The UFO Phenomenon

Enthusiasts celebrate World UFO Day

By T.K. Randall
July 2, 2014

Image: Gray Aliens with Saucer at The UFO Museum, Roswell
Credit: Kimble Young / CC BY-SA 2.0 (adapted) Today is a special day in Ufological circles, a day on which UFO enthusiasts all around the world aim to raise awareness of the phenomenon and to encourage others to look to the skies for signs that we might not be alone.

The date coincides with the anniversary of the infamous UFO crash at Roswell in New Mexico, an event in which a quantity of debris from the craft and even the bodies of its extraterrestrial pilots were allegedly recovered by the US military and then summarily covered up with a story suggesting that the whole thing had been about a crashed weather balloon.In some places World UFO Day is actually celebrated over a week early on June 24th to coincide with another key event in the history of the phenomenon - the sighting by pilot Kenneth Arnold of several unidentified objects near Mount Rainier, Washington in 1947.

According to a recent National Geographic survey more than 36% of Americans believe that UFOs exist while 11% maintain that they have personally witnessed one.

"Part of the belief in UFOs is an attempt to transcend our sense of aloneness in the universe," said psychologist Stephen Diamond. "If UFOs are indeed real and if indeed they are piloted by sentient beings, then we're no longer alone in the universe, and that's attractive to some people."

Source: USA Today

Tags: World UFO Day, Roswell