My close encounter of the distant kind

It was the early 90s (i think it 1990, but could've been 91/92), in Kingston Upon Thames, around 15 miles SW of central London.

I was laying on the banks of the Thames and happened to be looking up at the clear night sky, when a bright dot of light - no different to the stars around it - whipped quickly across a smallish portion of the sky. I thought it a shooting star, but then another whipped across the same part of the sky at a different angle. It stopped abruptly and i watched it, realising that it must be the same object.

It moved again - no acceleration, just zero to max in an instant. This time it didn't stop, but changed direction - less than 90 degrees - without slowing down. It continued to pinball around this portion of the sky, which from my perspective was around a metre-square.

It occurred to me that this might be an optical illusion! Could it perhaps be a firefly at low altitude, which simply appears to be higher?

To test this i moved - i ran to change my position as much as possible - about 50 metres. If it was low altitude i'd see the distance between the object and the stars behind it shift. They didn't shift - not in the slightest. Surely that meant the object was high altitude. How high - cruising altitude, orbit, cosmic - no idea. But either way it meant this object was covering great distances at a speed far in excess of anything we know is humanly possible. What's more the extreme acceleration and changes in direction - sometimes almost back the way it'd just come - would cause Gs beyond our capacity to endure.

That means that either it used something like the theorised zero-point energy tech, or its occupants were non-humans that can endure such Gs. In hindsight another, less romantic explanation could be that it was an advanced drone; in the early 90s drone tech was pretty much restricted to lonely guys with remote control aeroplanes (no offence).

I hadn't been drinking and didn't do drugs. Plus i had witnesses; I don't fish, but had gone on this fishing trip with 3 friends just to escape the inner-city council estate and enjoy a hot summer night under the stars in a sleeping bag. Soon after i'd seen this object I'd told them to look up - to see if they could see it too. After their initial BS they went quiet, then got flustered because it was indeed so inexplicable. Ultimately i confess i was jumping up and down, waving my arms and shouting up to it to come get us. At this point my friends told me to shut up, as they were clearly disturbed by what we were witnessing.

Finally the object went - whipped off so fast that it simply disappeared from sight, as opposed to crossing the horizon. This whole thing had lasted maybe 3 minutes from the moment i first noticed it.

Was it alien, or human of course i couldn't say. What i can say is that it was real and if it wasn't alien, then there's a great deal that's been going on behind the scenes for some time that ticks a lot of conspiracy boxes.

I've always had a fascination with this stuff since childhood, so if i hadn't had fellow witnesses i may after all this time be second guessing potential bias in these distant memories. But it wasn't just me and the other witnesses had no interest in this kind of stuff, no reason for bias and didn't particularly enjoy the experience (not as much as i did). Nor had they partaken of any intoxicating substance of any kind, unless you count fresh air, which was indeed novel to us.

I've googled but found nothing that might relate to this sighting (though it's difficult be certain now i've forgotten the exact date of the sighting and lost touch with the other witnesses). But if anyone here who's not as google-challenged as me digs anything up from this general time and place i'd be fascinated to hear.

(Btw, this was originally a reply to recent thread asking about sightings, but that thread no longer exists, so i thought i'd entertain you with my babbling anyhow. Thanks for reading)

a reply to: McGinty

Hey McGinty that was a fantastic write up of the sighting and thanks for adding to the enormous evidence piling up on ATS showing that something is buzzing around our skies that can best be described as a UFO. Looking at it logically from personal experience with them and having had one of the (unusual golf ball size white type) ufo orbs come straight at us like a bullet and stop in an instant maybe 12" inches from my eyes I can honestly say these things are literally out of this world and also are connected in some instances to radiant white motherships. Yeah it sounds you were just around in a lucky place with a pair of white type ufo orbs buzzing around having fun, the pinball description is spot on in describing them Welcome to the club

a reply to: ufoorbhunter

Thanks, ufoorbhnter! 'Having fun' is exactly how i'd describe the behaviour - it seemed to be having a ball up there. Hence my jumping up and down, calling up to it - i wanted part of the action

a reply to: McGinty

S&F

Great story. You'll have doubters come in and tell you you're full of beans but I believe you. I'll tell you this, you were jumping up and down, screaming to get taken but when those things get real close to you, it feels like you're in a vacuum and has a surreal dream-like feeling surrounding you. Your timeframe is near the timeframe of my experience (1988).

a reply to: McGinty

Seen one in the 90's, no light's just a reflective under side dipping in and out of cloud circular or spherical and a couple of hundred feet or so above me illuminated by those old yellow sodium road light's and the nearby town, they used to paint the night time clouds a mustard yellow as you probably recall, I felt it like I was being watched as I walked home from work (through a demi rural area, farm's and a village along the footpath between two close together town's) in the wee hours which is why I looked right at it, I think my reaction startled it and it accelerated instantly but not so fast that I could not see it moving and watch it for a very short time after seeing it.


Had a better account though, I used to work retail security and one of my regular customers was a guy who grew up in Australia but came to the UK for medical reason's in his later life, he used to go hunting in the outback when he was young and knew the area well, according to him they came around from behind a hill in there car and there hovering above the ground in the valley they entered was a huge perhaps mile long cylinder shaped object with what looked like windows along the side of it, they stopped there car in shock and looked then this thing just instantly shot straight up into the sky and out of sight with no sound, no acceleration just instant speed according to him, I generally regarded the man as level headed and believe him.

originally posted by: McGinty
Finally the object went - whipped off so fast that it simply disappeared from sight, as opposed to crossing the horizon. This whole thing had lasted maybe 3 minutes from the moment i first noticed it.

Was it alien, or human of course i couldn't say.

Very interesting read, and reminded me very much of an event that happened to me when I was very young - must have been about 9 or 10.

We lives out in the country, not totally isolated, but we owned about 80 acres, and our nearest neighbors were about half a mile away on either side. Our room (myself, and 3 yrs older and 2 yrs younger brothers) was in the basement, with the windows at ground level.

My memory is a little vague on when it started, but it must have been around 11 or 12 at night, when we heard a very strange sound. It was pretty feint, but sounded like a large crowd of people talking, but it was muffled, and we couldn't make anything out. We looked out the window, but our house was surrounded by trees, and we couldn't see much, so we went upstairs for a better look. We had huge picture windows at the front door on the side of the house where the noise was coming from, so we went and looked out the window. What we saw was even stranger. It appeared to be pretty far away in a field between our house and our neighbor (it was his field where he kept his cows). It was dark, so we couldn't make out any distinct shapes, but it looked like a large crowd of people carrying torches. I say torches, because it didn't look like flashlights, it looked like fire burning torches. The torches were moving very slowly, and we could still hear the noise, again, sounding like a large crowd of people talking, but we couldn't make out any words.

I have no idea how long we watched it, but at some point we got scared, and ran into our parents bedroom and told them about it. When we finally convinced them to come out and look, whatever it was had vanished. No more sounds, and no more lights... nothing...

My parents finally got us back to bed, and me and my older brother stayed up for a while, looking out the window, wondering what it was.

All of a sudden, we saw a light streak upwards from the ground to the sky in about a second or so. It was fairly big at first, which is the main reason we saw it right away, but when it stopped, it kind of disappeared among the other stars. After a few seconds, it streaked away across the sky, again, all we saw was a streak lasting a second or so, and it was gone.

I didn't think about it at the time, but the fact that it was pretty big - maybe and inch or two from our perspective - when it started shooting upwards, and turned to the size of a tiny star when it stopped, suggests that it was a smallish craft on the ground not too far away when it launched itself skyward.

I've never forgotten about it, and about a year ago, I asked my brother about it, and he remembered it exactly as I remembered it, even reminded me of a few details - like, when we were in my parents bedroom, I was on one side of their bed and he was on the other by their door, and all of a sudden I pointed at the door behind him and yelled 'look' or something like that, and he literally jumped straight up a foot or so it scared him so bad (we used to scare each other all the time whenever we could). We were already scared about what we'd seen, so I guess I saw a good opportunity to get him good.

Anyway... your description of the streaking lights sounded exactly like what we saw.

a reply to: LSU2018

I've no doubt that if it had zoom down and hovered menacingly above me i may well have found myself hiding behind the car with my friends. Great distance afford the illusion of great safety. '88 is indeed not that far away from my encounter, so you never know - could of been the same little green men, or secret ops test pilot.

a reply to: LABTECH767

I can imagine the inner deserts of Oz being pretty attractive to anyone, or thing that's crave privacy. There's also some interesting tales and drawings by ancients Aboriginals that can pass for close encounters.

originally posted by: LABTECH767
a reply to: McGinty
...they used to paint the night time clouds a mustard yellow as you probably recall...

Wow, that's sounds pretty spectacular. Unfortunately there was no such spectacle in my encounter, as it a cloudless night and even if there had been cloud my impression was that this object was way above that height - in, or close to orbit (if i had to guess).

a reply to: tanstaafl

Great account! And a bit scary if you don't mind me saying - made me feel for and your brother, having that happen in your back yard as children. These experiences are so extraordinary - so out of the normal - that it's no wonder they remain vivid memories after all these years. The things that remain unexplained are forever inked on our brains like tattoos.

I have been wondering, if our government is researching anti-gravity technology then 90 degree turns without injury to the pilot would be possible, no? Rapid acceleration would also be possible.

I know a little thinking is a dangerous thing. This is why I leave it to the younger one here on ATS.

It's a great "light in the sky" story, maybe the best ever, and kudos to you for trying to get as much information as you could as it was happening. But that's what it is: a light in the sky. This the lowest rank on the Hynek Scale, a "nocturnal light." There's not much you can do with it except maybe attempt to correlate it with other folks who may have seen the same thing from a different location.

I have had another strange experience that i can share, but it's only indirectly a ufo encounter, as it revolves around lost time...

I was backpacking on my own and had somehow made my random way to the Cameron Highlands in Malasia. On the tip of a very high hill (where i come from we'd call it a mountain) i found a traveller's hostel, where i spent a wonderful week or so playing volleyball every day with other travellers.

Sleeping quarters were three long, cylindrical billets, like those used on some airbases - mini aerodromes - lined up facing the volleyball net on top of this hill.

One night, or should i say one morning i woke and everything seemed fine. Bit of a headache which made sense since each night ended with a few beers. I checked time the on my new watch and it seemed i'd slept a couple hours later than usual. Funny thing was so had everyone else in this billet.

As others awoke i checked the time with them and as i guessed it was actually two hours earlier - if anything i'd woken earlier than usual, probably thanks to the hangover. My first thought was that the market trader that'd sold me this fake Tag Heuer days earlier in Kuala Lumper had ripped me off and already the watch was malfunctioning. Oh well, that's to be expected, i guess.

However, another traveller in the billet said that his watch was wrong - that it had skipped forward 2 hours. I hadn't mentioned how much time my watch had skipped, so he wasn't bull#ting me. I looked at his watch and it read the same time as mine.

I didn't know this guy, but he told me it wasn't a fake - it was his longtime trusted timepiece.

So, why did only our two watches read the same time - 2 hours later than everyone else.

I'll never know and it may be just a weird coincidence. But the question i dwell on is did our watches skip forward? Or did the two of us somehow experience 2 hours that the others didn't?

Of course, being interested in this stuff anyway, i can't help wondering if we were abducted that night for two hours and then spat back out into our bunks, memories wiped. Of course saying that out loud it sounds bonkers and from the lips of an ATS member more than a little bias towards giving a weird incident an explanation that's perhaps wish fulfilment...

But there it is. I'm in no way saying i was abducted. I'm just saying that this was damned weird, that it's beyond coincidence and that any explanation that accounts for two strangers experiencing the same inexplicable lost time is valid for consideration.

ETA: For context this was late February/early March 1998

a reply to: schuyler

Indeed, it is just that - a light in the sky. Perhaps i should be grateful that that was all it was, since the stories of those that get closer don't always end happily. But try telling me that back in the early 90s and i wouldn't have heard it above my clamouring cries to come rescue me from the mundanity of life back then.

a reply to: McGinty

WARNING the following is taken from young childhood memories.

Right some weird stuff here I usually avoid but have mentioned in the past, now you know how children's memories can be very subjective so take this with a healthy dose of salt's.

As a small child the nursery I attended was just a little ways form our home and in the grounds of the nursery (Kindergarten or Pre-School to the US readers) there was a half buried concrete pipe a section of unused sewer pipe they had installed as a play feature for kid's to play on and around and I used to hang around this as a two or three year old all the time.

Now it was right near the iron railing that formed a fence around this nursery and behind that was the home of my mother's friend Betty, I remember being surprised but not understanding what I was looking at when one day I was walked to nursery, came time to play in the area outside and saw this blue crystal thing embedded in the apex of betty's roof, Betty's house was an end of terrace council house, a five bedroom exactly like this one (Window's have changed in them since that time and they used to be grey aluminium frames single glazed and cold in winter).
media.rightmove.co.uk...

The thing was more than a floor in height and standing out from a crack in the apex of the roof were it was embedded, it glowed blue and over about a week it just faded becoming dimmer and more translucent until the day came when it was no longer visible at all, about six month's later the council were out and repaired betty's roof, many years later Betty a Scottish lady whom was a best friend of my mum died of a strange rare cancer that turned her bones into chalk like substance.

I remember other kids could see it too but adults seemed to not be able to, I pointed it out to my sister as she took me to the shop to buy some sweets and we walked past betty's, I used to call her Kiddine but her name is Christine and I said to her "Look Kiddine Frozen Lightning" because to a child a jagged blue glowing crystal thing looked like lightning and there was snow on the roof's at that time which was melted around the thing.

My sister whom was only a young teenager herself at the time looked as if she had only just noticed it and her eye's went wide and she was surprised but as she looked away she instantly seemed to forget it was even there as if it affected older human minds somehow making them forget it or ignore it as if it was not even there.

Another incident, We also lived in an identical five bedroom house the same as that as well just across the square from Betty's home, I was in my mothers arm's and felt terror as she held me looking down, it was night time and we were up on the top floor, below us in the small back garden was a U or D shaped silvery object with a ram down at it's rear and standing by it three small figures in silver suit's with fish bowl silver helmets and black visors, they emanated a sense of sheer terror, my Mother remembered holding me in her arm's terrified and seeing something shooting up into the night time sky with three flame like rockets coming out of it.

Was it related I do not know, was it even real the second one had my mother's memory to corroborate that something happened that we both remembered but the other was just strange though very close in time and back in the early 1970's, 72 to about 74 period.

It is not really valid but I thought despite the fact childhood memory's are not reliable it would be an interesting addition and may get some others to discuss if they have similar early memory's.

a reply to: McGinty

Lol!

I had a weird experience with my brother once. Their was drink involved so take it as you will, however alcohol doesn't make you hallucinate...

We were walking down a wooded pathway, probably about midnight, I think I was drinking coffee liqueur from the bottle as I was knocking it back I noticed a wobbling star (I know I know) and I mentioned it to my bro, we watched it for a few minutes and I started getting my daft head into gear.

I asked my bro to ask it to do something in his head, he was reluctant but eventually must have had a doctor pepper moment. It then started moving towards the horizon at about the speed of a satellite. It was out of sight in about 90seconds. Not long after that their was a strobe light effect about 150 meters down the country path, just around a bend behind some trees. My bro was freaking and to be frank I didn't feel comfortable at all.

I tried to reason with myself that it's a couple of squad cars or maybe a bunch of people having a silent rave in the woods. The light was white and bright although it was pitch black where we were. We walked to the bend in the path and as we came to the spot we'd have a good view of the lights it all stopped.

I waited about 5-10 mins for a bunch of kids on their phones, a car, anything to come from behind those trees but nothing did. I went back to the spot the next day and it was inaccessible by cars and the woods were fairly thick.

I once saw something bright blue somewhat wobble across the sky once, almost like a heavy ended boomerang or something. It's the only other time I've been truly freaked out by what I saw. Horizon to horizon in less than a second, I genuinely thought it was the end for a second...

I like weird but the strobelight experience was a bit much.

a reply to: LABTECH767

Amazing story! The idea of adults not being able to see it, or at least retain a memory of it is at once outlandish, yet somehow rings true. Poor Betty - that sounds like a nasty way to go. And that second experience - that sense of terror and dread - it's the stuff of nightmares.

Makes you wonder how many of us have had these kinds of inexplicable experiences. And how diverse they are - that not only is ther more than meets the eye, but also many different aspects and variety. I guess a high count of such experiences among ATS members shouldn't be too surprising, or representative of the general public, since we all have our reasons for being drawn to this forum in the first place. Perhaps like richard dreyfus' character is drawn to devil's tower

a reply to: RAY1990

That's some pretty freaky goings on there! A whizzing light and strobes in the woods. Made me think of the creepy rooms behind the red curtain in twin peaks. Well done for keeping your wits about you (a wee tipple never dents one's courage).

When you went back the next day was there any signs of activity in that densely wooded location? Broken branches, scorch marks? However, i don't blame you if you were hesitant to get too close - i wouldn't fancy it!

originally posted by: McGinty
a reply to: tanstaafl

Great account! And a bit scary if you don't mind me saying - made me feel for and your brother, having that happen in your back yard as children. These experiences are so extraordinary - so out of the normal - that it's no wonder they remain vivid memories after all these years. The things that remain unexplained are forever inked on our brains like tattoos.

I know, it really makes you wonder what, really, is going on in this wacked out world of ours.

Enjoyed hearing all the stories in here of people's experiences.

UFO'S have been sighted long before the first airplane was even invented, so we all know there is something going on. Could it be that we were at one time far advanced in technology and history has hidden it? Could it be actual alien lifeforms piloting those crafts? Could these things be from another realm? Some things to ponder.

a reply to: McGinty

I remember I angered myself up when we decided to walk towards it. For what it was worth lol.

Their was nothing when I went back, a little stream that was boggy in between the path and the area the lights appeared to be, the opposite side had had an embankment with loads of raspberry and blackcurrant bushes. Pheasants would've loved it but I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to traverse that particular area. Looking back the area was somewhat bowl shaped with a lot of young trees which made it horrible to move on. It didn't make sense. From the angle we saw it their was about 15-20 ft of big old growth trees. We would've seen the light source if it was there.

The lights were crazy bright too, it's why I thought police cars or maybe even people poaching pheasant.