UniversalClass.com: UFO Studies

Since I haven't gone anywhere in two months, I decided to take some free courses while I'm staying safe at home...my library system lets members take courses on UniversalClass.com for free, and when I saw that they offered a UFO Studies class, of course I had to take it. The course consists of nine lessons, covering topics like Roswell, alien abductions, and crop circles, and even though I already know a ton about UFOs/aliens, I learned a lot and ended up with a final grade of 98%, so I think that officially makes me a UFO expert. 😉 If you're interested in taking the course, you can find it here:

https://library.universalclass.com/i/librarycourse/study-of-ufos.htm

Book Review: The Children of Roswell by Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt

I've always been interested in Roswell, and a trip to the Roswell UFO Festival inspired me to start this blog, so when I came across The Children of Roswell: A Seven-Decade Legacy of Fear, Intimidation, and Cover-Ups on Amazon, of course I had to order it. I've read a lot of books about Roswell, and this one is the most fascinating. Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt tell the stories of the children of people who witnessed what happened in Roswell in July 1947, and these stories strengthened my belief that it was indeed a UFO that crashed in Roswell. (It seems pretty extreme for the military to threaten to kill entire families it if was just a weather balloon, doesn't it?)

A few things I learned from the book:

-Around the time of the Roswell incident, there were more UFO sightings in New Mexico than any other state in America.
-Lieutenant Governor Joseph Montoya was on the Roswell airbase when the wreckage first arrived; freaked out by what he saw, he called Pete and Ruben Anaya (two of his political supporters) to come pick him up and proceeded to get drunk at Pete's house after telling the men that he saw a spaceship and "little bodies with big heads" (pg. 63). Sheriff George Wilcox told Pete that he'd be killed if he told anyone and that his family would be killed as well.
-During a 2006 visit to the Roswell UFO Museum, Sue Farnsworth said that when she was a child, her father told her that a flying saucer had crashed near their ranch and that the military threatened to kill the family if he ever told anyone what he saw.
-Michelle Penn was told by her foster father (Hunter Penn) that the crash was of an extraterrestrial nature and that he was (as an Army Air Forces officer) authorized to use force and intimidation to keep witnesses quiet.
-The daughters of Sheriff Wilcox said that their father wished he had called the press before the military in order to prevent the military from covering things up. George told his wife that he saw four little big-headed men (three dead, one alive) in the wreckage, and the military later threatened to kill the family if he told anyone about what he saw.

I knew that the military had threatened many of the witnesses, but reading about it from the perspective of the (now grown-up) children made it easy for me to imagine the fear those families felt. The way the military handled the Roswell crash was infuriating, and I'll never understand how anyone could think that threatening to kill witnesses and their families was an appropriate way to handle things. The Children of Roswell is a must-read for anyone who's interested in Roswell, UFOs, or cover-ups, so make sure you check this one out. 🙂👽

My rating: 8.5/10



(Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

These Earrings Are Out of This World!

I happened to go to Hot Topic yesterday, and when I saw this set of alien and UFO earrings, of course I had to buy them. : )

If you want some of your own, you can get them here:

http://www.hottopic.com/product/alien-ufo-get-in-loser-stud-earrings-set/11014382.html#q=Alien&srule=sortingPriceLowToHigh&sz=120&start=14

Watch the Sky!

Check out this cool magnet I found at Hobby Lobby! : )

Encounters: U.F.O. Experience in Anaheim

In September 2014, I visited an exhibit called Encounters: U.F.O. Experience in Myrtle Beach and loved it. (You can read about my experience here:  http://paranormalcrystal.blogspot.com/2014/09/encounters-ufo-experience.html). If you live in or near Anaheim, California, now you can see it for yourself at the Anaheim Garden Walk...you can get all the info here:

http://www.latimes.com/socal/weekend/news/tn-wknd-et-0117-ufo-exhibit-20160117-story.html

It's a really cool exhibit, so if you're interested in aliens and UFOs, make sure to check it out. : )

Pictures from the Roswell UFO Festival

I wasn't lucky enough to attend the Roswell UFO Festival this year, but luckily there are a bunch of pictures from the event on the website, so those of us who couldn't go can (almost) feel like we were there.

http://www.ufofestivalroswell.com/2015-ufo-festival-photos-ufofestival-newmexicotrue/

I love the pictures from the Pet Alien Costume Contest...I wish there had been goats there the year I went. : )

UFO-shaped Buildings

Roswell has a McDonald's that looks like a UFO, so I was interested to see some other buildings that are shaped like UFOs.  The World UFO Day website has some cool examples:

http://www.worldufoday.com/ufo-shaped-buildings/

There used to be a UFO-shaped restaurant right outside LAX...every time we went to L.A., it was on our list, but we're always so busy in L.A. that we never got around to going.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/arts-and-entertainment/20140107/encounter-restaurant-atop-lax-theme-building-closes-for-good

There's also the UFO Welcome Center in Bowman, SC:

http://ufowelcomecenter.blogspot.com/

If you know of any other buildings that look that UFOs, let me know in the comments. : )

Hamster and a flying saucer

I collect Charming Tails, and for our anniversary, my husband gave me one I'd been wanting for awhile called "Friendship is Universal."  I decided to put it in Murray's play area to see if I could get a picture of him with it, and he seemed to like it. : )

UFOs Crashed My Vacation

The 2013 Travel Channel show UFOs Crashed My Vacation tells the stories of "six vacations that didn't go as planned."  The first vacation-gone-wrong is the trip Chuck Rak, Charlie Foltz, and Jack and John Weiner took in Allagash, Maine in 1976.  The Boston art students were planning on a few relaxing days of camping and fishing, but that all changed once Charlie spotted something red glowing in the sky.  A few nights later, the men went fishing in a canoe and saw the object hovering above them, so Charlie signaled the UFO with a light; it started moving toward them, then a beam of light came out of the bottom onto the water.  The men found themselves on the shore with no recollection of how they got there.  Jack had nightmares for the next twelve years, so he underwent hypnosis to try to remember what happened; the other three also did it, and Jack, Jim, and Charlie all recalled being painfully examined by aliens.  Charlie doesn't believe that they were abducted and thinks the UFO left them alone.

In July 1994 in San Francisco Bay, Ruben Uriante was meditating when he heard a voice say "You're going to England."  He went to Wiltshire County to see crop circles with a tour group, and later that night, they heard that a new crop circle had appeared, so they went to check it out.  Ruben attempted to communicate telepathically with whoever told him he was going to England, saying he would be thankful if it appeared to him; a few minutes later, a ball of light appeared and began descending, followed by two more.  They disappeared as soon as someone took out a video camera.

In Denver, Colorado in August 1982, Denise and Ed Stoner were on the road when they spotted two bright red lights moving toward them; she asked Ed to slow down, but he was in a trance.  The next thing they knew, it was three hours later and they had traveled forty miles with no recollection of doing it.  A few years later, Denise underwent hypnosis to remember that night; while under hypnosis, she drew a UFO and remembered two "entities" taking her out of the car and implanting a tracking device in her foot when she was on the UFO.

In July 1975 in Mount Rainer, Washington, newlyweds Bob and Laurel Gilge were looking for a campsite when they saw a sign for a UFO convention.  They decided to go, and when they tried to leave, the conference leader said they couldn't go because the group was about to do a ceremony just for them. Someone began speaking in tongues, and the leader drew crosses on Bob and Laurel's foreheads with oil. Back at their campsite, Bob and Laurel heard a hum that kept getting louder, then saw a UFO and started screaming at it that they wouldn't get on it.  The UFO disappeared.

In southern California in July 1990, supernatural enthusiasts Melinda Leslie and her friends Steve and Mike decided to take a trip to a place in the San Bernadino Mountains that was known for UFO sightings.  On the two-hour drive, Steve stuck his search light out of the window to attract a UFO, and a few minutes later, strange lights appeared in the sky.  The search light died, their police scanner began malfunctioning, their walkie-talkies started making noise, and they saw three flashes of light in the car.  Their next memory was of driving on the road and being extremely thirsty; they looked at the clock and realized that it was three hours later than they thought it would be.  Three days later, Melinda started remembering things, such as the car stopping and being approached by extraterrestrials, walking up a ramp into a UFO, and having needles stuck in her; she thinks that the aliens may have taken eggs from her as well.

In December 2000, Juan Cardenas and his family (wife Patricia and sons Jesus and Jonathan) were on a road trip from Pasco, Washington to Mexico when they spotted a bright light moving in the sky over southwest Texas.  Patricia began filming it, and the kids eventually convinced Juan to pull over so they could get out and look at the object.  The light started changing color, and Juan decided it was time to leave; the light followed them for awhile, then it disappeared.  Juan did not believe in UFOs before that night, but he's convinced that's what his family encountered.

I'm not sure if UFOs Crashed My Vacation is going to be a regular show or if it was just a special, but I hope they do some more of these.  It was a different take on the UFO show since it only focused on people who were on vacation, and I'm sure there are plenty more stories they could share.

My rating: 8.5/10 

http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/ufos-crashed-my-vacation

UFO Bitstrips

Book review: Captured!: the Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience

A few weeks ago, I heard about a book called Captured!: the Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience that was written by Kathleen Marden and Stanton Friedman, and it sounded interesting, so I got it through the Interlibrary Loan department at the library where I work.  The book was released in 2007, and the cover advertises the book as "the true story of the world's first documented alien abduction," and since it was written by Betty Hill's niece, who is the International Director of Abduction research for MUFON (Mutual UFO Network), I thought it would be the best book to read to find out more about the abduction of Betty and Barney Hill (Betty published a book about it in 1995, but I hear that it's not easy to get a copy of it). 

On September 19, 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were on their way home from vacation when they saw what they at first thought was a falling star over the New Hampshire highway; they saw the "star" stop in the sky and begin moving toward the moon, so they stopped on the side of the road to get a closer look through binoculars.  At one point, the object turned toward them, so they got back in the car and started driving...until the UFO came toward their vehicle, and they had to stop in the road.  Barney got out of the car, and using the binoculars, saw figures looking at him from the craft.  He ran back to the car and resumed driving, but soon heard beeping sounds around the car; a few hours later, Betty and Barney arrived home much later than they had expected and had no recollection of the missing hours.  The Hills did not remember what happened until they underwent hypnosis.

I'd heard about The Hills in the past, but I learned a lot that I didn't already know while reading this book...for example, I didn't know that Betty and Barney 's dog was in the car while all of this was happening and that she was stricken with respiratory problems and a fungal infection not long after the UFO incident, and she would whimper and shake often.  I also didn't know that the extraterrestrials started pulling on Betty's teeth and were confused as to why Barney 's teeth (dentures) came out but Betty 's didn't.  If you're interested in the Betty and Barney Hill case at all, this is the book to read...it's very informative, and it convinced me that The Hills really experienced what they say they did (especially since the book points out that they wanted to remain anonymous, and their identities were made public without their permission).  It's a fascinating story!

My rating: 8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Captured-Betty-Barney-Hill-Experience/dp/1564149714/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1378261371&sr=8-2

The International UFO Museum and Research Center

I've always enjoyed going to museums, and of all the museums I've been to, the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico is my favorite.  There was no museum I wanted to visit more, and I finally got my wish on July 6th, 2013.  The museum, which opened its doors in 1992, was founded by Walter Haut (who was a public information officer at the Roswell Army Air Field at the time of the Roswell Incident) and Glenn Dennis (a mortician who received an inquiry from the military regarding child-sized caskets and claimed that a nurse told him that she had seen the victims of the Roswell crash and that they were around four feet tall, with oversized heads and four fingers on each hand) and is located at 114 North Main Street.

My favorite part of the museum was the display with a UFO and some aliens...I have a feeling that almost everyone who visits the museum has their picture taken in front of it.

If you're interested in the Roswell crash, the museum will help you learn everything you ever wanted to know about it.  There is a ton of reading involved (Roswell Incident timeline, official documents, etc.), but if you don't have time to read everything, there's a great book in the gift shop, Witness to Roswell by Tom Carey and Don Schmitt, whose cover boasts that it's "the most comprehensive investigation ever made into the 1947 Roswell Incident."  I read it and thought it was very informative, and I learned some things I didn't already know about the crash.

In the back of the museum, there is a section of wall covered with alien and UFO artwork and a model of an alien in a big glass tube.

Elsewhere in the museum, there is another one and a recreation of one of the crash victims about to be autopsied.

The section of the museum devoted to crop circles was interesting, and I really enjoyed the wall of alien cartoons...I wish they'd all been collected in a book and sold in the gift shop, so I could look at them whenever I want.  The gift shop was the best museum gift shop I've ever seen...usually I don't buy much in museum gift shops because they're generally overpriced, but most of the items in the UFO Museum's gift shop were reasonably priced.  I wanted almost everything in the gift shop, but since I could only fit so much in my luggage, I showed some self-control and only bought six or seven things.

I loved the International UFO Museum and Research Museum, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Roswell crash or just UFOs and extraterrestrials in general.  The museum was very interesting and informative, and admission is only $5.  Be sure to check out the gift shop and stop by the alien Coke machine on your way out. : )