The UFO Stimulus

[Soupie]

UFOs and entities have been witnessed throughout human history. However, the only consistency among reported sightings and experiences is their inconsistency. Where one person looks and sees a dragon another looks and sees dog-people in trench coats smoking cigarettes under a streetlight.

I don't pretend to have an answer for this, but I found the following research interesting in this context.

The Flaw Lurking In Every Deep Neural Net

Every deep neural network has "blind spots" in the sense that there are inputs that are very close to correctly classified examples that are misclassified.

Since the very start of neural network research it has been assumed that networks had the power to generalize. That is, if you train a network to recognize a cat using a particular set of cat photos the network will, as long as it has been trained properly, have the ability to recognize a cat photo it hasn't seen before.

Within this assumption has been the even more "obvious" assumption that if the network correctly classifies the photo of a cat as a cat then it will correctly classify a slightly perturbed version of the same photo as a cat. To create the slightly perturbed version you would simply modify each pixel value, and as long as the amount was small, then the cat photo would look exactly the same to a human - and presumably to a neural network.

However, this isn't true. ...

What the researchers did was to invent an optimization algorithm that starts from a correctly classified example and tries to find a small perturbation in the pixel values that drives the output of the network to another classification. Of course, there is no guarantee that such a perturbed incorrect version of the image exists - and if the continuity assumption mentioned earlier applied the search would fail.

However the search succeeds. ...

This is perhaps the most remarkable part of the result. Right next to every correctly classified example there is an effectively indistinguishable example that is misclassified, no matter what network or training set was used.

So if you have a photo of a cat there is a set of small changes that can be made to it that makes the network classify it as a dog - irrespective of the network or its training.

There is also the philosophical question raised by these blind spots. If a deep neural network is biologically inspired we can ask the question, does the same result apply to biological networks.

Put more bluntly "does the human brain have similar built-in errors?" If it doesn't, how is it so different from the neural networks that are trying to mimic it? In short, what is the brain's secret that makes it stable and continuous?

One possible explanation is that this is another manifestation of the curse of dimensionality. As the dimension of a space increases it is well known that the volume of a hypersphere becomes increasingly concentrated at its surface. (The volume that is not near the surface drops exponentially with increasing dimension.) Given that the decision boundaries of a deep neural network are in a very high dimensional space it seems reasonable that most correctly classified examples are going to be close to the decision boundary - hence the ability to find a misclassified example close to the correct one, you simply have to work out the direction to the closest boundary.

If this is part of the explanation, then it is clear that even the human brain cannot avoid the effect and must somehow cope with it; otherwise cats would morph into dogs with an alarming regularity.​

Interestingly, since this research, others have been able to do the opposite: get an object (or image) that looks nothing at all like a penguin to a human, to be identified as a penguin by a DNN.

So this begs the question: are humans susceptible to this same phenomenon? Might we fail to identify or misidentify objects in the same way as these DNNs?

I'm not suggesting that UFOs and other paranormal phenomena are the result of humans misidentifying mundane phenomena — although we know this happens. What I'm asking is if this misidentification is happening at a deeper level — like above — and with non-mundane objects? Perhaps purposefully?

The stimulus in the sky or on the ground is real, but we (our brains) have no hope of correctly identifying it; it's simply too exotic; therefore, our brain says, "I got this! It's a square bit of milk with legs, a moustache, a top hat, and a cane." In reality, the stimulus was nothing of the sort. (And it was neither a misidentified mundane object nor a hallucination.)

 

[Constance]

"UFOs and entities have been witnessed throughout human history. However, the only consistency among reported sightings and experiences is their inconsistency."

That's not actually true. The US and other militaries prepared charts delineating the recurring shapes of ufos for use in pilot training.

 

[Randall]

... What I'm asking is if this misidentification is happening at a deeper level — like above — and with non-mundane objects? Perhaps purposefully? ...

Excellent post. To answer the question above: Perhaps purposefully sometimes, and not other times.

... The stimulus in the sky or on the ground is real, but we (our brains) have no hope of correctly identifying it; it's simply too exotic; therefore, our brain says, "I got this! It's a square bit of milk with legs, a moustache, a top hat, and a cane." In reality, the stimulus was nothing of the sort. (And it was neither a misidentified mundane object nor a hallucination.)

Assuming that we're using normal, healthy, educated humans in modern times, as our baseline, if given sufficient exposure to a well defined stimulus, humans are well equipped to interpret an extremely wide array of object types, of which UFOs ( alien craft ) are only one small part. However the skeptics tend to ignore the strength of human pattern recognition and dwell only on its weaknesses, which tend to require situations to be setup in a very specific ways that in our everyday life rarely happens. Sometimes these rare occurrences can lead to misidentifications of object types, but rarely for long, and what about the times when the type is obvious?

 

[Burnt State]

UFOs and entities have been witnessed throughout human history. However, the only consistency among reported sightings and experiences is their inconsistency. Where one person looks and sees a dragon another looks and sees dog-people in trench coats smoking cigarettes under a streetlight.
......
I'm not suggesting that UFOs and other paranormal phenomena are the result of humans misidentifying mundane phenomena — although we know this happens. What I'm asking is if this misidentification is happening at a deeper level — like above — and with non-mundane objects? Perhaps purposefully?

The stimulus in the sky or on the ground is real, but we (our brains) have no hope of correctly identifying it; it's simply too exotic; therefore, our brain says, "I got this! It's a square bit of milk with legs, a moustache, a top hat, and a cane." In reality, the stimulus was nothing of the sort. (And it was neither a misidentified mundane object nor a hallucination.)

I like this idea a lot as it helps to demonstrate how a set of neural and sensory processes could be responsible for what we call High Strange. Even better, I like how the phenomenon dovetails into some kind of perceptual chameleon, perhaps planting in our own minds a recognizable 'thing' that can substitute for the very unrecognizable life form or craft that is actually in front on us. This also allows for some reported cases of impossible life forms, odd robots, odd late night diners, and UFO's that look like giant hotels or tanks to be understood as a kind of static in our perceptual capacity that the neural net resolves as something familiar, or at least partially so. This is a nice way of extending how the phenomenon could be interacting wtb us. You've named the features of a paradigm that make sense, though I think the dogs smoking under the streetlight were either the product of robust storytelling or functional prosthetic costuming that allows the user to smoke, drink, and expel bodily fluids.

 

[Soupie]

I like this idea a lot as it helps to demonstrate how a set of neural and sensory processes could be responsible for what we call High Strange. Even better, I like how the phenomenon dovetails into some kind of perceptual chameleon, perhaps planting in our own minds a recognizable 'thing' that can substitute for the very unrecognizable life form or craft that is actually in front on us. This also allows for some reported cases of impossible life forms, odd robots, odd late night diners, and UFO's that look like giant hotels or tanks to be understood as a kind of static in our perceptual capacity that the neural net resolves as something familiar, or at least partially so. This is a nice way of extending how the phenomenon could be interacting wtb us. You've named the features of a paradigm that make sense, though I think the dogs smoking under the streetlight were either the product of robust storytelling or functional prosthetic costuming that allows the user to smoke, drink, and expel bodily fluids.

Its kind of like a Rorschach Test; when a stimulus attracts the attention of the brain, the brain will attempt to identify the stimulus. I believe the brain begins with phenomenal meanings — color, shape, size, distance, texture, smell, etc. — and then rapidly moves to conceptual meanings: person, bear, plane, car, toothpaste, pie, house, tree, etc.

What happens if the brain cant get past the phenomenal level of meaning? What if there are aspect(s) of the stimulus that the brain cant give meaning to? Color, shape, size, distance, etc?

Would the brain just move onto the conceptual level of meaning anyhow?

I go back to the Flatlander/dimension idea we've discussed before. What would 2D entities make of a 3D object passing through their 2D reality? Talk about shapeshifting. They would sense a pattern, I imagine, but they would struggle with the phenomenal meaning of what they were experiencing. However, they would theoretically be able to make conceptual sense of the stimulus if their 2D minds could conceptualize 3 dimensions.

 

[Constance]

Would the brain just move onto the conceptual level of meaning anyhow?

I'm waiting for neuroscience to enlighten us on where and how 'the brain' computes concepts. And not holding my breath. Concepts are mind stuff and, so far as I can tell at present, concepts consist of more than data.

 

[Randall]

I go back to the Flatlander/dimension idea we've discussed before. What would 2D entities make of a 3D object passing through their 2D reality? Talk about shapeshifting. They would sense a pattern, I imagine, but they would struggle with the phenomenal meaning of what they were experiencing. However, they would theoretically be able to make conceptual sense of the stimulus if their 2D minds could conceptualize 3 dimensions.

It's a bit difficult to grasp at first for some people, but the flatlander analogy is at best only an analogy, and cannot logically apply to the dimensions that exist in the real world ( objective reality ). However I share your view that when we first perceive a stimulus, our initial reaction is to assess things like size, shape, distance, speed, and so on, and that probably comes from a primitive survival reflex ( Large dark thing approaching fast ... eek ... swim fast or be eaten .) After that we try to make sense of perceptions by matching them to what we know, but even when we don't know exactly what something is, we can nearly always place it into a class of objects. For example even a primitive culture who has never seen an aircraft would still class an aircraft as a flying thing, and cultures only a little more sophisticated ( I'm guessing ) would probably recognize them as some kind of construct.

 

[Burnt State]

Its kind of like a Rorschach Test; when a stimulus attracts the attention of the brain, the brain will attempt to identify the stimulus. I believe the brain begins with phenomenal meanings — color, shape, size, distance, texture, smell, etc. — and then rapidly moves to conceptual meanings: person, bear, plane, car, toothpaste, pie, house, tree, etc.

What happens if the brain cant get past the phenomenal level of meaning? What if there are aspect(s) of the stimulus that the brain cant give meaning to? Color, shape, size, distance, etc?

Would the brain just move onto the conceptual level of meaning anyhow?

I go back to the Flatlander/dimension idea we've discussed before. What would 2D entities make of a 3D object passing through their 2D reality? Talk about shapeshifting. They would sense a pattern, I imagine, but they would struggle with the phenomenal meaning of what they were experiencing. However, they would theoretically be able to make conceptual sense of the stimulus if their 2D minds could conceptualize 3 dimensions.

Perhaps we know enough about sight already to begin to answer some parts of your question and why high strange is what it is - an indescribable, or at least very difficult to describe, shapeshifting bit of whimsy cobbled together from our basic mental expectations of what we should be seeing when we think we are seeing say an alen, or a UFO.
Brain Memory, How Vision Works, Human Visual System - Posit Science
Very rapidly the 2D aspects of objects are captured and depth follows, but as ufology points out, from there, the secondary features of an object get mixed with our execrations of that object, including previous brain recordings of similar objects, that may produce visual interpretations that have absolutely nothing to do with what that object actually is.

From the above site where V1=primary visual cortex:"This type of activity-dependent refinement is not limited to V1, but occurs in many areas throughout the cerebral cortex. At the same time that the ability to discriminate lines and edges is improving in primary visual cortex, cells in secondary visual cortex, V2, are refining their ability to interpret colors. V2 is largely responsible for the phenomenon of color constancy, which explains the fact that a red rose still looks red to us under many different colors of illumination. Color constancy is thought to occur because V2 can compare an object and the ambient illumination, and can subtract out the estimated illumination color; however, this process is strongly influenced by what color the viewer expects the object to be.

In fact, almost all higher order features of vision are influenced by expectations based on past experience. This characteristic extends to color and form perception in V3 and V4, to face and object recognition in the inferior temporal lobe, and to motion and spatial awareness in the parietal lobe. Although such influences occasionally allow the brain to be fooled into misperception, as is the case with optical illusions, they also give us with the ability to see and respond to the visual world very quickly. From the detection of light and dark in the retina, to the abstraction of lines and edges in V1, to the interpretation of objects and their spatial relationships in higher visual areas, each task in visual perception illustrates the efficiency and strength of the human visual system."

My favourite witness reports from the Wendy O'Connors' Faded Discs collection include witnesses who have simply been utterly shocked dumb by events and scenes of what appears to be otherworldly objects and creatures; subsequently, the witness stumbles over language in trying to describe what they saw. There are simply no words for these visuals; because, they have no expectations or possible conceptual explanations of what that creature was or what it was doing. Other times the witnesses report somewhat recognizable objects that are entirely impossible in scale, operation and in how reality "broke" for the duration of their experience.

I wonder if such heightened visual experiences create different excitation (chemical) experiences in the brain, the way that the zen master can expand their fovea centralis to create visual flooding while staring at the miniature zen garden. Are we chemically affected by what we see when we see aliens or is it all just a waking dream? Both seem possible. High strange from dreams or Hugh strange from our brains working to create visual meaning out of such highly unfamiliar objects.

 

[Soupie]

I didn't capture it with the Flatlander reference, but what I am wondering is whether some aspects of these phenomena are simply beyond the capabilities of human sensory systems, but importantly, not all. Therefore any interaction with the phenomena might result in the experience of exotic features blending into the features beyond our capacity to receive.

 

[Randall]

I didn't capture it with the Flatlander reference, but what I am wondering is whether some aspects of these phenomena are simply beyond the capabilities of human sensory systems, but importantly, not all. Therefore any interaction with the phenomena might result in the experience of exotic features blending into the features beyond our capacity to receive.

I certainly think that some aspects of the UFO phenomenon are beyond the capability of human sensory systems to accurately perceive. For example a UFO might suddenly accelerate so fast that our vision can't perceive its motion, and as a consequence they might seem to simply vanish. Also possible ( if not likely ) are technological enhancements like active camouflage, which might render parts of a craft invisible to our vision, or make it appear to be something other than what it really is.

 

[ALPHA ROMEO UNIFORM]

Going on the history of UFOs in all manners of its actions a really easy way to mix up the field is to bring online UMV/Drones and rather keep looking into the 1940s-50s cases. The Bentwaters case seems to still stand out for me as number of eye witness and impact of UFO? towards defense areas. The odd impact of strange awarrness prior or after a UFO encounter of so calle real events effects individuals behavour towards folks around. They join a society of affected who seek more knowledge rather than fear. Wonder if a electirical pattern joins those who encounter and can feel the arrival prior to seeing a UFO or feeling a presence.

 

[Soupie]

I certainly think that some aspects of the UFO phenomenon are beyond the capability of human sensory systems to accurately perceive. For example a UFO might suddenly accelerate so fast that our vision can't perceive its motion, and as a consequence they might seem to simply vanish. Also possible ( if not likely ) are technological enhancements like active camouflage, which might render parts of a craft invisible to our vision, or make it appear to be something other than what it really is.

While "mundane" aspects like those could be at play, I was thinking of something more unusual; some technology being used that causes — as a byproduct — the human perceptual system to malfunction, causing the high strange aspects of the UFO and encounter phenomenas.

The idea of these high strange effects being purposeful — rather than a byproduct — is interesting as well. Perhaps as screen memories or an effort to protect the human psyche. However, many reported experiences are so absurd that it is hard to see what the intention might be if they were purposeful. Why would a flying building or dog men be preferable to a sleek craft or some unusual, alien physical entities?

Another idea — which we've seen in science fiction — is that these alien beings are trying to take a form that humans will recognize, but the results are bad. So an alien craft ends up looking like a flying building. I think @Burnt State touched on this awhile back with the humans dressed up like pandas in the panda zoo.

I tend to lean toward the perception warping effect being a byproduct and the human brain using current cultural imagery/concepts to make sense of the stimulus.

Is there some "technology" being used by these craft/entities that literally warp the physical reality around them and thus the human perceptual system? If these craft/entities literally manipulate spacetime to visit earth, this could be causing havoc to the human perceptual system.

 

[Burnt State]

While "mundane" aspects like those could be at play, I was thinking of something more unusual; some technology being used that causes — as a byproduct — the human perceptual system to malfunction, causing the high strange aspects of the UFO and encounter phenomenas.

The idea of these high strange effects being purposeful — rather than a byproduct — is interesting as well. Perhaps as screen memories or an effort to protect the human psyche. However, many reported experiences are so absurd that it is hard to see what the intention might be if they were purposeful. Why would a flying building or dog men be preferable to a sleek craft or some unusual, alien physical entities?

Another idea — which we've seen in science fiction — is that these alien beings are trying to take a form that humans will recognize, but the results are bad. So an alien craft ends up looking like a flying building. I think @Burnt State touched on this awhile back with the humans dressed up like pandas in the panda zoo.

I tend to lean toward the perception warping effect being a byproduct and the human brain using current cultural imagery/concepts to make sense of the stimulus.

Is there some "technology" being used by these craft/entities that literally warp the physical reality around them and thus the human perceptual system? If these craft/entities literally manipulate spacetime to visit earth, this could be causing havoc to the human perceptual system.

Some of this moves away from what I was thinking about in terms of the cause of the all most High Strange. You are looking at some kind of a field or beam that would be affecting witnesses based on proximity. I'd like to poke at that a bit and then go back to the UFO stimulus creating such perceptual effects because of how our senses work as opposed to anything the UFO is doing consciously to create an additional effect that masks or distorts their "true image" in order to limit our knowledge and awareness of them.

I think a separate thread deliniating High Strange effects would help tremendously, especially to identify those specific cases that might best represent certain effects. Which researcher has cateogorized the world of high strange for us - anyone? This might also help to identify best evidence cases as well or help to sort through that which may be dreams.

A. Witness reports include physical effects on their person: bodies move as if in water, slowly, as if in some kind of gravity field that is restricting motion.

B. Witness reports include visual effects: objects transform in unprecented manner, objects appear to be impossible in construction, objects seen are indescribable. In some cases multiple witnesses may report seeing different objects than those standing right beside them, or may have seen nothing at all compared to others present,

C.Witness reports include psychological effects: the world is on pause effect - it's like the lights are on but no one is at home e.g. traffic disappears, no other people are about. There is often the feeling that only the witness is present or involved in the event, as if it is happening only to them in a bubble displaced from the regular timeline. Witnesses often describe the world getting turned back on following the event, where people, traffic etc. return to normal flows. Missing time is a feature of such cases.

Can someone add more features to this list? Also, I think it be interesting to note which types of high strange are connected to close proximity cases where witnesses may interact with the occupants or see crafts up close within say ten to twenty feet.

The Beam Theory would work for me in those cases where close proximity is a feature, where perhaps the object is generating some kind of electromagnetic field or similar kind of field that might directly interfere with physical movement. However, I can't help but think that in the majority of up close cases we have no reports of such physical effects but simply very casual interactions with the object and the occupants.

Of course, given the wide ranging history of UFO witness events it's hard to make much sense of it at all, but anecdotally, the high strange aspects do seem to be all about proximity, and the closer we are to something, the more we see. I still would rather promote that the object itself, it's impossibility, the shock of it actually being real in our presence may be so overwhelmingly unprecedented for our senses that our own apparatus must try to make sense out of it using the limited references we already have. So maybe we saw classic Saucer UFO's in an age when that's what we were trained to see and what we see is connected to whatever inputs and expectations we have within our mind's history of recorded images. In that way I favourite the Perception Warping Effect. And also in this way we can perhaps validate Betty and Barney Hill as a real case that referenced an Outer Limits show to help witnesses make sense of their experience as opposed to the Outer Limits episode being the source of the event.

And then some cases read like dream accounts and I often wonder whether or not they are simply dreams, waking or otherwise. BTW it was not me talking about human pandas...but I do like the concept.

 

[Randall]

While "mundane" aspects like those could be at play, I was thinking of something more unusual ... Is there some "technology" being used by these craft/entities that literally warp the physical reality around them and thus the human perceptual system? If these craft/entities literally manipulate spacetime to visit earth, this could be causing havoc to the human perceptual system.

If there is a technology that literally warps physical reality, it implies that reality itself is the product of similar technology, and therefore UFOs capable of manipulating it might also come from that reality, and that gives rise to profound implications about the nature of our physical reality and the aliens associated with such UFOs. It's an exotic possibility, but at least it's a possibility. Perhaps some of the aliens spotted here on Earth are of that type, but at the same time, that doesn't automatically rule out the more "mundane" ones too. Maybe we've got both situations going on. On an intuitional level I tend to think so, but it's a rather big stretch and hard to substantiate.

 

[Soupie]

And then some cases read like dream accounts and I often wonder whether or not they are simply dreams, waking or otherwise.

Here is an article which discusses several research studies about the effects of the electromagnetic field on the brain/mind (physiological and phenomenal effects). (The author also notes the correlation of psi phenomena with EMF and the brain/pineal gland.)

Serena Roney-Dougal

In brief, the pineal gland has been found to synthesise melatonin, various beta-carbolines and certain peptides, and to contain enzymes that produce psychoactive compounds from serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) and its precursor tryptamine (Strassman, 1990). These have wide-ranging effects throughout our brain and body, affecting sexuality, adrenals, pancreas, thyroids, and other emotional and endocrine activities. The pineal works together with the pituitary through the hypothalamus controlling the endocrine system. Basically it governs our circadian rhythm, is implicated in our emotional state, reproductive function, possibly dream sleep and in certain psychoses.

Of most interest here is the pineal gland as the psychic centre. It has been found to produce neuromodulators called beta-carbolines which are MAO inhibitors that prevent the breakdown of serotonin. This results in an accumulation of physiologically active amines within the neuronal synapses which may lead to hallucinations. Further there is the possiblity that another hallucinogen 5-methoxy dimethyltryptamine is synthesised in the pineal from serotonin (Strassman, 1990). The pineal contains the greatest concentration of serotonin in the brain, this being accentuated in those who suffer from psychoses. Because beta-carbolines are MAO inhibitors they may also act by increasing the levels of these endogenous tryptamines (Strassman, 1990). The pineal also contains enzymes that inhibit synthesis of these hallucinogenic compounds, thus suggesting a regulating mechanism within this gland. There is a suggestion that it is the action of the pineal beta-carbolines on serotonin that triggers dreaming (Callaway, 1988) and it is often reported in parapsychology that most spontaneous psi experiences occur during the sleeping and dreaming state of consciousness. Further, there is now a considerable body of research into the action of serotonin and melatonin in relation to psychiatric disorders such as manic-depression (Halaris, 1987) and schizophrenia (Bigelow, 1974, Tanimukai et al., 1970).

Anthropological data suggest that these beta-carbolines, in particular 6MeOTHBC (6-Methoxytetrahydrobetacarboline), are psi-conducive because their chemical structure is very similar to a naturally occuring group of chemicals called harmala alkaloids which occur in an Amazonian vine, Banisteriopsis caapi, used by Amazonian tribes for specifically psychic purposes (Roney - Dougal, 1986 & 1989). This vine is used extensively over a wide area of South America for healing, out-of-body experiences, clairvoyance and precognition. It is only used when psi experiences are desired. My speculation is that when the pineal gland is stimulated to produce these chemicals we are more likely to enter an altered state of consciousness which is psi-conducive.​

So the pineal gland regulates multiple chemicals which are indicated in hallucinogenic and dream states of consciousness. So can the pineal gland be affected by environmental influences such as weak or strong EMFs?

Thus, the pineal gland, and particularly its enzymes NAT and HIOMT which are involved in the production of melatonin and serotonin related hallucinogens, is definitely affected both by magnetic and electric fields, such that decreased EMF results in decreased melatonin production, and a short term intense change in magnetic field strength in either direction inhibits melatonin production. This could possibly underlie Persinger's apparently contradictory results noted above in which he sometimes finds a correlation with days of low EMF and sometimes with sudden increase in EMF. It appears to be the change in EMF that is the important factor affecting HIOMT so that potentially psi-conducive state of consciousness hallucinogens are made in the brain through the pineal enzyme HIOMT.

Since melatonin affects a wide range of endocrinal and neuronal functions within the body, anything which affects the pineal gland will have wide ranging effects.
​

The author concludes that the pineal gland is affected by electric and magnetic fields. I wonder how immediate the physiological and phenomenal effects would be? Would someone enveloped in an anomalous EMF immediately experience altered consciousness/perception? The article continues:

Research into UFO's and ancient stone circles suggests that these also appear to be connected with geomagnetic anomaly (Devereux, 1982). The research mentioned here is very preliminary, but very interesting and definitely warrants further investigation.

Devereux mentions Persinger and Lafreniere's book "Space-Time Transients and Unusual Events" (1977) which analyses a range of UFO and anomalous happenings. Their data sugest that UFO phenomena tend to cluster in areas though there is the confounding effect of population density. These areas were primarily areas of seismic related stresses. During seismic strain, pressure on the rock crystals produces electromagnetic fields through a piezoelectric effect. The fields created by this process then have physical effects such as ball lightning, will-o-the wisps, and other UFO related light effects, and are also connected with psychological and psychic effects such as poltergeist outbreaks (Persinger & Lafreniere, 1977; Persinger & Cameron, 1986).

Devereux (1982) has shown that there is a strong correlation not only between UFO sightings and areas of geomagnetic anomaly, but also sacred sites, in Britain and France at least. Of the 286 stone circles extant in Britain today, 235 of them are found on Pre-Armorican rock outcrops. Pre-Armorican rocks are those that are more than 250 million years old (Pre-Cambrian through to Carboniferous) and cover 36% of the land mass of Britain. The chi-square test of this occurring by chance yields the figure of = 169.35, p < 1 x 10-6. In other words, stone circles are found on specific rock outcrops. These rocks are extensively faulted. These geological faults are all areas of tectonic stress, leading to piezo-electric effects and geomagnetic anomalies.

Measurements of unusual physical effects associated with megalithic stones have been made using gaussmeters, which have shown anomalous magnetic readings near the stones compared to the locality; using geiger counters, which appear to show ionization effects rather than straightforward excess radioactivity; using audiosonic equipment which measured a high pitched sonic outburst from the stones just at the moment of dawn; and infrared photography which showed the same energy burst from the stone at the moment of dawn. Several well-known and well-respected dowsers, for example Bill Lewis, have also measured unusual effects (Devereux, 1982; Robins, 1985 & 1988). This field research is of a preliminary nature and so the findings are only suggestive. It is to be hoped that it will be followed up by further work soon.
Comprehensive maps in Devereux's book (1982) show the relationship between UFOs and earthquake epicentres, between UFOs and geological faulting, between UFOs and areas with less thunderstorms than the average, between stone circles, ley lines and UFOs and between stone circles, ley lines and geological faulting.
​

So there is some research suggesting a correlation between geographic locations with anomalous EMF and unusual phenomena. Unfortunately, the data seems only to consider physical effects such as orbs and ball-lighting, as opposed to the above considerations on what effects these anomalous EMF might have on the brain/mind! Of course, it could be both: there could be real, objective stimuli floating in the environment, which are then perceived and interpreted by humans whose brains are also being effected by the anomalous EMF.

Finally, what I meant above about UFOs warping reality was meant more along the lines of propulsion systems utilizing technology the might warp time, gravity, or magnetic fields. Those, any human encounters with such travelers might likewise effect their perception and/or phenomenal experience. Wherein the stimulus is real and external, but our perception of it is hopelessly warped.

 

[Wade]

At one time i sort of favored @ufology sentiment...if i understand it correctly. ..and i suggested that perhaps all the variant sightings associated with the appearance of UFO'S were transported along with the craft itself. Almost like they got sucked up in whatever field was being used to transport the craft hete and deposited here. It's kind of fun to think of it that way, but I think given the above reports maybe this reality distorting phenomenon could explain why high strangeness events are associated with UFOs. If the craft do use exotic propulsion technology..possibly distorting and making use of magnetic fields...to get around and if one is in the vicinity there is no end to what your mind may percieve. MAYBE this could even explain why people have reported seeing Bigfoot and other fanciful beings in the past. Perhaps all along our visitors, regardless of where they come from, always have been the greys and the more exotic reports were derived from the after affects of the magnetic field distortions. Would it be wrong to suggest that Albert Budden ' s work followed along this line ? I remember getting excited when I first heard about his books but his rather ham handed fabrication at trying to replicate his results left me cold, and I wasn't enamored about the brain having to be preloaded with an allergic element as a stimulus.

 

[Randall]

At one time i sort of favored @ufology sentiment...if i understand it correctly ...

My personal belief is that UFOs are alien craft, and that much high-strangeness can be explained by associated alien high-technology. Perhaps some of what we perceive as the aliens themselves may even be high-technology. Perhaps as has been suggested by others, some perceptions might also be by-products of exposure to such technology, but my feeling about it is that rather than being accidental or coincidental, it's more often carefully orchestrated.

 

[AlienEsq]

Really interesting stuff.

I'm of the belief that the mind can be trained to see what it wants, if the person looks hard enough. Does that mean that instances of cloaked alien technology are illegitimate? Absolutely not. It think it simply means that, sometimes, people can manipulate their personal reality using their own imagination.

Now, some objects clearly are what they appear to be. For instance, it's tough to mistake a penguin for something other than a puffin. However, people who claim to see Bigfoot or an alien spacecraft subject themselves (regardless of whether or not the scrutiny is appropriate ) to the possibility that skeptics and even non-skeptics will criticize the effect of factors such as distance, time, light, and mental state have on the validity of an observation.

 

[Goggs Mackay]

I like this idea a lot as it helps to demonstrate how a set of neural and sensory processes could be responsible for what we call High Strange. Even better, I like how the phenomenon dovetails into some kind of perceptual chameleon, perhaps planting in our own minds a recognizable 'thing' that can substitute for the very unrecognizable life form or craft that is actually in front on us. This also allows for some reported cases of impossible life forms, odd robots, odd late night diners, and UFO's that look like giant hotels or tanks to be understood as a kind of static in our perceptual capacity that the neural net resolves as something familiar, or at least partially so. This is a nice way of extending how the phenomenon could be interacting wtb us. You've named the features of a paradigm that make sense, though I think the dogs smoking under the streetlight were either the product of robust storytelling or functional prosthetic costuming that allows the user to smoke, drink, and expel bodily fluids.

This is definitely interesting research but am I missing something in the explanation? If we take the above examples with the photos of the school bus etc, the article is saying that by modifying the picture by a small amount, an amount that we do not notice, the algorithm that should recognize the bus, fails?

Ok so far, but where I am missing something is the leap (as I understand it) that seems to imply that when such a doctored photo is no longer recognised as a bus, are we to take it that it is then automatically recognised as something else, wrongly? In other words, just because we fail to correctly identify something visually, does that mean that we then wrongly assign an incorrect identity? Perhaps the article was aiming to illustrate with an example a process in the brain that happens before we consciously recognize something?

If I've not got this right, can someone help me out? I've always been interested in the psychology of perception and whether the paranormal 'exists' or not, perception has to be 9/10 of the law most of the time surely?

 

[Erno86]

I believe that the otherworlders who occasionally visit our planet, can conceal there own bodily selves, with the use of optical camouflage --- which is a "theoretical kind of active camouflage presently only in a very primordial stage of development" --- in relation too earthling technology.

"The idea is basically to create the illusion of invisibility by covering an object with something that projects the scene directly behind that object."

I also believe that the otherworlders use some kind of mirror camouflage technology --- for example --- with the use of reflection off the top of their helmets, that makes them blend in with their natural surroundings; along with possible use of laser holographic projection.