UFOS, Liquor, and You

originally posted by: Unity_99
You could put up a bell curve that links it with sleep, and say most takes place during sleeping hours.

to be fair, the chart did include sleeping hours, and it looks like sightings drop sharply after midnight (like you might expect).

So could never understand people working overtime to try and put it back in the box and take it away from the people.

i'm sure reasons vary from skeptic to skeptic, but i bet most mean well. going by the ad-hoc hypopnosis testing happening on this thread, even those that had a few before their sighting seem pretty certain that it didn't cause the sighting, but most people were sober in any case.

very interesting!

What did we learn from this study?

That drunk people are easier to abduct. They barely put up a fight. "OOoohHH LiGhtS!!!"

a reply to: ATODASO

I'd say that's a leap that defies logic, equating this to "drinking hours".

All it says to me is that people are more likely to be sitting around outside looking up at that time. It could also be true that people are more likely to mistake things like aircraft lights or natural events like clouds lit by the sun from below at sunset or after dark.

UFO reports of things even worth looking into are so rare that the large volume of reports these days, is pretty much attributable to the Internet.

But then, if even a tiny handful are real, it's enough for me to say keep looking up. YouTube and wanna be Internet celeb's have made the search far harder, but maybe some day.

a reply to: Blaine91555

I'd say that's a leap that defies logic, equating this to "drinking hours".

You beat me to it. I am pretty sure I can come up with several other activities that people are engaged during these hours. For one you would have to assume that everyone drinks during these hours every day.

kind of reminds me of this:

a reply to: ATODASO

UFO sightings are reported more frequently as occurring between 11 and 12 around the world. I posted a thread on the subject a few years back - Stalking the UFOs. It raised the idea that, if they are seen at a particular time, we could increase our chances of identifying what they are and why they happen.

Quite a few members went straight for the 'alcohol and closing times' explanation and maybe there's something to that? Nevertheless, I remain unconvinced that beers and closing times account for the majority of historical reports. For example, UFO reports have decreased over the years and alcohol consumption has risen.

To be honest, the decrease in sighting reports makes me wonder if any of the popular explanations are as accurate as we believe them to be? At the same time, there are fewer and fewer people generating new ideas and interest, in general, is on life-support recently.

NARCAP
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/35123d7604b7.jpg[/atsimg]

Canadian UFO reports combined
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/39b51ad16764.jpg[/atsimg]

a reply to: Kandinsky

cool, that pretty much settles the question for me. "drinking hours" don't mean diddly.

i did a quick read of your thread, and it's got me wondering about something else now. what came first, media exposure or sightings? did one affect the other? and why the drastic drop in the last few years? does it just indicate a drop-off in general interest or a decline in ufo activity?

a reply to: ATODASO

Both times I saw some weird stuff in the desert, I was sober. Sorry but your analysis is 99%9 wrong.

Kratos

a reply to: ATODASO

Personally I suspect the media was driven by the sighting reports and then the media began to drive the reports. The drop-off in recent years is something that's yet to be explained sufficiently. *Maybe* it's the stirling work of decent skeptics? They've helped to stop so many Chinese lanterns and aircraft landing lights being reported. That reduces some of the extraneous BS from the discussion.

Active ufologists, or credible folk with an interest in UFO reports, have recorded decreasing reports and a decline in the quality of them. We're now more likely to read/hear reports of nocturnal lights than close encounters with structured objects.

Aside from that, it's an open question with no promise of an answer. I guess it'll also be obfuscated by the rise in drone sightings and the spread of the surveillance state, but that's for another thread.

Been stone cold sober on the times Ive seen unusual things ..

Think its more a matter of awareness of ones surroundings that causes people to notice things others often overlook entirely ..

a reply to: ATODASO

OKay I have a few points-

1- I saw a UFO, in plain daylight, not far away, and had not drunk anything at all. I did not see "lights" I saw a metalic craft, making impossible manouvers, right in front of me.
If this is accurate, it surely doesn't take into account those types of observations.- or they are not the biggest part of them.

2- There is the phenomenon to consider of the way we are sometimes in a mode of mental process which is very focused on specific goals- this places "blinders" on us. We do not see elements that are unexpected, unfamiliar, or catagorized as irrelevant to what we are looking for.

A test was done in which people were asked to watch a basketball game, with two teams, one wearing blue the other red, and told to count how many passes one of the teams made during the game. This took focused attention. As they were doing that, a woman in a gorilla suit walked out unto the scene, jumped around for a minute, then left.

Almost all of the people did NOT see it. Even when told afterwards it happened they denied the possibility, until showed the sequence again while they were looking for it.

We only see what we are open to seeing.

In dual process theories of mind, when in that highly aware process of calculation and analyzation, our more wide vision of the world around us is repressed- we miss a lot going on around us.

Alcohol is one of the substances that represses that process of focused attention, letting the other more wide open perception emerge.

Of two people present during a strange or unexpected event, the one who has drunk would be more likely to notice it.

3- Drunk people might actually mistake stars or regular aircraft as UFOs more often than those who aren't.

I've seen two ufos, one a silver sphere traveling in wicked fast angles and the other a huge long light that slowly shrunk to a pin point of light and shot away. Both sober... First in morning at burningman having a cup of tea, second at sunset with my kids.

a reply to: ATODASO

Since fresno is the drunkest part of the U.S the map is false

a reply to: Kandinsky
I took a quick look at your thread and was wondering if you took a look at typical brain activity during the day? Our sleep/wake cycle is governed by Circadian Rhythms. For instance, the hormone Melatonin is generally released by our bodies starting around 9 PM and steadily increases until we wake up.

People don't see more UFOs at 2am or 4am..because..DUH..that's when people are sleeping.
And they don't see lots of UFOs in the afternoon or morning because it's day-time where things are more clear than at night.

9pm or 10pm being high-time for UFOs sound perfectly normal and has NOTHING to do with drinking. Stupid chart, IMHO.

WA being the highest for UFOs..is surprising...I would've bet on CA...but then...there is a LOT of weird # going on in WA..seriously, I read true crime books about serial killers and almost any of them is from the pacific NW. And of course Bigfoot etc... : )

Saw my first UFO while observing the sky with a telescope in the early AM, saw my second around high noon. Stone cold sober for both seeing as I was underage when I saw them.

As others have pointed out, I think the most obvious correlation put forward by the graph is that people tend to see UFOs during their "off time", which just so happens to typically be when the sky is darker and UFOs are most visible. If I remember correctly the largest demographics of UFO witnesses are pilots, cops, housewives and teenagers so drinking is most likely coincidental.

a reply to: ATODASO

It is probably because people are outdoors between 8 and 12. You'd be surprised how many people on ATS say they were out 'havin a smoke' and they saw a light in the sky. Did they see it because of the smoke or simply because they were outside? No brainer...

As has been mentioned, that graph only really shows when people are more likely to be outside and about. I'd bet a few quid on the number of sightings increasing in the summer months then declining again as it turns colder. You're more likely to see something strange in the sky when you are under the sky.

Taking it a step further, hotspots become hotspots because everyone is looking up for sky because they've been told it's a hotspot.

a reply to: ZetaRediculian

Howdy Z, to be honest my interest in UFOs has been minimal for over a year. All I have are suppositions and inferences and they remain personal, unsubstantiated and unspoken.

Your reference to melatonin is probably an interesting pursuit and you might consider running with it as a thread? We could speculate that, in some cases, spikes in melatonin could generate dissociative states whereby individuals mistake hallucinations (tricks of the eye) for actual events. Off memory, melatonin has been implicated in paranormal reports so maybe it has a similar value in UFO sighting reports. It's speculative and hard to make a strong case given the circumstances of most reports. Saying that, folk have speculated on much less and gained traction...

a reply to: Kandinsky

It's an interesting thought. What is odd is the 11 PM spike in sightings. If true, I would think the effect would be small and could account for Venus type sightings. Anyway, highly speculative but better than "drinking hours".

a reply to: Kandinsky

Melatonin also plays a large role with the Pineal Glad often called the "third eye".

The hormone melatonin communicates information about environmental lightening in relation to the different parts of the body. Synthesis and secretion of melatonin is largely effected by light exposure to the eyes. Studies find that melatonin is less concentrated in the body at daytime, than in night time hours. So when the sun sets, the melatonin has increased to it's highest level, naturally in your own body.

Here is a Link for further reading.

Now the side effects of melatonin, I looked up on webmd and found this list.

It can cause some side effects including headache, short-term feelings of depression, daytime sleepiness, dizziness, stomach cramps, and irritability, and seizures!


CdT