|
Allison Walker Torres
If you’re going to talk to a person who is a UFO scholar, it’s best not to ask whether they “believe.”
“It has nothing to do with belief,” said Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Florida State Director, Morgan Beall. “It’s a phenomenon. It’s real.”
The Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista is hosting the 2016 MUFON Symposium. Beall is in charge of Florida’s chapter, which is putting on this weekend’s meet-up. It’s a chance for people curious about intelligent life to hear about personal encounters from self-titled ‘UFOlogists.’
“We don’t wear tinfoil hats,” Marc D’Antonio smiled. “But that is how we’re portrayed.”
D’Antonio is MUFON’s chief photo and video analyst. He reiterates that – in his words – they’re not “nutcases.” In fact, attendees and speakers are scientists, researchers and retired military personnel, many of whom say they’ve had personal encounters.
“We saw this – what looked like a satellite,” Beall told us. “It stopped and moved, not in a quick 90-degree turn, but gradually went in a different direction – which satellites don’t do.”
D’Antonio says there’s no concrete data that alien life exists, but he thinks that is changing.
“We probably have – very conservatively – maybe 20, 25-million populatable planets,” he said.
So what do aliens look like? You, of course, have that typical Hollywood-type – gray, large almond-shape eyes, skinny little bodies. But it gets way more complex.
“We don’t know if they’re inter-dimensional,” Beall said. “We don’t know if they came from a different time.”
D’Antonio says symmetry is key.
“Maybe that’s something the universe naturally selects,” he said. “But I suspect there are no pogo-stick aliens hopping around, but there might be!”
Guests can meet with guys like Beall and D’Antonio all weekend. The free experiences include a UFO film fest and access to vendors.
The list of guest speakers is on MUFON’s official page.
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. |
|||