Ancient Aliens – Closer Encounters: Reports of encounters with strange beings and sightings of mysterious objects in the sky have occurred throughout history.
A 13th century historical book, Otia Imperialia, includes an account of a creature descending from a flying craft over Bristol, England. The log from Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to America contains a report of strange lights in the sky. Medieval art pieces depict disc-shaped objects floating in the heavens. Sightings of flying cigar-shaped crafts were reported during the Black Plague. And there were even discussions of extraterrestrial life among America’s Founding Fathers. Could these sightings, coming from every part of the world, from biblical times to present day, be evidence that aliens have been with us all along?
Ancient Aliens – Closer Encounters
Otia Imperialia
Otia Imperialia (“Recreation for an Emperor”) is an early 13th-century encyclopedic work, the best known work of Gervase of Tilbury. It is an example of Speculum literature. Also known as the “Book of Marvels”, it primarily concerns the three fields of history, geography, and physics, but its credibility has been questioned by numerous scholars including philosopher Gottfried Leibniz, who was alerted to the fact that it contains many mythological stories.
Its manner of writing is perhaps because the work was written to provide entertainment to Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV. However, many scholars consider it a very important work in that it “recognizes the correctness of the papal claims in the conflict between Church and Empire.” It was written between 1210 and 1214, although some give the dates as between 1209 and 1214 and numerous authors state it was published c.1211.
Close encounter
In ufology, a close encounter is an event in which a person witnesses an unidentified flying object. This terminology and the system of classification behind it were first suggested in astronomer and UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek’s 1972 book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry. Categories beyond Hynek’s original three have been added by others but have not gained universal acceptance, mainly because they lack the scientific rigor that Hynek aimed to bring to ufology.
Sightings more than 150 m from the witness are classified as “Daylight Discs,” “Nocturnal Lights,” or “Radar/Visual Reports.” Sightings within about 500 feet are subclassified as various types of “close encounters.” Hynek and others argued that a claimed close encounter must occur within about 500 feet to greatly reduce or eliminate the possibility of misidentifying conventional aircraft or other known phenomena.
Black Plague
The Black Death, also known as the Pestilence, the Great Plague or the Plague, or less commonly the Black Plague, was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. The bacterium Yersinia pestis, which results in several forms of plague (septicemic, pneumonic and, the most common, bubonic) is believed to have been the cause. The Black Death was the first major European outbreak of plague, and the second plague pandemic. The plague created a number of religious, social and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history.
