23.5 Degrees: Affirmative Alienation

By: Stella Maris
Date: Saturday, June 14, 2008

I'm definitely experiencing the urge to pursue an Alien encounter these days. Not that I believe that Aliens actually exist, mind you, but tracking them down is infinitely more pleasurable than investigating secret societies or digging up dead saints' skeletons.

As you might have guessed, I finally got the Bloodline - The Movie review DVD this week... but, as I sat here trying to distill over a decade of dysfunctional dogma into a coherent review, my attention was inevitably drawn to the enchanting eloquence of the balmy British summer evenings which, in turn, concertedly fuelled my mounting impetus to ditch the caves and cathedrals and dusty libraries in favor of cavalierly cavorting in stone circles or pitching a pup tent on a mountaintop to contemplate the occasional passing spaceship.

As if in response to my silent prayer, I was contacted out of the blue by Stuart Miller, a former contributor to a magazine I used to edit, who had astonishingly gotten off his butt and launched his own brand new UFO magazine called Alien Worlds.

This was exactly the inspiration I needed in order to elevate my putrescent perspective... some affirmative Alien action!

And, as I flicked through my complimentary copies, I recognized the names of several old pals that I hadn't been in touch with for well over a year... Peter Robbins, Nick Pope, Nick Redfern, Lloyd Pye and, of course, Stuart himself.

That's when I realized that it doesn't actually matter whether Aliens actually exist or not, because the human beings that inhabit the alien world I know are among the most congenial group of any "alternative" genre that I've ever had the occasion to explore in my travels.

Alien Worlds' website can be found at Alien World Magazine , where you can also subscribe to an email newsletter. Issue Three will be available from June 19th and features articles on the recent release of the Ministry of Defense's UFO Files and Sex in Space.

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Comments/Responses

popa • Jun 14, 2008, 02:35am •

I don't blame people for saying they don't believe in aliens. You're likely to get, at best, polite smiles, and at worst they'll make little circles at the side of their head with their forefinger. But you should know that the situation has changed in the last few years. Scientists now believe that planets around other stars are common including planets that exist in the so-called habitability zone. The absence of these planets was previously the best argument that aliens don't exist, but no longer. Now we're stuck with the idea that life is an improbable accident and, out of the untold billions of planets that must be out there, only one, Earth, has developed life. Personally I think this sounds a lot more wacky than the alternative.

Recently a planet has been discovered around a nearby red dwarf star that's in the zone that we think supports life. The gravity is greater than Earth's though. For an alien to exist on that planet he'd have to have large eyes to compensate for the different spectrum and he'd have to be small and have very pale skin.

Sure, lots of people have reported seeing aliens that look like that, but they're all nuts. . . Right?

Berlioz • Jun 14, 2008, 01:18pm •

For a serious analysis of the Ministry of Defence's UFO files, Maniacs might like to look at the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZbAjzY13PY

WISEGUY562 • Jun 14, 2008, 04:06pm •

I guess like Mulder of the X-Files I want to believe. Let me re-phrase that, I believe that there may be alien life forms in other planets. After all the Universe is a pretty big place and getting bigger by all accounts. The odds of other planets having life forms has to be in their favor.

However I don't believe we've had any visitors here on good ol earth. After so many reports or sightings and yet nothing solid. How come the reports come mostly from the poorest areas where the same population also reports the most "miracles", statues crying or bleeding or images on walls and that sort of thing. Why wouldn't aliens want to see the cities, the population centers of the planet.

JarrodSarafin • Jun 15, 2008, 12:45am •

I pretty much agree with you Wise and I'm a huge fan of space exploration in the private and public service industries for those reasons alone.

Hell, I think we have life outside of Earth in our own solar system even if it's not anywhere near mammal complexity. As an example, I'm willing to bet that there are micro-organisms, plant life, etc on some of the moons like Titan farther out into our system.

Now, that's just our solar system. Add on the fact that we are surrounded by untolds amount of solar systems inside OUR galaxy and I know that there is also other intelligent life elsewhere.

What amazes me is scientists looking for just planets nearby with H20 and oxygenated atmospheres nearby as to whether there is life there as well. That strikes me as odd. Are they saying that just because of Earth and what we know about our species needs, life can't live under different elements? I don't see why life can't adapt and grow under different elements and circumstances. Hell, for all we know, there could be some jellyfish like creature living in gases of Jupiter. Nobody knows where life can live or can't live. A lot of scientists like to just pigeonhole circumstances as defined by what we call standards of Earth life.

I guess I think it's a bit egocentric to say Earth is the only planet of the only solar system in our galaxy that can sustain life. That's not even saying the same for all the other galaxies out there, which in turn has hundreds of millions other stars inside their own galaxies

Hell, if there was a way to actually confirm, I'd lay down quite a big bet that 6 or 7 solar systems away from US is another solar system with another planet that has intelligent life on it too. They're probably having this same debate wondering if they're the only ones out there in the galaxy not realizing that we're in their own backyard of the Milky Way.

metalwater • Jun 15, 2008, 03:53pm •

UFOs exist. I have seen them. Who is flying or controling them, I can only guess...but there is more to this reality of ours than we are being told.

WISEGUY562 • Jun 15, 2008, 04:10pm •

Jarrod, I agree with that. I think scientists indeed focus on planets that may resemble ours but is mostly with the idea of searching for our future home. I don't think anyone doubts that we will need a new planet as we continue to use up resources and pollute what we have.

My only lament is that at the pace we're going I don't think I'll live to witness any of that. No alien life or actual exploration of other planets with boots on the ground. Though the latter sometimes seems close. Hopefully we'll have the next giant step forward in space exploration soon.

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