I know!!! Excellent call, Ryan! The Valentich case is the weirdest one yet. Lots of witnesses around and even photo evidence that he was being tailed by a saucer just as his plane disappeared.

I remember watching that episode of Unsolved Mysteries with the Valentich case. Weird stuff.

I read about the Valentich case years ago. Still gives me the creeps....

Come on, guys. He got disoriented (or was high) and crashed. End of story.

UFO's do exist, but they're experimental aircraft the government doesn't want us to know about yet (like the Stealth Bomber in the 80's, for example). Those that aren't are weather balloons (that was what crashed in the famous Roswell incident), or freak atmospheric phenomena. Just look at the science. You can't go faster than the speed of light, so unless they're within out own solar system, forget about it.

but what makes you so sure that none of this stuff exists? That there's a totally scientific, rational explanation for everything, how can you be totally, completely, 100% certain?

Mainly, because I'm a scientist. Or, at least, I teach science.

Besides, as I said above, there are a few things that may not be BS.

And there is that incident I alluded to. I don't like to talk about it, especially alone in my house at night, so maybe I'll tell you guys tomorrow. During the day.

The brain can play tricks with you in the dark.

totally understand. And I'm not trying to be challenging, just playing Devil's Advocate of sorts...I have just seen and been around too many unexplained things that science can't quantify. Many aspects of science are reasoned, logical explanations based on previous factors, conditions, and perceptions...so what if some of these conclusions are incorrectly assumed?

Then you just haven't found the right hypothesis yet. Or your observations are incorrect. Or your experimental design is off. Everything can be proven (or in the case of UFO's disproven) by the scientific method. That's not to say there can't be the occasional paradigm shift when new evidence comes to light (like the sun being the center or the solar system, not the earth for example).

Give me a couple of your experiences. I could probably give you a scientific explanation, of course it wouldn't hold up without examining the evidence, etc. but it might be an interesting exercise.

Well, I don't really mind if it's true or not since I haven't been present. I just report 'em.

On to the ghost stories...

My grandmother was a seamstress by trade, but she was also what some would call a healer, someone with mystical abilities. She was also sensitive to all sorts of psychic phenomena around her. When she was young, someone read her horoscope and told grandma that she would leave Cuba and die of old age in a foreign land. She didn't believe it then, but passed away at age 97 in the very room I'm sitting in right now, here in Anaheim, California.

At one point in her life, she started reading fortunes kinda like Domino in Live and Let Die. People with sick children or relatives would come to her and ask if the person would survive or not. She would pick up a card and whatever she called, happened.

My mother's family was poor and moved around a bit while she was a kid. Once, they lived in old houses that had gone through various owners. One night, my grandparents were sleeping in a bed with mosquito netting (which used to be the norm due to Cuba's humid climate) when my grandma awoke to see a huge flash of light beside their bed.

Later on, my mom learned that a woman who'd lived in the house had set herself on fire and ran to her sister's room where she lay sleeping inside a similar mosquito netting. The woman raised the netting while ablaze to wake her sister since she'd seemingly had second thoughts about burning herself alive. She then ran out the street where someone threw a blanket over her. She eventually died from her injuries. My grandma turned pale when she heard this, because of her own encounter. She felt she'd witnessed a psychic recreation of that earlier tragedy, with the flash of light being the woman who lit herself up.

Later still, my grandma's mother-in-law went to live with them. During her final days, she noticed someone standing by her bed one evening. She thought it was my grandma bringing her coffee late at night and called her by name, telling my grandma to go back to bed. She heard a woman's voice respond: "It's not her, dear. It's me." Once grandma actually entered the room, her mom-in-law told her what happened. So grandma figured that it was the suicidal woman again. They later moved out from there.

When my mom a very young child, she would often get sick and have people watch over her. One such lady, according to my mom, was always wearing a white, Victorian-era dress and hat. Problem was, nobody but my mom would see her and this was in the early 1930's. My mom loves Impressionistic paintings and once pointed out to me a Monet which described the woman. She looked something like this:



The house dated back to the late 19th century and the image above is from 1895. My mom had never seen books with ladies from that era as a child. Creepy, yeah. But classy, don't you think? Mom always says that the lady never spoke to her but carried a warm smile that made her felt safe. So she could have been a guardian angel of sorts, likely someone who lived there at one point in time. I'm grateful that she took care of my mom if this is the case.

Years after, mom developed some weird powers of her own. While fooling around with a Ouija Board, she and some other girls tried to spell out a message. Everyone failed but my mom. The message she received said: "She awaits to make you suffer." Mom insists that this didn't faze her at all somehow, but her first marriage would end due to a woman's interference. So that was likely the warning, although she has no idea who could have sent it years before the fact.

Next up: Ghost lights, reincarnation, and an ongoing phenomena. (Toy-related, to some degree.)

100 years ago, folks said man couldn't fly. 60 years, folks said we couldn't break the sound barrier. 50 years ago, that we couldn't get to the moon. So what is impossible today may someday be possible. But what about the possiblity of a civilation that been around for thousands years ahead of us, what would be possible for them?




I want to KNOW!!

And LT, that's creepy......

Krypt, thanks for noticing my *ahem* brief postings in between Ryan and Shelly's debate on science versus the unknown.

I REALLY want to hear Shelly's story, as well.

Wow. What a story Clutch. Maybe one day, if I can get over the fear of being ridiculed, I'll share an experience of unexplained phenomena my best friend and I had when we were about 12-13 years old.

Alright, here goes.

About 10 years ago my former wife and I were invited to a friend's house along with several other people. Now this friend's house was in Scottsdale, way back in the mountains in a neighborhood that was at least half empty. It was kind of weird with so many empty houses, punctuated with the occasional lighted home.

Before I go on, you have to understand a few things about Scottsdale. First, like a lot of metro Phoenix back when the economy was booming, new neighborhoods were popping up all over the place, each one expanding deeper and deeper into the mountains or the desert. At the time we went there, you couldn't even get pizza delivery up there. Secondly, Scottsdale borders a Native American Indian Reservation (I think its the Pima Reservation).

We were having a great time and a group of us decided to go swimming. Our host led a bunch of us to the community center where the pool was, going by way of a nature path that went right through the desert. Very beautiful and classy (our host was a bit well off), but it also meandered away from the community a bit (I guess there were a bunch of trails, but after that night, we never felt like visiting again).

We swam and partied, but gradually people went back to the house until just my wife and I were left. We hadn't had access to a pool for a long time so we were really enjoying it. Finally, we realized that it was dark and we were probably being rude, so we decided to head back. . .