146 lines
8.8 KiB
Plaintext
146 lines
8.8 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: THE UNDERWATER CIVILIZATION THEORY FILE: UFO2789
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From UFOs and the Limits of Science by Ronald D. Story c. 1981
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Reproduced for educational purposes only.
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The Underwater Civilization Theory
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Reports of unknown objects entering or leaving large bodies of water or
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proceeding through them have been made from time to time and have been
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labeled unidentified submarine objects (USOs). Numerous theorists have
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consequently speculated that secret UFO bases might be located on the
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ocean beds, far from man's activities and possible detection. By moving
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underwater, UFOs would have access to all continents, and, by
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proceeding up major rivers and tribituaries, could reach many inland
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locations without risking detection by atmospheric flight.
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Vehicles capable of interstellar flight, some proponents of the
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extraterrestial hypothesis point out, would certainly be able to
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withstand the pressures and stresses of deep oceanic environments. This
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point has some validity, and it can also be stated that some of the
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most remote areas of the planet are located in parts of the southern
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Pacific and Indian oceans, providing easy access from the atmosphere
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with minimum chance of visual or electronic detection.
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At the same time, it could be asked why the UFO operators go to such
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lengths to remain unobserved, only to display their vehicles so
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blatently in such populated areas as the U.S. and Europe.
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One of the proponents of the Underwater Civilization Theory was the
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late naturalist, Ivan T. Sanderson, who proposed not only that an
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extraterrestial civilization could be using the ocean depths, but that
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a native civilization, one having evolved underwater long before man,
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could also be doing so. He concluded, in fact, that "it is much more
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likely that both suggestions apply." Although he provided no sources or
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references, Sanderson stated that more than 50 percent of all UFO
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reports concerned objects over, coming from, or going toward (or into)
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bodies of water.
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Related to the "Underwater Civilization" idea for UFOs is the popular
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explanation for the disappearances of ships and planes in the so-called
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Bermuda Triangle.
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During the past thirty years, more than 100 ships and planes with more
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than 1,000 persons on board have supposedly disappeared - some say
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"mysteriously, without a trace" - in an area variously dubbed "The
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Bermuda Triangle," "The Devil's Triangle," "The Hoodoo Sea," "The
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Triangle of Death," and "The Graveyard of the Atlantic." It is actually
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a large area of undefinable shape around and including the triangle
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formed by Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico, where sea and air traffic
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is said to be the greatest. For reasons which are to follow, some
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writers have "theorized" a UFO connection to explain the "strange"
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disappearances.
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The Bermuda Triangle-UFO link to missing vessels was perhaps first
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hinted at in the 1930s by Charles Fort (1874-1932), who, as his
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biographer Loren Gross writes: "played with the notion that mysterious
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vanishments of ocean vessels and their crews...may be due to wanton
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seizures by spacemen." Two decades later, astronomer Morris K. Jessup
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(1900-1959), in his book, The Case for the UFO, wrote: "To attempt to
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postulate motive for space inhabitants kidnapping crews from ships..is
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in the realm of pure speculation. On the other hand...our space friends
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would want to know what has happened to us since they left, or what has
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happened to us since they put us down here. Again, there is always the
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possibility that the open seas provide an easy catching place."
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More recently, author Charles Berlitz capitalized on the triangle and a
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possible UFO connection by quoting in his best-selling book, The
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Bermuda Triangle, his friend, J. Manson Valentine, who reported several
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UFO sightings in the area. Berlitz also quoted a reporter by the name
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of Art Ford, who claimed that a final radio transmission, picked up by
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a ham operator from one of the doomed pilots (in this case, Lieutenant
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Charles Taylor, flight leader of the five Navy torpedo bombers that
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disappeared on December 5, 1945), contained the warning: "Don't come
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after me...they look like they are from outer space." But according to
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a transcript from the Navy Inquiry Board, what Taylor actually said
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was" :I know where I am now. I'm at twenty-three hundred feet. Don't
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come after me."
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Also, there are claims of unusual electromagnetic effects occurring in
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the triangle, a common feature of many UFO reports. Actually, none of
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the "magnetic anomalies" reported in the area appear to be true.
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Reports of compass needles spinning crazily have never been
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substantiated. The fact that the compass points to true north from the
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triangle does not cause confusion, but rather, simplifies navigation.
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The compass points to true north from many other places in the world.
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The only part of the triangle from which it does point directly north
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is at the southern tip of Florida. Those who claim that the north-
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pointing compass is strange or confusing lack even the most fundamental
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knowledge of magnetism, compasses, or navigation. The presence of a
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"space\time warp" (whatever that means) is, again, unsubstantiated.
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Popular author John Wallace Spencer in a revised version of his book,
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Limbo of the Lost, offered a provocative theory. He reasoned that:
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"Since a 575-foot vessel with 39 crew member disappearing 50 miles
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offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, and commercial airliners disappearing
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while coming in for a landing cannot happen according to earthly
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standards and yet are happening, I am forced to conclude that they are
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actually being taken away from our planet for a variety of reasons."
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In a 1975 version of the book, retitled Limbo of the Lost - Today,
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Spencer modified his UFO theory so that the extraterrestials were no
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longer carting the captives away from Earth but were taking them to
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hidden underwater facilities, where the ETs conducted experiments on
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the earthlings and their machinery. However, Spencer offered no
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evidence that UFOs had been present or were even sighted in conjunction
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with any of the incidents he described. Consequently, many think that
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these authors, in order to attempt to make a bigger story, are
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"dressing up" their accounts by including UFOs.
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The UFO-capture theme was again used in the movie Close Encounters of
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the Third Kind: The five Navy torpedo bombers that disappeared in 1945
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had been taken aboard a gigantic "mother ship"; all of its captives
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(unaged over the years) were released at the end of the movie to
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demonstrate that the extraterrestials are friendly after all.
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In reality, the "Bermuda Triangle Mystery" has been shown to be a sham
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-an accumalation of careless research, misconceptions, sensationalism,
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and downright falsification of data - and is so regarded by most
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leading UFO researchers. For example, the 575-foot ship that Spencer
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claimed had disappeared was found within two weeks, sunken in shallow
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water. Volatile fumes in the holds had exploded, nearly tearing the
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ship in two. The airliner that Spencer said had disappeared while on a
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landing approach was a chartered DC-3 that lost its way at night in
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1948, out of sight of land, because of radio navigational problems.
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Thorough investigations of other incidents by Larry Kusche (author of
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The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved) led to similiar down-to-earth
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explanations.
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According to the April 1978 issue of J. Allen Hynek's International UFO
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Reporter: "the Bermuda Triangle stories...are NOT relayed by the pilots
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or sailors who experience them; they are the fraudulent literary
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distortions of a small handful of authors. All triangle mysteries so
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far have been examined. Would that the more baffling UFOs (which are
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themselves the mysteries) were so easily resolved."
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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