Mass sightings of UFO's the value of eyewitness testimony

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DanieltheDragon
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Mass sightings of UFO's the value of eyewitness testimony

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Post by DanieltheDragon »

1. June 1, 1853: Luminous Objects Hover Over Tennessee College Campus. As the sun rose over the campus of Burritt College, numerous students—who apparently were early risers in those days, too—were startled to see two luminous objects in the sky. According to professor A.C. Carnes, who reported the incident in a letter to Scientific American, the first had the appearance of a small new moon, while the other resembled a large star. The small object then vanished, while the bigger one changed shape, first into a globe and then into an elongated shape parallel with the horizon. The smaller light then became visible again, and increased rapidly in size, while the other object shrank. The two objects continued fluctuating in a similar fashion for the next 30 minutes. “The students have asked for an explanation, but neither the President nor Professors are satisfied as to the character of the lights,� wrote Carnes. While he himself speculated that the occurrence might have been caused somehow by atmospheric moisture, the incident remains a mystery.

2. April 17, 1897: Purported UFO crash in Texas. At about 6 a.m. that morning, according to contemporaneous Dallas Morning News account, citizens of the small town of Aurora were awakened by the appearance of what the writer referred to as an “airship.� The craft reportedly malfunctioned and stalled, and crashed into a windmill on the property of a local judge, scattering debris over several acres. “The pilot of the ship is supposed to have been the only one aboard and, while his remains were badly disfigured, enough of the original has been picked up to show that he was not an inhabitant of this world,� according to the Morning News account. Skeptics long have dismissed the account as a hoax. But in 1973, a United Press International reporter located a 91-year-old resident, Mary Evans, who recalled her parents visiting the crash site, and telling her that the body of the UFO pilot had been buried in the town cemetery.

3. February 25, 1942: The Battle of Los Angeles. In the early morning hours, radar operators spotted an unidentified object 120 miles west of Los Angeles and watched anxiously as it zoomed to within a few miles of the southern California coast and then inexplicably vanished from their screens. Sometime after that, an artillery officer along the coast reported what he described as 25 aircraft flying at 25,000 feet, and a few minutes later, other observers saw a balloon-like object carrying what appeared to be flares over nearby Santa Monica. Then, anti-aircraft batteries spotted what witnesses later described as swarms of objects flying at various altitudes, at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. Fearing that the city was under attack by the Japanese, they fired 1,400 rounds of ammunition at the bogeys. But apparently, none of them hit anything, because no wreckage subsequently was found. Officials initially ascribed the incident to a combination of a false alarm and mass hysteria. But UFOlogists have speculated over the years that the gunners might have been shooting at extraterrestrial spacecraft.

4. January 7, 1948: Saucer Appears Over Kentucky. Early in the afternoon, dozens of residents of the Madisonville, KY area telephoned police to report that they had seen what a news account later described as “a circular object hovering overhead and giving off a brilliant glow.� State police then alerted Air Force officials at Goodman Field, an air base at Fort Knox. 15 minutes later, the airfield’s tower crew spotted the UFO as well, and used the radio to ask a squadron of P-51 fighters already aloft to investigate. Squadron leader Capt. Thomas Mantell, Jr. an expert pilot who had won the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery during World War II, responded that he had spotted the UFO and was in pursuit. “I’m closing in now to take a good look,� Mantell reported in his last radio transmission at 3:15 p.m. “The thing looks metallic, and is tremendous in size.� Three minutes later, Mantell crashed and was killed. The official conclusion was that he had run out of oxygen, but UFOlogists have long doubted that explanation.

5. November 2, 1957: Fiery Object Seen Over Texas. At about 11 p.m. that evening in the town of Levelland, TX, police received 15 frantic phone calls from local residents about a mysterious object in the sky. In an Associated Press account, one of the witnesses, a 30-year-old farm worker and Korean War veteran, described the object as a “flash of light� flying overhead with a rush of wind, and said that it had apparently caused the lights and engine of his truck to go dead. Other witnesses described the craft as blue-green and egg-shaped, and said that it abruptly morphed into a fireball before rising straight up and disappearing.

6. Dec. 9, 1965: The Kecksburg Incident. Numerous residents of the small Pennsylvania village about 40 miles from Pittsburgh saw an object that some witnesses described as streaking green fire across the sky before it crashed in a local field, just before 6 p.m. that evening. Local resident Bill Bulebush, who was working on his car when he saw the object, described it as acorn-shaped and about twice the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. He said that it glided slowing before making a U-turn and going down. A local fireman, James Romansky, later described the downed craft as having hieroglyphic-like writing around its bottom ring. He only got to examine the craft for about 15 minutes, before government and military officials arrived and ordered everyone from the scene, and posted armed guards around the perimeter. Subsequently, there was speculation that the object may have been a Soviet satellite, but UFO researcher Clifford Stone, who spoke years later to former Soviet officials, said they insisted that the object had not been one of theirs. After investigative journalist Leslie Keen filed a Freedom of Information Act suit, NASA revealed in 2009 that documentation on the case was missing.

7. March 24, 1983: V-Shaped Lights in the Hudson Valley. The suburban area, about an hour’s drive north of New York City, was the scene of more than 5,000 UFO sightings from 1982 through 1986, perhaps one of the biggest clusters of incidents in history. One night, March 24, stands out because of the sheer volume—more than 300 residents called a local UFO organization’s hotline that night, reporting that they had seen large v-shaped array of lights that moved slowly and almost silently through the sky. Some witnesses got close enough to say that the craft was big enough to be a “flying city.� Hunt Middleton, a local resident who had just stepped off a bus from New York City at 7:30 p.m., described a row of six or seven extremely bright lights. “They were all blinking on and off, and were red, blue, green and white. I knew it was not any type of conventional aircraft because the lights were stationary. It was just hovering there in the sky.� Middleton said that he watched the object for five minutes, before going inside his house to get his family to come out and see it. By then, it was gone.

8. March 13, 1997: The Phoenix Lights. On that evening, thousands of people in Nevada and Arizona reportedly saw what many described as an immense, V-shaped object outlined by seven lights. Others, however, reported seeing orbs and triangles in the sky as well. Police departments in Phoenix, Tempe, Glendale and other Arizona cities were jammed with calls from residents. One witness, a man in his thirties named Dana Valentine, said that he and his father both watched as the lights passed 500 feet directly above them. "We could see the outline of a mass behind the lights, but you
couldn't actually see the mass," Valentine says. "It was more like a gray distortion of the night sky, wavy. I don't know exactly what it was, but I know it's not a technology the public has heard of before." The military later claimed that National Guard pilots had released diversionary flares while on a training run, but not everyone accepted that explanation.

9. July 14, 2001: UFO on the New Jersey Turnpike. Multiple witnesses, including a local off-duty police officer, watched in wonder as an array of yellow lights flew in formation in suburban New Jersey near New York City late in the evening of July 14, 2001 into the early morning of the following day. A short time later, at around 12:30 a.m., another witness, Carteret police Lt. Dan Tarrant, reportedly received a call at home from his 19-year-old daughter, who was out with friends and had seen strange lights in the sky. Tarrant told the Record and ABC News that he then stepped outside to take a look. As Tarrant subsequently told ABC News, what he saw was astounding: “16 golden-orange colored lights, several in a V-type formation. Others were scattered around the V." Tarrant told the Record, a local newspaper, that the mysterious lights flashed across the sky for about 10 minutes, then faded one-by-one into darkness.

10. January 8, 2008: The Stephensville Lights. In the evening, about out 40 local residents, including a local amateur civilian pilot and a police officer, witnessed a UFO that hovered over the farming community for about five minutes before streaking away into the night sky. Police officer Lee Roy Gaitan told National Public Radio that he was walking to his car when he saw a luminous object that reminded him of pictures of erupting volcanos, suspended 3,000 feet in the air. Another witness estimated that the UFO was a half-mile wide, a mile long, and� bigger than a Wal-Mart.�

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/c ... s-of-ufos/

How do we account for a Large number of eyewitnesses?

In the above accounts was everyone Lying, Making stuff up, or other?

Are large numbers of unidentified witness enough to confirm the existence of something?


6After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;(1 Corinthians 15:6)
Large crowds from Galilee, the Ten Cities, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him" (Matt 4:25)
If the above verses confirm the existence of Jesus does the above events confirm the existence of UFOs?
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tam
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Post #2

Post by tam »

Are large numbers of unidentified witness enough to confirm the existence of something?
To confirm, no. To give one pause to think, yes, imo.


For the most part, and until recently, I have entirely reserved judgment about ufo's either way, barring any personal evidence (or hearing one way or another from Christ), to prove the claims true or false.


But I no longer doubt that there are 'ufos', or that people see them. Ezekiel is even written to have seen an armada.

The religion built around those ufo sightings, however, consists of a little truth and a lot of untruth (rumors, misconceptions, misunderstandings, etc, etc). Much like the religions that man has built around Christ, and/or God. They all have a little truth, and then they build untruths around that.


Can people be convinced that something they saw is more than what it actually was? Yes, I think so. So I am pretty skeptical of things that I do not have firsthand experience seeing/hearing/witnessing/experiencing.


But in the case of ufos/aliens... angels/seraphs/spirit beings can also be considered aliens. Not little green men aliens, but beings from another realm, that have the composition of a being from that realm. I believe any true sighting (without any of the misconception due to a lack of understanding of what one is seeing added in), has to do with them.


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Post #3

Post by Dropship »

If somebody sees a light in the sky, it still remains just a light in the sky even if a thousand people saw it, it's not necessarily an alien craft..:)

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Re: Mass sightings of UFO's the value of eyewitness testimon

Post #4

Post by Youkilledkenny »

[Replying to post 1 by DanieltheDragon]

Mass sightings mean only that - it doesn't mean what they experience was this or that. A mass sighting means 'a lot of people experienced something'. What that something is can't be determined simply by the people no matter what they claim (aside from the fact that the term UFO isn't used correctly by most people).

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Post #5

Post by PghPanther »

eye witnesses are meaningless....................its so easy to be wrong especially in a group......

I experienced it first hand at a college football game..........during the start of a night game 1,000s of people in the stands started to point to the sky off in a distance......what we saw was a disk with lights rotating and hovering coming closer to us in complete silence.............people started screaming and myself being very skeptical of most things like this found my heart racing in strange emotional contusion of excitement, fear and anxiety.

What was going to happen next? I thought................all these people and this space ship from another world bearing down on us!

Would they land and I would be exposed to the first ever documented event of this kind........would they destroy us?

The rotating disk came closing hovering and pitching ever so slightly back and forth.......I was convenience this was the real deal.

Then we heard a noise...........an all to familiar sound of a piston engine plane............then the outline of what looked to be a general aviation aircraft.

But the strange lights......what were they?

Soon enough we all found out as it came over the football stadium.

Under the wing was a moving lighted script message board with the words......"Good luck Tigers...beat the Vikings".......constantly scrolling under the wings

Those words moving on a lighted message board panel under the wing of the plan looked like rotating lights and gave the impression of a spinning disk outline.

Everyone in the stands started laughing or breathing a sigh of relief or as in my case feeling very foolish for allowing myself to get caught up in the moment and not being more critical before I jumped to such a conclusion.

I was so sure it was a disk shaped UFO at one point along with thousands of others I would have staked my life on it.

In reality it was a rented sky message board plane from some rich alumni who ordered it for the start of the game.......

Humans can be so mislead by our own instincts to search for patterns where there are none other than in our imagination.

I'll never accept eyewitness testimony of the strange and supernatural claims by others ever again without fully exploiting the critical analysis of that first.....and to this day no supernatural claim has held up to such scrutiny for me.

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Post #6

Post by DanieltheDragon »

tam wrote:
Are large numbers of unidentified witness enough to confirm the existence of something?
To confirm, no. To give one pause to think, yes, imo.


For the most part, and until recently, I have entirely reserved judgment about ufo's either way, barring any personal evidence (or hearing one way or another from Christ), to prove the claims true or false.


But I no longer doubt that there are 'ufos', or that people see them. Ezekiel is even written to have seen an armada.

The religion built around those ufo sightings, however, consists of a little truth and a lot of untruth (rumors, misconceptions, misunderstandings, etc, etc). Much like the religions that man has built around Christ, and/or God. They all have a little truth, and then they build untruths around that.


Can people be convinced that something they saw is more than what it actually was? Yes, I think so. So I am pretty skeptical of things that I do not have firsthand experience seeing/hearing/witnessing/experiencing.


But in the case of ufos/aliens... angels/seraphs/spirit beings can also be considered aliens. Not little green men aliens, but beings from another realm, that have the composition of a being from that realm. I believe any true sighting (without any of the misconception due to a lack of understanding of what one is seeing added in), has to do with them.


Peace to you,
your servant and a slave of Christ,
tammy

I appreciate your candor here, I do have a few questions though:


"I believe any true sighting (without any of the misconception due to a lack of understanding of what one is seeing added in), has to do with them."


How can you be so sure of the truth of this statement and what evidence supports the idea that any true alien sighting is actually a sighting of beings from another realm?

Is it more likely that supernatural beings from another realm are visiting this planet or a technologically advanced being from this realm?



"So I am pretty skeptical of things that I do not have firsthand experience seeing/hearing/witnessing/experiencing. "

How do you reconcile this with the above statements which do not have much skepticism of them in the first place?
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Post #7

Post by tam »

I appreciate your candor here, I do have a few questions though:


Tam said: "I believe any true sighting (without any of the misconception due to a lack of understanding of what one is seeing added in), has to do with them."


How can you be so sure of the truth of this statement and what evidence supports the idea that any true alien sighting is actually a sighting of beings from another realm? Is it more likely that supernatural beings from another realm are visiting this planet or a technologically advanced being from this realm?
That is what makes sense to me. I accept that angels come to this world, that men of old saw them and wrote about them, even drew them or depicted them in art. Not just biblical, but also mayan (or aztec) art that depicts these beings, describing them as feathered serpents. "Dragons" that guard the temple in Chinese lore, etc, etc.

Of course for me, that Christ speaks about them is enough. But these other things are very interesting as well.



I do not believe every proclaimed sighting is actually for real, mind you. I would guess that most are mistakes, and no ufo was actually seen.

It also makes more sense to me that these aliens would be from another realm (the spiritual realm), rather than the physical realm, because we do not have any physical evidence of them. Testimony yes - in the form of writings, or eyewitness, or artwork. I would think that an alien from this physical universe should have left some sign of physical evidence by now, and I do not think that something so technologically advanced would be concerned about hiding. I certainly don't think our governments have the intelligence to be able to hide them as a conspiracy theory.


It is interesting to speculate upon. But without further evidence from any physical alien, there is not more for someone who has not seen or heard from them to discuss except speculation. Imo. Again, I could be wrong. But those are my thoughts.

Tam said: "So I am pretty skeptical of things that I do not have firsthand experience seeing/hearing/witnessing/experiencing. "

How do you reconcile this with the above statements which do not have much skepticism of them in the first place?
Does the above elaboration reconcile them more, or not?

Peace to you,
your servant and a slave of Christ,
tammy

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Post #8

Post by DanieltheDragon »

[Replying to post 7 by tam]
It also makes more sense to me that these aliens would be from another realm (the spiritual realm), rather than the physical realm, because we do not have any physical evidence of them.
Do we have physical evidence that there was a slight breeze in my house today while I had the door open? Should I assume spiritual beings were present for my wife's claim that there was a slight breeze during this time?

Of course these sightings do leave physical evidence. If people saw a light in the sky there were photons being emitted in the visible spectrum. In some instances there are sightings on radar. That is a physical type of interaction.
I certainly don't think our governments have the intelligence to be able to hide them as a conspiracy theory.
Why not Area 51, and the aircraft developed there had been kept secret for decades, NSA spy programs have been kept secret for decades, no one still knows who authored the stuxnet worm. That aside what about an extra terrestrials ability to maintain secrecy and only deal with whom they want to?

I do not believe every proclaimed sighting is actually for real, mind you. I would guess that most are mistakes, and no ufo was actually seen
What about biblical claims? Are most biblical accounts mistakes and no supernatural happenings took place?
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Post #9

Post by tam »

Do we have physical evidence that there was a slight breeze in my house today while I had the door open? Should I assume spiritual beings were present for my wife's claim that there was a slight breeze during this time?

Of course these sightings do leave physical evidence. If people saw a light in the sky there were photons being emitted in the visible spectrum. In some instances there are sightings on radar. That is a physical type of interaction.
I think that is a fair point. Please allow me to rephrase. We have no physical remnant to examine to prove it one way or the other. If these are purely physical beings, I am surprised that we would have no remnant to examine of their presence, or perhaps more compelling, that we would have no physical evidence that we can examine of their existence in this universe (physical universe) that we share with them.


If they were beyond our 'sensors' that makes sense. But these sightings state that they are around here an awful lot.

Just musings on my behalf though.


Peace again to you!

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Post #10

Post by DanieltheDragon »

[Replying to post 7 by tam]

[Replying to post 7 by tam]
Quote:
Tam said: "So I am pretty skeptical of things that I do not have firsthand experience seeing/hearing/witnessing/experiencing. "

How do you reconcile this with the above statements which do not have much skepticism of them in the first place?


Does the above elaboration reconcile them more, or not?

Peace to you,
your servant and a slave of Christ,
tammy
No this does not reconcile them. We both don't have first hand experience of biblical events. In your above statements you make multiple presuppositions before you examine the claims of UFO sightings. The conclusions you draw about them being from a spiritual realm is not based on evidence but the original presuppositions you highlighted to start.

If skepticism is the suspension of judgment on a claim to let the evidence speak for itself. This has not taken place as you have already prejudged all UFO encounters to be that of spiritual beings.
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