When you talk about the existence of extraterrestrial beings, a psychological observation is very interesting. Most people (including scientists) nowadays probably have no objections to the assumption that there is other intelligent life out there somewhere. The unimaginable dimensions of our universe already speak for it. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has a diameter between 150,000 and 200,000 light-years and is home to about one hundred to four hundred billion stars and more than one hundred billion planets.28 Until now it had been assumed that our universe, which is about 13.8 billion years old, contains about one hundred to two hundred billion galaxies. Recent analysis of so-called deep-field images of the Hubble Space Telescope indicate that this number must be corrected significantly upwards. It is said now that there are at least two trillion galaxies.29 On a large scale, these galaxies form huge patterns in the form of so-called clusters and superclusters that span the entire universe through filamentous structures. All these galaxies, in turn, contain hundreds of billions of stars. And what is even more important: Almost every day new planets are discovered around these stars. At the beginning of 2016, the number of these exoplanets was already at two thousand.30 In February 2017 it was reported that the star Trappist-1, forty light years away, is orbited by seven earth-like planets.31 Thus, the number of exoplanets increases steadily. As of 12 February 2021, there have been detected 4,680 planets in 3,457 solar systems.32
Due to such discoveries, it is considered more and more likely that the immeasurable vastness of our cosmos harbors other life-forms.
Things are quite different – from a psychological point of view – if one takes an all too earthly perspective on the question of extraterrestrial life. Too disturbing is the thought that an alien intelligence might already have visited »our« Earth or that even an interaction is taking place. Without the protective distance to such technically and intellectually superior beings, our beloved everyday life would be in massive danger. This fear of the ideological, social and religious consequences of direct contact makes many people resort to childlike protective mechanisms. Irrespective of all facts and evidence, what simply must not be is defiantly denied.
A popular objection to the extraterrestrial hypothesis are the huge distances to other stars and the speed of light as a speed barrier for massive objects. It is important to know that our nearest neighbor, the star Proxima Centauri, is already 4.24 light years away from us (one light year corresponds to about 9.5 trillion kilometers or 5.88 trillion miles; one light second is the distance light travels in one second, i.e. about three hundred thousand kilometers or 186,282 miles). Albert Einstein stated in his Special Theory of Relativity of 1905 that no object with mass can reach the speed of light or even move faster than light.
Especially for many physicists it is therefore completely impossible that an alien civilization could have ever visited us or will be able to do so.
However, it seems somewhat naive, if not arrogant, to explain interstellar journeys as impossible on the basis of our current physical knowledge. Even if our current technology gives the impression to the layman that we have already understood everything in physical terms, this is clearly not the case. For example, we still cannot decide whether gravity must be explained by space-time curvature according to Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity or by quantum mechanics using hypothetical particles (gravitons). We know nothing about the nature of the dark matter that makes up much of our universe. Neither can we say anything about the negative energy that expands our universe at an accelerated rate. We have no idea what is actually behind quantum mechanics, what the true nature of elementary particles is, whether there is a need for numerous other dimensions – as string theory demands – and whether there is perhaps an infinite number of parallel universes.
All these are open questions in physics. So how do we dare, with all these huge gaps in knowledge, to decide whether or not the technology and knowledge of a civilization thousands or millions of years ahead could realize interstellar journeys? We just have to admit that we have not yet discovered decisive laws of nature.
The extraterrestrial hypothesis, in my opinion, is supported by two main points:
Point 1: There are thousands of reports studied by researchers and therapists of people claiming to have been taken by alien beings against their will and subjected to certain examinations. These reports appear worldwide and show an unmistakable pattern. Those affected often report having seen a flying object in the sky before or after their experience and even having been brought into the interior of such an object. The connection with the UFO phenomenon is obvious. This is what the so-called abduction research deals with, which I will go into in detail.
Point 2: The second indication that supports the extraterrestrial hypothesis is an event known as Ariel School Sighting. This is the sighting of a UFO and its crew by over sixty pupils of the Ariel Primary School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe. The pupils reported unanimously that during the breakfast break an object landed near the school grounds and two non-human-looking creatures came out. Immediately after this incident of 16 September 1994, the students were interviewed by the well-known African UFO researcher Cynthia Hind and John Mack, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
They described the appearance of the beings and also the telepathic communication with some of them. In a recent documentary, the witnesses of that time still emphatically confirm this life-changing experience today.33
I had the privilege to meet one of the witnesses in Frankfurt, Germany.
In addition to radar recordings, there are other physical indications that UFOs are real aircraft and that they might have an extraterrestrial origin. In particular, radioactivity was measured at presumed landing sites and conspicuous changes in vegetation were observed. This includes the case of 1 July 1965 in Valensole, France, as described in the COMETA Report. Under the UFO’s trajectory, the lavender plants were suddenly withered, and the witness could not grow any new plants there for years. Captain Edward Ruppelt reports another case in his book on Project Blue Book.34 Grass samples were sent from an alleged UFO landing site to a laboratory. He was surprised to find that not the blades of grass, but the roots of the grasses were scorched. Another case comes from Great Britain. Significantly increased radiation values were measured at the landing site of the famous Rendlesham Forrest UFO in December 1980 near the military bases Bentwaters and Woodbridge operated by the U.S. Air Force.
And there are likely to be many lesser-known cases. Budd Hopkinks, for example, reports in his book Invaders that in a case he investigated, a UFO apparently landed near a family house on 30 June 1983, leaving behind a circular spot of burnt lawn and four symmetrically arranged holes; the circle was also the starting point for an approximately fourteen-meter-long and two-foot-wide stripe of dead grass.35 After the incident vegetation was gone and wild animals avoided the place.36 Even years later almost nothing flourished on most of the circle, although new grass had been sown in the meantime.37 The various physical aftereffects of the people who stayed at this location will be dealt with later. Another example is reported by Dr. Clarke. The 82-year-old Native American Leland showed the author a perfectly round barren circle in his field.38 He explained to her that this was the spot were a spacecraft repeatedly hovered above the ground and that nothing grows there anymore. And New Zealand experiencer Suzy Hansen reports how conspicuous marks in the mud were found after she had a UFO sighting and associated memories.39 There were three circles, each about 1.5 meters in diameter, spaced about 8 meters apart, forming an equilateral triangle. Her last memory of the nocturnal incident was of a disc-shaped craft standing near the ocean on tripod legs.
The allegations that UFOs have already crashed and been recovered by the U.S. military certainly go even further. One should know that there was indeed a corresponding press release in relation to the famous alleged crash of a UFO in 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico, which referred to information from the Roswell Army Air Field (later known as Walker Air Force Base). There is also a number of testimonies to the events of that time, such as the testimony of Major Jesse Marcel, the intelligence officer stationed at Roswell Army Air Field.40 Colonel Philip Corso’s report in his book The Day After Roswell