I always find it strange that as individuals and more especially from a governmental level we are dissuaded at every opportunity from dealing with the big questions. What is life all about after all? Why do we find talking about this subject so difficult and why are people so quick to try and put these discussions down?

From the government’s pov, there’s no advantage in promoting the idea because there’s nothing they could do about it and it would just scare people. From the individual viewpoint, the subject attracts the lunatic fringe of true believers so there’s the risk of being tarred with the same brush if you appear to take it seriously.

I recall once reading of a US conference of scientists (astronomers IIRC) who were enjoying a reception in a hall one night when one of them strolled outside and saw strange lights whizzing about the sky. He went back in and announced what was going on to the assembled throng, who all looked embarrassed and declined to go and see for themselves – appearing to take it seriously would have meant professional ridicule.

FWIW I think that the vast majority of UFO sightings are explicable in terms of everyday factors, a small percentage is not. The explanation for those IMO almost certainly rests in some natural phenomena which are not yet understood.

I once saw a TV programme on UFOs which included some cine film taken by a passenger on an airliner who had filmed the view from his window. This appeared to show a solid, dark-coloured object approaching the plane at immense speed, before vanishing again with equal speed. The film was very convincing and I was impressed – I could think of no natural explanation for it and the cameraman appeared to be honest. So the TV investigators sent someone with this guy’s camera to sit in the same seat of the same aeroplane on the same flight to do some filming. Lo and behold, he saw the same thing. It turned out that the bevelled edge of the window caused an optical distortion which, if you held the camera in exactly the right position, made a part of the tailplane seem detached from the rest, as if it were a separate solid object. It could be made to appear or disappear just by moving the camera a fraction. Case solved, and a neat example of why you shouldn’t always believe the evidence of your own eyes!

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum