UFO’s and ET’s – moving an off-topic comment thread

In the comment thread after my post No-planes theories and DEW/”Star wars beam” theories, discussion turned to the topic of UFO’s and ET’s. I’ll copy those comments below, then delete the originals.

• The beginning of the UFO/ET discussion
• Comment by realitydesign — May 10, 2008 @ 5:39 am
• Comment by patricksmcnally — May 10, 2008 @ 6:13 pm
• Comment by realitydesign — May 10, 2008 @ 6:38 pm
• Comment by patricksmcnally — May 10, 2008 @ 8:08 pm
• Comment by realitydesign — May 11, 2008 @ 11:26 am
• Comment by patricksmcnally — May 11, 2008 @ 6:15 pm
• Comment by realitydesign — May 12, 2008 @ 8:56 am
• My view

The beginning of the UFO/ET discussion:

The ET discussion was sparked by Patrick S. McNally’s reply to this earlier comment, in which realitydesign wrote, as an argument for the advantages of videos over written communication:

You get to see the person’s behavior as they speak and look at them which allows your intuition to kick in as a tool to help decipher the nature of the information or the credibility of the person- on a gut level.

To which Pagrick S. McNally replied:

My gut level response to anyone who starts off about UFOs is that they sound like a hoaxer. Maybe that gut level intuition is wrong, but this is precisely why one attaches some significance to cross-references.

(referring back to my earlier pointing out of the ability to cross-reference as an advantage of print media).

Below are complete copies of all the subsequent comments, which I’ll delete from their original position.

Comment by realitydesign — May 10, 2008 @ 5:39 am:

“My gut level response to anyone who starts off about UFOs is that they sound like a hoaxer. Maybe that gut level intuition is wrong, but this is precisely why one attaches some significance to cross-references.”

I see.

Do you think that all mention of UFOs from astronauts to pilots to military to CIA to civilians across the globe over 60+ years are hoax based?

Comment by patricksmcnally — May 10, 2008 @ 6:13 pm:

I’m not certain that there is any one sinlge explanation for all reports of UFOs in the last century. Literally, UFO just means “unidentified flying object” and such could be a bird in some cases. I do think that the development of military technology after 1945 saw a rise in the number of reported incidents of unidentified flying objects, and I doubt that such is an accident. Some proportion of the incidents in this time-frame almost certainly are the result of secret military technology being tested on the sly. But the exact percentage of such cases is impossible to determine. Even so, nothing about the reports of such UFOs within the last 6 decades or so has really compellingly supported the ET thesis. More likely we have a mixture of bird-sightings and military tests combined in some proportion which can’t be determined.

Comment by realitydesign — May 10, 2008 @ 6:38 pm:

“Even so, nothing about the reports of such UFOs within the last 6 decades or so has really compellingly supported the ET thesis.”

I don’t know how you could conclude something like this- totally false. There are now hundreds of military and high level government people worldwide who have gone on record saying ETs are real and they are/have been here. Even Astronauts have gone on record saying this. Then you get into eye witness testimony from hundreds of countries, mass sightings, abductions which have been seriously studied by highly respected Dr.s from around the world.

The phenomenon is real, as real as galileos finding about heliocentrism which was suppressed for 200 years.

P.S. sorry Diane, I imagine this isn’t the place for UFO stuff so I’m done.

Patick you might want to start with the disclosure project- Dr. Steven Greer has collected over 400 professionals testimony about ufos many of them military.

Comment by patricksmcnally — May 10, 2008 @ 8:08 pm:

> There are now hundreds of military and high level government people worldwide who have gone on record saying ETs are real and they are/have been here.

That’s one of the features which makes it smell like disinformation. John Lear was with the CIA for 17 years:

LINK

Since at least 2003 Lear has been circulating the story that “we have not been going back to the moon because we were told to stay away. That’s why Nasa abruptly canceled the program.” Coming from a “former” CIA man, this story stinks of sensationalized disinfo.

Comment by realitydesign — May 11, 2008 @ 11:26 am:

“Coming from a “former” CIA man, this story stinks of sensationalized disinfo.”

But the VAST majority of sightings and info come from regular folks. So these high level people are just corroborating. There are many genuine whistleblowers coming from high levels as well- they are not all disinfo that’s ridiculous. John was a UFO researcher back in the 1980’s and has done a lot and worked with many people- he is very well respected and if anything- colors up things when telling stories, but his basic premises, which are shared by many others in the field are solid if you ask me.

Comment by patricksmcnally — May 11, 2008 @ 6:15 pm:

The vast majority of sightings and info which come from regular folks are compatible with the likelihood of secret military technology experimentation, carried out by earthlings without any need for assuming the presence of ETs. The ET yarn reads like a deflection exercise meant to protect domestic military secrets.

Comment by realitydesign — May 12, 2008 @ 8:56 am:

“The vast majority of sightings and info which come from regular folks are compatible with the likelihood of secret military technology experimentation, carried out by earthlings without any need for assuming the presence of ETs. The ET yarn reads like a deflection exercise meant to protect domestic military secrets.”

That response was feasible 50 years ago- but is profoundly insufficient today- in light of all the people who have come forward since then with repsect to all the different aspects of the UFO/ET field.

My view:

The topic of UFO’s and ET’s is not one I’ve studied in-depth, so I don’t have a strong opinion. Offhand, I’m not inclined to believe that UFO’s are alien spacecraft. I believe that one should look for other possible explanations before concluding that they definitely are alien spacecraft.

One thing I do consider extremely unlikely is some folks’ belief in some sort of longstanding secret deal between ET’s and human elites, complete with interbreeding, a la David Icke.