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.

Who’s Who in the Ancient Alien’s Bible: Part Two

Since the idea of supernatural deities is nonsense IMHO, perhaps there’s another explanation behind the more likely as not reality molehill hidden inside the traditional religious mythological mountain. That explanation could revolve around an extraterrestrial flesh-and-blood alternative.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

WHERE’S WHERE

Heaven: The name of God’s spaceship, or starship if you prefer.

Hell: The brig, located off-ship, probably on Earth, where one could be exiled to if need be.

Eastern Mediterranean (Israel; Land of Canaan; the Levant; Near East; Palestine): That part of terrestrial geography assigned to the officers and crew of the Spaceship Heaven as their area of responsibility. Contrast that with Zeus and company assigned the Middle Mediterranean; Odin and company responsible for the Norse lands; and the Great Spirit who looks after the North Amerindians; and so on.

Garden of Eden: Paradise was actually a terrestrial R&R spot for officers and crew of the Spaceship Heaven. God first had to expel human trespassers after they learned or overheard too much extraterrestrial knowledge forbidden to terrestrial ears. Later on however God gave Adam an interstellar ride in his Spaceship Heaven.

Towel of Babel: To disperse in quick-smart fashion the local population to the four corners of the globe, or even within the region, would have required considerable transport infrastructure.

Sodom & Gomorrah: The twin cities were destroyed via fire and brimstone from above, leaving no trace whatever after-the-fact. The obviously high tech weaponry might have been incendiary bombs or even nuclear weapons, but it certainly wasn’t any sort of destructive weapons technology common to that era.

WHAT’S WHAT

Miracles: High technology in action. As the late Arthur C. Clarke tended to put it, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, at least to those not technologically savvy. Among the high tech examples are the medical ones – healing the seriously sick and handicapped; resurrecting the very recently deceased; enabling very elderly women – over the hill and off the pill – to become fertile and bear offspring.

Food: Speaking of high tech miracles, what does one make of manna from heaven; loaves and fishes that multiply; wine from water? This almost makes you think of the food replication device used in Star Trek.

Noah’s Flood: A whole textbook could be written about the impossibilities of the Biblical tale of the flood and Noah’s Ark. The amount of water required can’t be produced. The boat isn’t near large enough to house and feed every species that would need to be given shelter. The crew isn’t sufficient to look after their charges. But, with just a bit of high tech tweaking, what if the Ark wasn’t for an actual universal disaster but a potential one, a real possibility given those high tech star wars, or wars between the various factions of deities (think of the ten year battle between the Titans and the Olympians; or what must have raged between God and Satan or will rage as per the forecast of Revelation; or the battle between the Frost Giants and the Norse deities; or all those aerial wars depicted in those ancient Hindu texts). Now instead of having entire forest worth of plants and all those animals requiring food and waste disposal, on board, substitute a botanical seed bank and a zoological equivalent, a repository of frozen eggs and sperm or embryos or genetic materials, etc. No need for food; no waste products; not much maintenance (crew time) required, and easily room for everything in the space allowed for the Ark in the Book of Genesis. The issue of course is that all of this is high tech way beyond the capabilities of the great unwashed of that era, the locals or natives. 

Burning Bush: This is an example of extraterrestrial hologram technology in action, employed to awe the local primitives, in this case Moses.

The Ark of the Covenant: Apparently a high and rather dangerous technological device, purpose not really well explained, but obviously more than just a storage box for a couple of stone tablets.

Clouds; Pillars of Fire; Flying Rolls; Star of Bethlehem; Aerial Chariots; Whirlwinds; Ezekiel’s Wheel, etc.: A UFO by any other name is still a UFO, and in most of these depictions, the object, say a ‘cloud’, is an actual vehicle that carries a passenger, more likely as not a Spaceship Heaven shuttlecraft. 

Germ Warfare & Biological Weapons: There are numerous examples in Biblical texts where high tech biological weapons were used against populations (i.e. – the Egyptians, even God’s Chosen People) and individuals like Job.

Transfiguration: Jesus led three of his followers up a mountain, and behold his face had a rather disquieting and unnatural glow about it (much like Moses after his CE3K). In fact Jesus, and/or his clothing, shone with some sort of bioluminescence. To add to this anomaly, Jesus had with him both Moses (long since considered the late Moses who had once been abducted) and Elias (otherwise known as Elijah, the abducted). Further a ‘cloud’ that hovered over this gathering ‘spoke’ to them, one and all, with words that implied that this was God himself doing the speaking. Then the ‘cloud’ vanished like a bat out of hell. Wow! There is surely something strange afoot going on here. By the way, in common with a lot of other Biblical tales, this is repeated several times, in the Books of Matthew, Mark and Luke. In fact, I’d suggest that if you eliminated all of the duplications, the Bible would be 10% thinner!

The Ascension: Jesus departs Planet Earth to take up his new job as First Officer on the Spaceship Heaven, sitting at the right hand of her captain.

Hologram Technology: A very useful ways and means of inspiring awe in the great unwashed. Examples that spring to mind include the ‘burning bush’ and Jesus ‘walking on the water’ and appearing in the ‘flesh’ post execution.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

There have been no verified and documented sightings of the main Biblical players (God, Satan, Jesus, angels, etc.) in way over 2000 years. Where are they? I suspect they have gone away. I further suspect God and crew were recalled to home base to stand trial for crimes against humanity, though many, like Jesus, were exonerated, having played no part or role at Sodom & Gomorrah or in the use of biological weapons and waging germ warfare. Satan and his fallen angels were recalled too, probably picked up from exile, to give account for their original mutiny. Perhaps as we read this Captain Jesus of the Spaceship Heaven (or some other interstellar vessel) is boldly going and finding new Garden of Eden locales to R&R in throughout the cosmos.  

CONCLUSION

It is clear that not everything in the Bible can be easily interpreted in an extraterrestrial context, probably because much of the text’s content tends to be rather mundane soap opera of a humans-only nature. That aside, after you take into consideration all the versions, all the translations and associated issues with that, translation and copying errors (deliberate and accidental), embellishments, artistic license, human imagination needed to fill in the gaps, plus the multiple authorship of all the Biblical texts itself, not to forget that the texts weren’t written down till decades, even many generations after-the-fact (it’s like nobody recorded and wrote down today’s news until the year 2112 – many an error would be made), I conclude that the Bible can largely be interpreted not in a supernatural way but rather an extraterrestrial one.

Unfortunately, if I am right, then all your theological baggage of an eternal life everlasting goes right down the drain – maybe not a bad thing if you thought you were Hell-bound, or even if Heaven-bound as the concept of eternal life is actually hellish as you would rather quickly be bored out of your afterlife skull, and you still have infinity yet to come.

Who’s Who in the Ancient Alien’s Bible: Part One

Since the idea of supernatural deities is nonsense IMHO, perhaps there’s another explanation behind the more likely as not reality molehill hidden inside the traditional religious mythological mountain. That explanation could revolve around an extraterrestrial flesh-and-blood alternative.

INTRODUCTION

Erich Von Daniken asked the question “was God as astronaut?” Traditional Christians, Muslims, and those of the Jewish faiths of course answer “No”, God was (and is) a supernatural deity. Those more inclined to be free thinkers pondering realities outside of the religious box, answer anywhere from “Maybe” to “Yes”. If the latter, how might Biblical characters, places and events be interpreted in an ‘ancient astronaut’ context. Who’s who, Where’s where and what’s what?

All interpretations are based on the text of the King James Version of all things Biblical.

WHO’S WHO

God: OIC and captain of the Spaceship Heaven. His real alien name is of course Yahweh, or in the vowelless version YHWH, but I’ll just shorten that to God, a name that all and sundry recognise.

Satan: God’s original First Officer and second in command of the Spaceship Heaven, later exiled to Hell, or at least to Earth, for mutiny. 

Fallen Angels: Fallen Angels are those officers and crew who were in cahoots with Satan in the unsuccessful mutiny against Captain God and who were court-martialed and stripped of their status and rank and exiled to Hell on Earth. 

The Seraphim: Because the Seraphim have six wings, they are probably a separate extraterrestrial race aligned with the alien race of beings to which God and company belong. [Well Star Trek exhibited a multi-species crew from the start.] One such alien was apparently someone called Metatron, an angel who acted as the ‘voice of God’, a scribe, and is the tallest and greatest of the lot. ‘He’s’ sort of the chief cook and bottle washer on the Spaceship Heaven.

The Cherubim (singular is cherub): The extraterrestrial Cherubim might be related to the Seraphim in that they are enormous four-winged beings. The definitive book in the Bible on cherubim is the Book of Ezekiel, mainly the first and tenth chapter.

Governor or Watcher Angels: These are your typically obedient angels who just sort of watch over humanity in general, a sort of extraterrestrial Peeping Tom some of who had an eye for the Daughters of Men.   

Archangels: Senior officers of Spaceship Heaven. Those messenger and battle ready angels. The best known of the lot were the archangels who are very high-ranking angels indeed, starting with Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, but followed by Uriel, Simiel, Orifiel and Zachariel.

Angels: Ordinary crewmembers of the Spaceship Heaven, forever running errands for the senior officers.

Sons of God: Apparently hand chosen senior crew members, perhaps literally biological offspring of Captain God. The Sons of God were apparently some or all of the Governor or Watcher Angels.

Daughters of Men: Human females.

Nephilim: The offspring of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men. They were apparently the ‘giants’ referred to ‘in the Earth’, though exactly how giant was giant isn’t spelled out.

Jesus: Another offspring of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men, albeit much farther on down the historical track, or perhaps the offspring between God himself and the Daughters of Men (well one anyway). Jesus would later rise (from the ‘dead’) to become First Officer on board Spaceship Heaven. That Jesus is an extraterrestrial is admitted by himself in John 8:23. Of note here is that Jesus probably used holographic technology to give an appearance of walking on water and/or appearing alive and in the ‘flesh’ post execution – which he survived, another sign of high technology in operation. 

Baal: God’s prime extraterrestrial rival for power and authority in the region, though there’s never any direct and open physical conflict twixt the two.

Moses: Just one of several abductees noted and logged in Biblical texts. He was abducted by a ‘cloud’ and carried on up the mountain for a close encounter with a supreme alien lawmaker. Upon his return his face had an unnatural glow about it which caused those waiting his return to be afraid of him.

Jacob: Witnessed (or dreamed about) angels ascending and descending to and from Spaceship Heaven.

Ezekiel: A human who had a close encounter of the third kind (those Cherubim) plus an associated abduction event.

Jonah: Spent three days and nights in isolation inside a technological craft.

Joshua: 1) Was in possession of high technology sonic weaponry at Jericho. 2) He later witnessed several UFOs that stood still in the sky providing illumination for his army.

Enoch and Elijah: These two human males are the only two whose ultimate fate (death) we don’t know anything about. Both humans apparently joined the Spaceship Heaven at the behest of her captain never to be seen again, albeit Elijah was spotted with Jesus by three of his disciples (see Transfiguration).

Old Age Pensioners: Methuselah, Noah, Adam as well as others, apparently lived to really, really ripe old ages, way, way, way beyond the standard three score and ten. The explanation: these were humans invited by the officers and crew of Spaceship Heaven to take a relativistic interstellar journey at velocities at a considerable fraction of the speed of light. They aged normally on board, but because of the time dilation effect, time passed more rapidly back on Earth, or more slowly on the spaceship (same difference), such that they returned home hundreds of terrestrial year’s later – Earth time - thus the false appearance that they were hundreds of years old at journey’s end but didn’t look a day over thirty because they really weren’t a day over thirty! It’s referred to as the Twin Paradox of Special Relativity, though it’s not really a paradox at all, just the logical conclusion of the equations of Special Relativity which have been verified by observation and experiment, at least on the micro scale.

Matthew, Mark, Luke & John: A quartet of roving reporters who independently investigated what was to them relatively recent history – just several generations had passed – each in his own way. The topic of their investigation was an alleged historical figure, a figure that seemed to have gained some degree of uniqueness, notoriety and prominence as a possible deity and the quartet wrote up their short biographies accordingly. 

To be continued…

Abducted by Aliens? A Possible Case History

From right around the world, from people from all races, creeds, cultures, ages and occupations, come their tales of alleged abductions, not by terrestrial kidnappers looking for a quick megabuck, but extraterrestrials looking for – well it isn’t cash. While no two abduction accounts are absolutely identical, there are such close similarities that the subject has to be taken seriously. Some accounts detail the experience; some just the possibility. This falls into the latter category.

What follows are the threads of evidence that individually are relatively commonplace, but when taken together are highly suggestive that something extraordinary, even an out-of-this-world experience, has happened to an ordinary person – Mr. Joe Blow Average Citizen (who has related the following to me in confidence). If you’re looking for proof positive, even a smoking gun or just plain (where there’s) smoke (there’s fire) that UFO/alien abductions are reality and not something illusory or delusional, then look elsewhere for I’m not providing it here. Instead, consider this just one more chink in an extremely long chain of UFO/alien abduction chinks that collectively add up to a facet of society that needs to be taken as seriously by the skeptics as it’s taken by the victims and their families and friends. 

Mr. Joe Blow Average Citizen is exactly that, apart from the fact that Mr. Joe Blow Average Citizen believes that the alien ‘grays’ have taken an interest in him – not that that makes him anything other than Mr. Joe Blow Average Citizen. Mr. Joe Blow Average Citizen has lots of apparent company.

What sorts of evidence leads this person to think they may have had at least one, possibly several, UFO/alien abduction experiences? Experiences they have no obvious conscious self-awareness of, but would surely have some degree of subconscious recollection of, which will play out a bit further on down the track.

Firstly, and the one piece of physical evidence that remains, is a long roughly 3 inch linear scar on the slightly right side of the abdomen. It’s not a trivial scar, the sort of one you might get and not notice or pay any real attention to. Yet, given the scenario that the receipt of any such a wound that would leave behind such a scar would have been obvious to the person concerned is not apparently the case. How very odd.

Secondly, the person concerned recalls many superficial wounds of the lower left leg noticed on one occasion as if the leg had been dragged through a thicket of brambles. The mystery is the person concerned doesn’t wear shorts; always just full length shoe-top jeans, and any such routine excursion through any sort of brambles or other sharp vegetation wouldn’t have reached the leg in question. Alas, all evidence of that has by now healed up leaving no trace. As with the abominable scar, the person concerned hasn’t a clue how these superficial ‘bramble’ wounds happened since there no such bushes on the property in any case.

Thirdly, if you pull, tear, wrench or otherwise seriously injure your musculature, it’s highly unlikely you can’t recall the event by which it happened, like say lifting a heavy object or undergoing a sudden but unnatural movement in a sports event. We’ve all experienced that sort of happening. But what about when it happens and you cannot recall the event that’s now causing your discomfort, even intense pain? The person concerned has experienced several bouts of back-wrenching discomfort without knowing the cause; in one case experienced intense and ongoing for lengthy periods right shoulder pain, as if one had a torn rotator-cuff experience, but equally being unable to associate the cause with the effect.  That sort of shoulder injury is common in baseball pitchers, but unfortunately, the person has long since retired from active baseball playing. All of these sorts of wrenching muscle injuries are suggestive of one violently resisting being dragged kicking and screaming against-their-will to their fate, like being abducted.

Another common UFO/alien abduction experience is nosebleeds, and the person concerned has experienced those. The alleged association is that aliens have implanted some sort of tiny [tracking?] device up through and behind one nasal cavity. You might argue that nosebleeds are pretty commonplace, and you would be right. However, there are three unusual facets. Firstly, they happened exclusively in one and only one nostril. Secondly, they normally happened shortly after awakening. Thirdly, if the person concerned were prone to nosebleeds, they should still be happening, but for some strange (even if welcomed reason), they’ve stopped happening, as if according to the alien ‘grays’ “that’s it – we’re now through with you – many thanks and see ya”. And it’s stating the obvious that the person concerned cannot account for them, like being punched in the nose or banging into a door, etc. 

Moving away from the purely medical, the person concerned relates how they experience at quite irregular intervals, extremely restless nights without logical explanation. Okay, we all have those off nights when sleep is elusive and we toss and turn, but usually there is some reason(s) we can assign that accounts for it – a stressful day; a dread of tomorrow; a mild case of evening meal food poisoning; an unusually experimental highly spicy meal or one you had much later than normal; mixing your drinks that you don’t ordinarily do; perhaps it’s an ultra hot-and-humid night, etc. But what if none of the above apply – you have an extremely bad night, the sheets/blankets/covers are all helter-skelter in the morning, yet the day and evening before was absolutely no different than multi-dozens of others where sleep was restful and peaceful and there was hardly a wrinkle in the sheets come morning. Translated, you cannot explain why you had a bad and extremely restless night. Well, if a collision at sea can ruin your day, a UFO/alien abduction can ruin your night’s sleep, and if you have no conscious recollection of the ‘grays’ having their wicked way with you, well then you’re stumped for a reason.   

But the clincher that pushed our alleged victim over the edge in terms of thinking quite seriously about a possible relationship with the UFO alien ‘grays’ happened without warning.

The person concerned is a regular Red Cross blood donor with over 120 whole blood donations under the belt, and as anyone who donates blood is aware, you are subjected to a pre-donation interview and medical check to make sure 1) you are fit and well and can withstand the rigors and dangers of blood donation (small, but not zero), and 2) to weed out to the greatest extent possible any possibility of a medical lawsuit against the Red Cross by someone who has received your tainted blood. In fact you have to sign a legal document that you have told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about your state of health – otherwise you could end up in the poo too.

Now part of that pre-donation medical check involves checking your weight; checking your hemoglobin levels; checking your blood pressure; and lastly measuring your heartbeat or pulse rate. It was with respect to the latter that things came to a head.

The person concerned, expecting yet another very routine pre-blood donation Q&A and medical checkup at the hands of the Red Cross inquisition, was stunned to be told that their heartbeat/pulse rate was way above normal – way, way too much above normal to be acceptable for donation purposes. Fortunately, some relaxation/meditation suggestions from the staff, like heavy controlled deep breathing, eventually reduced the pulse rate to just under the maximum allowed. The Red Cross isn’t about to give up a good blood donation without pulling out all the stops. Still, it was a quite an awaking for the person concerned.

Off to the quack, sorry the medical general practitioner – no explanation found. The pulse rate tended to be in any other set of circumstances to be within the normal range, at least normal for an old fart who’s not a superbly trained 20-something athlete. 

In the following blood donation after the initial discovery of the high pulse rate the person concerned wasn’t notified that the pulse rate was equally as high. Rather the person concerned actually had to ask. Now the point here is that it is highly likely that the person concerned had experienced very high pulse rates at blood donation interviews well prior to the one where it was first revealed. If it had been going on for quite some considerable time before that revelation then that might be a point in favor of some ongoing issue the donor was unaware of. 

The issue was the subconscious abduction experience(s) coming to the fore because the blood donation scenario was a bit too similar to the UFO/alien abduction medical procedures apparently or allegedly practiced – procedures that involve large needles. If one is terrified during a UFO/alien abduction experience, and just about all of us would be, then that stress would reflect itself by an extremely rapid pulse rate – panic stations. Placed in a situation that has strong resemblances to that (i.e. – blood donation), well it might not be too unusual to have that heartbeat rise to those sort of abnormal levels, despite being an old hand at giving blood and thus, you’d think, being always cool, calm and collected when fronting up and centre for the blood donation via the big needle experience.

I would maintain that the above bits and pieces of evidence are suggestive of, or at least compatible with, the typical UFO/alien abduction scenario.

There are however a trilogy of anomalies that need explaining.

Firstly, why hasn’t any external observer(s) witnessed, recorded, or at least reported the abduction-in-progress? The numbers of case histories where an abduction event happened and was observed by external disinterested parties (ones not part and parcel to being a participant) are extremely few and far between – too few being the facts of the matter.

Secondly, how do the aliens get in and out of the abode of their victim, with their victim, through locked doors and windows? It must be super-science of some kind or other.

Thirdly, why is there apparently no reaction from animal companions? You’d expect dogs to bark like mad; cats to hide in terror, not sleep soundly through it all. Animals tend to react as when having strange beings enter their abode. Lack of reaction is an anomaly in itself.

And that’s what makes the abduction area so frustrating. You have myriads of extremely sincere people insisting their alien abductions really happened yet the logic and the supporting evidence is lacking, as in there being any external verifications. 

There’s also the anomaly that older farts are less likely to be chosen as victims by the ‘grays’, though in this case, the pulse rate surges could be the psychological remnants of abductions many moons prior. 

One final drawback is that the person concerned happens to be independently highly knowledgeable about all things extraterrestrial, including things relating to the area of UFO/alien abductions. That alone would make any personal experiences claimed by that person in that area to be highly suspect. Being someone already saturated with that sort of knowledge, and claiming to also have firsthand experiences, is sort of bordering on a conflict-of-interest. That’s at least what sceptics would argue, and the person concerned has related that they acknowledge that.

Biblical UFOs, Abductions & Ancient Astronauts: Part One

Nearly all of us are familiar to a greater or lesser extent with the concept of ‘ancient astronauts’ – extraterrestrials that influenced human history many millennia ago. Evidence is cited from around the world, and draws on mythology, religion, out of place artefacts, artistic works, and the construction of various monumental megaliths that modern society and modern engineering would be hard pressed to reconstruct. It shouldn’t be surprising that a small fraction of that evidence has been culled from the Bible. 

I have long maintained that God and the gods were not totally imaginary, but not supernatural either, rather extraterrestrials (ET). What ET is known for today, among other things, are not only those UFO encounters of the first, second and third kind, but those alleged abductions of humans for various purposes – close encounters of the fourth kind. Perhaps as it is now, so it was back in Biblical times.

Here are some people and events from the Bible (King James Version) that is suggestive of close encounters of the heavenly or out-of-this-world or extraterrestrial kind. Heavenly is apt since heaven is literally out-of-this-world.

One of the keywords in searching for Biblical UFOs is the ‘whirlwind’. In Biblical texts, the ‘whirlwind(s)’ – all 27 references - is clearly identified with phenomena caused by or related to God, or the LORD as He often is referred to, or more often as not refers to Himself. Whirlwinds go up, as in the case of Elijah (see immediately below), and they come down, as for example in Ezekiel (see further below).

ELIJAH

Elijah is only one of two people in the Bible who does not die. Why? Here’s why!

2 Kings 2:11: And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

*Now we have no idea what really transpired after that abduction, but there are those who maintain that, all these centuries later, Elijah is alive and well and has yet a role to play in that ‘end of days’ scenario.

Malachi 4:5: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

*So Elijah is abducted, but will ultimately be returned, sort of like modern UFO/alien abductees, only over a far longer time span.

ENOCH

Enoch is the other of that duo that doesn’t die in the Bible. While there is no quasi-UFO event, there is an abduction related scenario according to the Bible.

Genesis 5:24: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Hebrews 11:5: By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

*If God took him, and God is an ET, then an alien UFO abduction rose-by-any-other-name is still an alien UFO abduction.

EZEKIEL

Ezekiel had that famous UFO encounter recounted in Ezekiel chapter one relating those wheels within wheels and various creatures that looked sort-of like men but weren’t. Ezekiel says he had a “vision” of God, but if God is really an extraterrestrial, then Ezekiel had a vision of an extraterrestrial(s) or in modern parlance, a ‘close encounter of the third kind’. Here are the first couple of verses.

Ezekiel 1:4: And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

Ezekiel 1:5: Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.

Ezekiel 1: 6: And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.

*Ezekiel’s close encounter is fairly self-explanatory, and it goes on from there. But what happened after that?

Ezekiel 3:12: Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place.

Ezekiel 3:13: I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing.

Ezekiel 3:14: So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.

Ezekiel 3:15: Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.

*All of that sounds a bit like an unwilling UFO abduction to me!

MOSES

Another keyword associated with a possible Biblical UFO event is ‘cloud’. Take Moses for example.  Moses too was ‘abducted’ in a cloud by God, but, as typical of most abductees, returned safely to earth, or in the case of Moses, the wilderness.

Exodus 19:9: And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud.

Exodus 24:15: And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.

Exodus 24:18: And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

Exodus 33:9: And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.

Exodus 34:5: And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him [Moses] there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

To be continued…