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Thanks for going against the HN grain and submitting a description of this experience. For a site with so many well-educated users I am disturbed by the volume

Thanks for going against the HN grain and submitting a description of this experience. For a site with so many well-educated users I am disturbed by the volume of comments that suggest that things like this only happen in the US, or they have only happened since WWII, they are only reported by military pilots, or that this can't be real because FTL travel is not possible without considering that it isn't even necessary nor has it ever been claimed in any account AFAIK. I first started reading about things like this decades ago (after Pascagoula) and over the years I have read a lot of reports filed with outfits like MUFON. I am open-minded about all this and willing to consider that some of it could be true. Personally I tend to believe older reports filed by people who had nothing to gain and everything to lose by making an extraordinary claim yet still chose to inform their peers about something that they saw or experienced because they needed to understand it themselves and if they told the story maybe someone somewhere could fill in the blanks for them. Someone that I have known for decades told me a few years ago that they were part of a small group that had an experience with something similar to what you are describing. In their case the thing they all described blocked out the stars almost from horizon to horizon as it passed over. It was described as huge, black, and silent with a well-defined edge that one could follow across the sky as the stars in front were blocked and those behind reappeared. They said they didn't notice it until they realized all the normal night sounds had completely stopped as it approached and once it passed, the insects, birds and things resumed their chatter. They don't know what they saw but they do know they did see something unusual. These are college educated people enjoying life in a rural area. While in college, I also taped a story that a fellow student told one day. I always taped the lectures and transcribed them after class to help remember things and on this particular day the subject somehow turned to UFOs. I would have to replay the tape to know how the segue happened but anyway, if I remember right the professor commented about UFOs not being real and this student interrupted and told his personal encounter story. From memory, he was out with friends riding ranch roads across the part of west Texas where he was raised when one of them pointed out a set of lights over a part of the ranch where there were no roads, buildings, etc. They all saw the lights and decided to investigate and so they followed ranch roads towards them and as they got closer it was apparent that the lights were part of something really unusual and large that was not on the ground but was in the sky. As they got closer it zipped straight up and away and was gone in a couple seconds. I still have the tape but no way to play it. I always recorded over the previous day's lecture after transcribing but for that one I decided I would keep it and start another tape. I know this person to be an ordinary person who got a great education in geoscience and took that into a career with a multinational company eventually as a VP. He was always a no bullshit person.

sholladay 3y ago
You’re welcome. FWIW, this is getting a lot more upvotes than I expected. Maybe it’s just that there is a lot of traffic on this thread. But it could be that a lot other people have had similar experiences and just don’t want to talk about it. I can certainly relate to that - there are some people in my life who I haven’t told simply because of what they might think. It’s easier to talk about with strangers or super close friends.
- doodlebugging 3y ago
  I think you are close when you propose that other people who have had an experience like this are not willing to share because society stigmatizes them so that in the end, only those who knew them at the time or those who have become trusted friends ever hear the story. This is certainly true for the people that I know. With the exception of the fellow student who felt compelled to tell his story, almost every one of the others that I know avoids talking about it and will even try to deflect conversation if there is anyone who hasn't already heard about it present. One old friend still regularly communicates with me as I am one of the only people they trust to be non-judgemental since I knew them a long time before they had their experience. I get photos, short videos, descriptions of events, attempts to tie their experiences in with other reports, etc and so I dutifully check it all out to try to help them come to terms with what has become for them a lifelong process of dealing with an emotional trauma that ended up stigmatizing them back in the small town where we grew up. Long-term friendships are critical for helping people manage some of these experiences. Events like this are relatively rare and so it is easy for someone who doesn't personally know or who has never personally had an unusual event happen to automatically default to the conclusion that the one reporting the event has some mental issue, is unreliable, etc. Another poster suggested that somehow the subjects of one thing I mentioned must have been confused by clouds. People look for the most likely explanations and tend to ignore the fact that many of these observers have more than enough experience to understand when they are seeing something remarkable. I can say that I know several people who have had strange things happen in their lives and that among that group there is not a single one who actively went out looking for that to happen. All were just ordinary people and some were still in grade school. I am open-minded about what has happened to these people and in some cases I saw the immediate changes in their personality and demeanor. Something different happened to them. I am not qualified to say what it was but I know it was not something that anyone would consider normal. I'm just trying to be a friend to them - a sounding board when they find themselves thinking about it again.

sholladay 3y ago

You’re welcome. FWIW, this is getting a lot more upvotes than I expected. Maybe it’s just that there is a lot of traffic on this thread. But it could be that a lot other people have had similar experiences and just don’t want to talk about it. I can certainly relate to that - there are some people in my life who I haven’t told simply because of what they might think. It’s easier to talk about with strangers or super close friends.

doodlebugging 3y ago
I think you are close when you propose that other people who have had an experience like this are not willing to share because society stigmatizes them so that in the end, only those who knew them at the time or those who have become trusted friends ever hear the story. This is certainly true for the people that I know. With the exception of the fellow student who felt compelled to tell his story, almost every one of the others that I know avoids talking about it and will even try to deflect conversation if there is anyone who hasn't already heard about it present. One old friend still regularly communicates with me as I am one of the only people they trust to be non-judgemental since I knew them a long time before they had their experience. I get photos, short videos, descriptions of events, attempts to tie their experiences in with other reports, etc and so I dutifully check it all out to try to help them come to terms with what has become for them a lifelong process of dealing with an emotional trauma that ended up stigmatizing them back in the small town where we grew up. Long-term friendships are critical for helping people manage some of these experiences. Events like this are relatively rare and so it is easy for someone who doesn't personally know or who has never personally had an unusual event happen to automatically default to the conclusion that the one reporting the event has some mental issue, is unreliable, etc. Another poster suggested that somehow the subjects of one thing I mentioned must have been confused by clouds. People look for the most likely explanations and tend to ignore the fact that many of these observers have more than enough experience to understand when they are seeing something remarkable. I can say that I know several people who have had strange things happen in their lives and that among that group there is not a single one who actively went out looking for that to happen. All were just ordinary people and some were still in grade school. I am open-minded about what has happened to these people and in some cases I saw the immediate changes in their personality and demeanor. Something different happened to them. I am not qualified to say what it was but I know it was not something that anyone would consider normal. I'm just trying to be a friend to them - a sounding board when they find themselves thinking about it again.