Northern Territory Attracted UFO Watchers In 2009

It seems that people are still very much interested in the UFO phenomenon and following leads wherever they may take them. In a story posted on the Northern Territory News website today it's claimed that almost 25,000 people flocked to the story posted by this news service in August 2009 when Territorian, Alan Ferguson, made a splash and caught the medias attention with his UFO footage.

Northern Territory News also stated that another story posted in April 2009 entitled Mum Spots Latest UFO attracted around 58,000 hits, and the Muscle Car UFO Hoon story received just over 40,000 views with many of these from the US. The story goes on to say : One of the best things about the internet is that you can track where your audience is coming from, what stories they are interested in. There's no guesswork, it's all there in the stats. For example, the Netherlands are particularly interested in UFOs over the NT - over 7,000 Dutchies visited ntnews.com.au to read what was going on with our little green friends.

Regardless of the genuiness of the stories it appears we just can't get enough of them.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/ydgnw8d

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at UFO Research Queensland Inc

Olivia Newton-John says she has seen a UFO

Singer actress Olivia Newton-John is intrigued by UFOs and even claims to have seen one. The Grease star says she saw a UFO when she was 15. The Sun quoted her as saying "I have seen one when I was very young. It was unidentified and it was flying." The 60 year old recollected the scene and said the dazzling object moved across the sky at "amazing speeds". She also admitted her fascination for them and said "It's true. I'm intrigued by them."

Olivia feels most Britons believe in UFOs. She said, "I've seen so many shifts in belief systems over the years. In England most people now think UFOs are possible. Twenty years ago how many people would have thought that?"

http://tinyurl.com/yak8xg5

Scientists, Skeptics and Ufologists Will Always Disagree - And It May Be Genetic

We know that the majority of scientists think evidence for the existence of UFOs is full of holes despite the high level of military and government whistleblower testimony. Adding to the weight of this disclosure is the testimony from astronauts, police, space engineers and astronomers, yet many scientists continue to remain in denial. The UFO community scratches it’s head wondering how it will ever get through such rigid blindness. But it may well be impossible according to New Scientist magazine (print edition 10/10/09) which dedicated ten pages to consciousness. It just may not be possible getting through such denial and the reason is it’s those pesky genes that prevent new information being integrated into certain individuals grey matter.

In a piece about altered states, and in particular hypnosis, some studies hint at our ability to be hypnotized as being deeply ingrained. “When 50 people were re-tested [for their hypnotisability] on the Stanford scale after a 25-year gap, their scores stayed remarkably consistent.” James Horton at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville has even found physical brain differences: highly hypnotizable participants had a 30% bigger rostrum, a part of the brain thought to help focus attention. A few studies have also shown that hypnotisability may be hereditary, and some researchers – including Amir Raz of McGill university in Montreal, Canada – are trying to track the genes involved.

Curiously, most of the scientists interviewed for the article stated they were only mediocre on the hypnotisability scale. No surprise there since scientists tend to dissect, criticize and evaluate which is completely opposite to a hypnotic state of mind. Personally I’ve found that people who make the best hypnosis subjects tend to be more right brained than others and female. A right brained individual will be more creative since right brained activity is associative, synthesizing many things into one expression, whereas left brained activity pulls apart information, breaking it down into smaller clumps of data for observation and analysis. So we have synthesis versus analysis – or more simply said, putting together versus pulling apart.

Our brain dominance plays an important role in forming our behaviour, perspective and beliefs. So those who are left-brain dominant (for want of a better expression) will be drawn to the scientific, and if a higher degree of dominance is experienced it’s only natural they will go further and become a “skeptic” which is a deeper expression of left-brain behaviour. So no matter how much you try to “get through” to a skeptic it’s just not going to happen.

Now we could wait and be patient until the next generation is born, but unfortunately if this is genetic then it will just keep repeating itself, so don’t bother holding your breath. Darn those pesky genes!

Earth Calling

During the month of August, 2009 a total of 25,880 messages were collected from the public by the Australian Cosmos magazine website in an initiative to celebrate Australia's National Science Week and the International Year of Astronomy. Supported by NASA, the CSIRO, and the Australia's Science Minister, it was a way of making people aware of the role science plays in our society. The messages were collected by the project then converted into binary code and beamed into space at noon on Friday August 28, by the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla.

It was reported that the signal was equivalent to using the combined transmission power of 300 billion mobile phones. It took two hours to send the transmission but it will take two decades before it reaches it’s destination around December 2029. While it’s no news flash for the UFO community that life exists elsewhere besides planet Earth it is extremely important to observe that no less than 1000 newspapers in different languages reported the initiative and more than 9,917 blogs around the world discussed it and linked to the site. Cosmos magazine reported that Visitors to the site reached 254,620 in the 13 days the site collected messages, and visitors read 1.25 million pages, from messages left by participants to articles on exoplanets and astrobiology.

Putting aside for the moment that this was a HUGE publicity stunt by the editor to prop up flagging magazine subscriptions (did we say that out loud?), the exercise demonstrates the clear and overwhelming interest by members of our population in communicating with life outside this planet. This is probably not what the cover-up merchants want to read but hey, too bad. If ET is listening, now would be the time to step up any initiatives to strike up a conversation with the common earthman in the street. Will we get a response from ET? Scientists believe they will have to wait decades to find out but we already know the answer, don’t we.

This is our favourite message from the hopeful future: We come in peace. If you are out there, please respond. We want to be friends. We are all different and we can't wait to meet you! From the children of Earth. Class 4M, Castle Cove Public School, Australia

Cosmos Under Fire

The August/September 2009 issue of Cosmos Magazine (issue 28) devoted 21 pages to a special feature entitled "Mass Delusions" which among other things claimed to "explore delusional behaviour, from the global financial crisis to alien abductions" and claimed to explain that it is the way our brains are wired that causes “some people to believe in UFOs, apparitions and homeopathy”.

The opening sentence of the feature began with the question “why do people believe in phenomena such as UFOs, alien abductions, psychic surgery and ghosts, when the evidence is so scant and unconvincing?” What?! The evidence may be unconvincing to some - but SCANT? I think not. Obviously Wilson de Silva, editor provocateur, is living under a mushroom. Scant evidence of the UFO phenomenon? He’s got to be kidding.

The article goes on to infer that we’re all suffering from collective delusions complete with “false or exaggerated beliefs that arise spontaneously , spread rapidly in a population, , and temporarily affect a region, culture or whole nation.” This mass hysteria, which apparently we suffer from, contains many factors that “contribute to the rise and spread of such collective delusions, such as rumors, extraordinary public anxiety or excitement, shared cultural beliefs or stereotypes, and amplification of these by the mass media, as well as reinforcing actions by authorities such as politicians, the police or the military.” Huh?

But wait – there’s more. Carl Sagan, now deceased born again UFO supporter turned skeptic, (no he hasn’t reincarnated) is quoted as saying that “the scientific method and the clarity it brings can help us overcome our fuzzy thinking. Thinking critically and clearly,” he says , “is the means…by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.” The article goes on to quote Sagan as arguing, “it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is, than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”

Well right back at you Carl.

Next in de Silva’s list of quotees is retired stage magician, skeptic and founding member of CSICOP, James Randi who states “that real science searches for the truth through rigorous methods; it strives to leave no questions unanswered; it provides solid evidence any other researcher can reproduce. Criticism and questioning is encouraged and constantly leads to an evolution of science in the face of new evidence.” (cough, splutter) Who can disagree with that, if it actually ever occurred. All I ask is that people like Randi and his skeptical following stand in front of a mirror when they spout such insights.

But is the real argument here whether science, and inevitably scientists, are doing what they proclaim, or is the real issue about the psychology of those with different perspectives not being able to escape the instinctual need to harass, debunk, bully and inevitably ostracize people in the UFO community who think differently and challenge their rusty herd mentality? To explore this let’s ask ourselves how a skeptic might handle a claim about UFOs from a magician. What if the UFO community held up an opinion from such a person to support an argument for the reality of UFOs? Don’t you think they might ask how the opinion of a stage magician claiming to be a “scientific investigator who exposes the falsities of pseudoscience” (see www.randi.org) can be offered to shed light on anything of a paranormal nature? I think they would. No strike that. I KNOW they would and they’d scoff loudly in the face of those who entertained such “silliness and delusion”.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, it seems de Silva remains unaware of credible witness testimony when it comes to the UFO phenomenon, although he does present a mascot photo of Edgar Mitchell with the caption “Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell has claimed there is a US government cover-up about alien visitations” but that’s as far as he appears willing to go in debunking a witness who holds 3 science degrees, one of which is a PhD, plus 4 honorary degrees in engineering (see www.edmitchellapollo14.com/edmbio.htm). Perhaps if Dr Mitchell had a background in magic de Silva might go further.

The feature goes on to include the debunking of Crop Circles, stating, “it’s hard enough to conceive why intergalactic aliens would opt to write in grain fields rather than public parks or on a piece of paper.” This is where Randi chimes in with his thoughts that , “the irrefutable evidence, of course, is that crop circles are hoaxes, perpetrated by pranksters, artists and children.” Predictably, Randi points to “the adventures of Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, who came forward in the early 1990s to admit they were behind the original crop circles that kicked off the craze in Britain.” He seems to have conveniently forgotten that the crop circle phenomenon came to public attention in the last 1970s and botanical documents containing descriptions of such formations date back to the 1800s. This only covers the English speaking world so we have no idea how long such things may have existed in locations like China, South America or Africa.

It goes without saying that obviously hoaxes exist. We also know that human teams of people will go out into the fields and create this land-art for reasons not associated to hoaxing per-se. Whatever the driving force there seems to be a phenomenon within the phenomenon that makes us want to talk to each other in this manner. Now THAT’S weird!

But I digress. Apparently getting a skeptic to look at the evidence for genuine formations is a hard act to fulfill as David Guest, plant pathologist and agricultural scientist at the University of Sydney, proclaims there is no documented evidence to be found anywhere. Has Glass actually asked for this documentation or merely made a flying visit to the web site of BLT Research in Massachussetts, the worlds largest crop circle site that uses scientific methods to test plant samples. My guess is it was a quick visit followed by a declaration of debunking.

Honestly, after reading this feature which also explores the so-called “delusional” results of homeopathy and chiropractic manipulation, one wonders how long this magazine will remain in circulation when it’s contents fly in the face of the public who are living better lives because of these modalities. But I digress.

Cosmos is obviously written by skeptics with a cause - or is it a vendetta? Either way skeptics need to realize that it is THEY who are the minority group here. As they have clearly demonstrated through their own behaviour, that their fragile psyche would be the first to crumble into a jibbering heap if ET did make open contact.

I don’t know if they realize it but from my perspective skeptics appear to be stuck and unwilling to move forward in this great learning curve we call life. Their behaviour is dishonest, uncivil, discourteous, unhelpful and invalidating to others. The skeptical approach aims to destroy the social bonds that naturally form when we behave in the opposite manner. It’s as if they subconsciously realize this and lash out at others as a form of compensation. If they were honest enough to look deeply within themselves they might realize it is they who have isolated themselves from the greater tribe of humanity. In their effort to ostracize others through their condescending behavior they have actually ostracized themselves and inevitably suffer the consequences of their invalidation. Ultimately they have become their own victims.

OZ SETI on the ball?

Left: Dr Ragbir Bhathal

It warmed our little hearts to read an article in todays Australian newspaper about OZ OSETI (o for optical) and the opinions of various Australian astrophysicists on the search for ETs. Ragbir Bhathal, an astrophysicist at the University of Western Sydney, who teaches the only university-based course on SETI in Australia, went on record stating that "for an advanced civilisation, radio wave technology would be old hat". He also waved a red flag in the face of Shostakian views adding, “our failure to pick up any interstellar signals so far could mean that advanced civilisations are using a communications technique still not discovered on Earth.”

He further suggested that, “we are nowhere near being able to put a sensible figure on how common life may be". Ah, the sweet sound of humility and an open mind. Be still our beating hearts.

On the other hand, Ain de Horta, a project scientist with the Australian SETI Institute, proposed that “we're counting on the physics being the same elsewhere in the universe”, and spouted the usual Shostakian view that there are “UFO nuts out there”. Well, we may be a little nutty but we’re certainly not out there. However we feel we can forgive de Horta today (having a warm and fuzzy moment) because while he’s rubbing intellectual shoulders with the likes of Ragbir Bhathal, we feel certain that the chip on his shoulder will be worn away sometime in the future.

Let there be light.

Full story at http://tinyurl.com/owfu7k

Northern Territory UFOs

A Territory mother has backed up claims unidentified flying objects have returned to the Top End after she photographed two "discs of light" in the sky.The mother-of-three, who wished only to be known by her first name Kym, took the photo as she watched the dark rain clouds roll towards her Palmerston home last month.Kym said the image was taken on her mobile phone and that she didn't notice the strange lights in the clouds until she downloaded her pictures on to her computer.

She took many photos and even some video footage on her phone but said the UFOs only appeared in the one shot."It's hard to tell what it is - it's very strange," she said."There was some lightning at the time but the shape of these lights is different.""If it was streaks you'd think it was lightning but these are circles."I thought it could be a street light reflection in the screen of the mobile I took the photo with but the street lights aren't on."

Her story follows that of Territorian Alan Ferguson, who told in the Northern Territory News this month how unidentified flying objects had returned to the skies above his Acacia Hill home.More Territory UFO picturesMr Ferguson put the rural suburb, 50km south of Darwin, on the international map last year when he first photographed UFOs flying around his home.He said he quickly grabbed his camera on seeing a bright silver flickering object in front of a cloud last month.The skywatcher said the UFOs seemed to appear when it was hot."Those aliens - they must have some pretty good airconditioning in those things, hey," he said.Kym said she had never had any previous encounters with UFOs."I've never really thought about them or had a view on them," she said."But my motto is never say never - anything's possible."

Source: Northern Territory News April 21, 2009
http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2009/04/21/46371_ntnews.html

Goodbye Albert

On the morning of the 29th January 2009, UFORQ received a phone call from Albert Pennisi's goddaughter, who informed us that Albert died last Sunday morning 25th January, 2009. Albert, of Tully Saucer Nest fame, died of a heart attack after he had attended a church service.

The funeral took place on Friday 30th January at St Clares Church, Tully, Queensland. The family asked that no flowers be sent, but instead please make a donation to the church.
Email for details znclare@qldnet.com.au

Albert was to turn 90 that week and a party had been organised for him by his family at the local bowls club.

Alberts wife Amy died some years ago. Albert has 4 children, two of them, Shane and Adrian, accompanied Albert who attend the UFO conference in Brisbane in 2006 to update the public about other UFO occurrences on his property in Queensland.

More details of the Tully Saucer Nest case at http://www.uforq.asn.au/casefiles/tully.html

Another UFO Sighting - In Australia!

Source: Harlow Herald 24 - Stevenage, England, UK
http://tinyurl.com/8bmtao

The Herald's article about UFO sightings on New Year's Day has reached a global audience.

Australian Yvonne Vincent contacted the Herald newsroom this week to tell us about her own UFO experience on January 1. She wrote: "I read your article as I typed in UFO 1st Jan 2009 after I saw a UFO on this night. I have not even contacted my local news. It was great to read your article it is fantastic!

I am a 30-year-old young woman. I live in Donvale, Victoria, Australia. My male friend, 37, and I went to McDonald's to get drive thru McCafe latte around 9.40pm our time. On my short drive home I saw a fireball sphere in the sky. In Donvale, which is about 14km from Melbourne. I thought it was a meteor rock on fire.

I drove left into Shirvington Place a street off Doncaster Road and watched it for a good two and a half minutes. I kept asking my friend what was it and he was stunned jumping out of my car, we watched it. The streets were quiet it was a dark street anyway. Watching the fireball it seemed not very far away, quite close actually. It was orange and yellow flames inside a perfect, perfect sphere. There was no glow around it and no sound. There was no trail behind it, it just moved as a perfect sphere that looked like a fireball.

I did not panic any longer when it changed direction so accurately and sharp. It then began to lift through the low thin cloud and we watched it still so bright fly into the distance until my naked eye could see no longer."I called my father who lives half hour from me. It was a few minutes before 10pm our time when I saw it. I had rung dad at 10pm.

This was no plane, helicopter, light reflection after a small drizzle of rain on a cool January night. It was an unidentified flying object!"This was what the people saw in that town your article explains. I called dad the other day for him to look up your news article. I am convinced it is the same - on the same day - understandably there is time difference but that is fast to travel across the world like that if it is the same one.

No-one here in my local paper seems to have said anything or in our Herald Sun. No-one came out of their house to look at what we saw, a lot of people were on holiday and it was quiet as most people went out the night before.

Recently I read about some orange lights in another town in UK hitting wind turbine! "I was a person whose response would be more of a 'yeah right' attitude to such a thing. It was such a privilege and honour to see such a beautiful sighting in the sky. It was scary to begin with but then just amazing! It changes perspective on life to be more open minded and I am a deep thinker most of the time really anyway so this is very interesting."

'Muscle Car' UFO Hoons Over Australia

Source: Daily Telegraph - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
http://tinyurl.com/9j5qev

A MYSTERIOUS blue car-shaped UFO has been spotted as it flew across a cloudy wet season sky over northern Australia. But in the words of amateur photographer Mark Schmutter, 79, "It does look like a car but what would a car be doing up in the sky?"

Mr Schmutter said he snapped these shots as he was standing on the ninth-floor balcony of a friend's CBD apartment in Darwin just before 6pm earlier this week. "I decided to go out on the balcony and take some shots of Darwin," he said. "I just held the camera up and I saw this thing flash through the sky and I thought 'Oh my goodness what was that?', and then it came back again so I hit it with the camera."

He said he saw the object move across the sky about the speed of a plane - then it flew straight upwards before it disappeared into the sky. "But it wasn't an airplane, no noise ... it was a fair way away, you know, but I didn't hear any noise." Mr Schmutter, of Lyons, said he had no idea what it was - be it a strange, newfangled aircraft or a UFO shaped like a muscle car. "I've got no idea about aliens, but anything's a possibility, isn't it?"

Defence spokesman Stephen Mullins confirmed no Defence aircraft were flying in the area at that time Tuesday night. The Top End Flying Club last year suggested many of the local sightings of UFOs could actually be Sigma-4 ultralight aircraft - informally dubbed the flying sperm - which fly slowly and with little noise. The club's Mark Christie said the blue object didn't resemble any of their aircraft though. He said at least one of the photos looked to be altered with the object cut and pasted on to the background. But Mr Schmutter insisted none of the pictures had been 'Photoshopped' in any way. He said he was hoping someone could tell him what it was he caught on camera.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/9c6x3z
WE had a bumper year for aliens in which UFOs were seen over the state's South Coast and flying saucers popped up on Google Maps - now fresh sightings have emerged suggesting there is plenty of activity in the skies over NSW.

Last June an unnamed Nowra alien addict reported seeing a military helicopter following a UFO over the local golf course.

And in December our story on how a Daily Telegraph reader spotted what appeared to be a flying saucer hovering near the Sydney Harbour Bridge while checking out Google Maps caused a web sensation. See the picture.

But that's not all. Turns out the Campbelltown-based UFO and Paranormal Research Society of Australia - one of 30 UFO research groups around the country - has been busy cataloguing even more sightings.

Gallery: UFOs ... are they out there?

The society's NSW close encounters database - full of sightings emailed in by avid alien watchers - reveals that last November a Blacktown man saw a range of cigar and diamond-shaped craft speeding through the night sky over two hours.

"They would be from the south horizon to the north horizon in under a minute," the witness wrote. "Sometimes they would stop mid-flight, float for a bit and move in a different direction. Others would move vertically and they looked unlike anything I had ever seen. "I must have seen at least 50 instances of the objects, having about eight or nine visible at the same time." The witness continued: "At first I thought it might have been military training from the RAAF base at Richmond, but there were no squadrons and no set pattern to any of the crafts' flights."

It wasn't the only strange craft spotted over Sydney's west, either. Less than two weeks ago another alien spotter saw something in the skies over Leumeah - while hanging out the washing. The unnamed observer reported a "sudden fly-by of a spherical object from southeast to northwest". It was reportedly white and semi-transparent, with murky centre. The writer added: "Airborne debris or any other airborne artefacts can be possibly be ruled out as the direction of travel was inconsistent with wind direction."

UFO special: Videos of Aussie sightings

Worldwide, it appears 2009 is picking up right where 2008 left off on the phenomena front. Just this week a wind turbine was mysteriously wrecked on an English farm - and locals say it was hit by a UFO they claim to have seen and heard. Watch the video on the right.

Locals in Conisholme, Lincolnshire, were reportedly woken by a 4am smash that ripped one of the turbine's 20m blades clean off after strange lights were spotted streaking towards the towering 88m generator. There was no trace of the missing blade.

UFO Research NSW spokesman Doug Moffett is sure a growing number of people believe alien life is possible. "I guarantee that you would know someone who believes in extraterrestrial life," he said. "But they're not going to come out and wave a flag in the middle of Pitt St because you know what would happen - if you jumped up in the middle of your lunch room and said 'Hey guys I saw a UFO last night' they would just bag you out."