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I was just reading about how the government is going to disclose its information about UFOs in 2013 and/or the aliens are going to come then, and it got me wondering what y'all think of the ol' Grays. Do UFOs exist? Are abductees nutjobs? Granted, I think it's a given that crop circles are a sham. But I know some respectable folks who claim to have seen UFOs. Are we dealing with mistaken identity? False memory syndrome? Hallucination? Something else altogether?

I'm skeptical, myself. Way too many quackjobs throwing around really ridiculous pseudoscience. But like I said, there are some respectable folks who have seen things too. So... maybe there's something to it all?




...Or maybe not.

After taking a college Astronomy class (which had quite a different narrative than the ones where religious fanatics learn that the Ice Age came about because the Earth was hurled through space like a Dodgeball at some point by Jehovah or somethin) and getting a tiny peak at how vast the Milky Way is (not to mention the Universe) I tend to think that the possibility of UFOs (or alternative intelligent lifeforms to humanity) is possible (maybe even probable). But I tend to take a " consider believing, but verify" on that way of thinking. I'd like to see a UFO land and a couple of grey guys to say "Whassup" before I jump fully on the UFO bandwagon.

CaliforniaKid wrote: Are we dealing with mistaken identity? False memory syndrome? Hallucination? Something else altogether?

All of that and more. Don't forget attention grabbing liars.
More importantly, don't forget about sleep paralysis. I get that myself and I have had beings hover over my bed fairly often. Sometimes I can raise up a bit and look around and see them more clearly (or that's what I am convinced of anyway). The prblem is I can soetimes see into the kitchen at angles not actual possible from my bed so I guess I am probably really still flat on my back with my eyes closed.
Fortunately I am not the believing type and in the morning I do not have the urge to credit the experience as real. Some people do.

Every abduction or encounter or sighting I have ever heard about seems to fit easiliy into one of a few categories, some of which are on your list.
No piece of film I have seen looks even a tiny bit convincing.

Think about this. What if the brain were so perfect at percieving the world that the number of times the avergae person would clearly experience something unreal was only once in a thousand years. Now in a population of 6 million people, how many would have such a failure of proper brain function in just one year.
Do the math, it would be 6000. Of those 6000 failure or hallucinations quite a few should be UFO themed because it is so big in our culture and many will tell the story.

I was sitting on my back deck in VA with my tipsy mother when I was a teen -- we were looking out on a state forest (one was at our back door) and she was relating to me that her father was CERTAIN he saw a UFO in the early 1940's. So, I'm all amped up thinking "Wow! That's sort of wacko!" She's telling me how my grandpa saw something one evening dart across the sky in odd patterns. He KNEW it was a UFO... So, we're sitting there -- she with her glass of wine and me with wild eyes as a young teen.

THEN a light appears... OVER the trees... slowly....... it's approaching... My eyes widen even more....... We watch it approach like deer in headlights..... The glow is hovering above the tree tops.........

Watch....... wait......... *deer stares*..........

It was a blimp.

:D

Oh, gotta tell this story too. My mother is crazy! A few years back she's looking out at her property from her front porch and she sees something green and glowing down a few acres. She gets her BINOCULARS! She calls to my father to go down and retrieve it. He tells her to go to sleep... Next day she strikes out in full gear (with gloves) to retrieve this green glowing whatever she saw the night before.

MUSHROOM!

THERE ARE NO ALIENS. WE DO NOT EXIST. RETURN TO YOUR BLISSFUL AND IGNORANT LIVES.

My father saw a UFO once. Later he discovered it was a B-2. Up until that point of discovery though, it was a UFO...

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/AirShows/Miramar2004/Highlights/B2.jpg