Are we alone?

[OKcomputer]

I've always been fascinated by UFOs, and I've done enough research to know that plenty of sightings (many of them by military and other seemingly reliable sources) remain unexplained. I sometimes visit a forum called Above Top Secret, and today I found this clip on there (things get *really* strange at about :35 seconds:

A SciFi show called Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files apparently decided to investigate this clip in their episode a couple of nights ago. I normally hate this show because the dialogue seems canned and the hosts frequently slap a "Faked" label on footage that they can recreate, however unconvincingly. Usually, the footage deserves more investigation than what they give it.

This time, however, the Fact or Faked folks caught some pretty interesting footage of their own when going to investigate the site for themselves:

What are some of the more intriguing UFO videos you've seen? Are UFO videos - the convincing ones, at least - evidence of aliens visiting earth, secret technology, or just mass hoaxes and misidentifications? I know we've got some deep thinkers here based on the time travel (and other) threads; discuss.

 

[Vicki]

I think it is ignorant to believe we are the only intelligent life in the whole universe. Not sure what was in the video clips, though.

 

[momofthegoons]

There have actually been two occasions in my life where I thought I might have seen a UFO. Once up on Whitefish Point, Michigan and once down in Popayon, Columbia (So. America). On both occasions, I was with at least one other person who witnessed the same thing I did. I totally believe in UFO's after those events. So do the people I was with.

 

[OKcomputer]

What did you see, mom?

 

[goody8504]

I sometimes visit a forum called Above Top Secret

A SciFi show called Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files apparently decided to investigate this clip in their episode a couple of nights ago. I normally hate this show because the dialogue seems canned and the hosts frequently slap a "Faked" label on footage that they can recreate, however unconvincingly. Usually, the footage deserves more investigation than what they give it.

This time, however, the Fact or Faked folks caught some pretty interesting footage of their own when going to investigate the site for themselves:

I'd be pretty skeptical about anything i find on ATS. It's full of obvious disinformation. Honestly, I don't think anybody who has anything worth saying about this matter is going to post it at ATS. Also, I wouldn't believe anything that comes from the television. It's all neuro-linguistic programming used to fill your head will false ideas/beliefs, even shows like ufo hunters. You won't get anything useful from the tv.

That said, I certainly believe in UFOs. I saw a UFO once when i was about 12 or 13. And when I say I saw a UFO, I saw a craft of some sort that I can't identify. My family and I had just come home from dinner I was the first one to head towards the front door while everybody else was lagging behind. I was walking along the path towards the front door and looking up at the stars as I often do. All of the sudden a craft shot across the sky from my 7 o'clock to about my 11 o'clock. It covered the entire span of the sky (or what i could see of the sky at least because I'm in a neighborhood and there are trees and houses all around) in literally the blink of an eye, moving faster than anything I've ever seen before. It was much closer to the ground than any other aircraft that has flown over my house, though it might have just been an extremely huge craft. It also don't recall seeing a contrail and can't remember the exact shape of the craft, though at the time i was caught off guard and wasn't trying to take in all the details.

So I've determined it's either:
-A highly classified military project (possible)
-An genuine extraterrestrial craft (possible)
-A secret funded military and/or government craft posing as a UFO (plausible)

While there is no doubt that there is intelligent life throughout the universe, it seems to me that they wouldn't be intervening in our present situation. They cannot help solve our problems for us. If they aren't going to help us solve our problems, they probably won't be flying their ships into our atmosphere. If they have the ability to reach our planet from other star systems, they don't need to fly into our neighborhoods and do a quick flyby in order to observe us...And of course, I left out the possibility that we are actually a slave planet being manipulated by more more intelligent beings. It's another possibility but that's not what this particular thread is about.

 

[OKcomputer]

Yeah, I know that ATS contains plenty of B.S. The video I linked stands out from the average fare you find on there, though. I also agree about TV - most of the programming dedicated to "mysterious" subject matter is highly superficial and for entertainment value only, with no actual investigation taking place.

If anyone reading this is skeptical of UFOs in general, I recommend this book.

 

[crawdad]

(below feel free to replace evolution with progress if needed)

i feel there is an instinctual quality shared by all humans on the thought of "what if" just some of us pay more attention to it and investigate further. broken down to its core one could categorize it as a survival tactic such as, "what if im able to use a container for water instead of always drinking from the stream" and so on, its helped to get us where we are now and i see no reason to turn it off by settling into a state of reality that is static.

the complexities of evolution are not limited to organic beings, also technology. there is no reason to believe that our ability to detect specific fields of energy will coincide with a totally different being elsewhere under totally different conditions, perhaps their way of communicating we cannot detect or they tried millions of years ago, we could be confusing the hell out of them!

i think of cosmic entities in our universe as tiny particles in an ocean; instead of water its a vacuum (generalizing) and the particles are planets and stars, some planets having a tiny bubble of air around them with beings living their existence on the outer crust. no real time table for it happening so cant assume much, but there appears to be a cycle of progress that we clearly do not control.

the ultimate goal to verifying intelligent life (for me at least) is so our species can perhaps finally move forward together by breaking the chains of social conformity and religious dogma, i think our collective intelligence (ergo survival) depends on it. i do not wish for another world and their beings to fascinate about, im living in one and feel more connected here than i would likely be anywhere else...but i do have a space ship that runs on herbs for weekend getaways.

 

[djonkoman]

I've always thought there must be aliens, and one of my deepest wishes has always been to meet aliens an have a talk with them, hear from them wgat's out there etc. it comes from my want for knowledge, my curiosity
I think we aren't ready for them yet, and they won't interfere or make contact till then. they're probably aware of our exostance, but we're probably one of many planets with our level of development.

 

[JeeSee]

To quote Mr. Sagan, "I try not to think with my gut. If I'm serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into trouble. Really, it's okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in."

 

[Vicki]

I found this picture, and thought it was appropriate for this discussion.