Has "E.T." gone home?

A few years ago this forum was abuzz by alleged abductionists, by claims of interaction with "aliens", etc. Now I return and there's nary a similar thread. Where are the "greys"? Did they stop "floating" victims through the roof to a waiting craft to receive a physical tune-up? To have your psychic oil changed?

How about it, are the present members a different kind of human that do not interest the "aliens" anymore? Or are the members who claim they were abducted still here? I see we have new names so I guess the other members are living in a new galaxy.

What do you think about the lack of personal accounts? Have you wondered about this or you accept that it was a passing fad?

Please don't reply defending the reality of UFOs, they don't need defending.

a reply to: Uggielicious

I used to stalk ATS before I joined. ATS has turned into more of a political forum these days.

There's still a little bit of it's old soul left in there but for the most part, not really.

I think that's why you see less these days. Most of the people who legitimately liked conspiracy theories jumped ship when they started deleting legitimate conspiracy topics.

The lack of accounts is likely due to being called 834 different kinds of nuttier than a fruitcake, followed closely by liar, and ending with taunts, giggles, and outright hostility.

JMO and YMMV of course.

a reply to: Uggielicious

I think the beating one takes when one presents something to ATS sans any evidence at all, sans any critical thought, etc... may have slowed the accounts down.

Honestly, I see that as a good thing if it ends up that more critical thought gets employed with regard to these issues than has been in the past.

Ufology has suffered a decline these last few years because of the chronic lack of critical thought, application of common sense, and a horrid lack in the willingness to listen to those who understand how a digital camera actually works IMHO.

Should this "slim period" lead to better presented, critically reviewed, and not quite so ridiculous in general accounts of sightings I'm ALL FOR IT.

Yes this site has changed a lot. When I joined first time round in 2006 under a different name there was a heck of a lot more about UFOs and secret bases and so on. Heaps of photos of UFOs etc. I wonder if this has led to governments tightening their security and surveillance?

The subject has been through everything before. We had the 1950s contactee movement first. Nothing has changed since that time.

I don't read this forum for contactee type material. I read it because I've witnessed a few UFOs in my life and know there is some reality to it. I'm specifically looking for cases that cannot be explained away and contactee material is effectively entirely anecdotal.

As far as thing are concerned, they were never here or even real for that matter. Most of the hype about Aliens being related to 2012, or New Age for that matter was all...Hype really and most likely a con game. Only Sci-fi or Scientists these are more or less real, due to trying to be realistic as possible, while still theory, or better yet fictional. As time goes on, and technology gets more improved, maybe more theories could come out to be it realistic, or mysterious.

a reply to: Uggielicious

Look at how many UFO photos were around in the 1960s and 1970s: enough to fill books.

There must be a million times more cameras in circulation these days. Most people carry one with them pretty much 24/7, so where are all the photos? If anything the quality seems to be getting worse!

originally posted by: OrphanApology
a reply to: Uggielicious

I used to stalk ATS before I joined. ATS has turned into more of a political forum these days.

There's still a little bit of it's old soul left in there but for the most part, not really.

I think that's why you see less these days. Most of the people who legitimately liked conspiracy theories jumped ship when they started deleting legitimate conspiracy topics.

I don't see the lean to politics that you since politics has always been a twin to UFOlogy. Disclosure this, gov't withholding or releasing, Presidents talking about their sightings. Conspiracy theories make for good reading but it's rarely accompanied by convincing evidence.

ATS A&UFOs forum is still chugging along and the thread topics are consistent year in year out. Less of the crazies but still gullibilitysville.

It's probably because digital cameras have gotten better and produce less artifacts when taking pictures

Respectfully, the good ship Ufology has foundered on the rocks of critical thinking skills....

( Hopefully.)

If et exists they are well aware of our level of technology and may have taken steps to hide themselves better. Plus during the 50s, it was the Atomic age and they had a good reason to be here in greater numbers and maybe wanted to make themselves known as a warning or whatever. Now it's hard to say what is ET or top secret human built craft.

And it's already been said, but the beating is what is driving these people away. And the fact that the rules are enforced depending on if you are on the side of the debunker or believer. You can get away with calling someone pretty much every name in the book if they come here with an odd story. You can break the rule of not discussing members or ex members and accuse anyone of being "Bernie Schnitzle" if they have a story that is too out there for you. Breaking that rule is an ongoing joke around here.

It doesn't really matter if this site dwindles away because the site has already made truckloads of money for all involved to retire off of.

I like the completely unprovable theory that UFO waves (or flaps) happen because human beings as a whole occasionally have little bursts of "enlightenment," for lack of a better term, where we get smarter or more aware or our collective consciousness bumps itself up a tiny notch. That allows us, for a short while, to see these remarkable things that intersect with our reality. After a while, though, we recognize them and name them and they become commonplace. That's where the "greys" went. We got used to them, and they disappeared.

Now we're kind of in a lull, waiting for our brains to make another tiny leap forward. Then we'll see new wonders. And on it goes, until we understand.

originally posted by: Springer
a reply to: Uggielicious

I think the beating one takes when one presents something to ATS sans any evidence at all, sans any critical thought, etc... may have slowed the accounts down.

But in a way that was good because the wheat was separated from the chaff. There were and may still be good, logical thinkers that challenged the claims and if these logical thinkers did not exist here for one reason or another this forum and possibly all forums would have been populated by lackofevidencesitis. It would have become a clique. Even some great minds showed that logic is not automatic and so were lost in their own "miasma" (Lear, for one).

Honestly, I see that as a good thing if it ends up that more critical thought gets employed with regard to these issues than has been in the past.

Unfortunately, looking at the thread titles there really isn't more critical thought as the same ol' topics are just the same with possibly a facelift to come up with what may sound like a new topic but it's just rehashing 'cause nothing much new is happening in UFOlogy. People are still seeing and videotaping UAPs, ancient aliens are still getting a run for their money, etc., and no one knows what is happening or what will happen. The past is all that we have and it's constantly mined for something that most forgot about anyway.

Ufology has suffered a decline these last few years because of the chronic lack of critical thought, application of common sense, and a horrid lack in the willingness to listen to those who understand how a digital camera actually works IMHO.

Fact is, that UFOs do not demand critical thought because we are not personally connected aside from sightings. There is nothing to discuss because UFO sightings have not changed. I don't understand your intent on digicams. Unless you mean that UFO witnesses don't think of anchoring their shooting arm to produce better quality photos/videos. If you mean the many claims that some UFO images are really the result of lens flare, for one or that "orbs" are also lens flare when using flash or shooting towards a reflective surface. Will you clear up that sentence?

Should this "slim period" lead to better presented, critically reviewed, and not quite so ridiculous in general accounts of sightings I'm ALL FOR IT.

You must have nice dreams! The "slim period" is as old as the Internet since it created open season on UFOlogy and resources dried up leaving only modern sightings which have not changed. And daylight sightings, whether hearsay or supported by video - almost all night sightings not included because there's nothing to write home about - have not changed, strange non-natural aerial phenomena is still experienced daily and no one is reviewing such sightings so no grade scale exists. Until one person produces a real-life-situation UFO video to put all doubters to pasture, such as my sighting through binoculars if video cameras had existed then that wasn't a fuzzy, far away object but as clear as an automobile from 50 feet away. But, so far, camera technology has not helped videographers to record a UFO that will convince everyone that we are not the smartest beings around but always wondering when there might be a public interaction with whoever or whatever controls those mysterious objects we cannot identify.

originally posted by: Rob48
a reply to: Uggielicious

Look at how many UFO photos were around in the 1960s and 1970s: enough to fill books.

There must be a million times more cameras in circulation these days. Most people carry one with them pretty much 24/7, so where are all the photos? If anything the quality seems to be getting worse!

In the 1960s and 1970s we were still using emulsion films and very few walked around with cameras outfitted with a zoom lens that wasn't bigger than a broom stick! Even a 200mm lens was a haul. Shorter zoom lenses existed but for some reason UFOs were not as prevalent during those decades. I always carried a film camera with a decent, quality short zoom and I was always looking at the sky, since 1958. My UFO sightings started in the early 1980s and my first one was a doozy. Didn't have a camera. My second sighting was mind-blowing. Didn't have a camera.

Now, as you say, most everyone have devices that can capture stills and videos. But when you have an object with an average width of 30 feet that's thousands of feet high, your average cell phone will produce images/videos that can't be magnified enough to see important detail.

I cannot be satisfied with less than my Canon SX1 IS which has 20X optical zoom, HD video, CMOS sensor. You can be that if I see a UFO again my first thought will be of anchoring my arm to produce as clear and sharp a video as possible. I'm always looking.

They were here as of 369 days ago. This much i can say for sure.

a reply to: Uggielicious

One:

The TPTB have really clamped down as to what we observe and report.
Second, the so called E.T's have enough data about us and just whizzed home.
Prepare to become food. Get ready to fight.

Kratos

originally posted by: Kratos40
a reply to: Uggielicious

One:

The TPTB have really clamped down as to what we observe and report.

Assuming you're being be serious, how is that possible? How can "TPTB" stop us from observing the sky?

And as for reporting, it is easier to report a sighting and have it spread around the world in minutes than it has ever been in human history.

Stick a decent UFO picture on Twitter and it'll be everywhere almost instantly. We know how impossible it is to stop things spreading on the internet. Once a photo is uploaded and shared, you cannot kill it.

a reply to: Uggielicious

I would echo the sentiments of those who have commented thus far, that the drop in UFO reporting here, and sundry related topics being shared, is down to the quality of critical thinking to be found here. Personally speaking, I hope that one day there will be answers to some of the good questions about UFO and alien related issues that have come up over the course of the history of interest in those topics.

However, I believe that those answers must come in a format which can be probed, examined, stand up to logical criticism, has evidence which can be independently verified, which MAKES PERFECT SENSE!

The Greer/Collier brigade has been pretty quiet around here, and that improves the signal to noise ratio involved with this topic no end. With regard to the sheer amount of false science out there, the fewer posts and threads which revolve around topics based in nonsense, the better for UFOlogy as a whole in my view. We seem to have beaten back the tide of that sort of thing around here, at least partially, but the next step, as I have always maintained, is to legitimise the field in the eyes of the wider public, by behaving with rationality and diligence in matters pertaining to UFO and aliens.

Only by doing so, can those who have an interest in these matters, expect to see serious scientists involve themselves directly in focused, valid research and investigation, into those phenomena which have already occurred, and those which may unfold in the future, and it is only by THAT method, that any answers of value will ever come to light.

What I am saying, is that if we are getting less reports here, then that means that the ones we do get are going to be worth more of a look, than the countless examples of utter CGI twaddle that had been before!

a reply to: Uggielicious

The main problem is that while UFOs (and our triangles) are still seen and photographed about every day, the whole argument has moved past the "critical thinking," as one naysayer just posted, to an all-encompassing stage of the old sci-fi slogan of "what it...?" And few venture there.

The "critical thinking" crowd and the James Oberg crowd want us to think strictly from a current state of technological and anthropocentric derived knowledge base. Meaning we humans must keep the universe in order by defending it within our level of thinking and tinkering with physics. That is best defined as the old NIH (Not Invented Here) argument. And they back that view up by constantly saying UFOs don't exist. Partners in that crime is Science with a big "S" and Big Brother government.

The whole business used to be contained in a simple paradigm, see a UFO or photograph it and there you have proof of ETs. Those triggers continue to spark a lot of conversions into the believer crowd if as much by personal experience as any other reason. But of course, such evidence carry no weight with the opposition that totally denies the phenomena as being related to intelligent being visiting us. If not a smidgen of a personal account or photo can be allowed as a strong, self-evident possibility, then, magically, there is no credible argument from the proponents. After denial, the deniers utilize their second most common tool of deception which is to simply ignore the incredible history of the phenomena that would have no equal in a court of circumstantial evidence for proving a case. It is as if none of a half of century of evidence of direct UFO info and the US government's handling of the affair with official papers is of any importance.

On the other hand, while the general public still finds the topic exciting, it has little appetite to get real with the concept of ET being here and now! Members of the public may love the thrill of a rollercoaster ride, but they want a safe, predictable ride, not one that heads off into the dark. With acceptance of the reality of the UFOs, there is no safe haven for any mind, be it the common citizen, a member of the military or the President of the US. For that reason and others, the situation is on hold for half a century, stuck in between wanting to know the truth, and not wanting the truth to even be there.

The public is waiting on government to provide some good news about the ETs, but there is no good news for humanity as it resides on the planet today. We are not alone. We are a Third World world subject to supervision from beings that may fully understand every aspect of our race and planet but yet are completely foreign with the own motives.

The complexity of what is underway is easily understood if an honest appraisal is made from a viewpoint of an outside intelligence. Put yourself out there in deep space, beyond being taxpayer, church member or political party supporter--beyond being human--and looking down at the globe. The world is changing, folks, it needs to change.

No alien UFO is going to set down and dictate our orders as done in the 1951 movies The Day The Earth Stood Still. That task has already been done long ago to our human controllers and is largely underway, carried out by typical governmental processes that more and more seem to defy normal reasoning of the status quo.

All you have to do is read and watch the news and translate and transpose everything that happens into a larger scheme that will tend to defy your own imaginative powers. Every aspect of your life is under assault by some manner of change, perhaps drastic change. Recognizing those changes, those tactics, is the way that you can help yourself prepare for the conversion to a totally different order of the world.

No, the UFO topic is not dead, just stagnant as old news as far as sightings and the ubiquitous denials go. The very core of the implied meaning behind any sighting has been cleverly, crafted, and carefully drilled into your very existence as a citizen of this planet by the local powers that be. Look beyond the theater for the real truth.