posted on Apr, 4 2011 @ 12:33 AM
Greetings and salutations to everyone, I am new to ATS and have been lurking the forums since the end of December 2010. Google brought me to an old
ATS topic when I was searching for information on Phil Krapf. The first ATS thread I saw that day was
Phil Krapf: 9-11 Halted Alien Disclosure (my first URL, did it work?).
I started reading about aliens and UFOs in early December out of curiosity. It all started with an innocent perusal of a BBC news article about Julian
Assange and it mentioned the similarity to the Gary McKinnon extradition case that has been dragged out over a decade. I wanted to read more about
Gary McKinnon and discover what exactly kept the US government from getting their hands on an extradition order for so long. When I discovered that
Gary had hacked into NASA desktop computers in the late 1990s and found that NASA was using Photoshop to remove UFOs out of space imagery and that he
had discovered a list of off-world military rankings... my jaw dropped and that is the moment my life took a turn. I started my search with famous UFO
cases listed on about.com then expanded to the ufo-ologists (what a strange word) and their backgrounds. ATSers proved to be invaluable when it came
to cases, authors, and debunking the field in general. I started reading through topics and discovered that not everything is credible in the aliens
and UFO field.
Needless to say, I have seen several posts on ATS welcoming individuals to "reality" and it has taken four months of reading material, watching
youtube.com, and avoiding the television to realize that I do not have any answers and that there are more questions. I have to say after introducing
myself to aliens and UFOs that these subjects are highly politicized and difficult to grasp at first (I think I will be researching until my last
day). The energy and time individuals have put into organizing websites, conferences, researching, and debating for the last seventy years is
astounding. I admire the bravery of certain individuals who risk credibility in search of truth as well as the creativity of those who try to hide it
from the populace (begrudgingly). It is easy for me to arrive at a conclusion amidst the clamor - if many people are willing to spend so much time
debating alien/UFO evidence and discussing possibilities (not to mention seeding disinformation and covering things up) then aliens and UFOs must
exist. I may be wrong, there are many other reasons to credit or discredit those subjects, but for the moment my reasoning has brought me to "they
exist" side of the fence... sorry no external link for proof (I think we are all still waiting for that!).
I have no personal experience with aliens or UFOs. I turned thirty late last year and have spent my life working, finishing college, dating, seeing
friends, and traveling. I would have laughed this subject off ten years ago and returned immediately to my daily programming. But after ATS I just
cannot return to the daily schedule. It is as though I unwittingly swallowed the “red pill” and as a result the world does not look the same. In
the last four months my “red pill” symptoms have been: increasing skepticism about government motives, looking for a hidden political agenda(s),
thinking about survival and possible scenarios, seeing propaganda in just about everything, and not to mention some confusion over who and what to
trust.
Thanks to ATS I was aware of the Japan earthquake the hour it happened and before it is even posted on CNN. I have learned of the strange sounds heard
around the world and have watched people report their experience. I have learned about the harmful effects of radiation when news and government are
downplaying such dangers. I visit ATS to see what is not being reported in the news and find out if a certain subject has been "debunked." ATS has
been invaluable the last four months and I have come to and understanding that there are many points of view which should not only be shared but
questioned.
Thank you ATSers for making me slightly less ignorant!