CHENNAI: Are UFOs real? Are we alone in the Universe or a part of a vast universal family?
UFOs — Unidentified Flying Objects are real. They are as real as the Earth going round the Sun. But sceptical, rational people always ask for evidence, and rightfully so!
Merely saying that our world, since the 1940s is being visited by crafts operated by non-human intelligences is one thing, giving an evidence that would stand in any court of law is another.
I have been on a quest to seek the truth about the UFO phenomenon since my college days. And starting today, I am going to take you on a journey in time, space, and dimensions every week; to uncover a scam of cosmic proportions that has culminated in my forthcoming book The Accidental Apocalypse.
In this journey, I want to introduce you to two kinds of people — those who went to extraordinary lengths to cover up the UFO phenomenon and the ones who tried hard to expose them. And after meeting them both, you can draw your own conclusions.
One of the most authentic UFO photos was taken by Paul Trent in May 1950 near McMinnville Oregon. This was authenticated by the 1969 Condon Committee report and naval optical physicist Dr Bruce Maccabee. It was taken in a time when Photoshop did not exist.
According to a recent United Nations estimate, since the 1940s more than 150 million people in 133 countries have reportedly seen UFOs. This includes prime ministers, presidents, governors, astronauts, generals, admirals, military men, police officers, nuclear missile base commanders, civilians and people from all walks of life.
Is the human race suffering from some kind of mass hysteria? Are we all hallucinating? If eye-witnesses are not lying, then, our world is really being visited by crafts not made by the hands of man.
In the UN General Assembly in 1976, the Prime Minister of Granada declared that he saw an UFO and it was an overwhelming experience. What could he have gained by such a statement?
Two American Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan have officially reported seeing an UFO. You might wonder why didn’t they do anything about it. Well, the Devil is in the details.
There is more to the UFO phenomenon than meets the eye. More than what they are, it is what they represent that makes all the difference. In order to find that out, you must take back a step with me in time.
It was during my college days. Like many, I was introduced to this subject by Erich Von Daniken’s popular book Chariots of the Gods and Spielberg’s UFO-based movie Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. But my curiosity about UFOs and extraterrestrials started and ended with them but my search for information continued even after I finished college. I spent every weekend at libraries and book shops looking up UFOs. But nothing turned up. Maybe I was wrong...there is nothing to the UFO stories. It’s all a case of myth, misinterpretations, mistaken identity and hoaxes. If UFOs were real then the newspapers and TV would have exposed them. Maybe I should spend my time concentrating on my other passion — kickboxing, at least here I would see some tangible results (two gold medals at the National level)
Then one day I came across Professor Raghavan of Madras University who in 1951 had written a book similar to Chariots of the Gods. I was very excited. I decided to meet him and discuss the UFO phenomenon. Maybe he could show me the path where I could find more information. But when I did, I found out I was late, very late.
To be continued...
(The writer is director of INSETS-Indian Society for Extraterrestrial Studies and author of Accidental Apocalypse)