THERE have been two sightings of UFOs over Marsden in recent days so is there really something out there apart from sheep?
I was working in the office last Sunday and a reader had sent in a photograph of what he said could be a UFO over Marsden Moors. There was a picture and everything. Well, when I say everything, there was only the picture.
I looked at it several times from all kinds of angles and came to the conclusion it looked remarkably like it could be a jet. We do have them flying over on RAF training missions now and again.
But just as I was about to dismiss it, the phone rang.
It was someone else from Marsden.
“If you’ve got a photographer around send him to Marsden,’’ said the voice. “There’s a silver cylindrical object in the sky. I’ve never seen anything like it before and it appears to be moving slowly.’’
“Could it be a small airship?’’ I suggested helpfully.
“No, I’ve thought about that but it’s not,’’ said our UFO spotter.
Photographer Peter Cottle was at the other side of Huddersfield taking pictures of a giant egg and spoon race at Salendine Nook. Not exactly fertile UFO territory.
He scanned the skies and said he couldn’t see anything strange at all.
Strange that.
And strange too for all the millions of people who believe there is something out there that we have never captured an alien, or a spaceship or found any evidence we can display in a UFO museum and proudly proclaim: “Here’s the evidence.’’
There are, of course, those who would beg to differ. After all, according to one unsubstantiated study, up to three million Americans have been abducted by aliens at some point in their lives.
And here’s another American, Dr Steven Greer, Director of the Center for the Study of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (CSETI), who said: “The evidence that the earth is being visited by at least one extraterrestrial civilisation is extensive both in scope and detail.
“In its totality it comprises a body of evidence which at the very least supports the general assessment that extraterrestrial life has been detected and that a vigorous programme of research and serious diplomatic initiatives is warranted.”
Of course, to a cynic like me it’s all bits and pieces. Some magnesium here that could have fallen from the sky, a UFO-shaped hole in the vegetation there, lights in the sky and objects no-one ever manages to get properly on film or, even in this digital age, on a digital camera, camcorder or mobile phone.
Or as a bloke called Michael Jordan wrote in the Journal of Alternative Realities: “Any scientific study of the UFO enigma seems inevitably to result in frustrating ambiguity and contradiction. Really worthwhile UFO reports are frequently characterised by high strangeness, evasiveness, resistance to scholarly investigation and a seemingly unavoidable, bewildering array of conclusions.
“It would appear that the best prospect for achieving a meaningful evaluation of relevant hypotheses is likely to come from the examination of physical evidence.’’
I couldn’t agree more. Except that there isn’t any.
But the UK did take it seriously … a long time ago. The Ministry of Defence set up a secret flying saucer working party in the 1950s drawing in experts from the Directorate of Scientific Intelligence and the Joint Technical Intelligence Committee with nothing better to do in those over-staffed times.
It was set up in 1951 after a spate of sightings in Sweden and the US led to several sightings in Britain. But all these were dismissed as optical illusions, psychological delusions or just plain hoaxes.
Some believe the media is involved with the Government in covering up the presence of UFOs.
Surely finding evidence of UFOs and aliens is the greatest scoop ever.
So, if you’ve got an alien staying with you or know where I can find a spaceship, let me know and together we’ll become the reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the 21st Century.
And then we come full crop circle, so to speak, to the conspiracy theories.
Here’s Dr Greer again. He’s always good for a quote: “The infrastructure needed to maintain and expand the level of secrecy which can deceive presidents and CIA directors and senior congressional leaders and European prime ministers and the like is substantial and illegal.
“Let me be clear. The entity which controls the UFO matter and its related technologies has more power than any single government in the world or any single identified world leader.’’
Now I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but what if it’s aliens who are behind all this cover-up. After all, I’ve seen Men In Black.
Now, I bet no-one has thought of that before.
Or have they …
