A UFO sighting in London this week had the unexplained in the headlines once again. But is there really somebody out there? Mike Kelly reports.
A UFO conference held in the North East yesterday boasted an impressive list of speakers and some had a surprising message.
The general public perception of these ‘Uflogists’ is that they are nutters with too much time on their hands. However those at the BUFORA conference in Newcastle - BUFORA stands for British UFO Research Association - take the subject seriously and display a level of cynicism and scientific analysis that might surprise those who choose to dismiss them out of hand.
There is no slavish belief in little green men with oversized heads descending on this planet in saucer-shaped ships. While they believe there is something out there, the vast majority of the sightings are just in the mind of those who have witnessed them. And one of the reasons, according to speaker Andy Roberts, is fear.
Although sightings of disc shaped objects date back to the Middle Ages, it was in the post Second World War period they became a worldwide obsession.
It was following the first highly publicized sighting in June 1947 that the term flying saucer was coined based on quotes by witness Kenneth Arnold describing the shape of the objects he saw as like a “saucer”, “disc”, or “pie-plate”
The timing of the sighting and the reaction to it, according to Tony, was not coincidental. With the trauma of the war fresh in their minds and the age of the Atomic Bomb having recently begun, fear was a big factor.
“People were looking for other beings to either save them or destroy them,” said Tony.
Interestingly while there have been some highly publicised hoaxes over the decades, surveys reveal only a very small percentage of sightings are actually made up. People are convinced they saw something.
More often than not the sighting can be explained by natural phenomena like lenticular (lens shaped) clouds, balloons, military aircraft - a common occurrence in the North East because of test flights over the North Sea - and, of late, Chinese lanterns.
“There has been a craze for letting off Chinese Lanterns to celebrate birthdays and weddings,” said. Andy.
The rice paper lanterns, with a candle inside, can float for miles on the wind. And when the candle goes out, it results in an optical illusion that the object has raced away at incredible speed.
Then there are ‘Earth lights’ believed to be produced by tectonic strain in minor fault lines, so that they are literally generated by the earth. They appear in many colours, shapes, and sizes, though the basketball-sized globular orange variety seems most common. Most sightings occur at night, when some lights can be seen from miles around. They’re reported to be able to move against the wind and reach extraordinary speeds.
Their terrestrial nature means that though many sightings are sporadic, there are some locations where they appear relatively often, for example in the Pennines in England.
However all can not be explained away. Andy’s book, UFO Down, investigates the alleged crash of an alien spacecraft in the Berwyn Mountains of North Wales.
“It’s said to be the British Roswell,” explained Andy. In July 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico, it was alleged a space ship crashed to earth and its alien occupants were captured making the word Roswell synonymous with UFOs.
“In January 1974 there were reports of a huge explosion in the Berwyn Mountains,” said Andy. “People thought a plane had crashed and fled into the street. There were reports of lights in the sky and the area being flooded by the military.”
Over the years the myth grew and while Andy explained the military presence as growing out of a confusion of dates following an incident in 1982 when the military did turn up in numbers in the area after an RAF Harrier jet crashed there, and the explosion being explained by an earthquake, there is one bit of evidence that he has not been able to explain away.
On hearing the explosion, and convinced a plane had crashed, local nurse Pat Evans drove up the mountain road with her two young daughters to the spot and saw a huge pulsating red ball and a number of what looked like torch lights going towards it. However no rescue party had been sent that night and no debris was found there.
“I haven’t been able to get to the bottom of what she saw,” said Andy.
Tony Eccles bristles at the mention of Roswell. “If they had the technology to produce an aircraft which can, in effect, travel across time, survive meteor showers and all that the universe could throw at it, how come a mere crash on earth could have stopped it. It doesn’t make sense.”
His presentation at the Newcastle conference was about ‘Shamanism and the Close Encounter experience’. Instead of actual encounters with alien forms, Tony sees the phenomena as latter day Shamen who can communicate with the spirit world.
It is based on work begun in 1980 by the late Ufologist Ken Phillips and Dr Alexander Keul from Salzburg University who devised a questionnaire form entitled, The Anamnesis Form, to analyse the character of the UFO witness themselves.
“We’re surrounded by fear and are trying to live longer and safer. It’s human beings trying to re-engage with themselves. In a way it’s a person talking to themselves trying to pick up bits of common sense, bits of wisdom, something we can use in our daily lives.”
Often he says the people don’t realise they are Shamen as western society has become more secular and moved away from its spiritual past. It is less understanding and confident in itself. In many ways we are more backward than other countries which haven’t our technology. People in Papua New Guinea are more advanced than us in understanding their reality more than we do.”
Following Freedom of Information legislation which gave the public access to Government files and because of the huge amount of requests about UFOs, a decision was made to reveal all official papers. In a couple of years time, every file the Government has will have been made public.
“Or so they say,” laughed Andy, knowingly. It’s a story that will run and run.
A UFO conference held in the North East yesterday boasted an impressive list of speakers and some had a surprising message.
The general public perception of these ‘Uflogists’ is that they are nutters with too much time on their hands. However those at the BUFORA conference in Newcastle - BUFORA stands for British UFO Research Association - take the subject seriously and display a level of cynicism and scientific analysis that might surprise those who choose to dismiss them out of hand.
There is no slavish belief in little green men with oversized heads descending on this planet in saucer-shaped ships. While they believe there is something out there, the vast majority of the sightings are just in the mind of those who have witnessed them. And one of the reasons, according to speaker Andy Roberts, is fear.
Although sightings of disc shaped objects date back to the Middle Ages, it was in the post Second World War period they became a worldwide obsession.
It was following the first highly publicized sighting in June 1947 that the term flying saucer was coined based on quotes by witness Kenneth Arnold describing the shape of the objects he saw as like a “saucer”, “disc”, or “pie-plate”
The timing of the sighting and the reaction to it, according to Tony, was not coincidental. With the trauma of the war fresh in their minds and the age of the Atomic Bomb having recently begun, fear was a big factor.
“People were looking for other beings to either save them or destroy them,” said Tony.
Interestingly while there have been some highly publicised hoaxes over the decades, surveys reveal only a very small percentage of sightings are actually made up. People are convinced they saw something.
More often than not the sighting can be explained by natural phenomena like lenticular (lens shaped) clouds, balloons, military aircraft - a common occurrence in the North East because of test flights over the North Sea - and, of late, Chinese lanterns.
“There has been a craze for letting off Chinese Lanterns to celebrate birthdays and weddings,” said. Andy.
The rice paper lanterns, with a candle inside, can float for miles on the wind. And when the candle goes out, it results in an optical illusion that the object has raced away at incredible speed.
Their terrestrial nature means that though many sightings are sporadic, there are some locations where they appear relatively often, for example in the Pennines in England.
However all can not be explained away. Andy’s book, UFO Down, investigates the alleged crash of an alien spacecraft in the Berwyn Mountains of North Wales.
“It’s said to be the British Roswell,” explained Andy. In July 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico, it was alleged a space ship crashed to earth and its alien occupants were captured making the word Roswell synonymous with UFOs.
“In January 1974 there were reports of a huge explosion in the Berwyn Mountains,” said Andy. “People thought a plane had crashed and fled into the street. There were reports of lights in the sky and the area being flooded by the military.”
Over the years the myth grew and while Andy explained the military presence as growing out of a confusion of dates following an incident in 1982 when the military did turn up in numbers in the area after an RAF Harrier jet crashed there, and the explosion being explained by an earthquake, there is one bit of evidence that he has not been able to explain away.
On hearing the explosion, and convinced a plane had crashed, local nurse Pat Evans drove up the mountain road with her two young daughters to the spot and saw a huge pulsating red ball and a number of what looked like torch lights going towards it. However no rescue party had been sent that night and no debris was found there.
“I haven’t been able to get to the bottom of what she saw,” said Andy.
Tony Eccles bristles at the mention of Roswell. “If they had the technology to produce an aircraft which can, in effect, travel across time, survive meteor showers and all that the universe could throw at it, how come a mere crash on earth could have stopped it. It doesn’t make sense.”
His presentation at the Newcastle conference was about ‘Shamanism and the Close Encounter experience’. Instead of actual encounters with alien forms, Tony sees the phenomena as latter day Shamen who can communicate with the spirit world.
It is based on work begun in 1980 by the late Ufologist Ken Phillips and Dr Alexander Keul from Salzburg University who devised a questionnaire form entitled, The Anamnesis Form, to analyse the character of the UFO witness themselves.
“We’re surrounded by fear and are trying to live longer and safer. It’s human beings trying to re-engage with themselves. In a way it’s a person talking to themselves trying to pick up bits of common sense, bits of wisdom, something we can use in our daily lives.”
Often he says the people don’t realise they are Shamen as western society has become more secular and moved away from its spiritual past. It is less understanding and confident in itself. In many ways we are more backward than other countries which haven’t our technology. People in Papua New Guinea are more advanced than us in understanding their reality more than we do.”
Following Freedom of Information legislation which gave the public access to Government files and because of the huge amount of requests about UFOs, a decision was made to reveal all official papers. In a couple of years time, every file the Government has will have been made public.
“Or so they say,” laughed Andy, knowingly. It’s a story that will run and run.
