In April 2020, the Pentagon declassified videos showing pilots running into unidentified flying objects (UFOs). These disclosures vindicated those who believe extraterrestrials visit us. Former Senator Harry Reid tweeted that the videos only scratch the surface of the available research and materials. Now, think of crop circles. Not all may have been the work of pranksters trying to poke fun at the UFO crowd. The Pentagon claims it doesn’t have evidence of UFOs being extraterrestrial. A few months later, Netflix revived the once-popular documentary series Unsolved Mysteries. Most episodes are not particularly mysterious, and many so-called mysteries can’t be dubbed unsolved. But one particular creepy story is keeping people awake at night. It is about the Berkshire UFO encounters of 1 September 1969.

Four families claim to have been picked up by a UFO and transported by a beam of light on that fateful day. Apart from a few personal accounts, there is little to no recorded evidence that this happened. Not even a local newspaper reported it. The documentary compensates for the omission. Indeed, this is a mystery worthy of being labelled unsolved. The stories of the people involved appear credible because they confirm each other. Thomas Reed, who was nine when it happened, claimed he and his family missed more than two hours of their lives while driving in their car. Reed said his family saw an amber glow on both sides of the road. Then everything got calm. After that, they found themselves back inside the car, but his mother and grandmother had changed places.¹

Reed also noted that he saw the then-14-year-old Melanie Kirchdorfer aboard the UFO. She confirms his story. Tommy Warner was a child when the incident occurred. He also claimed to have been abducted that evening. His babysitter, Debbie, confirms his account, saying that she saw him vanish into a bright ray of light. The people involved were not eager to tell their stories, which could have made them a laughingstock. This Unsolved Mysteries episode has left many viewers feeling anxious.² Is it safe to go outside? Or is a starship lurking out there that could beam us up anytime?

On 16 September 1994, 62 schoolchildren aged between six and twelve saw a UFO outside Ruwa, Zimbabwe. Some children claimed to have seen aliens dressed in black, who allegedly gave them a telepathic message, advising them to respect the planet and not rely too heavily on technology. Dozens of other children who were also present stated they had not seen a UFO or anything unusual. Sceptics argue it was a mass delusion. However, the children who saw the UFO consistently told the same story, differing only in the details. Many children believed the beings were not aliens but tikoloshes, creatures of local folklore.³ If it was not a delusion, then you can say goodbye to objective reality, as many children saw the UFO while many did not. Two realities in one place at the same time? That should make you think. This world could be fake.

For five months after October 2007, hundreds of people saw UFOs over Texas. On 8 January 2008, 19 witnesses saw a massive UFO speeding from Dublin to Stephenville, pursued by F-16 fighter jets. One witness estimated the object to be 1,600 metres (a mile) long and 800 metres (half a mile) wide. It hovered and then sped away at 5,000 kilometres per hour without causing any disturbance like a gust of wind, suggesting the object was not material. However, radar data confirmed what witnesses had reported, indicating that the object was material. Again, this should make you wonder. The local newspaper, Empire-Tribune (ET), was the first to report on the object. Steven Spielberg, the director of ET, made a documentary about it.⁴ That is a noteworthy coincidence.

The psychiatrist John Edward Mack investigated the mental state of those who claimed to have seen aliens. He initially suspected these persons had mental illnesses. Mack interviewed them and came to believe that was not the case. Many of those he interviewed said their encounters had affected their views, creating a sense of spirituality and environmental concern. Mack was cautious about explaining these experiences, but believed there was a powerful phenomenon causing them. There is a rich history of visionary experiences worldwide. Mack noted that alien abduction accounts can be part of this tradition.⁵ That didn’t agree with some of his fellow scientists, who subsequently grew keen on excommunicating him from the science religion, claiming that telling someone who has reported a close encounter with an alien that this experience might have been real is professionally irresponsible.

Many UFO sightings lack a credible explanation. In other words, they aren’t evidence of aliens visiting us. A few people have claimed to have seen aliens, but there is no objective evidence of their presence. They never broadcast a message saying, ‘Hello Earthlings, we come from the planet Ploc.’ Not even simply ‘ploc’ did they say. What is also suspicious about these aliens is that they resemble humans. They stand upright and have arms, legs, and heads with eyes. Alien life, if it exists, likely differs from Earth life, and aliens could take any form, for instance, jellyfish or plants, or, more likely, something we can’t think of, suggesting human imagination created the aliens people saw. They are either the imagination of the people who saw them or of those who created this world. And an advanced species warning us of advanced technology? They could have shared it with us. Okay, these aliens may not have a high opinion of us. And what about telepathy if we are beings made of carbon and water, and our minds are just brain chemistry? Something doesn’t add up here if science is correct and these experiences are real.

And so, unidentified flying objects can be anything. Another US government report claims most UFO sightings are weather balloons, surveillance drones, airborne clutter, or optical illusions. Nevertheless, many sightings remain unexplained. The UFO incidents in Berkshire, Zimbabwe and Texas, amongst them. They aren’t mere delusions, nor can a weather balloon be 1600 metres long and 800 metres wide and all of a sudden fly off at 5,000 kilometres per hour, leaving the F-16 pilots chasing them, biting the dust. UFOs and alien abduction stories are part of an array of mysteries, including evidence suggesting reincarnation, ghosts, meaningful coincidences, and premonitions. There is, however, an explanation that doesn’t involve aliens. This universe could be a simulation created by an advanced civilisation, and that civilisation is likely humanoid rather than alien.

Latest revision: 21 July 2025

Featured image: Declassified Pentagon UFO footage

1. 1969 Berkshire UFO Event Gains Recognition. Jim Levulis (2015). WAMC. [link]
2. Berkshire UFO sightings: Unsolved Mysteries episode is spooking viewers – but what happened next? Jacob Stol (2020). The Guardian. [link]
3. Ariel School UFO incident. Wikipedia. [link]
4. Spielberg-produced UFO doc has more than 300 witnesses for a mile-long spaceship. Lauren Sarner (2023). New York Post. [link]
5. John E. Mack. Wikipedia. [link]