Solution to the Fermi Paradox Found! Scientists Hope They're Wrong. Some Thoughts

In both my books and blogs I have commented about this absolutely silly "where are they?" remark.

I published this on Sunday, 21st June 2020:

Nasa funds major new search for signs of life elsewhere in the universe

Article by Andrew Griffin of The Independent. My comments follow:

Nasa is funding a major new search for alien life elsewhere in the universe.

The project – which is being run by scientists at Harvard and the University of Rochester – will scan the skies for signs of life known as technosignatures. Those are indications of alien technologies, which would be revealed to us either on purpose or by accident.

The research is the first time in three decades that Nasa has given a grant to look for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, and the first time it has ever tried to do so without looking for radio technosignatures.

Researchers believe that while life elsewhere in the universe may look very different, it is likely to be identifiable by similar signatures as those given off by life on Earth. As such, they hope that they will be able to spot indications that alien civilisations elsewhere are using the kind of technology we are already using, or could theoretically use in the future.

"Technosignatures relate to signatures of advanced alien technologies similar to, or perhaps more sophisticated than, what we possess," said Avi Loeb, Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard. "Such signatures might include industrial pollution of atmospheres, city lights, photovoltaic cells (solar panels), megastructures, or swarms of satellites."

Astronomers believe that the search could have more success than in the past because humanity has made great strides in finding worlds elsewhere in the universe, and understanding whether they could serve as home to life elsewhere. With those discoveries, researchers should now be able to know more accurately where they should be looking.

"The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has always faced the challenge of figuring out where to look. Which stars do you point your telescope at and look for signals?" said Adam Frank, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester, and the primary recipient of the grant. "Now we know where to look. We have thousands of exoplanets including planets in the habitable zone where life can form. The game has changed."

At first, the researchers will look for two main signatures: solar panels, and pollutants. Both represent key and identifiable ways that humanity has changed the Earth, and so any alien civilisation might do the same.

It is likely that other civilisations would look to harness the energy of their sun as they look for new ways to power their technology, for instance. If that was done in the form of solar panels, we might be able to see reflections being sent through the universe.

"The nearest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri, hosts a habitable planet, Proxima b. The planet is thought to be tidally locked with permanent day and night sides," said Loeb. "If a civilization wants to illuminate or warm up the night side, they would place photovoltaic cells on the day side and transfer the electric power gained to the night side."

Likewise, the chemicals released as any alien civilisation builds its infrastructure is likely to be possible to pick up. By looking for chemicals that are unlikely to be produced naturally, we might be able to see that sign across the universe." End

The problem of "solar panels sending their reflections thoughout the universe" is that you are using the universe as your sandbox. Chris Baraniuk in a post on BBC Earth on 13th June 2016 gave this quote: http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20160610-it-took-centuries-but-we-now-know-the-size-of-the-universe#:~:text=Today%20we%20are%20fairly%20confident,billion%20light%20years%20in%20diameter.

"Today we are fairly confident that the Milky Way is probably between 100,000 and 150,000 light years across. The observable Universe is, of course, much larger. According to current thinking it is about 93 billion light years in diameter"

In 40 years time we will -or you might- hear "We've not found anything yet but...."

Firstly, what if an extra terrestrial civilisation does not want to light up its planet at night? If they do it may well be that they have power sources we cannot imagine and use those to light up any cities or areas it needs to. Don't get me wrong; it is one thing to look for and after all but what if they detect "something" because as most prominent astronomers like to say as part of their mantra:"It's anything but aliens"   Odd signals: "It's anything but aliens".

My favourite part of this is: "...the chemicals released as any alien civilisation builds its infrastructure is likely to be possible to pick up" which means that if you are very -VERY- lucky and everything is just about "peachy" they might possibly detect the chemicals. But there is still going to be that quote "It's anything but aliens".

The number of people in the astronomical and space community who are terrified of confirming any form of alien life from microbe to higher (microbe is "meh. Possibly acceptable" -and that we know from findings in our own solar system.

People have this idea, possibly brought about by the various planetary charts they have seen since childhood, that you leave Earth and it is a straight line to Mars, then Jupiter, then Saturn and so on. Almost as though the route from Mercury to Pluto (there, I wrote it) is a straight line -an interplanetary highway of sorts. It isn't. Neither is the universe linear: Earth is a grain of sand somewhere in 85 million tons sandbox.

"At least astronomers are trying" someone might say. However, they are looking into deep space -93 billion light years of it. We know that with radio signals you can expect them to take many thousands of years to get to the target "area" of space. Say a civilisation picks up that signal? It will take thousands of years to get the response. We mioght not still be here -in fact scientists say they have sent signals to areas where any intelligent life may have ceased to exist.

If I type a letter then put it in an air-tight sealed container and bury it ten feet (3m) somewhere in the Somerset countryside, miles from any buildings and with no signs indicating where it is located....how long will it be before anyone finds the container let alone reads the letter?  Welcome to sending signals into space.

To put it bluntly, we know sod-all about our own solar system. Asteroids skip past us without being detecyted until a few days before. I am sure that the money given to this new "search" could go toward an asteroid defence system. Or, perhaps we ought to concentrate on probing the planets of our system before probing deep space?

Oumuamua showed just how astronomers and scientists can get hysterical -arguing, fighting and name-calling and all done publicly because they must have their five minutes (and it might lead to some profitable TV work, know what I mean?). Ufologists...I exclude from any debate on the subject as even now they are still using the PAINTING of what Omuamua might look like as though it was an actual photo -and they are picking up details on it!

In my book Contact -Encounters with Extra-Terrestrial Entities I wrote about why the French space agency has a unit that looks at UFO reports and the French have investigated and catalogued many UFO cases since the 1950s. Had such open policies been adopted in the UK, United States, Soviet Union/Russia we might be far more enlightened today.

I do NOT believe that an alien space craft crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, definitely never did at Aurora. There was no UFO crash near Nottingham, UK in the 1980s and that was proven beyond a doubt. Rendlesham Forest never saw a UFO crash. The whole "Grey alien abduction phenomenon" as made into a pop culture thing by Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs using very dubious data is just that -a modern pop culture myth. And I write that know that there are certain cases that seem genuine (but do not involve "Greys").

Any intelligent life from elsewhere watching Earth is not going to want to make any open contact. Our best chances of encountering any intelligent life is in near space. Signalling and searching for signals in nearer solar systems -forget the next galaxy over. We need a large number of small probes that can send out a repeatable signal but also listen for such signals. 

I would not expect official government bodies to do that (just the mere discussion as to the name of an advisory panel and all the ego pushing would take years. It needs someone with a lot of money and aerospace interest to do this and cut through red tape.Look at Elon Musk and his Starlink satellite system.

I hate to say it but this new search seems to be yet another "free meal-ticket for life" venture that professional astronomers love to get.

Unfortunately, I do not have thousands of years to wait and see if "anything" might be detected. 

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I ought to add that since the 1950s some French scientists have looked at UFO reports and AE encounters  and these are subject to serious investigation. In the United States all such reports were derided by Ufologists until they could jump on a publicvity bandwagon and then , as now, "there are these little guys -what's that all about?" Alleged 35 year Ufology "veterans" have no idea about CE3K reports because they spend months or even years looking into reports of oddly moving pinpoints of light in the sky. They should be asking and looking into who or what is in control of anything resembling a constructed craft.

Hopkins and Jacobs did untold damage to the subject.

Bothe James and Coral Lorenzen realised that if there were alien craft flying around then the one thing that should be studied are the reports of the "occupants" or "Ufonauts". Dr J. Allen Hynek stated that we could probably learn more from these reports. That trio were ignored.

When an astronomer or scientist (they like to give themselves grand sounding names) states "There is no evidence" they are either knowingly lying or simply buffoons. Ask one whether they have seriously looked away from the jokey newspaper reports to carry out a serious investigation of all the data out there and they will respond "Of course not -its all hallucinations or psychological!" That is when you know they are afraid. No open minded, sceptical scientist refuses to look at the data to study and draw their own conclusions. How could these scientific buffoons answer these questions:

1) How does one, possibly two, people go for a walk in the countryside miles from any town or industry and receive high enough doses of radiation that they become ill and some have radiation burns -not the Ufologist saying that but qualified doctors.

2) How do three women driving home get pursued by a craft and suffer missing time plus a host of physiological effects as well as post traumatic stress disorder? Not just that but unconnected independent observers report seeing a vehicle being chased along the road by an object as described by the women? How does a women picking berries on a quiet Sunday in 1954 France scream out, collapse and suffer from medically diagnose mental shock -and people at the time observe a strange flying object and those nerar to where the woman collapsed heard a strange noise after she screamed out? How do you explain a man whop encounters a UFO in the Canadian wilderness and receives radiation burns -the case is fully investigated by authorities and is, decades on, still unsolved?

I could go on and ask why these "scientists" will not ask fellow scientists such as those in France who have investigated for data? Because they don't want their colleagues giggling at them? Scientists standing by their principles and the evidence in the past have been tortured and executed but the "silly scientists" are living in fear of someone giggling at them?  That is a jobs worth NOT a scientist. In this day and age private contact could be made with other scientists.

3) The current false "UAP disclosure" is just that. We will learn nothing new. However, SETI astronomers as well as other professionals  could, as the subject is taken far more seriously now, join the other scientists who are openly looking into UFOs and not hug people such as Prof. Brian Cox who utters rude responses when asked about UFOs and has made the most unscientific statement I have ever heard from a mkodern day "scientist": there is no alien life in this or any galaxy.

If anyone mentions Fermi remind them he was talking when spaceflight was not around and if he had the data available today he might well be stating "They're all over the place!"

1976 West Kansas UFO Abduction

 

   This case was investigated by Richard Sigismond (for CUFOS) and details were presented in “Abduction in Western Kansas”, International UFO Reporter 1:1 (November, 1976) & 2:10 (October, 1977) & 2:11 (November 1977). Allan Hendry, The UFO Handbook, pp. 167-172.  My own notes will follow the case summary which more than a few Ufologists have claimed to be “the first abduction case involving Michelin-Man entity types.

Above: the object sighted according to the drawings made by Joe (left) and Carol (right) –courtesy CUFOS

 

   01:00 hours, on the 20^th June, 1976, “Joe”, a 19 year old factory worker and his 18-year-old wife “Carol” and their 4-month-old son “Luke” (sleeping on the back seat) were in a car heading home along I-70, in western Kansas. Carol heard a hissing sound coming from the car speaker and outside she could see three orange-blue points of light performing antics in the sky: converging together and splitting apart.  Further down the road four large oblong “stars” were seen and Joe, jokingly, remarked on how great it would be to go up in one of the UFOs. “If they could pick us up and use us, maybe they will fix our car for us!” As they continued further down the road down the road both saw what they described as a yellow rod with two bright glowing spheres at each end that sailed over the top and to the rear of their car. Joe decided to pull the car over to the side of the road and watch the object rise in the sky. This was just a UFO sighting after all.  However, it was simply the end of their conscious memories.

   In fact, Joe had pulled the car off the highway between mile markers 31 and 32 (Sigismond later checked this and apparently found it is impossible to do, because a fence runs the length of the road except for the occasional access road) and then drove over a field into the woods: this was a recalled under hypnosis by Carol but not by Joe. Ten minutes later Joe stopped the car in a clearing and they saw a giant UFO on the ground.  Both were confused as they unbuckled their seat belts and stepped out of the car and then walked up the steps of the craft.  Walking through the object’s door and saw a big, brightly lit room with flashing lights on the walls (“like computers”); there was a big window that provided a view of the trees outside and a large brown tube that extended from ceiling to floor. They also saw a big steel box at the back of the room and a metal/leather chair positioned in front of the window. Interestingly, Joe could not remember walking up the steps or seeing the first room as his memories under hypnosis began when he found himself alone in a separate room of the object.

   Joe and Carol report that they both “understood” mentally that they had to walk down a dark hallway to separate rooms. Carol understood that she had to lie on a table on her stomach. Her wrists felt tightly strapped down while a long metal tube exerted pressure on her back. Then she was “willed” to go into another room.

   Joe’s recollection began alone in a room and he was lying down in the dark and feeling a painfully hard pressure against his left arm and tightness up by his shoulders and found that he could not move his arm. He was feeling warm and light-headed, and his chest hurt. Unlike the rather sterile room that Carol described having been placed in, Joe noted that the one he was in had a shiny counter built into the wall. This and a shelf above him contained plastic tubes, canisters, and unusual instruments.

   Carol, in the second room, was pacing around in the dark and crying that she wanted her child which shows that she was able to think freely. Perhaps because of her distress, one of the occupants, described as normal-size “Michelin men”, came into the room and brought Luke to her.  Carol happily held her son and went to look out of the window but found that the view had changed. Carol claimed to have seen “stars shooting by” and the Earth receding in the distance until it became completely black outside.

 

Above: drawing of what the entities looked like according to Joe –courtesy CUFOS

 

   The UFO apparently then landed back in the original clearing and the couple were “ordered mentally” to return to the main entrance room. Here Carol handed Luke back to one of the entities who reassured her telepathically that they were “good” and that she would only be held for a short while and would be unharmed. Two of the entities were described as bouncing Luke around and playing with him while Carol was once again instructed to lie down on a table: she was then tranquilized with a “shot” from a floating tube/box that seemed to act by itself. As she started to fall asleep, Carol could sense herself being picked up by one of the entities who then carried her down the steps of the ship.

   In the meantime, Joe had “sensed” that he had to get up off of the table in his room and two of the entities, whom Joe described in similar terms to Carol but adding that the head (not described by Carol) was like a skull with sunken eyes, handed him his clipboard. This had previously had the log of their journey clipped to it: that was now gone empty. The entities took him by the arms and walked him down a corridor and Joe noted passing five rooms as he proceeded back to the main entrance room. He reported having seen Carol asleep and being carried bodily by one of the entities: before Joe left, however, a spinning converging spiral of light formed between him and the entity. Joe felt that his mind and the mind of the entity were being drawn out of their bodies toward the swirling energy where the two merged and Joe says that this experience made him feel happy.

 

   The couple were now assisted back to their car and Joe observed Carol being placed inside the car and the entity fastening her seat belt and the locking her door. One of the entities was described as waving “goodbye”.  The lights in the outside of the object were then seen to start moving around faster and faster until the object ascended silently into the sky and then disappeared into the distance.

    Joe then drove back to the highway and it was from this point on that both regained conscious memory of their journey but were completely oblivious to the events aboard the object.  The couple were puzzled about what appeared to be a twinkling star that followed them and they pulled into a roadside restaurant. They realised that it was dawn and yet they should have made it home by at least 02:00 hours –they could not account for some 90 miles of their journey.

   Joe and Carol later discovered unusual marks on their bodies including rashes, what appeared to be strap-marks, needle punctures, bruises, and ripped skin. Worryingly, Luke also had red marks on his chest and small squares on his stomach. Most of these marks disappeared within two days but were seen by others but their minister and even Joe’s father frightened them with talk of the Devil. Carol could not sleep at nights, even with the lights left on and a Bible under her pillow and both mentioned several “paranormal experiences” taking place.

Above: drawing by Carol of the entities –courtesy CUFOS

 

   This event was a traumatic one for the young married couple, as it might be for anyone and it proved necessary for them to obtain counselling as they were left with the disturbing impression that at any time in their lives they could be just “picked up, used, and dumped”.  As I mentioned in UFO Contact?, some percipients in these encounters suffer what is similar to post traumatic stress syndrome and more than a few irrationally move home to a new city or state: in this case, Joe and Carol decided to move to another state.

   The report reached the Centre for UFO Studies (CUFOS) through a call on its police Hotline in late June and they asked Sigismond, with a background in psychiatry and also the use of hypnosis to investigate.  Sigismond established contact with the percipients within 12 days of the incident.  After discussing what they remembered and noting the stress affecting the couple, Sigismond began hypnotic regression sessions from July to October, 1976.  The couple were always hypnotized separately, never letting the other spouse listen and scrupulously avoiding directing them. They were not permitted to hear the tape recording until after the sessions were completely over and had culminated in more than 25 hours of recordings. Complete consistency was maintained over the 4-month period even if each time the story was told more details surfaced.

   Personally, I am not over fond of hypnosis, however, so long as there is no cross-contamination it can be useful in research.  For me, hypnosis should only be used if the percipient(s) are suffering severe stress or other mental health issues because of a time lapse: hypnosis should only be carried out by someone trained in psychiatry and who knows how to use hypnosis correctly. The mental and physical health of the percipient(s) is of paramount importance.

   This case is known as “The Colby, Kansas encounter” and “Goodland Abduction” and I will go with Colby as this is the cited location by CUFOS in the HumCat (Humanoid Catalogue started by Ted Bloecher and David Webb) entry. There is, in fact, very little in the way of report details online and what there is has been added to, jumble up or seems almost designed to confuse a reader. To find these snippets you need to use the term “Michelin Men UFO cases”.

   This brings us to the claim that Joe and Carol and little Luke (often not even named) were the “first to be abducted by theses “Michelin-Men” entities.  If we accept that there are genuine UFO abductions then we have to consider that many have probably never been reported.  There are very good reasons why percipients might keep quiet.

   There is the fear of being considered a lunatic and that leads to losing a job, income and also being labelled as unreliable –as Calvin Parker found out after the Pascagoula incident he was, and still is, known as “that guy got kidnapped by aliens”.  That fear can be added to at the thought of a newspaper getting hold of the story and spreading it far and wide.  As noted in UFO Contact?, were it not for some Ufologists betraying percipient confidence, sometimes having cajoled them into cooperating in the first place and selling the story to newspapers such as the National Enquirer “pay for investigation costs” there are cases we would never have heard of. The same applies to people whom percipients trusted and who blabbed and so exposed the encounters.

   The three percipients in the 6^th January, 1976, Liberty, Kentucky abduction case –Louise Smith, Mona Stafford and Elaine Thomas— just wanted to forget about the encounter and get on with their lives.  Had they done so then we would have never known something had happened.  Had someone not blabbed then we might not have known of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker’s abduction at Pascagoula.  Robert Taylor certainly did not want to say much about his encounter in Livingston but things were taken out of his control.  There is case after case –including that of Betty and Barney Hill— that we would not know about.  Reports of secondary witnesses involved who left quickly declaring that they wanted “nothing else to do with this” and that was it.

   At Warneton it is possible that the discomfort the percipient felt as the entity seemed to open and close its mouth was an attempt at telepathic contact but it went wrong or the percipient was unsuitable.  We simply do not know and no amount of theorising will really gets us anywhere as it will be based upon our own prejudices.  Had the second car not appeared with a secondary observer would Warneton have become an abduction case and would the percipient have reported it?

   The thing that the debunkers/sceptical Ufologists and regular Ufologists seem to forget –and yet it is the most important aspect— is that these percipients are regular human beings.  However, no distinctions are made between hypnagogic cases, hoaxers and those who appear to have had a genuine encounter and suffer both physiologically and psychologically.  Travis Walton is a hoaxer –why?  He actually claimed to have been abducted by aliens.  Betty and Barney Hill were hoaxers for the same reason. Hickson and Parker –again they were hoaxers.  I could go on and on but all of these and other percipients have suffered because they were/are constantly under attack from every side and if they so much as rephrase something they said earlier it ‘proves’ they were hoaxers.  

   Everything and anything is used to discredit a report from using the term “Ufonaut”, which no one in this line of research has used seriously for thirty years.  When I appealed for extra information on this case (I like to find as many sources as possible) I was even sent a newspaper clipping (undated) covering the finale of the TV series Falcon’s Crest where character Fallon Colby is abducted during a UFO incident.  What relevance this had to the report I have no idea but it was sent with a summary of Joe and Carol’s encounter.  The TV series character was named “Colby” –and the Kansas encounter was near Colby: was that to subtly prejudice me against the case because if it was then it failed because even I know that the show ran from 20^th November, 1985, to 26^th March, 1987 –it’s all on the internet so quite obviously TV had no influence.  “Ufonaut” is commonly seen as a way of belittling the reports and researcher as in an attack on me by a UFO group in the late 1970s: “He’s a real Ufonut because he is into Ufonauts!”

   Even with all we are supposed to have learnt this attitude continues into 2018 –while our own Insight probe has landed on Mars and making scientific tests. Anyone claiming UFO abduction is immediately labelled as a nutcase –Hopkins, Jacobs et al have not helped.  So imagine the pre-internet 1970’s where, if you really need to, the only people you can tell are the police and then you would have needed to face their prejudices –hence CUFOS setting up its police hotline.

   The minister and Joe’s father bringing the devil into the matter really would not help. I have talked to alleged abductees before and they turned to religion after an encounter: the Church seems to do well out of these as there have been enough born again Christians in the aftermath.  

   Looking at it now you have to wonder how many percipients have just gotten on as best as they can with their lives and whose encounter are known to only immediate members of their family.  

   The reader who is aware of the whole “Grey abduction phenomena” will note that there are distinct differences between those reports and that of Joe and Carol. Firstly, there is no beam of light drawing them up into a craft: Carol recalls that Joe pulled the car off the highway between mile markers 31 and 32 but when Sigismond checked he found that was impossible to do because there was a fence that ran the length of the road except for the occasional access road.  Joe then drove over a field into the woods: this was a recalled under hypnosis by Carol but not by Joe. Considering that neither was fully in control of themselves and the location may be slightly wrong or it was something put in her head for some reason. Whichever, that the couple pulled up to the landed object and then got out and walked up the steps is interesting because, as with the car journey to the site, Joe could not recall walking up the steps into the object.

 

   Carol is also the one who recalls the scene outside of the window changing which is odd because she appears to have under far less (seeming) control than Joe. Firstly, why would the entities need to shoot off into distant space since they had a safe location so we could speculate that Carol mistook a screen playing an image for a window showing what was happening outside Again: pure speculation.

   The “Greys” tend to have no empathy and are described as having no interest other than doing what they do –or are told to do if we believed Jacobs. They have no understanding of emotional ties and are described handing “hybrid babies” to humans because we do understand.  Yet we read of Carol, alone in the darkened room and crying and wanting Luke and…an entity enters and hands him to her, presumably to give her comfort as well as Luke. Then we have the part of the account where Carol needs to lie down again so two entities take Luke and try to play/amuse him. Even the message she receives that she/they will be unharmed –though familiar from abduction literature— seems to be designed to calm her concerns.

   That sticks out like a ten feet high sore thumb with lights on it.  However, we then have the entities not just returning Joe and Carol to their car but making sure that their seatbelts were on and closing the doors.  One entity even gives a friendly “goodbye” wave.  Then there is the odd twinkling star that they both noticed following them after the encounter –could that have been the entities insuring that the couple had no mishap after they were out of their control?

   We could speculate on and on but the entities seemed to behave more like doctors running tests and taking care to make sure the person undergoing tests was okay. You could say they were quite empathic and kind to a degree –if you forgot that they had compelled Joe and Carol to drive to them and undergo examination and testing that, based on the marks, involved strapping them down.  It reminds me more of what naturalists, field biologists and zoologists do when surveying fauna –trap/capture, in some cases depending on species size, tranquilising, take samples and talk reassuringly to the conscious fauna before release and, if they were tranquilised, keep an eye on them for a while to make sure they recover.

   As with other reported entity types these “Michelin-Men” appeared, were active for a while and then…nothing.  Yes, it is possible that they might still be here, but if no one talks or remembers all we hear about are the “Greys” and all the others conjured up by Hopkins and Jacobs.  Our more interesting and informative (with limits) are the pre-1980s period.

Full account plus other cases from Germany can be found in Contact: Encounters with Extra-Terrestrial Entities?

Alien Encounters In History: Some Thoughts

 

Very atmospheric imagining of “cave people” by (c)2022 Chris Rallis

Paleolithic Period, or Old Stone Age (c 2,500,000 to 200,000 years ago), was an ancient technological or cultural stage characterized by the use of rudimentary chipped stone tools; during the Lower Paleolithic, simple pebble tools and crude stone choppers were made by the earliest humans. As for the size of a Paleolithis group we can guess that, based on the experiences of modern hunter-gatherer societies, who typically have around 500 members, and based on theoretical mathematical models by experts on such things,  of group process, Paleolithic bands of people were likely around twenty-five members each: typically about twenty bands constituted a tribe.

But alien visitation would have been less devastating, probably, than another visitor from space and far more destructive. It is believed that an airburst from a comet may have destroyed a Paleolithic settlement 12,800 years ago. Credit (c)2022: Jennifer Rice, CometResearchGroup.org  

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/comet-upended-life-paleolithic-village-12800-years-ago-180974575/

The first Neolithic communities lived in densely built settlements and numbered 50-300 individuals. During the Pre-Pottery, Early and Middle Neolithic, the basic unit of society was the clan or extended family that consisted of parents, children, grandparents and other close kinship.  However, there are many differences as one might expect with some Neolithic communities in south-eastern Europe living in heavily fortified settlements of around 3,000–4,000 people (such as Sesklo in Greece).  In Britain Neolithic groups  were small (possibly 50–100 people) and highly mobile cattle-herders.

Painting by (c) 2022 Bernard Long of a Neolithic Settlement

After Roman rule in Britain ended, some Roman forts continued to be occupied. This reconstruction shows a timber hall that was one of several built at Birdoswald Roman Fort on Hadrian’s Wall after Roman administration collapsed  © Historic England (illustration by Philip Corke)

Birdoswald Roman Fort, Hadrian’s Wall, Cumbria. Reconstruction drawing of the timber building on the site of the North granary by (c)2022 Philip Corke 

A medieval village consisted of villeins who worked on the land owned by the Lord. It was quite self-sufficient and it was rare villeins left the land (they had to ask the Lord’s permission). Usually had a population of 50- 100 people. Therefore similar to Dark Age villages. There may have been smaller groups some in far more isolated areas and the largest populations were in cities during both periods.Below: In 1950s Brazil this was shocking enough but in the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Dark Ages or Medieval period the UFO alone would terrify and the entities -demons or gods?

What would a mind not familiar with the idea of life on other worlds or travelling through space think if they encountered entities such as those seen at Kelly-Hopkinville?

Or even Villa Santina?

Goblins? Demons? Devils? Fairy and folk stories that followed on from ancient mythologies  told the common folk what to expect. The idea of meeting entities such as these scares many and yet we are, technologically, far more advanced from our ancestors even if their brains were the same size. Fear of the Unknown in primitive and modern minds is no different. What would someone from the Neolithic period say if they were taken aboard a landed UFO? Would it vary from later Dark Ages and Medieval people? Probably since the Dark Ages saw the Christian crusade to make everyone a “believer” -or die. Bible pushing priests would have told of the Devil and demons and other creatures of hell. 

A succubus is a demon or supernatural entity in folklore, in female form, that appears in dreams to seduce men, usually through sexual activity. According to religious traditions, repeated sexual activity with a succubus can cause poor physical or mental health, even death. Or, today, some form of radiation sickness.

Looking at the way people lived the rich or well off lived in mansion houses out in the countryside. Areas of urban London were once dark and isolated areas and villages away from the City of London. Farmhouses were spread around the countryside and there were game keepers and their cottages, charcoal burners camping out and even poachers. 

Above: Henry Justice Ford’s wonderful (1815) illustration of a young woman “off with the fairies” as she is in a sleep state. From Re. R. Kirk’s The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Faeries

Who would know about the farmer or squire looking out of the window having heard an unusual sound and spotted a moving ‘star’. A ‘star’ that got closer and larger and what thoughts were running through that mind?  What did that observer think when he saw the star become an oval shape and then slow down and come to earth not far away?  What did the observer think when figures were seen coming from the object -angels? Demons? Anyone in this situation would be alone -unless family were in the house but what then -load up a brace of pistols or a blunderbuss to “see ’em off”?  Just what good would ‘modern’ weapons be if the observer(s) found themselves unable to move? Nothing would be able to stop entities “escorting” one or more persons to a landed craft and then… whatever happened would never be believed by anyone if those involved could even remember anything happening -maybe they recalled a dream of demons and things that made them decide to pray harder at church and put a little extra in the collection box to be “in good favour”.

The three women at Liberty, Kentucky were going to keep quiet and tell no one until Ufologists threatened to out them to the press -no Ufologists or salivating news media waiting for the next UFO story back then. Many UFO percipients we only know about because of betrayed confidences.  What did Maurice Masse’s visitors tell him that he swore never to reveal, not even to his wife (and he took that to his grave)?

A poacher out at night would be a lone observer/percipient and, again, if a memory block was employed he might never remember what happened.

If we look at the Travis Walton incident we know his cutting crew were witnesses and drove off fast. A similar situation in any past period where wood-cutters or charcoal burners were out in a small group, away from villages there would be no get away truck A group “abduction” might take place.

Transport in the past was by ships along the coast (coasters) or carts and pack mules and they often travelled all day and night to get from A to be -cart driver handing over to his mate to continue the journey while he took a nap. Often they might team up for safety on the lonely and dark roads -as did travellers to form travelling companions. 

If UFOs have stopped lorries/trucks (Dionisio  Llanca, Argentina 27th October 1973 for instance) around the world and drivers have then become participants in UFO encounters then  horses and a cart would be no problem. 

19th century Barges loaded with cargo on the Canal du Midi

Above:(c)2022 T Hooper-Scharf

And if an independent observer saw a local “out gallivanting” with “little devils” or “demons” then that needed to be reported as witchcraft -IF the observer was not too scared to open his mouth.  A devout person encountering a succubus (as per Villas Boas) would ask a local priest for help. For protection.

‘Plucked from the fairy ring’ (by T.H Thomas from Sikes, 1880)If we look at the number of UFO encounters -CE3Ks/Alien Entities over the last 70 years there are going to be things noted. Firstly, the actual number of “contacts” or ‘abductions’ are far fewer than the “thousands” claimed by Ufologists. 

In a 1958  Long John Nebel nightly U.F.O. focused talk/interview program “The Party Line” ( nightly from midnight to 5:30 A.M. on station WMCA, New York) Donald Keyhoe of NICAP claimed that there had been “thousands of encounters” (bull on his part since NICAP were notoriously anti this type of report)> Arthur C. Clarke then responded that “thousands” would mean that there was open extra terrestrial contact. A few contacts was more realistic and acceptable. And Clarke was correct (he was not “anti-UFO” as some claim but was a sceptic and needed evidence).

Many -about 75-85% of claimed or reported CE3K reports from 1947-1980 were never investigated. An item in a local newspaper was accepted as a “case” immediately. Even in France and Italy some Ufologists who decided to look at reports from the mid 1950s only did so in the late 1970s or early 1980s.I believe that, historically, there is no reason why any such isolated encounters would be shocking if we accept that there are likely other civilisations out there.

You can quote as much fairy lore as you want (often inaccurately) but it does not prove aliens were encountered. Neither does it show that there is something beyond our understanding going on and that this has changed the fairies and goblins into aliens for the modern era. Neither does any of it prove visitations from the “multiverse” -the multiverse is a theory not a scientific fact.

Maurice Masse did not believe that the Hills were abducted because, like a number of other people involved in encounters, he was invited to enter a landed objected but declined -and he was not dragged off. When you look at what appear to be genuine accounts from people world wide you begin to realise that few were dragged kicking and screaming or paralysed onto UFOs. It may well be possible that hypnosis and faulty recall due to some mind block makes a percipient believe they were abducted because of aliens depicted in pop culture of the 1950s-1970s.

In some cases medical problems some percipients had vanished after their experience and some recall entities healing them. Odd for alien kidnappers?

I really do wish that it could be proven that there was an encounter or several encounters in the past but early in history the accounts would be word of mouth not written and in later periods not spoken of or phrased in some religious way.If we cannot stop entities landing and taking humans onto their craft in the 21st century then how could people in the past prevent it?

One for Professor Quatermass.

David Morris on hitting an alien with his car after witnessing a UFO, Mu...

I am open...

 For the last three weeks I have been posting and putting a lot of effort into this blog and view numbers have increased...but not a single comment or question???!!!

Come on you must be visiting the blog for a reason and I am open to answering questions so ask.

Archives! Archives!

 I have said before that I seriously do not think that my almost 50 years of research will last long after my own demise. As you get older and you think back to those who had their archives pilfered and work used after their deaths it gets sobering.

My hallway cupboard serves as the storage area for my UFO/CE3K files as well as the full to the brim work on exotics since 1977. Add to that my work on canids and felids since 1976 and it is a lot of paperwork. Letters, case reports, photos and much more never seen by anyone else. A unique collection which my family assures me will be in the burner after a week!

Most of the exotics work (Exotic Animals Register -EAR) is not seen here but is to the left out of frame. To the extreme right and hidden by the large Historical files is one dedicated to something that has occupied my attention since the 1970s -The False Lights of Durham 1965-1866. The historical files are packed full of historical UFO reports from AD 1-1947 and you might ask why there are three folders. The answer is simple: the original volume contained every "UFO" report from as many books and periodicals as possible and it was through these and studying them that I came up with the three categories of UFO report.

Further study and research then led me to completing a list of historical UFO cases that could be clearly identified. Further work led to more amendments and updates to a revised volume. We are talking  almost 2000+ pages to which separate files can be added.

The above is the first volume of Historical Reports and you can see it is bulky and considering the folders they are in were first replaced in the 1980s they need to be replaced which is something I hope to do this year ("hope").

Above: the second Historical Reports folder. In these folders are the original analyses of the Robozero Incident and the possible explanations that were looked into and conclusions.

Above: Yes, if you look closely you will notice that a typewriter was used. Thousands of typed pages that saw me work 0800-0200hrs on most days and I did go through three old typewriters!

Above: Regulars should recognise this as the old United States CE3K/AE file which is now divided up into a number of smaller folders now. 

That is going to be some fire!

The problem is that hopes of digitally storing all of the work is a fantasy.  I have pointed out how much time (3 years at least) and how much (estimated at £30,000( it will take and that is just not a reality and I really wanted to make the archives FREE to everyone. Today I started to update the United States 1950s file and...ran out of copier paper and also plastic document sleeves to keep the files protected. I ran out of printer ink but, luckily, I had some bottled ink left as I do my own cartridge refills.  Why?  Well, had I purchased new ink cartridges throughout 2021 the total cost would have been over £2000 ($2000). Doing my own refills is a pain but if I did not so much would still be sitting there unrecorded and filed for posterity.

Again: "Why don't you just scan the documents?" and again I point out that I do not have a scanner and the PC I use I have hammered into working again so many times I do not think it capable of handling the work.

It is no secret and there is no sense in hiding the fact that you are -for anything requiring money- financially broke. Over the years I have tried to get money to keep the archives going and even added the PayPalMe box. Zero. NO ONE offers grants for UFO research let alone archiving work. For the wildlife archive I may have someone who can take that on. The UFO work.... well, there's the problem....

Don Shrum talks about his UFO encounter with aliens & shooting arrows at...

Full report on Cisco Grove encounter along with a lot of previously unseen material is included in UFO Contact?