Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
In the years, I’ve spent commenting here at Professor Turley’s blog, I have presented myself as an honest person, sensible and with humane beliefs. Many regulars think of me as sort of a blog “elder statesman” and one who has a rational view of the world. There are of course others, fewer in number I assert, who think me a fool and a knave, which shows you can’t please everyone. Professor Turley himself has expressed fondness related to my tendency to be honest and open about myself personally.
Yet through all of these years here, I have harbored a secret belief that I’ve avoided mentioning for fear that the esteem in which I’m held, will disappear in an avalanche of ridicule and disappointment. I have to admit that to a retired old guy on the wrong side of sixty years, my place here has provided comfort to my self-esteem and certainly the feeling that I can still find things in life to accomplish. To those who haven’t realized the obvious yet from my writings, I have my vanities and indeed my insecurities, so being a guest blogger has stroked those needy aspects of my ego. Since I’ve received much gratification from this, I have been loath to be completely honest about one of my more deeply held beliefs. I came across an article that impels me to break my silence and reveal this belief here and now. While in the eyes of some reading this blog, it might lower their opinion of me and expose me to ridicule, I must finally admit to you my dirty little secret.
Ever since the first nationwide “Flying Saucer” sensation began with the first “official” UFO sighting on June 24, 1947 by pilot Kenneth Arnold http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Arnold_UFO_sighting#Skeptical_explanations Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO’s) have been a phenomenon lasting for the past 64 years, with most governments ridiculing the people making the reports and dismissing the entire idea. This is despite the fact that many pilots have made sightings and indeed many people in large communities, such as WashingtonD.C., have seen UFO’s in their skies over a period of nights. I personally believe that UFO’s are indeed alien spacecraft and that the possibility of this being the case is narrowed by the unfathomable size of the Universe, its age and the trillions of stars that exist. I further believe that the governments have covered this up to prevent what in their minds is public panic and to deny the truth that if UFO’s do indeed exist; our technological capacity could not deal with them if necessary.
This article in Huffpost on 6/17/11confirms my belief in governments covering up the details of these sightings and ridiculing anyone claiming to have made a sighting: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/17/uk-releases-ufo-files_n_927351.html “The former Ministry of Defense (MoD) UFO Project chief [Nick Pope] is openly admitting to being part of what he claims was a U.K. policy of ridiculing UFO reports and the people who reported them.
“What’s abundantly clear from these files is that, while in public we were desperately pushing the line that this was of no defense interest,” Pope told The Huffington Post. “We couldn’t say ‘There’s something in our air space; pilots see them; they’re tracked on radar; sometimes we scramble jets to chase these things, but we can’t catch them.’ This would be an admission that we’d lost control of our own air space, and such a position would be untenable.”
My interest began in 1953, reading a book by Major Donald Keyhoe, USMC Pilot, Retired. In it he described the various documented incidents and the explanations given for them by the Department Of Defenses “Project Blue Book”, that was established seemingly to investigate the phenomenon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Keyhoe . Among others, Keyhoe had interviewed Air Force Captain Edward Ruppelt, who had been head of the Project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_J._Ruppelt
What I found so compelling was that perhaps 20% of the incidents could not be adequately explained and that distinguished observers, such as veteran pilots, were supposed to have mistaken everyday phenomenon, like weather balloons and Venus, for UFO’s. As my interest grew, it became obvious that our government would respond to any new sighting by first ridicule of the person(s) making the report of the sighting and then responding with explanations that were not credible. In the D.C., sightings in 1953 a mass of objects were not only detected by eye, but by airport radar and yet dismissed without adequate explanation.
What added to the government’s ability to ridicule were the so-called direct contact cases, first made famous by George Adamski: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Adamski and later by Betty and Barney Hill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Hill . Since the “contactees” in these cases seemed mainly to be self-serving individuals, they muddied the waters by being conflated with people who were seriously looking for explanations, or who had made direct sightings. Considering what the Huffpost article cited as details about the British Government’s policies, ridicule replaced research as a tool of institutional government investigation.
In further revealing my dirty little secret, I was for a time, in my teens, a dues paying member of The “National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (or NICAP). It was a civilian unidentified flying object research group active in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NICAP
While I never lost interest in UFO’s, my interest waned as my puberty began to assert itself and other things in life became more important. However, I have read enough about the topic to be certain in my own mind that there is much more to it than merely misidentification of known objects, moneymaking schemes, and public hysteria. In fact, an article in yesterdays Huffpost shows that the amount of UFO sightings has increased in recent years: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/26/ufos-pilots-history-channel_n_935847.html
As someone interested in ancient history some of the writings of Sitchin, Velikovsy and Von Danniken
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitchin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Velikovsky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_D%C3%A4niken
also, attract my interest and tie in with my feeling about UFO’s. I am keen on the possibility of Alien visits throughout human history and the possibility that they have affected our history and progress.
So there you have it. I’ve exposed one of the final embarrassing secrets about myself and opened up to your possible ridicule and/or opprobrium. Since we have so many people here who are qualified to comment, given their knowledge of science and other erudition, I would enjoy your comments. In any event, I feel much better having gotten this off my chest and while I’ve exposed myself further as someone with quirky sensibilities, I feel a certain lightness and freedom in making my confession.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Nate,
“What do they want? The same thing every other self-serving shit wants. Power.”
This alien microbe walks up to a guy in a bar and says “you need to get your shit together, I can help“.
NoWay,
Personally, I believe that something like what was seen in the Miller-Urey experiments is much more likely than some aliens mistaken for gods due to Clarke’s law. But maybe that’s just me. I also have no problem believe that the government tries to cover things up (and sometimes succeeds). My question for you (and Mike) would be – what do our alien benefactors (or overlords) get out of it?
“It does, however, permit me to admit that the government will “cook the books” in order to let the masses feel more comfortable.” -NoWay
Well, that bears repeating…
“I have first-hand knowledge of government cover-up. Exposing it would serve no useful purpose.” -NoWay
Secrets seem to give their “keepers” a sense of power. It’s a sort of “there, there, now…” mentality. Never mind the damage…
Mike,
“I personally believe that UFO’s are indeed alien spacecraft and that the possibility of this being the case is narrowed by the unfathomable size of the Universe, its age and the trillions of stars that exist. I further believe that the governments have covered this up to prevent what in their minds is public panic and to deny the truth that if UFO’s do indeed exist; our technological capacity could not deal with them if necessary.”
I can’t say that I “believe” it in the sense I have confirmed it, but I can say that it would seem to be “expected” that there is other life out there.
Many famous and competent scientists expected to find signs of extraterrestrial civilizations, and more than that explained some things our telescopes would see as evidence of advanced civilizations.
The government cover ups may be knee jerk reactions to what happened when a radio program began to broadcast an HG Wells mock Martian invasion some decades back, plus, the portrayal of aliens as beings who act like humans do (killing lots of humans) also scares people.
Good article, Mike. I’ve got no problem with your willingness to explore the possibilities.
I think it would be naive to think that we are the first life, and the most advanced. I have theorized that what many consider to be our Creator/God is an alien who achieved the technological advances to travel and create life. For me, that is much more plausable than the theory that a comet shit on a rock and the sun hatched us. I also believe that some of what we consider to be evolution may be the result of interference by that creator or those who succeeded the creator. This theory presents a problem for both evolutionists, and those who believe in a God that was always all-knowing. My theory relies on a creator that learned. Such blasphemy. 🙂
I have first-hand knowledge of government cover-up. Exposing it would serve no useful purpose. It took place too long ago, and I have seen efforts to prevent it from happening again. For me, that is sufficient. It does, however, permit me to admit that the government will “cook the books” in order to let the masses feel more comfortable.
Mike,
As far as the interface between the spiritual and the psychedelic and the scientific goes, I think of Terrence McKenna’s work as foundational.
Mike,
I don’t think any less of you – on the contrary, I see this as an opportunity to have a discussion of orthodoxy vs. counter-orthodoxy with both sides acting in good faith. For my part, barring faster than light travel (which I don’t believe possible outside of science fiction), I think that it is extremely unlikely to to point of being impossible that we are being visited by a technologically advanced extra-terrestrial species (or at least an extra-solar species). So while I would certainly admit that there have been unexplained observations, I believe that they are all, nonetheless, explicable observations without the need to resort to alien involvement. For there to be extra-solar aliens here (and for them to have affected our history) they would have needed to be technologically advanced enough to detect some form of life within their light cone (basically the region of spacetime that the aliens [or ourselves] are seeing at any point in time), interested enough to launch a mission of planet farmers (for whatever reason) in ships capable of accelerating at 1 gravity for about 3 years or the equivalent or at least boosting and decelerating to and from speeds close to that of light (that’s subjective time, by the way – objective time ~ distance / c ) that were close enough to get here with a sustainable, nigh undetectable infrastructure (or the technology to build it) but far enough away that we haven’t detected their civilization (bonus points for suggesting a nearby Dyson sphere here, by the way… negative points for suggesting a nearby ringworld, though ;-)). All in all, the odds don’t seem very good. I’ll be glad to offer my opinion on the likelihood of any scenario you propose.
“I also think that there is a spiritual world that most folks have not the degree of belief, though they claim to be righteous and they are certain that they are the chosen ones….Too bad for you, you don’t believe like me so you won’t be going where I am going mentality”
AY,
I’ve never talked about my spiritual beliefs, you might be surprised. However, you must remember that “back in the day” four decades or so ago, I was a hippie and consumed a lot of psychedelic drugs that taught me “reality” could sometime not be what your senses imagine. However, most of the films I’ve seen and tales I’ve heard about those who delve too much into the spiritual realms have bad outcomes.
I had someone read me in Taro Cards about 40 years ago and their gloomy predictions came true. Don’t know if it was their psychic power or my self fulfilling prophecy, wouldn’t do it again though.
Nal,
Are you stating that it is improbable that Aliens have visited earth…..I wonder how we got here…But hey, believe what is in your heart or head….
Fire in the Sky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_in_the_Sky
Based on the story of a real person.
I do not expect to have more than the occasional need for a mental category of “space-people”.
Nate has best post!
Mike,
Great article! I don’t know if I can agree with your belief, but I remember growing up in the 50’s and I thought I saw a UFO when I was waiting for the school bus, but it may have just been a shiny plane or the proverbial weather balloon.
My favorite exchange in John Carpenter’s “Thing”:
Childs: I just cannot believe any of this voodoo bullshit.
Palmer: Childs, it happens all the time, man. They’re falling out of the sky like flies. Government knows all about it, right, Mac?
Childs: You believe any of this voodoo bullshit, Blair?
Palmer: Childs, Childs… Chariots of the Gods, man. They practically own South America. I mean, they taught the Incas everything they know.
The universe is BIG and old and whatever can happen has, and is, somewhere and sometime. IMO. If we had the tech wherewithal we’d be the UFO’s in somebody else’s pop literature; we’re already surveying for other planet’s with an eye to signatures that might be hospitable to life as we know it. Once you get all dressed up (technologically speaking) there’s always somewhere to go.
Mike,
Most folks that half a degree of intelligence realize that we are not the only one…I too share your beliefs…I also think that there is a spiritual world that most folks have not the degree of belief, though they claim to be righteous and they are certain that they are the chosen ones….Too bad for you, you don’t believe like me so you won’t be going where I am going mentality….We cannot explain everything happening…There are dimensions that although we see we do not comprehend….
Great postssss
Oh, with all the pre-amble I was worried you were about to admit to being a card carrying member of the church of scientology. Pleasantly relieved by your subsequent admission. Won’t say I agree but certainly no ridicule from me, there is a lot of controversy and arguments both ways and I could be wrong. I’ll be concerned if you mention galactic overlord Xenu though. 😉
And this is just one of the reasons that many of us are so fond of you, Mike S. I think the only shame is in not being open to the unknown. I much prefer those who are willing to suspend their disbelief and, at least, entertain certain possibilities… It’s those with “closed minds” that I cannot abide.
As far a dirty little secrets go, that one’s not so bad.
I, too, used to believe that some UFOs were alien spacecraft and was keen on the movie Roswell. But, over the years, I started thinking about the probabilities involved, and the likelihood of alien spacecraft reaching Earth seems infinitesimal. I just couldn’t justify my earlier beliefs.
One more thing, then I’m done here…
What do they want? The same thing every other self-serving shit wants. Power.
What exactly happened with me? Don’t wanna go there. It’s outofthisworld and it ain’t pretty.
I just wanted to know the truth.
Mike Spindell:
Paul Krugman shares your belief and is hoping for an alien invasion, a war of the worlds, to stimulate the economy.
So you are in good company.
http://www.investors.com/EditorialCartoons/Cartoon.aspx?id=582366&Ntt=Cartoons
Seen ’em, talked to ’em, don’t want jack shit to do with ’em.