Why I don't believe in extraterrestrial aliens (even though I've seen UFOs)

A few Steemians have written about their belief in "aliens" recently – and I don't want to disrespect their beliefs. But I take a different view.

I used to believe in extraterrestrials, or "ETs", and I'm glad I went through that phase, as it made me think about the whole issue, so I'm not dismissing it out of hand.

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I think it would be arrogant to assume that we can be the only intelligent life in the universe. But... we don't really know exactly what the universe is anyway. We only perceive it with our five senses. If there is life on other planets or in other galaxies, I would expect it to be too different for our brains to even perceive it. Maybe highly evolved rocks, or shape-shifting electrical impulses. Or something we can only perceive by touch.

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Could this be what an alien looks like?

Why did I start believing in alien life in the first place? Probably because I found the real world a bit scary, and I liked to think that there was something or someone out there with a greater intelligence than anyone in our human species, who could come and sort us out.

In a friendly way of course.

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"Hey! We come in peace!"

Above Top Secret

That would have been the underlying reason. But it was hearing Timothy Good being interviewed on local radio stations that convinced me that "they" must be here. Timothy Good is the author of Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-up. He is well-educated and talks very intelligently and – dare I say it? – convincingly on the subject.

I devoured Above Top Secret, and many other books and articles on the subject. This was in the early 1990s, before the internet became popular.

But I gradually started to become more questioning, then increasingly sceptical of the whole thing.

By 1990 I remember telling a friend who believed in "close encounters" that I thought most of the UFO sightings were probably secret military projects. He didn't agree with me. He was convinced that they were proof of alien visitations.

UFO over the Pacific

Actually I had two UFO sightings of my own, while travelling in the mid-1990s. UFO, of course, stands for "unidentified flying object", so I'm not claiming to have seen actual alien craft.

The first instance was in the Pacific Islands. I was visiting a remote part of an island, and there was a US military base about a mile further along the headland. I'd met some very friendly locals, who had brought me a delicious al fresco lunch of traditional fare, which we were eating at the harbour side, while waiting for my return ferry.

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I suddenly spotted a large globe-shaped object in the distance, slowly flying about 100 meters over the sea. I pointed to it and asked, "What's that?" One of the locals responded with initial confidence that gradually turned into astonishment:

"Oh, that's a boat, that's a plane, that's a p… that's… that… WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"

The object disappeared into the distance before I had a chance to reach for my camera. There were no smartphones in those days!

In the years after the incident I occasionally wondered if I'd seen an alien craft, but the solidity of the object and its proximity to the military base convinced me that it was some kind of military technology being tested. It might have been a type of drone. To be honest, at that time there was very little publicity about drones, if they even existed, and I think the object appeared much weirder at that time than it would do if we saw it today.

This adds to my belief that many UFOs are just new types of aircraft that most people are not aware of yet.

A metallic cigar-shaped object

The second "encounter" occurred in southern China, when I was travelling through Tibet, also in the mid-1990s. I was travelling with a couple from the north of England, Jane and Andy, and we'd been given a lift in the back of a truck. It was January, and the journey had started out at 4am.

We'd been travelling for about an hour when the truck had to stop, due to a large snowdrift. Jane stepped out to answer the call of nature.

The sky was clear and full of stars. I was gazing at the Milky Way, when I saw a metallic cigar-shaped object travelling quite rapidly across the sky. It was like an elongated airship. Without looking down, I tapped Andy on the shoulder and said "look"! Andy spotted the object too, and we gazed in awe, as I used one hand to desperately try and locate my camcorder, without averting my gaze from the strange craft.

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Unfortunately it disappeared from view before I was able to find my camcorder. When Jane returned, we excitedly told her that we'd just seen a UFO.

I didn't really know what to make of it. I knew I'd seen something very unusual, but I really didn't think it was a craft full of "aliens". I thought it was probably some secret Chinese project.

Eight months later, I was in New Zealand, sitting in a doctor's waiting room. I picked up a copy of Time magazine. Flicking through the news section I noticed a news report about an "alien craft" spotted in southern China. There was a slightly out-of-focus photo of a craft that looked remarkably similar to the one I'd seen, only it was a much closer view. The edition was a few months old, so it would have been just a few weeks after my own sighting.

I tore out the article and kept it. I still have it somewhere!

Over the years I've often thought about that sighting. Someone once suggested that it might have been the International Space Station that I saw, but I've seen the ISS a few times and believe me, this was quite different!

Secret technology?

As I've said earlier, I don't believe what I saw was an "alien" craft. What I do sometimes wonder – and this might be just as outlandish as the "alien craft" idea – is that maybe it's a type of high-speed aircraft used to whisk super-rich elites around the globe. Something they don't want the masses to get their hands on.

When railways started to be built in the first half of the 19th century, many wealthy people feared that they might make the masses too mobile. The Duke of Wellington became opposed to railways, warning that they would "encourage the lower classes to travel about".

Most of us expect all new scientific breakthroughs to be announced publicly on the TV or in the newspapers. But maybe there are some advanced technologies that are actually kept out of the public glare, only for the use of people "in the know". Similar ideas have been discussed by writers like Catherine Austin Fitts. But when people start talking about the "Secret Space Program", I tend to tune out. It gets too complex and way-out, circling back to that old chestnut of high-level military staff holding secret talks with ETs and travelling to cities on Mars.

I don't want to be a killjoy. Maybe there are aliens visiting Earth. I have no proof one way or the other. But I would advise people to be careful about what they believe.

Guidance from "higher powers"

I think that having a lot of people believing in alien intelligence can be very useful for those in power. It reinforces the idea that the vast majority of us don't really have the power or ability to take full charge of our lives; that we need a "higher power" to lead us.

If governments are working on secret military air technology, and they need to run test flights, it's probably not a bad thing in their eyes if local people start reporting UFO sightings.

Many people who believe there is an ET presence on earth, also believe that people high up in the government and military are in secret communication with them.

This to me is reminiscent of ancient times, when people used to believe in gods who ruled over the weather or who could ensure crop survival if placated and given gifts. "Priests" were able to wield enormous power by claiming to be intermediaries who could communicate with those gods.

It all helped to produce an obedient population.

The idea that ordinary humans like us must have needed help and guidance from "higher powers" to build the Pyramid of Cheops, or the citadel of Machu Picchu, plays into the idea that most of us are not too bright and that we need to be guided by higher powers.

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Did humans really need extraterrestrial guidance to help build the Great Pyramid?

I think there are dangers in this way of thinking, because once we start perceiving scientific or technological advances that we don't understand and haven't seen before as supernatural or otherworldly, we can really become in thrall to those who would abuse those powers. This is what happened in the days of colonial exploration.

My father's family is from the Bahamas, where Christopher Columbus first made landfall in 1492. The people who populated the Bahamas at that time are now known as the Lucayans, and they saw the new arrivals as gods. From the book The Story of the Bahamas by Paul Albury:

Everything connected with [the Europeans], the vessels which brought them, the clothes they wore, their armaments and implements; all seemed to their eyes to be the handiwork of beings superior to earthly mortals.

At San Salvador, the first landfall,

'the men and women cried in loud voices: "Come and see the men who have come from heaven; bring them food and drink." Many came… each with something, giving thanks to God, throwing themselves on the ground and raising their hands to the sky…'

The Spanish seamen, who did not enjoy a high standing in their own country, must have been greatly surprised at their sudden elevation. They took care not to discourage a notion which showed every promise of being highly beneficial to them."

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The outcome of the Lucayans' hero-worship of the Spanish explorers is an all too familiar story, which has been repeated many times. They were enslaved, many were horrifically tortured, and so many of them died that as a race they were wiped off the face of the earth.

Their mistake was their isolation. Technological advancement comes out of the exchange of ideas. It's not handed down from supernatural beings.

I sometimes wonder whether some reports of alien abduction might actually be cases of sexual abuse, where drugs and/or hypnotism techniques are used to persuade people that their abusers are actually aliens doing research.

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I can't say that "alien intelligence" doesn't exist. It might – maybe in some way that our brains cannot even conceive of. But I will be extremely wary of anything or anyone that claims to have superior powers brought from another planet or galaxy.