To consider that life on earth is all the whole universe has to offer, is arrogant beyond belief.
Strong words? Possibly - but if you look up into the night sky, and see all the stars, and know that with the exception of our fellow planets orbiting our sun, all the rest are stars, also like our own sun - which is a star - then there must be life out there somewhere on the planets orbiting those stars. We cannot be the only life in the whole universe. There must be other forms of intelligent life out there.
And, if there is, could they possibly be more advanced than us? Advanced enough to enable them to visit earth, to make contact and teach us, or even to co-exist and learn our ways?
Many people hold differing points of view. Some dismiss the whole alien scene as pure rubbish, others are convinced of things they have seen or read, and the rest of mankind are not sure either side are right.
Unidentified Flying Objects are one thing, but the thought of beings from another world, visiting, communicating with us or even taking us away for whatever purpose, tends to provoke fear or wonderment.
There are dozens of books exploring aliens, fact and fantasy. Sometimes it can be difficult to determine what the defining line is between fact and fiction, especially when government 'experts' and departments try their hardest to conceal evidence.
Many theories abound from the simple to the outrageously unbelievable. Outlined are some of the common ideas put forward.
1. The Supreme Being (God or whomever) was/is an alien, and we are purely an experiment!
If we analyse the above, that we were created by an alien culture as an experiment, then we can probably explain the sudden demise of dinosaurs, and the rise of smaller creatures who inhabit the earth with us now. Aliens would have cleansed the earth of any creatures who would have inhibited our development, and designed a good home world for us. We retain the thought that a supreme being created us, provides for us and protects us, and watches over us, but does not interfere greatly. I hope they are not too disappointed with our development.
2. We are evolving naturally, with aliens guiding us.
This has a similarity to the one above, except we were not created but evolved, and any flashes of inspiration or inventions are 'fed' to us when we have reached a certain stage in development, and we have much more learning and developing ahead of us.
3. We have evolved naturally up to a certain stage and then aliens landed, bred with us and left us to evolve further.
This helps to explain earth 'markings' only visible from the air, such as the Mayan tracks, and standing stones, but leaves an uneasy feeling that we are not what we thought we were.
4. We are evolving naturally, but having reached a certain level of intelligence, we are now very interesting to higher forms of life from other planets, who wish to help with our progression.
This could be good, but it would involve trusting in things we do not know, a huge leap of faith, and would certainly explain the reports of alien contact and certain abductions. It causes conjecture on how we have advanced so quickly over the last century or so.
5. We are evolving naturally, but having reached a level of intelligence, we are now very interesting to higher forms of life from other planets, who wish to stop us developing further.
This is the scenario we are afraid of and try to rush blindly away from, causing us to dismiss the reports of aliens with derision. If we don't believe it, it can't be true, can it?
Certain questions are sure to develop regarding any of these theories, and we have no concrete evidence to accept or dismiss any of them, and any answers would shake the foundations of our lives, our beliefs and our trust in any one or any thing.
So:
Do aliens really exist, or are they just a strange quirk of people's reality?
Do they visit earth, and, if so, what do they want?
Or, are we a race, evolving on earth, originally from another galaxy?
Many reports exist regarding contact with aliens, whether it's friendly or menacing. Should we scoff and dismiss them as nonsense or is there some truth in the reports?
The US government and armed forces seem to think that they do, giving rise to a secret location known as Area 51. This is too elaborate for a mere hoax, and the military are not known to fantasise about such things.
Strange reports seem to be prolific in the surrounding populated areas, which tend to lend a further credence to the possibility of other life-forms with advanced technologies. Here, we give some thoughts for you to consider........
The first contact with an alien being ever reported was by George Adamski, from America in 1952. He and six friends went hunting UFOs in the Mojave Desert, California on 29th November 1952. They anticipated photographing flying saucers and claim not to have been disappointed. They spotted a cigar shaped craft being chased by military jets, but noticed that as the huge craft sped away it seemed to eject a smaller silver disc which landed somewhere in the desert. Adamski and his friends set off to find it, hoping to take some photographs. They did indeed find it, and took some photographs, and Adamski ventured near it to get close-ups. Before he reached it, it shot skywards and sped away into space. A few minutes later, a smaller craft appeared between two mountain peaks, and landed four hundred yards away from Adamski. A figure emerged and beckoned to him. At first Adamski thought it was a man, but as he drew closer, he was surprised to see a humanoid, around 5 foot 3 inches tall, tanned, with long blonde hair, dressed in a belted one piece brown suit, with red shoes. Adamski held our his hand, and the alien shook it, and started communicating using telepathy. He said his name was Orthon and he came from Venus, to warn humans about the dangers of pollution and nuclear energy. He refused to be photographed, and stepped back into his craft, and flew away. The only witnesses were Adamski's friends, who had been close enough to see.
In later years, Adamski also claimed to have been on board a Venusian ship, and travelled to Venus, visiting the moon and Mars on the way. He wrote several books regarding his meetings with the Venusians and their home planet. Although many of his descriptions of the moon and Mars have since been disproved, his photographs and films which he took of flying craft have been examined by photographic experts who can find no hint of trickery or tampering.
Several passages in his books mention phenomenon occurring during space flight which have since proved to be authentic, which no-one knew about at the time. It was only proved after Adamski had died, and the early manned flights discovered them, so making him very difficult to dismiss as a hoaxer.
After Adamski had made his claim, there was a stream of people alleging they had made contact with aliens also, which brought about difficulties in discerning between hoax and genuine encounters.
In 1954, Daniel Fry, who was a scientist working at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, claimed he had been contacted by aliens. He was walking in the desert, enjoying the cool night air, having missed the trip into town to watch the firework display to celebrate Independence Day, and looking up into the skies, when he noticed that the stars were blocked by something solid descending. A metal sphere landed in the desert about 70 yards from him, and heard a voice warning him not to touch the craft, as it was still hot. The alien continued telepathically informing Fry that his mission was to collect air samples from earth. The alien welcomed Fry and allowed him to enter the craft, and took him on a trip over New York and back in half an hour. Fry claimed to have felt no sensation of movement, although the craft must have been travelling at over 8,000 miles an hour. As he left the craft, Fry was told there would be further contacts if he preached their philosophy of understanding. Fry produced photographs of UFOs and also published a book. He undertook a lie detector test, but appeared to have failed. Yet many are convinced of his story as, due to his profession, he had a great deal to lose.
People will always be sceptical of alien encounters where there is no tangible proof or other witnesses to back up the story. But what of the reports of multiple witnesses? Take the following for example:-
September 1994
On 15 September 1994, a group of schoolchildren from the Ariel Primary School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, were playing during morning break in their playground, unsupervised as staff members were in a meeting with the Headmaster. They all reported seeing a purple flashing light in the sky, before a large disc-shaped UFO appeared and slowly descended into a empty field nearby. Forty four children, out of the 100 which witnessed the event, each described what happened in their own way, and, although the accounts differed slightly from child to child, the unerring portions were pieced together to produce a disturbing account of the events that morning by UFO investigators.
A large glowing disc landed about 220 yards away in the empty field, on three- legged landing gear. It was surrounded by yellow lights or portholes. Balls of light (or miniature discs) flew around for a short time, before three beings emerged from the craft. Described as humanoid, around four feet tall and wearing shiny black, tight, one-piece suits, moving in a "slow wobbling" motion, two of them approached the children who had not run away. They had dark faces and large black "cat-like" eyes. Several children said they heard messages when they looked into those eyes, explaining they had visited to warn that humans were destroying the planet, and the children could help stop the damage. Once the message was imparted, the creatures boarded their craft, which started to flash, before disappearing in a flash of light.
Many children went to the staff room to get the attention of the teachers, but they were still in their meeting. The only adult about was Alyson Kirkman, who ran the tuck shop. She thought the children were joking, as did the teachers when they were told. But so many of the children all told a similar story, and some were visibly shaken, that finally investigators were called in. All children interviewed were asked to draw a picture of what they had seen, and all the pictures were extremely similar. Many children who had heard the "message" went on to take part in ecological projects.
On the same day, in Mexico, around 8 pm, air traffic controllers reported UFO activity over Metapec. Soon, hundreds of people were reporting seeing a UFO hovering over rooftops in Metapec. Two sisters, Sara and Erika Cuevas, were driving back to their home in Metapec. As they approached the town they could see a red disc around 70 feet in diameter in the sky. Upon reaching their home, they ran inside for their video camera, only to find that it was not working, along with any electrical appliance in the house. They went up onto the roof to get a better view of the UFO, still in the sky. As they watched, two smaller craft shot out and away from it, and landed in a field near their house. Two hours later, seven smaller discs appeared and began darting round the field, flattening the maize stalks into a geometric pattern, until one disc exploded, shooting hundreds of tiny balls, similar to eyes.
Investigators arrived the following day, together with dozens of reporters, and a helicopter overflew the crop field, filming the strange pattern. Despite all the activity, Sara's husband refused to accept her story of the previous nights' events, so she vowed to stay up all night with the video camera in case the UFO returned to get evidence. Erika volunteered to wait with her, and, in the early hours of the morning, the two sisters saw a glow about 30 yards away in the field. At first they thought it was a light, but as they edged closer to get a better view, they saw it was a glowing figure, standing in the middle of the strange pattern from the previous night. Sara recorded three minutes of video tape, on the video camera which now worked, showing the figure standing still in the centre of the field, before it suddenly vanished. Quite clearly, on the soundtrack of the video, can be heard the sisters' reactions to what they saw.
"What is it? That's horrible. Oh my God....Erika, it's so ugly" Sara said. The video tape has been analysed by Professor Victor Quesada at the University of Mexico's Polytechnical Institute. He reports that the creature is around 4 feet tall, twenty five yards from the camera, and not human. The light emanated from the creature itself. Computer enhancements revealed a terrifying large, insect-like head with a small proboscis or antenna, and it was carrying some kind of instrument. Soil and plant samples were taken from the field which were analysed. Both soil temperature and radiation was much higher than in the surrounding areas, with radiation levels at 350 per cent higher than the background. The leaves of plants in the area had undergone strange cellular changes. No theories were put forward as to what had been caught on video.
Since we have no explanations, we offer this article as food for thought. Are there other life forms who visit us, and are they benign or terrible? Will they come in peace and teach us or to threaten and dominate us? Only time will tell, but, until we know for sure, there will be many other stories like the above to puzzle over.
For further reading on this subject, please see The World's Greatest series by Nigel Cawthorne, published by Hamlyn, which covers alien encounters, alien abductions, UFO sightings and encounters, along with alien conspiracy theories. Whether you believe these stories or not, the books make interesting reading.
Submitted by Liz Green