Next EdFort talk : Tuesday 8th January

Scott Lyall : “We want you to believe in us, but not too much: UFOs and Folklore”

Since 1947, when pilot Kenneth Arnold spotted a formation of unidentified objects in the air over Mount Rainier in Washington State, the idea of humanoid aliens coming to Earth in space ships has been a cultural staple in Western societies, but as long as humans have been telling each other stories, there have been tales of “others”- ghosts, fairies, goblins, nature spirits, dwarves – beings that are like us, but not us, that exist somewhere just beyond perception – underground, underwater, in other realms. Are UFOs and their apparent occupants here to study us or are they a modern manifestation of something much older?