My three personal "UFO" sightings

My three personal "UFO" sightings

I believe i have had three genuine UFO sightings. I am not claiming that they were alien aircraft but under the circumstances they all behaved very strangely.

The orange blinker

After grocery shopping me and my ex girlfriend had pulled up on my driveway upon immediately exiting the vehicle we both looked up and saw this orange light, now what was strange about this light its that it wasn't really moving well not a lot anyway . From the moment i saw it i knew it was strange as it was blinking but very slowly then it moved sidewards and down again a little it and blinked slowly three times and then on a clear saturday night sky it vanished without a sound. Me and my ex were obviously perplexed at what we saw and obviously entertained the idea it was a UFO sighting.

The Accelerator

It was a Saturday night and me and my ex gf had decided we would head down to the local pub, she used to live in a small town and the sky being unpolluted was great for star gazing. We were walking and approached the primary school about two minutes from her house when we noticed a white moving light in the sky i think we both thought it was a shooting star then realized it hadn't disappeared yet, i remember saying "wait it cant be a plane the lights aren't blinking and there is no sound at all " we watched it for about 15 seconds or then it did something very strange it accelerated it was clearly visible to the naked aye and then after a few seconds it just shot off into the distance as if it had engaged its warp drive.


The flying black orb

It was a saturday morning and i was up early on a plane to a destination only an hour from my city. I obviously had the window seat on this plane and as childish as i am was constantly looking out the window like i had never been on the plane before. About half way through the flight whilst above the clouds and after finishing my peanuts i was looking out the window actually hoping to see somethings so i looked into the distance on my far right and then all of a sudden in a split second i saw what i can describe as an orb moving above the clouds to the left, it was gone out of sight quicker then i could blink it was above the clouds and must have been flying very rapidly. I knew it seemed to good to be true wanting to see something and seeing it straight way, I dont expect anyone to believe this one but it happened.

Great sighting stories, I have one similar to your Accelerator story. I was on my way to pick my girlfriend up from work when I saw a silver sliver in the sky quite a good distance away, as I was on a pretty straight road that forced me to remain at 35mph the entire time I had plenty of time to observe, my first thought was that it was a jetliner off in the distance until it rapidly changed direction and started going the complete opposite way, I thought that such a drastic change of direction was odd and concluded it must be a jet or some other form of plane capable of such maneuvers. After observing for another minute or two the craft once again changed direction, from where I was it looked as though it was headed at a strange angle towards the ground a few miles ahead of me and to the right slightly, by now I had arrived at a stop sign and the turn I was making would put me in a position that would make it impossible for further observation. No one was behind me so I put the car in park and sat there watching it for a few moments, at this point in time it had changed direction again going in its initial direction, I thought now that it HAD to be a jet of some type until it started a crescent moon type of maneuver (from going left in the sky, towards me, and then away from me) and started heading upwards away from me, at this point I knew it wasn't a jet due to its rapid acceleration and insane turn that would turn any pilot to mush. Then it accelerated faster than anything I've ever witnessed and shot off out of my view as if it had activated a warp drive or some other form of extreme propulsion.

Needless to say I was, and still am, completely dumbfounded by what I had just witnessed. That's my only sighting and something I've been wanting to share for a while. Thanks for the opportunity

UnbiasedTruth
Great sighting stories, I have one similar to your Accelerator story. I was on my way to pick my girlfriend up from work when I saw a silver sliver in the sky quite a good distance away, as I was on a pretty straight road that forced me to remain at 35mph the entire time I had plenty of time to observe, my first thought was that it was a jetliner off in the distance until it rapidly changed direction and started going the complete opposite way, I thought that such a drastic change of direction was odd and concluded it must be a jet or some other form of plane capable of such maneuvers. After observing for another minute or two the craft once again changed direction, from where I was it looked as though it was headed at a strange angle towards the ground a few miles ahead of me and to the right slightly, by now I had arrived at a stop sign and the turn I was making would put me in a position that would make it impossible for further observation. No one was behind me so I put the car in park and sat there watching it for a few moments, at this point in time it had changed direction again going in its initial direction, I thought now that it HAD to be a jet of some type until it started a crescent moon type of maneuver (from going left in the sky, towards me, and then away from me) and started heading upwards away from me, at this point I knew it wasn't a jet due to its rapid acceleration and insane turn that would turn any pilot to mush. Then it accelerated faster than anything I've ever witnessed and shot off out of my view as if it had activated a warp drive or some other form of extreme propulsion.

Needless to say I was, and still am, completely dumbfounded by what I had just witnessed. That's my only sighting and something I've been wanting to share for a while. Thanks for the opportunity

Great sighting story and I'm glad my sighting stories made you share what you saw as well. Its great draw out other people who might have seem something similar but have not shared them yet .

reply to post by soul44


This is just my opinion take it or leave it as you will

The orange blinker:
Sounds to me like a description of a Chinese / sky lantern

The Accelerator :
Possibly a Satellite , about 15 seconds sounds about right.

The flying black orb :
I don't know .

gortex

The flying black orb :
I don't know .

Do you think we can rule out a military drone of some sort ?

reply to post by soul44

Do you think we can rule out a military drone of some sort ?

Impossible to say but I don't think we can rule anything in or out , if you had seen it for more that a split second and could give more detail we could possibly tell more but as it is it's one of those that only you can make a judgement on.

soul44
Do you think we can rule out a military drone of some sort ?

Someone filmed a black UFO which changed shape, while aiming a movie camera outside the airplane window, though I'd call it a UAP instead of a UFO. I made a thread about it, called the "Oldfield film":

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Just wondering out of curiosity, did you report these sightings to anyone, or UFO organization? Interesting encounters.

reply to post by soul44


hi i just wanted to share my story.

i was out smoking at midnight on 12th of december 2012.i was looking up at the sky when i saw a small dull light moving across
the sky. this was not that unusual and just thought its a satellite. then as i was looking away i shot back into my line of vision(the opposite direction it was traveling) then i saw it do maneuvers that blew me away.
it started doing 90 degree turns,45 degree turns then it would travel in a straight line then more turns.it also did what i would call "w" movements. every now and again it would light up brighter maybe 3 times its original brightness then keep doing its moves.it didnt appear to go any faster when lighting up it just did it randomly. i watched this for over 20 minutes.
i guessed it was as high up as a satellite in low orbit and its original speed was the same as a satellite.when it changed speed i would say it was 3-4 times faster than it original speed. i looked up the speed of a satellite in lower orbit than tripled it,it worked roughly that this object was moving at 50,000 mph. this is just my guess but this thing was in space im sure.

i just have this feeling it was being tested just because of the strange maneuvers i dont see why an e.t would do this?
if it was "us" we have some mind blowing secret technology that can travel in space.

has anyone ever heard of anything like this?

this has totally made me wonder what the hell is going on,i cant forget it! i joined here to ask about it but could not seem to be able to start a thread,im pleased this thread was started!!

data5091
Just wondering out of curiosity, did you report these sightings to anyone, or UFO organization? Interesting encounters.

No i have never reported it to any UFO organizations i've told maybe one or two people before posting it up on here. I think there is just too much clutter of sightings and without any real evidence there is no point in reporting them, it might be a pessimistic attitude towards it but i were to go out of my way report a sighting it would have to be quite substantial. For now i think just getting it out there to the ATS community is enough.

ben555
reply to post by soul44

 

hi i just wanted to share my story.

i was out smoking at midnight on 12th of december 2012.i was looking up at the sky when i saw a small dull light moving across
the sky. this was not that unusual and just thought its a satellite. then as i was looking away i shot back into my line of vision(the opposite direction it was traveling) then i saw it do maneuvers that blew me away.
it started doing 90 degree turns,45 degree turns then it would travel in a straight line then more turns.it also did what i would call "w" movements. every now and again it would light up brighter maybe 3 times its original brightness then keep doing its moves.it didnt appear to go any faster when lighting up it just did it randomly. i watched this for over 20 minutes.
i guessed it was as high up as a satellite in low orbit and its original speed was the same as a satellite.when it changed speed i would say it was 3-4 times faster than it original speed. i looked up the speed of a satellite in lower orbit than tripled it,it worked roughly that this object was moving at 50,000 mph. this is just my guess but this thing was in space im sure.

i just have this feeling it was being tested just because of the strange maneuvers i dont see why an e.t would do this?
if it was "us" we have some mind blowing secret technology that can travel in space.

has anyone ever heard of anything like this?

this has totally made me wonder what the hell is going on,i cant forget it! i joined here to ask about it but could not seem to be able to start a thread,im pleased this thread was started!!

That sounds like an incredible sighting and you say you watched it for 20 minutes ? Do you live in a remote location becasue otherwise others might have seen the same event close by. I think any light in the night sky which is constantly changing direction will catch the eye of anyone looking up. Also yes i do believe we might have technology that can do this i mean look the oxcart project we didn't even know it existed until the aircraft was retired and this was decades ago, who know what advancements have been made since which are kept hidden from the public.

reply to post by soul44


i also had a few very lucid observations...

1959 a 13 light flying wing at Hershey Pa
1965 the 'brown mountain' lights & a white dot far up in the sky (a likely weather balloon) in NC
1972 Orlando Fla, a object shaped like a AMC 'Gremlin' automobile, about 150' in the air
1996 Phoenix AZ, Dec 3rd, a 12' triangle of lights no more than 60' up and 60' north of my rooftop position...
......followed by a return flight (glide) some 20 minutes later--some 50' almost directly overhead



1989. walking the beach at myrtle beach SC, 11PM, a bright light traveled 'South' directly above (12: o'clock)...but i suspect it was the Space Shuttle or some other satellite because Jets don't reflect sunlight that time of night... so a space vehicle that was high enough would be the logical assumption- rather than a UFO

i had 2 NDE's but these incidents were no way connected in time or location


i think the episodes made a real deep impression on you (as did my experiences/sightings)

ben555
reply to post by soul44

 

hi i just wanted to share my story.

i was out smoking at midnight on 12th of december 2012.i was looking up at the sky when i saw a small dull light moving across
the sky. this was not that unusual and just thought its a satellite. then as i was looking away i shot back into my line of vision(the opposite direction it was traveling) then i saw it do maneuvers that blew me away.
it started doing 90 degree turns,45 degree turns then it would travel in a straight line then more turns.it also did what i would call "w" movements. every now and again it would light up brighter maybe 3 times its original brightness then keep doing its moves.it didnt appear to go any faster when lighting up it just did it randomly. i watched this for over 20 minutes.
i guessed it was as high up as a satellite in low orbit and its original speed was the same as a satellite.when it changed speed i would say it was 3-4 times faster than it original speed. i looked up the speed of a satellite in lower orbit than tripled it,it worked roughly that this object was moving at 50,000 mph. this is just my guess but this thing was in space im sure.

i just have this feeling it was being tested just because of the strange maneuvers i dont see why an e.t would do this?
if it was "us" we have some mind blowing secret technology that can travel in space.

has anyone ever heard of anything like this?

this has totally made me wonder what the hell is going on,i cant forget it! i joined here to ask about it but could not seem to be able to start a thread,im pleased this thread was started!!

Yeah, I've seen many lights do that type of thing over many years. Hard to say if it's us... or "them", being as we copied "their" technology.

You have to make 20 posts before you can start a thread. I see you don't have 20 yet. Go do some short comments in threads, then you can start your thread.

reply to post by soul44


yes 20 mins,i still cant believe it. and yes i was at staying overnight at my parents house which is in the countryside(northumberland in the UK)

i have tried searching the internet with description,time and dates and have found nothing! i kind of hoped some skywatchers or something may have seen it i dont think you would have seen it unless you looking at the sky. it was so far up im sure it would of been seen else where but i cant find any info.

i know find myself whenever its clear looking up to the skys!!

reply to post by sled735


thanks 20 posts to make a thread,that explains why i could not make one!

i also believe that if this was "us" the technology has to of come from "somewhere" else. this thing was in space traveling at speeds
in the 10s of thousands MPH (by my calculations) and making turns that "we" could not survive so if it was us physics as we know it have been blown away!

thanks

sled735

ben555
reply to post by soul44

 

hi i just wanted to share my story.

i was out smoking at midnight on 12th of december 2012.i was looking up at the sky when i saw a small dull light moving across
the sky. this was not that unusual and just thought its a satellite. then as i was looking away i shot back into my line of vision(the opposite direction it was traveling) then i saw it do maneuvers that blew me away.
it started doing 90 degree turns,45 degree turns then it would travel in a straight line then more turns.it also did what i would call "w" movements. every now and again it would light up brighter maybe 3 times its original brightness then keep doing its moves.it didnt appear to go any faster when lighting up it just did it randomly. i watched this for over 20 minutes.
i guessed it was as high up as a satellite in low orbit and its original speed was the same as a satellite.when it changed speed i would say it was 3-4 times faster than it original speed. i looked up the speed of a satellite in lower orbit than tripled it,it worked roughly that this object was moving at 50,000 mph. this is just my guess but this thing was in space im sure.

i just have this feeling it was being tested just because of the strange maneuvers i dont see why an e.t would do this?
if it was "us" we have some mind blowing secret technology that can travel in space.

has anyone ever heard of anything like this?

this has totally made me wonder what the hell is going on,i cant forget it! i joined here to ask about it but could not seem to be able to start a thread,im pleased this thread was started!!

Yeah, I've seen many lights do that type of thing over many years. Hard to say if it's us... or "them", being as we copied "their" technology.

Seemingly impossible maneuvers that don't appear to make sense... what in the world could possibly be the cause... it MUST be aliens!!

That is till you spend some time looking into the physics/psychology of UFO sightings.

"I saw it so it must be true" and "I know what I saw, it really did move like that" are things that I've heard said many times here on ATS, and they are also totally erroneous statements in many cases.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying people are lying about what they saw. I believe the vast majority of people who report UFOs report them "in good faith".

BUT we can not always be certain what we see is always what took place!

For example:

The lines in this image are not straight... or are they? Can you trust your eyes with this image?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/600e2ab7355a.jpg[/atsimg]
Source: click here


This one is more dramatic... the animation is always spinning the same way, yet sometimes it appears to spin clockwise, and then anti-clockwise.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/88fbba7a837f.gif[/atsimg]
Source: wikipedia


Stare at the cross, and you start to see a green dot... is that green dot REALLY there?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2020174c9d3f.gif[/atsimg]
Source: wikipedia


Here is my favorite: watch the following clip, and don't read what I write below before you have watched the clip.



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Now, on the final throw, what did you see? Did you see the ball go up in the air? If you did, watch the clip once again - no ball leaves the hand on the final throw!
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In the trick, the magician throws a ball into the air twice and catches it. On the third, fake throw, the ball seems to disappear into the air even though it never leaves his hand. Most of the students watching the trick were fooled by the magician looking up on the third throw - 68% perceived the ball as leaving his hand.

Source: newscientist.com


So what does all this prove?

It proves that *sometimes* (under the correct conditions) anyone can see things moving in a way that they are not moving, or even see things happen that did not take place!

Now that we have a bit of background, let's look at what ben said again:

i was out smoking at midnight on 12th of december 2012.i was looking up at the sky when i saw a small dull light moving across
the sky. this was not that unusual and just thought its a satellite. then as i was looking away i shot back into my line of vision(the opposite direction it was traveling) then i saw it do maneuvers that blew me away.
it started doing 90 degree turns,45 degree turns then it would travel in a straight line then more turns.it also did what i would call "w" movements. every now and again it would light up brighter maybe 3 times its original brightness then keep doing its moves.it didnt appear to go any faster when lighting up it just did it randomly. i watched this for over 20 minutes.

It just so happens that there is an illusion that is known to occur if someone stares at small light - it can be stationary or it could be a slowly moving light (a satellite or an aircraft) but the effect is similar: The light appears to move although it is not moving:

The autokinetic effect (also referred to as autokinesis) is a phenomenon of visual perception in which a stationary, small point of light in an otherwise dark or featureless environment appears to move. It was first recorded by a Russian officer keeping watch who observed illusory movement of a star near the horizon. It presumably occurs because motion perception was always relative to some reference point. In darkness or in a featureless environment there is no reference point, so the movement of the single point is undefined. The direction of the movements does not appear to be correlated with the involuntary eye movements, but may be determined by errors between eye position and that specified by efference copy of the movement signals sent to the extraocular muscles.

The amplitude of the movements is also undefined. Individual observers set their own frames of reference to judge amplitude (and possibly direction). Because the phenomenon is labile, it has been used to show the effects of social influence or suggestion on judgements. For example, if an observer who would otherwise say the light is moving one foot overhears another observer say the light is moving one yard then the first observer will report that the light moved one yard. Discovery of the influence of suggestion on the autokinetic effect is often attributed to Sherif (1935), but it was recorded by Adams (1912), if not others.

Alexander von Humboldt observed the phenomenon in 1799 while looking at stars with the naked eye, but thought it was a real movement of the stars. Thus he named them "Sternschwanken" i.e. "Swinging Stars". It was not until 1857 that G. Schweitzer (Schweitzer, 1857), an early German psychologist, discovered that is was a subjective phenomenon. The US Navy started studying this in 1945 in order to explain vertigo experiences related by pilots. Today this "kinetic illusion" is categorized as a vestibular-induced illusion, see vestibular system.

Many sightings of UFOs have also been attributed to the autokinetic effect's action on looking at stars or planets.

Source: autokinetic effect

As someone who has spent a fair bit of time trying to observe meteors (my main passion) I also get to observe many satellites, and every once in a while a satellite that "zig-zags" along it's path. In a couple of cases I've photographed these "zig-zaging" satellites, and identified them as such, but when the photographs are examined, guess what... the tracks they leave on the photograph are basically perfectly straight (excepting that there is a very slight curve to their path's due to being in "round" orbits, though this is basically imperceptible in a photograph).

In conclusion, I have little doubt that what ben saw was down to the autokinetic effect, although it's impossible to say for certain if the light was a satellite, star, aircraft, or something else (I suspect satellite, but it could have been something else). I also suspect many other UFO sightings might be due to illusions which many of us are susceptible to. I'm not saying that all sightings are explained away by illusions, but there is still much we do not understand about how illusions and the human brain work. Food for thought no?


Related links (should be "essential reading" for anyone who wants to understand more about the UFO phenomenon) :
More illusions
Reification
False Memories
Perceptual distance and the constancy of size and stereoscopic depth
Almost all your decisions are made by your unconscious mind
Depth Cues in the Human Visual System
How to view, track, and identify satellites
How good are we at estimating the distance and altitude of UFOs?

Just to remind folks that some people will never understand...

The Pseudo-Skeptic is not a true Skeptic!
Truzzi attributed the following characteristics to pseudoskeptics:
1. Denying, when only doubt has been established
2. Double standards in the application of criticism
3. The tendency to discredit rather than investigate
4. Presenting insufficient evidence or proof
5. Assuming criticism requires no burden of proof
6. Making unsubstantiated counter-claims
7. Counter-claims based on plausibility rather than empirical evidence
Suggesting that unconvincing evidence provides grounds for completely dismissing a claim

People in here has multiple stories of seeing unexplained things. I only have one - that caused me to shoot an email off to a friend, (and I am glad I did as it tells of details I might have otherwise forgotten). I don't think tricks of the eye can explain all reports over eons. I wasn't searching for anything the night I saw mine. I wasn't thinking of UFO's. It was a familiar drive - isolated and very dark. The "star" looking thing was so bright it simply caught my attention as it was too low to be a star, and was just impossible to not see for the direction I was heading. Even then I didn't think UFO. In fact, I believe my mind was still processing it when it took off at lightning speed, making maneuvers that could in no way happen at that speed with anything I've ever heard of (and would not - due to the mountains). There are simply some things we cannot explain - that cannot be debunked without a repeat exposure to show the person that what they saw was natural or manmade. I think people will take these things to their graves as unexplained in most cases. Unless of couse UFO's are confirmed to be flown by intelligent beings.

reply to post by waltwillis


You didn't make it clear, but I'm assuming your post was in reply (at least partly) to mine?

If that is the case then...

I am a "Pseudo-Skeptic" for presenting a plausible explanation based on known facts?

Perhaps we should ignore facts, and just say everything that appears to be unusual on the face of it must be unusual ...even if someone shows that there might well be a prosaic explanation?

So which points on your list would you say apply to me and why?

Let's see:

1. So because no one has so far presented an explanation (only doubt has been established) there can't be a legitimate/prosaic explanation?

2. My "criticism" applies to everyone including myself. So where are the "double standards"?

3. So having spent 100's of hours under the stars, taking 10's of thousands of exposures with cameras that have cost me £1000's, then spending 100's more hours reading relevant papers/articles/reports to understand and make sense of what I see and photograph couldn't possibly be described as "investigation"? In case you missed it here is a little evidence of me actually doing what I said I do.

4. You deny that illusions are possible? In that case, how do you explain the "green dot" in my 3rd illusion example? Aliens perhaps!?

5. Have I not already proved that in *some* cases what we see is not necessarily what took place? Don't illusions demonstrate this?

6. Like what?

7. The existence of illusions is a well established fact, and there is very strong evidence that the autokinetic effect is real and applicable to virtually any light/point source observed in the sky under certain circumstances.

Would photographing an erratically moving object like the object ben described, and then examining the photograph only to find the object was not moving erratically constitute "empirical evidence" in your opinion? As I' stated, I've done exactly that. Anyone else can do it too (yes it will cost a fair bit - perhaps £200-300 if you buy carefully - for equipment), and in the process prove to themselves that what I have stated is true. Why not give it a go, or are you afraid that it will prove you wrong?


You do realize the door swings both ways don't you?

You have attempted to (for want of a better word) debunk my explanation without providing any evidence or proof to support your stance (points 4, 5, 6, and 7). I see no evidence that you have done ANY investigation into this subject (point 3), yet you are all for discrediting fact based explanations... based on NOTHING. You are willing to take eye witness testimony at face value yet you try to discredit perfectly valid explanations (point 2 - double standards).

Have you actually investigated ANYTHING I've said, or have you simply read (I have to wonder if this is even true?) it and dismissed it because it does not fit with YOUR view of how the world SHOULD be?

That seems to be the way things usually (and "most people", although there are exceptions) work around here... watch lots of crap footage whilst working yourself up into a frenzy, and whilst never having got up off your butt (except maybe to add to all the worthless footage out there), try to tell others that they are not doing anything for the subject. Throw enough mud, and some is bound to stick, right?


To use your own words (bold):
Just to remind folks that some people will never understand... how things work even if it's explained to them.

Yes, you are correct that my post would also include people like you, but not you on a personal level as you may wish to assume.

You are but one of many people that have given me grief about the reported visit I had of ghostly beings that were able to communicate telepathy.

You are not presumed by me to be a Pseudo-Skeptic for presenting facts about the optical illusion observation facts or any other facts.

You may be a true skeptic in search of truth of what aliens may or may not be or even if they are real.

I do not know you and therefore can not form an honest opinion as to you thinking or MO.

It would be nice of you to give a listen to the report I gave to a radio show in May of 2012 so you could explain your take on my life experiences.

www.youtube.com...

One person spending 100’s of hours looking for answers as to if there is extra terrestrial life or not may not be a viable way to go about a scientific inquiry.

“Why not give it a go, or are you afraid that it will prove you wrong?

“I did not say you were wrong and I never tried to debunk your asertions.

I have not taken eye witness testimony as fact…ever!

Why are you so very angry?
Look who is throwing mud!