nicole_UFO

Back to: Life on Other Planets? __ I believe….in Aliens __ Since the beginning of civilization, people have believed that not only do intelligent beings exist somewhere in the solar system, they have already visited our neighbourhood. In modern times, people cite UFO encounters and alien abduction experiences as proof that aliens have come to call – even that the government is hiding something about the presence of extraterrestrials. How true are these claims? Are aliens really lurking just out of view? __ Ancient Extraterrestrials __ Even before the modern technologies and ideas that are essential in our search for extraterrestrial life, people held various beliefs about aliens. Here is a brief history of the events and opinions leading into the modern debate about extraterrestrials. Gre ek and Roman mythology was based on a group of twelve main gods, the Olympians, who were said to live in the sky above an immense mountain, Mount Olympus. Although this may not seem like a mythology based on extraterrestrials, the stories have much in common with modern science fiction and beliefs about aliens: there are powerful beings – possibly more intelligent than us – that live in a world other that Earth and occasionally come down to meddle in human lives.

In 580 B.C., the Ionian philosopher Thales of Miletus proposed that the stars are independent worlds rather than lights hung from the dome of the sky. Thirty years later, in 550 B.C., Thales’ student, Anaximander of Miletus, speculated that there are an infinite number other worlds similar to Earth. These theories started the speculation amongst ancient philosophers that there may be life on other worlds. Two distinct (thought similar in the fact that they both promoted the theory of life on other worlds) teachings developed: pluralism and atomism. Pluralists believed that there are multiple worlds similar to Earth and that all must harbor intellectual life, though all are inaccessible to Earth; atomists believed that the universe was made up of tiny, indestructible particles (atoms), and that, since Earth was also made up of atoms, that there could be other Earths capable of supporting some sort of life, though not necessarily intelligent life. In the Middle Ages, the Church halted all speculation of extraterrestrial life besides angels and demons – the while God has the power to create other worlds, according to the Church, He decided against it, creating a unique position for humankind. Then, in 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus proved that the Earth was nothing more than a satellite of the sun, and that, therefore, other planets similar to Earth existed and could harbor extraterrestrial life. This restarted the debate on life on other planets – this time, however, with the invention of the telescope, there was more scientific data to back up the theories and opinions. The search for life on other planets had begun (see ‘Cathy’s page’ for more info), and the division between science and people’s beliefs in aliens had been established. __ Extraterrestrials in Fiction __ The earliest fictional book written on aliens is //True History//, written in 165 B.C by Lucian of Samosata, an ancient philosopher and advocate of pluralism. In //True History//, Lucian’s heroes are literally squirted up from the Earth by a giant waterspout and land on the moon, where they become entangled in a war between the inhabitants of the Sun and Moon over the colonization of Jupiter. Despite the absurdness of the details of his plot, Lucian’s novel was treated as speculative fiction rather than fantasy, and spawned a plethora of other extraterrestrial science fiction books. Among these, Jonathan Swift’s //Gulliver’s Travels// (which involves a civilization of miniature people, as illustrated on the right) and Voltaire’s //Micromegas// were probably the most famous and influential. However, none of these books had completely alien life forms that were not modeled on terrestrial creatures. During the early 1900s, science fiction involving aliens declined in popularity, due to scientific slump in astrobiology. In 1940, however, with the theme of invasion by hostile foreigners made popular by WWII and the Cold War, alien fiction flourished. Extraterrestrials that assume control over human victims was a common theme, used, for example, in Robert Heinlein’s //The Puppet Masters//. Movies took over the science fiction scene, using the same ideas of alien invasion, and movies such as //The Thing, It Came from Outer Space, Invaders from Mars,// and //Invasion of the Body Snatchers// were released. In 1938, on October 30, a radio play based on H.G. Wells’ book //The War of the Worlds//, was broadcasted all over the United States. Since the plot of //The War of the Worlds// revolved around the invasion of powerful, intellectually superior Martians whose goal is to conquer the Earth and kill off the human race, there was general alarm when the broadcaster mentioned unusual explosions on Mars, then that a ‘huge, flaming object’ had landed at Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Then, according to the broadcaster, the ‘object’ opened, an alien crawled out and pointed a gun-like object at the radio crew. There was an ‘official statement’ from Washington reporting that seven thousand soldiers had been killed by the alien as they attempted to subdue it. Though the play had been introduced at the start as fictional, many listeners who had missed the beginning took the play to be real. Thousands of people fled their homes; many more called in with heroic offers to help fight the aliens; and people called their friends and relatives to say goodbye. Weeks later, families were still unconvinced that it was safe to return to their homes. Here is an (almost) complete recording of the radio play, along with some pictures added after the fact. media type="youtube" key="YTvU9j3og5k" height="344" width="425" Following the radio play, which demonstrated the effect that the idea of possible alien invasion had on people, several well-known movies were released, including //Alien, Planet of the Apes, 2001: A Space Odyssey, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind// and, of course, //Star Wars.// This new wave of films, beginning at the dawn at the Space Age, were centered mostly around space exploration rather than on the aliens themselves, but still established interesting perspectives on extraterrestrial life. __ The History of UFOs __ Thousands of people every year report to having solved the debate on extraterrestrial life by spotting UFOs, or Unidentified Flying Objects – there are even people dedicated to researching UFOs called ‘ufologists’. Here is a brief timeline on the history of UFOs: · 1896-97 – Mysterious lights and objects are sighted in the sky; it is suggested that some of these unexplained phenomena might be craft from other worlds (heavier-than-air flight is being contemplated on Earth) · 1947 – Kenneth Arnold, a pilot from Idaho, describes strange objects he spotted while flying his plane solo as moving “like saucers skipping in water”. It was later reported that Arnold had seen “flying saucers” (the objects were reportedly crescent-shaped). This was the first official UFO sighting and the birth of the flying saucer. · 1947 – William Brazel discovers strange debris on a field near Roswell, New Mexico, ten days before Kenneth Arnold’s revelation. When Brazel later brought the debris to the local militia, they identified it as the remains of a flying saucer. There was a stunning media outcry. The debris was later identified as the remains of a weather balloon, then as the remains of a classified military experiment called ‘Project Mogul’ · 1947-50 – Thousands of UFOs were reported, particularly in the United States. Called the ‘saucer flap of 1947’, this spike in UFO sighting coincided with increased paranoia over enemy invasion, especially from the air (due to the Cold War), modern, advanced rocked designs, and an interest in possible space travel. It was also only a decade after the //War of the Worlds// Radio play · 1952 – A series of various UFOs and strange radio signals were noticed in quick succession, all centered around Washington, D.C. The events were dubbed the “Washington Invasion” · 1952 – Project Blue Book, the third and longest of three studies on UFOs performed by the U.S. Air Force, was started. Due to a decrease in interest (and therefore funding), Blue Book was deemed a failure and officially shut down in 1969. It is sometimes cited as a government cover-up for secret information on alien life · 1950s onward – A secret military installation near Groom Lake, Nevada, tests out strange new planes and rockets such as the U-2 spy plane, the B-2 stealth bomber, and the SR-71 Blackbird. The vehicles flown from the area, known as Area 51, have often been taken as UFOs. Because of the secrecy surrounding Area 51, some individuals have speculated that it also serves as a place to analyze captured UFOs or even prisoner aliens. · 1952-1969 – J. Allen Hynek, who worked on Project Blue Book, classifies UFO encounters as: Sightings of a mysterious object as well as alien occupants in or near the UFO || This picture is an out-of-focus snapshot of the planet Venus. Photographs like this one have been mistaken as shots of UFOs, especially during the 1947 saucer flap. Now, of course, we have special effects and picture editing to make everything more confusing. The moral: take claimed UFO pictures with a grain of salt. __
 * ** Type of Report ** || ** Description ** ||
 * Nocturnal Lights || Mysterious lights spotted during the night ||
 * Daylight Disks || Sightings of ovals or disks ||
 * Radar-Visual || Unidentified objects detected by radar and seen visually ||
 * Close Encounters of the First Kind || Sightings of some sort of mysterious object ||
 * Close Encounters of the Second Kind || Sightings of a mysterious object as well as an effect caused by the UFO on other objects ||
 * Close Encounters of the Third Kind ||

Alien Encounters and Abductions __ Some people go farther than the more ordinary UFO claim: they maintain that they have been abducted by aliens. To me, this declaration sounds like an excuse for showing up at school late and not to be taken seriously, yet a poll taken in 1992 in the U.S. shows that more than three million citizens think that they have been abducted by extraterrestrials. Should alien abduction claims be taken seriously or not? In 1953, George Adamski published a book, //Flying Saucers Have Landed//, in which he claimed to have communicated with aliens from Venus. In this and his second book, //Inside the Spaceships//, Adamski said that the aliens were attempting to warn humanity about the dangers of radiation from nuclear testing. Despite the impossibility of these claims (scientists had long ago ruled out the possibility of intelligent life on Venus), many people took Adamski seriously. This widened the gap between scientific knowledge and public opinion and started a wave of abduction reports. By the 1980s, thousands of abduction experiences had been reviewed. Often, the abductee ‘recovered’ memories of the experience under hypnosis. The typical pattern of the abduction experience was: · The abductee is removed from their bedroom and spirited onto an alien craft; · The aliens perform some sort of experiment, usually a genetic analysis involving the removal of sperm or ovum samples; · The abductee is replaced with a different memory of what happened (supposedly, the real memories must be extracted under hypnosis) Even during the Middle Ages, reports of abduction during sleep were common, although aliens were not to blame (the Devil was considered the culprit). A phenomenon called ‘sleep paralysis’( a state caused by the brain during and sometimes after sleep, which causes people to have difficulty moving and often feel watched) might account for the abduction reports. False memory syndrome (which, as its name suggests, is when ‘memories’ of events that never actually happened are recalled) and temporal lobe lability (the amount of electrical activity in the temporal lobes of the brain, which can cause out-of-body experiences) could also cause abduction experiences. In other words, our own brains are probably the cause of abduction experiences, not aliens. Some claim that aliens have left signs for us on Earth or in on nearby planets. Crop circles, for example, are strange geological patterns that appear in crops, and mostly occur in England. There are several explanations for the crop circles, including natural crop circles (the forming of which involves patches ionized air forming over crops, then cause part of the stalk to overheat and burst, flattening the crops) to human-made crop circles (involving a few artists with string and some boards). Either way, it is unlikely that aliens would traverse the universe to carve pretty but very simple messages in our crops. Also, a picture that was taken of a rock formation on Mars by the spacecraft Viking Orbiter I. When the photo reached Earth, many noticed the resemblance of the rock formation to a face and concluded that aliens had carved a face on Mars for us to find and interpret as a message. After years of intense debate, however, a much clearer image of ‘The Face’ was taken, revealing The Face’s features to be nothing more than a trick of the light.



__ Bibliography __ Achenbach, Joel. Captured by Aliens: The Search for Life and Truth in a Very Large Universe. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.

Darling, David J. Life Everywhere: The Maverick Science of Astrobiology. New York: Basic Books, 2001.

Darling, David J. The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia: An Alphabetical Reference to All Life in the Universe. New York: Three Rivers P, 2000.

Shostak, Seth, and Alex Barnett. Cosmic Company: The Search for Life in the Universe. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003.

Wikipedia Contributors. "Crop Circle." Wikipedia. 31 May 2009. 31 May 2009 .