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Ufologists want UFO sightings to be taken seriously
By Josie Klemaier
jklemaie@mscd.edu

A group of approximately 40 people attended the Colorado UFO Briefing July 22 at the Greek Theater in downtown Denver’s Civic Center Park.

People in attendance included friends and family of speakers, UFO researchers, curious Colorado citizens and other wandering park patrons.

The turnout disappointed some who had hoped to get the word out to the public about the hidden knowledge of “ufology.”

“The real story is how few people are here,” said audience member Don Miller, a biomedical equipment technician.

Also disappointed in the turnout was an audience member wearing Rollerblades and a T-shirt illustrating a catch-and-release alien abduction, who said that he was attending out of curiosity and to offer some of his expertise as an engineer.

He refused to give his name out of fear his government career could be threatened if his curiosity was publicly revealed.

The event featured five speakers and was held as “a nonprofit educational endeavor promoting the rational thought and logical approach to understanding legitimate matters significantly affecting the future of mankind,” according to an event flyer.

Along with many brochures and publications on UFO research, a petition was available for Colorado citizens to sign requesting “all public officials” take steps to encourage state agencies and employees to report accounts of UFOs to the public “and take steps to help further understanding.”

Also attending with handouts was Metro student Jason Cordova with the newly-founded Crypto-Science Society at Metro.

Cordova said that the goal of the student organization is to study and educate the public on all forms of crypto-science, or strange phenomena. He said that the society plans to bring in speakers, go on expeditions, and promote university research in crypto-science.

All of the speakers evoked a similar sentiment regarding the UFO phenomenon: that the public and the U.S. government are not taking the issue seriously enough.

Audience member Stan Romaneck said that out of “billions of galaxies and trillions of stars, to think nothing else is out there is ludicrous.”

He said that the reason for the lack of serious attention given to UFOs and aliens is because governments are afraid of losing their power.

“They haven’t let me alone,” Romaneck said about why he has chosen to pursue research on UFOs and attend the event that afternoon. The “they” Romaneck referred to is what he believes to be a UFO, first sighted in December 2002 near Red Rocks State Park. He said he was among a group of people who saw something over some power lines. Ever since then, he said, he was kind of “forced into it.”

Later, Romaneck pointed up into the sky and said, “Look.” Seconds later, he confessed that it was a small, helium-filled balloon.

“One of these days instead of being seen as weirdos, we’ll be thought of as pioneers,” said speaker Dr. Leo Sprinkle, professor emeritus from the University of Wyoming, who focuses his research on eyewitness accounts and paranormal experiences.

Sprinkle has surveyed many people who claim to have had experiences with UFOs or aliens and has taken personality inventories of them, noting that three-fourths of the individuals he has met also believed in reincarnation.

Speaker Ryan Wood, a UFO researcher and co-author of “Majic Eyes Only: Earth’s Encounter With Extraterrestrial Technology,” said he has never seen a UFO and is purely an analyst, only researching the contents and authenticity of governmental documents on UFOs and crash retrieval sites. He claimed UFO research is the most protected secret America has.

Wood said American history has been manipulated, that the human presence is being compromised because of certain information that is kept confidential, and that the future is being stolen without the public knowing about it, for which there will be “hell to pay.”

Speaker and Aurora Police officer Ken Storch said he believes the government and the media give UFOs the “giggle factor,” brushing such things off as science fiction. Though he admits that believing in aliens is not a “career-enhancing” sentiment, Storch believes “absolutely” that the Earth is being visited by an alien race and declares himself an “objective skeptic.”

Actor Dan Aykroyd is a recognized authority on UFO sightings and endorses MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network. The producer of the documentary “Dan Aykroyd Unplugged on UFOs,” David Sereda was also a speaker at the event and brought up the question of why the media went from believing in aliens and UFOs in the 1950s and 1960s to discrediting them as weather phenomenon today.

“Where do they get the audacity to discredit expert witnesses?” he asked.

Speaker and international journalist Paola Harris emphasized that in Italy, where she is based, UFOs are taken more seriously, noting the sale of the American magazine Area 51 at many Italian newsstands. Harris said there are many reported sightings of UFOs all over the world, in places like Mexico City, Phoenix and Milan, Italy.

Harris said she became interested in UFOs after watching Stephen Spielberg’s film Close Encounters Of the Third Kind.

“Stephen Spielberg knows,” she said, “Stephen Spielberg is an insider.”