Unrelated to the UFO story specifically (though I just shared my experience on the post that led me to this one), you might find the book Pulling the Chariot of the Sun by Shane McCrae to be a worthwhile read regarding the fluidity of memory. It’s a memoir about a traumatic childhood that is largely forgotten and the unreliability of our own memories, but the trust we must and rightfully place in them. It’s a beautiful book and validating for those of us whose memories are fragmented and visceral.
Wow, I’ve had a very similar experience and it actually happened with some very close friends when we were in high school as well. We were out at night riding horses as a group back in the late 70’s.
We lived in Orange County CA, and we would periodically drive out to the Inland Empire to a town called Norco to ride horses at night on Friday or Saturday nights. It was a way to get out in the woods and for us to get high, being that smoking weed had a stigma about it in those days. None of us were cowboys or horse-people by nature, we were city kids trying not to get caught getting stoned…
One night we were riding together, there was about 6 people each on horseback. All of a sudden my horse got really skiddish and started acting nervous. He took off running away from this bluff that we were next to. About 3 more riders said they experienced the same feeling with their horses. And they all followed me.
As we got away from that bluff, we all began to hear this unusual noise in the sky. Then it appeared over the hills. It was a large craft, rounded in the front and came to a point in the rear as it faced us. It had bright lights in white, orange and blue that were swirling all along the edges of the round part. It hovered over all of us, and then just took off and disappeared over the horizon. It was the strangest thing that I’ve ever seen in the sky, and a couple of us were there wondering if that was in fact a UFO.
I was convinced that it was, based on the speed that this ship took off and disappeared from sight. And a couple of the other guys that I was with agreed with me. There were two others that didn’t see what we saw because they didn’t follow us when our horses got spooked and took off running away. Those two were skeptical and making fun of us, saying that we were just really high and imagining things…
The next day I looked in the Orange County Register newspaper, and it had an article about an unusual spacecraft that was seen in 6 western states flying around and disappearing from sight quickly.
That solidified my claim of what we all saw with our own eyes. The horses even felt the presence of that UFO. We all talked about it to our friends that weren’t there and some believed us, others were skeptical saying that we were stoned… I know what we saw. And it’s been confirmed being seen in other states. Similar descriptions were made in that newspaper story.
When one of the friends that was actually there that night and believed he saw the same thing, passed away last year from a long illness, I spoke with a couple of the other friends that were there with me that night. I asked them if they remembered seeing that UFO, and they all laughed and said yes, how would they ever forget something like that. They also brought up the fact that Andy, the friend whose funeral we were at, often brought up that night throughout the years since. He remembered it also. Over the years we both talked about seeing that thing, and he said we should always remember that night.
So, in our case we have had conversations about seeing that spacecraft. And, I guess that means that it really did happen to all of us. It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in my lifetime… I just wished that horses could talk!
Just here to say I grew up in Montgomery and never knew you were from Hillsborough! No UFO sighting but there was that haunted house in the hills with the prosthetic limbs and a jar full of the feathers.
Well, you're a few years older than me. Maybe the mad scientist hadn't yet created the monstrosity that killed him and fled to the basement, which none were brave enough to enter.
I had a similar story to yours, among others. It was my final year of high school and I was at a friend's apartment with another friend who was visiting from out of town. It was sometime after dark and we were out on the balcony, which faced North, looking across what was then the outskirts of the city of Ottawa in Canada, over the Ottawa River, to an area of Quebec called Gatineau.
I don't remember if one of us saw it first, or all of us together, but we all saw it. Five spheres of what looked like flame flying slowly in the formation of a cross, heading East above Gatineau. I remember us all wondering what it could be, making jokes about the second coming of Jesus, noting how it couldn't be planes...and we watched them fly all together til they went out of sight of the balcony.
I don't know now if this happened. I mean for years I was sure it had and still feel it did. I am loosley in touch with both other witnesses, as one does with high school friends on Facebook, but I feel popping up after years and years to ask feels weird and intrusive for some reason. I remember checking the news the next day too, looking for other witnesses. I don't remember any. So was it a dream? It may as well have been.
I think people see weird and unusual things all the time. Sure there are probably lots of rational explanations for most things, but sometimes it lands on a solid "wtf". I think these out of context with reality experiences are for whatever reason hard to encode into long term memory. They are slippery, and fade quickly. For most people. For most experiences like this.
One more, not a UFO. 12ish years ago, my wife and I were at my parents' house. We were in the kitchen, middle of the day, when this green teapot on the counter began rattling. It was visibly shaking and the lid was moving, making most of the noise. Nothing else in the kitchen or house was doing this.
We all quickly concluded that, somehow, a mouse must have gotten in and was trying to get out. I picked up the teapot and we all took it outside. I could feel it shaking in my hand, and like I said, the lid was moving. Popping up and down and rattling. I put it down on a patio table in the backyard and pulled off the lid. It was empty. We were all dumbfounded. The movement and rattling stopped right away.
My mom doesn't remember this at all, and my wife kinda does, but only if you really pull that memory out of her like a long thread. I remember it clearly and I think the main reason is because I filmed it. Now I didn't start filming til I picked up the pot, so a skeptic would likely say I was shaking it. Fair enough. I know I wasn't. The video doesn't show much besides an empty teapot. At least I know it happened . Whatever it was.
Anyway, big fan for a long time. You're very funny. Shave my poodle.
A lot of similarities - like you're being tested in some way. Did that happen? Did it not happen? How do we know one way or the other? I've had a few non-UFO events in my life that felt (and continue to feel) inexplicable. They are varied in nature and I don't have any explanation for them. What do we do with those events? I think most people just kind of shrug them off but, for some of us, they persist. My little UFO story is one of those events for me.
Firstly, thanks for sharing Michael. Such a weird and interesting story. Would love for you to follow up with Bradley! Also I’m a huge fan.
Many years ago, I saw a UFO with another friend while driving my friend home around midnight. We were admittedly a little stoned, as one or two friends may find themselves.
First an extremely bright amber light or two appeared behind some distant clouds near the horizon. As I drove around some trees to get a better look, suddenly a small black triangular craft was (impossibly?) right above our heads (unsure about distance).
The craft had four lights - one near each vertex, and then one in the center. It floated above us without making any noise. If this craft was the source of the initial bright lights that we saw in the distance, then it had just traveled what I estimate to be a few miles in just 12-15 seconds without making a sound!
My friend annoyingly spent time afterwards diminishing the significance of what we saw, arguing that it could have been a helicopter or plane (when it clearly wasn’t due to its appearance and lack of sound). Perhaps this was his version of emotional dampening? I never understood why he downplayed it or wasn’t as fascinated as I was - as we had such a clear view of this UFO.
Truly a once in a lifetime experience that I’ll never forget, and thankfully my friend will at least confirm that we saw something unusual that night (and that it wasn’t a dream).
That's such a cool story. I don't know how to explain any of it but if it helps nobody else does, either. Nobody understands what people are witnessing, why they are witnessing it, or its nature. The only thing we know is that people are witnessing crazy shit ALL THE TIME.
I wonder if when we experience something that feels surreal or out of the ordinary in our lives, we subconsciously log it in our brains as something associated with a dream because of how strange it was. And maybe as time progresses this experience fades or gets pushed out of our memory bank along with the real dreams that we can't recall anymore.
Wow. What an incredible and disturbing story. I'm sure you know this but there are so many stories like yours out there. Do you have any sense of what happened during those missing 5 hours or is it all a blank?
Unrelated to the UFO story specifically (though I just shared my experience on the post that led me to this one), you might find the book Pulling the Chariot of the Sun by Shane McCrae to be a worthwhile read regarding the fluidity of memory. It’s a memoir about a traumatic childhood that is largely forgotten and the unreliability of our own memories, but the trust we must and rightfully place in them. It’s a beautiful book and validating for those of us whose memories are fragmented and visceral.
Wow, I’ve had a very similar experience and it actually happened with some very close friends when we were in high school as well. We were out at night riding horses as a group back in the late 70’s.
We lived in Orange County CA, and we would periodically drive out to the Inland Empire to a town called Norco to ride horses at night on Friday or Saturday nights. It was a way to get out in the woods and for us to get high, being that smoking weed had a stigma about it in those days. None of us were cowboys or horse-people by nature, we were city kids trying not to get caught getting stoned…
One night we were riding together, there was about 6 people each on horseback. All of a sudden my horse got really skiddish and started acting nervous. He took off running away from this bluff that we were next to. About 3 more riders said they experienced the same feeling with their horses. And they all followed me.
As we got away from that bluff, we all began to hear this unusual noise in the sky. Then it appeared over the hills. It was a large craft, rounded in the front and came to a point in the rear as it faced us. It had bright lights in white, orange and blue that were swirling all along the edges of the round part. It hovered over all of us, and then just took off and disappeared over the horizon. It was the strangest thing that I’ve ever seen in the sky, and a couple of us were there wondering if that was in fact a UFO.
I was convinced that it was, based on the speed that this ship took off and disappeared from sight. And a couple of the other guys that I was with agreed with me. There were two others that didn’t see what we saw because they didn’t follow us when our horses got spooked and took off running away. Those two were skeptical and making fun of us, saying that we were just really high and imagining things…
The next day I looked in the Orange County Register newspaper, and it had an article about an unusual spacecraft that was seen in 6 western states flying around and disappearing from sight quickly.
That solidified my claim of what we all saw with our own eyes. The horses even felt the presence of that UFO. We all talked about it to our friends that weren’t there and some believed us, others were skeptical saying that we were stoned… I know what we saw. And it’s been confirmed being seen in other states. Similar descriptions were made in that newspaper story.
When one of the friends that was actually there that night and believed he saw the same thing, passed away last year from a long illness, I spoke with a couple of the other friends that were there with me that night. I asked them if they remembered seeing that UFO, and they all laughed and said yes, how would they ever forget something like that. They also brought up the fact that Andy, the friend whose funeral we were at, often brought up that night throughout the years since. He remembered it also. Over the years we both talked about seeing that thing, and he said we should always remember that night.
So, in our case we have had conversations about seeing that spacecraft. And, I guess that means that it really did happen to all of us. It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in my lifetime… I just wished that horses could talk!
Just here to say I grew up in Montgomery and never knew you were from Hillsborough! No UFO sighting but there was that haunted house in the hills with the prosthetic limbs and a jar full of the feathers.
Hm... I don't recall the haunted house. I feel like I would remember prosthetic limbs and feathers.
Well, you're a few years older than me. Maybe the mad scientist hadn't yet created the monstrosity that killed him and fled to the basement, which none were brave enough to enter.
Sounds like a Richard Thieme short story https://thiemeworks.com/words/stories/incident-at-wolf-cove
I think you'll like it.
Hey Michael.
I had a similar story to yours, among others. It was my final year of high school and I was at a friend's apartment with another friend who was visiting from out of town. It was sometime after dark and we were out on the balcony, which faced North, looking across what was then the outskirts of the city of Ottawa in Canada, over the Ottawa River, to an area of Quebec called Gatineau.
I don't remember if one of us saw it first, or all of us together, but we all saw it. Five spheres of what looked like flame flying slowly in the formation of a cross, heading East above Gatineau. I remember us all wondering what it could be, making jokes about the second coming of Jesus, noting how it couldn't be planes...and we watched them fly all together til they went out of sight of the balcony.
I don't know now if this happened. I mean for years I was sure it had and still feel it did. I am loosley in touch with both other witnesses, as one does with high school friends on Facebook, but I feel popping up after years and years to ask feels weird and intrusive for some reason. I remember checking the news the next day too, looking for other witnesses. I don't remember any. So was it a dream? It may as well have been.
I think people see weird and unusual things all the time. Sure there are probably lots of rational explanations for most things, but sometimes it lands on a solid "wtf". I think these out of context with reality experiences are for whatever reason hard to encode into long term memory. They are slippery, and fade quickly. For most people. For most experiences like this.
One more, not a UFO. 12ish years ago, my wife and I were at my parents' house. We were in the kitchen, middle of the day, when this green teapot on the counter began rattling. It was visibly shaking and the lid was moving, making most of the noise. Nothing else in the kitchen or house was doing this.
We all quickly concluded that, somehow, a mouse must have gotten in and was trying to get out. I picked up the teapot and we all took it outside. I could feel it shaking in my hand, and like I said, the lid was moving. Popping up and down and rattling. I put it down on a patio table in the backyard and pulled off the lid. It was empty. We were all dumbfounded. The movement and rattling stopped right away.
My mom doesn't remember this at all, and my wife kinda does, but only if you really pull that memory out of her like a long thread. I remember it clearly and I think the main reason is because I filmed it. Now I didn't start filming til I picked up the pot, so a skeptic would likely say I was shaking it. Fair enough. I know I wasn't. The video doesn't show much besides an empty teapot. At least I know it happened . Whatever it was.
Anyway, big fan for a long time. You're very funny. Shave my poodle.
A lot of similarities - like you're being tested in some way. Did that happen? Did it not happen? How do we know one way or the other? I've had a few non-UFO events in my life that felt (and continue to feel) inexplicable. They are varied in nature and I don't have any explanation for them. What do we do with those events? I think most people just kind of shrug them off but, for some of us, they persist. My little UFO story is one of those events for me.
Firstly, thanks for sharing Michael. Such a weird and interesting story. Would love for you to follow up with Bradley! Also I’m a huge fan.
Many years ago, I saw a UFO with another friend while driving my friend home around midnight. We were admittedly a little stoned, as one or two friends may find themselves.
First an extremely bright amber light or two appeared behind some distant clouds near the horizon. As I drove around some trees to get a better look, suddenly a small black triangular craft was (impossibly?) right above our heads (unsure about distance).
The craft had four lights - one near each vertex, and then one in the center. It floated above us without making any noise. If this craft was the source of the initial bright lights that we saw in the distance, then it had just traveled what I estimate to be a few miles in just 12-15 seconds without making a sound!
My friend annoyingly spent time afterwards diminishing the significance of what we saw, arguing that it could have been a helicopter or plane (when it clearly wasn’t due to its appearance and lack of sound). Perhaps this was his version of emotional dampening? I never understood why he downplayed it or wasn’t as fascinated as I was - as we had such a clear view of this UFO.
Truly a once in a lifetime experience that I’ll never forget, and thankfully my friend will at least confirm that we saw something unusual that night (and that it wasn’t a dream).
That's such a cool story. I don't know how to explain any of it but if it helps nobody else does, either. Nobody understands what people are witnessing, why they are witnessing it, or its nature. The only thing we know is that people are witnessing crazy shit ALL THE TIME.
I wonder if when we experience something that feels surreal or out of the ordinary in our lives, we subconsciously log it in our brains as something associated with a dream because of how strange it was. And maybe as time progresses this experience fades or gets pushed out of our memory bank along with the real dreams that we can't recall anymore.
Wow. What an incredible and disturbing story. I'm sure you know this but there are so many stories like yours out there. Do you have any sense of what happened during those missing 5 hours or is it all a blank?