"The possibility of a purely psychological explanation is illusory, for a large number of observations point to a natural phenomenon, or even a physical one - for instance, those explicable by reflections from 'temperature inversions' in
atmosphere. Despite its contradictory statements, American Air Force, as well as Canadian, considers sightings to be 'real', and have set up special bureaus to collect reports. The 'disks', however, objects themselves, do not behave in accordance with physical laws but as though they were weightless, and they show signs of INTELLIGENT GUIDANCE such as would suggest quasi-human pilots. Yet accelerations are so tremendous that no human being could survive them." -from Carl Jung, FLYING SAUCERS Popular Mechanics from May, 2001 has a cover story that'll make you wonder. "WHEN UFOs LAND At long last, scientists have their hands on proof skeptics say doesn't exist--physical evidence of flying saucers. *****The rich really are different. When Laurence S. Rockefeller--yes, those Rockefellers--wanted to know more about UFOs, he didn't have to satisfy his curiosity at alien-hunters' Web sites or in Weird Science section of Barnes & Noble. He asked Peter A Sturrock, former director of Center for Space Science and Astrophysics at Stanford University, to convene a private meeting of a dozen top scientists at Pocantico Conference Center, on grounds of old Rockefeller family estate 20 miles north of Manhattan. Sturrock's guest list and agenda was noteworthy for its omissions. Bob Lazar, who claimed to have reverse-engineered UFOs at Area 5l, wasn't invited. Neither was alien-buster Philip J. Klass of Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of Paranormal. Roswell, 'face' on Mars and other familiar sightings got little attention. Instead, researchers from Princeton University, Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Center for Space Research in France focused on cases with more meat on their bones--sightings in which physical evidence was left behind. 'While their findings were not conclusive. I hope (they) will raise level of debate.' Rockefeller said afterward.
‘Ask most scientists -what they think of UFO enigma and you will almost certainly get a scoff and a brushoff like, 'There's not one shred of evidence,' says Bernard Raisch, an astronomer with more than 100 scientific publications to his credit. 'That answer is simply not true. The problem is that this evidence does not follow our expected scientific logic, and so scientists dismiss what is, in fact a large number of accounts. Many sighting reports {Including Jimmy Carter.}, as absurd as they sometimes appear, are probably real. Most professional scientists never bother to look at evidence. Instead, dogmatic dismissals by professional debunkers, which are often patently ridiculous, are simply taken at face value.'
As you will see for yourself, some of cases discussed at Pocantico are difficult for even die-hard skeptics to ignore. In 1957, a UFO reportedly exploded after hitting water near town of Ubatuba, Brazil. Metallic debris collected by a physician, turned out to be composed of an extremely high grade of magnesium.
Recently declassified documents explain what it might have been. During 1960s, U. S. Air Force experimented with electrostatic drives. In theory, lift and propulsion can be created by imparting airframes with an electric charge that matches, and therefore repels, surrounding air. Such an aircraft would require enormous amounts of electric power, and Air Force seemed to know how to create it. Other declassified documents reveal Air Force had built compact nuclear reactors small enough to fly on an aircraft. It had also experimented with a device known as a magnetohydrodynamic generator (MHD) to extract large amounts of electricity from a fast-moving stream of molten metal. Engineers familiar with such systems say that if MHD units were to become unstable, some of metal circulating in unit would have to be ejected.
UFO investigators sent a portion of Ubatuba material to Air Force for analysis. It was 'accidentally' destroyed before tests could be completed. (Insets: A sample of Ubatuba debris examined under microscope revealed a higher level of purity than occurs in nature.)
POLICE CRUISER BLACKOUT Luis Delgado was a 28-year-old patrolman for Haines City, Fla., police department when he became part of one of most compelling UFO sightings. It happened about 3:50 am, on March 19, 1992. Delgado noticed a rapidly descending green light in his rearview mirror as he drove down a street alongside a citrus grove. The light seemed to keep pace with his cruiser, until he slowed down. Then silent dome-shaped object flew overhead, filling his police cruiser with a brilliant green glow. He pulled to a stop, and power in his vehicle went dead. For next several minutes he stood outside his car watching 15-ft.-wide craft hover silently in front of him. It seemed to float about 10 ft. off ground; cooling surrounding air to point at which it formed a foggy mist {Tesla unified force field and extraction of earth energy?}. Then, just as quickly as it appeared, it sped away. Delgado returned to his car, and found electrical system was again operating.
’The scientific panel was very impressed by cases in which electrical equipment was disrupted,' says Michael D. Swords, of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich. A conference participant at Pocantico, Swords told POPULAR MECHANICS that this type of encounter is far more common than most people realize. UFO investigator Mark Rodeghier of Center for UFO Studies in Chicago told conference at Pocantico that over past 50 years more than 500 similar reports had been filed. What distinguishes Delgado sighting is inherent credibility of observer. As a police officer, Delgado had nothing to gain--and possibly a great deal to lose--by coming forward with his account.
TRANS-EN-PROVENCE For UFO investigators, most disappointing aspect of Delgado sighting isn't absence of evidence, but way evidence has been allowed to simply disappear through neglect. Samples of nearby road and vegetation were never collected. No radiation measurements of area were made.
UFO researchers in France take scientific investigations of unexplained aerial phenomena more seriously than those in United States. The Center for Space Research, France's counterpart to NASA, even has a team that swings into action when these types of events occur. The team is called GEPAN, after French acronym for Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena Study Group.
GEPAN investigator Jean-Jacques Velasco told Pocantico conference details of what is perhaps most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time, Trans-en-Provence incident.
Renato Nicolai didn't think he had seen a UFO, but instead a secret military aircraft that had strayed from its test site. A contractor who had for about two years when episode occurred on Jan. 8, 1981, Nicolai was working on his terrace in late afternoon when he heard a faint whistling. In distance he saw a lead-coloured object, about 5 ft. high, a bit wider in diameter, and shaped like a pair of inverted bowls, fall from sky. It came to a floating stop about 6 ft. above ground. For next half-minute he observed object, and then watched it rise into sky, creating a small trail of dust. 'When my wife came home in evening, I told her what I had seen,' he said in his official report. 'My wife thought I was joking.' The following morning, he showed her where it had hovered and two of them spotted circular traces it had left in ground {Photos included.}. Neighbors suggested they tell police. Through police, word reached GEPAN, which routinely checks to see whether such sightings are of a military activity or an aircraft. When both were rules out, GEPAN interviewed Nicolai and collected soil from area where object had reportedly hovered. The mystery only deepened. There was black material mixed with soil, but chemical analysis ruled out combustion residue, oil or concrete. Later analyses showed soil had been contaminated with traces of metal, and surrounding vegetation showed subtle damage.
