Astronomers On E.T.

The bulk of books, articles, documentaries, written and presented on the subject of life in the universe are by professional astronomers. However, much of the subtopics that make up the broad-brush picture have nothing to do with professional astronomy. As such, readers interested in the subject need to be highly critical when astronomers wax lyrical about extraterrestrial life as most what they pontificate about is personal, not professionally based opinion.

When it comes to the subject of extraterrestrial life, exobiology or astrobiology, the profession most oft associated is that of the astronomer*. That should be nonsense as the focus should be on the word “life” or “biology” not on the word “extraterrestrial”, “exo” or “astro”. I’ve often said that when it comes to UFOs, for example, astronomers are out of their league because the subject of UFOs is not a proper astronomical subject for astronomers to professionally study and thus comment upon in a professional capacity. Astronomers, being human and all that entails, do not always draw a line in the sand between what they believe professionally through academic study and research and what they believe personally, without benefit of academic study and research.  

The only astronomer who ended up making a serious professional study of UFOs, in fact employed as a consultant to the USAF on UFOs – astronomical at first, hence all facets – was the late J. Allen Hynek, so he’s qualified to wax lyrical. What’s interesting is he started off sceptical on the bona-fides of the field, but came around to the opinion that UFOs were serious scientific business. 

The turf of astronomers starts at the top of Earth’s atmosphere and goes outward bound from there, although I’d maintain that things like meteorites are the realm of mineralogists; Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLP) and the ‘Face’ on Mars and other dynamic visible features on planetary and satellite ‘surfaces’ are more the turf of meteorologists, geologists, and maybe even oceanographers (i.e. – Jupiter’s moon, Europa).

WHAT ASTRONOMERS CAN, SHOULD, CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT COMMENT ON REGARDING EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE

Probability of Extraterrestrial Life: Astronomers can tell us roughly how many stars there are per galaxy and what kind of stars they are and how many galaxies there are in the visible universe and roughly what the average solar system might be like, it’s components and constituents, but that’s as far as it goes. When it comes down to whether life arises and evolves on any of these extra-solar planets up through and including intelligence and technologies is an exercise better left to biologists and anthropologists.

Extra-Solar Planets and Planetary Systems: Astronomers are doing an outstanding job in discovering planets orbiting around other stars than just our Sun. They can pretty much estimate, maybe guesstimate, their size and orbital characteristics. They can also determine what the atmospheric constituents are – if any. However, what precisely that composition signifies – constituents perhaps in chemical disequilibrium suggestive of biomarkers – is an analysis best left to chemists and biochemists.

Origin of Life and Panspermia: Astronomers have no academic bona-fides that enables them to wax lyrical on these topics. Maybe terrestrial life originated on Earth; maybe it came via spores (or some such) from outer space (panspermia), but that’s not a subject that’s part and parcel of astronomy, even if extrapolated to abodes somewhere out there.

Transition from Simple (Unicellular) to Complex (Multicellular) Life: Any pontificating on this subject by astronomers is pure and simply their personal opinion. Astronomers would be pissed if evolutionary biologists got press coverage for commenting on the astrophysics of Black Holes, yet astronomers seem to feel capable of practicing biology, as long as it’s called extraterrestrial biology, astrobiology or biology in outer space.

Evolutionary Rise of Intelligence, Technology and the Longevity of Civilizations: Any such speculations are best left to anthropologists as these topic fall way, way, way outside of the realm of academic astronomy.  

Life Not As We Know It: Any speculation on alternative biochemistries (substitute silicon for carbon; ammonia for water; etc.), in fact the entire definition of what life itself is, is best left to biochemists and related disciplines.

Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI): Professionally, astronomers seek out photons – visible light photons; radio photons, microwave photons, gamma-ray photons, infrared photons, ultraviolet photons, etc. Astronomers have a good handle on what naturally originating photons are like and what they can tell us about astronomical objects. Thus, astronomers should be able to spot anomalous photons – artificially originating photons with the accent on the artificiality. If astronomers spot unnaturally emitted photons then the odds are rather good that they have found an extraterrestrial intelligence, an intelligence that has the ability to emit artificially produced photons – like radio signals, optical (laser) signals, etc. Of course there have been false alarms. Pulsars were first thought to be artificial signals; ditto some quasars; and there were those who thought they had picked up radio broadcasts from Mars in the early years of the 20^th Century. However, once astronomers have detected anomalous photons and unanimously concluded they came from an extraterrestrial technological civilization, then any extrapolation from that is out of their bailiwick and resides more with anthropologists, linguistics experts, and other social science academics. 

First Contact: While there are lots of terrestrial examples of first contact, astronomers aren’t historians, sociologists or anthropologists and thus shouldn’t professionally speculate as being all-knowing on the subject of extraterrestrial first contact.

AREAS WHERE ASTRONOMERS NEED TO REALLY BUTT OUT

Visitors from Outer Space: Astronomers are qualified to tell us about the vastness of the cosmos and the immense distances between stars and our neck of the woods. But, the ability of advanced technological extraterrestrial civilizations to transverse those distances is a matter for engineers not astronomers.

Unidentified Flying Objects: UFO crashes in general and Roswell (July 1947) in particular falls way outside the province of professional astronomy (unless such a ‘crash’ can be positively identified as an impacting meteorite). Yet astronomers feel quite capable to wax lyrical on the subject. However, any opinions expressed by astronomers are really personal, not professional ones, and have no more validity than comments by Joe and Josephine Citizen.

UFO abductions, or abductions by ufonauts (the ‘greys’), fall outside the province of professional astronomy and are more properly the province of mental health professionals.

Government programs associated with investigating UFOs, UFO censorship or cover-ups fall outside the province of professional astronomy. Astronomers aren’t experts in national security matters, defence protocols, political science and other associated areas that deals with intelligence operations.

Close Encounters of any kind including geophysical, physiological, electromagnetic, ground trace cases, fall outside the province of professional astronomy.

Analysis and commentary on UFO films and photographs fall outside the province of professional astronomy.

Analysis of radar returns from UFOs, a rather technical and complex matter, tends to fall outside the province of professional astronomy even though radar has been used to probe some of the planets and satellites of our solar system, and thus their ground topography which puts such data in the realm of the geologist in any event.

Alien motivations (i.e. – why don’t they land on the White House lawn, etc.) fall outside the province of professional astronomy. At best this is a matter for psychologists and anthropologists and sociologists, though when it comes to what motivates an alien or alien culture neither is anyone else really qualified for that matter.

The only intersection between astronomy and UFOs is where assistance is required in ruling in or out astronomical bodies (the moon, planets, stars, meteors, etc.) as the cause or unlikely cause of a UFO sighting event. Or, perhaps where statements by so-called ‘contactees’ contradict known astronomical data. Otherwise, UFOs are the province of meteorologists, experts in optics and atmospheric optical phenomena, psychologists, etc.  Yet astronomers wax lyrical on all facets of the UFO phenomena as if all things UFO were exclusively part and parcel of their turf.

So 99% of what astronomers do (like Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Seth Shostak, and Donald Menzel) when pontificating about UFOs, are in reality spouting off personal opinions, not professional or professionally related (i.e. – astronomical related) factual knowledge.

Ancient Astronauts: Astronomers are not archaeologists, anthropologists, historians or usually conversant with mythologies, and thus should steer clear of anything to do with the subject of “ancient astronauts”.

Associated Facets:

Crop circles fall outside the province of professional astronomy, even though IMHO crop circles have probably nothing to do with ETI.

The animal (wildlife and livestock) mutilation phenomena fall outside the province of professional astronomy.

Ball lightning and other associated anomalous lights (like the Australian Min-Min Lights) fall outside the province of professional astronomy or astronomers who are not geophysicists.

Again, any commentaries by astronomers on these issues quasi-associated with ETI are, when all is said and done, when crunch comes crunch, are personal, not professional commentaries.

* And if not the astronomer then physicists. In fact the bulk of material dealing with life in the universe is penned by physical scientists, not biological or life scientists or naturalists. When I did a course in the subject of life in the universe, SUNY @ Stony Brook, it was of course taught by an astronomer, Tobias C. Owen, who has since co-authored along with Donald Goldsmith an entire textbook on the subject “The Search for Life in the Universe” (third edition - 2001).



Roswell: The Smoking Gun: Part Two

There have been hundreds of outstanding unidentifiable UFO events since June 1947, from the 700+ unknowns the USAF couldn’t resolve to the 30% of UFO cases the University of Colorado (Condon Committee) investigation couldn’t solve, all multiplied by the residue of unknowns as recorded by other official investigations around the world. Even though the unsolved to solved ratio of UFO reports is 1 to 19 (5% of UFO sightings remain as unknowns after investigation by those qualified to investigate), that still translates into a vast database of mystery. But the real Smoking Gun episode has to be one in which you can put something physical on the slab in the lab. Fortunately, one case points specifically in that exact direction – Roswell, July 1947. Someone, somewhere, has extraterrestrial stuff on the slab in their lab. The fact that you can’t put it on your slab in your lab is beside the point. Not everyone can be a have; there are the have-nots too.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

National Security Issues, Official Censorship and Cover-Ups

Now if you, you being the US of A superpower, have obtained extraterrestrial technology (especially at the very beginnings of the Cold War) you are not going to disclose that to anyone, foreign friends or foes or even your own citizens (which would be the same as telling the rest of the world). [I mean if you have sole access to a secret gold mine, are you going to blab the geographical details (latitude and longitude) all over Facebook?] The minimum number of people necessary will be in the loop. Everyone who has no need to know, regardless of their security clearance or military rank or political position, will not be told; will not be given access and therefore will be out of the loop. What you don’t know about you can’t blab about.

So all those other official UFO players – military officers, civilians, consultants (i.e. – J. Allen Hynek) – who officially investigated UFOs (i.e. – Project Blue Book among others), including the University of Colorado (Condon Committee) study, all these people were out of the loop, which just reaffirms that the public face of official UFO investigation was all just a public relations stunt to reassure the great unwashed that their government was on top of things. Those in the loop already knew the answer so there was no point for other serious official investigations by outsiders (those not in the loop). Of course those outside the loop, doing the PR, wouldn’t have been told their employment and efforts were just for PR purposes.

If you, again you being the USA, are in possession of advanced alien technologies you are going to do your darnedest to reverse engineer the technology and adapt it to your own national defence/security needs. You might not be able to do so, any more than advisors to Alexander-the-Great could reverse engineer the hydrogen bomb, a laser pointer or even a ‘simple’ radio receiver set no matter how badly old Alex wanted or demanded to make it so. But you would try your damnedest. Maybe you’d make inroads – maybe not. 

Inept Aliens?

Now much has been made of the fact that here you have apparently highly advanced, technologically capable, interstellar space-faring aliens who travel vast distances – crossing light years worth of interstellar space – only to arrive here on Earth then immediately, oops, crash! How dumb is that! Well, accidents happen.

But there’s another logical explanation. The Roswell event (early July 1947) was just a fortnight after the highly publicized Kenneth Arnold flying discs sighting (late June 1947), an event which launched the entire modern flying saucer era. The Arnold sighting precipitated an avalanche of other sightings over the next few days, weeks and months. So here in June 1947, also the beginnings of the Cold War era, all of a sudden you have credible observers reporting relatively incredible things - unidentified ‘aircraft’ or rather unconventional flying discs – that are invading your airspace, purpose(s) and intention(s) unknown. The powers-that-be knew perfectly well these unknowns, whatever they were, were not made-in-America. The logical military and national defence and security response therefore would be to shoot them down if they refuse to land and identify themselves.

Now the powers-that-be have never confirmed or denied that such an order was ever given, a ‘shoot them down’ directive or policy instrument that was established, communicated and in force in early July 1947. If it wasn’t, it damn well should have been otherwise the powers-that-be were derelict in their duty to defend the United States from a possible invasion by unknown forces. Despite the lack of confirm or deny, there are no shortage of newspaper headlines and articles attesting to that shoot-them-down policy as any Internet search will quickly confirm.* So, what if the Roswell craft that crashed wasn’t an oops by inept aliens but the result of hostile action taken against them by U.S. military forces?

Is There Another Terrestrial Alternative?

Might the Roswell object have actually been a classified experimental metallic but terrestrial military aircraft? Alas, in that case, the required cover-up cover story would have immediately been given out as something mundane, like a weather balloon, and not something as equally exotic, if not more so, as in a crashed flying saucer. And by the way, just because something is exotic (like flying saucers and crashed discs) doesn’t make it impossible. In any event, now 65 years after-the-fact, there would be no harm done in saying that the Roswell event was a classified experimental metallic but terrestrial military aircraft and put the remains on public view in a museum – say the Air and Space Museum or other facility the public can visit and gawk at. That’s of course if, and that’s a very big if, the Roswell object was a then classified experimental metallic but terrestrial military aircraft.

What Stinks?

The fact that the powers-that-be changed their spots; their initial story, not once but at least twice, reeks of WTF is going on here, or in other words, of a mix of hydrogen sulphide gas and rotting dead fish. I have to use the dead fish analogy since there’s something really fishy somewhere. Anyone or any organisation that keeps changing their story loses credibility.

Key Points Summary

# Some unusual occurrence involving the landing or crash-landing of an aerial device happened near the town of Roswell, New Mexico in early July 1947. That is not in dispute.

# Local military authorities stationed at the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) collected up all the debris from this object and publicly identified it as a flying disc or flying saucer. That is not in dispute.

# Higher authority not stationed at Roswell (therefore not on the spot) immediately contacted the responsible military officials that were stationed at Roswell (who were on the spot) ordering a change in emphasis from the exotic (flying saucer) to the mundane (weather balloon **). They then orchestrated a photo opportunity, showing off the Roswell Intelligence Officer (Major Marcel) holding real weather balloon debris, passing it off as the real Roswell stuff. As an aside, as noted above, the USAF changed their story yet again (roughly around 1995) – still a balloon but a balloon with a secret mission, to monitor secret Soviet nuclear tests (Project Mogul) ***. All that is not in dispute, but does tend to lend a bad odour to the whole sordid affair making the official balloon line highly suspect.

# That the Roswell Intelligence Officer (Major Marcel) and veteran of World War Two, not to mention all the other personnel that would have seen and handled the debris up through and including the Commanding Officer (Colonel Blanchard), that they could all mistake real balloon debris for a metallic flying saucer or disc is absurd in the extreme. The entire Roswell extraterrestrial vs. terrestrial case hinges around this very point. Is it credible that senior military personnel could mistake what was crashed balloon debris for a downed metallic disc or flying saucer? IMHO the answer is clearly “NO”.

# Both the Roswell Public Information Officer (Lt. Haut) and the Intelligence Officer (Major Marcel) after exiting their military careers went publicly, on the record, supporting the original flying saucer/disc diagnosis as being the real nature of the Roswell incident and strongly supporting a point of view that the craft was out-of-this-world. Their testimony is part now of the Roswell incident public record.

To conclude, that’s a Smoking Gun IMHO but it’s a pity that the Gun is behind highly classified, tightly closed security doors, forever to be locked away. No doubt the Roswell debris is as valuable now to the national security and defence of the United States as it was back then. Alien spaceships don’t tend to fall into your backyard as an everyday occurrence!

*Most newspaper reports of a shoot-them-down policy cluster around late July 1952 following the second time within a week that ‘saucers’ invaded the restricted airspace with impunity over the national capitol – Washington, D.C.

“Air Force alerts jets to chase ‘flying saucers’ anywhere in U.S.” – United Press (UP), 29 July 1952:

“Air Force orders jet pilots to shoot down flying saucers if they refuse to land” – The Seattle Post Intelligencer, 29 July 1952:

“Air Force seeks solution, gives ‘shoot down order’” – Washington-INS (International News Service), 28 July 1952:

“Jets on 24 hour alert to shoot down saucers” – The San Francisco Examiner, 29 July 1952:

“Jets told to shoot down flying discs” – The Fall River (Mass.) Herald-News, 29 July 1952.

“Shoot to kill: Pacific Navy fliers ordered to engage saucers” – Fullerton (CA) News-Tribune, 26 July 1956.  

**Isn’t it amazing that no other recovered weather balloon, or a balloon of any kind in the entire history of balloon launches and recoveries, has caused such confusion. What odds then that the Roswell object was really recovered balloon debris?

***The top secret balloon story, if true, well that tale of woe could have been released publicly as early as 1965 (if not earlier) instead of waiting until 1995 to spill the beans. Newer and better post-1947 technologies would have done the same job – monitoring Soviet nuclear tests – way more efficiently by 1965. 1947 balloon monitoring was yesterday’s way outdated technology by 1965. So why wait until 1995 to admit it? Actually there’s little doubt there was a top secret balloon project in operation monitoring Soviet nuclear tests, but that doesn’t mean what came down near Roswell in July 1947 was such a balloon.



Roswell: The Smoking Gun: Part One

Of all reported UFO events, the best known and documented was the Roswell incident in July 1947. If you’re not one of the powers-that-be (i.e. – in the loop), it’s easy to get mired or bogged down in the masses of names, trivia and after-the-fact events that may, or may not have happened. One needs to focus on the key names and events that took place at the very start and take the logic from there. Logic should then compel you to treat Roswell as the UFO Smoking Gun. It’s all a matter of applying common sense to what is on the public record.

The Significance of Roswell, July 1947

# Roswell was a very, very early event in UFO history and participants were therefore relatively untainted by the decades of UFO lore that would have been the case if the Roswell event happened today.

# Roswell has historical documentation that nobody can dispute.

# Roswell involved local on-the-spot senior, no-nonsense, responsible and knowledgeable military officials. They had no need for an agenda to fabricate or exaggerate what transpired.  

# The Roswell event involved multiple witnesses, both civilian and military. A child’s prank or an orchestrated hoax this most certainly wasn’t.

# The Roswell event was a close encounter that left behind slab-in-the-lab evidence for analysis. This was no vague fleeting point-of-light-in-the-night-sky sighting.

# Delightfully the Roswell event caught the higher-up powers-that-be with their pants down, otherwise we wouldn’t have what initial facts we do have! Roswell proved an acne event to the powers-that-be back then and remains a sore thumb to them over six decades later. Roswell is unlikely to fade away over the next six decades unless there’s a breakthrough in proving or disproving the censorship and cover-ups, real or imagined, associated with its history. The powers-that-be have made a dog’s breakfast of the Roswell incident, the sort of mess that only powers-that-be can accomplish.

# Lastly, if the original version of the Roswell event as related by the RAAF press release and associated media coverage of that release – the capture of a flying disc – then there’s no question but that the powers-that-be are knowledgeable about the real bona-fide existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life, an E.T. that’s up close and personal.

The RAAF (Roswell Army Air Field) Media Release (8 July 1947)

“The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff’s office of Chaves County”.

“The flying object landed on a ranch near Roswell sometime last week. Not having phone facilities, the rancher stored the disc until such time as he was able to contact the sheriff’s office, who in turn notified Maj. Jesse A. Marcel of the 509th Bomb Group Intelligence Office.”

“Action was immediately taken and the disc was picked up at the rancher’s home. It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field and subsequently loaned by Major Marcel to higher headquarters.”

It’s an historical (on or for the record) fact that this military document existed – no fraud or fakery can be alleged. That the press release received reasonably widespread national, even international media (radio and newspaper) coverage is not in dispute. That too is an historical fact with no allowance for any wriggle room. The most oft displayed newspaper headline and associated article text reproduced in books and websites is from the Roswell Daily Record, 8 July 1947 – “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region: No Details of Flying Disk Are Revealed”.

The local Roswell coverage was more extensive and detailed since Lt. Haut, the RAAF Public Information Officer (PIO), handed out the press release personally to the media and was able to flesh out the details to the locals. In addition other local residents were able to contribute their observations to the local media.

The Key Players

# The RAAF (Roswell Army Air Field) Commanding Officer was Colonel William H. Blanchard. The buck always stops with the CO but for some reason Colonel Blanchard was never disciplined over the Roswell AAF stuff-up that 1) an RAAF staffer, an intelligence officer under his command, couldn’t tell the difference between a metallic disc and a weather balloon; 2) that his Public Information Officer, Lt. Haut, apparently under his directive, issued a media release that had to be countermanded within 24 hours by higher authority. Colonel Blanchard in fact went on to achieve the four-star rank of General as Vice Chief of Staff for the USAF. That suggests that something’s screwy somewhere unless the Roswell events transpired as originally stated.

# The RAAF Intelligence Officer: The RAAF (Roswell Army Air Field) Intelligence Officer, Major Jesse Marcel (Senior) was first on the crash site scene as ordered. He was never reprimanded for making such a boneheaded mistake – one the little old lady from Pasadena wouldn’t make – that of misidentifying weather balloon materials for a metallic disc. But because he was a career military officer, Major Marcel went along with the official storyline (i.e. – deception) that the Roswell event was just a downed weather balloon, at least until after his discharge and retirement. Then Marcel lowered the boom, rather pissed off that he had been made to look the incompetent fool and gave his version which you can find in his interviews on YouTube. Needless to say, Marcel gives short shrift to the weather balloon explanation, or the explanation that a balloon of any kind was involved.

# The RAAF (Roswell Army Air Field) Public Information Officer was First Lieutenant Walter Haut. He was directed by the RAAF Base Commander (Colonel Blanchard) to draft a press release to the public announcing that the US Army Air Forces (at Roswell) had recovered a ‘flying disc’ (a.k.a. – flying saucer) from a nearby ranch. That recovered object was quickly changed from metallic disc to that of a weather balloon under the orders of higher authority (Brigadier General Roger Ramey). Despite the apparent stuff-up, Lt. Haut was never reprimanded. After leaving the military, Haut made several signed and sealed affidavits attesting to the bona-fides of the Roswell event as that of a flying disc. These were in addition to interviews given in which he never retracted his story that the extraterrestrial nature of the events at Roswell was the really real reality of what transpired. Readers can find YouTube video interviews that feature Walter Haut’s position on Roswell.

# William W. (Mac) Brazel was the ranch hand foreman, not the ranch owner proper as is sometimes given, that first came across the Roswell debris field while tending to livestock. Mac Brazel then alerted civilian authorities (the local Sheriff’s Office) who in turn notified personnel at the RAAF in case this was something of a military matter. Mac Brazel had previously found two weather balloons on the ranch-land and this new stuff wasn’t like what he had found on earlier occasions. As a civilian not subject to military authority, he apparently was bribed with a brand new pickup truck and an appeal to patriotism, to keep his mouth shut about what he saw. Apparently there was a bit of intimidation or some additional hard-leaning involved as well. In any event, Brazel, due to all the unwanted publicity and unwanted military attention he received ended up wishing he had never seen the stuff in the first place. Mac Brazel passed away (1963) prior to the reawakening of interest in the Roswell event (roughly 1980) and thus there’s relatively little on the record about the Roswell event directly attributed from him.

Little Grey Bodies

Though the initial press release made no mention of bodies, alien or terrestrial, little grey bodies have been attested to by various witnesses including testimony as part of his to-be-released-after-his-death (deathbed) affidavit, the public information officer, 1^st Lt. Walter Haut. Bodies make sense in that it would be rather rare for a terrestrial aircraft to crash without any bodies being on board on the ground – unless sufficient parachutes were provided and all occupants bailed out – always a possibility. By analogy, the same should apply to an extraterrestrial ‘aircraft’.

Also possible, if you dismiss the little grey bodies part of Roswell, is that just as you have unmanned terrestrial drones (a very topical subject today) you could have un-aliened but extraterrestrial drones. A case in point might well have been the aerial ‘foo-fighters’ sighted by all sides during World War Two (especially 1944-45) that have never been adequately explained.

However, alien bodies, alive or dead, are actually irrelevant if you have an actual extraterrestrial craft in hand – a flying saucer or disc in 1947 terminology. The disc or saucer alone proves the bona-fides of the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH).

Why Did the Roswell Debris Leave RAAF?

That the Roswell object, or what was left of it, was squirreled away from the RAAF is made clear in the initial press release and is not in doubt. Higher headquarters in this case was Brigadier General Roger Ramey stationed at Fort Worth AAF (Texas). The Roswell debris allegedly but apparently ultimately ended up at Wright Field (Ohio), now renamed Wright-Patterson AFB, going via Fort Worth. Now the real question is, if the Roswell debris was just constructed out of ordinary balloon materials, regardless of what the purpose of the balloon’s mission was, why not just stuff the tattered remains into the local RAAF trashcan or dumpster? No, if the Roswell object or debris left the RAAF it was because there was something extraordinary about it. 

To be continued…



Neil DeGrasse Tyson on UFOs: Some Comments

Sooner or later, nearly every astronomer, especially if they have a relatively high public profile, has got to face the UFO issue and expound upon whether there is any scientific credibility to the idea that some UFOs are bona-fide alien spacecraft. One such astronomer, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson of the Hayden Planetarium, New York City, has indeed made his point of view known. He doesn’t deny the theoretical possibility, but that is about as far as the credibility goes. I take issue with some of his opinions as this essay details.

When it comes to the emotive subject of UFOs (as in alien spacecraft), scientists just don’t want to know or enter into the debate if it can be possibly be avoided, for the prime reason that those who make the UFO = alien spaceship equation fail to either put up or shut up. That’s ‘put up’ in terms of the sorts of evidence that scientists tend to have to ‘put up’ when they make claims. If they have to ‘put up’, they expect in turn that others will ‘put up’ evidence to them. The scientific consensus is that UFO = alien spaceship buffs haven’t done an adequate job in the ‘put up’ department. One such scientist with that point of view (POV) is the fairly well known astronomer, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. While overall reasonably correct in that POV, some of his arguments are flawed and lack credibility in my POV.

When it comes to evidence for this or that explanation for a UFO sighting, especially the UFO = alien spacecraft explanation, eyewitness testimony is suspect. Or so relates astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson via several YouTube clips relevant to his take on UFOs. But wait, there’s more!

Dr. Tyson quite correctly points out that the “U” in UFO stands for “unidentified” and that’s as far as anyone seeing, what to them is an Unidentified Flying Object, can expound upon. One should not jump to the conclusion that “U” equals alien spacecraft. No argument there. However, he also points out, an equally valid comment, is that we don’t like mysteries like things that are unidentified and so therefore we do tend to jump the gun and jump to unwarranted conclusions in order to identify the unidentified and maybe unidentifiable. No argument from me there either other than to point out that we leap to the conclusion of UFOs = alien spaceships in favour of some other explanation probably because there must be something suggestive of that possibility; there’s something in the observational date that points to alien ships and not to something else.

He notes that there exist natural phenomena and conditions which can befuddle someone not familiar with those phenomena. No argument on that observation either.

HUMAN PERCEPTION

But he goes slightly off the rails by suggesting the least likely form of bona-fide evidence is human perception or eyewitness testimony. Optical illusions are a case in point as he delights in pointing out. However, relative to manmade or designed optical illusions, there are not all that many natural ones, although there are some of course, like mirages or that ‘sinking’ ship as it passes beyond the visible horizon.

I get the impression from Dr. Tyson’s comments that eyewitness testimony has as much reliability as a $7 bill. Human perception is absolutely 100% fallible. Although eyewitness testimony is a cornerstone in legal proceedings, courtroom lawyers have a field day in discrediting eyewitness testimony. Experiments by psychologists prove overwhelmingly that any sudden and unexpected event witnessed by ten people will result in ten different versions of what happened, but not drastically so. I mean ten witnesses will differ on the height, weight and attire of the person in the unexpected happening, but they won’t differ on the fact that it was a human and not an elephant!

Humans are actually pretty good when it comes to the details, otherwise why would law enforcement officials ask you to point out the criminal in a police line-up or the news reporters question witnesses to some unusual news happening? To take just one of thousands of possible examples, you can easily tell your face from your parent’s faces and from the face of every other person you know (in person) or have frequently seen (like Dr. Tyson’s on YouTube). You know a new and different face when you see one. You can tell a human face from say a reconstructed one of Homo erectus. You can distinguish a primate face from a feline face from a canine face from a bovine face. You can tell apart the face of a penguin or an eagle from their ancient ancestor, the T-Rex. If you can’t tell apart a frog face from a crocodile face from a shark face from a spider’s face, there’s something seriously askew. Assuming there’s nothing askew; you can tell apart all these examples of faces despite the fact that they are all faces.  

Therefore, in your day-to-day life, 99.9% of what other people tell you they saw (i.e. – Joe Blow drinking down at the pub) you’ll believe them. Human perception is flawed, but it’s all you got for all practical purposes – despite zillions of smart-phone cameras around snapping anything and everything. People don’t tend to tell you they saw Joe Blow at the pub AND show you their smart-phone camera picture of Joe Blow at the pub since you obviously wouldn’t believe them without the pictorial backup. 

In any event, perception in humans usually tends to be more than adequate, say when driving a car or playing a game of baseball. Humans have an excellent innate ability to judge height, depth, colour, direction of sound, types of sounds, motion, velocity (speed plus direction), etc. We’d better have those skills if we are to survive day-to-day; week-to-week; month-to-month; etc. from birth through death.  

THE GAME OF TELEPHONE

Dr. Tyson makes much of the child’s game of ‘telephone’ and how that relates to evidence of how unreliable eyewitness (or ear-witness) testimony is. It’s that version of someone who told someone, who told someone, who told someone, who told someone, who told someone, etc. etc. That story that goes in ear number one ends up usually bearing little relation to what the last person in the chain relates what they were told. Cases where someone who told someone repeated many times over on down the line are indeed suspect, but that’s not usually the case with UFO sightings. ‘Telephone’ is actually pretty irrelevant to UFO reports since the chain is usually just a chain of one link between two individuals – the UFO witness relates firsthand their story to the UFO investigator. There’s no twenty-something someone who told someone links here. Direct first-person testimony is written down or otherwise recorded for posterity.

THE INEXPERIENCED LAYPERSON

Dr. Tyson makes the point that average Joe Blow citizen isn’t usually all that familiar with astronomical and meteorological and optical phenomena and thus sightings of lights in the sky are frequently misinterpreted – Venus becomes an alien spaceship. However, not all UFOs sighted are reports of dot points of lights in the sky. UFOs have been seen close up on the ground and often exhibit a substantial disc when seen in the sky. That’s why the late Dr. J. Allen Hynek (who was a pioneer in the scientific study of UFOs while also an astrophysicist like Dr. Tyson) came up with that category of UFO sightings called “close encounters” where misidentification of say a star for an alien spacecraft is unlikely since a star never exhibits a substantial 2-D or 3-D geometric shape.

ABDUCTIONS

Dr. Tyson also suggests (tongue-in-cheek?) that if you are abducted, you grab (steal) something off the alien’s shelf in order to back up your claim with something that can be put on the slab in a lab for independent testing. That’s flawed for several reasons. Assuming you’ve been abducted by aliens, you’ve got to think of it at the time under rather trying circumstances. That’s if you’re not naked on the slab being poked and prodded – you have no pockets available in which to squirrel something away, assuming there is anything in arm’s reach to squirrel away in any event. That’s also assuming you are not being watched. Even if you do nick off with something, elements and compounds tend to be uniform across the cosmos so an alien ashtray or knife could be made of the same stuff as a terrestrial ashtray or knife. Any alleged alien artefact would clearly have to be of such a nature as to rule out any terrestrial origin or a hoax. It’s a sensible suggestion but a way more likely bet is that any alleged UFO abductee would pick up alien micro-organisms which might be detectable and cultured as evidence.  

ALIEN PSYCHOLOGY

One obvious flaw in Dr. Tyson’s reasoning is that, according to Dr. Tyson, if UFOs are alien spacecraft, why should said aliens land in a farmer’s field as opposed to something more visible like touching down in Times Square (New York City). Well, aliens, by definition, are alien and will have alien motives; an alien psychology. We cannot determine before the fact how aliens should behave since we have no studies to hand on alien wetware, alien neurochemistry and alien motivations.

INEPT ALIENS: SHIT HAPPENS

Dr. Tyson also ridicules UFOs as alien spacecraft by noting the [Roswell] crash. How can advanced high-tech aliens navigate and travel across the galaxy then end up crash-landing? They must be pretty stupid inept aliens. Actually, it is in this case, an unusually inept example of reasoning by Dr. Tyson. Dr Tyson - shit happens! How many UFOs (if alien spacecraft) haven’t crashed? Nearly all would be an appropriate answer. And how many of our Mars-bound probes have coasted safely through the relative vastness of interplanetary space only to crash onto the Martian surface at the final moment.  Sometimes, albeit rarely, we have aircraft crashes. Most times aircraft don’t crash. If terrestrial shit happens, extraterrestrial shit happens. These are fallible aliens, not infallible deities.

In conclusion, Dr. Tyson’s various YouTube presentations are clearly his standard answer to the UFO question and his well rehearsed monolog on the subject. They were pure showmanship – witty, highly entertaining, but, alas scientifically barren. His presentations contributed nothing to furthering the coming to terms with the bona-fide UFO phenomena. As the saying goes, “if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”.

P.S. By the way, Dr. Tyson also made a big issue of why UFOs would need runway lights as in the film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. I need remind people here that the movie was a science fiction film and not a documentary. Any fault in logic lies solely and squarely on the shoulders of those who made, produced and directed the movie.



An Ancient Astronaut Glossary: Part Two

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

Nazca Lines (Peru): Low technology geo-glyphs constructed by humans designed to be seen by the Sky Gods.

Neith: This is the satellite of Venus, not the Egyptian goddess. What satellite of Venus? That lone satellite that numerous astronomers observed, and then observed no more was named Neith. What transpired, why Neith disappeared, nobody knows.

Nordics (Global Mythology): Ancient astronauts; an extraterrestrial race – Satan, Yahweh, Jesus, Zeus, Odin, Thor, Viracocha, Quetzalcoatl, etc. are prime examples.

Odin (Norse Mythology): Chief ancient astronaut overseeing the general geographic area of Scandinavia often depicted as a bearded Caucasian.

Olmecs (Mesoamerica): The Olmecs were the first advanced civilization to inhabit the eastern coastal area of Mexico. They appeared on the scene mysteriously; they disappeared from the scene just as mysteriously, leaving behind numerous massive multi-ton stone heads with a decided African appearance, implying cultural contact between Africa and Central America way, way before any such contact would have been possible.

Olympians (Greek Mythology): A grouping of senior ancient astronauts, who, led by Zeus oversaw/supervised the general Mediterranean region.

Otherworlds (Celtic Mythology): Literally, other worlds; extra-solar planets around stars in interstellar space.

Out of Time (Global Mythology): Those that enter a mystical realm for a few days or weeks only to emerge years even decades or centuries later. Methuselah et al. might be cases in point; the Celtic Otherworlds among the possible realms. 

Palenque (Mesoamerica): Palenque is a well known Mayan archaeological site, made even more famous due to a lid on a sarcophagus of a Mayan ruler than apparently shows the ruler as an astronaut ascending on a rocket, pictorially in very much the same way as the lone American Mercury astronauts or initial Russian cosmonauts. Unfortunately, IMHO, while appealing, it doesn’t ring true, for reasons other than the alternatives advocated by professional archaeologists. I very much doubt advanced extraterrestrials would be utilizing primitive rocket technology; the ‘astronaut’ in question is barefooted, which seems rather unlikely.

Piri Reis Map: The Turkish Admiral and cartographer Piri Reis compiled from over a dozen earlier maps in 1513 a map that not only showed to a high degree of accuracy the Atlantic Ocean and islands but also the west coasts of Europe and Africa, the east coasts of the Americas, and an ice-free Antarctica coastline. Antarctica hadn’t yet even been discovered in 1513 and if it had been it wouldn’t have been ice-free. The implication is that some maps predating 1513 had to have been compiled from aerial surveys done way before Antarctica was ice-covered and certainly way before humans had explored and mapped in exquisite detail the eastern seaboard of the Americas.  

Pyramids (Egypt; Mesoamerica): Low technology stone constructions built by humans for humans, albeit at considerable time, energy and expense.

Quetzalcoatl (Mesoamerican Mythology): A pre-Aztec (Toltec) and Aztec deity, a creator god who brought and taught many skills to the native Central Americans. Quetzalcoatl, also known as the ‘Feathered Serpent’ (among other titles) was also the inventor of the calendar and associated with the planet Venus. Like numerous other ‘gods’, Quetzalcoatl sailed away one day promising to return. Quetzalcoatl is often compared and contrasted with the Inca deity Viracocha and some suggest they were one and the same.

Satan (Biblical; Christian Mythology): Senior ancient astronaut who mutinied against Yahweh, and lost.

Seraphim (Biblical; Christian Mythology): Six-winged entities (Isaiah 6:2): an extraterrestrial race; ancient astronauts.

Shape-Shifters & Shifting (Global Mythology): Extraterrestrial race; ancient astronauts. Common examples are the Werewolf and the Vampire, but there are literally hundreds of examples from around the world.

Sirius: The star Sirius has been implicated by various human cultures as the parent stellar system from which at least one race of extraterrestrials who have visited Earth call home. Sirius can also have some other extraordinary significance with potential extraterrestrial implications in various human mythologies.

Sky Gods (Global Mythology): Ancient astronauts. Thor (Norse) and Zeus (Greek) are well-known examples, ditto Yahweh (Biblical), Nut and Horus (Egypt), plus Virococha (Inca). There are also ‘Queens of Heaven’ or Sky Goddesses, like Isis (Egypt). In fact, you name the culture and they will have a Sky God or Gods and/or Sky Goddess or Sky Goddesses in their mythologies.

Star of Bethlehem (Christian Mythology): An alien spaceship. No natural astronomical object can appear to hover over one spot since the Earth rotates. (See Matthew 2:9).

Stonehenge (England): A low technology stone construction built by humans for humans, albeit at considerable time, energy and expense, exact purpose(s) unproven.

Tassili n’Ajjer: The south-eastern Sahara Desert region of Algeria is quite famous for hundreds of works of ancient rock art, depicting of all sorts of numerous humans and animals and some weird stuff too like the massive ‘Great God Mars’, so named by its discoverer because of its otherworldliness. That’s just one of numerous examples of primitive rock frescoes, paintings and carvings from around the world that show otherworldly creatures. That prehistoric humans could draw things like humans and animals accurately is not in question. But when it comes to the strange stuff, is it imagination or reality?    

Thor (Norse Mythology): One of numerous Sky Gods with associated high-tech.

Titans (Greek Mythology): Ancient astronauts who fought a ‘war in heaven’ with the Olympians for domination, and lost.

Transport of Massive Stone Megaliths (Global Mythology): Easter Island (statues walk by themselves); massive stones caried on the backs of dragons; cyclopedian walls; Stonehenge; etc.

Tunguska, Siberia (1908): In June of 1908, something exploded midair over Tunguska, Siberia, and causing damage to regions of forest directly underneath the blast. To this very day, no definitive explanation has been proved beyond reasonable doubt. One explanation suggests that this explosion was an artificial aerial vehicle (obviously extraterrestrial) that went ka-boom, perhaps a nuclear explosion if the vessel was nuclear powered.

Unidentified Flying Objects: The modern version of extraterrestrial spaceships/atmospheric vehicles/space shuttles, although in fairness, the vast majority of UFOs are anything but.

Valhalla (Norse Mythology): A suburb or a subpart of Asgard.

Viracocha (Incan Mythology): Chief ancient astronaut and Sky God overseeing the general north-western region of South American, often depicted as a bearded Caucasian. Viracocha is often compared and contrasted with the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl and some suggest they were one and the same.

 

Wars in ‘Heaven’ (Global Mythology): Conflicts between various groups of ancient astronauts or extraterrestrials. Examples include Yahweh vs. Satan (Biblical Mythology; Christian Mythology); Sekhmet (Egypt); Giants vs. the Olympians (Greek Mythology); the Titans vs. the Olympians (Greek Mythology); Aesir vs. the Vanir (Norse Mythology); even in peaceful Polynesian Mythology we have a battle royal between Tu (god of war) and his brothers Tane, Rongo, Haumia-tiketike, and Tawhirimatea; and in the Near East (Mestpotamia) Enlil (leader of the senior gods) had to face a revolt from the junior gods who were being overworked and underpaid. Aztecs.

Wars in ‘Heaven’, Future (Global Mythology): There’s Ragnarok (Norse Mythology) and of course Armageddon (Christian Mythology). Many, not most of these apocalyptic end-of-the-world events are actually just the end of one cycle and the transition to the beginning of a new cycle.

Wheel of Ezekiel (Biblical Mythology): Alien spaceship (see Ezekiel 3; Ezekiel 10).

Yahweh (Biblical; Christian Mythology): Chief ancient astronaut and Sky God overseeing the general Middle East region featuring Israel, Palestine, the Levant, etc. depicted as a bearded Caucasian. 

Winged Deities (Global Mythology): Apart from the Biblical references to the Cherubim and the Seraphim, there are numerous other deities that come with wings like Nike. Collectively, winged deities are an extraterrestrial race; ancient astronauts.

Zeus (Greek Mythology): Chief ancient astronaut overseeing the general Mediterranean region and chief sky god of the Olympians depicted as a bearded Caucasian.

Author’s note: It’s Biblical Mythology if it is related in the Old Testament; Christian Mythology if it’s exclusive to the New Testament; and both if it’s in both.

An Ancient Astronaut Glossary: Part One

Aerial Technologies: Reports of aerial machines, flight technologies, are not unknown in the archaeological and/or historical record, albeit not that far back, rather in the era of recorded ancient history, say the last 10,000 years or so. From the ‘Star’ of Bethlehem, Elijah’s ‘flaming chariot’, to the Wheel of Ezekiel, to the ‘Sun’ and ‘Moon’ that Joshua stood still (Biblical Mythology); to Vimanas which are Hindu mythological flying machines (mythical self-moving aerial cars, a flying chariot of the gods) as related in various Sanskrit epics; to ‘airplane’ models discovered in both ancient Egypt (dated to about 200 BCE) and little gold model ‘airplanes’ from Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican and South American regions, dating from roughly 500 to 800 CE. Scaled-up replicas of these American and Egyptian ‘aircraft’ have found them to be aerodynamically flight worthy. There are also no shortages of art works from antiquity that at face value appear to show what today would be called Flying Saucers, or Daylight Discs, or just plain Unidentified Flying Objects. Finally, aerial ‘chariots’ and extremely large ‘birds’ that ferry the ‘gods’ around are more the norm than not in many mythologies. 

Agricultural-Based Settlements & Civilization: Roughly 10,000 years ago there was a relatively sudden transition from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agricultural-based settlements in most of the world. Humans relate or credit this change in their mythologies as a gift (of agriculture and animal husbandry) from the gods.

Alien Abductions (Modern; Global Mythology): Abductions of humans by ancient astronauts. Examples include Romulus, Ganymede, Enoch, and Elijah.

Ancient Astronauts: Extraterrestrial beings with highly advanced technologies.

Angels (Biblical; Christian Mythology): Ancient astronaut crewmembers, especially go-betweens twixt the ‘gods’ and the humans. Angels come with differing ranks, but contrary to popular images, they have no wings.

Animal-Animal Hybrids (Global Mythology): Two or more terrestrial animal species combined in a hybrid form by advanced genetic or bioengineering technology. Well known examples include the Sirrush (Near Eastern Mythology); Pegasus and the Chimera (Greek Mythology) and the Kelpie (Celtic Mythology).

Animal-Human Hybrids (Global Mythology): One or more terrestrial animal species combined in a hybrid form with part of a human being (usually face/neck or torso) by advanced genetic or bioengineering technology. Obvious examples would be the Sphinx (Egyptian Mythology; Greek Mythology), the Centaur, Satyr or Minotaur (Greek Mythology); Merfolk i.e. – Mermaids (Global Mythology).

Artificial Selection: The deliberate manipulation of genetic material via selective breeding and/or genetic engineering at the cellular level or below to produce new or enhanced traits that are considered desirable by those doing the manipulating. Artificial selection is useful in explaining numerous by anomalous human characteristics.

Asgard (Norse Mythology): Possibly an extra-solar planet; more likely the name of Odin’s spaceship.

Assur (Near Eastern Mythology): Chief ancient astronaut overseeing the general Middle East region featuring Assyria.

Baalbek: The Great Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, Lebanon, is widely known for having incorporated in the structure some of the largest quarried stone blocks ever used by any builder anywhere at anytime. How these massive stones weighing up to 1000 tons each were transported and raised into place at a height of over eight metres remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of ancient mankind and archaeology. 

Boogieman (Global Mythology): Mythologies throughout the world often have warnings, especially for children, about not wandering too far from home, and not wandering out at night, for unspeakable ‘boogiemen’ are out there to kidnap and maybe devour them, but ultimately never to see home again. Perhaps this is a thinly disguised reference to alien abductions.

Cherubim (Biblical; Christian Mythology): Two to four-winged entities: an extraterrestrial race; ancient astronauts noted for example in the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel. Some also guard the east entrance of the Garden of Eden to ensure humans don’t trespass or re-enter.

Cosmology (Global Mythology): Mythological themes that suggest that our ancient ancestors had astronomical knowledge way in advance of their time. The ‘Cosmic Egg’ that hatched or broke open mimicking the Big Bang. Mythologies of cyclic existences – birth, death, rebirth, etc. mirroring a Big Bang, Big Crunch, Big Bang, etc. cycles. The Chinese mythology regarding cosmology reads an awful lot like the expanding universe.

Crop Circles (Global; esp. England): Manufactured glyphs using agricultural crops as the ‘canvas’ that are the work of obvious intelligence, though controversy abounds whether the intelligence is 100% terrestrial or not.

Cyclopean Walls: Walls that are massive in thickness and in height, usually defensive walls, with individual stones often weighing many tons, thought to be by even the ancients constructed by the Cyclopes or other giants. Only such beings could have erected such fortifications. This is now a general collective phrase for massive defence structures raised in ancient eras.

Cyclopes (Greek Mythology): Ancient astronauts with high technology.

Dragons (Global Mythology): Alien spaceships, mistaken by our ancestors for a flying, roaring, fire-breathing animal. Primarily used as a sort of atmospheric/space shuttle as a go-between twixt the chief and senior ancient astronauts and senior humans (like emperors, etc.).

Easter Island: Easter Island is one of the most isolated Pacific Islands going, yet it was apparently colonized by two different cultures, the Short Ears and the Long Ears, the former probably arriving from Polynesia to the west, and the latter from South America to the east. It’s of course world famous for those massive stone sculptures, some as tall as a four story house and weighing 40 tons or more. There size is often deceiving as they are often just seen from the neck up – the rest of the body bulk still buried beneath the ground. These statues are arresting in that they are clearly human, yet not quite human in appearance. As to how they got from quarry A to resting site B, well the natives say the statues walked by themselves from A to B. That’s clearly impossible, but if you think of how the Saturn V Rocket or the Space Shuttle was transported from hanger to launch pad, well to ancient peoples, they might say the space vehicles ‘walked’ by themselves. Lastly, Easter Island is also famous for those representations of hybrid birdmen.

Elijah (Biblical Mythology): Elijah was abducted by a “chariot of fire, and horses of fire” and carried up to Heaven by a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11). Just like modern UFO abductees, Elijah is to be returned, someday (Malachi 4:5). For Elijah to live so long, since he hasn’t yet made reappearance, one might have to suggest an interstellar space voyage and invoke Einstein’s twin paradox.

Enlil (Near Eastern Mythology): Chief ancient astronaut overseeing the general Middle East region featuring the Mesopotamian area.

Enoch (Biblical Mythology): Enoch was also abducted, by no less than God Himself (Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5). Apparently Enoch was to be given eternal life (he’d already lived to be 365 years old at the time of his abduction) without having to die first. Sounds like high-tech to me!

Fairy Folk: [See Little People].

Fermi Paradox: If extraterrestrial intelligences are out there, with advanced space-faring interstellar technologies, then the odds are approaching 100% that they should have discovered Planet Earth. “Where is everybody” asked Fermi? They should be here. They are not here – that’s the paradox. But the paradox dissolves if you can put forth a solid case for ancient astronauts and/or modern UFOs as evidence of extraterrestrial intelligences with advanced interstellar space-faring technologies.

Giant Birds (Global Mythology): Extraterrestrial vehicles, spaceships, technologically advanced airships – prime examples include Lightning Bird (Southern Africa); Thunderbird (North America); Dragons (universal); Gaurda (Hindu) vehicle for the personal transport of…

Giants (Global Mythology): An extraterrestrial race; ancient astronauts. A typical example is the Cyclopes.

Giants (Greek Mythology): Then there was the war between the Giants and the Olympians – another in a long list of examples of the ‘gods’ fighting the ‘gods’ over Earth-turf. Needless to say, Zeus and company won that fight too, albeit with a little help from others, like Hercules.

God: [See Yahweh].

Gods (Global Mythology): Ancient astronauts.

Heaven (Biblical; Christian Mythology): Possibly an extra-solar planet; more likely the name of Yahweh’s spaceship.

Homo sapiens: Modern humans, an ultimate genetically engineered species from primate stock by ancient astronauts.

Human-Animal Hybrids: [See Animal-Human Hybrids].

Hunter-Gatherers (Anthropology): The nomadic lifestyle led by all modern humans and human hominid ancestors since we came down out of the trees (roughly 6 to 8 million years ago) until roughly 10,000 years ago. 

Jesus (Christian Mythology): On balance, I’d say Jesus was a mortal human, filled with mental delusions of grandeur, a human who saw himself as some sort of chosen one. However, I’m not prepared to rule out that he might have been a senior ancient astronaut, it just depends whether you thing the Jesus part of Christian mythology is part of the mythological mountain or the factual part of the hidden molehill.

Little People (Global Mythology):  Fairies, Elves, Leprechauns, etc are just another extraterrestrial race; more ancient astronauts. In modern times, we call them the Greys.

Marduk (Near Eastern Mythology): Chief ancient astronaut overseeing the general Middle East region featuring Babylonia.

Methuselah (Biblical Mythology): Biblical character who took a trip on an interstellar spaceship and was subjected to Einstein’s time dilation/twin paradox explaining his advanced age of 969 years (Genesis 5:27). He was one of numerous Old Testament characters to make such a voyage.

Author’s note: It’s Biblical Mythology if it is related in the Old Testament; Christian Mythology if it’s exclusive to the New Testament; and both if it’s in both.

To be continued.