1965. My Third UFO.

1965. My Third UFO

In 1956 I saw a light in the night sky disappear as I describe in first UFO 

In 1963 I saw that three more lights in the night sky had disappeared as I describe in second UFO

This was now the summer of 1965 and I had just graduated from high school. I was on a back packing trip in the High Sierras. This is a mountain range which are the tallest mountains in the state of California. 

While hiking in those days it was common to encounter a wide variety of wild animals. The groups I hiked with always stayed close together so anything dangerous, such as a bear could be dealt with as a group rather than individually. We took turns  staying awake at night to guard against midnight raiders.

On about the 4th day of a 7 day hike I had allowed myself to get a little ahead of the rest of the group. I was in a high wide valley between mountain ridges and there was little chance of a bear or elk sneaking up on me so I had been stretching my legs at a brisk pace and was a quarter mile or so ahead of the rest. 

I stopped to let my friends catch up to me but when I looked back to  see how close they were i could see that they were stopped in a grove about a quarter mile back. As I picked up my pack to go back to them, I sensed movement from the corner of my eye and then looked in that direction expecting to see a eagle or some other kind of large bird. 

What I saw was a saucer. Straight out of a science fiction movie. It made no sound that I could hear and did not excellerate or vier in any manner. It was between me and the far ridge and was flying through the valley I was in from the direction I had been headed. It flew in a long arc, matching the contour of the valley. I watched it for10 or 15 seconds until it coasted off beyond the grove of trees beneath which my friends had stopped. 

When I got back to them, no one else had seen what I had. 

Now granted, this "sighting" corresponded to preconceived notions in the mind of a teenage  science fiction fan. But even then I was savvy  enough to know that ones mind was flexible enough to let one see what one wanted to see. So I watched it as carefully as I could. It was not a bird. It was not a helicopter or airplane or glider and hang-gliding had not yet been invented. I actually marveled that the object looked exactly like a Hollywood version of a UFO.

I also wonder that had these sightings been delusions of my mind, why did I stop even though I keep looking. 

My only other candidate for sighting came in the mid 80's. My son and I were out one evening in a highly populated area when we saw a small light in the sky headed in our direction. Over about 5 seconds, this light grew in size and took on the appearance of a fireball about the size of a thumb at arms length  as it zoomed high over our heads and out of sight. I thought certainly there would be mention of this on the local news the next day but I never heard any reports of other people seeing what we saw.

Part of me wishes I could just abandon these memories because that's all they are now, memories. Memories and tales to be told around the campfires to my grandchildren and anyone else listening here at ATS.

yes, of course they are memories, but each experience brings you to a belief that there is far more than we are taught at school. If you are interested you will investigate other things and start questioning and that will in itself will teach you a lot more than other people know.

I was taught radionics over the period of about 2-3 years and that included the use of a pendulum. That "small insignificant thing", learning how to use a pendulum, is a life-changing experience because you learn all about the way time is not at all like we are taught or how scientists like to think of it. For example, you can dowse for events which happen at another time. So... what does that tell you? It tells you that time is not linear and that starts the thoughts going... Then there is dowsing for energy of one kind or another and what that means to your life. The whole subject is just so mind-expanding, but only if you are not afraid to go there and be curious and learn about healing, other dimensions, entities, etc. In fact.. everything you ever knew, is turned on its head and you realise that there is so much to learn that you can never learn it all in one lifetime.

reply to post by TerryMcGuire


Sucks getting old..

I know..

I just turned 51..

but i still remember seeing things in the sky..

back in the day when i used to camp up in the deep woods..

I remember seeing "satellites" turn and go back the way they came?

who knows..

cool story bro..

I believe you..

reply to post by baddmove


Thanks baddmove. I've told that tale many times but never put it to paper until now. I'm glad you liked it. It was fun to write it down.

Your story fits right into two threads I have created here, do you mind to cross-post?

Share your UFO stories from the 1960s and 1970s
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Strange eyewitness behaviour during UFO sightings
www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Part of me wishes I could just abandon these memories because that's all they are now, memories. Memories and tales to be told around the campfires to my grandchildren and anyone else listening here at ATS.

Cool, thanks for sharing.

What I saw was a saucer. Straight out of a science fiction movie.

If you had to describe what that looks like, or show a link to a pic that looks like what you saw, could you do it?

a reply to: intrptr

In general it had the shape of the saucer in The Day the Earth Stood Still, yet it also gave the impression of being much smaller. The saucer in that movie had rooms and stuff inside. Mine, by judging the distance between me and the hills on the other side of the valley my guess now is that it was maybe 40 feet in diameter.

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: intrptr

In general it had the shape of the saucer in The Day the Earth Stood Still, yet it also gave the impression of being much smaller. The saucer in that movie had rooms and stuff inside. Mine, by judging the distance between me and the hills on the other side of the valley my guess now is that it was maybe 40 feet in diameter.

in daylight, silvery ovloid? Not a techy disky thingy, like with ports and ridges and stuff, right?
Thanks in advance. If I remember I'll look for that thread about shapes and stuff…

originally posted by: intrptr

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: intrptr

In general it had the shape of the saucer in The Day the Earth Stood Still, yet it also gave the impression of being much smaller. The saucer in that movie had rooms and stuff inside. Mine, by judging the distance between me and the hills on the other side of the valley my guess now is that it was maybe 40 feet in diameter.

in daylight, silvery ovloid? Not a techy disky thingy, like with ports and ridges and stuff, right?
Thanks in advance. If I remember I'll look for that thread about shapes and stuff…

Right. Late afternoon, silvery. Like two shallow bowls put face to face and with with what appeared to be an observation bump, top and bottom.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Cool. Did you perceive you were observing the skin or surface of the "thingy" directly ? Like a metal surface or was it like a "silvery" light or lit camouflage hiding its true shape, if you get my meaning.

Did it change direction at all or fly straight? Did any direction change exhibit sharp angular or with a radius of turn? How apparently fast was it going, i.e., drifting with wind like or faster than expected for earthly objects?

Last of all… did you feel compelled to look in its direction or catch it out the corner of your eye and then look?

Heres that thread about UFO shapes with links. I'm asking about my sighting, page 2.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: intrptr

Yes, I had the impression I was seeing the " skin" of the object, not a light or camouflage. It made no turns but to my eye it appeared to be following the line of the mountain, the natural arc of the valley.

That last guestions is a good one. I cannot say if I first caught periferally and turned to look or if some how I sensed movement or maybe a subtle noise. As I continued my observation I recall that it made no sound.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

As I continued my observation I recall that it made no sound.

I can see by your recounting the odd bits that stick on ones mind come out. "Shape" and surface, unlike known earth air craft, no aerodynamic flight surfaces like wings or elevators, no wake, vapor trail, jet or propulsion sound.

Really clings to our sense of wonder, doesn't it?

The thingy I saw was at night. It was lights, impossible speed, also no sound and an abrupt angular change of direction at speed (like a tracer round bouncing off the ground). It disappeared into a cloud, the only one in the valley that night.

a reply to: intrptr

Those sightings from my youth set for me a pretty high bar of acceptance. Over the 50 years since, I have seen next to nothing that can even pique my interest other than that fire ball I saw with my son.

One 'crazy notion' that idles in the back of my mind is this. Along with the ufo sightings, I also had a number of other 'paranormal' experiences prior to 1970. Some very dramatic like my Nut's and Bolts story. But then they stopped.

Now I might suspect that had these incidents been my own illusions, that they would have continued. That my brain would have continued producing them. That my brain would have become so addicted to these types of things and gone on and on producing the 'high' of them. You know what I mean? As I looked around me at the time, at other people with whom I interacted everyday, none had even remotely similar levels of experience. In those days the reaction was almost always Oh,,,,, so you saw a UFO, where as now that reaction is often OH WOW YOU SAW A UFO TELL ME TELL ME.

So even back then, I understood that those experiences had separated me from most other people. I now understand how all of this also might be that I just had several mental breaks back then and have since, rebuilt my personal around these illusions, making them real, when they really were not and hence I live in my own little schitzo dream world. But.

I also wonder at this possibility. That maybe I got what I needed. While others of my age were mostly wanting to go to the prom or wondering about the next Beatles album, I was wondering about a wide variety of things that could not be understood by 'everyday' experience. Hence, what was needed for me was not just those 'everyday experiences, but something more. Something deeper. And when I had had those experiences, when I had had some conformation of a more profound reality, a grander world around us, that they then were no longer necessary to fill in the blanks I had had inside, and I went on with my life, just like everyone else.

I think that it is not WHAT I experienced, but rather, THAT, I experienced. Now, I pretty much take this in my understanding of other peoples accounts of 'dramatic' non-everyday experiences. It's not WHAT, but THAT they are having them.

Summing it up for me is the Rolling Stones " You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

I also wonder at this possibility. That maybe I got what I needed. While others of my age were mostly wanting to go to the prom or wondering about the next Beatles album, I was wondering about a wide variety of things that could not be understood by 'everyday' experience. Hence, what was needed for me was not just those 'everyday experiences, but something more. Something deeper. And when I had had those experiences, when I had had some conformation of a more profound reality, a grander world around us, that they then were no longer necessary to fill in the blanks I had had inside, and I went on with my life, just like everyone else.

Heres an addendum to that. Maybe that special nature you have to seek the higher understanding is an appeal and recognizable to the "real" powers that be and they answered your call because they heard it. Others are content seemingly with money, stuff, notoriety, whatever, then theres those that aren't satisfied with that, a steak, a beer and a ball game.

We get what we want or are meant to have. I know growing up that I was never going to seek out the things others seem to. I only wanted to know more about the spirit, the Universe, etc. Like you I've had paranormal encounters, more when I was young. Now, not so much. Most of mine were with others that saw the same thing so I don't have that personal doubt about my own sanity.

Heres something for you to mull on. Maybe these experiences were sufficient to present us with the validity of these things so we could pass that info onto others. Back then I would never have thought this would be what I am doing now. Back then, for fear of ridicule, I didn't tell others except on occasion. Now I'm presenting my tales on the internet and I find that amusing to think that I was given just enough experience with these things to help others define what it is they are going through, to widen the horizon for others, lighten their load of doubt or sanity, whatever.

I hope that doesn't sound too egocentric, I still don't leap at the chance to vet my experience with the super or duper natural, just that i go , wow here I am on the internet all these years after and its clicking…

Is this what they appeared to me for all those years ago? Anyway, thanks for that most though provoking conversation. its neat to meet a fellow traveler and exchange notes.

a reply to: intrptr

Not egocentric at all, well, not to me though I can see how it might seem to so many others. I am finding that the struggle with ego-centrism is, at least in my case, one of the finer (as different from coarse) challenges in life. Maintaining a balance of not denying all that has come to me while at the same time not letting it over power me with thoughts of my own grandeur is a moment to moment exercise.

You reference' real powers' and I agree, though 'real powers' for me is only a label, a symbol, a limited conceptualization of the 'not so easily knowable'. That of which we can catch only a momentary breath, a fleeting glance, a note of an entire symphony. I think these breaths, these glances and notes over time can easily turn into religions, religions which then codify them and turn them into dogmas, beliefs of precision, when really, our human limitations deny us a really precise understanding of it all.

I live now not knowing all about anything. I run with an idea that the universe feeds us as we need to be fed. I strongly hold with prayer, not prayer as such, but more a sense of yearning and inquisitiveness that allows a deeper immersion in a deeper pool of reality. Am I getting to far afield here. Maybe so, so as I have out of town company I will pause here as my deeper thoughts, those ones that are not easily gathered and shared seem to be mushing up, getting foggy. So for now, next time.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Am I getting to far afield here.

Not at all. Enjoy your company. I enjoyed yours.

I know this is an old thread, but I thought I would say that 1965 was a huge year for sightings. My dad and friend of mine both had major, major sightings in August of that year. There was some serious stuff going on in that era. I don't think there are sightings like that anymore.

Interesting story, If only we could really get a grasp on what really lies in the cosmos.
Theres so much evidence of UFOS its hard to deny the existence that there is something
else out there.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

TM, I know this thread goes way back, and I stumbled upon it from another old thread mentioned here by another member, but I just wanted to post about the Cisco Grove incident from 1964 near Lake Tahoe. Yes, the Sierras sure do have their ufo stories.

This is just one source. A search can bring up others. Plus there is a book on it, which I read.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Really interesting experience that is not easily explained..