Day 790 (Tidbits)

Isn't it sort of funny how military bases and UFOs seem to go together quite often? Funny in a "sense of weirdness" way, not funny as in "haha - funny."

On The 800 Days blog for what we'll forever call Day 790 , we are given tidbits about UFO cases considered some of the most high profile cases EVER:

• The Rendlesham Forest Case
• The Malmstrom Air Force Base Encounters
• The Roswell UFO Sightings

I've taken some time to look into at least two of the above - The Rendlesham and Roswell cases - and I can tell you, without a doubt, there have been a LOT of questionable investigative procedures involved with these cases, a lot of unanswered questions from both decades ago and still today - and a general public is still waiting for satisfactory explanations concerning these strange events.

Since a LOT of hype has happened around all three high-profile cases, a lot of "confirmation bias" has occurred surrounding conspiracy theories related to these cases. If we strip away the confirmation bias, we might (or might not) get closer to asking the right questions regarding these events.

CONFIRMATION BIAS is basically a tendency that people have for focusing on information which seems to confirm their "best guesses" and preconceptions about an event, idea, theory - even if the conclusions they are drawing might not be true, valid or able to be proven as "true/truth." Confirmation Bias is also called "Myside Bias" and "Confirmatory Bias," and is subject to interpretation - or, very often - MIS-interpretations. Confirmation bias also usually includes a psychological glitch known as "Fundamental Attribution Error," (attribution effect or correspondence bias) but one that is extremely common to people from all walks of life, in all regions of the globe. Fundamental Attribution Errors are connected with stereotypes and the way that the human brain tries to classify things into neat compartments of understanding...

For example, with Fundamental Attribution Error, people feel a need to "attribute" reasons or motives and attach these, as well as judgments on character of people - to the behaviors and appearance they see in and of other people... obviously "best guesses" about why someone really did/does a certain act or activity can be WRONG if people "jump to conclusions." (ie: the frowning man, walking erratically becomes a "drunken bad man" when he might really be in pain, walking erratically from an illness, infirmity or injury, and frowning because of the pain - just for one example).

Confirmation Bias extends beyond human behavior... and happens when people pick out numerous tidbits of information, heavily focused already on their "best guess" of a situation or reason for a situation - then the people use like-information bits to create a "whole picture," an explanation and conclusion about an event or situation. (ie: government officials disclose that they kept information about an event away from the public for a while - plus - the event had something to do with health related information - plus - general public mistrusting the heavy authority of government - equals - the conclusion that government officials are conspiring to cause harm and illness upon a general public. The TRUTH might be that - because a general public tends to act like a "mob" without critical thinking, government officials waited until they had all the details about the health related information - before going public with the information - so that people in large groups would feel no reason to panic).

Now, I'm not writing these details to "throw you off" or dissuade you from enjoying or examining the stories - and I'm also not telling you to believe or not believe that the Roswell, Rendlesham and Malstrom events took place... I'm just WARNING you about how our minds tend to work - so that as you fetch and think about the details of these cases, you can attempt to THINK CRITICALLY about what you're reading and learning about the cases.

The Article: News of UFO Sightings on Military Bases

I hope you will enjoy the above article. It's really just an introductory type of article to lead into the topic of "UFOs," in my opinion. I feel this way because of the two cases I have looked into and continue to study (Roswell and Rendlesham), because these cases are HUGE - with tons of attention afforded to them already. There are books and books upon books written by people in varying scientific, theological, New Age and assorted other fields of study. The article is definitely a "MUST READ" - just for readers to get familiar with a few of the personalities involved in both the sightings AND the investigations... and I'm SO POSITIVE that during the 800 Days countdown, these incidents, topics, investigations and any topics even loosely related to such are all going to be re-visited and discussed at much greater length within the remaining 789 days of the 800 Days countdown.

The original post date for Day 790 was Friday, October 22, 2010.