Tell Us About Your UFO Experience

Just recently started reading G rassroots UFOs: Case Reports from the Center for UFO Studies by Michael Swords, and it is refreshing my interest in the UFO topic.

THE RAW MATERIAL OF UFOLOGY Over a period of a dozen years, John Timmerman ran a traveling UFO exhibit for the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) that appeared in malls from Seattle to Dallas to Nova Scotia, and from Guam to Puerto Rico. In the process he spoke to hundreds of people from around the world who came in off the street and described their own UFO sightings and experiences.

The accounts are brief, the reports are uninvestigated, but as a whole the stories make for totally compelling reading (to me anyway), and they have reminded me how fascinating it is to hear UFO witnesses talk about their experiences (although the book consists of summaries written from the compiled transcripts of audio recordings of the witness interviews, not the direct transcripts themselves).

Anyway, I thought I'd like to read some fresh, original UFO experiences from the mouths (or in this case, keyboards) of witnesses themselves, hence this thread.

I know there are many ATS members who have had what they would consider a UFO sighting, and I'd like to invite all of them to share their experience here in whatever manner they feel is appropriate.

I'll start off, but as I've never seen anything I would consider to be a UFO, I'll briefly relate a couple strange experiences of family members. I don't have a ton of details so take them for what they are.

My uncle tells me that when he was about 15 years old (he's probably about 60 now), living in Westfield, NY, he witnessed a metallic, disk-shaped object emerge from the waters of Lake Erie and shoot off at a high speed. As I said, not a lot of detail, but I believe he saw what he said he did.

My dad related an experience he had in the same general region (southwestern New York state) sometime in the mid-1970. He and a friend went out duck hunting early one morning. They arrived in the area where they planned to hunt before dawn, and it was completely dark. As my dad sat on the bumper of the car, bent over tying his boots, he suddenly realized that he could see every pebble on the ground in front of him as clearly as if it were broad daylight. There appeared to be a bright light coming from above that was lighting up the ground in a sharp circle around them, beyond the edge of which was still total darkness. About as soon as he wrapped his mind around what was happening, all became dark once again. He asked his friend, "Did you see that?" His friend responded that he had. They were both utterly freaked out - to the point that they considered abandoning their day of hunting and going home. There was no sound associated with the experience, and neither of them saw any source from which the light may have come.

Again, I believe this happened as I've been told. Of note is the fact that my dad is a total scoffer when it comes to UFOs.

But enough from me and my sketchy, second-hand accounts.

Let's hear your UFO experience.

Thanks in advance for your participation in this survey!

BiffWellington

Why? So I can be ridiculed, derided and told to get back on my meds?

No thanks. Sorry.

Since I am new around here, I will share a sighting I had in the mid 70's. I was driving in the car with 3 others when I looked out of the front window and saw 3 typical disks about half mile in front of us. It was a clear afternoon and they were hovering approximately 200 feet above a field of red flowers next to the road. I found it curious that they were not completely stationary as they bounced around, similar to a ship on waves. They had a short antennae sticking out of the top, lighting around the bottom and were highly polished metal. The sighting lasted about 10 seconds or so and they took off at breakneck speed, one after the other and were gone.
The next morning I was woken up by my clock radio, that said over 150 people in my county had called the police dept. to report three flying saucers. This was an eyeopening experience for me because it made me realize that our government is covering something up. Either they have incredible technology that they are hiding from us or there is another civilization here that has this tech that they don't want us to know about. I find both to be true.

originally posted by: CagliostroTheGreat
BiffWellington



Why? So I can be ridiculed, derided and told to get back on my meds?



No thanks. Sorry.

I'm sorry you feel that way, but I think your comment illustrates the notion that anomalous experiences (like you had?) may be MUCH more common that we think.

People, in general, crave social acceptance, and nobody wants to look like a fool in front of others. I would guess that most people who have "high-strangeness" UFO experiences discuss it with few - if any - others. Much less likely are they to "report" it in any formal way. This would suggest that the experiences we hear about are a mere fraction of those that actually occur.

In other words, you are FAR from alone. I understand your reluctance to put yourself in a position to be the the butt of snide comments, and I respect your choice to keep your experience to yourself.

Thank you anyway for chiming in and (indirectly) making an important point regarding the social aspect of the UFO phenomenon.

a reply to: lobosbowl

Absolutely fascinating, lobosbowl! An unusual experience with many "classic" features.

Thank you so much for your account.

By the way, did you tell many people about your sighting, either at the time or in the years since?

BiffWellington

For the record, my point was made subtly, not indirectly. I apologize if my comment perhaps came across as brash or condescending. I have just seen it too many times to feel comfortable revealing many of my experiences. Which, I will say, involve more than witnessing UFOs but, I believe, directly relate to said phenomenon.

Here is a thread with an index of my experiences.

Onequestions thread.

Most notably my experience with a sphere and the tall blondes.

a reply to: BiffWellington
I have shared on occasion, but like the other poster said- many people do NOT want to hear it. They think it is entertaining at best. Most true "experiencers" probably wish they never stumbled upon this and will not come forward. It is life altering. We, as a society, are not ready for disclosure, despite what others argue. From what I see on a daily basis, we need to first work on regaining our personal integrity and humbleness. We're too weak, divided and self-centered to go forward at this moment in time. First we need to learn to be honest, happy and appreciative with our gift of life- walk before we fly.

A few, and as I've completely squashed any gravitas I may have had on this site, I don't mind coming across as batty...

I saw a black, flattened diamond shaped thing about the size of a minivan with glowing orange panels on all sides as it left my house in the wee hours in the 1980's ... aunt saw it up close and said it hovered around the house twice before taking off.

Also saw a huge, white cylinder hanging at a 70 degree angle in the sky against an incoming T-storm and it stayed absolutely still for 10 min with 30 mph wind at ground level. Thing was at least as big as two commercial airliner fuselages and might've been larger than an aircraft carrier.

I saw that in midtown (Tucson AZ) and was in a crowd of strangers and I left for a camera (it was '97) and when I got back, it was gone and everyone told me it had vanished, and had not moved away. It wasn't far from Davis Monthan AFB and I'd bet it was ours and had active camo that failed for a time... thus maybe explaining the listing, too.

Also seen two points of light that came from opposite horizons at night, in 2002 or so, met over head and did a too quick half circle around each other before speeding off at incredible speeds back in the direction they had come from... again, I'd bet it was black tech and I've found others who've seen the same thing across the globe.

Then I've seen blobs of light during T-storms that seemed "alive" and raced across nearby mountain ridges like large ball lightening ... and small white globes in groups of five to ten that seem to "hide" in clouds, a handful of times.. .those might've been white balloons, or something like that, but a few moved pretty fast.

Hmmm, also saw a meteor streak across the horizon at sunset, only to shift direction and speed up and out of sight... that could've been a meteor glancing off the atmosphere, though...

also saw what I thought was a metallic commercial jetliner in 94-ish, until a friend pointed out it had no wings or tail... then things got fuzzy and I have no idea about where it went.

One puzzling one that I didn't personally witness is where friends relate how their elementary school was visited by a huge disk that covered the campus and adjacent field ... and the friends all remember that much from that day, then fuzzed out on what happened after ... and we're talking about 8 or so folks who were all questioned separately and all described the "saucer" with lines and equipment visible on the underside and how they crowded the windows of their classrooms to see it, along with their teachers.. likely around 1976 or so in Tucson, too, and then they all had no memory other than that.

Anyway... there ya go.

a reply to: Baddogma

Thanks for the contribution, Baddogma. Seems like you've had more than your share of weirdness. Here's a neat little compilation of UFO witness testimony that I found interesting and appropriate for this thread:

a reply to: BiffWellington

Yes, I remember it vividly. It was August of 1977 up in city called Albany, New York. It was approximately 11pm at night, I was driving home on a New Scotland Avenue and there little to no traffic. As I was driving, I had this compelling feeling to look out my drivers window.

That's when right to my left about 100 feet in the air I saw a very large, silent cigar or even cigarette shaped object. Approximately 300 yards in length and at its right end, about the first 50 yards of this thing was totally lit up like a bright white light. The remainder of the object seemed to a gun-metal gray. It was just there, I kept driving, was to shaken to stop or anything, the roads were empty and I just sped up, made a turn and went home.

i did some years later mention this entire incident to a MUFON rep at a symposium and he indicated that he had also seen something similar in the '70's. I've never seen anything like it since or anything that I would say was a UFO.....but, what I saw was real, clear and to this day I think of it, but for some reason, I just honestly have never did anything about it.

a reply to: BiffWellington

I saw one of the triangles in late 2013. It was pretty cool it was just after dark, a clear night, rural location, noticed while driving then parked to watch. I saw a bar of very white light/lights (could have been separate lights but was so intense I can't be sure). From my perspective, it was about the width of a u.s. quarter or fifty cent piece held at arms length. I lost sight of the light because a hill got in the way. I pulled off the highway a very short distance later and parked to get a better look, but in the sky where the light should have been there were only stars. A moment later I noticed a small, very dim, slow flashing red light then a few of the "stars" around the red flasher began to rotate slowly. I then tried to get a video but in the dark the phone wouldn't even pick up anything dimmer than the moon so I stopped trying and just watched. The three white lights at the corners weren't big like you see in the "documentarys", they were small and very like average stars. It turned itself with a point facing directly away from where I parked and slowly moved away over the hills and beyond my vision. Because I had very little frame of reference I don't know size or altitude, it'd just be a guess.

Edit to add: it was completely silent and "hovered" motionless until the turn began.

It left me with so many questions that I spent a lot of time watching and reading everything I could on the subject, most of which im sure is pure fantasy and speculation. Its the simple reports that interest me now because they're the most free from the bias, spin and speculation. As for my sighting, I'm most comfortable suspecting that some junior officer on an airship accidentally flipped on the massive sports stadium like bar of light, they noticed they had my undivided attention, and then discretely turned away and went about their business. However, I have no more evidence of that than I do of intergalactic spacemen or interdimensional tourists.

My one, and only, UFO experience occurred a few years ago.

I was driving home from work. It was about 8:30 or 8:45 at night and I was about two miles from my exit when I saw it.

There was a triangular shaped craft, amber/orange in color/light and it was just hovering there. I stopped, others stopped and just stared. I didn't get out of the car as I was on the expressway but I definitely stopped.

I started at it for probably 30 to 45 seconds and then it just TOOK OFF. It disappeared, moving faster than anything I have ever seen or could imagine. I didn't *see* it take off, it just did. Behind it was a flare of the same amber light, but it was gone.

I was so awe struck by the entire thing that at no point did I even think to pick up my phone and get a photo or anything. I was completely dumbfounded at what I was seeing and have not seen anything like it since.

Here is my UFO sighting. Mid-spring in Florida around 10 p.m. on a cloudless and moonless night me and my girlfriend were laying in a massive hammock in the back yard. We were laying across the width so we could push off the ground and swing slowly. We were talking and staring up at endless stars. The sighting occurred from right to left as the object traversed the sky. Let me explain what it looked like before I explain how it moved which is what I found the most fascinating. It was 3 half spheres that formed a triangular pattern. We could not see any outline of the superstructure. Only the half spheres which gave me the impressing these spheres were on the bottom of the ship. Again they were arranged in a triangular patter with one half sphere at 3 points. The color of the half spheres was an extremely faint burnt orange color with a bit of translucency. I mean they were BARELY glowing. Kind of like that last ember in a camp fire that refuses to go out. The size of the object if you held your hand out at arm's length was approximately 4 inches wide. I would estimate the altitude of the object to be around 1,000 feet from ground level and it "flew" almost directly overhead. I could be off with my altitude estimate but I did spend a long time in the Army and I worked with and flew on Black Hawks frequently so I have a lot of experience sighting incoming helos and knew how to range altitude. But...I will admit that came from many years of experience and I was very familiar with that bird. So again...I could be totally off with my altitude estimate for the UFO. Anyway...back to the really odd part of the sighting.

The object did not move in a liner path nor did it stay visible during the entire transit. It would appear and then disappear. However, when it would reappear it would be in a different locating in the night sky AND the path was in an irregular zig-zag pattern. It appeared 5 times during its transit and the total time it took to transit the entire night sky until it was out of sight was 2 seconds. My girlfriend immediately said, "What was that?!" So thankfully for my first UFO sighting I had a witness as well. Oh yes, and of course it was completely silent. Zero noise.

Anyway...it was an amazing experience and one that I will never forget.

My account takes place during my 2nd deployment, FOB Salerno, Afghanistan. I've thought about telling this story on my own thread, but looks like you got one going. So, I was in the gunner's turret of my squads truck at night doing some inner perimeter patrol. That just means driving the whole perimeter as a security guard on wheels. My shift lasted 12 hours and I was getting a little bored(nothing ever happened), so I decided to use my night vision goggles to stare at the sky. I did this often because you can see soooo many stars and a few nebulae with NVGs. Well, on this particular night I saw a tiny, tiny speck of light way up in the outer atmosphere. I'm talking barely visible. I thought it was a high altitude plane or satellite at first, but then the speck came to a stop. When it did, a much smaller light came out of it and went flying immediately while the the original light went in the opposite direction. If youv ever seen a satellite in the sky, these things were doing about that same speed it seemed. It was very odd because anything that high up wouldn't be visable to the naked eye or NVGs unless they were illuminated. I was in the Army for 8 years and I had never seen anything like that before or after.I suppose this counts as a UFO story since it was never identified! Forgive any typos as I'm on mobile right now.