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Popcorn: 36% of Americans believe UFOs exist

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UFO clipart free download In “I was almost abducted by aliens” (Discover, Greg Laden’s blog, June 30, 2012), Laden tells us,

National Geographic Channel has run a poll in which they found that 36% of Americans “believe UFO’s exist.” This is in line with previous results. …

10 percent of Canadians do too. Here are some other polls on the subject.

Apparently, most believers think President Obama would be better able to handle hostile aliens than challenger Mitt Romney, but we understand that the President does not intend to campaign for re-election on that fact. 😉

From National Geographic,

The national poll measured different views on extraterrestrials, and found that 36 percent, or more than one-third, of Americans believe UFOs exist. In fact, 11 percent (more than one in 10) are sure they have seen a UFO with their own eyes, while 20 percent (one in five) know someone who claims to have seen a flying saucer.

Helping the agreeable nonsense along on a summer’s day, here are 7 Huge Misconceptions About Aliens, odd given that no one has ever come up with actual evidence that they exist.

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Comments
Some years (decades?) ago, I saw a TV show by a competent geologist who argued that many of the UFO sightings corresponded with geological fault lines through veins of quartz. His theory was/is that pressure in the rocks generates enough piezoelectric energy to create eruptions of ball lightning, or a similar electrically charged plasma. The ball would behave in a number of strange ways, appearing to be metallic or changing colors, rise and fall in erratic patterns based on attraction not gravity, and shoot into the sky or "wink out" for no apparent reason. As far as I know, he never got any support for field investigations because he was proposing a serious investigation of a thing that the Science community has long claimed does not exist. Many observers claim only that they saw something they could not explain and that no one else could, either. The leading professional debunkers frequently misrepresent the claims and known facts during their "disproof". I find it odd that we're spending billions of USD to confirm facts about Mars that we already know and yet we can't find even 1 million USD to do some investigations of Earth itself.mahuna
July 3, 2012
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StuartHarris- What about radar and pilot contacts? Are you saying that experienced pilots and air-traffic controllers don't know what a plane, helicopter or meteor looks like? And next what about some advanced civilization living here? ie not from another star, well maybe long ago but here to stay?Joe
July 2, 2012
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On the surface this appears to be a nonsensical poll. What is meant by "UFO"? I bet a lot of people have different interpretations of that acronym. Do I believe that people see objects that appear to be flying but are hard to identify as being either a plane, helicopter, meteor or whatever? Sure. Do I believe that beings from other stars have been seen flying around in spaceships? Absolutely not.StuartHarris
July 2, 2012
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Nonlocal Consciousness: An Explanatory Model for the Near-Death Experience - Pim van Lommel, M.D. - video http://www.btci.org/bioethics/2012/videos2012/vid1.html complete listing of videos from forum: BIOETHICS FORUM VIDEOS - 2012 http://www.btci.org/bioethics/2012/videos2012/default.htmlbornagain77
July 2, 2012
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Off Topic: This was a very interesting interview for me to watch: A Conversation with Eben Alexander III, M.D. - Near Death Experiencer - Eben Alexander III, M.D., Steve Paulson (Interviewer) - video http://www.btci.org/bioethics/2012/videos2012/vid3.htmlbornagain77
July 2, 2012
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I'm sorry Joe, eye witness testimony counts for nothing if it's not in support of the view point of certain Christian sects that humans are alone in the universe (and I'm Christian and a mystic, so no one assumes I'm a communist atheist materialist darwinist or anything). You're punching the heavy bag if you try to bring up anything pro-UFO here.UrbanMysticDee
July 1, 2012
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Newly released UFO files from the UK government More UK UFO filesJoe
July 1, 2012
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You don't have to scare all the people with one threat, just some with each. People that aren't persuade by UFO invasions are persuaged by Terrorism, people not persuaded by either of those amaybe are affected by fear of global warming...ect... All the bases are covered. And each leads to a common endpoint: some form of world government.JGuy
July 1, 2012
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Fears of an some unseen threat: Terrorism Looming Environmental Disasters Aliens Attacking Earth Asteroid Collisions Potential World Wars Financial Crisis Energy Crisis Common theme: Largely unidentifiable threats with questionable origins or no real reason for concern that scare people. And 'coincidentally' great ways to persuade people to accept some form of international governance (puppeted by banking cartels of course). :-/JGuy
July 1, 2012
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The Bible contains references to UFOs. And are you saying that eye-witness accounts are not actual evidence- even when it comes from very credible sources?Joe
July 1, 2012
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Near death, explained - By Dr. Mario Beauregard research professor Neuroscience Research Center at the University of Montreal. - April 2012 Excerpt: These findings strongly challenge the mainstream neuroscientific view that mind and consciousness result solely from brain activity. As we have seen, such a view fails to account for how NDErs can experience—while their hearts are stopped—vivid and complex thoughts and acquire veridical information about objects or events remote from their bodies. NDE studies also suggest that after physical death, mind and consciousness may continue in a transcendent level of reality that normally is not accessible to our senses and awareness. Needless to say, this view is utterly incompatible with the belief of many materialists that the material world is the only reality. http://www.salon.com/2012/04/21/near_death_explained/singleton/ The Day I Died - Part 4 of 6 - The Extremely 'Monitored' Near Death Experience of Pam Reynolds - video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4045560 In The Presence Of Almighty God - The NDE of Mickey Robinson - video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4045544
Of a sobering note:
All foreign, non-Judeo-Christian culture, NDE studies I have looked at have a extreme rarity of encounters with 'The Being Of Light' and tend to be very unpleasant NDE's save for the few pleasant children's NDEs of those cultures that I've seen (It seems there is indeed an 'age of accountability'). The following study was shocking for what was found in some non-Judeo-Christian NDE's: Near-Death Experiences in Thailand - Todd Murphy: Excerpt:The Light seems to be absent in Thai NDEs. So is the profound positive affect found in so many Western NDEs. The most common affect in our collection is negative. Unlike the negative affect in so many Western NDEs (cf. Greyson & Bush, 1992), that found in Thai NDEs (in all but case #11) has two recognizable causes. The first is fear of 'going'. The second is horror and fear of hell. It is worth noting that although half of our collection include seeing hell (cases 2,6,7,9,10) and being forced to witness horrific tortures, not one includes the NDEer having been subjected to these torments themselves. http://www.shaktitechnology.com/thaindes.htm
Here is one shocking personal experience from a man who had just returned from his Buddhist temple when he had his NDE:
Near Death Experience Thailand Asia - video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8M5J3zWG5g
bornagain77
July 1, 2012
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Off Topic: Neurosurgeon Eben Alexander is on this weeks "I Survived: Beyond and Back" TV show talking about his Near Death Experience
Lucas, Eben, Darlene - Full Episode (Near Death Experiences) A college boy is involved in a shocking car accident and flatlines numerous times. A neurosurgeon lapses into a coma with acute meningitis. A woman is drowned while scuba diving. http://www.biography.com/tv/i-survived-beyond-and-back/videos/lucas-eben-darlene-full-episode-2192052175
Related notes:
A neurosurgeon (Eben Alexander) confronts the non-material nature of consciousness - December 2011 Excerpted quote: To me one thing that has emerged from my experience and from very rigorous analysis of that experience over several years, talking it over with others that I respect in neuroscience, and really trying to come up with an answer, is that consciousness outside of the brain is a fact. It’s an established fact. And of course, that was a hard place for me to get, coming from being a card-toting reductive materialist over decades. It was very difficult to get to knowing that consciousness, that there’s a soul of us that is not dependent on the brain. https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/he-said-it-a-neurosurgeon-confronts-the-non-material-nature-of-consciousness/ Neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander’s Near-Death Experience Defies Medical Model of Consciousness - audio interview http://www.skeptiko.com/upload/skeptiko-154-eben-alexander.mp3
============ Further collected notes:
Blind Woman Can See During Near Death Experience (NDE) - Pim von Lommel - video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3994599/ Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper (1997) conducted a study of 31 blind people, many of who reported vision during their Near Death Experiences (NDEs). 21 of these people had had an NDE while the remaining 10 had had an out-of-body experience (OBE), but no NDE. It was found that in the NDE sample, about half had been blind from birth. (of note: This 'anomaly' is also found for deaf people who can hear sound during their Near Death Experiences(NDEs).) http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2320/is_1_64/ai_65076875/ Famous Cardiac Surgeon’s Stories of Near Death Experiences in Surgery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL1oDuvQR08 The Scientific Evidence for Near Death Experiences - Dr Jeffery Long - Melvin Morse M.D. - video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4454627 Dr. Jeffery Long: Just how strong is the evidence for a afterlife? - video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mptGAc3XWPs Facts about NDEs - video clip on the site Excerpt: In 1982 a Gallup poll estimated that 8 million Americans have had a near-death experience and a more resent study, a US News & World Report in March of 1997, found that 15 million have had the experience. http://www.ndelight.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=117&Itemid=63
bornagain77
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