Unidentified Flying Objects – The Reality, the Cover-Up and the Truth

johnblack

Unidentified Flying Objects, or UFOs as they are commonly known, have been witnessed by millions of people all over the world and have been recorded in history books, myths, legends and traditions for thousands of years. However, many accounts that are recorded in ancient texts are dismissed as mere myths and legends, while UFO sightings that have taken place in the last few centuries have been classified as misinterpretations of natural phenomena, illusions, or conspiracy theories.

The Reality Within the Mythology of Unidentified Flying Objects

History has shown us time and again that a plethora so-called myths have their basis in reality. It is possible, and indeed likely, that stories and legends were a way for people to explain real—and perhaps perplexing—events using the knowledge and beliefs of their time.

In support of this theory, a number of events described in mythology, which were once considered mere fairy tales, have now been proven through archaeology to have existed. A famous example is the city Troy, which is central to Homer’s The Iliad. Long considered to be a city of myth, Heinrich Schliemann’s discovery of the actual site in 1868 elevated it to a place in history.

• What Did the Ancients See? Unidentified Flying Objects that Made an Impact on Early History
• The Ancient History of UFOs and the Oppenheimer-Einstein Report

Nevertheless, the remainder of The Iliad is still viewed as a myth and fantasy without any serious attempts being made to investigate whether or not there may be more truth behind the tale. The same goes for many accounts of flying machines and unidentified flying objects, which we find reference to in countless mythologies from numerous different cultures around the world.

It is common to see people selectively decide what is real and what is not based on the unsubstantiated assumption that ancient people were primitive and had little to no knowledge compared to us today. On the contrary, many ancient civilizations, like the Sumerians, Indus Valley, and Egyptians existed with complex social structures, legal systems, art, astronomy, mathematics, and technology, some of which is still not fully understood today. The Antikythera Mechanism, for example, is a 2,200-year-old mechanical device that is still not completely understood despite  decades of research by top scientists around the world.

Many cultures contain pictorial and written records of flying machines or unidentified flying objects, yet these are usually dismissed as myth and legend.

(CC BY-SA 3.0)

Ancient Astronaut Theory and Unidentified Flying Objects

The topic of flying objects and supernatural beings from beyond our world is one in which we find multiple references in mythology. All of these myths and legends, along with archaeological evidence such as rock art depictions, have created a wave of theories that gave birth to the aptly named ancient astronaut perspective. This theory links all of these ancient references and depictions to UFOs, and posits that extraterrestrials visited Earth and made contact with humans in antiquity and prehistory, influencing the development of human cultures, technologies, and religions.

Unfortunately, there are numerous charlatans who have tried to cash in on this movement for profit or publicity, or who have diminished it with caricatures of little green men, resulting in the ancient astronaut perspective being widely criticized and attacked for its lack of credibility. Consequently, what is in fact a plausible and possible explanation for what we see in ancient art and texts, is now rarely examined by scholars, who fear being ridiculed or having their professional career seriously undermined.

UFO Sightings in Recent History

But let’s leave the ancient past for a while and examine just the last 80 years of human history. Millions of people all over the globe have witnessed unidentified flying objects. Many have been recorded in detailed reports witnessed by police, pilots, astronauts, government officials, pilots, military personnel and, of course, ordinary citizens.

Some of the more well-known cases were witnessed by thousands of people at one time. Historical records make it evident that UFO appearances magnified during and after World War II, including the example of the famous Foo Fighters.

While most sightings can be explained either by celestial phenomena, airplanes, planets, weather phenomena, military exercises, or in some cases drug use or mental instability, there still exists a small percentage that cannot be accounted for by any of these explanations. This is what makes the phenomena important, particularly considering that sightings are frequently reported around military bases and airfields and are therefore, at the very least, a matter of both national security and air safety.

It is an undeniable fact that there are cases of unidentified objects in our skies. It has been acknowledged by the major governments from all over the world simply through the very fact that official research has been conducted on the matter in the US, UK, Russia, Europe, China, South America, and many others. All of this research, in every single case, concluded that there is a percentage of phenomena that cannot be explained.

In recent history, many countries have declassified their UFO research files, releasing thousands of documents through the Freedom of Information Act and making numerous UFO cases available in the public domain. One recently released document from the UFO files in Britain, revealed how Churchill, concerned about the UFO issue, ordered a shutdown of information for at least 50 years to prevent mass panic and the potential to undermine religious beliefs. The document in question was published on the BBC news site in 2010.

By doing careful research on the topic, passing over obvious scam and fake stories, it is clear to see that unidentified flying objects do exist. So the question is not whether they exist or not, but rather, what are they? Are they of terrestrial or extraterrestrial origin? And what is their purpose?

UFOs in art: The Baptism of Christ by Arent de Gelder.

(Public domain)

Unidentified Flying Objects and the Limits of Science

Many prominent scientists have already stated that other civilizations must exist in the Universe, and that it would be statistically impossible for this not to be the case. However, with our knowledge of science and technology today, we cannot yet support the means for interstellar travel. Since we have not discovered intelligent life in our solar system, the assumption is made that there must be no way that extraterrestrials could have travelled to Earth.

However, this argument is of course flawed because it is based within the framework of our own understanding of the universe, and does not take into account the capabilities of civilizations that may be millions of years ahead of our own. It also hinges on the following assumptions:

• We know everything about physics and reality and therefore there is no way that such distant travel can be achieved.
• We are using our means to try to contact other civilizations (e.g. SETI’s attempts to pick up radio or communication signals) and since we don’t perceive any signals of OUR type, nothing must exist.
• We are looking for organic forms of life exactly like us and for planets with the exact same conditions as ours.

It is clear that these arguments show the arrogance of mankind, a mankind that may just be an infant in the Universe. And this is not new. During the history of humanity, in every single period of time, we believed that we knew the truth, only to have it replaced later on by new knowledge. 

“There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.”

- (Lord Kelvin, 1901, physicist)

Quantum physics, still a relatively new and unexplored field in Science, has shown that reality could be completely different to what we believe it to be. Powerful telescopes have shown distant planets in solar systems that could possibly sustain life. Theories of wormholes and warp drives have shown that at a theoretical level we could achieve interstellar travel. Yes, we would require incredible amounts of energy to even think of trying to achieve something like this, so according to our standards today it is impossible to achieve, but in theory it can be achieved.

“It now seems quite clear that Earth is not the only inhabited planet. There is evidence that the bulk of the stars in the sky have planetary systems. Recent research concerning the origin of life on Earth suggests that the physical and chemical processes leading to the origin of life occur rapidly in the early history of the majority of planets within our Milky Way galaxy–perhaps as many as a million–are inhabited by technical civilizations in advance of our own. Interstellar space flight is far beyond our present technical capabilities, but there seems to be no fundamental physical objections to preclude, from our own vantage point, the possibility of its development by other civilizations.” 

- Carl Sagan, Ph.D. (Late Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences, Cornell University)

Reluctance to Engage with Unidentified Flying Objects

The reason that the scientific community is not dealing seriously with UFOs is because the topic has been extensively ridiculed both by the media and in academic circles, with false information spread everywhere. For similar reasons, military personnel, astronauts, pilots, and other categories of professionals do not want to talk because, either they have been forced to sign confidentiality agreements, or because of fear that their careers would be destroyed. This is why we have seen many examples of death bed confessions.

One such case was with astronaut Gordon Cooper, who told the world about his experience encountering a UFO during his flight in the Mercury capsule in 1963. Before he died he stated: “For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists in astronautics. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us.”

While great efforts have been made to ridicule and disparage anyone who lends support to the existence of UFOs, the fact remains that there are numerous high-profile cases of unidentified flying objects that are supported by solid evidence, and which should not be dismissed.

Recorded UFO Sightings with Extensive Witness Support

Below I present a very limited list constituting strong evidence for the existence of unidentified flying objects in the last 60 years.

• November 1942 – La Incident, Known as the Battle of Los Angeles

It all happened in the early hours of February 25 in 1942. An aircraft flew over LA County that sparked an air raid alert (it was in the midst of WWII). Searchlights and guns were locked onto the aircraft for about an hour. The picture below appeared in the LA Times in a story about the Battle of LA. It clearly shows a night time defensive response to an air raid. The aircraft was not hostile and obviously was not damaged by the attack. The Government stated that the craft they were shooting at was an unidentified flying object.

The Battle of Los Angeles unidentified flying objects incident.

(Author provided)

• December 1980 – Rendlesham Forest Incident, Suffolk, United Kingdom

This incident involved a group of American servicemen stationed at a military base in Suffolk that contained a storage center with nuclear weapons. There had been three consecutive nights of sighting objects in the sky over the base, in some cases shining a light down upon the nuclear weapons storage.

On the third night, approximately two dozen servicemen were sent into the forest to investigate one set of mysterious lights. The men reported seeing a spacecraft on the ground in close proximity to them and three extraterrestrial beings. One serviceman claimed to have touched the craft.

The whole incident was filmed and photographed by one of the servicemen, but all photos and videos were removed by the US military. When the British Government released the UFO files, the Rendlesham incident papers were missing – as reported by the BBC News.

Rendlesham Forest unidentified flying objects incident, Suffolk, UK.

(Author provided)

• November 1986, Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 Over Alaska

In November, 1986, a Japanese crew of a jumbo freighter aircraft witnessed three enormous unidentified objects while flying over Alaska, USA. This sighting gained international attention when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it was going to officially investigate this sighting because the Air Route Traffic Control Center in Anchorage, Alaska, had reported that the UFO had been detected on radar. The unidentified flying objects in this case were tracked on both ground and airborne radar, witnessed by experienced airline pilots, and confirmed by a FAA Division Chief.

Illustration of the object, with the Boeing 747 airplane on the right.

Credits: UFO Reporter

• April 1990 – Belgium UFO Wave, Petit Rechain Belgium

The Belgium UFO wave began in November 1989. The events of 29 November would be documented by no less than thirty different groups of witnesses, and three separate groups of police officers. All of the reports related to a large object flying at low altitude.

The craft itself was of a flat, triangular shape, with lights underneath. This giant craft did not make a sound as it slowly moved across the landscape of Belgium. The Belgium UFO wave peaked with events on the night of 30/31 March 1990. On that night, unknown objects were tracked on radar, chased by two Belgian Air Force F16s, photographed, and were sighted by an estimated 13,500 people on the ground – 2,600 of whom filed written statements describing in detail what they had seen. Following the incident, the Belgian air force released a report detailing the events of that night.

Belgium UFO wave, Petit Rechain Belgium.

(Author provided)

• March 1997 – Phoenix Lights, Arizona, USA

The Phoenix Lights (also identified as "Lights over Phoenix") was a UFO sighting which occurred in Phoenix, Arizona, and Sonora, Mexico on Thursday, March 13, 1997. Lights of varying descriptions were seen by thousands of people between 19:30 and 22:30 MST, in a space of about 300 miles (480 km), from the Nevada line, through Phoenix, to the edge of Tucson.

Witnesses claim to have observed a huge square-shaped UFO, containing five spherical lights or possibly light-emitting engines. Fife Symington, the governor at the time, was one witness to this incident; he later called the unidentified flying object as "otherworldly."

Phoenix Lights, Arizona, US.

(Author provided)

• October 2004 – Osaka Airport, Japan

On the night of August 30, a cluster of multi-colored lights was seen floating in the sky above Osaka. Several people reported to Twitter that they saw a group of lights forming a triangular shape and flashing green, red and white in the night sky above Izumi city in Osaka Prefecture. The sightings caused a commotion on Twitter after one user wrote: “Everyone in Osaka, go outside! There’s a UFO!” prompting others to grab their cameras and snap up photos of mysterious, luminous and unidentified flying object.

Osaka airport UFO Incident, Japan.

(Author provided)

• November 2006, O-Hare Airport, USA

At approximately 16:15 CST on Tuesday November 7, 2006, federal authorities at Chicago O'Hare International Airport received a report that a group of twelve airport employees were witnessing a metallic, saucer-shaped craft hovering over Gate C-17.

The object was first spotted by a ramp employee who was pushing back United Airlines Flight 446, which was departing Chicago for Charlotte, North Carolina. The employee apprised Flight 446's crew of the object above their aircraft. It is believed that both the pilot and co-pilot also witnessed the object.

Several independent witnesses outside of the airport also saw the object. According to the Chicago Tribune's Jon Hilkevitch, “the disc was visible for approximately two minutes and was seen by close to a dozen United Airlines employees, ranging from pilots to supervisors, who heard chatter on the radio and raced out to view it.”

O-Hare Airport UFO Incident, USA.

(Author provided)

• May 2007, UFO Fleets, Lima, Peru

The incident took place on May 2007 at 14.00 local time in Lima, Peru. A series of moving lights resembling an armada of flying objects appeared in the skies. The story was reported on the news and was seen by thousands of people.

UFO Fleets, Lima, Peru.

(Author provided)

• July 2010 – Xiaoshan Airport, China

An unidentified flying object that disrupted air traffic in Hangzhou for an hour on Wednesday, 10th of July 2010. A flight crew preparing for descent first detected the object around 8:40 p.m. and notified the air traffic control department. Aviation authorities responded within minutes, grounding outbound flights and diverting inbound ones to airports in Ningbo and Wuxi. Eighteen flights were affected.

A spokesman from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) confirmed to ABC News that the matter is under investigation. He declined to disclose further details. A day after the sighting, however, an anonymous source told China Daily that authorities already discovered the identity of the UFO after an investigation but could not publically disclose the information because “there was a military connection.”

Xiaoshan Airport UFO Incident, China.

(Author provided)

• the "Tic Tac" UFO sighting by Navy pilots in 2004

Retired Navy Cmdr. David Fravor was commander of the F/A-18F squadron on the USS Nimitz when he says he spotted the object during a flight off the coast of Southern California on Nov. 14, 2004. 

In a 2021 interview with "60 Minutes," Fravor, a graduate of the Top Gun naval flight school, also spoke about what he saw. 

He and Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich were training with the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group about 100 miles southwest of San Diego, Favor told "60 Minutes." At the time, advanced radar on a ship that was a part of their training group, the USS Princeton, detected what operators called "multiple anomalous aerial vehicles" over the horizon, descending 80,000 feet in less than a second. Fravor and Dietrich diverted to investigate.

"I said, 'Dude, do you, do you see that thing down there?' And we saw this little white Tic Tac-looking object. And it's just kind of moving above the whitewater area," Fravor told "60 Minutes."

During the training exercise, Fravor and Dietrich each had a weapons system officer in the back seat of their F/A-18F. 

"There was four of us in the airplanes literally watching this thing for roughly about five minutes," Fravor said in his 2021 interview.

Fravor went in for a closer look. He described the "Tic Tac" object mirroring his movements, saying "it was aware we were there."

The object was about the size of Fravor's F/A-18F, with no markings, no wings and no exhaust plumes, he said. When Fravor tried to cut off the UAP, it accelerated so quickly that it seemed to disappear. He said it was detected roughly 60 miles away less than a minute later.

Implications of Disclosing Information about Unidentified Flying Objects

Many would say that the above examples constitute irrefutable proof that extraterrestrial UFOs exist. So why isn’t the public told about it? Imagine the implications that disclosure would have and what it would mean. Acknowledgment of extra-terrestrial civilizations having visited Earth would mean that many of the myths and legends of the past are in fact based on reality.

Disclosure would suggest that humanity has been influenced for millennia by other-worldly beings, beings that in the past were considered gods. Disclosure would entirely topple the status quo and the balance of powers in society, and turn upside down what we know about the history of mankind.

• Ancient Artists Left Signs for us to Decode. Did they Witness UFOs?
• What Did the Ancients See? Unidentified Flying Objects that Made an Impact on Early History

The acknowledgement of the UFO phenomena is an event with the power to bring a global revolution in every sector of our lives today – technology and energy supply, communication and environmental concerns, society and religion. Is this what governments and corporations are afraid of – a shift in balance and their loss of their positions of power and control? Or is it that the powers that be are afraid of re-writing our human history?

“When the long awaited solution to the UFO problem comes, I believe that it will prove to be not merely the next small step in the march of science, but a mighty and totally unexpected quantum leap.”

 (Dr J. Allen Hynek, Scientific Advisor to the U.S. Air Force)

• Top image: Composite image of unidentified flying objects.
• Source: Author provided.

By John Black

RELATED VIDEOS

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena }

28-11-2025 om 21:19 geschreven door peter  

Do UFOs Come from Parallel Dimensions? Scientific Theories

1. Overview

The phenomenon of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) has long fascinated humanity, inspiring countless stories, theories, and debates about their origin. Traditionally, UFO sightings have been attributed to extraterrestrial visitors from distant planets, stimulated by movies, literature, and anecdotal reports. However, in recent years, a new and intriguing hypothesis has gained traction within scientific and academic circles: that some UFOs may not originate from other planets but instead from alternative dimensions or parallel universes.

This perspective shifts the focus from extraterrestrial civilizations traveling through space via advanced propulsion to the idea that UFOs could be interdimensional craft—vehicles capable of traversing different realities. Such a notion is rooted in modern physics, particularly in quantum mechanics, string theory, and multiverse hypotheses. These frameworks propose that our universe may be just one of many, existing across multiple dimensions, with different physical laws, constants, and properties.

Proponents of the interdimensional hypothesis argue that the unusual flight characteristics reported in many UFO sightings—such as instantaneous acceleration, abrupt directional changes, and apparent defiance of gravity—might be explained if these objects are shifting between or residing in alternate realms where the laws of physics differ from our observable universe. If true, this would revolutionize our understanding of reality, technology, and even consciousness, bridging the gap between science fiction and empirical science.

In this article, we will explore the scientific foundations for these ideas, analyze the evidence and challenges involved, and consider the broader implications of the hypothesis that UFOs originate from parallel or higher dimensions.

2. Theoretical Foundations

The hypothesis that UFOs may originate from alternate dimensions rests on some of the most advanced and speculative theories in contemporary physics. These theories aim to unify understanding of the universe's fundamental structure, often proposing the existence of realms beyond human perception, governed by different physical laws or constants.

a. Parallel Universes and Multiverse Concepts

One of the central constructs supporting the idea of interdimensional travel is the multiverse—the concept that our universe is just one among an enormous, possibly infinite, number of universes. This idea emerges from interpretations of quantum mechanics, cosmology, and string theory.

The multiverse notion can be categorized into several types:

• Level I (Infinite Space): Our universe, which, due to the universe's vastness, contains regions with different initial conditions, but governed by the same physical laws.
• Level II (Bubble Universes): Arising from cosmic inflation, different "bubble" universes could have varied physical constants and properties.
• Level III (Many-Worlds): Derived from the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics, suggesting every quantum event creates branches or parallel worlds.
• Level IV (Mathematical Multiverse): Theorized by physicist Max Tegmark, proposing that all mathematical structures exist physically as universes with different laws of mathematics.

Within multiverse frameworks, parallel universes are envisioned as realms physically adjacent or overlapped with our own, yet separated by dimensions or boundaries imperceptible to us. Diverging from traditional science-fiction notions, these concepts are rooted in highly mathematical models that remain untestable with current technology, but offer consistent explanations within physics.

b. Extra Dimensions and String Theory

String theory posits that fundamental particles are not point-like but instead are small, vibrating strings. For the mathematics to work and be free of inconsistencies, string theory requires more than the three spatial dimensions we experience daily—specifically, it demands up to 10 or 11 total dimensions.

These additional dimensions are thought to be "compactified" or curled up at scales near the Planck length (~10^-35 meters), rendering them invisible and inaccessible to current experiments. Nonetheless, some models propose that higher or "large" extra dimensions could influence gravitational forces, potentially allowing shortcuts or portals between our observable universe and others.

The idea is that interdimensional travel might be akin to navigating through these extra dimensions, which could be larger or have different physical properties than the small curled-up ones posited by string theory. If such portals exist, an advanced civilization or technology might harness them for faster-than-light or non-spatial travel—possibly explaining some of the inexplicably rapid movements observed in UFO sightings.

c. Quantum Mechanics and Superposition

Quantum mechanics introduces the concept of particles existing in multiple states simultaneously—a superposition—and the influence of the observer on the state of particles. Some theorists interpret these phenomena as hints toward a layered reality, where multiple states or worlds coexist and interact at a fundamental level.

In particular, the Many-Worlds Interpretation suggests that all possible outcomes of quantum events occur in branching universes. While controversial, it lends conceptual support to the idea that realities can intersect or overlap, perhaps allowing phenomena or entities from one realm to manifest into another temporarily.

This raises intriguing questions about whether objects or entities could "leap" between states or realities via quantum effects, and whether UFOs could be manifestations of such inter-reality physics. Although speculative, this idea fuels the notion that what we see as UFOs might be the result of interdimensional crossings governed by quantum laws.

d. Summary Table of Dimensions

3. Expert Commentary

The scientific community remains cautious in adopting the interdimensional hypothesis, primarily due to the lack of direct empirical evidence. Nonetheless, some physicists advocate for exploring these ideas, especially in the context of unexplained phenomena.

Some have theorized that we made contact with a form of intelligent life but they aren't from outer space, they are ultraterrestrials from other dimensions. 

AMR Image/Getty Images

a. Michio Kaku and Higher-Dimensional Physics

One of the most prominent voices supporting interdimensional travel is theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. Known for popularizing advanced concepts like string theory and multiverse cosmology, Kaku has publicly entertained the possibility that civilizations with sufficiently advanced technology could exploit higher dimensions for travel.

In a 2024 interview, Kaku stated: "If a civilization could master the mathematics of string theory, it might be able to slip into a neighboring brane and re-enter our space, appearing to us as a sudden flash or a craft that seems to ignore our laws of inertia." Here, "brane" refers to a multidimensional membrane within string theory where our universe resides. The idea is that if an object could access a neighboring brane—another dimension with different physical properties—it could traverse regions of space and time in ways impossible for our current technology.

He emphasizes that such interdimensional crossings would not necessarily require faster-than-light travel but would involve shifting into a higher or different dimension where the constraints of our physical constants, like the speed of light, may not apply. The craft would effectively "hop" between universes or dimensions, bypassing the physical limits that trap objects within our universe.

While speculative, Kaku’s assertions are grounded in the mathematics of string theory and higher-dimensional physics, providing a scientific veneer to an otherwise sci-fi concept. His arguments are bolstered by the fact that the equations describing particle behavior at the quantum level—such as quantum tunneling and entanglement—suggest that non-classical interactions across dimensions are at least theoretically conceivable.

b. Other Scientific Perspectives and Skepticism

While notable physicists entertain these ideas, the overall scientific consensus remains cautious. Many experts argue that current models lack empirical support, and with no tangible method to test or falsify the multiverse or interdimensional hypotheses, they remain speculative.

Critics point out that without experimental verification, these theories risk remaining philosophical musings rather than scientific facts. The challenge lies in developing technology capable of detecting or interacting with higher dimensions or parallel universes, a feat that may be centuries beyond current capabilities.

Nonetheless, some researchers advocate for indirect testing methods—such as high-energy physics experiments, gravitational wave detection, or observations of cosmic phenomena—that might hint at extra dimensions or multiverse effects. For example, anomalies in gravitational wave signals or deviations in fundamental constants could suggest phenomena beyond our current understanding, potentially linked to higher-dimensional physics.

4. Evaluating the Evidence

The hypothesis that some UFOs are interdimensional craft hinges on the interpretation of anomalous flight characteristics that defy known physics.

Artist's view of an aerial encounter with an unidentified flying object. 

(Image credit: MUFON)

a. UFO Sightings and Flight Characteristics

Numerous reports cite UFOs with extraordinary capabilities:

- Instantaneous acceleration: Objects appearing to jump from a standstill to high speeds in a fraction of a second.

- Sharp angular turns: Making sudden, impossible maneuvers without apparent inertia or aerodynamic effects.

- Silent hovering and sudden disappearance: Remaining stationary or vanishing abruptly, often without noise.

- Lack of detectable propulsion: No visible exhaust or electromagnetic signatures.

These observations challenge our understanding of physics, especially the constraints imposed by energy requirements, inertia, and aerodynamics. Such flight profiles could, in principle, be explained by transformations through higher dimensions, where the constraints of our physical laws do not apply, allowing craft to "transcend" our spatial-temporal framework.

b. Empirical Data and Limitations

Despite anecdotal accounts and some corroborated sightings, systematic scientific analysis reveals significant limitations:

- The 2023 UFO report by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence documented 144 incidents featuring "unexplained flight dynamics," yet it refrained from offering conclusive explanations.

- Many reports are subject to observer bias, atmospheric illusions, or instrumentation errors. For example, atmospheric phenomena like ball lightning, mirages, or drone interference can mimic extraordinary motion.

- High-quality, multi-sensor data—combining radar, infrared, and visual recordings—are scarce, making it difficult to conclusively analyze these phenomena.

Tic-Tac-shaped objects were recently reported zipping through the sky by jet-fighter pilots and radar operators. The Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was created to research and investigate Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), including numerous videos of reported encounters, three of which were released to the public in 2017. 

(Image credit: U.S. Department of Defense/To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science)

c. Challenges in Confirming Interdimensional Origin

The primary challenge is scientific: without testable hypotheses or measurable interactions with these allegedly interdimensional crafts, the theory remains speculative. To establish credibility, researchers need:

- High-resolution data from multiple sensors.

- Observable interactions with the environment or instruments that cannot be explained by known physics.

- Reproducible experiments or controlled studies.

Until such data are available, the interdimensional hypothesis functions more as an intriguing framework than an empirically proven theory.

Reported UFOs take on all shapes and sizes.  

(Image credit: U.K. National Archives sightings chart, circa 1969)

5. Implications and Future Directions

The notion that UFOs could originate from parallel dimensions, if validated, would have profound implications across several scientific disciplines and societal domains.

a. Impact on Physics and Cosmology

Empirical evidence of interdimensional craft would directly support multiverse and higher-dimensional theories, transforming our understanding of reality. It would:

- Validate models of string theory and brane-world scenarios.

- Provide clues about the fabric of spacetime and the nature of all existence.

- Enable scientists to explore new physics, potentially leading to revolutionary technological advances.

Such discoveries could also offer insights into the origins of the universe, the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and the fundamental limits of physical laws.

Close encounters with our future selves?

 (Image credit: thortful.com)

b. Technological and Societal Impact

Harnessing interdimensional travel could revolutionize transportation and energy:

- Travel across vast distances in space or time, reducing or eliminating the need for conventional propulsion.

- The possibility of accessing alternate realities might spark radical shifts in technology, medicine, and understanding of consciousness.

Society’s perception of reality, humanity’s place in the cosmos, and religious or philosophical views could also be profoundly affected. The confirmation of interdimensional visitors would challenge notions of objectivity, perception, and the uniqueness of human existence.

c. Scientific and Research Directions

Current efforts focus on:

- Developing more sensitive instruments for detecting anomalies in gravitational, electromagnetic, and quantum signals.

- Conducting multi-disciplinary research combining physics, neuroscience, and data science to explore consciousness and perception in relation to unexplained phenomena.

- Launching dedicated exoplanet and cosmic surveys to identify potential signatures of higher-dimensional effects.

Funding agencies like the National Science Foundation and private organizations recognize the importance of exploring "exotic physics" and allocate modest grants for relevant projects, aiming to develop testable models or find indirect evidence.

d. Ethical and Philosophical Considerations

The possibility of encountering other dimensions or realities raises vital questions:

- How should research be conducted ethically, especially if interdimensional beings possess consciousness?

- What are the implications for human identity if others exist beyond our perception?

- How do we communicate or interact cautiously with phenomena that may be beyond our understanding?

The scientific pursuit of interdimensional hypotheses demands rigorous standards, transparency, and interdisciplinary collaboration, balancing curiosity with caution.

6. Conclusion

The hypothesis that UFOs originate from parallel or higher dimensions integrates the frontier concepts of modern physics with the enduring mystery of unidentified aerial phenomena. While firmly rooted in speculative models like string theory, quantum mechanics, and multiverse cosmologies, it remains unproven and highly debated. Nonetheless, the intriguing flight characteristics of some UFO sightings and the mathematical consistency of these theories continue to inspire scientific inquiry.

Future technological advancements, meticulous data collection, and experimental innovation could bring us closer to understanding whether these phenomena are manifestations of unseen realms or simply artifacts of misinterpretation. Regardless of the outcome, exploring the possibility of interdimensional origins not only pushes the boundaries of physics but also challenges our notions of reality, perception, and humanity’s place in the universe.

In summary: The idea that UFOs come from alternate dimensions remains an exciting, scientifically plausible avenue of investigation—one that bridges our current knowledge with the unknown. If confirmed, it would fundamentally alter our understanding of the cosmos and open new horizons for discovery, technology, and philosophy.

RELATED VIDEOS

{ PETER2011 }

26-11-2025 om 21:07 geschreven door peter  

Internet Puzzled by “Jellyfish” UFO Video

By Victor Tangermann

Image: Jeremy Corbell via YouTube

Jellyfish and Chandelier

A video of what has since been dubbed a “jellyfish” UFO is making the rounds online.

The footage, shared by journalist Jeremy Corbell earlier this week, shows a mysterious object that appears to have dangling tendrils, and which appears to smoothly float over the roofs of a military base in Iraq. According to Corbell, the UFO footage dates back to October 2018.

According to Cincoski, the footage was taken from an aerostat, a big balloon observatory that was floating over the base to detect any incoming threats.

“Toward the end, it seemingly continued off into the distance,” he told NewsNation, but refuted Corbell’s claims that it ever dropped “into the lake or shoot into the sky.”

“It ended up being the ghost story of the base,” Cincoski added.

Critics, however, say both the “jellyfish” and “chandelier” had much simpler explanations than some outlandish alien theories would suggest.

“The ‘Chandelier’ UFO appears to be a diffraction artifact,” tweeted writer and noted UFO debunker Mick West. “Basically, a glare from a very bright/hot source, like a missile rocket/engine.”

And the jellyfish was likely “two different balloon-like entities” moving about 12 kilometers apart, West added, that appear to be moving at the same speed as the wind — a strong clue that instead of an alien visitor, it’s just a balloon.

More on UFOs: 

• Congress Receiving Mysterious Classified Briefing About UFOs

{ https://futurism.com/ }

26-11-2025 om 17:21 geschreven door peter  

UFO’S EN ONZE FASCINATIE ERMEE  - De geschiedenis, evolutie en impact van de onbekende vliegende objecten

Een illustratie van hoe bolvormige UFO's eruitzien.

Inleiding

De wereld van onbekende vliegende objecten, beter bekend als UFO’s of UAP's, heeft mensen al tientallen jaren in haar greep. Of het nu gaat om oude legendes, middeleeuwse volksverhalen of hedendaagse nieuwsberichten, de fascinatie voor vreemde objecten die door de lucht bewegen zonder duidelijke verklaring, blijft onverminderd aanwezig. Dit artikel neemt je mee op een reis door de geschiedenis van UFO’s, onderzoekt hoe dit fenomeen zich door de jaren heen heeft ontwikkeld en bespreekt de impact die het heeft gehad en nog steeds heeft op de maatschappij en wetenschap in de 21e eeuw.

De vroege geschiedenis van UFO-waarnemingen

De vroege geschiedenis van UFO-waarnemingen is een fascinerend onderwerp dat honderden, zo niet duizenden jaren teruggaat in de tijd. Het fenomeen van onverklaarbare vliegende objecten, oftewel UFO's (Unidentified Flying Objects), is niet iets van de laatste decennia. Mensen overal ter wereld en door de geschiedenis heen hebben getuigenissen, verhalen en symbolen verzameld die wijzen op vreemde verschijnselen aan de hemel. Deze waarnemingen worden vaak geïnterpreteerd als iets buitenaards, maar in de oudheid werden ze meestal gezien als godsverschijningen, bovenaardse krachten of natuurlijke fenomenen.

In oude geschriften en mythologieën vinden we talloze beschrijvingen die mogelijk verband houden met wat wij tegenwoordig als UFO’s zouden kunnen beschouwen. Bijvoorbeeld, in middeleeuwse manuscripten en religieuze teksten worden vaak verhalen verteld over glanzende lichten, vliegende schijven of hemelvaartuigen. Een bekend voorbeeld is de beschrijving van de ‘vliegende schijven’ uit de middeleeuwen die in Europese kronieken voorkomen. Sommige passages uit het boek van de Franse schrijver en profeet Nostradamus spreken over ‘vliegende wielen’ en ‘glanzende lichten’ die door de lucht zweven. Daarnaast zijn er schilderijen uit de middeleeuwen te vinden waarop mysterieuze ronde objecten in de hemel te zien zijn, zoals het beroemde schilderij ‘De Vliegende Aarding’ in de kathedraal van Exeter, dat misschien een passing van een UFO voorstelt.

Ook uit de oude beschavingen zoals Egypte, Mesopotamië, India en China vinden we voorbeelden die mogelijk wijzen op het waarnemen van vreemde luchtverschijnselen. In het oude Egypte bijvoorbeeld, zijn er fresco’s en reliëfs gevonden waarop vliegende schijven en mysterieuze lichten te zien zijn. Een bekend voorbeeld is de gravure van het ‘Vliegende Vuurafel’ uit het graf van Thutmosis III, die er op lijkt te duiden dat de oude Egyptenaren astronomen en scheepsbouwers waren die zich verwonderden over ongewone hemelverschijnselen. Ook in oude Indiase teksten, zoals de Veda’s, worden vliegende voertuigen beschreven, zogenaamde ‘Vimanas’, die mogelijk symbolen waren voor geavanceerde technologie of mythische voertuigen. In Chinese oude geschriften zien we verhalen over ‘luchtgeesten’ en mysterieuze bollen die op subtiele wijze door de lucht bewegen, vaak gekoppeld aan bovennatuurlijke krachten of goddelijke manifestaties.

Bovendien zijn er artefacten zoals petroglyphs en rotstekeningen die vreemde objecten afbeelden. Bijvoorbeeld in Noord-Amerika, bij de Indianen, zijn rotsgravures gevonden waarop gevormde vormen lijken op vliegtuigen of schepen uit een futuristische wereld. In Europa en Scandinavië zijn vergelijkbare tekeningen gevonden die mogelijk verwijzen naar het waarnemen van ongebruikelijke luchtverschijnselen, zoals vlammen, vuurballen of glanzende lichten, soms tijdens vollemaan of bij belangrijke gebeurtenissen. Veel van deze oude gegevens worden tegenwoordig geïnterpreteerd als mystieke of natuurlijke verschijnselen, maar ze zouden ook kunnen wijzen op de aanwezigheid van vreemde voertuigen of wezens die de mensheid al eeuwenlang fascinerend blijven.

Kortom, de vroege geschiedenis van UFO-waarnemingen is rijk en gevarieerd. Door de hele wereld heen, uit allerlei culturen en tijdperken, vinden we aanwijzingen dat mensen altijd al getuige zijn geweest van een fenomeen die ze niet onmiddellijk konden verklaren. Of het nu gaat om schilderijen, teksten, artefacten of volksverhalen, deze vroege indrukken vormen een fascinerend landschap dat laat zien dat het fenomeen van vliegende objecten een onderdeel is van onze menselijke geschiedenis, lang vóór de moderne beeldvorming en rapportages. Het blijven ontdekken en interpreteren van deze oude getuigenissen houdt ons scherp en nieuwsgierig naar de ware aard van deze mysterieuze verschijnselen.

Het moderne tijdperk

Het moderne tijdperk van UFO-onderzoeken en -hype werd echt ingeluid door een gebeurtenis die plaatsvond op 24 juni 1947 in de Verenigde Staten. Op die dag vervoegde een piloot met de naam Kenneth Arnold zich in de schijnwerpers van de wereldgeschiedenis. Arnold, een ervaren burgerluchtvaartpiloot en zakenman uit de staat Idaho, was op dat moment op een routinevlucht toen hij plotseling een opmerkelijk verschijnsel in de lucht zag. Tijdens zijn vlucht nabij de bergketen van Mount Rainier in de staat Washington merkte hij een formatie van mysterieuze vliegende objecten op. Wat Arnold precies zag waren verschillende vliegende objecten die in een formatie door de lucht bewogen. Wat hem vooral opviel, was de manier waarop deze objecten zich gedroegen: ze leken zonder enige moeite en met grote snelheid over de hemel te bewegen.

Arnold beschreef de objecten als ‘saucer-like’, oftewel schotelvormig, wat zou kunnen wijzen op een ronde, platte vorm zoals een traditionele schotelopvang. Deze beschrijving sloeg aan en werd snel een centraal punt in de berichtgeving over het verschijnsel. De term “flying saucers” die voortkwam uit Arnold’s rapport, werd al snel populair en zou decennia lang synoniem worden met alles wat met mysterieuze vliegende objecten werd geassocieerd. Dit incident veroorzaakte een ware media-sensatie; kranten, radio- en televisiezenders berichtten massaal over de waarneming van Arnold en de vermoedelijke verschijning van buitenaardse voertuigen. Het was voor het eerst dat het begrip UFO UFO breed bekend raakte onder het grote publiek en begon te leven in het collectieve bewustzijn.

Kort na deze gebeurtenis begonnen talloze andere mensen, waaronder gewone burgers, vissers, vrachtwagenchauffeurs en militairen, soortgelijke waarnemingen te doen. Over de jaren heen werden honderden rapporten verzameld van mensen die onverklaarbare objecten hadden gezien in de lucht. Sommige van deze waarnemingen waren erg gedetailleerd en officieel gedocumenteerd, wat de nieuwsgierigheid en de belangstelling voor het fenomeen alleen maar verder aanwakkerde. Militaire bases en overheidsinstanties begonnen ook alert te worden op de mogelijke dreiging die deze onverklaarbare objecten konden vormen.

De media speelden een grote rol in het versterken van de UFO-waan. Ze overspoelden het publiek met verhalen over mysterieuze verschijnselen, getuigenverslagen en zogenaamde geheim gehouden informatie. Deze uitgebreide berichtgeving zorgde voor een groeiende publieke belangstelling en zelfs angst. Mensen begonnen te speculeren over de mogelijkheid dat we in contact zouden kunnen komen met buitenaardsen of dat er een geheime overmacht actief was die ons observeerde.

Door de jaren heen ontwikkelde zich een uitgebreide cultuur rondom het fenomeen UFO’s, met wetenschappelijke onderzoeken, conspiracy-theorieën en een wereldwijde gemeenschap van enthousiastelingen die verder wilden zoeken naar antwoorden. Het incident van Kenneth Arnold wordt dan ook vaak beschouwd als het begin van de moderne UFO-hype, het startpunt van een lange en complexe geschiedenis die tot op de dag van vandaag voortduurt. Deze gebeurtenis markeerde het moment waarop het fenomeen uit de marginale hoek was gekropen en was doorgedrongen tot het middelpunt van publieke en overheidsdebatten over buitenaards leven en technologische geheimen.

De jaren ’50 en ’60: een periode van onderzoek en theorieën

De jaren ’50 en ’60 vormen een fascinerende periode in de geschiedenis van UFO-onderzoek, gekenmerkt door een groeiende nieuwsgierigheid en de ontwikkeling van verschillende theorieën. Na het incident van 1947, waarbij een onbekend object crashte in Roswell, New Mexico, namen de meldingen van ongeïdentificeerde vliegende objecten (UFO’s) snel toe. Mensen waren steeds meer gefascineerd door het idee dat we mogelijk niet alleen in het universum waren, en het publieke bewustzijn over buitenaardse bezoekers nam toe.

In deze periode werden diverse onderzoeksgroepen opgericht om UFO-incidenten te bestuderen. Een van de bekendste initiatieven was ‘Project Blue Book’, dat van 1952 tot 1969 door het Amerikaanse leger werd uitgevoerd. Het doel was om concrete bewijzen te vinden voor het bestaan van buitenaardse wezens, of om te bewijzen dat deze fenomenen verklaard konden worden door natuurlijke of menselijke oorzaken. Tijdens de looptijd werden er meer dan 12.000 meldingen onderzocht, variërend van eenvoudige verschijningen in de lucht tot complexe waarnemingen zoals vormen die explosief van kleur konden veranderen of zich met ongelooflijke snelheid voortbewogen. Voorbeelden hiervan zijn de zogenaamde 'foo fighters' die door piloten tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog werden gerapporteerd en ook in de jaren ’50 en ’60 vaak werden waargenomen.

Uit het onderzoek bleek dat het merendeel van de waarnemingen konden worden verklaard door natuurlijke fenomenen zoals weersverschijnselen (bijvoorbeeld lichteffecten door wolken of bliksemflitsen), of menselijke activiteiten zoals het loslaten van ballonnen of het testen van nieuwe vliegtuigen en vuurpijlen. Tevens werden veel waarnemingen toegeschreven aan lichtreflexies of zelfs psychologische factoren zoals massahysterie of verkeerd geïnterpreteerde observaties. Desondanks bleef een klein gedeelte van de meldingen onduidelijk en onverklaarbaar, wat leidde tot speculaties dat sommige UFO’s misschien buitenaardse schepen waren.

Wetenschappers zoals Stanton Friedman en anderen pleitten voor een open houding en suggereerden dat het niet uitgesloten kon worden dat sommige waarnemingen bewijs waren van buitenaardse bezoekers. Het idee dat intelligente buitenaardse wezens actief zouden kunnen zijn op aarde en dat sommige UFO’s mogelijk hun schepen waren, werd in die tijd vooral besproken in wetenschappelijke kringen en in sciencefiction. Films zoals ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ uit 1977 en series zoals ‘The Outer Limits’ en ‘The Twilight Zone’ weerspiegelden deze fascinatie en spelen een grote rol in de popularisering van het buitenaardse verhaal. In die periode werd de basis gelegd voor de latere uitgebreide wetenschappelijke en culturele discussies over het bestaan van buitenaardse levensvormen en de mysteries rondom UFO’s.

Deze afbeelding toont een luchtfoto van het Pentagon op 26 januari 2020. Op 14 november 2024 onthulde een nieuw rapport van het Pentagon over UFO's honderden nieuwe incidenten.

AP Foto/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Bestand/AP Foto/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Bestand/AP Foto/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Bestand

De periode van twijfel en wantrouwen

In de jaren ’70 en ’80 nam de publieke interesse in UFO’s tijdelijk af. De media en wetenschappelijke gemeenschap richtten zich meer op andere onderwerpen, en er was een zekere scepsis over de enorme hoeveelheid getuigenissen en onverklaarbare verschijnselen. Desondanks bleef een kleine groep onderzoekers en liefhebbers verder zoeken en theorieën ontwikkelen over buitenaardse levensvormen die de aarde zouden bezoeken.

De opkomst van internet en de digitalisering aan het eind van de 20e eeuw leidde tot een nieuw tijdperk van informatieverspreiding. Video’s en foto’s van vermeende UFO’s werden overal gedeeld en besproken. Sommige van deze opnames leken overtuigend, terwijl anderen later werden ontkracht of verklaard als menselijke of natuurlijke verschijnselen. De discussie bleef echter voortduren.

In deze periode ontstond ook een groeiende belangstelling onder het grote publiek en in de popcultuur. Films, series en boeken verwerkten het thema van buitenaardse wezens en UFO’s. Denk aan klassiekers als “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “Independence Day” en “The X-Files”. Deze media-invloeden zorgden voor een versterkte fascinatie en soms ook voor verkeerde verwachtingen of misverstanden over de werkelijkheid van UFO-waarnemingen.

De hernieuwde belangstelling in de jaren ’90 en de 21e eeuw

In de jaren ’90 en de daaropvolgende jaren zagen we een aanzienlijk hernieuwde interesse in het fenomeen van UFO’s en onverklaarbare vliegende objecten. Deze periode werd gekenmerkt door een grote toestroom van nieuwe beelden, video’s en rapportages die de publieke nieuwsgierigheid weer deden toenemen en de discussie over buitenaards leven en geheime technologie nieuw leven inbliezen. Een van de meest invloedrijke gebeurtenissen uit die periode was de publicatie van de beroemde ‘Tic Tac’-video’s door het Amerikaanse ministerie van Defensie.

De ‘Tic Tac’-video’s werden in 2004 en 2015 gemaakt door Amerikaanse Navy-piloten die deelnamen aan geheime militaire oefeningen. Op de beelden is te zien hoe een onbegrijpelijk object, dat lijkt op een kleine, ovale, witte ‘Tic Tac’, zich op verbijsterende snelheid door de lucht beweegt, zonder de gebruikelijke vluchttechnieken die wij kennen. Het object kan volgens de piloten van direction veranderen en extreem snelle transities maken, die onmogelijk te verklaren zijn door menselijke technologie uit die tijd. Deze beelden werden in 2017 door het Pentagon officieel vrijgegeven, wat een golf van publieke en wetenschappelijke interesse veroorzaakte.

De vrijgave van deze video’s leidde niet alleen tot uitgebreid media-onderzoek, maar gaf ook het startschot voor bredere discussies over het bestaan en de herkomst van deze objecten. Mensen begonnen vragen te stellen zoals: Wat is die technologie die zo snel en beweeglijk is? Zijn deze objecten van menselijke of buitenaardse oorsprong? Hoe kunnen ze zich zo snel door de lucht voortbewegen zonder dat we ze begrijpen? Het bleek dat deze beelden niet slechts anekdotisch waren, maar hoge-resolutie en real-time getuigenissen bevatten die wetenschappers van over de hele wereld aan het denken zette.

Naast de ‘Tic Tac’-video’s waren er nog meer voorbeelden van opmerkelijke waarnemingen die in de jaren ’90 en daarna de aandacht trokken. Bijvoorbeeld de ‘Phoenix Lights’ in 1997, waarbij duizenden mensen in Arizona een formatie van lichten zagen boven de stad zwemmen. Hoewel deze gebeurtenis niet werd vastgelegd op video, veroorzaakte het een massale publieke waarneming die tot op heden sommige wetenschappers en UFO-enthousiastelingen niet kunnen verklaren. Ook de beelden van de ‘Belgische UFO-golf’ tussen 1989 en 1990, met talrijke waarnemingen en visuele waarnemingen, zorgden voor een toenemende interesse.

Wat de video’s uit de jaren ’90 en de 21e eeuw nog belangrijker maakte, was dat ze hoge-resolutie beelden brachten die voorheen niet beschikbaar waren. Ze gaven wetenschappers de kans om te analyseren en te proberen verklaren wat deze objecten waren en hoe ze bewogen. De beelden werden gebruikt door overheidsinstanties, wetenschappers en onafhankelijke onderzoeksbureaus in een poging om meer te begrijpen over de technologische aard van de verschijnselen.

De hernieuwde belangstelling zorgde ook voor meer onderzoek en investeringen in de studie van UFO’s. In 2020 besloot het Amerikaanse Congres bijvoorbeeld een officieel onderzoekscommissie op te richten, de ‘UFO Task Force’, die zich specifiek richt op het verzamelen en analyseren van onverklaarbare waarnemingen. Dit markeerde een belangrijke doorbraak, want voorheen waren deze fenomenen vaak door de overheid en wetenschap genegeerd of onderdrukt als zijnde onbetrouwbare verhalen.

Al deze gebeurtenissen en beelden samen zorgen voor een nieuwe dimensie in het fenomeen van UFO’s. Ze moedigen niet alleen verder wetenschappelijk onderzoek aan, maar veranderen ook de perceptie van het publiek en beleid. De beelden bieden namelijk de mogelijkheid om de technologie en fenomenen te bestuderen, en mogelijk om te achterhalen of er buitenaardse intelligenties betrokken zijn, of dat de objecten van geheime menselijke technologie afkomstig zijn. Kortom, deze periode wordt gekenmerkt door een hernieuwde en meer open blik op het onverklaarbare, die nog steeds voortduurt en zich uitstrekt tot in de 21e eeuw.

Organisaties en betrokkenheid

In recente jaren hebben verschillende organisaties zich actief ingezet voor het onderzoeken van UFO’s. Een van de meest prominente is ‘To the Stars Academy’, opgericht door de voormalig muzikant van de band Blink-182, Tom DeLonge. Deze organisatie bestaat uit een groep wetenschappers, voormalig defensiefunctionarissen en andere experts die zich richten op het verzamelen en analyseren van getuigenissen, videobeelden en andere gegevens.

Daarnaast heeft de Amerikaanse overheid stappen gezet om documenten en rapporten vrij te geven die voorheen vertrouwelijk waren. In 2020 publiceerde het Pentagon een serie declassificeerde video’s en rapporten waarin Navy-piloten worden getoond die onverklaarbare objecten zien tijdens hun oefeningen. De regering erkende dat voor een meerderheid van deze incidenten geen conventionele verklaringen bestaan en dat ze serieus genomen moeten worden.

Ook andere landen en internationale organisaties zijn zich meer gaan interesseren voor dit fenomeen. Onder andere Frankrijk met het revolutionaire project ‘GEPAN’ en het Britse ‘MOD’ (Ministry of Defence) hebben rapporten en studies gepubliceerd die de globalisering van UFO-onderzoek illustreren.

De maatschappelijke en wetenschappelijke impact

De invloed van het UFO-fenomeen op de 21e eeuw is divers en complex. Aan de ene kant heeft het bijgedragen aan een levendige subcultuur van onderzoekers, schrijvers, filmmakers en enthousiastelingen die de theorieën en waarnemingen blijven bestuderen en uitdiepen. Film en literatuur worden vaak geïnspireerd door de mogelijkheid dat buitenaardse wezens ons mogelijk bezoeken en misschien zelfs al onder ons leven.

Aan de andere kant bestaat er veel scepsis over UFO’s. Veel skeptici betwijfelen de authenticiteit van waarnemingen en zien het fenomeen als pseudowetenschap, complottheorie of massale illusie. Sommige wetenschappers en onderzoekers waarschuwen dat de focus op buitenaardse bezoekers afleidt van daadwerkelijke grote vraagstukken rond ruimteonderzoek, klimaatverandering, technologische innovatie en wereldveiligheid.

Desondanks is de wetenschap meer open gaan staan voor het fenomeen. De laatste jaren zien we toegenomen aandacht voor het onderwerp in academische kringen. Het US Department of Defense heeft bijvoorbeeld in 2021 de ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force’ (UAPTF) opgericht om onverklaarbare verschijnselen te bestuderen en te rapporteren. Wetenschappers uit verschillende disciplines roepen op tot een meer objectieve, gesystematiseerde aanpak en proberen data te verzamelen die eerst onbeskikbaar waren.

Daarnaast stimuleert de groeiende interesse in ruimtevaart en technologische innovaties de hoop dat we in de toekomst de ware aard en herkomst van deze mysterieuze verschijnselen kunnen achterhalen. Er wordt onder meer gewerkt aan geavanceerde radar- en sensor-technologieën, kunstmatige intelligentie en deep space observaties.

De toekomst van UFO-onderzoek

De toekomst van het onderzoek naar UFO’s en buitenaardse fenomenen lijkt veelbelovend. Met nieuwe technologieën zoals geavanceerde radar- en videotechnologie, kunstmatige intelligentie en ruimtevaart kunnen we beter waarnemingen en analyses uitvoeren. Daarnaast groeit de internationale samenwerking tussen landen en wetenschappelijke instellingen, wat kan leiden tot meer objectieve en betrouwbare gegevens.

Ook sociale media en de toegankelijkheid van informatie zorgen voor een bredere betrokkenheid van het publiek. Iedereen met een smartphone kan een waarneming delen en bijdragen aan de verzameling van data. Dit democratiseert het onderzoek en kan leiden tot verrassende ontdekkingen.

Bovendien is er een groeiende bewustwording dat de zoektocht niet alleen draait om buitenaardse bezoekers, maar ook om het begrijpen van onze eigen ruimte en de technologie die we daarbij kunnen inzetten. De mogelijkheid dat wij niet de enigen in het universum zijn, stimuleert niet alleen wetenschappelijke innovatie, maar ook een bredere filosofische en existentiële reflectie over onze plek in het heelal.

Het belang van open en transparante communicatie wordt onderstreept door verschillende overheidsinstellingen. Het documenteren en vrijgeven van gegevens en het rapporteren van onverklaarbare verschijnselen helpt niet alleen om scepsis weg te nemen, maar bevordert ook het vertrouwen in wetenschappelijk onderzoek.

De integratie van technologische ontwikkelingen en internationale coöperatie kan ervoor zorgen dat het komende decennium mogelijk een doorbraak zal betekenen in ons begrip van deze mysterieuze verschijnselen. Nieuwe gegevens uit ruimteonderzoek, gecombineerd met de wachters van openheid van overheden en wetenschappelijke instituten, kunnen leiden tot het antwoord op een van de grootste vragen uit de menselijke geschiedenis: zijn wij alleen in het universum of niet?

Conclusie

Kort gezegd, de geschiedenis van UFO’s is al even oud als de beschaving zelf. Van oude legendes tot hedendaagse video’s en officiële rapporten, het fenomeen blijft mensen fascineren, verbazen en intrigeren. Hoewel veel waarnemingen kunnen worden verklaard door natuurlijke of menselijke oorzaken, blijven de onverklaarbare incidenten de indruk achterlaten dat er meer is dan we weten of begrijpen.

De acceptatie dat UFO’s serieus moeten worden onderzocht, groeit gestaag. De constellatie van onderzoek, openheid van overheden en technologische vooruitgang kan ons in de toekomst misschien dichter brengen bij het beantwoorden van de eeuwige vraag: zijn we alleen in het heelal, of worden we al lang bezocht door intelligente buitenaardse beschavingen? Hoe dan ook, één ding is zeker: de fascinatie en nieuwsgierigheid naar UFO’s zullen niet verdwijnen, maar alleen maar toenemen.

Volgens de bekende Amerikaanse ufoloog Stanton Friedman, “De waarheid is daarbuiten.” En terwijl wetenschap en technologie zich verder ontwikkelen, blijft de zoektocht naar die waarheid een van de meest intrigerende en ongrijpbare puzzels van onze tijd. De komende decennia kunnen de antwoorden dichterbij brengen, of juist meer vragen oproepen die ons uit blijven dagen en inspireren. Het blijft een boeiend mysterie dat onze verbeelding en zoekmachine-energie blijft voeden.

De wetenschap zal blijven proberen om verklaring te vinden voor de onverklaarbare verschijnselen, terwijl de samenleving blijft dromen en fantaseren over de mogelijkheid van buitenaardse bezoekers. Het is deze combinatie van nieuwsgierigheid, kritisch onderzoek en openheid die ervoor zorgt dat het verhaal van UFO’s ons blijven boeien en uitdagen. Uiteindelijk draait het om onze collectieve zoektocht naar antwoorden over onszelf, het universum en misschien ook wel over wat er nog buiten ons bereik ligt.

Het is dus niet alleen een kwestie van het geloven in buitenaardse wezens of het afwijzen ervan, maar vooral een reflectie op onze eigen menselijke natuur: de drang naar begrip, het verlangen naar contact en de angst voor het onbekende. Door ons te blijven verdiepen in het fenomeen en de verhalen erachter, houden we de deur open naar nieuwe ontdekkingen en inzichten, die misschien ons wereldbeeld voorgoed kunnen veranderen.

En zo blijven UFO’s een fascinerend en intrigerend onderdeel van onze collectieve geschiedenis en cultuur, die niet alleen verhalen vertellen over buitenaardse aardbewoners of geheimzinnige voertuigen, maar ook over onze eigen zoektocht naar waarachtigheid, kennis en de ultieme vraag: zijn we echt alleen? De reis gaat door, en de mysterie blijft ons uitdagen, inspireren en fascineren.

{ PETER2011 }

22-11-2025 om 22:43 geschreven door peter  

UFO tracker shows thousands of eerie underwater objects lurking along US coasts

The truth is under there.

A popular UFO-reporting app has recorded thousands of sightings of Unidentified Submersible Objects (USOs) near US waterways — phenomena which high-ranking US Navy officials warn could pose a threat to national security. 

A video accompanying one of the reports sent to UFO logging app Enigma showed mysterious green lights moving beneath the surface of the ocean.

Enigma

Enigma, which touts itself as the “largest queryable historical sighting database for global UFO sightings,” claims it has received reports on over 30,000 Unidentified Flying Objects and Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena since launching in late 2022.

But the sightings haven’t been limited to the skies, with reports also coming in about strange objects rising from the depths of the sea, or plunging into the water without so much as a splash.

Pentagon-reviewed footage has documented instances of unidentified craft diving into or emerging from the water without damaging the vessel or even making a splash, prompting alarm from some officials.

Jeremy Corbell/Weaponized Podcast

As of August, Enigma has also logged more than 9,000 mysterious sightings within 10 miles of US shorelines or major bodies of water — 500 of them within 5 miles — with more than 150 of the reports describing objects hovering above or descending into waterways, according to Marine Technology News.

The US states with the most reported USO sightings were California (389) and Florida (306) — both among the top three US states with the most ocean coastline. One of the most bizarre reports includes phone camera video of unexplained green lights traveling beneath the surface of the ocean.

The app has released maps plotting out the reported sightings, represented as clusters of orange dots running up and down the east and west coasts.

UFO sightings are nothing new, and are often dismissed as crackpottery by much of the scientific community or relegated to the stuff of science fiction, but retired Navy Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet warns UFOs with the ability to go from air to sea without crashing or even creating a splash could have “world-changing” ramifications.

“The fact that unidentified objects with unexplainable characteristics are entering US water space and the DOD is not raising a giant red flag is a sign that the government is not sharing all it knows about all-domain anomalous phenomena,” Gallaudet wrote in a March 2024 report. 

Alarm bells were raised in July 2019, when the USS Omaha recorded a UFO/UAP that vanished into the ocean without a trace after buzzing a Navy fleet off the coast of San Diego. Video of the incident was verified by the Pentagon, displaying capabilities Gallaudet said “jeopardizes U.S. maritime security, which is already weakened by our relative ignorance about the global ocean.”

In his 29-page report for UFO-focused think tank the Sol Foundation, Gallaudet said there’s a documented pattern of similar phenomena being reported.

“Pilots, credible observers and calibrated military instrumentation have recorded objects accelerating at rates and crossing the air–sea interface in ways not possible for anything made by humans,” he wrote.

RELATED VIDEOS

{  https://nypost.com/us-news/ }

22-11-2025 om 18:05 geschreven door peter  

Pentagon Reveals 400 UFO Sightings Following Leaked Videos

Overview

The Department of Defense announced this week that more than 400 unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) sightings have been logged by Navy and Air Force personnel since the release of the agency’s 2021 report and the subsequent leak of three Navy videos. The new data, presented at a House Intelligence subcommittee hearing, expands the known inventory of anomalous objects that have been observed near military installations, training ranges, and operational airspace. While the Pentagon stopped short of attributing any sighting to extraterrestrial technology, analysts noted recurring patterns—high‑speed maneuvers, sudden acceleration, and flight paths that appear to violate known aerodynamic limits—that suggest “advanced, possibly non‑human, capabilities.”

Key Details

The 400‑plus reports were gathered through the UAP Task Force’s standardized reporting system, a process introduced in 2022 to reduce the stigma that previously discouraged pilots from filing entries. Among the most striking cases are three incidents recorded in the past six months near the Atlantic Fleet’s training area off the coast of Virginia, where infrared sensors captured objects executing instantaneous 180‑degree turns at speeds exceeding 15,000 km/h. Another cluster involved “tic‑tac‑shaped” craft observed over the Nevada Test and Training Range, displaying rapid altitude changes without visible propulsion. None of the sightings have been conclusively linked to known aircraft, drones, or atmospheric phenomena, prompting the Defense Department to label them “unexplained” rather than “aliens.”

Government Response

Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie emphasized the administration’s commitment to “eliminate the stigma” surrounding UAP reporting. “Our goal is to bring operators into a standardized data‑gathering process,” he told lawmakers, adding that consistent documentation is essential for national‑security assessments. The hearing, the first public UAP briefing in nearly five decades, also featured testimony from Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, who outlined ongoing collaborations with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Geospatial‑Intelligence Agency to cross‑reference civilian sightings and satellite data. The Pentagon’s newly created Office of UAP Investigation now reports directly to the Secretary of Defense, a structural change aimed at improving inter‑agency coordination.

Implications for Security and Policy

Congressional members expressed a mix of curiosity and concern. Representative Andre Carson, chair of the subcommittee, warned that “persistent gaps in our situational awareness could be exploited by adversarial nations,” underscoring the need to determine whether the phenomena represent foreign hypersonic platforms or something entirely novel. The November 2025 update to the UAP database, which added high‑resolution sensor logs from the Space Force’s Space Surveillance Network, intensified calls for a comprehensive disclosure bill. While senior officials maintain that no definitive evidence of extraterrestrial origin exists, the sheer volume of unexplained encounters has prompted the National Security Council to allocate additional funding for advanced sensor development and AI‑driven pattern analysis.

Next Steps

The Pentagon plans to release a supplemental report by early 2026, summarizing the 400 sightings and outlining a roadmap for enhanced detection capabilities. In parallel, the House Intelligence Committee is slated to hold a follow‑up hearing in March, where lawmakers will review the newly declassified data and assess the adequacy of current reporting mechanisms. Defense analysts suggest that a transparent, science‑based approach—combined with international cooperation on air‑space monitoring—could both mitigate security risks and address public demand for clarity. Until more conclusive evidence emerges, the UAP phenomenon remains a high‑priority intelligence challenge, prompting continued scrutiny across the defense and aerospace communities.

{  https://usubjects.com/  }

22-11-2025 om 17:42 geschreven door peter  

Van Klassieke Ufologie naar Opkomende Wetenschap

Overzicht

In een recente lezing georganiseerd door het Human Institute en UAPMed schetste Michael Cifone, een filosoof van de wetenschap verbonden aan de Society for UAP Studies, een verschuiving in de manier waarop onderzoekers onherleidbare luchtfenomenen (UAP) en niet-menselijke intelligentie (NHI) benaderen. Hij contrasteerde het model van de “klassieke ufologie”—voornamelijk gerechtelijk, retrospectief en afhankelijk van ooggetuigenverslagen—met wat hij beschreef als de “opkomende wetenschap van UAP,” een demonstratieve inspanning die zich richt op het bouwen van speciale instrumenten, het synchroniseren van datastromen en het nastreven van directe observatie. Cifones presentatie, onderdeel van een serie getiteld Investigating Non‑Human Intelligence, onderstreepte de noodzaak om verder te kijken dan het verzamelen van oude rapporten en over te gaan op een systematische, op data gebaseerde methodologie.

Epistemologische Uitdagingen

Cifone waarschuwde dat de aannames die in de traditionele natuurwetenschappen worden gehanteerd, onderzoekers kunnen verblinden voor het fenomeen dat zij proberen te bestuderen. Hij stelde een prikkelende vraag: “Wat als het probleem niet ontbrekende bewijzen zijn, maar ontbrekende categorieën?” Volgens zijn kader worden drie onderling verweven kwesties het kennislager vormgegeven:

• Bewijsmateriaal is niet neutraal – de instrumenten en theorieën die wij gebruiken, predeterminen wat wij kunnen meten. Dit betekent dat de instrumenten die we inzetten noodzakelijkerwijs bepalen naar welk fenomeen we zoeken en hoe we dat interpreteren. Een laserafstandsmeter kan bijvoorbeeld alleen afstanden meten die binnen het bereik en de precisie vallen die het apparaat toestaan. Daarnaast bepalen bestaande theorieën welke interpretaties als legitiem worden beschouwd.

• De epistemische cirkel – buitensporige claims vereisen bewijs dat niet door bestaande instrumenten kan worden vastgelegd. Dit betekent dat sommige fenomenen, indien ze zelden voorkomen of zich slechts onder bepaalde condities voordoen, niet gemakkelijk te vast te leggen zijn met de huidige technologie. Toch houden onderzoekers vol dat bewijs wel mogelijk moet zijn, wat leidt tot een vicieuze cirkel tussen hypothese en observatie.

• Fenomenen kunnen tijdelijk, participatief en relationeel zijn – anders dan de stabiele, herhaalbare gebeurtenissen waar de conventionele wetenschap de voorkeur aan geeft. UAP kunnen zich bijvoorbeeld slechts af en toe voordoen, afhankelijk zijn van het bewustzijn of de intentie van de waarnemer, of een relationele dynamiek vertonen die niet past binnen traditionele natuurwetenschappelijke modellen.

Cifone pleit voor een nieuwe vorm van empirisme die objectieve instrumenten combineert met fenomenologische, eerst-person ervaring. Hierdoor kunnen onderzoekers “luisteren naar de data” voordat zij vooraf ingestelde categorieën opleggen. Dit impliceert dat de beleving en interpretatie van de waarneming even belangrijk moeten worden genomen als meetinstrumenten, vooral in gevallen waarin het fenomeen moeilijk of onmogelijk reproduceerbaar is.

Opkomende Wetenschappelijke Benaderingen

De presentatie omschreef concrete stappen om UAP-onderzoek te transformerentr en tot een rigoureuze wetenschap. Enkele voorstellen waren:

• Het opbouwen van speciale sensor netwerken – deze netwerken kunnen in real-time high-resolutie, multimodale data vastleggen. Denk aan het gebruik van radar, infrarood, elektromagnetische metingen en audio. Het doel is om het veld te verschuiven van retrospectief getuigenis naar live observatie, waardoor de kans op snelle verificatie en analyse toeneemt.

• Professionalisering van forensische onderzoeksmethoden – door te zorgen dat sporen zoals elektromagnetische anomalieën of materiaalerestanten worden verzameld en geanalyseerd volgens strikte normen die ook in de ruimtevaart of forensische laboratoria worden gehanteerd. Dit zorgt voor een hogere betrouwbaarheid van de bevindingen en maakt ze vergelijkbaar met andere takken van geavanceerd technisch onderzoek.

• Het behandelen van mensen als sensoren – een concept dat werd verkend door Maya Cowan. Hier wordt erkend dat menselijke waarneming betrouwbaar is, maar ook zijn grenzen kent, en dat deze waarnemingen kunnen worden geïntegreerd met instrumentale gegevens. In deze aanpak wordt de menselijke interpretatie niet uitgesloten maar juist aangevuld, door bijvoorbeeld gecombineerde analyses te maken van witness reports en meetgegevens.

Deze initiatieven weerspiegelen de focus van de UAP-onderzoeksgemeenschap op “lokale gedragingen en dynamische relaties,” wat het onderscheid maakt van de verre, message-gerichte doelen van SETI. Terwijl SETI zich richt op signaaldetectie en communicatie met buitenaardse intelligentie op grote afstand, richt UAP-onderzoek zich vaak op snelle, onvoorspelbare fenomenen die zich direct manifesteren in onze atmosfeer. Door menselijke rapporten te synchroniseren met instrumentale metingen hopen onderzoekers een rijker, gevalideerd datacollectief te scheppen dat meer inzicht kan geven in het aard, de aard en de mogelijke intelligentie achter deze fenomenen.

Interdisciplinaire Kaders

Cifone benadrukte het belang van radicale interdisciplinariteit als essentieel voor een opkomende wetenschap van niet-menselijke intelligentie. In dit kader wordt vaak teruggevallen op het 6W-model – wie, wat, wanneer, waar, waarom en hoe – als een raamwerk voor het organiseren van onderzoeken die fysieke verklaringen combineren met geleefde ervaring.

• Wie betreft de onderzoekers en waarnemers, waaronder wetenschappers, piloten, nauwe observatoren en betrokken burgers.
• Wat verwijst naar de fenomenen zelf: UAP, anomalieën in elektromagnetische velden, materiaalterreinen of mogelijk niet-menselijke activiteiten.
• Wanneer en waar beschrijven de tijdstippen en locaties van waarnemingen, cruciaal voor correlaties en patroonherkenning.
• Waarom en hoe betreffen de interpretaties en mechanismen die mogelijk ten grondslag liggen aan de fenomeen; deze bieden inzicht in de motivatie en aard van de aanwezige intelligenties of natuurlijke processen.

Fenomenologen zoals Kim Engels ontwikkelen methoden om het “gehele UFO-gevoel” vast te leggen, door narratieve gegevens te verbinden met sensorlogs. Deze aanpak beoogt de kloof te overbruggen tussen objectieve data en subjectieve betekenis, omdat hij van mening is dat dit noodzakelijk is om antropocentrisme te overwinnen. Door het onderzoeken van de percepties, gevoelens en interpretaties van getuigen wil men niet alleen de feiten vastleggen maar ook de context waarin deze plaatsvinden, wat kan leiden tot een dieper begrip van het fenomeen.

Verder suggereerde Cifone dat het herintegreren van de geesteswetenschappen—zoals antropologie, filosofie en psychologie—met de natuurwetenschappen het conceptuele vocabulaire kan uitbreiden dat nodig is om fenomenen te beschrijven die “participatief en relationeel” zijn, in plaats van louter externe objecten.

Dit multidisciplinaire model benadrukt dat het begrijpen van UAP en NHI niet louter een technische onderneming is, maar ook een cultureel en interpretatief vraagstuk. Het vraagt om een brede blik, waarin wetenschap en erfgoed, perceptie en werkelijkheid, samenvallen.

Vooruitzichten en Skepsis

Hoewel de visie ambitieus is, betwijfelde Cifone zelf de haalbaarheid ervan; hij merkte op dat veel van de voorgestelde praktijken nog “utopisch” zijn zonder duurzame financiering, institutionele steun en methodologische consensus. Het opzetten van uitgebreide sensor netwerken, het trainen van multidisciplinaire teams en het integreren van fenomenologische benaderingen vereisen aanzienlijke middelen en lange termijnplanning.

Desalniettemin werden enkele pilotprojecten besproken, zoals gecoördineerde hemelwacht-netwerken en samenwerkingsworkshops tussen natuurkundigen, antropologen en piloten, die het praktische potentieel van dit interdisciplinaire model demonstreren. Zo werd het voorbeeld gegeven van internationale netwerken die realtime data verzamelen en analyseren, als een mogelijke basis voor bredere wetenschappelijke samenwerkingen.

De bredere wetenschappelijke gemeenschap houdt deze ontwikkelingen nauwlettend in de gaten. Zoals Cifone afsluit: “De werkelijke vraag is niet of niet-menselijke intelligentie bestaat – het universum is groot genoeg dat dit bijna triviaal is. De vraag is of onze wetenschappen al intelligent genoeg zijn om het waar te nemen.” Als de opkomende wetenschap van UAP erin slaagt instrumenten, fenomenologie en rigoureuze epistemologie te integreren, kan dit mogelijk het systematische bewijs leveren dat zowel sceptici als gelovigen al lang zoeken. Het zou kunnen leiden tot een paradigmaverschuiving, waarin we niet alleen de fenomenen accepteren maar ook begrijpen en, misschien, contact maken met andere vormen van intelligentie die onze horizon nu nog verbreden.

Slotwoord

De overgang van klassieke ufologie naar een meer wetenschappelijke en systematische benadering markeert een belangrijke ontwikkeling in de studie van het onbekende. Door een combinatie van geavanceerde technologieën, interdisciplinaire samenwerking en een herziening van epistemologische principes, wordt het mogelijk om de mysterieuze fenomenen rondom UAP en NHI in een nieuw, meer rigoureus licht te plaatsen. Het pad naar een echte wetenschap binnen dit domein is nog lang en vol uitdagingen, maar de richting is duidelijk: een integrale aanpak waarin data, ervaring en theorie hand in hand gaan. Alleen zo kunnen we misschien ooit de antwoorden vinden op vragen die ons al eeuwenlang bezighouden.

{ PETER2011 }

16-11-2025 om 22:21 geschreven door peter  

However, decades later, a fresh academic review of the seminal work raises significant questions about many of its claims. In a new paper published in the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, independent researcher Thomas Kelly examines contemporary periodicals, one of the author’s original notes about the study, and further investigation of the subjects’ later lives, now arguing that the work’s conclusions were inaccurate and derived from the original researchers’ unethical behavior.

Anatomy of a UFO Cult

The story, as told in When Prophecy Fails, is that a UFO cult sprang up around a Chicago housewife, Dorothy Martin, who claimed to channel messages from extraterrestrials. Supporting Martin were her closest lieutenants, Charles Laughead and his wife Lillian, as the cult grew to a small circle of diehard followers.

After Martin’s prediction that a great flood would destroy much of the Earth on December 21, 1954, appeared in newspapers, psychologists from the University of Minnesota joined the group as participant observers.

In the resulting book based on their experiences, the authors of When Prophecy Fails claimed that when the date came and went, the cult members began to experience cognitive dissonance, which they dealt with by doubling down on their beliefs and increasing their proselytization efforts. The work was immensely successful and was followed a year later by Festinger’s A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, another important work in the field of psychology, which more broadly defined the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance while making many references to the UFO cult events. 

Reconsidering When Prophecy Fails

Researcher Thomas Kelly is a political scientist by training, with a PhD from UC Berkeley, and has previously published on health policy. He explained to The Debrief how, after reading When Prophecy Fails for personal interest, he became concerned with the influential work’s accuracy.

“When I read the book, alarm bells went off in my head because the authors made sweeping claims while offering anecdotes that often seemed to undermine their main thesis,” Kelly explained. “For example, they would discuss how the cult rarely proselytized in one chapter, and in the next introduce a book publisher that they were hoping would print a book of their teachings.”

“As I read more about the case, each document made When Prophecy Fails look worse,” Kelly continued. “For instance, Festinger’s book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance offered an account of the events of When Prophecy Fails, but he altered the account in several ways even though they were only published a year apart.”

Kelly noted his greatest surprise was at how often the researchers documented their active encouragement of the cult’s beliefs during moments of doubt, which he discovered in Festinger’s newly released papers.

Kelly traces Martin’s later career as “Sister Thedra,” a period marked by claims that she channeled both Jesus and extraterrestrial beings. At the same time, the Laugheads continued to promote their beliefs in prophecy and alien contact. When Kelly notes that Martin eventually recanted, the reality appears more nuanced than a simple admission of error. Martin suggested that her belief that the followers would be taken up in a spaceship might have referred not to a literal ascent, but to a spiritual uplifting—though she later conceded that no one can make precise, date-specific predictions. Interestingly, some of Sister Thedra’s subsequent followers seem to have been unaware of the original 1954 events that gave rise to her earlier notoriety.

Fundamentally, Kelly’s work clearly illuminates many ethical breaches in When Prophecy Fails, and underscores the authors’ narrow focus on how groups respond to falsified predictions. However, not everyone feels that Kelly’s arguments completely upend the decades-old research, and it is important to note that Kelly’s paper offers a relatively narrow and specific refutation of the ideas in When Prophecy Fails and its claims regarding cognitive dissonance.

“I think it’s an interesting take, which could have been fleshed out a bit more with additional examples and evidence,” commented Aaron Gulyas, a historian specializing in UFO and conspiratorial beliefs, regarding Kelly’s new perspectives on the work, though arguing that it may not entirely refute the primary argument of When Prophecy Fails. 

“The focus on the ‘proselytization’ angle seems a bit narrow to me,” Gulyas told The Debrief. “I thought that Kelly might have paid more attention to the way that Martin’s and the Laugheads’ commitment to UFO belief deepened despite the failure of the ‘prophecy.’”

“I’ve always had serious concerns about the ‘infiltration’ angle of the study, and Kelly’s article indicates that there were certainly ethical issues at play here,” Gulyas concedes. “At the same time, I don’t think flaws in the study undermine the concept of ‘cognitive dissonance’ as much as Kelly seems to!”

Mythologizing When Prophecy Fails

Still, Kelly argues that there should have been more careful criticism of When Prophecy Fails closer to its publication. “Neither the cult leader, Dorothy Martin, nor her key followers, Charles and Lilian Laughead, were obscure; they were discussed in mainstream newspapers and UFO magazines,” Kelly says.

It would have been easy, he says, “for supporters of When Prophecy Fails to interview them or pick up a copy of already published magazines that would have cast doubt on When Prophecy Fails as soon as it was published.”

Despite the work’s influence, a few earlier critics did question some of its methodology. From a direct reading of When Prophecy Fails, even without Festinger’s recently released papers, many today would indeed conclude that the researchers were too closely involved in the cult’s activities, with the authors and additional paid observers accounting for a third of its membership. Additionally, the group’s high public profile and media attention likely influenced their behavior to persist with their UFO beliefs.

This isn’t the first time that events underlying some of the most dramatic psychology studies have been questioned. In 2019, Thibault Le Texier published Investigating the Stanford Prison Experiment: History of a Lie. In his book. Le Texier investigated how Philip Zimbardo’s famous 1971 psychology experiment, which cast participants as guards and inmates in a mock prison, was deeply flawed and explicitly designed to produce a desired outcome. Despite serious issues with the study, it went on to become a highly influential work of psychology, even appearing as evidence in the trial of a former Abu Ghraib prison guard.

Overall, Kelly’s research offers new clarity regarding the flawed methodology present in When Prophecy Fails, and a much-improved understanding of the subjects and their subsequent lives within the UFO and occult communities.

“The standards and norms of every field of study change over time, and reappraisals like this are useful,” Gulyas said.

The paper, “Debunking ‘When Prophecy Fails’,” appeared in the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences on November 4, 2025.

• Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/space/ }

14-11-2025 om 23:20 geschreven door peter  

Cube-Shaped UFOs; Not Drones, Not Balloons, so What Are They?

An illustration of a cube-shaped UFO.

Depositphotos.

Naval Aviators have reported encountering strange “Black Cube” UFOs that were surrounded by strange clear spheres. Some of these cube-shaped UFOs even shadowed some, and many airplanes nearly collided with them. So this begs the question, what have aviators encountered? Based on their reports and comments, these objects were not weather balloons, were not drones, and seemed like nothing humankind has ever produced.

Some of these objects display characteristics that are unlike any modern-day aircraft. The technology at their disposal, as per comments made by fighter pilots, is beyond anything we know of. But the danger about these objects resides not only in the fact that we do not know what they are or whom they belong to; the greater danger resides in the fact that on numerous occasions, fighter pilots have almost collided with these mysterious objects. As penned down by Marik Von Rennenkampff for The Hill, Fighter pilots narrowly escaped disaster in 2014 when the jets were flying in controlled airspace and almost collided with an unidentified flying object. But this is just one of many examples. In fact, fighter pilots have reported seeing these objects “everywhere.”

In the piece, Rennenkampff had asked former fighter pilot Ryan Graves about UFO encounters. The experienced pilot answered that he and his colleagues saw these objects near airports and over the continental United States. On many occasions, these objects appeared hundreds of miles out to sea. ” There’s air traffic operation, and they’re operating in ways that are befuddling our aviators,” the experienced fighter pilot revealed in the interview. One of the perhaps more interesting UFO encounters that took place near an airport is the so-called Aguadilla UFO that took place in 2013 in Puerto Rico. At the time, a United States Customs and Border plane spotted a mysterious fast-moving object near the airport. This UFO headed out towards the ocean, splashed into the sea as if it did not even make contact with the water, reappeared, and then spit into two. You can read more about it here.

Perhaps what is most interesting is an encounter recalled by Graves that took place off the East Coast in 2014, when a fighter pilot described a dark cube-shaped UFO that was surrounded by some sort of clear sphere. What is most interesting is that this UFO had no wings, flaps, tails, and no visible propulsion system. But these encounters with the enigmatic cube-shaped UFOs are by no means isolated events. In fact, Graves recalls that a few years after the 2014 incident, a test pilot had spoken with Graves about encountering such an object.

According to the test pilot, the cube-shaped UFO surrounded by a clear sphere was just “flying alongside the pilot” at an approximate distance of some 30 feet. Eventually, the object just accelerated and disappeared. The exact origin of these objects remains a profound mystery. However, with the age of UFO transparency finally, upon us, we may finally get a better understanding of what these objects are. NASA is putting great effort into trying to find out what these objects are, the Pentagon has a UFO office that is investing a great amount of money and time in discovering their source, and the US Congress, in the meanwhile, seems convinced these things are not of this planet.

{ https://curiosmos.com/category/alien-theories/ }

12-11-2025 om 21:21 geschreven door peter  

Ancient and Modern UFOs in Africa: An In-Depth Analysis with Professor Tim Murithi Dreamland

Introduction

The phenomenon of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) has captivated human imagination for centuries, often intertwined with cultural, religious, and scientific narratives. In recent years, Africa has emerged as a fascinating focal point for these studies, blending ancient symbolism with contemporary accounts. On November 7, 2025, the "Dreamland" podcast, part of Whitley Strieber’s “Unknown Country” network, hosted a compelling episode featuring Professor Tim Murithi, a renowned cultural anthropologist at the University of Nairobi. The discussion provided a comprehensive perspective on the historical and modern narratives surrounding UFOs in Africa, emphasizing the importance of scholarly rigor while examining sensational claims.

Ancient Africa and the Visual Motifs in Egyptian Art

Professor Murithi began by exploring the visual motifs found in ancient Egyptian artifacts, which are often cited in UFO lore. The Egyptian tomb paintings depict stylized representations of the sun-disk, celestial barques (or sun boats), and various sky gods. Murithi clarified that these images, while striking, are better understood as symbolic representations rooted in religious and cosmological beliefs of the time. For example, the solar barque was a mythological symbol illustrating the journey of the sun through the sky, not an indication of actual spacecraft.

A notable example is the depiction of a chariot-like object held by deities in tomb paintings, which some interpret as ancient spacecraft. However, Egyptologists argue these are prehistoric depictions of chariots or solar symbols, not technological devices. As Murithi pointed out, “The iconography aligns with the religious symbolism of the Old Kingdom period, rather than evidence of extraterrestrial engineering.”

The Great Pyramid of Giza: Engineering Marvel or Alien Construction?

The Great Pyramid is often at the center of debates about ancient alien intervention. Enthusiasts highlight its precise alignment with Cardinal points and the remarkable engineering achievements of its builders. Murithi referenced recent scholarly research, including a 2023 study by Egyptologists at the University of Cambridge, which attributes the pyramid’s orientation—a deviation of less than 0.2 degrees from true north—to sophisticated astronomical observations and shadow-tracking techniques. These methods were well within the capabilities of Old Kingdom engineers.

While some claim the internal chambers were designed to house spacecraft or alien technology, Murithi emphasized that no archaeological evidence supports such theories. The internal structures, including the Grand Gallery and the Queen’s and King’s Chambers, are understood by archaeologists as functional components of tomb construction and religious symbolism, rather than alien installations.

The Dogon People of Mali and Their Astronomical Knowledge

Moving westward, Murithi discussed the famous case of the Dogon people of Mali, renowned for their detailed knowledge of Sirius B, a white dwarf star invisible without telescopes. Early anthropologists like Marcel Griaule in the 1930s and 1940s reported that the Dogon possessed complex knowledge about Sirius B, including its density and orbit, which seemed to exceed what was accessible through their traditional observances.

However, recent ethnographic research suggests that this knowledge may have been introduced through contact with French missionaries and Western scholars, rather than direct extraterrestrial communication. Murithi noted that “oral traditions are inherently fluid and susceptible to external influences,” and that the Dogon’s cosmology likely represents a synthesis of indigenous beliefs and external knowledge sources. The claim of ancient alien contact, he argued, tends to oversimplify the nuanced oral history and astronomical practices of the community.

Modern UFO and UAP Narratives: The Case of Thiaoouba Prophecy*

The episode also examined a contemporary literary work, Thiaoouba Prophecy, published in 1994 by French author Michel Desmarquet. The book narrates the author’s alleged abduction to a distant planet called Thiaoouba, where he claims to have received spiritual teachings and insights into extraterrestrial civilizations.

Murithi positioned Thiaoouba Prophecy alongside the biblical and apocryphal texts like the Book of Enoch, which also contain accounts of divine or otherworldly encounters. Both serve as cultural mirrors reflecting humanity’s hopes, fears, and questions about existence beyond Earth. Murithi cautioned that such narratives, while compelling, are not evidence of actual extraterrestrial contact but rather expressions of spiritual and cultural imagination.

Sensationalism versus Scholarly Rigor

The podcast further explored two recent articles disseminated on the same platform. One challenged claims that Roman shipbuilders possessed “anti-gravity” technology, and the other investigated mysterious “holes” found in an archaeological site in Peru. Murithi emphasized that sensational headlines often outpace scientific validation, and it is crucial to rely on verifiable data.

He articulated a fundamental principle: “The responsible approach is to let the data speak.” Human ingenuity and cultural development explain many extraordinary achievements without resorting to extraterrestrial intervention. For example, ancient Egyptians' architectural marvels, such as the Sphinx and the pyramids, demonstrate sophisticated engineering based on astronomical and mathematical understanding, achievable with the technology of the time.

Conclusion: A Call for Science and Skepticism

The episode concluded with a reaffirmation of the importance of grounded archaeological methodology. While UFO legends and modern sightings will continue to inspire curiosity, the most reliable explanations for Africa’s ancient wonders come from scientific inquiry and careful interpretation of existing cultural and archaeological records.

Professor Murithi’s insights serve as a reminder that human cultures, across history, have expressed their encounters with the cosmos through symbolic language, art, and oral tradition, rather than extraterrestrial visitation. As he eloquently summarized, “The most remarkable achievements of humanity arise from our own ingenuity, not alien technology.”

In Summary

• Ancient Egyptian artifacts symbolize celestial phenomena and deities through religious and cultural symbols.
• The Great Pyramid’s architectural precision results from advanced terrestrial astronomy and engineering, not alien intervention.
• The Dogon’s astronomical knowledge likely resulted from external influences, not direct contact with extraterrestrials.
• Contemporary UFO narratives, including Thiaoouba Prophecy, mirror cultural and spiritual aspirations rather than verifiable evidence.
• Critical scholarship advocates for interpreting these phenomena through scientific methods, emphasizing human innovation over sensationalism.

This comprehensive perspective underscores the importance of applying rigorous archaeological and cultural analysis when examining claims of ancient and modern UFO phenomena in Africa. Grounded research continues to be the most reliable avenue for understanding the continent’s fascinating megalithic and cultural achievements.

{ peter2011}

12-11-2025 om 16:23 geschreven door peter  

Story by Barrie Davenport

©Image license via Pixabay

An examination of what we do know about alleged alien spacecraft—and where the mysteries remain.
Allegations that alien spacecraft have been discovered and hidden by governments continue to generate headlines, but verified evidence remains elusive. Analysts note that while several incidents—such as declassified U.S. Department of Defense reports on unidentified aerial phenomena—have sparked interest, none have confirmed the recovery of extraterrestrial vehicles. Most claims lack verifiable data or peer-reviewed publication. Nonetheless, a handful of images, radar logs and whistle-blower testimonies are keeping the debate alive, urging scientists and officials to scrutinize fact from fiction.

©Image license via Canva

1. Claims of Hidden Alien Craft Have Circulated for Decades
Rumors that governments have secretly recovered alien spacecraft date back to the late 1940s, shortly after the Roswell incident in New Mexico. Although that event was later attributed to a classified balloon project, it cemented the idea that officials might be concealing evidence of extraterrestrial technology.

Since then, stories of secret “crash retrieval programs” and hidden laboratories have resurfaced regularly in popular culture and online communities. Despite the intrigue, no credible documentation or physical proof of alien spacecraft has ever been made public.

©Image license via Canva

2. The U.S. Has Studied Unexplained Aerial Phenomena
In recent years, the U.S. government has confirmed that it investigates unidentified aerial phenomena—commonly known as UAPs. These efforts began with the Navy’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) and continued through the Department of Defense’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO.

Officials say the goal is to study unknown objects in the sky that might pose flight or security risks, not to confirm alien visits. So far, all publicly released analyses attribute most sightings to balloons, drones, optical illusions, or ordinary aircraft.

©Image license via Canva

3. Declassified Videos Renewed Public Interest
In 2020, the Pentagon officially released three videos showing unidentified objects captured by Navy pilots in 2004 and 2015. The footage, which showed small shapes moving quickly against the sky, fueled speculation about advanced technology.

While the Navy confirmed the videos were authentic, officials emphasized that “unidentified” does not mean “extraterrestrial.” The clips illustrate how difficult it can be to identify distant objects captured by infrared sensors or cameras under high-speed conditions.

©Image license via Canva

4. Recent Whistleblower Claims Sparked New Debate
In 2023, former intelligence official David Grusch claimed that the U.S. government possesses “non-human” spacecraft materials and has kept them secret for decades. His statements drew widespread attention and congressional interest but were not accompanied by any physical or verifiable evidence.

Multiple agencies and independent experts have since stated that they have seen no proof to support Grusch’s claims. While his testimony fueled renewed calls for transparency, no documentation or recovered materials have been publicly confirmed or examined.

©Image license via Canva

5. Congress Has Pressed for Greater Transparency
Lawmakers from both political parties have expressed interest in understanding how UAP data is collected and analyzed. Recent hearings have asked defense officials whether any evidence of non-human craft has been found.

The Pentagon and NASA have both stated that, to date, they have discovered no confirmed signs of extraterrestrial vehicles or technology. Congress has nonetheless urged continued reporting and analysis to improve transparency and prevent speculation from filling the information gap.

©Image license via Flickr/NASA Johnson

6. NASA Has Its Own Independent UAP Study
In 2022, NASA announced an independent study to examine publicly available data related to unexplained aerial phenomena. The team included physicists, former astronauts, and data scientists tasked with creating a scientific framework for studying future reports.

NASA’s 2023 summary concluded there was no verified evidence of alien craft but emphasized the need for better data collection. The agency said existing reports often lack critical details such as sensor calibration, environmental conditions, or corroborating radar information.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons

7. Experts Say Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Proof
Astrophysicists and aerospace engineers consistently emphasize that claims of recovered alien craft must meet the same scientific standards as any other discovery—replication, peer review, and physical evidence. So far, none of the alleged materials or photographs meet that threshold.

Experts say the absence of verifiable samples makes it impossible to draw reliable conclusions. While skepticism doesn’t rule out the possibility of extraterrestrial life, scientists stress that proof must come through measurable, repeatable observation rather than testimony alone.

©Image license via Canva

8. Possible Origins of the “Crash Retrieval” Myth
Many historians trace modern UFO retrieval stories to Cold War secrecy. During that era, projects such as spy-plane development and nuclear testing were classified, leading the public to misinterpret mysterious lights or aircraft.

When government agencies refused to comment for security reasons, conspiracy theories often filled the void. Researchers studying UFO folklore note that secrecy around military operations made it easy for rumors of alien technology to gain traction and persist for generations.

©Image license via Canva

9. Some Materials Claimed to Be “Alien” Have Been Tested
Over the years, individuals have presented metallic fragments they claimed came from alien craft. Independent laboratories and academic institutions have analyzed some of these samples, finding that they contained common terrestrial alloys such as aluminum, magnesium, and silicon.

No tested material has ever shown properties inconsistent with known Earth-based manufacturing or chemistry. These findings reinforce the scientific position that, so far, no physical evidence of extraterrestrial construction has been verified.

©Image license via Canva

10. Astronomers Say Spacecraft Would Be Difficult to Hide
Astronomers point out that any interstellar object entering Earth’s atmosphere would be easily detected by global radar and satellite systems. Modern space surveillance networks can track objects only a few centimeters wide in orbit.

For an alien spacecraft to arrive and crash undetected would defy current understanding of physics and monitoring capabilities. Scientists add that extraordinary technology capable of crossing interstellar distances would likely not fail upon arrival—a key argument against hidden crash theories.

©Image license via Canva

11. Most “UFO Sightings” Have Conventional Explanations
Decades of research have shown that the majority of UFO sightings result from misidentified aircraft, atmospheric phenomena, or human-made satellites. The appearance of new technologies—such as Starlink satellite constellations—has increased the number of mistaken reports.

Studies by independent astronomy groups and the U.S. Air Force’s past Project Blue Book consistently found that 90 percent or more of sightings had ordinary explanations. While some cases remain unexplained due to limited data, “unexplained” does not mean “alien.”

©Image license via Picryl

12. Scientists Continue Searching for Extraterrestrial Life—But Elsewhere
The absence of verified alien spacecraft doesn’t mean scientists have given up the search for life beyond Earth. Programs like the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) monitor space for radio signals, while missions such as NASA’s Perseverance rover look for microbial fossils on Mars.

Astronomers have also identified thousands of exoplanets where life might exist. Experts say these research efforts—rather than rumors of secret recoveries—offer the most promising path toward answering humanity’s biggest question: whether we’re alone in the universe.

{ Planet Sage }

04-11-2025 om 14:42 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious 'spy' balloons appearing over several US states spark fears of a covert invasion

• READ MORE: Mysterious black pyramid UFO seen flying over US 

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Americans are once again looking skyward in alarm as mysterious high-altitude balloons silently drift over multiple states, rekindling fears of foreign surveillance and government secrecy. 

Reports from Colorado, Arizona and Alabama describe white objects hovering far above the clouds, eerily reminiscent of the 2023 Chinese spy balloon incident. 

That event sparked nationwide panic when a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon crossed the continental US before being shot down by a fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina. 

For many, the sudden reappearance of these enigmatic objects raises fresh questions about who, or what, is watching from above.

Locals have flooded social media with photos and videos of the strange balloons, pleading for help in identifying them. 

While some observers believe the objects may be part of routine research projects, others are convinced they are 'new Chinese spy balloons' designed to gather intelligence. 

In Tucson, Arizona, multiple sightings have been reported this year, with one prompting speculation that it was 'a spy camera platform from China transmitting military secrets in fast bursts.'

However, later reports determined that at least one of the Tucson objects was part of a US military test, which stirred fresh concerns among privacy advocates.

Arizona has been a balloon hotspot over the past few months, with some locals first believe they were Chinese spy balloons

People used flight tracking data to watch a balloon's path in June

Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Arizona Mirror: 'It is a technology that should not and constitutionally cannot be applied to the American people. 

'Even testing for eventual overseas use in legitimate combat theaters raises a lot of questions about what kind of data is being collected.'

The most recent incident in Arizona was reported about two weeks ago, when a balloon was spotted drifting over Lemmon.

 Social media users attempted to track the balloon on flight monitoring apps but were unsuccessful, fueling suspicion about its purpose. 

'Not showing on Flightradar24, though, like others have in weeks past,' one Reddit user wrote. Another chimed in, 'I saw it a few minutes ago outside. Usually, they're at 60,000 feet. It must be huge!'

Earlier sightings in June caused a stir when multiple high-altitude balloons lingered over the Tucson and Sierra Vista areas for more than a week, leaving residents on edge. 

In Boulder, Colorado, locals reported seeing what was later identified as an Aerostar Thunderhead steerable balloon. 

'It's not just a weather balloon,' one Reddit user explained. 'It can also carry signal-gathering equipment, communications equipment, or other sensors.'

Many people in Colorado spotted a balloon this week, floating outside of Boulder 

Aerostar, a company that develops balloons for scientific research, telecommunications and military applications, has confirmed ownership of several of the objects spotted across the country. 

A meteorologist also determined that a balloon seen over Alabama belonged to Aerostar. 

James Spann, a respected weather expert, posted yesterday on X: 'Getting a number of reports of a high-altitude object over North Alabama… looks like it is a balloon (HBAL787). It has been drifting south over NE Alabama this afternoon.'

The balloon eventually moved into Tennessee, hovering at an altitude of 59,200 feet, far above commercial airliners, which typically fly at around 35,000 feet. 

While some scientists say high-altitude balloons are commonly used for atmospheric research and communications tests, their sudden visibility and stealthy flight patterns continue to alarm the public.

A meteorologist also determined that a balloon seen over Alabama belonged to Aerostar

James Spann, a respected weather expert, posted yesterday on X: 'Getting a number of reports of a high-altitude object over North Alabama… looks like it is a balloon (HBAL787). It has been drifting south over NE Alabama this afternoon.'

A report released in February revived the Chinese balloon incident, finding it was secretly equipped with US-made technology.

It was full of the very same technology that may have helped Beijing spy on unsuspecting Americans, two sources with direct knowledge of the classified investigation told Newsweek exclusively.

Military analysts who dismantled the balloon found it was loaded with American-made satellite communication modules and sophisticated sensors from at least five different US companies, as reported by the outlet.

A Chinese patent uncovered during the investigation also alarmingly showed that Beijing had already mapped out exactly how to use American satellite technology to control these spy balloons and harvest sensitive data.

The necessary equipment was reportedly easily available for purchase online.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

17-10-2025 om 15:17 geschreven door peter  

1561 hemels verschijnsel boven Neurenberg, afgebeeld in een geïllustreerd nieuwsbericht (door UFO-liefhebbers beschreven als een luchtgevecht van buitenaardse oorsprong en door sceptici beschouwd als een zonnespectakel)

Bron: Publiek Domein

Wagens van de Goden, Schepen aan de Hemel: Ongeïdentificeerde Luchtverschijnselen uit het Verleden

Inleiding

Al eeuwenlang beschrijven mensen glinsterende voorwerpen aan de hemel die niet eenvoudig te plaatsen zijn binnen de gangbare verklaringen. Sommige hemelverschijnselen zoals kometen, meteorenzwermen, boliden, aurora’s of zelfs aardbevingachtige bliksem — allemaal aspecten die vandaag de dag vaak begrijpelijk zijn — werden in het oude rijkdommen van verhalen en waarnemingen uitgebreid gerapporteerd. Tegenwoordig noemen we zo’n fenomeen Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs). Sommigen denken aan buitenaardse oorsprong, anderen zien het als mysterieuze verschijnselen of als symbolen van maatschappelijke onrust. Het onderwerp trekt nog altijd aandacht, zowel in politieke kringen als in de wetenschappelijke wereld. De komende tekst probeert dit onderwerp vanuit een historisch perspectief te plaatsen: wat zinspeelden oude volkeren in hun stille uurtjes op tegen de lucht, en hoe raken die oude verhalen verweven met hedendaagse debatten over UAPs?

Oud historisch beeld - Tekenen van beroering

In de literatuur en in inscripties uit verschillende culturen verschijnen steeds weer scènes waarin onbekende of onverklaarbare verschijningen in de lucht als teken van maatschappelijke onrust en naderend onheil dienen. Een bekend voorbeeld uit de Bijbel is het boek Ezechiël, waarin de profeet spreekt over een goddelijke strijdwagen die heet gloeit en waarin vier levende wezens te zien zijn. Deze beelden lijken zowel menselijk als vreemd, met hun vier gezichten en vier vleugels. In vele culturen duiken soortgelijke motieven op: het beeld van voertuigen die door de hemel heen scheuren of die op een andere manier bovennatuurlijk licht uitstralen.

Giovanni Battista Fontana, De Visioen van Ezechiël, 1579.

(Publiek Domein)

Een andere rijke traditie komt uit de oude Indiase epische werken, de Mahābhārata en de Rāmāyana. In de hindoeïstische mythologie worden de vimāna’s genoemd: vliegende strijdwagens die de goden meevoeren naar de verste uithoeken van het universum. In vele mythen hollen goden in deze voertuigen door de ruimte en vervullen ze zowel dagelijkse als kosmische taken. In afbeeldingen en verhalen uit Azië zijn deze vimāna’s vaak afgebeeld als schitterende, indrukwekkende machines die snelheid en macht uitstralen. Ook hier wordt het beeld van de hemel als route en arena voor goddelijke daden afgebeeld.

Krishna en Rukmini als bruidegom en bruid in een hemelse wagen getrokken door Ganesha, India, Rajasthan, Bundi, 1675-1700.

(Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

In het Middellandse Zeegebied dragen historische keren een soortgelijke thematiek. In de Romeinse en Griekse literatuur duiken meldingen op van verschijnselen in de lucht die op de een of andere manier het klimaat van oorlog en macht weerspiegelen. Een voorbeeld uit de geschiedschrijving is de Romeinse historicus Livius, die beschreef hoe tijdens de Tweede Punische Oorlog “schepen schitterden aan de lucht” of als “grote vloot” in de hemel verschenen. Of het nu echte schepen waren, vreemde wolkenformaties of iets anders, de formulering beklemtoont een moment waarin de visue­le wereld in de geschiedenis verweven raakt met ook de plek waar oorlog en macht plaatsvinden. Zulke beschrijvingen suggereren dat mensen altijd de lucht hebben geïnterpreteerd als een spiegel van wat in de aardse omgang plaatsvindt.

Een ander klassiek voorbeeld komt bij Plutarchus voor, in de Life of Lucullus. Wanneer de Romeinse legers tegenover koning Mithridates VI van Pontus stonden, werd een vreemd fenomeen aan de hemel waargenomen: het leek op een grote, vlamachtige bol die tussen de legers neerdaalde. Volgens Plutarchus had het object een vorm die leek op een wijnvat (pithos) en een kleur die leek op gesmolten zilver. De waarnemers schrokken en trok zich terug. Of dit nu een meteoriet betrof of iets anders, de beschrijving geeft aan dat het fenomeen zo’n impact had dat beide partijen het als een kwaadaardige voorteken zagen.

Een derde opmerkelijke getuigenis komt uit de Joods-Romijnse geschiedschrijving van Flavius Josephus. Gebeurtenissen rondom oorlogen tussen Romeinen en Joden roepen soms de indruk op van bovennatuurlijke verschijningen: “karren” of strijdkrachten schoten door de wolken terwijl er een reeks scherp beschreven gebeurtenissen in de lucht plaatsvond. Voor veel getuigen lijkt het alsof dergelijke verschijnselen de uitkomst van gevechten vooruitbellen of –zo niet – een teken vormden dat het lot troef had.

Een koning en zijn gevolg confronteren dames onder een hemelse strijd, Frans, circa 1600.

(Publiek domein)

Van middeleeuwen tot millenniumwisseling:

Het christelijke doembeeld en de evolutie van het begrip UAP Naar de overgang van oud naar middelbaar en daarna naar modern denken, verschuift de betekenis van dergelijke waarnemingen vaak van pure interpretatie naar een bredere zoölogie van angst en hoop. In de christelijke traditie kreeg de “shield of faith” van de apostel Paulus een symbolische plaats, terwijl “schepen die door de hemel varen” werden geïnterpreteerd als een metafoor voor de bescherming van de Kerk en zijn gelovigen. In de context van de middeleeuwse Ierse literatuur verschijnt het idee dat occultverschijnselen in de lucht een soort teken van de hemel zouden kunnen zijn, en zo wordt het een symbool van de veiligheid die de Kerk biedt.

Rond de millenniumwisseling groeit de belangstelling voor iets wat we vandaag UAPs noemen. De mensen in die tijd worstelen met de betekenis van het eind der tijden, en het teken van de hemel wordt opnieuw belicht in een modern jasje. In deze periode verschijnt ook een nieuwe vorm van beschouding: waarin men zoekt naar een rationele uitleg, maar waarin religie en mysterie nog steeds een belangrijke rol spelen. Het verhaal van talloze getuigen die met UAP’s te maken hebben, of die beweren religieuze formulering te vinden in wat ze waarnemen, blijft actueel. Voor velen biedt ufologie een manier om geloof en wetenschap samen te brengen: een plek waar zowel zingeving als objectieve verklaring mogelijk lijkt te zijn.

Een onverklaard object in een videobeeld geleverd door het Amerikaanse ministerie van Defensie, gelabeld als Gimbal, uit 2015.

(Ministerie van Defensie via AP)

Moderne duiding

Wat betekenen UAPs nu? Vandaag de dag lopen de interpretaties uiteen. De Amerikaanse belangstelling voor UAPs is onder andere ingegeven door verwerkte en eerder geheime beelden die uitlekken, maar ook door een beleg van een voormalige inlichtingenambtenaar die beweert dat de regering “off-world” technologie bezit. Tegelijkertijd concludeert een recente NASA-rapportage dat er geen bewijs is dat UAPs buitenaards van oorsprong zijn. De discussie draait om de vraag of dit soort waarnemingen wél een interessant venster openen op onze technologische vooruitgang, of dat ze vooral angst en onzekerheid teweegbrengen.

Toch is er een duidelijke continuïteit: mensen projecteren de onzekerheid van de eigen tijd op wat zich in de lucht afspeelt. Oude samenlevingen zagen krijgsdaden en goddelijke machten in de hemel, toen als voorteken van onheil, nu als indicatie van onbekende technologieën of onbekende motivaties. De spanning tussen interpretatie en verificatie blijft bestaan. Zelfs als we naheldere verklaringen vinden voor sommige verschijnselen — zoals meteorieten of atmosferische verschijnselen — blijft er ruimte voor interpretatie en verbeelding.

De menselijke neiging tot projectie op het onbekende Een belangrijke les uit de geschiedenis is dat UAP-achtige waarnemingen nooit uitsluitend een kwestie van “waar” of “niet waar” zijn. Ze reflecteren ook de staat van de maatschappij waarin ze voorkomen. Wanneer er onrust heerst, wanneer de machtsdynamiek verscherpt of wanneer grote toevloed van informatie plaatsvindt, worden verschijnselen in de lucht vaak geherinterpreteerd als tekenen van bredere sociale processen: onzekerheid over toekomst, angst voor verlies van controle, of hoop op een oplossing vanuit iets wat groter en machtiger lijkt.

Daarom kunnen we concluderen dat UAPs, zowel in het oude als in het moderne tijdperk, een venster bieden op menselijke zorgen. Ze tonen hoe mensen zoeken naar houvast en zingeving wanneer de wereld intensiever verandert dan ooit tevoren. Of uiteindelijk de objecten in de lucht nu al dan niet buitenaards zijn, de symboliek en de impact ervan spreken een universeel verhaal: de behoefte om onze crisis naar een hoger niveau te tillen, naar de hemel, naar het onbekende.

An unclassified sketch of a UAP from the CIA.

(Public Domain)

Qua uitleg: wat kunnen we vandaag als leerpunt meenemen?

• Historische continuïteit: verschijnselen in de hemel zijn altijd gebruikt als symbolen van verandering en onzekerheid. Ze dienen als culturele spiegels waarin samenlevingen hun angsten en hoop projecteren.
• Interpretatie voorop: de wijze waarop men een hemelverschijnsel beschrijft, zegt vaak iets over de tijd waarin het onderzoek plaatsvindt, meer dan over de oorsprong van het fenomeen zelf.
• Wetenschap en geloof: ufologie kan functioneren als brug tussen geloof en wetenschap, een plek waar mensen zoeken naar een gecombineerde betekenis die beide dimensies erkent.
• De rol van bewijs: in hedendaagse debatten blijven verificatie en transparantie cruciaal. Het uitlekken van beelden en de beschikbaarheid van data beïnvloeden publieke perceptie en beleidsbeslissingen.

Slotsom

Wij zien in de geschiedenis een duidelijke lijn: van Bijbelse en Indiase mythes tot moderne rapportages over UAPs, groeiende maatschappelijke belangstelling voor wat zich in de hoogte voltrekt. Of die verschijnselen uiteindelijk buitenaards zijn of niet, raakt ons vooral in ons menselijk vermogen om de wereld te interpreteren en onze toekomst te vormen. De oude waarnemers zochten naar tekenen, naar een taal die iets vertelde over hun tijd, en misschien ook een richting bood voor wat komen zou. Vandaag blijven we die drang voelen: een zoektocht naar verklaringen, maar ook naar betekenis. Soms lijken de objecten in de lucht ons te helpen begrijpen hoe dicht we bij het onbekende staan — en hoe hardnekkig onze behoefte is om orde te brengen in wat we zien.

Eindigen we met een gedachte die eeuwenlang overeind blijft: de mens blijft de hemel lezen als een kaart van zijn eigen zorgen en hoop. Of er nu kaartjes, strijdwagens of glanzende schepen aan de hemel verschijnen, onze reactie zal altijd gekleurd zijn door de tijd waarin we leven. De geschiedenis leert ons dat de lucht meer zegt over mensen dan over objecten daarboven. Het is een spiegel waarin we onszelf zien worstelen met onduidelijkheid, met onzekerheid, maar ook met de eeuwige behoefte aan begrip en richting. Zo blijft de fascinerende relatie tussen UAPs en menselijke ervaring ons wat te zeggen heeft over hoe wij ons plaatsen in het grote verhaal van de kosmos.

{ PETER2011 }

10-10-2025 om 21:58 geschreven door peter  

The Phoenix Lights Phenomenon: An Unsolved UFO Mystery

On the evening of March 13, 1997, an extraordinary event unfolded in the skies over Arizona that would become one of the most documented and hotly debated UFO sightings in history. The Phoenix Lights remains a compelling mystery, but is the truth out there? Read on to find out.

In 1997 over Phoenix, AZ, a group of lights appeared.... The event was one of the first mass UAP sightings, and is still a subject of debate.

In March 1997 over the city of Phoenix, Arizona, lights appeared in the sky, covering a distance of around 350 miles from the Nevada state line in the northwest down to southern city of Tucson. Over several hours, thousands of residents reported witnessing a series of strange, luminous objects and formations in the sky. Descriptions varied from a V-shaped light formation, to orbs that glowed intensely and seemed to move with purpose across the night sky.

Some are convinced the lights over Phoenix in 1997 were UFOs, or UAPs – unidentified aerial phenomenon. The official line is that they were military planes being tested in the desert and flares from aircraft on night manoeuvres.

What exactly did the residents of Phoenix see that night? Did they come within touching distance – literally, according to some – of beings from another world, or is the explanation for the bizarre lights in Phoenix, Arizona, rather more benign?

The strange case of the Phoenix Lights has left the world befuddled for over a quarter of a century. Let’s take a trip to the sixth-largest of the United States in an attempt to shed light on this baffling luminous enigma.

Close Encounters of the First Kind

V-shaped lights of a UFO

(Credit: Devrimb via Getty Images)

Like the bizarre Max Headroom Broadcast Signal Intrusion a decade earlier, the Phoenix Lights, also known as the Lights Over Phoenix, came in two distinct waves.

The first occurrence – between approximately 7.30pm and 8.45pm on March 13, 1997 – was observed as a massive, V-shaped object with five or six reddish-orange lights that silently moved north to south in the sky, spanning at least a mile in width according to eyewitness reports.

One of the first witnesses was in Henderson, Nevada, just a few miles south of Las Vegas and a short distance from the Arizona state line. About fifteen minutes later, what are believed to be the same lights were spotted by a former policeman in the town of Paulden, Arizona, about 200 miles southeast of Henderson. Next, about 25 miles south of Paulden, there were further sightings of the lights of Phoenix over Prescott Valley. It seemed they – whatever ‘they’ happened to be – were moving south towards Tucson.

These witnesses, and many others, said that the lights lingered before disappearing and reappearing in the same formation, captivating onlookers for several minutes at a time.

The Strange Tale of Kurt Russell & His Son

Single prop plane taking off

(Credit: Ascent Xmedia via Getty Images)

In a bizarre twist to an already incredulous mystery, one of the first people to report the sighting of what has become known as the Phoenix Lights, was none other than Hollywood actor Kurt Russell.

In an interview with the BBC’s The One Show, Russell, a private pilot, explained that he was flying his son Oliver from Los Angeles to Phoenix to see his [Oliver’s] girlfriend, when on their final approach, they noticed a series of strange lights in the sky.

Oliver asked if his father knew what the lights were, to which he responded that he didn’t. He called it in to air traffic control who said that their radar screens showed nothing at all. Russell declared that it was a UFO in the literal sense, in that it appeared to be a flying object that was unidentified, and proceeded to land perfectly safely.

Meanwhile, the Phoenix, Arizona lights were moving closer to the state capital. Witnesses in Glendale, Scottsdale, and downtown Phoenix saw the lights but by around 9pm they were gone.

Close Encounters of the Second Kind

Did a UFO crash land in Roswell?

(Credit: David Zaitz via Getty Images)

About an hour later, the lights over Phoenix were back. Around 10pm, a series of intensely bright lights appeared over the Phoenix area, distinct from the V-shaped formation observed earlier in the evening. These peculiar lights in Phoenix, Arizona, were described as stationary, hovering orbs that remained visible for a considerable period before they started to dim and then vanished, only to reappear and maintain the same formation.

Witnesses reported these lights did not seem to be attached to any solid object, or if they were, the object was not visible against the night sky. This aspect of the phenomenon led to widespread speculation and debate, as the lights behaved unlike conventional aircraft or known atmospheric phenomena.

UFO sceptic Robert Sheaffer described this second occurrence as ‘perhaps the most widely witnessed UFO event in history.’

The Immediate Aftermath

The instant reaction to the Phoenix Lights was a mixture of awe, confusion, and concern. Witnesses flooded police lines and local news stations with reports, seeking explanations for what they had seen.

The story quickly garnered national attention, sparking a frenzy of speculation, investigation, and debate. Sceptics proposed conventional explanations such as flares or military aircraft, while believers in extraterrestrial activity felt validated in their convictions.

The event left a lasting impression on the public consciousness, becoming a pivotal moment for the UFO community and a perennial topic of interest for both sceptics and believers alike.

But what actually happened that night? Was it military aircraft that instigated the illuminations, or were the lights over Phoenix 1997’s answer to Roswell?

The Official Explanation

A10 Thunderbolt II jets on a training mission

(Credit: Stocktrek Images via Getty Images)

According to the US military, both incidents were as a result of a pilot training programme called Operation Snowbird from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson.

The first incident – the V-shaped object – was explained as nothing more than five A-10 Thunderbolt II jets flying under visual flight rules, so instead of displaying flashing collision lights, they were allowed to display steady formation lights. The planes landed at Davis-Monthan AFB at around 8.45pm.

Later that night, the stationary, hovering orbs were slow-burning, long-falling LUU-2B/B illumination flares dropped from the A10s while on a training exercise from the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range. A later study of their luminosity suggested they could indeed be seen over the distances described on the night of March 13, 1997.

A decade on from thousands of people seeing the lights in Phoenix, Arizona, Maryland Air National Guard pilot Lt. Col. Ed Jones admitted to being one of the airmen who dropped the flares.

While plenty accept the official explanation of events that night, others aren’t so sure.

Is the Truth Out There?

Atmospheric Northern Lights over a city

(Credit: edb3_16 via Getty Images)

Beyond the official Air Force explanation attributing the Phoenix Lights phenomenon to flares and military aircraft, several prevailing theories have been proposed by researchers, UFO enthusiasts, and sceptics alike to explain the events of March 13, 1997. These theories range from the plausible to the speculative, reflecting the enduring mystery and intrigue of the incident.

1. Military or Experimental Aircraft

Some theories suggest that the V-shaped formation responsible for the Phoenix, Arizona lights could have been an experimental or military aircraft, possibly a stealth plane or other advanced, secretive aviation technology. Proponents of this theory point to the size and silent operation of the object as indicative of experimental military projects unknown to the public at the time.

2. Atmospheric Conditions

Another explanation posits that certain atmospheric conditions on that night might have caused or contributed to the visibility of distant or conventional lights in unusual ways. This could involve temperature inversions or reflections from man-made or natural sources, leading to illusions, misidentified celestial objects, or misinterpretations of natural phenomena as something more mysterious.

3. Extraterrestrial Craft 

The most popular and controversial theory is that the lights of Phoenix were from one or more alien spacecraft. This theory revolves around the size, formation, and flight characteristics of the lights. The lack of sound, combined with the apparent coordinated movement of the lights, fuels speculation about technology beyond human capabilities, outside of our current understanding of the laws of physics.

4. Psychological or Social Phenomenon 

Some researchers propose that the Phoenix Lights can be partly explained by psychological phenomena, such as mass hysteria or the power of suggestion. This falls squarely in the ‘they saw what they wanted to see’ category. According to this theory, the initial reports of lights could have influenced subsequent observers to perceive mundane phenomena as extraordinary, especially in the context of a highly publicised event.

5. An Elaborate Hoax

A more sceptical approach suggests that the entire event could have been an elaborate hoax or a series of optical illusions. This could involve the strategic use of flares, balloons, or other devices to create the illusion of a UFO, although the coordinated execution over such a wide area would have been challenging.

Each of these theories attempts to explain the lights over Phoenix phenomenon, but none have definitively ended the speculation. The Phoenix Lights remain a topic of fascination and debate within the UFO community and among the general public.

Unsolved in the Sky: The Enigma of the Phoenix Lights

What were the Phoenix Lights?

(Credit: David Wallvia Getty Images)

The mysterious lights in Phoenix, Arizona remain one of the most captivating and enduring mysteries in the annals of UFO sightings. Despite the official explanation, the nature of the lights that danced over Arizona’s night sky in March 1997 continues to spark speculation and – for some – fuels the imagination about what might be possible in the vast, unexplored reaches of the universe.

Related

{ https://www.discoveryuk.com/feature/mysteries/articles/ }

09-10-2025 om 18:28 geschreven door peter  

Massa Ufo-waarnemingen: spectaculaire gevallen, twijfel en mogelijke verklaringen

Inleiding

Het fenomeen van UFO’s heeft altijd een bijzondere aantrekkingskracht gehad: het idee dat overheden, massa’s mensen en zelfs gerenommeerde professionals plotseling oog in oog kunnen staan met iets wat buiten de gangbare ervaring ligt. De meeste rapporten beschrijven helder zichtbare gebeurtenissen die door weinig personen tegelijk worden waargenomen. In tegenstelling tot die kleinschalige ontmoetingen komen er zo nu en dan gevallen voor waarbij honderden, vaak hoog aangeschreven getuigen dezelfde ervaring melden. Deze massale waarnemingen zijn zeldzaam maar bijzonder intrigerend omdat ze een rijke variatie aan getuigen biedt: politiemensen, militair personeel, journalisten, bestuurders en gewone burgers die allen hetzelfde fenomeen lijken te hebben gezien. In dit artikel nemen we een aantal beroemde massale UFO-flaps onder de loep: van Wanaque in New Jersey (1966) tot de Phoenix Lights (1997) en verder.

We plaatsen deze getuigenissen in een bredere context van mogelijke verklaringen, variërend van misidentificaties van alledaagse fenomenen en ruimteafval tot het spectrale gebied van satellietinval en nog verder. Daarnaast plaatsen we dit onderwerp in een bredere historische voorstelling van phenomena die in de publieke verbeelding een rol spelen: het Zonnewonder van Fatima en wat er in België—in legendarische “frihoekjes” of fringe-gebieden—gewaarschuwd is gebeurd. Zo kan men zien hoe massale waarnemingen niet alleen een wetenschappelijke maar ook een maatschappelijke en culturele referentiekader raken.

1. Een klassieke massale flap: Wanaque Reservoir, New Jersey (1966)

Het verhaal van Wanaque, een buitenwijk van New Jersey, begon als een ogenschijnlijk rustige avond in januari 1966. Omstreeks 18:30 begonnen talrijke meldingen binnen te komen van een extreem helder licht boven het nabijgelegen Wanaque-reservoir. De beschrijvingen waren consistent: een zeer fel wit licht, groter en helderder dan een ster, dat af en toe van kleur veranderde (rood, blauw, groen). Het object hing boven het bevroren meer, bewoog in wat leek op een doelbewust patroon en bereikte hoogte tussen 250 en 1000 voet. Bovendien werden rapporten genoemd van een straal of beam die naar het ijsprojectie maakte, waardoor het ijs smolt en gaten achterliet.

Getuigen aanzienlijk in aantal en diversiteit droegen bij aan de geloofwaardigheid van het verschijnsel. Politiemannen, brandweerlieden en hooggeplaatste functionarissen, waaronder burgemeester Harry T. Wolfe en andere wethouders, getuigen van een object dat stil was, zonder geluid, maar verrichtte een reeks onverklaarbare bewegingen: dalen en stijgen, drijvend boven het water en scherpe bochten makend. De indruk van soliditeit en intelligent bestuurde beweging werd versterkt door de rapportage van het object dat schijnbaar water deed opwellen en het wateroppervlak verplaatste.

Wat dit incident zo intrigerend maakte, was de combinatie van massale waarneming en de overtuiging van onverklaarbaar te zijn: het fenomeen leek geen gewoon vliegtuig of bekend weerfenomeen te zijn. Zichtbaar werd het nogmaals op latere data, ook boven Lakeland Regional High School en op andere locaties in de omgeving. Het leek zich vervolgens uit te breiden tot de omliggende gebieden voordat het weer verdween. Een belangrijke component in de discussie was de mysterieuze afwezigheid van fotomateriaal: hoewel talrijke getuigen het fenomeen beschrijven, ontbreekt er een consistente berg fotodemonstraties. Er worden wel foto’s genoemd die anoniem naar voren zijn gebracht, maar zonder duidelijke herkomst en zonder negatieven, waardoor de echtheid moeilijk te verifiëren is.

Mogelijke verklaringen en controverse

• Ruimteafval of object in de lucht. Een populaire theorie was dat het ging om een vallend satellietdebris of eenSpace Shuttle-achtige vorm. Dergelijke concepten konden mogelijk de observaties van een gloeiende, witte bol uitleggen, maar niet de specifieke, verfijnde manoeuvres, het behoud van een vaste positie en het neerzetten van een beam.
• Luchtvaart- of natuurverschijnselen zoals helikopters met krachtige lichtbundels, weersfenomenen of misidentificaties. De getuigen kwamen uit verschillende hoeken en hadden verschillende beschrijvingen die soms op een soort geordende structuur wezen; sommige onderzoekers wezen erop dat hulpschepen, verschillende vliegtuigen of andere normale objecten verkeerd konden worden geïnterpreteerd, vooral in omstandigheden waarin weinig licht was of waar de perceptie vertekend kon raken.
• Een gebrek aan volledige follow-up: de nasleep van de zaak bracht varianten van het verhaal waar onbekende militaire figuren zich bemoeiden met getuigen en mogelijk fotografisch materiaal in beslag namen. De afwezigheid van een gestructureerde, onafhankelijke follow-up maakte het moeilijk om definitieve conclusies te trekken.

De publieke en wetenschappelijke dialoog

De Wanaque-zaak blijft een van de meest geciteerd massale UFO-waarnemingen uit de Verenigde Staten, deels vanwege het grote aantal duidelijke getuigen en de prominente figuren die het zagen. Toch blijft de controverse bestaan: kon men de waarneming verklaren als een misidentificatie, een zeldzame atmosferische gebeurtenis of—zoals door sommige onderzoekers wordt voorgesteld—een object met onbekende oorsprong? De stilte rondom een volledige, rigoureuze opvolgonderzoek laat twijfels bestaan over de integriteit van de officiële documenten en de bereidwilligheid van overheden om al dan niet expliciet informatie te delen.

2. Een internationaal fenomeen: de zonverduistering en het Mexico City-incident (11 juli 1991)

Tijdens een totale zonsverduistering, die de Pacific-oevers van Mexico bereiste tot in Brazilië en uitwaaiend via Hawaï en Midden-Amerika, ontstond in Mexico-Stad een schokgolf toen getuigen een helder, schijvenvormig metalen object registreerden dat boven de eclips leek te zweven. Guillermo Arragin en Jaime Maussan, respectievelijk een televisiemanager en een journalist, filmden het fenomeen terwijl ze de verduistering volgden en stuurden de beelden naar Sesenta Minutos (de Mexicaanse versie van Sixty Minutes). Acht dagen later verscheen het nieuws op televisie en begon een forse stroom van meldingen: duizenden mensen die hetzelfde object zagen of video’s daarvan maakten, met beschrijvingen variërend van stilstaand tot bewegend en een waarneembaar dampspoor dat het object leek te volgen.

Een opvallende twist was de latere opduiking van soortgelijke waarnemingen bij een militair luchtvertoon in Mexico-Stad, waar een ingenieur meldde een “glanzende stip” te zien die kon unduleren en bewegen zonder te volgen wat een normaal vliegtuig zou doen. Nog een jaar later werd het object opnieuw gezien op hetzelfde luchtshow evenement, en in latere jaren bleef het beeld hangen door analysen en discussies: Venus werd onder meer voorgesteld als een verklarende factor, gezien de positie en beweging van het hemelobject in sommige videobeelden. Critici, onder wie de astronomen Tim Printy, wezen erop dat camera-artificatie en het ontbreken van onbegeleide videomateriaal het verhaal mysterieus maakten, terwijl sommige amateuristen en volgelingen van de theorieën rondom “Mayaanse profetieën” probeerden het incident te verbinden met oude mythologie en het idee van buitenaardse bezoekers aan de hoofdstad van Mexico.

De polemiek rondom de video’s

• Venus als verklarende factor. Tim Printy en andere wetenschappers wezen erop dat de meeste beelden consistent met eenvoudige, maar misleidende videocollages of artefacten konden zijn en dat de astronomische context (zoals de positie van Venus) het beeld kon vervormen. Bovendien zag men geen melden van officiële Mexicaanse astronomers die een UFO-breedte in die periode bevestigden, wat het sceptische standpunt versterkte.
• De magische retoriek van sommige commentatoren. Een groepje volgers en mediafiguren, waaronder de Elders (Lee en Brit Elders), stelde dat de gebeurtenis een prooi was voor een narratief van “Mayaanse profetieën” en buitenaardse bezoekers, een verhaal dat Printy scherp afbrandt als “pure bunk voor verkoop.” Hij bekritiseerde de verstrengeling van oude mythen met moderne videomateriaal en betwijfelde de betrouwbaarheid van de zogenaamd “bron-documenten” die zo’n spectaculaire claim zouden ondersteunen.
• Conspiracy-theorieën en geopolitieke roddels. Er deden zich Geruchtencollecties voor over vermeende Amerikaanse of Russische lekkages en “war on UFO’s” die zouden gepleegd zijn naar aanleiding van deze gebeurtenissen. Hoewel zulke claims fascinerend zijn, ontbreken concrete bewijzen en blijven ze in de sfeer van complottheorieën hangen.

Impact en les:

wat hebben we geleerd? Hoewel de Mexico City-verhalen een mix van documentaire bewijs, interpretatie en mythologie bieden, is het belangrijkste wat ze illustreren dat een grote massa waarnemers, inclusief gewone burgers en professionals, identieke of vergelijkbaar lijkende getuigenissen kan leveren. Ze benadrukken ook dat menselijke interpretatie, camera-techniek en culturele narratieven een grote rol spelen bij wat men ziet en hoe men het verklaart. Of Venus nu de ware boosdoener was of niet, blijft de discussie bestaan—maar het grote publiek blijft geïntrigeerd door de mogelijkheid van buitenaardse bezoekers en de redenen waarom zulke fenomenen zich juist op spectaculaire momenten tonen.

3. Cosford Incident en de Engelse controverse (31 maart 1993)

In het zuiden van Engeland brak een forse golf van meldingen uit in maart 1993, met vooraanstaande rapporten bij politie en defensie die in Devon, Cornwall en Wales werden gemeld. Een anonieme waarneming beschreef een enorm object “als twee Concordes die naast elkaar vliegen en verbonden zijn,” met schattingen die het object op meer dan 200 meter lengte plaatsten. Verdere getuigen meldde dat het object laag overvliegt of zelfs in een veld landde. De volgende dag bleef de situatie zich herhalen: RAF Cosford, RAF Shawbury en zelfs een Ierse militaire helikopter kwamen in beeld met rapporten van rode lichten en schaars geluidloze activiteiten. Een meteoroloog bij Shawbury meldde dat een driehoekig vaartuig van 200 voet over de basis naderde, waarna het een krachtige straal op de grond wierp en in een oogwenk verdween, achterlatend een glimmende damp.

Het MoD-onderzoeksproject, geleid door Nick Pope, registreerde honderden getuigenrapporten, en de zaak trok de aandacht tot in de Amerikaanse Defensie. Pope beschreef Cosford als een van de meest opvallende gevallen in zijn tijd bij het UFO-project in de vroege jaren negentig. Desondanks bleven er vandaag de dag verschillende standpunten bestaan over wat er precies gezien is: ruimteafval van een Russische Cosmos-satelliet, geheime militaire testvluchten, bovennatuurlijke fenomenen of een verkeerd geïnterpreteerde luchtvaart. Sommigen betwijfelden zelfs de radarregistraties en stelden dat het hier mogelijk ging om misidentificaties bij nacht kunnen zijn, of dat de waarnemers verstrikt raakten in perceptie-fouten.

Ethische en methodologische kanttekeningen

• De betrouwbaarheid van “getrainde getuigen.” Hoewel de getuigen vaak uit professionele kringen komen, waarschuwt skeptici dat zelfs getrainde waarnemers fouten kunnen maken, zeker bij nachtelijke waarnemingen en uiterst modale vormen van objecten. Chris Fowler benadrukte de noodzaak om voorzichtig te zijn met het vertrouwen in professionals als garantie voor objectiviteit, en wees op de inherente valkuilen van perceptie en interpretatie.
• De rol van “echte data.” Het gebrek aan volledige, verifieerbare data—zoals gebrek aan radar correlatie, en de onzekerheid rondom de kernsignatuur van de objecten—maakt de Cosford-landing een voorbeeld van hoe complex het kan zijn om een zuivere conclusie te trekken op basis van getuigenverklaringen alleen.
• De kritiek op Pope’s benadering. Nick Pope kreeg kritiek op de wijze waarop hij in sommige stukken en documentaires de feiten presenteerde, en hoe hij mogelijk te selectief was in het koppelen van getuigenissen aan specifieke theorieën. Vadert men dat een dergelijk deel van het onderzoek eenzijdig is, dan kan dit de geloofwaardigheid van het hele veld ondermijnen.

Resultaat en interpretatie

De Cosford-zaak staat bekend als een van de meest geïnterpreteerde ‘massieve’ UAP-gevallen in het Verenigd Koninkrijk, maar het blijft onduidelijk wat er precies gebeurde. Een belangrijke les is dat, zelfs wanneer getuigen betrouwbaar lijken, de complexe combinatie van perceptie, technologische beperkingen en bedreigde context het extreem lastig maakt om tot definitieve conclusies te komen. Het incident heeft wel bijgedragen aan de discussie over de aanwezigheid van ongeïdentificeerde fenomenen en de noodzaak van betere en ongekleurde gegevensverzameling.

4. Phoenix Lights: massale waarneming boven Arizona en de Verenigde Staten (13 maart 1997)

Misschien wel de best bekende massale UFO-waarneming uit recente geschiedenis vonden plaats in Arizona op 13 maart 1997, bekend als de Phoenix Lights. Het begon vroeg in de avond toen een enorme V-vormige formatie van fel gereduceerde lichten werd gezien die een aanzienlijke strook van de hemel bedekte en de sterren grotendeels verhulde. De maneuvre werd beschreven als stilstaand of traag beweging, met een zwevend patroon dat door duizenden personen werd waargenomen: politiemensen, piloten, militair personeel, en zelfs de toenmalige gouverneur van Arizona, Fife Symington III.

Later die avond werd een tweede, meer gefocuste groep lichten gezien in een formele vorm die stil over de horizon bewoog. Er ontstond veel debat over de aard van deze fenomenen: waren het militaire luchtdoelen, verkeerslichten, ballonnen, of niet? Verschillen in getuigenis op een aantal punten maakten al snel duidelijk dat het niet eenvoudig was om één gemeenschappelijke verklaring te vinden.

De theorieën en het publieke debat

• Flares en ballonnen. Een overheersende sceptische verklaring suggereerde dat de tweede groep lichten afkomstig was van zware nachtelijke fakkels of “flares” die door het Amerikaanse leger werden gebruikt tijdens oefeningen. Dit leek te worden bevestigd door latere incidenten waarin vergelijkbare lichteffecten werden verklaard als fakkels tijdens trainingscampagnes.
• Een massief object. De eerste vorming, zo werd betoogd door sommige getuigen, was een enorme drie-dimensionale structuur die de sterren blokkeerde. Sommigen suggereerden dat het een gevormd, geheim vliegtuig was—een mogelijke “black op”-operatie. Anderen bleven vasthouden aan de verhalen over een buitenaards vaartuig.
• De gouverneur en publieke verklaring. Symington, die ooit beweerde dat hij niet zeker wist wat hij had gezien, vertelde later dat, als hij een piloot is, hij zeker geen menselijke vliegtuig kon verklaren die zo’n symmetrisch patroon vertoonde en zo’n grote omvang had. Dit gesprek veroorzaakte publieke ophef en maakte het debat nog vuriger.

Herwaardering door latere gebeurtenissen In 2007 en 2008 werden soortgelijke waarnemingen gemeld, die uiteindelijk werden verklaard als flares en ballonnen. Toch blijft de Phoenix Lights-zaak in de publieke verbeelding staan als een van de meest documenteerbare en meest uitgebreide massale waarnemingen uit Noord-Amerika. Een belangrijk aspect van de zaak was de rol van media en officiële verklaringen: de initiële belachelijking van de fenomenen, gevolgd door latere openingen van officiële instituten die erkenden dat bepaalde waarnemingen niet eenvoudig te verklaren vielen.

5. Wat leren we van massale UFO-waarnemingen?

• Getuigenverslagen zijn een krachtig maar ambigu bewijsmateriaal. Een groot aantal getuigen, vaak met uiteenlopende achtergronden, kan de algehele geloofwaardigheid vergroten, maar het kan ook leiden tot conflicting interpretaties. Het is essentieel om ze te structureren en te toetsen aan objectieve data zoals radarregistraties, fototype en videomateriaal en, waar mogelijk, meetbare fysische indicatoren (zoals straling, ijs- en waterbeschadiging, atmosferische metingen).
• De rol van perceptie en cognitieve bias. Zelfs ervaren getuigen kunnen misinterpretaties hebben. Wetenschappers en onderzoekers benadrukken dat het menselijke cognitieve systeem geneigd is om patronen te herkennen, zelfs waar die er niet zijn. Het is cruciaal om deze biases te erkennen en te corrigeren door strikte methodologie en onafhankelijke verificatie.
• De politieke en maatschappelijke dimensie. Massale waarnemingen raken aan thema’s zoals nationale veiligheid, publiek vertrouwen en de rol van media. Ze kunnen leiden tot publieke hysterie of, juist, tot een rustige en rigoureuze analyse wanneer data en transparantie worden toegepast.
• De afwezigheid van bewijsmateriaal. In verschillende gevallen blijft er, ondanks de uitgebreide getuigenverslagen, een gebrek aan harde, onafhankelijke bewijzen die definitieve conclusies mogelijk maken. Dit benadrukt de noodzaak van brede, systematische data-collectie en open wetenschappelijke discussie.

Zonnewonder van Fatima en Belgische DRIEHOEKEN: een historische en cultureel-contextuele vergelijking In de geschiedenis van massale fenomenen in de publieke verbeelding bestaan er “bovennatuurlijke” gebeurtenissen die geen direct wetenschappelijk bewijs dragen maar wel een diepgaande maatschappelijke impact hebben gehad. Een van de bekendste voorbeelden is het Zonnewonder van Fatima in 1917, wanneer drie kinderen in Portugal beweerden een verschijning van de Heilige Maagd Maria te hebben gezien en daarna een reeks bovennatuurlijke tekenen en wonderbaarlijke gebeurtenissen gerapporteerd werden, waaronder de “dans van de zon” die voor duizenden toeschouwers werd waargenomen. De Fatima-ervaring heeft de menselijke behoefte aan wonder en verklaring op een unieke manier onderstreept: mensen die zweren bij de realiteit van bovennatuurlijke tekenen, en wetenschappers die proberen dit kritisch te benaderen met historische context, natuurwetten en psychosociale factoren. Het Zonnewonder van Fatima is een verhaal dat de scheidslijn tussen geloof en empirische kennis illustreert, en laat zien hoe massale waarnemingen, ondersteund door collectieve narratieven en culturele context, een blijvende impact kunnen hebben – onafhankelijk van of er een wetenschappelijke verklaring voor kan worden gevonden.

In België, waar de “driehoeken” een culturele uitdrukking zijn voor fringe- of marginale denkbeelden of illusies , ontstaan ook randverhalen die de kloof tussen feit en fabel dramatiseren. De waarnemingen van de Belgische driehoeken en de publieke cultuur rondom het onbekende dragen bij aan hoe waarnemingen worden gezien en geïnterpreteerd. In hoeverre massale waarnemingen culturele scripts volgen die in grotere maatschappelijke structuren bestaan, is een belangrijke onderzoeksvraag: ze vindbaar in hoe mensen getuigenissen vertellen, welke beelden en symbolen zij inzetten, en hoe publieke instellingen reageren. Het erkennen van deze culturele dimensies helpt ons te begrijpen waarom sommige waarnemingen zo’n cultuurrelevantie ontwikkelen, en waarom het gesprek soms verder gaat dan de puur wetenschappelijke analyse.

6. Conclusie: keerpunten en open vragen Massale UFO-waarnemingen blijven fascinerende gebeurtenissen die de grens tussen het bekende en het onbekende raken. Ze laten zien hoe groepen mensen hetzelfde fenomeen kunnen waarnemen, maar hoe interpretatie, context en bewijs elkaar kunnen tegenspreken. De cases zoals Wanaque (1966), Mexico City (1991), Cosford (1993) en Phoenix (1997) illustreren zowel de kracht van collectieve waarneming als de grenzen van bewijs. Ze laten ons ook nadenken over bredere kwesties: hoe luisteren we naar getuigenissen zonder ze te vergevelen? Hoe krijgen we betrouwbare data die de getuigenissen kan ondersteunen of weerleggen? En hoe verbinden historische, culturele en maatschappelijke kaders—zoals het Fatima-zonnewonder en Belgische fringe-caten—met het hedendaagse fenomeen van UAP’s?

In een tijd waarin technologie ons in staat stelt om beelden en data op ongekende schaal te verzamelen, zouden massale waarnemingen een kans moeten zijn om transparant en methodisch te onderzoeken. Dit vereist open data, transparante protocollen voor evaluatie, en samenwerking tussen wetenschappers, sceptici en getuigen. Het doel is niet het bevestigen of ontkennen van buitenaards contact als zodanig, maar het begrijpen van de aard van wat mensen waarnemen, wat ze denken dat ze gezien hebben, en hoe we als verdenking en wonderen, feiten en interpretaties netjes scheiden. Uiteindelijk draait dit om het belang van een rationele, maar open houding ten opzichte van het onbekende: een houding die de menselijke nieuwsgierigheid koestert en tegelijkertijd de discipline van de wetenschap respecteert.

Noten voor verder onderzoek en leesduur

• Voor een vollediger beeld van Wanaque en de bijbehorende getuigenverklaringen, verwijzen naar archieven van lokale kranten en overheidscorrespondentie uit 1966.
• De Mexico City-verhalen hebben een breed spectrum van videomateriaal en sceptische analyses van videotechnieken; voor een kritische evaluatie is het zinvol om werken van Tim Printy en andere astronomen te raadplegen.
• De Cosford Incident heeft een lange geschiedenis in UK-UFO-literatuur, met de MoD-archieven en Pope’s eigen discussies als belangrijkste bronnen. Moderne herzieningen in muppetassen en sceptische artikelen zijn aanbevolen om een gebalanceerd beeld te krijgen.
• Phoenix Lights hebben een rijkdom aan getuigenverslagen en beeldmateriaal, met latere verifieerbare verklaringen zoals het flare-scenario. Het blijft een compacte demonstratie van hoe publiek en autoriteiten elkaar kunnen kruisen in de interpretatie van een onopgelost fenomeen.
• Voor het Zonnewonder van Fatima en de Belgische driehoeken is het nuttig om zowel historische bronnen als sociologische en fenomenologische literatuur te bestuderen die de rol van geloof, media en cultuur in massale waarnemingen verkennen.

Eindnoot

Massa UFO-waarnemingen blijven een spannend venster op menselijke perceptie, maatschappelijke dynamiek en de voortdurende zoektocht naar begrip van wat er boven ons gebeurt. Of je nu gelooft in buitenaardse intelligentie, of het fenomeen ziet als een complex samenspel van onbekende betrouwbare getuigen, natuurverschijnselen en menselijke perceptie, één ding blijft zeker: dit onderwerp voedt een diepzinnige dialoog over wat we weten, wat we niet weten en hoe we het beste bewijs verzamelen om tot betrouwbare conclusies te komen. En terwijl we de geschiedenis van dergelijke waarnemingen blijven bestuderen, kan het ons helpen om de brug te slaan tussen wonder en wetenschap, tussen cultuur en feit.

{ PETER2011 }

09-10-2025 om 18:04 geschreven door peter  

One of the most intriguing mass UFO sighting flaps in U.S. history started as a normal day like any other in the small suburban town of Wanaque, New Jersey, but as the day came to a close, a bizarre series of events would begin to play out. On the crisp and clear evening of January 11, 1966, at around 6:30 PM, calls began to come in from all over the area describing what seemed to be an extremely bright glowing light out over the nearby Wanaque Reservoir. Dozens of calls were coming in from panicked residents and workers at the reservoir describing more or less the same thing, with most reports saying it was a very bright light, larger and brighter than a star, mostly white but sometimes changing to colors such as red, blue and green. The mystery object was described as hovering over the frozen lake surface and roving about in what seemed to be a deliberate pattern at an altitude of between 250 and 1,000 feet, sometimes performing seemingly physics-defying maneuvers and sudden vertical drops and rises. Even weirder were the reports of the object projecting some sort of beam downwards to the reservoir, which was powerful enough to melt holes in the ice.

Before long, the police who were getting these calls were seeing the strange object for themselves, and one of these was police patrolman Joseph Cisco, who just happened to be near the reservoir when the reports began flooding in. He would then drive out there to investigate and look out over the water to see something very strange for himself, of which he said:

“There was a light that looked bigger than any of the stars, about the size of a softball or volleyball. It was a pulsating, white, stationary light changing to red. It stayed in the air; there was no noise. I was trying to figure out what it was.”

The object would then swoop in low and begin shooting a beam to the lake surface, and Cisco soon got a call from another officer on the radio, saying in a panic, “Something landed in front of the dam. Something's burning a hole in the ice! Something with a bright light on it, going up and down!" Another policeman who saw the thing was Sgt. Ben Thompson, who said it actually caused the water to rise below it and sucked together treetops, and yet another Officer George Dyckman would say, "I've never seen anything like it in my life." Several other police officers being called to the area also saw the otherworldly object, including Patrolmen Edward Nestor and Jack Wardlaw, a Sgt. Bobby Gordon, Reservoir Police and Personnel, George Destito, Charles Theodora, Fred Steines, and even Chief of Police Floyd Elson. Chief John Casazza of the Wanaque Reservoir Police would say of his own sighting:

“It was a bright white light. As I said: just like on a locomotive. It was funnel-shaped. It seemed to come out of some object, like a funnel. In other words, it spread out as if it were focused through a telescope. It was narrow at one end in the sky and spread out into a very wide beam as it approached our upper gatehouse at the dam. The strangest part of it was that there was no noise attached to this object. None whatsoever. It was absolutely silent. A silent light.”

News crews who started to trickle in also reported seeing the strange sight, with one reporter, Howard Ball, with the Paterson News, saying:

“I was near the junction of Colfax Road and Hamburg Turnpike… I saw a very extremely bright light... The thing that really brought my attention was, as I traveled along, a white starlight seems to come at me… then it stopped and it made a transverse movement to the west. No color, but if I'd give it a color I'd say brilliant blue-white, similar to the ignition of a magnesium and pure oxygen... really bright light.”

One of the more prominent witnesses to the outlandish event was the town Mayor, Harry T. Wolfe, who had made his way out to the reservoir along with Councilmen Warren Hagstrom and Arthur Barton and the Mayor’s 14-year-old son, Billy, out of sheer curiosity when the reports kept coming in a deluge. They would witness a light that was “a brilliance, a little brighter than a star” that seemed to emit a reddish or pale green light or yellowish light and which was moving “oddly” over the lake. Closer inspection showed that it was some sort of oval-shaped object around 9 feet in diameter, coming in low over the water to shoot down a beam that put a hole in the ice as they looked on in astonishment. Councilman Hagstrom would say of what they saw that night:

“There was something up there that was awful bright. We don’t know what it was. We thought it was a helicopter, but we didn’t hear a motor. It looked like a helicopter with big landing lights on. We got goose bumps all over when we saw where the hole was.”

Before long, there were throngs of people gathered at the reservoir watching this thing go about its inscrutable business, and the mysterious object would do its strange act over the water for over an hour before finally speeding off into the night at great speed and without warning. Moments later, it would be reported as hovering over Lakeland Regional High School and stopping at several other locations in the area before vanishing to leave residents in a state of shock. So many people had seen it, including many policemen and even city officials, and all of them agreed it was not a normal aircraft or celestial phenomenon, but rather something truly unexplainable and baffling. To make it all even weirder still is that it would seem as if the strangeness wasn't quite over yet. The object would make another brief appearance over the reservoir the following evening as well, before seeming to go away for good, but it would make yet another appearance later that year.

In October of 1966, just as people were starting to try and put the whole bizarre incident at Wanaque reservoir out of their minds, a new spate of sightings emanated from the lake. At 9 PM on October 10, the object was seen by several witnesses, including an off-duty police officer by the name of Robert Gordon, who saw it with his wife, Betty, who described it as a bright white light that moved with “a definite pattern” towards the reservoir. This sighting was soon joined by that of a policeman, Sgt. Ben Thompson, who had seen the object during its first appearance, and had quite a harrowing experience when the UFO allegedly flew right at him and he saw it at fairly close quarters. He would say of this:

“I saw the object coming at me. There was an extremely bright light. It was a bright white light, bright like when a light bulb is about to blow. It was very low. It appeared to be about 75 feet over the mountain. That would be Windbeam Mountain. It was traveling very quickly and in a definite pattern; first right, then up and down, then repeating the pattern. Distances are deceiving, but it might have covered an area of a half a mile. It went straight over my head, stopped in mid-air and backed right up. It then started zig-zagging from left to right. It was doing tricks. Making acute angular turns instead of gradual curved ones. It looked as big as a parachute. I got out of my car and continued to watch it for almost five minutes. It was about 200 to 250 yards away. It was the shape of a basketball with the center scooped out and a football thrust through it. Sometimes the football appeared to be perpendicular to the basketball and sometimes standing up on end. There were two different gadgets. It didn’t make much noise, but as it was moving, it raised the water beneath it. I watched it maneuver, stirring up brush and water in the reservoir, it was about 150 feet up…I had difficulty seeing because the light was so bright it blinded me.”

Once again, the police were flooded with dozens of calls from terrified residents seeing the object in the vicinity of the reservoir, and it would be seen again on October 15 before finally disappearing again, this time apparently for good. In the wake of the UFO flap over Wanaque reservoir, there would be some strange and sometimes ominous stories coming out of the area. It was reported that unknown men posing as military officials from the Air Force were doing the rounds in the area, intimidating residents and discouraging people from talking about what they had seen, and some people even claimed that these mysterious men had confiscated photographs taken of the phenomena. The military would deny that these people were with them, or that they had had anyone in the area to investigate at all, and one Air Force Colonel Freeman would state, “We have checked a number of these cases and these men are not connected with the Air Force in any way.” Other witnesses would also insist that they had seen military helicopters and even jets in the area shortly after the initial sightings and in the months after, but the Air Force denied this as well, while at the same time making efforts to explain away the UFO sightings as misidentified aircraft or a weather balloon. What happened here, and did the military have any connection to these events or not? Were they trying to hide something or cover it up? No one knows.

The claims of mysterious officials confiscating photographic evidence are cited as one of the reasons there is so little such documentation of the incident. Indeed, although the UFO was witnessed by so many people, including police and high-ranking officials, there is oddly only a handful of photographs of the alleged craft known to exist, most of which were later sent in anonymously to make it hard to ascertain who took them in the first place or whether they are real or hoaxes. One photo in particular, showing the object shooting a beam of light downwards, has become intensely debated and analyzed in the years since, with no real conclusion. Since we don’t know who took these photos and have no negatives, it is hard to say. What we do know is that the incident did happen, and so this odd lack of photographic evidence from such a well-documented mass sighting has been seen as proof that someone has tried to suppress the event.

Today, there have been many proposed explanations, including helicopters with spotlights, atmospheric phenomena, Venus, weather balloons, or even ball lightning, but there are problems with these explanations in that so many reliable witnesses saw them and insist that what they witnessed was none of these things. One unidentified witness has said of this to researcher Anthony Bragalia, of UFO Explorations, as follows:

“I remember the thing very well. I still do not know what it was. I think about it from time to time, but it's no use because it doesn't bring me any closer to knowing what it was. Maybe things that aren't from here aren't meant to be understood by us here. Ask anyone who will tell you, it was not a helicopter or something astronomical. It was...not...from our military or something we misidentified. It was a UFO, from somewhere else. The beams or ray thing that came out from the bottom of the globe was the thing that got to me. It made the light cut the ice out. It frightened us kids. And I'm sure the adults. Because we don't have anything like that even today. The adults didn't really speak much about it after the initial thing that I could tell. I'd talk about it with my friends some time later and one of them told me that people came around to not say anything.”

Amazingly, there has apparently been very little follow-up investigation done into the case. It seems that no one ever went back to examine those holes in the ice, nor were there any water or radiation measurements taken, and the proper authorities don’t seem to have ever made any real efforts to interview witnesses. Most of what we know is from independent UFO researchers who pieced together what happened from newspaper articles of the time. We are left to wonder just what happened out over that expanse of frigid ice all of those decades ago and what it all means. Was this all the result of mundane phenomena and misidentification, or something else? Has there been some sort of cover-up put into effect that has managed to keep such a spectacular incident largely buried in history? If this was really an alien craft, then what was it doing at that reservoir, and what did it want? These are questions that linger, and which may never be satisfactorily answered, and the UFO wave of New Jersey's Wanaque reservoir remains a very compelling case of a mass UFO sighting that has been largely forgotten.

Moving on to our next case, on July 11, 1991, a total solar eclipse occurred from the Pacific Ocean to Brazil, passing over Hawaii, Mexico, Central America, and South America. In Mexico City, Mexico, thousands of people were out to get a look at the rare celestial event that day. Two of these observers were Guillermo Arragin, a television executive, and Jaime Maussan, a journalist, who were shocked to notice a bright, disk-like metallic object hovering in the sky and were able to videotape it easily, as they had already been taping the eclipse. They sent the tape to Jaime Maussan, who produced, directed and hosted Sesenta Minutos, Mexico’s edition of Sixty Minutes. When this footage was shown on TV eight days later, it started a deluge of others calling in to report that they had seen or videotaped the same thing during the eclipse, of which Maussan would say:

“The telephone lines blew up. I mean 40,000 calls at the same time. Then the system was completely shut out. We received more than 15 videos and we now know for sure that in at least 7 of them, we can see the same ship that was recorded by Guillermo Arragin.”

It would turn out that many thousands of people had seen the mysterious object, and all of them described the same metallic shining object, with some reports stating it merely hovered in a stationary position, while others said it moved around while leaving a vaporous trail in its wake, and there were also mentions of the thing having three blinking lights on it. After this, it seems that whatever it was disappeared as the sun emerged once again to bring broad daylight. Among the many people sending in videos of the thing was 19-year-old student Erick Aguilar, who saw it while videotaping the eclipse from a rooftop with his friends and girlfriend. He would describe it as looking like a white point of light that got bigger and brighter as they watched it. At the same time, about 60 miles from Mexico City, a businessman named Luis Lara videotaped an object that was identical to the one on Aguilar’s footage, and he was convinced it was not a star, explaining that there was some sort of dark shadow under the object. The Breton family also filmed a similar object in Puebla, eighty miles from Mexico City, and they described the object as pulsating and having a strange wave-like disturbance behind it. It is unclear if this was the same object or a different one. In total, there were over a dozen videos of what seemed to be the same object from different angles and distances, making it one of the most videotaped UFOs ever. 

After this appearance on Sesenta Minutos, the UFO sightings were all over the news, becoming a sensation in Mexico and sparking a mass hysteria, and this was only further fueled when a similar object was spotted just two months later at a military air show at Mexico City. On this occasion, an engineer named Vincente Sanchez was filming the air show when he noticed something very bizarre up in the air with those planes. He would say of it:

“I was following one of the planes and I saw a shiny dot in the camera. It didn’t fly like a plane; it was undulating. I didn’t know what it was so I let the planes go off and I focused more on this shiny dot in the sky. What I saw was a bright, round object, about 10 meters in diameter. It was made of silver, was shining very brightly and reflected the sunlight a lot. The object appeared, undulated, and moved around quickly.”

The object would be seen again at the same air show a year later, this time with the disc descending rapidly to seemingly vanish into thin air. At the same air show in 1993, it was seen yet again, this time apparently flying in close proximity to a squadron of helicopters. It is not clear if these sightings have any connection to the mass sighting on July 11, 1991, but at the time, many were linking them and even claiming they were the very same object. Over the years, the various footage taken on July 11, 1991, has been debated and analyzed, and one astronomer by the name of Tim Printy has given a pretty good argument that it was all down to the planet Venus. As evidence, he states that the object can’t be conclusively shown to be moving in any of the videos, the alignment of the object in the footage in relation to other celestial objects shown in some of the videos, such as Mars and Regulus, correlates to the position of where Venus should be, and the object disappears when the sun comes back out. Most damningly, he points out that not a single Mexican astronomer, of which there would have been many recording the eclipse, reported any UFO or anything out of the ordinary at all. According to Printy, the videos only appear to show something truly strange because of camera artifacts and the fact that there are no uncropped videos of the object, which makes it all appear even more mysterious. 

Nevertheless, despite such criticism of the videos, many still believe them to be good UFO evidence, and some have gone and to take it all to new levels of weirdness. One of these is a couple by the name of Lee and Brit Elders, who believe that the UFO appearance during the eclipse was not only aliens, but that the whole incident was prophesied by the Mayans more than 1200 years ago. The Elders claim that through various ancient documents, they have deduced that the Mayans predicted that the aliens would arrive in the area of Mexico City on July 11, 1991, as harbingers of world change and “cosmic awareness through encounters with masters of the stars,” to usher in “a new era that will rise on the ashes of the one before.” The couple even made a whole series of videos talking about this, titled Messengers of Destiny, Masters of the Stars, and Voyagers of the Sixth Sun, and it all revolves around this supposed ancient prophecy and the July 11, 1991, UFO over Mexico City. Printy has a lot to say about the Elders, and does not mince words at all when he says of what he calls their “pure bunk for sale”:

“Not only do the Elder's state that Venus was a UFO, but they also make a profound statement that the Mayans predicted the arrival of the UFOs! Exactly when did the Maya predict such an event? The Elders state there are several ancient documents that state this. However, is there any basis for such a claim? The Elders rarely, if ever, give details. They seem to expound on new age mysticism trying to link statements from various documents in order to create some strange prediction to meet their needs. Are their statements correct? Are these source documents accurate? The credibility of the Elders is important to understand how accurately they represented the UFOs shown in the videos.

Despite a wealth of evidence that Venus was the likely culprit in many of these videos, the Elders went out of their way to create a story that describes alien visitation. The mixing and matching of Mayan and Aztec myths and then trying to make some form of prediction made by the Maya is another case of the Elders trying to deceive the viewers of real facts. The Mexico City eclipse UFO story is nothing but a new age myth generated by a couple of con-artists, who rely on the viewer to be uninformed and willing to believe the most ridiculous claims. The Messengers of Destiny/Masters of the Stars/Voyagers of the sixth sun prediction is nothing but a new age myth designed to make money!”

The Mexican UFO has also been the source of conspiracies, such as one that states the U.S. government knew about the event in Mexico, but tried to suppress it so that the public would not panic, which is supposedly why the story failed to produce even a blip in the American news. According to a report from the site Cool Interesting Stuff, there was a Kremlin report that supposedly not only mentions this, but also that the incident of July 11, 1991, in Mexico City put the Americans on alert for a "war” against UFOs based on or near the Continent of Antarctica.” The site says:

“A report circulating in the Kremlin prepared for President Medvedev by Russian Space Forces (VKS) 45th Division of Space Control says that an upcoming WikiLeaks release of secret US cables details that the Americans have been “engaged” since 2004 in a “war” against UFO’s based on or near the Continent of Antarctica, particularly the Southern Ocean. According to this report, the United States went to its highest alert level on June 10, 2004 after a massive fleet of UFO’s “suddenly emerged” from the Southern Ocean and approached Guadalajara, Mexico barely 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) from the American border. Prior to reaching the US border, however, this massive UFO fleet is said in this report to have “dimensionally returned” to their Southern Ocean “home base.”

The fears of the Americans regarding these Southern Ocean UFO’s began, this report says, during the unprecedented events of July 11, 1991 (referred to as 7/11) when during the Solar Eclipse these mysterious aircraft appeared by the hundreds over nearly all of Mexico, even their Capital city. Most notable about the events of 7/11 were that as millions of Mexicans were watching on their televisions the National broadcasts of these UFO’s over Mexico City, the American media refused to allow their people to view it.”

Is there anything to this? What was going on here with this incident? Was this an otherworldly presence, celestial gods on some mission to fulfill a Mayan prophecy, or merely the planet Venus and mass hysteria? How can we account for so many sightings? Were they all misidentifying a mundane phenomenon? Whatever the case may be, the July 11, 1991, UFO flap over Mexico City has gone on to become one of the most widely witnessed and most videotaped UFO encounters there is, and it remains a curious case in the annals of ufology. 

Moving along, the beginning of what has gone on to be one of the most talked about mass UFO sighting incidents in recent memory was on March 30, 1993, in England. On this evening, there suddenly began a deluge of reports coming in from across a swath of southwest England, particularly in the vicinity of Shropshire, of something decidedly weird in the sky, from witnesses of all walks of life and many of them traditionally reliable witnesses. One of the first reports came from a policeman who claimed to have seen a massive object resembling “two Concordes flying side by side and joined together,” and there were other reports that put the object’s size at a massive 200 meters long. Other reports claimed that the object had been observed sometimes flying very low to the ground, and there was even a panicked resident who claimed that it had landed in a field. Dozens of reports like this came in, and curiously, people were giving different descriptions, including a cylindrical object, a triangular-shaped craft with three lights, and a pair of lights seeming to emit a tail-like plume, suggesting there was more than one aerial disturbance at work. Yet this was only the beginning.

Continuing into March 31st, 1993, the reports kept coming in, and it seemed as if the phenomena had gotten even more active. The evening of the 31st would also mark a series of high-level sightings from police and military personnel, who had been on alert due to the sheer number of anomalous reports the night before. There would be several sightings made from RAF bases in the region, including sightings of a fast-moving red light by personnel at RAF Cosford and another incident at RAF Shawbury. One meteorologist at RAF Shawbury by the name of Wayne Elliot would claim that a triangular-shaped craft measuring around 200 feet across had slowly approached his base while emitting a low humming noise, and then shot a bright beam of light towards the ground before shooting off at amazing speed while leaving a luminous vapor trail in its wake. At no point were any of these objects picked up on radar at the bases. Some of the reports were scattered over a wide area, as another military encounter with one of the objects allegedly happened to an Irish military helicopter en route to Ireland over the coast of southwest Wales. The crew would report seeing “two white lights at a fixed distance apart in the horizontal plane” with trails visible through night vision equipment, which appeared to close the distance and pace them for a time.

The sightings were investigated by Nick Pope, who ran the UFO project run by the British Ministry of Defense (MoD), and he collected a steady stream of the reports, which he described as “coming in thick and fast,” in particular from the areas of Devon, Cornwall and Wales. Pope would claim to gather several hundred eyewitness reports of the bizarre unidentified aerial phenomena from March 30 and 31, and he also asserted that it was such a major and anomalous incident that it had even captured the attention of military officials at the Pentagon, who he believed included it in their 490-page secret report under the part of the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program. Pope  has said of this:

“The Cosford Incident was the most high-profile and compelling UFO incident that took place during my time on the MoD’s UFO project in the early Nineties. It is probably among the best cases in our entire archive, which goes back decades and includes around 12,000 sightings. It is inconceivable to me that this wouldn’t be one of the incidents mentioned in the secret US report. I’m sure the Americans knew all about the Cosford Incident, and maybe conducted some discreet enquiries of their own.”

Despite how amazing this may all seem, we are still left to wonder about just what exactly was seen by all of these witnesses, and there has been much debate on the matter. One very prevalent theory is that the aerial phenomena were caused by some kind of falling space debris, notably the re-entry of a Russian satellite called the Cosmos 2238, which it turns out was scheduled to re-enter the atmosphere on the evening of March 31. This would not be out of the question, as falling space debris has caused UFO flaps before, and incidentally, a similar Cosmos satellite that had gone down in the winter of 1978 also coincided with a wave of UFO sightings. 

A reentering satellite might explain some of the sightings, but it would not really explain the fact that many of the reports describe distinctly triangular objects that were allegedly seen flying in a seemingly intelligently controlled manner, including changing speed, hovering, or flying low to the ground, even in one case landing and taking off, which doesn’t really fit in with the space debris theory. The Russian satellite angle also would not explain the sightings going on during the evening of March 30, nor the insistence of some very trained witnesses that these were not space debris. So what are some of the other possibilities? Other ideas are that this was some sort of top-secret experimental aircraft being tested, a military black op, or some strange atmospheric phenomenon. There is also the possibility that this was just a misidentified normal aircraft, such as an airplane or helicopter. One local police investigator has said of this likelihood:

“If there’s no full moon you would not necessarily see the shape of the aircraft just the three lights and perhaps the searchlight. On a number of occasions in the last nine years we have had people ringing the police to report UFOs and when we have checked our operation logs it has turned out to be our helicopter. On other occasions we have had people reporting UFOs who have actually seen airliners descending into Manchester who have switched their landing lights on or off. Most people have no idea of spatial awareness at night and cannot accurately judge the height or distance. We have had people saying they have seen things at treetop height and when we have checked it has been an aircraft descending into Manchester at 10,000 feet or more.”

One argument against this is that many of the observers were reliable, trained witnesses such as RAF personnel, police officers, and the meteorologist, so how could they all misidentify a helicopter or plane? UFO investigator Chris Fowler has addressed this by explaining the problems with leaning too heavily on supposed expert witnesses, pointing out that even trained and seasoned individuals can be fooled by innate problems with our senses of perception. Fowler says of this:

“The human visual perceptual system and cognizance are very discerning but easily fooled by events like those described here. It is part of common UFO reportage that lights and aircraft flying at night can lead to false reports of distance, altitude, time estimates, size and other fundamental attributes. We should take note all observers are fallible to misperception and illusory effects and to false interpretation and apply adequate reasoning here. These 1993 events may be exemplary in providing more evidence of the inability of those often described as ‘trained observers’ to discern altitude in lights than is supposed. It is fallacious to assume that certain subsets of people, by occupation, may be more or less accurate in their observations of lights, shapes, distance and altitude without providing evidence. Observational accuracy by any subset of witnesses depends upon circumstance and a willingness to apply useful pragmatic means to recording observations at the time and on some understanding of limitations.”

One of the problems with trying to get to the bottom of the Cosford Incident is that Nick Pope has been accused by skeptics and even others within the UFO field of being a bit overzealous in his approach and too willing to try and fit everything into his own preconceived theories. He has been accused of cherry-picking, twisting and misrepresenting data to fit his needs, leading witnesses in interviews into the outcomes he wants, and generally exaggerating certain elements of the cases, giving misleading statements, or leaving out certain information to misrepresent the facts. For instance, although Pope has admitted that some of the sightings could have been space debris, he rarely mentions this, instead focusing on the more bizarre and mysterious sightings and elements. UFO researcher Gary Anthony has criticized Pope’s approach in relation to his participation in a documentary of the incident called The British UFO Mystery – Stranger Than Fiction, saying of it:

“After watching the documentary myself, I wondered if Nick Pope had lost the real plot or not because in places there were exaggerative comments and the reports were misrepresented both by Nick and in the visual continuity and the narrating voice. The presentation was more geared towards Pope’s own personal and theatrical interpretation of the sightings and was laid out fallaciously for an unsuspecting public.  Relevant information was not included, witness participation was minimal and some of the facts presented were grossly out of context. He clearly has fallen into the trap of not recognizing salient features and errors of multiple witness reports, making links that do not exist and falling back on the questionable prowess of ‘trained observers,’ endowed with super-human abilities of discerning distance, altitudes and size in lights seen at night. A real house of cards. The programme featured only one witness, a lady who saw a row of lights whilst driving home. For the 45-minute plus feature exclusively on these sightings none of the official witnesses used to bolster the theme appeared.”

In the end, the whole incident has sort of quietly been brushed away, and is rarely talked about outside of UFO circles, despite how many witnesses there apparently were. What was going on here? Was this merely space debris? Was it experimental aircraft, aliens, atmospheric phenomena, or all of the above? How reliable is Pope's documentation of the supposed events, and is there anything we are missing? There is no way to really know the answers to such questions and others like them, and we are left to wonder just what went on over the English countryside in March of 1993.

Finally, what has gone on to become one of the most well-known and oft-discussed, and debated mass UFO sightings in history is widely accepted as having started on March 13, 1997, in the skies over Henderson, Nevada, in the United States. Here, a witness claimed that at approximately 6:55 PM, he saw a large, V-shaped object about the same size as a passenger airliner with a formation of six lights along its front edge, which flew across the sky at a good clip with a sort of whooshing noise to disappear to the southeast. This same object would soon after be witnessed by a police officer from Paulden, Arizona, at around 8:15 PM, who said that he saw a triangular formation of four mysterious lights trailed by a fifth, and claimed to have watched the strange sight through his binoculars as they travelled south.

This would be the beginning of one of the most famous UFO cases there is. Before long, there were sightings of something strange in the sky coming in from the area of Prescott, Arizona, and the Prescott Valley. Many of the witnesses at the time described it as being definitely solid, blocking out the stars and the sky as it passed over, and it was mostly explained as being rather enormous. One witness who saw the boomerang-shaped object said it was massive, at least a mile wide, stating:

“We don’t have anything that big. It was totally silent. I’ve never seen anything even close to the colors from the exhaust that propelled that thing. It was as big as downtown Prescott and completely blocked out the stars.”

The object or objects were usually described as being a V-shaped or wedge-shaped formation of red or orange lights, with the leading light being a bright white, usually said to be embedded within a solid object, but descriptions varied, and they were sometimes claimed to be separate lights moving independently. At the time, there were dozens of witnesses from all ages and walks of life observing it as it made its way inexorably towards Phoenix to the southeast. The lights were also seen from the nearby town of Dewey, around 10 miles away, and as they drew closer to the greater Phoenix area, there would be a deluge of people seeing whatever it was that had come in from out of the unknown.

The phenomenon reached Phoenix at around 8:30 PM, after which it hovered over the area for around two hours, being seen by thousands of people in the process. During this time, it seems that there were actually two separate events going on over the region at the same time, with one being the massive V-shaped group of lights moving through the air, and a second formation of lights south of Phoenix that seemed to be stationary or moving very slowly. These lights, which would go on to collectively be known as the “Phoenix Lights,” were seen by people from all walks of life, including police officers, pilots, military personnel, and even the governor, none of whom could come up with any explanation for what was going on. While most of the reports described some massive solid object, an interesting aspect of it all is that witness descriptions of the phenomena tended to vary to quite a wide degree, of which UFOlogist Peter B. Davenport has said:

“Witnesses were reporting such markedly different objects and events that night that it was difficult for investigators to understand what was taking place. Some witnesses reported five lights, others seven, or even more. Some reported that the lights were distinctly orange or red, whereas others reported distinctly white or yellow lights. Many reported the lights were moving across the sky at seemingly high speed, whereas others reported they moved at a slow (angular) velocity, or they even hovered for several minutes.”

The objects were being seen all over the place at the time, seen in places as far away as Las Vegas, New Mexico, and northern Mexico, always inspiring awe and dread. In the meantime, the media didn’t really seem to show much interest in it, and officials seemed to treat it as a big joke, with Arizona Governor Fife Symington III holding a press conference on the situation flanked by an aide wearing an alien costume. However, when the story hit USA Today, it blew up into national news, appearing all over newspapers and TV shows. The USA Today piece was quite sensational, including the line, “The incident over Arizona was the most dramatic I’ve seen. . . . What we have here is the real thing. They are here,” and people ate it up. Before long, the Phoenix lights were being talked about and widely discussed all over the nation, with theories being thrown about as to what the phenomenon could have been, which is made somewhat complicated by the fact that it seems that there were two separate phenomena going on at the same time, the large moving object and the hovering lights.

One of the main ideas put forward was that at least the second event concerning the stationary lights was simply flares dropped by the military during a nighttime training exercise, but this has been challenged by many. Curiously, one of the main opponents of the flare theory was the governor himself, who would end up later changing his tune entirely, claiming to have seen the lights himself, and he would say of this:

“As a pilot and a former Air Force Officer, I can definitively say that this craft did not resemble any man made object I'd ever seen. And it was certainly not high-altitude flares because flares don't fly in formation. It was enormous and inexplicable. Who knows where it came from? A lot of people saw it, and I saw it too. It was dramatic. And it couldn't have been flares because it was too symmetrical. It had a geometric outline, a constant shape. I'm a pilot and I know just about every machine that flies. It was bigger than anything that I've ever seen. It remains a great mystery.”

Symington also found it odd that his attempts to get more information from the government on what was going on out there were shot down with basically “no comment,” and that no government agency had made any effort to seriously investigate. Another opponent of the flare theory was UFO enthusiast Jim Dilettoso, who claimed that he had done a full spectral analysis of the lights in one of the videos and determined that they could not have possibly come from a manmade source. However, considering that such an analysis on video footage images would be inaccurate, this has been criticized as an incomplete analysis at best. It has also been pointed out that the wind direction and speed at the time were consistent with flares as to the movement seen with the pattern of lights, which also supports the flare theory, as does the fact that the lights seemed to dip over the horizon and disappear, very much as flares would do. With regards to at least this aspect of the event, even UFOlogists have conceded that it could have been flares in this case.

The first event, which covers that huge, light-studded craft moving over the state and blocking out the stars, has been more difficult to explain. Skeptics say that it was just a formation of high altitude aircraft flying in formation on a classified mission, the blackened sky just an illusion. This has been corroborated by amateur astronomer Mitch Stanley, who claims that on the night of the incident, he had observed the large V-shaped craft through a telescope to find that it was unambiguously an aircraft, specifically a formation of five planes that were either A-10s or possibly T-37 fighter-trainers. However, many of the thousands of witnesses have denied that this could have been the case; the planes were apparently not picked up on radar, and the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson did not assert that they had any aircraft in the air at the time. In the end, it all remains a curious oddity, of which one investigator with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) has said:

“Do we have evidence that it was an extraterrestrial event? No. We have evidence that it was an extremely bizarre event. We can't put a label on it other than it was an anomaly.”

Interestingly, there have been reemergences of the lights in later years that have been explained as flares. On February 6, 2007, almost the same thing was seen over Phoenix, and military officials were quick to admit that it was flares they had dropped, and on April 21, 2008, there was another wave of sightings of the lights, this time found to be flares attached to balloons. Yet, the sightings that remain the most well-known are the original 1997 incident and whatever was behind it all, the Phoenix Lights have continued to have a place among the greatest, most extensively seen and documented UFO sightings ever, and remain mostly a mystery.

There can be no doubt that mass sightings such as what we’ve looked at here are the most spectacular type of UFO sightings there is. What were these people seeing, and how can we explain it rationally when so many people are seeing the same thing, often very traditionally reliable witnesses? Are these cases of misidentifying Venus or other aerial or atmospheric phenomena? Is it flares or balloons, or whatever official report it is, they want you to believe? How can you tell hundreds of people that they did not see what they think they did? If these are extraterrestrial in nature, then why would they want to be so widely seen in these cases? Whatever the answers may be, mass UFO sightings are among the most exciting and well-documented in the field. 

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

09-10-2025 om 17:15 geschreven door peter  

Pilots and crews from more than 15 commercial aircraft say they have encountered unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) in American airspace in recent weeks, according to eyewitness testimony and videos that detail the unusual events.

According to witnesses, the rash of incidents occurred over a seven-week period and involved sightings of bright luminous aerial objects in airspace from the American Midwest to as far west as the Pacific. The Debrief has learned that several of the objects were reportedly observed performing unconventional tight-circling maneuvers, which pilots and others involved said defied simple explanation.

The objects, which have since garnered the nickname “Racetrack UAPs” for the descriptions of their odd circular flight paths, were first reported by researcher and television personality Ben Hansen on social media and his YouTube channel, where he has featured several videos detailing the pilot encounters.

While several of the incidents were reported to air traffic controllers, no official investigations are known to have taken place, although The Debrief has learned that the events were reported to at least one Federal Aviation Administration unit tasked with responding to potential threats to American airspace.

Mark Hulsey, a former F-18 pilot, was one of the principal witnesses during the August 18, 2022, incident

(Credit: Ben Hansen).

One of the earliest known incidents in the recent spate of sightings occurred on August 18, 2022, involving a Gulfstream 650 private jet flow by former Navy F-18 pilot Mark Hulsey, along with a second pilot identifying himself only by his first name, “Keith,” while traveling between Florida and Hawaii. Passing over Los Angeles, the pilots observed between 4 and 7 luminous objects at an estimated 5000 to 10,000 feet above them performing odd, circular maneuvers.

Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) was contacted to determine whether the objects represented potentially conflicting traffic, although radar controllers at the facility had been unable to detect any primary targets operating near their aircraft at that time. The two pilots watched as ATC personnel attempted to paint the objects on their scopes as the UAPs maintained their peculiar, revolving flight paths above them.

Nearby, an American Airlines flight passing through the area also reported seeing the objects over the radio. Later, the Gulfstream pilots learned that calls were made to the Los Angeles ARTCC by at least two more airlines that saw the objects. Neither of the principal witnesses believed that the objects they observed were any kind of conventional aircraft, based on their odd maneuvering and the speed they exhibited.

Los Angeles Air Traffic Control Center

(Credit: John Murphy, Wikimedia Commons CC 2.0).

The Debrief independently obtained transcripts of radio communications recorded on the night of the August incident with the help of researcher Dave Beaty, who filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the incident. A portion of the transcript Beaty provided to The Debrief, which identifies the Gulfstream as “Twighlight (sic) 670”, reads as follows:

Twighlight 670 (04:58): LA Center Twighlight 670 Uh, Go Ahead, We’ve got a few aircraft here, Going around in circles. higher altitude than us. Any idea what they are?

LA Center (05:06): No, I do not. OK Strange. Gulf 41. Stand by and Twighlight 670. Say the last part again.

Twighlight 670 (05:23): Yeah, they look to be, you know, much higher than we are, They’re going around in circles so, maybe three aircraft.

LA Center (05:32): Roger. Um, yeah, I don’t know. You’re not entering any military or space or anything? I’m not sure.

Speaker 3 (05:38): Roger that

LA Center (05:39): Delta 41 go.

Twighlight 670 (05:42): Uh, Delta 41. Uh, yeah, we’re just wondering if uh, we needed a frequency. Change.

The day after the August 18th incident, the Gulfstream pilots told Hansen that a closed-door meeting occurred at Los Angeles Center, where data about the incident was reviewed and forwarded to the Joint Air Traffic Operations Command (JATOC), the FAA’s response unit for events that either represents a potential threat or are otherwise capable of impacting the National Airspace System (NAS) or national security.

According to Hansen, the meeting was in response to a phone call placed to JATOC by Hulsey, who had been provided contact details by one of the air traffic controllers he had spoken to the previous night.

“He didn’t tell him what the number was,” Hansen told The Debrief in a phone call. “He was kinda cloak and dagger with it.”

“This is the number that doesn’t exist,” the pilot was reportedly told. Hansen says the pilot was not certain which agency he had contacted at that point.

“They told him they were a government agency that was set up after 9/11,” Hansen says, who asked for the number from the pilot and performed a reverse search online.

“It came back to JATOC,” Hansen was able to confirm. During his call with an official from the agency, Hulsey told Hansen he was informed that information about the incident would be forwarded for review as a part of the Department of Defense’s UAP investigations.

“They told him they had already received the tapes and data from the previous night, and that they would be forwarding that on,” the pilot told Hansen, adding that “They were working with some efforts [related to] the new UFO hearings and task forces.”

Following the August 19 meeting, Hulsey initiated contact with Hansen and the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) about his experience. Upon receiving the pilot’s report and conducting follow-up interviews, Hansen posted a video on his YouTube channel (see below) on October 6, 2022, providing details about the incident.

Where Was the Data Sent?

Despite Hansen’s confirmation that JATOC had been in communication with the pilot who contacted him, additional inquiries about the August 18 incident have only resulted in more questions.

“My FOIA request for all information and communications between L.A. Center and JATOC, or any other agency—I asked for email communications and any other data to show that they were forwarded to another agency—and it said that there were no such records,” Hansen told The Debrief.

It came back that they didn’t have any communication,” Hansen added. “So they’re denying that they talked to JATOC, and we know that JATOC did from our pilot; we already have that information. So there’s a lack of transparency.”

Hansen told The Debrief that he did not know whether the information was sent to any other agencies, but that recordings he obtained of communication between the pilots and air traffic controllers seemed at times to imply that this occurred.

“I don’t know if it went to any other agencies,” Hansen said. “At least in this case [they] had kicked it up to the higher-ups, and you can hear it in the audio. In fact, the radar controller said that the higher-ups were asking if there were any more reports of this as she’s reaching out to other airlines. And that’s when American Airlines reported.”

“The fact that LA operations reported the sighting to the Domestic Events Network suggests they also took the report seriously,” Beaty told The Debrief in an email. 

Additional UAP Witnesses Come Forward  

After the story appeared on social media, Hansen says that other pilots began reaching out to him with similar encounters.

“These events took place both before and after the Los Angeles event,” Hansen told The Debrief. One of the incidents, which occurred on August 10, 2022, involved observations by a dozen crew members from six different airlines en route between Hawaii and the U.S. mainland. A pair of Hawaiian Airlines pilots who spoke with Hansen reported the objects they witnessed “were visible for hours” and appeared to pace their aircraft while remaining at relative positions in the sky. However, unlike celestial objects, the purported UAPs were seen intermittently changing their luminosity and moving in circuitous patterns resembling those reported during the August 18 incident over California.

“Onboard TCAS radar assisted the pilots in determining the position of other known aircraft around them and the distance between each observing airline,” Hansen says. Based on the radar information, all of the pilots determined that the objects they observed were inconsistent with conventional aircraft, celestial phenomena, flares, or other known objects.

Another incident Hansen learned of reportedly occurred within 24 hours of the events of August 18, involving a UAP observation near Springfield, Missouri. Shortly after midnight on August 19, a report was received by Memphis ARTCC from a UPS flight, whose pilots observed a series of unusual lights to the north of their aircraft. The UPS pilots similarly queried Memphis ARTCC about whether they had flown into military airspace; however, no military activity notifications had been issued, and air traffic controllers could detect no aircraft on their radars.

Within minutes of the initial observation, pilots with a United Airlines and a Southwest Airlines flight also contacted Memphis ARTCC to report observations of these objects. One of the pilots, the captain of Southwest Airlines flight 549, had served for two decades as a Navy helicopter pilot prior to entering commercial aviation. According to an account of his observations provided to Hansen, the pilot described seeing two or three objects moving “in an orbital pattern” as their luminosity became “intensely bright” before dimming. The pilot also dismissed the possibility that the objects he observed were satellites, and that their intensity was like nothing he had seen before, including observations with the aid of night vision equipment during Navy missions. The pilot and first officer said the objects were observed for close to half an hour. (Update 10/20/22: A plausible explanation for the August 19, 2022, observations near Springfield, Missouri, described above has been presented by user Flarkey on the Metabunk forum, and can be read here. H/T to Mick West.)

In the weeks that followed, several similar UAP reports from commercial pilots began to come to the attention of civilian researchers through social media channels.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

07-10-2025 om 21:37 geschreven door peter  

International Space Week: waarnemingen van Ufo's in de geschiedenis - PART I

©Aangeboden door The Daily Digest

De hype rond ufo's is terug van (nooit) weggeweest
Sinds het Pentagon afgelopen mei toegaf dat het sinds 2004 minstens 400 waarnemingen van 'ongeïdentificeerde vliegende objecten' heeft geregistreerd in de Verenigde Staten, is de publieke belangstelling voor dit fenomeen toegenomen.

©The Daily Digest

Een "frequent” fenomeen
Het was 50 jaar geleden dat de ufo-kwestie voor het laatst in het Congres werd besproken. Maar dit jaar was de verrassing nog groter, omdat de adjunct-directeur van de inlichtingendienst van de marine in de VS, Scott Bray, verzekerde dat ufo-waarnemingen "frequent en aanhoudend" zijn.

©The Daily Digest

Foto: Albert Antony/Unsplash

Ufo-waarnemingen in andere landen
Andere landen zoals Frankrijk (in 2007), of het Verenigd Koninkrijk (in 2011) hebben nationale dossiers over ufo's gedeclassificeerd. Japan kondigde in 2020 zelfs een nieuw actieprotocol aan voor zijn leger in het geval van waarnemingen.

©The Daily Digest

Historische waarnemingen
Als we teruggaan in de tijd, zijn er veel momenten rond het ufo-fenomeen die de geschiedenis zijn ingegaan. Laten we eens kijken naar de beroemdste gevallen ...

©The Daily Digest

Kenneth Arnold: de eerste waarneming?
De eerste geregistreerde waarneming van een ufo dateert van 24 juni 1947. De Amerikaanse piloot Kenneth Arnold (in het midden op de foto) aanschouwde wat als de eerste ufo-waarneming kan worden beschouwd. Hoewel er eerdere soortgelijke gevallen werden gemeld, kreeg deze waarneming veel publiciteit en aandacht.

©The Daily Digest

Onregelmatig, helder en snel
Arnold verklaarde dat, terwijl hij op zoek was naar een vermist vliegtuig, hij boven Mount Rainier (Washington) niet minder dan negen objecten met abnormale bewegingen zag die samen in een lijn vlogen. Hij beschreef ze als "extreem heldere objecten", met een "onregelmatige vliegwijze" die zich met "enorme snelheid" verplaatsten.

©Aangeboden door The Daily Digest

Vliegende schotels
Het is door deze waarneming dat de mythe van de ovaalvormige ufo is ontstaan en de term 'vliegende schotel' begon te worden gebruikt, aangezien, in zijn eigen woorden, "ze onregelmatig 

©The Daily Digest

Een vonk in de wolken
Anderen gaan echter veel verder terug in de tijd. In het Zuid-Amerikaanse Chili werden in de 19e eeuw verschillende vreemde dingen gezien. Zo meldde Maria Graham in haar boek 'Journal of a Residence in Chile' (1822) dat ze een reeks vreemde lichten boven de zee had gezien. Ook zag commandant Buenaventura Martínez Díaz in 1853 dat hij en voorwerp had gezien dat "de wolken doorkruiste in de vorm van een vonk."

©The Daily Digest

Foto: Stephen Leopardi/Unsplash

Een alien in Talca
En op 15 mei 1861 berichtte de Chileense krant La Esperanza over de dagen van verschrikking die de inwoners van de stad Talca beleefden. Niet vanwege een ufo, maar vanwege de aanwezigheid van een wezen dat van een andere planeet leek te komen.

©The Daily Digest

De ufo's van Copiacó
In die Chileense precedenten springen "drie onverklaarbare luchtverschijnselen" het meest in het oog. De krant El Constituente had het over drie waarnemingen in maart, juli en november 1868. Ze waren allemaal in Copiacó, een stad waar vele jaren later, in 2013, nog eens een waarneming werd gemeld.

©Aangeboden door The Daily Digest

Duizenden ufo-waarnemingen
Sindsdien zijn er duizenden ufo-waarnemingen gemeld, door strijdkrachten van verschillende landen, vliegtuigpiloten of gewone mensen. Waarnemingen die in veel gevallen een wetenschappelijke verklaring hebben, maar die in andere gevallen verontrustend mysterieus blijven.

©The Daily Digest

Project Blue Book
Van 1948 tot 1969 werd in de Verenigde Staten Project Blue Book gelanceerd, een overheidsinitiatief om ufo's te onderzoeken als een mogelijke bedreiging voor de nationale veiligheid. Dit alles in een tijd waarin de luchtmacht 12.618 waarnemingen rapporteerde, waarvan er vandaag de dag nog 701 ongeïdentificeerd blijven.

©The Daily Digest

Geen bewijs dat ufo's buitenaards waren
Project Blue Book werd in 1969 afgesloten vanwege de hoge kosten. De conclusie van het onderzoek luidde dat de ufo's geen bedreiging vormden voor de nationale veiligheid en dat er geen bewijs was dat het om buitenaardse vaartuigen ging, noch om technologische ontwikkelingen die de moderne wetenschap te boven gaan.

©The Daily Digest

Het Roswell-incident
In 1947, hetzelfde jaar van de waarneming van Kenneth Arnold, vond ook een van de meest legendarische ufo-gebeurtenissen plaats: het Roswell-incident. Een ongeïdentificeerd vliegend object stortte neer in een veld in deze stad in New Mexico, en onmiddellijk daarna volgde een ontmoeting met buitenaardse wezens.

©The Daily Digest

Velen geloven nog steeds dat het een ufo was
De Amerikaanse regering probeerde de commotie rond het Roswell-incident te sussen door te beweren dat het om een weerballon ging en niet om een vliegende schotel, zoals velen aanvankelijk beweerden. Volgens een opiniepeiling van CNN uit 1997 denkt echter bijna twee derde van de Amerikanen nog steeds dat het een ufo was die er was neergestort.

©Aangeboden door The Daily Digest

Betrouwbare getuigen?
Er waren vermeende getuigen die toen verklaarden dat ze hadden gezien hoe militairen het ongeïdentificeerde object en de lichamen van de buitenaardse wezens uit het gebied van het incident hadden weggehaald. Toch was er geen echt bewijs.

©The Daily Digest

Ufo-toerisme
Momenteel leeft Roswell van het toerisme van ufo- en alien-liefhebbers uit de hele wereld die blijven zoeken naar antwoorden. De stad heeft zelfs een drukbezocht 'UFO Museum'.

©Aangeboden door The Daily Digest

Area 51
En als Roswell een mythische plek is binnen het ufo-fenomeen, dan wat gezegd van Area 51, een gebied midden in de Nevadawoestijn? Velen geloven dat de Amerikaanse regering er zowel ufo's als lichamen van aliens verbergt.

©The Daily Digest

Programma's tegen de Sovjets
In 2013 declasseerde de CIA documenten waarin officieel werd erkend dat Area 51 een geheime militaire basis was waar niets buitenaards werd verborgen, maar dat het werd gebruikt om de luchtbewakingsprogramma's U-2 en OXCART te testen tegen de Sovjets tijdens de Koude Oorlog.

©Aangeboden door The Daily Digest

Ufo's en kernwapens
Zeven voormalige leden van de luchtmacht van de Verenigde Staten beweerden in 2010 dat ze tussen de jaren zestig en tachtig ufo's hadden waargenomen in de buurt van kernwapeninstallaties.

©The Daily Digest

Gedeactiveerde raketten
Over een van de waargenomen ufo's zei Robert Salas, een voormalige kapitein van de luchtmacht: "Onze raketten begonnen in wat men een niet-actieve toestand noemt te komen; ze konden niet worden gelanceerd. Ze werden gewoon gedeactiveerd, terwijl dit object om ons heen was."

©Aangeboden door The Daily Digest

Buitenaardse interesse in kernwapens
Ufoloog Robert Hastings, die de persconferentie organiseerde waarop deze waarnemingen werden gemeld, zei: "Deze heren geloven dat de planeet wordt bezocht door wezens uit een andere wereld, die geïnteresseerd zijn in de geschiedenis van nucleaire wapens die begon aan het einde van de Tweede Wereldoorlog."

©The Daily Digest

Bevolen om een ufo neer te halen
Op 20 mei 1957 kregen volgens de krant The Times twee Amerikaanse piloten het bevel een ufo neer te halen die boven het Engelse platteland zweefde. Enkele veteranen van het leger, zoals die op de afbeelding, hebben het verhaal publiekelijk verteld.

©The Daily Digest

De ufo die de piloten achtervolgden
Volgens Milton Torres (een van de betrokken piloten) bewoog het object "onregelmatig". Bovendien was het zo groot als "een vliegend vliegdekschip" en "hing het enkele ogenblikken in de lucht voordat het verdween met een geschatte snelheid van 12.000 kilometer per uur."

©The Daily Digest

Het ufo-incident in Shag Harbour
Shag Harbour is een klein dorpje op het schiereiland Nova Scotia in Canada, waar een groep vissers op 4 oktober 1967 een lichtgevend object zagen dat uiteindelijk neerstortte in de Atlantische Oceaan. Aanvankelijk dacht men dat het een vliegtuig was, maar er werden nooit stoffelijke resten gevonden.

 { follow The Daily Digest. }

05-10-2025 om 21:36 geschreven door peter  

International Space Week: waarnemingen van Ufo's in de geschiedenis - PART II

©The Daily Digest

Een ontvoering in Chili
Door de zaak van korporaal Armando Valdés kwam de Chileense ufologie wereldwijd onder de aandacht. Armando zag in 1977 samen met zeven andere soldaten een ufo. Ze zagen vreemde lichten in de lucht en daarna verdween Armando gedurende 15 minuten.

©Aangeboden door The Daily Digest

Hij herinnert zich de ontvoering niet
In een interview met Agence France Presse in november 1978 zei Armando dat hij zes of zeven stappen zette weg van de groep, richting het licht, en dat hij geen idee had wat er daarna gebeurde. Hij zei: "Iets trok me aan. Het was als een interne communicatie met het licht."

©The Daily Digest

Foto: age barros/Unsplash

Het onverklaarbare verstrijken van de tijd
Korporaal Armando, die zich de vorige dag had geschoren, had een baard van vijf tot zes dagen. Bovendien duidde zijn polshorloge de datum 30 april aan in plaats van 26, en liep de klok 15 minuten achter.

©The Daily Digest

Het ufo-incident in Voronezh
Op 27 september 1989 meldde het persbureau TASS dat voetballende jongens in een stadspark in Voronezh (Rusland) een roze gloed in de lucht zagen, een dieprode bal die zweefde, en een alien met drie ogen. De kinderen waren de enige getuigen, maar een politieagent meldde dat hij "een object in de lucht zag vliegen".

©Aangeboden door The Daily Digest

De Phoenix Lights
De Phoenix Lights (soms ook wel de 'Lichten boven Phoenix' genoemd) waren een reeks op grote schaal waargenomen ufo's boven Arizona, Nevada en de Mexicaanse staat Sonora, op 13 maart 1997. Er werden verschillende soorten lichten gezien door duizenden mensen.

©Aangeboden door The Daily Digest

Een deltavorming schip
Fife Symington, de voormalige gouverneur van Arizona en een voormalig luchtmachtofficier, verklaarde op CNN: "Ik zag een enorm deltavormig schip stilletjes over Squaw Peak vliegen, een bergketen in Phoenix. Het was echt indrukwekkend. Ik was stomverbaasd, omdat ik me naar het westen keerde op zoek naar de Phoenix Lights in de verte."

©The Daily Digest

Waarnemingen van Chileense piloten
In 2007 onthulde het Chileense leger tijdens een bijeenkomst van ufologen in Viña del Mar dat enkele van zijn piloten ufo's hadden waargenomen. Kapitein Rodrigo Bravo omschreef het volgens het persbureau EFE als "spectaculaire ervaringen op verschillende plaatsen".

©The Daily Digest

Winston Churchill hield ufo-waarnemingen geheim
In 2010 werd via de BBC en na enkele door het Ministerie van Defensie openbaar gemaakte rapporten onthuld dat de voormalige Britse premier Winston Churchill de opdracht gaf om vermeende ufo-waarnemingen door de luchtmacht vijftig jaar lang verborgen zodat er geen paniek zou ontstaan onder de bevolking.

©The Daily Digest

Vernietigd ufo-bewijsmateriaal

Wetenschapper Nick Pope verklaarde aan de BBC dat "Churchill en Eisenhower besloten om de buitengewone waarnemingen van ufo's geheim te houden". Hij merkte ook op dat "het meeste archiefmateriaal uit de jaren vijftig werd vernietigd".

©The Daily Digest

Oumuamua: een asteroïde of een buitenaards ruimteschip?
Oumuamua was een mysterieus object dat in 2017 door het zonnestelsel trok en werd ontdekt en drie dagen lang gevolgd door verschillende telescopen tot het verdween. Het incident veroorzaakte een groot debat in de wereld van de wetenschap. De meesten verzekerden dat het om een zeldzame asteroïde of komeet ging, maar anderen beweerden dat het misschien een enorm buitenaards ruimteschip was.

©Aangeboden door The Daily Digest

Kenmerken van het meest controversiële object
Volgens de gemaakte berekeningen was Oumuamua ongeveer 400 meter lang en 40 meter breed, en had het een roodachtig oppervlak. Het meest verrassende kenmerk was dat de baan ervan niet lineair was, maar eerder chaotisch, zeer snel draaiend en met zeer uitgesproken richtingsveranderingen.

©The Daily Digest

Doelbewust gestuurd door aliens?
Volgens astronomen Shmuel Bialy en Abraham Loeb (foto) is Oumuamua mogelijk een volledig operationele sonde die opzettelijk door een buitenaardse beschaving naar de buurt van de aarde is gestuurd.

©The Daily Digest

Een nooit eerder gezien opject
Loeb is een groot verdediger van het feit dat Oumuamua het eerste ontdekte object in het zonnestelsel is dat daarbuiten is ontstaan. Hij herinnerde ons in een interview met de BBC eraan dat het ongewone kenmerken heeft die het tot een nooit eerder gezien zeldzaam object maken.

©The Daily Digest

Buitenaardse bezoeken tijdens de pandemie
De laatste vermeende waarnemingen deden zich voor en namen exponentieel toe tijdens de maandenlange lockdown van de COVID-19-pandemie. Plots was − volgens de getuigenissen op sociale media met foto's en video's − het luchtruim gevuld met ufo's.

©The Daily Digest

Andere gemelde waarnemingen
Om enkele historische waarnemingen te noemen in de wereld: de waarneming op Antarctica (1965); het ufo-incident in Teheran (1976); die van Manises (1979), de Canarische Eilanden (1976-1979) en Ochate (1981), alle drie in Spanje; het Colares-incident in 1977 (Brazilië) ...

©The Daily Digest

Beroemdheden en ufo's
De Republikeinse kandidaat voor het Congres in Miami, Bettina Rodríguez, heeft gezegd dat ze in 2009 werd ontvoerd door aliens. Ook de Argentijnse artiest Andrés Calamaro heeft bevestigd dat hij een ufo zag in de jaren tachtig, toen hij op tournee was met zijn groep Los Plateros.

©The Daily Digest

Foto: Unintended Concept / Unsplash

Zijn we echt alleen in het heelal?
Het ufo-fenomeen is nog steeds zeer interessant en bevat, zoals alle regeringen toegeven, mysteries. Voor veel van deze incidenten is er geen wetenschappelijke verklaring, al kan dat zijn omdat we niet over alle gegevens beschikken. Hoe dan ook: vliegende schotels zijn iconische, literaire en cinematografische elementen.

GERELATEERDE VIDEO'S

{ follow The Daily Digest. }

05-10-2025 om 21:35 geschreven door peter  

Former US Army Colonel: ‘Aliens Destroyed Couple Of Nuclear Weapons That Were Sent To Space’

During the Cold War, the United States conducted the largest nuclear test in outer space, 400 km above the Northern Pacific Ocean. The results were devastating. More such testing would have destroyed Earth’s magnetic field, that is why outer-space nuclear testing was banned. Moreover, some accounts of the US military personnel including NASA astronauts convey that the extraterrestrials were behind the nuclear missile testing in outer space, and they even put surveillance on the nuclear facilities on Earth.

In the “Sirius Documentary,” hosted by UFOlogist Steven Greer, US Air Force retired Colonel Ross Dedrickson testified that he observed UFOs over the nuclear facilities in which he was assigned. Besides, he said the extraterrestrials were not allowing nuclear weapons in space. They stopped the nuclear missile that was sent to detonate on the Lunar surface. The US was urged to demonstrate its power to the Soviets.

Col. Ross Dedrickson was assigned to the US Atomic Energy Commission. A long service with the Energy Commission between 1950-1958 included contract administration duties at Nevada test sites, Pacific Nuclear Test Area west of Hawaii, nuclear weapon manufacturing and quality assurance in Albuquerque, and inspection of nuclear and non-nuclear facilities throughout the country. He served with the 5th Air Force in Japan and later as a ranking Colonel, Officer in Charge of the Pacific Unified Command (TM)s alternate “command and control center” in Hawaii. In 1962, he was transferred and served as Deputy for Material for the 832 Air Division at Canon Air Force Base, Clovis, New Mexico. He retired from the USAF in 1964.

“A couple of nuclear weapons that were sent to space were destroyed by the extraterrestrials. Our government sent nuclear weapons for the explosion on the moon’s surface. It was intended to, as I understand it, assess some scientific data and reactions and so forth. The idea of an explosion in space by any Earth government was not acceptable to the extraterrestrials, and that has been demonstrated over and over,” Colonel said.

He is one of hundreds of military whistleblowers with verified backgrounds to have been brought forth by Dr. Steven Greer’s Disclosure Project. His testimony about UFOs — specifically about UFOs and nuclear weapons — can be corroborated by a wealth of information and evidence that’s now available within the public domain.

UFO Shot Down Missile In 1964

For 18 years, Robert Jacobs had been participating in the official United States Government-ordered UFO coverup. He claimed that he had been ridiculed by his colleagues for writing about this cover-up that appeared in The National Enquirer. The cover-up was about the UFO shooting down one of the ballistic missiles back in 1964 in Big Sur, California. (Click here to read the full article)

Retired USAF Lieutenant Robert Jacobs had been an officer in charge of optical instrumentation at the 1369th Photo Squadron at Vandenberg from 1963 to 1966. His job was to establish a long-range tracking site at Big Sur, California. Those days, ballistic missiles used to blow upon launch, and Dr. Jacobs’ duty was to determine the reason behind every missile failure at the Western Test Range. As the missiles had to carry a nuclear weapon to a specific target, they were monitoring the dummy warhead to find the reason behind their blow.

Dr. Jacobs recalled that the UFO incident had most probably been associated with the launch of an Atlas missile happened either September 2nd, 3rd, or 15th, 1964.

Dr. Jacobs explained: “Because of the length of the telescope as the Atlas missile entered the frame, we could see the whole third stage which has two rocket nozzles like this and one in the center or gimballed one in the center fill in our frame from one hundred and about 160 miles it was pretty exciting optics we watched that stage burnout we watched the second stage burnout we watch a third stage burnout and into the frame came something else it flew into the frame.”

According to him, the warhead was approached by a UFO, fired a beam of light at it from different directions. Subsequently, the warhead malfunctioned and tumbled out of sub orbit hundreds of miles short of its target. “This… unidentified flying… thing had apparently shot down an American dummy atomic warhead,” Dr. Jacobs said.

Read also:

• Four US Intelligence Directors Hint That UFOs Are Alien Spaceships & Believe There Are Ot her Dimensions
• Russian Scientists Stated In 1970 That Moon Is Artificial Space Object
• Ex-Pentagon UFO Official Luis Elizondo Embraces ‘Zoo Hypothesis,’ Earth As Alien Prison
• Does This FBI Document Suggest That Nikola Tesla Was An Alien From Venus?

Nuclear-adjacent sightings go back decades, said Robert Hastings, a UFO researcher and author of the book “UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites.” Hastings said he interviewed more than 160 veterans who witnessed strange things in the skies around nuclear sites.

UFO deactivated Malmstrom AFB Nuke System

Former US Air Force Captain Robert Salas mentioned an incident that took place on March 16, 1967. He was at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana in an underground capsule when he was told by the security forces that a red glowing object had been seen at the front gate of the base. (Click here to read the full article)

One of the airmen was enjoying the clear morning sky when suddenly a star appeared, moving in a zig-zag manner. Then another light came. He called the Flight Security Controller (FSC), and they both watched the movement of those strange lights. They reported to Salas and he asked them to keep an eye on those lights.

Firstly, it did not concern Salas because he thought that his colleagues were possibly joking. In some time, he was called by the controller again, and he (FSC) was frightened and shouting. They were watching a UFO, hovering outside the front gate.

“I can’t really describe it. It’s glowing red. What are we supposed to do? Make sure the site is secure and I’ll phone the Command Post. Sir, I have to go now, one of the guys just got injured.”

After that, Salas lost communication with the airman and security guard. He immediately contacted his commander Lt. Fred Meiwald, who was sleeping at that time. While he was on the call with Lt. Meiwald, a security alarm rang, indicating a problem within the missile system. He checked the matter and found there was a “No-Go” light on, and two red security lights were lit. He was just trying to understand what went wrong, consecutively several alarms went off and they lost “entire flight of ten ICBMs to a ‘No-Go’ (inoperable) condition.”

Astronaut Leaked Email

In 2016, Wikileaks revealed thousands of emails that were allegedly linked to Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta. The emails unfolded secret information shared with Podesta about UFOs and ETs. (Click here to read the full article)

In 2015, Podesta received emails from Mitchell that expressed his concern about the weaponization of space and its impact on the ETI (extraterrestrial intelligence). Despite the fact that aliens might be violent as shown in various sci-fi, the notable astronaut called them nonviolent in an email.

In January 2015, he sent an email to Podesta, asking him to have an urgent meeting to discuss Disclosure and Zero Point Energy (ZPE). He was concerned about the peace in space.

Mitchell wrote: “My Catholic colleague Terri Mansfield will be there too, to bring us up to date on the Vatican’s awareness of ETI. Another colleague is working on a new Space Treaty, citing involvement with Russia and China. However with Russia’s extreme interference in Ukraine, I believe we must pursue another route for peace in space and ZPE on Earth.”

Mitchell emailed Podesta again on September 18, 2015. He wrote: “Because the War in Space race is heating up, I felt you should be aware of several factors as you and I schedule our Skype talk. Remember, our nonviolent ETI from the contiguous universe are helping us bring zero point energy to Earth. They will not tolerate any forms of military violence on Earth or in space.”

It was confirmed by one of Mitchell’s collaborators that the meeting between Podesta and him never took place. During the 2016 election campaign, Podesta declared he would convince Clinton to declassify as many UFO files as possible. In 2014, he tweeted that his biggest failure during the Obama administration was not to ask them for the release of UFO files.

Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell died in 2016 but for his entire life, he was a pacifist and a promoter of ETI reality. According to him, ZPE is the ultimate energy source from which all matter derives.

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

04-10-2025 om 23:21 geschreven door peter