Twentieth-century data on aliens only add to the ancient evidence. It becomes clear that UFOs have visited the planet since the very beginning of human history.
What they tried to explain the hype around UFOs in the XX century - and the hysteria of the Cold War, and the zombification of the population with the help of the media, and the paranoid reaction of society to too rapid technological progress. The famous psychologist Carl Gustav Jung wrote that UFOs are projections from the collective unconscious, in other words, a person is inclined to project onto the sky images that he cannot see on earth. In the distant past, they were shining angels, after the onset of the era of industrialization, they gave way to sparkling machines, Jung argued.
Science fiction writers have made their contribution to the alien industry, starting with H. G. Wells, who colorfully described the landing of warlike Martians on Earth 100 years ago. And, of course, one of the most powerful tools for influencing the broad masses - Hollywood - did not stand aside. Today, when the archives on UFOs of the French and British special services have finally been published, everyone can easily be convinced that the number of evidences of encounters with the notorious "saucers" and "green men" has increased dramatically after the release of Steven Spielberg's film "Close contacts of the third view "in 1977.
It would seem that everything is clear, and one of the first ufologists, the American researcher Philip Klass, was right, who argued that the mass evidence of contacts is explained by the hysteria that the press is stirring up, and this evidence will multiply only until the press loses interest in them.
However, the theory of general hysteria still showed its weak points. The main one is the so-called ancient UFO evidence. Historians increasingly find in ancient documents indications of mysterious celestial objects, and art connoisseurs can see with their own eyes that UFOs were depicted in the Renaissance - long before Spielberg with his realistic special effects.
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DEEP AGE: THEY WERE ALWAYS HERE
From the very beginning of the emergence of ufology, skeptics wondered why aliens appeared only in the 20th century? Have they only reached Earth just now? Or did we simply not notice the heavenly guests before?
Outstanding representatives of the first generation of ufologists tried to answer these questions. Swedish researcher Erich von Daniken has collected a lot of evidence that guests from other planets have visited Earth more than once in the distant past. One of them is the Peruvian Nazca Valley, which is crossed by mysterious lines, from a bird's eye view, folding into drawings of animals and birds. For whom these drawings were intended in an era when there was no trace of aviation, remains a mystery. The Egyptian pyramids are also mentioned in this context, which, according to many researchers, would have been difficult to build with our today's technologies, not to mention the primitive Egyptian pyramids several millennia ago.
We tried. Drawings in the Nazca desert are visible only from the plane
Researchers find images of cosmonauts in spacesuits and flying saucers on ancient rock paintings, as well as in texts of ancient myth and religious writings. In particular, the famous American scientist Zakaria Sitchin cites many such moments in his studies. He found most of the written evidence in the Sumerian texts and in the Bible, in particular, in the book of the prophet Ezekiel and in the book of Revelations. In the book of Giovanni Droysen "The History of Alexander the Great" it is mentioned that in 332 BC. during the siege of Tire, "flying shields" appeared in the sky, which helped the Macedonians to take the city by storm, breaking through its walls with lightning. The Greek historian Plutarch also mentions "flying shields".
In the 9th century, the archbishop of the French city of Lyon wrote about the "air sailors" who arrived in "flying ships" and devastated local gardens and wheat fields. In the 15th century, a mysterious silver disk was noted several times in the Irish chronicles, leaving a long trail in the sky. Once, flying low above the ground at great speed, the disc even tore the bell from the bell tower of one of the churches. In the 16th century, flying balls and discs were seen over Nuremberg and Basel. Swiss peasants saw a real battle in the sky between glowing balls of different colors. In the same period, the participants of the Ermak campaign observed in the sky over Siberia the mysterious objects, similar to luminous clouds. In the 18th century, luminous flying objects were spotted several times in the sky over London. In the 19th century, heavenly guests were repeatedly seen not only in Europe, but also in the United States. In 1887, sailors saw near the island of Newfoundland how a luminous ball rose from the ocean depths and flew away, rising to a great height.
In addition to the factual evidence, works of art also speak in favor of the theory that aliens have been visiting Earth for a long time. Italian scientist Roberto Volteri argues that very transparent allusions to UFOs can be found in the works of Renaissance artists. He dates the oldest of his finds in 1406. According to him, UFOs are not at all a product of Cold War paranoia. Strange objects in the sky have been present in many works of art since the Middle Ages, the scientist believes, but previously they were not paid attention to, since they did not fit at all with the main themes of these works.
Guests. UFOs visited Italy during the Renaissance
One of the most striking examples Volteri calls the painting "Madonna and St. John", which is kept today in one of the palaces in Florence. It clearly shows a man and a dog-like creature sitting in a UFO-like object behind the shoulder of the Virgin Mary. In Naples, you can see the painting "Snow Miracle" by Mazolino de Panicale, in which you can see several large UFOs in the sky. Volteri claims to have compared the strange objects from these 15th century paintings to photographs of UFOs taken in the 20th century, and they are very similar. It is very difficult to explain such coincidences by the unrestrained flight of fantasy of medieval artists, the scientist says.
TECHNOLOGY PEAK HOUR: AFTER THE WORLD'S FIRST UFO TOGETHER TO EARTH
The beginning of one of the most iconic sciences of the 20th century - ufology - dates back to 1913. It was then that in the coastal regions of the south and east of England, mysterious cigar-shaped objects and bright luminous points that swept across the sky at great speed began to notice in the sky, which amazed the locals who were not familiar with aviation. However, the speed of movement of strange objects in those days would have amazed anyone, because then hardly anyone other than Tsiolkovsky could dream of jet and supersonic aviation. Against the background of the impending war with Germany in mysterious objects, witnesses were inclined to suspect German airships of unknown design.
On guard. Churchill was the first to chase UFOs
The future British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who at that time served as the head of the Admiralty, ordered a thorough investigation, which did not reveal any evidence of the belonging of the mysterious objects to the products of German industry. Investigators prepared a report for Churchill, from which it followed that 90% of eyewitness accounts were due to a misinterpretation of natural phenomena - primarily meteorites. As another explanation, the searchlights of warships at sea, out of sight from the shore, were proposed. Nevertheless, 10% of cases, the commission was forced to recognize as belonging to the category of unexplained.
The next surge in contacts with mysterious celestial objects dates back to the Second World War. The most striking episode occurred in Los Angeles in February 1942. Then, instead of the expected Japanese raid, the air defense systems noticed numerous UFOs moving at high speed over the city and opened fire on them. Despite the fact that the observers noted several direct hits on targets, none of them were shot down. In total, more than 1.5 thousand anti-aircraft shells were used up.
Finger to the sky. In 1942, the Americans fought the first UFO battle
The hysteria surrounding UFOs culminated in 1947, when two significant events occurred at once. First, pilot Kennett Arnold collided with a group of flying objects over the Cascade Mountains in Washington state - based on his description, UFOs were nicknamed "flying saucers". And then one of these "plates" crashed near the town of Roswell in New Mexico. According to the popular version, the bodies of two aliens were recovered from under the wreckage of the UFO. Today, on the Internet, you can find videos of the autopsies of their bodies, which, despite the denials of the authorities, many ufologists consider to be genuine.
By the early 1950s, ufology was finally gaining momentum. In the United States, at the Pentagon, a special commission is being created, headed by Professor Howard Robertson, whose task was to analyze the numerous evidence of UFOs for their reliability. Later, several more projects were created, the main task of which was to discredit the very idea of UFOs.
In Great Britain, the decision to start the collection and analysis was made personally by Winston Churchill. Today, in the published archives, you can see a note written by his hand that read: “What the hell is there with these flying saucers? What does this mean? You need to find out the truth."
WORLD PREMIERE: FRANCE FIRST TO OPEN ITS UFO ARCHIVES
Parisians are proud that not only earthlings visit their city
The first country in the world to open its archives of UFO sightings to the public was France. In the spring of 2007, the French National Center for Space Exploration (CNES) published on its website the first fragment of its extensive archives on UFO contacts, collected by the country's special services, starting in the 1950s of the last century. CNES spokesman Jacques Patene called the event a "world premiere". According to him, in contrast to the United States and many other countries, where access to the relevant archives fragments can be obtained only after overcoming a lot of bureaucratic obstacles, France has taken a truly democratic path. The CNES archives are freely available on the Internet.
They are eyewitness accounts, photographs and videos that have been collected by the police and intelligence agencies for decades. CNES officials believe that most of these cases are normal natural phenomena that have been misinterpreted by observers, but they have to admit that some of the materials have not received a reasonable explanation. Perhaps due to the insufficient quality of material evidence - for example, blurred images.
The greatest confidence, according to Jacques Patene, can be caused by cases when dozens or even hundreds of people witnessed the appearance of UFOs, or those cases when there is material evidence. The most famous case is that in 1981 in a small town in the south of France. Before the eyes of the astonished peasants, a flying object 2.5 meters in diameter landed in a field, and then took off and disappeared into the sky. The police were not inclined to believe the witnesses until they found a well-visible thermal trail at the landing site. Later, researchers found that the plants in the vicinity of this place were biologically changed.
In 1994, the pilots of one of the Air France flights saw a giant flying saucer several hundred meters in diameter over Paris, changing color. It was also registered by radars. Fighters raised in the air on alarm frightened off the UFO, which instantly disappeared when they approached.
CNES officials say that in theory, all cases have a simple scientific explanation. "But, frankly, we still cannot refute the thesis about aliens," states Jacques Patene.
BRITISH REVELATIONS: UFOs DON'T LOVE THE MIST ALBION
The British began to notice UFOs more often after the appearance of many films on the topic in the 70s.
A year after the French, the British authorities followed the lead of the ufologists. In May 2008, the UK Department of Defense declassified its UFO material in the skies over foggy Albion. Almost 7 thousand reports of mysterious incidents have become public knowledge, which at various times were interpreted as the appearance of a UFO.
In an effort to reduce the excitement around the publication of archival documents, representatives of the ministry immediately stated that, in their opinion, the materials did not contain evidence that UFOs had indeed visited the territory of the Kingdom. Officials argued that the number of "testimonies" rose sharply after Hollywood blockbusters about aliens began to appear on screens in the mid-1970s. An analysis of the ministry's specialists showed that eyewitnesses, as a rule, mistook meteorites, satellites, planes and other understandable phenomena for UFOs. Some cases were explained by the excessive craving of eyewitnesses to strong drinks.
However, British ufologists are not inclined to trust officials. They are convinced that the government would hardly have hidden the UFO archives from the public for decades if they did not contain information that the authorities wanted to hide from the public. Therefore, ufologists believe that among the many "false" evidence, there will certainly be genuine ones. According to ufologist Nick Pope, a former employee of the Ministry of Defense, there are cases in the archives when the appearance of a UFO was seen by military and police officers, who would be foolish to doubt their competence. Sometimes UFOs were spotted by impartial radars and surveillance systems. Sometimes they were seen by whole crowds in city centers.
Of particular interest to researchers are materials on the famous incident at Randlesham in December 1980, when numerous military personnel saw UFOs in the vicinity of the NATO base in Suffolk County. At first, the UFO was noticed by a local resident walking nearby with a dog. He later described the object as "an inverted mushroom with a white glow." The object was then seen by patrolmen at the base. They decided that a plane had crashed in the forest and sent a search group to search for the crash site. Its participants, entering the thicket, felt that the air was electrifying, and then noticed a conical UFO that hovered a meter from the ground. The soldiers tried to get closer to the object, but they were immediately blinded by a flash and then the UFO disappeared. The next morning, at the scene, they found testimonies confirming the fantastic story of the soldiers - fallen trees,scorched earth, increased background radiation. A day later, the UFO was again seen over the forest near the NATO base.
In addition to this incident, ufologists have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with classified materials on another famous contact with a UFO. In 1984, a group of controllers at one of the airports in the east of England saw a strange object at great speed arriving from the sea. The UFO approached the airfield, hovered over one of the runways, and then sped off into the distance with tremendous acceleration. Judging by the archival materials of the investigation, with which anyone can now familiarize themselves, the investigators had no doubts about the competence of the witnesses.
Alexey Bondarev
