Aliens and Bigfoot and Ghosts, Oh My!

There are plenty of mysteries in life. Never has been a shortage of them, actually. Is there a God? What is the meaning of life? Did this universe, and everything that we know of in it, really start with a "big bang"? Why are unhealthy foods so damn irresistible, and healthy foods often so undesirable? Why did George Lucas ruin Star Wars, his own creation? Will the Jets ever win another Super Bowl?

Personally, I always wondered about attraction. What makes people aroused, and what makes them attracted to each other? I have heard about scents that women give off that make men crazy, and that is believable. Yet is that it? Men like the way women smell? There is nothing more? And what about women? Why would they be attracted to men? What about homosexuality in all of this?

The human body always seemed so strange and weirdly foreign to me (although I obviously have had experience enough with one to know better). I mean, there are so many components, and everything had to be just so. We have vision and sight and all of the other senses, and we are certainly not alone among animals on this planet to have these things. But how did these things come about through evolution? Our innards are hidden away, covered by our outwards skin, which is a living cell unto itself, to my understanding. Yet, there seem so many aspects of the human body that we do not understand yet, even still, to say nothing about the inner workings of our mind, and the potential for further exploration there. This is the field of the future, I believe. Someday, we will find that, despite our massive technological advances (which may someday seem almost the steps of an infant), we have barely even tapped into the full potential of the human mind, and what it is capable of. Bending spoons will look like a child's trick, compared to what we may find we are truly capable of, although that kind of extensive research and progress will not likely be nearly completed or thoroughly documented during my own lifetime. That, assuming we do not in fact destroy ourselves, or our way of life, or that perhaps something happens, even, that does the job for us. You never know, right?

In any case, I am getting off topic. I was mentioning some of those things that people seem to love to fixate on, and of which much has been written, perhaps movies and stories made, seemingly as much for campfire discussions intended to scare each other as much as possible as for any other purpose.

I was recently discussing some of these things with a couple of coworkers, and it got me to thinking. Specifically, they were talking about ghosts and the plausibility of Bigfoot. I was shown a picture, allegedly real, of the Amityville Horror, in which supposedly a real ghost of a child is photographed. The picture looked a bit spooky, although I am not entirely sure about the authenticity, or lack there.

Ghosts are among those things that remain a mystery and a source of fascination for many people. Movies have been made, and not even strictly horror movies, either. Many people have tried to document ghosts, or "prove" their existence. Others argue just as vehemently against their existence. There are famous places that people visit in order to try and hope to get some firsthand experiences of their own. Stories about all over the place, and the subject remains a source of fascination for many (including some people close to me, personally). Yet, no one really knows for sure, one way or the other, seemingly. Either that, or those who claim to "know" based upon personal experiences have had their honesty and credibility questioned or even discredited, whether justified or not.

Similar story with Bigfoot. I saw the Patterson footage from 1967, which is the more famous, trademark sighting that was captured on camera of the mysterious creature, and the one that, allegedly, seems the most valid. It certainly is the most famous footage known of Bigfoot, and I learned some things, such as you allegedly can see the muscles contracting, that effectively argues against this being a suit, which would obviously mean it would prove the whole thing a hoax. Also, apparently the Bigfoot caught on the camera is a female, because it has breasts. Finally, the strides that this creature took were allegedly more than any human being, even one considered a giant by most normal standards, could have taken.

Since then, there have been countless sightings, but nothing that is beyond reproach. Thus, the Patterson sighting caught on camera decades ago remains the most reputable sighting.

There are other areas in question, as well. Everyone knows about the Roswell sightings decades ago that brought UFO's in the limelight. There had been alleged sightings before that, and the possibility of some kind of alien presence, or invasion, had already been a part of the popular imagination for a long time beforehand. Hell, just look at what famously happened right here in New Jersey early in the 20^th century, during an airing of H.G. Welles now famous work, "War of the Worlds"! People mistook it for real, and there was a mass exodus out of the area where these things were allegedly occurring. So many people left, evidently, that there were traffic jams developing – all over a fictional work, and despite repeated warnings, evidently, that this was not an actual real news broadcast, or anything. Many, many people, including ex-Presidents like Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, have claimed to have seen or had experiences with UFO's, and it is hard to disprove every single case. Yet, it is equally hard to prove any of these, and so it remains a mystery.

All of that is interesting, and makes for good and lively conversation. There are other mysteries, as well, that we do not know about. Is there life on any other planets (or moons, or any other possible body outside of this known solar system, or this known world)? Do UFOs really exist and, if so, are they really watching us, and why? Do angels exist, and are they watching over us? Is there really such a thing as good and evil and, if so, do they work anything like we have come to believe in the popular imagination? What about all of those prophecies, such as those from Nostradamus? Is there not evidence to suggest that there was at least a little something to this? Lately, the Mayan prophecies regarding the end of the calendar coming on December 21^st of this year has been taken to mean that the world, at least as we know it, will end? Is there any currency there, or is that just some elaborate misunderstanding, or even perhaps an outright scam?

All of these things are, indeed, fascinating. Yet, they are mysteries that are largely unanswerable, and so I personally am learning not to really take much of anything I hear in regards to these controversies too seriously, either pro or con. The fact of the matter is that I do not know, and although my curiosity is stronger than many others, if not most, I nonetheless have come to terms and accepted the notion that I will never know these things for sure, and am comfortable not knowing the answers. In fact, there is something quite pleasant about being able to wonder about certain things like this. My guess is, the more science will answer questions for us that have plagued us for decades and centuries and possibly even millennia, the more there will be new questions that arise and new "proofs" to the contrary. Maybe that's just human nature, to be curious, and to make a big production of that curiosity.