane shape to avoid detection.
ReplyDeletePeople see what they want to see.
Bob and Kandinsky, you offer an interesting suggestion: that UFOs have lights because they are meant to be seen. Vallee had postulated many years ago that UFOs were a kind of "Cosmic Thermostat" which nudged us towards more mystical/spiritual thoughts when we became too pragmatic, and vice-versa. In this vein, UFOs are seen in order to guide humans to a more esoteric level.
ReplyDeleteI agree, though, that one should not rule out the reality of UFOs simply because they are lighted. After all, if some UFOs were caused by triboluminescence or piezoelectricty as per Michael Persinger and his tectonic strain theory, then they would be luminous by their very nature.
UFOs have lights so we can see them. If they don't want to be seen, they wont be. We also have to stop assuming they are spacecraft from a far distant star. We don't know what they are, or where they come from. But it's obvious from case studies that they seem to be staging much of what they do, right down to abductions, complete with medical exams. it's all for our benefit.
ReplyDeleteAlso, astronomers do indeed see UFOs, as do pilots and astronauts. That's a matter of public record. Skeptics have their minds made up, and will never look at the data, so their opinion is null.
@Anomalous
ReplyDeleteConvenient of you to equate skepticism with denialism. But you KNOW the unknown, which is mere credulity, a perverse form of denialism.
The others here don't know, and they know that -- they are truly skeptical. Because they don't know with certainty, they are thinking, they are trying out ideas that explain the data.
But you KNOW, so you don't have to think anymore, do you?
@terry
ReplyDeleteWTF? Can't you read? I said we don't know what they are. I'm the first to say I dont know what we are dealing with, and I have had first hand experiences. Most skeptics start their argument based on the issues with interstellar travel, or just some of the absurdity associated with UFO accounts. Most never actually study any of the data. I've been studying UFOs for the past 44 or so years. How about you?
Researchers like Jaques Vallee have been saying for years that the phenomenon clearly does not appear to be ET landing to take samples. If it were, wouldn't they have been finished several decades ago? The problem with the ETH is it stops up from looking deeper into the phenomenon.
The bottom line is people have been experiencing this for a very long time, and we are nowhere near uunderstanding it. Time spent on the ETH is time wasted.
If UFOs were ET space craft, why would they be interested in our planet? And also, Universe is too vast why would they waste their valuable energy just flying in our sky trying to get noticed?
ReplyDelete@terry,
ReplyDeleteDon't be an ass. I also said we don't know what they are. We don't know that they are spacecraft from another world. However, I'll make the assumption that unlike you I have had direct personal experiences with this phenomena. Since I was about 5 years old. And with many of my friends growing up. And I have been in contact with other people who have too. One thing is for certain, these things know when you are looking at them. It's never by chance. If they are seen, they wanted to be seen. Once you have a few sightings, or even one, you will understand this point. It's very obvious.
My daughter and I recently had a sighting that lasted a good five minutes of about 30 objects, and neither of us know why we decided to look up over our heads! But we did. This is common. For some inexplicable reason, you are compelled to go outside and look at the object that you didn't know was there. This has major implications, and is why I said these objects have lights on them so they are easily seen.
The whole thing is staged and has an air of theatrics to it. People who have UFO experiences also often have other experiences too, like poltergeist activity, prophetic dreams, and a lot of synchronicity. Also there are times where their are multiple witnesses, and they each see something slightly different. Then you have many reports of the objects changing shape in drastic ways.
Whatever we are dealing with here, it's well beyond what we think it is.
As far as "why" they are here, and what they are doing. I feel we have to let go of the idea that they are being coming here to explore. That's too simple. From my interactions with these non human entities, I get the sense that they are something totally different. They know too many things. They are more a part of the inner workings of reality. Or they are advanced to the point where they understand most of it, so they can do things that totally make no sense to us.
So either you are an experiencer, or you aren't. If you aren't, you can only speculate with no real experience to base anything you are saying on. That's fine, but please listen to the people who have had more experience with this UFO thing. There are a whole lot of us out there. Might even be very large number of people, but most don't remember.
@siddharth.
ReplyDeleteThat;s going on the assumption that they are astronauts from some other planet. But why should we think that's the case? However, we do the same thing. When we get to that point we will be exploring farther out into space. IF they are travelers from some other place, then that means they can get here easily. They don't expend much energy and it doesn't take them any time to do so. We are still sitting on big firecrackers to try and get anywhere.
If you study enough cases, you will notice that in a vert large percentage of them, when an object is seen, all the ambient sound around you stops. No birds chirping. No bugs, no traffic noise, and in fact often it's like the witnesses are alone in the world.
Why would this be? No one knows. But one idea is that these objects have changed the linearity of time. If time stops flowing, then you won't hear sounds. Sound is the variation over time of the waves. This might also account for witnesses having missing time. Time and space are the same thing. You can't go up the street without time passing. This is why they say "Space-time". So if you can bend space around you, you can get to point A to point B without actually moving. Some recent experiments have shown this is possible. Google "warp drive" to read about it.
So now we see that if they are spacecraft, they can just get here in a blink of an eye. And this would explain why they just blink out of sight, or just pop into view.
Now the other thing is that we have these stories going back thousands of years. You can even tie in the stores of the fae (faeries), as Jaques Vallée has done in many books. Many of the tales are very similar. Then we have the Djinn, who are similar. Lastly, many UFOs are seen entering and leaving bodies of water. In fact in the US, it is the Navy, and not the Air Force that tracks UFOs, or in this case USOs. So another possibility is they aren't traveling and are from here, and have always been here.
Other possibilities are time travelers, and some think they are us from the far distant future. Once again, when you can bend space, you can bend time.
Finally they might be something else. We don't really understand the Universe or why it's here. We take a materialist approach and just look at all the stuff in it. We can say we think there was a Big Band, but what was before the Big Band, and where did it happen? And why? We have no answers for these questions. But these beings and objects might have something to do with it. But then, people have asked them. And they seem to know more than us, but they don't have all the answers. They almost always seem to be amused by what we think this is all about.
So you have to start by getting past the notion of the nuts and bolts space craft thing. It might be that, but probably isn't. It seems to make itself look like that though. I think that's for our benefit. That's what we want to see, so that's what we are shown.
This is clearly a lot stranger than just space ships coming for a visit.
Damn auto spell correct! That was BIG BANG. Not Big Band.
ReplyDeleteNot here to debunk anything. I just want to know why people who take snapshots of these things hovering in the sky are always such bad photographers?
ReplyDelete@John,
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of it is the excitement of the moment. Plus how many people are good photographers in the first place? And using cell phones and the like?
It's very hard to stabilize yourself when taking a photo of a light. Try it with a plane flying overhead at night some time.
I have had sightings and did not even bother to try and take a photo. I already knew how bad it was going to look and did not want to waste my viewing time trying to get a picture.
A few other times I was not inclined to take a picture. I thought about it, and was compelled not to do it. Until that happens to you, it seems like a weird idea. One time I saw in my mind that I had no batteries in my camera, when clearly I knew I did.