I'm open to the thought that there are extraterrestrial beings.

the U stands for unidentified. I love it when people say they saw a UFO and I ask them what it was and they tell me a alien spaceship. Too funny.

Anybody please tell your UFO stories I love this stuff. I've never had the pleasure to see a UFO, but I saw a demonic spirit, like you I was with friends, all of us reacting in time for several minutes in fear. I can't deny what we all saw together but I don't believe in the devil/hell/all those creations.

I think you saw a super star destroyer! I don't think your brain tricked you.

I think most people believe something is out there unless you're a religious fanatic or your ego as the "master race" won't allow that sort of thinking. So many people do not believe in things like ghosts, etc until it happens to or effects them personally. It's kind of like not wanting health care to cover everyone (including pre-existing conditions) until they need it too.

Anyone who has seen a UFO may post a report on MUFON.com along with any related images or videos. The site allows visitors to access the latest 20 sightings reports free of charge.

,but what they encounter is up for question. I remain sceptical on alien visitors and ghosts, they may exist, however I find the evidence thin on the ground and other explanations far more likely.

If you haven't discussed it lately, it would be interesting to see how your stories compare 23 years later. Each could write down everything you remember from that weekend and see how the stories match up. Do this independently so as not to influence the others.

or maybe....

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Interstellar distances are VAST. Much vaster than most people understand.

To illustrate this, let me point out that our galaxy, Milky Way, which contains about 300,000,000 (300 billion) stars is on a collision course with Andromeda, which contains about 1,000,000,000 (one trillion) stars. That will happen in some four to five billion years from now. I know, brace yourself.

Here's a link to a couple of animations of that event:

or this:

A while back I asked an astronomer friend of mine, when the two galaxies collide, how many stars will actually crash into each other. His reply: "We don't know for certain at this point, but the best guess is no more than ten."

No more than ten stars out of 1.3 trillion. Stars really are a very long way apart from each other.

Which brings me back to the OP. While I'm more than willing to accept the possibility that intelligent beings travel between stars, it simply isn't very likely, given the incredible distances involved and the extreme unlikelihood of faster than light travel.

All of my research points toward a psychological explanation ie: your mind interpreting natural or unusual phenomena in a way that it is familiar with.

For example, there is a spot on a highway that I pass frequently. The way that the overpass guardrail and shadows come together looks like a man with a backpack standing at the edge of the road. I know that there is noone there but I still move over everytime.

Another hypothesis is that they are our machines. Almost all sightings are of atmospheric craft. Maybe I saw an experimental lighter than air craft and my mind filled in the details.

I am not a proponent of the extraterrestrial theory because i believe that races not too far in advance of us tend to digitalize their personalities and exist in a virtual reality as immortals.

That would explain why we seem to be alone in a universe that seems to be conducive to life.

Would we even know if it already happened?