A UFO theory.

[Stupot]

I've been thinking.
There seems to have been a lot of sightings of UFO's in the UK in recent weeks. Or certainly there has been an increase in press coverage of them.

Anyone else think this could be a bit of a publicity stunt to build up enthusiasm for the next X-Files movie?

I'm a strong believer that nearly everything in the news (apart from the big stuff like murders and international crises) is there for publicity purposes.  I'm not saying they make it up, but they certainly select their stories to fit in with what is going to make them the most money.

The headline on today's Sun was "ARMY SPOT UFOs OVER SHROPSHIRE"...
The Sun is part of the Murdoch empire, as is Fox, who are the company behind The X-Files, so it would make sence that His news empire would direct their stories to support his TV and film interests... just a thought.

I'll be keeping an eye on paranormal developments over the next month, especially in the Murdoch Media, and I'll provide a conclusion along with a review the film on August 1st.

[Becky]

The one they showed on the news last night moved like a flying pigeon.

[evenwolf]

The Sun is sort of a celebrity gossip publication, right?

Most publications actually do try to maintain a good image, and keep their credibility.   On the contrary, publications like these will report just about anything.   I'd say its a good bet Fox is  trying some publicity stunt viral marketing nonsense.   

I googled one of these articles and it does appear they're not just reporting each sighting but instead saying "UFOs rampant all over the UK"  to start some buzz not unlike Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast.    If its about the X Files movie I just couldn't say.

[Nacho]

I agree...

I agree that someone who has been paranoid enough to tell that Heath Ledger was killed by Hollywood to promote Batman can believe such things...

[evenwolf]

Woah.    I had to search "Heath Ledger" for that reference.   Umm...

Despite the fact the HL conspiracy is loony, don't let that convince you that media outlets don't try PR stunts.    I mean you saw all the crazy shit they did for Cloverfield.    We're talking about the Sun not the Times of London.   It takes years and years to gain credibility from your audience as a media outlet.   The only thing keeping respectable media outlets from downright lying to the public is that they don't want to lose their audience.

So papers like the Sun feature celebrity gossip columns and horoscopes, and everything else including bologna.   I don't see much credibility in the UFO stories.   Not enough to defend them.

[Nacho]

***Clarification***

My intention was to be funnier, better than offensive. Sometimes internet sucks at expressing the feelings of the people over it. Sorry if there has been a missunderstood, Stu.

[evenwolf]

Hahaha, well anyways  I was watching CNN the other day and the WEIRDEST story came on about Barack Obama and John McCain.


The story was basically "You've been hearing alot lately from the candidates about how evil lobbyists are..... but did you know there are lots of lobbyists out there trying to HELP you?"

The story went on to show all these goodguy lobbyists and blah blah blah, defending the system as it is.   There seemed to be no actual news item propelling this story.... just the fact that the giant conglomerate that runs CNN wanted the story to be told.

So there's some PR.   And it wasn't a lie really.  Just a situation where CNN used its own airtime to try to change public opinion of the voters.  For its own benefit.   Nothing new there. 

[veryweirdguy]

I agree that journalism is often used as a PR stunt or as a way to propell various issues into the limelight, but I think in this case, the initial story has spiralled and captured people's imaginations.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1952867/British-Government-releases-UFO-files.html

Over 20 years worth of UFO sightings are now available to view, and some articles I have seen reporting this even include "if you have any UFO sightings YOU'D like to report, please send them in!" at the end. I think this is just media fuelled by media.

It's like how Michael Jackson was in the forefront of the media for like a year after that documentary about him only...y'know...with aliens.

I don't think they would risk knowingly publishing lies (that can be disproven) to promote a film I guess? I just typed sentence and realised that yeah, it is highly possible and I wouldn't put it past them, but I'm not enough of a conspiracy theorist to see it actually happening.

[Stupot]

I agree...

I agree that someone who has been paranoid enough to tell that Heath Ledger was killed by Hollywood to promote Batman can believe such things...

Yeh... Some people are fucking idiots 

[Nacho]

Everybody is in certain periods! 

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

So there's some PR.   And it wasn't a lie really.  Just a situation where CNN used its own airtime to try to change public opinion of the voters.  For its own benefit.   Nothing new there.

Yeah, CNN and Fox 'fair and balanced' are basically horseshit to me and any reasoned, intelligent viewer at this point.  It's clear that they are purely tools for the Republicrat party unity agenda.


As for UFO's...seriously, why do people still harp on this issue?  Are we so desperate to be the center of attention that all we can think of is aliens wanting to abduct and anal probe us?  I'm sure a vastly superior race has better things to do than stick its fingers up strange asses.

[m0ds]

Well, the other week The Sun reported about the chopper that was approached & gave chase to a UFO over Cardiff, and at the end of that report they asked for people to send in any photos or experiences they've had. Yesterday they obviously had enough reports compiled from the same day to make it front page news. Plus, they know I'm interested in it, I keep texting them. Maybe they'll include my comment! (See the 'Text us' page, my comments have been in there often). The latest sightings seem realistic, I have no doubt they were seeing space craft. The Cardiff chopper incident is legitimate in my opinion too.

edit - it seems the mobile phone and army people who saw something in Shrops, just saw Chinese lanterns. On reflection, it very well could be. But why did they claim the lights were "zig zagging" ? Maybe it was just blustery... Still, that sighting is the one thats least interested me, there was a significant daytime sighting that was mentioned in The Sun too. I'm yet to see the video of it myself tho, but it looks far more realistic and like the underside of a craft. And to be fair, what the hell would raise from the ground, approach a police helicopter & then zoom off into the distance? A chinese lantern? 

Therefore I don't think it's connected to the X-Files movie in anyway. It's connected to simply being PROOF that "aliens" exist, but people are blind to that. Fair enough. In the last month or two UFO sightings seem to have surged. But better still they're not ones that herald controversy, ie a slow moving object etc, the most of them report the fast moving objects darting about or several lights in a triangle etc similar to the ones I've seen.

I know I can't convince you guys but here's the deal as I see it. There are craft that can pass through other dimensions that are frequently observing us. What's more is that these craft are anything from 20 to 200 foot in size, maybe even more. Can you believe it? Gigantic space-craft ARE visiting earth? If you're quite open to believe this, then you may be in for a nice surprise. If you choose to be sceptical, or what not, you're really only shutting yourself out from a greater truth that is "out there" than you choose to believe.

Surely it is actually better, or more fun, to believe it's real, than to believe its not? If not, I guess you're scared -- but thats fine, I'm a little scared too.

I've said before that anyone here has the same oppurtunity as the next guy to see an alien craft, and if you really want too - you will. And this year is a good time to keep your eye on the skies, because, for some reason, these craft are expecting to be noticed a little more.

Why?

Well, that I don't know! But one of my ideas is their interest in the LHC, which I think will show humans the way to interdimensional travel. Its findings, or the machine itself even, could act, or lay the foundations, for our very own stargate. Also, there is talk of the new Age of Aquarius sometime within the next 100 years. My betting is that it happens in or around 2012. The Mayan calendar ends, and by that point I think we will have all been properly introduced to alien life. We already know there's ice on Mars....what's under that ice?

I've also been in discussion with a friend lately who's explained to me how its quite likely that everything we see, experience, etc, is "held back". It's hard to explain but apparently the speed in which everything runs could be shielded & we are moving four times slower than we should/could be. I'll need to talk to him again but basically he said one day, we will travel four times faster than currently possible. It's something to do with dimensions, I dunno...

Anyway there are a lot of theories but there's simply no convincing some people. Like people who won't believe in Jesus unless they see a miracle themselves, we have people who won't believe in Aliens until they see a spaceship for themselves.

So, I guess I just gotta wait for some people here to have a UFO experience before we can really get into the hot debate about "why" they are here, etc. But trust me, after one sighting, some research on YouTube etc, you too will probably be glued to the fact we're not alone

Americans are quite lucky, Clinton actually seemed to try & probe UFOs properly. But didn't find anything I've been doing my own research here and there, just tying up some loose ends. The majority of people seem to be saying the same type of UFO's at the moment. Still, I watched loads of videos and found some really good ones. But in all fairness I got completely spooked about the prospect of aliens coming out of a dimension portal in front of me and had to sleep with the light on

Some videos I've seen recently that I like...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e7ca2fYLyw Alien abduction on tape
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE_C1FXRo20 Blue ghost on CCTV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xlyofmznOs Ghosts in a field?

FINALLY. I was looking at Google earth last night and came across this pattern... Although the photos of my area stored on Google Earth are at least 6 months old, it probably isn't there anymore. But I found this in a field no more than 500 metres away from where I live. Interesting!



Oh and finally, it would be good if they did some kind of global promotion that was very clever, but I don't think the whole UFO thing is a great idea. It's nice to interest people in a film but its a completely different thing to fuck up peoples ideas about these sort of strange happenings. I remember when we had a mini quake in the UK, people thought it was an "advert" for Cloverfield, hehe!

ps; I just found out what my image is...it's pig pens! The circle is made by the circular pigs swill bucket thing and the lines are created by marked out pens. I've found a few around. Damnit, I was so sure... :p

[scotch]

Surely it is actually better, or more fun, to believe it's real, than to believe its not?"

That basically sums it all up. The disagreement here is if it's more fun to believe in scraps of ancient numerology and pop culture monsters than all the things you can learn if you DON'T throw your critical thinking abilities down the drain on fantasies.

I think VWG is right, UFO sightings and media coverage feed off each other, there's probably no media conspiracy.

[BOYD1981]

I've said before that anyone here has the same oppurtunity as the next guy to see an alien craft, and if you really want too - you will.

that is the main problem i have with UFO sightings - people want to believe that what they're seeing is extra-terrestrial so to them there is no other explenation.
i mean, i can believe that the moon is a space station, but that doesn't mean that it is.
the kind of thinking behind "i don't know what it is so it must be alien" is not in the least bit rational.
believing that something is an alien UFO doesn't make it so, there have UFO sightings on earth for thousands of years and there are even prehistoric cave paintings of them but that alone doesn't make them real, and i bet you that a majority of people that do think they're real and that have seen UFOs are people that not only believe in them but who also watch too much star trek and sci-fi in general.
now, i don't really believe that earth is the only planet in the entire universe that has life on it, that just seems a bit narrow minded to me. but at the same time i don't believe that any species technologically advanced enough to travel at lightspeed or "shift between dimensions" would be stupid enough to let what is basically a much more primitive species see it and then zoom off or just disappear.
the same goes for people tha believe in ghost sightings too.
so in short then: believing something is real doesn't make it real.

[evenwolf]

I know I can't convince you guys but here's the deal as I see it. There are craft that can pass through other dimensions that are frequently observing us. What's more is that these craft are anything from 20 to 200 foot in size, maybe even more. Can you believe it? Gigantic space-craft ARE visiting earth? If you're quite open to believe this, then you may be in for a nice surprise. If you choose to be sceptical, or what not, you're really only shutting yourself out from a greater truth that is "out there" than you choose to believe.

What are us skeptics missing out on?   Statistically, I have a pretty good chance of seeing an alien since all those witnesses say "I didn't believe in aliens till I saw one."  What am I shutting myself out from?   The fruitless searching of the skies?

I've said before that anyone here has the same oppurtunity as the next guy to see an alien craft, and if you really want too - you will. And this year is a good time to keep your eye on the skies, because, for some reason, these craft are expecting to be noticed a little more.

What if I go looking for other stuff in the sky?  I hope you don't say that I'm less likely to see one simply because I don't believe in UFOs.  Are aliens the angels from "Angels in the Outfield"?    You can't get away with saying "you have to believe it to see it"  because how did the first siting happen?   The first UFO witness didn't believe in UFOs, did he?   Unless he imagined there COULD be aliens.... and believed solely based on his imagination.    Even if there are UFOs, surely you'll admit most sitings are people's imaginations.

Really mods, any other argument will do but avoid anything that resembles Tinkerbell.

[InCreator]

I bet there will be more UFO's till movie release.

[m0ds]

Evenwolf, not really sure what you're on about -- all I was saying is that there is stuff out there to see so go see it. I've seen stuff to make me question things "beyond" what I know as reality since I was a kid, and that I don't believe this is stunt or hoax, its the real deal. Even if it's just earthly technology we're being shadowed from, doesn't that make you curious?

I don't know how you can say most of the sightings are peoples imaginations. If your brain can conjure up a bright spinning object above your head then that's great, but for most people including me thats not so easy!

The fact they've been documented since the dawn of man as Boyd points out is surely a good enough indication that they exist. To be fair it would have been far easier for the first person who saw one to speculate that it was something not of this earth. They barely knew what "round" was, I'm surprised they even knew how to fuck. But they still managed to draw the strange objects they saw in the sky. In todays world we have all sorts of crap that could, and in a lot of cases do, account for the sightings. Balloons, mostly. Weather phenomena too.

There have been a lot of co-incidences with all this paranormal stuff lately. For example, the guy that was doing a show, talking to the dead. He was pestered by a gran & made him single out a woman in the audience, saying she had been raped. The gran was distressed that this monster had gotten away with it. I dont think he mentioned that exactly as there was an audience but she left sobbing, and very soon after confessed she had been raped when she was younger. Weeks later the man was convicted of rape & they found out he'd raped 2 other girls too. And this all thanks to the girls dead gran. How do you explain that? If you can find a "weather balloon" or "imagination" explanation to that I'm all ears :o

Also, I can't believe I'm the only person on these boards to see some kind of UFO. Or anything paranormal for that matter. Or anything that just makes you question your own existence a little bit more. And it's hard to find interesting people who take it seriously too! But ho-hum

[evenwolf]

My mother reported seeing a UFO while she was younger.   But nowadays she admits that she was taking her biploar medication and can't even be certain she saw anything alien at all.   Today she retracts the UFO siting.

I have difficulty believing my ears when the witness's sobriety may be in question.    Humans lie on a daily basis just to push product.   What makes them so much more trustworthy or reliable regarding aliens?   Moreso, if the person is telling the truth about what they BELIEVE they saw, they still aren't verifying what they saw.   

There have been a lot of co-incidences with all this paranormal stuff lately. For example, the guy that was doing a show, talking to the dead. He was pestered by a gran & made him single out a woman in the audience, saying she had been raped. The gran was distressed that this monster had gotten away with it. I dont think he mentioned that exactly as there was an audience but she left sobbing, and very soon after confessed she had been raped when she was younger. Weeks later the man was convicted of rape & they found out he'd raped 2 other girls too. And this all thanks to the girls dead gran. How do you explain that? If you can find a "weather balloon" or "imagination" explanation to that I'm all ears :o

It's called a "hot reading".

Is this a John Edwards kind of guy who pretends to talk to the dead?      Yes, that is a hoax.   Most of the time the audience will be probed on the way in "What are you hoping to find out today?"   or "Who are you hoping to contact?"  Talking to the dead is one of the most despicable of all scams.    If you have verified sources I may go further to disprove it.    But your description is shady enough that  disproving the facts simply isn't a factor here.    I've got nothing to work off except an old wives tale .    I believe that all psychics are frauds and this episode of Penn & Teller does well to describe the phenomenon.

Talking to the Dead! I want to believe! pt1   pt 2    pt 3

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I really, really detest Penn Gilette but I think on some things he's absolutely right.  Personally, I'd refer people to James Randi any day of the week before I'd refer them to Penn & Teller (as far as debunking goes).  He really is the expert on such things.

http://www.randi.org/

[evenwolf]

Penn idolizes Randi.  Randi frequently appears on Bullshit as a credible counter point to the fraudulent.

Penn is really smart and most of these topics are related.  Virgin Mary, UFO, and ghost sitings are all circumstances of pareidolia.    All these things are related because people are victims of their own imaginations WANTING to believe.    You can understand why Penn can't help being an asshole to those people sometimes.  He desperately wants them to drop the bullshit...   and gets a little ego boost from seeing through the BS himself.

The only difference between Penn and say Randi is the different personality types.   Penn is such a big personality and can't help putting his ego into the wager of whether its true or false.  Randi is much more patient.