'Are UFOs Real?'

Hi Don,

I was being sarcastic. I really should have qualified my last posting.

Even when you eliminate all the other conventional sightings you are left with UFOs. It is this unknown reality that has common characteristics of shapes and manoeverability that is in a catagory of its own which doesn't correlate to anything that we know of manmade or natural.

This is intriguing because it is common throughout the world no matter what culture has witnessed them.

Eamonn A

Eamonn,

Are there any "reliable" reports of "unusual" sightings in times well before any attempts were made at manned/unmanned flight? In particular, are there any reports from ancient times contained in any literature from that era (Egyptian/Chinese etc)?

Clear Skies,

Eamonn,

Are there any "reliable" reports of "unusual" sightings in times well before any attempts were made at manned/unmanned flight? In particular, are there any reports from ancient times contained in any literature from that era (Egyptian/Chinese etc)?

Clear Skies,

i don't think these would be of much use michael as you are retrofitting our mythology on theirs.

Michael,

Many UFO experiences are due to a real but unknown phenomenon. Many ostensibly sane people from widely separated parts of the world have made UFO reports. Even though these reports seem to originate independently, they are linked together by standard features that appear repeatedly in report after report.

Of course, one can argue that reports made within recent years cannot be proven to be independent, because there are many ways in which UFO information can spread from one person to another. It is interesting when you compare UFO accounts and ancient literature and images become useful.

For example, it turns out that there are many detailed parallels between typical UFO close encounter reports and certain Vedic (ancient Indian) texts. Most of the UFO encounters that most people are aware of are in Western countries, where most people are completely unaquainted with Vedic ideas. We can rule out the possibility that most UFO accounts have been influenced to any significant degree by Vedic literature. Likewise, the Vedic literature was written long before the modern period of UFO reports, and could not have been influenced by this material.

There is an interesting website www.ufologie.net/htm/picanc2.htm that shows the history of images depicted down the ages. If you go to home and press history, there is an interesting chronology of sightings going back to prehistory.

Eamonn A

Today's (28th) Irish Indepecdent has a full page story of the advert for the Irish UFO Society, which appears in the 2007 Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors Diary, calls for reports of 'unusual sightings'.

So if the general public spots something unusual in the sky, the Garda now can pass on the sighting report to the Irish UFO Society.

Dunsink Observatory used to be the place to call for anything astronomical until the staff were transferred to Merrion Road.

I understand that Astronomy Ireland receives sighting reports of UFOs.

It will be interesting to see how this develops.

Eamonn A

So if the general public spots something unusual in the sky, the Garda now can pass on the sighting report to the Irish UFO Society.

Does the Society have any power to follow up on these reports? I've a fear of someone reporting something to the guards only to have some UFO nut turn up on the doorstep

Still, better to have interested people at least cataloguing the reports than them ending up in a bin in the Garda Station.

I'd also have concerns about how objective the society would be in investigating sightings.

Were the Gardai getting fed up with an increase of reports that prompted this?

Cheers,
~Albert