In more recent years, there has been a
push to connect UFO sightings to the spiritual world.
In believing that alien life forms have
the ability to see beyond the scope of what’s possible for a human being, some
secular and religious groups believe that if contacted they can be a conduit to
a spiritual world, a divine world, that’s beyond our current ability to
reach.
In other words, some believe they
are, or possibly are, our connection to God.
The possibility of such a connection though fascinating, and hopeful for
some, can also be quite dangerous; as evidenced by the members of the Heaven’s Gate religious group who committed mass suicide in the late 90’s in order to
board an alien spacecraft that they believed was following an eternal comet.
Although
the comet was at its brightest, the promise of reaching a space ship in this
manner is to me, at best, a reach.
In the 1950’s, excitement over UFO
sightings was at a fever-pitch. This was
reflected in the newspapers and, more dramatically, in the science fiction
movies of the era. There was even a
title for those who were enthusiastic for the rage:
“UFOlogists.”
In 1952, various fast-moving objects appeared on radarscopes at three separate installations in
Washington DC, including the Capital building and Andrews Air Force Base.
Fighter Jets were launched, but did not come across anything.
The same thing
apparently occurred again the next night, however this time the objects were confirmed
by witnesses on the ground. The largest
press conference in the government's history regarding unidentified phenomenon was
called by Major
General Roger M. Ramey, USAF operations chief, and Major General John A.
Samford, USAF director of intelligence, to
explain to reporters that radar traces were caused by thermal inversions,
despite the absence of proper weather conditions on the nights in question for
this phenomenon to have been the cause of the incidents.
