UFOs in the 2012 Olympic inauguration? Or a goodyear blimp?

 On the internet, some have published videos wth a supposed UFO seen in the Olympics opening:

However, I think this object is likely to be a Goodyear's blimp, as seen in this video:

If not a blimp, the object in these videos is too ambiguous as to make any warranted conclusions about its nature (let alone, about its origin).

Dr. Karla Turner on afterlife apparitions, ufology and what we have to learn from abductions

According to the research of the late ufologist and abductee Dr.Karla Turner, the abduction phenomenon, if true, has deep implications for our life. In one of her articles, Dr.Turner summarizes the main conclusions of the abduction phenomenon (two of them, emphasized in blue, is relevant to afterlife research, as I'll comment below):

If "abduction" reports can be believed--and there is no reason to doubt the honesty of the reporters--the abduction phenomenon includes the following details:

1) Aliens can alter our perception of our surroundings.

2) Aliens can control what we think we see. They can appear to us in any number of guises, and shapes.

3) Aliens can take us--our consciousness--out of our physical bodies, disable our control of our bodies, install one of their own entities, and use our bodies as vehicles for their own activities before returning our consciousness to our bodies.

4) Aliens can be present with us in an invisible state and can make themselves only partially visible.

5) Abductees receive marks on their bodies other than the well-known scoops and straight-line scars. These other marks include single punctures, multiple punctures, large bruises, three- and four-fingered claw marks, and triangles of every possible sort.

6) Females abductees often suffer serious gynecological problems after their alien encounters, and sometimes these problems lead to cysts, tumors, cancer of the breasts and uterus, and to hysterectomies.

7) Aliens take body fluids from our necks, spines, blood veins, joints such as knees and wrists, and other places. They also inject unknown fluids into various parts of our bodies.

8) A surprising number of abductees suffer from serious illnesses they didn't have before their encounters. These have led to surgery, debilitation, and even death from causes the doctors can't identify.

9) Some abductees experience a degeneration of their mental, social, and spiritual well-being. Excessive behavior frequently erupts, such as drug abuse, alcoholism, overeating, and promiscuity. Strange obsessions develop and cause the disruption of normal life and the destruction of personal relationships.

10) Aliens show a great interest in adult sexuality, child sexuality, and in inflicting physical pain on abductees.

11) Abductees recall being instructed and trained by aliens. This training may be in the form of verbal or telepathic lessons, slide shows, or actual hands-on instruction in the operation of alien technology.

12) Abductees report being taken to facilities in which they encounter not only aliens but also normal-looking humans, sometimes in military uniforms, working with the alien captors.

13) Abductees often encounter more than one sort of alien during an experience, not just the grays. Every possible combination of gray, reptoid, insectoid, blond, and widow's peak have been seen during single abductions, aboard the same craft or in the same facility.

14) Abductees--"virgin" cases--report being taken to underground facilities where they see grotesque hybrid creatures, nurseries of hybrid humanoid fetuses, and vats of colored liquid filled with parts of human bodies.

15) Abductees report seeing other humans in these facilities being drained of blood, being mutilated, flayed, and dismembered, and stacked, lifeless like cords of wood. Some abductees have been threatened that they, too, will end up in this condition if they don't co-operate with their alien captors.

16) Aliens come into homes and temorary remove young children, leaving their distraught parents paralyzed and helpless. In cases where a parent has been able to protest, the aliens insist that "The children belong to us."

17) Aliens have forced ther human abductees to have sexual intercourse with aliens and even with other abductees while groups of aliens observe these performances. In such encounters, the aliens have sometimes disguised themselves in order to gain the cooperation of the abductee, appearing in such forms as Jesus, the Pope, certain celebrities, and even the dead spouses of the abductees.

18) Aliens perform extremely painful experiments or procedures on abductees, saying that these acts are necessary but give no explanation why.....Painful genital and anal probes are performed, on children as well as adults.

19) Aliens make predictions of an imminent period of global chaos and destruction. They say that a certain number of humans...will be "rescued" from the planet in order to continue the species, either on another planet or back on earth after the destruction is over. Many abductees report they don't believe their alien captors and foresee instead a much more sinister use of the "rescued" humans.

"In every instance from this list, there are multiple reports from unrelated cases, confirming that such bizzarre details are not the product of a single deranged mind. These details are convincing evidence that, contrary to the claims of many UFO researchers, the abduction experience isn't limited to uniform pattern of events. This phenomenon simply can't be explained in terms of cross- breeding experiments or scientific research into the human physiology....... Before we allow ourselves to believe in the benevolence of the alien interaction , we should ask, do enlightened beings need to use the cover of night to perform good deeds? Do they need to paralyze us and render us helpless to resist? Do angels need to steal our fetuses? Do they need to manipulate our children's genitals and probe our rectums? Are fear, pain, and deception consistent with high spiritual motives?"

Jime's commentary

Dr.Tuner's conclusions, if correct, have a bunch of scientific, philosophical, religious and (above all) EXISTENTIAL implications, which shouldn't be bypassed by any human being, let alone by any truth-seeker. I'll comment about each point of Dr.Turner's view in future posts.

In this post, I'll like to comment briefly the points number 3 and 17, in which Dr.Tuner says that the evidence from alien abductions suggests that aliens can appear with the form of religious leaders (e.g. Jesus) and even dead spouses (and we can suppose that of other members of the family) of the abductees, or that they can take command of a person's consciousness and manipulate it at will (e.g. so-called "demonic" or "non-demonic" possesions?).

If it is true, then some putative "afterlife" apparitions are not from the afterlife at all. In this case, it would be literally an alien manipulation!.

In the same way in which most scientists are ignorant, and even hostile, to the evidence for the afterlife, I think that many afterlife researchers (and parapsychologists, for that matter) are very ignorant of the evidence from ufology. Some of them seem to think that ufology is a "pseudoscience" and that "no evidence at all" exists for UFOs, or (putautve) alien abductions. This causes a kind of lack of communication among scholars in different fields and therefore the best conclusions or speculations in one field cannot shed light on the other.

But note that if Dr.Turner is correct, then at least part of the abduction evidence is relevant for afterlife research, because a putative afterlife manifestation (apparitions of dead relatives or spouses) is actually (in some cases) accounted for by alien intervention, not by the afterlife hypothesis. 

Moreover, if aliens can do such a thing, cannot they to produce (artificially) other manifestations suggestive of an afterlife? After all, if they can appear like Jesus... (I'm thinking in the Jesus "apparition" that Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, claimed to have experienced. Also, I'm thinking in contemporary mystical or paranormal sources of information and messages which, supposedly, come from Jesus himself... assuming for the argument's sake that these reports are veridical, which is not clear either).

Also, since aliens can take our consciousness, then it is not definitive that each case of mediumship evidence can be explained with the afterlife hypothesis alone. This suggestion would sound ridiculous to many hard-nosed spiritualists, but not to other truth seekers (specially the ones informed by ufology) who want to consider all the relevant hypotheses.

I think we have to be extremely careful here, avoiding to dismiss evidence from other fields which are relevant to own cherished beliefs.

As an reader and student of the ufological literature, I'm increasingly becoming convinced that something very interesting is happening in the best cases of UFOs. I have not clear if we're at presence of an "extraterrestial" manifestation, but the evidence is suggestive. Also, I think this phenomenon is strongly connected with religion.

I'm convinced that an inter-disciplinary approach to these questions  (sound intellectual formation, including good understanding of natural and social science, philosophy, parapsychology, religion, theology, ufology, etc.) is absolutely necessary to have an all-around, objective and accurate picture of what the hell is happening in the best cases of ufology and, particularly, of the abduction phenomenon.

Just think about it and think hard about Dr.Tuner's points mentioned above.

Dr.Roger Leir and the Scientific Study of putative Alien Implants

Dr. Roger K. Leir presents physical evidence of implants by putative alien beings

National Geographic documentary: The Truth Behind UFOs

Budd Hopkins - Alien Abduction Lecture - 7th July 2004

Debunking the UFO Debunkers - Stanton Friedman lecture

Nuclear Physicist-Lecturer Stanton T. Friedman received his BSc. and MSc. Degrees in physics from the University of Chicago in 1955 and 1956. He was employed for 14 years as a nuclear physicist by such companies as GE, GM, Westinghouse, TRW Systems, Aerojet General Nucleonics, and McDonnell Douglas working in such highly advanced, classified, eventually cancelled programs as nuclear aircraft, fission and fusion rockets, and various compact nuclear powerplants for space and terrestrial applications.

He became interested in UFOs in 1958, and since 1967 has lectured about them at more than 600 colleges and 100 professional groups in 50 U.S. states, 10 Canadian provinces and 18 other countries in addition to various nuclear consulting efforts. He has published more than 90 UFO papers and has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV programs including on Larry King in 2007 and twice in 2008, and many documentaries. He is the original civilian investigator of the Roswell Incident and co-authored Crash at Corona: The Definitive Study of the Roswell Incident. TOP SECRET/MAJIC, his controversial book about the Majestic 12 group, established in 1947 to deal with alien technology, was published in 1996 and went through 6 printings. An expanded new edition was published in 2005. Stan was presented with a Lifetime UFO Achievement Award in Leeds, England, in 2002, by UFO Magazine of the UK. He is co-author with Kathleen Marden (Betty Hill’s niece) of a book in 2007: Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience. The City of Fredericton, New Brunswick, declared August 27, 2007, Stanton Friedman Day. His book Flying Saucers and Science was published in June 2008 and is in its 3rd printing. His newest book, also co-authored with Kathleen Marden, is Science Was Wrong released in June 2010.

Ufological Theology: A preliminary reflection about the possible links between ufology and religion

Currently, I'm studying intensively the up-to-date scholarly literature in English and German about the Historical Jesus and the case for and against Jesus' Resurrection, and also the best literature on ufology.

On a intuitive level, I feel the UFO phenomenon is a missing link in the study of religion in general and Christianity in particular. Most scholars in religion (and scholars in other areas) are wholly ignorant of the literature about ufology, in part because there are a lot of books on ufology which are not serious and in part because pseudoskeptics and other atheistic charlatans and dogmatists have stigmatized this field in academy.

By the phrase "Ufological theology" I'll refer to the hypothesis according to which religion in general, and Biblical Christianity in particular, are closely linked to the UFO phenomenon, and can be only understood properly in the ufological context.

For the record, I have no idea whether this hypothesis is true or false. I'm going to publish this article just for the sake of posing ideas and letting the readers to think hard about these questions.

A key website which explores this UFO-BIBLE connection is this, and I suggest the readers to study the material there.

THE UFOLOGICAL THEOLOGY HYPOTHESIS:

This hypothesis argues that the origin of religion and Christianity is connected by the UFO Phenomenon. In the Bible, there are a lot of references about flying objects/lights which were interpreted as God, angels, etc. because the religious contexts and the lack of technological knowledge prevented the people of that time to realize the true nature of the phenomenon in question.

Let's to take some examples:

In the Bible, in the book of the Exodus, you can read:

"And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." (13:21)

And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses (33:9)

In Nehemiah you can read: "Yet thou in thy manifold mercies for sookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go." (9:19)

It is obvious that the term "pillar" refers to some object with that form as seen by the people in that time. (The biblical writer used the concepts and terminology common in this time. The analogy of "clouds" is logical because in that time the only permanent objects seen in the sky by day are clouds, so the putative UFO in question would be compared with a cloud; and "fire" because by night the UFO in question was lighting).

Now, for people familiar with the ufology literature, UFOs with the form of "pillars" are well-known. Just examine carefully the following UFO pictures:

Now I ask you: Assuming for the argument's sake that all the above pictures are real (if they're not, it is irrelevant, because many reliable witnesses have observed objects like that), is not the term "pillar of cloud" (e.g. as a description of the object seen in the last picture) or "pillar of fire" (in the first and third pictures) a rather accurate description of what currently we would call cigarratte-shaped UFOs? Is it not argueably the same kind of phenomenon or object with different (and accurate!) descriptions?

Watch these videos:

















Note that by night or afternoon, the UFOs are lighting, and by day they tend to look just white or black. (If some or all of the above videos are real or fake is hard to say, but it is besides the point. There are a lot of witnesses around the world who have argued to have seen cigar-shaped or cylinder-shaped UFOs, and even members of the army and military groups have seen these objects. The above videos are just for the purposes of illustration of my point).

It seems to be a least possible that the Exodus (and other parts of the Bible) is actually describing an actual UFO phenomenon.

A key point here is to consider that Jesus' Second Coming will be (explicitly, by Jesus' own words) manifested in the sky, in the clouds:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:30)

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. (Mark 13:26)

If the hypothesis we're commenting here is correct, then the correct interpretation of Jesus' Second Coming will be in the form of a massive UFO-like phenomenon, in which certain people will be elected (presumibly, in order to save them from the destruction of the Earth) and carried to other place (the "heaven" could refer to another planet or dimension where such people will be carried).

Thinking of Jesus literally flying like superman in the clouds is hard to believe; but thinking of him as a commander of a fleet of UFOs (angels?) coming in the sky, in the clouds, to save certain people (the spiritually more advanced people?) in order to save the human race from destruction (e.g. by nuclear war or a massive asteroid coming to the Earth) is less implausible, specially if we take into account the reality of UFOs and their consistent (putative) presence in all the books of the Bible.

The obvious objection against this hypothesis is that it assumes that UFOs are real and from extraterrestial origin, and this is not known to be true (or at least it is highly controversial).

The objection is right. But I think we can think of this hypothesis in terms of a conditional: IF the UFO phenomenon is real and from extraterrestial origin, THEN an ufological interpretation of the Biblical texts seems to be plausible and make sense, and at least it deserves serious consideration.

In any case, I have not idea of the true explanation of the UFO phenomenon and hence if the hypothesis of "ufological theology" has some actual merit.

Just think about this and other possibilities.

Larry King Live:UFO Debate with Bill Nye, Bill Hastings, former USAF Captain Bob Salas, Bill Jameson, and Dr.Bob Jenkins

Dean Radin and The Enduring Enigma of the UFO: A first-rate noetic scientist and parapsychologist comments about ufology

As a rule, parapsychologists, psi researchers and noetic scientists don't typically address the field known as ufology. And ufologists, as a rule, don't seem to have any deep knowledge of psi research.

In an interesting article entitled "The Enduring Enigma of the UFO", first-rate scientific researcher of psi phenomena, Dean Radin, shares some ideas and reflections about the ufo phenomenon.

Personally, and after being initially skeptical of ufo phenomena, I've became convinced (after studying some literature on ufology and discussing the topic with many very well informed people) that the so-called ufo phenomenon deserves a carefully and scholarly study.

A preliminary conclusion about it is that any simplistic answer to the phenomenon is wrong. It seems the phenomenon is highly complex, and it involves not only possibly the existence of extraterrestial intelligence (as many people think), but deep aspects of consciousness and even of spiritual realities or phenomena.

In any case, read Radin's article and think hard about it.

Religion and UFOs:

For unknown reasons, I've been asked frequently if in my opinion Christianity conflicts with UFOs or the existence of aliens. Not being myself properly a Christian (nor a "Christian scholar"), I don't consider myself competent to answer this question in any authoritative way. However, in my humble opinion, I don't see any reason to think that the existence of aliens (if they actually exist) conflicts with Christianity.

In any case, a prominent Christian scholar (William Lane Craig) has given some ideas about Christianity and aliens in this podcast.

I agree with Craig that the existence of aliens would be improbable given metaphysical naturalism, since in such worldview the phenomenon of life and specially consciousness are a kind of monumentally improbable cosmic accidents. And, even assuming that life were common in the universe, in the naturalistic-materialistic worldview, there is not reason to think that such life will evolve to produce intelligent, conscious and rational beings "out of brute matter".

Consciousness, normative properties and values and rationality are phenomena at variance with naturalism and ontological materialism. Therefore, if naturalism is false (as I think it is), we'd expect precisely that life, consciousness and spiritual-rational beings in general (in several degrees of evolution) exist in other parts of this universe, and hence that intelligent aliens will exist too (if they're actually visiting us or not is separate question).

The point is that spiritually evolved and intelligent aliens are more probable to exist given the falsehood of naturalism than in case of naturalism being true. And given that we have strong philosophical, ethical and scientific reasons to think that naturalism is false, we're rationally forced to conclude that it is likely that spiritually evolved beings in other planets (i.e. aliens) actually exist.

Budd Hopkins 3-7-2004 UFO Abduction Lecture

Budd Hopkins is one of the top researchers of the phenomenon known as "alien abduction". In this lecture, Hopkins discusses his latest research work in the field of UFO / alien abductions.

The evidence seems to suggest that abductees are psychologically normal people (i.e. they're not mentally ill) and they believe that they had a real experience. However, by itself, it doesn't show that they have been actually abducted by aliens. It's still an open question, even though researchers like Hopkins, John Mack and David Jacobs have concluded that the evidence strongly supports the alien hypothesis of the abduction experience.

You'll draw your own conclusions.

Read an interview with Hopkins here.

Reverend and Presbyterian minister Barry Downing on UFOs and religion

Rev. Barry Downing, author of The Bible and Flying Saucers, discusses UFOs and religion in this clip from an interview conducted in 2001 In Irvine, California, where he was speaking at the 2001 MUFON Symposium.

The fourth kind: A movie based on actual case studies about alien abductions. Plus a History Channel documentary on alien abbuctions

TRAILER:

I tend to avoid commenting about movies in my blog, but the content of many movies are relevant for the psi and afterlife topics (and the related philosophical problems) discussed in this blog.

Regarding the movie "The Fourth Kind", it is not properly about psi or the afterlife, but about the topic of ufology (to which I've became recently interested).

I enjoyed this movie, even though alien movies in general are not of my special interest. As far I know, this is the first movie dealing entirely with alien abductions (contrasting with other alien movies, which refers to more generic themes like alien invasion of Earth, or good aliens helping human beings).

The term "fourth kind" refers to an actual classification in ufology, refered to alien abductions specifically (the "third kind", for example, refers to the direct, physical observation of aliens beings by human beings)

The movie is apparently based on actual case studies and investigations about alien abductions (we can think in actual researchers like John Mack, Budd Hopkins or David Jacobs).

I suggest you to watch the movie, and then compare it with real-life documentaries about putative cases of alien abductions, like the following (aired on the History Channel):

UFOs in the Bilble documentary

Most serious UFO researchers agree that the ufo phenomenon (whatever is its origin) has existed for millenia. Each culture has offered different interpretations of basically the same phenomena.

In sacred texts, ancient documents, etc. we can read descriptions of phenomena which, in the light of our current understanding, they seem to be clearly phenomena that we would consider as belonging to "ufos".

Personally, I have not doubt that ancient cultures experienced the same phenomena that we currently "UFOs", but what's at stake is the origin of such phenomena. Are they caused extraterrestrial beings? Or by beings of other dimensions? Or by human beings coming from the future? Or are they psychic projections of human beings? Or is the explanation of UFOs a combination of all of these hypotheses? We don't know for sure.

Another important question is: Do UFOs, assuming (for the argument's sake) that they're from extraterrestrial origin, undermine the belief in GOD (or broadly in a spiritualistic worldview), and support materialism and metaphysical naturalism?

Personally, I think the answer is NO. Given metaphysical naturalism and materialism, the origin of life is an extraordinarily rare and improbable phenomenon, almost a cosmic accident. But even if life were consistent with materialism, the problem of the origin of consciousness and rationality (and how natural selection could select conscious beings, given that consciousness is non-efficacious in materialism) remains. So, it seems extremely unlikely that, given naturalism and materialism, intelligent life and rational, conscious beings would exist in the universe.

Therefore, it seems to me, the existence of extraterrestrial life is more likely given a spiritualistic worldview. Life, rationality, normative properties and consciousness aren't property of physical objects, but of spiritual beings.

So, I think that, given a non-naturalistic worldview, we could expect the existence of intelligent life and consciousness in many other parts of this large universe, if the physical conditions for them are adequate (after all, if spiritual beings exist in a physical universe, they need a correct, adequate physical instrument in order to operate here).

However, the existence of (extraterrestrial) UFOs in the Bible could undermine some religious interpretations of its texts and hence affect some of the basic religious doctrines. And I guess this is not a small or irrelevant point, specially for biblical scholars.

Watch carefully the documentary and draw your conclusions.

Sixto Paz Wells, a contemporary contactee and the Cosmic Plan. Ana Maria Polo confirms Paz's UFO programmed sightings

Following the series of posts on ufology and ufo phenomena, I'd like comment on Sixto Paz Wells (apparently, he's a relative of Orson Wells) who in 1974 had an encounter and communication with putative extraterrestrial beings. So, Paz is literally a (putative) "contactee".

What's interesting about Paz's case, and what makes a difference with other cases of so-called contactees that I've read, is that Paz has invited famous journalists and writers to be present in pre-programmed encounters with UFOs (The aliens suppossedly communicate to him an upcoming UFO sighting in a specific future date and specific location, and Sixto invites independent witnesses to be present in that date and location). So, the independent testimonies of such people have been used as objective evidence and validation for Paz's putative communication with the UFO's occupants.

For example, in 2009, Paz invited famous lawyer and TV presenter Ana Maria Polo (from the Telemundo's Tv program called Closed Case or Caso Cerrado) and journalists to witness a pre-programed encounter with UFOs in Chical, Peru:

Ana Maria Polo

The journalists were convinced that they saw UFOs, and even published the news in local and national newspapers, for example:

(If you understand Spanish, click at the image to enlarge)

The journalists even filmed on video the UFOs in order to record and document the evidence:

There is another interesting video where Sixto Paz, inmediately after arriving at the Pascua Island (La Isla de Pascua), shows an UFO in the sky in the presence of the airport's civil and military authorities (they couldn't identify the object, which is the crucial point of the video. You can watch the airport's authorities conceding that they can see the UFO but don't know what object it is. The fraud hypothesis in this case is pretty unlikely, since it's hard to think that Sixto or anyone else could fool the civil and military authorities in their own terrotory and in front of their faces). See the video here:

So, Paz's case of putative contact and communication with aliens is interesting, original and I think it's worth researching it rigurously in more detail. Unfortunately, there is not much information in English about him. Most information is in Spanish. I'm in the process of researching more deeply such case, with the help of some informed friends of Spain and South America.

In this moment, I don't have any definitive opinion about the authenticity or falsehood of Sixto Paz's claims. Let's see where the evidence leads us.

The following videos in English include an interview with Sixto Paz, and a documentary by him entitled "The Cosmic Plan" (information revealed to him by the putative aliens):

>

Real and fake UFO videos. Including some interesting NASA UFO footage.

I've been recently interested in ufo videos and literature. Regarding the former, with the current video technology, in many cases it's almost impossible to say when a UFO video is real or fake, since videos can be easily manipulated by computers. This tends to undermine the evidential value of most ufo videos, except the ones analyzed by experts and certified as authentic ones. You have to keep this in mind, while watching UFO videos on youtube and similar websites.

In any case, there are people who have recorded UFOs (not necessarily from "extraterrestrial" origin even though such possibility cannot be discarded) and published them in youtube. Some of these (apparently real videos) by lay/amateur people are:

The woman who's recorded the above apparently or putatively real ufo videos has this account in youtube.

The NASA has a series of putatively real UFO videos:

Some fake UFO videos: