Conspiracy theories which turned out to be true

[Edina Street]

This thread is regarding this post here https://www.hibs.net/showthread.php?362011-Anti-vaccine-conspiracy-theorists-outside-ER&p=7329218&viewfull=1#post7329218 and the anti-vaccination conspiracy theorists that were outside Easter Road before the derby.

As a member of both a Conspiracy Debunking website, "and" a Conspiracy Theory website, I mostly side with the debunkers. I believe vaccine hesitancy to be dangerous to herd immunity, and I believe that other similar types of denialism including AIDS denialism to be equally as dangerous. Another topic I am extremely skeptical regarding, is the topic of alternative therapy, such as recently documented on Coronation Street. I do not believe alternative therapies to be a replacement for chemotherapy. However, I do find one of the best ways to debate with those with far left or far right leanings is to be honest about real conspiracies and cover-ups which have taken place, and also admit when conspiracy theories have been proven to be true.

So here I answer the question which was presented to me in the link I provided above.

However I am only going to present one argument at a time, because if I spend an eternity composing a thread, it is very likely I will time out, and my entire article and effort will be lost.

So, I will begin with what I consider to be the most appropriate conspiracy, given that this is a website about football.

Hillsborough disaster

Liverpool supporters and conspiracy theorists along with many members of the wider public alleged for years that there was a Police cover-up concerning the Hillsborough disaster.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-57356486

Two police forces are to pay damages to more than 600 people over a cover-up which followed the Hillsborough disaster.

[Edina Street]

There is a conspiracy theory that the government is controlling the weather for nefarious purposes. This is probably not true. But governments have certainly "tried" to control the weather for nefarious purposes, as witnessed by Operation Popeye.

Operation Popeye

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Popeye

Operation Sober Popeye (Project Controlled Weather Popeye / Motorpool / Intermediary-Compatriot) was a military cloud-seeding (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud-seeding) project carried out by the U.S. Air Force (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force) during the Vietnam War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War) in 1967–1972. The highly classified program attempted to extend the monsoon season (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsoon_season) over specific areas of the Ho Chi Minh Trail (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh_Trail), in order to disrupt North Vietnamese military supplies by softening road surfaces and causing landslides.

[Pretty Boy]

Smoking causing cancer.

Tobacco companies knew by the late 40s, 1950s at the latest that there was an indisputable link between smoking and lung cancer, along with others, yet openly denied and paid vast sums to bury the research and have scientists and doctors speak out against it. Even after the US surgeon general endorsed the research tobacco companies still told people their product was safe and denialist propoganda was everywhere.

It was the very late 80s before Philip Morris finally completely ceased the practice.

[Edina Street]

It is probably not true that 9/11 was an inside job coordinated in order to justify an invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Twin Towers being a controlled demolition does not stand up to scrutiny. However false flag operations are real, and there are think tanks that are evil enough to present manifestos which support committing acts of terrorism against ones own citizens, in order to blame it on the enemy, and thus justify an invasion. Operation Northwoods is proof of this.

Operation Northwoods

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods#:~:text=Operation%20Northwood s%20was%20a%20proposed,United%20States%20governmen t%20in%201962.

Operation Northwoods was a proposed false flag (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag) operation against American citizens that originated within the US Department of Defense (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Department_of_Defense) of the United States government (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_government) in 1962. The proposals called for CIA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA) operatives to both stage and commit acts of violent terrorism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_the_United_States) against American military and civilian targets, blaming them on the Cuban government (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_government), and using it to justify a war against Cuba.

[Edina Street]

If you suspect the chip your Cat received when you took it to the vet is being used by the government to spy on you, are you schizophrenic? Probably, but not necessarily. The CIA have actually considered planting chips in Cats for the purposes of spying.

Acoustic Kitty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_Kitty

Acoustic Kitty was a Central Intelligence Agency (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency) (CIA) project launched by their Directorate of Science & Technology (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency_Directorate_of_Science _%26_Technology) in the 1960s, which intended to use cats (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat) to spy on the Kremlin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlin) and Soviet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union) embassies.[1] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_Kitty#cite_note-donald-1)
In an hour-long procedure, a veterinary surgeon implanted a microphone in the cat's ear canal, a small radio transmitter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmitter) at the base of its skull, and a thin wire into its fur

[Edina Street]

Everyone will be familiar with Mel Gibson's MK Ultra from his film "conspiracy theory". MK Ultra is also a favourite allegation of the conspiracy theory community. However, the only thing the conspiracy theorists are wrong about, is that MK Ultra is an abandoned project. However, it "was" a real project.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra
[QUOTE] Project MKUltra (or MK-Ultra)[a] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra#cite_note-1) was an illegal human experimentation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentation_in_the_United_Stat es) program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency) (CIA), intended to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used in interrogations to weaken individuals and force confessions through brainwashing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwashing) and psychological torture (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_torture).[1] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra#cite_note-USCongress1977-2)[2] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra#cite_note-3)[3] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra#cite_note-4)[4] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra#cite_note-5) It began in 1953 and was halted in 1973. MKUltra used numerous methods to manipulate its subjects' mental states and brain functions, such as the covert administration of high doses of psychoactive drugs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoactive_drug) (especially LSD (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD)) and other chemicals without the subjects' consent, electroshocks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_therapy),[5] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra#cite_note-npr.org-6) hypnosis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnosis),[6] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra#cite_note-7)[7] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra#cite_note-8) sensory deprivation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_deprivation), isolation, verbal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_abuse) and sexual abuse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_abuse), and other forms of torture (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture)./QUOTE]

[Onceinawhile]

Not sure it 100% fits but Operation paperclip?

[Just_Jimmy]

Scottish football is bent.



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[Edina Street]

I personally find the notion of conspiracy theorists making allegations that murdered children in school shootings such as Sandy Hook are in fact "crisis actors" taking part in hoaxes in order to bring about gun control, to be appalling and disgusting. Extrordinary cliams require extrodinary evidence. However, when the US government use children to stand up and make statements to the media regarding the murder of even younger children in order to justify an invasion of a country, which later turn out to be Atrocity Propaganda, they certainly make the lines blurry and make themselves hard to defend. Such was the case with the Niyarah testimony.

Niyarah testimony

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony

The Nayirah testimony was false testimony (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_testimony) given before the United States Congressional Human Rights Caucus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lantos_Human_Rights_Commission) on October 10, 1990, by a 15-year-old girl who was publicly identified at the time by her first name, Nayirah. The testimony was widely publicized and was cited numerous times by U.S. senators and President George H. W. Bush (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush) in their rationale to support Kuwait (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwait) in the Gulf War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War).In 1992, it was revealed that Nayirah's last name was Al-Ṣabaḥ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Sabah) (Arabic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language): نيرة الصباح) and that she was the daughter of Saud Al-Sabah (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saud_Nasser_Al-Saud_Al-Sabah), the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. Furthermore, it was revealed that her testimony was organized as part of the Citizens for a Free Kuwait (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_for_a_Free_Kuwait) public relations campaign (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations), which was run by the American public relations firm Hill & Knowlton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_%26_Knowlton) for the Kuwaiti Government (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Kuwait). Following this, al-Sabah's testimony has come to be regarded as a classic example of modern atrocity propaganda (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocity_propaganda).[1] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony#cite_note-csmon-1)[2] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony#cite_note-2)
In her testimony, Nayirah claimed that after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Kuwait) she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers take babies out of incubators (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubator_(neonatal)) in a Kuwaiti hospital, remove the incubators and leave the babies to die.

Her story was initially corroborated by Amnesty International (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty_International), a British-based global NGO (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_non-governmental_organization), which published several independent reports about the supposed killings[3] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony#cite_note-lrb-3) and testimony from evacuees. Following the liberation of Kuwait (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_of_Kuwait_campaign), reporters were given access to the country. An ABC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_News) report found that "patients, including premature babies, did die, when many of Kuwait's nurses and doctors ... fled" but Iraqi troops "almost certainly had not stolen hospital incubators and left hundreds of Kuwaiti babies to die."[4] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony#cite_note-Fowler,_p._22-4) Amnesty International USA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty_International_USA) reacted by issuing a correction, with executive director John Healey (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Healey) subsequently accusing the Bush administration (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_George_H._W._Bush) of "opportunistic manipulation of the international human rights movement".[5] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony#cite_note-5)

[Edina Street]

Not sure it 100% fits but Operation paperclip?

I don't think there was a pre-existing conspiracy theory which directly accused the US of hiring NAZI scientists. And I don't think that Operation paperclip is the biggest scandal ever, as to be fair, none of the Nazi scientists that were hired by the US government were found guilty of any crimes. However, certainly, conspiracy theorists maintain that the term NASA comes from the word NAZI, and Operation paperclip is the project that they site as proof of this.

[hibsbollah]

The Gulf of Tonkin incident, which gave President Lyndon Johnson the excuse to expand US involvement in Vietnam, didn’t actually happen and we’ve known this conclusively for 15 years or so. Whether it was ‘staged’ deliberately at a high political level or was a result of genuine bad intel on the ground is apparently ‘up for debate’…

https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2008/february/truth-about-tonkin

[O'Rourke3]

Hearts were going bust under Romanov...

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[Hibbyradge]

https://i.postimg.cc/QdGqzPNt/FB-IMG-1681936313958.jpg

[Edina Street]

https://i.postimg.cc/QdGqzPNt/FB-IMG-1681936313958.jpg

Yes, a lot of conspiracy theorists are like this. In their world 2+2 only equals four because TPTB say so.

[CropleyWasGod]

Yes, a lot of conspiracy theorists are like this. In their world 2+2 only equals four because TPTB say so.

2.3, rounded to the nearest whole number, is 2.

2.3 + 2.3 = 4.6. Rounded to the nearest whole number, it's 5.

Ergo 2+2 can equal 5.

Try it on a spreadsheet :greengrin

[Kato]

2.3, rounded to the nearest whole number, is 2.

2.3 + 2.3 = 4.6. Rounded to the nearest whole number, it's 5.

Ergo 2+2 can equal 5.

Try it on a spreadsheet :greengrinThat would be 2+2 ≈ 5

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[Keith_M]

2.3, rounded to the nearest whole number, is 2.

2.3 + 2.3 = 4.6. Rounded to the nearest whole number, it's 5.

Ergo 2+2 can equal 5.

Try it on a spreadsheet :greengrin


Interestingly (or maybe not),

....in Binary, 1 + 1 = 10

Which leads me elegantly into my next point*.


One of my work colleagues genuinely believes that the Scottish Government is involved in a worldwide conspiracy to brainwash children into being confused about their sex/gender. He hasn't yet given any explanation of why they'd want to do this, but he's so convinced about it that he actually removed both of his children from school and his wife now teaches them at home.



* Think about it a bit and you'll get the link :wink:

[Jones28]

Interestingly (or maybe not),

....in Binary, 1 + 1 = 10

Which leads me elegantly into my next point*.


One of my work colleagues genuinely believes that the Scottish Government is involved in a worldwide conspiracy to brainwash children into being confused about their sex/gender. He hasn't yet given any explanation of why they'd want to do this, but he's so convinced about it that he actually removed both of his children from school and his wife now teaches them at home.



* Think about it a bit and you'll get the link :wink:

Does you colleague do a job that involves heavy machinery or the safety of people? If so, I’d rather he didn’t.

[Keith_M]

Does you colleague do a job that involves heavy machinery or the safety of people? If so, I’d rather he didn’t.


Thankfully he doesn't, no.

[ErinGoBraghHFC]

Time to resurrect this thread, reading another post reminded me of one of the most mental conspiracy theories I’ve ever heard. Some folk claim that Stevie wonder can see, that he’s never been blind or partially sighted and has been spotted driving a car. A part of me wishes this is true, but I have my doubts[emoji23] thoughts?


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[Keith_M]

Time to resurrect this thread, reading another post reminded me of one of the most mental conspiracy theories I’ve ever heard. Some folk claim that Stevie wonder can see, that he’s never been blind or partially sighted and has been spotted driving a car. A part of me wishes this is true, but I have my doubts[emoji23] thoughts?


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This is a theory based on a character from an episode of Jonathan Creek called 'blind Hewie Harper'.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0616878/?ref_=ttep_ep4

[LaMotta]

I have 2 Hibs/Hearts related conspiracy theories.

1) Vladimir Romanov was handing brown envelopes of cash to Zibby Malkowski to make howlers against Hearts. Zibby made a huge amount of ridiculous errors in a Hibs jersey - but all of them came against Hearts. The rest of the time against all other teams he was largely an average goalie going about his businesses.

2) Vladimir Romanov handed brown envelope(s) to Referee Craig Thomson before the 2012 Scottish Cup Final to ensure the outcome was favourable to Hearts.

[ErinGoBraghHFC]

Maybe not technically a conspiracy theory, but does anyone remember the UFO sighting in Livingston in the late 70s? Or does anyone believe the guy?


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[McD]

Maybe not technically a conspiracy theory, but does anyone remember the UFO sighting in Livingston in the late 70s? Or does anyone believe the guy?


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I wasn’t born when it supposedly happened (79 I think it was), but I remember a lot of the chat about it, especially as a kid

[Jones28]

I have 2 Hibs/Hearts related conspiracy theories.

1) Vladimir Romanov was handing brown envelopes of cash to Zibby Malkowski to make howlers against Hearts. Zibby made a huge amount of ridiculous errors in a Hibs jersey - but all of them came against Hearts. The rest of the time against all other teams he was largely an average goalie going about his businesses.

2) Vladimir Romanov handed brown envelope(s) to Referee Craig Thomson before the 2012 Scottish Cup Final to ensure the outcome was favourable to Hearts.

Bizarrely the Youtube algorithm decided I wanted to watch the full cup final yesterday. I didn't quite do that but I did re-watch the main incidents in the game. I am convinced there's nothing that could have happened that would have seen us win the cup that day.

They had the luck, the ref and the millions of pounds of debt that allowed them to finance a squad they never should have had.

I guess thats a conspiracy theory of sorts.

[Mon Dieu4]

Maybe not technically a conspiracy theory, but does anyone remember the UFO sighting in Livingston in the late 70s? Or does anyone believe the guy?


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My dad and his family saw one over a beach in kinghorn when he was a kid, said it was like a reflective cigar wasn't too far away but just shot off at a speed that no plane etc could have, my Nana and Grandad saw it too, my Grandad was a RAF spotter as well, he was none the wiser about what it had been

[Bridge hibs]

My dad and his family saw one over a beach in kinghorn when he was a kid, said it was like a reflective cigar wasn't too far away but just shot off at a speed that no plane etc could have, my Nana and Grandad saw it too, my Grandad was a RAF spotter as well, he was none the wiser about what it had beenAn old friend (Andrew Cherry) was a young lad heading to work one morning in a bottling factory in Portobello when he described seeing a UFO, his description of what he saw was so detailed

If I remember correctly he described it as black diamond shaped, matt in finish and silent. He described is as being very low that he could actually see a “pilot” dressed in black, he said the UFO tilted and then in a split second flew off at breakneck speed towards Fife

I spoke to Andy in his later years, he would have been late 70s or early 80s, a genuine and polite guy and certainly not a Jackanory. He could still tell the story to the word

It is also documented in a book named the Mac x Files, the Livingston sighting is mentioned in the book too

[ErinGoBraghHFC]

An old friend (Andrew Cherry) was a young lad heading to work one morning in a bottling factory in Portobello when he described seeing a UFO, his description of what he saw was so detailed

If I remember correctly he described it as black diamond shaped, matt in finish and silent. He described is as being very low that he could actually see a “pilot” dressed in black, he said the UFO tilted and then in a split second flew off at breakneck speed towards Fife

I spoke to Andy in his later years, he would have been late 70s or early 80s, a genuine and polite guy and certainly not a Jackanory. He could still tell the story to the word

It is also documented in a book named the Mac x Files, the Livingston sighting is mentioned in the book too

Interesting, do you know if there’s any online info on this sighting?


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[HUTCHYHIBBY]

I wasn’t born when it supposedly happened (79 I think it was), but I remember a lot of the chat about it, especially as a kid

I would imagine plenty folk have had a close encounter in Livvy. 🤔

[ErinGoBraghHFC]

I wasn’t born when it supposedly happened (79 I think it was), but I remember a lot of the chat about it, especially as a kid

I remember hearing about it from time to time growing up in Livi, not a ten minute walk from where it supposedly happened. A lot of people in Deans, Carmondean and Dechmont take his word as gospel. I did always get a weird feeling walking through those woods.


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[Bridge hibs]

Interesting, do you know if there’s any online info on this sighting?


Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkTrying to find something, here is a link to the Livingston sighting

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-50262655.amp

The book Mc X which describes Andrew Cherrys Portobello sighting

https://www.amazon.co.uk/McX-Scottish-Files-Ron-Halliday/dp/1873631774

[McD]

I remember hearing about it from time to time growing up in Livi, not a ten minute walk from where it supposedly happened. A lot of people in Deans, Carmondean and Dechmont take his word as gospel. I did always get a weird feeling walking through those woods.


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we used to be in those woods a lot as kids, and for things like orienteering and cross country running during school. What I would say is that they were always very quiet, you rarely saw other people there, which always felt odd as it’s a sensible place to take dogs and kids for walks, for the most part not near any roads, great for taking a mountain bike through

[The_Exile]

Wasn't Bonnybridge considered the UFO capital of the world at some point?

I'm very much of the opinion that most things can be explain away by Occam's razor. The one conspiracy that I think is so obviously true though is the Covid lab leak theory in Wuhan. I just cannot see any other explanation. I mean they've got a coronavirus lab right there FFS!!

[ErinGoBraghHFC]

we used to be in those woods a lot as kids, and for things like orienteering and cross country running during school. What I would say is that they were always very quiet, you rarely saw other people there, which always felt odd as it’s a sensible place to take dogs and kids for walks, for the most part not near any roads, great for taking a mountain bike through

They still done the cross country running there when I left school about 6/7 years ago, I’d imagine they still do now. The woods are mostly used as a bevvying den for teenagers and folk tend to take their dogs up to the big grass field area beside the high school to run about rather than actually venturing into the woods. Definitely is eerily quiet, you could easily forget you’re in Livingston


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[Lancs Harp]

Tories are c***s. Proved a zillion times.

Apologies for lowering the tone but the OP did ask.

[Fuzzywuzzy]

My dad and his family saw one over a beach in kinghorn when he was a kid, said it was like a reflective cigar wasn't too far away but just shot off at a speed that no plane etc could have, my Nana and Grandad saw it too, my Grandad was a RAF spotter as well, he was none the wiser about what it had been

My brother was always convinced he saw one above the oil depot at dalmeny in '79. He would have been about 10 at the time

[pollution]

Wasn't Bonnybridge considered the UFO capital of the world at some point?

I'm very much of the opinion that most things can be explain away by Occam's razor. The one conspiracy that I think is so obviously true though is the Covid lab leak theory in Wuhan. I just cannot see any other explanation. I mean they've got a coronavirus lab right there FFS!!



Nothing to do with the lights from Grangemouth !

[ErinGoBraghHFC]

Nothing to do with the lights from Grangemouth !

Maybe, you can sometimes see the flaring at Grangemouth on a clear night from my upstairs.

Ghosts anyone?


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[ErinGoBraghHFC]

Trying to find something, here is a link to the Livingston sighting

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-50262655.amp

The book Mc X which describes Andrew Cherrys Portobello sighting

https://www.amazon.co.uk/McX-Scottish-Files-Ron-Halliday/dp/1873631774

Just bought the kindle version of the book for my holidays, cheers BH


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[O'Rourke3]

Nothing to do with the lights from Grangemouth !Or the chemicals in the air... The area near the Refinary stank in the 70s

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[Bridge hibs]

Just bought the kindle version of the book for my holidays, cheers BH


Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkNice one mate, enjoy 👍

[weecounty hibby]

For UFOs with a Hibby link check out Malcolm Robinson. Malcy was a huge Hibby back in the 70s and 80s. Home and away and has some incredible stories not just about UFOs but about Hibs as well.

[The Modfather]

On the subject of UFO’s. I was over in Ukraine for the Dnipro game. Was on an overnight train back to Kiev, which was an experience in itself. Woke up in the middle of the night and the train was stopped so went for walk to stretch my legs. There was an embankment next to where we were stopped and there was the strangest lights on the other side I couldn’t work out what they were. I subsequently read there was a fatal rail crash in Ukraine that same night. It was probably, unfortunately, something to do with that rather than anything unexplainable.

[Bridge hibs]

Reading of the Dechmont farmers experience and that of others, so descriptive you couldnt possibly think that these guys have made those stories up

I suppose I would be sceptical but thats probably because I would need to see it for myself to truly believe there is something out there or that they have indeed visited us in their various guises

[ErinGoBraghHFC]

Reading of the Dechmont farmers experience and that of others, so descriptive you couldnt possibly think that these guys have made those stories up

I suppose I would be sceptical but thats probably because I would need to see it for myself to truly believe there is something out there or that they have indeed visited us in their various guises

I do believe that Robert Taylor believed that’s what he saw, I also don’t know what could possibly be mistaken for what he thinks he saw and experienced. It’s just too detailed, his story never changed until his death and he left the UK for a period to escape the newspapers, he wasn’t chasing fame or notoriety.


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[Bridge hibs]

I do believe that Robert Taylor believed that’s what he saw, I also don’t know what could possibly be mistaken for what he thinks he saw and experienced. It’s just too detailed, his story never changed until his death and he left the UK for a period to escape the newspapers, he wasn’t chasing fame or notoriety.


Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkYeah thats what I mean, its just too descriptive and detailed, think it tormented him for a while too, I mean you just dont witness those things every day

Its the same with Andrew Cherrys sighting in Portobello when he was a young lad on his way to work, his description is very detailed too and although he was just a young lad then his story never changed over the years. Unsure if he is still on the go but I spoke to him last in 2013 and he was happy to tell that story to an audience in the pub. If I remember one or two were trying to pick holes in his story to try trip him up but he didnt relent, he stuck to his story and basically suggested they believe him or they dont

He was never out for fame

[ErinGoBraghHFC]

Yeah thats what I mean, its just too descriptive and detailed, think it tormented him for a while too, I mean you just dont witness those things every day

Its the same with Andrew Cherrys sighting in Portobello when he was a young lad on his way to work, his description is very detailed too and although he was just a young lad then his story never changed over the years. Unsure if he is still on the go but I spoke to him last in 2013 and he was happy to tell that story to an audience in the pub. If I remember one or two were trying to pick holes in his story to try trip him up but he didnt relent, he stuck to his story and basically suggested they believe him or they dont

He was never out for fame

Story goes that Mr Taylor was a non believer until the encounter also, and a church goer until his death. Makes me more inclined to believe him. Your pal sounds credible from what you’ve said too, did he ever describe what the pilot looked like to you at all? Presumably not a wee green man.


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[Bridge hibs]

Story goes that Mr Taylor was a non believer until the encounter also, and a church goer until his death. Makes me more inclined to believe him. Your pal sounds credible from what you’ve said too, did he ever describe what the pilot looked like to you at all? Presumably not a wee green man.


Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkIf I remember he described the craft as a silent and matt black, hovering quite low and then tilted. I think he said the pilot was all in black with an all black helmet and visor, after the craft tilted it shot away at speed towards Fife

[Hibbyradge]

Funny how they're only ever spotted by individuals.

[ErinGoBraghHFC]

Funny how they're only ever spotted by individuals.

Not entirely true, for example multiple people described seeing strange things in the sky over Dechmont Law that night. It was only Robert Taylor who had the close encounter though, but it’s a quiet area late at night with only the forestry workers having a reason to be up there at that time of night.


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[Bridge hibs]

Funny how they're only ever spotted by individuals.Not always

The A70 Abduction: Missing hours

Travelling along the A70 near Harperrig Reservoir in West Lothian on August 17, 1992, Garry Wood and Colin Wright saw a two-tiered, disc-shaped object above the road.

According to their testimony, Wood put his foot down on the accelerator and as they passed beneath the UFO, it appeared to emit a "curtain of white light". The car began shuddering and they emerged to find themselves driving on the wrong side of the road.

When Wood and Wright arrived in the South Lanarkshire village of Tarbrax, where they were due to drop off a satellite TV system, they discovered that several hours were unaccounted for. Afterwards they underwent hypnosis sessions, with both men recalling an alien abduction scenario and being subjected to a medical-type examination

The Falkirk Triangle: Scotland's UFO capital

The phenomenon known as the "Falkirk Triangle". which includes Bonnybridge and Camelon - first began to gain attention in 1992 with the area laying claim to around 300 sightings a year.

A family out for a walk on a March evening in 1992 spoke of witnessing a basketball-sized blue light hovering on the back road from Hallglen to Bonnybridge and claimed to hear a sound similar to a "door opening" followed by a "how!" (unsurprisingly they didn't hang around).

A video of an orange oval light above Falkirk, changing shape to becoming a white disc - the classic "flying saucer" shape - then disappearing suddenly was captured in October 1996. The clip went viral worldwide.

[Pretty Boy]

Funny how they're only ever spotted by individuals.

There was a strange case in Zimbabwe in the 1990s

62 children at a school claimed that they saw a UFO land, beings approach and communicate with them telepathically. The methodology for gathering evidence was criticised and it's often claimed it was mass hysteria or an elaborate prank albeit many still stand by what they saw. Incidentally many others at the school and in the playground on the same day insist they saw nothing out of the ordinary.

I find it interesting that the vast, vast majority of UFO sightings occur in the US with Europe (particularly the UK) and Australia also ranking highly. All places in which UFOs play a major part in popular culture. Sightings elsewhere aren't unknown but are comparatively rare. It's also interesting that sightings tend to follow patterns. In the years after the Roswell incident it was flying saucers that were everywhere. Cigar shaped crafts were all the rage for a while, died away then came back with a bang after NASA confirmed the existence of Oumuamua in the 2010s. The early 90s saw a surge in sighting of fireballs, incidentally just after the film 'Fire in the Sky' about alien abduction was released. Lights in the sky peaked in the UK shortly after the Rendlesham Forest incident, suddenly everyone was seeing lights in the sky. UFO sightings peaked from the late 70s (just after a certain Speilberg film) through the 80s (another Speilberg film anyone) and the early 90s just when crappy camcorders were on the market and grainy footage of 'something' was there to be captured. There was a TV show that was quite popular around that time...... As camera phones and the like have improved sightings have been on a notable and steady decline and once more 'lights in the sky' have replaced close encounters and sightings as actually crafts as the most reported incidents, nowadays there is no way you wouldn't just get a picture, think of the likes.

I wouldn't like to argue in the vastness of the universe there isn't other intelligent life, I'd say it's odds on that there is. I also think most people who claim to have encountered a UFO or alien being genuinely believe what they say (along with a fair few chancers of course). I just don't buy that intelligent beings travelled several light years then had a quick probe at or blether with the first person they bumped into then were on their way again. With the technology they obviously have I'd argue an appointment at the White House, Kremlin or Zhongnanhai wouldn't be beyond them.

I'd be more inclined to ask what military technology is being developed in a classified environment. It would probably clear up a lot of these incidents.

[grunt]

I wouldn't like to argue in the vastness of the universe there isn't other intelligent life, I'd say it's odds on that there is. I also think most people who claim to have encountered a UFO or alien being genuinely believe what they say (along with a fair few chancers of course). I just don't buy that intelligent beings travelled several light years then had a quick probe at or blether with the first person they bumped into then were on their way again. With the technology they obviously have I'd argue an appointment at the White House, Kremlin or Zhongnanhai wouldn't be beyond them.
Prof. Brian Cox was asked about this the other day on the back of the hearings in the US Senate.


A few more thoughts on the possibility of life beyond Earth. All these thoughts are guesses. The lack of firm evidence for alien intelligence (so far) is sometimes called the Fermi Paradox, and it is a paradox. Put simply, there has been over 10 billion years and there are many millions of worlds in the Milky Way on which a civilisation could have arisen as far as we know. At first sight, one might therefore expect that there should be many civilisations in the galaxy far in advance of us, and we might have expected to see them. Why don’t we (or, let’s be careful, why is the evidence not bloody obvious!)?

One answer might be that civilisations never develop interstellar travel. I don’t see any reason why interstellar travel is impossible, and I think we’ll develop it if we survive into the 22nd century.

Related - perhaps civilisations don’t ever solve the problems posed by industrialisation and the discovery of nuclear weapons and never make it to the stars. Topical - see Oppenheimer! Maybe just ‘getting along’ as a global civilisation is harder than science.

Maybe (see UFO hearings) they are here but we haven’t discovered them or somebody knows but has managed to keep it a secret? Maybe. But if this is the case then at least I can say that the alien civilisations aren’t making their presence very obvious, otherwise my Astronomy colleagues who spend their time gazing at the sky and listening for signals would surely have spotted them! But let’s not rule out the possibility that we just haven’t detected them (or there is evidence but only a few people know about it) but they are indeed here.

My guess is that the average number of civilisations in a typical galaxy is low - perhaps less than 1. That’s a guess, based on what we know about the evolution of complex life on Earth. Put simply, it took the best part of 4 billion years here to go from cell to civilisation, and that’s a third of the age of the Universe. I think this MAY imply that, if this is typical (lots of ifs) then the Milky Way may be filled with microbes but not complex living things at our level of intelligence. This would be my guess.

BUT make no mistake, I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if a UFO landed in Oldham town centre tomorrow morning and the captain said ‘Take me to the leader of Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council’. In that case the Fermi Paradox would no longer be a paradox, I’d have learnt a lot about biology and I could get back to tweeting about other interesting stuff. I’d also ask them why gravity is so weak relative to the other forces of Nature.

[degenerated]

Maybe not technically a conspiracy theory, but does anyone remember the UFO sighting in Livingston in the late 70s? Or does anyone believe the guy?


Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkI mind that, the forestry worker at Dechmont. Whether or not that boys story is true I've no idea.

I'm inclined to believe there is something out there purely for the fact that it would be thoroughly depressing to think of humans as the pinnacle of intelligent sentient life in the universe.

[degenerated]

Funny how they're only ever spotted by individuals.That's not quite true, there are quite a few mass sightings that I've heard of and I'm not overly well versed in this field.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendlesham_Forest_incident?wprov=sfla1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Lights?wprov=sfla1

[Sylar]

Funny how they're only ever spotted by individuals.

Don't suppose you watch Unsolved Mysteries (the new series), do you?

The most recent one had a very famous incident (The Muskegon sightings), where over 300 people all reportedly observed a supposed UFO over Lake Michigan.

That being said, I'm with Prof. Cox.

[lapsedhibee]

Story goes that Mr Taylor was a non believer until the encounter also, and a church goer until his death. Makes me more inclined to believe him. Your pal sounds credible from what you’ve said too, did he ever describe what the pilot looked like to you at all? Presumably not a wee green man.


It would make me slightly less likely to believe someone about a UFO sighting if I knew that they had an imaginary friend they worshipped every week. :na na:

[ErinGoBraghHFC]

It would make me slightly less likely to believe someone about a UFO sighting if I knew that they had an imaginary friend they worshipped every week. :na na:

Fair point, but UFO believers and Christianity don’t seem like a very likely mix of beliefs!


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[Keith_M]

Fair point, but UFO believers and Christianity don’t seem like a very likely mix of beliefs!


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I once read a book where a woman claimed that she had been impregnated by a being from another world.

The offspring of this 'virgin' had mystical powers* that could only really be put down to his non-human background.

Much like ET, he eventually returned to his own people, somewhere 'in the sky', and he apparently developed something of a cult following that were ridiculed for quite some time but eventually accepted into society



* converting water into alcoholic liquid; defying the laws of gravity by walking on water; discovering chemical substances that cured blindness