This thread is for any skeptic who would like to post his/her personal experiences with UFOs.

I've seen strange lights in the sky hovering and maneuvering in odd patterns several times in my life, but none of those sightings can compare with what I experienced as a child.

It happened when I was only 5 years old. My grandparents (who were raising me) had taken me to visit my great-grandfather. His home, which sat on a 2 acre plot of land just outside the city limits, was the last house on the road back then and was completely surrounded by prairie. I'd been instructed to stay in the yard, but being the curious brat that I was, I soon found a break in the fence and went exploring. About 2 blocks distance from my great-grandfathers property was an old wooden bridge that crossed over a small narrow creek. I crossed the bridge and began following a path I'd found on the other side.

I hadn't gone far when I noticed a huge elongated shape slow descending from the sky. I was thrilled to see this thing landing in the prairie because at the time I thought it was some form of military aircraft (remember, I was only 5, plus I'd never heard of UFOs).

The object was dark green with a highly reflective surface (I could see the ground being reflected off the bottom as it came down). The best I can describe it's form is it was a diamond shape lying on it's side that had been flattened and stretched. It had no wings or any visible engines or propellers (the only thing I knew that could fly similar to this was a helicopter). It's length was approximately that of a semi-trailer. I've estimated it's distance from where I stood as being around 100 yards, yet the only sound I heard was the water flowing in the creek.

As the object sat on the ground I considered walking closer to it, but for some reason I thought I'd get into a lot of trouble, so I stayed put.

I stared at the object for a while until I was frightened by a voice behind me. I spun around and saw a tall man standing a few feet away. He said something like, "What are doing out here all alone, little man?" I was so scared that I took off running down the path, not realizing that I was going the wrong way. When I finally did realize this I dove behind some tall weeds and waited for the man to go running past (cartoon logic, folks). After a long while I peeked out to see if the man was indeed following me, and when I saw no one there, I jumped up and ran to the wooden bridge. I ran all the way back to my great-grandfather's yard, and as I was climbing through the broken fence I noticed the object was slowly flying away.

Needless to say, the only thing my grandparents focused on was the fact that I had disobeyed and left the yard without permission (fortunately, as the years passed they finally accepted the fact that I had seen something strange that day).

It wasn't until I was 10 years old that I got my first legitimate UFO book titled Incident At Exeter (up until then the only UFOs I'd read about were in comic books). I became hooked on the subject and read every book I could get my hands on. Even so, I still didn't equate my experience as a UFO sighting. After all, UFOs were supposed to be flying saucers, not squashed green 50' diamonds.

I don't know what that object was. I've discussed this with many people through the years and I've received all sorts of explanations. There were many drawings I made of the object when I was a child, but those have long since been thrown away.

Was it an alien spaceship? I don't know.
Was it a military craft of some kind? I don't know.
Who was the man who spoke to me? I don't know.

What I do know is that it was not childhood imagination, and it's something I'll never forget for the rest of my life.

Any other skeptics care to share your experience(s)?

great story dude

you probably saw the Northern Lights refracting swamp gas

i a believer not a skeptic so i have no story for you

Well, like people around here like to say, "Anything's possible."

I think UFO stories are sort of self-selecting. By that I mean, Ufologists tend to push stories more if they conform to what UFOs are supposed to look like or do, and downplay the ones that don't conform because they are just 'too weird'.

Diamond shaped objects have been observed, but they're not as widely reported as silver discs.

The craft that burned the witnesses in the Cash-Landrum case was diamond-shaped.

Don't be ridiculous. Using Occam's razor, anybody can see that it was a simple case of the planet venus causing sleep-paralysis due to an atmospheric inversion.

Man, you guys are good.

Back then all I'd ever heard or read about were flying disks. It wasn't until I was older that I realized there were many different shaped UFOs being spotted.

Great story. I've seen similar things too but have intentionally looked for them. What did the guy look like? Normal?

The man who spoke to me was normal looking and had an average adult male voice. I recall that he was wearing civilian clothing - a light brown or tan colored jacket and a wool cap.

He wasn't dressed in a military uniform (at least as far as I could tell at that age), and I was already familiar with patrol uniforms by then.

Well, I've seen something as well. It was about 30+ years ago (I was in college) in upstate NY. A group of us were returning from a day of hiking in a rural area near Gloversville NY when we spotted the object (at twilight). At first we thought it was probably just a helicopter, but as it moved nearer it appeared to be a metallic oval/disk shape. It had lighting that seemed to sort of rotate/pulse through the color spectrum. We watched it hover and change position a couple of times (no sound). Finally it simply zig-zaged off and left with great speed. I have absolutely no idea what we saw; some weird unknown phenomenon, aliens checking out the boonies, a super secret black ops craft???

see Lilly.......your story makes me even more inclined to think there are craft here that are not man made

you seem to describe a craft doing things 30+ years ago that we cant even seem to do today

yes i suppose its possible we can do these things now and maybe even then, but it doesnt seem likely

the U2....SR-71.......and Stealth Fighter and Bomber were all top secret aircraft developed within the last 30 years or so........and none of them can perform the way your UFO could.......and none of them were kept secret.........so if your craft is human made, how has it been kept secret for 30+ years when the others couldnt be........and if your craft is human made..why does it seem we arent using it ?

makes ya go hmmmm

Yeah, but you see I'm not entirely convinced that this object was indeed a "craft". When looking at something in the sky determining if it's even solid or not can be difficult...let alone concluding if it's a space craft or not. As far as I'm concerned the thing remains an unknown.

ahhhhhhhh........i see........it wasnt a craft

i know.......someone had a set of christmas lights on a mile long cord and they were out there flapping free in the breeze

You can sometimes see these things during the day if you're willing to try. I never thought it would happen for me, but I'll be damned if it doesn't work.

Interesting sighting, Lilly. Were you able to roughly determine the size and/or distance of the object?

And just to get into the spirit of things, what you saw was a malfunctioning stealth weather balloon that developed a hole, causing it to pop and flutter away.

Funny, I thought more skeptics would an experience to relate.

Any more sightings? Opinions?

Well, we figured it was apx. 30 to 40 feet (that's why we first thought helicopter). I'm not too clear about the distance as that changed a couple of times...it appeared to be below the slight cloud cover though.



If so, then that was one hell of a weather balloon!

I can post my 'sighting'-

One day, while driving, I looked out my right window and saw a silver sphere hovering low in the air. I drove past some buildings, so I quickly lost sight of it. My heart started pounding in my chest and I was having thoughts of 'This is it! I finally get to see one!' When I drove past the buildings to a clear area and reached a red light, I looked out the window again and it was still there! But wait! It was turning and I could see that it wasn't a sphere after all, but an elongated object. Oh, and it had the word 'Goodyear' printed on its side. D'oh!

Anyway, that's the closest thing I've had to a UFO sighting. I would still like to see one as personal confirmation.