Unidentified Flying Objects—What Are They?
Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum, along with her son Colby, alleged that on December 29, 1980, they were exposed to the heat, smoke, and flames of a UFO (unidentified flying object). A report said that they described it as a ‘large diamond-shaped object, floating in the sky in front of their car on a deserted farm road near Huffman, northeast of Houston, Texas.’ As a result of this encounter, they alleged, they suffered various health problems.—Miami Herald, September 4, 1985.
The women thought that the U.S. government was involved because “the object soon flew off toward the north, accompanied by about 23 military-type helicopters.” In this report, one of the women, Vickie Landrum, said that “all three suffered blisters, hair loss, dizziness and headaches. Landrum believes the device emitted some type of radiation that also made the three sensitive to sunlight.” They sued the government for negligence.
With the above and other news stories, UFO’s have repeatedly claimed public attention. As Philip J. Klass wrote in UFOs—The Public Deceived: “The prospect of finding intelligent life elsewhere is universally appealing, and the search for it has attracted the attention, and efforts, of many competent scientists.” ‘But why now?’ asked Edward Dolnik in The New Republic of August 1987, under the heading “Close Encounters.” His reply was: “The leading explanation today has to do with deep-seated and apocalyptic fears associated with approaching the millennium,” that is, as we approach the year 2000.
Do People Believe in UFO’s?
Do you believe in UFO’s? Have you ever seen something in the night sky that has baffled you? Whether driven by apocalyptic fears or persuaded by other experiences, many today believe in UFO’s. In his account, Dolnik mentioned that a Gallup Poll indicated that “57 percent of college-educated Americans believe in extraterrestrials.” He adds: “For Americans without a college education, the figure drops to 46 percent.”
In the past, UFO reports generally described strange and unusual sights in the heavens or sometimes at close range. Quite recently, however, they seem to revolve around actual human contact. These contacts are sometimes said to be with “aliens” who allegedly abduct humans. The accounts indicate that the intent of the “aliens” at times involves biological or even genetic experimentation with humans. These assertions have served to direct the attention of the public again to the subject of UFO’s.
These claimed sightings and encounters are international in scope. For example, one involved a man in Switzerland. Over a period of five years, it is claimed, he “produced hundreds of bright, detailed photographs. He also recorded the sounds of ‘beamships,’ collected several metal samples, and made films of the ship in flight.” The description continues: “Dozens of witnesses have seen the beamships and corroborated [the man’s] fantastic story. His evidence, investigated by a professional security team headed by a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, has been examined by scientists at IBM, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Arizona State University, and the McDonnell Douglas aeronautics company.”
These stories are still being heard. One of the most interesting appeared in The Tampa Tribune, January 30, 1989. It featured a color illustration of a “spacecraft” that had been photographed in the vicinity of Gulf Breeze, Florida. The account involved the experiences of a man called Ed. The description of the first contact that occurred is as follows: “When he peered out the glass doors of his bedroom, Ed says, he was face to face with a childlike creature clad in gray.” These apparent contacts took place over a period of time, with Ed taking many photographs. However, no photographs were reproduced in the newspaper.
With sensational reports of encounters appearing in newspapers, periodicals, and books on the best-seller lists, people are asking, What is it all about? Are UFO’s real, or are they just figments of the imagination? Is there any record of such things in history? Is it possible that there may be explanations that transcend present-day science? These and other questions will be considered in the following articles.