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1. The 3rd alien encounter or just outdoor rave party? 2. Alien also cat walk? 3. I handsome or not?; 4. Hello, who is searching for us?

Author: Mathwizard, SPI Research Department of UFOlogy

The Mysterious Universe

Innumerable suns exist; innumerable earths revolve around these suns in a manner similar to the way the seven planets revolve around our sun. Living beings inhabit these worlds. - Giordano Bruno, 1584.

Looking at the clear night sky, we see countless of stars twinkling and blinking. Each one of these stars could have planets around them; and some of these planets may or once have harbored life. And perhaps some of these life forms were able to evolve into intelligent species. Given the relatively young age of human race, it is more than likely that there are extraterrestrial civilizations out there, some of which could be thousands or billions of years far more ahead of us in term of scientific advances. When I look at the stars, impressed by the beautiful Milky Way Galaxy, I often wonder whether there is someone out there somewhere, looking back at me.

Our Sun is only one of the many billions of stars out there in our galaxy; and our galaxy is but just one of many galaxies in the infinitude of space. Isn¡¦t it arrogant and stupid to think that we are alone in the universe? The history of astronomy is a good reminder of how ignorant the human race used to be (and maybe still is). We thought the earth was flat; and we thought the Sun revolved around the Earth. Could we now be wrong thinking that we are alone in the universe?

J.B.S. Haldane once said that "Now, my suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose... I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of, in any philosophy". With the advances made in quantum mechanics and cosmology, scientists have proposed that our universe is not the only one. It is just one of many universes ¡V now called ¡§multiverse¡¨. One interpretation of quantum physics even predicts the existence of parallel universes. Consider that we throw a dice and ended up with a ¡§2¡¨. At that point, the universe had actually split into 6 universes, each corresponding with one possible outcome of the dice-throwing experiment. So our universe is constantly splitting into many branches, all of which can then evolve and split into many other universes. So in term of parallel universes, there are worlds very similar to ours: maybe I am bald in one of these worlds, or maybe I am a criminal in the other world. If I narrowly escaped an accident here, then certainly in some of these universes I have died. Anything imaginable happens somewhere in some universes as long as the law of physics permits it. Some worlds maybe drastically different: maybe no human has evolved and maybe other intelligent life forms had filled the niche of humans. Of course not all scientists accept this interpretation of quantum physics. But it is a possibility that parallel universes do exist. At least serious research is now being done in the area where only science fiction had dealt with before. If there are parallel universes, is it possible to travel to other universes? Our knowledge in quantum physics is in its infancy. We do not yet know the answer.

With the possibility that other planets in our galaxy and beyond may harbor intelligent alien life forms, and the possibility that other parallel universes may also have intelligent species capable of inter-universes travel (if that is possible), it is indeed very interesting to ask: Are any of these aliens here yet?

1. I am the grey - the classical alien; 2. Classical? No-one is better known as Aliens than me! Blockbuster rules!
3. Am I cute or not? 4. Oh, where is my spacesuit? What a humiliation to your extraterrestrial guest?

A Personal Quest for the Truth

I still vividly remember the first time I encountered the word ¡§Flying Saucer¡¨. That time I was still a little child. I was watching a cartoon that mentioned Flying Saucer. So I asked my dad what that means while he was about to leave for work. He tried to explain to me but I wasn¡¦t able to fully comprehend the concept. He even used his key to scratch an image of a flying saucer on the wall just outside our house, next to the staircases. The image remains until today. But I never expected Flying Saucers and their occupants to be a real mystery, until a truly other worldly event happened.

It was the year 1991. I am still a Primary 3 student in SRJK (C) Chung Hwa Wei Sin, Kuala Terengganu. Our school was having either Children Day or Teacher¡¦s Day celebration. So there was no lesson that day. Everyone was happily playing and talking. And then out of nowhere there was a panic. I saw my neighbour and his friend walking towards me. So I stopped him and asked what happened. He merely said ¡§Little Men¡¨. I was baffled and went back to my classroom. By then I had heard enough to know that supposedly some students had encountered 3 inches tall humanoids at the backyard of the school. Some even said that these little men have guns and their spaceship was on the tree! I tried to spot the spaceship through the windows of the classroom, but failed to find any. Students were so terrified that they cried and ran. One student even hit his bag with a broom just in case those little men were hiding in it. Of course the teachers tried to calm the students down, saying that there were no such things as little men. But recently I found out that the teachers actually searched for the little men that very evening but failed to find any.

This incident had opened my mind. I was exposed to another realm: the possibility that there are mysteries out there which no science can offer a satisfactory explanation. As a kid back then, I was prepared to believe in things that adults will most likely dismiss as nonsense. And hence my interest in paranormal developed. I started to study paranormal phenomena, reading books about UFOs and aliens, but gradually expanded to other weird phenomena like ghosts, ESP, Cryptozoology etc. I started to collect newspaper reports and articles about the unexplained when I was in Secondary 1.

Of course I was too ready to believe back then. Now with a much more rational mind and more knowledge, I was more skeptical about paranormal claims. But deep down inside my heart, I want to believe. I know something happened back then in 1991. I had a chance to try to catch a glimpse of those mysterious miniature humanoids, but I failed to take any action. Of course I shouldn¡¦t blame myself because I was merely 9 years old at that time. But sometimes I do regret that I missed the chance. It was so close yet so far. So now I am determined to find the truth. My entire fascination with the unexplained is due to these little aliens. How many people on this planet actually had extraterrestrial influence in their lives? If shooting stars can make wishes come true, I wish that I will be given another chance to see them and perhaps say Hello to them.

1. The alien that was not - the hoax has already debunked;
2. When did our trademark faces get stereotyped by walnuts and Ray Ben?
3. Modern generation of UFO in the form of a blob of light, sometimes with a little tail
4. Nothing beats the classic look - the metal saucer, whether you like it or not.

Why Study UFO Phenomena?

The love of the marvelous is the most dangerous enemy of natural science. - Mineralogist Eugene de Patrin, said in 1802 when dismissing reports of meteorites.

I find it irritating when laymen always equal UFOs with alien spaceships. The media approach towards UFO mystery has contributed to this misconception when they always have headlines that read like ¡§UFOs sighted. Aliens visited Earth again?¡¨ I often have to explain at length to people that UFOs, by definition, simply means ¡§Unidentified Flying Objects¡¨.

Being unidentified, how do we know that they are alien spaceships? They can be, but they need not be. In fact about 95% of all UFOs are misinterpretations of natural phenomena and man-made objects. These include the planet Venus, ball lightning, high-altitude balloons, air planes, kites, mirages caused by reflecting light beams, swamp gas, and even birds reflecting light from the city. Once investigations revealed their true identities, they were technically called IFOs or Identified Flying Objects. But I find it equally perplexing that some people will just look at these 95% of cases and consider the mystery solved. They have clearly missed the point. What about the remaining 5%? What are they? Why can¡¦t we explain them? And how many report that actually contributes to these 5%?

Science is about studying and understanding our world. There is a need to constantly pushing the envelope so that we learn more and more things. And the envelope of Science was and still is the paranormal. The scientific community once dismissed the possibility of meteorites because the model of the universe at that time does not permit the existence of ¡§stone in the sky¡¨. As a science student myself, I am aware that scientists are just humans. Sometimes they have prejudices and sometimes they aren¡¦t as rational as they should be when they are faced with new theories that seem to be absurd.

The public is usually of two extremes: the believers and the scoffers. The believers will almost always believe in any paranormal claims. They may even believe that the missing cats in the neighbourhood had been abducted by aliens from Mars. The scoffers on the other hand always dismiss paranormal reports as nonsense without even looking at the data. Both groups need to understand how Science really works. We should be skeptical yet open-minded, i.e. willing to study the data before dismissing it or confirming it. Bernard Haisch, an astrophysicist from UFOSkeptic.org once said:

¡§I propose that true skepticism is called for today: neither the gullible acceptance of true belief nor the closed-minded rejection of the scoffer masquerading as the skeptic. One should be skeptical of both the believers and the scoffers. The negative claims of pseudo-skeptics who offer facile explanations must themselves be subject to criticism. If a competent witness reports having seen something tens of degrees of arc in size (as happens) and the scoffer -- who of course was not there -- offers Venus or a high altitude weather balloon as an explanation, the requirement of extraordinary proof for an extraordinary claim falls on the proffered negative claim as well. That kind of approach is also pseudo-science. Moreover just being a scientist confers neither necessary expertise nor sufficient knowledge. (I wish it did, sigh.) Any scientist who has not read a few serious books and articles presenting actual UFO evidence should out of intellectual honesty refrain from making scientific pronouncements. To look at the evidence and go away unconvinced is one thing. To not look at the evidence and be convinced against it nonetheless is another. That is not science.¡¨

There are many discoveries to be made in studying UFO phenomena. If we can prove that they are of extraterrestrial origin, either from some distant planets or from other parallel universes, it would definitely be the most important discovery of all time: that we are not alone. The scientific value of this discovery is obvious. If even only one of thousands of alien abduction reports is real, we would have made an important contribution to the scientific community. But if none of them is real, what happened then? Have we waste our resources in studying phenomenon that is not true? No. In that case we would have made some advances in human psychology by studying why so many people believe they have been abducted by aliens. Either way it is important to study paranormal phenomena because it is what Science does: to understand the world.

For me, it is not that important whether we can prove the existence of aliens, but that we actually try to study the phenomena scientifically with an open mind and without prejudices, for that is the spirit of doing Science. I believe that given time, Science can solve the mysteries of UFOs and also of other paranormal phenomena.

Come, study me if you can. I am the most elusive creature in the whole universe, *evil grin*

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