UFOs: are they really just a fictitious phenomenon?

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Master Geek

#504009 9-Aug-2011 18:34

Kaos36:... Neil Armstrong...

I think you mean Buzz Aldrin. He's been quite vocal on the whole UFO subject, almost to the point where he's coming across as a bit, well, mad. I still respect him though for his contribution to science and exploration, but his more recent contributions are a little more ho-hum.

L.

BurningBeard

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#504018 9-Aug-2011 18:59

UnrealWarCheek: I think you mean Buzz Aldrin. He's been quite vocal on the whole UFO subject, almost to the point where he's coming across as a bit, well, mad. I still respect him though for his contribution to science and exploration, but his more recent contributions are a little more ho-hum.

L.

Edgar Mitchell too (plus his silly "Noetics")

Though he did punch a moon hoax theorist so he scores +1 with me.

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BurningBeard

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#504020 9-Aug-2011 19:02

cgrew: Aleister Crowley

Yeah. Aleister Crowley. Someone who lived in fantasy-land.

You may as well have said Mr Blobby, Anton Lavey, John Edward or David Icke.

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gzt

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#504022 9-Aug-2011 19:04

In fairness to Buzz, the media tends to exaggerate and misquote him. 'UFO' (unidentified object) tends to become 'aliens' for example. My guess is he probably lets this slide if he is promoting a book or something.

He does try to clarify this kind of thing now and then:

Edit: The original 'ufo' report related to this one is in the Apollo 11 logs: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11tcdb.html (search for suitcase)

BurningBeard

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#504026 9-Aug-2011 19:10

UnrealWarCheek:
That is true. Whilst driving I sometimes think I see people standing on the side of the road (seen via my peripheral vision). The same thing has happened around the house (again seen via my peripheral vision). Am I seeing ghosts? No. I guessing it's my brain creating shapes/figures to trigger my fight or flight mechanism. My mind is filling in the blanks on what might be a predator and helping me out so I see it and take action. Same thing can apply to UFOs.

Yep. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

We tend to see "familiar" shapes where they're not there, or barely there. Our memory isn't infallible either. Our mind is not a tape recorder and memories change over time and become a shadow of their former selves.

Mix night terrors/hypnagogia/sleep paralysis with that and you've got an abduction episode. I used to suffer quite badly from night terrors as an adult and can empathize with "abductees" because it feels so goddamned real.

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BurningBeard

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#504031 9-Aug-2011 19:17

It's funny the astronauts should pop up now. I was listening to a podcast about the very topic today. Lots of mundane explanations for events that are taken waaaaaaaaay out of context. Another example of cherry-picking bits and pieces to make a nonexistent case.

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Athlonite

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#504032 9-Aug-2011 19:19

@ burningbeard so you've watch the 6 episodes then

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BurningBeard

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#504033 9-Aug-2011 19:24

Athlonite: @ burningbeard so you've watch the 6 episodes then

Of?....

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UnrealWarCheek

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#504040 9-Aug-2011 19:45

BurningBeard:... I used to suffer quite badly from night terrors as an adult and can empathize with "abductees" because it feels so goddamned real.

I've only ever had 2. That was 2 too many.

I never want to have the sensation that something is trying to occupy the same space that my mind does.

Gives me the shivers thinking about it.

L.

BurningBeard

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#504053 9-Aug-2011 20:04

UnrealWarCheek:
I've only ever had 2. That was 2 too many.

I never want to have the sensation that something is trying to occupy the same space that my mind does.

Gives me the shivers thinking about it.

L.

Horrible eh? They make nightmares look like an episode of Oh mate, it was every 2 or 3 nights for me for about a year. Horrible. Gobblins. Being thrown into the sky. Beings made of fire. Figures in the room. Things grabbing at my feet and giggling. Wrestling with demons. You name it. I had a few as a kid

And when I was more paranormally-minded, I started worrying about all sorts of garbage.

Once I understood the condition and what can trigger them thanks to a bit of reading, they soon tapered out, became less severe, and eventually stopped altogether.

Basically it only happens if I fall asleep on my back, and have fallen back to sleep after awakening, which at the time was in the small hours of the morning, when my partner got up for her job and I fell back to sleep. She no longer works those hours, I don't sleep on my back, so I don't get attacked by Orcs every night!

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oxnsox

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#504085 9-Aug-2011 21:52

I recently visited the Mt. John Observatory (near Tekapo for those who don't know) where they have a number of telescopes focused to the heavens.

Part of the sky tour (which they do at night) involves them pointing out objects in the sky to the assembled group. You would be amazed at how effective a simple key-ring Green Laser pointer is to identify night sky objects millions of light years away... If I had been a distance away all I would have seen would have been Green beams coming down from the sky.....
It'd be pretty easy to project objects (like swirling galaxies and black holes) in this manner using a higher powered lightshow laser. Oh wait, don't we see that stuff at concerts all the time?????

And whilst I was looking looking at foreign stars and galaxies I thought, there's people who focus telescopes and cameras on these objects pretty much continuously, and to a certain extent they're all pretty much looking for the same thing... evidence of other life.

You'd think that if it existed in a form that had mastered space travel down to our part of the universe then there would be a pretty high probability that at some stage one of these astro-spotters would have seen a UFO fly strait down their telescope.

But no, we have to wait until they're pretty much parked above the local burger joint so that one of the few folk with a camera in their pocket can make that 'Gotchca' picture to post on YouTube .

cgrew

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#504520 10-Aug-2011 16:49

BurningBeard: Yeah. Aleister Crowley. Someone who lived in fantasy-land.

For someone that lived in fantasy land there must of been something the MI5 perceived in him.

freitasm

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#504529 10-Aug-2011 17:01

That doesn't prove anything, if not that he was a good talker. For years some services have experiemented with things like ESP, drugs, etc. There's alway some "believer" that green lights those projects.

cgrew

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#504539 10-Aug-2011 17:18

freitasm: That doesn't prove anything, if not that he was a good talker. For years some services have experiemented with things like ESP, drugs, etc. There's alway some "believer" that green lights those projects.

For a good talker he had a lot of (at the time) well known & important people be his proteges, including L. Ron Hubbard - The founder who established the Church of Scientology.

Would you listen to someone that partook in dark rituals & Satanism? Not to mention these people later joined this cult knowing full well what they were getting themselves in to.

BurningBeard

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#504540 10-Aug-2011 17:18

cgrew: For someone that lived in fantasy land there must of been something the MI5 perceived in him.

He helped an Mi5 agent supply Rudolf Hess with bogus horoscopes. It was then suggested they use Crowley to snoop on a supposed astrological influence on Nazi leaders, but they didn't go through with it.

A bogus horoscope from an occultist. Heh, bogus horoscope, that's an oxymoron if ever there was one!

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