Somewhere in the Skies - WITNESS ACCOUNTS: Live from Alien Con Los Angeles

Episode Date: July 29, 2019

On episode 119 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, we return once again to Alien Con Los Angeles, where Ryan and Jason McClellan hosted a live recording of Somewhere in the Skies, titled "The Power of Witness Testimony". This serves as volume seven to our Witness Accounts series. Ryan and Jason run through their own personal UFO sightings and how it impacted their work and lives moving forward. They discuss the power and importance of witness testimony when it comes to researching and investigating UFO phenomena, and then audience members share their own personal experiences with the unknown and unexplained. Thank you to all those who participated, came to the live recording, and to all those who introduced themselves at Alien Con. We hope to see you this October in Dallas, Texas! Purchase tickets to Alien Con Dallas and use the promo code: SKIES at checkout for an exclusive discount. CLICK HERE Shop SAUCER BRAND now and use the promo code: SKIES for an exclusive discount: www.TheSaucerBrand.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies To watch ROSWELL: MYSTERIES DECODED for free, CLICK HERE  Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Official Store: CLICK HERE Order Ryan's Book by CLICKING HERE Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is part of the eOne podcast network. To learn more, CLICK HERE SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is sponsored by HelloFresh. To receive 50% off your first order, use promo code: SOMEWHERE50 at checkout by visiting www.HelloFresh.ca Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Netflix. Most valuable promotions in Netflix are hosting a blockbuster triple headliner Saturday, May 16th. Rhonda Rousey returns to face fellow woman's MMA pioneer Gina Carano in the main event. Plus co-main's Nate Diaz versus Mike Perry. And the best heavyweight in the world, Frances Ngano versus Felipe Lens. Watch Rhonda Rousey versus Gina Carrano, live only on Netflix. Saturday, May 16th at 9 p.m. Eastern Center time, 6 p.m. Pacific time. This is somewhere in the sky.

with Ryan Sprague. Welcome to Somewhere in the Skies. I'm your host Ryan Sprague. This week I'm bringing you the second recording live from AlienCon, Los Angeles. This is a special witness accounts episode where I'm joined by Jason McClellan of Rogue Planet and the Unknown Podcast. We discuss our personal UFO sightings, the power of witness testimony, and then audience members shared their own personal experiences.

with a UFO phenomenon. Thank you to everyone who shared their stories not only at this recording, but during our experiencer session at Hailing Khan as well. I know it's never easy, so again, thank you to all of you. There's no outro this week, so be sure to follow us on Twitter at SummerSkies

and on Instagram at SummerSkies pod. Again, for discounts on saucer brand apparel, use the promo code Skies at saucerbrand.com. Please subscribe. rate and review Somewhere in the Skies on Apple Podcasts, your Android apps, or wherever you get the podcast from. I'll see you here next week, and remember, keep your feet on the ground, but never stop searching somewhere in the skies. All right, welcome to Somewhere in the Skies. I am your host, Ryan Sprague, and with me today is Jason McClellan from the Unknown podcast, and we are live at Alien Khan, Los Angeles.

How's everyone doing? Oh, thank God. I'm always worried about that. It's going to be cricket. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining me today. There are never crickets at AlienCon. Everybody's excited at AlienCon. This is the best UFO conference, and we do these things all the time.

But AlienCon is by far the biggest and the funnest event, bringing people together of all walks of life to talk about ancient alien theory, aliens in general, experiences, UFOs. It's a place where we can all come together, talk about it, not be judged, and have a good time. So that's kind of what we're going to be doing today. this is a series of my show I call witness accounts and this is where people come on to my show and tell their UFO stories in their own voices I think that is much more important than me relaying their story to the audience is hearing them tell their own story

how they experienced it, what they think it was and the impact it had on their lives UFOs come and go in the blink of an eye but the impact they have on people can be extremely strong in many aspects of their lives. So what we're going to sort of start out with here today is telling you guys about our own personal UFO encounters because we both have had them,

and that's kind of set us on the path we are today. So I guess I'll share mine first, if you don't mind. Yeah, sure, go. Yeah. So I was 12 years old, and this was in the central New York area on the East Coast, and I was fishing off of a dock at a motel with my parents. said we were on a weekend getaway. And this river, the St. Lawrence River, literally was the border

between the U.S. and Canada. And it was just turning dark. And I was out on the dock at the motel fishing by myself, listening to Green Day on my disc men. This is back in 1995. Yep, it was the Duky album. I remember that specifically. And it was starting to get dark, so I reeled my line in because I was done for the night. And I noticed a reflection. in the water and it was three white lights and at first I thought it was something in the water so I like got down and looked and then I realized you know clearly this was a reflection so naturally I look up and I can't tell you how high it was but there was a triangular formation with three white lights and a sort of like reddish orange basketball thing in the middle and it was just hovering above me

this formation. I didn't see like a structure to this thing. I didn't see any mechanics, nothing like that. I only saw this formation of lights, but I could not see anything behind the formation. I couldn't see the stars. I couldn't see the moon. Nothing like that. And it just hovered silently over my head. It was very, very big. And I remember trying to scream for my father, who was in the motel, probably, I don't know, maybe like 40 feet away from me. And I couldn't, I couldn't get anything out. I was so scared. at what I was looking at, and I felt frozen there. I couldn't move. And I just kind of stared up, kept watching this thing, and then it started to float over the water. And that's when I finally,

for some reason, was able to, like, get out of this frozen state. And I squealed to my father. I was like, Dad, Dad, you got to see this. And he runs out. And he did catch the tail end of this triangular formation as it either headed towards Canada and disappeared out of sight or literally submerged into the water. Neither of us know we've argued about that, about what we both think happened. But that was kind of it for me. I was terrified at what I'd seen. I knew that planes made noise and this made no noise. It hovered and then started to move silently. And I had nightmares for years after that. I didn't really talk about it with anyone. And my dad didn't talk about it either. And I kind of became obsessed after that. I wanted to sort of educate myself to get rid of that fear and terror that I felt

that night. I started taking out books at the library on UFOs and Bigfoot, anything I could get my hands on. And that kind of sent me on the path I am today, interviewing witnesses who've had experiences like me. We're afraid to talk about it for a really long time, but now are ready to embrace it. So it's interesting, every time I hear your story, that the fear you describe, right? Because it seems irrational when you think about it, because this thing didn't do any sort of hostile act toward you. It didn't do anything that made you think it was going to hurt you, but it was this unknown. And that unknown created this fear. And that's common among people who witnessed these bizarre things they can't explain that are outside of their reality.

Oh, absolutely. And I mean, again, I was only a kid, but I knew, I mean, and I was no aviation expert, but I knew that whatever the thing was, it should have been making some sort of noise if this was like a vehicle of some sort or a blimp or even a balloon. Like, this thing hovered, stopped, hovered stopped, and then went over the water. So it was a fear of the unknown, I think, that really stuck with me. Yeah. But yeah, I know, Jason, you've had a fear. few experiences. So I would love if you wouldn't mind sharing some of those with the audience as well. Sure. The most exciting one, I think probably has to be the Phoenix Lights, and many of you are probably familiar with the Phoenix Lights, but just a quick overview, the Phoenix Lights occurred over the state of Arizona and some neighboring states, too, in March of 1997. This was a mass UFO sighting seen by thousands of people across the state, as with any UFO sighting, and specifically a mass UFO sighting, you have varying stories from all these witnesses. That's how witness testimony works. But essentially, a large craft was seen traversing the entire state by lots of people.

There was also a series of about seven lights seen just stationary in the sky. And they were also, reportedly military flares dropped that night at a different time that doesn't coincide with the mass sighting that occurred. What I witnessed that night, was a series of seven stationary lights in the sky. And although that doesn't sound all that exciting, especially for somebody like me now looking back on it, somebody who spent more than a decade researching and writing about UFOs and really looking into strange things in the sky

and not so strange things in the sky to learn what is up there, what isn't up there, and what things should look like in the sky if I were to see those things, that night was really bizarre for me. So I grew up in rural Arizona on the far west side of the Phoenix metro area. Nothing around. Very remote area just out in the desert. So I spent a lot of time outside and specifically camping too because there was nothing else for me to do. It was a very sad childhood.

So spent a lot of time outside and I was just walking around our property that night and happened to notice this series of seven lights just hovered. what seemed to be directly overhead. They weren't moving. They weren't making any sound. They weren't altering it all in their luminosity or anything. They were just these solid lights that were there in the sky above my head. So I watched them for a while, and I was pretty fascinated, but I was also a teenager with a short attention span. So after watching these things for a while, I got bored, and I went back inside. Well, it came out some time later. Those lights were still there. And at some point, my brain started working properly, and I got the video camera

and started recording these things. These lights were what seemed to be over our property. I mean, they were pretty high up, not that high up, but pretty high up. But they were in the sky there. For what I estimate, and again, this is 1997, I don't remember precisely. But I like to say about 45 minutes these lights were in the sky. I was very familiar with military flares because I grew up where I had line of sight to the Barry Goldwater Test Range, which is where they frequently would drop military flares. I saw these things all the time and knew what military flares looked like and saw them quite frequently. What I saw was not military flares. What I saw, I have no idea what could possibly explain what I saw, even to this day looking back, you know, with hindsight, knowing what I know now with all of my investigation and looking into UFOs specifically, I still cannot come up with any logical explanation for what I saw that night.

As the crispy chicken sandwich from 7-Eleven, people always call me loud. And I'm like, yeah, I know. I'm crispy. Did you expect me to whisper? If you want quiet, go eat some soup and reflect. Look, I know I'm a handful. I'm bold, I'm juicy. Throw some pickles and barbecue sauce on me, and baby, I'm a whole meal.

And with seven rewards, I'm just $4. Quiet. No. Krispy, saucy, and $4? Very. Only at 711. Valley through 62326 participating stores only while supplies last the app for full terms. Yeah, the Phoenix Lights is probably one of the most famous mass UFO sightings in history.

And what a lot of people don't really take into consideration is, so many people saw this and so many people reported it and so many people were affected by it. And the official title for this episode is the power of witness testimony. And I wanted to ask Jason, along with some of you later on, what importance witness testimony plays within the UFO research that we do. You can have dates and times of a UFO event. You can have all the data you want. but if you don't have a witness telling the story of what they saw or experienced, we have absolutely nothing to work off of. So how important is that, Jason?

Sometimes it's really, like you said, it's all we have. And you and I talk about this a lot. But right now, people want photos and videos of UFOs, and that's fantastic. I would love photos and videos of UFOs, and we see lots of them all the time. However, we know that we live in a time where photos and videos can be faked very easily. You can pull out an app on your phone and create a very realistic UFO sighting right out the window. So, on one hand, as a researcher, you want the best photo and video evidence. On the other hand, you know that only counts for so much.

It's contributing evidence, but you also know it can be very faked. However, with the Phoenix Light specifically, I'll point out, yes, you had thousands of witnesses. And you think about that. You're all, oh, that's cool. Thousands of people saw these lights in the sky or saw a craft moving across the state. That's cool. But then you take it further and you talk about the governor of the state at that time. You bring the government into it.

And at the time, yes, when people think about this, they think about how he publicly sort of ridiculed it on TV. He held a press conference. he brought out his staffer in an alien costume and said, we found the culprit responsible and sort of made a joke out of it. Said this just shows people are taking it way too seriously, like chill out. Later, he went on the record and said he did that because people were freaking out. He wanted to calm the public. But the biggest thing, and again, this comes to witness testimony

and the power of witness testimony when you bring the government into it, this was the governor of the state of Arizona. and he went on CNN and later some documentaries too to state that he too saw the Phoenix Lights that night. He was bewildered by them. He had been an Air Force pilot and knew what things looked like in the sky. He actively tried to get answers from the military about what happened that night.

They wouldn't give him any information. It wasn't until, I think more than a year later, when they came out and said, oh yeah, by the way, that was us. We dropped flares. but their explanation they gave didn't even align with the time when the incident happened. But this was the governor of the state trying to get answers from the Air Force Base in Arizona. He couldn't get answers at all.

And he also says that not only was he witnessed that night, but what he saw was not of this earth. That's the governor of the state of Arizona going on record, making that claim. So, yes, it's powerful when you have thousands of people, you know, when you talk about it or read about it, that's just a number out of paper when you're reading a story. You're all, oh, yeah, thousands of people. That's cool. But then when you bring in somebody in a governmental public service position like the governor of a state also saying, yeah, I saw too, and it wasn't from this planet. that's powerful. It's very powerful.

And I think what's also really interesting is we both work with a colleague named Cheryl Costa, who wrote a desk reference book that's literally like this thick. And it goes from, oh, maybe like two decades of UFO reports throughout the United States. It goes by, I think, from like state all the way down to county of reported UFO events in a certain area. And it's amazing to see these graphs in, charts of all this data that she's brought forward. But it also helps us as UFO researchers to find these areas, these hotbeds, as we call them, of where all these reports are coming from. So if you have an area somewhere in California where there's been 700 reports versus somewhere else in the

country that had two reports, we're going to go to that area because clearly there's activity going on there that a lot of people are seeing. And we're going to interview the people who saw these things and get their stories. So I think while data and all that is very important, it's mixing that with the story and trying to find patterns that really brings euphology to life. You have the people who work with witnesses, and then you have the people who record the data. And I love UFO data so much. So Cheryl's work is awesome. It's nice to have that data to point to. But coming back to witness testimony, I love seeing that being a huge emphasis in the history. Channel's news show Unidentified, they really focus on witness testimony and specifically the

witness testimony of Navy fighter pilots and Navy service members aboard ships who are operating radar systems and, you know, hearing from service members about UFO encounters. That's also very powerful. Absolutely. I mean, I'm going to be talking to one of the Navy radar operators that was a part of the Nimitz encounter later this week. And already, um, after a phone interview with him, he told me flat out, like, this changed my life. It really did. I was there to do my job. I fell into a UFO event, and it's changed every aspect of my life since then. So again, about the power of witness testimony, you talk a lot to witnesses, people who claim to have seen lights in the sky all the way to having, you know, encounter experiences, abduction experiences, things like that. And in your case, you know, I know you've read, like, emails they've written or read about their stories

ahead of time, but how different is it for you when you actually meet the person face to face and hear that story from their mouth? It's a hell of a lot different. I mean, I get emails on a daily basis of people saying they saw something or they experienced something, you know, and the email is literally like 20 pages long. And I would love to answer every email back and be like, yeah, I'm going to look into your case, but it's daunting. It can be very daunting when you get these sort of correspondence because I don't know what the hell they saw. I can try to help them along the way.

But for me, it did come down to when I decided as a quote unquote UFO journalist that I was going to go out and meet these people having these experiences. and I remember the first person I met face to face. I was in Arizona and I was in a diner and I was with her and her husband and she was recalling to me for the very first time she told anyone about this other than her husband an experience she had as a child with what she believes to have been some sort of non-human entity and it traumatized her. It really did. And I just remember sitting across from her and her husband,

and she started crying, and she was holding her husband's hand, and she was, like, squeezing his hand so hard. She was leaving, like, permanent indents in his skin. And I was just watching all these little things in descriptors as she was telling me this story. And that really impacted me. It was the first time I separated, like,

reading something on my computer to meeting this person, in hearing their story and seeing how it affected her and seeing her husband there with her, supporting her through this and being like, you got this, you got this. And the fact that I was the first person she ever told this to and she told me that she trusted me with her story,

that's a big responsibility. Because if I'm going to go on the record with this story, whether it's in a book form or if she allowed me or gave me permission to talk about it on a podcast and uses her name, there's no turning back from there. She has kids. She has family. She has a community. She lives in. Everyone is going to know about this now. So that really struck me too is it's not easy for people to come forward and talk about these things that you hear at AlienCon. It is easy for some people, but not for most people. And I don't think a lot of people really take into consideration what happens after you come out with that. Like you look at Travis Walton, the, um, fire in the sky alien abduction case or anyone who claims

to have been abducted by aliens. Maybe it's a cool story to tell but after that everyone's going to judge you after that. So you really have to think about like the conviction you have coming forward why you're coming forward and for a lot

of people it's just closure. Just telling somebody. They don't want you to judge them. I don't judge anyone I speak to. I think every story has some sort of value when it comes to our investigations and it's not easy. It never gets easier. Right. And on Sunday, when we do our recording of the unknown podcast, we'll specifically be talking about that ridicule factor that you mentioned and just the stigma that still surrounds the UFO topic. And speaking specifically

about witness testimony, now think about all the stories that we don't hear because of that ridicule factor of people not feeling comfortable to share those stories. Yeah, I mean, we know one of our heroes, the late Staten Friedman, a nuclear physicist who studied UFOs his entire career, he used to go on the lecture circuit. He's lectured in every continent country you can think of. Every one of his lectures, he starts with how many people in the audience have seen a UFO and like 95% of the people would raise their hand? They saw something. And then he would ask how many people reported it and maybe two hands would go up. So that's 95% or somewhat people who aren't willing to come forward and report what they saw. Well, and I love using myself as an example too because, like,

I think I've seen probably probably about 12 UFOs at this point and I'm in this field. This is what I do. How many of those 12 have I ever reported? So, I mean, it just, it just, you. It just, just shows you there's so many out there that aren't reported, aren't discussed at all. Well, and another thing, too, is a lot of people ask us, you know, skeptics or people who just want answers will ask us, all these people are having UFO sightings or claimed abduction experiences or close encounters. Why is no one taking photos of this? Like, where's the evidence? Where's the evidence? And honestly, like, we don't have an answer for that. There should be more photos out there of these things happening. But at the end of the day, I don't know about you, but

when I was 12 years old and I was staring up at whatever the hell that thing was in the sky that I saw, I wasn't thinking about going and getting a camera and taking photos. These things are very, very personal. And for me, I was alone on that dock and this was happening just for me. And I wanted to experience that besides being scared shitless. I wanted to experience that myself. And you don't think about, like, oh, I need to document this to bring it to somebody to look at. Yeah. And I feel I have to go back to the Phoenix Lights because I did mention that I recorded it on video. But I then have to say that I think that was recorded over by one of my brother's soccer games.

So, yeah, that video doesn't exist. But, you know, to your point about photo and video, there's certainly a lot and lots and lots of photo and video. We know that. And in fact, when we come to events like this, lots of people share their photos and videos with us. And we see, you know, hundreds of these photos and videos shared with us throughout the years, or throughout the year. But that really, I think, emphasizes the point of this episode, and that is the power of witness testimony, right? Because, again, it comes back to, yeah, a photo can be really fascinating. It can look cool.

It can look, you know, very clear. It can look bizarre, whatever. but it's still a photo or video and they can be manipulated, they can be fake, they can be hoaxed, doesn't mean that they are, they also can be just misidentifications,

but really, it's still just a photo or video. I think when it comes down to it, witness testimony, to me, is a lot more valuable than a photo or video. I think so, but we also have to play devil's advocate too and remember that a lot of these events happen to people

20, 30 years ago. Exactly. Memory is not perfect. And I know for me, there are very specific things I remember about that night and things I don't remember at all. I don't know when you saw the Phoenix Lights, I mean, for you, was it as clear as day? Could you say how high this thing was, how big it was? Absolutely not. Yeah. Absolutely not.

I mean, it was a tremendous event in my life for sure. I remember it. I remember how, you know, fascinated I was, how exciting it was, how just bewildered I was. what I was seeing, but I always try to preface it when I tell that story, that we're talking about something that happened in 1997. I'm not going to pretend that I know that I remember every little detail. I don't even clearly remember seeing seven lights. Just after telling the story so many times and thinking back that that's what I see in my mind, but could it have been more, could it have been less? Absolutely. I'm not going to state with certainty, you know, the details that happen. I'm going

to say, I'm pretty sure this happened, or this is how I remember it, but I know how fallible memory is. So you have to keep that in mind with these cases that, you know, you're talking about things that happened so long ago. I mean, I know we went in and got a drink last night and had dinner. I don't remember what I got for dinner, so. I don't remember. I remember fine details for something that happened back in 1997. Yeah, it's fascinating. And I think it really brings a human element to all this as well as perception. I spoke to a woman in Michigan who had a triangular UFO sighting over her house, and she went out to walk her dogs. Dogs would not go off the porch that night. They'd never done

anything like that before. Clearly, she thought there was something out there. So she walks down into the lawn. She's looking around. There's nothing. The dogs still won't leave the porch, and they start barking. And they're barking like up, like barking upwards. So she looks up, and she sees this massive triangular thing over her house, and she's just staring up at it, and then she screams for her daughter to come out and look at this thing with her. Like, am I crazy?

Are you seeing this? Her daughter comes out. They're both now staring up at this triangle. And the mom is telling her daughter, like, oh, my God, it's so silent. It's beautiful. Like, do you feel that? I almost feel euphoric,

and she looks over at her daughter, and her daughter's covering her daughter. covering her ears and be like, I can't hear you. It's so loud. And her daughter felt like immediate threat from whatever was up there. So perception plays a key role too, I think. These people, these mother and daughter, they were looking at the same exact thing, but having completely different experiences in that moment. And that really fascinated me. You mentioned dogs. And I've got to say, man, like witness testimony. One day when we can actually talk to dogs, I want to talk to dogs about you. I want to talk to dogs about you.

because there are so many UFO sighting stories that involve dogs. You know, people were alerted by their dogs about something in the sky, or they actually are the reason for a lot of sightings, too, because a lot of sightings reported are people when they're out walking their dogs. You know, that's when you're out looking at the sky. So I think dogs have a lot to say about UFO. Yes, if dogs can talk. I love dogs anyway.

Well, I want to maybe talk to any of you guys out there. We're sort of on the second half here, and we did want to open a lot of, I'll open it up to anyone if you feel comfortable sharing something with us up here, whether it's like a UFO sighting, please feel free to come up to the mic. Otherwise, we'll just, we'll keep talking. But yeah, yeah, you're in a safe place and no one's here to judge you. So, yeah, if you'd like, please feel free to come up. Yeah, you can come up to the microphone, form a line if somebody's there, and we'll get to you.

I want to mention that I brought up on Sunday how we're going to be doing a live recording of another UFO podcast called Unknown, and focusing on the ridicule factor and how people are uncomfortable sharing their stories. And during that recording, I'm going to, for the first time, play a recording that I have of a college professor at one of the largest public universities in the country,

who I happen to be doing an interview with on something totally not related to UFOs. And he happened to see my book, I wrote a book about UFOs, and that book was on my desk. He happened to notice it out of the corner of his eye, and he had to ask me about it. He said, so I see that book, what is that? And I explained to him that, you know, this is something I've done for more than a decade, and wrote a book on it, been on TV, talked about UFOs all the time.

And when he had that little intro, he knew the gate was open, then he just chimed in. Well, I've seen a UFO. Oh, that's great. And so he started telling me his story. And I had, because I had it set up for an interview, I was recording the whole time. And it was a fascinating, fascinating sighting. That I can't wait for you to hear it, because you haven't heard this either.

And it's a fascinating story from a college professor. And when I remembered that I'd been recording this whole thing, and I wanted to use that on the podcast, I asked him if it was okay if I used that. in my podcast. And he thought about it for a bit. And he said, yes, that'll be fine, but don't use my name. Don't say where I work. Because he didn't want people being able to figure out that it was him telling this story. And this is, he's actually retired now. So an emeritus professor at a major university, what does he care? You know, his career is essentially over. He's retired and, you know,

certainly tenured faculty. They're not worried all that much about their jobs. They can kind of do their own research, talk about whatever they want, and they have that protection. But still, to this day, and this is something that happened back in the 70s, I think, he still had never told anybody about it and didn't want his name revealed having shared this story. They've been seen all over our planet somewhere in the skies. I'm talking about flying saucers. Hey guys, Ryan Sprague here, and I'm excited to tell you about Saucer. Your source for original and authentic, euphology-inspired essentials, and apparel, symbolizing self-enrichment. Elevate your craft at the saucerbrand.com. Use promo code Skies for 20% off your entire purchase.

I've got their bomber jacket, their T-shirts, and their crew-neck sweater, and I am rocking them like crazy here in New York City. People are starting to ask me about it, and they're even starting to look up into the skies. Saucer products are sustainably made in the USA with only the most comfortable fabrics known to man. Receive 20% off your entire purchase now when you use the code skies at the saucerbrand.com. Show everyone that you believe and get your saucer gear now. That's the saucerbrand.com. Keep looking somewhere in the skies, and remember, to elevate your craft.

So, you know, the ridicule factor is strong and people still feel that and fill the hesitation when sharing that story and certainly publicly. It's not easy. I can't tell you, like, how many second dates I lost in my time bringing up UFOs

or that I studied this sort of thing. But that's another amazing thing about AlienCon is because this is like a perfect environment for talking about these topics. Like, nothing is weird or off limits here. Like, among fellow weirdos in the best way.

Like, this stuff is not weird. This is our lives, and we love talking about it and sharing stories. And that's the best thing for me about this entire weekend is just having that ability to talk to people and listen to people. Because a lot of people, I know, who come to this event, they've never talked about this subject before. Or they don't have anybody in their personal lives who they can talk about this stuff with. So this is just a fantastic weekend for that. I love it. Yeah.

Yes. Is this on? Yeah, it's on. Hi. Hi. Do I introduce myself? If you want, you don't have to. I'm Jane.

I think I might have mentioned a story to some people before, but it's kind of mysterious to me because it doesn't quite fit that mold of, I saw a thing in the sky, but, I mean, it feels unidentified in the sky. when I was much younger, I remember waking up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. And I was, I think in my early teens, so I had no reason to really be waking up or insomnia or anything. But I woke up in the middle of the night, and it was maybe 3 a.m. And I remember going to my window, again, I don't have any reason why. It was just this kind of thing that I was doing almost on autopilot.

But I remember going to my window and looking out. And there was a road below, and absolutely nothing was going on on it. It was totally quiet. And then, after looking out the window for a split second, the entire sky that I could see went red. And it was the kind of red that you would see if a car puts on the brake lights, that red is sort of glowing red, but it was the entire sky. And I remember looking out at it going, huh, like, what's going on? I thought a car was pulling out, but it just, the whole sky was sort of stained that color.

And it stayed that way for about, I'm not saying 10 seconds, long enough that I was kind of processing every sort of thing it could be, and then kind of just staring baffles. And then, you know, without any sort of fanfare, it just went back to normal. And it's something I think about from time to time because there's no good ending to that story. It was just this weird phenomenon that happened and then it never happened again. Yeah. Strange. Yeah. Very strange.

That's a really good point. There's no end to the story. There never is. Sometimes it is. Usually not. Yeah. Like these things happen. There's no explanation.

And you search for answers to it for the rest of your life. which is frustrating in some aspects. There's lots of frustration, lots of head scratching. A lot of head scratching, yeah. And like when people come to me to tell me their story, I try to tell them, I'm not going to solve this mystery for you, but I'm going to listen. I'm going to ask you some questions. And let's just talk about it because we're not experts.

We are UFO researchers, but we're in no way UFO experts. We don't know what is going on out there. we try to bring theories forward. We try to bring testimony forward. But yeah, at the end of the day, like no one knows what's really going on. So whatever that was, whatever phenomena, like, happened that night,

you might be asking yourself what it is for the rest of your life. Sorry, that's frustrating. Thank you for sharing, Jane. Appreciate it. So another thing with witness testimony, the power of that and how that helps with UFO research and investigations is we have that testimony, and that brings in the data that you mentioned, you know, looking at commonalities between sightings, different shapes and behaviors, and knowing

those commonly reported shapes and behaviors of these objects in the sky really help investigators when they're talking to witnesses or investigating particular incidents because they have these sort of boxes they can go through and check and categorize these things to help us better keep track of those objects. And it's interesting if you've been watching unidentified on the History Channel

or reading really any mainstream media outlet the past year and a half, you know, one of the big stories right now is the Tick-Tac UFO and I think because it's just such a silly thing to say Tick-Tac. So I think the media likes to use that, even though most of the time they'll show the Gimble video instead of Tick-Tac.

Yeah. Because the gimbal video is more exciting because you have the pilots go, whoa, dude, what's that? Yeah, what the bleep is that? Yeah, that's fun, but it's usually the gimbal video with a Tick-Tac. But Tick-Tac, you know, that's a description of the shape of a UFO, and that's relatively new thanks to that video. But those long elongated UFOs, you know,

have gone by many names over the years, you know, for the longest time, we heard a lot about cigar-shaped UFOs, where we have, you know, rectangle UFOs and different things like that. So it's good to, you know, sort of come up with a standard, and that's, I think, a challenge that investigators have trying to determine if when somebody says a Tick-Tac is that the same thing as a cigar, you know, and certainly one makes your breath smell better than others, right?

Yeah. But, you know, you've got these things trying to make investigation easier and make that data more consistent, and it's challenging, Because those UFO descriptions have changed over the years when perhaps the UFOs might not have, you know, necessarily. As a UFO journalist, I always loved especially reading accounts from the UK and hearing some of the things they would describe their UFOs as. They had a, remember the Dudley Dorito? Yeah, they had this triangle-shaped UFO that is regularly seen over there. They called it a Dorito.

It's shaped like a Dorito. We're also hamburger-shaped UFOs. That was one of my favorites. But there have been some interesting descriptions for UFO shapes over the years. But we get that from witness testimony. Yeah, yeah. It's no longer just saucers. Like, people are seeing just the weirdest things out there.

How's it going? Hello, thank you. My name's Juan. Hey, Juan. I think it was about three, four years ago. Well, let me just preface it. Yeah, sure. You know, I was always interested in aliens as a kid.

I think I was just regular, fascinated. Same thing with sci-fi. He's not regular, popular pop culture stuff. It was about three, four summers ago. It was the weekend right before Fourth of July. So I guess you could look up on the calendar, whichever day, Fourth of July, I landed on Monday. Okay.

It was that summer. I live in Los Angeles, just outside of, just right in East L.A. Okay. It was a Saturday afternoon, so I had to run some errands. it was it was midday it was around noon

so I remember when I jumped in my car because I saw something on the freeway it was around 1215 so right in the middle of the day it was really sunny my mind wasn't on seeing anything in the sky my mind wasn't on anything out of the ordinary

I was just in a rush to do my errands and to come back home so I jump on the freeway and I'm not sure if anybody around here is familiar but I live in El Serino, so I took the 10 East, so I'm traveling past a Hamburg going toward San Gabriel in that area. So once I jumped on the freeway, there was some traffic, which I usually anticipated.

I drive a sports car, so I'm kind of like my routine was, I'm going to get on the fast lane, outrun everybody again, I'm trying to come home quick. So I do that. I travel maybe about a quarter of a mile before I notice because there's a straightaway at that point on the 10 freeway, but there's a bright light kind of like shining toward me. So, you know, I didn't think anything again. I'm looking at the traffic. I'm trying to get where I'm going and I realize as I'm approaching

the light I'm kind of driving toward it. So that was weird. So I'm thinking, well, you know, there's a train on the side. Maybe it's a train coming or I don't know what. So again, I'm kind of driving a little quickly. So I'm approaching the light And I realize that the light's not Traveling away, it's actually stationary And I'm approaching it So as I got closer, that's when it started to get really, really confusing

Because all the cars around me had seemed I think they had to see it as well Because I found myself that I was the only one That was, I think everybody started to break And at this point when I was approaching, I let my foot off the gas So I was letting the car momentum So I must have been going maybe about 40 miles an hour So when I was approaching what I saw, I was alone.

Everybody else was about maybe about at least 100 feet behind me, maybe more, because I think they were also alarmed also. So in essence, what I'm saying is that I saw a light on the freeway in broad daylight during the summertime, and as I approached it, I saw a light at least a mile away. So it was a bright, almost LED, white color. So as I approached it, I started to see a shape of what was giving off this light. and it was kind of scary at first because I didn't know what it was

I wasn't expecting anything I was like well is this a helicopter is it a train is it a car they got turned around my mind's going a little quickly I'm like what could this be do I have to you know swerve out of the way

no it was it was just there so as I approached what I could describe was it was this it was spherical so it was circular it was the size of like let's say an NBA regulation

basketball So it wasn't that big. It was silver in color. There were no dense. I didn't see any rivets. I didn't see any... So it looked smooth, like the ball bearing. Except as I was approaching it,

the face of this ball bearing was flat, and that's what was emitting this light. Now, just given what I was professionally doing at the time, I had some experience with light bulbs, 100 watt light bulbs, things of that nature. So that also kind of caught my attention because I've been around light, large wattage bulbs and whether you have protective goggles or not, you could see the outline of a bulb

or a shape and or it may, you know, kind of have you wince. That also surprised me as I approached, I didn't wince away. So a light that I could see a mile away in broad daylight as I got closer, I didn't have to look away. It didn't hurt me. So again, I tried to get as many details as I could as the momentum of the car was passing. I'm looking at this thing so I could see the size, how smooth it was. Another thing that really, well, two things that really also, as I was approaching, I'm like, this isn't normal,

how low it was on the freeway. You know, I drive a Dodge Challenger, so it's kind of like a low car. This object was floating in the freeway so low that if it was like an 18-wheeler, 18-wheeler, it would have hit the windshield. So again, I was like, well, if this is a drone, that's really on the freeway,

really low, and also the movement. It kind of moved like a birthday balloon that's tethered to a chair, and if somebody walks by. So basically it was kind of just like moving like this very slowly. And if their cars were going, it seemed unaffected. So as I drove underneath it, I have like a sunroof so I hit the sunroof so I could look underneath to see if I could see fans or vapor or anything, and there was nothing. So it was really strange. So as soon as I saw that, I immediately thought, like, this is really, you know, something I've never really seen before.

I really wasn't sure if it's something I should pull over and investigate and things like that. So when it occurred, my immediate reaction was I've never seen anything like this. The size and how it moved and all of that, I was like this, if it was somebody's possession, like their drone, I would describe it that it looked really, really expensive. And it looked really, really, really brand new. Because, again, it was smooth. It wasn't dented. it wasn't discolored.

It was, it looked perfect looking. So afterward, when I drove by it, I was like, should I pull over, should I not? So I continued on the 10 freeway. I finished my errands, which took about 30 minutes. And I remember when I got to the store to do my errands, that's when it really started to sink in. Like, this is really strange. So then I was like, well, should I tell the person that works there, you know, whatever. I don't want to seem like a crazy person.

But, yeah, it was really strange. So after that, I think for about a week, maybe about a week, I googled to see if anybody else mentioned drones on the 10th freeway in Alhambra or Monterey Park or whatever, and nothing. And still, like, you know, casually when I watch TV, whenever they mention drones and I see like spherical ones, they're made of PVC or really, really thin plastic. It's just that it seemed really weird that it moved like a balloon, but it looked like if you were to hold it looked heavy. Yeah. It would be heavy because it looks metallic and metal. Yeah.

But, yeah. And because of how low it was, you would have probably noticed if it was tethered, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, I drove right underneath it. Again, I wanted to see if there was a vapor trail. I wanted to see if there was exhaust fan. I just wanted to see what was actually propping it up or whatever, and it was nothing. And also, when I drove past it, I didn't, my foot wasn't on the gas.

I looked in my rearview mirror just to see what the reflection was, and it kind of, like, blended in. I really couldn't see it afterward in. my review mirror once it passed, which again, I was like, am I crazy? Like, did I just see that? Like, or whatever, yeah. Dude, you're like the perfect witness, first of all. You, like, you checked everything off the boxes as it was happening, which a lot of people can't do. Yeah, which was weird, too. I mean, what freaked me out at the time, again, it wasn't that I was beyond thinking that the possibility of aliens was impossible. It's not it. It's just that it freaked me out because it was so close to where I live, and I live in the city, so I'm like, every time I watch these things,

maybe rural parts of wherever or by the beach or something but not close to east of not not off the freeway where I drive all the time and not in broad daylight and how low it was so yeah wow that's fantastic thank you very much for sharing that thank you hi hello my name is annette and it's a pleasure to meet you me too this happened over 30 years ago and And I was, it was summertime, close to dust. No sun, you know, it wasn't bright or anything. And we were leaving my home. And as I was getting into the car, I put my one leg into the car like this. And I just looked over my shoulder.

And over the freeway, because we lived close to the freeway, there was seven objects, crafts. They weren't objects. There were seven crafts. One in the front, two behind, two behind, two behind. And I just stood there and looked at it. And then, do you see this? And, yeah.

And we didn't say anything. We just looked. And I got into the car, and we started driving. driving and the crafts started. And we just drove slowly along, and they drove slowly along. And then they took off. They managed. And we didn't talk about it. Yeah.

That's... We didn't ever talk about it. Yeah. That's very common. I know a lot of people who were in the same car with someone saw something, and they witnessed it, and then it was never seen. spoken of again. And it wasn't just a quick flash like this, you know, just, oh, no, this happened, and I know what I saw.

Yeah. Yeah. And so, but, and I've talked about it, you know, some time over the years later, but at that particular time, we didn't talk about it. Yeah. Do you remember what the objects look like at all, if I could ask? Dark. Okay.

Dark. Deep dark. Okay. You know how the stealth aircrafts look. Not exactly like that. Okay. Because I don't even know if that technology. And seven of them.

Seven in a V formation? Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, no. And, you know, they have the stealth bombers. But I don't know how many they have, but no. And he's just sat there was similar little shape. Yeah.

Wow. Something like that. Thank you. Thank you very much for sharing that. Thank you. All right. I think that's going to be it for us, guys. This is not your last chance to share your stories. Tomorrow, actually, Jason and I are going to be doing an experiencer session where you can come and talk amongst a group of supportive people to tell your stories.

No matter what it is, what happened to you, it doesn't have to be just UFOs. If you've had a strange paranormal experience, anything. We want to hear about it. And obviously we love hearing those stories on our podcast, but that will be your time to share the stories and they won't be shared. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So if you don't come to that, you can find us here all weekend, reach out to us. Again, the more people that tell stories, the more we normalize this topic and bring it to the mainstream to be like, stuff's going on. We've got to talk about this.

So I want to thank you for coming to this today for those who share their stories. for joining me on this live recording of somewhere in the skies. So thank you very much.