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UFO Questions
and Answers
Though for the most part
I do not deal much with the UFO phenomena, I still receive quite a few queries
asking me what I believe in regards to extraterrestrials, alien abductions,
and various government conspiracies designed to cover these things up. To prevent
me from having to repeatedly rewrite the same e-mail, I thought it might be
a good idea to put my ideas to paper (so to speak) so those who want to discuss
the subject in more detail will at least know where I stand. Whether this will
help or hinder progress remains to be seen.
First, let me say that I am not what you would call a ufologist, though I do
read quite a bit about the subject and consider myself reasonably well informed,
so I am not entirely without thoughts on the topic (I bet that comes as a surprise).
What follows, then, is my "take" on the phenomena, done in a simple
Q & A format. Hopefully the reader will find this helpful and, as always,
I'd love to hear your feedback. Constructive criticism is always welcome (and
just in case you were wondering, no, I've never seen a UFO. UPDATE: Actually,
I may have. Click here to read my story.)
Q. Do I
believe in the existence of extraterrestrials?
A. I should be
astonished (and not a little disappointed) if we were the only advanced life
in the universe. Even the majority of scientists agree with me on this one.
Q. Do extraterrestrials have the capacity to visit Earth?
A. If advanced civilizations exist, it is probable that some of them will
have an interstellar capability, potentially making Earth accessible to them.
Q. Do I believe extraterrestrials visit us today?
A. Yes, and with some frequency.
Q. Have extraterrestrials visited Earth in the past?
A. If they possess even a fraction of the curiosity about the universe that
we do, I suspect Earth would be a worthy subject for study (and probably has
been for several hundred million years). I've never bought off on the idea that
we are too primitive for us to be of interest to them. After all, anthropologists
study primitive cultures all the time, and I can't imagine we wouldn't continue
to do the same once we begin moving out into the galaxy, so why wouldn't they
be just as interested in learning about us "primitives" here on Earth?
Q. Did aliens create the earliest civilizations or otherwise interfere
in our evolution?
A. It's possible, but I think unlikely. The first rule of scientific observation
is to not interfere with your subject or otherwise clue them in to your presence
lest your results be compromised and rendered worthless. Of course, it's possible
that a civilization may intentionally intervene in the natural course of human
evolution and development for a variety of reasons, though I suspect such interference
would not be viewed favorably by those advanced civilizations which prefer a
more hands-off approach. I like to think that advanced civilizations have us
on a "protected species" list somewhere that mandates no tinkering,
but that's purely speculative.
That being said, there appears to be some evidence that the ancients were aware
of extraterrestrials and may have even worked stories about them into their
mythologies. Some of Erick von Daniken's material, for example, is very compelling
it that regards (though I think the gentlemen has a tendency to go overboard
with much of it as well). And, no, I do not believe Jesus was an extraterrestrial
(although I do have some questions about Jerry Springer).
Q. What do they want?
A. As before, they may simply be interested in seeing how developing civilizations
like our own make the leap to advanced status. I can't imagine a study that
would be more fascinating and, as such, more likely to draw large numbers of
curious aliens to our neck of the woods.
Q. Do I believe aliens consider us a threat?
A. It is common to believe that aliens became more interested in us once
we developed atomic weapons, thereby implying they consider us a threat, but
that may be simply an assumption. To a culture that possesses the level of technology
capable of traversing the vast expanses of space, even our most powerful weapons
would be puny in comparison to the energy they're capable of harnessing. Additionally,
as we are still likely centuries away from achieving a true interstellar capability,
we are unlikely to pose any immediate threat in the near future (except, perhaps,
to the most paranoid of extraterrestrials). It may be that increased UFO activity
is a result of a general overall increase in technology rather than the advent
of any single invention (radio waves being beamed into space may have been a
better signal that we are becoming more interesting than an atomic detonation,
for instance). On the other hand, it could simply be that with improved global
communications and an ever burgeoning number of potential witnesses (as well
as growingly sophisticated means of detecting ETs), it just appears that
UFO sightings are becoming more common when, in fact, they may just be more
widely reported. There's also the possibility that people are more willing to
report what they have seen without fear of embarrassment (or possible job loss)
than they were even a few decades ago.
Q. Do I believe that some aliens are hostile?
A. I don't personally believe a malevolent civilization could achieve the
high degree of technological sophistication required to traverse space without
destroying itself at some point in the process. As such, I assume most alien
civilizations are basically benevolent or, at worst, indifferent (which could
make them at least appear to be hostile to the frightened). Clearly,
if they wanted to invade Earth, they could easily have done so at any point
in the past, and probably accomplish it quite easily even today, which leads
me to believe they either have no interest in doing so or are prevented from
doing so by a cartel of more advanced races (some of which are probably even
more advanced than the civilizations we're discussing here). In effect, some
races may be protecting us from their less benign colleagues, if they exist.
Q. Do I believe there are more than one type of alien?
A. There are probably scores—if not hundreds—of different alien
races studying us at any given moment, either remotely or directly (which would
explain the immense variety of shapes and types of craft observed over the years).
There may even be a type of communal alien database many of these races share
among themselves (a sort of cosmic internet) in an effort to minimize redundancy
and expand their knowledge base faster.
Q. How can aliens observe us without being seen?
A. Again, it's a matter of technology. If a civilization possesses the means
of crossing trillions of miles of empty space to get here, it seems reasonable
to assume they also possess the means of observing us without being detected.
I also imagine they have different ways of observing us as well, from the use
of tiny unmanned probes too small to be seen with the naked eye (alien nanotechnology?)
to simply sitting in orbit monitoring our radio transmissions. As such, I'd
guess that manned landings to collect soil and plant samples are rare and, considering
the vast array of technology at their disposal, an archaic and probably inefficient
way to find out what they want to know (and there's also the question of exposing
themselves to Earth bacteria to consider. Remember War of the Worlds?)
Q. If these aliens can observe us without our knowledge, then why do we sometimes
encounter them?
A. Most likely the vast majority of UFO reports can be explained away by
natural causes, hoaxing, or simple misidentification of manmade objects (click
on related article here). However, for those
tiny number of incidents from multiple reliable witnesses, there are several
possible answers to explain alien blunders. Either it is accidental (which seems
unlikely but not out of the question; I assume Murphy's Law applies to extraterrestrials
as well as it does to humans) or it is intentional. I realize the latter possibility
contradicts my earlier statement that they are intent on observing us without
interfering, but I am open to the possibility they may intentionally show themselves
from time to time, either to gauge our reaction to their potential presence
or to prepare us psychologically for eventually revealing themselves.
Q. Do aliens have bases on Earth?
A. An intriguing possibility and certainly not out of the question. Considering
the small size of most UFOs, it would seem they would require some sort of maintenance
facility somewhere here on Earth—or, at least, within our system—rather
than spending their lifetimes in the vacuum of space (unless they are remotely
controlled and expendable, which remains another possibility). If they did have
bases on Earth, however, they would have to be practically inaccessible to humans
(the bottom of a shallow sea would be ideal, for example). A better possibility,
in my opinion, is that they maintain immense "mother ships" outside
of sensor range, either in very high Earth orbit or just outside our solar system.
Q. Do I believe alien spacecraft have crashed on Earth and have been retrieved
by the military?
A. Aside from the prospect of just how difficult it would be to shoot down
a vehicle that is literally centuries ahead of anything we possess, I find it
inconceivable that any advanced civilization would not appreciate the importance
of retrieving their own downed vehicles (much less their occupants, dead or
alive) or lack the means or recovering them. At a minimum, they should at least
possess the means of vaporizing the debris from orbit long before the military
knows about it (which is why I believe the entire Roswell mythology is hogwash).
Further, and in the same vein, I cannot imagine a scenario in which an alien
civilization would permit one of their vehicles to be closely examined by a
technologically inferior race, or would permit reverse engineering to be carried
out (plus there is the question as to whether it would even be technological
possible to reverse engineer an alien spacecraft. It is likely the technology
would be so exotic to us that we couldn't even figure out what a device does,
much less replicate the thing ourselves.) Such would be the height of stupidity
and irresponsibility.
Q. Do I believe alien spacecraft have ever purposely landed on Earth?
A: There is some evidence that spacecraft may have set down in the form
of burned grass, electromagnetic anomalies, and various chemical alterations
to the soil at alleged landing sites. In fact, such trace findings constitute
some of the best "hard" evidence of extraterrestrial visitations on
record. I do wonder, however, why extraterrestrials would be so careless as
to leave such traces behind. Carelessness or perhaps something more?
Q. Do I believe that
extraterrestrials are walking among us today?
A. I remain open to the possibility but highly skeptical. First, the chance
that they either physically appear—or have the capacity to make themselves
appear—enough like us that they could interact without being noticed are
astronomically low; beyond that, the linguistic and social barriers to overcome
along with the biological consequences of mixing alien and earthly organisms
(i.e. bacteria) together make such a prospect even more problematic. I suppose
it's possible a very advanced technology might be able to overcome these problems
(perhaps through the use of carefully crafted and programmable androids ala
Commander Data of Star Trek fame) but the entire idea seems far-fetched. Additionally,
it raises the question of what they're hoping to discover by such close contact
that they couldn't learn from a distance, either by direct observation or through
monitoring our private and public airwaves.
Q. Do I believe extraterrestrials are in contact with certain humans (or
government agencies) today?
A. There's no way of knowing, but if they are interacting with us directly,
it's likely they are in contact with only a tiny number of human agents here
on Earth (who, by the way, would be unlikely to write books or go on the radio
to talk about such things). I'd be extremely surprised if they were stupid enough
to contact a government agency, considering the potential for leaks.
Q. Are extraterrestrials trying to help us grow culturally and spiritually?
A. Probably not (that non-interference thing again). Their very presence
within our mythology, however, may have some potential for helping us recognize
that we may be part of something much larger than ourselves, thereby forcing
us to grow up spiritually. Just a thought.
Q. Are extraterrestrials trying to prevent us from destroying ourselves?
A. It would depend on what they're trying to do. If they are here to simply
observe the various trials and tribulations a developing civilization must endure
on its path to enlightenment, they might figure potential self-destruction into
the equation and so be willing to stand by and watch us blow ourselves to smithereens.
They may be tempted to save us from ourselves, but a truly enlightened race
would recognize that failure is always a possibility and accept it as part of
the process. Of course,
it's always possible there are those races who are convinced it is their job
to help errant civilizations like our own and so come to the rescue at the eleventh
hour, but I don't see how they could do that without raising a few eyebrows
(or whatever it is that aliens raise in consternation) among their extraterrestrial
colleagues. Additionally, a truly enlightened civilization should realize that
any effort to help us might prove to be the very catalyst that ends in our destruction.
Without perfect knowledge of the future, intervention could prove even more
disastrous than the danger we currently face could prove to be.
Q. Do I
believe aliens occasionally abduct humans beings?
A. I cannot imagine what reason an alien race would have to abduct a human
against their will. If for specimen study, it seems they should have learned
what they need to know long ago (and through using far less invasive means).
The other possibility is that they are manipulating the genetic makeup of humans
in some way and for some reason, though if that were the case we should see
some evidence of them doing so via DNA drift or obvious genetic splicing being
found in abductees.
The second problem I have with the idea is why these supposedly advanced cultures
would take such chances. In other words, they are compromising themselves through
the most crude and primitive efforts to examine their human subjects, plus surely
they must understand that they are traumatizing their subjects and in leaving
residual subconscious memories of the encounters where they can be fairly effortlessly
accessed via hypnosis, threaten the veil of secrecy they are supposedly attempting
to maintain. It strikes me that if an alien race did have a habit of kidnapping
human specimens for study (or whatever it is they're trying to do) they should
at least have the capacity to not merely suppress the memory of such an event,
but entirely remove them from the memory centers of the brain (in which case
there would be no alien abduction stories to be recalled and, hence, no controversy
in the first place—an interesting little Catch 22).
Q. But so many people remember being abducted by aliens. They can't all be
wrong, can they?
A. This is an interesting question, and one probably better left to psychologists
to answer than UFOlogists. The belief that one has been abducted is an extraordinary
claim that demands significant evidence which, to date, has been sadly lacking
(I know this comment will generate a ton of objections, but please do not send
me your reading lists or links to a dozen internet articles for me to peruse.
Believe me, if such evidence ever were forthcoming, it will make national news
and not be buried in cyberspace somewhere.) Superstition, fear, and fantasies
have a profound impact on some people—especially those with fantasy-prone
personalities—so the answer is that yes, it is possible for all these people
to be mistaken. That's not to say they are mistaken, but until there
is some solid empirical evidence that a person has been physically examined
by an alien, accounts of abductions must remain in the realm of anecdotal stories.
Q. But what
about the people who have been found with unidentifiable scars and implants
in them as a result of an alien abduction? Doesn't that prove that abductions
are real?
A: Unexplained scars and implants don't prove an abduction as much as they
demonstrate the failings of the human memory. People often unknowingly acquire
foreign objects into their bodies all the time (perhaps while walking barefoot
or through some forgotten accident), only to see such foreign bodies as "evidence"
of an abduction. Additionally, in every case in which a "implant"
has been removed and analyzed by experts, it invariably turns out to be a common
metal or something quite terrestrial in origin. To date, no one has found anything
that could be considered exotic or alien, or even especially unusual. Further,
would an extraterrestrial provide such obvious evidence of itself by leaving
a tiny piece of alien technology in one of its subjects (a single, tiny transponder
of obvious alien manufacture would immediately prove their existence, for example.
Would they really be that stupid?)
Q. Do I
believe the government knows more about aliens than it's willing to admit?
A. I believe the government has information about UFOs it has not shared
with the general public, but I don't believe this is the workings of some carefully
orchestrated cover-up. Silence is simply a by-product of the nature of government
and the military in general. I'd personally find the fact that our government
was capable of maintaining a secret of this caliber for over fifty years (especially
in the light of the fact that the number of people required to pull off such
a stunt would easily number into the thousands) more remarkable than the possibility
that there are aliens amongst us.
Q. What do I personally believe the government/military knows that it's not
telling us?
A. I wouldn't be surprised if it keeps air-to-ground and air-to-air radio
transmissions and radar evidence under wraps, as well as perhaps some interesting
gun camera footage and aerial reconnaissance and satellite imagery. I also imagine
there's a bundle of official reports on file somewhere that remain classified,
not so much for what they contain, but because restricting the flow of information
is a big part of what the government does naturally. I don't believe, however,
the government/military has a crashed saucer or alien bodies on ice.
Q. But what about the alien autopsy footage that surfaced a few years ago?
Doesn't that demonstrate that the military had possession of an alien body decades
ago?
A. The footage in question has been long-since repudiated by scientists
and the special effects community as a clumsy hoax. It is no longer (and largely
never was) taken seriously as evidence of aliens by most UFO researchers.
Q. Do I believe the Majestic documents to be legitimate?
A. The Majestic documents are a series of letters and personal top secret
correspondence supposedly exchanged between senior government officials in the
Truman and later Eisenhower administrations that demonstrate the government
not only was aware of extraterrestrials, but was covering up the fact that they
had recovered both crashed alien disks and dead alien corpses from a number
of crash sites from around the world. I personally believe all these documents
to be hoaxes of varying degrees of sophistication (see my analysis of one of
the more famous Majestic documents, SOM1-01, here)
and something that has done more damage to the credibility of the phenomenon
than anything else. While I have no problem with the idea that the government
may have maintained more than just a casual interest in UFOs over the years
(and may even now be looking into the phenomenon privately) the idea that they
would leave any sort of paper trail regarding things like recovered exotic technologies
and alien bodies is too incredulous to be believed.
Q. So I
don't believe a spaceship crashed near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947?
A. No. I believe the entire incident to have been an invention by over eager
UFOlogists intent on turning a minor incident (a crashed Mogul balloon) into
a cottage industry (and, apparently, with some success). I hold Stanton Freidman
personally responsible for its inception and dissemination, and consider him
one of the most gullible people on this or any other planet in our galaxy.
Q. Do I
believe extraterrestrials will ever reveal themselves to us?
A. It's inevitable that at some point—especially once we begin developing
out own spacefaring capability—that they will have no choice but to show
themselves to us. Whether this happens tomorrow or a hundred years from now
remains the only real question; whenever it is, however, it will be according
to their timetable, not ours.