The Green Meanie
Created | Updated Aug 21, 2003
<P>In his text ‘Philosophical Transactions’, written in 1784, Tiberius Cavallo describes a mysterious object he saw shining in the sky. He wrote:</P>
I suddenly saw appear an oblong cloud, moving more or less parallel to the horizon. Under the cloud could be seen a luminous object which soon became spherical, brilliantly lit, it came to a halt. Before it vanished it changed its shape. . . . it seemed to separate into two bodies. Scarcely two minutes later the sound of an explosion was heard.
p76
For hundreds of years, possibly longer, the Earth has been witness to similar elusive, menacing objects which burst into existence then disappear into the dark skies. Many of these objects defy explanation and have consequently been filed under the broad term Unidentified Flying Object, or UFO for short. Whether they are the fiction of impressionable minds or the vehicles of curious beings from a distant planet is yet to be proved conclusively.
The case for the alien craft explanation of UFOs relies heavily on eyewitness accounts. It is widely believed that the first person to claim to encounter an alien spacecraft was Kenneth Arnold, a licensed pilot and deputy US Marshall from Idaho. On the 24 June 1947, while flying over the Cascade Mountains, he spotted several huge, highly reflective ‘craft’ flying at tremendous speed towards the nearby mountain range. He described them as flying ‘ erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across water,’ unwittingly coining the term ‘flying saucer’.
While Arnold’s report may have brought about the twentieth century perception of UFOs, similar events have been recounted for hundreds of years. In 1783 the Windsor object, as described by Tiberius Cavallo, aroused 18th century curiousity. It was witnessed by a number of the scientific and artistic luminaries of the day as they attended a Royal Academy function in Windsor Castle. The standing of the witnesses in both of these accounts and the mass of similar accounts throughout the centuries suggest that UFOs cannot be dismissed. They cannot simply be fantasy.
More compelling proof is required if these phenomena are to be identified as extraterrestrial. This proof could be supplied by photographic evidence. Thousands upon thousands of UFOs have been captured on film and, even after careful research, many remain unexplained. These pictures surely prove that people are seeing something. They do not identify what these people are seeing. The opinion expressed in ‘UFOs and Ufology’, by Devereux and Brookesmith, is that:
Photographs have been shown to be next to useless (in research) as so many fakes have been uncovered and the ease of creating sophisticated photographic hoaxes has only become greater over the years. Even authentic pictures of genuine unusual phenomena tend to yield very little information.
p47
Unfortunately most of the photographs which seem to show alien craft prove to be complete fabrications. In the 1950s, before the advent of digital cameras and computer enhancement, George Adamski created some ludicrous fake photographs. He constructed a ‘Venusian spaceship’ using a helmet, three Ping-Pong balls and, presumably, double-sided sticky tape. He achieved the status of cult hero after selling photographs of this object to various sensationalist newspapers in the U.S.
Even after the hoaxes among the thousands of images have been weeded out, a large volume of intriguing photographs remain. The vast majority of these turn out to be either camera errors, such as lens flares, or misinterpreted everyday objects, such as aeroplanes or bright stars. Almost anything can look extraterrestrial if captured from an unfamiliar angle.
Misinterpretation of everyday objects could also play a part in eyewitness reports. In the view of UFO researchers, the myth of the ‘flying saucer’ has gradually worked its way into the consciousness of the Earth’s population since Kenneth Arnold’s original sighting in 1947. As a result, people may perceive as a ‘flying saucer’ anything in the sky which they cannot immediately identify.
Unfortunately, eyewitness reports can also be subject to falsification. The infamous George Adamski sold many tall tales along with his fake photographs. He claimed that he often met with the occupants of his ‘Venusian spaceships’. The beautiful blonde haired Venusians he described apparently communicated with him telepathically and wished him to spread their gospel, by selling many, many books. It has never been ascertained whether George Adamski was a liar or a lunatic, but his previous escapades do suggest the former. Prior to his rise to fame as a UFO guru, he was the founder of a 1930s cult which used copious amounts of alcohol in its ceremonies, thereby circumventing the U.S. Prohibition laws. The fame and fortunes that can be found through claiming to have seen an alien craft could prompt a number of fabricated eyewitness reports.
There are many alternative approaches to explaining the identity of UFOs. The alternative explanations range from guardian angels to sinister government probes. These alternative theories can act as the strongest evidence against the alien craft explanation, although that is not always intended. A relatively new group of theorists aim to ensure that accounts of alien encounters will never be dismissed - yet their ridiculous claims ensure that they have the opposite effect. Conspiracy theory survives on the concept that any logical explanation of UFOs can be rejected with the proclamation, ‘That’s what they want you to think!’. ‘They’ usually refers to the government, which occasionally is run by aliens in disguise. You can never beat a good conspiracy theorist down. Not with logic anyway.
One of the more logical, if more complex, approaches to explaining the phenomenon is ‘earth light’ theory. One of the leading exponents of this approach, Paul Devereux, writes in his book ‘Earth Lights’:
This approach states that there are UFOs not from some other world but from this one, Planet Earth itself. These UFOs, it is claimed, are exotic but natural luminous phenomena produced by processes within the Earth.
p4
These ‘earth lights’ often appear as glowing spheres and have been seen to move at great speed, changing both direction and colour – characteristics often described in UFO reports. In addition, ‘earth lights’ are thought to be electromagnetic in nature and seem to be linked to tectonic plate activity, while research has shown that 80% of UFO sightings take place on or near a geographical fault line. This surely cannot be a coincidence.
Much of the evidence put forward in support of alien craft succeeds only in discrediting this approach and supporting others. Witness reports and photographs have not provided conclusive proof of alien visitations, when not false they often promote alternative explanations. In my view, the resources used in the quest to prove that UFOs are the vehicles of visiting aliens would be better spent researching these explanations. UFOs are a phenomenon which fascinate me and I believe that they deserve much more meticulous, scientific investigation.
Although I do believe that extra-terrestrial intelligence must exist, I doubt that any beings have visited Earth. If the thousands of reports are taken as truth then the aliens who choose to visit us must be either extremely shy, extremely stupid, or bent on confusing earthlings into submission. I, for one, expect much more from my extraterrestrials.
I suddenly saw appear an oblong cloud, moving more or less parallel to the horizon. Under the cloud could be seen a luminous object which soon became spherical, brilliantly lit, it came to a halt. Before it vanished it changed its shape. . . . it seemed to separate into two bodies. Scarcely two minutes later the sound of an explosion was heard.
p76
For hundreds of years, possibly longer, the Earth has been witness to similar elusive, menacing objects which burst into existence then disappear into the dark skies. Many of these objects defy explanation and have consequently been filed under the broad term Unidentified Flying Object, or UFO for short. Whether they are the fiction of impressionable minds or the vehicles of curious beings from a distant planet is yet to be proved conclusively.
The case for the alien craft explanation of UFOs relies heavily on eyewitness accounts. It is widely believed that the first person to claim to encounter an alien spacecraft was Kenneth Arnold, a licensed pilot and deputy US Marshall from Idaho. On the 24 June 1947, while flying over the Cascade Mountains, he spotted several huge, highly reflective ‘craft’ flying at tremendous speed towards the nearby mountain range. He described them as flying ‘ erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across water,’ unwittingly coining the term ‘flying saucer’.
While Arnold’s report may have brought about the twentieth century perception of UFOs, similar events have been recounted for hundreds of years. In 1783 the Windsor object, as described by Tiberius Cavallo, aroused 18th century curiousity. It was witnessed by a number of the scientific and artistic luminaries of the day as they attended a Royal Academy function in Windsor Castle. The standing of the witnesses in both of these accounts and the mass of similar accounts throughout the centuries suggest that UFOs cannot be dismissed. They cannot simply be fantasy.
More compelling proof is required if these phenomena are to be identified as extraterrestrial. This proof could be supplied by photographic evidence. Thousands upon thousands of UFOs have been captured on film and, even after careful research, many remain unexplained. These pictures surely prove that people are seeing something. They do not identify what these people are seeing. The opinion expressed in ‘UFOs and Ufology’, by Devereux and Brookesmith, is that:
Photographs have been shown to be next to useless (in research) as so many fakes have been uncovered and the ease of creating sophisticated photographic hoaxes has only become greater over the years. Even authentic pictures of genuine unusual phenomena tend to yield very little information.
p47
Unfortunately most of the photographs which seem to show alien craft prove to be complete fabrications. In the 1950s, before the advent of digital cameras and computer enhancement, George Adamski created some ludicrous fake photographs. He constructed a ‘Venusian spaceship’ using a helmet, three Ping-Pong balls and, presumably, double-sided sticky tape. He achieved the status of cult hero after selling photographs of this object to various sensationalist newspapers in the U.S.
Even after the hoaxes among the thousands of images have been weeded out, a large volume of intriguing photographs remain. The vast majority of these turn out to be either camera errors, such as lens flares, or misinterpreted everyday objects, such as aeroplanes or bright stars. Almost anything can look extraterrestrial if captured from an unfamiliar angle.
Misinterpretation of everyday objects could also play a part in eyewitness reports. In the view of UFO researchers, the myth of the ‘flying saucer’ has gradually worked its way into the consciousness of the Earth’s population since Kenneth Arnold’s original sighting in 1947. As a result, people may perceive as a ‘flying saucer’ anything in the sky which they cannot immediately identify.
Unfortunately, eyewitness reports can also be subject to falsification. The infamous George Adamski sold many tall tales along with his fake photographs. He claimed that he often met with the occupants of his ‘Venusian spaceships’. The beautiful blonde haired Venusians he described apparently communicated with him telepathically and wished him to spread their gospel, by selling many, many books. It has never been ascertained whether George Adamski was a liar or a lunatic, but his previous escapades do suggest the former. Prior to his rise to fame as a UFO guru, he was the founder of a 1930s cult which used copious amounts of alcohol in its ceremonies, thereby circumventing the U.S. Prohibition laws. The fame and fortunes that can be found through claiming to have seen an alien craft could prompt a number of fabricated eyewitness reports.
There are many alternative approaches to explaining the identity of UFOs. The alternative explanations range from guardian angels to sinister government probes. These alternative theories can act as the strongest evidence against the alien craft explanation, although that is not always intended. A relatively new group of theorists aim to ensure that accounts of alien encounters will never be dismissed - yet their ridiculous claims ensure that they have the opposite effect. Conspiracy theory survives on the concept that any logical explanation of UFOs can be rejected with the proclamation, ‘That’s what they want you to think!’. ‘They’ usually refers to the government, which occasionally is run by aliens in disguise. You can never beat a good conspiracy theorist down. Not with logic anyway.
One of the more logical, if more complex, approaches to explaining the phenomenon is ‘earth light’ theory. One of the leading exponents of this approach, Paul Devereux, writes in his book ‘Earth Lights’:
This approach states that there are UFOs not from some other world but from this one, Planet Earth itself. These UFOs, it is claimed, are exotic but natural luminous phenomena produced by processes within the Earth.
p4
These ‘earth lights’ often appear as glowing spheres and have been seen to move at great speed, changing both direction and colour – characteristics often described in UFO reports. In addition, ‘earth lights’ are thought to be electromagnetic in nature and seem to be linked to tectonic plate activity, while research has shown that 80% of UFO sightings take place on or near a geographical fault line. This surely cannot be a coincidence.
Much of the evidence put forward in support of alien craft succeeds only in discrediting this approach and supporting others. Witness reports and photographs have not provided conclusive proof of alien visitations, when not false they often promote alternative explanations. In my view, the resources used in the quest to prove that UFOs are the vehicles of visiting aliens would be better spent researching these explanations. UFOs are a phenomenon which fascinate me and I believe that they deserve much more meticulous, scientific investigation.
Although I do believe that extra-terrestrial intelligence must exist, I doubt that any beings have visited Earth. If the thousands of reports are taken as truth then the aliens who choose to visit us must be either extremely shy, extremely stupid, or bent on confusing earthlings into submission. I, for one, expect much more from my extraterrestrials.
