lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (06/01/83)
Greetings. Sometime ago, I posted a message asking the readership
of this newsgroup what THEY would do if faced with a hypothetical
"UFO encounter" situation. I promised to report back on the results,
so here we go...
First of all, I should note that one reader complained that my
hypothetical encounter was unfairly slanted, in that it seemed to
imply that if a person chose to contact the "aliens", they would
later be unable to contact local authorities or take other steps.
It was not my intent to suggest this restriction, and I'm sorry
if my wording gave the wrong impression.
The responses I received fell into several broad catagories:
Catagory #1 -- Walk Up and Say Hi!
About 2/5 of the respondents claimed that they would simply pop
out from their hidden location, walk down to the spacecraft, and
introduce themselves to the aliens. Their general feeling seemed
to be that since the aliens are obviously powerful in any case, they
could easily have zapped as much of the planet as they wanted if
they were truly hostile. Most respondents seemed to feel that
communication probably wouldn't be a great problem, and that the
aliens would most likely be able to deal with that issue without
much difficulty.
Catagory #2 -- Sit and Watch (Quietly...)
About 2/5 of the respondents said that they would have little or no
interest in immediately heading down for a confrontation with the visitors.
This group claimed that they'd sit quietly and watch, then later
probably tell a few close friends about the experience. Most persons
expressed extreme doubts about attempting to convince "authorities"
of what they had seen, and said that they wouldn't even tell them
about the experience. A small number wouldn't tell ANYBODY
what had happened, for fear of ridicule. A few people said
that they might consider contacting the aliens directly if long
observation seemed to indicate that they were "friendly", otherwise
they would only watch silently.
Catagory #3 -- Let's Get the Hell Out of Here!
About 1/5 of the respondents didn't want to sit around watching
the aliens, and certainly didn't want to contact them. They would
leave as quickly (and quietly) as possible, hopefully without
wet undergarments. The overall feeling of this group was that the
aliens were totally unpredictable: if they had WANTED to contact
Earthlings they would have already done so, and they might not be happy
about being spied upon.
---
A number of persons responding to the survey described their own
"UFO encounters" that they felt they had actually experienced.
In virtually all cases, these people asked that their names and/or
messages not be publicized to the net, apparently out of fear
of possible ridicule. One respondent told of a "mental" contact
that they had experienced, where they were supposedly sent a
telepathic message very briefly confirming the presence of aliens
in the area of the Earth. I don't think that any of these persons
were kidding around, and that they all strongly believed that
they had actually exerienced the events that they described to me.
I hope you find these survey results to be interesting.
Thanks very much to all of you who participated.
--Lauren--
P.S.
"The Invaders. Alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination:
the Earth. Their purpose: to make it THEIR world. David Vincent
has seen them. For him, it began late one night on a lonely country
road, looking for a shortcut, that he never found. It began with a
dark, deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue
his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another
galaxy. Now, David Vincent knows that The Invaders are here -- that
they have taken human form. Somehow he must convince a disbelieving
world, that the nightmare has already begun."
Opening monologue from "The Invaders" (ABC-TV)
--LW--