NickTrop
Veteran
There was no mass delusion. I can verify this by my own account. I had absolutely NO knowledge of the Belgium Wave. None. I had NO interest in UFOs. None. I had no knowledge of the Bucks County wave.
What I saw, driving along one night on a small road were two massive hovering black triangles. They were completely silent, and as plain and obvious as anything else you might see. They were not planes, they were not blimps, there were compltely unlike anything else I had ever seen. I was completely sober, not high, I was driving home from work.
I did not just glimpse at them. I stopped my car, got out of my car, and stared at them for many minutes. I drove a different direction after a few minutes to get a different perspective.
1. I had no knowledge of black triangles. I had not seen any news reports before seeing them. Therefore it was NOT "mass delusion".
2. I only learned of the Bucks County Wave many months after the fact.
3. I only heard of the Belgium Wave after learning about "black triangles". They met the exact description of what I saw in 2008.
I can understand your skepticism. But guess what? If you think these things don't exist, you're completely wrong. I can tell you from my own first-hand experience that this is not mass delusion because I know nothing about any of this prior. It's not like I saw a news report and "thought" I "might have" seen them.
The "mass delusion" thing is a cop-out. As a civilization we are in complete denial.
kuuan
loves old lenses
these had been taken shortly before midnight March 17th 2018, a new moon night which marked the Balinese New Year. Balinese New Year of Nyepi, as Balinese call it, is a very special day. For 24 hours, from sunrise to sunrise, noone is allowed to go out on the streets, to make any noise, to use electrical lights during the night.
There is no motortbikes, no cars, not any machine noise, even flights are banned to land or start from Bali during these 24 hours. Traditionalists may fast on that day.
Every time I had spent Nyepi in Bali it had been a very special day for me. It always feels as if nature rejoices and becomes more dominant, even birds sing more loud on that day.
Before midnight, during the dark night without electrical lights anywhere viewable on the whole island, I had looked out the window on the second floor looking down to a rice field and some coconut trees to the right that grow on a ledge leading down to a small rivlett: I was struck by lightballs moving around the ricefield and trees! There were no people, no flashlights, but lights of the size in between a tennis and a volleyball moving freely in similar pattern as fireflies would, just that these lights were of a different scale altogether. I stared at them again and again, trying to figure out how the optical illusion may be created but found no clue or explanation at all. Simple fact was that unidentified lightballs were moving around.
Somehow I was convinced that trying to take photos of them would not work and I did not even try. After a while however I went out into the garden to take photos of the amazing sky. No moon and no lights on the entire island of Bali made more stars viewable more strongly than usual. To get the exposure right it was a bit of trial and error, finally settled at an exposure time of 20 sec. I must have taken some 15 to 20 photos until I was satisfied by the result. Without even attempting two of these captured one of these moving lights that still had been around:
Untitled by kuuan'lens tests, on Flickr
Untitled by kuuan's lens tests, on Flickr
both Olympus OM Zuiko MC f2/28mm, Sony A7, Bali 2018
There is no motortbikes, no cars, not any machine noise, even flights are banned to land or start from Bali during these 24 hours. Traditionalists may fast on that day.
Every time I had spent Nyepi in Bali it had been a very special day for me. It always feels as if nature rejoices and becomes more dominant, even birds sing more loud on that day.
Before midnight, during the dark night without electrical lights anywhere viewable on the whole island, I had looked out the window on the second floor looking down to a rice field and some coconut trees to the right that grow on a ledge leading down to a small rivlett: I was struck by lightballs moving around the ricefield and trees! There were no people, no flashlights, but lights of the size in between a tennis and a volleyball moving freely in similar pattern as fireflies would, just that these lights were of a different scale altogether. I stared at them again and again, trying to figure out how the optical illusion may be created but found no clue or explanation at all. Simple fact was that unidentified lightballs were moving around.
Somehow I was convinced that trying to take photos of them would not work and I did not even try. After a while however I went out into the garden to take photos of the amazing sky. No moon and no lights on the entire island of Bali made more stars viewable more strongly than usual. To get the exposure right it was a bit of trial and error, finally settled at an exposure time of 20 sec. I must have taken some 15 to 20 photos until I was satisfied by the result. Without even attempting two of these captured one of these moving lights that still had been around:
Untitled by kuuan'lens tests, on Flickr
Untitled by kuuan's lens tests, on Flickr
both Olympus OM Zuiko MC f2/28mm, Sony A7, Bali 2018
NickTrop
Veteran
The Mrs and I are trying to decide where to go for our 30th Anniversary that's coming up. You just put Bali on the list. That night sky is absolutely amazing!
Like black triangles, those "orbs" you photographed are another "type" of UFO (in the truest sense of its meaning) that many others have witnessed. Ball lightning has been floated as a possiblity -- but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
Thank you for posting these. I knew with the number of people who post on RFF I'd get a bonafide UFO pic... eventually.
rfaspen
[insert pithy phrase here]
UFOs are definitely real, but not necessarily extraterrestrial, or magic, or ???.
Technically, they are *unidentified* flying objects. I have seen a few things flying around that I couldn't identify, but had no reason to suspect they were "alien".
I lived and worked in New Mexico during a time when the "stealth fighter" was still highly classified and secret. During many of my trips through the missile test range, I saw some very alien-looking black "planes". They (stealth fighters) were confirmed to exist shortly after, but for all I knew I was seeing the traditional UFO (with aliens inside).
I once camped under the stars on the Mogollon Rim in Arizona. Far from any lights or civilization, the night sky was filled with a beautiful star display. While mesmerized and staring up, I saw a light appear and fly very, very fast in a jagged path. Then it zipped off in one direction and disappeared. Alien ships? Likely not. An astronomer friend kindly suggested that a meteorite had a trajectory roughly in line with me (i.e., falling right toward me!). I saw the flight variation of the object as it fell toward me which appeared to me as horizontal flight paths. Luckily, the object must have veered enough to miss me (assuming it made it all the way to earth).
While I absolutely believe there is life outside Earth, the evidence that advanced, intelligent living beings are visiting Earth is shaky. Evidence and careful critical thinking just don't provide strong support for alien visitation. But as I said earlier, that doesn't mean UFOs aren't real.
To summarize: both extraterrestrial life and UFOs of a non-alien origin are nearly certain. Alien visitation in flying vehicles (UFOs) are not so certain. Need much more evidence and support for that.
Technically, they are *unidentified* flying objects. I have seen a few things flying around that I couldn't identify, but had no reason to suspect they were "alien".
I lived and worked in New Mexico during a time when the "stealth fighter" was still highly classified and secret. During many of my trips through the missile test range, I saw some very alien-looking black "planes". They (stealth fighters) were confirmed to exist shortly after, but for all I knew I was seeing the traditional UFO (with aliens inside).
I once camped under the stars on the Mogollon Rim in Arizona. Far from any lights or civilization, the night sky was filled with a beautiful star display. While mesmerized and staring up, I saw a light appear and fly very, very fast in a jagged path. Then it zipped off in one direction and disappeared. Alien ships? Likely not. An astronomer friend kindly suggested that a meteorite had a trajectory roughly in line with me (i.e., falling right toward me!). I saw the flight variation of the object as it fell toward me which appeared to me as horizontal flight paths. Luckily, the object must have veered enough to miss me (assuming it made it all the way to earth).
While I absolutely believe there is life outside Earth, the evidence that advanced, intelligent living beings are visiting Earth is shaky. Evidence and careful critical thinking just don't provide strong support for alien visitation. But as I said earlier, that doesn't mean UFOs aren't real.
To summarize: both extraterrestrial life and UFOs of a non-alien origin are nearly certain. Alien visitation in flying vehicles (UFOs) are not so certain. Need much more evidence and support for that.
FujiLove
Well-known
these had been taken shortly before midnight March 17th 2018, a new moon night which marked the Balinese New Year. Balinese New Year of Nyepi, as Balinese call it, is a very special day. For 24 hours, from sunrise to sunrise, noone is allowed to go out on the streets, to make any noise, to use electrical lights during the night.
There is no motortbikes, no cars, not any machine noise, even flights are banned to land or start from Bali during these 24 hours. Traditionalists may fast on that day.
Every time I had spent Nyepi in Bali it had been a very special day for me. It always feels as if nature rejoices and becomes more dominant, even birds sing more loud on that day.
Before midnight, during the dark night without electrical lights anywhere viewable on the whole island, I had looked out the window on the second floor looking down to a rice field and some coconut trees to the right that grow on a ledge leading down to a small rivlett: I was struck by lightballs moving around the ricefield and trees! There were no people, no flashlights, but lights of the size in between a tennis and a volleyball moving freely in similar pattern as fireflies would, just that these lights were of a different scale altogether. I stared at them again and again, trying to figure out how the optical illusion may be created but found no clue or explanation at all. Simple fact was that unidentified lightballs were moving around.
Somehow I was convinced that trying to take photos of them would not work and I did not even try. After a while however I went out into the garden to take photos of the amazing sky. No moon and no lights on the entire island of Bali made more stars viewable more strongly than usual. To get the exposure right it was a bit of trial and error, finally settled at an exposure time of 20 sec. I must have taken some 15 to 20 photos until I was satisfied by the result. Without even attempting two of these captured one of these moving lights that still had been around:
Untitled by kuuan'lens tests, on Flickr
Untitled by kuuan's lens tests, on Flickr
both Olympus OM Zuiko MC f2/28mm, Sony A7, Bali 2018
You must have got a great view of the ‘UFO’ in the second photo. It was so close it looks like it passed in front of the palm tree, not high above in the night sky.
kuuan
loves old lenses
the sky only. Try to make it for Nyepi!
Nyepi night by andreas, on Flickr
to a facebook group of people living in Bali I had shown these photos and leaks or leyaks were named as possible explanation, also Banaspati, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyak and https://www.gustibali.com/leak-balinese-magic-mystics/ resp. http://cryptidz.wikia.com/wiki/Banaspati
some said it was Dukuns out there, possibly fighting. Looked more like them having a party to me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukun
My neighbour, a local traditional spirit healer, says that these lights are know to be around but only during Nyepi night. That some people, though prohibited, during Nyepi night go out into nature trying to spot these, but that only rarely someone succeeds. Actually I am not sure, but as I understood he reckons that these are souls of deceased.
rfaspen
[insert pithy phrase here]
These are images of fireflies. There are some spectacular fireflies in Bali. I think there's more than one species (several?).
You can book a special Firefly tour:
https://www.govoyagin.com/activities/indonesia-bali-ubud-fireflies-tour-a-countryside-adventure/2345
You can book a special Firefly tour:
https://www.govoyagin.com/activities/indonesia-bali-ubud-fireflies-tour-a-countryside-adventure/2345
Untitled by kuuan'lens tests, on Flickr
Untitled by kuuan's lens tests, on Flickr
both Olympus OM Zuiko MC f2/28mm, Sony A7, Bali 2018
kuuan
loves old lenses
Yes, lots of fireflies in Bali. These had been at least 10, rather 100 times their size.
zauhar
Veteran
Hey Nick, I have not bothered to respond to anything on RFF for at least a year! Thanks for this fascinating topic .
Regarding comment (troll?) from Fujilove, I have seen dozens of police helicopters (thousands? really?) with their searchlights turned on, and on two occasions had aforesaid searchlight focused directly upon me, and I will attest that whatever is shown in the YouTube video is NOT a police helicopter with searchlight turned on.
Fujilove, a 'photographer' with such a poor eye as yours should really be banished from RFF ! ;-)
Randy
Darthfeeble
But you can call me Steve
I believe in UFOs, but I think the decline in reported sightings has to do with the increase in Reality TV programing. We've been put off limits.
farlymac
PF McFarland
The Orbs!
00440006_2 by P F McFarland, on Flickr
No, not a faked alien invasion, just the result from a pin-holed Zorki-1 shutter, but it's kind of what I've envisioned an invasion could look like in broad daylight.
PF
00440006_2 by P F McFarland, on Flickr
No, not a faked alien invasion, just the result from a pin-holed Zorki-1 shutter, but it's kind of what I've envisioned an invasion could look like in broad daylight.
PF
f16sunshine
Moderator
^^^ Cool pic PF. the pinholes contribute here.
@JoeV
Those black triangles are blacker than the night Sky.
@Nicktrop... Fun subject
I've seen something like those triangles at sea. Also in 2008 on labor day weekend.
I was skippering a night dive trip in the San Juan Islands.
It was about 1:30am on our return to port.
There were 6 people on the boat. We all saw the same thing and honestly, if others did not see it I would not believe my eyes.
Not just the shape but the silence..speed and physics defying movements.
3 triangles silently looping around each other at crazy speed and then coming to seemingly a complete stop and just hanging there.
Not diving but flat looping like at the same elevation…. many miles up.
Planes don't loop like that. they can only move forward. These seemingly could move an direction.
Whether military or alien... definitely not a known object.
If it's Military (as I personally Strongly suspect), there is some serious technology being hidden from the public.
No pictures so I guess it did not happen.
@JoeV
Those black triangles are blacker than the night Sky.
@Nicktrop... Fun subject
I've seen something like those triangles at sea. Also in 2008 on labor day weekend.
I was skippering a night dive trip in the San Juan Islands.
It was about 1:30am on our return to port.
There were 6 people on the boat. We all saw the same thing and honestly, if others did not see it I would not believe my eyes.
Not just the shape but the silence..speed and physics defying movements.
3 triangles silently looping around each other at crazy speed and then coming to seemingly a complete stop and just hanging there.
Not diving but flat looping like at the same elevation…. many miles up.
Planes don't loop like that. they can only move forward. These seemingly could move an direction.
Whether military or alien... definitely not a known object.
If it's Military (as I personally Strongly suspect), there is some serious technology being hidden from the public.
No pictures so I guess it did not happen.
Corran
Well-known
Dead silence in the sky, a close fly-by. Very close to a military test range. My suspicion is a silent helicopter, the way it moved. Very bright - the reflection on the water is from the light, not something else.
hexfan
Newbie
Corran, love that photo. Can you share some more information? Camera, exposure?
I forget who posted this comment, but certainly at this point there is so much anecdotal data and now with modern imaging, ETs are on the cusp of becoming absolutely undeniable. I come from a science background so I don't usually put that much stock in anecdotes, but at some point it becomes convincing. Even though we haven't been able to get hard data because of their technology that seems to be changing or to have already changed. It seems that most countries with an air force have lots of gun camera footage now and are keeping them under wraps until a head of state decides to make disclosure.
The original poster (Nick I believe) made reference to the Nimitz gun camera footage. Its pretty soft, but in my mind along with the testimony it holds water. Nimitz again is the name of the navy aircraft carrier from which the highly decorated fighter pilot, Fravor observed these UFOs off the coast of California. You can probably find the two clips just searching on youtube and they are linked through the To the Stars Academy website. One is called the "tic-tac" video so named I think because of the oblong shape of the crafts. They were seen on radar for several days before pilots were ordered to approach them. When Fravor made an aggressive maneuver toward them he was unable to approach them. They rapidly moved to the pilots' next destination.
I hadn't heard of the Bucks county sighting surprisingly. I just starting learning about this stuff back in March. A political commentator I really like who does a show on Youtube has reported quite a bit on UFOs now. He's interviewed a number of people and you have to be pretty skeptical of some of them, but I feel a lot of this info at this point cannot be brushed under the rug and attributed to things like military testing and psychosis. Among those with testimony are a former Arizona governor and a former president. Check out Jamarl Thomas's channel, and this interview of Stephen Bassett which I thought was the best so far. It's a bit into the reporting already but I think still a good place to start and go back from there...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSGl6A79Jgc
-Ben
I forget who posted this comment, but certainly at this point there is so much anecdotal data and now with modern imaging, ETs are on the cusp of becoming absolutely undeniable. I come from a science background so I don't usually put that much stock in anecdotes, but at some point it becomes convincing. Even though we haven't been able to get hard data because of their technology that seems to be changing or to have already changed. It seems that most countries with an air force have lots of gun camera footage now and are keeping them under wraps until a head of state decides to make disclosure.
The original poster (Nick I believe) made reference to the Nimitz gun camera footage. Its pretty soft, but in my mind along with the testimony it holds water. Nimitz again is the name of the navy aircraft carrier from which the highly decorated fighter pilot, Fravor observed these UFOs off the coast of California. You can probably find the two clips just searching on youtube and they are linked through the To the Stars Academy website. One is called the "tic-tac" video so named I think because of the oblong shape of the crafts. They were seen on radar for several days before pilots were ordered to approach them. When Fravor made an aggressive maneuver toward them he was unable to approach them. They rapidly moved to the pilots' next destination.
I hadn't heard of the Bucks county sighting surprisingly. I just starting learning about this stuff back in March. A political commentator I really like who does a show on Youtube has reported quite a bit on UFOs now. He's interviewed a number of people and you have to be pretty skeptical of some of them, but I feel a lot of this info at this point cannot be brushed under the rug and attributed to things like military testing and psychosis. Among those with testimony are a former Arizona governor and a former president. Check out Jamarl Thomas's channel, and this interview of Stephen Bassett which I thought was the best so far. It's a bit into the reporting already but I think still a good place to start and go back from there...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSGl6A79Jgc
-Ben
FujiLove
Well-known
Hi Randy - I'm sorry you don't like hearing the opinions of people who have different views to yourself, and feel you have to describe them as trolls, denigrate and call for them to be banned. I've noticed quite a bit of this attitude on here. Maybe it's the example being set by your president? He seems to encourage that sort of behaviour.
Archiver
Veteran
For a very different place where the night sky is incredible, I've been reading about Lake Tekapo in New Zealand. They have banned street lights and any possible source of light pollution that would obscure their beautiful night sky. Being a long time star buff, and having a mild but longstanding interest in UFOs, Lake Tekapo looks like a very cool place.
Google for 'lake tekapo stars' and you'll see what I mean.
I've never seen a UFO, let alone taken a picture of one. I'm open to the possibility that there are aerial vehicles that are not of human origin, although I consider most of the UFO and abduction stories to be pleasant fiction unless proven otherwise.
FujiLove
Well-known
And what did you conclude after viewing them from different angles and distances? How large were they, for instance? What did the police, government, air traffic control etc. have to say when you reported it?
What sort of terrain was it over? Any buildings nearby? Is it a populated or remote area? Any constructions going on that could have created that sort of shape in the sky (such as huge pieces of material stretched out with wires).
Did you speak to the local meteorologists? Did you contact local universities to check if they had been running any experiments? Ditto research establishments?
Did you speak to the FAA, aircraft manufacturers, or even aircraft recognition experts and try to find out whether there are aircraft that look like the ones you saw from certain angles? Some balloons are very odd shapes, for instance.
Did you contact the local news? If so, who else saw them?
I'm asking all these questions because I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark here and bet you didn't bust a gut and spend any real time chasing up all the avenues to check what earthly phenomenon you witnessed. If I had to guess, I'd bet that you instead thought, 'Aliens!', and just went off right down that track.
Am I close to the truth, or way off the mark?
(This is the point at which you say I'm way off the mark, and you exhausted every avenue of possibility. Right? But we both know that unless you're a high ranking military official with access to the Pentagon's list of experimental aircraft flights, all the aerospace manufacturer's project plans, an expert meteorologist, have a PhD in fluid dynamics etc. etc. you couldn't possibly conclude that what you saw was 'alien')
What I've noticed is that UFO sightings are a lot like religion:
"I experienced something I don't understand, therefore: GOD"
"I experienced something I don't understand, therefore: ALIENS"
All it 'proves' is that the observer is seeing something they don't understand. It's nothing more than the human condition at work. You're seeing what you want to see. As a species we love to see more than there really is and apply our own biases and theories (faces in abstract patterns, creatures rising out of the craggy shapes of volcanic lava etc.)
Bear in mind that we live on a planet where millions of people believe that Mother Teresa performed actual miracles and cured people of cancers. They are able to believe this despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. They WANT to believe a magic amulet healed a woman's tumour (presumably via the power of god), rather than the boring reality of all the chemotherapy she was receiving.
Show me some good, hard scientific evidence and I'll be as excited as you about the discovery of aliens here on earth. But I've not seen the tiniest scrap of real evidence that wouldn't get laughed out of the lab. Everything is either hearsay or fuzzy video of lights (that, funnily enough, I could create in my back garden).
And finally, don't forget this simple but sad fact: people just make things up. They make things up because they want to feel special, and sometimes because they have mental conditions which cause a compulsion to lie. Others have compulsions to agree with others, to fit in with the group, and these compulsions sometimes extend to pretending to have had the same experiences. Some people read and see things in movies and convince themselves they saw the same thing when they were children. The reality is nothing exists but their own thoughts.
I'm not saying the above applies to you, or this case, but I'm convinced it is a significant factor with UFO sightings in general. I wonder how many of the 'hundreds of Belgians' who witnessed the triangles would turn out to have personality disorders if tested? I'd bet it would be significantly higher than the general public.
FujiLove
Well-known
And also remember that millions of people have physical and mental conditions which cause them to see, hear and smell things that are not there. Mix in a bucket load of subconscious suggestion, being alone in the dark, images of UFOs from movies and books, fear of the unknown, weird noises, meteorological phenomena, psycho active drugs, prescribed medication, experimental aircraft etc. etc. and it's a wonder hundreds of 'UFO sightings' aren't reported in every city, every day.
John Lawrence
Well-known
The only 'flying saucers' I've seen were those thrown at me by an ex-girlfriend during one of our skirmishes - and I was far too busy trying to avoid them to take any pictures!
John
John
FujiLove
Well-known
The Belgian incident occurred over one of the busiest routes for commercial aviation in the world: the Eastern approach to the UK's busiest airports. It's covered by so much radar that you can't fly a kite without a controller seeing you. So where's all the radar footage of these massive aircraft? Where are the civil and military controllers (must be hundreds) who witnessed it? Where is the cockpit footage from the intercept aircraft (which are bristling with cameras that cover all sorts of wavelengths)? Where are the civilian pilots who must have witnessed these huge aircraft massing over Belgium? Where are the radio messages from all the civilian pilots who must have been flying over the area (on the radio channels which thousands of aircraft enthusiasts in Europe listen to)?
Where's all that huge mass of crucial evidence? Or how about just one tiny bit of it? Why is all that not on OpenMinds.tv ?!
LOL