Alien Visitations
“The liberation of the human mind has never been
furthered by such learned dunderheads [priests and
pedants]; it has been furthered by gay fellows who
heaved dead cats into sanctuaries and then went
roistering down the highways of the world, proving to all
men that doubt, after all, was safe -- that the god in the
sanctuary was finite in his power, and hence a fraud.
One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is
not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent.”
HL Mencken
Close Encounters
•  I: Visual sighting of aerial object (UFO)
•  II: Observation plus physical effects
•  Heat
•  Electrical interference
•  Paralysis; frightened animals
•  Physical damage
•  III: Direct observation of extraterrestrials
•  IV: Abduction
UFOs
What is a UFO?
• All are indeed unidentified.
• Most are Venus.
• Almost certainly none are alien spacecraft
Picture from Robert Sheaffer:
http://www.debunker.com/ufo.html
Fata Morgana (mirage)
Extraordinary Claims
Require
Extraordinary Evidence
Is UFOlogy a science ahead
of its time?
Consider
•  Scientific study of Witchcraft
•  Phrenology
•  Fairies
•  Homeopathy
•  N-rays
•  Orgone
•  …
•
Cf Shaeffer 1980 (http://www.debunker.com/historical/
SmithsonianUFOtalk.html)
Nazca Lines
Nazca Desert, southern Peru
Created 450 600 AD
10-30 cm deep depressions in desert
Crop Circles
Crop Circles
•  Mostly found in southern England
•  Have gotten more complex with time
•  Doug Bower and Dave Chorley have
admitted to making hundreds, and
demonstrated how on BBC
•  Cereologists still maintain that not all
can be hoaxes
If you had physical evidence
of UFO visitations,
could you keep it a secret?
Could the government?
Area 51
Groom Lake
Nevada
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Dayton Ohio
Roswell
•  Something happened in Roswell NM in
June 1947
•  Yes, there was a cover-up
•  No, flying saucers were not involved
Roswell: Anatomy of a
Coverup
•  July 1947: Top secret Air Force balloon
payload (project Mogul) crashes
•  Military rushes in to clean up evidence;
•  Plants cover story of crashed “flying disc”
•  AF retracts story next day and shows debris
•  Nobody cares until 1980s
•  Pentagon releases top secret reports in 1994
Reports by Pilots
•  Jan 7 1948: T.F. Mantell chases UFO in
P51. Crashes. Chased top secret high
altitude Skyhook balloon.
•  Nov 17 1986. K. Terauchi flying JAL
1628 over Alaska reports UFO (2 lights)
following for 50 minutes. 2 other planes
fail to confirm. Saw Jupiter and Mars.
UFOs are
•
•
•
•
•
•
Usually Venus
Or lenticular clouds
Or insects
Or weather balloons
Or bolides/rockets
Or hoaxes
Do (did) they walk among us?
Dogu figurine, Japan,
1000-400 BCE
Oannes
The Mystery of the Dogon
Inhabitants of Mali
Legends written down in the 1930s speak
of
•  Sirius B
•  4 moons of Jupiter
•  Saturns rings
•  Elliptical planetary orbits
How could they have known this?
cf. James Oberg in http://www.debunker.com/texts/dogon.html
Future Evolution:
Biological or Mechanical?
How do aliens think?
How to Serve Man