UFO´S AND WOMEN - A Few Thoughts on the Multiple Sighting Witness
Steve Bass
July 07, 2008
Ufologists have been curious about the nature of multiple sighting witnesses (MSW), those people who have had the opportunity, however unfortunate, of observing some anomalous phenom or Unidentified Flying Object in the sky, and then repeat with another sighting. One of the most popular MSW´s in recent history was none other than Kenneth A. Arnold. Arnold spotted nine unidentified crafts flying (skipping) along over a mountain range near Mt. Rainier, Washington on June 24, 1947, while flying in the area hoping to earn reward money for locating a downed U.S. Marine Corps aircraft. This sighting occurred shortly before a famous crashed UFO was recovered near Roswell, New Mexico on July 7, 1947. The Washington State incident is the most well known Arnold sighting. What most have not heard about is that he had two more separate sightings while flying, one near Los Angeles International Airport. What do these incidents have in common?
One is obvious. Arnold already had one sighting. One thing I hated about dating was breaking up. I am usually the one that is broken up with. Women don´t know how to handle a good thing, I guess! My misery was compounded by the fact that I always seemed to see her car everywhere I went, but it was always just a similar looking vehicle. That didn´t exactly make it easy to get over a relationship. I was always jealous of the type of guys that just walk away from relationships and never have a problem with them. There is a term that explains my issue of seeing her car everywhere I looked. The term for this is "matrixing". I think paranormal investigator, author, and star of the hit SciFi show Ghost Hunters Jason Hawes defined matrixing best in his book with Grant Wilson entitled "Ghost Hunting". Quoting, the mind creates sensory impressions when it tries to interpret certain stimuli. In this case, the human brain takes visual input and searches out what it understands and knows. I believe that applies here, too.
Number two is obvious, as well. He was flying. But what has one to do with another? Simple. When did I always see the female demon´s car? When I was driving, of course. I had inadvertently conditioned myself to be aware of the specific year, make, model, and color that matched exactly the vehicle she drove. The same psychological trick was in play with Ken Arnold. Arnold, like most MSW´s, had conditioned himself to seeing UFO´s as he flew. This is not saying that he imagined or hallucinated them. I didn´t hallucinate the she-devil´s car, I saw a similar car; and Arnold did not let imagination or fantasy take control of him.
Arnold also had something in common with me. Both his UFO sightings and my "sightings" of the witch´s car involved intense emotion. Nothing imprints itself better on the human psyche than emotion, especially negative sentiment. I felt the pain of betrayal, lost love, lost intimacy, and Ken had the horror of learning that we are not alone in this universe, that another entity could fly into the airspace of a sovereign country, one of the mightiest nations in the world, and there was nothing all of our intelligence, ingenuity, and firepower could do about it.
I believe that this intensely emotional response to the sighting made Arnold and many others susceptible to further sightings. Arnold´s brain had been conditioned by an emotional imprint to see anything that resembled what he saw before. So, why aren´t all UFO witnesses multiple sighting witnesses? I believe the key words are opportunity and emotion. First you actually have to have the opportunity to see another sighting. Second, sightings affect each witness differently. Some are shocked, some are horrified, some are complacent about their sighting, and some are amazed and wondrous. The stronger the emotion, the more susceptible a person is to becoming an MSW.
It has always been my belief that the easiest explanations have a tendency to be the most correct. The tendencies toward strong emotional reaction to anomalous phenomenon and the opportunities for sighting additional phenomenon have led Arnold, and many others, to become potential or actual MSW´s.
But what do I know!
One is obvious. Arnold already had one sighting. One thing I hated about dating was breaking up. I am usually the one that is broken up with. Women don´t know how to handle a good thing, I guess! My misery was compounded by the fact that I always seemed to see her car everywhere I went, but it was always just a similar looking vehicle. That didn´t exactly make it easy to get over a relationship. I was always jealous of the type of guys that just walk away from relationships and never have a problem with them. There is a term that explains my issue of seeing her car everywhere I looked. The term for this is "matrixing". I think paranormal investigator, author, and star of the hit SciFi show Ghost Hunters Jason Hawes defined matrixing best in his book with Grant Wilson entitled "Ghost Hunting". Quoting, the mind creates sensory impressions when it tries to interpret certain stimuli. In this case, the human brain takes visual input and searches out what it understands and knows. I believe that applies here, too.
Number two is obvious, as well. He was flying. But what has one to do with another? Simple. When did I always see the female demon´s car? When I was driving, of course. I had inadvertently conditioned myself to be aware of the specific year, make, model, and color that matched exactly the vehicle she drove. The same psychological trick was in play with Ken Arnold. Arnold, like most MSW´s, had conditioned himself to seeing UFO´s as he flew. This is not saying that he imagined or hallucinated them. I didn´t hallucinate the she-devil´s car, I saw a similar car; and Arnold did not let imagination or fantasy take control of him.
Arnold also had something in common with me. Both his UFO sightings and my "sightings" of the witch´s car involved intense emotion. Nothing imprints itself better on the human psyche than emotion, especially negative sentiment. I felt the pain of betrayal, lost love, lost intimacy, and Ken had the horror of learning that we are not alone in this universe, that another entity could fly into the airspace of a sovereign country, one of the mightiest nations in the world, and there was nothing all of our intelligence, ingenuity, and firepower could do about it.
I believe that this intensely emotional response to the sighting made Arnold and many others susceptible to further sightings. Arnold´s brain had been conditioned by an emotional imprint to see anything that resembled what he saw before. So, why aren´t all UFO witnesses multiple sighting witnesses? I believe the key words are opportunity and emotion. First you actually have to have the opportunity to see another sighting. Second, sightings affect each witness differently. Some are shocked, some are horrified, some are complacent about their sighting, and some are amazed and wondrous. The stronger the emotion, the more susceptible a person is to becoming an MSW.
It has always been my belief that the easiest explanations have a tendency to be the most correct. The tendencies toward strong emotional reaction to anomalous phenomenon and the opportunities for sighting additional phenomenon have led Arnold, and many others, to become potential or actual MSW´s.
But what do I know!
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