Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls Of Plasma!

I've long felt that 99% of the UFO sightings in the world, perhaps 99.9%, are some sort of natural or man-made phenomenon. The remaining .1 - 1%, however, in my opinion are probably the answer to the Fermi Paradox.

The MOD report even states that such plasma balls have a tendency to travel in threes, which explains the triangles that are seen so much. They also can create radar returns, which explains radar evidence. And finally, they move around a lot and really fast, which just goes to show they are buoyant plasma constructs and nothing made of solid material, since we don't understand how solid material could withstand such tremendous forces. The report says that since the phenomenon are natural; the MOD does not need to be concerned with them. The study's author wishes to remain anonymous.

When I read the executive summary of the report, I couldn't help but think of UFO incidents that have been reported in Britain. I guess the most famous happened in 1981, which has definitely been in the last 30 years! I won't tell the whole story, but here is the intial report from the deputy base commander. It describes an alien artifact landing in the woods at the base.

Radar had reported a bogey that was landing or crashing in the vicinity. This is what the secruity forces saw when they approached. This is from their sworn videotape deposition:

Approaching the presumed crash site, Penniston continued, "I started to see a defined shape and at that point I realised it wasn't an aircraft crash, a fire, or anything of that sort. The air was filled with electricity. You could feel it on your skin as we approached the object". Burroughs concurred: "You felt like you were moving in slow motion, your hair on the back of your head was standing up, you felt like you had very little control over your body".

Sensing no hostility, Penniston approached the object and examined it further:

"It was about the size of a tank, it was triangular in shape. Underneath the craft, was a high intensity white light emanating out of it and it was bordered by red and blue lighting, alternating". "On the upper left side of the craft, was an inscription. It measured six inches high, of symbols. They looked familiar, but I couldn't ascertain why".

He observed the enigmatic object for what seemed some twenty minutes, and then, "It slowly started moving back, weaving in and around the trees... it raised up into the air and it shot off as fast as you could blink".

The following day, Penniston and Burroughs examined the area. The local Suffolk police had also received a call concerning lights in the forest and were investigating the scene. On seeing indentations, one of the police officers advised that he would be recording these as rabbit diggings. Penniston disagreed: "I asked him why and he said, because he's not going to put anything other than that in his report. We found that just totally absurd. The ground was frozen and it was just impossible for that to happen".

If that wasn't bad enough, the next night there was another incident. This time the deputy base commander, a team of impromptu "experts" and a tape player and camera were brought to the scene. Here's the formal report.

United States Air Force Lt. Col. Halt of the RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge near Suffolk did not think he was seeing a ball of plasma

Halt has been known to say later that he only put "part" of what he saw in his official report, lest his supervisors think him mad.

From the notes of the second night:

"I had my notebook and camera while I was out there, so I began taking notes. This is what I wrote:

'Triangular in shape. The top portion is producing mainly white light, which encompasses most of the upper section of the craft. A small amount of white light peers out the bottom. At the left side centre is a bluish light, and on the other side, red. The lights seem to be moulded as part of the exterior of the structure, smooth, slowly fading into the rest of the outside of the structure, gradually moulding into the fabric of the craft'.

"As I was taking notes, I also memorized what was in front of me for what seemed like hours, but was in fact only minutes. Finally, I unleashed my camera-case cover and brought the camera up to focus. The air was electric. It made my hair and skin feel as if I were surrounded by static electricity or some type of energy. I began snapping photo after photo. It was still eerily quiet".

Now I've never seen plasma balls and buoyant charged disturbances, so I, like the Lt. Col. or the other men, am at a loss to explain what they were seeing. But when I hear words like "landing", "symbols", and "the craft was the size of a tank" in my opinion these men are describing what they perceived was a solid object with markings on it. I find the plasma explanation somewhat (very!) lacking in this particular case.

Occam's Razor says when making conclusions stick to the fewest and most "normal" explanations possible. We've never seen anybody from another planet but we have seen ball lightning, so the best bet for such events is most likely a form of the ball ligthning or plasma that we are already familiar with. This is the safe bet.

I find it interesting, however, that for many years the standard government line has been that there is no physical evidence of anything from another planet -- no radar returns, no marks on the ground. It was all just illusions, fanciful talk. Kids and weirdos.

1950s Study Recommended a "National Policy" for how to respond to UFO reports

It got so bad that even people from inside the United States government were coming out to debunk the whitewash. The Wikipedia has a great piece on Project Blue Book.

Now however, after over 50 years of information regarding this phenomenon, the new story is that yes, there is something out there, and it does appear on radar and it does make marks on the ground. But hey! It's just some strange kind of plasma. You've never seen anything like it before. Nobody has. It's a strange form of natural event for which the observation is so rare that most people have nothing to compare it to. Since everybody has read or watched science fiction over the last several decades, they replace the unknown with little space guys. Simple human nature at work.

Once again, I'm with them about 99.9% of the time. Looking at the long view, however, it seems to me that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who are willing to live with the unknown and those who are not. Those who are willing to live with the unknown don't have a problem with UFOs being swamp gas OR alien craft. We'll figure it out later. Those that do have a problem with the unknown demand that it be one way or the other. Some insist of large government conspiracies. Some insist that trained professional observers don't know the difference between a solid object and charged glowing gas. I guess it just depends on your personality. The reason UFOs fascinate me so much is not the people OUT THERE. It's the people DOWN HERE.