The UFO Singularity (14 page)

“I believe people need to know the truth,” he said. “I think you guys are on the edge of revealing more truth to people, if they would listen, than we may expect.”
²⁶

Despite merely being an incredible story, Mike Reese’s encounter with a strange, unidentifiable aircraft over Locust Grove, Georgia, in 1973 highlights a number of constants that are present in the field of UFO research today. Any quick search online will turn up countless numbers of similar reports, a good number of which were likely logged by respectable individuals like Mike, who have had remarkable encounters with a technology that they can’t explain. Despite this, there are far too many in the scientific community who remain content with dismissing such stories, relishing in their artful mastery of neglect on the grounds that all such “sightings” can be chalked up to shooting stars, light reflecting off the bellies of geese flying in formation, and the simple misidentification of known aircraft, built by human hands right here on Earth.

Without question, a majority of the sightings of craft like the one Mike and his family observed do involve
manmade objects. Though it will certainly arrive with dismay among many in the UFO research community, my gut tells me this about the saucer hovering over that power substation in 1973: Although appearing highly advanced and otherworldly, even my earliest, most peripheral observations regarding the possible mechanics behind its operation suggest strongly that the UFO was made functional by technology that
could exist right here on Earth.
Granted, I can’t say with certainty that whatever it was Mike and the others saw that night was indeed manmade. Still, I feel that it is an equal leap of faith—if not perhaps a greater stretch—to assume that it was extraterrestrial, based only on the scant evidence we have available to us. Some kind of human technology seems more likely in this case, although qualifying what exactly we mean by “human” can be difficult, as we’ve begun to outline already in previous chapters. For instance, could it be that the traditional “UFO encounter” itself merely represents some perceptible aspect of a technology that, in truth, emanates from our own future?

The majority of this book thus far has dealt with attempting to discern clues about the UFO enigma from both clandestine activities that have taken place in the past, as well as from the study of trends we see as we enter the exciting technological age our future represents. At this point, I felt that the in-depth examination of at least one unique case would not only help lend some credibility to a few of the arguments that will be presented later, but
also to help dispel a few of the expected complaints and criticisms regarding “armchair researchers.” Although it is true that proper, thorough research should involve both fieldwork
and
detailed examination of the available data, with specific regard to the study of UFOs, we are indeed presented with rather unique circumstances—and thus, a number of unique limitations. Chief among these is the fact that, as most serious UFO researchers know already, predicting the appearance of such an extraordinary object is all but impossible. This leaves researchers in an undesirable position of having to wait until a chance encounter has already occurred, and only then can they race to the scene, hoping to scrounge around for evidence of the impossible before it’s too late.

Mike Reese at the site of his 1973 Locust Grove UFO encounter.

In the case of Mike Reese, we were nearly four decades too late getting back to the scene of his encounter, although in early 2012, Mike and I did manage to make the drive together back to the infamous power substation where the vivid UFO sighting had occurred back in 1973. The afternoon we arrived to take photos of the area, I could sense that a bit of nostalgia had overtaken Mike as he stood posing for me in front of the location, to which he hadn’t returned to visit, even once, in all those years. And even so many decades after the fact, the circumstances underlying our belated return visit still proved to be rather odd, if not slightly humorous. For instance, we noted, as if on cue, the appearance of two large black helicopters passing overhead just as I began to take photos of the area. Mike and I waved at the aircraft as they passed overhead, and joked that, even after all that time, although it seemed unlikely, someone might still be interested in our humble and inquisitive activity in the area.

I do believe the old axiom, however, that states that it is better to be late than to never arrive at all. In the case of Mike’s 1973 encounter, his thorough ability to recollect the details of the event would indeed prove to be very useful at a later time. Within just weeks of my publisher’s deadline for this book, I happened to be introduced to a young man through a mutual friend who shared yet another vivid UFO sighting he and several others witnessed one evening while traveling abroad through parts of Asia the previous summer. The individual requested that his name,
as well as the specific location of the sighting, be omitted from this report, due to the personally disturbing nature of his encounter.

The witness, who we will call “Andy,” had been visiting with friends overseas in the summer of 2011. One evening, he and several others were outdoors together, and observed a strange light that had appeared in the distance. As the object moved closer to them, Andy began to make out a triangular shape, with a variety of colored lights that appeared to revolve around the edges of the craft, one after the other, in sequence. The colors, of course, had been red, green, and blue; even so many years later, the significance here in relation to what Mike Reese had described seeing in 1973, is quite obvious.

Andy and his company watched the object for a period that he believed could have been well more than an hour, and although they observed it continuously during this period, never leaving the area where they had been when it first appeared, Andy nonetheless described this event as one of the most frightening experiences of his life. The object drifted more or less slowly overhead for a long while, and had at this point been observed for a long period of time. Then, suddenly, the craft purportedly moved very quickly toward one end of the horizon, only to remove itself just as quickly to the other, beginning an erratic ascent in zigzag fashion, before propelling itself forward in what Andy described as being an absolutely tremendous speed. According to Andy, the craft’s line of
flight, paired with its speed, gave the appearance that its path had managed to visibly follow the curvature of the Earth itself.

At this point in our discussion, Andy told me that our mutual acquaintance had indeed made him aware of my work in ufology, and that he was mildly concerned about the potential for me writing about this sighting, unless I changed or omitted his name, along with the physical location of the sighting. Given its relevance to the 1973 Locust Grove sighting, I agreed to Andy’s terms, so that at least the general details of his story could be included here for sake of comparison between the two reports. What, if anything, might we learn from the curious preponderance of similarities among reports like these, in terms of physical attributes such as the colors revolving around both the UFO craft described in these separate encounters? Could this offer any new clues about the ways such highly advanced aircraft operate?

I also managed to gather a bit of information on Andy’s educational background and personal beliefs. He is 25 years old and is a devout Christian, though he described being careful not to seem abrasive or outspoken with his beliefs. Andy studied subjects in college that included biology and quantum physics, and expressed that he is well aware of the incredible nature of the sighting, based on the seemingly erratic flight capabilities of the object he observed. Furthermore, he told me that the object in question had caused him not to want to think about UFOs anymore, or even some areas of the known sciences,
because the implications of his encounter had frightened him too badly. When I suggested that, in my opinion, it is at least possible that this object could have been some advanced form of terrestrial technology, Andy disagreed strongly, and based on his observations, believed instead that the craft he witnessed could not possibly have been anything of this Earth.

In the end, we must be willing to consider
all
the vast possibilities that await us in trying to decipher such incredible circumstances, especially those that best cater to increasing our understanding. The various phenomena actually constituting what we use the blanket term
UFO
to describe arrive in many forms; some of these may involve manmade craft, whereas others may be atmospheric anomalies, or even dimensional aberrations that defy our laws of physics. Perhaps in some instances there is even justification for an extraterrestrial origin. But before we draw such conclusions, the best we can hope to do is to attempt to understand the phenomenon to its fullest, achievable only by breaking down the many complex potential varieties of the UFO experience, and not glossing over their entirety with preconceptions that we are, without question, dealing with alien craft from outer space; this simply may not be the case. Based on the evidence provided in eyewitness reports like those of Andy, Mike Reese, and countless others, there may be clues yet to be discovered that will hint at the true nature of some of these strange craft, their different varieties and origins, and, ultimately, their purpose for being.

Perhaps, with some luck, we’ll even be afforded a glimpse at how it all relates to our existence here on planet Earth. I suspect, however, that even such a momentary or cursory view of the phenomenon would nonetheless betray it as being far closer to us than we have previously been willing to realize or accept—whether that is simply for perceptual reasons, or out of the stark fear that might emanate from any such bold alternative.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste—and a worse thing to commandeer.

—Martin Cannon,
The Controllers

O
ften in life, our introduction to bold and shattering new ideas can arrive under rather strange circumstances. A fine example of this occurred in 1947, while Dr. Percy LeBaron Spencer had been engaged in the design of magnetrons for radar systems with the Raytheon Company. One afternoon, as he was walking past a radar tube, he found to his surprise that a Mr. Goodbar candy bar he had been carrying in his pocket had melted. Intrigued by this, he then tried exposing popcorn to the microwave radiation emanating from the tube, which began to pop all over the room. To further verify his findings, he designed an experiment where a high-density electromagnetic field was filtered into a metal box using microwaves, from which it had no way to escape. By placing foods within the box, he found that they could be heated very quickly, and thus the microwave oven was born.
¹

I’m making a somewhat whimsical allusion, between the funny conditions under which people are often exposed to new ideas—typically by pure chance or as a result of accidental circumstances—and the ways I’ve personally stumbled onto certain perceptions of UFO related subjects. Hence, the story I’m about to relate here—involving one of the more curious and clandestine aspects of the
UFO mystery—took place in a pub, of all places, along the border of the North Georgia Highlands. I was having a brief discussion one Wednesday evening in December 2011 with a girl named Amy, one of the locale’s regular patrons, when a peculiar clue to the enduring UFO mystery seemed to break free from our otherwise-random exchange.

“What is it you do during the daytime,” she asked, sensing that perhaps the life of a professional musician had its innate financial limitations.
²

“Well, I’m actually a writer during the nine-to-five hours,” I explained. Next she asked what sorts of things I chose to write about, to which my typical answer is simply “weird stuff.” Maybe if I’m feeling a bit more adventurous at any given moment, I’ll go a bit further and refer to it as “culture and philosophy.” For those willing to probe even deeper, I might explain that the majority of my research actually deals with UFOs and Forteana, if they appear to
really
be in the know.

“Oh, so you write about aliens abducting people and stuff,” she said with an accepting tone. “That’s funny, because my dad’s mother has said for a long time that she was taken onto a space ship and examined back in the 1970s.”

“Interesting,” I told her, my intrigue now changing hues slightly. Surprisingly, I hear references to this sort of thing quite often, but the circumstances Amy was about to relate were quite different.

“Yeah, but they say she’s a little crazy. And the weird thing about it was that she said that when they took her on board, they did all these tests on her; but they weren’t aliens or anything,” Amy said, grasping for words a bit. “She said they were people on board that thing.”

“Wait—people? You mean
humans?
”

“That’s right,” Amy said. “She lives in Florida now, but if she’s ever in town, I’ll try and bring her by to speak to you.”