Yes, I too believe that officialdom’s attitude is that creatures that can walk through walls, pilot craft that defy every human aircraft’s capabilities or ground supports ability to track them or bring them down, plus kidnap people under everyone’s noses without hindrance - can’t be dealt with or interacted with, so leaves you as individuals and societies, with the comment ‘So what do you expect me to do about it?’

As for the connection of UFO’s and Aliens - if these are manned craft, why travel all this way here and not get out to investigate where they are (’If this is Thursday, it must be Earth - galactic tourists)? If unmanned, why send them here in the first place? Don’t create mysteries where there are rational answers in existence already but do seek answers to those things we ‘think’ we do understand already (our prejudices).

I enjoyed reading Jacques Vallee’s books on the subject, the entire strange intellect interfering with, manipulating us silly monkeys, though just as wild has otherwordly intelligences messing with us, it seems just as possible and again there’s not been enough, or any, research into this. From my point of view, paranormal experiences just seem bewildering, confusing, not just unbelievable. I personally hope, if there is anything happening, that it is a fictional reality, bleeding into our own, fuelled by our own imaginations. I do find paranormal beliefs akin to religious beliefs, they must originate from some area of the brain or mind that feeds these abstract concepts. Even just typing this, thinking about strange, weird experiences that do seem so outrageous confuses me, surely life, the World, the Universe is just not that complex. The idea that this life force, intelligence, is not more advanced as us, makes everything even more complicated, and yet, does make a kind of sense. Throughout the ages people have recorded meeting strange creatures, fairies, elves, beings from other Worlds, sometimes in another space and time, sometimes beneath our very feet, in the modern age these reports no longer continue (?) instead we have reports of little grey men in marvellous flying machines, but the parallels between historical and modern accounts do correlate (?) food being offered, predictions of humanity’s doom, threats of greater power.

If we believe people’s reported experiences with odd entities, then it would be an ongoing phenomena, a manipulation of our belief systems, perhaps even a way to control us, even cull us? Again, I am beginning to confuse myself with the possibilities, everything from a cultural phenomenon to real interaction with beings from outer space, it’s too complex a puzzle.

Using our language (and the ideas that follow from it) to try and describe and comprehend something outside of our experience might be futile. Everyone can try, but it is probably a stab in the dark.

A reminder: I don’t take the “aliens” phenomenon literally, at least as something that can be counted on like a repeatable experiment. I am using accounts gathered over many years by myself and in the literature to play with concepts that may lead to some sort of better understanding as to what makes people report these things. Until some sort of breakthrough is made, I am reasonably certain that some reports are the result of an external, non-human source acting upon the witness. It’s more interesting to me to treat the subject in this way.

Sweeping generalizations are less interesting to me than taking some of these “stories” with a degree of acceptance. I can’t see how so many people with no interest at all in the subject to begin with have been reporting strange things in the skies and elsewhere for eons. In my opinion, there are many accounts that can’t simply be put down to misidentifications, hoaxes, etc.

You are quite right that many of the hardcore UFO fans are so convinced by an unproveable belief that they don’t allow any rational thought into their brains. Many questions seem to remain open. Look around on the site and I’m sure you will find that Nick and I (and most of our commenters) are neither believers or fundamentalist skeptics with regard to the UFO subject.

Meanwhile science seems to be uncovering ever more evidence that ant “hive minds” can be unsettlingly sophisticated and powerful.

If you think you’ll find a bunch of doe-eyed UFO believers here, I’m afraid you’ll end up a bit disappointed.

The entire Roswell phenomenon is just that a phenomenon, a mythological modern religion, almost, it has it’s high priests, the so called UFO researchers who make grand claims, contradict each other, produce honest to goodness eyewitnesses decades after the events, very much like the myth of Christ. The flock are naive, gullible and stupid, we Humans are not blessed with intelligence, contrary to popular belief. No alien bodies were recovered from Roswell in 1947, no Flying Saucer, it’s a lie, a fabrication, a fiction. Alien beings aren’t visiting Planet Earth. If they were, I would be a little bit worried that their technology is a bit rubbish, okay it can travel vast distances through Space, navigate dangers, such as asteroid belts, comets, black holes, strong gravitational forces from vast Worlds, Stars, glide elegantly through Earth’s atmosphere, then crash in a remote area of the US of A. Awesome. How many crashed Flying Saucers have there been in the US of A? Dozens? Hmm, UFO believers, followers are like people who believe in religions, believe in ghosts, life after death, which is a contradiction in terms, The Loch Ness monster, they want to believe so much in strange otherwordly happenings. They will believe alleged eyewitnesses, anecdotal tall tales, anything and everything to advance their religious notion, becasue that what it is. Vast sprawling conspiracies that are confusing, unbelievable. It’s the need to believe in something. I love it. I love that people can believe lies, can believe in crazy stories, can believe that technologically advanced entities interact with us dumb monkeys, that Science Gods zoom through the Heavens to alter our minds, toy with our reality. It’s fantastic to live in a World where fictions can cross from the imagination into our perception of reality. Mega!

Indeed, humans are capable of coping with terrible situations. To the American society, 9/11 was the cultural equivalent of child rape; 8 years later people are still flying on airplanes and travelling to Manhattan. I don’t know if American citizens are really expecting to experience another terrorist attack in their lifetime.

Would the hypothetical (and unlikely) disclosure be similar in cultural and emotional impact with 9/11?