It was the inimitable late Carl Sagan who had kindled in many of us curiosity about all things extra-terrestrial and the inevitability of life outside our planet, given the vast universe with innumerable habitable worlds. As he had pointed out, it would seem a colossal waste of resources out there if it wasn't inhabited. But, as he added too, life elsewhere could have a totally different signature to the one on our planet or solar system. It need not be organic and necessarily not based on water and oxygen, nor come with hands and legs and eyes and nose! But yet, we persist in our expectations and imagination to see aliens roughly in our image, even if as Rocky of Hail Mary ! Are they so? Are the Greys, Reptileans and Nordics mere figments of our limited imagination?
It was thanks to the Cornell University scientist that we marvelled at the fact that the stars in the sky we see today are part of history. This fact was used recently by Neil deGrasse Tyson, science educator to point that extra-terrestrial life would not be keen to visit the earth because out from million light years where they live, our planet would still be teeming with dinosaurs!
It took filmmaker Steven Spielberg to bring the subject into popular arena with his 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind , followed by ET , and now Disclosure Day . His television series Taken brought in yet another aspect of hybridisation to add to the ET tapestry. Now, with Disclosure Day following closely on the heels of 'disclosure' by Pentagon of classified reports on UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) and aliens, the world seems to have accepted what Sagan once said. The Universe is more likely to be teeming with life than empty.
Disclosure Day was a disappointment given that a large part of the film is one long chase with the baddies (here the henchmen of a large corporate that wants to keep the truth of ETs hidden for whatever reason!) closely following our two protagonists. It is only in the last ten minutes or so that there is actual disclosure and a glimpse of an aged alien. Spielberg stays with his benevolent ET belief and there are some references to empathy and a creator but much of it is vague. Why does Daniel, (Josh O'Conor)a cyber analyst not go online with the secret files showing the torture of captured aliens by humans? Why does he opt for a grand television disclosure after a deadly chase? Why do he and Margaret (Emily Blunt) a weather forecaster wait for so long to connect and disclose their truth? What is the weird contraption that the evil boss uses to get into people's minds? That much for a storyline with many gaps, more focussed on giving some thrills via car chases rather than focus on aliens.
Never mind the disappointment, but Disclosure Day has brought back aliens into popular imagination, aided by the Pentagon releasing in bits and pieces tantalising 'classified' images of orbs, pointed stars and triangles and other UAPs. Call it diversionary tactics or otherwise. Interestingly, in the world of psychics, mediums and spirit diviners too, there has been a lot of talk of contact going to be established very soon.
Will they be kind and intelligent, or aggressive and offensive? That will have to be seen. But going by past incidents since 60-70 years and people's experiences, there seems to be no intentional harm from these visitors of the sky if one is to believe the accounts. Only in a few bizarre cases was there injuries caused and even these suggest some experiments rather than intended harm!
Many individual sightings have been reported by pilots and the general public since over 70 years.
Oldest sighting ?
In fact the oldest sighting dates back to 1803 with the story of a round disc-shaped hollow ship and its female inhabitant who spoke an unknown language. There is still a lot of discussion around that sighting called Utsuro-bune (Hollow boat) in Japanese. The woman carried a box in hand she refused to open or hand over and was eventually sent back into the Pacific by the fishermen. There are no documents or material evidences. Sightings continue in Japan where the general belief is of benevolent visitors.
Group sightings are more credible with many people seeing the craft around the same period. In 1977, in the Irish countryside at Kells some 400 people reported seeing triangular craft in the sky while others reported mysterious lights. From 1989-1990 many in Belgium saw triangular crafts in the sky with over 2000 witness statements and the military corroborating the sightings. Light orbs flying in formation and merging and separating, as well as huge V shaped crafts were seen by thousands in Phoenix, Arizona during March, 1997.
During September 1994, around 62 students at the Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe saw a large UFO land in the ground and beings with big eyes, long hair and tight black suits alight. Some students were clearly scared, while others were in a trance and later spoke of the beings communicating without speech. Some mentioned the message of protecting the environment or dangers from technology, as coming from the aliens.
A journalist, a UFO enthusiast and Harvard psychiatrist John Mack also interviewed the students and the event gained credence based on the results of these interviews with students. Around the same time there were other incidents of such sightings around the place. Was this a contact narrative with aliens warning humans?
Perhaps the most popular incident and site around the UFO narrative is Area 51 shrouded in mysteries. A military installation in Nevada, this is a place known for the many conspiracy theories around aliens, reverse technology experiments, etc. In 1947 a UFO with aliens is believed to have crashed at Roswell, New Mexico and the bodies of the aliens and the craft were moved to Area 51 for studies. This was later disclosed to public by Robert Lazar who worked on the project and claimed that attempts to reverse engineer were ongoing. These have been flatly denied by the government.
It was in 2017 that an article by NYT brought the topic of aliens and UAPs centrestage. Titled Glowing Auras and Black Money: The Pentagon's Mysterious UFO Program, the report sought an enquiry into the funds that went into the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification program. Using documentations and first-hand accounts from US military staff, the article revealed various documented UAP sightings of craft moving at high velocities with no visible propulsion system or means of lift.
Tic-Tac UFO
Among the videos studied was one of a white oval object the size of an aircraft being chased by Navy fighter jets off the coast of San Diego in 2004. Known as the Tic-Tac UFO for its shape, it was seen few feet above water before it zipped up at incredible speed, making manoeuvres impossible for any man made craft, before coming very close to one fighter plane and swerving away quickly.
The US military had been studying UFOs since 1947 with over 12,000 claims but the project named Project Blue Book ended in 1969 with a conclusion that most sightings were of spy craft, clouds, etc but around 701 of the sightings remained unexplained. Since 2004 there have been over 500 UAP sightings in the US alone!
The recent disclosure also includes images of anomalous light orbs seen around the moon's surface during Apollo missions!
Sceptics believe that the US government has deliberately allowed the UFO myth to perpetuate to keep its own spy craft inventions under cover from its Cold War enemies. Why then is it in a hurry now to come out with the 'disclosures'? Could it be another ruse to fool its citizens?
But we must remember that sightings have been reported from elsewhere too, especially multiple and mass sightings.
Angel hair from UFOs
In 1954, thousands of fans saw UFOs during a football match in Tuscany, some describing glitter or 'angel hair' that fell from these like snow and eventually evaporated! But some of it was collected and studied in labs to show presence of calcium, magnesium, boron and silicon! Scientists dismiss it as spider hair and the whole phenomenon to large groups of migrating spiders carried by wind. But there are not many takers for that theory. The flying saucers were seen in many parts of Florence around the time.
Then in 1977 in Brazil the Colares island sightings extending across a year saw the Brazilian Air Force step in to investigate the cases. Citizens reported being burnt by intense rays emitted by crafts and even instances of blood being drawn by the 'invaders' were reported. Glowing objects were seen by almost 90 percent of the island population and many suffered from the burns of the laser-like light. Local reports also talked of abductions where the person was surrounded by the small beings and subjected to some experiments which left them ailing in bed for days. One person regained his sight and hearing!
Attacks
Many victims spoke of strong smells during the attacks, of antiseptics, or ether or an electric smell! Were the aliens sampling human biology?
Some sightings also noted the crafts going in and out of water.
This kind of underwater objects was also reported from Tampico in Mexico. But here, the aliens are believed to be guardians of the people who believe aliens live in a submerged base off the coast and protect them from storms and hurricanes. In 1967, many of the residents saw nine UFOs over their city. Since then the sightings have been common.
Intriguing sightings have been those around nuclear plants. In 2011 when the world witnessed a major nuclear disaster at Fukushima plant in Japan, following an earthquake, there were the UFO visitations. Captured on cameras as bright orbs of light flying in formation and finally merging into one before disappearing, this is among the most undisputed pointers to aliens visiting the planet. The lights were seen on many days beginning with March 11 when the incident occurred. A Buddhist monk who had seen one of these went on to say that these lights had somehow contained the fallout from the disaster.
Such sightings were also reported during the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and also around nuclear missile sites and test locations in the US.
Nuclear interest ?
In fact according to Ukrainian media outlet Pravda, the Chernobyl disaster was so bad that the outcome ought to have been much worser than what was witnessed and this was due to the intervention by the aliens. Many residents had reported seeing the UAPs in the days preceding the disaster, hovering for hours over the reactor. In fact one witness claimed to have seen crimson light emitted by a craft towards the reactor. Nuclear technicians measuring radiation levels reported a drastic reduction following UAP activity in the area, similar to what the resident had seen. The activity continued for over three years after the disaster.
Are the aliens keeping a watch over earth and the doings of humans, especially around dangerous technology? The Japanese largely believe our alien visitors are here to restore a sense of balance and prevent the human race from becoming extinct.
There are people like Orfeo Angelucci, American author of books related to all things extra-terrestrial, who spoke of being contacted by beneficial aliens and being warned of disasters like Chernobyl almost 50-60 years before it happened!
Stars or starships ?
A mystery around 1952 was the mysterious disappearance of three stars from the night sky! Seen from Palomar Observatory, the three stars vanished within an hour of being sighted, leaving astrophysicists puzzled and UFO believers excited. The scientific deduction was that the light could have been from close to our solar system, leaving only the suggestion of Oort cloud objects briefly illumined (how?) and having passed away, never again to be detected! UFO hunters have been quick to note that this was around the time the Roswell crash occurred, suggesting the stars had been starships!
Claims are many. Robert Jacobs who was a missile test staff insisted that one of the Atlas missiles to be tested in 1964 was dismantled by a UFO.
If the aliens are here to give us messages to conserve the environment, stop using nukes, etc. it is natural to wonder what they stand to gain. What do the 3000 year old cave drawings of aliens in Colarado indicate? Have they been visiting us from ages? Who are they and from where? Are they visitors from space, or across time? According to some like anthropologist Michael Masters at the Montana Tech University, Butte, the aliens could be us from the future! With the advancing pace of technology, our descendants may develop a time machine and are here to warn us of the dangers in the path we pursue.
With AI going beyond commands to hack a system as seen recently, humanity is for sure on a dangerous track with no intentions of retracing. As to environmental destruction, we are witnessing the floods, wildfires and heatwaves but still unwilling to change. Exciting times!
