Eupora, Mississippi

Eupora, Mississippi    17th October, 1973

   Unbelievably, US investigators simply did not bother -even when their top man on CE3Ks, Ted Bloecher stated that it was a case that needed investigating-  they said because "it was probably a hoax".  Well, yes, like the Moon landings.  Utter lazy and totally unscientific attitudes that still persist.  "Why bother looking into it. Probably a hoax". 

   A multiple witness landing of an object and sighting of an AE on a US Highway -with an unidentified car driver coming from the opposite direction stopping, turning and speeding away on seeing it. 

   Now why on earth would that be a priority case?

   What is  -or was-  seen as the best recorded and most significant UFO wave of sightings world-wide is, to many, just unknown. J. Bernard Delair of the old Contact UK produced a very detailed edition of The UFO Register summarizing what was known.  This was based on reports from newspaper as well as UFO periodicals

   Let us suppose that you read that issue of The UFO Register in 1974, or later, and from all the cases cited there are a few lines detailing an alleged UFO landing and entity being seen, but an entity the description of which is unique. We were always told look for rare, seemingly genuine events where non-humanoid entities were reported. This was such a case.

For the past four decades this is the account cut up, re-edited and added to :

   “Night time (no exact hour).  Two UFOs were observed near the above
   location (Eupora), by several witnesses in a car.  One object hovered in the
   sky overhead while the other landed on the highway just over 100 yards
   (103 m) from the car ; the car lights and engine now died.

   “An AE now appeared from the landed object.  This AE had to hold on to
   a handrail.  It had a wide mouth, flipper like feet and what appeared to be
   webbing between the legs.  Even more strange were the feather-like structures
   on its back which gave the impression of opening and closing when the AE
   moved.

   “The AE now re-entered (?) the object which took off ; the car’s electrics
   then began to function again.”

   My note in the file reads: “This case really must be gone into in more detail.  Did investigators talk to the witnesses? Is there missing time?”

    Between 1974-1980,  I wrote to the people who were supposed to have looked into this case.  No responses. Any and every new book or article (very rare) dealing with that period or AE / CE3K cases is checked. Same lines. No new details. I have scoured thousands of these reports that I have on file and checked many other sources. Nothing similar so the "craft" description and entity description.  They are totally unique.   But case details were far too vague.

   In 2015 I finally got in contact with the Centre for UFO Studies (CUFOS) and Dr. Mark Rodeghier told me that, yes, they had the case on file and even provided me with the file.  I would like to thank Dr. Rodeghier for this.

   No investigation had ever taken place. Why? Even Ted Bloecher  states in the file that the case was deserving of investigation. The reason nothing was done?  No one could be bother -"It might turn out to be a hoax" based on the fact that the description and notes made by someone at a radio station at the time just didn't "do it" for someone.

   I checked everywhere I could, even on the internet, once I got the percipient's name. No claims of a hoax or a joke –no one had exposed the case as such at the time nor since. Nothing. Just constant cut and paste of the same lines describing the incident.   However, the whole point of investigation is to disprove or prove a case. A joke? Fair enough. At least investigators learn something more. But if seemingly genuine?  I leave that up to you.

   Ted Bloecher made a transcript of the interview by Jack King of the radio station  --King was the only person who talked to Patterson and he believed him.  I am going to quote the entire transcript as to cut and edit will not give the reader that feel of how genuine it all came across. We really ought to thank Jack King of WROB.

Patterson is not, obviously, well educated and he is grasping at words to try to explain what he has seen, something he has never encountered before and the only thing he can do is use examples of things he knows so the UFO is a “capsule” because he has seen on TV that the capsule is where astronauts make their journey.  He is, obviously, still quite shaken up by what he has seen.  He even tries to explain this to King – “I’m talking crazy to you, but I can’t talk no better”  It is very ungracious to write in a transcript others will see “God help us –TB.” Not everyone gets a good middle class education.

   Again, Patterson says “No –I take that back” a number of times which is an indicator of someone trying, as best they can, to draw on something they know to try to explain something they are totally unfamiliar with.  The flying squirrel example to explain the AE had a membrane between its legs is a good example.

   And what he saw was not “an alien” or “space man” it was “this man –or whatever it is” and the whole account is so devoid of Ufological terminology that it really stands out.  We see that Patterson and his friends even went to the Eupora police to report the incident but were not treated seriously.

   A number of witnesses are named by Patterson and there was, at the time, the possibility that an appeal might have had the driver who did the U-turn and drove off when he saw the UFOB get in touch.  What of witnesses around the Highway?

   No investigators bothered to do their job.  CUFOS put me in touch with a veteran investigator who told me that, based on his “vast experience”, it was a hoax.  Why?  Because, based on his “vast experience”, it was a hoax.  He had, he told me, some great cases from 1973 that he had forwarded to MUFON.  The man seemed to not even be interested in seeing if Patterson did live in Eupora or still lived there or what could be found out –there are odds in favour of more than one of the witnesses name still being alive.  I have a suspicion why the report was ignored.

   On 14th  June, 1975, Ted Bloecher, then the US leading expert on CE3Ks, wrote to WROB, no doubt sensing things were going wrong.  He notes in the letter to Jack King that he had written to but not heard from the investigator and that the Patterson incident was one of possibly eight (8) CE3Ks on the night of 17th  October, 1973.  Bloecher  seriously felt this case needed investigation.

   Then, on the 7th  July, 1975, the local investigator wrote that   "I agree that the Early Patterson case should be followed up. I will make plans to visit that area sometime in the near future and talk to Patterson, plus any of the witnesses I can locate.  I will tape the conversations and forward a copy to you. If you have any specific questions I will be glad to include them."

   When Bloecher retired  from Ufology all of his files were donated to CUFOS and these show nothing further from either investigator involved. Had it not been for the radio station we would not know of the case.  Bloecher tried to get things rolling but those in place obviously had their prejudices which seems evident. 

   With Eupora the blame for the mess lies firmly with the Ufologists.  That there was a lot of “UFO” activity that day is clear.

17th October

c. 14:00 hrs  Watauga, Tennessee
   A copper hued circular object hovered just above ground level while a 6 ft tall entity reached out of a doorway and tried to grab 2 children nearby. AE had claw-like hands and eyes that blinked. (8) Also note on 15th John Lane claimed that a blue coloured object landed by a road at Gulfport, Miss., and that a crab clawed entity tapped on one of his car windows. Could this be what Patterson referred to? (9)

20:00 hrs  near Powhatan, Louisiana, 10 observers watched 3   multicoloured lights at a very low altitude.

20:48 hrs unusually shaped object observed over Fisher, Waldenburg and Weiner communities of Arkansas

21:57 hrs  Jackson District, Miss.: 11 observers watch an object with 6~8 lights.

23:00 hrs  nr Athens, Georgia.  Paul Brown had to swerve his car and make an emergency stop as a cone shaped object landed on the road ahead of him. From beneath the object emerged two 4 feet tall AEs with reddish faces and white hair.  The AEs re-entered the object which took off with a whoosh ~possibly due to the fact that Brown fired several shots at it with no apparent effect.

   The story is, obviously, somewhat more detailed.  Brief details were given in the NICAP Investigator and the Flying Saucer Review  (10 & 11) and the main news source appears to have been the Christian Science Monitor (12 & 13).

   Paul Brown, a preacher and car dealer was headed home near Danielsville on U.S. 29 listening to the World Series when suddenly his radio stopped working:

   “Everything lit up, I could see the road and the fields lighted up all around me. My first impression was that it was a small airplane trying to land.”

   However, this “plane”  began to pace his car before quickly landing on the road in front of Brown.  He was forced to stop. He could see that the object was 6 feet high and 15 feet in diameter. At that point a bright light was cast upon him, the round beam blinding him.

   “I realized if I don’t stop I’m going to hit it. So I came to a screeching halt.   “I don’t know why I did it, but I opened the car door and managed, frightened as I was, to get one foot on the ground.”

   Two beings now appeared:

    “Where they came from I don’t know. I couldn’t see a flap, a drop door, or anything. When I finally got my vision clear I could see a clearance underneath, so it was not belly-landed; it had some kind of landing gear. And they came out, and they had on the most beautiful outfits I’ve ever seen-silver, blousy, come down to where your wrists are, then they had what appeared to be white gloves. Very tight around the neck, like something a priest would wear. Down to the feet, like a jumpsuit. It looked like if you pulled a gun and shot it, it would glance off, yet it moved. They could move, yet it looked like it was heavy, because of the way they walked, very slow. I estimated them to be four to five feet tall.

   “They just started walking down the road toward me, very slow. I could see a face, you know, place where eyes would be, ears. The faces were reddish. Hair was almost like cotton, no discoloration, which leads me to believe maybe it was a mask of some kind. I never got close enough to really say-closest I ever got was 150, 200 feet away, which is not too far away when you’re there by yourself.”

   Brown, carried a pistol for protection and when he produced the weapon:

     “They turn around, walk very slow back behind the shadow to the bright light. All of a sudden they disappear behind the light, and I try to see where they go, if they go in a hatch or what, but I couldn’t”

   The entities re-entered the object and the lights were extinguished then, according to Brown:

   “Took off at an angle and made a sound I would describe as like a million fans,  or like golf balls coming by my ear.  Almost stood my hair on end.”

   Brown then immediately drove to a police station and reported the incident. By  daylight deputies had found Brown’s tyre skid marks and noted that roadside grass was “fan swept.”

   According to Mark Rodeghier: “I expect that the case was never investigated properly, like so many in this intense (1973) wave”. 

   17th/18th  00:00 hrs  nr. Loxley, Alabama.  Clarence Patterson (no relation to Early Patterson) claimed that he and his pickup truck were sucked up into a huge, cigar shaped UFOB  and that he was pulled from the vehicle by 6  robot-like entities that seemed to read his mind. Next thing he recalled was being back on the highway with his vehicle going at 90 mph. Incident may have lasted up to 30 minutes (14-17).

   Again, we have an alleged abduction and decades later we know no more about it. Just how ridiculous does this all appear to Science?

   17th (unspecified time)  Nr Hartwell, Georgia.  A UFOB allegedly landed and a white haired entity was seen for a short time.

   17th  (unspecified)  Elgin AFB, Florida. A UFO was recorded on radar equipment by fully trained personnel.

   17th  (unspec. Time) Alton Park, Tennessee. A UFOB was sighted and said to have landed.

   17th  (unspec. time) Crowley, near Lake Charles, Louisiana. 2 witnesses observe an oblong, luminous object.  Local power cut at the same time.

   These are just a few reports in a small geographic portion of the US that seem to show that there was some unusual activity taking place on the 17th/18th and in some cases details match regarding entities – crab-like pincers or white haired AEs.  If one looks at Contact UKs  The UFO Register then it is quite clear that in the United States alone there was a great deal of activity deemed "UFOs" –details in some cases are vague and the power-cut at Crowley could be down to any number of causes.

   But even if 95%  of the cases on record can be listed as misinterpretation, hoax or whatever, then we have a percentage that cannot be so easily dismissed.

   The UFOB and AE incidents are clear –as Bloecher noted to WROB, there were at least 8 alleged CE3Ks that night –  but how detailed were the investigations?  In the cases of Early Patterson, Paul Brown and Clarence Patterson and other witnesses in CE3K events there were no investigations.  A multi-witness report of a UFOB landing on a US Highway in which an AE was seen but ignored by Ufologists is incredible. 


Note: "UFOB" refers to what appears to be a solid, constructed craft rather than "something" in general -a UFO.

CE3K is a Close Encounter of the Third Kind -the sighting of a UFOB and alleged entities associated with it.

The Allagash Abduction (Part 1)

Case Cracked: The Allagash Abduction

The Allagash Abductions - An OpenMinds.tv Documentary

Life on Mars?

Semi literacy is strong on the internet news services.  The acronym NASA is written as Nasa and we get the usual garbled reporting but what we have here is what is being reported all over the internet -including claims that Martian life may be hiding underground. 

The comments from quasi conspiracy theorists that this is all about NASA's hidden evidence of intelligent extraterrestrials hiding from view in one or more complex beneath Mars shopws any real understanding of what is being clearly stated.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/found-evidence-life-mars-1970s-200700397.html

We found evidence of life on Mars in the 1970s, former Nasa scientist says

Andrew Griffin

The Independent14 October 2019

File photo taken on Mars approximately in September 1976 at Utopia Planitia by the US. Viking 2 unmanned spacecraft

Nasa found evidence of alien life in the 1970s, according to a former senior scientist – and ignored it.

The Viking landers were sent to the Martian surface more than 40 years ago, with the aim of exploring the planet. They included an experiment known as Labeled Release, or LR, which was intended to look for signs of life on the planet.

The results came back in 1976 – and seemed to indicate that something was happening on the surface. Gilbert V Levin – an engineer and inventor who was the principal investigator on the experiment – has now written a long article arguing that those findings were indications of life on Mars, which were ignored by Nasa.

"On July 30, 1976, the LR returned its initial results from Mars," Levin wrote in an article for Scientific American. "Amazingly, they were positive.

"As the experiment progressed, a total of four positive results, supported by five varied controls, streamed down from the twin Viking spacecraft landed some 4,000 miles apart. The data curves signaled the detection of microbial respiration on the Red Planet. The curves from Mars were similar to those produced by LR tests of soils on Earth.

"It seemed we had answered that ultimate question."

But Nasa's experiments failed to find organic matter: the physical stuff of life itself, not just the indications of microbial respiration that the LR experiment discovered. That meant that Nasa concluded that the LR results came from a substance that was mimicking life but was not actually life itself.

Since then, Nasa has not a run a similar experiment has focused on examining whether the Martian habitat could be a suitable home for alien life.

But Levin argues that those findings actually suggested that there is alien life on Mars. And, he argued, Nasa must do more to follow them up – because they could pose a significant threat to life on Earth.

"NASA maintains the search for alien life among its highest priorities," he wrote. On February 13, 2019, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said we might find microbial life on Mars.

"Our nation has now committed to sending astronauts to Mars. Any life there might threaten them, and us upon their return. Thus, the issue of life on Mars is now front and center."

Summing up the evidence of alien life, he wrote his experiment had found a whole host of positive results. But perhaps most strongly of all, he said there had been no experiment that had provided an alternative explanation for the results that came back from the LV experiment.

"What is the evidence against the possibility of life on Mars? The astonishing fact is that there is none," he wrote. "Furthermore, laboratory studies have shown that some terrestrial microorganisms could survive and grow on Mars."

In his conclusion, he asked that Nasa conduct the same kind of experiments again, taking an altered version of the LR experiment to Mars on the next possible trip. And he asked that scientists be convened to examine those more than 40-year-old findings to see if they really were proof of life on Mars.

"Such an objective jury might conclude, as I did, that the Viking LR did find life," he wrote. "In any event, the study would likely produce important guidance for NASA’s pursuit of its holy grail."

               ---end---

When you read the Scientific American article you will note that the title reads: "I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s" and Levin is stating that this is what the tests showed but he is calling on a scientific panel to look at the evidence to make a judgement -either way.

 https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/im-convinced-we-found-evidence-of-life-on-mars-in-the-1970s/ 

We are not talking about alien bases. We are not talking about anything other than microbial life so far. That is the important thing to remember as the ufology hysteria creates more inane statements and theories.  

Always check the actual original source(s) and do not base your belief on what you read from an idiot online journalist.

It's blurry...been "enhanced" but science will accept the image as being evidence...we aint talking UFOs

Well, I notice that standards are being maintained.  Not a single comment on any of the posts despite some of them attracting thousands of views -and it goes without saying that some of those people are taking items (including my original comments) and posting them as their own.

I get fed up posting free content (I have books you can buy to support the ongoing work) but I'm sat here waiting for the grim reaper so have some time to waste.

A proto black hole in our solar system could be what people have mistaken for Planet 9 (before Pluto's demotion, Planet X). You check the comments on 'news' sites like Yahoo! and you see some of the biggest pile of garbage and lobotomised hysteria it is possible to find in one place.  On this blog, intended to foster discussion or questions....nothing.

As it stands I do not think that the proto black hole theory is anything but that. Astronomy calls for lots -an incredible amount at times- theorising on things that "might be" if another theory is correct. Over 4000 exo planets have been discussed and we have all the nice "artists impressions" of these that astronomers and scientists use in lectures.  Most will say "This is Exo planet AABB.  Now we have never seen what it looks like.  This is just an artist impression."  In which case you really should not be using imaginary paintings but the actual image (IF you have one) of AABB -which as best is a tiny dot.

Astronomers and scientists used that famous "artists impression/concept" of what Oumuamua looked like.  And then they screech at the public and news services "That is NOT what it looked like!" and give us another artist impression of "what Oumuamua might look like".  Because no one ever saw it.

"Ifs"/"Buts"/"Might"/"If the theory is correct then it might explain" are every day astronomical scientific words.

this is a typical image released with the discovery of an exo planet.

Here are actual photographs/images of exo planets

The exoplanet HIP 65426b has recently been discovered using the SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument)

There is some controversy over whether the planet seen in this image exists. Read here for more.]

How do we know these are exo planets?  We have to take the word of scientists that their calculations are correct and truthful....oh and "We peer review" which in itself can lead to nasty arguments and people being outraged that their pet theories are being shoved to one side.

On the 10th April, 2019, NASA released the first image of a black hole.  Apparently a lot of reporters were underwhelmed!

In a historic feat by @EHTelescope & @NSF, a black hole image has been captured for the 1st time. Several of our missions observed the same black hole using different light wavelengths and collected data to understand the black hole's environment. Details: https://go.nasa.gov/2Uwj1PF

https://
Hmm. Here is the problem: grainy images of objects millions of light years away accompanied by unproven theories -we will never visit these planets- are taken as fact.  However many "observers" may be involved where is the proof?  It's an image.  Often an enhanced or "touched up"/altered image and we have to take astronomers' word of what is shown?  Yet they will argue on points and even challenge each other but it comes down to this: you HAVE to accept their word.

Think of the astronomers in the past humiliated, laughed at and who had -at best- careers ruined because they proposed that the Moon and Mars might have some type of water or ice -that it might not be simply confined to Earth. Those who had the same treatment over claims about Mars. Or how about those who observed and wrote for decades on there being a large planet beyond Pluto...look how many minor planets we have found so far.  Don't forget that 20 new moons were only recently discovered in the solar system.

Now look at it this way (let's be Devil's Advocate): a couple driving along a lonely road observe a strange light moving around the night sky.  The said object lands just ahead of them.  It ;later transpires, though they do not want to believe this themselves, that they were taken aboard what we would call a UFOB -a constructed non terrestrial craft. At the same time a local air force base detects a UFO on its radar and there are interceptors sent to check.  Miles from the couple (who are unseen due to distance) witnesses in a car see a UFO that eventually takes off.  They may or may not see or hear the interceptors.  The air force is contacted after the couple report the UFO to investigators and it is found that an "unknown" was tracked.  Checking reports made on that day the people who saw the object from a distance are found to have reported it.  Everything matches./

For astronomers and scientists that is not evidence. Only blurry, enhanced images from light years away count.

Why?

There are possibilities.

1. Scientists and astronomers will think they will be called failures because aliens are visiting Earth occasionally and they didn't know or

2. The possibility of real live aliens coming to Earth actually terrifies these people for various reasons.  If you are an ass-head like Dr Brian ("I'm a celebrity") Cox then you believe that all intelligent life in what even he graciously concedes is a vast universe, is dead.  We (humans) are it.

3  Astronomers and scientist will quote "the vast distances involved in space travel" which they then authoratively claim "Would make it impossible for aliens to visit the Earth"  Well, this is what we used to call "utter nonsense" or "talking out of your ass".

Firstly, these people have never contacted an advanced alien civilisation  let alone studied the type of space craft or technology they used.  Judging everything by human technological standards is so pointless.  Just as they may very well not use radio signals they may be centuries ahead of us in technology -had humans not killed off scientists with "outlandish theories" and warred with each other for centuries think where we might be today -technology is developing and increasing and I remember what it was like in the 1960s when you  were either well enough for a private landline telephone or had to visit the local phone box -and join the queue!  Today you can call anywhere in the work from your sofa.  Not to mention tweets and instagram or Face Book and even cook a meal in minutes instead of 30 minutes to an hour after preparation.

It takes one Elon Musk to have a team that decides "A" simply does not work and shrug and decide to try "D" instead and...a new way to travel in sp[ace is developed and from there others will jump in and add to the development.

When I was a young we were promised homes on the Moon by the 21st century.  Greed, war and corruption led to all of that stopping but what if the Apollo missions had continued?  I never even imagined that one man who lead a team that put a red sports car with astronaut dummy into space.

Distances and propulsion methods are things that we can guess at what might be developed but there is no human being on this planet who has any idea of what type of propulsion system or travel method any alien life might use.

The distance response is silly talk at best. and the other response of "We would detect them in our solar system" is shot down in flaming dust -our Near Earth Object detection system missed four large asteroid close passes....we more or less accidentally detected Oumuamua and we've found 20 new moons (they did not "just appear there") and there may be more, we have found minor planets beyond Pluto and there could be more including the giant (possibly) Planet 9.  When asked why they have not detected all of these before the answer is always the same -the size of the solar system, orbits and so on. So even a battle ship sized interstellar craft could 'sneak through'

4. There is the arrogance that, as in science fiction movies, scientists would be the first to be contacted but why any advanced civilisation should want to contact backward scientists is open to conjecture. Aliens would be detected or contact us via signals yet when there are unusual signals they are immediately described as (just check online when it comes to SETI) "Anything but aliens".  True space is very noisy.  The AOP Bureau's Franklyn A. Davin-Wilson dealt not only with Near Earth Objects but also "Signals from space".  "The music of the spheres" as an expression should have added to it "The music of the spheres, nebula, quasars and intergalactic space".  Scientists and astronomers could simply state: "Everything must be ruled out before jumping to the conclusion of alien signals" but they do not.  "It's never ever aliens" is the line you hear over and over again: it ios totally unscientific to rule something out completely because you do not want it to be.

Fear and unscientific.

This is shown in even recent responses to questions about alien life and UFOs where "Little Green Men" is used in the subject response title.  That displays a very retarded attitude since "LGM" was the favoured phrase to ridicule reports in the 1950's and 1960's -every time you see it used you know that you are not dealing with a scientist who can be trusted to undo his own zipper when he goes to the lavatory let alone discuss UFO reports. It also shows that dogma is at play: Scientist A's professor was ridiculed when he mentioned flying saucer reports and so he ridiculed anyone who mentioned UFOs. It is a closed mind and bullying combined and astronomers and scientists are such sensitive little things that they cannot think for themselves and, worst of all, they might be made into a joke or lose out on those free junkets.  Better to say nothing and just look like a moron.

I did write that I was playing Devil's Advocate and I do know that there are scientists and astronomers with an interest in UFOs -which all scientists should have but tend to shy away from speaking or discussing the topic.

Could you imagine an Elon Musk financed UFO study and investigation group rather than one by that fella hands out dozens of anti disclosure contracts and tells no one anything  (you know who I mean)? We are staring out thousands of light years into deep space and paying our own solar system not as much attention as it needs

Two interesting articles:
Life found on Mars in the 1970's
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1189746/Alien-news-NASA-space-Mars-mission-1970s-scientists-Viking-lander-1-Gilbert-Levin

Looking for sub-surface life on mars
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1189948/NASA-news-Alien-ufo-Mars-update-latest-mission-space-extra-terrestrial

There is an argument that says we ought to spend far more investigating our own solar system and sending out signalling probes that move around it.  I agree.

But while astronomers and scientists accept grainy/blurry images from deep space and roll the D&D dice to decide which exo planet might or might not have life (and we'll never know either way) but refuse to seriously look at UFOB or alleged CE3K (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) cases they are not really looking for extraterrestrial life.

French UFO Abductions: Far Too Few?

French UFO Abductions: Far Too Few? was a short talk by Ron Westrum and is both interesting and annoying at the same time.

Annoying in that Westrum looks at abduction reports with his main sources of knowledge being, it seems, Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs -the non peer reviewed work of both men has fallen into disrepute and considering this -remember that I supported Hopkins from his early work and Jacobs- that is a big problem.

The other big problem is that Westrum chose France. Now logically Close Encounters of the Third Kind do not work like that: there is no real border when it comes to UFOBs (alleged constructed craft) and one audience member does try to ask "Why just France?" because you are dealing with one country on the Western European continent and Westrum points out how small the population of France is compared to that of the United States -hence the odd playing with numbers.

We get the casual racism expected in ufology and which seems to stump Westrum for a response. Such as why don't the French report aliens -"Maybe they're English (the aliens)!" and why not as many abductions as in the US? "Maybe it's the garlic!"

sigh

Back in the late 1980's -updated in the early 1990's- I produced a chunky paper titled Close Encounters of the Third Kind in France and I believe there were over 200 reports listed and in the last few years I have stumbled upon reports not listed at the time. There have been some interesting French TV documentaries on UFOs and for the most part not sensationalist or jokey. There seems to be evidence of missing time in some cases and in others of "Ruth Syndrome" (as outlined in detail in UFO Contact?) That book also included some early French CE3K cases and Contact: Encounters With Extraterrestrial Entities? looks at the fact that France has official UFO investigators team and looked at other French cases. In Unidentified - Identified France was referred to again -as was Belgium its closest neighbour. What I found disappointing was that Westrum seemed to not have much knowledge on France and CE3K/abduction cases there.

My books have tried to show that these reports are not just from the United States where there is a far bigger publicity machine. Reports just as detailed and interesting.

"Why France?" indeed since there are detailed reports from Germany -pages 80-130 of Contact look at reports from Germany of CE3Ks and alleged abductions -some having never been published in English before.

The question is not "Why are aliens not abducting thousands of French people?" but "Why do ufologists in the United States claim there are 200-400 alien abduction cases per month?"

If you go onto You Tube you will see that figure quoted. But Jacobs and Hopkins claimed that hundreds of millions of people around the world have been abducted and that figure is pure hog-wash. Two men carrying out non peer reviewed work made that claim based on guessing and adding to guessing and not on anything evidence based. I believe Westrum's talk and reference to chatting with Jacobs on the subject proves this.

As for why French percipients might not report abductions perhaps it is because abductions are very rare rather than ten every hour? Also, many alleged abductees in the United States are alone at the time and there are tell-tale signs as to why they may be experiencing what they report. Rather like "UFO Waves" that are actually more amalgams of all types of phenomena than extraterrestrial craft it seems the whole "abduction phenomenon" is vastly exaggerated and not as common as we are led to believe.

Westrum seems to accept that these cases are real in some sense and if he believes and trusts the work of Hopkins and Jacobs he is not getting the real picture. That comes from years of research.

Trying for a statistical analysis of something often misreported and represented by hoaxes, psychological events or reports fabricated by ufologists (for which there is ample evidence) is pointless. Looking at why most seemingly genuine reports do not conform to "the Greys" or the scenarios established by certain ufologists?

"We have no idea so let's do a statistical analysis of something we have no real information on" is not a good idea.

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French UFO Abductions: Far Too Few? | Ron Westrum

Could Alien Probes Be Hiding Around Quasi Moons of Earth - New Study

Aliens -What Can We Expect

Exobiologists, who have remember never actually studied alien life first hand, look for so called "Goldilocks" or habitable zones around stars. Although they may be able  to decode certain emissions from a far distant world all the "artist impression of what --- might look like" images and speculation is just that.

Scientists are looking for planets that "could evolve or develop life similar to that on Earth". It is all guessing and to some a search of this type seems "the most likely way of discovering alien life"...but all the references and so on are then to micro organisms -bacteria, algae and so on. Which we will never discover beyond our solar system because we have yet to actually travel to or find such things in our own system.

What good is it to anyone to declare that a planet some 100 light years away "might" (triple underlined emphasis) "be suitable to support basic life forms"?

Rather like the CETI and SETI (Communications with Extra Terrestrial Intelligences and Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligences) everything is based on what we know or think we know about our Earth. We think life will develop like the amoeba then slightly higher life forms until a human type race develops. 

I recall once giving a talk and pointing out that had the dinosaurs not died out, had they remained the dominant life form, then they would have over millions of years developed to be the actual "highest life form" and humans be extinct or whatever. Two astronomers decided I had gone too far and told me that I was promulgating fantasies and had no credibility.  A few years later there were several television science documentaries that used scientific data to speculate on this same subject. The possibilities are still discussed today by many in the scientific community.

Above: how dinosaurs MIGHT have developed?  Credit -unknown: if known please let me know (c)the copyright owner

Well there are prejudices.  Ask some palaeontologists whether dinosaurs could have developed into a humanoid or semi-humanoid dominant species and some will positively screech at you that such a suggestion is an insult to the dinosaurs. There are some who suggest pteradons might still be flying around but that after 65,000,000 years evolution would change the dinosaurs -far, far too far for them.  Evolution only works, apparently, if you are using it for your pet theory. Take the Loch Ness Monster for instance: even as a 12 year old I could not understand why naturalist Sir Peter Scott and others were seriously suggesting that a plesiosaur of some type was in the Loch.  After 65 million years would it not have changed?

Well crocodiles, snakes, bees,Sea stars, horse shoe crabs, sharks -and others were around at the time of the dinosaurs -evolution can be a touchy subject in arguments.

Some have asked why the billions of dollars worth of deep space telescopes are not turned to study planets in our own solar system. These pieces of equipment produce great images but are designed and built for deep space viewing not near space and you might wonder, with asteroids whizzing past Earth, more money was not spent on near space telescopes and detectors?  We have had to rely on space probes to gather data and even then some argue about what finds indicate.

I well remember the actor Vladek Sheybal's character in the 1970s TV series UFO arguing that more money was being spent on imaging deep space while the microscopic world on Earth had no real funding. My own interest came at Secondary School (Greenway Boys Secondary Modern, Southmead, Bristol) in the early 1970s when I was allowed to help Mr Soper the Science teacher set up tesats for the next day and also get use of the microscope. A few years later, as a regular visitor to the newspaper section of Bristol Central Library, I read in an 1800's newspaper about Andrew Crosse (17th June 1784 – 6th July 1855) "The Thunder and Lightning Man" and his 'creation of life' -the Acarus.

 Above: Andrew Cross
Below: Acarus crossii

In more recent decades scientists have begun to probe the microscopic world more and with video recording as well as still photography we find a whole 'universe' of living creatures on Earth -with many yet to be discovered.

In fact we might say that every human is their own solar system supporting life and life supporting it. According to Greg Foot from BritLab in the video Disgusting Things That Live On Your Body “In a rather gross way, you are practically a walking petri dish, a home for more bugs and bacteria than you’d care think about.”

"Consider the skin on your face. As smooth and peachy as it may look, every square centimetre houses around one or two “demodex spiders”. They mostly lie low, but once you’re asleep they crawl across your face to mate and lay eggs in your pores. Don’t feel too disgusted, though – in return for their food and lodging, these spiders clean away some of the harmful bacteria that might cause a dangerous infection.

"Away from the face, humans can host three different types of lice, each of which has evolved to the unique environments of the scalp, pubic regions and the rest of our bodies. As the video explains, studying these bugs has helped scientists to work out when our ancestors started to cover their modesty with animal skins – after millions of years of walking around butt naked.

"By far the most numerous inhabitants are the microbial colonies inside the body itself – there are 10 times as many bacterial cells as human cells. Most are crucial for us to break down food into the nutrients we need to survive; these immigrants pay back just as much as we give them".

Now I know what the Reader is going to ask: "What has this got to do with what aliens might look like?" The thing is that we have this human prejudice that any intelligent life out in space must have developed like us.  Why?

Above: Tardigrade in 3D Diane Nelson and National Parks Service
What if alien life developed similarly, but obviously larger, to the tardigrades, known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets? They are a phylum of water-dwelling eight-legged segmented micro-animals and were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773 - who called them little water bears. They  range from 0.05 millimeters to 1.2 mm (0.002 to 0.05 inches) long, but they usually don't get any bigger than 1 mm (0.04 inches) long.

LiveScience ( https://www.livescience.com/57985-tardigrade-facts.html  ) reported that:

"Research has found that tardigrades can withstand environments as cold as minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 Celsius) or highs of more than 300 degrees F (148.9 C), according to Smithsonian magazine. They can also survive radiation, boiling liquids, massive amounts of pressure of up to six times the pressure of the deepest part of the ocean and even the vacuum of space without any protection. A 2008 study published in the journal Current Biology found that some species of tardigrade could survive 10 days at low Earth orbit while being exposed to a space vacuum and radiation.

"In fact, water bears could survive after humanity is long gone, researchers found. Scientists from Harvard and Oxford universities looked at the probabilities of certain astronomical events — Earth-pummeling asteroids, nearby supernova blasts and gamma-ray bursts, to name a few — over the next billions of years. Then, they looked at how likely it would be for those events to wipe out Earth's hardiest species. And while such catastrophic events would likely wipe out humans, the researchers found little tardigrades would survive most of them, they reported in a study published online July 14, 2017, in the journal Scientific Reports.

"To our surprise, we found that although nearby supernovas or large asteroid impacts would be catastrophic for people, tardigrades could be unaffected," David Sloan, a co-author of the new study and researcher at Oxford, said in a statement. "Therefore, it seems that life, once it gets going, is hard to wipe out entirely. Huge numbers of species, or even entire genera may become extinct, but life as a whole will go on." 

So imagine long-lived Tardigrade type species with developed intelligence and evolving into a dominant life form that develops space travel. Not much they get exposed to in space or on other planets is going to be very life threatening.

If we look at the known microscopic life on Earth we find so many differing types and to many the images of these are mind-blowing.  Hollywood movie makers wanting suitable aliens need not ask someone to "imagine" a creature -they need only to flip through microscopic images online. A good place to start would be this site: https://listverse.com/2017/02/22/10-shockingly-intricate-microscopic-organisms/

Above: Radiolarians
Below: (it IS organic!) the Enterobacteria Phage T4

Any species, to survive, needs two things.  The first is to be the Apex creature on their planet with no superior predators.  Secondly, if the conditions are perfect for them then evolution (that some times dirty word) should step in. Why not an intelligent gastropod such as a slug, snail or whelk?  Even some aquatic or amphibean- a cold-blooded vertebrate animal of a class that comprises the frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, and caecilians. These are distinguished by having an aquatic gill-breathing larval stage followed (typically) by a terrestrial lung-breathing adult stage.

It may be that certain life forms develop a higher  intelligence but have weaker bodies and they may develop ways of encasing their bodies in a natural or manufactured body shell -perhaps not revealing any of the original body form.  Cases may be developed for certain tasks or to assume a similarity to the dominant life form on another planet that the species is studying.

Taking it further, there could be life forms that have none of their original form but are intelligences encased in robot like bodies or even assume a "colony form" comprising anywhere from 5, 10 or even 50 individuals.

Rather than "thinking outside the box" it is more a case that we need to "think away from the humanoid of Earth".

Exobiology is based on what we know of Earth and life here.  It is a good basis to start from but rather like theoretical physics it needs to go beyond "Earth-like" and ask how life on planets not like ours could develop because until we actually get to openly "meet and greet" genuine alien life we have no references.

Unless UFO percipients have encountered such entities?