Don’t Damn Me!

Another of my childhood interests which even stuck with me through my Christian years, always giving me cause for curiosity and wonder. I have somewhat lost my interest and curiosity over recent years, guess i had to get rid of a few things to make room for everything else that was going on inside of me.

• The Concepts

There’s quite a few ideas and theories behind the whole phenomenon of UFOs and Aliens, some more plausible than others.

• Alien Life Forms from another planet/galaxy

The idea that there are actually living forms on other planets or galaxies seems to be the main line of thought among enthusiasts, and i guess it was my belief, for a long time in my life. I found the whole idea quite exciting, different, weird and strange. All good things for a young lad growing up on horror films and science-fiction.

I think it would be arrogant to totally deny this possibility, the idea that out of all of the multi-verse around us, only our little planet supports life, it’s just stupid and naive. That doesn’t mean there has to be life elsewhere, it just means you can’t rule it out.

The mere fact that NASA have discovered Mars contains water, shows just how likely the whole scenario is. After all, water is one of the major building blocks of life.

Although it’s not really much of a stretch to imagine that some, or even one of these races (if indeed they exist) are beyond us technologically, morally, spiritually, i’ve always found it slightly annoying how some people always jump to the conclusion that if there are aliens out there, they must be better than us, able to help us, willing and actually trying to help us. Classic transference in my opinion, we need salvation, aliens are the answer, i’ll put my faith in them, etc.

It’s just as likely that these aliens are as messed up as we are, killing each other and looking for new worlds to discover and conquer. It’s also likely that, there are races far behind our own technological age.

• Aliens from another dimension

Dimensions are a trickier argument all together. Because of their somewhat illusive nature, dimensions are hard to argue for, or against, certainly from my perspective, only having a very loose grasp on concepts like Quantum Physics, Physics itself, and the like.

The idea of beings that can transcend dimensions, has always sounded more spiritual to me, certainly as a Christian, and still with some of that knowledge, it makes me suspicious. If there are indeed lifeforms from another dimension, rather than just being aliens, i would have to imagine they were some sort of angel/demon, and that religion and the bible wasn’t so mythical after all. I can’t really see it though, it doesn’t make any sense (not that a subject like this should) to my mind, and i can’t go with it.

• Time travellers

This particular flavour of explanation is a favourite of mine. It’s the one that makes the most sense to my mind. I don’t know a great deal about time travel, apart from maybe the basic concepts of speed of light, black holes, etc. So i don’t really have the level of knowledge in the subject to make it any more plausible, it’s still very much a matter of faith, based upon the understanding of scientists who claim to know better, or on intuition, or maybe even just plain desire, as i think it would be quite cool.

But, the idea of either human beings, or beings from another universe are flitting through time, popping up here and there, doesn’t present me with as much doubt, as some of the other theories. It would certainly explain the supposed claims and evidence, a lot more clearly than most theories.

• Angels, Demons and Religion

In my time spent as a Christian, i believed, for the most part, that UFOs and the whole phenomenon were the physical display of a spiritual battle going on around us. I was even willing to believe the possibility that the subject itself was part of a ploy of the Devil, giving people something to believe in for their salvation, other than God himself, thus clouding their minds and judgement, and keeping them as sinners.

At the same time though, i was an avid reader of magazines like Fortean Times (I still subscribe, now), books by authors like Erich Von Daniken, so i certainly wasn’t just accepting the Christian belief on such things, i wanted more answers.

Obviously the bible had a very straightforward explanation, with all the instances of people seeing angels, surrounded by strange events like fire in the sky, chariots in the sky, items ascending and descending in the sky, etc.

Which is what really interested me at the time, the idea that these things took place even back then, whether the bible was a collective work of a few people and their beliefs, or the the written embodiment of God himself, the fact remained that it was describing things that still go on today, and giving witness accounts, even if biased and painted in a way that coincided with the beliefs of the witness involved. Much like any witness account, really, even now.

• Ancients and Gods

I hadn’t really ever considered the fact that UFOs and Aliens weren’t a new thing, until that time as a Christian, and trying to find answers and understanding, through both the bible and the theories surrounding ancient civilizations and what they believed of the phenomenon.

I read an awful lot, i was like a sponge sucking up all the information and ideas, doing my own bible studies, trying to find anything that pointed to clearer answers.

I ended up with the conclusion that the truth was likely a mixture of two things. I couldn’t rule out the possibility of aliens, at face value, another race of beings which God had created, in another universe, far, far away, nor could i deny the truth of the bible, with regards to angels and demons, which included the likelihood of demons appearing as alluring entities to trick people into false beliefs, etc.

I think it was at that time, where i started to think about the arguments of Von Daniken, and realise just how something like that would have appeared back then. The ease with which people might accept a new God, based on such wonderful events and feats that denied their known laws of physics, etc.

If time travel was available to us now, and we took a few items back to say the 15th Century, i’m sure any one of us could be worshipped as a God, even with a very basic understanding of science, and the help of an iPod, or Nintendo DS, fully charged.

So for people back thousands of years ago, to see fires in the sky, must have been truly awe-inspiring and would likely have resulted in people falling to their knees at the glory of some God, or other.

Another line of thought along these lines, was that the human race itself was either created by, or at least toyed with, by these aliens. Various ideas of our DNA being a mix of what the earth already contained, in other creatures, then mixed with some alien DNA, to skip out the missing link and give us what we have today. All very neat. Or ideas that the Earth had actually not contained life, and that aliens had seeded us, laying the first part of the puzzle for evolution to take place.

All very interesting, and again, plausible. at least to me.

• Earth Mysteries and Natural Phenomenon

Over the years there have been countless natural explanations for UFOs and abductions, etc. Lightning, fault line activity, causing ball lightning and hovering lights, imagination, weather balloons, planets being visible to the naked eye, shooting stars, drugs, alcohol, dreams, sleep paralysis, stress, kites, and many, many others.

In my opinion these reasons probably account for a good 90% of cases, most of it just stands to reason and if you remove things like emotions, fear, the ability of the mind to fill in the gaps, you can clearly see that there isn’t an awful lot left, in most documented accounts.

• Military Secets

Another natural explanation could well be the testing of secret military vehicles. Spy planes, super-sonic jets, stealth bombers, and the like. There’s certainly evidence for this, from the past, where now we have military aircraft which isn’t a great deal removed from the UFOs people described in the 50s and 60s.

• The Evidence and strength of conviction

As we make our way through the 21st Century, there’s less and less confidence in any evidence that comes forward. Pictures and videos are so easily edited and manipulated now, and to be honest as society itself becomes more secular and cynical, there’s less trust in witness testimony as a whole.

There have been many photographs over the years, many videos, some shaky and unfocused, some crisp and almost “too good”. I can’t honestly say i’ve ever seen a photo or a video of a UFO and thought, “Wow, i can’t explain that, other than to think it’s a UFO.” Maybe i’m too cynical, maybe i know too much about computers, maybe i just think there’s too much of a reward for actually getting proof, and that too many people are out to get it at whatever means necessary.

In fact, of all the evidence there is, i don’t think i’ve ever read about one piece particularly and been convinced by it. I’ve always had an interest, and at best, the fact that others believe in it, and claim to have proof, which usually turns out to be far from proof, has merely intrigued me further and piqued my interest.

Like most things in life, which are outside the realms of accepted normality, it takes a little bit of faith, to follow it through to a conclusion other than one you can base on what you’ve seen, heard, smelt and touched.

There are some stories that are certainly interesting, ones of hypnosis leading to discoveries about the universe and it’s galaxies and planets, which at that time weren’t publicly known (although of course, not impossible to know, as the information was out there in the hands of the few). Cases of implants, arguments of back engineering, and the fact that we do actually have inventions now, including aircraft, which was described all those years ago, of course it’s a chicken or egg argument, were the planes already around, and mistaken for UFOs, or were they UFOs which give the governments the ideas of what to build.

• Conclusions

In all honesty, my answers aren’t by any stretch of the imagination conclusive at all. I have a tendency to lean towards more mundane, natural explanations though. As mentioned above, i think a lot of cases where people claim to see UFOs, can be discounted, due to natural phenomenon. If not all.

I think on the whole, things like alien abduction, probes, and the descriptions of these things, including paralysis, loss of control, fear, etc, sound very much like sleep paralysis, and most cases do tend to happen when the person is in bed and is awakened by a light or sound.

Having suffered from sleep-paralysis myself, i can see how it would work, and how believable it is at the time, when you literally lose track of when you’re awake and when you’re not, due to the amount of times you THINK you’ve woke up, only to realise you’re still asleep.

I even think that military secrets play a big part too, with the testing of various new aircraft, shuttles, rockets, robots for spying, etc.

But, do i think there’s more to it? I do. But not strongly, i’m certainly open to suggestions.

I’m really not sure what, but if pushed, i’d probably lean towards something to do with the fabric of time. Manipulation of black holes, time travel, some unknown science, allowing for people and/or beings from other planets, to transverse space and time, and go where they please. Without having to worry about the immense distances from one galaxy to another, etc.

It seems the most likely explanation to me, even though it’s not very likely at all, and takes a fair amount of faith and gap filling, to make things fit. But, for one reason or another, it’s something i just like the sound of.

I think the fact there are so many galaxies, each containing so many planets, and as shown by Mars, capable of carrying water, the initial building block of a life-sustaining planet, makes it almost unlikely that there aren’t any other planets which support life.

If there are older planets than ours, in galaxies older than ours, it stands to reason that one or two, might be advanced, technologically. Capable of things that our scientists now, are beginning to promise, as part of theoretical sciences and such like. It may even be a case of a different evolution of thought and science, not actually advanced, just structured differently, behind us in some things, further along in others.

The fact that our scientists have the ideas they do now, and are looking at ways of making them real, means it’s not impossible that we may indeed be capable of such things in the future, which means people from that future time, could well be coming back in time, travelling around the universe, and all sorts of other things, as they please.

The one thing that does niggle me though, and probably always has, is why, if there are such beings or time travellers, why haven’t they come clean? There are many excuses for this, but they sound just like the arguments of any religion, whereby you just have to accept it’s beyond our understanding, or they’re hiding because they don’t want to affect our way of thinking and believing, etc. Excuses.

In closing, i think i probably have a slight believe in such things, because i want to, rather than because there’s something to it. Yes, i can’t deny the possibilities, as outlined above, but there’s really no reason other than that to believe.

It’s like the fact that i’m an agnostic, because i can’t see anything in the whole God side of the argument. I have no more proof of his in-existence, and it still requires an element of faith for me to think he doesn’t exist and that the bible isn’t the whole truth, but it sits better in my mind and seems more likely.

For that same reason, UFOs and Aliens just seem like there might be something to it, for no apparent reason other than it’s a bit interesting and exciting.