- In prehistoric times, if you happened to see something
inexplicable in the sky, the best way to share the experience would have
been to scratch its likeness on the walls of your cave. Fast forward to
the year 2004, where the Internet and a rampant mass media rule the roost,
and it seems that every weirdo, crackpot, cultist and conspiracy theorist
is sharing their, or somebody else's, UFO sighting with the world. But
for American David Ritchie, head of a project team that produced "The
World Internet UFO Directory," the phenomenon of UFOs runs deeper
than simply being the exclusive domain of "X-Files" Fox
Mulder-types
who want to believe.
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- "The UFO phenomenon is not the providence of
extremists
and fringe people," he said. "A lot of well-respected researchers
and theorists work on this phenomenon."
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- According to Ritchie, 51, an editor with Lingua Forum,
the huge amount of new information about the UFO phenomenon (especially
sightings in Asia) available on the Internet was the main reason for
producing
the book.
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- "We thought there was a real need for an overview
of this information and to show Internet users where to find it,"
he said. "There are also new interpretations of the UFO phenomenon.
Some reports appear to be consistent with projected capabilities of
nanotechnology
using microscopic machines."
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- For those not up on their science lingo, nanotechnology
is the ability to manipulate individual atoms and molecules to build
machines
or create materials from the ground up. With applications in medicine,
computers and automobiles, it's a revolutionary technology that reportedly
has the ability to give humans godlike powers.
-
- Heavy stuff indeed, but nanotechnology was the furthest
thing from Ritchie's mind one evening in late 1996 when he saw a UFO flying
over Incheon, 2 kilometers north of Inha University.
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- "I observed the object from the rooftop of a small
office building," he recalled. "It appeared to be a cluster of
white, or very pale yellow lights illuminated from within. It had no
insignia
or other identifying markings. It was silent and hanging motionless in
the sky."
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- Alone at the time, Ritchie compared the object to the
size of a traffic helicopter. Estimating its height to be about 500m off
the ground, he watched it for about 10 minutes before having to go
indoors.
-
- "That was the last I saw of the object," he
said. "There was nothing threatening or frightening about the object.
It was merely flying and unidentified."
-
- With numerous UFO sightings being documented over South
and North Korean skies, one of the most famous incidents also occurred
in late 1996 and is featured in the book.
-
- At 7:20 a.m. on Nov. 22, police stations in Seoul were
inundated by phone calls from frantic residents reporting "a
yellowish-green
globe with a golden slit in the lower hemisphere" hovering over the
downtown area. Captured on film by TV news channel YTN, the object floated
in a westerly direction for 10 minutes, passing over the Han River before
reaching Incheon, where it "flew away at high speed."
-
- YTN later reported that the object's flight pattern was
identical to one taken by seven silvery-white teardrop shaped UFOs that
flew over Seoul heading north on Sept. 7, 1995.
-
- Still, not all UFOs over Korea have been on sightseeing
tours. Ritchie describes a Korean War battlefield encounter in the
"Iron
Triangle" near Chorwon as an interesting story, but one that could
not be substantiated well enough for inclusion in the book.
-
- Occurring in early spring 1951, Francis P. Wall - at
the time a private first class in the U.S. Army - reported seeing what
appeared to be a jack-o-lantern moving across the mountain range, stopping
to hover over a village that was being shelled by U.S. artillery.
-
- "Suddenly, this object approached us," he said
in an interview with the Center for UFO Studies in 1987. "And it
turned
a blue-green brilliant light. The light was pulsating."
-
- Wall claimed that after firing on the UFO with armor
piercing rounds from his M-1 rifle, it went "wild," moving
erratically
from side-to-side, making a sound like a diesel engine of a locomotive
revving up.
-
- "And then we were attacked," he said. "We
were swept by some form of ray that was emitted in pulses. You would feel
a burning, tingling sensation all over your body, as though something was
penetrating you."
-
- Three days later, all of the troops involved in the
incident
were evacuated after suffering from dysentery and an extremely high white
blood cell count. At the time of the interview, Wall, now retired and
disabled,
was plagued by periods of disorientation and memory loss.
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- Dismissing suggestions that UFOs seen in Korea are really
North Korean secret weapons, Ritchie offers no explanation for their
occurrence,
but believes that they may be the result of "hot spots" caused
by proton beams being shot through the atmosphere. "I couldn't
speculate
on who controls the proton beams," he said.
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- Containing several hundred alphabetically listed
references
to studies about UFOs on the Internet, the book is a convenient reference
for those who would like to know more about what Ritchie describes as a
"fascinating phenomenon." Priced at 15,000 won, "The World
Internet UFO Directory" is available at all major bookstores.
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- Copyright 2001 ~ 2003 Herald Media INC. All rights
reserved.
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- http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data
- /html_dir/2004/10/30/200410300034.asp
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