This morning I posted a description of my encounter with a UFO and asked if DUers would post

[flashman13]

about similar accounts of their encounters. I was gratified to see how many people with similar experiences responded. There was a certain level of skepticism but it was polite and respectful. Clearly DU attracts thoughtful people.

Statistically speaking DU represents a very small sampling. For such a small group, the number of people that responded I thought was quite large. I think that it shows just how common sightings are. As they say, where there is smoke there is fire. There is something going on in our skies and oceans.

The whole thing made my day. Thanks you all.

[canetoad]

1. For anyone else

Who wishes to read the thread about UFOs....

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217852064

[elleng]

11. Thanks

[NoRethugFriends]

2. Yeh, right

[Irish_Dem]

3. I have had another thought.

I have alway thought there was something to UFOs.

I grew up in an US Air Force family and too many military fliers have reported seeing things
since WWII that are not consistent with current technology.

Could the Allies or the Germans have developed drone technology during WWII and it has been kept classified
since then? And that is what we have been seeing? That would explain why the government just
gives us BS about it.

I agree however that we are seeing way too much to account for that perhaps.

Just a thought.

Sorry I know you were wrapping up your thread, don't mean to keep it going.

[markodochartaigh]

4. About ten years ago I was in my driveway

in a suburb south of Dallas. It was about 11 PM. From the southeast a triangular craft flew over my neighbors' house about 150 feet up. I watched it almost horizon to horizon. I think that it was going about 40 miles per hour. There was an orange-yellow light on each corner. It was completely silent except when it was almost overhead, from about 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock. At the time I thought that it was a military blimp. The office of an oil company Senator was less than a mile away and would have had as good a view as I did. I spoke to MUFON who said that it had been seen over Houston as well as on the route northwest. I talked to some police officers at my job who had been in the military and they told me that they had seen similar craft in the Middle East. They said that the craft were capable of reading all the data on computers that they flew over. I looked at military sites but I was unable to find any craft like what I saw. I suppose if it was US technology sooner or later I will see it on the news when the US invades some country. If it was alien technology from space or another dimension I doubt if I will ever know.

[BigmanPigman]

5. I just watched Heaven's Gate

and it brought back UFO thoughts and the strangest thing I saw was a flying saucer on the roof of a car driving next to my car in 2000. It said "Space Brothers Unite" and I was not stoned or drunk. In fact, the other 3 people in the car saw it and it turned out to be a religious organization by Ruthie Norman. "Unarians" they called themselves.

https://www.kqed.org/news/11198033/we-are-not-alone-unarians-celebrate-a-message-from-outer-space

I know of one person who definitely had the strangest experience when he and a buddy saw creatures which looked like big Sea Monkeys walking into the ocean near Scripps in CA. I thought he was full of BS since he was known for that but when his friend called about 15 years later he asked my friend if he remembered the incident and I knew he wasn't lying. I listened on the call to verify the account.

I heard Steven Spielberg say that 1 in 10 people have witnessed a UFO.

I have never seen one myself but I have had many experiences of "ghosts", both visual and audio but mainly audio. It isn't scary since these "visits" are from my dear pets and father after they died. Most people are afraid to disclose these experiences since people will call them "crazy". I find that ironic since most religions proclaim that their experiences to be very real and believable, even though they are beyond insane and are anything but realistic. Really, people walking on water? WTF?!?

[Trueblue1968]

12. 1 in 10 people have witnessed a UFO.... I haven't but I WISH I HAD SEEN A UFO !!!!

I BELIEVE IN THEM. i am 70 and i grew up knowing about science fiction and ufos. I read ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION and IMAGINATION monthly books. I read CLARKE AND HEINLEIN and other sci stuff. My sister mother and father and i were packed into the car and we went to the drive in at least every month to see old sci fi movies



HUBBY and i watch all the ufo and sci fi stuff on cable that we can find. i am a believer and DARN IT...... I WANNA SEE A UFO....NOW !!!!!

[BigmanPigman]

13. I would too.

Shirley Maclaine lived in New Mexico and she had many UFO sightings there. I want to see at least one before I die.

John Lennon and May Pang both witnessed a UFO outside of their apt in NYC in the early 70s. It stayed there long enough for John to sketch it and take a photo. There were reports of the sighting but it got hushed up pretty quickly. They said it moved in odd ways, not like human spacecrafts. It could go up and down and turn and move diagonally and was completely silent.

[lindalou65]

18. I think other intelligent life is out there

I have not seen a UFO but hope to someday. When I was a teenager a long time ago, my brother and I would spend time outside at night looking for one. And I am still looking for one! There are airline pilots and military pilots who claim to have seen them — I would think they would be considered legitimate eyewitnesses.

[2naSalit]

16. OMG! I remember her!

Yikes!
She used to have office spaces rented in the older part of downtown El Cajon and had weird infomercials on late night teevee. Back in the Cal Worthington days!

I tried to follow what she was talking about but she never made sense.

[BigmanPigman]

20. She's pretty hard to forget!

[Blues Heron]

6. Do birds count?

I saw one the other day and could not identify whether it was a downy woodpecker or a yellow-bellied sapsucker. Then it flew away in an odd way.

[taxi]

14. Of course. Everyone knows birds aren't real.

There's even a birds aren't real website, ergo you HAVE been seeing UFOs all along.

[ProfessorGAC]

24. So Gullible

All birds are robots! I'm shocked you didn't know that.

[Blues Heron]

25. maybe it was one of those taxidermy drones I read about

heh

[appleannie1]

7. The one I saw was triangular shaped and had red and blue lights. It made no sound at all.

It was very low and moving slow, sort of hovering. A friend called the next day and to tell me she saw something strange so I was glad someone else had seen it too. At least I knew I was not nuts.

It was the second unexplainable thing I have seen. The first was a bright light hovering over Westinghouse Research back in the 50's. All of a sudden it shot straight up and made a right angle turn and faster than I have ever seen anything else, it zipped away and disappeared in about 2 seconds. We lived on the top of a hill and could see for miles. The pattern it flew looked like an upside down L. About an hour later my sister came in the house and she excitedly said "I saw a UFO". She had been driving out RT22 and had only been about a half mile from it where it was and cars had stopped in the middle of the road to stare at it. You never said anything back then because everyone would call you crazy. Now that a lot of reputable people have seen them and taken videos of them, most people know there is something out there.

[C Moon]

8. I didn't know about this until today: John Lennon claimed to have seen a UFO with May Pang (1974)

There's a recent Zoom interview with May Pang and she gives a more detailed description of the event.
These days it would be kind of tough to convince someone because of so many drones.

[cayugafalls]

9. Missed your original OP, but here is my encounter.

The year was 1977. My girl and I had taken my Honda down to St. Pete Beach for a late night stroll and petting sesh.

We were laying on the beach looking up at the night sky and talking about the universe and stars we were viewing.

In almost the exact center of our view was a triangle of stars, a bit brighter than the surrounding stars, enough so, to prompt a questions from Pam, "Does that triangle of stars have a name"? I knew the three stars she was talking about because they were so much brighter than the surrounding stars and right in the middle of the view.

I answered, "Not that I know of..."

"Wow, they are so bright" Was all she replied.

About 30 seconds later the 3 stars began to move quickly, each in a path that expanded the size of the triangle, doubling it's size.

We both gasped, "Holy shit, did you see that? It just moved and doubled in size!" I said. Pam replied, "What the fuck?"

Almost as soon as she got out the word fuck, the 3 stars bolted across the sky and out of sight.

We lay there in silence for several minutes. Then petting took priority...we were young after all.

I don't much remember the petting, but the stars moving...BURNED into my brain.

[wcmagumba]

10. I have never seen one that I know of but would like to...

There was a UFO blitz for a few years in the 60s when I was a kid and I remember lying on blankets outside on summer nights looking for them...fun times....

[wishstar]

15. I frequently see shiny cigar shaped objects moving across the sky

from my yard and they have no visible wings or contrails or noise but I have always concluded they were airplanes at a side angle since they routinely appear to be crossing near the same pathway used by recognizable planes.

So at least for the famed "cigar shaped objects" people have reported for many decades, I am skeptical they are anything out of the ordinary other than the angle of sight that obscures their identity as airplanes.

[2naSalit]

17. If you live where there's no light pollution...

If you look at the sky at night you can commonly see things that are probably not from this planet along with regular meteors and see the aurora borealis and moonbows. We see them out here, we just don't talk about them in open conversations. Kind of like you don't talk about your best hunting or fishing spot.

[brooklynite]

19. "I think that it shows just how common sightings are"

Agreed; many people see things they can't identify.

Still awaiting any evidence that there's more to them than that.

[Goodheart]

21. More likely, the large number of posters who are skeptical simply allowed you to have your fun.

I'm not sure you understand statistical sampling.

[edhopper]

22. Or anecdotal evidence

as well as faulty eye witness testimony or a whole slew of misconceptions.

[ecstatic]

23. I'm glad you mentioned oceans because

that has been my long running theory of what is happening. Global warming is causing large creatures that have hidden in plain sight to start interacting with their surroundings more. The sea creatures that we know about have a lot of abilities--from temporary flying, to blending in with the colors around them, lighting up, glowing, and of course, many of them have that classic bowl shape and can be very large. Humans do not have access to most of the ocean, or even most of the Earth, for that matter. I believe a massive terrestrial and/or ocean creature is a far more likely possibility than another country being that much more advanced than us, or an alien species having the ability to travel across galaxies. Also, when the military pilots reference how the UFOs are able to defy physics, etc, that could also be said of birds if we didn't know what they were.

[LuckyCharms]

26. Early 70's I think

Friend and I were walking at night.

Something in the sky. Wasn't a plane, wasn't a star.

Moving in an erratic squiggly circular motion.

We freaked out and ran back to my friends house.

His sister was there with Rico Petrocelli's (MLB player with the Boston Red Sox) brother (I think). They were drinking and half in the bag.

He was mocking us for thinking we saw a UFO.

We brought him outside and he saw it.

He started freaking out too.