Psience Quest

The “ideal ineptitude” of supposed ETs in UFO and alien abduction phenomena

Matt Rouge

Quote:Thus, in their “ideal ineptitude,” the supposed ETs give us glimpses of themselves that are always just this side of the line of plausible deniability. Many different species are reportedly involved, and the circumstances of their appearance can vary considerably, but they always maintain iron discipline in order to, well, just tease us.

By “plausible deniability,” I do not mean that the phenomena themselves can or should be denied. In our Skeptical age, however, they mostly are denied—or at least swept under the rug by the media and other elites.4 Rather, the phenomena are not strong enough to instantly compel consideration by the global populace, as would happen with a landing on the White House lawn or something similar. Nor are the phenomena distinct (e.g., detailed video of ETs walking out of a landed craft) or permanent (e.g., artifacts left behind) enough as to give a prima facie indication of their physical origin.

Thus, I think we are left with two possibilities: either the ETs continually screw up just so, which is not plausible,6 or the two phenomena of UFOs and alien abduction have a cause (and not necessarily the same cause) that prevents anything more from happening than what actually does. In other words, they or it are unable to do more.

Follow up from Prescott:

Bleed-throughs

Quote:This notion might go some way toward explaining why both UFOs and apparitions vary in their degree of physical reality. Some UFOs do not show up on radar. Some do not appear on film or video even when the camera operator is certain he got the image in frame. Perhaps the correct combination of informational bleed-through and perceptual fine-tuning is needed to get fully "real" results.
The same line of thinking may also explain why UFO sightings sometimes come in waves. An initial sighting may trigger a subconscious adjustment of perception in other people's minds, making them more likely to perceive UFOs. It is said that when Uri Geller performed his spoon-bending act on television, many people – especially children – started bending spoons spontaneously, something they had never done before. Seeing Geller do it was enough to alter their consciousness so they could do it too, at least temporarily.

The same thing  has been known to happen in the "PK parties" hosted by Jack Houck; it can take a while for anyone to start bending spoons, but once one or two people have done it, the rest of the crowd will find it much easier to follow suit. A small adjustment of consciousness, perhaps merely a lowering of inhibitions, seems to help bring the phenomena into being.

Consider also the recurrent waves of excitement about spiritualism from the mid-19th century through the early 20th  century, which can be compared to a social mania. The positive results obtained by some amateur experimenters – hearing raps or getting messages via planchette – would stimulate other people to obtain similar results. Simply seeing or hearing about the phenomena may be enough to alter consciousness just a bit and make it more susceptible to picking up bleed-throughs. 
Returning to our list of anomalous phenomena, we can consider how each one might relate to bleed-throughs.

• Poltergeists — a persistent bleed-through of a particular spiritual entity, often associated with the consciousness of a particular person (typically an adolescent or young adult who is emotionally disturbed or high-strung, perhaps exhibiting traits of altered consciousness).
  
• Deathbed visions — the bleed-through of the afterlife timeline into our own, as perceived by the altered consciousness of the dying person and sometimes by people nearby.
  
• Out-of-body experiences — possibly a way of projecting our own awareness into another timeline; in effect, a reverse bleed-through. Are poltergeists in our world simply entities that are having out-of-body experiences in their world?
  
• Near-death experiences — essentially a combination of deathbed visions and out-of-body experiences, with the altered consciousness that attends the dying process tuning in to information from a nearby dimension and then projecting itself into that timeline.
  
• After-death communications — intentional bleed-throughs on the part of people who are no longer alive in our timeline, but who have a strong emotional connection to somebody here. These are most common, I think, when the living person is dealing with the emotional shock and disorientation of grief and loss – in other words, when the percipient is experiencing an altered state of consciousness.
  
• Episodes of cosmic consciousness — "cosmic consciousness," a term coined by Richard Maurice Bucke in his book of the same name, is an epiphany in which a person has a sudden, profound sense of the meaning of life and the ultimate nature of reality. Again, this could be understood as a combination of a shift in consciousness and a bleed-through of information that is normally masked from our perception.
  

In my opinion the extraterrestrial hypothesis remains plausible as the explanation for the major category of UFO-related phenomena, vehicle sightings especially with optical media, radar and EMI interaction.

Some of the theoretical arguments against the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) for UFOs are that there is zero knowledge of other life much less other intelligent life, if it actually exists it is apparently impossible for it to get here, the apparent ridiculousness and absurdity of some of the phenomena (such as alien abductions, many UFOnaut encounter accounts, brilliant “advertising” lights), the supposed parapsychological connection, and the supposed similarities with historical accounts of things like fairy sightings.

But as far as I am concerned real data, evidence, always trumps theory. These following cases and many others of the same sort were real events in the world, in space-time, occurring to real people that presented as described. Their testimony and other evidence can’t reasonably be dismissed just because they appear fantastic or theoretically preposterous. Especially with good observers like pilots and police officers (sometimes multiple) whose testimony would otherwise be accepted in a court of law. The burden is on the skeptic to credibly demonstrate how these cases are actually misperceptions, hallucinations, errors, hoaxes, useless anecdotes, etc. And on the skeptic of the ETH to come up with a more credible general explanation for the many cases of physical interaction with physical apparent vehicles.

Some people have observed strange apparently structured material objects in the atmosphere that give the strong impression of being vehicles, somebody else's hardware.

The best cases stand on their own merits as evidence that on some rare occasions what seem to be alien vehicles appear to humans, sometimes producing physical effects including radar returns, radio interference, ground traces and leaving images preserved on photographic film or electronic media.

For a detailed summary scientific review and analysis of the various types of physical evidence related to UFOs, there was the Sturrock panel report, see https://ufoscoop.com/physical-evidence-related-to-ufos/.

The relatively recent (in 2004 and 2015) sightings and radar trackings of small UFOs shadowing US Navy carrier battle groups, featuring multiple pilot and ship radar reports and HUD video display recordings amount to some of the best data. Some of these HUD videos were released by the Defense Department a few months ago.

Just a sampling of some of the better older data:

– The 1947 Kenneth Arnold sighting
Except for the WWII “foo fighters”, this begins the modern era of UFOs. A good analysis is at http://www.martinshough.com/aerialphenom...lysis2.pdf . There do not seem to be any valid optical, geometric, geographical, psychological or other reasons to doubt the major features of Arnold’s sighting as reported and they are internally consistent. The analysis results in a range of 16-20 miles, a minimum length of 70-90 feet, and a speed of 890 to 1200 mph. Arnold described the objects as trimmed-off in the rear thin shiny “saucer-like” discoids reflecting sunlight blindingly like metal at certain angles.
– The Chiles-Whitted Case – Montgomery, Alabama, United States – July 24, 1948
– The Nash-Fortenberry Sighting (aircraft encounter with formation of UFOs) – Virginia, United States – July 14, 1952
– The RB-47 UFO Encounter – Gulf Coast Area, United States – July 17, 1957
– Socorro / Zamora UFO Incident – Socorro, New Mexico, United States – April 24, 1964
– Coyne Helicopter Incident – Mansfield, Ohio, United States – October 18, 1973
– “Dogfight over Tehran”, the 1976 Iranian Air Force Incident, a multiple pilot/ground/radar/visual/EMI signal case. Details at http://www.nicap.org/760919tehran_dir.htm .
– The Cash-Landrum Case – Huffman, Texas, United States – December 29, 1980
– Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 Over Alaska – Alaska, United States – November 17, 1986
– Belgium Triangle UFO Sightings – Belgium – October, 1989
– Illinois Triangle UFO Sighting (by multiple police officers) – Illinois, United States – January 5, 2000

The 1999 French Cometa committee report, summarized at https://www.ufocasebook.com/cometamain.html . This was an in-depth study of UFOs, covering many aspects of the subject, especially questions of national defense. The study was done over several years by an independent group at the Institute of Advanced Studies for National Defense, or IHEDN, and by other qualified experts from various fields. They took the extraterrestrial hypothesis very seriously when considering the many of the best French cases.

For an exhaustive analysis of electromagnetic effects generated by UFOs, see Fifty-Six Aircraft Pilot Sightings Involving E-M Effects – Haines (1992), at http://www.nicap.org/papers/92apsiee.htm .

My view is that this phenomenon is complicated, being composed of several different types of phenomena of fundamentally different natures that interact in various ways. Other explanations than the ETH, some involving paranormal phenomena, subconscious influences of the Zeitgeist, extra-dimensional or time travelling aliens, etc. etc. may possibly apply to other subcategories of UFO-related experiences including alien abductions.  I think both the modern “zeitgeist” and accounts of real physical alien vehicle encounters could stimulate subconsciously generated fantasies like alien abductions and subconsciously generated fantastic or apparently ridiculous “occupant” encounters (like the Betty and Barney Hill case).

The phenomenon is probably composed of many different components and levels. So as to the question of which potential explanation is the real nature of the UFO phenomenon, it is probable that the question is simplistic and that the answer is “all of the above”.

The final observation is that this phenomenon involves a quintessential cognitive dissonance, that simply can’t be resolved at our level of knowledge and wisdom. This is reminiscent of the cognitive dissonance involved in the reductive materialism versus spiritual reality debate; in this latter case there is also a strong body of evidence on both sides.

(2019-07-18, 10:28 PM)nbtruthman Wrote: [ -> ]A good analysis is at http://www.martinshough.com/ae.....lysis2.pdf .

The ellipsis of the displayed link got translated into the link itself - I think you meant to share this link? http://www.martinshough.com/aerialphenom...lysis2.pdf

(2019-07-19, 02:00 AM)Laird Wrote: [ -> ]The ellipsis of the displayed link got translated into the link itself - I think you meant to share this link? http://www.martinshough.com/aerialphenom...lysis2.pdf

Yes. Thanks for catching this. I just corrected the link.

Who is this Michael Prescott?

(2019-07-24, 04:19 PM)Raf999 Wrote: [ -> ]Who is this Michael Prescott?

(Off topic)
The name always brings to mind the politician known for, among other things, being involved in a fracas involving a thrown egg and a retaliatory punch.
https://youtu.be/8UhME8dcOqc?t=29
Aplologies for the distraction.

(2019-07-24, 04:19 PM)Raf999 Wrote: [ -> ]Who is this Michael Prescott?

Michael Prescott (born 1960) is a contemporary American, New York Times bestselling writer of crime fiction (Wiki). He is a proponent of psi and the paranormal and the existence of an afterlife, having studied these areas for many years. He has an excellent blog on these subjects, at https://michaelprescott.typepad.com/ . I contribute to his blog once in a while, as "doubter".

(2019-07-25, 06:16 PM)nbtruthman Wrote: [ -> ]Michael Prescott (born 1960) is a contemporary American, New York Times bestselling writer of crime fiction (Wiki). He is a proponent of psi and the paranormal and the existence of an afterlife, having studied these areas for many years. He has an excellent blog on these subjects, at https://michaelprescott.typepad.com/ . I contribute to his blog once in a while, as "doubter".

Oh, interesting, i thought he was a researcher.