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Shermer briefly believed in UFOs himself. While cycling on the 3,000-mile Race Across America in 1983, he thought he was about to be abducted. "I went hours without sleep and thought my crew members were aliens trying to abduct me and [the support vehicle] was a spaceship," he says. "That made me realize that when people had an experience, they really had something meaningful happen. The question is, what does that mean?"

The University of Maryland's Park recalls a more mundane experience more than 50 years ago. Stationed in Roswell, N.M., in 1954, he was driving home on a desolate road one night after visiting his parents in Texas. He saw a streak of green-blue light, which he recognized as the glow of an ice meteorite. Then, subconsciously primed for a paranormal experience, he believed for a few seconds that he witnessed a UFO.

"I saw a brilliant light going across the sky on a road," he says. "It looked like a disc to me. When I accelerated, the thing sped up with me. I thought something was going on. I slammed on the brakes—and it was the reflection of my headlights on the telephone lines."

With that, Park learned the ultimate lesson for a scientist: humility.

Euchner, a lecturer in English at Yale University, is completing a book about suicide at the Golden Gate Bridge.

© 2008

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  • Posted By: Vanamali @ 03/28/2009 8:15:25 PM

    Back in time in some areas when the white man stepped off the boat the natives mistook them for gods, something similar might have happened that gave rise to Christianity. god in the image of man? Why would god have the need for a mouth, or ears or eyes? Does he need feet to walk the heavens? Does he need hands to hold something? Does he eat? He has male genetalia and he is having sex with whom? This does not make any sense. Obviously we have this shape because we live on this earth. Could it be that the ???god??? that the bible was talking about was actually an alien from another planet, a planet similar to ours so he looks like us? Are we no better than those natives who mistook a white man for god?

  • Posted By: carlosg @ 11/18/2008 11:45:52 AM

    Enter Your Commentthe haiti ufo was proven a fake.but there are ones that are defanately not fake my friend.

  • Posted By: carlosg @ 11/18/2008 9:05:32 AM

    excellent my friend.you summed it up perfecly.good man.

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