UFOS and memory loss, has anyone experienced this?

Back in 1989 a spate of UFOs were sighted from the South West of France going all the way up to Belgium :

The Belgian UFO wave began in November 1989. The events of 29 November would be documented by no less than thirty different groups of witnesses, and three separate groups of police officers. All of the reports related a large object flying at low altitude. The craft was of a flat, triangular shape, with lights underneath. This giant craft did not make a sound as it slowly moved across the landscape of Belgium. There was free sharing of information as the Belgian populace tracked this craft as it moved from the town of Liege to the border of the Netherlands and Germany

en.wikipedia.org...

At that time my wife who is VERY skeptical was studying at a boarding school in the small town of Vendôme here in the Center of France.

On one evening during that particular wave of sightings, she and a group of friends were standing outside the canteen waiting for the doors to open.

My wife and others observed in the night sky an extremely large triangular object with 3 white lights (she said about the size of a football field) which cut out the stars and very very slowly flew over them.

No-one talked anymore about this event at the school.

A year or two ago we were both watching a UFO docmentary which happened to be about the topic of the Belgian wave and I asked her the simple question as to if she thought she had ever seen a UFO.

To my surprise she told me the story of her sighting and then explained that for some strange reason this sighting seemed to have been "erased" at the time from her mind as well as those around her...

As we are both of a scientific background we put this down to her/their subconscience cutting out something that they did not want to believe...

So my question is the following : Has anyone else who thinks they have sighted UFOs experienced this type of "erasing" of memory only for it to come back years later?

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a reply to: Lagomorphe

I think I might have, I just can't quite recall the details some how

It is what it is

Could she simply have dreamt this at one time during her life, and her brain took that dream and inserted it as a false memory or a repressed memory?

It seems odd that if this event happened that nobody would have talked about it that day or the next (or the next). Granted, it could be said that no one spoke of it nor does anyone else remember it because it was erased from their memories, and only she now can remember it, but vaguely...

...but then that just goes back to the possibility that this is a false memory created by your wife's brain, perhaps due to a dream -- or her brain taking a bunch of unrelated, yet mundane, experiences and putting them together as a false memory.

I have a family member who experienced that on several occasions. But we later began to instead suspect they had temporal lobe epilepsy. Several empirical tests were done on them, and they agreed that some of their other symptoms and experiences suggested it was possible, but while initially they were positive toward that being the explanation, subsequently they've taken a more cautious view and said they can't positively conclude that's what she has. They haven't managed to catch it while it's happening, at least.

Multiple people experiencing the same thing is a bit more compelling, of course, than a single individual. But the answer to your question is, yes, lots of people have experienced it - or claimed to - and it's one of the perplexing and frustrating parts of UFOlogy that's both difficult to prove actually happens (or might not just be the result of something like TLE as in my relative's case,) and to ignore when multiple credible people all have it happen. (Though the latter is pretty rare imo.)

I wouldn't jump to conclusions about any possible implications. There are lots of human behaviors, experiences, and perceptions doctors and scientists haven't fully quantified yet, but have good evidence based hunches about nonetheless. And memory in particular can be very deceptive it turns out.

So, yes it happens. No, it doesn't have to mean anything bizarre is going on. But as always, difficult to say what the reality is in some instances.

Peace.

a reply to: Lagomorphe

That hasn't happened to me, but it did happen to my ex-wife and my oldest son. The whole family, 5 of us at the time, saw an unidentified thing sitting in the sky and while my younger son and I remember every detail about it, the rest of the family denies that they saw anything. This surprised me greatly when I heard it just a couple years ago because at the time of the event in the mid '90s we all talked about it and were all amazed. We all raced around the house to get a better view of it and then it just disappeared.

My younger son was very relieved when I brought it up at his house a couple of years ago because he had just figured it had been his imagination all this time since his mom and other siblings told him no such thing happened. He was happy that I was able to corroborate it for him. I don't know why they don't remember, I suppose it could be denial.

My brother, my cousin and I had a sighting in 1994 in a rural area in Wisconsin. Our vehicle stalled (could be coincidental) while watching a 'ufo' or 'uap' in the form of a bright red/orange light disappear and reappear on opposite sides of the road.
We arrived at our destination a lil over an hour later than we should have. We all remember the sighting clearly, with no evidence of memory loss. We all assumed that the 'lost time' was just us losing track of time and never questioned the incident further until recently.
I havent had any sightings or missing time events since, so its really just a 'who knows' moment for me. My cousin (who is the same age as me) on the other hand has gone full tin foil hat on us, and vows to get 'payback', but wont elaborate further. My brother is on the same page as me. Were as, hes curious, but it hasnt detered his normal way of life.
Someday the answers will come. But im not sure if I really want to ask the questions.

a reply to: AceWombat04

VERY well said!!!!

a reply to: Lagomorphe

I guess around 1994-1995, my husband and I had some weird experiences of this type.

It was in the region of the Gard. First time I was driving and saw a typical flying saucer type UFO... broad daylight, close above. My car stalled, as did the others on the road. We all sat there for a few seconds, and watched the thing do surprising manouvers, up, down, completely still.. and then it shot off at a speed that took my breath away. Until that moment I was sure I was looking at some sort of new military aircraft. But the way that thing shot off, it didn't look real. Nothing goes that fast with people in it. Then I just started up my car again, and everyone went back to driving.
I didn't forget about it, but later I wondered why I didn't think to maybe try talking to the other witnesses, to sort of confirm for myself what I just saw! It was like I was in shock or something. I couldn't process what I saw.

I didn't believe in UFO's and had no interest in such things, so I guess I just didn't know what to do with this in my mind, and didn't have time to think about what I should do.

But then, months later, my husband and I had a couple of experiences together. One was late at night, again in the car, in which he was driving while I slept in the passenger seat. He suddenly woke me up and was almost yelling, scared. He pointed out a HUGE bright light up ahead over the road. He was panicking, and I was saying, it must be a helicopter landing with a light on us or something. I actually didn't have any paranormal explanations in head.

As we approached it, his tone got louder and I tried to calm him... my memory is like a few moments of cacophony, bright light blinding me, and then________ we were many yards past it. We were both silent and staring straight ahead. I can't explain the wierdness of that "cut". It was like if you cut a film, in the middle of a loud crazy action scene, and then skipped to a silent still scene?

It took me a few seconds to sort of "wake up" and turn around. There was nothing but blackness! We were on an isolated road with only fields on each side, and the light was gone. But I couldn't remember actually passing it. I asked my husband, what happened to the light? He said I don't know. We both just faced ahead silently and didn't talk any more.

As the weeks passed, I kept wondering about our weird behavior. Why we did nothing, we didn't even talk about it- heck, we're the kind who will turn around and go back to investigate usually! That "cut" in time, and our strange mental state was not normal.

I tried to ask him once, did he remember the helicopter? Did he see us pass it, or see it take off?
He got VERY upset. He was on the edge of tears, and practically yelled, it wasn't a helicopter! It wasn't anything "normal"!! And I don't ever want to talk about it again! - and he left the room.

He was so upset... I just felt like I shouldn't ever bring it up again.
But we had a similar experience with lost time on a trip in the US afterward, in New Mexico, and with the kids. But we didn't see any aircraft.

But I understand the people who hear of such sightings and scoff- why didn't you take pictures, talk to other witnesses, video, etc. It doesn't make sense. But your mind gets twisted so that you don't think of rational actions in face of something that you are telling yourself cannot be!

Sorry folks, I don't have the same time zone as most of you and was sleeping.

Thank to each and every single one of you for your replies and keep them coming in...

This is what ATS is all about...

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originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

Could she simply have dreamt this at one time during her life, and her brain took that dream and inserted it as a false memory or a repressed memory?

It seems odd that if this event happened that nobody would have talked about it that day or the next (or the next). Granted, it could be said that no one spoke of it nor does anyone else remember it because it was erased from their memories, and only she now can remember it, but vaguely...

...but then that just goes back to the possibility that this is a false memory created by your wife's brain, perhaps due to a dream -- or her brain taking a bunch of unrelated, yet mundane, experiences and putting them together as a false memory.

I know her too well mate and this was also as I said earlier on... a grouped sighting...

Unless they all swallowed some kind of dodgy mushroom? (which I doubt knowing my missus)

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a reply to: Lagomorphe

Hiya Lag,

I had a sighting (with friends) years ago and my mind has never quite come to terms with it. It didn't make sense at the time and hasn't ever since. In a lot of ways, the brain is trying to reinvent what happened and make it fit into all the contexts it knows as reality. Some people seem to think 'couldn't happen' means 'didn't happen' and allow their senses to forget about it or change it something else.

I know what I saw, but don't know if I saw what I think I saw lol.

Some researchers have taken the view that sightings are mostly psychological. That is to say they occur on some internal mental landscape that's broadly similar to how dreams appear. There are examples where two or more claimants describe seeing different things in the same encounter. That in itself points towards something different to the materiality of a solid flying object. It's possible your wife's experience was similar and the subsequent memory loss is as predictable as a fading dream. We all remember aspects of dreams from years ago, but almost all of all our dreams fade and are forgotten.

People like to focus in on the 'nuts and bolts' when really the whole ufological history features glaring psychological elements.

I know what I saw, but don't know if I saw what I think I saw lol.

Some researchers have taken the view that sightings are mostly psychological. That is to say they occur on some internal mental landscape that's broadly similar to how dreams appear. There are examples where two or more claimants describe seeing different things in the same encounter. That in itself points towards something different to the materiality of a solid flying object. It's possible your wife's experience was similar and the subsequent memory loss is as predictable as a fading dream. We all remember aspects of dreams from years ago, but almost all of all our dreams fade and are forgotten.

People like to focus in on the 'nuts and bolts' when really the whole ufological history features glaring psychological elements.

A case of "I think, therfore erm... I'm not too sure but will try to think anyway..."

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based just on the connection to the Belgian Wave [however tenuous that connection is], this thread gets my attention and my stars, very high profile mass sighting and great to have someone even tangentially connected on the board~

i wasn't aware that the Belgian Wave involved memory loss
is that a product of my own memory glitching from reading in inappropriate states, or is this a new phenomenon?
the thought of many more witnesses to the events having their memories come back today is a pretty staggering one.

More relevant to the topic, i can't add my own personal experience, my few sightings have been very well remembered and discussed to death by all present for a decade... but we do know that in a general sense, memory tricks are an extremely common aspect of an experience, and as we have no idea whatsoever how that's achieved we have no way of knowing what the long term effects could be.
Maybe they use a memory 'mask' that in some cases slips after a time?
We're far beyond the known here, all we have is guesses and our experiences.... thank you for sharing those with us ;D

originally posted by: Lagomorphe

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

Could she simply have dreamt this at one time during her life, and her brain took that dream and inserted it as a false memory or a repressed memory?

It seems odd that if this event happened that nobody would have talked about it that day or the next (or the next). Granted, it could be said that no one spoke of it nor does anyone else remember it because it was erased from their memories, and only she now can remember it, but vaguely...

...but then that just goes back to the possibility that this is a false memory created by your wife's brain, perhaps due to a dream -- or her brain taking a bunch of unrelated, yet mundane, experiences and putting them together as a false memory.

I know her too well mate and this was also as I said earlier on... a grouped sighting...

Unless they all swallowed some kind of dodgy mushroom? (which I doubt knowing my missus)

Then I'm confused about the details you wrote here. It sounded as if only your wife remembers this (no one else), plus you said no one ever spoke of the incident after it happened....

"No-one talked anymore about this event at the school."


As for "knowing her well" -- I assume your wife is human, and is thus susceptible to having her brain manufacture false memories out of dreams or by stringing together unrelated experiences, just as is the case with the rest of us humans.

You, me, anyone, everyone...we all have fallible memories. We all have past memories that we think are real but are not real, having been manufactured by our brains.

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: Lagomorphe

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

Could she simply have dreamt this at one time during her life, and her brain took that dream and inserted it as a false memory or a repressed memory?

It seems odd that if this event happened that nobody would have talked about it that day or the next (or the next). Granted, it could be said that no one spoke of it nor does anyone else remember it because it was erased from their memories, and only she now can remember it, but vaguely...

...but then that just goes back to the possibility that this is a false memory created by your wife's brain, perhaps due to a dream -- or her brain taking a bunch of unrelated, yet mundane, experiences and putting them together as a false memory.

I know her too well mate and this was also as I said earlier on... a grouped sighting...

Unless they all swallowed some kind of dodgy mushroom? (which I doubt knowing my missus)

You, me, anyone, everyone...we all have fallible memories. We all have past memories that we think are real but are not real, having been manufactured by our brains.

It's one of those key problems for ufology. Minus physical evidence and corroboration from others...memory phenomena become a possibility. Same for one-person experiences. I recently wrote a thread about a peculiar incident that was perceptually 100% realistic and left me wondering about ghosts, hallucinations and underlying brain issues.

I don't dismiss UFO reports. Nevertheless I can speak from experience (as well as the studies) and confidently say we cannot always be sure that we saw what we thought we saw. Leaves me sitting on the fence with a tolerance for ambiguity.

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: Lagomorphe

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

Could she simply have dreamt this at one time during her life, and her brain took that dream and inserted it as a false memory or a repressed memory?

It seems odd that if this event happened that nobody would have talked about it that day or the next (or the next). Granted, it could be said that no one spoke of it nor does anyone else remember it because it was erased from their memories, and only she now can remember it, but vaguely...

...but then that just goes back to the possibility that this is a false memory created by your wife's brain, perhaps due to a dream -- or her brain taking a bunch of unrelated, yet mundane, experiences and putting them together as a false memory.

I know her too well mate and this was also as I said earlier on... a grouped sighting...

Unless they all swallowed some kind of dodgy mushroom? (which I doubt knowing my missus)

Then I'm confused about the details you wrote here. It sounded as if only your wife remembers this (no one else), plus you said no one ever spoke of the incident after it happened....

"No-one talked anymore about this event at the school."


As for "knowing her well" -- I assume your wife is human, and is thus susceptible to having her brain manufacture false memories out of dreams or by stringing together unrelated experiences, just as is the case with the rest of us humans.

You, me, anyone, everyone...we all have fallible memories. We all have past memories that we think are real but are not real, having been manufactured by our brains.

She told me after remembering and discussing with me that at the time no-one else in the group discussed this subject after the sighting.

She has not had contact with those people for over 10 years now.

And yes my wife is human, what were you expecting?

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