They can ONLY happen at the individual level, but the real challenge is knowing when to change and what to change to. Sometimes not changing is the best thing to do.

“Most primitive tribes will tell you that beings come down from the sky/spirit world and talk and relate with them”

At one point in time, all civilizations did that, the Greeks and Romans for example from whom we owe our current civilization to, but they all have stopped doing so. They changed for the better by abandoning primitive delusions.

“but most humans in the modern Western society need to be told by a gov’t that other intelligent races exist in the universe?”

The issue is not whether intelligent species exist in the Universe, the issue is whether they are visiting us or not. Some would even go so far as to say the issue is not that either, but whether humans can be considered an intelligent species or not. Why worry about other species if we cannot display enough self-discipline to keep ourselves from destroying our own environment and only home? We need to get our priorities straight as a species before worrying about another.

Yes, I suppose the reason we want someone like him discussing UFOs it’s in part because we still view the astronauts as some sort of super-men, but as Sage points out, while incredibly well-educated, highly trained persons and grown used to all kinds of stressful situations, they are in the end human beings just like us.

Sometimes they wear diapers BY CHOICE

You know, I wonder what will happen in a couple of years, when the tourist space industry finally blooms, and maybe some of those rich folks bring their cameras and start seeing unexplainable things following their Virgin Galactic space planes. Maybe there will be some sort of “critical mass” reached, when those people who are at the top of the social pyramid will realize there’s something going on out there which we can’t control but seems intelligent and awfully interested in us. Couple that with viewing the espectacle of the curvature of the Earth, and maybe those experiences could bring profound changes in our society; you know? beginning from the top to the bottom…

It’s a developing story and I tried to make it clear that this was how we were treating it. I’m sorry if this was not evident.

You are correct.

By the way, the only thing Dr Story Musgrave had to say about ETs on his website is here: http://www.spacestory.com/extraterrestrial.htm

That does not sound like the story being told of him here.

I don’t know, from what I’ve read or seen from astronauts discussing these kind of things, not many were so eager to jump into conclusions that we’ve been visited by extraterrestrials, aside from Edgar Mitchell as Greg points out, or Gordon Cooper who also claimed to have seen several objects while being a test pilot and a figher pilot in Corea. Now, bear in mind that I’m here only discussing the willingness of these guys to discuss such things, not the actual veracity of such claims

Then there was Buzz Aldrin telling they saw something on their way to the Moon, and considering all the various wacky rumours about the things they saw over there, from ancient structures to spaceships stationed inside some crater, to selenite mice mining the chedar caves of the moon, what the man told was much more down-to-earth and -obviously- slightly disappointing. He says they saw something really weird, and they chose not to tell it to Mission Control to prevent a panic streak, but as far as speculating what the hell it was, I don’t think Aldrin has ever actaully claimed “yes, they were aliens”, nor I think he ever will.

So what I’m sayin is this: I really doubt Musgrave has actually come out of the closet and made that fantastic remark. You say he probably wants to jump in the UFO money bandwagon, but the way I see it the man has more to lose if he chooses that path. From what I understand, he makes a good living as a consultant for numerous “New Space” corporations, as well as TV educational programs for the Discovery Channel and the like, and he may also make the occasional visit to colleges and high-schools. So, why throw all that away just to sign a couple of autographs in a UFO conference?

Let’s see if we can dig up some more info on this story.

I believe it is because he is “testing the waters” so to speak. If he gets a favorable response, he will bite. If not, he will deny it all.

“These guys are real… I guarantee it!”

I cannot wait until Dr. Story Musgrave eats his words on this one. All he is going to really do is tell us to “trust me when I say…” — not “guarantee it”. You can tell because if it were a real guarantee, he would have offered something to back up the guarantee with. Afterall, that is what a guarantee is: “if that fails, I will do this instead”.

Nowadays, it seems everyone wants to hop aboard the UFO bandwagon of money making opportunities, and astronauts are no exception. These one time ‘heroes’ had their day in the sun but they want to bask there forever — even if it means the possibility of having to cater to New Age fringe groups. These astronauts seem to be exploiting their credentials to curry favor from anything from voters to buyers to believers. To me it is just another rotten example of what commercialization can do to the ethical consciences of people, and it is another example of meresay instead of fact finding.

If this is true, then why am I unable to find any other news article about Musgrave discussing aliens, apart from this particular one by The Canadian?

Yes, shuttle astronauts have witnessed and filmed incredible phenomena during those missions, but what I question is this assertion that Musgrave publicly admits his supposed belief in alien life. Somehow I feel this should be taken with caution.