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The possible unsettling implications of UFO sightings

There are some unsettling conclusions reached by abduction researchers that are rarely mentioned in mainstream UFO reporting. Abduction researchers suggest, often based on decades of research, that there may be more going on with most UFO witnesses than simply seeing something unusual in the sky.

There is a wide continuum of what gets reported as a UFO. At one end of this spectrum are tiny dots of light making odd motions way off in the distance, but the source could be something perfectly terrestrial. On the other end of that same spectrum would be a close up sighting of a silvery flying saucer hovering silently just above the swing set in the back yard; which would be very difficult to dismiss as anything other than unknown.

David Marler

David Marler

Author and researcher David Marler has been calling the more noteworthy sightings unambiguous UFOs. This implies something well beyond the tiny dots that make up the majority of the sightings reports.

Marler says, “I came up with the term unambiguous UFOs to separate descriptions of large, low-flying, structured aerial objects from the ubiquitous and ambiguous light in the sky UFO reports. I believe there is a huge distinction between the two that demands clarification.”

The late researcher Elaine Douglass collected UFO reports for MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) for more than a quarter century. When conducting an investigation she would ask the witnesses the standard set of questions for any sighting, what time, how big, and so on. She would then do a follow up interview with deeper, more personal questions, asking them to describe any unusual personal events. This simply involved asking: “So, what else, in your whole life, has ever happened to you that you cannot explain?” More often than not, a big story would emerge. She would hear the unusual events that would imply some sort of direct contact experiences. What she concluded was that over half the people who see UFOs are abductees.

Elaine Douglass

Elaine Douglass

This may seem like a bold statement, but it’s very similar to what other investigators have concluded. Pioneering abduction researcher Budd Hopkins spoke openly that if someone sees a UFO they are most probably either seeing it arrive or leave, and there has been a missing time event covering an abduction. Hopkins has publicly speculated that there are probably more abductions than there are UFO sightings.

Abduction researcher Dr. David Jacobs said, “There is a reason for those UFOs in the sky, the phenomenon is far less random than we had once assumed. If people are seeing UFOs they are quite probably abductees.”

When I asked Jacobs what percentage of people who are seeing unambiguous UFOs are actually abductees, he replied, “The majority.” We discussed this and he seemed comfortable with the term majority, but he felt this was conservative and the real percentage might be much higher.

David Jacobs

David Jacobs

Abduction researcher and hypnotherapist Yvonne Smith was asked this same question, What percentage of people who are reporting an unambiguous UFO sighting are actually abductees? She, like most everyone I’ve asked, felt it was impossible to come up with an actual percentage, but was quick to say the majority. She said, “Many of the close-up sightings will have clues that this was a probable contact experience, things like distorted or missing time, or a car engine sputtering and mysteriously stopping.”

Smith noted that someone who has seen a UFO sighting might experience nightmares, vivid dreams or recurring flashbacks in the weeks or months afterwords. She feels it is vital that any witness have access to a qualified therapist if any distressing memories emerge. Both Cero International on the West Coast and Starborn Support on the East coast could recommend resources for anyone seeking help.

When abduction researcher Kathleen Marden was asked the same question, she said she had no way of knowing what that percentage might be. But she did say, “I can tell you that 67% of the participants in the 2012 Marden-Stoner Commonalities Study stated that they consciously recalled (not with hypnosis), the observation of an unconventional craft at less than 1000 feet prior to an abduction.”

Kathleen Marden

Kathleen Marden

This statistic can’t be seen as an indication of a percentage of whether or not a close encounter witnesses may have been abducted, but it is interesting. Marden also added that from her research, she feels anyone with more than one close up sighting of a craft has most probably had some sort of an abduction experience.

Joe Montaldo

Joe Montaldo

Joe Montaldo is both a contactee and an abduction researcher. He runs an organization called ICAR (International Community for Alien Research) with a focus on the abduction phenomenon. Montaldo states that almost all UFO sightings are meant to be trigger memories, which are designed to let the witness know something happened.

Montaldo says, “ET never has to show himself to anybody. There is no need to ever let anyone see a craft, ever,” implying that their technology is so advanced that making their craft invisible is effortless, so if anyone actually sees a UFO it is because they want to be seen for a reason.

Montaldo went on to say, “I don’t think you can see a UFO if you’re not a contactee. Once you’ve been exposed to their telepathic fields or whatever they are, that’s how you can see them. It may not be easy [or possible] for us, but it’s easy for them.”

When asked to give a percentage of how many people who see a UFO are actually abductees, Joe said, “I’d put it at 100 percent”

Roger Marsh

Roger Marsh

Roger Marsh, Director of Communication for MUFON and also editor of their monthly journal, has been compiling and documenting UFO sighting reports gleaned from the MUFON Case Management System, which is an extensive database of witness reports. He also writes about UFOs for The Huffington Post, The Examiner and Open Minds.

When I asked Marsh this same question, “Off the top of my head, of the really good cases, I would say that maybe five percent of these would imply some sort of abduction event.” He went on to say he was judging these accounts by the written testimony of witnesses, where you sometimes get a clue like missing time within the reports. This is a much more conservative number than Montaldo’s sweeping 100 percent, but it is telling none the less. It should be noted that Marsh is not an abduction researcher like the other folks quoted here, he considers himself a UFO journalist instead.

What seems to be emerging, and this would be very difficult to quantify, is that the closer the UFO to the witness, the more likely an abduction event has occurred. The implication being that many, if not most UFO sightings have a buried abduction component.

About Mike Clelland

Mike Clelland has written extensive on the subject of alien abductions, synchronicities, high strangeness, mythology, owls as well as his own personal experiences. His website explores these events and their connections to the UFO phenomenon. Website: www.hiddenexperience.blogspot.com

26 comments

  1. will4acim@q.com

    After the tapes were revealed in the Emma Woods case, I cannot fathom how anyone would give David Jacobs enough respect to even allow him to give an opinion on this subject. The man is psychopathic at best, and a paranoid delusional (thinking he receives threatening tweets from alien hybrids who rent an apartment near himi). The man needs to be put in the padded room of history. He is past contempt.

  2. If only abductees can see unambigious UFOs then all videos of UFOs hovering near the witness are fakes. After all, only abductees should be able to see the crafts; not anyone near them and certainly not their cameras, otherwise everyone would be able to see the crafts. Of course it is also possible that we can see the hovering crafts on YouTube because we have all been abducted.

  3. Interesting observations and may not be that far off the mark. Cultural and Biblical accounts of UFO sightings and contacts always describe a craft that emits fire during flight, landing and takeoff. Todays’ sightings always have witnesses describing a disk shaped or cigar shaped vehicle of various sizes that fly quietly, either at or in a stable mode or at high speed, with no rocket type emission. Hence over the past thousand years and more hove the UFO builders been evolving new technology, anti gravity from combustion type propulsion engines? Hence are the UFO pilots and their civilization the survivors of the great war thousands of years ago. If you look at the time line history wise, humans have a yet to be defined evolution, many unexplained structures worldwide, no understandable technology as to how and when these structures were built and by who. We as a race have no traceable history beyond 8 thousand years yet many of the structures we are now discovering are dated 30- 40 thousand years ago. Over the past 100 years we as a race worldwide have made unbelievable technological advances and understanding of our world. How did this happen? Any comments? additional observations, thoughts?

  4. Great article! Good to see Mike Clelland writing for Open Minds. Truly fresh thoughts on a line of thinking that needs more research.

  5. I did find this article interesting. I was expecting several uncommon implications from the title, but there was only one – that many or close encounters are actually abductions. I wanted more conclusions: what is/are the purpose/purposes of these abductions; if there are extra-terrestrial ententies visiting earth, are there more than one type of alien; are biological surgical procedures performed on animals and people; should we fear/embrace these superior (technologically) aliens; are these simply beings from another interstellar origin or are we dealing with inter-dimensionality, parallel universes or even spiritual beings? Inquiring minds want to know.

  6. Very little discussion on close encounters and mind control (Manchurian Candidate) also The Oz effect and mass mind control
    People do things and go places that are not part of their regular behavior and have a close encounter mostly with missing time, others sometimes involved.

  7. I don’t know which is more unsettling about UFO’s: The fact that alien species have complete autonomy over the human race or that our government is aware of this and is hiding the truth about their existence. Either way, it seems as though that alien contact will never go the way of Star Trek. Meaning, we find other species of life from other planets at the same level of moral understanding and technology. The reality of present day UFOlogy suggests that we are under an alien microscope and that they find us imminently usable.

  8. The supposition that 100% of the people who see a UFO are also abductees/ contactees/ experiencers, well I can say this is without a doubt incorrect, for I have seen a ufo, which had 2 witnesses, so I know it wasn’t a balloon, cloud, or frog… and I know that I have NOT been abducted (I have no missing time, no nightmares, nothing to indicate and CE3 or CE4), so they are not accurate with this statement. I point this out, because I believe the more accurate data we have, the better off everyone is, and as someone who WANTS to have an encounter, while I wish their belief was reality, I have to set them straight. I am not clear from the article if they are making the relationship between sighting and abduction in terms of solely a close large craft, flying disk or black triangle, etc., because my sighting was of an orb. However, the orb was clear and close enough for me to be able to tell that it was a real object of some size – perhaps as large as a bus – however, I believe these ‘orbs’ might simply be a camouflage technique; I know that many craft have invisibility (anyone who can create anti-grav, and has FTL space flight, has the ability to control gravity, and this unlocks a whole host of techniques, such as the ability to bend light, and thus ‘cloak’ oneself, or create an invisibility shield). So if the orbs are not a terrestrial atmospheric phenomenon, and do happen to be an ET technology (which I believe is the case – although there might be BOTH types, too!), then these vehicles are either unmanned/ remote controlled probes, or ‘shielded’ (disguised) larger craft. In any event, as I said, the researchers may be distinguishing between Orbs and Disks/Saucers /Triangles…, in which case, perhaps their assumption is correct. Until we have disclosure – indeed, until the extraterrestrials decide to make their presence known to us all, there is too much conjecture and disinformation being shared for any better analysis and hypothesis to be done.

  9. David Paul Fontes

    I’m just going to skim a bit w/this subject matter. “They” can come in & out visually at will. So can Bigfoot who come here from them from their dimension in saucer ships etc.. . Those TV shows w/Bigfoot, Mothman, & all the etc’s.., crack me up. They will NEVER catch them in this material world. At least they are trying. But that is it, …period. It does make for fun TV though…lol. Its NOT that they are or live on Mars etc..etc.. no no. “They” can travel into our dimension at will. They have some sort of cloaking devise & etc’s.. . Sure thy can go to ANY planet in any galaxy in our dimension. But their ‘home’ as it were is in their dimension. My Lord, they must be millions if not billions of years ahead of us. Lab rats ring a bell? We need devises (optics, nano tech etc..) that can see into our space between space. Demonic? Probably, but then again, who knows. That is what we need to find out. My opinion is, “like in the days of Noah”, will return. Christ Jesus said that. Wow, its going to be “FREAKY” to say the less. We haven’t seen anything, ….yet!

  10. Ok some work now…… so except for crash sights it looks like we have a brain time manupulation happening…..looks like ……….thats why they w.vanish as n when they want…..I thought so actually…..it only makes sense now after reading this article what must be happening. Because there is no doubt the ET r far ahead.so they are playing with our minds.now thats hard to beat.hope u all realise it.very very hard gentlemen.trust me time to find a way to get together find one solution for mankind….really.please get together.know everything that everybody knows n find a way to talk on behalf of mankind. ..save our race basically.please sir……mam…save us it s up to u

  11. Best part.. Montaldo says, “ET never has to show himself to anybody. There is no need to ever let anyone see a craft, ever,” implying that their technology is so advanced that making their craft invisible is effortless, so if anyone actually sees a UFO it is because they want to be seen for a reason.

  12. At long last an article that moves the discussion forward towards an answer.

    Good job Mike.

  13. We are assuming here that all contact or sight ,follows from an abduction ,but this assertion os not true ….in My o wn experience i believe that some sort of telephatic net is at work ……cause i have been painting sometimes designs that after some days ,appear as crop circle designs in England ……could somebody explain me this incredible situation ,and I am very sure I have not been abducted ok ?

  14. Hello to all,

    I am the author of this article. I am making no claims myself to how many (or what percentage) of the people who see a close-up UFO are actually abductees. I realize any claim would be impossible to back up. All I can say is that people who have done a lot of research are saying similar things.

    Also – I am aware of the claims against David Jacobs. My goal in talking with Jacobs was to get an answer to that same question I asked everybody else in the article. I felt the quote (above) was well-founded coming both from his years of investigation as well as his association with Budd Hopkins.

    Mike C

  15. Hey Mike how come only people in the united states are abducted? That would be a big red flag for me since I’ve only come across one person who claims to have been abducted here in Canada but when I showed her the Billy Meier material explaining it, she said it made perfect sense to her and she’s had no abductions since. So if you people truly want to help those people who have been “abducted” you should be sending them in that direction. But then there’s good money to be made in writing books about it and prolonging the problem (insert sarcasm here).

  16. On my fathers and brothers graves what I am about to tell you is the truth so help me god. It seems that all the UFOs dissapeared into space what if they can shrink themselves down so small that they can’t be seen with the naked eye. I have made a discoverysomething so incredible that really only one word can describe it and that’s “miracle” my 83 year old mother said this “mojo if you take it to anyone of importance you have to have proof beyond a reasonable doubt, 2weeks later I found that proof. For 2 years now I have been gathering some of the most wondrous evidence the world will ever see . I have tried to present my evidence to numerous institutions of higher learning to no avail. I never thought about telling the story of these strange small flying saucers that follow me around trying to compromise my evidence. As of right now I still have pics of them and of what I discovered but they are getting better at finding it and compromising it. I have pics of an alien lady watching as her monsters from another planet chew up the wood hunting what I have found . believe me when I realized what they were doing I eliminated the with a couple of good swipes of my knife. I know all of this sounds pretty far out there but its real as real as you and me. Happening as I write this. I know way to much why I am still here I do not know. If only you knew how hard it is to tell a story that a lot of other people tried to tell and a lot of them have been put away. I have proof beyond areasonabl doubt I need someone with a science background to take the time to at least call me I would be glad to send them evidence thru the mail. I don’t think anyone really wants to know the truth about where they are at. I think I know the whole story is on my page on Facebook corkymena hundreds of pics. Please I need help the weight of this is enormous. I have sent out hundreds of emails no one will respond. Our greatest scientists say that only humans and birds walk on 2 feet I have proof that they are all wrong and I am just a poor old disabled vet that has proof beyond a reasonable doubt that what I have in my possession is real. My number is 5597180736 no one will call you will toss it aside like its nothing. Know this once I finally can find someone that will listen and this story breaks the world will come to a stop. Sometimes I think that the world might not be able to deal with with what I have discovered. If anyone reads this and knows someone who might help time is at an essence. All I can say is please

  17. First time I saw the multi colored orbs was in 2005 and there was three and stayed for hours . In the country I can stare up into the stars and after 15 min I’ll see them … Not the orbs with the red,white and blue, green lights but the ones that appear to be stars . I see at least four or five at a time . A few months ago I was followed home by a orb . Had this feeling . Then I saw it . Right in front of me over the vfw post . I watched it watch me for hours . It disappeared after I went inside . I was trying to fool it and keep my eyes on it from inside . I ran outside looking for it and the last place I looked was right above me and it was glowing bright orange . I went back inside I was in every window trying to see it and stay hidden . When I went back out I was shocked to see it right there across the road . Last night I saw 3 multi colored orbs . I saw white lights disappear . My gf saw the bright orange cigar shaped one with me . All of a sudden it shot off so fast it seemed to know we saw it . I saw the white lights skip across the sky and disappear . I saw a bright light appear out of nothing then disappear with a loud vibration noise . I saw red lights that seemed to hover and move so slow that I thought they was drones . I saw planes flying straight at the orbs . I’ve been do research on ufos since 2005 . Last night I didn’t sleep . It’s now 6:07 pm . I’ve been reading about ufos all day . I’m waiting to see what happens tonight . I’m not afraid . I’m not amazed …yet .But I feel driven now to be prepared . I now know I’ve most likely been abducted even though I don’t remember it. And its hard to explain how I feel . I feel a great saddness for others who have been abducted . I think the study on us is over. It’s a feeling as if I know something for fact . First time I saw theses orbs I had pointed them out to at least 15 friends who had no idea what they was . Why me ? And why am I so calm but driven now for information ? Well thanks for letting me vent . I’m from St.Louis Mo. USA . Good luck guys I hope we all make it . I know I said that . But I think the more we care about each other the better off we will be .

  18. My daughter has been seeing these lights since last Thursday. She refuses go stay by herself. The first video we captured has been altered somehow & is not the same as the first time we watched it. I want not to believe what I thought I saw, was my granddaughters ho is 6, hanging from this light in the sky, legs and arms dangling, once turning her head towards the camera. But we did not see this while filming, only when it was played back. Terrifying! My daughter sees it every night, once it landed in my back yard, she says, so now she’s staying with my parents. She’s removed battery from her cell phone & will not use her laptop. Believe me when I say she is terrified to mo end! We can’t see these hovering crafts, so now everyone thinks she’s hallucinating. There is no recollection of an abduction.

  19. They are not saying that you can only see a ufo if you were abducted, they are saying that the majority (most people) that have seen a ufo have been abducted. You can still see a ufo and not have been abducted before. The reason they say this, is that if you did see a ufo that close and had experienced a feeling of time loss then you most likely were abducted. If you see a ufo and experienced that, then you have seen your abductor. This is just my understanding of the article and of other people explaining what they saw or felt during times of experience

  20. I saw 4 UFOs close up 2 nights ago (think above farmer’s field behind house, not thousands of feet away). I simply can’t rationally explain what I saw away – they were too close and clearly visible to dismiss. They also moved in a way that was clearly intelligent and were far from any resemblance of human aircraft (unless it’s super secret and stalking rural Ohio locations). This was a very, very real experience – though vivid hallucinations could possibly explain it away. Since I haven’t been prone to hallucinating before, I doubt it was a hallucination, however it is the only explanation that allows me to retain some semblance of my previous reality. Please feel free to dismiss my comment – I would have dismissed similar comments a few days ago. Now, CRAP!!! CRAP!!! CRAP!!! CRAP!!! (I used a different word the other night), there is SOMETHING ELSE going on!!! Figures. Now what?

  21. So monumentally fed up with the whole ‘abductee’ rubbish.

    First and foremost, the very word ‘abductee’ is deliberately designed to evoke fear in people in an effort to put them off investigating and learning more about other races – and that disgusts me. It’s designed to keep people living in ignorance borne of fear.

    Beings from other parts of the Universe that visit Earth – far more advanced in both technology and intelligence than we can ever hope to be – are simply not violent, not clandestine, nothing to fear, and certainly NOT ‘working with the government’ (or any government, for that matter, because humans are far too base, violent and immature to handle advanced technology responsibly).

    I do wish religion would take a flying leap, too, since it’s the single leading cause of ignorance in humanity.

  22. @Dave: Finally an intelligent comment. I agree 100%_Even though I’m not sure these things come from other planets…I think more from other ‘planes’ of existence. Cheers…

  23. @Bill. I know what you are saying. Seeing something like this makes one question one’s own reality. It’s like I know what I saw, but I cannot explain it in any possible way that would match known reality. I used to turn off or ignore any discussion of these types of things, and then I experienced three separate sightings. The first a stone’s throw from the roof of my car (black triangle), the other two at glider plane height. I reported them at a MUFON site, and reading other reports that were somewhat familiar (like yours) and I just can’t believe it was any kind of hallucination. These things are too solid. I’ve not had any lost time, etc. Just the sighting.

    @Dave. Very interesting to consider that.

    @Deva. Sometimes, it seems like it fits either way. Another plane is an extremely intriguing thought and one I’ve often considered.

  24. I am certain they are able to take our Astral bodies. I have had many experiences. I now actually fight then and can return to my body and awaken. you can fight them mid float so to speak. they’ve taken me through walls ceilings windows… sometimes I
    know when they will try and take me… so strange. I’ve been afraid since I was a child. my friend lived about 7 minutes walking distance through huge yards lines with trees very rural down a bug hill, I would cry if she didn’t walk me home after dark. beg her to atlas walk me half way up. I’d have physiological reactions from the fear. I’d run as fast as I could, frightened to look up at the night sky alone. my grandMA said she saw one in our yard…. she didn’t tell me then of course but 20 years later. my grandfather believed. he was in the airforce served in Vietnam and Korea. … my grandmother told me one day maybe around 3 or 4 I became afraid of upstairs…. I was fearful of a few places…. anyway years later when I was 14 I feel asleep at a friend’s house watching a movie and woke up around 3 am freaking out bc if curfew my fears since childhood would come aND go… anyway it was so dark a moo less night no light pollution I was in a big quiet nice neighborhood and was maybe 10 minute’s away by walk. at the end of his coldesac there was a stop sign and for whatever reason I turned completely around and looked up… and there it was a big huge golden ball of light looked to be waaay out there and gigantic.. it shot off all these colors split into two then both orbs shot off more colors then it went back to one and shot across the sky. it was beautfil. I was shocked beyond belief. I remember walking screaming to myself in my head to bang on someone’s door in sheer fear crying of what I’d just seen but I didn’t even with years of fear with them… I took the longer way home skipping the shortcut through woods remember getting to my driveway and running up it running though the house to my parents bedroom and crying to mom at what I’d seen I begged to sleep in their room but to no avail I went across the hall to my bedroom…. then things began to happen to me ever since then though I’ve not seen another craft. strange get enough I’m still fearfull at times even to the point I won’t go to my car at night… anyway I’ve not really finished my story but… if you’d like to k ow more or have had similar experience’s please do share! much love

  25. @Rayena, Thanks for your comment. It helped. I’m still confused as to what is going on. About a couple of months after the encounter I mention in my earlier post here, I had another experience. Since I woke in the middle of the night, I was outside about 2:30 am giving my cat a chance to get out of the house on a cool clear night. After quite a while outside, I thought an ambulance/emergency vehicle was coming through the neighbor’s back yard – weird. Flashing red, blue and white lights similar to what you see from an ambulance were getting closer. But, when I saw the source of the lights it was in the air. It flew about 100 feet above my head, just above the tree level. I saw the leading edge of the airfoil with the lights protruding out of the airfoil – seemed kinda human but futuristic. It was like a flying wing shape, no protrusion in front of the leading edge, sorta boomerang shaped up front and triangular overall (with a slightly curved front). I have worked in science related fields for decades after college. Before that I was a licensed aircraft mechanic with an associate degree in aviation technology. I know something about lift. This was flying too slow to produce lift on the airfoil. It had a jet engine like sound, but like a plane coming in for a landing, no combustion noise, just the turbine sound. And, there was no downwash – it was pretty much directly above me so I would have sensed it. I didn’t see any markings that I remember. They haven’t harmed me and I’ve seen more stuff since, but not right on top of me. So, I go on NOT knowing who, what, why, only that strange flying stuff exists and they seem to like this area right now. I wonder what’s so important around here. Why here? Anyway, I did read an article here at openmindstv about a siting in Benton County, Arkansas. It seemed consistent with what I saw and wasn’t more than a week or two after I saw this. That kind of reassures me that I’m not going bat feces crazy. Like you indicated about your experiences, you are standing there looking at something that can’t exist, it’s impossible, but there is is right in front of you. It’s a shock. An enormous shock. Thanks again for your comment. It really did help. You can’t find help in coping with this kind of thing in the Yellow Pages. This isn’t processing quickly internally, but fortunately it is processing.

  26. Hello my name I would like to say that the two ufos I saw were translucent or almost like the way a cloud is exept they were purple velvet it looked as if I could put my hand through it . Like electrical or something . To also add that they were completely silent and about 10 to 20 feet above me max witch apparently is terrifieing I also was noticed by them and even tho this might sound odd and an abnormal. I waved at them and got their attention witch blew my mind to add the hole situation and incounter last around two to three solid minutes and was in a small town called Centralia at around 2 an on a cold foggy night i was the only one around to see them as far as I know there is a lot more detail I would like to say. However it’s very odd from I can almost guarantee any other reports if u could please msg back I would explain

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