Sometimes I feel studying the UFO phenomena is like being stuck inside a giant pinball machine.

There’s so much there; so many connections. Too many lights going on and off that both attract and distract. Bouncing against one thing before bouncing into another. Are these jarring movements connected or random? Is there a plan behind the seeming chaos?

I’m not being snide or sarcastic when I say sometimes I envy those who have one basic UFO theory and stick to it. Keeps things focused. They have solid clues to the whole thing. I can’t do that; stick to one theory. And I’ve experienced some of it:seen several UFOs, experienced missing time, beings (invisible in the “real” world, seen during meditations), and much more. Still, I don’t know a damn thing. I don’t even have any theories. Some days I do. Other days; hell, I give up. Almost.

Maybe I’m not being fair to myself. Breaking things down a bit in order to see things somewhat more clearly, I find:

Weird things have always been happening to humanity. Always. We just don’t openly talk about it.

Many times, “it” seems to have a sense of humor. A perverse, at times dangerous, sense of humor, but it’s a playful bastard all right. It poses as this, it poses as that. It tells us it’s one thing, it tells others another thing.

It’s elusive. Science still hasn’t gotten a handle on it. Which then proves to the dense, the pathological skeptical, the censors and would be cleansers of pop culture, that such things don’t exist.

Others are left with their experiences. Confused, or distracted, or happy to find something to hang it on: religion, maybe. Or cults. Or immersion into the phenomena, much to the annoyance of others.

The world of the weird is decompartmentalized for us; UFOs here, ghosts there, apparitions of Mary over there, Bigfoot in that corner. Are they connected? Doesn't matter, in some respects. The religious person may take great offense at the idea of Marian apparitions being a paranormal phenomeana. Some Christians “believe” UFOs and aliens exist, but that’s a bad thing. It’s Satan. Others don’t have patience for any of this, and keep it simple: UFOs are from outer space, and ET is their pilot. Nothing religious or paranormal about that.