| Alien Encounters Debunked |
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| ::darkshadows:: (blood@thirsty.net) |
2008/02/21 15:20 |
Ten Alien Encounters Debunked
As a longtime investigator of unusual phenomena, I have no doubt that
UFOs exist. UFOs, are, of course, Unidentified Flying Objects, and
"unidentified" simply means that what the eyewitness saw was not
immediately recognized by that person, at that time, under those
circumstances. There are many things in the skies that the average
person may not be able to identify from a quick look but that a pilot,
a meteorologist, or an astronomer might instantly recognize. There are
also seemingly unusual experiences that most people may not understand
but that a psychologist can explain.
With alien encounters, we find that often an explanation lies not
necessarily in the skies but in our minds. Humans are pattern-seeking
creatures, and our brains try desperately to make sense of things we
of what we see and experience, but many times we simply misperceive,
misunderstand, or misremember.
Those who claim to encounter aliens and see UFOs are sometimes
ridiculed as crazy, but in fact we are all hardwired with the same
fallible brains. While some people seek out the skeptical or
something, no one else can either, and therefore that experience is
mysterious or inexplicable.
aliens (or supposed aliens) that have been definitively debunked over
the years.
-- Benjamin Radford
Benjamin Radford is a writer and the managing editor of Skeptical
Inquirer science magazine; he is also author or coauthor of three
books, including Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical
Thinking.
Number 10: Alien Engineers
The story:
constructed; because they are so precisely aligned and designed,
aliens must have had a role in creating them thousands of years ago.
The real story:
While many people assume that those living in earlier times (such as
the ancient Egyptians) were not resourceful enough to possibly have
created impressive engineering feats without extraterrestial aid, this
is not true. Actually, the methods by which the pyramids could have
been constructed are well documented, and have appeared in many places
Complete Pyramids. The only real mystery surrounding the pyramids is
why anyone would still think aliens were involved.
Further reading:
Mark Lehner. The Complete Pyramids.
Number 9: Cattle Mutilations
The story:
When alien visitors are not abducting people (see number 2) or
implanting things in them (number 3), or making circles in crops
(number 7), they butcher cattle, either for research purposes or
perhaps sadistic amusement. Since the 1970s, hundreds of animal
corpses have been found with unusual or inexplicable features,
including being drained of blood and having their organs removed with
"surgical precision."
The real story:
Livestock predation has plagued ranchers and farmers for millennia,
interest in UFOs) that anyone thought to attribute the deaths to
aliens. Research has shown that the "mysterious" features are in fact
quite ordinary and are caused by natural decay processes and scavenger
attacks. Curiously, exactly the same phenomena has been attributed to
not only aliens but also to Satanic cults and the dreaded chupacabra
creature of Hispanic folklore.
Further reading:
Kendrick Frazier, ed. The UFO Invasion.
Number 8: Area 51
The story:
Area 51 is where the U.S. government stores and studies
extraterrestrial bodies and aircraft, including the unfortunate (and
apparently poorly-trained) alien pilots that crashed in Roswell. Some
even say that it is an officially-sanctioned landing base for
spaceships.
The real story:
much about what goes on at the military base near Groom Dry Lake,
Nevada (popularly but not officially called Area 51). It is a top
secret military base, and there are of course perfectly legitimate
that have nothing to do with aliens or UFOs; 60 Minutes correspondent
Leslie Stahl suggested that the area may be a dumping ground for toxic
there, but where there is secrecy, there will be conspiracy.
Further reading:
http://www.skepdic.com/area51.html.
Number 7: Crop Circles
The story:
Aliens are the most likely explanation for the mysterious circles and
some sort of sign or message that humans have not yet deciphered.
The real story:
Despite films like Signs, there is no evidence that crop circles are
made by alien intelligences. Hoaxing is by far the best explanation
the vast universe to reach Earth, only to flatten wheat in rural
that aliens with superior intelligence would realize their messages
Further reading:
Kevin Christopher. "CSICOP Crop Circle Experiments." Available at
http://www.csicop.org/hoaxwatch/cropcircles.html.
Number 6: The Face on Mars
The story:
Proof that intelligent alien life exists in the universe can be found
Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever. According to
Hoagland, NASA photographs of the Cydonia region of Mars show a
human-like face. According to Hoagland, this must have been
constructed by intelligent beings and indicates that there are (or
were) alien cities on Mars.
The real story:
The "Face on Mars" is an example of imagination and wishful thinking.
The photographs that show an area vaguely resembling a face on Mars
were taken by the Viking 1 Orbiter in 1976. Since then, far better
photographs have been taken of Mars (for example, by the Mars Global
Surveyor in 1998). They show that the area is heavily eroded, and the
"face" was simply a combination of low image resolution and tricks of
light and shadow.
Further reading:
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/hoagland/index.html.
Number 5: The Alien Autopsy Film
The story:
The 1947 "Roswell Incident" (see number 1) got a boost of credibility
in 1995 when a grainy, black-and-white film surfaced. The top-secret
film (shot by the military and showing a post-mortem dissection of an
alien body) was touted as evidence of what some UFO buffs had claimed
all along: that alien bodies had been recovered by the U.S.
government.
The real story:
Soon after the alien autopsy footage was broadcast on Fox television,
serious doubts were raised about the authenticity of the film.
Skeptics (and even many UFO researchers) branded the film a hoax,
pointing out anachronisms and inconsistencies in the film. Yet because
the Roswell story is so short on evidence, others clung to the autopsy
footage as real. Earlier this year, the special effects artist who
created the alien confessed that it was in fact a hoax.
Further reading:
Joe Nickell. "Alien Autopsy Hoax." Skeptical Inquirer, November/
December 1995.
Number 4: Flying Saucers
The story:
On June 24, 1947, the modern UFO era began when a man named Kenneth
Rainer, Washington. Soon others began reporting seeing similar UFOs,
The real story:
The phrase "flying saucer," so familiar to Americans and UFO buffs, is
sighting, a reporter from the Eastern Oregonian newspaper reported
that Arnold saw round, aerial objects (in fact he said they were
"crescent shaped"). Arnold stated that the objects "flew erratic, like
resembled an actual saucer. Yet that "saucer" interpretation stuck,
prompting many eyewitnesses to repeat (and hoaxers to duplicate)
suggestion in UFO sightings; as skeptic Marty Kottmeyer asks, "Why
would extraterrestrials redesign their craft to conform to [the
Further reading:
http://www.skepdic.com/saucers.html.
Number 3: Alien Implants
The story:
As part of nefarious experiments, aliens have implanted various
objects in human abductees. Victims have found small foreign objects
in their bodies and come to realize they had been abducted. Several
alien implants have been recovered, and when they are scientifically
tested, they are found to be indestructible or of materials not found
on Earth.
The real story:
Joe Nickell, a columnist for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, noted that
another a triangular piece of metal, still another a carbon fiber, and
so on. None was located in the brain or nasal cavity, instead being
recovered from such extremities as toe, hand, shin, external ear,
etc.; some were accompanied by scars while others were not. As
physicians know, a foreign object can enter the body unnoticed, as
weird things in their bodies, but so far none are of alien origin.
Further reading:
Inquirer, September / October 1998.
Number 2: Alien Abductions
The story:
Hundreds of people claim to have been abducted by aliens, especially
during in the 1980s. They were subjected to rape, experiments and
implantations (see number 3), and other bodily intrusions. Several
claims and wrote books about these victims.
The real story:
There may be several causes of the alien abduction experience. Many of
these experiences are only recovered years later, during psychological
treatment for other issues. Research has proven that false memories
can be created in the course of therapy by careless psychologists.
People can actually come to believe they were abducted or abused when
they were not. Other researchers have shown that a common
psychological process called sleep paralysis may be misinterpreted as
an alien abduction.
Further reading:
Susan Blackmore, Abduction by Aliens or Sleep Paralysis? Available at:
http://www.csicop.org/si/9805/abduction.html.
Number 1: The Roswell Incident
The Story
The most famous UFO crash in history occurred in 1947, on a ranch just
outside of Roswell, a dusty New Mexican town. Mysterious debris and
alien bodies (see number 5) were recovered, spirited away in a
government cover-up.
The real story:
There was indeed a cover-up of what crashed outside Roswell, but
authorities were hiding not a crashed alien saucer but a weather
balloon from a secret spy program called Project Mogul. The debris
described by the original eyewitnesses exactly matches the balloons
used in the program; the fanciful stories of alien bodies did not
appear until much later. The Roswell Incident was in fact only one of
many similar (and clearly folkloric) stories of crashed vessels
earlier.
Further reading:
Philip J. Klass. The Real Roswell Crashed-Saucer Coverup.
Robert Bartholomew and Benjamin Radford. Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias:
Why We Need Critical Thinking.
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