UFOs: The Research, the Evidence

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When I was a kid I had a dream:
A fantasy prone person tried to make some money as a cult leader because he couldn't sell his stories as science fiction.
Can I have my $ million now?:)
 
ufology said:
Sideroxylon,

I've talked to many people about their childhood experiences; experiences that they believe were real and yet extraordinary. I believe certain people have these experiences and that they are unexplained. I realize how woo it sounds, but I don't care. Why should I or anyone else be embarrased or ashamed to describe something they experienced as a child? I share my story because perhaps if I come forward, other people will not feel awkward sharing their experiences with me. I find them fascinating and very interesting ... it's a world view that we adults forget exists.
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Interesting but why should we accept them as reality and not dreams or other products of vivid imaginations?

Are the following linked childhood stories, or similar, reason to believe fairies exist?
http://www.fairygardens.com/sightings/youth9.html
 
ufology said:
Sideroxylon,

I had read read a few of the early classics, so like I said, it is possible that I had run across a mention of the MIB someplace, but the incident was in such detail, and I don't think there is that level of detail in any of the books I'd read up to that point.

Regarding seeing the detail. Car accidents cause many people's sense of time to go into slow motion ... and the MIB mobile was only inches in front of me ... it was a really close call, my headlights were shining right into their windows, it was all I could look at and it all seemed to happen in slow motion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Motion_Perception

As for the vaporous trail, it was well defined and not much wider than a single lane. My car went right through it, and when I got out to inspect the scene it was still there and I walked back and forth through it. It was perfectly clear everywhere else except for this odd trail. Then when I pointed the car headlamps around, you could really see how it had come down, gone across the road and continued down the other side into the valley.

There was no intersection, no creek, no culvert or other localized source for water mist. It was also unlike fog, more like a quasi-mist ... not quite dust but not liquid and it didn't really have a misty or dusty smell either. It was more like really fine crystals of something but they weren't cold either and they didn't settle ... they evaporated. Lastly and most importantly, it wasn't there before the MIB went by, the road was clear. The MIB mobile left this trail in its wake.
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My point remains that you have no way of being sure of not having read, seen or heard MiB stories earlier. Seems plausible given your expressed early interest in the subject. As for the vapor/fog/dust, no one has access to the event any longer so I can't see how anyone can rule out mundane explanations. As has been pointed out, human memory is fragile. We don't know what details may have been added or omitted since the event.

The story is so "out there" even if we take the assumption that aliens are visiting earth that taking it as a hallucination is most reasonable, no?
 
Sideroxylon said:
My point remains that you have no way of being sure of not having read, seen or heard MiB stories earlier. Seems plausible given your expressed early interest in the subject. As for the vapor/fog/dust, no one has access to the event any longer so I can't see how anyone can rule out mundane explanations. As has been pointed out, human memory is fragile. We don't know what details may have been added or omitted since the event.
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Ditto giant bunny rabbits, fireflies, VW Beetles, anti-gravity propulsion systems that catapult ASSes from 0 to 25kph in one second, and the hotness of folo's 1970s girlfriend.
 
Now that you mentioned it, Tinker Bell would be a good explanation for his alleged sighting... At least as good as OMG!!!! ALIENS!!!!
 
From the Compendium of Ufology:

"I would suddenly wake up to discover I was floating in mid air. Then I would float out of the bedroom, down the hall along the ceiling, past the kitchen, through the dining area, and into the living room."
 
Oh, and regarding the UFOs = extraterrestrial craft line defended by ufology...

Its biased, flawed even by UFOlogy's (already shaky) standards.

If you accept UFOlogy's claims that some of the reported UFOs are indeed not explainable by mundane ways, the next step is to check what sort of things UFOlogists claim they are or may be. Here's a non-complete list:

Extraterrestrial craft
Craft from other universes
Time travellers (from the future and/or from the past)
Space borne lifeforms
Lifeforms from the upper atmosphere
Lifeforms from other universes
Secret terrestrial craft (human)
Craft from unknown non-human sentient terrestrial species
Craft from unknown human civilizations
Manifestations of Jungian archetypes
Paranormal projections of human minds
Manifestations of "Trickster"-like beings

Thus, UFOs (of the non-mundane type) = extraterrestrial craft is a flawed and biased definition, shaped according to ufology's personal beliefs.

Its flawed even from UFOlogy's POV!
 
Krikkiter said:
From the Compendium of Ufology:

"I would suddenly wake up to discover I was floating in mid air. Then I would float out of the bedroom, down the hall along the ceiling, past the kitchen, through the dining area, and into the living room."
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His entire body of work reads like textbook examples of hypnagogic, hypnopompic, and sleep-deprivation hallucination, though he'll never admit to experiencing these common phenomena.
 
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Correa Neto said:
Oh, and regarding the UFOs = extraterrestrial craft line defended by ufology...

Its biased, flawed even by UFOlogy's (already shaky) standards.

If you accept UFOlogy's claims that some of the reported UFOs are indeed not explainable by mundane ways, the next step is to check what sort of things UFOlogists claim they are or may be. Here's a non-complete list:

Extraterrestrial craft
Craft from other universes
Time travellers (from the future and/or from the past)
Space borne lifeforms
Lifeforms from the upper atmosphere.....
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Oh no, but remember folio doesn't like space serpents, aka "Snad's stuff". He thinks they're fantasy on par with unicorns and Pegasi:
http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=7528122#post7528122

ufology said:
Snad's stuff is associated with cryptozoology, which is of peripheral interst to ufologists. At the present time in ufology, it falls under the general area of UFO studies right next to mythology and is given about as much weight ( in terms of reality ) as Pegasus or unicorns.
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Because believing in space serpents, that would be like, really crazy, right? :rolleyes:
 
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ufology said:
AdMan,

If you can't accept the fact that when someone says they just saw a show about UFOs or that when someone mentions the word UFO, that the vast majority of people in the world instantly visualize a flying saucer or some other alien craft, then you are so far out of touch with the word's primary meaning in modern culture that you are in a state of denial.
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What do you call something which a person can't identify, appears to be flying, and appears to be an object?
 
John Albert said:
...except that we will have lost a perfectly serviceable word to mean flying objects that are unidentified.

If we redefine "UFO" to mean "alien craft," then what word do we use when we want to talk about unidentified flying objects?

There's no point, nor reason to redefine the acronym to mean something which its constituent words don't.

You want to talk about unidentified flying objects, say "UFO." You want to talk about alien craft, just say "alien craft."
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But what will we do when we want to dishonestly conflate the two?
 
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