Ten Alien Encounters Debunked!

It’s most unlikely that we’re the only intelligent species in the universe. But are some of these species actually flitting about in our skies and described in so called alien encounters and ‘UFO sightings’ or are they just a product of our minds? There are a gazillion vids on the net that show nothing but small dots of lights in the sky and the ‘believers’ go to town hollering, “UFOs!” It looks like many in this clan are psyched by this UFO phenomenon so much that they jump at the slightest hint of something in the sky but which is easily explainable after a little analysis.

Of course there are some cases that are yet to be explained but these are few and far between, like the Shag Harbor and Rendlesham Forest incidents that may have explanations that we haven’t chanced upon as yet. And these may have nothing to do with UFOs!

Here are ten ‘alien encounters’ debunked. The alien connection keeps cropping up so often on ATS, so let’s put it to test!

1. Science can’t explain how the Great Pyramids of Egypt were constructed

While many people assume that those living in earlier times (such as the ancient Egyptians) were not resourceful enough to possibly have created impressive engineering feats without extraterrestrial aid, this is not true. Actually, the methods by which the pyramids could have been constructed are well documented, and have appeared in many places including National Geographic magazine and Mark Lehner’s book The Complete Pyramids. The only real mystery surrounding the pyramids is why anyone would still think aliens were involved.

2. Aliens Are Responsible For Cattle Mutations

Livestock predation has plagued ranchers and farmers for millennia, but it wasn’t until the last few decades (during the public’s peaking interest in UFOs) that anyone thought to attribute the deaths to aliens. Research has shown that the "mysterious" features are in fact quite ordinary and are caused by natural decay processes and scavenger attacks.

3. Area 51 - A Top Secret Government Facility Where Alien Bodies and Craft Are Stored.

There are of course perfectly legitimate government and military reasons for keeping the base’s purposes secret that have nothing to do with aliens or UFOs. There’s no reason to think that anything alien is going on there, but where there is secrecy, there will be conspiracy.

4. Aliens are the most likely explanation for the mysterious crop circles.

There is no evidence that crop circles are made by alien intelligences. Hoaxing is by far the best explanation for crop circles—far more so than aliens who supposedly travel across the vast universe to reach Earth, only to flatten wheat in rural English and American farms as some sort of information.

(Or just for some fun!)

5. NASA photographs of the Cydonia region of Mars show a human-like face which was constructed by intelligent beings.

The "Face on Mars" is an example of imagination and wishful thinking. The photographs that show an area vaguely resembling a face on Mars were taken by the Viking 1 Orbiter in 1976. Since then, far better photographs have been taken of Mars (for example, by the Mars Global Surveyor in 1998). They show that the area is heavily eroded, and the "face" was simply a combination of low image resolution and tricks of light and shadow.

6. In 1995 a grainy, black-and-white film surfaced allegedly shot by the military and showing a post-mortem of an alien body, recovered by the U.S. government.

Soon after the alien autopsy footage was broadcast on Fox television, serious doubts were raised about the authenticity of the film. Skeptics (and even many UFO researchers) branded the film a hoax, pointing out anachronisms and inconsistencies in the film. Earlier this year, the special effects artist who created the alien confessed that it was in fact a hoax.

7. On June 24, 1947, Kenneth Arnold saw nine “flying saucers” moving at high speed near Mount Rainer, Washington. Soon others began reporting seeing similar UFOs – Flying Saucers.”

The phrase "flying saucer," is the result of a reporter’s error. After interviewing Arnold about his sighting, a reporter from the Eastern Oregonian newspaper reported that Arnold saw round, aerial objects (in fact he said they were "crescent shaped"). Arnold stated that the objects "flew erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across the water"—not that what he saw resembled an actual saucer. Yet that "saucer" interpretation stuck, prompting many eyewitnesses to repeat (and hoaxers to duplicate) Arnold’s nonexistent description. This strongly shows the role of suggestion in UFO sightings; as skeptic Marty Kottmeyer asks, "Why would extraterrestrials redesign their craft to conform to the reporter’s mistake?"

Continued in next post........

8. As part of so called ‘experiments’, believers claim that aliens have implanted various objects into human abductees after which they realize that they had been abducted by them. According to some, several alien implants have been recovered and found to be indestructible or made of materials not found on Earth.

Joe Nickell, a columnist for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, noted that “Since 1994 alleged implants have been surgically recovered but they’ve become remarkably diverse: one looks like a shard of glass, another a triangular piece of metal, still another a carbon fiber, and so on. Some were accompanied by scars while others were not. As physicians know, a foreign object can enter the body unnoticed, as during a fall, or while running barefoot in sand or grass—even as a splinter from a larger impacting object.” People find all sorts of weird things in their bodies, but so far none are of alien origin.

9. Thousands claim to have been abducted by aliens and subjected to experiments and implantations. Several books too have been written with vivid examples.

There may be several causes of the alien abduction experience. Many of these experiences are only recovered years later, during psychological treatment for other issues. Research has proven that false memories can be created in the course of therapy by careless psychologists. People can actually come to believe they were abducted or abused when they were not. Other researchers have shown that a common psychological process called sleep paralysis may be misinterpreted as an alien abduction.

10. Roswell was where the most famous UFO crash in history occurred in 1947. Mysterious debris and alien bodies were recovered by government agencies and hidden at a military base as part of a cover-up

There was indeed a cover-up of what crashed outside Roswell, but authorities were hiding not a crashed alien saucer but a weather balloon from a secret spy program called Project Mogul. The debris described by the original eyewitnesses exactly matches the balloons used in the program; the fanciful stories of alien bodies did not appear until much later.

Now the believers, I’m sure, are gearing up for a cracking riposte. But the question is can they PROVE any of this? In other words, can they debunk the skeptics? If yes, then bring it on!


www.space.com...

Pics courtesy:
BBC
Dirjournal
Infoaddict
Olderstersview
Lbufo
Folensblogs
Ufoevidence
Truthseekers
weird-encyclopedia

Well to be fair you haven't really debunked anything in this thread.

How do you know what crashed in Roswell was a balloon? Because the authorities told us so? Didn't they also tell us it was a flying saucer?

The fact is NO ONE knows what it was for certain so just by saying "it was a weather balloon" doesn't debunk it once and for all i'm afraid.

The face on Mars has been photographed in much higher resolution and from different angles... good job Nasa doesn't photoshop pictures and releases every single image to the public eh? Oh no hold on a moment...

Yes some of you points are ok but not all of them. For instance how can you say "there are no aliens at area 51"? Have you ever been?

I am fairly certaint there are no mutant elephants there but I wouldn't make a bold statement that there definately isnt... how the hell could I?

reply to post by OrionHunterX


I see where you're going with this and it's an interesting approach but the bottom line is: you believe or you do not.

Now.....I am not talking about whether or not you 'believe' there are intelligent life forms 'out there' for that's almost a given now.

I am talking about whether or not you agree that we are/have been and continue to be visited by off-world entities.

It's that simple.
Yes or no!
I think the 'yes' wagon is getting fuller and fuller each day!

Sorry, but your copy and paste marathon didn't prove anything. I didn't see any evidence put forward, all I saw was opinionated statements, You lost me on the cattle mutilation part anyways, if you've ever looked at some cattle mutilation pictures I would hardly call that naturual unless someone these cows have laser cutting equipment hidden somewhere in there pasture.

as said before you havent really debunked anything, even if some of it isnt true you didnt debunk it, someone else did and you are just reapeating what they have said

but just cos someone said "it wasnt aliens, it was me" doesnt mean they are telling the truth, and thats not concrete proof either. so it can work both ways

the face on mars thing/crop cirlces/alien autopsy is a hoax though

[edit on 10/6/10 by Smiler74]

Originally posted by ajax_andy
Well to be fair you haven't really debunked anything in this thread.

How do you know what crashed in Roswell was a balloon? Because the authorities told us so? Didn't they also tell us it was a flying saucer?

The fact is NO ONE knows what it was for certain so just by saying "it was a weather balloon" doesn't debunk it once and for all i'm afraid.

Go the other way around then. How do you know that it wasn't a giant dimensional skipping caterpillar, except for random rumors? You have no proof. It was just a story that got hooked in the media, and then developed into something people wanted to believe in.

Originally posted by Smiler74
as said before you havent really debunked anything, even if some of it isnt true you didnt debunk it, someone else did and you are just reapeating what they have said

Someone else did? So? I concur with with what that 'someone else' did! In fact it's not just one person. Billions believe these are nothing but hoaxes and yarns spun by the 'believers' and conspiracy theorists. If anything is unexplainable, then it must have something to do with them aliens! Right?

Im in agreement with the other posts, all you have done is listed a few incidents and then given your opnion on it that doesnt really have any evidence either.

If you set out to debunk these incidents/builds etc then you need to say why you not think but why you know for sure with facts, evidence etc that none of the above are correct.

I have been here a while now myself, and I am starting to enjoy the negative feedback that some threads are getting, as opposed to the "lets give them a chance" scenario, as useless threads are a waste of time, and do not contribute anything to the forum.

Thanks for trying though

Its times like these I wanna give you a big cuddle and noogie and say "I love you man...'

Go you good thing

alien report to
supreme leader
altair seven

It has been said there is such a thing as
Humanity
we have been to earth
we have found none

Originally posted by OrionHunterX

Originally posted by Smiler74
as said before you havent really debunked anything, even if some of it isnt true you didnt debunk it, someone else did and you are just reapeating what they have said

Someone else did? So? I concur with with what that 'someone else' did! In fact it's not just one person. Billions believe these are nothing but hoaxes and yarns spun by the 'believers' and conspiracy theorists. If anything is unexplainable, then it must have something to do with them aliens! Right?

Billions of people will believe anything someone tells them without any evidence to back it up. That may be that something is true or that something is false... it doesn't mean they are right.

if anything is unexplainable it must be aliens? Erm no. But lets face it what have you proved here? Nothing!

You haven't debunked anything, and you have provided nothing for anyone to debunk. Your post is a nothing post that has zero evidence or even insight in to any of the topics listed in your "top 10".

Originally posted by OrionHunterX
1. Great Pyramids - you're wrong

2. Cattle Mutation - let's get someone who doesn't believe in ET's and say that their explanations are correct.

3. Area 51 - I'm sure whoever wrote your answer has personally seen every room at Area 51, that has to be true, otherwise, they don't know what they are talking about.

4. crop circles - Many have been proved to be hoaxes, but NOT ALL

5. Face on Mars - Ok, gotta give you that one. Some people's imagination just run wild. Just because they are wrong regarding the face, doesn't mean that there aren't other things on Mars that show intelligent life.

reply to post by OrionHunterX


Ok, my blood is boiling. I am an abductee and the second time I had greys in the house my oldest daughter saw it also as I chased it down the hallway. There was no memory recovered years later, I still remember having a UFO hover on my covered patio and then penetrate the ceiling.

Then lets look at the night my youngest daughter was born when a ball of light came to my son while he and two other boys were staying at his grand mother’s apartment….three witnesses, two of them crying and frightened.

People like you disgust me. You look at CNN and know they are telling the truth, about as honest of reporting as when the BBC announced building 7 had collapsed 20 minutes before the event occurred.

Did you know that several of the cattle mutilations that were reported by Linda Moulten Howe also had highly increased radiation levels up to about 20’ from the site? Probably wind anomalies from nuclear bombs.

As far as nuclear bombs go, I have only seen videos and physical evidence of them exploding but never one myself. I do not think they exist, only fabricated to frighten our enemies. Sheesh……

Rich

ALL "alien encounters" are debunked simply because none of them have ever been confirmed. Modern era people are quick to attribute anything unexplained to aliens just as people in prior eras attributed unknowns to demons.

Someone above said "you either believe or you don't". That could not be more correct. All of these "alien" stories are simply a matter of belief and once you have this belief confirmation bias consumes your perception.

reply to post by traditionaldrummer


ever since we first set foot on the moon there have been aliens
and they are us


[edit on 10-6-2010 by Danbones]

reply to post by traditionaldrummer


Belief does not have three people recount similar stories of seeing each other on the same night while being told they are going to be placed in an enclosed chamber with a jelly like substance for three days. Nor does it explain the blood on the pillow.

Belief is completely different from experiencing and knowing.

Rich

reply to post by Oouthere


those of us with personal experiences
only have to prove it to ourselves
no one else
community helps deal with it though
and the information we gain by searching does too

reply to post by OrionHunterX


Ten Alien Encounters Debunked!
You know, one day that Title is going to read.

Ten debunkers encounter Aliens!

Cool thread.

I often wonder how the "Alien explanation" gets injected into so many topics. That in itself is interesting to me.

[edit on 10/6/10 by atlasastro]

Originally posted by Danbones

ever since we first set foot on the moon there have been aliens
and they are us

I like that concept!